United Nations Confirms May As Deadliest Month For Most Civilian Deaths In Afghanistan Since 2007

The UN’s latest report on Afghanistan reads that May has been the deadliest month for civilians since 2007, when the organization improvised a commission to record civilian casualties around the country.

The UN officials were saddened on the announcement that more than 368 people have died so far in different conflicts over the past month. "More civilians were killed in May than in any other month since 2007 when Unama began documenting civilian casualties," said Georgette Gagnon, Unama's director of human rights. "We are very concerned that civilian suffering will increase even more over the summer fighting season which historically brings the highest numbers of civilian casualties," she said.

"Parties to the conflict must increase their efforts to protect civilians now."

The report also impresses that the anti-government and anti-US sentiments have also risen after the increase in the casualties since the start of 2011. The civilians have started protesting vehemently against the severe bombing by NATO and its allies on their soil. The civilians are of the view that in a single raid carried by the NATO forces, more than 75% people who die are civilians.

“Bomb blasts caused by improvised explosive devices were the leading killer of civilians in May, with 119 killed and 274 wounded in such attacks,” the UN agency said.

However, the reports also confirmed that insurgents and other anti-government forces were responsible for 301 civilian casualties in May. 15 people, including eight children and four women, were killed when a bomb blast hit their vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar.

In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber struck outside a police base, killing two policemen, including a commander, and a civilian, a police official said. 12 people got gravely injured in the attack.

According to the UN, the number of civilian casualties will increase in the near future, as the number of troops fighting in Afghanistan have been increased by the White House and NATO. With more troops entering the Afghan premises, the fighting arena will increase.

The NATO officials also reiterated that they will not be leaving Afghanistan as long as the security situation in the country is completely under control. This, according to experts, confirms the presence of US and NATO forces for a long haul.

Google reveals Gmail hacking, says likely from China

SAN FRANCISCO: Suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including those of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said.

The perpetrators appeared to originate from Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, Google said. Jinan is home to one of six technical reconnaissance bureaus belonging to the People's Liberation Army and a technical college that U.S. investigators last year linked to a previous attack on Google.

Washington said it was investigating Google's claims while the FBI said it was working with Google following the attacks -- the latest computer-based invasions directed at multinational companies that have raised global alarm about Internet security.

The hackers recently tried to crack and monitor email accounts by stealing passwords, but Google detected and "disrupted" their campaign, the world's largest Web search company said on its official blog.

The revelation comes more than a year after Google disclosed a cyberattack on its systems that it said it traced to China, and could further strain an already tense relationship between the Web giant and Beijing.

Google partially pulled out of China, the world's largest Internet market by users, last year after a tussle with the government over censorship and a serious hacking episode.

"We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google said, referring to the practice where computer users are tricked into giving up sensitive information.

"The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails."

It "affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists."

Google did not say the Chinese government was behind the attacks or say what might have motivated them.

But cyberattacks originating in China have become common in recent years, said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at telecommunications company BT.

"It's not just the Chinese government. It's independent actors within China who are working with the tacit approval of the government," he said.

The United States has warned that a cyberattack -- presumably if it is devastating enough -- could result in real-world military retaliation, although analysts say it could be difficult to detect its origin with full accuracy.

Lockheed Martin Corp, the U.S. government's top information technology provider, said last week it had thwarted "a significant and tenacious attack" on its information systems network, though the company and government officials have not yet said where they think the attack originated.

"We have no reason to believe that any official U.S. government email accounts were accessed," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.

A spokesman at South Korea's presidential office said the Blue House had not been affected, but added they did not use Gmail. South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance said it had warned all staff "not to use, send or receive any official information through private emails such as Gmail." (Reuters)

Indian army hampering Siachen solution: WikiLeaks

KARACHI: The Indian army, and not just the civilian government, has played a role in the ongoing deadlock with Pakistan over the Siachen dispute, according to American and Indian assessments contained in confidential US diplomatic cables.

On Siachen, Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) T. C. A. Raghavan, who has also served as the Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan, reported that the Indian army has drawn a line with its political leadership. It has told the government of India that withdrawal was tantamount to ceding the area to Pakistan due to the difficulty of retaking it should Pakistan occupy it,” wrote the New Delhi embassy in September 2008.

While talks held on Siachen this week between the two countries’ defence secretaries may have been inconclusive for a variety of reasons, cables reveal that the Indian army has historically had a role to play.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is described as having to fight intense domestic pressure, and not just from political hardliners. “Were any deal to crystallise, PM Singh would need buy-in from the army and the BJP to avoid handing himself a political firestorm,” noted a 2006 cable in anticipation of talks on Siachen scheduled for May that year.

The cable also noted that Gen Singh’s position on the issue “is reflected in the Foreign Ministry as well”: India would not make a deal on demilitarisation without Pakistan signing a map laying out Indian and Pakistani troop positions before withdrawal. The primary purpose of this would be to justify action if Pakistan reneged on the withdrawal agreement.

Any deal, the cable implied, could only come after a go-ahead from the army: “The most telling signpost indicating the GOI is preparing the country for [a deal] would be Gen Singh publicly adopting a neutral (or supportive) position on a Siachen deal to signal in advance that the Army is on board, and that the GOI no longer needs to point to Army concerns to explain why a deal is not possible.” This pressure is seen as holding back Prime Minister Singh, who is described as being in favour of a deal — former National Security Adviser M. K. Narayan tells American officials in May 2005 that “the PM had instructed all his subordinates that ‘we need to accept Musharraf’s bona fides, even on Siachen’ … With this guidance in mind, the Ministry of Defence has been instructed ‘to take as flexible a position as possible’”.

A comment written in November 2006 sums up the American view of the matter. “India has repeatedly come ‘very close’ to an agreement on the Siachen issue in 1989, and again (less so) in 1993.

“Each time the prime minister of the day was forced to back out by India’s defence establishment, the Congress Party hardline, and opposition leaders. The Indian army is resistant to giving up this territory under any condition for a variety of reasons — strategic advantage over China, internal army corruption, distrust of Pakistan, and a desire to keep hold of advantageous territory that thousands of Indian soldiers have died protecting.”

According to at least one Pakistani government official, Prime Minister Singh had admitted to this pressure in talks with Gen Musharraf.

Aid talks in US could affect ties: Haqqani

WASHINGTON: Pakistani Ambassador to Washington Hussain Haqqani has said that talks of ending Pakistan's aid could affect ties between Pakistan and United States.

While addressing from Centre for Global Development in Washington Haqqani said that Pakistan and America were each other's strategic partners, adding that it is necessary that Pakistan's political issues would be kept alone from its aid because both the countries are committed to eliminate terrorism collectively.

He said the US should help Pakistan in trade instead of aid. Job opportunities in ally countries would help reducing terrorism from Pakistan, he added.

Pak-US forming joint intelligence team: report

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and US are building a joint intelligence team to go after top terrorist suspects inside Pakistan, US and Pakistani officials said, a fledgling step to restoring trust blown on both sides by the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces during a secret raid last month.

The move comes after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the Pakistanis with the US list of most-wanted terrorism targets, US and Pakistani officials said Wednesday.

The investigative team will be made up mainly of intelligence officers from both nations, according to two US and one Pakistani official. It would draw in part on any intelligence emerging from the CIA's analysis of computer and written files gathered by the Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, as well as Pakistani intelligence gleaned from interrogations of those who frequented or lived near the bin Laden compound, the officials said.

The formation of the team marks a return to the counterterrorism cooperation that has led to major takedowns of al-Qaida militants, like the joint arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2003. All those interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

The joint intelligence team will go after five top targets, including al Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, and al-Qaida operations chief Atiya Abdel Rahman, as well as Taliban leader like Mullah Omar, all of whom US intelligence officials believe are hiding in Pakistan, one US official said.

Another target is Siraj Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani tribe in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Allied with the Taliban and al Qaida, the Haqqanis are behind some of the deadliest attacks against US troops and Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.