Afghanistan News February 15, 2006

February 15, 2006

Afghanistan's Karzai in Pakistan for security talks
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has arrived in Pakistan for talks with Pakistani leaders on bilateral ties and security along the porous border between the two countries, officials said.

Karzai was received at Chaklala military airbase near Islamabad on Wednesday by Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri and tourism minister Ghazi Gulab Jamal, officials said.

During his three-day visit Karzai will meet his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf -- another key ally in the US "war on terror" -- and other senior Pakistani officials.

Pakistan would discuss with Karzai the issue of civilians being killed in tribal areas by firing from Afghanistan, Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP.

Two nomad women were killed Saturday when a suspected US rocket fired from Afghanistan landed in Pakistan's border area. In January, 18 Pakistani civilians died in a US air strike targeting Al-Qaeda militants.

Hours before Karzai's arrival, Pakistan as a "goodwill gesture" released some 560 Afghan nationals from a prison in the southern city of Karachi, she said.

Afghanistan is worried by a recent surge in suicide attacks, many believed to be plotted across the border by the remnants of Taliban regime.

Pakistan denies any involvement and has said it will take up the issue of civilians being killed in its tribal areas by suspected US military and other fire from Afghan territory.

Afghan officials said Karzai would seek Pakistan's cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

"During the trip, the president will explain that the people of Afghanistan want an end to terrorism," Karzai spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad told AFP on the eve of his visit.

"We want an honest, sincere and intensive fight against terrorism from Pakistan in cooperation with Afghanistan," he said.

An insurgency launched after the hardline Taliban government was removed four years ago has become increasingly deadly, despite the efforts of tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign security forces.

There has in particular been an upsurge of attacks along the long, porous border with Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership is believed to have relocated after they were ousted.

Some Afghan officials allege that the suicide attacks -- the most deadly of which killed more than 22 people in the border town of Spin Boldak in January -- are mostly carried out by foreign nationals arriving from Pakistan.

During his visit Karzai will address Pakistan's National Defence College on the regional dimensions of stability in Afghanistan and meet Pakistani entrepreneurs to encourage them to invest in the war-damaged country.

He will also make a stopover in Peshawar to visit the tomb of influential politician Khan Abdul Wali Khan, who died last month.

Blast kills Afghan policeman, UK troops arrive
By Yousuf Azimy Wed Feb 15, 7:32 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A blast killed an Afghan policeman and wounded two colleagues on Wednesday and two intelligence officers kidnapped this week have been found dead, officials said.

The violence came as the first 150 British combat troops of a deployment of about 3,300 British troops to the Afghan south arrived in the country.

Taliban or members of an allied faction were responsible for the blast that hit the second of two police vehicles traveling on a road in Ghazni province, south of the Kabul, said district government official Habibullah January

"Militants who don't want peace and stability were behind this," he said. One of the wounded policemen was in serious condition, he said.

The Taliban have been fighting U.S.-led forces since they were ousted for harbouring     Osama bin Laden weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Violence has intensified in recent months with a wave of roadside and suicide bombings killing dozens of people as     NATO members prepare to send thousands more peacekeepers.

The bodies of two intelligence officers abducted while on a mission in Farah province in the west were found in a desert on Tuesday, said provincial governor Izatullah Wasifi.

He declined to speculate on who might have been responsible but Taliban have been known to operate in the province.

Earlier, police said security forces arrested a Taliban district commander in Ghazni province along with two of his men suspected of burning down a school.

The Taliban commander, Mullah Nazer Shah, had been a district official during the Islamist group's rule and was detained during a search by security forces late on Tuesday, said provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang.

Shah's two men who were also detained were suspected of burning down a school in the area on Monday night in the latest attack on the U.S.-backed government's efforts to promote education, he said.

PAKISTAN TALKS
Most of the recent attacks have been near the border with Pakistan and many Afghans say their eastern neighbor is not doing enough to stop insurgents launching attacks from the safety of Pakistani soil.

Pakistan denies involvement with the Taliban but security is expected to be high on the agenda when President Hamid Karzai arrives in Pakistan for talks later on Wednesday.

British forces are playing a leading role in the expansion of a NATO peacekeeping mission in     Afghanistan this year. The force will expand to about 16,000 troops from 9,000.

As NATO troops take over more responsibilities, the United States is hoping to cut the number of its troops in a separate U.S.-led force hunting insurgents.

British peacekeepers have been in Afghanistan since shortly after the fall of the Taliban. The new deployment of 3,300 will be based in Helmand province in the south where Taliban insurgents and drug gangs are a major problem.

Arriving in Afghanistan on Wednesday were 150 Royal Marines commandos, part of an advance party of 850 British troops deploying to Helmand this month to help prepare for the arrival of the full contingent over subsequent weeks.

Canadian general takes the helm of international forces in Afghanistan
Wed Feb 15, 5:45 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The Canadian who will lead multinational forces in volatile southern Afghanistan is getting to know his new base of operations.

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser is in Kandahar, where he will take charge of 2,200 Canadian troops. Later this year he will take command of international forces in the region. While stressing the dangers Canadian soldiers face, Fraser says recent suicide attacks and roadside bombings show international forces are succeeding in their mission. The attacks are desperate attempts to derail the stabilization of the area, Fraser says.

About two-thirds of the Canadian contingent is now at Kandahar Airfield, a base established by the United States shortly after the original invasion of Afghanistan.

Canada will take the lead in the fight to hunt down insurgents in the heartland of the former Taliban government with help from British, Dutch and other NATO forces.

Two Afghan Intelligence Agents Killed
Wed Feb 15, 6:26 AM ET AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban rebels abducted two Afghan intelligence agents in a western province and killed them, dumping their nearly decapitated bodies in the desert, a top official said Wednesday.

The men were kidnapped while riding motorbikes in the countryside in Farah province Monday and their bodies were discovered a day later, provincial Gov. Hazatullah Wasefi said. The pair worked as intelligence agents for the province's security forces, gathering information on the Taliban and other militant groups, he said.

A manhunt has been launched for those behind the killings but no one has been arrested, Wasefi said.

Farah has escaped the worst of the Taliban-led fighting that has wracked southern and eastern Afghan provinces.

Violence has increased in recent months as militants step up their campaign against the country's U.S.-backed government. Last year, some 1,600 people were killed, the most since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

Pakistan releases 562 Afghans as Karzai arrives
KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan freed 562 Afghans held in detention for visa violations, in a goodwill gesture at the start of a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday.

Karzai, during his three-day visit, is expected to ask Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to do more to stop Taliban fighters crossing into Afghanistan after a spate of suicide bomb attacks over the past few months.

Although both are allies in a U.S.-led war against terrorism, Afghanistan has still to overcome distrust lingering on from Pakistan's support for the Taliban militia during its rule of Afghanistan between 1996 and late 2001.

While security issues are expected to dominate talks, the two sides will also look for ways to improve ties, and Afghan officials welcomed the release of their countrymen on Wednesday.

"We are glad they released these poor laborers, they were here for petty jobs," Abdul Muqtader Frozanfar, Afghanistan's Consul General, told reporters as he received the released men at the gates of a Karachi prison.

The Afghan government had requested release for the men, who had been detained in various parts of Pakistan during the last five months and held in Karachi.

"We have very few job opportunities in Afghanistan, so we have to take some risks to make a living," said Khalaq Dad, 24, from Kabul who worked for a software firm in Karachi before being jailed four months ago.

Lala Mohammad, of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, was glad that he was being repatriated after living in Karachi for the past six years.

"I was thinking to go back but police arrested me," said Mohammad, who had earned 150 rupees ($2.50) a day as a porter at Karachi's main fruit and vegetable market before his detention in January. "Thank God I am going back to my country."

Karzai's government has already released hundreds of Pakistanis who fought on the Taliban's side when they were defeated by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.
(With reporting by Imtiaz Shah in Karachi)

Aussie troops for Afghanistan
The Daily Telegraph - Feb 15 12:30 AM
AUSTRALIA would begin deploying more troops in Afghanistan in two weeks to help coalition forces quell a resurgence of military activity by the Taliban.

An advance party, including two Chinook helicopters, is the first component of a 110-strong deployment that will support 190 Australian special forces soldiers already in Afghanistan.

The Government is bolstering its military efforts to help coalition forces who are trying to stop the Taliban regaining a stronghold in the country.

A Defence spokesman said he could not reveal when the troops would arrive, how they would get there, or who made up the advance deployment for security reasons.

However, it is understood an advance party will leave Australia on Tuesday, February 28.

Former defence minister Robert Hill last month said troops primarily from the Townsville-based 5th Aviation Regiment would support special forces in Afghanistan.

The entire 110-member contingent should be in the country and fully operational by the end of March, he said.

Senator Hill also said the Chinooks would be used to bolster the coalition's rotary air transport capability.

"We are expecting the force to be deployed about the end of February and be fully operational by about the end of March," he said.

It's understood the advance party and main contingent will be made up of helicopter pilots, loadmasters and aviation maintenance personnel.

Australia's special forces task group in Afghanistan operates from a base in Oruzgan Province in south-central Afghanistan, an area which has seen substantial insurgent activity recently .

Defence head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston today told a Senate estimates committee the insurgents were predominantly supporters of the former Taliban regime with very limited participation by foreign fighters.

"What we have seen over the last couple of years is a fairly constant level of insurgent activity directed at the Khazi Government by these Taliban elements," he said.

"These Taliban elements live in sanctuaries in the more remote parts of Afghanistan and the level of activity is reasonably constant."

Anniversary of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan
15.02.2006, 11.41
MOSCOW, February 15 (Itar-Tass) - The seventeenth anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan is being marked in Russia on Wednesday. Lieutenant-General Boris Gromov, Commander of the 40th Soviet army, was the last man of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops to cross the bridge over the Amu Darya River, the border between the USSR and Afghanistan, at 10 hours 30 minutes on February 15, 1989.

This was the end of the almost 10-year-long undeclared war, which took a toll of approximately fifteen thousand Soviet officers and men and of no less than 100,000 Afghan fighters. Tens of thousands of people on both sides were invalided.

Chief of the Personnel Department of the Russian Defence Ministry Colonel-General Mikhail Vozhakin told reporters here on Tuesday that more than six hundred thousand Soviet servicemen had discharged their combat duties during the stay of the Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops on the territory of the Republic of Afghanistan, not counting approximately 21,000 workers and office employees, who had discharged civilian functions there”. As many as 205,863 servicemen were decorated for the successful implementation of the tasks set before them by the military command in the period from January 1980 to November 1994. Seventy-three servicemen were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he added. Privates and sergeants accounted for more than fifty per cent of those decorated, and officers – for more than thirty per cent.

Wreaths and flowers were laid on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow and in other places linked with the memory of those killed in action to mark the seventeenth anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.