US commander to visit Pakistan this month to repair ties: US paper

TrendPK.com
WASHINGTON: Gen. James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command will visit Pakistan this month and meet Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations into the US attack at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

General Mattis’s visit was slated to begin Thursday, but has been postponed by at least a week pending debate in the Pakistani Parliament over a new security policy toward the United States.

General Mattis’s visit is aimed at formally presenting to Pakistan the Central Command’s findings in the Nov. 26 episode.

“We’ve felt an apology would be helpful in creating some space,” said an American official who has been briefed on the State Department’s view and who spoke on the condition of anonymity as internal discussions continued.

The State Department is in support a proposal for the United States government to issue a formal apology for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in the Nov. 26 airstrike by American gunships. TrendPK

Gilani to discuss Afghanistan reconciliation in Qatar

ISLAMABAD: The prime minister will travel to Qatar next week to talk with officials from the Gulf Arab state on the Afghan reconciliation process, a senior government official said on Saturday.

The Afghan Taliban announced last month it would open a political office in Qatar, suggesting the group may be willing to engage in negotiations that would likely give it government positions or official control over much of its historical southern heartland.

Ties between Islamabad and Kabul have been strained in recent months but Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said after a visit to Afghanistan last week that ill will had eased considerably between the two neighbors.

Pakistan has not been playing a substantial role in the nascent Afghan peace process, she said, but would encourage militant groups like the Haqqani network or the Taliban to lay down their weapons if asked by Kabul.

“While it is not specifically on the agenda, Afghanistan will be discussed, including briefings from the Qatari leadership on efforts being made for the peace process, the Taliban office,” said the Pakistan government official.

Khar is expected to accompany Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the February 6-8 Qatar trip. AGENCIES

Record civilian death toll in Afghan war last year: UN

KABUL: A record number civilians were killed in Afghanistan’s decade-long war in 2011 — the fifth straight year the death toll has risen, the United Nations reported Saturday.

A total of 3,021 civilians died — mostly at the hands of insurgents — up eight percent from 2,790 in 2010, the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its annual report.

The report stands in contrast to an upbeat assessment of 2011 as “remarkably successful” by NATO-led forces, who are preparing to withdraw combat troops in 2014 and hand security over to the Afghan government.

The UN has disagreed previously with NATO assessments, saying in September that the number of security incidents was up 39 percent in the first eight months of the year, while NATO said they were down two percent.

The latest UN report also says the conflict caused growing disruption of life for ordinary Afghans last year, with an estimated 185,632 people displaced — an increase of 45 percent over 2010.

Asked how this squared with the NATO assessment, a spokeswoman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would not discuss the differences in the two reports.

“Civilian deaths caused by ISAF are a small number compared to those caused by the Taliban and have been reduced by 18 percent in the past year and 27 percent compared to 2009,” she told AFP.

However, “every civilian death is a tragedy” and ISAF will study the report and aim to implement its recommendations, she said.

Taliban-led insurgents caused 77 percent of the deaths last year, up 14 percent from 2010, while pro-government forces were responsible for killing 410 civilians — 14 percent of the total, the report said.

Another 279 deaths — nine percent — could not be attributed to either side.

The record loss of life was blamed mainly on changes in the insurgents’ tactics, which saw an increased use of homemade bombs and deadlier suicide attacks.

Most deaths attributed to NATO forces were a result of attacks from the air, but there was an overall decline of four percent in the number of civilians killed by pro-government forces, the report said.

Controversial night raids targeting Taliban leaders were responsible for 63 civilian deaths, down 22 percent from the previous year.

Overall, “Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers,” said UN special representative Jan Kubis.

“For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war. Parties to the conflict must greatly increase their efforts to protect civilians to prevent yet another increase in civilian deaths and injuries in 2012.”

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the single largest killer of Afghan civilians last year and insurgents had increased their use of bombs that could be detonated even by children stepping on them, the report said.

The civilian death toll from suicide attacks in Afghanistan “rose dramatically” in 2011 to 450 — an increase of 80 percent over 2010.

“While the number of suicide attacks did not increase over 2010, the nature of these attacks changed, becoming more complex, sometimes involving multiple bombers, and designed to yield greater numbers of dead and injured civilians.”

The geographic distribution of civilian casualties shifted significantly, particularly in the second half of 2011, as the conflict lessened in intensity in the south and intensified in the southeast, east and north.

The UN report urges the 130,000-strong NATO force to review its tactics aimed at preventing civilian loss of life in all military operations — “in particular aerial attacks”.

It also calls for stronger efforts to prevent civilian casualties in the night raids, which have been widely condemned, including by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

A total of 11,864 civilians have died in the conflict since 2007, the report said. AGENCIES

US to end Afghan combat role in 2013, training to go on

WASHINTON: The United States plans to end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013 and shift to a training role, one year before most US troops are due to withdraw, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

Although US commanders had already indicated a move towards an advisory mission in coming months, Panetta’s comments marked the first time the US administration had forecast American and allied troops could end their combat operations by the second half of next year.

“Hopefully by the mid-to-latter part of 2013, we’ll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a train, advise and assist role,” Panetta told reporters aboard his plane en route to a NATO meeting in Brussels.

With President Barack Obama facing a tough re-election campaign, the Pentagon chief’s remarks represented the strongest signal yet that the White House wants to wrap up the wars it inherited from the previous administration, after having overseen the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq in December.

Obama took a similar approach in Iraq before the pullout there, declaring an end to the combat mission while the Pentagon renamed units as “advise and assist” brigades.

Panetta portrayed the approach as in keeping with a gradual NATO plan adopted in Lisbon in November 2010, which calls for handing over security duties to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Despite the goal of ending the combat mission next year, the United States had no plans to move up the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of American and coalition forces, Panetta said.

The NATO alliance had agreed on the 2014 timeline “and I think we ought to stick with that,” he said.

As for stepping back from a combat role, Panetta said: “Everybody assumed that there would come a time, as we move towards the end of 2014, that we would be transitioning that role.”

He added: “And that’s basically what…we did in Iraq. And it’s what we’re going to try to do in Afghanistan.”

After a decade of war, Washington has vowed to withdraw combat forces battling the Taliban by the end of 2014 but has left the door open to a follow-on force focused on training, depending on the outcome of negotiations with the Afghan government.

Panetta said such a future force could include a counter-terrorism mission to strike extremists, along with standard training efforts.

He said Washington wanted to see all the NATO allies in Afghanistan — including France — “respect” the NATO timeline.

“We all went in here together and we’ll all go out together, but we have to do it on the basis of a strong alliance and a strong commitment that was made in Lisbon,” said Panetta, who was due to meet NATO defense ministers on Thursday.

He said 2013 would be a “crucial” year for the final transfer of remaining areas to Afghan security forces and “2014 becomes a year of consolidating the transition.”

It was unclear how the planned shift from combat to a mainly advisory role would affect US troop levels.

With nearly 90,000 US troops now in Afghanistan, Panetta said that “no decision has been made with regards to the level of forces we’ll have in 2013.”

By the end of September, the number of US troops is due to drop to 68,000, following the scheduled withdrawal of a “surge force” that deployed in 2010.

The Pentagon chief sought to play down the effect of last month’s surprise announcement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to withdraw French combat forces in 2013, a year earlier than planned under the NATO strategy.

“With regards to France, I understand why they made their decision,” he said.

Despite the French withdrawal plans, he said he was “pleased” that Paris had indicated it would retain a longer-term military presence with troops training and advising Afghan forces.

A senior US defense official told reporters it was possible that there was no serious gap between the French stance and NATO’s timeline, depending on the precise details of what Paris planned.

“I think the discussions will reveal whether there’s a serious difference or not,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Six soldiers, 17 Taliban killed in NW Pakistan clash

Afghan soldier kills four French troops: NATO

CHARIKAR: An Afghan army soldier killed four foreign soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, said a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).   
   
An Afghan intelligence security source said four French soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded by an Afghan soldier in the Taghab valley of eastern Kapisa province.  
   
The gunman had been detained, ISAF added.   
   
The shooting is the latest in a series involving western soldiers being killed by members of the Afghan security forces which have undermined trust between Afghan and western troops in the leadup to the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014.  AGENCIES

Afghan boxing girls aim for 2012 Olympic gold

Women in Afghanistan have been fighting for more rights at home and in society since the Taliban was toppled a decade ago.

Shabnam, 19, and her sister Sadaf Rahimi, 18, are taking the fight more literally than most of their peers, throwing punches in a ring as members of their country s first team of female boxers.

They practice inside a spartan gym with broken mirrors, flaking paint, four punching bags, and a concrete floor padded with faded pink and green mats. Some girls even wear face masks to keep away the dust coming up from the floor.

But they seem oblivious to their modest surroundings as they follow the whistle changes of a rigorous training routine.
“I hope to promote my boxing career and approach the highest level. I wish to be able to win the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics,” said Sadaf, slightly out of breath from punching the bag.

Female boxing is still relatively unusual in most countries, but especially in Afghanistan, where many girls and women still face a struggle to secure an education or work, and activists say violence and abuse at home is common.

Three times a week, the girls come to practise at the Ghazi stadium, once used for public punishment by the Taliban, the hardline Islamists who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Women were stoned for adultery there and despite an expensive revamp, its gory past sometimes spooks the athletes.

Under the Taliban, all sports for women were banned. They still have far fewer opportunities for exercise than men.

Many in this conservative society still consider fighting taboo for women, and the girls deal with serious threats.

“My family has been threatened several times because we three sisters are in the boxing club, they asked my family why the three girls from one family are boxing. Boxing is a hard and difficult sport even for men that is why people are surprised and our family was threatened because of our choice,” said Sadaf.

Pakistan Islamists to protest against U.S. bin Laden raid

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s most influential Islamist party urged its followers to hold mass rallies on Friday to demand their government withdraw its support of the U.S. war on militancy after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), one of the country’s biggest religious political parties, said the United States had violated the sovereignty of key ally Pakistan by sending its own forces into the garrison town of Abbottabad to kill the al Qaeda leader.

Pakistan’s support is key to U.S. efforts to combat Islamist militants, and also to fighting against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

“Even if there was any sympathy for the Americans, that would dissipate after the way they crushed and violated our sovereignty and our independence,” JI chief Syed Munawar Hasan told Reuters on Thursday.

“We have appealed to everyone to hold peaceful demonstrations on Friday on a very large scale,” he said. “Our first demand is Pakistan…. should withdraw from the war on terror.”

Anti-American sentiment runs high in Pakistan, despite billions of dollars in aid for the nuclear-armed country with a troubled economy. Pakistan’s religious parties have not traditionally done well at the ballot box, but they wield considerable influence in a country where Islam is becoming more radicalized.

There have so far been few public protests in Pakistan against bin Laden’s killing early on Monday at Abbottabad, 50 kms (31 miles) north of Islamabad. One of Pakistan’s most violent militant groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba, held special prayers for the al Qaeda leader and called his death “martyrdom.”

The United States war on militancy is unpopular in Pakistan, because of the often high civilian cost of drone attacks against suspected militants along the Afghan border. But many people are also critical of al Qaeda’s radical interpretation of Islam and the suicide bombings its followers carry out.

The fact that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, after having appeared to have lived there for several years, has also embarrassed many people in the government and the country’s powerful spy agency.

Bin Laden is dead, claims US media

According to British and American media, Bin Laden is killed in a US missile attack. On the other hand, the Afghan and senior US officials have also confirmed that Bin Laden has been killed.

According to defence experts, Bin Laden death will come as a fatal blow to the al Qaeda’s striking capability. US President will address to his nation to explain the facts about the death. The al Qaeda leader’s dead body has also been found, it is claimed.

Suicide attack hits Afghan army bus in Kabul-police

KABUL: A suicide bomber attacked an Afghan army bus on the outskirts of Kabul on Saturday, wounding up to 10 soldiers and civilians, less than a week after a suicide attack on a foreign military base in the city, a police spokesman said.

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