World

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented on Saturday the breakdown in trust between Germany and the United States amid a spying row that saw the CIA chief in Berlin expelled from the country.

“The thing we always have to keep in mind when we are working together is if the person across the table is possibly working at the same time for someone else, that for me isn’t a trusting relationship,” she told German ZDF television in a pre-recorded interview.

“Here we obviously have different points of view and we need to talk to one another,” Merkel said, adding that she had “naturally hoped for a change” in Washington’s behaviour.

The US on Friday hinted at displeasure with Germany over its handling of the spying row after the CIA station chief in Berlin was thrown out of the country.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who previously declined to go into detail about the row because it touched on intelligence matters, offered a window into US thinking.

“Allies with sophisticated intelligence agencies like the United States and Germany understand with some degree of detail exactly what those intelligence relationships and activities entail,” Earnest said.

“Any differences that we have are most effectively resolved through established private channels, not through the media.”

Some US officials have privately expressed frustration with Germany’s angry reaction to the reported discovery that two government officials were working for the CIA and its decision to respond in a highly public manner by expelling the spy agency’s Berlin chief — an unusual display of fury by Germany towards its ally.

The scandal, which follows German complaints that the National Security Agency tapped Merkel’s mobile phone, has seen the chancellor come under political pressure to respond.

“We no longer live in the Cold War era where everyone is suspicious of everyone. I think the secret services in the 21st century should concentrate on important issues,” Merkel said. “We work very closely with the Americans and I hope that will continue.”

She repeated however that the espionage affair would not jeopardise negotiations between Berlin and Washington over a transatlantic trade deal.

‘Trust and mutual respect’ 

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier reacted to the scandal by saying he wanted a revived partnership with Washington, based on “trust and mutual respect”.

He pledged to begin rebuilding confidence at a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna over the weekend.

Steinmeier has been one of a number of German politicians who have spoken frankly and openly about the espionage drama, in a way which appears to have irritated Washington.

The two nations cooperate broadly on foreign policy and on intelligence matters, including on the vital work of trying to detect and disrupt terror plots.

Germany has in the past sought a “no spying” pact with Washington similar to US agreements with Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, but the US government balked at a deal that could set a precedent for others.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Donetsk, one of the last bastions of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, has become a ghost town as residents clog the roads and railway stations in a desperate scramble to escape advancing government troops.

The self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Oleksandr Borodai, claims more than 70,000 of the city’s 900,000 inhabitants have already fled as Kiev’s forces move within 20 kilometres of the city.

Every train was full on Friday as residents calmly joined long queues to buy tickets.

“I have lived here more than 40 years and it is very difficult for me to leave this town. But there is no other solution,” says Natalia, who was catching a train to Dnipropetrovsk, 250 kilometres west, from where she plans to cross the border into Russia.

She is fleeing after months of daily “bombardments” by Ukrainian government planes, which have laid seige to the separatist stronghold.

“The planes fly near my house permanently and fire on the town,” she says.

Watching over a pile of bags, a man in his fifties prepared to join his parents in Russia with his daughters and grandchildren.

“Everything is shutting down,” says the man, who did not give his name. “There is nothing to do here. No work — and it is getting too dangerous.”

Stall-keepers and shoppers at a small market outside the station jump at the sound of artillery fire that breaks out sporadically a few kilometres away at the airport, where the separatists and government forces are vying for control.

“It is very scary,” says Yaroslava, who runs a stall selling sunglasses. “But we do not want to leave. We just want to survive and to no longer be bombarded.”

No time for football

The exodus from Donetsk is also taking place by road.

“I would say that one car in five is filled with refugees,” says a young separatist volunteer manning a roadblock around 20 kilometres east of the city.

“But me, I’m not going anywhere. My mother and my two grandmothers are buried here, so I will fight, even though I have sent my wife to Russia.”

Minibuses and trams are still operating in the city, but cars and pedestrians are sparse. There are hardly any cafes or restaurants open and those that are hurry to close up before nightfall.

Only food stores appear to be functioning normally. Banks and any shops that could be pillaged have shut long ago.

Rumours of imminent clashes and military offences are rife, echoing around social media and increasing hopes and tensions throughout the city.

Ukraine’s military says it controls all routes in and out of Donetsk, and have vowed reprisals after 30 government troops were killed by defiant rebels in the past 48 hours.

On the outskirts of the city, the rebels manning the roadblocks are on high alert. Some passers-by offer them packets of cigarettes or biscuits.

The Vostok (East) Battalion is in charge of one barricade. One of the most professional and organised of the rebel units, they have vowed to “defend the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic” and “reclaim our land”.

That means sacrifices, said one rebel. Still, he predicts “we will have time to watch the football final on Sunday,” referring to the World Cup final between Argentina and Germany.

DONETSK, Ukraine — Panicked refugees flooded highways and packed trains heading out of the main remaining rebel strongholds in eastern Ukraine on Saturday fearing an attack by government forces who lost 30 servicemen to defiant militants.

Separatists killed 19 troops in a hail of heavy rocket fire on Friday near the Russian border in a bloody reminder of their resolve to reverse the recent tide of government gains across the east of the country.

The military said four other troops died elsewhere on Friday and seven more were killed overnight in attacks that also left more than 120 soldiers wounded.

Ukraine’s new Western-backed leader vowed to step up the push east and take revenge on the militias responsible, which could shatter all hopes of a truce.

“The rebels will pay for the life of every one of our servicemen with tens and hundreds of their own,” President Petro Poroshenko told an emergency security meeting.

The militant talk convinced many in the million-strong eastern industrial hub of Donetsk — where gunmen who have been abandoning surrounding cities since last weekend have been retreating — that their city was about to be bombed.

The local mayor rushed out to meet Poroshenko on Friday to discuss measures that could “avoid bloodshed, and the use of air strikes and heavy artillery”.

But separatists in control of Ukraine’s coal mining capital said locals were not taking any chances after three months of fighting that has claimed 550 lives and sparked the worst East-West stand-off since the height of the Cold War.

Rebel commander Igor Strelkov told reporters that a “spontaneous evacuation” was also under way in the neighbouring separatist bastion of Lugansk.

“I would say that one car in five is filled with refugees,” said a young separatist volunteer manning a roadblock around 20 kilometres east of Donetsk.

‘Kremlin puppets’ 

Political talk shows in the city on Friday were filled with people questioning tactics, and demanding to know why most of the rebels were allowed to slip out of the towns and cities they had abandoned in recent days.

Poroshenko had last Saturday proclaimed the seizure of Slavyansk — the symbolic heart of the uprising — a turning point in a conflict set off by the ousting in February of Ukraine’s former Kremlin-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, and Russia’s subsequent seizure of Crimea.

In a rare move, EU leaders this weekend joined Russia in trying to dampen Kiev’s newfound bravado and convince Poroshenko to launch direct truce talks with the separatists.

The EU said Saturday that it was also adding 11 separatist leaders to the names of 61 Russians and pro-Kremlin Ukrainians blacklisted for their roles in enflaming the conflict.

But Poroshenko’s top aide said that all talks with the rebels were off.

“Those who call themselves leaders of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are nobodies — they are puppets, servants of the Kremlin,” presidential administration chief Yuriy Lutsenko told Kiev’s Inter television.

“The only possible side that can be involved in negotiations is Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he said.

The possibility of such talks being held as early as Sunday emerged when the Brazilian government said the Ukrainian leader had accepted an invitation to attend the World Cup football final in Rio de Janeiro, where Putin will also be present.

Poroshenko’s office could not immediately confirm the announcement.

Poroshenko’s security headaches have been compounded by the threat of Ukraine going bankrupt if it fails to quickly adopt deeply unpopular austerity measures demanded under the terms of an emergency Western bailout deal.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team was due to leave Kiev on Saturday after checking whether Ukraine had done enough to merit the second tranche of a $17 billion (12.5 billion euro) loan as part of a broader $27 billion international package.

Standard and Poor’s delivered a rare dose of good news to Poroshenko by revising to “stable” from “negative” Ukraine’s credit rating based on the conviction that the IMF would not abandon Kiev at this stage.

“Full disbursement of the IMF programme and related multilateral lending should enable Ukraine to meet its external financing needs over the next year,” S&P said.

The two-year international programme is meant to make up for a $15 billion package Russia had extended to former president Yanukovych for his November decision to ditch a historic EU trade and association pact.

His overthrow and the new government’s signature of the European deal helped provoke the ongoing insurgency that saw Russia withdraw its aid.

BERLIN — Germany on Thursday expelled the US secret services station chief in Berlin in an escalating row over alleged American spying against its long-time European ally.

The worst diplomatic rift in years comes after two suspected US spy cases were uncovered in less than a week in Germany, where anger still simmers over the US National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance scandal sparked by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

“The representative of the US intelligence services at the embassy of the United States of America has been told to leave Germany,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, announcing a highly unusual move among NATO allies.

The demand was based on two probes by German prosecutors of suspected US spying “as well as outstanding questions over the last several months about the activities of the US secret services in Germany”, said Seibert.

“The government takes these developments very seriously,” he added in a statement.

The White House refused to comment, but the US embassy in Berlin and the National Security Council both stressed that it is “essential” that cooperation continue on security matters as “it keeps Germans and Americans safe”.

Merkel — whose mobile phone was in the past targeted by the NSA — pointedly reminded the United States that security “depends on trust” between allies.

Her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was far more outspoken, fuming about the suspected US spying that “so much stupidity just makes you want to cry”.

In the latest case, German police on Wednesday searched the Berlin-area home and office of a man who, local media reported, is a German defence ministry employee accused of passing secrets to the United States.

The case followed news last Friday that a 31-year-old German BND foreign intelligence service operative had been arrested, suspected of having sold over 200 documents to the CIA.

Merkel ‘not amused’ 

The documents provided by the BND mole reportedly included papers on a German parliamentary panel that is probing the NSA’s mass surveillance activities and the extent of German cooperation in the snooping.

The five ring binders, the contents of which were transferred digitally via a USB stick, were thought to contain instructions from Merkel’s office to the head of the BND and an overview of the agency’s network of overseas posts, Die Welt daily reported.

While German politicians across party lines have deplored the covert activities as a betrayal of trust by Washington, the German foreign ministry has twice discussed the case with the US ambassador in Berlin in recent days.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere meanwhile dismissed the damage done in the latest reported spy cases, saying that “based on what we know now, the information gained through this alleged espionage is ridiculous”.

Schaeuble, a former interior minister, acknowledged that transatlantic intelligence cooperation had foiled terrorist threats in the past.

But he said this did not mean “the Americans may recruit third-rate people” in Germany as their secret sources, according to public broadcaster Phoenix.

“That’s why the chancellor is ‘not amused’,” he added, using the English phrase for Merkel’s response to the latest news.

Merkel later said that “common sense tells us that spying on one’s allies... is a waste of energy. We have so many problems that we should, in my view, focus on the essentials”.

The chancellor said she saw “a very different approach” on both sides of the Atlantic “as to what the job of intelligence services is... after the end of the Cold War”.

She mentioned common threats for the allies, such as the Syria conflict, and said: “I think that in these times, which can be very confusing, very much depends on trust between allies... More trust can mean more security.”

A conservative lawmaker on the NSA affair inquest panel, Roderich Kiesewetter, meanwhile said Thursday that government technicians confirmed that his mobile phone had been bugged, public broadcaster SWR reported.

OLENIVKA, Ukraine — Ukraine warned on Thursday that its “all-out” assault on pro-Russian insurgents may last another month and rejected calls for a ceasefire as it pushed tanks within striking distance of the rebels’ two remaining strongholds.

An AFP reporting team about 20 kilometres south of the eastern hub of Donetsk — a million-strong city to which most of the militias have retreated since the weekend — saw heavy armoured vehicles fan out across the rolling corn and sunflower fields.

An earthmover’s engine stuttered in the stifling heat as it dug trenches to help troops dodge artillery strikes from thousands of insurgents who are refusing to give up their bloody three-month drive to join Russian rule.

“We arrived here last night,” said a balaclava-wearing soldier named Yuriy as his comrades stretched electric cables to a nearby farm to power up their equipment.

AFP reporters 30 kilometres west of Donetsk also heard echoes of heavy artillery fire around the town of Korlivka — held by the separatists since early April with the alleged help of Russian financial and military support.

The interior ministry added to the confident new tone by reporting the launch of “an all-out attack... across several parts of the front”.

But what may have looked like bravado just a few weeks ago seemed to be bearing out the streets of eastern industrial cities that were once the economic driving engine of both the Soviet Union and Ukraine but now resemble half-gutted ghost towns.

Donetsk’s separatist “prime minister” Oleksandr Borodai admitted that he was on the verge of ordering a partial evacuation of the city because his men had not received additional shipments of heavy arms they had urgently sought from Moscow.

“Russia must be ready to receive several hundred thousand refugees,” he told reporters.

Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Stanislav Rechinsky announced on state television that it looked like the last of the eastern insurgency would be crushed “within a month”.

Rechinsky added “there will be no air or artillery strikes” against Donetsk or its neighbouring rebel hub of Lugansk. The toll in the low-scale war had already claimed more than 500 lives.

But Kiev confirmed the death of five more servicemen in rebel attacks that have already killed more than 200 soldiers and volunteer troops.

No talks with ‘terrorists’

Fears of a civil war breaking out on the EU’s eastern frontier have redoubled European efforts to force Kiev to negotiate truce terms that could help calm the most explosive East-West stand-off since the Cold War.

The tide in the conflict turned Saturday when insurgents abandoned their Slavyansk bastion — a city of 120,000 now emptied of half its population and in dire need of fresh water and medical supplies.

Kiev paints the insurgency as a proxy war being waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin in reprisal for the February ouster of an allied administration and the collapse of his dream to push Ukraine into a powerful new post-Soviet bloc.

But Kiev’s recent string of military successes have alarmed European leaders who were hoping to secure a truce to take pressure off the bloc from adopting further economic sanctions that might damage its strong energy and financial ties with Russia.

EU leaders resisted Washington’s calls to be firmer with Putin, and on Wednesday only promised to add 11 new names to its list of 61 Russians and Ukrainian separatists targeted by travel and financial bans.

Moscow has shrugged off such measures and Russia’s wobbly stock market has rebounded in the belief that Europe was too concerned about its own economy to unleash meaningful punitive steps.

 ‘Skype talks’
with rebels 

Ukraine’s Western-backed President Petro Poroshenko this week said talks with rebel commanders — demanded on a nearly-daily basis by Putin and his top ministers — were impossible because they had gone into hiding in Moscow.

But the new Kiev leaders have also been keen to avoid drawing the ire of EU leaders whose political and financial backing is vital to their survival in the face of the Russian threat.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin on Thursday for the first time suggested contacting the militia leaders by videoconference.

“We live in a modern world. Why not start our negotiations by videoconference using Skype?” Klimkin asked.

KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian government forces on Wednesday warned separatists in the eastern town of Donetsk that a plan was now in place to take back the territory they occupy, but rebels defiantly reported a steady flow of new recruits who were ready to fight.

The Ukrainian military pushed the rebels out of their best-fortified stronghold in the town of Slaviansk on Saturday, but they have regrouped for a stand in Donetsk, a city of nearly a million people. Rebels also still control strategic buildings in Luhansk near the Russian border.

Separatists said on Tuesday that Igor Strelkov, an enigmatic Russian military officer from Moscow who until the weekend led rebels in Slaviansk, had assumed command for the “defence of Donetsk”.

President Petro Poroshenko has ruled out using air strikes and artillery that might endanger civilians and said on Tuesday night: “There will be no street fighting in Donetsk.”

But the government, all the same, says it has a plan to retake Donetsk and Luhansk and deliver a “nasty surprise” for the rebels.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko repeated the threat on Wednesday. 

“There’s a plan to liberate Ukrainian territory from the terrorists, and it doesn’t depend on the readiness or the unreadiness of Strelkov and his underlings to defend, as they call it, the Donbass.

“The plan will be carried out to perfection,” he said.

But separatists in charge of a “mobilisation” centre for the self-proclaimed “people’s republic” said on Wednesday that recruitment of new fighters was continuing at a pace since Strelkov made an appeal for fresh recruits on Tuesday.

About 300 volunteers had come forward to join up since Tuesday, many more than the usual number of 25-30 people per day, separatists at the centre said.

Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting government forces in the Russian-speaking east since April in a conflict in which more than 200 Ukrainian troops have been killed as well as hundreds of civilians and rebels.

The conflict has driven relations between Russia and the ex-Soviet republic to an all-time low and sparked the worst crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the Cold War.

After a patchy performance at the start of the campaign, government forces have been re-invigorated by the Slaviansk victory and signs that rebel calls on Russia for help are now going unheeded.

Hundreds of rebels are setting up new barricades and digging in to positions on the outskirts of the sprawling city since pouring into the city from Slaviansk and nearby areas recaptured by the government.

Paying new fighters

Many of the rebel fighters are from Russia, though Moscow denies supporting their revolt, which began in April after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula following the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev.

Despite the rebels claim of a strong flow of recruits, Strelkov, also known as Igor Girkin, appeared to be disappointed at the number of volunteers coming forward. He told a local rebel TV station that volunteers would be offered monthly pay of 5,000-8,000 hryvnia ($430 to $690) from now on to fight.

“Maybe this will help those people who are hesitating to find the strength in themselves and join the ranks,” he said.

But Lysenko derided this as an empty offer: “The terrorists are resorting to all methods to deceive the local population. We are coming across leaflets with promises that they are ready to ... pay 8,000 hryvnia and 20,000 Russian roubles ($600) per month. They are stopping at nothing to try and persuade people to come over to their side.”

Many men of fighting age were wary of the call to arms.

In Donetsk, Evhen, a 35-year-old who runs his own business, said: “I personally would only join if the situation became really critical. I never did military service and I have no military experience. I support the idea [of insurgency], but there is no clear support [from Russia]. Sensible people worry about how it will all end.”

A 19-year-old who would not give his name said: “I won’t join them. For a start, I want a united country. Secondly, there are an awful lot of marginals among them. There are robbers. They frighten people and take away their businesses and cars.”

Appeal for aid

In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk meanwhile appealed to Western institutions and donors for further cash and credit to rebuild infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings in the east that have been shattered by the conflict.

But he expressed confidence that Ukraine’s compliance with criteria set by the International Monetary Fund meant the Kiev government was on course to secure soon a second tranche of $1.5 billion under a $17 billion IMF programme.

The ex-Soviet republic received a first slice of slightly more than $3 billion in May under a programme drawn up to help it plug holes in its budget and settle a big foreign debt.

But Ukraine told international donors on Tuesday in Brussels that the fund’s bailout was not enough to bring about a full recovery because of the drain caused by the cost of the war against the separatists, and it called on them to join in a “Marshall Plan” to further help Ukraine’s recovery.

Ukraine’s turn towards the West and away from Moscow has cost it billions of dollars in promised Russian support for an economy on the verge of bankruptcy after years of rule rated by watchdogs as among the world’s most corrupt.

Taking up the same theme on Wednesday, Yatseniuk said Ukraine needed further aid to establish functioning infrastructure on the border with Russia.

In addition, Ukraine wanted help to meet an estimated cost of 8 billion hryvnia (about $700,000) to rebuild infrastructure.

Yatseniuk said Ukraine would also want donors’ help to work out a “post-rehabilitation” programme to regenerate the Donbass — an economically depressed eastern region of decaying infrastructure in the key steel and coal industries — which has become the battleground for the insurgency.

Ukraine accused Russia of abducting a woman army officer who was captured by separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine.

Nadezhda Savchenko, 33, was seized by pro-Russian rebels in June while she was fighting with pro-government militia on the outskirts of Luhansk on the border with Russia, local media say.

Demanding her release, the foreign ministry said in a statement that Savchenko’s abduction was “yet more confirmation that the terrorists plan and carry out their crimes in Ukraine in close contact with the intelligence services of the Russian Federation”.

“By openly abducting citizens of Ukraine on the territory of their state, the Russian authorities not only violate all international norms but also exceed elementary norms of decency and morality,” the statement added.

In Moscow, Russian investigative committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said the committee had brought charges against Savchenko of involvement in the deaths of two Russian reporters who were killed near the city of Luhansk.

Markin said it had been established that Savchenko served in Ukraine’s armed forces and was a gunner of a Mi-24 helicopter.

JAKARTA — Both candidates claimed victory in Indonesia’s presidential election on Wednesday, suggesting there could be a drawn out constitutional battle to decide who will next lead the world’s third-largest democracy.

Just a few hours after voting closed, Jakarta governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he had won, based on quick counts of more than 90 per cent of the votes. A victory for him would be seen as a triumph for a new breed of politicians that has emerged in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and increase the promise of desperately needed reform in government.

But ex-general Prabowo Subianto, the rival candidate viewed as representative of the old guard that flourished under decades of autocratic rule, said other, unnamed, quick counts of votes favoured him.

Jokowi, on other hand, named tallies by six pollsters, most regarded as reliable and independent. The included three respected, non-partisan agencies — CSIS, Kompas and Saifulmujani — which provided accurate tallies in the April parliamentary election.

The quick counts are conducted by private agencies which collate actual vote tallies as they come out of each district. The results however are unofficial: The Election Commission will take about two weeks to make an official announcement and the new president is not due to take office until October 1.

“There are many quick counts from various survey agencies. But... the one that will be valid according to law in the end will be the verdict of the KPU [Election Commission],” Prabowo told a talk-show on a television channel.

A senior aide to Jokowi said the party would not take any action like naming a Cabinet until the official result is announced on or around July 22.

“We’ve waited months. We can wait another 2 to 3 weeks for the [Election Commission’s] final verdict,” Luhut Panjaitan told Reuters.

The stand-off is unprecedented in Indonesia, a member of the G-20 group of nations that is holding only its third direct presidential election. In both the previous elections, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, now the outgoing president, won by a clear margin.

There have been concerns of violence once the result is known, a worry alluded to by Yudhoyono’s administration.

“For both groups of supporters related with the split quick count results, we request they do not mobilise their supporters excessively,” said Djoko Suyanto, coordinating minister for legal, political and security affairs.

There were no reports of any major violence. Around 250,000 police officers were on stand-by across Indonesia, authorities said.

It has been the dirtiest and most confrontational campaign in memory in a country which traditionally holds up the value of consensus politics.

Ahead of the vote, the two candidates had been neck and neck in opinion polls as Jokowi lost a huge early lead in the face of smear campaigns and a far more focused, and expensive, race for the presidency by his rival.

“Today the people have decided a new direction for Indonesia... This is a new chapter for Indonesia,” Jokowi told hundreds of supporters at Proclamation Square, where the country’s first president Sukarno declared independence in 1945.

At the same time, Jokowi offered conciliatory words to his rival, Prabowo, saying he was a patriot and contributed to a better democracy.

Prabowo countered with his own declaration of victory.

“[The quick counts]show that we, Prabowo-Hatta, have received the support and mandate from the people of Indonesia,” he told a rally in the capital, referring to his running mate Hatta Rajasa.

After the official result is declared, candidates can challenge the results in the constitutional court, the final arbiter over contested polls.

The court’s reputation has been badly tarnished after its chief was sentenced to jail for life this month for corruption.

KABUL — Fighting in Afghanistan is spreading into populated areas and taking a record toll on civilians, the UN warned Wednesday, as presidential candidates urged supporters not to raise tensions after the disputed election result.

Political deadlock and soaring civilian casualties have caused deep disquiet among Afghanistan’s international backers, who sent tens of thousands of NATO-led soldiers and billions of dollars in aid to the country after 2001.

Claims that a functioning state has replaced the harsh Taliban regime look to be in jeopardy after presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah rejected the result of the June 14 run-off election, saying he was the victim of systematic fraud.

Security gains also appear fragile as the final 50,000 NATO troops end their combat mission by December, after 13 years of fighting that have failed decisively to defeat the Taliban insurgents.

Underlining the extent of the violence plaguing Afghanistan, a UN report revealed that civilian casualties of the conflict soared by 24 per cent in the first half of 2014.

Ground combat is now causing more deaths and injuries than improvised explosive devices in a worrying sign of spreading conflict.

“The nature of the conflict in Afghanistan is changing in 2014 with an escalation of ground engagements in civilian-populated areas,” warned Jan Kubis, chief of the UN mission chief in Afghanistan known as UNAMA.

“The impact on civilians, including the most vulnerable Afghans, is proving to be devastating.”

In the first six months of this year, UNAMA documented 4,853 civilian casualties — up 24 per cent on the same period in 2013.

The toll included 1,564 deaths and 3,289 injuries, with ground engagements causing two out of every five civilian casualties in 2014.

Fears that Afghanistan could see a return to the ethnic bloodshed of the 1992-1996 civil war have grown during the deepening election crisis.

Abdullah Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, came second in preliminary results to Ashraf Ghani, but Abdullah said the election was fraudulent and he expected to become the next president.

Abdullah’s vote base is among the Tajiks and other northern Afghan groups, while Ghani attracts much of his support from the Pashtun tribes of the south and east — an ominous echo of the ethnic divisions of the civil war.

 ‘Disturbing spiral’
of violence 

Afghan government forces face a demanding test in the coming years with declining assistance from the US-led military coalition that has trained and equipped them.

Recent weeks have seen fierce fighting in the southern province of Helmand, as the Afghan army and police counter-attack after an offensive by 800 Taliban fighters in an area from which US troops withdrew only in May.

On Wednesday 22 militants were shot dead after launching an attack on police headquarters and the provincial governor’s office in the southern city of Kandahar.

Five policemen and four civilians also died, the governor’s spokesman said.

“The fight is increasingly taking place in communities, public places and near the homes of ordinary Afghans, with death and injury to women and children in a continued disturbing upward spiral,” said Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights for UNAMA.

As anger among Abdullah’s supporters has increased over alleged election fraud, his campaign on Wednesday appealed for calm and said no street demonstrations should be held.

“We are calling for people not to protest and to wait for a few days to see what decisions are made,” a press official from Abdullah’s team told AFP.

Abdullah’s poll rival Ashraf Ghani, who says he won the election fairly, called for the election timetable to be respected.

The final result is due out around July 24 after adjudication of complaints and an anti-fraud audit.

US President Barack Obama stepped in to warn the two rivals against “resorting to violent or extra-constitutional means” — a response to reports that Abdullah planned to announce a parallel government.

“The United States expects a thorough review of all reasonable allegations of fraud to ensure a credible electoral process,” the White House said in a statement.

The UN has also called on both candidates to rein in their supporters, expressing concern that social media exchanges have fanned ethnic hatred.

Abdullah’s supporters took the street 10 days ago when reports emerged that Ghani was well ahead in the vote count, though protests have so far been peaceful.

President Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from a third term in office, has stayed publicly neutral in the lengthy election, but Abdullah supporters accuse him of fixing the vote in Ghani’s favour.

KABUL — The United States warned on Tuesday it would withdraw financial and security support from Afghanistan if anyone tried to take power illegally, as supporters of a presidential candidate rallied in Kabul for a parallel government.

Preliminary results announced on Monday showed that Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official, won the June 14 second round, but his rival Abdullah Abdullah immediately rejected the outcome, saying the vote was marred by widespread fraud.

Underscoring the magnitude of the crisis, Abdullah said US Secretary of State John Kerry would visit Kabul on Friday. Kerry arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The US-China talks finish on Thursday.

Thousands of Abdullah supporters gathered in the Capital Kabul on Tuesday, demanding their leader form a parallel Cabinet and unilaterally assert his own rule — a dangerous move that would further fracture the fragile country.

In a sharp warning, Kerry said there was no justification for violence or “extra-constitutional measures”.

“I have noted reports of protests in Afghanistan and of suggestions of a ‘parallel government’ with the gravest concern,” he said in a statement issued by the US embassy in Kabul.

“Any action to take power by extra-legal means will cost Afghanistan the financial and security support of the United States and the international community.”

Afghanistan is heavily reliant on foreign donors to fund everything from building roads and paying schoolteachers to security. The United States pays the lion’s share of all international aid.

Observers fear that a standoff between Abdullah and Ghani could plunge Afghanistan into disorder, with no clear leader in a country already beset by deep-rooted ethnic divisions.

Abdullah has accused President Hamid Karzai, who is stepping down after 12 years in power, of helping rig the vote in favour of Ghani, describing it as a “coup” against the people.

The standoff over the vote has quashed hopes for a smooth transition of power in Afghanistan, a concern for the West as most US-led forces withdraw from the country this year.

There are concerns, however, about how much Abdullah, who is popular among the powerful Tajik community in the north, would be able to control his supporters if the crisis escalated.

Thousands of his supporters vented their anger in Kabul on Tuesday, chanting “Death to Karzai”, tearing down a large portrait of the outgoing leader and replacing it with an image of Abdullah.

At the rally, Abdullah, visibly flustered by the size of the gathering, faced a roar of slogans demanding he immediately announce his own Cabinet, telling supporters to be patient.

“We are the winner of this round of elections without any doubt,” he told the flag-waving and whistling crowd.

“The people of Afghanistan call on me to announce my government today. This was and is a demand from the people of Afghanistan... We cannot ignore this call... Once again I ask you to give me a few days to consult and speak.”

The apparent softening of his tone comes after speaking by telephone with Kerry and US President Barack Obama.

“The main point in both US secretary of state’s and the president’s discussions was that John Kerry will come to Afghanistan on Friday and their promise was that they will be next to the people of Afghanistan in defending justice, fighting against fraud and revealing fraud,” Abdullah said.

US officials were not immediately available for comment.

Away from the city’s centre, Abdullah supporters also tore down another Karzai portrait at Kabul’s international airport.

Ghani, who is backed mainly by Pashtun tribes in the south and east of the country, sought to appear conciliatory on Tuesday, talking at length about Afghanistan’s unity and of his respect for Abdullah.

“His Excellency Dr Abdullah is a national figure, a respected figure so he wouldn’t lead to a parallel government,” he told reporters.

“We have backed all Abdullah’s demands to recount and audit suspicious votes for the sake of transparency... They have asked for the inspection of votes so they should rejoin the process.”

DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine on Tuesday brushed off strong European pressure and rejected talks with pro-Russian rebels on a truce to halt a bloody insurgency convulsing the ex-Soviet nation until they laid down their arms.

The unconditional stance reflected a new confidence in Kiev that it was on the verge of quashing an uprising it views as Moscow’s retribution for the February ouster of a Kremlin-backed leader and the decision to pursue a historic alliance with the West.

But it was also bound to frustrate EU leaders’ push for a diplomatic solution as well as the Kremlin’s own efforts to force Kiev to make compromises that would preserve the Russian-speaking east’s links to Moscow.

“Now, any negotiations are possible only after the rebels completely lay down their arms,” Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said in a statement.

Ukrainian forces have scored a string of surprise military successes since the weekend that forced most of the militias to retreat to the sprawling eastern industrial hubs of Donetsk and Lugansk — both capitals of their own “People’s Republics”.

President Petro Poroshenko has ordered his troops to blockade the insurgents inside the cities and cut them off from any further arms supplies.

But it was not immediately clear how the new pro-Western leader intended to force the militias to give up their three-month campaign to join Russian rule.

Lugansk separatist leader Valeriy Bolotov claimed on Tuesday that his men had managed to actually push back Ukrainian troops from part of the Russian border city, and receive fresh supplies of anti-aircraft and artillery guns.

He added that any future truce talks would be conducted “on our own terms”.

Poroshenko tore up a 10-day ceasefire on July 1 because of uninterrupted rebel attacks that claimed the lives of more than 20 Ukrainian troops.

Uneasy EU leaders are hoping that a new truce, and a Kremlin promise not to meddle can take pressure off the bloc to adopt sweeping sanctions that could damage their own strong energy and financial bonds with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday that “even if the situation in eastern Ukraine has shifted in favour of the Ukrainian security forces, there will be no purely military resolution of the conflict”.

Presidents Francois Hollande said he intended to press Poroshenko on Wednesday during a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

US defends eastern campaign 

But Washington has consistently backed the stepped-up campaign being waged by Ukrainian troops and irregular forces since Poroshenko’s promise after his election in May to quickly quash an uprising that has cost nearly 500 lives and inflamed East-West ties.

The United States views Ukraine’s territorial integrity as vital to European security and important to halting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seeming ambition to resurrect a tsarist or post-Soviet empire.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated on Monday that “the government of Ukraine is defending the country of Ukraine and I think they have every right to do that, as does the international community”.

Poroshenko on Tuesday dismissed the man who had headed Kiev’s self-proclaimed “anti-terrorist operation” since its launch on April 13 and replaced him with Vasyl Grytsak — a career security service officer.

The reshuffle was one of several in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and appeared to represent an attempt by Poroshenko to place trusted associates in top positions rather than any change in tactic in the campaign.

‘Tough choice’ for Putin 

Germany’s Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding said Putin now faced a tough choice between dealing a blow to Russia’s economy by further boosting support for the rebels or seeing his own popularity suffer by taking no action at all.

“He may either have to step up his support for the pro-Russian insurgents who are now on the defensive; or he may be seen as letting Ukraine advance on the ground in Donbass,” Schmieding wrote in reference to the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions.

“The former could trigger more serious sanctions and further capital flight from Russia. The latter could hurt his popularity and his ‘strongman’ image in Russia where [he] had whipped up nationalist sentiment in the last five months.”