French Afghanistan hostages home, thin but grateful - Reuters India

Television journalists France 3 Herve Ghesquiere (R) and Stephane Taponier of waves at a press conference after their arrival at the military airport of Villacoublay near Paris on June 30, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jacky NaegelenBy Thierry Chiarello

PARIS. Thursday, June 30, 2011 3 pm IST

PARIS (AFP) - two French television journalists held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban during 18 months arrives back in France on Thursday, pale and Ghent but visibly exalted as they were welcomed by the French President and their families.

France television 3 Herve Ghesquiere reporter and cameraman Stephane Taponier, whose long test became a national cause among the French public, were released Wednesday after a sudden breakthrough in the negotiations.

They were blocked up to 24 hours a day with only two toilets short morning and evening breaks. Inadmissible or windows covered means that little light from the Sun, they have seen.

"We had to be very solid and very strong." We actually structure our time, not get bogged down in boredom and despair, "Ghesquiere said to journalists at a military airport near Paris.

"One day, Stephane said that the difference between us and the regular prisoners is that a prisoner can count the days of his sentence, whereas we could count them, but we knew when he was in the end," said Ghesquiere.

"They were very long days," said Taponier. "But we knew that the most important thing was to follow our morale".

Seized about 60 km (37 miles) outside Kabul, December 30, 2009, Ghesquiere and Taponier captivity was the longest of any French hostages since the crisis of the Lebanese hostages in the 1980s.

The French Government denied any ransom was paid for the release of two men and their Afghan Reza Din interpreter. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said details revealing negotiations could damage efforts to free the other French hostages in Africa.

SARKOZY REMAINS LOW PROFILE

President Nicolas Sarkozy could get a lift to his low popularity of release of the hostages, 10 months before the election presidential, but he and his wife Carla Bruni greeted the pair of television cameras.

Sarkozy telephoned Ghesquiere girlfriend tell him of his release, his capture while she was at a demonstration to mark the anniversary of 18 months of his capture.

The pair said they were treated well and never beaten or bound. Meals consisted of small portions of local food.

"We didn't have much to eat and it is always the same thing," Ghesquiere said. "When you have nothing to do, you really live to eat." It was really hard. Food seems unimportant, but it is really essential.

The France, who has lost 63 soldiers outside its quota of 2 000 troops in Afghanistan, said this month that he would follow the United States by bringing home its soldiers at the beginning.

The France still has eight nationals detained abroad, three Yemen, four in the region of the Sahel and in Somalia.

(Written by Catherine Bremer; editing by Robert Woodward)

NATO "top kills Haqqani activist in Afghanistan" - BBC News

June 30, 2011, update at 10: 42 GMT smoke descriptions of the Intercontinental Hotel after the attack on Tuesday night, the forces of NATO in Afghanistan say that they have killed a senior militant they suspected of involvement in the attack of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Jan Ismail died in an airstrike in the province Eastern Paktia Wednesday, said of the alliance.

Correspondents of the BBC say that he is Commander leading the Haqqani network, which is linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

NATO intelligence and Afghans believe Haqqani members helped to mount the attack on the hotel, which killed at least 20.

No there is currently no independent confirmation of the death of Jan Ismail.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the hotel, but NATO says that it was carried out jointly with the Haqqani network. The Group has bases in Pakistan but focuses its attacks on the border, in Afghanistan.

He was charged to carry out a number of canon of prestige and the bombings in Afghanistan in recent years.

A statement by the force of ISAF, said that Jan was suspected of supporting "material" the attackers of the Kabul Hotel.

He said he had been killed in what he called a "precision airstrike" keep district.

"" Ismail Jan was Deputy to the higher Commander Haqqani in the Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan. "."Jan and several Haqqani fighters had been killed in strike, said the statement.

She added that he had hunted after information from Afghan officials, citizens, and "vote" insurgents.

Ismail Jan operated in and around the neck of Khost-Gardez, a rugged and wooded near the border region between Pakistan and was blamed for having carried out attacks against Afghan and NATO targets.

"Mistakes".

In Kabul, it appeared that at least two of the attackers intercontinental wore the uniform of the police, raising questions about the issue of whether the activists had received inside help.

In addition, the researchers want to know how the attackers managed to pass in the huge quantities of weapons and ammunition.

Previous attacks have led the intelligence officials to conclude that the Haqqani network has entered Afghan security at the highest level.

The BBC Sarwary Bilal in Kabul, said police officers are now interviewed on what many regard as glaring security holes in one of the apparently more secure locations in the capital.

Afghan forces are also accused of being slow to arrive on the scene once the attack Tuesday night had begun.

NATO air support was called before finally calm.

Correspondents say the Intercontinental, which is not part of the chain of hotel international of the same name, is one of the most heavily guarded Kabul hotels.

But a Security Ministry official told the BBC that activists could have exploited a flaw in security due to renovations.

Kabul - the theatre of many attacks of recent years - has been relatively stable so far this year, although the violence has increased across the country since the murder of bin Laden in Pakistan on 2 May and the beginning of the Taliban in the "Spring" offensive

In January 2008, militants have stormed most popular hotel in the capital, la Serena and killed eight people, including an American, a Norwegian and a woman in the Philippines.

Troops from the NATO 6 killed in attack at Afghanistan (PA) (Yahoo!)

By HEIDI VOGT and MIRWAIS KHAN, Associated Press Heidi Vogt and Mirwais Khan, Associated Press - ago hours 3 mins

Kabul, Afghanistan - a suicide attacker blew a minibus packed with explosives near the doors of a military base in the South of the Afghanistan Sunday, killing six and two Afghan soldiers, NATO troops responsible for said.

Said Afghan officials that the attack took place in Zhari district of Kandahar province where United States contributed troops this summer for a thrust forces to try to prevent the Taliban bastions of the South.

Abdul Hamid, the Afghan national army and head of the province, said that the attacker driving a minibus at the entrance of the base Sunday morning as vehicles were preparing to move a patrol.

"They were leaving the compound and at the same time, the minibus attacked and hit right at the entrance of the base," Hamid said.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying: the insurgent group was retaliation all attacks on them in the region in recent months.

Only NATO declared that service members were killed by rebel attack and declined to identify their nationality. Most of the troops from NATO in the South are American. International troops more than 670 killed so far this year, well above the 502 killed throughout 2009.

Attack on Sunday was the second incident in two weeks to kill so many members of the service. November 29, a sound activated Afghan police weapon its American trainers East, killing six of them until he was shot. The Taliban claimed that they had sent him to join the police as a sleeper agent. Prior to this, five American soldiers were killed insurgent attack on 14 November on their unity in the East of the Afghanistan.

Also Sunday, said NATO a joint force of NATO-Afghanistan killed a Taliban leader and captured a member key from another activist in the East.

Taliban leader participated in the smuggling of weapons and attacks in the Eastern province of Wardak, according to a statement. NATO he identified only by his surname, Fedahi.

NATO said two men threatened coalition that entry into compound Saturday evening where they had heard about Fedahi staying troops. They shot and killed two men, one was later identified as Fedahi, said the Declaration. Told civil steps were harmed in the operation.

Of a separate raid in the Eastern province of Khost Saturday night, troops from the NATO and the Afghanistan captured the Haqqani network leader, a Taliban faction based Pakistan linked to al-Qaeda.

Coalition troops boarded the insurgents in an enclosure in the said district of Terayzai, NATO. The prisoner, he said, led attacks bomb and ambushes against Afghan and coalition troops.