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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban attacks German soldiers |
| 2007-05-21 |
| The German military in Afghanistan has been hit by the worst terror attack since 2003, with three soldiers killed and five injured. The opposition is now calling on the government to bring the roughly 3,000 German troops home. The pictures published in the German newspapers paint an image of horror and destruction in the middle of a market square in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. Blood covers the ground around carts with fresh produce, and close to an empty basket lies a severed foot, with a military boot still attached. Ten German Bundeswehr soldiers, a translator and a local police officer this past Saturday had gone to the market to buy refrigerators for their camp. The suicide bomber waited until the men had left their armored Dingo vehicle before he ignited the explosive. Three soldiers died on the spot, five were injured. Five civilians were killed, and another 16 injured. Four of the injured soldiers have already been flown to Germany to get treatment; they are in critical condition. "It wasn't just a bomb, the explosive was stuffed with metal splinters to cause grave injuries," Franz Josef Jung, Germany's defense minister, said Sunday evening in a German political TV talk show. He added that Germany would not be bullied out of Afghanistan. The show also featured Oskar Lafontaine, the populist leader of Germany's far-left Left Party, the fiercest opposition group. Lafontaine criticized the military part of the international presence in Afghanistan, namely the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom, which fights the Taliban in the southern provinces of the country. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr oversees reconstruction efforts in northern Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The U.S. OEF was not a legitimate mission and thus of terrorist nature, Lafontaine said, adding that the recent deployment of Tornado reconnaissance jet planes to the embattled south of the country meant that Germany was "indirectly involved in terrorist activities." Lafontaine said Germany should gradually pull out its troops to avoid further casualties. Few opposition politicians would go as far as that, but several have called for at least a strategy change in Afghanistan. The governing Social Democratic Party has called for more reconstruction efforts to have Afghans feel real economic progress; that way, they wouldn't be drawn to support the Taliban, Ulrike Merten, a Social Democratic defense expert, told Monday's Financial Times Germany newspaper. "We need a larger discussion whether this mission still makes sense or if not the overall strategy for Afghanistan for us and our allies has to be changed," Winfried Stolze, spokesman of the Bundeswehr Association, a soldier interest group, told German news channel n-tv. "We want to win the hearts of the people, want to approach them. That's much more important than anonymous air raids." Aside from the bombing campaigns, in which several civilians have been killed, especially OEF is coming under increased scrutiny. Germany has some 150 special forces fighting under the U.S.-led anti-terror mission, a contribution that will likely not be extended once it is up for renewal in Germany's Parliament. But what about the contribution in the North, where Germany has some 3,000 soldiers leading several Provincial Reconstruction Teams? The Taliban, it seems, are now increasingly targeting soldiers and police in the North, a previously un-penetrated province. Observers say this is due to a strategy change after the terror group took heavy casualties since ISAF and OEF troops launched an offensive in the southern provinces. With the terror attacks in the North, the Taliban aim to open a new front in the battle. In these attacks in busy market places, ordinary Afghans, who happen to be bystanders, are dying as well. A security expert who didn't want to be identified told the Financial Times Germany newspaper that the Taliban are increasingly penetrating the northern provinces, mainly where ethnic Pashtuns are living. "The Taliban are already asking around in Pakistan if there are Pahstuns who have relatives in the North (of Afghanistan), and these people are then purposefully recruited," he said. The Taliban have also been renting houses in Kunduz, he added. In Germany, public support for the Afghanistan mission is at an all-time low; German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend reiterated the German commitment to help reconstruction in Afghanistan and added that Germany will stay there. Yet how many more casualties can Germany, a country with a mainly pacifist public, take? The German Parliament will decide on an extension of the ISAF contribution this fall; observers say it could be a close vote. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #2 Fixed "Yet how many more casualties can Germany, a country with a mainly pussy public, take?" |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2007-05-21 22:09 |
| #1 Now's your time Warsaw. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-05-21 19:16 |