Afghanistan News February 17, 2003

February 17, 2003

US admits civilian casualty in Afghan offensive as probe begins
Sunday February 16, 8:48 AM AFP
An eight year-old boy was identified by the US military as the first civilian casualty in an offensive in central Afghanistan which it says has killed several rebels.

The boy was treated for shrapnel wounds following clashes between US Special Forces and suspected Taliban fighters in the Lejay area of Bahglan valley in the north of Helmand province, a US military spokesman said.

Details of the casualty were given as a delegation from the Afghan government headed for Helmand to investigate claims that at least 17 non-combatant deaths had been caused by the offensive, code-named Eagle Fury.

US spokesman Colonel Roger King said the boy was Friday taken for treatment at Kandahar air base, a major coalition centre in southern Afghanistan, while his father was seized for questioning.

"The boy's father brought him in for treatment by the Special Forces medics. During treatment the child related that he had been with his father and other armed men on a ridge above Lejay, firing at US forces.

"He said his father hid his rifle before bringing him to the medics," King told reporters at Bagram air base north of Kabul, the command centre of US-led military activities in Afghanistan.

He said the boy was in a stable condition while his father, believed to be linked to the former hardline Taliban regime, was under the control of US Special Forces.

"The incident is the only confirmed non-combatant casualty of operation Eagle Fury. Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants."

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said a delegation including Helmand deputy governor Haji Pir Mohammad had left the provincial capital Lashkargah to investigate the disputed civilian casualty claims.

Fazel Akbar said a second delegation from Helmand had also arrived in Kabul to discuss Eagle Fury, in which US and coalition warplanes pounded cave hideouts in the area with 500 and 2,000 pound (227 and 909 kilogram) bombs.

He said Karzai had told the delegation that he had held talks with coalition representatives and urged them to discontinue the raids, many of which took place during the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.

Meanwhile, King said there had been no clashes or bombing in the area for at least 18 hours, adding that US Special Forces had only been present in Bahgran at the invitation of Helmand authorities.

He said the five-day offensive, sparked by an ambush Monday in the valley, had claimed casualties among an opposing force numbering above 30, but would not reveal exact figures. So far 15 men have been detained.

King said he was aware that the government was sending a delegation, but the coalition had not been consulted.

"It is an indication that the Afghan government takes the allegations of civilian casualties seriously enough to check it out," he said.

Afghan authorities say up to 48 people were killed when a US bombing raid on June 30 in central Uruzgan province mistakenly targeted a wedding party. Washington puts the toll from the incident much lower.

The latest fighting in Helmand comes only days after the conclusion of an offensive near the southern border town of Spin Boldak which the US says left 18 anti-government fighters dead.

It said the assault on a cave network in Adi Ghar mountain was the largest confrontation involving US troops in Afghanistan since last March.

Karzai Urges US Coalition to Ensure Civilians Safe
Sat Feb 15,12:59 PM ET By Sanjeev Miglani
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday expressed concerns for the safety of civilians in operations carried out by U.S.-led military coalition hunting for Islamic militants.

Local officials and villagers in Helmand province have said at least 17 civilians, mostly women and children, had been killed in coalition bombing raids in the mountainous region this week. The U.S. military said that only an eight-year-old boy was wounded in the operation.

Karzai met coalition commander U.S. Lieutenant-General Dan McNeill at the presidential palace after a delegation of elders from the Baghran district in the southwest of the country called on him about the air strikes in the remote area.

"He (Karzai) emphasized that the coalition forces should pay a great deal of attention in assessing reports before the operation in order not to harm innocent people," Karzai's office said in a statement after the president's meeting with McNeill.

The U.S. backed Karzai also told village elders from Baghran to help the government and the international coalition to hunt down militants by reporting any suspicious movements or activities.

"This kind of cooperation is the most appropriate way of avoiding military operation and undue loss," the statement said.

The operation in Baghran came after a U.S. Special Forces team came under heavy fire on Monday.

Military officials said there could be up to a 100 fighters linked to the ousted Taliban holed up in the Baghran mountains.

A U.S. military spokesman said on Saturday that an eight-year-old son of a suspected Taliban fighter was the only civilian it had confirmed wounded in the bombing raids.

"From all the checking we have done and we have had patrols go up on the ridgeline where the bombing occurred the only non-combatant casualty we have been able to confirm is this eight-year-old boy who was brought by his father and the boy himself confirmed that his father was a combatant," Colonel Roger King told reporters at Bagram airbase.

King said the boy was taken to the U.S. military base at Kandahar on Friday night for treatment of shrapnel wounds to the face and leg and was in a stable condition.

The boy's father was among 15 suspected Taliban fighters arrested in the operation, he said.

"NO HARM INTENDED"
McNeill met residents of the Baghran district at the presidential palace in Kabul on Saturday and attempted to reassure them about the operation.

"We have come to help Afghans in maintaining peace and stability, eliminating terrorism and rehabilitation of the country, we do not want to harm the people," the statement from the palace quoted him as saying.

McNeill leads some 13,000 troops in war-shattered Afghanistan in the hunt for remnants of the Taliban and the al Qaeda network blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. More than a year on, they have yet to locate al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, or Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Bin Laden Son, Al-Qaida Sr Members Spotted In Iran-Report
Saturday February 15, 4:30 PM
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)Osama bin Laden's oldest son, Sad, is said to be in Iran along with other senior al-Qaida members, the Washington Times reported on it website Saturday, citing U.S. intelligence officials.

Sad bin Laden was seen in Iran last month, according to officials familiar with the intelligence reports, the Washington Times reported.

Sad is believed to be a key leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network after the U.S. and allied forces ousted the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, the report said.

Officials said it isn't clear what relationship Sad has with the Iranian government, which on Thursday denied testimony by CIA director George J. Tenet that al-Qaida members are in Iran, the Washington Times report said.

Iranian military forces have been placed on their highest state of alert in anticipation of a U.S. attack on Iraq, according to intelligence officials, the report said.

Iran Says 500 al-Qaida Suspects Deported
Sunday, February 16, 2003 10:45 PM EST
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran said Sunday it has arrested and deported more than 500 infiltrators suspected of links to the al-Qaida terrorist group but couldn't confirm reports Osama bin Laden's eldest son was among them.

In announcing the deportations, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said the 500 were sent back to their countries of origin. He did not say when or over what period the arrests took place.

``This is our policy to crack down on any person suspected of links to al-Qaida,'' Kharrazi said.

He added that Iran had no knowledge about reports that Saad bin Laden was in Iran.

``Allegations about bin Laden's son are not new. Definitely, we will arrest him if he is located in Iran,'' he said.

Osama bin Laden has at least 23 children by several wives. Saad bin Laden, believed to be the oldest at about age 23, has emerged as an al-Qaida leader and is on America's most wanted terrorist list.

Iran said last year it arrested and deported 150 infiltrators suspected of links to al-Qaida. The infiltrators entered Iran across its eastern border, which is shared with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last August, Saudi Arabia said Iran extradited 16 al-Qaida suspects to the kingdom.

Also Sunday, Kharrazi blasted U.S. preparations for war against Iraq and said Washington was ``not sincere'' in the fight against unconventional weapons.

``If weapons of mass destruction are bad, why have the U.S. and other Western countries armed Iraq with such weapons? Why don't they regret and apologize for their contribution in arming Iraq? Why do they even support Israel in having such weapons?'' he said.

Iran says it has no sympathy for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but at the same time is opposed to U.S. military action, fearing that it will give Washington a free hand in the future of Iraq and result in Iran being encircled by pro-U.S. governments.

Iran holds Saddam responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers and civilians in the devastating 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam used poison gas on Iranian troops.

Kharrazi came under political attack in Iran's parliament Sunday. A third of Iran's lawmakers signed a petition demanding his impeachment for accepting a recent visit to Tehran by his Iraqi counterpart, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

``The visit created the impression that Iran was supporting (Iraq's president) and trying to help him get out of international isolation,'' IRNA quoted lawmaker Noureddin Pirmoazzen as saying.

Pirmoazzen said the petition was signed by more than 100 legislators, IRNA reported. An impeachment vote would need 146 members a simple majority to pass.

Also this weekend, U.N. human rights officials arrived in Iran for talks with top officials on arbitrary detentions and to visit prisons in several cities, the U.N. Information Center in Iran said Sunday.

The five-member team arrived in the capital Tehran on Saturday for a two-week visit following an invitation from the Iranian government, the center said.

Bin Laden vows to pursue war on Americans: report
Sunday February 16, 6:57 PM AFP
Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden vows to pursue his struggle against the United States in a new audio tape recording posted on the Internet and published by Al-Hayat newspaper.

Bin Laden also warns that Arab countries such as Egypt, Sudan and Syria, as well as Iran will be the next US targets after Iraq and branded US President George W. Bush "stupid" and "the Pharaoh of the century", the daily said.

The 53-minute tape urges Muslims "to be convinced of the possibility of defeating the Americans", citing a list of attacks against US interests across the globe in recent years.

The leader of the al-Qaeda network condemns the "crusades" waged by Washington in the Arab world, the London-based daily said.

A US-led war in Iraq "will only be a stage in a series of planned attacks targeting other countries, including Syria, Iran, Egypt and Sudan."

"It's a new Sykes-Picot which thy are preparing for us," Bin Laden says, referring to the 1916 Anglo-French carve-up of the Ottoman empire.

"It's a Bush-Blair agreement under the same banner and same aims, those of the crusaders trying to destroy the Islamic nation."

The threats to attack Iraq "are not a passing cloud in summer but a strategic objective" of US policy "to carve up" the region and allow the creation of a Greater Israel, he says.

"Greater Israel should include inside its borders large parts of Iraq and Egypt along with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the whole of Palestine, as well as part of the land of the holy mosques (Saudi Arabia)."

The tape, obtained by Al-Hayat in Cairo and published on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/abudanan/message/1261, follows another recording broadcast by the Al-Jazeera Arab satellite television network on Tuesday, in which a voice authenticated by Washington as that of bin Laden called on Muslims to launch suicide attacks and defend Iraq against a feared US attack.

The whereabouts of bin Laden, who organised the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, have remained uncertain since Washington unleashed war in October 2001 on the Taliban Islamic militia which sheltered him in Afghanistan.

"The mujahedeen, using enemy aircraft, have carried out a fine and audacious operation the equal of which humanity had never before known," Bin Laden says in the latest reported tape of his voice.

"They destroyed the idols of the United States, directly hit the Pentagon and the American economy, throwing the pride of America in the mud.

"With the collapse of the Twin Towers (the World Trade Centre) the myth of a great America, of democracy ... the land of freedom and national security also collapsed.

The attacks on New York and Washington, which the tape calls "conquests", "exposed the struggle between the crusaders and the Muslims and proves the scale of the hostility of the crusaders against us.

"It is possible to strike America, to humiliate and dominate it. And for the first time, the majority of American people realised ... that what struck it was the result of the unjust policy of its government" towards the Palestinians.

In the message recorded for the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice on February 11, according to Al-Hayat, Bin Laden also brands Afghan President Hamid Karzai "a US spy".

Pakistan Pledges Weapons for Afghan Army
Sunday, February 16, 2003 6:09 AM EST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) Pakistan's army gave the Afghan government submachine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades on Sunday to help build its fledgling national army.

Pakistan handed over 500 submachine guns, 180 82mm mortars, rockets and 50,000 rounds of ammunition in a ceremony at a Pakistani air force base near the capital, an armed forces statement said.

``Afghanistan badly needs this kind of assistance, which will enable Afghanistan to run their own matters, and we appreciate it,'' said Rehmahulla Musaghazi, an official at the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, who was on hand at Chaklala Air Force Base to accept the weapons.

The Pakistani army also said it would train Afghan military personnel at bases in Pakistan, but did not say when this would begin.

The Afghan National Army now has about 1,800 soldiers, but President Hamid Karzai has said he hopes it will eventually grow to 70,000. Creation of the army is seen as vital to the central government's ability to extend its control nationwide.

Pakistan was a supporter of the hard-line Taliban government, but it switched sides and backed a U.S. military operation to oust the regime after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Suspected Taliban hideouts targeted
Saturday February 15, 12:09 AM
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S-led coalition planes have carried out more raids on suspected Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan as a team of Afghan officials arrived to investigate reports of civilian deaths in earlier bombing.
Haji Pir Mohammad, deputy governor of the southwestern province of Helmand, said he led a six-member team to the Baghran valley where local officials and villagers had reported the deaths of at least 17 people including women and children since the bombardment began on Sunday.

Mohammad told Reuters he had seen dead bodies, but he could not say whether they were members of the Taliban or civilians.

"I can't say how many people were killed because the area is covered with snow and it has high mountains, there could be dead bodies under the snow," he said by phone from the provincial capital Lashkargah on Friday.

U.S. military officials have said there was no evidence of any civilian deaths and reiterated that there could up to 100 fighters linked with the Taliban hiding in caves in the Baghran valley where an ambush of U.S. Special Forces this week triggered the latest bombing raids.

"There have been no reports of civilian or coalition casualties based upon the searches that were done yesterday," U.S. military spokesman Colonel Roger King told reporters at the coalition headquarters in Bagram, north of Kabul.

In a pre-dawn raid on Friday, an AC-130 gunship, B-1 bomber and A-10 aircraft destroyed three caves in the Baghran valley where the militants were believed holed up.

King said there could be 30 to 100 suspected enemy fighters in the area in what could be the biggest concentration since a group of rebels was attacked near the Spin Boldak mountains in neighbouring Kandahar province late last month.

"It is a relatively long valley, who knows, there may be more somewhere else," King said.

There has been an increase in rebel activity in recent weeks in southern Afghanistan.

U.S. military officials say a war on Iraq could trigger militant strikes in Afghanistan where thousands of international troops are hunting remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda, blamed by Washington for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Earlier on Friday suspected Taliban remnants fired two rockets into the southern Afghan town of Spin Boldak which is near the border with Pakistan, but there were no casualties.

A third rocket landed near a Pakistani border post, an Afghan security official said.

He said Taliban members could have been responsible for the attack.

Late last month, U.S.-led coalition forces pursuing remnants of the fundamentalist Taliban regime and their allies from the al Qaeda network launched a major attack on a cave complex in a mountain area northeast of Spin Boldak.

UN: Afghanistan trying to move out families from cliffside caves surrounding Bamiyan Buddhas
Sun Feb 16, 9:47 AM ET By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United Nations said Sunday authorities were looking for new housing for 100 impoverished families who recently moved in to cliffside caves that surround the famed Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.

The families appeared to have moved into the caves in Bamiyan province in a bid to get new houses from aid organizations, U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

About 105 families were moved out of the caves last year by the provincial governor and promised new homes, about half of which have already been built with help from aid groups, Almeida e Silva told reporters in the capital. The rest of the houses are expected to be finished in the next few months.

"As they vacated more came in," Almeida e Silva said, adding that according to the governor of Bamiyan, the new families were living in the caves illegally.

Another U.N. spokesman, David Singh, said authorities are trying to find new homes for the cave dwellers.

"The government wants to find these people proper accommodation — find them alternative accommodation," said Singh.

U.N. agencies were meeting in Bamiyan Sunday to review the situation and see what could be done.

"Unfortunately it's the kind of problem that we have seen in other situations of poverty ... when they see that some assistance is given here, they think if I move there, I'll get the same thing or I'll get something faster," Almeida e Silva said. "But it's not always like that."

Bamiyan was home to the pair of towering Buddhas that were carved into a sandstone cliff overlooking Bamiyan town 1,500 years ago.

The statues' visages were effaced by authorities over a century ago, and the former Taliban regime dynamited them in 2001, calling them idols that offended their interpretation of Islam.

Afghanistan to Launch Program to Train Teachers
Sun Feb 16, 4:28 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan and the United Nations Children's Fund will launch a program to re-train thousands of teachers, particularly women forced out of work during the fundamentalist Taliban regime, a UNICEF spokesman said Sunday.

About 70,000 teachers across 29 of the country's 32 provinces will begin to receive the on-the-job training next week, Edward Carwardine told a news conference.

The teachers will be instructed on new ways to teach Dari and Pashtu the country's two main languages and receive a better understanding of child development and be taught classroom management skills, he said.

They will also be trained to teach awareness of the dangers of land mines, millions of which are scattered across the country.

Up to 300 people, many of them children, are killed or injured every month by land mines and unexploded ordinance, according to the UNICEF.

"Emphasis is being placed on including women in the program to help them catch up on the many years when they were denied to practice their profession in Afghanistan," Carwardine said.

Afghanistan's transitional government has said education will be a top priority in its effort to rebuild the nation, devastated by 23 years of war and foreign interference.

Around three million children, 30 percent of them girls, returned to school last year, months after the overthrow of the Taliban Islamists who had barred girls from education and women from working.

"The drive to improve the quality of education is an essential element of UNICEF's strategy to ensure that girls continue to return to the classroom and to reduce the risk of drop-out among pupils already enrolled," Carwardine said.

Regional organization to play role in rebuilding Afghanistan
Sunday, February 16, 2003 11:03 AM EST
KABUL, Feb 16, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) An Asian regional economic organization is trying to play a role in rebuilding Afghanistan, a member state whose economy had almost been damaged to zero by 23 years of war, officials said on Sunday.

The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which groups 10 Islamic countries in the west and central Asian region, including Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, will begin to participate in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, visiting ECO Secretary General Syed Mojtaba Arastou told a press conference here.

Arastou said that he had met with President Hamid Karzai and different ministers of the Afghan government on possible areas for ECO's economic assistance to Afghanistan.

Two agreements on goods transit and transportation will be signed between Afghanistan and ECO, he added.

Arastou was the first ECO head to visit Afghanistan after the country gained the organization's membership in 1992.

Noting that ECO members were among the first countries to support the peace process in Afghanistan after the collapse of the ruling Taliban one year ago, Arastou said that there were already several ECO programs for Afghanistan's reconstruction in areas like telecommunications, customs, and technical training.

A special fund on Afghanistan's reconstruction will also be created under the ECO framework, the secretary general said.

According to Arastou, Afghan President Karzai while meeting with ECO officials on Friday stressed the importance of keeping friendly relations and establishing economic cooperation among the ECO members.

With India's support, UN to distribute nutrient-rich biscuits to Afghan children
Source: UN News Service 16 Feb 2003
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced plans to distribute nearly 10,000 tons of high-energy biscuits donated by India to the schoolchildren of Afghanistan.
"The biscuits are made in India from wheat fortified with micronutrients to give the children a nutritional boost to enhance their ability to learn," WFP Public Affairs Officer Alehandro Chicheri told reporters in Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan Education Minister, Younis Qanooni, were among those slated to attend a ceremony in the capital marking the distribution. Indian Ambassador Vivek Katjui and WFP Deputy Country Director Susana Rico were also expected to participate.

In another development, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) today announced the start of the first nationwide teacher training programme. Run by the agency and the Afghan authorities, the initiative aims to reach 70,000 educators.

"Emphasis is being placed on including women in the programme to help them catch up on the many years when they were denied the right to practice their profession in Afghanistan," said UNICEF spokesman Edward Carwadine.

In addition to drawing heavily on Afghan traditional literature and folklore, the courses will include information on mine risk education. Landmines and unexploded ordnance cause up to 300 deaths or injuries every month in Afghanistan, with children among the chief victims.

Chinese wheelchairs to bring better life to Afghan disabled
Sunday, February 16, 2003 5:56 AM EST
KABUL, Feb 16, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) Mohammad Daoud touched the armrest of a wheelchair with smile on his face, saying that he could lead a better life with the help of the Chinese-made wheelchair.

Daoud, a 35-year-old Afghan who lost his two legs from the hip 16 years ago in a landmine explosion, received the wheelchair from the Ministry of Disabled Affairs after a handover ceremony on the donation of disabled-aiding appliance from China on Sunday.

At the ceremony, 150 wheelchairs and 300 pairs of crutches were handed over to Afghan Minister of Disabled Affairs Abdullah Wardak by Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Sun Yuxi.

"The donation is a friendly token to show the Chinese people and government's concerns on the well-being of disabled people in Afghanistan," Sun said.

He expressed his hope that the wheelchairs and crutches from the All China Association for the Disabled would improve the exchange and mutual understanding between disabled people of the two neighboring countries.

Sitting onto the stainless steel wheelchair, Daoud said that he could now go any place he wants by the wheelchair.

"Before, I had to use my hands to support my body on the ground when I went outside home," he said, "but now I can easily go anywhere without the help of other people."

He said he will go to attend his computer-training course with his wheelchair and hope to find a job as a computer operator in the future.

According to official estimates, there are nearly 1 million disabled people in Afghanistan after 23 years of war, and about 80 percent of them need wheelchairs for a better life.

Feature: Afghan-born Bollywood star to shoot for his people by Cao Jianguo, Sun Wen
Sunday, February 16, 2003 12:39 AM EST
KABUL, Feb 16, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) It was during a trip to the United States seven years ago when Hashmat Khan Hahimi first thought of starting his own film studio to entertain and educate people of his poverty-stricken and conflict-plagued home country.

Back in 1995, when Hahimi was travelling in America on a donation-collecting mission for Afghan refugees, many Afghans he met there suggested he make films of pure Afghan characteristics rather than duplicate heroes in mediocre Indian movies.

Hahimi, a Kabul native who at that time had gained his stardom in the Bollywood galaxy after starring several Indian films, seriously considered the recommendation and even planned to return home to continue his cinematic career.

However, his plan became an unrealistic dream before long, when the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban came to power in Kabul and controlled almost 90 percent of the whole country in 1996.

Claiming that entertainment would distract Muslims from their belief in Islam, Taliban forbade any kinds of music, dance and movies during their six years of rule. Cinemas in Kabul were closed, musicians and filmmakers fled to foreign countries for evading persecutions by Taliban religious police.

"My dream to make films for Afghan people came to a halt even before starting due to the emergence of Taliban regime," the 37- year-old strapping actor recalled just after launching his own film company here on Saturday.

Thanks to the collapse of Taliban in late 2001 in the wake of a US-led anti-terrorism campaign, Hahimi's dream to make Afghan films was to come true.

He returned to Kabul six months ago and now started his company Hahimi Films International.

According to Hahimi, with an initial investment of 125,000 US dollars, his company is planning to produce two feature films within this year.

He said that one film, titled Bahar Omid, or the Spring of Hopes, would be based on a love story written by himself and set in post-Taliban Afghanistan to reflect the national reconciliation process and people's enthusiasm for new lives.

With shooting plans for both feature and documentary productions on Afghanistan, Hahimi said his company will finally invest a total of one million dollars in the next five years.

"The goal of my company is to make films focusing on the country's current situation, with a view to entertaining Afghan people and encouraging them to be involved in the country's reconstruction," he said, adding that he himself will play leading roles in these films.

Hahimi, who left Afghanistan over 20 years ago and graduated from Delhi University of India with a degree in political science, said his company will use Indian expertise in filmmaking in the near future as Afghanistan lacks of cinematographic professionals after 23 years of destruction by war.

Holding a dual citizenship of Afghan and Indian, Hahimi said he would try his best efforts to make films showing needs of his home country and complying with the traditions of the Afghan society.

In a country where crowds of youths went to see Indian films even on the recent Islamic festival of Eid-ul Adha, when cinemas were only places open for business in the street, Afghan-Indian filmmaker Hahimi would have much to expect for his films.

ISAF chief says no lack of coordination with US troops in Afghanistan
Saturday, February 15, 2003 3:27 AM EST
KABUL, Feb 15, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) A German commander of the international security force here on Saturday denied reports of lack of coordination between his troops and the US military authorities in Afghanistan.

Norbert Van Heyst, the German general who just took over the command of the security troops in Kabul one week ago, told reporters that he didn't think there was lack of coordination between the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US troops stationed in an ISAF area.

There were some reports of nearly a confrontation between ISAF German soldiers and US military on Monday night, when they arrived at a site almost at the same time after two rocket exploded near a German camp in a Kabul suburb. The rocket explosions caused no casualties.

Media reports here blamed the tense moments between the two sides on a possible lack of coordination between ISAF and the US military authorities in Afghanistan.
However, the ISAF commander said at his first press conference since he assumed his position here that there has been close coordination between the over 4,000-strong security troops and the American troops.

"I do not see any problems," he said, adding that he had contacted with the US military commander in Afghanistan to underline the importance of the relations to the US military authorities in the country.

He also stressed that operations of the two sides were different and separate.

While the ISAF has been responsible for maintaining security in Kabul and its surrounding areas since December 2001, there are still hundreds US soldiers and agents stationed in Kabul to guard some important places like the presidential palace, the US Embassy, the CIA Kabul office and the Afghan Military Training Center.

In addition, some 13,000 US-led coalition troops are deployed in different parts of Afghanistan to carry out anti-terrorism operations in the country, most of them stationed in their Bagram headquarters, an airbase about 70 kilometers north of Kabul.

Meanwhile, General Van Heyst said on Saturday that more countries would contribute to the international peacekeeping mission in Kabul, where some 4,000 troops from 25 countries are currently under the leadership of a German-Dutch corps.

"Maybe the number (of contributing countries) will come up to a total of 30, depending on the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding scheduled for tomorrow as far as I was informed," the ISAF commander said, without further elaboration.

Armed robbers steal cash from office of French charity in Afghanistan
Sat Feb 15, 4:22 AM ET AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Four armed robbers stormed into the office of a French charity in the Afghan capital, tied up two Afghan employees and stole cash, police said Saturday.

The incident occurred Friday night at the main office of Solidarity, a French charity working to help Afghan farmers, said the group's director, Emi Dourlot.

Dourlot would not say how much money the robbers took.

"We have informed the police about the incident, and they are investigating the matter," he said.

Scores of foreign charities and U.N. agencies are operating in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan (news - web sites) to help rebuild the country after 23 years of war.

Robberies and other incidents against the charities have increased in recent months.

Police chief Gen. Basir Falangi said authorities were investigating and vowed to find the robbers.

'Bin Laden' tape urges 'jihad': Excerpts
Sunday, 16 February, 2003, 18:32 GMT BBC News
A new message said to be from the fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been broadcast on several Arabic-language websites.

The message called for a jihad, or holy war, against western "crusaders," who were alleged to be plotting to set up a "Greater Israel" across the Middle East.

It accused US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair of seeking to wage war on Muslims.

The following are excerpts from the message, the full version of which was a 53-minute audio tape recording.

The Bush-Blair agreement speaks of eradicating terrorism, but it is now clear to everyone that the real purpose of this agreement is to try and finish Islam and destroy it.

In their speeches and statements, the rulers of the region are assuring the public of their support for Bush in his war on terror, which is in fact a war on Islam and Muslims, in an act of clear betrayal and treachery against the Muslim ummah...

The recent deployment of forces for an attack on Iraq is only a link in the chain of continuing attacks on the countries of this region, including Egypt, Syria, Iran and Sudan.

The message labels Karzai "an American agent"
However, their real intention is to conquer and divide the land of the two holy sanctuaries [Saudi Arabia], as they have long realised the strategic value of this target, ever since this objective was passed on from Britain to the United States 60 years ago...

One of the most important objectives of this latest crusade is to establish a huge Jewish superstate (Greater Israel) that will include the whole of Palestine, parts of Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and a huge area from the land of the two holy sanctuaries.

And what do you know about Greater Israel and the harm and suffering that it will bring to this region?

What is happening in Palestine is a small sample of what will take place in the region: the killing of men, women and children; imprisonment, terrorism and the destruction of houses; the pillaging of the land and razing of factories; and putting the people into a perpetual state of fear, where they can expect death at any time from a rocket or shell destroying their houses and killing their womenfolk...

Terror attacks praised

In 1998, the mujahidin warned America to cease their support for the Jews and leave the land of the two holy sanctuaries, but the enemy refused to heed this warning, so the mujahidin, with ability from God, smashed them with two mighty blows in East Africa.
They destroyed the idols of America

'Bin Laden' on 11 September hijackers

Then again America was warned, but she refused to pay attention to the warnings, so the mujahidin destroyed the American destroyer, the USS Cole, in Aden, in a martyrdom operation, striking a solid blow at the face of the American military and exposing the Yemeni government as American agents...

On the blessed Tuesday 11 September 2001... there came the youths with dishevelled hair and dusty feet, who were wanted and pursued all over the world. These youths believed in their Lord, so God provided them with guidance and put constancy in their tongues and faith in their hearts, so they stopped fearing, for the sake of God, the blame of any blamer.

These youths... launched their attacks with their planes in an unparalleled and magnificent feat of valour, unmatched by any in humankind before them.

They destroyed the idols of America, struck at the very heart of the Defence Department and hit the black heart of the US economy, rubbing America's nose in the dust and rolling her arrogance and pride into mud.

Yet with the destruction of the twin towers in New York, there occurred an even bigger destruction: that of the great American dream and legend of democracy...

'American wolf skinned'

One of the many positive results of the retaliatory attacks on New York and Washington is that they have exposed the true characteristics of the crusaders and revealed the extent of their hate towards Muslims.

It is incumbent upon believers to wage jihad

'Bin Laden' message
These attacks took the skin off the American wolf, and they have been left standing in their filthy, naked reality...

Can a Muslim tell Muslims to pledge their hands into the hands of Hamed Karzai and co-operate with him to establish Islam, lift oppression and stop America's plans in their tracks?!! This is impossible, because Karzai is an American agent...

What is the difference between Karzai the non-Arab and Karzai the Arab? Who implanted and established the rulers of the Arabian Gulf? They are none other than the crusaders, who appointed the Karzai of Kabul, established the Karzai of Pakistan, and implanted the Karzai of Kuwait and the Karzai of Bahrain and the Karzai of Qatar and others.

Who appointed the Karzai of Riyadh?... They were none other than the crusaders, and they are continuing to enslave us to this very day!!

Jihad today is compulsory for the entire ummah and she will remain in sin until she produces her sons, wealth and power to the extent of being able to wage jihad and defend all Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere against the evil of the disbelievers.

It is incumbent upon believers to wage jihad to establish the truth and eradicate falsehood...

It is incumbent upon the ummah to protect the jihad that exists today and support it with every means, as this jihad is a very valuable asset to us, as in Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Muslim lands.

Despite the enemies' vicious attacks, the banner of jihad in these lands is not remaining aloft except by the grace of God and the extreme efforts and sacrifices of the mujahidin with their blood and skulls...

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.