12/5/11 Aid Agencies in Afghanistan Fear Reversals After U.S. Exit (New York Times)

Aid Agencies in Afghanistan Fear Reversals After U.S. Exit

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: December 5, 2011

Although President Hamid Karzai hopes to continue aid to Afghanistan for another 10 years, the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is already being felt among civilian aid workers, raising anxieties that Afghanistan will be abandoned and that the hard-earned development gains will be reversed.


The US provides two-thirds of all development assistance in Afghanistan, but it cut its $4 billion aid budget to $2 billion in the 2011 fiscal year. In 2012, it might be going to cut the budget more.


CARE has lost 80% of its budget here. CARE is deeply involved in setting up schools and improving life for Afghan women. 400 of its 900 workers were unemployed. Other American-based charities are suffering from the budget cut.


Mercy Corps, which is another American-based aid organization, has lost its $32 million "Cash for Work" program in northern Afghanistan and gone to an end. International Rescue Committee's budget for Afghanistan next year is also almost halved to $9.5 million although the committee is still hopeful.


Total foreign aid to Afghanistan in 2010 was equal to the country's entire GDP, $15.7 billion. The World Bank said that this cannot be sustained. By 2018, it is predicted that 90% of that aid will be gone.

12/10/11 U.S. Troops Could Stay in Afghanistan Past Deadline, Envoy Says (New York Times))

U.S. Troops Could Stay in Afghanistan Past Deadline, Envoy Says

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: December 10, 2011

The American ambassador to Afghanistan raised the possibility that the US combat troops could stay in Afghanistan after the 2004 deadline. The deadline has been set by the White House for their withdrawal.


The ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker reported that if the Afghan government wanted American troops to stay longer, the withdrawal could be slowed. But, such a decision has not made yet.


In June, President Obama said that  American troop withdrawals would begin the following month, December 2011, with 10,000 of the roughly 101,000 American troops. Then, an additional 23,000 troops would be withdrawn by the summer of 2012. According to NATO official, 4,000 of the 10,000 have already left.

11/28/11 Militants Turn to Death Squads in Afghanistan (New York Times)

Militants Turn to Death Squads in Afghanistan

By RAY RIVERA, SHARIFULLAH SAHAK and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: November 28, 2011

Target killings across Afghanistan have risen. American and Afghan officials believe that many are the work of Haqqani militant network and Al-Qaeda that are charged with killing suspected informants and terrorizing the populace on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.


Military intelligence officials say that the units act as death squads, and they also say that Khurasan has been responsible for at least 250 assassinations and public executions. Khurasan operates mainly in Pakistan's tribal areas.


There is also another group, but its name is not known. The group works mainly in Afghanistan and may be responsible for at least 20 killings in Khost Province over the summer.


The article reports:

It is another indication that the Haqqanis, a mostly Pakistan-based faction, remain the most dangerous part of an insurgency that makes full use of a porous and often ill-defined border, as the NATO strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend showed. Though the circumstances of that strike remain murky, it has now further upset relations between Pakistan and the United States, even as it once again demonstrated how havens inside Pakistan remained a critical part of the insurgent strategy. (New York Times)

No matter what happened, the relation between Pakistan and the United Sates has not got worsened.


The percent of assassinations in Afghanistan is growing.

Across Afghanistan, assassinations have jumped 61 percent, to 131 reported killings, through the first nine months of this year, compared with the same period in 2010, according to NATO statistics. United Nations officials say they began noticing a sharp increase in 2010, with 462 assassinations according to their records, double the number from the previous year. The figures may not include many killings in remote areas, like the mass beheading, because fearful villagers never reported them. (New York Times)

Khurasan

Khurasan is a militant group that has quite newly formed and that is seen as American foe.


Khurasan is operating in Pakistan tribal areas. It is believed to have formed in early 2009 in the North Waziristan area of Pakistan. The members are said to wear black clothing with green armbands. They work closely with Al-Qaeda in the region. Estimated number of the members are from 100 to 2,000 members. The group is seen to be responsible for some assassinations in Afghanistan. ("Militants Turn to Death Squads in Afghanistan," New York Times)

12/6/11 Rare Attacks on Shiites Kill Scores in Afghanistan

Rare Attacks on Shiites Kill Scores in Afghanistan

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: December 6, 2011

The article starts, saying:

A Pakistan-based extremist group claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated bombings aimed at Afghan Shiites on Tuesday, in what many feared was an attempt to further destabilize Afghanistan by adding a new dimension of strife to a country that, though battered by a decade of war, has been free of sectarian conflict. (New York Times)

The attacks has struck down three cities in Afghanistan, which are Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazar-i-Sharif. 63 Shiite worshipers on Ashura were estimated to be killed almost at the same time.


Sunnis strikes against the minority Shiites are alien to Afghanistan. Therefore, no Afghan was surprised when responsibility was claimed by a Sunni extremist group from Pakistan.


One important point would be:

The group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had not previously claimed or carried out attacks in Afghanistan, however, and its emergence fueled suspicions that Al Qaeda, the Taliban or Pakistan’s spy agency — or some combination of those three — had teamed up with the group to send the message that Afghanistan’s future stability remained deeply tenuous and indeed dependent on the cooperation of outside forces.

The president of Afghanistan commented, "The enemies of Afghanistan do not want us to live under one roof with peace and harmony."


The timing of the attacks is considerable. That was a day after international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, Germany, and that conference had been viewed as an opportunity for Afghanistan to cement long-term support from the west.


The article also tells:

Critics of Pakistan were quick to read Monday’s boycott and Tuesday’s bombings as a signal from the Pakistanis, delivered by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that Afghanistan could not ignore Pakistan. (New York Times)

“Pakistan is our historical enemy and wants us to never live in peace,” said Noor Mohammad, one of the wounded worshipers, who was covered in blood minutes after the attack in Kabul. “What should we do, where should we go? The terrorists are not even letting us carry on our religious practices.” (New York Times)

10/31/11 Afghan Leader Offers Belated Condolences for U.S. Deaths (New York Times)

Afghan Leader Offers Belated Condolences for U.S. Deaths

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: October 31, 2011

President Hamid Karzai did not express condolence for deaths of the NATO members, who were killed by the suicide attack). 

With two American officials, Gen. John R. Allen, the NATO commander and Ryan C. Crocker, Ambassador, at a national security meeting on Sunday, (in a statement) the president “expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the family and relatives of those foreign troops and Afghan civilians who were killed.” and added “Afghan people are grieved by the NATO loss of lives and share the pain and sorrow with the families and friends of the troops killed” (New York Times)

However, "In a statement Saturday, Mr. Karzai had expressed condolences only to the families of the four Afghan victims and made no mention of the 13 NATO personnel who were killed, most of them Americans." (New York Times)

"The gaffe came a week after Mr. Karzai, in an interview with Geo Television, a Pakistani network, said his country would fight on the side of Pakistan if Pakistan was attacked by the United States." (New York Times)

But, the statement in the transcript on his website is omitted.

"Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, Aimal Faizi, also said the president had not intended to slight the military victims. (New York Times)

The attack brought the worst outcome for NATO's operation in Kabul during the Afghanistan War. According to early reports from military sources, 13 victims were all American soldiers, but later, officials modified the list:

• 4 American soldiers
• 1 Canadian soldier
• 5 American contractors
• 2 British contractors
• 1 Kosovar contractor

were killed.

Links:

12 Americans Die as Blast Hits Bus in Afghanistan (New York Times) My Blog

10/29/11 12 Americans Die as Blast Hits Bus in Afghanistan (New York Times)

12 Americans Die as Blast Hits Bus in Afghanistan

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: October 29, 2011

In Kabul, Afghanistan, "At least 12 Americans were killed when aTaliban suicide car bomber attacked an armored shuttle bus in Kabul on Saturday, military officials said." (New York Times)


Four of Americans killed were G.I.'s. One Canadian soldier and four Afghans were also reported to be killed.


However, "Officials initially reported that all of those reported to have died aboard the bus Saturday were soldiers, but NATO later said five were members of the military and eight were contractors. The precise number and nationalities of the dead remained uncertain Saturday night." (New York Times)




Links:

Afghan Leader Offers Belated Condolences for U.S. Deaths (New York Times)