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SHAPE
News Summary & Analysis
20
November 2003
NRF
- NRF’s
maiden exercise noted
ISAF
- Primed
rocket found near Canadian base in Kabul
- Aid
workers call on NATO to widen Afghan security
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Media
report explosions hit the Turkish headquarters of the London-based
HSBC bank and the British Consulate in Istanbul, killing at least
25, including the British Consul, and wounding more than 390.
In an address carried live by CNN, British Foreign Secretary Straw
said the strikes bore "all the hallmarks of the international
terrorism operations practiced by Al Qaeda and associated organizations."
CNN also carried eye-witnesses saying the attackers used trucks
in the bombings, which occurred almost simultaneously.
NRF
- AP
reports an exercise Thursday involving air, sea and land forces
from 11 nations in Doganbey, Turkey, marked the debut for
the NRF. The dispatch observes, however, that
the exercise was quickly overshadowed by the news of the bomb
attacks in Istanbul. According to the dispatch, Gen.
Jones deplored what was “apparently another act of unspeakable
violence.” He said such attacks “underscore the
importance” of NATO’s efforts to transform its
military into a flexible force able to defeat terror threats.
The dispatch reports that in the NRF exercise, French
paratroopers, Spanish marines, Turkish special forces and
German ground-attack planes teamed up to deal with a fictional
threat to UN personnel from foreign terrorists in a fictional
country called Gem. Stressing that Gen. Jones believes
setting up the new force is one of the most important decisions
in the Alliance’s history, the dispatch quotes
him saying: “It marks an important recognition
on the part of the Alliance that the international security
environment has changed dramatically.” Gen.
Jones is further quoted saying the force, combined
with other technological and institutional changes at NATO,
“will ensure the relevance of the Alliance in the 21st
century and will provide a credible means to face and defeat
the threat that now faces all our peoples.”
The English-language Turkish News and Information Portal,
Turks.U.S, stresses that the role of the NRF is to provide
an integrated and fully interoperable sea, land and air capability,
under one command, whenever the North Atlantic Council requires,
to prevent a conflict or threat from escalating into a wider
dispute. “Turkey will lead the land units of the NRF
during the formation stage which will continue till summer
of 2004…. Turkey will make significant unit and personnel
contributions to naval and air forces of the NRF,” adds
the reports. Ankara’s Anatolia carries related information.
ISAF
- According
to Reuters, international peacekeepers in Kabul said
Thursday they had found a rocket that was primed and ready
to be fired by remote control close to the main Canadian military
base in the Afghan capital. The discovery was reportedly
made after Canadian Defense Minister McCallum had arrived
in Afghanistan in a two-day visit. “A Canadian patrol
was alerted to suspicious activity in the area of the (former)
king’s palace,” the dispatch quotes an ISAF spokesman
saying and adding: “When it was investigated, we found
a rocket that was primed and was controlled remotely….
It was prepped and ready to be discharged remotely. The area
was cordoned off and an ISAF team was called to the site to
dismantle the rocket and investigate the matter further.”
According to the dispatch, the spokesman said it was too early
to say whether the rocket was aimed directly at Camp Julien,
where Canadian soldiers serving in ISAF are based.
- A
leading international humanitarian aid agency has called on
NATO to provide security throughout Afghanistan as quickly
as possible, claiming the recent decision by the UN to extend
the Alliance’s mandate beyond Kabul had not yet been
acted upon, reports the Financial Times. According
to the article, Paul Barker, head of the aid agency Care in
Afghanistan, said lack of security had led to the cancellation
or delay of aid projects for more than 60,000 Afghans. The
death on Sunday of a UN aid worker, bringing to 13 the number
of aid workers killed over the past year, had shown why NATO
teams should be deployed to the more insecure areas of the
country, Barker reportedly stressed. The dispatch
adds, however, that senior NATO officials said Wednesday
the Alliance could not move beyond Kabul until it had more
military capabilities. “We do not lack troops
as such. We lack helicopters and heavy strategic airlift,”
one official reportedly said. According to the newspaper,
one NATO military officer said the experiences in Kabul and
supporting the setting up of the German PRT in Kunduz had
posed enormous challenges. NATO needed more helicopters to
transport personnel and equipment. “The extreme conditions
of heat, dust and sand put enormous wear and tear on the helicopters,”
the officer reportedly said, noting that in Kabul, ISAF lacks
the large, sheltered maintenance hangars to do repairs, while
all spare parts have to be flown in, which takes more time.
Another problem is strategic airlift. Afghanistan’s
high mountain ranges and, until recently, the high temperatures,
have prevented aircraft from being loaded at full capacity,
he added.
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