Articles found June 7, 2007
Cdn. troops adapt to fast-changing Afghanistan
June 6, 2007 By STEPHANIE LEVITZ
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian troops in Afghanistan are adapting to a rapidly-changing environment that came as a surprise as battle zones expanded and the enemy sought cover among civilians, the deputy Canadian commander said Wednesday.
Col. Mike Cessford said traditional planning for a well-organized enemy dissolved as soldiers adjusted to a dynamic reality in Afghanistan that has challenged the way the Canadian military usually works.
As a result, military decisions are being made much quicker. The brass is "getting it" when it comes to the realities on the ground, he said.
There has been a "sea-change" in the way Canadian troops operate as they fight elusive insurgents who cloaked among civilians in cities and towns.
"What changed for us is we found ourselves absolutely involved not so much in a quasi-regular conflict against well-trained and well-prepared enemy forces, we found ourselves actually conducting operations amongst the people ... we were very surprised how dynamically and dramatically things evolved."
The Canadians were also surprised by the "far wider" expanse of area that they have to work in, as well as the encouraging development in the capability of Afghan security forces, Cessford told reporters in a blunt assessment of the situation.
Cessford insisted the Canadian Forces are getting the desired results, forcing the Taliban to fight for survival.
"There are peaks and valleys, but we are seeing that we are maintaining pressure," Cessford said.
"Does that mean the places have been cleaned of the Taliban? Absolutely not."
"But it does mean that their ability to group, their ability to plan, their ability to develop capability to inflict significant harm on us is reduced. They are focused on survival as opposed to offensive operations, and we are having an impact."
Cessford said more often than not Canadian troops are "taking the fight" to insurgents.
That's paved the way for increased development aid efforts, Cessford said, pointing to polio vaccinations campaigns and education as two growing areas of activity.
Bubbles of resistance popping up further afield are an indication that heavy fighting in the Panjwaii district and around Kandahar City last fall have forced insurgents out of heavily-populated areas, he said.
This allows the troops to move into areas that haven't traditionally seen a strong Canadian presence.
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Taliban in Kandahar off balance, colonel says
MURRAY CAMPBELL From Thursday's Globe and Mail June 7, 2007 at 4:35 AM EDT
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Previous intensive gun battles, coupled with relentless Canadian patrols, cited for leaving fighters disorganized and dispersed
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Canadian forces have dramatically reduced the ability of the Taliban to mount a massive offensive, the deputy commander of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan says.
Insurgents can still inflict damage, Colonel Mike Cessford said yesterday, but they have lost a home base from which to launch large-scale attacks.
They are also finding it difficult to move through the countryside because of regular Canadian patrols, he added.
Acknowledging that predictions are "dangerous," Col. Cessford gave his assessment of the current military situation in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging 55-minute briefing with Canadian reporters at Kandahar Air Field. It marked one of the few times since the current rotation of troops arrived in February that a senior officer has publicly put into context the skirmishes in which Canadian soldiers routinely participate.
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German minister foresees approval for Army to stay in Afghanistan
Jun 7, 2007, 10:35 GMT
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Kunduz, Afghanistan - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Thursday that he was optimistic that parliament in October would extend the Army's mandate to operate in Afghanistan despite growing doubts among the German public about the Afghan deployment.
In the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, 'there is widespread awareness that the terrorists must not be successful but that stabilization and peaceful development must proceed in this country,' Jung said on a visit to German troops in northern Afghanistan.
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U.S. House puts conditions on Afghan aid
Wed Jun 6, 2007 7:21PM EDT By Susan Cornwell
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U.S. lawmakers voted on Wednesday to bar U.S. government aid to areas of Afghanistan where officials are engaged in the drug trade or helping insurgents, brushing aside Bush administration protests against such conditions.
The U.S. House of Representatives also required that the Bush administration report to Congress on the reported flow of Iranian arms into Afghanistan, and lawmakers voiced concerns that Iran might be aligning with Taliban insurgents to destabilize the Afghan government.
The requirements were laid down in bipartisan legislation approving $6.4 billion in economic and development aid for Afghanistan through fiscal year 2010. Lawmakers were renewing a five-year-old law funneling assistance to the country as part of efforts to combat Taliban fighters.
But the bill, approved 406-10, must still pass the Senate, where similar legislation is being discussed.
"We cannot allow a resurgence of the Taliban. If we do, al Qaeda will once again be able to use Afghanistan as a state-sponsored launching pad for terror," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the committee's ranking Republican who co-sponsored the bill with Lantos, defended the emphasis on developing a counter-narcotics strategy -- including barring U.S. aid to areas of Afghanistan where senior officials are found to be engaging in drug trade or helping the insurgents.
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What others are saying
Originally published June 7, 2007
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What should be done with Omar Khadr? Twenty years old, Khadr has been held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba since 2002 for a crime he is alleged to have committed when he was 15, an age at which under international law he is considered to have been a child soldier.
On Monday, two U.S. military commissions in separate decisions dismissed charges against Mr. Khadr and a second prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, on the ground that the process the Bush administration set up does not comply with the new U.S. Military Commissions Act, passed by Congress last fall to correct the failings of a previous law.
Even before Monday's trial, the U.S. said it was unlikely it would release Mr. Khadr, or any other detainee. Waiting while the U.S. sorts out its military tribunal rules could prove time-consuming. The appeal process, to which prosecutors vowed on Monday to apply, does not yet exist.
The United States has had five years to set up a judicial process that would meet minimal tests of common sense, not to say international standards. Its failure to find a solution is lamentable. The one positive sign is that U.S. courts, including the much-maligned military tribunals, have twice rejected processes as unconstitutional or illegal.
So, the question remains what should be done with Omar Khadr, one of four sons of a notorious al-Qaida fighter, Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed in a battle with the Pakistan army in 2003.
The best option would be to send him home to Canada. As a Canadian citizen, he has human rights that his country has failed to defend adequately. He has yet to be tried in a recognized court of law, a gap Canada could fill. We could use a security certificate to keep tabs on the young man once he is transferred from Guantanamo Bay.
A second, less attractive option would be to request that the United States send him to the site of the alleged crime, Afghanistan. But Afghanistan's reputation for justice is not on a par with ours. On balance, the best place for him is here, whatever Canadians might feel about his family and their views.
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Owner of Peace Radio station in Afghanistan is shot dead in front of her son
Last updated at 18:07pm on 6th June 2007
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An Afghan radio station owner has been gunned down in northern Afghanistan, the second death of a female reporter in a week.
Two NATO soldiers have also been killed battling militants in southern Afghanistan.
Zakia Zaki, owner and manager of Peace Radio, was gunned down in front of her eight-year-old son inside her home in northern Parwan province.
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UK soldier felled in Afghanistan
Wednesday, 06 Jun 2007 20:10
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The majority of British troops in Afghanistan are deployed in the country's south
A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan during a Taliban raid, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.
The soldier, from First Battalion the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, was killed at 06:45 local time (03:15 BST) in volatile Helmand province.
He is the 59th UK soldier to be killed in Afghanistan since US-led coalition forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
The MoD said that the soldier, expected to be identified tomorrow, was killed 8km north-east of the town of Gereshk when the company he was travelling with was attacked by Taliban militants.
He was flown to Camp Bastion to receive medical treatment but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
Earlier today Nato said two of its soldiers had been killed in the south of the war-torn country in separate incidents. The second soldier who died today is not British, but his nationality is yet to be released.
"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of these two soldiers who died while trying to ensure a brighter future for Afghanistan," said the International Security Assistance Force's (Isaf) regional command south spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michael Smith.
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Four detainees allege they were abused
ALAN FREEMAN From Thursday's Globe and Mail June 6, 2007 at 10:02 PM EDT
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OTTAWA — Four Afghan detainees have complained to Canadian authorities since February that they allegedly suffered abuse after Canadian troops handed them over to Afghan authorities, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
“They are serious allegations and they were received directly by Canadian officials during visits we had sought,” Mr. MacKay told reporters. The detainees are not accusing Canadian soldiers of wrongdoing, but are saying the mistreatment took place after they were handed over to Afghan officials.
Mr. MacKay said Afghan authorities are investigating the allegations under the new agreement signed by Canada on the treatment of detainees transferred to Afghan jails. The allegations come from detainees in Kabul and Kandahar.
Speaking after a meeting of the House of Commons Committee on National Defence, which heard from five government ministers on the Afghan mission, Mr. MacKay said that under the new agreement, Canadian officials have made five separate visits to Afghan jails and received full co-operation from the authorities.
“We have notified the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Red Cross to do their necessary checks and follow-ups and this process is now well under way,” he said.
Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said the four prisoners making the allegations showed no visible signs of abuse and cautioned that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have been coached to allege mistreatment when they are asked.
Last month, the Canadian government reached a new agreement with Afghanistan allowing for unfettered access to detainees transferred by Canadian troops after allegations of abuse by 30 detainees were reported by The Globe and Mail. There are also separate Canadian investigations under way into three earlier cases of possible abuse of prisoners by Canadian soldiers.
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Afghanistan steps up poppy field eradication
Saturday June 02, 2007 (0111 PST)
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KABUL: Afghanistan has stepped up its efforts to eradicate poppy crops in 2007 after producing a record amount of the key ingredient for heroin production last year, a senior United Nations (UN) official says.
Officials have destroyed some 25,000 hectares of opium poppy fields so far this year, compared to 15,000 hectares during all of 2006, Andrea Mancini says, the project coordinator of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in central Asia.
He told a gathering of lawmakers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states held in Funchal on Portugal's Madeira Island that "eradication is working".
Some 165,000 hectares were under poppy cultivation in 2006, a 59 per cent increase from the previous year, according to the UN drugs office.
Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin supply and officials say a big portion of the over $US3 billion ($A3.66 billion) generated each year from the trade of the drug helps finance the Taliban insurgency.
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Norway opens new military base in Afghanistan
Thursday June 07, 2007 (0912 PST)
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OSLO; Defence Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen has opened a new maximum security base at Meymaneh i Northern Afghanistan. It is the first time that Norway has built a military base abroad.
The camp was opened less than two weeks after an attack on the ISAF forces killed a Finnish soldier and wounded three Norwegians.
The old camp was located in the centre of Meymaneh, and was difficult to defend. The new base is located just outside the town.
The Norwegian Defence Minister pointed out that the construction of the camp had meant jobs for 350 local workers. She also underlined that the camp would be turned over to the Afghan government when the Norwegian troops leave.
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U.S. needs Kyrgyz base to fight Taliban: Gates
Wednesday June 06, 2007 (1005 PST)
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BISHKEK: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday Washington's agreement to use a military air base in Kyrgyzstan was necessary to support the war in Afghanistan.
Last month Kyrgyz lawmakers urged the government to evict U.S. troops from the base which is an important hard currency earner for the impoverished Central Asian state.
I think what's important for the people of Kyrgyzstan to understand is that our use of Manas (Air Force Base) is in support of a larger war on terrorism in which Kyrgyzstan is an ally of virtually every other nation on earth," Gates said.
"We are all working to try and prevent a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and our use of Manas is one way in which Kyrgyzstan can play a very important and constructive role in cooperation with many other nations, just not the United States," he told reporters after meeting Kyrgyzstan's minister of defense.
The United States has about 1,200 U.S. troops in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz officials have demanded Washington pay more for the use of the base.
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US wants terrorist hideouts in border areas eliminated
Wednesday June 06, 2007 (1005 PST)
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KABUL: The US ambassador to Afghanistan has underlined the imperative of eliminating terrorist hideouts in the inhospitable mountainous terrain straddling the 2400-kilometre Durand Line.
William Wood told Afghan journalists here that the existence of terrorists' sanctuaries and their support from abroad was a serious problem.
Although Pakistan did not support the menace, he alleged, terrorists had training facilities and weapon supply sources in that country.
"As long as these centres are not eliminated, terrorists will continue to exist despite the fact that they are on the run because of joint operations by Afghan and international forces," said the ambassador.
The diplomat, without naming any country shipping weapons to Taliban, did not rule out Iran's links with the insurgents in Afghanistan.
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