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U.S. troop deaths in Afghan war up sharply


22 killed in past 5 days; officials cite time of year and increased presence


BY DAVID NAKAMURA


kabul — Twenty-two American troops have been killed in Afghanistan over the past five days, a spike that follows record-high death tolls for U.S. forces in June and July. Five of the troops were slain Tuesday,


including four who were killed by two improvised bombs in the east and one who died in an insurgent attack in the south, according to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The deaths brought the number of


U.S. troops killed in August to 55, according a count by the Associated Press — significantly fewer than the 66 who died last month and 60 in June. Roadside bombs along military routes have been responsible for most of the deaths, as international forces penetrate deeper into areas controlled by Taliban insurgents. Also Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on


a bus inKabul carrying employees of the Afghan Supreme Court, killing three and wounding several others, ISAF officials said. Asked by The Washington Post about


the jump in U.S. deaths in recent days, James Judge, an ISAF spokesman, re- sponded via e-mail: “Historically, Au- gust usually yields somewhat higher numbers as it tends to be the insurgents' last push before the winter months. With elections coming up, the numbers may remain somewhat elevated through September.Additionally, the troop surge has increased troop totals to approxi- mately 147,000. With these additional forces, we are actively pursuing the enemy in areas traditionally held by insurgents.” Judge noted that despite the blood-


shed of the past few days, “overall for August, deaths due to IEDs are well under last year's figures.” In an interview with NATO TV, Gen.


David H. Petraeus said Tuesday that international forces have made some gains but that insurgents still control parts of the country, especially in the south. “I would not say we have reversed the


momentum in all areas by any means,” he said. “In some we have reversed it, in some we have blunted it, in some, perhaps, the Taliban are still trying to expand.” The violence, including a spike in


civilian casualties caused largely by more aggressive action frominsurgents, has prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to challenge the United States to significantly alter its war strategy. In particular, he has pushedU.S. andNATO forces to root out insurgents in their hideouts in Pakistan, limit night raids on the homes of Afghans and remove international troops from everyday in- teractions with civilians, leaving those to Afghan forces. In a statement over the weekend,


Karzai said that “the strategy of the war on terrorismmust be reassessed. . . . The experience over the past eight years showed that fighting [the Taliban] in Afghan villages has been ineffective and is not achieving anything but killing civilians.”


nakamurad@washpost.com


EZ SU


KLMNO THE WORLD


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010


VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES Aboy carts his brother near a destroyed house on the outskirts of Osh in the former Soviet republic ofKyrgyzstan. In Central Asia, a new headache for U.S. policy


KYRGYZ LEADER HOBBLED BY CRISES


Power unraveling in nation critical to war in Afghanistan BY ANDREW HIGGINS


bishkek, kyrgyzstan — Beset by mounting casualties on the battlefield and deepening disquiet at home over the United States’ longest war, President Obama’s Afghan policy nowfaces anoth- er big headache: the unraveling of central authority in Kyrgyzstan, a Cen- tral Asian nation that hosts a U.S. air base critical to the battle against the Taliban. Just amonth after agreeing to extend


for a year a $60million lease on aU.S. air base here, Kyrgyzstan’s generally pro- Western but increasingly impotent pres- ident, Roza Otunbayeva, has retreated fromU.S.-backed security programs that Washington hoped would help fortify a fragile Kyrgyz government. These in- clude a counterterrorism and anti-nar- cotics training center and an interna- tional policemission. The government’s paralysis, most no-


table in its inability to control truculent Kyrgyz nationalists in the south of this former Soviet republic, does not pose any immediate physical threat to the U.S. air base, which is about 20 miles from the capital, Bishkek, in the north. But it does raise the prospect of pro- longed and possibly bloody clashes ahead and strengthens forces inimical toWashington’s interests in the region. What diplomats and local analysts


describe as perilous political drift in Bishkek has been compounded by the approach of parliamentary elections in October, a vote thatwill probably ampli- fy nationalist voices wary of the West and further enfeeble Otunbayeva. Otunbayeva, a former Kyrgyz ambas-


sador to Washington, came to power in April after the country’s second so-


called “revolution” in five years and had been seen by Western capitals as the best hope for a restoration of stable, democratic rule. Instead, the govern- ment she heads has been hobbled by crises, most notably a June explosion of ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern cities of Osh and Jalalabad. The official death toll is nearly 400. Many more are thought to have died. In a severe and humiliating blow to


the president’s authority, the mayor of Osh, a rabble-rousingKyrgyz nationalist hostile to what he sees as foreign interference, defied an order last week that he give up his post. “I am going nowhere,” the mayor, Melis Myrzakma- tov — who was appointed by Otun- bayeva’s ousted predecessor — told supporters at a rally late last month. A minister from Bishkek sent to calm the crowd was roughed up and fled the city. “The president has lost face and also


power,” said one Western official. “This is a catastrophe.” Otunbayeva had earli- er in the week contacted the European Union’s senior diplomat for Central Asia and others to tell them that the mayor would be gonewithin hours, said people familiarwith the conversations. TheU.S. Embassy in Bishkek said it was not informed of the abortive plan to remove themayor. The failure to bring the Oshmayor to


heel has heightened fears that Kyrgyz- stan — a poor mountain nation of 5.3 million that once touted itself as the “Switzerland of Central Asia” — has effectively split in two. It shredded the credibility of a feud-riven and barely functioning government in Bishkek. One of Otunbayeva’s nominal allies, Deputy Prime Minister Azim Beknaz- arov, traveled to Osh and boasted of backing the defiantmayor. “I was one of the people who supported him,” he said. “The damage to the government in


general and the president in particular is incalculable,” said a report on Kyrgyz- stan issued recently by the Brussels- based International Crisis Group. The Osh episode “underlined the govern- ment’s impotence and incompetence.” Russian newspaperKommersantDai-


DIGEST IRAN


Paper escalates attack on French first lady Aninfluential Iranian state-run news-


paper on Tuesday reiterated and expand- ed on derogatory remarks it had made about French first lady Carla Bruni- Sarkozy, prompting Iran’s ForeignMinis- try to warn news media against insulting foreign dignitaries. The Kayhan daily first called Bruni-


Sarkozy “a prostitute” on Saturday. It repeated that remark Tuesday and added that the first lady, a former model and pop star, “deserves to die” because of her “perverted lifestyle” and her public sup- port for an Iranian woman who has been sentenced to death by stoning. The French Foreign Ministry called


the remarks “unacceptable.”RaminMeh- manparast, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, responded by urging the national news media to use restraint and avoid “indecent words.” The repeated allegations by the paper,


which is headed by a representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicate that hard-liners have launchedanoffensive against themount- ing international criticism over the coun- try’s capital punishment policies and family laws, Iranian activists say.


Quintana Roo state Attorney General


Francisco Alor said the cause of the blaze is under investigation. It erupted in the pre-dawn hours at the Castillo del Mar bar in a low-income area far from the city’s tourist zone. Businesses throughoutMexico are of-


ten hit up for protection money by drug cartels, which sometimes set fire to those that refuse to pay.


—Associated Press VENEZUELA


Dead hunger striker hailed as symbol A Venezuelan farmer who died after a


REUTERS


Apoliceman stands outside the bar in Cancun,Mexico, where a fire killed six women and two men Tuesday. Gasoline bombs were reportedly thrown at the bar.


“Iran’s borders are not enough for


them,” said Shahindokht Molaverdi of the IslamicWomen’s Coalition, a group of religious feminists that is lobbying against proposed changes in Iran’s family laws. “They want to promote their ideas of Islam on a global level.” The government wants, among other


things, to allowmento take several wives without the consent of their first spouse. —Thomas Erdbrink


MEXICO


Eight killed in fire at bar in Cancun Sixwomenand twomendied Tuesday


in a fire at a bar frequented by locals in the Mexican resort of Cancun, and bar employees have told police that unidenti- fied men tossed gasoline bombs at the establishment.


hunger strike to protest President Hugo Chavez’s land takeovers was denied his own doctor and has become a symbol for the oppressed, his mourning family said. In a politically sensitive case just


weeks before parliamentary elections, Franklin Brito, 49, died Monday at a Caracas military hospital where he had been taken against his will after demon- strating in a public square.


—Reuters


Activists shutdownoil rig offGreenland: Greenpeace forced a Scottishcompany to stop drilling off western Greenland by having four activists climb ontoanoil rig.


The activists breached a 1,650-feet secu- rity perimeter to get to the StenaDonrig, where police said they would be arrested. Greenland is a Danish territory.


Libya’s Gaddafi makes demand on mi-


grant issue: Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi has ended a visit to Italy marked by controversy over his request that the EuropeanUnionpay Libya $6.35billiona year to help stop illegal migrants from setting off for the continent. A U.N. spokeswoman said that Libya has the right to seek such accords but that there must be guarantees for asylum seekers.


Amazon deforestation reportedly down: Brazil says deforestation in the Amazon is falling and could be the lowest ever whenyearlynumbersare completed.The National Institute for Space Research said satellite imagery shows that nearly 900square miles of forestweredestroyed in the 12 months through July 31, a 48 percent drop from a year earlier.


Riot police arrest scores in Moscow: A day after Russian Prime Minister Vladi- mir Putin suggested that protesters who gather routinely in central Moscow should “have a club on the head,” riot police broke up a crowd of about 2,000 opposition supporters and onlookers. —From news services


Aral Sea


U.S. air base known as Manas Transit Center


KAZAKHSTAN Bishkek


KYRGYZSTAN Osh


TURKMEN. IRAN TAJIK. Kabul AFGHANISTAN PAKISTAN CHINA


partly in deference to Moscow’s con- cerns of a U.S. military presence on former Soviet territory. “It changed its name, but we know


Islamabad


New Delhi


Indian Ocean


INDIA 0


MILES THE WASHINGTON POST


ly reported that an elite paramilitary police unit tried to arrest the Oshmayor but had been repulsed by his body- guards. Government spokesman Farid Niyazov described this as “unrealistic” but added that the mayor is a “problem person” who needs to be removed. TheU.S. base outside Bishkek, operat-


ed by the 376th Air ExpeditionaryWing, plays a central role in Obama’s Afghan surge. It “is critical to all our mission sets” in Afghanistan and is “the crown jewel of Central Asia,” Col. Dwight C. Sones, base commander, said in an interview. Located at Bishkek’s Manas Interna-


tional Airport, the facility is a staging post for U.S. troops entering and exiting Afghanistan. InMay, it handled a record 55,000 transiting troops. The base also acts as a giant gas


station, with a fleet of KC-135 aero-tank- ers that are sent into the sky over Afghanistan. Through in-flight refuel- ing, these tanker planes provide gas for about a third of all U.S. air operations inside Afghanistan. Set up in December 2001, the base


was originally called the Ganci Air Base in honor of Peter J. Ganci, the New York fire chief killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but its name was changed last year to the Manas Transit Center,


300


what is going on,” said Felix Kulov, a Soviet-era security officer and now head of a pro-Russia Kyrgyz party that is expected to do well in the October elections. Kulov, in an interview, said that any decision on whether to end or extend the base’s lease must be taken in concert with the Collective Security TreatyOrganization, a grouping of seven former Soviet republics that is dominat- ed by Moscow. Russia, which also has a military base near Bishkek, has told Kyrgyzstan that it expects the U.S. Air Force to be out next year. A U.S. congressional investigation


into the fuel deliveries to the Bishkek base has added another layer of cloud over this key logistics hub for theAfghan war. A team of investigators from a national security subcommittee visited Bishkek last month to investigate the dealings of two Gibraltar-registered companies, Red Star Enterprises Ltd. and Mina Corp., which have supplied fuel to the base since 2003. Nationalist rhetoric has been rising


steadily in Kyrgyzstan in the run-up to the October election. This is mostly directed at the country’sUzbekminority but often also has an anti-Western edge. Many Kyrgyz see the West as unduly sympathetic to the plight of Uzbeks. There is also anger at what is widely seen as Washington’s past coddling of the ousted authoritarian leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev so as to hang on to itsmilitary base here. The International Crisis Group report


warned that the withering of central authority, particularly in the south — where more than 40 percent of Kyrgyz- stan’s population lives — emboldens organized crime, particularly trafficking in drugs from Afghanistan, and may increase the appeal of militant Islam to minority Uzbeks, who suffered most during the June violence. Many Uzbeks are terrified by the unchecked power of hard-line Kyrgyz nationalists such as Myrzakmatov, the Oshmayor. higginsandrew@washpost.com


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