afghanistan a disastrous mess

1. US air supply drop turns deadly, commandos go on killing spree after US military drops supplies in wrong spot

HERAT - Contradictory accounts of dead and injured from Afghan and Western forces and eyewitnesses have left a confused picture of an American military supply drop that appears to have gone disastrously wrong.

Up to 25 United States and Afghan military personnel, and perhaps as many as 14 civilians, were reportedly killed or injured in the incident in Bala Murghab district, an insurgent-riddled area in the northwestern corner of Badghis province on the border with Turkmenistan, this month.

A supply drop by the US military on November 4 intended for troops in the field landed in the Murghab River, a fast-moving and treacherous body of water, and the soldiers tried to retrieve it. According to the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, two paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division were missing after the airdrop and a search was launched for them.

Local eyewitnesses said that five men went into the water and only one came out alive. They said the bodies of two were retrieved, but two went missing.

...Residents of Takht-e-Bazaar in Bala Murghab district say a helicopter containing US commandos along with Afghan soldiers landed in their area on November 6. According to eyewitnesses, the commandos began shooting indiscriminately as soon as they left the aircraft.

"They did not stop to see who is civilian, who is Talib, who is armed, who is a government employee," said Haji Mohammad Ismail, a tribal elder in Takht-e-Bazaar. "They were so angry, so wild that they even shot at Afghan military forces."

The civilians caught in the crossfire included an old man and his son, said Abdul Satar, 42, a shopkeeper who said the two men were his uncle and cousin.

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2. Afghans fear infiltration from Iran -- SO MUCH CONFUSION about who is coming and going, who works for who, etc. SUCH AN EASY environment to frame people.

HERAT - Islam Qala, a small border town that forms the gateway between Iran and Afghanistan, is a focus of concern for Afghan officials fighting the Taliban insurgency because some believe Iran is using it to infiltrate guerrillas intent on destabilizing the Kabul government.

"I was working in Iran for about eight months," said one man, a former refugee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But I got an offer from the Taliban in Gozara district [of Herat province] offering me a higher salary, so I accepted."

read more @ asia times


3. Guttenberg makes surprise Afghan visit

Under heavy security, German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to meet with international military commanders and Afghan officials.

In his first visit to the war-torn country since taking the helm at the Defence Ministry, Guttenberg was to hold talks with the head of NATO’s ISAF mission Gen. Stanley McChrystal, his Afghan counterpart Abdel Rahim Wardak and President Hamid Karzai.

...Last week, German federal prosecutors took over the investigation into the deadly NATO air strike in Afghanistan ordered by Bundeswehr Col. Georg Klein in September.

The chief state prosecutor’s office in Dresden handed the case over to the country’s highest investigators, who must now decide whether Klein’s decision to call the attack, which resulted in the death of up to 142 insurgents and civilians, was in line with international criminal law.

Just after the incident occurred, Berlin contended that only Islamist insurgents had been killed in the bombardment of two fuel trucks, but later admitted there had been an unspecified number of civilian victims. Klein was then accused of violating NATO's rules of engagement by calling the strike.

read more @ the local