Afghanistan News December 9, 2005

December 9, 2005

Afghans welcome NATO expansion, Taliban threaten
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan welcomed NATO's decision to expand its peacekeeping mission on Friday, saying it would boost security, while the Taliban said more alliance troops would only increase opportunities for guerillas to attack them.

NATO foreign ministers approved mission rules on Thursday for an expanded Afghan peacekeeping force next year, which Washington hopes will allow it to cut U.S. troop levels in the country.

The agreement leaves the most dangerous counter-insurgency work in the hands of the 20,000-strong U.S.-led force but gives NATO more scope to help Afghan forces with training and other tasks such as disarming illegal groups.

"The people of Afghanistan thank them for their contribution to security and reconstruction," President Hamid Karzai told reporters at his heavily fortified presidential palace.

Afghanistan lacked the resources and its security forces were not equipped to maintain security itself, he said.

NATO wants to raise its 9,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to about 15,000 from early next year. It will spread its bases in the north and west, and the capital, Kabul, to the more volatile south, a base for many insurgents.

Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are earmarked to lead the expansion into the south but NATO still needs further troop contributions before it can go ahead early next year.

U.S. proposals last year for NATO to take overall command of foreign military operations in Afghanistan were rejected by European allies, including France and Germany, who insisted that the alliance should stay clear of counter-insurgency operations.

Under the rules agreed by the ministers in Brussels, the NATO-led ISAF will be operating in three-quarters of the country where it will continue to focus on peacekeeping and security.

"When the expansion happens, NATO will focus on security matters and this will allow the U.S. army to better concentrate on counter-insurgency activities," said Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi.

"EASIER TO ATTACK"
A Taliban commander said an increase in foreign troops would make no difference to the war against such forces, which he said would continue until Afghanistan gained its independence.

In fact, said Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, more troops would mean more targets for his fighters.

"The expansion of NATO operations in Afghanistan and increase in the number of NATO troops will make it easier for the Taliban to target and attack them," Dadullah told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

Nearly 60 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Taliban-led insurgency this year, most of them in the south and east where the militants are most active.

It has been the bloodiest period for U.S. forces since they ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

ISAF peacekeepers have also been attacked and four of them have been killed in violence this year, including a German soldier killed last month when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an ISAF convoy on a Kabul road.

A Portuguese soldier died in a blast on the outskirts of Kabul last month and a British soldier and a Swedish soldier were killed in recent attacks in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Seventeen Spanish troops were killed when their helicopter crashed near the western city of Herat in August.

In the worst attack against the peacekeepers, four German troops were killed by a suicide car bomber in Kabul in 2003.

While a greater role for NATO has led to speculation the United States might reduce its troops in Afghanistan and media reports speak of a reduction of up to 4,000. But Washington has given no figure and stresses any cuts would depend on conditions.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in SPIN BOLDAK)

U.S. plans Iraq, Afghanistan troop deployment cuts
Friday December 9, 2:10 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has drawn up plans to cancel the deployment of two Army brigades to Iraq and one to Afghanistan next month in what could be the start of a reduction of U.S. forces in those countries, defense officials said on Thursday.

But small groups from two brigades, which each include about 3,500 troops and hundreds of supporting soldiers, could be sent to help train Iraqi security forces, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

There are currently about 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are under mounting pressure from some members of Congress to begin reducing that force amid waning public support for the war.

Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday that the United States planned to reduce its force in Iraq, recently bolstered to help protect elections there on Dec. 15, back down to the normal level of about 137,000 next year, but that going lower than that would be based on the security situation.

"I think that as we've said all along it's condition-based. And the reality is that the Iraqi security forces are improving in capability and experience every day, every week, every month," Rumsfeld said after meeting with members of Congress.

"We've plussed-up (added) considerably from 137,000 ... up to about 160,000 to be helpful during the election period," he said. "And we certainly expect to go back down to 137,000. If conditions permit we can go below that. But time will tell."

Defense officials have said that they are considering dropping the U.S. force to about 100,000 by next summer, but stressed that no final decisions have been made.

NO TIMETABLE
Bush and Rumsfeld have refused to set any timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, where more than 2,100 Americans troops have died since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled President Saddam Hussein.

Defense officials said the two Army brigades in question -- one from the 1st Armored Division headquartered in Germany and the other from the 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kansas -- have been scheduled to replace U.S. troops that will soon be rotated out of Iraq.

There were also signs that the Pentagon will soon begin reducing the presence of American forces in Afghanistan next year as NATO boosts its International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, there from 9,000 to about 15,000 troops.

The defense officials said that contingency plans were being made to cancel the upcoming deployment of a brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York, to Afghanistan to replace American troops being rotated home.

In a Pentagon briefing on Thursday, Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of the 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said he expected a reduction of American forces there in the coming year as the NATO security force was increased.

But Eikenberry refused to be specific, or to confirm that the 10th Mountain Division brigade deployment would be canceled.

"Clearly, there will be adjustments (in the U.S. force)," Eikenberry said. "If NATO does move down to the south, I would expect with the adjustment of forces that there could be less U.S. presence in that region," he told reporters.
(Additional reporting by Vicki Allen)

Afghan Leader Says Foreign Troops to Stay 10 Years
RFE/RL 12/08/2005
President Hamid Karzai said in a television interview on 6 December that U.S.-led coalition forces will likely be needed in Afghanistan for 10 years. "We started to build the army and today we have 30,000 soldiers and the figure will reach 70,000," Karzai told Saudi Al-Ikhbariyah TV while in Mecca for a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
"We need to train the police and this requires several years. If you come to Afghanistan, you will see the huge size of destruction that was inflicted on these heroic Muslim people. There was nothing left there. We started the reconstruction process of everything, roads, hospitals, schools, clinics, and institutions.... We will need five years for the infrastructure and 10 years for other things," Karzai said. "As soon as Afghanistan's army and police get stronger as well as Afghanistan's institutions, the forces will leave and we will no longer need them in our country."

The 'enemy central' province in Afghanistan
By Andrew North and Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul and Kunar Thursday, 8 December 2005
As the US military's battle to subdue the Taleban and other rebel groups in Afghanistan moves into its fifth year, one eastern province bordering Pakistan has increasingly become a symbol of its difficulties.

Despite several major American offensives in Kunar over the past year, the militants keep re-grouping - many of them foreign fighters with al-Qaeda backing.

The trouble it has had in this area has led US forces to use psychological operations, or 'psy-ops' tactics, that one US human rights group alleges could have broken the Geneva conventions governing armed conflict.

US troops have been broadcasting messages which Human Rights Watch says implicitly threatens "collective punishment" for people of the valley.

'Safe haven'

It was in Kunar that US forces suffered their worst single loss of life in Afghanistan since they first invaded in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks.

One of their helicopters was shot down in late June, killing all 16 special forces and crew on board.

The situation there bears comparison with that facing US troops in western Iraq battling Sunni rebels and al-Qaeda militants - although casualties there are far higher.

Every time they try to clear an area, the insurgents move elsewhere and then return when the Americans have gone.

That is what militant groups have been doing all year in Kunar, according to local officials and residents of the province who spoke to the BBC.

The difficult, high altitude terrain is on their side. So too, say these officials, is the presence of a nearby safe haven - the tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan.

They say many militants fled there after the most recent nine-day American offensive in late November.

In a press release about Operation 'Sorkh Khar' - which translates as Operation Red Donkey - the US military described it as a "success" in dominating "the enemy in what has been a staging area in Kunar."

But residents and officials in the province - who asked not to be named because of security concerns - said many insurgents had now returned.

'Enemy central'

The stronghold of these groups - and the focus of many US operations - has been the steep, forested Korengal valley, to the north-west of the provincial capital, Asadabad.

It was here that the US Chinook helicopter was shot down on 28 June, after being sent in to rescue a special forces unit on the ground whose mission had been compromised.

Three members of that four-man team were also killed.

The valley has become a kind of meeting place for anti-American militants of all shades. "Enemy central" in the words of one US soldier who's been there.

Local officials have said for some time that supporters of the Taleban and al-Qaeda have been increasingly working together there.

They also co-operate with militants from Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin, a group led by hardline Islamist former mujahideen commander and one time Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

His whereabouts are unknown, but he is one of the key targets of US forces in the region.

So too is the man said to be al-Qaeda's leader in Kunar, an Arab called Abu Ikhlas al-Misri, who fought the Russians in the region during the 1980s and has lived there ever since, marrying locally.

In turn, he is believed to work closely with a Taleban commander known as Ahmad Shah, who US commanders believe was involved in bringing down the helicopter.

US 'not letting go'

Add to this difficult mix "criminal activity", according to Lt-Col Jerry O'Hara, chief spokesman at the US military's main operational base Bagram - with many people involved in smuggling "drugs, timber and gems".

But the US is not losing in Kunar or its Korengal valley in particular, he insists.

"We're not letting go of that area."

But in the long term, he says, "the solution there is not going to be a military one. It's about the Afghan government and security forces taking over."

One tactic US forces have recently tried is to broadcast messages on local radio in the name of Kunar's governor calling on Korengal residents to expel "enemy fighters living in their areas".

It's all part of an approach used nationwide by the US-led coalition, to try to undermine support for militants in these areas.

And despite the intense militant activity in Kunar, Afghan officials say many people there only provide support under pressure.

Human rights fears

The BBC obtained a copy of one broadcast from officials in the province who requested anonymity.

They said they had been given the message by American personnel from a local base and believed that is where it had been written, even though it was in the name of the governor and his deputy.

This is how it ends:

"if they [the people of Korengal] are not going to comply with the demands of expelling the enemy from their villages then we will be forced to continue to pursue the enemy relentlessly until the elders either force them to leave or the hand of our national security troops force them out. The people of Korengal are either with the people of Kunar or against them."

However, when asked about the message, the US military said it was not their work.

"I am told we did not write this document; that it was written by the governor," said Lt Colonel Laurent Fox, a spokesman at its headquarters in Kabul, in an e-mailed response.

However, his statement confirmed that US troops had put it out.

"I was told that CJTF-76 (the operational name of the US-led coalition force in Afghanistan) did transcribe it after it came out and ran some messages based on this letter on Peace radio in that area."

But according to Human Rights Watch, regardless of the document's original authorship, broadcasting the message to the people of Korengal could break international conventions.

"It contains a barely veiled threat of collective punishment," said Sam Zarifi, its research director for Asia. "Making such a threat is a violation of the Geneva conventions and other laws of war."

Lt Colonel Laurent Fox said the aim of transmitting the message was to use "non-lethal means against anti-government personnel."

However, some Afghan officials involved in disseminating the broadcast said they were not happy about the language, which they described as "how the foreigners speak".

U.S. General Says Bin Laden Is Alive
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 8,11:51 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The top military commander in     Afghanistan said Thursday that he believes     Osama bin Laden is still alive, but there is no evidence of al-Qaida fighters moving from     Iraq into Afghanistan to train terrorists there.

Coalition commander Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said there is no reason to believe bin Laden was killed in the earthquake that struck the mountains along the Pakistan border.

"Our forces will not rest until he is either found and captured or killed," Eikenberry told     Pentagon reporters in a conference call. "Our working assumption is he is alive today."

He also acknowledged that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is likely to be reduced as the     NATO-led coalition takes over control in the south.

The Pentagon has tentative plans to halt the deployment to Afghanistan of the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Polk, La., according to defense officials who did not want to be identified because the plans have not been finalized. There are about 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Eikenberry said there has been an increase in the use of suicide bombers and homemade bombs, but coalition forces are working to train the Afghan Army and security officials in how to detect and fight those threats.

Eikenberry also said he has reviewed the information operations in Afghanistan, and there is no program to pay media there to run favorable articles similar to the one now under investigation in Iraq.

In Iraq, Rear Admiral Scott Van Buskirk has been appointed to conduct a full investigation of the propaganda program .

Eikenberry added that if coalition forces see Afghan national security forces abuse prisoners, they will both stop the abuse and report it. He said he is not aware of any incident where the coalition soldiers had to use force to stop any abuse.

NATO and Russia launch Afghanistan counter-narcotics training
Source: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) 08 Dec 2005
At their meeting on 8 December, Foreign Ministers from the NATO-Russia Council agreed to launch a pilot project on counter-narcotics training of Afghan and Central Asian personnel.

The pilot project is meant to support international efforts to promote security and stability in and around Afghanistan , and particularly those aimed at addressing the threats posed by the trafficking in narcotics, including its links to the financing of terrorism.

Building local capacity

Training courses will be offered to relevant personnel from Afghanistan , Kazakhstan , the Kyrgyz Republic , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan . The aim is to build local capacity and to promote regional networking and cooperation.

The project will be conducted in close cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which will play a key role in its implementation.

Taking into consideration the specific needs of trainees from the region, and in consultation with the relevant national authorities of the eligible states, the training offered will draw upon relevant elements of courses developed by various agencies in NATO-Russia Council member countries – such as the Turkish International Academy Against Drugs and Organised Crime (TADOC), the Russian Domededovo Counter-Narcotics Training Centre, as well as existing bilateral training courses offered in the region by NRC member states.

Courses will be two-to-three-weeks long and will be offered to mid-level officials from relevant national agencies in Afghanistan and Central Asia .

Curricula will include both theoretical preparation and operational field exercises, and may also include the use of “train-the-trainers” approaches to maximise the impact of the initiative.

UN hostel manager wounded in Afghanistan drive-by shooting
AFP via Khaleej Times 8 December 2005
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The manager of a United Nations guesthouse was shot and badly wounded on Thursday by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The attackers opened fire as Assadullah, who runs the UN hostel in the southern city of Kandahar as he was going to work.

“He was attacked at around 7:00 this morning (0230 GMT) by unknown people riding motorbikes,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul.

“He was shot to the stomach, operated on and is in stable condition. He’s not employed by UNAMA, but he’s the manager of a UN guesthouse. He works for a private compagny that rents the guesthouse to the UN.”

The motive for the attack was not known.

The victim’s father, Ahmad Qureshi, said: “We didn’t have any personal enmities with anyone. I’m not sure, but I believe it was the work of the Taleban.”

Afghan legislators receive orientation under project jointly designed by UN
Source: United Nations News Service 08 Dec 2005
New members of the Afghan National Assembly, the Loya Jirga, which opens on 19 December after a three-decade break, will undergo a week-long orientation programme on the functions they will be performing for the next five years under a project co-sponsored by the United Nations.

Designed and implemented jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the SEAL (Support to Establishment of Afghan Legislature) project and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the programme includes introductions to the constitution, rules and procedures of legislation and the budget process.

The 249 members of the lower house, Wolesi Jirga (the House of People), all elected, and the 102 members of the upper house, Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders), some of them appointed, will receive the training in three groups beginning on Saturday.

The programme will be conducted by Afghan academicians, professors of political science and Constitutional Law, as well as international consultants.

Germany Extends Training of Afghan Police amid Iraq Row
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty 08.12.2005 - 10:53
December 7 2005-- Germany has extended its commitment to training the Afghan police force until the end of 2006, while Iraq has said it would no longer participate in the German-led training of its police recruits.

According to German figures, 54,000 patrolmen and 3,300 officers have been trained in the German-run police academy in Kabul since 2002. Germany is also putting Iraqi police recruits through their paces in

the United Arab Emirates.But Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baqer Sulagh said yesterday Baghdad won't be sending any more Iraqis to the program.

The UAE news agency Wam quoted him as saying Iraq was seeking "more serious and more effective" training programs.

Afghan Forces Now Able to Take Fight to Taliban, says Coalition Commander
By Al Pessin 08 December 2005 VOA
The commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan says Afghan forces have improved to the point that, working with coalition troops, they can take the fight to Taliban insurgents in areas the insurgents have controlled in the past.

Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry says he has been emphasizing quality, rather than quantity, in developing the new Afghan army, which he says is now 30,000 strong. He says there has been more fighting in Afghanistan in recent months than there had been before, but he says much of that is being initiated by Afghan and coalition forces.

"These forces, now, these combined forces, are able to operate in areas that, ... in previous years, we were not able to move into," he said. "So in places, say, in northern parts of southern Afghanistan, traditionally points of Taliban influence, points in eastern Afghanistan, traditionally places of Taliban influence, that are very difficult to get to, mountainous areas, we are now able to move into those areas."

General Eikenberry also says he has no evidence of any cooperation between insurgents in Afghanistan and those in Iraq, although he says money continues to flow to the Afghan insurgents from outside the country. He acknowledged an increase in bombings in Afghanistan, but he said it does not necessarily mean the insurgency is getting stronger.

"A shift in tactics is not necessarily a sign of strength," he said. "My belief is that the shift in tactics right now is very much a sign of weakness."

General Eikenberry says the Taliban is getting weaker, because of some military defeats and because of the continuing progress in the Afghan political process. The newly elected parliament is to begin meeting within two weeks.

The general also says there has been a steady increase in the willingness of ordinary Afghans to cooperate with the new army and the coalition. But he added that the army has some work to do to establish its credibility in the former Taliban strongholds where it is now starting to operate.

General Eikenberry also welcomed the results of a public opinion survey in Afghanistan by the U.S. television network ABC.

The poll found that 77 percent of Afghans believe their country is moving in the right direction, and 91 percent prefer the current government to the ousted Taliban regime. In addition, 90 percent said they have a negative view of the al-Qaida terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden.

ABC notes that those views prevail even though most Afghans do not have electricity, easy access to good medical care or many economic opportunities.

Afghan legislators receive orientation under project jointly designed by UN
Source: United Nations News Service - Date: 08 Dec 2005
New members of the Afghan National Assembly, the Loya Jirga, which opens on 19 December after a three-decade break, will undergo a week-long orientation programme on the functions they will be performing for the next five years under a project co-sponsored by the United Nations.

Designed and implemented jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the SEAL (Support to Establishment of Afghan Legislature) project and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the programme includes introductions to the constitution, rules and procedures of legislation and the budget process.

The 249 members of the lower house, Wolesi Jirga (the House of People), all elected, and the 102 members of the upper house, Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders), some of them appointed, will receive the training in three groups beginning on Saturday.

The programme will be conducted by Afghan academicians, professors of political science and Constitutional Law, as well as international consultants.

Coca-Cola returns to Afghanistan
Drinks Business Review 12/08/2005
Coca-Cola is returning to Afghanistan after a 15-year absence with the opening of a $25 million bottling plant on the outskirts of Kabul, according to an FT report.

The plant represents a major investment for the country, and the plant's operators expect to initially create 600 jobs, with the possibility of generating 8000 more through allied industries. The Financial Times has reported that the production of Coke, Sprite and Fanta starts this week.

Currently, Coca-Cola is imported from Pakistan, making the cost of a can 18 Afghani (40 US cents). Locally produced Coke will only cost six Afghani if the customer recycles the bottle.
"We are very optimistic about Afghanistan. We are looking at huge growth because of the affordability," Ali-us-Sajjad Khan, COO of the Habib Gulzar Non-Alcoholic Beverages Firm, the franchisee of Coca-Cola, told the Financial Times. "This is an American icon, so we have tried to push the local franchise as much as possible."

Coke used to be popular in Afghanistan in the 1970's, but a quarter of a century of war has wrecked the infrastructure. The company had to build a separate facility to produce the carbon dioxide gas needed to make the drink fizzy and generate its own power for the 60,000 square meter plant.

Afghanistan's Early Enforcement Of Tax Law Draws Criticism
Asia Pulse 12/08/2005
KABUL - While economists have expressed satisfaction over the previous year performance of the Afghan Finance Ministry, its failure to privatise scores of governmental enterprises and early implementation of the new tax laws are being subjected to criticism.

The Finance Ministry has already presented its annual report during the Accountability Week which attracted mixed reaction. Although the ministry reckoned implementation of the income tax law as one of its big achievements, majority of experts described it a pre-mature step.

Under the law, all government and private employees, whose monthly salary exceeds 12,500 afghanis, would be liable to pay income tax. Besides, all companies will have to pay 20 per cent tax on their incomes.

Economists believe the implementation of the new tax law is not only a premature step, the ratio of tax on individual and companies' profits was also too high. This will discourage traders, businessmen and entrepreneurs from new ventures which are necessary for the fledgling economy of the country.

The government should first concentrate on giving incentives to investors and providing them with facilities like electricity, which is the lifeline for the industrial sector, improve means of communications as well as ensure security across the country.

Hamidullah Farooqi, Professor of Economics Department at the Kabul University, appreciated reforms like elimination of red-tape in the ministry's works but slammed the ministry for, what he called, sluggish approach to promote trade and investment in the country.

Another economist Professor Ahmad Masoud at the Nangarhar University said the government should have taken into consideration the social condition of the people before taking drastic steps like implementation of income tax on the salary class and the industrial and commercial sector.

"Ironically, the government stressed more on collecting taxes but did not consider its side effects on social sector, which is struggling to come out of years of stagnation," said Professor Masoud. He suggested the current tax law should be reviewed by experts to amend it in line with the standard of living of the people.

The ministry, on the other hand, justified the implementation of the law, saying it would help boost revenues of the government. They believe this was the basic step to fund the country's budget from domestic resources.

Asad Sakhi Farhad, deputy finance minister for customs and revenues, said the government was determined to finance its budget completely from domestic income during the next five years and implementation of tax on individuals and companies was the first step to achieve that end.

But Fazal Ahmad Joya, Professor of economics, said although the tax measures would help generate revenues, it would create more problems than producing benefits, which also included slowing down of the pace of fresh investment.

Besides the tax issue, none of the 72 government-run companies and enterprises have so far been privatised. Asked for comments, senior official of the Finance Ministry Abdul Razaq Samadi said a few of those enterprises were operational at scaled-down level while others were in a poor state. Of the 40,000 employees of those units, more than 20,000 were making ends meet by renting out portions of their houses or other properties.

Officials of the ministry said a law had been prepared to restart all the deficient units across the country and enable them to generate income. The law would soon be approved.

The third area is the revenues from customs. Officials say they have collected about five billion afghanis (US$116.95 million) in the first six months of the year which show an increase of 25 per cent compared to the last three years.

Presenting his ministry's performance report, Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi claimed they had brought all the revenues under control. In the past, custom revenues would not be submitted with the government, but the whole sum was now collected in the national ex-chequer, he added.

Hailing the move, Professor Masoud said though there still existed some loopholes, yet bringing the customs revenues under the control of the government was a great achievement.
Sources in the Finance Ministry said the government would spend US$1.2 billion out of the US$4.3 billion development budget which is totally funded by donors this year.

Despite the ministry's efforts, it could bring very slight change in getting the aid money compared to last year by channelling about 27 per cent of the budget i.e. the US$1.2 billion.
Professor Masoud blamed the donors for not handing over the amount to the government to be spent on the post-conflict country. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Several killed in Pakistan blast
BBC News, 8 December 2005
At least 12 people have been killed and 30 injured in a bomb explosion in Pakistan's troubled tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials say. The blast ripped through a hotel and shops in a market in Jandola town in South Waziristan.

Earlier this week four soldiers were kidnapped in South Waziristan and 15 people killed in clashes in neighbouring North Waziristan. It is the worst violence in the region for several weeks.

The central government began deploying soldiers in large numbers in the tribal areas two years ago to counter the movements of members of the Taleban, al-Qaeda and their supporters.
The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the army is in control of the main population centres and road routes. However, he says the military cannot reduce its heavy presence because it has not been able to gain the trust of many of the tribesmen there.

There were two explosions in Jandola town on Thursday. The first one was the hotel bomb that left 12 dead, officials say. The hotel is situated on land owned by the army.

It is not clear who planted the device. The hotel is next to the headquarters of the local paramilitary force. Ninety minutes later there was a second explosion in the same market area of the town. Officials say this blast was caused by fire in an arms and ammunition shop, local officials say.

Four paramilitary soldiers and a journalist have gone missing in South Waziristan in recent days. The bodies of two of the soldiers have now been found. One report said they had been beheaded, another that their throats had been cut.

South and North Waziristan have been at the centre of prolonged confrontations between the army and militant groups. Hundreds of militants and more than 25 Pakistani soldiers have died in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan in the past two years.

North Waziristan saw a further development this week when 15 people were killed in clashes that started after bandits tried extorting money from Islamic students at a roadblock.

The students, backed by local tribesmen sympathetic to the Taleban, set fire to the gangsters' homes. They then hung the bodies of at least three of the bandits from electricity poles. Residents said the fighting was so fierce the authorities did not intervene.

Pakistan has sent thousands of soldiers to hunt down the militants as part of the US-led war on terror. Last week the Pakistanis authorities said a leading al-Qaeda member, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in an explosion in North Waziristan.