Afghan civilians deaths increase

14 July 2011 Last updated at 12:49 GMT The figures show that violence remains commonplace for many Afghan civilians The first six months of 2011 were the deadliest for civilians in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, a UN report has found.

The country saw 1,462 civilian deaths in January to June, a 15% increase on the same period last year.

Most of the deaths were caused by roadside bombs and anti-government forces such as the Taliban.

While the total number of people killed by pro-government action fell by 9%, more people died in Nato air strikes.

The report comes days before Nato is due to begin the process of handing over responsibility of some provinces to Afghan security forces.

On Wednesday night, at least six people were killed in a Nato raid on a house in Matun, in Khost province - local people said all those killed were civilians but Nato said they were insurgents.

Complex attacks

"The rising tide of violence and bloodshed in the first half of 2011 brought injury and death to Afghan civilians at levels without recorded precedent in the current armed conflict," the UN's annual mid-year report said.

Of those deaths, 80% have been blamed on anti-government militants including the Taliban, with roadside bombs and IED [improved explosive devices] the single biggest killer.

Continue reading the main story Total number of deaths - 1,462 80% of deaths due to insurgent activity14% of deaths due to Afghan or international security forcesNato air strikes killed 79 civiliansNato night raids caused 2% of civilian deathsThere has also been an increase in the number of deaths caused by suicide attacks. The report also warned that while the number of suicide attacks was largely unchanged, the number of casualties they caused caused had gone up 53%.

Such attacks were now "more complex", said the UN, and often involved "multiple bombers in spectacular attacks that kill many Afghan civilians".

The UN said the violence rose "as insurgents sought to demonstrate that Afghan security forces could not manage security on their own".

Pro-government forces were responsible for 14% of the total number of civilians killed.

Nato air strikes were once again the leading cause of these casualties, leaving 79 Afghans dead in the period in question.

More than half of those deaths have been attributed to the use of Apache ground attack helicopters.

The US-led forces are preparing to hand over some security operations to Afghan troops Raid 'resentment'

Night raids carried out by the US-led forces led to 2% of civilian deaths, a slight decrease on 2010.

The raids are controversial and President Hamid Karzai has warned they encourage sympathy with insurgents forces.

The report warned that "resentment regarding these raids" had grown among the Afghan population and were often followed by often deadly violent protests.

The UN said it had been unable to collect any data in the northern regions between March and June, as its Mazar-e Sharif base was forced to close following an attack which killed eight aid workers.

The director of communications for the UN in Kabul, Kieran Doyle, told the BBC that the casualty figures were not surprising but were still alarming.

He said fighting had been expected to intensify given the recent surge in international troop numbers and the Taliban's declaration of a "Spring offensive".

The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Kabul says that despite claims from Western leaders of progress and improving security in Afghanistan, these figures show increasing violence in the everyday lives of Afghans.

French troops die in Afghan blast

13 July 2011 Last updated at 12:33 GMT Most foreign troops in Kapisa are French At least five French soldiers and one civilian have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the north-eastern Afghan province of Kapisa, officials say.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the soldiers had been killed while on duty in the Tagab valley. A number of others were wounded.

The troops were guarding local tribal leaders when the bomber struck.

Mr Sarkozy visited Afghanistan on Tuesday and announced 1,000 French troops would leave by the end of 2012.

The bomber walked up to the French troops who were standing by their armoured vehicles before detonating his explosives, Reuters news agency quotes a local official as saying.

"A terrorist set off a bomb close to the soldiers wounding four other French soldiers seriously and three Afghan civilians," President Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

It is thought to be the heaviest loss of life France has suffered in Afghanistan since 10 of its soldiers were killed in a Taleban ambush in the Sarobi area east of Kabul in August 2008. Another 21 were wounded.

Fighting has intensified across Afghanistan in recent months.

Last month a suicide bomber killed eight people at a police academy in Kapisa.

The Taliban said they carried out that attack, which happened shortly before the French ambassador was due to visit the area.

French soldiers have been part of the Nato-led operation in Afghanistan since 2001.

Boycott after brawl by Afghan MPs

6 July 2011 Last updated at 14:34 GMT Nazifa Zaki (right) dismissed the fight as 'an issue between two colleagues' Ten members of the Afghan parliament have boycotted the chamber in protest at a brawl between two female parliamentarians.

The fight started when parliament was debating a recent spate of rocket attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Nazifa Zaki, a former army general, threw her shoe at fellow MP Hamida Ahmadzai, who then hurled a plastic water bottle at her.

The brawl has dominated the headlines on local TV, radio and newspapers.

A video of it has been posted on the internet by Tolonews.com. It shows Gen Zaki angrily leaving her seat in parliament and advancing menacingly towards Ms Ahmadzai, who throws the water bottle at her as she draws closer.

Gen Zaki is then seen trying to punch her rival and the two begin to tussle before other members of parliament move in to break the fight up.

The scuffle took place on Tuesday as President Karzai's supporters and detractors yelled insults at one another.

It began when a group of MPs wanted to summon the president about rocket and artillery attacks coming from Pakistani soil - a highly contentious parliamentary issue.

Ms Ahmadzai called for two of the country's vice presidents to be summoned, a call that infuriated Gen Zaki.

The 10 MPs who boycotted parliament on Wednesday morning urged the Speaker to expel Gen Zaki.

Speaker Abdul Rauf Rahimi told parliament: ''I know she has done wrong. I will invite her to my office and ask her why she did this.''

Gen Zaki told the BBC that the matter was "an issue between two colleagues".

"It is over now. The media shouldn't get involved in matters between parliamentarians,'' she said.

Dozens killed in Afghan fighting

6 July 2011 Last updated at 16:18 GMT Several remote police checkpoints have come under attack At least 78 people have been killed in heavy fighting between the Taliban and security forces in the Afghan province of Nuristan, officials say.

Provincial Governor Jamaludin Badar told the BBC that 33 border police had been killed in two days of clashes.

He said 40 insurgents and five civilians had also died after more than 150 heavily armed insurgents attacked from bases in Chitral in Pakistan.

Cross-border attacks are fuelling tensions between the neighbours.

The governments accuse one another of failing to contain the militants. Afghanistan also accuses Pakistan of launching hundreds of rockets into its territory.

Earlier on Wednesday, police in north-west Pakistan said that a group of more than 200 militants crossed the border from Afghanistan and attacked villages in Upper Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The insurgents burned down a school and clashed with villagers.

Correspondents say it is difficult to corroborate the claims of either side, but it is not disputed that the militants have expanded their control in Nuristan in recent months and control the main road to the provincial capital.

Strongholds

According to intelligence officials in Nuristan, insurgents attacked border police checkpoints using heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, in the district of Kamdesh.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says that area of the border has seen a heavy presence of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in recent months. US forces withdrew from the area earlier this year.

Two senior security officials in Nuristan told the BBC that fighting started when Pakistani and Chechen insurgents crossed the border from Pakistan to attack police checkpoints.

Nato says that it has provided close air support on Tuesday night after the police observation posts came under attack.

"Our helicopters engaged the insurgents. But this is an Afghan-led operation and our forces are there to assist them,'' Captain Justin Brockhoff told the BBC.

The Taliban deny the attack was launched from Pakistan, insisting that the raid was carried out by militants based in Afghanistan.

Governor Badar said dozens of police were still missing and casualty numbers could rise.

"Our forces fought to the last bullet," he said.

"Some of the posts are high in the mountains and it is very difficult to send ammunition, water and food there."

Police say they are looking for 20 officers who either made a tactical withdrawal or were taken hostage.

Our correspondent says mountainous Nuristan, with its poor communications, has not been a traditional stronghold for the Afghan Taliban. But it does have a history of tribal extremism and militancy.

Officials in Nuristan say they have repeatedly warned of the worsening security situation. They accuse the government and Nato of failing to act, claims the authorities reject.

On Tuesday, outgoing Nato commander Gen David Petraeus said the focus of the war was shifting from Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan to the eastern border with Pakistan.

Nato 'kills top Afghan militant'

30 June 2011 Last updated at 15:13 GMT Smoke billows from the Intercontinental Hotel after the Tuesday night attack Nato forces in Afghanistan say they have killed a senior militant they suspect of involvement in the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Ismail Jan died in an air strike in the eastern province of Paktia on Wednesday, the alliance said.

BBC correspondents say he is a leading commander in the Haqqani network, which is linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Nato and Afghan intelligence believe Haqqani members helped mount the hotel attack, which left 22 people dead.

The Interior Ministry says nine attackers were killed as well as 11 civilians and two police.

There has so far been no independent confirmation of Ismail Jan's death.

'Precision air strike'

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the hotel attack, but Nato said it was carried out jointly with the Haqqani network.

The group has bases in the tribal region of Waziristan in Pakistan, but focuses its attacks over the border in Afghanistan.

It has been accused of carrying out a number of high-profile gun and bomb attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.

Afghan officials also say the network has close ties to Pakistani intelligence services.

A statement from the Nato-led Isaf force said Jan was suspected of providing "material support" to the hotel attackers in Kabul.

It said he had been killed in what it called a "precision air strike" in Gardez district.

"Ismail Jan was the deputy to the senior Haqqani commander inside Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan. Jan and several Haqqani fighters were killed in the strike," the statement said.

It added that he had been tracked down after information from Afghan officials, citizens and "disenfranchised insurgents".

Ismail Jan operated in and around the Khost-Gardez pass, a rugged and heavily forested area near the Pakistan border, and was blamed for leading attacks on Nato and Afghan targets.

Securing the porous and volatile border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has presented a major challenge for security forces in both countries.

On Thursday General Aminullah Amarkhel, the border police commander for eastern Afghanistan, resigned. He said Kabul and Nato had failed to act after Pakistani rockets were fired into Afghan territory.

Last week Afghan officials accused the Pakistani army of firing hundreds of rockets over the border. Pakistan denies this but says a few stray rockets may have crossed the border as the army battled militants in the area.

The army says that in recent weeks insurgents have crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked villages in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Many of the militant groups along the frontier are closely linked.

'Lapses'

In Kabul, meanwhile, the BBC has seen photos showing at least two of the Intercontinental attackers wearing police uniforms, raising questions about whether the militants received inside help.

In other photos large amounts of rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and bullets were left behind by the dead insurgents. Investigators want to know how they got their weapons inside the hotel.

Previous attacks in Kabul and elsewhere have led intelligence officials to conclude that the Haqqani network has penetrated Afghan security at the highest level.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says several police officials are now being questioned over what many see as glaring security lapses at one of the capital's apparently most secure locations.

During the attack, special forces from New Zealand were injured when Afghan national police mistakenly fired at them.

"They were using the F-word after they came out, we apologised to them," a senior police official told our correspondent.

Afghan forces are also accused of being slow to arrive on the scene once Tuesday night's attack had started.

Nato air support had to be called in before calm was finally restored.

Correspondents say the Intercontinental, which is not part of the international hotel chain of the same name, is one of Kabul's most heavily guarded hotels.

But a security ministry official told the BBC that the militants could have exploited a loophole in security caused by renovation work.

Kabul - the scene of many attacks over recent years - has been relatively stable so far this year, although violence has increased across the country since the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan on 2 May, and the start of the Taliban's "spring offensive".

In January 2008, militants stormed the capital's most popular luxury hotel, the Serena, and killed eight people, including an American, a Norwegian and a woman from the Philippines.

Pakistan in Afghan rocket denial

27 June 2011 Last updated at 15:46 GMT The Pakistani army has rejected claims made by Afghanistan that it has fired more than 450 rockets into Afghan territory over the past three weeks.

But a spokesman told the BBC a "few accidental rounds" may have landed in Afghanistan as the army battles Taliban militants entrenched in the area.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said rockets had killed 36 people.

Meanwhile officials in north-western Pakistan say they are setting up camps for about 15,000 internal refugees.

They are expected to be uprooted by an impending Pakistani military operation.

Afghan officials say hundreds have fled parts of Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.

Nato forces have significantly scaled back their presence along the Afghan-Pakistan border in these provinces and border officials say the Pakistani Taliban has moved into these unstable districts.

The rocket attacks are alleged to have begun in earnest about three weeks ago and Afghan officials claim Pakistani military shells have been landing in Afghan villages along the border.

Improving relations

President Karzai met the Pakistani army chief of staff on Monday to discuss the issue at the presidential palace.

Afghanistan previously warned that it will retaliate if the attacks continue

Afghan officials say that the president voiced "great concern" about the issue and asked for it to stop immediately. They also said Pakistan's army chief assured them that an investigation would soon be launched into the incidents although that has not been confirmed by officials in Islamabad.

President Karzai also raised the issue of rocket attacks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at a regional anti-terrorism conference in Tehran on Saturday.

President Karzai has been criticised for not pursuing an aggressive enough line with Pakistan, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says.

Over the last year relations between the countries have become more cordial not least, our correspondent says, because Kabul considers Pakistan crucial to any future role for the Taliban in Afghan government.

On Sunday night at least 35 shells were fired into the Sarkano district of Kunar province, the commander of Afghanistan's border police forces told our correspondent in Kabul.

"We have seized shrapnel from the area. People have got killed, houses have been destroyed and in the last 24 houses our forests have caught fire as a result of the shelling," General Aminullah Amarkhel said.

Exodus expected

But Pakistan's military spokesman said that it was simply "not true" to say that rounds had been intentionally fired into Afghanistan.

He said that in the last month hundreds of insurgents crossed into Pakistan and attacked border posts, killing more than 100 security personnel.

The dispute comes as Pakistani military jets pounded suspected militant positions in the central Kurram region.

Hundreds of people have already fled the area after several days of air strikes. Officials say that they expect a larger exodus once the ground offensive in the area begins.

Kurram holds a large concentration of militants fleeing another military operation in Orakzai and an expected operation in North Waziristan.

"We have been asked to make preparations for 1,500 families who are expected to be displaced across an 80 square kilometre area of central Kurram region which will be the target of the ground offensive," Haseeb Salarzai, an official of the Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Disaster Management Authority, told BBC.

Pakistani officials have conceded that in their battle with the militants it was possible that a few stray rounds crossed the border.

In recent weeks, Islamabad has complained of a number of cross-border militant attacks in Pakistan's north-west and has lodged official protests with Kabul over the incursions.

In the latest attack on 16 June more than 200 militants are said to have stormed a Pakistani village near the Afghan border.

Waning public support weighed on Afghan move: Gates (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Flagging American public support for the war was a key factor in deciding to bring all 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by the end of next summer, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told AFP Thursday.

The outgoing Pentagon chief acknowledged that the US commander on the ground, General David Petraeus, favored a slower withdrawal that would have kept more troops in place to consolidate fragile gains against the Taliban.

The "advantages and disadvantages" of a range of options were debated in White House deliberations, including "not only the situation on the ground in Afghanistan but also political sustainability here at home," Gates said.

Speaking a day after US President Barack Obama announced his plan to pull out the 33,000 reinforcements by the end of September 2012, Gates said he was "comfortable" with the result and the discussions that preceded it.

"He (Obama) had a range of options that began next July with the drawdown," Gates told AFP in an interview in his office at the Pentagon. "Obviously he had preferred options that gave more time."

While he acknowledged that the military had a preference for a more modest drawdown, Gates said this wasn't surprising as top commanders always want to have more forces deployed.

"I would just say, both from my experience in this job and as a historian, I'm not aware of a single general ever in history that did not want more troops and more time," he said.

Petraeus, the four-star general who is set to step down soon to take over as CIA director, attended at least two of the three White House meetings on the drawdown decision, and had his chance to present his views, Gates said.

"He was in the meetings, at least the last two, and participated vigorously," he said.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Obama did not specify precisely when the troops would depart.

Gates said all 33,000 reinforcements, who were ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 to turn the tide in the war, will be withdrawn by "the end of September."

Some lawmakers and commentators on the right have accused Obama of jeopardizing gains against insurgents for purely political considerations ahead of 2012 presidential elections.

But Gates, a well-respected 67-year-old Washington veteran who is retiring at the end of the month, defended Obama's decision, saying it reflected both progress on the battlefield as well the political climate at home.

"I think these things are arbitrary to a certain extent, including the military timelines," he said.

"They're a best estimate in terms of the military commanders, and they're a best estimate in terms of the president's desire for success in our mission in Afghanistan, which also requires political sustainability here at home."

Gates pointed out that while former president George W. Bush withdrew his surge force in Iraq after a year, Obama will have kept reinforcements in place in Afghanistan for about two years.

Echoing Obama's remarks on Wednesday, he said the reduced US presence would not alter what he called Washington's "limited" goals in the war, reflecting a greater sense of "realism" after a strategy review in 2009.

Those goals are: to reverse the insurgents' momentum; deny them control of populated areas; degrade their capabilities; and to bolster Afghan security forces to a point where they can prevent the overthrow of the Kabul government and the reestablishment of safe-havens for Al-Qaeda or other extremists.

"That's it," he said.

Gates also said militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan remained a concern but that success in the war was possible even if Islamabad fails to fully cooperate in countering extremists along its border.

With Pakistan taking some positive steps, he said: "I think that as long as the picture stays mixed like that, that we can be successful."

He said that it was "not in the cards" for Pakistan to change its "strategic calculus," which focuses on India as an overriding threat.

Afghan drawdown creates risk, U.S. military warns (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military warned on Thursday that President Barack Obama's faster-than-expected drawdown in Afghanistan created new risks, even as commanders said they backed the strategy to start winding down the unpopular, nearly decade-old war.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the U.S. Congress that Obama's plans to withdraw nearly a third of the some 99,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the end of next summer was a riskier plan than he had wanted. Obama announced the withdrawal timetable on Wednesday.

"The president's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than I was originally prepared to accept," Mullen told a House of Representatives committee hearing in his first comments on Obama's plan.

Mullen later said the risks were still manageable and would not by themselves jeopardize the overall military mission.

His comments, while carefully phrased, were an unusually public expression of the Pentagon's initial unease with Obama's aggressive Afghan drawdown. In the run-up to Obama's decision, military leaders lobbied privately for more time, and outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates publicly said any troop withdrawal should be modest.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged "lots of competing opinions coming at (Obama) from all sides." She, too, said she supported his decision.

In Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Washington's ally in a relationship made tense by allegations of incompetence and corruption, welcomed the plan for a gradual pullout and said Afghans increasingly trusted their security forces.

European nations that have contributed troops to the military effort against the Afghan Taliban insurgency said they would also proceed with already-planned phased reductions.

But the Taliban, resurgent a decade after being toppled from power by U.S.-led forces following the September 11 attacks, dismissed the announcement and said only a full, immediate withdrawal of foreign forces could stop "pointless bloodshed."

They rejected any suggestion of U.S. military gains.

'RUSH TO THE EXITS'?

In a prime-time televised appearance on Wednesday, Obama said he would withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, and a further 23,000 by the end of next summer. Remaining troops would be steadily withdrawn after that.

Nearly 70,000 U.S. soldiers will, however, remain in Afghanistan even after the cuts announced by Obama, about twice the number when he took office in January 2009.

Obama's decision divided Congress, with some lawmakers demanding a more rapid pullout and others branding Obama's drawdown as a dangerous political move to appease his Democratic base ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Senator John McCain, a Republican who lost to Obama in the 2008 election, said "I think we're taking a huge unnecessary risk."

Republican Senator Charles Grassley called the pullout pace "very dangerous" and said he understood that General David Petraeus, the overall commander in Afghanistan, had recommended a slower withdrawal than the one Obama announced.

"The president's only consideration in all of this should be what is best for our national security, not finding some halfway point" with war critics, Grassley told Reuters.

But Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, appearing at the committee hearing alongside Mullen, said, "Clearly, this is not a 'rush to the exits' that will jeopardize our security gains."

Mullen also played down the possibility that security gains could be easily reversed. Bringing home troops offered some benefits, he said, including reinforcing the goal of putting Afghans in control of their own security by the end of 2014.

"The truth is, we would have run other kinds of risks by keeping more forces in Afghanistan longer. We would have made it easier for the Karzai administration to increase their dependency on us," Mullen said.

The Taliban has been pushed out of some areas of their southern heartland, but the insurgency has intensified along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan and U.S. commanders have wanted to shift their focus to that area.

Still, Clinton, appearing separately before a Senate committee, acknowledged there was no military solution to the conflict and said the United States had a broad range of contacts in search of a political resolution.

Asked by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, if there was a possibility for a peace agreement with the Taliban, Clinton said, "I think there is, but I think that we're a long way from knowing what the realistic elements of such an agreement would be."

"I can only stress that we are committed to pursuing it, because it is the only path forward, there is no other path forward. Nobody is strong enough to really assert control," she said.

In another sign of the challenges ahead in transferring control to Afghan authorities, an Afghan court on Thursday overturned a quarter of the results from last year's fraud-tainted parliamentary election -- potentially plunging the country into a new political crisis.

Afghanistan has been in a state of political paralysis since the September 18 election, with a full cabinet still not in place after weeks of squabbling.

EUROPEANS CALL FOR GRADUAL PULLOUT

As the U.S. withdraws, so will its allies. France, Germany, Poland and Spain said they would proceed with a gradual drawdown.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, like Obama seeking re-election next year, said in a statement that he would oversee a pullout "in a proportional manner and in a calendar comparable to the withdrawal of American reinforcements." France's 4,000-strong contingent is the fourth largest in Afghanistan.

German Defense Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country, with 4,800 troops in the increasingly violent north, hoped "to be able to reduce our own troop contingent for the first time" by the end of the year.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander, Susan Cornwell, Missy Ryan and Jim Wolf in Washington; David Brunnstrom in Brussels and Paul Tait and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Mohammad Zargham)

Suicide car bomber kills 35 at Afghan clinic (AP)

By SOLOMON MOORE and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Solomon Moore And Rahim Faiez, Associated Press – 2 hrs 25 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber blasted a small clinic Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, causing the building to collapse as mostly women and children lined up for vaccinations, maternity care and other services. At least 35 people were killed in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians this year.

Guards saw a sport utility vehicle charging toward the Akbarkhail Public Medical Center, a compound that provides health care for the mountainous area in the Azra district of Logar province. But before anyone could shoot the driver or blow out the tires, the SUV smashed through a wall and exploded, local officials said.

Wary of being blamed for civilian casualties, the Taliban denied it was behind the bombing. Violence has been on the rise since the Islamic movement launched its spring offensive and promised retaliation for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

"This attack was not done by our fighters," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Survivors of the blast and others who heard the explosion frantically dug through the rubble with shovels and bare hands. At least 35 bodies were pulled from the debris and 53 other people were wounded, provincial public health director Dr. Mohammad Zaref Nayebkhail said.

The victims — most women and children — included patients, visitors, and medical staffers.

"They were offering important services for the people. We had very good services and lots of patients. There were only 10 beds but lots of other services in that center. It's why the casualties were so high," he said.

Nayebkhail said an Afghan army helicopter was dispatched to the area to deliver medical supplies and to ferry survivors to other hospitals. He said the clinic had recently been expanded to meet the health needs of the far-flung district's population.

The Taliban claims it does not target civilians, but the movement is fractured and Saturday's attacks shared characteristics of recent violence.

Saturday's attack was the deadliest since February, when three men shot to death 38 people at a Kabul Bank branch in Jalalabad. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the victims deserved their fates because some worked for the Western-backed Afghan government, which they perceive as illegitimate.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in February in the northern province of Kunduz which killed 31 people as they waited for government identification cards.

A recent U.N. report found that May was the deadliest month for civilians since it began keeping track in 2007, and it said insurgents were to blame for 82 percent of the 368 deaths recorded.

Late Friday, another blast — this one caused by a bicycle rigged with explosives — ripped through a bazaar in the Khanabad district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people, including a police officer, and wounding 24, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

The bombings raised concerns about the readiness of Afghans to take over their own security as the U.S. and other NATO nations begin to withdraw forces. President Barack Obama's announced Wednesday that he plans to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. NATO officials insist the Afghan government will be prepared for full sovereignty by 2014.

The French government reported, meanwhile, that a French soldier was killed after coming under fire from insurgents while on a reconnaissance mission east of Kabul.

The death brings to 47 the number of NATO service members killed in June, and to more than 200 those killed this year, slightly fewer than last year's six-month total.

As violence raged in the provinces, Kabul plunged deeper into a constitutional crisis.

Afghan lawmakers, upset over a controversial electoral investigation, passed a no-confidence resolution on Saturday against the nation's most senior judicial officials, calling for five of them to be fired two days after doing the same for the attorney general.

It was unclear if the decision would actually lead to action against the judicial officials. President Hamid Karzai was in neighboring Iran attending a security conference.

Both votes were taken to protest a special investigative tribunal that invalidated the victories of 62 lawmakers because of alleged improper voting procedures and fraud. The tribunal was requested by the attorney general, endorsed by the supreme court and approved by Karzai.

Some parliament members characterize its findings as an unconstitutional power grab by Karzai and his appointees.

Two-term parliament member Fawza Kofi, not among those named in the tribunal's report, supported the no-confidence votes.

"The tribunal didn't deal with any criminal issues, rather it just invalidated the votes of the people," she said.

She acknowledged the parliamentary vote was largely symbolic, since the body has no power to remove the judges or attorney general. Abdul Malik Kamawi, chief executive of the supreme court, said the votes were unconstitutional and would be ignored.

Deputy Attorney General Rahmatullah Nazery also dismissed the no-confidence votes as illegitimate, since some of the lawmakers had been discredited by the special tribunal. Nazery said his office will refer the tribunal's findings to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, which will have the final word on whether to replace the lawmakers.

France follows US Afghan pullback

23 June 2011 Last updated at 14:26 GMT President Obama: "America, it is time to focus on nation-building at home"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced the phased withdrawal of its 4,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

A statement said the French would follow the timetable of US withdrawals announced by President Barack Obama.

Mr Obama said 10,000 US troops would pull out this year, with another 23,000 leaving by the end of September 2012.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the move, but the Taliban dismissed it as "symbolic" and vowed to continue fighting until all foreign forces left.

At least 68,000 US troops will remain in the country after the 33,000 have been withdrawn, but they are scheduled to leave by 2013, provided that Afghan forces are ready to take over security.

However the US reductions just announced are larger and faster than military commanders had advised.

They told the president that the recent security gains were fragile and reversible, and had urged him to keep troop numbers high until 2013.

Correspondents say the enormous cost of the deployment - currently more than $2bn (£1.25bn) a week - has attracted criticism from Congressional leaders, while the public are weary of a war that seems to have no end and has left at least 1,500 personnel dead and 12,000 wounded.

There have also been changes on the ground, notably the killing in May of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan.

'Tide of war'

Mr Sarkozy's announcement came shortly after Mr Obama's, and followed a telephone discussion between the two leaders on Wednesday, said the Elysee Palace - the presidential office - in a statement.

The withdrawal of the approximately 4,000 serving French troops would be progressive and would take place "in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements", it said, beginning in the coming months.

Continue reading the main story Christian Fraser BBC News, Paris

President Sarkozy has pointed to the progress made in Afghanistan this past year as the reason for France's decision to begin a gradual withdrawal.

It will be in a proportional manner, said the Elysee Palace, and in a calendar comparable to the US withdrawal.

France currently has 4,000 men and women operating in areas like Kapisa, the province adjoining Kabul, in the east of the country. But in recent years its special forces have been more closely involved in the fiercest fighting with the Taliban, and this has been one of the deadliest years to date, with nine French soldiers killed.

There are, of course, financial and political considerations here. France is one of the leading nations in the ongoing Nato operations over Libya and Mr Sarkozy is building up to the 2012 presidential election campaign. He has been edging slowly back up in the polls and this will be a popular decision.

The French president "stressed that France shared the American analysis and objectives and that it was happy with President Obama's decision".

Mr Obama's announcement, after a month-long strategy review, outlined the exit of the forces he sent to the country at the end of 2009 as part of a "surge".

In his speech, he said he had set clear objectives for the surge in December 2009 - to refocus on al-Qaeda, to reverse the Taliban's momentum, and train Afghan security forces to defend their own country.

His administration also stated the commitment would not be open-ended and that the withdrawal would begin in July 2011, he added.

"After this initial reduction our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support."

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says the speech was all about reassuring the American public that the "tide of war" was receding.

Six thousand Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and $1 trillion has been spent.

The initial withdrawal is expected to happen in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home in coming months and another 5,000 by the end of the year.

The remainder of the surge reinforcements - 20,000 combat troops and an 3,000 deployed to support the operation - will be out by the end of September 2012, in time for the US presidential election.

Our correspondent says this is a quicker pace than most analysts predicted, and suggests the president does not feel he needs to leave the bulk of the surge force in place for another fighting season.

Continue reading the main story

This is a moment when President Obama can do what was unthinkable two years ago. He can defy the Pentagon. Early in his presidency it would have been too risky to ignore military advice”

End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor The second largest contributor to the international force in Afghanistan is the UK, which has more than 10,000 soldiers including special forces.

It has pledged to pull back forces by 2015 - and earlier if conditions allow.

US administration officials told the New York Times that the US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, had not endorsed Mr Obama's decision. He recommended limiting initial withdrawals and leaving in place as many combat forces for as long as possible, they said.

Outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reluctantly accepted the reductions, the officials added.

Serious doubts remain about whether Afghan forces will be up to the task.

But President Karzai welcomed Mr Obama's announcement as "a good step for their benefit and the people of Afghanistan".

"I want the people of Afghanistan to be safe in their country with their own capable means," Mr Karzai said.

Security fears

There was a more ambivalent response from senior Afghan security officials who spoke to the BBC.

Continue reading the main story Dec 2004: 19,200Dec 2005: 22,400Dec 2006: 22,200Dec 2007: 25,700Dec 2008: 31,400Dec 2009: 71,000Dec 2010: 103,700March 2011: 111,000

Source: US defence department

They stressed that neither the army nor police were yet capable of handling security alone, citing problems of enemy infiltration, drug addiction, and high desertion rates.

An Afghan official with the country's National Security Council said he hoped the withdrawal would take place progressively, and not in one fell swoop.

"We look for a long-term commitment from the United States and the international community, one that will not allow Afghanistan to fall back to the pre-civil war and Taliban days," the official, who did not want to be named, told the BBC.

"We want to remind everyone, history shows that if you turn your [back] on Afghanistan, it will have negative consequences for you."

But a farmer in a volatile district in the north-eastern province of Kundoz told the BBC: "As far as I am concerned, the American forces didn't make a difference to me and my village. So if they leave it won't affect me.

"They supported militias, commanders who kill, rape and loot here. They are hated for that at my village.''

Obama ready to cut Afghan 'surge'

22 June 2011 Last updated at 20:26 GMT US troops first entered Afghanistan in autumn 2001 following the 9/11 attacks US President Barack Obama is expected to announce the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from Afghanistan in 2011, in a nationwide TV address shortly.

Speaking from the White House at 2000 (0000 GMT Thursday), Mr Obama will say 33,000 US "surge" troops will leave by September 2012, officials say.

The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan overall.

Divisions remain within the Obama administration over the size and speed of the pullout.

Military commanders are thought to want to limit the number of combat troops removed from the country in an effort not to lose ground gained from the Taliban during recent fighting.

Some 33,000 US troops are in Afghanistan as part of the West Point surge - including the 3,000 troops who enabled the surge.

Several firm reports in the US media suggest 5,000 troops will be brought home in the coming months, starting in July, with 5,000 more before the end of the year.

The BBC's Paul Adams, in Washington, says Mr Obama's expected announcement is a quicker pace of withdrawal than most analysts have predicted in recent days and suggests that the president does not feel he needs to leave the bulk of the surge force in place for another fighting season after the one that is under way now.

Continue reading the main story Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul

The US may be setting a timetable for withdrawing its forces, but there are many questions over the first phase of the security transition. In the past few weeks, insurgents have launched what Afghan intelligence officials say is a carefully planned wave of attacks in all of the areas to be handed over by Nato.

In Panjshir, insurgents tried to detonate a car full of explosives but it blew up before it could reach its target. On Tuesday, the influential governor of Parwan province, Abdul Basir Salangi, a close ally of President Karzai, survived an assassination attempt. In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a bomb explosion injured two civilians.

In some areas, insurgents have blockaded cities and towns, leaving thousands short of food and medicines.

Afghanistan's police and army are still dependent on coalition forces for air support, food, ammunition and roadside bomb-clearing. In addition, they have high rates of desertion and drug addiction, as well as "rogue" soldiers - there have been a number of incidents in which men in uniform have turned their weapons on Nato and Afghan colleagues.

The president may also highlight the fact that the overall number of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, which stood at around 180,000 when he came into office, should be under 100,000 by the end of this year.

That reduction would go some way towards reassuring critics worried about the escalating cost of the two wars, our correspondent says.

The enormous cost of the military deployment - currently more than $2bn (£1.2bn) a week - is attracting high-profile criticism from Republicans and Democrats.

Meanwhile, the public - battered by hard economic times - are weary of a war that seems to have no end and appears punctuated only by the deaths of young Americans, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond, in Washington.

The Afghan defence ministry welcomed the decision to withdraw foreign troops.

"We appreciate the efforts and sacrifices made by the foreign forces in Afghanistan, but at the same time we congratulate them for returning back to their homelands after a long period of war," a spokesman said.

"The Afghan National Army [ANA] is ready to fill their space but they will face some problems in this area as they still lack weapons and equipment."

Afghan forces are due to take over all security operations by 2014, but BBC correspondents say they are a long way away from being ready for that.

'Gains could be threatened'

Under the current draw down plan the US military would aim to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.

US military leaders are thought to favour a very gradual reduction in troops but other advisers advocate a more significant decrease in the coming months.

Continue reading the main story

We will hear a lot in the coming days about whether the pull-out is too quick or too slow, but it is worth remembering that we are only talking about the extra 30,000 troops Mr Obama has sent”

End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Mr Obama is expected to tell the American public that while remaining US forces will continue to be withdrawn after the surge troops have left, the pace of that withdrawal will depend on how the initial stage of the draw down goes.

Mr Obama's announcement comes days after departing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the US was holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was the first time the US had acknowledged such contact.

Earlier this month, Mr Gates said at Nato headquarters that "substantial progress" was being made on the ground in Afghanistan.

But he argued that "these gains could be threatened if we do not proceed with the transition to Afghan security lead in a deliberate, organised and co-ordinated manner".

But some believe the security gains being talked about mean a more rapid withdrawal of US forces is practical.

There is also growing political pressure for a significant withdrawal.

A bipartisan group of 27 US senators sent Mr Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in strategy.

US troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001

"Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops," the senators wrote. "The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits."

While many Afghans accept that American troops are needed to defeat the Taliban, correspondents say that they resent their presence in the country.

Insurgents are to blame for most of the deaths, but killings by foreign troops generate widespread outrage.

Obama To Unveil Afghan Troop 'Drawdown' - Sky News

9:07am UK, Wednesday June 22, 2011
Greg Milam, US correspondent
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The US President will address the nation later with reports suggesting he will order 5,000 troops home next month with another 5,000 to leave the war zone by December.
It is expected he could also lay out a timetable for further withdrawals ahead of the planned end of the Afghan mission by 2015.
When Mr Obama announced a surge of troops in December 2009 he promised that he would start bringing others home in July of this year.
Where US and UK troops are based in Afghanistan:

Military chiefs are believed to have been urging a "moderate" withdrawal amid fears that successes on the ground against the Taliban could be reversed.
But President Obama has talked of making a "significant" cut in troop numbers, well aware that many Americans believe he should pull out altogether after the successful mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.

There are concerns among the American people who are tired of a decade of war.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates 
Mr Obama was last week given a range of options for the withdrawal by the top US and Nato commander General David Petraeus.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "The President made the commitment that forces would begin to draw down in July, he is keeping that commitment and that is what he will announce."
"This is part of a strategy that we believe has led to our successes in taking the fight to al Qaeda, the successful mission against Osama Bin Laden, stopping the momentum of the Taliban and training up Afghan forces."
Military analysts say the most telling part of Mr Obama's announcement will be how long the President plans to keep the surge troops in Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who retires next week, said the President has to recognise the public mood.
"There are concerns among the American people who are tired of a decade of war," he said.
Obama is focusing on the commitment to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan
But former presidential candidate John McCain, the senior senator on the Armed Services Committee, cautioned against too big a withdrawal.
He said: "I believe that one more fighting season and we can get this thing pretty well wrapped up."
Meanwhile, there is growing frustration within the US administration towards the government in Kabul following a speech by Afghan president Hamid Karzai three weeks ago.
Mr Karzai said America is not treating Afghanistan as an ally but as an occupied country.

US ambassador in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry responded with a thinly veiled warning: "When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, our pride is offended and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on."
Polls show 80% of Americans approve of Mr Obama's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan - a conflict that is now the longest in American history.
Following the announcement, the President will visit troops at Fort Drum in New York.
It is home to the 10th Mountain Division which is one of the divisions most frequently deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.