Un país de espejos rotos: ataque, intervención y retirada de Afganistán.

Llegaron a Herat esta madrugadaLos helicópteros de ataque ‘Tigre’ ya están en Afganistán

El transporte hasta la Base de Apoyo Avanzado se realizó en un avión Antonov fletado por el Ministerio de Defensa

La Base de Apoyo Avanzado de Herat (FSB) acoge ya los tres helicópteros ‘Tigre’ de las Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra (FAMET), que darán protección y seguridad a las fuerzas española en el repliegue de Afganistán.


Durante la pasada madrugada se completaba el transporte de los tres helicópteros a bordo de un avión de carga Antonov An-124 de la empresa Ruslan International, fletado por el Ministerio de Defensa. El mismo había partido a las 06.15 horas del miércoles de la Base Aérea de Torrejón (Madrid).


Tras el aterrizaje del avión en la FSB de Herat sobre las 6:30 de la mañana, el personal español del CATO (Combined Air Transport Operations), junto a miembros de la Unidad de Helicópteros del ET en Afganistán (ASPUHEL), procedieron a la descarga de los helicópteros ‘Tigre’ a través de la enorme compuerta de morro del An-124.


El personal perteneciente al Batallón de Helicópteros de Ataque (BHELA) nº 1, con base en Almagro (Ciudad Real), que se ha integrado en ASPUHEL para el despliegue del ‘Tigre’ -un total de 32 militares-, llegó a Herat el pasado 19 de marzo. Desde esa fecha ha trabajado intensamente a fin de preparar todos los detalles necesarios para la llegada y posterior operación de dichos helicópteros.
Esos preparativos han incluido conferencias teóricas de familiarización con el teatro de operaciones, impartidas tanto en el Cuartel General del Mando Regional Oeste (RC-W), como en la FSB y en la propia ASPUHEL.


Por otra parte, se han adaptado las infraestructuras del área de trabajo de la unidad, que va a ver incrementada su plantilla de personal en dos veces y media más de lo que contaba hasta ahora. Esto ha implicado una intensa labor de redistribución de oficinas y puestos de trabajo, optimizando los medios disponibles.


Máximo despliegue


La llegada de los helicópteros ‘Tigre’ supone para ASPUHEL alcanzar su máxima dimensión desde que inició su despliegue en Afganistán en septiembre de 2004. La unidad cuenta ahora con tres HT-17 ‘Chinook’, tres HT-27 ‘Cougar’ y los tres HA-28 ‘Tigre’.


Esto ha motivado, también, un gran esfuerzo logístico para la FSB, que ha apoyado a ASPUHEL en la adecuación de los hangares, plataforma de vuelos, contenedores de repuestos, revisión de procedimientos locales y, por último, en la construcción de una zona específica de armado y desarmado de los HA-28.


Las misiones que los ‘Tigre’ desarrollarán serán, entre otras, la protección de convoyes terrestres, la escolta de otras formaciones de helicópteros, misiones de ataque a objetivos cercanos a fuerzas propias (Close Combat Attack), así como de reconocimiento táctico, demostraciones de fuerza y seguridad y vigilancia (overwatch).

Operación Al Mazak 1El ejército afgano lidera una acción contra la insurgencia en Badghis

• El operativo ha tenido lugar entre los días 3 y 5 de abril en el sur del valle del Murgab, una de las zonas más controladas por los insurgentes

Entre los días 3 y 5 de abril, efectivos del Ejército Afgano (ANA) y las Fuerzas Nacionales de Seguridad afganas (ANSF), con apoyo de efectivos de la ISAF, han desarrollado la operación ‘Al Mazak 1’ en el sur del valle del Murgab, en la provincia afgana de Badghis. Se trata de una de las zonas más relacionadas con la insurgencia, y a la que se accede desde la localidad de Darra-I-Bum, donde las fuerzas españolas tenían hasta el año pasado el puesto avanzado de combate (COP) ‘Hernán Cortes’.

Este operativo demuestra como el Ejército afgano ha pasado, en sólo unos pocos meses, de sufrir hostigamientos a liderar acciones contra la insurgencia. Ello incluso en territorios en los que anteriormente no había actuado, por estar controlados por la insurgencia, como las zonas al norte y sur del valle de Murgab.

La operación combinada del Ejército y la Policía, tanto la Nacional (ANP) como la de Fronteras (ABP); ha supuesto la participación de 580 efectivos afganos, a los que hay que sumar 165 militares españoles, principalmente, de la compañía ‘TF Azor 23’ y un importante conjunto de capacidades de ISAF, como células de estabilización, zapadores, etc.

El contingente español en Afganistán (ASPFOR XXXII), apoyó las operaciones, permitiendo que las propias fuerzas afganas llevaran la iniciativa, en un último paso de transferencia de la responsabilidad en materia de seguridad.

Tres días

Durante el primer día de la operación las fuerzas de seguridad afganas, realizaron una serie de acciones que comprendieron desde la entrega de ayuda humanitaria con sus Unidades de colaboración cívico-militar (UCIMIC), hasta el avance a zonas controladas por la insurgencia, al norte de Darra-I-Bum.

En estas acciones, las fuerzas españolas que estaban apoyando el movimiento de las fuerzas afganas en la zona de Sapuzai, al sur de la ruta OPAL, mantuvieron un combate con la insurgencia, donde respondieron al hostigamiento recibido con fuego de las armas propias de la compañía ‘TF Azor 23’, entre otras, un mortero embarcado y ametralladoras medias y pesadas.

En el tercer y último día de operación, las fuerzas afganas progresaron por el peligroso valle de Piwar, reducto insurgente que no había registrado presencia de las Fuerzas de Seguridad afganas anteriormente. En la operación se han producido seis bajas entre la insurgencia, capturándose tres prisioneros.

Las fuerzas españolas, entre las que no se ha producido daños, mantuvieron una posición de apoyo a la operación ‘Al Mazak 1’ en beneficio del Ejército afgano.

A la par llevaron a cabo labores de asesoramiento en el cuartel general de la Brigada afgana que dirigía la operación; siguiendo la tendencia de progreso de las ANSF se comprobó que este asesoramiento resulta cada vez menos necesario.

Igualmente hay que destacar la participación novedosa de una patrulla española de limpieza de rutas, donde están incluidos los recientemente adquiridos vehículos especiales ‘Husky’.

La Operación confirmó plenamente el definitivo progreso de las fuerzas afganas en la realización de acciones de envergadura, así como demostró a la población la disposición de su Ejército de llegar a cualquier zona, incluso las consideradas hasta ahora como más hostiles.

Arranca el repliegue, por la frontera sur con Paquistán, de material del contingente español en Afganistán


El contingente militar español desplegado en la provincia afgana de Badghis ha iniciado ya el transporte del material no sensible (material de campamento, uniformes, tiendas, etc, procedente de los puestos de combate avanzados de Ludina y Muqur, que fueron transferidos a las fuerzas afganas en febrero y marzo) por la frontera sur con Pakistán, con el objetivo de trasladarlo a España por vía marítima desde el puerto de Karachi, según informa el diario ABC. Este primer convoy estaría evaluando la fiabilidad de esta vía de salida que, según informan al rotativo fuentes militares, es la más económica para sacar del país este tipo de equipamiento.

España, al igual que otros países de la OTAN, tienen como alternativa, de no resultar segura esta opción, una ruta terrestre hasta Daykundi (Turkmenistán) y de ahí, vía Rusia, llegar por tren a territorio nacional. Para retornar armamento y blindados se recurrirá al transporte aéreo desde Emiratos Árabes Unidos para desde ahí llegar en barco a España.
En noviembre finalizará el repliegue del contingente español en la provincia de Badghis, la base de Qala i Nao «Ruy González de Clavijo», donde hay 1.150 militares españoles, se transferirá al Ministerio de Defensa de Afganistán ese mes. El tránsito desde Qala i Nao a Herat se realiza por lo que el propio Ministerio de Defensa ha definido como «un tortuoso camino de tierra flanqueado por un desfiladero», llegándose a necesitar entre 10 y 14 horas para recorrer unos 150 kilómetros. Los helicópteros “Tigre”, que en menos de 20 días ya han participado con éxito en 20 misiones, protegerán el paso de esos convoys.
Después de noviembre permanecerá en Afganistán, bajo el actual formato de la misión ISAF que finalizará el 1 de enero de 2015, un contingente de unos 400 efectivos en Herat y en los cuarteles generales de Kabul.

Video: Un drone alemán casi choca con un avión de pasajeros en Afganistán
Publicado: 4 jun 2013 | 9:16 GMT Última actualización: 4 jun 2013 | 9:18 GMT

Un drone alemán estuvo a punto de chocar con un avión de pasajeros en Afganistán. El vídeo atrajo la atención pública después de que el Ministerio de Defensa alemán canceló un programa de aviones no tripulados por su falta de tecnología anticolisión.
Las imágenes, tomadas hace nueve años por un avión no tripulado de reconocimiento tipo EMT Luna-X 2000, muestran como el drone pasa a pocos metros bajo el ala izquierda de un avión de pasajeros Airbus A300. Después del encuentro, la estela de turbulencia del avión afectó el drone, que perdió el control y se estrelló sobre la capital afgana, Kabul, informó la revista alemana 'Der Spiegel'.



El avión, de la compañía afgana Ariana, transportaba cerca de 100 pasajeros, dijo la revista. El fabricante del avión no tripulado, de 40 kilogramos, afirmó que la casi colisión se produjo después de que el avión de pasajeros se saliera de su ruta sin informar al control en tierra.

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El vídeo tomó gran relevancia una semana después de que el ministro de Defensa alemán, Thomas de Maizière, decidió cancelar el programa de los EuroHawk, que cuesta unos 652 millones de dólares y que estaba destinado a reemplazar los aviones de reconocimiento existentes, incluyendo los drones Luna. El EuroHawk es parte del proyecto Global Hawk de la OTAN, en el marco del cual Alemania planeaba adquirir aeronaves no tripuladas de la estadounidense Northrop Grumman y adecuarlas con sensores personalizados.

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De Maizière, hombre de confianza de la canciller Angela Merkel, se encuentra entre la espada y la pared por el escándalo de los drones alemanes, que podría costarle el puesto, además de generar una crisis dentro del Gobierno y dañar la campaña de Merkel a escasos cuatro meses de las elecciones.

German government covered up near-collision of drone, Afghan airliner
Video of 88-pound drone barely missing wing of Airbus enflames drone debate.

by Sean Gallagher - June 4 2013, 8:17am -0700

Classified documents and video obtained by the Der Spiegel have revealed a near collision between a small Luna reconnaissance drone operated by the Bundeswehr and an Ariana Airbus A300 airliner over Kabul in August of 2004. The Ariana flight was carrying 100 passengers.

The report comes as German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière faces another drone scandal over the purchase of the "Euro Hawk," a long-range surveillance drone that was found to be too dangerous to operate in European airspace because it lacked a collision-avoidance system.

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The leaked video, classified as secret by the German defense ministry, shows the 88-pound Luna drone passing within two meters of the A300's wing. It then hits the turbulence of the airliner's jet wake, loses control, and crashes.

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Officials of EMT, the company that manufactures the Luna drone, told Der Spiegel that the Airbus had flown into restricted airspace where the drone was operating, but the tower at Kabul's airport was not aware of the restriction.

The risk of collisions with manned and other unmanned aircraft is a major concern that the Federal Aviation Administration is trying to address as it works to meet a Congressional mandate to "integrate" drones "into the national airspace." And it's the reason for the cancellation of Germany's Euro Hawk program, a €600 million Euro contract with Northrop Grumman that was killed after five years because it failed to gain certification to operate over Europe.

Getting an air-worthiness certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency would require improvements to the Euro Hawk's collision-avoidance system that would require an additional €250 million to €600 million, according to a government report—along with "incalculable technical, temporal, and financial risks."

Dron alemán casi choca con avión de pasajeros en Afganistán

Un avión no tripulado del Ejército alemán pasó a dos metros de un avión de pasajeros hace nueve años en Afganistán, informa la revista "Der Spiegel" en su edición que sale a la venta estelunes (03.06.2013). El aparato, de aproximadamente 40 kilos, rozó un Airbus con un centenar de pasajeros que estaba aterrizando en la capital afgana, Kabul, informa la revista. Acto seguido, el dron tipo "luna" se estrelló por efecto de las turbulencias creadas por las turbinas detrás de la aeronave de la aerolínea afgana Ariana. El registro en vídeo del episodio está desde agosto de 2004 en manos el Ejército, pero en la plataforma de video YouTube puede verse una corta secuencia del suceso que estuvo a punto de producir un terrible accidente. En marzo de 2010 hubo en Afganistán un accidente con drones alemanes, cuando un avión de reconocimiento militar alemán tipo "Heron 1" chocó contra un avión de transporte Transall estacionado. Nadie resultó herido. En febrero de 2012, se supo que en los cinco años anteriores se habían estrellado 17 drones del Ejército alemán. (dpa)

Fecha 02.06.2013

" Los helicópteros de la ASPUHEL alcanza las 10.000 horas de vuelo en Afganistán  

La Unidad Española de Helicópteros del Ejército de Tierra en Afganistán (ASPUHEL) ha alcanzado en este mes de agosto las 10.000 horas de vuelo en el teatro de operaciones de Afganistán en el transcurso de una misión en la zona sur de la región oeste del país llevada a cabo por un helicóptero Chinook, dos Cougar y dos Tigres. La ASPUHEL lleva desplegada en Afganistán desde el año 2004, inicialmente en Kabul y desde comienzos de 2005 en Herat. En la actualidad cuenta en Herat con tres helicópteros Chinook HT-17 de transporte pesado, tres helicópteros Cougar HT-27 de seguridad y transporte medio y tres helicópteros de ataque y reconocimiento Tigre HA-28. Los medios aéreos de la Unidad llevan a cabo misiones de transporte, de protección y de seguridad de tropas de la Fuerza Internacional de Asistencia para la Seguridad (ISAF, en sus siglas en inglés) y en especial de las fuerzas españolas desplegadas en las provincias occidentales de Badghis y Herat. Las unidades de ASPUHEL también proporcionan apoyo al Mando Regional Oeste de ISAF, cuyo Cuartel General está situado en el interior de la propia base española de Herat.  La Unidad Española de Helicópteros del Ejército de Tierra en Afganistán está compuesta en la actualidad por 106 miembros procedentes de diversas Unidades de Helicópteros de las Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra (FAMET), y durante el presente relevo está mandada por el teniente coronel Pablo Muñoz Bermudo. Desde principios de 2005 ha estado desplegada en la Base de Apoyo Avanzado Herat (FSB, en sus siglas en inglés), mandada a su vez por un coronel del Ejército del Aire.""]

13 de septiembre de 2013•00:33

Atacan consulado de EU en Afganistán; habría siete muertos
Al menos una persona murió y otras 18 resultaron en el ataque de un grupo armado contra el consulado de Estados Unidos en Herat, en el oeste de Afganistán, sin embargo, la cadena Al Yazira afirma que son 7 los muertos

El ataque, confirmado a la AFP por la fuerza internacional de la OTAN en Afganistán (ISAF), parecía estar bajo el control y la intesidad de la lucha ya ha disminuido, según un corresponsal de la AFP en el lugar.

Foto: Getty Images
Foto: Getty Images
Un portavoz de un hospital local, Mohammad Rafiq Sherzai, dijo que había cuatro policías heridos.

Lo único que se tiene confirmado es que un comando taliban atacó el consulado de Estados Unidos en la ciudad de Herat, sin que hasta el momento se conozca el número de muertos por la incursión, informó una fuente oficial.

Sin embargo, de acuerdo con la agencia Notimex que cita a la cadena Al Yazira, lo ataques dejaron al menos siete muertos y 17 heridos

Los primeros reportes indican que un automóvil cargado con explosivos fue hecho estallar a unos 60 metros de distancia del consulado poco antes del amanecer, lo que generó severos daños en los alrededores.

Imágenes transmitidas por la televisora árabe mostraron una columna de humo que se levantó sobre la ciudad, mientras los equipos de emergencia auxiliaban a las víctimas.

Hasta ahora ninguna agrupación se ha atribuido el atentado, pero reportes de la prensa árabe responsabilizan a militantes del extinto régimen Talibán.

Se espera que en las próximas horas el gobierno afgano emita información oficial sobre el ataque.

http://noticias.terra.com.mx/mundo/medio-oriente/atacan-consulado-de-eu-en-afganistan-habria-siete-muertos,e43c6f4440f01410VgnVCM4000009bcceb0aRCRD.html

Al menos 3 muertos en un ataque contra un consulado de EEUU en Afganistán
ReutersReuters – Hace 7 horas

HERAT, Afganistán (Reuters) - Al menos tres personas murieron cuando insurgentes atacaron el viernes el consulado de Estados Unidos en la principal ciudad del oeste de Afganistán, detonando un poderoso camión bomba ante de las puertas delanteras e iniciando un enfrentamiento a tiros con las fuerzas de seguridad, dijeron las autoridades.
El audaz ataque en Herat, reivindicado por los talibanes, subraya una vez más las preocupantes condiciones de seguridad en momentos en que Afganistán se prepara para tomar el relevo de las tropas de combate extranjeras después de 12 años de guerra y para organizar unas elecciones presidenciales cruciales el próximo año.
Si bien las circunstancias del ataque no estuvieron claras inicialmente, un portavoz de la embajada de Estados Unidos en la capital afgana, Kabul, dijo que todo el personal estadounidense en el consulado en Herat estaba a salvo y localizado.
Describió el incidente como un ataque "complejo" con un coche bomba. Una declaración del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos más tarde dijo que el ataque había terminado.
El jefe de policía de Herat, el general Rahmatullah Safi, dijo que un oficial de policía y un intérprete murieron y dos miembros del personal afgano que trabajaba en el consulado habían resultado heridos.
Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, portavoz del principal hospital de Herat, dijo más tarde que tres personas, entre ellas dos policías y un guardia de seguridad, habían muerto y 17 resultaron heridas.

Fuente: http://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/al-menos-3-muertos-en-un-ataque-contra-061148238.html

Enrique Peña Nieto lamenta ataques a embajada de los EEUU en Afganistan

Redacción 13/09/2013 08:19:44

México.- El presidente Enrique Peña Nieto condenó a través de la red social Twitter los hechos violentos en contra del consulado de Estados Unidos en Afganistán.

Enrique Peña Nieto ✔ @EPN

Lamento y condeno los hechos violentos en contra de un consulado estadounidense en Afganistán.
7:16 AM - 13 Sep 2013

Cabe recordar que durante la madrugada de este viernes un suicida detonó explosivos en un coche justo frente a un edificio diplomático estadounidense en Afganistán, mientras insurgentes armados atacaron el complejo, originando un enfrentamiento directo con las fuerzas de seguridad. En los ataques, al menos se registraron siete muertos y una decena de heridos.

Este atentado, perpetrado tras el aniversario de los ataques del 11 de septiembre en Nueva York (este de EE.UU.) es el más reciente de la ola de violencia dirigida a las tropas estadounidenses que se preparan para retirarse de Afganistán en 2014.

NO HAY VÍCTIMAS ESTADOUNIDENSES
Afganistán. El ataque talibán al consulado de EEUU en Herat se salda con al menos siete muertos y 17 heridos

MADRID, 13 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

El ataque perpetrado este viernes por los talibán contra el consulado de Estados Unidos en la ciudad de Herat, ubicada en el oeste de Afganistán, se ha saldado con al menos siete muertos y 17 heridos, ninguno de ellos estadounidense, según varias fuentes.

El ataque se ha producido alrededor de las 6.00 horas (4.00 horas en España) cuando los talibán han hecho explotar un camión cargado con explosivos frente a la entrada principal de la oficina consular y acto seguido han estrellado otro camión para abrirse paso.

Varios talibán han intentado acceder al consulado estadounidense, pero se han encontrado con la oposición de los guardias de seguridad, que rápidamente han recibido el apoyo de las fuerzas locales y de la Fuerza Internacional de Asistencia a la Seguridad en Afganistan (ISAF).

"Las fuerzas afganas y los guardias de seguridad del consulado de Estados Unidos en Herat han derrotado a los atacantes. (...) Todas las fuerzas enemigas han muerto", ha informado la ISAF a través de la red social Twitter. Según la cadena panárabe Al Yazira, había cuatro talibán.

El jefe de la Policía de Herat, el general Rahmatulá Safi, por su parte, ha informado a la agencia de noticias Reuters de que dos policías, que estarían a cargo de la seguridad de la oficina consular, y un traductor han muerto.

El portavoz del principal hospital de Herat, Abdul Raoof Ahmadi, ha confirmado a Reuters tres fallecidos y al menos 17 heridos. Tolo News ha detallado que todos los heridos son civiles y que entre ellos habría al menos tres niños.

La Embajada de Estados Unidos en Kabul ha aclarado a través de la red social que "no hay víctimas estadounidenses", por lo que todos los muertos y heridos serían de nacionalidad afgana.

La ISAF ha indicado que "en estos momentos el consulado estadounidense en Herat es seguro", a pesar de lo cual, los uniformados "siguen evaluando la situación". Al parecer, helicópteros apache sobrevuelan el complejo.

Los talibán han reivindicado la autoría del ataque. "Nuestro objetivo era demostrar a los estadounidenses que no están seguros en ningún lugar de este país", ha dicho el portavoz insurgente Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, en un correo electrónico enviado a la prensa internacional.

Se trata de la segunda vez que los talibán atacan el consulado de Estados Unidos en Herat desde su apertura, en 2010.

Fuente: http://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-afganistan-ataque-taliban-consulado-eeuu-herat-salda-menos-siete-muertos-17-heridos-20130913071632.html

La Casa Cuartel de la Guardia Civil en Qala i Naw echa el cierre

12 de septiembre de 2013. 19:14h Fernando Cancio.  Madrid.

Después de tres años y medio en Qala i Naw (Afganistán), la Guardia Civil ha echado definitivamente el cierre de la que ha sido su última Casa Cuartel en la base española de la provincia de Badghis. En todo este tiempo, los efectivos del Instituto Armado han formado parte del Equipo de Asesores Policiales (PAT) -instruyendo a la débil Policía afgana- o de la Unidad de Policía Militar -vigilando por el correcto y seguro funcionamiento de la base-. Sus boinas azules y verdes los distinguían del resto de efectivos desplegados allí. Los primeros, los asesores, son quienes han trabajado codo con codo con los agentes del país, consiguiendo que fuesen capaces de planear y ejecutar operaciones por su cuenta. Una misión difícil que dio sus frutos el pasado año, cuando se situaron en un segundo plano y únicamente aconsejaban a los generales y altos mandos afganos.


De esta forma, con el deber cumplido y en medio del repliegue de una base que antes de que acabe el mes pasará a manos del Ejército afgano, los 16 guardias civiles (junto a 4 tiradores de Infantería) han vaciado sus dependencias, cerrado el cuartel y quitado el cartel que decoraba la entrada: una bandera de España en la que se leía "Casa Cuartel de la Guardia Civil".

Hace apenas un mes, LA RAZÓN acompañó a estos hombres -que forman parte del contingente ASPFOR XXXIII- durante una de sus salidas por Qala i Naw. A bordo de sus RG-31 y con casco en lugar de tricornio, visitaron uno de los puestos de control de la Policía afgana y una comisaría. Unas instalaciones simples y arcaicas que los agentes españoles han ayudado a reformar y que han permitido que las Fuerzas del país comiencen a desarrollarse. Con el tiempo se han ganado su confianza y consiguen sacar una sonrisa a unos hombres serios y tranquilos, pero sobre todo duros. Y pese a que acaba de cumplirse tres años de la muerte de dos de sus compañeros a manos de un Policía afgano, en ningún momento se plantearon abandonar su misión. "Por ellos trabajamos", aseguraba días antes de este negro aniversario el comandante Ramón Clemente Castejón, jefe del equipo de asesores.

Para él, la misión "ha sido una experiencia que recordaré siempre" y, sin titubear afirmaba que se marchaba de Qala i Naw "con buen sabor de boca".

Una opinión la suya muy similar a la de su compañero el cabo primero José Ángel Manchado, quien destacaba que «hemos aprendido mucho, sobre todo porque es una cultura diferente a la nuestra y ves cómo aquí viven y son felices con nada, no como nosotros». Y, como sus compañeros, considera que "hemos hecho un buen trabajo. Hemos conseguido que los afganos se crean que son capaces".

Pero no todos cruzaban los infranqueables muros de la base para cumplir con su tarea. Es el caso de los agentes de la Unidad de Policía Militar, que desde el interior proporcionaban seguridad y orden a sus compañeros. Uno de ellos, el cabo primero Cardeñas, aseguraba que "ha sido una buena experiencia". Con la certeza de que "hemos intentado hacer las cosas lo mejor posible para que esta gente tenga un futuro", prefería ser más prudente y apuntaba que "cuando nos vayamos veremos si se ha hecho bien".

Con un acto sencillo en el que formaron, cantaron su himno, recordaron a los caídos y arriaron la bandera, su presencia en suelo afgano llegaba a su fin. Tocaba volver a España. Y lo hicieron junto a otros 114 militares que también abandonaban el país tras finalizar su misión. Poco a poco, en la base de Qala i Naw quedan menos habitantes.

El convoy “Último Infante” llega a Herat sin novedad

El convoy “Último Infante”, compuesto por las fuerzas españolas que permanecían en la base 'Ruy González de Clavijo' de Qala-i-Naw, llegó sin novedad a la base de apoyo avanzado (FSB) de Herat

Esta última Unidad estaba compuesta por una compañía de Infantería y elementos de Ingenieros, Transmisiones y todos aquellos necesarios para garantizar la movilidad y seguridad del desplazamiento.

El convoy “Último Infante” partió a las tres de la madrugada y necesito doce horas para recorrer los aproximadamente 150 kilómetros que separan Qala-i-Naw de Herat.

La participación de nuestras fuerzas armadas en Afganistán las llevó mezclarse en una situación de inestabilidad, que en lugar de disminuir, aumenta. Desde la primera vez que comprometimos tropas en Afganistán en 2001, la implementación de la democracia ha fallado. La violencia sectaria se ha incrementado en media docena de países. La guerra civil ha cimbrado tanto a Siria como a Libia, y la rivalidad entre los chiitas y sunníes se ha vuelto más abierta, más violenta, y más amplia.

Afganistán es parte de un mosaico perturbador que incluye Pakistán, Irán, Irak, Bahréin, Siria, Líbano, Egipto, Yemen, Algeria, Malí, Sudán, Somalia, Nigeria, el banco Oeste y Gaza. El baño de sangre es el común denominador y así lo es también el fundamentalismo Islámico.

Camberra al fin se ha dado cuenta de la magnitud que representa traer la ilustración a una cultura aun sumida en el tribalismo. El Oeste ha pecado de ingenuo; Afganistán es uno de los lugares más dudosos en el mundo para comprometer sangre y billones de dólares por la causa de la democracia. Durante los últimos 200 años, y desde que Afganistán es una aproximación del estado que es hoy, ha habido 21 crisis nacionales; La Guerra Afgano Persa de 1816, la Guerra Afgano Sij de 1836, la Segunda Guerra Afgano Persa de 1836 a 1838, la Primera Guerra Anglo Afgana de 1839-42, la Guerra Civil Afgana de 1850-55, La Invasión Persa de1856-57, la Segunda Guerra Civil Afgana de 1863-79, la Segunda Guerra Anglo Afgana de 1878-80, la Guerra Afgano Rusa de 1885, la Tercera Guerra Anglo Afgana de 1919, la Tercera Guerra Civil Afgana de 1928-29, la Primera Crisis Pastún, de 1955-57, la Segunda Crisis Pastún de 1961-63, el golpe Republicano de Estado en 1973, el Golpe Comunista de 1978, el Golpe de Amín en 1979, la Invasión Soviética de Afganistán de 1979 a 1989, la Cuarta Guerra Civil Afgana de 1989 a 1992, la Quinta Guerra Afgana de 199 a 1996, la Ocupación Gringa –de 2001 al 2013-, y ahora la Guerra Civil Talibán, o Tercera Crisis Pastún. Estas crisis succionaron a los tres grandes poderes imperiales del siglo XX-El imperio Británico, Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética; ninguno de ellos se benefició de tal cosa. Esperamos que la inteligencia mi;itar finalmente se haya dado cuenta que la intervención armada no ha hecho mas que destrabar el sangriento cisma entre sunníes y chiitas en lugar de apoyar al democracia o aun el pluralismo. la región entre India y Turquía que los Australianos solían atravesar en su camino a Europa se ha vuelto o una zona de guerra o una zona muy inestable.
Si el nuevo gobierno australiano decidiera considerar a Afganistán como un caso perdido se retirara discretamente de la región seria comprensible, aún con el conocimiento de que los estados fallidos o teocráticos son incubadoras de terroristas.

Desde que Australia entró al conflicto en el 2001 de mano del entonces primer ministro John Howard-apoyado por el líder de la oposición, Kim Beazley- la unión entre ambos partidos no ha vacilado a pesas de los cuatro cambios de ministro. Esto muestra el apoyo Australiano a los Estados Unidos; la disposición de apoyarlos de forma militar y diplomática fue el último pago del dividendo de seguridad a los Estados Unidos.

Abbott-el primer ministro actual- dio en el clavo cuando habló frente a las tropas australianas en Tarin Kowt, en Afganistán: “La guerra más larga de Australia está terminando, no con la victoria, no con la derrota, pero si con un Afganistán que esperamos que sea mejor para nuestra presencia aquí. Nuestras fuerzas armadas han cumplido con su deber.”

Ahora el reto es construir sobre lo que fue gastado: 40 muertos, más de 200 heridos, 26, 000 personal de servicio rotado, y $8 millones gastado. El gobierno busca cortar el gasto incluyendo los $4 billones del presupuesto de ayuda exterior. Dado el precio pagado por nuestros hombres en activo esperamos que Australia siga ayudando a Afganistán, tanto tiempo como se mantenga seguro para los trabajadores de ayuda humanitaria, para que haya valido la pena el sacrificio.

Holding democracy hostage in Afghanistan?
We discuss the reasons and repercussions of the latest Taliban attacks in the run-up to presidential elections.
Inside Story Last updated: 30 Mar 2014 20:11


The Taliban is threatening Afghanistan’s first ever peaceful democratic transfer of power as Afghans are due to vote for a new president on April 5.

The polls are the third since the fall of the Taliban, and will usher in the first new president in 10 years. Incumbent Hamid Karzai is barred from running for a third time under the terms of the constitution.

His successor will have the added responsibility of relying on Afghanistan’s own police and army to keep the Taliban at bay.

Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera correspondent Bernard Smith said: "The Taliban says whoever becomes the next president of Afghanistan will allow foreign forces to remain in the country. Therefore anybody involved in this presidential election, whether they be election observers, election officials, even people going to vote, everyone is a legitimate target."

So how can Afghanistan prevent the Taliban from derailing the democratic process? And where does this leave the Taliban in a future Afghanistan?

Presenter: Mike Hanna

Guests: Omar Samad - senior central Asia fellow at the New America Foundation, and a former spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry

Helena Malikyar - an Afghan historian who has worked on a number of governance projects with international organisations in Afghanistan

Tony Shaffer - a retired US army lieutenant colonel and intelligence officer, and a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4H_joKGIDc




http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2014/03/holding-democracy-hostage-afghanistan-2014330163320543435.html

Taliban 'abduct' Afghan provincial candidate
Council candidate and seven others were taken overnight in the northern Sar-i-Pul province ahead of April 5 poll.
Last updated: 31 Mar 2014 06:54


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Los Talibanes han jurado interrumpir las elecciones del 5 de Abril

Taliban gunmen have abducted an Afghan candidate running for a seat in the provincial council of Sar-i-Puland and seven members of his entourage, an Afghan official has said.

Governor Abdul Jabar Haqbeen said on Monday that candidate Hussain Nazari and seven others were taken overnight in the northern Sar-i-Pul province.

They were travelling in a taxi to the provincial capital and had no security escort with them, he said.

The governor said elders in the community were trying to negotiate with the Taliban to get Nazari and the others released.

Afghanistan is holding elections on Saturday for a new president to replace Hamid Karzai, as well as for provincial council members.

The Taliban have vowed to use force to disrupt the April 5 vote and have stepped up attacks in the lead-up to the polling.

On Saturday, suicide bombers targeted buildings near the Independent Election Commission headquarters in Kabul, leaving four attackers killed and at least two police officers injured.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

Last Friday, Taliban fighters also attacked a Kabul guesthouse used by a US anti-landmine charity, killing two people including a teenage girl.

Tawdry sex scandals and personal attacks make the rounds on social media ahead of Afghanistan's presidential vote.

Tanya Goudsouzian Last updated: 02 Apr 2014 08:07


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In urban areas, social media is playing an increasingly important role in Afghan politics [AP]

US-style sex scandals and exposes of shady dealings have characterised social media coverage of this week's presidential elections in Afghanistan, the third since the Taliban was ousted from power in 2001. While the local press have largely stayed away from airing candidates' "dirty laundry", access to social media has provided voters with alternative, more entertaining "news" sources.

Rumour-mongering and propaganda are nothing new in Afghan political culture. Historians recount how, in 1928, British agents disguised as Pashtun tribesmen spread malicious rumours against King Amanullah and disseminated doctored photographs of Queen Soraya en deshabille. This purportedly fuelled the ire of the conservative masses, already seething over the king's modernising reforms, which eventually led to Amanullah's overthrow.

If it is hard to belittle the impact of hearsay and slander in Afghan political culture, what is unprecedented is the extent to which the scandals are published via social media, without fear of recrimination. Some believe Afghanistan's newly minted social media forums are the heirs of early 20th century propaganda leaflets. Others claim these forums are being used, possibly indirectly, by some candidates themselves to level personal attacks against opponents without having to sink to the level of verbalising those allegations in televised debates or campaign rallies.

In recent weeks, there has been nefarious talk over the bachelor status of Zalmai Rassoul, a leading candidate. The 71-year-old nephrologist-turned-politician has pitted himself as an elder statesman, owing to his years in the post-Taliban government, first as an adviser to the president, then as minister of civil aviation, national security adviser and, finally, as foreign minister.

Yet, in spite of these bonafides, the buzz on social media has focused on Rassoul's marital status and whether this, in some way, contravenes the Prophet Mohammad's recommendation that his followers should get married.

Mean-spirited jokes are making the rounds, suggesting that Rassoul might have a sexual problem. For instance, there's the one that goes: "Rassoul's is the only ticket that truly adheres to the equality of sexes. It consists of a man (Ahmad Zia Massoud), a woman (Habiba Sarabi) and… a eunuch."

Such was the fervour that last week, in an interview with local Khorshid TV, the presidential hopeful was asked why he was not married, and whether he thought this could have an adverse effect on his ability to be a good president.

Rassoul did not flinch and replied that, if he had a family, he would have spent half of his time with them, and only half his time on the job - but as he was unmarried, he could channel his efforts towards his job. The audience applauded and cheered wildly.

Intimate secrets

Social media has been equally brutal in its treatment of presidential candidate and former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. Afghan social sites are replete with sensationalised accounts of the intimate life of the sartorially resplendent presidential contender. These were compounded by a report in the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur about a young woman claiming to be Abdullah's jilted second wife.

In mid February, in one of the televised debates, Abdullah was asked whether he had any "regrets", to which he replied, "Yes, I have one big regret in my life," but did not elaborate. The moderator did not pursue the matter.

The comments were vague but they were interpreted by many viewers as alluding to his alleged "secret marriage".

Criticisms that have proved especially difficult to surmount are those levelled against some candidates' wives. For instance, Ashraf Ghani's Christian Lebanese wife, Rula, has been castigated on social media. There are photo-shopped images on dubious social media sites, purporting to show Ghani in church, suggesting that he has converted to Christianity. It is an allegation that, if taken seriously by some fanatics, could not only cost the presidential candidate heavily in votes, but could also cost him his life.

According to Shuja Rabbani, son of the late Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, such rumours are meant to detract the attention of the electorate from more pressing concerns facing the country - such as security and unemployment.

"Within the cultural context of the country, this is just to derail people's attention and get voters to look at the negative side of things as opposed to the real issues," he says. "But when we go to vote, nobody will care about anyone's sexual orientation. [They'll look at] who can help us build a better living standard for our children and the future generation."

Rabbani believes that the phenomenon has received a boost by the presence of Western-educated Afghan youth in the country.

"It's not like people didn’t say such things in the past, but people didn’t write these things and make them public before," he says. "A lot of it has to do with younger journalists who are educated outside Afghanistan. So they've picked up on things there, tactics that work outside, but don't really work in Afghanistan."

The word on the street is that the personal scandals and more outrageous corruption cases, such as land-grabbing, have been kept out of the glare of local Afghan media at the request of the US embassy, which has allegedly sponsored the televised debates.

Saad Mohseni, Chairman and CEO of Moby Group, which owns the influential Tolonews channel, insists they've steered clear of sensational personal scandals on principle.

"No one seems to be discussing any of these personal matters on any of the major media outlets... Yes, they are mentioned on Facebook but I would doubt that this would reach a few thousand people... We have a 60 percent market reach in terms of radio and TV but we have steered well clear. We view candidates' private lives as exactly that - private," he says.

Self-inflicted wounds?

Not everyone agrees. According to Daoud Sultanzoy, a presidential candidate and a former member of parliament, social media has become an integral part of Afghan society.

"Society talks about things and societies have the right to talk about their politicians. It’s part of the checks and balances," he says.

Among a population of 30 million, some 1.7 million Afghans are currently using social media tools, primarily Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google-Plus. Around 2.4 million Afghans have access to the Internet, while 19 million people use mobile phones for which five telecommunication companies provide services.

While he questions the lack of "red lines" in social media, Sultanzoy does not think a politician's private life is a private affair - at least not in Afghanistan.

"When someone talks about a candidate not being married, that is a valid question. If someone talks about an [extramarital] affair, that is also valid because Afghans are a traditional people and among traditional people, these things matter," he explains.

But can candidates overcome the dent to their images caused by such reports, regardless of their veracity? In the US, after all, politicians have been brought down on charges of adultery alone.

For Helena Malikyar, a Kabul-based news commentator, the personal scandals, even the more substantial ones involving land grabs, won't have much bearing on the electoral outcome.

"I think in the end, Afghan voters will behave more like the French than the Americans," she says. "Afghan journalists have behaved quite professionally and have stayed away from such personal scandals. Most of the personality smearing comes from Afghans living abroad and through social media."

Ali Seraj, president of the National Coalition for Dialogue with the Tribes of Afghanistan, says such scandals are anathema to Afghan culture.

"In Afghanistan, a wife is called a 'namus' [honour]. She is a very private part of a man's life. No outsider has the right to comment on another man's 'namus'. People have been killed for doing so. Those people who have made Zalmai Rassoul's marital status an issue, should first bring out their own wives and introduce them to the public. I very much doubt that they would do that," he says.

Whether these scandals are filling the gap left by local media, serving the agendas of rival candidates, or simply meant for entertainment value, it remains to be seen what impact they will have on the April 5 vote.

For Sultanzoy, it's all relative: "Thank God I have nothing to hide and nobody is talking about it."

Francotirador británico mata a seis talibanes con un solo disparo en Afganistán

Publicado: 1 abr 2014 | 5:15 GMT

Un francotirador británico mató en Afganistán a seis insurgentes con una sola bala tras dispararle al interruptor del artefacto que portaba un talibán, cuyo dispositivo explotó, informa 'The Telegraph'.
El francotirador, de 20 años de edad, dio en el blanco desde unos 850 metros de distancia, matando al portador del explosivo y a otros cinco talibanes que se encontraban a su alrededor en el momento de la detonación.

Associated Press photographer killed and reporter injured in Khost province after Afghan policeman opens fire at them.

Last updated: 04 Apr 2014 12:20

One foreign photographer has been killed and a reporter wounded in a shooting by an Afghan policeman in the country's east, a day before presidential elections.

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, a 48-year-old German national, was killed instantly according to the news agency, while AP reporter Kathy Gannon, a Canadian, was wounded in the attack on Friday.


"Anja and Kathy together have spent years in Afghanistan covering the conflict and the people there. Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss," said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, speaking in New York.

The agency reported that the two were travelling in a convoy of election workers delivering ballots from the centre of Khost city to the outskirts, in Tani district. The convoy was protected by the Afghan National Army and Afghan police. They were in their own car with a freelancer and a driver.

According to the freelancer, they had arrived in the heavily guarded district compound shortly before the incident.

As they were sitting in the car waiting for the convoy to move, a unit commander named Naqibullah walked up to the car, and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK-47. He then surrendered to the other police and was arrested.

Taliban threats

The attack highlights the poor security in the country ahead of the polls, which the Taliban has vowed to disrupt, threatening to use "all force necessary".

The shooting comes less than a month after Swedish journalist Nils Horner was killed in broad daylight in Kabul's heavily patrolled diplomatic district.

The Committee to Project Journalists says journalists operating in Afghanistan are under "mounting pressure", with threats and harassment coming from "the government, the military, state security organisations, insurgent groups, and regional and ethnic power brokers seeking a return to power".

Saturday's election will mark the first democratic transfer of power from one president to another - a turning point after 13 years of fighting armed groups that has claimed nearly 3,500 members of a US-led coalition of troops and many thousands more from Afghanistan's security forces.

Pakistan's government has guaranteed to beef up security along its border with Afghanistan in order for the country's elections to run smoothly, as many of the border regions are under the control of Taliban fighters.

Afghanistan's Interior Minister Umer Daudzai said on Thursday that the election will take place in a "secure environment".
Daudzai and other security officials acknowledged that eastern Afghanistan remained one of the most difficult areas to control but insisted government security forces were ready to protect voters nationwide.

He also promised troops would remain neutral amid fears that tribal and other loyalties could create a conflict of interest.

Nearly 200,000 Afghan forces are being deployed to protect voters and polling stations. It will be a key test of their readiness to provide security as international combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of this year.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Beyond the Afghan Polls

By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
Issue Net Edition | Date : 07 Apr , 2014


With Afghanistan having gone to polls on 5th April, the die is cast. The Taliban having warned the public not to vote indulged in violence as expected. These included suicide bombings on the biggest hotel in Kabul, as also the election office in Kabul plus the shooting of two foreign women journalists just a day prior to the elections, one of whom succumbed to her injuries. The renowned German photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead and her Canadian colleague, Kathy Gannon seriously injured. While shooting of the two women journalists reaffirmed Taliban’s barbarianism, the Kabul hotel bombing forced withdrawal of election monitoring NGO bodies like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The good part was the Afghan population defying the Taliban call not to vote. The enthusiasm was evident with first sight estimates of 58 percent votes having been cast and visuals of women voters casting their votes freely.

The Western media is hailing the election as first ever in Afghanistan sans any direct foreign assistance in the process but that can hardly be said in respect of foreign ‘interference’, for the CIA, EU, ISI would be intimately involved in the wheeling dealing to orchestrate results in their own interests, akin to the underhand maneuverings in India.

In the first round on April 5th, some 12 million voters had the facility to cast their ballots at any polling station in the country, this being the third presidential election. Security was tight with some 4,00,000 of the country’s police, army and intelligence services deployed for the polls. The good part was the Afghan population defying the Taliban call not to vote. The enthusiasm was evident with first sight estimates of 58 percent votes having been cast and visuals of women voters casting their votes freely. This is evidence that the population wants democracy and not return to the medieval rule of the Taliban. It is however unclear as to how many Afghans could not cast their votes. In 2011, the population of Afghanistan was reportedly 29,835,392 including 2.7 million Afghan refugees mainly in Pakistan and Iran. Then, in the current election there were reports of polling booths running out of ballot papers since voters were permitted to vote at any polling booth anywhere in the country.

Eight candidates are in the fray, vying to succeed President Hamid Karzai who is barred by the Constitution from seeking a third consecutive term. The main contenders among the eight candidates are former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah (of Tajik-Pashtun heritage but believed to be Tajik leaning) and Zalmai Rassoul (Pashtun), and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (Pashtun). As per Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, the leading Pashtun candidate is not Zalmai Rassoul, but Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a well known technocrat who has been in and out of government since 2001 and is popular with the youth vote, but is someone whom Hamid Karzai has never liked nor trusted. Abdullah Abdullah had lost the race to Hamid Karzai in the last Presidential election amongst allegations of rigging. Even today, there is high speculation about bogus voters and possibility of rigging of elections but that is no different from India. Our media stings have exposed bogus voter cards on national TV. Besides, the possibility of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) itself is suspect, as per the court case filed by Dr Subramanian Swamy in year 2010 and on which the Delhi High Court reserved its order in January 2011, an issue that Government of India (GoI) should have sought clear judgment on forthwith basis.


After effects of rigging can be explosive, as resulted in birth of insurgency in J&K albeit the perpetrators were not hounded and continue to even rule that state. Rigging in the current Afghan elections too can be explosive in the words of Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, when he says, “The greatest danger is the fear of rigging by Mr Karzai’s supporters, who control the government machinery. Alleged ballot box stuffing by Mr Karzai’s supporters in his 2009 re-election nearly led to civil war between Mr Karzai and Mr Abdullah. Unfortunately, the reasons for rigging then are still present today. Back in 2009, Mr Karzai feared that the Pashtun vote bank would not turn out on election day due to Taliban threats and intimidation. That proved true, as very few Pashtuns in the south and east actually did turn out. Instead, the government was accused of carrying out massive ballot box stuffing of Pashtun votes that made it appear that millions of Pashtuns had voted and gave Mr Karzai an undisputed advantage against Mr Abdullah.” It is obvious that if there is rigging, the losing candidates will unite against the government.

Afghanistan is a diverse country dominated by Pashtun majority who constitute 43 percent of the population. All kings in Afghanistan were Pashtuns and President Hamid Karzai is Pashtun himself. The Pashtun factor was most important in generating initial support for the Taliban who were offered no resistance from Kandhar to Kabul and ruled the country for a decade. It is significant that Burhanuddin Rabbani (Tajik), Interim President in 1992 under the PeshawarAccord would not permit elections of Majlis-e-Shura under the same accord, and more importantly would not permit Gulbudin Hikmatyar, a Pashtun native of Kunduz and PM designate, to enter Kabul. While Pashtuns form 43 percent of Afghan population, the ethnic cluster known popularly as Northern Alliance constitute 46 percent of the population; 28 percent Tajiks, 9 percent Hazaras and 9 percent Uzbeks. The crux of ethnic rivalry symbolizes the two opposite struggles in Afghanistan, one by the Pashtuns to re-establish their dominance, and the second by the Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek minorities to seek adequate representation in political power at the centre and autonomy of their respective areas. The Taliban have added to the complexity compounded by external factors, mainly the Pakistan Taliban and Pakistan’s assistance to them and Al Qaeda-Haqqanis. The Northern Alliance is the one that intimately helped the US forces during their invasion of Afghanistan. Today, the Northern Alliance grudge that US has cut them off completely in their talks with the Taliban, which should have not been surprising considering past US behavior.

Preliminary results from the first round are due on April 24. As of now, Abdullah Abdullah appears to be the front runner, however, if none of the candidate garners more than 50 percent of the vote, of which there is much speculation, the election will become a runoff between the two leading contenders. A cross section also believes that this will lead to extensive under hand maneuvering and maybe violence (assassination attempts?) before the new President assumes power, with the new government being formed by August 2014 or even later. This will raise the ante further about delayed signing of the US-Afghanistan Bilateral Security Arrangement (BSA) and the possibility of residual US troops in Afghanistan, with the US led 53,000 combat troops slated to withdraw from Afghanistan. It is well known that while the Loya Jirga had approved signing the BSA, Hamid Karzai left it to the next government to sign it disregarding the tension this would create between the presidency and US-NATO forces.


Why Hamid Karzai created this faux passé, could be attributed to many reasons: one, every Afghan asks why the America’s GWOT did not attack the source of terror inside Pakistan; two, the US did precious litter in last 12 years to bring up the economy of Afghanistan; three, the Afghan Peace Process Roadmap to 2015 made by the Afghan High Peace Council (AHPC) in 2012 under US directions was deliberately leaked out, disclosing details like offering Taliban non-elected positions at various levels in government which virtually gives the Taliban complete control of Pashtun dominated areas along Afghanistan-Pakistan border after 2014 elections – apparently backing a two-state solution (or a variant of it) that splits the country into two blocs, a non-Pashtun north and west and the Pashtun south and east, under a weak central government in Kabul, leaving Pakistan with an extended FATA; four, Taliban opening office in Qatar and later elsewhere under anti-Afghan banner and US wanting to the Afghan Government to join talks with them at those locations; five, reports by foreign correspondents of US aided militia spurring ethnic violence in southern Afghanistan; six, US not giving more artillery guns to ANA other than deployed in Kunar and Nangalhar Provinces, and not permitting ANA to raise more artillery units despite cross border shelling and even helicopter supported raids in the past by Pakistan; seven, continued US support to Pakistan military-ISI despite latter unleashing terror in Afghanistan; eight, ISI liked Pakistan Taliban nexus with US supported rebels in Syria; nine, underhand deal worked out by US that Pakistan Taliban entering Afghanistan would not be targeted unless operating in conjunction Al Qaeda-Haqqanis; ten, doubts about US sincerity towards post 2014 Afghanistan, to name some. Considering the mayhem created by the West in Middle East and developments even in Ukraine and Tajikistan, some of these doubts are certainly not unfounded.

Next, the intention of Pakistan which appears to be as malignant as hithertofore with intelligence reports that Pakistan has been training some 20 odd Mujahid battalions to operate as and in conjunction Taliban once US forces withdraw. In a survey into the causes of political instability last conducted by the National Centre for Policy Research, Afghanistan with respect to foreign countries, 43 percent respondents blamed Pakistan. Carlota Gall’s recently released book ‘The Wrong Enemy: American in Afghanistan, 2001-2014’ reveals the underhand double dealing between Pakistani Military-ISI and Pakistan Taliban, that ISI had knowledge of Osaam bin Laden’s hiding place in Abbotabad, ISI and Pakistan’s military establishment supported assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani duplicity responsible for failure of US mission in Afghanistan, ISI running a special desk to handle Bin Laden and using American dollars to fund Taliban and other terrorist groups, besides ISI’s direct involvement in the 2008 terrorist strike at the Indian Embassy in Kabul etc. As for the latter, not only had Afghan intelligence reported ISI involvement in immediate aftermath of the incident. In fact, MK Narayanan, the NSA received a call from Gen Keith Alexander, head of US National Security Agency, informing him about tracing the bomber’s calls to ISI officials in Peshawar; the bomber who was said to have received instructions from the top of the heap of the ISI.


Many scholars are advertently or inadvertently duped into believing that Pakistan has no truck with Al Qaeda. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In 2010, Michael Hughes, Geopolitical Journalist had said, “The Haqqani Network is Al Qaeda. Pakistan has had a close relationship with the Haqqanis for over 30 years, who are still seen as a crucial anti-Indian asset. So, for nine years the Pakistanis protected the Haqqanis and claimed ignorance as to the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden and the Quetta Shura. Nine years, nearly $300 billion dollars and 1900 dead coalition soldiers later, the U.S. has officially verified that the entire war effort has been focused on the wrong side of the mountains.” This was reinforced in 2011 by Vahid Brown, Princeton CT Expert who said, “Senior leaders of the group concerned with political and financial affairs, like Khalil Haqqani and another of Jalaluddin’s brothers, Ibrahim Haqqani, have long resided in Islamabad. My impression is they mostly live in the cities. Ibrahim Haqqani had lived in Islamabad for the past 20 years. Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks last year also revealed that the two Haqqanis often traveled to the UAE from Pakistan.” This was further reinforced by Pir Zubair Shah and Carlotta Gall, New York Times (31 Oct, 2011) by saying, “The Haqqani family, which runs the network like a mafia, maintains several town houses, including in Islamabad and elsewhere, and they have been known to visit military facilities in Rawalpindi, attend tribal gatherings and even travel abroad on pilgrimages. Experts say leaders of the Haqqani network may be hiding in plain sight in cities rather than in remote tribal areas.” The bottom line is the irony that the Al Qaeda-Haqqanis are not weakened much as the US-NATO would like us to believe, judging by the impunity with which they continue to undertake terror strikes in the heart of Kabul even now.

What should be of even more serious concern, particularly to India and Pakistan is the fact that Nawaz Sharif has given up his efforts to bring the Pakistani military-ISI to heel, even as utopians read much into the indictment of Musharraf for treason. Through his article ‘Reversing Course’ in the Dawn dated 3rd April 2014, Cyril Almeida says that the ‘boys’ (military-ISI) has made Nawaz Sharif reverse course from a trade deal with India while the helpless public so wanted. He writes that they don’t want trade and normalization. He further says that what doesn’t make sense is why Nawaz backed down. “Nawaz was the guy who was supposed to have got it. Turn east, not west. The boys’ obsession with the eastern border had led to fears on the western border that led to choices that had engulfed Pakistan itself in flames”, he queries. He blames the ‘boys’ to have scuttled the deal. He says that the TTP has been dominating everything, they are everywhere, all that anyone can talk about and Pakistani Punjab has become jihad centric. His observation of Nawaz Sharif capitulating to radicals is hardly surprising, what with the pace of institutionalized radicalization in Pakistan, Nawaz’s brother (CM of Punjab) officially doling out millions of rupees to terrorist organization and Nawaz himself seeking support of military-ISI and terrorist organizations linked with them in order to retain his seat and power. So Pakistan’s foreign policy changing hands from the military-ISI to Nawaz Sharif doesn’t appear possible as of now. So while Abdullah Abdullah may well emerge as the next President in Afghanistan who is bitterly opposed to the Taliban and the Afghan population wants democracy to continue, Pakistan (read Pakistani military-ISI) can be expected to optimize use of proxies against both India and Afghanistan, egged on by US intransigence. Policy makers and defence establishments of India and Afghanistan need to take these factors into consideration, aside from strategizing what exactly are the US plans for AfPak region and the Subcontinent.

Afghan presidential election under way
Isolated attacks reported across the country as 12 million voters pick a successor to Hamid Karzai.
John Wendle Last updated: 05 Apr 2014 11:31


Kabul, Afghanistan - Millions of Afghans have cast their ballots to pick the country's next president, with only isolated attacks on polling stations reported in the country's first democratic transfer of power in its 5,000 year history.

After months of manoeuvring, jockeying, tribal meetings and campaigning, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmai Rassoul have emerged as the frontrunners in Saturday's polls, coming from a field of eight candidates that includes everyone from former mujahedeen commanders to Western-educated technocrats.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Kabul, described turnout in the polls as high, despite threats of violence and weather disturbance in some parts of the country. Voting has also been extended for at least an hour, with the possibility of another extension depending on the volume of voters, he said.

Four voters were wounded in an explosion at a polling station in the southeastern province of Logar.

It was the most serious attack so far on election day that Taliban had vowed to derail, branding it a US-backed sham.

Voting was also reportedly disrupted in seven polling stations in Khost province, where two people were reportedly injured, according to Al Jazeera's D. Parvaz, who is reporting from Kabul.

Our correspondent also reported that two people, including a police chief were arrested in Wardak province, after they were caught "stuffing" five ballot boxes.

Elsewhere in Zabul province, three Taliban fighters were reportedly killed after accidentally detonating their explosives.

In the province of Faryab, one suicide bomber was arrested, while another explosive was detonated at a polling station in Samangan.

As of Saturday afternoon, the election commission has received 200 complaints of poll fraud. And in the northern province of Baghlan, poll workers were beaten and 1,200 ballots headed to two polling stations were tossed in the river.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, political analyst Haroun Mir said that Afghan citizens know that the 2014 national and local elections are critical to the country's future, which continues to be threatened by the Taliban.

The group has recently carried out several attacks in the capital Kabul and across the country that left many dead and created an atmosphere of insecurity.

Even with the deployment of 352,000 troops to provide security for about 12 million voters and 20,752 polling stations, some 748 polling stations remained closed because Afghan security forces could not secure them, according to the IEC.

On the eve of the vote, two Associated Press news agency journalists were shot as they reported on the preparations. Anja Niedringhaus, a 48-year-old German photographer, was killed and journalist Kathy Gannon was injured.

In a move that underlined the complexities of the race, a last minute drama unfolded on Friday when a rumour swept Kabul that President Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, had switched his support from Rassoul – who as former foreign minister is seen as Karzai’s chosen successor – to Ghani.

"That is absolute nonsense. This is very dirty politics, and very false rumours," a top official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.

Run-off likely

Though the rumour may have been a failed attempt to influence the poll, it was indicative of a fear expressed by some Western diplomats that eleventh hour power politics could influence the poll.
Afghanistan is ready for elections

Massive fraud during the 2009 campaign undercut Karzai’s legitimacy and allegations are already being made that deals have been cut to stuff ballot boxes. Some observers, though, expect this election to be fairer and better-run.

"Afghanistan has never had an election so well prepared so well in advance," Nicholas Haysom, deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera.

"Really everything has been delivered according to timeline both in regard to broad legislative and other provisions but also the delivery of ballot papers, sensitive and non-sensitive materials to the seven thousand-odd voting centres."

With analysts predicting that a vote of over 50 percent, required for an outright win, is unlikely to be achieved by any of the leading candidates, a May 28th second round between the two who poll the highest is a real prospect.

The US and other nations are watching closely and hoping the $126 mln foreign-funded poll goes smoothly. A free and fair election would give them a small success to point to after 13 years of bloodshed since US-led forces toppled the Taliban, and make the scheduled pull-out of most foreign troops this year easier.

Las elecciones presidenciales en Afganistán serán en abril de 2014


Mònica Bernabé | Kabul
Actualizado martes 30/10/2012 10:43 horas
Las próximas elecciones presidenciales en Afganistán se celebrarán en abril de 2014, siguiendo el calendario constitucional y pocos meses antes de la retirada de casi la totalidad de las tropas internacionales del país, prevista para final de ese mismo año, según un alto responsable de la Comisión Independiente Electoral ha informado a la agencia AFP. La comisión es la encargada de la organización de los comicios.

Según la Constitución afgana, el presidente sólo puede repetir mandato dos veces. En consecuencia, el actual presidente, Hamid Karzai, no podrá presentarse a la reelección, cosa que abre un mar de incógnitas e incertidumbre. Y no sólo por eso.

Aún no se ha creado un censo para las votaciones, ni tampoco se ha reformado la ley electoral, que resultó tan polémica en los dos últimos comicios presidenciales y parlamentarios de 2009 y 2010, respectivamente. Entonces el fraude generalizado caracterizó ambas votaciones, y todos los indicadores alertan que puede volver a ocurrir lo mismo en los comicios del 2014.

La única diferencia, de momento, respecto a las elecciones presidenciales del 2009 es que esta vez al menos parece que ya hay un calendario claro. En las votaciones de hace tres años, faltaba menos de 12 meses para las elecciones, y aún no se sabía cuándo iban a celebrarse exactamente. Está previsto que la Comisión Independiente Electoral anuncie mañana oficialmente la fecha de las votaciones presidenciales del 2014, que este martes ya ha sido filtrada a algunos medios de comunicación.

El hecho de que las elecciones se lleven a cabo en abril del 2014 dará margen para la celebración de una segunda vuelta si fuera necesario, a diferencia de lo ocurrido en 2009. Entonces las votaciones se hicieron en agosto y, una vez conocidos los resultados a principios de octubre, las condiciones meteorológicas adversas debido a la llegada del invierno dificultaban la realización de una segunda vuelta.

Abril de 2014 también dará margen para comprobar qué ocurre en el país tras unos comicios en que Karzai no será candidato, y antes de que la mayoría de los militares extranjeros abandonen Afganistán.

Otro factor también diferenciará las próximas elecciones presidenciales: el pasado 17 de octubre diecisiete organizaciones de la sociedad civil afgana y 34 partidos políticos hicieron pública una Declaración de Principios para una Reforma Electoral. Es decir, por primera vez la propia sociedad civil afgana exige un cambio en el proceso electoral.

Entre otras demandas, estos colectivos y formaciones políticas piden una reforma de la Comisión Independiente Electoral para garantizar su imparcialidad; que el Gobierno afgano ni otras instituciones -como el consejo de ulemas- interfieran en las elecciones; y que los resultados de los comicios se den a conocer con más celeridad. En el 2009 se tardó casi dos meses.

En cuanto a la creación de un censo electoral que pueda asegurar unas votaciones sin fraude, de momento no se ha hecho nada. En los comicios anteriores, los afganos debían tener un carné de voto para ejercer su derecho al sufragio.

Muchos de esos carnés se falsificaron o revendieron y, en consecuencia, llegaron a haber 17 millones de carnés electorales, cuando se calcula que la población en edad de voto en Afganistán es de unos 11 millones de habitantes. Se ha planteado crear un nuevo carné de voto, pero electrónico para evitar su falsificación. Costaría unos 80 millones de dólares (unos 66 millones de euros) y parece que los financiadores internacionales no están dispuestos a hacer una inversión que tampoco garantiza totalmente que evite el fraude electoral

Ban congratula al pueblo afgano por elecciones

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07 de abril, 2014 — El Secretario General de la ONU congratuló al pueblo de Afganistán por las elecciones del pasado sábado.

En un comunicado, Ban Ki-moon señaló que esos comicios para elegir un nuevo presidente y las autoridades provinciales, constituye un importante paso de avance en la primera transición democrática del poder en ese país.

“Los millones de mujeres y hombres que ejercieron su derecho al voto, son un testimonio de la valentía y el compromiso de los afganos con el ejercicio de sus derechos y con la construcción del futuro del país”, manifestó Ban.

El Titular de la ONU destacó particularmente la masiva participación de las mujeres como personal de los colegios electorales, observadoras, candidatas y, sobre todo, como electoras.

Consideró que esa presencia demuestra que las mujeres afganas comienzan a ocupar el lugar que les corresponde en la sociedad, y que ya pueden hacer sentir sus voces en la planificación del futuro del país, sobre una base de igualdad con los hombres.

Afghan elections: The morning after

The nation hasn't felt such euphoria since 1964 when the Afghan king declared the country a constitutional monarchy.

Last updated: 06 Apr 2014 11:54

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Helena Malikyar is an Afghan political analyst and historian.

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Afghan women and youth constitute the biggest stakeholders and stand to lose more should the country return to a conservative and traditional system, writes Malikyar [AFP]

"I am voting today to secure my grandchildren's future," said an octogenarian woman waiting in line at a polling station in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif. Throughout the day, Afghan media continuously showed live footage of voters standing in long lines: Old men leaning on their canes, women of all ages, first-time young voters, people from all walks of life and hailing from all of Afghanistan's ethnic groups.

The 2014 presidential and provincial council elections opened at 7am on a cold and drizzling morning in Kabul, amid heavy security measures prompted by three deadly attacks the previous week and a Taliban threat to voters. Thousands of people had queued at polling stations at dawn, right after morning prayer.

The air was filled with enthusiasm, hope and a kind of energy that I had only felt on Nowruz 2002, the first Afghan New Year's Day after the fall of the Taliban. Twelve years later, however, there was an added aura of determination and defiance.

My parents' generation experienced this kind of euphoria in October 1964, when at the behest of the last Afghan king, Zahir Shah, a new Afghan Constitution had changed absolute monarchy to a constitutional one and had started what is known in contemporary Afghan history as the "decade of democracy".
The 1960s were marked with the measured transformation of Afghan society. The multifaceted development agenda produced a better educated elite with various ideological convictions. For the first time, women entered the public sphere in increasingly larger numbers, whether as cabinet ministers, parliamentarians or judges.

The hitherto conservative society did not react in a dramatic manner "because the political elite in Kabul was acting from a high moral ground and truly believed in those reforms", insisted my grandmother, who after shedding the "chadari", an all-enveloping veil that also covers the face, went on to be an active member of Afghanistan's first women's volunteer organisation.

A coup d'etat that ended the constitutional monarchy in 1973, also suspended the process of democratisation in Afghanistan and triggered three decades of conflict and successive authoritarian governments, culminating in the draconian rule of the Taliban.

By the beginning of 2001, Afghans were so despondent about their fate that in a UN-sponsored psychological study of Afghan children and youth, a majority had responded they did not think they would live to become adults when asked "what would you want to become when you grow up".

Eagerness and determination

And that generation voted today, with eagerness and determination. Twelve years of the international community's presence in and attention to Afghanistan, a new constitution that ensures citizens' rights and places men and women equal before the law, thousands of development projects, unprecedented education opportunities, a fast-expanding private sector, a booming privately owned media, and exposure to the progress of the rest of the world, have contributed in restoring a degree of self-confidence and an awareness of striving for a better future.

One of the highlights of election day was the appearance of Daoud Sultanzoy, one of the eight presidential candidates, at a polling station to vote, alongside his wife. This was the first time, after the fall of the late King Zahir Shah, that an Afghan politician had the courage to bring his wife out in public.

At the Independence Day parade of 1959, the Afghan monarch, his prime minister and all cabinet ministers appeared before the masses with their wives, symbolically launching a carefully orchestrated agenda of opening the public sphere to Afghan women.

I called Sultanzoy to commend him for his bravery. He replied: "It is time for those of us who claim to be educated and who stand for equality, to act according to our claims. You can no longer sell demagoguery to this nation."

Vote rigging marred the 2009 elections. There was also a perception among Afghans that Karzai was the chosen man by Washington, and therefore, he would win no matter what.

This time around, the Afghan president is barred from running as the constitution places a two-term limit. So, although two out of the top three candidates also ran in the 2009 elections, it is only this time that they entered the race on a level playing field.

It will take a few days to know approximate numbers of voters and vote distributions and two weeks before Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission announces the final figures. But, many observers estimate that around 7 million eligible voters cast their ballots on April 5. That will make a turnout of close to 60 percent, while in 2009 about 4.5 million had voted.

Besides a better awareness of the democratic process and a more egalitarian opportunity for candidates, the high voter turnout was motivated by a determination to protect the past decade's gains and to continue the modernisation process. Afghan women and youth constitute the biggest stakeholders and stand to lose more should the country return to a conservative and traditional system or even worse, as some predict, a state of chaos.

It is said often that the poll will go to a second round, as it is foretold that none of the top candidates will gain the required 50 percent plus one vote count. It is also predicted that no matter who is announced as winner, the losers will not accept the result and will deem it as fraudulent. This scenario will, no doubt, bring upon a crisis that could potentially end in violence.

There are a number of efforts underway to prevent such crisis by bringing most, if not all, of the top candidates together under a form of a coalition government. Karzai is rumoured to be working hard on bringing Abdullah Abdullah to the camp of his favoured candidate, Zalmai Rassoul, in case there is a run-off against Ashraf Ghani.

In the absence of exit polls, at the end of election day, each camp was claiming to have the highest vote count. Even before the polls closed, there were already cries of foul play by proponents of both Abdullah and Ghani. Taking a sober approach, both candidates stated that they had evidence of violations committed in some polling stations, but that they would rather wait and allow the IEC to do its job responsibly.

Vote rigging is not an imaginary threat and technique to refuse one's defeat. Just how widely and with how much audacity it will be committed remains to be seen.

Afghan voters demonstrated their courage yesterday, but, that was only half the battle. A transparent and objective vote-counting process and candidates' mature behaviour will complete the victory of the democratic process. It will also determine whether or not the country sees a relatively smooth transfer of political power.

Helena Malikyar is an Afghan political analyst and historian.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.They may not reflect Defensa México Staff Opinions but the article is worth to be mentioned.

A woman's war: The rise and fall of Afghanistan's female warlord
by Tom A. Peter @tomapeter April 6, 2014

After vanquishing the Russians and the Taliban, Commander Kaftar struggled to find a place in modern-day Afghanistan and now worries about her fate in a country plagued by war without end.

Comandante Dove.



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The only known female mujahedeen commander, Kaftar, was once the leader of a 600-strong armed force. Today she can't even leave the safe house where she is staying as a guest along with her granddaughter. Javier Manzano

It was the late 1990s, at the height of the war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. Barren mountains loomed over the warring factions, overshadowing what little life existed on the rocky hillsides and making the afterlife that much more appealing to future martyrs. Commander Kaftar was leading a group of men opposed to the Taliban. During this bitter standoff, a Talib commander new to the area tuned in to Kaftar’s radio frequency from his hilltop bunker. He introduced himself to his enemy: “I am Mullah Baqi and I will fuck your wife.”

Kaftar grabbed the radio and fired back, “My husband will fuck your wife.”

Confused, Mullah Baqi thought he’d heard wrong. Commander Kaftar, whose nom de guerre translates to Commander Dove, clarified that she was in fact a woman. The Talib had unwittingly found himself squaring off against Afghanistan’s only known female warlord.

In their next exchange, Kaftar warned him, “If you come after me and do your operations in my valley, people will laugh at you if you arrest a woman. If you come to my valley and I arrest you, then it will be bad for you.” Not wanting to suffer the humiliation of fighting a woman, or worse yet, losing to one, Mullah Baqi swore he’d never attack Commander Kaftar.

About 15 years later, this rowdy, role-defying woman is seated cross-legged at the edge of a single bed in a hotel room in Kabul. Strands of her hair, dyed jet-black, spill out from her white headscarf. The arthritic figure is a specter of the warrior who battled Soviet forces and the Taliban. She rarely smiles and says that she’s only cried once since the start of the wars — when her grandchildren improperly tied her favorite horse to a tree and it slipped off a cliff and hanged itself.

Through the window of her hotel room, the contradictions of Kabul’s posh Shar-e Naw neighborhood are on display. Gaudy, multistory concrete mansions with reflective windows, built to impress but not to handle the winter’s cold or the summer’s heat, dwarf a handful of the surviving mud-brick family homes and aging buildings. Among foreigners, these mansions are known as “poppy palaces,” a reference to the countless Afghans who flaunt riches acquired from trading the narcotic plant.

But Kaftar keeps the curtains drawn and has little interest in the world outside her window. In a life that has spanned 61 years in one of the most repressive countries for women, she rose to become a respected community leader and to lead hundreds of men into battle. But war and time have changed her country in ways that make it difficult to understand the purpose of her life’s work.

Since 2001, a number of Afghan women have entered the political sphere. The Afghan constitution stipulates that women make up a fifth of those seated in parliament. Politicians such as Sharika Barkazai and Fawzia Koofi have managed to make a name for themselves. Activists such as Sima Simar have also thrived, taking advantage of foreign funding to undertake a number of women’s projects.

“Now the days of force are gone,” says Nadera Nahrinwal, a young, aspiring politician competing for a seat on Baghlan’s provincial council in this month’s elections and a close friend of Kaftar’s. “Women can run for office. This is a kind of freedom.”

Under NATO’s guidance, the Afghan security forces have created positions for female recruits. The Soviet Union also enlisted Afghan women to serve in security forces loyal to the communist government. Famously, Latifa Nabizada became a helicopter pilot and Khatool Mohammadzai joined the paratroopers in the Soviet-allied military. Today, Nabizada and Mohammadzai are still a part of the national military, which is now allied with American and NATO forces.

Most of these opportunities, however, reach only women who live in major cities.

What sets Commander Kaftar apart is not simply that she’s an Afghan woman turned militia leader. It’s that she achieved this independent of any outside influence, in rural Afghanistan, where women face the least possible amount of social mobility. And yet having established no clear precedent to help the next generation of women and without a skill set to remain relevant in today’s Afghanistan, Commander Kaftar’s life often seems most like a flash of lightning. An extraordinary moment in time to those who witnessed it, but ultimately lost as unharnessed energy.





La educación de una señora de la Guerra.


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Women in a co-op knit dresses at a mosque in the Yakawlang District of Bamyan province. For most women in rural Afghanistan, working in such a co-op is the only option they have for working outside of the house.Javier Manzano


Commander Kaftar started her life as Bibi Aisha Habibi, the daughter of Haji Dawlat, a prominent arbob, or community leader, in the village of Gawi in Baghlan province’s Nahrin District in northern Afghanistan. As a whole, the province has remained on the fringes of Afghan history. The majority of residents, past and present, make their living farming land that is overwhelmingly brown, an entire stretch of hills and valleys God created but forgot to water.

One of the middle children of 10, Kaftar remembers being her father’s favorite. She followed him everywhere, even as he worked to settle disputes and advising villagers on everything from farming to family matters. In her earliest memories, Kaftar sat by her father’s side in the local mosque where he conducted business in the winter. People crowded into the low-ceilinged, mud-brick building and huddled around fire pits that billowed smoke into hanging chimneys while they awaited their turn to speak with Dawlat. In the summer, people met in his walled garden, where he invited guests to pick what they wanted from his fruit trees and drink from a small stream running through the property.

It was at these gatherings that Kaftar’s life began to follow an unconventional path. Listening to her father solve disputes over who had access to a particular piece of farmland or advise people on what to do during a dry growing season, Kaftar learned how to lead a community. Her father used to send her to deliver playful insults to his friends, and Kaftar developed confidence and a reputation for attitude.

For most Afghan girls, this level of freedom would have ended at puberty, when girls join the closed-off women’s section in a different orbit from the world of men and village business. But Kaftar’s father continued bringing her to the gatherings, and as she got older he allowed her to take a more active role, even stepping in for him from time to time.


Kaftar got engaged at the age of 12, an occasion in which, again, most girls are removed from public life, but the family arranged for her to marry someone who was willing to accept that he was not marrying a regular housewife.

Promised to a man almost 10 years older, Kaftar wasn’t worried about getting married as a preteen. “At the time it was normal to marry at that age,” she says. “Everyone thought it was good for people to marry young.” Instead she wondered whether she’d get along with her in-laws.

After the engagement had been arranged, her fiancé came to her family home for a celebration. Kaftar stood at the center of a group of women on the home’s veranda, overlooking the family garden, dressed in a green bakhmal, a gown worn over loose-fitting pants, waiting to glimpse the man with whom she’d spend the rest of her life. Finally a tall Panjishiri man strode into the garden wearing a crisp, white salwar khamees. The two locked eyes before he disappeared into a men’s sitting room.

“Imagine that an alien enters your house. How do you feel? You never saw him in the past, you never talked to him in the past, just suddenly a random guy, an alien face enters as your future husband. At that moment I felt like Angel Azrael [the archangel of death] came and took my breath away,” recalls Kaftar.

Three months later the two were able to talk for the first time. Her mother helped arrange a secret meeting, a common Afghan practice. In the pervasive darkness of night in the countryside, they met behind her family home and spoke for about 10 minutes. A half century later, Kaftar can’t remember what they talked about, but she says it did little to make him feel like less of a stranger. After three years of passing word-of-mouth messages through friends and family, the two formally married.

In Kaftar’s recounting of her life, her husband may as well be an uncredited extra, whose only notable virtue was that he accepted her role as a community leader. In the wars that would come he stayed at home with their seven children while his wife went into battle. Several years ago he fell ill. By the time he managed to get medical treatment it was too late, and he died shortly thereafter.

Her marriage settled, Kaftar continued her unofficial apprenticeship. Increasingly, Kaftar rode to nearby villages, acting as a roving arbob on her father’s behalf. She took satisfaction in resolving marriage disputes and forcing families to allow women to choose whom they wanted to marry. She also implemented rules to reduce dowries, removing a barrier that blocked many couples from marrying.

Mohammed Zaher Ghanizada grew up a short distance from Kaftar and became friends with her family. He recalls a story about Kaftar as a teenage girl crossing a small stream. A man sat on the shore watching her and shouted lewd, suggestive remarks at her. Once she’d crossed over to his side, she responded by pummeling the man. As Ghanizada tells the story, before leaving the catcaller to lick his wounds, Kaftar said, “You wanted to lay me down on the ground, and now I’ve laid you on the ground.”

Years later, when her father was on his deathbed, he told Kaftar, “I wish one of my sons was like you, this intelligent and brave and hardworking.”

“I feel that I am your son, not your daughter. I can do the same job as your son,” she replied.






Una villa en Guerra.

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(From left to right) Nadera Nahrinwal, an aspiring local politician and friend of Kaftar, and Bibi Zora, Commander Kaftar's granddaughter, watch as she clears a round from her Soviet-made Makarov pistol. On the right, Kaftar's bodyguard also looks on.Javier Manzano

On Christmas Eve, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in support of the pro-Soviet government, which had begun facing serious opposition. In Kaftar’s slice of rural Baghlan, the particulars motivating the invasion mattered little. Word spread that foreign forces had entered the country and their soldiers were slaughtering Afghans.

Soviet forces had pushed close to Kaftar’s village, but it remained unclear if they would go any further. Still, the villagers piled stones to make basic fighting positions near key entry points. Lookouts watched for Soviet troops. Those who had hunting rifles cleaned their weapons.

The morning stillness of the countryside around Kaftar’s village normally erodes like a piece of sandstone dropped in water, crumbling away as humans and livestock rise and return to work. But two days after the preparations began, the sun had just crested over Baghlan’s haphazard hillside when gunshots cracked on the mountain, instantly bringing the village to life.

Kaftar slung a bolt-action rifle on her back, the shoulder strap lined with bullets, Pancho Villa–style, and ran toward the gunfire. She joined other villagers, some armed with rifles like hers, others carrying swords and shovels or whatever makeshift weapon they could find.

Until that moment, almost every villager had spent their entire life farming. Kaftar knew how to use a gun, but admits she was a lousy shot. As an acknowledged leader in the village, she started to become the one that people looked to for direction. The only order she knew to give was to attack.

“If you get killed, you’ll be martyred, and if you kill them, you will be a hero,” she shouted to the growing crowd.

Armed with assault rifles and light machine guns, the Russians had the villagers outgunned, but the locals easily outnumbered the Soviets. By sunset, the mob had chased the Russians back to their strongpoint, where Soviet tanks forced the Afghans’ retreat. The small victory came at a cost, leaving dozens dead, including three of Kaftar’s relatives.

“It was like Judgment Day. It was the first time in my life I’d seen that many dead bodies. Everyone from the area gathered and came to see the dead bodies laying on the ground. It was really hard for us to see,” she recalls.

It was the bloodiest single day of the Soviet war for Kaftar’s small village, and the beginning of a violent spell that continues 34 years later.



For most of the nine and half years of the Soviet war, Kaftar’s area was not a major front. Her village reinforced its bunkers and organized a 200- to 300-man militia allied with Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the most well-known Afghan fighters.

“It was her own bravery that led her to fight against the Soviet Union,” says Haji Abdul Wahab Abid, who fought alongside the mujahedeen in Baghlan during the Russian invasion. “Whenever you saw her riding her horse, she was always wearing a camouflage jacket. If you saw her from far away, you were not able to understand that this was a woman.”

Kaftar learned to shoot straight and trained her prized horse, a chestnut mare named Maidan, to stand still while she fired a machine gun over its head. In combat, Kaftar swears by mares. “If you have a male horse it doesn’t help. If you’re moving somewhere and something happens, male horses make noise and they give away your position, but if anything happens with a mare, they just keep walking. They are like educated horses,” she says.

Eventually the war had been going on long enough that Kaftar felt more confident taking her youngest daughter with her to ambush Russian troops than leaving her at home, where she fussed and cried without her mother.

On the nights when Kaftar led her men to attack Soviet positions, she slung the supplies she would need on Maidan. Then she climbed on with her weapon of choice — a Soviet-made RKP light machine gun with a 100-round drum of ammunition — and placed her toddler daughter astride Maidan’s withers.

Most nights her daughter fell into an imperturbable slumber during the ride and wouldn’t notice when her mother dropped her off at a friend or family member’s house along the way. On other nights, Kaftar placed her daughter in an area removed enough from the ambush that a combatant would call it safe if and when the fighting began.

Her daughter served the added function of helping Kaftar hide in plain sight, making the seasoned fighter look just like an innocent mother. On one occasion, Soviet troops stopped Kaftar at a checkpoint. She had spent the last several days laying low after a botched attack on another checkpoint and was trying to make her way home.

A Russian soldier peered into her car and Kaftar’s daughter began to cry. The Russian smiled softly, reassuring Kaftar and her daughter that there was no need to be afraid. He stroked the child’s back for a moment, stepped away from the car and waved Kaftar through.

Asked if a personal moment like that with a Russian soldier made her enemy seem more human and harder to kill, Kaftar looks puzzled and finally grins as if amused by an inside joke.

“You are asking a strange question about killing each other and then feeling some good about humans,” she says. “When the fighting started and the attacks started, you didn’t care about anything. When they kill your family, you forget about everything and you are thinking about revenge. Three of my nephews got killed because of me, because of my orders, because they were in the Taliban and I was a mujahedeen [who opposed the Taliban]. When clashes and enmity start, then you don’t care about feelings.”



Un nuevo enemigo

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Kaftar surrendered her weapons as part of the UN Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups program (DIAG). However, she kept some small arms for herself and her personal guards. One of these weapons is her Russian-made Makarov pistol, which she always carries in a holster under her shoulder. Javier Manzano


Facing an unpopular and seemingly unwinnable war, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in Feb. 15, 1989. Kaftar and the villagers celebrated what they thought was the return of peace. But almost immediately after Russian Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov stepped onto the Friendship Bridge, crossed over the Amu Darya River, and became the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan, civil war erupted. No longer united by a common enemy, mujahedeen factions began turning their guns against one another, vying for control of the country.

“Very soon we realized that it was the same donkey with a different harness,” says Kaftar. “It was the same thing happening, the same fighting and killing and bloodshed.”

By 1996, the Taliban had emerged as the dominant force in Afghanistan, capturing Kabul and, eventually, 90 percent of the country. Commander Kaftar’s piece of Baghlan was among a handful of areas that remained beyond their reach, making it a principal front.

“We never ate a single lunch from beginning to end like normal,” says Kaftar of life during the war against the Taliban. “Sometimes we would be starting lunch and the fighting would start and we would have to shoot back at them. In the morning, you’d have two sips of tea and then the fighting would start.”


By the time she was battling the Taliban, Kaftar had established herself as an intimidating leader. Abid, who now serves as a colonel in the Afghan police, was aware that she had fought during the Soviet war, but remembers nothing exceptional about her until the war with the Taliban started. He says Commander Kaftar managed to stop two attempted Taliban incursions into her village, pushing her to the forefront of the resistance in the area.

“It was not normal for me to hear about a woman defeating the Taliban,” he recalls.

By the final years of the war against the Taliban, frequent assassination attempts had forced Kaftar to stop sleeping in her house. Decades of fighting had made her numb to war and its sorrows. When two of her sons fell on the battlefield, she says, she never cried. She didn’t know it at the time, but her own family members were among those trying to kill her. In the final days of the war, her men captured 50 Talibs who’d made a failed assault against her position.

Kaftar’s fighters began the process of taking prisoners, confiscating their weapons, handcuffing them and chaining them together for transport to a prison facility. Whatever elation she may have felt having survived another attempt on her life and capturing scores of enemies vanished when one of her subordinates told her that they’d just discovered two of her nephews and her cousin once removed among the prisoners.

It was a plain fact that members of Kaftar’s family had joined with the Taliban, but she never dreamed they would be among those working to kill her directly.

She approached her shackled family members and said, “You are a Taliban and I am in the Northern Alliance. I didn’t attack you a single time. Why did you come and attack us?”

The men responded with silence and empty stares. “It’s really painful when your own family members come to kill you, and then later it’s painful when you kill them,” she says.

Several days later, she received a report that the three men were gunned down en route to prison. They’d allegedly brokered a deal with one of the guards to escape, but were killed as they fled.




Un feudo Familiar.

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Commander Kaftar holds a photo of the body of one of the men loyal to her who she says was killed by men connected to the Taliban. Javier Manzano

After the 9/11 attacks, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, swiftly routing the Taliban, Kaftar thought peace might once again return to her country. There was still fighting, but it was focused in the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan. International forces now patrolled the country and were building up the Afghan security forces, and decentralized militia groups like Kaftar’s were seen as a source of instability. By 2006, the situation seemed stable enough that Kaftar agreed to surrender the majority of her and her fighters’ weapons as part of a United Nations–sponsored program to disarm unofficial militia groups.

But as many people who pick up arms discover, putting them down often proves more difficult. Shortly after Kaftar agreed to disarm, the Taliban made a sharp resurgence. Now she regularly receives calls from people threatening to murder her with a suicide bomb attack.


Kaftar also became embroiled in a family feud when her grandson allegedly killed her nephew. The details of the incident are disputed, but the most commonly held narrative says that her grandson and other family members invited the nephew over for dinner. At some point during the evening, he was shot and killed. Some contend it was an accident; others say Kaftar’s grandson executed her nephew during an argument over a woman.

The feud led to tit-for-tat violence that killed a total of 12 people and wounded seven from both sides of the family. A local commission stepped in to resolve the issue early last year, but at substantial cost to Kaftar. She paid her nephew’s family more than $20,000 to settle the issue.

Sadrudin Ahmadi, the son of her nephew’s family’s patriarch, alleges that Kaftar had numerous affairs and picked up a gun in an effort to keep the illicit liaisons secret. He also accuses her militia of extorting people for money and bribes.

“She is not a respected woman,” he says. Ahmadi contends that Kaftar’s family has yet to pay him any of the money from the settlement, but adds that his family is unlikely to take any additional actions unless provoked. (Mullavi Faiz Mohammed Haqqani, a member of the commission that made the decision to settle the dispute, says he was present when Kaftar paid her rival family in full.)

Afghan family feuds are notoriously complicated, and Kaftar’s is no exception. Hawas Khan Fitrat, who travels as part of Kaftar’s entourage, is also the son-in-law of Mullavi Gul Ahmad, the head of her rival family. Even at the peak of the feud, he regularly visited both families.

“When the new generation gets educated and goes to school they will definitely forget about the culture of guns and rivalries,” says Fitrat, who graduated from a local college with a degree in Islamic law. “There is no benefit in a feud. You lose your life, you lose your family’s life, you face hunger, and your kids face the same thing.”


La Guerrera en tiempos de paz.


At her hotel in Kabul, Kaftar sleeps at the foot of two single beds on a thin carpet spread over a stone floor, with a well-traveled duffle bag as a pillow. After years of living in the hills, she says she prefers the floor.

Like most people in Afghanistan, she’s waiting to hear whether the U.S. will completely withdraw from the country at the end of this year. If it pulls out, she fears a return of Taliban rule, and this time she won’t be strong enough to resist. Without help or enough weapons, she worries that the hard-line militants will come after her and her family.

Kaftar would like to apply for asylum somewhere outside Afghanistan, but does not know how. She also says any nation willing to provide a safe haven would need to offer passage to 30 or 40 of her family members as well. She could flee to neighboring Pakistan or Iran, but she’s concerned that neither country would be safer than Afghanistan.

“I was proud of my career,” she says. “But since I have been getting threats and I'm struggling and suffering, now I think I should not have become a commander. I wish I would have been just a normal housewife. That no one would know me, no one would come to talk to me, and I would have been just a normal housewife. Now I am sitting awake at night, always on guard, with a gun, ready to protect myself.”

When the battle comes home
101 East looks at the rising rates of mental health problems among Australian veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
101 East Last updated: 06 Jun 2014 10:30

In their home country, Australian soldiers are fondly known as "diggers". Their tales of bravery are etched in the national psyche. This fervor reaches its peak on ANZAC Day, where veterans from various wars march in cities and towns across the country. It is considered Australia's most important national occasion and is held annually to mark the first time its troops fought in World War One.

But for many returned veterans, a battle within lingers on. One in five Australian soldiers are expected to face mental health problems like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when they come home. PTSD is a debilitating mental condition characterised by recollections of a traumatic event that may include repetitive nightmares or distress. Since 2001, the rates of PTSD amongst Australian soldiers have quadrupled.

Now, young combat troops are returning from Afghanistan - this country's longest war. Forty Australian men were killed in action there in the last 13 years, but soldier suicides at home have outnumbered those casualties.

For many young veterans, the horrors of deployment have led to broken relationships and substance abuse. It's been described as a "large wave of sadness coming our way" by John Cantwell, a recently retired army major general, who questions whether the Defence Force is ready for the challenges of PTSD.

Veterans' support groups warn that many of the 30,000 troops who served in Afghanistan are suffering from or are at risk of confronting mental health issues.

As two decades of large-scale engagements come to an end, including East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, many soldiers have anger issues, nightmares and an inability to deal with normal life.

Admitting they have a problem can also be a challenge, with discussion of mental health issues often considered taboo within the military, especially if soldiers feel it will hamper their future career options. Some complain that when they have finally found the courage to speak up, help has been hard to come by.

As more Australian soldiers return from the battlefield, 101 East reporter Drew Ambrose explores their war within.

What can Australia do to address rising rates of mental health problems in its military? Share your thoughts with us @AJ101East #VeteransAffairs

Afghans elect president amid Taliban threats
Security tightened for runoff vote after fighters said polling booths would be targeted in "non-stop" assaults.
Last updated: 14 Jun 2014 05:26
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Afghan policemen conduct security checks in Kabul on polling day [Reuters]

Afghans are heading to the polls for a second round of voting to elect a successor to President Hamid Karzai.

Saturday's vote pits former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah against ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani after neither secured the 50 percent majority needed to win outright in the first round on April 5.

Security has been tightened across the country after Taliban fighters threatened to attack the election, which they have condemned as a US-sponsored charade.

Both candidates, as well as incumbent Hamid Karzai, cast their vote early on Saturday morning, though most pollng stations remained relatively quiet in the morning.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Kabul, said there had been reports of rocket attacks in the capital shortly after polls opened.

He said there was a "huge security presence" in Kabul, with checkpoints and security forces all over the city.

About 200,000 soldiers from the Afghan army have been deployed at polling centres across the country.

Fraud allegations

Afghan officials and international allies are hoping for a repeat of the successful first-round vote in April, when the Taliban failed to launch a single high-profile attack and voter turnout was more than 50 percent.

However, the process has been fraught with accusations of fraud by both candidates.
Security forces on high alert in Wardak province

UN head of mission Jan Kubis issued a stark warning to candidates' supporters not to resort to the kind of ballot-box stuffing that marred the 2009 election when Karzai retained power.

"Do not commit fraud. Do not use intimidation or manipulation to favour your candidate," Kubis said.

Abdullah secured 45 percent of the first-round vote with Ghani on 31.6 percent, after coming out top of an eight-man field.

Harsh terrain and poor roads make holding an Afghan election a major challenge, with thousands of donkeys used to transport ballot boxes to remote villages.

Counting the vote will take weeks. The preliminary result is due on July 2 and the final result on July 22.

Ahead of the election, the Taliban said polling booths would be targeted in "non-stop" assaults.

Police and soldiers have been searching almost every car on the roads of the capital, and Afghan officials expressed confidence in the security forces that have been trained by the US-led military coalition.

"The level of threats is higher compared to the first round," Interior Minister Omar Daudzai said. "But we have gained far more experience and we have better equipment and are in a much better position to prevent any possible attack by terrorists."