Panetta in Afghanistan

"LandepNews"

Panetta in Afghanistan

An incident occurred on the airport where Leon Panetta was to arrive in Afghanistan was brought up in the U.S. defense secretary’s news conference on Thursday. Panetta said he did not believe there was an attempt made on his life, but that Afghanistan was a war zone and such incidents could occur.

An Afghan man is said to have stolen a truck, to have driven it toward the runway at Camp Bastion as Panetta’s plane was ready to land, then crashed and exited the truck that was in flames. He is believed to be an interpreter working for the foreign forces.

An American military source told Fox News that a crash occurred on the runway at the time Panetta’s plane was expected to land, but it was not clear whether the man who executed the assault attempt was aware that the American defense secretary was expected to arrive.

American army officials suggested that the man was more likely directing his attack at a group of American Marines assembled on the ramp. It was very difficult to know which plane Panetta was in, the officials said.

The attacker is said to have stolen the pickup truck from an English service member, which was injured, probably run over by the truck. He was having gasoline and a lighter with him, and was able to manage the stolen vehicle to the ramp where Panetta was expected.

After crashing into a ditch, the truck driver got out the vehicle. No explosive were found, according to a source, and the man seems to have been lit himself on fire before getting out of the truck.

Panetta came to Afghanistan to conduct negotiations with the Afghan officials, and a series of meetings with the troops. He spoke to president Karzai on Thursday.

The defense secretary came to Kabul from Kyrgyzstan, where he spoke to the officials of the Central Asian country, soon after the president said that no bombardment of Iran shall be conducted from Manas air base in his country.

The president also expressed fear that the presence of the American troops in Kyrgyzstan may trigger a retaliation attack on the part of Iranians, whose missiles could hit the Manas Transit Center.

Manas Transit Center is very important for the American communication with Afghanistan. Every soldier coming in or going out of Afghanistan comes to Manas, given that the Pakistani transit points have been closed last year.

The contract for the airport is expected to end in 2014, and the American authorities made no demand for it to be prolonged, and no negotiation was initiated. The American drawdown from Afghanistan is going to be facilitated by this transit center.

In Afghanistan, Panetta is expected to discuss the future of the Afghan-American cooperation, at a time when the cooperation seems to happen in a very unfriendly environment, following the killing spree last Sunday, when a U.S. sergeant entered a village where he killed 16 people, mostly women and children.

Leon Panetta expressed his condolences to the families and added that such a tragedy should not lead the Afghan leaders to hasty decisions about the cooperation between America and Afghanistan.

He added that if the soldier was to be found guilty, he should face death penalty. The location of the trial is in debate right now, as the Afghan lawmakers demand that the trial be held in public in Afghanistan, something that could not be unprecedented, since the American army held courts-martial in Afghanistan before. They argued that the “families of the martyrs” killed on Sunday demanded that the trial be held on Afghan ground.

On Wednesday, the American troops said they were analyzing the possibility to judge the sergeant in Afghanistan, but on Wednesday night he is said to have been extracted from Afghanistan to Kuwait, in a move that infuriated the Afghan lawmakers, who on Thursday demanded that their country refuse to sign any partnership agreement unless the man was brought back to Afghanistan.

One of the American army officials said that the move was made because there were not appropriate facilities in Afghanistan to keep him, and another said that it had been done with the consent of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

His moving to Kuwait, recommended by the defense attorney, will provide pretrial confinement, access to legal representation and the possibility to have a fair and proper trial.

The detention facility in Kuwait is said to be used for pre-trial and post-trial confinement for a limited period of time. Bradley Manning, the U.S. army private that is linked to the case of WikiLeaks, is said to be one of the notorious inmates in this prison.

During his meeting with president Karzai, Leon Panetta expressed America’s commitment to the process which is under way in Afghanistan. He also admitted that a series of mistakes have been made by the American troops present on Afghan soil.

Panetta must convince the Afghan president and the other leaders of the country to sign an agreement according to which a military presence of the U.S. army be kept on Afghan soil after the drawdown scheduled to end in 2014.

The recent events do not seem to help too much a decision that was already facing high opposition among the decision-makers in Afghanistan.

The killing spree on Sunday comes a few weeks after the mutual relations between the two states have been jolted by another incident, in which Quran books were burnt by a careless American soldier.

The incident with the Quran books triggered a wave of outrage that claimed the lives of at least 30 people, during protests, suicidal bombings and killings. The president of Afghanistan then said about it that it was the result of mere ignorance, while about the incident on Sunday he said it was a brutal crime that would not be forgotten.

American soldiers were shown urinating on some Taliban corpses last year, causing the rage and the anti-American sentiment to go higher.

Thank's for link: