September 2009
28 posts
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British general supports request for 40,000 new... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul Britain’s top general in Afghanistan backed calls for more troops, insisting it would be impossible to deny al-Qaeda their terrorist safe havens by “simply patrolling from the skies”. In an exclusive interview with The Times, Lieutenant-General Jim Dutton, said yesterday that he supported a formal request made by his boss, General Stanley McChrystal, the US...
Sep 27th
Five US soldiers die in wave of attacks across... →
Five American soldiers have been killed in a wave of attacks across southern Afghanistan.
Sep 25th
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Jerome Starkey: Broken promises and corruption are... →
The Scotsman Jerome Starkey in Kabul MORE troops might stop Nato failing in Afghanistan, but they certainly won’t guarantee victory. General Stanley McChrystal’s new counterinsurgency plan relies on seizing the initiative and reversing “insurgent momentum”, which has seen violence spread across parts of the country thought of as safe just a few months ago. (Read more)
Sep 21st
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Analysis: the flaws in General McChrystal's... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul More troops might stop Nato failing in Afghanistan, but they certainly won’t guarantee victory. General Stanley McChrystal’s new counterinsurgency plan relies on seizing the initiative and reversing “insurgent momentum,” which has seen violence spread across parts of the country thought of as safe just a few months ago. More troops will help him do that. But...
Sep 21st
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon backs Afghan... →
The Times James Bone in New York and Jerome Starkey in Kabul The UN Secretary-General has supported his top representative in Afghanistan who clashed with his American deputy over election fraud. Ban Ki Moon sided with Kai Eide, the Norwegian who runs the UN mission in Afghanistan, after a public disagreement with Peter Galbraith. “I would like to reiterate my continued full support and...
Sep 17th
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President Karzai claims victory as EU demands... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul The first full count of votes in Afghanistan’s increasingly bitter election gave President Karzai the outright majority required to secure him another term as fresh allegations were made that the poll was widely rigged. Only “a miracle” could now stop Mr Karzai from winning, Waheed Omar, a presidential spokesman, said after the Independent Election Commission...
Sep 16th
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One in three votes for President Karzi 'was... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul One in three votes cast for President Karzai in Afghanistan’s presidential elections were faked, with the official body overseeing the ballot condoning the massive fraud, EU election observers said today. Around 1.1 million votes in favour of Mr Karzai met Afghanistan’s electoral fraud criteria, as well as 300,000 cast for Abdullah Abdullah, Mr...
Sep 16th
Sep 15th
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Karzai may face run-off as election ballot recount... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul and James Bone in New York One in ten ballots from Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden presidential ballot are to be recounted after election officials spoke in damning terms yesterday of “state-sponsored” vote-rigging, police intimidation and phantom polling stations. The recount increases the chances of the election going into a second round if President Karzai’s lead...
Sep 15th
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UN chief Peter Galbraith is removed in Afghanistan... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul, James Bone in New York and Tom Coghlan America’s top diplomat at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has been ordered out of the country after a row with his boss over how to respond to last month’s fraud-riddled presidential elections, it has been alleged. The alleged quarrel is threatening to spark a mutiny within the UN mission. At least a dozen...
Sep 14th
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Sep 13th
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Phantom females appear as officials face poll... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul Women’s votes are the focus of an investigation in Afghanistan after it emerged that thousands of ballots were cast at women-only polling stations in a province with only one female election worker. Female turnout across the most dangerous and conservative parts of the country appeared suspiciously high, officials have told The Times. The investigation...
Sep 13th
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1m votes at stake, says challenger of President →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul AFGHANISTAN’S opposition leader Dr Abdullah Abdullah has warned he won’t be able to stop violent protests if his supporters think the election result is stolen. His remarks – made as as it emerged almost one in five votes was cast illegally – will heighten fears the country could be engulfed by ethnic violence if efforts to eliminate the...
Sep 13th
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Afghan challenger warns of unrest over poll fraud →
Sunday Times By Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Christina Lamb in Washington Afghanistan’s opposition leader Dr Abdullah Abdullah warned yesterday that he might not be able to restrain angry supporters from taking to the streets as it emerged that more than one in five votes cast in last month’s election were fraudulent. “I have urged them strongly not to do that,” he told The Sunday Times as his...
Sep 12th
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Stephen Farrell: Rescuing Robohack →
Sunday Times By Jon Swain Additional reporting: Christina Lamb in Washington, Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Tim Ripley ONE minute there was total silence in the darkness. Then, faint at first, swelling louder, came the unmistakable thwack of rotorblades as the helicopters approached their target. The room in northern Afghanistan where the two hostages were held reverberated with the noise. The...
Sep 12th
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World Agenda: The Afghanistan election fisaco was... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul As Afghanistan’s elections descend daily into chaos amid allegations of overwhelming fraud, police intimidation, ballot-stuffing and phantom polling stations, a growing number of diplomats are admitting that the fiasco was entirely predictable. The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) ordered a partial recount and annulled thousands of ballots from 83 polling...
Sep 11th
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Warlord's warning raises fear of violence →
The Times Jerome Starkey and James Hider in Kabul One of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords has defended the popular right to protest against the presidential election results, raising fears that the country could be engulfed by violence if supporters of the losing candidates reject the poll as being rigged. General Atta Mohammad Nur, who broke ranks with the Government to support President...
Sep 10th
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Taleban fighters told hostage journalist Stephen... →
The Times James Hider and Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Michael Evans, Defence Editor Taleban fighters who abducted the British journalist Stephen Farrell told him they expected him to be freed within two weeks, shortly before British special forces raided the compound where he was being held. One commando and Mr Farrell’s translator were killed in the night-time rescue, along with scores of...
Sep 10th
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Jerome Starkey: The hardest part of the job →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul JOURNALISTS have to work in dangerous places, and there’s no shortage of those in Afghanistan. But until recently, most of the country was still safe enough to travel in. The hardest part of the job is knowing where’s safe and where’s not, and weighing the risks of an excursion against the potential benefits of the story. We could...
Sep 9th
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Journalist tells of bloody battle as British... →
The Times James Hider and Jerome Starkey in Kabul The thump-thump of helicopters sounded shortly after midnight as the two journalists prepared to spend another night held captive, surrounded by Taleban fighters. For Stephen Farrell of The New York Times, a former Middle East correspondent for The Times, delivery was at hand. For Sultan Munadi, his Afghan translator, death was just minutes...
Sep 9th
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Gordon Brown ordered mission to free kidnapped... →
The Times Michael Evans, Jerome Starkey and James Hider in Kabul Gordon Brown approved a mission to rescue the British journalist Stephen Farrell in which a member of the Special Forces was killed this morning, The Times has learnt. Plans for the raid, in which Farrell’s Afghan interpreter, a civilian and dozens of Taleban fighters were also killed, were drawn up by British Special Forces...
Sep 9th
Suicide car bomb kills four outside Nato airbase... →
A suicide car bomb killed four people and wounded five others at the gates of the Nato airbase in Kabul this morning, just hours after US troops killed two insurgents firing rockets at an American…
Sep 8th
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Alcohol banned at US base in Afghanistan after... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul After a Nato airstrike killed as many as 125 people last week, General Stanley McChrystal was keen to get the situation under control — fast. When he tried to contact his underlings to find out what had happened, however, he found, to his fury, that many of them were either drunk or too hungover to respond. Complaining in his daily Commander’s Update that too...
Sep 7th
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US troops accused of carrying out armed raid on... →
The Times Jerome Starkey US troops stormed a hospital and tied up medical staff, in breach of international law, a Swedish charity has claimed. Soldiers from the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division made an armed raid last Wednesday on the clinic, in eastern Afghanistan, to search for insurgents, Anders Fänge, the director of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, said. “This is a clear violation of...
Sep 7th
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Karzai 'stealing in daylight' as doubtful votes... →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul ELECTION officials have scrapped fewer than 5 per cent of Afghanistan’s suspect votes, despite more than 2,600 reports of “state-sponsored” fraud, as new results published yesterday pushed president Hamid Karzai to a 17-point lead. The head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), appointed by Mr Karzai, said just 447 polling...
Sep 6th
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Karzai takes 100% of votes in opposition... →
Sunday Times By Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Jon Swain In the southern Afghan district of Shorabak, the tribesmen gathered shortly before last month’s presidential election to discuss which candidate they would back. After a debate they chose to endorse Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai’s leading opponent. The tribal leaders prepared to deliver a landslide for Abdullah – but it never...
Sep 5th
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Threat to Afghan presidential ballot →
The Independent By Jerome Starkey in Kabul A power struggle at the top of Afghanistan’s election commission is threatening to sway the outcome of the country’s presidential ballot, as officials argue over how many votes to discard because of fraud. The head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), who was appointed by President Hamid Karzai, is pressuring his staff to include...
Sep 3rd
Soldiers fire 'road rage' rocket at Nato →
Evening Standard By Jerome Starkey in Kabul Afghan troops fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Nato convoy in an apparent “road rage” incident on Kabul’s busiest highway, it was revealed today. Uniformed troops from Afghanistan’s secret police attacked at an impromptu Nato checkpoint, close to Camp Souter - the main British base in the capital. The blast came hours...
Sep 1st