Bomb kills 4 US soldiers, as Afghan clashes spike in border area with new troops

U.S. plan would more than double Afghan forces
By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: March 19, 2009
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/19/asia/afghan.php


WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and his advisers have decided to expand significantly Afghanistan's security forces in the hope that a much larger professional army and national police force could fill a void left by the central government and do more to promote stability in the country, according to senior administration and Pentagon officials.

A plan awaiting final approval by the president would set a goal of about 400,000 troops and national police officers, more than twice the forces' current size, and more than three times the size that American officials believed would be adequate for Afghanistan in 2002, when the Taliban and Al Qaeda appeared to have been routed.

The officials said Mr. Obama was expected to approve a version of the plan in coming days as part of a broader Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy. But even members of Mr. Obama's national security team appeared taken aback by the cost projections of the program, which range from $10 billion to $20 billion over the next six or seven years.

By comparison, the annual budget for the entire Afghan government, which is largely provided by the United States and other international donors, is about $1.1 billion, which means the annual price of the program would be about twice the cost of operating the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Those figures include only the cost of training and establishing the forces, and officials are still trying to determine what the cost would be to sustain the security forces over the long term.

Administration officials also express concerns that an expanded Afghan Army could rival the corruption-plagued presidency of Mr. Karzai. The American commanders who have recommended the increase argued that any risk of creating a more powerful Afghan Army was outweighed by the greater risks posed by insurgent violence that could threaten the central government if left unchecked.

At present, the army fields more than 90,000 troops, and the Afghan National Police numbers about 80,000 officers. The relatively small size of the security forces has frustrated Afghan officials and American commanders who wanted to turn security over to legitimate Afghan security forces, and not local warlords, at a faster pace.

After resisting the idea for several years, the Bush administration last summer approved an increase that authorized the army to grow to 134,000 over the next three years, in a program that would cost about $12 billion.

The resistance had been a holdover from the early months after the rout of Taliban and Qaeda fighters in 2001, when it appeared that there was little domestic or external threat that required a larger security force.

The new proposal would authorize a doubling of the army, after the increase approved last summer, to about 260,000 soldiers. In addition, it would increase the number of police officers, commandos and border guards to bring the total size of the security forces to about 400,000. The officials who described the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss it publicly in advance of final approval by Mr. Obama.

Some European countries have proposed the creation of an Afghan National Army Trust Fund, which would seek donations from oil kingdoms along the Gulf and other countries to pay for Afghanistan's security forces.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, which would have to approve new American spending, endorsed the goal of expanding Afghan security forces, and urged commanders to place Afghans on the front lines to block the border with Pakistan to insurgents and terrorists.

"The cost is relatively small compared to the cost of not doing it — of having Afghanistan either disintegrate, or fall into the hands of the Taliban, or look as though we are dominating it," Mr. Levin said in an interview late Tuesday.

Administration officials and military experts cited recent public opinion polls in Afghanistan showing that the Afghan Army had eclipsed the respect given the central government, which has had difficulty exerting legitimacy or control much beyond the capital.

"In the estimation of almost all outside observers, the Ministry of Defense and the Afghan National Army are two of the most highly functional and capable institutions in the country," said Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, who is retired and commanded American and coalition forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

General Barno, currently the director of Near East and South Asian security studies at National Defense University, dismissed concerns that the army or the Ministry of Defense would challenge the authority of elected officials in Kabul.

"They are respectful of civil governance," he said. "If the government of Afghanistan is going to effectively extend security and the rule of law, it has to have more army boots on the ground and police shoes on the ground."

Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the Obama administration now appeared "willing to accept risks and accept downsides it might not otherwise" have considered if the security situation had not deteriorated.

Military analysts cite other models in the Islamic world, like Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, where the United States supports democratically elected civilian governments but raises no objection to the heavy influence wielded by military forces that remain at least as powerful as those governments.

Martin Strmecki, a member of the Defense Science Board and a former top Pentagon adviser on Afghanistan, told a Senate committee last month that the Afghan Army should increase to 250,000 soldiers and the national police force should add more than 100,000 officers. Mr. Strmecki said that only when Afghan security forces reached those numbers would they achieve "the level necessary for success in counterinsurgency."

Military officers also see an added benefit to expanding Afghanistan's security forces, if its growing rosters can offer jobs to unemployed young men who now take up arms for the insurgency for money, and not ideology.

"We can try and outbid the Taliban for 'day workers' who are laying I.E.D.'s and do not care about politics," Mr. Biddle said, referring to improvised explosive devices. "But if we don't control that area, the Taliban can come in and cut off the hands of anybody who is taking money from us."

David E. Sanger contributed reporting.

C.I.A. director visits region

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, is traveling to India and Pakistan this week to discuss the investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks, improved information-sharing to combat violent extremists and other intelligence issues, according to an American official, The Associated Press reported from New Delhi.

Making his first overseas trip as C.I.A. director, Mr. Panetta was in India on Wednesday and was expected to travel to Pakistan and possibly another country in the following days, the official said.





Bomb kills 4 US soldiers, as Afghan clashes spike in border area with new troops
By FISNIK ABRASHI
Copyright 2009 Associated Press
12:55 PM CDT, March 15, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-afghanistan,0,4315489.story


KABUL (AP) — A roadside bomb killed four American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday — new evidence of rising violence in a region where U.S. officials say clashes and attacks have doubled since early last year.

The spike in violence along the border is an early indication that roadside bombs and other ambushes are likely to surge as thousands of new U.S. forces arrive in Afghanistan this year.

Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for the NATO-led force here, confirmed that a roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan. A U.S. statement indicated the troops were based in Jalalabad.

A suicide bomber, meanwhile, attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul on Sunday but instead killed two passers-by — among 18 people killed Sunday, officials said.

Clashes and attacks in the eastern province of Kunar surged 131 percent in January and February from the same period in 2008, said Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, a U.S. spokeswoman.

Bomb and gunfire attacks are up in part because 700 10th Mountain Division soldiers were deployed to Kunar in early January, putting more soldiers in harm's way.

Kunar's rise in violence is likely indicative of what the 17,000 U.S. troops that President Barack Obama has ordered to Afghanistan will face later this year. Hoping to reverse Taliban gains, the troops will move into areas of the country where few other foreign or Afghan soldiers have held a long-term presence.

Many of those areas are likely to have conditions similar to Kunar, where "the enemy that has a traditional hold in the area are deeply entrenched with the population," Nielson-Green said.

"The population is also very xenophobic and are largely 'fence sitters,'" Afghans who have not pledged allegiance to either the government or the militants, she said.

The 10th Mountain troops moved into Kunar, near the porous Pakistan border, while the Pakistani military was conducting a six-month offensive against militants in its Bajur tribal area, which has been an important safe-haven for insurgents.

Bajur is a rumored hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and Pakistan's offensive there earned praise from American officials concerned that militants were using the area as a base from which to plan attacks in Afghanistan.

Last week, Pakistan signed a peace deal with the Mamund tribe after claiming victory in its fight. The tribe controls a large swath of Bajur and its ranks have yielded many Taliban leaders. The tribe, whose members straddle the Afghan-Pakistan border, has agreed to stop sheltering foreign fighters and hand over local Taliban leaders there.

But while Pakistan has seen success in Bajur, violence has more than doubled in Kunar across the border in Afghanistan.

Nielson-Green acknowledged that violence is rising in part because more fighters crossed the border to escape Pakistan's military offensive. But the main reason, she said, was the influx of U.S. troops.

Many of the recent attacks, she said, have been relatively ineffective mortar, rocket or machine gun assaults.

While Pakistan's operation in Bajur was successful, militants still "enjoy safe haven and support," in other tribal areas in Pakistan, Nielson-Green said.

Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the Kunar provincial police chief, said he is concerned that ongoing peace talks between Pakistani Taliban and Pakistan's government may be used by the militants as a chance to cross the border and increase their attacks in Afghanistan.

The Taliban regularly use roadside bombs against Afghan and foreign troops. Last year the number of such attacks rose by 30 percent, according to NATO figures.

In the latest Afghan violence, a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed four American troops Sunday, NATO said. The U.S. Central Command confirmed that one of the four was a U.S. airman assigned to the 755th Air Expeditionary Group.

In another bomb attack, the mayor of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan survived a roadside bomb blast Sunday that killed a civilian and wounded two others, said Najibullah Khan, a police spokesman.

In the capital, a suicide bomber on foot targeted a NATO patrol but killed two Afghan civilians, said Kabul police chief Lt. Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahman.

The bomber also wounded 14 civilians, the Interior Ministry said. No foreign troops were injured.

Separately, U.S. coalition and Afghan special forces conducting a raid in Kandahar's Maywand district killed five militants, a U.S. statement said.

In eastern Afghanistan, a French soldier and five Afghan troops were killed during a clash with militants in Kapisa province, officials said.

Associated Press reporters Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.