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January 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Jerusalem Post: While Israeli soldiers can't fight in the war in Afghanistan, Israeli drones can. Starting next week, five NATO member countries will be operating unmanned aerial vehicles produced in the Jewish state in anti-Taliban operations in the Central Asian country. Next week, officials from the German military will arrive to take delivery of an undisclosed number of Heron UAVs, made by Israel Aerospace Industries. Full news...
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January 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Le Monde Diplomatique: In northern Afghanistan, far away from the Taliban’s heartland, freedom remains elusive for most women. Forced marriages of young girls are still common and sex attacks are on the rise. Many say life has deteriorated after the US-led invasion because the occupation ushered in a new era of lawlessness. At the offices of the Afghanistan Human Rights Organisation in Sheberghan, Jowzjan province, women from throughout the region arrive with tales of misery and horror. Full news...
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January 21, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Canadian Press: Pity the poor Kabul traffic police officer. Adding to the hazards of the job - dust, chaotic traffic and the occasional beatings from irate drivers - comes new insult to injury: No pay. The government just doesn't have the money right now, yet another sign of the precarious state of the country. Shafi Muhammad said he wasn't paid last month, but he's been promised he'll get his money at the end of this month. Full news...
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January 20, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
t r u t h o u t: Two reports coming out of Afghanistan illustrate the depth of hypocrisy and subterfuge characterizing the US/NATO intervention in that country. One could cite a myriad of such examples, so immoral and wrong is the US war there. "Self-immolation is being used by increasing numbers of Afghan women to escape their dire circumstances ...." Full news...
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January 19, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: Afghans paid $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in bribes over the past 12 months, or the equivalent of almost one quarter of legitimate GDP, a UN report suggests. Surveying 7,600 people, it found nearly 60% more concerned about corruption than insecurity or unemployment. More than half the population had to pay at least one bribe to a public official last year, the report adds. The findings contrast sharply with a recent BBC survey in which the economy appeared to top Afghan concerns. Full news...
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January 18, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Sirens sounded through the deserted streets as ambulances and fire engines sped towards the main fighting in Pashtunistan Square where Taliban militants laid siege to major buildings in the heart of the capital... The Taliban said it had sent 20 suicide bombers into the heart of the capital, its targets including the presidential palace and the central bank. Full news...
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January 17, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Boston Globe: While the White House has paid lip service to the importance of good governance in Afghanistan, the reality is that co-opting violent warlords is at the heart of a plan that will likely result in further instability. One of the warlords who may soon star in the new US efforts to rebrand fundamentalists as potential government partners is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a brutal Afghan insurgent commander... Full news...
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January 16, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Suicides in the US Army rose to a new record in 2009, with 160 soldiers taking their lives, the military said Friday, calling it a "painful year.""There's no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides," said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force. Full news...
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January 15, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: The lone bomber was spotted by a guard entering a money-changing market at lunchtime and detonated explosives attached to a waistcoat before he could be stopped. At least three children were among the dead. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but the Taliban regularly use suicide bombers in their insurgency against Hamid Karzai's internationally-backed regime. Full news...
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January 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for $33 billion in emergency war funding for a major U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan this year... The money, mainly for the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and other war costs in the current 2010 fiscal year, would come on top of Obama's expected request to increase the Pentagon's overall budget in fiscal 2011 to a record $708 billion... Full news...
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January 13, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Aljazeera: The number of civilians killed in war-related violence in Afghanistan touched 2,412 last year, the highest number since the 2001 US-led invasion, the UN has said. A report by the UN mission for Afghanistan pointed to the "intensification and spread of the armed conflict" in what was also the deadliest year for foreign forces, with 520 troops killed. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Ten people were killed and 25 others wounded as NATO-led soldiers opened fire on residents protesting civilian deaths and desecration of the Holy Quran in southern Helmand province on Tuesday. Dwellers of the restive Garmser district said International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers raided the house of a tribal elder, killing three of his family members and torching copies of Quran in a local mosque. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A former Afghan president illegally ordered the sale of a state-run Ariana Airline aircraft, bought for 30 million US dollars from Russia in 1980, to Iran's Caspian Company at a throwaway price of $450,000. The shady deal involved a former diplomat, Engineer Abdu Rahim Syed Jan, who has now been named by President Hamid Karzai as his minister-designate of refugee affairs, reveal investigations conducted by Pajhwok Afghan News. Full news...
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January 12, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: Hundreds of families allegedly forced out of their homes in Kapisa Province, northeastern Afghanistan, by clashes between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces have sought refuge in the eastern outskirts of Kabul. “There is always fighting, bombing and insecurity in Nejrab and Alasaay,” said one displaced man referring to the two Kapisa districts affected. He said he had lost his 15-year-old son in the fighting. Full news...
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January 11, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Fox News: Between 2004 and 2008, USAID showered more than $330 million on an obscure United Nations agency known as UNOPS to carry out development aid projects in Afghanistan. What happened next wasn’t pretty. Among other things, USAID apparently overlooked a growing stack of U.N. audits and investigations that pointed to fraud, mismanagement and lack of internal financial controls by UNOPS in Afghanistan... Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: In Kabul, even a traffic jam can provoke a comment on this Islamic nation's dismal state, which most people here believe is at its bleakest since the U.S. invaded to topple the Taliban in 2001. It's a striking sentiment when you consider it comes after eight years of international intervention, $60 billion in foreign aid and the lives of thousands of foreign troops and Afghan civilians. Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC NEWS: Osama Bin Laden died eight years ago during the battle for Tora Bora in Afghanistan, either from a US bomb or from a serious kidney disease. Or so the conspiracy theory goes. The theory that has developed on the web since 9/11 is that US intelligence services are manufacturing the Bin Laden statements to create an evil bogeyman, to justify the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and back at home. Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Independent: Britain's ability to wage an effective military campaign in Afghanistan is under growing pressure as the number of soldiers unfit for battle has risen to one in five. As UK forces prepare to begin yet another year embroiled in a gruelling struggle against the Taliban, defence chiefs have confirmed that more than 16,000 troops are not fit enough to fight. Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Gulf Times: The year 2009 has been the deadliest for Afghan children since 2001, according to the Afghanistan Rights Monitor, a Kabul-based human rights group. From January to December 2009, about 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blats, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces, states ARM. Full news...
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January 10, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN (Translated by RAWA): With the death of this newly-married bride the number of dead girls and women in this area of the western region has reached 47 this year. The doctors in the regional hospital of Herat say that this woman was called Halima and had died in the hospital two nights back. Dr. Mohammad Arif Jalali, director of the regional burn hospital of Herat told PAN that 15-year old Halima, resident of the Qadis District of Badghis Province, had married three months back. Full news...
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January 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC: The UK paid $2m (£1.3m) for the services of an Afghan warlord in an operation against Osama Bin Laden in 2001, it has been alleged. BBC Two's Conspiracy Files heard claims from a US special forces commander that both the Americans and British paid substantial sums to Afghan warlords. Dalton Fury added that the UK-backed warlord, Haji Zaman Gamsurek, went on to agree a ceasefire with al-Qaeda. Full news...
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January 9, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Canwest News Service: It costs taxpayers about $525,000 a year to keep one Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, according to the simplest calculation possible, which is to divide the approximately $1.5-billion cost of the mission for the 2009/2010 fiscal year by the 2,850 troops who are part of it. These figures does not take into account soldiers' salaries and benefits or the long-term health-care costs associated with service in South Asia. Full news...
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January 8, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Canadian Press: More Afghan women are choosing suicide to escape the violence and brutality of their daily lives, says a new human-rights report prepared by Canada's Foreign Affairs Department. The 2008 annual assessment paints a grim picture of a country where violence against women and girls is common, despite rising public awareness among Afghans and international condemnation. Full news...
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January 7, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AP: Thousands of Afghans shouting “Death to America!” protested the killings of children Thursday, the latest in a string of controversial cases in which international forces have been blamed for civilian deaths. There are fears the problem could get worse with 37,000 U.S. and NATO reinforcements already starting to stream into the country as part of a military buildup. Full news...
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January 6, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The outgoing year was the deadliest year for Afghan children since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001, a human rights watchdog said here on Wednesday. More than 1,050 children under 18 years of age were killed in suicide attacks, air strikes, improvised explosive device blasts and crossfire between warring parties in 2009, the organisation said. Full news...
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January 5, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A high court chief in central Dai Kundi province has put a barber behind bars for refusing to visit his residence to trim his beard. Syed Ahmed, 38, a barber in the provincial capital of Nilli, ended up in jail for disobeying the order of Judge Daud Bakhtiyari. Full news...
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January 4, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Wall Street Journal: The suicide bomber who killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors and a Jordanian intelligence officer was a double agent the CIA had recruited to provide intelligence on senior al Qaeda leadership, according to current and former U.S. officials and an Afghan security official. The officials said the bomber was a Jordanian doctor likely affiliated and working with al Qaeda. Full news...
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January 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Canadian Press: A preliminary United Nations investigation has found that eight students were among 10 Afghan civilians killed in Kunar province on Sunday. A statement Thursday by Kai Eide, special UN representative, says the deaths occurred during a raid by Afghan and international military forces in the province's Narang district. "Based on our initial investigation, eight of those killed were students enrolled in local schools," Eide said. Full news...
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January 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Taliban militants beheaded six Afghans they accused of spying for the government of President Hamid Karzai, police said Thursday, confirming the men had "cooperated with the authorities". The victims' bodies were found with their heads totally separated in a house near the capital of the southern province of Uruzgan on Thursday, Juma Gul Hema, the provincial police chief, told AFP. Full news...