Afghanistan News & Discussion

[ramana]

Unfortunately, the last time the "backbone" was demonstrated was when Gujral handed over the list of Indian operatives in Pakistan to the Paki government. We are trying not to do any similar demonstrations of "backbone" between the ears.

I think it was before IK Gujral by an earlier PM.

[sum]

Unfortunately, the last time the "backbone" was demonstrated was when Gujral handed over the list of Indian operatives in Pakistan to the Paki government.

Surely this is not true?
IIRC, only morarji desai had pointed out a Kahuta mole and IK had disbanded the CIT-X of RAW. But, i dont think that even a insane PM would have been allowed to hand over our RAW/agencies assets lists to any Paki official!!! The maximum he could have done is recall them back and disband the unit.
I am hoping that my thinking is correct and the worst fears of a PM exposing his own assets is untrue(for India's sake).

[enqyoob]

I don't know (certainly not of my own knowledge) but others here may be able to comment on that history. I HAVE read that some PM handed over such a list in the name of Peace and Neighborly Love and Panchsheel, and that it resulted in the arrest and death by torture of quite a lot of people. Set back Indian intel in Pakistan by a huge amount also. Sorry if I pinned it wrongly on Shri Gujral.

It was not Rajiv G, and certainly not Indira G. It was after those, or between 77 and IndiraG-II.

[ramana]

IKG has hs own baggage. Atleast it doesn't carry this charge. Thanks, for the ack.

[Rahul M]

I don't know (certainly not of my own knowledge) but others here may be able to comment on that history. I HAVE read that some PM handed over such a list in the name of Peace and Neighborly Love and Panchsheel, and that it resulted in the arrest and death by torture of quite a lot of people. Set back Indian intel in Pakistan by a huge amount also. Sorry if I pinned it wrongly on Shri Gujral.

It was not Rajiv G, and certainly not Indira G. It was after those, or between 77 and IndiraG-II.

morarji desai.

[Raj Malhotra]

We are still feeling the after-effects of the Morarji Govt on Indian internal and external security.

[aditya]

Unbelievable. Isn't this the same fellow who bragged to Nixon or someone about not having been intimate with his wife for 25 years?

[RajeshA]

Whereas in the rest of the world, Men boast of their potency by counting the women they have laid, and children that bear resemblance to them, in India you find the only ones who think celibacy is some medal of honor.

[Philip]

The secret deals being attempted by Britain and ceratin western interests with their creation the Taliban in Afghanistan.This is because they are facing certain humiliating defeat in the country and want to exit with "honour"! What this will entail for India which has been loyall to the Karzai govt. in strengthening its hands,building up the country's infrastructure,etc. remains a big question.Once the sordid deals are made,it will be time again for the ungodly to cross over into India and accelerate subversion in Kashmir and elsewhere.The machinations of old manipoulators of the colonial,imperial era deserves to be very closely examined and sabortaged if they imperil Indian interests in the region.NATO should stay in Europe.It has no business in Afghanistan,neither does the US.Let's see what Obama's "big plans" are for the country.So far he thinks that road to peace in Afghanistan runs through Kashmir!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 15831.html

Karzai to brief PM on secret Taliban talks

President of Afghanistan to visit London as efforts are made to end conflict

By Kim Sengupta
Thursday, 13 November 2008

Hamid Karzai has discussed peace talks with Saudi and Pakistani leaders

The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, will today brief Gordon Brown on talks being held with the Taliban with the aim of ending the conflict in his country, The Independent has learnt.

Mr Karzai is due to meet the Prime Minister after flying in from New York, where he discussed the matter with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari.

The Saudi monarch has sponsored dialogue between the Afghan government and emissaries of the Taliban and other insurgent groups at a series of confidential meetings. Mr Zardari, who took over as Pakistan's civilian head of state after recent elections, is said to have been facilitating the talks.

Mr Karzai is on a short visit to Britain for the Prince of Wales's 60th birthday party and will see Mr Brown before the Prime Minister goes to Washington DC for the G20 summit. Britain maintains a public posture of not talking to the Taliban, although secret talks have indeed been held, but supports the Afghan regime's efforts to direct peace overtures towards the Islamist group.

One of the meetings hosted by King Abdullah took place in Mecca in September and is said to have included Mr Karzai's brother Qayum, Mullah Mohammad Tayeb Agha, the former spokesman for the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the former Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, and the ex- Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, who has contacts with the insurgents.

The Independent has also learnt that Mr Karzai's government held secret talks with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former mujahedin leader now labelled a terrorist by American and Britain, through members of his family who regularly visit Kabul.

As a mujahedin commander against the Russians, Mr Hekmatyar was supported by the CIA and Pakistan. In the civil war which followed the Soviet withdrawal, he continued to be backed by the Americans and Pakistanis despite being blamed for atrocities. The warlord later fell out with the Americans and based himself in Iran, from where he directed attacks on Nato in Afghanistan.

In another move towards negotiations with the Taliban, a two-day assembly of Afghan and Pakistani tribal elders was held in Pakistan and agreed to set up a committee to open a dialogue with the Taliban, according to the former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who was one of the delegates.

Although the British Government denies involvement in any negotiations with the Taliban, direct contact with the insurgents has taken place, leading to a number of them changing sides and providing intelligence which led to their leaders being killed or captured.

Last month, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the departing commander of British troops in Afghanistan, said a purely military victory was not possible and there would have to be a negotiated end to the conflict. Mr Brown has had personal experience of reconciliation involving Islamists. During his visit to Saudi Arabia last week, he met and shook hands with former jihadists who had been held at Guantanamo Bay.

The US has also changed its position on talking to the Taliban. Soon after Mullah Omar's regime was overthrown in 2001, the then US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, declared that it would never again be allowed to seize power in Afghanistan. "Those who have been defeated would like to come back but they will not have that opportunity" he said. Since then, with the Taliban resurgent as the US-led "war on terror" shifted to Iraq, American officials have been much more receptive to the idea of talking to the Taliban. David Petraeus, the US general credited with reducing violence in Iraq by winning over insurgents, is now overseeing the multi-national mission in Afghanistan. He is expected to introduce some of his Iraqi tactics into the conflict.

* An inquiry may be held into the continued use of lightly-armoured Snatch Land Rovers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defence Secretary, John Hutton, said he was prepared to look at a formal request for an investigation from the mother of Pte Phillip Hewett, who died when his Land Rover was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005.

PS:Pres.Karzai came to india crying out for Indian assistance,which he is getting.Why is he then not consulting with India on matters that affect us equally?

Two thirds want British troops out of Afghanistan: poll
More than two thirds of people in Britain believe that UK troops should leave Afghanistan within a year, a poll has found.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -poll.html

[Avinash R]

Afghan schoolgirls blinded in acid attack
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=954292

Girls previously barred from classes by Taliban

Thursday, November 13, 2008

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - Two teenage girls were blinded yesterday morning after being doused with acid as they walked to school on the western outskirts of Kandahar.

Two men riding motorcycles rode up to a group of girls and started spraying them with toy water pistols believed to contain battery acid.

U. S. Colonel Greg Julian was reported as saying Afghanistan's National Military Command Center told him four girls were hurt. Two were blinded and remained hospitalized, and two were treated and released, he said.

An Afghan government official said the men ripped off the girls' headscarves before the attack, while another report said those wearing full-length burkas to cover themselves were left untouched.

Schoolgirls in Kandahar are easily identified by their uniform of black pants, a white shirt, black coat and white headscarf.

Under Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, girls were barred from going to school. The Taliban have denied involvement in the attack, but claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bombing later in Kandahar that killed six people, including a woman and a child.

"They're going back to terrorizing their own population," Canadian Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie said.

Education ministry spokesman Hamed Elmi said the attack on the girls was outside the Mirwais Nika Girls High School. "At about 8 a. m., unknown people sprayed acid at girls with a toy gun," he said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

One of the victims, Bibi Atifa, 16, said, "They stopped their motorbikes and took some kind of acid from their pockets. They sprayed it in our faces."

CBC journalist recounts kidnapping ordeal, Page A17 The new Kabul, Page A22

Eighteen-year-old Shamia was blinded by the acid, which the girls first thought was water until their eyes began to hurt.

"You see the situation, it's very bad," said Shamia's mother, Malina, crying. "It's a very painful and terrible situation. Her sin was that she was going to school."

Family members of Shamia and Bibi said they would not let the girls return to school.

Mirwais hospital director Sharifa Sadique said the attack threw medical staff into "a panic situation."

No previous acid attacks on girls had occurred in the city.

A family member of one of the burned schoolgirls said there had been no warnings to stop sending their daughters to school.

A government statement condemned the attack as "un-Islamic," adding the attackers "cannot prevent six million children [from] going to school."

Since the Taliban was ousted, hundreds of schools have been attacked in Afghanistan and dozens of teachers and pupils killed in incidents blamed on extremist insurgents.

Atifa said she did not know why anyone would have attacked her and the others.

"I don't know why they did it," she said. "Kandahar is not safe. But we can't stay home. We want education. We need help from the government."

[Gerard]

China can join coalition forces in Afghanistan

The Chinese forces can join coalition forces in Afghanistan, a private TV channel quoted British PM Gordon Brown as saying on Friday.

[Avinash R]

China Says Not Sending Troops To Afghanistan - Report
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsS ... -%20Report

BEIJING (AFP)--China has no intention of sending troops to Afghanistan, state media said Monday, downplaying recent reports quoting U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown as saying Beijing could do so.

"Except the United Nations peacekeeping operations approved by the UN Security Council, China never sends troops abroad," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying in a statement.

"The media reports about China sending troops to participate in the ISAF in Afghanistan are groundless," it quoted him as saying.

Qin was responding to reports that Brown suggested China could contribute to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Xinhua said.

According to reports last week, Brown told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that China could one day contribute troops to ISAF.

The international force includes nearly 50,000 troops, working to help stabilize the country and fighting insurgents from the Islamist Taliban regime.

Originally mandated by the United Nations Security Council, ISAF was placed under NATO command in August 2003.

In addition to ISAF, a separate U.S.-led contingent of several thousand mainly U.S. troops operates in the country as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and is also involved in training the Afghan security forces.

[SSridhar]

Karzai offers safe passage to Mullah Omar if he can negotiate - NYT

Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, said Sunday that he would guarantee the safety of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar if Mr. Omar agreed to negotiate for a peaceful settlement of the worsening conflict in the country.

At a news conference in Kabul, the Afghan capital, Mr. Karzai coupled his offer of safe passage to Mr. Omar with a warning to the Western nations that support his government, saying that if they opposed an assurance of safety for Mr. Omar they would have to remove Mr. Karzai as president or withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.

Bush administration officials on Sunday were skeptical of the proposal, although they did not reject it outright.

[ramana]

Yes safe passage is a good thing for Omar to get him out of Afghanistan. However he might be in FATA anyway!

[Paul]

Omar was in Quetta last I checked.

I think his pull is more in South Afghanistan....FATA is playground for the Haqqanis.

[RajeshA]

AFGHANISTAN: STRATEGIC DISCONNECT IN UNITED STATES – INDIA STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES IN THE MAKING by Dr. Subhash Kapila

India Has Legitimate National Security Interests in Afghanistan

The following points need to be made in this connection (1) India’s legitimate national security interests in Afghanistan pre-date United States involvement in Afghanistan (2) India’s national security interests have acquired heightened salience with its emergence as the regional power in South Asia and its ascendancy towards global power status (3) India’s national security interests today extend far beyond South Asian confines and a stable and secure Afghanistan, free of radical influences, on the immediate periphery of South Asia on the West, is an important pivot for India’s national security.

Surely, neither US officialdom or its intellectual circles can dispute India’s national security interests in Afghanistan for today they are no longer Pak-centric but an extension of its growing power.

The United States needs to review its Pak-centric South-West Asia perspectives and recognize the reality that Afghanistan as a democratic, progressive and moderate Islamic country in a strategic partnership with India as the regional power (and global power in the making) would together provide a strong bulwark of stability for South Asia, Central Asia and the Gulf Region.

Should the United States not recognize this reality then it has to face harsh strategic realities (1) India will not sacrifice its national security interests in Afghanistan to facilitate United States’ assuaging of self-inflicted strategic insecurities of Pakistan (2) Kashmir would be “non-negotiable" for any Indian political dispensation in power and (3) US pressures in this direction could impact adversely on the evolving US-India Strategic Partnership.

India is an important stake-holder in Afghanistan and would not look kindly on any British-Pak-Saudi efforts to bring back the Taliban in power in Kabul through a back-door entry, and pregnant with prospects of enlarging its hold in Kabul once established. The US establishment does not ponder over the latter perspectives when it seconds the British proposal reluctantly.

Should the United States deviate from its strategic congruencies with India on Afghanistan, then India would have been left with no other alternatives but to explore other options to protect her legitimate national security interests in Afghanistan.

United States and India today share strategic convergences on a vast array of strategic challenges in the meeting of which India can play a sizeable part. The United States should be mindful that neither by word or deed a disconnect takes place in US-India strategic perspectives, least of all Afghanistan.

India should here talk to the British, and if they do not back off from bringing the 'good' Taliban back to power, then India should look for other partners in Europe and throw Great Britain into the sea. Britain is the devil behind this plan, and also the weakest link. So Britain better get the plan sanctioned by India before it proceeds with its hairbrain initiatives in Afghanistan, a place where many Indians have sacrificed their lives and where we have invested our treasure and energy, all out of trust in the ability of the NATO to stay its ground.

[Avinash R]

Hizb-i-Islami claims destroying Nato copter

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

KABUL: Hizb-i-islamai, a banned militant outfit, has claimed to have brought down a gunship helicopter of Nato in Afghanistan.

Spokesman of Hizb-i-Islami said the militants targeted Nato helicopters with rockets and anti-gunship weapons in Chagharpa area of Maidan city.

He said the incident took place at 9:00 AM.

[shyamd]

British intel ops have worked their way into the immediate circle of Mullah Mohamed Omar. But the latter, who has taken refuge in the city of Quetta in Baluchistan, has only sporadic contact with Taliban fighters who take on coalition forces. If a compromise is reached with Omar there’s no saying it would be accepted by Taliban commanders.

[RajeshA]

X-Posted from 'Indian Response to Terrorism':

There is a need to decrease USA's dependence on Pakistan for supply route for US forces in Afghanistan and for Pakistani Forces on the Durand Line for support, if India hopes to get US help to destroy Pakistan.

After 7 years of NATO/US deployment in Afghanistan, the war has reached a stalemate. Maybe it is time for USA to rethink its strategy in Afghanistan.

o Make the enemy visible: As long as NATO tries to hold on to land in the Pushtun Areas, the Taliban will fight a guerrilla war, and NATO will be at a disadvantage. It is far better to let Taliban take over Pushtun Areas and form the administration in the towns and villages. Then USA can go into guerrilla mode and attack the Taliban, who will become more visible as they will have to take care of administration. In towns, where one can have more effective humint resources, it is much easier to track down the enemy. Also the drones and fighter jets can be used more effectively.

o Contain the enemy: This is one area in which the interests of all regional players (even Pakistan's) coincide. We all, i.e. India, Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, NATO and USA need to bolster the defenses of the non-Pushtun ethnic groups in Afghanistan, in which the Northern Alliance (now as Afghanistan Army) forms the nucleus. They need training, organization, weaponry (both heavy and light). These should really form the defenses of the region.

o Penetrate the enemy: Both US and India need a voice within the Taliban, some tribes that fight with the Taliban but have strong Pushtun nationalist roots, who abhor the Durand Line, and would want to cooperate with the tribes on the Eastern side of the Durand Line, to form an independent nation of Pushtunistan. Pakistan should not be able to exert influence of this very strong faction. We need such on both sides of the Durand Line. In return, we can see to it, that these tribes remain the strongest within the Taliban, and Pushtunistan.

o Redefine pressure on the enemy: Of course one goal of the Taliban should be to capture all Pushtun lands and unite them. Another goal should be that we should challenge the consolidation of those gains, and not the conquering of those lands. Landowners are far more susceptible to blackmail, who have something to lose, than fighting the landless, who have everything to gain. Only when the Taliban are landowners in Afghanistan, can one pressurize them to cough up OBL and AAZ.

o Give self more space: Afghanistan has a long held policy, that the Durand Line is illegitimate. The UN should also come to this view. That would mean, that Pakistani sovereignty in FATA will become disputed. One the one it will allow, US to carry out its drone attacks in FATA as and when they like (this time proven legally), on the other hand it will put pressure on Pakistan to show, that it really controls the lands through cooperation with NATO.

o Ensure alternative supply lines: USA and NATO should give the thought some real consideration, whether it will not be a better idea, to be supplied through Northern Areas, under Indian control, or some independent Baluchistan. It will be a far more durable arrangement, especially if the area is secured by Indian forces and Indian control.

It should begin in the UNSC or ICJ, where the legitimacy of Durand Line is contested, and India should provide Afghanistan with all help India can. UK's help here can be useful.

[shyamd]

Tashkent is being brought back in to the frame as Pentagon have decided to re-start relations for strategic reasons. The head of the uzbeki intel service, was invited to germany last month. The visit was organised by BND.

[sanjaykumar]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ery=german

Last year they drank about 1.7 million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine. In the first six months of this year, they drank 900,000 pints of beer and 56,000 bottles of wine.

They are the 3,500 German troops stationed in northern Afghanistan, and according to official reports, they drink too much, smoke too much and eat too much stodgy food - and they're too fat and unfit to fight.


The Pathans must treat them with contempt.

[ramana]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ery=german

Last year they drank about 1.7 million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine. In the first six months of this year, they drank 900,000 pints of beer and 56,000 bottles of wine.

They are the 3,500 German troops stationed in northern Afghanistan, and according to official reports, they drink too much, smoke too much and eat too much stodgy food - and they're too fat and unfit to fight.


The Pathans must treat them with contempt.

sanjay, A US scholar went through the import lists of the East India Company and was shocked at te amount of liquor that was imported and consumed. He then verified the grave sites and faimly accounts to find that quite few people died of exceesses. He concludes that Europeans when the land in the sub-continent lose all self control and indulge in excesses to their own sleves.

The Germans are confirming his research.

I used to have a hard copy of the article but need to look in the garage. The journal was about Gastronomy and Food history.

[sanjaykumar]

No, I don't believe India is the continent of Circe.

You might be surprised at the prodigious apetites of Westerners for alcohol and drugs.

Which I think may be a fundamental difference from the Indian peoples in general. Please go through the WHO statistics on country-specific consumption.

[RajeshA]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ery=german

Last year they drank about 1.7 million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine. In the first six months of this year, they drank 900,000 pints of beer and 56,000 bottles of wine.

They are the 3,500 German troops stationed in northern Afghanistan, and according to official reports, they drink too much, smoke too much and eat too much stodgy food - and they're too fat and unfit to fight.


The Pathans must treat them with contempt.

Thanks for pointing out this article. Something to brighten up my wife's day!

[Div]

IED kills three soldiers in Afghanistan, brings Canada's death toll to 100
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadi ... 0dU4SnKHpg

[Shivani]

Note how the headline uses the word "Taliban". The reality is that this is an attack by Pakis to warn US that they'll hit back if they keep on the pressure to curb anti Indic terrorism.

Nevertheless, this is the best news I have read in the past two weeks. The picture is beautiful.

Taliban destroys U.S. transport center

More than 160 vehicles carrying supplies for U.S.-led troops were destroyed by militants in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sunday. ( Mohammad Sajjad/The Associated Press )

By Jane Perlez
Published: December 7, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: More than 100 trucks loaded with supplies for U.S. forces in Afghanistan were destroyed Sunday by militants in Peshawar, the city that serves as an important transit point for the Afghan war effort.

It was the third major attack by Taliban militants on NATO supplies in Pakistan in less than a month, and served to expose the vulnerability of the route from the port of Karachi through Peshawar and over the border into Afghanistan.

The United States relies on the route for an overwhelming proportion of its supplies for the war in Afghanistan. The damaged trucks were loaded with U.S. war materiel, including Humvees, destined for the Afghan National Army, said Colonel Greg Julian, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Kabul.

The militants overwhelmed the rudimentary security system at two parking lots where the trucks were parked in the heart of Peshawar.

At about 2:30 a.m., they easily disarmed security guards and then threw grenades and fired rockets at the loaded trucks.

"We were unable to challenge such a large number of armed men," said Muhammad Rafiq, a security guard. "The police and militias reached the spot when the attackers had accomplished operation."

Rafiq estimated that about 200 militants took part in the attack.

Pakistani security forces apparently fired artillery at the attackers.

"There was artillery and rapid exchange of fire," said a retired police official, Hidyatullah Arbab, who heard the firing from his home. "Peshawar is becoming a battleground."

Over all, Julian said the loss of equipment would have a minimum impact on the overall war effort.

"It's a very insignificant loss in terms of everything transported into Afghanistan," he said.

But critics of the war effort in Afghanistan have argued that the United States needs to more urgently shape the Afghan Army into an effective fighting force. The loss of supplies to the Afghan Army would be a setback in that endeavor.

About 80 percent of supplies for the war move from Karachi through Pakistan and onto Afghanistan.

Peshawar is the last staging point before the border 60 kilometers away, or 40 miles, about an hour's journey.

From Peshawar, the Pakistani trucks loaded with military supplies travel through the Khyber section of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The Khyber area is almost totally controlled by various factions of the Taliban, and many civilian government officials no longer dare to travel the road that the trucks use.

The Pakistani government said two weeks ago that it had beefed up protection for the supply trucks along the route.

But the brash attack Sunday showed that the militants could destroy the supplies even as they waited to move forward from Peshawar. The ease with which the militants destroyed the vehicles exposed the susceptibility of stationary equipment to attack, even in the center of a city that houses the 11th Corps of the Pakistani Army.

Militants attacked another parking area in Peshawar this month. About 12 trucks with NATO supplies were ruined in that attack.

Perhaps the most brazen attack came on Nov. 10 when about 60 Taliban militants hijacked a convoy of trucks as it traveled through the Khyber road in broad daylight. To make their point, they offloaded a Humvee, called photographers and then, with rifles in hand, the Taliban posed in front of the vehicle, their banner draped over the hood.

The Pakistani government is anxious to hold onto the trucking business that supplies the war in Afghanistan.

The companies that control the trucks are a powerful constituency in Karachi, the port city, and the revenue from the supply route is important, particularly in the middle of a national economic crisis.

But the truck owners complain that the government is impotent in the face of the Taliban.

The hijacking of the truck convoy last month was carried out by Taliban loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the umbrella group called Tehrik-e-Taliban. After that incident, one trucker said that the government had stood by, a "silent spectator." The Taliban attacked his trucks, looted them and killed his drivers even as they passed near security check points, he said.

The Pakistani military had proved unable to stop them, he said.

The three attacks in less than a month makes the need for alternate routes more urgent, Julian said.

The U.S. military has said that it is looking to supply the Afghan war theater through Central Asia, and once negotiations are completed to move material through the new routes, the dependence on Pakistan will diminish, American military officials have said.

US and Nato Humvees destroyed as Islamists attack Afghan supply bases

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

Suspected Islamist militants torched more than 160 vehicles destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan yesterday in their biggest attack yet on the main military supply route through Pakistan.

The militants attacked the Portward Logistic Terminal in the northern city of Peshawar at around 2.30am, destroying its gate with a rocket-propelled grenade and shooting dead a guard, according to witnesses. They then set fire to about 100 vehicles, including 70 Humvees, which shipping documents showed were being shipped to the US-led coalition forces and the Afghan National Army.

Militants torched about 60 more vehicles at the nearby Faisal depot, which like Portward is on the ring road around Peshawar, where convoys typically stop before heading for the Khyber Pass.

Mohammad Rafiullah, a security guard at one of the terminals, said: “They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar' [God is greatest] and ‘Down with America'. They broke into the terminals after snatching our guns.”

The attackers fled after a brief exchange of fire with police, who arrived about 40 minutes later, witnesses said. It was the biggest in a series of militant attacks on Nato supply lines this year, which have raised fears that the Taleban are mimicking tactics used against British invaders in the 19th century and Soviet troops in the 1980s.

About 70 per cent of the fuel and other supplies for Nato and US forces in Afghanistan are shipped into the Pakistani port of Karachi and then driven over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The rest are either driven from Karachi to southern Afghanistan through the Chaman border crossing or flown into Afghanistan. Nato and US officials insist their supply lines remain secure and flexible, but admit that they are looking for alternatives to the Khyber Pass following an increase in attacks on their convoys.

Last week suspected insurgents attacked another terminal near Peshawar and burned 12 trucks loaded with Nato supplies. Two guards were shot dead.

Last month the Government closed the Khyber Pass for a week after militants hijacked trucks and made off with supplies for US and Nato forces. Four US helicopter engines were stolen along the route in April and 36 Nato fuel trucks were torched near the pass in March.

The World Food Programme said it had also lost $320,000 (£217,000) worth of food aid in raids in northwestern Pakistan so far this year.

The US military in Afghanistan said in a statement that an unspecified number of its containers were destroyed in yesterday's attack, but that the losses would have “minimal effect on our operations”.

However, the US Defence Department is reported to have ordered an investigation into a possible alternative supply route through Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Nato negotiated a deal with Moscow in April to open a new land route, but the plan has stalled since the war between Russia and Georgia.

More such attacks, please. If there is one thing our intelligence people ought to do, it is to provide 'moral support' to all terrorists who are attacking western shipments to Afghanistan.

[Div]

More such attacks, please. If there is one thing our intelligence people ought to do, it is to provide 'moral support' to all terrorists who are attacking western shipments to Afghanistan.

[Shivani]

Pakistan militants torch more NATO vehicles

(CNN) -- Militants in Pakistan torched 50 new NATO trucks early Monday morning in Peshawar, the latest in a series of recent attacks on the alliance's supply lines into Afghanistan, Muhammad Iftikhar, deputy superintendent of Peshawar police, told CNN.

It was the second time in two days NATO vehicles had been attacked in Peshawar, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The city is a key staging post for deliveries of food, fuel and supplies to the alliance's forces in Afghanistan.

Militants destroyed 145 vehicles, trailers and containers in Sunday's attack, including two armored personnel carriers and a fire truck, Fazal Muhammad of Peshawar police told CNN.

A security guard was killed and two employees were wounded in the attack on the Faisalal terminal just outside Peshawar, according to officials.

Companies hired by NATO to drive fuel, food and other supplies to troops fighting the Taliban use the terminal to park containers waiting for convoys across the border into Afghanistan.

Trucks moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan have been attacked in recent months, including one incident in which dozens of trucks with fuel for NATO forces were burned while parked in the Khyber agency of tribal region last March.

The Pakistan government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants.

As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban has carried out a series of deadly bombings -- and said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out. Convoys carrying food and military supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan have regularly come under attack.

Pakistan militants torch 100 NATO vehicles: police

3 hours ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Armed militants torched nearly 100 vehicles destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan early Monday, the second such raid in Pakistan in two days, police said.

The latest attack on a container terminal near the northwest city of Peshawar came a day after Taliban militants launched the biggest such raid to date, destroying nearly 200 vehicles in the area.

This time the attackers set nearly 100 vehicles alight including jeeps and 20 supply trucks after dousing them with petrol, police said.

Firefighters called to the scene managed to save another 40.

"It was almost the same type of attack as the one conducted by 200 armed militants" the previous night, police official Anwar Zeb told AFP.

"The militants fled from the scene when police arrived," he added.

A security guard said around 200 armed men had attacked the terminal in the early hours before fleeing.

Such attacks occur frequently in Pakistan, but the militants have become more daring in recent months and police described the first raid, in the early hours of Sunday, as the biggest of its kind so far.

In that incident, the attackers overwhelmed security guards -- killing one -- in a coordinated raid targeting three different locations in Peshawar.

NATO has some 50,000 troops in Afghanistan and much of their supplies come through Pakistan.

Pakistan last month barred delivery of sealed containers and oil tankers through the Khyber Pass for a week after Taliban fighters in the rugged lawless area hijacked 15 trucks destined for Afghanistan and looted the vehicles.

But the country's army chief vowed last month to keep the supply line to Afghanistan open, reaffirming support for the alliance's mission there.

A spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan on Sunday played down the impact of the attack and said he expected Pakistan's military to increase security.

"We have multiple avenues of supply lines to ensure the troops have what they need," Greg Julian told AFP.

"We are looking at other means for providing security. Beside the two main roads from Quetta to Kandahar and from Peshawar to Jalalabad, we have alternate roads from the North."

Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.

[prashanth]

More such attacks, please. If there is one thing our intelligence people ought to do, it is to provide 'moral support' to all terrorists who are attacking western shipments to Afghanistan.

So that the world starts equating RAW,IB with their evil counterpart of our neighbour eh?
Great suggestion, indeed.

[Philip]

Any attempt by our ex-colonial masters to "bring back the Taliban",mediaeval era monsters who have committed some of the worst human rights atrocities during the last century,who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas-an outrage against all civilisation,only indicates the venality and desperation of the countries that are trying to compromise with these perverts.Instead,the US,west and their allies,should put their pride aside and work with the Central Asian nations,Iran,Russia and India,to defeat the Taliban in a concerted multi-national effort.In fact as the post by rajesh indicates,India has more legitimate interests in AFghanistan than Britain and NATO,who are tresspassers in the region.The key solution is the castration of all Pakistani located Islamist terror movements.Alternative supply lines are being sought right now,after the disgrace of having allied supplu vehicles destroyed in the hundreds in Peshawar! Why the US didn't get the Pakistani army,their great ally,to protect the depots is the billion dollar question.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/de ... ply-routes

Convoy attacks trigger race to open new Afghan supply lines• Race to open new Afghan supply lines

• Nato seeks northern route as resurgent Taliban exposes 'achilles heel'Richard Norton-Taylor, Julian Borger and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian, Tuesday December 9 2008

Nato countries are scrambling for alternative routes as far afield as Belarus and Ukraine to supply their forces in Afghanistan, which are increasingly vulnerable to a resurgent Taliban, the Guardian has learned.

Four serious attacks on US and Nato supplies in Pakistan during the past month, including two in the past three days, have added to the sense of urgency to conclude pacts with former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan to the north.

Nato is negotiating with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to allow supplies for Nato forces, including fuel, to cross borders into Afghanistan from the north. The deal, which officials said was close to being agreed, follows an agreement with Moscow this year allowing Nato supplies to be transported by rail or road through Russia.

The deal could allow more fuel for Nato forces to be transported from refineries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. Most of the 75m gallons of fuel estimated to be used by Nato forces annually in Afghanistan comes from refineries in Pakistan.

Germany and Spain, whose troops are based in more peaceful northern Afghanistan, have negotiated separate bilateral air transport agreements with Russia.

Nato officials said yesterday that the organisation is negotiating with Ukraine and Belarus for a land route which, though long, would avoid Pakistan and the pirates of the Gulf of Aden.

The officials yesterday played down the strategic significance of Sunday's attack in Peshawar, the Pakistani town on the main transit route through the Khyber pass. But independent analysts described it as a well-planned move, with 100 militants torching more than 100 trucks.

Yesterday, in a second attack, gunmen from the Pakistani Taliban attacked a second site on the same road near Peshawar, destroying 50 containers of supplies destined for Nato forces in Afghanistan.

A week ago, another 22 trucks carrying food supplies were attacked in Peshawar. Last month, some 60 Taliban fighters hijacked a convoy of trucks travelling in daylight through the Khyber pass.

In all, 145 vehicles, trailers, containers, and two armoured personnel carriers were destroyed in Sunday's attack, according to Peshawar police.

"We have such a huge amount of material coming through, it hasn't really made a dent," one official said. "We're not short of anything because of what has happened in Pakistan." A British defence official called the attacks "militarily insignificant".

However, independent observers took a less sanguine view. Amyas Godfrey, associate fellow of the London-based Royal United Services Institute, called it a "hugely successful attack" on a soft target. It was a propaganda success which added to existing pressure on the US-Pakistan relationship, he said.

There were concerns in Washington that militants targeting supply convoys could complicate plans to put more Nato troops into the region. "It is certainly an Achilles' heel to Afghan operations, or at least a potential one," said Daniel Markey, a former state department official and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nato hires private contractors to carry fuel, food and other supplies to troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Most are local Pashtun businesses, so the Taliban could risk a backlash if they continue to target convoys. Pakistan is likely to face growing pressure to provide more troops to protect depots and convoys.

More than 70% of the supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan land at the port of Karachi and are taken to Peshawar, then through the Khyber pass to Kabul.

British and Canadian troops based in the southern Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar receive many of their supplies on a route from Karachi, through Quetta and across the border at the frontier town of Chaman. It is a road where travellers are vulnerable to robbers, Taliban fighters and drug runners. There are also protection rackets.

More urgent or valuable supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan are flown in to the Bagram air base near Kabul, and the Kandahar base, which can take large C-17 transport aircraft used by the US and Britain. Hercules aircraft, the workhorse of the RAF, can also land at the British base Camp Bastion, in Helmand province.

But even with extra land routes from the north, more attacks on the overland routes to southern Afghanistan could exacerbate Nato's existing lack of "strategic airlift", UK officials said yesterday.

Dec 8 2008
Second Taliban raid destroys Nato supplies bound for Afghanistan

Oct 24 2008
Pakistan rejects 'America's war' on extremists

Aug 21 2008
Seumas Milne: The Afghan fire looks set to spread, but there is a way out

Aug 15 2008
Daniel Korski: Pakistan and Afghanistan need a new Nato framework

[Philip]

Here are the most vociferous critics of the Afghan War, British top brass!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... on-taylor-

Top brass on the warpathSome of the greatest critics of the operation in Afghanistan are among British military chiefs

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Tuesday December 9 2008

The Taliban is experiencing a renaissance and now has a permanent presence in more than 70% of Afghanistan: so claimed a report published yesterday by an independent thinktank, the International Council on Security and Development. Some of its conclusions appeared exaggerated, enabling the government to rubbish the lot. But few would quarrel with the underlying message, not least Britain's top brass.

They are on the warpath. Not against an enemy on the battlefield. Not against any military force. Their anger is directed at civilians - on their side.

Let us read remarks made by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff, earlier this month. "I and others have been saying for over two years that we have to get a grip of the civilian effort," he said, referring to "wholly inadequate support from UN headquarters in New York". He could have been speaking about anywhere in the world, but his lecture to the Royal United Services Institute was directed at Afghanistan.

More than two years ago General David Richards, a contender to succeed Stirrup, warned that the situation in Afghanistan was "close to anarchy" with feuding agencies compounding problems caused by local corruption. "The population is the prize," wrote Brigadier Andrew MacKay, the commander of British troops in Helmand province, a year later, quoting a classic counter-insurgency manual.

The prize is in danger of slipping away. Billions of pounds of foreign aid have had little impact on Afghan hearts and minds, let alone stomachs.

For years the generals have been saying - and their political masters have not dissented - that no military solution exists for any conflict in the modern world, let alone the counterinsurgency operation in Afghanistan. That has been brought home this year, and the British army faces the prospect of being bogged down for years in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers are caught in a vicious circle: their task is to prepare a secure environment to allow civil agencies, including UN experts and NGOs, to operate on projects that should give Afghans a better life; the civil agencies say they cannot operate because the security situation is too dangerous, and is getting more so. "The time has come - indeed, it's long past time - to fix this problem," said Stirrup. Meanwhile, he added, the Taliban are winning the information war. They "recognise the importance of perceptions," said Stirrup. "They realise that the substance of security is of less relevance than how people feel about it."

The number of "security incidents" in and around Kabul actually declined this year, Stirrup observed. "But that's not the sense that many people in the capital have, nor is it the sense that's reported. The Taliban have used their advantages of unpredictability and the impact of asymmetric attacks to heighten the sense of concern over security." Civilian casualties from allied air strikes do not help, he conceded.

Nato commanders are screaming for more troops, not just from the US. Washington has already agreed to deploy at least an extra 10,000, making the US contingent bigger than that of the rest of the coalition, including troops from non-Nato nations, put together. British military chiefs are saying that no more British troops should be sent to Afghanistan unless other countries make greater efforts to promote the economic and political development of the country. More troops will provide more targets for the enemy as well as more ammunition for the Taliban's argument that their country is being taken over by foreign invaders. Small wonder that the military are deeply, deeply, frustrated.

• Richard Norton-Taylor is the Guardian's security affairs editor [email protected]

PS:The solution is to attack the Taliban in ihe rear,hitting the bases and supply lines with the superior airpower that the allied forces have.These bases are in the frontier "Wild West" of Pakistan.So far ,surgical strikes against leaders of AlQ have been the main targets,but the large masses of Taliban fighters have been relatively free from attack.If the Taliban are in control of 70% of the country,then they should be vulnerable at some places from the air.The allies will have to establish "killing zones' and employ Stalinist tactics in certain areas of the country until the Talib there are exterminated.B-52 bombing runs are needed.The key towns and bases in the country must be turned into fortresses with special desert/mountain patrols on "seek and kill "
missions.The war in Iraq can be swiftly wound down as the situ there can be improved with teh Iraqi govt. taking more responsibility for security.Troops there who have been released from their duties ,can be rotated and sent into action later in Afghanistan .

[RajeshA]

PS:The solution is to attack the Taliban in ihe rear,hitting the bases and supply lines with the superior airpower that the allied forces have.These bases are in the frontier "Wild West" of Pakistan.So far ,surgical strikes against leaders of AlQ have been the main targets,but the large masses of Taliban fighters have been relatively free from attack.If the Taliban are in control of 70% of the country,then they should be vulnerable at some places from the air.The allies will have to establish "killing zones' and employ Stalinist tactics in certain areas of the country until the Talib there are exterminated.B-52 bombing runs are needed.The key towns and bases in the country must be turned into fortresses with special desert/mountain patrols on "seek and kill "
missions.The war in Iraq can be swiftly wound down as the situ there can be improved with teh Iraqi govt. taking more responsibility for security.Troops there who have been released from their duties ,can be rotated and sent into action later in Afghanistan .

The solution is to create a firewall around the non-Pushtun Afghanistan. That is the way the non-Pushtuns have defended their turf since time immemorial and that is how they will be defending it in years to come. Give training and weapons to the Tajiks, the Uzbeks, the Hazaras, the Pamiris, the Nurestanis, the Turkmen, the Aimak and expand reconstruction there.

The solution is to let the Pushtun regions fall into the hands of the Taliban. Let the Taliban rebuild their administrative machinery there and become visible, even if it is just beating women with sticks. One can't fight an enemy who is invisible. Finance humint in the Pushtun areas. On getting the coordinates, hit them from the air.

The solution is to build a quarantine around Pushtunistan, cutting off all access to the Taliban lands, by land or air, unless fully screened and permitted by the border security. The quarantine should be put into place by Indians in the East, Pakjabis in the South-East, Baluchis & Indians in the South West, Northern Afghanistan + NATO in the West and North. Of course first one would have create the required conditions for such a quarantine, which includes destroying Pakistan.

[prashanth]

....which includes destroying Pakistan.

Rajesh,
This is sufficient. If this is done everything else will fall in place.

[RajeshA]

....which includes destroying Pakistan.

Rajesh,
This is sufficient. If this is done everything else will fall in place.

Prashanth,
I wish it were so, however the orks being bred by Mullah Saruman Omar and by Sheikh Osama Sauron bin Laden will still have to be dealt with.

They need a quarantine around themselves and India should have control over the oxygen-supply.

[prashanth]

They are probably living happily in pak under TSPA's protection.They are pak's cash cows you see.

[Philip]

A boy with a wheelbarrow bomb,kills 3 marines! It sounds just like the IPKF's experience in jaffna,where young boys hid in trees ,"spotters" for the LTTE and girls pulling out grenades from under their skirts.The only good news is that NATO is engaging with Russia to open another supply route.Commonsense is finding its importance at last.Winning the war in Afghanistan calls for concerted international cooperation and action.Dismembering Pak's military capabilities the other side of the coin too.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 333240.ece

From The TimesDecember 13, 2008

Three Royal Marines killed in Afghanistan by boy with wheelbarrow bomb

Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Alexi Mostrous
Three Royal Marines were killed in Afghanistan yesterday by a 13-year-old boy who approached their patrol with a wheelbarrow packed with explosives.

One other Marine and a soldier died in separate incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan in what was the worst day for British Forces in six months.

Forty-six soldiers have now died in Afghanistan this year, the worst on record since British troops entered the country in 2001.

The men from 45 Commando Royal Marines were on foot patrol south of Sangin, Afghanistan, when they were approached by the boy. As he drew closer, a bomb hidden under papers in the barrow was detonated, killing one of the commandos instantly. Another died at the scene and the third in hospital.

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5,000 US troops to help British in Afghanistan

It was unclear last night whether the boy, who was also killed in the explosion, was a suicide bomber or if he was an innocent being used by the Taleban who denotated the explosive remotely.

Last year an eight-year-old boy was blown up in Sangin after insurgents tricked him into pushing a bomb in a wooden cart into a market, killing two police.

An hour earlier a Marine was killed outside Sangin when a roadside bomb exploded under a new Jackal off-road vehicle. It is at least the third death in a Jackal vehicle, a more robust version of the lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover.

The two incidents in Afghanistan yesterday were in an area recognised as a hotbed of Taleban activity. Sangin lies in the green valley that runs through the centre of Helmand and has always been the focus of attacks by the Taleban. British troops are based there in some force and go out on daily patrols.

In April soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment escaped injury when they were targeted by a suicide-bomber who detonated a waistband of explosives after they had walked past him.

The last multiple deaths in Afghanistan occurred on June 17 when four service personnel, including the first woman to be killed in action, died near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand.

Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, of the Intelligence Corps, and three members of 23 SAS, the reserve special forces regiment — Corporal Sean Reeve, 28, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin, 39, and Lance Corporal Paul Stout, 31 — died after a roadside device exploded while they were travelling in a Snatch Land Rover.

Commander Paula Rowe, the spokeswoman for Task Force Helmand, said of yesterday’s deaths that it was an incredibly sad day for the Afghanistan force. “The tragic deaths of these Royal Marines have come as a huge blow to us all,” she said.

In Iraq, a soldier from 20 Armoured Brigade based at Basra airbase was found dead from gunshot wounds in an apparent suicide. It was the second apparent suicide at Basra air base in a week. On December 4, Lance Corporal David Wilson, 27, of 9 Regiment Army Air Corps, was found with gunshot wounds to the head.

In 2006, Sangin was at the centre of a sustained attack by the Taleban who targeted a small unit of British soldiers — a platoon of about 30 — that had been deployed to the town to try to prevent it from being overrun.

Suicide bombings and roadside explosive devices now pose a greater threat to British troops than ever before; the majority of the deaths in Afghanistan this year have been caused by explosions.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said: “These deaths are a terrible reminder of the bravery of our troops who are serving our country. My thoughts go out to their families and friends at this tragic time.”

[Tilak]

Nato hard at work making deals to beat the Khyber Pass convoy trap
Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent
December 13, 2008

Nato plans to open a new supply route to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia in the next eight weeks following a spate of attacks on its main lifeline through Pakistan this year, Nato and Russian sources have told The Times.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Central Asian states that lie between Russia and Afghanistan, have agreed in principle to the railway route and are working out the small print with Nato, the sources said.

“It'll be weeks rather than months,” said one Nato official. “Two months max.”

The “Northern Corridor” is expected to be discussed at an informal meeting next week between Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to Nato, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's Secretary-General.

The breakthrough reflects Nato and US commanders' growing concern about the attacks on their main supply line, which runs from the Pakistani port of Karachi via the Khyber Pass to Kabul and brings in 70 per cent of their supplies. The rest is either driven from Karachi via the border town of Chaman to southern Afghanistan - the Taleban's heartland - or flown in at enormous expense in transport planes that are in short supply.

“We're all increasingly concerned,” Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Wednesday. “But in that concern, we've worked pretty hard to develop options.”

The opening of the Northern Corridor also mirrors a gradual thaw in relations between Moscow and Nato, which plunged to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War after Russia's brief war with Georgia in August.

However, Nato and the United States are simultaneously in talks on opening a third supply route through the secretive Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to prevent Russia from gaining a stranglehold on supplies to Afghanistan, the sources said. Non-lethal supplies, including fuel, would be shipped across the Black Sea to Georgia, driven to neighbouring Azerbaijan, shipped across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan and then driven to the Afghan border.

The week-long journey along this “central route” would be longer and more expensive than those through Pakistan or Russia and would leave supplies vulnerable to political volatility in the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.

The US and Nato are, though, exploring as many alternatives as possible as America prepares to deploy 20,000 more troops - three quarters of them by the summer - to add to the 67,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Turkmenistan represents the only realistic alternative that bypasses Russia. A route through Iran is out of the question because Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran. Afghanistan's border with China is too remote to be used.

An agreement with Georgia has already been signed and negotiations with Azerbaijan are “ongoing”, a Nato official said.

Nato began exploring alternative supply routes in response to political instability in Pakistan last year and reached an informal agreement with Russia on the Northern Corridor at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April. At the same meeting President Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan offered to allow Nato to take supplies across its territory and to establish logistics bases there, according to Nato sources.

Negotiations stalled after the Georgian crisis, as Nato suspended high-level contacts with Moscow and Central Asian countries grew wary of angering the former Soviet master.

They have since shown their independence by refusing to back Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Russia, meanwhile, has been offering preferential treatment to Nato members that it considers “friendly”, such as France and Germany, the only Nato members allowed to fly supplies to Afghanistan through Russian airspace. In November Germany also became the first Nato member allowed to bring supplies for Afghanistan through Russia by railway.

Russian officials say that Moscow is ready to open the Northern Corridor to all Nato members as soon as the alliance finalises its agreements with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The agreements cover non-military supplies such as fuel, food and clothing, and some non-lethal military equipment.

“All Nato countries will be able to use the Northern Corridor,” one Russian official familiar with the negotiations told The Times. “As far as we understand, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to it and sent the relevant papers to Brussels. We're just waiting for Nato to sign the agreements. We've done our part.”

BORDER WOES

A spate of attacks by Pakistani militants on supply convoys to Nato and US forces has caused backlogs and border closures (Jeremy Page writes). More than 1,000 trucks are stalled on the Afghan border and haulage costs are up by almost 70 per cent.Pakistani authorities have closed the border at Torkham, near the Khyber Pass, after militants set fire to at least 260 vehicles, including American Humvees, last weekend and attacked two cargo terminals in Peshawar on Thursday.

[Philip]

It can't come too soon as Paki drivers go on strike,probably after the ISI warned them.If they ditch the route through Pak,it will also mean less items pilfered by the Pakis.In a way,the ISI/Talibs are doing the US/NATO forces a favour,by showing how unreliable it is depending upon the epicentre of terror in Afghanistan.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 344612.ece

Pakistani lorry drivers supplying Nato troops in Afghanistan go on strike
(Tariq/AFP/Getty Images)
Pakistani Taleban fighters (pictured) have vowed to step up attacks on supply convoys in the Khyber Pass

Jeremy Page in Islamabad
Hamid Karzai: we are fighting the same terrorist disease |

Pakistani lorry owners and drivers have refused to resume delivering supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan following a series of militant attacks on convoys plying the main supply route via the Khyber Pass.

Authorities closed the route eight days ago after militants carried out their biggest attack yet on the supply line, torching some 260 vehicles on two consecutive nights in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

There were another three smaller attacks in Peshawar last week.

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Pakistan's government was due to reopen the route today, restoring a lifeline that accounts for about 70 per cent of all supplies to the 67,000 Nato, US and other international forces in Afghanistan.

But the Khyber Transport Association, which represents the owners of 3,500 trucks, tankers and other vehicles, announced that its members would no longer ply the route because of the recent security problems.

"They're on strike," said a representative of one large Pakistani haulage company which handles supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan.

"It could last a month, or it could last a day. It all depends on the negotiations," he told The Times.

The strike came as US President George Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan, warning of a "long struggle" ahead amid plans to deploy another 20,000 American troops to the country.

Nato and US officials admit they are concerned about the recent attacks but insist they are insignificant in strategic terms, and have had no effect on military operations in Afghanistan.

However, military analysts and logistics specialists say that a stoppage of more than two weeks could start to affect operations on the ground –- as well as hampering efforts to distribute food aid.

Even when the route reopens the Frontier Corps, which provides armed escorts for the convoys, can only take about 80 trucks a day - 20 at a time - compared to about 300-400 a day before the attacks began.

The Pakistani haulage firms that handle the supplies say that last week's attacks have caused a backlog of more than 1,000 containers in Peshawar, and increased haulage cost by up to 70 percent.

Truck drivers are now demanding 100,000 Pakistani rupees (£865) to drive from Peshawar to Bagram Airbase, just outside Kabul, compared to 60,000 rupees (£513) before the security problems began last month, sources in the firms say.

Pakistani authorities have now told haulage companies to move their cargo terminals outside Peshawar and into the central province of Punjab, they say.

Most Nato and US supplies are currently shipped into the Pakistani port of Karachi and driven to Peshawar, where they wait overnight before being driven on to Kabul via the Khyber Pass the next day.

Some are driven from Karachi to southern Afghanistan via the border town of Chaman - but that route is also considered unsafe because of the strong Taleban presence around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Nato and Russian officials told The Times last week that Nato planned to open a new supply route through Russia and the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan within two months.

Nato and the United States are also in talks on opening a third route through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to prevent Russia from gaining a stranglehold on supplies to Afghanistan.

General David McKiernan, commander of Nato-led troops in Afghanistan, revealed yesterday that most fuel for foreign forces in Afghanistan already comes from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The US military also confirmed that it receives 350,000 gallons (1.6 million litres) of fuel via Afghanistan's northern neighbours.

"As a military leader I think it's very important to have multiple lines of re-supply, but I would also say that's very important for the future economic interests of Afghanistan as well," General McKiernan said.

[Avinash R]

Taleban tax: allied supply convoys pay their enemies for safe passage

December 12, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 327683.ece

Tom Coghlan

The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country.

Contracts to supply British bases and those of other Western forces with fuel, supplies and equipment are held by multinational companies.

However, the business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. These must run the gauntlet of the increasingly dangerous roads south of Kabul in convoys protected by hired gunmen from Afghan security companies.

The Times has learnt that it is in the outsourcing of convoys that payoffs amounting to millions of pounds, including money from British taxpayers, are given to the Taleban.

The controversial payments were confirmed by several fuel importers, trucking and security company owners. None wanted to be identified because of the risk to their business and their lives. “We estimate that approximately 25 per cent of the money we pay for security to get the fuel in goes into the pockets of the Taleban,” said one fuel importer.

Another boss, whose company is subcontracted to supply to Western military bases, said that as much as a quarter of the value of a lorry's cargo went in paying Taleban commanders.

The scale of the supplies needed to keep the Nato military operation going is vast. The main British base at Camp Bastion in Helmand province alone requires more than a million litres of diesel and aviation fuel a week. There are more than 70,000 foreign soldiers in the country for whom food and equipment must be imported, mostly by road. The US is planning to send at least 20,000 more troops into Afghanistan next year.

Other than flying in supplies, the only overland route is through Pakistan and Taleban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

A security company owner explained that a vast array of security companies competed for the trade along the main route south of Kabul, some of it commercial traffic and some supplying Western bases, usually charging about $1,000 (£665) a lorry. Convoys are typically of 40-50 lorries but sometimes up to 100.

Asked whether his company paid money to Taleban commanders not to attack them, he said: “Everyone is hungry, everyone needs to eat. They are attacking the convoys because they have no jobs. They easily take money not to attack.” He said that until about 14 months ago, security companies had been able to protect convoys without paying. But since then, the attacks had become too severe not to pay groups controlling the route. Attacks on the Kandahar road have been an almost daily occurrence this year. On June 24 a 50-truck convoy of supplies was destroyed. Seven drivers were beheaded by the roadside. The situation now was so extreme that a rival company, working south of the city of Ghazni, had Taleban fighters to escort their convoys.

“I won't name the company, but they are from the Panjshir Valley [in north Afghanistan]. But they have a very good relation with the Taleban. The Taleban come and move with the convoy. They sit in the front vehicle of the convoy to ensure security,” said the company chief.

The Taleban are not the only ones making money from the trade; warlords, thieves, policemen and government officials are also taking a cut.

A transport company owner who runs convoys south on the notoriously dangerous Kabul to Kandahar highway said: “We pay taxes to both thieves and the Taleban to get our trucks through Ghazni province and there are several ways of paying. This goes to a very high level in the Afghan Government.

“Mostly the [Afghan] security companies have middlemen to negotiate the passage of the convoys, so they don't get attacked. They pay on a convoy by convoy basis to let the convoy pass at a certain time. They have to pay each of the Taleban commanders who control each part of the road. When you hear of an attack it is usually because a new small [Taleban] group has arrived on the road.”

Lieutenant-Commander James Gater, a spokesman for Nato forces in Afghanistan, said that the transport of Nato supplies was contracted to commercial firms and how they got them into the country was their business.

“I can confirm that we use two European-headquartered companies to supply food and fuel, though for contractual reasons it is not prudent for us to name them. They provide their own security as part of that contract. Such companies are free to subcontract to whomsoever they wish.

“We are aware they do prefer to subcontract from the countries in which they are operating. In Pakistan they prefer to use Pakistani trucking companies, in Afghanistan they prefer Afghan trucking companies. That is a commercial decision for them.”

A representative for the Swiss-based Supreme Global Solutions confirmed that the company held supply contracts with the military in Afghanistan.

However, last night the company denied paying protection money. “We categorically reject any suggestion that we now, or have ever, paid money to any individual for the safe passage of our convoys. Furthermore, we do not permit our subcontractors to do so on our behalf,” it said.

[Avinash R]

World court inquiry sought in Afghan rapes
http://www.thestar.com/article/553770

-Former soldier Tyrel Braaten says some Canadian officers turned a blind eye to the sexual abuses of boys by Afghan interpreters at his base.

-Chaplain says senior officer aware of rapes by Afghans

-The boy was no more than 12. He wore a wig, lipstick and perfume and was dressed in a flowing robe when an Afghan interpreter escorted him to the entrance of the Canadian base in remote Afghanistan.

Dec 15, 2008 04:30 AM

Rick Westhead

The International Criminal Court should probe allegations some Canadian officers serving in Afghanistan told subordinates to look the other way when Afghan soldiers and local interpreters sodomized young boys, says one of Canada's leading human-rights lawyers.

University of British Columbia international law and politics expert Michael Byers, who was among a group of academics who sought to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet detained as a war criminal, said he plans to ask the ICC to begin its own inquiry into the charges.

In a story published yesterday in the Star, former Canadian soldier Tyrel Braaten said that during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006, he witnessed Afghan interpreters bringing young boys inside buildings at Forward Operating Base Wilson, a remote Canadian base outside Kandahar. The boys were then sodomized by the interpreters and Afghan soldiers, Braaten said.

Other Canadian soldiers have complained to chaplains and military medical personnel that officers told them not to get involved because the sodomy was tantamount to "cultural differences."

If the allegations are true, Byers said, they will reflect more poorly on the Canadian military than the scandal in the 1993 in Somalia when Canadian soldiers tortured and murdered a Somali teenager who snuck into a Canadian base.

"We're spending $18 billion on this mission in Afghanistan and it's engaged the hearts and minds of 33 million Canadians in different ways," Byers said in a phone interview from London. "The rape of children in a conflict zone is at least as serious as the torture of that young Somalian during the Canadian mission there."

Also yesterday, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada said the Ministry of Defence in Kabul is aware of the allegations levelled by Braaten and others, but won't act until it receives more detailed information from Canada. "These allegations go back to 2006, not something that occurred just last week," said Ambassador Omar Samad. "We don't have names, dates and legal testimony."

The Canadian Forces' National Investigation Service is investigating the allegations and is expected to complete its probe in the spring. A military board of inquiry, meantime, is also investigating and is going to extraordinary lengths to find prospective witnesses. In some instances, the board's investigating officers are using Facebook to obtain soldiers' lists of friends and contacting them to ask about the alleged rapes, according to several soldiers contacted in this manner.

Still, Byers said he wants the ICC to investigate because he has "concerns about self-investigation and the demonstrated delays in the Canadian military's investigation of alleged detainee abuse."

Based in The Hague and established in 2002, the ICC can investigate, prosecute and punish serious violations of international law, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The former U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues during the Clinton administration, David Scheffer, said in an interview it would be difficult to coax the ICC to pursue rape allegations "unless a real case could be made that Canada is unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate its own military conduct."

As lawyers yesterday debated murky legal questions, such as whether Canada has jurisdiction to charge Afghan citizens who work for Canada as interpreters, some military sources said they weren't surprised by Braaten's claims.

"It's common knowledge that young boys are used in this way in Afghanistan," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "It's the great dichotomy of Afghanistan. Homosexuality is treated as a cardinal sin, but it's still common for men to have sex with boys."

Moreover, Adams said he wasn't surprised that some Canadian soldiers say they were told to ignore cases of abuse."

"I think (Western soldiers) look the other way about a number of things, like opium production and warlordism. They are looking the other way on almost everything."

During 2006, FOB was regularly being attacked by Taliban armed with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, a possible reason why abuse accusations haven't garnered more scrutiny until now.

"I think it's safe to say that they had other worries, like how they were staying alive," said retired Canadian major-general Lewis MacKenzie.

MacKenzie said while the interpreters would have travelled on and off the base freely, after they were screened by Canadian security, young boys would be another matter. "It would have been abnormal for them to have been allowed on the base."

Asked about protocol for allowing civilians on bases in Afghanistan, a CF spokesperson described it as a "rigorous and robust" program.