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Official: 3 Western women killed in Afghan attack
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 13, 8:47 AM ET
PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan - Gunmen wielding assault rifles ambushed a U.S. aid organization's vehicle one province south of Kabul on Wednesday, killing an American-Trinidadian
Olympic Games inspire Afghans
by Abdul Haleem, Lin Jing
KABUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- "Hosting such a big and international event speaks of China's great power and rapid development," said an Olympic fan Assadullah in Afghan capital Kabul.
Afghan Army To Take Over Kabul Security From NATO - Ministry
KABUL (AFP)--The Afghan army will this month take charge of security in Kabul, in the first such handover from the international peacekeeping force that arrived in 2001, the Afghan defense ministry said Wednesday.
Pakistan says Afghanistan, India lack evidence on Kabul blast
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-13
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said on Wednesday that India and Afghanistan were short of evidence for claiming Islamabad was involved in Kabul blast.
'Piles and Piles of Evidence' that Pakistan Is Responsible for Insurgency
In a SPIEGEL interview, Amrullah Saleh -- the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's domestic intelligence agency -- discusses Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency and recent terror attacks against German soldiers.
Afghan ceramists sweeten the pot in Balochistan
13 Aug 2008 13:27:08 GMT
QUETTA, Pakistan, August 13 (UNHCR) – With a foot on the kick-wheel and his hands around a mound of spinning clay, Abdul Salam churns out pots with manual precision. The fact that he can do it within
AFGHANISTAN: Families of killed police lack support
KABUL, 13 August 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan police are suffering increasing casualties as the violence intensifies, but the families of killed or injured police officers get little, if any, financial support from the government.
Citizen Soldiers at Higher Risk for New Drinking Problems After Combat in Iraq, Afghanistan
August 13, 2008
CHICAGO (AP) -- National Guard and Reserve combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to develop drinking problems than active-duty soldiers, a new military study suggests.
Roadside bomb in Afghanistan 'lightly' wounds 5 Canadian soldiers
The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Five Canadian soldiers have been "lightly wounded" by a roadside bomb in the perilous Zhari district of Kandahar province.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 13
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Following are security developments reported in Afghanistan until 1200 GMT on Wednesday:
NATO soldiers kill, injure Afghan civilians: ISAF
KABUL (AFP) - NATO soldiers shot dead an Afghan man who came close to a military patrol in southern Afghanistan fearing he was going to launch an attack, the alliance's force said Wednesday.
Iraq, Afghanistan developments prove failure of hegemonic system
Tehran, Aug 13, IRNA
Events occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan have indicated failure of the theory of using force in international relations, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday.
UAE police seize heroin, arrest 19 Afghans
Tue Aug 12, 2:45 PM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - Police in the United Arab Emirates have seized 202 kg (445 lb) of heroin and arrested 19 Afghan suspects, the official news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.
Missile strike kills 10 militants in Pakistan: official
by S.H. Khan August 13, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - A suspected US missile strike on an Islamist training camp in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan killed at least 10 militants, security officials said Wednesday.
Allies Feel Strain of Afghan War
Troop Levels Among Issues Dividing U.S., NATO Countries
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A01
The U.S. plan to send an additional 3,200 Marines to troubled southern Afghanistan this spring reflects the Pentagon's belief that if it can't bully its recalcitrant NATO allies into sending more
Can Money Save Afghanistan?
By ARYN BAKER/KABUL Time.com
Even as NATO leaders struggle to find a response to Russia's military campaign in Georgia, the going remains tough for the alliance in its primary long-distance deployment - Afghanistan.
Death sentence for 3 child kidnappers
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 12 August 2008
10 including a woman charged and convicted by Kabul court
ADB funds Roshan services development in Afghanistan
Wednesday 13 August 2008 | 03:37 PM CET Telecompaper
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a USD 55 million loan to local mobile phone provider Telecom Development Company Afghanistan, for coverage expansion to parts of the country
Nangarhar 'Canal' farms in terrible state
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The second largest farm project in Afghanistan needs urgent attention
Afghan security contractors called into question following soldier's death
The Canadian Press August 12, 2008
OTTAWA-They are often a ragtag band of locally hired guns.
New al-Qaeda focus on NATO supplies
Asia Times Online By Syed Saleem Shahzad August 12, 2008
KARACHI-The Taliban and al-Qaeda have with some success squeezed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's)supply lines that run through Pakistan into Afghanistan, especially goods in transit in Khyber Agency on the border.
Taliban attacks Nato by choking supplies
Financial Times, UK By Jon Boone in Bagram August 12 2008
Gulab Khan is constantly reminded of the danger of his job by the two round stickers he has used to cover bullet holes in the windscreen of the cab of his lorry, one of the thousands of trucks carrying diesel and jet fuel to Nato bases across Afghanistan.
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Official: 3 Western women killed in Afghan attack
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 13, 8:47 AM ET
PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan - Gunmen wielding assault rifles ambushed a U.S. aid organization's vehicle one province south of Kabul on Wednesday, killing an American-Trinidadian aid worker along with a Canadian and a British-Canadian colleague, officials said.
The three women worked for the New York-based International Rescue Committee and were attacked in Logar province while traveling to Kabul, said Abdullah Khan, the deputy counterterrorism director in Logar. The women's Afghan driver was also killed, said Khan.
Melissa Winkler, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee, said the group was in the process of alerting family members and would issue a statement soon.
Winkler said the women were a dual American-Trinidadian citizen, a dual British-Canadian citizen and a Canadian citizen. Earlier, an Afghan police official had said the women were American, Canadian and Irish.
At Logar province's Pul-e-Alam hospital, Dr. Mir Mabub Shah said all four bodies had multiple bullet wounds. Three female Afghan nurses covered the three victims in a white cloth shroud as they placed them in wooden coffins.
Abdurrahman Khan, an IRC driver, was sobbing as he loaded two of the bodies onto the back of a truck, as a convoy of half a dozen vehicles set off for Kabul.
"They were here helping Afghan people," Khan said of the women. "They were not carrying weapons."
The attack was carried out by five men brandishing assault rifles who stepped out of a small village area and fired at the IRC vehicles, said Khan, citing an Afghan IRC employee wounded in the attack who was traveling in a second vehicle.
Khan said the women's vehicle, a white SUV, was riddled with hundreds of bullets. It had stickers on the side of the vehicle saying IRC. The women were traveling from the eastern city of Gardez to Kabul when they were attacked, he said.
The International Rescue Committee provides emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights and post-conflict development in countries around the world, according to its Web site.
Two Afghan IRC staff members were shot and killed in Logar in July 2007 while driving to work on the National Solidarity Program, a government-led program that carries out development projects.
The IRC said in July that it was carrying out projects at reduced levels despite the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
Attacks against aid workers in Afghanistan have spiked this year. Wednesday's attack brings to at least 23 the number of aid workers killed in militant attacks in 2008, compared with 15 killed in all of 2007, according to a recent report from ANSO, a security group that works for aid organizations in the country.
ANSO said 2008 was on track to be the deadliest year for aid workers in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban. ANSO reported a 50 percent increase in insurgent attacks around the country in 2008 compared with 2007.
More than 3,200 people have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on Western and Afghan officials.
Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Kabul, condemned what he called a "cowardly attack" on the IRC vehicle.
"The IRC provides life saving humanitarian assistance to those most affected by the conflict and it is reprehensible that such selfless individuals working for the most vulnerable communities should be deliberately targeted," Eide said.
"We face a growing humanitarian challenge in Afghanistan and all parties to this conflict must recognize and respect the inherent neutrality and independence of the humanitarian assistance being provided to those Afghans who need our help the most," he said.
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Olympic Games inspire Afghans
by Abdul Haleem, Lin Jing
KABUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- "Hosting such a big and international event speaks of China's great power and rapid development," said an Olympic fan Assadullah in Afghan capital Kabul.
Sitting in front of a television in a roadside tea shop on Monday, Assadullah, 25 said that Chinese lady Chen Xiexia's first gold medal for China at the international games demonstrated the capability of China's Olympians to the world's top competitors.
"I wish Afghan team brings gold medal home from the competition, " said Assadullah emotionally.
A four-member Afghan athlete's team including one woman player, represents Afghanistan in the ongoing Beijing' Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee had suspended Afghanistan membership in 1999 due to Taliban harsh policies imposing restrictions on sportsmen and lifted the ban in 2002 after the collapse of the Taliban regime.
Taliban fundamentalist regime which was toppled from power by the U.S.-led military Coalition in late 2001, had outlawed a series of sports besides forcing athletes to keep long beard and wear tall shirts and trousers during matches.
"It made me extremely pleased to see the national flag of Afghanistan was passed off among others at the spectacular opening ceremony of Olympic Games in Beijing on Aug. 8," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told newsmen after returning home from China.
An Afghan old shopkeeper Mohammad Hussain, 56, said that " Afghanistan had secured its place among the comity of nations by its presence at the Olympic Games this year and I am sure it will bag medals, if not this time, definitely in the coming games."
"This is encouraging for us that our team is there in Beijing and I personally pray for its success," remarked Ainudin, 19, a student of grade 11 in a Kabul school.
Standing among a dozen guys in front of a shop to watch swimming match, Ainudin was optimistic that one day his post- Taliban Afghanistan would have strong teams in each fields of Olympia.
"Watching the games encourages us to work hard and brings our teams at par with others," Ainudin added.
"Attending such international games and matching rivals from different countries is a matter of pride for every one and we should not miss it," the happy Afghan teen observed.
Even though, Afghan capital Kabul is facing acute power shortage and often does not have electricity at day time, the Olympic fans, mostly by switching on private power generators, turned on their television sets at home and watched the game on mini-screen.
"Watching the matches from one hand allows me to enjoy the games and on the hand motivates me to work for the progress of my country," a 45-year-old carpenter said.
Since 2002, Afghan athletes have attended several competitions at regional and international level and started bringing medals and honors home.
Afghan players boldly displayed their abilities over the past six years at international competitions as Naser Ahmad Bahawi secured the second position in Takwando World Championship held in Beijing last year while Afghan cricket team has been qualified for the World Cup held in Kenya next year.
Almost all Afghans optimistically pin hope on their thin team of four players to return home with medals from Beijing Olympic Games.
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Afghan Army To Take Over Kabul Security From NATO - Ministry
KABUL (AFP)--The Afghan army will this month take charge of security in Kabul, in the first such handover from the international peacekeeping force that arrived in 2001, the Afghan defense ministry said Wednesday.
The move, to be marked with a ceremony on August 28, will bring little visible change in the capital but is a symbolic acknowledgment of the growth of the Afghan defense forces, officials said.
"The security responsibility of the capital, Kabul, will be handed to the national army and Afghan security forces on August 28," a statement from the defense ministry said.
"This move is the beginning of Afghan security forces taking responsibilities of security from NATO which, with the further growth of the forces, will expand all over Afghanistan."
The Afghan army was destroyed during the civil war of the early 1990s and subsequent rule of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001.
The U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces that invaded in late 2001 and ousted the Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaida have been helping to rebuild the army, which now numbers about 70,000 soldiers for a population of between 26 and 30 million.
The Afghan army already leads some joint operations and commanders of the nearly 70,000 international troops in the country aim to steadily hand over more responsibility.
"There are a number of NATO troops currently responsible for Kabul security," ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
"They are patrolling the city. Once the handover takes place, we'll take those responsibilities," Azimi said.
There is already a heavy police presence in the city, with dozens of check posts.
Azimi told reporters over the weekend the handover would see international troops involved in military operations leave the city.
"But those involved in training Afghan security forces, with logistics, or with administrative issues, they will remain in Kabul," he said.
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Roadside bombing kills, injures 9 policemen in S Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-13 15:55:52
KABUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Five policemen were killed and four others were wounded when their vehicle hit IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) Tuesday night in southern Afghan province of Helmand, an official said on Wednesday.
Dawud Ahmadi, the provincial spokesman, told Xinhua that the ill-fated policemen were patrolling by car in the Marja district late Tuesday night when their vehicle was struck by remote controlled IEDs.
"The enemies of peace were behind the attack," Ahmadi said.
Meanwhile, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, claimed the responsibility of the roadside bombing, adding that they inflicted great casualties on police.
Taliban insurgents who staged a violent comeback three years ago have intensified their activities across Afghanistan even in the capital Kabul over the past several months to mount pressure on the government.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people including militants, troops and civilians so far this year in Afghanistan.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
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Pakistan says Afghanistan, India lack evidence on Kabul blast
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-13
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said on Wednesday that India and Afghanistan were short of evidence for claiming Islamabad was involved in Kabul blast.
"Neither Afghanistan nor India had provided any evidence in support of their allegations despite our repeated demands," said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq at a regular news briefing.
India and Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan's intelligence agency for helping the suicide attack on Indian embassy in Kabul last month, which killed about 50 people.
"Unsubstantiated allegations do not help the war on terror or promote regional peace and stability," said Sadiq.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
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'Piles and Piles of Evidence' that Pakistan Is Responsible for Insurgency
In a SPIEGEL interview, Amrullah Saleh -- the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's domestic intelligence agency -- discusses Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency and recent terror attacks against German soldiers.
Spiegel Online, Germany 08/12/2008
SPIEGEL: Mr. Saleh, is it possible the Taliban could win with its insurgency in Afghanistan?
Saleh: We have a lot of security problems, there is a lot of violence. But this is a violence unleashed with the help of Pakistan. They want to pull the brakes on us in order to hinder the coming elections. Afghanistan itself is not the source of the problem.
SPIEGEL: Who are these fighters who are not only killing Afghan and Western security forces, but also predominantly innocent civilians? And who is deploying them?
Saleh: The tribal agencies of Pakistan, like Bajaur and North and South Waziristan, are kept by the government as a strategic pool of fighters. From there, fundamentalist warriors are sent to fight in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
SPIEGEL: So you're saying the government in Islamabad has absolutely no intention of putting a stop to this militant movement?
Saleh: The international community has often asked them to stop allowing fighters to infiltrate into (Afghanistan) from the tribal areas. The answer from Pakistan is that they do not control the situation. When the Americans offered to fight the fighters themselves, the Pakistanis rejected them, saying you can’t go in, we are a sovereign state. The true reason behind this is that Islamabad is providing the militant groups wiith ammunition and training.
SPIEGEL: What is Pakistan seeking to achieve?
Saleh: It has always tried to make sure that Afghanistan remain on the level of a backward country, as well as to isolate us and hinder any kind of contact with the West. In the 1980s, when the mujahedeen were fighting against the Soviet occupiers, Pakistan had considerable influence over large parts of Afghan politics and Islamic Pakistan sought to establish its hegemony in the region. But now we are back, we are building up our country, we are unified and we are working to strengthen our sense of national pride. That makes our neighbors nervous.
SPIEGEL: Pakistan has feared its ability to hold itself together as a nation since its very founding. And even today, Afghanistan refuses to recognize the disputed border, the Durand Line. Wouldn’t that step move Afghanistan closer to peace with Pakistan?
Saleh: We have never crossed that line.
SPIEGEL: What proof do you have that the government in Pakistan is behind the attacks in Afghanistan?
Saleh: In 2008 alone, according to our very conservative estimate, the Taliban have probably fired 30 million rounds from their Kalashnikovs. Where did they get their weapons and munitions? Can you go to Russia or China today and say, "Hey, I'm a member of the Taliban, please send hundreds of AK-47s and weapons to my village." Is that possible? No. It's the Pakistani army that is providing them.
SPIEGEL: Those are serious accusations.
Saleh: It is a fact. The Pakistani army is a very disciplined force, and I respect that. And there are no rogue elements in the army as is often claimed.
SPIEGEL: Who are the masterminds behind the scenes?
Saleh: How much patience do you have? The army leadership and the Pakistani establishment. We have piles and piles of evidence to support this.
SPIEGEL: Do you have details?
Saleh: For years we discretely passed intelligence information about training camps, addresses, telephone numbers and names of terrorists groups on to Pakistan. But they didn’t act. There was no meaningful response. We have arrested many suicide bombers shortly before they could kill themselves and others. They frankly told us how they have been trained in Pakistsan and by whom.
SPIEGEL: Can you cite some examples?
Saleh: In Khost we arrested a man just a few minutes before he was able complete his mission. He was trained by a commander named Nazir in Wana in the tribal areas. Just before, the Pakistani government had signed peace deal with the same commander and only short time later he sent a truckload of suicide bombers to kill international forces. The Pakistanis have always claimed they couldn't find Commander Nazir. But how did he sign the peace deal then? Did they e-mail him?
SPIEGEL: But that’s not proof that Islamabad is commanding the insurgency. Is it possible that Pakistan perhaps long ago lost control over the border areas?
Saleh: Nobody lost control. Pakistan is staging controlled chaos in order to undermine Afghanistan's development. The Pakistani army is very strong and when the government has achieved its aim, it will immediately take control again of the tribal areas.
SPIEGEL: In northern Afghanistan German soldiers are getting attacked increasingly often. Last week a suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack that took place between Kunduz and Pul-i-Khumri. How are these attacks that are taking place far from the border to Pakistan organized?
Saleh: Terrorist elements are ordering Afghans to attack our army units and ISAF convoys or to burn schools. The perpetrators make videos to prove what they have done and once they provide this proof, they are rewarded with money from Pakistan. In the Kunduz area, the plotters of these acts are the Taliban commanders Mullah Rustam and Mullah Salam. Both are Afghans, but they live with their families in Pakistan. If the two would be permanently in Afghanistan, we would have caught or killed them or brought them to justice. Here’s another example: Why is the Taliban commander of Ghormach
SPIEGEL: a hard-fought district on the edge of the area under German command in the north
Saleh: whose name is Abdul Rahman Haqqani, currently being given medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar after he was heavily wounded in recent fighting? Why? It's because Pakistan is his base.
SPIEGEL: Despite the many battles taking place in the country, the election campaign is starting to heat up in Afghanistan. In 2009, the next president will be elected. Which candidate has the greatest prospects, and will he be able to deliver greater security?
Saleh: It's too early to say. I only know that this government with Hamid Karzai has succeeded in achieving the country's reunification. But now we are intermixing modern institutions with traditional structures and we face a number of problems moving forward. But a consolidation is possible, even if the West sometimes doubts that.
SPIEGEL: And you, as the head of the intelligence service are still optimistic despite all these worries?
Saleh: Despite all the counter-attacks, we are experiencing the ressurrection of Afghanistan, and that is something magnificent.
Interview conducted by Susanne Koelbl.
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Afghan ceramists sweeten the pot in Balochistan
13 Aug 2008 13:27:08 GMT
QUETTA, Pakistan, August 13 (UNHCR) – With a foot on the kick-wheel and his hands around a mound of spinning clay, Abdul Salam churns out pots with manual precision. The fact that he can do it within minutes without any measuring device speaks volumes about his adroit artisanship. The 45-year-old Afghan potter from Kandahar has been associated with the pottery business for the past 22 years in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan in south-western Pakistan.
Located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, Balochistan shares a border with Iran to the west and with Afghanistan to the north and thus offers a diverse fusion of cultures and crafts to visitors. The arrival of Afghan refugees since the late 1970s has added more colours to the already distinctive local handicraft industry.
Afghans run 10 pottery workshops in Quetta city and export their pots to other districts of the province. "When we first came to Pakistan, we were empty-handed and were not expecting to stay here for that long," said Salam's relative Haji Muhammad, a 25-year-old potter. "But thank God we brought with us this skill that is earning us our daily bread."
This potter family is one of the few fortunate Afghans with marketable skills to support themselves. According to the 2006-7 registration report, out of the total 2.1 million registered Afghans, only 1 percent is associated with businesses while many are daily wage labourers.
Afghan potters in Balochistan produce pottery mostly for domestic use, including pitchers for cooling water, soup bowls, pots for home decor, mud-ovens (tandoor) for nan bread baking, and flowerpots.
Salam is happy with his limited resources and mass production. He makes over 200 pots a day and earns Rs. 10,000 (over US$140) a month. All his designs and measuring are in his eyes and mind. It comes instinctively to him, and he struggles when asked for details on his daily output and the exact weight of earth used for each pot.
His cousin Sheir Aghah does the kneading. He manually grinds and kneads the clay into the right consistency, a long and tiring process. Then comes Salam's turn to mould, glaze and bake the pots as per formula. The freshly-made ceramics are dried in the open air before designs are etched on them. A liquid made from red mountain stone is applied to the dried pots before they are ready for glazing. The glazed pots are then baked for three days in a traditional kiln that is heated by firewood. A pot takes approximately seven days to be ready for sale.
Salam argues that if he replaces the wood with gas to fire the kiln, he would not get the desired results. "My pots need moderate and slow heating because the clay in Balochistan is harder compared to that of Punjab and Sindh, it therefore requires more time in the kiln for fine finishing. I heat the kiln for 12 hours prior to the baking and then leave the pots there for three days. The pots would crack if baked in a highly-heated gas kiln."
In a world where markets are thronged by low-priced plastic, steel and glass products for domestic use, pottery is less a necessity and more of an artform that should be conserved and developed.
Salam believes that despite the technology boom and industrial revolution, nothing can substitute the thousand-year-old craft of pottery. "Development never brings only good, it always brings along troubles in the form of lethal pollution and ailments, and then every problem gives birth to a hundred others," he said.
His cousin Sheir Aghah added, "As long as human beings live, our business will survive. Because for the poor, our pots are a necessity and for the rich it's a luxury that beautifies their houses."
Guenet Guebre-Christos, who heads the UN refugee agency in Pakistan, noted that in return for nearly 30 years of refuge, Afghan refugees have offered their skills to Pakistan in industries like carpet weaving, agriculture and handicrafts. She suggested, "To bolster the country's economy with the revenue generated by Afghan artisans and labourers, Afghans in Pakistan should be made part of the system and their services should be regularized to let the profit reach local markets."
By Duniya Aslam Khan in Quetta, Pakistan
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AFGHANISTAN: Families of killed police lack support
KABUL, 13 August 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan police are suffering increasing casualties as the violence intensifies, but the families of killed or injured police officers get little, if any, financial support from the government.
Safiullah's father, a police officer, was shot dead during an attack on a police patrol in February in the outskirts of Kandahar city. The 10-year-old boy and his mother have faced great hardship since they lost the family's breadwinner.
Officials at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said efforts were under way to establish a welfare system for the families of killed police officers, but the planned US$65 a month compensation would not be enough to meet the needs of a four-member household.
Safiullah's family has still not received a "sympathy payment" of $1,500, which President Karzai has ordered for the families of every police officer or soldier killed in action.
The Afghan National Police are financially supported by about 25 countries and several international organisations.
Saeed Mohammad Golabzoy, a National Assembly member and former interior minister, has called for more investment in the police and army, and better provision for the families of police or soldiers killed in action.
"The government and its international backers must ensure that after the death of any police officer his children have access to education, his family has shelter, and his dependants don't become destitute," Golabzoy said.
High casualty rate
At least 600 police have been killed and over 800 injured by the Taliban or criminal gangs in the past four months, the MoI reported. The figures are a marked increase on last year when a total of 1,019 police deaths were reported country-wide.
"The high number of police casualties implies they lack adequate protection, do not have access to the necessary resources and are very vulnerable to attack," Zemarai Bashari, a MoI spokesman, told IRIN in Kabul on 11 August, adding that most casualties were the result of armed ambushes, roadside explosions or suicide attacks.
Few resources
Officials say the police lack resources. For example, the 80,000-strong police force under the MoI does not have a single helicopter. The government was unable to assist a besieged police post in Nooristan Province in August because the MoI did not have a helicopter, Bashari said.
"Wounded police are frequently left… in remote areas because we do not have the means to evacuate them," Bashari said.
"We need helicopters, we need armoured vehicles, we need better training and we need improved capacity in order to face the existing challenges," the MoI spokesman said, adding: "The police will not be able to continue the struggle unless their capacity is improved."
Police reform
The police - most of whom are illiterate and lack professional training - have been accused of corruption, harassment and incompetence, and the MoI itself was in urgent need of reform, according to a July 2007 report by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU).
"A major failure of reform efforts over the past five years has been the lack of political will to proceed beyond recognising and talking about the problem of a corrupt, factionalised and criminalised MoI," said the report entitled Cops or Robbers? The Struggle to Reform the Afghan National Police - http://www.areu.org.af/index.php?option=com_docman
&Itemid=&task=doc_download&gid=523.
"Donors should make their assistance more conditional on comprehensive top-down reform of the MoI, without which their contributions towards police reform efforts are likely to be wasted," it added.
A fundamental dilemma for the police - and those who fund them - is the extent to which they should be playing a counter-insurgency role, the AREU report noted.
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Citizen Soldiers at Higher Risk for New Drinking Problems After Combat in Iraq, Afghanistan
August 13, 2008
CHICAGO (AP) -- National Guard and Reserve combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to develop drinking problems than active-duty soldiers, a new military study suggests. The authors speculate that inadequate preparation for the stress of combat and reduced access to support services at home may be to blame.
The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to compare Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' alcohol problems before and after deployment.
It should help guide planning for future prevention and treatment programs, said study co-author Dr. Edward Boyko, who works for the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System.
The research is one of the first major studies to emerge from the Pentagon's landmark "Millennium" study, launched in 2001 because of concerns about possible health effects from the first Gulf War. It includes tens of thousands of military personnel and is designed to evaluate the long-term health effects of military service.
In the alcohol study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 80,000 military personnel, including more than 11,000 who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. They looked at whether deployment and combat exposure were linked with new alcohol problems such as binge drinking.
They found that more than 600 combat troops who reported no binge drinking at the start of the study developed the problem after deployment and combat exposure. That accounted for about 26 percent of the estimated 2,400 military personnel exposed to combat who did not report binge drinking at the start of the study
New patterns of regular heavy drinking and alcohol problems, such as missing work because of drinking, occurred more often in guard and reserve troops who experienced combat. Their risk of developing new drinking problems, compared to guardsmen and reservists who weren't deployed, was about 60 percent higher.
Alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression make up an "unholy trinity" that haunts some combat soldiers, said psychologist William Schlenger of the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. in Durham, N.C. He was a principal investigator of the influential National Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Study, but was not involved in the new research.
"They have intrusive recollections: 'I keep remembering it, I have nightmares about it, I can't escape it,'" Schlenger said. Vets try to escape the memories through alcohol or drugs, he said.
The military has leaned heavily on the National Guard and reserves in the current conflict. At certain times in 2005, the guard and reserves made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq.
For citizen soldiers, returning from war differs from the return for active-duty soldiers.
"It's not like you live at Fort Hood or Camp Lejeune and everybody on your street is in the military," said Bob Handy, a Vietnam veteran who heads Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Veterans United for Truth, a group that is suing the VA to make changes in mental health care.
The Millennium study will continue to track veterans' health and may determine whether drinking problems among returning combat troops are long-lasting, Boyko said.
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Roadside bomb in Afghanistan 'lightly' wounds 5 Canadian soldiers
The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Five Canadian soldiers have been "lightly wounded" by a roadside bomb in the perilous Zhari district of Kandahar province.
The military says their armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device around 7:30 a.m. today.
None of them required hospitalization, and all are expected to be back on the job before long.
Two Afghan police officers were killed in a similar explosion in Zhari an hour later, while four were injured.
The incidents come just days after two Canadian soldiers lost their lives in battles with insurgents in Zhari and Panjwaii districts.
Master Cpl. Josh Roberts died Saturday during an operation in Zhari, while Master Cpl. Erin Doyle was killed early Monday when insurgents attacked a remote combat outpost in Panjwaii.
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FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 13
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Following are security developments reported in Afghanistan until 1200 GMT on Wednesday:
LOGAR - Insurgents shot and killed three female international employees of a Western aid agency in an ambush in Logar province south of Kabul on Wednesday, the provincial governor said.
KANDAHAR - Several soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb which hit a convoy of NATO-led forces in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, a provincial official said.
HELMAND - Five police were killed and four wounded by a remote-controlled bomb in Helmand province on Tuesday, an official from the area said on Wednesday.
HELMAND - Afghan and U.S.-led troops killed five militants in another area of Helmand on Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, adding that no casualties were reported among its forces or civilians.
URUZGAN - Police killed four Taliban insurgents in a clash in neighbouring Uruzgan, the interior ministry said.
KABUL - Afghan forces will take over responsibility for Kabul's security from the NATO-led force on Aug. 28, the defence ministry said on Wednesday. The move is seen as a sign of the growing strength of the Afghan police and army.
GHAZNI - Afghan troops captured an Arab militant in Ghazni province on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.
KHOST - A would-be suicide bomber was shot dead by Afghan forces as he tried to detonate explosives attached to his body in southeastern Khost on Wednesday, an official said.
The Taliban could not be reached immediately for comment on any of the reported incidents. (Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Paul Tait)
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NATO soldiers kill, injure Afghan civilians: ISAF
KABUL (AFP) - NATO soldiers shot dead an Afghan man who came close to a military patrol in southern Afghanistan fearing he was going to launch an attack, the alliance's force said Wednesday.
It was the latest in a series in which soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have killed civilians who have come too close to troops wary of suicide attacks by rebels.
A vehicle approached an ISAF patrol on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, which sees near daily attacks by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban.
The driver was warned through hand, arm and audio signals, and flashing lights, to stop but did not, an ISAF statement said.
"When the vehicle was 10 metres (30 feet) away and still approaching rapidly, the ISAF soldiers, fearing an attack, fired on it," it said. The man died later of his wounds.
Also in Helmand, on Wednesday, ISAF troops fired a single shot at another car which "overtook the queue of traffic and tried to drive through the checkpoint" manned by ISAF, it said in a separate statement.
Troops "were forced to fire a single warning shot after the car continued on its course. Unfortunately the bullet ricocheted, injured the driver and then injured two other civilians who were passing by," it said.
The force said it regretted the incidents and would investigate.
The nearly 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan are among the main targets of Taliban suicide attacks, carried out by explosive-laden people who launch themselves at soldiers or drive car bombs at them.
The suicide bombings however usually kill more civilians.
ISAF soldiers killed six people, including two children, in similar shootings in southern Afghanistan last month.
Dozens were also killed in military action against rebels and in militant attacks.
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Iraq, Afghanistan developments prove failure of hegemonic system
Tehran, Aug 13, IRNA
Events occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan have indicated failure of the theory of using force in international relations, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday.
Criticizing the present hegemonic system prevailing the world, Mottaki said the scientific apartheid and imposing ideas of one state on others were "an unacceptable move."
He made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting member of the Japanese parliament, Yama Naka, who is currently in Iran to discuss with senior Iranian officials ways to promote Tehran-Tokyo cooperation.
Referring to the increasing presence of the Asian women in various social activities, Mottaki called for establishment of Iran-Japan women's parliamentary friendship association.
He stressed that the association would prepare the grounds for further cooperation of the Iranian and Japanese women.
Tehran has decided to launch a 'unity for peace movement' with the help of peace-loving nations in the region, Mottaki added.
The Japanese MP who is also the chairperson of the women group of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, stressed the need for exchange of various delegations between the Iranian and Japanese parliaments in order to find a better understanding of the Iranian and Japanese nations.
She referred to Iran and Japan as two peace-loving nations.
Referring to Tehran's nuclear standoff with the Western governments, she hoped that the problem would soon be resolved through diplomatic ways.
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UAE police seize heroin, arrest 19 Afghans
Tue Aug 12, 2:45 PM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - Police in the United Arab Emirates have seized 202 kg (445 lb) of heroin and arrested 19 Afghan suspects, the official news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.
WAM said the "high-purity heroin," worth an estimated $10.9 million, was seized in the emirate of Sharjah, where the suspects had a license to import fruits and food as a cover. The narcotics were smuggled in the fuel tanks of trucks imported into the Gulf Arab state.
Afghanistan produced about 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, most of which is processed to make highly addictive heroin and exported. Corruption in the central Asian country is hobbling efforts to combat the booming trade, according to the United Nations.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates including trade and tourism hub Dubai. The oil-exporting nation of about 4.5 million people enjoys one of the world's highest per capita incomes thanks to a six-fold rise in oil prices since 2002.
Drug smugglers face jail for life or capital punishment in Gulf Arab countries. In Saudi Arabia, offenders are beheaded.
(Reporting by Inal Ersan, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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Missile strike kills 10 militants in Pakistan: official
by S.H. Khan August 13, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - A suspected US missile strike on an Islamist training camp in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan killed at least 10 militants, security officials said Wednesday.
Four missiles hit the camp in the troubled South Waziristan region, which was run by a militant from the Hezb-i-Islami group of wanted Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, they said.
"At least 10 militants were killed in the strikes" late Tuesday, a senior Pakistani security official told AFP. "There were reports about the presence of Arab, Turkmen and local militants."
"This is their work," he added, referring to US-led coalition forces deployed across the border in Afghanistan.
In Kabul, the US military said the missiles were not fired by either NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or the US-led coalition.
"This is not true. We have no reports of missiles being fired into Pakistan," US-led coalition spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Perry told AFP.
The US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate pilotless drone aircraft armed with missiles, but it was not available for comment.
Another security official said the camp was run by a local militant, Zanjir Wazir, who he described as the "local commander of Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan".
"It is not clear whether Wazir survived the attack or not, but his brother Abdur Rehman and one of their close relatives, Abdul Salam, were killed in the strike," he added.
Hekmatyar himself was not in the camp and is believed to be in Afghanistan, officials said.
Hekmatyar, a former commander of the 1978-1989 anti-Soviet resistance, is involved in an insurgency against the Western-backed government in Afghanistan. The elusive militant leader is wanted by Kabul and Washington.
Witnesses said the missiles destroyed two houses close to each other and rescue workers were seen removing debris amid fears that more people could be trapped inside.
Local militants cordoned off the area and journalists were not allowed access to the site. Residents said the houses were part of a militant training camp.
Al-Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar was killed in a similar missile strike in July.
The Egyptian, 54, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a five-million-dollar bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months which have killed dozens of people.
During talks with US President George W. Bush last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on the United States not to act "unilaterally" against Islamic militants in Pakistan.
Gilani, whose new government has been facing intense US pressure to crack down on Pakistan-based militants, said that Islamabad was committed to fighting extremists.
The government launched negotiations with the Taliban earlier this year but has since launched several military operations, including an ongoing offensive in the Bajaur tribal region which has left more than 160 people dead in a week.
Separately on Wednesday a gunman shot dead an Islamist militant leader, Haji Namdar, as he taught at a religious school in the Khyber tribal region near the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
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Allies Feel Strain of Afghan War
Troop Levels Among Issues Dividing U.S., NATO Countries
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A01
The U.S. plan to send an additional 3,200 Marines to troubled southern Afghanistan this spring reflects the Pentagon's belief that if it can't bully its recalcitrant NATO allies into sending more troops to the Afghan front, perhaps it can shame them into doing so, U.S. officials said.
But the immediate reaction to the proposed deployment from NATO partners fighting alongside U.S. forces was that it was about time the United States stepped up its own effort.
After more than six years of coalition warfare in Afghanistan, NATO is a bundle of frayed nerves and tension over nearly every aspect of the conflict, including troop levels and missions, reconstruction, anti-narcotics efforts, and even counterinsurgency strategy. Stress has grown along with casualties, domestic pressures and a sense that the war is not improving, according to a wide range of senior U.S. and NATO-member officials who agreed to discuss sensitive alliance issues on the condition of anonymity.
While Washington has long called for allies to send more forces, NATO countries involved in some of the fiercest fighting have complained that they are suffering the heaviest losses. The United States supplies about half of the 54,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, they say, but the British, Canadians and Dutch are engaged in regular combat in the volatile south.
"We have one-tenth of the troops and we do more fighting than you do," a Canadian official said of his country's 2,500 troops in Kandahar province. "So do the Dutch." The Canadian death rate, proportional to the overall size of its force, is higher than that of U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq, a Canadian government analysis concluded last year.
British officials note that the eastern region, where most U.S. forces are based, is far quieter than the Taliban-saturated center of British operations in Helmand, the country's top opium-producing province. The American rejoinder, spoken only in private with references to British operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is that superior U.S. skills have made it so.
NATO has long been divided between those with fighting forces in Afghanistan and those who have restricted their involvement to noncombat activities. Now, as the United States begins a slow drawdown from Iraq, the attention of even combat partners has turned toward whether more U.S. troops will be free to fight in the "forgotten" war in Afghanistan.
When Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier visited Washington late last month, he reminded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Canada's Afghan mandate expires in January 2009. With most of the Canadian public opposed to a continued combat role, he said, it is not certain that Ottawa can sustain it.
Bernier's message was that his minority government could make a better case at home if the United States would boost its own efforts in Afghanistan, according to Canadian and U.S. officials familiar with the conversation.
"I don't think he expected an express commitment that day that they would draw down in Iraq and buttress in Afghanistan," the Canadian official said. "But he certainly registered Canadian interest and that of the allies involved."
According to opinion polls, Canadians feel they have done their bit in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper last fall named an independent commission to study options -- continuing the combat mission, redeploying to more peaceful regions, or withdrawing in January 2009. The commission report, due this month, will form the basis of an upcoming parliamentary debate.
With a Taliban offensive expected in the spring, along with another record opium poppy crop, the new Marines will deploy to the British area in Helmand and will be available to augment Canadian forces in neighboring Kandahar.
Both President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have toned down their public pressure on allies. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Bush at his Texas ranch in November, U.S. and German officials said, she told him that while Bonn would step up its contribution in quiet northern Afghanistan, any change in Germany's noncombat role would spell political disaster for her conservative government.
"It's not an excuse; it's simply reality -- coalition reality and domestic reality," a German official said. Merkel came away with Bush's pledge to praise Germany's efforts and stop criticizing.
Although Gates began a meeting of NATO defense ministers late last year by saying he would not let them "off the hook" for their responsibilities in Afghanistan, he said in a news conference at the end of the session that further public criticism was not productive.
Still, the Defense Department hopes that increasing its own contribution -- nearly half of an additional 7,500 troops Gates has said are needed in Afghanistan -- will encourage the allies. "As we're considering digging even deeper to make up for the shortfall in Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said, "we would expect our allies in the fight to do the same."
Many Europeans believe that the United States committed attention and resources to Iraq at Afghanistan's expense. But U.S. officials say the problems of NATO countries in Afghanistan have roots in not investing sufficiently in their militaries after the Cold War. Canada, U.S. officials say, needs American military airlift for its troops in Afghanistan because it got rid of a fleet of heavy lift helicopters.
At the same time that they want more from their partners, however, U.S. defense officials often disdain their abilities. No one, they insist, is as good at counterinsurgency as the U.S. military.
U.S. and British forces have long derided each other's counterinsurgency tactics. In Iraq, British commanders touted their successful "hearts and minds" efforts in Northern Ireland, tried to replicate them in southern Iraq, and criticized more heavy-handed U.S. operations in the north. Their U.S. counterparts say they are tired of hearing about Northern Ireland and point out that British troops largely did not quell sectarian violence in the south.
The same tensions have emerged in Afghanistan, where U.S. officials criticized what one called a "colonial" attitude that kept the British from retaining control over areas wrested from the Taliban. Disagreement leaked out publicly early last year when British troops withdrew from the Musa Qala district of Helmand after striking a deal with local tribal leaders. The tribal chiefs quickly relinquished control to the Taliban.
Britain, with a higher percentage of its forces deployed worldwide than the United States, is stretched thin in Afghanistan. Not only did the British have insufficient force strength to hold conquered territory, but the reconstruction and development assistance that was supposed to consolidate military gains did not arrive.
"It's worth reminding the Americans that the entire British army is smaller than the U.S. Marine Corps," said one sympathetic former U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
After 10 months of Taliban control, Musa Qala was retaken in December in combat involving British, Afghan and U.S. forces. The new Marine deployments will supplement British troops, and both sides insist they have calmed their differences. "Whatever may or may not have been said between the two in the past," said one British official, ". . . we are now in the same place."
Now, he said, "the much more interesting question is where do we go from here, and can we sustain a cautiously positive picture in Musa Qala" and elsewhere.
British officials hope that new deployments and stepped-up Afghan security training by the Marines will address one of Helmand's biggest problems -- the expansion of the opium crop. Opium provides income for the Taliban and is a major source of corruption within the Afghan police and government, yet the allies are divided on how to stop its production.
U.S. officials in Afghanistan, led by Ambassador William B. Wood, have insisted that the current strategy of manually destroying opium fields is ineffective and have pressed to begin aerial spraying of herbicide. Wood is a former ambassador to Colombia, where the United States funds and operates the world's largest aerial effort to eradicate coca.
The British, in charge of NATO's anti-narcotics program in Afghanistan, strongly oppose spraying, as does Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who last month formally ruled it out over U.S. objections. But the government's preferred method of manual eradication -- sending Afghan troops and police to pull poppy plants out of the ground -- has faltered because of poor security.
More important, programs to provide rural Afghans with alternative income sources remain underfunded and poorly coordinated. Each of NATO's regional Afghan commands operates its own provincial reconstruction teams, and scores of nongovernmental organizations work in the country. But with few exceptions -- such as Khost province under U.S. command in the east, where military and reconstruction resources are meshed -- they share no overriding strategy or operational rules.
The United States has pressed U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a high-level representative to coordinate non-military activities in Afghanistan. Karzai has resisted, and Ban is said to be worried about taking responsibility for what he sees as a worsening situation.
Staff writers Thomas E. Ricks and Colum Lynch contributed to this report.
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Can Money Save Afghanistan?
By ARYN BAKER/KABUL Time.com
Even as NATO leaders struggle to find a response to Russia's military campaign in Georgia, the going remains tough for the alliance in its primary long-distance deployment - Afghanistan. A motorcycle bomb attack Monday on a NATO convoy in the usually quiet north of the country, and an ambush Wednesday on vehicles carrying aid workers with the International Rescue Committee that killed three women - Canadian, Irish and American - and their driver as they drove through Logar province, are but the latest incidents in a steady stream of bad news that rarely makes the headlines. And when bombings are no longer really news but simply the fabric of daily life here, it's a sure sign that things are getting worse. There was tacit admission of that last week from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, when he announced that he would endorse a $20 billion increase in funding for Afghanistan's security forces. But despite the impressive scale of his proposed investment in Afghanistan's fledgling national army and faltering police force, a closer examination of Gates' plan only increases the anxiety over Afghanistan's prospects. The fear of many observers in Afghanistan is that this will be the final roll of the dice by Washington.
Gates proposes doubling the ranks of the Afghan army to 120,000, and improving the performance of the police. The funds he's proposing will pay for five years' worth of salaries, equipment, uniforms, barracks and trainers. It will also build an air force, and medical teams to treat and evacuate the wounded.
Having spent time with Afghan police and army units at training facilities across the country, I can attest to the wonders that can be worked by a mere 8-14 weeks of instruction at the hands of American and other NATO-affiliated trainers. Men who began those training periods unable to lace their new boots quickly evolved into units that were able to stage a complex ambush. Police officers have been taught to aim their weapons, rather than "pray and spray," as one American trainer phrased it, and have come to understand why helping civilians, rather than preying on them, has important security rewards.
But it has become equally obvious how quickly that training dissipates if the newly graduated security forces are unleashed without competent mentors, who can transform classroom learning to the real world. The police training is mostly conducted by civilian contractors, who are forbidden from going into the field with their trainees. For that, you need soldiers, and right now, there aren't enough available.
Major General Robert Cone, the U.S. commander in charge of building the Afghan security forces, has asked for 2,300 additional troops to mentor newly trained police units. These troops accompany police units out on patrol to watch and analyze, and offer suggestions on how operations could be improved. Their presence keeps corruption in check. And when things get out of hand, they can call in air support. Often, mentoring teams are the only thing standing between the police being effective and becoming cannon fodder. Last year, the Afghan national police lost four times as many men as did the Afghan national army. One of the reasons is that only a handful of police teams have mentors.
Although NATO forces have struck many blows against the Taliban insurgency over the past year, Afghan officials and aid workers say U.S. and allied air strikes have also killed scores of civilians in recent months, including 47 mostly women and children on their way to a wedding party in the eastern province of Nangarhar on July 6. On Sunday eight more people died in air strikes directed against militants in the south. Civilian casualties are inevitable when insurgents establish their bases among the civilian population, and the Taliban have used them as a potent propaganda tool to turn local sentiment against the foreign forces and the faltering government they are here to support.
One way to minimize civilian casualties is to rely more on boots on the ground, both Afghan and NATO, and less on air power and surveillance drones. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly pleaded with the coalition to avoid air strikes that risk civilian casualties. On Sunday, he went a step further, telling the U.S. and its allies to direct their air power at militant sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan. "The struggle against terrorism is not in the villages of Afghanistan," he said at a press conference. "The only result of the use of air strikes is the killing of civilians. This is not the way to wage the fight against terrorism... If the international community focuses on the terrorists' bases, hideouts and places where they are being trained and financed, the problem is going to solved."
That may be wishful thinking. Even without sanctuary across the border, Afghanistan's insurgency will remain a thorny problem. But Karzai's statements reflect the view of top NATO commanders in Afghanistan who believe the Taliban cannot be defeated as long as it is able to regroup, re-arm and train on the other side of the border. "I cannot foresee a winning outcome in Afghanistan without resolving the sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan," General David D. McKiernan, the U.S. commander in charge of NATO forces in Afghanistan, told TIME. "I can't see a viable level of Afghan government authority developing here while there are still all these militant sanctuaries across the border."
Closing the sanctuaries in Pakistan, however, may prove even more difficult than fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan. The Pakistani military has repeatedly shown itself to be either unwilling or unable (or both) to prevent insurgents from crossing into Afghanistan. And now that President Pervez Musharraf faces impeachment by his legislature, the Pakistani government is likely to be consumed by the resulting infighting. Insurgents in Pakistan's Bajaur Agency successfully repelled an army incursion last week; if squabbles over power in the capital continue, they may see an opportunity to advance even further.
So, while Gates's plan is certainly a much-needed start, Afghanistan needs a lot more if it is to avoid deteriorating, once again, into a failed state safe for foreign terrorists. It needs troops; it needs investment; it needs a better counter-insurgency strategy that combines human intelligence with anthropological analysis. And it needs a justice system to go with its new police force. But most of all, it needs a focused regional approach that combines diplomacy with development on both sides of the border. Without the rest of that package, Secretary Gates' $20 billion will be good money thrown after bad.With reporting by Ali SafiTime.com
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Death sentence for 3 child kidnappers
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 12 August 2008
10 including a woman charged and convicted by Kabul court
A Court in Kabul convicted 3 men accused of abducting and killing a child and gave them the death sentenced.
10 people abducted an 8 year old boy on the 5th of Hamal of this year from the 13th district of Kabul, later killing him.
All 10 were given various punishments ranging from 6 months in prison to death for 3 of them.
They were all convicted by the Second District Court of Kabul City.
The 10 abductors, including one woman from Dashti Barchi, demanded a ransom of 1m Afghanis (US$20,000) in return to his release.
However, the boy’s family was unable to make this payment.
Further, based evidence presented to Court, as the boy had seen and could identify his abductors, they killed him by stoning him.
The Second District Court of Kabul City, in the presence of the accused and the family of the victim, convicted Ibrahim son of Jan Ali, Mohammad Jawad son of Mohammad Noor and Mohammad Mehdi son of Mohammad Afzal and sentenced them all to death, in accordance with Articles 421 and 395 of the Criminal Code and pursuant to Order No. 47 of 1383.
The Court convicted Sayed Mohammed Ali so of Sayed Ali to 16 years in prison on the basis of Articles 421 and 395 of the Criminal Code.
Zamin Ali son of Mohammad Ali, Juma son of Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Ishaq son of Amir Mohammad were sentenced to 5 years in prison on the basis of Article 30, 198 and 422 of the Criminal Code.
Mohammad Hadi son of Mohammad Moosa was sentenced to one year in prison on the basis of Article 399 of the Criminal Code. Rafi son of Abdul Hussain and Hanifa daughter of Mohammad Noor were each sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
Reports from the Ministry of Interior indicate that there are over 120 cases relating to abduction registered with the ministry.
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ADB funds Roshan services development in Afghanistan
Wednesday 13 August 2008 | 03:37 PM CET Telecompaper
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a USD 55 million loan to local mobile phone provider Telecom Development Company Afghanistan, for coverage expansion to parts of the country that have poor or no telecommunications infrastructure. In addition, the operator, which operates under the name Roshan, plans to use these funds to support the roll out of its mobile banking system called M-Paisa. Targeting the country's unbanked population, M-Paisa enables users to transfer money via their mobile phones, without opening bank accounts. The Roshan network currently serves more than half of the country's population, with over 2 million active subscribers reported at the end of June. The total cost of the expansion project is estimated to reach USD 175 million, including capital expenditure into new districts, upgrading equipment and transforming sites to use solar power. The balance of the funding will come from other investors.
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Nangarhar 'Canal' farms in terrible state
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The second largest farm project in Afghanistan needs urgent attention
Nangarhar ‘Canal’ farms, which was once the second largest income producing project in the country, is now in dire straits.
The Canal Farms, which consists of four big citrus and olive farms, was one of the biggest sources of income for the government incomes in the past.
Now only ten percent of these farms are active and producing. The farms were developed almost half a century ago and the project was completed in 1961.
Three big olive farms, an olive processing factory and a big farm of citrus gardens, which were partially destroyed during the years of war in the country, are now in danger of ceasing operations completely according to locals.
The third farm, which was located in the Ghazi Abad area of the province, and was specified for citrus gardens and animal husbandry, at one stage produced more than 400 tons of citrus fruits such as oranges, keno and bergamot per annum.
Each of the other farms produced more than 1200 tons of fruit products including olives. Thousands of people were employed in these farms.
These farms were equipped with modern agriculture and gardening equipment at the time.
They also had a cinema, 120 residential blocks for the farms’ workers to live in, a warehouse for storage of produce and an animal husbandry center, all of which are now destroyed.
The head of the Nangarhar Canal Farms project, engineer Muhammad Hakim, said: “This project was once the second largest source of income for the country, and one of the best projects in the region.”
He said if the government gives due attention to these farms, which are 90% destroyed, thousands of people will be re-employed.
He said they have plans for the farms, and they will encourage the government and the private sector to reconstruct the canal.
A large canal which is 70 km long and which has the capacity to carry 50 cubic meters of water a second, has been built for irrigating the Nangarhar Canal Farms, which can irrigate 30,000 hectors of government and private land. “These farms are in a bad situation now. There are neither any citrus trees, nor any developed and modern equipment in the farms now,” said Mr. Hakim.
Only the walls of the buildings in the farms are standing now, and the rest of the buildings are destroyed.
Locals say that the iron roofs of the buildings were sold long ago.
The old workers in the farm say that hundreds of transport vehicles were filled with the produce of these farms every year, which was one of the main revenue sources for the country.
They say the best oranges in the world came from these farms, and thousands of people were working in the orange conservation farm.
Now there are only 120 workers in this farm, who conduct their work from one of the remaining active blocks.
There are about 700,000 olive trees left in the olive farms, some of which are more than 100 years old.
Head of the olive factory, Ghulam Gul, said this factory at one stage produced more than 8,000 tons of olive oil and 4,000 tons of pickled vegetables per annum.
More than 1,000 workers were employed in this factory at the time. Now, there are only 100 workers work in the factory.
He said the machines in the factory are active, the workers are also ready for work, and there is sufficient electricity too, but the factory has stopped working due to the lack of olive harvests and other necessities.
He said they have produced 1,000 tons of olive oil this year, but they can not sell it in the market due to the lack of bottles. They are also able to produce pickled vegetables, soups and cotton seed oil.
The factory also has laboratories, a transport section and a carpentry section.
Its carpentry section produced enough tables, chairs, windows and doors for the eastern provinces. Now all these sections are inactive.
The former Soviet Union had also built a cannery inside the farm, which is also now inactive.
Mr Gul said this factory was active because of olive production, but now that the olive production has steadily declined to almost zero, the factory is no longer active.
Mr Gul blames government lack of attention for this situation.
The head of the Nangarhar Canal Farms project believes that if the project is rehabilitated, it can be one of the main sources of the government income, in addition to permanently employing thousands of people.
Previously local Police was tasked with guarding the farms due to their value to the government, however the farms are no longer guarded and thousands of trees are being cut down and stolen from these farms monthly.
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Afghan security contractors called into question following soldier's death
The Canadian Press August 12, 2008
OTTAWA-They are often a ragtag band of locally hired guns.
Many are known to have a drug problem. The vast majority of them are illiterate and slap on a uniform after receiving what can only charitably be described as cursory instruction in military tactics and the handling of an assault rifle.
In Afghanistan, they are called private security contractors, and their possible role in the death of Canadian soldier last weekend was under increasing scrutiny Monday with experts accusing the federal government of not heeding warnings raised last fall.
"In a lot of instances we have this picture of private security as Blackwater-types, ex-navy SEALS, but a lot of the contracts in Afghanistan, as I understand them, are with local Afghan companies," said Dave Perry, a defence researcher at Dalhousie University's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies in Halifax.
The Canadian army is investigating whether shots from an Afghan private security contractor led to the death of Master Cpl. Josh Roberts in a confused firefight in the volatile Zhari district over the weekend.
Details of what happened are unclear.
But the U.S. publication Stars and Stripes reported Monday that a convoy, which included groups from two different security companies - Compass Integrated Security Solutions and USPI - was traveling the main highway west of Kandahar when it passed a group of Canadian soldiers engaged in a firefight with Taliban fighters in the Spin Beer region.
It has been suggested members of the Compass team saw Taliban fighters and, not realizing a battle was being waged between insurgents and coalition forces, fired into the fray.
The Canadian troops on the ground suddenly realized they were being shot at from both directions.
Roberts was mortally wounded in the confusion .
When questioned later by American and Canadian soldiers, the Afghan contactors admitted to firing at who they thought were Taliban fighters, but when told a Canadian had been killed the guards changed their story, the U.S. report said.
If true, it's exactly the kind of nightmare scenario that defence experts warned Ottawa about almost a year ago in the aftermath of a shooting in Iraq, which involved the U.S. security firm Blackwater. The incident left 11 civilians dead.
Regardless of whether they fired the fatal shot in Roberts' death, Perry says the account of the incident raises serious questions about the training of Afghan contractors.
Canada and its NATO partners rely on a host of locally hired guns to guard diplomats, bases and construction and development projects throughout Afghanistan.
National Defence and the Foreign Affairs Department separately hire their own private security in Kandahar and Kabul. The Canadian International Development Agency has apparently done the same thing.
There is no oversight by Public Works Canada, the federal government's principal contract manager.
Defence sources say there have even been times when the Canadian army was not notified about security contractors hired by other departments.
Unlike the United States, which was burned by a series of scandals involving the trigger-happy antics of private security firms in Iraq, there is no one federal department or agency overseeing the movements and activities of paramilitary contractors hired by the Canadian government.
That disturbs Perry.
"What you're really concerned about here is, who's got guns and where they are," he said in an interview.
"DND should have a single point to co-ordinate all of the DND-let contracts, and it should probably be the same person who is co-ordinating all Government of Canada-let contracts in Afghanistan."
Similarly, he says NATO should be keeping closer tabs on privately-hired gunmen working for alliance members.
Interview requests directed to both the Defence Department and Foreign Affairs were declined Monday.
An email statement issued by a defence official emphasized that "private security contractors are used for defensive roles primarily (such as) perimeter security at designated sites."
The contracts also "clearly state that any use of force must be in accordance with applicable law," said the note from Jillian Van Acker, a communications officer.
Contractors are not "used to conduct offensive operations."
Much of what gets done by the security firms - both Afghan and international - remains clouded in secrecy.
Documents released last year under federal access to information laws show Saladin Afghanistan Security Ltd. was paid $456,000 to provide a quick-reaction force for Canada's embassy in Kabul in 2006-07.
Compass has been involved in other friendly-fire incidents with the Canadian military in Afghanistan.
Last April, one person was killed and three others were injured when a Canadian military convoy opened fire on a Compass vehicle that failed to stop when demanded.
A vehicle belonging to Compass also came under Canadian fire in a separate incident last October, an incident where seven Afghans were injured.
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New al-Qaeda focus on NATO supplies
Asia Times Online By Syed Saleem Shahzad August 12, 2008
KARACHI-The Taliban and al-Qaeda have with some success squeezed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's)supply lines that run through Pakistan into Afghanistan, especially goods in transit in Khyber Agency on the border.
Now, according to Asia Times Online contacts, the target area is being shifted to the southern port city of Karachi, where almost 90% of NATO's shipments land, including vital oil. From this teeming financial center, 80% of the goods go to Torkham in Khyber Agency on their way to the Afghan capital of Kabul. About 10% go to Chaman, then on to the northern Afghan city of Kandahar. The remaining NATO supplies arrive in Afghanistan by air and other routes.
An al-Qaeda member told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity, "The single strategy of severing NATO's supply lines from Pakistan is the key to success. If the blockage is successfully implemented in 2008, the Western coalition will be forced to leave Afghanistan in 2009, and if implemented next year, the exit is certain by 2010."
Several al-Qaeda cells have apparently been activated in Karachi to monitor the movement of NATO supply convoys.
This focus on Karachi coincides with two major events. First, the Pakistani armed forces are heavily engaged in fighting against militants in Bajaur Agency and in the Swat Valley in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.
At the same time, the coalition government in Islamabad is preparing to impeach Washington's point man in the region, President Pervez Musharraf, mainly over his implementation of a state of emergency and dismissal of the judiciary last year when he headed a military administration.
The unpopular military operations and the political crisis, which could see Musharraf respond by using his constitutional powers to dissolve parliament, play into al-Qaeda's hands as the government's ability to counter new threats is considerably reduced.
NATO is understandably acutely concerned over protecting its supply lines into land-locked Afghanistan. When routes in Khyber Agency came under attack this year, NATO reached an agreement with Russia for some goods to transit through Russian territory. This alternative is costly, though, given the distances involved, and can only be used in emergencies.
Washington tried to get Iran to permit the passage of goods from its seaports into neighboring Afghanistan, but Tehran refused point-blank.
So NATO is stuck with Pakistan as a transshipment point, along with its political instability.
The latest crisis has it roots in elections in February, following Musharraf stepping down as chief of army staff. The national elections that followed resulted in a coalition civilian government headed by the pro-American liberal and secular Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's conservative right-wing Pakistan Muslim League, whose political constituency is traditional and religious segments of society. The Pashtun sub-nationalist Awami National Party and the traditional religious Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam are another mismatch in the coalition.
As a result, from the beginning the coalition was pulled in various directions, with little consensus on key matters such as the "war on terror". Only recently did the parties agree to move ahead on trying to impeach Musharraf.
Pakistan is the strategic backyard for NATO as well as for the Taliban and al-Qaeda. If Musharraf does go, it would be a huge victory for the militants to see off the US ally through whose office millions of dollars of aid are channeled in the "war on terror".
If he stays, debilitating political turmoil is inevitable, and al-Qaeda's sights are already set on the boatloads of containers that carry fuel, armored personnel vehicles, guns, aircraft spares and other military supplies to Afghanistan.
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Taliban attacks Nato by choking supplies
Financial Times, UK By Jon Boone in Bagram August 12 2008
Gulab Khan is constantly reminded of the danger of his job by the two round stickers he has used to cover bullet holes in the windscreen of the cab of his lorry, one of the thousands of trucks carrying diesel and jet fuel to Nato bases across Afghanistan.
“I believe it was the holy Koran, which I keep with me in the truck, that saved me from the bullets,” says Mr Shah as he recalls being attacked by insurgents last year on the dangerous run between Kabul and Kandahar airfield, a huge coalition military base in Afghanistan’s insurgent-ridden southern desert.
Despite the extra $2,500 (1,648, £1,297) to be made on each load supplying the needs of Nato’s war machine in the south, he now restricts himself to less lucrative but far safer northern routes, delivering jet fuel in his rusty old Mercedes truck from Pakistan to Bagram airfield.
It is just as well for him, as this summer has seen an escalation in Taliban assaults on Nato supply lines with insurgents stepping up attacks on fuel ¬convoys and the country’s roads.
Country managers at western security companies that hire out teams of armed Afghans and foreigners to protect convoys operating in the south say the situation has deteriorated sharply.
“In the summer months, I would expect to be attacked once or twice a week,” said one manager, unwilling to speak on the record.
“Last week, we were caught up in an attack on a convoy of fuel trucks on a road we are working on. It looked like a war zone, with five diesel tanks burst open by [rocket propelled grenades] and burning diesel flooding out over the road.”
The security companies are circumspect about how many tankers they lose, but he said “multiple dozens” have been lost in the south each month during the summer. In June, fighters set upon a convoy of more than 50 tankers, setting fire to them about 65km south of Kabul.
According to British officials in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province, the 10 largest fuel transport groups now have to spend a combined $2m a month on protecting the 5,000 trucks they operate. Kabul is now encouraging the companies to help fund its efforts to reclaim control over the road network.
The eastern provinces of Zabul and Ghazni have been particularly badly hit by attacks on bridges, with local officials saying they have lost four bridges and around 30 culverts in the past three months.
Matthew Leeming, a Kabul-based fuel trader, said it had become increasingly difficult to get convoys of essential goods through to more distant bases.
“The Taliban’s new tactics of blowing bridges between Kabul and Kandahar, forcing convoys to slow down and become softer targets, is causing severe problems to companies trying to supply Kandahar from Kabul,” he said.
Billions of international aid dollars have been spent on building a national road network, with the US Agency for International Development providing $260m for most of the Kabul-Kandahar link and Japan adding $34m for the rest. But the Afghan army and police have been unable to reclaim control of the roads from insurgents and criminal gangs who illegally tax traders who pass through their patches.
Passengers on civilian buses are routinely searched and killed if any evidence suggesting they work for the government or foreigners is found.
Humanitarian convoys are not immune either. Last year the World Food Programme was attacked 30 times and sustained $750,000 of damage.
Nato spokespeople say that the attacks on the alliance’s supply lines have not affected its operations, but this year it sought to open alternative routes from ¬central Asia, rather than rely on equipment coming in through Pakistan. Forty fuel trucks were destroyed in March near the crossing between the two countries.
However, a western security executive told the FT that for a period last summer some military bases in the south were almost running on empty, “stopping all non-essential movement and offensive operations because of fuel shortages”.
One security contractor even claimed to have donated some spare mortars to British troops in the south whose supply lines had been “slightly pinched”.
At Camp Bastion, the main British military base in Helmand province, logisticians like to have 30 days’ fuel reserves but last month supplies fell to seven days.
On July 13, Dutch commanders in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province, were so anxious for the delivery of fuel supplies that had been delayed in Kandahar that they dispatched their own protection for a convoy of 13 trucks. Despite the deployment of coalition air and ground forces, the convoy came under attack and two tankers were destroyed.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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