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Afghan forces kill 23 militants in 2 days
KABUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Continued militancy and Afghan forces' military operations on anti-government militants have claimed the lives of 23 insurgents, 11 of them in Khakriz district of Taliban former stronghold Kandahar province, over the past two days, officials said on Sunday.
Eleven armed insurgents were killed during a joint operation of Afghan and the NATO-led coalition forces in Khakriz district of Kandahar province on Saturday, said provincial administration spokesman Jawed Faisal.
"The joint operations of Afghan and the coalition forces was conducted in Baghak area of Khakriz district yesterday and lasted for few hours during which 11 Taliban rebels had been killed," Faisal told Xinhua.
The operation was carried out when some 20 Taliban fighters were meeting in a house to device their subversive plans, the official said.
An Afghan senior army officer in the province, General Abdul Hamid Hamid, confirmed the operations but declined to disclose the casualties of Taliban militants or security personnel.
Kandahar, the birthplace and former stronghold of Taliban militants, has seen an increasing militancy over the past few years.
The Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement released on Sunday reported the death of 12 Taliban fighters during a series of operations carried out over the past 24 hours.
Five more militants were arrested during the operations, according to the ministry statement, but it did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
The Taliban outfit also posted a statement on its website, claiming they had killed over two dozen security personnel elsewhere in the conflict-ridden country over the past two days.
It is difficult to verify the casualties of warring sides in Afghanistan as each side exaggerates the fatalities of rivals in the conflict.
U.S., Afghan officials discuss troops' post-2014 legal jurisdiction
Los Angles Times By David Zucchino December 15, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Afghanistan here on the presence of U.S. forces beyond 2014, the two sides have held preliminary talks on legal jurisdiction over American troops, the lead American negotiator said Saturday.
The U.S. has insisted that any troops serving in Afghanistan after combat forces withdraw at the end of 2014 be subject to the American, not Afghan, legal justice system, said James B. Warlick, the U.S. deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The contentious question of legal jurisdiction wrecked similar security negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq last year after Iraqi officials insisted that American troops be subject to Iraqi law. The issue is expected to be a central element in the Kabul negotiations.
“I can assure you that we will require the protections necessary for our men and women in uniform and our civilian component,” Warlick said in comments to a handful of reporters from American publications at the U.S. Embassy here. “The Afghans understand that this is important.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has criticized the conduct of U.S. troops here and previously spoke of subjecting them to Afghan justice after 2014, recently softened his position. In comments Dec. 8, Karzai said U.S. troops might remain under American legal jurisdiction if the U.S. recognizes Afghanistan’s sovereignty and respects Afghan laws.
“Once those conditions are fulfilled by the United States with us, Afghanistan is willing to consider [legal] immunity for them,” Karzai said of U.S. troops.
Warlick said the bilateral security agreement under negotiation will recognize Afghanistan’s sovereignty, and the U.S. will respect Afghan laws. The negotiations, following a first round Nov. 15 and facing a deadline of Nov. 15, 2013, will determine the scope and role of any U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan after combat troops are withdrawn by the end of 2014.
Warlick described the first two rounds of talks as “very collegial and in the spirit of partnership.”
The second round was conducted Friday in Kabul, with the next round expected to be held early next year. The Afghan delegation is led by Eklil Hakimi, the Afghan ambassador to Washington.
The U.S. envisions a “train, advise and assist” mission for its troops after 2014 in an attempt to strengthen Afghan security forces. Washington is determined to keep Al Qaeda and other militant groups from using Afghanistan to plan and launch attacks against U.S. interests.
Warlick said the U.S. has negotiated status of forces agreements with more than 100 countries in which U.S. troops remain under American legal jurisdiction. U.S. officials say the Afghans have carefully studied those agreements.
Warlick said U.S. service members who commit crimes in Afghanistan face prosecution in the U.S. military justice system. “It’s not a question of someone ‘getting off,’” he said. “The discussion will be one of jurisdiction.”
Warlick said the negotiations will involve much more than legal jurisdiction, which will be negotiated in detail in later rounds. The talks will determine “not only a troop presence but the entire U.S. footprint in Afghanistan post-2014,” Warlick said. The U.S. seeks a defense cooperation agreement that reassures the Afghan people and is mutually beneficial, he said.
President Obama will decide the number of troops and the nature of their missions, Warlick said. The White House also will determine whether the U.S. military continues to operate armed drones and drone ground control stations in Afghanistan, and whether to deploy special operations forces for counterterrorism missions.
Negotiations will cover U.S. military use of Afghan airspace and military bases, Warlick said. The bases, including major military airfields at Bagram and Kandahar, will be owned by Afghanistan after 2014. U.S. and coalition forces have already turned over 330 bases and outposts to Afghan security forces as the U.S. combat mission winds down.
Karzai will meet with Obama in Washington the week of Jan. 7. They are expected to discuss details of the security agreement.
Asked about Afghan concerns that Pakistan is harboring and supporting Taliban insurgents who cross into Afghanistan to attack Afghan and coalition forces, Warlick said the U.S. will address those issues in the talks.
“We are concerned about the sovereignty of Afghanistan and we are concerned about any threats to the security of Afghanistan’s borders,” he said. “We share the goal with Afghanistan to see a secure and stable country well beyond 2014.”
The U.S. wants the final agreement to be made public, Warlick said. “There are no secrets in it,” he said.
Oil tanker set on fire in northern Afghan town
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men opened fire and set ablaze an oil tanker in Baghlan province 160 km north of Kabul on Saturday, police said.
"Unidentified armed men targeted an oil tanker with assault rifle in Dushi district today morning burning the oil tanker," Deputy to provincial police chief Sayed Zaman Hussaini told Xinhua.
Without giving more details, he said that investigation is underway.
Meantime, locals at the site of incident claimed that the tanker was supplying fuel to NATO-led troops when Taliban militants attacked and set on fire the vehicle.
Taliban militants have yet to comment.
Karzai admits lack of proper healthcare system in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Adeel Khaama Press December 16, 2012
Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Sunday admitted that daily issues of Afghans regarding a proper health system in the country. It has become common among the Afghans who are saying that the healthcare has been turned into a major business in Afghanistan.
While speaking during conference based on “Promoting Ethics of Medical” president Karzai urged the doctors and owners of private hospitals in Afghanistan to prevent reckless treatment while pointing towards tragic incident which took place in a private hospital.
Karzai said, “A report was published in a TV station regarding an operation of a lady. The doctors did not know how to carry out the operation and the lady patient encountered with bleeding during the operation. The doctors and nurses escaped from the hospital which is not only a bad moral but it is a cruel act.”
He vowed to closely follow the case in order to find out the facts behind the report.
There have been growing complaints regarding the activities of the private hospitals despite Afghan public health ministry has said they have increased monitoring the operations of the hospitals.
Dozens of private hospitals have started operations in capital Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan however people are continuously complaining regarding the activities, lack of profession of the doctors and high charges.
In the meantime the private hospitals are paying more privilege and wages to the doctors and nurses which have limited the service of the government hospitals.
Afghan lawmaker Naqibullah Fayeq who attended the conference criticized the doctors and said they are concerned more about finding money than caring about the patients.
Mr. Fayeq said, “Some of the doctors are so busy with trading on their patients that they have forgotten about their formal duties in government hospitals. They are coming to hospital at 10:30 am and leaves the hospital 11:00 am.”
Afghan public health minister Suraya Dalil said the morality of the medical care has suffered similar as the other social related fields during the 3 decades of civil war.
She said, “Today the patients are moving from doctors to doctors, hospitals to hospitals and countries to countries in order to find a proficient doctor. Building confidence requires joint work, investment and time.”
Meanwhile there are also reports that Afghan security forces are admitting their patients to hospitals and force the doctors to give priority for them without considering the ordinary people who are waiting in lines to be consulted by doctors.
France pulls last troops from combat roles in Afghanistan
CNN By Laura Smith-Spark December 15, 2012
France pulled its last troops engaged directly in combat out of Afghanistan Saturday, in line with a promise by President Francois Hollande to accelerate his country's withdrawal from the long-running conflict.
About 1,500 French troops remain in Afghanistan to remove equipment and to help train Afghan forces, Defense Ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.
They are likely to stay there for about six months, he said.
The troops who left Saturday will spend a couple of days in Cyprus to decompress and rest before rejoining their families in France for the holidays, according to CNN affiliate BFM-TV.
Top general expects IED problem to rise in Afghanistan
Some 2,500 French troops in total have been withdrawn from Afghanistan over the past year, the channel reported.
French personnel will continue to run Kabul's international airport and serve at the city's military hospital into 2014, BFM-TV said.
France was one of the bigger contributors of troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The United States, whose troops make up the bulk of the force, still has some 68,000 personnel in Afghanistan.
Coalition forces are working to get Afghan security forces ready to take charge of security after all NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
As year ends, US commanders are offering glowing assessments of war progress in Afghanistan
Associated Press By ROBERT BURNS December 15, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. commanders are offering glowing reviews of their 2012 war campaign, upbeat assessments that could be interpreted as leeway for President Barack Obama to order another round of troop withdrawals next summer.
Obama faces a tension between calls by Democrats and even some Republicans to wind down the war more quickly and the military's desire to avoid a too-fast pullout that might squander hard-won sacrifices.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not yet recommended to Obama a specific pace of withdrawals for 2013. But during the Pentagon chief's two-day visit to the war zone this past week, commanders suggested that things are going better than is generally believed by an American public weary of war after 11 years.
Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, for example, cited "astounding" progress in the Zaray district of Kandahar province, where the Taliban once held sway. Abrams, the top coalition commander in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan forces are now "dominating" in that district.
He told reporters he foresees a smaller coalition force by next summer, but he was not recommending or predicting any U.S. reductions. He was arguing that Afghan forces are performing so well that they should be able to hold their ground in 2013 with less coalition combat power.
No decision on 2013 U.S. troop withdrawals is likely to be announced until after Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets with Obama in Washington in early January. The U.S. now has 66,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Panetta announced in Kabul on Thursday that Karzai had agreed to go to Washington the week of Jan. 7 to discuss the pace of coalition troop withdrawals as well as a U.S. military role in his country after December 2014, when the international coalition's combat mission is to end.
Obama withdrew 23,000 U.S. troops this year, following a drawdown of 10,000 in 2011. There have been calls in Congress for Obama to accelerate the withdrawal next year, and from commanders' own assessments of progress, it appears such a speedup could be coming.
Commanders portrayed the Taliban as fraying and failing, though not defeated.
Maj. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the international coalition's deputy chief of staff for operations, said the Taliban had aspired to pull off a series of high-level assassinations in 2012 and regain territory they lost in 2011.
"They have failed at every one" of those objectives, Nicholson told reporters.
Nicholson also said, by way of illustrating how much things have changed in Afghanistan in recent years, that in the former Taliban stronghold of Helmand province, U.S. Marines are now complaining of boredom because there is so little fighting for them to do.
He was not arguing for further U.S. troop reductions in 2013 but observing that if Helmand is a model for Afghanistan, it may show that coalition forces can step back and give Afghan forces the lead role without sacrificing security and giving the Taliban new hope for a revival.
Col. Christopher Boyle, the operations chief on Abrams' staff in Kandahar, said the Taliban are facing financial and other pressures.
"More and more we are seeing fracturing" in Taliban leadership circles, Boyle said, with factions fighting each other for territory and resources.
Abrams did acknowledge that the Taliban will keep "coming back" until there is some sort of reconciliation with the Afghan government.
Panetta has not telegraphed his recommendations to Obama on future troop levels.
The main message of his visit to Afghanistan, possibly his last as defense secretary, was one of reassurance to Afghans that they will not be abandoned after 2014. And he made a pitch for patience among Americans tired of war.
"For the first time since 9/11, we have a chance to achieve the mission that we are embarked upon," Panetta said, alluding to the defeat of al-Qaida and the stabilization of Afghanistan. "To achieve that mission will require a continued commitment, continued perseverance, continued partnership and continued sacrifice on the part of our nations."
Hotel catches fire in Kabul city
By Sajad Khaama Press December 16, 2012
A hotel caught fire in capital Kabul on Sunday evening. The incident took place in Ariana Hotel near the Kota-e-Sangi area.
Eye witnesses in the area are saying that a widespread fire was burning the hotel building and Afghan fire brigade is busy to control the fire.
Several bank branchs and other commercial offices including travel agencies are also located inside the hotel building.
Kabul police chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said the fire took place in a coffee shop located in the ground floor of the wedding hall building while hundreds of people were attending a wedding ceremony on the top floors.
A eye witness who was present near the hotel said the wedding guest did not suffer any casualties as they were informed of the incident during the first few seconds of the incident and were taken out of the hotel.
Ariana Hotel is one of the biggest wedding hall in western Kabul city where major wedding ceremonies are organized. Kabul security chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said Afghan fire brigade managed to quit the fire immediately and prevented casualties.
He said there is no exact report regarding the damages and losses incurred to the wedding hall and other offices so far and the building has not suffered too much loss as the fire was quitted shortly.
Iran criticize Afghan government for attack on consulate
By Sayed Jawad Khaama Press December 16, 2012
Iran criticized Afghan government for being failed to arrange proper security for the Iranian consulate and diplomats in western Herat province of Afghanistan, Press TV reported Sunday.
Iran’s Consul General to Herat Rahim Mohammadi Yekta called on the Afghan government to pay for damages resulting from an attack on its consular office in the western Afghan city of Herat and to guarantee its full security.
He criticized Herat officials to fulfill their legal duties in protecting the consulate building and told reporters that his colleagues need “psychological security” to carry out their work.
“We demand both compensation of damages and the full security of the mission,” he said.
The Iranian diplomat emphasized that the host country is responsible for providing the security of a consulate building and paying for necessary damages in case of need.
Iran on December 11 temporarily closed its consular office in Herat after the mission’s compound was attacked by a group of people. The crowd reportedly threw rocks and broke the mission’s windows before security forces drove them back.
The Afghan demonstrators were protesting the alleged killing of Afghan emigrants at nearby border crossings in recent months. Iran denies the killings.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said in November that Iranian police had killed 13 Afghan migrants after crossing the border in Herat, adding to 10 killed in August.
The Iranian official denied this, calling the accusation “baseless”.
Lawmakers to Vote Secretly on 11 Ministers' Impeachment
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Sadaat Saturday, 15 December 2012
Afghan lawmakers on Saturday decided to vote by secret ballot on the impeachment of 11 "incompetent" ministers who spent less than 50 percent of their budget last fiscal year.
"Forty-eight representatives have petitioned that the voting should be conducted by secret ballot because they want to vote without any shame or fear; this has been approved by the majority [of the chamber]," said Speaker Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, displaying the sheet containing the signatures.
In the same session lawmakers also decided to bypass the normal procedure to collect the minimum required 50 signatures for a successful impeachment petition, saying the body's general decision last week to impeach the ministers was enough.
The two decisions touched off a verbal drama on the floor, with some lawmakers criticizing the secret ballot, others sparring with the speaker.
Qandhar MP Khalid Pashtoon excoriated his colleagues for agreeing to secret balloting. "Why do representatives feel shame in voting? If they feel shame, why did they become lawmakers?" he asked, adding, "It's all excuses."
Kabul MP Daoud Kalakani declared the secret ballot illegal because of a lack of transparency. A number of other lawmakers suggested that voting by secret ballot allows the speaker to secretly deal with executive power.
"Mr Ibrahimi, are you parliament speaker or head of the cabinet? Please do not try to save the ministers this time; otherwise, the lawmakers will decide on your dismissal," said Kandahar MP Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai.
Hamidzai was alluding to parliament's unsuccessful attempt to impeach Minister of Water and Power Ismail Khan two weeks ago.
Speaker Ibrahimi denied any allegations of back-channel dealings with the administration and shot back at Hamidzai:
"The speaker alone cannot decide on the impeachment of ministers; it is you, the lawmakers, who can make the final decision [but] you, the lawmakers, always bring tribal, regional and sectarian discussions into impeachment proceedings."
Afghan lawmakers had agreed on Wednesday to impeach the 11 ministers who have not spent more than 50 percent of their ministry's budget.
The 11 ministries with so-called underspent budgets include Energy and Water, Education, Counter Narcotics, Economy, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Higher Education, Information and Culture, Urban Development, and Mines and Industries.
Samar: Karzai's Opposition 'Only Reason' Major Rights Report Isn't Published
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 15 December 2012
The Head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Sima Samar said the lack of government support is "the only reason" why a major report documenting human rights violations over three decades of the Afghan conflict has not been published.
"The report documenting human rights violations of 30 years was supposed to be published on Dec. 10, 2011. We shared the plan with the President, but he did not support us in publishing it," Samar said.
The 800-page report is the most extensive documentation of human rights violations in Afghanistan, covering the period from before the 1978 Soviet invasion until the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.
Limited portions of the report have been shared with select members of the media. Press reports indicate that most key Afghan power-brokers in the current government as well as insurgent leaders fighting the government are implicated for serious human rights abuses.
The president last year refused to renew the tenures of three of AIHRC's commissioners who played critical roles in compiling the report, prompting allegations that he tried to silence the body. Samar's comments are the latest such allegations and directly attribute blame to the President.
Karzai is worried the publication of the report will create instability, while rights group say its publication is critical to bringing violators to justice.
Afghanistan, Poland Sign Cooperation Agreement
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 15 December 2012
Afghanistan and Poland signed a mutual cooperation agreement in Kabul on Saturday.
The agreement, signed by Afghan foreign minister and his Polish counterpart, includes mutual cooperation in the areas of politics, security, culture, science and the economy.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul called the agreement beneficial to the two countries and urged his Polish counterpart to invest in Afghanistan, especially in the mining section.
"In my last trip to Poland, I asked Polish investors to come to Afghanistan and assess the investment opportunities here," said Rassoul.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that his country is committed to long-term aid to Afghanistan, including the training of Afghan security forces after withdrawal of Polish soldiers from the country.
There are 1,800 Polish soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in the insurgency-hit central province of Ghazni.
"I am one of the many people who wants to assure you, you will not be left alone the way you were left alone in the 1990s. And we want Afghanistan to be a constitutional democracy and to be a stable source for solving of the region's problems rather than a source of problems itself," he said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
KABUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Continued militancy and Afghan forces' military operations on anti-government militants have claimed the lives of 23 insurgents, 11 of them in Khakriz district of Taliban former stronghold Kandahar province, over the past two days, officials said on Sunday.
Eleven armed insurgents were killed during a joint operation of Afghan and the NATO-led coalition forces in Khakriz district of Kandahar province on Saturday, said provincial administration spokesman Jawed Faisal.
"The joint operations of Afghan and the coalition forces was conducted in Baghak area of Khakriz district yesterday and lasted for few hours during which 11 Taliban rebels had been killed," Faisal told Xinhua.
The operation was carried out when some 20 Taliban fighters were meeting in a house to device their subversive plans, the official said.
An Afghan senior army officer in the province, General Abdul Hamid Hamid, confirmed the operations but declined to disclose the casualties of Taliban militants or security personnel.
Kandahar, the birthplace and former stronghold of Taliban militants, has seen an increasing militancy over the past few years.
The Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement released on Sunday reported the death of 12 Taliban fighters during a series of operations carried out over the past 24 hours.
Five more militants were arrested during the operations, according to the ministry statement, but it did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.
The Taliban outfit also posted a statement on its website, claiming they had killed over two dozen security personnel elsewhere in the conflict-ridden country over the past two days.
It is difficult to verify the casualties of warring sides in Afghanistan as each side exaggerates the fatalities of rivals in the conflict.
U.S., Afghan officials discuss troops' post-2014 legal jurisdiction
Los Angles Times By David Zucchino December 15, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Afghanistan here on the presence of U.S. forces beyond 2014, the two sides have held preliminary talks on legal jurisdiction over American troops, the lead American negotiator said Saturday.
The U.S. has insisted that any troops serving in Afghanistan after combat forces withdraw at the end of 2014 be subject to the American, not Afghan, legal justice system, said James B. Warlick, the U.S. deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The contentious question of legal jurisdiction wrecked similar security negotiations between the U.S. and Iraq last year after Iraqi officials insisted that American troops be subject to Iraqi law. The issue is expected to be a central element in the Kabul negotiations.
“I can assure you that we will require the protections necessary for our men and women in uniform and our civilian component,” Warlick said in comments to a handful of reporters from American publications at the U.S. Embassy here. “The Afghans understand that this is important.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has criticized the conduct of U.S. troops here and previously spoke of subjecting them to Afghan justice after 2014, recently softened his position. In comments Dec. 8, Karzai said U.S. troops might remain under American legal jurisdiction if the U.S. recognizes Afghanistan’s sovereignty and respects Afghan laws.
“Once those conditions are fulfilled by the United States with us, Afghanistan is willing to consider [legal] immunity for them,” Karzai said of U.S. troops.
Warlick said the bilateral security agreement under negotiation will recognize Afghanistan’s sovereignty, and the U.S. will respect Afghan laws. The negotiations, following a first round Nov. 15 and facing a deadline of Nov. 15, 2013, will determine the scope and role of any U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan after combat troops are withdrawn by the end of 2014.
Warlick described the first two rounds of talks as “very collegial and in the spirit of partnership.”
The second round was conducted Friday in Kabul, with the next round expected to be held early next year. The Afghan delegation is led by Eklil Hakimi, the Afghan ambassador to Washington.
The U.S. envisions a “train, advise and assist” mission for its troops after 2014 in an attempt to strengthen Afghan security forces. Washington is determined to keep Al Qaeda and other militant groups from using Afghanistan to plan and launch attacks against U.S. interests.
Warlick said the U.S. has negotiated status of forces agreements with more than 100 countries in which U.S. troops remain under American legal jurisdiction. U.S. officials say the Afghans have carefully studied those agreements.
Warlick said U.S. service members who commit crimes in Afghanistan face prosecution in the U.S. military justice system. “It’s not a question of someone ‘getting off,’” he said. “The discussion will be one of jurisdiction.”
Warlick said the negotiations will involve much more than legal jurisdiction, which will be negotiated in detail in later rounds. The talks will determine “not only a troop presence but the entire U.S. footprint in Afghanistan post-2014,” Warlick said. The U.S. seeks a defense cooperation agreement that reassures the Afghan people and is mutually beneficial, he said.
President Obama will decide the number of troops and the nature of their missions, Warlick said. The White House also will determine whether the U.S. military continues to operate armed drones and drone ground control stations in Afghanistan, and whether to deploy special operations forces for counterterrorism missions.
Negotiations will cover U.S. military use of Afghan airspace and military bases, Warlick said. The bases, including major military airfields at Bagram and Kandahar, will be owned by Afghanistan after 2014. U.S. and coalition forces have already turned over 330 bases and outposts to Afghan security forces as the U.S. combat mission winds down.
Karzai will meet with Obama in Washington the week of Jan. 7. They are expected to discuss details of the security agreement.
Asked about Afghan concerns that Pakistan is harboring and supporting Taliban insurgents who cross into Afghanistan to attack Afghan and coalition forces, Warlick said the U.S. will address those issues in the talks.
“We are concerned about the sovereignty of Afghanistan and we are concerned about any threats to the security of Afghanistan’s borders,” he said. “We share the goal with Afghanistan to see a secure and stable country well beyond 2014.”
The U.S. wants the final agreement to be made public, Warlick said. “There are no secrets in it,” he said.
Oil tanker set on fire in northern Afghan town
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men opened fire and set ablaze an oil tanker in Baghlan province 160 km north of Kabul on Saturday, police said.
"Unidentified armed men targeted an oil tanker with assault rifle in Dushi district today morning burning the oil tanker," Deputy to provincial police chief Sayed Zaman Hussaini told Xinhua.
Without giving more details, he said that investigation is underway.
Meantime, locals at the site of incident claimed that the tanker was supplying fuel to NATO-led troops when Taliban militants attacked and set on fire the vehicle.
Taliban militants have yet to comment.
Karzai admits lack of proper healthcare system in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Adeel Khaama Press December 16, 2012
Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Sunday admitted that daily issues of Afghans regarding a proper health system in the country. It has become common among the Afghans who are saying that the healthcare has been turned into a major business in Afghanistan.
While speaking during conference based on “Promoting Ethics of Medical” president Karzai urged the doctors and owners of private hospitals in Afghanistan to prevent reckless treatment while pointing towards tragic incident which took place in a private hospital.
Karzai said, “A report was published in a TV station regarding an operation of a lady. The doctors did not know how to carry out the operation and the lady patient encountered with bleeding during the operation. The doctors and nurses escaped from the hospital which is not only a bad moral but it is a cruel act.”
He vowed to closely follow the case in order to find out the facts behind the report.
There have been growing complaints regarding the activities of the private hospitals despite Afghan public health ministry has said they have increased monitoring the operations of the hospitals.
Dozens of private hospitals have started operations in capital Kabul and other provinces of Afghanistan however people are continuously complaining regarding the activities, lack of profession of the doctors and high charges.
In the meantime the private hospitals are paying more privilege and wages to the doctors and nurses which have limited the service of the government hospitals.
Afghan lawmaker Naqibullah Fayeq who attended the conference criticized the doctors and said they are concerned more about finding money than caring about the patients.
Mr. Fayeq said, “Some of the doctors are so busy with trading on their patients that they have forgotten about their formal duties in government hospitals. They are coming to hospital at 10:30 am and leaves the hospital 11:00 am.”
Afghan public health minister Suraya Dalil said the morality of the medical care has suffered similar as the other social related fields during the 3 decades of civil war.
She said, “Today the patients are moving from doctors to doctors, hospitals to hospitals and countries to countries in order to find a proficient doctor. Building confidence requires joint work, investment and time.”
Meanwhile there are also reports that Afghan security forces are admitting their patients to hospitals and force the doctors to give priority for them without considering the ordinary people who are waiting in lines to be consulted by doctors.
France pulls last troops from combat roles in Afghanistan
CNN By Laura Smith-Spark December 15, 2012
France pulled its last troops engaged directly in combat out of Afghanistan Saturday, in line with a promise by President Francois Hollande to accelerate his country's withdrawal from the long-running conflict.
About 1,500 French troops remain in Afghanistan to remove equipment and to help train Afghan forces, Defense Ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.
They are likely to stay there for about six months, he said.
The troops who left Saturday will spend a couple of days in Cyprus to decompress and rest before rejoining their families in France for the holidays, according to CNN affiliate BFM-TV.
Top general expects IED problem to rise in Afghanistan
Some 2,500 French troops in total have been withdrawn from Afghanistan over the past year, the channel reported.
French personnel will continue to run Kabul's international airport and serve at the city's military hospital into 2014, BFM-TV said.
France was one of the bigger contributors of troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The United States, whose troops make up the bulk of the force, still has some 68,000 personnel in Afghanistan.
Coalition forces are working to get Afghan security forces ready to take charge of security after all NATO-led troops withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
As year ends, US commanders are offering glowing assessments of war progress in Afghanistan
Associated Press By ROBERT BURNS December 15, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. commanders are offering glowing reviews of their 2012 war campaign, upbeat assessments that could be interpreted as leeway for President Barack Obama to order another round of troop withdrawals next summer.
Obama faces a tension between calls by Democrats and even some Republicans to wind down the war more quickly and the military's desire to avoid a too-fast pullout that might squander hard-won sacrifices.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not yet recommended to Obama a specific pace of withdrawals for 2013. But during the Pentagon chief's two-day visit to the war zone this past week, commanders suggested that things are going better than is generally believed by an American public weary of war after 11 years.
Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, for example, cited "astounding" progress in the Zaray district of Kandahar province, where the Taliban once held sway. Abrams, the top coalition commander in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan forces are now "dominating" in that district.
He told reporters he foresees a smaller coalition force by next summer, but he was not recommending or predicting any U.S. reductions. He was arguing that Afghan forces are performing so well that they should be able to hold their ground in 2013 with less coalition combat power.
No decision on 2013 U.S. troop withdrawals is likely to be announced until after Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets with Obama in Washington in early January. The U.S. now has 66,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Panetta announced in Kabul on Thursday that Karzai had agreed to go to Washington the week of Jan. 7 to discuss the pace of coalition troop withdrawals as well as a U.S. military role in his country after December 2014, when the international coalition's combat mission is to end.
Obama withdrew 23,000 U.S. troops this year, following a drawdown of 10,000 in 2011. There have been calls in Congress for Obama to accelerate the withdrawal next year, and from commanders' own assessments of progress, it appears such a speedup could be coming.
Commanders portrayed the Taliban as fraying and failing, though not defeated.
Maj. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the international coalition's deputy chief of staff for operations, said the Taliban had aspired to pull off a series of high-level assassinations in 2012 and regain territory they lost in 2011.
"They have failed at every one" of those objectives, Nicholson told reporters.
Nicholson also said, by way of illustrating how much things have changed in Afghanistan in recent years, that in the former Taliban stronghold of Helmand province, U.S. Marines are now complaining of boredom because there is so little fighting for them to do.
He was not arguing for further U.S. troop reductions in 2013 but observing that if Helmand is a model for Afghanistan, it may show that coalition forces can step back and give Afghan forces the lead role without sacrificing security and giving the Taliban new hope for a revival.
Col. Christopher Boyle, the operations chief on Abrams' staff in Kandahar, said the Taliban are facing financial and other pressures.
"More and more we are seeing fracturing" in Taliban leadership circles, Boyle said, with factions fighting each other for territory and resources.
Abrams did acknowledge that the Taliban will keep "coming back" until there is some sort of reconciliation with the Afghan government.
Panetta has not telegraphed his recommendations to Obama on future troop levels.
The main message of his visit to Afghanistan, possibly his last as defense secretary, was one of reassurance to Afghans that they will not be abandoned after 2014. And he made a pitch for patience among Americans tired of war.
"For the first time since 9/11, we have a chance to achieve the mission that we are embarked upon," Panetta said, alluding to the defeat of al-Qaida and the stabilization of Afghanistan. "To achieve that mission will require a continued commitment, continued perseverance, continued partnership and continued sacrifice on the part of our nations."
Hotel catches fire in Kabul city
By Sajad Khaama Press December 16, 2012
A hotel caught fire in capital Kabul on Sunday evening. The incident took place in Ariana Hotel near the Kota-e-Sangi area.
Eye witnesses in the area are saying that a widespread fire was burning the hotel building and Afghan fire brigade is busy to control the fire.
Several bank branchs and other commercial offices including travel agencies are also located inside the hotel building.
Kabul police chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said the fire took place in a coffee shop located in the ground floor of the wedding hall building while hundreds of people were attending a wedding ceremony on the top floors.
A eye witness who was present near the hotel said the wedding guest did not suffer any casualties as they were informed of the incident during the first few seconds of the incident and were taken out of the hotel.
Ariana Hotel is one of the biggest wedding hall in western Kabul city where major wedding ceremonies are organized. Kabul security chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi said Afghan fire brigade managed to quit the fire immediately and prevented casualties.
He said there is no exact report regarding the damages and losses incurred to the wedding hall and other offices so far and the building has not suffered too much loss as the fire was quitted shortly.
Iran criticize Afghan government for attack on consulate
By Sayed Jawad Khaama Press December 16, 2012
Iran criticized Afghan government for being failed to arrange proper security for the Iranian consulate and diplomats in western Herat province of Afghanistan, Press TV reported Sunday.
Iran’s Consul General to Herat Rahim Mohammadi Yekta called on the Afghan government to pay for damages resulting from an attack on its consular office in the western Afghan city of Herat and to guarantee its full security.
He criticized Herat officials to fulfill their legal duties in protecting the consulate building and told reporters that his colleagues need “psychological security” to carry out their work.
“We demand both compensation of damages and the full security of the mission,” he said.
The Iranian diplomat emphasized that the host country is responsible for providing the security of a consulate building and paying for necessary damages in case of need.
Iran on December 11 temporarily closed its consular office in Herat after the mission’s compound was attacked by a group of people. The crowd reportedly threw rocks and broke the mission’s windows before security forces drove them back.
The Afghan demonstrators were protesting the alleged killing of Afghan emigrants at nearby border crossings in recent months. Iran denies the killings.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said in November that Iranian police had killed 13 Afghan migrants after crossing the border in Herat, adding to 10 killed in August.
The Iranian official denied this, calling the accusation “baseless”.
Lawmakers to Vote Secretly on 11 Ministers' Impeachment
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Sadaat Saturday, 15 December 2012
Afghan lawmakers on Saturday decided to vote by secret ballot on the impeachment of 11 "incompetent" ministers who spent less than 50 percent of their budget last fiscal year.
"Forty-eight representatives have petitioned that the voting should be conducted by secret ballot because they want to vote without any shame or fear; this has been approved by the majority [of the chamber]," said Speaker Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi, displaying the sheet containing the signatures.
In the same session lawmakers also decided to bypass the normal procedure to collect the minimum required 50 signatures for a successful impeachment petition, saying the body's general decision last week to impeach the ministers was enough.
The two decisions touched off a verbal drama on the floor, with some lawmakers criticizing the secret ballot, others sparring with the speaker.
Qandhar MP Khalid Pashtoon excoriated his colleagues for agreeing to secret balloting. "Why do representatives feel shame in voting? If they feel shame, why did they become lawmakers?" he asked, adding, "It's all excuses."
Kabul MP Daoud Kalakani declared the secret ballot illegal because of a lack of transparency. A number of other lawmakers suggested that voting by secret ballot allows the speaker to secretly deal with executive power.
"Mr Ibrahimi, are you parliament speaker or head of the cabinet? Please do not try to save the ministers this time; otherwise, the lawmakers will decide on your dismissal," said Kandahar MP Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai.
Hamidzai was alluding to parliament's unsuccessful attempt to impeach Minister of Water and Power Ismail Khan two weeks ago.
Speaker Ibrahimi denied any allegations of back-channel dealings with the administration and shot back at Hamidzai:
"The speaker alone cannot decide on the impeachment of ministers; it is you, the lawmakers, who can make the final decision [but] you, the lawmakers, always bring tribal, regional and sectarian discussions into impeachment proceedings."
Afghan lawmakers had agreed on Wednesday to impeach the 11 ministers who have not spent more than 50 percent of their ministry's budget.
The 11 ministries with so-called underspent budgets include Energy and Water, Education, Counter Narcotics, Economy, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Higher Education, Information and Culture, Urban Development, and Mines and Industries.
Samar: Karzai's Opposition 'Only Reason' Major Rights Report Isn't Published
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 15 December 2012
The Head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) Sima Samar said the lack of government support is "the only reason" why a major report documenting human rights violations over three decades of the Afghan conflict has not been published.
"The report documenting human rights violations of 30 years was supposed to be published on Dec. 10, 2011. We shared the plan with the President, but he did not support us in publishing it," Samar said.
The 800-page report is the most extensive documentation of human rights violations in Afghanistan, covering the period from before the 1978 Soviet invasion until the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.
Limited portions of the report have been shared with select members of the media. Press reports indicate that most key Afghan power-brokers in the current government as well as insurgent leaders fighting the government are implicated for serious human rights abuses.
The president last year refused to renew the tenures of three of AIHRC's commissioners who played critical roles in compiling the report, prompting allegations that he tried to silence the body. Samar's comments are the latest such allegations and directly attribute blame to the President.
Karzai is worried the publication of the report will create instability, while rights group say its publication is critical to bringing violators to justice.
Afghanistan, Poland Sign Cooperation Agreement
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudoodi Saturday, 15 December 2012
Afghanistan and Poland signed a mutual cooperation agreement in Kabul on Saturday.
The agreement, signed by Afghan foreign minister and his Polish counterpart, includes mutual cooperation in the areas of politics, security, culture, science and the economy.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul called the agreement beneficial to the two countries and urged his Polish counterpart to invest in Afghanistan, especially in the mining section.
"In my last trip to Poland, I asked Polish investors to come to Afghanistan and assess the investment opportunities here," said Rassoul.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that his country is committed to long-term aid to Afghanistan, including the training of Afghan security forces after withdrawal of Polish soldiers from the country.
There are 1,800 Polish soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in the insurgency-hit central province of Ghazni.
"I am one of the many people who wants to assure you, you will not be left alone the way you were left alone in the 1990s. And we want Afghanistan to be a constitutional democracy and to be a stable source for solving of the region's problems rather than a source of problems itself," he said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com