NYT: 2 Italian Soldiers Missing in Afghanistan

September 23, 2007

By Kirk Semple

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 23 — Two Italian soldiers disappeared under mysterious circumstances while on a patrol Saturday night in a western region of Afghanistan where the Taliban has been active, Afghan and Italian officials said today.

The Italian Defense Ministry believes the soldiers have been kidnapped, according to a Reuters report.

In northeastern Afghanistan, NATO officials were investigating a report that four suspected insurgents gunned down by helicopter gunships on Saturday may have in fact been Afghan police officers and security guards on patrol, the NATO military command in Kabul said today.

The Italian soldiers began their night mission on Saturday at a garrison in Herat province, and were traveling with a driver and an interpreter, both Afghans, an official at the Italian embassy in Kabul said. At some point during the night, the Italians became separated from the Afghans, apparently in the Shindand region of Herat, where the Taliban have periodically clashed with NATO forces, officials said.

“They went out and lost contact with the headquarters,” said the Italian official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name.

It remained unclear how the two soldiers became separated from the Afghans.

Gen. Ali Khan Hussainzada, chief of criminal investigations in western Afghanistan for the Afghan police, said that the interpreter was safe, but that he had no information about the driver.

If the soldiers fell into the hands of the Taliban, it would be a significant propaganda coup for the insurgency, which is seeking to drive all foreign troops out of Afghanistan and topple the government in Kabul. While the Taliban has kidnapped numerous foreign civilians in Afghanistan, the group has apparently never captured a member of a Western military force, at least since its resurgence began last year.

The Taliban has been most active in the east and south of the country, though it has conducted sporadic attacks in other regions. In western Afghanistan, the Taliban has been most active in the Shindand district of Herat and in the adjoining province of Farah. About half of the roughly 2000 Italian forces in Afghanistan are stationed in Herat, the Italian diplomat said.

In Kabul, NATO officials said they were investigating a possible case of mistaken identity in the deaths of four suspected insurgents and the wounding of 12 others early Saturday afternoon in the Sarkani district of Kunar province.

According to the NATO command here, helicopter gunships responding to a rocket attack on an Afghan military base fired on a group of about 30 men thought to be insurgents, killing 4 and wounding 12.

A NATO statement said “initial reports” indicated that the victims were Afghan police officers and road construction security guards “who were dressed in civilian attire and carrying weapons on an uncoordinated patrol in the area.”

The Afghan government and NATO were trying to determine the “official status of the engaged forces,” the statement said.

The rising number of civilian casualties this year, most caused by aerial bombardments, has angered Afghans, driven a wedge between members of the coalition over differences in military tactics and eroded public support for the administration of President Hamid Karzai.

A NATO service member was killed today in eastern Afghanistan, the military reported, offering no further details. It was at least the third death among allied forces in Afghanistan in the last four days.

In the southern province of Zabul, the Taliban kidnapped three Afghan men accused of spying for the United States and executed them, said Wazir Khan, the police chief of Shamulzayi district, according to The Associated Press. One of the victims was beheaded and the other two were shot dead, The A.P. reported.

Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting from Kabul.

Reuters: Two Italian soldiers missing near Shindand

Two Italian soldiers missing in Afghanistan
Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:48 AM EDT

ROME (Reuters) – Two Italian soldiers have gone missing in Afghanistan, Italian authorities said on Sunday.

Earlier agency reports said two Italians, possibly journalists, had been kidnapped in the west of Afghanistan.

“Contact with two Italian soldiers was lost some hours ago,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “From our checks no journalists are missing, contrary to early reports,” it said.

The defense ministry also issued a statement saying two soldiers were missing and their families had been informed.

An Afghan-based Western security analyst said there were reports the two missing men had been working for Italian intelligence.

He said the men, together with two Afghan translators, had gone missing on Saturday in the area around Shindand, on the border between Farah and Herat provinces in western Afghanistan, the site of a large former Soviet air base now used by U.S. and Afghan forces.

General Alikhan Hosseini, the head of criminal investigations in western Afghanistan, said he had heard on police radio that two foreigners were missing, but could not offer any more details.

The police chief of Farah province said he did not know anything about any foreigners missing in his province and said his forces were currently engaged in a firefight with Taliban rebels.

There has been a steady rise in Taliban activity in Farah province in recent months.

Italy’s prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister were following the situation closely, the foreign ministry said.

Toronto Globe and Mail: ISAF coalition wavering

THE AFGHAN MISSION: A SHAKY COALITION

Opening the floodgates to an exodus?
Countries whose troops are battling and dying in the war-ravaged south are feeling pressure to withdraw, threatening NATO’s mission

PAUL KORING
September 20, 2007
It’s not just Canadians scanning the exits looking for an out from Afghanistan.

In other countries where troops are fighting and dying – notably the Netherlands – the public is embroiled in divisive national debate that echoes Canada’s over whether to withdraw from the bloody counterinsurgency against a resurgent Taliban.

Getting out or perhaps even better – swapping the bloody killing fields of southern Afghanistan for a quieter patch in the north where a nation can still proudly claim it is standing shoulder to shoulder with its allies – is fast becoming a recurring theme.

If the Dutch, whose soldiers are battling to hold Uruzgan province, adjacent to Kandahar where Canada’s battle group is deployed, leave when their current commitment ends next August, they could open the floodgates to a bigger exodus.

Australia, whose troops are deployed alongside the Dutch, has warned it will pull out if the Dutch go. The Harper government says it won’t extend Canada’s commitment without the consensus of all political parties.

The entire NATO effort in Afghanistan – once billed as proof that the Atlantic Alliance is relevant in the 21st century and not just a Cold War relic – will seem a chimera if both Canada and the Netherlands bail out at the end of their current commitments.

“It will be a mark of shame on all of us if an alliance built on the foundation of democratic values were to falter at the very moment that it tries to lay that foundation for democracy elsewhere – especially in a mission that is crucial to our own security,” U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said this week.

The urgency of begging those bearing the burden to stay and warning of even greater bloodshed if they leave – as Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai did this week – is matched by increasingly shrill and mostly ignored pleas from top alliance generals for member governments to match their rhetoric with boots on the ground.

A senior officer at NATO headquarters, closely familiar with the failed efforts to get major alliance nations – notably Germany, Spain, Italy and France – to contribute more, voiced what is now a widespread frustration. “The political declarations are robust. But when you count up the number of boots and helicopters, there’s a glaring absence,” he said, speaking on condition that he not be identified by name or nationality.

Getting the Germans, Spanish, Italians and French to lift the caveats that preclude their troops being usefully deployed to where the fighting is remains the most vexing of NATO’s problems.

“Many allies are reluctant to provide the necessary resources and put their men and women in the line of fire,” Mr. Gates said.

Britain and the United States have significantly increased the number of soldiers they have sent to the war-torn south as it became evident that a raging insurgency was under way. Washington has also increased the duration of its combat tours to 15 months, compared with deployments of six months for Canadian soldiers. Britain has sent an extra 2,000 troops to Helmand province, adjacent to Kandahar. Yesterday, Poland extended its commitment for a year to the fall of 2008.

Meanwhile, public support for waging war in Afghanistan is weakening across much of Western Europe and in Canada.

Solid majorities in other major European countries believe the war in Afghanistan has been “a failure,” making it all but impossible for their governments to shift troops into combat zones to relieve the Canadians or the Dutch. More than 60 per cent of German, Italian, British and French respondents – as well as about half of Canadians polled by Angus Reid last month – believe the military effort in Afghanistan has been a failure so far.

“We are going to lose some” European contingents, the senior NATO officer predicted glumly.

Italy, with 2,500 soldiers in the northwestern corner of Afghanistan, far from the fighting but in a critical zone adjacent to Iran and headquartered in the city of Herat, is also wavering.

If the Dutch quit, it will leave an even bigger hole than if the Canadians pull out. Like Canada, the Netherlands has deployed a combat-capable battle group but it has also sent warplanes and helicopters to southern Afghanistan.

Replacing ground troops would be difficult if the Canadians and the Dutch pull out; replacing the Dutch Chinook helicopters and F-16 fighter-bombers would be even harder, the senior NATO officer said.

In Holland, as in Canada, major political parties are positioning themselves as mainstream public opinion shifts on the Afghanistan mission.

“People are feeling deceived by the government,” said Marico Peters, defence spokesman for the opposition GreenLeft party in Holland.

“What they initially thought of as a reconstruction mission is in fact a fighting mission,” he told Dutch radio.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who is Dutch, doubts his countrymen will pull out. “I honestly cannot imagine that the Netherlands would pull out single-handedly,” he said yesterday.

But a frantic effort is under way to persuade other medium-sized NATO nations – perhaps Norway – to either take the lead in Uruzgan or send sufficient troops to relieve the pressure on the Dutch.

What seems far less likely is convincing Germany, Italy or Spain that it’s their turn to have their soldiers in the front lines in the south. For instance, while top German officials have been urging Canada to remain in Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out any fighting role for German soldiers.

Even German Tornado aircraft are limited solely to reconnaissance and are not allowed to drop bombs.

“Not all the allies, and some major allies included, want to go to the places where the fighting is – although they also suffer from improvised explosive devices and suicide attacks,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said.

International effort

The coalition of nations supporting the war in Afghanistan is broad, with 48,000 troops from 37 countries taking part. But it’s not deep, because only the United States, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia are engaged in heavy fighting.

Country Troops
U.S. 23,000
Britain 7,500
Germany 3,000
Canada 2,500
Italy 2,500
Netherlands 1,300
Turkey 1,200
Poland 1,050
France 800
Australia 700
Spain 650
Norway 500
Romania 500
Bulgaria 400
Denmark 400
Belgium 295
Sweden 260
Czech Republic 220
Hungary 180
Croatia 175
New Zealand 150
Portugal 150
Greece 145
Lithuania 130
Macedonia 120
Estonia 110
Finland 70
Slovakia 60
Slovenia 50
Latvia 35
Albania 30
Azerbaijan 20
Luxembourg 10
Iceland 9
Ireland 5
Switzerland 2
Austria 2
SOURCE: ISAF

Governor Anwari visits Farsi District

(Transcript of report by provincial state-owned Afghan Herat TV on September 16, 2007.)

[Presenter] Herat Province Governor Sayed Hosayn Anwari led a delegation of officials, including zonal security commanders, officials from the national security department, the rural development department and the commander of Italian PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] to Farsi District of the province today.

[Correspondent] The Herat Province governor and the accompanying delegation evaluated security problems in Farsi District which has just seen heavy fighting.

During the visit, district residents pointed out their problems and asked officials in charge of the province to look for a solution to their problems. Mr Anwari promised to increase the number of police soldiers in the district to ensure better security. He also promised to include different villages of the district in the National Solidarity Programme. During his speech, the governor of Herat Province spoke about his determination to defeat the enemy. He asked the people to be strong so that they can have a stable and secure country.

[Governor in Dari] A number of people who, unaware of the reality, used to support them [anti-government elements] have now joined the government. They handed over their weapons and accepted the decision of people of Afghanistan. Keep in mind that the devil will be defeated and will always end up in failure. Your district is a small example proving what I said. You witnessed their failure and defeat but do not forget that there is a precondition for such victories. The precondition is to have strong determination. We have to be strong and we have to take consistent decisions. We have to realize that we are true and they are false.

[Correspondent] The Herat Province governor said the government belonged to people and praised the people for resisting the enemy.

[Governor in Dari] The government of Afghanistan is the legal government for the nation. More than 55 per cent of people of Afghanistan have voted for this government. We have religious duties and our scholars are aware of these duties. It is our duty to find out how to support the government; how to defend the government of President Hamed Karzai for whom you have voted. May God bless you for defending your district so well.

[Correspondent] The Herat Province governor also promised to praise the security commander and the head of Farsi District soon. He also paid a visit to the families of martyrs who were killed during the fighting and donated some cash.

The Herat Province governor and the accompanying delegation travelled to the district a week after the district was attacked by a large group of anti-government militants . The assault is known as one of the heaviest of its kind in the district to be defeated by the people and security forces. About 18 anti-government insurgents and six police forces were killed or injured in the attack.

[Description of Source: Herat Herat Television in Dari -- state-run television. OSC IAP20070917950010 Herat Herat Television in Dari 1630 GMT 16 Sep 07]