MIDDLE EAST: Daily headlines from Gaza, Israel, Iran in your mailbox

The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily e-mail newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East and the Muslim world.

It includes stories from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as links to articles about the frictions and encounters between Islam and the West in the United States and Europe.

The newsletter also includes links to the latest Times editorials and opinion pieces about the Middle East, Islam and national security.

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— Los Angeles Times staff

AFGHANISTAN: U.S. brings roads, cows and chickens to the Panjshir Valley

 

The Panjshir Valley, 120 miles north of Kabul, figures big in the modern history of Afghanistan. It was from this lush valley that the guerrilla movement that chased the Russians from Afghanistan was centered.

The U.S. is making major efforts to win over the villagers, who are notoriously suspicious of outsiders. New roads will cut down on isolation, radios will allow news from the central government in Kabul to filter in.

Mini-loans allow for the purchase of cows. Farmers are being taught drip irrigation and row cropping to increase the yield from fruit trees and wheat fields.

Each woman is eligible for 12 chickens to produce eggs to be sold at market.

"We work within the local government to teach self-sufficiency; we are not going to be here forever," Army Lt. Col. Steve Lancaster told American Forces Press Service.

-- Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Villagers and U.S. soldier in Panshir Valley. Credit: U.S. Air Force 

IRAN: Germans in talks with Tehran for Afghanistan support, says report

 

 

Iran's official news agency is reporting that German contractors are in talks with Iranians to use the Islamic Republic's territory to ship supplies to North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan.  

“The German sides negotiating with Iran are representatives of private firms that provide foodstuff and fuel for the German forces serving at NATO units in Afghanistan," said an unnamed German military official quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency's Berlin bureau. “These companies are after finding alternative routes from Pakistan to forward those goods to Afghanistan.”

The sourcing is sketchy, but there have been mutterings about such talks in the German media  for days. Perhaps more important, the report by IRNA suggests Iran wants, or at least is eager to give the impression that it wants, to be helpful to the American-led war in Afghanistan. 

QATAR: Libya's Kadafi bashes Saudi king at Doha summit

As usual, Libyan leader raised eyebrows Monday with his incendiary but hilarious remarks at the Arab summit in Doha.

As the Emir of host Qatar welcomed Saudi King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud, Libyan President Moammar Kadafi interrupted him addressing the Saudi king, saying:

"I seize the opportunity to tell my brother Abdullah, you have been evasive and scared of confrontation for six years. I want to assure you today not to be scared. I am telling you after six years it was proved that lies stand behind you and your grave awaits you. You were created by Britain and protected by the U.S. I consider the personal issue that lasted between you and me is over and I am ready to visit you as well as receive you."

AFGHANISTAN: Navy lieutenant mourned at San Diego hospital

The staff at Naval Medical Center San Diego is shaken today by the death of one of their colleagues, Lt. Florence Bacong Choe, in Afghanistan.

Chaplains are offering grief counseling. A memorial service is being planned.

Choe, 35, was serving as a medical administration and logistics mentor to the Afghan National Army at a base in Mazar-i-Sharif. She and another Navy officer were killed last week by an insurgent posing as an Afghan soldier. The insurgent then killed himself, officials said.

Choe's survivors include her husband, Lt. Cmdr. Chong "Jay" Choe, a urology resident at the Naval Medical Center, and their daughter, Kristin, now 3.

Choe, whose permanent assignment was at the medical center, was a voluntary individual augmentee to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, officials said.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Florence and Chong Choe and daughter Kristin, now 3. Credit: Choe and Bacong families.

AFGHANISTAN: Navy officers killed in insurgent attack.

UPDATE: Lt. Florence B. Choe was serving as a medical administration and logistics mentor to the Afghan National Army, not a nurse as initially reported.

A Navy officer from Naval Medical Center San Diego has been killed while on duty in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Saturday. Also killed was a Navy civil engineer from a unit based in Hawaii.

Their deaths mark the 27th and 28th fatalities of Navy personnel in Afghanistan since 2002. The Navy has 2,606 personnel in Afghanistan: medical personnel, security personnel, Seabees, and other units.

Lt. Florence B. Choe, 35, of El Cajon, and Lt. Francis L. Toner, IV, 26, of Ventura County, were shot to death Friday by an insurgent dressed as an Afghan soldier at Camp Shaheen at Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Choe, from the Navy hospital in San Diego's Balboa Park, had been in Afghanistan for several months.

Toner graduated from Westlake High School in Ventura County in 2001, where he was a football star, according to the Ventura County Star. He was set to come home soon to visit his wife, Brooke, the newspaper said.

A third U.S. military personnel, as yet unidentified, was wounded. The insurgent killed himself, officials said.

Tony Perry, San Diego

IRAQ: 'You have to kill them'

A key part of President Obama's strategy for Afghanistan announced Friday is for the U.S. to persuade   "moderate" elements in the insurgency to separate from the hard-core jihadis.

Much of the U.S. success in Iraq is attributed to the decision of the Sunni Arab tribal sheiks in Anbar province to turn against the insurgency in their country and make common cause with the United States.  The U.S. then hired many former insurgent fighters for the Sons of Iraq force.

But no one should expect the process in Afghanistan to be quick, easy or accomplished without further fighting. Not if the Marines' experience in Iraq is any indication.

"There is a certain element: you have to kill them," Maj. Gen. John Kelly, who just completed a year as the top Marine in Iraq, told a San Diego civic group this week. "After that, reasonable men and women will come to the table."

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Marines in Iraq. Credit: Marine Corps

AFGHANISTAN: Marines patrolling province on Iranian border

Marines are mentoring Afghan forces in Farah province on Afghanistan's western border with Iran in hopes of providing a greater sense of security to nomadic tribes.

Some tribes are already moving back into the area, where bands of Taliban fighters have been known to terrorize locals, Marines say.

— Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Nomads in Farah province. Credit: Marine Corps

AFGHANISTAN: Marines prepare for mountain combat

The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment from Twentynine Palms is training to deploy later this year, probably to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan. Winter. Mountain hiding spots for insurgents. Snow. High winds.

So the Marines just finished 25 days at the mountain warfare training center at Bridgeport, Calif.

P.S.: The Three-Four was the battalion that pulled down Saddam Hussein's statue.

— Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Marines eating hot chow during mountain training. Credit: Marine Corps

AFGHANISTAN: Wounded Marines receive Purple Hearts.

They were sent to Afghanistan to tutor the Afghan national police. But as soon as they arrived, the Marines of the Twentynine Palms-based 2nd battalion, 7th regiment found themselves in combat with Taliban insurgents.

The Marines pushed the Taliban out of numerous villages and hiding spots. Twenty members of the battalion were killed, and in December, after the unit had returned home, a memorial service was held in their honor.

And now a second ceremony (above) has been held, where Marines wounded in action received Purple Hearts.

In all, 39 Marines and a sailor from the battalion received the medals. "All of 2/7, as a whole, did a damn good job at cleaning up the area we were in,'' said Pfc. Trenton Walter, one of the Purple Heart recipients.

Tony Perry, San Diego

Photo: Marines from Two-Seven receiving Purple Heart medals. Credit: Marine Corps