Afghan leader takes control of vote fraud panel

Afghan leader takes control of vote fraud panel
Kabul (AP) - Afghanistan's president has raised concern he's reneging on promises to clean up Corruption by taking control of a formerly independent body that monitors election Fraud, complicating Obama Administration efforts to erode support for the Taliban. In another effort to win the trust of Afghans as a mass offensive continues against the Taliban in the south, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan went on national television Tuesday to apologize for an airstrike that...

Karzai takes control of vote fraud panel
Kabul — Afghanistan’s president has taken control of a formerly independent body that monitors election Fraud, raising concern Tuesday that he’s reneging on promises to clean up Corruption and cronyism — a pillar of the Obama Administration’s plan to erode support for the Taliban. In another effort to win the trust of Afghans as a mass offensive continues against the Taliban in the south, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan went on national...

Afghan president takes over election watchdog appointments
Kabul -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has taken control of a formerly independent body that monitors election fraud, raising concerns that he is reneging on promises to clean up Corruption and cronyism -- a pillar of the Obama Administration's plan to erode support for the Taliban. Karzai signed a decree giving him the power to appoint all members of the Electoral Complaints Commission, a group previously dominated by U.N. appointees that said it uncovered massive fraud on behalf of Karzai in...

Directive restricts nighttime raids
Kabul, Afghanistan , Feb. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. and NATO forces, facing tougher rules of engagement in Afghanistan, will be restricted from staging nighttime raids there, a U.S. official told CNN. Citing a new classified directive to the coalition forces which he had seen, the official said the document is signed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, who has been insisting on the need to reduce civilian casualties as it only helps Taliban propaganda efforts. The...

Afghan rights body: 28 civilians killed in Marjah
Kabul (AP) — The Afghan Human Rights commission reported Wednesday that 28 civilians have been killed so far in NATO's offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, and urged pro-government forces to take greater care in distinguishing between civilians and Militants. NATO and Afghan forces are in the 12th day of the offensive, the largest Military operation in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001. Planners see it as key to taking on the Insurgents in their...

UN: 346 Afghan children killed in 2009, more than half by NATO
Home Kabul - The United Nations said Wednesday that 346 children were killed in Afghanistan last year, more than half of them by NATO Forces, mostly in airstrikes. "In 2009, 346 children were killed," Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special representative of the UN secretary general for children and armed conflict, said in Kabul after a seven-day visit the country. She said 131 children were killed in airstrikes, while 22 were killed in nighttime raids by international Special Forces. Taliban...

NATO seeks more police, army trainers
Kabul, Afghanistan , Feb. 24 (UPI) -- NATO members met in Mons, Belgium, to consider adding 2,000 or more personnel to train the army and police in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. The meeting comes as NATO and Afghan forces are conducting a major offensive in southern Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban from stronghold towns and set up local governance, the Voice of America reported. However, the report said, public opinion in Europe is strongly against the Afghan war. Last week the ruling...

Rights body counts 28 civilian deaths in Marjah
Kabul (AP) - The Afghan Human Rights commission reported Wednesday that 28 civilians have been killed so far in NATO's offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, and urged pro-government forces to take greater care in distinguishing between civilians and Militants. NATO and Afghan forces are in the 12th day of the offensive, the largest Military operation in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001. Planners see it as key to taking on the Insurgents in their southern...

McChrystal Apologizes to Afghans for Civilian Deaths
Kabul —  The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan took his apology for a weekend airstrike that killed civilians directly to the Afghan people Tuesday, with a nationally televised video in which he pledged to work to regain their trust as NATO continues a mass offensive against the Taliban in the south. Two U.S. Marine battalions, accompanied by Afghan troops, pushing from the north and south of the insurgent stronghold of Marjah finally linked up after more than a...

Operation on Taliban claims Afghan civilian lives
Kabul, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- As the NATO-led Operation Moshtarak, or Together, against Taliban bastion in southern Afghanistan entered its 10th day on Monday, the number of casualties inflicted on non-combatants is on the rise. The latest air strike against suspected Taliban Militants in the troubled southern region on Sunday left 27 civilians including four women and a child dead and injured another dozen, according to a statement issued by the Presidential Palace. The country's cabinet, while...

Afghan police: 3 die in Lashkar Gah blast
Kabul (AP) - Afghan police say three civilians have died and at least 11 others were wounded in an explosion in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province where thousands of NATO and Afghan forces are in their 11th day of a major offensive against the Taliban. Provincial police chief Gen. Asadullah Sherzad says explosives in a parked motorbike were detonated Tuesday in front of the traffic department. He says police are trying to figure out the target of the boming. A doctor at Lashkar Gah...

Afghan police: 3 die in Lashkar Gah blast amid continuing offense against Taliban
Kabul — Afghan police say three civilians have died and at least 11 others were wounded in an explosion in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province where thousands of NATO and Afghan forces are in their 11th day of a major offensive against the Taliban. Provincial police chief Gen. Asadullah Sherzad says explosives in a parked motorbike were detonated Tuesday in front of the traffic department. He says police are trying to figure out the target of the boming. A doctor at Lashkar Gah...

Bomb blast kills 7 in Afghanistan+
Kabul, Feb. 23 (AP) - (Kyodo)—At least seven civilians were killed and 14 wounded Tuesday by a bomb mounted on a bicycle in southern Afghanistan, an official said. The bomb exploded in a busy area in Lashkargah, the capital of volatile Helmand Province, said provincial government spokesman Duad Ahmad. Helmand is the most volatile and biggest poppy growing Province in which U.S., NATO and Afghan forces have launched their biggest anti- Taliban attack. A total of 2,412 Afghan civilians...

NATO commander makes televised apology to Afghans
Kabul (AP) - The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan went on national television Tuesday to apologize for a deadly airstrike, an extraordinary attempt to regain Afghans' trust while a mass offensive continues against the Taliban in the south. Two U.S. Marine battalions, accompanied by Afghan troops, pushing from the north and south of the insurgent stronghold of Marjah finally linked up after more than a week, creating a direct route across the town that allows convoys to supply...

Afghan body counts 28 civilian deaths in Marjah
Kabul -- The Afghan Human Rights commission reported Wednesday that 28 civilians have been killed so far in NATO's offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, and urged pro-government forces to take greater care in distinguishing between noncombatants and Militants. The report came as Marines started a push to clear the last pockets of Insurgents from Marjah in Helmand Province. The 12th day of the offensive was relatively calm as the troops secured areas they've already taken and moved into...

US military fatalities 1,000 since start of Afghan war not all in Afghanistan (correction)
Feb 23, 2010, 13:51 GMT    Kabul - An independent website said Tuesday that the number of US Soldiers killed since the start of the War in Afghanistan had reached 1,000 amid warnings by NATO officials of tougher fighting and more casualties this year.    ICasualties.org, a website that tracks Military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, said 54 US troops were killed so far this year in the latter, raising the total number to 1,000 since the begin of Operation...

Afghanistan observer sees disappointment
(CNN) -- As the top NATO commander in Afghanistan publicly apologized for the latest civilian deaths in the war, one of his former advisers said Tuesday the Afghan people have "crystallized their frustration" on the issue of civilian casualties. "It's crystallized a disappointment with the international intervention that's been growing since about 2003," said Sarah Chayes, who just completed one year of service as an adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff in Kabul....

Afghanistan war: As civilian deaths rise, NATO says, 'Sorry.' /
In the Afghanistan war, NATO forces chief Gen. Stanley McChrystal publicly apologized Tuesday for 27 Afghan civilian deaths in a US airstrike. The coalition has begun saying 'sorry' more quickly to civilian deaths, as part of a new hearts and minds strategy. Afghanistan war: US Soldiers with NATO patrol near the site of an explosion near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday. McChrystal publicly apologized for 27 Afghan civilian deaths in a US airstrike. Rahmat...

Afghan President Karzai Takes Control of Election Watchdog Agency
By HABIB ZAHORI And MATTHEW ROSENBERG Kabul—President Hamid Karzai took control of Afghanistan's independent election-watchdog agency, a move that drew scorn from opposition politicians and appeared to consolidate his hold on power ahead of parliamentary Elections scheduled for later this year. The watchdog, the Election Complaints Commission, decided to throw out nearly a million fraudulent ballots cast in last August's presidential Elections, denying Mr. Karzai a first-round victory...

Afghan Leader Asserts Control Over Election Body
Kabul, Afghanistan — To the dismay of his political opponents and his international backers, President Hamid Karzai has moved to ensure that he can hand-pick members of an electoral monitoring commission, removing significant United Nations oversight of future Elections.

In Today's Post: Disaster Looms In Backroom Taliban 'Reconciliation' Pact, Says Abdullah
Kabul - In a wide-ranging conversation at his headquarters here yesterday, Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's main opposition leader, warned of a complete collapse of the country if President Hamid Karzai does an end-run around Afghanistan's embryonic Democracy and strikes a power-sharing deal with the Taliban. I report the substance of Abdullah's warnings in today's National Post . What follows is some further background. When Abdullah talks about a scenario far worse than the turmoil that was...

China's thirst for copper could hold key to Afghanistan's future
JALREZ VALLEY, Afghanistan — In this Taliban stronghold in the mountains south of Kabul, the U.S. Army is providing the security that will enable China to exploit one of the world's largest unexploited deposits of copper, earn tens of billions of dollars and feed its voracious appetite for raw materials. U.S. troops set up bases last month along a dirt track that a Chinese firm is paving as part of a $3 billion project to gain access to the Aynak copper reserves. Some troops made...

An Audience With Berhanuddin Rabbani, The Grand Old Man Of The Afghan Mujahideen
Kabul " At his massively fortified residence in this city's posh Wazir Akbar Khan district, Berhanuddin Rabbani, the godfather of Afghanistan's warlord bloc, uttered a dire warning. Any "exit strategy" from Afghanistan that proposes a power-sharing deal with the Taliban could plunge the country back into the raging, fratricidal warfare that preceded September 11, 2001. "This is possible," he said. "As I read history, when a nation's problems become this complex and they are not...

Terry Glavin: Message from a warlord
  At his massively fortified residence in Kabul's posh Wazir Akbar Khan district, Berhanuddin Rabbani, the godfather of Afghanistan's warlord bloc, uttered a dire warning. Any "exit strategy" from Afghanistan that proposes a power-sharing deal with the Taliban could plunge the country back into the raging, fratricidal warfare that preceded September 11, 2001. "This is possible," he said. "As I read history, when a nation's problems become this complex...

NATO: News & Videos about NATO
The NATO operation aimed at tackling a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan is making progress, officials say. Bodies found gagged, bound after Afghan 'honor killing' Four people found dead in a southeastern Afghan compound appear to be victims of an honor killing, a senior U.S. Military official said on Friday. NATO forces recapture vessel seized by pirates NATO forces recaptured a ship Friday that had been taken over by armed Somali pirates, a spokesman for the European Union Naval...