Taliban strike at NATO base in Afghanistan caused serious damage

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban strike on one of the most heavily fortified NATO bases in Afghanistan was far more serious than initially disclosed, marking the most damaging such attack of the 11-year-old conflict, military officials acknowledged Sunday.

In the attack late Friday at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, where Britain's Prince Harry is stationed as an Apache helicopter pilot, insurgents dressed in U.S. military uniforms breached the base perimeter and destroyed six Harrier jets and three refueling stations, the Western military said.

The attackers, armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and suicide vests, also damaged two other jets and six aircraft hangars, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement, adding that the insurgents "appeared to be well equipped, trained and rehearsed."

Western officials also disclosed that nine coalition members -- eight troops and a civilian contractor -- were wounded, though not seriously. U.S. military officials had already reported that two Marines died in the fighting, which continued into the early hours of Saturday. Fourteen Taliban fighters were killed and one captured, they said.

The Taliban movement has said it will do everything in its power to kill or capture Prince Harry, who is third in line to the British throne. He arrived at Camp Bastion a week ago.

ALSO:

Pope appeals for peace

The dark side of the 'Arab Spring'

'Arab Spring' is still a work in progress

-- Laura King

Photo: Britain's Prince Harry, left, is shown the Apache flight-line by an unidentified member of his squadron at Camp Bastion this month in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Credit: John Stillwell / Pool Photo / Getty Images

 

Taliban vows to retaliate for anti-Islam video

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban movement on Thursday harshly denounced an amateur video mocking Islam, blaming "bestial" America for its production and urging that the Muslim world respond with "appropriate action."

Most Western installations in the Afghan capital were on high alert in advance of Friday prayers, which are the main religious event of the Muslim week and a sometime flash point for violent protests, especially if mosque preachers, or imams, take to the pulpit to condemn a perceived insult to Islam.

The crudely made video was thought to have sparked attacks Tuesday on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, which left the U.S. envoy to Libya and three other Americans dead.

The Taliban statement said its fighters would redouble efforts to strike at U.S. bases and "invading" troops in retaliation for the video, and urged religious scholars to "fully inform the masses about ... barbaric acts of America" in their Friday sermons.

A day earlier, President Hamid Karzai issued a sharply worded statement calling the video a "desecrating act." In the past, such statements from the presidential palace have sometimes been taken by conservative religious leaders as tacit approval for whipping up angry street demonstrations.

ALSO:

Mystery shrouds anti-Muslim film

Romney draws rebuke for Libya remarks

Protesters try to storm U.S. Embassy in Yemen

-- Laura King

U.S. turns over control of Bagram prison to Afghan authorities

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Tensions simmered Monday as the main U.S. military prison in Afghanistan was formally transferred to Afghan control, even as Afghan officials accused the Americans of reneging on parts of the handover pact.

The dispute bodes ill for relations between the American and Afghan administrations in the coming year, when much of the responsibility for running the decade-old war is to be turned over to the Afghans in advance of the end of NATO's combat role. President Hamid Karzai's government has been increasingly strident in asserting Afghan sovereignty even when U.S. or NATO officials have qualms about whether Afghans are up to a given task.

Authority over most of the estimated 3,000 prisoners at the Parwan Detention Facility, located at the sprawling Bagram air base north of the capital, had already been handed over to Afghan officials before Monday's official transfer.

But the Americans have concerns that suspected members of the Taliban and other insurgent groups may either be released without proper scrutiny or subjected to torture. The Afghans in turn say Americans routinely hold suspects for long periods of time without charging them.

Adding to the overall air of acrimony, the detention center earlier this year was the scene of one of the year’s most damaging episodes for U.S.-Afghan relations: the burning of copies of the Koran by U.S. troops, which set off days of lethal riots. Those involved were subjected to military discipline, but many Afghans believe that the administrative punishments were not nearly severe enough.

Karzai's government staged an elaborate handover ceremony Monday morning at Bagram, even while warning that the United States would be in breach of a memorandum of understanding signed six months ago if not all of the prisoners were turned over. The United States has retained custody of about 35 detainees, many of them insurgent suspects, together with a few dozen non-Afghan nationals.

[Updated, 10:24 a.m. Sept. 10: "Under Afghan law, foreigners are not allowed to have even one detainee; all the detainees need to be handed over to the Afghan side," said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimy, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Defense Ministry.]

Karzai and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, who commands the NATO force, reportedly had an angry dispute over the transfer issue during a weekend meeting. A spokesman for the Western military, German Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, on Monday characterized it as a private exchange "between partners."

ALSO:

Search for grave of King Richard III to be extended

Blast near NATO headquarters in Kabul kills at least 6

Must Reads: Cash crunch, bikes and a Russian battlefield

-- Laura King

Photo: Afghan soldiers stand in formation during a ceremony handing over the Parwan Detention Facility, the main U.S. military prison in Afghanistan, to Afghan control. Credit: Shah Marai / Getty Images

Two Americans killed in insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two American service members died in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday after an insurgent attack, the U.S. military said.

The deaths occurred in Ghazni province, according to a military statement. Ghazni, midway between the capital, Kabul, and the main southern city of Kandahar, has been the scene of many clashes this summer between Taliban militants and the NATO force.

An announcement regarding casualties from the American military, as opposed to the NATO force, often indicates that the troops involved are members of special-operations forces.

The deaths were the first of the month among the Western military after August's toll came in as the highest for any month this year for both the American military and NATO force as a whole.

-- Laura King

'Insider shooting' kills 3 more Western troops

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A gunman in an Afghan army uniform killed three Western troops Wednesday, the NATO force said. That brought the number of “insider” shooting deaths in August to 15, the most in a single month since the start of the war nearly 11 years ago.

Western military officials said in a statement early Thursday that the shooting took place in southern Afghanistan but offered no other details, including the nationalities of those killed. The incident is under investigation, the statement said.

Afghan and Western officials have been working urgently to try to prevent more such shootings, in which members of the Afghan security forces  turn their guns on Western troops who are helping to train them. The attacks have cast a cloud over NATO’s Afghanistan exit strategy, which calls for the rapid training of tens of thousands of Afghan police and army recruits so they can take over fighting duties before most Western troops leave in 2014.

Preventive measures being taken include planting intelligence officers in Afghan battalions to watch for signs that someone might be preparing to attack Western counterparts. On the NATO side, troops nationwide have been ordered to keep a loaded magazine in their weapons at all times so they can quickly fire back in the event an Afghan turns on them.

The intensifying pace of attacks has eroded morale and trust as Western troops and Afghan police and soldiers work and fight side by side. Military officials blame the Taliban for about a quarter of such shootings, but say a more  common cause is personal antagonism fueled by cultural differences, stress and battle fatigue.

Western military officials previously minimized the military effect of the shootings, but they have acknowledged lately that they are becoming a serious threat. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, traveled to Afghanistan this month for urgent consultations with Afghan and U.S. officials about ways to stop such attacks.

At least 12 of those slain this month in the attacks have been American. Afghan forces also have been struck by growing numbers of attacks from within their own ranks.

ALSO:

Myanmar president pardons jailed aid workers

U.N. chief raises human rights in Tehran, stuns hosts

U.N. nuclear watchdog creates task force to monitor defiant Iran

-- Laura King

Kandahar, Afghanistan, Police Chief Abdul Raziq survives bombing

 

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Kandahar Police Chief Abdul Raziq, one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, survived a massive bombing late Monday that appeared to have been aimed at him, a provincial spokesman said.

At least four civilians died in the blast, apparently set off by a suicide bomber in a minivan, and 20 people were hurt, including Raziq, whose injuries were described as minor.

The bomb exploded about 10 p.m. as Raziq's convoy was driving past on a main road on the city's outskirts, said spokesman Jawed Faisal.

Raziq, who was installed as police chief after his predecessor was assassinated, is credited with many in Kandahar with helping contain the Taliban presence in the city.

Previously the head of the provincial border police, he is a favorite of the American military, which helped boost his power and prestige. However, he has also been dogged by allegations of human rights abuses and corruption.

ALSO:

Iran uses Non-Aligned Movement summit to criticize U.S., West

Afghan 'insider' shooting kills 2 Americans; 27 die in other violence

Syrian military helicopter shot down in Damascus, rebels say [Video]

-- Laura King

NATO airstrike kills Pakistani Taliban leader in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A NATO airstrike near the Pakistani border has killed a senior Pakistani Taliban leader, his deputy and about 10 other insurgents, the Western military said Saturday.

Mullah Dadullah,  who led fighters based in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal area, is considered an important figure in the insurgency, which operates on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.  His presence inside Afghanistan underscores the common phenomenon of Pakistan-based militants crossing the border to carry out attacks on coalition troops inside Afghanistan.

The NATO force said Dadullah had facilitated the cross-border movement of fighters and weapons, and coordinated attacks on Western and Afghan troops.

The strike in rugged Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan, took place Friday afternoon, but NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, did not publicly confirm Dadullah’s identity until Saturday. 

A spokesman for the coalition, U.S. Army Maj. Martyn Crighton, would not say how it was conclusively proved that Dadullah was among the dead, but noted there are “multiple means of determining the identity of an individual to be able to confidently declare he was killed.”

The strike took place in Shigal district, about nine miles from the border. In the past, NATO has sometimes infuriated Pakistan by accidentally carrying out strikes on its side of the poorly demarcated frontier. Crighton said, however, there was no doubt that Dadullah was killed on the Afghan side.

“This strike was clearly inside the international border of Afghanistan,” he said.

RELATED:

U.S. drone strikes kill 18 in Pakistan near Afghanistan border

Afghanistan, U.S. disagree on culprits behind 'insider' shootings

Afghanistan 'insider' attacks pose threat to West's exit strategy

--Laura King

 

Photo: Mullah Dadullah, center, regional commander of the Pakistani Taliban group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Movement of Pakistani Taliban) talks to journalists at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in September 2011. Credit: Meer Afzal / EPA

U.S. commander says Taliban carries out 25% of 'insider' attacks

WASHINGTON -- A quarter of the "insider" attacks by Afghan army and police against the U.S. and its allies are carried out by Taliban who have infiltrated into the security forces, a higher number than the Pentagon previously estimated, the top U.S. commander said Thursday.

Marine Gen. John Allen, who commands the international forces in Afghanistan, said about 25% of the insider attacks were conducted by Taliban, contradicting a Pentagon claim that an internal review had shown only about 10% of the killings could be attributed to the insurgency.

When asked about the discrepancy, Allen said, “This still requires a lot of analysis.”

Ten soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed by Afghan soldiers and police in the last two weeks, and the attacks have caused 40 coalition deaths so far this year. That has alarmed senior U.S. officials in Kabul and at the Pentagon, who worry that it will disrupt training of troops and heighten tensions with the Afghan government at a time when the U.S. is trying to hand off more responsibility to them for fighting the insurgency.

Afghan officials on Wednesday blamed the increasing number of insider attacks on infiltration into the army and police ranks by other spy agencies in the region. Asked about that claim, Allen said he was looking forward to seeing the evidence “so that we can understand how they've drawn that conclusion.”

In addition to Taliban infiltration, Allen said the attacks were caused by “disagreements, animosity which may have grown between the individual shooter and our forces in general, or a particular grievance,” as well as threats by the Taliban to harm the families of recruits unless they attack foreign troops.

He said the recent increase in attacks also may be related to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which many Afghans fast during the day.

"The daily pressures that are on some of these troops, compounded by the sacrifice associated with fasting, the nature of our operational tempo, remembering that Afghan troops have gone to the field and they have stayed in the field, and they've been in combat now for years, we believe that the combination of many of these particular factors may have come together during the last several weeks to generate the larger numbers," he said.

ALSO:

Afghan President Karzai blames 'foreign spy agencies' for insider shootings

Turkmenistan gets a second political party

A deadly denouement for foreign troops in Afghanistan

-- David S. Cloud

Photo: Marine Gen. John Allen. Credit: D. Myles Cullen / Associated Press

Afghan President Karzai blames 'foreign spy agencies' for insider shootings

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A potentially serious rift has emerged in the way the Afghan government and the U.S. administration view “insider shootings” -- cases of Afghan police and soldiers turning their guns on Western troops.

President Hamid Karzai held an urgent meeting Wednesday with his national security team and, in a statement issued afterward, blamed “foreign spy agencies” for infiltrating the Afghan security apparatus.

That assessment clashes sharply with findings by the NATO force that most of the insider shootings, formerly called “green-on-blue” attacks, stem from personal disputes, stress and battle fatigue, with a small percentage of such attackers acting at the behest of the Taliban. U.S. and other Western military officials have not suggested that foreign intelligence agencies were responsible for planting turncoat assailants in the Afghan police and military ranks.

After the deaths of 10 U.S. service members in insider shootings this month alone, American officials have made strenuous efforts to make sure that they and Afghan officials are acting in concert to prevent more attacks.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, traveled to Afghanistan this week for consultations with top American and Afghan commanders. Afghan officials have promised greater scrutiny of potential recruits to the police and army, and are taking measures such as embedding intelligence agents in Afghan military battalions to monitor any signs of anti-Western sentiment in the ranks.

Overall, at least 40 NATO troops have died in insider attacks this year, exceeding the tally for all of last year.

ALSO:

Turkmenistan gets a second political party

A deadly denouement for foreign troops in Afghanistan

Greek leader pleads for more time to implement reforms

-- Laura King

Photo: Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 17, 2012. Credit: Ahmad Jamshid / Associated Press

Bomber kills nine at anti-Taliban commander's Pakistan compound

NEW DELHI –- A suicide bomber attacked an anti-Taliban commander’s compound in northeastern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than a dozen others.

The attack in Kurram, part of the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, was apparently directed at militant commander Mullah Nabi, who was formerly a member of the Pakistani Taliban but broke away to form his own group. Nabi was unhurt in the attack.

At least three children were among the dead, the Associated Press reported, quoting tribal police. The bomber reportedly tried to get into the guest quarters of Nabi's compound but instead detonated his explosives when stopped and questioned by security.

The Pakistani Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack, local media reported. The injured, several reportedly in critical condition, were evacuated to a hospital in a neighboring district.

Over the years, there’s been substantial fighting among different factions of the Pakistani Taliban over territory and leadership roles, even as they engage in a protracted fight against the government. For several months, the Pakistani military has been conducting operations against militant groups in the tribal regions.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban differ significantly in their aims, history and leadership, although they share a common interpretation of Islam and are both predominantly Pashtun.

In a separate attack Saturday, assailants killed eight members of the Pakistan coast guard at a camp in the southwest port city of Gwadar in Baluchistan province, the Associated Press reported. Six reportedly died immediately and two others succumbed to their wounds. No group has claimed responsibility in that attack. Islamabad has been fighting nationalist militants in Baluchistan for nearly a decade.

ALSO:

In Syria, Assad's hold weakens

Clashes erupt in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub

Syria opposition has power struggles of its own

--Mark Magnier

Photo: A man who was injured in a suicide bomb attack in the Kurrum district of northeastern Pakistan receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar on Saturday.  Credit: Arshad Arbab/EPA