Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues
which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

News archives for the week ending

Afghan war costs 'higher' than Iraq

A recently released Pentagon spending report indicates that the monthly cost of the US war in Afghanistan has topped the costs in Iraq for the first time since 2003.

According to the report, the cost of war in Afghanistan for February stood at 6.7 billion dollars. The figure is almost 20 percent higher compared against the 5.5 billion dollars spent in Iraq.

It is estimated that the Afghan war will cost nearly 105-billion dollars in the 2010 fiscal year. The figure is expected to rise in 2011 as costs per service member in Afghanistan are almost twice as expensive as they are in Iraq.

Press TV, Iran, 13/5/10

Liberals will have little impact on foreign policy

London School of Economics academic Michael Cox said Clegg, as deputy prime minister, was not likely to have a major impact on British foreign posture.

"Foreign policy is being run by the Conservatives, defense is in the hands of the Conservatives," Cox said. "The Liberals are very much the junior partner in this. Is the tail going to wag the dog? I doubt it."

The new government's foreign secretary, William Hague, reaffirmed London's historical close relationship with the United States but said disagreements were likely to arise.

"They remain, in intelligence matters, in nuclear matters, in international diplomacy, in what we are doing in Afghanistan, the indispensable partner of this country," Hague said

Global Security Newswire, 14/5/10

'A culture of impunity'

Private security companies are operating in a "culture of impunity" that is encouraging lawlessness and corruption, Britain's most senior commander in southern Afghanistan warned today.

The companies, mainly Afghan, needed to be "properly regulated as well as registered", said Major General Nick Carter as he spoke to the MoD about the wider situation in the country. There was no system of registering guns or vehicles, he added.

Guardian, 14/5/10

New government likely to remain supportive of Israel

The new prime minister, David Cameron of the Conservative Party, has been a strong backer of Israel. It is one of the many issues on which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have fundamental philosophical differences. Others include how to trim the country’s deficit and bring spending under control.

Candidates affiliated with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the Jews should not worry. “I don’t think the Jewish community has anything to fear,” said Robert Halfon, a Jew and prominent figure in Conservative Friends of Israel who won a parliamentary seat last week for the Conservatives representing Harlow, north of London.

Matthew Harris, a Liberal Democratic candidate in Hendon who finished third in a race won by the Conservative candidate, said, “I think British Jewry will be pleasantly surprised by this government, and particularly by the quality of the five Lib-Dem Cabinet ministers that will be taking up their posts. Whether on faith schools, security and even Israel, I think people will find the Lib-Dems and this coalition to be broadly supportive of Jewish interests.”

Jewish Telegraph Agency, 13/5/10

Defence stocks boosted by new government

Aerospace and defence stocks helped drive Britain's top share index higher on Wednesday with investors relieved over the formation of a new British government.

Rolls Royce, Cobham and BAE Systems helped boost the blue chips, up 1.7-5.4 percent, as investors reacted positively to the composition of a coalition government and appointment of Liam Fox as the new defence minister.

"Liam Fox is hard line on defence and he will fight hard for his corner," said independent defence analyst Paul Beaver.

Reuters, 12/5/10

Attacks show al-Qaida in Iraq still powerful

A flurry of attacks blamed on al-Qaida defied claims by the U.S. and Iraq that they dealt the militants a severe blow by killing their two leaders last month.

Analysts say the violence — most of it against Shiite targets — is likely an attempt to re-ignite sectarian warfare, a tactic that could work if Sunnis lose faith in the political process and Iraqis once again turn to militias to protect them if the government cannot.

Associated Press, 11/5/10

Number of Iraqi refugees is on rise

The number of Iraqis who have fled their homes that are reduced to living in squatter camps has increased by 25 percent in the past year, a senior UN diplomat told AFP on Tuesday.

Daniel Endres, Iraq representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the total number of internally diplaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq officially remained at 1.5 million.

AFP, 11/5/10

US warns Russia on Iran

The United States has made it clear to Russia that delivering an anti-aircraft system to Iran would have severe consequences for U.S. ties with Moscow, a senior advisor to President Obama said Tuesday.

In a generally upbeat assessment of ties with Russia, Gary Samore, White House coordinator for arms control, weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, said he thought Russia understood Washington's position and would be surprised if Moscow shipped the S-300 anti-aircraft system that Iran has ordered.

"We've made it very clear to the Russians that that would have a very significant impact on our bilateral relations," said Samore. "I think the Russians understand that the consequences would be very severe."

Tehran has urged Russia not to bow to Western pressure over the sale of the system which, analysts say, could help Iran thwart any attempt to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.

The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute over its nuclear facilities.

Reuters, 11/5/10

Iraqi Kurds protest killing of journalist

Hundreds of university students tried to storm the local Parliament building here in the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region on Monday during an angry protest against the recent abduction and killing of a Kurdish journalist.

The journalist, Zardasht Osman, 23, had been critical of the authorities and the entrenched patronage system, and many of the protesters accused security and intelligence forces of being behind the killing.

The killing sent shock waves through the tightly controlled Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which has prided itself over the past few years on being, unlike the rest of the country, a secure haven for foreign investors, including dozens of oil and gas companies.

Traffic came to a standstill in parts of Erbil on Monday as students, most of them dressed in black, marched from the spot where Mr. Osman was abducted to the Parliament building. A group carried a mock coffin draped in black with the word azadi, meaning freedom in Kurdish, scrawled on it. Many waved portraits of Mr. Osman.

“Democracy is a delusion here,” said one protester, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution for his comments.

New York Times, 10/5/10

More UK troops for Afghanistan danger zone

Defence chiefs are drawing up plans to reinforce hard-pressed British troops in Sangin, an area they describe as one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan.

The Sangin valley is an important communications crossroads and commercial area of Helmand province. It is an opium poppy growing area and a centre of the narcotics trade.

Of the 40 British troops killed this year in Afghanistan, nearly half were patrolling in the Sangin district. 3 Rifles, whose battlegroup was based in Sangin, lost an unprecedented 30 men during a six-month Afghan tour which has just ended.

Troops there are vulnerable to increasingly accurate small arms fire by Taliban-supporting fighters as well improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Royal Marines from 40 Commando were also approached last month by a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14. The boy killed himself, and a Marine and an interpreter suffered minor injuries.

Afghan forces are supporting British troops in the region, but not in the numbers planned mainly because of the difficulty in recruiting from the local population, defence sources say.

British defence officials are also concerned about a lack of skilled Nato troops needed to train the Afghan national army, a shortage which they admit could jeopardise any British or US exit strategy. Nato officials said recently they were seeking at least 500 more military trainers.

Guardian, 10/5/10

At least 100 dead in Iraq violence

More than 100 people have died and 350 been wounded in a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Iraq - the worst day of violence there this year.

The central city of Hilla saw the deadliest attack, when staff at a textiles factory were hit by three bomb attacks, killing at least 45 people. The violence began with a series of drive-by shootings targeting police and army officers in the capital Baghdad.

Iraq remains in political stalemate after inconclusive elections in March. Monday's violence has been blamed on al-Qaeda in Iraq, and it looks like a strong signal that they are still a force to be reckoned with, says the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad.

Only last month, US and Iraqi officials had claimed a major victory after killing the militant organisation's two highest-ranking members.

BBC News, 10/5/10

Drone attacks on Pakistan not to increase

The Pakistani defense minister says US troops stationed in neighboring Afghanistan will not expand their drone attacks on the country's troubled tribal areas.

Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Sunday that the reports about the expansion of drone strikes in Pakistan are mere speculation on part of western media, The Dawn reported.

The remarks come after media reports suggested that the CIA had received authorization to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan with its drone-guided missiles.

The US has stepped up drone attacks in Pakistan in recent years. Since August 2008, such strikes have killed nearly a thousand people, including many civilians.

Press TV, Iran, 9/5/10

Afghanistan bans two security firms after civilian killings

Afghanistan has barred two private security firms from one of the country's most dangerous highways after their guards shot and killed two civilians, the government said Sunday.

The victims were killed accidentally in separate incidents on the road that connects the Afghan capital Kabul to the south -- the heartland of the Taliban militants waging a bloody insurgency against the Western-backed government.

Civilian deaths are a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan and interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said both companies had also been ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families.

The two firms, Compass and Watan Risk Management, are among 52 private security companies registered to operate in Afghanistan, where security has deteriorated in recent years.

Their clients include NATO and US-led forces, aid agencies and private businesses, which use them to provide armed escorts for convoys travelling on dangerous roads.

AFP, 9/5/10

Majority in US oppose war

Afghan president Hamid Karzai's visit to the White House this week arrives as the public's take on the war there has tilted back to negative, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

52% now say the war in Afghanistan is not worth its costs, marking a return to negative territory after a brief uptick in public support in the wake of the announcement of the administration's new strategy for the conflict.

Washington Post, 9/5/10

Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish Iraq

Turkey's military says its warplanes have struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq. The military's press office said on Saturday that Turkish warplanes pounded positions across the border on Friday after army helicopters came under anti-aircraft fire from Iraqi soil. It said the rebel positions there were destroyed.

The helicopters were chasing a group of Turkish Kurdish rebels who killed two soldiers in a cross-border attack near the Daglica area along the Iraqi border. Five rebels were killed in the clashes.

It was the largest reported clash between the troops and autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels since the guerrillas killed four soldiers and wounded seven others in an attack on a military outpost in eastern Turkey on April 30.

Associated Press, 8/5/10

Shi'ite militia regrouping

A once-feared Shi’ite militia that was crippled two years ago by defections and a US-Iraqi crackdown has quietly started to regroup, adding street muscle to the Shi’ite party that emerged strongest from Iraq’s parliamentary elections.

The revival of the Mahdi Army, loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, could be an ominous sign. A Sadr spokesman said the force is gearing up to ensure US forces stick to a Dec. 31, 2011, deadline to withdraw from the country — threatening attacks on American troops if they stay past the date.

Sadr disbanded the militia in 2008. But his spokesman, Salah al-Obeidi, told the Associated Press that it has officially been revived.

The militia’s armed wing, called the Promised Day Brigade, will “prepare quietly to launch qualitative attacks against the occupiers [US forces] if they stay beyond 2011,’’ he said. “It will have a big role to play to drive them out of Iraq.’’

Boston Globe, 8/5/10

Drone attacks make US less secure?

When President Obama decided last year to narrow the scope of the nine-year war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he and his aides settled on a formulation that sounded simple: Eviscerate Al Qaeda, but just “degrade” the Taliban, reversing that movement’s momentum.

Now, after the bungled car-bombing attempt in Times Square with suspected links to the Pakistani Taliban, a new, and disturbing, question is being raised in Washington: Have the stepped-up attacks in Pakistan — notably the Predator drone strikes — actually made Americans less safe? Have they had the perverse consequence of driving lesser insurgencies to think of targeting Times Square and American airliners, not just Kabul and Islamabad? In short, are they inspiring more attacks on America than they prevent?

New York Times, 7/5/10

Taliban announce spring offensive

Taliban insurgents announced on Saturday an offensive against NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, just as Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to travel to Washington.

In a statement from an email usually used by Taliban militants, it said the new offensive will begin from Monday and would target foreign troops, Afghan government officials, and foreign diplomats with suicide and roadside bombings.

"In order to expedite the momentum of the Jihadic activities, the Islamic Emirate announces this spring operation by the name of Al-Faath (victory) to be launched against Americans, NATO members and their surrogates," the statement said.

Reuters, 8/5/10

Attacks signal end of poppy harvest

The gunfire and explosions echoing across this Taliban-infested district in southern Afghanistan on Friday signaled the end of the opium poppy harvest as militants again turned their attention from agriculture to attacking NATO and Afghan forces.

U.S. Army soldiers perched on this small hilltop base in Kandahar province's Zhari district had a ringside seat to the early morning fighting. It snapped a lull in violence that had lasted almost three weeks while the Taliban focused on taxing the poppy crop, one of its main sources of revenue.

Building up resources is especially important for the Taliban this year as NATO is ramping up its latest military operation in Kandahar, the group's spiritual heartland. Military commanders have characterized the Kandahar mission as the make-or-break battle of the nearly 9-year-old war.

"This is the most gunfire that has happened in weeks," said Staff Sgt. Aaron Christensen, looking down from Strong Point Ghundy Ghar as helicopter gunships pounded Taliban militants who had attacked a U.S. patrol about 1.5 miles away. "The poppy harvest is definitely over."

Associated Press, 7/5/10

Afghanistan to hold peace assembly

Afghanistan will covene a national peace assembly from May 29 to discuss how to bring Taliban insurgents into peace talks, just weeks after President Hamid Karzai is due to return from Washington, the organizers said.

The Taliban, ousted from power by U.S.-backed Afghan force in late 2001 after ruling most of the country for five years, have repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of international troops before any peace talks can take place.

The assembly, known as a "jirga," was initially planned for earlier this month but was canceled as the date clashed with Karzai's trip to Washington from May 10-14.

The main organizer of the three-day event, Education Minister Farooq Wardak, has said that postponement would allow Karzai to report to the jirga about U.S. policy toward Afghan initiatives on negotiating with the insurgents.

Reuters, 7/5/10

Allawi asserts right to form government

The leader of the top vote-getting coalition in Iraq's inconclusive March 7 elections insisted his bloc still has the right to form the next government despite an alliance forged this week between two rival Shiite groups.

The alliance makes the Shiites the largest political bloc in parliament, setting the stage for outmaneuvering the election win of Ayad Allawi's cross-sectarian Iraqiya party.

Strong Sunni support helped his bloc eke out a slim lead in the balloting in which no group won an outright majority in the 325-seat parliament. But as top vote getter, Allawi, a former prime minister, said he should have gotten the first stab at forming the next government and he was determined to stake his claim.

Allawi's case, however, received a blow on Thursday when the Kurdish coalition, which with 43 seats would be necessary to form any new government, indicated they would be happy to ally with the Shiites as they have done in the past.

Associated Press, 7/5/10