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April 21, 2007 


Taliban seeks exchange for aid workers
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban statement demanded the release of a number of the group's fighters and the withdrawal of French troops from        Afghanistan in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers.

Separately, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in eastern Afghanistan in a clash that left five militants and one police officer dead, while        NATO-led troops shot and killed a suspected militant and wounded another in the south, officials said.

The Taliban has claimed it abducted a French man and woman and three Afghans from the aid group Terre d'Enfance who disappeared April 3, in the southwestern Nimroz province.

The apparent kidnapping came after Afghan authorities released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian newspaper reporter, who was abducted along with his two Afghan colleagues in southern Helmand province on March 5. The two Afghans were killed.

The exchange was widely criticized by Afghan lawmakers, analysts and international workers, who said it would encourage further abductions.

In the statement posted on a Web site Friday, the Taliban gave the Afghan government one week to meet their demands in the latest disappearance. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, contacted an Associated Press reporter by phone to inform him about the posting.

"We have given the list of the Taliban prisoners to the government and the government should release these Taliban," Ahmadi said, speaking from an undisclosed location.

Afghanistan's authorities were not immediately available for comments.

Ahmadi also said that the French troops, serving in the NATO-led force, should leave Afghanistan.

"Otherwise we will kill these two French aid workers and three Afghans," Ahmadi said.

The French Embassy in Kabul was aware of the posting and is analyzing it, said an embassy official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

France has about 1,000 troops in the 36,000-strong NATO-led force.

Antoine Vuillaume, the president of Terre d'Enfance, called the ultimatum a "new shock."

Speaking Saturday on French RTL radio, Vuillaume said the Taliban's demands "go beyond the framework of our association and our humanitarian work."

The ultimatum "involves questions of politics and strategy that have absolutely nothing to do with our work with children," he said.

"We continue to put our trust in the French and Afghan authorities so that everything be done to avoid the worst outcome," Vuillaume said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ruled out any future exchanges but has told French        President Jacques Chirac that Afghan authorities will do their best to secure their release.
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Taliban's elusive leader urges more suicide raids
By Saeed Ali Achakzai
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has urged his followers to step up suicide attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and remain united, according to a Taliban commander.

Violence has surged in        Afghanistan in recent weeks after a winter lull, following last year's bloodiest period since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.

Taliban commander Mullah Hayatullah Khan told Reuters late on Friday by satellite phone from an undisclosed location that Omar had contacted senior and regional commanders and congratulated them for carrying out "successful" attacks in recent weeks.

He would not give details as to how and when Mullah Omar contacted the commanders.

"Taliban mujahideen (holy warriors), through unity in their ranks, should continue and increase their guerrilla and suicide attacks on occupation forces and the infidels will soon run away," Khan quoted Omar as saying.

"Mullah Omar has ordered us to liberate our country, (and) we should step up attacks on occupation forces and their puppet Afghans," he said.

The Taliban refer to Western-backed President Hamid Karzai and his associates as puppets.

Mullah Omar, who has a $10 million U.S. government bounty on his head, told his fighters to try not to harm innocent civilians during their offensives, Khan said.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the past year.

The head of NATO's operations in Afghanistan said on Thursday he expected to see more suicide attacks and roadside bombings from the Taliban but saw it as a sign of desperation because they lacked military muscle.

WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
Omar's whereabouts are not known. Afghanistan's government insists he lives and operates in Pakistan, the former key supporter of the Taliban until the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Islamabad denies this and the Taliban say he lives in Afghanistan and coordinates attacks from there.

The Taliban and their Islamic allies such as the al Qaeda network, are largely active in southern and eastern areas close to the border with Pakistan. The Taliban have been copying suicide attacks and kidnapping tactics from Iraqi militants.

On Friday they threatened to kill two French aid workers captured early this month if Taliban demands were not met in one week's time.

The Islamic group has told France to withdraw its 1,100 strong force from Afghanistan and wants the release of Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed his government will do all it can to free the two French nationals, a state newspaper said on Saturday.

But he has ruled out any ransom deal for Afghan or foreign hostages after he was criticized for releasing five Taliban prisoners last month in return for the release of an Italian journalist.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed after two weeks, but his Afghan driver and translator were beheaded.

The Taliban are also holding five Afghan health workers and have threatened to kill one soon unless the government starts negotiations for their release.

Separately on Saturday, small blasts occurred in two cities of northern Afghanistan, witnesses said.

The explosions, one outside a government building and one outside a shop, caused slight damage but no injuries.

In Kabul, a passer-by sustained minor wounds in an apparently random rocket attack near a ministry on the city outskirts.

(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin)
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Taliban threatens countrywide attacks in Afghanistan
Sat Apr 21, 7:17 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban insurgents Saturday vowed a new round of attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the war-torn country, promising to focus more attention on the relatively-peaceful north.

Naming the new drive "Ghazwatul Badr" after the historic battle fought by the Prophet Mohammed some 1,400 years ago, a Taliban spokesman said the operation would target the country's northern and southern parts.

The call came as Taliban holding two French aid workers hostage in southern        Afghanistan early Saturday called for the withdrawal of French        NATO troops and the freeing of imprisoned militants in exchange for their release, in a statement on their website.

Northern Afghanistan has remained mostly peaceful compared to south and southeast which have seen much of the violence plaguing the country since the ouster of the hardline regime in late 2001.

"Soon we will launch a new operation, Ghazawatul Badr, from the north to the south," rebel spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP from an unknown location.

Ahmadi claimed they will send "fresh troops in massive numbers" to the north of the country as part of what he called a Taliban countrywide operation.

Taliban have often made inflated claims in the past. Ghazawatul Badr relates to a crucial victory in the 7th Century by Islamic forces at Badr, in what is now Saudi Arabia.

An Afghan defence ministry spokesman dismissed the threat.

"This is nothing more than a propaganda scheme," ministry spokesman general Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

The insurgency, which scaled down late autumn and winter due to freezing weather, has increased with the spring. More than 4,000 people mostly militants were killed in 2006.

Nearly 40 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since January.

As part of their campaign the Taliban have made wide-use of roadside bombs, said to be a tactic copied from insurgents fighting the US-led coalition force in        Iraq.

Taliban have held control of at least one district in the troubled southern Helmand province for several months.

They have also increased the Iraqi style abduction of mostly foreign nationals to pressure foreign forces to leave Afghanistan, to secure release of Taliban prisoners or to try and extract ransoms.

There are more than 35,000 NATO led troops fighting the Taliban insurgency alongside the Afghan army and police.
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Afghanistan's bloody new year
Saturday, 21 April 2007, 11:04 GMT 12:04 UK BBC News
The Taleban have threatened that hundreds of suicide bombers will attack the Afghan government and foreign military targets this year. Mark Dummett reports from Kabul on the increasing fear of violence in the country.

It seems as if the Taleban's much-hyped spring offensive may have finally begun, but not in any formal sense, at least not in the contested provinces of southern Afghanistan.

There the British, American and other Nato forces remain on the front foot.

But since the country celebrated Nowruz - the Persian New Year - with picnics, dancing and kite flying competitions about a month ago, the insurgents have stepped up their attacks elsewhere.

In the past week alone, bombers have killed 25 people - most of them policemen and private security guards - in the normally peaceful northern town of Kunduz, in the Taleban's home city of Kandahar in the south and near the eastern border with Pakistan, in Khost.

Kabul has not escaped the violence. Since Nowruz, there have been three suicide attacks on the capital - 10 people have been killed, none of them the intended victims.

It still has to be said that the capital is a great place to be at this time of year.

If you can escape the dust, there is the scent of apple blossom and pine trees in the air. After the long, cold and wet winter, the bazaars are full again and new buildings are going up faster than ever.

More attacks expected

But the head of investigations at the Kabul City Police headquarters is not expecting a prosperous and peaceful year. General Ali Shah Paktiawal is certain that more attackers are on their way.

He reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a wad of photographs. Some are passport photos of expressionless men in suits, others are of archetypical mujahideen fighters, posing with their rifles on barren Afghan hillsides.

"This man," he tells me, pointing at one of them, "entered Kabul last week. We've been trying to track down these other guys, foreigners, for longer."

For General Paktiawal, a heavy man in a three-piece suit, stopping the bombers is personal.

Police as targets

He says the Taleban have tried to kill him more than 20 times. Three weeks ago they tried to assassinate one of his colleagues.


The suicide bomber waited until his target stepped out of his car, then rushed forward.

But he detonated the explosives too early. Five people walking on the busy pavement were killed in the blast. The detective survived, if more than a little shocked by being hit in the face by the bomber's head.

General Paktiawal's bodyguards doze on bunks in the room next door.

There is no natural light in his office. There are a couple of large, dirty sofas and a running machine and a treadmill, that does not look like it has ever been used.

He tells me I am at risk even talking to him here.

Last year someone managed to poison his green tea. I do not touch the glass of tea I have been given.

'Brainwashed'

He pulls out more photos of the bomb victims and the mangled corpses of the attackers.

"They're mostly young men from Pakistan," he says. They're brainwashed in the madrassas, the religious schools, for two or three months, then sent over here." "I'd be able to stop more of them, if only I had more money."

He complains that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force does not help much.

Their mission is to defend Kabul but their heavily armed, armoured, helmeted, camouflaged squaddies look like they come from another planet, when they walk down streets full of shoppers, schoolgirls and businessmen.

In fact, the main factor preventing the suicide bombers from causing greater devastation seems to be their own incompetence.

Young bombers panic

A study of suicide attacks carried out in the first two months of 2007 by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, showed that most bombers only succeed in blowing themselves up.

It appears that many of the young men panic before they reach their targets.

Kabul is by no means a city under siege. There have not been so many attacks that people are scared to leave their homes. But the bombers have created a mood of uncertainty and worry.

The most recent attack took place near parliament, in a part of town that had been flattened by the civil war of the 1990s.

I asked Wazali, who lived through those years of mayhem and now sells handbags from a wooden cart not 100 metres from where the suicide bomber struck, to compare then and now.

"Well, we've got a president now and a government, which is a good thing," he told me.

"Life is much better.

"But in those days, at least you knew who your friends and who your enemies were. There was a frontline, now you've no idea who wants to kill you."
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Disabled Afghan athletes block anti-TV rally
Saturday April 21, 04:40 PM By Terry Friel
KABUL (Reuters) - Athletes from Afghanistan's disabled Olympics team formed a cordon to block a protest march on Saturday against a popular television station raided by police over a news item on the attorney-general this week.

In wheelchairs and on crutches, more than half a dozen people formed a line in front of riot police to block a rally of several hundred reaching Tolo television in Kabul's upmarket diplomatic neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan.

"I am not supporting anyone, I am supporting Afghans," paralympic team chief Haji Abdul Rahman said, dressed in a beige suit and seated in his wheelchair on the potholed road. "It's good TV. All the time they defend the rights of the people."

Several hundred men marched on Tolo in a peaceful and well-organised demonstration. Riot police said they were deployed on the streets more than three hours before the protesters arrived.

Attorney-General Abdul Jabar Sabet ordered a raid on Tolo on Tuesday night that turned violent over a news broadcast he considered unfair that included footage from a news conference he gave, Tolo said.

CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAMMES
Sabet has not commented on the incident and the Interior Ministry, which oversees his office, has not been available for comment and has not answered Reuters' e-mail questions on the raid.

Protesters, including many government employees and students from government universities, said that they had not been paid to turn up, but none had seen the relevant news clip.

"Long live Afghanistan! Death to Tolo TV!" they chanted.

Critics say Afghanistan's newly free and vibrant media, including Tolo, is not always accurate. Run by Afghans from Australia, Tolo is known for controversial programming and sometimes racy content.

Matiullah Wahidai, a government human resources consultant, said Tolo went against Afghan values. "We don't want Tolo TV in Kabul," he said as the rally marched nearby the U.S. embassy. "It is against Afghanistan's ethnic culture."

Some protesters carried banners saying "We want rule of law" and "Tolo + transmission = destruction of our society".

But many, including leading politicians, say Sabet and his police regularly break the law themselves.

Dozens of journalists and lawmakers protested on Wednesday outside parliament against the raid, accusing President Hamid Karzai's government of smothering freedom of speech.

The raids underline widespread criticism that the police, supposed to be a key weapon in the battle for security in the face of a mounting Taliban insurgency, are corrupt, badly trained and hold themselves above the laws they are charged to enforce.

At least 14 foreigners were arrested in guesthouse and restaurant raids in February and not charged within the constitutional 24 hours, witnesses say. They remain in jail.

No warrant or other official documentation was produced in Tuesday night's raid, Tolo said.

Tolo said in a statement it had filed formal complaints against Sabet, accusing him of at least 11 breaches of the law.

"The potential crimes are of the utmost seriousness and directly affect (the) issue of rule of law and sustainability of democracy in Afghanistan, especially given that they may be perpetrated by a person holding the highest operational legal position in Afghanistan," Tolo said in a statement on Saturday.

Tolo is demanding Sabet and all his commanders involved in the raid -- in which Tolo journalists and witnesses say people were beaten -- be suspended.
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CANADA HELPS KARZAI COVER UP TV RAID
Harper Claims Ignorance Of Beatings At Tolo TV
www.skyreporter.com 
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper claims to be unaware of what happened at Kabul’s Tolo TV offices Tuesday night – despite the fact that the man who ordered 50 armed police to raid the station, Afghan Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet, enjoys Canadian residency.

As well, skyreporter.com has been submitting detailed questions about Sabet to Mr. Harper’s office since April 5th, two weeks before the raid. Spokespeople for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter MacKay, have been receiving the same detailed questions since mid March. Specifically, the questions deal with Sabet’s role in the Kabul Airport heroin scandal, his mysterious status in Canada and his work with Information Minister Karim Khoram to restrict media freedoms. (See the AFGHAN HEROIN series of film reports here at skyreporter.com.)

Strange, then, how Mr. Harper answered QR77 Radio’s Dave Rutherford Thursday, when asked this question in relation to the violent raid: “This isn’t what we’re fighting for, is it?” (Canada has 2,300 troops fighting the Taliban in Kandahar province.)

“I’ve just sort of heard about it,” the Prime Minister said, “I’m not aware of what the details are.”

Which is simply not true – skyreporter.com phoned the Prime Minister’s office two days earlier, about three hours after the Tolo TV raid took place, to ensure his staff was aware of the incident. A detailed email account was sent two hours later, followed by a further email and phone call the next day. And an article in the Ottawa Citizen Thursday morning - before the radio interview.

And “details?” How about seven journalists taken away by police and beaten, some with rifle butts. Three held in Sabet’s office. No search or arrest warrants issued. Protests the next day at the Afghan parliament.

Even more revealing, though, is what the Prime Minister went on to tell Dave Rutherford’s listeners. ““In Afghanistan there is an extremely free press,” he said. “There’s all kinds of media outlets.”

Mr. Harper continued: “President Karzai is constantly criticized in the media and in the national parliament. And look, as I told him, you have that and you don’t even have the CBC.” This last reference, to Canada’s respected public broadcaster, is a regular complaint of Mr. Harper’s Conservative Party, namely that the CBC is biased and out to get him.

One expects anything of a politician, but to be reading from Sabet’s script? While Canadian troops are fighting and dying to promote democracy in Afghanistan?

But of course all of this begs the question: if Mr. Harper, as one of President Hamid Karzai’s leading foreign sponsors, is not against Sabet’s violent assault on Afghanistan’s leading private TV station, is he for it? Significantly, neither the Canadian Embassy in Kabul nor any of Mr. Harper’s ministries has joined the United Nations in condemning the raid.

The U.N. mission in Kabul released a morning-after statement expressing concern about “police actions against Tolo TV and the accompanying manhandling and detaining of Tolo TV staff.” The U.N. insisted: “Complaints against the media must be dealt with in accordance with established legal norms, not by unlawful physical intervention.”

But nothing like the U.N.’s statement came from Messrs. Bush, Blair or Harper. Which explains why President Karzai himself found it easy to keep mum over the outrageous breach of democratic rights perpetrated against Tolo TV.

If Karzai’s patrons – his bankers and protectors – aren’t too troubled by jackboot tactics to silence the media, well then, why shouldn’t he just sit back, have another puff and savour the possibilities of suppressing the media.

Oh – except for one small thing. The people of Afghanistan are fed up to the teeth with a government that displays only chronic and contemptible incompetence and corruption.

Hamid? Mr. Harper? You are public servants. Do something today to earn the public trust. Like punishing those who would send policemen into the night to rifle-butt unarmed young reporters, whose only crime is searching for the truth in the mess we’ve all made of Afghanistan.
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'Taliban Back Due to Karzai's Poor Strategic Vision' - Abdullah Abdullah
IPS (Inter Press Service) - 04/20/2007
ALMATY - Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah warns that the government of President Hamid Karzai suffers from "shortcomings in strategic vision" that are contributing to a deteriorating security situation in an ethnically diverse country.

In an interview with IPS writer Peyman Pejman, on the sidelines of the annual Eurasia Media Forum underway here, Abdullah who was minister from 1998 to 2004 said lack of attention on the part of the Karzai government to several economically deprived provinces has made it possible for the Taliban to return.

IPS: How far has Afghanistan progressed over these past five years?

AA: The country could have been -- should have been -- in a much better state after five years. We have come a long way but security and the issues of governance and economic development are still serious issues.

IPS: What exactly went wrong?

AA: What went wrong? I think we somewhat took the support of the people and the international community for granted and we did not pay enough attention to the business of the people. We went on as if it was business as usual.

IPS: What do you mean by a lack of strategic vision?

AA: I mean governance issues related to lack of clear vision about where the country should go and how to get the people involved. The government has not implemented any strategic vision. There are a lot of questions about government operations and people are not satisfied with the performance and the programmes.

IPS: What is the missing factor?

AA: Coordination is lacking. Even between the foreign allies and their Afghan partners coordination has been inadequate. I think everyone involved, Afghans and the international community, should review the situation and level of progress. Based on the lessons of the past five years new strategies should be defined to get the people involved in every sense.

IPS: The Karzai government must have done some things right?

AA: I would credit the government with one thing -- getting the people and former warlords to enter the political process instead of settling scores on the battlefield. But, even here, popular participation in the process has been low.

IPS: What is the big challenge for Afghanistan at this point?

AA: One of the biggest challenges that the Karzai government has failed to deal with adequately is security. In recent months, security in several parts of Afghanistan has deteriorated and the Taliban and al-Qaeda have stepped up their attacks on the NATO-led forces. It is still a main problem that the core security in the country (lies in the) presence of foreign forces, with the exception of some Afghan police and troops that have been trained.

IPS: How serious is the threat posed by Taliban resurgence?

AA: In some parts of the country, the Taliban have complete control of the districts. Although the number of these districts is still small, the mere return of the old foes should ring a much louder alarm bell.

IPS: Would you, like Karzai, lay blame for the Taliban's resurgence at Pakistan's door?

AA: Many of the leaders are in Pakistan. There have been sustained reports that Karzai's government has been in back-channel contacts with the Taliban to bring them into the government and the political process. But these efforts as a whole will fail because of Taliban's stance on many issues. The Taliban as a military and political organisation has an agenda which, in many parts, is contrary to the principles of the democratic system and runs counter to the articles of the Afghan constitution.
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NATO troops kill 1 suspected Taliban militant in southern Afghanistan
The Associated Press April 21, 2007 via International Herald Tribune, France

KABUL, Afghanistan: NATO-led troops shot and killed a suspected Taliban militant and wounded another in southern Afghanistan, an alliance statement said Saturday.

The troops "surprised a couple of Taliban extremists" on Friday, close to the area where two separate explosions killed two NATO International Security Assistance Force soldiers earlier that day, statement said.

"The extremists were successfully engaged by ISAF troops as they attempted to escape from the area," it said.

One militant was killed and another was wounded. Troops found bomb-making material on them, statement said.

NATO and Afghan troops launched their largest-ever offensive last month in southern Afghanistan to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of opium-producing Helmand province.

Scores of militants have been killed in a campaign intended to open the way for economic development, and to persuade Afghans to support President Hamid Karzai's feeble government.
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Italian charity threatens to shut Afghan hospitals
20 Apr 2007 17:26:00 GMT
ROME, April 20 (Reuters) - An Italian aid group threatened on Friday to shut down its hospitals and other health centres in Afghanistan unless Kabul frees one of its Afghan employees.

The group, Emergency, has already pulled its international staff from Afghanistan in protest at the arrest of Rahamtullah Hanafi, who acted as a go-between with the Taliban helping to secure the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist in March.

The Afghan head of security services has said Hanafi, who runs one of Emergency's Afghan hospitals and has been detained since March 20, had connections with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

"If the Afghan government does not deny the denigratory comments made by the head of the secret services and free Hanafi, we will close our hospitals," said Emergency's head Teresa Strada at a rally demanding Hanafi's release in Rome.

The group, which runs three hospitals and a number of health centres in Afghanistan, said it could stop its operations in two weeks.

The Afghan government said on Thursday it hoped the medical charity would return to its "noble" mission of treating the sick. In a statement, it said Hanafi was being questioned in accordance with the law.

Reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released after Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi pressed President Hamid Karzai's government to free five jailed Taliban in exchange. Two Afghans who were working for Mastrogiacomo were killed.

Prodi has defended himself against criticisms at home and abroad for giving in to Taliban demands.
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Jihadist Video Shows Boy Beheading Man
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS April 21, 2007
KILI FAQIRAN, Pakistan (AP) -- The boy with the knife looks barely 12. In a high-pitched voice, he denounces the bound, blindfolded man before him as an American spy. Then he hacks off the captive's head to cries of ''God is great!'' and hoists it in triumph by the hair.

A video circulating in Pakistan records the grisly death of Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official who was killed in a December airstrike in Afghanistan.

An Associated Press reporter confirmed Nabi's identity by visiting his family in Kili Faqiran, their remote village in southwestern Pakistan.

The video, which was obtained by AP Television News in the border city of Peshawar on Tuesday, appears authentic and is unprecedented in jihadist propaganda because of the youth of the executioner.

Captions mention Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's current top commander in southern Afghanistan, although he does not appear in the video. The soundtrack features songs praising Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and ''Sheikh Osama'' -- an apparent reference to Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The footage shows Nabi making what is described as a confession, being blindfolded with a checkered scarf.

''He is an American spy. Those who do this kind of thing will get this kind of fate,'' says his baby-faced executioner, who is not identified.

A continuous 2 1/2-minute shot then shows the victim lying on his side on a patch of rubble-strewn ground. A man holds Nabi by his beard while the boy, wearing a camouflage military jacket and oversized white sneakers, cuts into the throat. Other men and boys call out ''Allahu akbar!'' -- ''God is great!'' -- as blood spurts from the wound.

The film, overlain with jihadi songs, then shows the boy hacking and slashing at the man's neck until the head is severed.

A Pashto-language voiceover in the video identifies Nabi and his home village of Kili Faqiran in Baluchistan province, which lies about two hours' drive from the Afghan border.

A reporter went to the village, and Nabi's distraught and angry father, Ghulam Sakhi, confirmed his son's identity from a still picture that AP made from the footage. He said neighbors had told him the video is available at the village bazaar, but he had no wish to see it.

Sakhi said his son had been a loyal Taliban member who fought in Afghanistan and sheltered the hard-line Afghan group's leaders in the family's mud-walled compound.

He blames the Taliban and wants to avenge his son's death.

''The Taliban are not mujahedeen. They are not fighting for the cause of Islam,'' the 70-year-old said. ''If I got my hands on them I would kill them and even tear their flesh with my own teeth.''

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told AP he had no information about Nabi or the video. None of the group's commanders he contacted could confirm the execution, he said.

The method of Nabi's death was not unusual for Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. Suspected informers are regularly found beheaded and dumped along the side of the road in the lawless, mountainous regions along the Afghan-Pakistani border where al-Qaida and Taliban militants find sanctuary.

But such al-Qaida-style killings are rarely featured in the Taliban's increasingly frequent propaganda videos. The use of a child to conduct the beheading stands out even among those filmed by militants in Iraq.

''This is outright barbarism,'' Iqbal Haider, secretary-general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said after viewing the video. ''Whosoever has committed this, whether they are Taliban or anybody else or any Afghan or al-Qaida or anybody, they are enemy No. 1 of the Muslims.''

The video accuses Nabi of responsibility for a U.S. airstrike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was regarded as one of the top three associates of Omar, the Taliban supreme leader. He was hit while traveling by car in Afghanistan's Helmand province Dec. 19.

Osmani was the highest-ranking Taliban leader to die since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the hard-line regime in late 2001 for refusing to hand over bin Laden following the Sept. 11 terror attack on the United States.

The U.S. military said at the time that Osmani's death was a serious blow to militant operations, and NATO commanders said this week that a feared spring offensive had yet to materialize.

Sakhi, a retired mosque preacher with a long gray beard, spoke unashamedly of his son's Taliban affiliation and wept twice during an interview in his simple home at the foot of a mountain valley in Baluchistan province.

He said Nabi fought against the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance that helped U.S. forces to victory in Afghanistan.

After returning to Pakistan, Nabi ran a religious school in the Baluchistan capital of Quetta and had regularly sheltered both Osmani and Dadullah at the family compound, the father said.

He said Nabi also bought weapons for Taliban fighters and organized medical treatment for those injured during fighting in Afghanistan.

Some days after Osmani's death, Nabi went to Peshawar and then to Wana, a tribal town considered a militant stronghold, to collect money from Taliban officials to buy guns and food for militants in Afghanistan, Sakhi said.

He said his son called at the end of January to reveal that a tribal council had sentenced him to death on charges of tipping off U.S. forces about Osmani's movements, despite his denials.

His son passed the phone to Dadullah, but the militant leader ignored his pleas for clemency, Sakhi said.

''I talked to him and said you visited us and my son was a close friend so why are you going to hang him? He just said, 'How are you?', and switched off the phone,'' Sakhi said.

''They are the enemies of Islam,'' he said of the Taliban. ''They are behaving like savages.''

Sam Zarifi, Asia research director for Human Rights Watch, said the use of a child to commit such an act constituted a war crime and was a ''new low'' in the conflict in Afghanistan.

He noted the Taliban had teenage combatants but they were not recruited on a large scale because of the availability of adult fighters. He said he had seen children in the background of some jihadist videos but none in which they were directly involved in violence.

''I don't know why they would do this,'' Zarifi said. ''The Taliban have to some extent tried to play to the public in Afghanistan and have not engaged in the complete sowing of mayhem that we have seen in Iraq. But this kind of act is really egregious. It's off the charts.''
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Stewart of Afghanistan
TIME magazine 04/20/2007 By Aryn Baker
When posted to Kabul, most people dress like they're on a mountaineering expedition. Rory Stewart, on the other hand, gets fitted out on Savile Row. Settling into a tattered armchair in the Afghan capital's Gandamak bar?named after the battlefield where British troops were defeated by the Afghans in 1842 during the first Anglo-Afghan war-the Eton and Oxford alumnus looks and sometimes sounds like an unreconstructed colonial nawab. He clasps his hands behind his head, exposing a pair of malachite cufflinks that glitter against gleaming white cuffs. "The secret to a good suit," he muses, "is using a heavy wool fabric. It keeps the shape much better."

But appearances are deceiving. This onetime deputy governor of an Iraqi province and two-time author isn't garbed as a City banker in order to project upper-class Britishness, but, he says, "to show respect" to Afghans. In Stewart's latest incarnation, as President Hamid Karzai's appointed reviver of traditional Afghan architecture and crafts, earning the respect of the locals is crucial?especially because the work must take place in a war-ravaged country with no real peace on the horizon. How can preservation be achieved amid so much destruction?

Stewart does it through winning community support. For the past year, he has labored tirelessly to transform the Murad Khane slum in Kabul's 200-year-old city center into a heritage district and tourist magnet for Afghans and foreigners alike. At first, local reaction was about the same as one would expect if some bowler-hatted Brit showed up at a Rio favela and proposed that he help residents spruce the place up. "I told him he would fail," says Palawan Aziz, the neighborhood's headman and now the project's strongest supporter. Stewart persevered, visiting residents and charming them with courtly Dari and Afghan social graces burnished by his earlier visits to the country (his 2002 trek across Afghanistan formed the basis of his best-selling travel memoir The Places In Between). His first project was to rid the area of 900 cubic meters of trash?a triumph that earned him much gratitude. "We didn't trust him at first," says Aziz. "So many foreigners come in with great promises, and nothing ever happens."

International missions have indeed promised the world to Afghanistan?from judicial reforms to paved roads. These measures, while essential for a country that has been without effective central government for nearly 30 years, take time, and Afghans first need to see tangible results?like garbage off the streets?before they can have faith in higher-minded, longer-term pledges and objectives. Stewart's cleanup of Murad Khane has thus given him the license to embark on the cultural projects that are his real passion. He is directing the area's architectural restorations, and he has set up the Centre for Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture to teach craftsmen the skills they will need to restore old buildings.

The school is based on Prince Charles' School of Traditional Arts in London, which so impressed President Karzai on a visit to the British capital that he decided to set up something similar in Kabul. Stewart?who while in Iraq had set up a carpentry school and helped refurbish an old bazaar?was asked to launch it and arrived in Kabul in 2005. Under Stewart's stewardship, the school has become a substantial development program that provides jobs and has improved the lives of the 700 residents of Murad Khane. "I wouldn't see the point of teaching this stuff unless I thought that it could be a vibrant, living, income-generating project for Afghans," he says. "Because if it was just beautiful Afghan tradition, it may as well just sit in a museum."

The son of Britain's consul general in Hanoi during the Vietnam War, Stewart grew up in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Scotland before joining the Foreign Office himself and serving in Indonesia and Montenegro. In 2000, he took two years off to walk 9,600 km across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India, seeking to better understand the countries now so important to the West. Then, for 11 months he served as deputy governor of a southern Iraqi province under the Coalition Provisional Authority?a stint that yielded the searingly honest The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.

At 33, Stewart sometimes wears his age awkwardly. He often grabs unsuspecting friends for a dramatic tango across barroom floors. And, like a boyish backpacker, he worries that a long-anticipated camel trek across Afghanistan may seem irresponsible now that he needs to knuckle down to his job (which involves, among other things, raising $45 million to endow his ngo for preserving Afghanistan's heritage, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation). But when it comes to describing the project that so impassions him, he's all statesman: "This is a development project that says 'we respect your traditional culture, and we are going to put our resources and our technology and our knowledge toward supporting it,' as opposed to a development project which says 'we don't like your traditional culture and we want to change it.' That's not the way you are going to win Afghans over." And that's hardly the voice of an old-school colonial, whatever impression those Savile Row suits may give you.
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Kabul’s port access demand rejected
The News, April 20, 2007
KARACHI: Pakistan has rejected Afghanistan’s demand for a direct access to its ports to lift cargoes imported under a transit facility on security grounds. Islamabad also believes that if this demand was fulfilled, it would eliminate local operators’ role and thus put more than 100,000 jobs on the line.

Sources in Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) said both the ministries of communications and commerce opposed this proposal coming from the Afghan government and traders.

“Actually the government believes that the involvement of Afghan transport to lift ATT cargoes could cause several problems,” said a source close to the negotiations between the two sides. “With the Afghan transport the trend of smuggling is feared to pick up while there would also be chances of influx of products which are not required.”

He said though the Afghan side didn’t define the way they wanted to lift the cargoes from Pakistani ports, it seemed that they would like their own transport to enter Pakistan, load the cargo and then get back to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan recently sought direct access to Pakistani ports to lift cargoes imported from different countries under a transit facility, through its own transport. A delegation of Afghan traders and officials recently visited Pakistan and held meetings with authorities concerned and local custom agents, who facilitated ATT from Pakistan.

One of the major demands the Afghan team made before the Customs official and CBR was to have a direct role of Afghan importers and government in transportation of ATTA cargoes from Pakistan to their final destination in Afghanistan. “There are also concerns raised from local Customs agents, who facilitate ATT transportation from the ports here to Afghanistan,” said the source. “Such process involves more than 90,000 people to generate their employments and it’s a proper regulated business in Pakistan. If the government allows the Afghan transport, it means an end to their role and business.”

He said the Pakistani side was more interested in making the existing ATT system more transparent and the recent meeting with the Afghan delegation was part of the same objective.

The country in late 60s entered into an Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) with Afghanistan, which allowed goods bound for the landlocked neighbour to transit Pakistan free of duty.

Initially the trade was restricted to a few products, as it carried a negative list of more than 50 products, on fears of smuggling, which could trigger a flood of smuggled goods into the local market.

However, rising demand in the neighbouring country has convinced the authorities to remove most products from the negative list, which has now been reduced to four, which include cigarettes, cigars, automobile parts and right-hand drive vehicles.

“Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are drafting an agreement to enhance ATT with focus on volume increase and minimum documentation requirements,” said the source. He said the agreement was due to be signed within next few weeks and it required a nod from the highups of both sides.

“The proposed agreement offers benefits to the ATT with incentives from both sides of the border, which would expedite trade process and ultimately cut transportation cost of consignments,” he added.

Imports under ATTA started increasing some three years back as construction activity picked up in the landlocked country. The imports under ATTA crossed almost Rs30bn by the end of June 2006.
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Liberals being 'unfair' to soldiers, PM asserts
GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Friday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — Stephen Harper has accused the opposition Liberals of trying to capitalize on the deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Liberals introduced a motion Thursday asking Parliament to confirm that Canada's military deployment in the war-torn country will end in February, 2009, and that the government will “notify NATO of this decision immediately.”

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told the House of Commons that the Prime Minister said “he would continue a combat mission until at least 2011, and that we would stay until the progress made is irreversible and that we might leave by 2010 if certain conditions are met, which is exactly what [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush said about his war in Iraq, where the Prime Minister wanted to send Canadians.
“Will the Prime Minister end our mission in Kandahar in February, 2009, and inform NATO now?”
 
Mr. Harper responded that Mr. Dion has had “about a half dozen positions” on the timing of the withdrawal and that the Afghan people still want and need the protection of the Canadian Forces.

“I have to say this,” the Prime Minister said. “We did not hear a lot about this in the last few months because Canadian troops had not suffered casualties. We see some unfortunate casualties and they are back to attacking the mission. The Leader of the Opposition likes to talk about what is unfair. That is unfair to the men and women in uniform.”

Another eight fatalities among the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan last week and the accidental death of a soldier this week brought the death toll to 54 since Canada sent troops to the country in 2002.
The Liberal motion, introduced by defence critic Denis Coderre, is not a confidence matter, so the government will not fall, regardless of whether it passes in a vote next week. The House is evenly divided on the issue.

The Bloc Québécois have indicated they will back the Liberals, while the Conservatives and the NDP will try to defeat the motion. So it will come down to the number of MPs who show up for the vote. But, even if the motion passes, the Conservative government is likely to ignore its directives.

And the wording, which commits to keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan for another two years, suggests that the Liberals did not particularly care if they had the support of the New Democrats.

“The NDP opposes this motion. Why? Because it prolongs a George Bush style combat mission in Afghanistan,” NDP Leader Jack Layton said. His party proposed an amendment that called for a withdrawal to begin immediately — a revision that the Liberals rejected.
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The only Afghan escalation is in the rhetoric
MIKE CAPSTICK - Special to Globe and Mail Update
Eight Canadian soldiers have died in a week at the hands of enemy bomb-makers, renewing the calls for withdrawal from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the government's decision to modernize the army's tank fleet has brought criticism that Canada is ramping up the conflict.

But in fact, the only escalation is in the rhetoric of the critics in politics and the media.

First, let me put my cards on the table. I recently retired from 32 years in the Canadian Forces, including command of troops in Cyprus, Bosnia and Afghanistan. I spent a year in Kabul as the leader of Canada's first Strategic Advisory Team in Afghanistan. My team worked across the spectrum of Afghan society, from government ministers to construction labourers. We also worked closely with the International Security Assistance Force, multilateral donors, official development agencies and NGOs.

Most importantly, we worked very closely with the brave and impressive Afghans formulating their country's national development strategy and delivering rural reconstruction assistance. In short, we had an opportunity to gain insight that many observers are denied.
 
During the early part of this decade, I was one of the leading proponents of converting the army to a medium-weight, all-wheeled organization. Before last summer's intense combat operations in Afghanistan, I would have maintained the view that tanks were not necessary there, and probably counterproductive. However, a good army is a learning army, and ours learned some hard lessons in Kandahar:
Armoured protection is essential. Although there is no perfect safeguard against roadside bombs, mines and suicide bombers, a tank can handle all but the biggest explosions.

There are places in rural Afghanistan that wheeled vehicles simply cannot go. Irrigation ditches and low walls made of sun-hardened mud are effective obstacles to wheeled vehicles. Leopard tanks can negotiate these and withstand the small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire that covers these positions.

The tank provides accurate, precise and consistent firepower. A well-trained crew can consistently attain first-round hits on targets as small as a square metre from as far as two kilometres. In doing so, the tank can destroy a precise target without killing civilians or causing the extensive damage that is characteristic of even the most precise air strike. This alone should convince the critics that Canada is doing the right thing by employing tanks.

The facts are clear — in southern Afghanistan, tanks provide Canadian soldiers with mobility, protection, and, most importantly, the ability to destroy targets and kill insurgents without harming innocents. It's hard not to conclude that the critics are either ill informed or motivated by ideology and politics.

Even more alarming, however, are the calls to abandon our mission and the people of Afghanistan.

It is obvious that some have never agreed with the argument that a stable Afghanistan is essential to our security. They have ignored the reality that the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were planned and financed from the safe haven of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. They have also ignored the fact that an unstable Afghanistan presents a clear danger in an already dangerous region. Are they willing to risk a nuclear confrontation resulting from irreconcilable Iranian, Indian and Pakistani interests in an unstable Afghanistan?

It's also difficult to understand how they can ignore the Canadian-values dimension of the Afghan mission. Although it may not be clear in Ottawa or Toronto, it is obvious in Kabul that Afghanistan has made remarkable progress in the past five years. A president and parliament have been elected and a constitution is in effect. None of these institutions is perfect — far from it. But every day for a year I looked into the eyes of Afghans who want nothing more than a basic level of security and to make their children's lives a little better than their own.

Afghanistan is at or near the bottom of every single United Nations human development indicator. Canada is at or near the top. I'm not sure how those who style themselves as progressives can advocate abandoning Afghans to the criminals, warlords, drug mafias and religious zealots who destroyed the country in the 1990s and would consign them to remaining one of the poorest peoples in the world.

Master Corporal Christopher Paul Raymond Stannix, killed in action west of Kandahar on April 8, understood what most of the critics refuse to see — that the Afghan people need our help. His obituary quotes him as having stating that "I would like to think if I was in the same position there ..... somebody would be willing to step in and help me."

That contention is not articulated in the language of think tanks, columnists or political rhetoric. But it is a clear, concise statement of what the mission is about: helping people who need it. I would like nothing better than to see 90 per cent of Canada's Afghan expenditures devoted to governance and development. The reality is that until the south of the country is stabilized, this will remain a pipe dream. Afghans and those of us with experience on the ground know that "rebalancing" the mission is impossible without security.

Canadians have paid a high human price in Afghanistan — a price that renders the escalation of rhetoric surrounding the government's tank deal petty, even craven. Canadian troops, diplomats and aid workers have all proven the strength of our commitment on the ground. It's time to honour that commitment by scaling back the overheated debate surrounding this mission and concentrating on how to assure the future of Afghanistan and a people whom the international community has abandoned before, at horrific cost.

Colonel Mike Capstick retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in late 2006 and is now an associate of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.
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Ex-minister Jalali in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Apr 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan's former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali is busy in meetings with Pakistani diplomats and politicians.

Informed sources told Pajhwok Afghan News that Jalali had arrived in Islamabad about a week back. Since then, he had met several politicians and diplomats there.

Jalali's visit to Islamabad is seen in the context of recent rumours in Kabul about changes in the existing cabinet.

A Pakistani security official, who requested anonymity, said Jalali is busy in meetings with politicians and bureaucrats from Peshawar, Islamabad and other areas of Pakistan.

The same was confirmed by former commander of the Nangarhar military corps Haji Mohammad Zaman. He said he had met Jalali two days back and discussed with him the political and security situation in the country.

When a former Afghan diplomat Arifullah, who is presently staying in Islamabad, was asked about the purpose of Jalali's visit to Islamabad, he said it was personal visit.

However, he was also holding meetings with bureaucrats and political figures, said Arifullah.

The then interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali quit the job in late 2005 mentioning personal reasons. However, analysts believe he had resigned due to his differences with the government.

He left for the United States soon after his resignation and is still living there.
Janullah Hashemzada
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Army’s Documents Detail Secrecy in Tillman Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS April 21, 2007
Within hours of Cpl. Pat Tillman’s death, the Army was engaged in an information lockdown. Phone and Internet connections were cut off at a base in Afghanistan. Guards were posted on a wounded platoon mate of his. A captain ordered a noncommissioned officer to burn Corporal Tillman’s uniform.

Army investigative documents reviewed by The Associated Press describe how the military tried to seal off information about Corporal Tillman’s death from all but a few soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion — that he had been killed by American fire — up the chain of command to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach his family for five weeks.

The clampdown, and misinformation issued by the military, lie at the heart of a growing Congressional investigation. “We want to find out how this happened,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. “Was it the result of incompetence, miscommunication or a deliberate strategy?”

The issue is also central to punishments that the Army is weighing against nine officers, including four generals, faulted in the latest Pentagon report on the case of Corporal Tillman, the football star turned Ranger fighting in Afghanistan.

It is well known by now that the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death, on April 22, 2004, were kept from his family and the American public. The Army maintained that he had been cut down in an enemy ambush, though many soldiers soon learned that he had been mistakenly killed by his own comrades. The newly reviewed documents — nearly 1,100 pages released last month at the conclusion of an inquiry by the Army Criminal Investigation Command — reveal the mechanics of the information containment.

For example, the day after Corporal Tillman died, Specialist Jade Lane lay in a hospital bed in Afghanistan, recovering from gunshot wounds inflicted by the same Rangers who had shot at Corporal Tillman. Amid his shock and grief, Specialist Lane noticed that guards were posted on him.

“I thought it was strange,” he told the Army investigators. Later, he said, he learned the reason for the guards. The news media were sniffing around, and his superiors “did not want anyone talking to us.”

The day of the fatal mix-up, a soldier at Camp Salerno, an Army forward operating base near Khowst, Afghanistan, heard the dreaded call come across the radio: “K.I.A’s.” There were two killed in action: one allied Afghan fighter and one Army Ranger, identified only by his code name.

The soldier checked a roster and discovered that the fallen American was Corporal Tillman. Had he wanted to share the news outside the tactical operations center, doing so would have been difficult. “The phones and Internet had been cut off, to prevent anyone from talking about the incident,” he told investigators.

Several Army officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan told The A.P. that pulling the plug on base phones and e-mail was routine after a soldier died. The practice is meant to ensure that the family is notified through official channels, said Maj. Todd Breasseale, an Army officer who was chief spokesman for ground forces in Iraq until last August.

Elsewhere at Camp Salerno, a staff sergeant was in his tent when a captain walked in later and told him to burn Corporal Tillman’s bloody clothing. “He wanted me alone to burn what was in the bag to prevent security violations, leaks and rumors,” the staff sergeant testified. Corporal Tillman’s uniform, socks, gloves and body armor were placed in a 55-gallon drum and burned.

But the truth was quickly becoming evident to a small group of soldiers with direct access to evidence. Two other sergeants, who examined Corporal Tillman’s vest, noticed that the bullet holes appeared to be from 5.56-millimeter rounds — signature American ammunition.

Brig. Gen. James C. Nixon, who at the time was a colonel and Corporal Tillman’s regimental commander, ordered an investigation into the killing but directed that the information gathered be shared with as few people as possible until the results were final, the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, Thomas F. Gimble, found in a separate inquiry also completed last month.

General Nixon, who is now director of operations at the Center for Special Operations at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, told Mr. Gimble’s investigators that he had not been aware of all regulations governing such a case and that his missteps had been unintentional.
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'US' Special Forces kill three Afghan policemen'
HERAT CITY, Apr 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US' Special Forces killed three policemen on Herat - Kandahar Highway last night, police officials said on Thursday.

General Ikramuddin Yawar, regional police commander in the western zone, told Pajhwok Afghan News the clash took place last nigh in Shozabad Khurmai area of Farah province.

Yawar stopped short of mentioning the reason behind the clash. However, head of the crime branch General Ali Khan told Pajhwok Afghan News the security forces were informed that a band of thieves had erected barricades and looting passengers.

During search of the area by the ISAF and US' Special Forces, the police commander of that area refused to disarm, which triggered the clash between the two sides.

Alleged spy killed
Taliban said they had killed the man who allegedly provided information to the foreign troops about Mullah Akhtar Mohamamd Osmani. The prominent Taliban commander was killed in an air strike in Helmand province last year. 

In a video disc, sent to Pajhwok Afghan News, a man named Qari Ghulam Nabi confessed that he had informed the foreign forces about commander Osmani. Ghulam Nabi was kidnapped by Taliban some three months back. 

Clash in Paktika
The Taliban and government forces have issued conflicting statements about a clash in Gwashti area of the southeastern Paktika province.

Purported Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they had killed five ANA soldiers in the fighting. He said the fighting erupted when Taliban attacked a convoy supplying food items to the US forces.

However, a provincial official rejected Taliban's claim as baseless. Ghamay Khan, spokesman for Paktika governor, told Pajhwok no ANA soldier was killed or injured in the fighting.
Ahmad Qureshi/Hashemzada/Srozawal
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"Taliban not 10 feet tall"
WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A top Bush administration official said Wednesday the Taliban though being a "significant" adversary, "is not 10 feet tall" and asserted that the advantage lies with the Afghan government and not the insurgents.

"I believe that while the Taliban is a significant adversary that has some strength and has some support in the country. But we do need to assess the Taliban correctly. They are a significant adversary. But they are not 10 feet tall. The government has the advantage," said Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State.

Addressing a Congressional forum meeting on "Reassessing Priorities for US Funding to Afghanistan," Burns said: "The long expected Taliban offensive was preceded this spring by a NATO offensive. This was correct in most of the battles particularly in August, September and October 2006 when the Taliban while it fought aggressively, and perhaps even bravely, did melt the advantage. But the advantage did lie with the Afghan forces and with the NATO and international forces."

The Congressional forum was organised by the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce and was held at the Capitol Hill, the first for an Afghan American organisation.

The meeting was addressed by the visiting Afghanistan Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahady;  the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, John Gastright; Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Centre for International Cooperation and Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar in Residence, Middle East Institute.

The meeting reviewed the US funding, its aid effectiveness and felt there is an urgent need to increase substantially the assistance and grant in the developmental sector and to involve the private sector in a much bigger way.

In his speech, Burns conceded that the fight against the Taliban was not going to be easy and a quicker one. "This is going to be a long struggle. We should prepare ourselves. This is not going to be easy. We should not minimize the strength of the Taliban. We should be realistic about it," he said.

Expressing concern on increasing dependence of the Afghan economy on sale and production of narcotics, Burns said the issue has to be tackled by the Afghan government on priority basis.

"This is a problem, which the Afghan government must be primarily responsible for. They have to make the decisions. The government has to make the decision, how best to combat this," he said, adding that the US was willing to do whatever it can, but the lead in this regard has to be taken by the Afghan government.

Giving an overview of the achievements made by the Afghan government in post-Taliban era, Burns reiterated the commitment of the United States to Afghanistan. "Afghan is future. It's future, stability and peace is a priority for our government. The good thing about Afghanistan is that there is no argument about it in Washington. On Afghanistan, you see a very strong bi-partisan consensus of a democratic majority in the Congress, of the Republican Party and of course of the Bush administration."

He said the Bush administration was fully behind the Karzai government as he tries to secure the country from the Taliban, from al-Qaeda and from forces coming from across Pakistan.

Burns also felt the need to strengthen and better equip the Afghan National Army (ANA), so that it can effectively fight out the insurgents. "Afghan troops and the Afghan commanders have the competitive advantage, which we do not have. They know the country; they know the people of the country. They are so important in the counter-insurgency effort."
Lalit K. Jha
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Minister's call for aid effectiveness upsets US official
WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The call for "aid effectiveness" by Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahady and his suggestion regarding routing of foreign aid through the government and not directly to the NGOs, created some tense moments at the Congressional forum meeting on Afghanistan.

Ahady's articulate observations that aid, especially coming through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), was not being put to the best use for the people of Afghanistan, was immediately  termed "unfair and inaccurate" by John Gastright, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia.

The meeting was organised by the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce.

A visibly upset Gastright said USAID was "regrettably being maligned" and that he did not agree with the observations on aid effectiveness.

The Finance Minister had earlier observed that there was no discussion on "output" of foreign aid and works not routed through the Afghan government were being done at a much higher cost.

However, the reaction by Gastright prompted the minister to issue a clarification before audience at the Capitol Hill. "My comments in no way should be considered against the US government."

The observations made by Ahady were also supported by two other eminent experts at the panel discussions - Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Centre for International Cooperation, and Marvin Weinbaum, scholar in Residence, Middle East Institute - who also tended to question the manner in which USAID was funding several projects in Afghanistan, which many a times resulted in sheer waste of valuable resources.

"Money (in Afghanistan) is not being used effectively. Amount (funding) is being dispersed, nut is not delivered," said Rubin.

Referring to one particular instance where nearly $100 million was transferred to the bank account of a consultant in Washington to carry a project in Afghanistan, Rubin said: "This may sound too harsh. But if we give the money directly through the Afghan government, USAID would be much more effective."
Lalit K. Jha
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Forced sharia, suicide attacks un-Islamic: Ulema
PESHAWAR, Apr 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Ulema (religious scholars) in Pakistan's North-Western province denounced suicide attacks and termed enforcement of Sharia (Islamic code of life) by force as un-Islamic.

Around 2,000 religious scholars, teachers and administrators representing more than 1,000 religious seminaries from all over Pakistan, declared suicide attacks un-Islamic and opposed enforcement of Sharia by force.

The ulema convention was organised by a Jamit Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), a leading religious party led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, in Peshawar on Tuesday.

The party has its government in one of the four provinces (NWFP), and is partner in the provincial government in another province (Balochistan).

The convention also declared illegal and un-Islamic threats to hairdressers against shaving of beards and attacks on video shops in the name of Islam and curbing obscenity.

The meeting of scholars adopted a joint declaration containing six resolutions.

In one of the resolutions, the religious scholars disapproved acts of subversion carried out recently in many parts of Pakistan by some extremists.

They also opposed issuing letters containing threats to video shops, barbers and administrations of schools for girls.

The declaration said that some invisible forces had committed suicide attacks against administration of an Islamic country causing harm to innocent Muslims.

"Such violent acts are not only against the law of the land, these acts of subversion are also against Sharia. This cannot be supported," said the declaration.

Chief of JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rahman, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, provincial ministers and heads of seminaries from NWFP, FATA, Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and other parts of Pakistan attended the convention.

The declarations asked the religious seminaries not to indulge themselves in "such conspiracies" and focus only on learning activities. "Religious institutions should only be used for educational activities."

The declaration also showed opposition to the recent activities of some clerics in Islamabad, who had seized a children library by force and involved in threatening video shop owners and asking the government to implement sharia in the country.
PAN Monitor
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10 vaccination centres set up along border
Dawn, (Pakistan) April 19, 2007
ISLAMABAD, April 18: The number of polio vaccination points along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been increased to 10. These points in the NWFP, Fata and Balochistan will vaccinate 600,000 children crossing the border.

Speaking at a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group for Eradication of Polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, federal Health Minister Nasir Khan said the government was concentrating on areas of concern in the fight against polio.

Epidemiology suggests virus sharing between Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan. It is estimated that more than 1.7 million children below the age of five cross the border annually.

Given the scale of population movements, health authorities of the two countries agreed last December to set up permanent vaccination posts at entry points along the border in the Balochistan and the NWFP. Initially, two points had been established.

The health minister said governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed to further increase the number of border points, hold special cross-border campaigns and increase collaboration for eradicating the disease.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria are polio-endemic and 16 other countries reported sporadic polio cases in 2006.

Last year, 40 cases of polio were reported in the country – 16 in the NWFP, 10 in Balochistan, 12 in Sindh and two in Punjab. Four cases of the disease have been reported in Sindh and the NWFP.

Dr Hussain Gezairy, World Health Organisation’s Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region, emphasised on stakeholders to work together for overcoming difficulties in polio eradication.

The meeting also expressed concern over insecurity in Afghanistan and urged peace for achieving the goal of polio-free Afghanistan.
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