Poppy Harvest in Helmand Undeterred
03 June 2011
Late May marks the end of the annual poppy harvest in Khan Neshin, a remote and thinly populated district in southernmost Helmand Province. First cleared by United States Marines in 2009, the district was one of nine in the province to be included in this year’s counternarcotics eradication campaign.Government-led eradication is intended to go hand in hand with wheat-seed distribution. The goal is to offer farmers a viable alternative to the...
Read the post »
UK, US Search for Peace, Want UN Sanctions against 18 Former Taliban Leaders Lifted
03 June 2011
Britain and the United States are pressing for United Nations sanctions against 18 former senior Taliban figures to be lifted later this month in the strongest indication yet that the western powers are looking for a negotiated peace with the Taliban. Candidates include the controversial former head of the regime's religious police, Mohammed Qalamuddin, whose officers were responsible for some of the worst atrocities under the Taliban regime. Officials...
Read the post »
Lack of Capable Logisticians a Great Challenge for ANA: US
03 June 2011
Stocking warehouses in most police forces is low-rank, unglamorous work. In Afghanistan, where literacy and education are at a premium, Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Hurley is pushing to make it a well-paid and prestigious job. The U.S. and its allies are rushing to ready the Afghan army and police to take over control of security from July, but they are discovering they have a job far more complex than just providing guns and training about how...
Read the post »
Afghan Suicide Bomber "Spent Six Years in London": Afghanistan Intelligence
03 June 2011
The unnamed bomber created one of the worst security scares in recent years when he nearly reached the office of the Afghan defence minister before being shot dead by bodyguards. Officials for the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) would not say if the man was a British passport holder, or when he left Britain. Security and military officials have given anecdotal evidence of Britons travelling to fight in Afghanistan, including reports...
Read the post »
US Projects in War Zones Unsustainable: Study
03 June 2011
Billions of dollars worth of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq could fall into disrepair over the next few years because inadequate provisions have been made to pay for their ongoing operations and maintenance, according to a report to be released Friday by a bipartisan legislative commission. The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan says it “sees no indication” that the Pentagon, the State...
Read the post »