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August 18, 2007 


Suicide blast in Afghanistan kills 15: police
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide car bomber attacked a US convoy in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 15 people, including 11 civilians, and wounding 26 others, police said.
 
Police said the attack took place in a crowded area west of the city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement that is now waging an increasingly bloody insurgency against Afghan officials and foreign troops.

"Fifteen people, four Afghan security guards and 11 civilians were killed and another 26 including 19 civilians and seven guards were wounded in the suicide blast today," police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.

The logistics convoy, which was guarded by a US private security firm, was heading to troubled Zehri district in Helmand province when the attack took place.

The blast destroyed two vehicles belonging to the guards and a civilian minibus, police said at the scene.

"The bomb was so strong that it ripped through the civilian minibus and several other vehicles," police officer Jan Mohammad said.

Body parts and pieces of metal from the suicide bomber's car were scattered 100 metres (yards) from the site of the blast, which partially destroyed the outer wall of a nearby mosque.

Bloodied turbans, sandals and shoes littered the pavement. One of the convoy's security guards collected body parts and bits of flesh from the road.

Ten passengers aboard the minibus were killed, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Only one woman and her baby daughter emerged from the bus unscathed. She leaned against the wall of the mosque, wailing uncontrollably.

Saturday's attack was the latest of a series of suicide bombings by suspected Taliban militants against Afghan and foreign forces in the war-ravaged country.

On Friday another suicide attacker blew himself up outside the house of a district governor in Kandahar, killing the official and three of his children, and wounding three others.

Kandahar has been a hotbed of violence since the Taliban militia emerged from the city and the surrounding region in the early 1990s to take control of the Afghan government by 1996.

They were driven from power in late 2001 by a US-led coalition for failing to hand over their allies in Al-Qaeda, the extremist network behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Taliban insurgents carry out regular attacks against Afghan officials and soldiers, as well as the international troops deployed here to support the government.
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Conflicting claims about clashes in Zabul, Kapisa
KABUL, Aug 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government and Taliban have issued conflicting claims about clashes in Zabul and Kapisa provinces last night.

Officials in the southern Zabul province claimed killing two and injuring seven Taliban in Dai Chopan district of the province last night.

Gulab Shah Alikhel, spokesman for Zabul governor, told Pajhwok the Taliban attacked several police posts in the district. However, the policemen stayed unhurt.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, on the other hand, rejected the government claim regarding the killing of their men. Ahmadi said three police posts were destroyed by inflicting 'heavy casualties on police'. The purported spokesman would not mention the exact number of police casualties.

Separately, Taliban said their men had destroyed three security posts in Tagab district of the central Kapisa province.

The militia's self-proclaimed spokesman Zabeehullah Mujahid said several policemen were killed and their arms were taken away by Taliban fighters.

Chief of Tagab district Mullah Masood confirmed attacks on police posts, but rejected the Taliban claim regarding police casualties. He said only two cops had suffered injuries.

Security chief of the province Colonel Abdul Jalil told Pajhwok Taliban ambushed a joint convoy of the Afghan and foreign troops in Tagab district. He said two of the attackers were killed and four more injured in retaliatory fire from the military personnel.

Mujahid also claimed killing five policemen in attacks on their posts in Sia Gard district of the central Parwan province, but police chief Brig. Gen. Muhammad Salim Ihsas rejected the claim as baseless.
Sher Ahmad Haidar/Farid Tanha
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Taliban say Korean hostage talks fail
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Negotiations to secure the release of 19 Korean church volunteers being held in Afghanistan by the Taliban have failed and the insurgents' leadership council are now considering their fate, a Taliban spokesman said on Saturday.

"The talks ended without any result and have failed as our main demand was not accepted," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"I don't think (further) talks will yield anything. I am awaiting for the decision (on the hostages fate) from the leadership council," he said.

He said the talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials broke down last Thursday, the day they were reported to have started.

The Taliban on Monday freed two women hostages, the first to be released since they seized 23 Koreans from a bus in Ghazni province on the main road south from the capital Kabul last month. They have killed two male hostages.

They have threatened to kill the remaining captives if their demand for insurgent prisoners to be freed from jail is not met.

President Hamid Karzai -- who came under sharp criticism for releasing Taliban prisoners in return for an Italian journalist in March -- has ruled out any swap of prisoners, saying that such a step would just encourage more kidnapping.

Seoul has repeatedly said it has no influence on Kabul to free jailed Taliban as an exchange deal for the hostages, most of whom are female. Koreans officials could not be reached immediately for comment in Kabul on Saturday.

Kabul has not ruled out use of force to free the hostages should talks fail. The Taliban have split the captives into several groups and have warned that any use of force would put their lives in danger.
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Ban appoints dy special representative for Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Bo Asplund of Sweden as his Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.

Asplund will also serve as the United Nations Resident Coordinator as well as the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan. He was UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and the UNDP's Resident Representative in Indonesia before his appointment in Afghanistan.

Earlier, Asplund held positions with his government, including at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm and diplomatic postings to Chile and to the Swedish Mission to the United Nations.

Asplund holds a master degree in international economics from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs; master's and bachelor's degrees in economics, political science and statistics from the University of Lund (Sweden); and a Certificat d'Etudes Politiques from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.
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Local trader kidnapped in Logar
PUL-I-ALAM, Aug 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Armed men in military fatigue kidnapped a local trader in the central Logar province last night.

The trader named Abdul Hakeem was importing cars from Dubai. His brother engineer Ali Ahmad told Pajhwok Afghan News Hakeem was kidnapped while returning to his house after attending a marriage party last night.

Ali Ahmad said his brother was seized in Deh Naw village, located some seven kilometres south of Muhammad Agha district of the province.

He said their eight-year-old brother Samiullah was also traveling with Hakeem in the same car but the armed men did not kidnap him. He was traveling in a white colour car recently been imported from Dubai.

Quoting the boy, Ali Ahmad said five armed men, wearing military uniform, stopped their car. They ordered the boy to step down and kidnap his brother in the same car.

Crime branch chief of the provincial police headquarters Qudratullah Azizi confirmed the incident. He said the abductee was not a government official. Azizi said police had started investigations to secure safe release of the trader.

Smugglers detained

Security officials in the western zone claimed arresting five arms and narcotics smugglers in two separate operations in the western provinces of Herat and Ghor.

Col. Rahmatullah Safi, a police officer in the western zone, said two smugglers were detained by border police this morning near the border with Iran.

Police had cordoned the Kala-i-Nazar area between Ghoryan and Shindand districts after receiving prior information about the smugglers, said the officer.

Separately, three people were arrested on charges of smuggling arms in Ghor province, police said on Saturday.

Police chief Brig. Gen. Shah Jahan Noori told Pajhwok the three people were detained with two rockets, one Pika machinegun and four Kalashnikovs in Saghar district. 
Shahpur Arab/Ahmad Qureshi
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Afghan Center Offers Hope For Disabled Children
August 17, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Dozens of disabled Afghan children went onstage on August 16 in a special show prepared by a Kabul-based educational center called Circus for Children.

Organizers of the event say their main aim was to fight prejudice and discrimination against the disabled children.

Hamid Ruhani, the head of the educational center, which is run by a nongovernmental organization, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that their center gives equal opportunities to all children.

"Children shouldn't suffer by thinking, 'I'm blind, so I'm incapable' or 'I'm deaf, so I'm helpless,'" Ruhani said. "In this show blind children and other disabled children proved to other people that 'We are capable people, and there is no difference between the disabled and able-bodied. All of us are the same, and we are capable of doing things.'"

Nazir, a 12-year-old blind boy, took part in the show. His task was to identify small objects put into his hands. He said he was satisfied with his own performance.

"I took part in the show. They would give me things and I would tell them what it was. I identified a toilet-paper roll and a hair brush."

At the end of the program a group of children wearing Afghan national costumes performed several happy songs.

The children were seemingly in high spirits and enjoying the show.

Thousands of Afghan children have been disabled by land mines and disease during decades of war and poverty in the country.

But the special education center in Kabul is one of very few such organizations for disabled children in Afghanistan, and it is far from being able to provide assistance to all the disabled children in need.
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Germany considers increasing troops in Afghanistan: deputy FM
August 18, 2007 Xinhua
The German government is considering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan after three German police officers were killed this week in a bomb attack near the Afghan capital Kabul, an official said Friday.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler told the Berliner Zeitung daily that the government "is considering whether to increase the number of troops deployed in Afghanistan."

The country currently has a 3,000-strong force in the relatively stable northern region of Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The mission is expected to come up for renewal by parliament in October.

Erler said that the government needs to know whether the current German troops could provide enough assistance for the training of the Afghanistan security forces or whether the training should expand from the north to the south.

"We need to signal a message that we will never give up Afghanistan to the Taliban," Erler said in reference to Wednesday's roadside bomb attack on a convoy of the German Embassy.

Early in the month, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for "extending our assistance in training and equipping the Afghan army" amid a debate following the abduction of two German engineers in Afghanistan on July 18.

Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke out against calls for more Western troops to be sent to Afghanistan, insisting on a larger role by Afghan forces.

On Friday, Erler admitted that the government has yet to do more to convince the German people of the troop deployment in Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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Dion: End combat by '09
Aug 18, 2007 04:30 AM Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF Toronto Star,  Canada

OTTAWA–Canadian troops should be pulled off the frontlines and kept far from any engagements with insurgents once the current combat mission in Kandahar ends in 2009, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says.

Dion's vision of Canada's next role in Afghanistan, where troops wouldn't be in the line of fire, could be a major stumbling block in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attempt to seek a political consensus on the future of the mission this fall.

The Prime Minister is unlikely to agree with Dion's demand that troops not be exposed to combat of any sort, even if they are helping mentor Afghan soldiers.

In the advance of next week's meeting of the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada, Dion yesterday called on Harper to tell U.S. President George W. Bush that Canada's "combat role" in Kandahar will end when the current commitment ends in February 2009.

Dion wants negotiations to begin with NATO to find another nation to take Canada's place.

"Clarity is needed," he told a news conference.

"After three years to be at the front, having so much of the burden to do, I think it would be very legitimate ... to say that we will do something else, but the combat mission in Kandahar as such ends."

He said he was open to another mission "in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world ... we are always (ready) to help for development, always there to help for reconstruction, training.

"There are certainly different things that we may do in good partnership with the international community."

It's not the first time Dion has demanded an end to the combat mission. But yesterday, he went further in saying he doesn't want troops to see combat of any sort if they remain in the country.

A statement released later by his spokesperson seemed to place tight restrictions on what kind of military role the Liberals might agree to if another Afghan mission were authorized.

"It cannot involve a combat role," said the statement sent yesterday by email from Jean-François Del Torchio.

"That means, Canadian soldiers will in no way be involved in a mission where engagement with the Taliban or other hostile forces is proactively sought.

"That also means that our soldiers would not accompany any other country's forces (Afghanistan or other) as they engage in those types of operations."

In June, Harper said the military mission in Kandahar would continue only if he received a consensus from the opposition parties.
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Five Afghan Civilians Killed In Clashes
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
KABUL, August 17, 2007 -- NATO today said that five Afghan civilians were killed and three wounded during a firefight between NATO troops and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan.

The NATO soldiers were initially hit by a roadside bomb before coming under small-arms and mortar fire. An alliance statement said the civilian fatalities were "regrettable." It did not say exactly where or when the incident occurred.
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Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan fall 40pc
By Imran Ayub / The News International (Pakistan) August 17, 2007
KARACHI: Exports to Afghanistan have dropped by more than 40 per cent during 2006-07, reflecting a discouraging trend among exporters due to higher duty structure levied by the neighbouring country and new regulatory procedures introduced by the Pakistani government, traders say.

Latest figures compiled by the institutions and traders suggest exports to Afghanistan dropped to $600 million during last fiscal 2006-07 compared to $1.2 billion registered during 2005-06.

“Exports to Afghanistan are on the decline mainly because of discriminatory policies,” said a Peshawar-based exporter asking not to be named.

“The trade policy 2005-06 made abrupt procedural changes to settle claims of rebate on taxes on export to Afghanistan, making it obligatory on the exporters to produce imports’ clearance by Afghan Customs authorities across the border.”

He said the new procedure had created a lot of problems for the exporters because most of the Afghan importers were reluctant to provide copies of requisite documents to Afghan Custom authorities across the border.

The current financial year began on a positive note as the country’s exports rose 10.73 per cent on year in July to total $1.485 billion, less than the $1.529 billion exported in June. Figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics showed imports grew 4.67 per cent on year to $2.574 billion in July.

The trade deficit narrowed to $1.088 billion from $1.117 billion in July 2006. The government raised the export target for the current fiscal year to $19.2 billion. The exports during last financial year totalled $17.01 billion, below the $17.87 billion government target.

Imports for the current fiscal year are forecast to reach $32.6 billion, after totalling $30.54 billion in the last fiscal year. The government predicts a trade deficit of $13.4 billion in the current fiscal, slightly lower than the $13.49 billion recorded in the last fiscal. However, the exporters regret the way country is losing its export share to Afghanistan, one of the nearest and potential market of Pakistani products.

“There are several reasons, which need to be addressed for a boost in exports to Afghanistan,” said Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Chairman Pak-Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We have forwarded some proposals to both Pakistan and Afghan governments, which are expected to get serious consideration from both sides.”

He said the proposals were discussed during a recently concluded Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga, during which boost in bilateral trade was also incorporated in the final declaration with the consent of traders from the two sides.

“The Afghan government has evolved a discriminatory duty structure, which facilitates the transit trade but doesn’t allow the regular exports under the same structure,” said Bilour. “The situation is not disturbing for the Pakistani exporters but it is also supported by the Afghan importers, who endorsed our proposals.”

The country’s exports to Afghanistan started jacking up in 2002, following higher demand of Pakistani products in the war-ravaged country, which lacks enough manufacturing base to cater to its domestic demands.

The bilateral trade climbed up from $492 million in 2003-04 to $1.63 billion in financial year 2005-06 mainly because of exports.
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Afghanistan: bleeding wound of Geneva Accord
By Brig (retd) Mohammad Yousaf The News International (Pakistan) August 17, 2007
General Akhtar was, for years, at the top of the KGB’s hit list with a huge price on his head, but danger or unpopularity never concerned him. He was accustomed to both. At the outset Akhtar was virtually alone in thinking he could drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. The overall strategy he designed to drive the Soviets out was the classic guerrilla one of ‘death by thousand cuts’.

During his lifetime, his exploits as a guerrilla leader never surfaced as he led the world’s largest covert operation against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, it was after his tragic death that he emerged as a top guerrilla leader of an international repute.

A number of books have been written home and abroad about his role in the defeat of Soviets in Afghanistan. He was a ‘Supra Spymaster’ and therefore many of his exploits will continue to remain hidden, but what little we know of him as a general, he brought the Mujahideen to the brink of victory. But before he could tighten the noose around the Soviets’ neck, he was removed from his post as director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by promotion to four-star rank. He was primarily removed by Zia to appease the Americans. It would also bring personal advantages—the credit for a likely forthcoming victory would be his. It would strengthen his personal authority and prestige enormously. He would be seen as the victor in the greatest Jihad for centuries, and it surely has made his position as president unassailable. Akhtar was not the first senior officer to be dropped when it was felt he posed the slightest threat direct or indirect to the president’s personal interest.

It was always Akhtar that frustrated Americans’ efforts to take over the training of the Mujahideen, or to have a say in the allocation of arms, or to bypass the political parties in their distribution. To many in US, Akhtar was seen as having outlived his usefulness by early 1987. They acknowledged that he was the architect of victory in the field, but once that looked like becoming a reality he could indeed be dispensed with.

Diego Cordovez, the United Nations mediator who negotiated the Soviet pullout for six years, writes in his highly controversial book ‘Out of Afghanistan’ that the Red Army was securely entrenched when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw: American weaponry and Afghan bravery raised the cost for Moscow, but it was six-year diplomacy that gave the Russians a way out. Despite being cynical about the role the Akhtar and his ISI, he simply could not ignore the ground realities. He had to confess at many places that Afghanistan had become “bleeding wound for the Soviets”. Some excerpts from his work are appended below:

Richard Burt, Director of the Bureau of Political/Military Affairs in the State Department in the Reagan Administration confided to him “We route everything to Zia through Akhtar”.

In 1983, Akhtar and the ISI, and Casey felt strongly that Russians were not serious in leaving Afghanistan. Akhtar regarded Geneva as a potential sell out because it did not include Mujahideen as participants who would emerge in the control of the follow—on government. He thought it was just a facade, while the struggle was the reality. Zia of course shared Akhtar’s goal of a Mujahideen government but his attitude wasn’t as extreme.

He writes: “Islamic fundamentalists resistant groups in the northern Afghan provinces had already developed contacts in Central Asia and had been agitating for such a programme. The ISI Director-General Akhtar and Brig Yousaf, were sympathetic to the fundamentalist, were quick to embrace the Casey plan despite the strong reservations expressed by Foreign Minister Yaqub and the lukewarm approval of President Zia. During the next year alone, the ISI distributed 5,000 copies of the Qur’aan in batches of 300 at a time, carried across in small rubber boats at night. The ISI also organised 15 commando squads to carry out a variety of sabotage missions designed to derail trains, knock down power lines, and blow up military installations, factories, and fuel storage depots. President Zia drew the line, however, when Yousaf planned to blow up the newly built, ‘Friendship Bridge’ spanning the Oxus at Termez. Worried that the success of the raid might touch off Soviet attacks on key bridges inside Pakistan, Zia cancelled the plan.

“The most ambitious venture was to come in April 1987, when 34 men commando squad penetrated nearly 20 miles inside the Soviet territory and staged a successful rocket assault against a factory. Several days after this happened the Soviet ambassador to Pakistan stormed into the office of Foreign Minister Yaqub and threatened a direct Soviet attack on Pakistan in retaliation for any future raids inside Soviet territory, prompting Zia to call off the cross-border programme completely.

“In May 1985 General Akhtar presented a shopping list of requests for new weapons that included Stingers. President Zia, however, did not commit himself for Stingers for the Afghans. He hemmed and hawed,” said Ikon.

Several Soviets military setbacks during mid-1987 reinforced the ISI belief that the resistance could win on the battlefield, and did not have to make political compromises. The advent of Stingers improved the morale of the resistance groups and led to excellent claims of Soviet aircraft and helicopter losses. In an offensive at Argandhab near Kandahar, Soviet generals decided not to use helicopters, resorting instead to cluster bombs and high altitude bombing. This change of tactics demoralised the Afghan troops. The Argandhab campaign ended in failure with significant defections to the resistance. Another psychological boost for the resistance came in a protracted battle at Jagi. Soviets and Afghan forces suffered heavy losses from anti-aircraft fire and were largely thwarted in their effort to destroy resistance supply dumps and to place observation posts at key points. This time Soviet, not Afghan, forces bore the brunt of the attack.

On August 17, 1988, Zia and Akhtar were among those killed in a still unexplained plane crash.

Afghanistan continued to bleed over 10 years after the Geneva Accord signed against the wishes of the people of Afghanistan. Akhtar and the ISI were not against the peace accord but they could foresee the possible fallout of the accord without participation of resistance group. Akhtar knew the psyche of Afghans more than anyone else and had the acumen of a diplomat who could see in the future. On the contrary, Cordovez and Yaqub had no understanding of Afghans and lacked the vision and foresight to read the future. If the UN mediator had taken the advice of Akhtar and the ISI seriously to include the resistance group in the negotiation, all the bloodshed could have been avoided. The mediators and all the signatories of the Geneva Accord are directly responsible for all the bloodshed in Afghanistan after the signing of the so-called peace accord.

The present situation perhaps is the backlash of the Geneva Accord that Afghanistan is still bleeding. In years to come, Afghanistan would also turn into America’s bleeding wound if the resistance continued, at the present scale.

The author was the head of Afghan Cell in the Inter-Services Intelligence from 1981 to 1987 and the author of ‘Silent Soldier’ and ‘The Bear Trap’.
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Pakistani soldier injured in fresh clashes with militants
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A Pakistani soldier was injured Saturday in a new clash with suspected pro-Taliban militants, who earlier fired rockets at a checkpost in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The soldier was injured when militants clashed with security forces near the Christian cemetery in Miranshah, the main town in volatile North Waziristan tribal district, a security official told AFP.

Earlier, militants fired up to 20 rockets before dawn at the Banda security checkpoint outside Miranshah, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the official said.

Troops responded with mortar fire and the clash lasted for about two hours, he added.

In North Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani army is hunting pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who fled Afghanistan after a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Clashes between security forces and militants have been reported daily from the lawless region since the breakdown in July of a peace deal signed by the authorities and pro-Taliban groups in September last year.

The Waziristan tribal belt has been the scene recently of escalated military operations against suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda cells believed to be planning attacks from there within Pakistan, in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.
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