Exclusive: Afghan officials met key Taliban figure in Pakistan

KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghan officials have held secret talks with the Taliban's former second in command who is in detention in Pakistan in a move which could help rekindle stalled peace talks with the insurgents, according to senior officials from both countries.

Afghan officials have often seen Pakistan as a reluctant partner in attempts to broker talks with the Taliban but its decision to grant access to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may signal Islamabad's willingness to play a more active role.

Rangin Spanta, the national security adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an architect of peace-building efforts, said an Afghan delegation had met Baradar in Pakistan two months ago.

Baradar has been in detention since he was captured in a joint operation by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agents in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.

"We have met Mullah Baradar," Spanta told Reuters in Kabul. "Our delegation has spoken to him to know his view on peace talks."

Afghan officials have publicly been demanding access to Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander until he was captured, but Spanta's revelation shows preliminary contact has already been made.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, also said that Pakistan had granted Afghan officials access to Baradar.

"They had access at the required and appropriate level," Malik told Reuters.

"We are fully cooperating with Afghanistan and whatever they are asking for the peace process, for developing peace in Afghanistan. We are giving every kind of help."

Pakistan is seen as crucial to stability in Afghanistan as most foreign combat troops look to leave the country in 2014, given close political and economic ties and because militant sanctuaries straddle the mountainous border.

Baradar was the main day-to-day commander responsible for leading the Taliban campaign against U.S. and NATO troops, plotting suicide bombings and other attacks.

He was the right-hand man to reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who gave him the nickname Baradar (brother), providing him with great influence and prestige in Taliban circles.

CRITICAL TO RECONCILIATION?

Afghan officials hope Baradar could play a key role in any negotiations to end the war, acting as a go-between with Taliban leaders including Omar.

Afghan and U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged little success in efforts to re-start peace talks, which the Taliban suspended after accusing U.S. officials of failing to honor confidence-building promises.

That setback refocused attention on nascent efforts by the Afghan government to open its own channels with insurgent intermediaries, despite the fact the Taliban publicly say they will not talk to what they deem an illegitimate "puppet" government.

Karzai, at a recent donors' meeting in Japan, also appealed to Germany to act as a go-between to revive talks, in a second track to contacts with Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

A Western official said Pakistan's decision to grant access to Baradar would bolster hopes of greater collaboration between the two countries, but the Afghan government would only be fully satisfied if Baradar was repatriated to Kabul.

"It's a step in the right direction, but there's still a number of steps to go," the official said.

Although Afghan officials may be pinning hopes on Baradar, it is unclear what influence he may have over a complex insurgency after spending years in detention.

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed last month to resume regular talks on Afghanistan's peace process, with the new Pakistani prime minister promising to help arrange meetings between Afghan and Taliban representatives.

Afghanistan is known to want access to Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or council, named after the Pakistani city where they are believed to be based.

Kabul believes they would be the decision-makers in any substantive negotiations aimed at ending a war in its eleventh year.

Pakistan has consistently denied giving sanctuary to insurgents and says no Taliban leaders are in Quetta.

The Afghan government has established some contacts with the Taliban, who have made a strong comeback after being toppled in 2001, but there are no signs that full-fledged peace talks will happen any time soon.

U.S. diplomats have also been seeking to broaden exploratory talks that began clandestinely in Germany in late 2010 after the Taliban offered to open a representative office in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, prompting demands for inclusion from Kabul.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Green in Islamabad and Rob Taylor in KABUL; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Taliban bomb destroys 22 NATO supply trucks in Afghan north

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A bomb planted by the Taliban destroyed 22 NATO trucks carrying supplies to their forces in northern Afghanistan, the Taliban and police said on Wednesday.

Eighteen fuel trucks and four supply vehicles were parked in Aibak, the capital of Samangan province, when a bomb ripped through them, wounding one person, local police said.

"At 2 a.m. the mujahideen attacked the invader NATO trucks," the Taliban said in a statement, referring to the wagons which had been driven from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan's north.

The trucks were attacked in the same province where prominent anti-Taliban lawmaker Ahmad Khan Samangani was killed on Saturday at his daughter's wedding, in a suicide bomb attack that killed 22 other guests.

"We believe the Taliban carried this out. Eighteen trucks have been totally destroyed, the rest were damaged by fire," Samangan police chief Khalil Andarabi told Reuters.

Separately, police in neighboring Baghlan province said they had detained 10 suspected Taliban members with so-called magnetic bombs, which they were trying to attach to supply trucks.

Pakistan recently reopened its border crossings with Afghanistan for NATO supplies after shutting them in November after a U.S. airstrike unintentionally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

(Reporting by Bashir Ansari, writing by Mirwais Harooni, editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)

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Support for peace talks growing, Afghan diplomat says

KABUL (Reuters) - Support is building among Afghanistan's regional neighbors for a comprehensive peace process with the Taliban, but Pakistan's backing and access to insurgent leaders are crucial to getting stalled talks on track, a top Afghan diplomat said.

Jawed Ludin, the deputy foreign minister and senior negotiator in talks with Washington on an Afghan-U.S. strategic pact, also said the two allies were near agreement on a deal to curb controversial night raids by NATO troops on Afghan homes.

But Ludin - the main architect of Afghan foreign policy - said both sides had failed to communicate the benefits of the pact and dampen anxiety among Afghans that foreigners were preparing to abandon the country after a 2014 withdrawal of Western combat troops.

"We need to communicate better, we need to explain it better. There are various interests, there are people who play this up the wrong way, they explain it the wrong way," Ludin told Reuters late on Saturday ahead of a trip to Australia.

"Some would like to see this as our inability to succeed and then the end of commitment."

The United States and Afghanistan have for months been negotiating on a strategic pact for a long-term presence in Afghanistan of U.S. advisers and possibly some elite troops, while at the same time trying to draw the Afghan Taliban and other insurgents into twin-track peace talks.

But in March the Taliban suspended exploratory negotiations with the United States, seen by backers as a way to end the country's conflict, while refusing to meet President Hamid Karzai's government, calling its officials U.S. "stooges".

Ludin, a former chief of staff and spokesman for Karzai, said he was confident an agreement would soon be signed with Qatar to open a Taliban representative office in the Gulf state as a vehicle for talks, about which he was "positive".

Ludin said he also held strong hopes that both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia's governments would weigh in to give political momentum to Afghan government efforts to engage the Taliban.

"We are working under the assumption that once this process moves, and once we bring some of the other contributing elements to this, we need to make sure we create an environment with support from not just Pakistan, but other countries - notably Saudi Arabia - but above all Pakistan," said Ludin.

"I think at the regional level, we seem to be coming closer to a consensus that is basically the need of the day, and that there will have to be a political process, there will have to be something done to end violence and bring peace to Afghanistan."

The "key contribution" for talks to succeed would need to be from Pakistan, where the Afghan president travelled in February to ask for access to Taliban leaders belonging so the so-called Quetta Shura (council), Ludin said.

Named after the Pakistani city where they are said to be based, Shura members would be the decision makers in any substantive peace negotiations. But Pakistan denies any top insurgents enjoy sanctuary within its borders.

"SPOILER" ALERT

"There are a number of elements and we all know what those are. The question of access, the question of providing a conducive environment for contacts to be established and for talks to take place wherever they are," Ludin said.

"We need to bring about an environment where leadership of the Taliban can viably use that office to engage with Afghanistan, with the government of Afghanistan, in constructive forward-looking talks about the peace process and about taking this step forward."

A revitalized peace process would be in the interests of the entire region, Ludin said, although some groups he would not name were acting as "spoilers" to a negotiated peace after decades of war during which millions of Afghans have fled.

While he would not clarify whether he meant neighboring nations, reports in the United States this week said American officials believed Iranian agents had been active in trying to instigate violent protests in Afghanistan after the inadvertent burning of Korans by a U.S. soldier at a NATO base.

"There is no doubt that there are various diverging interests at work," Ludin said. "What is important is that we really do not create excuses and opportunities for spoilers, for elements that wish to undermine the current transition. That should be our priority and that will be our priority."

Karzai has demanded U.S. and other foreign troops withdraw from Afghan villages after an American soldier allegedly massacred 17 civilians in Kandahar, while the burning of Korans in February triggered protest riots that raged for a week.

Afghanistan had signed strategic agreements with several countries contributing troops to the 130,000-strong NATO coalition in the country, including Britain and Italy. The government would soon finalize one more with close U.S. ally Australia, Ludin said before leaving for Canberra.

The transition to fully Afghan-provided security to be completed by 2014 was poorly understood, he said, as the country would then enter a period of transformation, with Western aid and advisers likely to remain in the country.

Economic aid would also continue to ensure no sudden economic collapse and flight of capital as wealthy Afghans and businesses moved their assets to safety elsewhere.

"In the last 10 years, it has been about military security assistance to Afghanistan. Now that we have our own institutions, we don't need that kind of support. What we need is your political commitment ... and also not least your economic assistance in the long term," he said.

Ludin said the government had made clear it was interested in a political solution with the Taliban and denied strategic partnership talks with the U.S. and other nations were inconsistent with Islamist demands for foreign troops and advisers to leave the country, and for Islamic-focused reform.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Afghan, U.S. governments reach deal on controversial night raids

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan and the United States have reached an agreement to curb night raids on Afghan homes, giving Kabul veto power over the operations despised by most local people and control over treatment of any detainees, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

Night raids on suspected militants have helped fan rising anti-Western sentiment ahead of a withdrawal by most Western combat troops to be completed by 2014, but are backed by NATO commanders as a key anti-insurgent tactic.

Their conduct had been one of the biggest hurdles in negotiations on a broader strategic pact to underpin a future U.S. presence in the country, likely including advisers and special forces soldiers to help safeguard stability.

The deal, which has taken months of negotiation, will be signed later on Sunday by Afghan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak and NATO's top commander in the country, U.S. Marine General John Allen, according to the Afghan government.

Under the deal, Afghan authorities will have control over prisoners taken in night raids and will decide whether to allow U.S. interrogators access to detainees, a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

U.S. troops would continue to take part in operations, but a new elite force of Afghan commandos would lead raids with American forces along to give advice and support.

"From now on all night raids will be conducted by the afghan national army, police and intelligence in close coordination with afghan judicial bodies," Afghan Defense Minister Wardak told a news conference.

He said the United States had promised to provide all necessary equipment and technical advice to Afghan special operations forces.

AFGHAN COMPLAINTS

Many Afghans, in complaints backed by President Hamid Karzai, say the raids violate their privacy, especially that of women in conservative areas, where support for the Afghan Taliban is strongest.

A joint US/Afghan committee will decide which raids to carry out and an Afghan judge must then review its recommendation and decide whether to issue a warrant, the official said.

Analysts have said such changes may hamper operations and reduce their impact.

Any loss in the effectiveness of night raids is likely to worry NATO commanders rushing to improve security ahead of the pullout in 2014, but a backlash by Afghans against civilian deaths means foreign troops have little wriggle room.

There is also growing sensitivity over the presence of foreign troops after a series on incidents, including the massacre of 17 Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier was charged, and the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base.

The two countries last month signed a deal transferring a major U.S.-run prison to Afghan authority, leaving military raids of Afghan homes as the primary sticking point to achieving a broader strategic partnership deal.

Jawed Ludin, the deputy foreign minister and top negotiator in talks on the strategic deal, said on Saturday both sides had failed to communicate the benefits of the pact and dampen anxiety that foreigners were preparing to abandon the country.

The United States has been pressing to wrap up the long-delayed strategic partnership deal with Afghanistan ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago in May while at the same time trying to draw the Taliban and other insurgents into peace talks.

Ludin said when the night raids deal was concluded, work would start immediately on the wider security pact, which will require a vote of approval in the fractious Afghan parliament.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski)

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