Belgian military income Kabul airport

The Defence Minister Pieter De Crem, welcomed Wednesday morning at the military airport of Melsbroek the last Belgian military in charge of airport security in Kabul, Afghanistan.

This monitoring mission, carried out by a Belgian contingent since 2003, ended on September 30 with the transfer of responsibility for the protection of the Kabul International Airport (KAIA), a multinational contingent commanded by Hungary.

Role

In total, 7,804 Belgian soldiers were assigned to this task nearly ten years, with a peak close to thousand people present in 2008 when Belgium was responsible for the command of the airport. The soldiers were taken every four months.

The bulk of the security forces had already returned to Belgium. Wednesday aboard the A330 that landed at Melsbroek, 54 soldiers were directly involved in the protection of the Kabul airport.

"KAIA has played a key role in rebuilding the country and the Belgians have contributed to improving the lives of people," he said Pieter De Crem.

Soldiers still on the ground

Belgians, however, remain in Afghanistan. Some 350 soldiers are still on the ground, about fifty in Kabul within staffs of Isaf, the international armed force in NATO, as well as schools in the Afghan National Army (ANA).

The Belgians also remain - in principle until 2014, the year of departure of foreign forces - in Kunduz and Mazar-I-Sharif (north) and Kandahar (south), respectively, for the training of ANA units and conduct flight operations in favor of Allied ground troops.

Lithuanian Defence Minister, NATO and ISAF Authorities Discuss Lithuania’s Plans for Troop Withdrawal

Lithuania Minister of National Defence Rasa Jukneviciene started her visit in Afghanistan on Tuesday by meetings with Adrian J. Bradshaw, Deputy Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Maj. Gen. Jim Ferron, Deputy Commanding General NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan (NTM-A), Afghan Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhilawal, and Ambassador of the European Union in Afghanistan Vygaudas Usackas.

At the meeting with ISAF Deputy Commander tendencies of the development of the security situation in Afghanistan were presented to Minister R. Jukneviciene while Lithuanian Defence Minister informed on Lithuanians plans for military commitment in Afghanistan in 2013. “Lithuania has scheduled to transfer the responsibility for security in Ghor onto local forces fully in the second semester of 2013 and to terminate the activity of Chaghcharan Provincial Reconstruction Team by the end of the following year,” said R. Jukneviciene. She assured that that Lithuania will not withdraw from the military and civilian commitments in Afghanistan till the end of the ISAF operation in 2014.

Lt Gen A. Bradshaw emphasised that the participating countries have to present explicit force withdrawal plans to receive the required support from the International Security Assistance Force.

At the meeting with Deputy Commanding General NTM-A Maj Gen J. Ferron Defence Minister stressed that Lithuania’s interest is to participate with partner countries in the mission. “The message we are sending is clear – we came together and we leave likewise,” Minister said.

She also touched upon the question of transit related to the withdrawal of ISAF military capabilities and equipment from Afghanistan: “We have an adequate experience and a developed infrastructure for conducting transit from Afghanistan. We a prepared to deliver our services to the allies,” R. Jukneviciene said.

Deputy Commanding General NTM-A thanked Lithuanians for their contribution to the training of Afghan helicopter pilots operating Mi-17 and emphasised the great need for such instructors in ISAF. According to him, the mission is successful and the security situation is gradually improving.

Lithuanian Defence Minister requested political back-up of Afghan Minister of Finance in retrieving 2 million 113 thousand Litas frozen at the Development Bank of Afghanistan. In his turn Afghan Minister informed that currently the issue is the prerogative of the Central Bank of Afghanistan but he promised to attend to the fate of the frozen financial assets.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces had bank accounts in the Development Bank of Afghanistan since 2007 for the financial resources for maintaining military units of Lithuania in Afghanistan.

General Inspection of the Ministry of National Defence had opened an official investigation into the activity of several officers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Logistics Command, an investigation was also launched by the Special Investigation Service. The Bank was closed down after the suspicions of illegal activities were declared and its obligations were transferred to the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

Minister also met with EU Ambassador Vygaudas Usackas with whom she discussed security situation in the country and Lithuania’s plans to hand over the responsibility for security to local security forces.

What do you think? what is the reason of increase in attacks of Afghan national army on Nato Isaf

Asian Defence News

Insurgents Posed as U.S. Troops to Strike at NATO Air Base

Insurgent fighters wearing U.S. Army uniforms breached the defenses of the main British-run air base in southern Afghanistan on Friday. Firing guns and rockets and apparently triggering suicide vests, the attackers killed two U.S. Marines and damaged or destroyed several hangars and fueling facilities. Before they were all killed or captured, the insurgents also managed to destroy six U.S. Marine Corps jet fighters and “significantly” damage two others, landing a shocking blow against NATO air power in the region.

The attack on Camp Bastion, in restive Helmand province, came after the Taliban vowed to take revenge for the release by a mysterious U.S. filmmaker of an inflammatory, albeit amateurish, movie mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The insurgent group had also threatened to kill or capture the U.K.’s Prince Harry, who recently deployed to Camp Bastion as an Apache helicopter pilot. The prince “was never in any danger,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force stated.

The assailants’ true motives are impossible to verify. In any event, the attack underscores the Afghan insurgency’s boldness and striking power in the waning years of the U.S.-led NATO intervention.

The assault began “shortly after 10:00 p.m.” when “approximately 15″ insurgents — organized in three teams and wearing American uniforms — “penetrated at one point of the perimeter fence” and “executed a well-coordinated attack against the airfield,” according to ISAF. The Harrier jump jets destroyed or damaged in the assault had been parked out in the open on the flightline, the alliance stated.

The Harriers reportedly belonged to Marine Attack Squadron 211, based in Yuma, Arizona. VMA-211 had shifted its Harrier jump jets to Bastion from nearby Kandahar in July, in order to better support the British troops and Marines operating from Bastion. Harrier squadrons typically deploy with 10 jets, meaning all but two of VMA-211′s planes are now out of action. Despite this, ISAF unconvincingly insisted there would be “no impact to ground or air operations from Camp Bastion.”

Startlingly, the six destroyed Harriers represent no less than 1/15th of the Marines’ entire inventory of the versatile, vertical-landing jets. The F-35B version of the stealthy Joint Strike Fighter is slated to replace the Harrier over the next 15 years.

Nine NATO personnel — eight military and one civilian — were injured in addition to the two Marines who died. One of those killed was from VMA-211, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Base defenders killed 14 of the attackers and captured one. “This information is subject to change as new details become available,” ISAF warned.

The Bastion attack is not the first time insurgents have targeted NATO aircraft. Last month a rocket damaged an Air Force C-17 cargo plane assigned to carry Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on his Afghanistan tour. Two maintainers were injured in that strike. And in 2005 a rocket barrage aimed at Kandahar Air Field destroyed a British Harrier and damaged another.

Nor is Friday’s attack the first perpetrated by insurgents disguised as U.S. troops. In 2010, following a spate of such attacks, the Pentagon ordered the Army to begin treating stocks of uniforms as “sensitive”and remove them from “pilferable” ground resupply convoys moving through Pakistan. “There is evidence that the enemy is using pilfered out-garment uniform items to gain a tactical advantage,” the Pentagon warned.

It’s unclear to what extent that advantage factored into the Bastion attack. In any event, the death and destruction wrought on a heavily-defended NATO base by just 15 determined attackers is a chilling reminder of the insurgency’s enduring potency.

U.S. Suspends Afghan Local Police Training for Further Vetting

In light of a recent rise in insider attacks against coalition forces, U.S. Forces Afghanistan officials have suspended the training of about 1,000 Afghan Local Police recruits, pending re-vetting of current participants in the program.

Officials emphasized that partnered operations with Afghan forces will continue, and that NATO training for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are not affected by the suspension of training for the local police program, in which U.S. forces train recruits, in cooperation with Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry and provincial police chiefs, to provide security in remote communities.

“While we have full trust and confidence in our Afghan partners, we believe this is a necessary step to validate our vetting process and ensure the quality indicative of Afghan Local Police," Army Col. Thomas Collins, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in a written statement.

"Special Operations Forces has a strong and trusted relationship with its Afghan partners that has endured more than a decade,” Collins added. “Despite the recent rise in insider attacks, they are relatively rare among [special operations] partnered forces. Special operations remains fully committed to a close and productive relationship with our Afghan partners.”


Meanwhile, International Security Assistance Force officials announced Saturday that Afghan and Australian troops on a partnered mission in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province had captured a key facilitator who orchestrated an Aug. 29 insider attack that killed three Australian soldiers and wounded two others.

The facilitator also was responsible for the placement of roadside bombs and the kidnapping and murder of Afghan civilians, officials said, adding that the operation was planned and executed in coordination with Afghan officials, including approval by the Uruzgan provincial governor.

Also on Saturday, insurgents using vehicle-borne bombs attacked a base shared by Afghan and coalition forces in the Sayed Abad district of Afghanistan’s Wardak province.

The attack did not breach the base’s perimeter, and there were no follow-on enemy actions, officials said. The explosions caused significant damage to the nearby Sayed Abad district center and killed an undisclosed number of civilians.

"We believe this attack bears the mark of the Haqqani network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violates Afghan sovereignty," said Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, ISAF commander. “I offer my sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in this horrible attack. I condemn these atrocities in the strongest of terms."

ISAF and Australian military Commanders farewell five fallen Australian soldiers on their last journey home from Tarin Kot, Afghanistan to Australia.

Five Australian soldiers Killed in Action this week, are on their way home after being farewelled by their comrades in Tarin Kot, Afghanistan.

The moving ceremony was also attended by senior Australian Defence Force, ISAF and Afghan National Security Force Commanders.

Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate from the 3 RAR Task Group were killed and two of their comrades wounded following an insider attack at Patrol Base Wahab in the Baluchi Valley region of Uruzgan on the evening of 29 August, 2012.

In a separate and unrelated incident Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathanael Galagher from the Special Operations Task Group died when a ISAF helicopter crashed in Helmand Province in the early hours of 30 August, 2012.

At the ceremony, Commanders paid homage and soldiers remembered fallen mates with heartfelt words.

Australian soldiers and their coalition partners lined the route and saluted as a slow moving convoy of five Long Range Patrol Vehicles carried the soldiers to the Royal Australian C-130 Hercules for their final journey home.