Thursday, October 2, 2014

After new Afghan president sworn in drones kill 4 Afghan civilians

Ashraf Ghani the newly inaugurated Afghan president has signed a bilateral security agreement(BSA) with the US to allow US troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2014 when the present agreement will expire.



While both a meeting of elders, a loya jirga, and also the Afghan parliament had approved the BSA, then president Hamid Karzai refused to sign the document. He cited as a reason that the deal did not do enough to limit US airstrikes in civilian areas. The document had barely been signed when US drones attacked and destroyed a car full of civilians in Khost Province killing four. The Khost police believe that the attack on the car was a case of mistaken identity. Militants reportedly killed a district development council head and then fled in a vehicle similar to the one attacked. The family of the victims insisted that those killed were neither militants nor armed. US authorities have not issued a statement yet on the drone attack.
 The BSA will see 9,800 US troops left behind at the end of 2014. The total number of troops in a new NATO-led mission will be approximately 12,000 in 2015. The agreement also allows for a separate US-led force that will carry out anti-terrorist operations.. There is a separate NATO agreement that will allow about 3,000 troops to remain in Afghanistan led by Germany with Italy and Turkey also contributing some troops.
US president Barack Obama said that the day was historic in US-Afghan relations. He said: "We look forward to working with this new government to cement an enduring partnership that strengthens Afghan sovereignty, stability, unity, and prosperity." Back in 2013, the US threatened to withdraw all its troops if Karzai did not sign the agreement before the end of that year. Now it is finally signed at the end of the third quarter of 2014.
 Present plans call for the 9,800 US troops to be reduced to only 4,900 at the end of 2014, and at the end of 2015 with complete withdrawal at the end of 2016 with perhaps one thousand troops remaining in a security office. The BSA is a followup to the Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement between the US and Afghanistan went into effect on July 4 2012. The agreement set out relationships between the two countries through 2024 but left the issue of the number of US troops that would stay in Afghanistan after 2014 to be negotiated through a BSA. However, the agreement did commit the US to considerable aid and funding for the Afghan military. Among the provisions are: Commitment by the U.S. to seek funding from the U.S. Congress on an annual basis for social and economic assistance for Afghanistan as well as to support the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)
 The new president, Ashraf Ghani, had the support of former president Hamid Karzai. However, his new power-sharing government faces numerous problems as indicated in this article. Ghani will no doubt be looked on favorably in he west as he received his higher education in the US and worked at the World Bank and UN. However, he faces not only the Taliban insurgency but a weak economy. Since he shares power with his defeated opponent Abdullah Abdullah he will need his cooperation to govern effectively. Abdullah believes that Ghani won the presidency through fraud in the runoff election.


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