"Ethnic-based" Militias Fuel Tensions in Balkh Province
21 April 2011
Government officials in northern Afghanistan are building up their own ethnic-based militia groups to expand their influence and keep the Taliban at bay. But the spread of mostly Tajik and Uzbek militias is aggravating tensions with local Pashtuns—the country's largest ethnic group but a minority in the north—some of whom say they are being driven to turn to the Taliban, a largely Pashtun group, to defend their interests.The Taliban insurgency...
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US Hands Over Terror Suspect Held in Afghanistan to Germany
21 April 2011
Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a German national of Afghan descent, was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in July 2010 and while in custody provided details on alleged plots linked to al-Qaida supposedly targeting European cities. Siddiqui is accused of belonging to a foreign terrorist group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which aims at creating an Islamic state, or caliphate, across Central Asia. [...} Prosecutors say Siddiqui left Germany in March...
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Canada Expands Training Mission to Include Regional Centres Outside of Kabul
21 April 2011
The Canadian military has confirmed that small contingents of troops will be stationed outside of Kabul when the Harper government's new training mission gets underway in Afghanistan this summer. A small group of medics will be based in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where UN staff were massacred a few weeks ago. A military police detachment will also conduct instruction in the western city of Herat. When it announced the training...
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Service Notice
21 April 2011
Please be advised that our offices will be closed Friday, 22 April, 2011 and Monday, 25 April, 2011 due to a statutory holiday in Canada. We will resume publishing the Afghanistan Conflict Monitor on Tuesday, 26 April, 2011.
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Bomb Blast Kills Three Policemen in Nangarhar Province
21 April 2011
Fighting has escalated in eastern Afghanistan as Afghan and coalition forces step up their attacks on insurgents along the Pakistan border and militants retaliate with attacks on pro-government forces, including a bomb blast Thursday that killed three Afghan policemen. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said the three policemen were killed by a bomb that was placed on a bus. The bus was transporting Afghan policemen...
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All Sides in Afghan Conflict Responsible for Displacement
21 April 2011
One irony of the current security situation in Afghanistan is that foreign forces, whose ostensible aim is to protect civilians while fighting the Taliban, may be responsible - directly or indirectly - for the bulk of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, whose number is rising. About 400 individuals were displaced each day in 2006-2010 - 730,000 in total - mostly due to military operations by US/NATO forces, according to the...
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