nastyleg
04-18-2010, 03:15 AM
Afghan militants increase attacks on contractors
By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post
Online Edition, Saturday, April 17, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban has begun regularly targeting U.S. government contractors in southern Afghanistan, stepping up use of a tactic that is rattling participating firms and could undermine development projects intended to stem the insurgency, according to U.S. officials.
Within the past month, there have been at least five attacks in Helmand and Kandahar provinces against employees of U.S. Agency for International Development contract companies who run agricultural projects, build roads, maintain power plants and work with local officials.
The USAID implementing partners, as the contract companies are known, employ mainly Afghans, who are overseen by foreigners. The their role is becoming increasingly important as more aid money floods into southern Afghanistan as part of a dual effort to generate goodwill and bolster the Kabul government.
A suicide car bomb that exploded Thursday evening outside a compound used by Western contractors in Kandahar was the latest and deadliest attack. The Associated Press reported that the blast killed at least six people wounded 16 other people, including at least two Americans, along with South African and Nepalese employees.
The compound houses USAID contractors, including Chemonics International, the Louis Berger Group and the Central Asia Development Group, according to U.S. officials.
At least one company working in Kandahar, Bethesda, Md.-based DAI, evacuated some employees to Kabul after the attack, the officials said.
“The bad guys have figured it out,” one U.S. official in Kandahar said. “I’ve never seen them go after implementing partners this way. We’ve got to re-evaluate now what we’re doing.”
Thursday’s attack came two days after Hosiy Sahibzada, 24, an Afghan who worked for DAI, was gunned down in Kandahar City. On Tuesday, an Afghan employee of Arlington-based International Relief & Development, was shot and killed in Helmand province’s Garmsir area.
The U.S. official in Kandahar said it would be foolish to think that the attacks were independent of one another. “This can’t be coincidental,” he said. “This is what they’re doing now.”
A senior U.S. military official in Kandahar said the military is “looking hard at these incidents” for signs of a pattern and to figure out whether targeting contractors has become a tactic.
The investigative journalism website ProPublica reported that of the 289 civilian contractors killed since the Afghanistan war began more than eight years ago, 100 have died in just the last six months.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69427
By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post
Online Edition, Saturday, April 17, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban has begun regularly targeting U.S. government contractors in southern Afghanistan, stepping up use of a tactic that is rattling participating firms and could undermine development projects intended to stem the insurgency, according to U.S. officials.
Within the past month, there have been at least five attacks in Helmand and Kandahar provinces against employees of U.S. Agency for International Development contract companies who run agricultural projects, build roads, maintain power plants and work with local officials.
The USAID implementing partners, as the contract companies are known, employ mainly Afghans, who are overseen by foreigners. The their role is becoming increasingly important as more aid money floods into southern Afghanistan as part of a dual effort to generate goodwill and bolster the Kabul government.
A suicide car bomb that exploded Thursday evening outside a compound used by Western contractors in Kandahar was the latest and deadliest attack. The Associated Press reported that the blast killed at least six people wounded 16 other people, including at least two Americans, along with South African and Nepalese employees.
The compound houses USAID contractors, including Chemonics International, the Louis Berger Group and the Central Asia Development Group, according to U.S. officials.
At least one company working in Kandahar, Bethesda, Md.-based DAI, evacuated some employees to Kabul after the attack, the officials said.
“The bad guys have figured it out,” one U.S. official in Kandahar said. “I’ve never seen them go after implementing partners this way. We’ve got to re-evaluate now what we’re doing.”
Thursday’s attack came two days after Hosiy Sahibzada, 24, an Afghan who worked for DAI, was gunned down in Kandahar City. On Tuesday, an Afghan employee of Arlington-based International Relief & Development, was shot and killed in Helmand province’s Garmsir area.
The U.S. official in Kandahar said it would be foolish to think that the attacks were independent of one another. “This can’t be coincidental,” he said. “This is what they’re doing now.”
A senior U.S. military official in Kandahar said the military is “looking hard at these incidents” for signs of a pattern and to figure out whether targeting contractors has become a tactic.
The investigative journalism website ProPublica reported that of the 289 civilian contractors killed since the Afghanistan war began more than eight years ago, 100 have died in just the last six months.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69427