Afghanistan and Pakistan praised the new US strategy for dealing with growing violence in the two countries, saying the plan to reconcile with moderate Taliban militants was better than expected and calling a focus on using development to fight extremism “a positive change.”
US President Barack Obama announced the new strategy in hopes of reversing the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where violence has been increasing from Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion and have been launching cross-border attacks from sanctuaries in Pakistan.
In the latest violence, a roadside bomb killed three Afghan army commandos on patrol on Saturday in eastern Paktia Province’s Gardez district, the US military said in a statement. Four other soldiers were wounded.
The violence provides cover for al-Qaeda operatives who Obama said are also holed up in Pakistan and planning attacks against the US and other countries. The overarching goal of the new strategy is to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al-Qaeda in the region by increasing civilian and military assistance on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.
But serious questions remain, including whether the new effort will convince Pakistan to crack down on militants operating in its territory and whether the US and Afghanistan can agree on which Taliban fighters should be approached for reconciliation.
In addition to focusing on reconciliation, Afghan President Hamid Karzai praised pledges of increased and better-coordinated assistance to his country and Obama’s focus on countering militant sanctuaries in Pakistan.
“This is better than we were expecting as a matter of fact,” Karzai told a news conference.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said billions of dollars in additional civilian aid would help his government fight extremism. He promised he would not allow Pakistani territory to be used for terrorism — though he offered no new measures.
“The US presidency’s new approach represents a positive change,” Zardari said in a speech to parliament.
Karzai has long championed the idea of reconciliation with the Taliban as a key way to tamp down the growing insurgency in Afghanistan. The administration of former US president George W. Bush generally opposed the idea.
The new plan promised 4,000 additional troops to train the Afghan army, hundreds more civilian specialists to help Afghanistan rebuild and US$1.5 billion in annual civilian aid to Pakistan for the next five years.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS