Clashes kill two NATO soldiers in Afghanistan

NATO on Sunday announced the death of two foreign soldiers, one of them American, in southern Afghanistan's insurgent heartland.

One soldier whose nationality was not given died Sunday in an insurgent attack, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

Another, confirmed as an American, died Saturday following a Taliban-style bomb attack, ISAF said.

The deaths brings to 497 the total number of foreign troops to die in the Afghan war so far this year in comparison to 521 in 2009, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website.

The war is nearing the end of its ninth year, with international troops at almost full strength of 150,000, from the United States and NATO.


The southern Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar have seen some of the heaviest fighting between insurgents and coalition forces seeking to uproot the Taliban from their long-held strongholds.

A dozen Taliban, including a veteran commander known as Mullah Abdul Aziz, were killed in fighting with Afghan and coalition forces on Friday and Saturday in Helmand's Sangin district, according to provincial government spokesman Daood Ahmadi.

In Uruzgan province just to the north, a Taliban explosive expert, Rahmidullah, was killed on Saturday in Chora district when the roadside bomb he was planting exploded prematurely, according to Chora district chief Mohammad Daood Zaheer.

With the conflict entering its ninth year, Karzai is hoping talks with weary insurgents could help divide the Taliban between hardcore members unwilling to compromise and those who might consider abandoning the insurgency.

Karzai said Saturday he would soon name the members of the High Peace Council, whose formation was approved in June at a national peace conference in Kabul. A statement released by his office said the move marks a "significant step toward peace talks."

The statement said members will include former Taliban, jihadi leaders, leading figures in Afghan society and women, but gave no other details. They will be prepared to negotiate with insurgents who renounce violence, honor the Afghan constitution, and sever ties with terrorist networks.

The Taliban have so far rejected peace talks while foreign troops remain in the country. Talks held in Kabul and the Maldives with an insurgent group led by ex-Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar produced no breakthrough.

Though some observers have expressed concern about cutting any sort of deal with insurgents, foreign governments working to stabilize the Afghan government and economy have welcomed the move, especially given U.S. plans to begin withdrawing some of its forces next July.

"We warmly welcome today's announcement," the British Foreign Office said of Karzai's move. "We will not bring about a more secure Afghanistan by military means alone ... We have always said that a political process is needed to bring the conflict in Afghanistan to an end."

Karzai's announcement was given added poignancy by comments from the outgoing deputy commander of NATO forces in the country that commanders promised too much when they predicted quick success taking the key Taliban-held town of Marjah last winter.

While British Lt. Gen. Nick Parker now sees signs of a turnaround in the turbulent area, he said the military will be more restrained in forecasting success in the future.

Looming death threats as Afghan elections come near

Taliban insurgents appear to be making good on threats to kill candidates in Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, adding a grim dimension to the ambitions of political hopefuls in the war-torn country.

In recent weeks, three candidates and at least seven campaign workers have been killed, and many others kidnapped and injured, in attacks blamed on the Taliban, according to officials.

More than 2,500 candidates will contest 249 seats in the lower house of the Afghan parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, in the country's second parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18.

The attacks are part of the Taliban's plan to disrupt the poll, said a spokesman for the group, deriding the election as "a process orchestrated by the foreign occupiers, for and in the interest of the foreign occupiers".

"We urge people not to participate in the election. Everything and everyone affiliated with the election is our target -- candidates, security forces, campaigners, election workers, voters are all our targets," spokesmen Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP, speaking from an undisclosed location.

The United States and NATO have almost 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, fighting an insurgency that has become increasingly virulent since the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime was toppled in a U.S.-led invasion.

Taliban leaders at the grassroots have taken the directive to heart, with one commander in northern Balkh province evoking Mullah Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader believed to be in Pakistan, to justify the violence.

"Such elections don't have any legitimacy for us, since our leader Mullah Omar has already called for a boycott," Mullah Saheb Khan said.

As the vote nears, and the pace and ferocity of the attacks intensifies, election officials have conceded that security in some areas is so poor they will not be able to get out the vote.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which oversees the poll, has said that about four percent of the polling centers, mainly in the south and east where the war is fiercest, will not open because security cannot be guaranteed.

Candidates and their supporters have been bombed, kidnapped, shot and, in one case in troubled Ghazni province south of Kabul, beheaded.

In the latest incident, 28 IEC employees were reportedly kidnapped on Thursday in northern Baghlan province, and released after the intervention of tribal elders.

News reports said they had been tortured by their Taliban captors and warned not to work for the IEC.

Their ordeal followed the kidnap in eastern Herat a week earlier of 10 people working for candidate Fawzya Galani. Five were killed.

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, citing at least two kidnappings, said deteriorating security in the formerly peaceful north "has prevented campaigning and voter education programs in certain districts".

The violence drew condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called for security measures "that allow candidates and voters, particularly women, to fully participate".

U.S. monitoring group Democracy International called on the Afghan government "to show that it has the ability to protect candidates and their supporters from enemies of a democratic Afghanistan".

The Taliban waged a similar anti-vote campaign against last August's presidential elections, with hundreds of people killed or injured across the country.

That poll was bankrolled by the international community, including the United Nations' mission in Afghanistan, which marked it as a vital step on the country's path to becoming a fully-fledged democracy.

This time, the U.N., the European Union and members of the international community and NATO have been silent, preferring to characterize the election as "Afghan-led," said a Western diplomat who asked not to be named.

"It became so embarrassing last year that no one is willing to be associated with what could well be another debacle," he said, referring to the violence and massive fraud that marred the presidential poll.

Nevertheless, candidates have signed up knowing they are in the Taliban's sights.

Janan Mossazai, a 30-year-old first-time candidate who recently returned to Afghanistan after studies in central Asia and Canada, said: "I'm aware of the risks and dangers that are out there that threaten every individual candidate.

"I made my decision to run with that awareness. Afghans who want to make a better future for Afghanistan have to make sacrifices."