Today: Join Afghanistan
experts Martine van Bijlert and Steve Coll at 10:15am EST at the New
America Foundation for a discussion about Karzai, reconciliation, and
the west's strategy in Afghanistan -- details here (NAF). Bonus read:
AfPak Behind the Lines with Van Bijlert on
Karzai's relationships with Petraeus, McChrystal, Afghanistan's security
forces, and parliament (FP).
This is the end
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former
top commander in Afghanistan who was fired last week after a
controversial Rolling Stone profile, has told the Army he plans to
retire (AP, AFP, Reuters, BBC, McClatchy). Senate confirmation
hearings for his successor, Gen. David Petraeus, begin today at 9:30am EST (SASC, CSPAN). The Obama administration's "multiple signals
to multiple audiences" about the meaning of the July 2011 deadline to
begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan has left many "wondering
what will happen next summer" (NYT).
The head of the House
subcommittee on appropriations on foreign aid, Nita Lowey, has vowed not
to spend "one more dime" on aid to Afghanistan, of the $3.9 billion
requested by the Obama administration, because she is outraged at a story in the Journal reporting that
billions of dollars in aid are flown out of the Kabul airport and a story in the Post describing how Karzai
administration officials are allegedly impeding corruption
investigations (WSJ, Reuters, AFP, Wash Post). Lowey said she would leave only
"lifesaving humanitarian aid" in the bill, which is scheduled for markup
this week (House statement).
A new report
from the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction finds a
host of problems with Afghanistan's security forces, including a
"systematic" overstatement or failure to measure the capabilities of the
ANSF adequately, a shortage of U.S. trainers, and a "corrupt and
inadequate" logistics system (Wash Post, BBC, AJE). The report is available here (Majlis).
In security incidents
across Afghanistan, a U.N. vehicle was shot up in the diplomatic
district of Kabul earlier today, and the driver, an Afghan, was
reportedly killed (AP, Pajhwok). In southeastern Kabul, 15
police officers and five civilians were injured when an anti-NATO
protest turned violent (AP). And the
Taliban have reportedly threatened any foreign companies who attempt to
extract Afghanistan's recently publicized mineral wealth (AFP).
A security front
In a
previously unannounced offensive, about 700 U.S. and Afghan troops
launched a major assault on Sunday in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar
province, killing as many as 150 insurgents in the "tough fight" (Wash Post). Pajhwok reports that a
district intelligence chief in Kunar was killed when his vehicle drove
over a Taliban-planted roadside bomb (Pajhwok).
Raids by special
operations forces in Afghanistan have reportedly killed or captured 186
insurgent leaders and detained nearly 1,000 lower-level fighters in the
last 110 days, which officials say has decreased roadside bomb attacks
and weakened the Taliban, particularly in southern and eastern
Afghanistan (LAT, NYT). And the LA Times profiles the use
of medevac helicopters in Afghanistan, where crews fly rescue missions
"unarmed but unafraid," though flanked by a Black Hawk with two machine
guns (LAT).
Unusual destinations
As many as
ten suspected militants were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike
earlier this morning on a compound near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, reportedly used by a
group of 'Punjabi Taliban' (AFP, AP, Reuters, BBC, ET, Geo,
CNN). Several al-Qaeda fighters were
also reportedly killed. The majority of this year's 45 drone strikes have been in neighboring North Waziristan (NAF).
Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the leader of
the Swat Valley militant group the TNSM,
is due in an anti-terrorism court in Mingora today after his arrest last
summer (The News). He faces charges of
sedition, conspiracy, and encouraging terrorism. Clashes continue in
Orakzai agency, as do targeted killings in Karachi (Daily Times, Daily Times). And the number of reported incidents
of violence against women in Pakistan has gone up 13 percent, according
to a womens rights nonprofit (ET). Of 2009's some 8,500 incidents,
about 5,700 were reported in Punjab, 1,800 in Sindh, 660 in
Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, and 240 in Baluchistan.
Patriotic prince
Britain's
Prince Harry, who spent 10 weeks serving in Helmand province in 2007 and
2008, said he would love to go back to Afghanistan to "serve [his]
country" with his "brothers in arms" (BBC,
ABC).
Harry said, "As long as my military career allows it and politically
it's allowed, then I'll serve my country as any other soldier."
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