Afghanistan

Source : Reuters | 15 Oct 2012

Britain plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan next year, Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday, as pressure mounts to end British involvement in the costly and unpopular war.

More than 430 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led intervention in 2001, yet stability remains elusive and violence high, while relations between Western troops and Afghan forces and civilians are increasingly frayed.

Source : AFP | 09 Oct 2012

The Afghan government could implode after NATO troops pull out in 2014, particularly if presidential elections are fraudulent, a report by the International Crisis Group said yesterday.

“There is a real risk that the regime in Kabul could collapse upon NATO’s withdrawal,” said Candace Rondeaux, the ICG’s senior Afghanistan analyst. “The window for remedial action is closing fast.”

By Kamran Yousaf | Express Tribune | 08 Oct 2012

Pakistan and Russia have decided to support an “all-inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue” to guide the war-ravaged country towards lasting peace.

“The Afghan endgame was one of the key subjects that came under discussions between Pakistani authorities and the Russian foreign minister, who travelled to Islamabad last week,” a senior government official told The Express Tribune.

Source : Agencies | 03 Oct 2012

A series of confessions this week from top US and NATO officials leave dim hopes for a negotiated peace settlement in Afghanistan as western nations head for the exit doors with no plans in place for a stable transition to Afghan rule after 2014.

Source : AFP | 28 Sep 2012

The Afghan government will collapse and Taleban are likely to retake power after the US and NATO pull their troops out in 2014, a renowned international scholar has said.

The withdrawal of international forces will in some respects leave the country worse off than it was before a US-led invasion toppled the Taleban nearly 11 years ago, Afghan expert Gilles Dorronsoro of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.

“In the end the withdrawal is the result of a failed strategy,” he wrote in an analysis published this week.

By Jim Lobe | IPS | 27 Sep 2012

With all foreign troops due to leave Afghanistan just two years from now, the news out of the Central Asian nation is becoming increasingly gloomy.

Source : AFP | 18 Sep 2012

NATO was forced onto the defensive yesterday over a humiliating attack on one of its most heavily guarded bases in Afghanistan that destroyed six US fighter jets in unprecedented damage in the 10-year war.

At a weekly press conference given by the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at its closely guarded headquarters, chief spokesman Brigadier General Gunter Katz was pressed on Friday night’s assault.

By Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen | The Independent | 10 Sep 2012

Afghanistan could be carved into eight separate "kingdoms" – with some of them potentially ruled by the Taliban – according to a controversial plan under discussion in London and Washington.

Code-named "Plan C", the radical blueprint for the future of Afghanistan sets out reforms that would relegate President Hamid Karzai to a figurehead role.

By Giuliano Battiston | IPS | 08 Sep 2012

More than a decade after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is still in the midst of an irregular war. Talking peace is difficult because no one quite knows who to talk to.

The efforts gain significance coming ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting Sep. 14 on promoting a culture of peace. As officials talk, more ground-level efforts are being led by civil society groups.

Source : Agencies | 06 Sept 2012

A human rights organization says it has collected evidence of two previously unreported cases in which U.S. agents tortured Libyans held by American forces in Afghanistan.

In a report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch also says it acquired new evidence of the extent to which the United States and some of its allies, including Great Britain, allegedly detained exiled opponents of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and forcibly transferred them back to Libya.