US War News Update: More Soldiers Dead in Iraq and Afghanistan; GermanyDefends Occupation of Afghanistan Amid Massacre of Scores of Civilians,etc.

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,343

By The Associated Press (AP)

As of Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009, at least 4,343 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,469 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is two more than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,495 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

_ One soldier died Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in southern Baghdad.

_ Three soldiers died Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in northern Iraq.

The latest identifications reported by the military:

_ No new identifications reported.

On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Sept 9

Wed Sep 9, 2009 7:18am EDT

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1100 GMT on Wednesday. * denotes new or updated item

* BAGHDAD - An investigative council has charged 29 Iraqi security officials with negligence relating to two truck bombs outside government ministries in Baghdad last month that killed 95 people, Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a car wounded three civilians in Baghdad’s western district of Jamiaa on Tuesday, police said.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb wounded three soldiers on Tuesday on the northern outskirts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb planted on a motorcycle killed one civilian and wounded seven others on Tuesday in southern Baghdad, police said.

September 9, 2009

Attacks Muddle American Plans to Draw Down in Iraq

By MARC SANTORA
New York Times

BAGHDAD — In the worst day of violence against American soldiers in Iraq since combat troops moved out of the cities this year, two bombings left four Americans dead, underscoring the dangers troops here still face even as they prepare for their exit from this country.

The American military provided little detail about the attacks, saying only that one soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in southern Baghdad and that three more were killed in another roadside bombing in northern Iraq.

While the American presence here has been greatly diminished, with Iraqis and Americans rarely conducting joint patrols and Iraqis eager to appear in control of their own security, there are still thousands of American soldiers working as advisers inside cities and towns across Iraq. Tens of thousands more are also on the road every night as Americans move equipment and resources in preparation for the large-scale reduction of forces scheduled to begin after January elections here.

One critical calculation is how the Americans can both provide the protection needed to move the vast accumulation of equipment from six years of war and maintain the capacity to support Iraqi forces if violence spins out of control.

Iraq’s security forces also continued to come under attack on Tuesday, with at least 10 police officers killed, including a police commander, and 6 more wounded in Kirkuk Province.

While Iraq’s police and army have long been targets of insurgents, August was the deadliest month for them since the Americans withdrew combat troops from the cities in late June, with 32 members killed. Since January, 164 Iraqi police officers and army soldiers have been killed.

The strategy of those committing violence in Iraq, never easy to divine, is particularly difficult to gauge when dealing with attacks on police officers in local areas.

Insurgents, of course, seek to destabilize the government. But there are also networks and overlays of crime, corruption, political power plays, ethnic rivalries and local factions in competition for control over vital areas.

In few places do those tensions form as combustible a mix as they do in Kirkuk Province, known as the country’s fault line because of the simmering tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan to the north. The deadliest attacks against Iraqi police officers on Tuesday took place around the city of Kirkuk. In one bombing in the town of Armeli, populated with Shiites from Iraq’s Turkmen ethnic minority, the local police commander was killed along with three other officers when his convoy struck a roadside bomb. In a separate attack in the same area, four other police officers were killed.

The continuing tensions in Kirkuk Province are an increasing focus for American commanders here, who have announced a new initiative to try to bring stability to the factions competing for power in the area. The details of the campaign, and how American troops will be involved, remain unclear.

There were also attacks against the Iraqi police in Baghdad on Tuesday, with at least six officers wounded in two bombings.

Another bombing in Baghdad took aim at an official in the Health Ministry, killing one of his employees and wounding 12 more people. But the official emerged unharmed.

Even as security forces are singled out, civilians here often bear the brunt of the violence, with 4,111 people killed around the country so far this year.

The continuing violence has raised questions about the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security as the American role shrinks, especially after deadly attacks in the heart of the capital last month left roughly 100 people dead.

Seeking to address those doubts, the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced that 29 police and army officers arrested after that bombing were being charged with negligence in the performance their duties.

“There was clear negligence from the security forces,” said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, the spokesman for Baghdad’s security command center. “Absolutely, what has been achieved so far in the intelligence and security efforts is below expectations.”

An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kirkuk Province.

http://latimes.com

Iraq bombings kill 4 U.S. soldiers

The attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq occur on the deadliest day for the troops since June 29. In the north, six Iraqi policemen are slain by roadside bombs

By Ned Parker and Ali Windawi
September 9, 2009
Reporting from Baghdad and Amerli, Iraq

Four U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday in bomb blasts in Baghdad and northern Iraq and six Iraqi policemen died in attacks in the country’s north.

It was the deadliest day for the Americans since June 29, when four soldiers were killed in Baghdad. The next day, most U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq’s cities, where their movements have since been restricted, though they have greater latitude in the countryside. Seven American soldiers died in August.

In Tuesday’s attacks, a roadside bomb killed three soldiers on patrol in Salahuddin province, north of the capital, the U.S. military said. The fourth soldier died when an explosive device targeted his patrol in south Baghdad.

Before the latest incidents, the U.S. Defense Department put the American death toll in Iraq at 4,340.

It was also a bloody day for the Iraqi security forces around Kirkuk, the oil-rich northern region at the center of a land dispute involving Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and four wounded in a road bombing less than 20 miles from the city of Kirkuk.

A roadside bomb also claimed the life of Maj. Zaid Hussein, who headed a counter-terrorism police unit, and three of his men in the town of Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen district not far from Kirkuk’s provincial boundaries. The blast tore apart Hussein’s white Nissan Patrol. The bomb was planted at an intersection on the edge of town.

Some residents blamed militants associated with the group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

“I carried the dead body of the major,” said Hassan Hadi, a 28-year-old resident. The attack “has the fingerprints of Al Qaeda, which wants to ignite sectarianism.”

A suicide truck bombing in Amerli in July 2007 killed about 160 people.

The country’s north remains mired in ethnic tensions. The U.S. military proposed last month that the Iraqi army, U.S. forces and Kurdish paramilitary fighters known as peshmerga jointly patrol the disputed districts. The aim would be to build trust among the ethnic groups, but no formal arrangement has been announced.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s government continued to investigate bombings last month in Baghdad at the finance and foreign ministries, which killed about 90 people and shook Iraqis’ confidence that their capital was becoming secure.

The spokesman for Baghdad’s security command, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta Moussawi, said 29 Iraqi security personnel had been reprimanded for their performance in relation to the attacks and their cases were being forwarded to a special court.

ned.parker@latimes.com

Windawi is a special correspondent. Times staff writers Usama Redha and Saif Hameed in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
05:06 Mecca time, 02:06 GMT

Deadly blasts hit Iraqi cities

The attacks follow the withdrawal of US forces from major Iraqi urban areas

Bombs have exploded in three Iraqi cities killing at least 15 people.

In the deadliest attack on Monday a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people and wounded 15 others at a security checkpoint in western Iraq, police said.

Security and hospital officials said three policemen were among those killed when the bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into a checkpoint near Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province.

Mohammed Hussein Alwan, a 40-year-old farmer, said he was riding in a lorry about 200 metres from the attacker’s car when the blast occurred.

“I ran to the site and saw five burning cars and a child who was thrown by the explosion and landed on the top of a car,” he was reported by The Associated Press as saying.

“I tried to approach him to see whether he was alive or dead, but the police started to open fire in all directions and we had to run away,” he added.

Shia targets

In another suicide attack on Monday, a man dressed as a policeman killed four people and injured 20 more after detonating his explosive vest next to a Shia mosque in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, police said.

Worshipers were gathering for evening prayers at the time, in the city 65km northwest of Baghdad, the capital.

A separate incident also occurred in Kerbala, a mostly Shia city 80km south of Baghdad, where a bomb exploded on a bus.

The blast killed four people and wounded another eight, police said.

Ramadi was once a key al-Qaeda stronghold following the US-led invasion of 2003, but violence has significantly decreased since 2006, when local tribes sided with the US military.

Sporadic attacks

Sporadic attacks still continue in the province, with a series of bombings in July prompting Iraqi security forces to declare a state of emergency there.

Diyala province has remained restive while other areas of Iraq have seen levels of violence fall.

The withdrawal of US forces from towns and cities in Iraq at the end of June had raised concern that the country would see a renewed surge in violence.

Over the last two months Iraq has seen a number of deadly attacks, including a bombing at government ministries in Baghdad in August that killed almost 100 people.

There have also been a series of attacks in areas of northern Iraq where tension is high between Arabs, Kurds and other minorities.

The violence has shaken public confidence ahead of national elections in January.

Source: Agencies

State Dep’t contractor electrocuted

By KIMBERLY HEFLING (AP)

WASHINGTON — A State Department contractor apparently has been electrocuted while showering in Baghdad even as U.S. authorities in Iraq try to remedy wiring problems that have led to the deaths of American troops there.

The contractor, Adam Hermanson, 25, died Sept. 1, his wife, Janine, said Tuesday. She added that a military medical examiner told her that preliminary findings indicate her husband died from low voltage electrocution.

Electrical wiring has been an ongoing problem in Iraq. At least three troops have been electrocuted in the shower since the start of the Iraq War, while others have been electrocuted under other circumstances such as while operating a power washer. Inspections and repairs are under way at 90,000 U.S.-maintained structures there.

Hermanson grew up in San Diego and Las Vegas. He joined the military at age 17, and did three tours in Iraq with the Air Force before leaving at the rank of staff sergeant. He returned to Iraq as an employee of the Herndon, Va.-based private contractor Triple Canopy.

Jayanti Menches, a spokeswoman for Triple Canopy, said in an e-mail that the company was saddened by his death but would not be commenting further until an investigation was complete.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood also offered condolences to the family, but would not elaborate further on the cause of death, pending an investigation.

Janine Hermanson said her husband took the contracting job so they would have money to buy a house in Muncy, Pa., where they were planning to live. She said she’d already moved there and was living with her parents.

The two would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Sunday.

“He was supposed to come back and we had a lot of plans,” said his wife, who also served in Iraq with the Air Force.

Besides three Iraq tours, Adam Hermanson served in Uzbekistan with the Air Force. His mother, Patricia Hermanson, 53, of Las Vegas, said everyone in her family was struggling to understand how he could survive four war tours, then die suddenly in a seemingly safe place.

“We all know that Adam was as strong as a tank,” his mother said. “He was in good health.”

In July, the Defense Department’s inspector general said that of the 18 electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq, eight involved possible equipment faults or malfunctioning that caused or contributed to the electrocutions. The accidental touching of live wires was blamed in about half the deaths.

With U.S. Forces in Iraq Beginning to Leave, Need for Private Guards Grows

By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Washington Post

As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

On Sept. 1, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) awarded contracts expected to be worth $485 million over the next two years to five firms to provide security and patrol services to U.S. bases in Iraq.

Under this contract, the firms will bid against one another for individual orders at specific bases or locations. These “task orders” in the past have ranged from supplying one specialist to providing as many as 1,000 people to handle security for a major base.

Under a similar contract with five security contractors that began in September 2007, the MNF-I spent $253 million through March 2009, with needs growing over that 18-month period. That contract, which was to run three years, had a spending limit of $450 million.

Against that background, the inspector general for reconstruction predicted that costs for private security at U.S. facilities in Iraq “will grow in size to a potential $935 million.” The inspector general’s report, issued this year, said the MNF-I planned to switch to private guards for Victory Base Camp, one of its largest installations. That facility alone would require “approximately 2,600 security personnel,” the report said.

The need for contract guards began growing this year. The Central Command’s June quarterly report on contracting showed a 19 percent increase from the three previous months in the number of security guards in Iraq hired by the Defense Department. The Central Command attributed the increase, from 10,743 at the end of March to 13,232 at the end of June, mainly to “an increased need for PSCs [private security companies] to provide security as the military begins to draw down forces.”

In its study, the inspector general’s office found that at 19 sites where private guards replaced soldiers, many more guards were needed to do the same job. It said the task order for Camp Bucca, primarily a detention facility, called for “417 personnel to free up approximately 350 soldiers for combat operations.” At Forward Operating Base Hammer, the task order called for 124 private guards to allow 102 soldiers to take on combat activities.

In some cases, as at Camp Taji, a major supply installation, the report says that more than 900 private personnel replaced 400 soldiers, but that the private guards took on additional tasks “to address deficiencies in existing site security.”

The United States also uses contractors when coalition forces withdraw. When Georgian soldiers left unexpectedly last August from a base near the Iranian border where they were providing security, private contractors replaced them.

The Central Command study found that of the armed private security personnel working in June, 623 were Americans, 1,029 were Iraqis and 11,580 were third-country nationals. Most of that group “were from countries such as Uganda and Kenya,” according to the inspector general’s report.

Under the new MNF-I contract, guards must be at least 21 years old, speak English “at a level necessary to give and receive situational reports,” and be an expatriate or an Iraqi, but the latter only when specifically allowed. Those who handle dogs used to inspect vehicles and search out explosives must be at least 25 years old and “must be expatriates.” Shift supervisors, who direct guard teams, must also be at least 25 and be fluent in reading and writing English.

The inspector general’s report shows that government estimates of the total cost of replacing soldiers with contractors are hidden in public accounting. The report notes that government services provided to the private guard force — food, housing and other benefits — are not considered, only payments going directly to the contractors. The report estimated that such services provided to private security personnel in the 12 months ending in March cost “more than $250 million,” at a time when listed outlays to the contractor firms in that period totaled $155 million.

In the new contracts, private contractors will continue to be allowed to use government dining facilities, living quarters, barber services, some transportation within Iraq and emergency medical care.

Another new contract, posted Sept. 3 for “Advisor & Atmospherics technical support services,” calls for providing information to senior commanders of U.S. forces in Iraq to assist them “in gaining a deeper understanding of the many complex issues across Iraq.” The aim is to provide “anecdotal information derived from varied native sources” so that commanders can become aware of “the Iraqi viewpoint of life in Iraq, the government of Iraq, U.S. forces, key events and other perceptions that are relevant to accomplishing the mission in Iraq.”

September 9, 2009

Afghan ambush kills 4 Marines

BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

GANGIGAL, Afghanistan — Four U.S. Marines died Tuesday when they walked into a well-laid ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.

Seven Afghan troops and an interpreter for the Marine commander also died in the ambush and subsequent battle, which lasted seven hours.

Three American service members and 14 Afghan security force members were wounded.

It was the largest number of American military trainers to die in a single incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

The battle took place around the remote hamlet of Gangigal, in a valley about 6 miles from the Pakistani border, after local elders invited U.S. and Afghan forces for a meeting. American officers said there was no doubt that they had walked into a trap.

The latest deaths bring to 11 the number of U.S. service members killed so far in September. Last month was the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since the invasion in late 2001 to oust the Taliban regime, when 51 troops died.

4 U.S. troops killed in Iraq

Four U.S. soldiers were killed by roadside bombs Tuesday, the deadliest day for American forces in Iraq since combat troops pulled back from urban areas more than two months ago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Additional Facts
Fatal strike under review

Civilian deaths confirmed: NATO forces acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that Afghan civilians were among the dozens of people killed in a German-ordered air strike last week.

Top NATO and U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal appointed a Canadian major general to lead an investigation into Friday’s strike on two hijacked fuel tankers in northern Kunduz province. An Afghan official appointed by President Hamid Karzai to examine the attack said his best estimate of the death toll was 82, including at least 45 armed militants.

Alcohol banned: McChrystal on Tuesday banned the sale of alcohol at the military alliance’s Kabul headquarters after becoming frustrated when he had trouble getting in touch with some of his staff after the predawn attack in Kunduz, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

The ban does not affect U.S. troops, who already are barred from drinking. Forty other nations participate in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Some are more lenient than others when it comes to alcohol policy.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
12:54 Mecca time, 09:54 GMT

Fraud claims mar Karzai poll ‘win’

The Electoral Complaints Commission has ordered a recount of votes from several polling stations

Incumbent Hamid Karzai appears to have won Afghanistan’s presidential elections, with nearly all the votes counted, but a UN-backed commission says it has “clear and convincing evidence of fraud”.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Tuesday that with 91.6 per cent of polling stations tallied, Karzai had 54.1 per cent of the vote, more than the 50 per cent needed to avoid a second round run-off.

Karzai’s nearest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, won 28.3 per cent of the vote, the IEC said.

But the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said earlier on Tuesday that it had found evidence of fraud in the election and ordered a partial recount of the vote.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Kabul, said if the IEC results were to stand, there would be no run-off and Karzai would be returned as president.

“But things are not that simple,” he said.

Fraud allegations

Bays said: “We’ve had the Election Complaints Commission come out, saying they have clear and convincing evidence of fraud in these elections.

“They point to three provinces where they have particular concerns and they have launched a wide ranging order - anywhere nationwide … where there was a 100 per cent turnout, they want a recount and an audit of everything that was in the ballot box.

“And also where one candidate has got more than 95 per cent of the vote, they want a recount and an audit.

“They want to look at all these ballots again, look at the handwriting, make sure for example that they were not written by the same person.”

The commission said it would set aside results from 600 polling stations where it suspected irregularities.

Owing to mounting allegations of fraud, the IEC has excluded around 200,000 votes from 447 polling stations from preliminary results to be announced later this week, Daoud Ali Najafi, IEC chief electoral officer, told German Press Agency dpa.

The votes were suspicious and were sent to the ECC for adjudication, Najafi said, adding: “The ECC will decide if they would throw it out of the final result.”

The ECC also ordered the IEC to recount votes from polling stations where more than 600 votes were cast - the most that could be cast at a single station.

The August 20 election was Afghanistan’s only second direct presidential election, and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud.

Full result

The US, which has troops stationed across the country as part of its effort to defeat fighters allied to Taliban and al-Qaeda, said that the full result of the Afghan election could take weeks or months to emerge.

“It is very important that these elections are seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people, in the eyes of the international community. And I am not going to prejudge where this whole thing comes out,” Ian Kelly, a spokesman for the US state department, said on Tuesday.

“It is not going to be a matter of days or weeks, it could be a matter of months to sort out all of these allegations.”

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
15:12 Mecca time, 12:12 GMT

UK reporter rescued in Afghan raid

Farrell had travelled to Kunduz to investigate deaths from Nato’s bombing

A Western journalist has been freed and an Afghan reporter killed in a raid aimed at securing the pair’s release from their Taliban captors in Afghanistan.

Stephen Farrell, a reporter for the New York Times, and Mohammed Sultan Munadi, his Afghan colleague, were abducted earlier this month while attempting to visit the scene of a Nato air attack in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.

But Munadi was killed during a British commando raid on the compound where they were being held, early on Wednesday morning.

One British service member died during the early morning raid, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, announced.

Farrell, in a report on the newspaper’s website, said: “We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid.

“There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices.”

Farrell said Munadi went forward shouting “Journalist!” but fell in a burst of gunfire, which Farrell said could have been from the rescuers or the kidnappers.

Farrell, a 46-year-old with dual Irish-British nationality, is the second New York Times journalist to be captured in less than a year.

David Rohde was held in Afghanistan and Pakistan for seven months until June, when the newspaper says he escaped from captivity in Pakistan.

Afghans’ anger

Afghan journalists are said to be furious over the death of Munadi, a 34-year-old father of two who was working in Afghanistan on a break from university in Germany, saying negotiations were under way that would have freed the two.

Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor, said British special forces had dropped down from helicopters on to the house where the two journalists were being kept.

A Taliban commander who was in the house was killed, along with the owner of the house and a woman who was inside, Yowar said.

Farrell and Munadi had travelled to Kunduz to investigate the Nato raid that is believed to have killed scores of civilians.

Afghan officials said about 54 people died in a bombing on two tankers hijacked by Taliban fighters.

There were reports that villagers who had come to collect fuel from the tankers were among the dead, and Farrell had wanted to interview villagers.

Source: Agencies

Thursday, September 03, 2009
07:19 Mecca time, 04:19 GMT

Blast kills Afghan deputy spy chief

Security forces in Afghanistan are battling an increasing number of attacks

At least 23 people, including the deputy head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, have been killed in a suicide attack in the country’s east.

Abdullah Laghmani was killed in the attack on Wednesday while visiting tribal elders near his home in Laghman province, sources have told Al Jazeera.

Sayed Ahmad Safi, the provincial governor’s spokesman, confirmed that Laghmani, who is the deputy chief of the National Directorate for Security (NDS), was among the dead.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kabul, said: “Behind the scenes Laghmani was key … his death will be a big blow to the Afghan government and their fight against the Taliban.”

Several other government officials were also thought to have been killed.

Targeted attack

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted senior officials.

The attack came as a group of government officials were inaugurating a mosque in the city of Mehterlam, 100km east of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.

Lutfullah Mashal, the governor of Laghman, who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera: “The deputy chief of the NDS is from Laghman province.

“He came to Laghman this morning to participate in the reconstruction of the central mosque. He wanted to visit the mosque.

“But before entering the mosque the suicide attacker rammed into his vehicle and exploded himself in a big crowd of religious scholars and tribal elders.”

An Associated Press photographer at the site said US troops and Afghan officials had surrounded the blast site.

The NDS is headed by an ethnic Tajik, and analysts warn that the killing of Laghmani, a Pashtun, could further exacerbate ethnic tensions in the country.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, condemned the incident and the United Nations in Afghanistan said the attack was “indefensible” during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
22:09 Mecca time, 19:09 GMT

Deaths in Pakistan drone attack

At least 10 people have been killed after a suspected US drone fired missiles into Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, Pakistani intelligence has said.

The attack late on Tuesday targeted a Taliban residential compound in Dargamandi village in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear whether any Taliban fighters were present in the area at the time.

The United States has fired scores of missiles from unmanned drones into the tribal regions since last year in a campaign targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reporting from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said: “No one is clear under what mandate the Americans are carrying out such strikes because this is the month of Ramadan and there is going to be a considerable backlash not just in those areas, but from across Pakistan.

“People are angered by the way the Americans are conducting their affairs in this particular conflict . This is an infringement of sovereignty.

“Aircraft with no pilots onboard are constantly flying into Pakistani aerospace and attacking targets within Pakistan … it creates a very complex situation for the Pakistani military itself.

“The signal the Pakistanis want to send across is that they want to be able to work within their territory without outside interference.”

Tuesday’s attack was the second in the North Waziristan tribal region in less than 24 hours.

A similar strike targeting a madrassa (Islamic school) and an adjoining house in Machikhel village killed at least five people on Monday.

Residents on Tuesday said they had seen the drone hovering in the sky and had been expecting the missile attack.

Washington alleges Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion are holed up in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
16:46 Mecca time, 13:46 GMT

Merkel defends role in Afghanistan

Friday’s airstrike was targeted at Taliban fighters who had hijacked two fuel trucks

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, has said she “deeply regrets” the loss of any innocent life in Afghanistan, but rejected criticism over a Nato airstrike ordered by a German commander that is believed to have killed scores of civilians.

Addressing the country’s parliament in Berlin on Tuesday, Merkel also called for an agreement this year on how to transfer responsibility for security in the country to Afghan officials.

Her comments come days after widespread outrage over the Nato airstrike in Kunduz, a northern province, last Friday which killed 54 people, according to Afghan officials.

“Every innocent person killed in Afghanistan is one too many. Any innocent person killed or hurt, including through German actions, I deeply regret,” Merkel said, and promised an “open” inquiry.

“We will not gloss over anything, but we will not accept any premature condemnation,” she said.

“I refuse to tolerate that, either from Germany or from abroad.”

‘Big mistake’

Earlier on Tuesday, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan said it believed civilians were killed or injured in Friday’s strike, after previously saying that civilians were only harmed.

General Stanley McChrystal, the head of international forces in the country, has ordered an investigation into the bombing.

The strike was reportedly ordered by a German commander after Taliban fighters hijacked two fuel trucks on a Nato supply route from Tajikstan.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, called the decision a major “error of judgment”.

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, also called the airstrike a “big mistake”, while Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said it was a “very, very sad event”.

Power transfer

But Merkel defended Germany’s role in Afghanistan, where it has more than 4,200 troops stationed.

“No one should deceive himself: the consequences of not acting will be attributed to us just as much as the consequences of acting,” she said.

“Everyone who calls for Germany to step aside from fighting international terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan, should consider that.”

The chancellor said she had spoken to Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, about beginning a new era in the country.

“Now is the right moment, together with the new Afghanistan leadership, to set out at the end of this year how this transfer of responsibility will happen,” she said.

Source: Agencies

Afghanistan by the Numbers: Measuring a War Gone to Hell

Afghanistan by the Numbers: Measuring a War Gone to Hell

Tuesday 08 September 2009
by: Tom Engelhardt | Visit article original @ TomDispatch.com

Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations - Ronald Reagan’s, George W. Bush’s, and now Barack Obama’s - drew the U.S. “defense” perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of Afghanistan.

Put another way, while Americans argue feverishly and angrily over what kind of money, if any, to put into health care, or decaying infrastructure, or other key places of need, until recently just about no one in the mainstream raised a peep about the fact that, for nearly eight years (not to say much of the last three decades), we’ve been pouring billions of dollars, American military know-how, and American lives into a black hole in Afghanistan that is, at least in significant part, of our own creation.

Imagine for a moment, as you read this post, what might have happened if Americans had decided to sink the same sort of money - $228 billion and rising fast - the same “civilian surges,” the same planning, thought, and effort (but not the same staggering ineffectiveness) into reclaiming New Orleans or Detroit, or into planning an American future here at home. Imagine, for a moment, when you read about the multi-millions going into further construction at Bagram Air Base, or to the mercenary company that provides “Lord of the Flies” hire-a-gun guards for American diplomats in massive super-embassies, or about the half-a-billion dollars sunk into a corrupt and fraudulent Afghan election, what a similar investment in our own country might have meant.

Ask yourself: Wouldn’t the U.S. have been safer and more secure if all the money, effort, and planning had gone towards “nation-building” in America? Or do you really think we’re safer now, with an official unemployment rate of 9.7%, an underemployment rate of 16.8%, and a record 25.5% teen unemployment rate, with soaring health-care costs, with vast infrastructural weaknesses and failures, and in debt up to our eyeballs, while tens of thousands of troops and massive infusions of cash are mustered ostensibly to fight a terrorist outfit that may number in the low hundreds or at most thousands, that, by all accounts, isn’t now even based in Afghanistan, and that has shown itself perfectly capable of settling into broken states like Somalia or well functioning cities like Hamburg.

Measuring Success

Sometime later this month, the Obama administration will present Congress with “metrics” for… well, since this isn’t the Bush era, we can’t say “victory.” In the style of special envoy to the region Richard Holbrooke, let’s call it “success.” Holbrooke recently offered this definition of that word, evidently based on the standards the Supreme Court used to define pornography: “We’ll know it when we see it.”

According to Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post, the Obama administration is reportedly rushing to “preempt Congress with its own metrics.” It’s producing a document called a Strategic Implementation Plan, which, DeYoung writes, “will include separate ‘indicators’ of progress under nine broad ‘objectives’ to be measured quarterly… Some of the about 50 indicators will apply to U.S. performance, but most will measure Afghan and Pakistani efforts.” These are to include supposedly measurable categories like numbers of newly trained Afghan army recruits and the timeliness of the delivery of promised U.S. resources.

The administration is evidently now “tweaking” its metrics. But let’s admit it: metrics in war almost invariably turn out to occupy treacherous terrain. Think of it as quagmire territory, in part because numbers, however accurate (and they often aren’t), can lie - or rather, can tell the story you would like them to tell.

The Vietnam War was a classic metrics war. Sometimes it seemed that Americans in Vietnam did nothing but invent new ways of measuring success. There were, for instance, the eighteen indices of the Hamlet Evaluation System, each meant to calibrate the “progress” of “pacification” in South Vietnam’s 2,300 villages and almost 13,000 hamlets, focusing largely on “rural security” and “development.” Then there were the many indices of the Measurement of Progress system, its monthly reports, produced in slide form, including “strength trends of the opposing forces, efforts of friendly forces in sorties… enemy base areas neutralized,” and so on. For visiting congressional delegations, the commander of U.S. forces, Gen. William Westmoreland, had his “attrition charts,” multicolored bar graphs illustrating various “trends” in death and destruction. Commanders in the field had their own sophisticated ways to codify “kill ratios,” while on the ground, where the actual counting had to be done in dangerous circumstances, all of this translated far more crudely into the MGR, or, as the grunts sometimes said, the “Mere Gook Rule” - “If it’s dead and it’s Vietnamese, it’s VC [Vietcong].” In other words, when pressure came down for the “body count,” any body would do.

The problem was that none of the official metrics managed to measure what mattered most in Vietnam. History may not simply repeat itself, but there’s good reason to look askance at whatever set of metrics the Obama administration manages to devise.

After all, as in the Vietnam years, Obama’s people, too, will be mustering numbers in search of “success”; they, too, will be
measuring “progress.” And those numbers - like the Vietnam era body counts - will have to come up from below (with all the attendant pressures). By the time they reach Washington, they are likely to have the best possible patina on them.

With the delivery of those new metrics to Congress seemingly imminent, I thought I might offer my own set of Afghan metrics for the worst year of the present war. Think of this as basic math for Americans. (All figures cited below are linked to their sources. If a figure has no link, just click on the nearest previous link.)

Costs

Annual funding for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002: $20.8 billion.

Annual funding for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2009: $60.2 billion.

Total funds for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002-2009: $228.2 billion.

War-fighting funds requested by the Obama administration for 2010: $68 billion (a figure which will, for the first time since 2003, exceed funds requested for Iraq).

Funds recently requested by U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry for non-military spending in Afghanistan, 2010: $2.5 billion.

Funds spent since 2001 on Afghan “reconstruction”: $38 billion (”more than half of it on training and equipping Afghan security forces”).

Percentage of U.S. funding in Afghanistan that has gone for military purposes: Nearly 90%.

Estimated U.S. funds needed to support and upgrade Afghan forces for the next decade: $4 billion a year (”with a like sum for development”) according to former Assistant Secretary of Defense Bing West. (According to the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon, “It’s a reasonable guess that for 20 years, we essentially will have to fund half the Afghan budget.”)

Afghan gross national product: $23 billion (”the size of Boise” Idaho’s, writes columnist George Will) - about $3 billion of it from opium production.

Annual budget of the Afghan government: $600 million.

Maintenance cost for the force of 450,000 Afghan soldiers and police U.S. generals dream of creating: approximately 500% of the Afghan budget.

Amount spent on police “mentoring and training” since 2001: $10 billion.

Percentage of the more than 400 Afghan National Police units “still incapable of running their operations independently”: 75% (2008 figures).

Cost of the latest upgrade of Bagram Air Base (an old Soviet base that has become the largest American base in Afghanistan): $220 million.

Cost of a single recent Pentagon contract to DynCorp International Inc. and Fluor Corporation “to build and support U.S. military bases throughout Afghanistan”: up to $15 billion.

War-Fighting

Number of American troops killed in Afghanistan, 2001: 12.

Number of American troops killed in Afghanistan, 2009 (through September 7th): 186

Total number of coalition (NATO and American) deaths in 2009 thus far: 311, making this the deadliest year for those forces since the war began.

Number of Lithuanian troops killed in Afghanistan: 1

Two worst months of the Afghan War in terms of coalition deaths: July (71) and August (74) 2009.

U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, 2002: 5,200.

Expected U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, December 2009: 68,000.

Percentage rise in Taliban attacks on coalition forces using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in 2009 (compared to the same period in 2008): 114%.

Rise in Coalition deaths from IED attacks in July 2009 (compared to July 2008): six-fold.

Percentage increase in overall Taliban attacks in the first five months of 2009 (compared to the same period in 2008): 59%.

Number of U.S. regional command centers in Afghanistan: 4 (at Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Bagram).

Number of U.S. prisons and holding centers: approximately 36 “overcrowded and often violent sites” with 15,000 detainees.

Number of U.S. bases: at least 74 in northern Afghanistan alone, with more being built. (The total number of U.S. bases in Afghanistan seems not to be available.)

Estimated cost per troop of maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan when compared to Iraq: 30% higher.

Number of gallons of fuel per day used by the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan: 800,000.

Cost of a single gallon of gas delivered to the Afghan war zone on long, cumbersome, and dangerously embattled supply lines: Up to $100.

Number of gallons of fuel used to keep Marine tents cool in the Afghan summer and warm in winter: 448,000 gallons.

Number of troops from Georgia (not the U.S. state, but the country) being prepared by U.S. Marine trainers to be dispatched to Afghanistan to fight in spring 2010: 750.

Number of Colombian commandos to be sent to Afghanistan: Unknown, but Colombian commandos, trained by U.S. Special Forces and financed by the U.S. government, are reportedly to be dispatched there to fight alongside U.S. troops. (Note that both Georgia and Colombia are dependent on U.S. aid and support. Note also that neither the Georgians nor the Colombians would assumedly be bound by the sort of restrictive fighting rules that limit the actions of some NATO forces in Afghanistan.)

Percentage of American spy planes and unmanned aerial vehicles now devoted to Afghanistan: 66% (33% are in Iraq).

Number of American bombs dropped in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2009: 2,011 (a fall of 24% from the previous year, thanks evidently to a directive from U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan, Stanley A. McChrystal, limiting air attacks when civilians might be present).

Number of Afghan civilian deaths recorded by the U.N. January-July 2009: 1,013, a rise of 24% from the same period in 2008. (Unfortunately, Afghan deaths are generally covered sparingly, on an incident by incident basis, as in the deaths of an Afghan family traveling to a wedding party in August, assumedly due to a Taliban-planted IED, or the recent controversial U.S. bombing of two stolen oil tankers in Kunduz Province in which many civilians seem to have died. Anything like the total number of Afghans killed in these years remains unknown, but what numbers we have are undoubtedly undercounts.)

Escalation

Number of additional troops General McChrystal is expected to recommend that President Obama send to Afghanistan in the coming months: 21,000 to 45,000, according to the McClatchy Newspapers; 10,000 to 15,000 (”described as a high-risk option”), 25,000 (”a medium-risk option”), 45,000 (”a low-risk option”), according to the New York Times; fewer than 10,000, according to the Associated Press.

Number of support troops Defense Department officials are planning to replace with “trigger-pullers” (combat troops) in the coming months, effectively an escalation in place: 6,000-14,000. (”The changes will not offset the potential need for additional troops in the future, but could reduce the size of any request… officials said.”)

Number of additional NATO forces General McChrystal will reportedly ask for: 20,000.

Optimal number of additional Afghan National Army (ANA) troops to be trained by 2012, according to reports on General McChrystal’s draft plan: 162,000. (According to Naval Postgraduate School professor Thomas H. Johnson and retired Foreign Service officer M. Chris Mason,”[T]he U.S. military touts 91,000 ANA soldiers as ‘trained and equipped,’ knowing full well that barely 39,000 are still in the ranks and present for duty.”)

Public Opinion

Percentage of Americans opposed to the war in Afghanistan: 57%, according to the latest CNN poll, an 11% rise since April. Only 42% now support the war.

Percentage of Republicans who support the war: 70%, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Percentage of Americans who approve of President’s Obama’s handling of the war: 48%, according to the latest CBS poll, a drop of 8 points since April. (Support for increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan is now at just 25%, down 14% from April.)

Percentage of British who feel their forces should be withdrawn from Afghanistan: 59%.

Percentage of Germans opposed to that country’s 4,000 troop commitment to Afghanistan: More than 70%.

The Presidential Election

Estimated cost of staging the 2009 Afghan presidential election: $500 million.

Number of complaints of voting irregularities: More than 2,500 and still climbing, 691 of them described as “serious charges.”

Number of members of the “Independent Election Commission” not appointed by Afghan President (and presidential candidate) Hamid Karzai: 0.

Cost of blank voting-registration cards in Ghazni Province in May 2009: $200 for 200 blank registration cards.

Cost of such a card purchased by “an undercover Afghan journalist working for the BBC” this fall: $8.

Number of voter registration cards (not including fakes) reportedly distributed countrywide: 17 million or almost twice the estimated number of eligible voters.

Number of ballots cast at the Hajji Janat Gul High School polling place, half an hour from the center of Kabul: 600.

Number of votes recorded for Karzai at that polling station: 996. (Number of votes for other candidates: 5.)

Number of ballots marked for Karzai and shipped to Kabul from 45 polling sites in Shorabak District in Southern Afghanistan that were shut down by local officials connected to Karzai before voting could begin: 23,900.

Number of fake polling sites set up by backers of Karzai where no one voted but hundreds of thousands of votes were recorded: as many as 800, according to the New York Times. (Another 800 actual polling sites were taken over by Karzai supporters “to fraudulently report tens of thousands of additional ballots for Mr. Karzai.”)

Number of ballots in Karzai’s home province, Kandahar, where an estimated 25,000 Afghans actually voted, submitted to be counted: approximately 350,000.

Private Contractors

Number of military contractors hired by the Pentagon in Afghanistan by the end of June 2009: Almost 74,000, nearly two-thirds of them local hires, a 9% rise over the previous three months.

Percentage of the Pentagon’s force in Afghanistan made up of contractors in March 2009: 57%.

Ranking for the percentage of contractors used by the Pentagon in Afghanistan: highest in any conflict in U.S. history.

Diplomats and the Civilian Surge

Cost of new “crash” program to expand the U.S. “diplomatic presence” in Afghanistan and Pakistan: $1 billion. ($736 million of which is slated for the construction of a massive new embassy/regional headquarters in Islamabad, Pakistan.)

Number of additional U.S. government personnel reportedly slated to be sent to Pakistan to augment the 750 civilians already there: almost 1,000.

Expected number of U.S. government civilians to be posted at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan by the end of 2009: 976. (There were 562 at the end of 2008 and there are now reportedly more than 1,000 diplomats, staff, and Afghan nationals already working there.)

Estimated total number of civilians to be assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as part of a proposed ongoing “civilian surge” by 2011: 1,350 (800 to be posted in Kabul, 550 outside the capital).

Cost of the State Department’s five-year contract with Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan: $210 million.

Cost of the State Department’s contract with ArmorGroup North America, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Wackenhutt Services Inc., to guard the U.S. Embassy in Kabul: $189 million.

Number of private guards provided by ArmorGroup North America: 450, based at Camp Sullivan, several miles from the embassy compound where they reportedly engaged in Lord of the Flies-style behavior.

The Metrics of Success

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on success in Afghanistan: It will take “a few years” to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Admiral “Mike” Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Meet the Press: “I believe we’ve got to start to turn this thing around from a security standpoint in the next 12 to 18 months.” (He would not directly answer the “how long” question.)

Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on the Afghan War: “None of the civilian officials or military officers interviewed in Afghanistan and elsewhere expected substantial progress in the short term. They talked in terms of years two, five and 10… Military officials believe the Afghanistan mission can only succeed if troops are there far longer - anywhere from five years to 12 years.”

Military experts cited by Walter Pincus of the Washington Post warn: “[T]he United States is taking on security and political commitments that will last at least a decade and a cost that will probably eclipse that of the Iraq war.”

Anthony H. Cordesman, a member of a “team” put together by U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan Stanley A. McChrystal to assess war strategy, and a national security expert for the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “told reporters recently that even with military gains in the next 12 to 18 months, it would take years to reduce sharply the threat from the Taliban and other insurgent forces.”

Robert Dreyfuss of the Nation summarizing the opinions of a panel of experts on the Afghan War, including Bruce Riedel, a 30-year CIA veteran and adviser to four presidents, who chaired President Obama’s Afghan task force, two McChrystal task force members, Kim Kagan and Cordesman, and the Brooking Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon: “(1) A significant escalation of the war will be necessary to avoid utter defeat. (2) Even if tens of thousands of troops are added to the US occupation, it won’t be possible to determine if the US/NATO effort is succeeding until eighteen months later. (3) Even if the United States turns the tide in Afghanistan, no significant drawdown of US forces will take place until five years have passed.” (Riedel commented: “Anyone who thinks that in 12 to 18 months we’re going to be anywhere close to victory is living in a fantasy.”)

New chief of staff of the British Army, General Sir David Richards: “The Army’s role will evolve, but the whole process might take as long as 30 to 40 years.” (After much criticism, he retracted the statement.)

New NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: NATO’s mission in Afghanistan will last “as long as it takes” to ensure that the country is secure.

Afghanistan by the Numbers

Cost of a Kalashnikov rifle in Afghanistan today: $400-600.

Cost of a Kalakov (the Afghan name for a new model of Kalashnikov): $1,100. (For a $150 surcharge, you can have it delivered to southern Afghanistan.)

Cost of a kilo of heroin in Afghanistan: $2,500. (Cost of that same kilo in Moscow: an estimated $100,000.)

Cost in police bribes of getting contraband into or out of Afghanistan: “$20 on each weapon, $100 for a kilo of heroin and $1,000 for each thousand kilos of hashish.”

Afghanistan’s ranking among the globe’s “weakest states,” according to the Brookings Institution: second weakest. (It is also regularly referred to as the world’s fourth poorest country.)

Unemployment rate in Afghanistan, according to the CIA World Factbook: 40% (2008 figures).

Monthly wage for Afghan National Police: $110 (less than $4 per day).

Daily wage Taliban reputedly pays its fighters: $4-8. (Often the only “job” available.)

How long it may take to get a case through a government court (with bribes): 4-5 years.

How long it may take to get a case through a Taliban court (without bribes): 1 day.

Number of registered Afghan refugees still in Iran and Pakistan: 3 million.

Number of al-Qaeda base camps estimated to be in Afghanistan today: 0. (All reputable experts seem agreed on this.)

The Next War

The price tag the Obama administration’s budget team reportedly put on U.S. future wars almost every year through 2019: More than $100 billion a year.

The cost of equipping seven Army brigades with a Boeing advanced coordinated system of hand-held drones, robots, sensors, and other battlefield surveillance equipment over the next two years: $2 billion.

Date when all 73 Army active and reserve brigades will be equipped with the system: 2025.

What Can’t Be Measured

Here’s a conundrum to be considered and filed away under the rubric “impossible to measure” as you leave the world of Afghan War metrics: The U.S. continues to struggle to train Afghan police and soldiers who will actually turn out and fight with discipline (see above). In the meantime, as a recent Washington Post piece by Karen DeYoung indicated, the Taliban regularly turn out fighters who are reportedly using ever more sophisticated and tenacious fire-and-maneuver techniques against the overwhelming firepower of U.S. and NATO forces. (”To many of the Americans, it appeared as if the insurgents had attended something akin to the U.S. Army’s Ranger school, which teaches soldiers how to fight in small groups in austere environments.”)

Both groups are, of course, Afghans. It might be worth considering why “their” Afghans are the fierce fighters of history books and legend and ours, despite billions of dollars and massive training efforts, are not. This puzzling situation had its parallel in Vietnam decades ago when American military advisors regularly claimed they would give up a division of U.S.-trained South Vietnamese forces for a single battalion of “VC.”

Here’s something to carry away with you: Life is invariably hard when you set up your massive embassies, your regional command centers, your election advisors, your private security guards, your military trainers and advisors, your diplomats and civilian enablers and then try to come up with a formula for motivating the locals to do your bidding.

Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. He is the author of “The End of Victory Culture,” a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, “The Last Days of Publishing.” He also edited “The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire” (Verso, 2008), an alternative history of the mad Bush years.

Note: Thanks for help in researching this piece goes, first and foremost, to Nick Turse - with a small bow to Frida Berrigan as well. Crucial websites, if you want to keep up-to-date on Afghanistan, include Juan Cole’s Informed Comment, which has recently focused an ever more laser-like beam of analysis on events in that country, the invaluable Antiwar.com (especially Jason Ditz’s daily summaries), the War in Context (not to be missed more generally on “the Greater Middle East”); Rethink Afghanistan, and Foreign Policy’s the Af/Pak Channel. If you want to download a “cost of war” counter to your computer, check out the National Priorities Project website.

In Iraq, UN mission backs voter registration efforts

The head of the United Nations mission in Iraq has welcomed what he described as growing confidence in the electoral process there, and given his backing to the voter registration process, in preparation for parliamentary polls early next year.

UN reports point to possible war crimes in eastern DR Congo

With two new United Nations reports detailing human rights abuses - including possible war crimes - carried out by both Government forces and rebels in the volatile far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the world body’s top rights official today stressed the urgent need for reforming the country’s security and judicial systems.

Without a hint of irony…

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek has flown to Dublin to tell the Irish people to beware of ‘outside’ influences telling them how to vote in next month’s Lisbon Treaty referendum. He described the Lisbon No campaign as “made up of marginal groups…and some [located] outside your country”.

He then went on to say that he had no wish to “tell people how to vote”, before telling people how to vote by suggesting that the referendum should not be “used for domestic messages” to bash the Irish government.

We’ve talked about the various EU institutions’ penchant for meddling in the Irish referendum many times before but these remarks are a fine illustration of how seemingly intelligent people manage to lose all sense of reason and self-awareness.

US War News Update: More Soldiers Dead in Iraq; Germany DefendsOccupation of Afghanistan Amid Massacre of Scores of Civilians, etc.

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,343

By The Associated Press (AP)

As of Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009, at least 4,343 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,469 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is two more than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,495 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

_ One soldier died Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in southern Baghdad.

_ Three soldiers died Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck a patrol in northern Iraq.

The latest identifications reported by the military:

_ No new identifications reported.

On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Sept 9

Wed Sep 9, 2009 7:18am EDT

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1100 GMT on Wednesday. * denotes new or updated item

* BAGHDAD - An investigative council has charged 29 Iraqi security officials with negligence relating to two truck bombs outside government ministries in Baghdad last month that killed 95 people, Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a car wounded three civilians in Baghdad’s western district of Jamiaa on Tuesday, police said.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb wounded three soldiers on Tuesday on the northern outskirts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb planted on a motorcycle killed one civilian and wounded seven others on Tuesday in southern Baghdad, police said.

September 9, 2009

Attacks Muddle American Plans to Draw Down in Iraq

By MARC SANTORA
New York Times

BAGHDAD — In the worst day of violence against American soldiers in Iraq since combat troops moved out of the cities this year, two bombings left four Americans dead, underscoring the dangers troops here still face even as they prepare for their exit from this country.

The American military provided little detail about the attacks, saying only that one soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in southern Baghdad and that three more were killed in another roadside bombing in northern Iraq.

While the American presence here has been greatly diminished, with Iraqis and Americans rarely conducting joint patrols and Iraqis eager to appear in control of their own security, there are still thousands of American soldiers working as advisers inside cities and towns across Iraq. Tens of thousands more are also on the road every night as Americans move equipment and resources in preparation for the large-scale reduction of forces scheduled to begin after January elections here.

One critical calculation is how the Americans can both provide the protection needed to move the vast accumulation of equipment from six years of war and maintain the capacity to support Iraqi forces if violence spins out of control.

Iraq’s security forces also continued to come under attack on Tuesday, with at least 10 police officers killed, including a police commander, and 6 more wounded in Kirkuk Province.

While Iraq’s police and army have long been targets of insurgents, August was the deadliest month for them since the Americans withdrew combat troops from the cities in late June, with 32 members killed. Since January, 164 Iraqi police officers and army soldiers have been killed.

The strategy of those committing violence in Iraq, never easy to divine, is particularly difficult to gauge when dealing with attacks on police officers in local areas.

Insurgents, of course, seek to destabilize the government. But there are also networks and overlays of crime, corruption, political power plays, ethnic rivalries and local factions in competition for control over vital areas.

In few places do those tensions form as combustible a mix as they do in Kirkuk Province, known as the country’s fault line because of the simmering tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan to the north. The deadliest attacks against Iraqi police officers on Tuesday took place around the city of Kirkuk. In one bombing in the town of Armeli, populated with Shiites from Iraq’s Turkmen ethnic minority, the local police commander was killed along with three other officers when his convoy struck a roadside bomb. In a separate attack in the same area, four other police officers were killed.

The continuing tensions in Kirkuk Province are an increasing focus for American commanders here, who have announced a new initiative to try to bring stability to the factions competing for power in the area. The details of the campaign, and how American troops will be involved, remain unclear.

There were also attacks against the Iraqi police in Baghdad on Tuesday, with at least six officers wounded in two bombings.

Another bombing in Baghdad took aim at an official in the Health Ministry, killing one of his employees and wounding 12 more people. But the official emerged unharmed.

Even as security forces are singled out, civilians here often bear the brunt of the violence, with 4,111 people killed around the country so far this year.

The continuing violence has raised questions about the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security as the American role shrinks, especially after deadly attacks in the heart of the capital last month left roughly 100 people dead.

Seeking to address those doubts, the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced that 29 police and army officers arrested after that bombing were being charged with negligence in the performance their duties.

“There was clear negligence from the security forces,” said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, the spokesman for Baghdad’s security command center. “Absolutely, what has been achieved so far in the intelligence and security efforts is below expectations.”

An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kirkuk Province.

http://latimes.com

Iraq bombings kill 4 U.S. soldiers

The attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq occur on the deadliest day for the troops since June 29. In the north, six Iraqi policemen are slain by roadside bombs

By Ned Parker and Ali Windawi
September 9, 2009
Reporting from Baghdad and Amerli, Iraq

Four U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday in bomb blasts in Baghdad and northern Iraq and six Iraqi policemen died in attacks in the country’s north.

It was the deadliest day for the Americans since June 29, when four soldiers were killed in Baghdad. The next day, most U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq’s cities, where their movements have since been restricted, though they have greater latitude in the countryside. Seven American soldiers died in August.

In Tuesday’s attacks, a roadside bomb killed three soldiers on patrol in Salahuddin province, north of the capital, the U.S. military said. The fourth soldier died when an explosive device targeted his patrol in south Baghdad.

Before the latest incidents, the U.S. Defense Department put the American death toll in Iraq at 4,340.

It was also a bloody day for the Iraqi security forces around Kirkuk, the oil-rich northern region at the center of a land dispute involving Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and four wounded in a road bombing less than 20 miles from the city of Kirkuk.

A roadside bomb also claimed the life of Maj. Zaid Hussein, who headed a counter-terrorism police unit, and three of his men in the town of Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen district not far from Kirkuk’s provincial boundaries. The blast tore apart Hussein’s white Nissan Patrol. The bomb was planted at an intersection on the edge of town.

Some residents blamed militants associated with the group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

“I carried the dead body of the major,” said Hassan Hadi, a 28-year-old resident. The attack “has the fingerprints of Al Qaeda, which wants to ignite sectarianism.”

A suicide truck bombing in Amerli in July 2007 killed about 160 people.

The country’s north remains mired in ethnic tensions. The U.S. military proposed last month that the Iraqi army, U.S. forces and Kurdish paramilitary fighters known as peshmerga jointly patrol the disputed districts. The aim would be to build trust among the ethnic groups, but no formal arrangement has been announced.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s government continued to investigate bombings last month in Baghdad at the finance and foreign ministries, which killed about 90 people and shook Iraqis’ confidence that their capital was becoming secure.

The spokesman for Baghdad’s security command, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta Moussawi, said 29 Iraqi security personnel had been reprimanded for their performance in relation to the attacks and their cases were being forwarded to a special court.

ned.parker@latimes.com

Windawi is a special correspondent. Times staff writers Usama Redha and Saif Hameed in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
05:06 Mecca time, 02:06 GMT

Deadly blasts hit Iraqi cities

The attacks follow the withdrawal of US forces from major Iraqi urban areas

Bombs have exploded in three Iraqi cities killing at least 15 people.

In the deadliest attack on Monday a suicide car bomber killed at least seven people and wounded 15 others at a security checkpoint in western Iraq, police said.

Security and hospital officials said three policemen were among those killed when the bomber drove a car loaded with explosives into a checkpoint near Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province.

Mohammed Hussein Alwan, a 40-year-old farmer, said he was riding in a lorry about 200 metres from the attacker’s car when the blast occurred.

“I ran to the site and saw five burning cars and a child who was thrown by the explosion and landed on the top of a car,” he was reported by The Associated Press as saying.

“I tried to approach him to see whether he was alive or dead, but the police started to open fire in all directions and we had to run away,” he added.

Shia targets

In another suicide attack on Monday, a man dressed as a policeman killed four people and injured 20 more after detonating his explosive vest next to a Shia mosque in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, police said.

Worshipers were gathering for evening prayers at the time, in the city 65km northwest of Baghdad, the capital.

A separate incident also occurred in Kerbala, a mostly Shia city 80km south of Baghdad, where a bomb exploded on a bus.

The blast killed four people and wounded another eight, police said.

Ramadi was once a key al-Qaeda stronghold following the US-led invasion of 2003, but violence has significantly decreased since 2006, when local tribes sided with the US military.

Sporadic attacks

Sporadic attacks still continue in the province, with a series of bombings in July prompting Iraqi security forces to declare a state of emergency there.

Diyala province has remained restive while other areas of Iraq have seen levels of violence fall.

The withdrawal of US forces from towns and cities in Iraq at the end of June had raised concern that the country would see a renewed surge in violence.

Over the last two months Iraq has seen a number of deadly attacks, including a bombing at government ministries in Baghdad in August that killed almost 100 people.

There have also been a series of attacks in areas of northern Iraq where tension is high between Arabs, Kurds and other minorities.

The violence has shaken public confidence ahead of national elections in January.

Source: Agencies

State Dep’t contractor electrocuted

By KIMBERLY HEFLING (AP)

WASHINGTON — A State Department contractor apparently has been electrocuted while showering in Baghdad even as U.S. authorities in Iraq try to remedy wiring problems that have led to the deaths of American troops there.

The contractor, Adam Hermanson, 25, died Sept. 1, his wife, Janine, said Tuesday. She added that a military medical examiner told her that preliminary findings indicate her husband died from low voltage electrocution.

Electrical wiring has been an ongoing problem in Iraq. At least three troops have been electrocuted in the shower since the start of the Iraq War, while others have been electrocuted under other circumstances such as while operating a power washer. Inspections and repairs are under way at 90,000 U.S.-maintained structures there.

Hermanson grew up in San Diego and Las Vegas. He joined the military at age 17, and did three tours in Iraq with the Air Force before leaving at the rank of staff sergeant. He returned to Iraq as an employee of the Herndon, Va.-based private contractor Triple Canopy.

Jayanti Menches, a spokeswoman for Triple Canopy, said in an e-mail that the company was saddened by his death but would not be commenting further until an investigation was complete.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood also offered condolences to the family, but would not elaborate further on the cause of death, pending an investigation.

Janine Hermanson said her husband took the contracting job so they would have money to buy a house in Muncy, Pa., where they were planning to live. She said she’d already moved there and was living with her parents.

The two would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Sunday.

“He was supposed to come back and we had a lot of plans,” said his wife, who also served in Iraq with the Air Force.

Besides three Iraq tours, Adam Hermanson served in Uzbekistan with the Air Force. His mother, Patricia Hermanson, 53, of Las Vegas, said everyone in her family was struggling to understand how he could survive four war tours, then die suddenly in a seemingly safe place.

“We all know that Adam was as strong as a tank,” his mother said. “He was in good health.”

In July, the Defense Department’s inspector general said that of the 18 electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq, eight involved possible equipment faults or malfunctioning that caused or contributed to the electrocutions. The accidental touching of live wires was blamed in about half the deaths.

With U.S. Forces in Iraq Beginning to Leave, Need for Private Guards Grows

By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Washington Post

As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

On Sept. 1, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) awarded contracts expected to be worth $485 million over the next two years to five firms to provide security and patrol services to U.S. bases in Iraq.

Under this contract, the firms will bid against one another for individual orders at specific bases or locations. These “task orders” in the past have ranged from supplying one specialist to providing as many as 1,000 people to handle security for a major base.

Under a similar contract with five security contractors that began in September 2007, the MNF-I spent $253 million through March 2009, with needs growing over that 18-month period. That contract, which was to run three years, had a spending limit of $450 million.

Against that background, the inspector general for reconstruction predicted that costs for private security at U.S. facilities in Iraq “will grow in size to a potential $935 million.” The inspector general’s report, issued this year, said the MNF-I planned to switch to private guards for Victory Base Camp, one of its largest installations. That facility alone would require “approximately 2,600 security personnel,” the report said.

The need for contract guards began growing this year. The Central Command’s June quarterly report on contracting showed a 19 percent increase from the three previous months in the number of security guards in Iraq hired by the Defense Department. The Central Command attributed the increase, from 10,743 at the end of March to 13,232 at the end of June, mainly to “an increased need for PSCs [private security companies] to provide security as the military begins to draw down forces.”

In its study, the inspector general’s office found that at 19 sites where private guards replaced soldiers, many more guards were needed to do the same job. It said the task order for Camp Bucca, primarily a detention facility, called for “417 personnel to free up approximately 350 soldiers for combat operations.” At Forward Operating Base Hammer, the task order called for 124 private guards to allow 102 soldiers to take on combat activities.

In some cases, as at Camp Taji, a major supply installation, the report says that more than 900 private personnel replaced 400 soldiers, but that the private guards took on additional tasks “to address deficiencies in existing site security.”

The United States also uses contractors when coalition forces withdraw. When Georgian soldiers left unexpectedly last August from a base near the Iranian border where they were providing security, private contractors replaced them.

The Central Command study found that of the armed private security personnel working in June, 623 were Americans, 1,029 were Iraqis and 11,580 were third-country nationals. Most of that group “were from countries such as Uganda and Kenya,” according to the inspector general’s report.

Under the new MNF-I contract, guards must be at least 21 years old, speak English “at a level necessary to give and receive situational reports,” and be an expatriate or an Iraqi, but the latter only when specifically allowed. Those who handle dogs used to inspect vehicles and search out explosives must be at least 25 years old and “must be expatriates.” Shift supervisors, who direct guard teams, must also be at least 25 and be fluent in reading and writing English.

The inspector general’s report shows that government estimates of the total cost of replacing soldiers with contractors are hidden in public accounting. The report notes that government services provided to the private guard force — food, housing and other benefits — are not considered, only payments going directly to the contractors. The report estimated that such services provided to private security personnel in the 12 months ending in March cost “more than $250 million,” at a time when listed outlays to the contractor firms in that period totaled $155 million.

In the new contracts, private contractors will continue to be allowed to use government dining facilities, living quarters, barber services, some transportation within Iraq and emergency medical care.

Another new contract, posted Sept. 3 for “Advisor & Atmospherics technical support services,” calls for providing information to senior commanders of U.S. forces in Iraq to assist them “in gaining a deeper understanding of the many complex issues across Iraq.” The aim is to provide “anecdotal information derived from varied native sources” so that commanders can become aware of “the Iraqi viewpoint of life in Iraq, the government of Iraq, U.S. forces, key events and other perceptions that are relevant to accomplishing the mission in Iraq.”

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
12:54 Mecca time, 09:54 GMT

Fraud claims mar Karzai poll ‘win’

The Electoral Complaints Commission has ordered a recount of votes from several polling stations

Incumbent Hamid Karzai appears to have won Afghanistan’s presidential elections, with nearly all the votes counted, but a UN-backed commission says it has “clear and convincing evidence of fraud”.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Tuesday that with 91.6 per cent of polling stations tallied, Karzai had 54.1 per cent of the vote, more than the 50 per cent needed to avoid a second round run-off.

Karzai’s nearest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, won 28.3 per cent of the vote, the IEC said.

But the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said earlier on Tuesday that it had found evidence of fraud in the election and ordered a partial recount of the vote.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Kabul, said if the IEC results were to stand, there would be no run-off and Karzai would be returned as president.

“But things are not that simple,” he said.

Fraud allegations

Bays said: “We’ve had the Election Complaints Commission come out, saying they have clear and convincing evidence of fraud in these elections.

“They point to three provinces where they have particular concerns and they have launched a wide ranging order - anywhere nationwide … where there was a 100 per cent turnout, they want a recount and an audit of everything that was in the ballot box.

“And also where one candidate has got more than 95 per cent of the vote, they want a recount and an audit.

“They want to look at all these ballots again, look at the handwriting, make sure for example that they were not written by the same person.”

The commission said it would set aside results from 600 polling stations where it suspected irregularities.

Owing to mounting allegations of fraud, the IEC has excluded around 200,000 votes from 447 polling stations from preliminary results to be announced later this week, Daoud Ali Najafi, IEC chief electoral officer, told German Press Agency dpa.

The votes were suspicious and were sent to the ECC for adjudication, Najafi said, adding: “The ECC will decide if they would throw it out of the final result.”

The ECC also ordered the IEC to recount votes from polling stations where more than 600 votes were cast - the most that could be cast at a single station.

The August 20 election was Afghanistan’s only second direct presidential election, and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud.

Full result

The US, which has troops stationed across the country as part of its effort to defeat fighters allied to Taliban and al-Qaeda, said that the full result of the Afghan election could take weeks or months to emerge.

“It is very important that these elections are seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people, in the eyes of the international community. And I am not going to prejudge where this whole thing comes out,” Ian Kelly, a spokesman for the US state department, said on Tuesday.

“It is not going to be a matter of days or weeks, it could be a matter of months to sort out all of these allegations.”

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Wednesday, September 09, 2009
15:12 Mecca time, 12:12 GMT

UK reporter rescued in Afghan raid

Farrell had travelled to Kunduz to investigate deaths from Nato’s bombing

A Western journalist has been freed and an Afghan reporter killed in a raid aimed at securing the pair’s release from their Taliban captors in Afghanistan.

Stephen Farrell, a reporter for the New York Times, and Mohammed Sultan Munadi, his Afghan colleague, were abducted earlier this month while attempting to visit the scene of a Nato air attack in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.

But Munadi was killed during a British commando raid on the compound where they were being held, early on Wednesday morning.

One British service member died during the early morning raid, Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, announced.

Farrell, in a report on the newspaper’s website, said: “We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran, it was obviously a raid.

“There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices.”

Farrell said Munadi went forward shouting “Journalist!” but fell in a burst of gunfire, which Farrell said could have been from the rescuers or the kidnappers.

Farrell, a 46-year-old with dual Irish-British nationality, is the second New York Times journalist to be captured in less than a year.

David Rohde was held in Afghanistan and Pakistan for seven months until June, when the newspaper says he escaped from captivity in Pakistan.

Afghans’ anger

Afghan journalists are said to be furious over the death of Munadi, a 34-year-old father of two who was working in Afghanistan on a break from university in Germany, saying negotiations were under way that would have freed the two.

Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor, said British special forces had dropped down from helicopters on to the house where the two journalists were being kept.

A Taliban commander who was in the house was killed, along with the owner of the house and a woman who was inside, Yowar said.

Farrell and Munadi had travelled to Kunduz to investigate the Nato raid that is believed to have killed scores of civilians.

Afghan officials said about 54 people died in a bombing on two tankers hijacked by Taliban fighters.

There were reports that villagers who had come to collect fuel from the tankers were among the dead, and Farrell had wanted to interview villagers.

Source: Agencies

Thursday, September 03, 2009
07:19 Mecca time, 04:19 GMT

Blast kills Afghan deputy spy chief

Security forces in Afghanistan are battling an increasing number of attacks

At least 23 people, including the deputy head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, have been killed in a suicide attack in the country’s east.

Abdullah Laghmani was killed in the attack on Wednesday while visiting tribal elders near his home in Laghman province, sources have told Al Jazeera.

Sayed Ahmad Safi, the provincial governor’s spokesman, confirmed that Laghmani, who is the deputy chief of the National Directorate for Security (NDS), was among the dead.

James Bays, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kabul, said: “Behind the scenes Laghmani was key … his death will be a big blow to the Afghan government and their fight against the Taliban.”

Several other government officials were also thought to have been killed.

Targeted attack

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had targeted senior officials.

The attack came as a group of government officials were inaugurating a mosque in the city of Mehterlam, 100km east of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.

Lutfullah Mashal, the governor of Laghman, who witnessed the attack, told Al Jazeera: “The deputy chief of the NDS is from Laghman province.

“He came to Laghman this morning to participate in the reconstruction of the central mosque. He wanted to visit the mosque.

“But before entering the mosque the suicide attacker rammed into his vehicle and exploded himself in a big crowd of religious scholars and tribal elders.”

An Associated Press photographer at the site said US troops and Afghan officials had surrounded the blast site.

The NDS is headed by an ethnic Tajik, and analysts warn that the killing of Laghmani, a Pashtun, could further exacerbate ethnic tensions in the country.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, condemned the incident and the United Nations in Afghanistan said the attack was “indefensible” during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
22:09 Mecca time, 19:09 GMT

Deaths in Pakistan drone attack

At least 10 people have been killed after a suspected US drone fired missiles into Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, Pakistani intelligence has said.

The attack late on Tuesday targeted a Taliban residential compound in Dargamandi village in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear whether any Taliban fighters were present in the area at the time.

The United States has fired scores of missiles from unmanned drones into the tribal regions since last year in a campaign targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reporting from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said: “No one is clear under what mandate the Americans are carrying out such strikes because this is the month of Ramadan and there is going to be a considerable backlash not just in those areas, but from across Pakistan.

“People are angered by the way the Americans are conducting their affairs in this particular conflict . This is an infringement of sovereignty.

“Aircraft with no pilots onboard are constantly flying into Pakistani aerospace and attacking targets within Pakistan … it creates a very complex situation for the Pakistani military itself.

“The signal the Pakistanis want to send across is that they want to be able to work within their territory without outside interference.”

Tuesday’s attack was the second in the North Waziristan tribal region in less than 24 hours.

A similar strike targeting a madrassa (Islamic school) and an adjoining house in Machikhel village killed at least five people on Monday.

Residents on Tuesday said they had seen the drone hovering in the sky and had been expecting the missile attack.

Washington alleges Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion are holed up in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Tuesday, September 08, 2009
16:46 Mecca time, 13:46 GMT

Merkel defends role in Afghanistan

Friday’s airstrike was targeted at Taliban fighters who had hijacked two fuel trucks

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, has said she “deeply regrets” the loss of any innocent life in Afghanistan, but rejected criticism over a Nato airstrike ordered by a German commander that is believed to have killed scores of civilians.

Addressing the country’s parliament in Berlin on Tuesday, Merkel also called for an agreement this year on how to transfer responsibility for security in the country to Afghan officials.

Her comments come days after widespread outrage over the Nato airstrike in Kunduz, a northern province, last Friday which killed 54 people, according to Afghan officials.

“Every innocent person killed in Afghanistan is one too many. Any innocent person killed or hurt, including through German actions, I deeply regret,” Merkel said, and promised an “open” inquiry.

“We will not gloss over anything, but we will not accept any premature condemnation,” she said.

“I refuse to tolerate that, either from Germany or from abroad.”

‘Big mistake’

Earlier on Tuesday, the Nato-led force in Afghanistan said it believed civilians were killed or injured in Friday’s strike, after previously saying that civilians were only harmed.

General Stanley McChrystal, the head of international forces in the country, has ordered an investigation into the bombing.

The strike was reportedly ordered by a German commander after Taliban fighters hijacked two fuel trucks on a Nato supply route from Tajikstan.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, called the decision a major “error of judgment”.

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, also called the airstrike a “big mistake”, while Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said it was a “very, very sad event”.

Power transfer

But Merkel defended Germany’s role in Afghanistan, where it has more than 4,200 troops stationed.

“No one should deceive himself: the consequences of not acting will be attributed to us just as much as the consequences of acting,” she said.

“Everyone who calls for Germany to step aside from fighting international terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan, should consider that.”

The chancellor said she had spoken to Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, about beginning a new era in the country.

“Now is the right moment, together with the new Afghanistan leadership, to set out at the end of this year how this transfer of responsibility will happen,” she said.

Source: Agencies

Did early humans evolve in Europe, not Africa?

Everyone is a-twitter about skulls that seemingly rewrite human evolution, but are the results even new, asks Andy Coghlan

Ban offers UN aid to victims during unplanned visit to Mexican flood zone

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an unplanned visit on Tuesday to the northern suburbs of Mexico City where he personally consoled victims of the severe flash floods that hit the area and offered the assistance of the United Nations.

Ministers urged to cap aviation emissions to meet carbon targets

Caroline Davies
The Guardian, Wednesday 9 September 2009
An agreement to cap aviation emissions must be reached at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen if countries are to meet targets to combat global warming, according to the committee set up to advise the government on the issue.
Rich countries should take the lead, ensuring their aviation emissions are no higher or lower than they were in 2005 by 2050, the climate change committee said in a letter to ministers.
In advance of the December meeting in Denmark, the committee said any deal to reduce emissions from flying should be “ambitious”, and the aim should be for no less than the EU’s current plan which require a 5% reduction in emissions from 2013 to 2020.
Writing to Lord Adonis, the transport secretary and Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, the committee’s chief executive, David Kennedy, said the measures would not force people to fly less than they do currently.
“It is vital that an agreement capping global aviation emissions is part of a Copenhagen deal,” he said.
“We are calling for a cap that would not require people to fly less than today, but would constrain aviation emissions growth going forward,” he said.
“Such a cap together with deep emissions cuts in other sectors would limit the risk of dangerous climate change and the very damaging consequences for people here and in other countries that this would have.”
Without steps to stop growth in aviation emissions planes could account for as much as a fifth of all CO2 produced worldwide by 2050, the committee warned.
The committee said it supported plans to include flying in the EU-wide emissions trading scheme, which would give the aviation industry some “carbon credits” to cover some of their output and let them purchase allowances from greener companies to make up the shortfall. But in the long term real cuts must be made, rather than rich countries relying on “offsetting” their emissions by purchasing credits from poorer countries under international trading schemes.
A government spokesman said: “The UK now has the toughest climate change regime for aviation of any country in the world and we will bring international pressure for aviation emissions to be part of global deal on climate change at the Copenhagen conference later this year.”
Greenpeace climate change campaigner Vicky Wyatt said any government would find it “almost impossible” to build a third runway at Heathrow if they followed the committee’s advice.

UK lined up to be Europe’s carbon capital

Storage of carbon dioxide could bring in £5bn a year, say scientists
Ian Sample, Science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 September 2009 18.10 BST
Britain could become the carbon storage capital of Europe by selling space beneath the North Sea to bury billions of tonnes of waste gases from the continent’s power stations.
An industry offering carbon storage to the mainland could create as many jobs as North Sea oil and bring £5bn a year into UK coffers by 2030, scientists estimate.
The demand for carbon storage is expected to grow as next generation power plants are built with technology that captures waste carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
Trials are ongoing to test whether it is feasible to pump the captured gas into porous rock deep beneath the seabed and store it there indefinitely.
CO2 is a major greenhouse gas and driver of global warming. Government figures claim that using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, Britain could reduce its emissions by a third.
Although it is possible to store CO2 at underground sites onshore, rock formations around 1km beneath the North Sea are ideal for containing the gas, scientists told the British Science Association festival in Guildford.
Beneath the waters surrounding Britain, there is enough room to store 150bn tonnes of CO2, in depleted gas and oil fields, and in giant salt-water aquifers. The storage capacity is more than the rest of Europe combined, excluding Norway.
“There is enough room beneath the North Sea to store 100 years of carbon emissions from north-west Europe’s power stations,” said Stuart Haszeldine, professor of geology at Edinburgh University. “Selling that capacity could bring £5bn a year alone.”
Haszeldine calculates that the cost of developing CCS technology could work out as an extra £28 on top of an annual average household electricity bill of £498.
Engineers with the Norwegian oil company, Statoil, are testing the technology needed to pump CO2 down to depths where it liquefies under pressure. The company has pumped a million tonnes a year into the Sleipner oilfield in the North Sea since 1996.
Monitoring of the site has found no signs that the gas leaking out and rising back up to the surface.
Mike Stephenson, head of energy at the British Geological Survey, said: “If CCS is going to happen in a big way, and it has to to make an impact, then a lot of underground storage space is going to be needed.”
“If we get it right, we could use our storage space to bury Europe’s CO2 and we could charge for it,” Stephenson added.
Carbon storage was only a “stop-gap” solution to the problems of climate change, the scientists said and should ultimately be replaced by renewable energy sources.
The government is looking to industry to build four CCS demonstration plants, but has not given a date by which they should be ready.
Haszeldine said ministers must move faster to avoid losing out to competitors such as the US, which is racing ahead with a similar scheme in Texas.
“I’m pushing for the government to get on with it and build five of these platforms by 2016,” he said.
“We’re doing the usual British thing of being faint-hearted when it comes to making a business out of something. It was the same with nuclear and wind power. We are in a world-beating position and must not lose the plot.”