Obama planning next steps in Afghan drawdown

US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on education at the University of Colorado in Denver on October 26, 2011

The White House has asked the Pentagon for initial recommendations for the US troop presence in Afghanistan in 2014, a first step in planning the final US drawdown there despite a bleak security outlook.

Sources familiar with the discussions said President Barack Obama’s top aides have asked for scenarios for 2014. As part of that process, the Pentagon must look at troop levels for 2013 ― suggesting deeper withdrawals beyond the removal, by next September, of the 33,000 surge troops Obama deployed in a bid to turn around the flagging decade-old conflict.

“Planning for troop levels in 2013 and 2014 is now in a preliminary phase,” said Bruce Riedel, the former CIA officer who chaired the review of Afghan policy Obama ordered when he took office in 2009 and retains close White House ties.

Obama to unveil Afghan troop cut plan tomorrow

President Barack Obama is finalising his decision on how many US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan starting next month and will announce his plan tomorrow, a US official said yesterday.

Obama (picture) will lay out a blueprint for bringing home thousands of troops in the initial phase of a military drawdown and also unveil a broader withdrawal strategy for the remainder of the 30,000 extra “surge” troops he ordered deployed in late 2009, the official said.

Despite warning, Karzai knows US is an ally, says Gates

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recognises that the United States is a friend and ally even as he warns that civilian casualties in Afghanistan risk making US-led troops appear to be an occupying force, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.

Gates, who spoke to reporters in Hawaii while en route to an Asian security conference, was reacting to Karzai’s statement yesterday that raids on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents are “not allowed” and his threat to take action if a spate of civilian casualties does not stop.

Karzai expressed anger over Nato air strikes on Sunday in southern Helmand Province that killed at least nine people, most of them small children.

Fearing power vacuum, Russia cosies up to Afghanistan

Still haunted by its own disastrous war in Afghanistan, Russia is tiptoeing back into Kabul’s affairs ahead of a gradual withdrawal of Nato troops that could leave a dangerous power vacuum in what was once a traditional sphere of influence.

Moscow has refused to send troops to the war, which is becomingly increasingly unpopular as it drags into its 10th year, but it has backed drug raids, and increased support for Nato and local forces. It has also showed interest in business deals as it vies to boost its clout in Afghanistan.

Russia has welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai twice in the past 12 months, where he directly asked his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for help with security.

Al Qaeda No.2 Zawahri most likely to succeed bin Laden

Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri speaks in an image taken from video footage released on April 29, 2006

Egyptian-born doctor and surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri is al Qaeda's second-in-command expected to succeed Osama bin Laden following his killing in a firefight with U.S.forces in Pakistan.

Zawahri has been the brains behind bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, and at times its most public face, repeatedly denouncing the United States and its allies in video messages.

Kandahar jail governor detained after mass breakout

General Dastgir points to the way out — one at a time — at the time the jailbreak was discovered on 25 April, 2011.

The governor of the Afghan jail where hundreds of insurgents this week escaped through a tunnel built by the Taliban has been detained along with several top aides, an intelligence source told Reuters today.

General Ghulam Dastgir, who headed the high-security Sarposa jail where almost 500 fighters escaped along a dirt shaft fitted with lights and air pipes, was led away in handcuffs following a preliminary investigation, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Also detained were eight others including Dastgir’s deputy governor and several senior prison managers, he said.

A spokesman for Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of southern Kandahar province where the jail was located, confirmed several detentions at the prison, but declined to name anyone.

“A number of people were detained because they neglected their duties,” the spokesman said.

Two UN staff beheaded and five others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran

*Koran burning pastor says 'The time has come to hold Islam accountable'
*U.N. sources say final death toll could rise as high as 20
*Taliban behind attacks, reports suggest
*Demonstrators at the burnings take place across the Middle East
*One of the dead is a 53-year-old female Norwegian pilot
*Mastermind behind attacks - a known militant - arrested say Afghan police
*Afghan authorities suspect insurgents blended into protesters
*Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals among those killed

At least seven United Nations staff were murdered - two by beheading - after extremists stormed their compound in northern Afghanistan today.

According to reports, protesters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif beheaded two U.N. guards, seized their weapons and began shooting those inside the compound after a demonstration against Koran burnings in the U.S. turned violent.

Reports emerged tonight that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were part of a campaign of violence in the run up to presidential elections.

The bloodshed is the worst attack on the U.N. in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

 Firebrand: Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn a koran last year and carried the threat out last month

Victim: The first named victim is 53-year-old Norwegian pilot Lt. Col Siri Skare who was working as a UN military advisor in the country

 Protest: Thousands of protectors flooded the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif chanting anti-American slogans before the violence broke out

Controversy: U.S. Pastor Terry Jones, pictured last September, gained worldwide attention after he planned to burn a Koran

Waste in US Afghan aid seen at billions of dollars

File photo of a US. soldier from 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion during an early morning patrol in Zhari district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on November 22, 2010.


Waste and fraud in US efforts to rebuild Afghanistan while fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, a special investigator said yesterday.

Arnold Fields, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said the cost of US assistance funding diverted or squandered since 2002 could reach “well into the millions, if not billions, of dollars.”

“There are no controls in place sufficient enough to ensure taxpayers’ money is used for the (intended) purpose,” said Fields, whose independent office was created in 2008 to energize oversight of what US auditors have described as a giant, poorly coordinated aid effort that has sunk some US$56 billion (RM180 billion) into Afghanistan since 2002.

Of that sum, some US$29 billion has gone to building up Afghanistan’s nascent security forces, many of whose members cannot read and are just learning to shoot.

British aid worker had ESCAPED Taliban captors and was in foetal position when elite troops detonated grenade

A British aid worker who died during a botched raid on the compound where she was being held hostage had escaped her captors and was hiding when a U.S. grenade killed her.

Linda Norgrove was cowering in a foetal position when troops detonated the deadly grenade.

Now an elite U.S. commando is facing disciplinary action over the death of the 36-year-old after it emerged he failed to tell his commanding officers he had used a grenade.


* Soldier faces disciplinary action after failing to reveal grenade was used
* Troops did not spot hostage even though they had night-vision goggles
* U.S. commanders watched the horror unfold on big screens at mission HQ
* Miss Norgrove's body arrives back in Britain on military plane

Tragic: Aid worker Linda Norgrove had worked in South America and the Far East before Afghanistan

Afghan teenager whose mutilated face shocked the world unveils her new image

An Afghan teenager who was horribly mutilated by her husband under Taliban rule was all smiles as she unveiled her new prosthetic nose for the first time.

Aisha, 19, shocked the world when she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine to lift the veil on the plight of many women in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, she bravely faced the public wearing a prosthetic nose - one that gives her some idea of how she will look after having reconstructive surgery.

Facing reality: Aisha's photo was on the front cover of Time Magazine in August 2010

Recovering: Aisha has received counselling following her traumatic experiences

Driver killed and two dozen Nato fuel tankers are torched as gunmen launch sixth attack on stranded Afghan convoy

Gunmen killed a driver today and torched more than two dozen stranded tankers carrying fuel from Pakistan to Nato troops in Afghanistan.

It was the sixth attack on convoys since Pakistan closed a key border route almost a week ago after a Nato helicopter attack left three of its troops dead.

Last week's closure of the Torkham crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass has left hundreds of trucks stuck on the country's highways, causing a bottleneck heading to the one route into Afghanistan from the south that has remained open.

Fiery hell: Helpless Pakistani firemen can do nothing to stop the blazing tankers in the latest strike against convoys heading for Afghanistan to supply Nato troops.

Inferno: A Pakistani firefighter gestures to his colleagues to stay back after militants burned a convoy of oil tankers carrying fuel to Nato troops in Afghanistan and killed a driver

Gunmen in Pakistan attacked and set fire to 20 trucks transporting supplies to Nato troops

Taliban in 'secret talks' with Karzai's government to end the war in Afghanistan

The Taliban and President Hamid Karzai's government have started secret peace negotiations to end to the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post has reported.

The newspaper quoted unnamed Afghan and Arab sources who believe the Taliban representatives are authorised to speak for the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura and its leader, Mohammad Omar.

Talks are only in the preliminary stages, according to the Post following inconclusive meetings hosted by Saudi Arabia that ended more than a year ago.

President Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer declined to confirm or deny the report.

 

Peace overture: President Hamid Karzai

Training: An Afghan serviceman is taken through a replica village alongside a British soldier

Hearing begins in alleged plot to murder Afghans in widespread use of drugs in random killings of innocenet cilivians.

A soldier's videotaped statements describing how he and his colleagues randomly killed three Afghan civilians came under scrutiny Monday at a hearing into one of the most serious war-crimes cases from the war in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, is among five Stryker soldiers charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. In interviews with Army investigators, he described a plot led by Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs to randomly kill civilians for sport while on patrol in Kandahar Province.

Prosecutors have also alleged that members of the platoon mutilated Afghan corpses and even collected fingers and other body parts, and that some posed for photos with Afghan corpses. Morlock talked about how they threw a grenade at a civilian to "wax him."

Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges

US army charges 5 soldiers over Afghan murders

Five US soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province have been charged with murdering three Afghan civilians, The Washington Post reported today.

In its early edition, the Post cited Army charging documents as saying the infantry personnel, including one staff Sergeant, murdered the civilians between January and May of this year.

The Post cited military court documents and interviews with people familiar with the case to allege the killings “were committed essentially for sport by soldiers who had a fondness for hashish and alcohol.”

Washington Post reports that five US soldiers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province have been charged with murdering three Afghan civilians

Afghanistan braces for violent polling day

Afghanistan braced for a day of violence today as voters headed to the polls for a parliamentary election that is a crucial test of government credibility and the strength of its security forces.

The Taliban has vowed to disrupt the poll and urged potential voters to stay at home — even as the government called on Afghans to come out to polling stations for what is their second chance to choose their own parliament.

A donkey collapses after being overloaded with election materials to be transported to a village unreachable by vehicles, in Panjshir province, north of Kabul yesterday, September 17, 2010.

Rockets, attacks strike as Afghan poll opens

A string of attacks hit Afghanistan’s parliamentary election today, killing at least 10 people as the Taliban tried to disrupt a poll that is testing the credibility of the government and security forces.

Voters appeared hesitant to go to polling stations after a series of rocket strikes in provincial centres across the country, including one which landed near the US embassy and the headquarters of Nato-led forces in central Kabul about three hours before polls opened at 7am (0230 GMT).

Officials reported violence across the country. In the worst attack, police said the Taliban killed one Afghan soldier and six pro-government militiamen in a raid on a security outpost next to a polling station in northern Baghlan province.

Afghan policewomen search women at a polling station in Herat, western Afghanistan today, September 18, 2010.

Afghan officials promise security for elections

Afghan officials and political figures sought to reassure wary Afghans on Thursday that it will be safe to vote in this weekend's parliamentary election despite an upswing in violence in recent months.

Both the Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami, an insurgent group under the leadership of warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have criticized the elections and urged people to stay home.

In the southern province of Kandahar — the birthplace of the Taliban — Gov. Tooryalai Wesa insisted that recent military operations by NATO and Afghan forces had weakened the insurgents.


An Afghan girl walks past by election posters of parliamentary candidates in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010. Afghans will choose 249 members of the lower house from among more than 2,500 candidates on Sept. 18.

Afghans protest Koran burning for second day

Protestors clashed with Afghan security forces on Saturday, as thousands of Afghans demonstrated for a second day, despite a U.S. pastor suspending plans to burn copies of the Koran, officials said.

The renewed protests in the war-torn country came after obscure Florida Pastor Terry Jones called off plans to burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The plans triggered outrage in Afghanistan and across the Muslim world with President Barack Obama warning the action could deeply hurt the United States abroad and endanger the lives of U.S. troops.

 Afghan protesters hold a banner near a fire during a demonstration against the planned burning of copies of the Koran by a small U.S. church, in Nangarhar province September 10, 2010. The banner reads: ''There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah''.

US says not considering Nato Afghan troop request

The United States does not plan to contribute to a Nato request for 2,000 troops for the Afghan war, the Pentagon said yesterday, even as the head of the alliance held out the possibility of US participation.

The NATO commander in Afghanistan submitted a request last week that alliance officials said called for another 2,000 soldiers, including 750 trainers.

US soldiers from Delta Company, a part of Task Force 1-66 patrol in the Arghandab river valley, Kandahar province, Sept 6, 2010.

Afghan aid group warns against Koran-burning

An umbrella group representing aid groups in Afghanistan said Wednesday civilians and its members in the war-wracked country could be killed if US evangelists go ahead with a plan to burn the Koran.

The Dove World Outreach Center, in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark Saturday's ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning copies of Islam's holy book, in what it says will be a warning to radical Muslims.

The Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an agency co-ordinating the work of NGOs in Afghanistan, called on the "organisers of this irresponsible initiative" to drop their demonstration.

There are more than 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan