US new Afghan ‘air war’ is risky
Free Saeed: court
WASHINGTON, Nov 22, (Agencies): As the US military opens a new front in its air war in Afghanistan, targeting the Taleban’s poppy-processing factories and dropping thousands more bombs, experts are warning of the risk of alienating the local population.
The quickening tempo comes after President Donald Trump in August approved broad new powers for General John Nicholson, who commands US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Numbers reveal a massive uptick in air strikes already, with the US military on course to triple the number of bombs it has dropped this year.
As of Oct 31, the US had released 3,554 weapons in Afghanistan, compared to 1,337 for all of 2016, when the war was overseen by then president Barack Obama.
Trump’s new rules mean America can now proactively bomb the Taleban, where before strikes were restricted to backing up Afghan partners on the ground.
Nicholson on Monday announced a series of strikes on at least 10 labs used to process opium into heroin, dealing a blow to a key source of Taleban funding.
Huge B-52 bombers and F-22 Raptor stealth fighters destroyed the facilities in rural Helmand, marking the first time F-22s had been used in Afghanistan.
The Air Force has a growing stash of high-tech planes and drones at its disposal as operations against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq wind down.
America often boasts that its bomb-dropping technologies are the most precise in history.
But Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington Director at Human Rights Watch, said an increase in air strikes would likely lead to more civilian deaths and that, in turn, risks alienating the Afghans.
An increase in civilian harm also could anger the international community, with many NATO nations already weary of Afghanistan commitments after 16 years of war.
Pak to free Saeed:
A Pakistani court has ordered the release of one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed more than 160 people, less than a year after he was placed under house arrest.
Firebrand cleric Hafiz Saeed, who heads the UN-listed terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and has a $10 million US bounty on his head, will be freed tomorrow after the decision by the Lahore High Court, a JuD official said.
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of Nov 26, 2008.
It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city. India has long said there is evidence that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack – a charge Islamabad denies.
Pak army major killed:
Pakistan’s military says security forces have raided a militant hideout, triggering a shootout that left an army major dead in the northwest near the Afghanistan border.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor? said the slain officer was “martyred” in the district of Dera Ismail Khan early Wednesday.
Ghafoor said that army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and other senior officers attended the funeral of the slain officer.
The military gave no further details and it was unclear whether there were any militant casualties.
Dera Ismail Khan is a gateway to the North and South Waziristan tribal regions, which were once a base for local and foreign militants.
3rd journo killed in India:
An Indian soldier shot dead a journalist following a dispute, police said Wednesday, the country’s third high-profile media killing in barely three months.
Sudip Dutta Bhaumik died Tuesday at a paramilitary base in the remote northeastern state of Tripura, where his editor said he was investigating allegations of financial fraud by the force.
Local police chief Abhijit Saptarshi said the soldier shot and killed Bhaumik “after they argued and scuffled over some issue” and had since been arrested.
“He was shot dead inside the office of the commander by a soldier,” Saptarshi told AFP, adding the soldier claimed Bhaumik had tried to snatch his rifle.