Archive for December, 2008

Pakistan has suspended supplies to US and Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan as security forces launch a major offensive against suspected pro-Taliban fighters.

The Khyber Pass supply route in the troubled northwest tribal belt was closed on Tuesday, as Pakistan sent tanks, helicopter gunships and artillery units into the region.

Tariq Hayat, the Khyber region’s top administrator, said a curfew had been imposed in the region and the main road leading to the Afghan border had been sealed.

“Supplies to Nato forces will remain suspended until we clear the area of militants and outlaws who have gone out of control,” he said.

Hayat confirmed Pakistani security forces had launched “an operation against militants and armed groups in Jamrud” – the gateway to the Khyber Pass.

‘Giant operation’

Pro-Taliban fighters have carried out a string of attacks in recent months aimed at choking off supplies transported to foreign forces in landlocked Afghanistan through northwest Pakistan.

Hundreds of Nato and US-led coalition vehicles were destroyed in a series of raids earlier this month.

“This is a giant operation. It will continue until we achieve our objective,” Hayat said, adding that the operation could be extended beyond the Jamrud region if deemed necessary.

Alongside putting a stop to attacks on Nato and US supply vehicles, Hayat said the operation had been launched to tackle a spate of kidnappings for ransom in the tribal belt that straddles the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Hayat said: “We have 26 targets, we will eliminate their [pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters] hideouts.”

Two weeks ago, several haulage companies in Pakistan refused to undertake journeys along the 50km route, saying the security of their drivers could not be guaranteed.

The main fighting is in the Jamrud sub-district of Khyber

Pakistani forces have arrested 40 people and destroyed suspected militant houses and camps in a key operation in the Khyber region, officials say.

The operation has led to the closure of a crucial overland route carrying supplies to US and Nato troops fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan.

The offensive involves ground troops, helicopters and tanks.

There has been a spate of hijackings and attacks on vehicles carrying supplies into Afghanistan.

Curfew

The top administrator of the Khyber tribal region, Tariq Hayat, told the BBC: “The security forces have arrested at least 40 suspected militants and criminals since Tuesday morning.

“Many of the arrested persons are local Taleban commanders and their sponsors. The forces have destroyed their houses.”

Pakistan’s surprise offensive

Mr Hayat said 18 houses and at least 14 camps of Taleban militants in the region had been destroyed.

The section of the Khyber Pass that passes through the Jamrud sub-district is the most insecure stretch of the road.

Witnesses told the BBC that the security forces were using artillery fire and helicopter gunships to pound suspected militant positions in the Ghundai and Shahkas areas of Jamrud.

The entire sub-district is under curfew.

Local officials said they did not know when the supply route would reopen but hoped it would be soon.

The international forces in Afghanistan have praised the Pakistan offensive despite the fact that the route carries about 75% of their supplies via Karachi.

US military spokesman in Afghanistan, Col Greg Julian, said: “We are glad that they’re helping clean out what they call miscreants… Temporary closure is not a problem. It’s best that they conduct this operation and clear out these trouble spots.”

The offensive has closed the supply route to Afghanistan

However there have been reports Nato and the US are trying to find alternative routes through central Asia.

The offensive was a surprise move to many as there had been reports Pakistan was scaling down operations in the north-west to move some troops to the Indian border amid tension over the Mumbai attacks.

Since September the Taleban in Pakistan have targeted vehicles carrying supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan.

They have hijacked lorries, stolen their cargo and kidnapped their drivers.

Some lorry drivers recently suspended organised convoys to Afghanistan because of the worsening security although some supplies did continue under heavy paramilitary guard.

Recently thousands of protesters turned out in Pakistan’s city of Peshawar to demand an end to the supply route.

Mr Wood said roadside bomb attacks did not help the insurgents’ campaign

The US ambassador to Afghanistan has said the number of kidnappings and roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan doubled in 2008 compared to 2007.

William Wood said such attacks, often targeting international forces but also civilians, only served to demonstrate the brutality of the insurgents.

Mr Wood also said there had been progress in some areas, such as the battle against drug production.

2008 has seen the worst violence since the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001.

At a news conference in Kabul, ambassador William Wood said the number of roadside bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), had doubled this year to around 2,000.

He said the number of kidnappings had also doubled to about 300, adding that it was hard to know if they were criminal or political in nature.

“They don’t threaten the government,” he said. “All they do is prove to everyone the continued presence and brutality of the terrorist.”

‘Improvements’

Mr Wood summed up 2008 as a hard year, but one in which Afghans and international forces had showed their determination.

He said the year would be remembered as “a terrorist effort… characterised by violence against individuals, both Afghan and international, and clear expressions by the internationals and by the citizens of Afghanistan that they were not intimidated.”

Mr Wood said there had been progress in the battle against drugs, as well as continued economic growth and improvements in governance, and welfare and social services.

He said that US plans to almost double the number of American troops in Afghanistan in 2009 to 60,000 were necessary for security.

And he predicated that 2009 would be characterised by the presidential elections, for which more than three million people have already registered to vote.

The US has pledged to provide extra troops to contain the insurgency

International military forces in Afghanistan say they have killed 17 militants in two separate operations.

The US-led coalition force said it had carried out air and ground attacks, killing 11 militants in Sarobi, about 60km (40 miles) north-east of Kabul.

Separately, the Nato-led force said it had killed six militants in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan in the past year with increased attacks by Taleban militants.

Ambush

In the Sarobi strike, the US military said it was targeting a commander wanted for trafficking weapons and fighters through the region.

A coalition statement that its soldiers killed two militants when they fired on approaching troops.

“Still receiving fire, coalition forces engaged the militants with close-air precision munitions and killed the remaining nine militants,” the statement added.

Sorobi district is a well-known for its insurgent ties, says the BBC’s Martin Patience in Kabul.

Ten French soldiers were killed and 21 French troops wounded in an ambush by Taleban fighters in Sarobi in August this year – it was one of the heaviest tolls suffered by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

Meanwhile, the Nato force said its aircraft “identified eight insurgents with weapons moving into fighting positions” in an unspecified area of eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.

“The aircraft engaged the insurgents, killing six,” it said in a statement.

Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered the deployment of an additional combat aviation brigade to Afghanistan early next year.

The decision to send about 2,800 soldiers, equipped with both attack and transport helicopters, comes as part of an increased effort to counter the insurgency.

There are currently 31,000 US troops in the country, 14,000 of whom are part of the 51,000-strong Isaf.

Two people have been killed and another 20 wounded, including two US soldiers, in a suicide car bomb attack in northern Afghanistan, officials say.

The bomb exploded in the town of Charikar, outside the offices of the Parwan provincial governor, 50km (30 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.

The two people killed were Afghan civilians, the officials said.

The bombing comes amid rising violence, with Taleban rebels stepping up attacks on Afghan and foreign troops.

Separately, at least two people, including a child, were killed by remote-controlled blasts in the town of Spin Boldak in the southern province of Kandahar.

Reinforcements

A unit of US troops from the Bagram base near Kabul was meeting the provincial governor at the time of the blast in Charikar.

A US military spokesman said two US soldiers outside the compound were among those injured.

Parwan province has been relatively free of insurgent violence but correspondents say attacks closer to and inside Kabul are becoming more frequent.

The attack came a day after 14 Afghan schoolchildren died when an explosives-laden lorry detonated outside a government building in south-eastern Khost province.

The US plans to send between 20,000 and 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan over the next six months to counter the rising violence.