Combined Forces Raid Ends Deadly Taliban Attack on Top Kabul Hotel
29 June 2011
Nine suicide bombers penetrated several rings of security to lay siege to one of the capital’s premier hotels for six hours overnight Tuesday in a complex attack that jolted Afghans’ sense of security and highlighted the weakness of their police forces. At least 21 people were killed: all the attackers, two policemen, nine Afghan civilians, and one foreigner, a Spaniard. One witness said that the police failed to stop a man who obviously...
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The Insurgency in Afghanistan’s Heartland: Report
29 June 2011
The insurgency in Afghanistan has expanded far beyond its stronghold in the south east. Transcending its traditional Pashtun base, the Taliban is bolstering its influence in the central-eastern provinces by installing shadow governments and tapping into the vulnerabilities of a central government crippled by corruption and deeply dependent on a corrosive war economy. Collusion between insurgents and corrupt government officials in Kabul and the nearby...
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28 June 2011
A senior leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group has been captured in northern Afghanistan dressed up like a woman — the latest in a recent series of cases involving male militants disguised as females, the U.S.-led military coalition said Tuesday. A joint Afghan and coalition force apprehended a senior figure from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and two of his associates during a nighttime operation Monday in Kunduz city, NATO said. It...
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28 June 2011
During his confirmation hearing last week for his new post at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency, Petraeus said coalition forces had already shifted out of some parts of the country—including the areas in and around Kabul—and handed security responsibility off to the Afghans. He said coalition forces planned to move to parts of the former Taliban stronghold of Helmand province this fall, with further redeployments set for next...
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Intelligence Operations Re-focus from Social, Tribal Data to Targeting Insurgents
27 June 2011
Military intelligence officers were scrambling a year ago to collect and analyze the social, economic and tribal ins and outs of each valley and hamlet in Afghanistan. This information wasn't the kind of secret or covert material many military intelligence specialists were used to. But it was seen as crucial to helping commanders tell the good guys from the bad, learn what Afghans really needed from their government and undermine the Taliban-led...
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Reactions to US Troop Withdrawal Plans
24 June 2011
European allies on Thursday applauded President Barack Obama's plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, with France jumping at the chance to announce its own drawdown in a mission that has drained budgets and strained public opinion across the continent. After nearly a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, Obama's withdrawal blueprint was welcomed by NATO allies facing dwindling support, if not outright opposition, because of the conflict. Obama...
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Afghanistan Urges End to Pakistani Border Attacks
24 June 2011
The Afghan government on Friday called for an end to cross-border attacks from Pakistan, warning that such incidents could affect "improving trust and cooperation" between the two wary allies. The high-level warning comes after days of claim and counter-claim over cross-border attacks by the neighbours, whose relations are strained over the Islamist militancy faced by both which Kabul says is rooted in Pakistan. Four children were killed late Thursday...
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Obama, Pentagon Reportedly Split on Afghanistan Pullout
22 June 2011
Barack Obama is set to reject the advice of the Pentagon by announcing on Wednesday night the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by November next year, in time for the US presidential election. The move comes despite warnings from his military commanders that recent security gains are fragile. They have been urging him to keep troop numbers high until 2013. The accelerated drawdown will dismay American and British commanders in Kabul,...
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Afghanistan NGO Safety Office Bi-Weekly Security Report
21 June 2011
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While May concluded with the reporting of extraordinary levels of conflict related activity (surpassing the previous peak recorded in August 2010), the opening period for June indicates a continuation of this momentum, reporting similarly high levels of incidents (see p. 7). This periods figures also reveal that despite security force efforts at interdiction and disruption of AOG networks (both manpower and supply related) through the winter and...
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Cross-border Rocket Attack Kills 4 Afghan Children
17 June 2011
A rocket fired during fighting Friday in Pakistan's tribal region landed in eastern Afghanistan, killing four children in an area where militants launch attacks on U.S.-led forces, officials said. The rocket landed in Sirkanay district of Kunar province, an area where more than 100 rockets have landed in the last few days from across the border, provincial police chief Gen. Ewaz Mohammad said. It was unclear who fired the rocket, though Mohammad...
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