Afghanistan News January 20, 2006

January 20, 2006

Afghans seek five-year international security pact
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan wants to lay down a five-year blueprint for its security and development at a conference in London this month, including an international commitment to its stability, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said on Thursday.

The London conference on January 31 and February 1 is designed as a follow-up to the December 2001 U.N.-led meeting in Bonn, Germany, which set the political course for the Asian nation soon after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban.

Abdullah said he expected the conference, to be chaired by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to endorse a new "Compact for Afghanistan" which will consolidate the government's achievements and set a course for the future.

"A lot has been done already but we shouldn't be complacent about what has been achieved," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview in his ministry in Kabul.

"In London what we want to get, and we want to achieve, is to work out the framework for the long-term cooperation between Afghanistan and the international community, long-term partnership."

After a spate of bloody suicide bomb blasts in recent months, including attacks on foreign forces and Afghan civilians, security is bound to be a central issue at the talks.

Abdullah said the bombers would not stop the Afghan people from moving ahead or the international community from helping. The attacks have come as the United States hopes to cut back its troop strength in Afghanistan from about 18,000 to 16,500 in the next few months.

Members of NATO, who have an Afghan peacekeeping force of nearly 10,000, are due to raise their numbers to 15,000 and take over responsibilities from U.S. forces in the restive south and east.

Although some NATO members are nervous about their forces moving into dangerous zones, Abdullah said he was confident of the international community's security commitment.
"More than the numbers, it is the commitment itself and I don't think there is any decrease in that, or any change in realization of the fact that the international community needs to stay with Afghanistan. "Afghanistan needs to have the international community, in terms of forces, NATO or (U.S.-led) coalition," he said.

The new plan is expected to produce benchmarks and timelines on security, good government, human rights, the rule of law, development and combating the drugs trade.

At the same time, Afghanistan was seeking greater "ownership" of its own development, in particular on how aid is channeled. "That's not just the view of Afghanistan but also our friends in the international community, that Afghanistan's ownership in the whole process -- whether security or development -- should be enhanced.

"As we move along, the Afghan institutions should take more responsibility. When it comes to the assistance, our expectation is that increasingly the financial contributions should come through the core budget," Abdullah said. "At the same time, better mechanisms of coordination and monitoring will be required," he said.

While the United States remained Afghanistan's biggest aid donor and contributor to its security, Abdullah said partnerships in the region and beyond were also vital.

"The role of the United Nations is crucial, relations with Europe, with Japan, with countries of the region, Islamic countries, these are all important." About 60 countries and international organizations would be represented in London, he said.

Rice to attend London Afghan conference, discuss Iran dispute
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State     Condoleezza Rice will travel to London for an international conference on     Afghanistan beginning January 31 and could make other stopovers in Europe for talks on the Iranian nuclear dispute, officials said.

Rice was expected to push Western plans to refer     Iran to the UN Security Council on the sidelines of the two-day London meeting, to be chaired jointly by UN Secretary General     Kofi Annan, Afghan President Hamid Kharzai and British Prime Minister     Tony Blair.

The conference, to focus on a five-year plan to speed up Afghanistan's reconstruction and tackle an upsurge in violence, "will mark the beginning of a new phase in the international community's long-term partnership with Afghanistan," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

He said some nations were expected to pledge financial aid for Afghanistan but did not give specific figures.

Asked whether the London trip was also part of her intense diplomacy on the Iranian nuclear issue, McCormack said, "I expect that there will be meetings on that topic as well.

"And I wouldn't be surprised if there are more stops attached to this trip," he said, without giving any definite destinations.

But a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "We are looking at other European stops."

The United States and the     European Union are pushing for Tehran to be hauled before the UN Security Council, a development that could lead to attempts to impose sanctions against Iran.

Russia, which is Iran's main partner in the growing civil nuclear programme, has been trying to steer away from a showdown at the     United Nations. China -- which, like Russia, has veto power in the UN Security Council -- has also opposed such a step.

The crisis escalated after Iran's resumption last week of uranium enrichment research which had been suspended for two years under deals with the Europeans.

Britain, France and Germany have called for an emergency meeting of the     International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on February 2.

Iran insists it is not seeking to build nuclear weapons and that it has full rights to build an atomic energy network.

Kasuri to attend Afghanistan conference
By Our Correspondent Dawn
LONDON, Jan 19: A two-day international conference on Afghanistan will be held here on Jan 31 and Feb 1 to chart out a five-year security and development plan for Afghanistan as a successor to the Bonn Agreement, which was reached in December 2001.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will inaugurate the London Conference to be attended by the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other international participants.

Officials in the Pakistan High Commission told Dawn that Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri would represent Pakistan in the conference. Mr Kasuri will arrive in London on Jan 29. According to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the London Conference will launch the Afghanistan Compact.

Successor to the Bonn Agreement, the Afghanistan Compact will provide a framework for international community engagement in Afghanistanfor the next five years.

Al-Qaeda, Taliban behind Afghan suicide attacks: FM
KABUL (AFP) - The suicide attacks that have struck Afghanistan in the past months are clearly the work of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban fighters operating with foreign support, the Afghan foreign minister said.

Abdullah Abdullah rejected a statement from a purported spokesman of the Taliban regime ousted in 2001 that the group was not behind a suicide blast on Monday that killed 22 people, the highest toll in a spate of such attacks.

"The fact that the Taliban denied carrying out the attack in Spin Boldak shouldn't be taken into account," Abdullah said in an interview with AFP on Thursday. "Who else could do that? Only Taliban and Al-Qaeda."

"Security incidents come from Al-Qaeda or Taliban. They get some support from outside Afghanistan, people crossing the border from Pakistan."

"The suicide bombers are mostly foreigners," he said, declining to say where they might be from.

There have been about 20 suicide blasts in insurgency-hit Afghanistan in the past four months. The attackers are widely believed to cross into the country from bases in the largely lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.

Monday's attack on a crowd leaving a wrestling match in Spin Boldak near the border with Pakistan was the deadliest of the attacks, previously rare in Afghanistan.

The Taliban spokesman denied responsibility, saying the group did not target civilians.

He said however the group was behind another suicide bombing in insurgency-hit Kandahar province on Monday which killed four people and one on Sunday that killed the most senior Canadian envoy in Afghanistan and two Afghans.

Analysts said the attacks could be intended as a warning to NATO troops due to deploy in the coming months into troubled southern Afghanistan, where a US-led coalition of around 20,000 troops has been based for about four years to hunt down militants.

Abdullah said the situation in the south, a hotbed of insurgency-linked attacks, was not likely to change and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) should have the same counter-insurgency capacity as the coalition.

"The (NATO) force should be ready to deal with that. I'm sure that ISAF will maintain these (coalition) capabilities," he said.

ISAF currently operates largely as a peacekeeping force in Kabul and northern and western regions.

Concerns about the violence are behind resistance in the Netherlands to its planned contribution of about 1,100 to ISAF.

Abdullah said he hoped the Dutch troops would join the force. "They have strong support from the Afghan government," he said.

Attacks linked to the Taliban-led insurgency claimed more than 1,500 lives last year.

Bin Laden Warns of Attacks, Offers Truce
Cairo (AP) - Al-Jazeera aired an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice on the tape said heightened security measures in the United States are not the reason there have been no attacks there since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings.

Instead, the reason is "because there are operations that need preparations, and you will see them," he said.

"Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land," he said. "We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term. ... So we can build Iraq and Afghanistan ... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war."

The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by the Arab broadcaster.

Reports: Airstrike Killed Top Militant
Peshawar (AP) - Pakistani intelligence agents hunted Wednesday for the graves of four al-Qaida militants believed killed in an airstrike near the Afghan border — including at least one suspected high-ranking al-Qaida figure.

ABC News and The New York Times reported that Pakistani officials believe a master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert for al-Qaida was killed in the attack on the village of Damadola last week. He was identified as Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, who ran an al-Qaida training camp and has a $5 million reward on his head.

Also killed, Pakistani officials believe, was Khalid Habib, the al-Qaida operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, ABC said. The Times, however, said officials were uncertain about whether he was killed.

The Times also reported that Pakistani officials believe Moroccan Abd al-Rahman al-Maghrebi, the son-in-law of al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the man who ran the group's propaganda in the region, was killed in the strike. ABC described al-Maghrebi as a senior operations commander.

The newspaper said an Egyptian chief of insurgent operations in a region near the airstrikes also was believed killed and an Egyptian associate of al-Zawahiri's was possibly slain.
Pentagon officials said they had no information on the reported identities of the dead and CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said the agency could not comment. A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to journalists, said authorities still did not know the names of the dead foreign militants but suspect one was a ranking al-Qaida figure.

"We have no names. We know one of them had value in al-Qaida. He had intelligence value in the network, but we are still checking his name," said the official.

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told The Associated Press the government does not know the identities of the foreigners believed killed in the missile strike Friday, which officials have said targeted Osama bin Laden's top aide, Ayman al-Zawahri.

"We are still investigating. There's a possibility that some foreigners were there, but we still do not know," said Sherpao, who was in New York with visiting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Sherpao said the government had not retrieved the bodies of any of the four foreign militants reported killed in the raid. He said the bodies may have been taken by a local pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, who also is being hunted by authorities.

The U.S. government refuses to discuss the airstrike, which has been condemned by Pakistan. Provincial authorities say the attack killed 18 residents of the Pashtun village, and they also say they believe sympathizers took the bodies of four or five foreign militants to bury them in the mountains, thereby preventing their identification.

"Efforts are under way to investigate further," said Shah Zaman Khan, director-general of media relations for Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. He said authorities were also looking for two prominent pro-Taliban clerics accused of harboring militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammed and Liaqat Ali, who were allegedly in Damadola and survived the assault.

Intelligence officials say the dead foreigners could be aides of al-Zawahri, who is thought to have sent them in his place to an Islamic holiday dinner to which he'd been invited in Damadola on the night of the attack.

Hours after the attack, an Associated Press reporter visited the village, which consists of a half-dozen widely scattered houses on a hillside about four miles from the Afghan border.
Residents said then that all the dead were local people and no one had taken any bodies away. However, it appeared feasible bodies or wounded could have been spirited away in the darkness after the attack, which took place about 3 a.m.

Islamic custom dictates that bodies be buried as soon as possible, and the reporter saw 13 freshly filled graves with simple headstones and five empty graves alongside them — apparently prepared for more dead. When the reporter returned the next day, the five empty graves were filled in, apparently because no more bodies had been found in the rubble.

The only tidbits of official information that have surfaced since then have come from provincial authorities, and they have yet to give a list of the dead. But Pakistani intelligence officials have said they believe some of those killed were Pakistani militants and that their bodies were also removed from the scene.

A Pakistani army official has told the AP that some bodies were taken away for DNA tests — information at odds with reports from provincial authorities. The federal government has not confirmed the report about DNA tests.

Pakistan maintains it was not given advance word of the airstrike, which was reportedly carried out by unmanned Predator drones flying from Afghanistan.

Thousands have taken to the streets in protest over the attack, denouncing the U.S. and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who ended Pakistan's support of the Taliban regime in late 2001 and has himself been targeted by al-Qaida attacks. Nevertheless, allegations persist that Pakistan harbors dangerous Islamic militants.

On Wednesday, more than 5,000 people marched through the Afghan border town of Spinboldak, chanting "Death to Pakistan" and "Death to al-Qaida" to protest a suicide attack at a fair this week that killed 21 people.

Afghan officials claim the bomber — the latest in about 25 suicide attackers to strike in Afghanistan in the past four months — trained in Pakistan. Islamabad denies giving sanctuary to terrorists.

Al-Qaeda bomb maker killed in missile attack
Washington (AFP) - A top Al-Qaeda bomb maker with a five million dollar reward on his head was killed in last week's CIA missile strike in Pakistan, US television reported.

Pakistani officials identified him as Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, ABC News said. Mursi was one of three known Al-Qaeda leaders present at a meeting in the village of Damadola that was targeted in a missile attack late Thursday or early Friday, ABC News said.

Eighteen civilians were also reported killed in the strike, prompting large protests over the weekend in Pakistan. A five million dollar reward for his capture is posted on a State Department list of wanted Al-Qaeda leaders.

The State Department posting says Mursi operated a training camp in Derunta, Afghanistan where hundreds of mujahideen were trained in the use of poisons and explosives. Mursi produced training manuals with recipes for crude chemicals and biological weapons, some of which were recovered by US forces in Afghanistan, it said.

'Bin Laden tape' warns of attacks
Thursday, 19 January 2006 BBC News
Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape it says was by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.

In it the voice warns that new attacks on the US are being planned, but offers a "long-term truce" to the Americans.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Bin Laden has been heard from since December 2004.

Last month, al-Jazeera aired a videotape it said dated back to September, showing al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In it Zawahiri declared that, despite a prolonged absence and rumours about ill health or possible injury, Bin Laden was alive.

Veracity unknown

US officials have declined to comment on the authenticity of the latest tape.

People familiar with Bin Laden's voice are divided as to whether the voice really is his.

The voice on the tape said the reason there had not been an attack in the US since 11 September 2001 was not because of superior US security, but because the group had been engaged in activities in Iraq and because operations in the US "need preparations".

"The operations are happening in Baghdad and you will see them here at home the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission," he said.

Despite the warning of renewed attacks the speaker also offered the US the chance of a long-term truce.

"We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term... so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war," the speaker said.

'Two al-Qaedas'

The voice spoke of the need for Western nations "not to fight the Muslims on the land".

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says Bin Laden's chief aggravation is Western countries invading Muslim countries and imposing their beliefs and culture.

Bin Laden made Europe a similar truce offer following the Madrid train bombings of March 2004.

Our correspondent says that nowadays there are in effect two al-Qaeda's - the one operating in Iraq, which is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and carries out low level guerrilla activity on a daily basis.

The other is the old leadership, including Bin Laden, believed to be hiding in a mountainous area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose primary role is not to stage operations, but to act as spiritual figureheads and inspiration for others.

Police foil bomb explosion in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghan security force foiled Wednesday a bomb explosion in Afghan southern province of Kandahar, a local official said.

"This afternoon at about 6 p.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT) the security force seized a corolla car with a big amount of explosives in Brishna Kot area including five BM-12 missiles and some other weapons. It's not confirmed to be a suicide attack, but it's confirmed that the explosion is ready," Colonel Abdul Hakim Angar, the chief of intelligence service department of Kandahar told Xinhua.

"Coalition forces have surrounded the area and defused the explosives have been defused. The investigation is still going on, but the person in the car according to local police has escaped," he added.

This happened two days after the two bloody suicide attacks broke out on Monday in Kandahar which claimed about 26 people's lives and injured more than 50 persons. The provincial governor of Kandahar Assadullah Khalid, after the suicide attacks, condemned Afghan bordering country support Taliban to carry out this kind of bloody attacks.

Taliban spokesperson Yusuf Ahmadi rejected the responsibility of the suicide attack aiming at civilians and said only foreign troops are Taliban's targets. The Afghan National Army, in order to safeguard security, has set many checkpoints in the streets in Kandahar after the attacks, checking the cars and persons passing by.

"We have seized 29 vehicles with illegal documents or have no documents, two AK-47 machine guns, and two suspected person were also arrested," Zahir Azimi, the spokesperson of Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty International condemns the killing of civilians in south
KABUL, 19 January (IRIN) - Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday condemned a recent spate of civilian killings in southern Afghanistan, calling on the government to take solid measures to investigate these crimes and to bring those responsible to justice.

"Amnesty International condemns the recent wave of killings of civilians in southern Afghanistan, notably the 16 January suicide bomb attack on spectators at a sporting event in Spin Boldak, in southern Kandahar province, killing at least 22 people and injuring 20 other," the rights group said in a statement.

The groups and individuals carrying out indiscriminate attacks such as that in Spin Boldak were criminals, the watchdog added, noting such actions undermine any claim they might have in pursuing a legitimate cause.

The US-based group called upon the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to take concrete measures to investigate these crimes and to bring those responsible to justice, including those involved in the planning and organising of such attacks, while maintaining full compliance with international standards of fairness, AI said in a statement.

According to the United Nations, there has been a wave of 19 suicide attacks over the past 12 months, including 13 in the past 10 weeks.

The attacks come at a time Washington is considering to cut back its troop presence in the Central Asian state from more than 18,000 to 16,500 over the next few months. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), who have an Afghan peacekeeping force of almost 10,000 on the ground, are due to increase their numbers to 15,000 and take over responsibilities from US forces in the restive southern parts of the country.

AI urges armed groups to immediately cease all attacks against civilians and indiscriminate attacks, and calls on community leaders who remain in contact with the leadership of armed groups to speak out against such attacks, ensuring that there can be no circumstances that allow or justify war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Insecurity remains a key issue in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Despite the deployment of thousands of US and NATO forces, at least 1,600 people died in conflict-related violence last year. Ninety-one US troops died in combat and through accidents in 2005, more than double the total for 2004.

Russian drug service to open mission in Afghanistan
YEKATERINBURG, January 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Drug Control Service plans to open a mission in Afghanistan in the first half of 2006, the deputy head of the service said Thursday.

Vladimir Zubrin said, "During the first half of 2006, the FDCS will open a mission in Afghanistan where a drugs control officer and a small team will work," he said.

The service recently signed a memorandum on the issue with its U.S. counterpart, the Drug Enforcement Agency. The mission will cooperate with the U.S. drugs agency, and with Russian law enforcement agencies, the official said.

Similar missions are also planned in the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, which border on Afghanistan, one of the world's largest producers of narcotics, Zubrin said.

AFGHANISTAN: Coalition forces install windmills in south
KABUL, 19 January (IRIN) - US-led coalition forces are installing windmills across southern Afghanistan to provide farmers with water 24 hours a day, a statement released from the Bagram airfield said on Thursday.

"Windmills for the farmers provide an easy energy source to a rural area," said army Lt Col Andrew Mazerik, a civil affairs officer with the Coalition's Combined Joint Task Force-76. "There's not a lot of maintenance needed for the windmills and this effort shows that the Afghan government is doing something for the people."

The windmills are constructed in the southern city of Kandahar by Afghans who work for an American construction company and purchased with the commander's emergency relief programme funds at a cost of US $15,000 each, the statement read.

Farmers can use them to power irrigation systems for crops such as soybeans and wheat, while avoiding the operating costs and maintenance problems of diesel-powered, mechanical generators. They also can share water with their neighbours.

"An entire village can be supported by the windmill," Mazerik noted. "It works on gravity and it depends on how big the holding tank is. A standard size windmill pumps 10 to 30 gallons per minute. It can supply a lot of water."

The first windmills in Helmand and Zabul provinces are expected to be operational within weeks. A total of 30 will be installed by spring, the US-led coalition forces said in the statement.

The programme began with the installation of a test windmill at Kandahar airfield three months ago. Two windmills were installed in Uruzgan province shortly afterward.

More recently, village elders in Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul provinces met with their governors and local provincial reconstruction team commanders to decide where other windmills could best be used, according to the statement.

"They're a positive reinforcement and a beautiful symbol," Mazerik noted.

The south and east of Afghanistan have long suffered from extreme drought conditions. The United Nations in September 2004, along with the Afghan government, appealed for $71 million to help 6.3 million drought-affected people.

Trucks for the Afghan Army
Strategy Page - Jan 19 3:45 AM
January 19, 2006: The Afghan army is buying 2,781 trucks, identical to the ones used by the U.S. Army. The “Medium Tactical Vehicles” (MTV) come in two sizes; 2.5 ton capacity, and five ton. There are four major variations be purchased by the Afghans; general transport (the most common); a fuel tanker; water tanker; and recovery (tow/repair). Deliveries have already begun, and Afghans trained to do maintenance and some repairs. The Afghans could have saved money and bought civilian grade trucks. But the MTVs are built to travel cross country, and in nasty terrain, without getting torn up. Many roads in Afghanistan, would qualify as “cross country” in most other nations. So the extra expense will end up being cheaper in the long run.

Heavy Snowfall Closes Transit Routes in Afghan Provinces
Friday January 20, 2006, 11:17 am
KABUL, Jan 20 Asia Pulse - Despite hectic efforts by the government to reopen transit routes closed down due to heavy snowfall this week, the flow of traffic has been restored only on few roads in the Logar and Paktia provinces.

The recent heavy snowfall has sealed several linking roads in provinces including Daikundi, Ghor, Badakhshan, Logar and Paktia.

Abdul Rahim Zarin, Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, told Pajhwok Afghan News over 200 kilometre roads in Qulat Pass, Bagh-i-Chasadkhana, Siaboghband in Mirpur district, Chaprastak Pass, Palas Largal in Shahrestan district, Korka Pass in Khaibar district were closed.

He said roads leading from the provincial capital to Kojran, Tamzan, Gizab and Shutor Ali, and Khaibar to Darakhodi, Sangtakht and Shutorali have been closed in the central Daikundi province. The Winterisation Commission has been sent into the province with foodstuff to be distributed among the affected families.

Elsewhere, in the central Ghor province, Saghar, Dolina, Shahrak. Kabira and Tolak districts have been cut off from the provincial capital of Chighchiran due to heavy snowfall in those areas.

Several roads leading to different districts were also closed for vehicular traffic in the northeastern Badkhshan province but Zarin said the situation was not critical in that province.

Deputy Minister for Public Works Dr Wali Mohammad Rasooli told Pajhwok Afghan News all highways had now been opened for traffic. However, he said, Hajigak Pass in Bamyan, Kotalsabzak on Herat-Badghis highway and Kishm transit route leading to Faizabad, capital of the northeastern Badkhshan province, had been closed after the snowfall.

Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Mohammad Hanif Atmar said 24,000 tons of foodstuffs had been sent into different provinces across the country to be distributed among the affected families.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

India to send 300 armed commandos to protect officials in Afghanistan
India Daily - Jan 19 3:40 AM
The Centre [Indian federal government] has decided to send around 300 armed commandos for the security of Border Roads Organization [BRO] officials in Afghanistan. These commandos will be deployed in Kandahar, Jalalabad and Kabul. There are already 50 armed commandos of the Indo Tibetan Border Police [ITBP] deployed at the Indian mission in Kabul.