resignations in Afghanistan

Afghan intel chief, interior minister resign
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accepted the resignations of the country's intelligence chief and interior minister after militants were able to breach security for the peace jirga he convened last week. But as the AP reports, the real reasons Karzai demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar are still obscure, and may be of concern to Washington, which regards Atmar highly:

Afghanistan's intelligence chief and interior minister resigned Sunday to take responsibility for allowing militants to elude a massive security operation and launch an attack on last week's national peace conference.

President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement he had accepted the resignations of Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and National Directorate of Security chief Amrullah Saleh because they gave unsatisfactory explanations for last Wednesday's attack.

At least two Taliban militants fired rockets at the conference where some 1,500 delegates -- including lawmakers, tribal and religious chiefs -- discussed how to resolve Afghanistan's nearly 9-year war. The militants then engaged in a gunbattle with security forces near the venue. None of the delegates were hurt. The militants were killed.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said earlier Sunday that the two attackers were able to breach security by dressing as a couple -- one in a man's street clothes and the other in a woman's burqa, and clutching a Kalashnikov rifle and a grenade launcher wrapped up in cloth like a swaddled baby. ...

''The president of Afghanistan has lost trust in our capability to protect national events,'' Saleh told reporters in the capital, after what he described as a ''tough conversation'' with Karzai.

''Our explanations did not convince President Karzai that we were competent,'' he said.

He said there were ''tens of other reasons'' that he resigned, but he declined to give any of them, saying that doing so would have repercussions for those still working in the government. ...

The statement from Karzai's office said the president had appointed Deputy Interior Minister Munir Mangal as acting interior minister and Engineer Ibrahim Spinzada as acting intelligence chief. ...

Atmar, an ethnic Pashtun and former education minister, had been appointed in a 2008 Cabinet reshuffle that had been aimed at curbing high-level corruption.

In charge of Afghanistan's police force, the British-educated Atmar had a positive reputation among Western officials. He was reappointed to the interior portfolio after Karzai's re-election last year. ....

Washington supports Karzai's plans to offer incentives to lower-rung militants but remains skeptical about Kabul seeking negotiations with insurgent leaders -- although such a strategy could be key to the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country.

U.S. officials contend the Taliban leadership -- which is demanding the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan -- feels it has little reason to negotiate because it believes it is winning the war.

Five NATO troops -- including four Americans -- were killed in three separate incidents Sunday, the coalition said.

Three U.S. troops died in a vehicle accident in southern Afghanistan, and a fourth was killed in an insurgent attack in the country's east, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale. The fifth NATO service member -- who was not immediately identified -- was killed when a makeshift bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan.
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