Clash resumes in contested Afghan, Pakistan border area: officials

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and Pakistan troops exchanged fire on Monday at a contested border area in eastern Afghanistan days after an Afghan border policeman was killed, Afghan officials said.

Two senior officials from Nangarhar province where the clash took place told Reuters that fighting resumed after Pakistani troops attempted to repair a gate damaged in the previous clash.

The clash on Thursday, in the border district of Goshta, drew nationwide condemnation in Afghanistan, and saw protests in the east and in the capital, Kabul.

(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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U.S. identifies four American victims in Afghan crash

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon identified four U.S. victims in Saturday's crash of a surveillance aircraft in southern Afghanistan and said the incident appeared unrelated to Taliban violence.

The police chief in Zabul province, Rogh Lewanai, told Reuters on Saturday that bad weather caused the plane to crash, in the district of Shahjoi. At the time, NATO did not identify the nationality of the victims but said they were part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

The Pentagon said on Sunday the crash of the MC-12 was under investigation.

Zabul, wedged between Kandahar and Ghazni, has seen much violence in recent weeks, including a suicide bomb attack in early April that killed a young U.S. diplomat, several U.S. soldiers and an unnamed U.S. civilian. Dozens of Afghan civilians also have been killed there this month.

The Pentagon said all four victims were airmen: Captain Brandon Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Captain Reid Nishizuka, 30, of Kailua, Hawaii; Staff Sergeant Daniel Fannin, 30, of Morehead, Kentucky; and Staff Sergeant Richard Dickson, 24, of Rancho Cordova, California.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Amie Ferris-Rotman in Kabul; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Analysis: Afghan security vacuum feared along "gateway to Kabul"

By Mirwais Harooni and Michael Georgy

MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Afghan policeman manning a checkpoint glances at the snow-covered mountains that are home to Taliban fighters and predicts what would happen if elite U.S. forces leave Wardak province, seen as the gateway to the capital of Kabul.

"The Taliban will take over in one day," Mohammad Jamil says. "They are nearby."

Ever since President Hamid Karzai announced late last month that U.S. forces would be barred from the strategic province because of alleged abuses against civilians, Afghan forces who will be left to provide security without them have grown more anxious by the day.

Wardak, just a 40-minute drive from Kabul, is a prime example of what could happen in other parts of Afghanistan as the United States winds down an increasingly unpopular war, now in its 12th year.

U.S. special forces are expected to play a major role after most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014, and Karzai's decision could complicate negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan over the scope of U.S. operations after the pull-out.

"It's special forces who go usually on the front lines and fight with Taliban," said a second Afghan policeman, Mir Hussain. "If we make them leave this province than there won't be anybody to fight them. It's obvious that as soon as they leave our province the Taliban will return to power here."

Strategically located astride the Western approach to Kabul, Wardak is ideally placed for the insurgents who control nearby mountain villages to use as a staging ground for suicide operations into the city, home to nearly 5 million people and dozens of diplomatic missions.

Militants already carry out ambushes, shooting attacks and suicide bombings on American and Afghan forces there.

Fears that the departures of U.S. special forces will embolden the insurgents are heightened by the arrival of spring, which traditionally marks the start of Afghanistan's "fighting season" as the snow melts.

Earlier this week, two U.S. soldiers, reported to be special forces, were killed in an attack in the province.

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

Karzai ordered U.S. special forces to leave after residents complained that they, and Afghans working with them, were torturing and killing civilians, an allegation strongly denied by the Americans.

Even after the deadline for U.S. special forces to withdraw passed on Sunday, General Abdul Razaq, a senior police detective, told Reuters they were still in Wardak, a collection of mostly apple and apricot farms surrounded by mountains.

U.S. forces have refused to comment on their deployment.

Razaq said local officials had urged the Interior Ministry to provide strong support if the American forces leave, including artillery and reinforcements.

Some residents speak with hatred about the elite U.S. forces and believe allegations that they committed atrocities.

"Every day they kill our innocent people," said Abdul Ghafoor, 54, without offering any evidence to back the accusations, as his companions nodded in agreement.

But others seem far more worried about the security vacuum the province may face. Many remember how Wardak was the launching pad for the Taliban when they took over Kabul and much of the country in 1996.

They don't have to look far. Collapsed buildings, including one that served as a coordination center for security forces, are a potent reminder of the devastation wreaked by Taliban suicide bombings.

"A small number of people from Wardak province had complained to President Karzai about special forces but now they also know that their decision wasn't right," said Hameeda Akbari, a member of parliament from Wardak.

"They want to find a way to solve the problem and keep special forces for some more time. If special forces leave Wardak, the security situation will get worse."

KABUL RISK HEIGHTENS

Some fear the dangers could reach far beyond the provincial capital of Maidan Shahr, where Afghan policemen speed past a children's playground called Peace Park in jeeps mounted with machine guns.

"As soon as these forces leave this province not only Wardak, but even some parts of Kabul, will be occupied by Taliban and Kabul security will be in danger," said Haji Rokai, a tribal elder. "So I hope that the government takes a better decision and keep these forces here for longer period."

Afghan Army Chief of Staff Sher Mohammad Karimi recently told Reuters most of the suicide attacks in Kabul were planned just 25 km (15 miles) away in Wardak.

"It is one of our biggest concerns," he said.

Jittery Afghan forces have set up a multitude of checkpoints along Maidan Shahr's two paved roads. Intelligence agents, police and soldiers stop and question motorists travelling on potholed, dusty streets.

"We got a tip-off that the Taliban were sending a suicide bomber here today to carry out a mission," said an Afghan intelligence agent who checked vehicles.

LIVING IN FEAR

It is not only the Taliban who are waiting to attack. The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, believed to be the United States' deadliest foe in Afghanistan, and other insurgent groups like Hizb-i-Islami, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, are also active.

In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, a truck bomb in Wardak wounded 77 American soldiers. A month earlier, the Taliban shot down a transport helicopter in Wardak, killing all 38 people on board, including 25 U.S. special forces.

The Taliban haven't lost their edge despite the presence of U.S. special forces and their intimidating Afghan partners, who ride off-road motorbikes and cover their faces with balaclavas and dark sunglasses.

Afghan security forces, already at a disadvantage because they lack training and equipment, could become less effective if the Americans leave.

"We have five PK light machine guns in our whole district, but the Taliban has more than five in a small checkpoint. So how can we fight with them or protect our people from their atrocities?" asked the policeman Jamil.

He recalls the consequences of a U.S. withdrawal from a nearby district, Sayedabad. "The Taliban captured that valley. Now it's a training camp for them where they learn how to attack Afghan and foreign forces."

Provincial officials are not taking any chances. Many of them refuse to spend the night in Wardak for fear of attacks by militants.

"It is a 15-minute drive from my office to my house but I cannot go there," said Esmatullah Asem, head of Maidan Shahr Hospital. "The last time I went home was two years ago. I live in Kabul."

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Alex Richardson)

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As Afghan trip goes badly off script, Hagel opts for caution

By Phil Stewart

KABUL (Reuters) - It was a harrowing international debut for Chuck Hagel, whose first trip to Afghanistan as U.S. defense secretary went dramatically off-script and challenged the American narrative about the 11-year-old war.

His first full day in Afghanistan began with the sound of suicide bomb attack about a kilometer away from his morning meetings at a NATO facility. But the real damage came the next day when Washington's mercurial ally in the war, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban hours before the two met.

Put in an awkward position, Hagel appeared cautious and at pains to avoid sharply criticizing the Afghan leader, even as he firmly disputed Karzai's assertions. Having weathered a brutal confirmation battle last month, the former two-term Republican senator at one point even appeared to commiserate with Karzai.

"I was once a politician," Hagel, 66, told reporters traveling with him. "So I can understand the kind of pressures - especially leaders of countries - are always under."

Hagel's more measured approach was on display as well on Saturday, when he was asked about his initial reaction to the sound of the blast from a suicide bombing at Afghanistan's nearby defense ministry, which killed nine civilians.

"We're in a war zone. I've been in war ... So (we) shouldn't be surprised when a bomb goes off or there's an explosion," he said.

There are good reasons for Hagel to be cautious. A perceived gaffe or damaging misstep after such an acrimonious confirmation process could have given Republican critics more ammunition after they questioned his war judgment. It could also complicate his efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

But the Taliban bombings and Karzai's accusations were a jarring contrast to Hagel's optimistic, if tempered, comments about the war effort, which he said was "on the right path."

"You look over the past 11 years, it's pretty dramatic, what's happened in this country," Hagel told reporters on Sunday. "Yes, a ways to go. Yes, challenges. Yes, issues. Yes, differences. But I don't think any of these are challenges that we can't work our way through."

The trip failed to answer the big questions about Hagel's thinking so far about America's evolving exit strategy from the unpopular conflict, including an upcoming decision on the size of the residual force the United States will leave behind in Afghanistan once the NATO mission ends in 2014.

SECURITY AGREEMENT

A senior U.S. defense official said Hagel was looking forward to working with other senior policy makers in Washington to "deepen our engagement with Afghan leaders, some of whom clearly have issues they want resolved." Hagel's priority, the official said, would be striking a security agreement with Afghanistan.

But it was concerns over security that forced Hagel and Karzai to cancel a joint news conference, U.S. officials said. The venue for Hagel's meeting with the Afghan defense and interior ministers was also changed.

America's first Vietnam war veteran to become defense secretary, Hagel appeared most at ease when talking to troops during a stop at a base in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

He cracked jokes and pinned Purple Heart medals on two soldiers wounded in battle. Hagel has two of the medals himself and still carries bits of shrapnel in his chest from that conflict.

Hagel, a former infantryman, joked to an Army staff sergeant that there was a time when "I was scared to death of a staff sergeant." The soldier responded: "You should be, sir." Hagel laughed.

During his trip back to the United States on Monday, Hagel stopped off in Ramstein, Germany, where he had planned to visit with wounded troops and see an Air Force general. There were no U.S. service members being treated for combat injuries at the time.

But as he landed news broke about an insider attack in Afghanistan when a person in an Afghan military uniform turned his weapon on troops at a joint base in the restive east of the country, killing two U.S. soldiers, and five Afghan army and police personnel.

Throughout his trip, Hagel assured troops he would do whatever he could to help them, even in the face of across-the-board budget cuts hitting the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies.

"I want you to also know that I will always do my best for you, for your families, our country," Hagel told the soldiers in Jalalabad. "I will always put our men and women in uniform first and do everything I can to ensure your safety or success and everything that you're entitled to."

(Editing By Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)

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NATO to consider maintaining larger Afghan force

BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior NATO officials say the alliance is strongly considering a proposal to continue funding an Afghan security force of 352,000 troops through 2018, as part of an effort to maintain security and help convince Afghanistan that America and its allies will not abandon it once combat troops leave in 2014.

Last May, NATO agreed to underwrite an Afghan force of about 230,000, at a cost of about $4.1 billion a year. It's not clear how much the larger force will cost.

A senior NATO official said the international partners must help to build the confidence of Afghan forces and make it clear that NATO is committed to an enduring relationship with Afghanistan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.

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