Pakistan and Afghanistan will hold ministerial-level talks in Islamabad on Monday about the long-delayed multi-billion dollar Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project, officials said on Sunday.

Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Mir Muhammad Sadiq will lead his country's delegation in the talks, a Petroleum Ministry official said.

The dlrs 3.5bn 1,680-kilometer pipeline will transport up to 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the Daulatabad fields in South East Turkmenistan to consumers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly India, according to the Asian Development Bank.

The pipeline is to run through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Multan and on to the Indian border town of Fazilka.

Turkmenistan's huge Daulatabad-Donmez field holds more than 2.83 tcm (100 tcf) in gas reserves.

The two ministers will review progress on the project so far and will try to move ahead, the official said.

Although dialogue process on TAP has been slow, analysts are of the view that the project has significant potential for enhancing stability and improving living standards in South and Central Asia.

If successful, it will be a pioneering effort in linking the energy deficit economies of South Asia to the hydrocarbon rich Central Asian countries, they believe.

The pipeline was originally contemplated in the 1990 with the participation of US energy giant Unocal, but those plans were abandoned when the United States fired cruise missiles into Afghanistan in 1998 in pursuit of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

BBC News / Sunday, 15 January 2006

A suspected suicide bomber has attacked a convoy of Canadian Nato soldiers in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing one and injuring three of them.

Local health officials reported that two civilian bystanders were also killed in the attack, which happened near a busy bus station.

A witness told the BBC he heard a loud blast and saw soldiers and civilians lying hurt near an overturned vehicle.

A man claiming to speak for the Taleban says it carried out the attack.

Nato is seeking to expand its deployment from peacekeeping duties in the capital Kabul to the volatile south of the country.

The south and east have been the scene of intense violence which last year left more than 1,400 dead, making it the deadliest year since 2001.

Much of the violence has been blamed on remnants of the hardline Taleban movement, which governed Afghanistan until the US-led invasion four years ago.

The Canadian convoy was travelling to its base when it was attacked, police told the BBC.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin confirmed the Canadian casualties, reported the Canadian broadcaster CBC.

Among the victims were many civilians waiting at a nearby bus station, police said.

Abdul Qayum Poakhla, director of Kandahar Health Department, said two civilians had been killed and nine others injured.

A witness contacted by the BBC described seeing a car drive into the convoy and blow up, creating an explosion loud enough to shake the windows of nearby buildings.

"I saw some soldiers lying on the ground. There were a lot of civilians as well who were being taken in the stretchers," Abdullah Jan said.

A wrecked vehicle was seen lying upside down on the road.

The scene of the explosion has been cordoned off by the soldiers.

A man claiming to speak for the Taleban, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, told Reuters news agency the group had carried out the attack.

Some 19,000 troops from Nato countries are stationed in Afghanistan on peacekeeping duties.

The US plans to cut the overall number of troops it has contributed to the contingent, while retaining control of operations against fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

January 15, 2006
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

KABUL , Afghanistan – A U.S. soldier was wounded in Helmand Province when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy at approximately 4 p.m. Jan. 14.

The Regional Corps Assistance Group Soldier was transported by air to the Medical Center at Kandahar Air Field where he was treated for a superficial wound and is expected to be returned to duty soon.

The Soldier was riding in an up-armored high-mobility, multi-purposed wheeled vehicle. The convoy was returning from an Afghan National Army compound near Geresk when the incident occurred.

In the hunt for al-Qaeda, a missile attack on a mountain village killed women and children. The attack was precise, the intelligence was flawed, and the strained relation between Pakistan and the US has been pushed to breaking point

Jason Burke and Imtiaz Gul in Islamabad Sunday January 15, 2006 The Observer (UK)

The missiles were deadly accurate. In the pitch dark of a night in Pakistan's sparsely populated North West Frontier Province, they not only located the three targeted houses on the outskirts of the village of Damadola Burkanday but squarely struck their hujra, the large rooms traditionally used by Pashtun tribesmen to accommodate guests.

Yesterday some of the results of the strike were very clear: three ruined houses, mud-brick rubble scattered across the steeply terraced fields, the bodies of livestock lying where thrown by the airblast, a row of newly dug graves in the village cemetery and torn green and red embroidered blankets flapping in the chilly wind. Four children were among the 18 villagers who died in the brutally sudden attack on their homes.

Yet evidence emerging appeared to indicate that, though the technology that guided the missiles to their targets at 3am on Friday was faultless, the intelligence that had selected those targets was not. Even as American military and intelligence sources spoke of the possible death of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda and the man considered to be the brains behind the militant group's strategy, Pakistani officials said that there was no evidence any 'foreigners', shorthand locally for al-Qaeda fighters, were among the 18 victims, though they said that 'according to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area'.

In a bid to distance themselves from what was looking like a tragic and counter-productive tactical error that had cost many innocent lives, Pakistan announced it would file a formal protest with the Americans. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference that the Pakistani government wanted 'to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to recur,' adding that the government had no information about al-Zawahiri.

'We deeply regret that civilian lives have been lost in an incident. While this act is highly condemnable, we have been for a long time striving to rid all our tribal areas of foreign intruders who have been responsible for all the misery and violence in the region. This situation has to be brought to an end,' he said.

But his words did little to calm the anger in and around Damadola, a bastion of conservative religion and tribal chauvinism, and elsewhere in Pakistan. The village lies in the semi-autonomous Bajur tribal region around 120 miles northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. It is a rugged and desperately poor region, until recently a centre of opium cultivation, where local men habitually go armed and government authority is limited to main roads. Thousands of local men marched in a series of protests yesterday, one crowd attacking the office of a US-funded aid group. In another incident, police were forced to fire tear gas to disperse as many as 400 protesters chanting anti-American slogans and waving banners condemning the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf, who came to power in 1999, has maintained a difficult and domestically unpopular alliance with Washington since 2001 and has deployed unprecedented numbers of troops on bloody operations to capture senior al-Qaeda figures. However, to the Americans' intense annoyance, he has not granted US forces in Afghanistan the right to cross the border into Pakistan, even in pursuit of militants. American-led coalition forces clashing with militants in the mountainous province of Kunar, immediately adjacent to Bajaur which lies a mere four miles from the frontier, say they have often been frustrated by their enemies' use of Pakistan as a sanctuary. Yesterday the Pakistani Foreign Ministry took pains to point out that 'in all probability [the village] was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan'.

Tensions between Washington and Islamabad have grown in recent weeks as American troops have stepped up operations against militants. Pakistan has already lodged a protest with the US military six days ago after a reported US airstrike killed eight people in the North Waziristan tribal region, an almost deserted area of mountains 300 miles south of Damadola. In Damadola itself, locals said they had never sheltered any al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders, let alone al-Zawahiri, an instantly recognisable 54-year-old Egyptian-born ex-doctor.

'This is a big lie... Only our family members died in the attack,' said Shah Zaman, a jeweller who lost two sons and a daughter in the attack. 'They dropped bombs from planes and we were in no position to stop them... or to tell them we are innocent. I don't know [al-Zawahiri]. He was not at my home. No foreigner was at my home when the planes came and dropped bombs.' Haroon Rashid, a member of parliament who lives in a village near Damadola, told The Observer that he had seen a drone surveying the area hours before the attack.

'A drone has been flying over the area for the last three, four days, and I had a feeling that something nasty was going to happen,' he said in a phone interview. 'There was no foreigner there - we never saw a single foreigner here. They were all local people, jewellers and shop-keepers, who used to commute between Bajaur and their village. We knew them.'

The dead were reported to include four children, aged between five and ten, and at least two women. According to Islamic tradition, they were buried almost immediately. One Pakistani official, speaking anonymously, told The Observer that hours before the strike some unidentified guests had arrived at one home and that some bodies had been removed quickly after the attack. This was denied by villagers.

US and Pakistani officials have also said that the missiles were launched from American pilotless predator drones, which have previously been used to target senior al-Qaeda figures. A man alleged to be al-Qaeda's third-in-command was killed in a 'stand-off' missile attack around a month ago. However, several eyewitnesses spoke of seeing planes and illuminating flares over the village, which if true would indicate the use of missiles from planes guided in by special forces teams on the ground rather than CIA-operated drones.

Obaidullah, a local doctor, said he saw the airstrike from his home about five to six kilometres away. 'There was one plane flying (overhead). Then more planes came. First they dropped light and then bombs,' he said. If US troops have crossed the frontier from Afghanistan in pursuit of militants, it would be a major diplomatic incident and a domestic disaster for Musharraf.

The Americans have become increasingly frustrated by their inability to catch al-Zawahiri, whom analysts see as the strategic mentor of Osama bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri was already a hardened Egyptian militant when he joined bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian six years younger, in the late 1980s to form the al-Qaeda group out of the remnants of Arab 'mujahideen' who had fought the Russians in Afghanistan. After masterminding a series of attacks, culminating in the 11 September atrocities, from camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, al-Zawahiri has been on the run. However, this has not stopped him providing broad strategic direction for the international Islamic militant movement and, through appearing in frequent propaganda videos, becoming almost as well known as bin Laden himself. Despite a huge manhunt and a $25m reward, he has escaped capture. Strong local sympathy for al-Qaeda fugitives in the harsh hills that line the Afghan frontier with Pakistan has been a major advantage.

'The Americans are really not much closer to finding him than they were years ago,' said one intelligence analyst. 'They are hunting in an area that is about a thousand miles long and two hundred miles wide. That is a tough job by anyone's standards.' The carnage at Damadola indicates that the hunted is still a step ahead of the hunters.

· Born 1951, Cairo. Son of a chemistry professor. A trained paediatrician.

· Travelled to Pakistan in 1985 after being arrested, imprisoned and tortured in sweep of militants following killing of President Sadat.

· Spent 1991-1996 in Sudan with Osama bin Laden before moving to Afghanistan.

· A key theorist of modern Islamic militancy, he developed strategy of using spectacular violence against American interests to 'wake up the masses'.

· From series of mountain hideouts along Pakistan -Afghanistan frontier he has issued videos and communiqués aimed at inspiring militants

BBC News / Sunday, 15 January 2006

Thousands of Pakistanis have taken part in anti-American protests after an attack on a village near the Afghan border that killed 18 people.

The main demonstration was held in the main city of Karachi with protesters chanting "Death to America".

The missile strike apparently targeted al-Qaeda's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was said not to have been there.

The US has not commented on the strike. Pakistan has protested, but its leader warned people not to harbour militants.

"If we kept sheltering foreign terrorists here... our future will not be good," said President Pervez Musharraf in speech broadcast on state television.

US media say the attack was carried out by the CIA.

Zawahiri has eluded capture since the US overthrew the Taleban in Afghanistan in 2001 despite a $25m bounty on his head.

Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command is regarded as the ideological brains behind the al-Qaeda network, says BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera.

The Egyptian has also become its most visible spokesperson, issuing a number of video and audio tapes, whilst Osama Bin Laden has not been seen or heard from for more than a year.

About 10,000 people rallied in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, chanting "Death to American Aggression" and "Stop bombing innocent people".

Hundreds of riot police were deployed to keep order.

A leader in the coalition of anti-US Islamic groups that organised the nationwide protests said General Musharraf must step down.

"The army cannot defend the country under in his leadership," Ghafoor Ahmed told protesters in Karachi.

In Samarbagh, near the Damadola village where the attack occurred, protesters denounced Gen Musharraf for co-operating with the US.

Damadola is in the Bajaur tribal area, about 7km (4.5 miles) from the Afghan border.

Jets - or in some accounts a Predator drone - reportedly fired missiles at a particular housing compound in the village.

Reports citing unidentified Pakistani officials say the strike was launched on intelligence that Zawahiri had been invited to dinner in the village.

However, a senior intelligence official told Reuters news agency they had no evidence he was present at the meal.

Damadola was the stronghold of a banned pro-Taleban group, the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, the agency reported an official as saying.

The US has about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, but Pakistan does not allow them to operate across the border.

Pakistan has about 70,000 troops in the border region.

Pravda (Russia) / January 15, 2006

Afghanistan's government said Sunday it recently established a 1,000-strong tribal militia force to tighten security along the mountainous border with Pakistan near where a purported CIA airstrike targeted top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri. The force was formed a month ago to slow the flow of militants slipping back and forth across the largely unguarded, unmarked frontier between Afghanistan's Kunar province and Pakistan's Bajur area, Kunar Gov. Assadullah Wafa told The Associated Press in an interview.

Speaking in his office in the regional capital Asadabad, near a large U.S. military base that houses hundreds of Marines and special forces commandos, the governor said al-Qaida was believed to run training camps in Bajur.

He said the new force made up of young men from villages in the area would "hopefully make it harder for the militants" to slip across the frontier.

Kunar has long been a popular region for al-Qaida and other militants. Its rugged largely inaccessible mountains and high number of caves make it hard for security forces to operate effectively.

Some of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops last year occurred in Kunar. In June, suspected Taliban rebels shot down a helicopter, resulting in the deaths of 16 special forces troops, after killing three American commandos on the ground.

The province's deputy police chief, Sumwal Hasan Farahi, said the militants have support from many local residents, who are mainly Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taliban.

Farahi said his forces have launched several operations against the militants together with U.S. troops, but with little success, the AP reported.

Up to 17 people were believed killed in Friday's bombing attack on the Pakistani village of Damadola, just a few kilometers (miles) from the border. Two senior Pakistani security officials have told AP that al-Zawahri was the intended victim and said Pakistan's assessment was that the U.S. acted on incorrect information.

January 14, 2006

Alappuzha (Kerala): A top Afghan envoy Saturday handed over $5,000 in financial assistance to the family of an Indian driver killed by the Taliban in that country in November last year.

Acting Afghan ambassador to India K.M. Abdul Mohammed arrived at the residence of Maniappan Raman Kutty, who was killed on Nov 19 by Taliban rebels, and handed over the compensation amount announced by Afghan President Hameed Karzai.

The envoy arrived at 10.30 a.m. at the home of Maniappan in this town, more than 150 km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, and handed the amount to Bindhu, the widow of Maniappan.

"The local legislator and government officials also accompanied the envoy," said Unni, the brother-in-law of Maniappan.

He said that Bindhu had been promised a job at the National Thermal Power Corporation, which was yet to materialise.

"We did inquire with officials and they have been saying that it would soon happen. We have received the compensation that was announced by both the centre and the state government. However, we are yet to receive the salary arrears and the compensation from the company he worked with," said Unni.

Thirty-two-year-old Maniappan was a driver with the Border Roads Organisation for the past 16 years. He has left behind his wife and two sons, aged nine and three.

The Kerala government last week named a public health centre near Maniappan's home after him.

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Sun Jan 15, 2:09 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president stood fast Saturday behind his decision to resume uranium enrichment research, shrugging off threats of international sanctions while his Foreign Ministry invited Europe and the U.N. nuclear watchdog back to the negotiating table.

In a ringing defense of his government's move, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran had not violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which he said allows signatories to produce nuclear fuel.

On Tuesday, Iran removed some U.N. seals from its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, and resumed research on nuclear fuel — including small-scale enrichment — after a 2 1/2-year freeze.

The shift alarmed Western nations that suspect Iran may be trying to produce nuclear weapons. Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity or, if sufficiently processed, the material for nuclear warheads.

Tehran claims it is only conducting research and says uranium enrichment remains suspended.

But its decision drew fierce international condemnation and threats to seek U.N. sanctions.

"The time of using language of bullying and coercion ... is over," Ahmadinejad said at a news. "There is no evidence to prove Iran's diversion (toward nuclear weapons)."

What's more, he said, Iran had no use for such weapons.

"Our nation doesn't need nuclear weapons. You can use nuclear technology in several ways, and we want to do so peacefully," he said, claiming that such weaponry violated the tenets of Islam.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended only for electricity generation.

Ahmadinejad's news conference came on the second day of a tough public relations offensive by Tehran. On Friday, it threatened to end surprise inspections by and cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the country is referred to the Security Council for possible imposition of sanctions.

Europe and the United States have been trying to build support for the move. They say more than two years of acrimonious negotiations between Iran and the European powers Britain, France and Germany reached a dead end when Iran resumed work at the enrichment facility.

But they face resistance from China, which warned the move could only escalate the confrontation. China is highly dependent on Iran for oil.

Russia, which like China holds a veto on the Security Council, is a question mark as well. It is deeply involved in building Iranian reactors for power generation and has in the past indicated it would not support sanctions.

"The world public opinion knows that Iran has not violated the Nonproliferation Treaty," Ahmadinejad said. "There are no restrictions for nuclear research activities under the NPT protocol, and Iran has not accepted any obligation (not to carry out research). How is it possible to prevent the scientific development of a nation?"

But Iran's foreign ministry made an apparent attempt to calm tensions, calling for resuming talks with the European Union and cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"Iran is ready to cooperate with the IAEA to clear ambiguities," a foreign ministry statement quoted on state television said.

And Ahmadinejad said: "We have always wanted dialogue."

"I recommend to them (the West) to try to understand the Iranian nation and government. Otherwise you may do something that will make you regret it," he added.

Ahmadinejad charged that the threats of sanctions and Security Council action were the true dangers to world stability, not Iran's nuclear program.

"Why are you employing the Security Council? Doesn't that endanger world security?" he said.

Ahmadinejad said the presence of IAEA surveillance equipment at Iranian nuclear facilities is proof that Iran has nothing to hide.

"How will world public opinion accept their propaganda campaign against Iran when IAEA cameras are installed on all nuclear sites?" he asked.

He said Iran had spent 2 1/2 years trying to win the trust of the international community, citing its agreement to seal some research sites, allow surprise IAEA inspections and impose a moratorium on uranium enrichment.

"Now, it is the turn of the European countries to apply trust-building measures," he said.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting By IWPR staff in London (RCA No. 430, 13-Jan-06)

President Saparmurat Niazov’s obsession with himself and all things Turkmen appears to have caused him some embarrassment.

Apparently shamed by his ministers’ poor linguistic skills at a recent trade meeting in China, Niazov ordered them to learn fluent English in under six month  a near impossible task, especially since there’s hardly anyone left in the country to teach foreign languages.

Over the last ten year, Niazov – better known as Turkmenbashi – has systematically destroyed foreign-language teaching, as part of his attempt to hermetically seal the country from outside influences and promote Turkmen language and customs together with his own personality cult.

Niazov’s latest quixotic edict followed the visit of a Turkmen trade delegation to China in December, where negotiations on a range of deals – including gas deliveries, the construction of the silk mills and financial loans – were held.

Members of the delegation - which comprised top officials from a number of important ministries, such as food, textiles and oil and gas - were reliant on an interpreter while their Chinese counterparts spoke in English.

Apart from being evidently embarrassed by his subordinates’ poor grasp of the language, Turkmenbashi was also seemingly concerned that their linguistic shortcomings could undermine the Turkmen negotiating position in economic talks with China and other states.

“We have every possibility for joint, mutually beneficial work with foreign countries. Gain experience and learn languages,” he urged members of his government at a recent cabinet meeting. “Even the Chinese speak in English, but my officials don’t understand a word. I give you six months to speak English as if it were your native language.

The problem is that Niazov has over the years closed almost all the specialist foreign-language centres and reduced the teaching of Russian and English in secondary schools and universities to a minimum.

Senior officials may try to turn to private tutors for English coaching, but the latter are few and far between as unemployment has prompted most language teachers to leave the country.

“It is currently a major problem to find English teachers who will teach you the language properly: to speak, write and read fluently, “ said a former member of staff at a defunct Ashgabat foreign language centre. “Most top teachers, with prestigious diplomas from Russian universities, lost their jobs in the cutbacks. They left for Russia and teach successfully there.

Even the teaching of Russian has been severely curbed, despite it being the second language. “This means only one thing,” said a Russian-language teacher at an Ashgabat school. “The type of education provided by Turkmen schools will not be sufficient for students to enrol at institutes of higher education outside the country. In Russia, our students cannot even pass the entrance exams.

According to one deputy agricultural minister, aged 28, the authorities have intentionally brought up the younger generation completely isolated from the outside world so as to consolidate both Turkmen culture and adherence to the Ruhnama – the president’s bizarre philosophical treatise, which is required reading for all citizens.

“At the university where I studied, foreign- language instruction was restricted to one hour a week. All the emphasis was placed on the development of a truly Turkmen culture and the rejection of everything foreign,” said the official.

For ten years, state educational policies were directed towards ensuring that people could not understand foreign television and radio; talk to foreigners without the help of interpreters; or go abroad to study to work.

Turkmenbashi’s insularity and distrust of the international community has been such that he even closed down the American Peace Corps’ so-called Friendship Camps – summer camps aimed at broadening the horizons of Turkmen children.

“They fell out of the favour with the regime because along with the [English] language, the children imbibed the spirit of freedom, gaining the opportunity to feel like individuals with inalienable rights,” said one former camp participant. “ When the children returned home, they saw the world differently.