Roadside bomb kills 7 in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Roadside bombs struck Afghan security forces in two separate incidents, killing seven people and wounding five, officials said Wednesday.

Three Afghan soldiers were killed and four wounded when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb Wednesday in the Musa Qala district of northern Helmand province, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

U.S., British and Afghan troops pushed the Taliban out of Musa Qala late last year after the militants overran the area in early 2007 and held it for 10 months. Musa Qala lies at the heart of the country's opium poppy-producing region.

In eastern Khost province, meanwhile, four Afghan guards working for the U.S. military were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb Tuesday, said Wazir Pacha, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. Another guard was wounded in the blast in the Shinkay district, he said.

Militants regularly use roadside bombs against Afghan and foreign troops in the country.

1 soldier among 3 killed in suicide attack in Afghanistan

 

KABUL: Three persons including an Afghan soldier were killed in a suicide car bomb blast here on Friday.
Governor Gazni Province, Afghan, Faizullah Faizan said a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a convoy of Afghan troops, killing one soldier and two civilians. Five others were injured in the incident.
Initially no one accepted the responsibility of the attack.

8 cops killed in Afghanistan clash

KABUL: At least eight policemen were killed Thursday during an operation by U.S.-led coalition troops in central Afghanistan, an Afghan official said.
The officers died in the village of Ghariban in Ghazni province during an operation that included U.S. ground forces and air strikes, said the deputy head of Ghazni's provincial council, Habeb-ulRahman.
It was unclear whether Afghan troops also took part in the raid.
Two other villagers, including a woman, were killed in the clash, Rahman said. It was not immediately clear how the officers and civilians were killed.

Polish Troops Face War Crimes Charges

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Reports that Poland's troops in Afghanistan may have committed a war crime against defenseless civilians has shocked the country's public, which remains sensitive to the performance of the Polish military abroad.

In August separate Polish and U.S. patrols were reportedly struck by explosive devices. Polish reinforcements soon arrived and opened fire on a nearby village. The mortar attack on the village of Nangar Khel, close to the Afghan-Pakistani border, killed eight Afghani civilians and left three women crippled. A pregnant woman and a child were among the dead.

"We are very concerned about a possible war crime -- a lot of Poles cannot believe our soldiers could commit such a crime," said Jacek Przybylski, deputy foreign editor of the leading Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.

Polish authorities have kept the flow of information about the incident under control, leaving the media the task of digging out the truth.

Many in Poland want exemplary punishment for the soldiers, a formal apology to Afghanistan and large sums to be paid to the victims' families.

If the war crime is proven, six of the seven perpetrators, who have been held in state custody, could face life in prison. Even more officers might be accused as the investigation unfolds.

On Nov. 13 the military prosecution, citing secret evidence, ascertained that there was no exchange of fire, and that the civilians had been fired upon with the intent to kill them. The prosecutor's office filed charges against seven soldiers, who stand accused of violating international law.

The prosecution sees no mitigating circumstances in the case and maintains that no error or hardware failure can account for the way the mortars were aimed by some of Poland's supposedly best soldiers.

No Taliban members are believed to have been in the village, though initially the soldiers accused reportedly told their commanders that they had been shot at from the village. The officers involved are also accused of hindering the investigation.

Citing unnamed sources, the prestigious daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the evidence could include video footage of a Polish soldier entering the bombarded village. According to this report, the behavior of the Polish troops was appalling.

In statements to the press earlier, commander of the Polish military contingent in Afghanistan Gen. Mark Tomaszycki said soldiers did not enter the village and only fired from a distance.

Tomaszycki said the soldiers did not claim to have been fired upon but said there had been some contact with Taliban.

Questions have since arisen about why commanders gave the order to open fire on the civilian settlement and why these orders were followed. It remains unclear how informed the soldiers' superiors were on the details of the operation and what their level of responsibility is.

Military prosecutors apparently have not interrogated senior officers yet, though this is required by North Atlantic Treaty Organization procedures, raising suspicion that responsibilities might be concealed and the soldiers used as scapegoats.

The daily Rzeczpospolita has based such claims on information given to it by an unnamed officer serving in Afghanistan.

The daily paper reports that the defense will consider responsibility by commanders and politicians, since it believes the contingent's commanders could have coordinated a version of the story with the soldiers, promising them the case would die out.

Citing court documents, Polish radio station RMF said one soldier refused to follow his superiors' orders and left, and that later a deputy commander told the remaining soldiers that they should not be concerned about rockets hitting the village.

The defense is also raising the possibility that the killing could have been caused by a faulty mortar gun or damaged ammunition.

"We have sources in the army that say that it was only an incident, and that they thought they were attacking the Taliban, getting their information from U.S. troops," Przybylski said.

The wives of two of the soldiers accused of war crimes have said the "suggestion" to open fire came from a U.S. command.

According to the Dec. 3 edition of Rzeczpospolita, the Polish soldiers were told by the base "the village needs to be f***ed up" but said they were still aiming at the nearby hills where they supposed the Taliban members were hiding. It is believed that Taliban members often come down from the hills and hide among the civilian population in villages, especially at night.

The prosecution said there is no proof indicating U.S. responsibility, but in Poland disillusionment with the U.S. is on the rise.

Roman Kuzniar, the head of the strategic studies department at Warsaw University, said that while the Polish contingent in Afghanistan is part of NATO's peacekeeping mission, Polish troops have been made subordinate to U.S. troops, impairing the quality of the Polish mission.

"It was certain that our soldiers would soon adopt the methods of combat of their American superiors and colleagues. These methods involve ignoring completely all rights and limitations under international humanitarian law," Kuzniar wrote in the Nov. 21 edition of Warsaw Dziennik.

Recent statements by U.S. President George Bush have done little to improve Washington's image in Poland.

"Bush recently forgot to mention Polish troops when mentioning U.S. allies in Afghanistan," Przybylski said. "For Poles it is especially important to be recognized as allies of the U.S."

Both the Iraqi and the Afghani missions are unpopular among Poles. The withdrawal from Iraq has been scheduled for 2008, but there are still no plans to reduce the 1,200-strong contingent in Afghanistan. It could, however, be changed into one of a more civilian nature.

A poll conducted shortly after the prosecution announced its findings shows that the Afghani mission has almost equaled the Iraqi mission in unpopularity, with 85 percent of Poles opposing both missions.

Poles also overwhelmingly supported an official apology to the Afghanistan government. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made that conditional on the investigation's conclusions.

The villagers have been given medical assistance, food and money, but some say the compensation is insufficient and could be interpreted as an attempt to buy their silence.

"One might get the impression that an attempt was made to cram these people's mouths shut with rice and rolls of banknotes," the Warsaw Dziennik wrote on Nov. 15. "Real compensation should be paid out to the families of those killed and injured, rather than our resting satisfied by tossing scrap to them."

Expelled EU, UN envoys leave Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) - The second most senior European Union official in Afghanistan and a top UN political advisor left the country Thursday after being expelled by the government for posing a threat to national security.
The governor of the southern province of Helmand insisted meanwhile that the EU official, a deputy head of mission, had made contact with the Taliban during a recent visit.
The claim was dismissed by the United Nations and by the insurgents themselves who accused Kabul of creating “a drama” and trying to show it was independent of its international backers.
The men-Irish national Michael Semple with the EU and Briton Mervyn Patterson-flew out of Kabul early Thursday after being declared persona non grata on Tuesday and given 48 hours to leave.
An unknown number of their Afghan colleagues were being questioned by authorities, Afghan officials said, refusing to give details. The United Nations said the affair was a “misunderstanding” that arose after the men visited the Helmand town of Musa Qala to finds ways to bring stability after it was taken back from Taliban occupiers this month.
“Our discussions and negotiations are ongoing with the government of Afghanistan so we can see the return of these vital members of staff,” spokesman Aleem Siddique told AFP.
President Hamid Karzai’s office has not expanded on its issue with the men-who are considered authorities on the country and speak local languages-only that they “posed threats to the national security of Afghanistan.”
But Helmand governor Asadullah Wafa said Semple had been in contact with the Taliban during regular visits to his province that were conducted without proper authorisation.
“He was inviting Taliban and was talking to them,” the governor told AFP, adding, “He should have consulted with me.”
Helmand is the epicentre of Afghanistan’s opium production, which makes up 93 percent of world supply, and a stronghold for insurgents from the extremist Taliban movement that was in government between 1996 and 2001.
Britain is the lead nation in the province of a NATO-led force working on security and reconstruction and has thousands of troops there.
Wafa, said to be trusted by Karzai, added an Afghan general who had been travelling with Semple had been found to be carrying 19,000 dollars and a flash-disk with a list of high-ranking officials.
The governor did not elaborate, adding though he had no suspicions about the UN official.

French president visits Afghanistan

KABUL: French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Kabul on Saturday in a surprise visit to Afghanistan, a reporter of an international news agency travelling with him said.

It is Sarkozy's first visit to Afghanistan since he became president of France in May.

He is expected to meet President Hamid Karzai and the head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, General Dan McNeill.

Senate okays $555b spending bill including $70b for Iraq, Afghan wars

The US Senate late Tuesday approved a half-trillion dollar budget bill for 2008 that includes 70 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, handing a major victory to President George W Bush. The Senate voted 70-25 to approve the catch-all 555 billion dollar budget bill but added extra war funds after the House of Representatives version passed Monday included $31b solely for US-led efforts in Afghanistan but none for Iraq. The version passed by the Senate does not include any of the restrictions that Democrats hoped to pin on the release of war funds, such as linking them to a withdrawal date for US troops. The bill returned to the House for a vote and was expected to vote on Wednesday, though lawmakers were only to vote on the war-funding portion added by the Senate. If it passes, Bush has indicated he will sign the spending package. Amid deep differences with the Congress over the Iraq war, the White House had threatened to veto the entire spending bill if it contained no funding for Iraq. “Obviously, the full funding that we requested since February is what the troops need - not just what they want, but what they need. But this will help us get through this period,” said Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino. Democrats, who took over the US Congress in November 2006 elections fuelled by anger at the war in Iraq, have tried without success to use their power of the purse to impose a timetable for withdrawal from the strife-torn country where nearly 4,000 US troops have died since the March 2003 invasion. Democrats reportedly also gave up several billion dollars’ worth of other budget demands rejected by Bush, in order to see the spending measure passed before the year-end recess. They have also been concerned about being seen as unsupportive of US troops in battle at Christmas. Democratic House majority leader Steny Hoyer told CNN that the House initially passed the $31b in funding for Afghanistan “so that we could confront terrorism and defeat the Taliban.” The package, known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, includes 11 of 12 annual appropriations bills, leaving out defence which has already been approved by lawmakers. Among other things, the bill funds veterans’ health care, emergency spending on border security, firefighting to tackle massive wildfires on the West Coast, bridge repair and even funds for peacekeeping in Darfur. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who introduced the amendment to add funding for the Iraq war, said the House version “underfunds” troops in Iraq and hailed the advances made by General David Petraeus’ plan to “surge” the number of US troops. “Since the implementation of the Petraeus Plan, we’ve marvelled at the improving security situation in and around Baghdad. Attacks on US troops are down. Civilian casualties in Baghdad are down 75 per cent. “There is simply no question that on the military and tactical levels, the Petraeus Plan has been a tremendous success. “Even those of us who have disagreed on this war have always agreed on one thing: troops in the field will not be left without the resources they need.” However, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy voiced his opposition to the Republican plan. “It’s wrong for Congress to write still another blank check to the President for the war. It’s obvious that President Bush wants to drag this process out month after month, so he can hand off his Iraqi policy to the next president.”