[mafets]

http://www.janes.com/article/52481/afghanistan-receives-full-complement-of-c-130-airlifters

The Afghan Air Force (AAF) took delivery of its fourth and final Lockheed Martin C-130H Hercules transport aircraft during a ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport (IAP) in Kabul on 20 June.

The arrival of the former US Air Force aircraft from Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas marks the end of deliveries, which began in mid-2013. These aircraft will now be used by the Afghan National Security Forces for internal cargo and troop transportation.

The United States' efforts in reconstituting the AAF's fixed-wing air mobility capability have been somewhat problematic. Originally, the plan was to replace the Soviet-era Antonov An-32 'Cline' transports that dated back to before the Taliban government with refurbished Alenia Aermacchi G222/C-27A airframes. That programme, however, was axed in early 2014 amid much acrimony between the Italian manufacturer and the US Department of Defense (DoD) over the suitability of the twin-engined turboprops to perform the mission in the 'hot and high' conditions of Afghanistan.

While the DoD said that the aircraft were not up to the task, Alenia maintained that the issue was with poor on-site support facilities and a lack of literacy among the AAF pilots and maintainers that were beyond its control. Either way, more than USD600 million had been spent on the project before it was cancelled with 16 G222/C-27A aircraft being abandoned at Hamid Karzai IAP.

The announcement that Afghanistan was to get the four-engined C-130 instead was meant to herald a fresh new start for the effort to equip the AAF with a fixed-wing air mobility capability. However, in July 2014 the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction recommended that deliveries be halted at two aircraft, as these were being underutilised and there were unresolved problems with support and training. Concerns regarding the financial and technological challenge of maintaining the C-130s have also prompted the Afghan government to request India covers the cost of upgrades to six of its ageing An-32 transport aircraft in Ukraine.

The arrival of the fourth and final C-130 into Hamid Karzai IAP would appear to suggest that such concerns have now been addressed. Even so, NATO sources have suggested that because of the C-130's size and complexity it could take nearly three years before Afghan pilots and crew are ready to operate the aircraft without support from international advisors.

Se for como os C27... :roll:


Cumprimentos

[mafets]

http://www.aereo.jor.br/2015/06/26/forca-aerea-do-afeganistao-luta-para-sobreviver-sem-a-otan/

Seis meses depois que a Otan finalizou sua missão de combate no Afeganistão, a força aérea do país asiático tenta alçar voo sozinha, lutando contra os talibãs e a escassez de recursos e pessoal com um punhado de aeronaves.

Quando as tropas internacionais chegaram ao Afeganistão há 13 anos, a frota aérea do país asiático estava já estava sucateada, após perder quase todas as 580 aeronaves que tinha no início dos anos 80 e durante a guerra civil (1992-1996) que precedeu o governo talibã.

“Naqueles tempos nem sequer os países da região, entre eles Irã e Paquistão, tinham aeronaves tão avançadas”, declarou à Agência Efe o ex-comandante da forças aérea e analista político, Atiqullah Amarkhil.

Meses depois do final da missão de combate da Otan, com a Aliança Atlântica restrita a tarefas de capacitação e assessoria, e os cerca de 10.000 soldados americanos vislumbrando sua saída, as forças de segurança afegãs sobrevivem com uma frota de apenas uma centena de aviões e helicópteros.

Deles, apenas 33 são de combate, razão pela qual inclusive começaram a armar aeronaves de transporte para proporcionar apoio aéreo a seus 350.000 homens.

“Montamos receptáculos para armas em helicópteros de transporte e os utilizamos ao mesmo tempo para atacar os milicianos e para transporte devido à falta de aviões de combate”, explicou à Efe o porta-voz do Ministério da Defesa afegão, Dawlat Waziri.

Apesar de sua frota de combate atual ser muito superior às cinco aeronaves que tinha em 2014, o Afeganistão ainda precisa de caças e bombardeiros para compensar a ausência dos mais de 150.000 soldados da Otan que chegaram a estar em território afegão, advertiu Waziri.

“Agora toda a responsabilidade recai sobre nossos ombros e temos que fazer melhorias em nossa força aérea de qualquer forma possível”, disse Waziri sobre a modificação de vários helicópteros russos de transporte Mil Mi-17 para acrescentar receptáculos para armas e mísseis.

Uma solução arriscada, segundo Amarkhil, que lembra que isso não evita que possam ser derrubados com um único tiro de um fuzil de assalto AK-47, a arma individual mais produzida do mundo e a mais comum entre os talibãs.

O ex-comandante militar se mostrou convencido de que as tropas afegãs “poderiam vencer os insurgentes muito facilmente” com apoio aéreo e ressaltou a importância de uma aviação para um país com uma “situação geopolítica montanhosa”.

Muitos lugares do Afeganistão são acessíveis apenas por ar devido à acidentada orografia e ao bloqueio das estradas por parte dos talibãs, que desde o começo de sua tradicional ofensiva de primavera, em 24 de abril, tomaram o controle de várias áreas do nordeste do país.

O distrito de Yamgan, na província nordeste de Badakhshan e atacado no dia 6 de junho por centenas de insurgentes, é um desses lugares remotos.

“Não pudemos enviar tropas adicionais nas primeiras cinco horas porque não tínhamos helicópteros e o distrito acabou sendo dominado pelos talibãs”, lamentou à Efe o governador provincial, Shah Waliullah Adeeb.

Uma semana depois, os insurgentes atacaram uma delegacia de Helmand e, após horas de confrontos, mataram 18 policiais, algo que poderia ser evitado com apoio aéreo, segundo assegurou à Efe o porta-voz do Conselho Provincial, Attaullah Afghan.

À escassez de material militar se soma a falta de pessoal qualificado.

O comandante Mohammad Dawran reconheceu na semana passada a jornalistas que “a força aérea não melhorou no mesmo nível que as forças de infantaria do exército” e que é preciso “tempo para treinar o pessoal suficiente”, já que a tecnologia atual “não é tão simples como a de quatro décadas atrás”.

Uma fonte da missão da Otan no país, que em dezembro passou a substituir sua operação de combate deixando 4.000 soldados em tarefas de assistência e capacitação, considera que a aeronáutica afegã está mais preparada que meses atrás.

“A força aérea afegã melhorou consideravelmente no último ano”, disse, destacando que na atualidade se encarregam sozinhos de planejar e executar operações como evacuações de vítimas, supervisão armada ou transporte de soldados.

Cumprimentos

[mafets]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/06/30/attack-on-nato-convoy-in-afghanistan-kills-2.html?ESRC=todayinmil.sm

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A Taliban suicide attack targeting a NATO convoy in Afghanistan has killed two people and wounded 26, including two U.S. soldiers.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi confirmed the number of casualties from Tuesday's attack in the capital, Kabul, updating an earlier toll.
A suicide bomber plowed an explosives-laden vehicle into the convoy, badly damaging two armored vehicles, sending a black plume of smoke into the sky and scattering glass and metal across the main highway leading to the airport.
A spokeswoman for NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Capt. Susan Harrington, said two American soldiers sustained minor injuries in the attack.

Saudações

[olisipo]

Afeganistão: dezenas de mortos e feridos em sucessivos ataques terroristas

http://pt.euronews.com/2015/07/14/afega ... rroristas/

[olisipo]

[olisipo]

UE "friendly fire" kills 10 Afghan troops

[Crypter]

UE "friendly fire" kills 10 Afghan troops

US não UE!

[olisipo]

UE "friendly fire" kills 10 Afghan troops

US não UE!

Oooops!!!

[Lusitano89]

[olisipo]

(Al Jazeera in English footage. Report by Neave Barker)

What does death of Mullah Omar mean for Taliban and Afghanistan?

[olisipo]

 

 How Death of Taliban's Mullah Omar Could Boost ISIS in Afghanistan

 http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/07/2 ... ghanistan/
 

(...) Asuming Mullah Omar has died, the implications are immense. He was not just the leader of a militant organisation. He has been a deeply influential figure well beyond the Taliban.

 Even Osama Bin Laden, who was Mullah Omar's guest in pre-9/11 Afganistán, reportedly expressed allegiance to Mullah Omar. (...)

Islamic State could be the big winner from Mullah Omar's death,  confirmation of which could provide ISIS with its biggest recruitment tool in Afghanistan.

 Numerous Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, unhappy about their leader's long absence, had already started affirming allegiance to Islamic State. (...)

A more immediate implication is the potential blow Mullah Omar's death could  deal to Afghanistan's fledgling peace process. (...)

A vacancy at the top could provide an opening for Taliban hard-liners to seek to scale back the group'srole in negotiations. (...)

[olisipo]

Picture purported to be of the new Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour

Taliban choose deputy Mansour as successor of Mullah Omar

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33721074
 

The Taliban have appointed a successor to Mullah Omar, who led the movement for some 20 years.
 
The death of Mullah Omar - reported by the Afghan government on Wednesday- was confirmed by the Taliban on Thursday, the BBC has been told.

 His deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, will replace him, sources close to the Taliban leadership said.  Correspondents say the move is likely to divide the militants and that many senior figures opposed the appointment.

 A Taliban statement did not say where, when or how Mullah Omar died, only that it was from a illness and that he had remained in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion.

 This conflicts with the account given by Afghanistan, which said Mullah Omar died in hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi two years ago. Pakistan has always denied that he was in the country.  (...)

 Mullah Mansour is pro-talks. He is to be given the title of Supreme Leader -not Leader of the Faithful, the title that Mullah Omar had. (...)  

Mansour becomes only the second person to lead the Taliban,after Mullah Omar, who founded the group during Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s (...)

[olisipo]

Conversas  de paz do Talibã com o governo de  Kabul  são adiadas  

http://br.reuters.com/article/worldNews ... 1Q20150730

(...) O Pakistão anunciou que  as  conversas de  paz agendadas entre os insurgentes e o governo afegão serão adiadas. (...)

O Pakistão mencionou um comunicado  emitido em Cabul sobre a morte de Omar como  a razão para o adiamento das negociaćões, devido aos temores de que o ocurrido pudesse desencadear uma luta sucessória potencialmente sangrenta. (...)

[olisipo]

 

Exclusive: Walkout at Taliban leadership meeting raises specter of split

http://reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0Q51G ... 1?irpc=932
 

At the Taliban meeting this week where Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was named as the Islamist militant group's new leader, several senior figures in the movement, including the son and brother of late leader Mullah Omar, walked out in protest.  

The display of dissent within the group's secretive core is the clearest sign yet of the challenge Mansour faces in uniting a group already split over whether to pursue peace talks with the Afghan government and facing a new, external threat -  Islamic State.  

Rifts in the Taliban leadership are likely to widen after confirmation this week of the death of elusive founder Omar.  

Mansour, Omar's longtime deputy who has been effectively in charge for years, favors talks to bring an end to more than 13 years of war. He recently sent a delegation to inaugural meetings with Afghan officials hosted by Pakistan, hailed as a breakthrough.  

But Mansour, 50, has powerful rivals within the Taliban who oppose negotiations, notably battlefield commander Abdul Qayud Zakir, a former immate of the US prison in Cuba's Guantanamo bay.

Zakir is pushing for Mullah Omar's son Yaqoob to take over the movement, and a sizeable faction also supports Yaqoob. (...)

The divisions threaten a formal split in the Taliban. They also provide an opening to rival Islamic State  (IS), the middle-east based extremist movement that has attracted renegade Taliban commanders in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 This month, two Afghan militant groups swore allegiance to Islamic State, and more could follow suit. (...)

[olisipo]

Mullah Mansour asks Taliban to continue Jihad

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1 ... inue-Jihad

The Afghan Taliban's new Amir Mulla Muhammad Akhtar Mansour in his first audio message has termed the rumours of dialogue between the Taliban and Afghan government as propaganda of the enemy and asked the Taliban to continue Jihad to win the hearts of the Afghan people.

He said the Taliban will continue their struggle for implementation of the Islamic system in Afghanistan. He said the Taliban faction should show unity and should shun their differences.

Akhtar Mansour said  Sheikh Rehmatullah Alkhoonzada and Sirajuddin Haqqani have been appointed his deputies. (...)

Meanwhile, the Taliban have denied reports of the death of the founder of the Haqqani Network.

A section of the media reported the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, said to be in his 70s, on Friday when his son Sirajuddin was announced as one of the deputy chiefs of the Taliban following the death of its longtime leader Mulla Omar. (...)