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U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan are investigating reports that at least 18 civilians were killed in American airstrikes last week, officials said Monday.

The airstrikes occurred Feb. 9 and 10 in Sangin, a heavily contested district in Helmand provincewhere U.S. forces have been offering increased support to Afghan soldiers seeking to dislodge Taliban militants.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said over the weekend that initial inquiries suggest that the airstrikes killed at least 18 civilians, nearly all women and children.

Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for the U.S.-led coalition, confirmed that the U.S. conducted airstrikes in Sangin last week and said investigators were looking into the reports.

The investigation is continuing and has not yet reached any conclusions, Cleveland said.

The U.S. airstrikes come amid a widening battle in Helmand, the poppy-growing province and Taliban haven that saw the most casualties among Afghan civilians in 2016and the most U.S. military fatalities since the 2001 American-led invasion.

In recent months, hundreds of U.S. troops, operating mainly in an advisory role, have been deployed to the province to assist Afghan soldiers in battling Taliban fighters who have claimed control of most of the districts.

A spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry, Dawlat Waziri, denied the reports of civilian casualties but said the ministry had sent a delegation to Sangin to investigate the incident.

Abdul Ghafar Akhund, a 54-year-old supervisor of polio vaccination programs and prayer leader at a mosque in Sangin, said his wife, two daughters, a son and a daughter-in-law were killed when an airstrike hit his house. A 9-year-old boy was injured, he said.

Akhund, who was away from home, returned to find his house destroyed. He denied that there were Taliban members in the area, saying U.S. troops had visited his neighborhood days before the incident.

The Americans have been taking revenge on us, he said. They dont differentiate between civilians and noncivilians, women and children. They must coordinate with the Afghan government.

U.S. airstrikes have been increasing in Afghanistan since former President Obama expanded the militarys authority to conduct operations against the Taliban and Islamic State. The U.N. reported last week that airstrikes caused 250 deaths and 340 injuries in Afghanistan in 2016, twice the number recorded the year before.

Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Shashank Bengali from Sofia, Bulgaria.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

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A US airstrike may have killed 18 civilians, 'nearly all women and children,' UN report says - Los Angeles Times

ISLAMABAD

Russia is hosting a conference in Moscow this week that will bring together Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India and Iran to discuss a possible solution of the conflict in Afghanistan.

This meeting is part of Russia's effort at playing a more pro-active role in Afghanistan for the first time since the former Soviet Union's invasion of the country in 1979. Its efforts, however, have encountered controversies at the very outset.

The last conference Moscow hosted on Afghanistan in December included only China and Pakistan, prompting a strong protest from the Afghan government.

The one this week is more inclusive of the regional stakeholders, but excludes the United States or NATO, leading to speculation that Russia is more interested in undermining the Unites States than in solving the regional problems.

At a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, chairman Senator John McCain said Russia is propping up the Taliban to undermine the U.S.

Given how troubling the situation is in Afghanistan, any efforts by any outside stakeholder to look for regional solutions to the war there should be welcomed, said Michael Kugelman, deputy Asia director at the Washington based Wilson Center. The question he asked, however, was what is Russia trying to do.

Is it genuinely trying to rally the key players to come up with an actionable plan to wind down the war? Or is it just trying to scale up its role in Afghanistan to undercut U.S. influence?

Other regional analysts, however, are looking at the development with more optimism.

This framework does include all the regional players that have a major stake in Afghanistan, according to Amina Khan of the Institute for Strategic Studies Islamabad, a Pakistani government run think tank.

Terrorism is a global phenomena but I think regional countries need to play a more pro-active role, she added.

At the last trilateral, Russias primary focus was on the presence of the Islamist militant group Islamic State in Eastern Afghanistan. Moscow does not want its influence to spread to the Muslim population in the Caucasus bordering Russia.

However, Gen. John Nicholson, the man leading the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee recently that Russia is trying to publicly legitimize the Taliban with a false narrative that the Taliban is fighting Islamic State, not the Afghan government.

However, Russia is not the only country in the region worried about IS influence and using the Taliban as a hedge. Iran also has started supporting the Taliban to keep IS influence away from areas bordering Iran. China has had contacts with the Taliban for a while, hosting several secret meetings between the Taliban and Afghan government officials or peace envoys.

Expectations from the upcoming conference, meanwhile, are low at this stage.

The fact that three countries have been added to the list at this point for the first time means it's still going to be in the initial stages of getting to know each other, and getting to hear each others narrative and try to make sense of it. I dont see anything big coming out of this, said Omar Samad, former Afghan ambassador to Canada and France.

Several similar efforts have fallen victim to the tension and mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Whether this process succeeds, will depend on whether Russia and China can persuade the two to work out their differences.

Read the rest here:
Russia Gathers Stakeholders, Sans US or NATO, for Afghanistan Conference - Voice of America

By Cait Flynn Staff Writer

Northern provinces in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hit with nearly 10 feet of snow in the past week that has killed 106 people and injured scores more on both sides of the border.

The snow closed down highways and airports and spurred avalanches across the mountainous region.

Avalanches have buried two entire villages, a representative of Afghanistans Ministry of State Natural Disasters said, according to a BBC report.

After one avalanche, 53 died in the province of Nuristan in northeast Afghanistan, according to BBC. The same source reported that there were 13 deaths after an avalanche near the town of Chitral in Pakistan.

The death toll is expected to rise as continued snowfall has blocked access to remote towns, forcing the rescue efforts to rely on helicopters to search for survivors and deliver aid, according to Time magazine.

Hamid Karzai International Airport, the largest in Afghanistan, was forced to shut down after 2 feet of snow accumulated on the runway, according to NPR.

Likewise, snowfall on Kabul-Kandahar highway has stranded upwards of 250 vehicles. Motorists are trapped without food on the highway at least two motorists froze to death in their cars, BBC reported.

Most affected are women and children, said Hafiz Abdul Qayyom, Nuristan Province Governor. The area is completely blocked because of snow, so it is very difficult for us to send support, but we are trying our best, according to Al Jazeera.

American intelligence agencies and upwards of 13,000 NATO troops are currently in Afghanistan aiding in a so-called train, advise, assist mission, though it is unclear yet if they will be playing a role in recovery efforts, NPR reported.

The rest is here:
Avalanches in Afghanistan and Pakistan Claim More than 100 Lives - The Signal

Soldiers from the 36th Infantry Division deployed to Afghanistan to help train and advise that country's military. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says thousands more such troops are needed there. Maj. Randall Stillinger/U.S. Army hide caption

Soldiers from the 36th Infantry Division deployed to Afghanistan to help train and advise that country's military. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says thousands more such troops are needed there.

Thousands more troops and billions more dollars are needed to break the war in Afghanistan out of a "stalemate," the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan warned Congress on Thursday.

Army Gen. John Nicholson also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that outside powers have increased their meddling in Afghanistan over the past year, especially Russia, in ways that make it tougher for the U.S.-backed government in Kabul to make and keep gains against insurgents.

That's why the U.S. and its allies must send more troops and spend more money to help the Afghan military become more effective at attacking and defeating its enemies and keeping control of the ground they capture.

"Offensive capability is what will break the stalemate in Afghanistan," Nicholson said. He did not detail exactly how many additional troops are needed.

The general's testimony launched America's seldom-discussed, longest-running war back onto front pages. The conflict has been going badly but has been largely overshadowed by the historic presidential campaign and inauguration of President Trump.

The new administration's policy on Afghanistan is a question mark; it seldom came up during the election. When Trump visited the military headquarters at U.S. Central Command responsible for the war on Monday, he did not mention it. Nicholson's high profile warnings to Congress on Thursday put Afghanistan back at the top of the agenda for Trump and national security adviser Mike Flynn.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., complained bitterly Thursday that the deadlock Nicholson described was the fault of former President Barack Obama. In 2012, Obama decided to settle for "Afghan good enough," leading to a steady withdrawal of American combat troops.

There are still more than 13,000 NATO troops including 8,400 U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan, but McCain said he's been warning all along that the force is too small.

What Nicholson called a stalemate, McCain said, "was predicted predicted by those of us who know something about warfare."

Afghanistan is dealing with many of its same longstanding problems. Its weak, often shambolic central government cannot survive without heavy international financial support. Its military, which Nicholson said is improving, cannot win decisively against insurgents in key places or contested ground and takes such heavy combat losses that it cannot get up to its full authorized strength.

Nicholson urged Congress to increase support for Afghanistan's U.S.-supplied and trained air force, which he said would help it turn the tide.

Even so, the Taliban's leaders can still repair to their safe havens in the tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan. They enjoy protection from the criminal Haqqani Network in places such as Quetta, out of the reach of major U.S. combat power.

Some challenges are new, however: Iran has begun to support the Taliban in Western Afghanistan, Nicholson said, and it's also recruiting Shiite Afghans to join its campaigns against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, ISIS also wants to spread roots inside Afghanistan itself. The Kabul government is fighting a nascent ISIS presence as it also fights the Taliban, but Nicholson said Russia has begun claiming that isn't so.

Moscow has begun "a public effort to legitimize the Taliban," Nicholson said, that is aimed at undermining Kabul among its own citizens and warning neighboring countries that ISIS could spill over into their nations as it did in the Levant.

"This is a false narrative," Nicholson told senators. He alluded to "reports" about Russia supporting the Taliban directly. Later, he added: "I believe its intent is to undermine the United States and NATO."

He pointed out that U.S. and Afghan forces have killed a number of ISIS leaders in Afghanistan, as well as terror bosses from al-Qaida, who continue to use ungoverned spaces there to plot attacks as they did before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The counterterror mission is working, Nicholson said. That has the troops, drones and resources needed. But he said the U.S. and NATO need to send more troops to continue training Afghanistan's regular troops, so they can resist the Taliban's attacks, keep control of territory and reverse the "stalemate."

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Thousands More Troops Needed To Break Afghanistan 'Stalemate,' General Warns - NPR

On 13 February 2017, the Council decided to sign a cooperation agreement on partnership and development between the EU and Afghanistan. The agreement will be signed on Friday, 17 February 2017 at 18.40 in Munich by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Minister of Finance of Afghanistan Eklil Ahmad Hakimi, in presence of President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.

The cooperation agreement on partnership and development will constitute a new framework for EU-Afghan relation. It formalises the EU's commitment to Afghanistan's development under the "decade of transformation" (2014-2024), building on the undertakings given at the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan on 4-5 October 2016.

The agreement reflects the principles and conditions on which the future partnership will be based. It places an emphasis on regular political dialogue, including on human rights issues, in particular the rights of women and children. The agreement provides for the development of a mutually beneficial relationship across an increasingly wide range of economic and political areas such as the rule of law, health, rural development, education, science and technology, as well as actions to combat corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, organised crime and narcotics. It also foresees cooperation on migration, based on the Joint Way Forward on migration issues adopted in early October 2016. The cooperation agreement will also enable the EU and Afghanistan to work together to jointly address global challenges, such as nuclear security, non-proliferation and climate change.

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Afghanistan: EU to sign a cooperation agreement on partnership and development - EU News