Nato and US officials have said they are ready to do more to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, but Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the talks must be led by Afghanistan itself.
“We are there to facilitate. Because we want to see a stable, peaceful Afghanistan. It's in Pakistan's interest to have stability and peace in Afghanistan,” Qureshi said in Brussels before talks on Pakistan's economic development.
A senior Pakistani official familiar with the contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban said they had been made possible by the lifting of US opposition. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week Washington would do whatever it takes to put peace talks on track.
“I don't know whether these contacts will succeed or not but the process has been set into motion,” the Pakistani official said. “It's just the beginning and this in itself is a success because earlier there has been (US) opposition.”
Pakistan's backing for talks is important. Although it is officially an ally in Nato's campaign against militancy in Afghanistan, it has been accused of playing a double game by covertly supporting militants fighting there.
Islamabad was the main backer of the Taliban when it was in power in Afghanistan, and has been concerned by the influence its nuclear-armed rival India has on the Kabul government.
NATO FACILITATES PASSAGE
US General David Petraeus, who commands US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, said in London that Nato-led forces had helped ensure a senior Taliban commander was able to reach Kabul to hold talks with the Afghan government.
Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said several senior Taliban leaders had been in touch with the Afghan government and other countries involved in Afghanistan. He described the talks as preliminary.
“In certain respects we do facilitate that,” he said.
He added that “it would not be the easiest of tasks for a senior Taliban commander to enter Afghanistan and make his way to Kabul if ISAF were not ... aware of it and therefore allows it to take place.”
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the US involvement had to do with “movement of people to meeting locations.”
Asked if the US was transporting Taliban to the meetings, he said: “My understanding is that facilitation involves logistics. I cannot tell you whether security forces are actually assisting in the transportation or just coordinating the transportation so that people can move to these meeting locations.”
Such comments point to a bigger Western role than previously acknowledged as Kabul seeks a political resolution to the war.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was sure Pakistan would want to play a positive role in ending the conflict and all nations in the region should add their support.
“It's very much in their interests to do so of course because it will help to bring peace to their border areas,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in Brussels he was gratified Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had offered Islamabad's help, and Pakistan and other countries had a security interest in events in Afghanistan.
BLOODIEST PHASE OF CONFLICT
Almost 50 senior officials in the international contact group on Afghanistan are due to meet in Rome on Monday to discuss progress towards transferring responsibility for security and development to the Afghan government.
Holbrooke and Petraeus are expected at the talks which will be attended for the first time by a representative from Iran.
US and Nato leaders caution, however, that reconciliation is a complex process that may not happen quickly.
The conflict is in its bloodiest phase since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, and more than 2,000 foreign troops have been killed since the fighting started, more than half of them in the last two years.
This has fed disillusionment with the war among Western nations contributing to the 150,000-strong Nato-led force.
Afghan and US officials say a peace deal is still only a distant possibility, although the prospect is drawing increased attention before the United States starts withdrawing its nearly 100,000 troops from Afghanistan next July.
US and Nato officials say any reconciliation with the Taliban would require individuals to lay down their arms, cut links with terrorist groups and respect the Afghan constitution.
The Taliban have rejected such conditions and say they will not negotiate unless Nato troops leave Afghanistan.
Two Apache helicopters from the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan are said to have taken part in the weekend's operation.
It followed an attack by insurgents on an Afghan security outpost in Khost.
The BBC's Ian Pannell in the Afghan capital, Kabul, says that although manned military raids over the border are not unprecedented, it will no doubt prove controversial in Pakistan.
In a statement, Isaf said Afghan forces in the eastern province of Khost were attacked on Friday by "a significant number of insurgents".
"An air team in the area observed the enemy fire, and following International Security Assistance Force rules of engagement, crossed into the area of enemy fire."
Isaf told the BBC its aircraft killed 49 insurgents.
On Saturday, two Apache helicopters came under small-arms fire from the same area and again crossed the border, killing four to six insurgents, said Isaf.
Pakistani media said fighters from the Haqqani network, a branch of the Afghan Taliban which operates in Pakistan, died in the Nato air raids.
An Isaf spokesman, Sgt Matt Summers, confirmed the helicopters had crossed into Pakistan.
But he did not reveal the location of the operation or say which Isaf countries' forces were involved.
American forces regularly use drone aircraft for missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt, but manned air raids across the border are rare.
Isaf's force was established by the UN in late 2001 with a stated mission of promoting security and development; it is also training Afghan soldiers and police.
“The drone fired one missile on two militants riding on a motorbike and when two of their colleagues rushed towards them, two more missiles were fired,” a security official told AFP.
“All four militants were killed.”
Two other security officials confirmed the casualties, saying the missiles were fired by the pilotless aircraft.
The United States has long pressed the Pakistani military to crack down on the so-called Haqqani faction in the North Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, but Islamabad has so far balked at doing so.
General David Petraeus, who oversees the Afghan war as head of US Central Command, told a Senate hearing that he, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff raised Haqqani links in a recent meeting with Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Kayani.
“We have shared information with him about links of the leadership of the Haqqani network located in North Waziristan that clearly commanded and controlled the operation against Bagram air base and the attack in Kabul, among others,”Petraeus said.
Suicide bombers carrying rockets and grenades launched a brazen predawn attack on the base on May 19, killing an American contractor and wounding nine US troops.
About a dozen militants, many wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, were killed, the Pentagon said at the time.
A day earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops.
The Pentagon has expressed confidence that Pakistan will eventually mount an offensive in North Waziristan, but said Islamabad would decide on the timing.
The Haqqani network has long been described by US forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan.
But there are strategic reasons for Pakistan's hesitancy to attack the Haqqanis.
Pakistan sees the group as a strategic asset that will give it influence in any peace settlement in Afghanistan so Islamabad will want those militants on its side.
The United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to act in North Waziristan following a botched May 1 car-bombing in New York's Time Square that US investigators have blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.
But Pentagon officials have said they understood the Pakistani military was already stretched by operations in other tribal areas.
Major General Athar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistan Army, confirmed the Monday attack and said 40 Frontier Corps troops were missing after the post on the border between the Mohmand and Bajaur agencies was overrun by Afghan Taliban.
Militants handed over five troops to the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, but the whereabouts of the other 35 was unknown, he said.
UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council pressed Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Tuesday to speed up reunification talks and renewed the mandate of the UN force on the divided island for another six months. Fourteen of the council’s 15 members backed a resolution urging the two sides to take advantage of recent progress “by intensifying the momentum of negotiations, preserving the current atmosphere of trust and goodwill and engaging in the process in a constructive and open manner.” The lone vote against came from Turkey, with its ambassador Ertugrul Apakan objecting that some of the language in the text was formulated as if there were “only one side in the dispute.” The resolution, sponsored by Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, also extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force (UNFICYP), which expires on Tuesday, until next December 15. UNFICYP has been patrolling the Mediterranean island’s ceasefire line since 1964. UN envoy Alexander Downer voiced hope early this month that the inter-communal talks could be concluded by year’s end. And UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned Cypriot leaders that time is running out for a peace deal, but expressed confidence an agreement can be reached in coming months.
KABUL: A UN committee will visit Afghanistan this month to consider the removal of militants from its terrorism blacklist, an envoy said on Saturday, as alliance forces counted the cost of a deadly week. Staffan di Mistura said the visit will come at a “crucial period” after the recent “peace Jirga”, or conference, in Afghanistan, which produced a 16-point resolution that included a call for removing militant leaders from the list. “The review is due by the end of the month,” di Mistura, the United Nations’ special representative to the country, told a news briefing in the Afghan capital Kabul. However, he said its report might be delayed because it was “linked to a very delicate and important period in Afghanistan”. The envoy made his comments on a day when a Polish soldier was killed by an improvised bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, becoming the 28th Nato soldier to die in a particularly violent week for the country and foreign troops. Nato forces are engaged in a major build-up centred on Kandahar aimed at bringing the nearly nine-year war to an end and drawing down foreign troop levels. But the last week saw an upsurge in Taliban attacks and the alliance has announced a two- to three-month delay in the peak of operations. On Wednesday, 40 people died in a suicide attack on a wedding outside Kandahar city attended by members of an anti-Taliban militia, one of the deadliest incidents so far this year. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged patience with the war as Nato’s International Security Assistance Force estimated the 142,000 soldiers in Afghanistan are set to increase to 150,000 by August as part of a troop surge. Gates on Friday acknowledged that the signs of progress so far were “tentative”, but said a promising new approach involving the massive troop surge had only been under way a few months and needed time. He admitted Afghanistan had been neglected by Washington after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, with too few troops deployed, and that a “long and difficult” fight lay ahead. This month’s “peace Jirga” advised the government to seek the removal of names — including Mullah Mohammad Omar — from the UN Security Council blacklist compiled after the September 11 2001 attacks on the US.Omar was supreme leader of the Taliban during their 1996 to 2001 rule of Afghanistan. The list designated as terrorists Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders who were based in Afghanistan at the time, and helped to provide a UN-sanctioned justification for the US-led invasion of the country in November 2001. “The momentum of the peace Jirga, which was a success, needs to be maintained,” di Mistura told reporters in his Saturday briefing. “Some of the people on the list may not even be alive any more. The list could be completely outdated,” he added, but stressed that the decision to remove names from the blacklist would be up to the Security Council.
The 130-page report entitled “As if Hell Fell on Me: The Human Rights Crisis in Northwest Pakistan” is likely to ruffle Pakistani officials who believe they made great strides last year in regaining ground from the Taliban.
The London-based organisation said there were credible reports that at least 1,300 civilians were killed during fighting in the northwest in 2009.
There has been little official word on civilians hurt in anti-Taliban campaigns.
“Nearly four million people are effectively living under the Taliban in northwest Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the Pakistani government,” said Amnesty's acting head, Claudio Cordone.
The group called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) a “human rights free zone” and said more than one million displaced people were “in desperate need of aid”.
It urged Pakistan and the Taliban to prevent loss of civilian life and allow unfettered aid workers' access to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to the injured and displaced.
“We have an historic opportunity regarding Fata right now,” Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi told AFP.
The international community has put up donor funds and Pakistani troops are operating in an “unprecedented” six of the seven tribal agencies, he said.
“The old tribal order has been hugely disrupted by the Taliban and we have a civilian government in Pakistan that has talked about short and medium-term reform. There is an opportunity to do something about the people of Fata.”The British colonial-era law governing Fata denies residents basic rights and protections, including their rights to political representation, judicial appeal and freedom from collective punishment.
“The Pakistani government has to follow through on its promises to bring the region out of this human rights black hole and place the people of Fata under the protection of the law and constitution of Pakistan,” said Cordone.
Amnesty, which based its report on nearly 300 interviews with residents in the northwest, accused Pakistan of launching “heavy handed” operations, including “indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks”.
It said the Taliban were guilty of systematic abuses, killing those who challenge their authority and imposing their rule through torture and other ill-treatment, targeting women, teachers, aid workers and political activists.
Insurgents increased the likelihood of civilian casualties by dispersing themselves in communities and blocking roads to prevent villagers from escaping “heavy bombardment by government forces”.
But a Pakistani security official contacted by AFP challenged Amnesty to visit Swat, where commanders say a decisive battle last year returned much of the northwest valley to relative normality after a two-year uprising.
Significant territory that fell to the Taliban had been regained and urgent efforts were being made to stabilise the areas allowing the displaced to return as soon as it was safe.
KANDAHAR: At least 39 people were killed and 73 wounded by a massive explosion at a wedding in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Wednesday, a senior official said.The cause of the devastating blast was unclear, especially as insurgent attacks in the province, the heartland of the Taliban, are normally aimed at military or police targets and generally cause fewer casualties.
The toll was one of the highest in a single incident in recent months in war-torn Afghanistan.
“There was an explosion at a wedding at Nangahaan in Arghandab district. At least 39 bodies were transported to Kandahar central hospital. 73 people were wounded,” said Mohammad Anaas, a senior official with the city administration present at the hospital.
“We don't know how many bodies remain at the site and we don't know if it was a suicide attack or a bomb or something else,” he told AFP.Most of the victims were male as the explosion occurred in an area of the wedding celebrations reserved for men. An AFP reporter at the hospital counted 10 children among the wounded.
The district, located 20 kilometres north of Kandahar city, is considered a rear base for the Taliban. The families participating in the wedding were not considered to have links to the security forces or the civilian administration.
The groom's brother, Mohammad Zanif, said: “My brother was wounded. We don't know what happened. There was an enormous explosion and as a result everyone there was either killed or injured.” Local television appealed for people to donate blood to help treat the wounded.
Kandahar is the focus of a massive build-up by US-led military forces trying to push back the Taliban and end their nearly nine-year insurgency.
Taliban attacks, usually in the form of roadside bombs or gunfights, typically cause relatively few casualties.
By contrast, a number of incidents caused by Western forces have resulted in high civilian death tolls, severely tarnishing the credibility of military operations.
In September up to 90 people were killed in an air strike on fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan.
In November 2008 37 civilians and 26 insurgents were killed by a US air strike on a wedding in Kandahar province.
Wednesday's explosion came during a particularly bloody week for foreign forces in Afghanistan, with 23 international soldiers killed, including four US servicemen who died when a Nato helicopter was shot down in Helmand.
Some observers have suggested the Taliban have been emboldened in their attacks by a “peace jirga” hosted by President Hamid Karzai last week with a view to coaxing militant fighters to lay down their weapons.
The jirga was marred by a rocket attack for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, prompting two of Karzai's top security officials to resign.
KABUL: Two more NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday, the military said, a day after international forces lost 10 soldiers in a string of attacks.The soldiers died in an improvised bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said, without giving any further details.On Monday seven US, one French and two Australian soldiers were killed in various attacks, making it the deadliest single day in combat for NATO forces since 11 French troopers lost their lives in August 2008.
Diplomatic sources in Washington, while talking to Dawn, also confirmed this, saying that Pakistan had agreed in principle to extend its military operation to North Waziristan and other areas identified by the Americans as militant hideouts.
“I wouldn’t speak to any kind of details in terms of either plans or operations,” said US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen when asked if the Pentagon had planned a unilateral military strike in Pakistan.
The Fox News, which interviewed the US military chief, also asked if the talks of a unilateral strike aimed at putting the Pakistan government and the terror groups on notice that “we’ll take this into our own hands if need be?”
“My focus, more than anything else, is in support of” the Pakistani military’s efforts to combat the militants, said the admiral.
But “clearly … we’re very concerned about that part of the world. We’re very concerned about — that’s where Al Qaeda leadership lives. We know that”.
The United States, he said, was working with both Pakistan and Afghanistan to continue to put pressure on the terrorist leadership but he refused to disclose details of such measures.
In a visit to Islamabad earlier this month, US National Security Adviser James Jones and CIA Director Leon Panetta told Pakistani leaders that militants hiding in these areas planned attacks against the United States and its allies.
The two senior US officials met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, during this visit and told them that these militants were also behind a May 1 attempt to bomb New York’s Times Square.
“The meetings led to an understanding between the two sides that Islamabad will extend its military operations to North Waziristan and other similar areas as well,” a diplomatic source told Dawn.
“They are now discussing when will be the right time to do so. When, not if,” the source added.
Recent terrorist activities, particularly Friday’s attacks on the Qadianis in Lahore, apparently cemented the government’s desire to take on the militants.
In his interview to Fox News, Admiral Mullen said that he had “spent an extraordinary amount of time in Pakistan” in dealing with Gen Kayani, and had been impressed with how much Pakistan was doing to combat the militants.
He had said earlier that Gen Kayani had promised to launch an operation in North Waziristan and he trusted him because the Pakistani general had always done what he said he would do.
“They’ve lost a significant number of troops. They’ve regained a significant amount of their territory. They’re very focused on that,” the admiral said.
“They’re struggling in building behind the security that they’ve created in — particularly in the western area. They’ve moved some 70,000 troops to the west. So we’re working hard to strengthen that relationship. We’re working hard to support them in training. And we’ll continue to do that.”
Diplomatic sources in Washington also confirmed what the admiral indicated, saying that the Pakistanis would decide “when to launch the operation, what means to use, where to use the airpower and where to send in the troops”.
The sources said the expected operation had further increased the need for greater cooperation among the three major stakeholders in the current power set-up in Pakistan: the political government, the military and the judiciary.
“All three understand the need to cooperate with each other in the greater interest of the country,” said one such source. The decision to take on the militants also followed increased pressure from Washington.
On Saturday, the US media reported that the Obama administration had prepared plans to launch a unilateral military strike inside Pakistan, should another successful terrorist attack in the US is traced to that country.
The US media also reported this week that the Obama administration had ordered a major escalation of clandestine military operations in the greater Middle East region that includes Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to these reports, the White House authorised a massive expansion of clandestine military and intelligence operations in this region, sanctioning activities in more than a dozen countries and giving the military’s combatant commanders significant new authority to conduct unconventional warfare.
The US House of Representatives approved President Barack Obama’s request for $205 million to spur Israel’s production of a system to counter short-range rockets of the type used by Hamas and Hizbullah. The authorisation for the extra funding was part of a defence spending bill that would provide $726 billion next year for US national defence programmes, including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House gave the bill final passage on Friday by a vote of 229 to 186. The Senate Armed Services Committee likewise voted to provide $205 million for the Israeli system, known as “Iron Dome,” panel chairman Carl Levin told reporters on Friday. Levin said he hoped his committee’s bill would reach the Senate floor before the July 4 Independence Day recess. A congressional staff member said the request for the funding “seems to have come directly from the commander in chief,” Obama. It was not entirely clear what prompted it. Produced by Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., Iron Dome uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of between 3 miles and 45 miles (5-70 km), as well as mortar bombs, in mid-air. Its development was spurred by the 2006 conflict in Lebanon with Hizbullah, and the Gaza Strip war against Hamas a year ago. In both cases, Israeli towns within reach of short-range rockets were in some ways defenseless. A White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said earlier this month Obama recognised “the threat missiles and rockets fired by Hamas and Hizbullah pose to Israelis.” As a result, he decided to seek funding from Congress to support the production of the Iron Dome system, Vietor said. Two Iron Dome batteries are under construction, an Israeli defence official said in February. Designed to be towed by vehicle, they will be available for any Israeli front at a few hours’ notice. The Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency has three initiatives with Israel to boost its home-grown capability to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The so-called David’s Sling Weapon System is for short-range defence; the Arrow Weapons System targets medium-range missiles; and the Arrow-3 interceptor is an upper-tier system under development. The United States is also developing interoperability between the US ballistic missile defence system and the Israeli architecture to make sure Israeli systems can be stitched in to a global umbrella. In addition, the Obama administration is working toward a Middle East missile defence that envisions adding an advanced radar site in a Gulf state to one already in Israel to thwart any Iranian attack, US officials have told Reuters.The House voted to authorise $10.3 billion for ballistic missile defences overall, $361.6 million more than Obama’s request. The extra funds will strengthen defences against “the most immediate threats from nations such as Iran and North Korea,” said Rep. James Langevin, the Strategic Forces subcommittee chairman.
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