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THE STANS
Pakistan foreign minister urges unity in terror fight
by Staff Writers
Kabul (AFP) June 15, 2012

British soldier killed in Afghanistan grenade blast
London (AFP) June 14, 2012 - A British soldier has been killed in a grenade attack in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London said Thursday.

The soldier's death brought to 418 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 378 were killed as a result of hostile action.

The soldier, from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was on a patrol aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in the Nahr-e Saraj district in Helmand Province when he was caught in the blast from an enemy grenade.

"Despite receiving immediate medical treatment he was sadly killed in action," the ministry statement said.

The soldier's next of kin have been informed. He is the 24th British soldier to die this year in the Afghanistan campaign.

Britain has around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making it the second-largest contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force after the United States.

They are based in central Helmand, battling Taliban insurgents and training local security forces. Britain intends to pull out all its combat troops by the end of 2014.


Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Thursday accused governments of doing a "terrible job" at working together to tackle militancy in Afghanistan as she called for a more unified approach.

Khar made the remarks on the sidelines of a ministerial conference in Kabul aimed at building greater regional cooperation on Afghanistan and its future beyond the pullout of NATO forces in 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says peace depends on regional cooperation to smash sanctuaries for militant networks waging violence in his country, and in his opening remarks to the conference urged Pakistan to support the peace process.

Pakistan was the Taliban's chief diplomatic backer when the regime was in power in Afghanistan, and is accused by both Kabul and Washington of continuing to play a double game in supporting the insurgency despite its official US alliance.

Khar reiterated Pakistan's stance that it has suffered enormously as a result of terrorism, and said a more united front was needed among international allies.

"We have been making the claim that we need to all work together to ensure that we win against them rather than they win against us," she told reporters.

"At this point in time, if there is a policy of divide and rule they are doing a great job at it and we are doing a terrible job at combining our energy, our forces, our resources to be able to face them as one."

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan last week that the US was running out of patience over Islamabad's refusal to do more to eliminate hiding places for insurgents, who attack US troops fighting the 10-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Khar responded on Thursday by saying she was "glad we are not losing patience with anyone, despite losing 24 soldiers".

She was referring to NATO air strikes on a Pakistani border post in November which killed 24 troops and led to Islamabad closing the ground routes through its territory used to supply coalition forces in Afghanistan.

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French Afghanistan pull-out starts 'within weeks': Hollande
Paris (AFP) June 14, 2012 - French President Francois Hollande said Thursday the withdrawal of the country's troops from Afghanistan would begin within weeks, as he paid tribute to four soldiers killed at the weekend.

"Our combat troops will begin leaving Afghanistan soil in the next few weeks," Hollande said, adding that the withdrawal would take place "in order and security".

Before his election in May, Hollande promised to speed up France's withdrawal from Afghanistan so it would be completed by the end of 2012 -- a year earlier than Paris initially planned and two years before a NATO deadline.

In a ceremony also attended by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, the four soldiers were given a military funeral in the courtyard of the Les Invalides military monument.

The four French soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack by a Taliban suicide bomber in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan and were France's first casualties in Afghanistan since Hollande took office.

A total of 87 French soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the start of NATO-led operations against the Taliban in the country in 2001, including nine since the start of 2012.



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THE STANS
NATO chief vows not to abandon Afghanistan
Sydney (AFP) June 13, 2012
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen Wednesday vowed not to abandon Afghanistan as foreign nations plan to transition forces out of the country after a decade of conflict. "We will not abandon Afghanistan, we will not leave behind a security vacuum," he told a National Press Club lunch in Canberra. NATO plans to withdraw its 130,000 troops by the end of 2014, and Rasmussen said there would a ... read more


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