Soldier, six militants killed in FR Kohat

KOHAT: A soldier was killed in a landmine blast while six militants and a volunteer of the pro-government Amn Lashkar were killed in fresh clashes in the Jawakai area in the Frontier Region Kohat on Sunday, official sources said.

Sources said security forces along with the volunteers of the Amn Lashkar launched an operation in the mountains of Jawakai and Taodo Oba. A group of militants, the sources said, opened fire on the forces and the lashkar, killing a volunteer, Wahidur Rehman. The forces also returned fire and killed six militants, sources added. The forces continued the operation and marched toward the hideouts of the militants when a soldier identified as Irfanullah stepped on a mine which went off, killing him on the spot, sources said. They added that security forces have established security posts in Jandy Sar, Guloono Tangay and Babu Killay to check the incursion of militants. A huge cache of arms was also seized during the operation, sources added.

Four French troops killed by Afghan soldier

PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday suspended French military training operations in Afghanistan and said he was mulling an early withdrawal after a renegade Afghan soldier shot dead four French troops.

“The French army stands alongside its allies but we cannot accept that a single one of our soldiers be wounded or killed by our allies, it’s unacceptable,” Sarkozy said, dispatching Defence Minister Gerard Longuet to Afghanistan.

Longuet and army chief of staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud will establish the circumstances of Friday’s shooting in which an Afghan soldier opened fire on French troops, killing four and wounding eight, before he was arrested.

“Between now and then all training and joint combat operations by the French army are suspended,” Sarkozy said. “If security conditions are not clearly established, then the question of an early return of the French army will be asked.”

Training Afghan forces and accompanying them into battle against rebels is the core of the French mission within the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan, the force having already scaled down its own operations.

France has about 3,600 soldiers serving in the country, mainly in the provinces of Kabul and Kapisa, the scene of Friday’s shooting. Their deployment is deeply unpopular in France, and Sarkozy is facing a tough re-election battle in less than three months.

French troops have fanned out around their base in the eastern province and are not allowing any Afghan soldiers to approach, a security source told AFP. Longuet said that eight soldiers were wounded in the attack, including one seriously, revising down an initial wounded toll of 16.

“We will have to make a difficult decision in the coming days. But I must assume my responsibilities before the French people and before our soldiers,” Sarkozy said. The French force currently in Afghanistan will be reduced to 3,000 by late 2012, with 200 due to leave in March. Nato is due to hand security over to Afghan forces before withdrawing all its combat troops by the end of 2014.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday expressed his condolences after the shooting, but insisted the attack was isolated. “This is a sad day for our troops in Afghanistan and the French people,” Rasmussen told reporters during a visit to fellow Nato member Latvia.

“Such tragic incidents are terrible and grab headlines but they are isolated,” he said, noting that 130,000 Nato-led international forces are still serving alongside more than 300,000 Afghans. The latest deaths brought to 82 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since French forces deployed there at the end of 2001.

Taliban say they recruited soldier who killed French troops

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers a day earlier, raising fears the militant group had managed to deepen its infiltration of the country’s struggling security forces.

The killings prompted France to threaten an early pullout from the Nato-led war. The claim of responsibility raises serious concerns about handing control of security over to the Afghan army and police, which Nato-led forces are currently in the process of doing before all foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has recruited people in important positions,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, using another name the Islamist group call themselves.

“Some of them have already accomplished their missions.”

The four French soldiers died on the spot, he said. The killings in Kapisa province were the latest in a string of such attacks in which Afghan troops turn on their Western allies and mentors. While Nato has blamed Taliban infiltration in the past, it has also said stress, indiscipline and divided loyalties within the hastily trained ranks played a role. Such attacks are especially damaging as the Afghan National Army tries to win public trust before foreign troops leave.

The Taliban claim coincided with a visit to Kabul by the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman. He is expected to meet President Hamid Karzai and other senior Afghan officials.

Friday’s attack also comes weeks after an offer from the Taliban to open a political office in Qatar as a prelude to possible peace talks with the United States and other nations. After the shooting — which took the French death toll to 82since the war began in 2001 — President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered all French military operations on the ground to be suspended and Defence Minister Gerard Longuet jetted into Kabul on Saturday.

A regional Taliban commander added that incidents such as a video showing US Marines urinating on corpses were boosting support for the group among Afghans and threatened more attacks. “Our missions have become easier because of incidents like the video,” he said.