Daily brief: four U.S. soldiers killed in first Afghan combat deaths of 2010

On the front lines

On December 30, a suicide attacker infiltrated a CIA base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost bordering the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, believed to be a stronghold for al Qaeda fighters, killing seven agents including the station chief who was the mother of three young children (Wash Post, Times of London, WSJ). Extremely unusually, both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban took credit for the attack, though providing different versions of how the suicide bomber managed to penetrate the base: the Afghan Taliban claim the attacker, who reportedly wore an Afghan Army uniform, was a disillusioned soldier, while the Pakistani Taliban said the CIA had recruited the man as an informant, and he then offered his services to the militants as a double agent (NYT, BBC, AP).

A senior commander in the Afghan Taliban claimed the attack was in retaliation for U.S. drone strikes in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, and Western officials reportedly confirmed that some drone strikes are coordinated from Forward Operating Base Chapman (WSJ, Wash Post). Some sources suggest the suicide bomber was a Pakistani who had visited the base several times before (ABC). The attack, linked by some U.S. officials to the insurgent network headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a frequent target of U.S. operations, caused the greatest loss of life for the Agency since 1983 (WSJ, FT).

Rejected

Afghan President Hamid Karzai suffered an early setback to his second term as the Afghan Parliament over the weekend rejected 17 of his 24 cabinet picks, including the only female minister nominated and a controversial warlord, contributing to the country’s political turmoil as a parliamentary recess was scheduled to begin tomorrow though Karzai has ordered the winter break suspended (WSJ, BBC, Wash Post, Pajhwok, AP, NYT, AJE, Reuters). The outgoing head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, who has been criticized for his handling of the corruption-riddled August 2009 presidential election, called Parliament’s rejection of Karzai’s choices a "setback" and a "distraction" (Guardian, Times of London).

A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the first combat deaths in 2010 following more than 300 U.S. military deaths in the country in 2009, about double those in 2008 (AP, NYT, Pajhwok, LAT). And as the United States hurries to stand up the Afghan National Army, with 1,400 recruits entering boot camp in Kabul every two weeks, efforts to raise local anti-Taliban militias in areas where NATO and Afghan forces are spread too thin are expanding amidst security threats to the armed groups’ leaders (McClatchy, NYT).

Required reading

Peter Baker has an essential long read in the forthcoming January 17, 2010 issue of the New York Times Magazine looking "inside Obama’s war on terrorism," and AfPak Channel editor Peter Bergen had the cover story of the Dec. 30, 2009 edition of The New Republic with the definitive reconstruction of the 2001 battle of Tora Bora, another must-read for the new year (NYT, TNR).

Ending and beginning

2010 is off to a bloody start in Pakistan as a suicide bomber detonated his 550 pounds of explosives at a volleyball match on New Year’s Day in the northwest Pakistani village of Shah Hasan Khel, a pro-government region in the district of Lakki Marwat, killing around 100 men, women, and children watching the tournament (AFP, BBC, Dawn, Reuters, AFP, AP). Pakistani police believe the man intended to target a nearby meeting of anti-Taliban tribal elders, and the attack was one of the deadliest in years to strike Pakistan.

In another deadly suicide bombing on December 28, at least 43 were killed as an attacker targeted a procession of minority Shiites in Karachi during a religious holiday, touching off hours of rioting in Pakistan’s financial capital and shattering the sense that Karachi is relatively immune to the Islamist violence sweeping the country according to veteran South Asia reporter Pamela Constable (Wash Post, FT, WSJ). Though a Pakistani Taliban commander initially claimed responsibility on behalf of the militant group, the TTP’s spokesman later denied any Pakistani Taliban involvement (Reuters, AFP, Dawn).

And a former provincial minister and several others were killed yesterday by a roadside bomb in the northwestern Pakistani town of Hangu (Pajhwok, BBC, AP, Reuters). In light of deteriorating security conditions in Pakistan, the United Nations is temporarily pulling a third of its international staff from the country (Reuters, WSJ, Times of London).

The drone war

There were four alleged CIA-operated drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region of North Waziristan over the Daily Brief’s hiatus, three of them after the suicide attack on FOB Chapman on December 30, killing a handful of reported militants (December 26: AP, AFP December 31: CNN, Dawn; January 1: AFP, CNN; January 3: AP, Reuters). There were 53 drone strikes in Pakistan in 2009, compared with 34 in 2008.

Back to school

A school for 160 students, 29 of them girls, has recently been opened in Nawzad district in the volatile southern Afghan province of Helmand (Pajhwok). Four teachers will work at the school, which will be held in a marketplace for the time being.

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