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Action Update (Complete Archive)
On Sunday, Oct. 7, 2001, the United States and Britain began air strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan. In addition, officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush are warning that military strikes also could take place in other countries harboring terrorists. Below find news and analysis about the events in Afghanistan and the U.S. war on terrorism in the surrounding region. CDI is sensitive to reporting any information that could endanger lives or operations. Click here for updates on Northern Alliance activity and Taliban responses through Nov. 28, 2001. Given the fluid nature of the conflict and operational security constraints, these updates draw on occasionally unconfirmed and incomplete press reports, as well as official information that is by necessity guarded. As such, troop dispositions and events related here are often approximations.
Coalition
Operations In the wake of a June
17 security-affairs meeting between U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani military
leaders, Operation Unified Resolve
began on June 21 as hundreds of U.S.
troops with combat air support advanced into Nangarhar, an Afghan province which
has “historically served as al Qaeda strongholds,” said military spokesman
Col. Rodney Davis. Days before,
across the nearby border with Following a trend of
heightening attacks by insurgents in On June
19, U.S. Special Operations troops attached to the CJTF-180 force took 15
insurgents into custody after the group attacked a coalition military compound
near the Meanwhile, on June
22, insurgents detonated two bombs dangerously close to housing designated
for U.S. soldiers in Kunduz although the Afghan Government’s Constitutional
Review Commission and a building housing U.S.-led provincial reconstruction
teams (PRTs) seemed to be the intended targets. A firefight erupted between a
patrolling U.S. Special Operations unit and unidentified insurgents on June
25. One U.S. Navy SEAL was
killed and two others wounded, according to military spokesman Col. Douglas
Lafforge though he provided no other details.
June
28 saw 10 insurgents surprise General
Afghan Security Situation On June
23, top Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar announced that he has reforged
the Taliban Leadership Council to resist occupying forces.
The message was conveyed via audio cassette and printed in a Pakistani
newspaper. Called by some a
“resistance movement,” the Council bears the name Saiful Muslameen, meaning
“Sword of Muslims”and is headquartered in Ashadabad near the northeastern
Pakistani border. Mullah Omar heads
the committee though other leaders include the notorious Pashtun warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Saifullah Mansoor, and Taliban military commander
Mullah Dadullah. Fighting erupted on June
27 in International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) UN officials, members of the
Karzai government, and other world leaders are asking NATO to push for the
extension of ISAF’s mandate beyond the immediate surrounding area of In As the first Muslim head of
state to visit
Coalition
Operations Several
hundred U.S. Special Forces troops along with an estimated 300 Italian soldiers
participated in Operation
Dragon Fury
in
eastern Paktia province on June
2-3,
aimed at preventing “the re-emergence of terrorism, denying anti-coalition
members sanctuary, and preventing further attacks against non-governmental
organizations, coalition forces, and equipment,” according to a press release.
The operation was supported by an estimated 20 coalition aircraft, which
included UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks, and AH-64 Apaches.
In all, roughly 21 people were arrested. U.S.
Special Forces were involved in a three-hour gunfight June
10
after a patrol in the southeastern city of General
Afghan Security Situation
One
of the deadliest exchanges between Taliban militia and Afghan government troops
erupted June
5 as an estimated 47 Taliban fighters were
killed following nine hours of fighting near the Pakistani border town of Six
people were killed and five injured June
11 following a deadly attack on a passenger bus
in the southern Afghan Afghan
authorities are blaming Taliban rebels for a grenade attack in southern Pakistani
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf lashed out at the apparent Islamization, or ‘Talibanization’,
as it is increasingly being called, of ISAF German
Defense Minister Peter Struck expressed his steadfast commitment in maintaining
the international presence in Other
News in Brief French
President Jacques Chirac indicated he would support sending French Special
Forces soldiers to fight alongside Coalition
Operations
The
American commander of American authorities reported no casualties May 28, following an explosion of a remote-controlled device near a vehicle carrying Special Forces soldiers. The device was believed to be planted by Taliban rebels. The attack, which took place in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, near the city of Khost, happened as U.S. forces were conducting a routine reconnaissance patrol near a border check point. General
Afghan Security Situation U.S.
soldiers responsible for protecting the U.S. Embassy building in Kabul
mistakenly shot at and killed four Afghan soldiers May
21 following a “misunderstanding” in which
U.S. troops believed the Afghan soldiers, who were moving weapons from a nearby
military compound, were planning an imminent attack on the chancery building
proper. Four other Afghan soldiers
were believed to be injured, and possibly one American.
Security in Two
Taliban rebel leaders, Mullah Ghausuddin and Mullah Mohammed, were killed May
27 in the restive southern On
June
2, American authorities reported an Afghan
soldier accompanying a U.S. Special Forces convoy suffered minor injuries
following an attack 50 kilometers outside of ISAF
A
German International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeeper was killed and
another wounded May
29 after a land mine exploded underneath their
vehicle during a routine patrol 10 miles southeast of
A
package of ultra-conservative laws presented by the pro-Taliban government of Other
News in Brief
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai threatened to resign May
19 and dissolve the government following
long-simmering disputes between him and 12 provincial governors who have denied
the central government millions of dollars in outstanding customs revenues.
The governors, whose authority within their border provinces extends over
traditionally lucrative import-routes, have failed to replenish their share of
the Afghan
authorities arrested five people May
25, including Mullah Janan, a Taliban member
with extensive ties to al Qaeda, for ostensibly planning a devastating bomb
attack in downtown
Coalition Operations Suspected Taliban and al Qaeda rebels fired on a General Afghan Security
Situation An
attack by Taliban rebels in the Shah Joy district of southeastern Zabul province
May 6 resulted in injuries to two civilian
employees of an Afghan demining agency. According
to reports, the team of Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) was attacked with
automatic gunfire in an apparent “ambush” in what is the third such attack
on deminers in as many weeks, according to a UN public relations officer.
The United Nations meanwhile indicated it would suspend further demining
operations, though later reneged, saying they would opt for armed government
escorts for its staff instead. The
Afghan national government has agreed to provide protection for the demining
staff in the provinces of Nimruz, American
fighter jets and attack helicopters responded to a location in the eastern
Afghanistan province of Khost May
9
following an ambush on an American soldier and his Afghan counterpart, which
wounded the American and killed the Afghan soldier.
Authorities are attributing the attack to regrouping Taliban fighters. A
bomb that was planted in a small mosque in the southern At
least five people were killed following more fighting May
16
between forces loyal to both Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum and his Tajik
nemesis Atta Mohammed in the northern Afghan ISAF Two
Norwegian Army officers assigned to a civilian-military team of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were shot and wounded May
13 in the On
May
18,
an ISAF spokesperson in Other News in Brief A U.S. Army soldier inexplicably collapsed and died May
17 following a training run outside the According to a May 18 report, the world’s largest regional security organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will begin working with Afghanistan to combat the increasingly dangerous rise of drug-smuggling, a long-term threat to regional stability and security and a main ingredient responsible for human suffering in that part of central Asia. Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opiates, recently became a new partner in cooperation with the OSCE, whose membership also extends to the countries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which all share long, porous borders with Afghanistan. “This is something where we have to address alternative ways of life for the producers,” said an OSCE deputy coordinator.
June 16, 2003 - Coalition Operations In the wake of a June 17 security-affairs meeting between U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani military leaders, Operation Unified Resolve began on June 21 as hundreds of U.S. troops with combat air support advanced into Nangarhar, an Afghan province which has “historically served as al Qaeda strongholds,” said military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis. Days before, across the nearby border with Following a trend of heightening attacks by insurgents in On June 19, U.S. Special Operations troops attached to the CJTF-180 force took 15 insurgents into custody after the group attacked a coalition military compound near the Meanwhile, on June 22, insurgents detonated two bombs dangerously close to housing designated for U.S. soldiers in Kunduz although the Afghan Government’s Constitutional Review Commission and a building housing U.S.-led provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) seemed to be the intended targets. A firefight erupted between a patrolling U.S. Special Operations unit and unidentified insurgents on June 25. One U.S. Navy SEAL was killed and two others wounded, according to military spokesman Col. Douglas Lafforge though he provided no other details. June 28 saw 10 insurgents surprise General Afghan Security Situation On June 23, top Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar announced that he has reforged the Taliban Leadership Council to resist occupying forces. The message was conveyed via audio cassette and printed in a Pakistani newspaper. Called by some a “resistance movement,” the Council bears the name Saiful Muslameen, meaning “Sword of Muslims”and is headquartered in Ashadabad near the northeastern Pakistani border. Mullah Omar heads the committee though other leaders include the notorious Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Saifullah Mansoor, and Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah. Fighting erupted on June 27 in International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) UN officials, members of the Karzai government, and other world leaders are asking NATO to push for the extension of ISAF’s mandate beyond the immediate surrounding area of In As the first Muslim head of state to visit
Coalition Operations Several hundred U.S. Special Forces troops along with an estimated 300 Italian soldiers participated in Operation Dragon Fury in eastern Paktia province on June 2-3, aimed at preventing “the re-emergence of terrorism, denying anti-coalition members sanctuary, and preventing further attacks against non-governmental organizations, coalition forces, and equipment,” according to a press release. The operation was supported by an estimated 20 coalition aircraft, which included UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks, and AH-64 Apaches. In all, roughly 21 people were arrested. U.S. Special Forces were involved in a three-hour gunfight June 10 after a patrol in the southeastern city of General Afghan Security Situation
One of the deadliest exchanges between Taliban militia and Afghan government troops erupted June 5 as an estimated 47 Taliban fighters were killed following nine hours of fighting near the Pakistani border town of Six people were killed and five injured June 11 following a deadly attack on a passenger bus in the southern Afghan Afghan authorities are blaming Taliban rebels for a grenade attack in southern Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf lashed out at the apparent Islamization, or ‘Talibanization’, as it is increasingly being called, of ISAF German Defense Minister Peter Struck expressed his steadfast commitment in maintaining the international presence in Other News in Brief French President Jacques Chirac indicated he would support sending French Special Forces soldiers to fight alongside Coalition Operations
The American commander of American authorities reported no casualties May 28, following an explosion of a remote-controlled device near a vehicle carrying Special Forces soldiers. The device was believed to be planted by Taliban rebels. The attack, which took place in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, near the city of Khost, happened as U.S. forces were conducting a routine reconnaissance patrol near a border check point. General Afghan Security Situation U.S. soldiers responsible for protecting the U.S. Embassy building in Kabul mistakenly shot at and killed four Afghan soldiers May 21 following a “misunderstanding” in which U.S. troops believed the Afghan soldiers, who were moving weapons from a nearby military compound, were planning an imminent attack on the chancery building proper. Four other Afghan soldiers were believed to be injured, and possibly one American. Security in Two Taliban rebel leaders, Mullah Ghausuddin and Mullah Mohammed, were killed May 27 in the restive southern On June 2, American authorities reported an Afghan soldier accompanying a U.S. Special Forces convoy suffered minor injuries following an attack 50 kilometers outside of ISAF
A German International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeeper was killed and another wounded May 29 after a land mine exploded underneath their vehicle during a routine patrol 10 miles southeast of
A package of ultra-conservative laws presented by the pro-Taliban government of Other News in Brief
Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to resign May 19 and dissolve the government following long-simmering disputes between him and 12 provincial governors who have denied the central government millions of dollars in outstanding customs revenues. The governors, whose authority within their border provinces extends over traditionally lucrative import-routes, have failed to replenish their share of the Afghan authorities arrested five people May 25, including Mullah Janan, a Taliban member with extensive ties to al Qaeda, for ostensibly planning a devastating bomb attack in downtown
Coalition Operations Suspected Taliban and al Qaeda rebels fired on a General Afghan Security Situation An attack by Taliban rebels in the Shah Joy district of southeastern Zabul province May 6 resulted in injuries to two civilian employees of an Afghan demining agency. According to reports, the team of Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) was attacked with automatic gunfire in an apparent “ambush” in what is the third such attack on deminers in as many weeks, according to a UN public relations officer. The United Nations meanwhile indicated it would suspend further demining operations, though later reneged, saying they would opt for armed government escorts for its staff instead. The Afghan national government has agreed to provide protection for the demining staff in the provinces of Nimruz, American fighter jets and attack helicopters responded to a location in the eastern Afghanistan province of Khost May 9 following an ambush on an American soldier and his Afghan counterpart, which wounded the American and killed the Afghan soldier. Authorities are attributing the attack to regrouping Taliban fighters. A bomb that was planted in a small mosque in the southern At least five people were killed following more fighting May 16 between forces loyal to both Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum and his Tajik nemesis Atta Mohammed in the northern Afghan ISAF Two Norwegian Army officers assigned to a civilian-military team of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were shot and wounded May 13 in the On May 18, an ISAF spokesperson in Other News in Brief A U.S. Army soldier inexplicably collapsed and died May 17 following a training run outside the According to a May 18 report, the world’s largest regional security organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will begin working with Afghanistan to combat the increasingly dangerous rise of drug-smuggling, a long-term threat to regional stability and security and a main ingredient responsible for human suffering in that part of central Asia. Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opiates, recently became a new partner in cooperation with the OSCE, whose membership also extends to the countries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which all share long, porous borders with Afghanistan. “This is something where we have to address alternative ways of life for the producers,” said an OSCE deputy coordinator.
April 20, 2003 - May 4, 2003 Coalition Operations U.S. Special Forces killed one man and detained seven others April 22 in southern Afghanistan during operations aimed at ridding destabilizing al Qaeda and Taliban elements from the country. A U.S. military spokesperson on the ground could not provide further information. In a separate incident, a U.S. Army soldier was injured following a landmine explosion near Bagram. The soldier was later transported to a U.S. medical facility in Germany. An April 25 tip from local sources resulted in the confiscation of four heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles roughly 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan authorities, after receiving credible information from a key intelligence source on the ground, responded to the house in the town of Dera Said Mian where the discovery was made. No arrests were made during the seizure. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others injured April 25 following a deadly exchange with militants in the southeastern Afghanistan province of Paktika. According to U.S. military officials, a platoon-sized unit responded to suspicious activity near the U.S. firebase at Shkin when they were fired on by an estimated 20 militants using rocket-propelled grenades. At least three enemy soldiers were killed and an Afghan Army soldier was also wounded in the incident. General Afghan Security Situation On April 23, two Afghan soldiers were killed following a land mine explosion that destroyed their vehicle. The soldiers were traveling from Jalalabad to Tora Bora and authorities have an opened an investigation. A Taliban-led attack on an Afghan government outpost in the Zabul province city of Chapan April 24 resulted in the deaths of two Afghan soldiers and three Taliban fighters. Emerging reports indicate the fighting began following an armed incursion of as many as 80 Taliban fighters into a key government facility in Chapan, beginning a four-hour battle with Afghan troops involving rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. Most of the assailants are believed to have escaped. Reports from the Zabul province district of Chopan April 28 revealed a deadly firefight in which 15 Taliban rebels and as many Afghan soldiers were killed. According to an Afghan commander, the battle erupted following an armed incursion of Taliban into Chopan to retake the city when they were stymied by Afghan troops. "Intense fighting is still going on in the mountains of Zabul province and both the groups have been suffering heavy losses," one report commented. A Taliban-led offensive against Afghan government buildings, weapons depots, and other installations in and around the southern town of Spin Boldak April 28 killed three Afghan soldiers, amid growing concern that Pakistani border areas are the main staging grounds for radical elements. On May 2, Afghan government forces arrested 60 Taliban in Helmand province suspected of attacking the Kajakai dam with rockets and automatic weapons fire. Pakistan During a two-day visit to Afghanistan April 23, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and gave him a "most-wanted" list of Taliban sympathizers wanted for crimes against the Afghan people while also imploring the Pakistani leader to contribute more to sealing his side of the porous border from terrorists coming into Afghanistan. It remains to be seen whether or not Musharraf will be able to fulfill these demands, however. In Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), where the Muttahida Majlis-i-Imal (MMI) party dominates (a collection of fundamentalist political groups that won a majority in the October 2002 elections there), official sympathy for the ousted Taliban regime is absolute; the MMI has even provided sanctuary to those regrouping elements of Taliban seeking it. Moreover, popular sentiments on the ground in NWFP also demand the withdrawal of Pakistan's support in the U.S-led war on terrorism, thus providing an atmosphere of increased tension for Musharraf as he wrestles with the domestic political implications of any future decision he will be forced to make. Pakistani police scored yet another coup April 28 with the capture of Tawfiq bin Attash, a major al Qaeda operative and a lieutenant of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) suspected of operational involvement in the 2000 bombing of USS Cole. KSM is also suspected in the 1998 East Africa bombings in Dar es Salam and Nairobi, in which Attash is alleged to have played an instrumental role. The East Africa attacks which left more than 250 people dead and as many as 5,000 injured. According to reports, Pakistani authorities were led to Attash's capture by information provided by the ongoing interrogation of KSM, who himself was nabbed by the Pakistanis and turned over to the Americans March 1 in the suburb of Rawalpindi and is considered one of bin Laden's "most senior and most significant lieutenants." The April 28 arrest is a major success in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, as Attash, who along with Ramzi Binalshibh, another significant figure arrested in September 2002, represented some of al Qaeda's most crucial leadership infrastructure. The arrest also produced six additional arrests of suspected Pakistani extremists, probably al Qaeda, as well as the confiscation of 330 pounds of explosives and some light weapons. The White House meanwhile called the arrest "a hopeful and significant capture." Other News in Brief An announcement by U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan April 23 revealed U.S. forces killed the person responsible for the brutal murder of Red Cross worker Ricardo Munguia in Kandahar province on March 27. The death of Manguia had been the first foreign aid worker death in the country in five years. U.S. authorities, in collaboration with Afghan government troops, were led to an area in Kandahar province by local informants when they were fired on by automatic weapons fire. In addition to the one casualty, there was also an estimated eight suspects arrested. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld traveled to Kabul May 1 after a whirl-wind tour throughout the Middle East to declare an end to major combat operations in Afghanistan and to shift the U.S. military mission there to reconstruction, humanitarian efforts, and stabilization. Saying that most of the country remains stable except for the border regions with Pakistan, Rumsfeld reiterated his desire for the creation of an Afghan National Army. "I believe that the fate of this country depends in large part on their having their own national army." So far U.S. forces have trained roughly 4,500 Afghan National Army soldiers.
Coalition Operations A massive U.S. military operation involving two dozen helicopter gunships and roughly 70 military vehicles commenced April 8 in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, near the city of Lashkar Gah, to destroy suspected Taliban hideouts. U.S. authorities were led to the province by an informant that indicated Mullah Dadullah, a former Taliban military commander, was using Sangin as a redoubt — the same area where two U.S. soldiers were killed March 29. The frequency of destabilizing violence involving Taliban and al Qaeda so far this year has been attributed to many events, particularly, though, to: an apparent restructuring of power among regrouping Taliban under the patronage of rebel leader and former Islamist Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; the U.S.-led war with Iraq, which has fomented deeper resentment and calls for jihad against the American presence in the country; and the up-and-coming spring weather, which at least one report referred to as the traditional "fighting season" in the country. On April 9, U.S.-led coalition partners arrested eight fighters in southern Helmand province for their suspected involvement in a March 29 ambush that killed two soldiers of a U.S. Special Forces patrol. Operation Resolute Strike, as it was called, was launched specifically to either kill or capture those responsible for the deadly ambush. U.S. authorities believe that there are other suspect rebels that remain at large. U.S. troops and their Romanian counterparts uncovered three separate weapons caches April 17 during operations in Ghazni province and in the provincial capital of Qalat in eastern Zabul province. In the village of Khar Bolah in Ghazni, U.S. troops, or Task Force Devil, uncovered approximately 271 rocket-propelled grenades, four RPG launchers, 40 mortar rounds and hundreds of cases of ammunition. In Qalat, Romanian troops uncovered the "largest cache found to date by coalition forces," according to an official on the ground. Troops discovered thousands of rockets and over 1.25 million rounds of ammunition. The operation was part of a larger effort to hunt down suspected weapons caches of al Qaeda and Taliban rebels, particularly, in the southern and eastern parts of the country. General Afghan Security Situation Tajik-Uzbek enmity manifested itself again when on April 10 forces loyal to Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum clashed with forces tied to former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik, in the northwest Afghan province of Faryab. According to reports, the fighting began in Meymaneh, the provincial capital, following the murder of a high-ranking member of Rabbani's political group, the Jamiat-i-Islam (Islamic Society) at the hands of Dostum's Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Eslami (National Islamic Movement) party. So far, the fighting has resulted in the deaths of 11 fighters, two civilians, and has injured approximately 17. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other aid agencies have suspended operations in the province since the fighting began. On April 13, family members of the governor of Kandahar province were targeted in an assassination attempt as their motorcade made its way near the Pakistani border town of Chaman. Two Afghan security guards and the governor's cousin were killed in the attack. Authorities suspect regrouping Taliban elements. ISAF NATO will play a greater role in peacekeeping in Afghanistan following an April 16 decision to assume control of the 4,600-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently under joint German and Dutch command. NATO will assume control of ISAF in August following the end of the German and Dutch military's scheduled six-month rotation, which assumed control of the peacekeeping force from the Turks in early February 2003. Previously, only one or two NATO members were contributing to the Kabul peacekeeping force, thus causing a burden on those countries capable of maintaining such an extended military commitment. This recent decision will shift the burden from those few NATO member states with such military capabilities and disperse it amongst the alliance as a whole, which is scheduled to increase from 19 members to 26 by next year. Pakistan An unconfirmed videotape purportedly containing the voice of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was received by the Associated Press April 8 in Islamabad, imploring all Muslims to "avenge the innocent children of Iraq" with suicide attacks while also extolling the use of "jihad" as the "solution to all our [Muslims] problems." The 27-minute tape was handed over to the AP by an Algerian national believed to be a former acquaintance of a Palestinian national who together with bin Laden founded the Makhtab al Khimdat, the main recruiting base in Peshawar that was used to enlist the support of foreign fighters to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. "Oh Muslim brothers," the tape began, "let us promise to devote our lives to martyrdom in the way of Allah. America has attacked Iraq and soon will also attack Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan. You should be aware that non-Muslims cannot bear the existence of Muslims and want to capture their resources and destroy them…Do not be afraid of their tanks and armored personnel carriers. These are artificial things." Although the tape does include these references to the current U.S.-led war with Iraq, it still remains a mystery as to when the tape was made. U.S. officials thus far have dismissed its authenticity. Pakistan's Frontier Corps paramilitary seized roughly one ton of narcotics April 13 from smugglers trying to pass through the Pakistani border town of Chaman along a known smuggling route. The smugglers escaped following a brief gun battle. Pakistani narcotics officials claim their country is the main transit route for approximately a quarter of the heroin smuggled from Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium. Zalmay Khalizad, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan, remarked in Kabul April 19 that "success of the new Afghanistan's stability is in America's interests and any effort that undermines that stability, that threatens it, is a challenge to America's interests." This is being interpreted as a rebuke to the Pakistani government following contentious border clashes between Taliban sympathizers from inside Pakistan and Afghan forces across the border. Khalizad's remarks came after a trip from Islamabad, where he discussed border issues as well as other potential sources of conflict, such as whether or not an April 13 attack on the governor of Kandahar's motorcade in Chaman had any Pakistani involvement, as Afghan officials contend. Other News in Brief On April 9, an errant 1,000-pound bomb from a U.S. Marine Corps Harrier jet missed its intended target and killed 11 civilians as it pursued an estimated 10 enemy fighters near the Paktika province city of Shkin. The U.S. aircraft were called in to support forces on the ground when the incident took place. Collateral damage against innocent civilians in Afghanistan has increased resentment of the United States and its presence in the country recently. In February, Afghan officials in Helmand province accused the United States of killing 17 civilians in the Baghran Valley during anti-Taliban operations there. The U.S. military maintained that there was only one casualty. And last July, more than 48 civilians were killed and over 100 wounded when a U.S. gunship fired on a wedding party in the central town of Deh Rawud. The U.S. military said its gunship had come under anti-aircraft fire from the area.
An apparent terrorist attack was thwarted April 12 in Khost as a car filled with explosives detonated prematurely, killing all four would-be terrorists inside the vehicle. Reports indicated the men — a Yemeni national, two Pakistanis, and a purported former intelligence official for the deposed Taliban regime — had links with al Qaeda and may have been targeting an airfield frequently used by U.S. and coalition warplanes, located 200 meters away. "They were planning some kind of terrorist attack, but we don't know yet what their target was," one Afghan commander remarked.
Coalition Operations On March
25, during Operation
Valiant Strike’s fifth
day, On March
27, the 505th Parachute Infantry Battalion, 82nd
Airborne Division, launched Operation
Desert Lion, a second major initiative in recent weeks to help An apparent ambush on a U.S. Special Forces reconnaissance
patrol near a school in southern On March 29, two
Norwegian F-16 bombers participated in another sortie against regrouping
elements of al Qaeda and Taliban rebels in support of Operation
Desert Lion in northeastern Regrouping Taliban extremists battled two dozen U.S.
Special Forces, hundreds of Afghan soldiers, and U.S. Apache helicopter gunships
and A-10 fighters April
2 in a furious exchange along the Tor Ghar mountain range in
southeastern Intermittent fighting continued April 3 as General Afghan Security Situation An unconfirmed report suggested as many as 400
heavily-armed Taliban sympathizers attacked an Afghan Army outpost in northwest More than a dozen rocket attacks against On March
27, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced one of its
workers, Ricardo Munguia, was executed in central A discarded land mine from the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation
of In yet another act of terror being attributed to renegade
warlord and former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, three Afghan
border guards, including a commander, were murdered at their post in
southwestern Nimruz province March
31 by regrouping elements of Taliban and other rebels aligned with
the Islamist rebel warlord. Violence
has steadily risen in the Pashtun-dominated southern part of the country
recently; particularly, violence involving mobilized Taliban who have stepped-up
attacks against symbols of the interim Afghan administration in Afghan authorities reported April
5 as many as 50 Taliban and six Afghan soldiers were killed in
renewed fighting in northwestern Also on April 5, Haji
Gilani, a close ally of transitional Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was gunned
down near his home in the Uruzgan province city of ISAF A German spokesperson for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
confirmed a March
30 attack against its Other News in Brief A March 25 report from Afghan state television indicated that Afghan security forces arrested four former Taliban officials in southwestern Ghazni province, including former deputy education minister Akhand Sayed Shaheed. The names of the remaining three ministers were undisclosed, as were the time the arrests were executed and the circumstances they were made under. An April
1 promulgation by the governor of Coalition Operations U.S.
and Afghan authorities detained two suspected al Qaeda operatives March
11 in southern A March 11 report indicated that a selected team from the
Italian Special Forces, known as Alpine Commandos, has begun a massive operation
in southeastern A U.S.-led coalition convoy was attacked by small arms and machine gun fire March
12 while crossing a mountain pass from Gardez to Khost, resulting in the
deaths of five attackers and the arrest of two.
There were no In two separate attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces March 18, both Italian Special Forces and U.S. Special Forces drew heavy fire from suspected al Qaeda and Taliban rebels, each engaging and beating back rebel fighters first from the Italian base at Camp Salerno in eastern Afghanistan and later from Chapman Airfield, the American airstrip located six miles from Salerno near the eastern Afghanistan city of Khost. There were no reported casualties. On March 19, as the Coalition forces in southeastern U.S. troops are calling a March 22 raid on several buildings near the
southern Sami Ghar mountains one of the largest weapons seizures in months,
after finding hundreds of rocket-propelled grenade launchers
and rounds, high-caliber machine guns, mortar rounds, anti-tank and
anti-personnel mines and "too much ammunition of all caliber to count
currently,” according to an American spokesman.
In a separate event, reports emerged from southern A joint Afghan-American patrol along the main road between Gardez and Khost March 23 resulted in a massive firefight with rebels aligned with warlord Bacha Khan Zardran. The battle, which killed 10 rebels and injured seven, resulted in no deaths or injuries for coalition forces. It is believed the hostilities began when the coalition patrol was ambushed.
An apparent remote-controlled explosion killed three Afghans March
10 and wounded five roughly 15 miles west of Afghan authorities arrested 10 former Taliban and seized arms, explosives,
and land mines March 14 after a raid on a house in
Pakistani authorities detained three men outside of In another coup for On March 23, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf indicated that bin Laden may have fled back into
The United Nations announced March 14 a major initiative to rid
Afghanistan of a deadly detritus of 23 years of civil war ‑ the 10 million
mines and other unexploded ordinances left after the 1979 invasion of the Soviet
Union. The plan, aimed at
alleviating the roughly 150 incidents of Afghans being mimed or killed every
month by mines, will specifically target ‘high-priority’ areas of the
country in a four-year program spearheaded by the United Nations Mine Action
Program. On March 17, during an
international conference of donor nations meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the
international community commited approximately $2 billion to help Afghanistan
reconstruction efforts but specifically to help the country fight international
terrorism and burgeoning opiate production.
“Everything has been extremely generous,” said Afghan Minister of
Finance Ashraf Ghani, “ninety percent of what we had asked for has been
committed to.” Of the $2 billion
donation, Feb. 24, 2003 - March 9, 2003 Coalition Operations On Feb. 24, U.S troops and Afghan forces were involved in a firefight in central Afghanistan's Uruzgan province near Tarin Kot. There were no American casualties but the battle resulted in the deaths of one enemy and one Afghan government soldier. This comes a day after U.S. troops in eastern Nangarhar province came under fire near the city of Wazir. U.S. and Italian military officials announced March 5 that approximately 500 Italian soldiers will soon be deployed to Khost, in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province, to relieve an American unit already conducting counter-Taliban and al Qaeda operations there. It is expected the Italian unit will be based at Camp Salerno and will be there for a minimum of six months. Acting on intelligence reports, U.S. forces detained seven men in southern Helmand province March 8 for suspected plotting of attacks against coalition forces. U.S. authorities said the men were planning to use homemade bombs, though it was unclear whether the men were tied to al Qaeda or the Taliban. General Afghan Security Situation Armed supporters of Afghan warlord Bacha Khan Zadran blocked the main road between the eastern cities of Ghardez and Kost Feb. 24 after local officials seized a dozen of the warlord's vehicles. Local authorities claim Zadran was illegally setting up checkpoints without an official imprimatur from Khost province authorities. On Feb. 25, the police chief in Nangarhar province announced the seizure of a cache of mortars, AK-41 anti-tank land mines, BM-12 Chinese missiles, and munition rounds during a raid on a suspected Taliban and al Qaeda compound. The seizure, 45 miles south of Jalalabad, did not result in any arrests. On Feb. 28, authorities in Kandahar reported two large rocket attacks on a main street that is home to government offices and foreign non-governmental organizations. There were no reports of any casualties. Authorities suggest the attacks may have been detonated by remote control, and attribute the attack to Taliban rebels in the area. At least two people — a mother and a child — were wounded March 3 when two Russian-made missiles ripped through their house in Ghar village, just outside Kandahar. Authorities suspect Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Jezb-I-Islami party was behind the attacks. In the last five weeks, more than 20 people have been killed in various explosions in and around Kandahar. U.S. military authorities defused a motorcycle bomb comprising two anti-tank mines March 5 that was placed just outside of a U.S. military air station in eastern Khost. U.S. soldiers defused the radio-controlled devise after local residents alerted them to it. Also on March 5, a violent explosion blasted a U.N. compound in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, resulting in no casualties and very little damage to the building. Local authorities insist that only "the Taliban would resort to such acts," though it was unclear if any arrests were imminent. Later that same day, a similar explosion was directed at a local government building. The following day, a blast also rattled another government building. Police are blaming al Qaeda and Taliban rebels. Factional fighting between rival warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed in northern Sar-e-Pul province March 6 resulted in the deaths of two combatants. A senior lieutenant of Mohammed said it was unclear what set off the exchange of fire. Factional fighting between elements of Dostum and Mohammed's rival factions is frequent in northern Afghanistan. ISAF A Dutch International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier was slightly injured and an Afghan interpreter killed March 7 after a remote-controlled explosion in the Bagrami district of southern Kabul. ISAF and Afghan police have opened an investigation into the incident; though do not believe the incident represents a deterioration of the security situation inside the capital. The blast took place a day after the first anniversary of the death of five ISAF soldiers who were killed in an explosion while trying to destroy unexploded ordinance. Pakistan Pakistani and U.S. authorities scored a major coup March 1 with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and one of al Qaeda's "most senior and significant lieutenants," according to Washington officials. Mohammed was detained by plain clothes Pakistani security agents in a town house in Rawalpindi, roughly 10 miles south of Islamabad. He was handed over to U.S. authorities within hours of his arrest and taken to a secret location for interrogation. In addition to his alleged involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, Mohammed left his fingerprints on a litany of others, including the 1996 plan to blow up twelve U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean for which he has been indicted, the 1998 east Africa embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole attack in 2000, and most recently, the murder of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mohammed is rumored to be have been personally responsible for the reporter's brutal January 2002 death. On March 6, reports emerged indicating that Pakistani security agents now believe that Osama bin Laden is alive and is frequenting the rugged, region shared by both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Authorities came to this conclusion after the Mohammed arrest March 1, in which officials uncovered troves of information, such as computers and other equipment. Recent reports also indicate that Mohammed himself disclosed information on bin Laden's whereabouts during intensive interrogations by U.S. and Pakistani authorities at a secret location, probably in Afghanistan. While Pakistani authorities still insist that bin Laden could not possibly be in Pakistan, they acknowledge the arrest of Mohammed could provide more information on the locations of additional al Qaeda members, possibly in Pakistan. Other News In Brief A Pakistani Navy spokesman confirmed Feb. 24 the crash of a chartered Cessna aircraft carrying Afghan Minister for Petroleum and Mines Juma Mohammed Mohammadi into the Arabian Sea near Karachi. Mohammadi and seven other members of his entourage were killed in the crash. On Feb. 27, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House where he urged the administration not to abandon his country should the America go to war against Iraq. Karzai, who warned that Afghanistan could easily slip back into a haven for terrorists should the U.S. relax their commitment, also testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee the previous day. "Don't forget us if [war with] Iraq happens," Karzai warned. Karzai announced March 9 that he would be using a $51 million pledge he received from international donors last month in Tokyo for disarming and demobilizing thousands of factional fighters. Karzai indicated that he intended to accomplish this goal before the 2004 elections, and intends that the fighters will be absorbed into the Afghan National Army or into civilian jobs.
Coalition Operations U.S. Special Forces called in close air support from U.S. and Dutch F-16 fighter jets Feb. 10 after heavily-armed extremists ambushed the soldiers at a cave complex in the Bahgran Valley, in central Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. No U.S. casualties were suffered. Coalition aircraft used five laser-guided 500-pound bombs as well as 100 rounds of 20mm ammunition during the exchange, though it was unclear if any of the five enemy fighters were killed. Uruzgan province, much like Paktia province in the southeast, is believed to harbor a heavy extremist presence. U.S. forces captured 12 suspects Feb. 11 after calling in air-support from B-52 and B-1 bombers during a reconnaissance mission in the Baghran Valley. The U.S. soldiers, on a mission trying to locate weapons caches and Taliban sympathizers, spotted roughly two dozen militants armed with AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers when the hostilities began. This announcement of this action coincided with unconfirmed reports coming from Helmand province that U.S. bombings had killed an estimated 17 civilians during earlier operations. U.S. authorities insist however that there was only one civilian casualty. As of Feb. 13, U.S. and coalition forces were still battling suspected terrorist redoubts, this time, in southern Helmand province, where air raids were augmenting roughly 100 U.S. Special Forces units on the ground. So far, 15 suspects have been arrested. On Feb 17, U.S. Special Forces came under fire in Asadabad, in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, though were unable to return fire. The U.S. military spokesman blamed Taliban and al Qaeda rebels on the incident. A U.S. soldier lost his right foot in a mine explosion outside the eastern city of Gardez Feb. 19 as the military vehicle he was traveling in apparently triggered the blast. A second soldier suffered facial injuries. They were both on a routine patrol. U.S. military authorities said Feb. 21 that troops from the 82nd Airborne Division expanded operations in southern Helmand province to kill or capture members of Taliban and other fundamentalist sympathizers. Operation Viper, as it is being called, has already resulted in the detention of seven rebel fighters without any shots being fired. General Afghan Security Situation Authorities received a statement attributed to fugitive chief Mullah Muhammad Omar Feb. 17 in which he incites Afghans to wage jihad against the Americans and the U.S.-backed Karzai government. "The dignity of Islam has been attacked," the statement says, "and today America has attacked the oppressed Muslim nation of Afghanistan … jihad is obligatory for all Muslims." Factional fighting between the forces of rival warlords Gen. Rashid Dostum and Gen. Atta Mohammed Feb. 22 resulted in the deaths of six civilians near Maimana, the capital of Faryab province. Forces loyal to Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, and Muhammad, a Tajik, have clashed repeatedly in northern Afghanistan over competing fiefdoms, demonstrating the continued presence of warlordism and the Karzai regime's lack of control outside of Kabul. ISAF In a handover ceremony Feb. 10 in Kabul, Germany and the Netherlands formally received joint command of the 4,800-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Turkish Maj. Gen. Hilmi Akin Zorlu, the outgoing ISAF commander. The 22-member ISAF contingent in Kabul will now be led by German Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst, who will remain in charge of the peacekeeping force until October 2003. "Though the name and face of the commander of ISAF may change, ISAF's purpose and commitment will not," he said. The same day two 122mm projectile rockets exploded a couple hundred yards from a base housing the German and Dutch ISAF contingent. It was unclear who launched the attack, and whether or not it was intended to send a stern message to the incoming German and Dutch peacekeepers and the visiting German Foreign Minister Peter Struck. The same base was similarly attacked Jan. 31. On Feb. 11, during his Kabul visit, Struck suggested to Afghan President Hamid Karzai that NATO formally take command of ISAF responsibilities following Germany's six-month mandate. "Only a limited number of countries are capable of taking over [ISAF]…It makes sense to determine formally that the responsibility be shouldered jointly," he said. The Canadian Defense Minister announced Feb. 12 that his country could send as many as 2,800 troops to Afghanistan to join ISAF forces in Kabul this summer. The soldiers, slated to serve at least two six-month rotations, would contribute a brigade headquarters and a battle group. By sending troops to Afghanistan the Canadian government apparently hopes to avoid the politically charged debate over whether to send ground forces in support of a possible war with Iraq. Meanwhile, the German Defense Minister indicated Feb. 21 that Germany would withdraw its ISAF contingent from Kabul if a U.S.-led war in Iraq escalated tensions in the country. "I don't want to exclude the possibility that the security situation could intensify in the event of any war on Iraq," he said. Pakistan A Pashto-language statement attributed to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was received by a reporter in Islamabad, Feb. 23, calling for Muslims of the world, and Iraqis specifically, to wage a guerilla war [against the United States] through use of suicide-attacks, while calling the United States "the big Satan of the world." Hekmatyar also expressed his satisfaction with a recent U.S. Executive Order designating him a terrorist. "I am thankful to Almighty God that the United States of America thinks I am a terrorist…it's a matter of pride that such a strong country wants to punish me for the sake of my holy religion, Islam," the statement added. Other News In Brief
Coalition Operations U.S. and coalition soldiers called in air support from B-1 bombers, F-16s, and AC-130 gunships as they fought on Jan. 27 with roughly 80 rebels believed to be aligned with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar a northern Afghan warlord bent on destabilizing the country's transitional government. The fighting took place in southeastern Afghanistan. Eighteen rebels were killed, with no U.S. or coalition casualties, in what was the fiercest battle in Afghanistan since Operation Anaconda, approximately 10 months ago. U.S. aircraft reportedly began dropping wanted posters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar over Afghanistan on Feb. 3 as the search for the rebel warlord continues. U.S. authorities are concerned Hekmatyar is allying himself to Taliban and al Qaeda in armed opposition the transitional Afghan government. A pair of Danish F-16 fighter jets dropped four laser-guided bombs on a mountainous cave complex in southeastern Afghanistan early on Feb. 3 in support of U.S.-led coalition operations against known terrorist redoubts. On Feb. 6 CIA operations officer Helge Boes was killed in eastern Afghanistan during a training exercise when a grenade detonated prematurely. Two other CIA officers were injured in the blast. Boes' death marks the second CIA officer killed in Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in October 2001.
On Jan. 27, U.S. soldiers arrested three Afghan businessmen suspected of having ties to Islamic fundamentalists in Jalalabad. A senior Afghan commander on the scene believed they had connections to al Qaeda, the Taliban, or renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Meanwhile, on Jan. 29, U.S. and Afghan forces raided an undisclosed location in Kabul and seized explosives and bomb-making equipment from three men allegedly plotting to destroy U.S. or coalition facilities in the city. It is unclear if those detained were linked to a specific terrorist group. A British media report indicated Jan. 30 that members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network had successfully built a crude radiological device - or "dirty bomb" in Herat. Previously, al Qaeda efforts to procure such a device had not been thought to be this advanced. A powerful bomb destroyed a bridge six miles south of Kandahar Jan. 31, killing eight civilians. Afghan authorities said they had detained eight suspects in connection with the attack, indicating the detainees were likely Taliban and/or Qaeda fugitives. A lone Afghan gunman eluded capture by U.S. troops Feb. 1 after he opened fire as they were searching the Adi Ghar Mountain complex in southeastern Afghanistan. The troops were looking for enemy elements that fought U.S. forces in the same area on Jan. 27. No one was injured in the attack. Afghan government troops clashed with suspected Taliban fighters Feb. 4 at Shawali Kot, roughly 10 miles northeast of Kandahar, after they received intelligence reports indicating Taliban were regrouping in the area. Authorities said it was unclear if U.S. forces were involved or not. An Afghan army post in Helmand province was attacked on Feb. 7. Five soldiers were killed and two abducted. It is unclear who was behind the attack.
A southern Kabul base housing Germany's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) contingent was targeted by three rockets on Jan. 31. The rockets exploded several hundred yards from the base and ISAF reported no casualties in the incident. The ISAF commander, Turkish Maj. Gen. Hilmi Zorlu, indicated that peacekeepers must stay in Afghanistan two or three more years to ensure security and stability and that the Afghan national army and police must be fully established in Kabul and the hinterlands before the force can leave.
On Feb. 6, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told reporters in Moscow that he no longer believes that Osama bin Laden is dead, saying the Qaeda leader could have survived the U.S. bombing of Tora Bora in December 2001 and could be now hiding in the Afghan mountains near Pakistan. Musharraf also stressed that bin Laden could not possibly be in Pakistan, and that al Qaeda has been so marginalized that another large-scale attack from them seems improbable. This contrasts starkly with the estimates of Western intelligence agencies who believe an al Qaeda attack is imminent.
Jan. 13, 2003 - Jan. 26, 2003 Coalition Operations U.S. Special Forces and Afghan soldiers, uncovered a cache of roughly 322 107mm rockets on Jan. 14 close to Zarin Kalay, near Khost It is to be decided whether the rockets will be destroyed or handed over to the fledgling Afghan Army. On Jan. 15, two U.S. Special Forces soldiers were treated for facial lacerations after an explosive device detonated under their vehicle 30 miles northeast of Jalalabad. In a separate incident the same day, an American soldier was shot at Kandahar Air Base. Hostile fire was not involved and the incident is under investigation. The soldier is currently in critical but stable condition. Also on Jan. 15, U.S. aircraft, including B-52s were scrambled over Asadabad after rocket fire was reported at the U.S. base there. It is unclear if the B-52s dropped any ordnance. Meanwhile, on Jan. 16, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was shot in the leg while on a mounted patrol in western Afghanistan. The soldier is in a stable condition. On Jan. 20, a patrol from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division exchanged gunfire with two men near the American base at Shkin. U.S. Air Force A10s were scrambled to support the troops but did not open fire. One of the assailants was wounded. It was reported on Jan. 21 that U.S. Special Operations soldiers opened fire on three people seen carrying rifles and binoculars close to a U.S. base in Shkin near Paktia province's border with Pakistan. There were no casualties in the incident however U.S. forces detained two of the people. The third individual was believed to have escaped. On Jan. 22, Bagram Air Base was attacked by small arms fire and a 107 mm rocket, which landed near the southwest perimeter of the base. There were no U.S. casualties or damage to any equipment. AH-64 Apache helicopters were called in for air support but reported no further activity. Also on Jan. 22, a joint U.S.-Afghan coalition seized more than 1,000 barrels and cans of acetic anhydride in a mountainous region 15 miles east of Jalalabad. Acetic anhydride is a chemical used to turn opium into heroin. Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium, generating roughly 3,000 tons of it a year. On Jan. 23, a U.S. Special Forces soldier shot and killed an Afghan at a U.S. firebase near Deh Rawud in central Afghanistan after the man attacked the base with small-arms fire. A Jan. 24 report indicated that U.S. forces and Afghan troops detained at least 20 armed men over the previous two days on the Pakistani border near Spin Boldak. Also in a separate incident, senior Afghan officials confirmed the arrest of two Taliban commanders suspected of 'planning to attack an American base or Afghan installation.' General Afghan Security Situation On Jan. 12, a man was arrested in Shebergan for plotting to kill regional warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. The man claims he was acting on orders from Taliban and al Qaeda elements. On Jan. 14, Obaidullah, the security chief of the southern border town of Spin Boldak, indicated that small groups of Taliban fighters led by local commander Hafiz Abdur Rahim were regrouping near the southern border with Pakistan and 'trying to persuade people to join a jihad (holy war).' A UN report on Jan. 25 indicated that a disarmament program aimed at members of Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum's militia and the rival Jamiat party of warlord Atta Mohammad. Though the two men claim to enjoy a good personal relationship, conflicts between their respective troops are persistent. On Jan. 26, three Afghan security officers, accompanying a four-vehicle convoy of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, were shot as they traveled through eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. Two officers died in the incident and the other was slightly wounded. It was unclear who was behind the attacks. No UN staff was injured in the incident. On Jan. 26, two Afghan soldiers and one civilian were shot dead in Shkin, near the Pakistani border in southeastern Paktika province. In a separate incident, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was injured after he fell down a well in central Afghanistan. He is believed to be in stable condition. ISAF The Italian government, which maintains 450 troops in Kabul as part of the International Security Assistance Force, indicated that its participation in the force could be truncated if a planned battle group deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom exceeds six months. Italy is reportedly still deciding whether to deploy a helicopter squadron in support of its scheduled counter-Taliban operations in the Afghan-Pakistan border region in February. A British parliamentary report on international aid to Afghanistan said on Jan. 23 that the lack of general security in the South Asia country is hampering the distribution of aid and hindering efforts at reconstruction. The report added that not enough money has been pledged for reconstruction thus far and that the decision not to extend ISAF outside of Kabul was an error. Pakistan It was reported on Jan. 17 that Taliban fighters and former Taliban were returning from refuge in the tribal areas of Pashtun-dominated Pakistan and regrouping near the frontier city of Spin Boldak, roughly 380 miles southwest of Kabul. Sources indicated these Taliban could either be interested in destabilizing the new transitional government, or simply returning to their homes.
Coalition Operations Reports emerged on Jan. 1 that U.S. troops had arrested Raz Mohammed Dalili - the head of an influential Pashtun tribe in Paktia province. It is unclear why Dalili was detained. A former Afghan minister and Taliban commander, he survived a mistaken American air strike on a convoy of tribal elders who were traveling to meet the newly-installed head of the Afghan government, Hamid Karzai, in Dec. 2001. Dalili's arrest is likely to cause some unrest in his home province. An American paratrooper was wounded after stepping on a landmine Jan. 4 near Khost, 100 miles southeast of Pakistan. The soldier was treated in Khost for his injuries, said to be non-life-threatening, and later moved to Bagram. The incident happened as the U.S. military resumed mine clearing at Bagram, its main base in Afghanistan, after a 24-hour safety stand-down from such operations. The stand-down followed an incident two days earlier, when a U.S. soldier stepped on a mine in an uncleared zone near the base. According to Col. Roger King, a U.S. military spokesman at the base, mine clearing was temporarily stopped in order to review procedures and 'make sure nobody is getting complacent.' Some 7,000 mines have been removed at Bagram since the start of 2002, with around 1.5 miles still to be cleared. A U.S. base close to Shkin, near the Afghan-Pakistan border, was targeted by rocket fire on Jan. 8. No one was injured in the attack, during which one rocket impacted some 300 yards outside the base. The same day, after receiving a tip-off, U.S. Special Forces uncovered approximately 150 Chinese-made landmines near Jalalabad. U.S. troops also destroyed a large munitions depot near the southeastern village of Shorabak after being alerted to it by allied Afghan forces. U.S. Special Forces discovered a large cache of bomb-making material in Jalalabad on Jan. 10. The find included 900 pounds of propellant, 180 pounds of ball bearings, 200 rocket-propelled grenades, and various other grenades and weapons. The following night, Jan. 11, a rocket exploded 300-500 yards outside Forward Operating Base Salerno near Khost. No casualties were reported. The base houses a battalion of U.S. troops. The attack came the same day two Afghans were evacuated from the base at Khost after being injured in an incident involving unexploded ordnance. The two were moved to Bagram and are in a serious but stable condition. Three other Afghans were also wounded in the same incident and remain in a stable condition in Khost. No further details about the incident are available. General Afghan Security Situation On Jan. 6, Afghan government troops engaged in a gun battle with 60 enemy fighters in the Balai Zhar region, 75 miles southeast of Kandahar. The government troops suffered no casualties in the encounter, in which four suspected Taliban militiamen were killed and two others captured. It is unclear where the prisoners are being held or how they and their comrades were identified as Taliban. However, according to Khalid Pashtoon, an Afghan government spokesman in Kandahar, the enemy fighters were led by Hafiz Abdul Rahim, who is well-known locally for his support of the Taliban. Rahim and his men are said to have escaped into neighboring hills near the Pakistani border. The same day, humanitarian agencies and Afghan officials said that aid operations in Zabul province were being threatened by a series of armed robberies and a grenade attack during the previous week. During this period at least seven vehicles were stolen from Afghan, American and British agencies in broad daylight, and there was a grenade attack on the Afghan Development Agency office. The incidents have caused the Agency, an umbrella body for the almost 20 aid agencies based in the town, to close for security concerns. It is not immediately clear who was responsible for the attacks, although the governor of Zabul, Hamidullah Tokhi, has blamed fighters of the former Taliban regime. Factional fighting in northern Afghanistan on Jan. 8 left one supporter of local leader Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum dead and three followers of his rival, Ustad Atta Mohammad, injured. The cause of this latest clash between the two factions, which included rocket and machine gun fire, is unclear. The fighting, which occurred in Keshende, 28 miles southwest of Mazar-e-Sharif, was quelled after mediation from representatives sent by Dostum and Mohammad. Forces loyal to the two leaders have clashed sporadically since the fall of the Taliban over a year ago, with dozens of fighters and civilians killed and hundreds more internally displaced. Dostum and Atta, rivals during the Afghan civil war of the 1990s but now both members of the country's government, claim that unruly local commanders are behind the recurring violence. Also on Jan. 8, an Afghan government patrol came under fire in the village of Loi Karez near Afghanistan's southeastern border with Pakistan. Four people were killed in a heavy gun battle in which two armed men described as Taliban fighters were later arrested. No coalition troops were involved in the operation. A bomb in a tape recorder killed two Afghans in an electronics repair shop in Balkh on Jan. 11. Someone apparently left the device at the shop, saying he would return later. When he failed to do so, a repairman inserted batteries in it, setting off a bomb. Music shops have been targeted recently in parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan although, thus far, no one has been killed. Music was banned under the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law and parties disgruntled at its recent return to Afghan life are generally suspected of being behind such attacks. It is unclear who is behind this latest incident, however, or if it is related to the other music shop attacks. On Jan. 12, an Afghan government spokesman announced the formation of four commissions designed to facilitate the disarming of private armies in Afghanistan and the building of a national military force. The primary effort will be through the disarmament commission headed by Abdul Karim Khalili, the leader of the Shiite Hezb-e-Wahdat faction and one of Afghanistan's four vice presidents. The commission will collect weapons while also supplying newly-disarmed fighters with jobs. Afghan Deputy Defense Minister Attiqullah Barlai, a Tajik from the Northern Alliance faction, will head the re-integration committee, while two Pashtun former generals, Rahim Wardak and Gulzarak Khan, will lead the recruitment and training commissions. ISAF On Jan. 6, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, Turkish Army Gen. Hilmi Akin Zorlu, warned that any U.S.-led military action against Iraq could lead to increased attacks on foreigners in Afghanistan - be they military, aid workers, or members of the business community. Zorlu said ISAF had stepped-up intelligence gathering as a preventative measure against such attacks in Kabul by those sympathetic to Iraq, adding that he plans to increase security measures in the event of war. However, Zorlu also stated that he saw no need to increase ISAF troop numbers or expand the force beyond the Afghan capital. His warning on attacks was echoed by a U.S. military spokesman two days later, who cautioned that it was too early to take action to safeguard against such attacks, saying: "We'll address that when and if it occurs." Pakistan Afghan officials disclosed on Jan. 9 that border police had seized more than 300 rockets in the Durbaba region of Eastern Afghanistan. A number of people were also detained. The rockets, mainly the 107mm models that are so numerous in Afghanistan, are widely used in ongoing attacks against coalition forces in the country, and appear to have been smuggled from Pakistan. Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan reiterated on Jan. 3 that American troops had the right to engage in 'hot pursuit' of suspected enemy forces across the Pakistani border if need be - something he claimed Pakistan's authorities were fully aware of. The statement followed an incident on the border the previous week in which an American soldier was wounded and a U.S. plane bombed a building said by Pakistan to be on their side of the border. U.S. officials say the building was in Afghanistan. The controversy continued this week as Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah claimed that, while Pakistan had cooperated a lot with the U.S.-led campaign in his country, they could do more. Speaking on Jan. 8, Abdullah also claimed that 'rogue elements' within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency might be helping extremists within Afghanistan. On Jan. 12, pamphlets were distributed in Peshawar, Pakistan claiming a group called the 'Secret Army of Mujaheddin' was behind at least 50 attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks. The group first surfaced and began claiming responsibility for such attacks in late August. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Dec. 17, two American soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were wounded in a bomb attack on their car in Kabul. Afghan officials later arrested a teenage male carrying two hand grenades, who confessed to carrying out the attack "for the cause of Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan." Another man was detained after he was observed running from the scene of the attack. Also on Dec. 17, soldiers of the Afghan national army destroyed two illegal checkpoints near Rabat. Accompanied by U.S. Special Forces soldiers, they took six prisoners during the pre-dawn attack. The detainees were handed over to the local police for questioning. On Dec. 19, a UN Mine Action Center convoy was nearing Ghazni from Kabul when it was attacked by armed men. Two of the vehicles forced their way through but the third was blocked when the gunmen opened fire and was eventually stolen. The assailants took a few passengers hostage but released them a few miles down the road before crossing the Pakistani border. On Dec. 20, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill, said that attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan are likely to increase if there is war in Iraq. He said attacks are "likely to come from people who do not want to see this country continue to move down the road to its destiny." Also on Dec. 20, a U.S. soldier was injured in a rocket attack near northeastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The following day, a U.S. soldier was shot dead in a firefight during a nighttime operation in Paktika province. On the same day, another U.S. soldier was injured by rocket fire in a separate incident. On Dec. 23, unidentified attackers fired a rocket toward a U.S. base in Deh Rawood district in Uruzgan province. No casualties were reported. U.S. Special Forces were deployed after the incident but did not find the attackers. On Dec. 24, a rocket was fired at a U.S. base in Shkin, missing its target. Another two rockets were fired on Dec. 25 at a U.S. base near the town of Khost, but also missed their target. On Dec. 28, U.S. troops arrested nine men after locating a site seemingly used for rocket attacks on American bases near Khost. On the same day, three Afghan army soldiers were injured when a landmine went off beneath their jeep near Spinboldak. Also on Dec. 28, a U.S. soldier received head injuries in a friendly fire shooting incident at Kandahar Air Base. The unidentified soldier was flown to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Dec. 29. On Dec. 29, another U.S. soldier sustained a head wound in an exchange of hostile fire near the Pakistani border. The wounded soldier was then transferred to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for treatment. General Afghan Security Situation On Dec. 16, Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed that his government would find Osama bin Laden if he is still alive. "It is difficult to say whether he is alive or dead," Karzai said when asked by reporters in Oslo. Also on Dec. 16, Karzai banned political leaders and local warlords from taking part in military activity not authorized by his government. Representatives of rival northern commanders Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and Gen. Atta Mohammed signaled their acceptance of Karzai's decree. Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai also welcomed the decision as being positive for Afghanistan's internal stability. All three men have taken part in such unauthorized activities in the past. Karzai also pledged to disarm his war-ravaged country within the next six months. The order comes as part of national efforts to reduce the influence of renegade warlords and unruly commanders who threaten to undermine stability in Afghanistan. On Dec. 22, at least Afghan soldier was killed and three others injured in a rocket attack on their vehicle in Kandahar. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said they suspected it was the work of Qaeda remnants. On Dec. 25, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar distributed a warning among his supporters in Pakistan that a holy war would be stepped up against international troops based in Afghanistan. He said in his message that his Hezb-e-Islami group "will fight our jihad until foreign troops are gone from Afghanistan and Afghans have set up an Islamic government." Hekmatyar has allied his fighters with Taliban and Qaeda remnants in Afghanistan. ISAF On Dec. 19, two Afghans were killed in a grenade attack on an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base in Kabul. The attacker also died in the incident. Two French journalists with the Paris-based non-governmental organization Aina were wounded in the attack when one or two grenades were thrown at Camp Warehouse, as the ISAF base is known. On Dec. 22, seven German soldiers serving with ISAF died when their helicopter crashed just outside Kabul. Two Afghan girls were initially rumored to have also been killed, but later found to have survived the incident. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but ISAF officials believed it was due to engine trouble rather than a missile attack. Pakistan On Dec. 17, Afghan Vice President Hedayat Amin Arsala met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad and discussed regional situations and enhanced cooperation, particularly in the field of trade and investment, between the two countries. Musharraf highlighted the friendly relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and congratulated the Afghans on their reconstruction efforts. On Dec. 22, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and reiterated Pakistan's support for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan. The meeting took place at a day-long conference on good relations between Afghanistan and its six immediate neighbors. On Dec. 25, Lt. Gen. McNeill, commander of U.S forces in Afghanistan, expressed his wish that Pakistan put more troops on its side of the Afghan border. Iran Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met with Musharraf for a series of wide-ranging talks starting on Dec. 23. The two sides confirmed their respect for Afghanistan's independence, unity, and territorial integrity, while agreeing that the strengthening of security in the country is important for regional peace and stability. They also agreed on regular consultations and cooperation on a bilateral and trilateral basis with Kabul in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, combating terrorism, and the repatriation of refugees. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Dec. 9, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan troops hunting Qaeda and Taliban fugitives detained at least 27 suspects in the southern part of Afghanistan and discovered a large cache of weapons. The suspects allegedly belonged to the former Taliban government and to the Hezb-i-Islami party of local warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - a former Afghan prime minister. U.S. forces came under rocket fire on Dec. 11 at a base in Lwara and responded with mortars. U.S. Air Force A-10s were also called in for support. No casualties were reported. Unidentified attackers fired five rockets. About 200 soldiers of the Afghan national army were sent on Dec. 14 to join U.S. forces in their hunt for Taliban and Qaeda remnants. The troops will be the first from the new Afghan army to have direct contact with the U.S. forces in the country and will be stationed in the provinces of Paktia and Khost near the border with Pakistan. General Afghan Security Situation Two bombs went off in Khost on Dec. 12, although they caused no casualties and little damage. One of the bombs exploded at a local restaurant while the other went off in front of police headquarters in the city. Remnants of the former Taliban regime and al Qaeda were blamed for the incidents. At least one suspect was arrested in connection with the explosions. Also on Dec. 12, a group of Afghans were detained for allegedly having attacked and robbed two German aid workers in Kabul in November 2002. The group was held under arrest after a gun battle that took place northwest of the capital. ISAF On Dec. 10, the U.K. International Development Secretary, Clare Short, spoke at a meeting of the International Development Select Committee and supported proposals for U.S. and British troops to be deployed in peacekeeping style roles to major cities in Afghanistan. She stated that regional security teams were invaluable in promoting order and security in five or six of the biggest cities in the country. Originally, the United Kingdom had reportedly favored an expansion of ISAF's mandate to allow it to operate in other cities. However, the idea was said to have been opposed by the U.S. and some of the countries contributing to ISAF - most recently the force's new lead nations - Germany and the Netherlands. Pakistan On Dec. 9, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said that no one in the international community claimed that Osama bin Laden was alive or dead, adding that he himself believed that bin Laden was not in Pakistan. Kasuri made the comments when he was questioned by some newsmen who claimed that he had earlier made a definitive statement about bin Laden's whereabouts on a recent trip to Germany. On Dec. 10, Pakistan agreed with Afghanistan on a plan to repatriate the remaining 1.8 million Afghan refugees within three years. The plan was announced after a meeting between Pakistani Minister for Water, Power, Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, and Afghan Minister for Refugees and Rehabilitation Enayatullah Nazari. On Dec. 12, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to release each other's prisoners except for those detained for involvement in serious crimes. The agreement was made at a meeting in Peshawar between Nazari and Pakistan's northwest frontier province Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani. Nazari also asked Durrani to help stop the police from harassing Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The following day, Khan Sherpao made a statement that the government had closed its borders with Afghanistan to block infiltration of suspected Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Also on Dec. 12, the Pakistani government finalized a new plan to make its anti-terrorism effort more effective by having elected representatives take a more active role in this. Interior Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said "law enforcement agencies need to be strengthened by associating elected representatives to effectively combat terrorism and ensure internal security." He also said that Pakistan was prepared to provide all support needed to fight terrorism. Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Jehangir Qazi said on Dec. 12 that a total of 422 Qaeda activists have been arrested in Pakistan since October 2001. He did not provide details such to as where the suspects were captured. Pakistan is reported on Dec. 14 that Kasuri will sign a "Declaration on non-interference" with Afghanistan in Kabul next week. Afghanistan's five other immediate neighbors China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are planning to sign the declaration. Iran Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported on Dec. 11 that over 350,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Iran since a voluntary repatriation program, sponsored by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), took effect in April, 2002. The repatriation of Afghans is governed by a tripartite agreement signed in Geneva by Iran, Afghanistan and the UNHCR in April 2002. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Dec. 2, U.S. Special Forces based in Lwara called in Apache attack helicopter support to run after five unknown suspects moving in the neighborhood. A small team of soldiers discovered five rockets in the area, and one suspect was detained for questioning. Later in the day, American Special Force troops near Jalalabad came under fire from 10 suspects armed with automatic weapons and returned fire until they fled away. A-10 ground attack aircraft were called in for support to drop bombs in the target area. On Dec. 7, U.S. soldiers destroyed eight 107mm rockets aimed at a U.S. base near Lwara after nearby villagers alerted them to the weapons. No one was injured in the operation. In a Dec. 8 joint operation in Kandahar and neighboring districts, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan troops hunting Qaeda and Taliban remnants detained at least 27 suspects and seized a large quantity of weapons. The United States was reported on Dec. 8 to be planning to finance the construction and maintenance of 177 checkpoints to be staffed by a 12,000-strong border police unit. The plan, designed to slow down the flow of illicit drugs, terrorists, and contraband in and out of Afghanistan, was revealed at an investment conference held in Kabul. General Afghan Security Situation Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Dec. 2 that he was banning all private militias and creating a national army aimed "to give Afghanistan an efficient, mobile, well-paid armed forces, not exceeding 70,000 troops and officers altogether." He made the remark while in Bonn where he met Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other officials, adding that those who are considered outside the national army will be "declared illegal from the signing of this document onwards." On Dec. 3, unknown men threw two grenades into the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Gardez, shattering the window glasses but causing no casualties. An uneasy ceasefire was held on Dec. 4 in western Afghanistan to resolve three days of local fighting which left a total of 27 people dead. A government delegation from Kabul arrived in Herat in an effort to broker peace between governor Ismail Khan and commander Amanullah Khan. Afghan police claimed on Dec. 5 that they averted a terror explosion at a mosque in Kabul where Muslims gathered to offer special prayers to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan. They said nine pounds of explosives and two grenades were discovered at the Blue Mosque before the start of the three-day religious festival after Ramadan. On Dec. 7, New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff arrived in Afghanistan for a two-day visit to discuss with Karzai issues such as the creation of Afghan national army. ISAF On Dec. 6, addressing the UN General Assembly, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram urged the international community to expand the size and mandate of the International Security Force in Afghanistan. He also expressed that Pakistan would welcome a greater integration of Afghanistan into the regional economic cooperation structure. Pakistan On Dec. 3, Pakistan demanded access to six Pakistanis held in Kenya over the Nov. 28 terror attacks on Israelis near Mombasa that killed 16 people. Kenyan police arrested the Pakistanis and four Somalis for violating local immigration regulations shortly before the attacks. Pakistan's High Commission in Nairobi asked the Kenyan authorities for consular access to the arrestees although the request was rejected. Kenya's Acting High Commissioner to Pakistan was later summoned to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and was asked to urge his government to give Pakistan access to the detainees. The suspects were arrested three days earlier on charges of entering Kenya illegally. Iran The office of UNHCR in Tehran reported on Dec. 5 that despite the beginning of winter, and a decreasing number of those returning during Ramadan, Afghans were still being repatriated from Iran. Since April 9, 2002, when the joint UNHCR voluntary repatriation program was initiated, over 360,000 Afghans have returned home. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Nov. 26, U.S. Special Forces seized a large amount of weapons and several armored vehicles near Bamiyan. As the 15-man patrol team approached the cache, about 100 Afghan men were seeing fleeing the site. No casualties were reported. The following day a U.S. Special Forces soldier was wounded in the leg by a sniper while riding in a convoy east of Gardez. Also on Nov. 27, gunmen fired a rocket into a U.S. base near Lwara before fleeing across the Pakistani border. U.S. forces with helicopters spotted at least three men but did not pursue the men into Pakistan. A U.S. base near Khost came under fire on Nov. 29 from an unknown number of assailants who launched two rockets. There were no casualties or damage. General Afghan Security Situation On Nov. 26, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah embarked on a regional tour designed to lay the groundwork for a conference involving Afghanistan's immediate neighbors. Abdullah started off in Tajikistan on Nov. 26, and then spent two days in Uzbekistan before he flew on to Moscow on Nov. 29. He had a series of discussions with his counterparts in the region on the political situation in Afghanistan, security and border issues, and the role of neighboring countries in reconstructing Afghanistan. Fighting erupted on Nov. 27 in northern Afghanistan, prompting local authorities to broker a cease-fire between rival factions of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and of Gen. Atta Mohammed. Forces loyal to Dostum clashed with those of Mohammed in Faryab province. A factional battle began on Dec. 1, when a group of armed Afghans patrolling near a U.S. air base at Shindand started shooting at another group of armed Afghans, killing at least 11. In response, U.S. troops called in B-52 bombers for the first time in five months to support American troops there. No U.S. soldiers were injured during the shootout. The incident started when Pashtun commander Amanullah Khan's forces attacked positions held by Herat governor Ismail Khan and advanced toward Shindand, before they were forced back to their positions. ISAF On Nov. 26, several rockets impacted in the eastern part of Kabul, but did not leave any casualties. Members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) later scoured the hills over the city but did not find any suspects. The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Nov. 27 to extend ISAF for a year beyond Dec. 20 when Turkey's command is taken over by Germany and the Netherlands for six months. Despite calls from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to expand the force beyond Kabul, no additional troops have been offered to provide security while an Afghan national army is being trained. Pakistan On Nov. 26, Afghan authorities released 87 Pakistani prisoners accused of having fought with the former Taliban regime. They were handed over to Pakistani officials in Kabul and were put on a bus to return to Pakistan. A Foreign Ministry statement said each of the prisoners had been accused of "illegal and subversive actions." Also on Nov. 26, Pakistan's law enforcement agencies arrested two persons in Quetta - a town alleged to be linked with al Qaeda operatives. The suspects were a Sudanese national, Mohammad Talha, and a Pakistani, Qari Muhibur Rehman. According to Rehman's family, around three dozen security officials broke into his house, while others took up covering positions on rooftops. Hard-line Islamists opposed to the U.S. military presence in Pakistan took power on Nov. 28 in a province bordering Afghanistan. Muhammad Akram Durrani, head of a six-party Islamic alliance, was voted in to lead the North West Frontier Province. The Pakistani government has been working to weaken Islamic extremist groups. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations It was reported on Nov. 18 that more U.S. civil affairs troops would be sent to Afghanistan to supplement the 600 American civil affairs soldiers currently there. They will work with and train Afghan soldiers, and also help improve the country's security. According to the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, David Johnson, between 75 percent and 80 percent of the country has already been "pacified," but more forces are needed as the International Security Assistance Forces does not currently operate beyond Kabul. On Nov. 19, Japan extended its logistics support for Operation Enduring Freedom for six months. Made in accordance with the special anti-terrorism measures laws passed last October, the decision will allow a transport ship to join the currently deployed Japanese vessels and to transport equipment for construction of airfields in Afghanistan. On Nov. 20, U.S. Special Forces fought off attackers near Jalalabad when five gunmen fired on them with AK-47 assault rifles. The incident occurred after the Americans found a drug-production lab and documents allegedly tying it to a fugitive warlord. While the suspects escaped, there were no casualties on the U.S. side. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Nov. 20 that Australia would withdraw its 150 Special Air Service (SAS) troopers from Afghanistan, saying the troops were no longer needed. Australian defense officials are reportedly drawing up plans to deploy forces to Iraq. Australia has had Special Forces personnel in Afghanistan since December 2001. In response, the Afghani ambassador to Australia, Mahmoud Saikal, said on Nov. 21 that his country needed Australian troops to provide training and other assistance to build up a national army and police force. Meanwhile, on the same day, New Zealand confirmed that it has no plans to withdraw its SAS troops from Afghanistan. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said on Nov. 21 that Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were likely hiding in border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Losyukov, "certain circles in Pakistan are aiding bin Laden and his organization." General Afghan Security Situation On Nov. 18, fighting took place in northern Afghanistan between forces of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and Gen. Atta Mohammed. The fighting began after Ahmed Khan, Dostum's deputy, attacked rival security checkpoints in Maqsood, Samangan province, leaving at least two combatants dead. Also on Nov. 18, Afghan police claimed to have averted a possible sabotage attack at the Sarobi Dam in Kabul after seizing a large quantity of explosives. Police later detained several suspects. An unexploded bomb went off on Nov. 20 in eastern Kabul, killing two Afghan children and wounding another. Following negotiations on Nov. 21, Dostum and Atta Mohammad agreed to disarm their troops. The deal was made in an effort to revive a faltering UN-backed program to disarm the northern part of Afghanistan. On Nov. 22, Afghan authorities thwarted assassination attempts on President Hamid Karzai and then on Afghan Defense Minister Marshal Muhammad Fahim. Two suspects, apparently planning a suicide bombing near the defense minister's house, were detained carrying explosives. One of the suspects, an Iraqi Kurd, was found with about 22 pounds of explosives in his jacket, attached to wires and ready to explode. The man later confessed that he had first intended to kill Karzai and then changed his plan, switching to his secondary target the Afghan defense minister. Several men fired nine rockets at a U.S. base near Lwara on Nov. 23. An A-10 ground attack aircraft was tasked and bombed the suspected launch site. Later, U.S. soldiers retrieved two other rockets left nearby. ISAF The U.S. State Department welcomed Azerbaijan's Nov. 19 commitment to send peacekeepers to Afghanistan. The troops will join the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. Denmark's Army chief of staff said on Nov. 19 that German and Danish explosive experts violated safety regulations when three Soviet-made SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles they were dismantling in Kabul exploded on March 6, killing five soldiers and wounding eight others. According to the 140-page report, none of the personnel had the expertise to disarm the missiles. Also on Nov. 21, NATO agreed at a summit in Prague to support German and Dutch forces after these take command of ISAF. The two countries will be given logistical, force deployment and information exchange support. France had insisted that NATO should not bring a strong "NATO imprint" to Afghanistan. ISAF's Turkish commander Maj. Gen. Hilmi Akin Zorlu said on Nov. 22 that a war on Iraq could trigger terror attacks on ISAF. He asked U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to increase aid to Afghanistan without delay and said that Kabul's security is at it highest for over two decades. It was reported on Nov. 24 that the first Scottish territorial soldiers would soon depart for Afghanistan on a three-month mission as part of ISAF. The 53-strong detachment from the British Army's 51st Highland Regiment will guard Royal Engineers on projects to rebuild infrastructure at Camp Soutar in Kabul. Territorial soldiers are the British equivalent of the U.S. National Guard. Pakistan Dr. Amir Aziz Khan was released on Nov. 19 after he spent a month being detained for having alleged links with the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership. He was charged with working with the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership to make chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. On Nov. 19, the United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed mediated a deal to release 249 Pakistani prisoners held in Afghanistan. Zayed struck the deal by intervening with Karzai to obtain their release. Afghan authorities agreed to free the Pakistanis from prisons in Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Also on Nov. 19, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill said in Islamabad that his government would continue to offer financial support to Pakistan for its role in the war against terrorism. O'Neill said Washington was preparing a comprehensive cooperation plan to share the extra burden Islamabad's assistance imposes upon it. Pakistan has so far received $900 million as part of the budgetary support in 2001 as well as financial assistance for allowing the U.S. military to use its bases. Other News in Brief
Nov. 11 - Nov. 17, 2002 Coalition Operations On Nov. 12, it emerged that the U.S. Defense Department has decided to double the number of civil affairs soldiers deployed in Afghanistan to 340. The Pentagon was also reported to be considering dispatching the Army Corps of Engineers to manage infrastructure projects in the northern part of Afghanistan. The military is involved in small-scale reconstruction programs through those civil affairs teams currently deployed in Afghanistan. On Nov. 14, nine 107mm rockets were fired at a U.S. military base near Gardez. A-10 ground attack aircraft and Harrier jump jets were called in and dropped several bombs. U.S. Special Forces later found a suspected enemy vehicle and destroyed a rocket hidden nearby. In a separate incident, a U.S. base in Lwara was attacked with two mortar rounds and a rocket propelled grenade, with at least one round striking the compound. Troops from the 82nd Airborne Division were dispatched to the launch site, as an A-10 responded, dropping a 500-pound bomb. At least two suspects were killed. There were no American casualties. On Nov. 16, a 107mm rocket was fired at a base near Gardez. Later in the day, two rockets were fired at a U.S. airfield near Khost. No arrests were made and there were no U.S. casualties. General Afghan Security Situation On Nov. 11, hundreds of Kabul University students clashed with police in violent demonstrations after they complained about a lack of food and electricity in their dormitory following the end of the daylong fast for Ramadan. At least four students were killed and dozens injured. Clashes continued on Nov. 12, resulting in several injuries. As the demonstrators tried to march on the residence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Afghan police responded with tear gas and water cannons, also employing bursts of automatic gunfire to push the protestors back. The protests continued the following day also, with around 2,000 students assembled outside the university gates and refusing to leave until their demands for better accommodation were met. It was the first time since the fall of the Taliban that a university protest has turned violent. On Nov. 14, Human Rights Watch issued a report claiming that Afghan police beat, tortured Kabul University students detained during the demonstrations that left at least four people dead. Karzai sent condolences to the families of the dead. Meanwhile, Afghan Higher Education Minister Mohammed Sharif Faiz threatened to shut down the dormitories in an attempt to discourage further violence. Speaking at a Nov. 13 banquet held by the International Rescue Committee in New York, Karzai expressed his desire that Osama bin Laden will never return to Afghanistan. Karzai also thanked several countries including the United States for helping reconstruct Afghanistan. Karzai's comments came a day after an audiotape was aired on the Qatar-based al Jazeera satellite television station, in which a voice, widely believed by U.S. intelligence analysts to be bin Laden's, praised such recent terror attacks as that in Bali and the Chechen raid in Moscow. If genuine, the tape - which refers to the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan on Oct.28 will constitute the first hard evidence in over a year that bin Laden is alive. The tape's release has heightened fears of an intensification of al Qaeda's terrorist campaign, amid speculation that it may have broadcast a coded message to the organization's supporters and operatives and may either be authorizing or seeking to justify future large scale attacks against U.S. or other targets. The United Nations said on Nov. 14 that it was investigating reports that witnesses of alleged mass killings in northern Afghanistan last year were detained, tortured and executed. A team from the Afghan Human Rights Commission was dispatched to the region to investigate. It has been claimed that hundreds of Taliban fighters captured by the forces of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum suffocated to death in metal containers. ISAF NATO officials said on Nov. 14 that an upcoming NATO summit — which will begin on Nov. 20 in Prague — is expected to authorize the organization to provide support for Germany and the Netherlands when they take over the command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). NATO headquarters in Brussels will reportedly help organize ISAF and assist with planning, transport, and intelligence. It is also reported, however, that there are no plans to extend ISAF beyond Kabul when Germany and the Netherlands take over the force's leadership in February. Also on Nov. 14, the U.S. Congress authorized $2.3 billion in foreign aid over the next four years for rebuilding Afghanistan, in addition to $1 billion for maintaining ISAF. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said the aid would be used to help keep Afghanistan "from becoming a haven for terrorists again." Pakistan On Nov. 11, 17 Pakistanis detained for fighting with the Taliban were released in Kabul after Afghan authorities declared their punishment was complete. A spokesman for the Pakistani embassy confirmed the handover of the prisoners. Some 2,000 Pakistanis were reportedly arrested and nearly 1,000 are still being held in Afghan jails. On Nov. 11, U.S. President George Bush rejected mercy petitions sent from the Human Rights Commission to convert the death sentence of Aimal Khan Kasi into life imprisonment. Khan Kasi was sentenced to death in Virginia for shooting to death two CIA workers and injuring three others in front of the CIA headquarters in 1993. Pakistan had sent an official request to the governor of Virginia to repeal his death sentence. Khan Kasi was executed on Nov. 14. On Nov. 16 before leaving for South Asia, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill said that Pakistan and the United States shared interest in fighting terrorism. He expressed his "appreciation for the efforts of the Pakistani government ... in combating terrorism." He will visit Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan in a week-long trip. Other News in Brief
Nov. 4 - Nov. 10, 2002 Coalition Operations On Nov. 5, a rocket was fired at a U.S. Special Forces base in Gardez. It caused no injuries. Several aircraft were called in to provide close air support. Meanwhile, on Nov. 6, U.S. Special Forces seized five 107mm rockets aimed at a U.S. airfield near Khost. However, when discovered, the rockets were not timed to fire. It was reported on Nov. 7 that the German government would soon ask the Bundestag (or parliament) to extend its military involvement in the global effort to fight terrorism. German Special Forces are currently in Afghanistan assisting with nuclear, biological, and chemical detection, with German ships patrolling in the Horn of Africa region in an effort to interdict remnant al Qaeda operatives. Also on Nov. 7, U.S. Special Forces came under fire in two separate incidents in Afghanistan. Two men opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles on American troops in Deh Rawud. One of the assailants was killed while the other escaped. Later in the day eight people wearing civilian clothes opened fire on U.S. Special Forces near Khost with AK-47s and light machineguns. An A-10 aircraft and Apache helicopter were called in for close air support, with the helicopter firing 30 30mm rounds and 14 rockets. The eight assailants fled. Neither incident caused American casualties. In a related operation the next day, U.S. paratroopers swept through four areas near Khost seizing weapons and ammunition. The retrieved items included 147 rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), 28 mines, 76 hand grenades, 62 launchers, and 12 107mm rockets. It was reported on Nov. 9 that American troops intervened in a clash between government forces and a group of gunmen from local Kuchi tribes. American helicopters intervened after the two Afghan factions exchanged fire with light machineguns and RPGs near a village located southeast of Khost. Six gunmen were reported to be wounded in the clash. General Afghan Security Situation On Nov. 5, Human Rights Watch released a statement accusing the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan of backing Ismail Khan, who allegedly has a disastrous human rights record. The 51-page report called "All Our Hopes Are Crushed: Violence and Repression in Western Afghanistan" attributes a series of widespread abuses including arbitrary arrests, intimidation, extortion, and torture to Khan who is governor of Herat An Afghan defense commission led by the country's President Hamid Karzai met on Nov. 5. Several regional commanders attended, including Ismail Khan and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. The commission agreed that a new 70,000-strong national army would be raised over the next two years. The army was previously expected to be double that size and assembled over a five-year period. It was reported on Nov. 8 that a regional Afghan commander, Haji Mohammed Zaher, was involved in a shooting on the border with Pakistan but escaped unhurt. One of his bodyguards was killed in the incident and another wounded. Zaher is the son of former Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir who was assassinated in Kabul earlier this year. ISAF On Nov. 5, Human Rights Watch issued a report calling for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to be deployed beyond Kabul as a means of restraining warlords with bad human rights records. The organization singled out the warlord (and also governor of Heart) Ismail Khan, arguing that the absence of peacekeepers in places like Herat had allowed human rights conditions to deteriorate. It was reported on Nov. 6 that the Netherlands planned to join Germany in taking over command of ISAF in February 2003. The Dutch would add 400 soldiers to Germany's current 1,200, and the figures would be further boosted after the transfer of leadership. The decision is yet to be approved by the Dutch and German parliaments. Troops from both countries are currently deployed in a joint battalion in Kabul and share a headquarters in Muenster, Germany. German Lt. Gen. Norbert van Heyst is to head the Kabul force, while Dutch Brig. Gen. Robert Bertholee will assume command in Muenster. It is unclear how many more soldiers the Germans plan to add in February. Also on Nov. 6, ISAF seized and destroyed three Scud-B warheads and three Frog-7 rockets in Kabul. New Zealand Squadron Leader Terry Hay said that each of the warheads was fitted with a detonator and contained approximately 800 kilograms of TNT. During his visit to Washington, German Defense Minister Peter Struck said on Nov. 9 that NATO might take over ISAF's leadership in September 2003 when the proposed joint German and Dutch command would end. According to Struck, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and NATO Secretary General George Robertson expressed their support for the idea. However France is reportedly concerned about flying a "NATO flag in Kabul," pointing out that providing a security force for Afghanistan was beyond NATO's remit. Pakistan On Nov. 10, 12 Pakistani men were freed from a Kabul prison. They were held for allegedly fighting with the Taliban. When the Taliban regime was toppled, hundreds of such Pakistanis were arrested along with their Afghan allies. Many of them have since been released, but 600 Pakistanis are estimated to still be in jail in Afghanistan. Iran In the Nov. 5 issue of the London Times, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that the international community should target Iran as soon as the imminent conflict with Iraq is complete. According to the paper, Sharon said that Tehran should be put under pressure "the day after" action against Baghdad ends. He also warned that Israel would strike back if it was attacked by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, regardless of Washington's effort to keep it out of any war with Iraq. Other News in Brief
Oct. 28 - Nov. 3, 2002 Coalition Operations U.S. military officials announced on Oct. 29 that a U.S. Special Forces soldier killed in March 2002 was actually a victim of friendly fire from an U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship, and not enemy mortar fire as originally suspected. A draft report of the investigation into the incident, which occurred during Operation Anaconda, found that he and three Afghan troops were killed by a circling U.S. gunship near Gardez. A final version of the report is currently under review. On Oct. 30, Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his plan to send an investigative team to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to check conditions for Afghan suspects held there. Karzai announced the decision after meeting with the three freed Afghans who were detained for allegedly having ties with al Qaeda. Also on Oct. 30, The Washington Times reported a complaint from some Air Force personnel that Bagram Air Base suffers from shortages in amenities. On Oct. 31, troops from the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division found three rockets targeted toward an American base near Khost. The rockets were destroyed in place before they could be fired. General Afghan Security Situation On Oct. 28, an agreement was reached in an effort to bring peace among the main factions in the northern part of Afghanistan. The Shiite Hezb-i-Wahdat faction, Ustad Atta Mohammad's Jamiat-i-Islami group, and representatives of Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, witnessed by UN officials, agreed to disarm their fighters. There were, however, reportedly clashes earlier that day between the factions in the Sholgara area, where seven people were killed. It was the second agreement of this kind this year in northern Afghanistan, the first being made earlier this year but since dishonored. Oct. 31 witnessed the start of disarmament of these rival factions. According to Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the disarmament process began in Sholgara under the supervision of rival forces Dostum and Atta Mohammad. Zalmai Khalilzad, U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, expressed his concern in Kabul on Oct. 28 that terrorists might intensify their attacks in Afghanistan if the United States goes to war with Iraq. He said, "It is possible that people who do not wish us well, who think that increased problems in Afghanistan can distract us from our determination with regard to Iraq, might seek to increase problems here." A total of five rockets were launched at U.S. Army bases in eastern Afghanistan on Nov. 1. One exploded close to Camp Salerno near Khost, and another near Chapman Airfield. In Gardez, three rockets exploded near a U.S. Special Forces compound, prompting two A-10 aircraft to be scrambled from Bagram Air Base. There were no casualties in the incidents. On Nov. 2, two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan were attacked with rockets. One rocket exploded near a U.S. base in Deh Rahwod district in Uruzgan province, while another U.S. base in Asadabad came under rocket fire. No injuries were reported in either incident. Also on Nov. 2, at least two civilians were killed and 15 others injured when forces of Ismail Khan, governor of Herat, launched artillery bombardments on a market in Zer-e-Koh district. Forces that belonged to Ammanullah Khan, a Pashtun commander, responded with force and pushed back those of Ismail Khan. ISAF On Oct. 30, Italian troops were dispatched to investigate when an explosion rocked the northern part of Kabul. According to New Zealand squadron leader Terry Hay, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the cause of the explosion was not known. In a report published on Oct. 31 at the UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary General Kofi Annan praised the success of the International Security Assistance Force. He also reiterated his call for an expansion of the Force beyond Kabul. Pakistan On Oct. 29 in Islamabad, American and Pakistani security forces detained Ghairat Baheer, a son-in-law of Afghanistan's former prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Five servants at the house were also arrested. Computer equipment and personal files were also seized, but Pakistani officials refused to comment on the detention. Baheer came from Paktia province, and was Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan when Burhanuddin Rabbani was ruling the government in Kabul. The following day, Zalmai Khalilzad, U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, expressed his expectation that Pakistan would remain cooperative in fighting Islamic militants in Afghanistan. After meeting with Indian leaders in Delhi, he stated his belief that Pakistan, where Islamic parties made gains during recent elections, "will continue to cooperate … and [that] there will be no action to undermine the order in Afghanistan." Iran In an Oct. 30 statement made during a three-day visit to Spain, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami suggested that Washington's ongoing war on terror had strengthened Muslim support for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Speaking with Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar at a joint news conference, Khatami asked, "Have the erroneous policies of the United States made bin Laden more popular or more hated than before in various sectors of the Islamic world?" Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Oct. 21, six U.S. Marine Harrier aircraft deployed to Bagram Air Base. Their mission is to support the troops who are reliant on A-10 aircraft and helicopters. On the same day, U.S. troops started training a fifth battalion composed of over 650 Afghan recruits for the National Army. French soldiers also began signing up local recruits for a sixth battalion. Three New Zealand SAS troopers were seriously injured on Oct. 22 in a land mine explosion at an undisclosed location within Afghanistan. The soldiers were in a vehicle on routine patrol mission when a land mine exploded and wrecked the vehicle. The three men are the first serious injuries in the group of about 40 New Zealand Special Forces. In a separate incident, there was a daytime rocket attack on the Chapman Army airfield near Khost. The rockets missed the base, and no injuries were reported. On Oct. 24, American Special Forces discovered a cache of weapons at one of their bases in eastern Afghanistan. The retrieved items included five AK-47 assault rifles, 11 more advanced AKM assault rifles, 7,500 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition for the rifles, one rocket-propelled grenade launcher and 16 grenades. It was reported on Oct. 26 that the U.S. military stopped handing over confiscated weapons to Afghan security forces after this practice was criticized as strengthening regional warlords. The change of policy was made after news reports that weapons were making their way to local militias who would then use these to attack coalition forces. U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division exchanged fire with enemy troops in the Deh Rawud area of Uruzgan province on Oct. 26 when they caught a group of three men trying to target a rocket toward the U.S. base nearby. U.S. Special Forces also exchanged fire with another two men on Oct. 27. In this incident, two A-10 ground attack aircraft were called in from Bagram Air Base to provide close air support. No casualties were reported from either incident. On Oct. 27, U.S. forces destroyed a cache of ammunition near Shindand. The items consisted of 75 107mm rockets, 700 82mm mortar rounds, 50 23mm anti-aircraft rounds and 5,500 12.7mm machinegun rounds. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Oct. 27 that her country's military would be committed to the war on terror in Afghanistan for some time. After meeting with President George W. Bush at the APEC summit held in Mexico, she stated that "New Zealand is going to have an involvement, one way or other, for quite a while." During the meeting, the two leaders talked mainly about the Afghanistan conflict rather than a free-trade deal between the two states. General Afghan Security Situation The BBC reported on Oct. 23 that commander Amanullah Khan, a key factional leader in western Afghanistan, called on President Hamid Karzai to replace Ismail Khan, governor of Herat. Khan is accused for initiating fighting that began when Amanullah's troops tried to set up a checkpoint on a key road linking Herat to Iran. It was reported on Oct. 24 that two people died and four others were injured in a series of battles between Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and a rival commander, Atta Mohammad. Two of Dostum's soldiers were killed and two of Mohammad's troops injured in the clashes. On Oct. 25 and Oct. 26, a six more combatants were killed in fighting between the two regional rivals. On Oct. 27, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, met separately with Dostum and Mohammad in Mazar-e-Sharif. The three discussed security issues. The meetings were intended to bolster efforts to establish security in northern Afghanistan. Also on Oct. 27, an explosion at the former house of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar shook an American military base in Kandahar. The blast was reportedly triggered by explosives placed in a yard of a compound that once belonged to Omar. No casualties and damages were reported. ISAF On Oct. 23, troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan security forces detonated what seemed to be a homemade bomb, after blocking off roads around the UN guesthouse where it was found in Kabul. Explosive ordnance disposal experts from ISAF were dispatched to investigate and later blew up the bomb. Pakistan Dr. Amer Aziz, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, was detained on Oct. 22 by Pakistani security forces on suspicion of helping prepare chemical and biological weapons for Taliban fighters and Islamic militants. Aziz was picked up in Lahore for questioning by security police for treating Taliban remnants in various hospitals. He was known for having sympathies for Islamic fighters in Afghanistan. On Oct. 23, Pakistan arrested two al Qaeda suspects during a pre-dawn operation. Pakistani officials and an FBI team conducted the raid in Faqirabad and arrested Abdul Waheed and Abdur Rahim of the Shinwari Sarai area. Although another suspect escaped the raid, the two detainees were turned over to the FBI for interrogation. The raid also uncovered weapons and equipment, such as 10 detonators two mobile phone sets and several computer disks. Other News in Brief
Oct. 14 - Oct. 20, 2002 Coalition Operations On Oct. 15, a U.S. military base in Lwara was targeted by mortar fire. A total of five rounds impacted the east of the base and another round struck one of the compound's defensive bunkers. A quick-reaction force was dispatched from the base to investigate, backed up by Air Force A-10 close air support. Three suspects were detained. No casualties were reported. Troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division captured a small weapons cache on Oct. 16 as they scoured Afghanistan's border with Pakistan for signs of al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. The items retrieved included two rocket-propelled grenades, five boxes of Dishka heavy machine gun ammunition, 13 mines, and a large quantity of 7.62mm ammunition. Also on Oct. 16, a squadron of troops conducting Operation Alamo Sweep in eastern Afghanistan was shot at, returning fire. Again, no injuries were reported. General Afghan Security Situation An Afghan tribunal sentenced Abdullah Shah to death on Oct. 15 for murdering dozens of people. Also known as "Zardad's Dog," Shah had killed travelers who refused to pay duties to a warlord named Zardad. Shah also served as a commander for the Hezb-i-Islami faction led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the 1990s. The court sentenced his alleged accomplice, Mohammad Arif, to prison for 10 years. Also on Oct. 15, the Afghan Army captured a man responsible for a series of rocket attacks on the airport in Jalalabad. Mohammad Wasim was caught with a rocket launcher at the airport while preparing another attack. He is believed to be a member of al Qaeda, which had training camps in the nearby area during the Taliban regime. In an Oct. 16 clash in Khost, rival Afghan factions led by Bacha Khan Zadran and provincial governor Hakim Taniwal traded artillery and rocket fire, leaving at least three fighters dead. Fighting erupted when militiamen loyal to Bacha Khan attacked several checkpoints defended by Taniwal's men. On Oct. 17, local security forces in Asadabad exchanged fire at a checkpoint near a market, killing four civilians and wounding two others. The fighting between Bacha Khan and Taniwal continued through Oct. 18 in Nadir Shahkot district, 10 miles west of Khost. Taniwal's forces, composed of 800 troops reportedly surrounded Zadran's positions there. On Oct. 19, two people were killed and 40 others injured after two grenades were thrown in at a wedding party outside Kabul. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan had banned forms of entertainment, including music, which was being played at the wedding. Earlier this month, Islamic extremists circulated pamphlets in eastern Afghanistan threatening owners of such entertainment. Also on Oct. 19, troops found five 107mm rockets at a rocket launch site about 2.5 miles from the U.S. base in Khost. ISAF The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) discovered a cache of rockets and other missiles in the southern part of Kabul on Oct. 17. The weapons included three Chinese-made 107mm rockets, a fuse, a mortar round, and a 70mm projectile. On Oct. 20, the BBC reported that the United Kingdom would shut a supply base at Karachi airport next month. Britain and several other members of the ISAF used the base as a transit point for heavy equipment bound for Afghanistan. Pakistan On Oct. 14, about 115 U.S. soldiers arrived in Pakistan for joint military exercises - the first time since Washington lifted restrictions on such activities in the country earlier this year. The troops from Fort Stewart, Georgia, will engage in small-arms training and small-unit tactics with Pakistani forces for about three weeks. The troops were identified as part of the 1st Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment and came from Kuwait, where they have been training since March. Also on Oct. 14, a Pakistani political leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said he would seek to oust U.S. forces from Pakistan. Afghanistan expressed concern on Oct. 15 at gains made after the Oct. 11 national election by Islamic parties including that of Ahmed. The six-party alliance of religious parties, called Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, gained seats in the lower house of parliament. On Oct. 15, Pakistan detained four Afghan nationals with alleged links with al Qaeda at the Jalozai refugee camp. A team comprising police, FBI officials, and intelligence agencies, backed by contingents of the Frontier Constabulary and armed personnel carriers, conducted the raid. The raiding party also seized computer disks and passports from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Arab countries. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations Oct. 7 marked the one-year anniversary of Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. A ceremony was held at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, with military personnel from 42 countries honored. As American ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Finn stated, the war in Afghanistan is not over. For the latest analysis of the campaign, see:
General Afghan Security Situation On Oct. 7, at least six people were killed in clashes between rival warlords in northern and eastern Afghanistan. The fighting involved the forces of local warlord, Bacha Khan Zadran and those of the provincial governor. On the same day, forces loyal to Abdul Rashid Dostum clashed with those of his rival Ustad Atta Mohammad in Kashinda-e-Bala district in Balkh province, killing Noorulluh Khan, one of Atta Mohammed's high-ranking commanders, among others. Also on Oct. 7, two Afghan soldiers were killed on a convoy near Khost when they tried to return fire against fighters loyal to warlord Padshah Khan. About a dozen other officials in the convoy survived the ambush. Padshah Khan later confirmed the ambush but stopped short of discussing details. Dostum and Atta Mohammed negotiated a ceasefire on Oct. 9 to end the latest round of factional fighting in northern Afghanistan. A special security commission was established by representatives from both sides and mediated by delegates from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Negotiations were held in the remote city of Keshende, but details of the talks were not made available. Meanwhile, a U.S. military team operating in Bamiyan discovered a weapons cache that included over 1,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance. The cache included several rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), 82mm rifle rockets, 107mm artillery projectiles, and rifle grenades. Another U.S. team found a cache near Kandahar the same day that included 1,000 82 mm mortar rounds and 300 multiple rocket launcher rounds. U.S. forces from the 82nd Airborne Division also uncovered eight 107 mm rockets left on private land near Khost. Also on Oct. 9, Afghan authorities in the north discovered several mass graves containing the corpses of hundreds of those allegedly slaughtered by the Taliban. One grave in Chamatal, west of Mazar-e-Sharif, revealed a total of 350 bodies. All the dead were reportedly ethnic Hazaras probably killed in 1998 when Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the Taliban. A 107mm rocket was fired at U.S. Special Forces near Asadabad on Oct. 9 but no one was killed or wounded. In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen fired on a convoy carrying the Khost governor, killing two of his bodyguards and wounding four others. On Oct. 12, U.S. forces in the east of Afghanistan found two warehouses packed with weapons and ammunition, one with enough weapons to fill 35 trucks. The U.S. military suspects the weapons belonged to Padshah Khan, whose forces were driven from Khost by pro-government troops last month. On the same day, security forces in Kabul confiscated seven rockets targeted at the capital. Also on Oct. 12, three U.S. bases were attacked with gunfire and rockets in eastern Afghanistan. American soldiers at bases near Lawara, Khost, and Gardez, respectively, came under rocket and gun attack by assailants who fled the scene. None of the incidents resulted in casualties. ISAF Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende visited Berlin on Oct. 10, and agreed in principle with Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on a Dutch-German joint command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Unspecified security threats were reported in Kabul on Oct. 12, causing ISAF to close the capital's international airport on Oct. 13. All flights were diverted to Bagram Air Base, a UN spokesperson confirmed. The airport was re-opened to passenger traffic the next day. Pakistan On Oct. 8, Pakistani commandos and FBI agents raided a refugee camp in a hunt for Khan Mohammed, a former head of security for Afghan renegade Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Five men, including Khan Mohammed were detained during the raid. On Oct. 10, a letter supposedly written by Osama bin Laden circulated on the eve of Pakistan's elections, urging Pakistanis to call for a removal of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Copies of the letter, written in Arabic and translated into Urdu, said that Musharraf was an agent of the United States, and called for the establishment of a government based on the supremacy of Islam and Jihad. Pakistan's security agencies expressed ignorance about the letter, which largely circulated in various refugee camps around Peshawar. When the election finally took place, a Pakistani coalition of six pro-Taliban parties won a majority in the North West Province legislature along the Afghan border. The parties also increased their seats in the national parliament, which could signal a serious setback in international efforts to pursue the remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda in the country. Iran On Oct. 10, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that the total number of Afghans returning to Afghanistan from Iran since the start of the voluntary repatriation effort earlier this year had approached the 300,000 mark. A UNHCR represented said that current return figures were largely at the same level they were earlier this summer, despite the upcoming winter season. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Sept. 30, U.S. forces found nine truckloads of military equipment in two separate caches in eastern Afghanistan. Among the retrieved items were 51 different types of weapons, including: heavy machine guns; 75 mm recoilless rifles; hand grenades; mortars; 296 cases of ammunition; communication devices; land mines, more than 260 rocket-propelled grenade rounds; gas masks; and, 107mm artillery rounds. U.S. troops discovered another heavy load of machine gun ammunition in several bunkers, fortifications and tunnels on a farm in central Afghanistan on Oct. 2. The find included 400,000 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition and 140,000 rounds of 14.5mm ammunition. In the largest ground operation in Afghanistan in six months, U.S. troops began searching the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan on Oct. 3 for Taliban and al Qaeda remnants. About 2,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne participated in Operation Alamo Sweep. The operation will bring more regular soldiers into the hunt for Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives, thereby reducing the burden on Special Forces in preparation for a war in Iraq. Also on Oct. 3, six Norwegian F-16 fighter bombers completed their first mission as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in the form of a four hour patrol over Afghanistan. Meanwhile, on Oct. 5, an American soldier was wounded in the foot when the helicopter he was traveling in came under fire in southern Afghanistan. No serious injuries were reported in the incident. General Afghan Security Situation Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during his trip to Qatar on Sept. 30 that the deposed Taliban leader Mullah Omar was alive and in Afghanistan, hiding along Pakistani border. On the same day, however, a spokesman for Kandahar governor stated that Omar was in the mountains in central Afghanistan. In western Afghanistan, fierce fighting raged on Sept. 30 between forces of Herat governor Ismail Khan and those of rival warlord Amanullah Khan. Amanullah Khan's fighters, backed by artillery fire, over-ran positions held by the governor's troops six miles from Shindand air base in Farah province which lies south of Herat. Also on Sept. 30, pro-Afghan government forces near Gardez claimed to have overrun a base of renegade warlord Padsha Khan after nearly a day of clashes. The fight left more than a dozen fighters dead including the commander of the Sayed Karam base, located some 12 miles northeast of Gardez. Gunshots were fired on Oct. 1 at a U.S. base in Shkin. Fire was not returned. The brief volley of gunshots came from about 600 yards away, and caused no injuries. Heavy fighting broke out on Oct. 3 in the north and west of Afghanistan as forces loyal to rival commanders - Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ustad Atta Mohammad - reopened battles for control of strategic areas. In response, the two commanders sent envoys to the Pir Naqshi area in Samangan province to quell the clashes. Five people were wounded in the latest clashes in Pir Naqshi. Similarly, on Oct. 3, one man was killed and two injured in clashes between forces of warlords Hazrat Ali and Zahir Shah in the Angour Bagh area in Jalalabad. On Oct. 5, fighting erupted again between the rival warlords in western Afghanistan, killing at least six people and injuring more than 20 others. The fighting began after Amanullah Khan refused to hand over an Iranian citizen his forces had arrested to Ismail Khan. The Iranian, captured wearing Afghan clothes, but unarmed, was sent to Kandahar and later handed over to American forces there for investigation. ISAF ISAF representatives were among those who attended what Afghan President Hamid Karzai described as a "major meeting" in Kabul on Oct. 5 to discuss how best and how quickly to train the Afghan National Army so that the country can better handle its own security issues. Also present were all the military corps commanders and provincial governors in Afghanistan as well as U.S. and European representatives. Pakistan Speaking at the U.S.-Pakistan Business Council in Washington on Sept. 30, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that Pakistan needed economic assistance to defeat terrorists who use the country as a hub, stressing that terrorism cannot be fought without economic prosperity. He further stated that the United States has thus far provided a total $670 million to the country to compensate for expenses it has incurred in support of Enduring Freedom. The Pakistani foreign minister met on Oct. 3 with the Italian deputy foreign minister in Islamabad and asked him to intervene in the case of 15 Pakistanis held in Italy for allegedly belonging to al Qaeda. Italian officials detained the suspects last August after their vessel was intercepted off the coast of Sicily. Iran Afghan Ambassador to Iran, Ahmad Mashahed, said on Sept. 30 that Iran has sufficient capability and resources to help reconstruct Afghanistan. At the inaugural session of the International Exhibition to Promote Afghanistan Reconstruction, he cited Iran's cooperation on supplying energy to Herat from Khorasan and the construction of the Herat-Dogharoun-Taibad road as examples of ongoing Iranian aid. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Sept. 24, a U.S. soldier received shrapnel wounds in the leg in an accidental bomb blast near the Bagram base. Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Sept. 25 that a group of around 20 U.S. soldiers had been deployed to an army barracks in western Afghanistan, 25 miles from the border with Iran. This added to a small team of 15 U.S. Special Forces who have been staying at Gov. Ismail Khan's guest houses in the city of Herat following the fall of the Taliban regime last year. Khan was said to have been opposed to the deployment of American soldiers there but acquiesced after a recent visit by Gen. Dan McNeill, head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. An Afghan soldier was wounded in the leg on Sept. 28 when a convoy he was leading was fired upon near Kabul. The convoy of U.S. Army medics from the 339th Combat Support Hospital, a Reserve medical unit based in Pennsylvania, was on its way to the Kabul Military Training Center outside the capital on a routine mission. The U.S. undersecretary for defense, Douglas Feith, visited Kabul and said on Sept. 29 that Washington would soon shift its military operations in Afghanistan from combat missions to maintaining stability, at the same time pursuing remnants of the Taliban regime and the al Qaeda network. He stressed Washington's backing for the Karzai administration and visited the Afghan National Army training center. General Afghan Security Situation On Sept. 23, clashes broke out of a land dispute between Balkhel and Sabari tribes in eastern Afghanistan. The fighting continued overnight in the Ismail Khil area west of Khost, killing one man and injuring five people including three women. The two rival tribes, which constitute members of the majority ethnic Pashtun group in the area, had previously agreed on a cease-fire to end three weeks of clashes that killed over 20 people. On Sept. 26, Abdurrab Rasul Sayyaf, a leader of an Afghan radical Islamic group, called for the United States to be ousted from Afghanistan, saying America's mission in the country is over. USA Today reported on Sept. 27 that Sayyaf was increasing his popularity among Afghans, and was hailed as Afghanistan's future leader when he turned up at the Saudi Embassy earlier this week. The Associated Press reported on Sept. 27 that al Qaeda and Iran were supporting a new coalition in Afghanistan that aims to launch suicide attacks on American troops. The new alliance is called Lashkar Fedayan-e-Islami, or the Islamic Martyrs Brigade. Headquartered in eastern Afghanistan, it is led by former Taliban officials and fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Afghan premier. Also on Sept. 27, fighting erupted in the Dara-e-Suf region of Samangan province, south of Mazar-e-Sharif, between forces of two Uzbek commanders loyal to warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and those of ethnic Tajik Ustad Atta Mohammad. Atta's top commander captured three villages in the twisting valley of Dara-e-Suf, and now his Jamiat-i-Islami faction controls most of Mazar-e-Sharif, which was once Dostum's stronghold in the 1990s. At least 17 people were killed and 23 wounded. On Sept. 28, a powerful bomb exploded in a video shop in the eastern city of Gardez, damaging several neighboring shops. In another incident, a rocket was fired in the vicinity of a U.S. Special Forces base outside the city just after dawn. Neither incidents claimed casualties. On the same day, a strong blast shook Kabul's Microyan neighborhood, an area of Soviet-built apartment blocks, injuring several people. The explosion in a rubbish pile was caused by approximately 11 pounds of explosives. Yet another explosion occurred in the center of Kabul, damaging the Afghan Defense Ministry apartment block not far from the U.S. Embassy, and slightly wounding two. A total of 66 pounds of explosives placed in a waste bin blew out windows in the nearby building. ISAF Speaking at the informal two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Warsaw, Germany's Defense Minister Peter Struck stated on Sept. 24 that his country and the Netherlands were ready to take over the leadership of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Turkey, which currently holds the ISAF leadership, is due to step down in December. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said on Sept. 25 that his country would send mountain troops to fight the remnants of the Taliban regime and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. Marking the first time that they will participate in active combat since World War II, Italian troops could arrive in Afghanistan by March 2003 after receiving intensive training. Pakistan On Sept. 25, American delegates led by Feith arrived in Pakistan for a meeting of the Pakistan-United States Defense Consultative Group. The group met for the first time in five years for four days of discussion. On Sept. 27, the United States agreed to improve Pakistan's conventional capability by providing military cooperation, Feith said. The next day it was reported that the Bush administration would soon restore military aid to Pakistan. Islamabad hopes to acquire American F-16 fighter jets in this deal. This was announced at the end of the talks - the first such high-level meeting on military assistance between Pakistani and American officials since Washington imposed sanctions following Pakistan's nuclear tests in 1998. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations U.S. and Afghan forces launched a joint operation on Sept. 16 in the Band-e-Taimour area, located 40 miles west of Kandahar, to search for Taliban remnants and their al Qaeda allies. On Sept. 17, two rockets hit a UN Children's Fund compound in Jalalabad. There were no casualties. In a separate incident, rockets were also fired near U.S. military positions in the Asadabad and the southeastern town of Shkin in Pakitika province. Again, there were no casualties. The following day a U.S. Air Force unmanned Predator aircraft crashed in severe weather about 20 miles south of Khost. The crash site was soon secured and the Predator recovered. On the same day, in a raid near the village of Orgun, U.S. Special Forces captured seven suspects, three truckloads of weapons and literature calling for jihad. In a separate incident, five people, including two women, were killed in clashes between Balkhel and Sabari tribes, which have been fighting over land near the city of Khost, using artillery to pound each other's positions. Also on Sept. 18, Afghan authorities in Kandahar arrested a senior Taliban official, Mullah Sher Mohammad Malang, along with three of his aides. All four were subsequently handed over to American forces. On Sept. 20, a group of assailants fired six rockets and small arms at a U.S. military outpost in Lwara. No one was injured. The Americans returned fire, while A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft dropped four 250-pound bombs and fired high-explosive rounds at the attackers. Meanwhile, on Sept. 21, Lt. Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, brought two of Afghanistan's most powerful warlords - Gul Agha Sherzai, Kandahar's governor, and Ismail Khan, Heart's governor - together for mediation. There was little sign of tension as the two warlords talked for an hour with McNeill in Herat, before shaking hands and hugging. On Sept. 22, New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg, on a tour that included Athens and Istanbul, made a surprise visit to Bagram Air Base and met with McNeill. The trip had been classified for security reasons. General Afghan Security Situation On Sept. 16, at least eight people were killed and 11 wounded when fighting erupted between forces of Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Tajik rival Ustad Atta Mohammad in northern Afghanistan. In response, 200 local fighters from both factions were dispatched from Mazar-e-Sharif to Qalaye Shahr to end the conflict. The Associated Press said on Sept. 16 that U.S. counterterrorism experts have identified two key lieutenants of Osama bin Laden. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri have taken the lead in arranging new attacks with cells in the field. Mohammed, a Pakistani born in Kuwait, has been linked to the April 11 suicide truck bombing of the Djerba synagogue in Tunisia. Afghan security forces foiled a plot to shoot down a passenger plane by seizing a British-made Blowpipe surface-to-air missile in Maidan Shahr in Wardak province on Sept. 19. A taxi driver and two assailants disguised in burkas fired shots and threw at least one grenade in a vegetable market in Kandahar on Sept. 20, wounding two Afghan soldiers. After the assault, residents captured and turned the taxi driver over to police, while the two men in burkas escaped. On Sept. 21, security forces arrested more than 300 people in southwest Afghanistan following an abortive attempt to assassinate Helmand province's intelligence chief, Amar Dad, who was traveling through the outskirts of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, when his convoy came under attack. Dad was wounded and transferred to a hospital in Kandahar. In a separate incident, a single rocket was launched at a U.S. Special Operations base in Gardez. There were no casualties. ISAF Two Pakistani men in a bomb-laden fuel truck were intercepted on Sept. 14 on their way to the U.S. military headquarters in Bagram. The truck, carrying 11,600 gallons of jet fuel, was seized in Kabul at a checkpoint manned by Afghan soldiers and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops. Defense News reported on Sept. 17 that Turkey, whose command of the ISAF expires on Dec. 20, is willing to hand over the leadership to Germany. Maj. Gen. Hilmi Akin Zorlu, the Turkish commander, said that a German-Dutch joint command is possibly conditional on the results of Sept. 22 elections in Germany. The Washington Post also indicated on Sept. 21 that Germany has emerged as the leading candidate to take over command of ISAF. The New York Times reported on Sept. 18 that a new U.S. State Department report on Afghanistan submitted to Congress on Sept. 14 raised questions about expanding ISAF beyond Kabul. Saying that Turkey was doing an "exceptional job," the report cited extraordinary logistical and command burdens for this apparent change of heart on ISAF and suggested that it would be up to the Afghan government to secure its outlying areas. On Sept. 21, Turkish peacekeepers launched a new training program for more than 400 presidential guards. Nearly 600 Afghan soldiers received their first round of training earlier this year from the British peacekeepers who then led ISAF. Soldiers of the Afghan National Guard will each complete a 10-week course led by 30 Turkish officers. Pakistan On Sept. 16, Islamabad handed over to the United States five Islamic suspects including Ramzi Binalshibh, a high-ranking al Qaeda operative arrested on Sept. 11, 2002. The next day, eight militants suspected of belonging to the Harakat ul-Mujaheddin Al-Alami were arrested in Karachi and handed over to U.S. authorities. Pakistani troops also retrieved eight Kalashnikov assault rifles, 12 rocket launchers, 36 TT pistols, dozens of rocket-propelled grenade-7s, hand-grenades, 16 drums containing hydrogen-oxide and 10 bales of potassium nitrate. Also found were advanced communication devices, which were used to intercept the wireless communications on the police network. Sept. 18 saw Pakistani officials arrest a total of seven suspects believed to be planning terrorist acts. They are also suspected to have killed several French engineers in a suicide bombing this May and nearly 20 Pakistani civilians in a June bombing outside the American consulate. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations A gunman fired on Bagram Air Base on Sept. 11 — just hours before ceremonies to commemorate last year's terror attacks. At least four rockets were also fired at bases near Khost, including a U.S. Special Forces camp at Lwara. Two more rockets were fired at another base three miles east of Gardez. No casualties were reported. Meanwhile in Kandahar, thousands of Pashto speaking Afghans rallied and denounced the former Taliban regime and bin Laden for defaming Islam. On Sept. 12, one rocket was fired and landed 400 meters north of the U.S. base at Gardez, with another impacting in a small village to the northwest. An American special operations convoy was also attacked with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in the eastern province of Kunar. There were no casualties. Elsewhere, U.S. forces found large weapons caches in a compound and at a vehicle checkpoint in Deh Rawud in southern Uruzgan province. Among the arms confiscated were 712 mortar rounds, two 107mm rockets, 23 AK-47 rifles, 12 RPGs and a Russian-made automatic grenade launcher. On Sept. 13, the U.S. Air Force charged two F-16 pilots with manslaughter and assault in the April "friendly fire" incident in Kandahar that killed four Canadian soldiers and injured eight. The Americans face four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of assault, and are also charged with not exercising proper flight discipline and not following rules of engagement. General Afghan Security Situation On Sept. 10, The Associated Press reported that U.S. and Afghan officials believed that the attempted assassination on Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sept. 5 was probably planned by fugitive members of the former Taliban movement, rather than al Qaeda terrorists. Also on Sept. 12, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former Afghan premier and now a defiant factional leader, denied involvement in the Sept. 5 car bomb explosion in Kabul that killed 30. Calling for jihad to oust U.S. "aggressors" and the Karzai government, he denounced terrorism. On Sept. 15, Afghan police seized a Kabul-bound fuel tanker with explosives on board and arrested several suspects, including the driver who was later released. Meanwhile, two American soldiers sustained minor injuries when explosives detonated beneath their four-wheeled vehicle on a well-traveled road between Jalalabad and Asadabad. ISAF Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Sept. 12, Karzai welcomed Washington's announced shift of focus from alliances with Afghan warlords to expanding the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf echoed Karzai's statement saying that the central peacekeeping authority must be extended throughout Afghanistan. Pakistan On Sept. 11, American and Pakistani forces in Karachi captured Ramzi Binalshibh, a high-ranking al Qaeda operative who is allegedly intimate with last year's Sept. 11 plot. A total of nine suspected Islamic militants were captured along with Binalshibh following a shootout that left two others dead and six Pakistani policemen wounded. Binalshibh is the second-highest al Qaeda member arrested in Pakistan, next to Abu Zubaydah who was the network's chief of operations. The German interior ministry has withdrawn its request for his extradition, clearing the way for Washington's request that he be turned over to the United States. Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, a Kenyan, said to have purchased the truck used for the 1998 bombing of the American embassy in Tanzania was also believed to be among the captives. According to The New York Times, al Qaeda is operating in Karachi in cells of three to five people. Related militant groups, such as Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and Kashkar-e-Jhangvi, had set up similar cells that worked in tandem with local al Qaeda cells. A Pakistani border patrol arrested a teenage boy on Sept. 11 for allegedly trying to launch a grenade attack on U.S. military personnel camped in a tribal village near the Afghan border. The boy, a member of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, was hired by someone who represented al Qaeda. On Sept. 12, Pakistani officials raided an apartment and captured five suspected Islamic militants in a fierce gun battle that left two others dead and six police officers wounded. Also found in the apartment were assault rifles and grenades, compact disks featuring speeches by bin Laden, and a satellite phone. Another five Pakistani men were arrested for allegedly planning to set off a bomb in Karachi and to attack McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. On Sept. 15 in Hyderabad, a small bomb went off on a Karachi-bound public bus, killing one person and injuring six. No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, and there were no arrests made. Iran It was reported on Sept. 10 that a total of nearly 252,000 Afghan refugees have voluntarily returned home from Iran since April, and an arrival of 400,000 more Afghans is expected by the end of this year. The voluntary repatriation of Afghans is governed by a tripartite accord signed by Iran, Afghanistan and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Official estimates maintain that the number of Afghan refugees in Iran currently stands at around 2 million, all of whom will return home within the next three years. Other News in Brief
Sept. 2 - Sept. 9, 2002 The war in Afghanistan is far from over. On Sept. 5, Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while attending his brother's wedding in the southern city of Kandahar. American Special Forces guards returned fire, killing three people, including the gunman. Gul Agha Shirzai, Kandahar's governor who was with Karzai, was grazed in the neck and treated at a hospital. Afghans from Kajaki in Helmand province — from where the would-be assassin Abdul Rahman hailed — are known for their Taliban sympathies and hostility towards Karzai. Seventeen suspected accomplices were later arrested. Three hours earlier, a huge car bomb exploded in a congested area of Kabul, killing 30 and injuring more than 160. The explosion occurred moments after a smaller bomb went off on a bicycle nearby, drawing many onlookers to the scene. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul or the attempted assassination of Karzai, and Afghan officials expressed no knowledge of links between the two incidents. On Sept. 3, police had defused a small time bomb at a bus stop in Kabul's fifth district. The German embassy, although located in a different part of town, tightened its security in response. Coalition Operations On Sept. 3, rockets were fired near coalition forces in Khost, one hitting a house and injuring at least five Afghan civilians. A day later, four 107mm rockets were fired in the direction of U.S. soldiers operating in southeastern Afghanistan but caused no casualties. On Sept. 9, U.S. forces deployed artillery to Afghanistan in reaction to a series of recent attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces by al Qaeda/ Taliban fighters. This may be the first such use of artillery in the Afghan campaign. The U.S. Army has augmented elements of the 82nd Airborne's 319th Field Artillery Regiment at their base in Kandahar, with six 105mm howitzers ordered to improve coalition forces' protection throughout Afghanistan. The howitzers will enable U.S. forces to pinpoint the location of enemy mortar and rocket fire and respond with a barrage of artillery fire in situations where there is insufficient time to call up an airstrike. General Afghan Security Situation On Sept. 4, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghanistan's former prime minister and the Iranian-linked leader of the Hezb-i-Islami, has again called for a jihad to oust the Karzai government and coalition forces in Afghanistan. An exile in Iran during the Taliban years, he recently returned to the area east of Kabul and vowed to join al Qaeda and the Taliban. Security personnel from Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged gunfire at the Torkham border post between the two countries on Sept. 7. At least two Afghans were wounded. The incident occurred when Pakistani security forces prevented an Afghan carrying a carpet from entering Pakistan. Four people were hurt on Sept. 8 when a small bomb exploded in a music shop in Khost, a stronghold of the former Taliban regime which outlawed such entertainment as the shop offered. Fighting then erupted between gunmen loyal to Padsha Khan, a defiant factional leader, and Hakim Taniwal, the provincial governor. Taniwal claimed that his fighters attacked Khan's forces after a radio report said the warlord had been arrested by U.S. troops. Khan denied the report, saying he had met a U.S. delegation earlier in the day to discuss his grievances about Karzai. Some 16 people were reported killed in the fighting, with 51 wounded. Meanwhile, just north of the Khost, two Afghan tribes clashed over a land dispute, with at least 16 people killed. Sep. 9 was the first anniversary of Ahmad Shah Massoud's death. Massoud was the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance, and was assassinated in Panjshir by two Arab al Qaeda operatives pretending to be journalists but carrying a bomb. Afghan officials claim Massoud was targeted by al Qaeda as a deliberate precursor to the terrorist attacks in the United States that occurred two days later. Also on Sept. 9, it was reported that U.S. forces had launched a joint operation with Afghan forces in Paktika province's Bermal Valley, which lies close to the border with Pakistan. According to Maj. Richard Patterson, the American spokesman at Bagram Air Base, the operation — codenamed Champion Strike — is designed to capture or kill the remnants of al Qaeda fighters believed still in Afghanistan. ISAF Fresh from surviving an assassination attempt, on Sept. 7 Karzai repeated his call for an expansion of international peacekeeping efforts beyond Kabul. Karzai later departed for New York for a UN conference. On Sept. 5, Zalmay Khalilzad, the special White House envoy for Afghanistan, had ruled out the use of U.S. forces in Afghanistan to expand the International Security Assistance Force. Washington is currently seeking a candidate country to assume ISAF's leadership once Turkey's six-month commitment expires in December. Pakistan Pakistani paramilitary troops raided a village located near the Afghan border on Sept. 4 in a fruitless search for six al Qaeda fugitives believed to be there. Approximately 1,800 troops had taken up positions near the northwestern village of Jani Kheil for two days following the villagers' refusal to hand over the suspects. The next day, Pakistani troops blew up homes they believed had housed the fugitives, saying they would continue until the men were handed over. Also on Sept. 4, the Afghan government released 55 Pakistani prisoners who were captured while fighting for the former Taliban regime. The next day, 55 more Pakistani suspects were released and sent home. The decision, on a "humanitarian basis," was made to release those no longer deemed to be a threat to Afghanistan. Upon arrival in Pakistan, the men were detained awaiting identification and interrogation to ascertain if they have any affiliation with outlawed Islamic organizations. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Aug. 27, a U.S. Special Forces soldier and a Swiss mine disposal expert sustained minor injuries in Bamiyan province when ordnance they were diffusing exploded. The same day U.S. troops uncovered a large arms cache near the site in Uruzgan province where a U.S. gunship killed at least 46 Afghan civilians on July 1. The find included over 40,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition, 181 75mm recoilless rifle rounds, 411 82mm mortar rounds, and anti-aircraft gun tripods. Acting on a tip-off, American Special Forces also uncovered weapons and munitions hidden under the false floor of a truck traveling near Mazar-e-Sharif on Aug. 29. As with most such finds, it is unclear who owned the arms. Also this week, U.S. Special Operations troops investigating the site of a July 27 firefight near Khost, in which one American was killed and four injured, and six of their attackers killed, discovered fuses and timers, along with a video showing mines being placed on the road the week before the firefight. According to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a rocket was fired near Daronta dam, west of Jalalabad on Aug. 27. AIP also report that the U.S. forces headquarters outside Gardez came under rocket attack on Aug. 28, as did Jalalabad's airport - the target of there rockets, all of which missed. There were no injuries reported in any of these incidents. Over 300 Afghan government troops and a handful of American Special Forces carried out an operation in the southern Afghan town of Meivand on Aug. 28, arresting 95 suspected al Qaeda/ Taliban and seizing over 400 weapons.
A previously unfamiliar group calling itself the "Secret Army of Mujaheddin" has recently distributed leaflets claimed responsibility for 21 attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan since June 1. Some of these alleged attacks reportedly did not take place, while most of the others were unverifiable. The leaflets appear written by someone with a command of classical Arabic, indicating that they may be aimed at the Arab fighters believed to be dispersed in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. These events unfolded amid reports that the Taliban is seeking to regroup in areas, such a northeast Kunar, where the Afghan government has been unable to extend its authority. Taliban and al Qaeda remnants are also said to be seeking to ally themselves with former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is thought to be in Kunar and said to have recently met with Taliban leaders in his own country and in Pakistan. On Sept. 1, three Afghans were killed and 17 wounded when an ambulance belonging to a Danish de-mining organization hit an anti-tank mine near Kabul. The vehicle was responding to an incident wherein another Afghan was killed by an anti-personnel mine. The explosion involving the vehicle appears to have been a premeditated attack rather than an accident, as it occurred on a road frequented by de-mining teams.
The Pentagon this week indicated that they were no longer opposed to an expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), saying that enlarging it numerically and allowing it to operate beyond Kabul could help secure Afghanistan and allow U.S. troops to leave the country sooner. Some 4,800 ISAF troops are currently deployed in the Afghan capital, where they carry out around 40 joint patrols with Afghan police per day. Early on Aug. 31, French ISAF troops investigated three explosions in and around Kabul airport. ISAF troops also looked into a flash of light and gunshots 300 yards north of the British base at Camp Souter. No damage or injuries appear to have been caused, and air traffic was not diverted. These are the latest in a series of such incidents in Kabul in recent weeks - a device exploding in an abandoned building there on Aug. 29, wounding three people, including a child. These attacks continued on Sept. 1, when an explosive device hidden in a wooden handcart in Kabul went off as a British ISAF patrol drove past it. One Afghan civilian was killed and one British soldier slightly injured. The explosion was at least the ninth to have occurred in Kabul in the last three weeks alone.
On Aug. 27, Pakistan and Afghanistan announced that their security forces would cooperate in the anti-drug/ anti-terrorism campaign in the region. Speaking after talks in Islamabad, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah also announced that Afghanistan would start releasing the hundreds of Pakistani Taliban supporters that it holds. Meanwhile, in Pakistan itself, around 1,550 armed tribesmen blocked a major highway through the Khyber Pass on Aug. 30 in protest at North West Frontier province authorities cutting of electricity supplies in the area as a prelude to installing meters in homes there.
According to reports in the Washington Post on Aug. 28, two key al Qaeda leaders - Saif al-Adel and Mahfouz Ould Walid - are being given shelter in Iran. The Iranians deny such claims. A White House spokesman warned Iran against sheltering any al Qaeda fugitives
Coalition operation Mountain Sweep, the largest coalition operation in five months, ended on Aug. 25. The mission included five air assaults and three major ground operations, and was concentrated around the Zormat region of southeastern Afghanistan. The operation uncovered five weapons caches. No significant contact with enemy fighters occurred, leading to suspicions on the part of the operation's commander, Col. James Huggins, who heads the 82nd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Taskforce, that al Qaeda/ Taliban fugitives were tipped off that coalition troops were in the area. U.S. troops were attacked twice during the operation but sustained no casualties. The Americans returned fire on both occasions but claimed no hits. Ten al Qaeda/ Taliban suspects were arrested during Mountain Sweep, which was the first significant projection of combat power undertaken by the 82nd Airborne Division since they arrived in Afghanistan. Also in Zormat, a 10-minute firefight broke out between Afghan and U.S. troops on Aug. 20, when the Americans were unable to give the correct password. No casualties were reported. Another possible 'friendly fire' incident also occurred earlier the same day, when an Afghan hired to man a checkpoint near Kandahar airbase opened fire on Afghan militiamen, killing two. Fire was returned and the man was killed. A U.S. Special Forces official later investigated reports that the dead attacker was hung from a post for two hours. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Afghan security forces raided an empty house in Jalalabad, seizing three rifles, 26 pounds of explosives, five grenades, and an anti-tank mine. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Forces uncovered two weapons caches on Aug. 21 in Uruzgan province. One find, made at a vehicle checkpoint, included a light machine gun, 300 rounds of ammunition, and a rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) launcher complete with six rounds. The other cache included a light machine gun with two drums of ammunition, 210 rounds of ammunition, eight grenades, and two RPGs with 14 rounds of ammunition On Aug. 19, a rocket landed close to the U.S. Special Forces compound near Lwara in Paktia province, close to the Pakistani border. No casualties were caused by the device, which landed 20 yards from a forward security position. Six additional rockets armed with timing devices were later found at the firing point. It is unclear who was responsible for the latest such attack in recent weeks. U.S. Special Forces also came under RPG attack on Aug. 23, this time at a base in Asadabad, in Kunar province, again near the Pakistani border. Four men with an RPG launcher were detained in an initial operation, with 12 more suspects subsequently detained. There were no casualties in the incident, with the RPGs reportedly fired over the base. This may indicate that the attack was a 'come-on' intended to lure responding forces into an ambush, in which case it failed, or - as seems more likely in this case - that the attackers were not very proficient with what is a relatively simple weapon to use. A U.S. Special Forces in Kunar province was also the target of a rocket attack on Aug. 24. Three rockets were fired, with two exploding - the nearest some 110 yards from an observation post outside a Special Operations Forces base. Two A-10 ground attack aircraft were tasked to the scene and fired seven rockets and 950 Gatling gun rounds. There were no casualties, with a follow-up patrol finding no enemy forces.
A previously unheard of group calling itself the "Devotees of Islam's Path" distributed leaflets in several parts of Kabul on Aug. 20, warning the transitional government against imposing Western values on Afghanistan, and to "seriously observe Sharia [Islamic] law in their families, society, and governmental institutes." The leaflets also alluded to American involvement in Afghanistan, saying: "Otherwise, just as we rubbed soil on the snout of the Eastern superpower, we will also effect the same destiny to [sic] the Western superpower and its puppet government." Three weeks ago, other leaflets, distributed anonymously, called for a holy war against the Afghan government and its Western backers. The U.S. State Department announced on Aug. 23 that it will take over responsibly for the security of Afghan President Hamid Karzai next month. Members of the department's Diplomatic Security Service will replace the U.S. troops who became Karzai's bodyguards after the assassination of Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir on July 6. The State Department will also be responsible for training local presidential bodyguards. An explosion near the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak killed one man and wounded five children on Aug. 23. The cause of the blast, which occurred at a refugee camp which houses 40,000 displaced Afghans, is unknown. Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, dismissed as untrue and "unacceptable" comments made this week by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that al Qaeda/ Taliban were reorganizing in Afghanistan. Speaking at a press conference on Aug. 21, Fahim also denied that Afghan authorities could not control the whole country, and refuted allegations that a mass grave filled with prisoners killed by Northern Alliance forces had been uncovered in northern Afghanistan. The Afghan defense minister, while offering no proof, also claimed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was alive but remained elusive.
Troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helped remove and diffuse an improvised explosive device that was discovered by Afghan security forces in a crowded Kabul bazaar on Aug. 20. The device, which comprised several pounds of explosives in a gas container, was discovered near the U.S. Embassy, although it is unclear that this was the target.
Coalition Operations A U.S. Army AH-64 "Apache" attack helicopter made a heavy landing 20 miles south of Kabul on Aug. 13. Both crew members sustained minor injuries in the incident. It is not clear what caused the accident, although hostile fire has been ruled out. Meanwhile, a U.S. Air Force H-H-60 "Pavehawk" helicopter made what appeared to be an aborted takeoff while preparing to take a civilian truck driver, who had been wounded in an ambush earlier on the Gardez-Khost road, to a medical station in Orgun-e, Paktika province. Six airmen were treated for minor injuries as a result of the Pavehawk's heavy landing. On Aug. 18, two U.S. Special Forces soldiers were wounded in Uruzgan province. One of the Americans was shot in the calf, while the other was hit in the upper thigh. The injured men were stabilized in Kabul and will be flown to Germany for further medical treatment. Four people were detained during the operation. To date, over 340 American troops have been wounded in operations in Afghanistan since last October, with some 40 killed in combat and non-combat related incidents. Also on Aug 18, troopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, Rangers, coalition Special Forces, combat engineers, and civil affairs units, began Operation Mountain Sweep in Khost and Paktia provinces. The mission is part of the ongoing operation Mountain Lion. Australian Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment soldiers uncovered around 10,000 rounds of heavy machine-gun ammunition as well as some artillery shells during ongoing searches in eastern Afghanistan this week. It is unclear if this was part of Mountain Sweep. The find comes as Australia prepares to rotate its third group of SAS troops into the country. This group, expected to stay until shortly before Christmas, will probably be deployed within the next few weeks. Australia has a 150-strong Special Forces task force among the 6,000 coalition troops at Bagram, which houses about half of the total allied forces in Afghanistan. The Australian Special Forces make what has been described as a "niche contribution," enjoying relative autonomy in carrying out their operations.
On Aug. 14, the second battalion of the new Afghan national army graduated. The 36 officers and 280 other ranks, who have just completed 10 weeks of training by French instructors, join the American-trained first battalion which graduated three weeks ago. Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, speaking at the graduation ceremony, took the opportunity to urge Afghan militias to turn over their weapons to the central government, something they have thus far been disinclined to do, and which the central government appears ill-disposed to enforce. Fahim also refuted allegations of a rift between him and Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week. On Aug. 13, armed men stole communications equipment and cash from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) compound in Ghazni, some 75 miles southwest of Kabul. No UNHCR staff members were hurt in the attack, the second in two weeks on UN facilities. These are the first such attacks in a year on UN operations in Afghanistan. As with many regions of Afghanistan, Ghazni had been unstable in recent months, with factions competing to fill the power vacuum left by the Taliban's ouster. Also on Aug. 13, three rockets were fired at a government building on the outskirts of Asadabad, the provincial capital of Kunar. The rockets missed their target, exploding in a residential area and injuring eight people. It is unclear who was responsible for the attack. Al Qaeda/ Taliban fugitives are believed to be present in Kunar, which has been an area of operations for U.S. Special Forces for months. U.S. troops killed six men there last week in two separate contacts. Reports in the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) say Ghulam Sakhi Bashi, the deputy commander of the 70th Army, based in Balkh province, was killed by an unidentified assassin on Aug. 17 at Chapurak, some 26 miles southwest of Mazar-e-Sharif. Bashi, who had fought against the Soviets, was appointed to his post by Gen. Ahmed Dostum after the Taliban collapse. It is unclear if the assassination is connected to ongoing factional fighting in the region. On Aug. 15, an explosive device was thrown at the Afghan Telecommunications Ministry building in Kabul, one of the city's tallest buildings and recognizable from its array of rooftop antenna. According to an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman, around two pounds of explosives detonated in a storm drain in front of the building after being thrown from a passing car. It is unclear what sort of device was involved or who was responsible. No one was injured in the blast, which shattered windows in the area.
Pakistani security forces this week launched their first anti-al Qaeda/ Taliban operation in the Kal Dala region, a lawless area that lies some 60 miles north of Islamabad, between the Bunner and Mansehra districts of North West Frontier province. The operation was launched after reports that a Pakistani al Qaeda supporter and Taliban fugitives were sheltering in the region.
On Aug. 16, two British ISAF soldiers died of gunshot wounds in a "non-hostile" incident. Both soldiers were members of the Royal Logistics Corps. The Royal Military Police are investigating the circumstances of the deaths. The incident is the second to involve the death of British ISAF troops, a Briton in the force being killed on April 9 when a weapon accidentally discharged during a patrol near Kabul's crime-ridden Barjay suburb.
Coalition Operations On Aug. 5, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied last week's media reports that he is unhappy with the pace of the war against al Qaeda, saying the U.S.-led effort in Afghanistan now resembles a manhunt rather than a "traditional" military campaign. Arguably, this reading of the security situation does not fully reflect events in Afghanistan: the campaign there was never a "traditional" military effort and has long resembled a low-intensity anti-guerilla type operation. This was further evident this week, with U.S. troops coming into contact with several small enemy bands. The first such incident took place on Aug. 5 north of Asadabad in Kunar province, when about 30 U.S. Special Forces on a reconnaissance mission were engaged with small arms fire. The Americans returned fire and two enemy dead were later recovered at the firing point. No U.S. or civilian casualties were sustained and it is not known if there were more than two attackers. The following day, U.S. Special Forces again engaged enemy forces in the same area. On this occasion, the Americans, who were on a vehicle patrol, stopped a car containing five men. One of the men pointed an AK-47 assault rifle at the U.S. troops and pulled the trigger. The weapon misfired and the Americans immediately opened fire on the car, killing four of its occupants and wounding the other. No fire was returned from the car and no U.S. troops were injured in the incident. The next day also saw American troops in contact with hostile forces in eastern Afghanistan — this time in Paktika province, where a U.S. soldier was wounded by sniper fire. The American, from the 82nd Airborne Division, was evacuated to a hospital in Germany where his condition is stable. The sniper escaped. U.S. forces captured three suspected al Qaeda fighters near Khost on Aug. 10. There were no reports of any casualties in the incident, which came three days after an American soldier died of wounds he sustained in an attack in Khost province on July 27. Rockets landed near U.S. Special Forces in Paktika province on Aug. 11. The Americans returned fire. No injuries were reported in the incident. Speaking on Aug. 15 during a visit to Afghanistan Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was too early to tell if the recent spike in attacks on U.S. troops in the country indicated that a new campaign by al Qaeda/ Taliban forces was under way. Certainly the increased incidence of such contacts shows that the U.S. campaign there is far from over. Meanwhile, on Aug. 12, Afghan forces began an operation in Maouf, east of Kandahar, to hunt for al Qaeda/ Taliban remnants. The operation, which involved some 400 men, is scheduled to last six to seven days. No U.S. troops are involved, although they have been informed of the mission. General Afghan Security Situation in Brief On Aug. 7, 13 al Qaeda members were killed in a firefight with Afghan troops in Kabul. The al Qaeda fighters had escaped from the Afghan National Security Department's Third Directorate detention center. Twelve of them were Pakistanis, while the other was from the former Soviet central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. Three of the escapees killed themselves with grenades to prevent their recapture. Afghan authorities are investigating the possibility the men had inside help in their escape. Kandahar city was left without electricity for the second day running on Aug. 7 after unknown saboteurs shot at power lines near the Kajaki Dam for the fourth time in two weeks. It is unclear who is responsible for the incidents. Such attacks on power lines are typical guerilla-type operations — nevertheless, the method employed is somewhat haphazard, insurgents being more prone to blowing up such targets rather than attacking them with small arms fire. However, as with all such incidents in Afghanistan al Qaeda/ Taliban involvement cannot be entirely ruled out. Pakistan Pakistan's Federal Investigating Agency has launched an inquiry into the financial transactions of banned Islamic militant groups. This move comes as gunmen killed six at a Christian school in Pakistan. The attack, on the Murree Christian School — a boarding school for the children of Christian missionaries which lies in the Himalayan foothills 40 miles south of Islamabad — happened on Aug. 5. All those killed were Pakistanis and included two guards, three school employees, and one bystander. All of the more than 100 Australian, European, and American children inside the school escaped harm as the gunmen were unable to break down the doors. The 35 staff members inside the complex were also unhurt. A Christian hospital church in Taxila, 15 miles west of Islamabad, was also attacked this week by what authorities believe was Islamic militants. Grenades were used in the attack on Aug. 9 which left four nurses dead and more than 20 missionary staff injured. One attacker was found dead at the scene, with police hopeful that his two accomplices, who escaped, will be caught. Westerners and Christians have increasingly been targeted by Islamic militants in Pakistan who are opposed to the Pakistani support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism. There have been five such attacks since the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan. 23, with a video tape of his murder later sent to the American Embassy there. Pearl's remains were buried at a private ceremony on Aug. 11 in the Encino area of Los Angeles, three days after they were returned from Pakistan. Warlords Warlord Padsha Khan continued to defy the Afghan Transitional Government, despite their threat on Aug. 9 to use force to make him submit to their rule of law — something he has steadfastly refused to do (see earlier updates for details). In issuing their warning, the Afghan administration said no U.S. forces would be involved in any coercive action. Nor would troops be dispatched from Kabul. Rather, local forces loyal to the Transitional Government would be used. Khan seemed undeterred by this latest threat, with his supporters holding a rally in Waza Zadran area the day after the warning was issued. This rally was the latest in a series expressing support for Khan and calling for the resignation of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Any move against Khan by Kabul would be the first real test of the Karzai government since it took power last November. Other News in Brief
Coalition Operations On Aug. 2, U.S. defense officials met to discuss the strategy for prosecuting the war against al Qaeda, amid reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was dissatisfied with the pace of operational successes in Afghanistan. Those present included U.S. Special Operations Command's Gen. Charles R. Thomas, who the Washington Times reported is formulating a strategy that would employ Special Forces in clandestine operations outside the limitations of "traditional" law enforcement. Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that while Rumsfeld "has full and total confidence" in Gen. Tommy Franks who commands Afghan operations, "we're always looking for ways to be more adaptive, to be more flexible, to be faster, to be more lethal, to go after what is a very unconventional enemy." This re-evaluation comes at a time when the Afghan campaign appears to be winding down somewhat, with U.S. forces there changing gear for what looks increasingly likely to be a protracted low-intensity effort. Rumsfeld is not the only one unhappy with the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan; some 500 locals from the Zormat district of Paktia protesting outside the governor's building in Gardez on Aug. 3. The protestors demanded the release of five people detained by coalition Special Forces on July 31. The Gardez protest came amid growing resentment of the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan among local people. This resentment has grown since the July 1 "friendly fire" attack on a wedding celebration by an American gunship that left around 48 Afghans dead and many more wounded, and poses a worrying dilemma for U.S. forces in the country. An American military spokesman stated that five men had been detained during the July 31 operation in Khomi Baghicha village, during which coalition aircraft dropped four 500-pound bombs on three abandoned bunkers. However, he denied local reports, which later echoed in the independent Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) — based in Peshawar, Pakistan — that one man was killed when coalition helicopters fired rockets into a house. The bunkers targeted by the air strike were linked by trenches and filled with explosives which were deemed too unstable to move or detonate in place by more conventional methods. Aircraft were thus tasked to destroy the ordnance in place, with the Pakistani authorities informed beforehand due to the bunkers' close proximity to the Afghan-Pakistani border. On Aug. 3, two rockets were fired at the U.S. Special Forces base near Lwara in Paktika province, some 90 miles south of Kabul. No coalition casualties were incurred in the incident, in which U.S. troops fired mortar illumination rounds which revealed enemy forces on a nearby ridge, following these up with 60 high explosive and 50 white phosphorous rounds. A search of the firing point the following morning turned up an unexploded 117mm rocket, which was destroyed, as well as clothing, rocket base plates and packaging, and several bloodstains. No enemy bodies were found. Another patrol in the same region uncovered 34 122mm rockets which were destroyed in place. Meanwhile, a non-Afghan fighter was killed by fragments of a grenade he threw at Afghan police in Urgun near Gardez. Another man was detained at the incident and is being held at the coalition base at Bagram, where he and a police officer are receiving medical attention. No U.S. forces were involved in the incident, in which a total of four Afghan policemen were injured. Pakistan Reportedly, six Pakistani officials had left to interview the 40 Pakistani detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The team is believed to be led by a senior Foreign Office official and include a member of the Pakistani National Crisis Management Cell — which deals with emergencies including terrorist threats — as well as representatives from other civilian and military agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. The Pakistani detainees at Guantanamo Bay, who will be questioned about their links with al Qaeda and other militant groups, are among 526 prisoners being held there. It also emerged on July 29 that a Pakistan tribesman, Abdul Khaliq Sarki Khel, who surrendered to authorities after they detained 60 elders from his tribe, admitted sheltering 42 Chechen al Qaeda allies who had fled from Afghanistan. The men stayed in the South Waristan region for 40 days, with Pakistani troops attempting to apprehend them at the end of June. The ensuing firefight left 10 Pakistani soldiers and two militants dead. General Afghan Security Situation On July 29, a traffic accident in Kabul's Microrayan Road led Afghan authorities to detain the driver of a car discovered to be packed with explosives and shrapnel. It is unclear who the intended target of the car bomb was, although Afghan security officials have claimed that it was Transitional Government President Hamid Karzai, with members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the secondary target. The man detained has been described as a foreigner by some officials in Kabul, which may indicate al Qaeda involvement; however, Gen. Deen Mohammad Jurat, chief of security affairs at the Interior Ministry, has claimed that while the arrested man resembles a Pakistani in appearance, he is in fact an Afghan. ISAF initially claimed to know nothing about the incident, later saying that they had tipped off Afghan authorities about the possibility of such an attack a week earlier. The real story may never emerge, but the episode bodes ill for stability in Afghanistan, occurring soon after the July 6 assassination of Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir, and amid growing unrest in some quarters at the makeup of the Transitional Government. Such unrest was evident on Aug. 2, when for the fourth day thousands of Afghans demonstrated in Nangarhar and in the Khost region of neighboring Paktia province. The demonstrators protested against the Karzai administration, also demanding the arrest of those responsible for the Qadir assassination, and insisting that southern Afghanistan governors only be appointed in consultation with local warlord Padsha Khan. Khan is refusing to bow to the authority of the central government and most likely is orchestrating at least some of the anti-government demonstrations, while fueling malcontent among the region's Pashtuns. This strategy could seriously destabilize the Karzai government if allowed to continue. The difficulties facing Karzai's government in its attempt to establish its rule of law across Afghanistan were further evident this week when a weapons amnesty in Wardak province was estimated by one Western observer to yield around 10 firearms. The wisdom of trying to police up every weapon in a country where virtually every man is armed and where the historical lack of central authority has led to privately held firearms being viewed as essential to physical and economic well-being is debatable. Such attempts to initiate personal arms amnesties are largely symbolic confidence-building exercises, designed to convince the international aid donors that the writ of the Karzai government extends countrywide. The government's ability to provide security for itself while establishing its authority over the warlords would be a better indication that this was the case. Similarly, reported friction between Karzai and his Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim threaten the stability of Afghanistan's government. According to the Washington Post, Karzai had formerly allowed Fahim free reign in his control of his Tajik-dominated militia. However, since being elected president, Karzai has reportedly ordered Fahim to replace many of the Panjshiri Tajiks who dominate the Defense Ministry with non-Tajiks. Relations between the two men are said to have worsened since Karzai replaced his Defense Ministry bodyguards with American troops in the wake of the Qadir assassination. Warlords Padsha Khan, self-proclaimed "general director of the southern zone," continued to defy the Afghan central government, calling for Karzai's resignation. Khan, whose men have set up roadblocks in southeastern Afghanistan, twice tried to capture Gardez, in January and April, in attacks that left some 80 people dead. He dismissed a warning issued by the Karzai administration on Aug. 4, which was read over national television, and said that unless the activities of Khan's "group of bandits" ceased, the government "will be forced to take any actions deemed necessary to keep the peace and stability." Khan replied to this threat by issuing one of his own, saying: "he [Karzai] cannot fight with the people of Afghanistan. Behind me are the Pashtun people. If he wants to use force, it's a threat against the nation." Meanwhile, the former Afghan king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, who has now taken up residence in his Kabul palace, also called for Khan, a professed royalist, to submit to the central authority. This standoff in southeastern Afghanistan continued as at least 50 people were killed in factional fighting in the west of the country. The fighting erupted near Ghurian, some 400 miles west of the city of Heart, between the forces of the Tajik Ismail Khan and those of Pashtun Mohammad Kareem Khan. Kareem Khan claimed his forces were attacked by Tajiks backed by tanks, with many Pashtuns burned alive when their houses were torched. Ismail Khan claimed the episode was a police action against drug smugglers. Last month Ismail Khan's forces fought those of another Pashtun warlord, Amanullah Khan, in the Shindad region. Such clashes demonstrate the limitations of the Karzai government, which barely extends beyond Kabul, and is ensured there largely through the presence of ISAF and the U.S. military. ISAF On Aug. 1, the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a $2.5 billion reconstruction package for Afghanistan, also forwarding a non-binding resolution calling on the Bush administration to employ "the full diplomatic influence of the United States" to expand ISAF beyond Kabul. The bill called for an extra $1 billion for the American share of the costs should this expansion occur. America has thus far refused to endorse such an expansion, which it sees as an unnecessary diversion from the anti al Qaeda/ Taliban campaign in Afghanistan - arguably a short-sighted policy that could yet backfire. The latest call for ISAF's expansion came as the first 50 bodyguards to be trained by the force's Italian contingent graduated. The ceremony followed two months of training by Italy's paramilitary Carabinieri regiment. Other News
Coalition Operations U.S. forces conducted another sweep of southeastern Afghanistan this week. The operation, near the Pakistani border, uncovered a small weapons cache which comprised six rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and four anti-personnel mines. A larger cache was also subsequently uncovered, this one containing 400 RPGs, 20 cases of landmines, and a "large" quantity of machine gun ammunition. According to the Pentagon, it was not immediately clear who the arms belonged to. Also during this sweep, one man and some documents believed to have intelligence value were detained by U.S. forces after they searched his vehicle. A joint Afghan-U.S. reconnaissance patrol was attacked seven miles east of Khost in eastern Afghanistan on July 27. Four Americans were wounded when the patrol came under fire from a walled compound, with another U.S. soldier injured during the ensuing 4.5-hour firefight. Two allied Afghans were killed during the incident. At least three of the attackers were killed, and another seriously injured. A U.S. reaction force was tasked to the area and participated in the battle, with close air support provided by AH-64 attack helicopters, A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, and FA-18 fighters, all of which employed cannon and machinegun fire rather than bombs. A subsequent search of the compound from which the attack came turned up five cases of rifle ammunition, three RPGs, two rockets, and two grenades. If al Qaeda was behind the attack, it is the first significant encounter between the group and U.S. forces since Operation Anaconda, albeit on a far smaller scale, and may be indicative of some degree of regrouping by the organization. On July 26 allied Afghan forces manning a routine vehicle check point on the road linking eastern Jalalabad with Pakistan discovered a cache of weapons in a hidden compartment in pickup truck. Haji Ajab Shah, the Nangarhar province security chief, said the cache included dozens of rocket launchers, assault rifles, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. It is unclear who the arms belonged to, since eastern Nangarhar is a known hideout for drug lords as well as al Qaeda/ Taliban fugitives. The mission of U.S forces in Afghanistan grew somewhat as it emerged on July 22 that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had requested that U.S. troops guard his presidential palace in Kabul. According to a Western diplomat, there are serious security threats against Karzai, from al Qaeda/ Taliban elements, as well as local warlords, angry at the Afghan government's order to disband their private armies and submit to the central authority in Kabul. Troops loyal to Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim are theoretically responsible for Karzai's security but are themselves considered a threat to that security. The American forces, which some sources number at around 50, will act as Karzai's bodyguards for 3 to 6 months, during which time they will also train local security personnel for the task.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week that Pakistan had detained "several handfuls" of al Qaeda suspects in recent weeks. Declining to give any specific numbers of such suspects, Rumsfeld also said there were indications that al Qaeda members were regrouping in countries other than Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also insisted that most of the Afghan-based al Qaeda members were either killed or had fled the country, admitting that this dispersal created difficulties for America in its prosecution of the war against terrorism. Rumsfeld's remarks came as six Islamic militants were killed in a gun battle with Pakistani police. The incident happened near the city of Multan when police traveling with four captured militants were fired upon. The four captives were freed and nine policemen injured. However, police pursued and captured the escapees some 60 miles southeast of the city. The four captives are suspects in the October gun attack on a Protestant church service in Behawalpur, in which 14 worshippers, their pastor, and a Muslim security guard were killed. All the detainees are members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an extremist group which has traditionally targeted Shiite Muslims, but which police believe may now be working with groups close to al Qaeda to target Westerners and Pakistani officials.
Fighting broke out between rival factions in the western Afghan province of Herat on July 21. The clashes, which erupted in the Shindand region, occurred between forces loyal to Herat's Tajik governor Ismail Khan and those of Pashtun commander Amanullah Khan. A dozen people were reported killed in the fighting, with dozens more said to have been injured. According to Amanullah Khan, who spoke to the BBC, a ceasefire was negotiated some 24 hours after the fighting began. Each side in the dispute blamed the other for initiating it. The incident highlights the continuing frailty of tribal relations in Afghanistan; many Pashtuns are unhappy at what they feel is Tajik dominance of the post-Taliban government at the cost of their own marginalization. The fighting in Herat came shortly before the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, arrived in the province to speak with governor Ismail Khan. McNeil, who arrived for the talks on July 24, has recently undertaken similar visits to Uruzgan and Kandahar, seemingly in an attempt to impress upon the local governors the need for cooperation with the new Afghan government. Whether this canvassing succeeds remains to be seen: indeed it could yet backfire if the governors in question see their rule over Afghanistan's outlying provinces somehow legitimized by visits from high-ranking American officials. After meeting with McNeil, Khan claimed to support the Karzai administration, although, according to The Associated Press reports, he appeared to view himself more as an equal than a subordinate of the Afghan president.
Speaking during a visit to Kabul on July 26, German Defense Minister Peter Struck said that the mandate for the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul should be amended to allow the force to operate beyond its currently projected end date of December. Struck did not rule out the possibility of Germany taking over ISAF leadership from Turkey should such an extension occur, although he said he sees no possibility of German troops operating outside Kabul — this despite Karzai repeating his call for ISAF to be expanded throughout Afghanistan. Germany has some 1,000 troops in the 4,902-strong ISAF, one of the largest contingents of the force's 18 contributing nations, with another 200 German troops supporting the mission from Termez airfield in neighboring Uzbekistan. The German position on ISAF was echoed by the force's Turkey Commander, Maj. Gen. Akin Zorlu, who said that peacekeepers should be deployed in Kabul into next year. Zorlu, who said that another leading nation must replace Turkey should any such extension occur, refused to be drawn on whether ISAF should be deployed outside the Afghan capital, saying: "sitting down in Kabul, its difficult to say yes or no." Speaking on July 25, the Turkish general also conceded that those responsible for the assassination of Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir in Kabul on July 6 may never be apprehended. ISAF is conducting an investigation into the assassination at the behest of the Afghan government. Some 15 people are being questioned in connection with the murder, including 10 of Qadir's bodyguards. Thus far no one has been charged. Zorlu expressed regret that ISAF was not informed of the assassination until some 1.5 hours after it occurred, saying that had they been advised immediately they may have been able to apprehend the killers. This failure to inform ISAF immediately may have been the result of the disorganization that appears typical of the Afghan authorities. However, it is conceivable that it may have been a deliberate ploy by some within the Karzai administration to aid the assassins' escape. ISAF has stepped up random check points in Kabul since the incident. The international community's reluctance to expand ISAF beyond Kabul was also evident on July 24, when the Chief of the Swedish armed forces, Gen. Johan Ivar Hederstedt, said during a visit to Afghanistan that no plans for such an expansion exist.
Coalition Operations On July 16 a man was arrested in the village of Hersak which lies in Nangarhar province some 60 miles southwest of Kabul, after around 150 U.S. troops equipped with protective gloves and gasmasks staged a heli-borne raid on the village. This followed an earlier operation the previous week in which three men were detained and some suspicious materials discovered. Tests in Kabul indicated that these materials might contain the biological agent Ricin. Subsequent analysis in America found that the materials, described as "block-shaped and paste-like" did not contain biological or chemical agents, with a U.S. military spokesman guardedly conceding that they could "possibly" be drugs-related. During the raid, U.S. medics distributed bandages, aspirins, and Chapsticks to locals, while other troops secured the perimeter and searched the area. Some locals were said to be unhappy at the arrests. The man detained on July 16 is believed to be Abdullah Jan, the village elder's brother. More of the suspicious materials and some documents thought to have intelligence value were also taken during the raid. On July 17, four U.S. Special Forces personnel were injured near Asadabad in eastern Afghanistan when the propeller wash of a landing CH-47 Chinook helicopter showered them with debris. Two of the troops suffered head injuries, with one breaking his hand and wrist and the other a cutting his hand. The soldiers were evacuated to Bagram where they are expected to make a full recovery. Meanwhile, on July 22, the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division took over coalition operations at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan, relieving their countrymen of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) which has served in Afghanistan for six months. The 82nd will be responsible for undertaking operations in the south of the country, and number some 3,500 troops when fully deployed by the end of the month.
Forces of Maulvi Noor Mohammed, a local warlord, clashed with forces loyal to the Afghan Central government in Nangarhar province on July 18. Two people, including the warlord's brother, were reported to be killed, and six wounded. U.S. forces dropped a 500 pound bomb on a nearby uninhabited area to stop the fighting, which occurred 40 miles west of Jalalabad. An Arab fighter was detained during the fighting, with the government's main military commander in the region, Hazrat Ali, saying there was "al Qaeda activity" in the area. Sources in Jalalabad say the clashes erupted after government forces attempted to disarm locals, but it is unclear what exactly transpired. However, the incident points to U.S. forces possibly becoming de facto peacekeepers (or peace enforcers) in the Afghan government's attempt to bring recalcitrant regional warlords under its central authority. This was the opinion expressed by Hakeem Taniwal, the governor of Khost, who said this week that he believed that Afghanistan's government would enjoy American help in dealing with troublesome warlord Padsha Khan. Khan, who is estimated to command some 6,000 fighters, has dismissed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's edict that all private armies in the countries disarm and disband. The establishment of a commission to oversee this was announced on July 15, but how it will enforce this disarmament without outside assistance is unclear. As well as refusing to decommission his forces, Khan, the self-proclaimed "general director of the southern zone," has refused to accept the appointment of Raz Mohammad Dailli, who was named as the replacement for Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak as governor of Paktia. Indeed, Khan has vowed to appoint his own choice of governor in both Paktia and neighboring Khost. Initially named as Paktia governor by then Interim Authority leader Karzai in January, Khan was prevented from taking office when a local shura (council of elders) protested his appointment. Khan sought to press his claim militarily, besieging the provincial capital Gardez, with around 50 people dying in the fighting before he was fought off, only to attack again in April, this time killing 30 people after the appointment of Wardak as governor. Khan will doubtless continue to bedevil the Afghan government's attempt at extending its authority beyond Kabul unless brought to heel once and for all. Doing so may prove difficult for Karzai's government without outside help — from whatever quarter. Perhaps most worrying for Karzai, Khan, a Pashtun, is appealing to tribal loyalties, citing Tajik-dominance of the Transitional Government in Kabul. Coming as it does in the wake of the U.S. accidental bombing of Pashtuns in Uruzgan province, the timing of Khan playing the Pashtun card may cause more widespread problems in Afghanistan if his challenge is not quashed quickly. This challenge comes as eight teachers, taken hostage during a row between opposing factions in Bamiyan province, remained in captivity. Originally 11 teachers were seized by the forces of Rahmatullah, a local warlord involved in a long-running feud with a former ally, General Tufan. Three of the captives were later released. Rahmatullah, whose mean are reported to have smashed up local schools advocating purely religious education, is said to be allied with many Taliban fighters and backed by the defense ministry in Kabul. Rahmatullah comes from the same faction as the Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim. The UN has negotiated a ceasefire between the warring factions, although Rahmatullah still holds the hostages. Against this backdrop, Afghanistan's government did enjoy one victory in its attempt to levy taxes from provincial governors when Herat transferred eight billion Afghanis ($200,000) to the central authorities in Kabul. The move is significant in that it is the first such transfer of funds from Afghanistan's provincial governors who retain most of the money raised through the customs duties, which are to supply most of the country's domestic revenue. However, given that this revenue is projected at $83 million this year, the sum involved in the Herat transfer will do little to immediately alleviate Afghanistan's fiscal shortfall. Even including expected aid, this shortfall amounts to $257 million out of a planned expenditure of $460 million.
A Pakistani court sentenced British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death on July 15 for the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Three accomplices — Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil — were also jailed for life. The verdicts resulted in reprisal threats from Islamic organizations in Pakistan. Hyderabad, where the trial was moved to from Karachi in April amid security concerns, was quiet in the aftermath of the verdicts, but the Pakistani government will surely brace itself for some sort of response from Islamic militants. Moreover, the affair will likely drag on for some time as Pakistan, where the death penalty is administered by hanging, holds an exhaustive appeals process. A life sentence in the country normally equates to a maximum of 25 years in prison. The defense has said it will appeal against the verdicts, while the prosecutor says he will push for heavier sentences for Omar's accomplices. Omar himself was defiant after being sentenced, saying: "I will see whether who wants to kill me will first kill me or get himself killed." Omar's threat came as Fazul Rabi Rahman, a former Taliban commander, claimed al Qaeda planned to retaliate against the sentences by striking soon against U.S. interests in Pakistan. Rahman delivered a similar warning less than three weeks prior to the June 14 car bomb attack at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. As such, it must be taken seriously.
On July 20, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) began training some 240 Afghans as bodyguards to protect Cabinet ministers and other officials in Afghanistan's new government. ISAF also began a joint investigation with the Afghan government into the July 6 assassination of the country's Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir. Fifteen people are currently in custody in connection with the assassination, including 10 of Qadir's bodyguards. As ISAF took on these duties, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the force's mandate to be expanded, allowing it to operate beyond the Afghan capital. Annan warned that some al Qaeda/ Taliban elements still remained in Afghanistan, and, along with warlords and armed factions, threatened the peace and the country's government. Western opposition to such a move remains strong despite the continuing unrest across Afghanistan.
Coalition troops continued to
unearth arms caches in Afghanistan this week. On July 8,
Canadian forces destroyed some 12 tons of ammunition that was discovered in
a cave 60 miles north of Kandahar. The
following day British troops conducting vehicle searches in Khost seized some
mortar rounds, while on July
10 U.S.
troops operating in southeastern Afghanistan uncovered an arms cache which
included 200 mortars rounds; two 82mm mortars and one mortar base plate; six
anti-personnel mines; a heavy machine gun barrel and scope along with two
tripods and 60 cases of ammunition; a rocket launcher; and three rocket
propelled grenade rounds. On July 11,
a soldier from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division was shot by a
suspected sniper near Kandahar. The
bullet glanced off the trooper’s Kevlar helmet, leaving him with a concussion.
He was flown to Bagram for treatment and is expected to be fit for duty
within a few days. The U.S. forces
did not engage their attackers as the shot was not heard, making the firing
point impossible to identify. A
U.S. military spokesman said the incident did not suggest the use of snipers by
enemy forces becoming more problematic for coalition troops.
Also on July
11, a U.S. Special Forces compound came under grenade and small arms
fire. There were no casualties in
the attack, which occurred near Tarin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province, where an
American air strike inadvertently killed Afghan civilians at a wedding
celebration on July
1.
There were also no casualties incurred on July
12, when a four-vehicle U.S. convoy
came under fire while traveling on the road between Bagram air base and nearby
Kabul. The incident was not deemed
serious enough to warrant security on the road being stepped up as a
consequence. American military sources say
that violence against American and other coalition troops did not appear to have
increased as a result of last week’s friendly fire incident.
Whatever the truth of this, the episode, which Afghan officials say
killed 48 people, mostly women and children, and injured 170 others, has
strained relations between locals and the U.S. military.
The governors of Uruzgan, Helmand, Farah, Zabul, and Nimroz provinces
have demanded that America secure their permission before launching military
operations on their territory. The
governors are also due to discuss the creation of a 500-man rapid reaction force
drawn from across their provinces, and a 3,000-man border control force, both of
which would assist U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Responding to the governors’
demands regarding future American combat missions, a spokesman for U.S. Central
Command indicated that Afghans will not be permitted to veto U.S military
operations in Afghanistan, saying: “We have coordinated with the Afghan
government over and over again and will continue to do so – this doesn’t
really change anything.” The U.S.
chief investigator into the friendly fire incident, Brig. Gen. Anthony F.
Przybyslawski, the assistant director of operations at Langley Air Force base,
Virginia, arrived in Afghanistan on July
12 along
with eight other investigators. Afghan
Maj. Gen. Sher Mohammed Khar is to act as an observer on the investigative team. Also this week, British Marines
completed the United Kingdom’s last currently scheduled combat mission in
Afghanistan. Operation Buzzard,
as the mission was codenamed, ended on July
9. It was the last of four operations completed by the Royal
Marines Taskforce
Jacana during their 4-month mission in
Afghanistan, and the only one in which the British troops fired their weapons in
anger. During the previous
operations, codenamed Ptarmigan,
Snipe,
and Condor respectively,
the marines did not encounter enemy forces – something that caused them to
come in for a certain amount of criticism in the British press.
However, success in counterinsurgency operations, such as the ongoing
coalition effort in Afghanistan has evolved into, cannot be measured in terms of
enemy forces encountered and killed. Deterrence
and the denial of an area of operations are more valid criteria for success in
such missions, if more difficult to quantify.
Pakistan On July 8,
Pakistani authorities staged a news conference to announce the arrest of
three men in connection with the bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on June
14. The men are also suspected of the May 8 bomb
attack near Karachi’s Sheraton hotel which killed 14 people, including 11
French engineers. Speaking at the
conference, two of the suspects admitted they were responsible for the bombing,
saying that the device used had originally been intended to assassinate
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, but an attempt in April to detonate
it by remote control near a motorcade he was traveling in failed.
The third suspect did not appear for legal reasons, according to
Pakistani officials. Last
week, Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider claimed that al
Qaeda financed the attack on the U.S. Consulate.
However, no evidence of this was presented at the July
8 news
conference, while the three suspects were identified as members of Harkat
ul-Mujaheddin – an Islamic militant group opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
Pakistani authorities, who say they are looking for at least 12
accomplices, also announced on July 9 that
Wasim Akhtar, an inspector in Pakistan’s Paramilitary Rangers, had been
charged of aiding in the attempted Musharraf assassination.
Akhtar was said to have passed on details of the Pakistani president’s
itinerary. Meanwhile, on July
12 an
anonymous police source said that al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden’s financial adviser in Pakistan was one of three
men arrested in a raid in Karachi this week. These moves came as Pakistan
security forces went on alert as the deadline for the verdict in the trial of
the chief suspect in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder drew near.
Pearl, who worked for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped in Karachi
on Jan. 23, and a video tape of his murder was later sent to the American
Embassy there. The verdict in the
case is expected to be announced on July
15. The verdict and local reaction to it will keep pressure on
Musharraf as he seeks to combat Islamic terrorists within Pakistan without
provoking a public backlash. Also, in Pakistan this week,
police arrested Hafiz Abdul Latif, a Muslim cleric, charging him with creating a
law and order problem and using religious sentiment to incite an attack on Faraz
Jawed, a U.S.-born Pakistani. Jawed
had objected to a speech by the cleric criticizing America and Pakistan’s
support in the war against terrorism, asking him to restrict himself to Islamic
teachings.
ISAF
Developments On July 9
the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan agreed to a
formal request for the country’s government to assist them in conducting an
investigation into the murder of Vice President Abdul Qadir, who was
assassinated in Kabul on July
6. It
remains to be determined which of ISAF’s 19 contributing countries will be
involved in the investigation – most police units in the force are trained for
security operations rather than criminal investigations.
However, the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) of the British Army’s
Royal Military Police has been cited as being best-suited for the task.
The SIB gleaned much experience in such investigations during its service
in Northern Ireland and still has units in Afghanistan despite the withdrawal of
most other British troops after Britain’s handover of ISAF leadership to
Turkey last month. A British ISAF
spokeswoman said she believed that SIB’s services would be offered to the
Afghan government for use in the investigation. Key evidence may already have been compromised, as the Afghan
Interior Ministry appears to have done a poor job of securing the crime scene.
Since the assassination, ISAF has stepped up security in Kabul, where an
increase in helicopter patrols is discernible.
Other
News in Brief
July 1 – July 7, 2002
Coalition
Operations
Operation Cherokee,
the largest Canadian-led mission in Afghanistan to date, began on July
1 in Zabul. This was the
first large-scale search of this southern Afghan province, which is suspected to
be a transit point for al Qaeda/
Taliban fighters crossing into neighboring Pakistan.
Quantities of anti-aircraft missiles were uncovered by the Canadian light
infantry, who were accompanied by U.S Special Forces and allied Afghan fighters.
These finds came in a cave complex south of Zabul’s capital, Qalat, and
included “numerous” Soviet-type SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles, as well as
three British Blowpipe systems. The weapons were destroyed, having been evaluated as too
heavy to be issued to the Afghan national army that is currently being trained
by coalition forces. This Afghan
force is to be armed with lighter weapons such as assault rifles, light machine
guns, and mortars rather than surface-to-air missiles. Cherokee
ended on July 4,
with the troops involved returning to their base in Kandahar, some 90 miles to
the south-west. Meanwhile, on July
2, U.S. troops came under small arms fire in Kandahar. One soldier was slightly injured in the attack.
The Americans were returning to base after a visit to a city hospital to
check the condition of injured civilians there, and ascertain if they needed any
supplies. The civilians in question
were injured in an assault the previous day by U.S. aircraft (see below) – an
incident which may well have provoked the shooting attack on the American
soldiers.
Pakistan
Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said on July
2 that al Qaeda financed
the June 14 attack
on the U.S. Consulate on Karachi. He
also said that this attack, as well as the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl,
the Wall Street Journal reporter, and the May
9 car-bomb attack that killed 11 French engineers were retaliation
for Pakistan’s support of the U.S.-led war against terrorism.
Haider’s remarks came as 3,000 Pakistani troops continued to search for
approximately 40 suspected al Qaeda fighters
who escaped after a firefight on that left 10 Pakistani soldiers dead on June
26/27. In making his comments, Haider added that around a dozen FBI
agents had been helping with the bomb investigation, with others working in the
tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Such assistance is a contentious issue in Pakistan, where
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf must be careful to placate public opinion over
Western involvement – something that led Haider to stress that the U.S. role
was restricted to gathering and passing intelligence to Pakistani forces.
America has also given Pakistan five helicopters equipped with
surveillance equipment to help in the hunt for al
Qaeda/ Taliban fugitives. Pakistan’s
efforts to track down al Qaeda/
Taliban elements appear to have become more robust lately, as a firefight
between suspected al Qaeda fighters
and Pakistani security forces on July
3 indicated. The
incident occurred at a vehicle check point at Jarma Bridge, six miles south of
Kohat. Four men, later identified as Chechens and believed to be
members of al Qaeda, were killed in
the gun battle, as were three Pakistani security officials. The Chechens were reportedly traveling from the direction of
the North Waziristan tribal area, where many al
Qaeda/ Taliban fighter are believed to have fled to from Afghanistan. Pakistan
appears rather more successful at blocking the large stream of refugees
attempting to flee Afghanistan. According
to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, around 26,000 are stranded
as the border town of Chaman, living outdoors in miserable conditions with
little more than plastic sheeting to protect them from the elements.
Most of the refugees are Pashtuns fleeing Tajik and Uzbek persecution in
northern Afghanistan, or Kuchi (nomads) who lost their livestock and livelihood
during their country’s 4-year-long drought.
Pakistan, which still has more than a million Afghan refugees despite the
return of many to their native country, is reluctant to allow any more to settle
within its borders.
The
Qadir assassination
On July 6,
Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir was assassinated. Qadir, who was also
Afghanistan’s minister of public works and the governor of Nangarhar province,
and his driver (who was also his son-in-law), died when two assailants opened
fire on his car as it left the Public Works Ministry in Kabul.
The attackers then escaped in a taxi.
Qadir apparently had many enemies and it is not yet clear who was
responsible for the murder. Potential
suspects include Afghans engaged in the country’s lucrative drugs trade.
Qadir’s support for a campaign to destroy the country’s opium crop
has angered many who depend on this for their livelihood.
Moreover, if rumors of Qadir’s former involvement in Afghanistan’s
opium trade are true, the country’s drug lords would be further angered at
Qadir’s support for anti-drug measures. Indeed,
Qadir and Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim survived a bomb attack in
Jalabad on April 8,
which may have been linked to violent protests against the Afghan government’s
anti-drugs campaign. As
the most senior Pashtun in Afghanistan’s recently-elected Transitional
Government after President Hamid Karzai, Qadir may also have been the victim of
the rival Tajik faction. Such is
the accusation leveled by some Pashtuns, angered by what they see as Tajik
domination of the Afghan government. However,
Qadir’s murder could also have been a result of one of the innumerable blood
feuds that serve as a virtual meritocracy among Afghanistan’s warlords, and
which have seen many of the mujaheddin commanders who fought the Russians killed
since the Soviet withdraw, including, most notably, Qadir’s local rival
Shomali Khan. In
addition, al Qaeda elements have a
good reason to kill Qadir, who militarily supported the U.S.-led campaign which
ousted the Taliban. If al
Qaeda are indeed responsible for the assassination, then their ability to
operate with such ease within what is supposedly Afghanistan’s most secure
region raised serious concerns about Kabul’s security situation.
However, as seen, the list of potential assassins extends beyond al Qaeda and there is not, as yet, a firm reason to believe that the
terrorist organization killed Qadir. Indeed,
to a degree, it is irrelevant who was responsible. For, by taking up his office in Kabul, Qadir greatly assisted
Karzai’s attempt to wean Afghanistan’s warlords away from their regional
powerbases and into the national government where, he is gambling, they will be
easier controlled. Qadir’s death
may make such warlords loathe to forgo the relative safety of their respective
fiefdoms for that of Kabul. Moreover,
as well as re-stoking Pashtun anger at perceived Tajik-dominance in the Afghan
government, the assassination has left a power vacuum in Nangarhar that some may
try to fill by force. Recent calls
by some U.S. senators for America to play a greater role in Afghanistan’s
security may have to be heeded if the latter is to be avoided.
Such concerns also give added voice to calls for an expansion of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The one consolation is that, potentially destabilizing though Qadir’s
assassination may be, it has occurred in a country so inured to such occurrences
that it may yet shrug it off in a manner unimaginable in the West.
The Bush administration rebuffed suggestions that this week’s assassination of
Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir in Kabul requires an increased U.S. military
presence in Afghanistan. Speaking on July
7, Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, stated: “The president
thinks the best way to secure the Afghan country is through the training of the
Afghan Army. There are plenty of
international peacekeepers in Kabul.” The
administration’s reiteration of its stance on this topic came as some U.S.
senators called for an increased American security presence in Afghanistan. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., called for additional U.S. forces to be
deployed to extend the relative stability enjoyed in Kabul to the rest of
Afghanistan, warning: “We are running a real risk that the gains we made
during the war could be lost by an insufficient peace.” Bayh’s comments were echoed by Senators Bob Graham, D-
Fla., and Chuck Hagel, R- Neb., although both men stopped short of repeating
Bayh’s call for more American troops to be committed to Afghanistan.
Graham described Qadir’s assassination as “a throwback to the old
Afghanistan and a setback to the establishment of the new Afghanistan,” adding
that a greater U.S. role in Afghan security was needed to nurture a climate more
conducive to the founding of a new government there.
Hagel agreed with this prognosis, saying a fresh look at America’s role
in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was needed.
Other
News in Brief June 23 - June 30, 2002 Coalition search operations continued apace this week, and on
at least three recent occasions, locals disclosed the whereabouts of weapons
caches to the U.S. and allied troops, a potentially encouraging sign that the
hearts and minds dimension of the campaign in Afghanistan is enjoying some
success. Meanwhile, a rocket was fired at U.S. troops in near Khost on June
25, with another impacting a half mile from the airport there the
following day. No one was hurt in
either incident, and it is unknown who was responsible for the attacks, which
American forces do not think represent any escalation in hostilities.
Also on June
26, U.S. Special Forces came under mortar attack in Kunar province in
eastern Afghanistan. The Americans
returned the mortar fire and two FA 18s were tasked, dropping two 500-pound
bombs. Follow-up patrols were launched but it is unclear if there
were any enemy casualties. The incident in Kunar came amid Associated Press reports that
some 100 U.S. troops, accompanied by about 50 allied Afghans were conducting a
search of the region’s mountains. Earlier
this year, a former Taliban official claimed that he had in the past accompanied
Osama bin Laden to hide-outs the al Qaeda chief maintained in the area. U.S. officials are said to have confirmed the operation was
launched on the basis of indications that important al Qaeda/Taliban personalities may be in the region, but would not
elaborate any further. Speaking before a congressional panel on June 26, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz did not rule out possible future endorsement by Washington of the
expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). U.S. backing is seen by many commentators as virtually a
prerequisite for ISAF being allowed to operate outside of Kabul.
The problem according to Wolfowitz and others is that Turkey and other
contributors to ISAF are loathe to take on operations beyond the Afghan capital.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for such an expansion as has
Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Indeed,
on June 20,
Karzai said that foreign troops and aid workers would be needed in Afghanistan
indefinitely. He also said that
Afghans’ famous antipathy towards foreign intervention would not present any
problems as most of Afghanistan’s population realized that the West was in the
country today to offer assistance. This call came as the British Royal Air Force handed over the
Air Point of Disembarkation (APOD) that they established as Kabul airport last
January to Turkey on June
30. Thousands of mines
were cleared in establishing the APOD, but it is estimated that around 50,000
still required diffusing – a legacy of the old Soviet tactic to lay thick
belts of mines around the airport. The
previous night a rocket was fired at the compound, exploding harmlessly at the
perimeter fence. Pakistan On June
26/27, 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a raid on a suspected al Qaeda hideout in the village of Azam Warsak, while lies between
six and seven miles from the border with Afghanistan. Two suspected al Qaeda
fighters were also killed in the incident, with their companions escaping under
cover of darkness. A Chechen
fighter was detained. Azam Warsak
is in the South Waristan tribal area, a region to which up to 1,000 al Qaeda/ Taliban fugitives are thought to have fled from
Afghanistan. Pakistan, while coming
under some criticism for not doing enough to detain such fugitives, has
dispatched thousands of troops to its border regions. A
small number of U.S. personnel are assisting the Pakistanis in these operations
‑ although none were involved in this raid (initiated after a tip-off from
American intelligence) - the nearest being over half a mile away at the time.
Given that the firefight in question lasted over four hours – thus
allowing the Americans plenty of time to get there, it would appear that a
decision was taken not to task U.S. Forces to the incident.
This was possibly motivated by political considerations, with the
authorities in Karachi keen to avoid the prospect of U.S. troops engaged in
actual combat within Pakistan. Other
new in brief
Coalition Operations
On June
15 a patrol of British Marines discovered one of the largest weapons
cache uncovered yet in southeastern Afghanistan.
The arsenal uncovered included 65,000 rounds of small arms ammunition;
hundreds of mortar rounds and rockets; thousands of recoilless rocket rounds;
rocket launchers; anti-aircraft guns; mortars; plastic explosives; and
detonation cord and other bomb-making supplies.
Much of the equipment was described as new.
Two radios were destroyed before the Marines could capture them, and a
number of vans were seen leaving the far side of the village.
Over 10 men were also found inside the compound, with some who were
detained. A hostile crowd gathered
outside the compound as the British troops counted the find into the night, and
a U.S. AC-130 “Spectre” gunship circled overhead. The gunship dropped flares but did not open fire.
The Marines believe the arms cache, which is overly large for mere
village defense, could have belonged to al
Qaeda/Taliban. According to
locals, the cache had been over twice as large until recently, when men came and
transported most of it to another location. This find was one of a series resulting from U.S. and coalition
searches in recent weeks, including the discovery of a cache of 30 Chinese-made
shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. Meanwhile, on June
21, U.S. Special Forces raided a house near Gardez, after being
tipped off it was being used by al Qaeda/Taliban
fighters. Five men were taken into
custody and questioned as to their identity, with anti-tank mines; seven cases
of mortar rounds; eight rocket-propelled grenades; and two 107mm rockets among
the weapons uncovered. Another Special Forces team discovered a six-cave complex
containing almost 5,000 (unusable and subsequently destroyed) mortar rounds near
the village of Kahkarez, while, further north, another such patrol came under
rocket fire near the Pakistani border. Two
rockets were fired in the attack, near Lwara, 40 miles southeast of Gardez, but
they exploded half a mile from the American patrol, none of who were injured.
A follow-up search discovered four more rockets deployed ready-to-fire on
their launchers, although the attackers had fled.
This pattern of smaller coalition units conducting reconnaissance
operations, while attempting to win the “hearts and minds” of the local
population may continue for some time to come, with some American officials
saying U.S. combat troops may be needed in Afghanistan for at least another
year. British troop levels in Afghanistan are to fall from over 4,000
to around 1,800. This cutback was
announced by British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon on June 20, and will see the departure of
the Bagram-based Royal Marines early next month, with most of the 1,300-strong
British contingent to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) also
being withdrawn. Around 400 British
troops will remain in ISAF, with a few logistics personnel being retained at
Bagram, and store retained in the country in case British combat troops need to
be redeployed there. British
Special Forces will probably continue to operate in Afghanistan.
There are apparently no immediate plans to increase the number of
American troops in the country (currently around 7,000) to compensate for the
British pullout, indicating an imminent increase in the “operational tempo”
of U.S. troops or a further scaling back of coalition operations as a whole. Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga (or grand council) concluded this
week, with Hamid Karzai, the newly elected president of Afghanistan’s
Transitional Authority announcing most of his cabinet on June 22.
However, the new body was faced with immediate problems, with one
important Afghan official threatening to resign and form a political opposition
group, and the women’s affairs portfolio unassigned amid threats from
conservative Islamic groups. The resignation threat came from Yonus Qanooni, the former
Afghan interior minister, who resigned from that post during the Loya Jirga.
In stepping down, Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik and leader in the Northern
Alliance, made way for the appointment of a Pashtun as Interior Minister.
This gesture seemed designed to diffuse accusations that the new
authority was comprised of too many high-ranking Tajiks to be truly
representative. However, troops and
police loyal to Qanooni refused to allow his successor to take up his office and
stopped directing traffic in Kabul. This
came amid reports that Qanooni was unhappy with his new post as education
minister – allocated to him after his resignation as interior minister.
The situation appeared diffused when Karzai offered Qanooni the
additional and specially-created post of senior security advisor, although it
remained unclear how this position would share security responsibility with Taj
Mohammad Wardak, the new interior minister. The difficulties of picking a women’s affairs minister, while
probably less-destabilizing for the new authority given the still overwhelmingly
chauvinistic nature of Afghan politics, proved even more intractable.
With the former holder of this post, Sima Samar, castigated by
conservative Islamic parties for her alleged opposition to Islamic law, the
position remained vacant at the conclusion of the Loya Jirga.
A former law professor at Kabul University, Mahboba Hoqooqmal, has
reportedly been offered the post, although it remains unclear if she will accept
it. Meanwhile some Muslim groups,
opposed to women’s emancipation, want the position abolished altogether. ISAF
Developments Other
News in Brief
June 10 - June 16, 2002
Coalition forces remained on standby for any al
Qaeda/ Taliban attacks aimed at disrupting the Afghan Loya Jirga (or grand
council), which was meeting in Kabul to choose an Interim Government for
Afghanistan. Despite high fears that such disruption would occur, the week
went off relatively peacefully. An
alert was sounded before dawn on June
11, which caused the U.S. Quick Reaction Force (QRF) at Bagram to be
scrambled. However, Apache
helicopters discovered that a report of rockets being launched between Kabul and
Bagram was a false alarm and the QRF was stood down. The incident came a day after U.S. troops from Kandahar
searched a suspected al Qaeda training
site near Suleiman Kehl, in southeastern Afghanistan – around 10 miles from
the Pakistani border. The troops
blew up caves containing weapons and munitions which were found during the
search. The arms cache discovered
may have been old and was not indicative of a continuing al
Qaeda/ Taliban presence in the area. The
site is one of several near the Afghan-Pakistani border being searched by U.S.
forces according to U.S. officials. The Afghan Loya Jirga, due to convene on June 12, was delayed by a day as
delegates bickered over the role of the country’s former king, Mohammad Zahir
Shah, in any future government. Giving
his backing to the Interim Authority leader, Hamid Karzai, Zahir Shah himself
declared that he did not seek to restore the monarchy to Afghanistan or run as a
candidate to rule the country. Support
for the former king has been growing, especially among his fellow Pashtuns, who
comprise the majority tribal grouping in Afghanistan and hail mostly from the
south of the country. The Tajiks
and Uzbeks from northern Afghanistan, who make up the Northern Alliance faction
which dominates the interim authority, were keen to secure key posts in the new
government, and also supported Karzai’s bid to lead the new body. This bid received a further boost when former Afghan
President Burhanuddin Rabbani withdrew his nomination to the leadership of the
new government. On June
13 Karzai was elected as Afghanistan’s new president, with the
somewhat chaotic Loya Jirga abruptly adjourned on June
16 amid disagreement over how Afghanistan’s future parliament
should be chosen. The process, due
to end on June 17,
looks set to be extended by at least another day. Other
News in Brief June 3 - June 9, 2002
As Afghanistan prepared for the meeting of the Loya Jirga (or Grand
Council) that will choose the country’s next government, President Bush’s special
representative to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad, said the U.S.-led campaign
there was entering a “manhunt phase.”
Speaking on June 4, Khalizad said
that while there were no large formations of al Qaeda/ Taliban believed to be left in Afghanistan, small pockets
of enemy fighters still remained and are the focus of ongoing coalition
operations. Also on June 4, six
Chinese-made 107mm rockets were fired at the coalition airbase at
Kandahar. The rockets were launched
using a timer, but two of them misfired, falling just 300 yards from the launch
site that was located some three miles from the airbase. The other four rockets all missed, with only
two of them managing to get within 1.5 miles of their target. It is unknown who was responsible for the
attack. Heavy automatic rifle fire was
also heard in Kandahar city itself early the same day, although thus far the
origins and intended target of the shooting is unclear. According to the director of coalition intelligence at Bagram,
Col. Michael Flynn, there is still a “significant presence” of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan. Flynn said of the al Qaeda remaining in the country: “It’s an enemy which is mobile,
an enemy which is clearly watching what we are doing, and he is adjusting to
that.” This assessment was borne out
this week when troops from the 18th Airborne Corps returned from a
sweep of eastern Jalalabad, without making contact with the 15 to 20 enemy
fighters reportedly in the area.
Meanwhile, British Marines continued their operation in Khost, near the
Afghan-Pakistan border. A large
emphasis is being put on the “hearts and minds” aspect of the mission, with the
British troops careful to maintain cordial relations with the locals, and
putting the skills of a Royal Navy doctor and dentist to good use in wooing
Afghan civilians. As Royal Marine
spokesman Lt. Col. Ben Curry put it: “The idea is you help on the one hand and
carry a big stick on the other.” This
“carrots and sticks” approach is likely to be the most productive method of
operating in Afghanistan, where local resistance to foreign forces is
well-known. On June 6 approximately
120 U.S. Special Forces and British Marines conducted a raid at Atalay, some 50
miles northwest of Kandahar. Four
compounds were seized and around 17 people taken into custody. All but five of the detainees were
subsequently released, and those still in custody continue to be questioned as
to any links they may have to al Qaeda/
Taliban. Assault rifles,
rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rounds, detonation cord, and plastic
explosives were also seized during the raid.
According to one British officer, the cache comprised much more
armaments than was typical for Afghan farmers.
Village elders later told coalition troops that their land had been used
by “bad people” recently. Unlike previous
such operations, where locals were unaware of the reasons behind the coalition
raid, this mission included the broadcasting of recordings in Pashtu,
explaining why the action was being taken and what al Qaeda did in America on Sept. 11. This development mirrors methods used elsewhere in Afghanistan by
British Marines. Such tactics may prove
crucial if coalition troops are to avoid alienating the local population with
raids targeted against al Qaeda/
Taliban. ISAF Developments Over 200 Turkish troops landed in Kabul on June 4, the biggest such group to
arrive in the Afghan capital to date.
Turkey will take over command of the 5,000-strong, 18-nation
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