Hard fight remains for Afghanistan's Nangarhar province

The platoon sets out on a moonless night to patrol a nearby village where Taliban gunmen are known to lurk.

Though normally accompanied by their Afghan counterparts, U.S. forces operate alone on this night. An insider attack that killed two U.S. officers just a day earlier in a nearby province prompts forces at Forward Operation Base (FOB) Connolly to take extra precautions. Because of the threat of follow-up attacks, patrols with Afghan soldiers and police are temporarily suspended.

Operating alone, troops approach a high-walled compound and halt. Through their interpreter, they alert anyone inside that U.S. forces are in their midst. Moments later, gunfire erupts from the compound. Hundreds of rounds are fired from both sides and several grenades tossed. No one is killed or wounded.

In the aftermath of the fight, U.S. forces learn that a member of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) are inside, along with several others including women and and elderly man. The men are taken away for questioning. ALP leaders insist it was a case of mistaken identity and that their man meant no harm.

Sgt. 1st Class Danny Del Castillo disagrees. “We called out to them four times,” says Del Castillo, recalling how they yelled to the men inside, in several languages, to make sure they knew that American forces were outside. “And they still shot at us.”

As their deployment winds down, and U.S. forces hand over FOB Connolly to Afghan forces, soldiers here in Khogyani District contend that there have been vast improvements to security in the area with the help of the Afghan National Army and the Uniformed Police. Yet the insurgency in Nangarhar province persists, as do questions about the loyalties of the ALP and whether Afghan forces can keep the Taliban from reclaiming the province.

“I’m hard-pressed to believe it was confusion and not an opportunity for unsavory individuals” to harms U.S. troops, says 1st Lt. Josiah Spinelli about the attack on his platoon, noting several similar experiences during their deployment to Nangarhar, where opium production continues and Taliban fighters are ever-present.

Just to the south of FOB Connolly are the infamous Tora Bora mountains where Osama bin Laden during the initial invasion of Afghanistan. Through those mountains runs the Wazir Pass, a natural conduit to Pakistan for readily resupplying Taliban with fighters and arms. Khogyani is said to be the home of several senior Taliban leaders and 200-300 gunmen from various factions of the Taliban and other militant groups.

FRUSTRATION AND SUCCESS

Afghan forces throughout the country like those in Khogyani recently took the final steps toward assuming full security responsibility for all of Afghanistan. Many smaller bases like Connolly have already been turned over to the Afghans or shut down and destroyed. The turnovers are precursors to the end of 2014 drawdown if U.S. combat forces from the country.

But before handing over FOB Connolly to the Afghans, soldiers here, along with other from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, joined Afghan forces in an operation to the west in Nangarhar’s Hezerak District. The area is a known haven for the Taliban that borders two other militant strongholds: Logar province and Kabul province’s Surobi District. The operation in May — led by Afghan troops — was touted by U.S. officials as a success “clearing operation” that robbed the Taliban a foothold in the region to launch attacks on other parts of Nangarhar, including provincial capital and one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Jalalabad.

“It was a big setback for the insurgents in the area,” Maj. Drew Davies says.

However, several officers at FOB Connolly noted that just weeks after the operation the Taliban had returned to Hezerak.

The Taliban’s return to Hezerak illustrates the difficulty of the fight in the part of eastern Afghanistan. Company commander Capt. Justin Liesen says some of the village elders surrounding Connolly remain on the fence when it comes to choosing between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s central government, which some resent for destroying opium poppy crops, an essential to the survival of many Afghans in this area.

“A large contingent of the population aren’t supporters of GIROA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) because they lost their livelihood” to opium eradication operations conducted by Afghan Uniformed Police, Liesen says.

Still, the captain says his forces made significant progress in their corner of Nangarhar, having improved the efficacy of the Afghan forces, particularly its commanders, through constant training. Liesen notes that at the beginning their deployment some nine months ago, Afghan forces weren’t particularly eager to join their American counterparts on patrols. Now, he says, those same Afghan forces are planning their own missions and executing them without U.S. soldiers. And despite the recent altercation with the ALP, who are trained by a small U.S. Special Forces unit, he says that relations between the Americans and Afghan forces here have improved during their recently completed tenure at Connolly.

“There are plenty of success,” says Liesen. “There are some frustrations, sure, but there are successes too.”

IMPROVED RELATIONS

Relations between U.S. and Afghan forces at Connolly have not always been strong. Last year, an Afghan soldier turned his weapon on two U.S. soldiers here killing them in what has become commonly known as “Green on Blue” attacks, which have increased in recent years throughout Afghanistan. The Taliban often takes responsibility for these attacks and attribute them to their success in infiltrating the Afghan National Security Forces.

According to several officers, residents of Khogyani District have been tied to several insider attacks in other parts of Afghanistan, saddling the region with a dubious reputation.

Since then, relations between the Afghan and American soldiers at Connolly have improved, leaders from both side maintain.

Liesen notes that the Afghan Army unit that was posted at Connolly during last year’s insider attack was replaced by the current Kandak (equivalent of a U.S. Army battalion) and its leaders take seriously the threat of potential insider attacks.

Shortly after the fatal Green-on-Blue killings in nearby Paktika province, U.S. and Afghan officers at Connolly met to discuss the incident, which helps restore a sense of normalcy to relations.

“I promise you guys it won’t happen here,” says Afghan Maj. Shafiullah Kohstani to a group of American soldier advisers known as Security Forces Advise and Assist Team, or SFAAT, which over the past year has spearheaded the training of Afghan forces throughout the country in anticipation of the 2014 drawdown.

The SFAAT at Connolly expresses confidence in the current commander here but notes previous Afghan officers they considered substandard. “Over our time here, we’re been able to remove some (Afghan) leaders that weren’t very good and replace them with much better officers,” Capt. John Irivine says.

SAFETY CONCERNS

Amid the praise for the Afghan Army and Uniformed Police, concerns about the reliability and allegiances of ALP in Khogyani and throughout Afghanistan persist. While the local police force is touted by U.S. military commanders as the first line of defense against Taliban incursions into small villages, the ALP have also been criticized for human rights abuses and corruption rackets that extort rural Afghans for protection money.

After the ALP was established in Khogyani, they were regularly targeted by the Taliban, whose senior leaders, including Mullah Omar, have accused the force of being traitors to Afghanistan. One of the local police was recently discovered murdered. “There is a legitimate concern for ALP’s safety,” Spinelli says.

Concerns for their safety, allegiance and the ethics of the ALP has some wondering whether it will eventually break down once U.S. troops leave Afghanistan. Some contend that the ALP will be absorbed by the Taliban, as some of its ranks are reconciled militants. Anthony Cordesman, a security expert for the Strategic Center for International Studies, says the ALP are not integrated into the rest of the Afghan National Security Forces and are “serving their own special interests.”

“They’ll hold some areas (of Afghanistan) and lose others,” Cordesman says. “The question is: Can they be effective enough?”

Military probing Taliban attack that killed 2 Marines and destroyed 6 warplanes

The U.S. military has begun to investigate a Taliban attack on a U.S.-British base in Afghanistan last September that killed two Marines and destroyed six aircraft and put on hold the announced promotion of the two-star Marine general who was in charge there at the time, officials said Thursday. 

Marine Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus was the senior commander in southwestern Afghanistan when 15 Taliban fighters breached the security perimeter of Camp Bastion in Helmand province and carried out their stunning attack. All but one of the fighters was killed in a Marine counterattack.

Gurganus earlier this year was picked for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as director of the Marine Corps staff at the Pentagon. A Pentagon official said Thursday that his promotion has been placed on hold pending the outcome of the Central Command investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

A few weeks after the Sept. 14 attack, Gurganus told a news conference that "there's no mystery" to how the Taliban managed to get onto the supposedly secure base and launch their deadly attack using rocket-propelled grenades.

Gurganus said they used simple wire cutters to penetrate the perimeter fence, which was not equipped with alarms. "We have sophisticated surveillance equipment, but it can't see everywhere, all the time," he said. "This was a well-planned attack. I make no excuses for it. This was well planned and it was well executed."

In fact, at least one of the guard towers near the Taliban fighters' entry point was unoccupied at the time, officials have said.

Despite the loss of two Marines and the destruction of almost an entire squadron of Marine AV-8B Harrier jets valued at about $200 million, no formal investigation was undertaken to determine whether anyone should be held to account for failing to stop one of the most audacious attacks of the war.

Killed in the attack were Lt. Col. Christopher Raible, 40, and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, 27.

Britain's Prince Harry, a helicopter pilot, was serving at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack. Officials said he received additional protection when the attack occurred.

At the recommendation of Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, a U.S. Central Command investigation was ordered this week by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of Central Command, according to his spokesman, Oscar Seara.

Austin ordered that the probe report on "any fault, negligence or failure of responsibility by U.S. commanders and staff" responsible for security at the base, which is surrounded by open terrain and adjacent to the Marine's main base, known as Camp Leatherneck. Because Leatherneck does not have a runway, Marine aircraft use Bastion's airfield headquarters in Helmand.

The Washington Post was first to report that Central Command had opened an investigation.

Seara said Austin determined that a formal investigation was warranted to "ensure all matters of U.S. accountability have been appropriately addressed."

Taliban leader arrested in Afghanistan

A top Taliban leader was seized during a military operation in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province Friday, officials said.

The operation was carried out jointly by Afghan and coalition security forces, Khaama Press reported.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, in a statement about the operation, said: "An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a senior Taliban leader during an operation in Baghlan-e Jadid district, Baghlan province, May 17. The senior leader oversees the operations of multiple insurgent cells in Baghlan-e Jadid district. He and his subordinates are responsible for numerous attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also collects illegal taxes from local civilians, facilitates the movement of weapons and military equipment for use in operations, and interfaces with senior insurgent leadership in order to pass operational information to his fighters. The security force also seized one pistol as a result of the operation."

The ISAF said the operation followed a successful operation on Thursday in Helmand province, during which security forces arrested one insurgent, seized a weapons cache and about 5,511 pounds of wet and dry opium. In another operation Thursday, nine insurgents were arrested, the ISAF said.

Karzai for Indian arms, stronger military ties

As plans to reduce Western troops gather pace in Afghanistan, the war-torn country on Thursday hoped to establish enhanced defence ties with India, including the supply of lethal and non-lethal military equipment.

Kabul’s demand also comes just ahead of President Hamid Karzai will visit to India next week from May 21-22.

Asked about what kind of defence assistance Afghanistan was looking to get from India, Afghanistan’s ambassador to India Shaida Mohammad Abdali said, “The partnership agreement does not distinguish between lethal and non-lethal (military equipment). We have talked about security and defence cooperation.” 

Abdali also talked about interest in Indian Army training for troops.

“Other assistance in small stages is most welcome... but we would like to go beyond the current trend of cooperation between the two countries in the defence sector,” he added. 

At present, India provides training to some Afghan Army officers. Pakistan has been wary of India’s role in Afghanistan and any move to step up defence ties would add to scepticism. 

This demand is also coming at a time, when Pakistan-Afghanistan ties are frayed. India has followed a policy of keeping the military engagement to a minimum with Afghanistan in the past.

“It is a critical time for all of us and we need to do more than what we are doing right now,” he said. 

The Afghan envoy also welcomed India’s recent commitment of upgrading the strategically important Chabahar port in Iran that would help India get access to land-locked and resource- rich countries. An estimated $100 million (approximately R548.7 crore) is required for the modernisation of the port.

“We would like to see the conclusion of the agreement on the Chabahar port,” Abdali said.

“We are very happy that this is gathering momentum. We hope that we sign the trilateral trade agreement among India, Afghanistan and Iran as quickly as possible. We are optimistic after Indian external affairs minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to Iran.”

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) special representative for Afghanistan Vygaudas Ušackas, who is presently visiting India, also sought Indian government’s active cooperation in the development of the country. 

Ušackas said the EU is committed to long-term association with the development of the region, which became centre of US’ ‘War on Terrorism’ after the September 11, 2001, attacks there.

Why Russia won't send its troops back to Afghanistan

Will Russia send its troops to Afghanistan after coalition forces withdraw in 2014? The subject was brought up after media reports cited Russian Defence Ministry representative Sergei Koshelev as saying Russian repair bases may be established in Afghanistan. The Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry subsequently denied the reports, however. 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich insisted: “Moscow’s position, that a return of the Russian military to Afghanistan is impossible, remains unchanged.” He said the speculation was the “fruit of someone’s sick imagination”.

 While we know there’s no smoke without fire, we can be confident that Russia isn’t going to send its troops to Afghanistan. So far as I know, there are no such plans within the CIS or the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, either. At the same time, let’s not forget that Moscow and Kabul have a military and technical co-operation agreement, under which, among other things, Russian specialists repair Afghanistan’s Russian-made military equipment. It’s possible that the media mistook some of this work in Afghanistan as a preparatory step towards the establishment of Russian bases.

But the pull-out of a considerable portion of the peacekeeping forces from Afghanistan in 2014 is forcing Moscow to re-evaluate the threats that will emerge on the borders of CIS countries. The situation appears even more uncertain given Afghanistan’s presidential elections scheduled for April 2014, in which the two-term president, Hamid Karzai, is constitutionally barred from standing. 

This election could lead to new instability, especially taking into account Mr. Karzai’s recent statements about the possibility of letting the Taliban ideologue Mullah Omar take part in the election process.

Viktor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, told a recent international conference in Moscow on Afghanistan’s future beyond 2014 about an alarming increase in heroin and marijuana production in Afghanistan. He said Afghan narcotics, supplied to 100 countries worldwide, killed about one million people last year. 

But the most dangerous thing, Mr. Ivanov said, was that the drug trafficking was now fuelling regional tensions. Drug traffickers were actively influencing the country’s political development, turning Afghanistan into a global drugs production centre where the government is forced to serve the interests of criminal cartels.

 

Western experts see three more or less realistic scenarios in Afghanistan. Under the first scenario, the Afghan government would cling to power, maintain the status quo, and maintain the country’s integrity after the presidential election and the international coalition’s pull-out. Under the second scenario, Afghanistan would split into two parts along ethnic lines. Kabul would keep the northern part under its control, while the armed opposition would come to power in a new state in the south.

British experts have offered a third scenario, which Russia also recognises as being a distinct possibility. They believe that after the presidential election, a creeping decentralisation will start in Afghanistan. This will result in unlimited autonomy springing up in the country’s southern regions densely populated by the Pashtun people. Some field commanders fighting against Kabul have already supported this plan.

In answer to the question about the steps the CIS countries were planning to take to adapt to changes in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the future of Afghanistan had been discussed at a meeting of CIS foreign ministers on April 5 in Uzbekistan. Mr Lavrov said: “The Collective Security Treaty Organisation has a common strategy vis-à-vis Afghanistan, there are relevant plans within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, and there are joint efforts of special services at the anti-terrorist centre that exists as part of the CIS.” 

He also said all CIS countries agreed it was necessary to secure the borders of Afghanistan’s neighbours, assist Kabul with its efforts to strengthen its security forces, and help Afghanistan resolve its economic problems. Russian experts believe the development of a new economic strategy for Afghanistan will change the course of the country’s development.

Yuri Krupnov, chairman of the Society for Friendship and Co-operation with Afghanistan, said the country would need $50bn (£32bn) for accelerated industrialisation through 2020, of which Russia’s contribution could reach $7bn. Unesco could be in charge of raising the money.

According to Russian experts, the money is needed to launch pipeline transit projects from Turkmenistan to India and from Iran to India

via Afghanistan, as well as for the electrification of the country. But it’s obvious that implementing these plans directly depends on the ability of the new Afghan leadership that will come to power in 2014 to maintain stability.

But the situation on the ground looks like a vicious circle where fully-fledged industrialisation in Afghanistan is impossible without resolving the security issues – and changing the situation with drug trafficking and security is impossible without industrialisation. So long as this vicious circle remains unbroken, countries that may be willing to contribute financially to the plight of Afghanistan will be less willing year after year to allocate new aid to Kabul. Currently, the chances that the Afghan government will be able to keep the country under control beyond 2014 are looking slim.

Mattis says insider attacks are part of war

Attacks on international forces by Afghan soldiers and police are disheartening but will not diminish the United States’ commitment in Afghanistan, said Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

“We are going to continue to work with the Afghan forces,” Mattis said Thursday during a visit to the University of Wyoming.

So-called insider attacks by Afghan forces or insurgents who infiltrated the Afghan forces have claimed more than 50 American lives this year.

Mattis said such “treachery always has been part of warfare throughout history.”

He noted Afghan soldiers also have died from these tactics and said measures are being taken to reduce the attacks.

“What we won’t do is, we’re not going to pull back,” he said. “We’re not going to say they all sleep over in that compound, we’ll sleep over here.”

Thousands of patrols are conducted each day by Afghan soldiers accompanied by international troops, he said.

Mattis is commander of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, which includes Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria.

He spoke to about 500 people in a visit initiated this summer by relatives he has in Laramie.

Mattis noted his biggest worry every day in the region is Iran. He said Iran is involved in helping Syrian President Bashar Assad suppress rebels, and it supports terrorist groups and criminal acts elsewhere.

“Iran is right now acting as a rogue state, and it is of deep concern,” he said.

Mattis also expressed confidence in the Arab Spring movement because of Egypt.

He noted the Egyptian military protected a political process that resulted in the election of a president who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition, Egyptian military leaders have voiced maintaining close ties with the U.S. military, he said.

“How Egypt goes in the Arab awakening will probably have a lot to do with how the whole region goes,” he said.

Mattis downplayed the recent escalation in military clashes between Syria and Turkey.

He believes that responses by Turkey — a NATO ally — to Syrian shelling are not a “call to arms.”

US defense chief blasts Karzai over troop deaths

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has voiced frustration with Afghan President Hamid Karzai preferring to "criticize" American troops, rather than acknowledging the sacrifices they have made.

Panetta, who arrived in Peru late Friday to begin a Latin American tour, told reporters aboard the military plane taking him to Lima that Karzai should remember that more than 2,000 US troops have died in Afghanistan.

The angry riposte came after Karzai said on Thursday that the United States was failing to go after militants based in Pakistan, another charge that Panetta chose to hit back at.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Karzai accused the United States of playing a "double game" by fighting a war against Afghan insurgents rather than their backers in Pakistan where, in Karzai's words, "terrorism is financed and manufactured." The Afghan president also lamented what he described as NATO's refusal to supply Afghanistan with modern weapons necessary to fight its enemies.

But a visibly displeased US defense secretary suggested the Afghan president had focused on the wrong things.

"We have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who are willing to fight and die for Afghanistan's sovereignty and their right to govern and secure themselves," Panetta said.

"We've lost over 2,000 US men and women, ISAF has lost forces there and the Afghans have lost a large number of their forces in battle.

"Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy, not the wrong enemy. And I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan rather than criticize." The outburst was rare for Panetta and the remarks came as relations between the United States and Afghanistan are under strain in the wake of several deadly and high-profile attacks on US troops by their local comrades.

In Afghanistan, the United States has also seen its image tarnished among ordinary Afghans this year by the burning of Korans at a military base, the abuse of corpses and a massacre of civilians by a rogue American soldier.

An unprecedented number of Afghan security personnel have turned their weapons against their allies, killing at least 51 NATO soldiers this year.

Despite this, many Afghans, particularly in the cities, fear the departure of the Western troops in 2014 from a country where the government of Karzai is widely seen as corrupt and dependent on foreign support.

In Lima, Panetta will meet President Ollanta Humala and Defense Minister Pedro Cateriano, Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.

"This trip will reaffirm the department's commitment to strengthening partnership around the world, particularly in Latin America and Europe," said Little.

The United States has provided Peru with surveillance planes to disrupt drug traffickers and help tackle remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla group. Washington gave Lima $659 million in associated aid between 2006 and 2011.

A senior US defense official said Panetta would offer further help to Peru under the Ministry of Defense Advisers program, a scheme currently being used in Afghanistan.

"What MODA does is that it embeds technical experts within the MOD for one or two years and they can provide technical advice," the official said.

Panetta will be in Uruguay on Sunday, the Pentagon said, and he will take part in the 10th Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas at the Punta del Este resort, before traveling to Brussels on Monday.

Breaking The Cycle

Afghanistan is making progress, but has a long way to go. As the poorest and least educated country in Eurasia (where over half the planet's population lives) Afghanistan can blame its condition on ignorance (lowest literacy rate), poverty (lowest income levels) and corruption (rated among the highest in the world). Throw in radical Islam (imported from Saudi Arabia in the 1980s during the war against invading Russians) and tribal leaders resisting change (effective government threatens their power) and you get the Taliban and drug gangs. What is also often ignored is that 90 percent of the terrorist violence occurs in about 20 percent of Afghanistan (areas of the south and east). In the south the violence is centered on drug (opium and heroin) producing areas in Helmand and Kandahar provinces while in the east it areas near the Pakistan border and the terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan (mainly North Waziristan). Across the southern Pakistani border there is another sanctuary in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been staying since early 2002. Pakistan refuses to shut down these sanctuaries.

Despite the corruption and continued violence in parts of the country, relative peace in most of Afghanistan has led to a decade of economic growth. Literacy rates have gone up in most of the country. Even in the Taliban heartland (southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces) the terrorists are having increasing difficulty recruiting suicide bombers and even gunmen. Thus more children and women are being persuaded or coerced into carrying out suicide attacks. This just makes the Taliban even more unpopular, and despised, by most Afghans.

In the east (Khost) a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a market where the explosion killed 21, including three foreign troops.

October 1, 2012: In Kabul a suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a checkpoint, killing 14, including two Americans. The ban on joint U.S.-Afghan operations was quietly lifted on the 27th.

Foreign troop deaths fell by 50 percent from August to September and are down 27 percent this year compared to the same period last year. While attacks by men in Afghan police or army uniforms accounted for 20 percent of foreign troop casualties this year (more than double the rate last year), all other types of attacks continued to be less effective.

September 29, 2012: The Afghan military has issued a pamphlet to most of its troops (those who can read) describing cultural differences with Westerners (when to sneeze, how to shower, shake hands and handle shoes, plus many others) and explain that these odd customs are not intentional efforts to insult Afghans. Islamic terror groups have long exploited this ignorance to recruit and stir up popular support. This is why the Taliban is hostile to education and cell phones (especially the ones that can access the Internet, and most can). Any Afghan who becomes literate and gets a cell phone soon discovers there is a huge world out there, and it is different. Americans new to Afghanistan are astounded at the ignorance most Afghans still have of the outside world. This causes all sorts of problems, but is an environment Islamic terrorists thrive in.

The head of the Afghan anti-corruption agency announced that he is reluctant to send cases to the Attorney General because few cases are prosecuted and witnesses are often attacked instead. The problem with an immensely corrupt culture like Afghanistan is that it's too easy to bribe senior government officials, including the Attorney General. The scope of the corruption problem is huge, and it means that many good works (like foreign aid building schools, roads and clinics) are wasted because officials steal the money later donated to maintain these facilities. Schools and clinics lie abandoned and roads fall apart from lack of maintenance. All this is self-defeating, but the lack of civic responsibility is so widespread that few in government will resist the temptation to steal all they can. The corruption also stifles foreign investment. China recently announced it was shutting down work on one of the world's largest copper mines (a $3 billion project in Logar province). The problem is corruption and feuding officials and warlords using violence to intimidate each other and the Chinese. Afghan officials are trying to persuade the Chinese to reconsider, but the Chinese have been in Afghanistan for several years and have not seen any serious progress in dealing with the corruption.

September 28, 2012: In the east (Logar province), a senior Haqqani Group leader (Ghairat), and a bodyguard were killed by a smart bomb attack. Ghairat was known to be responsible for organizing many major terrorist attacks in eastern Afghanistan.

At the annual UN meeting of heads-of-state in New York, leaders of Central Asian states (especially Kyrgyzstan) and Russia made a big deal out of the opium and heroin coming out of Afghanistan. These drugs cause major addiction and crime problems in neighboring countries and there is fear that the West is going to abandon Afghanistan in two years and simply try to ignore the problem (something the neighbors cannot do.)

September 24, 2012: Afghan and NATO forces launched at least nine operations in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Zabul, Wardak, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand and Nimroz provinces which resulted in 28 dead Taliban and another 54 captured. Large quantities of weapons and drugs were also captured.

September 23, 2012: The government is moving more troops and police to guard the eastern border and attempt to stop movement of Pakistani Taliban and other Islamic terrorists. This is meant to persuade the Pakistanis to stop firing rockets and artillery at Afghan villages (where it is believed anti-government Pakistani Islamic terrorists are hiding out.) Pakistan denies that it is firing into Afghanistan, but months of such attacks, involving thousands of rockers and shells, has left ample evidence of what is happening. Pakistan dismisses this evidence as fabricated.

September 22, 2012: Afghanistan has banned the importation of Pakistani newspapers because of the blatant pro-Taliban attitudes adopted by much of the Pakistani media.

September 21, 2012: The last of the 33,000 additional American troops sent to Afghanistan last year have left. That leaves 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan, plus 40,000 from other NATO allies and over 300,000 Afghan police and soldiers.