Meanwhile In Afghanistan

[JasonJ]

 

 

 

 

seems I am heading back to Kabul over the Christmas - will freeze, no travel out this time, which is a big pity

 

3rd time I think.

this will be number 4 - 5th contract - probably only a month - at least that is the plan

Ah ok, almost like a second home maybe by that point, if more than a month.

Guest house/Office - thats it - watching traffic carefully - watching people - a month in Kabul is enough - ISAF camp interesting but no longer have connections

Kunduz was not the best - although Piazza was good and work interesting

Mazar was nice for the ISAF camp food - work boring

Herat I preferred - place nice, people nice, work nice

Looks like you got to see quite a bit of the country. Much different scenery from my visuals.. Osaka, some of Kyoto and Nara, and a little of Hiroshima, Ehime, Kagawa, and Yokohama.

[WRW]

You have the better scenery by far - guest house compound with hesco barriers if lucky, dusty dirty crowded streets, do not yet know work location but will be high walls, barriers, more hesco and dodgy looking guys with AKs (I like AKs - used have competition with dining companion on identifying all the variations we would see in a day)

The airport is not bad - mainly because it means am going home - overland flight scenery is very nice, would hate to be working on the groud in central and north - did road trip Kunduz to Mazar, posted flicker link sometime back

[JasonJ]

You have the better scenery by far - guest house compound with hesco barriers if lucky, dusty dirty crowded streets, do not yet know work location but will be high walls, barriers, more hesco and dodgy looking guys with AKs (I like AKs - used have competition with dining companion on identifying all the variations we would see in a day)

The airport is not bad - mainly because it means am going home - overland flight scenery is very nice, would hate to be working on the groud in central and north - did road trip Kunduz to Mazar, posted flicker link sometime back

Would figure as such. Thanks for the exchanges. Have a safe trip

[BansheeOne]

Who says that only one side can have blue-on-green incidents?

 

Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Taliban Leader, Injured in Pakistan: Official

by WAJAHAT S. KHAN and MUSHTAQ YUSUFZAI

The recently-installed leader of the Taliban was injured in a shootout between senior members of the militant group in Pakistan, an official told NBC News.

Sultan Faizi, a spokesman for the Afghan first vice president, said Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour had been hurt. Taliban commanders and members who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity had the same account.

An official Taliban spokesman, however, denied that the incident took place. "This is totally baseless," Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The Taliban typically denies reports that could hurt its standing. It had denied for some two years that reclusive, longtime leader Mullah Omar had died.

Mansour, Mullah Omar's longtime second-in-command, was appointed chief of the group in July.

The purported shootout between Taliban officials exposes a rift in the group's leadership — despite recent gains on the battlefield.

Mansour, a former aviation minister in the Taliban regime reputedly known for his "patience," has been deemed illegitimate by some factions within the Islamist group.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mullah-akhtar-mansour-taliban-leader-injured-pakistan-official-n472891

[JWB]

 

 

aviation minister in the Taliban regime

[JasonJ]

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan forces have repelled a Taliban attack on the Kandahar airport that lasted more than 24 hours and killed 50 people, mainly civilians, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

 

It said the dead included 38 civilians, 10 Afghan soldiers and two police. It said the 11 "terrorists" who took part in the assault were killed, and that the fighting ended late Wednesday.

 

Afghan forces have struggled to roll back Taliban advances since the U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of last year.

 

The sprawling airport, known as Kandahar Air Field, has a military and a civilian section, as well as a NATO base. There were no coalition casualties.

 

Also on Thursday, the head of Afghanistan's main intelligence service resigned, citing differences with President Ashraf Ghani, who assumed office a little over a year ago.

 

Gen. Rahmatullah Nabil said he did not agree with the president's policies in recent months, without providing further details. The four-star general had served as head of the National Directorate of Security for five years.

 

Ghani said in a statement that he accepted Nabil's resignation and would replace him with someone from within NDS.

 

 

 

http://www.12newsnow.com/story/30711959/afghan-forces-repel-taliban-attack-on-airport-50-dead

[Panzermann]

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35123748

 

" Why Taliban special forces are fighting Islamic State"

[Simon Tan]

Blackhawk Down : The Sequel. Marjah, Afghanistan.

[Simon Tan]

http://sofrep.com/45772/special-forces-soldiers-left-flapping-in-the-breeze-in-marjah-afghanistan/

[Simon Tan]

Now if the Taliban would just crash a command luncheon.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Simon Tan

[WRW]

heading Kabul for two weeks - hopefully a boring but not too cold a visit

will be interesting to see what has changed

[WRW]

Greetings from Kabul

 

been here a few days - all nice and quiet, even peaceful

 

had to get camp manger to unblock site - hence the late hello

Edited January 26, 2016 by WRW

[Corinthian]

As usual stay safe and keep in touch. Your posts from those parts of the world are always welcome and informative.

[Simon Tan]

You really bring the pain.

[Panzermann]

German minister of the interiour de Maizière visits Afghanistan to debunk myths about what migrants get in Germany and to remind afgahns that when they leave it won't get better in Afghanistan, when the people trained and paid for with western assistence money leave. Further he said that some places in Afghanistan were safe.

 

The same day a suicide bomber exploded at a police station in Kabul, killing twenty and wounding 29. Other numbers say 32 wounded.

 

http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/kabul-explosion-103.html

[EchoFiveMike]

LOL, this interior minister simply doesn't get it. S/F....Ken M

[Panzermann]

LOL, this interior minister simply doesn't get it. S/F....Ken M

He is following official US line that afghanistan is safe in some ares. And as an interior minister he is desperate to reduce the number of refugees.

 

this article does not give much hope for Afghanistan at the moment:

 

Afghanistan: Threatening News

Ahmed Rashid

 

More than fifty journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. But until this year, nobody had tried to massacre an entire busload of journalists in the center of Kabul, all working for the countrys largest and most successful broadcaster. That changed on January 20, when a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a minibus taking forty journalists and staff of Tolo TV home after a day at the office.

 

At least seven people were killed including several women in their early twenties; some of the victims were burnt and scarred beyond recognition.

Another twenty-six were injured, many extremely seriously. It was easily the most deadly single attack against journalists ever made in Afghan history.

 

Such is the current level of lawlessness and insecurity in Afghanistan, four months after President Obama concluded that the continuing withdrawal of US troops was leading to chaos. Just today, another Taliban car bomb killed at least twenty police in front of a police building in the capital. Despite a remaining garrison of 9,000 US troops and advisors, American diplomats now travel only by helicopter for meetings, even inside Kabul. The Taliban control almost all the major roads in the country, which they can shut down when they choose, thereby isolating the major cities and preventing the supply of foodstuffs and trade from six neighboring states.

 

Notwithstanding the one trillion dollars spent in Afghanistan by American taxpayers since 2001, the fact is that Afghanistan is a country whose government has hardly any ability to enforce its writ, even in the capital itself. Corruption and warlordism have become an essential part of the system and the population has gradually lost faith in its leadership. And as security continues to deteriorate, Afghans now make up the second largest contingent of asylum-seekers arriving in Europe, their numbers surpassed only by those fleeing Syria.

 

According to UN statistics, they constitute almost 15 percent of the 650,000 refugees who reached Europe between January and August. Many of them come from well-educated, middle-class backgrounds and had good jobs in Afghanistan when there was still a large presence of foreign forces in the country.

 

Amid this collapse of the rule of law, Tolo TV has been one of the few bright spots. The network has built up an amazing reputation for reporting the news as it is and presenting the countrys problems as they unfold. It is also intensely creative, translating programs such as American Idol into the hugely popular Afghan Idol , and launching the countrys first league soccer teams. Tolos soap operas are watched around the region. Tolo is less a TV station than a national institution in a country that has few others.

 

But this reputation has come at a steep price. Last year the Taliban threatened Tolo after they accused it of misreporting atrocities carried out in Kunduz when the northern city briefly fell under Taliban control. There was a direct threat against Tolo CEO Saad Mohseni and his three brothers, who help run Tolo. Staff members and prominent TV anchors also received threats.

 

The Taliban were brazen in justifying the January 20 massacre. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid wrote on his Twitter account,

 

"The attack was staged to revenge Tolo TVs enmity with Islam, its insult to Afghan culture, its humiliation of Kunduz residents and its false accusations against Mujahidin. Thanks to Almighty God and his support

the attack was successful. The vehicle was destroyed and swallowed by fire with all its spies and its corrupt passengers killed."

 

Bombing soft targets has become one of the Talibans ways of waging war with the Afghan state, just as ISIS has begun to attack tourist areas and soft targets in the Middle East and Europe. Add to this a fair amount of Taliban paranoia, and young graphic designers, documentary makers, editors, and reportersall the noisy, talented, dedicated, and keen young people who make up any newsroomwere deemed to be spies.

 

Tolo CEO Saad Mohseni, speaking to me from Kabul as he traveled from one funeral to the next for his dead colleagues, described them as the best and the brightest of our younger generation. He said there would be no let up in Tolos honest covering of the news despite the losses and that we have been stunned by the support we have received from around the country by ordinary peopleeveryone has felt a personal loss when they heard the news of the killing of our colleagues.

 

The real tragedy is that after receiving threats last year, Tolo had been promised by the national unity government of President Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah that special security measures would be given to Tolo to protect its transport, its buildings, and its studios. Tolo asked for armed police escorts, armored vehicles, and enhanced security, but nothing happened. There were no special precautions taken by the security forces before the suicide driver struck.

 

This is Afghanistan today. Barely a year after the bulk of US forces pulled out, the Taliban are trying to capture the southern province of Helmand, which is also one of their base areas. The fight is desperate and the government response from Kabul has been pathetic. Its not surprising that people believe Tolo more than they do the government.

 

Forgotten by the West, Afghanistan is facing a multidimensional civil war with the Afghan Taliban, which is being aided now by a plethora of groups such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Chechens, and Pakistans Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. On January 28, Lt. General John Nicholson Jr., President Barack Obamas choice to become the new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, agreed with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who described the security situation in Afghanistan as deteriorating. If he is confirmed, among Nicholsons first tasks will be to determine whether the counter-terrorism abilities of current US forces stationed in the country are adequate and to ensure that the Taliban does not take Kandahar, the groups traditional homeland in the south of the country.

 

Following the Talibans cutting of the electricity supply from Tajikistan to Kabul, battles erupted in late January between the group and Afghan troops in Baghlan province, about 140 miles north of Kabul. In at least two provinces bordering Pakistan (Nangarhar and Zabul) the Taliban are also fighting ISIS, which is trying to recruit among dissatisfied Taliban members. Not until the end of January were US Special Forces in Afghanistan given authorization to go after ISIS fighters in the countryone reflection of how lackadaisically the Pentagon is responding to the crisis there. US forces can now pursue ISIS fighters, who have been declared a threat to the US. One may well ask, What about the threat that the Afghan government has already faced from ISIS all these months as the group has built up its base areas?

 

From afar, it may seem good that the extremists are fighting among themselves.

But the record of violence in recent months has shown again and again that in such a conflict innocent civiliansbystanders, children, people who are at the wrong place at the wrong timeare the main victims. There are no victories to be had.

 

The Kabul government is swiftly becoming discredited, even in the eyes of its backers. It has failed to carry out the structural and constitutional reforms promised to international donors, failed to deal with the economic crisis that was clear to everyone once the Western forces withdrew, and failed to rally the army. Western officers and even Ghanis own advisors acknowledge that the Afghan military is precarious. Dozens of generals who were sacked by Ghani have not been replaced and there is still no minister of defense. Ghani has carried out similar purges in the bureaucracy, police, and governorships of provincesoften sacking people but not replacing them, leaving a huge vacuum.

 

Morale is so low among officials and the presidency so deaf to appeals from the provinces that governors and officials have resorted to tweeting or putting up messages on Facebook to alert the government that they are surrounded by Taliban and their town or post is about to fall. Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, the deputy governor of Helmand, put up one such Facebook message saying soldiers defending Sangina town in Helmandwas desperately short of food and ammunition and surrounded by Taliban. They needed help. The statement drew wide attention , but Ghani sacked him anyway for insubordination.

 

Meanwhile in Kabul, the opposition is becoming stronger, new anti-Ghani factions are emerging, and a political crisis is widely anticipated. Many politicians say constitutional changes are urgently needed in order to prevent the disintegration of the country, or a coup by one or more warlords or a section of the army. Some Afghan intellectuals and politicians are urging President Ghani to call an emergency loya jirgaa traditional national meeting of representatives of society, particularly tribal leaders, that would choose an interim coalition government, with a fresh election to follow.

 

The loya jirga would introduce constitutional amendments to make the countryparliamentary democracysomething that the non-Pashtun groups and many urban Afghans have been demanding since 2001. These reforms could be coupled with a renewed attempt to bring the Taliban into talks or even encourage them to take part in the loya jirga debate. Until now, Ghani has resisted such a move, but with the Tolo TV massacre, public patience is running out.

 

February 1, 2016, 2:04 pm

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/02/01/afghanistan-journalists-security-collapse/

[WRW]

Back in Turkey since this morning

 

Access to TM was forbidden - am told the host server did not like me or where I was, anyway great to be back in the real world,

 

Very interesting visit - stayed in Green Village with daily trips to city.

City has got cleaner and traffic seems to have improved

Big reduction in ISAF air and ground movements - although routinely met a few

 

Came across a Humvee Gun truck - was not fast enough with camera

 

Green Village is nice - very secure - for any that may have also been there, the CATS are as big and full of attitude as before

Security was excellent - Gurkha perimeter and east European response unit - any I chatted with were friendly and polite

 

good trip - fortunately boring

 

heading back I think in May

[Panzermann]

In Afghanistan boring is good.

 

Good you are back at home and complete in one piece.

[Simon Tan]

Yes but hes in Diyarkabir.

[Panzermann]

Yes but hes in Diyarkabir.

Then maybe AFG is safer at the moment.

[WRW]

hah - thought crossed my mind

 

 

maybe Dublin http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3436857/Terror-alert-flight-Dublin-Britain-passenger-hands-note-staff-saying-man-armed-knives-board.html

Edited February 8, 2016 by WRW

[Simon Tan]

Ares is stalking you.

[Corinthian]

WRW is like James Bond - explosions happen where ever he comes from....

[WRW]

Only if Bond is missing almost all his teeth, has bowel issues, weak bladder, arthritis, bad eyesight and a terrible shake - oh also cannot swim, scared of heights and confined spaces and by nature cowardly.

 

Anyway have now left Diyarbakir - contract dispute with company

 

mind you - my wife may be going to Erbil yo work