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Afghanistan

US to Hand Over Bagram Prison To Afghans

2010-01-11

[Quqnoos] Afghan officials have agreed to take over the running of the US military prison at Bagram. A so-called Memorandum of Understanding signed on Saturday could see the controversial facility handed over to Afghan control by within months, officials said. Currently the US-run prison houses about 750 inmates, including around 30 foreign nationals. "The Afghan defence ministry will begin in a few days to train a unit which will take responsibility for the prison," it said in a statement. The prison facility, set up to hold enemy suspects in the wake of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has faced heavy criticism due to the treatment of detainees. The Afghan government has long-sought to have prisoners transferred from foreign military control saying that Afghans should not be held by foreign powers within their own territory. "President Karzai himself has said detention and prosecution of suspects should be the responsibility of the Afghan government. So that's where this is heading," Colonel Stephen Clutter, spokesman for US military detainee operations in Afghanistan, said. "This will eventually help Afghanistan strengthen its own security." General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said that the handover could take place within six months. "This is a very good and important step for the Afghan government so it will have responsibility for the Afghan prisoners," he said. Afghan authorities decided that the ministry of defence would initially assume responsibility for the transition, but will eventually transfer its role as custodian and manager of the facility to the ministry of justice,a US statement said.

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Afghanistan

30 Talibs banged in Khost operations

2009-08-17

[Bangla Daily Star] The Afghan defence ministry said Sunday that more than 30 rebels, including foreigners, were killed in an operation pounding Taliban centres in a bid to secure a northeast troublespot for key elections. "Tens of terrorists were killed as a result of Operation Thunder Five in the province of Khost," the ministry announced in a statement. "The operation was launched a while ago for election security, with support from national police, border police and international forces," it said. "More than 30 have been killed," ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP after the operation in Spera, in southwestern Khost near the border with Pakistan. Independent confirmation of the death toll was not possible and the Nato-led military deployed in Afghanistan had no immediate details. Afghanistan's defence ministry said troops pounded Taliban centres, "overpowering" the enemy who either escaped or were killed. "Among those killed are 10 foreign nationals," said the ministry. US, Nato and Afghan troops have launched multiple operations -- particularly against Taliban flashpoints in the south -- in a bid to safeguard imminent Afghan elections overshadowed by Taliban threats and mounting violence. On August 20, 17 million Afghans are due to elect a president for the second time in history, but Taliban threats to block roads to polling booths and widespread fears of suicide attacks have clouded preparations. The governor of Khost, which borders a part of Pakistan where Taliban commanders carved out safe havens in the wake of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, told AFP last week that countless offensives were underway. "Since the beginning of the month, we did 45 operations in the province to clean up insurgent strongholds. During the first two weeks of August, security forces killed 51 Taliban," said the governor Hamidullah Qalandarzai. Thousands of US Marines have poured into Taliban-controlled regions as part of a sweeping new war strategy under US President Barack Obama aimed at quelling the insurgency.

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Afghanistan

Suicide bombers strike Afghan city

2009-07-26

[Bangla Daily Star] Seven suicide bombers tried to storm security targets in an Afghan city yesterday, wounding personnel and a girl in the third Taliban commando raid in a week, authorities said. Part of an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency, the attacks underscored the vulnerability of Western-backed government forces less than four weeks before landmark elections and raised concerns for the security of the polls. The interior ministry said "seven suicide bombers blew themselves up" in different parts of the eastern city of Khost, which is close to the border with Pakistan, where Islamist militants have carved out safe havens. "All of the bombers who had suicide vests on their bodies were identified and fired at by our brave police before they reached their targets," it said. Three of the bombers set off their explosives in front of the town's police headquarters while another targeted the rear of the facility, it said. Nearby, one suicide attacker tried to storm a police post, another detonated near a police rapid reaction unit and a seventh targeted a bank near the city centre, the interior ministry said. Two police were injured in the attacks, the ministry added, but officials warned the toll would rise. "There are casualties but at this moment we don't know exactly how many people have been killed and injured," said defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi. Azimi said some of the attackers were armed with machine guns and rocket launchers and exchanged fire with security forces before detonating their explosive-laden vests, although the interior ministry did not confirm this. At least one of the bombers detonated a car rigged with explosives in front of the police headquarters, but that blast caused no casualties. Four injured people, including three security personnel and an eight-year-old girl, were admitted to Khost hospital, a doctor said. Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, called AFP from an undisclosed location and said the insurgent Islamist group was behind the attacks. "Thirteen of our suicide bombers attacked government buildings in Khost," Mujahed said. Taliban members are known to exaggerate their claims. On Tuesday, five people died when eight suicide bombers, some dressed as women and carrying guns, tried to storm official property in two Afghan cities, exposing the vulnerability of the government in the run-up to key elections. Afghan authorities said later that police arrested seven would-be suicide bombers, who would have inflicted mayhem in further coordinated strikes against the Western-backed government. Khost has become one of the most dangerous cities in Afghanistan over the last six months and the scene of repeated deadly attacks. The eastern province is just across the border from Pakistan's wild Waziristan tribal region, where US and Afghan officials accuse Islamist militants of plotting attacks on troops across the border.

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Afghanistan

Five US, Latvian troops killed in Afghan attack

2009-05-02

Three US and two Latvian troops were killed when the Taliban stormed a military outpost in northeastern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said. The Taliban attacked a small remote outpost of soldiers in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan, US military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Mathias told AFP. The Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman, General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, announced earlier on Friday that Afghan troops had come under attack in Kunar's rugged Ghaziabad district and three soldiers had been killed and two wounded. It could not immediately be confirmed if it was the same incident but that appeared likely. The Taliban had claimed responsibility. Azimi said 20 of the Taliban who attacked the Kunar base overnight on Friday had been killed or wounded in the counterattack. The NATO and US-led forces, working together to fight the Taliban, did not immediately give the nationalities of the troops killed but said one was from the US Forces in Afghanistan. "The four International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers and one US soldier were killed during an incident that included small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade strikes," they said in a joint statement. Mathias said later that two of the ISAF troops were also US nationals. The Latvian army announced in Riga that two of its soldiers were killed and two wounded. The joint statement said Afghan and international troops had returned fire and called in air support after coming under attack. "The insurgents withdrew and ISAF-Afghan forces are in pursuit," it said, giving no other details. About 30 soldiers were stationed in the outpost, Mathias said. Latvia has around 160 soldiers in Afghanistan and those in Kunar are involved in mentoring the growing Afghan forces. The US has roughly 38,000 troops here, the most of the roughly 40 nations serving in Afghanistan, and they have combat and training roles. It was the deadliest toll for foreign soldiers in a single incident in Afghanistan since an August 18 attack on French troops left 10 of them dead and 21 wounded.

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Afghanistan

Taliban fighters try to storm US base in Afghanistan

2008-08-19

Taliban fighters attacked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan early Tuesday and at least 13 were killed, some in their own suicide blasts, Afghan officials said. The attack on Camp Salerno, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Pakistan, came as NATO's International Security Assistance Force was involved in heavy fighting near Kabul after French troops were ambushed Monday. About 30 fighters tried to storm Salerno, the largest US base in eastern Afghanistan, Khost province governor Arsala Jamal told AFP. They struck a day after a suicide car bomb outside the base on Monday killed 10 Afghan labourers waiting to enter and wounded 13 more. In Tuesday's attack the rebels were stopped about 1,000 metres (yards) from the camp, ISAF said in a statement. Troops in the base had identified them "posturing to attack the base and engaged them with small-arms fire," it said. Helicopters arrived soon afterwards and opened fire on the rebels as they tried to flee, it said. Seven were killed, six of them suicide bombers, ISAF said. Of those, three died after they detonated their suicide vests and three other would-be suicide bombers were killed by troops, who suffered no casualties. Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said 13 attackers were killed. Six blew themselves up, six others died in the explosions and one died in gunfire from commandos. Their bodies have been recovered," Azimi said. "A most intense terrorist mass suicide operation was thwarted," a defence ministry statement said. It was the biggest attack on a US military base since fighters stormed an outpost in northeastern Kunar province in July 13 and killed nine US troops, wounding 15 more. The Khost governor's office said two children had also been killed in the fighting. Some of the attackers had fled to nearby houses and corn fields and troops were searching for them, added the governor. The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack. "A group of 30 mujahedeen (holy fighters) armed with rifles and suicide jackets attacked the American base in Khost," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said. The hardliners, who are linked to Al-Qaeda, also claimed responsibility for Monday's suicide attack. Soon after the deadly bombing, troops were able to prevent a second suicide blast. French NATO troops were meanwhile involved in heavy fighting Tuesday with insurgents about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Kabul in Sarobi district, the alliance force and military officials said. The fighting erupted after insurgents attacked a military patrol Monday, the ISAF media office said. "We had a fight through the night and it is ongoing," an ISAF officer told AFP. An Afghan military official said there had been heavy casualties to both troops and rebels.

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Afghanistan

Residents flee as Taliban brace for Afghan offensive

2008-06-18

Thousands of residents fled villages near Kandahar as Taliban militants blew up bridges on Tuesday ahead of a looming offensive by Afghan and NATO troops, officials and locals said. A Taliban commander said hundreds of fighters had hunkered down in troubled Arghandab district since late Monday, with many of them having escaped from the southern city's main jail at the weekend in a brazen insurgent attack. The wave of unrest in the strategic region has piled pressure on President Hamid Karzai, who threatened at the weekend that Afghan forces could attack militants on the soil of neighbouring Pakistan. 'Hundreds of families have left, we requested them to leave. Around 300 to 400 Taliban are on the move in the district, they are not stationed in one location,' defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. The Taliban had blown up one bridge 'so far' in the district, he said, adding that hundreds of Afghan soldiers had been deployed in Arghandab 'to clear the insurgents from the area.' The interior ministry said army reinforcement had been sent to the area. Afghan army General Aminullah Patyali said the rebels had reportedly destroyed several bridges and laid many landmines. One of the mines exploded, killing two Taliban, he said. The US-led coalition said that a joint patrol with Afghan forces saw no massive presence of rebels in the district. The 'forces completed a patrol ... today and found no evidence that militants control the area,' it said in a statement. Meanwhile, three security guards hired by a road construction company were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Spin Boldak district late Tuesday, Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib said. Three guards were killed and another three were wounded in the blast,' he said. Residents fleeing Arghandab, which is surrounded by pomegranate groves and agricultural fields, said the Taliban had seized much of the area and that many people had abandoned their harvests. 'There were Taliban everywhere. They have destroyed all of the small bridges leading to the villages,' Hazarat Jan told AFP on the road to Kandahar as he led a donkey carrying his sick mother. An AFP reporter said dozens of NATO and Afghan security forces had set up checkposts searching vehicles and people. At one checkpoint, policeman Sardar Mohammad said about 700 families amounting to at least 3,000 people had fled. Abdul Mohammad, another resident, said that helicopters from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force 'dropped leaflets on our village, asking us to leave the village before they launch an operation.' NATO civilian spokesman Mark Laity confirmed the leaflet drop but said the villagers were asked to stay in their houses until Afghan security forces remove the Taliban. The Taliban build-up comes days after more than 1,000 prisoners including rebels escaped from Kandahar prison after suicide bombers attacked the main gate. A militant who claimed to be a group commander in Arghandab said that 'dozens' of the escaped prisoners were taking part in the Taliban's activities in the village. 'We're about 400 to 500. There are some Taliban who escaped the jail who have joined us,' Mullah Aminullah told AFP by telephone. There was no way of independently confirming his identity or location. 'We have planted lots of mines on the roads and destroyed small bridges leading to these villages,' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone that the rebels held most of the area apart from the district centre.

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Afghanistan

NATO cautions Pakistan on peace deals with terrorists

2008-05-26

NATO in Afghanistan spoke out against Pakistan's moves to reach peace deals with Taliban militants on its side of the border as new violence left 16 people dead, including a US-led soldier. Visiting US congressman also said they were concerned that Islamabad's peace talks with terrorists militants could preclude a rise in attacks in Afghanistan, where 70,000 foreign soldiers are helping to fight a Taliban-led jihad insurgency. NATO spokesman Mark Laity urged Pakistan to avoid agreements that "put our troops and our mission under threat," and said Islamabad must take the alliance into account when it makes such deals. Top Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud said at the weekend he would continue "jihad," or holy war, in Afghanistan while pursuing peace talks with the new Pakistan government. Islamabad has already signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, about 99 kilometres (55 miles) from Afghanistan. "They have a sovereign right to make agreements," Laity said at a press conference, adding however, "We have a right to answer if those agreements put our troops and our mission under threat. It is no real solution if trouble on one side of the Durand Line (the border) is merely transferred to the other side." Laity said NATO believed an increase in militant activity along the eastern border with Pakistan could only be attributed to a reduction in the Pakistani army's efforts against militants because of the peace talks. Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told the same media briefing that Pakistan territory "should not be used to kill innocent people in Afghanistan." "Previous peace accords between Pakistan's government and insurgents have shown that it was a golden time for insurgents -- they got equipped, they got ready and they launched operations against both governments," he said. Four Democratic lawmakers said after talks with Karzai that they would raise concerns about the peace deals with militants during a visit to Islamabad. "They are protected in their sanctuaries and yet they come into Afghanistan and take on the activities of terrorists," said one of the lawmakers, Ben Nelson, a US Senator from Nebraska.

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Army Reaches 70,000 Mark, As Taliban Vows New Offensive

2008-03-27

Officials in Kabul say the Afghan National Army soon will number 70,000 combat-ready soldiers -- the strongest the force has been since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. The buildup has come amid urgent calls within NATO for more combat troops to be sent to assist counterterror and stabilization efforts in that country. But the Afghan government says it will be years before Afghan forces are able to provide security throughout the country by themselves -- and the Taliban says it's not worried about the growth of the army. In early 2002, just weeks after the collapse of the Taliban regime, the transitional government in Kabul announced a bold schedule to build the Afghan National Army from scratch. That schedule called for the recruitment and training of 70,000 Afghan soldiers before the presidential election in the fall of 2004. But that target proved to be overly optimistic. Until this year, desertions were so high among the fully trained Afghan soldiers that Kabul had difficulty maintaining a force of 30,000 troops. Now, six years after the 70,000-soldier announcement, the goal is finally within reach. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the recruitment, training, and retention of Afghan soldiers during the winter has been better than ever. "We have succeeded to bring about enormous changes in the quality and quantity of troops in the Afghan National Army compared to previous years. From [about early May], we will be able to have at least 70,000 soldiers deployed to fight against the enemy," Azimi says. "Last year, this number was about 30,000 soldiers. And our army is very well equipped this year. We have obtained new weapons and other military equipment. Our air force has been reestablished. And we have formed new commando and engineering battalions."

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Afghanistan

Troops overrun Taliban town

2007-12-10

Afghan troops fought their way into the centre of southern Taliban stronghold Musa Qala on Monday but encountered only light resistance as the rebels melted away, officials and the militants said. ... "Our troops are in the centre of the town but the Taliban might be around," Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. Troops were clearing the area, his ministry said, adding that Taliban resistance had "crashed." A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) also said Afghan troops had entered Musa Qala, which was overrun by hundreds of rebels in early February. "They are in the centre of the town," Major Charles Anthony said.

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Afghanistan

15 killed during operation to retake Musa Qala

2007-12-09

A NATO soldier, two children and 12 “terrorists” have been killed in the first day of an operation to retake the southern Afghan town of Musa Qala, the Afghan defence ministry said on Saturday. The operation involving the Afghan army and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) officially kicked off on Friday afternoon although it had been building for weeks and some manoeuvres were already under way. “In this operation so far, 12 terrorists were killed, one captured and a number of weapons and ammunitions were seized,” a defence ministry statement said. “And one ISAF soldier was killed as a result of a mine explosion,” it said. An ISAF official confirmed the fatality, but said the nationality of the soldier could not yet be released. Two children in a vehicle in front of a Taliban patrol were also killed in a firefight, ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters. Five other civilians in the car were wounded, he said, accusing the rebels of using the vehicle as a shield. Foreign terrorists: Musa Qala, in the opium-rich province of Helmand, has been in the Taliban control since early February, when hundreds of the rebels stormed in and took over. Azimi said it had become a base for “foreign terrorists”. “Hundreds of terrorists had massed there,” he told reporters.

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Afghanistan

45 dead in Afghanistan fighting

2007-08-11

Fresh fighting across Afghanistan left at least 45 people dead on Friday, including a British soldier. Taliban militants ambushed a joint Afghan and NATO army convoy, sparking a firefight that killed seven Afghan soldiers and 20 militants, the defence ministry said. Five "important" Taliban commanders were among the dead, including the rebel movement's commander for western Badghis province, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. "The militants ambushed our convoy," said Azimi, adding that the army called in NATO warplanes to bomb militant positions after the attack. "We called in friendly forces' air power. Seven Afghan soldiers were martyred in the ambush and 20 enemy elements were also killed," he said. Eight Afghan army vehicles were destroyed, he said. Elsewhere in western Afghanistan on Friday, tribal villagers repelled an attack by Taliban fighters in a battle that left five rebels and two civilians dead. Dozens of Taliban attacked the village of Nal in the western province of Farah, but the locals resisted, provincial police chief Abdul Rehman Sarjang told AFP. "Five Taliban and two villagers were killed in the clash. We have sent a delegation down there to investigate the incident," he said. Fighters for the Taliban, the Islamic extremists who governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, regularly try to overrun remote areas of the country and already control several districts in the south. Meanwhile, a British soldier serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan's flashpoint Helmand province. Another British soldier was wounded in the incident, the British defence ministry said. The soldiers were part of a patrol checking on a local irrigation project near Jusyalay, northeast of Sangin in the volatile southern province when they came under fire from Taliban fighters. "It was during this engagement that two soldiers were injured. An emergency response helicopter was requested, but sadly one of the soldiers was pronounced dead at the scene," the ministry said in a statement. "The injuries sustained by the second soldier are not life threatening," it added. The US-led coalition earlier announced that air strikes and ground battles between soldiers and insurgents in Helmand on Thursday had killed at least 10 rebels, with many more believed dead or wounded. Intense clashes have taken place in recent days in the south, a stronghold of the resurgent Taliban, who are seeking to overthrow the government of President Hamid Karzai.

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Afghanistan

Afghan airstrikes kill ‘100’ Taliban

2007-08-04

Kabul, Aug. 4: The Afghan government said on Saturday it believed more than 100 Taliban may have been killed in an airstrike in the south of the country and did not rule out civilian casualties. But General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesperson, rejected some media reports that scores of civilians were killed or wounded in the United States-led coalition strike on Thursday in Helmand province. Mr Azimi said it was unclear how many people had been killed in the attack on a large gathering of Taliban. "But the enemy casualty is very high," he told a press conference in the capital, Kabul. "There might be more than 100 killed." Hospitals in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and in the nearby city of Kandahar, said on Friday that nearly 40 civilians had been brought in for treatment. But Mr Azimi questioned this figure, saying, "Even if there were civilians, there were very few of them. Their number would not reach 10." He added, "How can you distinguish when someone is a civilian or not? When he has his gun laid on the ground, he’s a civilian but when he has it on his shoulder, he is not?" The area had been under aerial surveillance for more than 24 hours before the strike, Mr Azimi said.

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