S&S - Afghan militants increase attacks on contractors

From my archive of press clippings:

Stars and Stripes


Afghan militants increase attacks on contractors


By Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post

Online Edition, Saturday, April 17, 2010


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban has begun regularly targeting U.S. government contractors in southern Afghanistan, stepping up use of a tactic that is rattling participating firms and could undermine development projects intended to stem the insurgency, according to U.S. officials.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Within the past month, there have been at least five attacks in Helmand and Kandahar provinces against employees of U.S. Agency for International Development contract companies who run agricultural projects, build roads, maintain power plants and work with local officials.

The USAID implementing partners, as the contract companies are known, employ mainly Afghans, who are overseen by foreigners. The their role is becoming increasingly important as more aid money floods into southern Afghanistan as part of a dual effort to generate goodwill and bolster the Kabul government.

A suicide car bomb that exploded Thursday evening outside a compound used by Western contractors in Kandahar was the latest and deadliest attack. The Associated Press reported that the blast killed at least six people wounded 16 other people, including at least two Americans, along with South African and Nepalese employees."

"At least one company working in Kandahar, Bethesda, Md.-based DAI, evacuated some employees to Kabul after the attack, the officials said."

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"Thursday’s attack came two days after Hosiy Sahibzada, 24, an Afghan who worked for DAI, was gunned down in Kandahar City. On Tuesday, an Afghan employee of Arlington-based International Relief & Development, was shot and killed in Helmand province’s Garmsir area.

The U.S. official in Kandahar said it would be foolish to think that the attacks were independent of one another. “This can’t be coincidental,” he said. “This is what they’re doing now.”"

S&S - Contractor gets probation for Afghanistan shooting

Stars and Stripes

Contractor gets probation for Afghanistan shooting


By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes

Online edition, Friday, May 8, 2009


ARLINGTON, Va. – An Army contractor who pleaded guilty to shooting an Afghan man who set one of his teammates on fire will not be going to prison.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Don Michael Ayala was sentenced to five years of probation and a fine Friday in federal court. Ayala had faced up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Federal Judge Claude M. Hilton found that the attack on Ayala’s teammate, “Did provide provocation and would have provided provocation for anyone who was there at the time.”

Hilton also cited Ayala’s military record and the fact that the incident occurred in a hostile area as mitigating factors in the case.

Family of Ayala and Paula Loyd, the woman who was set on fire, wept when the verdict was read."

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"On Nov. 4, 2008, Ayala was working for an Army Human Terrain Team about 50 miles west of Kandahar when Loyd was attacked by an Afghan man named Abdul Salam, who lit a container of flammable liquid and threw it on her.

Loyd suffered severe burns over most of her body. She died on Jan. 7 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Ayala helped subdue Salam. When he learned how badly Loyd was burned, he shot Salam in the head, even though Salam was technically a prisoner at the time."