Attack: repelled
At 7:30 this
morning local time, Taliban fighters attacked a NATO airfield in
Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, with a car bomb and rocket propelled
grenades, injuring two service members (AFP, CNN, AP, BBC, Reuters, NYT). Eight attackers, who did not
penetrate the perimeter of the base, were killed in the ensuing
gunfight. June is the deadliest month for NATO troops in Afghanistan
since the fall of the Taliban; at least 100 soldiers were killed (AFP, Times).
Nearly 1,600 Afghan
police officers have been killed in the last two years, and the force
continues to struggle with attrition, lack of training, and illiteracy (Wash Post). McClatchy reminds of the
danger and importance of the highway between Kabul and Kandahar (McClatchy). And Marjah, the town in
Afghanistan's southern Helmand province that was the site of a coalition
offensive earlier this year, "appears to some to be stagnating" (Independent). Bonus read: what Marjah portends for Kandahar (FP).
Official actions
As
expected, yesterday the Senate Armed Services Committee promptly
approved the nomination of Gen. David Petraeus to lead troops in
Afghanistan, clearing the way for the full Senate to approve him today
and for the general to be in Kabul by Friday (AP, AFP, Reuters, NYT). During the hearing, Gen. Petraeus
stuck to his support of the Obama administration's July 2011 deadline
for the beginning of the U.S. withdrawal, though said the military did
not "propose or recommend" such a date, and while tempering expectations
about the likely pace of violence in the coming months (WSJ, BBC, FT, Tel, Reuters, Guardian, LAT). The general also plans to review
the concept of 'courageous restraint,' restrictions on the use of
airstrikes and artillery in Afghanistan, which decreased civilian
casualties but have been "bitterly criticized by American troops who say
they have made the fight more dangerous" (NYT, AJE, Times, Dawn).
Gen. Stanley
McChrystal, Gen. Petraeus's predecessor who was fired last week, will be
allowed to retire with his four-star rank even though he had not served
the full amount of time normally required to qualify for those benefits
(CNN, Reuters).
U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder is in Kabul to hold talks with Afghan and U.S.
officials about improving Afghanistan's justice system and battling
corruption (AFP, AP). Holder's Afghan counterpart,
Muhammad Ishaq Aloko, disputing allegations that he has been pressured
by Afghan political leaders to derail corruption investigations against
powerful Afghans, accused U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry
of pressuring him to bring two particular cases forward or resign (Pajhwok, Wash Post, NYT, AP). Afghanistan's finance minister,
Omar Zakhilwal, called yesterday for an investigation into the country's
hawala network, which is reportedly helping move billions of dollars
out of Afghanistan (WSJ, AFP).
The back channels
Nick Schifrin
reports on the Afghan government's efforts to work with the Pakistani
military and intelligence services to discuss peace talks with the Haqqani network (ABC). A senior Afghan official commented, "We don't
need to deal with Haqqani directly. We can deal with the ISI,"
Pakistan's intelligence service. The LA Times, writing that "Pakistan
has begun trying to seed a rapprochement" between Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and the Haqqanis, describes the major obstacle to an agreement:
Haqqani links to al-Qaeda (LAT).
The high court in Lahore
has urged the Pakistani government to halt U.S. drone strikes in the country's northwest if they
occur without the consent of the government (Geo,
Dawn, ET). Twenty suspected militants were
killed earlier today in airstrikes in Orakzai agency (AP). And the AP profiles the political
scandal in Pakistan over some 160 lawmakers who have allegedly lied
about their academic degrees (AP). The chief minister of Baluchistan
protested, "A degree is a degree! Whether it's fake or genuine, it's a
degree! It makes no difference!" (AP, The News).
The underground classroom
Some
20,000 Afghan girls are enrolled in school in Kandahar, compared with
nearly 60,000 boys, and girls there learn at a number of underground
schools to avoid threats from the Taliban (FT). The number of families setting up clandestine
classrooms at home has grown along with the amount of insurgent
violence, according to officials in Kandahar.
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