Posted by: S ||
07/04/2011 10:58 Comments ||
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#3
At least two were killed in this sector today while emplacing IED's. All that was found and burried were feet and scalps. I was saddened that they died a painless death. We will gain nothing from this involvement. These people are members of incorrigible society, guided by a religion of hate and hopelessly lost in tribalism, curruption, dope, and banditry. Anyone who tells you there is any gain or purpose to our involvement in Afghanistan is a delusional lier. Please continue to lift our troops up in prayer in order that they can survive this waste of blood and treasure. They are very, very brave and deserve our thoughts and prayers.
The shelling in Kunar province is taking place along one of the most strategically important fronts of the war -- a haven for hardcore insurgent groups fighting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan has been so stung by insurgents' recent cross-border attacks, they launched an offensive that also highlights NATO's struggles to pacify the area and the lack of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan against their common foes.
During a two-hour visit to three mountain villages, an Associated Press reporter witnessed at least 50 artillery strikes. One rocket struck a mountain slope about five miles outside of the provincial capital, Asadabad. Which, according to Pakistan, never happened. I'm sure those rocket attacks moved an impressive amount of earth and stone.
[Dawn] Afghanistan's intelligence agency said on Sunday that a senior commander from the Pak Taliban sold a jacket wallah to an Afghan jihad boy network, to carry out an attack on a local commander in eastern Afghanistan.
Relations between the neighbours are already strained by weeks of cross-border shelling of Afghanistan's east. Pakistain denies more than "a few accidental" rounds have landed in Afghanistan; Kabul says hundreds have hit.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's intelligence agency, said the bomber was a Pak national and was jugged by NDS agents in Jaji Maidan district of eastern Paktia province before he could carry out his mission.
Sher Hassan was sent by the Haqqani network, considered one of the most dangerous Islamic exemplar groups fighting in Afghanistan, but had not signed up to join them, the NDS said in a statement.
Instead he said he was bought by the group to target "Azizullah", a commander whose affiliation and rank were not given by the NDS. Hassan then spent a month after his sale training with the Haqqani network.
"The jugged man added that a commander under Hakimullah Mehsud sells suicide bombers at 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 Pak rupees ($70,000 to $93,000), to the Haqqani network for suicide missions," the statement said.
Mehsud is the leader of Pakistain's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), or the Taliban Movement of Pakistain, blamed for many suicide kabooms across Pakistain. The statement did not say what price Hassan had fetched, nor how he had been jugged.
Parts of east Afghanistan share a long, and mostly non-existent border with the often lawless tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistain where forces of Evil targeting both the Pakistain state and Afghanistan -- including the Haqqani -- have their hideouts.
The Haqqani network, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, is allied with the Taliban but also believed to be closely linked to al Qaeda and the architect of several high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, including a brutal shootout inside a bank.
Effective daily management of the group has passed from Jalaluddin Haqqani, who forged his reputation fighting the Soviet occupation of the 1980s but is now thought to be ill, to Sirajuddin, his eldest son.
Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of May. The detention of Hassan comes days after a group of suicide bombers staged a brazen attack on a landmark hotel in western part of capital Kabul that killed at least ten.
Afghan officials say sanctuaries inside Pakistain's borders help beturbanned goons to train, rest, and recruit fighters before crossing into Afghanistan to stage attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh dear. One knows such things go on, of course, but it doesn't do to get caught. Especially as it's likely we'll see more stories of this sort -- the cannon fodder does so like to think of themselves as being self-aimed weapons, not mere tools to be sent hither and yon at at the whim of those staying safely far behind in the bosom of their family.
WASHINGTON: The US military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes to the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating US-Pakistani relations, The Washington Post reported late on Saturday.
Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said that in 2009, the United States moved 90 percent of its military surface cargo through the port of Karachi and then through mountain passes into Afghanistan. Now almost 40 percent of surface cargo arrives in Afghanistan from the north, along a patchwork of Central Asian rail and road routes that the Pentagon calls the Northern Distribution Network, the report said.
The military is pushing to raise the northern networks share to as much as 75 percent by the end of this year, the paper said. In addition, the US government is negotiating expanded agreements with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries that would allow for delivery of additional supplies to the Afghan war zone, The Post said. The United States also wants permission to withdraw vehicles and other equipment from Afghanistan as the US military prepares to pull out one-third of its forces by September 2012, the paper noted.
Although Pakistan has not explicitly threatened to sever the supply lines, Pentagon officials said they are concerned the routes could be endangered by the deterioration of US-Pakistan relations, partly fed by ill will from the cross-border raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
While reducing the shipment of cargo through Pakistan would address a strategic weakness, shifting supply lines elsewhere would substantially increase the cost of the war and make the United States more dependent on authoritarian countries in Central Asia, the report said. It quoted a senior US defence official as saying that the military wants to keep using Pakistan, but the Pentagon also wants the ability to bypass the country if necessary.
The report notes that in the event that the Pakistan supply route becomes unavailable, the military would have to deliver the bulk of its cargo by air, a method that costs up to 10 times as much as shipping via Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2011 00:00 ||
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LONDON: Britain will announce this week that it is to withdraw up to 800 troops by the end of next year, according to a report in the Sunday Times newspaper. The move comes after last months announcement that thousands of US troops would start being withdrawn later this year as part of a process of handing security over to Afghan forces.
UK force levels in Afghanistan are kept under constant review, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said. The prime minister (David Cameron) has been clear that there will be no UK troops in combat roles in Afghanistan by 2015 and it is right that we bring troops home sooner where progress allows and taking account of military advice.
The British government announced in May that it would pull about 400 troops from Afghanistan over the following nine months, trimming its force to 9,500.
The Sunday Times said it was expected that Cameron would announce on Wednesday a pull-out of between 500 and 800 troops between next February and the end of 2012.
Britain has the second-biggest foreign contingent in Afghanistan, with the majority in the southern Helmand province, one of the most violent areas. So far 374 British service personnel have died in the decade-long war.
The chief of staff of Germanys armed forces said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday that Germany would reduce its troop levels in Afghanistan by about 500 from the current force of 4,800 at the end of the year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2011 00:00 ||
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In which three adults try to educate a man-child...
KABUL - Three American senators visiting Kabul said Sunday they were worried that President Obamas planned withdrawal of 33,000 American troops by September 2012 could undermine Afghan morale, embolden the insurgency and hamper efforts to defeat the Taliban.
Just telegraphing the playbook does that.
The senators -- John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham -- said that they were heartened by the progress of Afghan security forces, but concerned that Mr. Obamas withdrawal plan could deplete American military strength before dealing a decisive blow to the Taliban, especially in the east. That part of the country is a haven for the Afghan and Pakistani wings of the Taliban and affiliates of Al Qaeda.
I believe that the planned drawdown is an unnecessary risk, said Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, adding that no military leader had spoken in favor of the timetable.
Mr. McCain, speaking during a stop at the Kabul headquarters of the foreign military contingent, called the International Security Assistance Force, said he was concerned that there may not be enough American troops for a move from southern Afghanistan to the east to finish the job there.
Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, cited gains in Afghan security force recruitment and ability, and said he was optimistic that native forces would soon be ready to take over security. But he also worried that Mr. Obamas withdrawal plan could reduce American troop strength too quickly.
Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said it was important to reassure Afghans they would continue to receive help long after the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of American combat troops. Were certainly going to be here in great numbers until the end of 2014, and I hope as a result of a strategic long-term partnership with Afghanistan that we will have a military presence here and cooperation here with our Afghan partners for a long time after that, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham
#2
Well no, in foreign policy the three of them are pretty good in their instincts. As I said above, they are the three adults in the room.
Not that I want any of them directing the budget or domestic policy, though I did vote for the cranky old man in '08, precisely because he was the only adult at the debates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2011 9:27 Comments ||
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#3
All RINOs. Shun them always.
Nice try, Sarcastic Boy. Next time, put eyeholes in yer mask first. It might help you read the article, 'specially where it sez:
Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut
Posted by: Cynical Man ||
07/04/2011 10:25 Comments ||
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#4
Nice try, Sarcastic Boy. Next time, put eyeholes in yer mask first. It might help you read the article, 'specially where it sez:
LOLA!
Independent of Con. = RINO!
Heh,
n00b? Or flying with mPower?
Posted by: S ||
07/04/2011 12:04 Comments ||
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#1
It looks more like a logisics nightmare. The route through Pak is sure shorter than the rest of the overland routes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/04/2011 1:04 Comments ||
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#2
I wonder why the truck route bypasses Turmenistan? They have a rail line from the Caspian to the Afghan border. Put the trailers on flatbeds and save time and money.
It also takes money out of Pakistani hands. Money they use to feed, raise and train jihadis. Better they spend all their time scraping a living from bare mountainsides than receiving free money from Uncle Sam.
#9
Draw a line from Spin Boldak due East to the Indian/Pakistan border. Declare everything South of that to be Afghanistan. Deport the Pakis.
Profit!
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
07/04/2011 19:48 Comments ||
Top||
#10
A large number of PAK MIL BLOGGERS/NETTERS appear to be happy of the change, + support any effort by Islamabad to close down the US Drone staging bases, stop post-Abbottabad bilateral cooperat, + just get the US out of the country.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > BEIJING SPURNED WASHINGTON'S EFFORTS TO DEVELOP ALTERNATE ROUTE FOR NATO SUPPLIES, vee transit thru China.
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