Karzai vows to confront Pakistan over Kabul attack

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed Pakistani extremists on Wednesday for an unprecedented attack on Shia Muslims in Kabul that killed 55 people, demanding justice from the government in Islamabad.

By pointing the finger at the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militant group, Karzai threatens to ratchet up tensions with neighbouring Pakistan just days after Islamabad boycotted the Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan.

Afghan officials fear that Tuesday’s killings in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif could unleash Iraq and Pakistan-style sectarian violence ahead of the scheduled departure of Nato combat troops in 2014.

On Wednesday, another 19 people died in a roadside bombing in the southern province of Helmand, bringing to 78 the number of people killed in just over 24 hours. Four people were killed near a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif.

“We will pursue this issue with Pakistan and its government very seriously,” said Karzai as he visited wounded survivors of the attack after cancelling a planned trip to Britain and rushing home from Germany.

There have been media reports of a purported claim from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which is linked to Al-Qaeda and blamed for killing thousands of Shias in Pakistan but not thought previously to have attacked within Afghanistan.

“Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is based in Pakistan, therefore the government of Afghanistan with all its strength and international support will pursue this issue, Afghanistan cannot ignore the blood of its children,” Karzai said.

Afghans traditionally blame Pakistanis for fuelling much of the violence in their country, where the Taliban are leading a 10-year insurgency against Karzai’s government and 140,000 Western troops.

His spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP that Karzai will “demand Pakistan take executive measures… so that justice can be done”.

There are reported links between Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which was one of the groups involved in the kidnap and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, and Pakistani intelligence.

The US embassy in Kabul confirmed that an American was among those killed on Tuesday, in the Afghan capital where the victims were buried at peaceful mass gatherings with police on standby for violence which failed to materialise.

The 19 civilians killed in Wednesday’s roadside bombing in Helmand included seven women from one family and five children, local officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, which came as the civilians travelled from provincial capital Lashkar Gah to Sangin district, historically one of the most troubled in Afghanistan.

Lashkar Gah was brought under Afghan control in July and three other districts of Helmand are due to shift from Nato to Afghan hands within weeks as part of the phased withdrawal of most Western combat troops.

Tuesday’s bombings were unprecedented in targeting a key religious holiday, Ashura, which is the holiest day in the calendar for Shias.

An Afghan official said the bomber who attacked the Kabul shrine was a Pakistani affiliated to Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which is not previously known to have carried out any attacks in Afghanistan.

Officials and experts suggested that if Pakistanis did orchestrate the attacks, then elements in the Afghan Taliban may have helped facilitate them.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said the strikes were the work of “the Taliban and their associates”, adding that no-one else carried out such suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

An Afghan security official speaking on condition of anonymity said the bomber was a Pakistani connected to Sepah-i-Sahaba, a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi offshoot, who wanted to “inflame sectarian violence in Afghanistan”.

A Western security official also suggested Pakistani involvement but stressed it was not clear whether this was “institutional”, referring to reported links between militants and Pakistani intelligence.

“We’re particularly looking at TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban) although at the moment we don’t have any proof,” he said.

A Pakistani official speaking anonymously said Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was closely associated with the Pakistani Taliban.

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Japan quake caused double-wave tsunami

TOKYO: THE massive earthquake off the coast of Japan in March caused a rare "merging tsunami" in which two waves combined to amplify the destruction after landfall, according to NASA.

For the first time ever, US and European radar satellites captured images of the two wave fronts, confirming the existence of the long-hypothesised process, which forms a "single, double-high wave far out at sea."

"This wave was capable of travelling long distances without losing power. Ocean ridges and undersea mountain chains pushed the waves together along certain directions from the tsunami's origin," NASA said in a statement on its website.

"The discovery helps explain how tsunamis can cross ocean basins to cause massive destruction at some locations while leaving others unscathed," it said, adding that the research could help to improve forecasts.

"It was a one-in-10-million chance that we were able to observe this double wave with satellites," said Tony Song, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which partnered with Ohio State University for the study.

"Researchers have suspected for decades that such 'merging tsunamis' might have been responsible for the 1960 Chilean tsunami that killed about 200 people in Japan and Hawaii, but nobody had definitively observed a merging tsunami until now."

The 9.0-magnitude underwater earthquake and tsunami on March 11 left 20,000 people dead or missing, devastated large areas of northeastern Japan and sparked a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

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Bomb kills 12 in south Afghanistan

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: A suicide attacker killed 12 Afghan policemen and a child in the southern city of Lashkar Gah Sunday when he detonated a car bomb, the country’s Ministry of Interior said.

The attack in the heart of a city which was recently handed over to Afghan security forces was a reminder of the Taliban’s reach, even at a time of stepped up pressure from U.S. and Afghan troops.

The explosion happened near the police chief’s compound in the provincial capital and appeared to target a joint Afghan police and army patrol.

The Ministry of Interior condemned the attack and in a statement described it as “un-Islamic and inhumane.” It said the toll was 12 dead policemen and a child.

Twelve people were wounded in the blast, nine of them policemen and three civilians, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor.

It comes after a string of destabilizing assassinations of high-profile southern leaders, including President Hamid Karzai’s younger brother, and just days after suicide attackers with guns killed 19 people, most of them children.

Afghan forces took over security responsibilities in Lashkar Gah this month, the most contentious of the first seven areas for which foreign troops handed over duties.

The gradual transition of security control to Afghan forces is due to be completed by the end of 2014.

Helmand province has been the site of some of the most vicious fighting of the war. Far more foreign troops have died there than in any other province and there are still several Helmand districts dominated by the Taliban.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties.

Roadside mines killed 17 civilians in Helmand province on Friday when a minibus and tractor separately struck explosives. - Reuters

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Afghan victims buried as fingers point to Pakistan

KABUL: Afghans were Wednesday burying 59 people killed in unprecedented bombings against Shia Muslims as officials blamed Pakistani militants, accusing them of trying to whip up Iraq-style sectarian violence.

Investigators are poring over who was behind the coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul and northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that the Taliban, the main faction leading a 10-year insurgency, have denied carrying out.

An Afghan official claimed Wednesday that the bomber who attacked a shrine in Kabul was a Pakistani, affiliated to the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi group, which has been blamed for killing thousands of Pakistani Shias.

The faction, which is alleged to have links with Al-Qaeda, — the terror group blamed for igniting sectarian war in Iraq — has not previously claimed responsibility for any attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Experts suggest that if Lashkar-i-Jhangvi or indeed any other Pakistani militants orchestrated the attacks, then elements in the Afghan Taliban may have played some part, possibly in facilitating the strikes.

Tuesday’s blast on the holiest day in the Shia calendar marked the first major attack on a key religious day in Afghanistan.

The twin blasts have prompted fears of a slide into sectarian violence in Afghanistan, which until now has avoided the kind of attacks that have pitched Shia against Sunni Muslims in Iraq and Pakistan.

The victims were buried Wednesday in emotional scenes. Several hundred people marched through west Kabul with two of the bodies on the way to a burial ground, an AFP photographer said.

The US embassy confirmed that an American citizen was among the 55 people killed in the Kabul attack but gave no further details.

President Hamid Karzai scrapped a planned trip to Britain, flying back to Afghanistan for an emergency meeting with security chiefs after attending Monday’s Bonn conference on his country’s future.

He was later due to meet survivors of the attack in hospital.

Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security intelligence agency, confirmed that an investigation into the tragedy was now under way.

Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said the attack was the work of “the Taliban and their associates”, adding no-one else carried out such suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

An Afghan security official speaking on condition of anonymity said the bomber was from the Kurram agency in Pakistan’s border region and was connected to Sipah-i-Sahaba, a Lashkar-i-Jhangvi offshoot.

Many Afghans traditionally blame Pakistanis for fuelling much of the violence in their country.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was one of the groups involved in the kidnap and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002.

It is notorious for suicide bombings and attacks on Pakistani Shias.

The Afghan source added the attack aimed to “inflame sectarian violence in Afghanistan” but did not provide any evidence to back up his claims.

The official added: “This is not the work of the Taliban or if there is any Taliban involvement, it is very minimal.”

A Western security official speaking anonymously also suggested Pakistani involvement though stressed it was not clear whether this was “institutional”.

There are reported links between Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Pakistani intelligence.

“We’re particularly looking at TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban) although at the moment we don’t have any proof,” he said. The source added he believed the attack “aimed to weaken Afghan society”.

A Pakistani security official speaking anonymously said Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was closely associated with the Pakistani Taliban.

But he added: “This group is on the run and doesn’t have the capacity to carry out attacks inside Afghanistan, particularly in Kabul.”

Pakistani security analyst Hasan Askari emphasised that there was no clear evidence at this stage of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s involvement.

“Lashkar people have ideological affinity with other militant groups operating in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, and they support each other but they (Lashkar) have to establish that their strength is increasing,” he said.

Some analysts have raised fears of more sectarian violence in Afghanistan following the attacks but Shia leaders have urged calm in the aftermath.

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Nato allies meet amid tensions with Russia, Pakistan

BRUSSELS: Nato allies meet Wednesday hoping to calm Russian fears over their missile shield project but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Moscow by criticising its parliamentary elections.

Clinton is joining her 27 alliance counterparts in Brussels for two days of talks that will also touch on the Afghan war amid tensions with Pakistan after a Nato air strike on the Afghan border last month killed 24 Pakistani troops.

They will then meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday to tell him the missile shield will go ahead but that Nato still wants to negotiate a cooperation deal with Moscow, alliance diplomats said.

A diplomat said Nato wants to “calm things down” after Russia activated a radar warning system in its exclave of Kaliningrad on the EU’s borders last week, days after President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to deploy missiles there.

“Some of President Medvedev’s recent comments about Nato’s missile defence system reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the system,” Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper Tuesday.

The Russian threats “reflect the rhetoric of the past,” Rasmussen said.

While he was pleased that Medvedev did not shut the door on dialogue, Rasmussen indicated that Nato will continue to refuse to provide legal guarantees that the system does not threaten Russia.

Western officials insist that the missile shield is aimed at countering Iran.

Nato and the United States have sought to improve ties with Russia since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

But Clinton irked Russia by voicing “serious concerns” about the parliamentary elections and calling for allegations of fraud and vote-rigging to be investigated.

“As we have seen in many places, and most recently in the Duma elections in Russia, elections that are neither free nor fair have the same effect,” Clinton said in Lithuania on Tuesday.

The Russian foreign ministry described Clinton’s comments as “unacceptable”while Medvedev said it was “none of their business” what Russia’s political
system looked like.

Russian riot police arrested hundreds of activists in central Moscow on Tuesday to stop a new protest alleging that elections were rigged in favour of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling party.

Despite lingering suspicions between the former Cold War foes, Russia has allowed the alliance to use its territory to send vital supplies to troops in Afghanistan.

The transit route through Russia has become all the more important since Pakistan shut down supply lines in anger at last month’s deadly air strike on the Afghan border. Nato has launched an investigation into the raid.

“We have every interest to make sure that we get back to a better relationship again and that is what we are trying to achieve in the near future,” said a senior Nato official.

The ministers will review the transfer of security reins to Afghan forces after Monday’s major Afghanistan conference in Bonn, where participants vowed sustained support for another decade after combat troops leave in 2014.

Another mission, Kosovo, will also be discussed in the wake of violence at the border with Serbia that injured 50 Nato troops.

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