Afghan warlord Hekmatyar vows to kill as many Nato troops as possible before the 2014 withdrawal.

Afghan warlord Hekmatyar vows to kill as many Nato troops as possible before the 2014 withdrawal.(Tribune).LONDON: Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar re-emphasised the lack of linkage between his group and the Pakistani Taliban, whom he condemned for blocking girls’ schooling.
Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and current leader Afghanistan’s second largest militant group, the Hezb-i-Islami, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in an interview that fresh attacks would send a warning to “others waiting to invade Afghanistan”.
The warlord also vowed to kill as many Western soldiers as possible before North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) combat forces withdraw from the country in 2014.
“Before the withdrawal of invading forces, the Mujahideen would like to witness with their own eyes a scene that will teach the invaders to never think of coming this way again,” he said in a video obtained by the Telegraph in response to questions asked through an intermediary.
Hekmatyar, designated a global terrorist by the United States, warned that Afghanistan could collapse into bloody civil unrest after Nato troops withdraw, 13 years after the US-led invasion.
“The fact is that the government has failed,” said the former premier, who is shown in the video with a white beard and wearing a black turban.
“We might have a dreadful situation after 2014 which no one could have anticipated.”
Nato is aiming to train 350,000 Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014 to take over responsibility for security.
But trust between the two sides has been seriously undermined by “insider” attacks by Afghan forces that killed more than 60 foreign troops in 2012, and the transition process has been beset by other problems including desertions.
Hekmatyar indicated that Hezb-i-Islami, notorious for its bloody siege of Kabul in the 1990s, has softened some of its hardline Islamist policies such as banning women from education.
He condemned the Pakistani Taliban’s blocking of girls’ schooling, which was thrown into the spotlight in October by its attempted murder of 15-year-old education campaigner Malala Yousafzai on her schoolbus.
He insisted that Hezb-i-Islami “consider education is as necessary for girls as it is for boys”, though they object to combined male and female classes.
The former premier also blasted Britain’s Prince Harry, who has been serving in Afghanistan since September as an Apache helicopter pilot, as a “jackal” who was “drunk” while on duty.
“The British prince comes to Afghanistan to kill innocent Afghans while he is drunk,” Hekmatyar told the Telegraph.
Britain’s ministry of defence said it was “simply absurd” to suggest that the third-in-line to the throne or any other member of the British armed forces was conducting operations under the influence of alcohol.
“The consumption of alcohol by UK military personnel is not permitted under any circumstances while deployed in Afghanistan,” a ministry spokesman said.Hmmmm.....“We might have a dreadful situation after 2014 which no one could have anticipated.” What a load of BS!Read the full story here.

Afghan government: "Female Afghan police attacker who shot NATO civilian adviser is Iranian."

Afghan government: "Female Afghan police attacker who shot NATO civilian adviser is Iranian."(HD).The female Afghan police officer who shot dead a NATO adviser in Kabul is an Iranian national who wanted to kill senior security members, officials said Tuesday. On Monday an Afghan police officer opened fire on a NATO civilian adviser inside police headquarters, killing the adviser who sources said was American. It was the first "insider" attack by a woman in a series of such attacks, which have seriously undermined trust between NATO forces and their Afghan allies in the fight against hardline Islamist Taliban insurgents.
The officer, named only as Nargis, was later arrested and prosecuted by the police. "Our investigation shows that Nargis is an Iranian national. After her marriage with an Afghan she managed to obtain an Afghan ID illegally and joined the police," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi told reporters in Kabul.
"Our investigation also shows she was suffering from a psychological instability and our understanding from the past 24-hours investigation is that she is not associated with any armed opposition groups," he said. Mohammad Zaher, head of the criminal investigation department of Kabul, said Nargis had married an Afghan man 10 years ago and joined the police five years later.
"In her confession she has said that she was tired of life and wanted to kill either the governor, the CID chief or the police chief," Zaher said. "But after she failed to get into the police HQ, she shot a foreign national she saw near the canteen," he said. NATO is aiming to train 350,000 Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014 as it transfers all security responsibilities to President Hamid Karzai's local forces. Read the full story here.

Afghan policewoman shoots dead foreign NATO adviser.

Afghan policewoman shoots dead foreign NATO adviser.(TE).KABUL: A female Afghan police officer shot dead a foreign civilian adviser inside Kabul police headquarters on Monday, officials said, in the first “insider” attack to be carried out by a woman.
It was the latest in a series of such attacks that have seriously undermined trust between NATO forces and their Afghan allies in the fight against hardline Islamist Taliban insurgents.
A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the victim, a civilian adviser, died of his wounds and the female police officer who shot him had been detained.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seidiqqi confirmed the incident and said an investigation was under way, while a senior security official speaking to AFP anonymously said the victim was a male adviser from NATO.
A police officer at the scene who refused to give his name told AFP the shooting happened in the courtyard of the heavily-guarded headquarters in central Kabul.
“I heard gunshots and than I saw the shooter — a woman wearing police uniform — running and firing into the air with her pistol,” the officer said.
“I ran after her, jumped on her and put my gun to her head and told her not to move. She gave up and I arrested her and I took her weapon.”
NATO is aiming to train 350,000 Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014 as it transfers all security responsibilities to President Hamid Karzai’s local forces.
The Afghan conflict has seen a surge in insider attacks this year, with more than 50 ISAF troops killed by their colleagues in the Afghan army or police, though most have happened on military bases and not in the capital.
NATO says about a quarter of insider attacks are caused by Taliban infiltrators, but the rest stem from personal animosities and cultural differences between Western troops and their Afghan allies.Read the full story here.

Related:  'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan.

Outrageous!… Obama Admin Blames “Friendly Fire” Attacks in Afghanistan on US Troops behavior.

Outrageous!… Obama Admin Blames “Friendly Fire” Attacks in Afghanistan on US Troops behavior.(GWP).This is unbelievable. Don’t look now but the Obama Administration blamed the numerous “friendly fire” attacks in Afghanistan this year on US troops.
If the US troops were just more respectful the Afghans would not be killing them. 
The New York Post reported, via Pat Dollard:
Afghan security forces, our supposed allies, are slaughtering American troops. Thirty-three soldiers have been killed by “green on blue” attacks this year alone. The situation is so bad that the training of Afghan forces has been temporarily suspended.
How has the Pentagon responded? By blaming our troops.
Top officials believe culturally offensive behavior is the motivation behind the killings, so it’s stepped up Islamic sensitivity training for our troops. If you don’t want to be shot in the back by your Afghan training partners, the Pentagon advises, don’t offend their religious sensibilities.
Don’t kick your feet up on a table, for instance, and never ask to see a picture of their wives and kids. “There’s a percentage [of attacks] which are cultural affronts,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a recent interview.
Dempsey echoes the concerns of Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the Afghan National Army’s chief of staff, who earlier this month argued both sides need to do more to “teach” foreign troops Islamic traditions and values to reduce the chance of violent reactions to cultural slights. “It is our duty to teach this to them. Our indifference about these issues causes the incident,” he said. What an ignorant and insensitive statement. Tell this to the parents of one of our brave heroes.Read the full story here.

Related :  The phenomenon of unpredictable killings by the Acehnese came to be known as Atjèh-moord "Acehnese murder."

2,000th U.S. troop death...and counting - Afghan soldier kills two Americans in new 'insider attack'.

2,000th U.S. troop death...and counting - Afghan soldier kills two Americans in new 'insider attack' .(DM).An Afghan soldier turned his gun on American troops at a checkpoint in the country's east, in a shooting that marked both the continuance of a disturbing trend of insider attacks and the 2,000th U.S. troop death in the long-running war, officials said today. The string of insider attacks is one of the greatest threats to NATO's mission in the country, endangering a partnership key to training up Afghan security forces and withdrawing international troops. Saturday's shooting took place at an Afghan army checkpoint just outside a joint U.S.-Afghan base in Wardak province, said Shahidullah Shahid, a provincial government spokesman. 'Initial reports indicate that a misunderstanding happened between Afghan army soldiers and American soldiers,' Shahid said. At least two fellow members of Afghanistan's army were also among the dead. He said investigators had been sent to the site to try to figure out what happened. An Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity said three Afghan soldiers were killed in the clash. It was not clear if the assailant was among the dead. The attack happened about 5pm in Sayd Abad district, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen Zahir Azimi said in an emailed statement. He did not provide further details, saying he would wait for a report from investigators. NATO forces announced the assault early Sunday morning, saying only that it was 'suspected insider attack' and that a NATO service member and civilian contractor were killed. One U.S. official confirmed that the service member killed was American, while another confirmed that the civilian was also American. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the nationality of the dead had not yet been formally announced. Afghan soldiers and policemen - or militants in their uniforms - have gunned down more than 50 foreign troops so far this year, eroding the trust between coalition forces and their Afghan partners An equal number of Afghan policemen and soldiers also died in these attacks, giving them reason as well to be suspicious of possible infiltrators within their ranks.Hmmmm......."Misunderstanding?".....try reading this.The phenomenon of unpredictable killings by the Acehnese came to be known as Atjèh-moord "Acehnese murder."Read the full story here.

'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan.

'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan.(MiddleEastForum).By Mark Durie. FrontPageMagazine.com. August 24, 2012.

In the past two weeks at least nine Americans have been killed by their Afghan allies in what is known to as "insider killings." Members of the Afghan army, having been trained and armed by NATO forces, are turning their weapons in increasing numbers against their foreign allies, killing at least 40 NATO troops this year so far.
These killings are demoralizing, not only for the troops, but also for the folks back home. They make people war-weary. Mrs. Marina Buckley, the mother of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley who was killed by one of his Afghan allies just before he was due to return home, spoke for many when she said: "Our forces shouldn't be there. It should be over. It's done. No more."
These killings have been blamed on foreign spies and Taliban infiltrators, but such theories have been discounted by military investigators, who could only link one in ten killings to Taliban infiltration.
The generals seem to be mystified, for Colonel Lapan, spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff commented, "we don't know what's causing them, and we're looking at everything."
They could also look at Islam, and at history.
Let us wind the clock back 120 years to Aceh, today part of Indonesia. In 1892 the sultanate of Aceh, a staunchly Islamic region, had been under Dutch military occupation for twice as many years as the Americans have been in Afghanistan. When the Dutch first stormed the Acehnese capital Kutaraja (now Banda Aceh) in 1871 they naively assumed that control of the rest of the countryside would quickly follow. Instead they became entangled in a conflict which lasted for decades.
A poignant legacy of the Aceh-Dutch war is a military cemetery in Banda Aceh, reputed to be the largest graveyard of Dutch troops outside Holland.
As the decades passed, the Acehnese waged a tenacious insurgency from jungle hideouts, and Dutch leaders cycled through various theories to explain their military failures. One theory was that the passing of time would see a steady reduction in hostilities. Time did pass, and this theory ended up in the trash. Another theory was that a "concentration line" of forts could effect a safe haven around the capital to guarantee security, but the attacks continued.
A particularly demoralizing aspect of the conflict was a pattern of Acehnese allies turning against and killing Dutch soldiers. Teuku Umar was an early leader of the Acehnese resistance who became an ally of the Dutch, as a result of which he was rewarded with weapons, money and command of hundreds of troops. Then he turned these weapons and troops against his supposed "allies," inflicting heavy casualties. The Dutch regarded this as an odious betrayal, yet today the name of Teuku Umar is recognized as one of Indonesia's greatest heroes and boulevards all over the country are named after him.
The problem of deceit and betrayal was also a rank-and-file problem. There was no shortage of would-be Acehnese martyrs who, for the sake of gaining a victim, were willing to feign friendship with the Dutch, before drawing their knives against them. The phenomenon of unpredictable killings by the Acehnese came to be known as Atjèh-moord "Acehnese murder."
The failure of Dutch military policy in Aceh – and the resulting drain of Dutch blood and treasure – caused a host of political difficulties for governments back in Holland. The war became intensely unpopular.
The turning point in the Aceh-Dutch war came in 1891-92 when Christian Snouck Hurgronje, an expert in Arabic and Islam, was sent to do field research into "the pernicious Aceh Question" (het verderfelijke Atjeh-questie).
Snouck Hurgronje was the preeminent Western expert on Islam of his generation. After completing a PhD on Islamic theology in Holland, he spent a year in Mecca in 1884-85, living as a Muslim, studying at the feet of the Sheikhs, and making a special study of Indonesian Muslims.
After his field trip to Aceh, Snouck Hurgronje published a two-volume report on the Acehnese society in 1893, which included a military analysis, and offered a blueprint for winning the insurgency.
At the heart of Snouck Hurgronje's explanation of the "Aceh Question" was a theological analysis. The Acehnese war, he explained, was jihad, a theologically motivated struggle against the Dutch as infidel-occupiers of Islamic territory.
Because it was a theological struggle, grounded in the deeply held Islamic convictions of the Acehnese people, the Aceh war could not be won by capturing a few key cities or neutralizing a handful of key leaders. Indeed, as time passed, and the early chieftain leaders were superseded, the insurgency came to be dominated by clerics, whose influence greatly increased as a result of the jihad. (This same pattern can be observed in Afghanistan over the past decade.)
Snouck Hurgronje's thesis was rejected by many when it first saw the light of day. In time however, it proved triumphant, and provided the basis for the successful pacification of Aceh. It was only when the Dutch authorities aligned their military strategy with Snouck Hurgronje's insights that they began to win the war. Military success came as a huge relief to the Dutch authorities, and meant that by 1902 Snouck Hurgronje was able to write, "Now no one any longer doubts that the dogmas of Islam on the subject of religious war, so fanatical in their terms, supplied the principal similes to the obstinate rebellion." (However individual acts of "Acehnese murder" did continue – albeit in significantly decreasing numbers – right up until the Japanese occupation in 1942.)
The theological framework for the Acehnese jihad, which Snouck Hurgronje exposed to the understanding of Dutch leaders in 1893, happens to be exactly the same as that used by jihadi scholars such as Abdullah Azzam in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to stimulate what western elites refer to as "terrorism."
It is a classical dogma of Islam that when Muslim lands are occupied by infidel forces, it is an individual religious obligation upon all Muslims to do their utmost to defend their lands against the infidels. This belief drove the Acehnese insurgency over a century ago, and it drives the Afghan conflict today.
Snouck Hurgronje also explained that the practice of deceit – manifested in feigned friendship leading to what we would now call "insider killings" – can be derived from the dogmas of Islam and specifically from religious attitudes to infidels.
It is disappointing that after more than a decade of war, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are mystified by the phenomenon of "insider killings." Has political correctness so neutered their capacity to wage war? Are they so blind to the religious nature of the war they are fighting? How can they be unfamiliar with the classical dogmas of jihad, which make it a compulsory religious duty for individual Muslims to fight against infidel occupiers of Muslim lands?
The US generals, indeed any army fighting a jihad insurgency in Muslim lands, would do well to read Snouck Hurgronje's report, especially volume I (see here).
The insider killings of Afghanistan today are essentially the same phenomenon as "Acehnese murder" of over a century ago. The straightforward, rational explanation for Afghan soldiers turning their US-supplied weapons against their "allies" can be found in the beliefs outlined by Snouck Hurgronje in the late 19^th century: the dogma that Muslims have a duty to defend Muslim lands against infidel occupation; the dogma that if Muslims are killed in jihad, paradise will be their reward; and the dogma that in jihad, deceiving the infidel is no sin.
Reuters has reported that in Afghanistan:

Field commanders have also been given discretion to increase numbers of so-called "guardian angel" sentries who oversee foreign soldiers in crowded areas such as gyms and food halls, to respond to any rogue shooting incidents.

This is reminiscent of remarks by the Acehnese poet Anzib Lamnyong, reflecting on the assassination of a Dutchman by Lém Abah, an Acehnese man from his own village:

Very often people attacked the Dutch like that, so that the Dutch had to keep a very close guard on Banda Aceh, night and day, all around the whole city. But no matter how well those guards kept watch, they still kept getting attacked by our people, who would strike them down … The Dutch were in great consternation about our brave people, who did not fear the bullet that might strike them dead in the twinkling of an eye.

One expects that, when the last infidel troops have left Afghanistan, and Muslim sovereignty has been fully restored, the memory of the Afghan jihadis who are even now perpetrating "insider killings" may come to be held in high renown, just as the name of Teuku Umar is revered in Indonesia to this day.

Hmmm.........Obama: "Indonesia is an example of Religious tolerance".

Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist, pastor of an Anglican church, and an Associate Fellow at the Middle Eastern Forum.

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