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Showing posts with label COUNTRIES - AFGHANISTAN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COUNTRIES - AFGHANISTAN. Show all posts
28 October 2014
FIGHTING THE TALIBAN - We'll never send British troops back to fight in Afghanistan, pledges Fallon as soldiers make on last assault on the Taliban
We'll never send British troops back to fight in Afghanistan, pledges Fallon as soldiers make on last assault on the Taliban
- Michael Fallon says British combat troops would not return to Afghanistan
- Comments come as troops make one last assault on the Taliban
- Royal Artillery gunners fired 105mm shells into enemy positions
- UK preparing to withdraw combat personnel from Afghanistan by January
- Defence Secretary admits 'mistakes were made' by both senior military officials and politicians during the campaign in the country
British combat troops will not be deployed in Afghanistan again ‘under any circumstances’, the Defence Secretary has vowed.
Michael Fallon said yesterday: ‘We are not going to send combat troops back into Afghanistan. We’ve made that very, very clear. Under any circumstances, combat troops will not be going in there.’
His comments came as British troops were forced to make one last assault on Taliban positions as they prepared for withdrawal from Camp Bastion. Royal Artillery gunners fired 105mm shells from the base into enemy positions several miles outside the wire.
Scroll down for video
Last mission: As British troops prepared to withdraw from Camp Bastion, the Royal Artillery 105mm light gun crew fire out and over the perimeter of the base on their last fire mission to deter Taliban
As the UK prepares to withdraw all combat personnel from Afghanistan by the end of the year, Mr Fallon admitted ‘mistakes were made’ by both senior military officials and politicians during the campaign in the country.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘I think the generals have been clear that mistakes were made. Mistakes were made militarily and mistakes were made by the politicians at the time.
‘Clearly the numbers weren’t there at the beginning, the equipment wasn’t quite good enough at the beginning, and we have learnt an awful lot from the campaign.
Mistakes: Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the BBC's Andrew Marr show that 'mistakes were made' by both senior military officials
and politicians during the campaign in Afghanistan
‘But don’t let’s ignore what has been achieved.
‘We have now some six million people in school in Afghanistan, three million of them girls. There is access in Helmand to healthcare and to education in that province that simply didn’t exist ten years ago.’ Military chiefs admitted yesterday that only ‘time will tell’ whether the Afghan National Security Forces will be able to keep Camp Bastion and the Helmand province out of the hands of the Taliban.
But they said the British campaign in the country had given a new ‘sense of hope’ to the Afghan people and made streets in the UK safer from terrorist threats.
Brigadier Rob Thomson, the most senior British officer in Helmand, said: ‘What we have achieved is something we can be proud of.
Time to go home: The Union flag is lowered at Camp Bastion for the final time as British troops handed the base over to Afghan forces
Handover: British and Afghan soldiers embrace one another other during the handover ceremony of the Camp Bastion-Leatherneck
military camp complex
Worry: Military chiefs admitted yesterday that only 'time will tell' whether the Afghan National Security Forces will be able to keep Camp Bastion and the Helmand province out of the hands of the Taliban
‘There are still some challenges in Afghanistan but we can be positive. We are happy we are all going back to our families but we are also sad because we are leaving behind some friends who were courageous on the battlefield.’
Thousands of British servicemen fought for eight years in the heat and dust of Helmand province to keep it out of the hands of the Taliban. They were picked off by snipers, blown up by roadside bombs and 453 men and women lost their lives.
Bastion, surrounded by desert, grew into a sprawling base and its largest had a perimeter of 22 miles.
Now its runway – at one point the fifth busiest UK-operated airstrip – is expected to handle commercial flights.
Lying empty: Soldiers' tented accommodation in Camp Bastion is left deserted. In recent months, hundreds of military vehicles and
shipping containers with kit have been brought back to the UK
Base: Bastion, surrounded by desert, grew into a sprawling base and its largest had a perimeter of 22 miles
In recent months, hundreds of military vehicles and shipping containers with kit have been brought back to the UK.
One battalion of troops, believed to be Americans, are expected to be the only foreign forces to remain.
Commenting on the handover, Helmand’s provincial governor Naim Baluch said ‘the UK’s Armed Forces and their allies have helped to improve security in Helmand’.
He added: ‘We are very grateful for the courage and commitment of your soldiers and we are ready to deliver security ourselves.’
Keeping fit: Once busy with soldiers enjoying a work out, this gym now stands silent, the equipment left behind
Battle: Thousands of British servicemen fought for eight years in the heat and dust of Helmand province to keep it out of the hands of the Taliban
UK troops will shortly relocate to Kandahar air base as the mission comes to an end almost two months ahead of schedule. The British forces will spend the next few weeks shipping the remaining equipment back to the UK before flying home.
While logistics units, medics and infantry soldiers will head to the huge air base, it is understood about 500 troops will stay in Kabul, where they will train Afghan Army officers in a mission codenamed Operation Toral, and known as ‘Sandhurst in the Sand’.
Their new mission will be to train, advise and assist the Afghan forces as they continue to fight insurgents in the war-torn country.
Western officials insist the Afghan security forces – which have been trained by US and UK personnel – have managed to contain the Taliban’s offensives on their own.
Coming home: UK troops will shortly relocate to Kandahar air base as the mission comes to an end almost two months ahead of schedule
Packing up: The British forces will spend the next few weeks shipping the remaining equipment back to the UK before flying home
The Afghan National Army and police force now number almost 340,000 – though much of their focus is on Kabul and the government has struggled to extend its unity beyond the capital.
The Taliban have been launching attacks ahead of the withdrawal of most foreign forces by the end of this year.
The insurgents’ alarming gains in the south and east recently raise the nightmare prospect of the Taliban taking over swathes of land and assaulting the rest of the country.
In the northern province of Kunduz, there are now two districts almost entirely under Taliban rule, local officials have said.
The Taliban are administering legal cases and schools, and even allowing international aid operations to work there, it was claimed in the New York Times.
Similarly, in the Tangi Valley in the Wardak province, just an hour’s drive from Kabul, the Taliban are said to be in control of the everyday life of much of the population. A BBC Panorama investigation found they are using the valley as a staging post for attacks on the capital as it tries to seize back the country.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
26 September 2014
8 September 2014
AFGHANISTAN - About Afghanistan
Afghanistan,
in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and
Tajikistan; on the east by China and the part of the disputed territory of
Jammu and Kashmir controlled by Pakistan; on the south by Pakistan; and on the
west by Iran.
Afghanistan was a monarchy from 1747 to 1973, when the king was
overthrown by military officers and the country was proclaimed a republic; the
republic dissolved in 1992 as the country erupted in civil war. Afghanistan
lies across ancient trade and invasion routes from central Asia into India.
This position has been the greatest influence on its history because the
invaders often settled there.
Today the population includes many different
ethnic groups. Most of the present borders of the country were drawn up in the
19th century, when Afghanistan became a buffer state, or neutral zone, between
Russia and British India. Kabul is the capital and largest city.
Ahmad
Shah Durani also known as (Ahmad Shah Baba) is the founder of today's
Afghanistan. Pir Sabir Shah, the spiritual guide of the time, showered his
praise for the young Ahmad Shah by declaring him Dar-e-Durran (pearl of the
pearls) not because that he was a military giant but for his humanity a
definite quality of a statesman. He was the King of Afghanistan from 1747-1772
AD.
KEY DATA
Region: Asia
Area
Total: 647,500 km2
Area
Land: 647,500 km2
Coast
Line: 0 km (Landlocked) km
Capital: Kabul
Climate: Dry to semiarid; cold winters and hot
summers
Languages: Pashto, Pashtu or Pukhto number of
Speakers in Afghanistan approximately 14 million and Dari (Farsi) is spoken by
almost every ethnic division, they are Indo-European languages and are the
major two languages spoken in Afghanistan; other Indo-European, Indo-Aryan
languages, such as Balochi, Pashayi and Eastern Farsi, are also spoken; Turkic
and Altaic languages, such as Uzbek and Turkmen, are present; Tajiki is also
used.
Currency: Afghani
Holiday: Independence Day, 19 August
BOUNDARIES
Pakistan: 2,430km
Tajikistan: 1,206km
Iran: 936km
Turkmenistan: 744km
Uzbekistan: 137km
China: 76km
ETHNIC DIVISIONS
Pashtun 52%
Tajiks 21%
Hazara 9%
Baloch 7%
Uzbek 6%
Turkmen 2%
Qizilbash 1%
Other 1%
RELIGIONS
Sunni
Muslim 88%
Shi`a
Muslim 11%
Other
(including Zoroastrian, Jewish, Hindu, Baha'i and Christian)
AFGHANISTAN - $1 Trillion Trove of Rare Minerals Revealed Under Afghanistan
By By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | LiveScience.com – Fri, Sep 5, 2014
Despite being one of the poorest nations in the world, Afghanistan may be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world, valued at nearly $1 trillion, according to U.S. scientists.
Afghanistan, a country nearly the size of Texas, is loaded with minerals deposited by the violent collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began inspecting what mineral resources Afghanistan had after U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power in the country in 2004. As it turns out, the Afghanistan Geological Survey staff had kept Soviet geological maps and reports up to 50 years old or more that hinted at a geological gold mine.
In 2006, U.S. researchers flew airborne missions to conduct magnetic, gravity and hyperspectral surveys over Afghanistan. The magnetic surveys probed for iron-bearing minerals up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the surface, while the gravity surveys tried to identify sediment-filled basins potentially rich in oil and gas. The hyperspectral survey looked at the spectrum of light reflected off rocks to identify the light signatures unique to each mineral. More than 70 percent of the country was mapped in just two months.
The surveys verified all the major Soviet finds. Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. For instance, the Khanneshin carbonatite deposit in Afghanistan's Helmand province is valued at $89 billion, full as it is with rare earth elements.
"Afghanistan is a country that is very, very rich in mineral resources," Jack Medlin, a geologist and program manager of the U.S. Geological Survey's Afghanistan project, told Live Science. "We've identified the potential for at least 24 world-class mineral deposits." The scientists' work was detailed in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science.
Afghanistan treasure maps
In 2010, the USGS data attracted the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense's Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), which is entrusted with rebuilding Afghanistan. The task force valued Afghanistan's mineral resources at $908 billion, while the Afghan government's estimate is $3 trillion.
Over the past four years, USGS and TFBSO have embarked on dozens of excursions in the war zone to collect and analyze mineral samples to confirm the aerial findings.
"Performing an assessment of mineral resources in Afghanistan is not like going out in the United States and doing normal field work," Medlin said. "What becomes very, very obvious in Afghanistan is the huge amount of pre-planning that has to take place in order to visit any site in that country, such as who is going to provide security and how much security is needed. You also have to plan how you are actually going to get to some place, as for most of the sites in Afghanistan, you cannot drive there — our work involved helicopters, and for our safety, we couldn't be on the ground very long to get samples."
The researchers' work has helped develop what are essentially treasure maps that let mining companies know what minerals are there, how much is there, and where they are, all to attract bids on the rights to the deposits. The Afghan government has already signed a 30-year, $3 billion contract with the China Metallurgical Group, a state-owned mining enterprise based in Beijing, to exploit the Mes Aynak copper deposit, and awarded mining rights for the country's biggest iron deposit to a group of Indian state-run and private companies.
"These resources provide the potential for Afghanistan to develop its economy, to create jobs and build infrastructure, as it goes into the future," Medlin said.
The mineral riches could lift Afghanistan out of poverty and fight crime and terrorism, said Said Mirzad, co-coordinator of the U.S. Geological Survey's Afghanistan program.
"Terrorists in Afghanistan exploited the misery of the local population," Mirzad said. "If you give the population jobs, if they could bring bread to the table, if they had something to defend, then the terrorists, who are very few in number, won't have sway."
Challenges to mining
However, developing a mining industry in Afghanistan faces major challenges. "One of the biggest challenges is security," Medlin said. "Another challenge is the lack of infrastructure. We're talking about access to energy, which is required to develop mines. We're talking access to roads, railroads and so forth. We're also talking about access to water, which is needed in most mining operations. It's all a big challenge, but it's doable. It won't happen overnight, but it's doable."
The USGS is currently helping to rebuild the scientific expertise of the Afghanistan Geological Survey, teaching the researchers modern techniques such as remote sensing. "We want to bring the Afghanistan Geological Survey into the 21st century," Medlin said. "The aim is to help the Afghans develop their mineral resources in a sustainable way."
Mining and other forms of natural resources development can lead to graft, corruption, social unrest and environmental degradation. Other nations rich in resources such as Botswana, Chile and Norway could provide Afghanistan good models to emulate in order to avoid these problems, said Marcia McNutt, editor-in-chief of the journal Science and director of the USGS in the summer of 2012.
For example, important factors contributing to peace and prosperity in those nations are strong public institutions, equitable redistribution of revenues, environmental planning and investment in education, scientific institutions and human resources, McNutt noted.
"The leaders of Afghanistan will have many important decisions to make in the coming years and decades," McNutt wrote in an editorial in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science. "Science has opened the door to a new, more prosperous future. May they use this opportunity wisely."
Source: https://my.news.yahoo.com
