Bharat Rakshak

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani army said today it has killed over 50 Afghan soldiers near the border between the two countries, as tensions between the two forces escalated after clashes earlier this week killed 10 Pakistani civilians.

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WASHINGTON: The Taliban is likely to gain ground in Afghanistan this year and the security situation will deteriorate in the country in 2018, a top US intelligence official has told US lawmakers.

The Afghan National Security Forces would need sustained international support to prevent it from collapse, director of National Intelligence Dave Coats told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ruing over Kabul's political dysfunction and ineffectiveness.

"Although the Taliban was unsuccessful in seizing a provincial capital in 2016, it effectively navigated its second leadership transition in two years following the death of its former chief, Mullah Mansoor, and is likely to make gains in 2017," Coats said in his testimony on worldwide threats.

"The overall situation in Afghanistan will very likely continue to deteriorate, even if international support is sustained," he said.

According to Coats, the intelligence community assesses that the political and security situation in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018 even with a modest increase in military assistance by the US and its partners.

"This deterioration is undermined by its dire economic situation. Afghanistan will struggle to curb its dependence on external support until it contains the insurgency or reaches a peace agreement with the Taliban," Coats said.

"Endemic state weaknesses, the government's political fragility, deficiencies of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), Taliban persistence, and regional interference will remain key impediments to improvement," he said.

"Kabul's political dysfunction and ineffectiveness will almost certainly be the greatest vulnerability to stability in 2017," Coats said.

ANSF performance will probably worsen due to a combination of Taliban operations, ANSF combat casualties, desertions, poor logistics support, and weak leadership, he added.

The ANSF will almost certainly remain heavily dependent on foreign military and financial support to sustain themselves and preclude their collapse, he said.

Coats said the fighting will also continue to threaten US personnel, allies, and partners, particularly in Kabul and urban population centres.

Islamic State militant group's Khorasan branch (ISIS-K) which constitutes ISIS's most significant presence in South Asia--will probably remain a low-level developing threat to Afghan stability as well as to US and western interests in the region in 2017, Coats said.

China's plan to mine for copper beneath an ancient city gets thrown off by corruption charges

A controversial Chinese copper mine in Afghanistan has run into complications after the executive leading the $3 billion project was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for corruption.
Shen Heting, the former general manager of the state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), in 2007 signed a 30-year lease to build a open-pit copper mine in a place called Mes Aynak.

Yagnasri wrote:We need to relook at our standoff behaviour about Afghanistan. For all the purposes Taliban is going come back very strong and may take over this or next year. To stop this me may have to commit at least IAF immediately. NATO is going to abandon the Afghan Gov and Russia (+ China??) may be supporting Taliban now.

Taliban hold secret talks in Pakistan to discuss Afghan peace.

A number of senior Taliban leaders have reportedly met in Islamabad the capital city of Pakistan to hold secret talks on Afghan peace process.
The secret meeting comes as recent reports suggested that the Afghan government is expected to initiate talks with the group within the next few days.
Sources privy of the development have said that the senior Taliban leaders left a blunt message from Pakistan insisting on an immediate end to a rift between the two top Taliban leaders or talks might ever get off the ground.
The Reuters news agency reported that the two senior Taliban figures in question are political leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who favours negotiation, and battlefield commander Abdul Qayum Zakir, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, who opposes talks with Kabul.
Quoting unnamed Taliban sources, the newspaper reported that the two top Taliban leaders recently met to resolve their personal differences however Mansour was unable to persuade Zakir to reverse his opposition to direct talks with Kabul.

The sources also added that during his visit, Qari Din Mohammad also met Chinese diplomats for a “follow up discussions” as Beijing is playing a key in encouraging the Taliban to join the intra-Afghan dialogue.

sum wrote:Was this posted?
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar visits Indian Embassy to meet the Amby

Afghan and Indian officials meet in Moscow, hold talks on key issues.

The Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar met his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on the sidelines of a summit in Moscow to hold talks on key issues.
The Office of the National Security Council in a statement said the two sides held on further expansion of bilateral political and security relations between the two countries.

Trump Administration Is Split on Adding Troops in Afghanistan.

Can India be a game changer in Afghanistan?

The diplomatic context in which India is operating today is also complex. Because of the uncertainty regarding the future US posture, all of Afghanistan’s neighbours are hedging their bets. Pakistan is seen as the regional problem as the country’s military is accused of aiding the Taliban but the growing presence of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan seems to be a game changer as it gives Pakistan the opportunity to rally its neighbours around its own line.

Taliban Car Bomb Targeting Elite Afghan Force Kills at Least 12.

A large Taliban explosion targeting an elite Afghan militia force that has worked closely with the C.I.A. killed at least a dozen people on Saturday in the eastern part of the country, officials said.

“They are directed and run by the Americans, paid and trained by the Americans,” General Ghairat said.

Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's close aide found dead in Peshawar: police

A close aide of former Afghan rebel leader and Hizb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been assassinated on Tuesday in Pakistan’s northwestern Peshawar city, police said.Haji Farid, reported as Naqeeb Mohammad by the police, was gunned down by two assailants riding a motorbike when he was on his way after offering Fajr (morning) prayers in Pasthkhira area, the city’s police chief told Anadolu Agency. " riding a motorbike" - method used by ISI

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but security officials see the incident as part of internal rifts among different Afghan groups. A senior Afghan Taliban leader and a former governor of Kabul Maulvi Daud was also assassinated in Peshawar in April.

Hekmetyar returned to Kabul last month after a gap of 20 years following a landmark peace accord between the Afghan government and his Hezb-e-Islami party in September. The Hezb-e-Islami is ideologically inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan, and was formed by Hekmatyar in the mid-1970s.Hekmatyar left Kabul in 1997 when the Taliban captured the capital.

Sushma Swaraj‏Verified account @SushmaSwaraj 14m1
By God's grace, Indian Embassy staff are safe in the massive #Kabul blast.

Massive VBIED (Vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) not too far from our Embassy:Indian ambassador in Kabul Manpreet Vohra

JE Menon wrote:German and French embassies also nearby. May be casualties on the German side, French confirm all safe.
80 confirmed killed

Amber G. wrote:^^^ Turkish, Iran, UAE, Indonesia also are close by..Also Chinese.. (Some have injuries or at-least people evacuated per their tweets)
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.5311281,69.1614883,14z
(The Indian Embassy's tweet said blast was about 50 meters away from it)
(Did a google and found that Paki Embassy is about 5Km far away...)

ramana wrote:rsangram, What contribution did that post make?
You should post that in media thread.

vijayk wrote:Guys!

We need a mission to take out Paki embassy in Afghanistan and Iran. Take out means... totally...

Amber G. wrote:There are reports that Pakistan Embassy provide pass that allowed truck (sewage water tank) driver to enter Afghan capital's Diplomatic Enclave...( Strong hints by an Afghan minister but he did not name Pakistan - the driver had permit from an embassy)

(Meanwhile (some) Paki's are claiming that their own embassy is damaged and people injured)
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1049351.shtml