Rocket attacks fact of Afghan life

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan -- A voice over the public address system echoes through the cold air: "Rocket attack, rocket attack."

The announcement sends soldiers, civilian workers and journalists scurrying into the concrete bunkers, where they wile away the time chatting, or just shivering in the dark, listening for the dull thud of more detonations outside.

Rocket attacks onto Kandahar Air Field rarely cause significant damage, although NATO said eight service members, four Romanians and four Bulgarians, were wounded here last Sunday.

Nonetheless, the rockets are an annoyance, serving as a reminder that nine years into the war, NATO cannot prevent attacks on its main military base in southern Afghanistan.

For those caught in the open, the procedure is standard duck and dive. Hit the floor, face down. Cover the eyes. Hope the rocket doesn't land too close for injury or worse.

To protect against such attacks, there are blast walls everywhere. Kandahar Air Field is a maze of the things, each creating its own little section. It's inconvenient. Walking from one place to another isn't just a matter of getting quickly from point A to point B. You must learn to go around obstacles.

It's easy to get lost in the sameness of it all: drab, dusty, gray.

But no one bears any grudges against the walls.

Rocket impacts send shrapnel flying everywhere. The deadly chunks of white-hot metal are more likely to slam into the walls, not rip through the head or body.

When the first rocket detonates, the drill is to get down, then scramble to the nearest bunker. Take a seat. Be ready to stay there awhile.

In the dining facilities, in the office spaces in headquarters, in tents and compounds all across the airfield, people hit the deck. Then they hustle to the bunkers.

The base is a big target. There are 22,000 troops and civilians here, from about 20 countries, and it is getting bigger all the time. Most of the attacks are meant more to harass than anything else. The base defenses are state-of-the art; the rockets aren't.


Source:washingtonpost.com/

Afghan family STILL living in £3,000-a-week house funded by taxpayers - a year after ministers pledged to throw them out

An Afghan family are still living in a £1.2million home paid for by the taxpayer - more than a year after a minister pledged to thrown them out.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell ordered a complete overhaul of a system that allowed single mother Toorpakai Saiedi, 36, and her seven children to move into the property at a cost of £12,458 a month.
But nearly 14 months after this pledge the family - which receive a staggering £170,000 a year in benefits - are still living in luxury in the seven-bedroom home in Acton, West London.
The detached property in a charming tree-lined street has two large reception rooms, two kitchens, a dining room and a 100ft garden.
Today Mrs Saiedi's son Jawad - sporting a smart leather jacket - left the property in an almost-new Mini Cooper.
The 21-year-old business studies student told the Daily Mail: 'No one is going to throw us out of this house. We're here to stay.'
A neighbour added: 'The family has really taken to the house and they see it as their long-term home.
'They had hoped that the outrage would have gone away by now so they can quietly enjoy their huge home.
'But they don't seem to be short of money. The children are often wearing stylist new clothes and they have new cars.'
Neither the landlord nor the family, who have lived in Britain for eight years after applying for political asylum, did anything illegal but instead benefited from an extraordinary series of loopholes in Whitehall guidelines introduced in April 2008 for housing allowances.

More...Taxpayers pay £1,600-a-week for family of ex-asylum seekers to live in luxury five-storey home

Incredibly, under the Local Housing Allowance Scheme areas such as Acton are in the same rent band as wealthy Westminster. It also means landlords know the maximum they can charge.
When details of this arrangement became public, Mr Purnell demanded a full report from Ealing council, which housed the family in July 2008, and vowed to close loopholes that enabled Mrs Saiedi such high benefits.
£1.2 million 'council house': It costs the taxpayer £12,000 a month to house an Afghan single mother and her seven children here in Acton
At the time the shocked minister said: 'It was never intended that the local housing allowance should result in a payment of this magnitude.'
The property was bought in March 2008 for £1.2million by Ajit Panesar. The landlord insists he has simply followed the guidelines given to him under the housing scheme.
After arriving in Britain in 2001, the Afghan family claimed asylum and were granted indefinite leave to remain.
They have always lived in property paid for by local authorities - first in a three-bedroom terrace house in Enfield, North London, and then in a five-bedroom semi in Ealing.

They were there for nearly three years until the landlord of the property told the council the family would have to move out because he wanted to live in the house.
Mr Saiedi, a taxi driver, and his wife live separately but the size of the family meant they were entitled to a seven-bedroom home.
On Monday it emerged that a Somali family are living in a luxury £1.8million five-storey house in central London funded by the taxpayer.
Nasra Warsame, 40, has lived with seven of her children and her elderly mother in the six-bedroom house since October. Westminster council pays the £1,600-a-week rent for the former asylum seeker.
The Department for Work and Pensions said that it has now tightened up the legislation on council homes.
Families must now be limited to a five-bedroom house. If they are provided with a bigger house, the landlord can only charge the rate of a five-bedroom property.

Source:dailymail.co.uk