Chicago, U.S. President Barack Obama, during the NATO Summit in Chicago, made clear his frustration over Pakistan's adamancy over the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Obama expressed his frustration by publicly thanking Russia and other Central Asian countries for providing "critical transit" of war supplies into Afghanistan in the six months since Pakistan closed its ground routes following U.S. air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, reports the Los Angeles Times. Obama chose to ignore Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who sat only a few feet away from him, and pointedly did not mention Pakistan and had initially refused to meet him one-on-one, the paper states. He also made no attempt to downplay the strained relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan which has been unstable since the U.S. raided the military garrison town of Abbottabad last May to kill Osama Bin Laden. "We need to work through some of the tensions (with Pakistan). I don't want to paper over real challenges," Obama was quoted, as saying. Obama said his staff members had known before they arrived in Chicago for the Summit that the dispute over access to supply lines would ...
Read Full Story

Chicago, As a NATO summit opened here amid protests, the US failed to strike a deal with Pakistan to reopen supply lines to Afghanistan casting a long shadow over talks to end the alliance's combat role in the Afghan war. US President Barack "Obama remained at loggerheads with President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, refusing even to meet with him without an agreement on the supply routes," the New York Times reported. It also cited officials in both countries as saying a deal would not be coming soon. Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature with a meeting with Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed, it said, amid continued tensions over US air strikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers leading to the closure of the supply routes. Zardari did, however, meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the supply routes, said a report citing Ben Rhodes, a deputy US national security advisor. However Rhodes gave no details. Meanwhile, protesters clad in black clashed with police at the end of what had been a peaceful march and rally by thousands of demonstrators, led by disenchanted veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars ...
Read Full Story

Washington, Osama bin Laden had planned to kill US President Barack Obama and General David Petraeus, who was then top US commander in Afghanistan, and had issued instructions to Ilyas Kashmiri to set up two units to target planes carrying them. According to the documents seized from the Abbottabad safe-house of bin Laden , the then al-Qaida leader wanted to target only Obama and Petraeus. Some of the documents were released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point on Thursday. "Bin Ladin had asked Atiyya's predecessor, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid , to task Ilyas, presumably Ilyas Kashmiri, to set up two units, one in Pakistan and another in Bagram, Afghanistan , to target airplanes known to be carrying president Obama and/or general Petraeus on their visits to these areas," CTC said in its report. He explained that the death of Obama would see the "utterly unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden automatically assume the presidency, which would cause the US to enter into crisis mode, and "the killing of Petraeus would have a serious impact on the course of the war" , as bin Ladin considered him to be "the man of this (critical) phase" , CTC said. Bin Laden did not ...
Read Full Story

Brussels, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Thursday urged Pakistan to open the transit supply routes for the coalition forces in Afghanistan. "And when it comes to our relationship with Pakistan, my main point is to stress that we need a positive engagement of Pakistan if we are to ensure long-term peace and stability not only in Afghanistan but in the region," Rasmussen said at a press conference. The NATO chief noted that "We have two problems in our relationship with Pakistan. The first is a very immediate challenge to see the transit routes through Pakistan reopened," the EuAsiaNews reported. "It is of course an essential element in our operation in Afghanistan that we can cooperate with Pakistan when it comes to transit. So we hope to see these transit routes reopened as soon as possible," he said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers with non-NATO countries contributing troops to International Security Assistance Force. Last November, Pakistan closed the NATO supply routes into Afghanistan after NATO forces attacked two military outposts killing 25 Pakistani ...
Read Full Story

Washington, The United States has said that it will continue to press Islamabad to "squeeze" the al-Qaida linked Haqqani network, as Afghanistan blamed the Pakistan-based group for the latest brazen attacks in Kabul. Declaring "there were indications of Haqqani involvement" in the weekend attacks in the Afghan capital, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said that she had pressed Pakistan to "squeeze" the Haqqani network when she visited Islamabad last October. "I will continue to make that point, and press it hard," Clinton was quoted by Fox News as telling reporters in the Brazilian capital Brasilia, where she described the Pakistan-based outfit as a "determined foe". Afghan interior minister Bismillah Mohammadi had told newsmen in Kabul that one of the militants arrested during the latest attacks on the Afghan capital and three other cities had told the authorities that al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network was behind the assaults. The secretary of state said she had spoken to her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar to urge her for a commitment to work closely for peace and stability in Afghanistan and also discussed the recent terrorist attacks in Kabul. The ...
Read Full Story

Islamabad,Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Monday called her Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul over phone to strongly condemn the Taliban attacks in the country that killed nearly 50 people. Khar conveyed solidarity of her government and people of Pakistan with their Afghan brethren on the terrorist attacks, reported Xinhua quoting a foreign ministry statement. On Sunday, Taliban rebels stormed Kabul with intense gunfire and rocket attacks targeting key establishments in the heavily guarded diplomatic area. The assault ended after all the attackers were killed Monday. At least 48 people, including 36 terrorists, were killed and 65 injured in the 18-hour dramatic siege of the Afghan capital Kabul by Taliban suicide attackers. On this occasion, Khar also emphasised that Pakistan and Afghanistan faced common challenges of extremism and terrorism necessitating that the two countries work together with greater resolve to eradicate this menace. She assured the Afghan foreign minister of Pakistan's full support for any Afghan initiative that is focused on long-term peace and stability of Afghanistan. The latest attacks came as western forces prepare to leave ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, As many as 36 Taliban militants, who launched a series co-ordinated of attacks in Kabul on Sunday, were killed as the encounter between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces ended after 18 hours on Monday, said a top official. Afghan Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi on Monday confirmed all 36 militants involved in the attacks, were gunned down in the heavy street fighting that started at Sunday noon. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Siddiq Seddiqi told media: "The encounter ended at 7.20 am. All militants were killed. The areas have been cleared." Reports said four insurgents in Kabul, four in Jalalabad, three in Paktia, three in Logar were killed by Afghan police, while 14 police and 9 civilians wounded. The militants were hiding in a construction site as NATO helicopters launched strafing attack runs on them. Taliban militants launched a series co-ordinated of attacks in Kabul on Sunday, targeting western embassies and the nation's parliament with explosions and gunfire rocking western and central parts of Afghanistan's capital city. Gunmen and suicide bombers also attacked targets outside Kabul, including government buildings in Logar ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, In the wake of Sunday's terror attack in Afghanistan, India said it was in constant touch with its embassy in Kabul and its citizens living in that country were safe. Blasts and gun shots were heard inside a luxury hotel in Kabul after militants stormed a building near the UN mission in Afghanistan. "We are in constant touch with our embassy in Kabul. All Indian citizens are reported to be safe," said a statement issued by the external affairs ministry here. Around 4,000 Indians are living in Afghanistan and are engaged in a host of socio-economic reconstruction projects. India has pledged USD 2 billion for reconstruction of ...
Read Full Story

Washington, US president Barack Obama sat in the belly of the "Beast" on Sunday afternoon and made yet another remorseful phone call to Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai to express his regrets about an unhinged American soldier massacring 16 locals in a bloody carnage. The incident, which recalled the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam in which a company of US soldiers slaughtered dozens of unarmed civilians, has increased the pressure on Washington to exit Afghanistan post-haste, even as the Taliban is swearing revenge. "This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the US has for the people of Afghanistan," he said in a statement, even as the White House released a photograph of a contrite President phoning Karzai from the back of the presidential limousine, nicknamed the Beast. He conveyed his administration's commitment to establish the facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone responsible. While analysts broadly agreed that the latest incident was a fatal blow to the US military mission in Afghanistan, it is also threatened to become a political football in ...
Read Full Story

Kandahar, A US soldier went on a shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, bursting into the homes of civilians in villages near his base in the middle of the night and killing up to 16 people, an Afghan minister told reporters. Minister of border and tribal affairs Asadullah Khalid, who is investigating the incident, said the soldier entered three homes, killing 11 people in the first one. Other Afghan officials said at least seven people died. The incident came just weeks after US soldiers burned copies of large numbers of Qurans at a NATO base, triggering widespread anti-Western protests, and plunging already strained ties between Kabul and Washington to a new low. The soldier has been detained and an investigation is underway, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition said. Civilian casualties have been a major source of friction between president Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. "I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity," ISAF deputy commander Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw said in a ...
Read Full Story

Washington, US President Barack Obama Thursday held a videoconference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and discussed security issues in Afghanistan, the White House said. White House Spokesman Jay Carney said Karzai updated Obama on the security situation in his country, Xinhua reported. Carney said the two presidents discussed a range of issues of mutual interest, including US-Afghan Strategic Partnership negotiations and the Afghan-led reconciliation, which was "essential to the ultimate resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan". "The leaders noted progress toward concluding a strategic partnership that reinforces Afghan sovereignty while addressing the practical requirements of transition," Carney ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, A Taliban suicide car bomber targeting NATO troops at an airport in eastern Afghanistan killed nine people Monday, the seventh day of violence over the burning of the Koran at a US airbase. The insurgents also said they were behind an attempt to poison foreign troops, as the death toll from unrest and protests that spread to even usually peaceful parts of the war-ravaged country hit about 40. The UN announced that it was pulling its international staff out of their base in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz after it came under attack Saturday by demonstrators protesting the burning of the Koran. The move came after NATO's International Security Assistance Force pulled all its staff out of Afghan ministries at the weekend when two US advisors were shot dead in the interior ministry, apparently by an Afghan colleague. Six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in the bomb attack on the military base at Jalalabad airport, but NATO troops escaped unhurt. The Taliban said it was revenge for the Koran burning. "The foreign forces have insulted our religion and this attack was revenge," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told ...
Read Full Story

Washington, The Obama administration is sticking determinedly to its stay-the-course message in Afghanistan despite a week of anti-American riots, the point-blank killing of US military advisers and growing election-year demands to bring the troops home. In an echo of the Bush administration on continuing the unpopular war in Iraq, the White House and Pentagon insisted Monday that the wave of violence against Americans will not derail the war strategy in Afghanistan or speed up the calendar for bringing American forces home. "We work alongside thousands of Afghans every single day to ensure a better future for the Afghan people. And nothing that has happened over the past week is going to deter us from that goal,'' Pentagon spokesman George Little said. "We're making progress. We have put the enemy on its heels in many parts of the country.'' Administration spokesmen were at pains to answer the larger question of whether to keep fighting a war that has lost support not only in the United States but also among the people the U.S. has pledged to protect. The perception that Afghans are ungrateful for U.S. sacrifice and are turning on their American advisers complicates ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, At least 10 people were killed and a dozen others injured Monday when a Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden vehicle near the gate of the airport in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, officials said. The dead comprised the suicide bomber, five civilians, two armymen and two local security guards, police chief of Nangarhar province Abdullah Stanekzai told Xinhua. "A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vehicle near the gate of Jalalabad city airport this morning. Ten people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 12 others were injured," Stanekzai said. Jalalabad is the capital of the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. Two American soldiers and six Afghan soldiers were among the injured, he said. Several cars were damaged in the blast that occurred around 6.30 a.m., witnesses said. "There was a young man driving a car who intended to enter the airport but he detonated his car shortly after army soldiers intercepted him and stopped his car," a witness told Xinhua. The massive explosion created a crater one metre deep and two metres in diameter in the road, the witness added. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, At least 10 people were killed and a dozen injured Monday when a suicide bomber blew up his car packed with explosives near the airport in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, police said. "A suicide bomber blew his explosive-laden vehicle near the gate of Jalalabad city airport this morning. Ten people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 12 others were injured," provincial police chief, Abdullah Stanekzai, told Xinhua. Jalalabad is the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. He said five civilians, two army soldiers and two local security guards were among the dead. Two American and six Afghan soldiers were among the injured, said the police chief. Several cars were damaged in the blast that occurred at around 7 a.m. Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack. ...
Read Full Story

Afghanistan, About 2,000 Afghans protested outside the main US military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday over a report that foreign soldiers improperly disposed of copies of the Koran. US helicopters fired flares to try to break up as many as 2,000 demonstrators who massed outside several gates to the base, chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones. Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor's spokeswoman, said copies of the Muslim holy book had been burnt inside Bagram airbase, an hour's drive north of the capital Kabul, citing accounts from local labourers. "The labourers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Korans" Khalid said. Nato's top general in Afghanistan attempted to contain fury over the incident, which could be a public relations disaster for the US military as it tries to pacify the country ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops in 2014. "When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities," said general John Allen, head of the International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF). "This was NOT intentional in any ...
Read Full Story

Islamabad, Pakistani security forces killed some 34 militants Friday in the country's northwest tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border Friday, media reports said. At least 17 militants were killed Friday night by the Pakistani security forces in the Tera Valley area of Khyber Agency which borders Afghanistan, Xinhua reported citing Urdu TV channel Dunya. Meanwhile, at least three security personnel were killed and two injured when a remote-controlled bomb hit security forces's vehicle in the same area Friday night. Earlier Friday morning, Pakistani security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, launched an attack at two militants' hideouts in Khyber Agency, killing five militants and wounding eight others. During the operation, three Pakistani troops and three local pro-government peace militiamen were also killed. Later, the Pakistani security forces launched another attack at four militants' hideouts in Orakzai Agency which borders Khyber Agency to its southern side and killed at least 12 militants while injuring 10 others, bringing the total number of militants killed in the northwest tribal areas of Pakistan to 34. ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, The US and Afghan governments have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Wall Street Journal, in a move that could bolster US-led efforts to convene fully fledged peace talks within months. Karzai's government had previously been excluded from early, exploratory contacts between the Taliban and the United States, with the insurgents seen as resisting the involvement of a local administration they regard as a puppet of Washington. But the Journal quoted Karzai on Thursday as saying the Taliban were "definitively" interested in a peace settlement to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan, and that all three sides were now involved in discussions. "People in Afghanistan want peace, including the Taliban. They're also people like we all are. They have families, they have relatives, they have children, they are suffering a tough time," the Journal quoted Karzai as saying in an interview conducted on Wednesday in the Afghan capital. "There have been contacts between the US government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have ...
Read Full Story

Kabul, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is boosting its technical support to help rebuild Afghanistan’s dilapidated traditional irrigation systems, which have been neglected for decades owing to war and migration away from rural areas. The lack of efficient irrigation facilities has left many farmers without sufficient water for agriculture, including the production of wheat, the country’s main staple food crop, according to a news release issued by FAO. The Irrigation Restoration and Development Project seek to help farmers increase crop production and improve the knowledge and skills that farmers need to run and maintain irrigation systems. “The irrigation systems had suffered over the past three decades, not only because of a lack of investment, but also because people were moving away from the rural areas, leaving no one to maintain the systems or transfer indigenous skills to the younger generation,” said Pasquale Steduto, head of FAO’s Water Development and Management Unit. “When there was a flood, for instance, there was no one to repair or clean up damaged canals or dams. So farmers in rural areas were not able to get ...
Read Full Story

Islamabad, US President Barack Obama has reviewed with his national security team efforts to improve ties with Pakistan, a Pakistani daily reported Friday. At a meeting held Wednesday, Obama received an update on America's "engagement with the Pakistani government on a range of issues of mutual interest, including efforts to strengthen cooperation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border", the Dawn quoted a White House statement as saying. US media reports have indicated that both countries were trying "vigorously" to reduce tensions that have affected their relationship for more than a year now. US sources told Dawn that the White House has been regularly consulting Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, on many issues. Recently, Rehman and a defence team from Pakistan met the head of the US Central Command, Gen. James N. Mattis, at the Pakistani embassy. The New York Times later reported that Mattis would visit Islamabad later in February for talks with Pakistani military officials. It also said he might convey an official apology on the Nov 26 NATO attack on a Pakistani border post that killed 24 soldiers. Pakistan has long demanded such an ...
Read Full Story