CIA director Panetta admitted to Congress that the CIA misled Congress concerning “significant actions” from 2001 to the present. As Congress wrote to Panetta yesterday:”Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have conce…
Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
Bomb kills at least 25 in central Afghanistan
July 9th, 2009 |
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Children from nearby schools were also killed in the attack, said a ministry spokesman
A bomb blast in central Afghanistan killed 25 people including 13 primary school students today, destroying shops and scattering pieces of the vehicle that carried the explosives over a huge area.
The bomb was detonated after a truck carrying the device hidden in a pile of timber overturned as it travelled on the main road from Logar to Kabul. After police arrived to clear the road this morning, militants apparently remotely detonated a bomb planted in the back of the truck among the timber.
The blast killed 21 civilians and four policemen in Logar province, south of Kabul, ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said. At least 13 of those killed were children from nearby schools, said Kamaluddin Zadran, a provincial official. Another two schoolchildren were wounded and three others were missing, Zadran said.
The power of the blast in the Mohammad Agha district, close to shops that collect milk from farmers, sent truck pieces flying more than a mile (two kilometres), said a second police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
News footage from the scene showed the explosion left a huge crater in the road. People collected the remains of the dead, wrapping them in white and coloured shrouds. Nearby mud houses had collapsed. Twisted and charred remains of a police vehicle caught in the blast were loaded onto a truck.
Lal Mohammad, a local police officer, was working his land about 100 yards (91 metres) away when the explosion happened.
“I saw a big fire and smoke from the main road,” Mohammad said. He ran toward the site of the explosion, and saw dead people and body parts strewn around.
“I collected five bodies myself and then picked up body parts,” Mohammad said.
The explosion was so strong that a wall in Mohammad’s house, about 200 yards away, collapsed.
Two American troops were killed in another roadside bombing incident yesterday in southern Afghanistan, said Captain Elizabeth Mathias, a US military spokeswoman, without providing any other details.
As of yesterday, at least 647 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the US defence department. Of those, the military reports 480 were killed by hostile action.
Roadside and suicide bombings are the militants’ weapon of choice in Afghanistan, and the number of such attacks have spiked this year, as thousands of additional American troops joined the fight.
In June, there were 736 reported incidents involving improvised explosive devices that killed 23 coalition troops and wounded 166 other foreign troops, according to the Pentagon. In May there were 465 incidents that killed 12 foreign troops. The majority of victims have been civilians.
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Killed British soldier had Olympic hopes
July 9th, 2009 |
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Comrades pay tribute to Trooper Christopher Whiteside, who had planned to push for place in British fencing team
The seventh British soldier killed in Afghanistan within a week had hoped to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London, his comrades said today.
Trooper Christopher Whiteside, of The Light Dragoons, died when an improvised explosive device went off near Gereshk, in Helmand province, on Tuesday night.
Whiteside was a talented swordsman who had hoped to begin training for a possible place in the British fencing team on his return from Afghanistan.
The 20-year-old’s friends in the Light Dragoons recalled him demonstrating his fencing skills at a squadron barbecue using a broomstick.
Whiteside was the 176th British soldier to die in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001.
He endured four days of some of the most intense fighting ever experienced in the country before his death, his commanding officer said.
Whiteside – known as “Norm” to his friends after former the Manchester United footballer Norman Whiteside – was born in Blackpool.
He joined the army in 2005 but was discharged a year later following a serious knee injury. He signed up again as a soldier in March last year and started his first tour in Afghanistan this year.
He had been taking part in Operation Panchai Palang (Panther’s Claw), a US-led assault against the Taliban in the central Helmand river valley, prior to next month’s Afghan presidential elections.
His commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Gus Fair, said today: “Trooper Whiteside had only been in the regiment for a short time, but had established a reputation as an excellent soldier.
“Norm had been tested in some of the most intense fighting ever experienced in Afghanistan for four days prior to his death, and had never been found wanting.
“He will be remembered as a soldier at the top of his profession, who gave his all for his friends and who has been cruelly taken from us.”
The defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, who yesterday warned that more soldiers would die in Afghanistan where the conflict would be “hard and dangerous”, paid tribute to Whiteside.
“He was a courageous soldier who fought back from injury to rejoin the army, and it is clear his fitness, determination and sense of humour were hugely admired by both his comrades and his commanders,” he said.
“Their thoughts, and mine, are with his grieving family at this difficult time.”
Six other soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the start of July.
Captain Ben Babington-Browne, of 22 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, died in a helicopter crash in the south of the country on Monday.
The other five soldiers died in combat in what the MoD described as the “main push” of Operation Panchai Palang, said to be one of the largest British soldiers have made.
Lance Corporal Dane Elson, 22, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed by an explosion on Sunday.
Lance Corporal David Dennis, 29, of the Light Dragoons, and Private Robert Laws, 18, of 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, died on Saturday.
Dennis was killed by an improvised explosive device while patrolling on foot. Laws was killed when the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, and Trooper Joshua Hammond, 18, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, died in a blast near Lashkar Gah, in Helmand, last Wednesday.
Hundreds of people turned out to pay their respects when their bodies were returned to the UK on Monday.
Thorneloe is the most senior army officer to have been killed on operations since the Falklands war.
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Clegg: troops’ lives thrown away in Afghanistan
July 9th, 2009 |
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Liberal Democrat leader says soldiers not being given the proper equipment to do their job
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has criticised the government’s handling of the war in Afghanistan saying British soldiers were not being given the proper equipment and their lives were “being thrown away because our politicians won’t get their act together”.
His comments come after the deaths of seven British soldiers in the past seven days and amid signs of disquiet within Whitehall at the growing public dismay over the lengthening casualty list.
In a piece in the Daily Telegraph, Clegg rocks the cross-party consensus for the first time, writing: “As leader of the Liberal Democrats, I have been keen to maintain the cross-party consensus on Afghanistan that formed after September 11, and has not faltered since.
“But recent events have led me to question, for the first time, whether we’re going about things in the right way.
“I am concerned that we are simply not giving our troops the means to do their difficult job. We must not will the ends without being prepared to will the means.”
He said two of the recent British fatalities – including Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, the highest ranking British officer to be killed since the Falklands War – died while travelling in a vehicle “unable to withstand a roadside bomb”.
“I am appalled that so many of our soldiers have been killed because of inadequate equipment, and disturbed to hear from experts that we don’t have enough forces to hold and rebuild territory once it has been won.”
A total of 176 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001. There are about 8,300 British troops based in the country.
Clegg questioned the level of UK troop deployment, saying British forces have been “relegated to the background” in Helmand after the US moved its own troops into the area.
He said: “I can only imagine how demoralising it must be for our troops to feel they have to be bailed out by Uncle Sam.”
He added that a co-ordinated political strategy was needed to run alongside the military campaign.
“Britain’s lukewarm support for European co-operation in defence and security planning has contributed to the fragmented nature of operations,” Clegg said.
“Our soldiers’ lives are being put at risk because our politicians won’t get their act together.
“To help them, we need a single individual or institution with a strong mandate, co-ordinating the actions of all international players.”
He also said rooting out corruption in Afghanistan needed to be given a higher priority, saying it was holding back progress in the country.
Clegg said: “If the Taliban are to be defeated, the Afghan people need to learn to trust state institutions – a huge challenge in a country that never had effective central government.”
He concluded: “The future of Afghanistan is of huge importance, but it will never be secured with troop and equipment shortages, an unco-ordinated political strategy and a blind eye turned to corruption.
“We must think again – not about pulling out, but about doing things differently. There are many options: the only one I would rule out is following the current course. It is a halfway house that lets our troops down by asking them to do the impossible.”
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More troops ‘will die in Afghanistan’
July 8th, 2009 |
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Bob Ainsworth warns of ‘hard and dangerous’ road ahead as seventh soldier is reported killed in as many days
More British soldiers will die in Afghanistan, the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, warned today as it was announced that a seventh serviceman had been killed there in as many days.
In his first speech since he was appointed last month, Ainsworth said the conflict in Afghanistan would be “hard and dangerous”. There was no end date for military operations, which would cease only when Afghans were in a position to take responsibility for their own security, he said.
“Let us be under no illusion. The situation in Afghanistan is serious, and not yet decided. The way forward is hard and dangerous. More lives will be lost and our resolve will be tested.”
“No single or simple solution will work. Success will be achieved incrementally. Step by step and over time, the Afghans themselves will take full responsibility for their own security and their own governance.
“This is not going to happen tomorrow, nor in a few short weeks or months. If we are to succeed, we will need both the courage and the patience to see it through. There is no defined end date – only an end state.”
Addressing the foreign policy thinktank Chatham House, Ainsworth said: “In the face of the casualties we are seeing, it is understandable that people ask: is this too difficult?” But, he warned, if Nato forces left now, “the Taliban will take control and al-Qaida will return”.
He said he had recently met local elders in Sangin, in northern Helmand, the province in which hundreds of British soldiers recently launched a huge assault against insurgent strongholds. The elders had told him the people did not want the Taliban back, Ainsworth said. “We must stay and finish the job. There is a long way to go, but we are getting there.”
He later delivered a swipe at defence chiefs in general and General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, in particular. Asked why the government had rejected their plan to deploy a further 2,000 British troops to southern Afghanistan, Ainsworth replied: “Some of the people who are now saying ‘You should be doing more and putting more troops in there’ are some of the people who said a little while ago ‘You are breaking the army’ and ‘We’re doing too much.’”
Dannatt warned in 2006 that there was a danger that the commitment in Iraq could “break” the army.
Ainsworth said the government would “continue to make the contribution that is necessary, both in terms of people and resources”.
However, he was later criticised over the shortage of helicopters by Sir Brian Crowe, a former senior diplomat. Crowe said the situation appeared to be no better than 18 months previously, when his son, an army officer, had been in Afghanistan. “Why on earth are there not now enough helicopters?” he asked. “Why do we still have to borrow them [from US forces]? Why can’t we just buy some more helicopters?”
In his speech, Ainsworth said the focus now was to “prepare the way for [presidential] elections this year by confronting the insurgents, denying them the freedom to operate, isolating them and degrading their capability”. “It is crucial that these elections are credible and inclusive, providing the duly elected president with a mandate to take Afghanistan forward.”
The task now also was to “provide the time and space for the Afghan forces to take responsibility for the security of their people, and for the Afghan government to build their civil society.”
He said: “What will success will look like? Success will be an environment in which the Afghan government is capable of providing for its people the security required to govern their country themselves, suppress violent extremism and ensure the terrorists do not return. This means helping Afghanistan become an effective and accountable state, increasingly able to handle its security and deliver basic services to its people.”
That would require promoting a “political approach, encouraging reconciliation so that insurgents renounce violence in favour of legitimate, Afghan-led political processes. This needs to be done from a position of strength.”
Ainsworth warned again about expecting more casualties when describing the Taliban’s increasing use of improvised explosive devices. Referring to the deployment to Afghanistan of vehicles with heavier armour, Ainsworth said the insurgents were building higher-yield bombs. “So let us be clear”, he said: “Sacrificing manoeuvre for heavy armour in every circumstance is not the answer.”
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: “The truth is that for far too long our troops have simply not had the luxury of choosing between manoeuvrability and armour due to this government’s failure to act on equipment. New armoured vehicles are still not widely available to our troops in Afghanistan almost eight years after British forces went into the country.”
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British soldier killed in Afghanistan
July 8th, 2009 |
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• Seventh death in a week and 176th since invasion
• New defence secretary rejects comparisons to Vietnam
Another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the seventh in a week and the 176th since operations began.
The serviceman, from the Light Dragoons, died in an explosion near Gereshk, in Helmand province, last night. The Ministry of Defence said his next of kin had been informed.
He was taking part in Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther’s Claw, an assault against the Taliban in the central Helmand river valley ahead of next month’s Afghan presidential election.
Six soldiers died in the first week of July, including Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, who is the most senior army officer killed on operations since the Falklands war.
The announcement of the latest British casualty came as the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, prepared to make his first major speech since his appointment in last month’s cabinet reshuffle. He is expected to set out the rationale for Britain’s continuing engagement in the region.
Speaking ahead of his address to the Chatham House foreign affairs thinktank in London, Ainsworth admitted there was “gloom and worry” about the British death toll in Afghanistan. “If people weren’t [worrying], there would be something seriously wrong with them,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
“But when you go out to Afghanistan, as I did last weekend, there is a very real sense of momentum,” said Ainsworth, rejecting comparisons with the Vietnam war.
Some senior military figures have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the international campaign against the Taliban. But Ainsworth insisted troops were clear about their mission and were making progress.
“There is no doubt in their minds, a) that they are achieving something, and b) that they are there for a purpose and that purpose is – boil it down – to help the Afghans and to protect national security.”
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UK soldier killed in Afghanistan crash
July 7th, 2009 |
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A Briton and two Canadians have died in a helicopter crash in southern Zabul province, Nato said
A British soldier and two Canadians have died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Nato said today.
The Briton was from 22 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, the Ministry of Defence said. Next of kin have been informed.
The incident happened esterday in the southern Zabul province. Nato spokesman Lieutenant Commander Chris Hall said the crash was not caused by insurgent fire.
Yesterday was one of the worst days for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, with seven American troops killed on the same day.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, a spokesman for Taskforce Helmand, said: “Today has been a sad day in the history of Taskforce Helmand and this death has deeply moved us.
“The loss of a soldier, friend and colleague is tragic and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time.”
His death takes the number of UK service personnel killed in the country since the start of operations in October 2001 to 175.
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The high price of holding Helmand
July 3rd, 2009 |
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A British commander’s death is not a crisis for the Afghanistan offensive, but a harsh reminder of the challenge facing the army
The death in action of the commanding officer of the Welsh Guards is a great sadness to his family, friends and his community in the regiment and the army. But it can hardly be deemed the “devastating blow” to British operations in Helmand portrayed by the BBC – nor even the “huge blow” described by the Times on Friday.
“This what brave and capable officers do,” a senior general told me this morning. “They lead their men in the best way they can, and this often means putting themselves in harm’s way. It is part of the job.”
By all accounts, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 39, was an outstanding officer. His legacy is in the battalion he trained and took to the fight in the Helmand valley where he died on 1 July – the great British military anniversary. On the same day 93 years ago, just shy of 20,000 of its sons were killed in a few hours on the first day of the long Somme offensive.
The Welsh Guards have been involved in some pretty hard pounding in Helmand, and still are. In just over two months, they have lost their commanding officer, a company commander, a platoon commander and a senior lance sergeant. Out of the 30 men in the reconnaissance Platoon, 19 have sustained injuries in combat. A brilliant insight into the nature of the fighting and the two big British and American operations along the Helmand river is given by Tom Coghlan in the Times.
On hearing of the colonel’s death, Coghlan said the guardsmen just carried on with the business in hand. This is exactly what happened when the last British commander was killed in battle. As it happens, I was some 300m back from where Lt Col H Jones of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment was killed in the battle at Goose Green in 1982. The battle had stalled when he died, and after a brief rearrangement of who was in charge, Major Chris Keeble went forward, made adjustments to the plans in consultation with the company commanders and, slowly and surely, the paratroopers regained the initiative.
I do not recall anyone in the battalion talking about “a devastating blow” that afternoon on the Darwin Isthmus in the Falklands – they had too much work to do. H Jones gave orders about what should happen if he should be killed: the battery commander would direct the immediate battle, until the second-in-command, Major Keeble, could come forward to command the whole battle. Colonel Thorneloe will have made the same provision, with his second-in-command now in charge.
But this doesn’t mean that aren’t some serious tactical and strategic issues raised by his death. First, there is the proven vulnerability of the Viking tracked vehicle, which is too thinly armoured to resist the new booby trap bombs of the Taliban. Last month, the Oxford coroner welcomed the army’s announcement that the vehicles – originally designed to move ski troops in the Arctic – are to be replaced.
The most worrying aspect is the simplicity of such bombs used by the Taliban. The bombs are buried in the dirt and sand with very little in the way of electronics and only pressure plates to set them off when a vehicle trundles over or near them. This makes them very hard to detect by mine clearance teams.
The strategic question is raised by the big operations involving up to 10,000 British, American and Afghan troops now under way. The aim is to clear the Taliban out of the villages along the river, the prime poppy-growing territory, so they can hold relatively trouble-free national elections for the presidency and the assembly on 20 August.
The aim is described as “pushing back” the Taliban. No one is talking of an outright defeat of the Taliban across southern Afghanistan. Soon, the international forces will have close to the numbers the Russians had the height of their occupation and war against the Mujahideen in the 1980s – some 110,000 troops on the ground.
Unlike that war, the fighting has spread well beyond Afghanistan itself, into the North West Frontier territories and the Swat valley of Pakistan, and is now part of a broad regional conflict. Russia’s entanglement in Afghanistan ran for a disastrous decade and ended in a withdrawal that could only be called defeat; today, the commander-in-chief of the most powerful international force contingent, President Obama, has given himself a deadline of two years to get this, the military, phase of the job done.
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Vehicles backed after Afghan deaths
July 3rd, 2009 |
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Use of Vikings questioned after British commander and soldier are killed, but analysts say size of Taliban bombs surprises military
Former army officers have today defended the decision to deploy Viking vehicles to southern Afghanistan as the Ministry of Defence began investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a senior commander and a soldier.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and Trooper Joshua Hammond were killed yesterday when their armoured Viking track vehicle was blown up by a “huge” bomb as their convoy was heading for Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.
The Viking cross-country vehicles are due to be replaced in Afghanistan by more than 100 new, larger and more heavily armoured tracked vehicles to be known as Warthogs, while a further 100 Jackal all-terrain vehicles will also be purchased.
As attention focused on the Vikings, former officers defended their use and suggested that military planners have been surprised by the size of the bombs and mines the Taliban now have in their arsenal.
“You have to remember that Vikings were deployed to fill a very specific function,” said Amyas Godfrey, a former infantry officer and fellow of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, referring to the bridges and canals of the “green zone” along the Helmand river.
The Viking is a tracked vehicle, unlike the heavier Mastiff armoured troop carrier. “You are sacrificing mobility for protection but mobility is itself a form of protection”, said Godfrey.
He said even the Mastiff had been vulnerable to roadside bombs. Charles Heyman, a military consultant and former infantry officer, said it was impossible to judge decisions and the circumstances surrounding the colonel’s death.
The MoD said the Warthogs will not be delivered until next year because they have to undergo trials and be fitted with British “subsystems”.
The Viking was introduced into Afghanistan three years ago, but last year the MoD admitted it had reached the limit of how much it could be armoured following a number of deaths involving roadside bombs. It is due to be replaced by the new Warthog vehicle next year.
Announcing the move in the Commons in December, Gordon Brown said £150m would be spent buying the new tracked personnel carriers from Singapore. The Bronco, as it is called, will be converted into armoured, all-terrain vehicles and renamed Warthog. The carrier can travel through water and hold up to 14 troops.
Brown said at the time that the Warthog would provide “improved protection for our forces”. In another move to counter the threat of roadside bombs, a new class of mine-clearing vehicles – including the Buffalo mine-protected vehicle – is also being developed. The army’s Snatch Land Rovers, which have been particularly vulnerable to attack, are also to be upgraded to a new variant – Snatch Vixen – with more power and better protection.
The first of the new vehicles should be ready to be deployed by the end of next year.
There have been a number of deaths involving Viking armoured vehicles in Afghanistan. Last month, the Grimsby district coroner, Paul Kelly, praised the MoD for identifying a problem with the vehicle and taking steps to solve it after hearing that Trooper Robert Pearson, from the Queen’s Royal Lancers regiment, was killed when driving a vehicle hit by an improvised explosive device in Helmand on 21 April last year.
In January, an inquest heard that armour to combat mines was being flown out to Afghanistan to be added to the military vehicles following the death of a Royal Marine.
The move came after Corporal Damian Mulvihill, of 40 Commando Royal Marines, was killed in an explosion while travelling in the front seat of a Viking on 20 February last year in Helmand. Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Teare, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, told a hearing in Plymouth that the MoD expected all 50 vehicles being used in Afghanistan to be fitted with new armour after numerous “mine strikes” prompted urgent requests for the undercarriages to be reinforced. Teare said the Viking was initially designed to defend small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades and therefore most of the armour was on the top of the vehicle.
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Senior officer killed by Taliban bomb
July 3rd, 2009 |
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Commander first to have died in active service since the Falklands war 27 years ago
The commander of a British regiment has been killed in Afghanistan, the first to have died in active service since the Falklands war 27 years ago.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed on Wednesday by what defence officials described last night as a “huge bomb” that shattered the armoured Viking tracked vehicle he was travelling in.
The explosion also killed Trooper Joshua Hammond, from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, and injured six other troops. The soldiers were in a convoy heading for Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, after completing the second phase of Operation Panchai Palang (Panther’s Claw). Thorneloe, 39, was sitting at the back of the Viking.
The operation which British commanders hope will be a decisive campaign against the Taliban in the populated and strategically important heartlands of Helmand province, is continuing.The British convoy was returning from Babaji, north of Lashkar Gah, bordering Helmand river, and Gereshk. Defence officials said Wednesday’s attack was a big blow to the army. They are well aware of the propaganda the Taliban could make out of the death of the senior officer.
British commanders are hoping the Helmand push will be a decisive campaign against the Taliban.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, last night led tributes to the Welsh Guards commander, describing him as an “outstanding commanding officer at the leading edge of his generation. His loss will be felt deeply, not only by his family but also by his soldiers and others who, like me, had the privilege to serve with him,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of both these highly capable and popular soldiers.”
He added that the deaths of both soldiers were “a devastating blow to the Welsh Guards Battle Group, and to the Army as a whole”.
Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of Taskforce Helmand, said he was “quite simply, a superb commanding officer” who was “destined for greatness”.
A Clarence House spokesman said the Prince of Wales, who is colonel of the Welsh Guards and is understood to have known Thorneloe well, was “deeply saddened” by his death and would be writing privately both to his family and to his regiment.
Thorneloe, of Kirtlington, near Oxford, is survived by his two daughters, Hannah and Sophie, and his wife, Sally, who said: “Rupert was my very best friend and his death is a devastating blow. Our daughters Hannah and Sophie will have to grow up without their beloved Daddy, although I will see a part of him in them every day. I could not have asked for a more caring, adoring and loving husband and father.”
Describing her husband as “a born soldier” and “an inspiration”, she said: “I know he led from the front and would not have had it any other way. He cared deeply about his men as he did about so many.”
Thorneloe, who was in charge of more than 1,000 soldiers, assumed command of the 1st Battalion on October 28 last year after previously serving on operations in Northern Ireland and Iraq.
He also spent time as military assistant to the assistant chief of defence staff and to then defence secretary Des Browne, before leaving for Afghanistan.
The last commander of a British regiment to be killed in action was Lieutenant Colonel Herbert “H” Jones of 2 Battalion, Parachute Regiment . He died while charging Argentinian positions at Goose Green in the 1982 Falklands war. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Only eight army commanding officers have died on operations in command of their units since 1948.
Hammond, who died a week before his 19th birthday, had been in the regiment for a little over a year after enlisting for training at the age of 16 and volunteered to change squadron in order to deploy to Afghanistan.
His family, from Plymouth, last night described him as “a tremendous son … He was proud to be a soldier and died doing a job he loved,” they added.
“We are devastated by the loss of Joshua, who was a loving son. We are proud of the fact that Joshua was prepared to do his duty, helping the people of Afghanistan.”
Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Simson, commanding officer 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, said that Hammond “threw himself into life in his new squadron. In the month he had been in theatre, he proved himself to be a superb soldier,” he added.
“Fit, courageous and robust, he was the first to volunteer, the first to muck in and the first to offer help to others. But he was so much more than that. For he was at the heart of everything that was going on.
For the past week, some 500 British and Danish troops have been engaged in one of the biggest operations in southern Afghanistan, supported by American gunships and Canadian helicopters.
Panther’s Claw is a joint operation with Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) involving 4,000 newly-arrived US marines and 650 Afghan troops, elsewhere in Helmand.
The deaths of the two soldiers took the number of British servicemen and women who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of military operations there in October 2001, to 171.
A total of 18 have been killed during the last two months. On 18 June, Major Sean Birchall, also of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed by an explosion while on patrol in Basharan, near Lashkar Gah.
Viking vehicles are made of reinforced steel and have been credited with saving the lives of many British soldiers in Afghanistan. The vehicle “retains mobility even if a track is damaged by a mine”, the MoD website said when it was introduced to Afghanistan three years ago.
However, the MoD admitted last year that it had reached the limit of how much it could be armoured, following a series of deaths involving Taliban IEDs. It is due to be replaced by the new Warthog vehicle next year.
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US marines pour into Helmand
July 2nd, 2009 |
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Huge assault to take and hold river valley in bid to increase security for local population ahead of elections
The US poured 4,000 marines into Afghanistan’s Helmand province today in its biggest operation for five years to try to wrest the poppy-filled river valley permanently from the Taliban.
In helicopters, armoured vehicles and on foot, the marines fanned out to Afghan villages in two districts previously dominated by insurgents in a mission codenamed Operation Khanjar (Sword Strike).
Reports from the two districts, Nawa and Garmsir, said the offensive met only modest resistance. However, marine officers said that they had expected the Taliban to slip away and deliver their response with roadside bombs and ambushes. One marine was killed and others injured.
Pakistan posted troops across the border from Helmand in an effort to block a Taliban retreat into Pakistan, a tactic that has hitherto allowed the insurgents to withstand successive Nato offensives. But Pakistani officials said they had not sent more soldiers to the border. They simply redeployed their existing garrison.
The operation represents a shift in Nato strategy, putting primary emphasis on protecting the local population and providing a sense of security, rather than on killing Taliban fighters. If successful, it is likely to be used as a model for other offensives across the south and east.
The marines are under orders to set up outposts in the villages and stay there to convince local people that the Taliban will not be allowed to return and that it will be safe to take part in next month’s presidential elections. The Taliban have threatened to kill anyone taking part in the elections, which Nato sees as essential in bolstering the credibility of the Kabul government.
Captain Bill Pelletier, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, reflected the new hearts and minds approach when, after disclosing US casualties, he stressed there had not been civilian casualties or damage to property, and added there had been no artillery or other indirect fire “and no bombs have been dropped from aircraft”. Anthony Cordesman, one of the best-known military strategists in the US, who is based at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, agreed that the US was shifting its strategy to a “shape, clear, hold and build” one that focused on lasting security and development of population centres rather than simply defeating insurgents in the field and remote areas. Crucial to its success would be a bigger effort by the Afghan government, he said. There was disappointment among American forces that only 600 Afghan government troops were available to join the operation.
Cordesman, who is in Afghanistan, said coalition forces could clearly win tactical battles. The question was whether coalition forces “can work with Afghan forces to actually hold population centres, provide security and economic opportunity and reverse the growth of Taliban and [Pakistan-based Siraj] Haqqani presence and influence”.
He added: “The battles in Helmand are only a first step in this process, which will take at least two years and require a far more honest and effective effort by the Afghan government to serve the Afghan people and win their support than has taken place to date.”
The current US operation was preceded and complemented by a British airborne assault north of Lashkar Gah, just over a week ago codenamed Panther’s Claw, intended to wrest control of river crossings from the Taliban and expanding the area under British control, also with the aim of preparing the ground for elections.
“This is a very specific example of fighting for democracy,” said Michael Clarke, the director of the Royal United Services Institute. “This is all about taking and occupying ground so people can register for the August elections. That’s what is at stake here. That’s how it will be judged.”
The American troops have been told by their new commander, Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, that avoiding civilian casualties is a priority, and that if there is a risk of killing the local people in a fight with the Taliban, they should pull back and return another day.
“This could provide a blueprint for future operations around the south and east of Afghanistan,” said Christopher Langton, a military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “McChrystal has made himself quite clear. We won’t expect to see 500lb bombs dropped from high altitude. I think they have finally woken up to this. It was something that was losing them the war.”
McChrystal was unexpectedly appointed commander in Afghanistan last month to replace General David McKiernan. McChrystal was overall commander of US special forces and a counter-intelligence specialist, whereas McKiernan was a more traditional battlefield soldier.
McChrystal fitted in better with the kind of new thinking Barack Obama wanted in Afghanistan. Obama sees a military solution alone as doomed to failure and wants US forces to work in parallel with development of a civilian infrastructure to help
His message of protecting civilians to win hearts and minds was reinforced by the marine brigade commander, Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson. “Our focus is not the Taliban,” he told his officers, according to the Washington Post. “Our focus must be on getting this government back up on its feet.”
“We’re doing this very differently,” Nicholson said. “We’re going to be with the people. We’re not going to drive to work. We’re going to walk to work.”
David Benest, who served as a British counter-insurgency adviser in Afghanistan last year said: “This is exactly what I recommended last April. I said then either we did a hell of a lot more ourselves, or accept the need for the Americans in there. It’s the only way forward.”
Benest added that the flaw in the operation appeared to be the limited role played Afghan troops. Only 500 went into battle with the 4,000 US marines. He said: “What’s missing is a strong statement from the Afghan government saying: This is our war.’ It’s just not there.”
Gilles Dorronsoro, in a new report this week for the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment, sees the focus on Helmand as a mistake. He argues that the US should concentrate instead on fighting them in the north and around Kabul where they are making alarming progress before taking them on in their strongholds in the south and east.
He said: “The Taliban have a strategy and a coherent organisation to implement it, and they have been successful so far. They have achieved most of their objectives in the south and east and are making inroads in the north. They are unlikely to change in the face of the US troop surge.”
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Senior officer killed by Taliban bomb
July 2nd, 2009 |
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Commander first to have died in active service since the Falklands war 27 years ago
The commander of a British regiment has been killed in Afghanistan, the first to have died in active service since the Falklands war 27 years ago.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed on Wednesday by what defence officials described tonight as a “huge bomb” that shattered the armoured Viking tracked vehicle he was travelling in.
The explosion also killed a soldier from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, and injured six other troops.
The soldiers were in a convoy heading for Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, after completing the second phase of Operation Panchai Palang (Panther’s Claw). Thorneloe was sitting at the back of the Viking.
The operation which British commanders hope will be a decisive campaign against the Taliban in the populated and strategically important heartlands of Helmand province, is continuing.The British convoy was returning from Babaji, north of Lashkar Gah bordering Helmand river, and Gereshk. Defence officials described Wednesday’s attack was a big blow to the army. They are well aware of the propaganda the Taliban could make out of the death of the senior officer.
British commanders are also hoping the Helmand push will be a decisive campaign against the Taliban.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, tonight led tributes to the Welsh Guards commander.
Brigadier General Eric Tremblay, spokesman for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, said: “I wish to convey our most sincere sympathies to the family members and friends of these brave soldiers.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this most difficult time. Isaf’s efforts are dangerous and difficult but we are committed to helping build a safe and prosperous Afghanistan and we will succeed in this endeavour.”
Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, said: “The loss of these brave soldiers has hit us all very deeply; we grieve for them at this very sad time.”
He added: “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends and colleagues who feel the greatest loss.” The Ministry of Defence said the soldiers’ next of kin had been informed.
The last commander of a British regiment to be killed in action was Lieutenant Colonel Herbert “H” Jones of 2 Battalion, Parachute Regiment . He died while charging Argentinian positions near Darwin in the 1982 Falklands war. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
For the past week, some 500 British and Danish troops have been engaged in one of the biggest operations in southern Afghanistan, supported by American gunships and Canadian helicopters.
Panther’s Claw is a joint operation with Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) involving 4,000 newly-arrived US Marines and 650 Afghan troops elsewhere in Helmand.
The deaths of the two soldiers took the number of British servicemen and women who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of military operations there in October 2001 to 171.
A total of 18 have been killed during the last two months. On 18 June, Major Sean Birchall, also of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was killed by an explosion while on patrol in Basharan, near Lashkar Gah.
Viking vehicles are made of reinforced steel and have been credited with saving the lives of many British soldiers in Afghanistan. The vehicle “retains mobility even if a track is damaged by a mine”, the MoD website said when it was introduced to Afghanistan two years ago.
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Hunt for US soldier ‘taken by Taliban’
July 2nd, 2009 |
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• Soldier is first to be taken since operations began in 2001
• Pentagon asks Pakistan to help seal border
US forces were today frantically hunting for one of its soldiers believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the first to be taken since America first began operations in the country in 2001.
The soldier, whose unit is based in eastern Paktika province, was not involved in the ongoing operation in the south of the country. He was found to be missing during a roster check on Tuesday morning and is believed to be held by a Taliban faction linked to a string of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Captain Elizabeth Mathias, said today: “We understand him to be have been captured by militant forces. We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return.”
She added: “We are not providing further details to protect the soldier’s wellbeing.”
But the Afghan police general Nabi Mullakheil disclosed the location of the kidnap as Mullakheil area in Paktika, where there is a US base.
The Pentagon has requested the help of Pakistan forces to seal the border. Pakistan officials have also asked villagers along the border to provide information if the soldier’s captors pass through their area or asks for help.
It is highly unusual for the US military to disclose that one of its soldiers has been kidnapped, especially when operations are still underway to try to get him back.
Unconfirmed reports said the soldier had been based at a small combat outpost and had apparently gone off with three Afghan soldiers into a dangerous area.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujaheed, said he had no information about the soldier being held by a Taliban group. But another Taliban spokesman said he was being held by an insurgent faction linked to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a powerful figure based in Pakistan who controls large parts of Afghanistan along the border.
Haqqani has been blamed for a string of attacks including the suicide bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last year that killed more than 50.
Military commanders are desperate to prevent the soldier’s captors taking him across the border into Pakistan where al-Qaida is still a presence in the border areas and in cities such as Peshawar.
The kidnap could provide the Taliban with a major media coup: while individual fatalites from Afghanistan or Iraq have become almost routine and are largely ignored by the US media, the fate of a single soldier in Taliban hands could attract enormous attention.
Previous high-profile kidnappings in Iraq, in which videos of abductees were posted on the internet, have had a big emotional impact on the US public. Those victims were mostly civilians and contractors, while individual soldiers were taken in Iraq were usually killed soon afterwards.
Previous overseas kidnapping of soldiers and civilians have had a huge resonance for Americans. One of the reasons for the still poor relationship between the US and Iran is the embassy hostage siege in Tehran after the 1979 revolution, when Americans across the country tying yellow ribbons to trees as a symbol of solidarity.
The soldier’s family has been informed of his disappearance.
Judith Kipper, , director of the Middle East programme at the Institute of World Affairs,said she thought the US cared more about hostages than other countries: “The Iranian hostage siege was hideous but it was not a matter of national security, and look how revved up we got about that.”
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Afghan militants capture US soldier
July 2nd, 2009 |
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• Official says man went missing on Tuesday
• Reports blame Taliban faction
Insurgents in eastern Afghanistan have captured a US soldier, the Pentagon said today as US forces launched a major offensive in the southern part of the country.
A US official said the soldier went missing on Tuesday, adding: “We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return.”
The US official declined to provide details of where the soldier had been captured, but an Afghan police official said he went missing in the Mullakheil area of the eastern Paktika province during the day.
General Nabi Mullakheil said there was a US base in the area.
The soldier was first noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and was first listed as “duty status whereabouts unknown,” a US defence official told the Associated Press.
It was not until today that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as “believed captured”.
Two US defence sources told the Associated Press the soldier “just walked off” post with three Afghan counterparts after he finished working. They said they had no explanation for why he left the base. He was assigned to a combat outpost, one of a number of smaller bases set up by foreign forces in Afghanistan, the officials said.
Other reports said the soldier and three Afghan soldiers had been captured by the Taliban’s Haqqani faction, which is believed to control large areas of eastern Afghanistan.
The group, controlled by the insurgent leader Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin, is suspected to be behind a number of spectacular attacks in recent years, including the suicide bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, in which more than 50 people were killed last July.
Mullah Sangeen, a senior Taliban commander, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that the soldier had been taken as a patrol walked from a base in Paktika province. He said the soldier would be held until Taliban fighters held by US forces were released.
The news broke as thousands of US marines launched an offensive involving helicopter-borne troops in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.
The operation is the first serious test of Barack Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The missing soldier was not part of it.
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Afghan militants capture US soldier
July 2nd, 2009 |
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US marines and Afghan troops move into Helmand with Pakistani troops on border to prevent militants from fleeing
Afghan insurgents have captured an American soldier, the US military said today, as American marines and Afghan troops poured into southern Afghanistan in the first major test of Barack Obama’s strategy to wrest the initiative from the Taliban.
US officials said the soldier had been missing since Tuesday and the military was using “all our resources to find him and provide for his safe return”.
The soldier, who went missing in eastern Afghanistan, was not taking part in the military operation launched in Helmand province.
A senior Taliban commander, Mullah Sangeen, told Reuters by telephone that the soldier was taken as a patrol walked out of its base in Paktika province. The American would be held until Taliban fighters held by US forces were released, he said.
As the offensive began, the Ministry of Defence said two British soldiers were killed in Helmand and another six Nato troops were wounded in the attack involving an improvised explosive device (IED).
One of the dead soldiers had been serving with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, the other was a member of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.
Daybreak brought the sporadic crackle of gunfire but no immediate heavy fighting as the offensive began shortly after 1am local time near the village of Nawa, about 20 miles south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, where the Taliban has put up stubborn resistance against British troops for years.
Waves of helicopters landed Marines in the early morning darkness throughout the valley, a crescent of opium poppy and wheat fields criss-crossed by canals and dotted with mud-brick homes. The marines disembarked and fanned out into the fields alongside the river as the sun rose. Hundreds more raced in convoys through a barren area known as the desert of death.
In a simultaneous operation, Pakistan deployed troops on its border to stop militants fleeing into its territory.
Medical helicopters circled overhead and landed, indicating possible early casualties among the marines. A roadside bomb early in the mission wounded one marine, but he was able to continue.
The troops took many insurgents by surprise, dropping behind Taliban lines, Capt Drew Schoenmaker claimed, although this seemed unlikely as the insurgents usually have an idea of impending attacks.
“We are kind of forging new ground here. We are going to a place nobody has been before,” said Schoenmaker, 31, from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine regiment.
As US forces began their operation, Pakistani troops moved to block Taliban fighters crossing the 1,615-mile (2,600km) border. Pakistani officers said the Pakistani army was preparing for a possible movement of Taliban from Helmand, a major opium producing area. Pakistan has been conducting its own offensive against local Taliban in the north-west in recent months.
The US operation comes ahead of the Afghan presidential elections on 20 August, which will provide a big political test for the embattled government of president Hamid Karzai, who has been under fire for failing to rein in corruption within his government.
The offensive – called Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword – was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war’s new phase, involving nearly 4,000 marines and 650 Afghan forces.
As such it will provide an early test for Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The marines will be pushing into areas where Nato and Afghan troops have lacked the strength to establish a permanent presence.
“Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,” Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, of the Marine Corps said.
British forces led similar, but smaller, missions to clear insurgents from Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar province last week.
The Taliban has vowed that its thousands of fighters in the area would fight back, even though only minor skirmishes were reported in the early stages.
“Thousands of Taliban mujahideen are ready to fight against US troops in the operation in Helmand province,” Mullah Hayat Khan, a senior Afghan Taliban commander, told Reuters in Pakistan.
Southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold, is also an area in which the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.
The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections, and expects the total number of US forces there to reach 68,000 by the end of the year.
That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half as many as are now in Iraq.
Captain Bill Pelletier, a marines spokesman, said the troops involved in the operation had been sent in by a combination of aircraft and ground transport under the cover of darkness.
Once on the ground, troops will meet local leaders, hear their needs and act on them, Pelletier said.
“We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy – we want to protect them from the enemy,” he added.
The governor of Helmand province predicted a successful operation.
“The security forces will build bases to provide security for the local people so that they can carry out every activity with this favourable background, and take their lives forward in peace,” Governor Gulab Mangal said.
In March, Obama unveiled his plans for Afghanistan, seeking to defeat al-Qaida terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force and a new commander. Obama sacked General David McKiernan, replacing him with General Stanley McChrystal, a former joint special operations command chief and a counter-insurgency expert.
McChrystal, whose forces were credited with tracking down and killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaida in Iraq, was brought in to provide “fresh eyes” and “fresh thinking”.
He has already moved to lay down tighter limits on the use of air strikes to try to reduce the civilian death toll, one of the reasons attributed to a swing in support for the Taliban.
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US begins major Afghan offensive
July 2nd, 2009 |
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Military aims to clear insurgents from Helmand River valley before Afghan presidential elections on 20 August
Thousands of US marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-dominated villages in southern Afghanistan today in the first major operation under Barack Obama’s strategy to stabilise the country.
The offensive was launched shortly after 1am local time in Helmand province.
The Taliban stronghold, in the south of the country, is the world’s largest opium poppy producing area.
The goal is to clear insurgents from the Helmand River valley before the Afghan presidential elections take place on 20 August.
The offensive – called Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword – was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war’s new phase, involving nearly 4,000 marines and 650 Afghan forces.
British forces led similar, but smaller, missions to clear insurgents from Helmand and the neighboring Kandahar provinces last week.
“Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,” Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, of the Marine Corps said.
Southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold, is also an area in which the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.
The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections, and expects the total number of US forces there to reach 68,000 by the end of the year.
That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half as many as are now in Iraq.
Captain Bill Pelletier, a marines spokesman, said the troops involved in the Thursday operation had been sent in by a mixture of aircraft and ground transport under cover of darkness.
Once on the ground, troops will meet local leaders, hear their needs and act on them, Pelletier said.
“We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy – we want to protect them from the enemy,” he added.
Reversing the insurgency’s momentum has been one of the key components of the new US strategy, and thousands of additional troops allow commanders to push and stay into areas in which international and Afghan troops had no permanent presence before.
In March, Obama unveiled his plans for Afghanistan, seeking to defeat al-Qaida terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force and a new commander.
There is no timetable for withdrawal, and the White House has not estimated how many billions of dollars its plan will cost.
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Opium haul? No, just a hill of beans
June 30th, 2009 |
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It was just the sort of good news the British military in Helmand needed. Soldiers engaged in Operation Panther’s Claw, the huge assault against insurgent strongholds last week, had discovered a record-breaking haul of more than 1.3 tonnes of poppy seeds, destined to become part of the opium crop that generates $400m (£243m) a year for the Taliban.
Ministry of Defence officials more used to dealing with negative stories about the British operation in southern Afghanistan swung into action to extract the maximum benefit from this unexpected PR coup.
A press release hailed the success of the offensive, and armoured vehicles were hastily laid on to allow the media, including the Guardian, to visit the site where the seizure was made, an abandoned market and petrol station that was still coming under sustained enemy fire when the reporters arrived.
Major Rupert Whitelegge, the commander of the company in charge of the area, tugged at one of the enormously heavy white sacks.
“They are definitely poppy seeds,” he said emphatically.
Except they weren’t. Analysis of a sample carried out by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Kabul for the Guardian has revealed that the soldiers had captured nothing more than a giant pile of mung beans, a staple pulse eaten in curries across Afghanistan.
Embarrassed British officials have now admitted that their triumph has turned sour and have promised to return the legal crop to its rightful owner.
Dr Samuel Kugbei, the chief FAO technical adviser in the Afghan capital, said: “We have been waiting all day to see these dangerous materials brought from Helmand and now we see that they are just mung beans!”
The pulses also fooled Colonel General Khodaidad, Afghanistan’s minister of counter-narcotics, even though the spherical black beans, about the size of small ball bearings, looked nothing like poppy seeds. When shown the mung beans by the Guardian, he said they were a strain of “super poppy”.
The beans were introduced into Afghanistan about 10 years ago and have been embraced by farmers as a way of growing a second crop during the year. They are also delicious with rice, Kugbei noted.
If indeed the sacks did contain 1.3 tonnes of mung beans, then they would have a street value of $1,300 – not much, but a major blow to any farmer if the British had followed procedures and destroyed the beans.
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Karzai says US-trained guards killed police chief
June 29th, 2009 |
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Hamid Karzai demands that coalition forces hand over guards but US military says shooting was ‘Afghan-on-Afghan’
President Hamid Karzai accused Afghan guards working for US coalition forces of killing a provincial police chief and at least four other security officers during a gun battle outside a government office.
In a harshly worded statement, Karzai demanded that coalition forces hand over the guards involved. But the governor of Kandahar later said that 41 US-trained private security guards had been disarmed and arrested by Afghan authorities.
The US military said it was not involved in shooting, calling it an “Afghan-on-Afghan incident”. However, Karzai’s statement suggested that the guards sought refuge in a US coalition base after the killings, and he “demanded that coalition forces prevent such incidents, which weaken the government”.
The situation lays bare the often testy relations between Karzai and American officials. The president’s accusations come as thousands of US marines and soldiers are deployed across southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s stronghold and a region where Karzai is seeking votes ahead of presidential elections on 20 August.
Gunfire broke out after Afghan forces moved into a heavily protected government complex in Kandahar and demanded the release of a man accused of forging documents, said Hafizullah Khaliqyar, Kandahar’s district attorney. When the Afghan forces threatened to release the suspect by force, Khaliqyar called the provincial police chief, he said.
“When the police chief wanted to talk to these people there was some argument and the gun battle started,” he said.
Among the officials killed were the provincial police chief, Matiullah Qati, and the province’s criminal investigations director. Hours later, Karzai released a statement.
“President Hamid Karzai demanded that coalition forces hand over the private security individuals belonging to coalition forces responsible for the killing of Kandahar provincial security officials to the relevant security authorities of the Afghan government,” the statement from the president’s office said.
Later, the governor, Thoryalai Wesa, said 41 private guards had been disarmed and arrested and would be sent to Kabul for a military trial. The killing of Kandahar’s top police officer is a blow to security efforts in a province from which Taliban leader Mullah Omar once ruled the country. US soldiers are to be deployed in Kandahar later this summer, part of a surge that will see the total number of US forces in the country brought to 68,000 – more than double the 32,000 troops here last year.
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Battle Looming Over ‘us Wars’
November 12th, 2007 |
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Opposition threatens censure against Fukuda government
- Agencies
TOKYO – A Japanese parliamentary committee yesterday approved the renewal
of a limited anti-terror naval mission in the Indian Ocean, setting the
stage for a fresh showdown with the opposition.
Japanese warships had been refuelling vessels in the region since 2001 in
support of US-led combat operations in Afghanistan, but the mission was
halted on Nov 1 because of objections by the opposition, which controls
the upper house of Parliament and argues that Japan should not be part of
“American wars”.
But a committee in the lower house, where Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s
coalition enjoys an overwhelming majority, passed a bill which limits
Japanese ships to refuelling and supplying water to ships used in
monitoring and inspecting suspicious vessels.
The new mission would be a part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.
However, it would not allow Japanese warships to refuel vessels involved
in military attacks, or in rescue and humanitarian operations directly
related to Afghanistan.
The full lower house is expected to approve the measure today and send it
to the upper house, where the opposition is expected to reject it.
While the lower house can override a rejection by the upper house, the
main opposition Democratic Party of Japan on Sunday threatened a censure
motion against Mr Fukuda’s government if it resorts to such drastic
measures.
Mr Fukuda’s Liberal Democratic Party in turn has warned the opposition,
which has recently been in disarray, that a snap general election may be
called if it pushes through a censure motion.
Defensive errors
When an official at the MoD makes a duff call, the system ensures that no one takes the blame
Suppose you’re a grieving family, one among many, day after day, and the man you love has just died in Afghanistan. Perhaps his troop carrier was too frail when a roadside bomb went off, perhaps a helicopter wasn’t there on time. At any rate, as so often before, there are questions about the kit he was sent off to war with. You’re sad, but you’re also angry. Who do you blame?
The easy answer, of course, is those men from the ministry, the eternally faceless bureaucrats who are always getting it in the neck as they apparently fritter away billions on aircraft carriers, hi-tech fighter planes, nuclear subs and the rest. If the Vikings they’d provided had been Mastiffs, more fit for Helmand purpose, then surely things could have been different. Ask a learned friend what he thinks and maybe, depending on precise circumstances, there’s a case you might bring to court.
Yet, in truth, that really isn’t the point of the whole, tragic exercise. Money doesn’t matter. This is a democracy. You’re a voter, a citizen: your outrage matters. How do you make someone inside the Ministry of Defence, someone who made a wrong call, share your pain?
And the miserable answer is that it’s impossible. The system itself guarantees countless duff decisions, but it also diffuses them in the mists of time. Just consider that system – and what you’d think of it if applied to any other walk of democratic, or business, life.
The title secretary of state for defence was invented in 1964. Peter Thorneycroft sat first in that chair. Since then, right to this day, 18 other secretaries of state have followed on. Make that a new boss ever 27 months or so. And in Labour’s 12 years, the shift rate has speeded up a bit. Bob Ainsworth is the sixth defence secretary since 1997. Make that new broom at the top every two years.
Who, then, does the minister rely on for advice when crucial, long-term spending decisions have to be made? The chief of the defence staff: but there’ve been 19 of them, too, permutating rigidly between the three services. Call the chief of the general staff? Relative stability there: only 17 have come and gone. By these lights, the job of the permanent secretary – changing every five or six years on average – does indeed seem pretty stable. But then, when you cross Whitehall to run defence, there’s no great tradition of needing to know too much about it. Sir Bill Jeffrey, the current incumbent, has anti-terrorism and intelligence credentials in his bag, but his last big admin job before this posting was as director general of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Calais isn’t the first place you’d go to buy a new tank.
Consider the fattest contract of the lot, the Eurofighter. First design specified, 1972; formally proposed by BAE and German partner, 1979; experimental version flies, 1986; initial construction contract signed, 1998. Four staging posts along a flight path that has now cost the UK more than £20bn, leaving early estimates twisting in the wind. And, of course, at every point, there’s been a different secretary of state in charge – Carrington, Pym, Younger, Portillo – with a different defence chief (two of them admirals, if you please) and a different impermanent secretary at his elbow. There’s been no consistency, no adjustment to changed strategic circumstances in Europe, no group memory to carry a vision through. So there’s no one to blame, either, when we get the wrong plane at the wrong price – and think how our men in Afghanistan might have been rather safer for better choices along the way.
What can secretary of state Ainsworth promise today that, in hard terms, he can deliver before quitting office? Or permanent secretary Jeffrey, getting towards the end of his stint? To learn the lessons? Well, naturally: but don’t expect even fast learners to be anywhere in sight when they’re put to the test.
Much of the time, in government, you can simply cancel your last announcement – scrap identity cards or Sats at the sweep of a pen. A sort of accountability. But defence doesn’t work like that. Forget Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or any modern model. Defence turns at the speed of a gargantuan tanker. Good decisions were taken long ago. Bad ones can’t come home to roost. The captain on the bridge – from Des Browne to Bob Ainsworth – is never that important, because he’s only passing through. And when the voters want a word in edgeways – a plea, an apology, an admission of error – then, of course, there’s nobody there.