Afghan forces take over security from Nato

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen talk with journalists during a joint press conference at the Afghan Military Academy, marking the full security lead handover to Afghan forces, in Kabul,  yesterday.

AFP/Kabul

The Afghan government took control of nationwide security yesterday and ordered envoys to try to open peace talks with the Taliban as US-led troops prepare to withdraw after 12 years of war.

President Hamid Karzai announced the security handover at a military academy outside Kabul, marking a major milestone in the long and bloody foreign combat mission that began after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Karzai pledged that Afghan forces were ready to take on insurgents, but persistent violence was highlighted when a bomb targeting a lawmaker killed three people in the capital just before the ceremony began.

“Our security and defence forces will now be in the lead,” Karzai told Afghan and Nato officials at the ceremony, the timing and location of which had been kept secret due to fears of a militant attack.

“From here, all security responsibility and all security leadership will be taken by our brave forces,” he said.

Doubts remain over the ability of Afghan forces to beat the Taliban, and the Nato coalition will retain an important function in logistics and air support as well as in combat emergencies.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that by taking the lead in security, Afghan forces were completing a five-stage transition process that began in March 2011.

“They are doing so with remarkable resolve,” he said. “Ten years ago, there were no Afghan national security forces... now you have 350,000 Afghan troops and police, a formidable force,” he said.

“We will continue to help Afghan troops in operations if needed, but we will no longer plan, execute or lead those operations, and by the end of 2014 our combat mission will be completed.”

Karzai used his speech to give a boost to peace efforts, saying that government envoys would travel to  Qatar to try to open negotiations with the Taliban.

“Our High Peace Council (HPC) will go to Qatar, they will talk to the Taliban,” the president said.

“We hope that with the opening (of a Taliban office in Qatar)... the peace talks between the HPC and the Taliban start as soon as possible.”

The handover of the last 95 districts from Nato to Afghan control includes areas in the south and east where the Taliban have concentrated their insurgency since 2001.

As Afghan soldiers and police take over the fight against the militants, the 98,000 foreign troops will focus on training and mentoring roles.

“The reality is Afghan forces are not dreadful, but they’re probably not sufficiently capable to drive the war to a conclusion,” said Stephen Biddle, professor of international affairs at George Washington University.

“My guess is they will be able to maintain the stalemate, provided the US pays their bills,” he told AFP.

The Taliban have a proven ability to strike at Kabul as the country prepares for presidential elections next year and the Nato withdrawal.

Haji Mohamed Mohaqiq, a leader of the ethnic Hazara minority who is likely to play a key role in April’s presidential vote, was unhurt in yesterday’s bomb attack but his clothes were burnt.

“Four of my guards are wounded and are in hospital,” he told AFP. “I heard a big explosion on the side of the car. Only my cloak is a little burned, other than that I’m fine.”

Mohamed Zahir, the police investigations chief in Kabul, told reporters at the scene that three civilians were killed and 24 others, including some guards, were wounded when the improvised explosive device detonated.

On Tuesday last week, a suicide car bomb killed 15 civilians outside the Supreme Court in Kabul. The previous day, gunmen fired grenades at the city airport.

Despite the attacks penetrating the capital’s defences, the effective response of elite Afghan security units has been widely hailed as a sign of increasing professionalism.

Concern over the Afghan forces’ capacity have been fuelled by high rates of desertion and fears for the future of foreign aid post-2014.

On Friday, the US commander of the Nato mission in Afghanistan warned that gains secured over the last 12 years would be lost if donor nations cut back support after the foreign withdrawal.

“We are not where we need to be yet,” US General Joseph Dunford told foreign journalists.

“The continued presence of the international community — politically, in development and in security—is necessary to sustain the progress that we have made.”

According to independent website icasualties.org, at least 3,336 foreign troops have died since the start of operations in 2001.

Afghanistan:  from 2001 to Nato handover

Afghan forces took control of security across the country yesterday, marking a major milestone as US-led combat troops prepare to withdraw after 12 years of fighting the Taliban.

Here are some of the key dates in the US-led intervention in Afghanistan:

• September 11, 2001: Al Qaeda hijackers fly passenger planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is known to live in Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban.

• October 7, 2001: A US-led military campaign begins with air strikes against Afghanistan, followed by an invasion, to hunt down bin Laden and topple the Taliban.

• December 2001: The Taliban are forced from power, but bin Laden is not found. At an international conference, plans are laid for an interim government and a multinational force. Hamid Karzai, later elected president, is appointed to lead the government and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) begins to deploy.

•October 9, 2004: Afghanistan’s first presidential election takes place with little bloodshed. Karzai is proclaimed the winner. He is declared to have won another term in November 2009, amid accusations of massive fraud.

•February 2007: The Taliban’s growing reach is brought home when insurgents attack a US base as vice president Dick Cheney visits, killing 24 people. US president George W Bush vows to further boost his country’s forces.

•November 2008: Democrat Barack Obama is elected US president, vowing to end the war in Iraq and focus on Afghanistan.

•December 1, 2009: Obama orders a “surge” of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan but says withdrawals will begin in July 2011. The number of Nato-led forces rises to a peak of 150,000 in the summer of 2010.

•May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. The killing prompts some critics to say the war should be brought to an end.

•June 22, 2011: Obama announces the withdrawal of 33,000 US troops by the middle of 2012.

•July 2011: Western troops and officials start handing authority to Afghan forces and officials in some areas.

• August 6, 2011: 30 US troops, most special forces, and eight Afghans die when the Taliban shoots down their helicopter, in the biggest single loss for foreign troops in the war.

• September 20, 2011: Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and Karzai’s peace envoy, becomes the most senior politician to be killed since the start of the conflict in an assassination blamed by Afghan officials on the Taliban.

•November 27, 2011: US air strikes kill 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistan to suspend overland Nato supply routes into Afghanistan for seven months.

•December 6, 2011: At least 84 people die in suicide blasts at shrines on the Shiite holy day of Ashura. The biggest attack takes place in Kabul, killing 80.

•February 2012: Deadly protests kill 40 people and force Obama to apologise after US troops burn copies of the Qur’an on a military base in Afghanistan.

• March 11, 2012: A rogue US soldier walks off his base in Kandahar and kills 16 Afghans, most of them women and children.

• February 2013: Obama announces 34,000 US troops will return from Afghanistan by mid-February 2014. There are currently 98,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, around 68,000 of them American.

According to independent website icasualties.org, at least 3,336 foreign troops have died since the start of operations in 2001.

Pak concerned over Karzai remarks

The Foreign Office of Pakistan yesterday stated that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in an interview to a local channel‚ attempted to create an impression as if some institutions of Pakistan were not fully supporting the objectives of bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Expressing concern over the statement, Foreign Office Spokesman said that the government of Pakistan and all its institutions have unanimity of views on issues of national security and foreign policy.

In this context‚ promoting peace and stability to Afghanistan is an important pillar of Pakistan’s foreign policy which is supported by all state institutions.

However‚ the success of this policy requires reciprocal action and good will on the part of Afghan government.

It is in our common interest to jointly address the common challenges of terrorism and extremism being faced by our region.