December 2009
24 posts
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Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.
Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.
Western military sources...
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US forces 'kill 8 children' in night raid on... →
UNITED States troops have been accused of dragging innocent Afghan civilians from their beds and shooting them at close range, in a night raid that left ten people dead.
Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan... →
Afghan investigators today accused US-led troops of dragging ten civilians from their beds and shooting them dead during a night raid.
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Afghans turn to Taleban justice as insurgents set... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
When Habiba’s elderly husband was badly beaten in a village brawl there was only one place, she said, that she could turn to for help and justice.
Barefoot and weeping, the farmer’s wife, 50, trekked for four hours through Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains to meet the local Taleban commander.
“My feet were bleeding and I cried the whole way but I didn’t care...
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British troops enjoy turkeys and Christmas... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Christmas for British troops started before breakfast yesterday as the top UK General in Afghanistan, the Ambassador and the commander of Taskforce Helmand made a whistle-stop tour of almost half a dozen frontline positions.
“We all know everyone back home is having a drink and eating well,” said forces’ spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield. “But we also...
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Killing of Karzai boy exposed as family feud →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
WHEN Afghan assassins burst into a 12-year-old girl’s bedroom and shot her brother at close range, it barely warranted an investigation. (Read more…)
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Karzai forced to investigate family blood feud... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
When Afghan killers burst into a 12-year-old girl’s bedroom and shot her brother at close range it barely warranted an investigation.
Police said that no one reported the crime. Were it not that the pair were President Karzai’s cousins — and that the murder had all the hallmarks of a revenge killing connected to a Karzai dynasty feud — the shooting would in all...
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Hamid Karzai defends new Cabinet amid claims... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
President Karzai defended his new Cabinet nominations yesterday and said that he and his Government would be held accountable for corruption. He rejected claims that his choice of new ministers was a weak compromise that would change little.
More than six weeks after he was declared winner of August’s fraud-plagued elections, the Afghan leader announced his...
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Red Cross gain access to Taleban jail →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
IN A move described as a “breakthrough”, Red Cross officials have finally gained admission to a jail on the Taleban side of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited three Afghan policemen held by the Taleban in the north-west of the country last month, in the first independent visit to...
Red Cross makes first visit to Afghan prisoners... →
Staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have visited Afghan prisoners being held by the Taleban, signalling the first independent access to an insurgent jail in the eight years…
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Tough commander sends in DJs to spin for peace →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Surobi
Fighting men of the French Foreign Legion are led in Afghanistan by a philosopher-colonel who is using Afghan intermediaries to try to reason with the insurgents.
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Misfits and runaways join French Foreign Legion... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Surobi
When Corporal James walked in on his fiancée sleeping with another man he threw him through a second-storey window and beat him with a wrench until the police arrived.
The former US Navy signalman was facing seven years in jail for what was — by his own account — a frenzied assault. But on March 9, 2007, just three days before he was to stand trial, James, 22,...
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You can run, and you can hide, in France's élite... →
The Scotsman Jerome Starkey in Surobi
WHEN Corporal James walked in on his fiancée sleeping with another man, he threw him through a second-storey window and beat him with a car wrench until the police arrived.
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Kai Eide will not seek third year as head of UN’s... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
The embattled head of the UN mission in Afghanistan said yesterday that he would not seek a third year in office when his contract expired in March.
However, Kai Eide, who fell out with his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, over how to handle the rampant electoral fraud in August, insisted he was not resigning. “It’s a question of not renewing my contract,” he...
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Terrorist aide committed suicide say Afghan police →
The Scotsman Jerome Starkey in KabulA MAN accused of helping terrorists storm a UN guesthouse in Kabul has died in the custody of Afghanistan’s secret police. Intelligence officials said the man committed suicide by smashing his head through a window and leaping from a building. The country’s top spymaster has denied claims prisoners are tortured, but he admitted interrogations are...
$38bn Afghanistan fraud squad not doing enough, US... →
Leaked letter to President Obama criticises investigators looking into corruption on Afghan reconstruction projects US investigators looking into allegations of fraud in Afghan reconstruction…
Afghans may need western help up until 2029 →
THE West may have to bankroll Afghanistan’s security forces until 2029, its president warned yesterday, as US defence secretary Robert Gates promised not to abandon the war-ravaged country.
Gates warns US may have to bankroll Afghanistan... →
The West may have to bankroll Afghanistan’s security for 20 more years, President Karzai warned yesterday, as Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, promised not to abandon the war-ravaged country.
Obama’s withdrawal announcement will encourage the... →
The Taleban have never been able to defeat the Americans (or the British) militarily, but now they might not have to.
Pizza delivery and motorbike dealerships at town... →
US army logisticians face the gargantuan task of relocating a town the size of Whitstable to a mountainous country at war halfway around the world, in the middle of winter.
November 2009
19 posts
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UN chief in Afghanistan may quit after criticism... →
The Times James Bone in New York and Jerome Starkey in Kabul The top UN representative in Afghanistan is preparing to stand down as Western powers seek to revamp their Afghan policy, The Times has learnt.
Kai Eide has told confidants that he does not want to stay in his post much beyond this year. “Kai has been telling people he is not sure that he wants to take the job forward into another...