TALIBAN ATTACK INTEL OFFICE IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN

Afghan security forces inspect the site of a suicide attack in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014. A suicide bomber in a truck blew himself up at an intelligence headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, setting off an intense firefight with security forces, officials said. (AP Photo)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber in a truck blew himself up at an intelligence headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least two people and setting off an intense firefight with security forces, officials said.

After the bombing outside the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security in Jalalabad, militants battled with security forces for an hour before authorities were able to put down the attack, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the Nangarhar governor.

He would not say how many attackers were involved or whether they were all killed or some escaped. He said authorities were searching the grounds.

Abdulzai put the death toll at two and said they were both from the NDS, but Najibullah Kamawal, the top provincial health official, said six bodies had been brought to the hospital.

Conflicting death tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of such bombings.

Kamawal said 45 people were wounded. The powerful explosion shook the entire neighborhood, breaking nearby windows and startling residents.

"It was early morning and we were sleeping at home. A strong explosion happened followed by firing. When I came out of my room I was covered with dust, and my kids and I got injured from broken windows," said Ahmad Shah.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.

Jalalabad is one of Afghanistan's biggest cities, sitting on a major trade route into neighboring Pakistan. But the city is also located in one of the country's most troubled regions.

Taliban militants are easily able to hide in the forbidding, mountainous terrain, and often cross back and forth into neighboring Pakistan. Afghan security officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of giving sanctuary to militants that attack Afghanistan, something Pakistan denies.

In May, militants attacked the provincial justice building in Jalalabad, killing at least five civilians before authorities were able to retake the building. Militants in March attacked a police station in Jalalabad, sparking a four-hour battle with police that ended with eleven people dead.

This is the first year that Afghan security forces have operated largely on their own, without U.S. or international forces. The NATO-led security force is scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of the year, although a small number of U.S. and international troops may stay behind to advise and assist the Afghan forces. But that is contingent on Afghanistan signing a security arrangement with the U.S., something President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to do.

Both of the men vying to replace him in the country's presidential election have said they will sign the agreement, but that has been stalled as the winner from the disputed vote has still not been named.

--

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Afghan attack: Killed general was true hero, says US

Maj Gen Greene is reported to be the most senior US soldier to die in combat since the Vietnam War

The US military has paid tribute to Maj Gen Harold #Greene, shot dead by an #Afghan soldier in an insider attack on Tuesday, as a "true hero".

Gen Greene, the most senior US soldier killed in action overseas since Vietnam, was shot dead as he visited a UK-run military training facility.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the shooting was a "cowardly attack".

Officials said the Afghan soldier who opened fire in the insider attack had been shot dead.

Insider attacks have become one of the defining features of the later phase of the conflict in Afghanistan.

They have hampered efforts to train the country's 350,000-strong security force as they prepare to take on the Taliban once most US and Nato forces depart.

Tuesday's attack is the most high profile.

Along with Gen Greene, at least 15 other soldiers were injured.

Two British, several Americans and generals from Germany and Afghanistan were among the wounded.

The Pentagon has described the violence as an isolated attack

US Army spokesman Juanita Chang described Gen Greene as a "true hero".

She said he was working "to better advance the Afghans and the cause in Afghanistan".

"He really believed what he was doing over there," she said.

Gen Greene was a technology expert described by the New York Times as playing a key role in integrating smartphones, video conferences "and even virtual worlds into military culture".

The newspaper said that his last promotion of his 30-year army career came earlier this year when he was deployed to Afghanistan to oversee the military handover from American to Afghan control as US forces begin withdrawing from the country.

Correspondents say that the attack raises new doubts about Nato's ability to train Afghan forces as Western countries gradually withdraw.

The Pentagon described "insider attacks" as a "pernicious threat".

From the end of this year just under 10,000 American troops will remain, with all withdrawing by the end of 2016.

The Pentagon described it as an isolated attack and insisted that there has been no breakdown of trust between coalition soldiers and their Afghan counterparts.

Afghan 'Sandhurst'

The Afghan soldier who opened fire was recruited three years ago, Afghan defence ministry sources told the BBC.

He carried out the shootings from a guard post at a large group of senior Afghan and international troops.

By the time he had emptied the magazine of his US-issue M16 rifle, more than a dozen people had been shot, our correspondent says.

The Afghan commander of the British-led officers' academy, Gen Gulam Sakhi, was among those wounded. BBC

20 Insurgents Killed in ANSF Operations

At least 20 Taliban militants were killed in the past 24 hours during a nationwide operation led by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said in a statement on Monday.

One insurgent injured and six other were arrested.

"Within the past 24 hours, the Afghan army, police and intelligence agency carried out several operations in Uruzgan, Herat, Helmand, Faryab, Baghlan, Ghazni, Kandahar and Wardak provinces to rid them of insurgents," the statement read.

According to the statement, ANSF did not only seize enemy weapons, but also defused five mines in southern Kandahar and Paktia provinces.

"The mines were recently placed by the insurgents in the areas for terrorism act," the statement said.

The statement did not provide details about the number of ANSF casualties.

The Taliban have not yet commented about the operations. Tolo News

Taliban claim responsibility for Kabul airport attack

A militant attack at Kabul airport on Thursday was carried out by the Taliban, it said in a statement.

File photo of Kabul airport. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt)

KABUL: The Taliban on Thursday said they were responsible for an ongoing assault on #Kabul airport. "A number of our mujahedeen armed with heavy and light weapons have launched an attack on Kabul International Airport," the #insurgents' spokesman Zabiuhallah Mujahid said in a statement.

Witnesses reported explosions and gunfire ringing out near the airport, and the interior ministry said a group of insurgents had opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades after seizing a building under construction at the airport.

The attack began around 4:30 am (0000 GMT) but no casualties have been reported so far, the ministry said. "The situation will be brought under control before long," General Ayub Salangi, the deputy interior minister, told AFP as security forces armed with automatic rifles took up position.

Civilian flights from the international airport north of Kabul have been suspended, another Afghan official said. The airport lies next to a sprawling military base run by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, whose troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan after more than a decade of war, as the country lies in the grip of a power struggle following disputed presidential elections.

ISAF and Afghan military helicopters were seen hovering over the area during Thursday's attack, which came after a devastating suicide bombing at a busy market in southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday killed at least 42 people.

The attack came as Afghanistan geared up for the massive poll audit agreed by the two rival presidential contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, following a deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Election officials expect that the results of the audit, which will take at least three weeks, would be accepted by both candidates after weeks of bitter dispute over fraud claims. The impasse over the vote to succeed President Hamid Karzai has raised fears of a return to the ethnic violence of the 1990s.

Abdullah -- who says he already suffered one stolen election at Karzai's hands in 2009 -- is half-Tajik while Ghani is from the majority Pashtun community, as are the Taliban. Every one of the 8.1 million votes cast in the run-off election will be checked for signs of fraud in a painstaking process in Kabul.

The Kabul airport is a prime target for the insurgents. Militants destroyed Karzai's parked helicopter and damaged three other choppers after firing rockets into the airport on July 3. Channel News

Al Qaeda associates threaten Afghan-Pak region says UN Expert

UN experts say fighters from several Al Qaeda linked groups in Pakistan “are regularly encountered by the Afghan forces in eastern and – to a lesser extent – in southern Afghanistan.”—File Photo

UNITED NATIONS: Al Qaeda affiliates from Pakistan and Uzbekistan are participating regularly in attacks on Afghan military forces and pose “a direct terrorist challenge” for #Afghanistan, south and central Asia and the international community, #UN experts said in a new report.

The experts monitoring sanctions against the Taliban said in a report to the UN Security Council, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, that Afghan and international officials believe these Al Qaeda affiliated groups are unlikely to leave Afghanistan in the near future, which would keep them in the country as the US withdraws most of its troops.

Fighters from several Al Qaeda linked groups in Pakistan “are regularly encountered by the Afghan forces in eastern and – to a lesser extent – in southern Afghanistan,” the experts said.

“In northern Afghanistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan continues to gather strength among local Afghans of Uzbek origin and continues to operate in several provinces.”

The Al Qaeda linked groups “therefore present a worrying, long-term security threat” spreading from Afghanistan into the region and beyond, especially for south and central Asia which have already faced terrorist violence from individuals or groups that have trained or planned attacks in Afghanistan.

The report, which was circulated on the eve of Afghanistan's presidential runoff election, said “the single greatest strategic failure for the Taliban” was its inability to disrupt the first round of presidential elections on April 5.

Nonetheless, it said Taliban fighters remain a threat, developing more sophisticated explosive devices such as a suicide vest camouflaged as a leather jacket that would be practically undetectable by metal detectors.

The monitoring team painted a complex picture of the Taliban's relations with the Afghan government: continuing military stalemate, stalled reconciliation efforts, and divisions within the Taliban on the value of political engagement. It said Afghan and international officials and observers agree that key members of the Taliban leadership “remain un-persuaded that the Afghan government security forces will continue to perform well after 2014,” when the US will only have an advisory force of 9,800 troops in the country to finish training and equipping Afghan security forces.

One explanation is the Taliban's view that the Afghan government will become weaker and the Taliban's position stronger, the experts said.

The team noted that the past year “has been a bumper year for Taliban revenues” from the narcotics trade, corruption and extortion, and the illegal exploitation of natural resources such as onyx marble.

Afghan officials in Helmand, the major opium-producing province, estimate a $50 million yield from poppy cultivation in the harvest a month ago, with farmers expected to pay 10 per cent of product as a “tax” to the Taliban, it said.

“As Taliban finances have grown, the Taliban have become more of an economic actor, with incentives to preserve this income and less potential incentive to negotiate with the government,” the expert team said.

Ethnic rift comes into play in Afghan overspill : Afghanistan Presidential Election

Presidential candidate Dr Abdullah Abdullah. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: #Afghanistan has been ethnically polarised. And this polarisation will dominate the June 14 presidential runoff between Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Dr Ashraf Ghani as no candidate could secure the mandatory 50-plus one votes in the first round in April.

Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam – the running mate of Dr Ghani for first vice #president – has publicly announced that Uzbeks and Turkmens would vote for his team. Dostam has been accused of rampant rights abuses and even Dr Ghani had been critical of him in the past. However, his pick for the vice presidential slot was to win over Uzbek votes.

Juma Khan Hamdard, the governor of eastern Paktiya province and a senior member of Dr Ghani’s campaign team, told voters in northern Balkh province that if they didn’t support Dr Ghani the country will plunge into further instability. Hamdard specifically called upon two ethnic groups – Pashtuns and Uzbeks – to vote for Dr Ghani’s team, according to Tolo TV.

The ethnic divide was also there during the April 5 first round. Dr Abdullah, who is a Tajik from his mother’s side, bagged nearly 90% votes in some northern provinces where Pashtuns are in minority. Conversely, Dr Ghani, himself an ethnic Pashtun, received maximum votes in the Pashtun-dominated regions. However, there were pockets of support for both candidates among other ethnic groups.

Analysts believe the ethnic affiliations would be a major factor in deciding the June 14 runoff.

Ustad Muzamil, an Afghan writer, told The Express Tribune that some people would prefer to vote on ethnic basis. “The ethnic divide was not so visible when eight candidates were in the field on April 5 but now since only two candidates are in the race, campaigners could try to exploit ethnic sentiments,” he added.

Powerful former warlords and tribal chieftains are hedging their bets in the hope of getting a share in the pie in the next government.

Interestingly, Mahmud Karza has already announced his support for Dr Abdullah.

Interior Minister Umer Daudzai says security challenges could be more serious than the April vote but Taliban militants wouldn’t be able to disrupt the polls. Maj-Gen Syed Abdul Karim, Afghan National Army Commando Brigade commander, said on Sunday that nearly 10,000 commandos would assist other security personnel in ensuring security.

The Taliban have announced to disrupt the runoff, with their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying that they would attack election staff. He, however, refused to comment on the recent assassination attempt on Dr Abdullah. --The Express Tribune

Suicide attack kills 3 Turkish engineers in Afghanistan

JALALABAD: A suicide bomber killed three #Turkish engineers and wounded another on Monday in eastern #Afghanistan, officials said, the latest attack on foreigners in the wartorn country.

"Around 7:15am, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-packed motorbike targeting a minibus belong to Turkish engineers in Behsud district of Nangarhar province," Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, Nangarhar provincial governor spokesman, told AFP.

"As a result of this attack, three Turkish engineers were killed and the fourth one was wounded," said Abdulzai.

Abdulzai said the victims were working on a construction project in Nangarhar, and they were heading to work when their minibus were targeted by the suicide attacker.

A Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the death toll and nationality of the victims.

Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, spokesman for the Nangarhar police chief, confirmed the attack and said an Afghan child was also among the wounded.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban, who announced their spring offensive in early May, were not immediately reachable for comment. - AFP

Pakistan Increases Shelling On Afghan Villages

#Pakistan's military has fired nearly 700 artillery shells on two #Afghanistan districts in the bordering Kunar province since Saturday, a rapid increase ahead of the June 14 runoff poll.

Afghan officials have counted 693 artillery shells landed in Dangam and Shegal districts of Kunar, said the provincial police chief, Gen Habib Sayedkhili. More than 130 families have fled their homes in the two districts.

"The shelling has been started from Saturday and it is continuing. Several people have been killed and wounded and many houses are destroyed," Gen Sayedkhili added.

Previously, local villagers in both districts had warned the central government that they would react to the shelling if it was not addressed immediately.

"We cannot tolerate Pakistan's shelling anymore," said Hakim Khan, a villager in Dangam. "If our problem is addressed, the people together will react," he added.

"We are under Pakistani shelling for four years. Many lives have been lost. We are asking the government and the international community to address our problems," said Kunar Provincial Council member, Nasrullah Safi.

Some senators have criticized the government's silence over the issue and argue that the Afghan government has not yet retaliated properly.

"I call on the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Directorate of Security to file a complaint to the UN," Kunar Senator Ali Baba said. "We cannot remain silent if diplomatic channels are unfruitful."

Moreover, Chairman of the Senate Fazel Hadi Muslimyar said that the government must take action against the Pakistani violation because the issue will leave damaging consequences on the bilateral relations between Kabul and Islamabad.

"The border regions of Kunar province have been under Pakistani mortar and rocket shelling several times," Muslimyar said. "It is not clear whether the government does not have the capability to respond to the issue or it does not want to respond the same way as Pakistan."

The Pakistani military has been targeting some regions in eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan for about three years. The issue has led to more tensions in Afghanistan and Pakistan's already rocky relationship. Tolo News

President visits troops, ISAF leaders during Memorial Day trip to Afghanistan

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON (May 25, 2014) – President Barack Obama marked Memorial Day with a visit to U.S. leaders and service members at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.

Obama arrived for the unannounced visit last night and is already on his way back to Washington. It was his fourth trip to Afghanistan since taking office, White House officials said. He last visited the country in 2012.
The president met with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the commander of #NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. Dunford gave the president a battlefield update. Officials on the trip said the president also discussed #US. troop levels for the NATO follow-on operation Resolute Support and other post-2014 plans.

The president met with service members and visited wounded troops in the military hospital at Bagram. Brad Paisley, a country singer who accompanied the president, warmed up the crowd for #Obama, officials said.
Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, spoke to reporters on the flight over, according to a pool report from Air Force One.

Rhodes said that the administration saw the trip as “an opportunity for the president to thank American troops and civilians for their service.”

There were no meetings scheduled with either Afghan President Hamid Karzai or the two candidates in the run-off elections in Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah or Ashraf Ghani. Rhodes said that the White House wanted to make sure the trip focused solely on the troops and not internal Afghan politics.
“We have been looking for some period of time to come to Afghanistan,” Rhodes said. “After the first round of the election, we thought it would be a good time to come for a troop-focused visit.”
Rhodes said the president will provide some additional clarity on his thinking about Afghanistan in the next few days. --ISAF

Life inside Badam-Bagh women's prison : Afghanistan

Children are held alongside their mothers in Badam Bagh prison

The release of 29 inmates from Kabul's Badam-Bagh women's prison once again raises questions over whether some of those inside are held unlawfully.

Many of those freed this month had been held after running away from home - escaping from a forced marriage or domestic violence is not uncommon in Afghanistan.
Running away from home is not a criminal offence, and some of the released women told the BBC that they were jailed without ever going to court.

Some said they were imprisoned without conviction for up to two years.
The women's affairs ministry is looking for shelters to take the women, who are unable to return home after their release.

As they walked through the prison gates, they left behind a unique place - even by the standards of Afghan justice.

Because in Badam-Bagh, Kabul's only women prison, convicted drug traffickers and murderers mix with women accused of "moral crimes", as well as dozens of children held alongside their mothers.
When I visited the prison a few months back I found a place that appeared to be in constant upheaval.

Badam-Bagh is the only women's prison in Kabul

 Two dozen small rooms are spread over three floors with around eight women sharing a room and the inmates I met were complaining about crammed conditions.

The prison perimeter is guarded by policemen, but the main building is entirely secured by female staff.

The atmosphere between prisoners and their guards is often tense.
Infighting Inside I came face to face with a young girl called Qabela who had been jailed for travelling from Badakhshan to Kabul with a young boy and for sleeping with him before marriage.
Her teeth were damaged and her right hand injured.

"I broke my teeth and injured my hand because I fight with anyone," she told me, "with my roommates, officers and guards."

"I remember when I tried to escape," Qabela says. "I have mental problems I guess and an eye weakness because they used spray on me when I fought with them."
Violence is common at Badam-Bagh.

Fareeda a female officer, told me that one of the prisoners tried to suffocate her while she was on duty.
"They are fearless," she says. "The prison is under their control and they do what they want."
She then showed me the spot where a glass of water had hit the guard room wall, thrown by an inmate as Fareeda was taking shelter.

Fareeda, a prison guard, shows the spot where a glass thrown at her hit the wall

She says a small number of the prisoners provoke the rest, creating chaos.
There is no closed circuit TV inside the building and no footage which would back up these stories, but another inmate Zahraa blamed the prison staff for having a bad attitude.
She herself has been accused of bullying fellow prisoners, but says that with so many women from different backgrounds and experiences, occasional fights are only natural.

"Imagine a bride and her mother in-law in a house - even they can't come together. Then how do you expect these poor prisoners to do so."
Zarafshan Nayebi is in charge of the prison, and she told me they don't want to use force to establish control of the prison.

"We often show tolerance with the prisoners," she told me in her office.

There are dozens of children at Badam-Bagh, held alongside their mothers

 Jail children

Amid the tension and upheaval there are concerns about the welfare of more than 50 children and babies living in Badam-Bagh, imprisoned alongside their mothers.

I saw a bunch of kids playing in the dark corridors in unsanitary conditions.
One woman who has been serving a 14-year term since 2012, has been jailed with her five children. She told me she's scared that her kids will one day ask her why they were deprived of their freedom.
"They will be young boys and girls when I reach my release date and I know they will ask me what their crimes were," she says while playing with her little girl.

Badam-Bagh is located beside a cemetery in a quiet area of #Kabul.
It currently houses over 200 prisoners, mostly Afghans, held for a multitude of reasons, from murder and kidnapping to adultery or simply for "running away from home".

Human rights groups have long complained that many women are locked up in Afghanistan simply for fleeing their homes, often from forced marriages or domestic abuse

The lobby group Human Rights Watch last year reported that 600 women had been imprisoned for "moral crimes", over 100 of them under 18 years old.
And these women face problems even before they come to Badam-Bagh or similar institutions elsewhere.
One young prisoner called Khalida who was detained for running away from home told me she'd been propositioned by a prosecutor dealing with her case.

She says he asked her for sexual favours in return for going free. "I rather come here than to sleep with that man," Khalida told me.

The government has long promised to address cases of women held without having committed a criminal offence or being convicted.

These latest releases may go some way towards that goal, but as long as domestic violence persists, the problem of women jailed without a crime will continue.
Source: BBC News

10 Injured in Zabul Blast

blast location on Map

At least five civilians and five policemen were injured in a bomb blast in southern Zabul province on Tuesday night, local officials said on Wednesday.

The incident took place in Qalat, the capital of Zabul, when a motorcycle packed with explosive devices detonated near an #Afghan police vehicle, said Ghulaam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai, the provincial police chief said.
The police have started investigations about the incident, he said.

The victims have been taken to the hospital for treatment.
No group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Taliban Wage Deadly Attacks in Three Provinces

Taliban with RPG

KABUL, #Afghanistan — On the first day of their “spring offensive,” the Taliban mounted attacks in three provinces that killed at least 11 people on Monday. In a fourth province, the families of two would-be suicide bombers turned them in to the police, helping to forestall what would have likely been another attack.

The attacks were a reminder that as the last of the Western troops withdraw in the coming months, the Afghan forces will be in an unrelenting fight just to hold ground.

In a report on the #Taliban insurgency released Monday, the International Crisis Group forecast “escalating violence and insurgent attacks” after American and allied troops complete their withdrawal this year.

The report noted that the Taliban had been able to muster larger forces, and that in some areas the insurgents and the Afghan security forces were inflicting nearly equal casualties on each other, in another suggestion of increased insurgent strength.

One attack on Monday hit just as people were settling in to work at the Justice Ministry’s provincial offices in Jalalabad, according to people in the area. Three men wearing suicide vests and armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades killed the two police guards at the building’s entrance and stormed in.

In the course of the battle with the Afghan security forces, which lasted four to five hours, three civil servants were killed, along with a student and a third member of the security forces. The lasting effect of the attack will be felt for months, because a part of the building caught fire and the ministry’s paper records were reduced to ashes, said Col. Abdul Rafi Oruzgani, the head of Nangahar Province’s police criminal division.

The Taliban, in a statement they emailed to journalists announcing their spring offensive, said that only two fighters were involved in the Jalalabad attack, but the Afghan police said there were three.

In an attack in Helmand Province, the Taliban appear to have infiltrated a team of police in Sangin District, an area where the Afghan forces have been struggling to keep the insurgency at bay.

The attack began at a security checkpoint with the shooting of a guard in a guardtower, said a spokesman for the governor, who said he believed that the battle left three policemen dead and four wounded. However, local people said all seven officers were killed.

“The report we have is that there are internal links between the police and the Taliban and that paved the way for Taliban to kill seven policemen,” said Hajji Mira Jan, a member of the district council in Sangin. “They were all shot, and two of my cousins were among those killed. It is a tragic incident.”

In Uruzgan Province, two imams in two separate districts were shot by men on motorcycles. Both imams had refused to preach Taliban-ordered sermons, and local people said they believed that was the reason they had been targeted. Dost Mohammed Nayab, a spokesman for the governor, said that neither man was connected with the government.

One planned attack in Paktika Province appeared to have been foiled when two Afghan men who had been trained as suicide bombers in Pakistan stopped by in Sharana, th

e provincial capital, to bid their families farewell before conducting their attacks.

Their families turned them in to the provincial office of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, where they confessed, according to a statement from the service
Source: LA Times