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#42. @realDonaldTrumpwhat do you plan to do in Afghanistan? #100Days100Qs

Here's one word President Donald Trump didn't say during his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday: Afghanistan.

Hours after Trump's speech, two bombs ripped through Kabul. The first hit a police station and the second went off near the offices of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, theNational Directorate of Security. The Taliban took credit for the attack, which killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others.

The US Embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the attack. Trump, however,remained quiet.

America's invasion of Afghanistan began as a military operation to strike back at al-Qaeda after 9/11 and capture or kill Osama bin Laden. It turned into the longest war in US history. More than 2,200 US service members have been killed thereand more than 20,000 have been wounded.

The new American president has said very little about what he plans to do in Afghanistan, but he won't be able to ignore the situation.

According to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Afghan government lostground against the Taliban and other militants over the course of last year. The government now controls less than 60 percent of the country. About a third of Afghans now live in contested territory.

"The numbers of the Afghan security forces are decreasing," SIGAR said in a report to Congress, "while both casualties and the number of districts under insurgent control or influence are increasing."

ISIS seems to be gaining ground, too. And while Trump has promised to destroy the group, he hasn't spoken to the specific challengesof battling ISISoutside its strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile,the US military campaignin the country remain very much active, despite the fact that combat operations technically ended in 2014.

Airstrikes this week have killed top Taliban commanders, and there are still8,400 American troops on the ground training, advising and assisting Afghan forces. When youadd in support from NATO allies, the total US-led force is about 13,000.

Will Trump bring those American soldiershome? Will he deploy more?

Trump said in 2013 that the USshould "leave Afghanistan immediately." But in a recent conversation with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, he reaffirmed America's committment to the country.

USGen.John Nicholson, the top commanderin Afghanistan, says he needs more boots on the ground. During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in early February, he described "a shortfall of a few thousand" troops.

Nicholson also said worrying things about Russia and Afghanistan. (As though the Trump administration needed any more worrying Russia stories in the press.) He told the Senate that Russia had been seeking to undermine the US and NATO by spreading a "false narrative" that the Taliban was fighting ISIS in Afghanistan, but not Afghan police and army forces.

Figuring out US policy on Afghanistan is about more than just managing thewar there. More than 15 years of US-involvedconflict has helped create a massive refugee crisis. It's not clear whether that's a crisis Trump will help solve.

So Mr. President, we're asking: What do you plan to do in Afghanistan? Click here to tweet that question to the president.

Over President Donald Trump's roughly first 100 days, we'll be asking him questions that our audience wants answers to. Join the project by tweeting this question to @realDonaldTrump with the hashtag #100Days100Qs. See more of our questions atpri.org/100questions.

Continued here:
President Trump, what are you going to do in Afghanistan? - PRI

Amid increasing tensions on the western border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai in a tweet on Sunday said Pakistan has "no legal authority to dictate terms on the Durand Line".

Karzai's comment followed Pakistan's decision to close the border between the two states for an indefinite period on February 16 after a recent surge in terrorist attacks across the country.

The border closure has strained Pak-Afghan relations.

Read more: Durand Line status

"While we wish freedom for the people of [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [Fata] from Frontier Crime Regulation [FCR] and other repressive measures, we remind the Government of Pakistan that Afghanistan hasn't and will not recognize the Durand line," Karzai added in his tweet.

Karzai seemed to echo the sentiment of many of his country's officials, such as Ambassador Omar Zakhilwalal, who in a Facebook post on Saturday said Pakistan does not have a valid reason for the continued closure of crossing points on the Pak-Afghan border.

Zakhilwal said the argument presented by Pakistan that the border closure is intended to stop terrorists from crossing over does not carry any weight, as these points such as Torkham and Spin Boldak have been manned by hundreds of military and other security personnel and have all the necessary equipment and infrastructure in place to prevent such a possibility.

Also read: Durand Line is recognised border: US

"Continuous unreasonable closure of legal Pak-Afghan trade and transit routes cannot have any other explanation except to be aimed at hurting the common Afghan people," the envoy said in his social media post, apparently in breach of diplomatic protocol.

The Durand Line is the a 2640-kilometre-long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, established in 1893 following an agreement between Sir Mortimer Durand, a representative of British India, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's national security adviser, Mohammad Haneef Atmar, left for India on Sunday for a three-day-long trip to attend the 19th Asian Security Conference.

The conference, titled 'Combating Terrorism: Evolving an Asian Response', is being held in New Delhi, a press released issued by the Afghanistan Office of National Security Council stated.

Apart from being the keynote speaker at the event, he will also have bilateral meetings with several Indian security and political officials, such as his Indian counterpart, Ajit Kumar Doval, the national security adviser to the prime minister of India.

Atmar will "discuss counter-terrorism measures" as well as strategies to expand "political and security ties between two countries", the statement added.

The conference, organised by India's Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), begins on March 6 and concludes March 8.

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Afghanistan will never recognise the Durand Line: Hamid Karzai - DAWN.com

Afghanistan: The only gynaecologist for hundreds of miles BBC News Fed up with what she felt was mismanagement at her hospital, gynaecologist Homa Amiri Kakar had walked out of her job in a remote part of Afghanistan and returned to the capital. But just a week later she agreed to go back, guilt-stricken about the ... and more »

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Afghanistan: The only gynaecologist for hundreds of miles - BBC News

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) At least eight Afghan civilians, including four children, were killed in an attack late Friday night in western Farah province, according to Afghan officials. However there is disagreement over what exactly caused the deaths.

Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Saturday that the incident was a roadside bomb explosion which took place in the Bala Buluk district. But family members of the victims are claiming they were hit by an airstrike.

Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press that an investigation of the incident is underway.

We are aware of the allegations made by the local people, right now an investigation is going on into the incident in Farah, Waziri said.

Dr. Abdul Hakim Rasouli, director of Farah Hospital, said that 22 others are wounded in the attack. Three of the wounded are in critical condition and will be transferred to another hospital in neighboring Herat province for their further treatment, he said.

Farahs Bala Buluk district has been the site of several recent clashes between Afghan security forces and armed insurgents. One resident, a 30-year-old mother of four named Salima, said two of her children were killed and a third wounded. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Salima, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, said her family was attacked by a helicopter.

I dont want to be alive anymore while I dont have my children with me, she said, crying.

The Afghan security forces operate helicopter gunships, as does the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile a parliamentarian from Helmand province was wounded after he was attacked by gunmen in neighboring Kandahar province, said Samim Khpolwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Khpolwak said that the lawmaker, Mir Wali, was shot by two attackers on a motorcycle who escaped afterward.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying Wali is a close ally of the United States.

This was the second attack on Wali in recent months. In December 2016, three gunmen stormed Walis home in the capital, Kabul. Eight people were killed in the attack and Wali was wounded.

Link:
8 civilians killed in Afghanistan by alleged air strike - The Seattle Times

WASHINGTON There is mounting evidence that Chinese ground troops are operating inside Afghanistan, conducting joint counter-terror patrols with Afghan forces along a 50-mile stretch of their shared border and fueling speculation that Beijing is preparing to play a significantly greater role in the country's security once the U.S. and NATO leave.

The full scope of China's involvement remains unclear, and the Pentagon is unwilling to discuss it. We know that they are there, that they are present, a Pentagon spokesman said. Yet beyond a subtle acknowledgement, U.S. military officials in Washington and in Kabul would not respond to several detailed questions submitted by Military Times.

This dynamic stands in stark contrast to the two sides' feisty rhetoric over their ongoing dispute in the South China Sea, and to Washington's vocal condemnation of Russian and Iranian activity in Afghanistan. One explanation may be that this quiet arrangement is mutually beneficial.

Both the Chinese and Afghan governments have disputed reports of joint patrols inside Afghanistan. Those first surfaced late last year when India's Wion News published photosclaiming to show Chinese military vehicles ina region called Little Pamir, a barren plateau near the border.Reuters, an international news agency, also recently documentedthe development.

The vehicles were identified as a Dongfeng EQ 2050, which is the Chinese equivalent of a U.S. Humvee, and a Norinco VP 11a, which are like the mine-resistant MRAPs developed by the U.S. military last decade.China maintains that while its policeforces do conduct joint counter-terrorism operations along the border, based on existing bilateral agreements between the two nations, the People's Liberation Army does not.

But then there's this peculiarity: In January, Chinese media circulated a reportabout Chinese troops allegedly rescuing a U.S. special forces team that had been attacked in Afghanistan. The story is likely bogus propaganda, and U.S. officials in Afghanistan say no U.S. personnel have been part of any operations involving Chinese forces, but it would seem to underscore the two countries' shared interest in combating terrorism there.

In this screen grab from India's Wion News, a Chinese Norinco VP 11a mine resistant vehicle patrols in the Afghanistan-China border region. (Screen grab via Wion News) But whyis China even interested in Afghanistan? There are two motivators: security and commerce.

The first, says Franz-Stefan Gady, a senior fellow at the East-West Institute, centers around Chinas desire to eradicate a Uyghur militant group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has been active throughout the region for many years. Its feud with the Chinese government dates to 1949. The U.S. State Department designated it a terrorist organization in 2002. More recently, Uyghurs fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq have vowed to wreak havocback home in China.

The U.S. military is not expressly targeting China's adversary though its continued presence in Afghanistan does further China's objective by helping to secure the country and deny sanctuary to rogue terror groups. Today, there are about 15,000 U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, down from nearly 130,000 during the war's peak. They're spread across a handful of bases, focused on teaching the Afghans how to fight their enemies independently. A separate U.S-led counter-terror mission is focused on taking out high-profile leaders within al-Qaida and its affiliates.

Border security and broader stability are of prime concern to China,saidSung-Yoon Lee, a professor of U.S.-East Asia relations at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.So its law enforcement actions inside Afghanistan in cooperation with Pakistan, as the U.S. draws down, serve Beijing's interests quite well.The U.S. is dependent on this assistance, he said. "Hence, there's no compelling reason for China not to resort to military force in its unstable western neighbor.

Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng, left, and U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley review an honor guard at the Bayi Building in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) It's a unique dilemma for Washington. On the one hand, China's assistance in war-torn Afghanistan is seen as helpful. All the saber rattling in the South China Sea to include China's militarization of several man-made islands is not.

So the U.S. appears willing to cooperate where it can, and confront where it must."A stable Afghanistan is in the interest of both the United States and China," Gady said. "I assume there must be a tacit understanding that China's involvement in Afghanistan is welcome up to a point."

"China," Gady said, "has been seen as a 'free rider' gaining economic benefits by exploiting the countrys natural resources while not contributing to the political and military solution of the conflict. So it is not surprising that as Western engagement in the country diminishes, China gradually steps in to fill the void to secure its interests."

In 2015, after the Taliban reclaimed Kunduz, a strategic city in northern Afghanistan, Beijing agreed to cooperate with Kabul. It pledged $73 million to support Afghanistan fledgling security forces. Afghan border police also are being trained in China, and the Chinese government is providing military hardware, includingbullet proof jackets, demining equipment and armored police vehicles.

Lee does not view this as a softening stance between Beijing and Washington. There are too many other disagreements, he noted. Beyond the South China Sea, the U.S. wants China to do more to keep North Korea in check and to lay off South Korea, which intends to deploy a self-defense anti-ballisticmissile system.

And the notion of Chinese forces pushing deeper into Afghanistan, beyond the border region, strikes Gady as unlikely at least in the near term, while the U.S. and its allies are there in significant numbers. "China's security footprint," he said, "will remain small and insignificant in comparison."

Shawn Snow is a Military Times staff writer and editor of the Early Bird Brief. On Twitter: @SnowSox184.

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Chinese troops appear to be operating in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is OK with it - Military Times