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Afghanistan

Karzai Looking Out For Himself: Abdullah

2013-11-25

[Tolo News] Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... has argued that recent statements and moves by President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... indicate he is abusing the security pact negotiation process and preparations for the upcoming elections to suit his own interests. Abdullah's comments came on the last day of the Loya Jirga, in which participants voted to approve the BSA to the Afghan government. According to Abdullah, Karzai has given mixed messages when it comes to the upcoming elections, asking foreign nations not to interfere in the elections process while also demanding the U.S. guarantee transparency for the elections. Transparent elections were one of Karzai's preconditions for the signing of the BSA, which would ensure a close military partnership between the U.S. and Afghanistan in the years following the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... troop withdraw in 2014. On Thursday, at the opening ceremony of the Jirga, Karzai told the some 2,500 participants that he would wait to sign the BSA until after the Presidential elections in April. Abdullah claimed that Karzai was looking to benefit his preferred candidate by postponing the signing of the agreement. Abdullah ran for President in 2009 and lost to Karzai after the first round of voting left them dead-even, despite widespread documentation of voter fraud and other electoral improprieties in favor of the incumbent Mr. Karzai. "We want good elections from the Independent Election Commission and from Electoral Complaints Commission, so what does the recent statement of President Karzai mean? - It means that President Karzai is trying to get approval ratings through this national issue," Abdullah said. "The candidate he is favoring is not and will not be acceptable to Afghanistan." Abdullah is not the only candidate that has come out against Karzai's apparent move to delay the signing of the BSA. Former Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has also been a vocal supporter of the accord and critique of the President's decisions. U.S. officials have urged Karzai to sign the agreement before the end of the year Peace in Afghanistan is among the new preconditions Karzai has set in front of the U.S. for signing the pact. Abdullah scoffed at this demand, and said that bringing peace to Afghanistan, immediately, was impossible and that President Karzai was simply trying to get the support of the people by setting expectations he himself could not meet. The April vote will be the first time Karzai cannot run, with his term limitation imposed by the Afghan Constitution. "Our demand is that the fate of this agreement be decided as soon as possible because the same way the political transition will take place in 2014, security responsibilities will also transfer," Abdullah said. "That is why people are concerned as investments are leaving Afghanistan and unemployment is increasing, corruption has reached its limit and many people think that this year is the last year...it is the responsibility of the President to calm these concerns." Abdullah elected not to participate in the Loya Jirga this week in Kabul, which saw some 2,500 leaders from around Afghanistan gather to discuss the BSA. He argued the event was illegal and defied logic in determining the future of Afghanistan's relationship with the U.S.

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Afghanistan

Afghan Parliament Votes to Dismiss 2 Top Ministers

2012-08-04

Afghanistan's parliament voted Saturday to dismiss the country's defense and interior ministers. Parliament had expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... s after questioning the two about security lapses, including cross-border attacks blamed on Pakistain. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismullah Mohammadi were the top ministers in President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's Cabinet. Their dismissal comes even as Karzai is trying to show stability in his government ahead of the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan

Panetta arrives in Afghanistan, challenges Pakistan

2012-06-07

Fresh off a two-day trip in India to encourage an increased Indian role in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta arrived unannounced in Afghanistan on Thursday for meetings with military leaders amidst swelling violence (Reuters, CNN, BBC). In remarks to reporters standing alongside Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, Panetta emphasized the increasingly strained U.S. relationship with Pakistan. In unusually blunt language he noted that "it is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan", singling out attacks by the Haqqani network in particular. He added that "we are reaching the limits of our patience here and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action." Whoa. Leon is definitely making the surprise meter twitch... The visit comes after the deadliest day for civilians in Afghanistan this year as twin suicide attacks killed 23 people in Kandahar on Wednesday, while according to Afghan officials at least 18 civilians were killed as a result of a NATO strike targeting Taliban leaders (NYT, CBS). NATO officials have yet to confirm that any civilian deaths took place, but have opened a joint investigation into the matter with the Afghan government. In response to the NATO strike, Afghan President Hamid Karzai cut short his trip to China where he was attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and released a statement saying "NATO cannot justify any airstrike which causes harms to the lives and property of civilians."

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan Says Foreign Fighters Coming From Iraq

2009-02-05

Foreign militants are flooding from Iraq into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, the Afghan defense minister has said. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said there were about 15,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but their numbers were being swelled by foreign insurgents moving in from Iraq, where violence has fallen after a U.S. troop "surge" and other measures. "Since last year, as the result of the success of the surge in Iraq, there has been a flow of foreign terrorists into Afghanistan," Wardak told a news conference. "There have been engagements...in 2008, and in some of these engagements, actually 60 percent of the total force which we have encountered were foreign fighters," he said. Wardak was speaking after he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, U.S. General John Craddock. There was a 33 percent rise in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in 2008, according to NATO-led forces.

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Afghanistan

Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss joint border force - including possibility of US troops

2008-09-23

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan and Afghanistan are discussing a possible joint force to combat militants on both sides of their border near Pakistan's tribal region, which has become a safe haven for al Qaeda and other groups, a senior Afghan official said on Monday. Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters that such a force would include U.S. troops and address soaring insurgent violence that he said has stretched the capabilities of U.S., NATO and Afghan forces inside Afghanistan. "We should have a combined joint task force of coalition, Afghans and Taliban Pakistanis to be able to operate on the both sides of the border," Wardak said at the Pentagon during a visit to Washington to discuss a Kabul plan to nearly double the size of the Afghan army. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had not heard the details of Wardak's proposal but said any effort to improve security in the border area was welcome. "I think anything that impacts better security on that border is a good thing," he told reporters in Los Angeles. "I am encouraged that a leader in Afghanistan has spoken out with this kind of idea," he said. "As in all these things, the devil will be in the details." Mullen told Congress this month that he had ordered a new U.S. military strategy for the region that would for the first time encompass Afghanistan and Pakistan. Wardak said the Afghan government had discussed the task force with Pakistani officials within the past several weeks. "They say they're looking at it," he said. Speaking two days after a truck-bomb attack on Islamabad's Marriott hotel, Wardak said that given recent events in Pakistan, "everyone should realize we have a common threat, a common enemy and a common objective to achieve." He noted that insurgent violence in Afghanistan rose three-fold from 2005 to 2007 and said, "2008 is going to be the highest among all." INSURGENCY EXPANSION The core of the insurgency consists of 10,000 to 15,000 fighters in Afghanistan, he said, not including those who operated outside the country in areas such as Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, on the Afghan border. "Now I think they're operating geographically in more areas and more provinces than before, and I think they have stretched the capability of the combined forces of ISAF, the coalition and Afghans," the defense minister said. ISAF, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, totals about 47,000 troops including 13,000 Americans. An additional 20,000 U.S. troops operate in Afghanistan under a separate U.S. command. U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have asked for three more combat brigades totaling around 10,000 troops. Washington, strapped by commitments in Iraq, plans to send one Army combat brigade and a smaller Marine force by February. U.S. and Afghan officials blame the rising tide of attacks in Afghanistan partly on safe havens in Pakistan where they say militants are recruited and trained and cross-border actions are planned. But there has been frustration in Washington over Pakistan's slowness to act against militants on its soil. U.S. commandos crossed the border into Pakistan on September 3 to attack a suspected al Qaeda target that officials said was contributing to violence in Afghanistan. The operation raised an outcry from Pakistani officials who said women and children were among the 20 people killed. "A terrorist does not recognize any boundaries," Wardak said when asked about the raid. "We have to deal with the sanctuaries and the real hide-outs of the terrorists, wherever they are." I wonder where "wherever" is. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Afghanistan

Afghan-Pakistani coalition force proposed: defense minister

2008-09-23

Afghanistan's defense minister proposed Monday creating a joint Afghan-Pakistani-coalition force to operate against insurgents on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said the idea was broached about a month and a half ago at a meeting of senior US, Afghan and Pakistani officials. The Pakistanis "said they are looking at it," Wardak told reporters during a visit to the Pentagon. "A terrorist does not recognize any boundaries," Wardak said. "So to fight them we have to eventually come up with some arrangement together with our neighbor Pakistan that we should have a combined and joint task force of coalition Afghan and Pakistani forces to be able to operate on both sides of the border." Pentagon officials said the idea of forming a joint force with the Afghan military was not a new one, but in the past had been rebuffed by the Pakistanis because of concerns for their sovereignty.

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Afghanistan

Afghan forces kill 2 Taliban, woman, child in siege

2008-05-01

Afghan security forces surrounded a house in the capital Kabul on Wednesday and traded gunfire with Taliban insurgents before blowing up the building and killing two militants as well as a woman and child inside, officials said. Earlier, an Interior Ministry official had said five Taliban militants blew themselves up in the house. The two dead Taliban fighters were involved in a botched attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, but they had also received help from some government officials. The two dead Taliban fighters were involved in a botched attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, but they had also received help from some government officials, senior ministers and a security official told a news conference. "Investigations make clear that the enemy had infiltrated to some extent into some of our security organs and those involved have been arrested with all their networks," said Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. The identities of those who helped facilitate the attack would be revealed after the president's approval, said the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Amrullah Saleh. Taliban gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at a state parade on Sunday sending President Hamid Karzai, his cabinet and the military top brass diving for cover. Three people were shot dead the before troops killed three Taliban attackers. Members of parliament as well as the Afghan public at large have questioned how the Afghan police and NDS could have allowed such a breach of security at such a high-profile event.

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Home Front: WoT

Gates - Afghan row may make NATO two-tiered alliance

2008-02-06

By Kristin Roberts WASHINGTON (Rooters) - NATO risks a split between countries that are willing to fight and those that are not because some European states refuse to send more troops to Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday. "I worry a great deal about the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security and others who are not," the Pentagon chief said. "And I think that it puts a cloud over the future of the alliance if this is to endure and perhaps even get worse," he told a congressional committee. The United States is trying to persuade its allies to do more fighting in Afghanistan, where attacks by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have soared in the last two years. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reinforced the message on a visit to London, where she noted that only a small number of NATO nations had troops in the most dangerous areas. "We believe very strongly that there ought to be a sharing of that burden throughout the (NATO) alliance," she said. Rice said governments needed to be truthful with their people and tell them what was needed to fight Islamist Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, which re-emerged as a dangerous force after being ousted from power by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. "Our populations need to understand that this is not a peacekeeping mission. It's a counter-insurgency fight," Rice told a news conference with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Most of the fighting against the Taliban in the south of the country is shouldered by Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands. They all want others to contribute more. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament on Wednesday he wanted NATO allies at a summit in Bucharest in April to commit to a fair sharing of the task. SHARING THE AFGHAN BURDEN "We have 15 percent of the troops in Afghanistan ... We need a proper burden sharing not only in terms of personnel but also in terms of helicopters and other equipment," he said. Britain announced a rotation of its troops in Afghanistan but said their numbers -- around 7,700 -- would remain about the same. Brown said Britain planned to send new helicopters and other equipment in the next few months. U.S. officials have criticized Germany for its unwillingness to send trainers into Afghanistan's restive south. Under its parliamentary mandate Germany can send only 3,500 soldiers to the less dangerous north as part of the 42,000-strong NATO mission. Berlin again rejected mounting pressure on Wednesday to put its troops in the south and said it would send additional forces only to the north. Gates, who will attend a NATO defense ministers meeting in Lithuania this week followed by a security conference in Munich, said he would again press NATO members on the this. "I ... once again will become a nag on the issue," he said. Rice's London visit was partly to smooth ruffled feathers over a recent remark by Gates in which he questioned the preparedness of some NATO members for counter-insurgency in southern Afghanistan. The United States has 29,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half of them attached to NATO's 40,000-strong force. Washington plans to send another 3,200 Marines to the war zone in March and April. NATO's top commander in Afghanistan said on Wednesday his force would be "minimalist" even if he received more troops. "There's no question that it's an under-resourced force," U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill told reporters at the Pentagon. Under U.S. counter-insurgency doctrine, McNeill said, there should be some 400,000 security personnel -- foreign and Afghan -- to fight the Taliban and other insurgents. McNeill said he did not expect NATO to provide anything like the 400,000 figure but said the West had to step up efforts to train Afghan forces, especially the police. Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak backed the call for more foreign troops. "For the transitional period there is a requirement for more troops," he said on a visit to Estonia. "The cause was that the threat is much higher than anticipated in 2001," he said. The United Nations said on Wednesday that Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, is set for another bumper crop this year, giving a windfall for the Taliban who tax farmers.

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Afghanistan

Karzai: Tribesmen Will Help Fight Taliban

2006-06-12

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday his government will give weapons to local tribesmen so they can help fight the biggest surge in Taliban violence in years. Speaking to a group of tribal elders from eastern Afghanistan, Karzai said he did not want to form militias that could clash with rival tribes. "We just want to strengthen the districts to safeguard them from terrorist attack," he said. You could build the Afghan Army, which has had a pretty good record whacking the Taliban lately ... Although they would not speak for attribution because of the sensitivity of the topic, Western diplomats briefed on the plan said they worried it could fuel factional fighting by giving weapons to forces loyal to warlords with long histories of factional disputes. Like bringing coals to Newcastle. Karim Rahimi, Karzai's spokesman, said the government is confident that would not happen because the recruits will be loyal to Kabul. He described the new recruits as "community police." "They are to strengthen the security setup in Afghanistan," he said. The president did not say how many tribal fighters would be recruited. But he said there would be a dramatic increase in the ranks of security forces in some areas. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters the tribal forces would "take their command from each district police chief." He said local security forces would also be given better weapons and bulletproof vests.

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Afghanistan

Taliban commander threatens further attacks

2005-12-29

A top Taliban commander said more than 200 rebel fighters were willing to become suicide attackers against U.S. forces and their allies — a claim dismissed as propaganda Monday by Afghanistan’s government, which said the hard-line militia was weakening. In an interview late Sunday the commander, Mullah Dadullah, ruled out any reconciliation with the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and claimed the country’s new parliament — its first in more than 30 years, inaugurated last week — was “obedient to America.” Dadullah spoke to the AP via satellite phone from an undisclosed location. He said he was inside Afghanistan. “More than 200 Taliban have registered themselves for suicide attacks with us which shows that a Muslim can even sacrifice his life for the well-being of his faith. Our suicide attackers will continue jihad [holy war] until Americans and all of their Muslim and non-Muslim allies are pulled out of the country,” he said. Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, dismissed Dadullah’s claims of rebel strength as “propaganda” and said Afghanistan had enough security forces to deal with the rebels. “The Taliban are isolated. The Taliban have no power. They are using land mines and terror activities ... or suicide attacks. These kind of operations show they are not strong and that they are weak,” Azimi said. Dadullah, who lost a leg fighting for the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s, is one of the hard-line militia’s top commanders, responsible for operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan — and as such, a man wanted by the U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. In November, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said intelligence indicated that a number of Arab al-Qaida members and other foreigners had entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks. A senior government official said 22 would-be suicide bombers were believed to be in the country waiting for orders to attack. Dadullah implied that the Taliban and al-Qaida were working together, and said mujahedeen from various parts of the world, including Arabs, were fighting in Afghanistan. He said the foreigners made up about 10 percent of the fighters. “Both Taliban and al-Qaida have the same objectives,” he said, warning that anyone supporting the Americans and the government “will be dealt with.” U.S. military officials in Afghanistan could not immediately be reached for comment Monday on Dadullah’s remarks. In another sign that links between the Taliban and al-Qaida have continued, a tape of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri surfaced this month in which he praised the Taliban chief Mullah Omar. In the tape, al-Zawahri claimed the rebel leader had won back control of extensive areas of western and eastern Afghanistan, though government and U.S. officials say the Taliban’s influence is in fact waning.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Al-Qaeda aiding Taliban resurgence

2005-08-20

Nearly four years after a U.S.-led military intervention toppled it from power, the Taliban has reemerged as a potent threat to stability in Afghanistan. Though it's a far cry from the mass movement that overran most of the country in the 1990s, today's Taliban is fighting a guerrilla war with new weapons, including portable anti-aircraft missiles, and equipment bought with cash sent through Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, according to Afghan and Western officials. While it was in power, the Taliban provided safe haven to bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The violence continued Thursday. A homemade bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding two others, near the southern city of Kandahar. A surge of violence since winter has killed about 1,000 people in Afghanistan -- 59 U.S. soldiers among them. Al Qaeda's monetary support is crucial, officials say. The money is coming from "rogue elements and factional elements living in the Middle East," Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said in an interview. Lt. George Hughbanks, an Army intelligence officer in Zabul province -- one of the worst hit by the Taliban insurgency, said: "Al Qaeda is channeling money and equipment." The Taliban is now a disparate assemblage of radical groups estimated to number several thousand, far fewer than when it was in power before November 2001. The groups are linked by a loose command structure and a desire to drive out U.S.-led coalition and NATO troops, topple U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and reimpose hard-line Islamic rule in Afghanistan, according to Afghan and Western officials and experts. The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, said Thursday that the Taliban had "absolutely no chance" of derailing the Sept. 18 legislative elections because security would be too tight. Some experts fear the Taliban's resurgence may be part of an Al Qaeda strategy aimed at keeping the U.S. military stressed and bleeding in Iraq and in Afghanistan. "I think" Al Qaeda is "opening a second front," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence analyst who's now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "I don't think the elections are really the focus." U.S. officials said they had no proof of such an Al Qaeda-coordinated strategy.

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