Afghan and NATO Officials: 4 Afghan Soldiers Killed in Joint Force Air Strike

Afghan and NATO officials say a coalition air strike has "likely killed" four Afghan soldiers.

U.S.Military officials say joint force of Afghan and coalition soldiers came under fire early Saturday morning and called in the air strike.

NATO and Afghan officials say their initial investigation after the air strike indicates the small arms fire originated from an Afghan National Army outpost.

Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, an coalition spokesman, called it a regrettable incident.

He said joint forces "work extremely hard" to synchronize their operations.

An Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman says the International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan army will conduct a joint investigation into what he termed an "unfortunate accident."

Source:voanews.com/

India 'could do business' with Taliban: reports

NEW DELHI — India may join world powers in engaging with moderate Taliban in Afghanistan, despite worries about repercussions for its own security, reports said Saturday.

India still considers the Taliban to be a terrorist group with close links to Al-Qaeda and other outfits.

But New Delhi would back proposals to reach out to them conditionally, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna told the Times of India newspaper in an interview published Saturday.

"The international community has come out with a proposition to bring into the political mainstream those willing to function within the Afghan system," he said.

"If the Taliban meet the three conditions put forward -- acceptance of the Afghan constitution, severing connections with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and renunciation of violence -- and they are accepted in the mainstream of Afghan politics and society, we could do business," added Krishna.

The Economic Times quoted Krishna as saying the Taliban "should be given a second chance" and that military action was not the only way to counter their activity.

Krishna's comments follow a major international conference in London this week where nearly 70 countries backed a 500-million-dollar Afghan government drive to tempt fighters to give up their weapons in exchange for jobs and other incentives.

India has provided over one billion dollars in humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 and also warily backed US President Barack Obama's surge of 30,000 extra U.S. soldiers.

But it has expressed concerns that an early US exit from the war-torn country could reverberate in the region, already reeling from a wave of militant violence in Pakistan.

"We're next door and our experiences make it difficult for us to differentiate between good or bad Taliban," Krishna told the Times of India.

He said Afghanistan's stability depended on neighbouring countries' "support, sustenance and sanctuaries for terrorist organisations" ending immediately, an apparent reference to long-time foe Pakistan
.

Source:AFP

Aid project in Pakistan stalls

ISLAMABAD,  Pakistan- A $46 million American development program in Pakistan's tribal regions along the Afghan border has made little progress since it was launched in 2008, according to a U.S.government audit.
The finding illustrates the challenges facing Washington as it tries to boost civilian aid there to blunt the appeal of al-Qaeda and the Taliban
.

The audit, dated Thursday and posted on the Web site of the U.S. Agency for International Development, found that "little real progress" toward the program's stated goals had been made in the first 22 months of the 36-month program. It said the program so far had spent only $15.5 million.

The program, audited by the office of the inspector general, was set up to strengthen government institutions and local aid groups in the tribal regions. It is to train staff, install computer systems, and run projects to ensure future aid money is spent more effectively.

The audit said work had been slowed by the deteriorating security situation in the northwest. All foreign staff working on U.S. government projects were withdrawn from the northwestern city of Peshawar after a U.S. aid worker was killed there in 2008, making work much more difficult.

It said a plan to install computers and train staff to use them at the tribal region's secretariat in Peshawar had barely gotten off the ground.

It noted that 340 of the 400 computers delivered there remained in boxes.

The audit did mention some successes for the program, such as the creation of a public outreach campaign promoting peace and 74 project and financial management training events held for 1,000 government workers.

The program is being run by Development Alternatives Inc., an American firm that won the contract offered by USAID.

In part the audit blamed a new U.S. government initiative to direct money through the Pakistani government and local aid groups, not foreign for-profit contractors such as DAI.

The shift is an effort to address local demands that as much money as possible is spent locally and thus stays in the country.

As a result of the new strategy, it said DAI did not know whether its contract would be terminated, and many key activities were put on hold.

The audit said the contractor had requested $15 million in June 2009 from the government to continue its work but was given $4.7 million.

In the border region yesterday, security forces battled extremists for a third day and the Pakistani government said 44 suspected insurgents were killed.

The clashes were taking place in Bajur, an area the Pakistani army declared free of extremists in early 2009 after a major offensive.

There was no independent confirmation of the fighting or the identities of the dead in Bajur, a tribal region where al-Qaeda and Taliban have long had a presence.

Pakistan has launched a series of operations against extremists in the tribal regions, pushing them back in some areas.

But the United States wants the army to continue pressing the fight because Taliban fighters in Afghanistan use the region as a base from which to attack NATO and U.S. forces.

It says stabilizing Pakistan and getting it to crack down on extremists in the northwest is key to success in Afghanistan, where Washington is sending 30,000 extra troops in a final attempt to turn around the war.

As well as urging force, the Obama administration has authorized the dispersal of $7.5 billion in development assistance from American taxpayers over the next five years to convince Pakistanis their interests are best served by the state, not by extremists.

Source:philly.com/

Blast Hits Pakistani Checkpoint

A suspected suicide bomber has killed at least 12 people in an attack on a checkpoint in north-west PakistanI, officials say.

A number of people were also injured when the bomber attacked the checkpoint in Khar, the main town in the troubled Bajaur tribal region.

Pakistani security forces have been battling militants in the Khar area.

Government officials said on Friday that at least 24 suspected militants had been killed in the fighting.

"It looks like a suicide attack," regional police official Fazl-e-Rabi told Reuters news agency after the checkpoint attack.

He added that at least seven of the dead appeared to have been passersby.

Initial reports suggested the attacker was in a vehicle. A local official later told AFP news agency the bomber had been wearing a suicide belt.

The army mounted a major offensive against Taliban militants in Bajaur in August 2008, ending in a truce early last year.

Close to the Afghan border, Bajaur has long been suspected of being the hiding-place of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other top al-Qaeda leaders.

Source:news.peacefmonline.com/

Afghan talks offer not for Mullah Omar: US

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that while the United States backed the Taliban integration programme, the offer did not include the group’s top leadership.

Earlier, the Pentagon had expressed similar sentiments about the integration plan approved at a meeting of more than 60 nations in London on Thursday.

Secretary Clinton, who also attended the conference, told America’s National Public Radio network that she understood the military action alone was not enough to win the war in Afghanistan but the London peace proposal was not meant for senior Taliban leaders.

In her interview to NPR, Mrs Clinton acknowledged that most modern conflicts don’t end with a victory on the field of battle and therefore political and development work was essential.

“I think everyone has realised, as we did in Iraq, that you have to begin to go right at the insurgents and peel those off who are willing to renounce violence, renounce Al Qaeda, agree to live by the laws and constitution of Afghanistan and re-enter society,” Mrs Clinton said.

“That is not going to happen with (Taliban chief) Mullah Omar and the like,” she added. “But there are so many fighters in the Taliban that are there, frankly, because it’s a way to make a living in a country where the Taliban pay them more than they can make as a farmer or in some other line of work out in the countryside.”

Earlier, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told a briefing in Washington that the US government was still working to figure out which mid-level Taliban officials it might be possible to integrate into the current Afghan political structure.

He said that top Taliban figures, like the country’s former leader Mullah Omar, would probably be what he called “a bridge too far”.

“Omar is probably the extreme,” said Mr Morrell. “The foot-soldiers are probably the other extreme. The question is what happens to the others. Can they be won over? Can they become a part of the political fabric? And that’s, I think, what we’re all trying to figure out. And I don’t know that we have an answer yet.”

Secretary Clinton’s remarks came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the London conference that he planned to convene a grand Jirga and invite low-level Taliban militants and “disenchanted brothers who are not part of Al Qaeda or other terrorist networks”.

Secretary Clinton claimed that there had already been some progress on reintegration. “There already have been Taliban who have left,” she said, adding that how the reconciliation process evolved “will be a little bit like jazz … we can’t lay it out completely”.

The secretary, however, insisted that the shift in policy towards accommodation of some fighters did not constitute an exit strategy; instead, it was one element of a comprehensive plan.

“You have to have a very tough-minded attitude about this. This is not sweetness and light,” the secretary of state said. “You’re dealing with a very difficult, complex phenomenon.”

In response to a recent remark by Mr Karzai that he expected western troops to be in Afghanistan for the next decade, Mrs Clinton said she did not think “most western troops will be in a combat role”.

“It won’t be like today, where we are putting in thousands more troops, 30,000 from our own and from other countries,” she said.

In Washington, other US officials told the media that it was up to the Afghan government to decide which Taliban leaders could be integrated.

But the Pentagon spokesman said he expected officials in Kabul to make their decisions in consultation with US President Barack Obama.

Mr Morrell indicated that senior Taliban leaders like Mullah Omar who, in his words, “has the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands”, would likely not be acceptable candidates for “reintegration”.

On Tuesday, the United Nations announced it had removed five former Taliban officials, including a former foreign minister, from its list of terrorists, ending restrictions on their travel and bank accounts. That could be a first step toward involving them in a reconciliation process.

Source:dawn.com