Taliban Suspends Peace Talks With America.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
Kabul : The Afghan Taliban has suspended preliminary peace talks with the US, according to a statement released Thursday by the outfit.
"Islamic Emirate (the name of the ousted Taliban regime) has decided to suspend all talks with Americans taking place in Qatar from today onwards until the Americans clarify their stance on the issues concerned and until they show willingness in carrying out their promises instead of wasting time," Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.
The Taliban, fighting Afghan and NATO-led forces in a decade-long insurgency, for the first time in January announced that it was involved in preliminary talks with the US, and a political office has been opened in Qatar in this regard.
The statement denied that the Afghan government was involved in the peace talks.
It said the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" has also demanded the release of its prisoners from the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay.
The Taliban in the statement said a memorandum of understanding which was agreed to earlier was not fulfilled because a US representative presented a list of conditions in his latest meeting with Taliban envoys that "were not only unacceptable but also in contradiction with the earlier agreed upon points".
"The inauguration of political office in Qatar was not but for the sake of reaching an understanding with the outside world and particularly for the exchange of prisoners with the Americans in the initial stages," the statement said.
"But it seems that the Americans and their stooge regime took advantage of these measures of Islamic Emirate and sought to achieve other malicious objectives and therefore are postponing the core issues and are wasting time," it said.
IANS.

Mujahidin Attack US Base In Afghanistan.



Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
KABUL: Militants assaulted the gate of an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle packed with explosives.

All four attackers were killed as well as two truck drivers parked nearby, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh. Two Afghan security guards were wounded.
The attackers failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjshir province’s Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a rocket-propelled grenade, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh.
Three of the men attacked on foot, shooting, while a fourth detonated the explosives-laden vehicle outside the gate, Jangalbagh said. The blast hit two fuel tankers which were waiting to enter the base, killing the Afghan drivers inside. All four of the attackers were killed and two Afghan security guards were wounded, he said.
A NATO spokeswoman confirmed the attack but said there were no American deaths or injuries and no significant damage to facilities.
“There was a complex attack attempted, but it was repelled,” Capt. Ebony Calhoun said. She said the guards’ wounds were not life-threatening but they had been evacuated to a larger US base for treatment. The base houses a provincial reconstruction team — a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve provincial governance, services and infrastructure.
Jangalbagh said there was some damage to the base, but it was unclear how much. The base houses a provincial reconstruction team — a mix of military and international civilians who work to improve provincial governance, services and infrastructure.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to The Associated Press.
NATO downplayed the significance of such spectacular strikes on Saturday, presenting figures that showed headline-grabbing assaults account for only 1 percent of attacks in Afghanistan and that militant activity is down overall.
Insurgent attacks between January and September were 8 percent lower than the first nine months of 2010, according to figures supplied by a senior official with NATO forces who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the information.
But while violent attacks are down overall, assassinations have increased 60 percent for the same period with 131 people killed so far this year, according to the official.
And while NATO reports little change in civilian casualties over the nine-month period, figures from the UN show an increase in civilian deaths.
Many of the highest profile attacks have been perpetrated by the Haqqani network, a Taleban-allied group operating out of Pakistan, according to NATO.
Eleven out of the last 15 attacks in Kabul came from the Haqqanis and were directed and organized out of Pakistan, the NATO official said.
The Panjshir attack followed on the heels of violence Friday which left at least 30 dead across Afghanistan.
NATO reported Saturday that 23 insurgents were killed in five separate operations throughout the east. In the largest strike, seventeen insurgents were killed in an airstrike in Kunar province. The remaining six deaths were in operations in Wardak, Kunar and Ghazni provinces.
In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bombing killed three Afghan border police officers and one civilian. The bomber blew up his explosives-packed car Friday afternoon while it was being inspected at a checkpoint.
The explosion happened in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border, in the early evening, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the head of the border police in the south.
The checkpoint had been set up because of an intelligence warning that an attack was imminent, provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi said.
Three NATO service members were also killed Friday in separate attacks, according to statements from the military coalition, making 11 killed so far this month and at least 464 since the beginning of the year.
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