US-funded Afghan Local Police under Scrutiny after Claims of Abuses, Infighting
20 June 2011
A cornerstone US policy to turn Afghan farmers into armed watchmen to keep out the Taliban has hit controversy and been scaled back over allegations of infighting and illegal taxation. In Marjah, the 1,150 trained local police or "arbaki" patrol an area transformed from insurgent hotbed into a mostly peaceful farming district in southern Afghanistan since a military operation 15 months ago. [...] But President Hamid Karzai has expressed concern that...
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Haqqani Leader Threatens Reprisals as Govt Executes Two over Bank Attack
20 June 2011
Insurgents in Afghanistan's violent east will target courts and judges after the execution of two fighters convicted over a brutal bank raid, one of the leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network said on Monday. At least 40 people were killed when seven gunmen and suicide bombers, dressed in border police uniforms, attacked an office of private lender Kabulbank on February 19, triggering gunbattles that lasted several hours. Security camera footage...
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US Confirms Talks with Taliban as UN Splits Taliban, Al-Qaeda on Sanctions List
20 June 2011
Outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that the US is holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr Gates said talks were "preliminary" but that a political solution was the way "most of these wars end". It is the first time the US has acknowledged such contact and comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said peace talks had started. The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan...
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Afghanistan Leading Country of Origin of Refugees in 2010: UNHCR Report
20 June 2011
With more than three million refugees in 75 countries, Afghanistan remained the leading country of origin of refugees in 2010. On average, three out of ten refugees in the world were from Afghanistan, with 96 per cent of them located in Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iraqis were the second largest group, with an estimated 1.7million having sought refuge mainly in neighbouring countries. Afghan and Iraqi refugees accounted for almost half (45%)...
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Suicide Bomber Strikes German Military Convoy in Kunduz, Kills Three Civilians
20 June 2011
A suicide attacker blew up his explosives-laden car next to a German military convoy in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing three Afghan civilians, officials and witnesses said. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber detonated his vehicle on a busy road on the edge of Kunduz city, near the airport, the Afghan Interior Ministry said. [...] Three civilians were killed and 11 were wounded in the...
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Uniformed Suicide Bombers Attack Kabul Police Station, Kill Nine
20 June 2011
Suicide bombers in army uniform attacked a Kabul police compound on Saturday, killing nine people in the second major assault inside the Afghan capital in less than a month, the Interior Ministry said. The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the assault, vowed last month to carry out attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and government officials, and have assassinated several senior police commanders since the start of the year. Three policemen,...
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