Karzai in Pakistan for Talks on Insurgents
10 June 2011
Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived here Friday for two days of talks with top Pakistani leaders amid cautious hopes that the two nations can forge a coordinated strategy for reconciling with insurgents. The two governments have long mistrusted one another, with Afghan officials accusing Pakistan of covertly backing the Taliban and other militant groups. But tensions have eased in recent months, and Afghan officials said Karzai’s visit will...
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Gates Blasts NATO, Questions Future of Alliance
10 June 2011
America's military alliance with Europe — the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades — faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address. In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
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Taliban Attacks on Schools Ease Off: Education Ministry
10 June 2011
Taliban insurgents are attacking fewer schools, easing the way for boys and girls to attend in larger numbers, even in largely insecure areas of the country, Afghan education officials say. Since March 21, the beginning the Afghan calendar year, education officials have recorded 20 school-related attacks, said Gul Agha Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education. Attacks can include the burning of schoolhouses, kidnappings, threats, forced...
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Suicide Bomber Hits Memorial for Slain Police Commander, Kills Four Officers
10 June 2011
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a memorial service for the assassinated police chief of north Afghanistan Friday, killing at least four policemen, local security and health officials said. The attack appeared to target the police chief of Kunduz province, Sameullah Qatra, whose predecessor in the post was killed by a suicide bomber in March. Qatra was near the bomber but escaped unhurt, his spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said. A string...
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Wedded to the Warlords: NATO’s Unholy Afghan Alliance
10 June 2011
A strongman dies and another rises. The bloody politics of Afghanistan travelled full circle with the death of General Daud Daud in the north and the promotion of Brigadier-General Abdul Razik in the south. The fall of one mirrored the rise of the other, marking the loss of an older generation of warlords and the birth of a new class of often brutal allies to whom NATO intends to start transferring power this summer. The success of that transition...
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