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Taliban Attack On Afghan Police Checkpoint Kills 17
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say a Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in the country's east has left 17 people dead.
The details of the predawn attack are unclear, and officials said they were investigating how the militants breached security at the post in Ghazni Province.
Provincial Governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said the attackers killed 10 police officers and seven civilians inside a police checkpoint in Andar district.
Two other provincial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all victims were policemen and had been poisoned before being shot dead.
"The New York Times" meanwhile quoted unnamed officials as saying the victims had been drugged by militants posing as policemen.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed the attack for the militants in a phone call to French news agency AFP.
Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber in the Afghan capital, Kabul, detonated his explosives near a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, wounding at least six soldiers and four civilians.
Based on reporting by AFP and "The New York Times"
Taliban suicide bomber targets Kabul army bus
AFP February 27, 2013
KABUL - A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan army personnel in Kabul Wednesday, wounding six people and highlighting a growing trend of strikes on Afghan rather than NATO military targets.
The bomber struck on a busy main street in the heavily secured Afghan capital, where the Taliban have already this year claimed responsibility for a series of suicide attacks on the intelligence and traffic police headquarters.
Western officials say the trend reflects a shift in strategy, away from focusing on the US-led NATO combat mission, which is due to withdraw next year, to instead target Afghan forces preparing to take over.
"At around 7:10 am (0240 GMT), a suicide attacker on foot detonated himself next to a military bus in third district of Kabul city, injuring six. They are members of the defence ministry and one civilian," said police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai.
Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman at the defence ministry, said the bomber was on foot and tried to board the vehicle.
"But when he was prevented, he detonated himself outside the bus, injuring five officers and one civilian," he told AFP.
A spokesman for the Taliban, which is leading an 11-year fight against the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that 17 personnel were killed and 17 or more seriously injured. The Taliban routinely exaggerate the death tolls from attacks they claim.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the bomber detonated "a little bit away from the back of the bus," which could explain the low casualty numbers released by the Afghan authorities.
Among the nine attacks recorded by AFP in Afghanistan so far this year, only one of them, on January 25, targeted NATO troops, in the troubled eastern province of Kapisa. Five civilians were killed in that attack.
All the other attacks have targeted tribal elders, police or Afghan intelligence agents.
"Since the start of the year, the objective has mainly been Afghans, even if NATO remains a target," a Western security official told AFP.
The Pentagon admitted Tuesday that NATO's International Security Assistance Force had wrongly reported a seven percent decline in Taliban attacks last year, saying that the number was roughly the same as in 2011.
"This is a regrettable error in our database systems that was discovered during a routine quality check. We are making the appropriate adjustments," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
The US government and NATO have repeatedly touted a purported drop in insurgent attacks as proof that the Taliban are on the retreat. But the error raised questions about how governments and commanders are portraying the war effort.
The accurate number for insurgent attacks in 2012 showed the assaults had remained at the same level as in 2011, at more than 3,000, a US defence official said. The United States and NATO have around 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, but the vast majority will leave next year, with an estimated 352,000 NATO-trained Afghan police and soldiers taking over.
Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Army Bus
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A suicide bomber in Kabul has detonated his explosives near a bus carrying Afghan army personnel.
Kabul police say the attack wounded at least six soldiers and four civilians.
Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said the bomber attempted to get on the bus and when he was stopped, he detonated his explosives outside the bus.
A witness told the AP news agency that he saw man in a black coat slide himself under the bus before setting off a huge blast.
AP received a text message from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claiming responsibility for the attack.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Taliban talks in Doha drag on endlessly
Taliban representatives have been in Qatari capital for almost a year, but negotiations seem to be going nowhere.
Aljazeera By Ali M Latifi 26 Feb 2013
Doha, Qatar - Far from the glistening glass and burgeoning metal structures that dot the Doha skyline, the Afghan Taliban try to discreetly blend in far less pristine areas around the Qatari capital.
The Taliban came to Doha nearly a year ago to establish an office from which they could engage in negotiations with representatives of Washington, in the hope of eventually achieving direct Afghan-to-Afghan talks with the government of President Hamid Karzai.
However, with a coalition of more than 40 nations currently involved militarily in Afghanistan, "everyone is trying to woo them", a person close to the Doha-based Taliban representatives told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, saying he did not want to jeopardise any potential for progress towards peace.
Despite nearly a year since their arrival in Qatar, a formal office has yet to be established, and progress towards peace seems a long way off. In fact, all the attention from various representatives from around the world has proven too much for the Taliban here, the source said.
"They want to be left alone for a while," he said.
In recent weeks, representatives from Britain and Germany have been particularly voracious in their pursuit of the men, who are said to be speaking on behalf of Mullah Mohammed Omar and the Quetta Shura - the top leadership of the Afghan Taliban believed to be based in southwestern Pakistan.
Germany has played an active role in getting the Taliban to the negotiating table since 2010. But one representative for Berlin has proved particularly irksome to the Taliban in Doha, who approached a diplomat from another country to tell him to kindly back off, the source said.
"They needed someone to tell the Germans to leave them alone. As pious men, they couldn’t do it themselves, so they asked for help," said the source. "Everyone wants some kind of credit" in case negotiations are able to broker peace in the war-torn Central Asian nation.
For the small Gulf state of Qatar, helping establish peace after more than 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan would be an important diplomatic coup.
"Qatar wants to be known as being a big player," said the source, who has visited Doha several times over the last few months.
"More importantly, though, Doha hopes that with Afghanistan out of the way, they can turn the world's attention to Iran," a historic enemy of the Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf, the source said.
But in interviews with Al Jazeera, Afghan officials, sources close to the negotiations, analysts and activists indicated that the Taliban is far from ready to forge peace by laying down their arms.
Seeing snow in Norway
The diplomatic attention proved too much for the dozen or so Doha-based Taliban. To escape the persistent diplomatic overtures, they left Qatar for Norway "to see the snow", said the source.
But not even the snow-capped lands of Scandinavia could provide a respite from the peace process. Soon after the Taliban arrival in Norway, officials in Oslo received a dispatch from Kabul.
"Karzai sent a message to the Norwegians offering the Taliban the Ministry of Justice and the position of Chief Justice," the source told Al Jazeera. A second source also close to the Afghan Taliban in Doha confirmed the offer.
Calls and e-mails to the Afghan government for comment on the alleged overture were not answered by publication time.
Several observers have suggested the Taliban are simply trying to buy time until presidential and legislative elections in the spring of 2014 to see who the next Afghan leaders will be.
A source who took part in both formal and informal talks with the head Taliban negotiator, Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, at a December meeting in France, said there were few signs that the group is ready to lay down their arms.
"They were clearly reading from a paper. What they did say centred around war and the battlefield," said the source, who also asked for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
"You could tell Dilawar was surprised that everyone else was talking about coalitions and elections," he said. "They still think they can win on the battlefield."
Events on the ground in Afghanistan also indicate peaceful reconciliation is not at the forefront of Taliban strategy.
A United Nations report recently highlighted a 700 percent increase in targeted attacks against Afghan government officials.
"They are directly involved in the protraction of our country's invasion and legally we do not find any difficulty in their elimination, rather we consider it our obligation," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement which claimed the UN report "does not bear impartiality".
Despite the continuing Taliban violence, Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai, sees a Taliban office in Doha as an important first step in Afghanistan's peaceful future.
Faizi said a Doha representative office "can only help the peace process move forward", and he urged the Taliban to take advantage of it. "They must engage and take an active interest in the peace process," Faizi told Al Jazeera.
But there is serious disconnect between an office for negotiations in Qatar, and violent attacks in Afghanistan.
Faizi said the representatives at the Paris meeting were asked point blank, "how do you come as a messenger of peace talks then send suicide bombers to [ attempt to ] assassinate Asadullah Khalid", head of the Afghan intelligence agency.
Their response was, "you shouldn't believe everyone who claims to be a Talib", said Faizi.
Taliban cohesion?
Ahmad Majidyar - senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, DC-based think-tank - said the group's violent tendencies on one hand and moves toward peace on the other show that the Taliban "is not as cohesive movement as it was in the late 1990s".
The Kabul government has even asked the Doha-based Taliban for documentation proving "they have the backing of these leaders to act as true representatives of Mullah Omar and the Quetta Shura", Faizi said.
With the group as divided as it is, even that may not be assurance enough, Majidyar cautioned.
"The Haqqani Network, for example, publicly supports the Mullah Omar-led leadership council, but is completely independent in its decision-making and operations," Majidyar told Al Jazeera.
Also complicating peace negotiations is the number of players with their own interests. "This is not an isolated process," Faizi said.
Colin Cookman, a security policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, another Washington DC-based think-tank, also highlighted the obstacles with so many parties involved.
"Almost every actor in the Afghan conflict has the potential to disrupt a political settlement," Cookman told Al Jazeera.
The source who was at the Paris talks attended by the Taliban representatives, said the group believes there will be a "snowball" effect after the December 2014 international troop withdrawal, which will lead to a strong leadership position like they enjoyed in the late 1990s.
He said the Taliban stated anything short of total victory remains unacceptable. "We're fighting for a cause," he quoted them as saying.
The so-called "Doha Process", which so many had hoped would spearhead meaningful peace talks, is now largely seen as dysfunctional among most observers.
Wazhma Frogh, executive director of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security, said Doha negotiations have failed so far partly because civil society organisations have not been included, and the discussions don't extend back to Afghanistan itself.
"What is the guarantee that hundreds of young Afghans who are armed and fighting will stop that just when someone sitting in Doha makes a political deal? This conflict is much bigger than political talks," she said.
A central question of the Afghan conflict must also be addressed, Frogh told Al Jazeera. "What is the reason that thousands of our young sons and brothers have taken up guns and continue killing their own people?" That's something she said is difficult to answer from thousands of kilometres away.
Women and other groups marginalised during the rule of the Taliban must be included in any plans for the country's future, Frogh said.
"If women leaders and women activists as independent voices are not part of the political processes in Afghanistan and in Qatar, their rights enshrined in the Afghan constitution will be compromised," she said.
Follow Ali M Latifi on Twitter: @alibomaye
NATO Admits Error In Taliban Casualty Figures
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan has admitted that an error led it to erroneously claim a fall in the number of attacks by the Taliban last year.
A report posted on the website of the NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had claimed that there had been a 7 percent drop in "enemy-initiated attacks" in 2012.
The figure was later removed from the website.
Coalition officials say the force is preparing to publish corrected numbers showing that the insurgent attacks in 2012 remained at the same level as in 2011.
Western officials have pointed to decreasing violence in Afghanistan as a sign that ISAF’s mission is meeting with success.
Most foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The U.S. Senate on February 26 voted to confirm Chuck Hagel as that country's new defense secretary.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Can China be a winner in Afghanistan?
Global Times By Zhang Jiadong 26/02/2013
As the date of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, the country's future raises increasingly wide concerns.
Some hold that US influence will fade out and China will come to play a key role in Afghanistan, and that as long as Afghanistan's situation stabilizes, China can benefit from its investments there.
In US Congress, some members have stated that US soldiers are risking their lives while China will effortlessly reap the fruits.
But others believe that the US will transfer the burden to China after its withdrawal.
If China does not intervene, Afghanistan will fall into chaos again and endanger China's security; but if China intervenes, China's interests will also be damaged as it gets bogged down in the mountains.
China may not be the biggest winner in Afghanistan, but it will certainly not be the biggest loser. For China, there are two worst-case scenarios.
The first is one where the US stabilizes Afghanistan, establishes a steady government, and then builds frontline bases.
This way, the US could drive a wedge into Central Eurasia, and contain China from both sides.
This was one of the collateral strategic goals of the US entry into Afghanistan in 2001. However, Afghanistan has proved a strategic burden, not an asset, to the US, dissipating many of China's traditional security concerns.
The second scenario is one where Afghanistan falls into anarchy with the US exit, becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism and drug trade. This will pose serious nontraditional security challenges to China.
But the US exit may leave China facing many uncertainties in nontraditional security anyway. China will have to face a difficult strategic choice.
If it remains an onlooker, Afghanistan may be in turmoil and China may suffer; but if China intervenes actively, it may sink into mire like the US, and become the main target of international terrorism.
As a result, China should take the initiative in Afghan affairs, while avoiding the failure of US intervention.
The core of US intervention is to focus on military and security issues, rather than economic development and social reconstruction, to mainly rely on US troops and other foreign armies, supplemented by the mobilization of Afghan independent forces, and to give priority to the US and its allies.
As a result, Afghanistan depends heavily on the outside world, especially the West, and its own development is seriously lagging behind. China's future Afghan policy should primarily aim to establish a self-supporting, self-sustaining, and gradually developing Afghanistan.
In security, China needs to closely cooperate with the former occupation armies and Afghanistan's neighboring nations, and incorporate Afghanistan into platforms of regional cooperation, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The goals of each nation's Afghan policy contradict and sometimes conflict with each other. This can easily be used by extremists and will undermine the authority of Afghan central government.
If each nation's policy and security resources could be coordinated, international security resources could then be saved and security efficiency be improved.
In economic terms, China ought to help Afghanistan develop its financial capabilities through investments, and provide employment opportunities and infrastructure.
At present, the Afghan economic structure is extremely unsustainable, with external assistance exceeding the country's own GDP.
As government spending mainly relies on foreign aid, the Afghan government and army seem like puppets and mercenaries.
If China can mobilize various economic powers, utilize oil gas and mineral resources in Afghanistan, and help it establish relevant industrial chains, the security situation can be ultimately stabilized.
Afghan affairs are not only the business of China and the US. To simply compare the gains and losses of China and the US in Afghanistan is to see it only through the prism of the Sino-US conflict, which is not really in accordance with the two powers' interests in Afghanistan.
The author is an associate professor at the Center for American Studies of Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Insight - Afghan move against U.S. special forces tied to abuse allegations
Reuters By Dylan Welch and Hamid Shalizi 26/02/2013
KABUL - Two days after masked men burst in to Bibi Shereen's house and took her son away, villagers found his corpse - half-eaten by dogs - under a bridge in Afghanistan's volatile Wardak province.
"His fingers were cut off, he was badly beaten. His hands were swollen, his throat was slit," she told Reuters in her small mudbrick house.
"Why is the government not listening to our voices - why are they not stopping Americans from doing such things."
Shereen supplied no proof that Americans or Afghan forces working with them tortured and killed her son. Reuters was unable to independently verify her claims.
Such allegations have prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to bar U.S. special forces from Wardak province, a potentially risky move because it could give the Taliban more room to operate in a strategically important area close to the capital, Kabul.
The men who took Shereen's son had shone flashlights in her eyes and she could not identify them. But she said some spoke with southern Afghan accents, the same as those of the Afghans who work with U.S. special forces in her region. Most Afghans see night raids as a tactic of U.S. or U.S.-led forces.
Karzai's decision to bar U.S. special forces from Wardak could also complicate negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan over the presence of American troops once most NATO troops leave by the end of 2014.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters on Monday that there was evidence to back up the accusations of abuse.
"Our statements are based on documents and other evidence provided by provincial officials that say these operations are conducted by U.S. special forces and some Afghan individuals working for them," Faizi said. He declined to elaborate.
A U.S. defence official in Washington said a review in recent months in cooperation with Afghanistan's Defence Ministry and National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency found no involvement of Western forces in any abuse.
"No coalition forces have been involved in the alleged misconduct in Wardak province," said the official, who declined to be identified.
"ISAF and Afghanistan officials have agreed to a joint commission to look into the current concerns of citizens" in Wardak, he added, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also said on Monday the complaints against Afghans working for U.S. special forces would be investigated.
Reuters interviewed dozens of residents of Wardak and Afghan government officials who allege that Afghan men working with a small unit of U.S. special forces illegally detained, tortured and killed suspected insurgents. Wardak, just west of Kabul, is a gateway to the city.
In addition to claiming abuses, the Afghan government and military officials and Western officials said in extensive interviews that the allegations Of abuse had deepened mistrust between Karzai's administration and its American allies.
Karzai instructed presidential adviser and former member of parliament Shuja-ul-Mulk Jalala to travel to Wardak and report back to him on the abuse allegations.
Jalala said he was especially troubled by the fate of nine men who he believes, based on the testimony of people in the area, were detained by U.S. special forces and Afghans identified as translators.
The men - including a shopkeeper, a teacher, a driver and a local government employee - were detained at a military outpost used by a small group of elite American special forces in Wardak, some of their relatives said.
"NEVER SEE THE LIGHT AGAIN"
"People complain of being beaten, tortured by U.S. special forces on a daily basis," Jalala told Reuters in his Kabul office. He said while some accusations may be justified, others could be fabricated by villagers fearful of the Taliban.
Reuters spoke to the families of four of the nine missing men, and all said their men folk were taken to the special forces outpost by Afghan men identified as translators, often in the presence of U.S. soldiers.
"My brother, Aziz-ul Rahman, was on his way to bring firewood to the mosque, when the Americans and Afghans forced him to stop, dragged him out of his car and started beating and kicking him," Zabihullah, 22, from Nerkh village, told Reuters.
"Eventually they tossed him in an irrigation ditch near the village. He was badly injured, so we took him to the hospital and later to Kabul, but despite that he died," said Zabihullah, who said his brother had three children.
"The local government know that these *******s, these Afghans and Americans, torture, beat and arrest people all the time but they do nothing."
Other villagers who spoke to Reuters have said the "Afghan translators" spoke a mix of a foreign language, that they believed was English, and Pashto and variously wore traditional outfits or Afghan army and U.S. military uniforms.
"They carry big guns and drive quad bikes," said Nehmatullah, 24, from Deh Afghanan village close to the provincial capital of Maidan Shah.
It is uncommon for ISAF's Afghan translators to carry weapons, and when they do it is typically a sidearm for self-defence. Afghan translators working with coalition forces are also forbidden from wearing Afghan army uniforms.
"They come in the villages at all times of day and night and there are often two, three or four foreigners with them," Nehmatullah said.
Ashuqullah, 18, said he was detained along with his cousin, Mehrabuddin, by the same special forces group of Americans and Afghans.
"I was released but they kept Mehrabuddin. On the way to the base an Afghan man - maybe the Americans' translator - was slapping Mehrabuddin in his face and was telling him that he would never see the light again."
Mehrabuddin has been missing since then, his cousin said.
Some of the villagers who have experienced what they allege are the abuses of the Americans and Afghans, have since travelled to Kabul to complain directly to parliament.
Those complaints have been passed on to the Presidential Palace and some have reached Karzai, a palace official said.
A coalition staff officer familiar with the situation in Nerkh told Reuters that four of the nine missing men had been detained by Afghan and coalition personnel.
"Through various intelligence methods, these four had been positively identified as either active members or associated supporters of insurgent or criminal networks."
Coalition forces had no information regarding the other five men, and had "no record of any contact with them", the staff officer said.
VIDEOTAPE LINK
Not all of the abuse is alleged to have taken place at the U.S. special forces outpost.
Other allegations - these from Afghan authorities - focus on a grainy mobile phone video that people who have seen it say shows an Afghan man, identified by the government - without providing substantiation - as a man called Zakeria Kandahari.
ISAF and Afghan government officials said Kandahari previously worked with U.S. special forces in Herat and Kandahar provinces.
In the video, Kandahari is seen wearing a U.S. military uniform and repeatedly kicking an Afghan man.
A Western military official said the beating occurred at the offices of the country's NDS intelligence agency in Wardak's Nerkh district, not far from the special forces outpost.
The video was described to Reuters by Afghanistan's most senior general, army chief of staff Sher Mohammad Karimi, during an interview.
"There was a clip in which he was beating some civilian, he was in uniform and he was speaking Pashto," Karimi said.
"There was a guy, you can't see him, but he is speaking in good English, that clearly shows that someone was there from the international forces."
He said the English voice sounded to be that of a native speaker, most likely that of a North American.
The video quickly came to the attention of Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who sought an explanation from the head of foreign special forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Major General Raymond "Tony" Thomas.
In a statement to Reuters, ISAF said a review of the video determined that no coalition forces were present or involved in the incident.
The Ministry of Defence said it established that the Afghan man in the video was Kandahari and the Afghan government demanded that he been handed over.
Reuters has established through reliable sources that Kandahari was at the Nerkh special forces outpost when this request was made, but he later left. Reuters has been unable to locate Kandahari or to independently determine his role in any human rights abuses.
His departure from the outpost led to suspicion within the highest levels of the Afghan government that Kandahari was allowed to escape by his American special forces handlers, though they have no evidence to back up their suspicion.
ISAF special forces command declined to comment on whether Kandahari worked for them in Wardak.
When Mohammadi and the Presidential Palace were told that Kandahari had escaped, they were furious, a source in the palace said. That incident has led to Karzai's decision to demand that U.S. special forces leave Wardak within a fortnight.
(Additional reporting by Mustafa Andalib, David Alexander and Warren Strobel in WASHINGTON; Editing by Michael Georgy and Robert Birsel)
Gov to Collect Unregistered Sim Cards
TOLOnews.com By Jaweed Stanikzai Tuesday, 26 February 2013
The Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (ATRA) will collect unregistered Sim cards and close down all franchises of telecom companies that issue Sim cards without proper identification of subscribes.
ATRA accused telecom companies of ignoring the laws in registering subscribers and issued a two-week ultimatum for them to bring their operations in line with regulations or risk action.
"A number of private telecommunication companies ignore Ministry of Telecommunication regulations, which they have signed and agreed to. The ministry will soon take action against them," said ATRA deputy head, Khair Mohammad Faizi.
Insurgents and criminals often use unregistered Sim cards in staging attacks and committing crimes, according to ATRA.
Three telecom companies have been fined a combined AFN50 million for legal infractions over the past four months alone, said Faizi. Three franchises in the first police district in Kabul that sold Sim cards illegally have already been closed and 300 unregistered Sim cards have been seized. Three people have been arrested in the operation, Faizi added.
U.S. slaps sanctions on Afghan for providing financial service to Taliban
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Afghan national Mullah Ahmed Shah Noorzai for allegedly providing financial service to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Shah owns and operates Roshan Money Exchange (RMX), which has previously been designated for sanctions by the United Nations and the United States for providing financial services to the Taliban, Treasury said in a statement.
"RMX stores and transfers funds and profits in support of Taliban military operations as well as the Taliban's role in the Afghan narcotics trade," said the statement.
In the statement, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen vowed to continue to target financial activity linked to the Taliban.
"These financial networks are instrumental in funneling money for terrorist operations and they are also deeply involved in managing the illicit revenues of the Taliban's vast narcotics trade," he said.
Ahmed Shah has provided financial services to Taliban leaders in Helmand Province of Afghanistan for a number of years, according to the U.S. Treasury.
The department added that in early 2012, the Taliban ordered Ahmed Shah to transfer money to a number of money exchange houses in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, from which a senior Taliban commander would then allocate the funds.
35 Insurgents Killed, Dozens Injured In Herat, Badghis
TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 26 February 2013
At least 35 Taliban insurgents, including three Arab fighters, were killed and 42 insurgents injured in two separate operations in the western Herat and Badghis provinces, local officials said Tuesday.
An operation was launched last week in the Kishk-e-Kohna district of Herat and the Moqor district of Badghis province, said Herat Deputy Governor Asiluddin Jami, who added that the Taliban district governor of Gulran, Mawlawi Abdul Khaliq Baloch, was also detained.
An Afghan soldier and a policeman were killed in the operations.
"We hope the operation can secure the different parts of the districts in order for people to live in peace," Jami said.
Security officials in Badghis said that they had cleared several districts of insurgents and that they were confident in the improving abilities of the province's police.
"Our security forces have become more capable and we are ready to undertake any kind of operations," said Badghis police chief Gen. Sharafuddin Sharaf.
Inadequate Laws Hamper Fight Against Land-Grabbing: AGO
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudodi Tuesday, 26 February 2013
The Attorney General said Monday that prosecuting those involved in illegal confiscation of public lands is difficult because the country's penal code doesn't directly address the offense.
Afghanistan is still using the penal code of 1974, which only briefly addresses the illegal confiscation of lands and prescribes a light sentence. Article 470 prescribes "a short-term imprisonment no less than three months" for people involved in land-grabbing.
A large number of land-grabbing cases are reported annually, the Attorney General said, adding that 600 cases come only from eight provinces across Afghanistan. More than four million acres of land across Afghanistan are owned illegally, mostly by top government officials, jihadi leaders and figures in power.
"There was a commission headed by the agriculture minister and appointed by the president to probe illegal land confiscation, but it is not clear what the commission has done so far," said Rahmatullah Nazari, deputy attorney general.
Opposition political parties say the fight against land-grabbing should start from the presidential palace, alluding to potential land offenses by individuals close to the president and his circle, including his vice presidents, who face serious allegations of involvement in land-grabbing.
"If the fight against land-grabbing is not started from the Arg (the presidential palace), people would think the big land-grabbers are destroying the small ones," said Faizullah Zaki, spokesman for the Afghanistan National Front.
Fazlurrahman Oria, spokesman for the National Coalition party, had similar sentiments. "The fight against land-grabbing should be started from the Arg because the land-grabbers are either in the government or supporters of the ruling team."
However, some believe that a lackluster enforcement of the law is also a factor behind the increase in land-grabbing.
"The president and the vice presidents should transparently explain the accusations [of land-grabbing] made against them. They should provide documents to prove whether the accusations are true or not; and if they are true, the laws should be enforced," said Hamidullah Farooqi, spokesman of the Right and Justice Party.
Afghan Delegation Goes Abroad to Attract Investments
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Tuesday, 26 February 2013
A delegation from the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency is traveling abroad to attempt to attract new investments in Afghanistan, AISA officials said Tuesday.
The team will travel to a number of regional countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China, India, Turkey and Russia to introduce new investment opportunities in Afghanistan and woo potential investors.
"We will start our new program to attract investments and travel to countries with which we are already in contact. We will describe Afghanistan's investment opportunities and the incentives Afghanistan offers to investors," said AISA head Wafiullah Iftikhar.
"We will also hold exhibitions and conferences inside Afghanistan to attract investments," Iftikhar added.
As part of a recent package drafted by the Ministry of Finance to increase foreign investments, the government will provide free land, subsidized electricity and a 10-year tax exemption to companies that invest in the current year. Investments in the agricultural and industrial sectors will receive priority.
U.S. Treasury targets money exchange operator linked to Taliban
Reuters Tue Feb 26, 2013
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it had imposed sanctions on an Afghanistan-based money exchange operator accused of backing the Taliban's military and narcotics-trade operations.
The department said Mullah Ahmed Shah Noorza owns and operates the Roshan Money Exchange (RMX), which has already been designated by the United States under an executive order targeting those who "commit, threaten to commit or support terrorism."
"RMX stores and transfers funds and profits in support of Taliban military operations as well as the Taliban's role in the Afghan narcotics trade," the Treasury said in a statement.
The U.S. action freezes any assets Ahmed Shah has in U.S. banks and bars U.S. companies individuals from doing business with him. It also publicizes U.S. concerns about his operations.
"We will continue to target financial activity linked to the Taliban as they increasingly turn to exchange houses to fund their continued violence," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say a Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in the country's east has left 17 people dead.
The details of the predawn attack are unclear, and officials said they were investigating how the militants breached security at the post in Ghazni Province.
Provincial Governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said the attackers killed 10 police officers and seven civilians inside a police checkpoint in Andar district.
Two other provincial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all victims were policemen and had been poisoned before being shot dead.
"The New York Times" meanwhile quoted unnamed officials as saying the victims had been drugged by militants posing as policemen.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed the attack for the militants in a phone call to French news agency AFP.
Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber in the Afghan capital, Kabul, detonated his explosives near a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, wounding at least six soldiers and four civilians.
Based on reporting by AFP and "The New York Times"
Taliban suicide bomber targets Kabul army bus
AFP February 27, 2013
KABUL - A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan army personnel in Kabul Wednesday, wounding six people and highlighting a growing trend of strikes on Afghan rather than NATO military targets.
The bomber struck on a busy main street in the heavily secured Afghan capital, where the Taliban have already this year claimed responsibility for a series of suicide attacks on the intelligence and traffic police headquarters.
Western officials say the trend reflects a shift in strategy, away from focusing on the US-led NATO combat mission, which is due to withdraw next year, to instead target Afghan forces preparing to take over.
"At around 7:10 am (0240 GMT), a suicide attacker on foot detonated himself next to a military bus in third district of Kabul city, injuring six. They are members of the defence ministry and one civilian," said police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai.
Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman at the defence ministry, said the bomber was on foot and tried to board the vehicle.
"But when he was prevented, he detonated himself outside the bus, injuring five officers and one civilian," he told AFP.
A spokesman for the Taliban, which is leading an 11-year fight against the Western-backed government, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that 17 personnel were killed and 17 or more seriously injured. The Taliban routinely exaggerate the death tolls from attacks they claim.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the bomber detonated "a little bit away from the back of the bus," which could explain the low casualty numbers released by the Afghan authorities.
Among the nine attacks recorded by AFP in Afghanistan so far this year, only one of them, on January 25, targeted NATO troops, in the troubled eastern province of Kapisa. Five civilians were killed in that attack.
All the other attacks have targeted tribal elders, police or Afghan intelligence agents.
"Since the start of the year, the objective has mainly been Afghans, even if NATO remains a target," a Western security official told AFP.
The Pentagon admitted Tuesday that NATO's International Security Assistance Force had wrongly reported a seven percent decline in Taliban attacks last year, saying that the number was roughly the same as in 2011.
"This is a regrettable error in our database systems that was discovered during a routine quality check. We are making the appropriate adjustments," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
The US government and NATO have repeatedly touted a purported drop in insurgent attacks as proof that the Taliban are on the retreat. But the error raised questions about how governments and commanders are portraying the war effort.
The accurate number for insurgent attacks in 2012 showed the assaults had remained at the same level as in 2011, at more than 3,000, a US defence official said. The United States and NATO have around 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, but the vast majority will leave next year, with an estimated 352,000 NATO-trained Afghan police and soldiers taking over.
Suicide Bomber Targets Afghan Army Bus
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A suicide bomber in Kabul has detonated his explosives near a bus carrying Afghan army personnel.
Kabul police say the attack wounded at least six soldiers and four civilians.
Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said the bomber attempted to get on the bus and when he was stopped, he detonated his explosives outside the bus.
A witness told the AP news agency that he saw man in a black coat slide himself under the bus before setting off a huge blast.
AP received a text message from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claiming responsibility for the attack.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Taliban talks in Doha drag on endlessly
Taliban representatives have been in Qatari capital for almost a year, but negotiations seem to be going nowhere.
Aljazeera By Ali M Latifi 26 Feb 2013
Doha, Qatar - Far from the glistening glass and burgeoning metal structures that dot the Doha skyline, the Afghan Taliban try to discreetly blend in far less pristine areas around the Qatari capital.
The Taliban came to Doha nearly a year ago to establish an office from which they could engage in negotiations with representatives of Washington, in the hope of eventually achieving direct Afghan-to-Afghan talks with the government of President Hamid Karzai.
However, with a coalition of more than 40 nations currently involved militarily in Afghanistan, "everyone is trying to woo them", a person close to the Doha-based Taliban representatives told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, saying he did not want to jeopardise any potential for progress towards peace.
Despite nearly a year since their arrival in Qatar, a formal office has yet to be established, and progress towards peace seems a long way off. In fact, all the attention from various representatives from around the world has proven too much for the Taliban here, the source said.
"They want to be left alone for a while," he said.
In recent weeks, representatives from Britain and Germany have been particularly voracious in their pursuit of the men, who are said to be speaking on behalf of Mullah Mohammed Omar and the Quetta Shura - the top leadership of the Afghan Taliban believed to be based in southwestern Pakistan.
Germany has played an active role in getting the Taliban to the negotiating table since 2010. But one representative for Berlin has proved particularly irksome to the Taliban in Doha, who approached a diplomat from another country to tell him to kindly back off, the source said.
"They needed someone to tell the Germans to leave them alone. As pious men, they couldn’t do it themselves, so they asked for help," said the source. "Everyone wants some kind of credit" in case negotiations are able to broker peace in the war-torn Central Asian nation.
For the small Gulf state of Qatar, helping establish peace after more than 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan would be an important diplomatic coup.
"Qatar wants to be known as being a big player," said the source, who has visited Doha several times over the last few months.
"More importantly, though, Doha hopes that with Afghanistan out of the way, they can turn the world's attention to Iran," a historic enemy of the Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf, the source said.
But in interviews with Al Jazeera, Afghan officials, sources close to the negotiations, analysts and activists indicated that the Taliban is far from ready to forge peace by laying down their arms.
Seeing snow in Norway
The diplomatic attention proved too much for the dozen or so Doha-based Taliban. To escape the persistent diplomatic overtures, they left Qatar for Norway "to see the snow", said the source.
But not even the snow-capped lands of Scandinavia could provide a respite from the peace process. Soon after the Taliban arrival in Norway, officials in Oslo received a dispatch from Kabul.
"Karzai sent a message to the Norwegians offering the Taliban the Ministry of Justice and the position of Chief Justice," the source told Al Jazeera. A second source also close to the Afghan Taliban in Doha confirmed the offer.
Calls and e-mails to the Afghan government for comment on the alleged overture were not answered by publication time.
Several observers have suggested the Taliban are simply trying to buy time until presidential and legislative elections in the spring of 2014 to see who the next Afghan leaders will be.
A source who took part in both formal and informal talks with the head Taliban negotiator, Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, at a December meeting in France, said there were few signs that the group is ready to lay down their arms.
"They were clearly reading from a paper. What they did say centred around war and the battlefield," said the source, who also asked for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
"You could tell Dilawar was surprised that everyone else was talking about coalitions and elections," he said. "They still think they can win on the battlefield."
Events on the ground in Afghanistan also indicate peaceful reconciliation is not at the forefront of Taliban strategy.
A United Nations report recently highlighted a 700 percent increase in targeted attacks against Afghan government officials.
"They are directly involved in the protraction of our country's invasion and legally we do not find any difficulty in their elimination, rather we consider it our obligation," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement which claimed the UN report "does not bear impartiality".
Despite the continuing Taliban violence, Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai, sees a Taliban office in Doha as an important first step in Afghanistan's peaceful future.
Faizi said a Doha representative office "can only help the peace process move forward", and he urged the Taliban to take advantage of it. "They must engage and take an active interest in the peace process," Faizi told Al Jazeera.
But there is serious disconnect between an office for negotiations in Qatar, and violent attacks in Afghanistan.
Faizi said the representatives at the Paris meeting were asked point blank, "how do you come as a messenger of peace talks then send suicide bombers to [ attempt to ] assassinate Asadullah Khalid", head of the Afghan intelligence agency.
Their response was, "you shouldn't believe everyone who claims to be a Talib", said Faizi.
Taliban cohesion?
Ahmad Majidyar - senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, DC-based think-tank - said the group's violent tendencies on one hand and moves toward peace on the other show that the Taliban "is not as cohesive movement as it was in the late 1990s".
The Kabul government has even asked the Doha-based Taliban for documentation proving "they have the backing of these leaders to act as true representatives of Mullah Omar and the Quetta Shura", Faizi said.
With the group as divided as it is, even that may not be assurance enough, Majidyar cautioned.
"The Haqqani Network, for example, publicly supports the Mullah Omar-led leadership council, but is completely independent in its decision-making and operations," Majidyar told Al Jazeera.
Also complicating peace negotiations is the number of players with their own interests. "This is not an isolated process," Faizi said.
Colin Cookman, a security policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, another Washington DC-based think-tank, also highlighted the obstacles with so many parties involved.
"Almost every actor in the Afghan conflict has the potential to disrupt a political settlement," Cookman told Al Jazeera.
The source who was at the Paris talks attended by the Taliban representatives, said the group believes there will be a "snowball" effect after the December 2014 international troop withdrawal, which will lead to a strong leadership position like they enjoyed in the late 1990s.
He said the Taliban stated anything short of total victory remains unacceptable. "We're fighting for a cause," he quoted them as saying.
The so-called "Doha Process", which so many had hoped would spearhead meaningful peace talks, is now largely seen as dysfunctional among most observers.
Wazhma Frogh, executive director of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security, said Doha negotiations have failed so far partly because civil society organisations have not been included, and the discussions don't extend back to Afghanistan itself.
"What is the guarantee that hundreds of young Afghans who are armed and fighting will stop that just when someone sitting in Doha makes a political deal? This conflict is much bigger than political talks," she said.
A central question of the Afghan conflict must also be addressed, Frogh told Al Jazeera. "What is the reason that thousands of our young sons and brothers have taken up guns and continue killing their own people?" That's something she said is difficult to answer from thousands of kilometres away.
Women and other groups marginalised during the rule of the Taliban must be included in any plans for the country's future, Frogh said.
"If women leaders and women activists as independent voices are not part of the political processes in Afghanistan and in Qatar, their rights enshrined in the Afghan constitution will be compromised," she said.
Follow Ali M Latifi on Twitter: @alibomaye
NATO Admits Error In Taliban Casualty Figures
February 27, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan has admitted that an error led it to erroneously claim a fall in the number of attacks by the Taliban last year.
A report posted on the website of the NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had claimed that there had been a 7 percent drop in "enemy-initiated attacks" in 2012.
The figure was later removed from the website.
Coalition officials say the force is preparing to publish corrected numbers showing that the insurgent attacks in 2012 remained at the same level as in 2011.
Western officials have pointed to decreasing violence in Afghanistan as a sign that ISAF’s mission is meeting with success.
Most foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The U.S. Senate on February 26 voted to confirm Chuck Hagel as that country's new defense secretary.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Can China be a winner in Afghanistan?
Global Times By Zhang Jiadong 26/02/2013
As the date of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, the country's future raises increasingly wide concerns.
Some hold that US influence will fade out and China will come to play a key role in Afghanistan, and that as long as Afghanistan's situation stabilizes, China can benefit from its investments there.
In US Congress, some members have stated that US soldiers are risking their lives while China will effortlessly reap the fruits.
But others believe that the US will transfer the burden to China after its withdrawal.
If China does not intervene, Afghanistan will fall into chaos again and endanger China's security; but if China intervenes, China's interests will also be damaged as it gets bogged down in the mountains.
China may not be the biggest winner in Afghanistan, but it will certainly not be the biggest loser. For China, there are two worst-case scenarios.
The first is one where the US stabilizes Afghanistan, establishes a steady government, and then builds frontline bases.
This way, the US could drive a wedge into Central Eurasia, and contain China from both sides.
This was one of the collateral strategic goals of the US entry into Afghanistan in 2001. However, Afghanistan has proved a strategic burden, not an asset, to the US, dissipating many of China's traditional security concerns.
The second scenario is one where Afghanistan falls into anarchy with the US exit, becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism and drug trade. This will pose serious nontraditional security challenges to China.
But the US exit may leave China facing many uncertainties in nontraditional security anyway. China will have to face a difficult strategic choice.
If it remains an onlooker, Afghanistan may be in turmoil and China may suffer; but if China intervenes actively, it may sink into mire like the US, and become the main target of international terrorism.
As a result, China should take the initiative in Afghan affairs, while avoiding the failure of US intervention.
The core of US intervention is to focus on military and security issues, rather than economic development and social reconstruction, to mainly rely on US troops and other foreign armies, supplemented by the mobilization of Afghan independent forces, and to give priority to the US and its allies.
As a result, Afghanistan depends heavily on the outside world, especially the West, and its own development is seriously lagging behind. China's future Afghan policy should primarily aim to establish a self-supporting, self-sustaining, and gradually developing Afghanistan.
In security, China needs to closely cooperate with the former occupation armies and Afghanistan's neighboring nations, and incorporate Afghanistan into platforms of regional cooperation, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The goals of each nation's Afghan policy contradict and sometimes conflict with each other. This can easily be used by extremists and will undermine the authority of Afghan central government.
If each nation's policy and security resources could be coordinated, international security resources could then be saved and security efficiency be improved.
In economic terms, China ought to help Afghanistan develop its financial capabilities through investments, and provide employment opportunities and infrastructure.
At present, the Afghan economic structure is extremely unsustainable, with external assistance exceeding the country's own GDP.
As government spending mainly relies on foreign aid, the Afghan government and army seem like puppets and mercenaries.
If China can mobilize various economic powers, utilize oil gas and mineral resources in Afghanistan, and help it establish relevant industrial chains, the security situation can be ultimately stabilized.
Afghan affairs are not only the business of China and the US. To simply compare the gains and losses of China and the US in Afghanistan is to see it only through the prism of the Sino-US conflict, which is not really in accordance with the two powers' interests in Afghanistan.
The author is an associate professor at the Center for American Studies of Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Insight - Afghan move against U.S. special forces tied to abuse allegations
Reuters By Dylan Welch and Hamid Shalizi 26/02/2013
KABUL - Two days after masked men burst in to Bibi Shereen's house and took her son away, villagers found his corpse - half-eaten by dogs - under a bridge in Afghanistan's volatile Wardak province.
"His fingers were cut off, he was badly beaten. His hands were swollen, his throat was slit," she told Reuters in her small mudbrick house.
"Why is the government not listening to our voices - why are they not stopping Americans from doing such things."
Shereen supplied no proof that Americans or Afghan forces working with them tortured and killed her son. Reuters was unable to independently verify her claims.
Such allegations have prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to bar U.S. special forces from Wardak province, a potentially risky move because it could give the Taliban more room to operate in a strategically important area close to the capital, Kabul.
The men who took Shereen's son had shone flashlights in her eyes and she could not identify them. But she said some spoke with southern Afghan accents, the same as those of the Afghans who work with U.S. special forces in her region. Most Afghans see night raids as a tactic of U.S. or U.S.-led forces.
Karzai's decision to bar U.S. special forces from Wardak could also complicate negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan over the presence of American troops once most NATO troops leave by the end of 2014.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters on Monday that there was evidence to back up the accusations of abuse.
"Our statements are based on documents and other evidence provided by provincial officials that say these operations are conducted by U.S. special forces and some Afghan individuals working for them," Faizi said. He declined to elaborate.
A U.S. defence official in Washington said a review in recent months in cooperation with Afghanistan's Defence Ministry and National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency found no involvement of Western forces in any abuse.
"No coalition forces have been involved in the alleged misconduct in Wardak province," said the official, who declined to be identified.
"ISAF and Afghanistan officials have agreed to a joint commission to look into the current concerns of citizens" in Wardak, he added, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also said on Monday the complaints against Afghans working for U.S. special forces would be investigated.
Reuters interviewed dozens of residents of Wardak and Afghan government officials who allege that Afghan men working with a small unit of U.S. special forces illegally detained, tortured and killed suspected insurgents. Wardak, just west of Kabul, is a gateway to the city.
In addition to claiming abuses, the Afghan government and military officials and Western officials said in extensive interviews that the allegations Of abuse had deepened mistrust between Karzai's administration and its American allies.
Karzai instructed presidential adviser and former member of parliament Shuja-ul-Mulk Jalala to travel to Wardak and report back to him on the abuse allegations.
Jalala said he was especially troubled by the fate of nine men who he believes, based on the testimony of people in the area, were detained by U.S. special forces and Afghans identified as translators.
The men - including a shopkeeper, a teacher, a driver and a local government employee - were detained at a military outpost used by a small group of elite American special forces in Wardak, some of their relatives said.
"NEVER SEE THE LIGHT AGAIN"
"People complain of being beaten, tortured by U.S. special forces on a daily basis," Jalala told Reuters in his Kabul office. He said while some accusations may be justified, others could be fabricated by villagers fearful of the Taliban.
Reuters spoke to the families of four of the nine missing men, and all said their men folk were taken to the special forces outpost by Afghan men identified as translators, often in the presence of U.S. soldiers.
"My brother, Aziz-ul Rahman, was on his way to bring firewood to the mosque, when the Americans and Afghans forced him to stop, dragged him out of his car and started beating and kicking him," Zabihullah, 22, from Nerkh village, told Reuters.
"Eventually they tossed him in an irrigation ditch near the village. He was badly injured, so we took him to the hospital and later to Kabul, but despite that he died," said Zabihullah, who said his brother had three children.
"The local government know that these *******s, these Afghans and Americans, torture, beat and arrest people all the time but they do nothing."
Other villagers who spoke to Reuters have said the "Afghan translators" spoke a mix of a foreign language, that they believed was English, and Pashto and variously wore traditional outfits or Afghan army and U.S. military uniforms.
"They carry big guns and drive quad bikes," said Nehmatullah, 24, from Deh Afghanan village close to the provincial capital of Maidan Shah.
It is uncommon for ISAF's Afghan translators to carry weapons, and when they do it is typically a sidearm for self-defence. Afghan translators working with coalition forces are also forbidden from wearing Afghan army uniforms.
"They come in the villages at all times of day and night and there are often two, three or four foreigners with them," Nehmatullah said.
Ashuqullah, 18, said he was detained along with his cousin, Mehrabuddin, by the same special forces group of Americans and Afghans.
"I was released but they kept Mehrabuddin. On the way to the base an Afghan man - maybe the Americans' translator - was slapping Mehrabuddin in his face and was telling him that he would never see the light again."
Mehrabuddin has been missing since then, his cousin said.
Some of the villagers who have experienced what they allege are the abuses of the Americans and Afghans, have since travelled to Kabul to complain directly to parliament.
Those complaints have been passed on to the Presidential Palace and some have reached Karzai, a palace official said.
A coalition staff officer familiar with the situation in Nerkh told Reuters that four of the nine missing men had been detained by Afghan and coalition personnel.
"Through various intelligence methods, these four had been positively identified as either active members or associated supporters of insurgent or criminal networks."
Coalition forces had no information regarding the other five men, and had "no record of any contact with them", the staff officer said.
VIDEOTAPE LINK
Not all of the abuse is alleged to have taken place at the U.S. special forces outpost.
Other allegations - these from Afghan authorities - focus on a grainy mobile phone video that people who have seen it say shows an Afghan man, identified by the government - without providing substantiation - as a man called Zakeria Kandahari.
ISAF and Afghan government officials said Kandahari previously worked with U.S. special forces in Herat and Kandahar provinces.
In the video, Kandahari is seen wearing a U.S. military uniform and repeatedly kicking an Afghan man.
A Western military official said the beating occurred at the offices of the country's NDS intelligence agency in Wardak's Nerkh district, not far from the special forces outpost.
The video was described to Reuters by Afghanistan's most senior general, army chief of staff Sher Mohammad Karimi, during an interview.
"There was a clip in which he was beating some civilian, he was in uniform and he was speaking Pashto," Karimi said.
"There was a guy, you can't see him, but he is speaking in good English, that clearly shows that someone was there from the international forces."
He said the English voice sounded to be that of a native speaker, most likely that of a North American.
The video quickly came to the attention of Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who sought an explanation from the head of foreign special forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Major General Raymond "Tony" Thomas.
In a statement to Reuters, ISAF said a review of the video determined that no coalition forces were present or involved in the incident.
The Ministry of Defence said it established that the Afghan man in the video was Kandahari and the Afghan government demanded that he been handed over.
Reuters has established through reliable sources that Kandahari was at the Nerkh special forces outpost when this request was made, but he later left. Reuters has been unable to locate Kandahari or to independently determine his role in any human rights abuses.
His departure from the outpost led to suspicion within the highest levels of the Afghan government that Kandahari was allowed to escape by his American special forces handlers, though they have no evidence to back up their suspicion.
ISAF special forces command declined to comment on whether Kandahari worked for them in Wardak.
When Mohammadi and the Presidential Palace were told that Kandahari had escaped, they were furious, a source in the palace said. That incident has led to Karzai's decision to demand that U.S. special forces leave Wardak within a fortnight.
(Additional reporting by Mustafa Andalib, David Alexander and Warren Strobel in WASHINGTON; Editing by Michael Georgy and Robert Birsel)
Gov to Collect Unregistered Sim Cards
TOLOnews.com By Jaweed Stanikzai Tuesday, 26 February 2013
The Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (ATRA) will collect unregistered Sim cards and close down all franchises of telecom companies that issue Sim cards without proper identification of subscribes.
ATRA accused telecom companies of ignoring the laws in registering subscribers and issued a two-week ultimatum for them to bring their operations in line with regulations or risk action.
"A number of private telecommunication companies ignore Ministry of Telecommunication regulations, which they have signed and agreed to. The ministry will soon take action against them," said ATRA deputy head, Khair Mohammad Faizi.
Insurgents and criminals often use unregistered Sim cards in staging attacks and committing crimes, according to ATRA.
Three telecom companies have been fined a combined AFN50 million for legal infractions over the past four months alone, said Faizi. Three franchises in the first police district in Kabul that sold Sim cards illegally have already been closed and 300 unregistered Sim cards have been seized. Three people have been arrested in the operation, Faizi added.
U.S. slaps sanctions on Afghan for providing financial service to Taliban
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Afghan national Mullah Ahmed Shah Noorzai for allegedly providing financial service to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Shah owns and operates Roshan Money Exchange (RMX), which has previously been designated for sanctions by the United Nations and the United States for providing financial services to the Taliban, Treasury said in a statement.
"RMX stores and transfers funds and profits in support of Taliban military operations as well as the Taliban's role in the Afghan narcotics trade," said the statement.
In the statement, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen vowed to continue to target financial activity linked to the Taliban.
"These financial networks are instrumental in funneling money for terrorist operations and they are also deeply involved in managing the illicit revenues of the Taliban's vast narcotics trade," he said.
Ahmed Shah has provided financial services to Taliban leaders in Helmand Province of Afghanistan for a number of years, according to the U.S. Treasury.
The department added that in early 2012, the Taliban ordered Ahmed Shah to transfer money to a number of money exchange houses in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, from which a senior Taliban commander would then allocate the funds.
35 Insurgents Killed, Dozens Injured In Herat, Badghis
TOLOnews.com Tuesday, 26 February 2013
At least 35 Taliban insurgents, including three Arab fighters, were killed and 42 insurgents injured in two separate operations in the western Herat and Badghis provinces, local officials said Tuesday.
An operation was launched last week in the Kishk-e-Kohna district of Herat and the Moqor district of Badghis province, said Herat Deputy Governor Asiluddin Jami, who added that the Taliban district governor of Gulran, Mawlawi Abdul Khaliq Baloch, was also detained.
An Afghan soldier and a policeman were killed in the operations.
"We hope the operation can secure the different parts of the districts in order for people to live in peace," Jami said.
Security officials in Badghis said that they had cleared several districts of insurgents and that they were confident in the improving abilities of the province's police.
"Our security forces have become more capable and we are ready to undertake any kind of operations," said Badghis police chief Gen. Sharafuddin Sharaf.
Inadequate Laws Hamper Fight Against Land-Grabbing: AGO
TOLOnews.com By Haseeb Maudodi Tuesday, 26 February 2013
The Attorney General said Monday that prosecuting those involved in illegal confiscation of public lands is difficult because the country's penal code doesn't directly address the offense.
Afghanistan is still using the penal code of 1974, which only briefly addresses the illegal confiscation of lands and prescribes a light sentence. Article 470 prescribes "a short-term imprisonment no less than three months" for people involved in land-grabbing.
A large number of land-grabbing cases are reported annually, the Attorney General said, adding that 600 cases come only from eight provinces across Afghanistan. More than four million acres of land across Afghanistan are owned illegally, mostly by top government officials, jihadi leaders and figures in power.
"There was a commission headed by the agriculture minister and appointed by the president to probe illegal land confiscation, but it is not clear what the commission has done so far," said Rahmatullah Nazari, deputy attorney general.
Opposition political parties say the fight against land-grabbing should start from the presidential palace, alluding to potential land offenses by individuals close to the president and his circle, including his vice presidents, who face serious allegations of involvement in land-grabbing.
"If the fight against land-grabbing is not started from the Arg (the presidential palace), people would think the big land-grabbers are destroying the small ones," said Faizullah Zaki, spokesman for the Afghanistan National Front.
Fazlurrahman Oria, spokesman for the National Coalition party, had similar sentiments. "The fight against land-grabbing should be started from the Arg because the land-grabbers are either in the government or supporters of the ruling team."
However, some believe that a lackluster enforcement of the law is also a factor behind the increase in land-grabbing.
"The president and the vice presidents should transparently explain the accusations [of land-grabbing] made against them. They should provide documents to prove whether the accusations are true or not; and if they are true, the laws should be enforced," said Hamidullah Farooqi, spokesman of the Right and Justice Party.
Afghan Delegation Goes Abroad to Attract Investments
TOLOnews.com By Shahla Murtazaie Tuesday, 26 February 2013
A delegation from the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency is traveling abroad to attempt to attract new investments in Afghanistan, AISA officials said Tuesday.
The team will travel to a number of regional countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China, India, Turkey and Russia to introduce new investment opportunities in Afghanistan and woo potential investors.
"We will start our new program to attract investments and travel to countries with which we are already in contact. We will describe Afghanistan's investment opportunities and the incentives Afghanistan offers to investors," said AISA head Wafiullah Iftikhar.
"We will also hold exhibitions and conferences inside Afghanistan to attract investments," Iftikhar added.
As part of a recent package drafted by the Ministry of Finance to increase foreign investments, the government will provide free land, subsidized electricity and a 10-year tax exemption to companies that invest in the current year. Investments in the agricultural and industrial sectors will receive priority.
U.S. Treasury targets money exchange operator linked to Taliban
Reuters Tue Feb 26, 2013
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it had imposed sanctions on an Afghanistan-based money exchange operator accused of backing the Taliban's military and narcotics-trade operations.
The department said Mullah Ahmed Shah Noorza owns and operates the Roshan Money Exchange (RMX), which has already been designated by the United States under an executive order targeting those who "commit, threaten to commit or support terrorism."
"RMX stores and transfers funds and profits in support of Taliban military operations as well as the Taliban's role in the Afghan narcotics trade," the Treasury said in a statement.
The U.S. action freezes any assets Ahmed Shah has in U.S. banks and bars U.S. companies individuals from doing business with him. It also publicizes U.S. concerns about his operations.
"We will continue to target financial activity linked to the Taliban as they increasingly turn to exchange houses to fund their continued violence," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said. (Reporting By Doug Palmer; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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