January 7, 2006

Passerby killed, policeman injured by bomb in Afghanistan
Sat Jan 7, 4:23 AM ET
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - A passerby was killed and a policeman injured by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, changing their earlier statement that it was a suicide attack.

The explosion caused by a remote control bomb targeted a police vehicle in the eastern city of Jalalabad, local police spokesman Ghafoor Khan said on Saturday. He had earlier said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van.

"The person whose body was torn into pieces appears to be a student," Khan said adding that police found books lying around the mutilated body.

The latest attack comes two days after a deadly suicide car bomb in southern Uruzgan which killed 10 people and wounded dozens.

A purported spokesman for ousted Taliban militia, Mohammad Anif, in a telephone call to AFP from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a remote control bomb.

Khan was unable to say who might have been behind the latest bombing, but similar attacks including Thursday's have been blamed on the remnants of the ousted Taliban.

Taliban supporters are thought to be copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

---

Explosion leaves 1 student dead in east Afghanistan
KABUL, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A secondary school student was killed as a police van hit a mine in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, an official at Interior Minister said.

"A pupil of grade nine was killed when a remote-controlled bomb planted by enemies targeted a police van in Chaparhar district at around 9 am this morning," Dad Mohammad Rasa told Xinhua.

The van was taking police officers and cadets to Police Training Academy when the attackers exploded the planted mine, he added.

"No officer or cadets at the van was injured in the explosion,"Rasa emphasized.

However, he confirmed that the explosion had damaged the van.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Meanwhile, Rasa put the attack on the "enemies of peace and security," a term used against Taliban's remnants.

Remnants of the former fundamentalist regime in a suicide attack Thursday in southern Uruzgan province left 10 persons dead and 50 others injured.

Taliban-led militancy claimed the lives of over 1,500, including rebels, Afghan and US troops as well as aid workers and pro-government religious figures, in 2005.

---

8 Pakistani Troops Killed Near Afghanistan
By BASHIRULLAH KHAN Associated Press Jan. 7, 2006, 6:58AM
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan — Assailants armed with rockets and assault rifles attacked a newly built checkpoint near the Afghan border in Pakistan on Saturday, killing all eight soldiers there, officials said.

Hours after the attack, an air strike on a home belonging to a local cleric on the border about 30 miles west of the checkpoint killed eight people and wounded nine others, local residents said.

Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan only confirmed the killings of security forces at the checkpoint and refused to comment on the attack on the home.

The checkpoint attack occurred in a village near Miran Shah, the main town in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, where Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in an effort to flush out the Taliban, al-Qaida and their local supporters.

Sultan said authorities were trying to determine who was behind the assault. Regional authorities were seeking help from tribal elders in finding the assailants.

A regional security official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the slain troops had moved to the checkpoint just hours before the attack.

In the air strike, four women and four children were among the wounded and were taken to a hospital in Miran Shah, said a resident, who didn't want to be named. Residents said they were unsure what type of aircraft carried out the strike.

One of the wounded, Mohammed Shafiq, 30, told The Associated Press that he was awoken by the whirring sound of helicopters, then heard gunfire.

"I don't know who attacked our home," he said.

Sultan said only that "there are reports about firing on a home, but I have no details, and this matter is still being investigated."

The U.S. military in Kabul said it had no information on the incident. Pakistan has said it will not allow U.S. forces to cross its border with Afghanistan to participate in unauthorized military operations.

Later Saturday, Pakistani troops backed by helicopters targeted suspected militant hideouts near Miran Shah, but suspended the offensive after local elders asked for more time to investigate the identities of the checkpoint assailants.

The checkpoint was set up this week as part of Pakistan's efforts to stop insurgents from sneaking into Pakistan or returning to Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have been trying to root out insurgents.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror and it has killed or captured scores of terror suspects and their local supporters in the North and South Waziristan regions after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.

The rebels often target security forces in retaliation.

The latest attack on security forces came in the same region where al-Qaida operative Hamza Rabia was killed in December in what Pakistani officials said was an explosion caused by bomb-making activities.

But local residents said Rabia died in a missile attack and parts of what appeared to be a missile were found at the site. Neither Pakistani nor American officials have confirmed that version of the incident.

Rabia gained prominence after the arrest of al-Qaida's suspected No. 3 Abu Farraj al-Libbi in Pakistan in May.

Al-Libbi _ who twice tried to assassinate Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for aiding Washington's war on terror _ was later turned over to the United States for further investigations.

---

Afghan officials accused on drugs
By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul Friday, 6 January 2006
The security chief at Kabul airport has accused Afghan officials of colluding with drug smugglers and ordering the release of arrested suspects.

Gen Aminullah Amarkhel told the BBC interior ministry officials released two heroin smugglers caught red-handed.

The ministry said the suspects were freed because the packages they carried were not examined in enough detail.

Separately, the transport minister admitted the national airline, Ariana, was being used by drug smugglers.

Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world, accounting for almost 90% of supplies.

The international community has spent millions of dollars on drug eradication since 2001, when the Taleban was ousted. However, although area under cultivation has dropped recently, output has not reduced significantly.

'Late at night'

The airport security chief, Gen Amarkhel, said: "We arrested a group of this [drugs] mafia - one of them was a member of the Ariana Afghan Airline's technical team. With him we arrested two females red-handed with 5kg of heroin which they wanted to take to India."


He said "smugglers" then called him saying one of the women would be released that night.

"The following day they called us again to say she had been released," Gen Amarkhel said.

"Surely the smugglers had their own people within the government because they told us in advance that their people would be released."

The head of the ministry of interior's counter narcotics team, Maj Gen Sayed Kamal Sadat, admitted the suspects were released.

"Prosecutors of the interior ministry released two female suspects because a detailed examination of the contents of the material caught did not exist," Gen Sadat said.

"It was also very late at night and the prosecutors decided to release them for one night."

He said the pair were rearrested the following day and that he was "going to interrogate them personally".

But Gen Amarkhel was not satisfied and said he did not understand why suspects in possession of 5kg of heroin could go free.

"It is not a good enough reason to say it was late at night," he said.

'Powerful people'

Gen Amarkhel said his team had been working to arrest a bigger group of suspected smugglers linked to the same group.

But the woman who was released "leaked everything to the big group. As a result they all escaped to Pakistan".

Gen Amarkhel played a videotape in his office - which was also aired on a private Afghan TV station - in which he was challenged by a woman who, he said, was one of those released.

In the tape the woman tells him: "Do not touch me and do not touch the drugs. If I make one phone call I can fire you from your position."

The general asks who she would call.

"They are powerful people. They are higher than you in the government," the woman in the tape responds.

Death threats

Kabul airport has X-ray machines to search both incoming and outgoing luggage.

But Gen Amarkhel said the airport needed more sophisticated equipment and more X-ray machines to detect drugs more effectively.

He has been the security chief for the past seven months.

"During this time I have arrested 13 foreigners and have seized about 30kg of heroin... I have also arrested six Afghans," Gen Amarkhel said.

The two main destinations for drug smugglers are Dubai and Delhi, he says.

Gen Amarkhel says he has been issued death threats in telephone calls

"But I will not give in to these people," he says.

'Embarrassing'

A number of high-ranking government officials have told the BBC there is a culture of impunity in drug smuggling and that the government is partly to blame.

One high ranking official, who did not want to be named, said: "It is embarrassing to know that our government has evidence against some officials but still does not arrest them".

Last year, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali resigned, saying he wanted to pursue his academic studies.

But government insiders said he quit because he wanted to be tough on drug dealers, especially those within the government, but this had not proven possible.

Afghanistan's transport minister, Enayatullah Qasemi, told the BBC that the drug smuggling situation was getting better, although he admitted the Ariana airline still faced difficulties.

"The situation has improved from a year ago [in terms of the amount of drugs being carried on Ariana], but still we have major problems," he said.

"We are obviously concerned, it affects our reputation," Mr Qasemi said.

"We are taking all the measures that we can to try to ensure our planes are not carrying drugs."

---

AFGHAN OFFICIALS CONCERNED ABOUT PENDING US TROOP PULLOUT
Ahmed Rashid: 1/06/06 Eurasia Insight:
The US announcement that it will start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is causing consternation in Kabul.

Speaking at the Pentagon on January 4, US President George Bush confirmed that American forces in Afghanistan would be reduced from 19,000 to about 16,500 during 2006. Over the same timeframe US troop levels in Iraq will decline from 17 to 15 combat brigades.

Many Afghans are interpreting Bush’s comments as laying the groundwork for a complete pull-out of American troops in Afghanistan, despite repeated assurances made by US officials that Washington “will never abandon” Kabul. In private conversations, senior Afghan officials are using harsh language in criticizing the Bush administration’s decision. They see the withdrawal as driven by US domestic factors, namely the Bush administration’s desire to bolster the Republican Party’s prospects in congressional elections in late 2006. Republicans have been weakened by a widening corruption probe in Washington. Bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan could help revive the Republican Party’s image.

While US forces appear to be viewed as an unwelcome presence by a growing number of Iraqis, the majority of Afghans still consider American forces as a security asset. They also view the American military presence as a tangible sign that the international community remains committed to assisting Afghanistan’s reconstruction. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

US officials suggest that NATO is capable of filing any security gap created by the departure of American troops. However, many Afghans consider NATO as a hesitant and reluctant substitute for US forces. While the 9,000 NATO forces already in Afghanistan are carrying out peace-keeping functions, most NATO’s members are refusing to allow their troops to conduct combat operations aimed at containing the Taliban insurgency. So far, only Britain, Australia and Canada have expressed willingness to allow their troops to engage in combat operations.

For the time being, US forces are planning to remain in eastern Afghanistan, a mountainous region that Taliban insurgents use to infiltrate the country from Pakistan. The area has witnessed heavy fighting in recent months. Eventually, Washington would like to pull US troops out of eastern Afghanistan, with NATO forces taking their place.

Over the past year, Taliban militants have posed an increasing security threat to Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s administration. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Insurgent attacks claimed the lives of about 1,500 Afghans and 90 Americans troops in 2005. In addition, Taliban-al Qaeda forces in 2005 began emulating tactics used by Islamic radicals in Iraq, namely the use of suicide bombers. On January 5, at least 10 people were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated himself in Tarin Kot, capital of southern Uruzgen Province.

Local political analysts say that Afghanistan’s stabilization hopes will depend on the government’s ability to respond to the Taliban insurgency. At present, the Afghan government remains heavily dependent on NATO and US forces for security. On December 8, NATO announced that it would deploy 6,000 troops, including 4,000 British soldiers, in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban militants are most active. The announcement was undermined the next day, when Dutch officials revealed they were having second thoughts about the deployment of a 1,000-strong Dutch contingent. Eventually, officials in the Hague said the deployment would proceed, provided that the Dutch parliament ratified the move. Dutch opposition parties are opposed to deployment.

A British army reconnaissance group in Helmand – a southern province in which the Taliban is most active, and which is a narcotics trafficking center -- reports that the levels of Islamic radical violence, along with drug-related criminality, are far worse than previously believed. British troops are expected to deploy in the region in the spring.

The US drawdown comes at an inopportune time for Afghanistan, when the country’s new political institutions are struggling to establish themselves following the completion of a four-year transition process. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. On December 21, the new Afghan parliament elected opposition leader Yunus Qanuni as its speaker. Afghanistan now has an elected president, a democratic constitution achieved through national consensus, an upper and lower house of parliament elected in a largely fair process and elected governing councils in all 34 provinces.

In his January 4 comments, Bush painted an upbeat picture of Afghan political conditions. ”We've made steady progress on the road to democracy,” Bush insisted. “Karzai got elected; there's a sitting parliament. It's amazing how far Afghanistan has come from the days of the Taliban [1996-2001].” While new political institutions exist, many political experts express concern about their ability to function effectively. For example, up to 40 percent of Afghan MPs reportedly have links to warlords and drug traffickers who have helped fuel the country’s vicious cycle of violence for over two decades. Bush insisted that the “the international community is stepping up.” However, many Afghans believe the international community has not fulfilled promises of assistance. Indeed, Kabul is experiencing a severe winter, featuring sporadic electricity supplies. In addition, Karzai’s administration has seemed reluctant to take politically difficult steps to curb corruption and other problems hampering reconstruction.

Editor’s Note: Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistan-based journalist and author of the book "Taliban: Militant Islam and Fundamentalism in Central Asia."