Afghanistan and Pakistan

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NATO strike kills women and girls gathering firewood – Afghan officials

A NATO airstrike killed eight women and girls in eastern Afghanistan, local officials reported. The alliance said the strike targeted 45 armed insurgents but admitted some civilians may have been killed.

RT,

16 September, 2012

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The women were gathering firewood when they were killed by the strike, spokesperson for the Laghman provincial government Sarhadi Zewak said. Several women were also injured during the NATO strike, he added.

Villagers brought the victims’ bodies to the local governor’s office on Sunday in the wake of the attack, amid cries of “Death to America!” said Zewak.

Seven females are now in nearby hospitals receiving treatment, some of whom are as young as ten years old, AP reports.

Initial reports claimed that as many as 45 armed insurgents were killed in a "precision air strike," NATO spokesperson Jamie Graybeal said. However, Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the Isaf later told the BBC that between five and eight civilians may have been caught in the crossfire in a “tragic loss of life.”

The issue of frequent civilian deaths in NATO military operations is another point of contention between Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and the US.

Last year, some 400 Afghan civilians were killed in operations conducted by international and Afghan troops, the UN reported. This year's estimates suggested that the number of Afghan civilians killed and injured in the first half of 2012 fell 15 percent.

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1 killed as anti-US protesters rally near US consulate in Karachi

One person was killed and at least six others injured by police fire when anti-US protesters clashed with security forces outside the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

RT,

16 September, 2012

Police deployed water cannons, and fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse crowds of angry protesters, who threw rocks at the US consulate and set fire to a nearby police station. 

Witnesses reported that protesters tore down the consulate's American flag.
Karachi's chief of police says 47 policemen were injured in clashes, with three of them in critical condition, Pakistani journalist Khalid Khan reports on Twitter.

The rally was organized by the Shia Muslim student organization Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen. After the clashes, the group announced that it would organize a large sit-in to protest the death of the protester, as well as the incendiary anti-Islamic movie.

Protesters held anti-US rallies in cities across Pakistan, demanding the expulsion of the US ambassador and calling for a boycott on all American goods and services,  RT's Paula Slier reported.

The protest in Karachi is the latest in a spate of anti-US protests throughout the Islamic world sparked by the inflammatory film 'Innocence of Muslims.'
On Sunday, hundreds of Afghan students held a protest rally in Kabul. 
Demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans, and burned an American flag and a poster of Barack Obama.

The film was simply the last straw for Muslim society, which was already fed up with US propaganda, Ahmed Quraishi, from the Paknationalists Forum, told RT.

“These demonstrations are not really directed at the film itself. They are result of accumulation. Over the past few months and years there has been an organized campaign to insult and humiliate Islam, particularly in the United States,” he explained.
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8 green-on-blue killings sweep Afghanistan over weekend

Eight coalition soldiers were killed in three separate attacks across Afghanistan since Friday, as the trend of Afghan soldiers firing on coalition troops worsens for NATO

RT,

16 September, 2012

Afghanistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in 2012 in green-on-blue killings – ‘green’ the NATO code for local Afghan soldiers, ‘blue’ for NATO soldiers – prompting increasing concern among NATO and the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) ahead of their scheduled 2014 pullout.

Sunday’s attacks, in which four coalition soldiers were killed, pushed the total number of coalition troops killed in such incidents this year to a record 51, up from 35 last year – a major spike in what was deemed a 'minor problem' a few years ago.

In an attack on Friday evening, two UK soldiers with a NATO-led deployment in southern Afghanistan were killed by a man wearing the uniform of the Afghan police. Three others were wounded in the attack, after which a soldier returned fire and killed the assailant.

On Saturday, another individual believed to be a member of the Afghan police killed two more British NATO servicemembers in the country's southern Helmand province. That attack also ended in the gunman being killed by return fire.

The deadliest of the weekend's green-on-blue assaults came on Sunday in Zabul Province, with four coalition servicemembers killed. Reports claimed that there were multiple gunmen, and that the attack was “suspected to involve members of the Afghan police” and was “under investigation.” Later in the day, the Pentagon confirmed all the four people killed in the insider attack were Americans.

‘We take this very seriously’

With the 2014 pullout deadline fast approaching, commanders are weighing an array of tactics to solve the problem. New vetting procedures have been instituted. Amidst what may be a new atmosphere of distrust between NATO trainers and Afghan Police trainees, “hundreds” of Afghan trainees were dismissed from duty over document irregularities, the New York Times reported. 'Sensitivity' and cultural training has also been increased, and a 28-page booklet titled 'A Brochure for Comprehending the Cultures of the Coalition Forces' has been distributed among Afghan troops.

"Coalition troops may ask about the women in your family. Do not take offense, they just want friendly relations with you. In return, teach them that Afghans do not discuss their families' women with others," and “As you know, Afghans in the presence of others do not blow their noses. This practice is very common in the culture of coalition countries. If a member of the coalition forces blows his nose in your presence, please don’t consider this an offense or an insult,” the brochure reads.

The sheer number of green-on-blue incidents has led to some to speculate that the problem is more than just a cultural issue; some suspect that these attacks are the direct result of NATO's near-complete lack of on-the-ground intelligence in Afghanistan.

In January 2010, Major General Michael Flynn published a report in cooperation with a Washington thinktank, which argued that "Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the US intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy," and that “the vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade.”

Officers deployed in Afghanistan are "ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced," Flynn said.

Journalist and author Jere van Dyk echoed Flynn’s concerns in a recent RT interview: “How many Pashtun speakers are there? When you talk to, for example, interpreters, you find out that there is a huge underground network of interpreters, all of whom have to pay bribes before they can work with the American soldiers. Who controls these interpreters? I’m not sure they are completely free at all. The Taliban could easily infiltrate this [network], this was my experience.”

As efforts to stem the tide of green-on-blue killings increase, and nerves continue to fray in the run-up to NATO’s 2014 pullout, there are no easy answers for the NATO-led coalition.

In a statement released on September 6, ISAF commander Gen. John R. Allen said, “I can assure our friends and foes alike that I take this issue very seriously and my entire command is absolutely driven to do everything we can to reduce this threat. … It is a threat to both green and blue that requires a green and blue solution.”