Thank for letting us be to live___That is, only I can say after reading news, even I can`t read English well, I can wish for no more war , no more killing each other, ..... .. ....... my wish kept me in a silence...............
Taliban insurgents are active in Helmand …
Insurgents behead 17 Afghan civilians at a party
By | Associated Press – 2 hrs 15 mins agoTaliban insurgents are active in Helmand …
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents attacked a large party in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan and beheaded 17 people, officials said on Monday.
A local government official initially said the victims were civilians at a celebration late Sunday involving music and dancing in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. The official, Neyamatullah Khan, said the Taliban killed the party-goers for flouting the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants.
However, provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said later that those killed were caught up in a fight between two Taliban commanders over two women, who were among the dead. Ahmadi said shooting broke out during the fight but it was unclear whether the music and dancing triggered the violence, and whether the dead were all civilians or possibly included some fighters.
All of the bodies were decapitated, but it was not clear if they had been shot first, he said.
In other violence, two American soldiers were shot and killed by one of their Afghan colleagues in the east — bringing the number of Americans killed this month by Afghan allies to 12. Afghan officials said the killings appeared to be accidental. NATO would not comment on whether the killings were intentional or accidental, but a U.S. Defense Department official said there were indications that it was an intentional killing.
The Taliban has controlled large parts of Musa Qala, a district encompassing more than 100 villages, since 2001. They enforce the same strict interpretation of Islamic law that was imposed on all of Afghanistan during Taliban rule from 1996-2001.
U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years in Musa Qala, but the insurgent group still wields significant power in the area as international forces across the country draw down and hand over control to Afghan forces. Helmand province, where Musa Qala is located, is one of the areas that has seen the largest reduction in U.S. troops. The U.S. started reducing forces from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year, and plans to have 68,000 troops by October.
Many Afghans and international observers have expressed concerns that the Taliban will try to re-impose strict Islamic justice as international forces withdraw. Under the Taliban, all music and film was banned as un-Islamic, and women were barred from leaving their homes without a male relative as an escort.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings and said they were against Shariah law.
"The killing of innocent civilians by Taliban is an unforgivable crime." Karzai said in a statement.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi, however, rejected allegations that the Taliban were involved in the incident.
"No Talib have killed any civilians. Neither were Taliban commanders fighting each other. We don't know about this thing. Whether it happened or not, we were not involved," Ahmadi said.
The killings contradict the Taliban leadership's orders for their fighters to avoid killing ordinary Afghans, suggesting a breakdown in discipline and a further fracturing of the insurgency.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar urged his commanders earlier this month to "employ tactics that do not cause harm to the life and property of the common countrymen." The insurgents' supreme leader has issued such edicts from hiding before, perhaps trying to soften the extremist movement's image, but the order appears to have been widely ignored.
A U.N. report last month said 1,145 civilians were killed and 1,954 others were injured in the first half of the year, 80 percent of them by militants.
In fact, while the Taliban seeks to soften its image, the beheadings recall the days of public executions during their rule.
There are fears that the Taliban will again control southern Afghanistan and impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law on the region as foreign troops gradually withdraw in the next two years. Nearly all foreign troops are to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and the U.S.-led NATO coalition hopes that Afghan security forces will be strong enough to take control.
As the drawdown progresses, there has been a surge in attacks by Afghan forces against their allies.
A group of U.S. and Afghan soldiers came under an insurgent attack in Laghman province Monday, said Noman Hatefi, a spokesman for the Afghan army corps in eastern Afghanistan. He said the troops returned fire and took up fighting positions.
He said the two Americans were killed when an Afghan soldier fell and accidentally discharged his weapon.
"He didn't do this intentionally. But then the commander of the (Afghan) unit started shouting at him, 'What did you do? You killed two NATO soldiers!' And so he threw down his weapon and started to run," Hatefi said.
The U.S. troops had already called in air support to help with the insurgent attack and the aircraft fired on the escaping soldier from above, killing him, Hatefi said.
NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Hagen Messer of Germany confirmed that two international soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier in Laghman province, but would not comment on whether the killing was intentional or accidental.
In Washington, a U.S. Defense Department official said the Afghan soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Americans and that this seemed to indicate that it was an intentional act. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation is under way, said he was unaware of any indications that the shooting was accidental.
Insider attacks have been a problem for the U.S.-led military coalition for years, but it has recently become a crisis. There have been at least 33 such attacks so far this year, killing 42 coalition members, mostly Americans. Last year, there were 21 attacks, killing 35; and in 2010, there were 11 attacks with 20 deaths.
The chief spokesman for NATO forces in the country said coalition forces were not pulling back from collaborating with the Afghans because of the attacks.
"We are not going to reduce the close relationship with our Afghan partners," Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz told reporters in the capital.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that he could not confirm any link between the attacker in Monday's shooting and the insurgency. In previous insider attacks, the Taliban have quickly claimed responsibility and identified the assailants.
Helmand officials also reported that 10 Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack on a checkpoint in the south, and five were either kidnapped or joined their assailants. Daoud Ahmadi, the provincial spokesman, said insurgents attacked the checkpoint in Washir district Sunday evening. Four soldiers were wounded he said. The Afghan Defense Ministry said the checkpoint was attacked by more than 100 insurgents.
Daoud Ahmadi said the five missing soldiers left with the insurgents but it was unclear if they were kidnapped or went voluntarily.
In Ghor province in the east, officials said three students were killed in what looked like a revenge killing by the family of a Taliban commander who died recently in an explosion. Provincial Police Chief Gen. Dilawer Shah Dilawer said it appears the commander's family believed the students or their family members were somehow involved in setting the explosive. He stressed, however, that the investigation was continuing.
___
Khan reported from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
U.S. troops punished over Koran burning, urination video
By Phil Stewart and David Alexander | Reuters – 19 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it was disciplining U.S. troops over two incidents that provoked outrage in Afghanistan early this year, one involving a video depicting Marinesurinating on corpses and another over burned copies of the Koran.
The military said the punishments were administrative, which could include actions such as a reprimand, reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay. Neither incident so far has resulted in criminal charges, however, something that may fail to satisfy Afghan demands for justice.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai branded the Marine's actions in the video as "inhuman," and he initially called for a public trial for the soldiers over the Koran incident.
The Marine Corps announced three Marines had pleaded guilty to charges over the video, including one for "urinating on the body of a deceased Taliban soldier."
Another wrongfully posed for a photo with human casualties and the third lied about the incident to investigators.
The identities of the Marines were not disclosed and disciplinary actions against other Marines would be announced at a later date, the Marine Corps said.
The video, which became public in January after the images were posted on the Internet, actually took place on or around July 27, 2011, during a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province, the Marines said, describing findings of the investigation.
One of the four Marines shown in the video can be heard saying, "Have a nice day, buddy," while another makes a lewd joke, as they urinated on three corpses.
Also on Monday, the Army announced that six soldiers received administrative punishments over an incident in which copies of the Koran and other religious material were removed from a prison library and sent to an incinerator to be destroyed. Four of the individuals involved were officers and two of them were non-commissioned officers, a spokesman said.
The incident in February touched off several days of rioting and attacks on U.S. troops after local workers found charred copies of the Koran among the trash at the incinerator at the Bagram base north of Kabul.
U.S. officials at the time said some of the religious material had been removed from the prison library at Bagram because of concern that it was extremist in nature and was being used to pass messages among prisoners.
At least 30 people died in the violence that spread across the country after the incident. Shortly after, two American officers were shot dead in a secure area of the Afghan interior ministry, a crime that remains unsolved.
Reaction to the incident prompted President Barack Obama to write to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to apologize.
An investigation into the Koran burning concluded in June with recommendations that the troops involved receive administrative punishment, a U.S. official said at the time. Details of that investigation were also expected to be released later on Monday.
(Editing by Jackie Frank)
Obama 'deeply concerned' about Afghan …
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