Miranshah (Pakistan) (AFP) - Freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl developed a love for Afghan green tea, taught his captors badminton, and even celebrated Christmas and Easter with the hardline Islamists, a Pakistani militant commander told AFP Sunday.

Bergdahl, the only US soldier detained in Afghanistan since war began in 2001, was released Saturday in exchange for the freeing of five senior Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay, in a dramatic deal brokered by Qatar.

The army sergeant's almost five years in captivity saw him transferred between various militant factions along the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border, finally ending up in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district, according to militant sources.

A commander of the Haqqani network, a militant outfit allied with the Taliban with ties to Al-Qaeda, on Sunday painted a picture of a man who adjusted to his new life by engaging with his captors while clinging to aspects of his own identity.

"He was fond of kawa (Afghan green tea). He drank a lot of kawa all day, which he mostly prepared himself," the commander told AFP by phone from an undisclosed location in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Over time, Bergdahl, now 28, grew fluent in Pashto and Dari, he said.

Unlike the militants, who were mainly ethnic Pashtuns known for their voracious appetite for meat, Bergdahl "liked vegetables and asked for meat only once or twice a week", the commander said.

While the militants attempted to teach the soldier about Islam and provided him with religious books, he preferred more earthly pursuits.

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Bob and Jani Bergdahl, parents of freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, speak on May 31, 2014 at the White …

"He would spend more time playing badminton or helping with cooking," the militant chief said.

"He loved badminton and always played badminton with his handlers. In fact, he taught many fighters about the game," he added.

And the Idaho native made a point of celebrating the Christian festivals he was accustomed to back home, even inviting his captors to participate.

"He never missed his religious festivals. He used to tell his handlers they were coming up weeks before Christmas and Easter and celebrated it with them," he said.

Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst, said the militants would have regarded Bergdahl as a high-value asset and harming him would have had a negative impact on their propaganda efforts.

"These groups usually treat hostages that way," he said.

- Mystery still surrounds capture -

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On December 25, 2009, the Taliban's al-Emara Jihadi Studio released a video of US soldier Bowe B …

The insights into Bergdahl's life are the clearest to emerge since he was captured in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 and appeared in a Taliban video a month later.

"I was captured outside of the base camp. I was behind a patrol, lagging behind the patrol and I was captured," Bergdahl said in the video, later growing distraught when discussing his family.

According to the commander, Bergdahl then came under the custody of the late Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a key leader in the Haqqani network.

An Afghan Taliban source added that Bergdahl fell into the group's hands after initially being captured by a criminal outfit linked to the Taliban.

Militant sources disagree over the circumstances surrounding his capture, but several -- then and now -- described him as being "drunk".

The US military has never commented on the issue.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel demurred Sunday when asked by reporters if Bergdahl had gone AWOL (absent without leave) or deserted his post, saying only that "other circumstances that may develop, and questions -- those will be dealt with later".

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US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (C) speaks to media aboard a US military aircraft during a flight o …

"Sangeen kept him in Paktika, Paktia and parts of Khost before bringing him to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," the Haqqani commander said, referring to districts located in eastern Afghanistan.

Zadran was killed by a US drone strike in September 2013, after which Bergdahl was sent on to the Pakistani tribal zone of North Waziristan, where the feared Haqqani network -- known for their spectacular attacks on foreign forces -- are headquartered.

Following his capture, Bergdahl went on to appear in several more videos, sometimes appearing gaunt and taking a hostile line against the US-led war effort.

Attention is now likely to focus on whether he was coerced into making those statements as well as unravelling the mysterious nature of his capture.

- Operation to 'save his life' -

The operation to free Bergdahl was launched after intelligence showed that his health had deteriorated, Hagel said.

"We believed that the information we had ... was such that Sergeant Bergdahl's safety and health were both in jeopardy," he told reporters Sunday.

"It was our judgement that if we could find an opening and move very quickly with that opening, that we needed to get him out of there, essentially to save his life."

Some specifics of the operation "are classified and will remain that way", Hagel said.

"Fortunately, as you know, no shots were fired," he told reporters of the handover, according to a Pentagon transcript. "There was no violence.

"It went as well as we not only had expected and planned, but I think as well as it could have."

Bergdahl will now remain at the Landstuhl centre in Germany while he continues his "reintegration process," the army said. Officials had said Saturday he was in "good" condition.

"This is a guy who probably went through hell for the last five years," Hagel told NBC's "Meet the Press".

"Let's focus on getting him well and getting him back with his family."

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl celebrated with extremists and taught his captors badminton, a Taliban commander says.
Fond of Afghan tea

Afghans say Taliban prisoners freed by U.S. will rejoin battle

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5 Taliban Prisoners Released From Guantanamo

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By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - The release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a U.S. soldier has drawn criticism from some Afghans, who say the detainees are dangerous and will rekindle ties with terrorist networks to resume fighting, just as most foreign troops leave.

The men had been held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2002 and were classed by the Pentagon as "high-risk" and "likely to pose a threat".

Two are also implicated in the murder of thousands of minority Shi'ite Muslims in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. military.

They were released in a swap with U.S. army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the sole American prisoner of war held in Afghanistan who was flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany on Sunday.

"They will definitely go back to fight, if health-wise they are able to go," said a top official at Afghanistan's spy agency, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the topic.

"They will be very dangerous people, because they have connections with regional and international terror organizations around the world."

The Taliban denied the prisoners would return to battle but said the swap should not be regarded as a gesture of good will or a step towards the revival of peace talks between Islamist insurgents and the Afghan government.

"This is purely a negotiation between the Taliban and the Americans... It won't help the peace process in any way, because we don't believe in the peace process," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

The prisoners would return to their families and live in Qatar - the Gulf emirate that brokered the exchange - where they would lead normal lives, he added.

LOOSE ENDS

The prisoner swap comes just days after the United States announced plans to withdraw all but 9,800 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and the rest by 2016.

Many senior Afghan officials and diplomats say the drawdown will happen much faster than expected and reflects a U.S. desire to disengage from Afghanistan as quickly as possible.

The prisoner swap is further evidence of U.S. efforts to tie up as many loose ends as possible before leaving, diplomats say.

"They have made a mess of things," said one Western diplomat, frustrated with the pace of the drawdown.

In a further reflection of the rupture in relations between the two countries, the United States did not inform President Hamid Karzai's government about the swap in advance.

His palace declined to comment.

On the streets of the capital Kabul many expressed anger at the decision to release the five men, a contrast with scenes of celebration in Bergdahl's home town in Idaho.

"This decision showed that the region, Afghanistan and its people aren’t worth anything to American government," said Gul Mohammad, a high school teacher.

"Otherwise, why would they swap a useless army soldier who broke the law with the five most dangerous Taliban fighters?"

Some among Afghanistan's security forces also expressed unease about the release, which comes as the Taliban's summer offensive gathers pace ahead of a second round of voting in the presidential election on June 14.

"This act will boost the Taliban's morale and encourage them to fight harder to capture foreign soldiers. Now they are confident that their efforts won't be wasted," said army colonel Asadullah Samadi.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Rosalind Russell)

The five Gitmo detainees freed by the U.S. have connections with global terror organizations, an official says.
'Very dangerous'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday will roll out a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent by 2030, setting the first national limits on the chief gas linked to global warming.

The rule, which is expected to be final next year, is a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's plans to reduce the pollution linked to global warming, a step that the administration hopes will get other countries to act when negotiations on a new international treaty resume next year.

Despite concluding in 2009 that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, a finding that triggered their regulation under the 1970 Clean Air Act, it has taken years for the administration to take on the nation's fleet of power plants. In December 2010, the Obama administration announced a "modest pace" for setting greenhouse gas standards for power plants, setting a May 2012 deadline.

Obama put them on the fast track last summer when he announced his climate action plan and a renewed commitment to climate change after the issue went dormant during his re-election campaign.

"The purpose of this rule is to really close the loophole on carbon pollution, reduce emissions as we've done with lead, arsenic and mercury and improve the health of the American people and unleash a new economic opportunity," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has drafted a plan that informed the EPA proposal.

Power plants are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., accounting for about a third of the annual emissions that make the U.S. the second largest contributor to global warming on the planet.

Yet the rule carries significant political and legal risks, by further diminishing coal's role in producing U.S. electricity and offering options for pollution reductions far afield from the power plant, such as increased efficiency. Once the dominant source of energy in the U.S., coal now supplies just under 40 percent of the nation's electricity, as it has been replaced by booming supplies of natural gas and renewable sources such as wind and solar.

"Today's proposal from the EPA could singlehandedly eliminate this competitive advantage by removing reliable and abundant sources of energy from our nation's energy mix," Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement issued Sunday.

The White House said Obama called a group of Democrats from both the House and Senate on Sunday to thank them for their support in advance of the rule's official release, which is expected to be rigorously attacked by Republicans and make Democrats up for re-election in energy-producing states nervous.

EPA data shows that the nation's power plants have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 13 percent since 2005, or about halfway to the goal the administration will set Monday. The agency is aiming to have about 26 percent cut by 2020.

But with coal-fired power plants already beleaguered by cheap natural gas prices and other environmental regulations, experts said getting there won't be easy. The EPA is expected to offer a range of options to states to meet targets that will be based on where they get their electricity and how much carbon dioxide they emit in the process.

While some states will be allowed to emit more and others less, overall the reduction will be 30 percent nationwide.

The options include making power plants more efficient, reducing the frequency at which coal-fired power plants supply power to the grid, and investing in more renewable, low-carbon sources of energy. In addition, states could enhance programs aimed at reducing demand by making households and businesses more energy-efficient. Each of those categories will have a separate target tailor-made for each state.

Obama has already tackled the emissions from the nation's cars and trucks, announcing rules to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by doubling fuel economy. That standard will reduce carbon dioxide by more than 2 billion tons over the life of vehicles made in model years 2012-25. The power plant proposal will prevent about 430 million tons of carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere, based on the 30 percent figure and what power plants have already reduced since 2005.

The EPA refused to confirm the details of the proposal Sunday. People familiar with the proposal shared the details on condition of anonymity, since they have not been officially released.

Beinecke spoke Sunday on ABC's "This Week," before details of the proposal became public.

The proposal was first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.

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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

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The White House plan would require power plants to reduce pollution by 30 percent by 2030.
Chief gas linked to global warming

LUHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of armed insurgents attacked a border guards' camp in eastern Ukraine leaving at least five rebels dead, a spokesman for the guards said Monday.

Rebels in uniform near the Luhansk base promised safety for the officers if they surrendered and laid down their arms. The rebels, who have seized government and police buildings across east Ukraine and hope to join the region to Russia, have waged increasingly aggressive attacks on government-held checkpoints and garrisons in an attempt to seize weapons and ammunition from Ukrainian forces.

Serhiy Astakhov, the spokesman for the border guard service, told The Associated Press by telephone that a preliminary assessment indicated that five rebels were killed and eight injured in the attack on the camp in Luhansk, a major city not far from the Russian border. He also said even servicemen were injured, three seriously.

The initial attack by about 100 insurgents was met by firing from the border guards, and the number of attackers swelled to around 400 a few hours later. Astakhov said the fighting was continuing and that the Ukrainian forces had sent an airplane to the area, but still had been unable to quell the attack.

An AP reporter saw at least one dead rebel soldier about a kilometer away from the base. Fellow fighters approached and broke into tears as they viewed the body.

Though there appeared to be a lull in the fighting around 1.00 p.m. local time, it was unclear whether the battle had ended or whether the rebels were preparing to mount another attack. There was no clear evidence of the Ukrainian troops' air dispatch to the region.

One fighter in uniform, who gave his name as Vlad Sevastopolsky, said pro-Russian militants have surrounded the base but offered Ukrainian troops a safe corridor out, as long as they surrender their weapons. Sevastopolsky is from a rebel group based in the town of Antratsyt, another town in the Luhansk region.

Vladislav Seleznyov, press secretary for Ukraine's operation against the rebels in the east, described the base as an important coordinating node for border guards across the province, and said the attack may have been an attempt to disrupt communications.

Seleznyov also said there was another rebel attack Monday on a government checkpoint in Slovyansk, a city in the Donetsk region that has been an epicenter of the pro-Russian movement. He said rebels had mined a number of power plants in Slovyansk, which he claimed would be detonated if the government were to move on the city.

For weeks, Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine has been the scene of deadly clashes between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents.

Months of protests during last fall and winter drove pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country. Many in Ukraine's east are suspicious of the new pro-Western government in Kiev, and protests in favor of greater independence from the Ukrainian capital soon turned into a separatist movement as the Luhansk and Donetsk regions declared independence following hastily called referenda.

The conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine escalated markedly in the past week, with rebels attempting to seize a major airport and the shooting-down of a Ukrainian military helicopter.

In Moscow, the Russian defense ministry announced on Monday a military exercise involving the launch of high-precision missiles. The ministry said the maneuvers of the Western Military District will continue through Thursday and will involve the deployment of Iskander surface-to-surface missiles.

Moscow didn't specify the areas where the exercise will be held and made no mention of the situation in Ukraine.

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Leonard reported from Donetsk, Russia. Laura Mills in Kiev, Ukraine, and Vladimir Isachenkov and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Moscow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will urge European leaders this week to keep up pressure on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, while seeking to assuage fears from Poland and other NATO allies that the West could slip back into a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow.

Obama's four day trip to Poland, Belgium and France comes against the backdrop of successful national elections in Ukraine and signs that Russia is moving most of its troops off its shared border with the former Soviet republic. Yet violence continues to rage in eastern Ukrainian cities and there remains deep uncertainty about whether Ukraine's new president-elect can stabilize his country.

U.S. officials contend that, even with some signs of progress, Russia has not taken the necessary steps to ease tensions and could still face additional economic sanctions. Obama will look for Western allies to show a united front during a meeting of the Group of Seven major industrial nations that was quickly arranged after leaders decided to boycott a meeting Russia had been scheduled to host this week.

But at least some parts of Obama's visit will challenge the notion that the West has isolated Moscow. Russian President Vladmir Putin is scheduled to join U.S. and European leaders in France Friday for a day of events marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy. Putin will also hold one-on-one talks with French President Francois Hollande, his first meeting with a Western leader since the Ukraine crisis began.

"Putin may not get to host the G-8 but if he gets to go to Normandy with everybody, it begins to diminish the appearance of isolation," said Steven Pifer, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who now serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The White House says Obama will not hold a formal bilateral meeting with Putin, though the two leaders are expected to have some contact. Officials also disputed the notion that Putin's presence constituted a return to normal relations, noting that Obama and other leaders have talked with the Russian president throughout the crisis with Ukraine.

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This May 28, 2011, file photo shows U.S. President Barack Obama during an arrival ceremony at the pr …

Yet those reassurances may be of little solace to NATO allies who sit near the Russian border, particularly Poland, where Obama will open his trip Tuesday. In April, the U.S. moved about 150 troops into Poland to try to ease its security concerns, but Obama is likely to get requests from Polish leaders for additional support.

"He's going to hear a very strong message from Polish officials that the mission has not been accomplished," said Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "In fact, the work has only begun."

While in Warsaw, Obama will also meet with regional leaders who are in town to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland's first post-communist free elections. Among those leaders will be Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko, who won Ukraine's May 25 election and will hold his first bilateral meeting with Obama.

"We very much admired that the people of Ukraine have turned out in huge numbers to elect President-elect Poroshenko," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser. "We've admired his commitment to pursue dialogue and to aim to reduce tensions and put Ukraine on a positive path."

From Warsaw, Obama will head to Brussels to meet with leaders from the other G-7 nations: U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. The wealthy nations will discuss ways to wean Europe off of Russian energy supplies, as well as gauge interest in levying more sanctions on Russia.

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Ukrainian army paratroopers move to a position in Slovyansk, Ukraine, Monday, June 2, 2014. Hundreds …

The U.S. and European Union have each sanctioned Russian businesses and individuals, including some people in Putin's inner circle, and threatened the prospect of broader penalties on Russia's key economic sectors. But with European nations that have close economic ties with Russia already wary of those sector sanctions, Obama is likely to face an uphill climb in cementing those commitments amid the recent signs of progress with Ukraine.

"I think there is no political appetite for further sanctions," Conley said of the European nations.

Many of the G-7 leaders will also travel to Normandy for the anniversary of the Normandy invasion. But all eyes will be on Obama and Putin, who have a history of tense public encounters even before the Ukraine crisis worsened their relationship.

Obama and Putin will both attend a leaders' lunch and a ceremony at Sword Beach, one of the five main landing areas during the Normandy invasion. The U.S. president will also attend a separate ceremony at Omaha Beach, the largest of the assault areas during the June 6, 1944, invasion.

The president's trip comes during an intense stretch for his foreign policy agenda. He made a surprise visit to Afghanistan last week, followed by an announcement that he would be bringing the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan to a close by the end of 2016. Obama also delivered a major foreign policy speech last week that aimed to push back at critics who say he has been too cautious, including in his dealings with Russia.

And on Saturday, the White House announced that the U.S. had freed Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the lone U.S. prisoner of the Afghan war, after nearly five years in custody.

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The president will reassure NATO allies that the West won't backtrack on sanctions against Moscow.
Putin-Obama contact expected