KABUL, Nov 3 (IPS) - Western officials are increasingly turning to new strategies in an effort to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat the insurgency here, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. The various initiatives — from negotiating with the Taliban to arming tribal militias — have differing degrees of support from Afghans.
Violence has reached record levels this year and Afghanistan is now considered a deadlier battlefield than Iraq. Insurgents are able to operate openly in areas close to the capital and the central government’s popularity is at the lowest point in its history. The situation is prompting a number of strategy reviews in Washington as the U.S. prepares for possible strategic shifts after the next president takes office.
Some officials are quietly considering a plan to arm tribal groups, in a move reminiscent to the American strategy in Iraq that is credited with decreasing violence there. “We are seriously looking into using tribes and local communities to provide security,” says an American intelligence officer with the international forces.
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Afghan civilian deaths rise by 39 percent. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pledges to do more to solve the problem.
Kabul, Afghanistan - In a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pledged to do more to prevent civilian deaths from military operations. Mr. Gates’s vow comes on the heels of a new UN report saying that the number of civilian casualties jumped by 39 percent in 2008, fueling controversy about the West’s role in the country.
“While no military has ever done more to prevent civilian casualties, it is also clear that we have to work even harder,” Gates told reporters.
Nearly 1,500 civilians have been killed by either the Taliban or NATO and US forces so far this year, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday. More than half of those deaths are attributed to the Taliban. And US Air Force data suggests that its bombing accuracy is actually improving.
But the UN findings come at a time of rising public criticism after a series of US and NATO aerial bombing raids killed large numbers of Afghan civilians. “Civilian casualties is becoming the main issue in the relationship between the West and Afghanistan,” says Nasrullah Stanikzai, lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Kabul University. If the trend of high levels of casualties continues, he says, it could drive a permanent wedge between Afghans and the US.
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Terrorism and Security Update
Earlier this week, Pakistani authorities freed a leading pro-Taliban militant who reportedly raised an army of thousands to oppose the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Observers say Maulana Sufi Muhammad’s release from prison heralds a new era of negotiation between militant groups and the new government in Islamabad.
Following the release, a ruling party official in the new Pakistani government said that envoys were engaged in talks with the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, in an apparent bid to secure a peace deal, reports the Associated Press.
The tribe includes Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s top Taliban leader who is accused of ties to al-Qaida.
Mehsud is wanted for a string of suicide attacks in Pakistan. The previous government has accused him of [former Prime Minister Benazir] Bhutto’s assassination in December. Mehsud has reportedly denied involvement and Bhutto’s party has not repeated the assertion
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KABUL, Mar 26 (IPS) - Jumakhan Said Muhammad was working on his land when he first heard the planes. “I looked up,” the farmer from Musa Qala, in the southern Helmand province, says. “Suddenly a plane flew by and I saw smoke rising from my house, which was down the road.”
Muhammad ran towards his home, where dozens of villagers were shouting his name as they surrounded his house. “The house was split in half by the bomb,” he recalls. “The walls were collapsed and crumbled. Blood was pouring from my nephew (seven-years-old) like it was water. He had shrapnel in his brain and stomach. I then saw my sister’s headscarf peeking out from underneath the rubble and so we raced desperately to save her. When we pulled her out from the wreckage I saw her body — she was cut completely in half. I started to scream.”
Muhammad’s sister and nephew are among a steady flow of civilian casualties caused by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) bombardment, residents say. When such casualties started to rise last year — bombers destroyed Muhammad’s house in November — coalition forces pledged to change their tactics and ensure that civilians were not caught in such attacks.
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