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The World

Assault on British ambassador to Yemen

Diplomat escapes

injury in attack by suicide bomber

by Sudarsan Raghavan

nairobi — The British ambassa- dor to Yemen narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber on Monday, an assault that Yemeni officials said had the hallmarks of an attack by al-Qae- da.

A convoy carrying Ambassador

Timothy Torlot was headed to Britain’s embassy in Sanaa, Yem- en’s capital, on Monday morning when the assailant detonated his explosives-laden vest. The assail- ant died, but no one else was killed in the attack. Torlot was not harmed. There was no assertion of re- sponsibility, but the involvement of al-Qaeda would indicate that the group has retained the ability to carry out high-impact assaults on Western targets, despite at- tempts by American and Yemeni counterterrorism officials to ratchet up pressure on extremists in Yemen. U.S. and Yemeni officials have increased their cooperation since al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, al-Qae- da in the Arabian Peninsula, as- serted responsibility for the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit- bound airliner on Christmas Day. According to 26Sep.net, a Web site linked to Yemen’s military and security service, the suicide bomb- er in Monday’s attack was identi- fied as Othman Ali al-Selwi, a 22- year-old student from the south- ern city of Taiz. The British Embassy closed

Monday, and both British and U.S. citizens were urged to remain vigi- lant and keep a low profile. It was unclear whether the British Em- bassy would reopen Tuesday, said Chantel Mortimer, an embassy spokeswoman.

The attack had the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation, Yemeni officials said.

A statement by the Yemeni Em- bassy in Washington suggested that the attack may have been in retaliation for a Yemeni operation that killed two suspected al-Qaeda operatives in the western city of Hodeida on April 18. Since the Christmas Day in- cident, the United States has bol- stered its counterterrorism opera- tions in Yemen. In February, U.S. security-related funding for Yem- en was increased to $150 million, up from $67 million last year; last week, Pentagon officials said they planned to boost U.S. military aid to bolster Yemeni special opera- tions units. The Obama administration has also approved the killing or cap- ture of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the Yem- eni American cleric linked to the Army psychiatrist charged with fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., last year. Aulaqi is be- lieved to be hiding in southeastern Yemen; U.S. and Yemeni officials say he has become a senior figure in al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch. Westerners have been repeated-

ly targeted in Yemen. Seventeen American sailors were killed in al- Qaeda’s 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. In 2008, al-Qaeda militants attacked the U.S. Embassy, killing 16 people, including one Amer- ican. Mortimer, the British Embassy

spokeswoman, said Monday’s as- sault would probably hurt Yem- en’s already struggling economy, the poorest in the Middle East. “The tragedy of this kind of at- tack is the impact on the people of Yemen,” she said. “What happened today will essentially make fewer job opportunities for the many young Yemenis who are looking for work.”

raghavans@washpost.com

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Mexican priest relieved of duties pending investigation of abuse claim

by N.C. Aizenman

Roman Catholic Church offi- cials in Mexico have temporarily relieved a priest of his parish du- ties pending further investigation of long-standing allegations that he sexually abused a girl in San Francisco during the 1960s and early 1970s, according to a press

release issued Monday in Spanish by the Archdiocese of Yucatan. The priest, the Rev. Teodoro Ba- quedano Pech, 70, who has denied engaging in abuse, had been min- istering in several rural hamlets near Yucatan’s state capital, Meri- da.

A recent Washington Post arti-

cle described how for 12 years Ba- quedano’s alleged victim, Sylvia

Chavez, now 54, and top church officials in San Francisco repeat- edly warned church leaders in Yu- catan about the priest. In 2003 a top deputy of Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzarán, the archbishop of Yucatan, responded in a letter that “we have taken all precau- tions to restrict Father Baqueda- no’s access to children.” Baqueda- no was never removed from min-

istry, however. The news release issued Mon-

day said: “Although we received warnings about an alleged victim, we did not have official docu- mentation as a basis to initiate a canon trial . . . nor have we re- ceived any complaint [against Ba- quedano] during his years in Yu- catan. . . . Notwithstanding this, the Archbishop has decided as a

cautionary measure to provision- ally remove Father Baquedano from his duties until a thorough investigation can be done.” Reached at her home in San

Francisco, Chavez said that if Ber- lie is serious about uncovering the truth about Baquedano, he will ask to speak to her. “They need to hear from his victim this time.”

aizenmann@washpost.com

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TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010

A local defense force member, one of nearly two dozen villagers who are part of an armed Afghan-style neighborhood watch group, jumps across an irrigation canal.

Special Forces training Afghans to fight Taliban

forces from A1

into offensive militias, the kind that wreaked havoc on the coun- try in the 1990s and prompted the rise of the Taliban. “This is playing with fire,” an Afghan government official said. “These groups may bring us security today, but what happens tomorrow?” Citing Karzai’s objections, Karl

W. Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassa- dor to Afghanistan, has blocked the release of money needed to broaden the initiative. He also has instructed State Department per- sonnel in the country not to assist the effort until the Afghan govern- ment endorses it. In addition to sharing Karzai’s concerns about what would hap- pen to the local defense forces once U.S. oversight ends, Eiken- berry and other embassy officials worry that the program would weaken the central government in the eyes of the public and compete with efforts to build up the na- tion’s army and police. “At the end of the day, how sus- tainable would a program like this be?” said a State Department offi- cial based in Kabul, who like other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal dis- putes. “It runs counter to the goal of giving the state a monopoly of force.” The military’s interest in local-

defense initiatives is driven in large part by President Obama’s July 2011 deadline to begin with- drawing combat forces, which has increased pressure on command- ers to demonstrate clear progress in their counterinsurgency mis- sion this year. Some military officials have ex- pressed frustration that U.S. diplo- mats in Kabul have not done more to lobby Karzai and other Afghan officials to change their minds. In- terior Minister Hanif Atmar, who had been supportive of the initia- tive earlier in the year, told partici- pants at a U.S.-Afghan planning session this month that he no lon- ger sanctions it, a reversal that military officials attribute to pres- sure from Karzai. Atmar instead wants the United States to expand a different local-defense program, which is under the control of his ministry and has been imple- mented in one province in the east, but U.S. commanders think it will not be as effective as the ap- proach undertaken in Afghani- stan. Instead of waiting for Karzai’s

approval, the Special Forces com- mand has moved forward with pi- lot projects here and in nine other villages, hoping to show that the forces being created are not mili- tias. The command allowed a Washington Post reporter to visit four of the sites this month. “There are signs of real prom-

ise,” said Brig. Gen. Austin S. Mill- er, the top special operations com- mander in Afghanistan.

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the amount of time its members strut around. “They’re a tripwire,” Mann said.

GENE THORP/THE WASHINGTON POST

A senior U.S. military official said Karzai has provided a tacit blessing for a small number of ex- periments so long as the forces that are created are connected in some way to the Afghan govern- ment. The official said the Special Forces aim to build those links. In Washington, a senior admin-

istration official involved in Af- ghanistan policy said the experi- ments have prompted interest — and cautious support — in the White House. “These sorts of bot- tom-up solutions need to be part of the equation,” the official said.

Seeking support

When a detachment from the

1st Special Forces Group arrived here in mid-January, it seemed like a good place to experiment with the Local Defense Initiative. This part of the fertile Arghandab River valley is a key route for in- surgents seeking to infiltrate the city of Kandahar, located less than 20 miles away. The population here is made up largely of ethnic Pashtuns who belong to the Alo- kozai tribe. Their leadership has been generally supportive of the Afghan government. But when the soldiers asked the principal tribal leaders in the area to gather to discuss security mat- ters, they were rebuffed. “The only thing they could agree on was saying to us, ‘We don’t need your help,’ ” the detach- ment commander said. U.S. mili- tary officials requested that mem- bers of the unit, as well as the name of the village, not be identi- fied because of operational securi- ty concerns. The soldiers responded by set- ting out to drink endless cups of tea with the elders. Instead of driving around in large land- mine-resistant vehicles as conven- tional U.S. Army units do, the sol- diers jumped on camouflage- painted dirt bikes and four-wheel all-terrain vehicles equipped with

PHOTOS BY RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN/THE WASHINGTON POST

A local defense force member patrols in the Arghandab district. The United States hopes the groups will help reverse insurgent gains.

a front mount for an M240 ma- chine gun and a rear rack upon which a few AT-4 small rockets can be lashed. Their mode of transportation mirrored that of their Special Forces brethren rid- ing horseback with troops of the Northern Alliance in 2001. The goal was to win support for

a program that was hatched at a Pentagon City sports bar last year by Special Forces Lt. Col. David S. Mann and Seth Jones, a Rand Corp. political scientist who focus- es on Afghanistan. They ques- tioned whether the United States and NATO were missing an oppor- tunity by concentrating so many resources on building up the na- tional police, the army and other formal institutions, arguing that the Afghans should try to re-cre- ate the informal village-level de- fense forces that existed in parts of the country when it was a mon- archy. Mann and Jones’s plan, which senior U.S. commanders en- dorsed, seeks to allay fears that the effort will breed militias: The forces are not paid or given weap- ons, and to minimize the risk of warlordism, they are supposed to be under the authority of a group of tribal elders — not just one per- son.

Within a month, the promise of modest reconstruction projects paid for with the military’s dis- cretionary money managed to sway the locals. Nasarullah, who is the Alokozai leader in the village, agreed to sit down with Moham- med Aman, the leader of the mi-

nority Kakar tribesmen in the area. A few weeks later, the 22- member force was formed, drawn principally from the Alokozai but with the support of the Kakar. The detachment has trained the members in rifle marksmanship, basic first aid and how to conduct a patrol. They also have received lessons on setting up traffic check- points and searching vehicles. Those selected were eager to

participate, but they initially in- sisted on being paid for their work —a line the Special Forces did not want to cross. After extensive ne- gotiations, they compromised: Members of the defense force would receive $10 a day, but they would have to spend part of their time working on reconstruction projects. “They’re pulling security and

laying bricks,” the commander said.

Perceptions of security

The defense force appears more

ragtag than fearsome militia. Al- though the members wear match- ing army-green salwar-kameez and camouflage vests, they have all manner of footwear and head- dress. Their AK-47s are battered, and they show more interest in lolling about their compound than imposing authority on the village.

But that does not seem to trou- ble the soldiers here. The measure of the force’s effectiveness, say members of the detachment, has more to do with perceptions of se- curity among the villagers than

“The fact that they’re guarantee- ing safety is the essence of the pro- gram.” To the soldiers here, the clearest measure of the change that has oc- curred may not be in statistics or comments from residents, but in a one-page handwritten letter, placed in an air-mail envelope and dropped under the gate of the lo- cal defense force compound last week. It was addressed to Toorjan, the commander of one of the two po- lice checkpoints on the main dirt road — the only Afghan govern- ment presence in the area. In Jan- uary, he hit a roadside bomb while driving through the bazaar. He was not seriously injured, but his truck was destroyed. The letter, from a person who said he was a local supporter of the Taliban, was an olive branch of sorts. The writer blamed the bombing, which he said he wit- nessed, on fighters from Pakistan, and he suggested he was open to switching sides. “The local Taliban are our neighbors,” Toorjan said. “Now that the security is better, they have no other choice but to sup- port us.”

Slow progress

Even if the Special Forces get the authority and funding to ex- pand the initiative, replicating what has unfolded here will not be easy. It has taken three months of in-

tense effort by one detachment to turn around — for the moment — just one village. Although there are several dozen detachments in Afghanistan, not all of them could be reassigned to this task. And even if a few dozen villages were flipped, it might not have the hoped-for strategic impact. Among members of the village

defense force here, however, ques- tions of growth are less important than what happens once the flow of U.S. cash ends. Will the group demobilize? Or will it, like so many other armed outfits in Af- ghanistan’s history, morph into something larger and more trou- blesome? Nasarullah, the local elder, in- sists that he does not have the money, or the desire, to sustain the effort himself. Even the mem- bers do not regard their current roles as a permanent occupation. Some said they would like to join the police. Others said they will go back to their farms.

“I am only doing this for my vil-

lage,” said Zahir Jan, who owns a small shop in Kandahar that he has entrusted to his brother while he serves in the defense force. “I am looking forward to the day I can put my gun down. But that day has not arrived.”

chandrasekaranr@washpost.com

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