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AFGHANISTAN UPDATE16 November 2007 No. 24: 2 - 15 November 2007 If you would like to receive this update, please email basic-wash at basicint.org with the phrase "subscribe to Afghanistan Update" in the subject line. Feedback on format and content is also gladly received. In particular we are keen to hear feedback of how useful you find this update. Please contact Chris Lindborg by email at clindborg at basicint.org with comments or suggestions. Previous editions of BASIC's Afghanistan Update are available here. Summary:
The past two weeks were marked by the deadliest suicide bombing since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. The suicide attack killed at least 70 people, most of whom were children, on 6 November in Baghlan province. The total included six members of Afghanistan's parliament. The incident occurred while a parliamentary group was visiting a sugar factory; the children were there to welcome the parliamentarians. Insurgents have launched a record 130 suicide attacks in 2007. On 12 November in Helmand province, U.S.-led coalition forces raided a compound where bomb making was suspected. An intense firefight ensued and the compound collapsed. Fifteen militants and three civilians died. In Nuristan province on 10 November, six U.S. soldiers under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and three Afghan soldiers were ambushed and killed. The Associated Press reported that 101 U.S. forces have died this year in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest since 2001. The district of Arghandab, which was under attack by hundreds of Taliban two weeks ago, was cleared of Taliban forces and relatively quiet by 3 November. During fighting with NATO and Afghan forces, about 50 Taliban may have died, as well as three Afghan policemen and one Afghan soldier. According to The Globe and Mail, Afghan officials were alleging that the Taliban's attack on the area was in part an attempt to obtain weapons that may have been in the compound of Mullah Naqibullah. Taliban insurgents had moved into the district and took over Mr. Naqibullah's compound after he died of natural causes. Mr. Naqibullah was a former warrior and tribal elder of Arghandab, and his presence had been seen as a buffer against the Taliban. However, his friends said that he did not have a weapons cache. Because of increased instability in Pakistan, the U.S. Defense Department announced that it was considering other military supply routes to Afghanistan that would circumvent Pakistan. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said on 14 November that the extra planning was necessary because 75 percent of all supplies for U.S. troops in Afghanistan are routed through, or over, Pakistan, including about 40 percent of the fuel that sustains U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Amnesty International released a report on 13 November, which claims that ISAF has been complicit in torture. The international human rights organization says that for the past two years, it has repeatedly received reports of prisoners being tortured by personnel from the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's intelligence service. Amnesty said that despite warnings about these conditions, ISAF troops have continued to transfer detainees to the NDS. NATO responded to Amnesty's allegations. ISAF's civilian spokesman, Nicholas Lunt, said that NATO did not have any evidence of systematic torture of detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by ISAF. However, General Egon Ramms, Executive Head of ISAF, told Deutsche-Welle that ISAF did know about torture occurring in individual cases at the hands of Afghan prison employees. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that Amnesty's allegations would be investigated. Six Polish soldiers were charged by military authorities in Poland for killing six Afghan civilians in the eastern province of Paktika in August and they could face life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors are alleging that the soldiers opened fire on villagers without justification. A seventh soldier faces lesser charges in the incident. In international political developments, the Bundestag voted to renew for one year Germany's participation in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The renewal permits the deployment of up to 100 German elite commando forces in Afghanistan and up to 1,400 (down from 1,800) forces to monitor the Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa. During the past two years, however, Germany has refrained from deploying the commando forces to Afghanistan even though such a deployment was permitted. Germany renewed its participation in the NATO-led ISAF in October, which now has about 3,000 German troops. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited U.S. President George Bush in Texas and Afghanistan was on the agenda. Unlike recent statements by other U.S. officials, President Bush did not express frustration when German reporters asked him for his opinion regarding Germany's unwillingness to send troops to the relatively more dangerous regions of Afghanistan. When French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke before the U.S. Congress on 7 November, he said that about 1,000 French troops would remain in Afghanistan as long as necessary. Like Germany, France has been criticized for not deploying troops to the more dangerous southern part of the country, although President Sarkozy announced at the end of October that France would send about 50 military trainers to Uruzgan province in the south. U.K. Defence Secretary Des Browne announced on 7 November the establishment of a temporary brigade headquarters to command U.K. forces in Afghanistan starting from October 2009 until April 2010. The Secretary said that no official decision had been made to keep British troops in the country past 2009, but he added that Britain has a long-term commitment to Afghanistan. The Norwegian government announced its plans for Afghanistan in 2008. As detailed in a government press release, Norway will end the deployment of its Quick Reaction Force in Mazar-e-Sharif by the middle of 2008, but it will send an additional 50 police and military trainers to northern Afghanistan. After a meeting of NATO Chiefs of Staff concluded on 14 November, the Chairman of the Alliance's Military Committee, General Ray Henault, said that shortfalls in troop levels have slowed progress in Afghanistan. He added that even though forces have grown by 8,500 troops, military commanders are still in need of helicopters and other resources. Meanwhile, Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, continued to ask for more assistance for NATO operations in Afghanistan. Denmark has 600 troops in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister said countries that would not send troops should consider financial support for NATO's mission. Chris Lindborg and Candice Boyer, BASIC
Stories and Links: The Future of NATO Potentially at Stake in Afghanistan - Experts,
Joshua Kucera, Eurasia Insight, Eurasianet.org, 15/11 NATO falls behind in training Afghan police, Jim Michaels,
USA Today, 15/11 Police corruption remains a drag on Afghan mission, Canadian
Press, 15/11 France weighs expanding international role on the ground,
Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail, 13/11 Afghan Parliamentarians visit NATO headquarters, NATO
News, 12/11 Afghan Diary: tracking the Taleban, Alastair Leithead, BBC
News, 11/11 British forces plan to stay in Afghanistan until 2010, Associated
Press via International Herald Tribune, 7/11 Pakistan's domino effect (Includes analysis on how instability
in Pakistan may affect Afghanistan), Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south, Jon
Boone, Christian Science Monitor, 5/11 Taliban stealthily sought warlord's weapons cache, Graeme
Smith, The Globe and Mail, 5/11 How Canada slid into the war in Afghanistan; Authors argue Ottawa
wanted to appease Washington, NATO beats back Taliban, Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald
- with files from Global National and Reuters, 2/11 Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan - how they arrived
and where they are going, William Maley,
Editorials, Transcripts and Reports: Connecting the Dots in Crawford (includes analysis of "Germany's
role in Afghanistan"), Jackson Janes, AICGS Advisor, 14/11 Afghanistan Detainees transferred to torture: ISAF complicity?
Amnesty International, 13/11 DoD News Briefing with Brig. Gen. Livingston from Afghanistan,
U.S. Defense Department, Armed Nation-Building: the Real Challenge in Afghanistan,
Anthony Cordesman, CSIS Reports, 7/11
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