US-led forces admit to Afghan 'tragedy'

he commander of the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, has admitted that a NATO airstrike has killed nine civilians in the war-torn country.

Petraeus said in a statement on Wednesday that he was “deeply sorry for the tragedy,” warning the troops responsible for the attack could face disciplinary action, Los Angeles Times reported.

The statements came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai earlier had slammed foreign forces for what he called “the daily killing of Afghan civilians.”

NATO has always evaded responsibility for the killing of hundreds of Afghan civilians during airstrikes, claiming that the attacks target Taliban militants. However, Karzai has said that villages are not the bases and havens of terrorists.

Nine children, aged between seven and nine, were killed in a US-led aerial operation in Afghanistan's northwestern province of Kunar late Tuesday, police said.

The incident has aroused public fury among Afghans who are already replete with anti-US sentiments. On Wednesday hundreds of people staged demonstrations in protest against killing of civilians by foreign forces.

Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of military operations by the foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. 

NATO to take new tasks in Afghanistan

NATO's senior official in Afghanistan Mark Sedwill has said foreign forces will remain in the war-wrecked country far beyond 2014 to take new tasks.

The NATO official made the remark at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that a new phase in the war will begin in 2014 despite the planned handover of security to Afghan forces, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sedwill further explained that the tasks and roles of NATO forces would undergo a change and stressed that after 2014 priority would shift to providing socio-economic support for the war-torn country rather than military and security aid.

Last November, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that NATO would start handing over control to Afghan security forces from the beginning of 2011 and the transition would be completed by the end of 2014.

Despite the presence of some 150,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, the war-hit country remains devastated by militancy as well as persistent bombings and ground attacks by foreign troops that supposedly target militants but leave many civilians dead.

The rising number of military casualties comes with a comparable rise in Afghan civilian death toll. The latest report on Afghan civilian deaths from the United Nations shows a 20 percent increase in the first 10 months of 2010. read more

Under-fire defense minister promises German military probe

BERLIN - German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, under fire for a series of incidents involving the armed forces, called Sunday for a comprehensive probe of possible systemic problems.

"I commissioned the chief of staff with conducting a review of all branches of the military to determine whether there is or has been evidence of practices that contravene the military's code," he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

A defense ministry spokesman confirmed the probe but said a detailed timetable for the investigation had not been determined.Zu Guttenberg, a millionaire aristocrat who regularly tops popularity rankings among German politicians, has come in for sharp criticism over deadly.

The defense ministry said Saturday that the navy had sacked the captain of its three-masted naval training vessel the Gorch Fock after the death of a female cadet in November sparked an alleged mutiny.

The ship was ordered to return to port amid reports that cadets had refused orders to climb the rigging after the 25-year-old trainee fell to her death from a yardarm while the ship was sailing off Salvador de Bahia in Brazil.

All 70 cadets on board were flown back to Germany when the defense ministry terminated their training on the troubled vessel and sent officials to open an inquiry.readmore

'Russia to supply copters to Afghans'

Russia and the United States are expected to hold talks later this month to pave the way for supplying Afghanistan's military with Russian helicopters, reports say.

Zamir Kabulov of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Asia department told the RIA Novosti on Friday that a group of experts from the ministry and Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, will meet with US officials in Washington.

Russia plans to deliver about 21 new Mi-17 multi-purpose helicopters to Afghanistan “under a NATO contract or to be part of a US-run tender” worth about $400 million, the report said.

Russia is currently assembling Mi-17 helicopters -- capable of carrying 37 passengers -- at two factories in the Russian Volga area city of Kazan and the East Siberian city of Ulan-Ude.

Despite imposing sanctions on Rosoboronexport in 2006 for violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the US has purchased dozens of Mi-17s for Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four years. Washington lifted the ban on the Russian company in May, 2010.

The new move comes as the US and Russia have expanded their cooperation in Afghanistan in a bid to pursue their own interests there.

According to a report published in the British daily Telegraph in October, 2010, the cooperation was enhanced after Russian and US forces raided heroin and opium labs in Nangarhar Province near the Pakistan border.

They reportedly destroyed $250 million worth of drugs. Russia's anti-narcotics chief says his unit closely cooperated with its US counterparts to organize the raid, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai has severely criticized. read more

Afghan war kills another US-led soldier

A roadside bomb has claimed the life of another US-led soldier in southern Afghanistan bringing the number of foreign soldiers killed in the war-ravaged country to 11 so far this year.

NATO said in a statement that the service member died on Sunday. 

It did not release the casualty's nationality nor did it provide any further details. 

Last year was the deadliest for international troops in the nearly decade-long war, with more than 700 killed. 

Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign forces, militant attacks are picking up in the war-torn country. 

The rising foreign casualties have sparked anger among the public in the countries allied with the United States in Afghanistan. 

The invasion of Afghanistan took place with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country. Nine years on, however, Afghanistan remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the price. 

The Pentagon admitted in a recent report that the United States has failed to establish security in Afghanistan. 

India to hold firm in Afghanistan despite threats

KABUL: Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna vowed Sunday that security threats would not drive his country out of Afghanistan during a two-day visit to Kabul.

Speaking after talks with Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul, Krishna said that threats to Indians working in Afghanistan were “real” but added his country was “not going to be cut down” by them.

Nine Indians died in a Taliban suicide attack on foreigners in the Afghan capital in February last year, while a suicide bomber killed 41 people in an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008.

“The threat to our mission unfortunately is real,” Krishna told a press conference, while adding he was “confident” that the Afghan government could provide the necessary protection.

“Let me hasten to add India is not going to be cut down by such threats,”he said. “We will continue to remain in Afghanistan as long as the legitimately elected government of Afghanistan wants us to be here.”

The two sides also discussed “the need to deal firmly with safe havens for terrorist groups that continue to exist outside Afghanistan’s borders,” Krishna said.

Both India and Afghanistan have pointed the finger at Pakistan over security threats, suggesting elements within its power structures fund and support extremism within its borders.

NATO forces killed in Afghanistan

Two US-led service members have been killed in southern Afghanistan on New Year's Day as 2010 was marked as the bloodiest year in the nine-year-old invasion of the country.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Saturday that one of its service members was killed in southern Afghanistan in an insurgent attack, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. 

The NATO statement did not provide additional details on the second death of a NATO service member in the war-torn country this year. 

Meanwhile, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in Helmand province on Sunday. Nearly 350 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the US-led invasion in 2001. 

Southern Afghanistan is the site of some of the fiercest fighting between NATO and the Taliban. In 2010, NATO deaths in Afghanistan hit a record high of 711. 

According to official figures, more than 2,200 US-led soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the outset of their occupation of the country. 

Figures released by Afghanistan's Baakhtar News Agency, however, put the foreign troop death toll at nearly 4,500. 

Despite the presence of some 150,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, the country remains devastated by militancy as well as persistent bombings and ground attacks by foreign troops that supposedly target militants but leave many civilian casualties. 

The climbing military casualties come with a comparable rise in Afghan civilian death toll. The latest report on Afghan civilian deaths from the United Nations shows a 20 percent rise in the first 10 months of 2010. 

The report said that deaths from Taliban attacks in the period were up about 25 percent, and that the Taliban were responsible for the majority of the 2,412 civilian deaths reported in the period. 

RZS/MB

Most Americans oppose Afghan war

A new opinion poll has found that opposition to the Afghan war is at an all-time high in the US as security situation continues to worsen in Afghanistan.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll (PDF) released on Thursday shows that more than six in ten Americans are now opposed to the war in Afghanistan. 

There is also a growing pessimism in the American public about the way things are going for the US in the war, the poll suggests. 

In response to a question on how “things are going” in the warzone 56 percent responded with “moderately badly” or “very badly.” 

The US President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of 30,000 additional soldiers in Afghanistan about a year ago. 

However, security situation continued to deteriorate across the war-ravaged country in 2010 -- the deadliest year for foreign presence in Afghanistan. 

The total death toll of US-led troops has surpassed the 700 milestone, with the Americans accounting for most of the casualties. 

In the review of his war strategy in Afghanistan this month, Obama declared that the war "continues to be a very difficult endeavor" and the achievements made there are "fragile and reversible." 

Obama had pledged a major drawdown from Afghanistan by July 2011. However, Washington later announced that American troops will remain in the war-torn country for at least four more years. 

The 2001 US-led invasion was launched with the objective of bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan. 

After nine years and despite the presence of over 150,000 US-led troops across Afghanistan, the country's security remains very fragile. 

Moreover, according to the United Nations, the death toll of Afghan civilians this year is 20 percent higher than in 2009, with over 2,400 civilians killed in the country from January to September. 

http://presstv.ir/detail/158000.html

German national killed in Afghanistan

A German national has died of his wounds in a hospital in Afghanistan's northern Balkh Province as Taliban step up their attacks against foreign troops in the country.

Local police officials say the aid worker was on his way from Khulm district to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif when gunmen attacked his vehicle. 

He was taken to a military hospital in the German army base. 

"Yesterday at around 4:30 p.m. (1200 GMT), two unknown armed motorcyclists shot a German national as he was on his way from Khulm district (Balkh Province) to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif," AFP quoted Balkh deputy police chief Abdul Rauof Taj as saying. 

"He was taken to a German-run hospital in Mazar city by police. We have been informed that he died in the hospital today," the police official added. 

The attackers also injured his local translator who was travelling with him. 

Foreign and local aid workers have been increasingly targeted by the Taliban this year. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the killing. 

Germany has about 5,000 soldiers in the relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan, making it the third-largest foreign contingent after the US and the UK. 
http://presstv.ir/detail/157091.html

Nato denies US military pushing for Pakistan raids

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan on Tuesday denied reports that American forces are pushing to expand special operations raids into tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan.

Nato’s deputy chief of communications, US Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said there was no truth to a report published in The New York Times.

Citing unnamed American officials in Washington, the Times reported on its website late Monday that US military commanders believe special operations forces could capture militants for interrogation, bringing in an intelligence windfall.

”There is absolutely no truth to reporting in The New York Times that US forces are planning to conduct ground operations into Pakistan,” Smith said.

He added that Nato and US forces, along with ”their Afghan partners, have developed a strong working relationship with the Pakistan military to address shared security issues. This coordination recognises the sovereignty of Afghanistan and Pakistan to pursue insurgents and terrorists operating in their respective border areas.”

Pakistan has firmly rejected any suggestion of US assistance and has in the past sternly protested when the US-led alliance had crossed the border into Pakistani tribal areas.

On September 30, Pakistan closed a key border crossing for 10 days, stranding Nato resupply trucks in an apparent protest over a Nato helicopter incursion that killed two Pakistani soldiers on the border. During the closure, almost 150 stranded trucks were destroyed by attackers.

The US has mainly relied on unmanned drones to pursue al Qaeda militants based in Pakistan. A decision to deploy special operations teams would signal frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out militants who use its territory as a base to support the Taliban and other extremists.

In response to the newspaper report, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, said, ”Pakistani forces are capable of handling the militant threat within our borders and no foreign forces are allowed or required to operate inside our sovereign territory. We work with our allies, especially the US, and appreciate their material support but we will not accept foreign troops on our soil — a position that is well known.”

He noted that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had visited Pakistan recently and had ”acknowledged Pakistan’s contribution. Nothing discussed during his trip indicates the likelihood of ill-advised escalation or unilateral action by Nato troops beyond their mandate in Afghanistan.”

Last week, Mullen said in Kabul that he thought it was possible the Pakistani military could shut down Taliban hideouts on its soil to prevent insurgents from moving back and forth across the long, porous border with Afghanistan. He added that fixing the problem was critical to making progress in the war and that he was encouraged by what Pakistan had already done to go after insurgents on its side of the border.

Pakistan has made progress against safe havens over the past year in operations that have taken a toll on its forces, according to a five-page public summary of the White House’s classified Afghanistan War review that was released last week.

US seeking to expand raids into Pakistan

Top US military commanders in Afghanistan are seeking to expand ground raids by Special Operations Forces across the border in Pakistan’s tribal areas, The New York Times reported Monday.

Amid growing US frustration with Pakistan’s lackluster efforts at removing militants from strongholds there, the officials are proposing to escalate military activities in the nuclear-armed nation, the Times said in its online edition.

US forces have been largely restricted to limited covert operations and unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan due to fears of retaliation from a population that often holds strong anti-American sentiment in a country rife with militants.

Even these limited operations have provoked angry reactions from Pakistani officials. The drones are believed to be largely operated by the CIA.

Amid a looming July deadline for American troops to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan, military and political leaders pointed to a renewed sense of urgency.

Military commanders told the newspaper that the Special Operations plan — which has not yet been approved — could help them secure much-needed intelligence if militants were captured, brought back across the border into Afghanistan and interrogated.

US officials said they were particularly keen to capture — rather than kill — militant leaders from the Taliban or the Haqqani network in order to obtain intelligence about future operations.

“We’ve never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across,” a senior US officer said.

But a senior official from President Barack Obama’s administration said he did not favor cross-border operations, saying they have been mostly “counterproductive” unless they targeted top al Qaeda leaders.

The official also worried that political fallout in Pakistan over the operations could counter any tactical gains.

CIA-backed Afghan militias, previously believed to only carry out intelligence-gathering operations, have also crossed the border into Pakistan’s tribal belt during secret missions, including one in which a militia destroyed a militant weapons cache, officials told the Times.

An Afghan political leader said one of the raids by the Paktika Defense Force — one of six CIA-trained Afghan militias — was initiated to capture a Taliban commander in Pakistan. The mission was ultimately unsuccessful but Pakistani militants opened fire on the Afghans.

Another CIA-backed force near the eastern Afghan province of Khost was recently deployed in the mountains along the Pakistan border, where it is due to try to intercept Taliban fighters during the winter, an American military officer told the Times, saying the militia has so far proven effective.

US Military Surge in Afghanistan

After months of agonizing, the decades most long awaited decision has finally been made. It is a military surge of 30,000 additional troops to chart out a dignified exit for the United States, which will commence with effect from July 2011 onwards. So, basically, it is a surge to draw down, a surge to exit. The surge commencing with immediate effect is to be completed in the next six months. The total number of US troops will now be over one lakh.

The future strategy chalked out by President Obama includes: arrest the newly found Taliban momentum with the increase in Taliban controlled and High Risk areas, strengthen the capacity of Afghan Government to effectively govern the country (Afghanistan for and by the Afghans), increase the number of US trainers to get more numbers of Afghans by way of its military and police to fight for their ‘country’, increase a civilian surge in population centres such that the United States is able to transfer power to a stable Afghanistan by the middle of 2011. It is political, economic, and military compulsions that are factors for this future strategy.

For one, increasingly the cost of war in Afghanistan has become unbearable for the American people; the cost of fighting the war (trillion dollars) is economically unsustainable. Militarily, the United States no longer has the stomach to pursue an open ended conflict, a slow deterioration which prolongs the war, with implications for the political health of the democrat party. No problem that a spelt out time table may allow the Taliban to lie low and wait out the time. No problem that the population, more so than ever before, will not have the inclination to offend the Taliban. There is good logic, that setting a time table it will push the Afghan Government and its military to now stand up and be counted.

The seriousness of the situation may be gauged by the fact that President Obama has said that he is not averse to talks with like-minded Taliban who relinquish violence. Already, there is a UK led peace initiative named ‘Front for Compromise and Development (FFCD)’ to get the Taliban into the mainstream. Karzai has already proposed a ‘Jirga’ of Afghan and Pakistan elders and fighters – this initiative is likely to be headed by Abdullah Abdullah, the losing Presidential candidate.

NATO warns of more violence in 2011 in Afghanistan

The US-led NATO alliance in Afghanistan warned Monday that foreign soldiers will face further violence in 2011, capping what has been the deadliest year of the war on record.
“We’re going to face more violence in 2011. It’s not yet over. There will be still fighting, the work has not been done yet,” said Brigadier General Josef Blotz, spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“So we need to keep the pressure on the Taliban. We need to solidify the gains we have made over the last couple of months, and this will also lead to more confrontation,” he said.
Blotz said building pressure on the Taliban is key “not only to win over the Taliban but also protect the people of Afghanistan against the Taliban and reduce casualties by doing so”.
“Therefore it is very important to increase our capacities, to increase numbers and quality of the Afghan security force plus the Afghan local police, and this is absolutely necessary,” he added.
“I don’t want to speculate on the number of casualties (next year),” the spokesman said.

‘Afghan war can’t be won without Pakistan action’

WASHINGTON: New US intelligence reports paint a bleak picture of the security conditions in Afghanistan and say the war cannot be won unless Pakistan roots out militants on its side of the border, according to several US officials who have been briefed on the findings.

The reports, one on Afghanistan, the other on Pakistan, could complicate the Obama administration’s plans to report next week that the war is turning a corner. US military commanders have challenged the new conclusions, however, saying they are based on outdated information that does not take into account progress made in recent months, says a senior US official who is part of the review process.

The analyses were detailed in briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee this week and some of the findings were shared with members of the House Intelligence Committee, officials said.

All the officials interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified documents.

The reports, known as National Intelligence Estimates, are prepared by the Director of National Intelligence and used by policymakers as senior as the president to understand trends in a region. The new reports are the first ones done in two years on Afghanistan and six years on Pakistan, officials said. Neither the Director of National Intelligence nor the CIA would comment on either report.

The new report on Afghanistan cites progress in “inkspots” where there are enough US or Nato troops to maintain security, such as Kabul and parts of Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Much of the rest of the country remains Taliban-controlled, or at least vulnerable to Taliban infiltration, according to an official who read the executive summary.

The report contains public opinion polling that finds Afghans are ambivalent, as willing to cut a deal with the Taliban as they are to work with the Americans, the official said.

It also shows US efforts are lagging to build infrastructure and get trained security forces to areas where they are needed, the official said. And it says the war cannot be won unless Pakistan is willing to obliterate terrorist havens in its lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The new report on Pakistan concludes that the Pakistani government and military “are not willing to do that”, says one US official briefed on the analysis.

The document alleges that Pakistan’s government pays lip service to cooperating with US efforts against the militants, and still secretly backs the Taliban as a way of hedging its bets in order to influence Afghanistan after a US departure from the region.

Pakistan denies supporting the Taliban.

In describing the Afghanistan report, military officials said there is a disconnect between the findings, completed in recent weeks, and separate battlefield assessments done by the war commander, Gen David Petraeus, and others that contain more up-to-date and sometimes more promising accounts.—AP

US consul flees Pakistan amid threats

Peshawar-based US Consul General Elizabeth Rood has reportedly left Pakistan after receiving numerous death threats from pro-Taliban militants.

A brief statement issued by the US Embassy in Islamabad has confirmed her sudden departure, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday. 

Media reports say Rood had reportedly received threats to her life and was "feeling unsafe." 

Rood, who had assumed the post in August, had failed to perform her diplomatic activities in an extremely volatile region where militancy is rampant. 

The development comes a hundreds of people have held anti-US protests for a second consecutive day. Protesters have condemned non-UN-sanctioned US drone attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas. 

US drone strikes have killed two thousand people in northwest Pakistan since 2004. 

Pro-Taliban militants launched a series of bomb attacks against the US Consulate in Peshawar over the past months. At least seven people were killed in the early April attack. 

There were several powerful explosions in the area near the consulate and a number of buildings collapsed. 

According to official figures some 10,000 people have been killed in both Pakistani military operations and US drone strikes since former military ruler Pervez Musharraf joined the so-called US-led war on terror following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on US soil. 

US to ship sniper rifles to Afghanistan

As the violence against US-led soldiers in Afghanistan peaks, the US Army is shipping a new batch of rifles to the country in an effort to enable snipers to hit targets at long distances.

The XM2010 rifle can hit a target at a distance of approximately 1,200 meters, which is some 400 meters (a quarter mile) farther than the weapon currently used by the United States Army since 1988,USA Today reported on Saturday. 

The high-tech weapon is scheduled to be shipped amid a surge in violence and reprisal attacks against NATO forces in war-wracked Afghanistan, where craggy mountains and ridges have posed a sharp setback for foreign troops in their struggle to hit militants hiding on distant mountain tops. 

The decision comes as NATO recently admitted that militant attacks have significantly increased since the Afghan invasion nine years ago. 

At least 682 US-led soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in 2010 so far, and this year appears to be the deadliest for NATO since the 2001 invasion. 

Meanwhile, Colonel Douglas Tamilio, the US Army project manager for new weapons, strongly endorsed the plan, adding that the maximum range of the current M24 sniper rifle is not enough to overcome the militants, who fire down from ridges and mountain tops, and take advantage of gravity. 

"They're not outgunning us, but they are putting our soldiers in a predicament where 800 meters (2,625 feet) may not be enough," Tamilio said. 

According to US officials, the 2,500 snipers are expected to receive the new XM2010 weapons as early as 2011. 

Some 150,000 NATO troops are currently fighting in war-torn Afghanistan with plans to stay in the country beyond 2014. 

The upsurge in the number of casualties among US-led foreign forces in tandem with the heavy civilian casualties has provoked a barrage criticism from countries, which have contributed troops to the prolonged Afghan mission. 

US strike kills three Afghan women

Three women have been killed when a US remote-controlled drone fired a rocket at a car in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province.

The spokesman for the Helmand governor's office, Dawood Ahmadi, said that the incident took place late on Wednesday in Nad Ali district of the province. 

The target of the air strike was an alleged Taliban commander. The three women were said to be the commander's wife, sister and mother-in-law. The alleged militant was also killed in the attack. 

Taliban have concentrated their nine-year fight against the US-led forces in Afghanistan's southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. 

NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, with 30,000 deployed in Helmand. 

The Western public opinion is growing increasingly tired of the war. Deaths of civilians in NATO and US attacks have also fueled tensions between President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies. 

A total of 683 foreign soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war so far this year, eclipsing the previous record of 521 in 2009. 

'10 US-led soldiers killed in Afghanistan'

The Taliban say at least ten US soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

The American troops lost their lives in a bomb attack in Maiwand district on Wednesday, a Press TV correspondent reported. 

A 12 year-old English-speaking member of the Taliban carried out the attack, the report added. 

According to foreign forces, the coalition has not inflicted any casualties. 

Earlier, NATO announced the death of a US-led soldier in a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan. 

The nationality of the soldier and the exact location of the incident are still unknown. 

An increase in Taliban attacks has made 2010 the deadliest for foreign troops since the beginning of the war in 2001. 

At least 682 foreign troops have lost their lives in war-ravaged Afghanistan so far in a war that has become the longest in US history. 

With civilian and military casualties at record highs, many question the motives behind the ongoing conflict. 

The rising number of casualties among the US-led forces has raised opposition to the Afghan war in the countries which have contributed troops to the mission. 

Video thought to show American held in Afghanistan

Video thought to show American held in Afghanistan

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press – 1 hr 24 mins ago
KABUL, Afghanistan – A new video released by the Taliban contains footage of a man believed to be Spc. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American serviceman being held in captivity in Afghanistan, a group that tracks militant messages on the Internet said Wednesday.
The U.S.-based IntelCenter said another man in the video appears to be the Taliban commander, who had once threatened to kill Bergdahl.
Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, has been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009, when he disappeared in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.
The video, which also shows militant attacks in Afghanistan, was released by Manba al-Jihad, a video production group affiliated with the Taliban. The man believed to be Bergdahl appears only briefly in the video and is not the main focus of the release.
Bergdahl appeared in three videos the Taliban released prior to this latest: on July 18, 2009; Dec. 25, 2009; and on April 7.
Separately, Afghan soldiers killed a suicide attacker who threatened to blow himself up Tuesday at an Afghan army base in the Gereshk district of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. The ministry did not disclose any other details of the incident.
Video thought to show American held in Afghanistan - Yahoo! News

India offered Armed version of Dhruv to Afghan after embassy bombing

India offered Armed version of Dhruv to Afghan after embassy bombing :Wikileaks

In an indication that India was prepared to take its role in Afghanistan beyond developmental programs, a leaked US cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks has revealed that India was prepared to offer light attack helicopters to the Afghan government months after its embassy in Kabul was targeted by suicide bombers.

It has also been revealed that just a month before Indian Army officers in Kabul were attacked by suicide bombers, the US had asked for a briefing on the Indian training of Afghan security personnel.

The latest revelations indicate that the chopper offer was not taken forward given the “adverse reaction” in Pakistan to any sort of military aid by India to Afghanistan. The leaked cable pertains to a January 2009 conversation between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General David Petraeus, who was then heading the US Central Command that overlooks all operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He (Karzai) noted that the Indians were prepared to offer Afghanistan light attack helicopters. A short discussion followed highlighting the adverse reaction in Pakistan to Indian provision of military equipment to Afghanistan,” the leaked cable reads.

India manufactures the Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH), including armed variants, and has been aggressively marketing them in many markets.

In a separate cable, it has been revealed that a month before three Indian Army officers in Kabul died in an attack by suicide bombers, India agreed to brief the US on its training of Afghan Army personnel after the matter was raised by US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke during a visit to New Delhi.

The leaked cable refers to a conversation between Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Holbrooke where the latter requested for a detailed briefing on the issue.

“Rao readily agreed to Holbrooke’s request for a briefing on Indian training for Afghan security personnel, emphasizing that this engagement is completely transparent. She supported her argument by noting that the GOI had previously provided a detailed briefing on this at the US-India Defense Policy Group meetings. ‘We have nothing to hide,’ she declared,” the leaked cable reads.

Pakistan has always been uneasy with any involvement of the Indian establishment with the Afghan security forces. The Indian training team in Kabul, meant to teach English to cadets at the Afghan Army training academy in the city, was the target of the suicide attack on February 26. Two officers of the Army Education Corps and an Army doctor were killed in the attack.

“Holbrooke assured Rao that he is in favour of Indian assistance programs in Afghanistan and is not influenced by what he hears in Islamabad,” the leaked cable reads.

The documents reveal that the US did not talk of any expansion of Indian military role on Afghanistan but subtly encouraged India to focus on cooperation in agriculture. “Holbrooke said that on the civilian side, the number one priority is agriculture because it produces the quickest payoff. He noted that investment in mining, power, and other sectors is important but the gestation and payback periods are longer. Besides, he observed, Afghanistan has traditionally been an agricultural export country, with India as its biggest market,” it reads. The cable goes on to say that Rao told Holbrooke about India’s plan to establish an agriculture college in the troubled country and enhance training through scholarships to Indian colleges.