Israel’s New Pet Pigeon In the Caucasus Stand-Off

[Russia resolved this stand-off once, in 2008, the last time that the Zionists attempted to play the Caucasus conflict card.  If Putin had not prevailed then, we would now be talking about the Israeli airstrikes upon Iran in the past tense.  They would already be history now, including the global fallout which would have come after that.  Ilham Aliyev would be well advised to consider the errors of his tie-eating counterpart in Georgia.]

It is not peaceful Caspian Sea

04/16/2012 Sergey Konovalov The leader of an arms race in the region is Azerbaijan Expert: The emergence of military conflicts in the Caspian Sea will mean “without any exaggeration and pathos, the beginning of the next world war, involving the entire space of Central Eurasia.” Caspian littoral states continue to vigorously develop and equip its naval forces. Leadership in this process, in some areas, it seems, is moving from Russia to Azerbaijan. With the active participation of Washington and Tel Aviv Baku began to form the most advanced control structures on the sea (sea-based missile systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, a unit of combat swimmers, etc.). These funds do not fight in the armed forces of Russia, or they just are. Enhanced U.S. aid to Israel and to the modernization of the armed forces of Azerbaijan observers associated with the planned military action against Iran, in which may be used and Azeri bridgeheads. Official Baku constantly refutes this information. Although the facts of the active military and military-technical cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States, Israel and other countries can not be refuted. As previously reported, “NG” (see number on 4/10/12), the Caspian Flotilla (CF) began preparations for the Russian Navy frogman unit. This office is designed to provide anti-sabotage ships, created six months ago. But the Defense Ministry has officially informed about it just now. Note that in the Azerbaijan branch of naval Special Forces operating for several years. Designed with the active participation of the U.S. Marine special forces of Azerbaijan is armed midget submarines of different samples. Is there a similar underwater equipment from Russia in the Caspian Sea, in the press are not reported. Certainly, the Russian navy in the Caspian Sea is still the most powerful. However, it has lagged behind other navies for some types of modern weapons and communications. For example, according to the analytical site StrategyPage, the recent sensational arms deal Baku and Tel Aviv in the amount of $ 1.6 billion includes the purchase of Azerbaijan Israeli anti-ship missiles with a range of Gabriel to 36 km. These missiles have a high accuracy, they are difficult to destroy. For the army of Azerbaijan in Israel purchased drums drones (UAV) Heron and Searcher, and the means of electronic intelligence – several radars Green Pine. These stations are part of the Israeli missile defense system Arrow-2, which also eventually be staged in Azerbaijan. These types of weapons in Russia, only created. In 2011, Israel was built near the Baku factory drones. Has already begun production of unmanned Orbiter (range up to 50 km, the cost – about 600 thousand dollars), and prepare for screwdriver assembly drones Aerostar (200 km, 1.5-2 million). Orbiter UAVs as part of settlements with the participation of Israeli experts have been monitoring in the Caspian Sea near the disputed with Iran and Turkmenistan for oil, as well as on the land border with Karabakh in Azerbaijan and Iran. Also in the monitoring of the Caspian Sea and land borders are involved Hermes-450 UAV UAVs, well-proven in intelligence operations on the eve of Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia. Azerbaijan has acquired 10 such drones from Israeli firms during 2009-2012.In these UAVs can be set strike weapons such as rockets, “air-air” or “air-to-earth” and “air-sea”, and electronic warfare. Heron, for example, can theoretically fly by 14.8 thousand km. If Baku said that the weapons are not directed against Iran, but only preparing for war over Karabakh, then why, asks to buy the UAV that flies at a distance, which is five to six times more than before the most distant point from Azerbaijan in Armenia? In this context become understandable caught in the open press reports that during the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres in Baku in 2009 an agreement was reached on the establishment on the territory of Azerbaijan, an electronic network intelligence. It was also reported that Azerbaijan and Israel will cooperate in the field of satellite systems. It was recently announced the creation of satellite TetsSAR equipped with a radar with synthesized instrumentation, which allows to obtain images of the Earth’s surface with high resolution, regardless of weather conditions. According to the Azerbaijani and Israeli military, is an essential reference system for possible military actions in the Caspian Sea and the mountainous terrain. According to senior researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies Alexander Knyazev , “the militarization of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and the West are pushing the United States.” That they “initiate unacceptable for Iran and Russia projects. Trans-Caspian oil and gas pipelines are not acceptable, unacceptable military presence nekaspiyskih countries in the Caspian area – this is a short set of conditions under which the conflict will not be possible “, – said the expert. Knyazev believes that the emergence of military conflicts in the Caspian Sea will mean “without any exaggeration and pathos, the beginning of the next World War, with the involvement of the entire space of Central Eurasia.”

Source :: The Independent Newspaper

Bishkek Allowing NED/Soros Foundation To Conduct Training Session In Subversive “Peace Journalism”

Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek to start a series of trainings on peace journalism

Ferghana

In Kyrgyzstan, April 24 will begin a series of trainings on peace journalism for employees being published in Kyrgyz and Uzbek print media, radio and online publications.

Training School organizes and conducts peacekeeping and Media Technology (School of Peacemaking and Media Technology) Public Fund “network of social mediators” with the support of the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan and the National Institute for the U.S. to promote democracy (NED).

The first five days of training will be held from April 24 to 28 in Bishkek, it invited 15 previous competitive selection of young journalists from Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken regions.

The course focuses on developing skills to produce analytical batch reports, including balance of views from the ethnic communities to work with sources of information in conflict situations, to determine the reliability of the information, learn to find in the ethnic communities of people willing to open dialogue.

Basic training materials developed by trainers after preliminary monitoring of the content kirgizskoyazychnyh, Uzbek-Kyrgyz and Russian media for the presence of these stereotypes and cliches, the excitation of hostility.

Training will be held under the supervision of professional trainers foreign Ashot Melikian (Armenia), Arif Aliyev (Azerbaijan) and Eran Fraenkel (USA), with extensive practical experience and skills of peace building dialogue through the media in conflict-prone regions – namely, in the South Caucasus, where, after the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was successfully implemented a joint project, as well as in Macedonia (the Balkans), which has accumulated experience in the production of joint reports in the Multinational journalistic teams.

Upon completion of the training, participants will release a series of materials that will be raised common problems and solutions. Articles will be published on the website http://www.ca-mediators.net and partner web-sites in the Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Russian and English.

Help. Project “School of peacemaking and Media Technology,” aims to develop mechanisms to maintain and preserve the world through mass media, training and development activities to prevent the escalation of conflicts in southern Kyrgyzstan and the Ferghana Valley. Multi-level training at the School provides for training on the instruments to maintain peace through the media, creating dialogue between different ethnic groups, development of mass media for national minorities, the training techniques of crisis communications and human rights activists from different ethnic groups. The school is organized with the assistance of the National Foundation to promote Democracy (NED) and the Programme “Support to Media” of the “Soros-Kyrgyzstan”.

The international news agency “Fergana”

The Neocon Project for A “New American Century” Backfires–Welcome To the Anti-American Era

[32 to 2 against the American position.]

Despite Obama charm, Americas summit boosts U.S. isolation

By Brian Ellsworth

CARTAGENA, Colombia

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama patiently sat through diatribes, interruptions and even the occasional eye-ball roll at the weekend Summit of the Americas in an effort to win over Latin American leaders fed up with U.S. policies.

He failed.

The United States instead emerged from the summit in Colombia increasingly isolated as nearly 30 regional heads of state refused to sign a joint declaration in protest against the continued exclusion of communist-led Cuba from the event.

The rare show of unity highlights the steady decline of Washington’s influence in a region that has become less dependent on U.S. trade and investment thanks to economic growth rates that are the envy of the developed world and new opportunities with China.

It also signals a further weakening of the already strained hemispheric system of diplomacy, built around the Organization of American States (OAS) which has struggled to remain relevant during a time of rapid change for its members.

Seen as an instrument of U.S. policy in Latin America during the Cold War, the OAS has lost ground in a region that is no longer content with being the backyard of the United States.

“It seems the United States still wants to isolate us from the world, it thinks it can still manipulate Latin America, but that’s ending,” said Bolivian President Evo Morales, a fierce critic of U.S. policy in Latin America and staunch ally of Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez.

“What I think is that this is a rebellion of Latin American countries against the United States.”

NEWFOUND UNITY

In all fairness to Obama, the outcome had little to do with his conduct or even that of secret service agents whose indiscreet encounter with prostitutes in the beachside city of Cartagena, Colombia, overshadowed much of the proceedings.

He was in fact commended by several presidents for listening politely to political leaders, helping soften perception of U.S. officials as arrogant and domineering.

“I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a president of the United States spend almost the entire summit sitting, listening to the all concerns of all countries,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

“This was a very valuable gesture by President Obama.”

But Obama’s staid charm was unable to paper over growing differences with the region.

Facing a tough re-election race this year, Obama had no room to compromise on the five-decade-old U.S. embargo on Cuba that is widely supported by conservatives in the United States, and particularly the anti-Castro exile community in Florida, a key state in a presidential vote.

U.S. insistence that Havana undertake democratic reforms before returning to the hemispheric family led to a clash with a united front of leftist and conservative governments that see Washington’s policy toward Cuba as a relic of the Cold War.

The unexpected result was a diplomatic victory for Havana.

The newfound regional unity on Cuba may augur a growing willingness across the political spectrum to challenge the U.S. State Department on thorny issues for years considered taboo.

That could include insistence that the United States assume greater responsibility for reducing consumption of illegal narcotics as an alternative to the bloody war on drugs and its rising toll on Latin America.

“From the so-called Washington consensus … toward a nascent consensus without Washington for a united Latin America,” tweeted Venezuela’s foreign ministry, referring to orthodox economic policies advocated by Washington in the 1990s.

NEW DIPLOMACY, NEW ECONOMY

The stark divide over Cuba – with 32 nations in favor of inviting it to future summits and only the United States and Canada opposed – will fuel arguments that the OAS is an outdated institution for regional diplomacy.

The OAS already faces competition from alternative forums such as the Union of South American nations (Unasur) and the Chavez-backed Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (Celac).

Despite the new winds blowing in regional diplomacy, economics is driving the changes as much as politics.

Once seen as monolithic block of basket-case economies dependent on U.S. support, Latin American countries are coveted investment destinations with sophisticated financial systems that have innovated in areas ranging from energy to aviation.

Chinese companies eager to pump oil, harvest soy and build badly needed infrastructure are showering them with offers of investment and financing.

With the U.S. economy still struggling to stay above water and foreign aid budgets seen dwindling, Washington has fewer sticks to brandish and fewer carrots to offer.

“This summit was a reminder, a wake-up call, that the traditional way of doing business vis-a-vis the region is eroding,” said Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Anthony Boadle and Jackie Frank)

Day 2 of Suicide-Bomber Wave of Attacks On Kabul

New explosions rock Kabul after Afghan forces repel earlier attacks

By Mitra Mobasherat and Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — A series of explosions rocked central Kabul early Monday, the day after Afghan security forces said they repulsed a wave of insurgent attacks in the capital and three other provinces.

The explosions persisted for some time, and followed periodic gunfire that lasted well into Sunday night in the Kabul district that houses government offices and allied embassies. There was no immediate explanation, but Afghan authorities had said late Sunday that they were trying to dislodge insurgents holed up in an empty building near the headquarters of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said the remaining insurgents “have no choice except surrendering or to be killed by the Afghan forces.”

“They came today with more than 20 insurgents and suicide bombers and attacked four provinces,” Seddiqi told CNN Sunday. “As a result, they got nothing, and 19 of them were killed.”

The assault was a rare occurrence in a heavily guarded part of Kabul — but Gen. John Allen, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said the Afghans beat back the insurgents without allied assistance.

“They were on scene immediately, well-led and well-coordinated,” Allen said. “They integrated their efforts, helped protect their fellow citizens and largely kept the insurgents contained.” He said the attacks were meant to signal “that legitimate governance and Afghan sovereignty are in peril,” but the Afghan response “is proof enough of that folly.”

Seddiqi said two civilians were killed across the country, and 15 Afghan police officers were wounded. He said 15 of 19 suicide bombers were stopped before they could blow themselves up, with most of them killed by Afghan security forces.

And Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, said three men arrested in Kabul confessed to plotting to kill Karim Khalil, Afghanistan’s second vice president. Two of the men planned to blow themselves up in Khalil’s home, Mashal said.

The Taliban militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it launched fighters into battle with suicide vests, RPGs and hand grenades in Kabul and the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia and Logar. But Mashal said the three men who targeted Khalil confessed to being members of the Haqqani network, a separate insurgent group that sometimes allies itself with the Taliban.

In his statement, Allen said, “No one is underestimating the seriousness of today’s attacks.” But ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings described himself as “underwhelmed,” and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told CNN, “The Taliban are very good at issuing statements, less good at fighting.”

Crocker told CNN’s “State of the Union” that no Americans had been hurt, but “our hearts go out” to the Afghans who had been killed or wounded. He suggested the attacks may be the work of the Haqqani network, rather than the Taliban, saying the Taliban did not have the capacity to carry them out.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said as many as seven locations in Kabul were attacked, including Afghanistan’s parliament building and the American, German and Russian embassies. Seddiqi said the insurgents took up positions in empty buildings in three Kabul districts to carry out the attacks, and still held one as midnight neared Sunday. Kabul police said they found and detonated a van full of explosives.

Meanwhile, an airbase used by U.S. troops in the eastern city of Jalalabad, in Naranghar province, also came under attack, the NATO command in Kabul reported. Four suicide bombers wearing women’s burqas tried to attack the Jalalabad airfield where United States troops are based, airfield commander Jahangir Azimi said.

The Taliban are very good at issuing statements, less good at fighting.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker

At least three of the attackers were killed, ISAF said in a statement about the incident.

Separately, a group of suicide bombers attacked the police training center in the city of Gardez, in nearby Paktia province. At least eight civilians were wounded, said a police official at the center, who is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

And 15 would-be attackers were arrested in Kunduz province plotting similar strikes, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the chief of police for north and northeast Afghanistan.

The Taliban, the Islamist militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan, said the attacks were in retaliation for the killing of 17 Afghan civilians in Kandahar province last month. A U.S. Army staff sergeant, Robert Bales, has been charged with those killings.

But Jeff Dressler, an expert on the Haqqani network at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, told CNN that the coordination seen in the Kabul attacks indicate a Haqqani-led network was behind them, and that planned but disrupted attacks in the north may also be Haqqani-linked.

“This is likely their unofficial announcement marking the start of the spring fighting season,” Dressler said. Though the attacks didn’t succeed, he said, “The target selection was likely intended to send a message to the U.S., U.K., Russia and the Afghans that this will in fact be a bloody year for all forces in Afghanistan, particularly the east of the country.”

U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall said he could not confirm that the embassy itself was the target of the attacks, but said gunfire had been heard in the vicinity. In a statement from London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the British Embassy was one of the targets, but “every member of Embassy staff is safe.”

“The Afghan National Security Forces responded to the attacks bravely, promptly and effectively, once again illustrating the significant progress that has been made in ensuring that Afghans can look after their own security,” Hague said. The embassy premises sustained “limited damage,” he said, and its staff “dealt with this dangerous situation extremely professionally.”

India also said it had no reports of its nationals being wounded.

A local police official said attackers took over a central Kabul hotel close to the presidential palace, United Nations office and many foreign embassies, but both Seddiqi and staff at the hotel denied it had been attacked.

A western official in Kabul later said the hotel had been taken over by insurgents, but was then taken back by Afghan national security forces.

CNN’s Masoud Popalzai, Fazal Ahad and Bharati Naik, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr and Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Doughterty contributed to this report.

Brits Blame Taliban Internal Dissension On Pay-Offs Instead of Resistance To Negotiations with West

[In the previous report from today’s Hindu, we were told that the Taliban leader was arrested for negotiating at Doha, and here in the Brit press, we are given conflicting information, in the form of prompting from a probable MI6 agent to look at the incident as a question of pay-offs, and not one of unauthorized negotiations.  EU rep Michael Semple has been previously outed as an Imperial asset when the Afghan government expelled him from the country for building-up unauthorized Taliban forces under Mansour Dadullah, after MI6 killed his brother Mullah Dadullah (SEE:  Unraveling the Myth of Al Qaida).  Whenever Semple raises his head he is standing on the soldiers of British intelligence.]  

“What exactly [were] Mervyn Patterson and Michael Semple…doing in Helmand”?

Taliban paid ‘protection money’ by Afghan government

The Taliban leadership has arrested its former top military chief and two senior commanders over claims that they accepted they “vast sums” of cash and properties from the Afghan government.

Leading analysts said their arrests have created a climate of paranoia within the Taliban movement Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS

By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor, and Ben Farmer in Kabul

The money was allegedly paid to the Taliban commanders to protect Kabul and Nato supply convoys.

Mullah Ismail, who until last year was the head of the Taliban’s ruling Military Commission and remains one of its most powerful members, was arrested earlier this month along with Mullah Ahad Agha, an insurgent commander in Ismail’s Zabul province, and Mullah Ghulam Hassan, a former intelligence minister and commander in Ghazni province.

Their arrests have sent shock waves throughout the Taliban’s senior leadership amid militant fears that the corruption which has tainted the Karzai government is now dividing their own ranks.

Leading analysts said their arrests have created a climate of paranoia within the Taliban movement and suspicion that recent talks between representatives of their leader, Mullah Omar, and the United States in Doha may have been influenced by these payments.

A 2010 Congressional investigation into Pentagon contracts worth more than $2 billion to supply American troops in Afghanistan found much of the money had been paid to Taliban commanders in bribes for protection.

The three military leaders are widely believed to have accepted payments in exchange for holding meetings with Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, but senior analysts said the controversy centres on Taliban corruption.

Michael Semple, a leading expert on the Taliban and former deputy EU representative in Afghanistan, said the arrests will make the movement’s leadership more wary of returning to talks with the Americans and other western mediators.

“The Taliban has been shaken by finding that the former head of its Military Commission received unauthorised funds from Kabul. The commander’s apparent success in pocketing large sums of money and acquiring property sounds like a protection scam, with the leadership upset that the resources did not go into their coffers,” he said.

“It illustrates the huge challenge that any movement has in maintaining discipline and honesty during a protracted and clandestine struggle when there is a lot of money sloshing around. It has made the Taliban strangely nervous – because it was something out of their control. Not directly impacted on Doha but will make them more paranoid,” he added.

Mullah Ismail had been moved aside as leader of the Taliban’s Military Commission in favour of Abdul Qayyum Zakir last year in a reorganisation.

His declining influence was highlighted last August when he was kidnapped and beaten up by another commander, Baz Mohammad, in a dispute over funding.

The movement’s military leadership was forced to intervene to settle the dispute, which caused resentment among supporters in the powerful Noorzai Pashtun tribe.

Afghan Intel Paints Haqqanis As “Lee Harvey Oswald” of Kabul

[Keeping to the precedents established by his predecessor, Amrullah Saleh, Afghan intelligence never misses an opportunity to agitate or cause trouble between the US and Pakistan.  The Haqqanis are being set-up to take the blame for this one before the government machine guns have even had time to cool-down–typical false flag bullshit.] 

AP

Gunfire and smoke is seen coming out of a building occupied by militants during a battle with Afghan-led forces, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, April 16, 2012. The Afghan capital awoke Monday to a second day of explosions and heavy gunfire as Afghan-led forces worked to defeat insurgents holed up in the building in the heart of the city and another near parliament. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) 

Kabul Attack Could Spark US-Pakistan Tension

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT Associated Press

ISLAMABAD

A brazen, 18-hour attack allegedly carried out by Pakistan-based militants on targets in the Afghan capital, including the U.S. Embassy, could spark fresh tension between Washington and Islamabad just as they seemed to be patching up their vital but troubled relationship.

The attack, which ended early Monday, will likely re-ignite anger in Washington over Pakistan’s unwillingness to crack down on militants using its territory as a base to target neighboring Afghanistan. But the Obama administration must weigh the impact any public criticism of Pakistan may have on the country’s cooperation with it in other areas, including getting supplies to troops in Afghanistan and negotiating peace with insurgents there.

The potential flashpoint comes days after Pakistan’s parliament finally approved new guidelines for the country in its relationship with the U.S., a decision that Washington hopes will pave the way for the reopening of supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed its border crossings to NATO supplies in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. It has taken the government months to navigate the delicate path of resuscitating ties with the U.S., a difficult process in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant.

Afghan officials on Monday said a gunman arrested in the attacks told authorities the simultaneous strikes in Kabul and three other cities were carried out by the Haqqani network, a militant group allegedly linked to Pakistan’s spy agency. The attacks killed 11 people — eight members of the Afghan security forces and three civilians. Thirty-six insurgents were also killed.

The attacks were the most widespread in Kabul since an assault on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters last September also blamed on the Haqqani network. U.S. officials accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, of helping with that attack, sparking outrage in Islamabad.

An ISI official said Monday that claims the Haqqani network was behind the latest attacks were “nothing but accusations.”

“We have no idea who carried out these attacks,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. “Whenever something happens, blame is always laid on our doorstep.”

If the role of the Haqqani network is confirmed, it could place the Obama administration in a tricky position. It could face pressure from Congress and Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney to criticize Pakistan. But the U.S. wants Islamabad to reopen the NATO supply lines, and the country’s help is seen as key to negotiating a peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The relationship is further complicated by Pakistani opposition to U.S. drone strikes targeting the Haqqani network and other militants along the border. Pakistan’s parliament has demanded the attacks stop, but the U.S. has refused to comply.

Pakistan’s army, which is considered the most powerful player in the country, has its own incentive to patch up ties: getting American military aid flowing to the country again. The U.S. has given Pakistan billions of dollars in military aid over the past decade, but flows have largely been frozen since the middle of last year after Osama bin Laden was found hiding in a Pakistani garrison town.

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Afghan Intel Official Blames Haqqanis for Kabul Attacks, After Taliban Official Takes Credit

Afghan official: Haqqanis blamed for Kabul attacks

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A militant arrested in the attacks on the Afghan capital and three other cities has confessed that the 18-hour assault was carried out by the Haqqani network, a lethal group of fighters with ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, a top Afghan security official said Monday.

Thirty-six insurgents were killed during the brazen attacks that also claimed the lives of eight policemen and three civilians and proved that militants can still penetrate Afghan security after 10 years of war, said Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi.

The violence showed the Taliban and their allies are far from beaten and underscored the security challenge facing government forces as U.S. and NATO troops draw down. The majority of international combat troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2014.

A coalition spokesman, U.S. Army Maj. Jason Waggoner, confirmed there was an incident in Kandahar. He said no NATO troops were killed but did not provide further details.

In Kabul on Monday, residents awoke to loud explosions and the crackle of gunfire. The attacks on the Afghan capital ended when insurgents who had holed up overnight in two buildings were overcome by heavy gunfire from Afghan-led forces and pre-dawn air assaults from U.S.-led coalition helicopters.

Rocket-propelled grenades were fired one after another into a building in the center of the city where insurgents began their attack Sunday. The building, which is under construction, overlooks the presidential palace, Western embassies and government ministries. The U.S., German and British embassies and some coalition and Afghan government buildings took direct and indirect fire, according to Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

Shortly before 3 a.m., coalition helicopters began flying over the structure. At 4:23 a.m. a religious cleric began calling Muslim worshippers to prayer over a loudspeaker in the area. During the next 15 minutes, troops launched five rocket-propelled grenades into the building. More followed.

Red and white flashes could be seen inside the various floors of the multistory building. By about 6:30 a.m., the blasts and shooting had stopped. Fighting there and at another building under construction near the Afghan parliament building on the southwest side of the city ended just before 8 a.m.

“The terrorists tried to harm the process of transferring security to the Afghan forces, but they are not able to do it,” Mohammadi told reporters in Kabul. “They want to create fear among the people.”

On Monday, Afghan security forces arrested a suicide bomber in eastern part of the capital before he was able to carry out an attack, according to a statement from the Kabul police.

Two suicide bombers and another insurgent arrested on Sunday on the west side of the city have confessed to being members of the Haqqani network, said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service. He said the three are suspected of plotting to kill Karim Khalili, one of Afghanistan’s two vice presidents.

Apart from Kabul, the eastern capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces also came under attack Sunday as suicide bombers tried to storm a NATO base, an airport and police installations there.

“One terrorist who was arrested in Nangarhar province confessed, saying ‘It was the Haqqani network that launched these attacks,'” Mohammadi said.

Eight members of the Afghan police, army and intelligence service were killed and 40 others were wounded in the attacks. Three civilians were killed and 25 others were wounded, he said.

“A Haqqani connection is a possibility, but still too early to determine for sure,” said Cummings, the NATO spokesman. “We will look strongly at that.”

In the streets of Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, where a NATO base and a number of embassies, including the U.S. Embassy, are located, residents scrambled for cover as gunfire rained down from all directions.

“I saw two Land Cruisers pull up and two militants jumped from the car,” said Mohammad Zakar, a 27-year-old mechanic who has a shop near the building commandeered by the militants. “They opened fire on an intelligence service guard … They also fired and killed an Afghan policeman and then they jumped into the building. All the shops closed. I ran away.”

Militants also attacked a NATO site on the outskirts of Kabul, where a joint Greek-Turkish base came under heavy fire and forces responded with heavy-caliber machine guns, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said dozens of suicide attackers and gunmen were involved in attacks that had been planned for two months to show the insurgency’s power after NATO officials called the Taliban weak and said there was no indication they were planning a spring offensive.

Mujahid told the AP on Monday that the attacks did not mark the start of the insurgents’ spring offensive, which would begin shortly.

“It is a message for the spring offensive but it has not yet started,” Mujahid said. “The offensive will start shortly and it will be announced with its name and the purpose of the operation.”

Last year, the Taliban code-named their spring offensive “Badr” after one of the Prophet Mohammad‘s decisive military victories.

Taliban Arrest Their Own Military Chief Over Doha Negotiations

[According to the report in The Hindu, Mullah Nasir has been promoted to new Taliban chief of military operations.  Could it be the infamous Nazir from Wana, S. Waziristan, since he maintains homes on both sides of the Durand Line?]

Taliban military chief held after secret talks with Afghan envoys

PRAVEEN SWAMI

The head of Taliban’s military council is to be tried by the jihadist group for having engaged in unauthorised negotiations with Afghanistan’s Higher Peace Council, intelligence sources have told The Hindu.

Maulvi Muhammad Ismail was held by the Taliban in early April, two weeks after he returned to Pakistan after a meeting with envoys from the Higher Peace Council in the United Arab Emirates. His secret negotiations with Kabul, the sources said, may have led the Taliban to stage Sunday’s attacks in Kabul — unprecedented in their scale — to warn against future attempts to infiltrate its ranks.

Few details were available on Mr. Ismail’s arrest, which was impossible to independently verify. Military sources in Kabul, however, said he was replaced by Mullah Nasir, earlier the head of Taliban operations in Ghazni. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the sources alleged, had unearthed Mr. Ismail’s negotiation efforts, and insisted that the Taliban crack down on it.

Taliban negotiations with the United States in Doha broke down after a stalemate developed over the release of five prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban negotiation team is made up of Tayyab Agha, Abbas Stanikzai and Shahabuddin Delawari, who moved to Doha from Pakistan in 2010.

However, the Higher Peace Council envoys have continued to reach out to Taliban commanders operating inside Afghanistan. Afghan politicians have blamed the ISI for not allowing their efforts to come to fruition. In a report issued, the International Crisis Group said Pakistani hardliners see “victory for their Afghan proxies” as imminent. “This contributes greatly to Kabul’s lack of progress in talks with the insurgents,” the ICG stated.

Balochistan violence: Oil companies create unrest, says Bugti chief

By Qaiser Butt

Baloch derive no economic gains from oil reserves, says Aali’s spokesman. PHOTO: IRFAN ALI/EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD: Besides the government, the intelligence agencies and the law enforcement agencies, there’s another party that must share equal blame for violence in Balochistan, according to the Bugti tribe leader, Nawab Aali Bugti – national and international oil companies.

Mastan Bugti, a spokesperson for the Bugti chief, told The Express Tribune that besides the Frontier Constabulary (FC), oil companies continue to play a negative role in Dera Bugti as they deprive the Baloch of their legitimate political and economic rights.

Aali’s main complaint is that as the head of his tribe, he has not been paid his due share in the huge income earned by oil and gas companies exploiting the rich petroleum reservoirs of the tribal region, according to Mastan.

The spokesperson added that Nawab Bugti was living in Karachi after being forced by the FC to leave Dera Bugti in 2010.  “The Nawab has virtually been pushed out of his native town and Sui by the government and its sponsored waderas …Everyone knows that a wadera is a low-level subordinate in our tribal system.”

According to Mastan, these very subordinates have compromised the economic rights of the Bugti tribes for personal gain. “Such selfish people always suited the establishment and the oil companies as they happily serve their interests for a little money,” he added.

Mastan explained how it was agreed between the federal government and Nawab Aali in 2009 that the chief would provide protection to the oil and gas installations in return for financial perks. The reason that the installations and infrastructure of the companies have been targeted by Baloch militants in Dera Bugti, however, is because the corporations continue to deny necessary job opportunities and perks to the Baloch people, the spokesperson said.

“Oil companies always preferred outsiders while recruiting their personnel,” Mastan said, adding: ‘”Only a few of the locals were given low-level jobs.”

Internal power struggle

The complexities of the Bugti tribe, however, extend beyond the external threats posed by oil and gas companies. Within the tribe, a power struggle continues in spite of Aali’s declared leadership. Nawabzada Brahamdagh Bugti, a key Baloch leader and chief of the Baloch Republican Party, refuses to accept his first cousin’s position as tribal chief. Commenting on reports that some official circles were planning to replace Aali with Brahamdagh as the chief of the Bugti tribes in case of a compromise between Islamabad and the exiled contender for the title, the spokesperson categorically said the clansmen would never accept such a deal.

According to Mastan, this power struggle too is a factor being exploited by the establishment. “The establishment is playing the same dirty game in Dera Bugti that it played before and after the assassination of Nawab Akbar Bugti.”

In short, Mastan says, Aali, as a central figure in the Balochistan quandary, is stuck in a catch-22: “He and his people are being targeted by those who are fighting for the liberation of Balochistan (on one hand), and being cornered by the establishment on the other,” the spokesperson regretted.

‘A sensitive issue’

Meanwhile, government officials all appeared reluctant to comment on what many consider to be the eye of the storm in Balochistan – the fate of the Bugtis. When contacted by The Express Tribune to comment on Aali’s views, Balochistan Chief Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad said, “Keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue, I should not make any statement without proper investigation,” and after promising to collect input from concerned officials, he remained unavailable for comment. Provincial Director General for Information Kamran Assad was unwilling to comment on issues of “a sensitive nature”. Home Secretary Nasibullah Bazai also remained unavailable for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune