February 2012 | VOLUME - 5 ISSUE - 31

Home , Ab Band District, Afghan peace process, Baghlan District, Gul Agha Sherzai, Musa Qala District, Nawzad District

1 Monthly Risk Summary

Monthly Risk Summary Afghanistan

2-5 Executive Summary 53-71 Political 119 Afghanistan Map Situation

SIMS Incident Health & Natural Security Advice & 6-28 Reporting 72-96 Hazards 120 Capabilities

29-36 Crime Topics 97-109 Business News

Infrastructural & 37-52 Security News 110-117 Reconstruction Development February 2012 2 Monthly Risk Summary

Executive Summary RISK SNAPSHOT

Sims Incidents

Criminial Activity

Security Situation

Political Situation

Health & Natural Hazards

Winter took its toll on the lives of Afghans as people perished in many parts of the country due to cold weather and avalanches. Heavy snowfall led to avalanches and blocked roads especially in Northern provinces in Afghanistan. Heavy rainfall and floods added to the misery of Afghans.

The heat of the Quran burning issue spread across the nation, making the lives of Afghan citizens even more miserable. Even though U.S authorities, including U.S President Barrack Obama, apologised on 21 February regarding the burning at a U.S military base of religious texts, which contained extremist contents, violent demonstrations marred the lives of many Afghans. That said, the NATO force pullout plan and handing over of the duties to Afghan forces was the main talking point of the month.

Pullout Plans

As part of the withdrawal plan, U.S Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on 1 Feb announced the intention to hand the lead combat role to Afghan Forces next year. This is a significant development for Afghanistan, considering the controversial U.S-led night raids which have caused much controversy. However, on 19 Febru- ary U.S senators disregarded Karzai’s demand to curb the night raids as that, according to them, would put American lives in danger. February 2012

Increasing Slight Increase Stable Slight Decrease Decreasing Trend 3 Monthly Risk Summary

Executive Summary

The U.S and Afghan officials, while discussing a pact to allow several thousand troops to stay in Afghanistan to train forces, decided to negotiate on detention and night raids for a later date. Karzai further extended the handover of Bagram Prison deadline to 9 March, the non-cooperation by American personnel was cited as the reason.

On 4 February, the U.S announced the decision Elite Units will be deployed for counter insurgency purposes in Afghanistan, while on 7 February NATO assured Afghans that foreign troops will fight ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with until the end of 2014. Afghan soldiers took over new patrol base on 20 February in Lashkar Gah district, Helmand province, built with the assistance of UK forces.

U.S commanders, on 24 February, decided to cut 10,000 marines from southern provinces. Meanwhile, Afghans who fled to UK while serving in the Afghan Army, are being hired to train soldiers on how to take on the Taliban.

The killing of NATO soldiers by Afghan counterparts, feared to be a result of insurgent infiltration in the Afghan army, was put to rest by U.S officials on 1 February, saying that all the attacks were due to personal reasons. However, on 14 Febru- ary Obama personally ordered an investigation into such killings and measures to prevent infiltration. Italian intelligence reported on 27 February a higher threat against their troops in western regions controlled by them.

A report on 2 February said that Afghans mistrust of NATO and Afghan soldiers are growing and that they are turning more to the Taliban in recent times, and thus the Taliban are growing stronger, but that jihad is finding fewer takers in foreign lands due to US drones attacks and lack of funds.

Peace Initiative

Reports came out that U.S officials had initiated peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar at the end of last month. Meanwhile, Pak PM on 7 February called for an Afghan-led reconciliation process during his two day visit to Qatar. More develop- ments for the peace initiative followed when Pakistan and Russia voiced their support on 9 February.

Karzai said on 16 Feburary that the U.S, Afghan government and the Taliban were in secret talks to search for a peace settlement. On 21 February, Karzai invited Taliban leaders for direct talks and urged Pakistan to facilitate the negotiation toward ending the decade long war. Harboring of insurgents near the Pak-Afghan border in safe sanctuaries and creating problems in the Afghan peace process February 2012 was stressed by CIA on 3 February. 4 Monthly Risk Summary

Executive Summary The Taliban was told by Saudi Arabia on 18 February to lay down arms and renounce al Qaeda as a precondition for Saudi –led peace talks. Pakistan decided to host Afghan and Iranian leaders on 15 February for a counter terrorism summit.

Russia and France announced that they will co-preside Vienna conference on Afghanistan. Afghan MP stressed 5 February the importance for an open peace dialogue involving civil society and no secret talks with anti-government armed groups.

The Turkmen President assured the head of UN Assistance mission in Afghani- stan that he would have complete support for the peace initiative and stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan on 26 February.

Quran Burning

NATO personnel working in Afghan ministries in the Kabul area were recalled on 25 February in response to the killing of two American service members by an Afghan security official in the ministry. UN officials in Kabul were relocated on 28 February for a limited period of time following the incident.

Meanwhile, U.S Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on 29 February reaffirmed the Obama administration’s determination to persist in seeking a stable government in Afghanistan.

Following the incidents related to Quran burning, Afghan ministers cancelled their visit to the U.S for consultation with other ministers to quell the violence and protect the U.S troops.

Setbacks

22 children below the age of five froze to death in two refugee camps in Kabul even as government was taking measures to support the homeless. A report by Amnesty International on 23 February said that 400 Afghans are displaced every day, and about half a million Afghans who fled fighting are abandoned to starvation and death.

In a shocking incident, would-be child suicide bombers who were pardoned months earlier were again arrested as they were preparing for bombings. These children were supplied with drugs and were told they would be unharmed by the blast.

February 2012 Eight Afghan youths mistaken to be insurgents were killed in ISAF air strike on 15 February. Though ISAF said that the attacks were carried out in coordination with the Afghan police, the police denied any links. 5 Monthly Risk Summary

Executive Summary

General

A national Holiday commemorating the withdrawal of Soviet troops ending a decade long conflict was designated on 15 February.

On 6 February, Canadian PM welcomed the 100 Afghan interpretors who risked their lives to help Canadian forces in Afghanistan, for a second chance to settle in Canada. This development will provide safety to them as their lives in Afghan are always at risk from Taliban attack.

Support

On 21 February Japan contributed $20m for support long-term basic literacy training for the Afghan National Security Forces through the NATO-run Afghan National Army Trust Fund. The U.S continued its support to the reconstruction of Afghanistan through USAID by dedicating $800m for agriculture, health and training sectors. Afghan minister signed an agreement with USAID to use 50% of the American aid within two years. February 2012 6 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

IED

1 February

An Estonian soldier was seriously injured in southern Helmand province on Wednesday morning, bringing the number of wounded Estcoy-13 soldiers to eight.

At least seven people were killed and injured following an explosion in Kapisa province. The officials further added the incident took place after a car packed with explosives went off in Nejrab district of Kapisa province.

Two Afghan police service members were killed and three others were injured in an explosion at Shindand district of western Herat province on Wednesday.

2 February

A roadside bomb killed two private guards and wounded two others in Gereshk district of Helmand province. A Surf vehicle of a private security company struck a mine in Noorzai area at approximately 08:30hrs. February 2012 An Afghan civilian was killed in an improvised explosive device blast in Dasht Sheikh area, Ghorian district of Herat province on Thursday. An IED went off on a tractor vehicle in leaving its driver dead. 7 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

3 February

One Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier was killed and three others were injured in a blast in southeastern Khost province.

5 February

A car bomb attack on police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar has killed at least nine people, including five policemen. Some 19 others were wounded in the blast in a car park outside the police building.

At least three Afghan national army soldiers were injured following roadside bomb explosion in Camp Chena area, Maiwand district of Kandahar province.

One child was killed and three others wounded when an explosives-rigged motorcycle exploded in the Nawabad village of Deh Rawood district, central province of Uruzgan.

A soldier was killed and ten others wounded in an explosion. A homemade bomb exploded next to a Pakistani military vehicle in the Alizai area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region, near Afghanistan border.

7 February

A blast ripped through Liaquat Bazaar near Junction square in Quetta late, injuring a security guard and destroying up to 20 stores. However, no casualties were reported.

9 February

Two policemen were killed in a bomb blast in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province. The explosion occurred when a bomb disposal squad was defusing another roadside bomb on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Two civilians were injured in a bomb explosion in the Khwaja BaBa area of Kandahar province on Thursday. According to reports, Taliban was placed this bomb in a motorbike.

10 February

One civilian was killed and two others wounded when a passenger vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan province.

February 2012 A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan, leaving five policemen dead and one wounded. The bomb hit the pickup truck in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan province. 8 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

11 February

Three Afghan civilians were killed following an explosion in southern Helmand province. The provincial governor said three Afghan civilians were killed following a roadside bomb explosion which was planted by militants in Bayanak Shahpista area of Washir district.

13 February

A contractor with the police headquarters was killed in a roadside bombing in Tarin Kowt district, Uruzgan province. The explosion happened in the Khairo Kariz area on the outskirts of Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital, at around 07:00hrs, the crime branch chief said.

Taliban claims to have blown up a NATO vehicle killing all personnel on board in Sabari district of Khost province on Monday.

18 February

Three insurgent were killed and eight other suspects detained during joint operations launched by the Afghan forces and NATO-led troops in four Afghan provinces, the country’s Interior Ministry said.

20 February

A suicide car bomber rammed the gate of a police station in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar at about 10:00hrs, unleashing a powerful blast that killed at least one policeman. General Abdul Raziq, the provincial police chief, said the attacker detonated a bomb-laden sedan at the gate of Kandahar city’s fourth district police station on, killing at least one officer.

21 February

Three International Security Assistance Force service members were killed following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan.

22 February

Two Afghan soldiers were killed and a third injured in a landmine when they were defusing went off in Laghman province. February 2012 Afghan Ministry of Defense authorities announced Wednesday that two ANA soldiers were killed in Greshk district of Helmand province. 9 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

23 February

Militant attack on a police station in Peshawar killed four policemen and injured six others during the early hours. Three suicide bombers barged into the C-Division police station in Kotwali, which is located in the heart of Peshawar city in a congested locality, with the intention of taking over.

24 February

One civilian was killed and seven others, including a woman, were injured in a bomb blast in southeastern Khost province, an official said. The incident took place at 11:00hrs in the Faiz Muhammad Khan area of Khost city, the provincial capital.

25 February

According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, at least two Afghan civilians were injured following an explosion in Kunar province. The officials further added that the incident took place around 08:30hrs at Narang district of eastern Kunar province.

26 February

One policeman was killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in Tarin Kowt city, the capital of central Uruzgan province. The explosion took place at around 11:00hrs in the Spilandi area, where a police vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

Local authorities announced that at least three Afghan National Army soldiers were injured following an Improvised Explosive Device explosion in Kapisa province. A spokesman for provincial security commandment Asadullah Hamidi, confirming the report, said the incident took place in Shinki area of Tagab district.

Eight civilians, including four children and two women, were killed by a roadside bomb in southeast Khost province, senior police detective Mohammad Yaqub told reporters.

27 February

A car bomb exploded early today at the gates of Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The number of casualties was not immediately known. Nangarhar provincial spokesman, Ahmadzia Abdulzai said he did not yet know how many were dead or injured, but there were casualties. February 2012 A blast hit the site where Awami National Party (ANP) was holding a public rally that killed five persons and injured 15 others, including four policemen, our sources reported. The 10 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

bomb went off soon after chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Amir Haider Hoti, and other ministers in his provincial cabinet had left the meeting in the town of Nowshera.

Seven people, including six women, were killed on Monday in an explosion in Nawa district of Helmand province inside a house used by a local Taliban commander Mullah Manan.

29 February

A senior district council official was killed along with four of his security guards in a roadside bombing in the Qaisar district of western Faryab province, an official said. The blast destroyed the car of the head of the People’s Council in Qaisar District.

At least six people were injured in a car bomb explosion targeting a convoy of foreign troops in Helmand province at about 10:00 hrs. Police said the attack occurred in Lashkar Gah city, the capital of southern Helmand province.

Eleven people were injured during a remote-controlled bomb explosion in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, an official said. The explosion happened at 13:15hrs near the Kabul Bank branch, where the bomb had been attached to a vehicle of the bank, a police spokesman said.

Two women and a child were killed when a bomb ripped through their vehicle in a tribal belt on the Afghan border, officials said. The blast took place on the outskirts of Bara, a restive town of Khyber district bordering Afghanistan.

Small Arms Fire

1 February

At least four Taliban militants were killed following armed clashes with the Afghan border protection police forces in Herat province. The clashes took place in Keshk-Robat Sangi district after a number of the Taliban militants attacked a security check post. Three Taliban fighters were killed and another sustained injuries during gunfight with joint force in Khansheen district in Helmand province.

Intelligence operatives in central Parwan arrested six suspects after a clash, according to the governor’s spokesman. February 2012 11 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

2 February

Finnish soldiers exchanged fire with insurgents in northern Afghanistan. None of the peacekeepers were wounded in the action in which they returned fire in self-defence. The joint Finnish-Swedish patrol was travelling from Darzab to Sheberghan when they were attacked. The skirmish lasted ten minutes.

Five ANP were ambushed by insurgents in while they were conducting patrol in the Ba- zaar area of Balkh province at about 10:50hrs. During the fire fight, one insurgent was killed and another injured. Three local nationals were also wounded during the ambush. The police shot dead a person and injured two in Tashqurghan district in Balkh province, media reported.

3 February

Three armed militants were killed following armed clashes with the Afghan national police forces in Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province.

One Frontier Constabulary soldier was killed and four others were injured in a pre-dawn attack by militants. Activists of Lashkar-i-Islam militant group attacked a security check post in Malakdinkhel area.

4 February

A local Taliban commander was killed following armed clashes with the Afghan national police forces in Khan Abad district of Kunduz province. The incident took place when a group of armed insurgents attacked a check post of the Afghan national police forces.

7 February

A shooting in the southern city of Kandahar has left five dead, including two police officers and three private security guards. The clash between guards of Haji Gulalai’s private security company occurred around and an Afghan police was also wounded.

Two Taliban insurgents were killed following armed clashes with Afghan national army forces in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province.

9 February

Insurgents attacked a police base in Faragird area of Seyagerd district, Parwan province, February 2012 Security authorities of Seyagerd district confirmed. 12 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

10 February

An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.

At least five people were injured in an attack on a mobile police in northwestern Pakistani district of Sawabi.

11 February

At least two Afghan National Army service members were killed and four others were injured during military operations in Obe district of western Herat province.

At least two Afghan National Army service members were killed and injured in militant attack at Khas district of eastern Kunar province, media reports said.

Two Afghan police service members were killed following armed clashes with the Taliban militants in northern Jowzjan province, local authorities in northern Afghanistan. The incident took place while Taliban militants were forcing the residents of Qoyandi Turkmeniye village at Menga Jek district of northern Jowzjan province to collect money from them.

12 February

The administrative head of Zherai district in southern Kandahar province survived a militant attack, but one of his guards was injured, an official said. Niaz Mohammad came under attack while traveling in a car from Kandahar city to the district.

Six Taliban insurgents and two Afghan policemen were killed in a clash in the country’s eastern province of Ghazni. The clash broke out when a group of armed Taliban attacked a police unit in Ghozi Khil area of Ab Band district of eastern Ghazni province.

According to local authorities in southern Afghanistan, at least three Taliban militants were killed following armed clashes with the Afghan police in southern Kandahar province.

13 February

According to International Security Assistance Force officials, a NATO service member was killed in southern Afghanistan. The NATO service member was killed in the insurgents attack. February 2012 13 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

An Afghan National Army Soldier was killed and another one was injured in the outskirts of Kabul. The event occurred during a security mission in Tangi Abreshom area of Kabul.

One of two insurgent motorcycle riders, tossed hand grenade targeting Afghan National Army (ANA) Ranger truck in Helmand province at 17:30 hrs. The incident occurred in the Bazar area of Musa Qala district.

14 February

At least seven people were killed and two were injured in Turbat’s Kech district when they came under attack from a group of armed men. A group of men armed with sophisticated automatic weapons opened fire on the laborers, who had camped along the under construction road. The assailants also torched the machinery and three company vehicles.

16 February

Several armed insurgents were killed following armed clashes with the Afghan and coalition security forces in Faryab province, media reports said. According to a statement issued by ISAF, Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in Shirin-Tagab district of the province.

A small arms fire took place in Kabul province. The incident reported in Qale-e Fatullah city, PD10 in Kabul. One person injured and another killed during the firefight.

17 February

Seventeen militants along with three members of the Lashkar and a security person were killed during a joint operation in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, officials said.

According to sources security forces pounded militant hideouts in different areas of Tirah, Sub-Division Bara considered to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Islam.

20 February

Gunmen in Afghan police uniforms opened fire on NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, killing an Albanian soldier, officials said. A second Albanian and another international soldier were wounded, they said. Eleven suspected policemen were arrested.

21 February February 2012 One person was killed and two others were injured in an attack on a former militant commander who recently joined the peace process in eastern Kunar province, officials 14 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

said. Unidentified gunmen attacked the commander’s associates in the Pashand area of Sarkano district at 14:00hrs, Shah Muhammad, the district chief, told reporters.

22 February

Peshawar Police, often targeted by militants, fended off yet another attack. The resultant exchange of fire in Mathra, Peshawar left two militants dead.

23 February

An individual wearing an Afghan National Army (ANA) uniform shot dead two Interna- tional Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers, the alliance said. The shooting took place in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province of eastern Afghanistan.

24 February

At least eight suspected Taliban militants were killed in a clash between militants and security forces in eastern Afghan province of Laghman, an army commander said.

A robber and a policeman were killed during an armed clash on the Balk-Kunduz highway.

25 February

A gunman killed two American military advisers with shots to the back of the head inside a heavily guarded ministry building, and NATO ordered military workers out of Afghan ministries. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Interior Ministry attack, saying it was retaliation for the Quran burnings, after the U.S. servicemen were found dead on the floor of an office that only people who know a numerical combination can get into, Afghan and Western officials said.

26 February

Two civilians were killed during a clash between Taliban and security forces in the Tagab district of Kapisa province, an official said. The clash took place in the Joibar area, where an Afghan National Army (ANA) convoy came under attack.

Ten militants and two security personnel were killed in a clash between security forces and militants in the South Waziristan Agency. The clash took place in the Siplatoi area where security forces were conducting a search operation to clear the area. February 2012 15 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

27 February

Nine insurgents were killed and three others injured during a clash with border police in the Nazian district of eastern Nangarhar province, officials said. The clash erupted in the Zaisar area early in the morning after a police check-post came under attack.

Four soldiers and ten militants were killed in a skirmish between Pakistani forces and a group of militants in the Seplatoi area of the South Waziristan tribal region.

Indirect Fire

8 February

At least four people, including a child, were injured in a hand grenade attack on Zarghoon Road area near the Saryab Bridge in Quetta. According to police, unidentified persons riding a bike hurled the grenade, injuring four people and damaging three vehicles.

27 September

Three members of a family were injured in a rocket attack in Kunar province.

Premature Explosion

20 February

One Taliban insurgent was killed and three insurgents were wounded as they attempted to place anti- vehicle IED in Kapisa province. The incident occurred in Se- Derakht area of Tagab district at about 19:00hrs, reports said.

25 February

Six Afghan army soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in western Afghanistan when a Taliban bomb exploded as the troops attempted to defuse it, the defense ministry said. The incident happened in the insurgency-hit Muqur district of western Badghis province.

27 February

A group of insurgents, who were trying to rig an improvised bomb against Afghan and for-

February 2012 eign forces, killed in Helmand province. In the volatile Nawzad district, a group of seven Taliban militants died while trying to cut a pipe bomb and fit it into a vehicle. 16 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

Accidental Explosion

27 February

An Afghan official said four insurgents were killed by a rocket that they were trying to fire into an Afghan-run military base in the east of the country. Nazian district administrator Mohammad Issa said the insurgents clashed with Afghan soldiers outside the base.

Tribal Clash

3 February

In Tani district, Khost province, at least three people were killed in a clash between two families, local officials said.

Air Strike

8 February

Two people were killed and five others were wounded in NATO air attack in Kapisa province. The bombardment took place in Geyawi village of Nejrab district.

14 February

Coalition force conducted an air strike in Helmand province. The air strike occurred in Tarikh Nawer Area of the Nawa district. Two insurgents were killed, and two AK- 47s were seized by the assault force.

15 February

Two people were killed and a woman injured during an air strike by foreign troops in the Khanabad district of northern Kunduz province, an official said. International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopters hit the Aqtash area, killing two brothers and injuring a woman.

At least three Afghan civilians were injured following a NATO air raid in central Ghazni province. District police chief for Deh-Yak in Ghazni province, Faiz Toofan said at least three Afghan civilians including a seven year old Afghan kid were injured after a missile February 2012 struck in Alo-Khel village 17 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

16 February

Eleven militants were killed and three others, including a Taliban shadow district chief, injured in an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) air raid in western Faryab province, the Afghan military said. The air strike was conducted in the Atta Khan Khwaja area of Pashtun Kot district, a statement from the 209th Shaheen Military Corps said.

22 February

Nine schoolgirls were injured in a NATO helicopter attack in Afghanistan’s eastern Nan- garhar province, an Afghan official alleged.

23 February

Jets bombed militant hideouts in Upper Orakzai area early, killing at least 15 Taliban insurgents, officials said. The jets targeted hideouts in the area and destroyed four compounds in the rugged terrain near the Afghan border.

24 February

Seven armed insurgents were killed in Faryab province, Abdul Haq Shafaq governor of Faryab province said. In an air attack by the ISAF forces on armed opposition in Qazal Qallah area of Pashtun Kot district in Faryab province, seven armed insurgents were killed.

28 February

A NATO air strike killed six insurgents in Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province, governor’s office said. The insurgents were attempting to attack a foreign military base, Ahmad Zia.

Kidnapping

1 February

The Taliban kidnapped three employees, including two engineers, of a private telecommunication company in northern Sar-i-Pul province, an official said. The Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) workers were abducted in the Syedabad area on the outskirts of Sar-i-Pul city late on Wednesday evening. February 2012 18 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

2 February

A doctor working for the Coordination of Afghan Relief, an Afghan non-profit organisa- tion, and his driver were abducted by suspected insurgents in northern Faryab province, officials said. The two were travelling in the Quram Qul district when the gunmen seized them.

7 February

One hostage was rescued and five kidnappers were detained during a security operation conducted by Polish soldiers in Ghazni province.

10 February

Suspected militants have kidnapped a local journalist working for the state-run Radio Television of Afghanistan (RTA) in eastern Nangarhar province.

Three Taliban fighters who recently joined the peace process kidnapped six local policemen and rejoined their ex-comrades in the northern province of Balkh. The incident took place in Al-Burz area of Chamtal district.

11 February

A security force freed an Afghan woman along with her child from Charshanba-Tapa in central Baghlan district. The main reason behind the abduction of the mother and her child is unknown and the hostage takers managed to flee the area and are being tracked by the Afghan police forces.

20 February

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped two workers with a Turkish construction company in western Herat province, bordering Iran, an official said. The engineer and his Afghan translator were traveling from Shindand district toward an unknown location without in- forming security authorities of the province.

21 February

Security officials closed the Porak bazaar in central Logar province after a policeman was abducted by unidentified gunmen, an official said. The policeman was on his way home when he went missing near the Porak area on Tuesday night, crime branch officer February 2012 Mohammad Jan Obaid said. 19 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

24 February

Unidentified gunmen abducted the son of a Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of Parliament, member in central Logar province, officials said. Khalid, the son of Haji Ali Mohammad, was kidnapped on the evening of the 23 February in the Padkhwab-i-Shana area on the outskirts of Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital city.

26 February

A kidnapped member of the High Peace Council released in eastern Kunar province, an official said. Maulvi Shafiullah, a resident of neighbouring Nuristan province, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in the Asmar district of Kunar on 30 January.

27 February

Insurgents kidnapped three local national (LN) drivers and two local national driver assis- tants, as they are transporting construction materials to the Obe district in Herat province at 23:15hrs.

Asset Attack

2 February

An Italian base in south western Afghanistan came under fire but “no damage was done,” military sources said. Italian troops have been fighting the Taliban for control of roads in the region and there have been “almost daily” firefights.

Civil Unrest

5 February

200 local nationals conducted a peaceful demonstration by erecting a tent in front of the ANP HQ. They wanted high government officials to transfer the Sar-e Pul province Governor to another province.

8 February

People of the Sar-i-Pul province continued protest movement launched to force the gov-

February 2012 ernment to remove the provincial governor, media reported. Thousands of people staged a protest demonstration in Sar-i-Pul to demand sacking of the governor. 20 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

11 February

Residents of the Ghazni province staged protest against inordinate delays in issuance of passports and kickbacks charged by middlemen. The residents held protest in the Ghazni city.

12 February

Civil activists and a number of residents in central Bamyan province of Afghanistan following a demonstration urged that the criminals behind the war crime at Afshar in Kabul should face trial, media reports said. Dozens of civilians were killed during the Afshar incident when capital Kabul was witnessing growing civil war violence between the Mu- jahideen groups.

14 February

Hundreds of Afghans in Kunar province following a demonstration urged the provincial governor for the province to resign from his position. The demonstrators accused the provincial governor Fazalullah Wahidi for being involved in creating tensions among the provincial council members and tribal issues.

21 February

A crowd of Afghans protesting outside the main US military base in Afghanistan swelled to more than 2,000 over a report that foreign troops had improperly disposed of copies of the Quran, Afghan officials said. U.S. helicopters fired flares to disperse angry Afghans who massed outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan after hearing staff there had burned copies of the Quran. The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened at around 23:00hrs, according to NATO and Afghan officials.

A demonstration of approximately 250 people was ongoing near Qasaba junction on the Jalalabad Road, PD 9 in Kabul. Media reports said that Hundreds of Kabul residents took part in the demonstration. The demonstrators condemned torching of several copies of Holy Quran by American soldiers in Bagram Airbase.

22 February

At least nine demonstrators were shot dead and dozens wounded in violent protests across Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran at a US-run military base, officials

February 2012 said. The Afghan interior ministry blamed at least one of the deaths on “foreign guards of Camp Phoenix”, a US military base in eastern Kabul attacked by protesters, but most were attributed by local officials to clashes with police. 21 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

23 February

Around 400 protesters hurled rocks and set fire to cars at a Norwegian-led military base in Faryab province of northern Afghanistan, as part of nationwide demonstrations against the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO air base.

24 February

Anti-US protesters tried to storm a US consulate and march on NATO headquarters in Kabul as violent demonstrations over the burning of the Holy Quran copies pushed into a fourth day, killing 24 people.

25 February

Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Af- ghanistan, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Quran at U.S. base, officials said. At least 28 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since 21 Feb- ruary.

26 February

Seven U.S. soldiers were wounded when an insurgent threw a grenade into their base in the northern province of Kunduz, local officials said. The attack took place during a protest in the Imam Sahib district against the burning last week of copies of the Quran and other religious material by U.S. military personnel at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.

Air Traffic Incident

6 February

An International Security Assistance Force helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan. There were no fatalities and the crew has been safely transported to a nearby forward operating base.

11 February

A transport helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing all four people on- board. The incident occurred in Zabul province. Deputy Provincial Governor Mohammad Jon Rasolyar told reporters that the four dead -- three men and one woman -- were February 2012 citizens from Tajikistan who were working for Supreme Food, a logistics company under contract to NATO. 22 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

15 February

The US military press office in Afghanistan said in a statement that an unmanned aircraft crashed due to technical malfunction in Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province.

18 February

An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter crashed near Kabul province. The incident took place around noon in the Uzbin Mountains near the Baad Pakh district of Laghman province, the district chief said.

Murder

1 February

Taliban shot dead a policeman in Farah city, capital of Farah province police said.

3 February

US soldiers shot dead a newly-hired rogue Afghan guard in the northern province of Sar-i-Pul.

9 February

The Taliban gunned down a police officer and his driver in Qaramqul district in Faryab province. The armed opponents opened fire on a police vehicle, leaving the officer and his driver dead.

16 February

A Haqqani Network facilitator was detained following a joint military operation by Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in south eastern Khost province, media said. The military operation was conducted in Sabari district of Khost province.

18 February

A former Jihadi commander was shot dead along with his brother by his foes in northern Balkh province, police and residents said. Commander Mohammad Zahir was killed because of old enmity in the Sholgara district in the afternoon, police spokesman, Sher February 2012 Jan Durrani, told reporters. 23 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

21 February

Taliban militants have beheaded four men for allegedly spying for the government in southern Afghanistan, an official said. The bodies of the men were discovered in Washer district of volatile Helmand province late.

25 February

A senior private security guard was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said. The man led a squad of private guards providing security for a road construction company in the district.

28 February

Two Afghan local policemen (ALP) were shot dead by motorcyclists in the Kart-i-Lagan area of Marja district, Helmand province at about 16:00hrs, police officer.

Road Traffic Accident

11 February

Two people killed and one wounded in a traffic accident in Kabul-Parwan highway. The Parwan province traffic authorities said that this incident occurred in Seh Rahi area of Charikar city when a truck collided with a rickshaw. Two passengers of the rickshaw killed while another one wounded in this incident.

20 February

Three Italian soldiers have been killed as the armoured car they were travelling in over- turned in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat, officials have said. The vehicle was racing to rescue another, Italy’s defence ministry said. The accident was happened some 12 miles (20km) south-west of Shindand district, in the west of the country.

21 February

Five people were wounded in a traffic accident in Parwan province, media reported. Eyewitnesses said that this incident occurred in Sayad area of Bagram district of Parwan province when a Toyota Corolla collided with a truck.

February 2012 26 February

Three people were killed and ten others were wounded in a traffic accident in the southern province of Helmand, an official said. 24 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

Traffic officials said that a woman was hit by a truck and lost her life in Charikar city of Parwan province.

29 February

Three people were killed when a car crashed into a truck in northern Takhar province, officials said.

Other

3 February

Brig. Gen. Terence Hildner died Friday in Kabul of apparent natural causes, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. soldier to die there, the military said.

7 February

Three people were killed after inhaling poisonous gas inside a well in the Mirzaka district of southeastern Paktya province, an official said.

8 February

Eight members of a family were injured when a gas capsule exploded in their house in the Khost province, a medical official said. Three inured are children, two women and three men and their health condition of the injured are critical and they are under intensive care.

A Mississippi guardsman died this week while deployed to Afghanistan, the Defense Department said. Sgt. 1st Class Billy A. Sutton, 42, of Tupelo, Miss., died Wednesday in Uruzgan province.

Two people were killed as fire erupted in a heavy vehicle in the limits of Herat city, police said. Two drivers fell unconscious when they were warming themselves with a gas heater in the cabin of their vehicle. Later, fire erupted in the vehicle, killing both of them.

9 February

Taliban claimed to have captured 16 militiamen, including their two commanders, through the assistance of local people in Albaraz district in Balkh province. February 2012 25 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

10 February

More than 300 shops were burnt in Khost city, incurring millions losses to the shop owners in this province. The incident took place after fire erupted in wood stores at southern regions of the city around 03:00hrs.

12 February

Nine members of a family were wounded when a propane bottle exploded in Kama district of Nangarhar province. The incident occurred last night in a house in Kahek area of Kama district. Nine members of a family including women and children were wounded in the incident, Abdulzai added.

14 February

A four years old child was killed and six individuals wounded when a propane bottle exploded in Mazar Sharif city. Dr. Ghawsuddin Anwari, the Director of Mazar Sharif Re- gional Hospital, told reporters that this incident occurred in Kamarband Baba Yadgar area of Mazar-e -Sharif city when a member of the family put a frozen bottle of propane on a stove.

16 February

An International Security Assistance Force service member died as a result of a non- battle related injury in eastern Afghanistan.

18 February

Kam air and Safi outgoing flights this morning (18/02/2012) are cancelled from Kabul city.

21 February

An International Security Assistance Force service member died as a result of a non- battle related injury in southern Afghanistan.

27 February

A plot to poison US soldiers on a military base on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has been foiled, the alliance said. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) media office in the east said the incident that took place at the Torkham dry port was being February 2012 investigated. 26 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

28 February

In Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province, huge financial losses were inflicted on traders due to heavy blaze late on Tuesday night, the Nangarhar police authorities said.

Pro-Government Security Response

1 February

Three armed militants were killed and one other was captured in 11 police operations launched in the past 24 hours, interior ministry announced. “The operations were launched in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Khost, Farah and Nangarhar provinces in which army soldiers and the international coalition forces had fully cooperated,” the ministry said in a statement.

3 February

The security police of Kandahar province said they discovered and defused 30,000 kg of hashish. This hashish was seized from smugglers in outskirts of Kandahar province.

6 February

Afghan and foreign forces killed six insurgents and detained 19 in Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan and Daykundi provinces over the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Afghan and NATO-led International Coalition security forces captured a Haqqani Network leader. The operation was conducted by Afghan and NATO and International Security Assistance Force in Mangso district of Khost province.

7 February

A Haqqani Network leader was detained following a joint military operation by Afghan and coalition security forces in Logar province, ISAF said in a statement.

According to local authorities in southern Afghanistan, a Pakistan militant suspected was detained along with explosives in southern Kandahar province. February 2012 27 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

11 February

According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan security forces curbed a suicide bomber to target Afghan government officials in eastern Khost. The officials added that a government employee who was working in provincial governor office was detained in connection with insurgency attack plot.

12 February

Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed ten insurgents during operations in the Kabul, Helmand, Paktika and Farah provinces.

15 February

An Afghan and coalition security force discovered a vehicle containing IED components and weapons during an operation in Zharai district, Kandahar province. During the operation, the security force engaged the immediate threat, killing the three insurgents.

16 February

An Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in in Rodat district of Nangarhar province. During the operation, the security force engaged an individual armed with a grenade, killing the insurgent.

The national security personnel in Nangarhar province arrested three kidnappers in Jalalabad city.

17 February

Afghan National Army forces seized weapons and ammunitions during a series of military activities in Kunar province. Afghan National Army forces seized huge quantities of weapons and ammunitions from Marawara district of Kunar province.

19 February

Two groups of terrorists who intended to disrupt Afghanistan’s New Year celebrations in March were captured by Afghan security forces in northern Balkh province. Afghan forces are fully prepared to provide security for the New Year - or Nawroz - celebrations which will happen on 20 March.

February 2012 Thirty-five drug traffickers were detained and a large amount of narcotics seized in the capital Kabul. The smugglers, arrested in different areas of Kabul, were involved in 31 cases of drug trafficking. 28 Monthly Risk Summary

SIMS Incident Reporting

22 February

Afghan and coalition security forces discovered an explosives cache at Achin district, Nangarhar province during an operation in eastern Afghanistan.

23 February

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said it has thwarted planned attacks on the presidential palace and US facilities in Kabul. Officers with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) arrested three people in Kabul who had been trained in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

At least two Taliban leaders were detained by Afghan and International Security As- sistance Forces following a joint military operation in Nahr-e-Saraj district of southern Helmand province.

28 February

Afghan police backed by national army and NATO-led forces have killed a dozen anti- government militants during series of operations over the past 24 hours. February 2012 29 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

1 February Seven ADA Trainers Detained in Parwan

Seven trainers with the Afghan Development Association (ADA) were arrested in connection with a recent blaze at the Sadiq High School in central Parwan province, an official said.

The ADA staffers, who were training schoolteachers in the province, were detained in Charikar, the provincial capital, police chief, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Akram said.

Akram said he had no information whether or not the trainers were involved in the arson attack.

Deputy chief of ADA, Aziz Ahmad Akbari confirmed the arrest of seven trainers, saying they were trying to bail them out. He said the men were busy training 56 teachers at the school, where the fire erupted three days ago.

PAJHWOK

2 February Sherzai Orders Crackdown on Illegal Armed Groups

February 2012 Nangarhar governor Gul Agha Sherzai said he has ordered a crackdown on illegal armed groups and individuals in the eastern province. 30 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

In an exclusive interview, Sherzai said he would not tolerate any threat to people and traders from an armed group or individual in his province.

The governor said he had ordered police headquarters, Afghan National Army (ANA), National Directorate of Intelligence (NDS) and border police to bust gangs carrying illegal arms and arrest anyone found guilty. He assured protection to the lives and property of traders, craftsmen and businessmen.

PAJHWOK

4 February Taliban Kills Two Civilians in Nimroz

The Taliban fighters killed two men on the charge of spying for Afghan and foreign troops in Nimroz province, officials said.

District police chief said that the incident occurred in Qala-i-Naw area, Khashrood district of the province.

According to him, the killed persons had no link with the government and foreign forces.

BAKHTAR NEWS

6 February Warring Nangarhar Tribes Agree on Truce

Two major tribes have agreed on a three-year ceasefire over a land dispute that had claimed several lives from the two sides in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an official said. February 2012 Speaking at a joint conference with Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sehrzai, presidential adviser on tribal affairs, Asadullah Wafa, hoped the ceasefire between the two sub-tribes of Shinwari tribe --- Seepai and Alisherkhel --- would end the two-year-old dispute. 31 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

Several men of the tribes have been killed in clashes over the land in Kahi desert situated between Achin and Spinghar districts, he added.

PAJHWOK

8 February Kapisa Residents Complain of Insecurity on Roads

“We cannot travel to districts because of security reasons,” a resident of Sakhin area of Ala Sai district, Mohammad Sabir reported.

His brother, an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier, was killed by Taliban fighters on his way home, he said. “Some of the fighters kill innocent people on the charge of working for the government,” he said.

Tariq, a teacher in Mahmood Raqi, capital of Kapisa province, said the government must establish checkpoints along roads to ensure safe traveling.

“The Taliban detained me earlier this year when I was on my way to Tagab district. I told them that I am a teacher, but they threatened me with death if I did not quit the job,” he said. After that incident, he said, he could not travel to Tagab and Ala Sai districts.

People of the two districts say robbers in the disguise of Taliban or Afghan security personnel sometimes loot them on the road to Tagab and Ala Sai districts.

AFGHAN VOICE AGENCY

12 February Mysterious Killings in Laghman Fuel Concerns

There has been a sharp increase in mysterious killings in eastern Laghman province, residents claimed, calling for effective measures to deal with the current wave of insecurity.

The security situation was deteriorating in Laghman, especially in the provincial capital where two people were mysteriously killed a week ago, said Shafiqullah, a resident of the Pashyi village. He said Mehtarlam residents could not come out of their houses in the evening.

February 2012 Another resident, Hafizullah complained people could not transfer patients to hospital due to the presence of gunmen on main roads. He stressed the need for concrete steps to address the situation. 32 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

Qarghayee district council head, Haji Shah Murad Khan claimed finding a dead body near a river some days ago. Although the district’s security was handed to Afghan forces as part of the transition process, such mysterious murders offered cause for concern, he said.

THE FREE LIBRARY

16 February Civil Society Activists Beaten Up in Badakhshan

Two senior civil society activists were beaten up after they criticised Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) members in northern Badakshan province, officials said.

Officials said Abdul Latif Pedram, a lawmaker from Badakshan, and Malim Saifullah, the civil society organization head, exchanged hot words on issues concerning development of the province.

PAJHWOK

17 February Afghan Bride Burns Herself in Protest of Domestic Violence

“I have knocked any door to get rid of violence but all of my complaints have fallen to deaf ears. Instead, the prosecutor accused me of lying and warned me of dire consequence,” a woman named Sadat revealed her ordeal in a weak voice while receiving treatment in Herat hospital. February 2012 Sadat, 15, is a native of Herat province 640 km west of Afghan capital Kabul. She married a man five months ago, hoping to start a happy new life. 33 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

“I got married to a man in Sawa village of Anjil district five months ago. My husband and my father-in-law had beaten me without any reason several times. The repeated mistreatment had forced me to complain, but all in vain as the prosecutor in Herat city overlooked my petition and warned me to either withdraw the complaint or face imprison- ment,” the badly injured bride said from her bed in hospital.

“The last time I sought justice, the prosecutor again warned me of dire consequence if I refuse to withdraw my complaints. Such behavior left me with no choice but self- immolation because it was the only way to get rid of violence and insult,” the severely burned lady murmured in her bed.

RAWA

18 February Unknown Armed Men Kill Teacher in Nangarhar

Unknown armed men killed a high school teacher in Pachiragam district of Nangarhar province, governor’s office said.

Nasratullah Noorzai, the executive director of Governor’s office, said that the teacher was a resident of Zamarkhail area of Pachiragam district of Nangarhar province. He was a high school teacher as well as an Imam in a local mosque.

The teacher was killed when he was on the way home back from the mosque, Noorzai added.

According to Noorzai, Nangarhar police has already launched a series of investigations in order to find the ones who committed this crime.

BOST NEWS

19 February Two Killed and as Many Wounded in Herat Attack

Two people, including a policeman, were shot dead and as many civilians injured by unidentified motorcyclists in the Shindand district of western Herat province, an official said. The incident happened in the Azizabad area when two men riding a bike opened fire on a walking policeman, the district garrison commander, Mohammad Salim, told reporters. He said the policeman and a civilian were killed and another two civilians sustained

February 2012 injuries in the attack. The assailants managed to flee. 34 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, said a local police commander was shot dead by one of their fighters in the area.

PAJHWOK

20 February Man Mutilates His Wife in Herat

A man cut his wife’s finger with a scissor in Herat province. Marya Bashir, the Head of Court of Appeals of Herat province, said in a press conference that, Arefa, the young lady who spent nine years in Iran as a refuge, had been tortured several times by her husband and his family.

Arefa’s husband killed her three year old child three days ago, because the child was disturbing his sleep.

Bashir added that Arefa has been frequently tortured by her husband and mutilated several times.

According to the justice authorities of Herat province, more than two hundred cases of violence against women have been registered with their institutions and they imprisoned the ones that committed these crimes against women in Herat province.

Herat police forces arrested Arefa’s husband the other day in Injil district of Herat province.

BOST NEWS

21 February Afghan Journalist Beheaded

An Afghan radio reporter was beheaded in the insurgency-plagued Paktika after being lured to a meeting by unidentified men, an official said.

The body of Samid Khan Bahadarzai, 25, who worked for a local radio station in the town of Urgun, was found near his home just hours after he received the call.

“We are investigating to find out who is behind this brutal beheading, but he was killed after receiving a call by someone asking him out,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan

February 2012 Zadran said. 35 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

Journalists have in the past been targeted by Taliban insurgents who objected to their reporting, but a Taliban spokesman told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency that it was not responsible for Bahadarzai’s death.

“Mujahideen never kill journalists,” said Zabiullah Mujahid. “The Taliban can resolve matters with the journalists by talking to them directly.”

In 2007, Afghan reporter and interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi was beheaded after being left behind when an Italian journalist hostage was freed by the Taliban.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

26 February Tribal Elder Injured in Laghman Attack

A tribal elder along with his father and son was shot and injured by unidentified gunmen in Laghman, officials said.

Haji Shah Mard Khan, who heads the Qargahyee district development council, was attacked along with his father and son on his way to the district headquarters at around 07:30hrs.

District chief, Saadullah Behbud, told reporters that the injured were taken to the Mehtar- lam Civil Hospital by police, who had launched an investigation into the incident.

February 2012 There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

PAJHWOK 36 Monthly Risk Summary

Crime Topics

27 February Afghan Soldiers Threaten Kandahar Reporters

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers abused and threatened with arrest a group of jour- ۔nalists in southern Kandahar province

The ugly incident took place when reporters, responding to an invitation from the media office at the governor’s house in Kandahar city, wanted to attend a press briefing at 205th ۔Atal Military Corps headquarters

When the reporters were leaving after the briefing, a man in plainclothes used foul language for the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) team. The man snatched a microphone ۔and a camera from the journalists

In charge of the RTA team, Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi said a soldier in uniform introduced ۔himself as ANA official before using abusive language

LEXIS NEXIS February 2012 37 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

1 February Afghans’ Attacks on U.S. Troops Often Personal

Supposedly friendly Afghan security forces have attacked U.S. and coalition troops 45 times since May 2007, U.S. officials said, for the first time laying out details and analysis of attacks that have killed 70 and wounded 110, media report said.

In testimony prepared for delivery to the House Armed Services Committee, defense officials said that in most cases the Afghans acted out of personal motivation and were not controlled or directed by insurgent groups. The second most common circumstances involved insurgents impersonating or infiltrating Afghan security forces.

Such insider attacks by Afghan security forces have been on the rise, punctuated by the 20 Jan. shooting of four French troops by an Afghan soldier, which prompted France to halt its training program and threaten to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan earlier than planned. The incidents further erode support for the increasingly unpopular war in Af- ghanistan, and add more complications to the already difficult mission of U.S. forces. The figures do not include an incident Wednesday in which an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan. International forces and the Afghan army

February 2012 disagreed on exactly what happened in the killing.

ASSOCIATED PRESS 38 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

2 February Why Taliban Are So Strong in Afghanistan

NATO has invested hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 10 years trying to raise a modern army for Afghanistan and to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

But if a leaked classified report prepared by the alliance is to believed, all this will go to waste soon after foreign combat forces withdraw in 2014.

The harsh reality is that an increasing number of Afghans are turning to the Taliban, having grown mistrustful of NATO and Afghan forces.

In remote parts of the country where the government rules only on paper, the Taliban are often preferred. People have little choice but to support the Taliban in many areas, given the power of the militants.

But widespread corruption in the government and a culture of impunity - where senior bureaucrats or those with connections to them easily escape punishment even for serious crimes like murder - are seen as reasons for people moving closer to the Taliban.

The country’s poor literacy rate and the Taliban’s psychological war in many districts is believed to have helped the insurgents to win the hearts of the Afghan population. Taliban songs, videos and ring tones play on people’s emotions.

BBC

3 February French Forces Leave Afghan Base

French forces have withdrawn from a forward operating base in Afghanistan where four French servicemen were shot dead by a renegade Afghan soldier last month, the general staff said.

The base in Gwan, in the south of Kapisa province, was handed over to the Afghan National Army, the general staff’s spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, told a press conference.

Five convoys with about 50 vehicles and 85 containers left the area and were headed for a base at Tora, near the capital Kabul. February 2012 The killing of the four soldiers by a rogue Afghan ally shocked France. 39 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

A week later President Nicolas Sarkozy announced France was withdrawing its 3,600-strong contingent by the end of 2013, a year before the international deadline of 2014.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

4 February U.S. Plans Shift to Elite Units as it Winds down in Afghanistan

The United States’ plan to wind down its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than expected relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt insurgent leaders and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers, media reported.

These forces could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014. The plan, if approved by President Obama, would amount to the most significant evolu- tion in the military campaign since Obama sent in 32,000 more troops to wage an intensive and costly counterinsurgency effort.

Under the emerging plan, American conventional forces, focused on policing large parts of Afghanistan, will be the first to leave, while thousands of American Special Operations forces remain, making up an increasing percentage of the troops on the ground; their number may even grow.

The plan would put a particularly heavy focus on Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets. They would be in charge of training a variety of Afghan security forces. At the same time, the elite commando teams within Special Operations forces would continue their raids to hunt down, capture or kill insurgent commanders and terrorist leaders February 2012 and keep pressure on cells of fighters to prevent them from mounting attacks.

THE NEW YORK TIMES 40 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

5 February 22 Children Killed by Afghan Winter’s Cold

Media reported Saturday that at least 22 Afghan children, all under the age of 5, have frozen to death in the past month in two refugee camps in the capital, Kabul, after fleeing with their families from Afghanistan’s war zones. The newspaper says the dead children include 3-month-old twin girls and a month-old boy.

Government officials have sought to “suppress or play down” the deaths. However, the children’s deaths have prompted “soul searching among aid workers” who question how children could be dying of something as “predictable and manageable as the cold” in a country that has received tens of billions of dollars in humanitarian aid and international development assistance.

Afghanistan is experiencing one its coldest winters in decades, with temperatures reaching far below the freezing point most nights.

A U.N. official said there are 35,000 people in the two Kabul camps without heat or electricity. He said the situation is “a humanitarian crisis.”

VOICE OF AMERICA

6 February Opium: Afghanistan’s New Front Line

Researchers started looking into the problem of child drug addiction in Afghanistan in 2008. Over two years, they went into the homes of 50 known opium smokers to assess whether the children were affected too. In the first year, 61 per cent of children tested positive for opiates. In the second year, 74 per cent tested positive, a news analysis said. “We found everything saturated in opium smoke,” said Thom Browne, chief of the Office of Anticrime Programmes Criminal Justice Division at the Bureau of International Narcot- ics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

They established the children were becoming addicted in a number of ways: they were inhaling their parents’ second-hand smoke; they were absorbing it through their skin because it was on toys, blankets and pillows and parents were giving it to them as a medicine and pain reliever. Parents were also giving them heroin paste as a “babysit- ting” method so they could work weaving carpets. In some provinces, during the opium harvest, farmers would also have their children score the poppy and, again, they would

February 2012 absorb it through their skin. 41 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

Aid groups in Afghanistan have expressed concern that despite billions being poured into the country in aid, a large proportion of the next generation – in a country where in some rural villages all the population is addicted to opiates – will be addicted to drugs. But a silver lining exists. Although the research has identified a horrifying epidemic, the research now is being done in Afghanistan on how to treat child addicts is starting to be used as a blueprint for the rest of the world.

THE INDEPENDENT

7 February NATO Reassures Afghans over Combat Missions

NATO sought to reassure Afghans Monday that despite talk of an early end to combat missions, foreign troops would fight “shoulder to shoulder” with local soldiers whenever needed until the end of 2014, media reported.

The reassurance came after confusion over remarks by US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta suggesting that Washington wanted to shift from a combat role to a “train and advise and assist role” by the end of 2013.

Defence ministers meeting in Brussels last week were, however, completely committed to the strategy already in place, a spokesman for NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, Simon Gass, told a news conference.

“And what that means is that right up until the end of the transition process, the end of 2014, NATO troops will be continuing to conduct combat missions wherever they are needed, shoulder to shoulder with Afghan troops.”

Panetta, seeking to clear up any confusion, told reporters in Brussels that NATO troops “will have to be fully combat-ready” and will fight “as necessary” even as Afghan forces assume the security lead.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

8 February Afghan Jihad Said to Attract Fewer Foreign Fighters

The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western

February 2012 security officials said, media reported today. 42 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, a security official said. However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion -- a drastic reduction over recent months.

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Muammar Qaddafi from power, he added.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

9 February Afghan Private Security Handover Looking Messy

The push by Afghanistan’s president to nationalize legions of private security guards before the end of March is encouraging corruption and jeopardizing multibillion-dollar aid projects, according to companies trying to make the switch, media reported.

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. He ordered them abolished in 2009 and eventually set March 20 of this year as the

February 2012 deadline for everyone except NATO and diplomatic missions to switch to government- provided security. 43 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

Afghan officials are rushing to meet the cutoff with the help of NATO advisers. But with fewer than six weeks to go, it’s likely that many components will still be missing on 20 March. And even once everything falls into place, higher costs and issues of authority over the government guards will remain.

The change imperils billions of dollars of aid flowing into Afghanistan, particularly from the United States. In a country beset by insurgent attacks and suicide bombings, the private development companies that implement most of the U.S. aid agency’s programs employ private guards to protect compounds, serve as armed escorts and guard construction sites.

On 21 March, approximately 11,000 guards now working for private security firms will become government employees as members of the Afghan Public Protection Force, or APPF. They will still be working in the same place with the same job. Except now they’ll answer to the Interior Ministry.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

10 February Karzai Extends Deadline for Bagram Prison Handover

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has extended until 9 March deadline for the transfer of full control of Bagram Prison to Afghan authorities, media reports said Friday. An earlier deadline for the U.S.-led international coalition to hand over the prison expired on 5 February.

A statement from the presidential office cited “non cooperation by the American side” and said Kabul was suspending “all legal and judicial operations” at the prison. A later statement issued by Karzai’s office did not include the statements about the U.S.

Karzai’s demand that the coalition cede control came after an Afghan commission reported complaints of strip searches and inmates held in solitary confinement.

According to another report, US embassy officials in Kabul said,”we welcome the decision of Afghan president Hamid Karzai to postpone the responsibilities transition of Ba- gram prison to Afghan security forces and we will work jointly with the Afghan government to implement the transition program.” The officials however did not provide further details if the United States was prepared to hand over the Bagram prison to Afghanistan at the specified time but said that negotia-

February 2012 tions are in process.

KHAAMA PRESS / RADIO FREE EUROPE-RADIO LIBERTY

44 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

13 February Months after Pardon, Would-Be Afghan Child Bombers Arrested Again

Six months ago, in a moving ceremony held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Hamid Karzai went on national television to pardon about two dozen young boys, who had been caught trying to carry out suicide attacks. On Monday, authorities in Kandahar province reported that two of the children, a pair of 10-year-olds, had been rearrested last week, apparently intending once again to carry out bombings.

Provincial spokesman Zalmay Ayubi said the two boys each had a vest full of explosives when they were detained along with three adult militant suspects, and that they told intelligence officers they had been recruited for suicide missions. A statement from provincial authorities in Kandahar quoted one of the boys, named Azizullah, as saying that the pair had undergone madrassa training in Pakistan, and that mullahs told them that when they set off their bombs, they would be unharmed by the blast.

Prior to the pardon, the youngsters had been held in a juvenile detention center in the capital. The children told Karzai of having been told to try to approach foreign troops and set off their bombs, and of receiving drugs beforehand, which they were told, was medicine to make them strong.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

14 February Allen to Review Afghan Attacks on NATO Troops

President Obama is personally concerned about the spike in “inside-the-wire” attacks on U.S. troops by Afghan soldiers, and senior NATO officials in Brussels have ordered the war’s top commander in Kabul, Marine Gen. John Allen, to review efforts to prevent the killings, media reported.

“We tasked Gen. Allen to report back on the steps that are being taken,” Defense Sec- retary Leon Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “And they are moving aggressively to do a better review of those who are going into the Afghan army … better background checks in order to ensure that these incidents are cut back.”

Military officials recently acknowledged that at least 46 U.S. and NATO troops have been killed since 2007 when Afghan soldiers and other locals mounted attacks inside forward operating bases. Those attacks have become more frequent over the past two years

February 2012 after U.S. officials stepped up efforts to train the Afghan forces. Panetta said the attacks are “sporadic” rather than “endemic.” 45 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked Panetta about the attacks and cited an internal military report that identified a deep distrust between U.S. troops and the Afghans they are assigned to train.

ARMY TIMES

15 February Eight Afghan Youths Mistaken for Attackers, Coalition Says

Eight Afghan youths killed in a coalition air strike last week were mistaken for potential attackers, according to the International Security Assistance Force.

Ground forces observing the village in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, “identified several groups of adult-sized Afghan males that were leaving the village at different times and in different directions,” U.S. Brig. Gen. Lewis Boone, ISAF spokesman, said.

“One of these groups, consisting of eight persons, appeared to be carrying weapons and heading for the nearby mountains,” he said. “They were observed moving in open terrain in a tactical fashion, clearly keeping distance from each other. After approximately 500 meters they were seen to gather under a large boulder.”

“Their purposeful movements and the weapons they were seen to be carrying led the ground commander to believe this group was getting ready to attack and were an immi- nent threat to the Afghan National Police and coalition forces in the valley,” Boone said. As ground forces and air support continued to observe, the aircraft dropped two bombs on the group, he added. February 2012 CNN 46 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

17 February Russia Said to Block U.S. Drug Plan amid Wariness over Central Asian Influence

Russia has reportedly blocked a U.S. plan designed to help stem the flow of drugs from Afghanistan through Central Asia in a sign of Moscow’s continued wariness about Wash- ington’s intentions in a region often thought of as “Russia’s backyard”, media reported today. A delegation of U.S. officials led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and William Brownfield, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, presented the plan at a 16 February meeting in Vienna of the Paris Pact countries, which works to counter trafficking in Afghan opiates.

Washington’s proposed Central Asia Counter narcotics Initiative (CACI) would create task forces in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan which would coordinate with similar entities in Afghanistan and Russia.

Each task force would be comprised of some 25 people from their country’s drug control agency who would be mentored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The groups would share information, improve coordination on joint and cross-border operations, and build cases against traffickers.

RADIO FREE EUROPE-RADIO LIBERTY

18 February NATO Strike ‘Not Coordinated with Afghans’

A NATO air strike that killed eight young Afghans last week was not coordinated with Afghan police, the interior minister said today, contradicting what the force said after the incident.

The attack on 8 February in Kapisa province, where French troops are based, raised concern that it would further deteriorate already strained relations between the Afghan government and its Western allies.

Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, who was questioned by parliament over the incident, said Afghan forces were not involved, denying a previous report by NATO that it was a joint operation. “We were not involved in that incident, NATO did not coordinate that attack with our police,” he said. February 2012 47 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

The US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan conceded that eight young men were killed during a recent air strike but insisted they were armed teenagers who posed a “threat” to soldiers. “We have assigned a delegation to talk to NATO why they didn’t inform us of the operation,” Mohammadi said, insisting that the number of civilian casualties caused by Afghan and NATO forces had decreased “considerably” due to good coordination, but the Kapisa incident was an exception.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

20 February Afghan Soldiers Take over New Patrol Base

Nearly 300 members of the Afghan National Army have taken command of a new patrol base in Lashkar Gah district, Helmand province, built with the assistance of UK forces, media reported today.

Patrol Base Jahan Zeb, which was built by Afghan contractors over four months, has been officially handed over to 280 warriors of the 4th Kandak, 3rd Brigade, 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Lieutenant Colonel Ian Mortimer, Commanding Officer of The Queen’s Royal Hussars Battle Group, officially transferred command of the base to Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah Karem Khan, commanding officer of the Kandak, during a short ribbon-cutting ceremony. The fully air-conditioned and comfortable accommodation is far superior to that which the warriors usually live in and will provide security to the Lashkar Gah district and to the vital Route 601 in the area.

The $1.35m (roughly £850,000) project was funded by the International Security As- sistance Force (ISAF), and Brigadier General Sherin Shah, the Commander of 3/215 Brigade, praised the new base and emphasised his gratitude towards the ISAF for providing it.

DEFENCE PROFESSIONALS

21 February Japan Contributes USD 20 Million for Afghan Forces Training NATO Deputy

US Secretary General Alexander Vershbow Tuesday welcomed the contribution of USD

February 2012 20 million from the Japanese government to the Afghan National Army Trust Fund. 48 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

The Japanese Ambassador to Belgium, Jun Yokota delivered his government’s pledge to Vershbow at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, said a NATO statement.

The donation will support long-term basic literacy training for the Afghan National Secu- rity Forces through the NATO-run Afghan National Army Trust Fund.

Training and developing the Afghan Security Forces is a crucial element of the Afghan and international strategy to transition the lead for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

The donation is the third made by Japan to the Fund in the last three years.

“NATO and the people of Afghanistan alike know how valuable Japan’s support is,” Ver- shbow said. “It is all the more welcome because we know the challenges that Japan has been facing at home, as the country continues to focus on recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.”

KUWAIT NEWS AGENCY

23 February Afghanistan, U.S Looking at Removing Detention, Night Raids from Partnership Talks

The U.S and the Afghan governments are considering pushing through a long-delayed partnership agreement by moving the contentious issues of night raids and control over detainees to separate negotiations, officials from both countries said today.

The two governments have been working for about a year to nail down the terms of a strategic partnership document that would govern U.S operations in Afghanistan after 2014, when the Afghan government is expected to take charge of security countrywide.

The pact is expected to provide for several thousand U.S troops to stay in the country to train Afghan forces and help with counterterrorism operations. It will outline the legal status of those forces in Afghanistan, their operating rules and where they will be based.

The agreement is seen as key to assuring the Afghan people that the U.S does not plan to abandon the country, even as its draws down troops and cuts aid funding. Both sides also hope it will settle several divisive issues over how American troops will operate in Afghanistan. February 2012 ASSOCIATED PRESS 49 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

24 February 10,000 Marines to Be Cut in Afghanistan

U.S. commanders plan to cut the Marine Corps’ footprint in south western Afghanistan dramatically this year, from about 17,000 personnel now to about 7,000 in October, said the top officer in the region.

The reductions will occur in coming months as the U.S. demilitarizes bases in Helmand and Nimroz provinces, Maj. Gen. John Toolan told reporters. The number of bases and outposts in the region also will drop, from about 250 last fall to about 28 in October, he said.

Toolan, commander of Regional Command-Southwest and II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), said his forces now have 108 bases and outposts in the region, primarily in Helmand province, where the majority of the Corps’ work in Afghanistan has occurred in the last few years. The drawdown will occur as Afghan forces in the region take on more responsibility for security.

“We’re going to have some choices about where the greatest threat is and where the greatest need is as far as readiness of the Afghan national security force and the commander is going to have some decisions about how to best apportion the forces he has come October,” Toolan said.

The plan is even more pronounced than drawdown details released late last year. At that time, Marine officials suggested the Corps’ footprint in Afghanistan would likely be reduced from about 19,000 personnel to 10,000 in fall 2012. February 2012 MARINE CORPS TIMES 50 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

26 February Afghans in UK to Train Our Troops

More than 100 Afghans who fled to Britain are to be hired to train soldiers in how to take on the Taliban, media reports said today.

They will be paid up to £300 a day to teach troops about cultural challenges they will face while serving in the war-torn nation.

It comes after Defence Secretary Philip Hammond last week said he would “look at the pattern of withdrawal for next year.”

Many of those hired will have served in the Afghan National Army. They will tell squaddies about their customs and play the Taliban in mock fights at bases in Wiltshire and Norfolk. A military source said: “This is all about ensuring our soldiers have a better understanding of the day-today life and culture within Afghanistan.”

LEXIS NEXIS

27 February Italian Intelligence: Higher Threat in Afghanistan

The threat level for Italians in Afghanistan is “high even in the western region, which is the Italian area, where members of our military contingent have suffered repeated attacks.” This warning came from the Italian intelligence annual report to parliament, media reported.“Critical elements that were confirmed in 2011,” the analyst’s report said, “appear destined to last in the medium and long term. This is true for political-institutional tensions, as in the transition process that risks failure in the absence of adequate progress as far as governance and socio-economic development is concerned.”

And “also in the area of security, the country appears to once again become a theater of an offensive by insurgent forces. This situation continues to place foreign military and civilian personnel, including Italians, operating across the country, at risk.”

AGENZIA GIORNALISTICA ITALIA

28 February Canadian Forces Officer Fined for Discharging Pistol in Kabul Airport

February 2012 A senior officer in the Canadian Forces has been fined $1,500 for accidentally firing a live round of ammunition inside Kabul International Airport, media reported. 51 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

Lt.-Col. Gilles Fortin, a highly regarded 25-year veteran of the Canadian Forces, pleaded guilty to mishandling his 9mm sidearm. Fortin is one of three senior Canadian officers to accidentally discharge a weapon in Afghanistan last year.

The court martial heard that Fortin arrived at Kabul airport on first September as part of his deployment with NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre. Fortin was met by Canadian soldiers who gave him a duffle bag with his tactical equipment: a dismantled C7 rifle, a loaded Browning pistol and a fragmentation vest.

Fortin wanted to dismantle the pistol to ensure its recoil spring and guide had been prop- erly installed. So he took the weapon from the duffle bag and unloaded the magazine.

Fortin then pulled back the slide of the gun, but did not check to see if a round was already in the firing chamber. He pulled the trigger and the gun discharged.

The shot was fired at the ground in front of Fortin. No one was injured. Chief Military Judge Col. Mario Dutil said Fortin accepted full responsibility for the incident. But had Fortin followed proper procedure and checked the firing chamber of the weapon, the judge noted, the incident would have been avoided.

OTTAWA CITIZEN

29 February Quran Burning in Afghanistan Prompts Three Parallel Inquiries

Three major investigations were under way into the Quran burning at Bagram Air Base by the American military last week, the event that plunged Afghanistan into days of deadly protests claiming as many as 30 Afghan lives and coinciding with the shooting deaths of four American soldiers. The investigations signal the seriousness of the incident for both the Afghans and the Americans and an understanding of the need to offer a full explana- tion and a reckoning for the perpetrators.

After the protests, Afghanistan has been quiet in the past few days, but the findings of the reports are keenly awaited by Afghans and are likely to prove politically delicate and to be a test of public opinion.

One investigation is by Americans, one is by Afghans and one is a joint Afghan-American inquiry.

February 2012 The formal American military investigation is the only one that can lead to punishment, while the other two will include recommendations but do not carry formal legal weight. 52 Monthly Risk Summary

Security News

The formal legal inquiry, opened by General Allen on 21 February, is intended to under- stand the events that led to soldiers throwing Qurans and other Muslim religious texts into a burn pit at the military base more than a week ago. The investigation is a first step in a process that could lead ultimately to criminal legal action or lesser administrative punishment.

The inquiry will conclude with a final report, which could comprise a recommendation for further legal action, including a more formal process that could lead to court-martial. The final report is due to be handed to General Allen in the second half of March. Any legal action will be pursued under United States laws and regulations, not Afghan laws, a NATO legal official said.

THE NEW YORK TIMES February 2012 53 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

1 February U.S. And Allies Plan to Give Afghanistan Forces Lead Role in 2013

The U.S. and its military allies in Afghanistan intend to hand the lead combat role to Afghan forces next year, according to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, shifting to training and advising mission as they press ahead with their withdrawal after more than a decade of fighting, media reported.

By announcing a specific timetable, U.S. officials are hoping to head off a push by allies to pull out their forces more quickly. Public support for the war is falling in many countries, and with their economies struggling, governments are under pressure to trim their defense budgets.

The top commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, said in De- cember that he was planning such a shift, but Panetta’s comment on his way to a NATO meeting in Brussels marked the first time a senior U.S. official had provided a timetable. The shift to an advisory mission in Afghanistan is similar to the approach used in Iraq,

February 2012 where U.S. troops pulled out of major cities and focused on training Iraqi troops more than a year before leaving for good. 54 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

According to another report, top republican senator John Mccain has slammed the Obama administration’s plan to end Afghan combat mission in 2013, saying the “very unfortunate” move is more directed towards domestic politics rather than ground reali- ties. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney called the administration’s decision to announce its military plans to the world “misguided” and “naive.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES / MSN / ABC OTUS

2 February US Donates $800m to Afghanistan

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has dedicated $800 million to Afghanistan, media reported today.

The US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, said that the money will be spent on agriculture, health, training sectors and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

“We are signing several important documents that enforce our long term commitment to the development of Afghanistan and its people,” Crocker said. “The documents that we are signing represent more than 8 hundred million dollars of US government funding for the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund in the health, economic growth, agriculture, infrastructure, education, general projects and stabilization sectors,” Crocker added.

Meanwhile, the Afghan ministry of Finance said that USAID will donate more than $1b which will be spent by the government of Afghanistan. USAID will increase its aid from 5 percent to 35 percent through Afghanistan’s Reconstruction Trust Fund.

TOLO NEWS

3 February Pak ‘Safe Sanctuaries’ Causing Problems in Afghanistan

Doubting Pakistan’s “willingness” to go after the militant groups enjoying sanctuary in the country, a top US intelligence official has said these elements have caused major problems for the Afghan and coalition forces working for a “new” Afghanistan, a news article said today.

“We should be cautious in what we anticipate in terms of the ability of our Pakistani partners, and in some cases the willingness to go after the Haqqani network in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the Afghan Taliban down in Baluchistan,” David Petraeus, February 2012 Director of CIA, said lawmakers at a Congressional hearing, responding to a question from Congressman Adam Schiff. 55 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

“My chief concern about Afghanistan is the safe haven in Pakistan. And my questions are these. First, do you anticipate any change in the status of the sanctuary that the insurgency finds in Pakistan?” Schiff asked.

“And second, if we can’t expect that there’s going to be much of a change in that safe haven for the Taliban insurgency, can we reasonably expect that the Afghan forces will be able to defend against an insurgency that enjoys that safe haven once we draw down our troops?” he questioned. “Finally, should Afghan special forces be allowed to take the fight to the enemy leadership in Pakistan, and the sense of immunity from risk that the senior Taliban leadership enjoy in Pakistan,” the Congressman asked. Petraeus replied that there was no question about the existence of safe haven in Pakistan.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

4 February Pakistan PM to Visit Qatar to Talk Afghan Peace

Pakistan’s prime minister will travel to the Gulf state of Qatar next week to talk with government leaders there about moves to broker a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban, media reported.

The insurgents last month announced they were setting up a political office in Qatar to facilitate talks.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani said on Saturday that the premier would be in Qatar on Monday to discuss the peace process with the government there. February 2012 Pakistan is an important player in moves to end the 10-year-old war in Afghanistan because many of the leaders of the insurgency are said to be sheltering on its territory. 56 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

The country’s security forces are alleged to have links with the militants that could be useful in bringing them to the negotiating table.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

5 February No Secret Talks with Anti-Government Armed Groups: Abdullah

Peace talks with anti-government armed groups should not be held secretly, Leader of the Change and Hope Coalition, Abdullah Abdullah said.

He criticized the peace process arguing that neither Afghan political parties, nor civil society or the people in general are part of it. Abdullah made the comments while speaking at a gathering in Kabul marking the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed. He added that the government has to keep people informed on how and on what conditions peace talks will be held.

“Playing with the great wish of the Afghan people which is peace in the county is a political game. If a political game is played, whether at the regional or international level, it will not only lead to peace but will also distance us from peace,” the Leader of Change and Hope Coalition said.

Meanwhile, some members of parliament warned that if no proper measures are taken, the country will be faced with a catastrophe beyond 2014 when all foreign forces will be withdrawn. Afghan MP, Mohammed Yonus Qanooni, says that if talks continue to be held as before, it will only give privileges to the anti-government armed groups. He also said that changing the geography of war in the country will not bring peace and stability.

TOLO NEWS

6 February Afghan Interpreters to Get Second Chance to Come to Canada

More than 100 Afghan citizens who put their lives on the line to help Canada’s Afghani- stan mission are getting a second chance to resettle in Canada.

The Prime Minister’s Office in Canada has quietly ordered the federal immigration department to review the cases of Afghan citizens who helped Canadian diplomats and soldiers in Kandahar and Kabul — often at great personal risk — but were snubbed in

February 2012 their bids to come to Canada. 57 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

The news could mean that Sayed Shah Sharifi, an interpreter whose story has been featured in media, could get another shot at coming to Canada. His initial application had been rejected, even though his service to the Canadian military won him accolades.

The surprise review comes amidst criticism that the Conservative government had be- trayed a promise of Canadian citizenship to Afghans who had worked alongside Canadi- ans on the battlefield. As well, Harper’s office has removed one contentious criterion that had been seen as a roadblock to many Afghans seeking to make a new life in Canada, according to a source familiar with the file.

THE STAR

7 February ‘Pak for Afghan-Led Reconciliation Process in Afghanistan’

Pakistan will support any Afghan-led reconciliation process in Afghanistan that does not cause instability in its territory, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said during a visit to Qatar, where the Taliban intend to open a political office.

Gilani made the remarks during a meeting with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabar Al-Thani.

Pakistan wants a stable, prosperous and independent Afghanistan and will “support any reconciliation process which was Afghan-led and Afghan-owned and did not cause instability in Pakistan”, he said.

February 2012 The premier appreciated the Qatari government’s initiatives for facilitating efforts for peace in Afghanistan. Gilani further said Pakistan wants good relations with all its neigh- bours, including Afghanistan and India. 58 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

The Pakistani premier began a two-day visit to Qatar, where his discussions will focus on the Afghan reconciliation process, including the Taliban’s plans to open a political office in the Gulf state, and bilateral cooperation in areas like energy and trade.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

8 February Top US Envoy ‘Met Taliban Leaders in Qatar’

Marc Grossman held the talks with Taliban representatives late last month in Qatar, where a team of Taliban diplomats is based ahead of the opening of a political office there to host negotiations between America, the insurgents and the Afghan government, media reported.

“I can confirm that Grossman met with the Taliban representatives in Qatar. When the president (Karzai) was in Rome, Grossman came over to his residence and briefed him about his meetings with the Taliban,” said the senior official, who asked to remain anony- mous.

Representatives from the former Taliban regime assembled in Qatar last month, with the aim of opening the official office later this year “to come to an understanding with other nations”.

The delegation includes Tayeb Agha, former secretary to Taliban leader Mullah Moham- mad Omar, who has acted as go-between with American and German diplomats for more than a year.

Grossman’s meeting, if confirmed, would be the first known contact made between the Taliban and a senior, named member of the Obama administration since the start of the Afghanistan war over ten years ago.

THE TELEGRAPH

9 February Pakistan, Russia Agree on Reconciliation in Afghanistan

Pakistan and Russia agreed to support stability as well as peace in Afghanistan and reaffirmed their support for Afghan-led and Afghan-owned efforts towards promoting national reconciliation in the country, media reported.

February 2012 Foreign Office stated here Wednesday that several important regional and bilateral issues were discussed in the meetings between the visiting Foreign Minister of Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar Foreign and Minister Sergey Lavrov. 59 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

“Expressing their deep concerns about the threat of terrorism and drug-related crimes persisting in the region, representing a serious challenge to peace and stability, the two sides agreed to continue their cooperation in this regard,” the statement added.

During the visit, the two sides held in-depth discussions on a range of bilateral matters, as well as important regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Taking note of the considerable progress made in the political and security dialogue and intensification of high-level contacts in recent years between the two countries, the Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to build a long-term and broad-based partnership between Russia and Pakistan.

The two sides discussed several concrete proposals including oil exploration, hydro- power production/ distribution and coal-based power generation projects. Pakistan welcomed Russia’s willingness to participate in trans-regional energy projects namely, TAPI and CASA-1000. Pakistan also welcomed Russian interest in the Thar coal exploration .

ONLINE NEWS

11 February In Afghanistan, a Soviet Past Lies in Ruins

Kabul holds many glimpses of its Soviet past hidden in plain sight around its jumbled hillsides: a polytechnic school built in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and the United States jostled for cold war influence in Afghanistan by building big infrastructure projects; or a car factory expanded after 1979, when the Soviet Army marched in to wrench this nation more forcefully into the Kremlin’s sphere of power and way of thinking, a news article said.

The Soviets retreated in 1989, leaving Afghanistan to a civil war that swept up the Soviet- constructed edifices in the conflagration. However improbably, a few of these are still inhabited, like an engineering school and the Auto Mechanic Institute.

The starkest illustration of thwarted imperial ambition is the Soviet House of Science and Culture, near the Russian Embassy and the Kabul zoo. But during the civil war of 1992-96, the House of Science and Culture was occupied by one faction and wrecked as another lobbed shells down from a nearby hill.

Not every legacy bequeathed by the Soviets is lost. The Silo, an industrial bakery, fed the

February 2012 national Afghan Army and police. During the civil war, fighters threw their enemies from its rooftops. But its grimy yellow towers are once again turning out so-called silo bread for hospitals and schools. 60 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

The most enduring physical presence might be the Mikrorayon, gray apartment blocks originally built for Soviet administrators and the Afghan elite that stand amid the central suburbs of Kabul.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

12 February Afghans Fret Flight of Hard Cash a Sign of Things to Come

In the crush of people in Kabul’s Shahzada money market, conspiracy theories are a currency as hard as the bundles of cash in the hands of bearded traders trying to divine their future, news analysis said.

And the theory going around - amid the din of shouted exchange rates - is that Afghani- stan’s rich are preparing again to shift their money and lives from the country over fears of chaos or civil conflict after foreign troops leave. “The money will all go out of Afghani- stan. It is always like that. As soon as the foreign soldiers leave all the problems come back,” says money changer Hajji Asadullah, gripping bundles of U.S. dollar bills, Gulf currencies and tattered local Afghani notes, all wrapped tightly in rubber bands.

Three years from the end of NATO combat missions and a total transfer to local security, Afghan officials are thinking hard about how to stop the flight of hard currency like dollars, euros or scrip from Gulf countries like the UAE that usually happens when nervousness overtakes their countrymen. “It is the main topic of conversation now,” says Naseem Akbar, who heads Afghanistan’s Investment Support Agency and whose job is to lure investment, rather than stop it going out.

February 2012 A U.S. government audit report last year found it was almost impossible to track where much of the billions of dollars spent on security and development projects in the last decade had gone given the country’s dysfunctional financial tracking system and poor 61 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

bank oversight. Wealthy Afghans have for years locked their money into safe havens and property elsewhere, with Dubai and its man-made Palm Jumeirah island being favored locations, with an estimated $8 billion stashed away in the Arab emirate.

REUTERS

13 February France, Russia to Co-Preside Vienna Conference on Afghanistan

France and Russia are to co-preside a major international conference on 16 February in Vienna to discuss drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan but the two nations, who disagree over Syria, are also expected to hold talks on the sidelines on the worsening crisis in that country, official sources said, media reported today.

The Vienna Ministerial conference, dubbed “The Paris Pact” is the third in a series aimed at stamping out opium and heroin traffic in and from Afghanistan, and over 50 countries and a dozen major anti-drug and development agencies will attend.

The two previous conferences were held in 2003 and 2006 but onsite reports from Af- ghanistan said little progress has been made in eliminating opium culture and illicit trade in drugs, according to some independent observers. France cites “progress” on an orga- nizational level in strategy developed with UN agencies and in cooperation with Pakistan and Iran and other regional nations.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe is representing his country and will oversee the conference with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as well as holding bilateral talks, diplomats said here.

KUWAIT NEWS AGENCY

14 February Afghanistan Declares 15 Feb. “Day of Soviet Defeat”

Afghanistan has designated 15 February (today) a national holiday, Soviet Army Defeat Day, commemorating the withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, Ali Eftekhari, a spokesman for the Ministry of Martyred, Disabled, Labor and Social Af- fairs said.

He said the decision was made in line with a Supreme Court decree that comes more

February 2012 than two decades after the Soviet Union’s Red Army was forced out by U.S.-backed mujahedeen. 62 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

Russians also observe a holiday on February 15, Memorial Day, for Russian armed forces personnel serving abroad, which this year marks the 23rd anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union was involved in a bitter decade-long conflict in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. A million Afghan fighters and civilians are estimated to have lost their lives during the fighting. Some 15,000 Soviet soldiers also perished.

RIA NOVOSTI

15 February Pakistan to Host Afghan, Iranian Leaders

Pakistan is due today to host the leaders of Afghanistan and Iran in a counter-terrorism summit likely to be overshadowed by tensions between Tehran and Israel over a series of recent bombings.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are due to arrive separately for the two-day summit being hosted by Pakistani head of state Asif Ali Zardari in the capital Islamabad.

Israel this week accused Iran of targeting its diplomats in Georgia, India and Thailand, against a backdrop of speculation that the Jewish state or the United States could be months from launching military strikes against Iran.

February 2012 Ahmadinejad unveiled new strides in its nuclear programme in a defiant blow to US and EU sanctions designed to rein in its atomic activities. 63 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

“I don’t think so,” a senior Pakistani government official said when asked if mounting tensions between Iran and Israel, and the showdown over Iran’s nuclear programme, would dominate the summit. “The trilateral summit will discuss cooperation on counterterrorism and transnational organised crime including drug and human trafficking and border management,” the official said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

16 February Karzai says U.S. Afghans in Taliban Talks

The U.S. and Afghan governments have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, disclosing an important breakthrough in efforts to end the 10-year war, media reported today.

Karzai, whose government had protested being left out of recent talks between Wash- ington and the insurgents, added he believes most Taliban are “definitively” interested in a peace settlement.

“There have been contacts between the U.S. government and the Taliban, there have been contacts between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and there have been some contacts that we have made, all of us together, including the Taliban,” Karzai said in an interview in his office at the Palace in Kabul.

He declined to specify the location of the talks or go into further detail, saying he feared that could damage the process. Taliban spokesmen couldn’t be reached to comment.

A senior Obama administration official said the U.S. had assured Karzai that all we were interested in was seeing if we could open the door for Afghan-to-Afghan talks. These contacts began gaining traction about a year ago, after U.S. and German diplomats secretly met an aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, U.S. officials said.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

17 February Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan Seek Non-Interference

Against the backdrop of Western sanctions imposed on Teheran for its nuclear programme and Kabul’s concerns about US efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban, the Presi-

February 2012 dents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan called for “non-interference and non-intervention” in their internal affairs. 64 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

Following a trilateral summit, the leaders also pledged to step up cooperation for eradi- cating terrorism and militancy and said they would not allow “any threat emanating from their respective territories against each other”.

A joint statement issued after the summit said the three Presidents had agreed to “pro- ceed on the basis of mutual interest, mutual respect, non-interference and non-intervention in internal affairs”.

Official sources said that US-led efforts to hold negotiations with the Afghan Taliban and sanctions imposed by Western powers in connection with Iran’s nuclear programme had figured in both bilateral discussions between the Presidents and the trilateral summit. The statement said the three countries “reiterated their full support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned inclusive process of peace and reconciliation” in Afghanistan.

Pakistan President Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured Af- ghan President Hamid Karzai that they would “extend full cooperation and stressed that any initiative in this regard must have authentic Afghan ownership”, the statement said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

18 February Saudi Renews Call for Taliban to Renounce Qaeda

A senior Saudi official called on the Taliban to lay down their arms and renounce Al- Qaeda as preconditions for Saudi-mediated peace talks with the Afghan government.

“Saudi Arabia’s conditions for mediation are that the Taliban lay down their weapons, engage in the political process and renounce Al-Qaeda,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “These are our three demands, and they have not changed in three years,” he added.

The Taliban, leading a 10-year insurgency against Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government, have denied reports of planned peace talks in Saudi Arabia, despite claims by Afghan officials that the two sides would hold talks in the kingdom separate from those planned in Qatar.

Taliban negotiators have begun preliminary discussions with the United States in Qa- tar on plans for peace talks aimed at ending the decade-long war. They have also announced plans to set up an office in Doha. February 2012 AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE 65 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

19 February U.S. Senators, Afghan Leaders Discuss Parameters for Long-Term Partnership

Five visiting U.S. senators took a hard line with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, outlin- ing issues that could endanger a long-term partnership between the two nations and emphasizing the importance of American-led night raids as U.S. forces withdraw from the conflict.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he was encouraged by “significant military advances on the ground” but was unsympathetic to Karzai’s demand that the United States curb its night operations, which the Afghan leader says result in dozens of civilian casualties each year. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), another member of the delegation, said that handing over detention operations to Afghans — another key Karzai demand — would “put American lives in danger.”

McCain emphasized the importance of finalizing an agreement before a NATO summit in May; when the alliance is due to discuss the future of its involvement in Afghanistan. Graham said he would like the U.S. military to maintain a footprint in Afghanistan beyond 2014 “that would allow us to have a couple of bases with Special Forces units that would always provide the edge to the Afghan security forces against future insurgent attacks.”

Members of the delegation, which included Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), met with Karzai and Gen. John R. Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, as well as members of the country’s opposition parties.

THE WASHINGTON POST

20 February New Bank Notes Being Printed: Delawari

Afghanistan’s central bank is printing new currency notes worth one hundred billion afghanis ($203,087,000), a senior official announced today.

During an exclusive interview, Da Afghanistan Bank governor said the fresh bills would be released to the market by the end of the year.

Noorullah Delawari said the decision, approved by the central bank’s executive council,

February 2012 was driven by the country’s cash requirements. Notes of 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 afs denominations are being issued. 66 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

He added that notes of 10, 5, 2 and 1 afs would not be printed in the near future, because the national exchequer had enough stocks of them for the next two decades.

Without giving the exact cost, he called currency printing an usual practice for the Da Afghanistan Bank. “On average, the printing of each note accounts for four cents,” he reckoned. From time to time, the bank releases fresh notes and withdraws the old ones, according to the official, who said the Afghan legal tender was meant to be in circulation for three to five years.

PAJHWOK

21 February Karzai Invites Taliban Leaders for Direct Talks

Afghan President Hamid Karzai invited the Taliban for direct talks with his government, while urging Pakistan to facilitate negotiation efforts towards ending Afghanistan’s decade-long war. “In order to realise the objectives of the peace process, I invite the leadership of the Taliban to engage in direct talks with the Afghan government,” Karzai said in a statement issued by his office.

Taliban representatives have begun contacts with US officials in the Gulf state of Qatar designed to build confidence and pave the way for a prisoner exchange, but the militia has publicly refused to talk to Karzai’s government.

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad are traditionally mired in distrust, but both sides have made overtures towards reconciliation in the hope that a political solution in Af-

February 2012 ghanistan can ease regional instability. Washington welcomed Karzai’s offer of talks with the Taliban, saying people in the war-torn country need to take the lead in reconciliation efforts. 67 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

In an interview with Australian TV network SBS broadcast Tuesday, Afghanistan’s Presi- dent said his government talks to the Taliban every day through intermediaries, according to an interview by Australia’s SBS television.

Afghan and U.S. officials are seeking negotiations with the Taliban as a way of ensuring peace after foreign combat troops leave in 2014, though the talks lay in a very fragile state and the Islamist group recently rejected they existed at all.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE / REUTERS

23 February Rights Group Says 400 Afghans Displaced Every Day due to War

Four hundred people are displaced daily in the Afghan conflict and face hunger and destitution, Amnesty International said today.

‘Half a million Afghans who fled fighting have been abandoned to starvation and death as they subsist in makeshift shelters, let down by their government and international donors,’ the London-based rights group charged.

Civilian deaths have increased each year since the war started in 2001. Last year, more than 3,000 Afghan civilians died in the conflict, the highest yet, according to a UN report.

“Thousands of people are finding themselves living in freezing, cramped conditions and on the brink of starvation while the Afghan government is not only looking the other way but even preventing help from reaching them,” said Horia Mosadiq, the group’s Afghani- stan researcher.

Amnesty International asked the government to provide basic needs for the refugees, including shelter, food, water and health care.

MONSTERS AND CRITICS

25 February NATO Personnel Withdrawn from Afghan Ministries after Killing of Two Americans

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan recalled all NATO personnel working in Afghan ministries in the Kabul area — a bold and potentially divisive response to the killing of two

February 2012 American service members by an Afghan security official in the country’s fortified Interior Ministry earlier in the day. 68 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

Within hours of the attack, Allen recalled Western advisers from Afghan ministries, citing “obvious force protection reasons.” The decision will affect several hundred officials who work with the Afghan military and with a host of other government agencies, such as the education and agriculture ministries.

Following the deadly shooting, Britain has taken precautious measures to protect its personnel in Kabul. “Britain has temporarily withdrawn civilian members and advisers from institutions within Kabul. We will keep the situation under review,” a spokeswoman from British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. The foreign office declined to say when they would go back to work.

The Pentagon condemned what it called the murder of the two American officers, but said it was committed to working closely with the Afghans to counter violent extremism and to stabilize the country.

President Barack Obama telephoned General Allen, with condolences. And the White House praised President Hamid Karzai’s efforts to restore calm in his country.

Meanwhile, Canada confirmed that “all Canadian-based staff (in Afghanistan) isac- counted for and safe.” Yohan Rodericks, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said the group includes those who work at the Canadian embassy in Kabul, as well as Canadian civil police and military trainers.

THE WASHINGTON POST / FOCUS / TORONTO SUN

26 February Turkmen President Discusses Situation in Afghanistan with UN Special Representative

President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov received special envoy of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Ján Kubiš, the Turkmen government said today.

Interaction between Turkmenistan and the UN on such important area as the strength- ening of security and mutual assistance to recovery and sustainable development in Afghanistan was a special topic of discussions at the meeting, the report says.

“Turkmenistan fully shares the desire of the international community to address the challenges of the global agenda, and intends to realize a strategic partnership for global

February 2012 peace, progress and constructive development with all states and competent international organizations in accordance with its neutral status,” Berdimuhammadov said. The 69 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

Turkmen leader reaffirmed Ashgabat’s willingness to provide its political space for inter- Afghan peace talks under the UN auspices.

The UN special envoy, by evaluating initiatives put forward by Turkmenistan to stabilize the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and the region as a whole, stressed that the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the imple- mentation of which will directly contribute to the development of the Afghan economy and addressing important social issues, as well as electricity supplies, railway construction, and many other steps undertaken by Turkmenistan will directly contribute to laying the foundation of socio-economic development of Afghanistan.

TREND

27 February Afghan Ministers Cancel US Visit

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the Afghan defense and interior ministers were postponing scheduled trips to the United States this week while consulting with other Afghan leaders on protecting allied forces and quelling the violence, media reported.

Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi had been set to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday, 1 March.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta “understands why that’s a priority and why they are unable to travel to Washington in the coming days,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

The pair had been scheduled to meet with the secretary on Thursday, but was staying February 2012 in Afghanistan in the wake of violence sparked by a recent Quran burning incident at a US base. 70 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

“Senior Afghan officials, including the defense and interior ministers, are consulting this week with others in the Afghan government and Afghan religious leaders on how to protect ISAF personnel and quell violence in the country,” Little said. Panetta “looks forward to hosting them at the Pentagon in the near future,” he added.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE / REUTERS

28 February UN Relocates Staff in Afghanistan after Attacks

The United Nations and U.S. foreign missions in Afghanistan reacted to a recent string of attacks and violent protests over the burning of the Koran on an American military base.

The U.N. announced it was relocating its foreign staff from an office in the northern province of Kunduz. “This temporary relocation takes place inside Afghanistan and will be for a limited period of time,” the U.N. said in a statement. No staff members were injured in an attack on the office last Saturday.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Americans in Afghanistan there is “a heightened potential threat” after an Afghan employee of the ministry of interior shot and killed two Ameri- can military advisors. Two other U.S. military personnel were shot dead amid escalating anti-American sentiment over the improper disposal of copies of the Koran.

Responding to the spate of Koran-burning related violence—which according to reports, has now left a total of 30 people dead—a spokesperson for U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s office reiterated that American forces will remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2014. Panetta and other top officials “believe [they] have achieved significant progress in reversing the Taliban’s momentum and in developing the Afghan security forces, and they believe that the fundamentals of our strategy remain sound,” spokesperson George Little said, according to a news release.

THE EPOCH TIMES

29 February Afghanistan Unrest Stirs Worries, but Doesn’t Shake Commitment

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reaffirmed the Obama administration’s determination to persist in seeking a stable government in Afghanistan after the murder of two U.S. military officers by an Afghan soldier inside the Interior Ministry building in Kabul. February 2012 The weekend murders were the latest in a wave of “fratricide” attacks by Afghan soldiers and policemen on American soldiers in Afghanistan. 71 Monthly Risk Summary

Political Situation

Panetta said. “Our ultimate goal here has to be an Afghanistan that can control and secure itself and make sure that it can never again become a safe haven where terrorists can plan attacks.”

He added that “the cost of losing” is that the Taliban would regain control of Afghanistan and that terrorist groups would regroup there “and their sole goal is to attack this country.” Separately, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D- Mich., told reporters Tuesday that if there’s no repeat of the inadvertent burning of Korans in Af- ghanistan -- which may have triggered the murders of the two Americans -- then “we will not see a repeat of this kind of violence. I don’t believe the Afghan people want us to leave. I don’t think that most of the Afghan army or police are willing to attack us, or want to attack us any way. I think it’s a very small minority.”

With one exception, other members of the Armed Services Committee said they were worried about the weekend attack and the pattern of fratricide incidents, but didn’t indi- cate they’d support a quicker drawdown of American forces or an earlier exit date.

NBC POLITICS February 2012 72 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

1 February Eight Tonnes of Expired Medicine Torched in Nangarhar

Eight tonnes of substandard and expired medicines were set alight in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said.

The medicine worth 7.5 million afghanis ($0.15 million) had been seized from 65 stores with support from pharmaceutical companies, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), police and the Attorney General’s Office.

Public Health Director Baaz Muhammad Sherzad said another ten tonnes of medicine captured by customs officials during checks would also be burnt in the near future. “We have warned chemists and druggists of cancelling their licences and sealing their shops if they are found selling low-quality or expired medicine,” he added.

PAJHWOK

2 February New Health Facility Opens in Kandahar

A newly-established heath clinic, a US military-funded project, was inaugurated in the Maroof district of southern Kandahar province, officials said.

The single-storey hospital having five rooms was constructed in one year at a cost of $200,000 (9,844,000afs), Director of Public Health Abdul Qayyum Pukhla said. The February 2012 clinic would provide round-the-clock services to patients and fifteen doctors would be ap- pointed to it. Patients would also undergo minor operations at the facility, Pukhla added. 73 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Abdul Samad Durrani, the town’s administrative head, said the district already had a clinic, but that could not meet residents’ requirements. He hoped the new facility would help resolve people’s problems.

PHARMACY CHOICE

4 February Has War Been Good for the Health of Afghans?

Health levels in Afghanistan have for many years been among the very worst in the world. The Population Reference Bureau’s 2011 World Population Data Sheet shows a life expectancy there of 44 years (compared to the world average of 70), an infant death rate of 131 deaths in the first year of life per 1000 live births (compared to the world average of 44), and a total fertility rate of 6.3 children per woman (compared to the world average of 2.5).

A U.S.-sponsored mortality survey released last year announced huge improvements in health across Afghanistan. But the gains are so great that experts are still arguing about whether it’s correct. During three decades of war, Afghanistan remained a black hole of health information. The few mortality studies looked at a small slice of the population and then extrapolated.

Enter last year’s $5 million Afghanistan Mortality Survey, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development with a contribution from the U.N. Children’s Fund. Officials said the new survey provides the most accurate snapshot ever of healthin Afghanistan — and it delivered shockingly good news.

WEEKS POPULATION

5 February Cancer Incidents Increase in Afghanistan

4th February, the World Day of Cancer Diseases. The day is commemorated in the world at the time that 600,000 people monthly die due to cancer disease around the world according to WHO. It is said number of death due to the cancer is not yet clear.

According to Suraya Dalil, acting minister of public health, Afghan ministry of public health in the light of its priorities has focused on reduction of child and mother mortality and other diseases and invested in these sectors in the past few years.

February 2012 On the other hand, donor countries still haven’t got ready for prevention and treatment of cancer diseases in Afghanistan due to high cost.

BAKHTAR NEWS 74 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

8 February People in Helmand Complain of Health Service Shortage

A number of Helmand citizens are complaining of the shortage of health services, saying hundreds of villagers are deprived of medical services. The locals said that there are some buildings for medical services in Kajaki, Musa Qala, Nawzad and Sangin districts, but, no physician or medicine is seen.

Health services in charges accept the problems in Helmand, but, said they have taken some steps for the solution.

“Unfortunately, the locals have to take their patient relatives to remote areas including the central city due to lack of doctors and medicine in the above mentioned districts,” a health department official Rahmatullah Mohammadi said

WAKHT NEWS

9 February Egyptian Hospital Provides Medical Care for Locals

Egypt was a place flowing with milk and honey, but for the local Afghan people the El Salam Egyptian Field Hospital gives so much more.

The El Salam Egyptian Field Hospital is a part of the coalition forces that provides medical care for the people of Afghanistan.

The hospital, operating out of the wooden B-huts that dot the entire base, offers surgery and outpatient care, with specialists in many disciplines, including dentistry, ophthalmol- ogy, gynaecology and paediatrics. Since December the hospital has seen more than 5,000 patients including Afghans and American civilians.

“We treat and see civilians that work on Bagram and Afghans,” said Col. Reda AL. Shanawany, El Salam Egyptian Field Hospital commander. “If there is something we cannot find a solution on, we will refer all of our patients to Craig Joint Theater Hospital,” said Shanawany.

The hospital offers different types of treatment, but more often, Afghans are treated for Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B.

February 2012 DVIDS HUB 75 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

First-Ever Medicine Making Factory Opens in Herat

The first-ever domestic medicine manufacturing factory has started functioning inthe western province of Herat. The factory called Abison Farma has been established at the industrial park in Herat city, the factory director, Abdul Karim Sherzad, said.

Primary products at the facility were being manufactured in cooperation with Indian and Iranian medicine manufacturing companies. “The first products include 60 to 250cc anti- septic solution which have been introduced to the market,” he added.

Four kinds of anti-acid syrups having commercial names Avicidal, Avicidal max, Magnifon and SongS were also introduced to the market after approved by the Ministry of Public Health, Sherzad said.

E-ARIANA

10 February Foodstuffs for Drought Damage, Families Begins in Balkh

Foodstuffs assistance program has begun to aid drought affected families in Balkh province.

In this program foodstuffs will be distributed for 15,000 families in Balkh, Dehdadi, Shol- gara, Koshank and Charkeng districts of that province.

Shams Agriculture head of Balkh province said that wheat and rice will be distributed for affected families. February 2012

BAKHTAR NEWS 76 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

11 February Karzai Asks Scholars to Help Anti-Polio Efforts

President Hamid Karzai has called on religious scholars, imams and tribal elders to help the government implement anti-polio vaccination campaigns.

In a message to the nation aired on radio, Karzai said he hoped scholars and elders in villages would make efforts at making the campaigns a success.

“If militants do not allow the vaccination, please tell them that not allowing it is an enmity with children.”

In order to prevent the disease from spreading, the President urged parents to administer polio drops to their children during vaccination drives. As a result of previous anti-polio vaccination campaigns, the prevalence of and mortality from polio had considerably been reduced, Karzai, adding only 25 polio cases surfaced throughout the country last year. However, the cases increased this year, when about 80 cases in 18 provinces were detected.

OUTLOOK AFGHANISTAN

13 February Measles Claims 50 Lives in Ghor

Fifty children have died of measles in Ghor province, where the provincial council warned of closing down the public health department if urgent remedial steps were not taken.

Mohammad Hanif, who has admitted three children to the Ghor Civil Hospital, said: “My wife and I have been here for a week.” The government should send mobile health teams to the province, where many children were suffering from measles, he added.

Resident Abdul Basir said the disease had resulted in 15 deaths in Saghar district alone, but the public health department and other officials were yet to take measures to deal with the situation that was fuelling concerns among the people. Elsewhere in the province, two children died of measles in Pasaband district, where heavy snowfall has closed the road leading to the provincial capital, Chaghcharan. Health clinics remain closed.

ADO official Wakil, said most of the mountainous and impassable areas were blocked and doctors were absent duty as a result. February 2012 THE FREE LIBRARY 77 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

14 February CM Approves Children Treatment Budget

The Council of Ministers (CM) approved a bill based on which 500 children afflicted with heart disease will be treated, presidential office said.

The bill was requested by the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) to assist with the helpless children who suffer heart diseases.

Council of Ministers approved to pay one million dollars to respond the ARCS request.

Over 2,000 children afflicted with heart diseases are registered in the ARCS that 500 of them have been prioritized for the treatment.

WAKHT NEWS

15 February Malnutrition Continues to Threaten Afghan Kids

Save the Children has said in a new report that Afghanistan has the highest child mortality rate caused by malnutrition. Lack of access to food, improper diets, and non-standard health measures are among the main causes of malnutrition in Afghanistan, according to the report.

One out of ten Afghan children dies due to malnutrition before the age of five, it says.

According to the report girls in other parts of the world have better nutrition level than boys, but that in Afghanistan girls’ are more malnourished than boys which shows a 20%

February 2012 percent higher malnutrition level than girls in other countries. 78 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Save the Children and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health have found that one fourth of breast-feeding women in Afghanistan are malnourished who are likely to give birth to underweight babies.

“Most malnourished children in Afghanistan are 6-years of age, which means more attention should be focused on this category of children,” the report said.

TOLO NEWS

16 February WFP to Work on Development Projects in Kandahar

The World Food Program (WFP) would start work on several development projects in four districts of southern Kandahar province, an official said.

At a meeting with Governor Toryalai Weesa, WFP Director for Kandahar Ulrick Pedersen said the projects would be implemented in Nesh, Ghorak, Mianshin and Shorabk districts.

Ghorak and Mianshin, situated north of the Kandahar City, were controlled by Taliban over the past few years. Police recently recaptured Mianshin, but an operation is still underway in Ghorak.

According to Zalmay Ayubi, the governor’s spokesman, the projects included poverty alleviation and planting sapling, as part of a work-for-food programme.

He quoted Pedersen as saying the schemes would be carried out in coordination with local officials. He thanked local officials for helping WFP identify needy families in the districts.

SADA-E-AZADI

18 February Latest Killer of Afghan Children: Hunger

Childhood has never been easy in Afghanistan. The conflict, drought and poverty are having profound effects on a generation, leaving many families struggling to feed their children.

About 15 million Afghan children are malnourished, according to Save the Children, an

February 2012 international child welfare agency that set out to help rural Afghan communities. 79 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

“What we really need now is the political movement behind this to act to tackle hunger,” said Sarah Jacobs, a spokesman for Save the Children.

ITN’s Emma Murphy visited Afghanistan’s second-largest city to learn about a new program by the agency that’s making a difference, one mother at a time.

MSN

19 February Brockton Doctor Talks about Service in Afghanistan

Dr. Robert Campbell, The former Army major and trauma surgeon, spent four years in the Army – the service paid for his medical education – and was in Afghanistan from August 2009 until February 2010. His first month in the country was spent in Logar Province, working out of a tent at Forward Operating Base Shank with a mobile team that included three other surgeons, nurses and anesthetists.

“Our goal was just to save lives, save limbs, save eyesight and move people on,” Camp- bell said.

Helicopters would deliver injured soldiers to the base where they would receive lifesaving care before they were transported to better-equipped hospitals.

“In a war like that, there really is no front. It’s all around you,” Campbell said. “There were villages nearby that were friendly to us and villages nearby that were not so friendly.”

Inside the medical tent, Campbell set broken bones and cleaned wounds of rocks, dirt February 2012 and shrapnel. He said wounds were left open – sealed with wound vacuums – so that they could be closed in a more sterile environment elsewhere. 80 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Then Campbell moved on to Bagram Army Airfield, working at Craig Joint-Theater Hos- pital 35 miles north of Kabul. About 3,000 soldiers lived at the base 60 miles south of Kabul. The threat of mortar attack was constant. Campbell recalled having to change into body armor during surgery.

WICKED LOCAL

20 February Low-Quality Drugs Flood Khost, Complain Residents

Residents complained low-quality medicines were being sold in Khost province, a claim confirmed by the public health department.

The province, which shares a 160-kilometer border with Pakistan, is a smuggling hub for a variety of trade goods that are seldom confiscated by customs officials.

Resident Yusuf Khan said a huge quantity of spurious drugs flooded stores in the provincial capital, Khost city. He claimed the drugs were taking a heavy toll on patients’ heath.

“Every doctor prescribes medicine worth at least one thousand afghanis, even for a patient with cough, but the drugs are ineffective,” he said, urging the government to take stern action against the druggists selling such medicines.

Muhammad Wali Shah, a local medical store owner, said some traders were involved in supplying low-quality medicine to them. “There are dozens of unlicensed medical stores in the province but no one bothers to keep them in check.”

PAJHWOK

21 February Afghanistan Health Alert: Measles Outbreak

Measles is a highly infectious disease that causes complications and deaths, even in previously-healthy individuals. Measles is fully preventable by a proven safe vaccination. We call on all Afghans to vaccinate their children. For public safety, two doses of measles vaccine across all age groups from 9 months up to 15 years of age are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In Ghor and Badghis provinces, the Ministry of Public Health and WHO reported twenty

February 2012 confirmed child mortality cases due to measles and pneumonia. The measles outbreak initially affected the villages of Lafra Valley (Sarji and Gawkushta in Ghor, also Jawand 81 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

in Badghis.) To contain the recent outbreak, WHO recommends that all neighbouring provinces participate in the Measles vaccination. The outbreak is compounded by severe weather that hampers access. Also low immunization and poor public health service cov- erage contribute to the spread of Measles.

To contain this epidemic, that affected most of Chagh Charan district, the Ministry of Public Health, Afghan Center for Training and Development (ACTD) and WHO set up five temporary clinics, with abundant medical supplies, in Badghis and Ghor. As a result, more than 6,200 patients were treated by the medical emergency teams, and over 3,600 vaccinations against measles were applied.

UNAMA

22 February Water Pollution Silent Killer in North Afghan District

Illness caused by contaminated drinking water was not uncommon, and the problem was worsening year by year in Afghanistan. Since 2001, increasing numbers of villagers had been struck down after drinking from the local water source, despite an influx in development aid that he and other villagers said hardly addressed the need for clean drinking water.

At the hospital, an aging facility with few beds, Dr Ahmad Shah Samie, who treated the men, confirmed that the water source was the cause of this most recent outbreak of illness. “They were all suffering from dehydration after getting sick from drinking dirty water,” he said. “In this instance, all six were treated and survived,” he added.

A city near Aybak, not far from the border with Uzbekistan, hundreds of graves of men, women and children who died prematurely. They are not victims of war. If local medical personnel and family members are to be believed, drinking water is the hidden killer, causing hundreds of deaths from dehydration, diarrhoea, typhus fever and kidney disease.

INSTITUTE FOR WAR & PEACE REPORTING

23 February Afghans Flee War to Face Hunger, Disease in Slums – Amnesty

Afghanistan’s decade-long conflict has forced more than half a million people to flee their

February 2012 homes -- many of whom are at risk of disease, hunger and possible death in city slums across the impoverished country, Amnesty International warned. 82 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Increasing attacks by militants, as well as air strikes and operations by international and Afghan forces, are on average uprooting 400 people daily, said a report by the human rights group, with thousands seeking refuge in Kabul and other cities.

“Thousands of people are finding themselves living in freezing, cramped conditions and on the brink of starvation,” said Horia Mosadiq, researcher of “Fleeing war, Finding misery: The plight of the internally displaced in Afghanistan” report.

“The Afghan government is not only looking the other way, but even preventing help from reaching them. This is a largely hidden but horrific humanitarian and human rights crisis,” she said in a statement.

Afghan officials, said the London-based group, claim those fleeing fighting are “economic migrants” and are reluctant to provide or allow aid agencies to provide proper facilities, cautious that it will lead to permanent illegal settlements.

Yet, the numbers of displaced are on the rise with the Taliban and other armed groups stepping up attacks as international forces prepare to withdraw and hand over security responsibility to Afghans. Over 100,000 people in Afghanistan were forced to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere in the country in 2010. The number nearly doubled last year with around 186,000 Afghans fleeing due to insecurity, said Amnesty.

REUTERS

25 February Doctors in Badakshan as Pneumonia Toll Mounts

February 2012 The Ministry of Public Health said that doctors along with tons of medicines had reached northern Badakshan province to deal with pneumonia cases there. 83 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Local officials have given contradictory casualty figures for children suffering from the disease in the remote province, bordering Pakistan’s northwestern Chitral Valley.

The ministry said drugs had been distributed to hospital in areas, where the diseases was spreading. The public health director said the drugs were taken to Yawan, Kohistan and Raghistan districts by six medical teams to provide emergency treatment to infected children.

Noor Muhammad Khawri said 15 children had died over the past two weeks and many others had been suffering pneumonia in the districts. He linked the deaths to road block- ades by snow as, saying the teams and the drugs reached the affected areas on horse- backs.

But Sajjad, who runs a clinic in Yawaran district, said that 13 children had died in the Bashan village of Raghistan district alone, with 39 others losing their lives in Shangan, Drang, Qatarbid, Nawabad and Shind Aab villages.

Zabihullah Attique, the provincial council head, said the death toll was higher than mentioned by the public health director.

PAJHWOK

27 February Nutrition Program Improving Health of Afghan Women and Children

Malnutrition is especially common in children who live in isolated, mountain villages like the ones found in Afghanistan’s Badakshan province. Badakshan is an empty land, bar- ren and silent. Mountains stretch as far as the eye can see. Clusters of crude mud-brick homes stand on hillsides, usually near a river or stream.

Badakshan’s remote communities face long winters, poor growing conditions, and high rates of malnutrition. Thin soils and steep slopes make for difficult farming, while heavy rains throughout the growing season lead to flooding and landslides. During the winter months, heavy snowfall makes travel to or from many of these small villages impossible except on foot or horseback.

In 2011, the international relief agency Medair expanded on its existing nutrition project in Raghistan district and reached out to villages in the districts of Yawan and Kohistan. Community mobilisers visited villages across all three districts, urging families to bring their malnourished children and pregnant or breastfeeding women to one of four Medair- February 2012 supported clinics. 84 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Within just two weeks of opening its doors this spring, staff at the clinic in Yawan village had screened more than 400 people for malnutrition and admitted more than 200 malnourished children and women into the nutrition program.

REUTERS

28 February Afghan Family-Planning Conference Opens

A two-day conference on family planning, sponsored by the Afghan government and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), opened on 28 February in Kabul.

The National Conference on Family Planning includes public health officials, members of parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Haj and Religious Affairs and Ulama Council as well as representatives of other Muslim countries.

“According to the 2010 Afghanistan Mortality Survey, 90% of currently married women know of a method of contraception yet only 22% use any family planning method,” said Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan’s acting minister of public health. Suraya said she hopes the conference will help Afghanistan to achieve UN Millennium Development Goal number 5, which calls for reduction of maternal mortality by three quarters and ensuring universal access to reproductive health by 2015.

The conference also includes participants from other Muslim countries who will share their experiences on birth spacing and family planning with the Afghan representatives.

Access to family planning can save lives, a press release noted. Family planning reduces maternal and newborn mortality rates and improves the health and well-being of women February 2012 and their existing children and families.

CENTRAL ASIA ONLINE 85 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

29 February UN-Supported Project Brings Afghans One Step Closer to Cleaner Cooking Stoves

The United Nations and its partners have teamed up with local villagers in Afghanistan to develop clean cooking stoves that could potentially save lives by improving indoor air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on wood for fuel.

Afghanistan is among the 10 countries worst affected by indoor pollution, given that over 95 per cent of its estimated 30 million people burn wood and other solid fuels in their homes, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Indoor smoke from traditional Afghan tandoors, or drum-shaped ovens which are used for cooking and heating, is a major health issue. A recent WHO study found that inhaling smoke from indoor heating and cooking kills about 54,000 Afghans per year. Regularly breathing smoke also leads to childhood pneumonia, lung cancer and other cardiovas- cular diseases.

The UN-supported project brings together local metal-smiths, engineers and environ- mental experts in Bamiyan province to design prototypes for clean cook stoves and other low-cost energy solutions which are now being tested by villagers.

SPERO NEWS February 2012 86 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Natural Hazard

1 February Snowfall Leaves Goods Trucks Stranded

Heavy snowfall has blocked a highway connecting the Balkh Aab district with Sar-i-Pul, the capital of northern Sari-i-Pul province, leaving stranded six trucks laden with relief items over the past two weeks, residents said.

The residents said they had no option but to travel through neighbouring Balkh and Jaw- zjan provinces to reach Sar-i-Pul. Haji Ghulam Sakhi, 60, said the truck he had hired to transfer wheat to Balkh Aab remained stuck in the Aab Kalan area over the past two weeks.

Afghanistan Natural Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) head for Sari-i-Pul, Syed Faizullah Sadat, acknowledged six trucks carrying relief for residents had been stranded between Balkh Aab and Sancharak districts.

PAJHWOK

3 February Heavy Snowfall Blocks Ghor Roads February 2012

Heavy snowfall has blocked roads connecting several districts with the provincial capital in western Ghor province, officials said. 87 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

The snowfall and rains that lashed several parts of the country since had resulted in the closure of several roads and highways.

The Afghanistan Natural Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) regional head said so far 60 centimeters of snow has been measured in Ghor.

Hamidullah Dadfar said if the snowfall continued it would create severe food shortages in districts, where roads had been blocked. He said if urgent measures were not taken, the situation could turn into a humanitarian crisis.

PAJHWOK

Heavy Snow Stopped Kabul Airport Flights

The Kabul International Airport has been blocked and all its domestic and international flights have also been cancelled as a result of heavy snow, according to Muhammad Yaqoob Rassouli, the head of the Kabul International Airport.

Efforts are continuing to clean up the runways; Rassouli said the Kabul International Air- port has daily 50 flights whose 35 are international and rest of them are domestic flights.

“Daily, about four thousand passengers travel through this airport but due to the closure of the airport, the government and airline companies have been financially damaged but more important is the safety of passengers and their lives,” Rassouli said.

On the other hand, the roads have been blocked and the traffic has also been reduced in Kabul city by heavy snow since Friday evening which still continues.

ARIANA NEWS

4 February Avalanche Kills Four Afghans, Wounds Six

Four people lost their lives and six others sustained injuries as an avalanche hit some villages in the mountainous Badakshan province, an official said.

“Four people lost their lives and six others were injured as an avalanche hit some villages in Badakshan,” Sanaullah Amiri, director of the Counter-Natural Disaster Department in Badakshan province, told reporters. February 2012 He also added that the height of snowfall in Raghistan and adjoining areas is more than one meter. 88 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Due to heavy snowfall and cold weather more than 40 people had already lost their lives in Badakshan province mostly in Raghistan district over the past several weeks.

CHINA ECONOMIC NET

5 February Snowfall Blocked Samangan Roads

Heavy snowfall closed transportation ways in Samangan district, media reports said.

Homayoon Zeai, head of public work of Samangan, said that heavy snowfall closed Aibak way with Kabul city. Public work Department officials were assigned to clear the roads in some areas, he said. According to him, cleaning woks has started to open Kabul-Aibak highway and transportation ways of the district.

Ahmad Ali Hosaini, governor of Dara-i-Soof Bala, said that due to the heavy snowfall, transportation ways of Dara-i-Soof Bala, Dara-i-Soiof Paen, Kotal Tora Blaq, Kotal Gh- ulam Ali Jan and Kotal Qala were also closed.

Transportation ways of 30 villages of Khoram Sarbagh district and roads of Rou Doab district were closed due to the snowfall, Khoram Sarbagh governor, Mullah Hafiz said.

BAKHTAR NEWS

Heavy Snowfall Blocks Ghazni Roads

The recent heavy snowfalls have blocked the main roads in the Ghazni province, making problems for the people living in remote mountainous districts and villages, media reported.

“Many roads to the districts are blocked by mountains of snow and people in these areas are in bad condition,” a member of provincial council Abdul Wali Khanzadah said.

“The local government does not pay attention as it most does,” Khanzadah said, warning thousands of people will lose their lives due to cold weather and lack of enough foodstuff and medicine if they are not attended.

Ghazni governor Musa Akbarzadah confirmed the problems as the result of snowfall, but said efforts are continued to open the roads and transfer foodstuff and other essentials to

February 2012 the villagers surrounded by snow.

WAKHT NEWS 89 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Six Shepherds, 1,500 Sheep Perish in Snowstorms

Six shepherds and more than 1,500 sheep have died due to heavy snowstorms in Kun- duz and Faryab provinces, officials said.

The shepherds were killed along with their 500 sheep in the Dasht-i-Abadan area of Chahar Dara district.

Meanwhile, almost thousand sheep were reported dead in Faryab province.

PAJHWOK

8 February Avalanche Kills Four People in Daykundi

Four people were killed and three others wounded when an avalanche occurred in Qa- nagh pass, Daykundi province the governor’s office said.

Iqbal Ahmad Oruzgani, the Daykundi Provincial Governor’s spokesperson, said that all victims of this avalanche were the drivers of those cars that were traveling towards Kabul.

Police forces and local residents rushed to the site and helped the victims. The Qanagh pass in now completely closed and no one is authorized to travel through this pass.

It is worth mentioning that since the beginning of this winter at least nine people killed by avalanches in Daykundi province.

February 2012 BOST NEWS 90 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Avalanche Killed a Woman in Parwan Province

Avalanche killed a woman in Shinwari district of Parwan province, Government authorities in Shinwari district said.

They said that the avalanche destroyed a house and killed a woman in that district.

Meanwhile, Saifullah Baidar, the Head of Shinwari district of Parwan province, confirmed the incident and said that it occurred in Ashtar Shahr area of Shinwari district.

A house has been destroyed and a woman was killed by the avalanche. The other members of this family have been rescued by the security forces and local people, Baidar added.

It is worth mentioning that Shinwari is one of the remote districts of Parwan province and recent snowfalls blocked the main roads of that district.

BOST NEWS

11 February Cold Claims Lives of Seven Minors

Seven minors were killed due to chilling cold in Kalafgan district in Takhar province, an official said.

The Kalafgan District Chief Haji Raza Shah said that seven children were killed due to cold weather and chest-related diseases over the past 24 hours in Khuraqan area in Kalafgan district.

The district chief said the children could not be reached to the hospital in time that caused their death, adding the facility was far away from the area.

THE FRONTIER POST

15 February Woman, Child Die of Cold Weather

A woman and her child died as a result of severe cold in northern Sar-i-Pul province, an official said. According to initial reports, the incident happened in Balkhab district of

February 2012 the province.

PAJHWOK 91 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

16 February Cold Weather Takes Lives of 22 Persons in Takhar

Twenty two people, 20 of them children, died due to heavy snowfall and cold weather in the north-eastern Takhar province.

“These people died due to pneumonia in Kalafgan district,” the district administrator, Reza Shah said.

He added that these persons were not transferred to the health facilities, because the roads are blocked by snow.

Health officials in Takhar province are yet to report about the mortality of these children.

WAKHT NEWS

17 February Freezing Weather, Cold-Related Diseases Kill Ten Children in Badakshan

Continued freezing weather, snowfall and cold-related diseases have claimed the lives of ten children in Badakshan province over the past two days, a local official said.

“Ten children have lost their lives due to freezing weather, snowfall and cold-related diseases in Batasha village of Raghistan district over the past two days,” spokesman for the provincial administration Abdul Marouf Rasikh said.

SINA ENGLISH February 2012 92 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Two Killed, Three Wounded in Helmand Mishap

At least two people were killed and three others wounded when the roof of a house caved-in due to heavy rains on Friday night in Lashkar Gah city, capital of Helmand province.

The roof of the house collapsed after heavy rains in Safyan area of the province capital, leaving a mother and her 12-year-old son dead and three other family members wounded, Muhammad Ismail Khan, deputy chief of combined forces’ coordination office in Helmand province said.

THE FRONTIER POST

18 February

Four Killed in Samangan Avalanche

Three dead bodies buried under a snow avalanche were retrieved in the Dara-i-Sauf district of northern Samangan province, an official said.

Two residents of Dara-i-Sauf Bala and Roy Do Aab districts had been missing since Friday after a snow avalanche hit Baloch village, said the administrative head of Dara- i-Sauf Bala.

Ahmad Ali Hasani told reporters that a third man was rescued unhurt by area residents who rushed to the scene after the incident.

Separately, a man was killed by an avalanche in the Tangi Shikha village.

Provincial natural disaster authority chief, Rajab Ali Yousafi, said four people had so far been killed and three others injured as a result of cold the weather and avalanches in Samangan.

PAJHWOK

20 February Three Killed, Four Injured in Ghor Avalanches

Three people were killed and four others wounded after snow avalanches hit the provin-

February 2012 cial capital and two districts of western Ghor province, officials said.

PAJHWOK 93 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

21 February Heavy Floods Leave Large Financial Losses in Balkh

Heavy rainfall in parts of northern Balkh province has caused flooding that destroyed hundreds of residential units.

“Following the monsoon rains, over 500 residential units in Nahar-Shahi district has been flooded. 280 of those units were destroyed,” the District Chief, Sher Muhammad Abu- Tariq said.

The officials warn that if the necessary steps are not taken quickly to help the affected families, a huge humanitarian disaster would take place.

A number of flood victims in Balkh also requested immediate assistance from the government and other aid agencies.

Meanwhile, the officials of the Natural Disaster Body said that they are fully prepared to distribute foodstuffs and other necessary items among the families affected by the floods.

“The flood way has been blocked by the private companies thus the flood has moved towards residential areas,” Balkh local officials claim.

ARIANA NEWS

22 February Eleven Snow-Trapped Policemen Rescued by ISAF

Eleven policemen and intelligence officials trapped inside their vehicles by heavy snow were rescued by a NATO helicopter in western Ghor province, officials said.

February 2012 ISAF sent a helicopter to the area to airlift the rescued persons.

PAJHWOK 94 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

23 February Toll from Daykundi Snow Avalanches Rises to Nineteen

The death toll from snow avalanches has reached 19 in central Daykundi province, where roads connecting the provincial capital with district centres and the capital Kabul remained closed, officials said.

Since the beginning of the unprecedented cold weather, 57 locals have been killed in the province, head of counter-disaster national committee, Reza Sadeqi said.

Meanwhile, avalanche in Khedir district took five victims, Governor Qorban Ali Uruzgani said.

“The aid team has started rescue operation and has so far saved three people, while two others have died,” the governor said. “We have reopened the roads to Shahrestan and Miramor districts, but the roads to other areas are still blocked by the hills of snow which efforts are going on for the reopen,” Uruzgani said.

PAJHWOK / WAKHT NEWS

26 February Seven of a Family Buried under Snow Rescued

Seven members of a family were rescued after a snow avalanche struck the Pasaband district of western Ghor province, officials said.

The family was rescued by residents after remaining buried under the snow for 29 hours.

PAJHWOK

27 February Heavy Avalanches Block Key Badghis Pass

Snow avalanches have blocked a key pass connecting northwestern Badghis province with western Herat, officials said.

The Sabzak Pass has been closed since Sunday night, Abdul Ghani Saberi, the deputy governor, said.

February 2012 An avalanche triggered by a snowstorm had blocked the pass for traffic he said, adding they had asked the contractor to take measures for reopening the highway. 95 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Abdul Majeed Shakib, a member of the provincial council, said the highway closure had created problems for drivers and passengers. Three vehicles trapped by the avalanches were rescued by residents. Passengers said they faced problems due the highway blockade and the contractor was using a single bulldozer to remove the snow.

However, the company’s officials said they were using two vehicles for clearing the snow and that efforts were ongoing to reopen the highway as soon as possible.

PAJHWOK

Cold Kills 35 Afghan Children in Badakshan Province: Official

Severe cold weather has killed 35 children in the past two days in northern Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

The children died in four remote districts of Badakshan province after the roads to districts were closed by heavy snow.

“Thirty five children died as a result of pneumonia caused by severe weather in Badak- shan in the past two days,” Dr Noor Khawrin a provincial public health official said.

“We have only been able to set up some emergency mobile clinics recently to help the kids there.”

Afghanistan, a landlocked and mountainous country, has suffered its coldest winter in 15 years.

On 19 February, the public health ministry said the severe weather had killed almost 40 children in the country over the course of one month.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

29 February 15 Dead in Avalanches in Bamyan

Fifteen locals have so far lost their lives due to heavy snowfall, avalanches and cold weather since the beginning of winter in the central Bamyan province, the governor said.

“The roads to many districts are still blocked by heavy snow and we are seriously mak-

February 2012 ing efforts to open the roads for saving the locals from hunger, illness and finally death threats,” Bamyan Governor, Habibah Sarabi told reporters. 96 Monthly Risk Summary

Health & Natural Hazards

Meanwhile, Head of Bamyan Counter-disaster Department, Mohammad Reza Rafaat said they are pressuring the contractor companies to intensify their works for the reopening of the roads.

In a recent avalanche, two locals went missing six days ago and are still disappeared despite the rescue teams’ efforts for finding them alive or dead.

Over 60 people died and more than 100 ones were injured due to heavy snowfalls in Bamyan, Daykundi, Takhar and Badakshan provinces.

WAKHT NEWS February 2012 97 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

1 February OPIC Promotes Afghan Small Businesses

Small businesses in Afghanistan, a vital engine of economic growth in the country but one that has lacked access to credit, received a boost with the announcement that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution, and Afghan Growth Finance (AGF), a subsidiary of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), signed an agreement to co-finance small business loans of up to $11.5 million.

The OPIC-AGF participation facility expands the existing partnership between the two by raising its existing $4 million loan cap.

Addressing the needs of a previously untapped market segment, the facility will provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to capital in larger amounts and for long-term tenors - terms generally unavailable from other financial institutions in the Afghan market.

TRADE FINANCE MAGAZINE

2 February 50pc of US Aid to Be Used in Two Years: Zakhilwal February 2012 Afghanistan Finance Minister, Omar Zakhilwal on Wednesday signed an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development on using 50 percent of American aid within two years by the Afghan government, an official said. 98 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

Until the next solar year, starting on 21March, Afghanistan would use 35 percent of the aid and the spending would increase to 50 percent by the end of the next year through national budget under the agreement that was signed between the finance minister and a USAID representative in Kabul.

According to the Ministry of Finance, USAID has so far provided Afghanistan with $30 billion (1.4 trillion afghanis) and $5.1 billion of the assistance has been used through the national budget.

Speaking to reporters, Zakhilwal said the USAID provided $2 to $3 billion on an annual basis to Afghanistan for different sectors. “In the coming Afghan year, USAID will provide one billion dollars, which will be spent through the national budget.”

OUTLOOK AFGHANISTAN

3 February Afghan-Iran Trade Increase 24 Times

The Afghan-Iran commercial exchange has increased 24 times comparing with the past 10 years, soaring up to $ 1,240 million, Iranian deputy economy minister Behrooz Alisheri announced.

“The ceiling of Iran-Afghan bilateral trade was only $ 52 million in 2002. Two countries have more economic capacities, despite the increase of commercial ties,” Alisheri said.

Alisheri added that the economic in charges of the two countries agreed Afghanistan’s access to the important Chabahar port in their two-day sessions in Kabul. “Islamic Re- public has decided to grant Afghanistan the priority of Chabahar port despite the demand

February 2012 of dozens of countries,” he mentioned signing some agreements with his Afghan counterpart Mostafa Mastoor. 99 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

Meanwhile, Iranian ambassador to Kabul Fada Hossein Maleki assured Afghan government and traders of his county’s cooperation for the usage of Chabahar port, saying Afghanistan will be an important regional dock in the near future.

WAKHT NEWS

5 February Export of POL Products to Afghanistan, CARs: MoC Withdraws Tax Duty, Petroleum Levy Exemption

To implement Pakistan government decision, Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has notified withdrawal of duty and tax exemption including refund of petroleum levy on the export of petroleum products to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs).

The MoC SRO stated, “Provided that the above facility of duty and tax exemption including refund of petroleum levy shall not be available to the export of petroleum products, unless there is a government to government contract and export is done only through Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) duly registered with Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). Surplus of JP-8, as declared and decided in product review meetings shall be allowed to be exported by the refineries or Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). If any of the OMC is of the intention to import and than export JP-8 to Afghanistan that specific volume shall be allowed through foreign exchange remittance from the buyer without availing any exemption of duties and taxes.”

The ECC of the cabinet had earlier decided to withdraw zero-rating of sales tax, rebate of central excise duty, repayment or drawback of customs duty and refund of the petroleum levy on exports of POL products to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. According to the proposal in ECC meeting, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources (MP&NR) had proposed to ECC for withdrawal of all the tax and duty exemptions available on export of POL products to Afghanistan and CARs.

DAILY TIMES

6 February Turkmen, Afghan Presidents Discuss Regional Cooperation

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently paid an official visit to Turkmenistan to further strengthen and develop friendly and neighborly intergovernmental relations between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. During talks with Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Ber-

February 2012 dimuhammadov, the Afghan guest discussed priority aspects of intergovernmental relations and topical regional and international policy issues of mutual interest. 100 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

At the Turkmen-Afghan high profile meeting, the sides noted there were great opportuni- ties for further enhancing of trade and economic relations. It was learnt at the talks that Turkmenistan stands for settlement of the situation in the neighboring state only through diplomatic means.

The Turkmen head put forward several initiatives, voiced from the UN tribune. Construc- tion of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline was cited as a good example of cooperation between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The large scale energy project will contribute in the development of the Afghan economy, attraction of investment, social issues, including the creation of new jobs and will positively affect stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan.

NEW EUROPE

7 February Afghan Carpet Holds First at Dubai Annual Exhibition

Afghan carpet holds the first rank among 300 types of carpets from around the world at the Dubai International Airport Exhibition, the Afghan Production Development Organisa- tion said.

Afghan carpet took the lead from Iranian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Turkmen, Turkish, Indian and other countries’ carpets.

“What is used for production of carpet is purely afghan made. The wool and coloring is also made in Afghanistan. Because they are being retrieved from natural resources, they very strong,” Industrial Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industries, Mutasel Komaki said.

February 2012 Since 2008, Afghan carpet has held the first position in several international exhibitions.

THE FRONTIER POST 101 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

8 February Kyrgyz, Afghans Form Business Council

Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan agreed to form a business council, the Kyrgyz Foreign Min- istry press office said, citing a meeting between Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazak- bayev and Afghan Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Noor Muhammad Qarqin.

Kyrgyzstan is ready to contribute to Afghanistan’s political and economic development through the planned CASA-1000 regional electricity project and other joint projects, Ka- zakbayev said. To help such projects succeed, the Kyrgyz proposed a Kyrgyz-Afghan business council under the direction of Kyrgyzstan’s Economy Ministry and Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kazakbayev added.

Kazakbayev asked the Afghans to aid their small ethnic Kyrgyz minority, specifying healthcare, construction of schools and medical facilities and issuance of identity documents as priorities. About 8,000 ethnic Kyrgyz live in Afghanistan, mostly in the northeast.

CENTRAL ASIA ONLINE

9 February Next Year’s Budget Not Yet Approved: MPs

The Afghan House of Representatives said that next year’s budget will not be approved until the remaining cabinet members and Supreme Court officials are not introduced to the House to get vote of confidence.

Some of the MPs believe that if the budget is approved, ‘incompetent ministers’ will not be able to spend it.

The MPs once again called on the government to introduce the remaining cabinet members and accused the government of violation of the law. The acting ministers are now working for years without winning votes of confidence from the parliament.

Currently, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Transport and Aviations, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Power and Water, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Com- munication and Ministry of Urban Development are being managed by acting ministers.

“We will not approve the budget until the government does not introduce remaining cabi-

February 2012 net members, New Supreme Court Director and Attorney General,” First Deputy Speaker of the parliament, Abdul Zaher Qadir said.

TOLO NEWS 102 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

10 February Ariana Afghan Airlines Signed Agreement with ‘Turkish Technic’ for Two Boeing 737-400 Pool Services

Turkish Technic and Ariana Afghan Airlines signed Pool Contract in February 2011, which covers two B737-400 model aircrafts of Ariana Afghan Airlines. The services will be carried out at Turkish Technic Istanbul Facilities.

Turkish Technic thanked Ariana Afghan Airlines for choosing Turkish Technic for the pool service and appreciated greatly the trust that Ariana Afghan Airlines has placed by signing this contract. It further said that it was Turkish Technic’s sincere wish to continue and further strengthen the valuable relationship between Ariana Afghan Airlines and Turkish Technic.

Ariana Afghan Airlines said: “we trust in Turkish Technic’s quality of services and glad to have the support of one of the most powerful MRO’s in the region.”

AVIATOR AERO

11 February Parliament Approval Needed Before Investment on Mines, Experts Say

Afghan Parliament’s approval is necessary before mines are invested on, some economic experts said.

Experts believe that current parliament may not be able to technically evaluate the mines, but if future parliaments approve or disapprove the current contracts, it will discredit Af-

February 2012 ghanistan. The comments come as Afghan government is focusing on investment on Afghan mines. 103 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

The experts asked Afghan Ministry of Economy to guarantee the safety of the multi-billion dollar contracts by enforcing accurate laws. They believe that approving such contracts through parliament could be a guarantee for their safety.

But Afghan Ministry of Mines says only major mines could be contracted after approval from Parliament and investments on mines will be done on the basis of Mines Law.

TOLO NEWS

12 February Pakistan, Afghanistan Edge Closer to Smoother Trade

Pakistan and Afghanistan are likely to overcome the last hurdle in the smooth execution of the newly-signed transit trade treaty between both the neighbouring countries within the next two weeks by finalising details of the installation of biometric system and tracking devices on transport units.

The Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) 2010 was signed by both countries on 28 October 2010. This agreement has replaced the transit trade agreement of 1965. The APTTA was operationalised on 12 June. An official source said most of the provisions under the agreement had been implemented but the installation of biometric system and tracking devices on transport units. He said the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and the Ministry of Interior were sorting out the issues.

He said currently the FBR was in the process of selecting suitable firms for monitoring and tracking of transit cargo across the country on a real time basis. All the required formalities had been completed and it was expected that the firm, most suitable both technically and financially, would be mandated to operate the tracking system, within two weeks time. According to the source, the Interior Ministry would soon hold a meeting with Afghan authorities in Kabul on the installation of a compatible biometric system at Torkham and Chamman borders to resolve the matter.

PAKISTAN TODAY

14 February Afghan Cash Buyers Target Palm Jumeirah

Wealthy Afghans are pouring millions of dollars into the UAE property market, in the run up to NATO withdrawing from the country in two years time. According to a number of es-

February 2012 tate agents spoken to by Arabian Business, properties in the Palm are amongst the areas being targeted for cash deals. An estimated $8 billion is believed to have been stashed away in Dubai by Afghan investors in recent years, according to experts. 104 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

“They come and spend cash and they know what they want. They are mainly looking for the Palm. Just right now, we have two or three big negotiations that we can close… We are talking about AED9m ($2.45m) plus.” said Gabor Szalay, director of Provident Estate. “In the last couple of months, we have seen an increase in enquires in nationals from there,” added David McCormack, group operations director at the Dubai-based Olive Property Group.

In 2009, ahead of the last Afghan election, millions of dollars made its way out of Af- ghanistan in suitcases and even on pallets loaded into aircraft, according to police at Kabul’s main airport.

In 2010 the Afghan government took over Kabul Bank - the country’s biggest commercial bank - after a run on deposits caused by revelations that the bank’s owners had lost millions of dollars they loaned to themselves to purchase property investments in Dubai.

ARABIAN BUSINESS

15 February 300 Containers May Be Allowed to Cross Torkham Border

The authorities are mulling a strategy to allow 300 commercial cargo containers stranded at Takhta Baig checkpoint and Torkham border crossing since the blockade of the NATO supplies operating in Afghanistan.

Sources said that the Frontier Corps (FC) officials had assured the traders associated with the Afghan transit trade that their cargoes stuck up in Takhta Baig and Torkham would be allowed in a day or two.

These cargos have been stuck up at the Takhta Baig checkpoint and Torkham since February 2012 the blockade of the NATO supplies following the NATO attacks on two checkposts in Mohmand Agency. 105 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

The traders claimed that over 300 containers loaded with a variety of goods had been stuck up at the two checkpoints, saying these were consignments reloaded in Peshawar while those loaded in Karachi are allowed to cross to the neighbouring country.

THE NEWS

16 February Afghanistan: Mobile Phones an “Affordable Luxury”

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Communication & Information Technology is currently implementing the second wave of its World Bank supported Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Sector Development Project. The project, approved last year, builds on the success of a series of programs and policies that have dramatically changed the telecommunication environment of Afghanistan over the past decade.

ICT development has increased exponentially in Afghanistan since the 2001 US inva- sion. Due to government policies and extensive foreign investment, the telecommunication network now penetrates an unprecedented percent of the population as well as offering them mobile financial services.

“To say that in a country like Afghanistan we are able to bring world-class products and services, including Black Berry, mobile money (M-Paisa) and social networking services, is something that we are extremely proud of,” says Karim Khoja, CEO of Roshan, the largest commercial wireless operator in Afghanistan.

There are currently over 17 million mobile phone subscribers and 15,000 Internet users in Afghanistan. By 2016, the ICT Sector Development Project, using the approved $50 million fund, plans to quadruple Internet users, lengthen the fiber optic network to con- nect most of Afghanistan’s provinces, increasing telephone penetration to 80 percent of the population. Kabul will even soon be launching its first telecommunication satellite and providing 3G Internet capabilities.

MEDIA GLOBAL

18 February Copper Industry is Faced with Recession in Balkh

Many coppersmiths are concerned about retaining their jobs and said that the import of cheaper Pakistani and Chinese products that are very similar to theirs have caused a

February 2012 recession in the industry and its workers are about to leave their occupation. 106 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

They purchase the raw materials from Pakistan on high prices and therefore cannot compete to sell them cheaper, than the imported products from neighboring countries, they added.

Although Afghanistan has one of the largest copper mines in the world, the government has not been able to extract the copper. Because of the poor local supply, the Afghan coppersmiths have to import their required materials from other countries.

ARIANA NEWS

19 February Pakistan Army Will No Longer Stop Afghan Trucks: ACCI

Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries said that Pakistan Army will no longer create problems for Afghanistan bound containers. The ACCI said that Pakistan’s finance ministry has newly taken over all transit-related issues and that the army will no longer be involved. It also said that during the recent visit of the Afghan President to Pakistan, officials in Islamabad have promised to provide more facilities to help Afghan traders transport merchandise through Pakistan soil into Afghanistan.

ACCI officials said 200 trucks of goods have been allowed to enter Afghanistan over the past two days. It comes as Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries had previously expressed frustration saying it was not sure if Pakistan would solve Afghan traders’ trade problems. Trucks containing Afghan-bound merchandise have been stopped in Pakistan for the last three months.

The ACCI urged the Afghan government to be serious in its stance towards Pakistan and keep pushing officials in Islamabad to prevent transit problems in the future. “President Karzai has been very serious during his recent visit to Islamabad. We hope the President will always defend our national interests so seriously,” Deputy Head of ACCI, Khan Jan

February 2012 Alokozay, said.

TOLO NEWS 107 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

22 February Uzbekistan Exports 1.2bn Kilowatt-Hours Electricity to Afghanistan a Year

Uzbekistan exports 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Afghanistan a year. Uzbeki- stan and the ADB have been active in addressing critical regional issues that has resulted in commissioning of power transmission lines to secure uninterrupted supply of 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of power per annum from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, the report said.

The ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said last week at the international conference “Fos- tering a Well Educated and Intellectually Advanced Generation - Critical Prerequisite for Sustainable Development and Modernization of Country” said: “I am happy that several investments of the country improve lives and hopes in Afghanistan.”

He added that Uzbekistan is the first and still only electricity supplier to Kabul, which has 24-hour power supply.

LEXIS NEXIS

23 February Gold in Them Thar Hills

The US Geological Survey’s 2010 estimate of $1trillion-$3trillion of untapped minerals in Afghanistan hasn’t started a rush to do business in that country.

South Africa’s mining companies might also take an interest in the country’s opportuni- ties. They’ve woken up to the need for geographical diversification and have an appetite for risk. Afghanistan has minerals that SA (South Africa) miners are familiar with, like gold, coal, iron ore and chromite. The country also has other assets, like lithium (used in batteries) and copper, which are in high demand globally.

Afghanistan is well behind SA on economic and human development indicators. GDP at purchasing power parity is about $900/person/year, compared with SA’s $10500, and about 76% of Afghanistan’s population is rural, against 40% of SA’s.

Afghanistan’s deputy minister of mines, Ahmad Javid said in an interview during a recent visit to SA that in developing a mining policy the government has stressed the importance of social upliftment and preserving the environment. Mining revenue is set aside for investment in infrastructure and social and economic development, he said. February 2012 FINANCIAL MAIL 108 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

25 February Afghanistan Inks TIR Convention

Afghanistan recently ratified the International Road Transport (TIR) Convention to begin availing the facilities used by landlocked states, officials said.

The ratification a two-day conference among member states in western Herat province. The conference was attended by Afghan, Kazakh, Tajik, Iranian and European Commis- sion Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) officials.

TIR is an international system of customs control that facilitates trade and transport whilst effectively protecting the revenue of the country through which goods are transported.

The convention is the only universal system that allows the goods to transit from a country of origin to a state of destination in sealed load compartments with customs control recognition along the supply chain.

Addressing the conference, Yalda Nateq, international relations department head at the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Aviation, said the agreement would place Afghanistan in a position where it would play the role of a transit route among the member states ---Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Iran who have already ratified treaty.

PAJHWOK

27 February Afghanistan to Increase Import of Knitwear as Pak Opens Border

The opening up of Pakistan border will result in increased imports by Afghanistan from north India’s hosiery hub of Ludhiana, a news article reported.

Vinod Thaper, President of the Ludhiana-based Knitwear Club, said, “The trade with Afghanistan has been going on for the past 5-7 years. The trading is being done from both Ludhiana and Delhi, and it is currently around Rs. 5 billion. Most of the exports are knitwear products.”

Elaborating how the India-Afghanistan trade would widen by opening of Pakistan border, he says, “Currently, our exports to Afghanistan happen through a different channel. The knitwear items are first exported to Dubai and from there they are shipped to Afghanistan. If Pakistan opens its border, then it will benefit us, as the logistics will become simpler and

February 2012 freight expenses will also be less.”

FIBRE 2 FASHION 109 Monthly Risk Summary

Business News

29 February Six Afghan-Tajik Regional Oil Projects to Be Put for Bidding

Afghanistan Minister of Mines and industries, Wahidullah Shahrani left for US to attend the international conference on mines.

In the conference, said to be held on the upcoming 3 March, Shahrani is to introduce six Afghan-Tajik regional oil zones to the participants of the conference.

After attending the conference, the Afghan minister will leave for London to participate in the international conference on oil and natural gas.

The minister will put the six Afghan-Tajik oil zones for bidding.

Afghan-Tajik zone, the survey of which was started by a Canadian company, is located in north-eastern part of Afghanistan.

Previously, Afghan minister of mines had said oil in the Afghan-Tajik oil zones has been estimated nearly 15 trillion m.

BAKHTAR NEWS February 2012 110 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development

1 February Hungary PRT Complete 15 Km Road Gravel Work in Baghlan

Hungarian Provincial Reconstruction Team of the northern Baghlan province following a press release announced the completion of gravel work of 13 km of road and around 40 bridges and culverts in Dand-e-Ghori district of northern Baghlan province, with a cost of around $600,000.

The source further added that road gravel work in Dand-e-Ghori district which connects various suburbs and villages was completed in 90 days and was formally inaugurated by Afghan local government officials and Hungarian officials and US Special Forces officials in the presence of the local tribal elders.

Hungarian PRT officials emphasized on the importance of the road in respect ofthe security and said, Afghan security forces will be able to easily control the suburbs and villages by using the new road.

KHAAMA PRESS

4 February Russia’s Special Envoy, Karzai Discuss CASA-1000 Project

February 2012 Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai and discussed with him issues of bilateral interest. Besides holding talks on boost- ing bilateral economic cooperation, electricity export from Central Asia to South 111 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development Russia fully support projects that links Central Asia to South Asia and benefit Afghani- stan, it quoted the Russian envoy for Afghanistan as saying. Kabulov said that his country has set aside $500 million for the CASA-1000 project according to which 1000-1300 MW electricity is to be exported to Pakistan from Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic via Afghanistan.

He hoped that other donor countries would also join and support the project. About Rus- sia’s assistance to Afghanistan, the special Russian envoy said that his country recently provided 3000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan and 40 vehicles were provided to Sayyar Workshop as assistance.

THE FRONTIER POST

6 February USACE Continued Contracting and Construction Momentum in January

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineering District-South continued to meet its contracting and construction goals set for fiscal year 2012 during January. The South district exceeded first quarter goals and is on track to meet the second quarter goals as well.

“For the month of January, the South district actually exceeded our projection of $59.3 million,” said Bill Stout, deputy chief, engineering and construction division. “We ‘placed’ about $61.8 million worth of construction, meaning we paid contractors that much money for the work they have completed.”

The total placed construction represents 100.3 percent (or $249.8 million) of the projection for the first four months of fiscal year 2012, which is significant because meeting that target meant that district personnel worked diligently to close the gap between projec- tions and actual placement, Stout said.

DVIDS HUB

7 February Rail Connecting Afghan and Uzbekistan Commissioned

For the first time, the loading and unloading process of the Afghan trade goods that are being entered from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan was launched by rail from Naib-abad port, officials said.

February 2012 The 75 kilometer railway track between Hairatan and Mazar-e-Sharif links Hairatan border with Mazar-e-Sharif provincial capital of northern Balkh province. 112 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development

The railway track was made by Uzbekistan at a cost of 29 million US dollars and was funded by the Asian Development Bank. The railway line is being considered to be extended to Badghis, Herat and Kandahar provinces.

Meanwhile, Zabihullah Akhtari, head of Balkh trade sector, said rail transport would be very effective for country’s economic growth and will boost the reconstruction process in the Northern provinces.

ARIANA NEWS

9 February Bringing Government Plans to Life

In 2006, the Arghandab District government prepared the first comprehensive District Development Plan (DDP). This plan allowed government officials at all levels to prioritize and coordinate infrastructure repairs in order to promote economic recovery and stability. Unfortunately, many of the targeted infrastructure improvements were beyond the reach of constrained government budgets. The lack of funding and manpower led to service gaps that compromised local perceptions of government responsiveness.

To support the Arghandab DDP, USAID and its implementing partner, Central Asia De- velopment Group, collaborated with Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa, the Kandahar provincial development council, and the district governor to identify and fill infrastructure gaps in the plan. From April 2011 to November 2011, USAID implemented a road and drainage rehabilitation project and an erosion protection-wall reconstruction project. Gov- ernment officials were instrumental in selecting worksites for the two projects, recruiting personnel, and forging agreements with community leaders. Government officials visited February 2012 the work sites regularly and played an important role in overseeing the work for the community. 113 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development

The projects employed 1,428 residents, repairing more than 16 km of roads, nine km of drainage canals, 1,200 meters of erosion protection walls, and 70 culverts. This work has allowed government officials to make significant progress on the Arghandab DDP. The road and drainage project was mapped closely to infrastructure and natural resource strategies in the plan, while the erosion protection wall project was mapped to DDP agriculture and rural development strategies.

USAID AFGHANISTAN

12 February Balkh Traders Say Railroad a Useless Project

Traders in northern Balkh province complain they are yet to benefit from the Mazar-i- Sharif-Hairatan railway line that was inaugurated some months ago.

The 75-kilometre tracks, linking Mazar-i-Sharif with the Hairatan border town of neighboring Uzbekistan, cost $129 million, provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“Traders of the province have not been able so far to get benefit from the track,” acting Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) head for Balkh said.

Abdul Wahab told that the traders had to pay heavy charges for storing their goods in the Naimabad area of Hairatan and at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport, where storage facilities were not available. He asked the government to construct storage facilities for traders’ goods and provide them with other facilities as well.

Currently, the track is being used for transportation of goods and fuel for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).The track remained open for 24 hours to transfer trade goods from Uzbekistan to Mazar-i-Sharif, said the railways head, Abdul Bari.

PAJHWOK

14 February Afghanistan Expects Construction of Railroad Linking It to Central Asia

Afghanistan expects the conclusion on feasibility studies of a railway corridor, which, if constructed, will link the country to Central Asia, D. Nurgol Mengel, head of Specific research and technical department of the Ministry of Public Works of Afghanistan told Trend. February 2012 The railway corridor is expected to be constructed from Aynak cooper mine in Logar province south of capital city of Kabul to eastern Torkham and northern Hyratan border 114 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development towns. The feasibility studies of the project are being held by Chinese company “China Railway”, Mengel said.

He added that after the feasibility studies is concluded, the company will introduce its re- sults to Afghanistan’s government and if they decide that the project economically sound, the Chinese company will start its construction.

Mengel said that if the project is implemented, Afghanistan’s government will insure the security of the railway, while the China Railway company will fully cover the expenses for its construction. The official added that the corridor may link Afghanistan to Tajikistan if the Central Asian country builds a 65 - kilometer sector of the line. This will link Afghani- stan to the whole Central Asian region.

He added that Afghanistan also plans to link its railway to Turkmenistan by building a 90-kilometer sector of the line from Anamurat town to Afghanistan’s border. Mengel said that Afghanistan has a railway agreement with Iran.

The two countries already construct a sector of the line from Iranian Havaf city to Afghan Heart, he added. This railway, if connected to Mazar-e-Sharif railway, may become a new transport corridor connecting the Central Asia with the Persian Gulf.

TURKISH WEEKLY

19 February Badakshan Residents Build Road on Self-Help Basis

Asphalting of a five-kilometre road was completed by locals in the Tishkan district of northern Badakshan province, officials said.

Muhammad Azim Musavi, the town’s administrative head, said residents of 70 villages took two days to bring essential materials on donkeys and horses from the district centre to the site. The villages remain cut off throughout winter due to the blockade of the key link as a result of snowfall; he said, adding residents had decided last summer to improve the road’s condition.

People worked on the road, when allowed by the weather, and were able to finish the pavement process with the help of excavators last week.

The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development has promised repairing the remaining 17-kilometre portion of the road to the district center, in addition to building bridges and culverts. The district chief said the project would take one year to complete. February 2012

PAJHWOK 115 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development 20 February Iranian Company Wins Bid to Establish Herat Cement Plant

An Iranian company was recognized as the winner of a bid to establish a cement factory in the western Herat province.

“The Peshgaman Company of Iran has won the bid to establish the Pahlavanan cement factory with the initial capital of $150 million,” Herat governor spokesman, Moheyoddin Noori told reporters, adding that the factory will produce one million ton high-quality cement per year.

“The project will provide job opportunity for 2,000 persons and the winner company has promised to employ Afghans in every parts of the project.

The establishment of a township, mosque, school, park and an 11 kilometer road are the other conditions of the ministry of mines that the Peshgaman Company has vowed to implement.

The Pahlavanan cement factory was planned to be established by a Czechoslovakian company in 1976 with the capital of $ 50 million, but the project postponed when the internal wars occurred.

WAKHT NEWS

22 February Reconstructed Bridge in Uruzgan Opens the Way to Economic Growth

USAID, through its Afghanistan Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program, recently completed construction of the Regak Bridge located in the volatile Uruzgan province. February 2012 Straddling the Shakur River, the bridge was constructed in an area faced with border disputes, insurgency, drug trafficking, and river flooding due to snow melt and rain. 116 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development Construction of the bridge has directly benefitted the local population in many ways. While under construction, the project provided positive stabilization impact. Locally hired labor and material purchases provided a significant economic boost to the area.

USAID AFGHANISTAN

23 February Health Clinic in Nangarhar Jail

A foundation stone of a health clinic was laid in Nangarhar jail. The clinic will cost more than one million Afghanis, provided by the Health Net organization.

Nangarhar Jail Superintendent Col. Abdul Wali Hisarak said that the clinic would take four months to complete. The prison with the capacity of housing 600 prisoners was set up 65 years ago. Currently, it holds 1,267 inmates, including 24 females.

Three rooms of the clinic have already been constructed by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). Three more rooms were being added to the 10-bed clinic.

SADA-E-AZADI

26 February Kunar Customs Office to Have New Building

The foundation stone of a new building for the customs department was laid in Kunar province.

“Funded by the Ministry of Finance, the project is estimated to cost 45 million afghanis ($908,724) and take a year to complete,” said Governor Syed Fazlullah Wahidi.

The facility would spur transit trade activity on the road connecting the Nawa Pass area of Kunar with Pakistan’s Bajaur and Mohmand tribal districts. The building is being built over 10 acres of land. Kunar Customs Director Khanzad Gul said that they had faced a lot of problems due to lack of a proper building.

SADA-E-AZADI

27 February An Oversees Hospital Project in Herat

A $4.8 million hospital with 28-beds will be opened in Shindand district, Herat province. February 2012

The project was initiated in May 2011, with the award of a Design Build Contract in late September 2011. Groundbreaking took place in late January. Greco, the on-site project 117 Monthly Risk Summary

Infrastructural / Reconstruction Development manager, informed that the construction is expected to be completed in October or No- vember 2012.

The hospital will consist of a full-service medical clinic with emergency-care facilities that improve access to medical services for the region.

“This hospital will mainly be utilized by the people of Shindand since there are not many medical facilities in that area,” he added.

MY CENTRAL JERSEY

28 February Six Hundred Gardens to Be Built in Helmand

Six hundreds new gardens are to be built in the coming year in Helmand, Officials of Agriculture Department of Helmand province said.

With the cooperation of American forces stationed in Helmand, their department planed to create six hundreds new gardens in ten districts of the province, Abdullah Ahmadzai Head of Agriculture Department of Helmand province said.

According to him, American forces will allocate two million US dollars for the construction of these gardens. He added that thirteen farms have been selected in different parts of Helmand province for planting of useful saplings.

BAKHTAR NEWS February 2012

119 Monthly Risk Summary

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SECURITY ADVICE & CA PABILITIES

Sicuro G roup A fghanistan p rovide t racking and bespoke PO BBoxox 31291 30964 Dubai, consultancy services. Headquarted in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai,UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITEDPhone: ARAB+971 EMIRA (0)4 TES.447 1489 Sicuro G roup h ave advised government a gencies and Phone: +971 (0)50 225 2774 corporate organisations across the Middle East & Central Asia E-mail:Email: [email protected]@sicurogroup.com on matters associated with risk and security.

SECURITY ADVICE

Foot Movement In light of recent attacks on international workers it is recommended that movement on foot outside of internationally controlled areas should be kept to a minimum. Never travel alone.

Vehicle Movement Minimise vehicle movement at high risk times such as rush hour congestion and in the vicinity of high value targets such as international embassies and areas frequented by Westerners.

Alternate routes should be considered where safe to do so; vehicle doors should be kept locked at all times and vehicles should at all times be tracked by your (Sicuro Group) control centre.

Vehicles should always contain: 1st Aid equipment, relevant mapping, serviceable running kit and spares. Never travel alone.

Checkpoints are acceptable) for any weapons carried in vehicles.

In hours of darkness, standard procedure is to illuminate your interior light to assist local police and military in their duties. nationality.

Consider wearing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) at all times when outside of areas controlled by security forces.

Avoid wearing or exposing expensive items such as jewellery and technical equipment which may heighten your value as a kidnap target.

Prior to departure it is recommended you check out through your tracking provider’s control centre. On departure alert your destination of your estimated time of arrival.

Threat of Abduction Kidnap and abduction remain a constant threat to the expatriate community, high profile personnel and, social and health workers in Kabul city and country wide. To discuss options available to assist with countering this threat, please contact Sicuro

February 2012 workers in Kabul city and country wide. To discuss options available to assist with countering this threat, please contact Group, in Afghanistan who provide various methods of tracking along with a host of add ons. For further information, please Sicurocall +971 Gro up(0)4, in A447fghanistan 1489 or who email provide [email protected] various methods of trac ; alsoking visit along www.sicurogroup.com. with a host of add ons. For further information, please contact Ian Paterson +93 773328637 or [email protected] ; also visit www.istar-technologies.com.