Afghanistan

NOVANEWS By Ismail Salami How much longer will the US invasion of Afghanistan drag on? Obama’s recent comment on the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, claiming that “our citizens are safer and our nation is more secure” conjures up the image of the allegorical man chained in a cave facing a blank wall and with his back to the fire. Praising the efforts of the military over the US longest war, Obama said, “After a difficult decade, we are responsibly ending today’s wars from a position of strength.” “As the rest of our troops come home from Iraq this year, we have begun to draw down our forces in Afghanistan and transition security to the Afghan people, with whom we will forge an enduring partnership,” the US president added. Despite what Obama said, security is declining ...

NOVANEWS by Asif Haroon Raja Civil war in Afghanistan is raging since 1976. It saw relative calm and stability during brief spell of Taliban rule, but peace was snatched away by USA and the country was again pushed into the inferno. Ongoing war lit in October 2001 is continuing and has become the longest war in its history. One of the most impecunious countries of the world is being continuously trampled under the boots of US-NATO forces for over a decade without any respite and this gruesome process is likely to continue for some more time. Having failed to subdue Afghan resistance forces despite applying excessive force and dirty tricks, occupation forces are now at the verge of throwing in their towel and departing. Concluding that military option alone will lead nowhere; of late the U...

NOVANEWS By Zabi Rashidi Six people including a personal bodyguard have been arrested after an alleged Al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai was foiled, the intelligence service said Wednesday. Those detained, who also included two university lecturers and students, were found with suicide vests and had been to North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt for training, officials said. They did not reveal how far advanced the plot was, but the men were arrested a week ago and were said to have carried out training for the attack last month. The news highlights Karzai’s fragile position following a string of recent assassinations of his key allies including peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani last month. Karzai’s powerful brother has also been killed this year. Officials do n...

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) – A second of five U.S. soldiers accused of killing Afghan villagers in cold blood pleaded guilty on Thursday to committing murder, saying he made a “bad decision” when he shot a teenage boy he knew was unarmed. Private Andrew Holmes, 21, who last year professed his innocence, admitted at his court-martial that he knew it was wrong to open fire with his automatic weapon at the boy, despite orders to do so from a higher-ranked GI in his unit. Holmes said he suspected at the time that the other soldier, Jeremy Morlock, a co-defendant who testified against Holmes after pleading guilty to three counts of premeditated murder, “was up to no good” when he gave the command to fire. “I looked at the young man in question, and he was like a deer in the headlights,” Holmes r...

NOVANEWS By Abbas Mehkri (Translated from Daily Jang)   America is going to face the worst ever defeat of its history. If completes, it would be the second biggest after the Vietnam War, which shall be regarded as the superpower’s another unparalleled. Such a big humiliation the American are about to face in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. Washington would run out of options of an honorable exit, if it fails to find out an amicable way out in order to avoid the great embarrassment. The Crusade that the US launched against the Taliban-al-Qaeda after 9/11, the much desired victory has not fallen into its lap in accordance with its plan. The Taliban proved to be a hard nut to crack for the American policymakers. Now the defeat at the Taliban hands seems to be the writ...

NOVANEWS  by Zabi Rashidi   Kabul:  Insurgents launched a complex assault against the United States Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters on Tuesday, pelting the heavily guarded compounds with rockets in an assault that raised new questions about the security of Afghanistan’s capital and the Westerners working there. At least 10 explosions – apparently from rockets launched by militants – and waves of automatic weapons fire were reported amid the drone of sirens and English-language warnings telling Americans inside the embassy to take cover. It was unclear whether anyone – Western or Afghan – had been hurt or killed in the attack, but it appeared that one rocket had struck a minibus belonging to the Tak Beer private school, and witnesses said that young adults had been carried a...

NOVANEWS  by Khalil Nouri Kandahar, a conservative and sacred Pashtun heartland, the epicenter of complex Afghan tribal politics where Prophet Muhammad’s cloak has resided for over half a millennium, has always played a pivotal role in Afghanistan with all its political makeup. Now there is an intense struggle to name asuitable tribal council chief to assume the responsibility of the late Afghan President’s half-brother Ahmad Wali Karzai (AWK). The question now is; who should control all of Southern Afghanistan’s tribal structure, and ultimately attempt to sooth tensions over what will soon become the full political formation and structure of Afghanistan. But this self-made position by Afghanistan’s elite Karzai family has not only ensured their extreme power grip, but has also created a d...

NOVANEWS Associated Press August has become the deadliest month yet for U.S. forces in the nearly 10-year-old war in Afghanistan, increasing pressure on the Obama administration to bring troops home sooner rather than later. The 66 U.S. service members killed this month eclipses the previous record of 65 killed in July 2010, according to an Associated Press tally. Nearly half the August deaths occurred when insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter Aug. 6, killing 30 American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs. Violence is being reported across Afghanistan despite the U.S.-led coalition’s drive to rout insurgents from their strongholds in the south. Though American military officials predicted high casualties this summer as the Taliban try to come back after recent offensives, the grim ...

NOVANEWS After failing to meet vital benchmarks through the surge, high levels of US troops to remain until at least 2024 by John Glaser antiwar.com Five Afghan civilians were killed Monday in an explosion that went off in a vegetable market in the southern province of Helmand, according to the provincial governor’s office. This continues what has been a sharp spike in casualties in the first half of 2011. On Sunday, police killed a Taliban deputy commander on the outskirts of nearby Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. Lashkar Gah is one of the first seven areas in Afghanistan where local authorities have taken responsibility for security from international forces. Also on Sunday, Afghan police, backed by army and NATO troops, killed six insurgents and captured 57 other suspec...