Afghanistan News January 15, 2004

January 15, 2004

NATO Wants More Troops for Afghan Mission
By PAUL AMES, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO's new secretary general on Wednesday appealed for governments to commit additional troops to the alliance's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan stands at around 5,500 troops in Kabul plus last week's deployment of 170 German troops to the northern city of Kunduz in a "Provincial Reconstruction Team." Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, 55, who replaced Britain's Lord Robertson in NATO's top job, said Afghanistan was NATO's "No. 1 priority."

"I have made an appeal on all the nations ... to do more," De Hoop Scheffer told reporters after meeting with the top U.N. envoy to Afghanistan. "It's important that in more parts of the country, also in the more difficult parts, we'll be able to participate for stability and security."

Visiting NATO headquarters, acting U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan Jean-Francois Arnault renewed calls for NATO to do more as increased violence and the growing influence of local warlords threatens plans for elections.

"This is a time to take more ambitious steps toward the restoration of security," Arnault said. "They really can make a difference in expanding the rule of law, not only in Kabul, not only in the main cities, but also in the countryside."

NATO military experts are currently drawing up plans for the alliance to run at least three more "Provincial Reconstruction Teams" like the one in Kunduz. But NATO's efforts to expand its operations in Afghanistan have been dogged by the reluctance of nations to commit troops and equipment.

Separately the United States is operating teams in six Afghan cities and is planning at least three more. Britain and New Zealand are each running a team, and De Hoop Scheffer said Nordic nations were planning to set up another.

"It is the credibility not only of NATO, but of all troop contributors to ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan) which is at stake," he said. De Hoop Scheffer refused say how many troops are required. "I do not wish to speculate about numbers now," he said.

The NATO mission is separate from the U.S.-led combat operation against remnants of the Taliban regime, mostly in the south and east of the country.

EU envoy pledges to remain firm behind Afghanistan's reconstruction
Agence France-Presse (AFP) 14 Jan 2004
KABUL, Jan 14 (AFP) - European Union envoy Javier Solana arrived in Kabul Wednesday morning for a one-day official visit, pledging the European bloc's assistance in rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan. "We will be with you, you will be able to count on us," Solana told a press conference after meeting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah for 45 minutes.

Solana, who congratulated Afghanistan on its January 4 adoption of a new constitution, said he was pleased with the implementation of the Bonn accords, agreed to as a framework for rebuilding Afghanistan following the late 2001 ousting of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.

Abdullah said while talk of a second Bonn agreement was premature, an international conference on security and economic issues within Afghanistan could take place within weeks.

"If you are talking about a Bonn agreement ... which will take place in the absence of the legitimate government, that is not an option," he said. "But the idea of talking about different elements of the Bonn process in another international conference, this I think would help."

Solana was to later meet President Hamid Karzai, Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim and representatives of the International Security Assistance Force. The peacekeeping force is now under the command of NATO, which maintains security in Kabul and has had its mandate extended to the whole country.

PM's Visit To Afghanistan Was Successful: FM
KARACHI, Pakistan: Jan 14 (PNS) - Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said here Tuesday that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali's visit to Afghanistan on Monday had been exceptionally successful. Addressing a press conference at State Guest House, he said during Jamali's visit, there had been an agreement on major projects.

He recalled that in the past 30 years, there had been problems in the region starting from Soviet Invasion on Afghanistan and Pakistan faced insecurity for a very long time. He pointed out that at one stage Pakistan was hosting some 4 Million refugees and there were two million in the country.

He said Pakistan would like to send these refugees back and this can be Done in consultation with Afghan Government and UN High Commission for Refugees. He said improvement in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan is self-evident and we are going to make roads and rail links and Have promised them buses and trucks.

Afghan Court Protests End of Ban on Women Singers
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Supreme Court protested Wednesday at the lifting of a ban on women singers on state television, saying the move defied its decisions.

broadcast Monday of a woman singing was seen as a victory for moderates in the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai over religious conservatives who oppose the relaxation of strict Islamic rules.

Deputy Chief Justice Fazl Ahmad Manawi said the Supreme Court had written to complain to Information and Culture Minister Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, the key figure behind the ending of a ban that had been in force for nearly 12 years. "We are opposed to women singing and dancing as a whole," Manawi told Reuters. "This is totally against the decisions of the Supreme Court and it has to be stopped."

But when asked what the court would do if the government continued to defy its rulings, Manawi replied, "We just show our opposition. The rest is the government's duty." The court is dominated by religious conservatives and has made repeated attempts to outlaw cable television on the grounds it is obscene and un-Islamic.
The removal of the ban came weeks after the replacement of the conservative head of Kabul Radio and TV and the approval of a new constitution endorsing equal rights for women and men.

Ghulam Hassan Hazrati, the new head of Kabul Television, has close ties to Raheen. Monday's broadcast by Kabul Television featured old footage of Parasto, a well-known singer who now lives in the West, performing without a headscarf.

Deputy Culture and Information Minister Abdul Hamid Mubaiz said the move was in line with the new constitution. "In the new constitution, men and women are given the same rights," he told Reuters. "There should be no discrimination between man and woman. Therefore, we wanted to have them appear on television to give them the same rights as men."

Curbs on women singing on television date to 1992, when a government of mujahideen (or holy warriors) replaced a communist regime. In 1996, the even more conservative Taliban replaced the mujahideen and banned all television as part of its strict imposition of Sharia, or traditional Islamic law. Now the mujahideen form the backbone of the Northern Alliance, a faction of mainly Tajiks from the north who were instrumental in helping the U.S. military topple the Taliban.

UN office and aid agency premises attacked
KABUL, 14 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - The Afghan NGOs Security Office (ANSO), an organisation providing security advice to national and international NGOs in the country, confirmed that a bomb exploded in front of the office of an international aid organisation in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on Sunday.

According to the group, one person was injured as a result of the explosion, which occurred outside premises belonging to French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). "It is believed that an explosive device was either thrown or planted against the guard hut," Nick Downie, ANSO project coordinator, told IRIN on Tuesday in Kabul, adding that the injured person was a passer-by.

An ACTED staff member contacted by IRIN confirmed the explosion, but said it was not clear whether it had been a grenade attack or a planted mine. "The explosion did not affect our activities and our operations are ongoing. An investigation is underway by local police," he said.

Sunday's explosion, which happened at around 8:10 in the evening, followed the discovery of an improvised explosive device, near the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) regional office in Mazar-e Sharif city centre on 8 January, the United Nations confirmed. "At approximately 6:30 in the evening on 8 January, an improvised explosive device was discovered in a ditch near the UNAMA office in Mazar-e Sharif," said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a UNAMA spokesman.

The device was deactivated by a demining team. "The chief of police was informed and police were immediately deployed to cordon off the area and await the arrival of a demining team," he said. The UN official responsible for security in Afghanistan, UNAMA Chief of Staff, Margareta Wahlstrom, condemned the attack. "We do take these attempts to destablise the work of the UN and international organisations seriously and are in close contact with the authorities to pursue the investigation," she told IRIN in Kabul.

ANSO said they did not have any indication of a motive for the attack on ACTED. "We can only relate it to the previous UNAMA incident by the use of an explosive device and the short space of time between those incidents," Downie said.

Although there have been a series of attacks and bomb explosions affecting the United Nations and aid organisations in southern and eastern parts of the country, ANSO said Sunday's explosion was the first against an aid agency in Mazar since early 2003. "It is very unusual to have such an attack on the doorstep of an international NGO in Mazar city, and we expect that local security forces may increase their awareness of the safety of the NGO community," Downie explained.
Both incidents took place at a time when the UN is preparing to launch a disarmament programme for Afghan militia forces in Mazar-e Sharif, where up to 2,000 soldiers employed by local commanders are expected to be disarmed in a pilot project. The multi-million dollar UN-backed project aims to disarm around 100,000 former combatants across the country.

Tribal chiefs hand over three wanted men
(Gulf News) - Tribal elders yesterday handed over to authorities in Pakistani tribal area of South Waziriztan three men wanted for sheltering Al Qaida and Taliban fugitives, officials said.

The three were apprehended by a tribal task force constituted under an agreement with the political administration to hunt down some 54 tribesmen blamed for harbouring foreign terrorist suspects.

Rehmatullah, assistant political agent in South Waziriztan, said the tribal force called 'lashkar' would continue its operation until all the wanted men were found and handed to the custody of the administration.

"We hope the bulk of the wanted tribesmen will be rounded up in the next few days," Rehmatullah said, speaking over telephone from Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

Last week the army carried out a search operation in the area after intelligence reports that foreign terrorists were hiding there. Soon after the operation, during which no suspects were found, came to an end on Thursday, a rocket attack on an army camp killed four soldiers.

"The tribesmen and their elders are cooperating with the administration and the lashkar operation is progressing well without any incident of violence," the assistant political agent said.

South Waziristan has been in the spotlight as a sanctuary for Al Qaida and Taliban fugitives from Afghanistan. In October the army carried out a massive operation in the area during which eight terrorist suspects were killed and 18 arrested. Two soldiers were also killed in clashes with the suspects.

Czech Government Approves Troops for Afghan Mission Reuters
Wednesday, January 14, 2004; 1:20 PM PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Czech government approved plans Wednesday to send up to 150 troops to join U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, the defense ministry said.

NATO officials have been urging allies to beef up peacekeeping and other operations in Afghanistan, where nearly 500 people have been killed since August in attacks by the ousted Taliban militia and its allies. Under the Czech plan, which needs parliamentary approval, 120 elite reconnaissance specialists will join forces trying to destroy pockets of resistance loyal to the Taliban or the al Qaeda network.

Thirty more soldiers will be sent to the International Security Assistance Force under NATO command in Kabul. The ISAF currently has some 5,700 soldiers, but officials say they want as many as 5,000 more troops. The Czechs, who joined NATO in 1999, have previously participated in the Afghan operation, providing medical staff for a field hospital.

CENTRAL ASIA: Focus on security threat from radical Islamic groups
ANKARA, 14 January (IRIN) - Although recent reports suggest that the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has been regrouping and could threaten stability in Central Asia, experts and regional observers remain unconvinced. The IMU is a coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states opposed to Uzbek President Islam Karimov's secular regime.

The armed IMU and non-violent Hizb-ut Tahrir movement are the most well-known radical Islamists in Central Asia. The IMU is on the US State Department's formalised list of 33 Foreign Terrorist Groups, while Hizb-ut Tahrir is operating freely from its London headquarters, but is legally banned in all Central Asian states. Hizb-ut Tahrir's ideology envisages a strict Islamic state and the re-establishment of the medieval Arab caliphate in the region.

The IMU is believed to have been responsible for five car bombs in Tashkent in February 1999. Militants also took foreigners hostage in 1999 and 2000, including four US citizens who were mountain climbing in August 2000, and four Japanese geologists and eight Kyrgyz soldiers in August 1999. In Operation Enduring Freedom launched in late 2001, the US-led counter terrorism coalition had been captured, killed, and dispersed many of the IMU's militants who were fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and severely degraded the movement's ability to attack Uzbek or Coalition interests in the near term.

But Stephen Young, the US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, said last month that there had been efforts by militants in Central Asia to target US interests. "The clearest threat seems to be coming from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which despite being dealt a heavy blow in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, has re-emerged as an active organisation here in Central Asia," Young said.

David Lewis, the head of the Central Asia Project of the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based conflict-resolution group, told IRIN from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh that there had been some regrouping of the IMU. "But I think in most cases their activities have been somewhat exaggerated. They do still pose a potential threat in small numbers to the region, but they are probably not quite as effective as perhaps some people in security forces think they are," he said.

The ICG said in a recent report on radical Islamic groups in Central Asia, that reports of IMU members returning to central Tajikistan or the southern regions of Uzbekistan were frequent but very difficult to substantiate. The report added that while there was some evidence that the IMU was trying to regroup, there was also evidence that many of its members had merged into the wider Taliban movement, busy trying to foment Jihad against US-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But individuals and groups sympathetic to, or inspired by, the IMU remain active in Central Asia. An alleged member of the IMU was arrested in Uzbekistan in 2003 and charged with blowing up an exchange booth in Osh in May 2003, and a market in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in December 2002. "Explosions in the Oberon market of Bishkek last year and in Osh this year have been carried out by the members of the organisation that names itself as IMU," Bolot Januzakov, deputy head of the Kyrgyz Presidential administration told IRIN from Bishkek.

Other regional observers remain unconvinced. "I think the IMU military force has been destroyed in the war [on terror]," Ahmed Rashid, the author of books on the Taliban movement and militant Islam in Central Asia, told IRIN from the Pakistani city of Lahore. Asked whether the IMU was an explicit threat to the region, Rashid said: "It's an exaggeration, at some stage of the game the IMU could once again become a political force, but as a military force, I don't think it's possible. The IMU only became a military force because it had the support of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Islamist elements in Tajikistan, where it had bases, all those factors have now gone," the eminent author said.

He went on to say that it was well-known that IMU political leader Takhir Yuldashev was in hiding in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and he had probably had a few IMU fighters with him. "I think it's not a military threat, it is still a political threat because of the network of underground supporters in Central Asia, which have not really been touched by the Americans or local security forces," Rashid noted.

Januzakov said that Kyrgyzstan was not going to drop its guard and would continue hunting down IMU sympathisers and other militants. "They [IMU] have blended among the population and they can unite at any time and can start creating tensions. One must not exclude this danger," he said. adding that the armed forces and law-enforcement bodies of Kyrgyzstan were taking the necessary measures to be ready for any changes in the situation.

Others fear militant Islamic groups like the IMU could remake themselves as political entities, capitalising on widespread resentment of the authoritarian governments that characterise the region. Rashid believes that in order to tackle the issue, the political systems in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan needed to open up and embrace opposition groups. "Particularly in Uzbekistan there needs to be a party political system. President Karimov does not allow opposition parties to exist, there is more harassment of political and human rights groups now than there was ever before 9/11 and I think the Americans have done very little to contribute to an opening up of the political scene," he said.

According to the ICG, there is some sympathy for Hizb-ut Tahrir and the IMU in the Ferghana Valley, shared by Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and for the IMU in the Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya regions of Uzbekistan, which have borne the brunt of government efforts to control independent Islam in Uzbekistan. Residents of these areas do not necessarily sympathise with the objectives to establish a caliphate but many are searching for alternatives to the closed political systems they live under.

Tashkent has faced strong international criticism for its crackdown on human rights activists, independent media and some peaceful Muslim organisations, like Hizb-ut Tahrir members. Some reports stated that there are currently up to 4,000-5,000 Hizb-ut Tahrir members in Uzbek prisons.

In Kyrgyzstan, the authorities are said to be cracking down on Hizb-ut Tahrir members as well, while in neighbouring Tajikistan, there are continuing reports about the arrest and trial of the organisation's followers. As for Turkmenistan, there have been few reports about Hizb-ut Tahrir activities, but in this most repressive of Central Asian states where virtually everything non-governmental is banned or outlawed, Hizb-ut Tahrir appears to have virtually no open support, analysts said.

Some sources estimate the overall number of the organisations' followers in Central Asia to be roughly 15,000 to 20,000. However, it is difficult to obtain an accurate figure as the organisation has got a highly secretive structure with just four to five people in each hujra, or cell, operating completely independently of other groups of sympathisers.

The danger is that further harassment of non-violent groups, including Hizb-ut Tahrir, could radicalise and marginalise them, leading to the creation of a new generatio of angry young men willing to pick up the gun. If this process happens on a large scale, it could negate any gains emanating from the US-led war on terror in Central Asia and beyond. "There is no doubt that there is a network of sympathisers and supporters of radical Islam inside Central Asia, who are still very much there and very much underground," Rashid warned.

Afghan earthquake survivors go home from Iran
TEHRAN, Iran, Jan 13 (UNHCR) - Hundreds of Afghan refugees who lost their homes in the recent Iran earthquake have returned to Afghanistan with help from the UN refugee agency and its Iranian government counterpart. On Tuesday, 365 Afghan refugees who survived the December 26 earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam arrived back in their homeland on a UNHCR convoy. They had approached the agency to help them go back to Afghanistan after losing their homes in the devastating earthquake, which reportedly killed 30,000 people.

The returning group included people who were hurt in the quake and others who lost loved ones. Among them was an eight-year-old boy travelling with his uncle after his parents and siblings died in the disaster. There were also four Afghans on their way home after rushing to Bam to check on their families in the wake of the quake.

Iran's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants (BAFIA) waived the usual repatriation fee of $4 per person as the refugees were processed and received mine-awareness training at the Dogharoun border. Once back in Afghanistan, the returnees proceeded to their home areas in Kabul and the provinces of Parwan, Balkh and Saripul.

Tuesday's returnees from Bam joined hundreds of other Afghan survivors who have gone back to Afghanistan on their own in recent weeks, many of them accompanying the bodies of their loved ones back to their homeland for burial. UNHCR has been unable to confirm the death toll among the 3,300 registered Afghan refugees living among the local population in Bam.

Meanwhile, a separate group of refugees left Iran for Iraq on Monday. The UN refugee agency repatriated 303 Iraqi refugees from Bani Najjar camp to the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where they received blankets, plastic sheeting, stoves, food, and where necessary, tents.

In all, more than 1,100 Iraqi refugees have returned from Iran since UNHCR began organising repatriation in November last year. Thousands more have gone back to Iraq on their own since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government last April.

Going in small in Afghanistan
A Monitor reporter joins with small teams of US troops that are trying to distance border villagers from insurgents in a key battle zone in the war on terror.
The Christian Science Monitor By Ann Scott Tyson 1/14/04 GOMAL,
AFGHANISTAN – With gold turbans and eyes ringed in black, the Afghan men squat in a circle in the dust, listening intently to the first US soldiers to appear in this desolate border outpost for at least a year. "We are not like the Russians. We won't come here and bomb everything," a soldier tells them. "I have many men and many bombs, and I can bring them all," he says, as an Apache gunship swoops overhead. "But I'm not going to. I want only to use them against the bad people."The Afghans respond initially with hard looks and few words. A tribal elder, taken aside and asked whether he knows of any Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters in the area, answers simply, "No."

"It's too dangerous," an Afghan interpreter whispers to me, "Asking that question is like announcing this man's death in the newspaper!" The 10th Mountain Division mission into uncharted territory of Paktika Province illustrates a stark dilemma facing US forces as they push deeper into Afghanistan's lawless borderlands: How to persuade Afghans to risk their lives and divulge guerrilla whereabouts in return for a promise of security and development.

"The citizens here have had one choice: We're with the Al Qaeda, or we're dead," says Lt. Col. Mike Howard, the top US commander in Paktika. Villagers in the border districts of Gomal, Barmal, and Gayan are "completely ungoverned" and easily bribed or forced to supply guerrillas with food, shelter, and proxy fighters, he says. "Our challenge is to give them [another] choice."

To do this, US ground troops are expanding their presence in Paktika and other troubled regions of eastern and southern Afghanistan, policing more widely and aggressively. The US strategy means shifting away from large-scale sweeps and slow, top-down planning ill-suited to fighting insurgents, some officers say. Instead, smaller, more agile units - including Special Forces teams linked with Afghan militia - are branching out to win over villagers and flush out guerrillas.

"We can't hunker down in the firebases," says Colonel Howard, whose 1-87 Infantry Battalion now makes frequent, unpredictable forays far beyond its fort-like outposts at Orgun and Shkin. Last month, 1-87 joined Operation Avalanche, a series of overlapping missions along the Pakistani border that involved some 2,000 of the 13,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

Two of 1-87's missions, to Gomal and Barmal, illustrate the risks and rewards of the new approach. The first foray was to learn about the enemy; the second tried - successfully - to lure them into a fight.

'Tell us when bad people are coming' At first light, the convoy of 10th Mountain Division troops winds down a steep road from the mud ruins of an ancient Afghan fort, its ghostly form overlooking the parched bed of the Gomal River as it snakes toward Pakistan.

The windswept landscape is some of the most barren the troops have seen in Afghanistan. Dry gullies and rocky hills dotted with shrubs that smell of juniper stretch as far as the eye can see. "Keep your eyes on the high ground," Staff Sgt. Mark McCalister yells to the soldiers jostling in the open back of his cargo Humvee, as the road climbs into hilly terrain.

But the only forms appearing on the ridgelines are lifeless ones: Stones stacked by shepherds to look like wolves; or, farther on, wooden poles festooned with flags that mark Afghan warriors' graves.

Indeed, what draws US forces to this unexplored part of Paktika on Dec. 3 is an anomaly of sorts: A sparsely inhabited district with well-tended roads - roads leading to border crossings such as Khan Pass that have for centuries served as conduits for Afghan trade, and that today are known to be frequented by Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Along the way, soldiers halt and search vehicles - from overladen Pakistani trucks gaudily painted and tasseled, to small white pickups filled with bearded men. After several miles, the convoy stops at the biggest community around. It's a family village, or korani, consisting of a few mud huts, a camel tethered outside of a shop selling banana tea biscuits, and a gas station with no gas.

"Not too far from here, bad people attacked us. You all heard about that," a US soldier tells the gathered tribesmen. "They were staying there and no one told us," he says. The villagers nod.

The attack was a particularly heavy ambush five weeks earlier that killed two American contract employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and two Afghan militiamen. It unfolded about 20 miles to the east at Khan Pass, according to US soldiers and Afghans who were both there and in Gomal.

On the morning of Oct. 25, a group of about 30 Americans and Afghans in eight Toyota Hi-Lux pickups was headed south along the border on a patrol toward Khan Pass. The day before, the group had detained a number of arms smugglers in the vicinity, and was returning to the area.

Suddenly, around 7:00 a.m., an intense barrage of fire from heavy machine guns, AK-47s, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) bombarded the convoy from several positions on the high ground on either side of the road.

"My Hi-Lux and the front Hi-Lux were under attack," recounts Hamid, a stately Afghan fighter and former mujahideen from Paktika who has worked with the Americans for 1-1/2 years. "The enemy had a wedge formation. They were all prepared and experienced fighters," says Hamid (not his real name).

The fighting was close, with more than 20 suspected Al Qaeda firing down from positions as near as 30 to 40 meters away. "It was hand-by-hand fighting," Hamid says. "He could see my hand, and I could see his hand."

An RPG landed a few feet from Hamid and knocked him to the ground. He took cover and shot 14 rounds from his AK-74 assault rifle, killing, he believes, an Arab fighter. But then Hamid took three bullets himself. "I heard helicopters" and passed out, he recalls.

Meanwhile, some of the Afghan militia had bounded to the high ground, flanking and killing several enemy fighters. In all, 18 suspected Al Qaeda were killed, including Arabs, Chechens, and Pakistanis.

After a lull, the fighting reignited from a ridge and system of wadis beneath it when 1-87's Alpha Company arrived to clear the ambush site following a frenzied, 3 1/2 hour drive south from Shkin.

"These were Al Qaeda," says Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Davis of Alpha Company, noting the fighters' black tunics and diehard stance. He moved two armored Humvees to a saddle in the terrain to fire grenades into the wadis. Then, after pulling his men back to a safe distance, he used the vehicles to guide in an A-10 Thunderbolt plane that silenced the enemy with a 30mm Gatling gun.

By that time, two CIA employees, William Carlson and Christopher Glenn Mueller, had been fatally shot, along with two Afghan militiamen. Back in the Gomal village, with Khan Pass fresh in their minds, the US soldiers scan the tribesmen's faces. "We know a lot of important people travel this road," one says. "You need to tell us when the bad men are coming."

To elicit information, the Americans offer the villagers immediate benefits: On-the-spot medical treatment, an invitation to a border clinic at Shkin, and free blankets and radios. For useful intelligence, the reward is often cash. Cooperation, by fostering security, will enable international aid groups to move in, they stress.

"We can help this area even more" than Shkin, which has gained a new clinic, a well, and businesses, the soldier says. The villagers' reaction in this wheat- and corn-farming community is ambiguous. "Under the Taliban, things here were peaceful and good. Now, it is also good," says a tribesman named Maraha, as his neighbors squabble over the blankets. "We just want help," he says, adding that the village has no doctor and the local school was burned down.

This passive outlook bolsters the impression of US soldiers that Paktika villagers, whipsawed by decades of war, "will help whoever is in town at the moment," says platoon leader Lt. Bob Stone.

The tribal leader, Haji Sarver, blames any violence in the area on "people coming from Pakistan." He acknowledges, however, that many residents of the Gomal area "live in both Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"That's the reason these people are unbelievable," an Afghan interpreter tells me bluntly in English. The mistrust goes both ways, however. Villagers are unsure when or if the Americans will return. A string of vehicle breakdowns, including a broken Humvee sling-loaded by helicopter down the road, underscores that US forces can police here only so often.

"If these villagers tell us something, maybe people will come the next day and kill them. Everyone is afraid," says Hamid, still limping slightly from his Khan Pass wound. 'They pick and choose when to fight' When the 1-87 convoy heads home from Gomal at the end of a four-day mission, tension rises as it enters prime ambush territory, a choke point of wooded hills south of the firebase at Orgun. "I know this is when you need [air cover], but they have to refuel," the news crackles over the radio of Sgt. William Skerrett's mud-caked Humvee.

Without Apache attack helicopters hovering overhead, Sergeant Skerrett warns his men to keep their guns handy. His driver, Spc. Jack Horn, is more sanguine. "They're not gonna hit us with this large a force," he wages, but checks to make sure the jammer is on for remote-detonated road bombs.
It's an unenviable calculation for 10th Mountain soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, many for the second time: How to present a force small enough to invite an enemy strike, but still potent enough to defeat it.

Or, in soldier's terms: "We want to make contact, but I also want to get my 10 guys back," says Sergeant Davis, a squad leader in 1-87's Alpha Company. The problem is rooted in a clever, virtually invisible enemy.

Indeed, ask almost any 10th Mountain infantryman on his second tour here, and he'll rattle off a list of what the enemy has learned. "They've adapted to our body armor - they know where to shoot us," says Alpha Company Sgt. Christopher Below. "These guys may be the hard-core survivors. They seem more trained than the guys in [Operation] Anaconda," he adds, referring to a major battle in March 2002 in which 1-87 fought.

Guerrillas in Paktika have a "robust" early warning system alerting them to US troop movements, according to a military intelligence officer. They communicate using radios and wireless phones.

They also easily disguise themselves. Some wear a second set of clothing under a black tunic, allowing them to drop their AK-47 and chest rack of ammunition, make a quick change, and melt into the countryside.

Others hide weapons under civilian robes, as did suspected Al Qaeda who approached three 1-87 snipers on Aug. 31. They dropped down and opened fire, killing two snipers at close range. Another fighter posing as a farmer shot from behind a tree at US troops who arrived at the scene. Once wounded, he blew himself up with a grenade, knocking two soldiers down.

Sgt. Jeffrey Grothause, an Afghanistan combat veteran whose Charlie Company squad responded that day, sums up the feeling of many troops about their enemy: "They pick and choose when to fight."

'If we show up big, they take the week off' Sketching out a new mission north of Shkin in Barmal district in mid-December, Maj. Dennis Sullivan wrestles with how to best outwit this elusive opponent.

"We have a very smart, competent enemy," says Major Sullivan, 1-87's executive officer. "He will only attack when he thinks he has a chance of success." Sullivan, the son of Irish immigrants from Oxford, Mass., is the top officer at the tiny Shkin firebase, a mud-walled compound rented from a tribal leader for $5,000 a month. Sitting on a hill in full view of Pakistan's border, the base is often a target of enemy rockets.

Around the camp, soldiers clean guns and ready vehicles for the mission. The crack of a sniper rifle echoes from a makeshift range outside the wall. Meanwhile, over bitter coffee at Shkin's chow hall, Sullivan strategizes.

"If we show up too big, they take the week off and farm the field," he says, drawing a rough map of the operation. This time, the calibrations worked, as Sullivan recounted later.

On Dec. 14, more than 100 US soldiers and Afghan militiamen set out from Shkin. At dawn the next day, they broke camp and started driving - in three separate groups - along a narrow, winding mountain pass topped with evergreens a few miles east of the border town of Mangretay.

At one juncture, steep walls of rock lined the road. The first two groups, including members of 1-87's Bravo Company and the 10th Military Police Company, passed without incident. But 90 minutes later, as the smaller third group of MPs, medics, and Afghan militia passed through, enemy rounds burst down from the high ground.

The first two vehicles of MPs sped forward while two others held back. Six more - including one that stalled - were stuck in the "kill zone," forcing their drivers and crews to take cover alongside the rocky mountain face and return fire against an estimated 15 to 20 insurgents.

Heavy machine-gun fire tore up the dirt a few yards away, while RPGs exploded in front and behind of the stalled truck, narrowly missing it. Meanwhile, the Air Force controller, Sr. Airman Peyton Knippell, guided two F-16s toward the ambush, but the jets couldn't unleash their 500-lb. bombs until the trapped soldiers could move to safety.

Freeing them was "the toughest collective challenge" of the skirmish, Sullivan says. In an effort to suppress enemy fire, 1st Lt. Rob Eyman moved in with a platoon of armored Humvees, firing grenades and machine guns. Then a mortar section launched rounds against the guerrilla positions. After a 45-minute firefight, the soldiers escaped the "kill zone" and the F-16s dropped two bombs, causing the insurgents to flee into the forested terrain.

Two Apache helicopters flew in, spotting a camouflaged mud hut 500 yards behind the ambush site. The hut was later destroyed by an A-10 aircraft's cannon. Then, aided by the Apaches, Capt. Justin Pelkey's soldiers from Bravo Company moved to try to intercept anyone escaping. They detained a man walking away from the ambush site, who was suspiciously ignoring the Apache. He had an AK-47 and chest rack hidden under his wrap.

Along a likely enemy escape route, 1st Lt. Richard Steinbacher's platoon detained two other suspected guerrillas, including one from Pakistan's Waziristan region. Platoon soldiers also found a bunkhouse built for eight to 10 men with food and other winter supplies, military sleeping bags, and rooms with hidden entrances.

The mission, while not a "deliberately planned baited ambush," shows the calculated risks commanders must take to lure out their enemy, Sullivan says. The relatively small size and thin-skinned vehicles of the third convoy, along with the absence of aircraft immediately overhead, probably contributed to the insurgents' willingness to attack, he says.

"We presented a force of size and type that would possibly not deter the enemy from fighting, but was large enough and lethal enough to fend and fight for itself" until reinforced, he says. His soldiers returned unscathed, while two guerrillas were confirmed dead and three others wounded.

Indeed, as the ambush attempt near Mangretay showed, US forces usually overwhelm militants who stand and fight. Since arriving last summer, 1-87 has lost three men in Paktika, while killing scores of enemy. Still, soldiers here realize that if this war is fought as one of attrition, the road ahead remains long.

As the snow line drifts lower on the gray-blue peaks, 1-87 plans to step up incursions, denying insurgents a traditional winter lull in which to regroup. "If you ... hunt down the bear where he sleeps, there will be no hibernation," says Sullivan. "We will go there."

'What's interim? A year or 40 years?' In Afghanistan's timeworn landscape, one often has the feeling that Americans troops are battling history itself. Against a backdrop of foreign occupation and warlord feuds, ethnic rifts and militant Islam, they can only hope to impose an uneasy peace.

Alone in his lookout tower back at Shkin firebase, Pvt. Gary Holt watches the sun rise over a ridge of mountains marking the Pakistani border two miles away. As the mist thins over fields below, villagers stir from their mud huts, and donkey carts take to the dirt roads. The smoke of cooking fires hangs in the air. "It seems this place hasn't changed much since Kipling," says Private Holt, mature beyond his 20-odd years. "This place is like the last frontier."

In Paktika, the US presence has allowed a degree of progress to unfold. Hundreds of new mud-brick compounds housing extended families have sprung up around Shkin and Orgun, while stores, and some industry have moved in. Schools have opened. Meanwhile, US troops are making inroads to improve security in hostile areas such as Barmal.

Still, a degree of success at Shkin, like a pebble in a stream, has shifted the flow of insurgents to other border crossings. "We're succeeding in disrupting their operations and denying them sanctuary within our area," says Sullivan. "What I can't say is whether we are having a long-term impact. I don't know how easily they regenerate combat power."

In the end, Sullivan and other officers agree that US forces are only an "interim fix" until the Afghan government and a national army gain strength. "What's interim? A year or 40 years?" he says. "Ask me in 40 years."

For U.S. troops, Paktika's challenge lies in its network of border crossings, from major mountain passes to shepherd trails. For centuries, the region's fiercely independent tribes have freely visited kin across the border - a poorly marked, British colonial vestige known as the Durand Line. Drawn in 1893, it has been ignored by the ethnic Pashtun populations on both sides.

Yet today the porous border also serves arms traffickers and drug smugglers as well as Al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban insurgents concentrated in the neighboring Waziristan regions of Pakistan. There, the Taliban, who are also mainly Pashtun, find safety in the customary hospitality of Pashtun tribes. They operate training camps and draw recruits from fundamentalist Islamic schools known as madrassahs. Meanwhile, they regularly infiltrate Afghanistan to stage attacks on military and civilian targets.

Stepped-up Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas, encouraged and heavily funded by the US, have met with violent resistance - including a rocket attack that killed four Pakistani troops last week. Despite the arrest of some high-level Al Qaeda operatives, Pakistan has so far failed to crack down effectively on the Taliban, which it sponsored until 2001. "For the Pakistanis or us to go in there and suddenly break the code is a lot to expect. It's just hard," says a senior Pentagon official.

Pakistani border guards erratically man hundreds of posts along the 1,519-mile frontier, but are poorly armed and unreliable because they and their families are local natives, US officials say. "There's a great deal of frustration with the border guards," says Lt. Col. Mike Howard, noting that someone shot at US troops from a Pakistani border checkpoint near Shkin in Paktika during a September firefight in which one of his men died.

It is these same forces that Colonel Howard must rely upon to set up additional checkpoints and block retreats when he is mounting operations in Paktika. Tenth Mountain troops do not cross the border, even in "hot pursuit" of the enemy, although elite US forces may have leeway to give chase a few miles into Pakistan. With Al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan beyond his reach, Howard's only option is to disrupt the fighters' infiltration via Paktika's mountain roads and impoverished, isolated villages.

Wearing a camouflage uniform without a flak vest, the Afghan militiaman tallies his losses against Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents with a somber pride. "We've had 20 or 22 AMF [Afghan militia forces] killed working with the Americans in the past two years," says Mohammad quietly. That's out of the 200 to 250 militiamen he says have joined US forces based at Shkin and Orgun in Paktika.

Interviews with a dozen militia members, interpreters, and other Afghans employed by US forces in Paktika suggest their jobs are as dangerous as they are critical to the US-led counterinsurgency. Indeed, the rate of AMF casualties described by Mohammad is far higher than that of US soldiers in Paktika.

"We are the main target of Al Qaeda," says Mohammad, who is troubled by what he calls the suicidal behavior of Al Qaeda fighters. "They hate us even more because without us, the Americans can't work here."

An AMF commander standing nearby agrees. "I've been working with the Americans five months, and I've been ambushed four times," he says. Afghan soldiers like these bring speed, keen eyes, and local knowledge to US-led missions. Unburdened by heavy body armor and other gear, they can more swiftly chase guerrillas through the mountainous terrain. In a village they can also more easily pick out suspect individuals. Yet the Afghans are highly vulnerable to retaliation for allying with Americans; all those interviewed said they had faced death threats.

In Paktika in recent months, Al Qaeda nailed "night letters" on compound doors warning that Afghans - along with their families - would be killed for working with Americans and setting up girls' schools. "I stayed up all night," says one interpreter, Ajab (not his real name) who received such a warning. He fears his neighbors could be guerrilla informants.

In response, US officers made a point of locating the homes of Afghan employees and gave them "SOS" flares to shoot if they were attacked. The US military also compensates the families of Afghans killed on missions. Ajab said his family received $2,400 after his cousin died in an ambush.

Despite their sacrifices, some Afghans feel their loyalty is doubted. "We can never ask [the US soldiers] where we are going. This shows the Americans have only a little trust in us," says Mohammad (a pseudonym). In Paktika, Afghan laborers have been warned by US officers that they will lose their jobs if coalition troops are ambushed in their communities.

Still, having cast their lot with "the helmeted ones," most Afghans say their only choice is to keep fighting. "We have to help the Americans," he says. "If the Americans leave Afghanistan, we will be in big trouble."

Afghanistan fashion exciting win over UAE Dubai 14-01-2004
Afghanistan recorded an exciting four-run win over UAE in the opening match of the Asia Cup Under-17 tournament in Secunderabad yesterday. UAE won the toss but decided to field. Afghanistan opener Mohammed Karim hit 53 despite left-arm medium pacer Mohammed Fawad bowling a good line and length. Fawad clean bowled opener Hasmatullah for 11 and trapped one-down Mohammed Asghar leg before for a duck.

Shehan Dharmasena was the pick among the UAE bowlers. He bagged the wickets of middle order batsmen Mohammed Nabi and Mohammed Rashid to restrict the run flow. He also had Afghanistan's top scorer Karim caught and bowled.

Afghanistan's No.7 batsman Hameed hit 31 to swell the total before Sharan Kumar had him caught by Farhan. UAE began the chase badly losing their consistent opener Ramveer Rai for 3. One-down Farhan lasted only nine balls to score 3. Shehan, who opened the innings tried to lift UAE out of trouble with his skipper Sharan Kumar.

Shehan was caught by Noor Ali off Nageeb for 10 after a 38-ball stay at the wicket. Nageeb struck again to trap next man Abdul Rahman leg before for a duck. Four down for 39, Sharan and Pranav Arora tried to rescue the team with a 29-run partnership before Pranav was bowled by Mohammed Nabi for 11. Sharan too departed caught and bowled by Nabi for 20.

Fawad took up the challenge and hit a fighting 38 (51b, 3x4) but could not help his team reach the target.
UAE take on Oman in their second match today.

Indian Foreign Minister to visit Washington for talks
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha is to visit the United States for talks next week on forging closer bilateral ties, an official said. India's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna said Sinha would hold talks with US ecretary of State Colin Powell and US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on his January 19-21 visit.

The visit follows US President George W. Bush's announcement that the United States and India will deepen cooperation on civilian nuclear activities, civilian space programs and high-technology trade.

"The dialogue between the (foreign) minister and US secretary of state is a very important component of the India-US dialogue architecture and covers all aspects of our bilateral relations and international issues," said Sarna.

Sinha also has several engagements in the US Congress, including meetings with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and leaders of the Congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans.

According to government officials, Sinha would also meet US senators as part of low-key lobbying efforts to counter attempts by western nations to curb outsourcing to India. A slew of foreign firms are moving software development, call centre, accounting and other jobs to India to take advantage of its low-cost, highly skilled workforce -- provoking protest from trade unions in the west.

Shifting work from Europe and the United States to Indian cities, including New Delhi, Bombay, Hyderabad and Bangalore, can cut costs for global firms by up to 40 percent, figures show. Last year, outsourcing accounted for about one-fourth of India's total software export revenues of 9.5 billion dollars.