January 2010
23 posts
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Shinwari elders vow to support Hamid Karzai in... →
The Tmes Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Two months ago Haji Akhtar Muhammad Shinwari stood on the edge of his village in eastern Afghanistan and willed the American troops to leave. “People here hate them,” he said.
Now, it seems that his fellow tribesmen have had a change of heart. This week Shinwari elders announced that they had vowed to support President Karzai’s Government in exchange for American...
$2m – what West will pay one tribe to give Karzai... →
TWO months ago, Haji Akhtar Mohammed Shinwari stood on the edge of his village in eastern Afghanistan and willed US troops to leave. “People hate them here,” he said.
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Justice is a sham, say 900 striking Afghan defence... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Ringed with razor wire and high fences, Afghanistan’s counter narcotics court is supposed to be a beacon of incorruptible justice in a country, and a court system, awash with corruption.
The high-security compound on the outskirts of Kabul was designed with British and American help to convict Afghanistan’s most wanted drug lords — the untouchables at...
Lawyers boycott 'sham' drugs court →
RINGED with razor wire and high fences, Afghanistan’s counter-narcotics court is supposed to a beacon of incorruptible justice in a country, and court system, awash with bribes.
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Low-profile diplomat to take over 'mistrusted' UN... →
The Times James Bone in New York, Jerome Starkey in Kabul
The highest UN role in Afghanistan is to be handed to a low-profile career diplomat,The Times has learnt, after the incumbent openly clashed with his deputy over election fraud.
At tomorrow’s Afghanistan conference in London, the UN Secretary-General will announce that Staffan de Mistura, a dual Swedish-Italian national, is to replace Kai...
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Nato aid effort puts lives at risk in Afghanistan,... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Nato’s billion-dollar aid budget is putting lives at risk and undermining the long-term prospects for stability in Afghanistan, according to a damning report.
The warning by eight international charities comes on the eve of an international conference in London, where donors are expected to pledge hundreds of millions of dollars for development and...
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British troops face five more years in Helmand →
The Times Tom Coghlan, Defence Correspondent, and Jerome Starkey in Kabul
British troops will have to fight the Taleban for another five years, according to a leaked draft of the communiqué that will conclude the London conference on Afghanistan this week.
Participating governments are also expected to agree to bribes totalling hundreds of millions of pounds which will be paid to leading...
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Blow to Karzai as donors refuse to finance... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Afghan officials lost an embarrassing stand-off with the international community yesterday, on the eve of an international conference, as donors refused to pay for more elections, citing the Government’s failure to reform.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which ran August’s fraud-ridden presidential polls, was forced to postpone parliamentary ballots...
Suicide bombers blitz Kabul →
KABUL’S streets were all but abandoned yesterday. Shops and banks closed early and traders fled their stalls as smoke from a four-hour battle in the heart of the capital billowed across the city.
Wave of suicide bombers storms Kabul →
A massive gun battle erupted in Kabul this morning as suicide squads stormed a series of government buildings close to the presidential palace.
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Winning confidence of Afghans who fear the Taleban... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Babaji
The Taleban may not be strong enough to hoist their flag over central Helmand but they can still raise a radio mast. There are two of them in Babaji.
Just a mile and a half south of the nearest British Army outpost, the slender antennas on top of a muddy mound are rare landmarks in a battle for influence that lacks any front lines.
Made from bamboo canes...
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Battle in the 'bubble' for Afghan hearts and minds →
THE Taleban may not be strong enough to hoist their flag over central Helmand, but they can still raise a radio mast. There are two of them in Babaji.
Afghanistan's parliament examines Karzai's new... →
Afghanistan’s parliament is due to start grilling a new set of would-be cabinet ministers tomorrow after MPs rejected more than two-thirds of President Karzai’s first-choice candidates two weeks ago.
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British troops set to hand frontline Afghanistan... →
The Times Jerome Starkey and James Harding in Kabul
Three and a half years after British troops first arrived in Helmand the towns that line its infamous “green zone” have become household names — for all the wrong reasons.
On June 11, 2006, the town of Sangin claimed its first British life when Captain Jim Philippson was shot trying to rescue an injured comrade. Two months later Musa Qala...
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An eager young recruit, a father to be and man in... →
The Times Giles Whittell in Washington and Jerome Starkey in Kabul
One was the station chief, a mother of three with an encyclopaedic knowledge of al-Qaeda’s leadership gained in the course of eight years as one of the CIA’s top specialists in the field.
Another, also a woman, wrote a college thesis on religion and economics and accepted her Afghan assignment even though her father...
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Ignorant CIA should copy Raj agents to avoid... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
The job description reads like a modern-day blend of Shackleton and the Raj: US officials are looking for “the best, most extroverted and hungriest analysts” to revolutionise the way they foster intelligence on Afghanistan’s volatile frontlines.
In a scathing attack on Nato’s failures, the top US intelligence officer in Afghanistan is demanding urgent changes to...
CIA militia guarding base targeted in suicide... →
A COVERT CIA militia was guarding the base in eastern Afghanistan where seven United States agents – reportedly including the base chief – and a Jordanian spy were killed last week in a suicide…
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UN envoy warns of power vacuum after Afghan... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
President Karzai suffered a humiliating blow to his authority yesterday after parliament rejected two-thirds of his nominees for a new cabinet, including the only woman and a warlord accused of human rights abuses.
The head of the United Nations in Kabul warned that Afghanistan risked floundering “without a functioning government”, after just seven of the...
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December 2009
24 posts
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Hamid Karzai demands US hand over gunmen who... →
The Times Jerome Starkey in Kabul
President Karzai’s security chiefs have demanded that America should hand over the gunmen behind a night raid in eastern Afghanistan that government investigators and the United Nations say killed at least eight schoolchildren.
It was the Afghan Government’s most aggressive response yet to an alleged attack on civilians. But the US insisted that its men had come...
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Suicide attack kills 7 CIA staff in bloody end to... →
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
A SUICIDE bomber disguised as an Afghan soldier killed eight American civilians inside a base used by the CIA and wounded at least six others, in an audacious attack that marked a bloody end to 2009.
At least 23 people were killed in four separate attacks in the final hours of a year that saw death tolls for the largest troop contributors more than double....