History > 2006 > USA > War > Afghanistan (I)
Capt. Al Goetz, at lectern, preparing for a memorial service Thursday at Fort
Drum, N.Y.,
for soldiers who were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last week
including Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty Jr. and Specialist Brian M. Moquin Jr.
Angel Franco/The New York Times
NYT May 12, 2006
The News at the Base Was Bad, With More
Likely to Follow NYT
12.5.2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/nyregion/12base.html
Anti-U.S. Rioting Erupts in Kabul;
at Least
14 Dead
May 30, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 29 — A deadly traffic
accident caused by a United States military convoy quickly touched off a
full-blown antiAmerican riot on Monday that raged across much of the Afghan
capital, leaving at least 14 people dead and scores injured.
Witnesses said American soldiers fired on Afghans throwing stones at them after
the crash, though the United States military said only that warning shots had
been fired in the air.
But the crash tapped into a latent resentment of the American military presence
here, and violence radiated quickly through the city as rumors circulated that
the crash might have been deliberate. Gunfire rang out as Afghan police officers
and army soldiers tried to contain rioters who rampaged through the streets for
about six hours, burning and looting a dozen offices, cars and police posts. By
the end of the day at least 14 people were dead and more than 90 injured,
hospital officials said. It was the bloodiest day in the capital since the fall
of the Taliban in late 2001.
The Interior Ministry announced a nighttime curfew for the city for the first
time in four years, from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m., and President Hamid Karzai called
for calm on national television. "This country has been destroyed for years by
rioters," he said, "and they are using this traffic incident as an excuse."
The speed and magnitude of the unrest was such that hundreds of police officers
and soldiers struggled to contain the violence. The Afghan government and the
American military authority issued statements promising full investigations of
the accident.
It became clear the American military and the Afghan police and army had used
their weapons to try to disperse the crowds. Scores of people were treated in
hospitals for gunshot wounds.
A 7-year-old boy was among the dead, and two more schoolchildren were badly
wounded, said Dr. Amin, the duty doctor at Khair Khana Hospital in the northern
part of Kabul, who like many Afghans uses only one name. Four people died at the
hospital, he said, and 60 wounded people were given first aid before being
transferred to other hospitals.
Although the sudden explosion of violence may have been a reaction to the five
deaths in the crash, it is a sign that Afghans are losing patience with the
government and the foreign military presence in Afghanistan, residents said.
Ali Seraj, a businessman and a descendant of the Afghan royal family, contended
that the American military showed a careless attitude toward human life that was
becoming a growing problem, whether it was the bombing of villages in
counterinsurgency activities in southern Afghanistan or car accidents in the
capital.
"This type of attitude has created a great deal of mistrust and hatred," he
said.
Just last week, President Karzai ordered an investigation of an American
airstrike on a village near Kandahar in the south that killed at least 35
civilians. In another episode, the United States military said last month that
it would investigate the killings of seven members of a family in an airstrike
in Kunar Province in the east during an operation against insurgents.
On Monday, clashes began early in the morning when a truck leading an American
military convoy smashed into 12 cars in rush-hour traffic as it went down a long
hill from the Khair Khana pass just north of Kabul. Five civilians were killed
and more injured in the multiple crash, a statement from Mr. Karzai's office
said.
The United States military said in a statement, "A large cargo truck apparently
experienced a mechanical failure." The statement continued, "This was a tragic
incident, and we deeply regret any deaths or injuries resulting from this
incident."
An angry crowd gathered and began stoning the American convoy, and the Afghan
police when they arrived. "There are indications that at least one coalition
military vehicle fired warning shots over the crowd," the United States military
statement said. "We will determine the facts regarding the incident and
cooperate fully with Afghan authorities."
Demonstrators and townspeople said the American troops had fired into the crowd
as people gathered and started throwing stones.
One demonstrator, called Ahmadullah, was still shouting, "Death to Karzai!" and
"Death to America!" hours after the initial event.
Demonstrators and townspeople also asserted that the American truck driver had
deliberately rammed vehicles as he led the convoy from Bagram Air Base through
outlying villages and then into the city. "The Americans came all the way from
Bagram to Kabul and killed about 20 people along the way," said Fraidoon, a
youth who was among the demonstrators.
He and other bystanders said up to a dozen demonstrators had been shot by guards
as they tried to break into a British security company's compound in a downtown
area.
Other protesters tried to reach the United States Embassy across town but were
prevented by armed blockades of Afghan police officers and soldiers. Others
attacked buildings in the commercial center of the city, and some marched on
Parliament in the city's southwest, attacking a television company and pizzeria
nearby.
By late afternoon the crowds had dispersed, leaving people to count the
casualties and put out fires. The offices of the aid organization CARE
International and the French nongovernmental organization known by the acronym
Acted, a pizzeria, a Chinese guesthouse and a post office were among the
buildings that were gutted by fire and ransacked.
Ground-floor windows of the newly opened Serena Hotel, Kabul's first five-star
hotel, were smashed, and traffic police officers sat outside burnt roadside
police posts. NATO troops evacuated diplomats and staff members from a European
Commission compound downtown.
Mr. Karzai blamed opportunists and rioters for the violence. "Wherever you face
these elements, do not let them destroy our home once again," he said.
In a sign of the political implications the event has for the government, the
president promised to investigate the circumstances of the crash and to see that
the Americans involved were punished if found to be guilty. He added that he had
received a visit Monday afternoon from the United States ambassador, who had
expressed his "deep regrets."
The demonstrators — overwhelmingly young men, even schoolchildren, carrying
sticks and stones — were angry at the reports of deaths, but some also expressed
frustration with the government, the police and the generally poor standard of
living.
"Most of the demonstrators are people who have lost their jobs, and the
government cannot provide the people with the basic necessities," said Mukhtar
Ziayee, 33, a real estate salesman. "The people are disappointed."
But others were armed and intent on violence and robbery, residents said.
Mohammed Arif Safajoy, the owner of the pizzeria that was attacked, estimated
the rioters had done $50,000 damage there.
"This was just a demonstration in name," he said. "They were looters, these
people who came to my restaurant." Among them were students from a nearby high
school, and they carried off electric fans, dishes and antique ornaments, he
said.
Hunger Strike at Guantánamo
MIAMI, May 29 (Reuters) — Seventy-five prisoners at the American naval base at
Guantánamo Bay were on a hunger strike on Monday, joining a few who had refused
food and been force-fed since August, a military official said.
Detainees are counted as hunger strikers if they miss nine consecutive meals,
and most of the 75 reached that mark on Sunday, said a spokesman for the
Guantánamo detention operation. Most are refusing food but continuing to drink
liquids, he said.
Hunger strikes have occurred periodically since the first suspected Taliban and
Qaeda fighters were taken to the base in 2002.
Ruhullah Khapalwak and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting for this
article.
Anti-U.S. Rioting Erupts in Kabul; at Least 14 Dead, NYT, 30.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/world/asia/30afghan.html?hp&ex=1148961600&en=19f215c33a2679a8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Kabul erupts as US troops fire on crash scene
May 29, 2006
Times Online
By Simon Freeman and agencies
At least eight people were killed and another
100 injured after a United States military convoy crash in the Afghan capital
Kabul set off violent anti-American street protests.
Reports suggest that three Humvees and three military lorries were involved in a
road accident on the outskirts of the city during the morning rush hour.
A photographer for the Associated Press (AP) news agency at the scene said that
the driver of one of the US cargo trucks lost control, apparently suffering
faulty brakes, and ploughed into waiting traffic.
According to government sources, three people were killed in the crash which
brought other drivers out of their cars. They began pelting the US convoy with
stones as it attempted to drive away.
American troops are said to have opened fire,
killing another four people. An investigation into this allegation has been
launched.
The spontaneous protest sparked the worst rioting across the tense capital since
the Taleban was ousted in 2001. Afghan police fired live rounds above the
stone-throwing crowd as the US troops withdrew.
Shops were looted and cars burned, including police vehicles and a van belonging
to an Afghan TV company. A reporter from AP described watching a civilian being
dragged from his car and beaten.
Several buildings, including a police post and a sprawling compound belonging to
the international aid group Care International, were ransacked. Computers were
set on fire.
Around 2,000 people are said to have marched on the fortified palace of
US-backed President Hamid Karzai shouting "Death to Karzai! Death to America!"
At least one person died as gunfire was exchanged between protesters - who were
armed with sticks, knives and swords - and ranks of police attempting to seal
off roads into the city centre.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that they had seen another man shot dead outside the
Serena Hotel, a complex popular with Westerners and close to the presidential
palace.
Bursts of automatic gunfire were also heard outside the US Embassy. Officials
were moved to secure bunkers within the compound.
One of the protesters told AP: "These cowards [the US troops] opened fire into
the crowd and killed them like sheep. First they drove into the people’s cars,
destroyed them and then fired onto the people who were only throwing stones at
them.
"They think Afghanistan is a playground where they can practise shooting."
Colonel Tom Collins, the US coalition spokesman, said he was aware of reports
that US troops had fired in to the hostile crowd.
He said: "We will determine the facts regarding this incident and cooperate
fully with the authorities. Compensation will be paid to those who are entitled
to it."
The Afghan parliament broke off regular business and went into an emergency
session to discuss the violence, calling for calm. The interior ministry set up
a team to the area to establish the number of dead, reported to be as high as 30
by local media.
The Nato-led international peacekeeping force, ISAF, sent a helicopter to the
scene but was asked to leave by Afghan police because it was further inflaming
the protest.
By evening, most of the rioting had been stopped although there were sporadic
outbursts of protest at the scene. A six-hour curfew was declared overnight.
In a televised address to the nation, President Karzai said that the unrest was
caused by "opportunists and agitators". He warned that Afghanistan could not
afford to allow internal enemies destroy the country.
“My wish from my countrymen is for them to deal seriously wherever they confront
such elements and not allow them to destroy our home again,” he said.
The violence in the capital came as American sources told Reuters that more than
50 Taleban fighters had been killed in an airstrike on a mosque in the lawless
southern Helmand province.
Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, the deupty provincial governor, said that several
"Taleban leaders" were among the dead. Locals said that 16 civilians were among
the dead.
The 1,500 British troops in Helmand have already encountered violent opposition
from the resurgent Taleban thousands more are due to be deployed in the
rebellious region in the next few weeks.
Kabul
erupts as US troops fire on crash scene, Ts, 29.5.2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2201720,00.html
4.15pm update
50 killed in Afghanistan air strike
Monday May 29, 2006
Staff and agencies
Guardian Unlimited
Around 50 Taliban fighters were killed in a
US-led air strike in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province today, military and
Afghan officials said.
Several Taliban leaders were among those
killed in the pre-dawn attack in the Kajaki district, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada,
the deputy provincial governor said.
"The Taliban were meeting in a mosque when the bombardment took place," Mr
Akhundzada told Reuters. "More than 50 of them have been killed."
Major Quentin Innes, a Canadian spokesman with US-led troops in the south, said
aircraft had dropped two 500lb bombs which had targeted a "compound" rather than
a mosque.
The spokesman said the strike happened after a group of Taliban ambushed a troop
convoy but did not inflict any casualties. "The group then fled into a compound
... and we estimate that up to 50 of the attackers may have been killed," he
added.
A Taliban spokesman said no fighters had been killed and that all the victims
were civilians.
US-led troops have carried out operations in rural areas of the south in the
past two weeks, with the air strike taking the death toll to more than 370.
Most of those killed have been militants, but many civilians, dozens of Afghan
security personnel and four soldiers have also died.
Before today's violence, up to 372 people, mostly militants, have been reported
killed since May 17, according to military and Afghan figures.
Southern Afghanistan has seen some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of
the Taliban regime in late 2001 as US-led forces have responded to increased
attacks from the Taliban in their former stronghold.
In a separate incident today, five Canadian soldiers were wounded in a gun
battle after their convoy was ambushed by Taliban guerrillas in the neighbouring
Kandahar province, a Canadian military spokesman said.
Meanwhile, thousands marched through the capital, Kabul, after security forces
opened fire on protesters, killing at least seven Afghans and wounding 40. The
clashes followed a fatal traffic accident involving a US military convoy.
A truck went out of control and crashed into a dozen vehicles, killing at least
one person and injuring six. Afghans threw stones, smashing windows in the
convoy vehicles, a US military statement said.
One of the US vehicles appeared to fire in the air. Afghan police also opened
fire when they came to the assistance of the US troops.
It was unclear who was responsible for shooting into the crowd. Some
eyewitnesses blamed the US troops, others blamed the police and some blamed
both.
"There are indications that at least one coalition military vehicle fired
warning shots over the crowd," a US military statement said.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw one man shot dead and several wounded people
being taken away, while rioters set two police cars alight.
At least seven civilians were killed during the protest, Karim Rahimi, a
spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said.
The US said no troops had been hurt, and an investigation into the rush hour
incident on Kabul's northern outskirts had begun.
By early afternoon, up to 2,000 protesters had gathered in central Kabul, some
marching on parliament and some on the presidential palace.
Several hundred more congregated at an intersection leading to the heavily
fortified US embassy, chanting "Death to America" and burning US flags.
"We don't accept Karzai any more as a president. We protest against him - death
to Karzai!" Jaweed Agha, one of the protesters, shouted.
A few dozen people forced their way past a police cordon guarding the road to
the US embassy and threw stones at vehicles carrying foreigners into the
compound, prompting the occupants to fire into the air before turning back.
The protesters outside the embassy were later dispersed by police and Afghan
army troops who fired into the air.
50
killed in Afghanistan air strike, G, 29.5.2006,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1785358,00.html
Coalition strike in Afghanistan kills 5
Posted 5/27/2006 1:11 AM ET
USA Today
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S.-led coalition
strike on a militant training facility in Afghanistan's borderlands with
Pakistan killed five suspected extremists, including senior Taliban leaders, the
U.S. military said Saturday.
The military said that "key senior leaders of
the Taliban network" were among the five dead in the late Friday strike on the
site at the remote Qal'a Sak village, in Helmand Province.
No identities or precise numbers of the Taliban leaders killed were released.
The military said the Taliban commanders have carried out attacks against
coalition and Afghan army forces as well as Afghan officials and civilians.
Coalition forces said there were no civilian casualties in the strike and ground
troops and destroyed war materiel at the scene, including machine guns and
explosives. The coalition vowed further attacks.
"Enemy leadership will continue to be targeted so long as they pose a threat to
the security and stability of Afghanistan," the military said in a statement.
Nearly a dozen people were killed in fresh clashes Friday between police and
Taliban militants on Friday, while a human rights group estimated that 34
civilians died earlier this week in a U.S. airstrike on a southern village —
double the official toll.
Extending more than a week of stepped-up violence, Taliban rebels ambushed a
police patrol in central Ghazni province Friday and the ensuing battle left 10
militants and a policeman dead, local police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said.
Another 13 insurgents and two police died Wednesday in a battle in southern
Helmand province's Sangin district, said local administrator Ghulam Muhiddin. It
took two days for news of the battle to emerge due to the remoteness of the
battle site.
As many as 365 people, mostly militants, have died in an upsurge of violence
since May 17, according to Afghan and coalition figures. Because of the
difficulty of accessing the scenes of combat, those figures could not be
confirmed independently.
Abdul Qadar Noorzai, the director of the Kandahar office of the Afghanistan
Independent Human Rights Commission, said Afghans who had fled their small
village of Azizi told him that about 25 family members died in one mud-brick
home and that nine others perished in the village's religious school, or
madrassa, during a strike this week by U.S. warplanes.
About 11 civilians were wounded in total, he said, and villagers reported
burying about 35 "unknown people" — meaning militants from outside their area.
The estimate of 34 deaths more than doubles the number of dead civilians given
by the governor of Kandahar and President Hamid Karzai, who said that 16 people
had died.
The U.S.-led coalition has said its estimate of civilian deaths was in line with
the governor's. Sgt. Chris Miller, a coalition spokesman, said Friday he wasn't
aware of a new estimate and that the coalition's remained the same.
Haji Ikhlaf, a resident of Azizi who was wounded in the attack, told The
Associated Press earlier this week that villagers had buried 26 civilians.
The coalition has said up to 80 militants were killed, although 60 of those
fatalities were unconfirmed. It appeared to be one of the deadliest airstrikes
since U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
Karzai has called for an investigation into the airstrike and on Wednesday urged
the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan to make "every effort" to ensure
civilians' safety.
The U.S. military has said it takes "extraordinary measures" to protect Afghan
civilians, but that Taliban militants were firing on coalition forces from
inside the villagers' homes, and that troops had the right to return fire in
defense.
Noorzai said he hasn't been able to visit Azizi to take a survey of the civilian
deaths because security forces surrounding the area won't let anyone in.
Militants have increased their attacks in the last several months across
Afghanistan's southern and eastern regions near the border with Pakistan. The
U.S. military says it has seen an increase in the number of Taliban fighters,
particularly in the south.
Coalition strike in Afghanistan kills 5, UT, 27.5.2006,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-05-27-afghan-violence_x.htm
Karzai Visits Site of Battle Where Many
Civilians Died
May 26, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 25 — President Hamid
Karzai made a surprise visit on Thursday to Kandahar, his hometown in the south,
to visit civilians wounded in an American bombing nearby on Sunday.
Thousands of villagers have fled their homes and sought refuge in Kandahar
because of the airstrikes and some of the most intense fighting in Afghanistan
since the American invasion in 2001.
The president's visit was fleeting, and security was heavy. (He narrowly
survived an assassination attempt there in 2002.) Speaking to a gathering of
Pashtun tribal elders, he promised he would bring security to the region.
"He told us not to be worried about the situation, that let's wait and see, and
that we will bring security," said Hajji Agha Lalai Dastagiri, a member of the
newly elected provincial council in Kandahar who was present at the meeting.
"He promised the people that he would build Afghanistan, that God would rebuild
it, that the international community was with us, and they would build
Afghanistan and bring security to this region," Mr. Dastagiri said. "People were
telling him we really need security, but that we do not need foreign troops and
helicopters and tanks anymore: we Afghans should take care of it."
Taliban insurgents have appeared in force in recent weeks across southern
Afghanistan, apparently in an effort to derail the deployment by NATO as it
prepares to take over from American forces in the region. Some of the heaviest
fighting has taken place in Kandahar Province and neighboring Helmand, and
scores of Taliban fighters and police officers have been killed.
But it was the bombing on Sunday night in which civilians were killed that has
turned the fighting into a political crisis for Mr. Karzai and caused thousands
of civilians to flee.
Two thousand to 3,000 people have left a ring of five villages where the
fighting has been raging this week and have arrived in trucks and tractors in
Kandahar City, said Rahilla Zafar, a press officer for the International
Organization for Migration. "The Taliban are taking over village communities,
and the people are scared," she said.
Her office, which is closing down its operations for displaced people this week
for lack of funds, has suddenly found 156 families in a refugee camp nearby who
are appealing for urgent assistance to move out of the region, she said.
Fighting continued Wednesday in the Panjwai district, just west of Kandahar, and
coalition forces bombed the area again, the United States-led force in Kandahar
said in a statement. Two suspected Taliban insurgents were detained.
In the evening, troops clashed with a "sizable force of Taliban, who retreated
into a house and continued fighting," the statement said. "Artillery and air
support was used to destroy the enemy. Sporadic fighting continued through the
night. We have no assessment of Taliban killed or wounded."
The estimate of the civilian casualties Sunday continued to rise.
Abdul Qadar Noorzai, the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
in Kandahar, who has been compiling numbers from families arriving at his
office, said at least 33 civilians were killed when American planes bombarded
Tolokan on Sunday. That would be double the number first reported.
According to the villagers' accounts, 24 members of one family who lived in a
large mud-walled compound died and 8 were wounded in the first bombing attack,
Mr. Noorzai said. In a second bombing, of a religious school, nine civilians
were killed and three wounded, he said.
Villagers also reported that they had buried 35 Taliban fighters who were killed
in the attack, he said.
The broader humanitarian crisis also seems to be worsening.
The United Nations World Food Program warned Thursday that 2.5 million Afghans
would go hungry this winter if donors did not finance a program for the most
vulnerable communities suffering from poor harvests and drought. A lack of funds
has already forced the organization to cut some supplies, and it may have to
close its winter program entirely, ending food assistance to 450,000
schoolchildren and their families, said Anthony Banbury, the regional director
for Asia.
He warned at a news briefing that failure to keep the program could turn the
people against the government and the international community, and push them
into the arms of insurgents.
"If people are going hungry, if parents cannot feed their children, they
obviously are going to be very dissatisfied with the current situation," he
said. "And they may be tempted or even forced to take extreme measures."
Sultan M. Munadi and Ruhullah Khapalwak contributed reporting for this
article.
Karzai Visits Site of Battle Where Many Civilians Died, NYT, 26.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/26/world/asia/26afghan.html
U.S. Airstrike at Taliban Kills Civilians,
Afghans Say
May 23, 2006
The New York Times
By RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 22 — American
planes in pursuit of suspected Taliban fighters bombed a village in southern
Afghanistan on Sunday night and early Monday, killing 16 civilians and wounding
15, among them women and children, the local governor and villagers said Monday.
The American-led coalition said it had conducted a "successful operation" in the
area, and had killed from 20 to 80 Taliban fighters in the bombing, which struck
the village of Tolokan.
The governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khalid, expressed concern over the
civilian casualties after visiting the wounded in the Kandahar city hospital,
but he also urged civilians not to allow Taliban fighters to take refuge in
their homes.
"As they were chased by the coalition, the enemy hid in civilian houses, and as
it was nighttime and difficult to tell who is enemy and who is civilian,
unfortunately we have civilian casualties also," the governor said. "We are
upset about the civilian casualties."
A coalition spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said in a statement issued in
Kabul, the Afghan capital, that he was aware of reports of civilian casualties,
and that coalition forces were reviewing reports from the ground.
The fighting over the past week in southern Afghanistan, against rebels allied
with the country's former Taliban rulers, has been the most intense since the
United States intervened in the country in late 2001 against the Taliban and Al
Qaeda. Hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters have battled Afghan and coalition
forces in several southern provinces, resulting in scores of deaths.
Fighting that began last Wednesday has been raging in the Panjwai district,
about 15 miles west of the city of Kandahar. In the Sunday night operation,
coalition forces, led by Canadian troops on the ground and supported by American
planes, mounted their second operation in a week against a large Taliban
presence in and near Panjwai, a military statement said.
"The purpose of this operation was to detain individuals suspected of terrorist
and anti-Afghanistan activities," said the statement, issued from Kabul. "These
individuals were active members of the Taliban network and have conducted
attacks against coalition and Afghan forces as well as civilians."
The coalition encountered organized resistance and called in additional ground
and air support, another statement said.
Planes started bombing close to midnight Sunday and continued for four or five
hours into Monday, said residents of Tolokan.
Mohammed Rafiq, a 23-year-old farmer, said the bombs had caused enormous
destruction. "I don't have anything left," he said.
Another farmer, Azizullah, 30, said three members of his family had been killed.
"I was at home when the Taliban came to our village last night," he said. "After
some time, U.S. planes came and bombed the Taliban, and they bombed us, too."
When he went out in the morning to go to the hospital, he said, he saw dozens of
dead Taliban fighters on the ground, apparently killed in the aerial
bombardment. Sixteen villagers were also killed and 15 were wounded, he and
other villagers said. Fifteen wounded people were in the hospital, including an
8-month-old baby, doctors confirmed.
Another villager, Taj Muhammad, said two of his brothers had been killed, and
others in his family were wounded. He said that when the bombing started, the
Taliban were desperately trying to take shelter and were not trying to fight.
U.S.
Airstrike at Taliban Kills Civilians, Afghans Say, NYT, 23.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/world/asia/23afghan.html
50 Taliban Rebels Are Killed in Afghanistan
May 22, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:08 a.m. ET
The New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S.-led
coalition forces killed about 50 suspected Taliban militants in an airstrike on
a rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the force said
Monday.
The attack occurred late Sunday and early Monday on the village of Azizi in
Panjwayi district, Kandahar province, said a coalition spokesman, Maj. Scott
Lundy.
''It was against a known Taliban stronghold and we believe it resulted in about
50 Taliban killed,'' he said.
Local residents claimed scores of civilians had also been killed and wounded.
Lundy said the coalition was investigating this.
More than a dozen villagers, many of them wounded, fled the area to the main
southern city of Kandahar early Monday. At the city's Mirwaise Hospital, one
man, with blood smeared over his clothes and turban, said insurgents had been
hiding in an Islamic madrassa religious school in the village after fierce
fighting in recent days.
''Helicopters bombed the madrassa and some of the Taliban ran from there and
into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed,'' said Haji Ikhlaf, 40. ''I
saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban and around 50 dead or wounded civilians.''
Another survivor from the village, Zurmina Bibi, who was cradling her wounded
8-month-old baby, said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three
or four children. ''There were dead people everywhere,'' she said, crying.
A doctor, Haji Mohammed Khan, said he had treated 10 people from the village.
50
Taliban Rebels Are Killed in Afghanistan, NYT, 22.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Airstrike.html?hp&ex=1148356800&en=7de451baddd4c55f&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Afghanistan Bomb Kills American and Wounds
2
May 19, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 18 — An American
counternarcotics official was killed and two other Americans were wounded in a
suicide bombing on Thursday in western Afghanistan, while heavy fighting between
forces suspected of being Taliban insurgents and the Afghan police continued in
two southern provinces, officials said.
The violence occurred amid increasing reports of many militants moving around
rural areas. The fighting killed 13 police officers and possibly dozens of
insurgents, officials said.
"We confirm that a U.S. citizen contractor for the State Department Bureau of
International Narcotic and Law Enforcement, working for the police training
program in Herat was killed in a vehicle-borne I.E.D. attack," said Chris
Harris, a spokesman for the United States Embassy, using the initials for
improvised explosive device. "Two other Americans were injured; one critically,
and one has minor injuries."
Col. Ghulam Sarwar Haidari, the intelligence chief for the provincial police
department in Herat, a western town, said the attack was a suicide bombing. He
said the bomber, who wore a long beard but was not identifiable, drove his car,
packed with explosives, into the Americans' vehicle, which was part of a
three-vehicle convoy on the main road leading north from Herat.
In what appeared to be another suicide car bomb attack on Thursday, the driver
and a civilian passing on a motorbike were killed near an American military base
in Ghazni Province, south of Kabul, the capital, said Hajji Sher Alam, the
provincial governor. Another civilian was injured, he said.
A Canadian military statement released on Thursday described fighting in
Panjwai, near Kandahar in the south, in which a Canadian soldier was killed
Wednesday. The fighting in Panjwai lasted all day and through the night as
coalition and Afghan police officers and army forces entered the district
against scores of militants who have been moving through the area for weeks, the
Canadian statement said. It said 18 fighters suspected of being Taliban members
had been killed and 35 others had been captured. Local residents had told Afghan
security forces of 15 armed men hiding in a mosque who were among those
captured, the statement said.
In a second statement released in Kabul describing the fighting, Maj. Gen.
Benjamin C. Freakley, the American operational commander of coalition forces,
was quoted as saying, "This well-organized, cooperative engagement was exactly
the operation needed to restore security to Panjwai, where extremists have been
intimidating and threatening the people."
Heavy fighting also occurred Wednesday in the neighboring Helmand Province, when
militants attacked a police post in Musa Qala, a district in the main
poppy-growing region in the northern part of the province. The police fought the
militants off, said a spokesman for the provincial administration, Hajji
Muhaiuddin Khan.
He said 50 Taliban fighters had been killed, but conceded the police had found
the bodies of only 10 militants. Thirteen police officers were killed and six
wounded, and 10 militants were captured, he said.
Sultan M. Munadi and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul,
Afghanistan, for this article.
Afghanistan Bomb Kills American and Wounds 2, NYT, 19.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/asia/19afghan.html
Taliban raid on Afghan town kills 53
Thu May 18, 2006 3:47 AM ET
Reuters
By Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban
insurgents launched a major attack on a town in the southern Afghan province of
Helmand and 13 policemen and 40 Taliban were killed in nine hours of fighting,
government officials said on Thursday.
In a separate incident, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy in the western
city of Herat, killing himself and an American, police said. The American was a
civilian State Department contractor, the U.S. embassy said.
The Taliban attacked the southern town, Mosa Qala, on Wednesday evening and the
fighting went on until early on Thursday, government officials said.
"Thirteen policemen were killed and six were injured," the Interior Ministry
said.
"Forty people on the enemy side were killed," a ministry official said, citing a
statement from spokesman Yousuf Stanizai.
The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan government forces in
recent months. The violence in parts of the country is the worst it has been
since the hardline Islamists were driven from power in late 2001.
Helmand's deputy governor, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, said it was the biggest
attack in the province since the end of Taliban rule. Hundreds of Taliban were
involved, he said.
Fighting was continuing as security forces battled the insurgents as they
withdrew, Akhundzada said, adding there had been some civilian casualties but he
did not know how many.
British troops are in charge of security in the province but no foreign soldiers
were involved in the battle, he and the Interior Ministry said.
The Herat provincial police chief said earlier a suicide bomber had attacked a
military convoy and the dead American was a soldier. An Afghan soldier and
interpreter had been wounded, he said.
But U.S. embassy spokesman Chris Harris said it was a civilian convoy and the
dead American was a civilian training Afghan police.
CANADIAN KILLED
The Taliban focused their attack on Mosa Qala on government offices and police
stations and many shops in the town's market caught fire during the battle,
Akhundzada said.
The town, 470 km (300 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, is about 40 km (25
miles) north of the province's Sangin district, the scene of frequent clashes
between Taliban and foreign and government forces.
A Taliban commander, speaking by telephone, said 30 policemen had been killed.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic
Press news agency Taliban had captured the town but later withdrew.
The recent surge in violence comes as NATO members are sending reinforcements to
boost their peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000.
With about 23,000 troops, the United States now has its largest force in
Afghanistan since its military involvement began in October 2001.
A Canadian woman soldier was killed in neighbouring Kandahar province on
Wednesday, hours before Canada's parliament narrowly backed a two-year extension
of Canada's Afghan mission to February 2009.
The U.S. military said 18 Taliban were killed and 26 captured in the fighting in
Panjwai district, 25 km (16 miles) west of Kandahar town.
The Taliban were ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 after refusing to hand
over Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United
States.
(Additional reporting by Yousuf Azimy)
Taliban raid on Afghan town kills 53, R, 18.5.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-05-18T074729Z_01_SP4924_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE.xml
Mourners preparing for a service at the chapel at Fort Drum.
It took two days
for the names of soldiers killed in Afghanistan to be released.
Ángel Franco/The New York Times
nYT May 12, 2006
The News at the Base Was Bad, With More
Likely to Follow NYT
12.5.2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/nyregion/12base.html
The News at the Base Was Bad,
With More
Likely to Follow
May 12, 2006
The New York Times
By JOHN KIFNER
FORT DRUM, N.Y., May 11 — When word came last Friday that a
big Chinook helicopter had tumbled off a knife-edge ridgeline in the mountains
of Afghanistan, killing 10 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, everybody
at this sprawling base feared the worst for their loved ones.
Maj. Thomas T. Sutton, as Rear Detachment Commander, the officer left behind to
care for the soldiers' families, was one of the few who knew just how close to
home the news would strike. From the helicopter's manifest, he was certain that
among the dead was one of the Third Brigade's most promising leaders, his boss,
neighbor and friend, Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty Jr.
But by the strict rules of the Army, he could not tell anyone — most important,
not Colonel Fenty's wife, Kristin, who had given birth to their daughter,
Lauren, only last month — until the bodies were positively identified. The
process took nearly two days — two days in which Major Sutton had to keep his
terrible news a secret.
"This was a huge burden for me," he said. "This was very unusual, because in
this case the news was out, but no one has the details."
Death in the Army comes with its own strictly honored rules and rituals. And at
this base near the Canadian border, the latest round of death has provided a
window into the close-knit, mutually supportive world of today's all-volunteer
military, a world unknown to most Americans even though hundreds of thousands
have cycled through Iraq and Afghanistan, many for second or third tours.
In recent years, the Army has organized what it calls Family Readiness Groups, a
support structure for families that mirrors the military organization, with the
wives of the commanders at, for example, company and battalion level heading a
committee of those units' soldiers' wives. Much of their work involves coping
with the Army's forms and regulations on pay, housing and other matters, as well
as providing a social network, particularly important when the soldiers are
deployed.
But their duties also include helping the base cope with death, of which there
has been plenty in recent years: the division has had 38 soldiers from Fort Drum
killed in Iraq and now 21 in Afghanistan; 11 soldiers died in a helicopter crash
in training here on March 11, 2003.
And more bad news is likely to come. As the Army's most-deployed division, the
10th Mountain has its First Brigade in Iraq and its Third Brigade in
Afghanistan, a total of 10,494 troops. Its Second Brigade is just back from
training in California and is heading for Iraq this summer.
"No one likes to talk about death," Major Sutton observed. But at meetings with
the families in December, before the Third Brigade left, there was frank talk of
the procedures followed for a fatality — including a listing of close friends —
along with discussions of military paperwork, winter driving and a forthcoming
dance.
For Major Sutton, a boyish-looking Rutgers graduate and his wife, Amy, who
supervises the F.R.G.'s, as the support groups are known in Army style, it was
time to put those painful procedures into effect.
"I do a lot of the 'green-suit' stuff," he likes to say, "but she has the skill
sets to deal with the families."
News of the helicopter crash was on cable television channels early Saturday
morning.
"All the calls started coming in," Major Sutton recalled. "Mothers,
grandmothers, sisters, literally from all over the world. Hour by hour, people
were calling back" for more information.
By Saturday evening, Major Sutton had notification teams in dress- green
uniforms standing by in a number of locations. But, in the steep terrain where
the helicopter crashed, it was not until Sunday morning that the last two bodies
were recovered and identified, and the ordered, formal process could go forward.
The helicopter had fallen around 8 p.m., Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, the
division's spokesman, said by telephone from Afghanistan. With six crew members
aboard, it was picking up a group of nine soldiers operating an observation post
on the ridge in Kunar Province as part of Operation Mountain Lion, which is
aimed at driving the Taliban out of the northeastern border region.
Colonel Fenty, commander of the Third Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, and three
of his troopers had just boarded the Chinook when it tipped and plunged into the
ravine, exploding into fire and burning beyond all recognition. The Army is
investigating the cause but says no enemy fire was involved.
"It was steep and rugged terrain, 60-degree drops to the left and the right,
Colonel Fitzpatrick said. "It was completely catastrophic. It took two days to
complete the arduous task of recovering the bodies."
As darkness fell, the remaining soldiers and nine more from a nearby ridge
secured the area, Colonel Fitzpatrick said, and the next day a recovery team,
including marines and an Air Force parachute-medical-rescue unit, was assembled
to bring the bodies out by rappelling down cliffs and climbing back up.
The hard task of notifying Colonel Fenty's wife fell to Lt. Col. Michael Howard,
an officer of equal rank and a close friend of the family, who strode to her
door in the dress green uniform the wives dread. "I heard the scream," recalled
Major Sutton, who was standing nearby. "The crying, the wailing. 'No, why?' Then
a total breakdown."
Colonel Howard was reluctant to speak of his role, but said "before I left the
home, there were five women there. As soon as we passed the news they were there
fast."
Among the women were the three that Mrs. Fenty had listed on her readiness form
as her closest friends: Christina Cavoli, whose husband commands an infantry
battalion; Andrea Bushy, whose husband is an artillery commander; and Gretchen
Timmons, whose husband was Colonel Fenty's executive officer, or No. 2. Amy
Sutton was there, too. Mrs. Fenty had headed the squadron's F.R.G.; now it was
she who needed support.
They all live close together in two-story grayish frame houses on the base, in a
section of winding streets set aside for majors and lieutenant colonels, and
they socialize often — dinner parties, walking dogs, taking children to the
school bus. With the soldiers deployed, it looks like a neighborhood of women
and children.
"Forward, it's brothers-in-arms," Major Sutton said. "That's who you fight for.
It's the same thing here. It's sisters, that's who will come to the rescue.
They'll set up camp in her house and do her chores and protect her."
Military families move frequently but bond quickly, Ms. Cavoli said, adding that
the support network is "a system that's familiar, that they can plug into very
readily. Typically, we don't have serious bad news to deal with."
Colonel Fenty had built the cavalry squadron — a new formation in an Army
reorganization that relies on integrated brigade combat teams — from scratch,
officers here said. With about 500 troops, it is smaller than an infantry
battalion of around 800 and is designed primarily for reconnaissance. The troops
liken it to scouts in the old West and have adopted black Stetsons and spurs.
"We're the eyes and ears of the brigade," said Capt. Al Goetz, the rear
detachment commander. "Whether you're on a horse or a donkey, a Humvee or a
Bradley, the job hasn't really changed. We're like dragoons. In reality, we're
really dismounting a lot in Afghanistan. We're not afraid to get off those
vehicles."
Captain Goetz was finishing writing a eulogy on Thursday morning for a midday
chapel ceremony honoring Colonel Fenty and the three others from 3-71 Cavalry.
Closed to outsiders, it was being videotaped for Lauren Fenty to see when she is
old enough.
Colonel Fenty seemed, at least at first, a very private man, Captain Goetz said.
But "he was very concerned about his families," he said.
The News at the
Base Was Bad, With More Likely to Follow, NYT, 12.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/nyregion/12base.html?hp&ex=1147492800&en=6682b0a70fffafa1&ei=5094&partner=homepage
US says strike near Afghan border kills 4
militants
Mon May 8, 2006 4:18 PM ET
Reuters
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S. air strike killed
four suspected Taliban or al Qaeda fighters close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border on Monday, the U.S. military said.
U.S. ground troops later found the guerrillas dead and captured a fifth,
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick said at the U.S. military base at Bagram
outside Kabul.
The attack was launched after U.S. and Afghan forces spotted a group of
suspected militants loading a truck with rockets stored in a cave in the Bermel
district of Paktika province, less than 1 km from the border with the Pakistani
tribal region of South Waziristan.
The air strike came on the heels of criticism by a senior U.S. official of
Pakistan's efforts to stop Taliban fighters crossing into Afghanistan to attack
U.S. and Afghan forces.
"We called in air support and struck that truck," Fitzpatrick said. "We sent a
ground force to the cave and found four dead enemy combatants and captured one
combatant."
Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had earlier
said the attack had taken place inside Pakistani territory, but Fitzpatrick said
the U.S. forces used satellite positioning data to confirm the target's
location.
"It was close, it was within a kilometer or so of the border, but it was clearly
within Afghanistan," he said
"During this operation we were in contact with Pakistani military forces on
their side of the border. They knew what we were doing," he added.
However, three men wounded in the U.S. airstrike were brought for treatment to
the Pakistani bordertown of Angoor Adda, and according to the Pakistani
officials' version they had been mining for minerals in the nearby mountains.
Pakistani military and government spokesmen could not be immediately contacted.
Pakistan does not allow foreign forces to operate inside its territory, and the
government is sensitive to criticism that it has already gone too far in helping
the United States.
It has deployed close to 80,000 troops in the border areas and they have killed
more than 300 militants in neighboring North Waziristan since mid-2005. It has
lost more than 50 soldiers in the fight against foreign al Qaeda militants and
their supporters among the local tribes.
Henry Crumpton, the U.S. State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism,
said in Kabul on Saturday: "Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is
'no'.
"Not only al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the
Pakistanis know that," Crumpton said, adding that eliminating militant safe
havens in Pakistan's tribal lands was crucial.
Crumpton's comments were a rare public admonishment of Pakistan by a member of
the U.S. administration, and were a sign of growing frustration with the
Taliban's resurgence since late last year. A Pakistani spokesman dismissed his
remarks as "highly irresponsible".
US
says strike near Afghan border kills 4 militants, R, 8.5.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-05-08T201814Z_01_SP130614_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-PAKISTAN-USA.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L3-Top+NewsNews-9
10 U.S. Soldiers Are Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash
May 7, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 6 — Ten American soldiers were
killed when their helicopter crashed Friday in eastern Afghanistan, near the
Pakistani border, the United States military said Saturday.
The crash took place close to a landing zone and was not caused by hostile fire,
a military spokeswoman, Lt. Tamara Lawrence, said. The bodies were being
recovered Saturday, she said, and an investigation into the cause was under way.
The soldiers were among 2,500 coalition and Afghan forces taking part in an
offensive operation in a remote part of Kunar Province, about 150 miles east of
the capital, Kabul. Insurgents are known to be based in the region, and the
military has been flying soldiers into high mountain ridges there to cut off
escape routes.
Forces of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have joined mujahedeen groups in the area who
are loyal to a renegade commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The insurgents have been
attacking coalition and government forces, mostly with remote-controlled mine
explosions on the mountain roads. Four United States soldiers were killed there
on March 12.
Kunar has been one of the most dangerous areas for the United States-led
coalition and Afghan forces. It is across the border from a Pakistani region
that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are thought to visit
from time to time.
Friday's crash brings to 25 the number of American soldiers killed this year in
Afghanistan, where a coalition force of about 20,000 is active. In 2005, 84
American service members were killed, the highest number in any year since
military operations began in Afghanistan in 2001.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for Friday's
crash when he was reached by telephone, saying Taliban fighters had shot down
the helicopter, a Chinook transport. "Whenever we shoot them down, they announce
it as a technical problem," he said of the coalition forces. "This is their
propaganda." But Lieutenant Lawrence said Saturday that so far there was no
indication of hostile fire. People on the ground at a landing zone near where
the helicopter crashed as well as people aboard other aircraft in the air at the
time of the crash did not see any signs of fire, she said.
Insurgents used shoulder-held rocket-propelled grenade launchers to shoot down
two American military helicopters last year. One helicopter was carrying 16
people, including eight Navy Seal commandos, and went down in Kunar Province in
July. The second, with five American crew members on board, was shot down in
September in Zabul Province, in southeast Afghanistan.
In the Zabul crash, the United States at first said hostile fire was not
involved, but investigators later confirmed that the helicopter had been shot
down.
At a news briefing in Kabul on Saturday, Henry A. Crumpton, the American
coordinator for counterterrorism, said he believed that Mr. bin Laden was hiding
on the Pakistani side of the border. "We are very confident that he is along the
Afghan-Pakistan border somewhere," Mr. Crumpton said while on a visit to
Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said there was "a higher probability that he is on
the Pakistan side, but no guarantee of that." He added that Pakistan was still
not doing enough to deny Taliban forces sanctuary in Pakistani border areas.
"Not only al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the
Pakistanis know that," he said. "It's something we have to help the Pakistanis
work through because it cannot remain a safe haven for enemy forces."
10 U.S. Soldiers
Are Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash, 7.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/world/asia/07afghan.html?hp&ex=1147060800&en=1083832635dfbd7e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Britain Takes NATO Command as Afghanistan Mission Grows
May 5, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 4 — Britain took command of the
NATO peacekeeping force in Afghanistan on Thursday, in preparation for the
expansion of its role into the turbulent southern and southeastern areas of the
country in what a NATO representative called the alliance's most challenging
operation to date.
Lt. Gen. David Richards assumed command in a short ceremony at which he issued a
warning to insurgents that he intended to build a strong security force with
NATO and American forces under a unified command. General Richards took charge
immediately of 9,000 troops of the NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force stationed here in the capital and the northern and western parts of the
country, where their focus is on supporting reconstruction activities. By the
end of July, he will assume command of NATO and other forces in southern
Afghanistan, adding combat operations against insurgents.
The arrival of some 6,000 NATO troops in the south will allow the United States
to reduce its force of 19,000 troops by 2,000 to 3,000 in August. American
forces will remain in the border provinces of eastern Afghanistan and are
expected to come under the NATO flag by November, giving General Richards
command of the military force across the country.
"It will be NATO's most challenging ground operation ever," Hikmet Cetin, the
alliance's civilian representative in Afghanistan, said at a news briefing after
the ceremony. "NATO cannot afford to fail in Afghanistan, for the whole world
and the whole region."
He said the alliance was sending its elite force, the Allied Rapid Reaction
Corps, to take on the task.
"As we know, security in the south and southeast is still borderline," he said.
"NATO will be challenged, but as NATO is ready for this challenge, it will not
be discouraged. We will do what is needed for success."
The departure of American troops from southern Afghanistan has already raised
concerns among Afghans there as they face an increasingly violent insurgency.
General Richards, who has led British peacekeeping forces in East Timor and
Sierra Leone, sought to reassure them.
"I am more than confident the skeptics will be proved wrong," he said, asserting
that the number of foreign troops in southern Afghanistan would double with the
arrival of NATO forces; that the number of Apache helicopters available to them
would increase; and that American aircraft would remain in support of NATO
troops.
The new British commander promised to use military force against those who
continued to oppose the Afghan government by violent means. He also said he
would collaborate closely with the military command in Pakistan to deny the
insurgents sanctuary.
General Richards also spoke of the Afghan government's efforts against opium
poppy growers, saying that NATO forces would not be directly involved in poppy
eradication.
Mr. Cetin said he was also planning to visit Pakistan. "Without the cooperation
of the whole region, we will not have stability," he said.
NATO does plan to do some things differently, General Richards said. At a news
briefing after the ceremony, he said NATO would not hold detainees, nor would it
hand them over to American detention facilities, but would pass them to the
Afghan law enforcement agencies under a carefully monitored system.
Asked if his troops would continue to raid houses, which has upset Afghan
civilians, he said that while he would not prohibit his troops from searching a
house, he was advising that if there were any doubts about the necessity, they
should not do so.
Britain Takes NATO
Command as Afghanistan Mission Grows, NYT, 5.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/world/asia/05afghan.html
Taliban Threat Is Said to Grow in Afghan South
May 3, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan, April 27 — Building on a winter
campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American
troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new
phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.
Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts
up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have
alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.
"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere," a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told
the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as
the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is
all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and
the people have to support them. They have no choice."
The fact that American troops are pulling out of southern Afghanistan in the
coming months, and handing matters over to NATO peacekeepers, who have
repeatedly stated that they are not going to fight terrorists, has given a lift
to the insurgents, and increased the fears of Afghans.
General Eikenberry appealed for patience and support. "There has not been enough
attention paid to Uruzgan," he said in a speech to the elders of Uruzgan
Province gathered at the governor's house in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital.
"I think the leaders, the Afghan government and the international community
recognize this. There is reform coming and this year you will see it."
The arrival of large numbers of Taliban in the villages, flush with money and
weapons, has dealt a blow to public confidence in the Afghan government, already
undermined by lack of tangible progress and frustration with corrupt and
ineffective leaders.
This small one-street town is in the Taliban heartland, and the message from the
townspeople was bleak.
Uruzgan, the province where President Hamid Karzai first rallied support against
the Taliban in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, is now, four years later,
in the thrall of the Islamic militants once more, and the provincial capital is
increasingly surrounded by areas in Taliban control, local and American
officials acknowledge. A recent report by a member of the United Nations mission
in Afghanistan shown to The New York Times detailed similar fears.
The new governor, Maulavi Abdul Hakim Munib, 35, who took up his position just a
month ago, controls only a "bubble" around Tirin Kot, an American military
officer said. The rest of the province is so thick with insurgents that all the
districts are colored amber or red to indicate that on military maps in the
nearby American base. Uruzgan has always been troublesome, yet the map marks a
deterioration since last year, when at least one central district had been
colored green, the officer said.
"The security situation is not good," Governor Munib told General Eikenberry and
a group of cabinet ministers at a meeting with tribal elders. "The number of
Taliban and enemy is several times more than that of the police and Afghan
National Army in this province," he said.
Uruzgan is not the only province teetering out of control. Helmand and Kandahar
to the south have been increasingly overrun by militants this year, as large
groups of Taliban are reportedly moving through the countryside, intimidating
villagers, ambushing vehicles, and spoiling for a fight with coalition or Afghan
forces.
Insurgents also have the run of parts of Zabul, Ghazni and Paktika Provinces to
the southeast, and have increased ambushes on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.
The Bush administration is alarmed, according to a Western intelligence official
close to the administration. He said that while senior members of the
administration consider the situation in Iraq to be not as bad as portrayed in
the press, in Afghanistan the situation is worse than it has been generally
portrayed.
Asked about the surge in Taliban activity in southern Afghanistan, a Pentagon
spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said: "We have seen Taliban activity fluctuate from
time to time." The British-led NATO force taking over from the American troops
in the south "has well-equipped, well-led and fully prepared forces to operate
in this challenging environment and deal with any threats," he added.
He noted that the United States would continue to be the largest contributor of
troops to Afghanistan, and would continue to have primary responsibility for
counterterrorism operations and for training Afghan Army units, even with NATO
taking over in the south.
In one of the most serious developments, some 200 Taliban have moved into the
district of Panjwai, only a 20-minute drive from the capital of the south,
Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's home city. The police and coalition forces clashed with
them two weeks ago, yet the Taliban returned, walking in the villages openly
with their weapons, and sitting under the trees eating mulberries, according to
a resident of the district.
The resident, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said the Taliban
had been demanding food, lodging and the Muslim tithing, zakat, from villagers.
Their brazenness and the failure of the United States-led coalition to deter
them is turning public opinion about the effectiveness of the government.
For the first time the Afghan government has sent 500 men of the newly trained
Afghan National Army to the neglected province. The official police force of
Uruzgan is 347 strong, with 45 men deployed in each of the five districts, but
far fewer actually turn up for work. American officials estimated armed Taliban
in the province numbered from 300 to 1,000 men. The governor estimated there
were 300 armed insurgents in each district.
The Taliban are warning the people to expect more attacks, the shopkeeper, Mr.
Saifullah, told General Eikenberry. "During the day the people, the police, and
the army are with the government, but during the night, the people, the police,
and the army are all with the Taliban and Al Qaeda," he said.
Another man, Rahmatullah, told the general that his brother had been arrested by
American forces and the raids and house searches had made the young men take to
the hills to join the militants. "Release my brother and the tribal elders will
persuade the young men to come back home and stop fighting," he said.
"The unemployment rate is very high and the people of Uruzgan are very poor,"
said Mullah Hamdullah, the elected head of the provincial council.
Unsure of the strength and commitment to fight of the incoming NATO forces —
with British, Canadian, Dutch and Australian contingents — Afghan provincial
officials, who stand first in the Taliban's firing line, have demanded that Mr.
Karzai provide them with hundreds more police officers and weapons.
The governors of Uruzgan and Kandahar both said in interviews that they have
lobbied the president for a force of 200 police officers for every district —
four times current numbers — and to provide more resources to equip and supply
them properly.
In a recent strategy review, Mr. Karzai agreed to increase the government
presence in the frontline provinces, his chief of staff, Jawed Ludin, said. "We
are increasingly hearing this, that there only 40 officers per district, and
half of them are protecting the district chief as bodyguards, and the other half
are on leave," he said.
A deputy minister of the interior, Abdul Malik Siddiqi, told the gathering that
the government had a plan to send 200 to 250 police officers to each district of
Uruzgan, and to find resources to equip them and pay their salaries.
General Eikenberry expressed caution about the idea, warning that there were not
enough trained officers to send to the area, and more important, a lack of good
leaders to control those police forces.
Uruzgan has suffered from a lingering Taliban presence and its forbidding
terrain, which has made security and governing extremely difficult, resulting in
neglect from the central government, he said. There has been no police reform or
training here, no presence of the Afghan National Army and virtually no
development, he said.
General Eikenberry is hoping to turn things around this year with new and better
local leaders. "Now we see a lot of those conditions changing," he said, in an
interview in the cockpit of the C130 military plane on the way to Uruzgan.
Replacing the governor, and police and intelligence chiefs, should allow for
reform and better governance, he said. Some 500 men of the national army have
been deployed in the province and the police should receive better resources.
Hopes are pinned on Maulavi Munib, an educated, religious man from eastern
Afghanistan, who was deputy minister of tribal affairs of the Taliban
government. He is starting from scratch since the former governor sold all his
vehicles, including police vehicles, and all the arms and ammunition owned by
the province.
Governor Munib's past brings an added complication, since he remains listed by
the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee as a wanted member of
the Taliban leadership, which technically bars any government from providing
financial, technical or military assistance to his province.
The Afghan government has formally requested that he, and three other former
Taliban officials, including two members of Afghanistan's new Parliament, be
removed from the list, a process that demands the agreement of all Security
Council members, but Afghan officials said Russia remained opposed to the
proposal.
Taliban Threat Is
Said to Grow in Afghan South, NYT, 3.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?hp&ex=1146628800&en=0692a5a972d58a3a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Karzai's Holiday Pardons Set an American Free
May 1, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 30 — An American imprisoned here
after being found guilty of running a private jail and torturing detainees was
released Sunday under a presidential pardon.
President Hamid Karzai granted an early release to Edward Caraballo, 44, an
independent filmmaker from the Bronx, and to all other prisoners with less than
a year to serve. Mr. Caraballo had served 21 months of a two-year sentence. The
pardons were in honor of two national holidays, the Prophet Muhammad's birthday
and Afghanistan's defeat of Communism.
Mr. Caraballo was convicted in 2004 along with two other Americans, Jonathan K.
Idema, known as Jack, and Brent Bennett, former members of the United States
military. All three were arrested at a house in Kabul where Afghan security
forces said they found Afghan detainees and signs of interrogations. Mr. Idema
and Mr. Bennett, who are serving longer sentences of five and three years,
respectively, remain jailed.
"I am not trusting it until it happens," Mr. Caraballo said Sunday from the
prison, hours before getting on a plane. He said that American Embassy officials
and the Afghan prison chief had first told him he was to be released Saturday,
telling him to get ready to leave that afternoon. "I am ready for it," he said
of the shock of going from an Afghan prison to the United States. "I just want
to get back and see my daughter."
Mr. Caraballo had been trying to convince Afghan authorities of his innocence by
distancing himself from Mr. Idema and Mr. Bennett. He said he was a journalist
who had been filming Mr. Idema's group and was not involved in its activities.
His original sentence of eight years was reduced on appeal last year.
A convoy of vehicles from the United States Embassy escorted Mr. Caraballo to
the airport. An Afghan airport official said the embassy had asked that
reporters be prevented from speaking with Mr. Caraballo.
During the trial, Mr. Caraballo was given little chance to state his case. The
court found all three men and four Afghan employees guilty of involvement in the
detention and torture of eight Afghan detainees. Several of the detainees were
witnesses at the trial.
Mr. Caraballo said his release was expedited after he narrowly escaped a
lynching during a prison riot.
All three Americans were imprisoned in Pul-i-Charkhi, a sprawling
Russian-designed prison in Kabul with 1,000 inmates, some of them suspected of
links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Suspected members of Al Qaeda attacked prison
guards on two occasions and then tried to reach the Americans, apparently in
attempts to kill them.
In continuing violence, three Afghan soldiers were killed Sunday by a
remote-control roadside bomb, Reuters reported. Three other Afghan soldiers were
wounded in the blast, which took place in Helmand Province, in the south.
On Sunday morning, the body of an Indian engineer kidnapped with his Afghan
driver on Friday afternoon was found beheaded beside the main highway in
southern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping.
The Taliban had set a 24-hour deadline for the Indian government to withdraw all
Indian workers and diplomats from Afghanistan in return for the kidnapped man's
release.
The engineer, identified only as Mr. Surayanarayan by his employer, the Roshan
telephone company, was killed when he tried to escape Sunday morning, Taliban
officials said. "When he tried to escape, the mujahedeen shot him in the back,"
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "We
wanted to negotiate and give more time, but it happened suddenly."
Mr. Ahmadi denied that the engineer had been beheaded but added that
"irresponsible fighters" could have done it. He said the Afghan driver would be
released unharmed.
Ruhullah Khapalwak contributed reporting for this article.
Karzai's Holiday
Pardons Set an American Free, NYT, 1.5.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/world/asia/01afghan.html?hp&ex=1146542400&en=f207f6c7b909b8ce&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Afghan Bomb on Road Kills 4 Canadians
April 23, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 22 — Four Canadian soldiers were
killed Saturday when their vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in southern
Afghanistan, Canadian military officials said.
The explosion hit their patrol in the mountainous Shah Wali Kot district of
Kandahar Province, where Canadian troops took over from American forces last
month and where complaints about their actions had started to emerge from
villagers.
Three of the soldiers were killed instantly, and the fourth died at a military
hospital after being evacuated to Kandahar, a Canadian military spokesman, Maj.
Quentin Innis, said by telephone.
The explosion, detonated by a technically advanced remote controlled device, was
probably the work of an insurgent cell, he said.
The Canadian soldiers had mounted a large operation in Shah Wali Kot, beside
Afghan Army and police forces, to make their presence known, meet the villagers
and search for insurgents and explosives.
That operation has run into trouble. An Afghan youth hit a Canadian soldier in
the head with an ax in March in a nearby village, Shinkay, about seven miles
from where the bomb attack occurred Saturday. The soldier is still in the
hospital, in a coma; the Afghan youth was shot dead by other soldiers at the
time.
Members of a family from Gumbad, the village where the Canadians are based, said
Saturday in a telephone interview that the bombing had been organized by
villagers who were angry about what they described as inappropriate treatment
during searches.
One elder, whose family asked that he not be identified for fear of reprisals,
denounced the Canadian troops for bringing dogs into the village mosque and
peoples' homes, and for conducting intimate body searches.
"I am an educated person, and I know a bit about how they do things, but I am
getting angry when they are bringing dogs to my mosque and to my house," the
elder said. "I also feel like attacking them with an ax, but I lack the
courage."
Major Innis said that the Canadian force had not received such complaints from
villagers, and that the sophistication and cost of the bomb was such that it was
unlikely to have been set by them.
Afghan Bomb on
Road Kills 4 Canadians, NYT, 23.10.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/world/asia/23afghan.html
Renewed fighting in Afghanistan
Updated 4/19/2006 10:42 PM ET
USA TODAY
By Tom Vanden Brook
Fighting between allied forces and Afghan insurgents has
spiked in 2006 as the Afghan government tries to widen its control over the
country 4½ years after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban regime.
The latest surge in fighting started last month, when the
Taliban announced a spring military offensive aimed at destabilizing the
U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. U.S. and NATO forces have
vigorously fought the Taliban and increased their pursuit of other insurgents
and drug traders, said Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman.
Late Wednesday, a huge explosion rocked the capital city, Kabul, near the
diplomatic area where the U.S. Embassy is located. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor
told the Associated Press that the explosion appeared to have been caused by a
rocket. An Afghan security contractor was wounded.
The increased fighting is a sign "the Taliban and al-Qaeda have regrouped to a
troubling extent," said Ted Galen Carpenter, a military expert at the Cato
Institute, a think tank in Washington. The Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic
faction, led Afghanistan until the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Other signs of more fighting:
•Afghan insurgents are using many more improvised explosive devices (IEDs),
which are the largest killer of U.S. troops in Iraq. Wednesday, two Canadian
soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Helmand,
and two U.S. troops were injured Tuesday by an IED in Zabul, another southern
province.
"We're starting to see some tactics, techniques and procedures that you could
draw a conclusion that may have come from training in Iraq," Maj. Gen. Benjamin
Freakley, commander of the Army's 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, said
last month.
•U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan almost tripled in March compared with March
2005, Pentagon records show. That roughly matches the increased fighting, Vician
said.
U.S., Pakistani and Afghan military officials met in Pakistan on Wednesday to
discuss the increased IED threat.
Vician said Taliban fighters seem to be testing NATO troops who are taking on an
increased role there. There are about 23,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and
about 9,000 from NATO and other nations.
Anthony Cordesman, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, said relatively low U.S. casualties may
offer a false sense of success while much remains at stake. In Afghanistan, 223
U.S. servicemembers have been killed, compared with 2,379 in Iraq.
The Taliban and al-Qaeda resurgence is in part because of the U.S. shift toward
Iraq in 2003, Carpenter said.
"We may have had an opportunity to deal a death blow to the Islamic fighters in
Afghanistan at that time, but if we did, we missed that opportunity," Carpenter
said.
Contributing: Wire reports
Renewed fighting
in Afghanistan, UT, 19.4.2006,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-04-19-kabul-blast_x.htm
US-led forces probe Afghan civilian deaths
Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:23 AM ET
Reuters
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces have launched
an investigation into the deaths of seven Afghan civilians during an offensive
against Taliban and other militants in the east of the country over the weekend,
a statement said.
Coalition forces used warplanes and artillery to flush out a group of eight to
10 suspected insurgents from a house and a cave in Kunar province, the U.S.
military said in a statement late on Sunday.
"After the battle, coalition forces determined that civilians had been caught in
the fire. Initial reports indicate that seven civilians were killed and three
were wounded near the fighting," it said, adding an investigation was underway.
Residents of Kunar said that 10 civilians were killed in Saturday's bombing by
U.S.-led troops.
The operations in Kunar and in the southern province of Kandahar were launched
after a surge of attacks on Afghan and foreign forces since the Taliban
announced a spring offensive last month.
The U.S. military said a separate investigation had been launched after the
Afghan National Police reported it had suffered casualties, possibly due to
friendly fire, during an operation with U.S. forces against the militants near
Kandahar.
"We are investigating the incident and we will work jointly with the government
of Afghanistan to determine the events that took place during this fight,"
Brigadier General David Fraser, commander of the multinational brigade for the
south, said in a statement on Monday.
Afghan forces and coalition helicopter gunships had killed 41 militants in a
fierce battle during a raid on a suspected Taliban hide-out in Kandahar
province, the governor said. But the Taliban denied the claim.
U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in Kabul after its leaders
refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, architect of the September
11 attacks on the United States.
Afghans say thousands of civilians have been killed in the coalition operations
against the insurgents since then.
US-led forces
probe Afghan civilian deaths, R, 17.4.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-04-17T051332Z_01_ISL127228_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE.xml
Dozens Reported Killed in Attack on Taliban
April 16, 2006
The New York Times
By RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK and CARLOTTA GALL
SARTAK, Afghanistan, April 15 — Afghan security forces,
backed by American helicopters and Canadian soldiers, fought a large number of
Taliban rebels in a battle on Friday that ran through several villages in
Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province, officials said Saturday. The fighting
was some of the heaviest in months, and dozens of rebels and six Afghan
policemen were reported killed.
The rebels have emerged in large numbers in recent weeks, moving through
villages across the southern regions as their leaders have announced a spring
offensive against foreign forces and their Afghan government allies. Before
that, large concentrations of Taliban fighters had not been seen for months, as
the militants switched last summer to the guerrilla tactics of roadside bombs
and suicide attacks.
Friday's operation was largely an Afghan one, part of new tactics under the
Canadian command, which took over from American troops in Kandahar Province in
February. After reports came in that rebels were concentrating in western
Kandahar, Afghan police and some Afghan Army units went into the area at dawn on
Friday, backed by American Apache attack helicopters and supported on the ground
by a company of Canadian troops.
The Afghans fought for three hours before calling in support, said Lt. Col. Ian
Hope, commander of the Canadian force in Kandahar, who was at the scene.
Canadian troops provided a cordon to block the escape of the Taliban rebels, he
said. The American helicopters, according to villagers, fired on farmhouse
compounds, wounding civilians, damaging homes and killing animals.
The governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khaled, said in a news briefing on
Saturday that 41 rebels had been killed. Six Afghan policemen were killed —
including four thought to have been killed by fire from the American helicopters
— and nine police officers were wounded, Afghan officials and villagers said. At
least one Afghan woman was killed in the cross-fire and two more civilians were
injured, villagers and doctors at a Kandahar hospital said. No coalition
soldiers were hurt.
Villagers confirmed that a large group of Taliban fighters had suddenly appeared
several days ago. In a telephone call from his base at the Kandahar airfield,
Colonel Hope said that the Taliban group was 50 to 60 strong, and that the
police were still hunting for remnants of it in the villages. The group
represented just part of the Taliban guerrillas who had moved into western
Kandahar Province, he said.
The first large groups of rebels emerged last month in neighboring Helmand
Province. One group attacked a coalition base in the poppy-growing district of
Sangin last month, forcing a battle that killed an American and a Canadian
soldier. The Taliban group from that attack may be the same one that arrived in
the past few days in the Panjwai and Zhare districts of Kandahar, near the
fighting on Friday, Governor Khaled said.
Villagers who were caught in the cross-fire on Friday in the village of Sartak
confirmed that many Taliban had come into the area several days earlier, but
said that they had not come into the village itself. They angrily denounced the
police and the coalition for coming to fight them in the village and causing
civilian casualties and damage to homes.
Muhammad Nasim, 40, a farmer and father of nine, said American helicopters fired
on his farmhouse compound and peppered the fields around. At least four rockets
hit the compound, killing some of his animals but not hitting the room where his
family was taking shelter, he said. "I am a poor man, and I built this room with
a lot of difficulty, but the Americans came and destroyed it," he said.
Mentioning President Hamid Karzai, Mr. Nasim said, "Karzai promised us
development; instead they are bombing us."
Another villager, Hafizullah, 35, who uses only one name, said his sister Bibi
Pari, 19, had been shot dead by the police as she fled across a wheat field with
his two children. As she fell in the field, the children, a boy of 12 and a girl
of 5, crawled on their stomachs until they reached a neighbor's house, he said.
Zaher Shah, 21, was shot in the stomach as he rose from his prayers at the
village mosque at midday. "There were hundreds of Taliban moving around the
area," he said. "I saw 30 to 40 Taliban one day. They had heavy machine guns and
very new Chinese Kalashnikovs," he said.
He said the Taliban had visited the mosques in the region, although not their
village, and asked people to bury any fighters killed in battle so the
"infidels" would not take their bodies.
Ruhullah Khapalwak reported from Sartak for this article, and Carlotta Gall
from Kabul.
Dozens Reported
Killed in Attack on Taliban, NYT, 16.4.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/world/asia/16afghan.html?hp&ex=1145246400&en=3ae69817a65618be&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Afghan Forces Hit Taliban Hideout, Kill 41
April 15, 2006
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:06 a.m. ET
The New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan security forces backed
by coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban hideout in southern
Afghanistan, setting off an intense gunbattle that killed 41 rebels, a
provincial governor said Saturday.
Six Afghan police officers also died in Friday's fighting in Sangisar, a town 25
miles southwest of Kandahar, said Asadullah Khalid, the provincial governor.
''Acting on intelligence reports that Taliban have gathered in Sangisar to plan
an attack in Kandahar, we launched this operation Friday and the fighting
continued from morning to evening,'' he said.
Taliban forces have threatened to step up attacks against coalition and Afghan
soldiers during the warmer spring and summer months. Coalition forces have been
particularly disturbed by an increase in suicide attacks.
Afghan Forces Hit
Taliban Hideout, Kill 41, NYT, 15.4.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Fighting.html?hp&ex=1145160000&en=2cbb34fb1a2c956c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
US-led troops in air attack on Afghan militants
Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:58 AM ET
Reuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Six Taliban guerrillas
were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday
after blasts elsewhere in the country killed three policemen and wounded two
British troops.
The air strike was carried out in Kunar province as part of Operation Lion
launched on Wednesday to flush out militants from the area, officials said.
Afghanistan has seen a surge of attacks on Afghan and foreign forces since the
Taliban announced last month they had launched a spring offensive.
Three policemen were killed on Friday when a remote-control bomb hit their truck
on a main road outside the southeastern town of Khost, said provincial police
chief Mohammad Ayoub.
Earlier, two British soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force were among
three people wounded in suicide car-bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, the provincial
capital of the southern province of Helmand.
None of the wounds were life threatening, a British spokeswoman said.
The attacker died as he rammed his car into a vehicle near the entrance of a
base used by foreign troops, said senior provincial official Mahaiuddin, who
uses one name. The Taliban telephoned Reuters to claim responsibility.
Last week, a suicide bomber wounded three Americans at the same place, and on
Monday three British soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in Helmand.
The Taliban have been running an insurgency since being ousted by U.S.-backed
forces in late 2001.
Elsewhere on Friday, foreign and Afghan forces, backed by air support, launched
an offensive against Taliban fighters hiding in Maiwand district of Kandahar
province, said Rahmatullah Raufi, a senior Afghan National Army commander.
Jet fighters pounded the area, and fierce fighting was underway. Fleeing
villagers said they saw plumes of black smoke rising and the main highway
linking Kandahar to western provinces was also cut.
At least on Afghan soldier was killed in the fighting, a provincial official
said.
In central Uruzgan province, U.S.-led troops and Afghan soldiers killed two
insurgents and captured two, who the U.S. military said had been recruiting
suicide bombers.
(Reporting by Sayeed Ali Achakzai, Mirwais Afghan, Kamal Sadaat)
US-led troops in
air attack on Afghan militants, NYT, 14.4.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-04-14T155755Z_01_ISL5160_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE.xml
Afghan battle probed for possible "friendly fire"
Tue Apr 4, 2006 2:59 AM ET
Reuters
KABUL (Reuters) - An investigation has been launched into
an Afghan battle last week in which an American and Canadian soldier were killed
and five men wounded to determine if any were hit by their own side, the U.S.
military said on Tuesday.
A joint U.S., Canadian and Afghan team will investigate the March 29 battle in
the southern province of Helmand which began when a large group of Taliban
insurgents attacked a foreign military base.
"The investigation will determine all the facts and circumstances surrounding
the incident, including whether any of the casualties may have resulted from
friendly fire," the U.S. military said in a statement.
As well as the two deaths, a U.S. soldier, three Canadians and an Afghan soldier
were wounded in the battle.
The U.S. military gave no further details of the investigation.
The battle on Wednesday last week was the biggest in Afghanistan for months and
came on the same day the Taliban announced they had launched a spring offensive
in their campaign to oust foreign troops.
U.S.-led forces, backed by aircraft, killed 32 of the Taliban attackers, the
U.S. military said.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a friendly-fire incident
near the southern town of Kandahar in 2002 when a U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly
bombed the Canadians while they were on a training exercise.
The United States has more than 19,000 troops in Afghanistan battling Taliban
insurgents in the south and east.
Canada has 2,300 soldiers in Kandahar where it commands a multinational task
force.
Afghan battle
probed for possible "friendly fire", R, 4.4.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-04-04T065845Z_01_ISL176618_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE-INVESTIGATION.xml&archived=False
Two foreigners, 3 Afghans killed in blast
Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:05 AM ET
Reuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside blast in
Afghanistan on Tuesday killed five people, including two foreigners, a
provincial governor said.
Taliban guerrillas, who have been battling foreign troops and the Western-backed
government since their ouster by U.S. and Afghan opposition forces in late 2001,
claimed responsibility for the blast.
The two foreigners, two Afghan guards and an Afghan driver were killed in the
blast in the western province of Farah, said provincial governor, Izatullah
Wasifi.
Wasifi said he did not know the nationality of the foreigners or their company.
A representative of the American company USPI, which provides security for road
construction projects, said the dead men worked for his firm.
The representative, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to
speak to the media, said one of them was a South African.
Violence has intensified in Afghanistan in recent months just as the United
States is hoping to trim its force of about 19,000 troops in Afghanistan by
several thousand, and as NATO members are sending about 6,000 more.
In a separate incident, two suicide bombers were killed when one of their bombs
went off prematurely, police said.
The pair were killed while walking along a road on the outskirts of the southern
city of Kandahar, which has been hit by a wave of violence in recent months,
including suicide attacks on foreign troops.
"We've established that the two were suicide attackers and were killed
prematurely by their own bombs because of some technical fault," provincial
police chief Maalik Wayezi told reporters.
He said he did not know the identity of the two or their target, but he
suspected they were members of the Taliban or Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Britain, the Netherlands and Canada are sending troops to the volatile Afghan
south, where the Taliban and allied militants are most active, to take over more
responsibilities from U.S. forces.
Two foreigners, 3
Afghans killed in blast, R, 28.3.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-28T110525Z_01_ISL32903_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&related=true
Afghan Christian convert is freed
Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:26 AM ET
Reuters
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan Christian convert who faced a
possible death sentence for abandoning Islam has been freed, the Afghan justice
minister said on Tuesday, after Western pleas for the man's religious freedom be
respected.
Abdur Rahman, 40, was jailed this month for rejecting his faith. Judicial
officials said he could have faced trial under Islamic sharia law stipulating
death as punishment for apostasy.
"I can confirm that he was released," said Justice Minister Sarwar Danish. "He
is not in detention. I do not know if he is with his family or where, but he has
been acquitted."
Danish said he could not comment on the legal grounds for Rahman's release.
Judicial officials had raised questions about his mental state and said he had
to undergo psychiatric tests.
Rahman's whereabouts had to be kept secret to ensure his safety, officials said.
Afghanistan's Western-backed government has been seeking a face-saving way out
of the crisis, satisfying Western pleas for the man's freedom while appeasing
conservative clerics at home who have been demanding Rahman be punished.
The United Nations has been working with President Hamid Karzai's government on
a solution and said on Monday Rahman had requested asylum abroad, and it was
hoped one of the countries involved in the controversy would accept him.
A U.N. spokesman confirmed Rahman was free but declined to say where he was or
if he had found a country to take him.
U.S. embassy spokesman Lou Fintor welcomed the release and said arrangements
regarding Rahman's welfare were being handled privately.
Protests by conservatives who had demanded implementation of Islamic law were
expected, a security official said. A group including clerics and a former prime
minister said last week the government risked rebellion if it caved in to
Western pressure.
Karzai has made no public comment on the affair.
APPEAL FOR CALM
Rahman became a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees
in Pakistan 15 years ago. He later lived in Germany before returning to
Afghanistan.
He was detained after his relatives told authorities he had converted to
Christianity following a dispute involving two daughters. Relatives later said
Rahman had suffered from mental problems although he denied that.
"Since he's sick, they've released him," said one relative who declined to be
identified. "It's good. It's the right thing."
But the release was condemned by some Afghans.
"If the government doesn't kill him, people in all provinces will demonstrate,"
said one young man, Mujibur Rahman. "All Muslims will be anti-government."
Another Kabul resident, Abdul Samad, said an example should have been made.
"People will follow this guy, seeking asylum and getting money from the West. We
asked the government to execute this man at a public stadium as a lesson to
others," he said.
About 1,000 protesters marched through the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on
Monday chanting "Death to America" and "Death to the convert Abdur Rahman".
Afghanistan saw violent protests last month over cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad published in European newspapers, and last year over a magazine report
that U.S. military interrogators had desecrated the Koran.
The Taliban, battling U.S. and other foreign troops since their overthrow in
2001, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, saying Rahman must be killed, said a
Taliban commander.
The United States appealed for calm.
"We understand the sensitivity of this case and urge everyone to remain calm and
resist efforts to exploit the situation," Fintor said.
Afghan Christian
convert is freed, R, 28.3.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-28T122609Z_01_ISL23026_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-AFGHAN.xml&archived=False
Fighting in Afghanistan kills U.S. service member
Posted 3/25/2006 10:50 AM Updated 3/25/2006 5:35 PM
USA Today
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and U.S. troops backed
by American aircraft fought suspected Taliban Saturday in southern Afghanistan,
leaving one U.S. service member and seven militants dead, officials said.
An American service member and an Afghan soldier also were
wounded in the fighting in Helmand province's Sangin district, the U.S. military
said in a statement. The region is a hotbed of insurgency and the booming drugs
trade.
Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi said seven suspected Taliban rebels
were killed, while several others fled.
U.S. war planes dropped 11 guided bombs on about 20 militants involved in the
clash, the U.S. statement said, adding that an assessment of militant casualties
was ongoing.
"There are known Taliban extremists in the Sangin district and the Afghan
National Army and coalition forces will continue to attack these enemies of
Afghanistan until the district and province are safe and secure," U.S. commander
Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley said.
The wounded troops were evacuated to a coalition base for treatment, the
statement said.
The American's death brought to 222 the number of U.S. service members killed in
and around Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
Fighting has spiked in southern Afghanistan in the past year, leaving swaths of
it off-limits to aid workers and raising concerns for this country's fragile
democracy.
Fighting in
Afghanistan kills U.S. service member, UT, 25.3.2006,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-03-25-afghanistan-us-service-member_x.htm
Preachers in Kabul Urge Execution of Convert to
Christianity
March 25, 2006
The New York Times
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 24 — Preachers used Friday Prayer
services to call for the execution of an Afghan Muslim who converted to
Christianity, despite growing protests in the West. The conversion of the man,
Abdul Rahman, 15 years ago was brought to the attention of the authorities as
part of a child custody dispute.
The Bush administration and European governments have strongly protested the
case as a violation of religious freedom. But Mr. Rahman has drawn a strong
reaction in Afghanistan, too, and for many hardline clerics, there is no greater
offense than apostasy.
One speaker, Maulavi Habibullah, told more than a thousand clerics and young
people gathered in Kabul: "Afghanistan does not have any obligation under
international laws. The prophet says, when somebody changes religion, he must be
killed."
He and others demanded that the country's political leaders and judges resist
international pressure.
Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, told reporters on Friday that she had been
assured by President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call that Mr. Rahman would not
be executed, The Associated Press reported.
A senior government official said Mr. Rahman, 41, would be released from jail
soon, Agence France-Presse reported. The agency did not identify the official,
who added that there would be a top-level meeting on the case on Saturday.
The dispute has exposed the contradictions in Afghanistan's Constitution, which
promises freedom of religion on the one hand, and on the other declares Islam
supreme.
Sheik Asif Muhsini, a Shiite cleric, emphasized that the Constitution says, "No
law can contradict Islam and the values of the Constitution."
The case has fueled feelings here of an assault against Islam, coming after
reports of the possible desecration of the Koran in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in
2004 by American soldiers and, more recently, cartoons published in Europe that
mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
Preachers in Kabul
Urge Execution of Convert to Christianity, NYT, 25.3.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/international/asia/25convert.html
US ups pressure in Afghan Christian convert case
Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:49 PM ET
Reuters
By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington increased pressure on
Afghanistan on Thursday to end the prosecution of a man facing possible
execution for converting from Islam to Christianity -- a case that has stirred
international protests and angered President George W. Bush's evangelical
supporters.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told President Hamid Karzai by telephone the
United States wanted Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are fighting anti-government
Islamic extremists, to show it respects religious freedom by resolving the case
quickly.
Her call to the close U.S. ally came a day after Bush vowed to use U.S. leverage
over Afghanistan to make sure Abdur Rahman's right to choose his religion was
upheld.
Under the pressure, which was reinforced by several U.S. allies supporting
Afghanistan with aid and troops, Karzai has pledged Rahman would not be
executed, according to the Canadian government, which was also in contact with
the Afghan president.
A judge has said the man was jailed for converting and could face death if he
refused to become a Muslim again. Afghanistan's judiciary reiterated on Thursday
it would not bow to outside pressure.
But the United States, which has more than 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, urged
Karzai to intervene.
"We have raised it at the highest levels ... and we have raised it in the
strongest possible terms," Rice told reporters after the call. "We look forward
hopefully to a resolution of this in the very near future."
Rice, who noted the United States was founded by immigrants fleeing religious
persecution, did not answer a question asking if Karzai assured her Rahman would
not be executed.
State Department officials, who for days have emphasized the case was up to the
Afghan government to resolve, could not say if Rice raised the issue when she
met Afghanistan's foreign minister on Monday.
CONSERVATIVE CONCERN
U.S. Christian conservatives, a key support base for Bush, have become
increasingly vocal as the Bush administration has failed so far to have the man
freed.
"It's deeply disturbing that this incident is taking place in a country that
America continues to protect and defend," the American Center for Law and
Justice, a conservative group that often focuses on Christian issues, said in a
statement.
The Bush administration initially responded less forcefully than governments
such as Italy and Germany.
Bush first spoke in public about the case on Wednesday -- days after it won wide
media attention and stirred outrage among his supporters.
Bush has been criticized for reacting slowly in recent months to other
controversies, such as a port management deal with a Middle Eastern company.
The case is also sensitive for Karzai. He depends on foreign troops to battle
Taliban and al Qaeda militants, and on aid to support the economy, but also has
to take into consideration the views of conservative proponents of Islamic law.
Death is one of the punishments stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for
apostasy. The legal system is based on a mix of civil and sharia law in
Afghanistan, where 99 per cent of its more than 25 million people are Muslim.
A possible compromise solution, hinted at by Afghan officials, is for the
convict to avoid further punishment on the grounds he is mentally ill.
That would not satisfy the United States.
"We think that it is important for the Afghan people that this issue of freedom
of religion, freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the Afghan
constitution, be reaffirmed," Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters.
(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul, David Ljunggren in
Ottawa)
US ups pressure in
Afghan Christian convert case, R, 23.3.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-23T234845Z_01_ISL307059_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-AFGHAN.xml&archived=False
UN council presses Afghanistan to rein in Taliban
Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:30 PM ET
Reuters
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council,
alarmed by rising violence in Afghanistan, pressed the government on Thursday to
counter a growing threat from the Taliban and other illegal armed groups.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council also urged U.S.- and
NATO-led forces in the war-torn central Asian nation to keep helping the
authorities address the threat to stability and security posed by extremist
groups.
The resolution, which extends the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan for a
year until March 2007, expresses "concern at the increasing threat to the local
population, national security forces, international military and international
assistance efforts by extremist activities."
It urges the Afghan government and international supporters to "continue to
address the threat to the security and stability of Afghanistan posed by the
Taliban, al Qaeda, other extremist groups and criminal activities."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a progress report submitted to the council
earlier this month, said a sharp rise in suicide bombings and attacks on schools
in Afghanistan underscored the challenge facing the Kabul government as it
struggled to become a viable democratic state.
Taliban guerrillas have been fighting the government since their regime was
ousted from power after the September 11 attacks,
But Annan's report said attacks by anti-government fighters had soared since
mid-2005 and continued unabated throughout the winter, in contrast to previous
years, when they tapered off during the harsh cold season.
The U.N. mission supports and advises the Afghan authorities on economic and
political development, justice reform, humanitarian aid and anti-drug programs,
with 189 international employees, 795 local staffers, 12 military observers, 8
civilian police officers and 29 U.N. volunteers.
UN council presses
Afghanistan to rein in Taliban, R, 23.3.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-23T212958Z_01_N23297187_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&related=true
2 Years After Soldier's Death, Family's Battle Is With
Army
March 21, 2006
The New York Times
By MONICA DAVEY and ERIC SCHMITT
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Patrick K. Tillman stood outside his law
office here, staring intently at a yellow house across the street, just over 70
yards away. That, he recalled, is how far away his eldest son, Pat, who gave up
a successful N.F.L. career to become an Army Ranger, was standing from his
fellow Rangers when they shot him dead in Afghanistan almost two years ago.
"I could hit that house with a rock," Mr. Tillman said. "You can see every last
detail on that place, everything, and you're telling me they couldn't see Pat?"
Mr. Tillman, 51, is a grieving father who has refused to give up on his son.
While fiercely shunning the public spotlight that has followed Cpl. Pat
Tillman's death, Mr. Tillman has spent untold hours considering the Army's
measurements, like the 70 yards.
He has drafted long, sometimes raw, letters to military leaders, demanding
answers about the shooting. And he has studied — and challenged — Army
PowerPoint presentations meant to explain how his son, who had called out his
own name and waved his arms, wound up dead anyway, shot three times in the head
by his own unit, which said it had mistaken him for the enemy.
"All I asked for is what happened to my son, and it has been lie after lie after
lie," said Mr. Tillman, explaining that he believed the matter should remain
"between me and the military" but that he had grown too troubled to keep silent.
As the second anniversary of the death of Corporal Tillman, once a popular
safety for the Arizona Cardinals, approaches, Mr. Tillman, his former wife,
Mary, and other family members remain frustrated by the Army's handling of the
killing but for the first time may be close to getting some of the answers they
so desperately seek.
After repeated complaints from the Tillmans and members of Congress contacted by
them, the Army is immersed in a highly unusual criminal investigation of the
killing, and the Defense Department's inspector general, which called for the
criminal investigation this month, is looking separately into the Army's conduct
in its aftermath.
Senior military officials said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had
expressed outrage to top aides that the Army was having to conduct yet another
inquiry into the shooting, prolonging the family's anguish and underscoring the
failure of the Army's investigative processes to bring resolution.
Gary Comerford, a spokesman for the inspector general, said the Army Criminal
Investigation Command was "dealing with events leading up to the death, and
we're looking at anything after that." Though Mr. Comerford did not say so, that
could include the possibility of a cover-up, the Tillmans said they had been
told by the inspector general's office.
No one wants answers more than the Tillmans. But by now, they said, they have
lost patience and faith that any Army entity, even the Criminal Investigation
Command, can be trusted to find the truth.
"I am sitting here on my own, going over and over and over this for two years,"
Ms. Tillman, 50, said in a telephone interview. "The whole thing is such a
debacle. I am beyond tears. It's killing me."
Like her former husband, she has spent days reading the files, researching the
episode, calling members of Congress, even trying to contact some of the
soldiers involved. She criticized the military, as well as the news media, for
failing to get to the bottom of what occurred, leaving her family, in essence,
to figure it out themselves.
All of it, her former husband said, has even left him suspicious of the
military's central finding in their son's case so far: that the killing was a
terrible but unintentional accident.
"There is so much nonstandard conduct, both before and after Pat was killed,
that you have to start to wonder," Mr. Tillman said. "How much effort would you
put into hiding an accident? Why do you need to hide an accident?"
An examination by The New York Times of more than 2,000 pages of documents from
three previous Army administrative reviews reveals shifting testimony, the
destruction of obvious evidence in the case and a series of contradictions about
the distances, the lighting conditions and other details surrounding the
shooting.
Seven Rangers have received administrative disciplines — a pay cut, a loss of
rank or a return to the rank-and-file Army — but the criminal inquiry is for the
first time examining whether the soldiers broke military law when they failed to
identify their targets before firing on Corporal Tillman's position. The earlier
reviews found that a chain of circumstances and errors had led to the deaths of
Corporal Tillman and an Afghan soldier fighting alongside the Americans.
A senior Pentagon official briefed on the criminal investigation, who was
granted anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly while the new
investigation was under way, said it would delve into highly sensitive areas.
"The balance that investigators now have to wrestle with is how much of a
crime-scene approach they can take — nearly two years after the fact — into the
fog of war, where soldiers were making decisions in milliseconds," the Pentagon
official said.
Mr. Tillman spoke bluntly and angrily one afternoon here as he waded once more
through the Army reports, the charts, even the details in his son's autopsy. He
knows the smallest of details by heart — where his son was supposed to be
standing, which way the sun was setting, what the Ranger ducking beside his son
heard him call out last — and ticked them off unemotionally as he flipped
through the worn reports.
Mr. Tillman's small office, though, belies his hardened shell. His trash can,
pasted with orange and green paper, was a grade school project of Pat Tillman.
So was the wooden pencil holder nearby, shakily carved with the letters N.F.L. A
blurry photograph in a frame showed Pat Tillman at age 2, marching off toward a
lake with his signature confident stride.
"At this point I don't believe that the facts of this case are going to come out
without the serious threat of jail time hanging over some folks," Mr. Tillman
said.
The Tillman family's first glimmers of distrust began in the month after
Corporal Tillman was killed, at the age of 27, on April 22, 2004.
Within hours, military officers came to the family home here, the same house
where Corporal Tillman had grown up. No one mentioned, though, that the shooting
had been at the hands of his colleagues. Even Corporal Tillman's younger brother
Kevin, who served in the same Ranger unit and was in a vehicle far behind the
shooting and did not see what had happened, did not learn the truth for more
than a month.
Instead, eight days after Corporal Tillman's death, Army officials awarded a
Silver Star and issued a news release that seemed to suggest that he had been
killed by enemy fire during an ambush.
At the end of May, as the rest of Corporal Tillman's unit was returning to the
United States, the Army notified the family of what it believed really happened.
In the months that followed, in private briefings for the family, the Army
assured the Tillmans that a thorough investigation would be made and that those
responsible would be disciplined.
"They said they'd take care of it, and I believed them," Mr. Tillman said.
Corporal Tillman's platoon of the Second Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, began
the day that he died dealing with a minor annoyance in the southeastern part of
Afghanistan where the soldiers were conducting sweeps, the Army records show:
one vehicle would not start.
The platoon split into two parts so that half the team, including Corporal
Tillman, could go on to the next town for sweeps while the second half could tow
the disabled vehicle to a drop-off spot.
But both groups ended up in the same twisting canyon, along the same road,
without radio communication. And after the sounds of an enemy ambush, three
Rangers in the second group wound up firing at members of the first group — at
an Afghan soldier who was fighting alongside Corporal Tillman, and then at
Corporal Tillman.
The Army's administrative reviews that followed, parts of which have been
described previously in other newspapers, including The Washington Post and The
San Francisco Chronicle, have left the Tillman family with more questions than
answers, they say. Some of those involved in the shooting have provided shifting
accounts of what happened, the records show.
The decision to split the unit into two convoys, for example, was a crucial, and
perhaps fatal, one. Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones, who led the most recent of the
three Army reviews, concluded that the decision was a result of
"miscommunication" among several officers.
But at least one Army officer, the records show, changed his sworn statements
about which supervisor had actually ordered the split and what conversations had
occurred before the order was given.
Even the soldier who conducted the military's first review of Corporal Tillman's
death — in the hours and days immediately afterward — expressed concern about
the changes in the accounts.
That soldier, whose name, like many others, was redacted from the Army files
provided to The Times by Mr. Tillman, said he believed Rangers had changed their
versions of what happened and were not receiving the "due just punishment" for
what he concluded was "gross negligence."
The stories, he said in a sworn statement as part of General Jones's subsequent
review, "have changed to, I think, help some individuals."
"The other difficult thing, though, was watching some of these guys getting off
with what I thought was a lesser of a punishment than what they should've
received," the soldier who conducted the first inquiry said.
Among a number of conflicts in the descriptions of what happened, some Rangers
said that in the dusk they could see nothing more than "shapes" and "muzzle
flashes" even as Corporal Tillman tried to tell his colleagues who he was,
waving his arms, setting off a smoke grenade signal and calling out. Others said
they had seen and aimed for the Afghan fighter, his "dark face" and his AK-47.
After the shooting, the Rangers destroyed evidence that would be considered
critical in any criminal case, the records show. They burned Corporal Tillman's
uniform and his body armor.
Months later, the Rangers involved said they did not intend to destroy evidence.
"It was a hygiene issue," one soldier wrote. "They were starting to stink."
Another soldier involved offered a slightly different take, saying "the uniform
and equipment had blood on them and it would stir emotion" that needed to be
suppressed until the Rangers finished their work overseas.
"How could they do that?" Mr. Tillman said. "That makes no sense."
The family still wants to know, he said, what became of Corporal Tillman's
diary. It was never returned to the family, he said.
Ms. Tillman said her family could not rest until they knew what really happened.
All of it, Ms. Tillman said, has left her wondering what other families who have
lost service members in Iraq and Afghanistan may really know about the
circumstances. In addition to Corporal Tillman, at least 16 service members have
died in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of shootings or bombings by fellow
Americans, and none of the deaths, so far, have led to criminal convictions.
"This is how they treat a family of a high-profile individual," she said. "How
are they treating others?"
Col. Joseph Curtin, an Army spokesman, said the Tillmans deserved answers.
"We deeply regret their loss," Colonel Curtin said, "and will continue to answer
their questions in a truthful and forthright manner."
Monica Davey reported from San Jose for this article, and Eric Schmitt from
Washington. David S. Cloud contributed reporting from Washington.
2 Years After
Soldier's Death, Family's Battle Is With Army, NYT, 21.3.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/politics/21tillman.html?hp&ex=1142917200&en=afa52cbd1ddda78b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
4 American Soldiers Killed in Afghan Blast
March 13, 2006
The New York Times
By SULTAN M. MUNADI
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 12 — Four American soldiers were
killed in a roadside-bomb explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, and two
suicide bombers in a car blew themselves up next to the vehicle of the chairman
of Afghanistan's upper house of Parliament here in the capital, killing at least
two people and wounding at least seven others, officials said.
The Afghan official, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, escaped serious injury. He said he
believed that the suicide attack was the work of Pakistan's intelligence
service.
The American soldiers killed by the roadside bomb were trying to clear a road
for civilian traffic, said the American commander of coalition forces in
Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, who called the attack
reprehensible.
"The extremists that initiated this senseless attack create a significant danger
and threat to the Afghan people," he said in a statement released by the United
States military.
Mr. Mojadeddi, who served as Afghanistan's president in 1992, met with
journalists two hours after the suicide bombing. His hands were heavily
bandaged. He said he had been on his way to the Parliament building when a car
drew up alongside his armored vehicle and exploded.
"The fire and smoke came into my vehicle and some of the windows of my car broke
also, but no one was killed, thank God — only two of my bodyguards and my driver
were slightly wounded," he said.
An old man, who witnesses said was a yogurt seller, was among the dead. A
12-year-old girl was also killed, the witnesses said. Mr. Mojadeddi's car and
his aides' car were thrown on their sides, and the windshields were blown out.
Reports of the numbers of dead and wounded in the suicide bombing varied. Gen.
Abdul Jamil Kohistani, chief of the criminal unit in Kabul's police department,
said four people had been killed and three wounded on the road, in addition to
those in the cars.
Dr. Sayed Muhammad Amin Fatemi, the minister of health, said that six people had
been wounded and that four of them had been hospitalized. One of the wounded was
a man of about 70, and one was a boy of 13, he said.
Mr. Mojadeddi, who is from a leading religious family, is one of the most
influential members of the government.
He was one of the leaders of the fight against the Soviet occupation in the
1980's and is the leader of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee, which works
to persuade fighters allied with the country's former Taliban government to give
up their armed resistance.
He blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for the attack, based, he said,
on information from "different channels," and he seemed to cast blame on
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, too.
"The Pakistani government and I.S.I. are the big enemies of Afghanistan," he
said.
He said that his peace commission had succeeded in persuading 1,300 people to
end their opposition to the government and that Pakistan was opposed to that.
"I.S.I. doesn't want stability and peace in Afghanistan," he said. "They want us
to be poor and to be in need to them."
Tasneen Aslam, spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Office, condemned the attack
but rejected Mr. Mojadeddi's accusations, calling them "baseless and unfounded."
President Hamid Karzai said also he had no doubt that the attack was organized
by foreigners, and he promised a full investigation.
"We received intelligence two months ago that plans were under way to attack
important figures, including attacks on myself," he told reporters at the
presidential palace. During a visit to Pakistan last month, Mr. Karzai handed
Mr. Musharraf intelligence files on Taliban members who he said were living in
Pakistan and involved with suicide bombing cells and planning insurgent attacks
in Afghanistan. He asked Pakistan to do more to stop such attacks. Mr. Musharraf
later described much of the intelligence as "nonsense" and denied that Pakistan
was working to undermine Afghanistan.
Mr. Mojadeddi said he had been warned that he was a target and had blackened his
car's windows for security.
In a separate attack, eight workers — four Albanians and four Afghans — for a
German sanitation company, Ecolog, were kidnapped Saturday in southern
Afghanistan, officials said.
The workers were kidnapped in Helmand Province, said Asadullah Khalid, the
governor of Kandahar, a neighboring province. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf
Ahmadi, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Quetta, Pakistan, for this article,
Ruhullah Khapalwak from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Abdul Waheed Wafa from Kabul.
4 American
Soldiers Killed in Afghan Blast, NYT, 13.3.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/international/asia/13afghan.html
Bush Makes Surprise Stop in Afghanistan on Way to India
March 2, 2006
The New York Times
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
NEW DELHI, Thursday, March 2 — President Bush made a
surprise five-hour visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday to meet with President
Hamid Karzai and to see for the first time the country created after the United
States went to war against the Taliban in retaliation for the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.
In a news conference with Mr. Karzai in Kabul, Mr. Bush said he remained
confident Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mullah Omar,
the Taliban leader, would be captured. They are believed to be hiding in
Pakistan. "It's not a matter of if they're captured or brought to justice, it's
when they're brought to justice," Mr. Bush said.
He deflected a question about the increasing violence in Afghanistan by
militants believed to be linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and played down the
possibility of announcing a nuclear agreement with India on a visit to New
Delhi. At least 50,000 demonstrators in New Delhi protested his visit throughout
the day, before he arrived Wednesday night. Additional protests occurred in
Calcutta and other Indian cities.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Bush was welcomed to India in a majestic ceremony at
Rashtrapati Bhavan, or President's House, the Lutyens landmark of colonial
India. Mr. Bush inspected a phalanx of India troops and then headed for the
banks of the Yumna River to lay a wreath at the memorial to Gandhi, the founder
of modern India.
A nuclear pact would help India with power for its enormous civilian energy
needs while allowing it to keep its nuclear weapons. "This is a difficult
issue," Mr. Bush said, speaking in the garden of the presidential place in
Kabul, with Mr. Karzai at his side. "It's a difficult issue for the Indian
government. It's a difficult issue for the American government."
He added: "Hopefully we can reach an agreement. If not, we'll continue to work
on it until we do."
In response to a question about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Mr. Bush said "the
most destabilizing thing that can happen, in this region and the world," would
be for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon and he would work with allies to prevent
that.
Mr. Bush's stop in Afghanistan, the first by an American president since
Eisenhower visited in 1959, occurred on the way to a three-day visit to India
and Pakistan. White House officials, who had planned the stop for two months,
kept it secret for security reasons. They told reporters aboard Air Force One
after a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland, that they were en route to
Afghanistan.
Mr. Bush landed at Bagram Air Force Base 27 miles north of Kabul shortly after
noon Afghanistan time. He and his wife, Laura, stepped off Air Force One in
brilliant sunshine, with the snow-capped Hindu Kush Mountains in the background.
Security was extremely tight, with streets around the palace closed for the
visit and helicopters hovering over the center of Kabul all day. Mr. Bush
arrived in Kabul from Bagram in a heavily guarded flotilla of helicopters. Two
door gunners aboard the helicopter carrying White House reporters fired machine
guns on an unknown target as the helicopter flew low over the barren
countryside, The Associated Press reported.
Once in Kabul, Mr. Bush had meetings and lunch with Mr. Karzai, then joined him
at the news conference. Later, Mr. Bush cut the ribbon at a ceremonial opening
of the United States Embassy, which was already operating, and spoke to American
forces at Bagram. About 19,000 American troops are in Afghanistan.
"It is in our nation's interest that Afghanistan develops into a democracy," Mr.
Bush said at the embassy. "It is in the interests of the United States of
America for there to be examples around the world of what is possible. It is
possible to replace tyrants with a free society in which men and women are
respected, in which young girls can go to school and realize their full
potential, in which people are able to realize their dreams."
At the news conference, Mr. Bush did not directly answer a question from an
Afghan journalist about how long he expected American troops to remain in
Afghanistan. "The United States is here at the request of an Afghan government,
elected by the people." Mr. Bush said.
He did say, echoing the view of the Afghan government, that Pakistani militants
were slipping across the border and causing violence in Afghanistan, and that he
would raise the issue with the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, at
their meeting on Saturday. "These infiltrations are causing harm to friends,
allies, and cause harm to U.S. troops," Mr. Bush said. "And that will be a topic
of conversation. It's an ongoing topic of conversation." In October 2001, the
United States opened a bombing campaign to unseat the Taliban, which had
harbored Mr. bin Laden. Despite a multimillion-dollar reward, Mr. bin Laden
remains at large.
Mrs. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had been to Afghanistan, but Mr. Bush
had not. In 2003, Mr. Bush made a secret Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad, where he
dined with American troops. But he did not hold an outdoor news conference, as
he did Wednesday in Kabul.
Before Mr. Bush landed in New Delhi, tens of thousands of Muslims gathered at
the Ramlila grounds, a field commonly used for political protests in the
capital, and chanted, "Killer Bush Go Back!" Busloads of Muslims came from a
100-mile radius of New Delhi, heeding a protest call by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, a
political organization. "We came to register our protest against the Bush
visit," said Rais Khan, a real estate agent. "He is the biggest terrorist."
The protest was peaceful and lasted three hours. Maulana Mahmood Madni, the
general secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, capped the rally by telling the crowd:
"Bush is destroying the world peace. He is the biggest enemy of Islam."
En route from Washington on Air Force One, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, echoed Mr. Bush as they
tried to dampen expectations of an agreement on this visit on how to carry out a
nuclear deal. "We've got a couple of issues that are important — and we'll keep
talking about them — that remain unresolved," Ms. Rice said.
The original agreement, reached in July 2005 with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
would permit India to buy nuclear fuel and reactor components from the United
States and other countries in return for inspections of its civilian program.
India would retain its nuclear arms program, which would not be subject to
inspections. Opponents say such an arrangement is meaningless because India
would keep its nuclear weapons, while proponents say the deal would encourage
India to scale back its nuclear weapons programs.
Either way, the deal cannot be carried out until India separates what is a
highly integrated civilian and military nuclear program. The most contentious
area of debate is India's prototype fast-breeder reactor, which is not complete.
India is adamant that the reactor not be subject to international inspections,
saying they would hamper research. But critics of the agreement say that the
reactor would be a highly efficient producer of plutonium for nuclear weapons
and that they are suspicious of India's intentions.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting from New Delhi for this article, and
Aziz-u-Rahman Gulbahari and Abdul Waheed Wafa from Kabul.
Bush Makes
Surprise Stop in Afghanistan on Way to India, NYT, 2.3.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/international/asia/02prexy.html
Taliban Rebels Still Menacing Afghan South
March 2, 2006
The New York Times
By CARLOTTA GALL
LOY KAREZ, Afghanistan — When Haji Lalai Mama, the
60-year-old tribal elder in these parts, gamely tried to organize a village
defense force against the Taliban recently, he had to do it with a relative
handful of men and just three rifles. "We were patrolling and ready," he
recalled.
But they were not ready enough. The Taliban surprised them under cover of
darkness by using a side road. One villager was killed, and 10 others were
wounded by a grenade. Two Taliban fighters were captured in the clash. The rest
disappeared into the night.
The men at Loy Karez were exceptional in making a stand at all. Few in southern
Afghanistan are ready to stand up to the Taliban, at least not without greater
support or benefits from the Afghan government.
In fact, four years after the Taliban were ousted from power by the American
military, their presence is bigger and more menacing than ever, say police and
government officials, village elders, farmers and aid workers across southern
Afghanistan.
American and Afghan officials have said for months that the Taliban are no
longer capable of fighting large battles, and in their weakness have changed
tactics to roadside bombings or attacking soft targets, like harassing
villagers, killing teachers and burning schools.
Yet despite its evident military supremacy, the American-led alliance has not
been able to root out the insurgency. And the Taliban's tactics have succeeded
in sowing fear, nearly all here agree.
The militants have closed down some 200 schools through threats and burnings
across the south of Afghanistan, and killed dozens of government officials,
tribal elders and civilians over the last year. Commerce has sharply declined in
Kandahar, largely because of the rash of suicide bombings in the last few
months.
In the villages, people are asking foreigners and nongovernmental organizations
not to come around anymore, not because they do not need the aid, but for fear
of reprisals from the Taliban, aid workers and villagers said.
Some, like the local Afghan border police commander, Col. Abdul Razziq, 30, say
the situation is reaching a pivotal point, at least in his area.
"People are fed up now with the Taliban," he said. "They don't let organizations
come and builds roads, dig bore wells and build schools. People are fed up with
them. I think now people have to fight them. How long can they tolerate this?"
The American military reacts quickly with overwhelming airpower when it
encounters a Taliban group of any size, as it did recently in Helmand Province
when local officials claimed 200 Taliban fighters were at large.
But until now, the Taliban, criminals and drug smugglers, who often work
together, have had an easy time in Helmand because there has been virtually no
security presence in the province, neither from the Afghan Army nor an
international force of any strength, said Col. Henry Worsley, the commander of
British troops.
The British are starting to arrive in Helmand as part of the new NATO force
taking over command of southern Afghanistan this year. The local police are also
short of resources and lack training, he said.
"They are clearly a threat," he said of the Taliban and their drug smuggler
allies. "But they do have a fairly easy time of it now, and that's going to
change."
British troops are planning extensive patrolling with Afghan forces, including
patrols on foot and at night to improve security in the villages, he said.
American forces have not spent much time and effort on Helmand, the commander of
the United States-led alliance, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, conceded in a recent
interview. Yet the alliance has spent a lot of time and investment on the
neighboring province of Kandahar, where the Taliban have also expanded their
influence.
General Eikenberry does not accept the suggestion of failure. "The challenge is
not that the enemy is strong, but after 25 years of warfare, that the
institutions of the state are weak," he told a gathering of elders recently in
Kandahar.
When greeted with speech after speech calling on America to use its influence on
Pakistan to crack down on the Taliban operating across the border, he urged the
Afghans to look in the mirror, telling them they have a role to play, too.
"The best strategy when we have a problem is to hold a mirror to yourself," he
said. "It means building a government, getting a clean government that is not
corrupt, stopping poppy cultivation, building the Afghan National Army and
national police. That is the first step."
President Hamid Karzai also appealed to tribal elders at a recent gathering to
help, acknowledging that the government cannot achieve anything without the
cooperation of the people.
But in southern Afghanistan, the people seem to be waiting for cooperation from
the government.
A police commander in Kandahar, Mullah Gul, who has been fighting the Taliban
for four years, described them as the black sheep of the family. "They are a
problem," he said, "but it is not something that we cannot handle among
ourselves."
While villagers may not support the government, most are sitting on the fence,
and only a few are actively helping the Taliban, police officials say. Villagers
say they are caught in the middle, and receive little government support.
"We take them very seriously," said Jamal Khan, 24, a farmer from Nawa district
in Helmand Province, said of the Taliban. "They come in the night to our
village. We are not armed, and they ask for food and a place to stay. We cannot
say anything. Then the government comes in the morning and says you gave a place
to the Taliban. But what should we do?"
The school in his village was still in the process of being built, he said, but
has become the bane of the villagers' life since armed men tried to burn it
down. Villagers fought them off that time but came under fire.
"The district chief is telling the elders that we should safeguard the school,
but the elders are saying we don't have weapons, we cannot fight with the
Taliban," he said. Already teachers and pupils have stopped attending, he said,
adding, "Soon they will burn the school, if not in a week, then in a year."
But there is evidence that at least some elders and others in the area,
distrustful of a government that they say is corrupt and exploitative, are
sympathetic to the Taliban. The elders from the Sangin district of Helmand,
where American planes bombed recently, said they had joined the small number of
Taliban fighters because the government officials preyed on them and robbed
them.
"The Taliban are in the villages, among the people," said Ali Seraj, a
descendant of Afghanistan's royal family and native of Kandahar, who contends
that the government is losing the hearts and minds of the ordinary people.
With its corrupt and often brutal local officials, the government has pushed the
people into the arms of the Taliban, said Abdul Qadar Noorzai, head of the
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar.
"These are uneducated people, they do not trust the government, they see no help
coming to them, so the local people start doing things like the Taliban do," he
said.
In Loy Karez, Haji Lalai, the tribal elder who led the stand against the
Taliban, identified only four men who were Taliban sympathizers.
As for the two young men captured in the skirmish, they had only joined the
Taliban commander, Abdul Samad, that day. They did not even have weapons, they
said in an interview at the police station in Kandahar, where they were being
held.
Poor, uneducated laborers from the border town of Spinbaldak, they seemed to
have joined up without much persuasion.
"A friend said, 'Let's go and fight jihad,' " said Saifullah, 20, who sold shoes
from a pushcart in the bazaar. "I did not want to go, but they made us go. We
are uneducated; we did not understand."
Yet this motley group of six or seven was enough to scare the villagers. It was
only when Haji Lalai, who has a reputation as a strongman, came back to live in
the village that he girded it to stand up to the Taliban.
"We fought the Taliban and saved this land from the Taliban, so if the
government does not help us and pay attention to us, then no one else will go
against the Taliban," said Khudai Nazar, 32, a former policeman who joined Haji
Lalai in his village defense force. "If they do talk to us, then the whole
region will fight the Taliban."
Taliban Rebels
Still Menacing Afghan South, NYT, 3.2.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/international/02taliban.html?hp&ex=1141362000&en=a51daaa42ae5180a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Militant Inmates Riot and Seize Control of Cellblock in
Afghan Prison
February 27, 2006
The New York Times
By SULTAN M. MUNADI and CARLOTTA GALL
PUL-I-CHARKHI, Afghanistan, Feb. 26 — Prisoners in
Afghanistan's main high-security prison, among them people accused of being
members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, rioted and seized control of one cellblock
on Saturday evening, battling with guards through the night, the Afghan
authorities said Sunday.
Up to 5 prisoners were killed and 31 wounded as police guards opened fire to
stop them from escaping when the violence began, a health worker at the prison
said, based on information from the prison doctor. Sporadic gunfire could be
heard outside the prison on Sunday.
The Afghan authorities moved in about 300 soldiers and seven tanks to surround
the prison, near Kabul, the capital. The prison houses about 2,000 inmates,
including 70 women. The prisoners include ordinary criminals and about 350
prisoners thought to be fighters for the country's ousted Taliban movement or
for Al Qaeda. There are also three Americans, two former soldiers, Jonathan K.
Idema and Brent Bennett, who were found guilty of running a private jail in
Afghanistan, and a free-lance cameraman, Edward Caraballo, who was convicted
with them.
Prison officials blamed Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners for starting the riot,
which began with a protest by prisoners over being required to wear uniforms.
"They broke the locks of their cells and broke through a wall to the female
section and entered the women's cells," said Muhammad Qasem Hashemzai, the
deputy justice minister. The women, some of whom have children with them, did
not seem to have been harmed, he said.
Prisoners could be seen behind the barred windows of Cellblock 1 on Sunday. They
were hanging the light-blue new prison clothes out the windows on metal
bedsteads and setting fire to them. Bullet holes pocked the windows of the
cellblock from the shooting on Saturday night. The prisoners were shouting,
"Long live Islam, long live the prisoners, death to Bush, death to Karzai," a
reference to President Hamid Karzai.
The prison in Pul-i-Charkhi, a large pentagon-shaped prison built in the 1970's,
became notorious during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when tens of
thousands of opponents were imprisoned and executed and buried in mass graves
nearby.
The prisoners at Pul-i-Charkhi are demanding to speak to Sebaghatullah
Mojadeddi, the chairman of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which
negotiates the release of Taliban prisoners from American military custody, said
Gen. Abdul Salaam Bakhshi, director of the prison.
They also demanded to speak with the head of the Supreme Court, Vice President
Ahmed Zia Masud, the leader of Parliament and observers from the United Nations
and its Human Rights Commission, he said.
"We are trying to negotiate," Mr. Hashemzai said. "They are not very well
organized — everyone is saying a different thing." He added: "We want to solve
the problem with negotiation. Otherwise, if we attack them, many of them will be
killed."
Afghan officials have sometimes struggled to maintain control of the prisoners
here. In December 2004, prisoners said to have been linked to Al Qaeda — an
Iraqi and several Pakistanis — overpowered their guards and tried to escape.
Four prisoners and four police officers were killed in the ensuing battle, and
the police barely prevented the group from breaking into the cell of the
American prisoners. Last month, seven prisoners accused of ties to the Taliban
escaped during visiting hours.
This time prisoners broke up their metal beds and used the bars to smash windows
and break out of their cells, General Bakhshi said. Then, police officers at the
scene said, the inmates escaped from the cellblock and charged at the main gate,
police officers said.
"We started shooting in the air first and they didn't care, then we had to shoot
toward them directly," said one police officer, who did not want to be
identified because he was involved in the shooting. "It was very dark and we
didn't know if any of them were killed or wounded. We didn't know how many
rushed us, but we knew it was out of control."
Hamidullah, 30, a health worker who was working in the prison late Saturday
night, said he had been in contact with the prisoners and had given first aid
kits and other supplies to one of the prisoners, a doctor.
"I didn't see any killed or wounded myself, but the prison doctor and some
others are treating the wounded," Hamidullah said. The dead and wounded remain
inside the cellblock, he said.
U.S. Defends Prison Practices
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 26 (AP) — The American military on Sunday defended its
detention of about 500 inmates at its main base in Afghanistan, saying they are
treated humanely and provided the "best possible living conditions."
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the inmates were held at the Bagram
air base, north of Kabul, some for as long as two or three years without access
to lawyers or the chance to hear the allegations against them.
Col. James R. Yonts, the American military spokesman in Kabul, would not confirm
or deny whether inmates were held for up to three years, saying the secretary of
defense sets the criteria for detention. But he added that all those held were
at one time "enemy combatants" and that their status was regularly reviewed.
"We hold them for two reasons: to question them and get intelligence from them,
or because they've committed violence against the coalition or the people of
Afghanistan," he said in an e-mailed response to questions.
"We regularly review the status of the detainees, and if a detainee has no
intelligence value and if we believe he will no longer attack the coalition or
forces of the central government, we will release him. We regularly release
detainees."
Sultan M. Munadi reported from Pul-i-Charkhi for this article, and Carlotta
Gall from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Militant Inmates
Riot and Seize Control of Cellblock in Afghan Prison, NYT, 27.2.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/international/asia/27afghan.html
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