Reuters
07/29/2010
By David Fox
[Printer Friendly Version]

KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai questioned on Thursday the willingness of his Western allies to strike insurgent bases in Pakistan given the strong evidence of Islamabad's support for the Taliban.

"The war against terrorism is not in the villages or houses of Afghanistan ... but in the sanctuaries, sources of funding and training (of terrorism), and they lie outside Afghanistan," he told a news conference in Kabul.

"It is a different question whether Afghanistan has the ability to tackle this," he said in response to a question about Pakistan support for the Taliban and why the conflict was dragging on. "... but our allies have this capability. The question now is 'why they are not taking action'?" Islamabad's covert backing of the Taliban resurfaced this week with the publication by the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks of tens of thousands of classified U.S. military documents related to the near-nine-year-old war.

The documents show current and former members of Pakistan's spy agency were actively collaborating with the Taliban in plotting attacks in Afghanistan -- including an assassination attempt against Karzai.

PAKISTAN KEY TO ENDING WAR

Those ties have been an open secret for a long time, but relations between Islamabad and Kabul have nevertheless warmed in the past two years. Both neighbors signed a long-awaited but lucrative trucking transit agreement last month, their first significant diplomatic accord in decades.

Karzai held out hope for further improved ties.

"Looking at the future, Afghanistan of course will continue its efforts for establishing friendly, stable and sturdy relations with all of its neighbors," he said in his first solo news conference in months.

Karzai needs the 150,000-strong NATO-led foreign force to make significant advances against the insurgency if his government is to meet a 2014 target of taking responsibility for security operations across the whole country.

Ordinary Afghans are baffled how Washington can wage a costly and punishing war against the Taliban in Afghanistan while at the same time giving billions in aid and military support to Pakistan, which allows sanctuary to militant leaders.

But Islamabad, which sees Afghanistan as "strategic depth" to the west in case of war with India to the east, will be central to any peace talks between the Karzai's government and the Taliban leadership over which it holds sway.

Karzai said he had ordered government agencies to sift through the WikiLeaks documents to see if there was anything new or damaging to nation, adding reports of Afghan confidential informants being identified were "irresponsible and shocking."

Many of the documents reveal names of Afghans giving information to foreign forces or informing on the Taliban and there are fears they could be identified and targeted by insurgents.

Violence in Afghanistan has soared since a troop surge brought to 150,000 the number of foreign forces confronting the Taliban and two other insurgent groups.

(Writing by David Fox; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Why shouldn't wealthy Afghans own property in Dubai? Telegraph (09/10/2010)

Taleban Try Hearts-and-Minds Tactics IWPR (09/10/2010)

The 72-Hour Expert The Weekly Standard (09/10/2010)

Karzai calls on Taliban leader to join peace talks AFP (09/10/2010)

Corruption fighting, Afghanistan style The Washington Post, Opinion (09/10/2010)

Swedish MMA star Malik Mawlayi's history of violence TheLocal, Sweden (09/10/2010)

Thousands protest Koran burning plan in Afghan north Reuters (09/10/2010)

Pentagon worries about fallout from Afghan murder case AFP (09/10/2010)

US troops 'murdered Afghan civilians and kept body parts' BBC (09/10/2010)

Afghan war book delayed over 'classified' material The Associated Press (09/10/2010)

US non-committal on TAPI pipeline PNS (09/10/2010)

Day of Martyrs Week observed in Kabul Pajhwok (09/10/2010)

U.S. effort to help Afghanistan fight corruption has complicated ties The Washington Post (09/10/2010)

Koran-burning protests could delay Afghan poll: U.N. Reuters (09/09/2010)

Afghan AG: West should not lead corruption fight The Associated Press (09/09/2010)

Afghanistan urged to stress test banks FT.com (09/09/2010)

House of Karzai The Economist (09/09/2010)

Afghanistan war: What happens when a war interpreter doesn't know the language The Christian Science Monitor (09/09/2010)

There's another side to Obama's COIN Inter Press Service (09/09/2010)

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies' The Guardian (09/09/2010)

The danger of defeatism in Afghanistan The Telegraph, UK (09/09/2010)

Watching a Teenage Girl Die by Mortar The New York Times (09/09/2010)

NATO Drive on Kandahar Begins, With Mixed Results The New York Times (09/09/2010)

Human Rights Watch: Violence threatens Afghan elections The Associated Press (09/09/2010)

Lacking Money and Leadership, Push for Taliban Defectors Stalls The New York Times (09/09/2010)

Afghan leader tries to curb U.S. anti-graft investigators The Washington Post (09/09/2010)

That Afghan Tunnel May Be Darker Than We Thought TIME (09/09/2010)

Amid Kabul Bank meltdown, Afghans question US-style capitalism The Washington Post (09/09/2010)

The 'perfect storm' brewing in Central Asia Japan Times (09/09/2010)

Running out of options in Afghanistan The Guardian (09/09/2010)