According to reports, Afghanistan’s presidential spokesman on March 19 described the NATO-led military operation in the war-torn nation as “aimless and unwise”. Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, hit out after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected Karzai’s recent allegations of US collusion with the Taliban.“The people of Afghanistan ask Nato to define the purpose and aim of the so-called war on terror…. (They) consider this war as aimless and unwise to continue,” Faizi said in a statement.1

In another development, according to reports, a member of Afghanistan’s government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues. According to provincial spokesman Mirwais Mirzakwal, the shooting occurred on March 21, in a remote part of Qadis district of Badghis province. The attacker was a member of the Afghan Local Police, a program in which the Afghan government and its international allies train and pay villagers to defend against insurgents and other militants. 2

• 1. Afghan government says NATO war aimless, unwise, Dawn, March 20, 2013 at http://dawn.com/2013/03/20/afghan-government-says-nato-war-aimless-unwise/
• 2. Afghan policeman kills five colleagues, Dawn, March 23, 2013 at http://dawn.com/2013/03/23/afghan-policeman-kills-five-colleagues/