NATO summit solidifies plan for winding down Afghan war

Event notice: Please join the United States Institute of Peace TOMORROW at 1:30 PM for a special screening of the Oscar-winning documentary Saving Face and a conversation with filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (USIP).

The end draws near: As thousands protested outside, the NATO summit in Chicago opened on Sunday with discussions on how to wind down the war in Afghanistan (AP, CNN, Guardian, Post, Reuters). The summit began without a deal to reopen ground supply routes through Pakistan, despite Western officials’ hope that an invitation to the summit would push the Pakistani government to finally lift its blockade on NATO supplies (NYT, Reuters, LAT, BBC, Guardian, CNN). Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of the summit, but White House officials said President Barack Obama would not meet Zardari without a deal on the supply routes.

French president Francois Hollande told President Obama at their first meeting on Fridaymorning that he would be sticking to his campaign promise to pull all French combattroops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year (AP, Reuters, Post, NYT, AFP, Tel). Other NATO leaders plan to endorse President Obama’s plan to hand all combat operations over to the Afghans by mid-2013 on Monday, and are moving on to the challenge of moving 130,000 foreign troops and their equipment out of Afghanistan (Reuters, AP). NATO diplomats said the plan is to sign an agreement with Uzbekistan to provide a safe transit route for coalition troops exiting Afghanistan. And the Times’ David Sanger published a must-read on Saturday on the evolution of President Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan (NYT).

A suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in the eastern Afghan province of Khost on Saturday, killing 13 people, including six passing schoolchildren (LAT, AFP,AJE, McClatchy, AP). The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying all of those killed were Afghan security forces. Another suicide bomber attacked a group of American soldiers on Sunday in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan Province, killing at least two Western soldiers and wounding several others (NYT, LAT). Flash floods in the capital city of northern Afghanistan’s Sar-e-Pul Province killed at least 19 people on Sunday, with some 60 still missing and hundreds of homes left destroyed (AP, AJE).

A new insurgent group calling itself the Mullah Dadullah front – after a particularly violent Taliban leader who was killed in 2007 – has joined the fight against NATO forcesin Afghanistan, claiming responsibility for the recent assassination of former Taliban official Mullah Arsala Rahmani and threatening suicide attacks on members of the Afghan parliament (NYT). The Taliban has denied any affiliation with the Mullah Dadullah front, but Afghan intelligence officials have called the new group a faction of the Taliban.

Soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) report that they are being given inferior weaponry, cracked helmets, and boots that fall apart after just a few months, and havevoiced concern that international troops are leaving too soon (Post). At the same time, attacks by Afghan soldiers on NATO troops are on the rise, making NATO troops wary of relying on their Afghan counterparts, and eager to leave the war behind (Post). U.S. commanders insist that the partnership between American and Afghan soldiers can withstand the isolated incidents, but U.S. troops are increasingly keeping their distance from Afghan troops even as they carry out more joint operations. 

The Pakistani government blocked access to the social networking site Twitter for abouteight hours on Sunday, because the site refused to remove tweets advertising a "blasphemous" cartoon competition taking place on Facebook (NYT, Post, Dawn, AP).The Pakistani Supreme Court on Monday summoned the Federal Defense and Interior secretaries over the cases of missing persons in the restive province of Balochistan (Dawn, ET).

Four trucks carrying supplies for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul crossed into Afghanistanthrough Pakistan on Friday, the first since the routes were closed last November (Dawn, CNN). Pakistani officials said many more containers would be allowedthrough, but only carrying non-NATO supplies. The United States has ruled out payingthe $5,000 per truck fee that Pakistan is requesting when the routes are reopened to NATO supply trucks (CNN, LAT). Defense Secretary Leon Panetta planned to confront President Zardari at the two-day NATO summit over what he calls "price-gouging" forthe transport of NATO supplies through Pakistan.

Journalists in Quetta protested on Sunday over the murder of their abducted colleague Razzaq Gul, whose body was found near his home in Turbat, Balochistan on Saturday (ET, DT, The News). Officials in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are struggling to deal with the ongoing destruction of local schools by militants in the region, as they cannot afford to rebuild the hundreds of schools that have been damaged or destroyed in recent years (Post).

Turkmenistan is expected to sign a deal to supply gas to Pakistan and India via the long-awaited TAPI pipeline, which is supported by the United States in place of the proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline (Reuters).

Home sweet home?

In a country where officials’ lavish lifestyles often spark anger from a populace wracked by poverty, some may be glad to hear that legislators visiting Islamabad on official business are put up in less-than-desirable accommodation (ET). Located right across the street from the National Assembly building, the building that houses the parliamentarians lacks proper security checkpoints, and is often also home to squatters.

— Jennifer Rowland