Insurgents take over three new districts in Afghanistan

I guess this proves the Taliban are "desperate", which is Republican-speak for a situation where things look bad for us. This occurred in one the more stable areas of the country.

As the second article notes, this year has seen the highest number of casualties since the invasion began. Somehow this is proof that we are "winning". The increased emphasis on air power has also meant an increase in civilian deaths. Just in the past seven days, we have been driven out of three districts by the insurgents, so I guess this also is somehow proof of imminent "victory" in someone's mind.

story from iafrica.com

AFGHANISTAN
Afghan suicide blast leaves 100 dead

Tue, 06 Nov 2007

Around 100 people including six lawmakers were killed or wounded in a suicide bombing on Tuesday at a sugar factory in northern Afghanistan, one of the worst attacks since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Government officials said the bomber blew himself up in the factory in the northern province of Baghlan just as a parliamentary economics committee was visiting.

"Several people, including civilians, children and at least six MPs were martyred," presidential spokesperson Homayun Hamidzada told AFP.

Officials were not immediately able to provide a breakdown of the dead and wounded in the immediate aftermath of the late afternoon blast in the town of Pul-i-Khumri, about 150 kilometres north of Kabul.

"According to initial reports from our local health and hospital officials, there are 100 people killed and injured," Ahmad Shah Shokohmand, director of provincial health departments in the public health ministry in Kabul told AFP.

"In one hospital we have got 42 people admitted and in another hospital nine bodies have been brought," Shokohmand said.

The interior ministry said earlier that 50 were dead and wounded. It was a suicide attack, spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

Afghan media cited witnesses saying mutilated bodies littered the scene of the attack, which was covered in blood. Many of the wounded were in a critical condition, they said.

There were about 18 MPs in the delegation that visited the factory, said a lawmaker in Kabul, Daud Sultanzai. His information was that five MPs were dead and at least three wounded.

Bodyguards and other members of the delegation were also killed, he added.

The lawmakers were on a tour of Baghlan province, another parliamentarian, Shukria Barakzai, told AFP in Kabul.

Those dead included Mustafa Kazimi, who headed the parliament's economics committee and a former government commerce minister, she said.

"The president condemned this attack in the strongest terms possible," said Hamidzada, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

"This is the act of the enemies of the people of Afghanistan."

A helicopter was sent from Kabul to evacuate some of the wounded, according to a parliament official. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was also mustering help.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but there have been around 120 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, most of them blamed on the extremist Taliban movement waging an intensifying insurgency.

However, one of the Taliban's main spokesmen, Zabihullah Mujahed, said his organisation was not involved in the latest attack.

Northern Afghanistan, including Baghlan, has seen relatively little of the daily violence plaguing Afghanistan and blamed on the Taliban.

The hardline Islamic Taliban were in government from 1996 until they were ousted in late 2001 by a US-led coalition following the 11 September attacks that year in the United States.

The Taliban's insurgency has grown in strength year after year — more than 5000 people have been killed in unrest this year, most of them rebels.

In the past week, insurgents have also driven security forces out of three districts in southern and central Afghanistan, and claim to have captured the areas. The government says it will launch operations soon to drive them out.

About 25 "terrorists" were meanwhile killed in an air strike in the western province of Badghis late Monday, an army general said.

The Taliban are allied with the al-Qaeda network and are said to be trained and supplied across the border in Pakistan, where rebel leaders are thought to have fled after their government was driven out.

While the Taliban lead the campaign against the government, other Islamist outfits are also involved. They include that of former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who operates in the north and east.

AFP

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SURPRISE VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN

Merkel Resists Calls to Send Troops South

German Chancellor Angela Merkel landed in Afghanistan on Saturday for her first visit to the country. She pledged more funds for training police and -- with an eye to an upcoming parliamentary vote -- insisted German troops would not be sent to the dangerous south.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's surprise visit to Afghanistan on Saturday was all about the timing. Her first visit to the country since taking the helm of Germany's grand coalition government came just a few days before the German parliament votes on continuing Germany's participation in the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom and her visit to the United States on Friday.
Merkel took the opportunity to emphasize what she sees as Germany's priorities in Afghanistan, namely training police and helping to build up infrastructure, and she reiterated Germany's determination not to send its troops to the volatile south.
Her one-day visit, which was only announced to the media when she had landed in Kabul, was surrounded by high security, with Merkel wearing a bullet proof vest and transported in military helicopters and vehicles.
During a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, who called Germany an "old friend," Merkel announced that Berlin was increasing its contribution to police training to €20 million a year.
...
Germany has come in for criticism from some NATO allies for failing to send any of the 3,000 troops it has stationed in the country to Afghanistan's dangerous south, where the coalition troops are engaged in fierce battles with militant Taliban fighters (more...). This year has been the bloodiest for the country since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001, with 5,600 people killed, including more than 190 foreign soldiers.
Merkel reiterated during her visit that there were no plans to send German troops to the south. However she added that "whenever troops in the south need urgent assistance, we will of course provide help," without clarifying what form that help might take. "But I strongly believe we should stick to our plan that has been worked out, in order not to weaken our forces in the north," she said.
Last month Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, approved extending the deployment of troops and six Tornado reconnaissance jets as part of the ISAF operation, after Merkel's government argued that a pull-out would open the door for militants to use the country as a base for terrorism.
This Thursday, the Bundestag meets to vote on continuing Germany's involvement in the US-led anti-terror Operation Enduring Freedom. Merkel then travels to Texas on Friday for a weekend meeting with US President George W. Bush.

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Taliban capture Afghan district

Agencies
Published: November 05, 2007, 18:05

Kabul: Taliban insurgents have captured a third district in Afghanistan proving they are able to mount large military offensives.

Taliban rebels captured the Farah district of Gulistan a week ago, then on Wednesday took nearby Bakwa. On Sunday, the insurgents seized Khak-e Sefid, defying Afghan and foreign forces to retake the lost ground.