Index on Economics and Peril in Afghanistan, October 2008 Timeline
| by Sarah Meyer Index Research |  Digg this |  Email this |
"A big thanks for your great essay. It is really splendid: one of the best pieces I ever read about afghanistan." Paola at uruknet.
+
1. Preface
Following Afghanistan Murder and Security catastrophes in September ‘08, we now have a global economic disaster. We also have forecasts of “doom” in Afghanistan.
Global financial meltdown followed the Bush Bailout vote on 1 October 2008. The US financial collapse is related to the “industrial military complex”, and defense expenditures. Eight days after 7% Bush signed the Bailout, while global markets were collapsing, a headline announced: "Pentagon Wants $450 Billion Increase Over Next Five Years." On / following 1 October '08, the US awarded, to date, AT LEAST $3.3 billion for military contracts for Afghanistan and Iraq. (see "contracts" below. * A proper assessment needs doing!) No, Mr. Bush and Co., for all your crocodile compassion, you failed to learn in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, that human beings and community structure are more important than Propaganda, People- killing and Toys for the Boys.
The day following the Bailout, “harsh conclusions” on the war in Afghanistan were made by the UK’s Ambassador to Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles . On 4 October, the Times reported Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying that a military victory over the Taleban was “neither feasible nor supportable.” General John Craddock, NATO’s Supreme-Allied Commander, allegedly defended Brig. Carleton-Smith’s viewpoint. Fitzgibbon , the Australian Defense Minister, echoed his frustrations on 8 October. The French army chief concurred with Carlton-Smith. Canada’s Prime Minister chimed in, depending on where he was electioneering. A further verdict came from a US report to be published after the election. The report represents “a harsh verdict on decision-making in the Bush administration, which in the months after the Sept. 11 2001 attacks made Afghanistan the central focus of a global campaign against terrorism.”
Both Obama and McCain agree to wage the “Good War” [sic] in Afghanistan; both want a bigger force “to help thwart terrorism” It is disturbing, presuming that Obama wins the election, to hear him feel “honoured” by the support of war criminal, Colin Powell. It is even more disturbing to hear his reasoning for wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan: “The other thing that we have to focus on, though, is al Qaeda. They are now operating in 60 countries. We can't simply be focused on Iraq. We have to go to the root cause” and that is in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”. Erm. Bypassing AIPAC, isn’t the “root cause” the Israeli wall and illegal “settlements” accompanied by Israeli violence and intimidation of farmers in Palestine?
Meanwhile, the US started its 3rd war, illegally invading Pakistan on 3 September, killing 15 men, women and children with drones. Drone systems will soon be operated by teenagers pushing death buttons – thus even further alienating the killer from the victim(s).
+
Index
1. Preface
2. Poverty; Refugees, Women; Transportation, Security & Kidnapping
3. The ‘Neo Taliban’
4. The War in Afghanistan (War Zone Timeline, Dead)
5. Killing Civilians
6. Viewpoints on the war in Afghanistan
7. Oil and Gas in Afghanistan
8. Aid in Afghanistan
9. Opium in Afghanistan
10. United States in Afghanistan (Reports, Happy Families, Black Sheep, "Disaster Capitalism")
11. Military Industrial Complex; Contracts; Contractors
12. US-NATO
13. NATO Coalition (Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, UK)
14. Dead in Afghanistan
15. Human Rights (Media, “War on Terror”, War Crimes, Detainees, 9/11, Prisons, Siddiqui, Torture)
16. Obama and McCain on Afghanistan
17. References
2. Poverty, Transportation, Women, Security & Kidnapping
POVERTY
ACT Alert Afghanistan no. 39/2008: Severe drought and food insecurity
25.09.08. relief web. The United Nations and the Government of Afghanistan have indicated that there is a need for US$ 72 million in assistance for the last half of 2008 to avoid a massive humanitarian disaster.
FEATURE-Food crisis competes for Afghan "hearts and minds"
29.09.08. Reuters. a farmer once besieged by the Taliban, then by drought, who then fled to the city and now rails against food prices he blames on the very government he voted for.
AFGHANISTAN: El-Tor cholera leaves 17 dead
07.10.08. irin. An outbreak of El Tor cholera in northern, eastern and southeastern Afghanistan has killed at least 17 people - mostly women and children - in the past few weeks, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said on 6 October.
VIDEO: Cholera plagues Afghanistan (21.10.08. al jazeera)
More effort needed to eradicate poverty in Afghanistan: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
17.10.08. Relief web. A UN appeal to help address food insecurity is still under-funded. A combination of food price hikes, a downturn in the global economy, the effects of climate change, weak governance, and the intensification of the armed conflict, threaten to push even more Afghans into the ranks of the desperately poor. The poor have limited access to clean water and sanitation, adequate nutrition, shelter and other essentials that are fundamental to a life with dignity.
Race Begins to Deliver Afghan Food Aid Before Winter
17.10.08. Steve Herman, VOA. Afghan officials are in a race against time to get food into remote areas that will soon be isolated when the first significant seasonal snow falls. VOA Correspondent Steve Herman in Kabul says compounding the challenge are security concerns, a terrible harvest and soaring food prices.
Will next US president rethink Afghanistan?
21.10.08. Damian Grammaticas, BBC. In the hospital in Bamiyan a nurse is examining Mohammed Hakim. He is almost two years old, but his tiny figure is shrivelled and weak, little more than skin and bone. / Every month, 20 severely malnourished children are being admitted to this hospital. Their wasted figures are a warning. 2 months of food in Bamyan. VIDEO.
VIDEO: Poverty forces Afghan children into smuggling (03.10.08. Aljazeera)
Why the war criminals must leave Afghanistan
25.10.08. Pip Hinman, green left. Most of the rebuilding projects have been handed over to profit-driven private corporations. Most roads and buildings remain in tatters. Average life expectancy is 44 years. Between 53% and 80% of Afghan people live below the official poverty line (depending on which part of the country). / Adult literacy is 29%. In some regions, less than 1% of the population is literate. One in five children dies before the age of five. If anything, the war is preventing progress being made.
Garbage sustains Afghan 'ragpickers'
28.10.08. Jason Motlagh, uruknet. Six-year-old Ali Reza Khan spots a half-eaten apple and steps toward it, darting when another boy makes his move. In one quick swoop, he picks it up, wipes it with a soiled sleeve and takes a bite. It's 7:30 a.m. at the city garbage dump, and the hunt is on. Several truckloads of refuse soon arrive, and Ali tosses aside the rind to join a frenzy of Afghan children who depend on the bounty hidden within each steaming mound to support themselves and their families. Known locally as "ragpickers," most were born in Pakistan after their parents fled the violence and economic hardships that continue to worsen across the border...
REFUGEES
Pakistan Aims to Expel Afghan Refugees as Bajaur Offensive Continues
05.10.08. anti-war. The Pakistani government has announced a “crackdown” on the 30,000 plus Afghan refugees it estimates are living in the troubled Bajaur Agency. Pakistan gave the refugees a three day deadline to return to Afghanistan which expired this weekend. The director general of Kunar’s Refugee Department is quoted as saying “seven to eight” families had returned by the deadline, but they expected some more might come later.
Hard times for Afghan nomads
13.10.08. Bilal Sarwary, BBC / anti-war.
See more Kuchi photos here .
Thousands of Iraqi, Afghan and Georgian Exiles Pour Into Graeco-Turkish Border
21.10.08. Guillaume Perrier, Le Monde/truthout. European countries ignore both Geneva and EU conventions concerning refugees as migrants from global conflicts pour into Greece.
Afghan asylum seekers sent home by Australia 'killed by Taleban'
27.10.08. Anne Barrowclough, Times Online/ICH. Chris Evans, the country's Immigration Minister, has ordered an inquiry into claims that the murdered refugees were among 400 asylum refugees refused entry into Australia by John Howard's government.
Afghanistan: Increasing hardship for growing displaced population
28.10.08. Relief web / ICH. Around 185,000 people, internally displaced before and just after the 2002 fall of the Taleban government, continue to live in camp-like settlements in the south, west and south-west.
WOMEN
Women Who Took On the Taliban -- and Lost
03.10.08. Kim Sengupta, Independent/alternet. Of five prominent Afghani women interviewed three years ago by The Independent, three are dead and a fourth has had to flee.
In Poverty and Strife, Women Test Limits
05.10.08. Carlotta Gall, NY Times. Women are driving cars — a rarity in Afghanistan — working in public offices and police stations, and sitting on local councils. There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan. / In many ways this province, Bamian, is unique. … / More than 80 percent of Afghan women are illiterate. Women’s life expectancy is only 45 years, lower than that of men, mostly because of the very high rates of death during pregnancy. Forced marriage and under-age marriage are common for girls, and only 13 percent of girls complete primary school, compared with 32 percent of boys. / The cult of war left women particularly vulnerable. For years now they have been the victims of abduction and rape. Hundreds of thousands were left war widows, mired in desperate poverty
Anna Politkovskaya Award
Malaya Joya (cont)
Afghan woman rights campaigner wins courage award
07.10.08. Reuters. Malalai Joya's bravery was recognised this week when she was named as the second winner of the Anna Politkovskaya award -- in memory of the campaigning Russian journalist murdered two years ago in Moscow.
Bearing Witness: The Afghan Tragedy
07.10.08. Malaya Joya, The Nation. Remarks on receiving the award. “… Exactly seven years ago, the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan in the name of liberating Afghanistan and its women. Weeks after the overthrow of the Taliban regime, Laura Bush stated proudly, "Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women." / But only few days ago, a top European diplomat Francesc Vendrell warned that Afghanistan is in the worst shape since 2001. In an interview with BBC he said, "In 2002, we were being welcomed almost as liberators by the Afghans. Now we are being seen as a necessary evil."
Why the war criminals must leave Afghanistan
25.10.08. Pip Hinman, greenleft. / Malalai Joya, a courageous MP and one of the few elected, rather than appointed, Afghan politicians, is now living in hiding for daring to expose the crimes of the warlords who dominate the parliament. / Joya described the parliament as being like a “mafia”, “80% of which are warlords or drug lords”. “They either snatched their places in parliament at gun point or bought these seats off with US dollars”, she told a Pakistani journalist in September. / Asked if she thought the security situation would worsen if the US-NATO forces left, she said: “We have to continue to expose the crimes of this occupation, and not let our opposition to the Taliban blind us to the fact that foreign interference and military occupation is not helping bringing democracy.” / She went on: “They [the US-NATO coalition forces] are even embracing the Taliban. Recently, in Musa Qila, a Taliban commander Mulla Salam was appointed as governor by Karzai. The US has no problem with the Taliban so long as it’s ‘our Taliban’. / “People here believe that the warlords are cushioned by the US troops. If the USA leaves, the warlords will lose power because they have no base among our people. The people of Afghanistan will deal with these warlords once US troops leave Afghanistan”, Joya added. / We should also heed Joya’s call to “support the democratic forces in Afghanistan” and to send doctors, nurses and teachers, not soldiers. We must support self-determination for the people of Afghanistan and force the Rudd government to withdraw the troops.
Nobel Laureates Honour Afghan recipient of International Human Rights Award
09.10.08. cranky optimist. We, six women Nobel Peace Laureates—Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu, Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire—are honoured to once again support the Reach All Women In War (RAW) Anna Politkovskaya Award. … / Thankfully there are courageous women around the world who, like Anna Politkovskaya, are willing to speak truth to power. Malalai Joya—the recipient of this year’s award—is one such woman.
Also see here.
==
North slipping into different kind of hell
20.10.08. Chris Sands,the national.ae. For more than a week she [age 13] was handed around the area to whomever wanted a piece of her. By the end of it all, she had been raped eight times.
TRANSPORTATION
Government to build road to China
25.09.08. online news.
The Promised Road
Afghans reopen road despite threat to heritage site
08.10.08. Wired/antiwar. Hundreds of Afghans forcibly reopened a road in the western city of Herat on Wednesday that had been shut to protect a 15th century heritage site after a promised alternate route was not provided. The Musallah complex in the western city of Herat was built during the Timurid empire founded by the legendary conqueror Tamerlane and today consists of six minarets and two domed chambers. See earlier story on closure here (06.06.08)
Importance of Silk Route
13.10.08. Kashmir Watch. … / Now in the the 21st century, the great East-West trading route has regained major prominence. The New Silk Road -- the revival of trade and investment between the Gulf and Asia -- features large movements of capital as well as goods. / … Over the last two years U.S. policy makers have been promoting a new vision for Central and South Asia. This vision advocates the creation of a new Silk Road. The idea behind the vision is to restore links between Afghanistan, the Central Asia Republics, and their neighbours. … Finding ways to lower transaction costs is the critical task for the United States and its partners. For the United States and its eastern partners to succeed in their nation building efforts in Afghanistan, they need to find ways to improve economic conditions in the country. According to American policy makers, the best way to accomplish this is to expand economic [oil / gas?] links between Central and South Asian nations. … The essence of the American vision for both regions is the creation of a new Silk Road. Its creation could conceivably open up new markets and economic opportunities for the landlocked countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Railway to Iran
19.10.08. trendaz. A NEW railway linking Iran with the western Afghan city of Herat is 60% complete. / The ministry says rail transport is five times cheaper than transporting goods by road. / But one kilometer of railway built in Afghanistan costs about $2 million
Afghan-Iranian Company Increases Commercial Relations
21.10.08. Trendaz. A joint Afghan-Iranian transportation company will be set up in the Iranian sea port of Chabahar in a bid to boost trade between the two countries.
(see more excellent road / scenery photos by Atash Parcha here)
Death stalks the highway to hell
24.10.08. Salih Muhammad Salih, Abubakar Siddique, asia times. Following its reconstruction in 2003, the Kabul to Kandahar highway was seen as a logistical lifeline that would bring hope and promise for Afghanistan's future. / But today the nearly 500-kilometer route, known as Highway One, might arguably symbolize the dangers ahead as the country continues its efforts to defeat the Taliban and other "enemies of Afghanistan", to borrow the government's phrase for insurgents and other brigands undermining central authority. / Afghans who use the road warn that it has become exceedingly treacherous …
Afghan Mad Max Highway 1 to nowhere: Ring Roads rise & fall
23.10.08. Moin Ansari, uruknet. Its been dubbed the Afghan Mad Max Gauntlet. The Afghan Highway 1 Ring Road has been heralded as Afghanistan’s revival, and the great reconstruction of the infrastructure. Indians also dreamed of hooking it up to Iran and then to the Indian built Iranian port of Chahbahar. Today the Ring Road is an unmitigated disaster. Most of the bridges have been blown up and the Taliban and the 38 other anti-occupation forces run a gauntlet on the road. It is not safe, and it does not allow ISAF and NATO to reach hot spots in a hurry. Those risking to run the gauntlet are trapped by the insurgents, kidnapped, held ransom, or simply killed and blown-up...Already all the roads to Kabul are in Talib control...
(also see transporation at 7. Oil and Gas)
SECURITY AND KIDNAPPING
Report
Security Rights HRRAC.
21.09.08. Xinhuanet. [ HRRAC ] said in its report released on Sunday that majority of Afghans believe the security situation is getting worse since 2004. "Sixty three percent of Afghans believe that the security situation in their communities has worsened since 2004,"the report said.
Articles
FEATURE-Afghan army slowly pulls itself up by bootstraps
25.09.08. Sanjeev Miglani, Reuters.
Afghan security worse, more police needed - U.N.
26.09.08. in Reuters.
And Kidnapping
Report
"Kidnapping and Terror in the Contemporary Operational Environment"
(Secrecy News)
Articles
Afghanistan protests to Pakistan over abduction of consul
22.09.08. Rian.ru.
Pakistan assures safe recovery of abducted Afghan envoy. (23.09.08 xingua).
Freed (30.09.08. Dawn. BUT: Release is “speculation and hearsay.” (01.10.08. int times)
Protest in Afghanistan over envoy’s kidnapping
09.10.08. dailytimes.pk. “Around 1,000 people, mostly influential elders, marched in a peaceful protest calling on both countries, the United Nations and the Taliban to free Mr Farahi,” Farah province Governor Rohul-Amin said. The demonstrators read a statement in front of the governor’s office accusing both countries of not doing enough for the release of the Afghan diplomat, who had been promoted to ambassador but had yet to take up the job.
Search on for missing Afghan diplomat
13.10.08, the news
FARAH , not too far from US airbase in Shindand
Militants kidnap 155 workers building Afghan base
22.09.08. wired / AP. The laborers were working on a military base for the Afghan army in the city of Farah,
New efforts to free 150 Afghan hostages: official
24.09.08. AFP. Tribal elders, members of village and town councils, and other influential men have been called to meet later in the day in the town of Farah near where the workers were abducted Sunday, the deputy provincial governor said.
Taliban frees 118 kidnapped labourers
26.09.08. AFP.
Kidnappers target the rich, influential in Afghanistan
30.09.08. AFP. Mohammed Hashim Wahaaj, a large Afghan doctor with a bushy beard, thought he was going to die.
Gunmen kidnap former Afghan presidential candidate in Kabul
20.10.08. m and c / anti-war. Humayun Asifi and two relatives were kidnapped by unknown gunmen at 11 pm on Sunday night when he was on his way to his home in western part of Kabul city, Zemarai Bashary, interior ministry spokesman, said.
US commandos rescue American hostage near Kabul
22.10.08. Jason Straziuso, AP. U.S. Special Forces soldiers conducting a daring nighttime operation freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers — the first known hostage rescue by American forces in Afghanistan. The American, who was abducted in mid-August, had been held in a growing insurgent stronghold 30 miles west of Kabul, U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. They said several insurgents were killed in last week's mission to free him.
Khost
Turkish govt says 3 Turks kidnapped in Afghanistan
25.10.08. AP. The Turkish nationals were kidnapped in the eastern province of Khoston Thursday,
Kabul
Afghan security forces free former Afghan presidential candidate
26.10.08. M %amp C. Acting on a tip-off, joint Afghan police and intelligence forces recovered both hostages in a safe-house in the Tarakhel area of Kabul city, said Afghan intelligence service spokesman Sayed Ansari. / 'Today our forces freed Humayun Shah Asifi and Abdul Latif from the hands of their kidnappers,' Ansari said, but declined to provide further details.
3. The ‘Neo-Taliban’
“The mystique vital for any outgunned guerilla movement-
the capacity to be both invisible and omnipresent. Philip Marsden , The Chains of Heaven, p. 268.
Insurgents in Afghanistan show strength, sophistication
18.09.08. Laura King, LA Times / uruknet. This summer, foreign troop deaths have exceeded those of U.S. forces in Iraq. 'We feel that things are going very, very well for us,' one Taliban fighter says.
A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan
20.09.08. P. Constable, Washington Post.
US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar
25.09.08. Telegraph. The US must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region, the Governor of Pakistan's lawless border areas has said.
US general: Taliban can't launch winter campaign
26.09.08. AP. A top U.S. general [Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser] said he expects militant violence in Afghanistan to rise some 30 percent this winter compared with last year, but that he does not think insurgents have the ability to mount a massive campaign during the country's harsh weather.
West Prevents Establishment of Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan
27.09.08. trendaz. The former Chairman of the Council of National Unity of Afghanistan, Ahmet Ziya Rafet, said that the USA and Great Britain support terrorists in the country and conduct games in the region to achieve their strategic interests. / Rafet told Trend News correspondent in Kabul that Taliban and the terrorist forces were in actuality created by the West, especially by the USA and Great Britain to achieve their interests in the region.
Taliban show no let up despite 8,000 soldiers in FATA
28.09.08. dailytimes.pk. The newspaper [the times] said in a report on Saturday that a constant supply of fresh fighters from inside the country and across the border in Afghanistan is helping the Taliban to stay in the fight.
Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid
28,09.08. Jason Burke, Guardian. Saudis are sponsoring a peace dialogue involving a former senior member of the hardline group. See another article (28.09.08) about the ‘back channels of diplomacy’ by Jason Burke in The Observer. Taliban leadership denies report of Afghan talks (29.09.08, Reuters).
Afghan minister does not confirm Taliban talks
28.09.08. Reuters. "I deny there is any contact between the Foreign Ministry and the Taliban about the negotiations," he said when asked for elaboration.
Are You Confused About Taliban? The Good Taliban, The Bad And The Ugly
28.09.08. Ahmed Quraishi, uruknet. There used to be one Taliban, the Afghan one. The new Talibans you see today are not only fake, but also penetrated by the spy agencies of several countries. Their target appears to be Pakistan. At the time of 9/11, there was only one Taliban, the Afghan Taliban. Now there are several. This is not natural. It is the result of a great game that intelligence agencies from several countries are playing to confuse the situation on the Pak-Afghan border. Some, like the Indians, are using it to send trained terrorists. Others, like the Americans, are using it to support terrorists like BLA. And Russia is suspected of financing some other militants to keep the Americans tied down. The Good Taliban are those who are patriots, they understand the situation created by the enemies of Pakistan. They support the Army and its various agencies that are all busy protecting Pakistan. The Good Taliban also include the Afghan Taliban, who is the original Taliban. They are good not because we like or dislike their policy, but because they, too, have never attacked Pakistan or Pakistanis. They are part of the Afghan opposition to the puppet regime of Hamid Karzai and are part of the Afghan resistance to a foreign occupation, all of which has nothing to do with Pakistan....
Taliban's Omar offers deal to U.S. on withdrawal
29.09.08. Reuters. Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Monday urged U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan to withdraw or face a similar defeat to occupying Soviet troops a generation ago. / "Reconsider your wrong decision of wrong occupation, and seek a safe exit to withdraw your forces," said the message, which the Taliban said came from Omar. "If you leave our lands, we can arrange for you a reasonable opportunity for your departure," he said, adding that the Taliban posed no harm to anyone in the world.
Karzai Sought Saudi Help With Taliban
30.09.08. NY Times. But Mr. Karzai said his appeals had failed to yield any talks, and his tone suggested a degree of frustration with the Saudi government for not having acted more decisively. Nor was there any indication that senior Taliban leaders were ready for talks on any grounds that the Karzai government and its Western backers would be likely to accept.
Afghanistan's Karzai Calls for Talks with Taliban
30.09.08. Ayaz Gul, VOA. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has made a call for peace to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Wants Omar to return to Afghanistan.
3. bin Laden Bush Had No Plan to Catch Bin Laden After 9/11 29.09.08. Gareth Porter, IPS/truthout. "New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11. That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to planning for war with Iraq over military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan." Elite Officer Recalls Bin Laden Hunt 07.10.08. CBS / ICH. Shortly after 9/11, the Pentagon ordered a top secret team [Delta] of American commandos into Afghanistan with a single, simple order: kill Osama bin Laden. It was America's best chance to eliminate the leader of al Qaeda. The inside story of exactly what happened in that mission, and how close it came to its objective has never been told until now. VIDEO. bin Laden After 9/11 07.10.08. Gareth Porter, IPS News/alternet. Mere weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration was too busy planning to invade Iraq to follow through on its mission in Afghanistan. |
Afghans back Taliban, says abducted senator
02.10.08. Chris Sands, The National/uruknet. It was early one morning this summer when Abdul Wali Ahmadzai began to understand the true strength of the Taliban in his province. As the senator for Logar travelled to a meeting, eight men armed with weapons including Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers stopped his convoy on a dirt road. He was held hostage for more than two months and would come away having witnessed a reality some insist does not exist. "The important point is that the people support the Taliban. This is the main problem: now the people do not like the government and they support the Taliban,"
Taliban Rejects Karzai Call for Talks
03.10.08. Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com/uruknet. Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave an interview on Pakistani television in which he implored Taliban leader Mullah Omar to return to the country and compete in the next presidential election. Karzai promised to be "wholly solely responsible for his safety." But top Taliban official Mullah Brother phoned Reuters rejecting the offer "by the Afghan’s puppet and slave President Hamid Karzai." He insisted that Karzai "only says and does what he is told by A! merica," and that he was in no position to negotiate....
Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace
(no date) CNN. Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.
Afghan Government Denies Talking with Taliban
07.10.08. N VOA / ICH. Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told reporters that while President Hamid Karzai has asked the Saudi King to arrange such discussions, they have not yet occurred.
The British commander is right... you'll never beat Taliban
07.10.08. Patrick Coburn, Belfast telegraph. In Afghanistan the US policy has been catastrophically misconceived. The first serious talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban took place 10 days ago in Mecca under the auspices of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. During the discussions all sides agreed that the war in Afghanistan is going to be solved by dialogue and not by fighting. / The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, was not present but his representatives said he was no longer allied to al-Qa'ida.
US backs Taliban return to power in Afghanistan
08.10.08. timesofindia / ICH. Gates' comments followed revelations that Taliban representatives met with Afghan government officials last month in Saudi Arabia, a former high-level Taliban ambassador said on Monday.
A fatal flaw in Afghan peace process
08.10.08. M K Bhadrakumar, asia times. With the reported intra-Afghan talks under the mediation of Saudi Arabia in Mecca on September 24-27, attention inevitably shifts to the hidden aspects of the "war on terror" in Afghanistan - the geopolitics of the war. …/.. However, what is beyond doubt is that inter-Afghan peace talks have finally begun. There is a readiness to admit that the legacy of the Bonn conference in December 2001 must be exorcised from Afghanistan's body politic and stowed away in history books. The recognition seems to have dawned that peace is indivisible and victors must learn to share it with the vanquished. .. / .. Against such a complex backdrop, Washington could - and perhaps should - have logically turned to the United Nations or the international community to initiate an inter-Afghan peace process. Instead, it has almost instinctively turned to its old ally in the Hindu Kush - Saudi Arabia. …
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
BBC 2002
BBC 2002
Secret Saudi dinner, Karzai's brother and the Taliban
08.10.08. Kim Sengupta, Independent / ICH. The Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai has been involved in secret negotiations with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Mujaheddin leader now labelled a ‘terrorist’ by the US and Britain.
Afghan president offers Taliban a role in governing country
11.10.08. Nick Meo, Telegraph. President Hamid Karzai has offered Taliban leaders the possibility of positions in his government if they agree to a peace deal which could bring fighting to an end.
U.N envoy: Afghan insurgency spreading
14.10.08. MSNBC / legitgov. The 'insurgency' in Afghanistan has spread beyond Taliban strongholds while the number of attacks in the country has reached a six-year high, a top U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. Kai Eide, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, told the United Nations Security Council that insurgents are unlikely to ease attacks this winter as their influence continues to spread beyond traditional strongholds to provinces around Kabul.
As Taliban Influence Grows, ‘Shadow Government’ Seems an Increasingly Viable Option to Afghans
14.10.08. anti-war. While coalition forces continue to kill militants in the provinces south of Kabul, the resilient Taliban forces continue to expand their influence in the area. Their presence is so overwhelming in some areas that they’re set up their own ’shadow government’ with its own court system. In the areas they control most completely, these government systems are considerably more powerful than their coalition-supported counterparts, and according to some reports, better accepted.
Kabul Is Now Surrounded By The Taliban
14.10.08. G.SMITH, Globe and Mail / uruknet. ...The Taliban are isolating Afghanistan's capital city from the rest of the country, choking off important supply routes and imposing their rules on the provinces near Kabul.
Taliban make travel out of Kabul treacherous
14.10.08. newspress/ICH. The Taliban are isolating Afghanistan's capital city from the rest of the country, choking off important supply routes and imposing their rules on the provinces near Kabul.
Some Afghans live under Taliban rule – and prefer it
15.10.08. Anand Gopal, CSM / ICH. In provinces just south of Kabul, the insurgents have a shadow government that polices roads and runs courts.
“How We Lost the War We Won: A Journey into Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan”
15.10.08. Democracy Now!/uruknet. ...And then, once we got to the province of Ghazni, we were basically in Taliban-controlled territory. They have checkpoints there during the day, where they stop cars and take people out, kill them if they want to. They conduct daytime patrols in their villages with rocket-propelled grenades on their backs, with fairly large groups, some six to eight, ten people with machine guns. They conduct trials, adjudicating disputes between farmers, etc....
Defections hit Afghan forces
15.10.08. aljazeera.
Afghanistan: Pakistan's ex-spymaster outlines Taliban demands
15.10.08. adnkronos/ICH. The Taliban will agree to peace talks if they are recognised as a political force, if a date is set for the withdrawal of international forces, and if Taliban prisoners are released, according to Pakistan's former spy chief, Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul. / Gul a former head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said he believes negotations need to be taken forward with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. / Pakistan has to be brought on board too.."
Video: Afghan defectors turn to the Taliban (15.10.08. AlJazeera.net)
To fight Taliban, US eyes Afghan tribes
16.10.08. Mark Sappenfield, CSM / anti-war.
Haqqani
Afghan ally Haqqani is now a foe
16.10.08. James Rupert, Bloomberg / anti-war. [NB: bin Laden was also once a US “Afghan ally” ] When Jalaluddin Haqqani fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the U.S. showered him with praise, guns and money. The congressman celebrated in "Charlie Wilson's War," the movie and book about that conflict, called him "goodness personified." / Now the U.S. is trying to kill Mr. Haqqani, who commands a Taliban guerrilla force fighting Americans in five Afghan provinces from his base in western Pakistan.
FACTBOX-Facts about veteran Taliban commander Haqqani
23.10.08. Reuters. A gaunt, ethnic Pashtun man with a long beard and, in the few photographs of him, always seen wearing a large turban, Haqqani is in his 70s. He won recognition as a rugged commander during the Afghan jihad, or holy war, against Soviet occupiers in the 1980s. … -- Haqqani had close links with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistani intelligence services, notably the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), during the war against the Soviets. / .. -- The New York Times reported in July that the CIA had given Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani evidence of the ISI's continued involvement with Haqqani.
Afghanistan Taliban becomes stronger in numbers
17.10.08. Calcutta News.Net, uruknet. The Taliban's strength in Afghanistan has increased by up to 20-30 percent over the past year, according to Major General Jeffrey Schlosser, a top general in-charge of US ground troops in Afghanistan. In a CBS TV interview to be telecast this Sunday, he said evidence of the increase in numbers was apparent on a base in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, which has been hit with rockets and mortars at least 30 times since March, when a major battle took place...
Afghan mayor turns Taliban leader
17.10.08. al jazeera. Given exclusive access to one of his 20 mountain bases hidden deep inside rugged terrain that Akbari says were also used to fight the Russians, Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy found a group of at least 60 well-armed Taliban fighters. / The former mayor of Afghanistan's Herat province is now the most powerful local Taliban commander. / Ghullam Yahya Akbari told Al Jazeera that he will not negotiate with the Afghan government as long as foreign troops are on Afghan soil. IN VIDEO: Afghan mayor joins Taliban
Video: Afghan mayor turns Taliban leader (17.10.08. aljazeera)
Saudi says Afghan mediation depends on peace desire
21.10.08. Reuters.
The 'Unthinkable' in Afghanistan
23.10.08. Greg Bruno, Council on Foreign Relations, Wasington Post. The sudden emergence of a diplomatic dialogue illustrates just how far the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan has deteriorated, some experts say.
analysis: Afghanistan in peril
24.10.08. Najmuddin A Shaikh, daily times.pk. It is clear that the Taliban are not as monolithic as sometimes assumed. Various power centres have developed and many vested interests have been created. The Taliban that have spoken about negotiations do not represent mainstream Taliban. / The military situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply in this year.
Taliban say NATO troops must leave to end Afghan war
25.10.08. Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters.
Taliban rule returning to Kandahar province
28.10.08. military world / ICH. As Canadian Forces continue to fight and die throughout Kandahar province, the Taliban have quietly set up parallel governments only kilo-metres away from the provincial capital, local residents say.
How We Lost the War We Won
30.10.08. Nir Rosen, rolling stone / anti-war. A journey into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan: An evocative article on GHAZNI. Until recently, Ghazni, like much of central Afghanistan, was considered reasonably safe. But now the province, located 100 miles south of the capital, has fallen to the Taliban. Foreigners who venture to Ghazni often wind up kidnapped or killed. In defiance of the central government, the Taliban governor in the province issues separate ID cards and passports for the Taliban regime, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Farmers increasingly turn to the Taliban, not the American-backed authorities, for adjudication of land disputes.
4. The War in Afghanistan (War Zone timeline, Suicide Attacks, Dead, Refugees)
The Embattled Frontier
Black Widow's inhospitable beauty
27.09.08. John Simpson, BBC. The immense border between Afghanistan and the north-west frontier of Pakistan is harsh, inhospitable and breathtakingly beautiful. / It has been the cause of tension for at least a century and a half.
Series Overview: The Embattled Frontier
13.10.08. Doug Roberts, npr. The 1,600-mile-long frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan has always been a wild and often violent region — and never more so than today. There is warfare on both sides of the border now. 5 part series by various authors.
WAR ZONE TIMELINE
REPORT
“Troops in Contact”
September 2008. Human Rights Watch. Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan.
ARTICLES
Azizabad Revisited
‘If it’s been officially denied, then it’s probably true’ John Pilger.
The incessant slaughter of Afghan civilians
23.09.08. D. Lewis, aljazeera. Why American military “investigations” do nothing to prevent airstrike massacres against Afghan civilians.
Hundreds of Afghan civilians still dying in the United States' "good war
06.10.08. usa.media monitors. The US insists that American forces do not deliberately target civilians. No compensation has been paid by the US to the victims’ families, according to Attiqullah. He admitted that the Karzai government had paid $2,000 for each death and $1,000 to each injured person. This shows the little value that is placed on Afghan lives."
US Inquiry Revises Herat Civilian Toll, Still Disputes UN, Afghan Accounts
07.10.08. Jason Ditz, anti-war. The investigator, Brigadier General Michael Callan, determined that many more civilians were killed than officials had previously claimed. He still put the number at only “more than 30,” still quite a bit below the other accounts. The report also insists that the strike was on a “legitimate target” and does not recommend any punishment for those involved.
US Report Declares Herat Strike “Legitimate Self-Defense”
09.10.08. anti-war. Rather than admitting that their initial findings were in error however, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said simply that “sometimes the truth can change.” .. / And indeed, even now that they are conceding to killing at least dozens of Afghan civilians (though still a far lower number than the other investigations), the report maintains that the killings were legitimate self-defense. Rear Admiral Greg Smith says the matter is now closed and no disciplinary action will be taken against those involved in the killings.
After Afghan Probe, Military Vows Changes
09.10.08. D. Kravitz, Washington Post. Last month, during a visit to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged the human and public relations damage caused by such incidents. He promised additional measures to minimize them and to conduct more transparent investigations. He also said that in the future, the United States will compensate [sic] the families of alleged victims even before completing its investigations.
Afghanistan: Not a Good War Gone Bad
17.10.08. L. Everest, Counterpunch / anti-war.
See Brian Cloughley’s superb article in here.
See ‘Murder in Azizabad’ here .
Uruzgan
Australian troops 'kill Afghan governor'
07.10.08. National nine news / ICH. In the incident on September 18, Australian special forces soldiers came under fire during a patrol in the Oruzgan district capital Tarin Kowt. / Defence promptly confirmed that Chora district governor and tribal leader, Rozi Khan, was among those killed but said it was not possible at that time to confirm if he was killed by ADF fire. / The Australian Defence Force (ADF) was working with the governor's tribe to ensure his death had no negative consequences for operations in the region.
Kandahar
NATO troops kill a civilian in Afghanistan
19.09.08. hindu.com. The civilian victim was riding in a truck that was heading directly for a NATO patrol in Kandahar province Thursday, the military alliance said in a statement.
20 Taliban militants killed in failed ambush in S Afghanistan
26.09.08. Xinehuanet. "Afghan police came in reinforcement and called in NATO air strike support," Ayubi said. "Hours' fire fighting left 20 militants dead and two trucks destroyed." However, he did not provide any information about the casualties on neither police nor the security guards.
Ghazni
Five Taliban said killed in Afghanistan
27.09.08. AFP. International forces helping Afghanistan to fight a Taliban-led insurgency had carried out the air strikes, he [Ismail Jahangir] said, but this could not be immediately confirmed by the forces.
Kandahar
Top Afghan policewoman shot dead
28.09.08. BBC. [it is alleged that she supported US troops in Afghanistan]
Kunar
Afghan police: 3 civilians die in coalition strike
28.09.08. Rahim Faiez, AP/ Guardian. A coalition operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan killed three civilians but no militants, a police official said Sunday. US military to probe claims (28.09.08, AFP). US
disputes claim (29.09.08, AP)
Kandahar
Rebels attack provincial chief in southern Afghanistan; 4 bodyguards killed
29.09.08. AP, my telus. The target of the attack late Sunday in the southern city of Kandahar was Mohammad Hashim, the provincial council chief in neighbouring Zabul province.
Paktika province
NATO: Afghan policeman fires on U.S. troops, 1 dead
29.09.08. AP/usatoday.
Helmand
British soldier kills Afghan civilian after warning: official
30.09.08. AFP.
Senate passes Bailout
01.10.08.
Kunar
Two civilians killed, four wounded in attacks in Afghanistan
03.10.08. monsters and critics. Further info. on Helmand.
Pech, Kunar
Two civilians killed, four wounded in Afghanistan attacks
03.10.08. Irish Sun. Taliban militants attacked a convoy of Afghan and US-led coalition forces in the Pech district of eastern Kunar province Friday morning, resulting in deaths of one civilian and injuries to four others, the US military said in a statement. (Mention of a further incident in Helmand)
Ghazni
Six killed in new Afghan violence
05.10.08. AFP. … One militant was killed, while three women and three children in the house were wounded, he said. Four more Taliban and the policeman were killed in a clash after security forces chased the attackers, Khan said.
Ghazni
Two dozen dead in series of attacks, clashes across Afghanistan
07.10.08. dailystar / anti-war. Attacks and clashes across troubled Afghanistan have left more than two dozen people dead, including a cook and his 12-year-old son allegedly shot dead by Taliban, authorities said Monday.
Qalat, Zabul
U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces killed 43 militants
08.10.08. Reuters. during heavy fighting in Qalat district of southern Zabul province Sunday, the U.S. military said in a statement Tuesday.
Nad Ali, Helmand
Afghan and international troops killed 16 Taliban insurgents
08.10.08.Reuters (cont.) … and wounded six more during a gun battle in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province on Monday, provincial police chief Asadullah Sherzad told Reuters.
Helmand
Clash leaves 9 militants dead in S Afghanistan
09.10.08. Xinhuanet.
Kandahar and Ghazni
Anti-militant operations leave 9 militants dead in Afghanistan
11.10.08. Xinhua. Two operations against militant activities in southern Afghan province of Kandahar and central province of Ghazni left nine militants dead on Friday, said statements of the U.S.-led Coalition forces issued here on Saturday.
Lashkar Gah, Helmand
Taleban stage audacious 'Tet-style' attack on British HQ city
13.10.08. Times Online. British and Afghan forces repulsed an attempt by hundreds of Taleban fighters to attack the provincial capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, on Saturday night in the most audacious Taliban attack in the province since 2006. 62 killed .
Khost
Seven killed in Afghan violence: officials
13.10.08. AFP. The civilians, an elderly woman and a child, died Sunday when a rocket fired by Taliban-linked extremists at a nearby NATO base in eastern Khost province hit their home, provincial police chief Abdul Qayoum Baqizoi said. Two other children were injured in the attack, he said.
Ghazni
Coalition forces kill 5 Taliban militants in central Afghanistan
13.10.08. Xinhuanet. The operation in Andar district of Ghazni targeted a known Taliban militant believed to have been in contact with foreign fighter facilitators intended to destabilize the region, the statement said.
14 militants, 8 civilians killed in Afghanistan
14.10.08. daily times pk / anti-war. Six civilians were killed and two more wounded when a minibus hit a roadside bomb in Zana Khan district of Ghazni province on Monday. .. / In another incident, international and Afghan troops killed five militants in an operation targeting a foreign fighters’ network in Ghazni province on Monday, said a statement by US military.
Ghazni
14 militants, 8 civilians killed in Afghanistan
14.10.08. daily times pk / anti-war.
Uruzgan and Ghazni
Three NATO Soldiers, 16 Afghans Killed in Bomb Blasts
14.10.08. Amir Shah, AP / Truthout. : "In a demonstration of the increasingly deadly attacks [in Afghanistan], a roadside blast in the east [Uruzgan] where U.S. soldiers operate killed three NATO troops, while two separate roadside bombs in the south [Ghazni?] killed 16 Afghan civilians, officials said. In Afghanistan, militant attacks have turned deadlier and more sophisticated this year, part of the reason more U.S. and NATO troops have died there in 2008 than in any year since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion."
Helmand
70 Taliban killed in air strike in Afghanistan
15.10.08. CBC. Capping a particularly bloody day in Afghanistan, about 70 Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in southern Helmand province, the provincial governor's spokesman said Wednesday. / .. U.S. and NATO forces said they had no immediate information on the strike, and neither could confirm involvement.
Taliban 'seizes 180 Afghan troops'
15.10.08. AlJazeera.net/uruknet. A spokesman for the Taliban movement has told Al Jazeera that the movement's fighters have captured at least 180 Afghan soldiers in southern Helmand province. Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said on Wednesday that the soldiers were seized while travelling in three buses on their way to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. The Afghan government made no immediate comment on the abduction claims. Ahamdi said that the soldiers were dressed in civilian dress and were on a mission to reinforce government troops in the area, "to prevent the fall of Lashkar Gah into the hands of the Taliban". Ahmadi said that he expected Lashkar Gah to soon fall under Taliban control because of their escalated operations in the area...
NATO Modifies Airstrike Policy In Afghanistan 16.10.08. Washington Post / anti-war. In a bow to public outrage over a recent spate of U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan that resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths, NATO officials have ordered commanders to try to lessen their reliance on air power in battles with insurgents, NATO and Afghan officials said Wednesday. / "We'll do anything we can to prevent unnecessary casualties, and we'll ensure that we'll have safe use of force. That includes not only airstrikes but ground operations," Blanchette said. |
Lashkar Gah, Helmand
Afghan Officials Say Airstrike Killed Civilians
16.10.08. J.F. Burns, NYTimes. A NATO airstrike on Thursday on a village near the embattled provincial capital of Lashkar Gah killed 25 to 30 civilians, Afghan officials in the area said. While NATO confirmed that an airstrike had taken place in the area, where Taliban fighters have been battling NATO forces, it said that the reports were being investigated and that the command was “unable to confirm any civilian casualties.”
Report: NATO Air Strike in Helmand Kills At Least 25 Civilians
16.10.08. anti-war. NATO forces launched an air strike in Nad Ali District, Helmand Province early this afternoon. According to local officials, the attack killed between 25 and 30 civilians. / It is unclear which NATO member launched the air strike, but during reported protests in Lashkar Gah this afternoon angry locals condemned the Afghan government and British forces. District Chief Mahboob Khan said the anger was even more widespread however, and while they are “busy burying their family members now … tomorrow, they will demand to know why their houses were targeted.” Provincial Police Chief Assadullah Sherzad confirmed the air strike, but was unable to vouch for the number killed.
Villagers say 18 civilians killed in Nato air strike in Afghanistan
17.10.08. Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian. Angry villagers took 18 bodies - including badly mangled bodies of women and children - to the governor's house in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Haji Adnan Khan, a tribal leader in the city who had seen the bodies, was reported as saying. He said there might be more bodies trapped under the rubble. / A BBC reporter in Lashkar Gah said he saw the bodies - three women and the rest children ranging in age from six months to 15. The families brought the bodies from their village in the Nad Ali district.
Afghan strike 'kills civilians'
16.10.08. BBC. At least 18 civilians have been killed in an air strike by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, reports say. / A BBC reporter in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah saw the bodies - three women and the rest children - ranging in age from six months to 15.
We do our utmost to avoid killing civilians 17.10.08. Letter to Guardian from James Appathurai, Nato spokesman, Brussels, Belgium. |
Afghan authorities probe civilian deaths in battle
17.10.08. wired / anti-war.
New civilian deaths raise Afghanistan tension
18.10.08. Laura King, sfgate / anti-war.
Paktika
US military: Afghan policeman kills US soldier
16.10.08. wired. It was the second time in less than a month that an Afghan officer has killed a U.S. soldier. / In the latest attack on U.S. soldiers, the policeman standing on a tower attacked the American foot patrol in Bermel district of the eastern Paktika province, the military said. The troops returned fire on the tower, killing the policemen. The military said it was investigating the attack.
Seven killed as Taliban ‘shoot down’ US chopper
19.10.08. the news / anti-war.
Jairez, Wardak
19 insurgents killed in N Afghanistan
18.10.08. Xinhuanet. The joint troops engaged insurgents by small-arms fire, heavy weapons and helicopters in Jalrez district where the fighting continued through the night on Oct. 16, resulting in 19 militants killed, the statement said.
Paktika
Seven killed as Taliban ‘shoot down’ US chopper
19.10.08. The News International, Pakistan
Kandahar
Dozens killed in Afghan bus ambush
19.10.08. aljazeera. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the defence minsitry spokesman, said on Sunday that 31 civilians were killed in the attack in the Maiwand district, a Taliban-controlled area just west of Kandahar city. / But a Taliban spokesman said that 27 Afghan army personnel had been killed. / Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said that Taliban fighters had checked the documents of the passengers and released all the civilians before killing the soldiers/ Azimi denied the Taliban claims saying: "Our soldiers travel by military convoy, not in civilian buses. And we have military air transportation."
Helmand
Over 60 "Taliban" killed in fight with Afghan, NATO forces
20.10.08. earth times / ICH. NATO and Afghan forces killed more than 60 "Taliban militants" in country's southern region in separate clashes, officials said Monday. In the latest attack, Afghan and NATO forces killed 34 Taliban militants in volatile southern Helmand province on Sunday night
and
Afghan defence ministry said in a statement that their forces killed six Taliban militants in Lashkargah, the provincial capital for the same Helmand province.
Wardak
NATO: 20 insurgents killed west of Afghan capital
20.10.08. wired/anti-war. The province has become an insurgent stronghold at the gates of the capital just 40 miles west of Kabul.
Bagram
US Plane Destroyed in Afghanistan Accident
21.10.08. VOA. A U.S. Navy plane was destroyed Tuesday when it overshot the runway at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. / .. Authorities at the base say the plane sustained serious structural and fire damage as a result of the crash.
Khost
Coalition Airstrike Kills 8 Afghans, Officials Say
22.10.08. AP / NY Times. A U.S.-led coalition airstrike hit an Afghan army checkpoint early Wednesday, killing eight soldiers and wounding four others, Afghan officials said. / The strike hit an army checkpoint in Sayed Kheil area of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, said Arsallah Jamal, the province's governor. / The potential friendly-fire incident could further strain relations between the government of President Hamid Karzai and its foreign backers.
Foreign troops kill nine Afghan soldiers
22.10.08. Reuters.
Uruzgan
FIGHT BETWEEN REBELS AND POLICE CAUSED, 38
22.10.08. agi.it. The death toll of a cruel fight yesterday evening is at least 35 dead including 35 Taliban and three state police officers. The fight went on until the morning in the south-centre province of Uruzgan,
U.S., Afghan Forces Kill 55 Militants; 3 Coalition Members Die
22.10.08. Robin Stringer,, Bloomberg / ICH.
W. Afghanistan
3 US coalition troops killed in Afghanistan
23.10.08. AP. No location given.
Kabul
Afghanistan: Three people shot dead outside DHL's offices in Kabul
25.10.08. M. Tran, Guardian. The killings took place in front of the DHL headquarters in the upmarket Sher Pur area of Kabul, where many foreigners live. The Foreign Office named the British victim as David Giles. The other two killed were a South African and an Afghan.
Ghazni
Report: US Air Strike Kills 24 Afghan Guards
26.10.08. anti-war. US forces called in an air strike in Ghazni Province to fend off a Taliban attack on guards for a road construction project. Now, provincial officials say they are investigating reports that the air strike killed 24 guards. A spokesman for the US military said they have no information regarding the incident. / .. This is the second major report of friend-fire casualties caused in a US air strike in the past few days. On Wednesday morning, a US air strike in Khost Province leveled an Afghan army checkpoint, killing nine soldiers. The coalition attributed those killings to “a case of mistaken identity on both sides.”
Afghans check killing of 20 in U.S. air strike
26.10.08. reuters / ICH. Afghan provincial authorities on Sunday were investigating reports that 20 private security guards were killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike southwest of Kabul, two officials said.
U.S. troops say Afghan security guards attacked them
27.10.08. Canada.com. U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Monday they had launched an air strike that killed a number of private Afghan security guards only after coming under fire from that position.
Wardak
Afghan Clashes Force Down Helicopter, Kill 2 Troops, U.S. Says
27.10.08. Gregory Viscusi, Bloomberg. The helicopter's 10-member crew was rescued without casualties after a gun battle in Wardak province, west of Kabul, U.S. spokesman Lieutenant Commander Walter Matthews said in a telephone interview from the Afghan capital. The helicopter was secured.
In another attack, the soldiers died and three others were injured when they were targeted by a suicide bomber in northern Afghanistan, Matthews said. The exact location of the incident wasn't revealed because operations were still under way, he added. The dead soldiers were Americans and the attack took place in Baghlan province when an assailant dressed as a policeman detonated his charge, the Associated Press said.
Uruzgan
New NATO offensive in Uruzgan
27.10.08. Hans de Vreij, radio Netherlands. NATO has conducted one of its larger operations to date in Southern Afghanistan. In a secret operation, one thousand soldiers were deployed to chase Taliban fighters from a contested area in Uruzgan province. The operation lasted ten days and ended on Sunday, the Dutch ministry of Defence announced. / Operation 'Bor Barakai' (or Thunder) took place in the Mirabad region, just east of the capital of Uruzgan Province, Tarin Kowt. ; British marines; small squirmishes;
SUICIDE ATTACKS
Herat
Afghanistan: 11 police dead in hydro-dam attack
21.09.08. ww4report / ICH. … in a rebel attack in western Afghanistan's Herat province Sept. 21.
Khost
Afghan suicide blast kills three persons: Officials
26.09.08. Pak Tribune / ICH. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a bazaar in Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan and killed three people, police said, in an attack similar to dozens by Taliban.
Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Eastern Afghanistan
26.09.08. VOA
Spin Boldak
6 killed in Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan
28.09.08. India times. A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up near two police vehicles in a border town in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing six people and wounding 17, police said.
Herat
Six killed in new Afghan violence
05.10.08. In the western city of Herat on Sunday, a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden motorbike near an Afghan army convoy, wounding three civilians and a soldier in the convoy, police said. … / The attacker's body was torn to pieces.
Khost
Two Afghan officials, 46 Taliban killed in suicide attack, clashes
10.10.08. earthtimes / ICH
Uruzgan
12 killed in latest Afghan violence
Herat
Suicide blast wounds NATO troops in Afghanistan
18.10.08. AFP. The car bomb exploded at the gates of a base which is run by Italian troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) with some Spanish soldiers also stationed there. .. / ISAF does not release the nationalities of its casualties.
Kunduz
5 children, 2 German occupation troops killed in Afghan suicide bombing
20.10.08. m and c / ICH. Two other children who were playing nearby and two German soldiers were also wounded, Engineer Mohammad Omar said.
Kandahar
[ATTN: ANIMAL LOVERS!]
Donkey bomb Kills Policeman
24.10.08. AFP. A donkey loaded with explosives was remotely blown up close to a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan Thursday, killing a policeman and wounding three others, police said. The force of the blast flung the vehicle into a ditch several meters away in the southern city of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban movement that is behind an increasing number of bombings in Afghanistan.
Other Dead in Afghanistan
Unknown gunmen shot dead gov't official in S Afghanistan
14.10.08. English people. Two unknown gunmen Tuesday morning shot dead [Dost Mohammad Arghestani, the provincial chief of work and public affairs department] on his way to work in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a police official said.
With Malangay’s death, a top underworld figure meets his fate
14.10.08. The news. His real name was Zahir and he was an Afghan national. But few knew his real name and fewer still were aware that he wasn’t a Pakistani. Malangay in due course of time became a household name just like other known criminals from the past. / He was killed Sunday in mysterious circumstances on the M-1 Section of the Motorway linking Peshawar with Islamabad. / .. Malangay and Ahmer were killed on the spot while the driver and Hayat sustained serious injuries. Tahir, brother of Malangay, told media that they had recognized their enemies and very soon they would avenge the killing.
Afghan elder and son shot dead outside mosque
18.10.08. Canwest News Service / legitgov. Haji Ali Ahmad Khan, a leader of the Barackzai tribe in Kandahar, and his son, Gul Ahmad, were leaving a mosque in Kandahar's Bekhoja neighbourhood at roughly 6 a.m. when the assailants struck.
Former Karzai bodyguard killed in Afghanistan
18.10.08. wired/anti-war.
Attackers gouge out Afghan man's eyes
26.10.08. Noor Khan, Reuters. Sayed Ghulam, 52, was recovering in a hospital in the country's largest southern city, Kandahar. Ghulam said three armed men knocked on his door in the Sangin district of Helmand province late Thursday. When he opened the door, they punched him in the face, put the barrel of a Kalashnikov rifle in his mouth and gouged out his eyes with a knife in the presence of his wife and seven children. / … Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied that Taliban fighters were involved. "Whenever we carry out an attack we claim responsibility," Ahmadi said. "We didn't gouge out this man's eyes."
5. Killing Civilians
”In real life, the escalating civilian death toll is not a mistake, but the result of a clear decision to put the lives of occupation troops before civilians; westerners before Afghans.” Seamus Milne (Guardian 16.10.08)
For more info on Drones and their cost, see here
Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
September 2008. Human Rights Watch. The US, which operates in Afghanistan through its counter-insurgency forces in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), has increasingly relied on airpower in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations. The combination of light ground forces and overwhelming airpower has become the dominant doctrine of war for the US in Afghanistan. The result has been large numbers of civilian casualties, controversy over the continued use of airpower in Afghanistan, and intense criticism of US and NATO forces by Afghan political leaders and the general public. .. / Key Recommendations: Human Rights Watch urges the US and NATO to adopt measures that reduce civilian casualties from airstrikes.
ARTICLES
Downhill in Afghanistan: The most remote place on earth is now the most dangerous
22.09.08. Jonathan Power, arab news / antiwar. In Barack Obama’s phrase, American public opinion doesn’t get it. .. / The policy, made within hours of the atrocity of 9/11, seemed to be to try to bomb the country to cinders, irrespective of the number of civilian casualties, not learning the lesson of Dresden, that wild bombing rather than leading to capitulation merely reinforces local opinion against the aggressor. Later, troops on the ground have continued to alienate local opinion with their seeming inability to differentiate between fighters and civilians. …
The incessant slaughter of Afghan civilians
23.09.08. D. Lewis, aljazeera magazine. Why American military “investigations” do nothing to prevent airstrike massacres against Afghan civilians. / However, the U.S. reaction to this latest in an unending stream of gung-ho trigger happy massacres of defenceless civilians has been entirely predictable with the hollow promise of “an investigation” and an immediate counter claim that “only 30 were killed” as if that makes it O.K! … / (discussion of the Wedding Murders) / If this is the standard of “investigation” we can expect from the U.S. Military, desperately focusing on exonerating their own incompetence even in the teeth of their own evidence whilst blaming the innocent Afghan children for getting in the way of their hail of bullets then there is little hope of any improvement in their regular slaughter of defenceless Afghan women and children.
Civilian casualties threaten military efforts in Afghanistan: Karzai
24.09.08. CBC/anti-war. The death of innocent Afghan civilians in foreign bombing raids could seriously undermine the efforts to fight terrorism, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told the UN General Assembly Wednesday.
US and NATO airstrikes triple Afghan civilian death toll
26.09.08. Fatema G Valji, muslim news. Air attacks by US and NATO forces killed at least 321 Afghan civilians last year, as compared to 116 killed in 2006, states Human Right Watch (HRW) in a report released on September 8. It warns that deadly air strikes continue to inflict mass civilian casualties in 2008, with at least 119 civilians already killed by US and NATO airpower from January to July.
However, the HRW’s 43-page report fails to document mass civilian casualties prior to 2006. / According to a 2002 study by Carl Conetta, co-director of the Project of Defense Alternatives (PDA), a minimum of 1,000 to 1,300 civilians were killed directly as a result of aerial bombardment in the first 3 months of the invasion. Jonathan Steele of The Guardian has argued that as many as 20,000 may have been killed due to starvation, dislocation and other indirect consequences of air strikes from October 2001 to early 2002. / The HRW report focuses only on the last 2 of 7 years of western military intervention, neglecting to trace the resulting Afghan civilian death toll since the US-led war began in October 2001.
SEE ALSO here.
According to the United Nations, 1,445 civilians were killed in the war from January through August this year---a rise of 39 per cent over 2007. At least 577 of these deaths were due to the actions of pro-government forces. Deaths from air strikes have tripled since 2006.
RAZORS EDGE
03.10.08. John Pilger, Current Affairs from 2SER FM, Sydney, Australia. in.reuters. A recent Human Rights Watch report has shown that twice as many bombs were dropped on Afghanistan in 2007 than were in 2006. / Civilian deaths are also on the rise, yet in the West, Afghanistan seems to have an image as a ‘good’ or ‘just’ war, compared to Iraq. / So are citizens in ‘coalition’ nations aware of these facts, and would the Afghanistan conflict enjoy the same public support if they did? Pilger talks with Nick Hollins.
3,200 Afghan civilians killed by NATO, US action since 2005: study
07.10.08. AFP.
The Matrix of Death. A New Dossier on the (Im)Precision of U.S Bombing and the (Under)Valuation of an Afghan Life
07.10.08. Prof. Marc Herold, uruknet.de. The overarching theme of this dossier is to carefully document the very low value put on the lives of common Afghans by U.S. military and political elites (along with their many handmaidens in the corporate media). Highlights include:
Exposing three common subterfuges used to rationalize the killing of Afghan civilians;
Pointing out that Afghan civilians killed by U.S/NATO forces’ direct action since January 1, 2006 now outnumber those who perished in the original U.S. bombing and invasion during the first three months (2001) of the U.S. Afghan war. The overall human toll is far greater than just those killed by direct U.S/NATO actions as it includes all those who died later from injuries, the internally displaced who died in camps, etc.;
Documenting that close air support (CAS) bombing is more deadly to Afghan civilians than was the strategic bombing of Laos and Cambodia;
Revealing that CAS air strikes now account for about 80 % of all Afghan civilians who perish at the hands of the U.S. and NATO;
Emphasizing that by relying upon aerial close air support (CAS) attacks, US/NATO forces spare their pilots and ground troops but kill lots of innocent Afghan civilians. Air strikes are 4-10 times as deadly for Afghan civilians as are ground attacks;
Revealing that Human Rights Watch "counts" at best only 50% of the Afghan civilians killed by U.S/NATO actions, whereas the figure for the Associated Press is a mere 33 %; moreover neither present verifiable/reproducible disaggregated data thereby violating a basic tenet of social science;
Presenting a unique analysis of compensation/condolence payments made by the United States in eight countries. The United States spent ten times more on saving an Alaskan sea otter after the Exxon Valdez oil spill than in condolence payments to Afghan families for a family member killed by U.S. occupation forces.
Civilian dead are a trade-off in Nato's war of barbarity
16.10.08. S. Milne, Guardian. The killing of innocent Afghans by US bombs is the result of a calculation, not just a mistake. And it is fuelling resistance. .. most telling is the political and military calculation that underlies the Afghan civilian bloodletting. "Close air support" bomb attacks called in by ground forces - which rose from 176 in 2005 to 2,926 in 2007 and are now the US tactic of choice - are between four and 10 times as deadly for Afghan civilians as ground attacks, the figures show, and air strikes now account for 80% of those killed by the occupation forces. / But while 242 US and Nato ground troops have died in the war with the Taliban this year, not a single pilot has been killed in action. The trade-off could not be clearer. With troops thin on the ground and the US military up to their necks in Iraq and elsewhere, US and Nato reliance on air attacks minimises their own casualties while guaranteeing that Afghan civilians will die in far larger numbers.
Road to Perdition: Yet Another Atrocity in Afghanistan, More to Come
16.10.08. Chris Floyd, uruknet. On Wednesday night, the BBC reported that a British soldier had been killed in Helmland province in Afghanistan. On Thursday night, the BBC reported that an airstrike by as-yet unidentified "foreign forces" has killed at least 18 civilians -- in Helmland province. From the BBC: A BBC reporter in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah saw the bodies - three women and the rest children - ranging in age from six months to 15. The families brought the bodies from their village in the Nad Ali district, where they say the air strike occurred. A further nine bodies are said to be trapped under destroyed buildings. Nato-led forces say they are investigating the incident in an area where the British military are known to operate. This attack comes on top of an even more horrific mass slaughter a few weeks ago, when an American airstrike killed more than 90 civilians in Azizabad. Then, the Pentagon, with the connivance of FOX "journalist" Oliver North -- who made his bones running guns from the mullhas of Iran to the terrorist Contra army in Nicaragua -- at first denied that any citizens were killed in the village, then tried to insinuate that the Taliban had planted the dead bodies. Only after video evidence and on-the-ground probes by the Afghan government and the UN did the Pentagon re-open its investigation, and finally admit that, well, maybe a few civilians did get knicked, er, fatally, in what was otherwise a magnificent feat of arms against a bristling enemy position...
Statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide
21.10.08. Relief web. "Yesterday's killing of five children in Kunduz from a suicide bomb attack; the reports I have seen of beheadings and loss of life on a bus in Kandahar; abductions of innocent Afghans across the country; and the killing of a foreign aid worker in Kabul are of very great concern to me. / "I have stressed many times over the past months the need for proper protection of civilians during combat. With these incidents there was no combat. The purpose of such attacks is to stoke fear among the wider population. I strongly condemn all such acts.
Kid Killers are Barbarians
22.10.08. Brian Cloughley, Counterpunch. [discussion of Lashkar Gah murders] .. on suicide bombing in Pakistan; On 90 killed in Azizabad: … / In a series of statements about the operation, the US military has said that extremists who entered the village after the bombardment encouraged villagers to change their story and inflate the number of dead.” … / If there had been no independent reporting of the atrocity it would, like so many others, have been forgotten about. … But Washington was forced to order an inquiry. Not that there is any intention to take disciplinary action against those responsible for any aspect of the horrible affair, even when it was eventually admitted there were “more than 30” civilians killed, because, with indifferent callousness, the spin-masters pronounced that the strike was against “a legitimate target.”
The pattern is clear : first lie your head off after a war crime has been committed; then try to play down the gravity of the slaughter and while you’re at it, vilify anyone courageous enough to have held an independent inquiry that discovered the truth. After it is obvious that a major atrocity did actually take place, all must wring hands and announce that an inquiry is to be held. (If anxious to appear serious it is better to state that it will be a “full” inquiry. But on no account must there be representation at the inquiry by officials, or, indeed, attendance by any citizens of the country in which the attack has taken.) Last, when irrefutable evidence has to be grudgingly admitted, say that there has been a mistake but that the people who identified the target, fired the missiles or lied in their teeth about the squalid affair are not going to receive even a wrist-slap in punishment. Then the whole affair will be forgotten except by the few hundred more Afghans, Iraqis or Pakistanis who have been persuaded that US “freedom” is meaningless and queue up to join the ranks of anti-western fanatics and suicide bombers.
People who kill kids, for whatever reason and no matter in what manner, are disgusting, murderous, cowardly barbarians.
There is a chilling parallel between the types of child killers. On the one hand, a formal military organisation is adamant that “legitimate targets” must be blasted even if the deaths of children are inevitable. On the other, the psychotic savages who plan and carry out suicide bombings that slaughter innocent youngsters are convinced their atrocities are justified by a warped interpretation of their Faith.
NATO 's top military official discusses civilian casualties in Afghanistan
23.10.08. rtt. "There are problems in a few areas, but there is also peace in the rest of Afghanistan," Di Paola [chairman of NATO's military committee] told reporters Thursday. / His briefing comes a day after coalition forces killed nine Afghan soldiers in an erroneous air strike in the troubled eastern province of Khost.
Thousands protest killing of Afghan civilians by Taliban
24.10.08. AFP. Thousands of people took to the streets of eastern Afghanistan Friday to protest against the killing of 27 [bus] civilians by Taliban insurgents. / .. Protesters on Friday chanted "Death to the barbarian Taliban and Americans" as they took to streets in Mihtarlam, the capital of Lahgman province in the east of the country.
True or False?
ADF's Afghan victims top Iraq
25.10.08. Australian news. MORE innocent civilians have been accidentally killed or injured by Australian troops in Afghanistan than occurred during the entire Iraq conflict. / The Australian Defence Force does not disclose the total number of civilians killed or injured in ADF operations, but it has revealed that more "moral" compensation payments to victims have already been made in Afghanistan than were made during the war in Iraq.
US “terrorist aggression”
6. Viewpoints on the War in Afghanistan
Coming Attractions: War Without End, Amen
23.09.08. CHRIS FLOYD, uruknet. In a remarkably candid document, "The 2008 Army Modernization Strategy," the Pentagon lays out the perpetual blowback arising from the relentless pursuit of what George W. Bush once proudly hailed as "the single sustainable model of national success" -- i.e., rapacious crony capitalism backed up with state violence. This "model" -- which was once proclaimed as the "end of history," the unsurpassable apex of human development -- has been imposed -- at gunpoint, bribery and extortion -- on much of the world. The result has been, quite literally, the devouring of the earth: resources stripped bare, the climate poisoned and sent careening wildly out of balance, nations destroyed, populations dispossessed, societies rent asunder, violence run rampant, a tsunami of corruption and degradation ravaging the world.
Polls Most Americans think U.S. is losing war on terrorism, poll finds 22.09.08. S. Thomma, McClatchy US War on al-Qaeda Widely Viewed as a Bust 29.09.08. Ali Gharib. Anti-war. The U.S. is failing to rein in its primary target in the "global war on terror" – al-Qaeda – according to a new poll [.pdf] of 23 countries across the globe. Conducted for the BBC World Service by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and Globescan, the poll reveals that in every country surveyed but one, respondents think that the U.S.' actions have failed to weaken the international terror group. |
Immunity
“International law cannot reach Bush!”
29.09.08. aljazeera. Bush and his aides have full protection against legal actions taken against them for committing crimes against humanity. Bush passed The Impunity Bills in the U.S. Congress silently with the help of the U.S. and the European media before he invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. / These bills give Bush and his gang a full and impenetrable constitutional and legal protection against any legal action taken against them by anyone at home or abroad for committing crimes against humanity. / Under these bills, they cannot be extradited to any country or to The International Court of Law in The Hague for a trial.
Robert Fisk  Why Does the US Think it Can Win in Afghanistan?20.09.08. Robert Fisk, Independent / ICH. Back in 2001, we won the war in Afghanistan by overthrowing the Taliban. Then we marched off to win the war in Iraq. Now - with at least one suicide bombing a day and the nation carved up into mutually antagonistic sectarian enclaves - we have won the war in Iraq and are heading back to re-win the war in Afghanistan where the Taliban, so thoroughly trounced by our chaps seven years ago, have proved their moral and political bankruptcy by recapturing half the country. Robert Fisk: ‘The Middle East Is Not a Complex Place’" 26.09.08. Robert Sheer, Truth Dig interview. The acclaimed journalist stopped by our offices this week, where he told Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer that the Middle East is a lot less puzzling than it’s made out to be: “It’s we who are there, not the other way round. ... It’s not our land. It’s not our religion. Our soldiers are in the Muslim world and they should not be there.” Robert Fisk's World: Bush rescues Wall Street but leaves his soldiers to die in Iraq 27.09.08. Robert Fisk, Independent. … Indeed, a strange narrative is now being built into the daily history of America. First we won the war in Afghanistan by overthrowing the evil, terrorist-protecting misogynist Islamist crazies called the Taliban, setting up a democratic government under the exotically dressed Hamid Karzai. Then we rushed off to Iraq and overthrew the evil, terrorist-protecting, nuclear-weaponised, secular Baathist crazies under Saddam, setting up a democratic government under the pro-Iranian Shia Nouri al-Maliki. Mission accomplished. Then, after 250,000 Iraqi deaths – or half a million or a million, who cares? – we rushed back to Kabul and Kandahar to win the war all over again in Afghanistan. The conflict now embraces our old chums in Pakistan, the Saudi-financed, American-financed Interservices Intelligence Agency whose Taliban friends – now attacked by our brave troops inside Pakistani sovereign territory – again control half of Afghanistan./ We are, in fact, now fighting a war in what I call Irakistan. It's hopeless; it's a mess; it's shameful; it's unethical and it's unwinnable and no wonder the Wall Street meltdown was greeted with such relief by Messrs Obama and McCain. Bush Favors Bankers Over Soldiers 29.09.08. Robert Fisk, independent / Truthdig. It was a weird week to be in the United States. On Tuesday, secretary of the treasury Henry Paulson told us that “this is all about the American taxpayer – that’s all we care about.” But … VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT FISK ON ALJAZEERA (30.09.08) "The Age of the Warrior" 02.10.08. Robert Fisk, Democracy Now. As the US-led wars in the Middle East shows no sign of abating we turn now to a man who has chronicled eleven major wars in this part of the world. Fisk on the U.S. Elections, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine 'Collateral damage' or targeted killing, the effect is much the same 11.10.08. Robert Fisk, Independent / ICH. When a Taliban a |