Suspected insider attack kills U.S. soldier, contractor in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A U.S. soldier and an American civilian contractor were shot to death this weekend in what NATO officials said on Sunday was a suspected insider attack, the latest in a disturbing surge of so-called green-on-blue killings that have threatened collaboration between Afghan and NATO forces ahead of the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2014.

The attack, which occurred late Saturday afternoon in the eastern province of Wardak, comes just days after top U.S. military officials said joint operations between U.S. and Afghan forces were resuming after a temporary halt imposed by the U.S. because of the rising number of insider attacks.

Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizoi, Wardak’s police chief, said gunfire broke out between NATO and Afghan army troops at a checkpoint in the province’s Sayedabad district. Three other NATO soldiers were injured in the gunfight. Three of the seven Afghan army soldiers deployed at the checkpoint were killed, Baqizoi said. A “misunderstanding” led to the incident, Baqizoi added, but he would not elaborate.

A short statement issued by NATO described the incident as “a suspected insider attack.” A joint NATO-Afghan security force investigation into the attack was underway, according to the statement.

More than 50 U.S. and coalition troops have been killed in insider attacks this year, a significant jump from 2011, when 35 NATO soldiers were killed in such attacks. U.S. officials have said that the Taliban insurgency accounts for about a quarter of the attacks, either through infiltration of Afghan security forces or influence on Afghan troops. Disputes stemming from cultural differences are also often cited as a cause for the attacks. Roughly 15% of all NATO troop deaths in Afghanistan are the result of “insider” shootings.

More than 1,950 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan during the 11-year conflict, according to icasualties.org, a website that tracks NATO troop deaths in Afghanistan.

Insider attacks are becoming a major impediment to Washington’s exit strategy in Afghanistan, partly because cooperation between U.S. and Afghan security forces is needed as NATO continues to hand over more responsibility for securing the country to Afghan troops. That cooperation includes joint NATO-Afghan troop operations to track down insurgent commanders and fighters, as well as a continued step-up in NATO training of Afghan soldiers and police.

Earlier this month, NATO responded to the rise in insider attacks by temporarily suspending joint operations with Afghan security forces, unless those operations were approved by a high-ranking regional commander. The restrictions remain in place, but last week officials in Washington said cooperation on joint operations had resumed.

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--Alex Rodriguez and Aimal Yaqubi. Staff writer Alex Rodriguez reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and special correspondent Aimal Yaqubi reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Photo: A tattoo on the back of a U.S. Army sergeant is seen through his torn shirt after a foot patrol in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. The full tattoo reads, "Sacrifice. Without fear there is no courage." Credit: Julie Jacobson / Associated Press

Pakistani officials distance themselves from minister's bounty offer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s government on Sunday distanced itself from remarks made by a federal minister who offered up to $100,000 to anyone who would kill the maker of an anti-Islamic film that sparked a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour announced his intent to put up the bounty Saturday, a day after a wave of unrest sparked by the film swept through Islamabad and other major cities in Pakistan, leaving more than 20 people dead and more than 100 injured. One of the people involved in making the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is an Egyptian Coptic Christian from Southern California who has gone into hiding.

A 14-minute trailer for the film released on YouTube portrays the prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and a fraud. On Saturday, Bilour told reporters in the northwest city of Peshawar that he would be willing to face arrest for announcing the bounty if necessary.

“If any international court declares me guilty for announcing the bounty, then I am ready to be hanged in the name of the holy prophet Muhammad,” Bilour said. “We are not against freedom of expression, but the misuse of that right to hurt the religious sentiments of others is totally wrong and intolerable.”

Bilour’s remarks triggered a strong disavowal from members of his party, the Awami National Party, which is aligned with President Asif Ali Zardari’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), as well as from top government leaders. A spokesman for Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf told the BBC in an interview that the government had disassociated itself from Bilour’s comments.

“He is not a member of the PPP. He is an Awami National Party politician and therefore the prime minister will speak to the head of the [Awami] party to decide the next step,” Shafqat Jalil, Ashraf’s spokesman, told the BBC. “He will stay in his post for now.”

The controversial video trailer triggered massive protests across the Muslim world. In Libya, U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed Sept. 11 when gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi following a demonstration against the film.

In Pakistan, advertisements featuring President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video failed to discourage thousands of angry Pakistanis from rampaging through the streets of Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Lahore and other cities on Friday in some of the worst popular unrest that the country has seen in years.

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--Alex Rodriguez. Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali from Peshawar contributed.

Photo: A file photo dated May 19, 2011, shows Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Pakistan's minister for railways, being interviewed during a visit to Amritsar, India. Credit: Ramindar Pal Singh / European Pressphoto Agency.

 

Pakistan declares Friday a day of protest against anti-Islam film

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan continued to seethe Wednesday over the release in the U.S. of a movie trailer mocking Islam, as legions of protesters rallied in several large cities for a sixth day and the government signaled its own discontent by declaring Friday as a national day “of peaceful protest.”

Officials said the move was meant to show the government's solidarity with the Muslim world and its anger over the film, which depicts the prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and a thug. Friday will be observed as a national holiday, and protests are expected to be held across the country.

“The message we want to convey to the international community by observing Friday as a protest day ... is that we cannot tolerate any kind of blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad,” said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira.

Though U.S. leaders have denounced the film, Pakistanis have continued to channel their anger toward the American government. Throngs of protesters in Karachi and Lahore in recent days have tried to reach U.S. consulates in those cities.

Pakistan PM agrees to allow Swiss to revive Zardari graft case

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s prime minister told a Supreme Court panel Tuesday that his government would no longer stand in the way of a revival of a longstanding graft case in Switzerland against President Asif Ali Zardari, a decision that could help tamp down tensions in the bitterly contentious relationship between Zardari’s government and the country’s judiciary.

The decision represents a significant turnaround in strategy for Zardari’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which for nearly three years has resisted the high court’s demand to rescind a 2008 notification from the Pakistani government to Swiss authorities that corruption proceedings against Zardari in that country be dropped.

The Swiss case against Zardari has remained closed since that notification. Appearing before a five-judge panel Tuesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said he has ordered his law minister to draft a letter to Swiss authorities withdrawing the 2008 notification.

The move would give Swiss authorities the option of reopening corruption proceedings against Zardari. However, the president likely would not face any renewed prosecution in Switzerland, since authorities there have always agreed with his aides that, as president, he has constitutional immunity from prosecution.

“It doesn’t mean a reopening" of the Swiss case against Zardari, said Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister and a longtime Zardari ally. “The prerogative is still with the Swiss authorities, and they will have to proceed according to law.”

Pakistani protests against anti-Islamic film leave at least 1 dead

 
This post has been updated. See the note below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Protests in Pakistan against a film mocking the prophet Muhammad intensified Monday as demonstrators set ablaze buildings in the northwest and hurled stones at riot police in the southern city of Karachi, the nation’s commercial hub.

At least one protester was killed when about 800 demonstrators clashed with police in the northwest region of Upper Dir, along the Afghan border, local authorities said. Protesters torched a press club and the homes and offices of government officials, said Muhammad Mukhtiar, a local police officer. Five people were arrested.

Police did not say how the demonstrator was killed.

PHOTOS: Protests over anti-Islam film spread

In Karachi, hundreds of students affiliated with a fundamentalist organization, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, set on fire American flags, burned tires in the street and threw stones at police, authorities said. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrested at least 40 people.

On Sunday, demonstrators in Karachi, the country's largest city, tried to storm the U.S. Consulate and set ablaze three police vans and a bus.

Other demonstrations against the film also broke out in Lahore, the country’s second-largest city, and the northwest city of Peshawar. Leaders of Pakistan’s religious right-wing parties have promised to step up protests across the country this week.

[Updated  9:40 a.m., Sept. 17: With the protests ratcheting up, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Ashraf ordered the immediate blocking of YouTube, the website on which a video trailer of the film has been posted. According to a statement issued by Ashraf’s office, he issued the order after YouTube “refused to heed the advice of the government of Pakistan to remove the blasphemous film from its site.”

YouTube will remain blocked in Pakistan until the trailer is removed from the site, according to the statement.]

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-- Alex Rodriguez in Islamabad and Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar

Pakistanis rally against film mocking Muhammad

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—About 200 Pakistanis gathered in the capital on Friday, angrily extolling Muslims to unite against the United States, in a protest against an Internet video produced in Southern California that mocks the prophet Muhammad.

Anti-U.S. protests organized by Islamist religious parties and movements were also held in other major Pakistani cities, including Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and Multan.

The relatively small demonstration in Islamabad was peaceful and kept far from the U.S. embassy compound by a cordon of police in riot gear. Demonstrators listened to Muslim clerics atop a pickup truck denouncing the U.S. government for not suppressing the  the video, and later set ablaze an American flag in the middle of the street.

PHOTOS: Protesters attack U.S. embassies, consulate

The large contingent of police at the demonstration signaled Pakistan’s intent to keep crowd anger from spiraling out of control, as it did in Libya, Egypt and Yemen this week.

Earlier this week,  the Pakistani government issued a measured response to the video and the violence in Libya that followed, denouncing it as “abominable” while also condemning the killing in Libya of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other American personnel. The Pakistani government also blocked access to the video on websites.

Many of the demonstrators at the rally in Islamabad wielded wooden sticks that they used to strike large stickers of the U.S. and Israeli flags affixed to the pavement. Mushtaba Hassan, a 20-year-old college student, said the small size of the gathering was “just the beginning. We will continue this and raise it to a much larger scale.

“We are here to tell the government of Pakistan to expel all Americans from Pakistan,” Hassan said. “They have desecrated the honor of the prophet Muhammad, and we want the government to end all relations with the U.S. We want the government to also demand that America punish those involved in the film.”

Jawal Ali, a 21-year-old business graduate student, said he believed Muslims were prepared to sacrifice themselves to safeguard their faith, and he thought the violence against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was justified. “Whatever happened in Libya, it’s good,” Ali said, shouting above the din of chants from the crowd. “People are angry and capable of anything, and they are fully justified in such attacks.”

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--Alex Rodriguez

Photo: Protesters shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration Friday in Lahore, Pakistan. Credit: Arif Ali / AFP /GettyImages

 

Death toll in Pakistani factory fires rises to 314

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Authorities Wednesday raised to 314 the death toll from two massive fires that engulfed factories in Pakistan’s largest cities and renewed questions about a lack of adherence to fire safety measures in the South Asian nation.

The deadliest blaze occurred Tuesday evening in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its commercial hub, where at least 289 people died inside a garment factory. Authorities said the building lacked fire exits, and in the basement where many workers sought refuge, all doors were locked. Several survivors suffered broken bones after leaping from windows in the five-story building.

In the eastern city of Lahore, a blaze at a four-story shoemaking factory killed at least 25 workers Tuesday, authorities said. Ten other workers who were in the building at the time were injured. 
Building owners across the country routinely skirt fire safety laws, often paying bribes to local authorities to avoid installing expensive fire alarm systems and fire suppression equipment. On Wednesday, President Asif Ali Zardari ordered an investigation into both fires.

“While the government probes the causes of these terrible incidents, it should also investigate and share with the people why these factories were allowed to operate without observing safety measures,” said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in a prepared statement released Wednesday. “Why had no one paid attention to the lack of multiple entry/exit points and absence of safe evacuation plans in case of emergency?”

Sagheer Ahmad, health minister for Sindh province where Karachi is located, said firefighters were still pulling bodies from the Karachi building and that the death toll could rise further. The causes of the fires were still being investigated.

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Pakistani judge grants bail to Christian girl charged with blasphemy

-- Nasir Khan. Khan is a special correspondent in Islamabad.

Pakistani judge grants bail to Christian girl charged with blasphemy

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A judge on Friday ordered the release on bail of a young Christian girl jailed for allegedly desecrating the Koran, a decision that ends her three-week stay in jail and comes after the arrest of a Muslim cleric on charges of trying to fabricate the case against her.

Judge Muhammad Azam Khan's ruling was welcomed by human rights activists, who had argued that 14-year-old Rimsha Masih was too young to be incarcerated in an adult prison and was the victim of trumped-up charges.

Rimsha was arrested Aug. 16 after Muslims in her impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad accused her of burning pages of the Koran. Last week, Khalid Chishti, one of her accusers and an imam at a mosque in Rimsha's neighborhood, was charged with ripping pages from the Koran and planting them into a bag of ashes and trash that the girl was taking to a garbage bin.

"The fact is that this child should not have been behind bars at all," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director for Human Rights Watch. "All charges against her should be dropped, and Pakistan's criminal justice system should instead concentrate on holding her accuser accountable for inciting violence against the child and members of the local Christian community."

Pakistan has a dark history of intolerance, and its controversial blasphemy law has often been used as a tool to persecute minorities, particularly Christians and Ahmadis, members of a Muslim sect viewed by most Pakistanis as traitors to Islam because they revere another prophet in addition to Muhammad.

Muslims themselves are also frequent victims of abuse of the law; Pakistanis caught up in disputes with neighbors or business associates sometimes file false blasphemy charges as a means of settling scores with enemies.

The law makes it a crime to desecrate the Koran or in any way insult the prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith. Usually, evidence in blasphemy cases is scant, apart from the accounts given by the alleged offender's accusers. A conviction can mean life in prison, or in some cases, the death penalty.

In a packed Islamabad court Friday, Rimsha's lawyers argued that the girl should be granted bail because of her age, and because one of her accusers now stands charged with trying to frame her. Khan set bail at 1 million rupees, about $10,600. The girl's lawyers said they expect her release on Saturday.

Though the judge gave no reason for his ruling, Rimsha's backers say his order bodes well for an eventual acquittal in the case.

"Had the case been strong, bail would not have been granted," said Robinson Asghar, chief coordinator for Paul Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for national harmony. Bhatti's office has been closely following Rimsha's case.

With the judge's order, the girl's security upon her release remains a major issue. Segments of Pakistani society are dominated by a conservative Islamist mindset, and in the past blasphemy allegations have led to mob violence against accused individuals. A mentally unstable man accused of blasphemy was dragged from a police station in the southern Punjab city of Bahawalpur in July and burned alive.

Asghar said Pakistani authorities will ensure the safety of Rimsha and her family. "She will get a police escort," he said. "The government is actively taking a very keen interest in the security of Rimsha."

-- Alex Rodriguez

Photo: Pakistan's minister for national harmony, Paul Bhatti, center, addresses reporters along with the lawyer for Rimsha Masih, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, second from left, and supporters in Islamabad. Credit: Farooq Naeem / AFP/Getty Images

Pakistan evicts Save the Children foreign workers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Authorities have ordered foreign workers with the Save the Children aid group to leave the country, after alleging ties between the group and a Pakistani doctor enlisted by the CIA to help track down Osama bin Laden.

A spokesman for Save the Children's offices in Pakistan, Ghulam Qadri, said Thursday that the order was issued by the Interior Ministry. Authorities had previously accused Save the Children of helping to make a connection between Dr. Shakeel Afridi and U.S. officials, who was searching for someone to assist in confirming Bin Laden's whereabouts in the military city of Abbottabad, a two-hour drive north of Islamabad.

Save the Children has repeatedly denied playing any role in facilitating Afridi's involvement with the CIA.

The organization said it will continue to work in the country using its 2,000 Pakistani employees. The expulsion order applies to six foreign staff members of Save the Children.

Afridi was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents shortly after U.S. commandos killed Bin Laden in May 2011. The doctor had organized a hepatitis B vaccination campaign in Abbottabad as a ruse to secure DNA evidence from Bin Laden's residence. Afridi was not able to get the samples, but U.S. officials have said he provided information that helped locate Bin Laden.

He was held on charges of colluding with a foreign intelligence agency, but later was tried before a tribal jirga in northwest Pakistan on separate charges of having links with a Pakistani militant group. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison on the militancy charge. His family is appealing the conviction.

Save the Children works in more than 50 countries, providing relief to children and families affected by disasters and civil conflict. It has had a presence in Pakistan for more than 30 years and was a key aid provider when massive floods swept through the country in 2010, affecting more than 20 million people and causing billions of dollars in damage.

The organization was one of a host of Western non-governmental organizations that endured a ramp-up in scrutiny from Pakistan's intelligence community following the disclosure of Afridi's vaccination ruse. Many such groups reported difficulties in getting visas renewed for their Pakistan-based workers, while others said they were under surveillance by Pakistani authorities.

Western NGO officials say Pakistani authorities have made it much harder for them to do their jobs, but they also have criticized the CIA for using humanitarian work as a cover for intelligence gathering.

Officials in Washington continue to seek Afridi’s release, arguing that he should be viewed in Pakistan as a hero who helped hunt down the world's most wanted man. In Pakistan, however, Afridi is seen by many as a traitor who collaborated with a foreign intelligence agency. A governmental commission that investigated the Abbottabad raid has recommended that Afridi be tried on treason charges.

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-- Alex Rodriguez

Photo: A private Pakistani security guard looks out from the Save the Children office in Islamabad on Thursday. Credit: Farooq Naeem / AFP/Getty Images 

Suicide car bomber attacks U.S. consulate vehicle in Pakistan

This post has been updated. See the note below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least two people were killed Monday when a suicide car bomber rammed into a U.S. government vehicle in northwest Pakistan, a brazen attack on Americans working in a city perched on the edge of the country’s militant-infested tribal areas.

The vehicle belonged to the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and was attacked as it traveled through University Town, an upscale Peshawar neighborhood where several international organizations maintain offices. No U.S. citizens or staff members of the American consulate were killed in the blast, but two American staff members and two Pakistani nationals who work at the consulate were injured, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

A total of 19 people were injured in the attack, Pakistani authorities said. The identity of the two people killed has yet to be released.

[Updated Sept. 3, 9 a.m.: Authorities later raised the number of injured to 21 and said both the dead, who remained unidentified, were Pakistanis.]

Roughly 220 pounds of explosives, including artillery shells, were packed into the suicide bomber’s car, said Shafqat Malik, inspector general of Peshawar’s bomb disposal squad. The massive impact of the blast engulfed the consulate SUV in flames and left a gaping crater in the asphalt.  Footage from Pakistani television showed the charred frame of the SUV against a brick wall by the side of the road.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack as of Monday afternoon.