Two years after Kunduz airstrike, victims' families are angry

Two years after the German Bundeswehr ordered a strike on two fuel tankers in Kunduz, the families of the victims say Berlin has not done enough to atone. Nobody has ever apologized for their children's deaths.

Deutsche Welle: Two years after Kunduz airstrike, victims' families are angry (5-9-2011)

Zorgen over toename wapensmokkel van Pakistan naar Afghanistan

Een hoge functionaris van het Afghaanse ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken heeft zijn bezorgdheid uitgesproken over een toename van de smokkel van wapens van Pakistan naar zijn land.

Dat meldt TOLO News: Concerns over Rise in Arms Smuggling From Pakistan

Fears surface over US-trained local Afghan police "Arbakai" in Marjah in Helmand province

Arbaki (Arbakai) in Marja, fears surface over US-trained local Afghan police in Marjah in Helmand province in South Afghanistan.

ISAF-commander David Petraeus leaves Afghanistan

Just days away from the end of his tour as the supreme military commander in Afghanistan, and the end of a 37-year military career, Gen. David H. Petraeus said he was leaving in the belief that his plan to turn around the war and hand over security to the Afghans could be achieved.
New York Times: Petraeus Confident as He Leaves Afghanistan

Selbstmordattentäter steuert Auto in Konvoi deutschen Kommandeurs Kundus

Anzeichen für gezielten Anschlag auf die Bundeswehr. Taliban ändern Strategie, weil sie militärisch an Boden verlieren. Das Treffen im Gouverneurspalast von Kundus war generalstabsmäßig geplant.

Tag, Uhrzeit und Ort waren erst spät festgelegt worden. Deutsche Spürhunde und Sprengstoffspezialisten hatten das Gebäude in der nordafghanischen Provinzhauptstadt noch am Samstag intensiv überprüft.

Achtergrond over de zelfmoordaanslag in de stad Kunduz van zondag 19 juni 2011, op een konvooi met de ISAF-commandant van Kunduz kolonel Norbert Sabrautzki.

In: Die Welt: Knapp entkommen. (20-06-2011)

Zie ook:
Duitse overheid niet eerlijk over kracht Taliban in Noord-Afghanistan
Duitse regering zegt dat er vooruitgang is, maar “het loopt fout in Afghanistan”
Onheilspellende tekenen voor Noord-Afghanistan
Commandant Smits: “Kunduz veiliger dan Uruzgan”
“Kunduz onveiliger dan bij hoorzitting en debat voorgesteld”

Pentagon vraagt Obama extra troepen langer in Afghanistan te houden

Het Pentagon heeft Obama gevraagd om de aanwezigheid van de soldaten die hij als versterking naar Afghanistan heeft gestuurd tot de herfst van 2012 te verlengen.

Dat meldt The Wall Street Journal. De Amerikaanse president had in december 2009 nog 33.000 Amerikaanse soldaten extra naar Afghanistan gestuurd in de strijd tegen de Taliban.

Met de troepenversterking bevinden zich nu ongeveer 100.000 Amerikaanse soldaten in het land.

"The military is asking President Barack Obama to hold off on ending the Afghanistan troop surge until the fall of 2012, in a proposal that would keep a large portion of the 33,000 extra forces in the country through the next two warm-weather fighting seasons."

The wall Street Journal: Deadline to End Surge: Pentagon: Wait Until Fall 2012 to End Afghanistan Troop Boost

Over Amerikaans vertrek Afghanistan

President Barack Obama’s top general in Afghanistan has given a range of options for withdrawing American forces as a July deadline for starting the drawdown approaches. And an early hint of some troops cuts began to emerge Thursday.

Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has long been expected to give Obama multiple options for how to begin bringing U.S. forces home.

The Washington Post: Obama, top US commander in Afghanistan discuss troop withdrawal; Initial troop cuts emerge

How the Taliban are taking control of Kunduz, the Bundeswehr's Afghan nightmare

(19-08-2009) Six years ago, German soldiers came to Afghanistan's Kunduz province to carry out reconstruction work. Now they are engaged in a bitter struggle with the resurgent Taliban, who are trying to sabotage Thursday's presidential election. Many local people no longer believe the Europeans can help them.

Today the region has turned into a battleground, and the Germans, who never wanted to get involved in combat, are in the thick of it. The Taliban have returned, and they are gaining more and more support among the local population.

Der Spiegel: How the Taliban Are Taking Control of Kunduz, The Bundeswehr's Afghan Nightmare (19-08-2009)

Zie ook:
The Washington Post: As Taliban makes comeback in Kunduz province, war spreads to northern Afghanistan (19-3-2010)

Taliban comeback in Kunduz province, war spreads to northern Afghanistan

(The Washington Post, 19-3-2010) For most of the past eight years, Kunduz has been relatively peaceful, far removed from the insurgency in the Taliban heartlands of Kandahar and Helmand.

But the past year has brought such a dramatic Taliban comeback in Kunduz that Gen. McChrystal is planning to shift some of the ongoing troop reinforcements to the north of the country, the first significant American deployment to the region since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

The Washington Post: As Taliban makes comeback in Kunduz province, war spreads to northern Afghanistan (19-3-2010)

Het plan voor de aanvullende 30.000 troepen die Obama naar Afghanistan wilde sturen was gericht op het zuiden en oosten van het land, waar de Taliban het sterkst zijn.

Maar Amerikaanse functionarissen zeggen volgens de krant dat 3.000 van deze troepen verlegd worden naar operaties in het noorden om het contingent Duitse militairen te versterken, dat uit ongeveer 1.100 soldaten bestaat en meer gericht is op wederopbouw dan op het bestrijden van opstandelingen.

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)

The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is an independent research institute based in Kabul. AREU's mission is to inform and influence policy and practice through conducting high-quality, policy-relevant research and actively disseminating the results, and to promote a culture of research and learning.

To achieve its mission AREU engages with policymakers, civil society, researchers and students to promote their use of AREU's research and its library, to strengthen their research capacity, and to create opportunities for analysis, reflection and debate.

As an impartial Afghanistan-based voice dedicated to research excellence, AREU aspires to contribute to the development of inclusive and transparent policymaking processes, driven by the priorities of the Afghan people, which give rise to better informed policies and programmes that improve Afghan lives.

http://www.areu.org.af/Default.aspx

Missbrauch in Afghanistan: Die Tanzknaben vom Hindukusch

In Afghanistan halten sich einflussreiche Männer Jungs im Alter zwischen elf und sechzehn Jahren zum erotischen Zeitvertreib. Die UN wollen dagegen vorgehen. Doch das „Knabenspiel“ hat Tradition.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Missbrauch in Afghanistan: Die Tanzknaben vom Hindukusch (22-05-2011)

Reintegration In Afghanistan Hinges On Fate Of Turncoat Taliban

Mullah Noorul Aziz: "We have to live peacefully here because we are the sons of the soil. He [Karzai] promised to share with us whatever is available to him and his people. [He promised] that we will have cars, houses, and jobs like people now siding with the government. [He said] their open embrace is waiting for us."

In many ways, the fate of the government's reintegration effort lies in the fate of Aziz who just earlier this year had been appointed the Taliban's shadow governor of the northern Kunduz Province.

Bij Radio Free Europe:
http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan_reintegration_hinges_on_fate_of_turncoat_taliban/24177671.html

Training trainers: coalition mentors produce Afghan instructors, trainers, Camp Mike Spann

The Regional Military Training Center – North, under the Afghan National Army Training Command, is hosting the first Train the Instructor class, charged with training ANA military instructors as the nation moves toward an independent military and peacekeeping force.

The inaugural class graduates May 17, 2011.

As with any training program, new instructors will eventually be needed to replace the current ones as they move forward with their careers.

The Train the Instructor class will identify the top graduates and train them further. Those students will attend the Master Skills Instructor Course and learn to teach the classes they just attended. All this will occur under the direct oversight of the Remote Basic Warrior Training mentor team.

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan:
http://ntm-a.com/wordpress2/?p=4234

FOB Camp Mike Spann, located north of Mazar-e Sharif, is an outpost in the vicinity of Masar-e-Sharif.

Afghan National Army, Regional Military Training Center (RMTC) at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. The site is located in Balkh Province, Dihadi District.

Don't abandon Afghanistan after 2014 handover, plead generals

British commander voices fears that Taliban will exploit power vacuum in Afghanistan after west quits (Nick Hopkins in Kabul, the Guardian, Tuesday 10 May)

The west must state clearly that it will not abandon Afghanistan after the handover of security to local forces in 2014 or risk further fighting in the region from an emboldened Taliban, General James Bucknall, the commander of British forces in the country has warned.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/10/afghanistan-taliban-handover-2014