Stop NATO news: February 22, 2012
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U.S. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary In Georgia For Arms Talks
Saakashvili: U.S.-Trained Georgian Army To Get New Combat Vehicles
After Obama-Saakashvili Meeting, Pentagon Official To Visit Georgia
Russia’s Putin: U.S. Rearming Of Georgia “Huge Mistake”
Three Georgian Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan
Nine Afghan Schoolgirls Wounded By NATO Helicopter Attack
Over 100 Killed In Southern Libya Clashes
U.S. Troops Fire At Afghan Protesters
World Chess Head Fears Syria Will Be Third World War
Russia To Rebuild Military Airfields Near NATO Borders
Pakistan: Baloch Separatist Leader Welcomes U.S., NATO, Indian Intervention
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U.S. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary In Georgia For Arms Talks
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24472
Civil Georgia
February 22, 2012
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Visits Tbilisi
Tbilisi: U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Celeste A. Wallander, is visiting Tbilisi.
She met with President Saakashvili on February 22.
According to the Georgian officials the visit aims at discussing details of further deepening of defense cooperation between the two countries.
“The United States is very much interested in increasing Georgia’s self-defense capabilities,” Nino Kalandadze, Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, said on February 20.
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Saakashvili: U.S.-Trained Georgian Army To Get New Combat Vehicles
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24464
Civil Georgia
February 20, 2012
Saakashvili: Georgia Manufacturing ‘Combat Vehicle’
Tbilisi: President Saakashvili said on February 20 that this week the first-ever Georgian-made “combat vehicle” would be tested.
Saakashvili made the announcement while addressing Georgian troops in the Helmand province during his visit to Afghanistan on February 20.
He did not provide details about the “combat vehicle” other than its name – Lazika; the same name has been picked by Saakashvili to a planned new city about which he first announced in December.
“You know we have already produced armored vehicles Didgori, we also produce automatic rifles and other equipment – few countries in the world have it,” Saakashvili said.
Two types of Didgori armored vehicles, manufactured in Georgia and developed by research center Delta of the Georgian Ministry of Defense, were first showcased during a military parade on May 26, 2011 – Didgori 1 with multi-barrel heavy machine gun, Minigun, capable of carrying nine personnel and Didgori 2 with 12.7 caliber machine gun.
A ruling party lawmaker, Givi Targamadze, who chairs parliamentary committee for defense and security, claimed earlier this month, that Georgia was working on production of unmanned aerial vehicle; no details are available.
President Saakashvili also said on February 20, that the authorities “have done much in recent years for equipping our armed forces” without “much noise and bragging”.
He also said that number of those willing to undergo reserve service increased four-fold after the August, 2008 war and by end of this spring Georgia would have “over 100,000 trained and equipped reserve troops.”
Saakashvili also said that he was proud when he visited earlier this month the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and met there four Georgian servicemen undergoing courses for future Marine Corps officers – “a unit,” Saakashvili said, “which we will definitely need in our armed forces.”
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After Obama-Saakashvili Meeting, Pentagon Official To Visit Georgia
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24461
Civil Georgia
February 20, 2012
Georgian Official: U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense to Visit Tbilisi
Tbilisi: U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Celeste A. Wallander, will visit Tbilisi on February 22-24, Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, Nino Kalandadze, said on Monday.
She said the visit by the U.S. delegation would be a follow up to “an agreement reached during a meeting between the Georgian and U.S. Presidents” in Washington on January 30 on “deepening cooperation in the field of defense.”
She also said that the upcoming visit was part of putting that agreement into phase of “technical implementation”.
“The United States is very much interested in increasing Georgia’s self-defense capabilities,” Kalandadze said.
During the visit, she said, the delegation would hold meetings “mainly in the Georgian Ministry of Defense in order to plan and identify concrete directions in which the defense cooperation will proceed.”
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Russia’s Putin: U.S. Rearming Of Georgia “Huge Mistake”
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24476
Civil Georgia
February 22, 2012
Putin: ‘Rearming Georgia by U.S. Huge Mistake’
Tbilisi: Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin said on February 22, that “rearming” Georgia by the United States was “a huge mistake” and Moscow was “constantly raising this issue” with Washington.
At a meeting with the Russian army commanders at a military base in Alabino near Moscow, Putin was asked by a commander of the Russian military base deployed in breakaway South Ossetia about “media reports that an agreement has been reached during the U.S.-Georgia summit in Washington about the large-scale supply of arms to Georgia.”
Medvedev on Georgia’s ‘Militarization’
“I was not there sitting under the table and I do not know what they have agreed on,” Putin responded. “Although I hope some of our guys were there to tell.”
He said that the U.S. started “rearming” Georgia “immediately” after the August 2008 war.
“I think it’s a huge mistake, because the current leadership of Georgia carries out clearly an aggressive policy and supply of arms to the armed forces of a country, which carries out aggressive policy always inevitably encourages it on aggressive actions.”
Putin said that the U.S. supplying arms to Georgia “is an open secret”.
“We know that, we see that and we react appropriately, but not publicly, on that,” the Russian Prime Minister said.
“We judge not based on words, but based on concrete actions, which are easily traced not only through foreign intelligence but through GRU [Russia's military intelligence service] too…The movement of vessels, the volume of cargo – all these are monitored quite easily with the help of satellite and other means of surveillance – I have been showed some of these [means] here today,” Putin said.
“We are constantly raising the issue with them [the U.S.]. I very much hope that the Georgian side will have enough common sense and lessons taught concerning the adventurous policy of the Georgian leadership will not be in vain and I hope these weapons will not be used for new aggressive actions,” Putin said.
At the same meeting Putin also said, that Russia was differentiating between “the Georgian leadership and the Georgian people.”
“I very much hope that this is genuinely brotherly people for us will ultimately realize, that Russia is not an enemy, but it is a friend and relations will be restored,” Putin said, adding that cutting of ties between the two countries was a result of a policy carried out by the Georgian leadership.
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Three Georgian Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=24470
Civil Georgia
February 22, 2012
Three Georgian Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
Tbilisi Three Georgian soldiers from the 31st light infantry battalion serving in Afghanistan’s Helmand province were killed in combat, the Georgian Ministry of Defense said on February 22.
Corporals Valiko Beraia, Ruslan Meladze and Paata Kacharava “died while they were carrying out combat task,” the Georgian MoD said in a brief statement.
“Their combat vehicle exploded following an insurgent attack,” it said.
The recent incident puts total death toll of Georgian soldiers in Afghanistan to fifteen – all of them were serving in Helmand province and four of them died this year.
For Georgian troops the recent one is the largest casualty toll for any single incident since October, 2010 when a mine blast killed four Georgian servicemen.
The 31st infantry battalion of the 3rd infantry brigade is now in the Helmand province for its second, six-month deployment.
The battalion was the first Georgian military unit which was deployed in Helmand to serve alongside with the U.S. Marines, in April, 2010; during its first six-month deployment, the battalion lost five of its soldiers.
In his statement of condolence President Saakashvili, who visited Georgian troops in Helmand on February 20, said that death of Georgian soldiers was “a heavy blow” for him.
He also said the sacrifice of the Georgian servicemen “is appreciated” by the Georgian people and “will be even more appreciated by the future generations, because they will live in united, much stronger and more successful country” because of the sacrifice made by the Georgian soldiers in Afghanistan.
Georgia plans to send one additional infantry battalion to Afghanistan on top of 936 Georgian soldiers who already serve there. After the deployment of additional battalion Georgia will become the largest non-NATO contributor to the ISAF.
Georgia’s first contribution to the Afghan operation came in 2004 when 50 soldiers were briefly deployed in the country under the German command as part of ensuring security during the presidential elections.
In November, 2009 Georgia deployed 173 soldiers in Kabul under the French command and in the following year Georgia increased the presence in Afghanistan by sending an infantry battalion in the Helmand province serving along with the U.S. Marines.
Last year Georgia also sent 11 military instructors to Kandahar to train Afghan forces in artillery, according to the Georgian MoD.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/22/us-afghanistan-georgia-deaths-idUSTRE81L14W20120222
Reuters
February 22, 2012
Three Georgian soldiers killed in Afghan south
TBILISI: Three Georgian soldiers were killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday, its defense ministry said, taking the non-NATO country’s death toll to 15.
“Their combat vehicle exploded following an insurgent attack,” the ministry said in a statement of the incident in one of Afghanistan’s most violent provinces, which neighbors Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was in Helmand on Monday to meet his country’s troops, said after the deaths that Georgia stood by its commitment to the increasingly unpopular war, dragged into its 11th year.
“The sacrifice of Georgian servicemen is appreciated by the Georgian people… future generations will live in a united, much stronger and more successful country,” Saakashvili said in a statement.
The former Soviet country has over 900 troops supporting the NATO-led war in Afghanistan, including 750 in Helmand. Another deployment of 600-700 will be sent this year, making Georgia one of the largest non-NATO contributors in the war.
Georgian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2004, a commitment that underscores Tbilisi’s ambition to join NATO, despite fierce opposition from neighboring Russia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008, and waning enthusiasm among the coalition’s member states.
(Reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Kabul; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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Nine Afghan Schoolgirls Wounded By NATO Helicopter Attack
http://www.news24.com/World/News/9-Afghan-girls-injured-in-Nato-air-raid-20120222
Agence France-Presse
February 22, 2012
9 Afghan girls injured in Nato air raid
Jalalabad: Nine schoolgirls were injured in a Nato helicopter attack in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, an Afghan official alleged on Wednesday.
Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was looking into the allegation but had no immediate information.
“This morning a school was attacked by a Nato helicopter. Nine children, all girls, and the school’s janitor have been injured,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the Nangarhar provincial government spokesperson said.
“Some of the girls were discharged after receiving treatment but about five of them are still in the hospital,” Abdulzai said, accusing the US-led ISAF force of carrying out the attack.
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Last week, ISAF conceded that several children died during a bombing raid on February 8 in northeast Kapisa province.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had condemned the air strikes and ordered an investigation after saying that eight children were killed.
The latest report comes amid intense anti-US riots in Kabul that were unleashed after the burning of copies of the Qur’an by foreign forces at the US-run Bagram military base north of the capital.
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Over 100 Killed In Southern Libya Clashes
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=166157
Azeri Press Agency
February 21, 2012
More than 100 killed in south Libya clashes: tribes
Baku: Fierce clashes between two tribes in Libya’s remote southeastern desert have killed more than 100 people over the past 10 days, tribal sources said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting AFP.
At least 113 people from the Toubu tribe and another 20 from the Zwai tribe have been killed in the desert town of Kufra since the fighting between them erupted on February 12, the sources said.
“We are under siege since a week. Since the start of the clashes, 113 people (from our side) have been killed, including six children,” Toubu chief Issa Abdelmajid told AFP by telephone.
He said another 241 members of his tribe have been wounded in the raging battles with members of the Zwai tribe.
Abdelmajid, a former opponent of Moamer Kadhafi who fought [his] forces in last year’s conflict, was previously tasked by the ruling National Transitional Council with monitoring Libya’s southeastern border.
At least 20 people from the Zwai tribe have also been killed and another 40 wounded in the clashes, said Yunus Zwai, spokesman for the Kufra local council.
“People from Toubu tribe are being helped by foreign elements from Chad and Sudan. We have arrested several Chadian and Sudanese fighters,” he said.
Both groups were using light arms when the fighting erupted, but the violence intensified, with the two sides firing rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns, local sources said.
“I appeal to the international community to intervene and stop these clashes which are aimed at exterminating my tribe,” said Abdelmajid.
“We tried calling the NTC but it has not responded,” he added.
Libya’s official LANA news agency quoted NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizi as saying that the situation in Kufra was “not calm.”
“There is an armed conflict between certain members of the society there in which several have been killed and wounded,” Harizi said on Monday without specifying the number of casualties.
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Members of the Toubu tribe are dark-skinned and present in southeastern Libya as well as in Chad, Sudan and Niger.
Kufra, with a population of about 40,000 people, is located in a triangle sharing borders with Egypt, Chad and Sudan…
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U.S. Troops Fire At Afghan Protesters
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2012/02/21/one-injured-us-troops-fire-protestors
Pajhwok Afghan News
February 21, 2012
One injured as US troops fire at protestors
By Farid Tanhaon
CHARIKAR: US troops have shot injured a man and detained five others during a protest against the alleged burning of the Quran at the Bagram Airbase in central Parwan province.
“Late on Monday, foreign soldiers burnt a few copies of the holy book along with garbage on the airfield,” an Afghan worker on the base, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Afghans working on the base, condemning the act, entered a physical fight with the US troops, Sameer said. Five workers were detained, he added.
The workers later informed local officials and residents, who gathered in front of the base to protest the alleged desecration, Sameer said.
The crowd swelled to more than 1,000 people who burned tyres near the base and a checkpoint. US soldiers opened fire on them, injuring one protestor, police officer Abdul Hafiz Motawakil said.
After the firing incident, the protesters started hurling stones at the base and chanting slogans against the US troops, he added.
Tribal elders, representatives of demonstrators and local officials later held a meeting with the 303rd Pamir police zone commander, Gen. Baba Jan, to discuss the issue.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people staged another protest in the Pul-i-Charkh area on the eastern outskirts of Kabul city against the Quran’s desecration. The protests called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
They also demanded an investigation into the burning incident and serious punishment for the perpetrators.
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World Chess Head Fears Syria Will Be Third World War
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/chess-head-fears-syria-will-be-3rd-world-war/453424.html
Moscow Times
February 21, 2012
Chess Head Fears Syria Will Be 3rd World War
By Howard Amos
One of the last men to speak to Moammar Gadhafi before his death, president of the World Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov warned Monday that a third world war could unfold in Syria.
Ilyumzhinov played a game of chess with the former Libyan leader last June as NATO bombs rained down on the civil war-ravaged country.
“What I saw in Libya is now repeating itself in Syria,” the former president of the Kalmykia republic told The Moscow Times. More than 5,000 people are estimated to have been killed in an 11-month uprising against the regime in Damascus.
If NATO began military action in Syria, “it would be the start of a third world war,” Ilyumzhinov said on the sidelines of an announcement about the upcoming World Chess Championship. “Next would be Iran and other countries with oil and gas — Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.”
Russia and China vetoed a motion on Syria at the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 3 that called for the resignation of President Bashar Assad, democratic reforms and a cessation of violence.
“The position of the Russian Federation was absolutely correct,” Ilyumzhinov said. “Assad has already gone the way of dialogue…That’s everything he must do, the other way is the spilling of blood and killing of people.”
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Gadhafi reportedly phoned Ilyumzhinov as rebels overran Tripoli less than two months before his death.
NATO is mounting a personal attack on Assad just as it did on Gadhafi, the Buddhist and chess fanatic said. “At the very beginning, there was a decision taken to kill one person — just like now.”
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Russia To Rebuild Military Airfields Near NATO Borders
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20120222/171463064.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 22, 2012
Russia to Rebuild Military Airfields near NATO Borders
KALININGRAD: The Russian Defense Ministry will modernize two airfields in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Commander of the Baltic Fleet Vice Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Wednesday.
“We are planning to increase the length of the runway to 3,500 meters at the airfield in Chkalovsk so that it would be able to receive any kind of aircraft, including Boeings and Airbuses,” Chirkov said.
The reconstruction will take about two years.
The Defense Ministry is also planning to rebuild an abandoned Soviet-era airfield for hydroplanes on the Baltic Spit.
The admiral said the Baltic Fleet will have at least four amphibious aircraft for reconnaissance and search-and-rescue missions by March 2013.
The importance of the Kaliningrad exclave, surrounded by NATO members Lithuania and Poland, to Russia’s national security has grown considerably in the past few years as Moscow searches for ways to counter the European missile shield.
Russia has recently activated a long-range radar in the region and is planning to deploy S-400 Triumf air defense systems and Iskander (SS-26 Stone) tactical missile systems there in the near future.
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Pakistan: Baloch Separatist Leader Welcomes U.S., NATO, Indian Intervention
http://tribune.com.pk/story/340137/will-support-foreign-intervention-whether-by-us-nato-or-india-barahmdagh/
Express Tribune
February 22, 2012
Will support US, Nato or Indian intervention: Brahamdagh Bugti
QUETTA: Supporting the US congressional bill on Balochistan, Baloch Republican Party’s self-exiled chief Brahamdagh Bugti has welcomed all foreign intervention in the province whether it is by the US, Nato or India.
“America must intervene in Balochistan and stop the ethnic cleansing of Baloch people,” said Brahamdagh, 30, as reporters listened with rapt attention to his telephonic address on Wednesday at the Quetta Press Club. “We know that foreign countries have their personal interest but we must think of our greater interest.”
A resolution was introduced on February 17 by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and co-sponsored by two other congressmen in the US House of Representatives, calling upon Pakistan to recognise the Baloch people’s right to self determination. The bill has outraged Pakistan and leaders and lawmakers have called it against the country’s sovereignty and an unwelcome intervention by the US.
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Balochistan, Pakistan’s least developed but largest province by area, has undergone a separatist insurgency since the country’s inception. The insurgency escalated into rampant violence after the 2006 murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the grandfather of Brahamdagh Bugti.
“The American resolution and committee formed for Balochistan is not against the sovereignty of Pakistan. Every country has the right to interfere or intervene [in another’s affairs] if there are state-sponsored human rights violations,” he said.
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