GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US President Barack Obama promised to “finish the job” begun in Afghanistan, in a speech pronounced during a surprise visit to a US military base in the country, Wednesday morning 2 May.
The president’s speech, which takes place a year after Osama Bin Laden’s death and broadcast from Bagram Air Base to prime-time audiences in the US, stated that US troops would not be kept in dangerous circumstances “a single day longer than is absolutely required for our national security”, but he pledged to “end this war responsibly”.
Obama had met Afghan president Hamid Karzai in a secret midnight meeting in which the two men signed a long-term strategic partnership valid till 2024, which will deal with issues of internal security and development in Afghanistan.
Six months prior to US Presidential elections, Obama committed in his speech to the withdrawal of 24,000 troops from the country by the end of the summer, and to adhere to its NATO agreement to turn security over to Afghan forces by 2014. Currently, 88,000 US troops are stationed in Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks Wednesday morning on guesthouses in the capital Kabul, in which at least seven people where killed.
Links to other sources: CNN, Washington Post, BBC, Daily News
GENEVA, SWITZERLEAND -Western leaders’ promises of help to the Afghan government when their troops leave, made Monday at an international conference in Germany, appeared to offer smaller hopes of peace following deadly attacks in Kabul and a city in the north Tuesday 6 December.
Close to 60 people died and 160 were injured when a suicide bomber attacked Shi’ite Muslims at a Kabul shrine crowded with religious observers.The blast was the worst in three years. Several of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition
The Irish Times reports that “a Pakistani militant group with close ties to al-Qaeda said it carried out the attack, although security sources could not confirm the group’s involvement.” Aljazeera says attention is focusing on Sunni groups based in Pakistan, but it is unclear as yet who is to blame.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Guardian (photo gallery), Irish Times, Reuters
KABUL – Six Taliban insurgents were killed after a 20-hour standoff in the heart of Kabul’s diplomatic and military enclave.
“The operation just ended and 6 terrorists were killed by police,” spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter. The number was updated to seven later in the day. Fifteen others were wounded.
The Taliban-led gunmen shot rockets towards the US and other embassies and the headquarters of NATO-led foreign forces.
The ability of the Taliban to penetrate Kabul’s vaunted was a clear show of strength ahead of a handover of security to Afghan forces slated for 2014.
Links to: Khaleej Times,
Eight people were killed in Afghanistan, three of them foreigners, and several others were injured when a bomb went off in a Finest Supermarket in Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan district, Friday 28 January. The area is home to numerous embassies and is popular with foreigners and wealthy Afghans. It is not yet clear if it was the work of a suicide bomber. The Taliban have taken responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting the head of foreign contractor Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, a major supplier for US military operations. The store is frequented by foreigners.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, McClatchy
Albert, 22, holding his one-month-old daughter, Adriana, wanted to be a physician, but had to start working at a construction site because his mother needed medical care as a result of the displacement (photo: ©2009 Zalmai/UNHCR).
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Half of the world’s 10.5 million official refugees now live in cities, according to the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), António Guterres. And twice as many internally displaced persons and “returnees” who have come home from abroad following conflicts, are living in urban areas. Guterres’s statement was made ahead of the 9 December UNHCR annual meeting called the High Commissioner’s Dialogue, which this year will focus on “protection challenges in the context of urbanization.” The meeting is designed to underscore that while the rest of the world tends to think of refugees in terms of camps, the reality for many is very different.
The movement to cities of refugees and people displaced internally by conflict is in parallel with a general movement towards urban areas throughout the world, but it puts added strains on resources that are often already in short supply. Most live in overcrowded shantytowns with little or no health care or social services, the UNHCR says its experience on the ground shows. They are often reluctant to register and try to remain invisible for fear of deportation, and they get by as part of the informal economy, which leaves them open to exploitation, the Geneva-based organization says.
Hamid Karzai’s inauguration for a second term as president of Afghanistan has come with unusually high security in the capital Kabul, and renewed pleas to step up the fight against corruption, from former US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders. Regular flights in and out of the city have been cancelled, citizens urged to take a holiday and stay home, and heavier than usual patrols are out on the streets to ward off a possible Taliban attack.
Pakistan attack kills 15
Over the border in Peshawar, Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and injured scores at a court building not far from the Pearl Continental Hotel where nine people died in June. Al Jazeera links the latest blast to a new military push: “The military launched its offensive nearly three weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera,
Four US soldiers died when the helicopter they were riding in apparently crashed with another in southern Afghanistan. The helicopters were not involved in hostilities, according to the reports.
The news comes as earlier reports spoke of 10 US dead in another crash in Baghdis province in the west of the country involving a helicopter in an operation against insurgents “conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking”, according to the International Security Asssistance Force spokesman.
In the centre of Kabul, the capital, hundreds of Afghans shouting anti-US slogans clashed with police to protest the alleged desecration of a Koran by US soldiers in the second day of protests. Similar protests were taking place in the western city of Herat, Monday 26 October. AFP, Reuters
A man working undercover for the BBC news service in Kabul, Afghanistan has found instances of voter fraud involving the sale of voter cards and offers to buy blocks of votes for cash, days ahead of the country’s presidential and provincial council elections 20 August. Some people reportedly have been issued multiple voter cards to enable them to vote several times. President Hamid Karzai is running against 30 other contenders in the election. Late Monday 17 August General Abdul Rashid Dostum arrived in Afghanistan from exile in Turkey to throw his weight behind Karzai, increasing concerns in the US and at the United Nations “that Dostum could return to government. Washington said he may have been responsible for human rights violations” according to Reuters. Western observers are currently saying that Karzai will not achieve the 50 percent vote needed to avoid a run-off.
Insurgent Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the electoral process, and many parts of the country are inaccessible to government officals. The US military forces in Afghanistan have vowed to ensure security for the elections, but attacks in Kabul and elsewhere on coalition forces have increased over the past few days. Two rockets hit the presidential palace early 18 August, slightly injuring one person. CNN, Reuters, The Times, UK
