Blogs from Afghanistan, Asia - page 7

Our mission: to look at the possibilities for agriculture south of Kandahar City. Where we got to: Tarnak Agricultural Research Station, better known as Osama Bin Laden's training centre, famous for the videos of Al Qaeda recruits running over the assault course. Tarnak Farm is where it all started. All this frightful mess and loss of life we've suffered in the last ten years. 9/11 was planned here and the leader, Mohammed Atta, apparently made his will here before he left to attack the Twin Towers. OBL moved to Tarnak in 1998 as a guest of the Taliban government (yes, the Taliban WAS the legitimate Afghan Government between 1996 and late 2001) when his residence near Jallalabad was threatened. There is a suggestion that the Clinton Administration planned to kidnap him at that time which would ... read more

I've been pretty serious in the last few posts. This one is just photos taken by Andy Burridge who is a colleague of mine working here. What a shame that the insurgency prevents tourism, because this place has some AMAZING landscapes.... read more

I'm currently working on a so-called "community stabilisation" or "soft kinetic" counter insurgency (COIN) project in south Afghanistan. The idea is that once the military (the "hard kinetics") have "cleared" and "held" an area, we come in and distribute useful assets and help with the reconstruction. The truly innovative aspect is that our project is focused on agriculture (since most Taliban are actually farmers) and providing training in how to get better yields or use tractors more efficiently seems a great idea to win hearts and minds away from the extremists. More on the project itself in my company web site FoodWorks Much of our work is undertaken in the productive river valleys of the Arghandab and the Helmand, the latter being one of the major rivers of the region with the former being an important ... read more

Off we went to Lashkar Gar the capital city of Helmand Province.... previously real bandit country for the British Army and even now held somewhat tenuously. Our compound in 'Lash' had been attacked by the AOG (Afghan Opposition Group - a polite name for the enemy - the Taliban) a couple of weeks previously. Two Talibs had disguised themselves in burqas, taken a taxi to the back of the compound and climbed over the wall at a blind spot. Very fortunately one of our expatriate close protection officers (mostly ex British or South African Army with a sprinkle of Foreign Legion) saw the attackers and raised the alarm; a fire fight ensued with both sides exchanging multiple rounds before the attackers were shot dead. But by that time they had wounded some of our staff. It ... read more

It is HOT in Kandahar at this time of year.... VERY HOT! The journey from Kabul was not the most pleasant of my life - delayed flight, old ex-Turkish Airlines 737 and a mad scramble for the bags - Kandahar Airport (aka KAF) has not yet invested in a carousel system. Then into the body armour for a dash to our secure company compound in the centre of the city. Secure is, of course, a relative term since KAF is regularly rocketed and our compound is right where NATO-ISAF forces have yet to "clear' the Taliban. We are the only NGO remaining in the city which is the heartland of the Taliban (aka "Afghan Opposition Groups" - why does officialdom always try and dumb things down?). The compound is like a fortress or a maximum security ... read more