CIAO DATE: 7/5/2006

Afghan Update: Jan. 1 - Feb. 7, 2006

Francis Rheinheimer

February 2006

Center for Defense Information

Coalition forces

On Jan. 1, U.S. and Afghan forces released the Kabul correspondent of the Arab television station Al Jazeera, along with his driver and a cameraman, hours after holding and questioning them for filming locations of a "security nature" near the headquarters of the U.S.-led troops operating in Afghanistan. The reporters claimed they did not know the area was restricted.

The United States plans to develop a high-security prison in Afghanistan to hold terrorism suspects, including some transferred from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the Financial Times said on Jan. 4. The U.S. government has chosen the site of a former Soviet-era prison near Kabul to house the prisoners.

On Jan. 9, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed that more attacks against U.S. forces Afghanistan were coming, a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggested Omar "get in touch" if he wanted peace. "The Taliban attacks in Afghanistan will further intensify in this new year, which will force Americans to leave Afghanistan very soon," he said. Omar remains in hiding.

Six suspected militants were killed in clashes with Afghan and U.S.-led troops on Jan. 13. The fatalities occurred when Afghan and U.S. forces repelled an attack by militants in Deh Rawood, a troubled district in central Uruzgan province.

Britain’s Foreign Office announced on Jan. 20 that it had spent more than $42 million as part of the drive against narcotics in Afghanistan in 2004-2005. Officials said the British government would increase funding “substantially” over the next three years.

On Jan. 27, the U.S. military in Afghanistan began a court martial of an American soldier accused of striking two detainees, with a second soldier to face similar charges the following week. Army Specialist James Hayes was charged with "conspiracy to maltreat, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and assault consummated by battery." The force has been under fire from human rights groups for mistreating prisoners arrested during the operation.

On Jan. 30, a U.S. military court in Afghanistan sentenced an American soldier to six months confinement and a reduction in rank after finding him guilty Monday of punching detainees.

General Afghan Security

Afghanistan announced on Jan. 2 it aimed to slash the area of land used for growing opium by at least 40 percent this year, playing down UN estimates that output in the world's biggest producer would rise. The Afghanistan official in charge of counternarcotics said that the area used to cultivate poppies had dropped 40 percent in 2005. He rejected a warning given last month by the United Nations that Afghan opium production could increase in 2006, after showing a decline last year.

Taliban militants beheaded a teacher in a central Afghan town on Jan. 4, while the teacher’s wife and eight children watched. The attack is the latest in a string of attacks targeting educators at schools where girls study.

On Jan. 5, a suicide bomber killed 10 people and wounded 50 in an Afghan provincial capital during a visit by the U.S. ambassador, Ronald E. Neumann. The envoy was unhurt. The attack took place in a bazaar about one mile from the regional governor's house, which the ambassador was visiting.

A roadside bomb blew up on Jan. 7 as a van packed with police cadets and trainers was driving through an eastern Afghan city, killing a passer-by and wounding a police colonel and driver.

On Jan. 8, Suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in Kandahar, the latest in a spate of attacks against teachers and institutions that educate girls. This comes less than a week after the beheading of a headmaster of another coed school.

Gunmen killed a former Taliban leader on Jan. 14 who switched loyalties and supported Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government after the hard-line militia was ousted in late 2001. Violence elsewhere killed 10 and wounded 40 people celebrating an Islamic holiday, as well as one U.S. soldier. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility.

A Taliban bomb attack on a military convoy killed a Canadian diplomat and at least two Afghans in the heart of Kandahar on Jan. 15. Canadian officials said it appeared the convoy of armored vehicles was attacked by a suicide bomber, and that three soldiers were wounded. Some Afghan citizens were also killed and injured in the bombing.

Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 26 people in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Jan. 16. The combined toll was the worst in a day from suicide bombings in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 and came just hours after President Karzai expressed concern about an increase in such attacks. The UN strongly condemned the attacks and re-committed to helping the country to fully restore its security.

An Afghan boy and four men, including staff of a U.S. security firm, were freed Jan. 22 after being briefly kidnapped by Taliban rebels, while a local police chief was killed in a suspected Taliban ambush. They were being driven away when police came upon them by chance; after a brief shootout, the abductors abandoned their captives and fled. Three of the captured men work with the U.S. security firm USPI. A five-year-old boy was with the group.

On Jan. 24, seven Taliban rebels disguised themselves as visitors and escaped a high-security prison in Kabul that is being refurbished for the arrival of terror suspects from the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A rocket killed two police officers during a battle with Taliban rebels in eastern Afghanistan on Jan. 26, while a roadside bomb wounded two U.S. troops traveling in a convoy. Also, suspected Taliban fighters ambushed an army post in the troubled southeastern Paktika province and killed two local soldiers, while a bomb destroyed a tanker supplying fuel to U.S.-led troops.

Karzai said on Jan. 27 that Afghanistan will probably need foreign troops to ensure stability and security in the country for another five to 10 years. Karzai said the country's internationally-trained Army now has 33,000 troops, and is likely to expand, yet "the numbers and the equipment do not alone make institutions."

On Jan. 28, Taliban insurgents torched three schools in southern Afghanistan, the latest in a string of attacks against coalition-led efforts to promote education of girls. Also, a bomb struck a convoy of Afghan, Romanian and Canadian forces, wounding three Afghan policemen.

Afghan security forces arrested nine people Jan. 30, including would-be suicide bombers and two Pakistan nationals, for allegedly planning attacks. The nine were arrested in a series of search operations over the past few days in insurgency-hit southern Kandahar province.

According to a former minister’s speech on Jan. 31, billions of dollars of aid that have poured into Afghanistan have done little to improve people's lives, and sweeping personnel changes in government and aid agencies should be made.

A suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up Feb. 2 at a security checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, killing five Afghans.

Militants from Iraq are reportedly joining the insurgency in Afghanistan, according to an Afghan regional governor. He made the claim after security officials caught and interrogated an Iraqi attempting to sneak into the country illegally on Feb. 2.

Militants attacked a U.S. convoy on Feb. 6, killing one serviceman. The death brought the total number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted four years ago to 210.

A suicide bomber in the city of Kandahar killed 13 and wounded 14 on Feb. 7 when he detonated a bomb near a police station. Most of the dead were policemen. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, which marks the 25th attack in four months. Elsewhere, a bomb killed a Turkish engineer, an Indian, and two others.

Also on Feb. 7, Afghan police fired on a crowd of protesters gathered to express their objection to depictions of the prophet Mohammed. The crowd was attempting to storm a NATO base housing Norwegian soldiers when Afghan security forces opened fire and killed four protesters. Across the country, large crowds gathered to protest the cartoons.

Pakistan

A Pakistani security official and residents of a border region said U.S. aircraft killed 18 people in the tribal Pajaur region on Jan. 13, including women and children. The Pakistani government has declared strong disapproval of the acts, but fell short of blaming the United States outright. The air strike targeted al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, but it was unclear if he had been killed. CNN quoted its sources as saying the CIA ordered the air strike on buildings after receiving intelligence that Zawahri was in a village near the border. Five of those killed were allegedly "high-level" al-Qaida figures.

Popular demonstrations erupted across Pakistan on Jan. 15 to protest the U.S. bombing of a village on the border with Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf said he had lodged an official complaint.

More than 5,000 Afghans demonstrated near the border with Pakistan on Jan. 18, accusing the country of supporting attackers behind a suicide blast that killed 22 people on Jan. 16. Protestors in the frontier town of Spinboldak accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of aiding the "terrorists" behind the attack, one of Afghanistan's deadliest.

On Jan. 25, Pakistani authorities froze bank accounts of two Afghan trading firms suspected of funneling funds to leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas. The move comes in response to Afghan and Interpol requests to investigate the firms and seize their finances.

International Security Assistance Force

President George W. Bush declared on Jan. 5 that the United States is making “amazing progress in democracy and security in Afghanistan.” Bush said that as the NATO alliance took on a larger role in Afghanistan and as the capability of Afghan forces grew, the United States would reduce its force levels from 19,000 to 16,500 this year.

NATO's military chief said on Jan. 6 that the Taliban and al-Qaida were not regrouping in Afghanistan despite more than a dozen suicide attacks there in the last three months. The comment appeared to be in response to a growing chorus of academics, journalists and politicians that an Iraq-style insurgency is emerging in the southern regions.

On Jan. 9, Australia announced it would deploy 110 additional soldiers and two helicopters to help fight rising violence in Afghanistan. This adds to the existing 190 fighters already stationed in the country.

On Jan. 10, a U.S. official expressed frustration with the Dutch hesitation to deploy 1,100 special forces to help maintain stability in Afghanistan. The internal debate in the Netherlands has focused on whether the southern region of Uruzgan, to which the troops would be sent, is too dangerous.

The Dutch prime minister said on Jan. 13 that he wants to send troops to Afghanistan to join the NATO-led peacekeeping force, as international pressure mounted to do so. "The government wants to take part in the ISAF mission," he said following a Cabinet meeting on Friday. "We want to help the people of Afghanistan." A NATO official hinted that the alliance would like the Netherlands to agree to contribute troops to expand the ISAF to 6,000 troops.

Sweden's security service SAPO warned in December that al-Qaida had threatened the country over its peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan, but said on Jan. 18 the alert was over. This came after Sweden’s parliament agreed to bolster its peacekeeping contingent with the NATO-led ISAF.

After the latest of 20 suicide attacks that have rocked Afghanistan since late September, compared with just four in the first nine months of 2005, there has been speculation of a tactical shift by Taliban and al-Qaida militants. The U.S. military calls it a sign of desperation, but it's spooking other NATO countries as they prepare to deploy thousands of troops to take over from American forces. Political opposition in the Netherlands is so strong it has led to a parliamentary debate on whether to approve the planned deployment, and it has threatened to weaken the incumbent government.

On Jan. 26, Britain announced it would commit 3,300 new troops to Afghanistan. That would bring its total to 5,700 troops after it takes over command of the ISAF in May. This comes as NATO declared that the expansion of its peacekeeping force to the south of Afghanistan might not take place until the second half of the year, later than it had hoped. NATO wants to raise troop levels from 9,000 to 15,000, but the plan has been thrown into doubt by Dutch hesitation over whether to contribute 1,200 soldiers. The expansion is key to U.S. hopes of cutting its troop levels. The NATO chief said earlier that expectations of a deployment to the south in early 2006 were "perhaps overly optimistic" and that he now expected the expansion to take place between June and September.

Australia announced on Feb. 1 that it would commit 200 additional soldiers to Afghanistan to reinforce Dutch forces scheduled to arrive “as early as July.” The announcement was part of the international conference on Afghanistan in London.

Also on Feb. 1, the Dutch parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of committing 1,800 troops to ISAF. The deployment will occur some time in the coming months.

Other News in Brief

- The father of an American jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan said on Jan. 19 that his son had been tortured and unjustly punished amid public hysteria over the attacks of Sept. 11. "The maltreatment and imprisonment of John Lindh was – and is – a human rights violation," Frank Lindh told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "It was based purely on an emotional response to the Sept. 11 attacks, not on an objective assessment of the facts of John's case."

- Afghanistan formally approved a five-year development plan on Jan. 22, to be presented to its international supporters at a key conference in London this month. The plan, called the Afghanistan Compact, is due to be signed by the government and the international community at the Jan. 31 - Feb. 1 conference. It focuses on security, governance and the rule of law and human rights, sustainable economic and social development, and counternarcotics.

- The World Bank issued a report Jan. 23 stating that three-quarters of international aid to Afghanistan bypasses the government, thereby making it difficult for elected leaders to plan a budget and set priorities. Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of illegal narcotics, yielding enough opium to make about 450 tons of heroin last year. The yield sparked warnings that the country is fast becoming a "narcostate."

- Afghanistan will get firm assurances of international help in London’s convention on Jan. 31 and in return it will promise to push on with reforms and tackle corruption and its huge illegal drug trade. A two-day international meeting in London, beginning on Tuesday, is to launch a five-year blue print on development, peace and how best to confront the continuing attacks by government opponents in the impoverished country.

- On Feb. 1, world leaders at the international conference on Afghanistan in London pledged $10.5 billion to assist Afghanistan’s struggle against crime, terrorism, human trafficking and the drug trade. As part of the “Afghanistan Compact,” the money will cover poverty reduction, economic development, counternarcotics and security over a five-year period.

- On Feb. 3, Karzai expressed “strong objection” to the satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed printed in a Danish journal, but also called on Afghan citizens to refrain from violence and exercise forgiveness.

- More than 170 Taliban militants surrendered to the government as part of an amnesty scheme on Feb. 5. The fighters vowed to lay down their arms and help rebuild the country in exchange for immunity from prosecution.