Afghanistan News January 5, 2006

January 5, 2006

Afghan 'suicide attack kills 10'
Thursday, 5 January 2006 BBC News
At least 10 people have been killed in a suicide car bombing in the Afghan province of Uruzgan, officials say.

Police and civilians are among the dead in the attack 500 metres from the governor's office in provincial capital Tarin Kowt. Another 10 were hurt.

A man claiming to speak for the Taleban said the group carried out the attack.

The bomber's target is unclear. US ambassador Ronald Neumann was in the governor's office at the time of the blast but was unhurt, officials said.

Deputy governor Abdul Aziz told the BBC that the governor, Jan Mohammad Khan, was not present for the talks. He is in Mecca on the Hajj.

'Iraq tactics'

A spokesman for the governor blamed "enemies of Afghanistan" for the suicide attack.

"At least 10 Afghan police and civilians were killed in the bombing," the spokesman, Abdullah Jan, told the BBC.

Thursday's blast appears to be one of the biggest in a series of suicide attacks in Afghanistan in recent months.

Afghan officials say they suspect Taleban and other militants opposed to the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai may be importing tactics used by insurgents in Iraq.

Local intelligence officials say they believe a large number of foreign militants recently infiltrated Afghanistan to join the campaign by the Taleban, whose leader Mullah Omar comes from Tarin Kowt.

Attacks linked to insurgency, mostly in southern and eastern Afghanistan, left more than 1,400 people dead in 2005 - the country's bloodiest year since US-led forces ousted the Taleban in late 2001.

Suicide car bomb in Afghanistan kills ten as US envoy visits
Thursday, 5 January 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Ten people died and 50 were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in central Afghanistan during a visit by the US ambassador, US and Afghan officials said.

US envoy Ronald Neumann was unhurt by the massive blast near the governor's headquarters in Tirin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, provincial officials and the US embassy told AFP on Thursday.

The Taliban militia, which was ousted from power in late 2001 by a US-led military operation, claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Today when the US ambassador was on a visit to Uruzgan an explosion took place which killed ten people and wounded 50 others, and the ambassador was in the provincial headquarters," deputy governor Abdul Aziz told AFP.

"Fifteen of the wounded are in critical condition including the provincial police director. The area was crowded because the US ambassador was visiting," he added.

Provincial spokesman Abdullah Jan said it was a suicide attack. "It was a suicide car bomb attack half a kilometer (a third of a mile) outside the provincial headquarters," he said.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul, Lou Fintor, confirmed that the ambassador was unharmed after the "security incident" in Uruzgan.

"Ambassador Neumann and his delegation of US officials visited a PRT (provincial reconstruction team) and conferred with local officials in Tirin Kot on Thursday," he said.

"The ambassador and his delegation are safe and have been accounted for. They were never in any danger."

The governor, Jan Mohammad Khan, was away in Mecca for the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, provincial spokesman Jan added.

He said there were both police and civilians in the area at the time but the breakdown of the casualties was not available.

A self-styled spokesperson for the Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yusouf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack and gave a higher death toll, without giving details.

"A car bomb suicide explosion inside the provincial headquarters killed around 20 people," Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.

He said the suicide attacker was an Afghan citizen and resident of Uruzgan named Abdul Rahim.

In the last three months Afghanistan has suffered more than a dozen suicide attacks, which have claimed more than 30 lives including that of a German soldier.

Most have been blamed on remnants of the Taliban, who are now thought to be copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

Uruzgan is a known hotbed of violence linked to the Taliban and other Islamic rebels fighting Afghan government and US-led coalition forces in the war-torn country.

A suspected suicide car bomber injured a US soldier and two Afghan civilians on Monday in the southern city of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the Taliban which was toppled for failing to hand over Osama bin Laden.

Bush says US making 'amazing' progress in security in Afghanistan
Thu Jan 5, 12:46 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said the United States was making "amazing" progress in democracy and security in Afghanistan and would trim its military forces this year as NATO took on a bigger role.

But he vowed that substantial US forces would remain in Afghanistan until the "war on terror" was completed.

"It's amazing how far Afghanistan has come from the days of the Taliban," Bush said Wednesday after a briefing at the Pentagon hosted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the top US military officer, General Peter Pace.

US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks by the Al-Qaeda network led by Osama bin laden. Remnants of the Taliban have since waged an insurgency against the Afghan government and the NATO-led peacekeeping forces.

Bush said the United States had "made steady progress on the road to democracy" in Afghanistan, which together with Iraq were key fronts in his global war on terror.

Afghanistan inaugurated its parliament last month, the first after three decades of war and occupation and the latest step in a transition to democracy launched after the Taliban ouster.

Bush said that as the NATO alliance took on a larger role in Afghanistan and as the capability of Afghan forces grew, the United States would reduce its force levels in the troubled nation from 19,000 to 16,500 this year.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has about 9,000 troops now, representing all 26 NATO allies and 10 non-NATO nations.

"In other words, the international community is stepping up. Like they have in Iraq, they're stepping up in Afghanistan as well," Bush said.

In 2006, the NATO force levels would increase by up to another 6,000 to a total of approximately 15,000 personnel, he said.

Bush noted Afghanistan's effort to build its own security force, with nearly 27,000 trained army personnel and 55,000 police officers at present.

"They are working side-by-side with coalition forces to protect this new democracy," he said.

"In other words, our strategy has been to provide a strong commitment, to provide stability so democracy can flourish. And then as others, including Afghan troops as well as NATO troops, step in, we step back," Bush said.

The US leader also said there would be no letup in the fight against terrorism.

"I said after September the 11th we would do everything in our power to bring justice to the enemy that attacked the American people. And I meant it," he said.

"And part of chasing down the Taliban and Al-Qaeda is to find them where they hide. And just like in Iraq, we're going to have our special forces stay on the hunt, and we'll continue training at the same time," he said.

'Afghans killed' by cold weather
Thursday, 5 January 2006 BBC News
Severe cold weather has left five people dead in a camp providing temporary accommodation for returning refugees in northern Afghanistan, an official says.

A government official told the BBC that five members of a newly-returned family from Pakistan died in Sakhi camp, 12km east of Mazar-e-Sharif on Wednesday.

The dead includes four children and a women, he said.

He said they were living in tents with inadequate heating facilities.

Jan Mohammad, the father of the dead child said that if the severe cold persisted his other three children were also in danger of dying.

Atiqullah Ansari, an official with the ministry of repatriation of refugees in Mazar-e-Sharif, told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary that a better place with better facilities was urgently needed to house the refugees.

Sakhi Camp in the northern Balkh province houses more than 120 families all living in tents.

These families include both returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran as well as internally displaced Afghans (IDPs).

Refugees have been complaining that the Afghan government has failed to provide proper housing for those returning.

Afghan teacher beheaded, officials say
1/4/2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants beheaded a teacher in a central Afghan town while his wife and eight children watched, officials said Wednesday, describing the latest in a string of attacks targeting educators at schools where girls study.

Four men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib eight times late Tuesday before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in Qalat, said Ali Khail, a spokesman for the provincial government of Zabul, where the attack took place.

The assailants made Habib's wife, four sons and four daughters watch, Khail said. His children were between the ages of 2 and 22. No other family members were hurt.

The insurgents killed Habib, 45, after he refused to go with them to meet their commander, said the victim's cousin, Esanullah, who goes by only one name.

The attackers fled and Habib's wife called the police, Khail said. Police are questioning three people who were guests in the victim's home at the time.

Habib was the headmaster of Shaikh Mathi Baba high school, which is attended by 1,300 boys and girls.

Zabul, a remote and mountainous province populated mainly by Pashtuns and bordering Pakistan, is a hotbed of Taliban militancy. The former Taliban regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state.

Zabul province's education director, Nabi Khushal, blamed Taliban rebels for the killing.

"Only the Taliban are against girls being educated," he said. "The Taliban often attack our teachers and beat them. But this is the first time one has been killed in this province."

Cleric Sayed Omer Munib, a member of the nation's top Islamic council, said there was no justification in Islam's holy book, the Quran, to prevent girls from studying.

"Nowhere in the Quran does it say that girls do not have the right to education," he said. "It says that 'people should be educated.' This means girls, too."

Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.

A UNICEF spokesman said the attacks were "incredibly worrying."

"Militants are clearly trying to intimidate communities and force families not to send their girls to school," Edward Carwardine said. "We hope these incidents will not deter families. ... Fortunately, so far we have not seen a decline in girls attending."

He said about 90% of Afghan adults are believed to support educating girls. Many of those who oppose it are in conservative rural areas dominated by ethnic Pashtun where the Taliban — who also are Pashtun — are most powerful.

The government condemned the killing. Masood Khalili, the Afghan ambassador to Turkey, where President Hamid Karzai was visiting, said it was "disgusting action by the enemies of Afghanistan."

Esanullah said Habib resumed a more than 20-year teaching career two years ago after the Taliban threatened him while he was working for an aid group helping the disabled. Since then, the Taliban had warned him twice to stop teaching.

Habib's funeral Wednesday was attended by hundreds of students and teachers.

Taliban spokesmen and commanders in the region, one of the most volatile in Afghanistan, could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the past year, Taliban insurgents have occasionally put up posters around Qalat demanding girls' schools be closed and threatening to kill teachers, Khushal said.

He said 100 of the province's 170 registered schools have been closed in the past two to three years because of poor security. Of the 35,000 students attending schools in Zabul, 2,700 were girls, he said.

There has been a series of attacks on girls' schools and teachers across Afghanistan since the Taliban regime fell. In October, gunmen killed a headmaster in front of his students at a boys' school in southern Kandahar province, the former stronghold of the Taliban regime.

Karzai Begins Landmark Visit to Turkey
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
January 5 2005 -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai begins a landmark visit to Turkey today. Karzai who arrived yesterday in Ankara -- is the first Afghan head of state to visit Turkey in 48 years.

Among Turkish officials Karzai is scheduled to meet with today are: President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the chief of the Turkish military General Hilmi Ozkok and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

Turkish firms and aid groups are working in Afghanistan on a range of projects valued at some 1,000 million dollars. Most of that work is in construction, building roads, medical clinics and schools.

AFGHANISTAN: Bangladeshi aid group to continue despite death
KABUL, 4 January (IRIN) - Despite the killing of an Afghan engineer working for a Bangladeshi aid group in southern Afghanistan, the agency said on Wednesday that it would continue its relief activities in the area.

Eng Mirwais was killed on Monday in Lashkargah, capital of the insurgency-hit southern Helmand province. He worked for the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which has been building schools, roads and clinics in rural areas of Afghanistan.

"The killing of our staff member will not hamper our aid activities in the southern parts of Afghanistan," a BRAC official said on condition of anonymity in the capital Kabul.

Adrian Edwards, United Nations Assistant Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) spokesman, said that it was a sad incident that warranted immediate government action.

"We hope this crime will be properly investigated and those responsible brought to account in accordance with law," Edwards noted.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but similar killings in the past have been blamed on remnants of the hard-line Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until its ouster in late 2001.

In April, three women linked to BRAC were found stoned to death in the northern province of Baghlan.

Despite progress made in electing a new government and disarming thousands of militia, parts of Afghanistan remain very insecure.

Violence blamed on Taliban militia has left many southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan off-limits to aid workers. Last year, about 1,600 people were killed in fighting, the most since the fundamentalist religious militia were removed from power.

An Indian engineer, together with his driver and two bodyguards, was kidnapped in the southern Nimruz province in November last year. His body was found two days after the kidnapping.

Iran backs stability, development in Afghanistan
LONDON, January 5 (IranMania) - Iran's Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad-Reza Bahrami said "Tehran supports stability, security and economic development in Afghanistan".

In an interview with IRNA, the ambassador referred to achievements of Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visit to Afghanistan and said Mottaki by travelling to Kabul, in fact, expressed Iran's new government support of Afghanistan central government's stability, security, political development and economic growth.

Regarding President Hamid Karzai upcoming visit to Tehran, Bahrami said, the preliminary discussions and negotiations on Mr. Mottaki's visit will be finalized in President Karzai's trip to Tehran in current month.

The ambassador stressed, after three decades of war in Afghanistan, which also was a threat to neighbouring countries, now Afghanistan can be an opportunity, which helps economic growth in Afghanistan as well as economic dynamism in other neighboring states.

US may move some Guantanamo inmates to Afghanistan: report
Wed Jan 4, 9:27 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States wants to develop a high-security prison in Afghanistan to hold terrorism suspects, including some transferred from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the Financial Times said on Thursday.

The U.S. government has chosen the site of a former Soviet-era prison near the capital, Kabul, to house the prisoners, the British newspaper reported.

Some of the jail's facilities have already been refurbished as part of a European Union-financed criminal justice reform scheme backed by the United Nations, the paper said.

It was intended to be used for people convicted of drugs offences, the paper said.

The newspaper said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan issued a public notice last month for the renovation and construction of a cell block at the complex.

The notice said the project would accommodate "detainees presently in sub-standard and/or overcrowded facilities."

The prison was notorious for the torture and execution of Islamists by former Communist-backed regimes in the 1980s.

Western diplomats say the United Nations and the European Union have been resisting Washington's proposals to set up the prison to hold Afghan suspects, the FT said. No explanation was given.

The United States has faced criticism at home and abroad for treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and for holding prisoners indefinitely.

Only nine of about 500 prisoners being held at the base have been charged, and the United States has been holding prisoners there since January 2002.

After the September 11 attacks on the United States, the naval base was used to house prisoners captured mainly in Afghanistan.

'Seven tribals die' in Waziristan
Thursday, 5 January 2006 BBC News
At least seven people have been killed by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan's tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, authorities say.

Assailants ambushed a car allegedly carrying suspected drug traffickers, killing the head of the group and six others in South Waziristan's Wana town.

The attack took place close to the headquarters of the Pakistani Frontier Corps scouts, a paramilitary force.

Pakistan military has been hunting down al-Qaeda militants in the tribal areas.

'Personal feud'

The group that was attacked belonged to the local Ahmed Zai Wazir tribe, and was led by a man identified as Musa Kari Khel.

Mr Kari Khel, his father, brother, nephew as well as his guards and a driver were all killed in the ambush.

Officials say the killing could be the result of personal feud.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.