2 NATO personnel killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash: Military

International Herald Tribune  September 5, 2012

KABUL: A Nato helicopter crashed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two Nato personnel in an area south of Kabul that is largely under Taliban control, officials said.

The militia leading a decade-long insurgency against foreign troops claimed to have shot down two helicopters in Logar province, but Nato said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Three Civilian Contractors, Police Trainers, killed in Green on Blue Herat Afghanistan Unknown Number Wounded

US identifies contractors killed in Afghanistan

The victims were Benjamin Monsivais, a former US Border Patrol and retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent; Joseph Perez, a retired US Customs and Border Protection port director; and retired British customs officer David Chamberlain, DHS said in a statement.

Dave Chamberlain was killed in western Afghanistan alongside two American colleagues by a gunman who turned his weapon against the US military coalition, sources have said.

Mr Chamberlain, who was in his 40s and from Westgate-on-Sea, was working for the Border Management Task Force, which trains and mentors former Afghan customs officers and border policemen, when he and his colleagues were killed on Sunday, a source said.

He said another American national had been taken to hospital with severe injuries and that an Afghan interpreter had also been injured during the shooting.

A British civilian contractor was one of three people shot dead on Sunday by a person wearing an Afghan national security force uniform.

An Afghan police officer shot and killed three American civilians on Sunday at the West Zone Police Training Center in Herat province, CNN reports.  Huff Post

Afghan in uniform kills three NATO contractors

(AFP)–1 hour ago

KABUL — Three foreign civilian contractors working for NATO as trainers were killed Sunday when a man in an Afghan security force uniform turned his weapon against them, NATO and Afghan officials said.

The shooter was killed in the incident in the west of the country, the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement, without giving further details or naming the nationalities of the victims.

An Afghan official who requested anonymity said he knew two Americans had been killed in the attack and they had been shot by an Afghan man in a police uniform in a military training centre near the Herat airport.

HERAT (Reuters) –  July 22, 2012

A gunman wearing an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against foreign trainers working for NATO in the western province of Herat on Sunday, killing three, in a grim 24 hours for the coalition which also saw five NATO soldiers killed.

The latest rogue shooting by an Afghan in a police or army uniform happened at a regional training center in the relatively peaceful western province near Afghanistan’s border with Iran, which is normally patrolled by Italian forces.

“An individual wearing an Afghan National Security Force uniform turned his weapon against ISAF contracted civilian employees in western Afghanistan today, killing three,” a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition said, adding that an unknown number of other people had been wounded.

Veiled suicide bomber kills four French soldiers in Afghanistan

Reuters Kabul June 9, 2012

A suicide bomber dressed in a burqa blew himself up near a French patrol in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding five, one of the deadliest attacks on the French contingent in months, as the Taliban step up a spring offensive.

The attack occurred in the mountainous Kapisa province in the east of the country, an area mainly patrolled by a French force under NATO command.

“It was an unfortunate incident. There was a patrol of coalition soldiers in a small bazaar and they were attacked by a suicide bomber wearing a burqa,” Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Reuters.

French President Francois Hollande’s office in Paris confirmed that the soldiers involved in the attack were French.

A statement from his office said among the five wounded, three were in a serious condition, and Hollande would despatch defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to Afghanistan on Sunday.

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US-led coalition helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, 2 NATO service members killed

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — A Walla Walla soldier based out of North Carolina was killed Wednesday in an attack in Afghanistan, his family said. First Lt. Mathew “Mat” Fazzari was killed by enemy fire while flying in his first tour in Bagram.

AP at Fox News  June 6, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO: US-led coalition helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, two NATO service members killed.

U.S.-Pakistan Freeze Chokes Fallback Route in Afghanistan

Rod Nordland New York Times   June 3, 2012

SALANG PASS, Afghanistan — Nowhere is the impact of Pakistan’s ban on NATO truck traffic more visible than here at the top of the Hindu Kush, on one of the only alternative overland routes for supply convoys to reach Kabul and the rest of the country.

For 20 miles north and south of the old Soviet-built tunnel at Salang Pass, thousands of trucks are idled beside the road, waiting for a turn to get through its perilous, one-and-a-half-mile length.

This is the only passable route for heavy truck traffic bringing NATO supplies in from the Central Asian republics to the north, as they now must come.

There are other roads, but they are often single-lane dirt tracks through even higher mountain passes, or they are frequently subject to ambushes by insurgents and bandits. So a tunnel built to handle 1,000 vehicles a day, and until the Pakistani boycott against NATO in November handling 2,000, now tries — and often fails — to let 10,000 vehicles through, alternating northbound and southbound truck traffic every other day.

“It’s only a matter of time until there’s a catastrophe,” said Lt. Gen. Mohammad Rajab, the head of maintenance for the Salang Pass. “One hundred percent certain, there will be a disaster, and when there is, it’s not a disaster for Afghanistan alone, but for the whole international community that uses this road.” He said 90 percent of the traffic now was trailer and tanker trucks carrying NATO supplies.

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Afghan National Police Contract Requirements Were Not Clearly Defined but Contract Administration Improved

DODIG-2012-094    May 30, 2012

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPUTY COMMANDING GENERAL FOR SUPPORT,
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION TRAINING
MISSION-AGHANISTAN/COMBINED SECURITY
TRANSITION COMMAND-AFGHAN 1STAN
AUDITOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
COMMANDER, DEFENSE CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
AGENCY, AFGHANISTAN

SUBJECT: Afghan National Police Contract Requirements Were Not Clearly Defined but
Contract Administration Improved (Report No.  DODIG-2012-094)

We are providing this repoli for your information and use,   This is one in a series of reports on
the DoD Afghan National Police contract.     We considered management comments on a draft of
this report when preparing the final report. The management comments conformed to the
requirements of DoD Directive 7650.3; therefore, additional comments are not required

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Transporters demand seven-month dues before they resume NATO supplies

Pakistan Today  May  21, 2o12

KARACHI/PESHAWAR – Despite a near agreement on resumption of NATO supply, government of Pakistan will have to face the transportation issue before the opening of the routes as the transporter companies are demanding clearance of their dues of the past seven months

Thousands of NATO containers had been grounded to halt at numerous terminals of Karachi after the deadliest strike of NATO helicopters’ on Pakistani security check post killing at least 24 soldiers and injuring 13 others on Nov, 2011.
NATO trucks carrying fuel and other essential commodities to US-led forces to Afghanistan, remained stranded in Pakistan without overdue arrears of seven months. Resultantly, a dispute has emerged between the contractor companies and transporters on the issue of unpaid fares.
Pakistan Goods Transport Welfare Association (PGTWA) chairman Haji Khan Dil Niazi has expressed concerns over the situation and demanded for the release of dues.
“After the Salala incident, the government had asked contractor companies to lay off NATO goods at Karachi Port Trust and Port Qasim but the concerned authorities had not implemented the orders and despite the passage of seven months NATO trucks are still stranded in numerous terminals”, he added.
He said transporters had purchased trucks on monthly installments and now they are unable to deposit payments. He said the contractor companies have refused to give seven months arrears because they believe halt of NATO supply is not their fault.
PGTWA warned that the transporters will not resume NATO supply until the release of arrears.

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Pakistan agrees to reopen NATO supply route to Afghanistan, but for a fee

McClatchy   May 16, 2012

ISLAMABAD — The cost of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan is about to rise by $365 million annually under an agreement that would reopen a key NATO supply route through Pakistan that’s been closed for nearly six months.

The accord, which the Pakistani government announced late Tuesday, would revive the transport of vital supplies of food and equipment from Pakistani ports overland to land-locked Afghanistan. In return, the U.S.-led coalition will pay Pakistan a still-to-be-fixed fee of $1,500 to $1,800 for each truck carrying supplies, a tab that officials familiar with negotiations estimated would run nearly $1 million a day. The officials requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal details of the agreement.

Pakistan closed the land route to supplies headed to the coalition after American aircraft mistakenly attacked two Pakistani border outposts Nov. 26, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Since then, supplies for coalition forces in Afghanistan have passed through one of two routes that stretch from Afghanistan through central Asia and Siberia to Georgia on the Black Sea. One of the routes is nearly 6,000 miles long. The Pakistan route is less than 500 miles.

Officials in Washington said they didn’t know how much of the new cost the United States would bear. As the United States contributes more than two-thirds of the 130,000-strong international force, which operates under the command of NATO, it’s expected that Washington will pay most of the new fee.

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NATO/American Soldier killed in another green on blue Friday 5-11

Afghan Soldier kills US Colleague

New York Times  May 11, 012

KABUL, Afghanistan — An attacker wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire on coalition soldiers in remote eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing one NATO service member, the coalition said in a statement.

Afghan officials said the shooting took place in Kunar Province on the Pakistan border and that the attacker had escaped. Following NATO policy, the coalition statement did not disclose the nationality of the dead soldier

Africans in Afghanistan: When War Zones Become Lands of Opportunity

Thousands of skilled workers from Africa are willingly facing danger in remote areas of Afghanistan for high-paying jobs supporting coalition troops.

Think Africa Press  April 26, 2012

Beyond the primal beauty of the Southern Afghanistan desert lies the unknown for newcomers, military and civilians alike. Sand and rocks spread further across that vast sea of sparsely inhabited nothingness than the eye can see. For the troops stationed in the Helmand province, the unknown coupled with the deserted surroundings speak danger.

This infamous province – a Taliban stronghold and site of frequent fighting between insurgents and NATO troops during the now 10-year-old Afghan War – has been welcoming a new breed of visitors: former soldiers turned personnel security providers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, engineers, cashiers, information technology experts, mine specialists, or finance and administration officers. Many are Africans, who constitute the bulk of migrant workers in the area, along with civilian personnel from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia), and Asia (India, Philippines).

Outsourced wars, outsourced workers

The increased military presence of the US, EU and other countries involved in the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force after 2009 resulted in a major shift in roles. As the overextended military focused on taming a local insurgency, tasks that were once the exclusive domain of trained military personnel started to be offered to civilian skilled workers. Civilians contractors came to provide the workforces necessary to maintain and run dining facilities, Morale Welfare and Recreation centres, military berthing, and equipment repair and replenishment shops.

Ethiopian Henok Tessema, 33, now lodging in the civilian section of a Helmand Province military installation, made his way to Afghanistan following a routine online job search. Tessema had been juggling four part-time positions working as a financial administrator and accountant in Harar, and saw the vacancy at the Central Asia Development Group as an opportunity to consolidate four part-time positions into a single one.

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No arms conduit, green signal for non-lethal Nato supplies

DAWN April 13, 2012

ISLAMABAD: In a hard-won consensus, parliament recommended to the government on Thursday to no more let Pakistan serve as conduit of arms to Afghanistan, but gave a green signal for a resumption of non-lethal Nato supplies to the war-ravaged country.

And before the joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate unanimously adopted revised recommendations of a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani assured the house that his government would implement its landmark guidelines “in letter and spirit”.

“Pakistani territory including its airspace shall not be used for transportation of arms and ammunition to Afghanistan,” said the committee’s revised report, which dropped clauses of a previous report containing conditions for resuming transportation of supplies through Pakistani land routes for US forces, Nato and a Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, effectively leaving the matter to administrative decisions of the Pakistani government.

However, the committee reiterated its earlier call for an “immediate cessation” of US drone attacks aimed at suspected militant hideouts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, ignoring suggestions made from some lawmakers during a protracted debate to make such a halt a precondition for allowing Nato supplies

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Afghan in army uniform kills NATO soldiers

BY DION NISSENBAUM AND ZIAULHAQ SULTANI  WSJ Update

KABUL, Afghanistan—An Afghan soldier opened fire on Western forces in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing two British troops at the gate of their base in the capital of Helmand province, Afghan and coalition officials said.

Hours later, a man believed to be a member of the Afghan Local Police opened fire on coalition forces as they approached a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, killing one, according to coalition officials.

 

Al Jazeera March 26, 2012

A gunman in an Afghan army uniform has killed two NATO soldiers at a base in southern Afghanistan, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has said.

Monday’s late morning attack in the capital of southern Helmand province took place at the main entrance to a base
housing military and civilian reconstruction teams, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.

Afghan and Western security sources identified the two NATO soldiers as British troops. An Afghan soldier was also shot dead and one Briton was wounded in the attack according to a Western security source speaking on condition of anonymity to the AFP news agency.

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Afghans extends deadline on private security ban

Associated Press  March 18, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan government is giving companies extensions ranging from a few weeks to 90 days to change from private security guards to a government-run force, officials said Sunday.

The reprieve comes just three days before the March 21 deadline that the Afghan government had set for the majority of companies to start using government-provided security.

Private development companies have said the move is threatening billions in U.S. aid to the country because companies would delay projects or leave altogether because they didn’t feel safe using strictly local security over whose training and procedures they have little control.

President Hamid Karzai has railed for years against the large number of guns-for-hire in Afghanistan, saying private security companies skirt the law and risk becoming militias.

It’s been part of Karzai’s larger push for more control over the way his international allies operate in Afghanistan, as seen most recently in his call for NATO troops to pull back from village outposts and to hand over security responsibilities to Afghans more quickly.

Karzai said in 2009 that he wanted private security firms abolished and eventually set the March deadline for all companies except military or diplomatic facilities to use government guards. The ban would effectively end the wide-scale presence of foreigners acting as security contractors, an industry that boomed after the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

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12 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Afghan Crash, 2 Girls Killed on Ground

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Turkish military helicopter crashed into a house near the Afghan capital Friday, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and two girls on the ground, Turkish and Afghan officials said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the helicopter was one of two that took off on Friday.

“Unfortunately, the one in front came down for an unknown reason,” he said.

He said there were officers and noncommissioned officers on board.

VOA March 16, 2011

Turkey’s military says one of its helicopters has crashed into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 12 Turkish soldiers.

Authorities say the Sikorsky helicopter crashed into the house Friday in the Bagrami district.

The Turkish military said the aircraft belonged to the Turkish armed forces and was part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

In eastern Afghanistan, NATO says one of its service members died Thursday in a bomb blast.

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Afghan Public Protection Force Signs First Contracts

Defpro News   March 8, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan | The Afghan Public Protection Force signed its first contracts for security service today with three companies, marking an important milestone in the ongoing transition from Private Security Companies to the APPF.

The Minister of Interior, Bismullah Khan Mohammedi, presided over the ceremony and thanked APPF leadership, the NATO International Security Assistance Force, and the U.S. Agency for International Development for their support in executing the transition to APPF-led security services.

“From this day on, the responsibility for security services will transition from private security companies to the APPF, one after the other,” said Minister Mohammedi.

APPF Deputy Minister Jemal Abdul Naser Sidiqi signed three contracts with International Relief and Development (IRD), one with Louis Berger – Black and Veatch, and another with AFGS. IRD and Louis Berger – Black and Veatch are both USAID implementing partners performing development projects around Afghanistan.

“We welcome this security transition as a natural step for Afghanistan,” said Bill Haight, representing the Louis Berger – Black and Veatch joint venture.

In August 2010, President Hamid Karzai ordered private security companies to be disbanded, and the APPF was identified to take over security responsibility from these companies. The APPF is focusing now on taking over security responsibility for development projects, convoys and commercial businesses. By March 2013, all security for ISAF bases and construction sites is scheduled to transition to the APPF