Afghanistan Updates

[Neo]

Karzai blames Pakistan for Taliban violence

KANDAHAR: December 13, 2006: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday blamed Pakistan for violence in his country, saying 'state elements' were supporting insurgents in Afghanistan.

'The problem is not the Taliban,' Karzai told reporters during his visit to the southern city of Kandahar, the focus of a Taliban-led insurgency which has claimed nearly 4,000 lives this year alone.

"The problem is with Pakistan", Karzai added, for the first time making such comments publicly, adding he had been negotiating with his eastern neighbour for the "past five years".

"If you resolve the difficulties with Pakistan, the question of the Taliban will go away automatically," he said.

"The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there's any Taliban they are (being) supported by state elements," Karzai said.

Asked if he meant Pakistan government, the president said: "Yes, of course -- everybody knows that and that's very clear."

Karzai said he proposed a regional peace council to ask Pakistan -- a key ally of the US-led 'war on terror' -- to stop backing the Taliban, who were fighting his US-backed administration.

 

[Neo]

:wall:

"The problem is with Pakistan", Karzai added, for the first time making such comments publicly, adding he had been negotiating with his eastern neighbour for the "past five years".

"If you resolve the difficulties with Pakistan, the question of the Taliban will go away automatically," he said.

"The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there's any Taliban they are (being) supported by state elements," Karzai said.

Asked if he meant Pakistan government, the president said: "Yes, of course -- everybody knows that and that's very clear."

Wtf is he barking about?? Pakistan has no control over taleban, Mullah Omar doesn't report to ISI!
NA is failing to get hold of domestic problem and support of her own people, the comon Afghan!
Thats the problem, not Pakistan!

 

[Owais]

Karzai blames Pakistan for Taliban violence

KANDAHAR: December 13, 2006: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday blamed Pakistan for violence in his country, saying 'state elements' were supporting insurgents in Afghanistan.

'The problem is not the Taliban,' Karzai told reporters during his visit to the southern city of Kandahar, the focus of a Taliban-led insurgency which has claimed nearly 4,000 lives this year alone.

"The problem is with Pakistan", Karzai added, for the first time making such comments publicly, adding he had been negotiating with his eastern neighbour for the "past five years".

"If you resolve the difficulties with Pakistan, the question of the Taliban will go away automatically," he said.

"The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there's any Taliban they are (being) supported by state elements," Karzai said.

Asked if he meant Pakistan government, the president said: "Yes, of course -- everybody knows that and that's very clear."

Karzai said he proposed a regional peace council to ask Pakistan -- a key ally of the US-led 'war on terror' -- to stop backing the Taliban, who were fighting his US-backed administration.

Bullshit!!
they just failed to control afghanistan's situation and now blaming pakistan for these consequences.

 

[Contrarian]

Bullshit!!
they just failed to control afghanistan's situation and now blaming pakistan for these consequences.

We have a natural ally

JOKE!!, nothing literal or disrespect intended!!

 

[Owais]

Pakistan wants to enslave Afghanistan: Karzai


KANDAHAR (updated on: December 13, 2006, 18:03 PST): Afghanistan's president accused the Pakistani government on Wednesday of trying to turn his countrymen into 'slaves', in his strongest words yet blaming Islamabad for a wave of violence.

Hamid Karzai added that he was the only person able to prevent Afghans angered by an insurgency which has claimed nearly 4,000 lives this year from "coming after" Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan hit back by saying the roots of the problem were in Afghanistan and that Islamabad was doing all it could to counter militancy, but stopped short of an outright rebuttal.

"Pakistan still hasn't given up the hope of making us slaves. But they cannot," Karzai said in a speech at a boys' high school in the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.

"This tyranny against our people is not by the nation of Pakistan, it is by the government of Pakistan," he added to cheers from a crowd of around 500 students, teachers and local dignitaries.

Karzai -- who on Tuesday for the first time publicly accused the Pakistani government of fostering militancy in Afghanistan -- linked a recent spate of suicide bombs to a visit by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.

"Before his arrival they wanted to scare me off, they wanted me to surrender. But I'm not scared," Karzai said. "They wanted to make me accept to become their slave. But even if they kill 25 million people (in Afghanistan) I won't become their slave."

"I told Musharraf we are angry and the nation is angry. I told him I am the one preventing them otherwise they will come after you," added the Afghan leader.

The insurgents behind the violence that has made this the deadliest year in Afghanistan since 2001 were not real Afghan Taliban but "strangers ... using their beard and turban," he said.

ISAF troops shot dead a civilian motorcyclist on Tuesday after he failed to stop at a checkpoint in Kandahar during Karzai's visit, the force said in a statement.

The incident happened at around the same time as Karzai expressed fresh concern at civilian deaths caused by foreign forces.

 

[Owais]

Taliban reject Karzai's Pakistan charges


SPIN BOLDAK (updated on: December 16, 2006, 16:21 PST): The Taliban on Saturday denied accusations by Afghan leaders the group was being sponsored by Pakistan, an issue souring relations between the two nations.

A senior rebel commander, Hayat Khan, said Afghan President Hamid Karzai was trying to hide his own failure and the Taliban movement lived only on the support of ordinary people.

"Karzai's allegations are baseless. We neither have any links with Pakistan nor is the country helping the Taliban," Khan told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location.

"The Taliban movement is continuing only with the support of the Afghan people.

"Instead of shedding crocodile tears, Hamid Karzai should resign and join the Taliban ranks for jihad against the infidel occupiers to liberate Afghanistan," he added, referring to Karzai crying during a speech about civilian deaths this week.

In his strongest comments yet, Karzai said this week "terrorist nests" operated from Pakistan.

In talks with a European Union official in Islamabad on Friday, Musharraf repeated Pakistan's position that "the militancy problem was essentially an Afghan problem".

"Pakistan is committed to not allow its territory to be used by militants and had done all within its means to deal with this issue," Foreign Ministry cited Musharraf as telling the EU's Afghan representative, Francesc Vendrell.

Senior US Senator John McCain, visiting Kabul ahead of a trip to Pakistan, on Saturday called on the two nations to ratchet up their efforts to fight the Taliban.

"The level of rhetoric needs to be lowered and the level of co-operation needs to be dramatically increased," he told reporters at a US base in the Afghan capital.

McCain, a possible candidate for the 2008 US presidential election, is a member of the Senate armed services committee.

 

[Keysersoze]

UK troops 'destroy' Taleban camp

Many Taleban fighters are thought to have been killed in the operation
British troops have destroyed a Taleban training camp in southern Afghanistan, killing dozens of insurgents, according to the military.

About 110 Royal Marines carried out the operation in northern Helmand, which it is hoped will pave the way for repairs on a hydroelectric dam in the province.

It is hoped nearly two million people will now get access to electricity.

Operation Clay was launched on New Year's Day. Plymouth-based 42 Commando were engaged in four days of fighting.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has thanked Operation Clay's commanders.

Mr Karzai, who is championing the scheme to fix the Kajaki Dam, sent a personal message.

A senior Taleban commander and "tens" of his henchman are said to have been killed during the operation.

Only one marine was hurt during the battles. The soldier was shot through the hand.

'Running firefights'

Insurgents had been stalling repairs on faulty turbines at the dam, which is situated at the source of the Helmand River.

Repair work on the facility, which was built in 1953, will now commence next month.

It is estimated it will bring electricity to about 1.8 million people and treble the area of irrigated farmland in the fertile province.

Military spokesman Major Oliver Lee said: "We needed to sort out the insurgency that there has been in the environs of Kajaki.

"And we very successfully did that over this past week or so with some very focused targeted military operations, which included killing the key insurgency commander at that location."

He said there had been "running firefights" for up to four days against "fairly coherent sustained attacks of small arms, rockets and indirect fire".

Maj Lee said he believed the operation, which had the support of the Afghan National Police, could also boost their campaign against the Taleban fighters in the province.

He said: "I would suggest that we have significantly seized the initiative from the irreconcilables in that area."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6238967.stm

 

[Neo]

Gates' trip throws spotlight on Pakistan

By Andrew Gray
Wed Jan 17, 2007

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates met U.S. commanders at the main U.S. base in Afghanistan on Wednesday on the second day of a visit that has thrown a spotlight on Taliban infiltration from Pakistan.

Gates traveled to the sprawling Bagram air base from the capital, Kabul, where on Tuesday U.S. military commanders told him militant attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan had surged, several-fold in some areas.

Violence in Afghanistan intensified last year to its bloodiest since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. Fighting has eased since winter set in but U.S. and NATO forces expect a renewed Taliban offensive in the spring.

U.S. military officials in Kabul told reporters traveling with Gates on Tuesday command and control of the Afghan insurgency came from the Pakistani side of the border.

Training, financing, recruitment, indoctrination, regeneration and other support activities were also taking place in Pakistan, a U.S. military intelligence official said.

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said last week it would be necessary to eliminate the Taliban safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas to end the Afghan insurgency.

Pakistan was the main backer of the Taliban during the 1990s but officially stopped helping the hardline Islamists after the September 11 attacks, when Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

But while Pakistan has arrested or killed hundreds of al Qaeda members, including several major figures, critics say it has failed to take effective action against Taliban leaders and their sanctuaries.

AFGHAN ANGER

Afghan anger over the infiltration from Pakistan has damaged relations between the neighbors but Pakistan rejects accusations it is not doing enough.

Pakistan has sent 80,000 troops to its side of the border and has lost hundreds of them fighting militants.

But it has also sought political ways to isolate the militants to reduce the risk of sparking a wider conflict in its semi-autonomous tribal areas.

Those have included peace deals in tribal regions aimed at ending attacks on Pakistani forces and cross-border incursions but U.S. commanders said raids into Afghanistan had increased sharply from areas where the deals were struck.

Nevertheless, Pakistan says the Taliban are an Afghan problem.

"The basic problem is in Afghanistan but we don't deny that there are some people from Pakistan in the FATA region supporting them," Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday, referring to Pakistan's border lands officially known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

"We are doing everything to reduce the movement to the minimum, but basically it's Afghanistan's problem. Pakistan can only help to the extent that it controls the cross-border movement but for that, too, we need support of the international community."

Gates said Pakistan was "an extraordinarily strong ally" of the United States in the war on terrorism but militancy on the Pakistani side of the border would have to be dealt with.

There are more than 40,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, the highest level since 2001, about 22,000 of them American.

Gates said it was important to take the initiative in dealing with the security threat and if commanders in the field believed more forces were required, "then I certainly would be strongly inclined to recommend that to the president."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/ts_nm/afghan_usa_dc_4

 

[Neo]

Afghanistan, Pakistan, NATO for joint intelligence

By IANS
Wednesday January 17, 2007

Kabul, Jan 17 (Xinhua) Armed forces of Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have agreed to set up a joint intelligence operation centre to coordinate operations against insurgents.

Richard Nugee, spokesman of the military alliance told the media Wednesday, 'The Joint Intelligence Operation Center will be set up in the next, we hope, 10 days'.

The center, which should enable the trio to share intelligence, would be established in ISAF's Headquarters. It will induct six Pakistani, six Afghan and six ISAF officers.

An agreement in this regard had been reached at the recent tripartite talks held among high-ranking officials in Pakistan recently.

'By sharing intelligence information, we would bring the two militaries of Afghanistan and Pakistan much close together,' added a spokesman of the military alliance.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070117/43/6b93u.html

 

[Neo]

Pakistan to close 4 border refugee camps

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Pakistan announced plans Tuesday to close four Afghan refugee camps near the border to clamp down on insurgents moving between the two countries.

Islamabad's ambassador to the United States, Mahmoud Ali Durrani, told the Washington Times arrangements were being made with Afghan officials to take back its citizens from the camps.

"We had seen some level of (insurgent) activity (and so) we thought we need to strengthen our systems," he said. "It is a porous border; it is a very difficult border."

Two of the camps that hold tens of thousands of refugees will be closed by March, and the other two will follow, he said.

An estimated 20,000 Pakistanis and Afghans cross the border in the wilderness each day, and Durrani said Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents were undoubtedly among them. For that reason, he said Pakistan will also build 938 new border posts in the region to supplement the presence of more than 70,000 troops, the Times said.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20070116-013151-6183r

 

[Keysersoze]

Check this out......Marines riding in on Apache gunships.....:army:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6285091.stm

 

[Neo]

'Friendly fire' death in Pakistan

Pakistan has tens of thousands of troops in the border area
Pakistan says US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan have mistakenly killed one of its soldiers at a border post.
Two other soldiers were wounded when coalition forces opened fire in the Shawal area of North Waziristan region, a Pakistan military statement said.

It said a "strong protest" had been lodged with the coalition, which said it was investigating the incident.

Earlier, at least three Pakistani security personnel were killed in a roadside bombing in North Waziristan.

'Inside Afghanistan'

The BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says coalition forces have in the past violated Pakistani air space, but this would be the first time Pakistani troops have been killed.

I cannot confirm or deny loss or injury of Pakistani military

Paul Fitzpatrick,
US military spokesman

Early last year US planes bombed three compounds in the Bajaur tribal region, killing at least 13 people. Pakistan protested then too.

The Pakistani military statement said coalition troops had "mistakenly fired on one of our posts near Shawal", a mountainous area near the long and poorly demarcated border with Afghanistan.

"A strong protest has been lodged with the coalition authorities about the incident, asking them to investigate the matter and take necessary steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future," the statement said.

A spokesman for the coalition said it had dropped four bombs on four suspected militants who had fired rockets at US soldiers at Bermel, in Afghanistan's Paktika province - just over the border from North Waziristan.

"I cannot confirm or deny loss or injury of Pakistani military," Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick, a US military spokesman in Afghanistan, told the Associated Press news agency.

"This all happened inside Afghanistan."

Pakistan has stationed tens of thousands of troops in its volatile tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan as part of its contribution to the US-led "war on terror".

President Pervez Musharraf's decision to support the US has angered many Pakistanis.

The Afghan government, the US, Nato and others say the Taleban and their allies have been using Pakistan's border areas to regroup.

Pakistan, which has been under increasing pressure over cross-border incursions, rejects suggestions it is not doing enough to counter militants opposed to the US-backed government in Kabul.

Car bomb

Earlier on Monday, at least three members of the Pakistani security forces were killed and nine others hurt, some critically, in an apparent suicide attack elsewhere in North Waziristan.


Security forces kept people away from the Miran Shah attack

The military said the bomb hit an army vehicle at the Khajori check post on the outskirts of the region's main town, Miran Shah.

"There was an administrative convoy on the Bannu-Miran Shah road. A white car came near it and exploded. As a result, three security officials were killed and nine injured," military spokesman Shaukat Sultan said.

Controversial peace deals have been reached with pro-Taleban militants in the area.

The militants swiftly denied they were involved in Monday's blast.

No group has said it carried out the attack and our correspondent says it is not clear who was behind it.

Last week, the air force bombed a suspected militant camp in nearby South Waziristan, prompting local pro-Taleban tribal leaders to threaten revenge.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6288023.stm

 

[Neo]

Allow transit to Afghanistan, India asks Pak

AJAY KAUL, KABUL, JAN 23 2007
Noting that enhanced inter-connectivity was essential to exploit the real potential of South Asia, India today asked Pakistan to allow transit facility to Afghanistan as it announced an increase in aid by USD 100 million and some other initiatives for the war-ravaged friendly country.

The two countries also shared concerns over terrorism, emanating from the same source and afflicting both of them, and sought its elimination from the region, as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and held talks with Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta here.

Mukherjee, on his first visit here, invited Karzai on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the 14th SAARC Summit to be held in Delhi in April.

He also inaugurated a street named after late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and an Out Patients Department of Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health built by India.

Viewing its relationship with Afghanistan as strategically important for itself as well as for the region, India said transit facility to this country was essential to exploit the potential for development existing in the region.

Asked at a joint press conference with Spanta about the denial of transit facility by Pakistan, Mukherjee said allowing of movement of goods through road was essential for connecting Central Asia with Asia.

He said during his recent visit to Islamabad he had stressed that Pakistan should provide transit facility to Afghanistan through land. The transit facility is important to realize the vision of making Afghanistan a bridge between Central Asia and South Asia, he said.

Underlining that India's policy was to improve relations with all its neighbours, he said there was a need for New Delhi and Islamabad to come together so that peace and stability could be provided to the region.

Spanta hoped that in the long run Pakistan, Afghanistan and India will overcome the problem of "disconnect" and connectivity will be re-established.

"We would like to have easier transit through land via Pakistan. At present there are limitations," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters later while briefing on the meetings.

India and Afghanistan have been seeking the transit facility for long but Pakistan has not been relenting on its refusal. "Both India and Afghanistan want the problem to be solved," Menon said as he said transit was essential for connecting Central Asia with South Asia.

Pointing out that Afghanistan would be joining SAARC as its eighth member in April, he said it would help in consolidation of the South Asian grouping.

South Asia has great potential, Menon said, adding that to exploit it there was a need for connectivity among the countries of the region as well as with rest of the world.

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=445791

 

[Neo]

January 26, 2007

Pakistan, Nato finalise draft accord

By Iftikhar A. Khan

RAWALPINDI, Jan 25: Pakistan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) have finalised a draft agreement on transit and logistical facilities for Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan.

The draft was given a final shape at a two-day meeting between the two sides which concluded here on Thursday. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr Baldwin De Vidts, head of Nato's legal office and Rear Admiral Tanveer Faiz, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Defence.

Official sources told Dawn that technical details of the proposed agreement had been worked out and differences on various aspects had been resolved.

They said Nato's demand seeking tax exemption on arms and ammunition and other equipment transported to Afghanistan through air and land routes had been rejected.

The Nato had also requested that its troops should be allowed to carry weapons during their stay in Pakistan on way to Afghanistan but that too has been turned down, they said. They said Nato troops would not enjoy diplomatic status during their transit stay in Pakistan.

They said the draft agreement would be sent to the cabinet for formal approval. The Nato forces would not be allowed to use Pakistani soil for military operations.

Answering a question, they said the Nato will appoint a liaison officer in Pakistan, but had no plan to set up a permanent observatory in the country.

The Nato was also considering setting up a military school for Pakistan Army officers in Europe with the basic aim to develop better coordination between the two forces.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/26/top7.htm

 

[Neo]

January 26, 2007

Kabul centre for sharing intelligence opened

KABUL, Jan 25: The Afghan, Pakistan and Nato militaries in Afghanistan formally opened their first intelligence-sharing centre on Thursday to boost cooperation against the Taliban and other extremists.

The commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), General David Richards, said the launch of the Joint Intelligence Operations Centre (JIOC) was historic in the war on terror and against insurgents.

“Already, there is a great deal of close cooperation that goes on on a daily basis that you don't even know about,” he told reporters outside the centre, which is in the heart of the Isaf headquarters in Kabul.

“We have a very open relationship — the three armies.

We share a lot of intelligence all the time that you wouldn't even understand and it will continue with the renewed energy.”

The centre is staffed with six intelligence and operational officers from each of the Afghan and Pakistani armies and 12 Isaf staff.

It builds on intelligence-sharing between commanders of the three militaries who meet every two months under a Tripartite Commission.

The centre's establishment comes amid growing tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the Taliban-led insurgency, which has grown steadily stronger since its launch after the hardliners' rout from the government in 2001.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/26/top8.htm