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08/04/2008
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Iraq and Afghan costs 'to double'
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The costs of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq this year are likely to almost double to £3.297bn, a committee of MPs has warned.
The Commons defence committee said operational costs for this financial year were now forecast to reach £3.297bn - a 94% increase on last year.
This included a 72% rise in spending on Iraq to £1.648bn, despite ongoing falls in troop numbers.
The government says the money is needed for force protection.
Last year's total spending on the two conflicts was £1.698bn.
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Author :
Source : BBC
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08/04/2008
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Afghanistan: 2001-2008
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A chronology of events in Afghanistan since the attacks of September 11 2001
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Author :
Source : The Guardian
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08/04/2008
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US Loses War on Afghanistan
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I am still in Afghanistan and will be coming back to the states next week. It is a total disaster here.
To give you an example in the Gorbaz village in southeastern Afghanistan, the US hounds of war went to this house in order to search the house. There were two brothers in the house. One of the brothers opened the door and stepped out. The US forces shot the brother dead, and his wife screamed and threw herself on her dead husband. These coward American soldiers then shot the wife as well, and killed her.
This is classic case of US "development" in Afghanistan, but they will lose the same way the Russians lost...as did the empires before them.
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Author : Mohammed Daud Miraki
Source : Conspiracy Planet
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08/04/2008
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Muslim troops help win Afghan minds
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The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, can reveal that Arab soldiers have been taking part in dangerous missions alongside US troops in Afghanistan.
Troops from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been delivering humanitarian aid to their fellow Muslims and, on occasion, fighting their way out of Taleban ambushes. Though Jordanian forces have been carrying out some base security duties, the UAE's troops are the only Arab soldiers undertaking full-scale operations in the country.
Until now, their deployment has been kept so secret that not even their own countrymen knew they were here.
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Author : Frank Gardner
Source : BBC
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08/04/2008
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Army aims to boost Afghanistan force in Helmand with 600 troops
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An extra 600 British troops could be sent to Afghanistan, it was claimed yesterday.
The expected move will raise the number of British soldiers fighting the Taliban above 8,000 for the first time.
Military chiefs are believed to want to take advantage of recent triumphs and need 150 more infantry to hold the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, recently recaptured from the Taliban.
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Author : Richard Savill
Source : The Daily Telegraph
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08/04/2008
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Afghanistan: a soldier's view
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Captain Alexander Allan completed what he calls a “relatively quiet" tour of duty in Helmand province, Afghanistan, last October: “It was the tour before [Prince] Harry's lot went out."
Nonetheless, his unit, the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, suffered five dead and 32 severely injured.
During the tour Captain Allan, 28, took photographs with his digital SLR camera, some of which have been assembled for an exhibition later this month, the proceeds from which will go to a charity that helps injured men from the Grenadier Guards and the families of those killed.
The pictures give a day-to-day soldier's-eye view of what it means to be involved in Britain's seven-year-long, continuing operations in Afghanistan.
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Author : Captain Alexander Allan
Source : The Times
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08/04/2008
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Former Blair aide: UK should talk to al-Qaeda, Taliban
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The British government should start preparations to talk to al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a former prime minister Tony Blair's close aide.
Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief-of-staff throughout his 10 years in office, also believed that the UK should engage with Hamas, the elected Palestinian government.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper Saturday, Powell said talks with al-Qaeda might seem pointless at present, but ultimately a political solution would need to be developed alongside a security response.
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Author :
Source : Mathaba
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08/04/2008
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Lost in Afghanistan
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Nato is "not winning" in Afghanistan, failure would be a catastrophe, and time is running out. That was the message of three reports published in January by the Afghan Study Group, Oxfam and the Atlantic Council.
Little wonder. "Winning" in Afghanistan, according to Anja Havedal, a member of the aid community in Kabul, means defeating a fascistic Taliban, corrupt warlords and narco-barons in a country that ranks 174th out of 178 in the world development index and which has known war for almost 30 years. "Winning", then, demands we "rebuild houses and roads, bring 20m people out of starvation and unemployment, establish the rule of law, revive a largely dead economy, wipe out corruption and crime, build hydropower plants and an electricity grid, educate generations of illiterates, and institute a capable and legitimate government able to mend and transcend ethnic rifts. All of this while fighting off a resurgent Taliban."
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Author : Alan Johnson
Source : The Guardian
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08/04/2008
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Taxpayers' burden for Afghanistan and Iraq doubles in a year to £3bn
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The cost to the taxpayer of the two military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has nearly doubled in a year to more than £3 billion, the Commons Defence Select Committee has disclosed.
The rising bill for new, urgently required equipment; the depreciation costs of armoured vehicles and other overused military kit; and the award of a £2,500 operational bonus for all the troops have contributed to the unprecedented increase.
MPs said that, even though troop numbers were supposed to be coming down in Iraq, the financial burden was still high. In 2006-07, the cost of the Iraq operation was £956 million, but the forecast for 2007-08 is more than £1.65 billion, an increase of 72 per cent.
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Author : Michael Evans
Source : The Times
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08/04/2008
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UN reports "serious challenges" in Afghanistan's political transition
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that the political transition in Afghanistan continues to face "serious challenges" two years after the adoption of the Afghanistan Compact, which was launched in 2006 at the London Conference on Afghanistan and aimed at garnering international support for the Central Asian country.
"The Taliban and related armed groups and the drug economy represent fundamental threats to still-fragile political, economic and social institutions," Ban said in his latest report to the General Assembly and Security Council on Afghanistan.
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Author : Yan Liang
Source : China View
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23/01/2008
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American lust for oil fuels Afghan mission
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Col. (Retired) Mike Capstick is correct in saying the Afghanistan mission should be about the Afghan people and not about Canada. Unfortunately, he has missed columnist Thomas Walkom's point. The fact remains that it is not our war and it is not even NATO's war. It is another American war for oil.
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Author :
Source : The Star
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23/01/2008
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Afghan journalist sentenced to death for distributing paper 'against Islam'
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An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said.
The three-judge panel sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh to death for distributing a paper that humiliated Islam, said Fazel Wahab, the chief judge in the northern province of Balkh, where the trial took place. Wahab did not preside over the trial.
Kambaksh's family and the head of a journalists group denounced the verdict and said Kambaksh was not represented by a lawyer at trial. Members of a clerics council had been pushing for Kambaksh to be punished.
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Author : Amir Shah
Source : AP/Sign On San Diego
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23/01/2008
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Canada weighs exit from Afghanistan
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Canada should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan next year unless its Nato partners deploy at least 1,000 more soldiers in the dangerous Kandahar region where the Canadians are based, a government-appointed panel has recommended.
The parliamentary mandate of the 2,500-strong Canadian contingent, seen as crucial to the success of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission, ends in February 2009.
The panel, led by John Manley, a former Liberal deputy prime minister and ambassador in Washington, was set up last October to lower the heat in the politically charged debate on the future of the mission.
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Author : Bernard Simon
Source : FT/MSNBC
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23/01/2008
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Prostitution Thrives in Afghanistan
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The oldest profession is alive and well in carefully-concealed brothels and on the streets.
I do not enjoy being with men. I hate them. But to keep them as loyal customers, I pretend, said the young Afghan woman.
Dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt, with shoulder-length black hair and wearing no makeup, 21-year-old Saida (not her real name) looked ordinary enough. But in this highly conservative society, she has sex with men for money, sometimes several times a night.
Saida's father and older brother were killed in the civil war of the Nineties, and she lives with her mother and younger siblings in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
She has been a prostitute for six years, since the day her mother made a deal with a local pimp.
One day an old woman came to our house, Saida recalled. She talked to my mother, and then took me to a house. A man almost 30 years old was waiting for me. He attacked me right away. It was horrible. I knew nothing; I felt only pain.
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Author : Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi
Source : IWPR
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23/01/2008
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U.S. considers 3,000 more troops for Afghanistan
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
"This proposal is coming before the secretary this week," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "He will take it and consider it thoroughly before approving it."
Violence has surged in Afghanistan over the past two years, with the hardline Islamist Taliban fighting a guerrilla war in the south and east and carrying out high-profile suicide and car bombings across the country.
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Author : Andrew Gray
Source : Reuters/Washington Post
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23/01/2008
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Success in Iraq and Afghanistan?
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On December 17, the British Army transferred formal control of Basra province to Iraqi authorities, four-and-a-half years after the US-led invasion of the country.
In September, British forces had pulled back from Basra city to Basra Airport. The formal relinquishing of control followed a visit by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Basra on December 10. Officially, the 4,500 British troops still in Iraq are now to focus on training Iraqi police and soldiers. By the spring of next year, British troop levels are set to drop to around 2,500.
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Author : Harvey Thompson
Source : UK Watch
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23/01/2008
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Can tribes take on the Taleban?
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Drums hang in the remote villages of Paktia, deep in the tribal belt of eastern Afghanistan.
At times of danger, beating the drum brings hundreds of armed local men running from their homes - an instant army to protect the area.
It is the basis for a traditional system of village militias, known as the "arbakai", that operates in only a few provinces of the east.
With Afghanistan's fledgling national police deeply unpopular and insufficient in number to impose control in many areas of the country, Western diplomats and commanders have been exploring what they term "Afghan solutions" to counter rising Taleban violence.
Britain, in particular, is exploring the use of village defence forces in Helmand province.
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Author : Tom Coghlan
Source : BBC
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23/01/2008
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Meeting the Taliban: row over talks exposes divide
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· Afghanistan US suspicious of British attempts at engagement
· Kabul government split on ethnic and political lines
The threatened expulsion of two senior western officials from Afghanistan yesterday laid bare growing tensions over Kabul's great burning issue: can the Taliban be brought to the negotiating table?
Britain is quietly spearheading efforts to engage militants who are ready to quit the Taliban, although Downing Street vehemently denies reports that MI6 opened talks with some Taliban commanders last summer, trying to convince them to stop shooting by appealing to their better feelings - or through large cash payments.
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Author : Declan Walsh
Source : The Guardian
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23/01/2008
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Oxfam slams US-led efforts in Afghanistan
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British charity Oxfam sharply criticised US-led security and development efforts in Afghanistan in a report distributed in Kabul yesterday that called for urgent action to avert disaster.
The report, prepared for a British House of Commons of inquiry, noted a "significant" deterioration in security, citing UN estimates of a 20-30 per cent increase in attacks compared to 2006, and slow progress in development.
Since the Taleban government was ousted from government in 2001, the country has received more than $15bn in assistance but the aid has been distributed in ways that were "ineffective or inefficient," the report said.
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Author :
Source : The Peninsula Qatar
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23/01/2008
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Afghan civilian deaths alarm UN
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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm at the number of civilian casualties caused by international forces in Afghanistan.
Speaking at the end of a six-day visit to the country, Louise Arbour said the casualties were eroding public trust.
She also called for greater safeguards in the way Nato-led forces transferred their detainees into Afghan custody.
Earlier, Oxfam said half of the 1,200 civilian deaths this year were caused by international and Afghan troops.
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Author : Alix Kroeger
Source : BBC
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23/01/2008
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Afghanistan trailing badly on development: study
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Afghanistan is fifth last on a global index of human development, according to a report released Sunday, despite billions of dollars in aid and help since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.
The country's ranking on the Human Development Index -- a composite survey of education, longevity and economic performance -- is the lowest outside Africa, according to the Afghanistan Human Development Report 2007.
The score was fractionally lower than that in the last such report, which was in 2004, but officials said this was more due to changes in data than a reflection of a real decline.
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Author :
Source : Afghan News
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23/01/2008
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UK 'may increase Afghan troops'
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Britain may increase its military commitment in Afghanistan to help fill gaps in Nato's deployment there, a spokesman said.
James Appathurai, speaking for Nato's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the UK was considering "potentially increasing" its force.
The Ministry of Defence has not confirmed any plan to reinforce the 7,700 UK troops already in Afghanistan.
These are mostly in Helmand province, in the south of the country.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer will call on member states to increase their military presence in Afghanistan at a Nato summit in the Netherlands on 24 and 25 October.
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Author :
Source : BBC
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23/01/2008
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Japan Halts Indian Ocean Mission
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Japanese warships were ordered home from the Indian Ocean Thursday after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of their mission supporting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
The move is not expected to have a major impact on American operations but the White House said it would like Japan to reconsider.
The pullback was an embarrassment for Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, a strong advocate of the six-year mission who vowed to pass legislation that would give Japan at least a limited role in fighting terrorism in the region.
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Author : Eric Talmadge
Source : The Associated Press/Truthout
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23/01/2008
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PM urges more Nato troops for Afghanistan
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Gordon Brown yesterday amplified Nato calls for more combat troops in Afghanistan to spread a burden currently being borne by UK, US and Canadian forces, but the chief of defence staff warned that the country's problems could only be resolved by political, not military, means.
Echoing concerns expressed by General Dan McNeill, commander of the Nato-led international force in the country, the prime minister called for greater "burden-sharing" in Afghanistan. Speaking after talks in London with President Hamid Karzai, he added: "We are all determined that Afghanistan should never become a failed state again, and to support the democracy that's been created in that country."
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Author : Richard Norton-Taylor
Source : The Guardian
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23/01/2008
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'Politics, not military will improve Afghanistan'
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Improving security in Afghanistan can only be done by political, rather than military, means, Britain's top military officer said Thursday as NATO offered more troops.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup, said in an interview with Sky News television that reconstruction in Afghanistan and helping the country take its place on the world stage would take decades. But it's an engagement of economic assistance, it's an engagement of social development, it's an engagement of education and all of these things,he added.
There is a common misperception that the issues in Afghanistan, and indeed elsewhere around the world, can be dealt with by military means. That's a false perception. The military is a key, an essential element in dealing with those problems, but by and large these problems can only be resolved politically. Stirrup's interview was broadcast as Afghan President Hamid Karzai prepared to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London
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Author :
Source : Daily Times
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23/01/2008
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Girls wear burqa after warning by Taliban
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More than eighty per cent students of the Higher Secondary Girls School in Oghi have started going to school in burqa following a threat by the local Taliban, Dawn has learnt.
It is learnt that the principal of the only higher secondary girls school in the Oghi tehsil of Mansehra had received a threatening letter from the Taliban last week asking him to make it compulsory for students from Class 7 to Class 12 to wear burqa. Otherwise, he would have to suffer serious consequences.
Sources said the letter did not have the sender's name. The letter, which was handed over to police by the school authorities, said: So far we did not carry out any activity in district Mansehra but we want to make it clear that if you do not make the burqa compulsory for students you will face serious consequences, take it is a warning.
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Author : Nisar Ahmad Khan
Source : Dawn.com
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23/01/2008
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The Afghan tunnel
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A non-military strategy by elements of the United States government offers slim hope of progress in the war against the Taliban.
President Bush delivered a speech to United States military veterans on 22 August 2007 that invoked the war in Vietnam to support the case that an early exit of US forces from Iraq is unthinkable. This declaration of long-term commitment anticipates - and may possibly influence - the conclusion of General David Petraeus's report on the progress of the US's "surge" strategy (due to be presented in September); it also confirms the conclusion of several columns in this series that whatever its difficulties and setbacks, withdrawal from Iraq is not an option for the United States.
The Vietnam war analogy is, given the humiliating end to that conflict for the US, a delicate one for the president to employ. It is also misleading, in that the country has for almost six years been involved in another costly military effort that - in combination with Iraq - cannot easily be accommodated by a Vietnam-style narrative. The predicament of the US (and its coalition allies) in Afghanistan is less high-profile than that in Iraq (and received only four glancing references in the George W Bush's speech), but it is just as important for the future of what the president evidently still sees as its "long war"
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Author : Paul Rogers
Source : Open Democracy
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23/01/2008
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Unearthing Anguish In a Troubled Land
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Scores of mass graves have been discovered across Afghanistan, holding victims of decades of repression and war. The government has been loath to act, but relatives for the first time are shedding their fear and demanding justice.
A dusty track winds through acres of used-car lots, a vast municipal garbage dump and a cluster of abandoned Russian bunkers just north of Kabul, the capital. Eventually it stops at a steep sandy slope, marked off with police tape. At the bottom are three caves, freshly sealed by bulldozers.
Ten weeks ago, acting on a citizen's tip, police excavated the caves, where they found eight human skeletons and signs of others buried more deeply. It was the latest of 88 mass grave sites across Afghanistan charted in the last year by local and international human rights groups, which believe they contain many thousands of victims.
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Author : Pamela Constable
Source : Washington Post
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29/08/2007
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Despite public anger, the army still see Afghanistan as a cause worth dying for
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Unlike Iraq, the battle against the Taliban carries a flicker of a hope of success, even if it is a misguided one
British public opinion has become more hostile to the United States, or at least towards those conducting its foreign wars, than towards the Taliban. If one walked into a party escorting a bearded figure in baggy white trousers and introduced him as an Afghan fighter, chances are that he would be welcomed and offered elderflower cordial.
If an American general turned up, however, within minutes somebody would be asking why his pilots keep killing British soldiers and generally making a mess of the world. I exaggerate only slightly. Sentiment towards the war in Afghanistan, and the conflict in Iraq, is poisoned by a belief that our boys are dying for no good purpose save to service a faltering Atlantic alliance.
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Author : Max Hastings
Source : The Guardian
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29/08/2007
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High risks on Afghan battleground
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The region of southern Afghanistan where three British soldiers have been killed by US friendly fire is a war zone where the close-quarter fighting is intense and the risks are high.
The Royal Anglian troops were picking their way through the thick mud-walled compounds and irrigation ditches of Kajaki on another early evening patrol.
It was not unusual for them to come under fire - it regularly happens when British troops push from their base out into the no-man's land a few kilometres from the dam they are protecting.
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Author : Alastair Leithead
Source : BBC
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29/08/2007
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General warns of 'deadly' new Afghan phase
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The head of the Army has warned that Britain could be facing a generation of conflict in a confidential speech that the Ministry of Defence tried to keep under wraps.
General Sir Richard Dannatt said that there would be major dangers resulting from ongoing conflicts in Iraq and from Islamist fundamentalists.
In a speech to senior staff he hinted at of a "strident Islamist shadow" threatening Britain and said that the Army was "on the edge of a new and deadly game in Afghanistan."
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Author : Sophie Borland
Source : The Daily Telegraph
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29/08/2007
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Afghan failure will destroy America's credibility: LA Times
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Failure in Afghanistan will destroy US credibility in the eyes of the world, shake global security and condemn millions of people to another generation of warfare and terrorism, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The newspaper warned in an editorial on Monday that it would be all the more devastating if failure in Afghanistan were accompanied by a US defeat in Iraq. However, the effort to build a stable nation on top of the “wreckage" of Afghanistan can still be salvaged. Washington did not commit enough troops and money after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001 and American forces are suffering sharply higher casualties as Taliban fighters surge back in and drug lords continue to dominate the political and economic landscape, it stated.
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Author :
Source : Daily Times
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29/08/2007
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Army chief predicts a 'generation of conflict'
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The head of the Army has ordered his senior staff to make preparations for "a generation of conflict", in a speech that the Ministry of Defence tried to keep secret.
General Sir Richard Dannatt gave warning of the dangers posed by a "strident Islamist shadow" and suggested that the British Army was "on the edge of a new and deadly Great Game in Afghanistan".
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Author : Michael Evans
Source : The Times
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29/08/2007
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Our intervention in Afghanistan has nothing to do with jingoism
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Progress may take decades, but we must stay the course for the sake of the Afghan people, says Kim Howells
imon Jenkins raises many important issues about the challenges of building a modern state in Afghanistan (It takes inane optimism to see victory in Afghanistan, August 8). But his central premise that this is a British "post-imperial spasm, a knee-jerk jingoism" is plain wrong.
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Author : Dr Kim Howells
Source : The Guardian
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29/08/2007
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U.K. troops in Afghanistan get "super weapon"
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British soldiers in Afghanistan are being supplied with a new "super weapon" to attack Taliban fighters more effectively, defence officials said on Wednesday.
The "enhanced blast" weapon is based on thermobaric technology used in the powerful bombs dropped by the Russians to obliterate Grozny, the Chechen capital, and in U.S. "bunker busters".
Defence officials insisted on Wednesday that the British bombs were different. "They are optimised to create blast [rather than heat]", one said, adding that it would be misleading to call them "thermobaric".
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Author : Richard Norton-Taylor
Source : The Hindu/The Guardian
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16/08/2007
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UK's Afghan mission at turning point, says Browne
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Des Browne, the defence secretary, said yesterday that British forces could be at a "turning point" in bringing stability to Afghanistan, but suggested that there would still be a substantial UK military presence in the country for many years.
And going further than other ministers have done, he said in an interview with the Guardian that he had "no doubt" that the Taliban was being supplied with weapons from Iran, via drug routes.
On other issues, he compared the process of handing over responsibility to local security forces in Afghanistan with that in Iraq. He said he expected British forces to be able to hand over responsibility for security in Basra to the Iraqis "in a matter of months". But any further cut in the number of UK troops there - beyond the 500, out of the total of 5,500, already announced - would depend on an agreement with the Americans.
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Author : Richard Norton-Taylor
Source : The Guardian
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16/08/2007
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Afghanistan becomes main focus for UK
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The Foreign Office has decided that Afghanistan, and not Iraq, is the frontline in its battle to defeat terrorism, even if it may take decades to improve the country - as well as far greater international coordination than at present.
The UK military also wants to concentrate its forces in Helmand province, an area described by Tony Blair as the crucible in which the battle for the 21st century will be fought.
Ministers want improved coordination under the banner of the UN, and not just Nato, but suspect the US wants to maintain independence for part of its military operations aimed at al-Qaida in the country. Britain is backing the idea of a strong military, diplomatic and reconstruction coordinator.
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Author : Patrick Wintour
Source : The Guardian
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16/08/2007
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The Taliban & Afghan Women: Background
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Gender Apartheid - The Elimination of Women's Rights
Upon seizing power, the Taliban instituted a system of gender apartheid effectively thrusting the women of Afghanistan into a state of virtual house arrest. Under Taliban rule women have been stripped of their visibility, voice, and mobility. When they took control in 1996, the Taliban initially imposed strict edicts that:
* Banished women from the work force
* Closed schools to girls in cities and expelled women from universities
* Prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative
* Ordered the publicly visible windows of women's houses painted black and forced women to wear the burqa (or chadari) - which completely shrouds the body, leaving only a small mesh-covered opening through which to see
* Prohibited women and girls from being examined by male physicians while at the same time, prohibited most female doctors and nurses from working. (Currently there are a few, selected female doctors allowed to operate in segregated wards.)
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Author :
Source : The Feminist Majority Foundation
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16/08/2007
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Iran not supplying Taliban with weapons: Ahmadinejad
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected Tuesday US and British claims that Iranian weapons are being supplied to Taliban insurgents fighting the Afghan government.
"I doubt seriously if there is any truth in it," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
"With all our force, we support the political process in Afghanistan," he said.
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Author :
Source : Yahoo/AFP
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16/08/2007
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How the 'good war' in Afghanistan went bad
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A year after the Taliban running Afghanistan fell to an U.S.-led coalition, a group of NATO ambassadors landed in Kabul to survey what appeared to be a triumph: a fresh start for a country ripped apart by years of war with the Soviets and brutal repression by religious extremists.
With a senior U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Burns, leading the way, they thundered around the country in Black Hawk helicopters, with little fear for their safety. They strolled quiet streets in Kandahar and sipped tea with tribal leaders. At a briefing from the U.S. Central Command, they were told that the Taliban were now a "spent force."
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Author : David Rohde and David E. Sanger
Source : International Herald Tribune
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16/08/2007
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Afghan elders don't want Nato troops
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A council of Pakistani and Afghan tribal leaders debating ways to end Al Qaeda-backed terrorism in the region heard calls yesterday for Western forces to be thrown out of Afghanistan in favour of Islamic troops.
Pakistani tribal elder and former MP, Malik Fazel Manaan Mohmand, told 700 delegates seated in a giant white tent that the presence of Nato and US-led forces in Afghanistan was a major cause of insecurity.
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Author :
Source : The Peninsula/AFP
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16/08/2007
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Record crop of heroin poppies hits anti-drug effort in Afghanistan
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Britain's multimillion-pound counter-narcotics operation in Afghanistan was exposed as a failure yesterday, as the country was poised to report a record poppy crop this year.
Britain is leading international efforts against opium production in Afghanistan. Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister responsible for the region, said that he was extremely disappointed with the latest results. The United Nations is expected to reveal this month that Afghanistan broke its own record for poppy production last year, when 165,000 hectares were cultivated.
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Author : Richard Beeston
Source : The Times
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02/08/2007
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Afghanistan: Attacks on schools on the rise
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Security incidents in schools and threats against students and teachers in Afghanistan have spiked in recent months, disrupting education in the country, which this year has seen some of the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, according to the United Nations mission there.
"Over 30 attacks against schools, many involving the torching or blowing up of school premises have been reported in all parts of the country from January until June" Nilab Mobarez, Information Officer with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said at a press conference in Kabul.
Deliberate attacks on girls and female teachers have resulted in at least four deaths and six injuries so far this year, he told reporters.
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Author :
Source : Pak Tribune
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02/08/2007
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UK is losing as many troops to Afghanistan uprising as in Iraq
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British casualties in Afghanistan have reached almost the same levels of deaths and injuries as those suffered by the garrison in Iraq over the past 18 months, according to Ministry of Defence figures.
The death in action of a Royal Marine in Helmand yesterday brought the toll in Afghanistan to 63 since the start of 2006, just three short of the number killed in Iraq over the same period.
The tally of those wounded in action in that timescale is now 203 in Afghanistan compared with 236 in Iraq, including 26 and 31 respectively with life-threatening injuries.
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Author : Ian Bruce
Source : The Herald
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02/08/2007
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Nato mulls 'smaller Afghan bombs'
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Nato is considering the use of smaller bombs in Afghanistan to try to curb the rising number of civilians killed during operations against the Taleban. Commanders have also ordered troops to hold off attacking militants in some situations where civilians are at risk.
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer acknowledged civilian casualties had hurt the alliance politically, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Aid agencies say Western forces have killed 230 civilians so far this year.
Between 700 and 1,000 civilians were killed by both sides during 2006, according to the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR).
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Author :
Source : Afgghan News Network
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02/08/2007
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UK might have to send more toops to combat the Taliban
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The head of Britain's armed forces said we may have to send even more troops to Afghanistan because other countries are not pulling their weight.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup spoke out on the day that another UK soldier was killed fighting the Taliban.
The Chief of the Defence Staff voiced his “frustration" that our Nato allies have yet to provide the agreed minimum force needed to stabilise the war-torn country - and hinted Britain may have to shoulder an even greater burden in the years ahead.
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Author : Matthew Hickley
Source :
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02/08/2007
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UK, Karzai target Afghan corruption in Taliban fight
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Britain's foreign minister and Afghanistan's leader backed the Afghan government's efforts on Wednesday to root out deep corruption that is driving people to side with the Taliban.
Britain's David Miliband held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and later in Helmand with the southern province's governor and army chiefs.
Britain has 7,100 troops based in Afghanistan, mostly in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand.
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Author : Katherine Baldwin
Source : Reuters
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02/08/2007
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Failure of Nato countries to 'pull their weight' undermes Afghan campaign
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The failure of some Nato countries to provide troops in Afghanistan is seriously undermining the organisation's credibility as well as the operations of the International Security Assistance Force, according to the Commons Defence Committee.
In a report raising as many questions as it answered, the Defence Committee yesterday joined the chorus demanding that more Nato countries pull their weight.
The report also urges the Ministry of Defence to make greater efforts to increase the provision of appropriate helicopters to UK forces and sufficient trained air and ground crew, and the committee agreed that the UK helicopter operations in Afghanistan were not sustainable at the present intensity.
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Author : Catherine MacLeod
Source : The Herald
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02/08/2007
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Afghan opium crop sets record, U.S. warns
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Ambassador lobbies for stronger action, says heroin threatens stability
Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop set another record this season, despite intensified eradication efforts, the American ambassador said Tuesday.
Ambassador William Wood said preliminary data show that Afghan farmers harvested 457,135 acres of opium poppies this year, compared to 407,715 acres last year. The growing industry fuels the Taliban, crime, addiction and government corruption.
Government-led eradication efforts destroyed about 49,420 acres of poppies this year, a "disappointing" outcome, Wood told reporters at his private residence overlooking Kabul.
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Author : AP
Source : CNBC
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02/08/2007
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Surely now America and the West see why intervention is doomed
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Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, pleads the veteran geopolitics sage Gwynne Dyer
The Mess They Made: The Middle East after Iraq - Gwynne Dyer - Though there are those who continue to insist that much progress is being made in Iraq and that hope is right around the corner if only the U.S. can just hang in there - for another six months, or 18 months, or 50 years, depending on who's speaking - the latest and perhaps most disastrous occupation of Mesopotamia is a massive failure, like all those that came before. And it is coming to an end, sooner rather than later.
Though the talk in Washington has been of surges and escalation and even of a Korea-style military presence stretching halfway to the next century, the U.S. has entered a phase in which the most pressing question is how to get out without a) completely losing face, b) abandoning the country to become a radical Islamic state, allied with Iran, and/or c) setting off a series of conflicts that send the whole Middle East up in flames.
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Author : Nathan Whitlock
Source : The Toronto Sun
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02/08/2007
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UK reports Taliban growing stronger
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NATO countries are not giving the international force securing Afghanistan enough support and there are worrying signs that the Taliban are growing stronger, a detailed study by parliament has found.
The report, by the House of Commons Defence Committee, highlighted a series of concerns, from a lack of training for Afghan police and armed forces to an unclear policy on eradicating the country's vast opium poppy fields.
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Author : Luke Baker
Source : Reuters
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02/08/2007
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Afghan troops call backed by Browne
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Defence Secretary Des Browne has given his backing to a report from MPs calling on Nato to commit more troops and development aid to Afghanistan.
Mr Browne said he welcomed the "balanced" report by the Commons Defence Select Committee which said it was "deeply concerned" at the continuing reluctance of some Nato members to contribute to the alliance's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
Mr Browne told BBC Breakfast: "There are many positives, but there are still things to be done. I agree with the report's recommendation that Nato countries need to do more."
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Author : Press Association
Source : The Guardian
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02/08/2007
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Hunter-Killer robot planes launched in Afghanistan
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The Royal Air Force has ordered three "hunter-killer" robot planes from America for use in Afghanistan.
The state-of-the-art unmanned drone, named the Reaper because of its deadly attack capability, is bigger and flies higher, longer and faster than the Predator surveillance aircraft currently on patrol in the fight against the Taliban and in Iraq.
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Author :
Source : Evening Standard
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02/08/2007
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£2.2bn Army boot sale funds Iraq and Afghanistan wars
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The Ministry of Defence has sold off historic barracks and land worth more than £2.2 billion to fund the spiralling cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Author :
Source : Daily Mail
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02/08/2007
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Kabul fires governor after government was criticised; 'All political parties are now drifting away'
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Afghanistan's government has sacked a provincial governor accusing him of sowing discord, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, after he made a rare public criticism of President Hamid Karzai. The governor of Kapisa, northeast of Kabul, Abdul Sattar Murad, was removed after repeated complaints from civilians for being ineffective, creating discord among the people, bullying them and persuading coalition forces to carry out raids against people without justification, the ministry said. But Murad said he was sacked because he had publicly criticised Karzai in an interview published last week. He said there was “vacuum of authority" in remote areas that the Taleban or criminals would fill and the problem lay with a lack of leadership that could unite Afghanistan. “What is missing is leadership. Afghanistan (is) at this critical moment of its history, we don't have a leadership that can unite the national leaders, which can see the needs of people and respond to them," he said in the interview.
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Author :
Source : Arab Times
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02/08/2007
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$360 Million Pledged for Afghanistan
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International donors pledged $360 million Tuesday to train judges, build new prisons and enact other measures to strengthen Afghanistan's judicial system at a conference overshadowed by concerns over civilian casualties caused by NATO forces.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance would do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties and that deaths of innocent people would be investigated. He stressed, however, that Taliban and other extremists were in a ``different moral category'' from coalition soldiers who inadvertently cause civilian casualties.
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Author : Alessandra Rizzo
Source : The Guardian/AP
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02/08/2007
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Australian troops to stay in Afghanistan for years: FM
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Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said Australian troops will need to stay in Afghanistan for years to buttress international efforts to defeat the Taliban and establish a secure state.
Downer made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan during the weekend and met with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.
After their meeting, Downer warned that Afghanistan "is a struggle for the long haul."
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Author :
Source : Pak Tribune
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02/08/2007
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Afghan Violence Numbers
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At least 2,800 people have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan in the first six months of the year, according to a count by The Associated Press. The following breakdown is based on AP figures unless otherwise stated.
THE DEAD:
-1,900 Taliban fighters. The U.S. says these include 39 mid- and top-level commanders.
-314 civilians killed by international or Afghan military action, according to the U.N.
-279 civilians killed by insurgents, according to the U.N.
-350 Afghan police and soldiers.
-96 international troops, including 46 Americans.
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Author : AP
Source : The Guardian
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02/08/2007
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Civilian Bloodshed Clouds Afghan Effort
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U.S. and NATO commanders say they have blunted the Taliban's threatened spring offensive, killing almost 40 commanders and 2,000 insurgents. But suicide bombings and civilian deaths inflicted by international forces are all on the rise, threatening to derail the five-year mission to pacify and rebuild Afghanistan.
Six months into 2007, claims of progress in stabilizing the government of President Hamid Karzai are clouded by strains in the Western alliance and what analysts say is growing pessimism in NATO capitals.
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Author : Jason Straziuso
Source : The Guardian/AP
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02/08/2007
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Nato faces Afghanistan 'problems'
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Defence Secretary Des Browne has said UK-led Nato forces are facing "problems" in Afghanistan but there was no question of troops being pulled out.
He warned it would be a "potential nightmare" for the west if Afghanistan was allowed to become a terrorist "training ground" as it was before.
Mr Browne was responding to a report by a committee of MPs which called on Nato countries to commit more troops.
It highlighted equipment shortages and fears the Taleban are gaining strength.
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Author :
Source : BBC
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02/08/2007
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Taliban's Afghan Insurgency Surges
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Afghanistan's defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, says it is "difficult" to link Taliban weapons to Iran. The minister recently met with his NATO counterparts in Brussels, Belgium, amid questions about the focus and capacity of international efforts to tackle the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban are waging a robust insurgency, and there are signs that their presence has spread.
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Author : Oxford Analytica
Source : Forbes
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19/06/2007
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Afghanistan: low level, high impact
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A shift in tactics by the Taliban suggests that it is they, not the United States or Hamid Karzai's government, who are setting the agenda in Afghanistan's war.
The violence in Iraq and a renewed call for attacks on Iran continues to take most of the space in the western media's coverage of George W Bush's war on terror. These priorities mean that the persistent problems in Afghanistan tend to be neglected. The higher profile of Iraq can even, as if by default, tempt reporting of Afghanistan into a wary optimism; this is reinforced by the apparent failure of the expected Taliban spring offensive to materialise, giving some hope of an easing of the insurgency.
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Author : Paul Rogers
Source : Open Democracy
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19/06/2007
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Can the war in Afghanistan be won?
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The Taleban have new confidence and new tactics, and their campaign against the government and its Nato backers has been increasingly successful since the beginning of this year.
In the east of the country, around Jalalabad, suicide bombings have become such frequent occurrences that the road from there to Kabul is now known as "the Baghdad road".
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Author : John Simpson
Source : BBC
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19/06/2007
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Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan: ex-diplomat
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Britain joined the United States' invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke the shit" out of
Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington reportedly told a television documentary to be screened Saturday
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Author :
Source : AFP/Yahoo News
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19/06/2007
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Gates links Tehran to arms entering Afghanistan
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Iranian weapons are entering Afghanistan on such a scale that it is hard to believe Iran's government is not aware of the movement, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
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Author : Andrew Gray
Source : Reuters
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19/06/2007
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Assessing ISAF: A Baseline Study of NATO's Role in Afghanistan (PDF)
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The UN-mandated, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has a limited but essential role to play in Afghanistan. Although the Afghan government faces numerous obstacles including corruption, growing opium cultivation and insufficient reconstruction and development projects, the immediate problem of insurgent-fostered insecurity requires urgent redress to facilitate progress on the other problems afflicting Afghanistan. NATO member states must make good on their promises to assist the Afghan government in establishing conditions of security and help develop the capabilities for national security forces to assume responsibility for Afghanistan's lasting security.
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Author : Cameron Scott
Source : BASIC
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13/06/2007
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Retiring U.S. envoy decries Afghan radicalism
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Ambassador calls country's drive to democracy 'a long-term process'
he retiring U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, in a farewell assessment, said Thursday he did not know how long U.S. troops ought to remain in the South Asian country.
But on his last day in the foreign service, and after two years in a post his father also once held in Kabul, Ronald Neumann said helping Afghanistan to develop its first democratic government was “a long-term process."
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Author :
Source : AP/MSNBC
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13/06/2007
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France has no plans to pull out of Afghanistan: prime minister
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France has no plans to pull its troops out of Afghanistan and will remain loyal to its allies serving in a multinational force there, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.
"France will maintain its presence in Afghanistan," Fillon told a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"There is no plan for France to disengage in Afghanistan. France will be true to its commitments and to its allies," he said.
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Author :
Source : Afghan News Network
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13/06/2007
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UN 'outraged' after assassination attempt on Karzai
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The United Nations said it is "outraged" by an apparent assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai as authorities arrested seven suspects in the case, officials said Monday.
In the latest violence, a suicide car bomb attack wounded 11 people including three policemen in the east, while four Afghan soldiers were wounded in the south when their car hit a mine.
Tom Koenigs, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said the world body condemned the rocket attack Sunday in central Ghazni province, which narrowly missed Karzai.
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Author :
Source : International Herald Tribune
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13/06/2007
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Playing with fire in Afghanistan's north
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Recent protests in Jowzjan may signal attempts to chip away at central government.
The idea that northern Afghanistan is a safe and sleepy place is fast becoming a thing of the past. The spreading Taleban presence, a thriving trade in illicit arms, and now violent political manoeuvring are turning formerly calm provinces into increasingly volatile areas that could soon pose a serious threat to the Kabul government.
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Author : Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi
Source : ReliefWeb
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13/06/2007
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Bloodshed Is Spreading Across Afghanistan, Warn Aid Workers
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Bloodshed is spreading to previously stable provinces of Afghanistan, threatening aid efforts as humanitarian workers contend with growing numbers of attacks from insurgents and criminals.
Aid workers involved in redevelopment are not only worried that the rising insecurity is jeopardising projects, but fear it is pushing disgruntled Afghans into the hands of the Taliban and adding fuel to a guerrilla war that now rages across much of the country.
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Author : Chris Sands
Source : The Independent/ Truthout
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13/06/2007
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No evidence Iran supplying Taliban-NATO general
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While Iranian mortar rounds and other weapons have been found on Afghan battlefields there is no evidence that Tehran is supplying weapons to the Taliban, the U.S. general who leads the NATO war effort in the country said on Tuesday.
General Dan McNeill, who took control of NATO forces in Afghanistan in February, also said in an interview with Reuters that some lower-level Taliban militants could be incorporated into Afghan politics, but he saw no hope for a peace pact with the leadership of the Afghan rebel forces.
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Author : Jim Loney
Source : Reuters
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13/06/2007
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Return of the Taliban
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No one in Afghanistan wants to be on the losing side when Mullah Omar's men ride back into town on their motorcycles. When I lived in Kabul a couple of years ago, it seemed unimaginable that the Taliban could return. The regime was considered a spent force and generally disliked by Afghans. Mullah Omar gathered his associates, told them they were on their own and fled on his motorcycle.
Today there are reports of Taliban attacks as close as two hours from the capital. Nato's forces are getting hammered in the south by an astonishingly strong insurgency. Suicide bombs, utterly alien to the Afghan fighting culture, are now common.
At the same time, Nato air strikes are hitting innocent civilians and increasing the population's resentment against the western armies. In this mess, there is talk of making a deal with the Taliban leadership, whoever they may be, in a bid to bring peace to the south. This is a dangerous idea.
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Author : Hamida Ghafour
Source : Guardian.co.uk/commentisfree
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13/06/2007
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U.S. show of force in Gulf alarming: Afghan paper
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A U.S. navy show of force on Iran's doorstep is "greatly alarming" for the region and the United States risked a bloody quagmire if it invaded Iran, a state-run Afghan newspaper said on Saturday.
A large flotilla of U.S. ships entered the Gulf on Wednesday in a dramatic show of military muscle, adding to pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, which the West says are an attempt to develop atomic weapons. Afghan officials say privately a U.S. attack on neighboring Iran would further destabilize Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban.
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Author : Sayed Salahuddin
Source : Yahoo News/ Reuters
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30/05/2007
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Unsuitable, unsustainable - When Afghan children are forced to eat mud, it is clear we have squandered billions of dollars of aid
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The international community is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes made in Iraq. Millions of Afghans have seen little material improvement in their lives since 2001, and most still live in desperate poverty. From the start, the damage inflicted by a quarter-century of war was underestimated; this is not about repairing the state but building it from scratch.
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Author : Matt Waldman
Source : The Guardian
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30/05/2007
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The Iraq Effect: War Has Increased Terrorism Sevenfold Worldwide
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Research fellows at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law. Bergen is also a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. "If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people." So said President Bush on November 30, 2005, refining his earlier call to "bring them on." Jihadist terrorists, the administration's argument went, would be drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame, and would perish there rather than wreak havoc elsewhere in the world.
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Author : Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank
Source : Mother Jones
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30/05/2007
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