BBC – The Pakistani embassy in Washington told the BBC he was “likely to attend” the meeting in Chicago. Nato said Pakistan had an important role to play in its neighbour’s future. The move comes amid signs that Pakistan may be about to lift a blockade of Nato’s ground supply lines to Afghanistan imposed in November, after a Nato air strike killed 24 soldiers. Read article
AP – Australia will contribute $100 million annually for three years beginning in 2015 toward the $4 billion a year cost of running the Afghan National Security Forces after they take responsibility for their country’s security. Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defense Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement Wednesday they will take this commitment to the NATO and U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force summit in Chicago on Sunday and Monday. This follows Australia’s commitment to the Afghan National Army Trust Fund of $200 million over five years beginning in 2009-10. Read Article
Reuters – Explosives planted on a bicycle killed nine people in the relatively peaceful Faryab province of northern Afghanistan on Monday, including a provincial council member, police said, amid an increase in violence across the country. The attack came a day after gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a deal with the Taliban as a means to ending the war. The Taliban denied involvement. Police said the remote-controlled bomb killed eight civilians and council member Amanullah Shahabzai as they sat in front of a pharmacy in the Ghormach district of Faryab. Read Article
CNN – hree NATO service members were killed Saturday during attacks in Afghanistan, while a fourth died of noncombat-related injuries, according to the International Security Assistance Force. A roadside bomb took the life of one service member in the southern part of the country, while two others were killed in the same region when two attackers wearing Afghan Police uniforms turned their weapons on NATO troops. Read Article
BBC – A senior Afghan peace negotiator has been shot dead in Kabul, officials say. Arsala Rahmani was a key member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban. Correspondents say his death is a major blow to President Hamid Karzai as Mr Rahmani was key in reaching out to Taliban commanders. Read Article
Mail Online – Two British servicemen have been murdered by rogue Afghan policemen as they guarded a public meeting. It is thought the two gunmen went berserk during the meeting, or ‘shura’, in Helmand province and opened fire with semi-automatic rifles. One of the attackers was shot dead by a British-trained Afghan policeman, while the second was wounded and fled. Read Article
AP – A gunman shot dead a top member of the Afghan peace council Sunday in Kabul, police said. The assassination strikes another blow to efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the decade-long war. Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban official turned Afghan peace negotiator, was in his vehicle when he was killed by an unknown attacker in another vehicle at an intersection in the west part of the city, according to Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police department’s criminal investigation division. Read Article
AFP – An Afghan soldier opened fire on NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing an American and leaving two others wounded, officials said. The death brings to 20 the number of NATO soldiers killed by Afghan colleagues in at least 15 separate attacks so far this year. The shootings have forced US-led troops to step up security and fanned tensions between Western soldiers and the Afghan security forces they are supposed to be training to take responsibility for the country by 2014. “An Afghan army soldier turned his weapon against US soldiers inside an Afghan-US military base in Kunar province, killing one US soldier and injuring two others,” said provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri. Read Article
FoxNews – US officials abandoned plans to open a consulate in northern Afghanistan over security concerns — despite spending more than $80 million on the site, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Read article
RTT – hree US soldiers were killed in an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. An International Security Assistance Force statement did not disclose their nationality, deferring casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities, but reports quoting western officials said three American marines were the victims of an explosion that hit the vehicle they were traveling in south of a military base in Ghazni province. With this, the total number of foreign troop casualties in Afghanistan this year rose to 148. Read Article
Independent – Militants have ambushed a Pakistan army security checkpoint in a region close to the border with Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers. The army said the attack took place in Mir Ali town in North Waziristan, a militant sanctuary frequently targeted by American drones. Unlike other tribal regions, the military has yet to launch an offensive in North Waziristan. Read Article
BBC – A suspected suicide blast in Pakistan’s north-western Bajaur district has left at least 20 people dead, officials say. The blast is reported to have targeted security forces close to a market place in Khar, the tribal area’s main town. Most of those killed were bystanders. The Pakistani Taliban say it was a suicide bombing – officials have yet to confirm the cause of the blast. Bajaur, close to the Afghan border, has seen heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and Taliban militants. Read Article
Reuters – A U.S. drone aircraft killed nine suspected militants on Saturday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said. The controversial drone program, a key element in U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, is highly unpopular in Pakistan where it is considered a violation of sovereignty which causes unacceptable civilian casualties. In Saturday’s strike, a drone fired missiles at a compound in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, killing the nine, said the officials who declined to be identified. Read Article
NY Times – Less than two hours after President Obama left Afghanistan, powerful explosions shook Kabul on Wednesday when a team of suicide attackers struck a private residential compound used by hundreds of foreigners in the east of the city, breaching the outer perimeter and leaving at least eight dead — seven Afghans and a guard — and about 17 wounded, officials said. Read Article
NY Times – An American drone strike killed three suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt on Sunday, an official said, in the first such attack since the country’s Parliament demanded an end to those missions just over two weeks ago. The remotely piloted aircraft struck an abandoned school building in the densely populated central bazaar of Miram Shah, the capital of the North Waziristan tribal agency, killing three people and wounding two, a government official and a local resident said. Read Article
Mail Online – A British soldier shot dead in Afghanistan while on patrol has been named by the Ministry of Defence as Guardsman Michael Roland, from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. Guardsman Roland, 22, from Worthing, Sussex, had been in Afghanistan for less than four weeks when he was shot during a patrol in the Nahr-e-Saraj North District of Helmand Province yesterday.The father of twins was on the second day of a three-day operation to disrupt insurgent activity in a contested area in the north of the district when he was fatally wounded and he died later in Camp Bastion. Read Article
AP – A U.S. defense official has disclosed a second deadly incident in Afghanistan this week in which an Afghan soldier turned his gun on Americans. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the second case has not been acknowledged publicly by the U.S.-led international military coalition in Afghanistan. Read Article
Press TV – Three US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan after a bomb struck a US patrol in the Panjawi district of the country’s southern province of Kandahar, Press TV reports. Read Article
BBC – The prime minister had argued that the president, who rejects the corruption charges, has immunity as head of state. The case is part of a stand-off between the government and the judiciary, which many believe is being backed by the military as it pursues the case against the civilian administration. Mr Gilani’s lawyers say he will appeal against his conviction. Read article
CNN – A man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform killed a U.S. coalition service member, the U.S. military said Thursday. It was the latest in a string of such attacks. The incident took place late Wednesday when the person “turned his weapon against coalition service members,” the U.S. military said. The person who opened fire was killed by coalition forces who returned fire, the military said. Read Article
RT – The long-waited withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan may be not as “full” as had been expected. The US will help defend the country militarily for at least a decade after Afghans take control of their security, a National Security Adviser said. The pledge is contained in the new strategic pact agreed between the two countries on Sunday, Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Monday. A section of this pact implies that the US will not to use Afghanistan as a launch pad for attacks on other countries in the region, including for drone strikes.However he stressed that the US will only come to Afghanistan’s aid with approval from Kabul. Washington may use “diplomatic means, political means, economic means and even military means,” the official said, as cited by AP. Read Article
The Independent – Afghan Gold, a venture formed by Ian Hannan – the star rainmaker recently accused of market abuse – has been shortlisted for a string of mining licences in the war-torn state. The company was a pet project for Hannan, the JP Morgan Cazenove banker who made his name in mining deals and believes that Afghanistan’s fortunes could be turned by exploiting its potentially vast natural resources. Read Article
BBC – A Nato helicopter has crashed in south-western Afghanistan, with four people on board, according to a US defence official. It is not clear whether anyone on board the Black Hawk helicopter has survived. The official said that enemy action could not be ruled out, but initial indications were that the weather was to blame. No British forces were involved, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Those on board are believed to be American. Isaf military officials in Kabul have told the BBC that the crash site is secure and the cause is under investigation. Read Article
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