Private Security Companies Dissolved in Afghanistan
17 March 2011
"Seven private security companies operating in Afghanistan are being dissolved, the country's interior ministry announced Tuesday, while dozens more face closure. Private security companies help guard everything from Western embassies and international military convoys to non-governmental organisations and media companies in war-torn Afghanistan. The announcement is the latest effort by President Hamid Karzai, who charges that they slow down...
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New Efforts to Negotiate Peace in Afghanistan
17 March 2011
"As American troops press the Taliban in their desert and mountain redoubts, Western diplomats, Taliban leaders and the Afghan government have begun to take a hard look at what it would take to start a negotiation to end the fighting. Efforts to start peace talks have yielded little in the past. Nonetheless, interest in a political track is growing as pressure mounts to find a palatable way to reduce the military commitment here and as public support...
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Number of Civilian Casualties Higher Than Cited in UNAMA Report
17 March 2011
"The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has revealed. The report also failed to apply the same humanitarian law standard for defining a civilian to its reporting on SOF raids that it applied to its accounting for Taliban assassinations....
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US Lawmakers Reject Call for Accelerated Withdrawal of US Forces
17 March 2011
"The House overwhelmingly defeated on Thursday a nonbinding resolution to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. The vote, which failed by a margin of 93 to 321, followed a two-hour debate that involved a brief protest and a lengthy discussion of national security and budget cuts. But what surprised some observers is that the bill, authored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), made it to the House floor at all. Kucinich's...
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