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CIAO DATE: 7/5/2006
Afghan Update: Jan. 1 - Feb. 7, 2006
Francis Rheinheimer
March 2006
Coalition forces
Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Feb. 13 when their vehicle hit a bomb in central Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province. It was the deadliest single-day loss of American troops since September, when five died in a helicopter crash.
On Feb. 19, the Pentagon announced that 215 U.S. soldiers had been killed since the conflict began in late 2001. Of those, 129 were killed by hostile action.
On Feb. 23, a man driving a truck filled with explosives was shot and killed by coalition forces after the material failed to explode. He managed to throw one grenade but no soldiers were hurt.
General Afghan Security
Three people were killed and 20 wounded on Feb. 8 when police fired into a crowd of protesters trying to storm a U.S. military base in Kabul. The crowd was protesting the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in a Danish journal in September. The Afghan government and the top religious council called for an end to violence over the cartoons, but both condemned the cartoons.
Afghan security forces captured a mid-level Taliban commander on Feb. 15 after his men torched a school in southern Afghanistan. Mullah Shah Nazar, a district governor in southern Kandahar province during the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, was arrested late Tuesday after his men set ablaze a school in Ghazni province.
Taliban insurgents attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan on Feb. 19, killing three policemen, while a rocket was fired at – and missed – one of Kabul’s largest hotels.
A bomb exploded near a NATO peacekeeping convoy in northern Afghanistan on Feb. 22, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 12 people.
Armed militants attacked a convoy carrying Afghan military personnel on Feb. 24, killing four soldiers. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Sixty former Taliban, including five ranking officials, laid down their arms on Feb. 26 as part of a government amnesty scheme. This brings the total number of militants to renounce violence against the regime to 1,200 since the program was launched a year ago.
A riot in Afghanistan’s main prison in Kabul resulted in four dead and 30 injured on Feb. 27. The prisoner contains about 300 former Taliban fighters.
The head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, said that the insurgency in Afghanistan represents the biggest threat to the government’s authority since late 2001, when the Taliban was ousted by U.S. forces. Maples told Congress on Feb. 28 that the insurgency has increased its use of suicide attacks fourfold and improvised explosive devices twofold.
Pakistan
On Feb. 13, Pakistani leaders announced they will discuss the latest in a series of deadly cross-border attacks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he visits the country later in the week. The meeting comes after two nomads were killed and four children wounded by a suspected U.S. rocket.
Pakistan received intelligence from the Afghan president on Feb. 22 indicating the names of at least 100 Taliban rebels hiding in the hills of northern Pakistan. Pakistan’s interior minister said his forces are acting on the intelligence.
On Feb. 24, Afghan president Hamid Karzai gave Pakistan information indicating that Taliban leader Mohammed Omar and his top associates are hiding out in the mountains in northern Pakistan. Pakistan’s interior minister responded that security forces would capture the rebels “if they are here.”
The Pentagon’s top military officer said on March 1 that Pakistan’s security forces had recently driven militants from Pakistan’s border region into Afghanistan. The Pakistani troops, supported by three helicopter gunships, raided a militant hideout and killed or wounded at least 25 fighters.
International Security Assistance Force
Four demonstrators were killed on Feb. 8 when a crowd tried to storm a NATO peacekeeping base in northwestern Afghanistan. After two Norwegian and two Finnish soldiers were wounded by protesters angry over the cartoons of Mohammed depicted in a Danish journal, Afghan troops fired into the crowd and wounded at least 18.
On Feb. 9, NATO officials reiterated their commitment to expand the ISAF into the troubled southern region of Afghanistan this summer, despite an upsurge of violence in recent months. The alliance said it had drawn valuable lessons from recent riots over cartoons of Mohammed that injured five Norwegian soldiers and killed at least 11 people.
150 British marines arrived in southern Afghanistan on Feb. 15, the first of a planned deployment of 3,300 by this summer.
Australia’s prime minister, John Howard, announced on Feb. 20 his country’s plan to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan’s southern region, bring the total number of Australian troops in the ISAF to over 500. Howard said the deployment was intended as a mixed security and reconstruction force, and it will last two years.
The commander of the Canadian military force in Afghanistan said on Feb. 23 that Afghanistan’s “huge problems” require NATO’s presence for “years and years.” He added that the mission represented the greatest challenge for the alliance in “years, if not decades.”
Other News in Brief
On Feb. 7, the United States announced it would cancel all debt owed by Afghanistan, to the tune of $108 million. Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the move as a vital first step toward the country’s reconstruction after 30 years of civil war.
Seven detainees were freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and sent home to Afghanistan, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said on Feb. 9. Human rights groups have long accused the Defense Department of denying prisoners basic legal guarantees, such as the right to counsel and to be informed of charges.
A U.S. general in Afghanistan warned on Feb. 21 that “we can anticipate more fighting in the months ahead.” The statement comes as troops from around the globe converge on Afghanistan to bolster the ISAF and take on the responsibilities of and increasingly violent counter-insurgency.
A former Afghan intelligence chief was sentenced to death on Feb. 25 for human rights abuses during his brief period as the head of the intelligence services in 1978. Thousands of people were tortured and killed during communist rule in the country.
On Feb. 28, at least 7,000 people gathered in Ghazni, a town near the capital, to protest the cartoons of Mohammed that appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. Leaders called the printing of the cartoons the work of “infidels” and “Zionists.”
U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Kabul on March 1 for his first visit to Afghanistan since coalition forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. Bush made the stopover at the start of his maiden visit to South Asia which took him to India and Pakistan. He expressed confidence that Osama bin Laden would eventually be brought to justice.
On March 2, the New York Times reported that the presence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan is larger and more menacing than ever. According to governmental officials, aid workers and local residents, militants have grown stronger, using fear tactics and stepping up bombings. Despite far superior manpower and equipment, coalition forces have been unable to prevent the Taliban from closing 200 schools, killing dozens of public officials, and crippling the economy of Kandahar, the southern region’s principal economic hub.
