US military not planning bases in Uzbekistan: ambassador

TASHKENT  ( 2008-03-28 00:29:28 ) : 

The US military is not planning to use Uzbekistan as a base for operations in Afghanistan, Washington's ambassador to Tashkent said on Thursday, dispelling media reports about such plans.
"The United States does not currently have a military base in Uzbekistan and has not asked for a military base in Uzbekistan. This issue is not on the agenda," ambassador Richard Norland, who spoke in Russian, told reporters.
Norland said, however, that US personnel operating under Nato command have been allowed on a "case-by-case" basis to transit to Afghanistan through a German air base at Termez in southern Uzbekistan since January 31.

Russia links help in Afghanistan to Nato expansion: report

 

MOSCOW  ( 2008-03-28 15:18:22 ) : 

Russia is ready to help Nato on Afghanistan, provided that Moscow's security interests, including a halt to eastward expansion of Nato, are respected, Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia is "considering the possibility of deepening" co-operation with Nato over Afghanistan, but this will not happen "if each other's lawful security interests are not taken into account," the official, Alexander Grushko, told Interfax.
He highlighted Nato expansion plans -- with ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine high on the waiting list -- as a key security concern of Moscow.
"Further steps toward realising Nato's 'open doors' policy does not strengthen the security of Nato itself, nor the security of countries declaring their intention to join the alliance, nor, moreover, the security of Russia," Grushko said.
"This project is from the political past, and does not concern the real security demands of our day," he said.
Grushko spoke just days before the April 2-4 Nato summit in Bucharest, where President Vladimir Putin will be attending.
Topping the Nato agenda will be the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and discussions on possible expansion of the 26-nation alliance to include former Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine -- a possibility that has infuriated Moscow.
Nato has been negotiating with Russia over the possible use of Russian and Central Asian territory to send supplies for the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But Grushko denied press reports that Moscow was bargaining with Nato to offer help in Afghanistan in return for Nato denying Georgia and Ukraine Membership Action Plan status, which clears the way to membership.
"There is no trade-off and there cannot be one," he told Interfax.

3 injured in Buneer blast

BUNEER: A bomb exploded in Buneer today injuring 3 people and damaging a portion of a mosque.
This is the second bombing in 24 hours in the area -- after a bomb exploded earlier during the night.
Police were at the scene and deemed it a terrorist act after finding a remote controlled roadside bomb.
This is the first attack in the area after a long time - and so far no one has claimed responsibility.

Danish soldier killed, three Germans hurt in Afghanistan

KABUL  ( 2008-03-27 19:07:56 ) : 

A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded and three German troops were also hurt in attacks in Afghanistan blamed on insurgents linked to the Taliban movement, military officials said.
Danish forces were on patrol on Wednesday in the southern province of Helmand province, a hotbed of Taliban activity, when they came under fire, said a spokesman with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"Regrettably as a result of the firefight one Danish soldier was killed and another was wounded," British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Miller told AFP.
In the far north two German soldiers were seriously injured and a third slightly wounded when a blast struck their vehicle near the city of Kunduz overnight, Afghan officials and the German military said.
The two seriously wounded would be evacuated to Germany soon, a spokesman for the military command centre in the eastern German city of Potsdam said.
Kunduz governor Mohammad Omar told AFP the blast was caused by a remotely detonated roadside bomb but this was not immediately confirmed by the German military.
"It was the enemies of peace in Afghanistan," Omar said. The term is most often used to refer to Taliban-linked militants. ISAF in Afghanistan did not immediately have information.

Car bomb in Afghan market kills 8: police

KABUL  ( 2008-03-26 18:48:16 ) : 

A car bomb exploded in a market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday killing at least eight people and wounding 17, police said.
Taliban insurgents have vowed to intensify attacks on Afghan and foreign troops countrywide, launch a wave of suicide bombings and attack supply lines from Pakistan this year in their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government.
But provincial police chief Hussain Andiwal said no members of the security forces were in the farmers' market in Girishk district when the bomb went off.
"The explosives were inside a car parked in a weekly market where a sizable number of people were buying and selling goods," Andiwal said.
"The target was civilians. There no foreign or Afghan forces in the area," he said.

Kabul looks for anti-terror unity with Gilani

KABUL  ( 2008-03-25 15:45:13 ) : 

Afghanistan said on Tuesday it hoped the election of a new government and prime minister in Pakistan would lead to closer co-operation in efforts to fight extremism plaguing both countries.
President Hamid Karzai issued a statement congratulating Yousuf Raza Gilani who was sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday.
Karzai "deemed terrorism and extremism a serious problem against stability and development in the region and hoped the new Pakistan parliament and prime minister achieve huge success against this destructive phenomenon," it said.
The president also wanted relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan -- both key allies in the United States' so-called "war on terror" -- to expand under Gilani, the statement said.
Ties between the neighbours are fragile with both accusing each other of not doing enough to tackle militants behind a wave of violence on both sides of the border.
The Afghan defence ministry said separately that the election showed people in Pakistan "are weary of extremism."
It also "in part promises a new development in regional co-operation on the war on terrorism," it said.

Bush telephones PM Gilani: official

ISLAMABAD  ( 2008-03-25 18:48:32 ) : 

US President George W. Bush telephoned new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to congratulate him on being sworn in on Tuesday, a government official said.
Gilani, a senior official from Pakistan People's Party, took the oath as prime minister from President Pervez Musharraf at the presidential palace in Islamabad.
"President Bush telephoned Yousuf Raza Gilani and congratulated him on assuming the office of prime minister," an official in the prime minister's secretariat told AFP.
He said further details would be announced later.
The telephone call came as two senior US envoys were in Islamabad for talks with Musharraf, Gilani and former premier Nawaz Sharif focusing on the political situation and Pakistan's role in the US-led "war on terror".

SUICIDAL ATTACK IN LAHORE

PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban have offered in a recent telephone conversation to lay down arms if President Pervez Musharraf quits, his policies are reviewed and Islamic laws are enforced in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with Kyodo News, a spokesman for Taliban Commander Baitullah Mehsud said the Taliban launched their struggle because of the "wrong" policies of Musharraf, particularly in tribal areas.

"We have said it loud and clear that the wrong policies of government must be abandoned, Musharraf should be removed and Islamic laws enforced. These three things will guarantee that we will stop our struggle," spokesman Mullah Omar said.

Pakistani tribesmen have waged a war on the Pakistan Army, which has deployed 100,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan after complaints that al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban remnants and their Pakistani supporters are launching attacks into Afghanistan from bases in Pakistan.

Mehsud has been declared united leader of all the militant groups resisting Pakistan Army operations in South Waziristan and is urging all other militant groups in North Waziristan and Swat to join him.

"All the groups in South Waziristan have united under Baitullah Mehsud and have made it clear that it is necessary for Taliban to unite and combine under the flag of Baitullah Mehsud," Omar said.

Baitullah Mehsud is known to be a former inmate of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison who was released after interrogation.

On his return, he started a resistance against U.S. and Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas.

The Pakistan government has declared him a proclaimed offender, but he is emerging as a legend in tribal areas for his resistance to the army and his support to the resistance against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

Omar denied Mehsud has an affiliation with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and declared he was leading the struggle only within Pakistan.

"Our formation is by our tribal people only and no one else, like al-Qaeda or the Afghan Taliban is involved," he said. The spokesman did, however, express full support for al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"The Taliban in Pakistan respect (Osama) bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar and we consider them heroes of Islam. We think they are alive and leading Muslim mujahideen from the front, but we do not know their whereabouts," he said. - Kyodo

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