12 Afghanis Killed by US Forces in Paktia, Britain to Speed Up Troop Withdrawal

Editor's Note:

Readers are advised that the following news stories represent the NATO side of the conflict only, as the pro-Taliban website, alemarah.info, is offline today.

As General Patton once said, "Truth is the first casualty of war."

12 Afghanis killed in Paktia province south of Kabul

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —

At least a dozen people were killed Saturday south of the Afghan capital of Kabul after U.S. troops spotted two (Taliban fighters) trying to plant bombs, an Afghan official said.

The two were shot dead in Paktia province, district chief Gulab Shah said. Troops saw comrades drag the two bodies away and called in a helicopter gunship which killed 10 more people, whom U.S. officials said were all (Taliban fighters), Shah said.

Shah said Afghan authorities had launched an investigation to make sure the dead were all (Taliban fighters).

Civilian deaths are a flashpoint issue in Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai has urged NATO to take all necessary measures to protect civilian lives.

Gov't wants troops out of Afghanistan asap

by Lynne O'Donnell Lynne O'donnell – Sat May 22, 2010, 4:06 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

New British Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Afghanistan Saturday with a warning that Britain wants to withdraw its troops as soon as possible.

Hague, Fox and International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, are set to meet President Hamid Karzai in their first visit to to the country since a new coalition government took power.

Hague described Afghanistan -- where around 10,000 British troops are helping fight a Taliban-led (resistance) well into its ninth year -- as "our most urgent priority" in comments released from London as the party touched down.

In an interview with The Times before arriving in Kabul, Fox made clear the visit would focus on speeding up the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, and that no new troops would be deployed.

"We need to accept we are at the limit of numbers now and I would like the forces to come back as soon as possible," he was quoted as saying.

"We have to reset expectations and timelines.

"National security is the focus now. We are not a global policeman. We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened," Fox said.

With Karzai having promised that Afghan forces will take on responsibility for the country's security by 2014, Fox said he would see if training could be accelerated to that end.

"I want to talk to people on the ground, our trainers, to see whether there is room to accelerate it without diminishing the quality," he said.

His frank comments came as the British defence ministry announced the death of a Royal Marine in southern Afghanistan on Friday, bringing to 286 the number of British soldiers killed in the country since 2001.

Since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in late 2001, a total of 1,778 foreign troops have died in the Afghan war, 1,081 of them from the US.

Britain is the second biggest provider of troops and aid to Afghanistan, behind the United States.

Fox also said British troops, stationed in southern Helmand province, would not relocate to neighbouring Kandahar, where the US is leading international forces in what they hope will be a final fight to eradicate the Taliban.

NATO -- which with the US has 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, due to peak at 150,000 by August -- announced Friday that about 8,000 British troops in Helmand are to come under US operational control.

The move is part of restructuring of NATO forces in the volatile south of the country, the Taliban heartland where fighting is fiercest.

Command of forces in the south is being divided into two, NATO said in a statement. Britain's Major General, Nick Carter, will oversee Kandahar, with US Major General Richard Mills taking over command of neighbouring Helmand.

US and NATO troops are building up operations against the Taliban in Kandahar, with military planners saying they hope to have pushed the insurgents out of the city, and the province of which it is capital, by the time the fasting month of Ramadan starts in August.

Hague said before his arrival in Kabul that the new counter-insurgency strategy of General Stanley McChrystal, head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, needs "time and support to succeed".

"We are here in Afghanistan to explore this at the earliest opportunity," he said, adding that as a foreign policy priority, Afghanistan "will consume a lot of our time, energy and effort and it is therefore vital that ministers have a strong understanding of the issues".

The importance of Afghanistan to the new government was underscored last Saturday when Karzai became the first foreign leader to meet Prime Minister David Cameron.

Britain's new government has said it wants to cut the defence budget by at least 25 percent but has pledged to support the country's armed force in Afghanistan.

The trio of visiting ministers are expected to meet British troops -- along with football star David Beckham, who arrived at Camp Bastion in Helmand late Friday on a "morale-boosting" visit, a military official said.

Beckham was expected to spend the weekend in Helmand, splitting his time between Bastion and the British base in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, which also serves as an outpost for British aid projects in the region.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Hague Makes First Visit to Afghanistan

May 21, 2010, 11:54 PM EDT

By James Paton

May 22 (Bloomberg) --

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague is visiting Afghanistan for the first time since taking office in a Conservative-led coalition this month. He and two other officials will meet with troops and President Hamid Karzai.

“Our most urgent priority is to get to grips with Afghanistan,” Hague said in a statement posted on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website yesterday. “We need to give the strategy time and support to succeed, and we are here in Afghanistan to explore this at the earliest opportunity.”

Hague and Defense Secretary Liam Fox arrive amid a push into the Taliban heartland of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan by a NATO-led coalition, and efforts to train enough Afghan troops and police to let the allies begin withdrawing forces in July 2011.

Afghanistan “will consume a lot of our time, energy and effort and it is therefore vital that ministers have a strong understanding of the issues,” Hague said.

Britain has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, according to Agence France-Presse, which reported Hague and Fox landed in Afghanistan early today. There have been 286 British casualties since international forces entered Afghanistan in 2001, the news agency said.

Strong Understanding

Hague and Fox are joined by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell. The officials plan to visit a British-funded development project, according to the statement.

The U.S. is fighting to reverse Taliban gains and strengthen Afghanistan’s government and security forces sufficiently to begin withdrawing troops. It has been pressing Afghanistan’s leadership to crack down on corruption and drug trafficking and to improve governance.

Karzai has complained about international pressure and blamed foreigners for fraud in last year’s presidential election.

President Barack Obama said at a news conference with Karzai in Washington earlier this month that the U.S. remains on track to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, even as the military prepares for “some hard fighting.”

Obama said on May 12 that Prime Minister David Cameron, in their first call since the U.K. leader took office, reaffirmed Britain’s commitment to the U.S. and allied strategy in Afghanistan. Cameron is “somebody we are going to be able to work with very effectively,” Obama said.

--Editors: Michael Heath, Jim McDonald

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