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Se trata del primer ataque de estas características en la capital de Afganistán en lo que va de año

Agencias / Kabul | Actualizado 18.01.2009 - 05:03

0 comentarios 0 votos Un coche-bomba conducido por un kamikaze explotó ayer cerca de la Embajada de Alemania y de una base militar estadounidense en Kabul matando al menos a cuatro personas e hiriendo a otras 35.

El movimiento talibán se atribuyó el atentado, el primero que golpea Kabul este año tras una serie de sangrientos ataques en 2008. "Fue un atentado suicida", dijo el portavoz del ministerio de Defensa, el general Mohamad Zahir Azimi a los reporteros en el lugar de la explosión. Varios vehículos estaban en llamas y había muchos destrozos en la calle.

"Un total de 23 personas quedaron heridas y fueron transportadas al hospital. Dos de las víctimas mortales son afganos", añadió, precisando que hay un niño entre los muertos

No obstante los investigadores dijeron que uno de los muertos era el kamikaze.

"El atentado fue contra afganos y extranjeros porque es una zona importante", añadió.

La explosión se produjo a unos 100 metros de la base norteamericana de Camp Eggers, dijo a la AFP el coronel Christian Kubik y aunque en un primer momento el Ejército estadounidense informó de que dos de sus soldados estaban entre las víctimas del ataque, posteriormente desmintió esta información.

En el pasado, los talibanes ya atacaron edificios gubernamentales e intereses extranjeros en la capital afgana. En noviembre, cuatro ciudadanos afganos murieron en una explosión a las puertas de la Embajada de EEUU.

La influencia de los talibanes se ha extendido de sus tradicionales feudos en el sur y este del país a las cercanías de la capital.

Taliban Ambush Police in Western Afghanistan

In a gun battle between Taliban and security forces three national policemen were killed and eight more were captured by Taliban in the western region of Afgahanistan.

Abdul Ghani Sabary, deputy to Badghis governor confirmed the gun battle and said last night a group of Taliban led by Mullah Dastagar, local Taliban commander attacked the police checkpoint in Morchaq area, Balamarqab district of Badghis province.

According to the deputy, three policemen were killed and eight more policemen were taken by the Taliban along with their arms.

Sabary said there is no verifiable figure of Taliban casualities, but police reinforcements are en route to the area, following such a sharp firefight with insurgents.

Meanwhile, a kidnapping gang abducted the son of a wealthy man in Herat province.

Police authorities in Herat city said two nights ago armed men kidnapped the son of a money exchanger from Herat city.

Police sources said investigations are ongoing on to find and release the captive 12 year old child.

According toHerat`s police, the child`s abduction is one of the first kidnapping incidents, ever recorded in the province.

End.

Taliban suffer severe casualties in Badghis, Afghanistan
22.01.09 11:04
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Thirty-one members of the Taliban were killed or injured while fighting the Afghan National Police (ANP) in the Badghis province.
Chief Police Commander in Badghis General Mohammad Ayoob told media that the Taliban attacked a police station last night but faced resistance and endured severe casualties.
During the fighting that continued until morning, 11 members of the Taliban were killed and 20 injured, he said.
He added that local residents aided the police during the fighting.
The ANP suffered no casualties.
The Taliban has not made any statements about the incident.
Earlier the Taliban attacked a police station in Bala Morghab in the same province, killing three police and taking 7 hostage.

Meanwhile, 11 militants were killed in a fighting between Taliban and security forces after more than 300 militants attacked a government district centre in Badghis.

Martyrdom Operation kills 19 enemy terrorists in Herat Wednesday morning 21-01-2009 at approximately 8.10 am local time, a courageous Mujahid of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Muhammad Dawad Herati of Herat province, carried out a martyrdom operation in which he targeted a convoy of American invaders and their puppet army near the Herat airport in Herat province, in the attack six American invader and thirteen puppet terrorists were killed, few were wounded, one tank of invaders and two vehicles of puppet army were destroyed. We ask Allah to accept our brother among martyrs in Eelleyeen (high rank in the paradise). All praise and gratitude are due to Allah. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

Puppet army commander arrested and 2 check posts demolished in Badghis Thursday afternoon 23-01-2009,at approximately 5:10 pm local time, Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan attacked puppet army check posts in Sanjatki area in Maqur district of Badghis province, in the attack one commander of Puppet army Usman was arrested, other puppet terrorists fled, both check posts were demolished and stock of weapons were Mujahideen's booty. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

Kabul - Four civilians and 13 Taliban were killed in a clash in western Afghanistan, while one Afghan civilian and three militants were killed in suicide and roadside bomb blasts elsewhere, officials said Sunday.

A group of Taliban fighters attacked a tribal chief's house in Mugur district of western Badghis province on Saturday night, killing the man, his daughter-in-law and two of his supporters, said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, spokesman for police forces in western region.

'Hafizullah, his daughter-in-law and two other men who came to protect the tribal chief were killed by the attackers,' he said, adding that police units arrived at the scene, triggering a new round of clash.

At least 13 militants were killed in the firefight that continued until early Sunday morning, but there were no casualties among Afghan police, he said.

Hafizullah, who served a commander for the Afghan warriors in their fight against the Soviet troops in 1980s, was a supporter for the Western-backed Afghan government and had recently been publicly denouncing the Taliban-led insurgency in the country.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/ ... ghanistan_

On Afghanistan, the situation is more difficult since few European nations are prepared to commit more troops. They are, however, more open to the idea of increasing development aid and giving a boost to projects like police training. Nordic nations, Italy and Spain may also reduce restrictions on the use of some troops in the more dangerous south of Afghanistan http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/21/ ... php?page=1

Nato tensions damaging Afghanistan mission, warns thinktank
Run-up to presidential elections dogged by security concerns
Richard Norton-Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 January 2009 16.39 GMT
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Tensions within Nato are undermining the west's mission in Afghanistan at the most critical period in the country since the invasion in 2001, a leading thinktank warned today.

The warning, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, comes at a time when Nato commanders are urging governments to deploy more troops to the country, against strong European opposition.

"The western intervention in Afghanistan is faltering and a robust diplomatic strategy involving tribal outreach and a more co-ordinated international approach is vital to success" said John Chipman, the IISS director general.

"Counter-insurgency efforts were forced to adapt to changes in Taliban tactics and seemed to make little overall headway," the IISS says in its latest annual Military Balance survey.

"Without more positive developments and a more unified approach to the conflict, it seemed likely that some countries with troops deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) mission under Nato command might begin to reappraise their commitments."

Chipman added that the security problems posed a threat to presidential elections due later in the year. "There is a risk that it will not be possible to hold elections, or voter turnout may be below the minimum necessary for the ballot to be valid," he said.

The warning came as Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, told Congress that Afghanistan was America's "greatest military challenge" and added: "We have not had enough troops to provide a baseline level of security in some of the most dangerous areas – a vacuum that increasingly has been filled by the Taliban."

Canada and the Netherlands – two countries which deploy significant numbers of troops in southern Afghanistan – have already announced they intend to cut troop numbers there.

The IISS report points out that the Taliban changed its tactics after a series of defeats in open combat and was moving to areas where the Afghan government and Nato troops were fewer in number, such as the south-west provinces of Nimruz and Farah. They were now also active in the northern provinces of Badghis, Faryab and Badakhshan.

The IISS said the Taliban operations had also focused on "perceived areas of weakness", particularly the Afghan police who were poorly trained and equipped.

Nato's problems are compounded by the fact that many European allies do not share the US and UK governments' view that Afghanistan is at risk of turning into a failed state under Taliban rule.

While IISS analysts warned of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, they also said that the al-Qaida leadership, in hiding in the tribal areas of north-west Pakistan, appeared to be weakening.

Asked about the impact of missile attacks by American unmanned drones in the area, Nigel Inkster, chief IISS international threat analyst and former senior MI6 officer, replied that "undoubtedly they had had a significant effect [in] degrading al-Qaida central".

The al-Qaida leadership had not recently been able to sponsor any significant operation in a western country, Inkster added. However, he added that India had become "very vulnerable to attacks by groups inspired by al-Qaida ideology".

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is facing increasing criticism in the west for failing to control corruption and lead an effective government. Christopher Langton, IISS senior fellow for armed conflict, said yesterday that nobody had yet declared themselves for the election. The US had not so far backed any candidate, he noted.

Yesterday's IISS report said that "to effectively pursue the campaign on terror", the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, will need to "balance growing US pressure for military strikes in the tribal areas with the Pakistani army's decreasing tolerance for such attacks".

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ja ... aida/print

01/28/2009 08:22 PM

BATTLING AGHAN DRUG DEALERS
NATO High Commander Issues Illegitimate Order to Kill

By Susanne Koelbl
The approach to combatting the drug mafia in Afghanistan has spurred an open rift inside NATO. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, top NATO commander John Craddock wants the alliance to kill opium dealers, without proof of connection to the insurgency. NATO commanders, however, do not want to follow the order.

A dispute has emerged among NATO High Command in Afghanistan regarding the conditions under which alliance troops can use deadly violence against those identified as insurgents. In a classified document, which SPIEGEL has obtained, NATO's top commander, US General John Craddock, has issued a "guidance" providing NATO troops with the authority "to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan."

According to the document, deadly force is to be used even in those cases where there is no proof that suspects are actively engaged in the armed resistance against the Afghanistan government or against Western troops. It is "no longer necessary to produce intelligence or other evidence that each particular drug trafficker or narcotics facility in Afghanistan meets the criteria of being a military objective," Craddock writes.

The NATO commander has long been frustrated by the reluctance of some NATO member states -- particularly Germany -- to take aggressive action against those involved in the drug trade. Craddock rationalizes his directive by writing that the alliance "has decided that (drug traffickers and narcotics facilities) are inextricably linked to the Opposing Military Forces, and thus may be attacked." In the document, Craddock writes that the directive is the result of an October 2008 meeting of NATO defense ministers in which it was agreed that NATO soldiers in Afghanistan may attack opium traffickers.

The directive was sent on Jan. 5 to Egon Ramms, the German leader at NATO Command in Brunssum, Netherlands, which is currently in charge of the NATO ISAF mission, as well as David McKiernan, the commander of the ISAF peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Neither want to follow it. Both consider the order to be illegitimate and believe it violates both ISAF rules of engagement and international law, the "Law of Armed Conflict."

A classified letter issued by McKiernan's Kabul office in response claims that Craddock is trying to create a "new category" in the rules of engagement for dealing with opposing forces that would "seriously undermine the commitment ISAF has made to the Afghan people and the international community ... to restrain our use of force and avoid civilian casualties to the greatest degree predictable."

A value equivalent to 50 percent of Afghanistan's gross national product is generated through the production and trade of opium and the heroin that is derived from it. Of those earnings, at least $100 million flows each year to the Taliban and its allies, which is used to purchase weapons and pay fighters. That, at least, is the estimate given by Antonio Maria Costas, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime.

But the chain of people profiting from the drug trade goes a lot further -- reaching day laborers in the fields, drug laboratory workers and going all the way up to police stations, provincial governments and high-level government circles that include some with close proximity to President Hamid Karzai. If Craddock's order were to go into effect, it would lead to the addition of thousands of Afghans to the description of so-called "legitimate military targets" and could also land them on so-called targeting lists.

The Taliban are still responsible for the majority of civilian victims in Afghanistan. According to a United Nations report, more than half of the approximately 2,000 citizens killed last year died as a result of suicide attacks, car bombs and fighting with extremists. Nevertheless, relations between the Americans and the local population are extremely tense due the rising number of US-led air strikes and the dramatic increase in the number of civilian casualties.

Afghan villagers complain of the increase in the deaths of relatives who were mistakenly killed during military operations carried out by the Americans and their allies, such as the one carried out recently in Masamut, a village in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman. The US army announced that it had "eliminated" 32 Taliban insurgents. However, survivors claim that 13 civilians had been killed during the search for a Taliban commander. In the eyes of many Afghans the former liberators have long become ruthless occupiers.

German NATO General Ramms made it perfectly clear in his answer to General Craddock that he was not prepared to deviate from the current rules of engagement for attacks, which reportedly deeply angered Craddock. The US general, who is considered a loyal Bush man and fears that he could be replaced by the new US president, has already made his intention known internally that he would like to relieve any commander who doesn't want to follow his instructions to go after the drug mafia of his duties. Back in December, Central Command in Florida, which is responsible for the US Armed Forces deployment in Afghanistan, yet again watered-down provisions in the rules of engagement for the Afghanistan deployment pertaining to the protection of civilians. According to the new rules, US forces can now bomb drug labs if they have previous analysis that the operation would not kill "more than 10 civilians."


URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 83,00.html