Two Dozen Taleban Fighters, 5 Policemen Dead in Violence

KABUL: Extremist unrest left five Afghan policemen and nearly two dozen Taleban fighters dead Monday, officials said, as Britain reached the grim landmark of 100 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Military aircraft from the Nato force were called in overnight after insurgents were seen gathering in the eastern province of Paktia, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Dastgir told AFP. “Nato planes and artillery targeted them and killed 20 Taleban. Several others were wounded,” Dastgir said. Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in the capital Kabul could not immediately provide information, but an ISAF worker in the region confirmed the incident. Separately, a roadside bomb blew up a police vehicle in the central province of  Ghazni early Monday, killing a highway commander and two of his men, provincial deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told AFP.

The attack occurred as the commander, Abdul Qayoum, was returning to Ghazni town from the remote district of Rashidan, which has not had a police commander since Taleban militants took control of the district headquarters in May, Zaman said. The rebels were kicked out less than 24 hours later, but they took with them the administration and police officials. Authorities said they suspected the officials had been working with the Taleban. “Qayoum and two other policemen were killed in the blast and their vehicle was destroyed,” Zaman said. Ghazni, roughly halfway between Kabul and Kandahar, has become one of the provinces most affected by Taleban attacks over the past year. Police also reported Monday that Taleban rebels had attacked a post in the central province of Ghor on Sunday, sparking a gunfight that left two policemen and three rebels dead.
Another policeman and six of the attackers were wounded in the fighting, provincial police chief Shahjahan Noori told AFP.

Meanwhile, insurgents in the northeastern province of Nuristan attacked a supply helicopter as it came into land at an ISAF base, the force said in a statement.

“The base came under attack from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire immediately following the aircraft landing there to drop off supplies,” it said.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars of aid to Afghanistan have not been spent effectively and the Afghan government and international agencies must be held to account or more will be wasted, an independent watchdog said on Monday.

Afghanistan is to ask donors in Paris this week to fund a $50-billion five-year development plan, testing international commitment to the country which is still among the world’s poorest and suffers daily violence more than six years after US-led forces overthrew the Taleban government.

Of the $25 billion in aid to Afghanistan from 2001 until now, only some $15 billion has been spent, aid agencies say. But for every $100 spent, sometimes only $20 actually reaches Afghan recipients, said the Kabul-based internationally funded Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA). Between 15 to 30 percent of aid money is spent on security for aid agencies, the IWA report said, and 85 percent of products, services and human resources used by agencies are imported and provide few jobs for Afghan workers. As much as 20 percent of international aid to Afghanistan is spent on so-called technical assistance; jargon for highly paid foreign staff. Some $1.6 billion was spent on technical assistance between 2002 and 2006, the report said.

Some staff working for the USAID, the US government’s development agency, earn as much as $22,000 a month in Afghanistan, IWA said, or 367 times more than an Afghan teacher. Some 70 percent of international assistance is not channelled through the government so the Afghan state has no control how it is spent and the money does little to enhance its standing with the people or develop its ability to govern. Even though most of the money coming into Afghanistan does not come through the state, the Afghan government still relies on aid for some 90 percent of its budget. Afghanistan’s dependence on aid has created a state that lacks the need to be accountable to its people. But the international community has put far too little effort into helping Kabul manage its considerable mineral resources, raise its own revenues and kick its reliance on aid, IWA said.