[Afghan News] January 3, 2013

[یاسمینه]

Afghan War Commander Gives Options for After ’14
New York Times By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC SCHMITT January 2, 2013
WASHINGTON - Gen. John R. Allen, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, has submitted military options to the Pentagon that would keep 6,000 to 20,000 American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, defense officials said on Wednesday.

General Allen offered Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta three plans with different troop levels: 6,000, 10,000 and 20,000, each with a risk factor probably attached to it, a senior military official said. An option of 6,000 troops would probably pose a higher risk of failure for the American effort in Afghanistan, 10,000 would be medium risk and 20,000 would be lower risk, the official said.

But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the options, said that a more important factor in the success of any post-2014 American mission was how well — or whether — an Afghan government known for corruption could deliver basic services to the population.

General Allen’s options offer ascending levels of American involvement in guarding against the expansion of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and advising an Afghan military that has limited air power, logistics, leadership and ability to evacuate and treat its wounded.

With 6,000 troops, defense officials said, the American mission would largely be a counterterrorism fight of Special Operations commandos who would hunt down insurgents. There would be limited logistical support and training for Afghan security forces. With 10,000 troops, the United States would expand training of Afghan security forces. With 20,000 troops, the Obama administration would add some conventional Army forces to patrol in limited areas.

Defense officials said it was unclear whether President Obama had studied the options, although they said he was expected to discuss them at the White House next week when President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan visits. About 66,000 American troops are now in Afghanistan.

Under an agreement between NATO and the Afghan government, the NATO combat mission in Afghanistan is to end on Dec. 31, 2014, when the Afghan Army and the police are to have full responsibility for their country’s security. But in recent months the Obama administration has been debating the size and mission of a residual American force that would remain after 2014 to increase Afghan stability.

The help is sorely needed, according to the most recent Pentagon report on the state of the 11-year-old war. In an assessment released last month that covers April through September 2012, the Pentagon found that only one of the Afghan Army’s 23 brigades was able to operate independently without air or other military support from the United States or its NATO partners.

Defense officials said that General Allen’s recommendations did not include options for the pace of withdrawals of the remaining 66,000 troops, although American officials say he wants to keep a large majority — perhaps as many as 60,000 — through the fighting season next fall.

Military officials anticipate that the White House will push for a more rapid withdrawal.

General Allen’s recommendations come as he and Mr. Panetta are soon due to leave their jobs. General Allen is to be replaced in February by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., and Mr. Panetta is expected to step down after Mr. Obama nominates a successor.

General Allen, who is under investigation for a series of e-mails he exchanged with a socialite in Tampa, Fla., Jill Kelley, is to become the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, but his nomination is delayed until the investigation concludes.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that he had long planned to leave Afghanistan in February and that the inquiry had not accelerated his departure.


US Drone Strike Kills Top Pakistani Militant
Ayaz Gul VOA News January 3, 2013
ISLAMABAD — Intelligence officials in Pakistan say U.S. drone strikes have killed more than 14 al-Qaida-linked militants, including an important commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Officials say several missiles were fired before dawn on suspected militant targets in two Pakistani tribal districts, known as South and North Waziristan. They say the deadliest strike was in the South Waziristan village of Angoor Adda, where the region's main militant commander, Mullah Nazir, and his two deputies were among those killed.

The Pakistani tribal warlord had long been accused of harboring Arab al-Qaida operatives and sending fighters for attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan. He was also an ally of the anti-U.S. Haqqani network of Afghan insurgents entrenched in the area.

Mullah Nazir had signed a peace deal with the Pakistani military five years ago that called for maintaining peace and keeping the Waziristan region free of anti-Pakistan insurgents. His alliance with the authorities had apparently upset local Taliban militants who have frequently launched deadly attacks on Pakistani forces. The contentious relationship was cited for a suicide attack in November that wounded Mullah Nazir and killed several of his fighters.

Asad Munir, a former officer of the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, says that the killing of Mullah Nazir could provoke his fighters to join hands with domestic insurgents to intensify attacks on government and military targets in the country.

He added that Mullah Nazir was representing the Wazir tribe in South Waziristan and his peace deal with the army was meant to neutralize the threat from the Mehsud tribe in the region that harbored leaders of anti-government local Taliban groups.

“He was an enemy of U.S., there is no doubt. His people, his followers were crossing border and attacking NATO troops," said Munir. "But Pakistan army does not have the capacity to deal with Mehsud and Wazir [tribes] simultaneously. So they want to have peace with some people from the Wazir tribe so they can handle Mehsud. And the worst possibility is that the followers of Mullah Nazir will join hands with the other elements so that will be a very, very dangerous scenario for Pakistan.”

Pakistani officials publicly oppose U.S .drone strikes, saying they are fueling militancy in the region. Moazzam Ahmad Khan is the foreign ministry spokesman.

“Our position has always been very clear and consistent that we find them (drone attacks) totally unproductive, illegal [and] against international law,” said Khan.

Drone attacks against suspected targets in Pakistan’s tribal territory have reportedly killed more than 3,000 people since 2004, including several hundred civilians.

It is difficult to independently verify the number of casualties or identify the individuals killed in the strikes because the remote tribal region is too dangerous for reporters to travel.

However, some military officials and residents in the tribal region have previously acknowledged that drones mostly hit militants who have terrorized the local population and rendered ineffective the state authority there.

The United States has rarely commented on its covert drone operation. However, President Barack Obama last year publicly acknowledged for the first time that the United States has carried out “precision” missile strikes against suspected al-Qaida targets in Pakistan.

Pakistani Warlord Maulvi Nazir
•Was a top militant commander in South Waziristan, Pakistan
•Also known as Mullah Nazir
•In 2007, signed peace accord with Pakistani government
•Favored attacking U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan
•Reported to have had a contentious relationship with Pakistani Taliban
•Was wounded in a November suicide bombing
•Was an elder in the Wazir tribe
•In May 2011, hundreds of his followers protested against killing of Osama bin Laden


10 insurgents arrested in eastern Afghan operation
KABUL, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to 10 insurgents have been detained in an operation carried out by Afghan forces and the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in the country's eastern province of Ghazni, said the ISAF forces on Thursday.

"Afghan and coalition forces detained 10 insurgents and located one weapons cache during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours," the ISAF's Regional Command-East ( RC-East) said in a statement.

The joint forces detained the insurgents while investigating a weapons cache in Qarah Bagh District, the statement said, adding " The cache contained small arms and ammunition and grenades and the detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning."

Operations in RC-East are ongoing, it said.

The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments.

The Afghan security forces and more than 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops continue to press Taliban and other militant groups in the country despite a decrease in violent attacks due to cold weather in the militancy-hit country.

Figures released by the Afghan Interior Ministry showed more than 90 insurgents had been killed and nearly 190 others detained in December during military operations across the country.


Karzai to share key demands of Afghanistan in US visit
By Sajad Khaama Press January 3, 2013
Afghan foreign ministry officials are saying that important decision regarding the relations between Kabul and Washington will be taken during president Hamid Karzai’s visit to United States.

President Hamid Karzai is due to visit United States on Monday to discuss security transition, political transition or elections, security agreement, peace process, US aid beyond 2014 and Afghanistan relations with the regional countries.

Afghan foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul said one of the main agenda of president Karzai’s meeting with US officials will focus on prevent of economic gap in 2014.

Rassoul said, “NATO troops withdrawal will create economic issues for us. Thousands of Afghans are working on these bases and we should prevent economic gap since unemployment will itself become a major risk for the future of Afghanistan.”

He said, “President Hamid Karzai will also urge United States to specify the need of the Afghan security forces and equipment process of Afghan air force is also a part of Karzai’s demand from US.”

Afghanistan signed a long term strategic cooperation agreement with United States of America and the two nations are due to sign another important security/military agreement.

In the meantime Afghanistan is concerned that the southern and eastern regions near the Durand Line will become militants safe havens after NATO troops withdrawal.

President Hamid Karzai during his visit to United States will also urge to boost the development projects in southern and eastern regions of the country.

Afghan FM Zalmai Rassoul said president Karzai will call on United States to implement infrastructure projects in these regions including energy, transportation, road construction and railway network projects.

He said Afghanistan is committed to organize presidential election in 2014 and Afghanistan insists Washington that election should be held by Afghans and there should no foreign interference.

President Karzai will also ask United States to assist Afghanistan in peace talks with the Taliban group and that the two nations should have a similar stance in this regard.


Afghanistan’s IED Complex: Inside the Taliban Bombmaking Industry
TIME.com By Mujib Mashal Jan. 02, 2013
Kandahar - “I am here in Kandahar on a short vacation,” says the young man, about 27, who we will call Mullah Kalam. His beard is trimmed neat; he is wearing a black leather jacket and a striped beige turban. Kalam has been a student for five years at a religious seminary across the border in Chaman, in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Two years into his studies, as U.S. President Barack Obama ordered a surge of 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, much of it focused in the south, Kalam’s family of 11 left their home in Panjwai district, about 40km from the city of Kandahar, to settle in Chaman.

But Kalam’s “short vacations” home, at least twice every year, are no innocent excursions. Panjwai is considered one of the most heavily mined areas in the country. The Taliban have been known to place homemade bombs and booby-traps everywhere—on dirt roads, pomegranate trees, and vegetable fields—and have forced a curfew on locals between 8pm and 8am. Besides Kalam’s religious studies, he has been spending time with “Pakistani explosive experts,” he says. Putting that training to work, he has helped orchestrate about 20 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks.

The U.S. troop surge and the increasing reach of the Afghan security forces have weakened the Taliban as a fighting force in recent years. But the Taliban, known for their tactical flexibility, has turned more and more to IEDs. These are easy to make, largely from fertilizer and simple materials that are easy to transport across the porous border with Pakistan.

The U.S, government has spent more than $21 billion since 2006 in tackling the IEDs, which it considers a strategic weapon that will remain “an enduring threat.” Marred with questions of inefficiency and mismanagement, the effort is led by JIEDDO, Joint IED Defeat Organization. The group has focused heavily on fielding technologies to address the problem in a three-prongedstrategy: “attack the network, defeat the device, train the force.” But the numbers on the ground suggest it has been a difficult, largely losing fight—and one that is increasingly asymmetric in terms of economic cost.

While in Iraq, use of IEDs plummeted after reaching a peak of 23,000 attacks in 2007, the trend in Afghanistan seems to be only heading upwards. The Pentagon is reporting an 80% increase in IED incidents over the past two years here. In 2012 alone, there have been nearly 15,000 IED incidents, causing about 1,900 U.S. casualties. Overall, more than 60% of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan are caused by IEDs. While the weapon will continue to take a heavy toll on the U.S. troops until their planned withdrawal in 2014, the larger victim will remain Afghan forces, who are ill-equipped and more prone to fall victim in mined areas. IEDs are responsible for about 85% of casualties in Afghan army and police forces.

Fighting the phenomenon through detective technology is unsustainable, analysts and officials say. The lethality of the weapon lies in its flexibility. The technology, developed through large defense contracts,simply cannot keep up. “The enemy is actually better equipped than my soldiers—they have night goggles, to see how they can cross the border at night,” says Brigadier General Abdul Raziq, the 33-year-old police commander of Kandaharprovince who has survived about 40 attempts on his life, several of them by way of IEDs. “The enemy has been given the kind of explosives, triggers and remote controls that our equipment—not the new jammers and such, but equipment from 2010—cannot detect.”

The Afghan police have 97 mine clearance teams across the country with very basic training and equipment designed for Soviet-era bombs. The force largely relies on human intelligence, which has been undermined by significant budget cuts over the past three years.

“The enemy has ISI money, narcotics money, and other sources,” says Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, referring to Pakistan’s intelligence service. “We need to be able to counter their investments.”

More than 70% of the IEDs in Afghanistan are made withCalcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) produced in two factories in Pakistan. Urging regulation on the factories, dismantling the smuggling supply chain on the Pakistani side of the border, and disrupting the networks inside is really the only way. “While CAN is produced in other regional countries, I have seen no evidence to indicate the CAN used for IEDs in Afghanistan comes from any other country besides Pakistan,” says Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, director of JIEDDO.

The Pakistani military has taken measures to curb the problem, but only domestically, which has been spreading like the larger militancy. At least 900 IED attacks causing 3,700 casualties have been reported inside Pakistan. The U.S. government tried to reach out directly with the two factories in Pakistan, which has only resulted in “minor packaging, tracking, and marketing changes,” according to Barbareo. But direct communication was halted by the Pakistani government. With the producing source and the supply chain intact, the Afghan and coalition forces have increased their crack down on IED material—particularly CAN—on the Afghan side of the border. In 2012 alone, 444 tons of IED material was seized in Afghanistan, but a large amount still continues to be smuggled in.

“The enemy mixes ammonium nitrate in flour, in cement, in powder detergent, in passengers’ luggage to carry it across the border,” says General Raziq. “We can’t always just knife people’s goods.” And Raziq’s men do not even have control over all of Kandahar’s 44-kilometer border with Pakistan, which is a small share of the vast 2,400km border.

“If I have 300 soldiers in Shorawak, there are 500 terrorists training in the open directly on the other side of the border inPanjpai,” Raziq says. “Across the border, they have open headquarters, training grounds, and they bring their injured for treatment to hospitals there.”

Once the material is in the country, there is a vast network of trained, active agents, disarmed former members of the movement, and ideological sympathizers that play a role along the way as the material is turned into explosives, and then planted. TIME spoke to some of these agents. A 35-year old, beefy commander, his beard trimmed short and his head half bald under his massive white turban, is in charge of a 10-member team just 70km outside Kandahar city. With training in Chaman twoyears ago, he leads the ten men in assembling the explosives—in oil cans, pressure cookers, and, most recently, in 1.5liter soda bottles, which are easier to transport. A Kandahar intelligence official swore he had even seen IEDs carved into large copies of the Quran.

Then there are the facilitators, like the 38-year-old former member of the Taliban who helps by hiding IEDs at his home in Daman, and transports them on the back of his motorcycle. And, finally, there are people like themustachioed 33-year-old from the lush Arghandab valley who has brought eight IEDs to the city in his truck, which he usually uses to deliver commercial fruits.

“For transporting the explosives, we use cars, animals, and even some government officials,” the bald commander says, lowering his voice into a whisper during the last part, stretching his words with satisfaction. The use of vehicles for transporting explosives, and even carrying out attacks, is not unusual. The police chief of Nimroz province was reportedly killed last month by explosives placed in the door of his own official vehicle.

Locals in Panjwai claim the Taliban have also turned to subcontracting, so far a trademark of the coalition side of the war. The insurgents supply the explosives, they say, but unemployed youth plant them for cash. If they blow up an Afghan police vehicle, they get anything between 10,000 and 20,000 Pakistani rupees ($100-$200). If they blow up a coalitionvehicle, the reward is as high as 100,000 Pakistani rupees. The claim is difficult to prove. But there does exist an internal Taliban bonus structure for operatives carrying out IEDs successfully. Mullah Kalam said he has gotten up to 20,000 PKR for blowing up U.S. vehicles, and 10,000 PKR for Afghan police vehicles. “We definitely have a bonus, a sweetener,” Kalam says.

So the incentive means that not a day goes by in Afghanistan without reports of IEDs across the country. As in all wars, civilians bear the heavy brunt: the United Nations reports at least 967 civilians killed and 1,590 injured during the past four months, 56% caused by IEDs.

—with reporting from a Special Correspondent / Kandahar


Cosmetic surgery catches on in a more open Afghanistan
An emerging middle class exposed to beauty trends from India and Iran seeks reshaped noses and eyelids, as well as more involved procedures.
Los Angeles Times By Alexandra Zavis January 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Shoqofa never liked her nose. She thought it was too wide.

Her father told her not to worry; it was given to her by Allah.

But when the 22-year-old started working at a beauty salon, she had the means and freedom to do something about it.

Six months ago, she had rhinoplasty at one of several new private clinics offering cosmetic surgery in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. She paid for it herself, telling her father that she was seeing a doctor about a mole.

"When he saw my nose covered in bandages, he asked, 'What happened?' " she said, laughing. "The whole family was surprised."

Shoqofa, who, like many Afghans, uses one name, is part of an emerging middle class exposed to beauty trends from India and Iran through movies, travel and the country's proliferating media outlets. Women show up at doctors' offices carrying pictures of their favorite Bollywood celebrities and Turkish telenovela stars.

Just over a decade ago, women were largely confined to their homes and forbidden to work, even if they could find a job in the war-ravaged country. Cut off from the rest of the world under the Taliban's rule, many had never heard of cosmetic surgery.

It remains a touchy subject in many Afghan families, especially for women, eliciting questions about their modesty and acceptance of God's will. But as women have rejoined the workforce in cities like Kabul, they have started earning their own money, which some are choosing to spend on changing their looks.

Many have little idea what to expect from cosmetic surgery. Shoqofa's doctor, Najibullah Najib, shows prospective patients before-and-after pictures on his cellphone. Most procedures are performed with a local anesthetic and patients are sent home the same day.

Najib honed his skills treating victims of war, poverty and domestic violence.

His patients include children born with clubfeet and cleft palates, survivors of gas-lamp fires and gunshot wounds, and girls who have set themselves alight in protest against forced marriages, often to much older men. In the last two years, he has also been getting a growing number of requests for cosmetic surgery.

Nose jobs and eyelid lifts are especially popular, he said. In many cases, the patients are ethnic Hazaras who he said are frequently mocked by Pashtuns and Tajiks, the country's two largest ethnic groups, for their flat noses and distinctive eyes. Others have come to him for face-lifts and tummy tucks.

One recent morning, Mohammad Hanif, a man in a traditional tunic and turban, walked into Najib's examination room at Kaisha Health Care with his 21-year-old daughter, Bibi, who was wrapped in a black veil that revealed only her eyes. She had already had surgery to correct a collapsed nose bridge, and he wanted the doctor to repair some skin discoloration.

Hanif said he had spent time in Iran, one of the world's leading centers for cosmetic surgery. So when he heard on local television that these kinds of procedures were available in Afghanistan, he sought out Najib.

"When she was with her classmates, other girls were making fun of her because of her nose," he said.

Such congenital defects can hurt a young woman's marriage prospects, the doctor explained.

"It's a conservative society," he said. "Most of the people here don't think about a girl's talent or education, they think about her beauty."

Benafsha, a 23-year-old law student in a red leopard-print head scarf and shearling jacket, asked Najib to excise several large scars running down one arm — the result of a car accident six years ago. Although her arms are covered in public, she likes to wear sleeveless dresses at women's-only wedding parties and is tired of drawing stares.

Her mother, Fahima, a 43-year-old businesswoman, is thinking about a face-lift. She hates the wrinkles around her eyes. "I want to look young," she said.

By the time Najib arrived at his afternoon job at the nearby Rose Dermatology and Cosmetics Hospital, the patients were lined up on blue plastic chairs, waiting for him.

A young woman named Mariam had brought in her 14-year-old niece, Shabnam. The girl had tried several times to slash her wrists after her parents died in a suicide bombing last year, Mariam said. Now she was threatening to drop out of school unless her aunt and uncle agreed to surgery to remove the scarring on her face from a childhood bout of leishmaniasis, a skin-sore-causing disease transmitted by sand flies.

"Whenever I see myself in the mirror, I feel depressed," Shabnam said tearfully.

Najib said he sees many such cases. He used a ballpoint pen to show the pair how he would graft from a healthy part of her face.

As word spreads about the country's cosmetic surgeons, some Afghans who live abroad are opting for cheaper procedures at home. Rhinoplasty here costs about $300 to $600. In the West, the price can be 10 or 20 times higher.

But some doctors worry about inexperienced colleagues setting up shop. Dr. Aminullah Hamkar, who trained in Russia and has two decades of experience, said others will attempt complicated procedures after a few months with a foreign medical aid group — often with unsatisfactory results.

Shoqofa said she did her research on the Internet and consulted numerous doctors before deciding on Najib. He performed the surgery the same day.

She loves her new, trim nose and displays the before-and-after pictures on a wall at home.

"I'm much happier," she said.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.


Danger lies between the lines of a U.S. Army contract in Afghanistan
Washington Post By Walter Pincus Thursday, January 3, 2013
Here is a reminder that there is still fighting going on in a part of Afghanistan that was deemed ready to be transitioned to the Afghan Army for security purposes almost a year ago.

In a new U.S Army Corps of Engineers solicitation to complete construction of an Afghan National Army, Corps Support Battalion and related support facilities at Camp Zafar in Herat Province, potential bidders are told: “The project is in an active war zone where International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) may conduct offensive and defensive operations against a variety of hostile forces, to include members of the Taliban.”

The project could cost up to $25 million to complete construction of the army base that began in 2009 for 700 soldiers. It is now going to be expanded.

There are seven enlisted personnel barracks to be completed along with four officer barracks. Also to be finished are a dining hall, one battalion headquarters along with maintenance, storage, and communications buildings, plus a gymnasium.

The project is expected to take nearly a year to complete after the contract is awarded. Although the project is taking place on an existing base, proposed bidders are warned that the winning contractor “may not receive any support whatsoever in securing the project site and in securing the transportation of materials to the project site.”

Neither the United States nor Afghan or ISAF forces can provide security for the project, as it is the contractor’s responsibility. And the bidders are being told that the Afghan government, “acting in its sovereign capacity in its prosecution of its operations, may take actions which directly or indirectly affect the contractor.”

In short, the contractor has to put together his own security plan and understand he is going into an area where the security situation “is subject to significant transformation in a short time span based on the changing operational picture in the region.”

This is in Herat Province, adjacent to the Iranian border, which last January was considered safe enough to be included in the second transitioning of provinces to Afghan Army for security. Camp Zafar is also home of the first Afghan Army Corps’s training facilities and the site last October of exercises in which Afghan Army commandos and the Afghan Air force for the first time conducted joint operations.

It is up to the contractor to develop a round-the-clock security plan not just for the project, which is to have its own fenced-in area, but also for any living area for workers and for the transportation of materiel and equipment.

The contractor also is to provide information on all of its armed civilian security personnel, including their Interior Ministry license numbers and the numbers and types of weapons authorized, as well as the number of security personnel “by type, U.S., Afghan or others.”

Also required are photos and “Tazkira [identification] numbers of security personnel as well as those personnel with access to weapons/ammo and those persons who will be handling or transporting explosives.”

It is up to the contractor to provide security equipment “including but not limited to weapons, radios, uniforms, vehicles, vehicle fuel, phones, and other equipment.”

The winning contractor must coordinate his security activities with ISAF forces and local governments, but the contractor is prohibited from “making any unauthorized or illegal payments to” Afghan Army, Afghan National Police or local or provincial officials “for permission or protection to construct the project.”

If any such request for payment is made, it must be immediately reported to government officials.

To facilitate coordination, there must be a “24/7 security operations center with communication capability to each guard on duty and the ability to notify all on-site personnel of increased threats and protective actions to take.” The system must also connect with the local ISAF, Afghan Army and Afghan National Police forces.

One unique item: The contractor must create and display at least one plywood or aluminum sign “to identify the project site as a Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan sponsored project associated with the Ministry of Defense.” The sign shall be at least 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide with the Defense Ministry logo and the black-green-and-red Afghan flag.

Overall, this contract illustrates why the cost of such construction in Afghanistan is so high and what it now takes to prevent problems that have emerged in many of the earlier Afghan construction projects.

The solicitation also sadly recognizes that real security — as Americans understand it — does not, and probably will not, realistically exist in Afghanistan no matter how safe it is declared today or next year by U.S. or Afghan officials.


Taliban says planned US withdrawal from Afghanistan akin to its defeat in Vietnam War
Associated Press 02/01/2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban Wednesday likened the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan to America’s pullout from Vietnam, calling it a “declare victory and run” strategy.

A statement from the militant group said the ongoing transfer of security operations from U.S. troops to Afghan forces was merely a retreat similar to the American withdrawal from South Vietnam prior to the communist victory there in 1975.

American-led NATO troops are scheduled to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although the U.S. will leave a residual force behind and other NATO countries have pledged continuing support of the Kabul government.

“They want to flee from Afghanistan just as they turned tail and ran from Vietnam,” the Taliban statement said. “When America faced utter destruction in Vietnam, they came up with the formula ‘declare victory and run’ and want to utilize the formula of ‘transfer security and run’ here in Afghanistan.”

The United States withdrew is combat troops from South Vietnam in 1973, leaving South Vietnamese forces to face the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong who marched into the capital, Saigon, two years later.


Obama signs defense authorization act
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has signed the National Defense Authorization Act of the 2013 fiscal year, the White House said on Thursday.

According to the White House, Obama signed the bill while vacationing in Hawaii. In a statement, Obama said while he supports the vast majority of the provisions contained in the act, he does not agree with them all, including Congress' refusal to let Pentagon retire unneeded ships and aircraft, as well as limits on the military to transfer detainees at the Guantanamo detention facility.

The president also complained certain provisions in the bill could "interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States," and said his administration would interpret and implement these provisions in a manner that "does not interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy."

The sweeping bill covers the Pentagon's cost of ships, aircraft, weapons and military personnel as well as the war efforts in Afghanistan. It consists of 528 billion dollars for the Defense Department's base budget, 17 billion dollars for defense and nuclear programs in the Energy Department and 88 billion dollars for overseas war costs.

The measure also tightens sanctions on Iran, increases security for U.S. diplomatic missions after the attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and contains language regarding the conflict in Syria, requesting the Pentagon to report to Congress on possible military options.

The budget also has two controversial sections relating to arms sales to Taiwan and the Diaoyu Islands, which are China's inherent territories. The two clauses are both written as "sense of Senate, " which means they have no binding power over the president.

The bill passed the Congress amid chaos over the fiscal cliff negotiations late last year, and was delivered to the White House over the weekend. Obama took it with him to Hawaii when he left town after clinching the fiscal cliff deal.


Afghan army recruits say they'll be ready to go solo
But for all the enthusiasm and bravery of individual soldiers, the army still struggles to wean itself from the support of U.S. and other foreign troops.
Los Angeles Times By David Zucchino January 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Rahmatullah, an illiterate young man with a wispy beard and remnants of teenage acne, may represent the last, best hope for Afghanistan's national army.

Wearing an old Russian-style helmet and firing an American M-16 automatic rifle, he squinted as his hissing rounds found their target on a firing range at the national training academy. At his elbow was his first cousin Azizullah, a functionally illiterate Pashtun tribesman who crouched to fire his own M-16.

The cousins decided in fall to join the Afghan National Army, which for a decade has struggled to mold itself into an effective fighting force. Both were encouraged to join by their fathers and uncles, Pashtuns from a nearby hilltop village where support for Afghan security forces is strong and hatred of Taliban insurgents runs deep.

Rahmatullah, 21, and Azizullah, 20, freely admitted that their own motives were more base: Soldiering pays about $155 a month for recruits and about $230 a month after they join a unit, better than anything they can find in their hardscrabble village. The food is plentiful and the beds are warm.

Oh yes, each recruit added, almost as an afterthought, "And I want to serve my country and protect it from its enemies," meaning the Taliban.

The two callow Pashtun villagers and 1,400 fellow recruits in 1st Battalion, 4th Company, 1st Platoon, are the vanguard of a deeply flawed force that must fight the Taliban on its own after U.S. troops withdraw by the end of 2014. Their 18 weeks of training here will be tested in Afghanistan's deserts and mountains, where hardened Taliban insurgents are poised to attack.

Five weeks into training, the cousins were off to a good start. Rahmatullah put 20 of 20 shots into the center of target cutouts 25 yards away. Azizullah hit 18 of 20. Neither man had ever fired a gun before — or so they claimed.

"They are motivated and they learn fast," said the platoon instructor, 1st Sgt. Haga Mohammed. "They'll be ready to fight when they leave here; all our guys will be ready, believe me."

Everyone at the sun-baked Kabul Military Training Center — the recruits, the training cadre, the mustachioed Afghan commanding general, and the soft-spoken Canadian chief advisor — spouts the same line: The Afghan army is unified, with no ethnic divisions. It will be fully capable of fighting off the Taliban when U.S. forces are gone.

That, of course, is what a long parade of Afghan generals and Western advisors has been assuring training center visitors for nearly a decade — even as the army remained poorly led and ill-equipped.

"We like the Americans, and we feel stronger if we're with them," Rahmatullah said in his barracks, amid the sour stench of unwashed bodies. "But we'll be ready 100% to fight on our own in 2014."

Rahmatullah's brother, 1st Sgt. Nazir Ahmad, who has fought the Taliban and is now a trainer at the center, said U.S. Marines taught him discipline under fire. "We have the lead now, but we're a poor country and we still need weapons and equipment from the Americans," he said.

At the front, the Afghan army's shortcomings are obvious, and a source of constant complaint among front-line American troops.

For all the enthusiasm and bravery of individual soldiers, the army has not weaned itself from air support, artillery, fuel, weapons, ammunition, communications and combat medical aid provided by U.S. and coalition forces. Drug use, theft, corruption and desertion are common. Discipline is improving, but remains erratic.

The desertion rate is 10% to 15%, said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaher Azimi, and no deserters have been punished. "Well, it's a volunteer army," he said.

The army is also undercut by ethnic tension, and by Taliban infiltrators and disaffected soldiers who shoot and kill Western troops and civilian contractors. At the command level, ethnic Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and others fight bitterly for influence.

Afghan Brig. Gen. Aminullah Patyani, the academy commander, says any such problems can be addressed through rigorous training. As academy commander, Patyani is bullish on the army.

What about so-called insider attacks, which have caused 130 coalition deaths since 2007, including 61 in 2012? There hasn't been a single such incident at the training center, Patyani said.

Recruits' phony IDs and fake letters of recommendation from village elders? Increased vigilance, with fresh help from the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's intelligence agency, has the problem under control, Patyani said.

The washout rate? No such thing. Every recruit graduates, the general said, even if they have to keep repeating their courses.

Patyani said the Afghan army was nearing its goal of 195,000 soldiers. Troop strength was expected to reach 187,000 by the end of 2012. But the academy must churn out 50,000 new soldiers a year to help keep pace with desertions, casualties and retirements.

Col. Peter J. Williams, a wiry Canadian who commands a 320-member, eight-nation advisor team, said advisors directed hands-on training in the academy's early years. The focus was on delivering large numbers of recruits. Today, he said, advisors stand back and observe, offering quiet advice later.

"They're getting the quantity they want," Williams said. "Now's the time to focus on quality."

Williams has recommended extending the basic training course from nine weeks to 12. (Recruits take another nine-week "collective training" course after graduation.) A pilot 12-week class was this day in an elaborate ceremony featuring martial music, goose-stepping and fiery speeches.

The graduates carried no rifles. Every visitor to the ceremony, from recruits to senior officers, was searched for explosives or weapons. Armed Afghan, Canadian and private security guards stood watch, all on alert for an insider attack.

The ceremony played out without incident as Rahmatullah and Azizullah returned from the firing range. Rahmatullah was stunned to learn that his father, Azizullah's uncle, was pacing outside the academy gate.

A Times reporter had phoned the father, Qandi Gul, to request an interview. His wife, Ashad Bibi, was convinced that the call meant her son had been wounded or killed. At her insistence, Gul drove his ancient rickshaw motorcycle down a mountain road to the academy.

Gul waited for hours, seeking permission for his son to speak with him. At last, the young recruit emerged. He buried his head in his father's arms as the older man showered him with kisses.

"Call your mother right now," Gul ordered. Rahmatullah grabbed his father's cellphone and walked to a lonely spot along a barbed-wire fence.

Later, in the mud-walled village of Qalai Mohsen, Gul described how he had practically ordered his son, and his nephew too, to join the army. Gul served six years as an Afghan police officer. Three sons, including Rahmatullah, are in the security forces. So are three nephews.

Most of the men in the village, in fact, are in the army or police. Gul's compound overlooks the national police training academy. On display inside his home is a photo of his eldest son in uniform.

Over a meal of steaming lamb, rice and spinach spread out on his floor, Gul says the village is rabidly anti-Taliban. They are Pashtuns, like most of the Taliban, but Gul calls the insurgents "devils and thieves."

When he was a police officer, a pro-Taliban mullah told him he wasn't a real Muslim because he served the U.S.-backed government.

"I told him, 'I'm a true Muslim and an Afghan patriot who serves his country, and I'll send all my sons to serve their country,'" Gul said.

"The army, the government, will stand against the Taliban, and against Pakistan, even after the Americans are gone," Gul said, sucking on a cracked lamb bone.

Beside him was another son, Ruhollah. Thin and dark-eyed, Ruhollah said he tried to join the army in 2011, but was rejected because he wasn't yet 18. He had just turned 18 and planned to sign up soon.

In Gul's lap was his youngest son, Haroon, 2 1/2. The boy gurgled and stuffed a wad of rice into his mouth.

His father took the boy in his arms and nuzzled him with his bearded chin.

"One day," he said, squeezing Haroon, "another soldier for the army."

david.zucchino@latimes.com

Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.


MoD dismisses allegation Prince Harry hunts Afghans while drunk
The Ministry of Defence has dismissed claims by an Afghan warlord that Prince Harry kills insurgents while "drunk" as simply absurd.
Telegraph.co.uk By Damien McElroy 02 Jan 2013
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister, told the Daily Telegraph that Prince Harry, an Apache attack helicopter pilot, was intoxicated as he killed "innocent Afghans".

Officials rejected the allegation and said rules prohibited troops from consuming alcohol while deployed on operations.

"The suggestion that any member of the UK armed forces deployed on operations operates under the influence of alcohol is simply absurd - not least because the consumption of alcohol by UK military personnel is not permitted under any circumstances while deployed in Afghanistan." a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

"UK troops deployed and remain in Afghanistan to protect our national security by removing what was a safe haven for international terrorism. Now, it is Afghan forces that now have lead security responsibility for around 75% of the population in the country and lead up to 80% of conventional partnered operations.

"It is this sort of progress that has allowed almost 60% of UK bases in Helmand to be shut or handed over and will allow us to leave a stronger more secure Afghanistan when combat operations cease by the end of 2014." The former Afghan prime minister founder and leader of the Hizb-i-Islamia Party in Afghanistan, accused Britain of being dragged into the war to please its American allies and said its role in the conflict would have no significance after 2014.

Hekmatyar, who was designated a terrorist by the US State Department in February 2003, told the Daily Telegraph: "Britain dragged herself into this unjustified, useless but cruel conflict to please the White House.

"The British did not gain anything, instead they lost blood and treasure.

"They never had a positive role in Afghan affairs and they will not have any significance after 2014.

"I don't understand how the British public accept their children being sent to certain death in order to please American generals."

Of Prince Harry, who spent Christmas in Afghanistan where he is currently serving as an Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner, he said: "The British prince comes to Afghanistan to kill innocent Afghans while he is drunk.

"He wants to hunt down Mujahideen with his helicopter's rockets, without any shame.

"During the Mujahideen's attack on the American base the prince saw that he was the one about to be hunted and was searching for a hole in which to hide himself."

The Taliban issued an end-of-year review that compared the impending withdrawal of US-led foreign troops to the 1989 Soviet retreat from Afghanistan and the end of the Vietnam war.

The insurgents' emailed statement, entitled a "Quick glance at 2012", said coalition forces had "completely lost their will to fight and practically began the process of withdrawal and retreat".

"We can unmistakably state that 2012 in Afghanistan for the current occupation was exactly as 1986 was for the former occupation," the Taliban said.

The year 1986 is widely seen as a turning point in the Soviets' ten-year presence in Afghanistan, with mujahideen attacks forcing Moscow on the defensive before the military finally left in 1989.

"When America faced utter destruction in Vietnam, they came up with the formula 'Declare victory and run' and want to utilise the formula of 'Transfer security and run' here in Afghanistan," the statement added.

"In reality, they want to flee from Afghanistan just as they turned tail and ran from Vietnam."

The NATO coalition, fighting an 11-year Taliban insurgency, reduced troop numbers by about 30,000 in 2012 and is due to end its combat mission in 2014.

Hekmatyar vowed to inflict further bloodshed before the withdrawal.

"Before the withdrawal of invading forces the Mujahideen would like to witness with their own eyes a scene that will teach the invaders to never think of coming this way again," he said. "And also the others who have bad intentions and are waiting to invade Afghanistan."


High level Afghan intelligence officials visits Pakistan
By Sayed Jawad Khaama Press January 3, 2013
A high-level Afghan intelligence delegation is in Pakistan for talks on anti-terror cooperation between the two uneasy neighbours, The Express Tribune reported.

Deputy Director of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security or NDS, General Hesamuddin, is leading the five-member delegation in talks with Pakistani intelligence officials on a host of issues, the source told The Express Tribune.

An Afghan diplomatic source said, During the two-day talks, the officials will focus on cooperation between the intelligence agencies of the two countries. “The two sides also discussed their cooperation in the Afghan reconciliation process.”

Sources also said that both sides reviewed investigation into last month’s suicide attack on Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid in Kabul, who was critically injured.

A day after the attack, President Hamid Karzai had claimed that the bomber had come from the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Karzai had demanded an investigation into the attack on Khalid, a close confidante who is now being treated in an American hospital.

The visit comes just days after Islamabad confirmed it has freed 26 Afghan Taliban prisoners, including the Taliban former justice minister, Mulla Nooruddin Turabi and several former governors.

According to The Express Tribune the issue of Taliban prisoners also came under discussion as Afghan authorities consider the issue of Taliban prisoners ‘incomplete’.

The Afghan intelligence authorities during their visit will urge Pakistani officials to provide details of the freed Afghan Taliban including where have they gone, why and when they had been arrested and on what charges.

In the meantime reports suggest that the US authorities have also asked Pakistan to provide it with information on some of the freed Taliban leaders and several others expected to be freed in the coming days.


Afghan warlord vows fresh attacks on NATO troops
AFP 02/01/2013
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar vowed in an interview published Wednesday to kill as many Western soldiers as possible before NATO combat forces withdraw from the country in 2014.

Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who leads Afghanistan's second largest militant group Hezb-i-Islami, told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that fresh attacks would send a warning to "others waiting to invade Afghanistan".

"Before the withdrawal of invading forces, the Mujahideen would like to witness with their own eyes a scene that will teach the invaders to never think of coming this way again," he said in a video obtained by the Telegraph in response to questions asked through an intermediary.

Hekmatyar, designated a global terrorist by the United States, warned that Afghanistan could collapse into bloody civil unrest after NATO troops withdraw, 13 years after the US-led invasion.

"The fact is that the government has failed," said the former premier, who is shown in the video with a white beard and wearing a black turban.

"We might have a dreadful situation after 2014 which no one could have anticipated."

NATO is aiming to train 350,000 Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014 to take over responsibility for security.

But trust between the two sides has been seriously undermined by "insider" attacks by Afghan forces that killed more than 60 foreign troops in 2012, and the transition process has been beset by other problems including desertions.

Hekmatyar indicated that Hezb-i-Islami, notorious for its bloody siege of Kabul in the 1990s, has softened some of its hardline Islamist policies such as banning women from education.

He condemned the Pakistani Taliban's blocking of girls' schooling, which was thrown into the spotlight in October by its attempted murder of 15-year-old education campaigner Malala Yousafzai on her schoolbus.

He insisted that Hezb-i-Islami "consider education is as necessary for girls as it is for boys", though they object to combined male and female classes.

The movement would be ready to take part in Afghanistan's presidential election in 2014 on the condition of a fair vote and a "complete withdrawal of all foreign forces", he added.

The former premier also blasted British troops as American lackeys and said Britain's Prince Harry, who has been serving in Afghanistan since September as an Apache helicopter pilot, as a "jackal" who was "drunk" while on duty.

"The British prince comes to Afghanistan to kill innocent Afghans while he is drunk," Hekmatyar told the Telegraph.

"Britain dragged herself into this unjustified, useless but cruel conflict to please the White House. The British did not gain anything instead they lost blood and treasure."

Britain's defence ministry said it was "simply absurd" to suggest that the third-in-line to the throne or any other member of the British armed forces was conducting operations under the influence of alcohol.

"The consumption of alcohol by UK military personnel is not permitted under any circumstances while deployed in Afghanistan," a ministry spokesman said.


Is peace really in the air in Afghanistan?
NBCNews.com By Jim Maceda, NBC News News analysis 02/01/2013
There’s something wafting in the air in Afghanistan, and for once it’s not the smell of detritus, diesel or cordite. People – rivals, even enemies -- are talking about peace. Not just talks about talks – those have been going on – and off – for a couple of years now. But serious, genuine moves toward reconciliation are – for the first time since I can remember – actually squeezing into an otherwise depressing narrative of stalemate and loss.

Take the Pakistani government’s Dec. 31 release from prison of eight former Taliban members, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s right-hand man and former justice minister, Mullah Turabi. This move, Afghan analysts say, is part of a new strategy, formulated in a November meeting between Afghan and Pakistani officials in Islamabad. The release, they say, was more than a goodwill gesture between bitter rivals. The clear hope was that freed former Taliban officials with the stature of Turabi would serve as emissaries, clearing the way for peace talks between Hamid Karzai’s government and the current Taliban leadership – based in Pakistan – and with the Pakistan government’s blessing.

This was no isolated move. Eighteen other jailed Taliban were released earlier in December, among them men who used to command Taliban units in the field. Not surprisingly, official Afghan reaction has been quick and positive. Ismail Qasimyar, a ranking member of the High Peace Council, Karzai’s appointed group of diplomats seeking reconciliation, said the gesture "shows the Pakistani authorities have opened a new chapter for positive cooperation with Afghanistan." It’s the first time since the war began that I’ve seen Afghanistan and Pakistan treat each other as potential partners, not spoilers.

Pakistan’s military, believed by many to be supporting the Afghan Taliban as a means of leveraging its influence with its chaotic neighbor, is now jumping on the peace bandwagon as well. And it’s not just Pakistan’s Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani, the alleged driving force behind the new rapprochement, who is changing his tune.

Buried in the pre-holiday build-up, a semi-secret meeting took place outside Paris between 20 key Afghan players, under the auspices of a French think tank. Afghan government and opposition figures, and, for the first time, insurgent leaders, including the Taliban and its offshoot, Hezb-e-Islami, all sat down together. There were no breakthroughs, or even concessions, but the point was to get all the warring sides to do something they hadn’t done in some 30 years: talk directly to each other.

Officially, the Taliban stuck to its public positions. It called the Afghan constitution illegitimate and refused to negotiate with the "U.S. puppet" Karzai government, but a positive momentum does seem to be building. More "secret" talks are set to follow. The United Nations office in Kabul has invited the Taliban to a conference there. Meanwhile, an official Taliban bureau will soon open in Qatar for parallel talks with the United States.

Even the much-feared warlord and former Mujahedeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was labeled a global terrorist by the U.S. and has been on the lam for the past dozen years, is now launching his own peace balloons. In an interview that appeared in Wednesday’s British "Daily Telegraph," the man who, as prime minister in the 1990s, oversaw the brutal flattening of much of Kabul, spells out a 10-point peace plan, calling on all Afghan brothers to unite, asking "all the stakeholders within Afghanistan to join hands for a workable solution for Afghanistan and resolve disputes.’’

Cynics – and there are many – aren’t buying any of it. Their arguments are well-known: They say civil war will break out as soon as the U.S. and its allies go home; that the moderate Taliban may want to put down their AKs and become a political force, but it’s the hard-core who rule, and who believe they’re winning the war; that all the peace feelers are just ways of buying time while the Afghan Taliban ratchets up its attacks on local security forces and the Pakistani Taliban doubles down on its side of the border, most recently killing a group of female NGO and aid workers.

All that rings true. But then I take a deep breath –- and smell that very different smell -– and ask: could this really be the turning point I’ve been writing about for so long?

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London and currently on assignment in Kabul, who’s covered Afghanistan since the 1980s.


Afghan girl gang raped in eastern Ghazni province
By Sajad Khaama Press January 3, 2013
According to reports a young Afghan girl was gang raped by a group of men in Moqor district.

A member of the provincial council Hamida Gulistani confirming the report said the incident took place in Lalam Qala around two days back.

Gulistani said government officials in Moqor district tried to hide the incident however she was informed of the incident by security sources.

She said the health condition of the girl is critical and has been sent to capital Kabul for treatment purposes.

However local government officials in Moqor district have not confirmed the report yet but Hamid Gulistan says at least four men entered the house of the girl and raped her.

This comes violence against women has cosiderably increased across recently which has sparked concerns among the women rights activists.

In the meantime members of the public uprising group against the Taliban group said they have arrested a suspected man in connection to the gang rape.

The arrested man was recognized as Janat Gul son of Abdul Raza and Afghan police forces have launched negotiations with the group members to hand over the arrested man to security forces.

Moqor district police chief said they have not received complains from the family of the girl so far.


Afghan Carpets Selected for International Carpet Awards
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jhanmal Wednesday, 02 January 2013
Two Afghan carpets, woven in Bamiyan and Kabul, have been selected for the international Carpet Design Awards at the DOMOTEX Flooring Trade Fair 2013 in Germany, the Afghan Carpet Producers and Exporters Union said Wednesday.

The Union has said that the selected carpets are unique and high-quality, woven with natural dyes.

The design of the carpet produced in Kabul is inspired by a Mamluk Sultan carpet woven around 500 years ago in Egypt, while the carpet produced in Bamyan reflects an abstract image.

"This carpet of ours is designed from a Mamluk Sultan carpet woven in Egypt in the 16th century. We are sure that this year again Afghan carpets will win first place," said Haji Nabi, a Union official.

A Bamiyan carpet won the award in 2008.

Held in Hannover, Germany, DOMOTEX is an international fair of flooring trade, with 1,400 exhibitors from more than 60 countries for 2013, among which a number compete for the Carpet Design Awards.

Union officials asked the government to offer greater support to the carpet industry, one of Afghanistan's main traditional crafts that offers jobs to a large number of people.


Taliban Representatives Went to Paris Using Afghan Documents: Faizi
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amiri Wednesday, 02 January 2013
The Taliban representatives who went to Paris for a peace meeting in December used Afghan passports, Presidential Spokesman Aimal Faizi said Tuesday.

He pushed back against reports that the Taliban are unwilling to speak with the Afghan government and said the Taliban representatives' use of Afghan documents is an indication of their inclination otherwise.

“To those media [outlets] saying that Taliban are not eager to negotiate with the Afghan government, I have to assure you that Taliban travelled to Paris with Afghan passports,” Faizi said.

He declined to provide more details, but the Taliban representatives at the Paris meeting made it clear that they were representing the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, their erstwhile regime ousted in 2001.

Faizi also said the Taliban had reassured them that they had not sent suicide bombers in the guise of peace negotiators. He added that "other countries" had used them to assassinate high-ranking government officials.

“Some other countries are misusing Taliban’s identity and attending peace meetings. When we asked the Taliban why they were sending suicide bombers as peace envoys, they denied this,”Faizi said.

His comments come as Pakistan released eight Taliban leaders in an effort to show its commitment to help bring the Taliban to the negotiations.

Taliban’s justice minister, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, and Mullah Omar's former bodyguard, Mullah Azam, are among those released.

The High Peace Council welcomed the action and said it will be beneficial to peace efforts.

“The release of Taliban prisoners is a good and effective move for peace negotiations, and we expect the released prisoners not to join the insurgents again,” Peace Council member Shir Mohammad Akhundzada said.

Former Taliban commander Sayed Akbar Agha believes that the release of Mullah Bradar, Mullah Omar's deputy, would have a more positive effect in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.

“Release of Taliban prisoners is a good move, but Mullah Ghani Bradar has not yet been released,” Agha said.

According to reports, as many as 27 Taliban officials out of 100 held by Pakistan have been released so far.

www.afghanistannewscenter.com