Tweet
Karzai: Afghanistan Never Recognised the Durand Line
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Abrahimkhil 04 May 2013
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday has said that Afghanistan has never recognised the Durand Line.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul after the recent border clashes between the Afghan and Pakistani forces, President Karzai said Pakistani military installations across the Durand Line in the Afghan territory was an “futile attempt” to push Kabul to discuss the border issue with Islamabad, something President Karzai said his government “will never be ready for it.”
"They [the Afghan people] should stand with this young man who was martyred in defending his soil,” Karzai said, referring to a slain Afghan border policeman, Mohammad Qasim, who was killed Wednesday night in a border gunfire with Pakistani forces.
There were reports that two Pakistani soldiers were also wounded in the exchange of fire.
The Afghan president praised a nation-wide reaction of the Afghan people in encouraging their armed forces to defend their country, calling on the Taliban to “turn their weapons against the enemies of their properties.”
Karzai's remarks are likely to unsettle already shaky ties with Pakistan and come as the US wants Pakistan to help Afghanistan persuade the Taliban to engage in peace talks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of next year.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have had testy relations since Pakistan was formed in 1947, at the end of British colonial rule over India.
In the press conference, Karzai also confirmed the CIA cash payments to his government and said the director of the CIA assured him that regular funding his government receives from the agency will not be cut off.
“Afghanistan has been receiving such funding for more than 10 years and expressed hope that it will not stop,” Karzai said.
The New York Times in an article revealed that several Afghan officials at President Karzai's office have been on the CIA's payroll since the beginning of the war twelve years ago.
Correction: TOLOnews initially misquoted President Karzai that he ordered the fire on Pakistani installations, which he said he did not.
First Asian snooker champion from Afghanistan
AFP May 4, 2013
Karachi - Saleh Mohammad on Friday became the first Afghan to win the amateur Asian snooker title, expressing hope that his victory would lift the game in the war-ravaged country.
The 40-year-old, who also represented Pakistan at a regional and world level from 1988 to 2006, beat Syria's Omar al Kojah 7-2 in a one-sided final. "It's a dream come true for me," Mohammad told AFP. "I don't know, but I can claim to be the first Afghan to become an Asian champion in any sport and it means a lot to my homeland where they clamour for a sporting title." Pakistan organised the 29th edition of the Asian championship despite a rise in violence in both Karachi and the country at large. Mohammad, who lived in Pakistan for many years after becoming a refugee but in 2006 switched to representing Afghanistan, won a glittering trophy and $7,000.
He now runs a snooker parlour in Kabul and called on the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to increases its support for the game. "Snooker is gaining in popularity day by day... and can help divert youth from being involved in unhealthy activity to a peacful and rewarding game," he said.
Mohammad reached the final of the world amateur snooker championship in China in 2003 while representing Pakistan. The International Billiards and Snooker Federation president Jim Leacy praised the hosts for organising a successful event in which 14 countries featured.
"I had no hesitation in coming to Pakistan and the successful hosting and wide coverage of the event has made me envious," Leacy said at the prize distribution. India refused to send its players amidst heightening tension between the two countries and security fears for their players.
Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association president Aalmgeer Shaikh hoped the event would remove doubts about the safety of visiting sportsmen in the country. "We hope that more and more international sports will be held in our country," said Shaikh. Pakistan has been a no-go zone for international teams since militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009.
Eight NATO Troops Killed In Afghanistan
May 5, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Eight NATO soldiers, including seven Americans and one German, have been killed in three separate incidents in one of the deadliest days for Western troops in Afghanistan for months.
Officials from the Western military alliance said in the worst of the incidents, five U.S. troops were killed when they were hit by a roadside bomb in southern Kandahar Province.
Two more American soldiers were killed in western Farah Province, when an Afghan National Army soldier fired on them in a suspected “insider attack.”
The Taliban, which vowed a spate of insider attacks when it launched its spring offensive a week ago, claimed responsibility for the killing.
Finally, a German special forces soldier was killed in northern Baghlan Province after insurgents opened fire on an Afghan-led military operation. A second German soldier was injured.
Speaking in Berlin, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the fatality marks the first combat death of a member of Germany’s 1,000-strong special forces in Afghanistan.
"After a long time, I must once again inform the German public that yesterday a German soldier was killed in Afghanistan," he said. "A further comrade was injured. It is a painful and bitter news which has shocked us all."
Germany is the third-largest contributor of foreign troops in Afghanistan, with some 4,000 soldiers in the country.
The string of attacks come as NATO prepares to withdraw its 100,000 foreign troops deployed across Afghanistan by the end of next year.
The Western pullout continues to raise questions about the readiness of Afghan troops to assume full responsibility for maintaining security.
De Maiziere described the spate of attacks in grim terms.
"Yesterday, seven comrades from ISAF countries were also killed in other parts of Afghanistan. We also mourn these soldiers and are thinking of their families," he said. "It was a bitter, bloody day in Afghanistan, and we will never forget it."
The Associated Press is reporting that the May 4 attacks mark the third time in the past year that seven Americans have been killed in a single day in the Afghan war.
With reporting by AP, dpa, Reuters, and AFP
9 NATO soldiers die in single day in Afghan militancy, violent incidents
KABUL, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban-linked militancy and violent incidents claimed the lives of nine soldiers from the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a single day on Saturday, turning the day into the bloodiest one since January this year for the alliance stationed in the conflict-ridden country, ISAF statements confirmed.
According to the military alliance fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, the deadly one happened in the restive southern region where Taliban militants are more active than in other areas.
"Five International Security Assistance Force service members died following an Improvised Explosive Device attack in southern Afghanistan Saturday," ISAF confirmed in a statement released here on Saturday.
However, it did not identify the nationalities of the victims and the exact place of the incident, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
In talks with Xinhua, spokesman of Kandahar provincial administration Jawed Faisal said, "The soldiers were on patrol in Maiwand district this afternoon when a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle killing five service members on the spot."
However, a local official, on the condition of anonymity, said the deadly blast took place in Sarkari Kariz area of Maiwand district at 01:00 p.m. local time Saturday and all the victims are Americans.
The NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in separate statements released on Saturday and Sunday have also confirmed loss of four more service members in isolated incidents elsewhere in the country.
"Two International Security Assistance Force service members were killed when an Afghan National Army soldier turned his weapon against ISAF service members in western Afghanistan Saturday," ISAF said in a statement released Sunday morning, saying the incident is currently under investigation.
Moreover, two more foreign soldiers were killed Saturday in two separate insurgent attacks in the relatively peaceful northern region of Afghanistan, ISAF confirmed in its statements.
Taliban-linked activities have increased since the launching of the so-called spring offensive codenamed "Khalid Bin Waleed" in April 28.
Since January this year, according to icasualties, a website tracking U.S.-led coalition's fatalities in the war on terror, 50 service members with the NATO-led ISAF -- 41 of them Americans -- have been killed in Afghanistan.
Gun battle leaves 5 Afghan Taliban dead
SHIBIRGHAN, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Five Taliban militants were killed as units of police raided their hideouts in a mountainous area of Juauzjan province 390 km north of Kabul on Sunday, a local official said.
"Personnel of Police stormed Taliban hideout in Qushtapa district early today morning killing five armed rebels," district governor Rahmatullah Hashar told Xinhua.
There were no casualties on police, he contended.
Meantime, the deputy police chief of the neighboring Saripul province, Sakhi Dad, said that police captured four Taliban militants early Sunday.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
Roadside bomb kills 4 Afghans, wounds 5
FARAH, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in the western Farah province 695 km west of Kabul on Sunday, killing four civilians and injuring five others, spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Rahman Zhawandon said.
"A civil vehicle was on way from Khak-e-Safid district to the provincial capital Farah city when it ran over a mine planted by militants, leaving four commuters dead, including a woman, and injuring five others," Zhawandon told Xinhua.
He also put the attack on Taliban militants, saying the armed outfit by organizing subversive activities wants to terrorize the people.
Meantime, the Taliban fighters who have challenged the government and NATO-led forces have yet to make comment.
Pakistan to Face Military Action, if Check-Posts Rebuilt, Patang Says
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 04 May 2013
The Afghan Interior Minister Mojtaba Patang on Saturday warned that Pakistan will face military reaction “if it tries to rebuild military installations in border areas.”
Saying that Afghanistan owns modern equipment for defending border areas. Mr Patang stressed that until foreign hands work in Afghanistan, the country will never reach lasting stability, the Interior Minister said.
The building of the Pakistani military checkposts in the Afghan border areas has deteriorated relationship of the two countries as both sides’ militaries engaged on Wednesday night in Ghoshta district of eastern Nangarhar province, but finally Afghan border police succeeded to clear Pakistani installations from Afghanistan’s soil, according to officials.
“Afghanistan citizens will stand beside security [police and army] forces and will jointly defend,” Mojtaba Patang said. His comment come as, the Provincial governor Gul Agha Shirzai has said the Pakistan should stop interfering in Afghanistan, otherwise, it will face serious reactions.”
“There is no need for the United Sates’ tanks and artilleries. We defend the country ourselves and Pakistan can not do anything,” Gul Agha Shirza said.
Meanwhile, the brother of Mohammad Qasem, Afghan border policeman who was killed during the Wednesday border conflict, said that his brother's “death is a pride.”
“This martyrdom is a pride not only for me but also for all Afghan people,” said Qasem’s brother, Parwiz. “It was the beginning of the night when Pakistan's military attacked and we also opened fired. We defended strongly defended our country.” The wounded border police said.
The Afghan government has said that both sides' activities across the Durand Line should be confirmed by two sides. But it is not yet clear when the border challenges will end.
Afghanistan’s Boundary Parts Secretly Sold to Pakistan: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 04 May 2013
A number of Afghan MPs on Saturday said that many boundary parts of the country are sold to Pakistan by some government circles.
Afghan MPs who went to Goshta District of eastern Nangarhar for investigation, believe that secret protocols were signed in eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, based to the protocols, Pakistan claims its territory up to Kama district’s bridges in Nangarhar.
The MPs said that “dealers should be identified and introduced to the country’s courts.
“The building of the gate in Goshta district [ by Pakistani military] is not only the subject, as well, many parts of the boundary districts of Nangarhar province up to the bridge of Kama district are sold to Pakistan through signing protocols. The people who committed such treachery should be tried,” MP Naeem Lalai Hamidzai said.
“Pakistan is building its military installations in boundary parts of Kunar province and they already founded their installations in Narai district of the province,” said another MP Ghulam Sakhi Mashwani said.
“The protocols were signed in Goshta district and the government tries to hide these realities,” said MP Abdul Latif Pedram.
Meanwhile, some other MPs have said that “there is national unity against Pakistan but at first, diplomatic ways should be sought to find a solution to the problem.”
“ There is a motivation to unite against Pakistan but Afghanistan’s government should try to find lasting diplomatic solution for the problem, otherwise all Afghans will stand against Pakistan military’s aggression,” said MP Fawzia Kofi. “Pakistan’s servants in Afghanistan and the Taliban who are supporters of Pakistan’s interests, should know that any country that tries to attack Afghanistan will face serious strikes and also security forces will give them mutual responses,” said MP Baktash Siawash.
Meanwhile, the House Speaker, Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi accused Pakistan of obvious aggression on Afghanistan soil, saying that Pakistan supports the Taliban.
“Pakistan has violated international norms and provides equipment to insurgents for dispatching to Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military move to our border parts is obvious aggression and they must be prevented.” Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi said.
The MPs said that many other significant issues and national betrayal which are done in border areas will be disclosed on Monday, asking parliament speaker to openly hold Monday’s meeting.
The comments come after officials in eastern Afghanistan criticized Pakistani military over building of check-posts in Goshta district of eastern Nangarhar and Narai district of eastern Kunar province.
Decorated diggers tell a different truth about storied Afghan battle
The Age (Australia) By Rory Callilnan May 4, 2013
Well before they took part in their deadliest battle, 43 Charlie section’s fate had been recast by the horrors of Australia’s high-tempo Afghan war.
Not long into the section's tour, a non-commissioned officer stood aside to deal with stress from a bad experience on a previous tour of Afghanistan.
A leadership reshuffle saw Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, or "Crash" to his mates, promoted and transferred to second in charge of 43 Charlie. The well-liked 28-year-old father of two would be killed in this role as he helped one of his men during the now famous battle of Derapet in the country’s south on August 24, 2010.
That first encounter with the blowback from the trauma of the Afghan war would not be the last.
Two years and eight months on, many of the diggers from Brisbane's Sixth Battalion Royal Australian Regiment who fought alongside MacKinney have been psychologically affected in some way by the experience.
At least half a dozen of those who took part in the fighting have sought discharges related to psychological issues and their service in Afghanistan.
One was reportedly so badly affected he suffered the rarely seen symptoms of World War I shell shock, twitching and trembling for months.
While these hidden casualties are left wrestling with severe post-traumatic stress, the battle of Derapet has been painted as a story of classic Aussie heroism and victory after the Department of Defence awarded bravery medals to four soldiers including a Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military decoration for valour.
It’s an image that does not sit comfortably with many of those who took part.
From interviews with former and serving soldiers and their partners, and from viewing unedited helmet camera video of the battle and never before published medal recommendations, Fairfax
Media can reveal the true story behind Derapet and the impacts on many of those involved.
The soldiers and their partners have asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the Australian Defence Force and to keep their battles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder private.
But they remain concerned about aspects of the engagement which they allege have been allowed to fade into the background.
They say an email circulated soon after the battle criticising the tactics made valid points, despite the ADF rejecting the arguments in the email.
But most importantly, they are angry that MacKinney’s role appears to have been overshadowed by the awarding of the medals.
Says one: ‘‘Why is it that Crash did not get nominated for anything? He seems to be the last one anyone thought off when he’s the one who really deserves it the most. He gave his life for his mates.’’
The first indication of trouble came two days before the main battle.
A patrol of some 15 Australians encountered a Taliban group during a recce through Derapet, a village in the Tangi Valley about 20 kilometres west of the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt.
‘‘It was a high-risk patrol but revealed much about the enemy, highlighting the difference between the TK (Tarin Kowt) insurgents and the Deh Rehwood insurgents, the former preferring to fly after a dozen rounds, the latter preferring to stay and fight,’’ Lieutenant James Fanning, the commander, would later write in a medal recommendation report for one of those on the patrol.
The battle of Derapet took place when the Australians returned two days later with a force of about 20 Diggers and some 20 Afghans backed up by light-armoured vehicles armed with 25mm cannons.
Air support and artillery including mortars were on standby.
Unedited video from a helmet camera carried by Private Sean Parker shows the Australians walking cautiously through the village, following a similar route as the one taken by the previous patrol. (Parker could not be contacted for comment for this article.)
They follow a track that runs alongside the large mud walls of the qualas, or traditional Afghan homes. On the outskirts of the village, the track leads to a deep irrigation ditch they call the aqueduct, which then cuts through the lush crops.
On their right flank, some of the Afghan National Army soldiers they are mentoring start to walk high up onto a barren rocky hillside that overlooks the aqueduct and qualas.
Then, about 9.13am, as the lead Australians move into the aqueduct and pause to investigate a suspected improvised explosive device, the Taliban open fire.
Parker’s helmet camera shows he and Corporal Dan Keighran moving away from the aqueduct pathway and walking up the hill on their right to link up with the Afghan soldiers, who are potentially in full view of the Taliban shooters.
Down in the aqueduct the Australians release red smoke to mark their position to any supporting aircraft. They the start to shoot into the crops on their left, according to video from a helmet camera carried by Private Andrew Fox-Lane, who declined to be interviewed for this article.
At this point MacKinney and his section are at the back of the patrol and are then ordered to come forward some 600 metres to provide support.
They run through the village and stop near what is now the middle of the patrol and find cover at the edge of a quala wall near the aqueduct.
They are ordered up the barren hill on their right to provide support for the Afghans and Keighran and Parker, says one of the soldiers who took part in the battle.
It is at this moment according to some, that MacKinney does something courageous – grabbing the machine gun from the section’s exhausted gunner, who was near collapse from lugging the heavy weapon in the sprint from the back of the patrol.
An image taken from the helmet camera up on the hill that day and sighted by Fairfax, shows MacKinney running low to the ground, machine gun in his right hand, approaching the barren ridge while just behind him comes the gunner.
Meanwhile, back down in the aqueduct, the Australians and Afghan soldiers can be seen firing through the crops at the Taliban they suspect are hiding only 80 metres away to their left, according to Fox-Lane’s helmet camera.
At one point, one of the Australians is heard to say ‘‘mortars are coming’’ but because the video is edited it is impossible to say when this comment was made. At no point do the mortars fire.
Back up on the hill where MacKinney and the rest of 43 Charlie section are lined out, bullets are skimming the crest, say soldiers who witnessed the situation.
‘‘If I had put my hand up, [over the ridge] I would have had my finger shot off,’’ says one.
MacKinney throws himself down and starts moving, half crawling and half kneeling, moving closer to the crest where he sets up the weapon ready to fire. The gunner gets down beside him.
Then at about 33 minutes into the battle, according to the official ADF report, an insurgent bullet fired from an unidentified location hits MacKinney in his left shoulder – an area not protected by his bulletproof vest.
The bullet travels into his chest. A medical helicopter evacuates MacKinney, but his fellow soldiers believe he died almost instantly.
An Apache helicopter gunship that was supporting the medical helicopter eventually makes a strafing run alongside a treeline out to the left of the Australians in the aqueduct.
Some Australian soldiers say they repeatedly heard their senior officers telling them to stand by, and then counting down for bombs or artillery to hit, however no bombs or artillery arrived.
About 11.46am, with the Apache lurking above, the Australians withdraw, leaving the Taliban to have free movement around the village.
Sometime towards the end of this engagement one round is fired from the 155 artillery at one of the qualas suspected of housing the insurgents.
Exhausted and in shock, MacKinney’s section returns to their patrol base at Camp Hadrian and collapses in the sun, sleeping for an hour in the 50-degree heat, says one of the soldiers.
Shortly afterwards a member of MacKinney’s section begins to twitch uncontrollably with World War I-style shell shock.
A month after the battle a critical email surfaces in Australia. One of the 6RAR soldiers who fought in the aqueduct and who was friends with MacKinney has sent a furious missive to a mate who leaks it to the media.
The email raises concerns that mortars were not called in immediately, that aircraft had not been used to bomb the enemy, that the intelligence reports were inadequate and there had been too much concern about civilian casualties.
“The army has let us down mate and I am disgusted,’’ wrote the soldier.
Then in January last year, a commendation and medals were awarded to four soldiers from the Derapet battle. Three who had been in the aqueduct were recognised. Private Paul Langer and Sergeant Sean Lanigan received the medal of gallantry while the commander of the patrol, Lieutenant James Fanning, was given a distinguished service medal.
Parker, who had been up on the hill, received a commendation for gallantry. About a week later, the ADF opted to release a partially censored report into MacKinney’s death and a rebuttal of the email.
Blacked out within its 19 pages are key references to issues raised in the email, such as the concerns of the Joint Terminal Attack Controller – or JTAC – whose job it was to call in air support or artillery fire.
The JTAC role was distinct from the on-the-ground operations commanded by Lieutenant Fanning. ‘‘He was concerned that (censored) mortars (censored) effect on the civilian village of (censored),’’ stated the report.
Another censored passage notes ‘‘the fast air close air support was unable to (blank) and that as a result close air support could not be employed’’.
The report confirms a 155 artillery round was fired without permission from the JTAC.
The reason why air clearance for use of the 155 cannon was “significantly delayed” is also blanked out.
The report makes no mention of where the highly destructive round was, or when it was fired or where it actually landed. It did reveal that the JTAC officer ‘‘determined mortars were not required’’.
In conclusion it found ‘‘no evidence of any substantial weakness deficiency in relation to the incident involving LCPL MacKinney’’ and argued mortars would not have made any difference as it was unlikely the mortars would have hit the insurgent who shot at MacKinney.
In November last year, Keighran was awarded the Victoria Cross for exposing himself to enemy fire on the ridge.
The report and the medals provided little comfort to those angry about the circumstances of MacKinney’s death.
‘‘Could it [mortars] have changed things, possibly? It might have given us a chance to do something else, although Crash still would have gone up the hill,’’ said one soldier.
Most agree that concerns about civilian casualties were exaggerated, saying they had left hours earlier and the armoured vehicles had later fired into the area anyway.
‘‘Why wasn’t there any air support until we were just about to leave?’’ asks another soldier.
Another frustration was retreating from the insurgents, who would later attack another Australian patrol in similar circumstances.
Then there is the issue of MacKinney being ignored in relation to the awarding of medals.
‘‘The problem is that the guys who were with him were too messed up by what happened to do anything about it,’’ says the partner of one soldier.
‘‘They all believe he should have got something. They weren’t expecting him to get a VC or anything. And they don’t want anything themselves.’’
Asked about the concerns last week, the ADF referred Fairfax to the inquiry report into MacKinney’s death.
The spokesman said the inquiry officer, who had access to initial reports and witnesses, noted some members of the patrol had no view or appreciation of the conditions where MacKinney was positioned when he was shot.
The spokesman declined to comment on why the officer who had stepped aside and was replaced by MacKinney, had even been sent to Afghanistan.
He said medal nominations were confidential.
Asked about the effectiveness of the battle the spokesman said it "paved the way for subsequent partnered presence within the Tangi valley which included the construction of a mentored ANA patrol base and a multitude of village engagement activities in this region".
Meanwhile, MacKinney hasn’t been the only one to miss out on a medal.
Three soldiers individually wrote recommendations for a Distinguished Service Medal for the soldier who wrote the critical email.
One recommendation sighted by Fairfax even came from Fanning who praised the man’s performance on the patrol two days before and in the later battle.
He stated:‘‘I place a large part of the ultimate success in destroying large numbers of the enemy at the hands of Corporal (x) and his leadership of our support section.’’
No such medal ever eventuated. Another hidden casualty of the battle of Derapet.
Do you know more? rcallinan@fairfaxmedia.com.au
U.S. turns over troubled dam project to Afghanistan
The decision to let Afghans finish the Kajaki Dam hydroelectric project in the country's volatile south carries risks — among them, that a huge U.S. investment may be squandered.
Los Angeles Times By Shashank Bengali May 4, 2013
Kajaki, Afghanistan - After struggling for more than a decade to upgrade a huge hydroelectric plant in a volatile region that saw heavy American losses in fighting with the Taliban, the United States is trying a new approach: Let the Afghans take charge.
U.S. officials are handing responsibility — and up to $80 million — to President Hamid Karzai's government to finish refurbishing the Kajaki Dam and power system in the southern province of Helmand as President Obama brings home U.S. troops and cuts back Washington's nation-building experiment in Afghanistan.
No project symbolizes America's vast ambitions — or deep frustrations — in Afghanistan more than the effort to boost production from Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to the Taliban heartland, a goal military commanders long deemed essential to blunting the insurgency.
But ceding control of the mammoth development project carries clear risks. Chief among them: The Afghan government may further delay or abandon construction, turning one of the largest investments in the nearly $100-billion U.S. relief and reconstruction effort into an enduring example of failure.
The Kajaki project reflects the challenge the Obama administration faces as American military involvement diminishes: closing out the U.S. combat role while entrusting Afghan institutions with protecting hard-won security and development gains.
U.S. officials in Kabul, the capital, say the state-run utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, known as DABS, will finish work at Kajaki by the end of 2017 — 12 years after the dam upgrade began and three years after U.S. combat troops are scheduled to depart Afghanistan.
"It's great news for us that the [Afghan] government has shown this kind of interest and ownership," said Ken Yama****a, Kabul mission director for the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which has managed the project. "It's very rewarding to us to see that DABS is now capable of doing this."
But others question the 4-year-old utility's competence and experience, as well as the government's commitment to a project that insurgents have violently opposed. To finish the construction, Afghan troops must secure a crucial supply road leading to the dam that has come under frequent attack.
President Obama's decision to increase the U.S. troop level in 2010 focused on retaking ground in southern Afghanistan. Some of the fiercest fighting occurred in Helmand province, where at least 29 Marines were killed clearing the road to Kajaki. Many others were grievously wounded.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then-commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, argued at the time that improving the Kajaki Dam would create jobs and promote agriculture, thus weakening support for the insurgency.
"It's safe to say the Marines have a jaundiced view of [the handoff] given the sacrifices they made to clear the area," a former U.S. official in Kabul said.
Until this year, Black & Veatch, an engineering company based in Overland Park, Kan., had a $266-million contract that included installing an 18-megawatt turbine at Kajaki that would increase the dam's peak electrical generation by more than half.
But during a visit to Washington in January, Karzai demanded that more development work be funneled through his government. He specifically cited the dam.
Although many at USAID opposed the move, the agency rewrote the contract to put DABS in charge of the turbine. The Afghan utility is expected to select a construction company this year to finish the work at a cost of $60 million to $80 million, according to preliminary estimates.
"As with any large infrastructure project, this one is with risk," Yama****a said. "We're all committed to making it succeed."
Nestled in dun-colored hills, the hydroelectric complex — an aging power station, a 300-foot-high earthen dam and an emerald-green reservoir — was built in 1953 by the American engineering giant Morrison-Knudsen.
By hiring the firm that had built the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Afghanistan's king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, sought to modernize his nation. The U.S. government saw a way to expand its influence on the doorstep of the Soviet Union during the depths of the Cold War.
In the mid-1970s, USAID installed two turbines in the dam's power station, but the complex decayed over the next quarter-century of Soviet occupation, civil war and Taliban rule.
By 2001, the station was barely producing power. Washington bureaucrats flush with post-Sept. 11 dollars seized on the idea of a third turbine, which would boost the dam's 33-megawatt peak output. It would provide electricity to Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province, traditional Taliban strongholds.
In 2005, USAID contracted a Chinese government company to install the third turbine. But by the time the Chinese were ready to transport it to the dam, British forces had taken over Helmand from U.S. troops and were battling a rejuvenated insurgency.
It took a six-day military operation involving 4,000 British troops, backed by U.S. airstrikes, just to deliver the massive apparatus to the dam in the summer of 2008.
But the Chinese engineers left Kajaki that fall, claiming a Taliban kidnapping threat. Since then, the turbine parts have sat in dozens of huge metal containers, unopened, in dirt at the dam compound.
U.S. combat units now have departed the area, leaving Afghan soldiers and police in charge. But Taliban militants still rule nearby villages and siphon electricity, without payment, from Kajaki's overburdened transmission lines.
Over the winter, Taliban fighters captured several dam workers and accused them of deliberately depressing the power output.
"We said, 'Just please allow us to install [the turbine], then you will have more power. Otherwise there is no chance,'" said the dam's longtime chief engineer, Sayed Rasoul, a genial man with a bushy beard. "Finally they accepted."
Rasoul said the Taliban would permit the Afghan-led installation to proceed because they, too, want more reliable electricity. But the regional governor, Mullah Abdul Razzaq Akhund, said the insurgents' patrons in Iran and Pakistan view the dam as an example of unwanted foreign influence.
"The Taliban want to stop this project if they can," he said.
It's far from clear that the Afghan utility has the experience to administer the project. A recent audit by the Pentagon's special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found that $23 million in U.S. gear had gone unused by DABS in Helmand and Kandahar because the utility "lacked the capacity to install and manage the equipment."
Mirwais Alami, DABS' chief commercial officer, said the utility would work closely with USAID and others on what is its biggest project by far. "This was a very good decision by the Americans," he said at his office in Kabul.
Though insurgents and some Afghan villagers remain skeptical of the U.S. role in Kajaki, DABS officials are spreading the word to local elders that the hydroelectric project is now Afghan-run.
"The people are very interested in supporting this project," Alami said. "We had thousands of foreign security forces and no progress. This has gone on for five, six, eight years. It should really have only taken one year."
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
Delhi-based Afghan woman shortlisted for 'world's best job'
The Times of India By Rakhi Chakrabarty May 5, 2013
New Delhi - Moska Najib does not fit in with any stereotype of an Afghan woman. The 29-year-old documentary filmmaker is among the top 25 shortlisted for one of the six 'best jobs in the world' — lifestyle photographer in Melbourne. She is the only Afghan to beat 600,000 applicants in the race. If she wins the job, she will earn Australian $100,000 (around Rs 55 lakh) in six months.
"An Afghan has a lot of limitations while applying for a visa or a contest. The minute you say you are an Afghan, there are a lot of queries, your background (is checked). And, many of these competitions are geared towards a Western audience," says Moska.
This was open to all nationalities. Moska, a former BBC journalist, decided to apply. The job, capturing life in the south-eastern Australian state Victoria in photographs, films and writing, is exciting. It entails surfing, skiing, rappelling, winemaking and researching penguins at Phillip Island — everything one fancies on an adventure holiday.
Photography for Afghan women, whose subservience is often attributed to culture, is a challenge. For globetrotter Moska (Pushtoo for muskaan meaning smile) it's passion.
She was recently in Kolkata photographing Afghans, called Kabuliwallas, in the 21st century. "The street in Kolkata where many of them live looks like that in Kabul."
While shooting in Kolkata, she spotted the advertisement for the "best jobs" on Facebook.
In 2009, the "Best Job in The World" was for a caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef islands. This year, there are six world's "best jobs" — chief funster, outback adventurer, park ranger, wildlife caretaker, lifestyle photographer and taste master — each with an Australian $100, 000 package for six months.
"I had only five days to apply," says Moska. She rushed to Old Delhi to shoot a 30-second video to explain why she is the best person for the job. "I identify very much with Old Delhi. It's as if time has stood still here. One learns to pause and stay," says Moska.
Moska, who lives with her mother, came here when she was eight years and has not been able to return home in war-ravaged Kabul since. She lost many of her relatives, including those she held dear. "My father was amazing. I was very close to him. He had an aura and exuded confidence. He was a brave man and made others around him feel brave," she says.
Moska has fond memories of her childhood in Kabul. "As an Afghan away from home, I'm very protective of memories of growing up in Kabul," she says.
Through her participation in the 'best job' contest, she wants to spread a message among displaced Afghans across the world — of hope and optimism.
Where’s My Ghost Money?
New York Times By QAIS AKBAR OMAR Opinion May 4, 2013
I WAS very excited to read, last week, about the “ghost money” that the C.I.A. is paying to the president of my country, Hamid Karzai. I’d like to know: would it be possible for the C.I.A. to give me some, too?
We do not know what President Karzai has done with this cash that arrives each month in suitcases and plastic shopping bags. Not even the C.I.A. — which every Afghan believes knows everything — can say.
But I will tell you exactly what I will do with mine: I will do the things we thought the Americans were going to help us do when they came to Afghanistan nearly 12 years ago.
First, I will use some of it to dig deep wells in all our villages and create modern water systems in all our cities. Fewer than a third of Afghans living in rural areas have access to clean drinking water. In one village I know in Balkh Province in the north, the people must walk more than a mile to reach the nearest well, and its water is salty. They rely on infrequent rain for drinking water and use it sparingly. They asked me to help them get a new well that is nearer and deeper. Now, with my ghost money, I can.
Even in Kabul — where I lived until nine months ago when I came to study in the United States — most people still get their water from wells. Afghan children must carry heavy buckets of water from the wells to their homes several times each day. I did this for years. On the bright side, in Afghanistan, we do not have the problem of childhood obesity.
I will use another part of my ghost money to build sewers. Afghans, like Americans, use toilets every day. But what we leave in our toilets either stays in an open pit or is flushed into open drains in the streets. The mosquitoes are happy with this situation, but the children they bite are not.
When the Americans first came, building sewer systems in every community would have been a good way to put millions of Afghans to work and to help us get back on our feet after three decades of war. Afghans helped destroy the Soviet Union and free Eastern Europe, but in the process many of us lost everything. A few months’ work digging trenches and laying pipes would have helped everybody.
Instead, they spent millions on teaching farmers in Helmand Province how to grow hot red peppers that Afghans do not like to eat, and making cobblestone roads that our donkeys cannot walk on, and searching for water in the desert near Mazar-i-Sharif, where any camel driver could tell you there has never been any.
I do not want to make Afghans sound like complainers or beggars, but since the United States has spent more than $100 billion in Afghanistan since Sept. 11 on development projects, and five times that on its military activities, we would have been very happy to have had sewers.
And electricity. Only about one-third of the country has reliable electricity. And that has only been for the past two years, since we have been importing power from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
There are many places in our high mountains where hydroelectric dams are waiting to be repaired. Afghanistan could be producing so much power, we could be exporting our surplus. Our unhappy neighbor Pakistan desperately needs some. Perhaps if Afghanistan were sending its electricity to Pakistan, Pakistan would stop sending its terrorists to Afghanistan.
I have one last use for my ghost money. Let me tell you about a suicide bomber named Nematullah, a bomber who failed. He was 17 years old. He was stopped by security forces a few years ago at a place called Company, just at the edge of Kabul, before he could detonate a minibus loaded with explosives. After the police separated him from his bombs, he asked if he could go home. The next week were his school exams, he told them, and since he was still alive, he’d like to pass them.
Boys like Nematullah become suicide bombers for one reason: their families will be given some money in return for their lives. They will be able to buy some rice and flour and maybe a sheep.
Imagine if I had been able to give some of my ghost money to that boy. Or to all the other ghost boys who have blown themselves up to support their families, or the others who have joined the Taliban to earn a couple of hundred dollars each month.
I know what they would have done with it. They would have started businesses. We are Afghans; this is what we do. If I have one dollar today, by tomorrow I will find a way to make it two. Those kids only want a chance at life, like every other young person anywhere in the world.
If ghost money were going to the people who needed it, Afghanistan would have a lot fewer ghosts.
I would like the C.I.A. to know they can start delivering the money to the carpet shop my family owns on Chicken Street in Kabul any day this week. My father will be there to hold it for me. But, please, no plastic bags. Kabul is choked with them. The goats eat as many as they can, but still the Kabul River is filled with them, waiting to be washed down to Pakistan, where they have enough problems of their own.
Qais Akbar Omar is the author of the memoir “A Fort of Nine Towers” and a co-author of “Shakespeare in Kabul.”
Senior Insurgent Leader Killed in Baghlan Operation
TOLOnews.com By TOLOnews.com 04 May 2013
A senior insurgent leader Jamal was killed in a joint operation by Afghan and Nato troops in northern Baghlan province Friday, Isaf said.
“An Afghan and coalition security force killed a senior insurgent leader, Jamal, who had ties to both the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Three other insurgents were killed and two insurgents were detained during the operation in Burkah district of the province,” Isaf said in a statement.
“As the security force approached Jamal’s location, a group of fighters opened fire on the Afghan and coalition troops. The security force returned fire, killing Jamal and three other insurgents,” it said.
Jamal was the second high ranking insurgent official in Burkah district and he was also known as Mullah Zabiullah.
“His cell of terrorists is responsible for a significant number of attacks, including suicide bombings, against Afghan civilians throughout Baghlan and Takhar provinces,” the statement said.
The leader himself was personally responsible for recruiting and training Afghans in insurgency operations and targeting Afghan officials for kidnappings and executions. He also played a significant role in linking Taliban and IMU fighters in Baghlan, working as a mediator and coordinating operations between the two networks.
The joint forces have also seized four AK-47s and ammunition in the raid.
$300 Million Invested in Afghanistan in 3 Fiscal Months of the Year: AISATOLOnews.com By Zabiullah Jahanmal 04 May 2013
Afghanistan’s Investment Support Agency (AISA) officials on Saturday announced that $300 million have been invested in three months of current fiscal year in the country.
The investment is done on agriculture, mines and industries sectors, head Afghanistan Investment Support Agency Wafiullah Eftkhar said.
The foundation of an information centre in the agency and installation of standard systems paved the way for investors to find information on the country’s investments process in short times, Wafiullah Efitkhar said.
The centre will facilitate the services of getting licence of investment online, having access to information about investments and preventing of fraud in getting licence, Efitkhar said.
“The process of getting licence will be possible in hours while it took days in the past and also we will prevent fraud in licence by using this database,” he said.
“By using the facilities, the donors can easily find information about companies and their validity via the internet,” the Deputy of Afghanistan Industrial Union Abdul Jabar Safi said.
The AISA officials said that their new plans will force companies to recruit internal staff in the companies and no company has the right to recruit foreign staff if Afghanistan itself has the human resource.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Abrahimkhil 04 May 2013
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday has said that Afghanistan has never recognised the Durand Line.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul after the recent border clashes between the Afghan and Pakistani forces, President Karzai said Pakistani military installations across the Durand Line in the Afghan territory was an “futile attempt” to push Kabul to discuss the border issue with Islamabad, something President Karzai said his government “will never be ready for it.”
"They [the Afghan people] should stand with this young man who was martyred in defending his soil,” Karzai said, referring to a slain Afghan border policeman, Mohammad Qasim, who was killed Wednesday night in a border gunfire with Pakistani forces.
There were reports that two Pakistani soldiers were also wounded in the exchange of fire.
The Afghan president praised a nation-wide reaction of the Afghan people in encouraging their armed forces to defend their country, calling on the Taliban to “turn their weapons against the enemies of their properties.”
Karzai's remarks are likely to unsettle already shaky ties with Pakistan and come as the US wants Pakistan to help Afghanistan persuade the Taliban to engage in peace talks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of next year.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have had testy relations since Pakistan was formed in 1947, at the end of British colonial rule over India.
In the press conference, Karzai also confirmed the CIA cash payments to his government and said the director of the CIA assured him that regular funding his government receives from the agency will not be cut off.
“Afghanistan has been receiving such funding for more than 10 years and expressed hope that it will not stop,” Karzai said.
The New York Times in an article revealed that several Afghan officials at President Karzai's office have been on the CIA's payroll since the beginning of the war twelve years ago.
Correction: TOLOnews initially misquoted President Karzai that he ordered the fire on Pakistani installations, which he said he did not.
First Asian snooker champion from Afghanistan
AFP May 4, 2013
Karachi - Saleh Mohammad on Friday became the first Afghan to win the amateur Asian snooker title, expressing hope that his victory would lift the game in the war-ravaged country.
The 40-year-old, who also represented Pakistan at a regional and world level from 1988 to 2006, beat Syria's Omar al Kojah 7-2 in a one-sided final. "It's a dream come true for me," Mohammad told AFP. "I don't know, but I can claim to be the first Afghan to become an Asian champion in any sport and it means a lot to my homeland where they clamour for a sporting title." Pakistan organised the 29th edition of the Asian championship despite a rise in violence in both Karachi and the country at large. Mohammad, who lived in Pakistan for many years after becoming a refugee but in 2006 switched to representing Afghanistan, won a glittering trophy and $7,000.
He now runs a snooker parlour in Kabul and called on the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to increases its support for the game. "Snooker is gaining in popularity day by day... and can help divert youth from being involved in unhealthy activity to a peacful and rewarding game," he said.
Mohammad reached the final of the world amateur snooker championship in China in 2003 while representing Pakistan. The International Billiards and Snooker Federation president Jim Leacy praised the hosts for organising a successful event in which 14 countries featured.
"I had no hesitation in coming to Pakistan and the successful hosting and wide coverage of the event has made me envious," Leacy said at the prize distribution. India refused to send its players amidst heightening tension between the two countries and security fears for their players.
Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association president Aalmgeer Shaikh hoped the event would remove doubts about the safety of visiting sportsmen in the country. "We hope that more and more international sports will be held in our country," said Shaikh. Pakistan has been a no-go zone for international teams since militants attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009.
Eight NATO Troops Killed In Afghanistan
May 5, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Eight NATO soldiers, including seven Americans and one German, have been killed in three separate incidents in one of the deadliest days for Western troops in Afghanistan for months.
Officials from the Western military alliance said in the worst of the incidents, five U.S. troops were killed when they were hit by a roadside bomb in southern Kandahar Province.
Two more American soldiers were killed in western Farah Province, when an Afghan National Army soldier fired on them in a suspected “insider attack.”
The Taliban, which vowed a spate of insider attacks when it launched its spring offensive a week ago, claimed responsibility for the killing.
Finally, a German special forces soldier was killed in northern Baghlan Province after insurgents opened fire on an Afghan-led military operation. A second German soldier was injured.
Speaking in Berlin, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the fatality marks the first combat death of a member of Germany’s 1,000-strong special forces in Afghanistan.
"After a long time, I must once again inform the German public that yesterday a German soldier was killed in Afghanistan," he said. "A further comrade was injured. It is a painful and bitter news which has shocked us all."
Germany is the third-largest contributor of foreign troops in Afghanistan, with some 4,000 soldiers in the country.
The string of attacks come as NATO prepares to withdraw its 100,000 foreign troops deployed across Afghanistan by the end of next year.
The Western pullout continues to raise questions about the readiness of Afghan troops to assume full responsibility for maintaining security.
De Maiziere described the spate of attacks in grim terms.
"Yesterday, seven comrades from ISAF countries were also killed in other parts of Afghanistan. We also mourn these soldiers and are thinking of their families," he said. "It was a bitter, bloody day in Afghanistan, and we will never forget it."
The Associated Press is reporting that the May 4 attacks mark the third time in the past year that seven Americans have been killed in a single day in the Afghan war.
With reporting by AP, dpa, Reuters, and AFP
9 NATO soldiers die in single day in Afghan militancy, violent incidents
KABUL, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban-linked militancy and violent incidents claimed the lives of nine soldiers from the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a single day on Saturday, turning the day into the bloodiest one since January this year for the alliance stationed in the conflict-ridden country, ISAF statements confirmed.
According to the military alliance fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, the deadly one happened in the restive southern region where Taliban militants are more active than in other areas.
"Five International Security Assistance Force service members died following an Improvised Explosive Device attack in southern Afghanistan Saturday," ISAF confirmed in a statement released here on Saturday.
However, it did not identify the nationalities of the victims and the exact place of the incident, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
In talks with Xinhua, spokesman of Kandahar provincial administration Jawed Faisal said, "The soldiers were on patrol in Maiwand district this afternoon when a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle killing five service members on the spot."
However, a local official, on the condition of anonymity, said the deadly blast took place in Sarkari Kariz area of Maiwand district at 01:00 p.m. local time Saturday and all the victims are Americans.
The NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in separate statements released on Saturday and Sunday have also confirmed loss of four more service members in isolated incidents elsewhere in the country.
"Two International Security Assistance Force service members were killed when an Afghan National Army soldier turned his weapon against ISAF service members in western Afghanistan Saturday," ISAF said in a statement released Sunday morning, saying the incident is currently under investigation.
Moreover, two more foreign soldiers were killed Saturday in two separate insurgent attacks in the relatively peaceful northern region of Afghanistan, ISAF confirmed in its statements.
Taliban-linked activities have increased since the launching of the so-called spring offensive codenamed "Khalid Bin Waleed" in April 28.
Since January this year, according to icasualties, a website tracking U.S.-led coalition's fatalities in the war on terror, 50 service members with the NATO-led ISAF -- 41 of them Americans -- have been killed in Afghanistan.
Gun battle leaves 5 Afghan Taliban dead
SHIBIRGHAN, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Five Taliban militants were killed as units of police raided their hideouts in a mountainous area of Juauzjan province 390 km north of Kabul on Sunday, a local official said.
"Personnel of Police stormed Taliban hideout in Qushtapa district early today morning killing five armed rebels," district governor Rahmatullah Hashar told Xinhua.
There were no casualties on police, he contended.
Meantime, the deputy police chief of the neighboring Saripul province, Sakhi Dad, said that police captured four Taliban militants early Sunday.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
Roadside bomb kills 4 Afghans, wounds 5
FARAH, Afghanistan, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in the western Farah province 695 km west of Kabul on Sunday, killing four civilians and injuring five others, spokesman for provincial administration Abdul Rahman Zhawandon said.
"A civil vehicle was on way from Khak-e-Safid district to the provincial capital Farah city when it ran over a mine planted by militants, leaving four commuters dead, including a woman, and injuring five others," Zhawandon told Xinhua.
He also put the attack on Taliban militants, saying the armed outfit by organizing subversive activities wants to terrorize the people.
Meantime, the Taliban fighters who have challenged the government and NATO-led forces have yet to make comment.
Pakistan to Face Military Action, if Check-Posts Rebuilt, Patang Says
TOLOnews.com By Sharif Amiry 04 May 2013
The Afghan Interior Minister Mojtaba Patang on Saturday warned that Pakistan will face military reaction “if it tries to rebuild military installations in border areas.”
Saying that Afghanistan owns modern equipment for defending border areas. Mr Patang stressed that until foreign hands work in Afghanistan, the country will never reach lasting stability, the Interior Minister said.
The building of the Pakistani military checkposts in the Afghan border areas has deteriorated relationship of the two countries as both sides’ militaries engaged on Wednesday night in Ghoshta district of eastern Nangarhar province, but finally Afghan border police succeeded to clear Pakistani installations from Afghanistan’s soil, according to officials.
“Afghanistan citizens will stand beside security [police and army] forces and will jointly defend,” Mojtaba Patang said. His comment come as, the Provincial governor Gul Agha Shirzai has said the Pakistan should stop interfering in Afghanistan, otherwise, it will face serious reactions.”
“There is no need for the United Sates’ tanks and artilleries. We defend the country ourselves and Pakistan can not do anything,” Gul Agha Shirza said.
Meanwhile, the brother of Mohammad Qasem, Afghan border policeman who was killed during the Wednesday border conflict, said that his brother's “death is a pride.”
“This martyrdom is a pride not only for me but also for all Afghan people,” said Qasem’s brother, Parwiz. “It was the beginning of the night when Pakistan's military attacked and we also opened fired. We defended strongly defended our country.” The wounded border police said.
The Afghan government has said that both sides' activities across the Durand Line should be confirmed by two sides. But it is not yet clear when the border challenges will end.
Afghanistan’s Boundary Parts Secretly Sold to Pakistan: MPs
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 04 May 2013
A number of Afghan MPs on Saturday said that many boundary parts of the country are sold to Pakistan by some government circles.
Afghan MPs who went to Goshta District of eastern Nangarhar for investigation, believe that secret protocols were signed in eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, based to the protocols, Pakistan claims its territory up to Kama district’s bridges in Nangarhar.
The MPs said that “dealers should be identified and introduced to the country’s courts.
“The building of the gate in Goshta district [ by Pakistani military] is not only the subject, as well, many parts of the boundary districts of Nangarhar province up to the bridge of Kama district are sold to Pakistan through signing protocols. The people who committed such treachery should be tried,” MP Naeem Lalai Hamidzai said.
“Pakistan is building its military installations in boundary parts of Kunar province and they already founded their installations in Narai district of the province,” said another MP Ghulam Sakhi Mashwani said.
“The protocols were signed in Goshta district and the government tries to hide these realities,” said MP Abdul Latif Pedram.
Meanwhile, some other MPs have said that “there is national unity against Pakistan but at first, diplomatic ways should be sought to find a solution to the problem.”
“ There is a motivation to unite against Pakistan but Afghanistan’s government should try to find lasting diplomatic solution for the problem, otherwise all Afghans will stand against Pakistan military’s aggression,” said MP Fawzia Kofi. “Pakistan’s servants in Afghanistan and the Taliban who are supporters of Pakistan’s interests, should know that any country that tries to attack Afghanistan will face serious strikes and also security forces will give them mutual responses,” said MP Baktash Siawash.
Meanwhile, the House Speaker, Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi accused Pakistan of obvious aggression on Afghanistan soil, saying that Pakistan supports the Taliban.
“Pakistan has violated international norms and provides equipment to insurgents for dispatching to Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military move to our border parts is obvious aggression and they must be prevented.” Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi said.
The MPs said that many other significant issues and national betrayal which are done in border areas will be disclosed on Monday, asking parliament speaker to openly hold Monday’s meeting.
The comments come after officials in eastern Afghanistan criticized Pakistani military over building of check-posts in Goshta district of eastern Nangarhar and Narai district of eastern Kunar province.
Decorated diggers tell a different truth about storied Afghan battle
The Age (Australia) By Rory Callilnan May 4, 2013
Well before they took part in their deadliest battle, 43 Charlie section’s fate had been recast by the horrors of Australia’s high-tempo Afghan war.
Not long into the section's tour, a non-commissioned officer stood aside to deal with stress from a bad experience on a previous tour of Afghanistan.
A leadership reshuffle saw Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, or "Crash" to his mates, promoted and transferred to second in charge of 43 Charlie. The well-liked 28-year-old father of two would be killed in this role as he helped one of his men during the now famous battle of Derapet in the country’s south on August 24, 2010.
That first encounter with the blowback from the trauma of the Afghan war would not be the last.
Two years and eight months on, many of the diggers from Brisbane's Sixth Battalion Royal Australian Regiment who fought alongside MacKinney have been psychologically affected in some way by the experience.
At least half a dozen of those who took part in the fighting have sought discharges related to psychological issues and their service in Afghanistan.
One was reportedly so badly affected he suffered the rarely seen symptoms of World War I shell shock, twitching and trembling for months.
While these hidden casualties are left wrestling with severe post-traumatic stress, the battle of Derapet has been painted as a story of classic Aussie heroism and victory after the Department of Defence awarded bravery medals to four soldiers including a Victoria Cross (VC), the highest military decoration for valour.
It’s an image that does not sit comfortably with many of those who took part.
From interviews with former and serving soldiers and their partners, and from viewing unedited helmet camera video of the battle and never before published medal recommendations, Fairfax
Media can reveal the true story behind Derapet and the impacts on many of those involved.
The soldiers and their partners have asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the Australian Defence Force and to keep their battles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder private.
But they remain concerned about aspects of the engagement which they allege have been allowed to fade into the background.
They say an email circulated soon after the battle criticising the tactics made valid points, despite the ADF rejecting the arguments in the email.
But most importantly, they are angry that MacKinney’s role appears to have been overshadowed by the awarding of the medals.
Says one: ‘‘Why is it that Crash did not get nominated for anything? He seems to be the last one anyone thought off when he’s the one who really deserves it the most. He gave his life for his mates.’’
The first indication of trouble came two days before the main battle.
A patrol of some 15 Australians encountered a Taliban group during a recce through Derapet, a village in the Tangi Valley about 20 kilometres west of the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt.
‘‘It was a high-risk patrol but revealed much about the enemy, highlighting the difference between the TK (Tarin Kowt) insurgents and the Deh Rehwood insurgents, the former preferring to fly after a dozen rounds, the latter preferring to stay and fight,’’ Lieutenant James Fanning, the commander, would later write in a medal recommendation report for one of those on the patrol.
The battle of Derapet took place when the Australians returned two days later with a force of about 20 Diggers and some 20 Afghans backed up by light-armoured vehicles armed with 25mm cannons.
Air support and artillery including mortars were on standby.
Unedited video from a helmet camera carried by Private Sean Parker shows the Australians walking cautiously through the village, following a similar route as the one taken by the previous patrol. (Parker could not be contacted for comment for this article.)
They follow a track that runs alongside the large mud walls of the qualas, or traditional Afghan homes. On the outskirts of the village, the track leads to a deep irrigation ditch they call the aqueduct, which then cuts through the lush crops.
On their right flank, some of the Afghan National Army soldiers they are mentoring start to walk high up onto a barren rocky hillside that overlooks the aqueduct and qualas.
Then, about 9.13am, as the lead Australians move into the aqueduct and pause to investigate a suspected improvised explosive device, the Taliban open fire.
Parker’s helmet camera shows he and Corporal Dan Keighran moving away from the aqueduct pathway and walking up the hill on their right to link up with the Afghan soldiers, who are potentially in full view of the Taliban shooters.
Down in the aqueduct the Australians release red smoke to mark their position to any supporting aircraft. They the start to shoot into the crops on their left, according to video from a helmet camera carried by Private Andrew Fox-Lane, who declined to be interviewed for this article.
At this point MacKinney and his section are at the back of the patrol and are then ordered to come forward some 600 metres to provide support.
They run through the village and stop near what is now the middle of the patrol and find cover at the edge of a quala wall near the aqueduct.
They are ordered up the barren hill on their right to provide support for the Afghans and Keighran and Parker, says one of the soldiers who took part in the battle.
It is at this moment according to some, that MacKinney does something courageous – grabbing the machine gun from the section’s exhausted gunner, who was near collapse from lugging the heavy weapon in the sprint from the back of the patrol.
An image taken from the helmet camera up on the hill that day and sighted by Fairfax, shows MacKinney running low to the ground, machine gun in his right hand, approaching the barren ridge while just behind him comes the gunner.
Meanwhile, back down in the aqueduct, the Australians and Afghan soldiers can be seen firing through the crops at the Taliban they suspect are hiding only 80 metres away to their left, according to Fox-Lane’s helmet camera.
At one point, one of the Australians is heard to say ‘‘mortars are coming’’ but because the video is edited it is impossible to say when this comment was made. At no point do the mortars fire.
Back up on the hill where MacKinney and the rest of 43 Charlie section are lined out, bullets are skimming the crest, say soldiers who witnessed the situation.
‘‘If I had put my hand up, [over the ridge] I would have had my finger shot off,’’ says one.
MacKinney throws himself down and starts moving, half crawling and half kneeling, moving closer to the crest where he sets up the weapon ready to fire. The gunner gets down beside him.
Then at about 33 minutes into the battle, according to the official ADF report, an insurgent bullet fired from an unidentified location hits MacKinney in his left shoulder – an area not protected by his bulletproof vest.
The bullet travels into his chest. A medical helicopter evacuates MacKinney, but his fellow soldiers believe he died almost instantly.
An Apache helicopter gunship that was supporting the medical helicopter eventually makes a strafing run alongside a treeline out to the left of the Australians in the aqueduct.
Some Australian soldiers say they repeatedly heard their senior officers telling them to stand by, and then counting down for bombs or artillery to hit, however no bombs or artillery arrived.
About 11.46am, with the Apache lurking above, the Australians withdraw, leaving the Taliban to have free movement around the village.
Sometime towards the end of this engagement one round is fired from the 155 artillery at one of the qualas suspected of housing the insurgents.
Exhausted and in shock, MacKinney’s section returns to their patrol base at Camp Hadrian and collapses in the sun, sleeping for an hour in the 50-degree heat, says one of the soldiers.
Shortly afterwards a member of MacKinney’s section begins to twitch uncontrollably with World War I-style shell shock.
A month after the battle a critical email surfaces in Australia. One of the 6RAR soldiers who fought in the aqueduct and who was friends with MacKinney has sent a furious missive to a mate who leaks it to the media.
The email raises concerns that mortars were not called in immediately, that aircraft had not been used to bomb the enemy, that the intelligence reports were inadequate and there had been too much concern about civilian casualties.
“The army has let us down mate and I am disgusted,’’ wrote the soldier.
Then in January last year, a commendation and medals were awarded to four soldiers from the Derapet battle. Three who had been in the aqueduct were recognised. Private Paul Langer and Sergeant Sean Lanigan received the medal of gallantry while the commander of the patrol, Lieutenant James Fanning, was given a distinguished service medal.
Parker, who had been up on the hill, received a commendation for gallantry. About a week later, the ADF opted to release a partially censored report into MacKinney’s death and a rebuttal of the email.
Blacked out within its 19 pages are key references to issues raised in the email, such as the concerns of the Joint Terminal Attack Controller – or JTAC – whose job it was to call in air support or artillery fire.
The JTAC role was distinct from the on-the-ground operations commanded by Lieutenant Fanning. ‘‘He was concerned that (censored) mortars (censored) effect on the civilian village of (censored),’’ stated the report.
Another censored passage notes ‘‘the fast air close air support was unable to (blank) and that as a result close air support could not be employed’’.
The report confirms a 155 artillery round was fired without permission from the JTAC.
The reason why air clearance for use of the 155 cannon was “significantly delayed” is also blanked out.
The report makes no mention of where the highly destructive round was, or when it was fired or where it actually landed. It did reveal that the JTAC officer ‘‘determined mortars were not required’’.
In conclusion it found ‘‘no evidence of any substantial weakness deficiency in relation to the incident involving LCPL MacKinney’’ and argued mortars would not have made any difference as it was unlikely the mortars would have hit the insurgent who shot at MacKinney.
In November last year, Keighran was awarded the Victoria Cross for exposing himself to enemy fire on the ridge.
The report and the medals provided little comfort to those angry about the circumstances of MacKinney’s death.
‘‘Could it [mortars] have changed things, possibly? It might have given us a chance to do something else, although Crash still would have gone up the hill,’’ said one soldier.
Most agree that concerns about civilian casualties were exaggerated, saying they had left hours earlier and the armoured vehicles had later fired into the area anyway.
‘‘Why wasn’t there any air support until we were just about to leave?’’ asks another soldier.
Another frustration was retreating from the insurgents, who would later attack another Australian patrol in similar circumstances.
Then there is the issue of MacKinney being ignored in relation to the awarding of medals.
‘‘The problem is that the guys who were with him were too messed up by what happened to do anything about it,’’ says the partner of one soldier.
‘‘They all believe he should have got something. They weren’t expecting him to get a VC or anything. And they don’t want anything themselves.’’
Asked about the concerns last week, the ADF referred Fairfax to the inquiry report into MacKinney’s death.
The spokesman said the inquiry officer, who had access to initial reports and witnesses, noted some members of the patrol had no view or appreciation of the conditions where MacKinney was positioned when he was shot.
The spokesman declined to comment on why the officer who had stepped aside and was replaced by MacKinney, had even been sent to Afghanistan.
He said medal nominations were confidential.
Asked about the effectiveness of the battle the spokesman said it "paved the way for subsequent partnered presence within the Tangi valley which included the construction of a mentored ANA patrol base and a multitude of village engagement activities in this region".
Meanwhile, MacKinney hasn’t been the only one to miss out on a medal.
Three soldiers individually wrote recommendations for a Distinguished Service Medal for the soldier who wrote the critical email.
One recommendation sighted by Fairfax even came from Fanning who praised the man’s performance on the patrol two days before and in the later battle.
He stated:‘‘I place a large part of the ultimate success in destroying large numbers of the enemy at the hands of Corporal (x) and his leadership of our support section.’’
No such medal ever eventuated. Another hidden casualty of the battle of Derapet.
Do you know more? rcallinan@fairfaxmedia.com.au
U.S. turns over troubled dam project to Afghanistan
The decision to let Afghans finish the Kajaki Dam hydroelectric project in the country's volatile south carries risks — among them, that a huge U.S. investment may be squandered.
Los Angeles Times By Shashank Bengali May 4, 2013
Kajaki, Afghanistan - After struggling for more than a decade to upgrade a huge hydroelectric plant in a volatile region that saw heavy American losses in fighting with the Taliban, the United States is trying a new approach: Let the Afghans take charge.
U.S. officials are handing responsibility — and up to $80 million — to President Hamid Karzai's government to finish refurbishing the Kajaki Dam and power system in the southern province of Helmand as President Obama brings home U.S. troops and cuts back Washington's nation-building experiment in Afghanistan.
No project symbolizes America's vast ambitions — or deep frustrations — in Afghanistan more than the effort to boost production from Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to the Taliban heartland, a goal military commanders long deemed essential to blunting the insurgency.
But ceding control of the mammoth development project carries clear risks. Chief among them: The Afghan government may further delay or abandon construction, turning one of the largest investments in the nearly $100-billion U.S. relief and reconstruction effort into an enduring example of failure.
The Kajaki project reflects the challenge the Obama administration faces as American military involvement diminishes: closing out the U.S. combat role while entrusting Afghan institutions with protecting hard-won security and development gains.
U.S. officials in Kabul, the capital, say the state-run utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, known as DABS, will finish work at Kajaki by the end of 2017 — 12 years after the dam upgrade began and three years after U.S. combat troops are scheduled to depart Afghanistan.
"It's great news for us that the [Afghan] government has shown this kind of interest and ownership," said Ken Yama****a, Kabul mission director for the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which has managed the project. "It's very rewarding to us to see that DABS is now capable of doing this."
But others question the 4-year-old utility's competence and experience, as well as the government's commitment to a project that insurgents have violently opposed. To finish the construction, Afghan troops must secure a crucial supply road leading to the dam that has come under frequent attack.
President Obama's decision to increase the U.S. troop level in 2010 focused on retaking ground in southern Afghanistan. Some of the fiercest fighting occurred in Helmand province, where at least 29 Marines were killed clearing the road to Kajaki. Many others were grievously wounded.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then-commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, argued at the time that improving the Kajaki Dam would create jobs and promote agriculture, thus weakening support for the insurgency.
"It's safe to say the Marines have a jaundiced view of [the handoff] given the sacrifices they made to clear the area," a former U.S. official in Kabul said.
Until this year, Black & Veatch, an engineering company based in Overland Park, Kan., had a $266-million contract that included installing an 18-megawatt turbine at Kajaki that would increase the dam's peak electrical generation by more than half.
But during a visit to Washington in January, Karzai demanded that more development work be funneled through his government. He specifically cited the dam.
Although many at USAID opposed the move, the agency rewrote the contract to put DABS in charge of the turbine. The Afghan utility is expected to select a construction company this year to finish the work at a cost of $60 million to $80 million, according to preliminary estimates.
"As with any large infrastructure project, this one is with risk," Yama****a said. "We're all committed to making it succeed."
Nestled in dun-colored hills, the hydroelectric complex — an aging power station, a 300-foot-high earthen dam and an emerald-green reservoir — was built in 1953 by the American engineering giant Morrison-Knudsen.
By hiring the firm that had built the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Afghanistan's king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, sought to modernize his nation. The U.S. government saw a way to expand its influence on the doorstep of the Soviet Union during the depths of the Cold War.
In the mid-1970s, USAID installed two turbines in the dam's power station, but the complex decayed over the next quarter-century of Soviet occupation, civil war and Taliban rule.
By 2001, the station was barely producing power. Washington bureaucrats flush with post-Sept. 11 dollars seized on the idea of a third turbine, which would boost the dam's 33-megawatt peak output. It would provide electricity to Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province, traditional Taliban strongholds.
In 2005, USAID contracted a Chinese government company to install the third turbine. But by the time the Chinese were ready to transport it to the dam, British forces had taken over Helmand from U.S. troops and were battling a rejuvenated insurgency.
It took a six-day military operation involving 4,000 British troops, backed by U.S. airstrikes, just to deliver the massive apparatus to the dam in the summer of 2008.
But the Chinese engineers left Kajaki that fall, claiming a Taliban kidnapping threat. Since then, the turbine parts have sat in dozens of huge metal containers, unopened, in dirt at the dam compound.
U.S. combat units now have departed the area, leaving Afghan soldiers and police in charge. But Taliban militants still rule nearby villages and siphon electricity, without payment, from Kajaki's overburdened transmission lines.
Over the winter, Taliban fighters captured several dam workers and accused them of deliberately depressing the power output.
"We said, 'Just please allow us to install [the turbine], then you will have more power. Otherwise there is no chance,'" said the dam's longtime chief engineer, Sayed Rasoul, a genial man with a bushy beard. "Finally they accepted."
Rasoul said the Taliban would permit the Afghan-led installation to proceed because they, too, want more reliable electricity. But the regional governor, Mullah Abdul Razzaq Akhund, said the insurgents' patrons in Iran and Pakistan view the dam as an example of unwanted foreign influence.
"The Taliban want to stop this project if they can," he said.
It's far from clear that the Afghan utility has the experience to administer the project. A recent audit by the Pentagon's special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found that $23 million in U.S. gear had gone unused by DABS in Helmand and Kandahar because the utility "lacked the capacity to install and manage the equipment."
Mirwais Alami, DABS' chief commercial officer, said the utility would work closely with USAID and others on what is its biggest project by far. "This was a very good decision by the Americans," he said at his office in Kabul.
Though insurgents and some Afghan villagers remain skeptical of the U.S. role in Kajaki, DABS officials are spreading the word to local elders that the hydroelectric project is now Afghan-run.
"The people are very interested in supporting this project," Alami said. "We had thousands of foreign security forces and no progress. This has gone on for five, six, eight years. It should really have only taken one year."
shashank.bengali@latimes.com
Delhi-based Afghan woman shortlisted for 'world's best job'
The Times of India By Rakhi Chakrabarty May 5, 2013
New Delhi - Moska Najib does not fit in with any stereotype of an Afghan woman. The 29-year-old documentary filmmaker is among the top 25 shortlisted for one of the six 'best jobs in the world' — lifestyle photographer in Melbourne. She is the only Afghan to beat 600,000 applicants in the race. If she wins the job, she will earn Australian $100,000 (around Rs 55 lakh) in six months.
"An Afghan has a lot of limitations while applying for a visa or a contest. The minute you say you are an Afghan, there are a lot of queries, your background (is checked). And, many of these competitions are geared towards a Western audience," says Moska.
This was open to all nationalities. Moska, a former BBC journalist, decided to apply. The job, capturing life in the south-eastern Australian state Victoria in photographs, films and writing, is exciting. It entails surfing, skiing, rappelling, winemaking and researching penguins at Phillip Island — everything one fancies on an adventure holiday.
Photography for Afghan women, whose subservience is often attributed to culture, is a challenge. For globetrotter Moska (Pushtoo for muskaan meaning smile) it's passion.
She was recently in Kolkata photographing Afghans, called Kabuliwallas, in the 21st century. "The street in Kolkata where many of them live looks like that in Kabul."
While shooting in Kolkata, she spotted the advertisement for the "best jobs" on Facebook.
In 2009, the "Best Job in The World" was for a caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef islands. This year, there are six world's "best jobs" — chief funster, outback adventurer, park ranger, wildlife caretaker, lifestyle photographer and taste master — each with an Australian $100, 000 package for six months.
"I had only five days to apply," says Moska. She rushed to Old Delhi to shoot a 30-second video to explain why she is the best person for the job. "I identify very much with Old Delhi. It's as if time has stood still here. One learns to pause and stay," says Moska.
Moska, who lives with her mother, came here when she was eight years and has not been able to return home in war-ravaged Kabul since. She lost many of her relatives, including those she held dear. "My father was amazing. I was very close to him. He had an aura and exuded confidence. He was a brave man and made others around him feel brave," she says.
Moska has fond memories of her childhood in Kabul. "As an Afghan away from home, I'm very protective of memories of growing up in Kabul," she says.
Through her participation in the 'best job' contest, she wants to spread a message among displaced Afghans across the world — of hope and optimism.
Where’s My Ghost Money?
New York Times By QAIS AKBAR OMAR Opinion May 4, 2013
I WAS very excited to read, last week, about the “ghost money” that the C.I.A. is paying to the president of my country, Hamid Karzai. I’d like to know: would it be possible for the C.I.A. to give me some, too?
We do not know what President Karzai has done with this cash that arrives each month in suitcases and plastic shopping bags. Not even the C.I.A. — which every Afghan believes knows everything — can say.
But I will tell you exactly what I will do with mine: I will do the things we thought the Americans were going to help us do when they came to Afghanistan nearly 12 years ago.
First, I will use some of it to dig deep wells in all our villages and create modern water systems in all our cities. Fewer than a third of Afghans living in rural areas have access to clean drinking water. In one village I know in Balkh Province in the north, the people must walk more than a mile to reach the nearest well, and its water is salty. They rely on infrequent rain for drinking water and use it sparingly. They asked me to help them get a new well that is nearer and deeper. Now, with my ghost money, I can.
Even in Kabul — where I lived until nine months ago when I came to study in the United States — most people still get their water from wells. Afghan children must carry heavy buckets of water from the wells to their homes several times each day. I did this for years. On the bright side, in Afghanistan, we do not have the problem of childhood obesity.
I will use another part of my ghost money to build sewers. Afghans, like Americans, use toilets every day. But what we leave in our toilets either stays in an open pit or is flushed into open drains in the streets. The mosquitoes are happy with this situation, but the children they bite are not.
When the Americans first came, building sewer systems in every community would have been a good way to put millions of Afghans to work and to help us get back on our feet after three decades of war. Afghans helped destroy the Soviet Union and free Eastern Europe, but in the process many of us lost everything. A few months’ work digging trenches and laying pipes would have helped everybody.
Instead, they spent millions on teaching farmers in Helmand Province how to grow hot red peppers that Afghans do not like to eat, and making cobblestone roads that our donkeys cannot walk on, and searching for water in the desert near Mazar-i-Sharif, where any camel driver could tell you there has never been any.
I do not want to make Afghans sound like complainers or beggars, but since the United States has spent more than $100 billion in Afghanistan since Sept. 11 on development projects, and five times that on its military activities, we would have been very happy to have had sewers.
And electricity. Only about one-third of the country has reliable electricity. And that has only been for the past two years, since we have been importing power from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
There are many places in our high mountains where hydroelectric dams are waiting to be repaired. Afghanistan could be producing so much power, we could be exporting our surplus. Our unhappy neighbor Pakistan desperately needs some. Perhaps if Afghanistan were sending its electricity to Pakistan, Pakistan would stop sending its terrorists to Afghanistan.
I have one last use for my ghost money. Let me tell you about a suicide bomber named Nematullah, a bomber who failed. He was 17 years old. He was stopped by security forces a few years ago at a place called Company, just at the edge of Kabul, before he could detonate a minibus loaded with explosives. After the police separated him from his bombs, he asked if he could go home. The next week were his school exams, he told them, and since he was still alive, he’d like to pass them.
Boys like Nematullah become suicide bombers for one reason: their families will be given some money in return for their lives. They will be able to buy some rice and flour and maybe a sheep.
Imagine if I had been able to give some of my ghost money to that boy. Or to all the other ghost boys who have blown themselves up to support their families, or the others who have joined the Taliban to earn a couple of hundred dollars each month.
I know what they would have done with it. They would have started businesses. We are Afghans; this is what we do. If I have one dollar today, by tomorrow I will find a way to make it two. Those kids only want a chance at life, like every other young person anywhere in the world.
If ghost money were going to the people who needed it, Afghanistan would have a lot fewer ghosts.
I would like the C.I.A. to know they can start delivering the money to the carpet shop my family owns on Chicken Street in Kabul any day this week. My father will be there to hold it for me. But, please, no plastic bags. Kabul is choked with them. The goats eat as many as they can, but still the Kabul River is filled with them, waiting to be washed down to Pakistan, where they have enough problems of their own.
Qais Akbar Omar is the author of the memoir “A Fort of Nine Towers” and a co-author of “Shakespeare in Kabul.”
Senior Insurgent Leader Killed in Baghlan Operation
TOLOnews.com By TOLOnews.com 04 May 2013
A senior insurgent leader Jamal was killed in a joint operation by Afghan and Nato troops in northern Baghlan province Friday, Isaf said.
“An Afghan and coalition security force killed a senior insurgent leader, Jamal, who had ties to both the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Three other insurgents were killed and two insurgents were detained during the operation in Burkah district of the province,” Isaf said in a statement.
“As the security force approached Jamal’s location, a group of fighters opened fire on the Afghan and coalition troops. The security force returned fire, killing Jamal and three other insurgents,” it said.
Jamal was the second high ranking insurgent official in Burkah district and he was also known as Mullah Zabiullah.
“His cell of terrorists is responsible for a significant number of attacks, including suicide bombings, against Afghan civilians throughout Baghlan and Takhar provinces,” the statement said.
The leader himself was personally responsible for recruiting and training Afghans in insurgency operations and targeting Afghan officials for kidnappings and executions. He also played a significant role in linking Taliban and IMU fighters in Baghlan, working as a mediator and coordinating operations between the two networks.
The joint forces have also seized four AK-47s and ammunition in the raid.
$300 Million Invested in Afghanistan in 3 Fiscal Months of the Year: AISATOLOnews.com By Zabiullah Jahanmal 04 May 2013
Afghanistan’s Investment Support Agency (AISA) officials on Saturday announced that $300 million have been invested in three months of current fiscal year in the country.
The investment is done on agriculture, mines and industries sectors, head Afghanistan Investment Support Agency Wafiullah Eftkhar said.
The foundation of an information centre in the agency and installation of standard systems paved the way for investors to find information on the country’s investments process in short times, Wafiullah Efitkhar said.
The centre will facilitate the services of getting licence of investment online, having access to information about investments and preventing of fraud in getting licence, Efitkhar said.
“The process of getting licence will be possible in hours while it took days in the past and also we will prevent fraud in licence by using this database,” he said.
“By using the facilities, the donors can easily find information about companies and their validity via the internet,” the Deputy of Afghanistan Industrial Union Abdul Jabar Safi said.
The AISA officials said that their new plans will force companies to recruit internal staff in the companies and no company has the right to recruit foreign staff if Afghanistan itself has the human resource.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com