Afghanistan News February 26, 2005

February 26, 2005

At Least 22 Killed in Renewed Afghan Violence
Fri Feb 25, 9:06 AM ET By Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least 22 rebels and troops have been killed in a renewed surge in violence in Afghanistan (news - web sites), U.S. and Afghan officials said on Friday.

Gunmen killed nine Afghan troops in southern Helmand province near the border with Pakistan, a provincial government official said on Friday, in one of the bloodiest attacks against Afghan forces for months.

The soldiers were killed while on a night patrol in the Chakool Ghar area of the province.

"Two of those killed were officers and the other seven were soldiers," said Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the provincial governor. "The car they were traveling and their weapons have gone missing, too."

Wali said it was not clear who was behind the attack but a Taliban spokesman said their fighters were responsible.

"Our mujahideen (holy warriors) killed the soldiers in an ambush," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The U.S. military said seven Taliban rebels also died on Thursday during a U.S. helicopter raid in the southeastern province of Khost after five Afghan soldiers were wounded in an ambush.

Afghan officials said their forces killed six more Taliban guerrillas after the ambush. A Taliban spokesman said five Taliban fighters died.

A U.S. military statement said there were no casualties among U.S.-led forces.

Helmand was a bastion of the Taliban until they were driven from power in late 2001 and it is also one of Afghanistan's major drug producing areas. Last week, gunmen killed two Afghan aid workers and stole their vehicle in the province.

Wali said the Taliban also killed an Afghan soldier and wounded three others in an attack on their post in a mountainous area near the eastern city of Jalalabad on Friday.

Taliban activity has eased over the winter, and U.S.-led forces operating in the south and southeast have kept up the pressure on Afghanistan's vanquished rulers following their failure to disrupt an historic presidential election in October. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin)

Afghanistan keen to join seven-nation South Asian grouping
Fri Feb 25, 6:13 AM ET
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his war-ravaged country wanted to join the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and become a link between the regional grouping and Central Asia.

"It would be an honour for Afghanistan to be invited to join SAARC. We would like to see it emerge as a great grouping for the development of Central and South Asia," Karzai told a conference in New Delhi organised by India Today news magazine on Friday.

The Afghan president said the two regions should link their development efforts to become a global power centre.

"There should be a new vision for the region and efforts made to remove political barriers and, instead of building walls, we must build bridges," Karzai said.

SAARC, founded in 1985 to promote economic cooperation, groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Karzai said his government was trying to build highways and pipelines so that the Central Asia's rich energy reserves could flow to India and other countries.

"Once these highways and pipelines are in place, people as well as gas and other energy products could reach from one end to another in just 32 hours," Karzai said.

"We want to see Afghanistan emerge as a hub interlinking Central Asia and Iran with India and beyond," he added.

Pakistan, the current chair of SAARC, said it would back Afghanistan in its wish to join the grouping.

"Pakistan and Afghanistan have very close relations and links. We would certainly support Afghanistan as member of this august body," Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the meeting.

Karzai, on his first trip to India since he won elections in October, is heading a delegation that includes eight cabinet ministers.

India, along with Iran and Russia, backed Afghanistan's Northern Alliance against the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban.

Since the ousting of the Taliban by US-backed forces in late 2001, India has been helping the country rebuild after a quarter-century of war.

Aziz supports Karzai plea for Saarc membership
By Our Correspondent Dawn
NEW DELHI, Feb 25: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said on Friday he would like his country to become a member of the seven-member Saarc. And he immediately got a crucial nod from Pakistan, with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz saying: "We would certainly support Afghanistan as a member of this august body."

President Karzai was speaking at an international conclave organized by India Today magazine, when he was asked to comment on the prospects of Kabul joining Saarc. Mr Aziz spoke to the concalve through a TV link. The Afghan leader spelt out his ties with India and Pakistan and proceeded to say he would be honoured to be invited to join Saarc.

He said Pakistan had been a good host to him during the struggle against Soviet occupation of his country, while India had been the place where he went to school. He thus had an excellent relationship with both countries.

Earlier in the conference, President Karzai expressed Afghanistan's deep interest in becoming a conduit to a gas pipeline project from Central Asia to Pakistan and, "if possible", to India.

Troop Cuts in Afghanistan Concern General
Fri Feb 25,12:23 PM ET By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
ORGUN, Afghanistan - Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents remain a grave threat to Afghanistan, a senior U.S. general told The Associated Press on Friday, warning against cutting the strength of the U.S.-led coalition so long as neither Afghan nor NATO forces are ready to fill the breach.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson said he was concerned that American policy-makers will seize on an apparent drop in militant attacks to cut the 18,000-strong coalition — about 17,000 of whom are Americans — to ease the pressure on American forces stretched by their deployment in Iraq.

"The U.S. presence at the core of the coalition has been critical to success of the overall coalition effort," said Olson, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

About 1,000 coalition troops are non-Americans, including a contingent of Egyptian medics, teams of French and Norwegian special forces, and a Romanian battalion in the southern city of Kandahar.

Olson said the operation is very taxing and there will be pressure to draw down forces while handing over more responsibility to what is now a 9,000-strong NATO security force.

"My fear is that will happen too fast, that the draw down will outrun the expansion or the compensation of NATO expansion," Olson said.

"I think there's still an insurgency to win here, and I think the Afghan central government is at this point very much dependent on the support of the coalition."

NATO plans to expand into western Afghanistan this year, then to the south, but the general said he was not convinced the alliance would match the numbers or capabilities of the U.S. units they eventually should replace.

He also said Afghanistan's new army and police would need five to 10 years before they could begin performing properly.

Olson reiterated that the trail of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had "gone cold," but he said U.S. forces were continuing their search and he did not anticipate any letup in that part of their mission.

"There are no specific leads to bin Laden right now, but we collectively are just as determined to continue to hunt him," he said.

Olson spoke to the AP after visiting troops at three remote bases near the mountainous Pakistani border, where militants continue to undermine security.

Under Olson, who leaves Afghanistan next month, U.S. troops have set up several small bases across the country's south and east to back up officials from U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government and to intercept militants crossing from Pakistan.

Commanders say that decision helped protect landmark October elections and has persuaded many ordinary Afghans to turn their back on the Taliban — gains Olson said could quickly be lost.

In a reminder of the country's insecurity, suspected Taliban insurgents launched three separate attacks on Thursday, reportedly killing nine Afghan troops and wounding an American soldier while sustaining heavy casualties themselves. Ten insurgents were killed.

The violence followed a period of relative calm in Afghanistan amid rising hopes that the insurgency is faltering. Taliban spokesmen have said attacks are down only because of the harsh winter, and they would resume once the weather improved.

An A-10 ground attack aircraft from Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, circled high over the snowcapped mountains surrounding one base as Olson handed out awards, including Bronze Stars, to troops from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division.

Olson also praised Pakistan for a bloody crackdown on militants, including suspected al-Qaida fighters on their side of the border, but said they had "by no means" finished off forces with ambitions to retake Afghanistan.

"I honestly believe that (militant) pressure from Pakistan and a drawdown in Afghanistan would be an incredibly volatile combination," he said.

Dutch to send commandos to Afghanistan
Fri Feb 25, 2005 06:43 PM GMT
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government plans to send 250 troops, mostly commandos, to Afghanistan to hunt al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
The new mission will last one year and include four Chinook transport helicopters, 165 special forces and 85 helicopter staff, Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said in a letter to parliament.

He said the Dutch commando unit, which will expand the Netherlands' military presence in Afghanistan, would also help combat drug trafficking.

About 18,000 U.S.-led foreign troops are in Afghanistan hunting al Qaeda and Taliban rebels.

Six Dutch Apache helicopters, along with 100 troops and another 139 military personnel with so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) have been stationed in Afghanistan to help provide security under NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Dutch news agency ANP quoted Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende as saying the new mission did not need parliamentary approval.

The boost to military presence in Afghanistan comes as the Dutch government is preparing to withdraw 1,350 troops from Iraq next month despite pressure from the United States, Britain and Japan to extend the mission.

India shows cautious interest in Turkmen gas line
02/24/05 Y.P. Rajesh
NEW DELHI – Reuters - India is interested in a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan, an official said on Thursday, but progress is likely to hinge on Pakistan's ability to ensure its security.

The Indian comment came as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf assured protection for another gas pipeline, from Iran across Pakistan to India, in a further sign that energy diplomacy was gaining momentum in South Asia.

This week, officials of India, Iran and Pakistan held separate talks on the $4 billion India-Iran pipeline resulting in India agreeing to send a technical team from its oil ministry to Iran at the end of February to discuss feasibility.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in India on Wednesday and raised the issue of the pipeline from Turkmenistan. "This was mentioned by President Karzai. They are interested that this pipeline should come through," an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said.

"The prime minister said we are ready to consider this possibility," the spokesman told a news conference after talks between Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Karzai is on a three-day visit to India which has been providing largescale assistance to war-torn Afghanistan to rebuild its infrastructure and train officials since the ouster of the former ruling Taliban in late 2001.

Indian officials said the estimated $3.3 billion Turkmen project hinged on security commitments from Pakistan. "There is not much point in India and Afghanistan agreeing on this pipeline because there are no differences between us on this. Both of us want it," said one official. "We have to essentially sort out the Pakistan angle here first," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

India, Asia's fourth-largest economy with fast-growing energy needs, is the focus of regional efforts to build gas pipelines. The foreign ministers of Bangladesh and Myanmar met in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, on Thursday and discussed a pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.

Both ministers said it was an encouraging proposal but Bangladeshi Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said a technical committee had to work out details. To its west, India is worried about the safety of pipelines passing through its rival, Pakistan, where militant groups could threaten supplies.

India and Pakistan have been making cautious progress on a peace process launched last year and movement on the pipelines is expected to boost trust between the neighbours who were near the brink of a fourth war in 2002.

The Iran-Pakistan-India project has been dubbed the "peace pipeline" and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said his country would address Indian security concerns. "We can assure the protection of the pipeline, there is no doubt," Musharraf told reporters in Islamabad on Thursday.

"We have to establish the writ of the government," he said referring to Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, where militant tribesmen last month attacked a production centre in the country's main gas field, disrupting supplies for several days.

Musharraf did not mention the Turkmen pipeline but analysts said if Pakistan is a part of the project a security guarantee would have to be implicit. However, one Indian analyst said India was being hasty in trying to secure its energy needs.

"It appears that the proposals for pipelines are being processed without due consideration of their security and foreign policy implications," G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan, wrote in Thursday's Tribune newspaper.

Struggle for survival in snowbound Afghan villages
Fri Feb 25, 3:37 AM ET
TULAK, Afghanistan, (AFP) - Ghulam Nabi took the food from the US soldiers gratefully, but by Sunday his family of nine will need more to survive the deadly cold gripping this remote corner of Afghanistan.

"I am very happy to take the food, but it is only enough for two nights for our family and then we will be hungry again," the 45-year-old told AFP in the mountainous district of Tulak in western Ghor province, which has been cut off by snowdrifts for almost a month.

Afghanistan is suffering its worst winter in a decade, with remote areas isolated by snowdrifts and at least 472 people, many of them children, dying from cold-related diseases, avalanches and accidents.

"My daughter was only five months old and she got sick in the cold and died," said 29-year-old Mohammed Asar as he waited for food handouts.

US military officials delivering food by air Thursday to Tulak said local officials had confirmed 80 deaths there alone. Deputy governor Ikramuddin Rezaie said 192 had died across the province, although it was unclear if that figure included those in Tulak.

There is no hospital in the isolated district where around 50,000 people eke out a living, only a spartan clinic with three rooms, and not enough medicine to treat the mounting number of people sick from the cold, locals told AFP.

"There have been lots of deaths, it is a crisis," said Sergeant Jeremy Clawson, who was on a US mission to air drop food to the district.

As US Black Hawk helicopters landed, around 200 men and children crowded around, pushing to get rations until they were ordered to line up and wait to be handed food packages by 12 policemen.

Providing relief to some of the worst-hit areas has been a major challenge for the US military, which delivered 10 tons of food to Tulak on Thursday, first with two Black Hawks and then by dropping supplies from a C-130 Hercules cargo plane.

"It was a very, very difficult mission this morning. We are operating at the very limits of our capacity with these helicopters," said Major David Johnson of the Civil Military Operations Center at the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the main western city of Herat.

The teams are a civil-military programme intended to help with reconstruction and security in the war-ravaged country.

Johnson said bad weather had prevented US forces from dropping supplies into some villages in the isolated district, which is 2,484 metres (8,200 feet) above sea level.

US forces will also air drop food into the neighbouring district of Saghar, which has been isolated by snow for the last 40 days, Johnson said.

Authorities are waiting for Ghor's roads to clear so World Food Programme convoys can bring more supplies, while some of the worst-hit areas remain accessible only by air.

Attempts to reach snow survivors
Friday, 25 February, 2005 BBC News
Soldiers and medical teams are trying to reach villagers cut off after weeks of heavy snow in Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir.

The region has been hit by a series of snowstorms and avalanches in what is being described as the coldest winters in decades.

Several hundred people have died in both countries as well as in areas of Pakistan in the past few weeks.

But there are fears the toll could be higher, particularly in Afghanistan.

Police and officials in the district of Saghar in the central Afghan province of Ghor say that 300 people have died there because of the severe winter.

The BBC's Andrew North says there is no way of confirming the figures but adds that the district is completely cut off.

The road to Saghar is blocked by snow and food is said to be running out.

Children worst hit

Saghar has no doctor and is almost completely without medical help.

Officials say more than half of those who have died are children who have succumbed to pneumonia, whooping cough and measles.

"Some districts are still short of medicine and we cannot supply them with medicine because those districts are cut off due to heavy snow and the roads are still blocked," deputy governor of Ghor, Ikramuddin Rezaie, told AFP.

The US military has begun to drop tonnes of food over Saghar taken from World Food Programme stocks, using Black Hawk helicopters normally used to flush out Taleban and al Qaeda militants.

They say bad weather has prevented them from flying to the district until now.

On Thursday, WFP warned that Afghanistan faced potentially "catastrophic" floods once the snow melts.

Kashmir aid drop

In Indian-administered Kashmir, army medical teams have begun arriving in remote villages cut off for the past week, after a series of avalanches.

Indian army spokesman Lt Col VK Batra told the AFP news agency that the teams will "provide medical facilities to the injured and the survivors".

Six villages in the southern district of Anantnag have been completely buried under the snow after the avalanche crushed houses.

More than 230 people have died in Indian-administered Kashmir and thousands are still stranded along a key highway linking the state to the rest of India.

Officials say it could take up to three weeks to clear all the roads.

There are also fears of fresh avalanches in the southern districts of Anantnag, Doda and Poonch.

Air force helicopters have been dropping food and medical supplies in affected areas for the past few days.

Karzai Reportedly Offers Government Position To Northern Afghan Warlord
Daily Afghan Report Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - February 24, 2005
President Karzai has reportedly asked General Abdul Rashid Dostum, head of Junbish-e Melli-yi Islami-ye Afghanistan, to take up a government post in Kabul, Jowzjan Aina Television reported on 23 February. According to the report, Karzai made the offer to Dostum during a meeting in Kabul on 22 February. It is not clear what position Karzai has offered to Dostum, but the report hinted that the job would be related to the formation of the Afghan National Army. Dostum currently resides in his home province of Jowzjan and has effective influence over several provinces in northern Afghanistan. AT

Eastern Afghan Province Forms Local Council
Daily Afghan Report Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - February 24, 2005
Officials in Nangarhar Province intend to set up autonomous local councils for each district, Pajhwak News Agency reported on 23 February. The councils would work at a community level helping to organize development work in their districts. Once formed, all national and international nongovernmental organizations need to be in contact with these councils prior to carrying out any activity in Nangarhar districts. Nangarhar Governor Hajji Din Mohammad said on 23 February that with the establishment of the local councils, no organization will be allowed to have a monopoly over how to serve the people of his province. The decision to form the local councils came at the end of a three-day conference in Jalalabad, provincial capital of Nangarhar, in which representatives of neighboring Konar and Laghman provinces also participated. It is not clear from the report when the councils will be formed. AT

Afghan woman eyes the governor's job
Saturday, 26 February, 2005, 00:17 GMT BBC News
Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's former women's minister, has outlined the challenge facing her as she prepares to take charge in Bamiyan province - that would make her the country's first female provincial governor.

Ms Sarabi is set to be appointed governor by President Hamid Karzai after being selected from an all-women shortlist.

She told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme there were a wide-ranging number of problems facing the province - most famous for the giant statues of Buddha that were destroyed by the hardline Taleban regime in 2001.

"Poverty is a major issue. I have to work on the reconstruction, to find some jobs for people," Ms Sarabi said.

"And actually I want to change the face of Bamiyan a little bit, with the help of God and the international community. I want to work on the master plan of Bamiyan city - its historical heritage and as a tourist attraction.

"These are the big challenges."

New role

During the Taleban regime, Ms Sarabi fled from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to Pakistan, where she lived in the city of Peshawar - although she often returned undercover.

Following the US military action in 2001 that removed the Taleban, she was selected for Mr Karzai's cabinet.

She instantly became a high-profile figure. Under the Taleban women had been prevented from achieving high office.

Her new role will see her tackling the warlords in Bamiyan.

She also said she hoped to see the province's damaged cultural heritage redeveloped.

"We can attract a lot of tourism and it can be a big income for Bamiyan city," she said.

"The historical heritage should be safe and secure for each Bamiyani. For me, it will be a responsibility."

A recent UN report warned of the "critical" situation in Afghanistan, with high poverty, low security and an education system condemned as the worst in the world.

Ms Sarabi admitted there were "very difficult" challenges in Bamiyan.

"There are natural difficulties because it's a very mountainous place, with a lot of snow for a long time," she said.

"The other problem is the lack of education, especially among women."

Future optimism

She stressed she had visited the province several times, and had received a very positive reaction following the announcement of her new position.

"I have received plenty of calls from people in Bamiyan and representatives of the council, the traditional leadership," she said.

"They supported me and they were very happy - this is the reaction I have received."

And she added she was also optimistic about the future of Afghanistan.

"You can see that during the three years [since the Taleban] a lot of things have changed," she said.

"Of course we have a lot of difficulties - it doesn't mean we should forget these - but we have to solve these problems.

"Everything will go in a good direction in the future."

Afghanistan: Returns steady, reintegration still a challenge
QAISAR DISTRICT, 25 February (IRIN) - Sitting in a tiny tent overlooking an endless, dusty plain, Samandar Ali and his family are happy that they are back home after several years of life in exile. Even though the eight-member family does not have enough food or proper shelter to survive the cold winter, they are optimistic that life will change for the better.

"Drought is continuing and there is no work while armed men are still in power. But we are hopeful that it will get better," Ali, who returned from neighbouring Pakistan in September 2004, told IRIN in Qaisar district of the northwestern province of Faryab.

While insecurity and poverty continue to be the main challenge the returnees face at home, Afghan refugees continue to return as they hear that millions of dollars have been pledged by international donors to assist their war-ravaged country.

Three years after the fall of the Taliban, over three million Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran. In 2004 alone, around 780,000 refugees came back from these countries. But there is a long way to go. There are at least three million Afghans still in exile, many waiting for more visible signs of development and stability before returning.

Many of those refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have returned home in the last two years complain of a lack of assistance. Unemployment and the lack of public services, including health clinics, schools and roads, are the chief concerns.

"The major and only change in Afghanistan is the newly elected government and everyone hopes that it will bring a change in our lives," Ali said.

For the millions of Afghans who have returned home since the end of the Taliban era in late 2001, life is hard and reintegration is slow. Although undeniable progress has been made in many sectors, returnees are often more destitute than the local population.

Sahargul, a former school teacher, said that despite the large number of NGOs and UN agencies working in Faryab province, many returnees like himself had not been prioritised. "Those armed groups who have grabbed our land and made us displaced are now more important for the UN than the poor returnees," the father of four told IRIN as he and his children worked on rebuilding their ruined house.

Sahargul pointed to the ex-combatants, who he said were receiving preferential treatment from the UN and other agencies, rather than returnees. He said his children missed school since they returned to their village of Qaisar as there was no girls' school in the entire village. Sahar's children had studied up to Grade Four in the city of Peshawar in Pakistan. "For us, the return means losing my job and my children's education," he noted dismally.

But some others have managed to earn a living and reintegrate. Bibi Fatema, a 40-year-old widow, sensing a gap in the market, opened a small health centre for women in the Dash Barchi district of Kabul after she obtained a US $200 loan from a local micro finance agency.

"My income is more than I earned in Iran. Here, women do not go to male nurses for injections or other first aid services; therefore, I have many customers," the mother of three told IRIN.

Fatema had attended a nursing training course in Iran and now she earns $150 per month. "I pay half of my earnings for house rent and the remainder helps us to survive," she noted.

Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, believes successful reintegration requires long-term development assistance.

"I think the work of the HCR [The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] is not just transporting people home. It is also being with them for a while and trying to convince others to improve life and live together," Lubbers told IRIN as he visited a return area north of the capital, Kabul, in mid-January.

UNHCR and its partners have rebuilt some 170,000 houses across Afghanistan since 2002 and some 8,000 wells or water points have been established in areas of high return.

Despite this, he was critical of the pace of rural infrastructure development. "While returnees are eager to restart their lives they need water projects, dams and therefore it [development] has to go a bit faster," the high commissioner noted.

Habibullah Qaderi, the former chief adviser for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, believes that not much has been done for returnees by donor countries. "We appeal for more assistance and more money for the return programme because we should think of the sustainability of return and reintegration which is the right of every returnee," he told IRIN.

"We should not be just dumping the people in. We still have more than three million Afghans still in neighbouring countries," Qaderi noted.

SLOW IDP RETURNS IN 2004
After another year of drought and crop failure in 2004, more than a third of the Afghan population remains dependent on food aid. Among them are at least 167,000 IDPs, most of them living in camps in the south and the west of the country. Persistent drought, a lack of infrastructure and slow reconstruction have considerably slowed down the pace of return during 2004. Only 17,000 IDPs have made the journey home since the beginning of the year.

Unable or unwilling to return to their homes, the remaining IDPs, most of them drought-affected nomadic Kuchis, are now in need of long-term solutions that go beyond humanitarian assistance.

For the estimated 440,000 IDPs who returned home during 2002 and 2003, the main need is for a sustained effort by the international community to deliver on its reconstruction pledge in order to further their reintegration.

With drought conditions continuing in the areas these IDPs came from, some destitute families prefer to settle locally rather than return to their places of origin.

Those that IRIN interviewed in the southern Zhari Dasht IDP camp said they could manage to earn a living or receive some assistance while remaining in the bleak IDP camp.

In addition to drought, one of the main challenges that IDPs face after return is land grabbing and continuous harassment by local militias. In Faryab, while many have been able to regain their land and houses and managed to secure some level of sustainable livelihood, others have found that their homes have either been destroyed or are now occupied by others.

In January 2005, hundreds of people, including women and children, had to flee to the mountains after their houses were entirely looted by armed local militia groups in Kohistan district of Faryab.

"We were told that these commanders were no longer in power, but that was not true," Fazal Rabi, a returnee in the northern city of Baghlan, told IRIN. He said he had harvested a good crop of wheat, but had been forced to give a third of it to a local commander as compulsory taxation.

CIA officers look for Osama in Pakistan: Congress report released
By Our Correspondent Dawn
WASHINGTON, Feb 25: There are CIA paramilitary officers and other US personnel in Pakistan dedicated to look for Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, says a congressional report.

The Congressional Research Service, which advises Congress and writes policy briefs for US lawmakers, says in a recent report that some of these agents are based in Pakistan as "civilian contractors."

The report points out that both Osama bin Laden and Al Zawahiri escaped the December 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and, "according to most assessments, fled into Pakistan, where they have continued to elude capture by Pakistani forces and agents."

The report notes that a March 2004 Pakistan forces' offensive against suspected terrorist hideouts in the South Waziristan region, failed to find these two or other major Al Qaeda figures.

In December 2004, the report says, President Pervez Musharraf also acknowledged that the "trail has gone cold," a characterization generally backed by US observers. Although Osama and Zawahiri remain at large, US officials say that much progress has been made against Al Qaeda, but that more remains to be done.

The CRS report quotes former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet as telling a congressional hearing last year that "the Al Qaeda leadership structure we charted after Sept 11 is seriously damaged, but the group remains as committed as ever to attacking the US homeland... But do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting Al Qaeda is defeated. It is not."

The CRS says that the Bush administration points to the capture or killing of senior Al Qaeda leaders as evidence of progress against Al Qaeda, adding that some key Al Qaeda operatives were arrested in Pakistan by Pakistani law-enforcement agencies.

Of the top 37 top Al Qaeda operatives identified by US agencies after Sept. 11, 2001, 15 have been killed or captured. The most notable among them include: number three leader Mohammad Atef (killed in Afghanistan by US Predator); Sept 11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (arrested by Pakistan); key recruiter and planner Abu Zubaydah (arrested by Pakistan); Southeast Asian affiliate operational leader Hanbali (Riduan Isammudin), a key operative of Jemaah Islamiyah (arrested in Thailand); Sept 11 plotter Ramzi bin al-Shibh (arrested by Pakistan); and Abdul Ali al-Harithi, key plotter in Yemen (killed by US Predator in Yemen).

In the aggregate, since the Sept 11th attacks, about 3,000 suspected Al Qaeda members have been detained or arrested by about 90 countries, of which 650 are under US control.

According to the CRS, US officials have repeatedly denied that during the Afghan war the United States directly supported those volunteers who came to Afghanistan for fighting the Soviets but the report notes that the United States did covertly finance these Mujahideen factions. From 1981 to 1991, the United States provided about $3 billion to them to facilitate their jihad in Afghanistan.

During this period, neither Osama nor his associates were known to have openly advocated, undertaken, or planned any direct attacks against the United States, although they all were critical of US support for Israel in the Middle East.

The report quotes US officials as saying that Al Qaeda cells and associates have been located in over 70 countries. Among the groups identified as members of the Al Qaeda coalition after the 9/11, virtually all are still active today.

These include the Islamic Group and Al Jihad (Egypt), the Armed Islamic Group and the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (Algeria), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Jemaah Islamiyah (Indonesia), the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (Libyan opposition) and Harakat-ul-Mujahedin (Pakistan, Kashmiri).

Alleged al-Qaida-Linked Leader Captured
By TODD PITMAN, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi forces captured the leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist cell allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq, the government said, and 30 people were killed in a string of bloody attacks, among them three American soldiers.

A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew up his car at police headquarters in Tikrit, killing at least 15 people in Saddam Hussein's hometown in the bloodiest of several attacks Thursday.

The suicide bombings and other attacks came as politicians negotiated behind the scenes to forge the alliances needed to win enough backing in the 275-seat National Assembly for the post of prime minister.

The government identified the captured cell leader as Mohamed Najam Ibrahim. It said he was arrested in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, but gave no date for the arrest.

Officials said Ibrahim's operation was linked to Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads a shadowy insurgency affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Ibrahim carried out beheadings with his brother, the government said. Officials said he was being interrogated by authorities for information they hoped would lead to other arrests.

The U.S. command said two American soldiers were killed and two wounded in separate bomb attacks, one northeast of Baghdad in Qaryat, and a second near Samarra, west of Qaryat. The military said a third soldier was killed in action west of Baghdad, in Anbar province.

In the Sunni Arab stronghold of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, a man dressed as a police lieutenant drove through the station's gates and blew himself up just as dozens of policemen were arriving to relieve colleagues who had worked through the night, police Col. Saad Daham said.

Twenty cars were set ablaze after by the blast, sending up clouds of smoke. A suicide bomber killed five other people in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital, when he blew himself up in front of the local headquarters of a key Shiite alliance member, the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Police initially said the attack targeted the police chief, Col. Salman Ali, who escaped unharmed. In Baghdad, gunmen fired on a bakery, killing two people and wounding a third, police said. Several blasts echoed through the capital at midday and several more after nightfall. Their cause was not known.

Two roadside bombs in Qaim, near the Syrian border, killed four Iraqi National Guardsmen, Iraqi Lt. Col. Abid Ajab Al-Salmani said. Elsewhere, insurgents ambushed a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk with a roadside bomb, killing two policemen and injuring three.

U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops, meanwhile, pressed a joint operation to root out insurgents in parts of the so-called Sunni triangle. The military said it detained 17 suspected insurgents and seized several weapons caches.

Politicians of all stripes sought out representatives of Iraq's Sunni minority, whose support they need to isolate the insurgency. Many insurgents are thought to be loyalists of Saddam's outlawed Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

A powerful Sunni organization believed to have ties with the insurgents, the Association of Muslim Scholars, rejected any role in the government — or even in writing a new constitution. Another Sunni group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, also rejected offers, but agreed to help with the constitution.

"Our stand is so clear because it represents the stand of the national forces which stand against the occupation, and have come to an agreement not to take part in the political process until the withdrawal of the occupiers," said the association's spokesman, Muthana Al-Dhari.

The dominant United Iraqi Alliance, which nominated Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, for prime minister claimed Thursday it won the support of eight members of three tiny parties and boosted its parliamentary strength to 148. Alliance member Salama Khafaji said the groups were the Iraqi Turkoman Front, the National Independent Elites and the Islamic Labor Movement in Iraq.

But a splinter group thought to represent about 30 seats in the alliance, and which once supported one-time Bush administration favorite Ahmad Chalabi, renewed threats to withdraw its support. Although they issued no demands, it was unclear what Chalabi — who withdrew from the race — had promised them for their support. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite who has about 40 seats, tried to take advantage of the rift by attempting to open talks with the Shiite splinter group just one day after announcing he would form a broad coalition to try to hold onto his post.

To make any headway, however, Allawi must also win support from a Kurdish coalition controlling 75 of the 275 seats. The Kurds have indicated they will support al-Jaafari and the alliance if it meets key demands, including giving the presidency to one of their leaders — Jalal Talabani.

Pakistanis missing in Afghan war
Relatives demand leaders of TNSM for jihadis’ clues
Behroz Khan The News International, Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Relatives of the missing Pakistanis from Malakand division have started demands from the leadership of banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi to help them find clues about the fate of the jihadis, who were lost in Afghanistan with the fall of Taliban regime in December 2001.

Hundreds of people belonging to Malakand and Hazara divisions as well as an unspecified number of tribesmen from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are pressuring leaders of the banned religious outfit to provide clues about the fate of their missing near and dear ones. The first rebellion against the banned TNSM has been staged from Buner district by the relatives and family members of Syed Charhi s/o Khirati, Ruhul Amin s/o Alam Shah, Sharifullah s/o Hamim Shah and Shah Feroz Khan s/o Imam Shah of Hisar village and Ghulam Rasul s/o Said Sharif of Bagrha village of the district and have even threatened to drag the local leadership of the organization to court to provide accurate information about the missing persons whether they have been killed or were in the personal prisons run by different commanders in northern provinces of Afghanistan.

Thousands of religiously motivated tribesmen armed with assault riffles, guns, axes and swords assembled under the leadership of the jailed TNSM’s chief, Maulana Sufi Muhammad in Bajaur Agency soon after the US-led coalition launched air strikes against Taliban and were transported in pick ups to Afghanistan via Kunar to fight jihad. Maulana Sufi Muhammad could not be convinced by them Taliban governor of Nangarhar province, Maulavi Abdul Kabir and others to send the people back because Taliban were not in need of manpower because the US forces were not on ground. Sufi Muhammad, however, returned to Pakistan along with 29 other jihadis before the fall of Taliban and was arrested by the political authorities in Kurram Agency and jailed for illegally crossing into Afghanistan and coming back with prohibited bore of weapons including rocket launchers and heavy machine guns.

"We will go to the court and ask all the human rights organisations to help us find clues about the missing people," said Fazle Akbar, son of the missing Shah Feroz Khan. Similar were the views and demands of the other relatives of the missing jihadis, who are running from pillar to post since October 2001 to know if their blood relations were still alive. Afghan and Pakistani official sources believe that the missing persons might have been killed because the Afghan government, certain NGOs and the ICRC have failed to find clues to their whereabouts.

"We are doing our best within the limited resources to satisfy the relatives of the missing persons and also explore possibilities if they were alive," said the district chief of the banned organization for Buner, Amir Salar. He said that the jihadis were not forcibly taken to Afghanistan by the organization, as they went with their own sweet will and motivated by their own belief. He said that some people were trying to create rifts within the organization and have launched this propaganda that the TNSM leadership was not doing much to seek release of the prisoners or provide information about the fate of the missing ones.

"How can we help these people, when the government is unable to provide information about these missing people," he said adding that his organization was extending all possible help to the families of the victims and had spent a handsome amount to hire best lawyers to win freedom for the jihadis, who were again imprisoned in Pakistan after their release from the notorious jails in Afghanistan.

Similar demands have been made by relatives of missing persons from Swat, Dir Lower, Dir Upper, Kohistan, Bajaur and even Punjab and Sindh. Even the leaders of the organization do not know the exact number of missing Pakistanis, but an estimated 800 to 1,200 people are still unaccounted for.