Middle East
Supermarket Explosion in Kabul Kills at Least 8
Karzai Postpones Seating Parliament, Deepening Crisis
Sodomy and Sufism in Afgaynistan
Social scientists attached to the Second Marine Battalion in Afghanistan last year circulated a startling report on Pashtun sociology, in the form of a human terrain report on male sexuality among America's Afghan allies. The document, made available by military sources, is not classified, just disturbing. Don't ask, don't tell doesn't begin to qualify the problem. These are things you didn't want to know, and regret having heard. The marines got their money's worth from their Human Terrain adjuncts, but the report might have considered whether male pedophilia in Afghanistan has a religious dimension as well as a cultural one. I will explain why below.
Afghan hope is gone
In Afghan War, More Equipment Helps Raise Survival Rate of Wounded
How Afghanistan became a NATO war
The official line of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO command in Afghanistan, is that the war against Afghan insurgents is vital to the security of all the countries providing troops there. In fact, however, NATO was given a central role in Afghanistan because of the influence of US officials concerned with the alliance, according to a US military officer who was in a position to observe the decision-making process. "NATO's role in Afghanistan is more about NATO than it is about Afghanistan," said an officer, who insisted on anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the subject.
Merkel Government Split ahead of Mandate Vote
Hundreds of Detainees Disappearing
Afghanistan – The Top 10 Myths of 2010
A recent National Intelligence Estimate by 16 intelligence agencies found no progress. It warned that large swathes of the country were at risk of falling to the Taliban and that they still had safe havens in Pakistan, with the Pakistani government complicit. The UN says there were over 6000 civilian casualties of war in Afghanistan in the first 10 months of 2010, a 20% increase over the same period in 2009.
Haqqani Network Quelled, at Least Temporarily, by Raids
Pakistan bomb attack kills dozens
At least 40 people have been killed and some 80 others injured after a suspected suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people receiving food aid in northwest Pakistan. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that the incident took place on Saturday morning at a World Food Programme (WFP) distribution centre in the area of Bajaur.
North Pakistan clashes ‘leave 27 dead
At least three soldiers and 24 militants have been killed in a series of clashes in a tribal region of north-western Pakistan, officials have said. The battles erupted after about 150 Taliban attacked five paramilitary Frontier Corps checkpoints in and around Baidnami in the Mohmand Agency, one official told the AFP news agency.
German Troops to Begin Leaving Afghanistan Next Year, Foreign Minister Says
Review of President Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy Sees July Troop Withdrawals Despite Perils
A review of President Obama s strategy for the war in Afghanistan concludes that American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule in July, despite finding uneven signs of progress in the year since the president announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops, according to a summary made public Thursday.
Obama Never Mind Afghanistan, It’s All About The Drones
Yearly Price Tab for Afghan Forces: $6 Billion, Indefinitely
Want a good measurement of “NATO’s enduring commitment” to Afghanistan even after combat forces depart? The Afghan soldiers and cops NATO trains to secure the country are going to need $6 billion from international donors every year to keep operating. Right now, the plan is to build up a force of 305,000 soldiers and police by [...]
Afghan Bombs Kill, Wound 3,800 Troops in 2010
How dangerous have the Taliban’s crude, cheap homemade bombs become? One awful measure came Sunday, when they drove a van full of explosives into a military base in southern Afghanistan, killing six U.S. soldiers. Another is this: The jury-rigged bombs have killed and wounded about a thousand more allied troops this year than in 2009. Later [...]
Pakistan ‘We are part of the solution in Afghanistan’
Pakistan s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani couldn't have been more blunt when he said a few weeks ago that: "Nothing can happen in Afghan peace talks with the Taliban without us. We are part of the solution. We are not part of the problem." For some in Afghanistan, however, Pakistan is a part of the problem blocking any attempt to find a political solution to the conflict that doesn't secure its strategic interests at home.
The Great Game Imposter
And we wonder why we haven t found Osama bin Laden. Though we re pouring billions into intelligence in Afghanistan, we can t even tell the difference between a no-name faker and a senior member of the Taliban. The tragedy of Afghanistan has descended into farce. In the sort of scene that would have entertained millions if Billy Wilder had made a movie of Kipling s Kim, it turns out that Afghan and NATO leaders have been negotiating for months with an imposter pretending to be a top Taliban commander - even as Gen. David Petraeus was assuring reporters that there were promising overtures to President Hamid Karzai from the Taliban about ending the war.
Despite Gains, Night Raids Split U.S. and Karzai
For the United States, a recent tripling in the number of night raids by Special Operations forces to capture or kill Afghan insurgents has begun to put heavy pressure on the Taliban and change the momentum in the war in Afghanistan. For President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the raids cause civilian casualties and are a rising political liability, so much so that he is now loudly insisting that the Americans stop the practice.
Karzai official dismisses talk of U.S., Afghan rift
Karzai wants U.S. to reduce military operations in Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday that the United States must reduce the visibility and intensity of its military operations in Afghanistan and end the increased U.S. Special Operations forces night raids that aggravate Afghans and could exacerbate the Taliban insurgency. In an interview with The Washington Post, Karzai said that he wanted American troops off the roads and out of Afghan homes and that the long-term presence of so many foreign soldiers would only worsen the war. His comments placed him at odds with U.S. commander Gen. David H. Petraeus, who has made capture-and-kill missions a central component of his counterinsurgency strategy, and who claims the 30,000 new troops have made substantial progress in beating back the insurgency.
Karzai Rails Against America in Diatribe
President Hamid Karzai accused the United States on Monday of exporting killing to Afghanistan by giving contracts to private security companies. It was the latest chapter of a bitter battle between the president and his allies in the war against the Taliban that has taken on an increasingly anti-Western tone.
Afghan Leader Admits His Office Gets Cash From Iran
Afghan detainees claim US abuse
Former US military prisoners in Afghanistan have said that they were abused in a secret prison on Bagram airbase as recently as this year, raising fears that detainee mistreatment has continued despite an overhaul of US detention operations in the country. The abuse - which includes exposure to extreme temperatures, lack of adequate food and bedding, lack of natural light and interference with religious duties - is alleged to have occurred at a secret "screening" facility on the military base north of Kabul.
Afghan Governor Is Killed in Blast at Mosque
Inquiry Finds Guards at U.S. Bases Are Tied to Taliban
The CIA-Trained Teams Going into Pakistan
The CIA has relied on Lilley, part of a constellation of agency bases across Afghanistan, as a hub to train and deploy a well-armed 3,000-member Afghan paramilitary force collectively known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. In addition to being used for surveillance, raids and combat operations in Afghanistan, the teams are crucial to the United States' secret war in Pakistan, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Widespread Fraud Seen in Latest Afghan Elections
Evidence is mounting that fraud in last weekend s parliamentary election was so widespread that it could affect the results in a third of provinces, calling into question the credibility of a vote that was an important test of the American and Afghan effort to build a stable and legitimate government.
Afghan Vote Marked by Light Turnout and Violence
MARJA, Afghanistan -The first voter here was Muhammad Akbar, 22, who dipped his finger in the indelible purple ink, collected his ballot and had just stepped into the cardboard box that serves as a voting booth when gunfire broke out. The Taliban had vowed to disrupt Afghanistan s parliamentary election and sought to make good on that promise throughout the country on Saturday. At least 10 people were killed, scores of polling stations were attacked and hundreds of them apparently never opened.
From Bad to Worse in the North
I returned to Northern Afghanistan in April to document for Foreign Policy the implacable spread of the Taliban in the region (the dispatches I wrote were recently published as an ebook, Waiting for the Taliban); I left the region in May. At the time, the Taliban were terrorizing travelers in Kunduz and Baghlan provinces, along the main route that NATO uses to bring in supplies from Tajikistan; launching swift attacks on government forces in Takhar Province; and flagging down traffic at impromptu checkpoints on the ancient roads of Balkh.
Once Wary, Obama Relies on Petraeus in Afghanistan
Come December, when the president intends to assess his Afghan strategy, he will be able to claim tangible successes, General Petraeus predicted by secure video hookup from Kabul, according to administration officials. The general said that the American military would have substantially enlarged the "oil spot" - military jargon for secure area - around Kabul. It will have expanded American control farther outside of Kandahar, the Taliban heartland. And, the aides recalled, the general said the military would have reintegrated a significant number of former Taliban fighters in the south.
Petraeus spin on roadside bombs bellied
General David Petraeus claimed limited success this week in the war within a war over the Taliban's planting of roadside bombs, but official Pentagon data show the Taliban clearly winning that war by planting more bombs and killing many more United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops since the troop surge began in early 2010.
Petraeus: Hooks line and sinker
The degree zero of culture
Like the handful of Western correspondents immersed in Talibanistan 10 years ago, a long time before 9/11, I was dying to meet the one-eyed legend Mullah Omar. Fat chance; he was more mysterious than The Shadow, even in Kandahar. He had only been to Kabul twice - and left in a hurry. His three wives still lived in Singesar, his native village, a dusty basket of mud-hut compounds where no girls had ever been to school - after all there was no school; only Omar's own madrassa, little else than a tent with a soiled floor filled with mattresses for the pupils.
US wars: People vs Generals
While the Obama administration continues to affirm its intention to withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the US' military presence in the Muslim world is actually expanding and this is exacerbating tensions and inflaming animosities. Barack Obama's promise to open a new page with the Muslim world on the basis of mutual respect and interests - supplemented and enforced by the use of soft rather than hard power - now rings hollow. This is most evident in the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and the corresponding surge in Afghanistan - an exercise in redeploying military forces, not extracting them.
Key Karzai Aide in Corruption Inquiry Is Linked to C.I.A.
Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leaders Arrest
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism. But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar, came with a beguiling twist: both American and Pakistani officials claimed that Mr. Baradar s capture had been a lucky break. It was only days later, the officials said, that they finally figured out who they had. Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban s longtime backer.
Karzai bans private security firms
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has given private security firms working in Afghanistan four months to end their operations. Karzai has repeatedly called for banning private security companies, saying they undermine government security forces. "Today the president is going to issue a four-month deadline for the dissolution of private security companies," Waheed Omer, Karzai's spokesman, said on Monday.
Showcase Afghan Army Mission Turns Into Debacle
KABUL, Afghanistan An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams.
Medics Killed In Afghan Ambush
KABUL (Reuters) - Eight foreign medical workers and two Afghans shot by unidentified gunmen were likely killed in an "opportunistic ambush," the international Christian aid organization for which they worked said on Thursday. The International Assistance Mission (IAM) has disputed the Taliban's claim of responsibility for the killings in Badakhshan province in Afghanistan's remote northeast last week. The Taliban quickly said it had killed the foreigners -- six Americans, a Briton and a German -- accusing them of promoting Christianity. Another militant Islamist group, Hezb-i-Islami, also said it had killed them.
Afghan civilian casualties up 31%, UN says
The number of civilians killed or injured in Afghanistan has jumped 31%, despite a fall in the number of casualties caused by Nato-led forces. More than 1,200 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010 and another 1,997 civilians were injured, the latest UN six-monthly report shows. The Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for 76% of the casualties, up from 53% last year.
Afghanistan bomber Afghan suicide bomb attack kills 6 children
Kiss This War Goodbye
IT was on a Sunday morning, June 13, 1971, that The Times published its first installment of the Pentagon Papers. Few readers may have been more excited than a circle of aspiring undergraduate journalists who d worked at The Harvard Crimson. Though the identity of The Times s source wouldn t eke out for several days, we knew the whistle-blower had to be Daniel Ellsberg, an intense research fellow at M.I.T. and former Robert McNamara acolyte who d become an antiwar activist around Boston. We recognized the papers contents, as reported in The Times, because we d heard the war stories from the loquacious Ellsberg himself.
Document leak part of U.S. plot, says Pakistani ex-general with ties to Taliban
RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN -- From the deluge of leaked military documents published Sunday, a former Pakistani spy chief emerged as a chilling personification of his nation's alleged duplicity in the Afghan war -- an erstwhile U.S. ally turned Taliban tutor. Now planted squarely in the cross hairs, retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul seems little short of delighted. In an interview Tuesday, Gul dismissed the accusations against him as "fiction" and described the documents' release as the start of a White House plot. It will end, he posited, with an early U.S. pullout from Afghanistan -- thus proving Gul, an unabashed advocate of the Afghan insurgency, right. President Obama "is a very good chess player. . . . He says, 'I don't want to carry the historic blame of having orchestrated the defeat of America, their humiliation in Afghanistan,' " said Gul, 74, adding that the plot incorporates a troop surge that Obama knows will fail. "It doesn't sell to a professional man like me."
Excerpts Leaked US Afghan war records
Leaked US military records on the war in Afghanistan, which were posted on the Wikileaks website as the Afghan War Diary, are a classified - and previously unreported - daily rundown of incidents of violence and criminality in Afghanistan. The documents offer a snapshot of the grim reality of conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and the challenges facing troops operating there.
2 Americans Are Abducted Near Kabul
Second Shooting in Month Casts Doubt on Afghan Forces
KABUL, (AP) - The second shooting of Western troops by one of their Afghan counterparts this month has highlighted the potential hazards of a push to speedily expand Afghanistan's army and police forces in the next few years. On Tuesday, an Afghan army sergeant opened fire at an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing two American civilian trainers before being shot dead. That followed an attack in the south on July 13, when a soldier killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the dead of night.
In Afghanistan, a Threat of Plunder
THE news that Afghanistan has $1 trillion in unmined mineral deposits has been met with some pessimism. Now, it is said, the country will be transformed from its present condition into the next Congo, whose new wealth from gold, copper and other minerals has brought mainly corruption and violence. Indeed, security in Afghanistan could easily deteriorate as a result of the discoveries, as it has not only in Congo but also in Nigeria (rich in oil) and Sierra Leone (diamonds). Afghanistan s huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium and other metals could end up financing more tribal and ideological warfare. Greed might stoke violence among the combatants, and attract more Afghans to fight. Consider how in Sierra Leone diamonds enabled the Revolutionary United Front to evolve from a protest movement into a lethal diamonds racket.
Karzai calls for Afghan security control by 2014
Kabul set for historic international conference
Some 70 countries are set to attend a historic conference in the Afghan capital Kabul amid some of the deadliest violence of the war. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is among those due to join Tuesday's one-day talks on Afghanistan's future. They expect to hear President Hamid Karzai call for greater control over foreign aid for reconstruction. But Afghanistan's key foreign backers are also seeking assurances as they plan to withdraw troops.
Taliban call to kill collaborators
Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has reportedly issued a new directive in which he calls on his fighters to capture and kill any Afghan working for foreign forces. Nato said they stumbled upon the five-point directive after intercepting a letter that the Taliban chief wrote to his field commanders.
Six U.S. service members died in separate attacks in Afghanistan
NATO Airstrike Accidentally Kills Afghan Troops
U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan
Wali Karzai A Deal We Should Refuse by Kelley B. Vlahos
Known as the "King of Kandahar," Karzai has an iron grip on every political and commercial enterprise in southern Afghanistan. Though he vehemently denies much of it, numerous reports have him pegged as the godfather who lets nothing trucks carrying supplies, private security guards, property transactions, even opium shipments, and the secret police move until he gets a cut. He s been accused of taking over local law enforcement, stealing land for his cronies, stuffing ballot boxes for his brother, and disappearing his political enemies.
Taliban fighters reject peace offer
Afghan officials resign over attack
Taliban Attacks Shake Afghan Peace Gathering
How US Handles Afghanistan’s Civilian Deaths Blame the Button-Pushers
If US commanders or, for that matter, President Obama really wanted to be up front and above board on this issue - given our supposed campaign for hearts and minds in this conflict - they would say: Civilians die in war zones. They die from being caught up in the fight, even though they take no part in it. Civilians die from our tactics of unmanned planes firing missiles in this conflict. That is regrettable, but that is war.
Running out of options in Afghanistan
Persistent Taliban Clash With Marine Patrols and Try to Undo U.S. Gains
Kabul suicide car bombing ‘kills at least seven’
US cautious on Afghan progress
The Afghan president enjoys little support in "strategically important" areas of the country, a US defence department report has concluded just weeks before Hamid Karzai is due to visit Washington. In what the Pentagon called a "sober" assessment of its progress in Afghanistan, it concluded on Wednesday that violence was up nearly 90 per cent on levels the previous year.
Taliban militants ‘reappear’ in Swat valley
Taliban militants have resumed targeted killings of local leaders in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley, officials have told the BBC. Pakistan's army declared the Swat valley free of militants after carrying out an anti-Taliban operation in 2009. A Pakistani army spokesman said three people had died in attacks over the last 10 days. Local journalists say that seven have died in 15 days.
Elite U.S. Units Step Up Effort in Afghan City Before Attack
Small bands of elite American Special Operations forces have been operating with increased intensity for several weeks in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan s largest city, picking up or picking off insurgent leaders to weaken the Taliban in advance of major operations, senior administration and military officials say. The looming battle for the spiritual home of the Taliban is shaping up as the pivotal test of President Obama s Afghanistan strategy, including how much the United States can count on the country s leaders and military for support, and whether a possible increase in civilian casualties from heavy fighting will compromise a strategy that depends on winning over the Afghan people.
U.S. Troops Fire on Bus in Afghanistan, Killing Civilians
Karzai’s China-Iran dalliance riles Obama
Concern that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is steadily disengaging Afghanistan from the grip of the United States and seeking friendships with China and Iran prompted President Barack Obama's flying visit to Kabul on Sunday. What alarms Washington most is that China's position on Afghan national reconciliation fits Karzai's political agenda and also accords with Iran's interests.
Hidden costs of US’s drone reliance
The United States' expansion of unmanned aircraft strikes in Pakistan has inflicted severe damage on the Pakistani Taliban. But drones have been less effective in Afghanistan. There, evidence shows that while drone strikes wear down the will of insurgents, they also give policymakers the illusion of quick, seemingly costless success
The opium wars in Afghanistan
From its roots in the CIA's covert battle against Soviet occupation in the 1970s, through decades of war that fertilized it, poppy cultivation has transformed Afghanistan into an opium-dependent state supplying 90% of the world's heroin. Support for a return to traditional agriculture can break the stranglehold - and be cheaper in every way than a military solution.
The alienation of Hamid Karzai
Now US President Barack Obama has plunged into the cesspool of AfPak diplomacy, he should make it a point to understand why Hamid Karzai feels so alienated. Since the US tried to oust him, the Afghan president has become deeply disillusioned, frustrated that the Americans are either too naive to comprehend that he has little choice but to seek reconciliation with the Taliban or are pursuing a hidden geopolitical agenda.
U.S. Consulate in Pakistan Is Attacked by Militants
Drones Batter Al Qaeda and Its Allies Within Pakistan
Afghan Cops Make Big Problem for … Afghans
Poor marksmanship is the least of it. Worse, crooked Afghan cops supply much of the ammunition used by the Taliban, according to Saleh Mohammed, an insurgent commander in Helmand province. The bullets and rocket-propelled grenades sold by the cops are cheaper and of better quality than the ammo at local markets, he says. It's easy for local cops to concoct credible excuses for using so much ammunition, especially because their supervisors try to avoid areas where the Taliban are active. Mohammed says local police sometimes even stage fake firefights so that if higher-ups question their outsize orders for ammo, villagers will say they've heard fighting.
McChrystal Brings Most Special Operations Under His Control
Karzai gets an earful in town seized from Taliban
Mullahs help promote birth control in Afghanistan
Guesthouses Used by Foreigners in Kabul Hit in Deadly Attacks
Influx of refugees worries Tajiks
Life in Tajikistan, although fairly stable and calm compared with neighbouring Afghanistan, is not easy - especially for Afghan refugees fleeing war in their country. Tajikistan - the poorest state in the Soviet bloc still struggling to overcome the effects of a civil war in which 100,000 people were killed 10 years ago - is ill equipped to accommodate the influx.
Pakistani Reports Capture of Taliban Leader
Military Analysis – Afghan Push Went Beyond Traditional Military Goals
US Marines airdropped into Taliban-held territory
MARJAH, Afghanistan Elite Marine recon teams were dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopter Friday as the U.S.-led force escalated operations to break resistance in the besieged insurgent stronghold of Marjah. As the major NATO offensive entered its seventh day, about two dozen Marines were inserted before dawn into an area where skilled Taliban marksmen are known to operate, an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.