(New York Times) Three Afghan Cities, and a Town in Germany

Tuesday was a very bad day in three cities in Afghanistan—Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazar-i-Sharif—with attacks on the country’s Shiite minority that killed dozens of people. Sixty-three died in Kabul alone, at what was meant to be a ceremony to mark the holiday of Ashura. A Times report on the violence noted that a Pakistani group had said that the bombing was its work, adding:...Continue Reading...

(Time Magazine) Bombs Explode in Afghanistan, While Seats Go Empty in Bonn

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with some 100 high-level Afghan and International delegations, met in Bonn for a conference on Afghanistan’s future on Dec. 5, the star-studded (at least in the foreign policy firmament) gathering was made more remarkable for who didn’t show up: Pakistan’s foreign minister and a representative from the Taliban. Considering that those two elements hold the keys to Afghanistan’s long term stability, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Bonn II, held exactly 10 years after the first international conference on the country’s future, would be more fizzle than pop. Early U.S. hopes that Bonn II would unveil a political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban were scotched in September when the insurgent group demonstrated its intentions with a turban bomb that killed a top peace negotiator. And Pakistan pulled out in a huff last week after NATO forces mistakenly killed 24 soldiers in a cross-border conflagration in November.....Continue Reading....

Karzai says Kabul attack was plotted in Pakistan

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday that the suicide bombing that targeted Shiite Muslim worshipers in Kabul and killed dozens of people was plotted in Pakistan.
Speaking at a hospital where victims of Tuesday’s attack outside a shrine in the Afghan capital were being treated, Karzai said he would demand answers from the Pakistani government about the bombing....Continue Reading...

(Bloomberg) Karzai Calls Shrine Bomb ‘Declaration of Enmity’ From Pakistani Terrorists

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the bombing at a Shiite Muslim shrine in Kabul a “declaration of enmity” by a Pakistani extremist group, escalating tensions with the nation’s eastern neighbor.
“The responsibility for this attack hostile to mankind and Islam was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi based in Pakistan,” Karzai said in a e-mailed statement yesterday. “Afghanistan takes this very seriously” and “we will fully follow up with Pakistan.”...Continue Reading...

Terrorists can also bestow favors

The twin terrorist strikes on Tuesday on Shi'ite worshipers in the Afghan capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Shairf, killing 58 people, are an extraordinary event. Even in the darkest days of violence during the past decade, Afghanistan never descended to sectarian violence.....Continue Reading...

Ex-British ambassador criticises 2014 withdrawal as Karzai accuses terrorist group in Pakistan for attack that killed 59

A former British ambassador to Afghanistan today denounced the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of troops from the country as a further bombing in the country claimed the lives of 19 civilians.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, ambassador from 2007 to 2009, said the move was 'worse than questionable, it's disgraceful' if it was not accompanied by a determined peace process...Continue Reading...

(Radio Free Europe) Pakistani Extremist Group In Focus After Unprecedented Attack On Afghan Shi'a

As Afghanistan recovers from a deadly and unprecedented attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Kabul, the finger of blame is pointing directly at a Sunni extremist group with a long history of carrying out such attacks in neighboring Pakistan.....Continue Reading...