Afghan suicide bomb kills six at buzkashi game

A suicide bomber has killed at least seven people in an attack on spectators at a buzkashi sports event in north-east Afghanistan.The brother and father of the speaker of the Afghan parliament are said to be among the dead in Imam Sahib district, Kunduz province.

Hundreds of people were watching and the death toll may rise further.Buzkashi is played on horseback and is similar to polo, but uses the headless carcass of a goat instead of a ball.
The governor of Kunduz province, Mohammad Anwar Jigdalak, said Abdul Qayum Ebrahimi had been killed in the attack along with his father.

US withdrawing 34,000 troops from Afghanistan within a year

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that 34,000 troops - about half the US force in Afghanistan - will withdraw by early 2014, bringing the United States one step closer to wrapping up the costly, unpopular war.

Obama announced the withdrawal in his annual State of the Union address, as he renewed his pledge to a war-weary American public that the 66,000 remaining US troops in Afghanistan would move into a support role this spring.

“This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over,” Obama said to applause.

The announcement was limited in detail and appeared to give the White House time and flexibility before it answers bigger questions about its exit strategy from America’s longest war.

This includes the size of the US force that Obama will keep in Afghanistan once the NATO mission is completed and the war is declared formally over at the end of 2014.

Obama also must decide how large an Afghan force to finance, and for how long,
as his allies in Congress press to keep them at their maximum strength.

No decisions on broader issues have been made, a senior administration official said, and Obama said only that the future US mission would be focused on training and equipping Afghan forces and combating al Qaeda.

“Beyond 2014, America’s commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure, but the nature of our commitment will change,” Obama said.

The announcement came a month after Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed in Washington on a plan to slightly speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan, with Afghan forces taking the lead role throughout the country this spring.

How the Afghan forces fare in this leading role has yet to be seen. Although US military officials express confidence in growing Afghan capabilities, Afghan forces remain highly dependent on US support.

The Taliban dismissed the announcement, re-iteratating their position that the war would only end once all foreign troops had left Afghanistan.

“As long as invading forces remain in the country, the jihad will continue,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote in a text message to reporters in the Afghan capital. “Decreasing or increasing the number of troops does not solve the problem.”

Outgoing US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta welcomed the decision and said the plan to continue drawing down American forces in a phased approach over the coming year was recommended by the former commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen.

Allen’s successor, General Joseph Dunford, “will have the combat power he needs,” Panetta assured in a statement.

Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US commanders would have the flexibility to decide when to withdraw the 34,000 troops, as long as they were out by early next year, meaning the bulk of them could stay through this year’s peak fighting months. Jeffrey Dressler of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank, said such flexibility would allow the military to “focus on the fight at hand” during the summer and early fall.

Still, he described the removal 34,000 troops as a “tall task” that comes at a challenging time for Afghan forces.

“The real question now is what the post-2014 presence will be, which in my mind, is a far more important question,” Dressler said.

Previous discussions at the White House focused on a range of options of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops, with military commanders most comfortable with the higher-end figures.

It was unclear when Obama might make a decision.

Bruce Riedel, who chaired Obama’s 2009 review of Afghan policy and is now at the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington, said a crucial factor will be the extent to which al Qaeda’s core leadership in Pakistan continues to degrade. A stronger al Qaeda in neighboring Pakistan means the United States would need a more robust counter-terrorism presence, for example, he said.

“The president is rightly not making that decision now when he doesn’t have to,” said Riedel, who heads the Intelligence Project at Brookings.

“He should wait and see how much success we have against (al Qaeda core).” reuters

Truck carrying weapon vaporized

The story of the French disengagement

The last flight of French fighting forces left Kabul. It will take six months to repatriate all 1200 vehicles and containers as much of the French army.

Do not tell them that the coalition of forty-seven NATO countries will never overcome these insurgents of all stripes beard. International jihadists, Taliban local interests and objectives fuzzy variables, Mujahideen hardened by a life of war, here are the masters of the majestic mountains and rocky valleys.

" The insurgents have still picked up well. The average age of Taliban commanders has dropped from 31 to 27 years , "says an officer, without being able to check the reliability of the statistical deadly. And interest because it is better to go to the old to negotiate rather than young dogs crazy. It adds a slightly bitter observation: " It was the right time to go. For them and for us. Before the Afghans see us as enemy aliens, as the occupier. "

The French leave (pictured, a convoy carrying VAB to the storage area of Kabul airport) and the future of Afghanistan remains unresolved. " The region was occupied by the French (district of Surobi and Kapisa) is now led by the Afghan National Army (ANA). And the insurgents have not taken the hand. This is evidence of their effectiveness , "says Colonel Antonelli, head of the training mission Epidote.

Further down in ranks, we find less convinced. " The Afghan soldiers are tough but the evil I do not give them five years before getting to defend Kabul , "said Master Corporal Loïc original douaisienne. Camp Warehouse, east of Kabul, where are grouped the ultimate French forces, "the leader" of poker or karaoke evenings of the 1st company of the 35th Infantry Regiment Belfort would have stayed a few more months. For compensation multiplied by more than two according to rank and marital status, and not subject to income tax ...

To the exit from the death of Osama bin Laden

But we must return one day. Eleven years after the first steps of special forces or agents of the DGSE on Afghan soil. War must have a meaning. This is the output from the death of bin Laden in May 2011.

The French army has gained a technological leap (the lattice to surveillance drone) and hardening in a country hostile group. She lost 88 men. It is not. This is huge.

In this bright and glossy Sunday in December on the plateau of Kabul (1800 m), Warrant Officer Denis, of the 16th Infantry Battalion of Bitche, thirty-two years in the army in counter is not angry to return home with two hundred comrades Fire Task Force La Fayette. They just spent seven months in Kapisa. They closed the forward base of Tagab September 30, the Nijrab November 25. The guys will be able to steel battalion blow.

" The pressure Tagab was permanent. But the man gets used to everything. As the camp was on a slope, there were three tracks discovered that avoided taking. It is still made ​​"ICT-er" several times , "says the sergeant at the foot of the A340 of Air Force departure. An ICT in NATO jargon, it is a snap (French acronym for Troops in Contact ).

A professional army does not fight an army insensitive. If the closure of the forward bases have generally passed without incident, the sergeant Denis remembers the departure of Tagab: " At the end of the village, a pilot VAB (armored vehicle from the front) has seen him right a rocket. He said : "It is for me. Just when we leave." Fortunately, it was at the end of the race and its sting incandescent collided at the bottom of the box. A little higher and it was good. "

The driver needed to speak, made ​​of chargepar shrinks. The post-traumatic syndrome can be an enemy soldier inside the back of OPEX (external operation). The decompression chamber to Paphos in Cyprus has been created for it. Three days to relax in a comfortable hotel - " five stars here, two star Palavas "- to regain its footing with normal life -" it's very funny, a shower and toilet in the room! "- to speak group with experts ...

This is where we discovered the silent suffering of men who were inside the VAB to Tagab. Unlike the pilot, they had not seen the rocket fall on their vehicle. They slept in more ...

" When we closed Nijrab was a sort of pre-sas after Tagab pleasant Warrant Officer Denis. Warehouse camp in Kabul, it was almost the holidays. Now Paphos. According to those who have already passed, it is a good thing. It allows to decompress, to ask before returning to the family. "Normal life.

During this time in Kabul, meticulous repatriation of equipment continues. Intensely. With two or three jumbo Antonov day by rushing into their mouths gyms flying the VAB VBCI, Caesar cannons, helicopters ... Specialists Air Detachment Kabul airport feel in time: half of 1200 vehicles and containers that leave much to France. In order.