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February 5, 2007 


NATO urges Taliban to leave Afghan town
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan -        NATO-led troops dropped leaflets on a southern Afghan town overrun by militants, warning the fighters to leave after their leader was killed in a targeted airstrike, officials said Monday.

The leaflets dropped over Musa Qala late Sunday ordered the Taliban to leave the town, said Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

An estimated 200 fighters swarmed Musa Qala last week, destroying the town center and temporarily taking local elders hostage. The town was subject to an October peace deal between village elders and the Helmand provincial government that prevented NATO, Afghan and Taliban fighters from coming within 3 miles of the town center.

Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in southern        Afghanistan, said alliance aircraft assisted in making the drops over Musa Qala. Two different fliers were dropped — one a message from Helmand's governor and the other directed to the Taliban militants, he said.

A NATO airstrike near Musa Qala on Sunday killed a Taliban leader whom residents and NATO identified as Mullah Gafoor, who led the town's takeover after another alliance airstrike nearby killed his brother late last month.

"By removing him, we have disrupted their command and control and made it more difficult for the insurgency to plan their next move," said Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Musa Qala saw intense battles between Taliban fighters and British troops last summer and fall. The fighting caused widespread damage to the town of around 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom were forced to leave. British forces withdrew after the truce, which turned over security to local leaders.
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Afghan town still in Taliban control
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Residents kept fleeing a remote Afghan town captured by the Taliban four days ago in fear of looming military action to retake control, officials and locals said.

The Taliban were still in charge of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand after scores of rebels stormed in late Thursday, overwhelming a weak police force and disbanding the town council of tribal elders, they said.

People wanting to avoid operations by the        NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan army, and spurred by talk of Taliban infighting, were leaving, one villager told AFP on Monday.

The government had yet to announce a course of action.

"The bazaar is closed," villager Haji Bashir Khan said by telephone.

"People scared of NATO and Afghan troop operations to retake the district and possible fighting by Taliban rival groups continue to leave the town for safer places," he said.

More than 500 families are believed to have already fled to other districts, according to an official's estimate at the weekend.

The man who led the raid, in which the rebels started to destroy government and police offices with bulldozers, was killed in a precision strike early Sunday with a number of his aides.

"Mullah (Abdul) Ghafour's death has weakend his militia group but there are Taliban in the district and the situation is unclear," the Afghan army commander for the southern region, General Rahmatullah Raufi, told AFP.

"We know there is an unknown number of Taliban that are still basically in charge," ISAF spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.

"We are not seeing a large build-up of forces, we are not seeing a reinforcement of forces," Collins said. "I have no doubt that the government will eventually reassert government authority in Musa Qala."

British forces who control Helmand, the main source of        Afghanistan's illegal opium and heroin, last year pulled out of the area at the request of the government, which had been approached by tribal elders who said they would handle the Taliban themselves.

The deal has been treated with suspicion from the beginning, with critics saying it would cede the Taliban a sanctuary in the remote and under-policed area.
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NATO drops fliers calling on Taliban to abandon southern Afghan town
2/5/2007 5:37 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO-led troops dropped leaflets on a southern Afghan town overrun by militants, warning them to leave after their leader was killed in an airstrike, officials said Monday.
The leaflets dropped over Musa Qala late Sunday ordered the Taliban to leave the town, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.

An estimated 200 fighters descended on Musa Qala last week, destroying the government compound and temporarily taking local elders hostage. An October peace deal between village elders and the Helmand provincial government prevented NATO, Afghan and Taliban fighters from coming within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the town center.

Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in southern Afghanistan, confirmed that alliance aircraft helped distribute the leaflets over Musa Qala. Two different messages from Helmand's governor were dropped — one addressed to the people of Musa Qala and the other to Taliban militants, he said.

A NATO airstrike near Musa Qala on Sunday killed a Taliban leader identified by residents and NATO as Mullah Gafoor, who allegedly led the town's takeover after an alliance airstrike killed his brother late last month.

"By removing him, we have disrupted their command and control and made it more difficult for the insurgency to plan their next move," said Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

There were intense battles between Taliban fighters and British troops in Musa Qala last summer and fall. The fighting caused widespread damage to the town of around 10,000 people, most of whom were forced to leave. British forces withdrew after the truce, which turned over security to local leaders.
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SKoreans warned of Afghanistan kidnap danger
Mon Feb 5, 1:55 AM ET
SEOUL (AFP) -        South Korea's foreign ministry urged its citizens in        Afghanistan to take extreme caution, citing an intelligence report that Taliban insurgents may try to kidnap South Korean travellers.

The report indicated that Taliban forces based in the Pakistani city of Peshawar are planning to seize South Koreans travelling from the Afghan border town of Torkham to the capital Kabul, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

It said the insurgents appeared to be trying to barter the release of one of their top leaders, who was arrested about a year ago.

"The reason they picked South Koreans as their target is believed to be because South Koreans often travel by land," with the least security measures, the ministry said.

Several South Korean civic activists are working in the war-torn country, and South Korea has stationed a 200-strong military contingent there since early 2002 for peacekeeping efforts.

Around 1,200 South Korean Christians including hundreds of children arrived in devoutly Islamic Afghanistan last summer. The Kabul government ordered them out amid fears for their safety,

There have been scores of abductions by remnants of the Taliban regime, who were forced from power in late 2001 in a US-led offensive and are now waging a deadly insurgency.

In the latest case police said Sunday that Taliban militants had abducted four local employees of a peace commission trying to persuade them to side with the government.
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Afghanistan Olympic qualifier off
6:45 a.m. EST, February 5, 2007
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The return leg of an Olympic soccer qualifying match between Vietnam and Afghanistan has been cancelled because of security fears in the Afghan capital Kabul, the Asian Football Confederation said on Monday.

The two teams were scheduled to play the first leg of their Asian Olympic preliminary round qualifier in Vietnam on Wednesday and this will now be the only encounter in this preliminary round tie.

Vietnam coach Alfred Riedl confirmed that his team would not have to travel to Afghanistan.

"The AFC said there was a security problem and we did not need to go there.

"We heard Bangkok would stage the match but then they decided against it so that is much better for us,"
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Office of former Afghan king rejects media's health report
The office of Afghan former king Mohammad Zahir Shah has rejected media reports about the ex- monarch's deteriorating health as baseless.

Some Afghan media reported Sunday that the former king, suffering from protracted illness, was in critical condition.

"Father of Nation (ex-monarch) enjoys sound health and wishes progress and prosperity for Afghan nation," daily Cheragh reported Monday quoting a statement released by the former king's office.

The 91-years-old former Afghan ruler, who lives in the Presidential Palace, is under constant supervision of doctors and often taken abroad for medical check up, the report said.
Source: Xinhua
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Canadian troops in Afghanistan targeted in suicide bombing
Sun Feb 4, 9:50 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide attacker exploded a bomb-filled car near a Canadian military convoy in southern        Afghanistan, but no troops or passers-by were hurt.

The attack took place on a highway east of the southern city of Kandahar that is frequently used by troops with the        NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Canadian troops were targeted. There are no reports of injuries," Canadian spokeswoman, Navy Lieutenant Sue Stefko, told AFP.

"It was a failed suicide attack. There were no ISAF personnel injured or civilian casualties," ISAF spokesman Captain Andre Salloum said Sunday.

Immediately after the attack, parts of the vehicle used in the bomb were in flames and emitting thick, black smoke, an AFP reporter said.

Canadian forces and Afghan police blocked the highway which links the city to the capital Kabul, as they sifted through the debris.

Kandahar has seen regular attacks and suicide bombings linked to an insurgency launched after the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

The unrest has grown steadily and peaked in 2006, with this year expected to be just as violent. More than 4,000 lives were lost lost year, with most of the dead being rebel fighters. There were also nearly 140 suicide attacks.

Canada has about 2,500 troops in Kandahar province, which is where the Taliban religious movement took up arms in the early 1990s and is the focus of their attempts to re-take government after being driven out in 2001.

Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers have died in the region, including 36 soldiers in 2006.

The Canadians are part of a 35,000-strong ISAF force from 37 nations that on Sunday came under the command of US General Dan McNeill, who replaced British General David Richards.
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Minister Won't Rule Out Deploying Troops to Afghanistan's South
Deutsche Welle - Feb 04 10:34 PM
Just days before the German government decides whether to allow its Tornado jets to patrol in southern Afghanistan, Defense Minister Jung said he would not rule out sending troops to the relatively more violent south.

If sent, the six German jets could serve as a means of locating potential targets and passing the information on to operational planners, Jung said.

"We need better reconnaissance to counter terrorist attacks in a timely manner," the minister told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Jung also said he would not rule out sending German special forces wherever they are required saying Germany "would naturally help, even in other regions" of Afghanistan as it already has by providing NATO with transportation and radio technology.

Decision expected this week

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Troops and jets could be in action in Afghanistan by spring

The German cabinet is set Wednesday to debate and possibly decide on whether to permit the country's Tornado reconnaissance jets to fly patrols in southern Afghanistan, as requested by NATO and the Afghan government.

The planes could arrive in Afghanistan by the end of March if the deployment is approved by both the German government and parliament.

Germany currently has nearly 2,900 soldiers engaged in reconstruction efforts in the relatively safe northern region of Afghanistan, and NATO, which leads the international military deployment to Afghanistan, has repeatedly requested Germany expand its Afghan mission.

The Bundeswehr would have to send at least 500 additional soldiers to Afghanistan to maintain the Tornado jets if they are to fly missions in the country's south. NATO has pressed for the jets as part of a planned spring offensive against Taliban forces.

The Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta told Deutschlandfunk radio the German jets would be a major contribution in the fight against terrorism in his country saying "Europe is a direct neighbor of the terror network " in his country. However, he also added that it was up to the German government whether to send the planes.

A risky mission 3,800 meters high

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Tornados flying up to 3,800 meters would still face thrteats

In reply to questions from the opposition's free-market liberal Free Democratic Party, the government said the German jets would be put at risk if sent on reconnaissance missions, the Welt am Sonntag reported.

"Flying into MANPADS sphere of operation could be required for tactical reasons," the report said, referring to the shoulder-fired Man Portable Air Defense Systems that were often used in Afghanistan's war against the Soviets.

Opposition Left Party leader Oskar Lafontaine criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition of Christian and Social Democrats for its policy in Afghanistan.

"The administration is doing everything it can to get Germany directly involved in the war in Afghanistan," he said Sunday in Berlin. "This path puts German soldiers' lives in danger and brings terrorism into the country."

Greens party security affairs expert Winfried Nachtwei said his party would look at the government's entire plan for Afghanistan before making a decision on whether to put the Tornados under NATO control.

"The military cannot be allowed to be in the forefront," he told Bremen's Kurier am Sonntag. "Civilian construction has to take precedence."
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Atlantic troops relieve battle-scared Ontario regiment in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 4, 4:13 PM By Murray Brewster
STRONG POINT NORTH, Afghanistan (CP) - For Cpl. Alexander Darroch, the last six months of combat in southern Afghanistan have been "one big spin" in his mind.

It's been a mad kaleidoscope of firefights, seemingly endless stretches of boredom, rocket attacks, unbearable heat, patrols, sweat, food in plastic bags, infrequent showers and more patrols.

All that came to an end this weekend as members of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), based in Petawawa, Ont., were relieved by fresh troops from bases in Atlantic Canada.

"Good luck to these guys," said Darroch, who spoke reluctantly.

"The weather's starting to warm up again and hopefully they have a better go than we did. Hopefully they stay safe, know what I mean?"

Everything that Darroch didn't want to say was betrayed by the slight trembling of the cigarette in his hand.

The first wave of 1,160 troops from the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and reserve units from around Atlantic Canada have begun pouring into the trenches, dugouts and fortified positions in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts, west of Kandahar. They are replacing soldiers who have endured the bloodiest combat Canadians have seen in half a century - fighting that took the lives of 19 soldiers since August.

What they have lived through, witnessed and done has left an indelible mark on each one of them. Pte. Jacob Williams' family and friends have noticed it already.

"I'm told on leave that I look different, act different," said the Hamilton native, who seemed thin and tired.

"I can't explain it to you because I have no idea what they're talking about, (but) I'll give it to them. I've seen a lot of weird stuff. Some of the guys have done a lot of weird stuff. I'm sure it's changed us all - who knows what, for . . . better or worse."

The homecoming to the so-called real world, where some in Canada are skeptical of the need of their sacrifice, will be challenging.

As Col. Omer Lavoie toured strong points - fortified positions - this weekend along Route Summit, the road Canada is building outside Panjwaii, he was mindful of the wounds his men will carry home.

"I was asked at one point in time whether I have any scars," said Lavoie, who's seen his vehicle splayed with shrapnel.

"Sincerely, I've got 19 scars. I lost 19 soldiers across this tour. That's going to be part of me. That's going to be part of every soldier that leaves this tour because there isn't one soldier who hasn't lost a very close friend, a good buddy or a leader, myself included."

On Nov. 27, Lavoie lost his regimental sergeant major, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, to a suicide bomber attack.

"That moment is certainly scarred in me forever, but so is the life of every other of the soldiers I've lost in this theatre," he said.

Just sitting and shooting the breeze with a number of returning soldiers, one gets a grim sense of adjustments they face. Several spoke about being on leave, driving on the relatively safe highways of Ontario, and constantly checking for weapons they were not carrying - or suspiciously eying innocuous activities that in Kandahar would be considered threatening.

Some seemed to find it liberating to talk about how they had cheated death - either during conventional fighting last fall against insurgents dug in over this vast swath of withering farmland, or the guerrilla-style booby traps strung among the mud-walled ruins.

Cpl. Jordan Woodacre turned his brush with mortality into an object lesson for fresh troops, talking about how complacency can be fatal in drab, dusty desert-scape outside of their bunkers.

"About two weeks ago, I walked past an anti-personnel mine, like within a foot," he told his replacements.

"It's easy to let your guard down because you've seen the area over and over. The area of the mine was one I had walked countless times. (The militants) are sneaky and you've got to stay sharp."

The memory most vivid in Williams' mind is the time when a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade came close to ending his life.

"I've never had a rocket fly past my head," the 21-year-old said with an uneasy chuckle.

"It was a couple of feet away. It was a pretty cool experience. You can hear the whiz, the crack going by you. I could almost feel the heat on it."

It was these kinds of stories that had peacekeeping veteran Master Cpl. Mark Turcotte apprehensive as he ate field rations in the high-walled slit trench that bore an eerie resemblance to the dugouts of long-faded wars.

"I've been on deployment before," said the 35-year-old, who has two daughters in Fredericton.

"Our past deployments were peacekeeping missions. This one's a little different. You have a gut feeling coming into it, but you put your trust in your leadership and put all of your training to good use."

Nicknamed Vimy by its departing occupants - after the famous First World War battlefield - this strongpoint is carved out of dry riverbed, ringed with razor-wire, sandbags, buttressed with a high mud-walled tower and bristling with machine-guns.

"It was a bit of a shock," said Turcotte, looking at the sandbagged bunker he will call home for almost seven months.

"This is basically going back to World War Two, World War One-style tactics."

Cpl. Steve Bungay of Gagetown, N.B., who has been to Afghanistan twice before, also admitted to being startled.

"It's totally different," he said. "When I was here before we didn't live in wadis (dry river beds) and stuff."

Despite everything he's heard from the men and women going home, Bungay - originally from the Bay Verte Peninsula of Newfoundland - said he's not apprehensive about the months ahead or the threats by the Taliban of a bloody spring offensive.

By the end of the weekend, Strong Point North was largely in the hands of 2nd Battalion RCR soldiers, but there was one thing left behind by their weary comrades of Bravo Company - a large Canadian flag tacked to the back of a sandbagged bunker.

A friend had sent it over for Cpl. Mike Opatovsky, of Crystal Beach, Ont., and he said he figured he'd leave it behind for inspiration.
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Former CIA contractor to be sentenced in fatal beating of Afghan detainee
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) - A former CIA contractor convicted of assaulting an Afghan detainee who later died is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, according to federal court records.

David Passaro, 40, will be sentenced on Feb. 13. He was convicted Aug. 17 in U.S. District Court of a count of felony assault with a dangerous weapon and three counts of misdemeanour assault.

Passaro was the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said Passaro beat Abdul Wali over two days while interrogating him in July 2003 at a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan. Passaro was not charged in Wali's death.

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle, who refused Passaro's request to overturn the conviction, said the evidence supported the verdict. Boyle said the lack of an autopsy probably kept Passaro from being charged with murder.

Passaro, who is in custody, faces up to 11 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine.

A former Special Forces medic, Passaro worked for the CIA as a contractor in June 2003 when, prosecutors said, he beat Abdul Wali during two days of questioning about rocket attacks.
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British fear gung-ho Americans
Michael Smith The Sunday Times (UK) February 04, 2007
SENIOR defence sources have voiced fears that an imminent push by the United States in Afghanistan will force British soldiers to adopt an overly aggressive approach that will damage relations with ordinary Afghans and play into the hands of the Taliban.

The extent of “frictions” between US and British commanders are revealed in the latest edition of Pegasus, the journal of the Parachute Regiment, in which an unnamed senior officer accuses the Americans of undermining British strategy during last year’s handover.

British troops had planned to focus on reconstruction to win hearts and minds among the local population, the article states. However, American commanders “forced” them to take part in an offensive.

“The UK taskforce arrived in theatre immediately prior to Operation Mountain Thrust, an offensive operation being planned by the US commander to destroy and defeat the Taliban,” Pegasus says. “Despite our ‘ownership’ of Helmand and our request to conduct ops in ‘the British way’ we were unable to prevent Mountain Thrust occurring. As a result of the threat of unilateral action and in order to ensure our own force protection, UK taskforce’s involvement was forced.”

The article goes on to suggest that Mountain Thrust caused more problems than it solved. “This operation forced a change in the security dynamic in a number of areas across the province and played, to a certain extent, into the hands of the Taliban,” it argues.

“Consequently the operation created a dent in the UK taskforce’s reputation with the local population and meant an indifferent start to the mission.”

As US Army General Dan McNeil takes over command of Nato forces today, British defence sources fear that the switch will herald tougher tactics. While a number of prominent US commanders have commended “the British approach” to counter-insurgency, the bulk of the US military has tended in both Iraq and Afghanistan to be more aggressive.

“There has been a lot of talk with a new counter-insurgency manual they have just issued of a change in the US position, but the truth is they just don’t get it,” a senior British source said.

“You have at all costs to keep the local population on your side or you have no chance of winning.”
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Taliban campaign targets girls' schools
By Massoud Ansari in Dara Adamkhel and Gethin Chamberlain
Sunday Telegraph (UK) February 4, 2007
The notice pinned to the board outside the Mohammed Hussain Maila girls' school in Dara Adamkhel was uncompromising: "We have decided to bomb the school building. If any of the students shows up and dies as a result, she will be responsible for her own death."

It was a warning the young pupils at the school in Pakistan's North-West Frontier knew should be taken seriously. Four other schools in the lawless tribal region area had already been bombed. Within a matter of days, half of the 506 pupils at the school had been withdrawn.


Across the border in Afghanistan, the Taliban's antipathy towards the education of girls is well-documented, and has led to the murders of at least 61 teachers in the past 18 months and the razing of 183 schools. But now hard-line Islamists in Pakistan - known as local Taliban - have launched their own campaign against girls' schools, claiming the pupils are being "westernised".

Parents have been warned to keep their daughters home and drivers who transport pupils to schools have been threatened with dire consequences unless they desist.

"We always wanted our daughter to acquire education, but we are scared," said Baaz Khan, a businessman, who took his 11-year-old daughter from the school.

"It is really awful not to educate our daughters, who have the challenges of the modern world ahead of them, but for me and my friends, the very thought of having to carry the dead bodies of our young daughters out of the wreckage of a bombed school is equally unnerving."

Lateef Afridi, a former member of the national assembly, said that with only 1 per cent of the women in the frontier region receiving an education, the future was gloomy.

"If the situation prevails and people are forced to keep their daughters uneducated, the future is certainly bleak and we are all doomed," he said.

Other schools in Dara Adamkhel, a town of 100,000 people about 40 miles south of Peshawar, have suffered the same fate and some are contemplating closure.

People in the town say militants have taken a cue from Waziristan, the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where most of the girls' schools - including 180 community schools for girls set up with the assistance of the Norwegian government - have been closed.

There has also been an increase in militant activity in the past year. Barbers have been told not to shave off beards, music and video shops selling Hollywood and Bollywood movies have been bombed, and slogans have appeared on walls urging support for the militants. "Martyrdom is a shortcut to heaven!" one reads. "Rise! Rise, you who yearn for heaven," says another.

The campaign is frustrating attempts by the Pakistan government to win over the population of the tribal areas. "They are going back to the dark ages," said one senior American diplomat in Islamabad. "Schools are being built in the tribal areas but they kill the teachers and assassinate tribal leaders and people who criticise them."

The diplomat said the government of Pakistan was struggling to maintain order. "There is a big contest for the hearts and minds of the local people," the diplomat said. "Give the government credit - it is trying to bring back law and order by empowering the tribal leaders, but Pakistan law is not in effect in the tribal areas."

In November, two people were killed as they tried to plant a bomb at a girls' school in Sheraki, but three other school buildings in Pirwal, Sunikhel and in Haji Noor Ali Kili were all badly damaged in attacks. At least eight people were injured when a bomb exploded at the al-Noor school during a workshop on health awareness run by the UK-based charity, Response International.

Notices have also been posted around the town warning people not to co-operate with international organisations, including the World Bank and the Red Cross.

A decree issued last week by Mufti Khalid Shah, a religious leader, said: "All these NGOs are working on the agenda of Zionists; it is a duty of every Muslim to destroy their offices, attack their vehicles and to kill its members."

He added: "It is permissible to use weapons of mass destruction against these -infidels."

The Pashtun tribes of the area are traditionally independent-minded and many disagree with the edicts. But there is widespread fear about the threat posed by the militants, who appear highly organised and resourceful.

"We have got squads of fedayeen [suicide bombers] and if anyone tries to harm any of our members, these fedayeen would attack them from right, left and centre," one warning notice read.

Far from standing up to the militants, officials in the town appear to be toeing their line, ordering female teachers and students of government schools to wear the cover-all white burqa on their way to and from schools.

At a meeting with headmasters of the girls' schools last week, Kohat Abdul Ghafoor, a political official, said that the female teachers should replace their "fashionable black" burqa which does not cover the full face with the traditional white burqa.

Human rights activists have criticised the local authorities. "This approach of the political administration to the problem is quite amazing, showing their helplessness in which the female school teachers and students, even those as young as eight-years-old, are being threatened if they do not wear the burqa," said Imran Khan, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
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Making up for lost time in Afghanistan
By Jason Burke / World news 12:30pm Guardian Unlimited, UK
Photograph: Manish Swarup/APYou view Kabul differently if you were there before the fall of the Taliban. If it's your first trip to the city, then it looks pretty dismal, despite the pure aesthetics of the hills, the snow and the sky.

Rubbish in the streets, hideous traffic, desperately poor beggars, erratic electricity, meat hanging on hooks outside the butchers' for want of refrigeration, one-legged mine victims hobbling along potholed roads, entire families piled into one- or two-roomed mud-walled homes without proper sanitation and without proper food either.

But if you were in Kabul under the Taliban, you have different eyes. All the above existed then - except the traffic - but much has changed. So I drive past the Olympic stadium and remember the two executions I saw there.

Now the stadium is empty. I walk down Jaid-e-Maiwand, a main thoroughfare, and think of the expanse of rubble that it once was. Now it is a bustling bazaar and main road. The grim misery that was Kabul in the 90s has gone.

The problem is that in the capital - as elsewhere - there are huge disparities in terms of development. There is a brash nouveau-riche middle class, for example. When I ask an Afghan friend where such people go shopping, he answers: "Dubai."

The differences nationwide are vast, too. Towns to the north of Kabul like Pul-e-Khumri are now secure and relatively prosperous. The Shomali plains are transformed, too. Once, six or seven years ago, I sat with fighters of the Northern Alliance watching shelling across mined and devastated villages and orchards. Now the farmers have returned to their homes and the fruitbasket of Afghanistan is coming back to life.

But then, away from the main roads, in the rural areas, there is dire poverty that is a disgrace to the international community. Much of the aid money channelled to Afghanistan has been misspent. Local government is corrupt and often the Taliban are the "least worst" option in terms of providing security. It is not quite fair to call President Hamid Karzai, "the mayor of Kabul", but central government does not have much influence beyond the capital and regional centres of population.

One interesting anecdote may indicate that some things in some areas are going in the right direction - or perhaps are not. On Jaid-e-Maiwand I spoke to a contractor from the eastern Paktia province, usually seen as a hotbed of warlordism. I asked him how security was in his hometown. "Not bad," he answered. Who is the local commander, I asked.

Previously, this was a standard inquiry as it was always the local warlord who was seen as the biggest power in any given location. However, the contractor, a craggy-faced elder with a henna-died beard and a superb turban, looked perplexed.

Then he gave me the name of the local police chief. Did he mean that the police chief was a warlord? Or that the police actually have some degree of authority where he lived? Difficult to say. What is clear however is that things, for good or ill, are changing in Afghanistan.

The real question is whether the coalition and the central government, having in 2002 missed the fantastic opportunity to better the lives of 20 million people and make themselves more secure into the bargain, are going to be able to make up for lost time.

As we wait for the spring offensive - whether that of Nato or of the Taliban - the jury is still out.
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Religious Leaders Killed In Afghanistan
(RFE/RL)
February 4, 2007 -- Reports quoting police in Afghanistan say gunmen shot dead a provincial religious council leader, and the caretaker of a shrine in the southern city of Kandahar today.


No one claimed responsibility, but police blamed the insurgent Taliban movement.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants on February 3 abducted four employees of a peace commission trying to persuade the extremists to side with the government.

They were on their way from the southern province of Uruzgan to Kandahar  when abducted.
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Pakistan Extends Registration Date of Afghan Refugees
'Pakistan Times' Federal Bureau
ISLAMABAD: The government has extended the date for registration of Afghan refugees till February 15 to register maximum refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan says, more than two million refugees have so far been issued computerised cards since October 15, 2006.

According to UNHCR report more than 2.4 million Afghan refugees are residing in Pakistan. Out of this number nearly one million refugees are residing in different camps of Balochistan and NWFP.

The UNHCR has donated six-million dollars to NDRA for the registration of Afghan refugees.

The repatriation of Afghan refugees was started in 2002 and since then over 2.8 million refugees have gone back to their homes while 2.4 million are still residing in different camps and cities of Pakistan.

It is being said by leaders that peace cannot be restored on Pak-Afghan border areas until Afghan refugees’ camps in Balochistan and NWFP are not closed down.

Keeping in view this, a meeting of Pakistan, Afghanistan and United Nations Commission will be held in Lahore on Tuesday (tomorrow) to discuss refugees’ issue.

It is expected that important decisions regarding quick repatriation of Afghan refugees will be made in the meeting.
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Clashes in Kandahar leave three cops wounded
KANDAHAR CITY, Feb 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three police were wounded and several Taliban fighters were reportedly killed during two clashes in Maiwand district of the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday.

Provincial police chief Brig-Gen. Esmatullah Alizai told Pajhwok Afghan News Taliban fighters attacked police security posts in Malang Kariz and Khak-e-Chopan areas of Maiwand district, triggering two short shootouts.

Three policemen were wounded in one the attacks and several Taliban fighters were killed, said the police chief, who described conditions of the injured as stable.

The Taliban did not comment so far on the two clashes in the fore-mentioned areas. However, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, spoke of a different clash with police. He said in an interview with this agency that the movement's fighters eliminated five cops in Karz area last night.
Saeed Zabuli
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Dozens feared dead as cold grips Badakhshan
FAIZABAD, Feb 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Officials in the Yangan district of the northeastern Badakhshan province said dozens of people, mostly children and aged ones, had been killed due to scarcity of food and the prevailing cold weather during the previouse two months.

Yangan district chief Sayed Agha said some 40 residents died of famine and cold weather since early December and feared more deaths if urgent measures were not taken by the government and aid organisations.

Talking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Agha said all roads connecting the district to other towns and the central city of Faizabad had been blocked due to heavy snow, leaving the residents locked up. Shortage of food and medicines had caused death of some 40 people. The district chief added they had asked provincial officials for assistance several times, but to no avail.

Howevere, provincial officials said they were not aware of death of so many people in Yangan, but confirmed the residents were facing famine due to the overwhelming cold.

Deputy provincial governor Shamsur Rahman said they were planning to send aid to Yangan as soon as possible to stop the situation from becoming worse. At the same time, he ruled out the killing of so many people in the area.

Mohammad Usman Abu Zar, head of the provincial branch of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Badakhshan, said they were aware of food shortage in Yangan, but had not received information about death of residents.
Jafar Tayar/Abdul Matin Sarfarz
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Taliban kidnap three policemen in Zabul
KANDAHAR CITY, Feb 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban fighters have kidnapped three policemen in the southern province of Zabul while shifting a prisoner from Helmand to Kandahar, officials said on Saturday.

Colonel Niamatullah, superintendent of the Helmand prison, told Pajhwok Afghan News three cops were transferring a prisoner to Kandahar when ambushed by armed men and were taken hostage in Shahr-i-Safa district of Zabul on Friday. The captive, accused of involvement in smuggling, was freed.

Police chief of Zabul Jailani Khan confirmed the kidnapping of three policemen and escape of the prisoner.

Claiming responsibility for the incident, purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said the policemen were in the custody while the prisoner had been freed.

Zabul has been one of the most precarious provinces in southern Afghanistan with an upsurge in attacks on government and foreign forces in recent months.
Saeed Zabuli
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US lawyer for return of Bashir Noorzai to Afghanistan
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US attorney of Afghan tribal leaders Haji Bashir Noorzai has alleged the US authorities had used illegal methods to get him by luring to come to New York, after which he was arrested.

Noorzai was arrested by the US law-enforcement officials in New York in April 2005 on charges of trying to smuggle about 500 kilograms of heroin to the United States. Since then, he is languishing in a New York jail. His case is expected to come up for trail this year, his lawyer Ivan Fisher said.

Preparing for the defense of his client, Fisher told Pajhwok Afghan News that Noorzai had assisted American authorities in their fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda, provided them useful information and was reportedly instrumental in arrest of many people wanted to the United States.

Stating that he was about to file an appeal in the case, Fisher said Noorzai should be returned to Afghanistan becuause the US authorities had illegal methods to arrest him.

Fisher claimed that Noorzai was allegedly lured by the US officials to come to that country to have meetings with senior officials who were interested in seeking his help in tracking flow of funds to Taliban and al-Qaeda. He took the flight only after he got the assurance from the federal authorities that he would not be arrested, Fisher claimed.

But, once he landed in New York, he was taken to a hotel wherein he was questioned for nearly two weeks after which he was arrested, Fisher said, adding that  he had now got transcripts from tape-recordings of those meetings.
Lalit K. Jha
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