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News archives for the week ending 14th August 2009

“Some in the UK believe the fight is not worth it”

Three British soldiers were killed in a bomb blast this morning in southern Afghanistan, taking the toll of Britain's military dead in the country to 199.

Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, paid tribute to the men. “The loss of these brave men, and of all those who have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002, is a tragedy. It brings us very close to the sad milestone of 200 fatalities in this conflict,” he said.

“We cannot help but reflect on the toll the mission has taken on our people and their families and friends. But we must also keep in the forefront of our minds how important it is to the security of this country and its citizens.

“So many young men and women have been injured or given their lives to ensure that Afghanistan does not fall back into the hands of the extremists and the terrorists who seek to threaten us and our interests. We must succeed. And we will.”

Earlier Mr Ainsworth bemoaned an attitude of “defeatism” in Britain over the campaign as the bodies of four other soldiers killed in Afghanistan, including three special forces troopers, were repatriated.

Mr Ainsworth, writing in the New Statesman magazine, said that despite the hard effort and determination of British forces the campaign in Afghanistan had become a political football.

“Despite the huge influx of US and other Nato troops, despite the focus of the Obama administration and the recent success of operations in Helmand, some in the UK believe the fight is not worth it,” Mr Ainsworth wrote.

Times 13/8/09

Rival Somali soldiers clash

At least ten Somali soldiers have been killed and 25 people injured in a sudden eruption of violence between two rival groups within the government forces.

Fighting continues in the Somali capital Mogadishu between soldiers loyal to the city's deputy-mayor, Abdi Fatah Sabriye, and supporters of the police chief, General Hassan Awale Kheydid

Somalia remains the scene of continuing civil war that has grappled the Horn of Africa nation since 1991 following the overthrow of the country's junta dictatorship under Mohamed Siad Barre

War rages on in the poverty-stricken nation over power struggle between deeply-divided militant groups and a shaky central government which has failed to claim control even in the capital

The lawless state has been described as being on the verge of collapse despite international military presence meant to restore peace Over 16,000 people have been killed and a projected 250,000 others have been internally displaced across the war-ravaged nation during the past several months alone.

13/8/09 Press TV

Iraq to ban dual citizenship for top officials

Iraq's cabinet has approved a bill to require all top government and security officials to renounce any foreign citizenships they hold or to step down.

The bill, which must be approved by parliament, would apply to the president, prime minister, speaker of parliament and their deputies, as well as key ministers and army and police commanders.

The ministers affected are those of the interior, defence, finance, oil and foreign affairs. "Those that wish to keep their foreign nationality would have to give up their government positions," the government spokesman said.

Many senior positions in Iraq are filled by former exiles who returned to the country from abroad after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. More than half of ministers hold dual nationalities.

AFP 12/8/09

US must not negotiate for Iraq

The Iraqi government insisted that it's not up to the United States to negotiate over Iraq's security with Syria as a delegation from the Obama administration arrived Wednesday in Damascus.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will make his own trip to Syria next week to discuss security, the government said, calling the issue an internal Iraqi affair. U.S. and Iraqi officials have long been concerned about the infiltration of foreign fighters across the Syrian border.

"It is not the duty of the American delegation to negotiate on behalf of Iraq," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press. "It is the Iraqi government that will directly negotiate on security with Syria."

The remarks underscored emerging strains in the relationship between the Iraqis and the Americans as the balance of power shifts with the impending withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011. U.S. combat forces already turned over urban security to Iraqi forces on June 30, focusing their efforts on the borders and rural areas.

U.S. officials dismissed concerns about a rift over this week's talks in Damascus, which also were expected to deal with prospects for Mideast peacemaking. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

"We have had concerns, going back a number of years, regarding the infiltration of foreign influences from the region through Syria into Iraq." and, Crowley said, Iraq benefits from the effort to deal with the problem.

The talks are part of an acceleration of U.S. engagement with the Arab world and U.S. hopes that Syria can play a constructive role.

Associated Press 12/8/09

Pakistan's nuclear bases targeted by al-Qaeda

In a paper for the respected anti-terrorism journal of America's West Point Military Academy, Professor Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Bradford University, detailed three attacks since November 2007 and raised the spectre of more incidents in the future.

These attacks had been launched despite an extensive security cordon around the facilities and millions of dollars in American technical aid to prevent militant infiltration.

Dr Anupam Srivastava, director of the Centre for International Trade and Security at Georgia University, who has advised the US government on nuclear security issues, told The Daily Telegraph he believed there had been more than three attacks on Pakistan's nuclear facilities and the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants would intensify its assaults.

Dr Srivastava said he believed an increase in the number of attacks on nuclear facilities was inevitable because of the growing antagonism between the Pakistan military establishment and the militants it had previously supported. "Pakistan is at war with itself. They have created a Frankenstein and the intensity of attacks on these facilities will grow," he said.

Telegraph 11/8/09

Karzai will not win outright

Hamid Karzai does not have enough support to win outright in next week's Afghan presidential elections a new opinion poll suggests, raising the prospect of a closely-fought run off.

The US government-funded poll found that the president of Afghanistan led his rivals by a wide margin, but lacked the 50 per cent of the vote necessary to avoid a second round.

The poll put Mr Karzai on 36 per cent of the vote and his nearest rival, Dr Abdullah Abdullah on 20 per cent among registered voters. A fifth of Afghans are still undecided or would not answer the survey, the poll by a Washington-based research firm reported.

A credible August 20 poll is a key plank of Western efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. Mr Karzai had seemed certain until recently to win against a divided and feuding opposition. But the campaign has come to life in recent weeks with the emergence of Dr Abdullah, leading the main opposition grouping including remnants of the Northern Alliance which helped toppled the Taliban in 2001.

The Afghan government has hired 10,000 tribesmen to protect this month’s presidential election, an Afghan official disclosed, raising the possibility that village militias could be enlisted to fight the Taliban.

The men will be paid $160 a month and use their own guns to secure polling stations in 21 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces Arif Khan Noorzai head of the Independent Directorate for the Protection of Public Properties and Highways by Tribal Support said.

Telegraph 11/8/09

Bombings and corruption

More than 100 people died in bombings across Iraq over the past three days. The attacks, which hit Baghdad and areas outside Mosul in the north on Friday and on Monday, are the biggest and the most serious since the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities at the end of June.

The government says the attacks serve two inter-related purposes: to attempt to reignite sectarian violence that reigned in Iraq in 2006-2007 and to undermine the security gains of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government ahead of parliamentary elections in January.

While the prime minister blames the Sunni insurgency for the attacks, opponents of his predominantly Shia government say it is time to focus on the enemy within. They accuse Mr Maliki of alienating Iraq's Sunni population and allowing corruption to infect all parts of the government, especially the security services.

According to Iraq's own government anti-corruption agency, the ministries of defence and the interior are among the most corrupt in the country.

Alia Nusaif Jasim, an MP and member of parliamentary anti-corruption committee, alleges that millions of dollars of US defence aid never make it to the state coffers.

"Right now, corruption is a bigger threat for us than insurgency, because it is preventing all of our government institutions - and especially our security services - from doing their job," Ms Jasim said.

BBC News 11/8/09

An aversion to western style capitalism

Iraq has been crying out for foreign investment as violence has ebbed, but the decrepit and loss-making industries on offer are hostage to an army of surplus staff who could turn to militants for work if fired.

Iraq has stuffed factories and other state bodies with legions of extra workers to lure the poverty stricken away from a well-funded insurgency, which has only waned in the last 18 months after more than six years since the U.S.-led invasion.

At a state-owned electrical factory in Baghdad, a maximum of 2,500 workers are actually required, yet only a handful of the 4,370 employees on the payroll were visible in the forest of ancient looking machines in the cavernous factory halls.

Iraq hopes to entice foreign capital to such plants to rehabilitate them and turn them into profit-making ventures, but that could mean the sacking of thousands of extra staff.

The U.S. military believes most Iraqis working with the insurgency do so only to earn a living, not through ideology.

Generations of Iraqis are accustomed to a government run economy in which the state provides for all, and a deep-rooted aversion to Western-style capitalism is part of the culture.

Yet a sharp fall in oil prices from last year forced Iraq to slash its 2009 budget three times, making it unlikely to be able to support a huge public sector indefinitely.

"Privatization won't work. There won't be job safety - the country must protect its people," said Faiq Marhoum, a worker at the factory for 37 years.

Iraq has struggled to move to a more free market economy since the 2003 invasion, and privatization laws are stuck in parliament with lawmakers largely hostile to the plan.

Factory workers said it was unfair to blame them for the country's failure to keep production lines going and prevent competition from a flood of cheap goods since Saddam's ouster, when Iraq became a virtual free-for-all for importers.

Reuters 10/8/09

Gunmen storm government building near Kabul

Gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the police headquarters and the governor’s office of a provincial town just south of Kabul on Monday, killing at least one policeman in the assault, Afghan officials said.

The attack occurred in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar Province, an hour’s drive from Kabul. Violence is escalating throughout the country in advance of Afghanistan’s national elections on Aug. 20 amid a stepped-up effort by international forces to bring the security situation under control. The Taliban have warned people not to vote and have said they will seek to disrupt the election.

Fighting continued for hours after the initial assault, which began about noon, witnesses said. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside the police station just before 3 p.m., according to a local journalist reached by telephone, and at 4 p.m., an American Apache helicopter was continuing to strafe the militants, who responded with gunfire.

New York Times, 10/8/09

Pakistanis see US as greatest threat

A survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan has revealed a widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs.

When respondents were asked what they consider to be the biggest threat to the nation of Pakistan, 11 per cent of the population identified the Taliban fighters, who have been blamed for scores of deadly bomb attacks across the country in recent years.

Another 18 per cent said that they believe that the greatest threat came from neighbouring India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since partition in 1947.

But an overwhelming number, 59 per cent of respondents, said the greatest threat to Pakistan right now is, in fact, the US, a donor of considerable amounts of military and development aid.

Al Jazeera, 10/8/09

Clinton threatens Eritrea

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that the US will "take action" against Eritrea if it does not stop supporting militants in Somalia.

She said after talks with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, that Eritrea's actions were "unacceptable". She also said the US would expand support for Somalia's unity government.

BBC News, 6/8/09

Security threat will cut participation in Afghan election

The United Nations’ chief representative in Afghanistan said there was “no doubt” security threats would cut participation in elections this month.

Three female candidates in the southern Kandahar province have been forced from their homes by opponents, while a woman in Takhar province in the north had her home set on fire and closed her campaign office, according to a report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

“We have conflict ongoing in the country which will not allow all Afghan voters to come to the polling stations and do what they want to do,” Kai Eide, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul yesterday.

U.S. President Barack Obama promised to devote 21,000 more military personnel for Afghanistan this year to fight the Taliban. The U.S. plans to have at least 60,000 soldiers on the ground by election day.

Bloomberg Press, 10/8/09

Clinton calls for Angola elections

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Angola where she is urging the government in Luanda to fight corruption and hold presidential elections. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says economic growth in Angola depends on good governance and strong democratic institutions.

After a meeting with Angolan Foreign Minister Assuncao Afonso dos Anjos, Clinton said she hoped the nation's first presidential election in almost two decades would be held in a "timely manner." Dos Anjos says a presidential vote expected later this year will likely be delayed until 2010 so Angola can approve a new constitution.

Angola is only seven years removed from 27 years of civil war, in which the United States backed rebels from the UNITA movement. UNITA is now the main opposition party and says President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is delaying a presidential vote to extend his time in office.

Angola and Nigeria are Africa's largest producers of crude oil, and U.S. firms account for half of Angola's daily production.

Voice of America, 9/8/09

UK in Afghanistan for forty years...

The UK's commitment to Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years, the incoming head of the Army has said.

Gen Sir David Richards, who takes over on 28 August, told the Times the Army's role would evolve, but the process of "nation-building" would last decades.

Troops will be required for the medium term only, but the UK will continue to play a role in "development, governance [and] security sector reform," he said. "There is absolutely no chance of Nato pulling out," Gen Richards added.

BBC News, 8/8/09

...as NATO calls for escalation of war

NATO's new chief called Friday for additional reinforcements in Afghanistan, and the alliance announced the deaths of eight more U.S. and British troops as violence worsens in the eight-year-old war's deadliest phase.

The NATO chief's open call for more troops was perhaps the clearest indication yet that a major escalation ordered this year by new U.S. President Barack Obama is far from over.

Reuters, 8/8/09

...and US counts the cost

As the Obama administration expands U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, military experts are warning that the 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.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan eight years ago, the United States has spent $223 billion on war-related funding for that country, according to the Congressional Research Service. Aid expenditures, excluding the cost of combat operations, have grown exponentially, from $982 million in 2003 to $9.3 billion last year.

Washington Post, 9/8/09

US arms for Somalia

Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government received desperately needed support on Thursday as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised its president as “the best hope we’ve had for some time,” then strongly warned Eritrea to stop supporting insurgents in the country.

Mrs. Clinton met with Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, elected Somalia’s president in January, for more than an hour. She promised more aid, training and equipment, in addition to the millions of dollars’ worth of weapons the United States has recently shipped to his government.

Sheik Sharif can use the help. His moderate Islamist government controls no more than a few city blocks in a country the size of Texas, with extremist Islamist groups, like the Shabab, in charge of much of the rest.

New York Times, 6/8/09

Maliki moves to centralise power

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proposed a series of laws that lawmakers, Western officials and nongovernmental organizations say could curb democratic freedoms in Iraq. If successful, the push would tighten government control over political parties, NGOs and the media, aiding Mr. Maliki's efforts to centralize authority over the country as the U.S. role in Iraq dwindles.

"Maliki is using all his political power to push through constitutional changes that will centralize power in his hands under the umbrella of security," said Julia Pataki, an adviser to Iraq's parliament working for the U.S. State Department-funded Institute for International Law and Human Rights.

"These laws show Maliki appears to have a well-defined strategy and vision for Iraq, but they send mixed messages about just how democratic that vision is."

Wall Street Journal, 8/8/09

Mosul bombing increases tension

A series of attacks largely targeting Shiite Muslims killed at least 52 people Friday, most of them in a powerful car bombing at a mosque on the northern edge of the volatile city of Mosul.

The bombing, which demolished 10 nearby homes, is certain to raise tensions between Kurds, who control the area, and the Sunni Arab administration of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Nineveh's governor, Atheel Najafi, has been pushing for the Iraqi army to be deployed in place of the peshmerga Kurdish militia across a swath of territory currently controlled by Kurds. Najafi accused the peshmerga of responsibility for the bombing for "allowing criminal elements in this area to carry out their attacks," and said it demonstrated the need to extend the authority of the Iraqi army into the area.

Kurds, however, have frequently accused Najafi of having ties to insurgents, and want most of the land they control to be formally annexed to their self-governing region of Kurdistan.

Los Angeles Times, 8/8/09