IS attacks Shi'ite demonstration in Kabul, 80 dead, more than 230 wounded

 (Photo Al Jazeera)

Twin explosions tore through a demonstration by members of Afghanistan's mainly Shi'ite Hazara minority in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230 in suicide attacks claimed by Islamic State.
Graphic television footage from the site of the attack showed many dead bodies lying on the bloodied road, close to where thousands of Hazara had been demonstrating against the route of a planned multi-million-dollar power line.
"Two fighters from Islamic State detonated explosive belts at a gathering of Shi'ites in the city of Kabul in Afghanistan," said a brief statement on the group's Amaq news agency.
The explicit reference to the Hazara's (from the eastern province of Nangarhar) Shi'ite religious affiliation marked a menacing departure for Afghanistan, where the bloody sectarian rivalry between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims typical of Iraq has been relatively rare, despite decades of war. Islamic State is an ultra hardline Sunni group.

Pakistani paper: US drones killed 123 civilians, three Al-Qaeda men in January

	Afghanistan-based US predators carried out a record number of 12 deadly missile strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan in January 2010, of which 10 went wrong and failed to hit their targets, killing 123 innocent Pakistanis, the Pakistani paper The News reports. The remaining two successful drone strikes killed three al-Qaeda leaders, wanted by the Americans. The rapid increase in the US drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan can be gauged from the fact that only two such strikes were carried out in January 2009, which killed 36 people. The highest number of drone attacks carried out in a single month in 2009 was six, which were conducted in December last year. But the dawn of the New Year has already seen a dozen such attacks. The unprecedented rise in the predator strikes with the beginning of the year 2010 is being attributed to December 30, 2009 suicide bombing in the Khost area of Afghanistan bordering North Waziristan, which killed seven CIA agents. US officials later identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian national linked to both al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The London attempt to bribe the Taliban

LONDON: World leaders meeting in London on Thursday agreed on a timetable for the handover of security duties in Afghan provinces starting in late 2010. In their final communique, the leaders also pledged funds for a plan aimed at persuading Taliban fighters to renounce violence, but offered no specific figures. The meeting backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's plan to reintegrate Taliban willing to “cut ties with al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and pursue their political goals peacefully.'' It said handover of security responsibilities would begin this year, with the Afghan National Army “conducting the majority of operations in the insecure areas of Afghanistan within three years.” The conference was called to help world powers chart a roadmap out of Afghanistan amid rising U.S. and NATO casualties and falling public support.
The 70 nations say Karzai had promised to crack down on corruption and said a summit in Kabul later this year would offer specific plans to bolster his faltering government.
The text said discussions marked a “decisive step towards greater Afghan leadership to secure, stabilize and develop Afghanistan." 

 That is how the Pakistani newspaper 'The News' brought the news from the London Conference, where about 70 countries gathered at the invitation of  British prmie minister Gordon Brown to discuss the future, or rather their contribution to the future, of Afghanistan. Very short, very factual. Apparently the outcome was no too thrilling for the people in Islamabad.  And that is no surprise if you ask me. How would one stabilize a regime that consists of a president who was elected through election fraud and who, after more than  two months, had only seven of the 17 cabinet ministers approved by the parliament (ena that after a first attempt during which only seven out of 24 were approved). Can Karzai's government, can Afghanistan be saved, by bringing in the Taliban?
This is what Juan Cole wrote about the conference:

NATO to Provide $500 mn. to Bribe Taliban; Seeks Exit beginning 2011; Obama's Request for 10,000-troop NATO Surge Quietly Rejected

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may have called the London Conference on Afghanistan for domestic political purposes, as a sort of publicity stunt. But the nearly 70 nations that gathered there unexpectedly took advantage of the meet to plot out a NATO exit strategy. Of course, how realistic it is remains to be seen. The London conference saw as many plans put forward for dealing with the low-intensity war against the Taliban there as there were countries in attendance. (...)
President Hamid Karzai asked for 15 years more of a substantial NATO commitment and heavy investment of foreign training and aid in the country. Karzai also offered to open talks with the top echelons of the Old Taliban of Mullah Omar in hopes of bringing them in from the cold.(....) NATO was generally very unhappy at Karzai's mention of "15 years", and instead began speaking of 2011 as the beginning of a withdrawal of NATO troops, with the expectation that over time more and more of Afghanistan's provinces would be patrolled by the Afghan military without foreign assistance. (..) France says it will send no more troops to Afghanistan and criticized Karzai's 15-year timeline. Germany is sending only 500 more troops. The Dutch may pull out their 2000 troops soon. Obama is highly unlikely to get his 10,000 quota from NATO, though that piece of the troop escalation was key to his plan. 

As c ould be expected the Taliban gave an angry response to the attempt to buy their services:  

"Les tentatives de l'ennemi d'acheter les moudjahidine en leur offrant de l'argent et des emplois pour qu'ils abandonnent le jihad sont vaines", s'est empressé d'indiquer le Conseil du commandement des talibans afghans dans un communiqué mis en ligne jeudi sur un site islamiste, selon le centre de surveillance de sites islamistes SITE Intelligence.

Germany: general.minister and ass. minister resign over Kunduz bombing which killed civilians

A German general and and an assistant minister of Defense have resigned because they did not tell the truth about a bombardment early September on two fuel trucs which had been hijacked in the Afghan province Kunduz by the Taliban. The trucs got stuck in the mud of a river bank. The Taliban first asked local villagers to help them to get the trucks moving again, and when that did not succeed they abandoned the trucks and told the villagers to help themselves to the fuel.
What the German authorities apparently told parliament is that the people killed in the attack where all members of the Taliban. What they had on their desks, however, was reports of the Afghan government that 69 Taliban were killed as well as 30 villagers. After the tabloid Bildzeitung revealed this, the assistant minister and the general had to go, while the former minister of Defense, Jung, who has a different portfolio now, is under pressure to leave. [Update: also Jung, presently minister of Social Affairs, resigned on Friday].
What makes me angry is these numbers of 69 and 30 that the Germans  keep repeating. They were fake. As fake as the elections that kept Karzai for another five years in power. In Germany apparently nobody reads papers other than the German ones. The British Guardian went to the spot of the tankers and reported that only civilians got killed. Their number was estimated at at least 100 at the time. I mentioned that on my other blog, here and here. (See also Juan Cole's blog who repeats the number of 100 civilians as well).
The whole affair is illustrative for the way Nato countries operate in Afghanistan. Like blind elephants who want to believe that they are 'helping Afghanistan on its way to peace and security'. The peace of the dead, it seems.