Afghanistan Daily News

June 20, 2004

Rights groups raise concerns over secret US-run prisons in Afghanistan
Sunday June 20, 11:07 AM AFP
Human rights groups, already alarmed by stories of prisoner abuse in American-run facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, have now raised concerns about the number of secret jails, particularly in Afghanistan.

New York-based Human Rights First claims there are seven undisclosed centres in Afghanistan, including a CIA interrogation facility in the capital, Kabul, known as 'The Pit'.

In a report released this week, it said the United States was holding suspects in the war on terror in more than two dozen prisons around the world, with the biggest number of secret prisons in Afghanistan.

Secrecy surrounding the jails made "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely, but inevitable", the group said.

The US military has confirmed the existence of only two detention facilities in Afghanistan -- Bagram Collection Point at the main US airbase north of Kabul and "one transitional collection point" in southern Kandahar.

"We also have about 18 transit holding sites," a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition Master Sergeant Cindy Beam said.

"Where ever we have troops engaged in combat operations, we may get detainees. Therefore we have transit holding sites to confine the detainees until we can get them from the combat location to Bagram or Kandahar."

The US has refused to confirm or deny the report on secret detention cells.

"We don't talk about where each holding site is because it gives our enemy too much information about where we are and what we're doing," Beam said.

But security sources have confirmed to AFP that the secret prisons exist here.

They said some detainees, suspected members of the Al-Qaeda network, have been held in these secret jails since the fall of the Taliban regime more than two years ago.

The Central Intelligence Agency, in collaboration with the Afghan secret service, runs at least five clandestine jails in Kabul, western and Afghan sources have told AFP.

Managed on a daily basis by members of the Afghan National Directorate of Security, these cells hold about 20 foreigners believed to be involved with Al-Qaeda, sources say. Most are Arabs from the Middle East and North Africa.

American personnel working in these centres don't wear military uniforms, preferring for the most part traditional Afghan dress and driving around in unmarked vehicles. The prisoners are held outside any legal framework and are regularly moved from one prison to another.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits prisoners at Bagram and has recently been given access to Kandahar, says it is concerned by the unknown number of people detained "in secret places" by American forces, a spokesman told AFP.

"We are more and more concerned about the lot of the unknown number of people captured in the context of what we would call 'the war against terror' and detained in secret places," Erof Bosisio said from Geneva.

"We have asked for information on these people and access to them. Until now we have received no response from the Americans," Bosisio said.

Commissioner with Afghanistan's foremost rights group, Ahmad Nader Nadery, has called for a "transparent" detention system and the release of information on all centres and prisoners.

Whether the prisons are secret or openly discussed makes no difference as far as the detainee is concern, according to Nadery's Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

"None of them have access to a defence lawyer, none of them are going through due process, there has not been a kind of trial for any of them."

Some 2,000 prisoners have been detained in Afghanistan since the early days of the war on terror. Many have been released or forwarded to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while about 390 remain in custody here.

Nadery's commission has registered three complaints of prison abuse while the US military is investigating two. One complaint involves a former police officer who says he was beaten, deprived of sleep and humiliated while held captive in 2003.

The US is conducting five other inquiries into the deaths of Afghans, including at least three in custody. Two of these deaths, which occurred at Bagram in December 2002, were the result of "blunt-force injuries".

On Friday, US authorities indicted a CIA contractor to face trial over the death of an Afghan following interrogation at a US base in Asadabad in the country's northeast in 2003.

Meanwhile, a review into US prisons here is due to be completed within days.

Afghan Backs Off Death Cause in CIA Case
Saturday June 19, 10:36 PM Associated Press
An Afghan official on Saturday backed away from a governor's statement a year ago that a heart attack killed an Afghan detainee at the center of abuse charges brought against a former CIA contractor.

The initial assessment by Fazel Akbar, governor of Kunar province, was "just speculation" based on a cursory examination of the corpse and statements by U.S. officials and the dead man's relatives, said Hyder Akbar, the governor's son and spokesman.

The spokesman commented a day after a lawyer for David A. Passaro had cited Fazel Akbar's original statement as evidence that his client was innocent of beating the prisoner, named Abdul Wali.

The lawyer, Gerald Beaver, said a transcript of comments by the governor last year to Iranian radio indicated the detainee's body showed no sign of assault and cited a fatal heart attack as the cause of death.

Passaro, 38, was charged in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday with assault and assault with a dangerous weapon _ a flashlight _ on Abdul Wali, who died June 21, 2003, at a U.S. base in Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan.

It was the first time civilian charges have been brought in the U.S. investigation into the treatment of U.S. prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed the revelations of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Hyder Akbar said Abdul Wali had turned himself in to the Kunar governor's office because he was suspected of being involved in rocket attacks on the American base at Asadabad, 120 miles east of Kabul.

Akbar, a fluent English speaker from studies in the United States, said he accompanied Wali to the base to act as an interpreter. But he said he walked out of the interrogation in disgust after Passaro, a former Army special operations soldier, began threatening the prisoner.

"There was only hearsay evidence, but he was treating Abdul Wali with such contempt it got me off the wrong way," Akbar said in a telephone interview from Asadabad. "He was huffing and puffing and playing the role of bad cop."

Akbar declined to describe the threats and said he witnessed no physical assault.

He said Afghan officials were informed three days later that Wali had died and went to view the body. No autopsy was carried out to determine the exact cause of death, he said.

"In retrospect, we realized we didn't see his back or his thighs, and that the room was dimly lit, just through the door," Akbar said. "We couldn't see any marks that could show extreme torture that could lead to death."

U.S. officials, including Passaro, told the Afghans that Wali had been subjected to sleep deprivation and had drunk "copious amounts of water," Akbar said.

"They specifically told us that Abdul Wali was not beaten or abused in any way," he said.

Wali's relatives said he had suffered from health problems and had passed out at times, Akbar said.

"As far as the heart attack is concerned, that was just speculation," he said.

Akbar said he had spoken to U.S. federal prosecutors in Washington but didn't know if he would be called to testify in the case.

Passaro, a former Green Beret medic and Army Ranger, is scheduled for a detention hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh.

"His story is he's innocent," Beaver said Friday. "That's all I can tell you."

If convicted, Passaro faces up to 40 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Rise in Afghan attacks forces aid agencies to lower profile
War on foreigners poses a dilemma for international groups
Juliette Terzieff, San Francisco Chronicle Foreign Service Saturday, June 19, 2004
Islamabad, Pakistan -- The bloody attacks against foreigners by opponents of U.S.-backed reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan are forcing many international aid groups there and in Pakistan to scale back activities and reassess their role in South Asia.

"Of course it's a worrying situation," said a U.N. employee who has worked in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and asked not to be named. "We are left trying to balance the needs of people who remain in dire straits against the risk our presence poses to them and us. There are no easy decisions."

In recent months, Taliban and al Qaeda spokesmen have called repeatedly for holy war against foreigners in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and against foreigners and locals who cooperate with the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"These recent deaths occurred because those people were working for the Americans under the cover of humanitarian work," Haji Latif Hakimi, who says he represents the ousted Taliban regime, recently told reporters in the Afghan city of Herat. "The struggle against the Americans and their puppet allies will continue here and elsewhere. We will kill more foreign aid workers."

While many of the targets of such attacks -- including Friday's beheading of American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia -- are working for private companies, assaults on humanitarian aid workers have stepped up dramatically.

More than 700 people, most of them aid workers and civilians, have been killed in Afghanistan since August, forcing aid organizations to limit or halt operations. Currently, about half of Afghanistan's national territory is off- limits to foreign employees of international organizations.

On June 3, Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel Prize-winning relief agency, suspended its long-established operations in Afghanistan after five staff members were killed.

Last week, international organizations working with 400,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province evacuated their personnel after receiving threats of suicide attacks. The Islamabad government has been criticized by U.S. and Afghan officials for failing to stop border crossings by Taliban and al Qaeda forces fighting U.S. and Afghan troops.

Most recently, Pakistani officials cautioned aid groups that a militant disguised as a refugee might attack aid workers or their offices. The warning came weeks after authorities cautioned U.S. and British aid organizations that they face credible threats.

Many Pakistan observers fear that the deteriorating security situation in the region and the inability to provide relief to impoverished populations are a recipe for disaster. "It emboldens them (militants) to launch even bigger attacks in new areas," said Islamabad defense analyst Mohammad Bokhari.

Some political analysts say Islamic militants are expanding their operations from the insurgency-plagued south and east. They link the recent violence to anger over the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the upcoming Afghan elections -- the nation's first in two decades. The elections, originally scheduled for June, were delayed until September due to the violence.

"From the militants' point of view, it's a good strategy," Bokhari said. "Both in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans promised a better life to the people. What better way to effectively erode any popular support for changes than by disrupting (aid) organizations' abilities to address people's basic needs?"

As a result, aid organizations and Afghan officials repeatedly have called on the United States and its allies to provide more security, a plea Washington has continually rebuffed.

"The bottom line is if we want a more stable, functioning region, security has to be priority No. 1," said the U.N. worker.

US General doubts terrorist Video was taped in Afghanistan
Saturday June 19, 2004 (1339 PST) Pakistan News Tribune
WASHINGTON: A senior U.S. military commander says he doubts the accuracy of a videotape broadcast by the Arabic-language TV network al-Jazeera purporting to show terrorist training still taking place in Afghanistan.

Lieutenant General David Barno is commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He tells reporters at the Pentagon he is skeptical that a videotape of alleged al-Qaida training broadcast by al-Jazeera was made in a remote, mountainous area of Afghanistan.

"I take those reports with a great deal of skepticism and I think from my perspective it is fairly unlikely that that tape was made in Afghanistan," he said.

Responding to questions in a satellite link-up between the Pentagon and his headquarters in Kabul, General Barno says there is a significant U.S. military presence in the rugged border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He also notes that on the Pakistani side of the frontier, government forces are currently engaged in a renewed assault on suspected al-Qaida linked militants.

All-in-all, General Barno believes any al-Qaida or Taleban remnants in the area are on the defensive.

"Between operations here in Afghanistan which have been very aggressive in the last three months with Operation Mountain Storm and the current Pakistani operations, which are the most robust that they have ever executed with large number of forces, over 10,000 members of the Pakistani military, working now over a number of targets throughout South Waziristan, I think al-Qaida and its network is under tremendous pressure here," he said.

General Barno says al-Qaida and its allies are no longer able to mount attacks on coalition or Afghan forces. Instead, he says they are launching what he terms "cowardly" attacks on civilians and aid workers in an attempt to intimidate the Afghan people. He maintains this terrorist effort is failing as momentum builds for Afghanistan's coming elections.

Taliban Attacks Afghan Government Office
Sat Jun 19, 8:55 AM ET By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents attacked a government office in southern Afghanistan, sparking a gunfight with Afghan troops that killed seven people, police said Saturday.

Just to the north, the U.S. military said two American soldiers were wounded and their Afghan interpreter killed when their vehicle hit a mine.

The gunfight occurred late Friday when 60 Taliban attacked a government office in Mizan, a town in Zabul province some 230 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, Zabul deputy police chief Ghulam Jailiani said.

Five attackers and two Afghan soldiers died in the two-hour clash, which ended when a U.S. helicopter appeared and drove the Taliban away, Jailiani said.

Three Afghan soldiers were wounded and taken to an American base for treatment. The three wounded were part of the force of 50 Afghan soldiers defending the office.

Jailiani said authorities had recovered a satellite telephone, walkie-talkies and weapons left behind by the Taliban, who retreated on foot to nearby mountains.

The two American soldiers were wounded Thursday night when their vehicle struck a mine about 30 miles north of Qalat, Zabul's capital, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said.

"It did result in an interpreter being killed and two soldiers wounded," Mansager said.

The soldiers were in stable condition at the U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar, he said.

He didn't identify any of the three victims.

The attacks showed that militants are still operating in the Zabul region of southern Afghanistan, despite U.S. claims of killing more than 80 rebels since May 25.

The military has claimed that the operation, led by a 2,000-strong contingent of U.S. Marines, is helping stabilize the region so that voters can register for national elections due in September.

But U.N. registration teams have yet to enter many remote parts of the south and east. Two British contractors for the United Nations were killed in May, the deadliest in a string of attacks on election workers.

Mansager also said U.S. troops came under fire from a small group of militants Friday south of Khost, a city near the Pakistani border. He had no word on any casualties.

He was also unable to confirm reports of an attack on a small U.S. camp in central Uruzgan province, where the Marines are based.

Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said a band of about 30 Taliban militants fired 40 rockets at the camp in Char Cheno, a remote district which has seen several clashes between U.S. forces and militants.

Khan said one Taliban fighter was killed and four wounded in the ensuing gunfight, but he had no word on any U.S. casualties.

Gunfight in Afghanistan kills seven
Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents attacked a government office in southern Afghanistan, sparking a gunfight with Afghan troops that killed seven people, police said Saturday.

Just to the north, the U.S. military said two American soldiers were wounded and their Afghan interpreter killed when their vehicle hit a mine.

The gunfight occurred late Friday when 60 Taliban attacked a government office in Mizan, a town in Zabul province some 370 kilometres southwest of the capital, Kabul, Zabul deputy police chief Ghulam Jailiani said.

Five attackers and two Afghan soldiers died in the two-hour clash, which ended when a U.S. helicopter appeared and drove the Taliban away, Jailiani said.

Three Afghan soldiers were wounded and taken to an American base for treatment. The three wounded were part of the force of 50 Afghan soldiers defending the office.

Jailiani said authorities had recovered a satellite telephone, walkie-talkies and weapons left behind by the Taliban, who retreated on foot to nearby mountains.

The two American soldiers were wounded Thursday night when their vehicle struck a mine about 48 kilometres north of Qalat, Zabul's capital, U.S. military spokesman Lt.-Col. Tucker Mansager said.

"It did result in an interpreter being killed and two soldiers wounded," Mansager said.

The soldiers were in stable condition at the U.S. base in the southern city of Kandahar, he said.

The attacks showed that militants are still operating in the Zabul region of southern Afghanistan despite U.S. claims of killing more than 80 rebels since May 25.

The military has claimed that the operation, led by a 2,000-strong contingent of U.S. marines, is helping stabilize the region so voters can register for national elections due in September.

But UN registration teams have yet to enter many remote parts of the south and east. Two British contractors for the United Nations were killed in May, the deadliest in a string of attacks on election workers.

Mansager also said U.S. troops came under fire from a small group of militants Friday south of Khost, a city near the Pakistani border. He had no word on casualties.

He was also unable to confirm reports of an attack on a small U.S. camp in central Uruzgan province, where the marines are based.

Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said a band of about 30 Taliban militants fired 40 rockets at the camp in Char Cheno, a remote district which has seen several clashes between U.S. forces and militants.

Khan said one Taliban fighter was killed and four wounded in the ensuing gunfight, but he had no word on U.S. casualties.

Four killed, 10 injured in tribal feud in eastern Afghanistan, says official
Sunday June 20, 12:20 AM Associated Press
Armed tribesmen exchanged gunfire in a dispute over land in Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province, killing four people and injuring 10, an Afghan government official said Saturday.

The fighting, using heavy weapons, started Wednesday between Wader and Pashai tribesmen in Deh Wagal village of Nuristan and was continuing Saturday, said Shafiullah Khan, a government official in Nuristan.

Khan told an Associated Press Reporter by satellite telephone in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar that local Afghan authorities were asking the central government in the capital Kabul to intervene.

Feuds in remote areas of Afghanistan, where the government has little authority, can often turn deadly. The country is awash with weapons after nearly a quarter century of war.

IN THE NEWS - Bush Announces New Steps to Aid Afghanistan
By Cynthia Kirk Broadcast: June 19, 2004
This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English.

President Bush this week announced more steps to help Afghanistan. He met at the White House Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At a news conference, they spoke of progress toward democracy. Mister Bush said Afghanistan is no longer, in his words, "a terrorist factory sending thousands of killers into the world."

He offered American training for Afghan politicians. Other steps include more schools for Afghan children, as well as training and aid for businesswomen. And Mister Bush said the two countries plan to seek a trade agreement and expand an education exchange program.

Afghanistan was formerly ruled by the Taliban group which provided refuge for al-Qaida. After al-Qaida attacked the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, American-led forces ousted the Taliban.

Since then, international efforts have helped improve schools, health care and roads. Afghanistan has a new constitution. Women have more rights. And the country is preparing for elections in September.

But officials are worried about violence in the provinces and threats from the Taliban and allied Islamic groups. This week, Al Jazeera television showed what it said were new images of al-Qaida members training in Afghanistan. But the American commander there and a terrorism expert said the tape was likely made somewhere else.

The Afghan government has limited control outside Kabul. Parts of the country are still controlled by local leaders and militants. President Karzai has promised to disarm the groups.

Late this week, local commanders took control of the capital of Ghor province. Officials said ten men died in fighting. The governor fled.

The United States has about twenty-thousand troops in Afghanistan. They face almost daily attacks blamed on fighters loyal to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

In Washington, members of Congress have expressed concern about progress toward an Afghan National Army and police force. Opposition Democrats have said the invasion of Iraq last year took away resources from Afghanistan.

President Karzai spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. He thanked the United States for its support. He also honored American soldiers killed or injured in Afghanistan.

Mister Karzai noted strong economic growth in his country. But he said there is still "a long road ahead." He said Afghanistan needs more investment to help its economic recovery. And he called for NATO to do more. NATO's current duties include commanding the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.

President Karzai also appealed for American help to stop the spread of drug crops in Afghanistan. He said profits from the illegal trade threaten his government and finance terrorism and extremism.

In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember.

Afghan government sending troops to provincial capital overrun by warlords
Saturday June 19, 10:25 PM Associated Press
President Hamid Karzai sent troops Saturday to a provincial capital captured by warlord militias, a government spokesman said, the latest incident to highlight Afghanistan's instability ahead of planned elections.

Chagcharan, the main town of Ghor province, 350 miles (220 kilometers) west of Kabul, was overrun Thursday by a group of local warlords, forcing out the governor and the provincial security chiefs.

The U.S. military sent a B1-B bomber over the city to calm the fighting while it evacuated beleaguered U.N. staff by helicopter.

At a meeting of his National Security Council on Saturday, Karzai decided to send a battalion from the new U.S.-trained Afghan National Army to Chagcharan, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

Some 200 troops were already underway by road from the western city of Herat, and another 500 would follow shortly, Azimi said.

Ousted officials have said that at least 10 people died in Thursday's fighting, though authorities in Kabul said they knew of no confirmed casualties.

The city was quiet Saturday, Azimi said, adding that the troops were dispatched for fear of "more problems in the future."

The fighting was the culmination of weeks of tension between the Kabul-appointed military and police chiefs and rival commanders over the distribution of power between rival tribes within the local government.

A government delegation left Chagcharan on Wednesday, apparently after failing to broker a deal.

The victors, led by a commander called Rais Salam, insist they want the governor to return and will respect the decisions of the central government _ including any troops sent from Kabul.

But the ousted officials have also called on the Defense Ministry to come to their aid _ and threatened a counterattack if the help is not forthcoming.

Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said a new government delegation would leave for Chagcharan on Sunday to try to find out exactly what happened, but wouldn't say whose side Kabul would take.

The deployment of troops from the new national army is the third of its kind this year, highlighting how warring factions still dominate the country more than two years after the fall of the Taliban.

Karzai, who returned Friday from a trip to the United States, has vowed to disarm unruly militias before national elections slated for September.

But stalling by powerful regional leaders such as Herat Gov. Ismail Khan and Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum means only a few thousand of the official total of 100,000 irregular fighters have given up their weapons so far.

Kabul will need homegrown solutions
By FARHAN BOKHARI The Japan Times: June 20, 2004
ISLAMABAD -- Renegade warriors who continue to mount attacks on U.S. military troops and Afghan government soldiers have effectively upset the runup to Washington-backed presidential elections scheduled in four months.

While Afghan President Hamid Karzai promises to oversee a smooth transition to his country's first genuinely elected regime, he cannot be sure about the future. Indeed, he does have reason to want a smooth transition as he would mostly likely be the chosen presidential candidate due to U.S. backing, irrespective of the fallout in terms of eroding credibility in the electoral process.

Although it is too early to accuse anyone of moving to fix Afghanistan's next elections, Karzai remains the sole candidate who is well recognized in Washington. The U.S. military presence in Afghanistan remains formidable to the extent that Washington's diktats concerning the next president promise to tilt the race one way or another.

The greatest political adversity ahead is that the Central Asian country, which has seen frequent conflict over the past 25 years, may welcome being divided further among those ready to follow Washington's agenda and the increasingly large community of dissidents.

Most Afghans would much rather see an end to fighting and a return to normalcy, but matters are likely to be made worse if the Bush administration decides to play sides implicitly if not explicitly.

Historically, most of Afghanistan, except for parts of the Afghan capital Kabul and a few other urban centers, has seen little in the way of a Western-styled democracy. Afghanistan has traditionally been run by a relatively weak monarchy at the center, with the country's composite regions pledging their allegiance to keep it united.

Afghanistan's transition to democracy under a U.S.-guided plan is bound to fail if the objective is to set in motion a new democracy that eventually tries to emulate Western traditions and values. The picture in Afghanistan also provides a sobering lesson for U.S.-driven plans for political reforms in other parts of the Islamic world, most notably the Middle East. As in Afghanistan, traditional methods of political representation in the Arab world are such that converting to a Western-styled democracy is unlikely to lead the way to stable politics.

To avoid the further shedding of innocent blood across Afghanistan, a transition to a representative regime must be accompanied by two vital ventures:

A comprehensive national amnesty should allow dissidents and members of warring factions to return to mainstream lives with the assurance that they will not be prosecuted. Since there is no guaranty that they would be brought to justice anyway by military troops in pursuit, a better course perhaps is to allow them the space to peacefully give up their arms.

Without a fast-track and bold effort to revitalize the economy through the injection of billions of dollars in fresh economic assistance, Afghanistan's future is set to remain as insecure as its past.

That large parts of Afghanistan remain trapped in impoverishment is perhaps an understatement. Indeed, Afghanistan has virtually no hope of returning to sustained stability until the many billions of dollars needed for long overdue reconstruction arrive to set the pace for a qualitatively new future.

For the Bush administration, the most important goal is to root out the menace of terrorism from Afghanistan. But the Central Asian country has little chance of living up to Washington's expectations as long as its political and economic outlook lag far behind basic objectives.

Afghanistan must define for itself a fundamentally homegrown future built upon local conditions and ideals.

Farhan Bokhari is a freelance journalist who reports from the Pakistani capital.

US army, Afghan govt welcome Nek’s killing
Daily Times
KABUL: The US-led coalition hunting militants in Afghanistan congratulated Saturday the Pakistani army for killing rebel tribal leader and former Taliban commander Nek Mohammad in his hideout near the Afghan border.

Mohammad was killed late Thursday in attacks by Pakistani troops trying to flush out Al-Qaeda-linked foreign fighters hiding in tribal South Waziristan on the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. Pakistani authorities have hailed his death as a “major success” in the fight against the Al-Qaeda network.

“The coalition ... congratulates Pakistan for their success in eliminating the former Taliban fighter Nek Mohammad,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tucker Mansager told a news conference in Kabul. “From the coalition perspective it’s our hope that his death will help disorganize the ongoing fight by the foreign fighters in the tribal areas in Pakistan.”

Hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants are believed to have taken refuge in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region following the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. Mohammad was a hardline tribal leader who had been spearheading local resistance to government efforts to rid the area of militants.

He led hundreds of Al-Qaeda-linked fighters, Taliban fugitives and tribal allies in a bloody resistance against a major Pakistani army offensive in March in which at least 46 troops were killed.

Afghan authorities have often claimed most of these attacks are being organized from Pakistan’s tribal areas which the Taliban and other insurgent groups have apparently used as a hideout and supply site. Security officials have said Mohammad sheltered hundreds of Chechen and Uzbek fighters around Wana in Pakistan when they fled the US-led offensive in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government also welcomed the development. “The elimination or prosecution of any known, active terrorist, whether Al-Qaeda or Taliban, is a step in the right direction,” foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad told AFP on Saturday. “The Afghan government considers Pakistan’s military operation against terrorist groups in the tribal areas a significant and positive step in the war against terrorism,” he said. afp

2 Chinese seriously injured in Afghanistan attack out of danger
JINAN, June 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Medical experts said Saturday that the two Chinese construction workers seriously injured in the terrorist attack in Afghanistan, that killed 11 on June 10, have been out of the infection period.

After flown back to China, four injured workers in the attack were sent to the Shandong Provincial Hospital in Ji'nan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, to be treated.

Medical experts diagnosed that the conditions of Xi Shouzhong, whose right shank was shattered, and Xu Qisong, who had a bullet shot into his left leg and out of his hip, were severe, and said on June 15 that they had potential danger of wound infection in 3-5 days.

"But now, they have passed the period of being infected," said sources with the hospital.

"I am feeling better day by day," said Xi.

Terrorists stole into the camp of a Chinese road contractor in Kunduz Province, 250 km (150 miles) north of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on June 10, spraying the workers with gunfire as theywere sleeping in tents.

Eleven Chinese and the camp's sole Afghan armed guard were killed and five Chinese were injured in the attack, making it thedeadliest on foreign civilians since the fall of the Taliban regime. One of the five injured has been in Afghanistan for treatment.

US troops shoot at Afghan near base
Dawn
KABUL, June 19: US soldiers shot dead an Afghan man who approached a guard tower at a US military base north of Kabul brandishing a pistol, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

The man was shot outside Bagram Air Base on Wednesday, Lt Col Tucker Mansager told a news briefing.

"(He) approached a guard tower brandishing a pistol and refused to respond to directives given to him to stop," he said.

"After repeated warnings and his failure to stop what he was doing and threatening the lives of the people that were guarding Bagram at that time, he was shot."

Mansager did not identify the man.

The United States heads a forces of about 20,000 mostly US troops pursuing Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militants in Afghanistan.-Reuters

2 more US soldiers injured in Afghanistan
KABUL, June 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Two more US soldiers were injured asthe clean up operation against the suspected Taliban was going on in south and southeast Afghanistan, a military spokesman said Saturday.

"On Friday two coalition soldiers were wounded after coming in contact with anti-coalition militia and evacuated to Kandahar where they are in stable condition," Tucker Mansager told journalists at a routine briefing here.

He declined to give more details about the extent of their injuries, their names or the place of engagement.

"The incident occurred in southeast Afghanistan but I do not know the exact geographical location," he stressed.

In the ongoing mop-up mostly focused on southern Zabul and Uruzgan provinces particularly the rugged Deh Chopan district, 80 suspected Taliban fighters have been killed and 90 others capturedsince May 25, according to US military.

Meanwhile Taliban rejected the claim as baseless, saying their fighters inflicted huge casualties on US and Afghan troops in the neighboring Charchinot district on Friday.

US military spokesman termed the claim as false and unfounded.

But he confirmed that coalition forces came in contact with thesuspected Taliban on Friday in Khost, southeast Afghanistan, but received no casualties.

"We had a contact with about four or five anti-coalition militia 22 km south of Khost yesterday and we got no report of anycasualties on our side," emphasized the spokesman.

Rise In Applications For Repatriation Among Afghan Refugees Living In Iran
Tehran Times
BANDAR ABBAS, Hormuzgan Prov. (IRNA) -- Afghan refugees are allowed to take along all their belongings free of charge upon leaving Iran for their homeland, said representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Hormuzgan Province, Alireza Reza’i on Saturday.

To continue their occupation in their country, Afghan nationals can take with them their working devices and instruments including carpentry tools and machinery, welding machines and water pumps among others without paying any freight charge, he said.

Reza’i further told IRNA that a convoy taking 788 Afghan migrants left Bandar Abbas, in this southern province, for Dogharoun border checkpoint in the northeastern province of Khorassan on Saturday.

"A growing number of applications for repatriation have been filed by Afghan refugees within the past few days. As a consequence, a UNHCR mobile team has been appointed to register more than 2,000 Afghan refugees across the province volunteering to return to their country," he added.

Rezaei noted that upon arrival in Afghanistan, every Afghan refugee will receive between 5-25 dollars from the UNHCR to cover the expenses of the inland trip to the final destination. The head of the UNHCR team referred to the speculation on the likely return of the Afghan refugees back to Iran and said, "This might take place at border provinces, but not here, given the long distance from the common borders and in particular since they are taking along all their belongings."

So far, about 13,000 Afghans have been repatriated from this province.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghans is governed by a tripartite accord signed in Geneva on April 3, 2002 by Iran, Afghanistan, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Military chief rejects new Afghan strategy
DPA, Germany 06/18/2004
BERLIN - The chief of the German armed forces, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, has said the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) approach is the only option for achieving peace in Afghanistan. In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur, General Schneiderhan rejected calls for a change of strategy after terrorist attacks in the Kunduz zone, which is manned by a German PRT.

"There is no alternative to the PRT approach," he said in Berlin. "Terrorism ought not to become the deciding factor in our action." Four Afghans were killed by a bomb blast in a crowded Kunduz street on Wednesday. An off-road vehicle, which had been rented by the German military-cum-civilian team, was nearby and may have been a target. Some 250 German military are deployed in Kunduz. A second German PRT is to be set up in Faizabad in the country's northwest corner in the next few weeks. Germany also has a large contingent of peacekeepers in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Iran, Afghanistan Form Joint Economic, Trade Committee
Tehran Times
MASHHAD, Khorassan Prov, (IRNA) -- Khorassan province Deputy governor general for planning, administrative and financial affairs, Hossein Zare, here Saturday said that a permanent committee will soon be formed to coordinate Iran-Afghanistan joint economic and trade undertakings.

Addressing a meeting of provincial Export Promotion Committee, he added that the committee aims to plan and organize the trade activities of Iranian businessmen in Afghanistan.

"Iran's Trade Union has been established in Afghanistan and is being supported by Khorassan province governorate," he added.

Turning to the common border between Khorassan and Afghanistan and the decisive role of the province in the trade and economy of that country, he said that an exhibition of Iranian products will be held in Kabul within the next three months to introduce Iranian goods to the Afghan market.

"Various domestic products, in particular building materials and educational books will be presented in the upcoming event," he added.

The official also announced that three international fairs are scheduled to be held in Khorassan province on food industry, cattle, poultry and minerals among other products.