Analysis: U.S. forces face new challenges after drawdown

WASHINGTON — The United States and its allies have made dramatic progress in Afghanistan over the past year, seizing the initiative from the Taliban and driving insurgents from key strongholds in the south.

The challenge for military commanders now will be to consolidate those gains and shift the military main effort to tackle insurgent strongholds in the east — all with fewer troops.

The plan is a "compromise that will be problematic to many of the players," warned David Barno, a retired three-star general who commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan and is now a senior adviser at the Center for a New American Security.

Several commanders in Afghanistan had said reductions should be made so as to not jeopardize gains.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2011-06-22-analysis-drawdown-afghanistan-obama_n.htm?csp=34news

Gates insists it's too early to end combat in Afghanistan

Reporting from Forward Operating Base Shank,—
Over and over again, soldiers and Marines on the punishing front lines across Afghanistan had the same question for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates: Does Osama bin Laden's death mean the U.S. can finally wind down a nearly decade-long war?

Not yet, Gates replied.

The persistent question also is being asked increasingly in Washington, as debate intensifies over when and how to start bringing home the 100,000 U.S. troops deployed in a conflict that is increasingly unpopular in America.

Enlisted men and women in grueling war zones typically ask visiting brass about equipment and benefits, not strategy or policy. But Gates fielded inquiries about the future of America's painful involvement in Afghanistan at four of his five stops in the south and east at far-flung Army fire bases and a dusty Marine camp on Sunday and Monday. The questions were polite, respectful and insistent.

"Sir, since the death of Osama bin Laden, has the military strategy changed at all?" a young female soldier in the 101st Airborne Division's 4th Brigade asked Gates after he thanked several hundred soldiers at their headquarters in rugged southeast Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan.

Older veterans, especially those serving their second or third combat tours, also wonder how long they must stay now, after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the founder of Al Qaeda on May 2, said Sgt. Theodore Martell, an Army medic, at this remote helicopter base in rural Lowgar province.

On a three-day visit to Afghanistan, Gates appeared to lay out his thinking on the military drawdown ahead of White House deliberations, in an effort to preempt those who favor steep troop cuts. The discussions are expected to start next week after he returns to Washington. For Gates, making his 12th and final visit as Defense secretary to thank troops before he retires this month, the answer was simple.

"We've made a lot of headway but we have a ways to go," he told soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division stationed at Combat Outpost Andar, a heavily fortified base in eastern Afghanistan's battle-scarred Ghazni province.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-gates-20110607,0,2534142.story

Afghan pilot kills 9 U.S. trainers

The Afghan pilot who killed nine U.S. trainers in Kabul on Wednesday came from the security force that has been more closely screened for insurgent sympathizers than any other force.

More than nine in 10 members of the Afghan air force had undergone screening for criminal, drug and medical problems as part of program to weed out unfit recruits or Taliban infiltrators.

The screening, conducted by the Afghans with help from NATO, is aimed at improving the quality of Afghan troops that will take on increasing responsibility for security beginning in July, when U.S. troops are scheduled to begin withdrawing from the country.

There are 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 284,000 Afghan troops and police. President Obama has asked Congress for $12.8 billion to train and equip the Afghan security forces this coming fiscal year.


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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/afghanistan/2011-04-27-Afghanistan-Taliban-US-trainers-_n.htm?csp=34news

Hundreds of Taliban in tunnel jail escape

Some 540 Taliban officers and commanders have escaped from Kandahar prison via a 320 metre-long tunnel, Afghan government officials have confirmed to Al Jazeera.

A Taliban official on Monday also confirmed the overnight escape, boasting that the prison break had been "very well-planned" and that it was five months in the making, Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said.

According to a Taliban statement the tunnel was not dug by the inmates but by fighters outside the prison.

"Mujahideen started digging a 320 metre-long to the prison from the south side, which was completed after a five month period, bypassing check posts and the Kandahar-Herat main highway leading directly to the political prison," the statement read.

"The tunnel reached its target last night, from where the prisoner Mujahideen were led away through the escape route by three previously informed inmates in a period of four and a half hours, starting from 11:00 pm last night and ending at 3:30 am this morning. Mujahideen later on sent vehicles to the inmates who were led away to secure destinations."

"They all have made it safe to our centres and there was no fighting," Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said.

Ahmadi said that 106 were Taliban commanders while the rest were foot soldiers. Kandahar police said they have re-captured eight commanders so far.

The Taliban claim that the prison guards did not notice the escape until four hours after the operation was completed.

The prison in Kandahar typically holds drug dealers as well as Taliban commanders captured by NATO forces, our correspondent said.

If the officials have the correct number for those who have escaped - 540 Taliban commanders and senior officers on the run - then this break will constitute a "big success" for the Taliban.

It is also sure to "have a dramatic effect on the fight against the Taliban in the region," said Azimy.

Security concerns

There have been previous escapes from this prison. In June 2008, Taliban fighters attacked the facility in southern Afghanistan, blasting through its entrance and engaging in a gun battle with police.

Nearly all of the estimated 1,150 prisoners, including some 400 Taliban, escaped, according to Afghan officials.

A Taliban spokesperson said that two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the entrance of the gate to the prison before 30 Taliban fighters attacked and killed 16 policemen.

Kandahar prison was the scene of a mass hunger strike by hundreds of inmates in May, 2008 during which 47 of the prisoners sewed their lips shut after complaining they had been tortured and denied fair trials.

Kandahar is seen as the birthplace of the Taliban movement and the city and surrounding area is scene of some of the worst fighting in Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan: Ban Ki-moon condemns UN staff killings

The BBC's Paul Wood: "It shows how this issue really inflames passions"

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned an attack on a UN building in Afghanistan as "outrageous and cowardly".

At least 12 people were killed when demonstrators torched the building in the city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Three UN workers and four Nepalese guards were among the dead.

Local officials said clerics had urged people to protest over last month's burning of a copy of the Koran in the presence of US pastor Terry Jones.

He has denied responsibility for the violence in Afghanistan.

Witnesses said the protest began peacefully but suddenly turned violent.

Several demonstrators were killed by guards, who were then overpowered by the mob.

A local police spokesman told the BBC that a number of people had subsequently been arrested.

Dan McNorton, spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said: "Three international Unama (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) staff members were killed, and four international armed security guards were killed."

Initial reports said eight foreign UN workers had died.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt later confirmed that one of the dead was a Swede, 27-year-old UN worker Joakim Dungel.

The Norwegian defence ministry said another of those killed was Lt Col Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot. The other foreign victims are believed to be a Romanian and four Nepalese guards.

US President Barack Obama condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms", saying the work of the UN "is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan".

The top UN representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, has flown to the area to handle the matter.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12944851

More Than 1,000 Extra Marines To Be Deployed in Afghanistan

The United States will send more than 1,000 additional Marines to Afghanistan this month to try to solidify progress in the south before troop reductions begin in July, American military officials said Thursday.

The majority of the forces will be sent to Helmand Province, where 20,000 Marines have made gains against the Taliban but where fighting remains intense in insurgent strongholds like Sangin. American commanders are under pressure to quell the violence and sustain their gains in the first six months of 2011, when the White House will assess whether a troop increase for the nearly decade-old war is working.

Officials at the Florida-based United States Central Command, which has responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that the Marines were being sent to take advantage of what is traditionally a winter hiatus for the Taliban and to try to set conditions for the fighting season that begins in the spring.

Maj. Gen. Richard P. Mills, the commander of the 20,000 Marines in Helmand, said in a statement that the intent was to overwhelm the enemy “with an increased operational tempo that he’ll be unable to match.”

The 1,000-plus Marines are part of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a reserve force currently deployed in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Central Command officials said the Marines would go to Afghanistan for about three months. The rest of the expeditionary unit will remain aboard ship for other contingencies, military officials said.

Currently there are about 100,000 United States troops in Afghanistan. In December 2009, President Obama announced that he was sending 30,000 additional troops there and at the same time said the United States would begin to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in July 2011.

Since then, the Obama administration has tried to shift focus away from the July 2011 date — military commanders said the deadline was encouraging insurgents to bide their time until the United States withdrew — to a new date of 2014 as the end of American combat operations in Afghanistan.

It is unclear what effect, if any, the additional Marines will have on the debate on the number of forces to be withdrawn in July.

“The coming debate is bigger than this,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a military analyst and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The issue will be, do we reduce in the second half of the year by 1,000, 5,000 or 20,000?”

During a visit to Afghanistan last month, Mr. Obama told American troops that they were “making important progress” and breaking the Taliban’s momentum, but others in Washington and Kabul have been more skeptical about the gains and whether they can be sustained once the Americans leave.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/world/asia/07troops.html?src=twrhp

Arrests in Afghan attack that killed 6 US troops

Several suspects have been arrested after a suicide attack killed six American troops when an explosives-packed minibus blew up at the entrance of a joint NATO-Afghan base in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

The blast on Sunday was the deadliest attack on coalition troops this month.

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz said Monday that several arrests were made Sunday night.

"Individuals believed to be involved in yesterday's attack have been arrested by Afghan and coalition forces," Blotz said at a news conference, adding that no shots were fired as the suspects were taken into custody.

NATO has declined to identify the victims' nationalities. But an Afghan army official in southern Afghanistan said on Monday that the six were Americans. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about NATO casualties.

He said the confirmation came in an official report about the attack.

NATO has claimed improvements in security after months of raids, patrols and strikes on insurgents in Kandahar province, but Sunday's attack shows the area is still far from safe.

The assault came days ahead of a major White House review of its Afghan strategy following President Barack Obama's decision last year to send 30,000 American reinforcements in a bid to reverse gains by the Taliban since they were ousted from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Afghan officials said Sunday's suicide attack took place in Kandahar's Zhari district, where Mullah Mohammad Omar organized the Taliban in the early 1990s. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the blast, saying the insurgent group was retaliating for attacks on its fighters in the area in recent months.

U.S. and Afghan forces launched a major operation in September to secure Zhari, a lush farming region of irrigation canals and grape vineyards that the Taliban have used as a staging area for attacks in nearby Kandahar city and other parts of the south.

Zhari has remained insurgent territory despite five major NATO operations in recent years. In 2006, a Canadian-led force launched a concerted push in Zhari and nearby Panjwai district, driving out the Taliban but at a cost of 28 coalition lives. Months later, the Taliban were back.

More than 680 international troops have been killed so far this year, well above the 502 killed in 2009. The last attack to kill that many NATO troops happened Nov. 29, when an Afghan policeman turned his gun on his American trainers in the east, killing six of them before he himself was shot dead. The Taliban claimed that they had sent him to join the police as a sleeper agent.

Two weeks before that attack, insurgents killed five U.S. soldiers in an attack in eastern Afghanistan.

The level of ongoing fighting and the mounting death toll will be key to the Obama administration's December review. The president has committed to begin withdrawing U.S. forces in June 2011, but the feasibility of that goal will depend greatly on whether commanders believe last year's surge has reined in violence to the point that Afghan forces can start taking the lead.

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Talk to Taliban, say Afghans, as corruption fears grow

AN OVERWHELMING majority of Afghans support talks with the Taliban and an increasing number believe that the country is heading in the right direction.

However, the latest survey of opinion in Afghanistan also finds a sharp rise in concerns over corruption. Most Afghans believe that graft is a major problem in every area of their lives and at every level of government, according to the poll by the Asia Foundation.

Its publication came as the Afghan Government dropped corruption charges against an aide to President Karzai. Mohammad Zia Salehi, a senior official in Mr Karzai's National Security Council, was arrested in July after he was caught on a wiretap soliciting a bribe.

While the Afghan Army attracts some measure of confidence from 91per cent of those asked, just 54 per cent say they trust the Afghan Government and international bodies. Less than half - 47per cent - of Afghans believe that the country is on the right track, though this is up from 42 per cent the year before, and from 38per cent in 2008. Better security is the main reason, with reconstruction and education for girls also cited.

However, among those who are pessimistic, the number citing worsening security has increased, despite the troop surge. Unemployment and corruption are also cited. The latter shows a sharp jump from 17 to 27 per cent in the latest survey, carried out by the non-profit body with funding from the US Government.

"Respondents were asked whether they think corruption is a major problem, a minor problem or no problem at all in their daily life, their neighbourhood, their local authorities, their provincial government and in Afghanistan as a whole," the report says. "The survey shows that the majority of Afghans think that corruption is a major problem in all facets of life and at all levels of government."

There has also been a significant increase in the number of people who support talks with insurgents and the reintegration of armed groups. As many as 83per cent back the Afghan Government's attempts at negotiations, with support strongest in the east, south-east and north-west of the country where the fighting is most intense.

The findings suggest "that an increasing proportion of the Afghan public is in favour of a political solution to the ongoing conflict in the country rather than a purely military one". There is less enthusiasm among women for talks: 20per cent oppose the negotiations compared with only 12per cent of men, possibly reflecting fears of a future government that includes Taliban elements.

The survey interviewed 6,467 Afghans aged over 18, and was carried out from June 18 to July 5 in all 34 provinces, although polling in some dangerous areas was not possible.

Afghanistan has ordered about 150 aid groups, including four foreign organisations, to shut down for failing to submit reports on their projects and finances, a government official said yesterday.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/talk-to-taliban-say-afghans-as-corruption-fears-grow/story-e6frg6so-1225951023568