Articles found June 8, 2013
Afghan 'insider attack' kills Americans in Paktika
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8 June 2013
Two US soldiers and an American civilian have been killed in a possible insider attack in eastern Afghanistan, the Nato-led force says.
A man wearing Afghan army uniform was said to have opened fire on them in Paktika province, close to the border with Pakistan,
Isaf forces have taken a series of measures to try to halt such attacks.
An Italian soldier died in a separate attack in Farah province in the west of the country, Italian officials said.
There was a spate of insider attacks on foreign troops last year but the last was more than a month ago, the BBC's David Loyn reports from Kabul.
Coalition forces train, mentor and fight alongside Afghan soldiers and that makes them vulnerable, our correspondent says.
"An individual wearing ANA (Afghan National Army) uniform turned his weapon against the Isaf service members," an Isaf statement said.
Isaf soldiers returned fire but it was unclear whether there were further casualties.
"Today was a very difficult day for Isaf," said spokesman Brig Gen Guenter Katz. He said they were conducting investigations, but it was too soon to give more details.
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How Ottawa abandoned an Afghan activist who received death threats for working with Canadian ‘infidels’
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Graeme Hamilton | 13/06/07
The letter that arrived at the home of a leading Afghan women’s rights activist in February 2012 was chilling. “Respected Adela Mohseni, you all the time betray religion and the Koran,” it began. Because she had ignored warnings and continued to “co-operate with infidels,” it said, she now faced death.
“After this, wherever our mujahedeen find you, it is obligated that they will sentence you to death and kill you in order to save our Islamic country.”
Such “night letters” are a common Taliban intimidation tactic, often producing deadly results for Afghans considered enemies of the fundamentalists. In this case, though, the message reverberated all the way to Canada.
Though not named in the letter, the “infidels” for whom Ms. Mohseni had been working were at a Canadian government-funded human rights institute. Since 2007, she had been employed in Kabul by Montreal-based Rights and Democracy, promoting legal reforms to protect the rights of women.
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Canadian consultant wins bid for Afghanistan housing project
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June 5th, 2013
DANIEL PROUSSALIDIS | QMI AGENCY
OTTAWA - There will be a Canadian connection in new housing being built for impoverished and homeless people in and around Kabul, Afghanistan.
Former Canadian colonel Stephen Appleton's consulting company has won a $179 million US contract to build 3,300 apartment-style units there.
He credits Canada's contribution to the NATO mission in Afghanistan for generating the conditions for development.
"Let's take these openings that our forces have created and let's do something sustainable," Appleton said. "And it's not about building projects. It's about building relationships."
Appleton says gaining the trust of the locals in Afghanistan is key.
"I can take other great, Canadian companies with great stories and bring them in to make a difference in this country," he said.
Canadian construction giant EllisDon and Trojan Contracting, owned by the United Arab Emirates' royal family, are Appleton's partners in the project.
Hundreds of Afghans have been hired to build the homes expecting their first residents in 2017.
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US, Germany, Italy to take key regional roles in Afghanistan as NATO changes mission post-2014
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US, Germany, Italy vow key Afghan roles post-2014
By JAMEY KEATEN | Associated Press | Jun 5, 2013
Germany and Italy will join the United States as "lead nations" in regions of Afghanistan after NATO transitions into a noncombat mission there after 2014, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.
The Pentagon chief was speaking after the Atlantic alliance laid out a new plan shifting into a training and assistance role for the Afghan forces set to take over from NATO-led troops in about 18 months. He didn't specify, however, how many troops NATO will maintain in Afghanistan after that _ a key unresolved question about how to help the impoverished, insurgency-wracked nation stabilize in the years to come.
"The United States has committed to being the largest single contributor to this mission" _ as lead nation in the restive east and south, Hagel told reporters after a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
"We appreciate the commitments that other nations are making, including announcements by Germany and Italy that they will serve as lead nations for the north and the west" _ zones the two European countries are in charge of now in the fight against Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan. Turkey, he said, was "favorably considering" a role as "framework nation" in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
"I laid out in the last day and a half, first the firm commitment of the United States to go forward with being the framework nation in a post-2014 Afghanistan. We will provide more personnel. We are looking at providing new, expert, professional assistance to the Afghan army in the area of contracting and fuel support _ not just soldiers," said Hagel. "We intend to be there for the long haul, and I made that commitment very clear today _ as well as financial assistance."
In April, Germany offered to provide between roughly 600 and 800 soldiers in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for a two-year period starting in 2015 as part of the NATO transition.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said only that the total size of the noncombat mission force will be "significantly smaller" than the tens of thousands of U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan now, and that decisions about force numbers after 2014 will come later.
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