February 3, 2003

U.N. Launches Drive Against Tetanus in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 2, 8:04 AM ET  By Parwez Besmel
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Teams of volunteers and health workers went from house to house in the Afghan capital Sunday offering free tetanus shots to women as part of a global U.N. campaign to cut deaths among mothers and new-born children.

By next Saturday, the U.N. Children's Fund aims to vaccinate 740,000 Afghan women between the ages of 15 and 49 in four major cities in order to prevent the deaths of an estimated 11,000 babies from tetanus every year.

UNICEF and the Afghan government plan to target four million women in Afghanistan with the vaccine over the next three years.

"Today almost 10 percent of newborns die of new-born tetanus and some mothers," Francois Gasse, UNICEF's senior health adviser, and its head of program for maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination, told a news conference in Kabul.

"You protect them and it's the first step to preventing unacceptable levels of maternal deaths," he said.

Afghanistan has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates, with 1,600 women dying for every 100,000 live births.

Yet three doses of the tetanus toxoid vaccine costing just over a dollar were sufficient to protect mother and child for 15 years, Gasse said.

Without it, he said, about 80 percent of Afghan women, or four to five million, risked giving birth to babies who would suffer or die from tetanus in the first months of their lives.

"I am very happy that she came here to vaccinate me," said Rahela, 28, a resident of the district of Taimany in Kabul, referring to one of the volunteer workers fanning out to administer the vaccine. "I believe it will keep me healthy."

Neo-natal tetanus is a major killer of infants in the developing world. It is the result of unhygienic birth practices leading to contamination of the umbilical cord with tetanus spores when it is being cut or dressed after delivery.

The Afghan campaign is part of a global effort by UNICEF to eliminate both maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2005.

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Caving Afghan Style: Dynamite, Patience
Monday, February 03, 2003 4:54 AM EST
ADI GHAR MOUNTAIN, Afghanistan (AP) The explosion set off a concussion that was strong enough to blow a man down, even half-a-mile away.

Seconds earlier, a U.S. Army engineer had shouted ``fire in the hole'' three times, then ignited the blast he hoped would bring down the inside of a cave in rugged southeastern Afghanistan. U.S. forces wanted to prevent rebel fighters from ever seeking shelter there again.

But the rock on Adi Ghar mountain is hard. The blast succeeded only in partly collapsing the ceiling, even on the second attempt.

In a campaign christened ``Operation Mongoose,'' troops of the 82nd Airborne Division have been searching and blasting caves throughout the region, where last week they engaged suspected rebel fighters in the biggest battle in Afghanistan in 10 months.

After killing 18 enemy fighters, troops found what they believe is a supply hub for forces in the area, a group of caverns containing stockpiles of everything from cooking oil to boots to rockets.

U.S. forces believe hostile troops are still out there, and on Monday reports came in of smoke curling from high atop a mountainside.

``We still believe that there are enemy forces in the area. From time to time, we see smoke as if from cooking fires coming from some of the mountainous areas,'' said Col. Roger King. ``We are going though a very deliberate process of clearing out all those caves that we think have evidence of occupation.''

Still, only a small cache of weapons was found though during searches by the division's 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment Friday and Saturday. Such frustrations are not uncommon as U.S. forces continue the arduous and often dangerous work.

For two days, Army engineers armed with heavy explosives and drills for boring into the stone tried to close the empty cavern, known simply as Cave 2.

In the end, they decided to call in an airstrike to hit rocks above, setting off an avalanche and sealing its mouth, though it wasn't immediately clear whether that was successful either.

An Associated Press photographer who accompanied the troops wasn't permitted interviews with the soldiers.

About 120 troops mostly from the regiment's 2nd Battalion, Bravo Company flew into the area just after lunchtime on Friday.

That first day, they trekked across a treacherous landscape of fist-sized rocks, loose pebbles and outcroppings in search of caves already identified from the air.

Stricken by years of drought, the area is largely unpopulated. Mud courtyards were empty and farmland lay fallow.

At night, the troops found what shelter they could from the freezing temperatures. Waking to a covering of frost at 6 a.m., troops set out to march parallel to a sheer rock face in a dried up river bed. Overhead an unmanned drone kept watch for threats.

Numerous caves were found, but none containing any signs of rebels, though earlier Friday, a lone gunman fired on U.S. troops as they searched one of the caves in the complex. The soldiers returned fire, but never found the man.

Commanders weren't saying how long the operation would continue, but a soldier who took part in another mopping up action said Saturday that work would continue for as long as it took to flush out the enemy.

``I don't think the battle is winding down. The enemy forces are still out there and we're still here to do our jobs,'' said Spc. John B. Moody, of the regiment's 2nd Battalion.

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U.S. military in Afghanistan launches long-term reconstruction projects
Sun Feb 2,11:29 AM ET  By AARON FAVILA, Associated Press Writer
GARDEZ, Afghanistan - Even as armed confrontations flare up in war-torn Afghanistan, the U.S. military has cut the ribbon on a major new plan to help rebuild the country with reconstruction projects traditionally left to private aid organizations.

More than ever before, U.S. soldiers will be helping to dig wells to irrigate parched land, and rebuild roads and schools destroyed during decades of war.

Under the new reconstruction mission, launched at the U.S. base in Gardez on Saturday, the focus will be on long-term projects, often using Afghan help. Until now, most such U.S. missions were short visits to vaccinate animals or treat children.

"We will continue to work on security, but we're not going to only deal with security. We want to help reconstruct Afghanistan and help bring Afghanistan from war to peace," Robert P. Finn, the U.S. ambassador, said in Gardez.

"One way to do that is to provide opportunities for the fighters to do something other than fight," Finn said.

The Gardez regional center is planned to be the first of many to open around Afghanistan under the program, coordinated by the Coalition Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force.

Gardez, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Kabul, is in a part of eastern Afghanistan that has seen a stream of attacks on U.S forces. Rocket attacks on U.S. bases in the area are common, though they rarely hit their targets.

A U.S. soldier patrolling near another town in eastern Afghanistan was shot and killed in a fire fight on Dec. 21.

The launch of the project also comes less than a week after U.S. troops engaged in their largest-scale fight in nearly a year. Ground and air forces battled for two days in the southeastern mountains against a group of armed men believed loyal to the Taliban, al-Qaida and renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Some 18 rebel fighters were reported killed.

Officials say the new reconstruction projects are intended to show the U.S. commitment to the country, and to facilitate information exchanges between the military, private donors and the Afghan government.

But many aid agencies are skeptical of the plan.

Caroline Douilliez, a spokeswoman for the International Red Cross in Kabul, said she worries about mixed messages among the Afghan public, especially as the United States continues to hunt down and kill Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives.

"As a general position, we feel it creates confusion in the minds of those who receive the aid and creates confusion among those who carry out military and humanitarian missions at the same time," Douilliez said.

"In this context, as in any armed conflict, it's hard to imagine the U.S. coming out in an impartial way," she said.

U.S. officials say they are confident their forces can carry out both military missions and humanitarian projects without conflict. Numbers of soldiers attached to the projects will decrease as the number of civilian workers increases, they hope.

Spc. Neal Dedicatoria, a civil affairs worker in Gardez, admits there have been times when villagers in the area are confused by the sight of an armed soldier in camouflage who arrives wanting to help build, not destroy.

But, he said, "once we meet with the leaders, they understand that we're trying to help and they're more than willing to help."

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U.N. official: Afghanistan is still not secure enough
Sun Feb 2, 4:41 AM ET AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Armed men beat and robbed Afghan employees of a U.N. de-mining agency in western Afghanistan, while other assailants stole a vehicle from the World Food Program, highlighting continued safety concerns, a U.N. spokesman said Sunday.

The latest incident occurred Jan. 27 in western Farah province. Ten armed men robbed six workers of the U.N. Mine Action Program, beating the victims and taking money and clothing, said spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva.

The robbery followed a Jan. 13 incident in which armed men snatched a jeep from WFP officials near Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Kabul.

Afghan police later recovered the vehicle but did not arrest any suspects, said WFP spokesman Alejandro Lopez-Chicheri.

Although no one was injured in either incident, Almeida e Silva said they illustrated the still pressing need for better security.

"These robberies are not good. They show that the security is not secure enough," he said.

Some 4,800 peacekeeping troops patrol Kabul, but outside the capital, warlords hold sway and aid agencies often report incidents of robberies and thefts.

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Bomb in Pakistan's Karachi Kills One, Wounds Two
KARACHI (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and two wounded on Monday in a powerful explosion near the headquarters Pakistan's state oil company in the heart of Karachi, police said.

The explosion caused extensive damage to one side of the modern, glass structure of the Pakistan State Oilheadquarters and also blew out windows of nearby buildings.

No organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack but police said the explosion could be a message to PSO, which supplies oil to the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

``It is an act of terrorism,'' Syed Kamal Shah, chief of Sindh provincial police, told reporters at the site of the blast in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub.

The explosives were attached to a motorcycle, Shah said.

The police found a national identity card on the body giving their age as 22 and bearing an address in the North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

``He could be the suicide bomber...We are investigating and exploring all possibilities,'' Shah said.

One part of the damaged PSO building was smeared with the blood of the victim, whose torso was thrown into it by the force of the explosion, witnesses said.

The blast caused panic as people ran for cover.

MESSAGE TO OIL COMPANIES?
In recent weeks, pamphlets were distributed in tribal areas of southwestern Baluchistan province warning oil companies against supplying fuel to the coalition forces.

Shah said as well as PSO, the offices of several security agencies investigating major terrorism cases are located in the neighborhood.

Police were trying to find out details on the nature and intensity of the explosive device, he said.

Dozens of police and paramilitary officials rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area.

The PSO head office was evacuated, but work had been resumed, said PSO managing director Tariq Kirmani.

``No PSO employee was hurt. It could be a message for us...but terrorism won't affect our operations,'' he said. A PSO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was sitting in his office on the seventh floor when the building was shaken by the blast.

``I felt a jolt and initially thought something exploded inside the building. It was very scary. We were immediately asked to evacuate.''

Saghir Shah, a salesman at a nearby shop, said God had saved him.

``I work in a nearby shop and every day park my motorcycle at the very same spot where the explosion took place,'' he said. ``Thank God I was a little late today.''

A string of explosions hit major Pakistani cities last year, with the deadliest blasts occurring in Karachi as radical Islamic groups targeted Westerners and government officials.

On May 8, 2002, 11 French technicians and three Pakistanis were killed in a suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel, while on June 14, a similar assault outside the U.S. Consulate killed 12 Pakistanis.