Word: afghan
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...past eight years, Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been a phantom presence on the edges of the Afghan insurgency. His Hezb-i-Islami militia - said to number between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters, and which operates independently of the Taliban - has carried out scores of ambushes on coalition forces in the northeastern mountains of Afghanistan and has claimed credit for two attempts on the life of President Hamid Karzai...
...whipping at the hands of the Taliban in Baghlan. The warlord has kept close ties with Pakistan spy agency the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ever since he was the main recipient of the CIA and Saudi aid that was channeled by the ISI to anti-Soviet Afghan rebels in the 1980s. And despite the fact that since 2002, the U.S. has considered Hekmatyar a terrorist, the Hezb-i-Islami chief operates more or less openly inside Pakistan. He maintains houses for his family in Peshawar and Islamabad, and recruits his fighters from Afghan refugee camps near Peshawar...
...Afghan officials suspect that Hekmatyar made his peace overture to Karzai only after getting a nod from the Pakistani military establishment. Pakistani officials are keen to demonstrate to the Obama Administration that reconciliation between Karzai and the insurgents can succeed, but only if Pakistan makes it happen. That may also explain the recent arrests of 14 senior Taliban commanders in Pakistan - according to the U.N. and Afghan officials in Kabul, some of those held by Pakistan had been engaged in secret talks, and were more open to a peace deal than their hard-core brethren inside the movement...
Last November Eikenberry, who leads U.S. diplomatic efforts in the country, penned a cable complaining that Karzai was "not an adequate strategic partner" in part because of the corruption in his government and his decision to "shun responsibility" for Afghan governance and development. Asked if this was the current view of the Obama Administration in a briefing during the flight to Afghanistan, National Security Advisor James Jones did not answer directly, though he said that there had been improvements in the relationship. "He is our partner," Jones said. "We are seeing encouraging signs that things are moving in a positive...
...official on the National Security Council, a number that is expected to peak around 98,000 before withdrawals begin in July of 2011. In two major reviews in 2009, Obama also redefined the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, moving away from the stated Bush Administration goal of building an independent Afghan government to the goals of denying Al Qaeda a save haven and preventing a Taliban overthrow of the fledgling Karzai government...