Misconceptions about Afghan Crisis by the West

The seemingly endless war by NATO to beat Talibans  has ended  with hurried withdrawal of US and allied troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban now control almost the entire Afghanistan and have even announced their interim government. But despite the victory of Taliban, the West has unleashed a massive media campaign about future of Afghanistan and casting doubts over Taliban's ability to handle the affairs. 

Ahmad M Siddiqi of Al Jazeerah has highlighted four misconceptions of the West about Taliban. All of these seemingly look rather premature and a move to downplay the Taliban who contested the NATO troops for tow decades and finally made them run.

Here are the four misconceptions that West is seemingly worried about as per Siddiqi:

• Al Qadea coming back?
• Taliban are fragmented
• The Taliban triumphed due to foreign support
• The US withdrawal too soon.

Please read the full report for details of these misconceptions
Photo 

If you like Imposing Headlines, please follow us on Facebook
Follow@imposingnews

Read more »

US finally agrees to Quit Afghanistan after agreement with Taliban

In landmark victory of Taliban of Afghanistan, US finally bows down to the Afghan Taliban and inks an agreement to quit Afghanistan after a futile 18 years old presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan has played an important role in facilitating  the two sides to come to a negotiating table.

As per the deal inked in the Doha, Qatar, the US and NATO allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal.

US President Trump said it had been a "long and hard journey" in Afghanistan. "It's time after all these years to bring our people back home," he said.

Perhaps it is the most sane decision by the US and Donald Trump since he took over as the US president. 

Photo | Source 

If you like Imposing Headlines, please follow us on Facebook

Read more »

NATO-Afghan annouce Wardak withdrawal deal

An agreement has been reached between NATO and the Afghan government on the withdrawal of US special forces from Wardak province, BBC reports quoting alliance officials.

The agreement appears to bring to an end a bitter dispute between the coalition and the Afghan government.

The troops and their Afghan counterparts have been accused of murder and intimidation in the area.

Special forces and local police will now begin a phased withdrawal.

Follow us on Facebook

Read more »

NATO to activate Patriot Missiles along Turkey-Syria Border

Patriot missile firing [Photo: Defence Industry Daily]

NATO says its Patriot anti-missile defenses along Syria's border with Turkey will become operational this week.

British Brig. Gen. Gary Deakin said Patriot batteries sent by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands have reached Turkey and are currently being deployed in the south of the country.

"We expect to have an initial operating capability this weekend," Deakin said.

-->

Alliance member Turkey asked NATO in November to urgently deploy the U.S.-made missiles to bolster its defenses to prevent a spillover of Syria's civil war. Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads.

Read more about it at: USA Today
Follow us on Facebook

Read more »

Eight women killed in a US Air Strike in Afghanistan

A U.S. airstrike killed eight Afghan women foraging for fuel on a rural hillside in what is called a  disastrous day for the NATO force in Afghanistan

Four American troops were also gunned down Sunday by Afghan police.

The strike which was in retaliation to Taliban attack on US base, is reported to have cost US more than $150 million  in terms planes and equipment loss, by far the costliest single insurgent attack in 11 years of warfare.

The confluence of events underscored some of the conflict's most damaging trends: an unrelenting tide of "insider" attacks, in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on coalition allies; the daily loss of civilian lives to war's ravages; and the continuing ability of insurgent forces to inflict disproportionate havoc on the far more powerful Western military.

Read more: LA Times

Read more »

US-Pakistan link 'challenging but essential'

The US-Pakistan relationship remains challenging for both despite the reopening of Pakistani land routes to resupply US troops in Afghanistan, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said yesterday.

Mrs Clinton last week apologised for a November Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and Islamabad responded by reopening overland supply routes crucial to the US-led war in Afghanistan.

The supply-route deal removed one headache, but relations are likely to remain strained by other differences.

These include Pakistan’s opposition to US drone strikes against militants on Pakistani territory and Washington’s allegations that Islamabad condones, or even assists, anti-American militants.

Read more: Irish Times

Read more »

Drone strike kills four militants in North Waziristan

A US drone strike killed four suspected militants in North Waziristan on Monday evening, Express News reported.

The strike targeted a militant vehicle in the Datta Khel district, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The drone had fired two missiles at a vehicle killing four militants, a security official told AFP.

Earlier on Monday, at least eight militants were killed when a US drone launched a missile attack in Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan Agency, security officials said on Monday.

The first attack took place in the Esokhel sub-division of Mir Ali when a US drone launched four missiles on a house which was under construction. Six militants, including five foreigners were killed.


Read more: Express Tribune

Read more »

NATO GLOC: Panetta says US will not be price ‘gouged’

Amidst seemingly deadlocked negotiations between the US and Pakistan over NATO supply routes or the GLOC (Ground Lines of Communication) as these have been called recently, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta vowed on Sunday not to let Washington be ‘gouged’ by Islamabad on the price it charges for overland deliveries of American military supplies to Afghanistan.

The statement which is likely to further incense Pakistani officials follows months of gingerly steps by the US to make up with Islamabad. Pakistan had closed the land route to Nato supplies in November as punishment for the Nato air strike in Mohmand Agency that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

US defence officials have said the Pakistanis are demanding several thousand dollars for every truck crossing its border with the supplies, up from $250 per truck before the closure.

Read details: The Express Tribune

Read more »

Hollande defends troop pullout on Afghanistan visit

President Francois Hollande visited Afghanistan on Friday to defend France's imminent departure from the war, telling troops that it would be coordinated closely with Afghan and NATO allies.

Hollande with Karzai

Hollande met French soldiers deployed in the volatile province of Kapisa and held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on his first visit to the country where French troops have been fighting the Taliban since the 2001 US-led invasion.

He explained his decision to recall French combat troops by the end of 2012, a year earlier than Paris initially planned, and two years before NATO allies.

Read more: France24

Read more »

Obama warns Nato of 'hard days ahead' in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama has warned of "hard days ahead" at a Nato summit in Chicago dominated by the issue of withdrawal from Afghanistan.

France's new President Francois Hollande has again said he will pull French troops out by the end of 2012, nearly two years ahead of schedule.

Nato is preparing to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Read more: BBC News

Read more »

US - Pakistan near deal on reopening supply lines

Pakistan and the United States appeared on the verge of clinching an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, a U.S. official said, as Islamabad confirmed its president will attend a summit of NATO leaders this weekend in Chicago.

Reopening the supply route would be a major breakthrough in ties between Washington and Islamabad. Strained relations have fuelled speculation Pakistan might be excluded from NATO talks on Afghanistan’s future.

Pakistan closed down the supply lines for the Afghan war effort following the NATO air strike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Read details: euronews

Read more »

Man in Afghan army uniform kills NATO soldier

A man wearing the uniform of the Afghan army has shot dead a NATO service member on Friday in the east of the county. 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 NATO statement provided no details about Friday’s attack and did not give the nationality of the service member killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide details about troop deaths.

It may be added that an increasing number of Afghan soldiers are turning their weapons against NATO troops who are helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists.

Read more: Alarabiya

Read more »

Kabul siege: Karzai labels it a NATO Intelligence Failure

Afghan president Hamid Karzai said on Monday that a coordinated Taliban attack showed a "failure" by Afghan intelligence and especially by Nato, as heavy street fighting between insurgents and security forces came to an end after 18 hours. 

Battles which broke out at midday on Sunday gripped the city's central districts through the night, with large explosions and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets. 

"The fact terrorists were able to enter Kabul and other provinces was an intelligence failure for us and especially for Nato," Karzai's office said. 

Read more: The Times of India

Read more »

NATO admits Afghan children killed in Kapisa

The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan on Monday conceded that several children died during a bombing raid last week in the northeast province where French troops are based.

Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said:

"An ongoing assessment showed that troops engaged "a group of men, who were armed and engaging in unusual behaviour. This group was engaged by coalition aircraft and that engagement followed all ISAF tactical directives. Following the engagement, additional casualties were discovered and these casualties were young Afghans of varying ages."

But Mohammad Tahir Safi, a member of parliament for Kapisa and part of the investigation team dispatched by Karzai, disagreed.

Red more: Google News

Read more »

CIA has suspended drone attacks in Pakistan, U.S. officials say

[ via Los Angeles Times ] 23 Dec

The collateral damage is much more than the claimed kill results

In an effort to mend badly frayed relations with Pakistan, the CIA has suspended drone missile strikes on gatherings of low-ranking militants believed to be involved in cross-border attacks on U.S. troops or facilities in Afghanistan, current and former U.S. officials say.

The undeclared halt in CIA attacks, now in its sixth week, is aimed at reversing a sharp erosion of trust after a series of deadly incidents, including the mistaken attack by U.S. gunships that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last month.

Some State Department officials insist that airstrikes on low-level militants now hurt U.S. interests in Pakistan more than they help.

Read more: Los Angeles Times

Read more »

US admits mistakes over killings of Pakistan troops

[ via BBC News Asia ] 22 Dec

The US military has admitted it bears significant responsibility for last month's air strike on the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. A Pentagon spokesman later expressed "deep regret" over the incident.

Coffins of the martyred Pakistan Army soldier (L) - Smoke from the destroyed Pakistan Army Posts attacked by NATO

A statement said US and Afghan troops acted in self defence, but conceded there had been a lack of proper co-ordination with Pakistani forces. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, US and Afghan commandos made a series of mistakes on 26 November.

They incorrectly concluded there were no Pakistani forces in the Afghan border area where the coalition was conducting an operation - which cleared the way for a Nato air strike that devastated Pakistani positions.

After the initial strike, the US compounded its mistake by providing inaccurate data to a Pakistani military representative at the border co-ordination centre, missing an opportunity to stop the fighting.

Read details at BBC News Asia

Read more »

Pakistan to keep Nato convoy ban

[ BBC Asia ] 11 Dec

Pakistan may continue its blocking of Nato convoys into Afghanistan for several weeks, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has told the BBC.

Pakistan stopped the convoys in protest at US air strikes which killed 24 of its troops at two checkpoints on the Afghan border last month.

Read more »

Fear of ‘farce’ looms over Afghanistan Conference

[ Pakistan Today ] 3 Dec

While the Bonn Conference is all set to take place Monday, Pakistan's absence may be felt badly. “If they (Pakistan) stick with their decision to cancel it would be a setback,” the conference’s host, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, admitted after Islamabad pulled out in the wake of Saturday’s airstrikes that killed 24 troops.

Wide spread protests continue in Pakistan over NATO's attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers (Photo: CS Monitor)

The meeting will bring 100 national delegations to the western German city of Bonn to seek to chart a course for Afghanistan after NATO troops pull out in 2014 but a boycott by the government has dealt a stinging blow to hopes for a road-map.

Read more »

Pakistan buries soldiers killed by NATO

Full Story: BBC Asia 27 Nov

Pakistan Sunday buried soldiers killed as a result of air attack on a Pakistani check post by NATO attack helicopters early Saturday.

Burial rituals of the victim of "tragic unintended  incident by NATO" (Photo: AFP)

Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani led mourners in funeral prayers at military headquarters in the north-western city of Peshawar.

Although, NATO has apologised, calling it a "tragic unintended incident", and is investigating what happened,  the incident has once again heightened already tense relations between Pakistan and the US and NATO.

Read more »

US moves to Salvage ties with Pakistan after "deathly" NATO strike

Full Story: The Times of India 27 Nov

USA was quick to move to salvage ties with furious Pakistan over NATO's "deathly" air attack on Pakistani check post Saturday that left 26 soldiers perished, including two officers. 

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bolstered that message in a joint statement Sunday, offering their "deepest condolences" and backing "NATO's intention to investigate immediately."

In the meanwhile, Pakistan announced the closure of its Afghan border to NATO, shutting down a supplies lifeline for 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban, and called on the US to leave a remote air base reportedly used by CIA drones.

This is the second incident in which NATO air attacks have targeted Pakistan Army check posts. The first was back in September 2010, which killed three Pakistani soldiers.

Read more »