Awaz Apni

Breaking News LONDON: Five of Britain's elite Royal Marines have been charged with murder "in relation to an incident which is alleged to have taken place in Afghanistan in 2011", the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday. The five Marines "have now been charged with murder and they remain in custody pending court proceedings", an MoD spokesman said.

AWAZ APNI Kabul, Afghanistan: The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was shot dead at his home in Kandahar on Tuesday, the provincial governor's office said. Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed during a gathering at his home, said Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa. He did not know a motive. While the governor initially said a friend killed Karzai, his spokesman later clarified that the death was at the hands of a guard. Karzai suffered bullet wounds to his head and chest, said Mohammad Dawood Farhad, the head of Kandahar Hospital. KANDAHAR: Ahmed Wali Karzai , the younger brother of the Afghan president and a powerful figure in the deeply troubled southern province of Kandahar, was assassinated on Tuesday, officials said. Initial details were sketchy, but a family friend, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AWAZ APNI that Wali Karzai had been killed by a bodyguard while entertaining guests at home. “We can confirm he has been martyred,” Kandahar provincial governme...

Awazapni Afghanistan: According to local officials, an attack has been carried out on Head of of the Kandahar Provincial Council and the brother of President Hamid Karzai, Ahmad Wali Karzai. Officials further added, the incident took place in southern city of Kandahar province. Unconfirmed reports says that Ahmad Wali Karzai was killed during the incident, but this has not been confirmed by any governmental official yet. In other unconfirmed reports, it is said that he was wounded during the incident. No group including Taliban has yet confirmed responsibility behind Ahmad Wali Karzai’s attack. More details regarding the incident to follow shortly.

Ahmed Wali Karzai is the younger bother of Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan. He is a prominent political figure in the southern region of the country and leads the provincial council of Kandahar Province, the governing body for the region that includes Afghanistan's second largest city. He is also a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade. Current and former American officials say that the younger Mr. Karzai gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years. In late March 2010, with a huge military operation in the area looming, Afghan and American officials decided that the president's brother will be allowed to stay in place. President Karzai had turned down repeated requests in the preceding months by both the American ambassador and the top American commander to move his brother out of Kandahar. Many Western and Afghan officials say the president's brother stands in the way of buildin...

It's not surprising that Jack Kelly would use this week's column to, uh, "explain" the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal. That his "explanation" is muddled and confusing is hardly surprising either, though perhaps his inclusion of The Peter Principle (creatively quoted, of course) straightens things out enough for us to see the forest for the trees. Let's start there. Bottom line on Jack's use of the Peter Principle: He calls Stanley McChrystal an incompetent commander in Afghanistan. Jack writes (just ignore the empty snark about the golf course): Barack Obama has not been a wartime leader in the mold of Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. Perhaps the only way Gen. McChrystal could have gotten Mr. Obama interested in Afghanistan is if he'd built a world-class golf course there. But Gen. McChrystal hasn't been a Grant or MacArthur, either. Laurence J. Peter famously said that people in the corporate world tend to be promoted to a le...

Awaz Apni Rported: Two Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when their armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, the military said Saturday.   Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht and Pte. Andrew Miller were killed when their armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. (Department of Defence)   Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht and Pte. Andrew Miller, both medics from CFB Petawawa, had been responding to a report of a mine found in the doorway of a home when their vehicle detonated the IED, the military said. The blast occurred about 20 kilometres southwest of the city of Kandahar. They were attached to the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group. A third soldier was taken to a hospital on Kandahar Airfield and was in stable condition. "Although we cannot say for certain that these medical personnel were targeted deliberately, it is for certain that the threat to Afghans stemming from the influence of out-of-area fighters a...

According to a special bulletin on ABC just now General Stanley Allen McChrystal's resignation has been accepted and he has been relieved of his command. The pierogi has left the building. UPDATE: Gen. David Petraeus will now take over command of Afghanistan. .

General Stanley Allen McChrystal and Pittsburgh Pirate Pierogi (Andrew Kurtz) Who knew that the Pittsburgh Pirates and the White House have the same HR people? Both McChrystal and Kurtz publicly criticized their respective bosses. Kurtz was fired then quickly rehired, McChrystal offered may offer his resignation, but as of right now still has his job. Still, I'd recommend that you not try this move at home. NOTE: I'm compelled to mention that while looking for links/photos for this post, I stumbled across this piece in The Atlantic which found a similar parallel. Apparently, Chris Good and I think along the same wavelength (and may God have mercy upon his soul).

AWAZ APNI The Afghan Taliban have expanded their influence across Afghanistan and are now running a 'full-fledged insurgency’ with their own 'governors’ in all but one of the country’s provinces, a senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) intelligence official said. "Time is running out. We’ve got about a year to prove that our strategy can actually work. The Taliban has shadow governors in 33 out of the 34 provinces," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told a small group of reporters. "So he (the Taliban) has got a government-in-waiting. He has got ministers," he added. Violence in Afghanistan has reached some of its highest levels in the eight-year war and the United States President Barack Obama is sending in 30,000 extra troops as part of his new war strategy, to try to turn the tide. Other NATO countries are sending some 7,000 more. But Washington’s plan also calls for US troop levels to be scaled down from 2011 and the White Hou...

CNews RAWALPINDI: On the third day of anti‑militant operation being carried out jointly by FC and Pakistan Army, more areas in Buner have been got evacuated from the militants while life is returning to normalcy in Deer, top army spokesman said here Thursday.Addressing a media conference, Director General ISPR Major General Athar Abbas said a large number of militants have been killed during the operation in Buner as so far 14 militants have been reported killed.He said that four of the two explosive laden vehicles approaching towards troops were targeted and destroyed in Deer while the other two fled from the scene causing no damage to the troops. FC has established its Headquarter at Daggar, he informed.“People of Deer area have been fully backing the troops and have taken a sigh of relief where the situation is well in control,” he said.He said the troops in Buner re‑launched operation in the early hours on Thursday and regained the control of Balandari Pass and Ambala heights after...

Cnews RAWALPINDI: Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), General Tariq Majid, chaired the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee at Chaklala, Rawalpindi on Thursday, Mfarhanonline reported.Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Naval chief Admiral Noman Bashir, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, and other senior military officials from three services also attended the meeting.The participants of the meeting were given comprehensive briefings on the external and internal security situation with specific focus on the evolving internal challenges and the measures to improve domestic stability.Examining the prevailing situation in Malakand Division, the Committee expressed its satisfaction over the progress of operations in Lower Dir, Buner and adjoining areas and resolved to extend maximum support to the Government in stamping out any spill over of militancy in these areas with zero tolerance.The Committee also discussed the security situation in Balochistan and Ka...

It has been over a year now, since a power transition had taken place in Pakistan. The mandate was given to the democratic forces and the political parties projecting Musharraf’s agenda were rejected by the nation. Everyone was aware of the adverse challenges the country is facing and there were no quick solutions for the challenges. The parliamentary forces recognising the complexity of issues and understanding confrontation will do no good to the cause unanimously voted for the Prime Minister Gillani. It seemed like we were entering into politics of “Reconciliation”. But the government lost that support by withdrawing back from series of publicly made commitments. Pakistan is facing major challenges such as energy crisis, power shortage, subservient foreign policy, unemployment and internal threats like extremism in NWFP region. Restoring the judiciary was not a major issue as it required an executive order by PM for reinstating the judges; however it is a separate issue which can be...

Awaz Apni WASHINGTON: The United States wants to make sure Afghanistan does not become a safe haven for Al Qaeda and does not destabilise its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan, US President Barack Obama here said.In an interview, the US President said his administration would have clear objectives in Afghanistan and wanted to fix the drift that occurred there over the last two years. “What we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for Al Qaeda. What we can do is make sure that it is not destabilising neighbouring Pakistan,” he told a television.Obama also said he feared the detainees freed from Guantanamo would resume attacks on the United States.“Can we guarantee that they’re not going to try to participate in another attack? No,” Obama said.“But what I can guarantee is that if we don’t uphold our constitution and our values, over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organisations like Al Qaeda,” he said.

Awaz Apni WASHINGTON (CNewsworld.co.cc) -- Barack Obama delivered a sobering assessment of where America stands and a hopeful vision of what it can become during his inaugural address as the nation's 44th president."Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time," Obama told those gathered on the National Mall -- a crowd estimated at about 2 million -- and millions more watching on television and the Internet. "But know this, America -- they will be met," he said. Obama acknowledged the "nagging fear" of an imminent decline of the U.S. He firmly asserted that Americans were up to reversing the trends spawning that fear, whether they be social, economic or political. "Greatness is never a given. It must be earned," he said, further proclaiming that people who question the scale of U.S. ambitions "have forgotten what this country has alread...

Awaz Apni ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has warned that an escalation in Indo-Pak tension might harm the war on terror in the region, urging the United States to play a concrete role in solving the Kashmir dispute rationally. Talking to U.S. Vice President-elect Joseph Biden who called on him here Friday at President House, President Zardari linked the durable peace in the region with the rational solution of Kashmir dispute and urged the U.S. to play its role in this regard. The two leaders discussed various issues of bilateral interests in their meeting, also attended by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan's ambassador to United States of America Hussain Haqqani and US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson. President Zardari apprised the Vice President elect about Pakistan's commitment and the measures being taken by the government in the war against militancy, extremism and terrorism. He also apprised him...

Awaz Apni KABUL: Afghanistan, Officials say a strong earthquake has hit northeastern Afghanistan, a quake that rattled the capital Kabul for about a minute.The U.S. Geological Survey says Sunday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and was located in the northeastern province of Badakhshan in the Hindu Kush mountains. The area is often hit by earthquakes but is sparsely populated.A Badakhshan police official, Fazel Ahmad Naderi, says the quake was strong but noted that his cell phone still worked, meaning that towers had not been toppled. The quake hit about 12:50 a.m. local time and Naderi says he won't know about damage until daylight.The quake rattled buildings in Kabul, about 160 miles southwest of the epicenter.

The number of UK troops killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 126, after a Royal Marine from 45 Commando was killed by a blast in the Kajaki area of Helmand Province. Of all those killed, 27 died from accidents, illness, or non-combat injuries, according to the Ministry of Defence. Details of fatalities are in the table below. The entries are arranged by date, with the most recent at the top. NAME INCIDENT PLACE DATE Explosion Helmand Kajaki area 24/11/08 Dura, Krishna- bahadur Hostile: Explosion: Vehicle struck by an explosive device First fatal attack on a Warrior tank Helmand Musa Qala region 15/11/08 Dunstan, Neil Explosion: Vehicle struck by an explosive device Explosion while on joint patrol with Afghan forces Helmand Gamsir district 12/11/08 McKibben, Robert ...