CAMP SHORAB, Afghanistan: Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand say Donald Trump’s decision to keep boots on the ground indefinitely gives them “all the time in the world” to retake the province, once the symbol of US intervention but now a Taliban stronghold.
They may need it. At the hot, dusty Camp Shorab, where many of the recently deployed Marines train their Afghan counterparts in flat, desert terrain, the Afghans admit their army still cannot fight alone.
The Taliban control or contest 12 out of Helmand’s 14 districts and continue to inflict stinging blows on Afghan forces, who have been struggling to beat back the insurgents across the country since taking the lead on security from NATO forces at the end of 2014.
Sixteen years since the American-led invasion, and after decades of near-constant war in the country, the Islamist extremists show few signs of flagging, despite being heavily out-gunned by the might of the US military.
With no need to pay attention to four-year election cycles, the Taliban’s fight against their technologically-superior foes is often summed up in the proverb: “You may have the watches, but we have the time.”
But Trump’s announcement that the US committment to Afghanistan is open-ended might just be enough to reverse the tide.
“We have all the time in the world... to accomplish the mission the right way,” said Staff Sergeant George Caldwell, one of the Marines based at Camp Shorab.
Around 300 Marines returned to Helmand in April, a fraction of the more than 20,000 stationed in the poppy-growing province when it was the centerpiece of the US invasion.
Previously, they were on the frontline against the Taliban. Now they are part of NATO’s “train, advise and assist” mission, focused on making Afghan security forces strong enough to beat back the insurgents on their own.
Afghan troops are drilled in clearing insurgents from mud-brick compounds, evacuating wounded soldiers by helicopter and locating improvised explosive devices hidden in the ground.
It is part of the “operational readiness cycle” launched by the Marines that takes war-weary Afghan soldiers off the battlefield for 12 weeks of training and rest.
US trainers say the Afghans are making progress, retaking Nawa district in July after nine months in Taliban hands.
But the insurgents are still on the offensive, carrying out a number of suicide attacks in Helmand in recent weeks.
In the province — as in the rest of the country — shockingly high casualties, along with desertions, corruption and exhaustion have eroded the morale of Afghan forces.
Major General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who was appointed to lead the Afghan army’s 215th Corps in Helmand last year, said the continued US support outlined by Trump was crucial.
“Our army is not mature enough to fight alone,” said Ahmadzai.
In his speech last month Trump refused to offer specifics, but officials have said the additional US troops could number some 4,000, on top of the 11,000-strong force already on the ground.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week he had “signed orders” for the fresh deployment of troops “to enable the Afghan force to fight more effectively.”
But critics have questioned what a few thousand fresh US troops can do that previous forces — who numbered some 100,000 at the height of the fighting — have not.
Despite the lack of details — including any indication of how many more troops would be sent to Helmand, and when — the Marines at Camp Shorab said the fresh forces would make a difference.
“What additional troops (would) give us is the capability to move faster — if you add more resources and advisers we would be able to achieve effects faster,” said Brig. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the Helmand mission.
It is thought that the faster Afghan forces, who number some 330,000, can be brought to what Ahmadzai described as “maturity,” the more effective they will be against the insurgents.
Trump has refused to define the conditions for “winning,” and Turner said outright victory was unlikely — even with the extra ability.
“I don’t know that they (Afghan security forces) are going to have the capacity to control every single area in the country,” he said.
More likely is an imperfect peace with the Afghan government controlling the major population centers while the Taliban hold onto rural areas — a view shared by many analysts.
“This strategy only gives the (Afghan) government breathing space. It’s not a strategy for winning or defeating the Taliban,” Kate Clark, a senior analyst at Afghanistan Analysts Network, told AFP.
Others have not lost hope.
A 29-year-old Afghan commando holding a machine gun as he lay on the flat roof of a compound near Camp Shorab said “God willing” they would defeat the Taliban.
“They are trying to destroy the country... we are sure we can win,” said the commando, who cannot be identified.
Trump wins support for Afghan strategy in volatile Helmand
Trump wins support for Afghan strategy in volatile Helmand
UK’s Met Police refers itself to watchdog over Al-Fayed probes
The complaints, referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), involve investigations from 2008 and 2013.
They revolve around the quality of the police response and, in the case of the 2013 probe, how details came to be disclosed publicly.
“In recent weeks, two victims-survivors have come forward with concerns about how their allegations were handled when first reported, and it is only appropriate that the IOPC assess these complaints,” said Stephen Clayman, from the Met’s Specialist Crime team.
“Although we cannot change the past, we are resolute in our goal to offer every individual who contacts us the highest standard of service and support,” he added.
More than 400 women and witnesses have come forward in the past six weeks alleging sexual misconduct by Fayed, who died in August last year aged 94.
The allegations follow the airing of a BBC documentary in September that detailed multiple claims of rape and sexual assault by the former owner of the upmarket London department store.
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said it had received 421 inquiries, mainly related to the store but also regarding Fulham football club, the Ritz Hotel in Paris and other Fayed entities.
The Met said Friday that it was “actively reviewing 21 allegations reported to the Metropolitan Police prior to Mohamed Al-Fayed’s passing... to determine if any additional investigative steps are available or there are things we could have done better.”
India’s Naga separatists threaten to resume violence after decades-long truce
- “The violent confrontation between India and Nagalim shall be purely on account of the deliberate betrayal and breach of commitment by India and its leadership to honor the letter and spirit of Framework Agreement of 2015,” he said
GUWAHATI, India: An armed separatist group in a remote northeast Indian state on Friday threatened to “resume violent armed resistance” after nearly three decades of ceasefire, accusing New Delhi of failing to honor promises in earlier agreements.
The Naga insurgency, India’s oldest, is aimed at creating a separate homeland of Nagalim that unites parts of India’s mountainous northeast with areas of neighboring Myanmar for ethnic Naga people. About 20,000 people have died in the conflict since it began in 1947.
A ceasefire between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a leading separatist group, and Indian security forces has held since it was enforced in 1997 and the group signed an agreement with New Delhi in 2015 toward striking a resolution on their demands.
BACKGROUND
A ceasefire between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a leading separatist group, and Indian security forces has held since it was enforced in 1997.
But talks have stagnated since and in a statement Friday, the group’s chief, Thuingaleng Muivah, accused India of “betrayal of the letter and spirit” of the 2015 agreement.
India’s Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Muivah’s remarks.
In a statement, Muivah urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government to “respect and honor” the 2015 agreement, which he said “officially recognized and acknowledged” the right to a sovereign flag and constitution for the separatists.
Muivah proposed a “third party intervention” to resolve the impasse, threatening that it would resume violence if “such a political initiative was rejected.”
“The violent confrontation between India and Nagalim shall be purely on account of the deliberate betrayal and breach of commitment by India and its leadership to honor the letter and spirit of Framework Agreement of 2015,” he said.
“India and its leadership shall be held responsible for the catastrophic and adverse situation that will arise out of the violent armed conflict between India and Nagalim,” he said.
Comoros arrests suspected key smuggler
- The International Organization for Migration said on Monday that at least 25 people died after the boat was “deliberately capsized by traffickers”
MORONI, Comoros: Police in the Comoros said on Friday they had arrested the alleged leader of a smuggling network involved in the capsizing of a migrant boat that claimed around two dozen lives.
The boat sank on a well-known smuggling route between the Comoros island of Anjouan and the French Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte on Nov. 1.
“The smuggling ringleader who owned the capsized boat was arrested on Thursday in Anjouan,” Col. Tachfine Ahmed said.
“He admitted that he owned the boat and bought all the material needed for the trip,” he added, saying the 37-year-old suspect was a resident of Mayotte.
The International Organization for Migration said on Monday that at least 25 people died after the boat was “deliberately capsized by traffickers.”
The Comoros police said they knew of 17 deaths.
Fishermen rescued five survivors who said the boat was carrying around 30 people, including women and young children, the IOM said.
A survivor said the smugglers sank the vessel before fleeing on a speedboat.
Police confirmed the survivor’s account, saying the two smugglers escaped.
“We are actively looking for the two smugglers who got on another boat,” the colonel added.
In addition to homicide charges, the arrested suspect faces up to 10 years imprisonment for belonging to an organized criminal group as well as three years for illegal transport of passengers.
Anjouan is one of three islands in the nation of Comoros, located around 70 km northwest of Mayotte, which became a department of France in 2011.
Despite being France’s poorest department, Mayotte has French infrastructure and welfare, which makes it attractive to migrants from Comoros seeking a better life.
Many pay smugglers to make the dangerous sea crossing in rickety fishing boats known as “kwassa-kwassa.”
UK court awards Manchester bomb victims £45,000 over hoax claims
- Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were “crisis actors“
- Judge Karen Steyn called Hall’s behavior “a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom”
LONDON: Two survivors of the 2017 bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, on Friday won £45,000 ($58,000) in damages from a former TV producer who claimed the attack was a hoax.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were “crisis actors” employed by the state as part of an elaborate deception.
Hibbert sustained a spinal cord injury in the attack, and his daughter suffered severe brain damage.
Hall argued that he was acting in the public interest by filming Hibbert’s daughter outside her home, but the High Court in London agreed with Hibbert’s claim for harassment.
Judge Karen Steyn called Hall’s behavior “a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom” and on Friday ordered him to pay Hibbert and his daughter each £22,500 in damages.
Hall must also pay 90 percent of their legal costs, currently estimated at £260,000.
“The claimants are both vulnerable. The allegations are serious and distressing,” said the judge.
Jonathan Price, lawyer for the claimants, said that Hall “insisted that the terrorist attack in which the claimants were catastrophically injured did not happen and that the claimants were participants or ‘crisis actors’ in a state-orchestrated hoax, who had repeatedly, publicly and egregiously lied to the public for monetary gain.”
Hibbert welcomed the ruling, adding: “I want this case to open up the door for change, and for it to protect others from what we have been put through.
“It proves and has highlighted... that there is protection within the law, and it sends out a message to conspiracy theorists that you cannot ignore all acceptable evidence and harass innocent people.”
Islamic extremist Salman Abedi, aided by his brother, Hashem Abedi, killed 22 people and injured 1,017 during the suicide bombing at the end of the concert by the US singer.
US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump
- Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to propose a plan to murder Trump
- The plot reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials
WASHINGTON: The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with assassinating the Republican president-elect.
Investigators learned of the plot to kill Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national identified by officials as an Iranian government asset who was deported from the US after being imprisoned on robbery charges.
He told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
Two other men who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations, including a prominent Iranian American journalist, were also arrested Friday. Shakeri remains in Iran.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot.