 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
NATO attacks Taliban post in Afghanistan
Afghan who had statues destroyed killed
NATO Pledges to Strengthen Afghan Effort After U.S. Aid Boost
Rice seeks allies' help with Aghanistan
INTERVIEW-Kabul accuses Pakistan of using terror as tool
EU Commission to announce new Afghan aid injection
EU to top up aid to Afghanistan by €600m
Bush Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery
U.S. warns of bloody Taliban spring fightback
Afghan President Karzai becomes a father
Canada wants more Pakistani help on Afghan border
Suicide blast near US-funded aid office in Afghanistan
EU troika-Afghanistan meeting to be held in Berlin next week
Italian Cabinet OKs Afghanistan mission
Afghan Art lover on India visit
Mysterious disease kills 7 persons in central Afghanistan
After NYT, Washington Times slams Pak for Afghan insurgency
ISAF in Afghanistan using some Pak airbases for emergency
Afghanistan: More Women Operating Their Own Businesses
RTA chief resigns
Five new buildings completed
Iran pledges $0.7m for training of govt employees
Feature: Role of women police in Kandahar
Taliban want to get popularity with new plan
NATO attacks Taliban post in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday, while 10 rebel fighters died in a clash with police in the east.
An undisclosed number of the militant leader's deputies also were killed in Thursday's airstrike in Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province, a NATO statement said. It did not disclose the name of the leader killed.
Later Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of an aid group in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah. A policeman and two civilians were wounded, police said.
NATO has claimed a string of successes against Taliban leaders _ including the killing last month of a top lieutenant of the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Omar _ after a year of bitter fighting that has left thousands dead.
The airstrike happened outside the town of Musa Qala, where a deal signed between local elders and the Helmand governor, with the support of the British task force based in the province, turned over security responsibilities to local leaders. The deal also prevents NATO-led troops from entering the town.
Before the deal, which has been criticized by some Western officials as putting the area outside government control, the town was a center of fierce clashes between the British troops and resurgent Taliban militants.
NATO said the airstrike did not violate the pact.
"This successful airstrike took place in the vicinity of Musa Qala but was outside of the area of the agreement between the government of Afghanistan ... and local elders," the NATO statement said.
In eastern Afghanistan, Afghan border police clashed with suspected militants in Gomal district in Paktika province on Thursday, leaving 10 suspected Taliban and one police dead, said Ghammai Mohammadi, spokesman for the province's governor.
Five policemen and 15 militants also were wounded in the clash, which happened close to the Pakistan border.
Ghammai said that the militants took the dead and wounded across the border into Pakistan. His claims could not be verified.
In southern Kandahar province, two gunmen on a motorbike fatally shot the chief of criminal department of police of Panjwayi district on Thursday, said Mohammad Akbar Khan, a police official.
___
Associated Press Writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Afghan who had statues destroyed killed
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff.
Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief.
Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.
After he was elected, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.
"It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," Mohammadi told The Associated Press at the time. "Even though I was governor, I had no power."
International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues _ and are considering rebuilding them.
In southern Helmand province, a militant leader and his deputies were killed in an airstrike Thursday, a NATO statement said. It did not disclose the name of the leader killed.
Later Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of an aid group in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah. A policeman and two civilians were wounded, police said.
NATO has claimed a string of successes against Taliban leaders _ including the killing last month of a top lieutenant of the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Omar _ after a year of bitter fighting that has left thousands dead.
The airstrike happened outside the town of Musa Qala, where a deal signed between local elders and the Helmand governor, with the support of the British task force based in the province, turned over security responsibilities to local leaders. The deal also prevents NATO-led troops from entering the town.
Before the deal, which has been criticized by some Western officials as putting the area outside government control, the town was a center of fierce clashes between the British troops and resurgent Taliban militants.
NATO said the airstrike did not violate the pact.
"This successful airstrike took place in the vicinity of Musa Qala but was outside of the area of the agreement between the government of Afghanistan ... and local elders," the NATO statement said.
In eastern Afghanistan, Afghan border police clashed with suspected militants in Gomal district in Paktika province on Thursday, leaving 10 suspected Taliban and one police dead, said Ghammai Mohammadi, spokesman for the province's governor.
___
Associated Press Writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
Back to Top
NATO Pledges to Strengthen Afghan Effort After U.S. Aid Boost
By Caroline Alexander and James G. Neuger
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- NATO pledged to redouble efforts to stabilize Afghanistan after the U.S. said it will escalate the war against the Taliban and boost financial aid to rebuild the country.
The alliance ``is stepping up its game in Afghanistan on all fronts,'' Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers met in Brussels today. ``But we also have to underline that it is a long-term commitment by the international community.''
NATO's 33,000-man force is gearing up to counter a spring offensive by the Taliban, driven from power in 2001, while political leaders grapple with how to deliver the economic boost to lift Afghans out of poverty.
The U.S. is challenging NATO to widen its commitment to Afghanistan after the White House said yesterday that President George W. Bush will seek $10.6 billion in financial assistance and the Pentagon said it will extend the Afghan tours of 3,200 U.S. soldiers.
``We want to and should redouble our efforts,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters en route to Brussels, according to a State Department transcript. ``But I take the Taliban's recent offensive as evidence that they're trying to destroy something that's been quite a success.''
Several countries today made ``clear commitments'' to boost reconstruction and development assistance, De Hoop Scheffer said without giving specifics.
NATO Divisions
The 26-nation trans-Atlantic alliance, in command of the Afghan mission since last year, is divided over how to fight the war with many countries limiting their combat role. France and Germany, for example, have refused to deploy troops to Taliban strongholds in the south and east.
Germany is keeping a tight leash on its 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, with parliamentary approval required for a proposal to dispatch six Tornado reconnaissance jets to police the southern skies.
``We all know full well that it will take more than a military presence alone to reach a stabilization,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters today. The allies need to ``tie our military presence in more strongly with civilian reconstruction.''
Bush's budget request to Congress breaks down into $8.6 billion to train and equip Afghan forces and $2 billion for reconstruction, Rice said.
Aid
Afghanistan relies on international aid for more than half its budget. The U.K. is the second-biggest donor after the U.S., pledging more than 1 billion pounds ($2 billion) since 2001. About 70 percent of that money has gone directly to the Afghan government to help fund projects including its drug control strategy and reconstruction in the south.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett endorsed a ``comprehensive approach'' to Afghanistan. ``We recognize there's a lot to do, but there are opportunities and challenges,'' she told reporters today.
Britain's contingent of 6,000 soldiers is the second largest in Afghanistan. The U.S. has an additional 12,000 troops in the country under national command in anti-insurgency operations.
European Union countries have given 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) since 2002 and the money will keep flowing at the same pace, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today. The European Commission, the EU's executive agency, said it will offer 600 million euros over the next four years.
Other donors include Japan, which provided about $1 billion over the past four years and pledged another $450 million in January.
Crackdown on Drug Trade
France, with 1,000 troops around the capital of Kabul, is making the bulk of its financial contribution through the EU's central budget and wants a stepped-up crackdown on the drug trade, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.
Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world supply of opium after poppy cultivation soared 59 percent last year to 165,000 hectares, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Afghan drug trade is a ``market of death'' that wrecks the economy, Douste-Blazy told reporters today. ``There can't be a purely military solution in Afghanistan. We have to do a lot to improve the coordination of the overall strategy.''
Back to Top
Rice seeks allies' help with Aghanistan
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to allies Friday to do more to help Afghanistan, and placed a hefty U.S. aid increase on the table as an incentive. The Bush administration wants NATO allies to increase money, troops and other support for the unsteady democracy in Afghanistan, and is also working to dispel European suspicion that the United States is too busy in Iraq to pay attention to the older Afghan fight.
"Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people, and to support one another," Rice told a gathering of NATO foreign ministers that was arranged to commence planning for an expected Taliban military offensive in the spring.
Among other issues Rice raised Friday were the divisions within the alliance on sharing the burden in Afghanistan. Some NATO countries have shown a greater willingness than others to send troops to areas of conflict.
The United States is by far the largest contributor to the 34,460-member NATO force in Afghanistan, with 11,800 troops. Britain is next with 5,200.
The administration plans to ask Congress for $10.6 billion for Afghanistan, a major increase aimed at rebuilding the country and strengthening government security forces still fighting the Taliban five years after the U.S.-led invasion.
All but $2 billion of the new U.S. money is for security needs.
"We're looking to others to step up their effort with us, step up across the board," Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, told reporters Thursday.
The Bush administration funding proposal follows a year in which Taliban forces launched surprisingly fierce attacks across the country, poppy production expanded and relations worsened between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a key ally in the fight against global terrorism.
"The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to and we should redouble our efforts," Rice told reporters flying with her to Brussels for the NATO sessions.
The U.S. aid package would fund training and equipment to meet a previously set goal of increasing the ranks of Afghan soldiers and national police to about 70,000 and 82,000 respectively, among other uses, a State Department official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because President Bush will make a formal budget request next month.
The United States wants to strengthen the democratic government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to extend political control throughout his country and quarreled with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
The new U.S. money would be on top of $14.2 billion in aid the United States has already given to Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government.
Rice said that of the total, $8.6 billion would be for training and equipping Afghan police and security forces, and $2 billion would be for reconstruction. The money would be spent over the next two years.
The aid proposal comes alongside a move toward increasing the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The Defense Department has said that 3,200 soldiers from the New York-based 10th Mountain Division already in Afghanistan would have their tour extended by four months. In a visit to Afghanistan last week, new Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated he is likely to ask Bush for more troops for the country.
There are about 24,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since the war began in October 2001. About half are under the control of NATO, which is gradually gaining more control over operations there.
The NATO-led force is about 20 percent short of the troops levels pledged by its contributing nations.
Casualties in Afghanistan have risen sharply in recent months as an emboldened Taliban widened military operations and suicide attacks. Some 4,000 people died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan last year, according to numbers from Afghan, U.S. and NATO officials.
A springtime push caught international forces somewhat off guard last year, but the Taliban movement has not been able to translate military gains into a resurgent political force like the one that imposed harsh Islamic law on Afghanistan in the 1990s.
Some of the U.S. money will go to expand drug-fighting efforts.
Officials in the Afghan capital of Kabul said this week that despite pressure from the United States and a record crop last year, the country's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with herbicide. Afghan officials said there would be increased efforts to destroy poppy crops with traditional techniques _ typically sending teams of laborers into fields to batter down or plow in the plants before they can be harvested.
Fueled by the Taliban, a powerful drug mafia and the need for a profitable crop that can overcome drought, opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons. That's enough to make about 670 tons of heroin, or more than 90 percent of the world's supply and more than the amount that the world's addicts consume in a year.
Back to Top
INTERVIEW-Kabul accuses Pakistan of using terror as tool
26 Jan 2007 11:39:09 GMT By David Brunnstrom
BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's foreign minister accused Pakistan on Friday of using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and said the Taliban could be beaten in two or three years if Islamabad cooperated fully against them.
Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told Reuters his country needed more money to fight terrorism, improve government and bring better lives for the people.
Speaking on the margins of talks among NATO foreign ministers, he said Pakistan, although officially an ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, should do more to contain the Taliban.
"Pakistan doesn't do enough," he said in an interview. "Pakistan is from our point of view part of the problem -- they have to stop interference ... in Afghanistan.
"They have to stop using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and I think it is high time the international community began to tell Pakistan to stop."
He accused "some circles" in Pakistan of being behind this policy, but declined to identify them. "They don't accept to have Afghanistan with national sovereignty, territorial integrity, as an equal partner in this region."
His comments came as NATO, whose 32,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan are at the sharp end of the fight against the Taliban, is trying to improve ties with Islamabad. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is to visit alliance headquarters next week.
Afghanistan released a video last week in which captured Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was living in the Pakistani city of Quetta, protected by Pakistani military intelligence. Pakistan denies this.
Spanta said the Taliban threat could be stamped out if Pakistan cooperated more in stopping cross-border incursions, and if more international funds were available.
"If we bring all the necessary efforts together, if Pakistan cooperated in this process, I think the problem of the Taliban we can lose within two to three years," he said.
BIN LADEN "NOT IN AFGHANISTAN"
Spanta said he had no idea of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 on the United States, who was harboured by the Taliban.
"If I knew I would catch him and receive more than 25 million dollars," he joked, referring to Washington's reward for bin Laden. "But ... I know he is not in Afghanistan."
U.S. officials have long said they believe bin Laden is hiding in the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
Pakistani leaders denied this week he was in Pakistan and have repeatedly said they are doing all they can to assist the fight against the Taliban, including stationing 30,000 troops on the border to stem infiltration.
At the NATO meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threw down the gauntlet to allies to do more in Afghanistan by pledging extra U.S. troops and aid to help see off an expected Taliban offensive.
She announced the Bush administration would ask Congress for $8.6 billion in new money to train and equip the Afghan army and police, and $2 billion for reconstruction. U.S. officials made it clear they wanted allies to follow suit.
Spanta said developments in Afghanistan has been "generally very positive" since 2001, thanks to the assistance of the international comnmunity. But he said more help was needed.
"Project Afghanistan is not yet completed," he said. "We need more efforts. We have to develop one comprehensive strategy in the process of the anti-terror war.
"I mean a strategy with development elements, the supporting of Afghan government institutions ... and also to demonstrate the determination of the international community."
Back to Top
EU Commission to announce new Afghan aid injection
26 Jan 2007 08:49:45 GMT
More BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive Commission will on Friday announce aid of around 600 million euros ($779 million) for Afghanistan over the next four years, a spokeswoman said, an amount lower than that for 2002-2006.
The funding for governance reform, health and rural development would be on top of that to be provided by member states, Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said. In the 2002-2006 period the Commission provided one billion euros to Afghanistan on top of 3.7 billion euros provided by member states.
The United States has announced the administration will ask Congress for $8.6 billion in new money to train and equip the Afghan army and police, and $2 billion for reconstruction projects. U.S. officials said they wanted allies to follow suit.
Back to Top
EU to top up aid to Afghanistan by €600m
theparliament.com EU Politix
The EU executive is proposing to top up aid to Afghanistan by 600 million euros.
EU foreign affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner will table the plan at an EU-Afghanistan meeting in Berlin on 29 January.
The EU has granted 3.7 billion euros to the war-torn state since the fall of the Taliban regime, the commission says.
The fresh funds are to be spent during the next three years and drawn from the EU budget.
The funds are “all civilian aid”, a commission spokeswoman said.
The package is aimed at helping Kabul to improve its clout in the provinces and accelerate reforms in the justice and health systems.
Fighting a rise in poppy production in the north and east of the country is also a priority, the Commission says.
The announcement came as US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice urged European foreign ministers to step up aid to Afghanistan at a meeting in Brussels.
Back to Top
Bush Plans New Focus On Afghan Recovery
Extra $7 Billion Would Go to Security, Roads
By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 25, 2007; Page A01
After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion, the Bush administration is preparing a series of new military, economic and political initiatives aimed partly at preempting an expected offensive this spring by Taliban insurgents, according to senior U.S. officials.
Even as it trumpeted a change of course in Iraq this month, the White House has completed a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. It will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package, officials said.
That would represent a sizable increase in the U.S. commitment to the strife-torn country; since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, the United States has provided a little more than $14 billion in assistance for Afghanistan, the State Department says.
The U.S. military said yesterday that about 3,500 soldiers in the Army's 10th Mountain Division will have their tours in Afghanistan extended by four months, as part of an effort to beef up U.S. troop strength. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday to discuss Afghanistan, part of a new diplomatic offensive U.S. officials say is aimed at securing more international support for the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Although U.S. officials say the Taliban insurgency does not pose an immediate threat to the Karzai government, they are eager to nip in the bud a potentially bloody Taliban spring offensive that could erode Afghani confidence in the central government and in the staying power of the international coalition that is trying to establish security across the country.
Violence escalated last year in Afghanistan as allied forces confronted an emboldened Taliban movement in the south, and the central government encountered continuing problems providing basic services. Many government and outside experts on Afghanistan are also worried that the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan are once again turning into safe havens for Taliban militants and their al-Qaeda allies. One senior official said the Taliban maintains "command and control" of the insurgency from Pakistan.
"Everyone talks about the Taliban military offensive this spring," said Kurt D. Volker, a senior State Department official involved with NATO policy. "We should be the ones taking the offensive if there is an offensive to be done. . . . It needs to be across the board. It's not just a military issue; it's a comprehensive issue -- development, counternarcotics, reconstruction and military." Volker said U.S. officials want to cut off the Taliban's ability to impose its will on groups in Afghanistan.
The U.S. politics surrounding Afghanistan offer an intriguing counterpoint to the U.S. politics regarding Iraq. While most Democrats fiercely oppose President Bush's plan to send another 21,000 troops to Iraq, they support a more invigorated battle in Afghanistan. If anything, they say, the administration has neglected Afghanistan, failing to insist that NATO allies assume more of the burden in maintaining stability there.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the leading Democratic presidential contender for 2008, returned from a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq last week saying U.S. priorities are "upside down" in the focus on Iraq. She told reporters, "We should be adding more American military forces [in Afghanistan], and we should be requiring the NATO countries to fulfill their commitments to the forces that they had promised us."
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he complained sharply to Rice this week about what he called an "appalling" lack of willingness to share the burden in Afghanistan by key allies like Germany and France. "I sense that fundamentally she agrees with me," Lantos added.
The issue of burden-sharing has been a flashpoint for trans-Atlantic relations as NATO has gradually taken over much of the responsibility for security in Afghanistan in the past two years. There are about 34,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, including about 12,000 U.S. soldiers, and another 12,000 U.S. troops operate there under U.S. command, according to Pentagon figures.
Bush and other U.S. officials have been pressing countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain to lift restrictions on their troops being deployed to the more violent southern areas of Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest. NATO countries did not fully meet former NATO supreme commander James L. Jones's calls for additional troops and equipment.
Jones's successor as NATO commander, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, is working on a new assessment of troop and equipment needs for Afghanistan, and when that is complete, U.S. officials say, they will be pressing allies to help provide additional support for the mission. As officials described it, they are talking about a possible increase of several thousand troops for Afghanistan -- not all in U.S. contributions.
One senior administration official said that Rice's trip this week, coupled with follow-up visits by her subordinates and defense officials, are intended to demonstrate to European governments that the United States is committed to Afghanistan and would not abandon it to NATO simply because it was overwhelmed by the turmoil in Iraq.
There are "serious questions across the board" in Europe about the depth of the U.S. commitment, the official said, including worries that the buildup in Iraq would take troops from Afghanistan. The official, like several others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the results of the administration's Afghanistan review are not public.
Officials said the review began in the middle of last year and was prompted by a desire to reevaluate U.S. strategy in the wake of political changes in the country, as well as the resurgent Taliban militia. One senior official said a major conclusion of the review was the need to accelerate efforts to build roads, schools and other reconstruction projects in the wake of efforts to clean out insurgents. "We are talking about large amounts of money to kick-start the effort," this source said.
Another senior official involved with Afghanistan policy, offering a private briefing recently, said allied troops are facing a "bloody year in the south" in fighting the Taliban and slow progress in tackling the problems in the country, including corruption, opium production, and lack of roads and other infrastructure. "We still can succeed," he said, but "it is going to be a long project."
Staff writers Ann Scott Tyson, Thomas E. Ricks and Glenn Kessler contributed to this report.
Back to Top
U.S. warns of bloody Taliban spring fightback
KABUL (Reuters) - The United States, stepping up its commitment to Afghanistan and pushing European allies to follow suit, on Friday warned the country faced a bloody and dangerous spring offensive from an emboldened and strengthened Taliban.
"I think we will face a strong offensive and will have a difficult and dangerous and bloody spring," U.S. assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia Richard Boucher told the BBC, calling the guerillas virulent and tough.
"But we are also better set up to deal with it."
Last year was the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, were killed and more than 160 foreign soldiers.
A tough winter, with snow blocking mountain passes, has contributed to the annual lull in fighting, but analysts warn the Taliban, bolstered by drug money and safe havens in Pakistan, will fight back strongly after the thaw in a few months.
"The Taliban phenomenon is largely a southern phenomenon. Now, it's very virulent. It's tough. But we're dealing with it," Boucher said.
"They're actually under pressure -- they're under pressure from all sides. Not only from NATO and the Afghan army, but also to some extent from Pakistan as well."
Washington this week extended tours of duty for some of its troops in Afghanistan, effectively boosting troop levels by 2,500 for the next few months, and is asking Congress for an extra $10.6 billion for security and reconstruction.
At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels called by the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday pushed European nations to do more in the embattled country.
Back to Top
Afghan President Karzai becomes a father
Fri Jan 26, 6:16 AM ET Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wife gave birth to their first child _ a son they named Mirwais, Karzai's spokesman said Friday.
Mirwais was born Thursday evening in the capital, Kabul, and mother and son were doing fine, spokesman Karim Rahimi said.
"God gave him a son," Rahimi said. "Karzai prayed for his son to serve the Afghan people."
Mirwais is 49-year-old Karzai's first child, Rahimi said.
Mirwais Khan was an 18th century Pashtun ruler of Kandahar, an area of Afghanistan from where Karzai himself comes from. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Canada wants more Pakistani help on Afghan border
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay urged Pakistan to do more to help stop insurgents from entering Afghanistan across the country's common borders.
Mackay's remarks in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation follow a statement early January by President George W. Bush's top intelligence advisor John Negroponte, that senior Al-Qaeda leaders were continuing to operate from "secure hideouts" in Pakistan.
They also follow a New York Times report that Pakistani intelligence agencies have been supporting a comeback by the Taliban.
Canada has deployed 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan to hunt down former Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers have died in the region, including 36 soldiers in 2006.
Pakistan is "a partner that we expect more from and we have to push them and I think you're seeing that now," MacKay, back from a trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East, told the CBC.
"There is no question (President Pervez Musharraf is) in a precarious position himself, but I think he recognizes that there are obligations on Pakistan, on him specifically," said MacKay.
"Let's not forget, Taliban or Al-Qaeda presence that's active that's thriving inside their own country certainly doesn't do anything for their own stability," he said. "So it's in their own interests to become more engaged on this issue."
Musharraf on Wednesday rejected charges that insurgent leaders had found safe haven in Pakistan to mastermind attacks in Afghanistan.
Mackay also rejected a Pakistani proposal to mine the 2,500-kilometre (1,500-mile) border. The Afghan government, the United Nations and several countries with forces in Afghanistan oppose the mining plan.
Back to Top
Suicide blast near US-funded aid office in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a US-funded aid office in Afghanistan while the NATO-led force said it may have killed a senior Taliban leader in an airstrike.
Separately, police said 10 Taliban rebels and a policeman died in a battle near the border with Pakistan, which Afghan officials blame for fostering an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency.
The violence came as the United States announced an extra 10.6 billion dollars of funding for Afghanistan as part of a fresh war strategy to counter fears of a surge in Taliban-led fighting as the weather warms.
Police in Lashkar Gah, the capital of insurgency-hit Helmand province, were following the suicide attacker after a tip-off and asked him to surrender, provincial police chief General Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail told AFP.
"The police called on him to stop and shot him after he refused. He detonated explosives strapped to his body after being wounded," Mullahkhail said.
The blast happened close to the offices of the Alternative Livelihoods Programme, a non-governmental organisation funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), officials said.
One of the policemen who confronted the bomber was wounded in the incident "but we luckily managed to prevent him from his evil attempts," the police chief said.
Helmand saw the worst of a Taliban-led insurgency in 2006, which claimed over 4,000 lives in Afghanistan, most of them militants.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location.
"Eight American soldiers were killed or wounded in the suicide blast today," he said. Many previous Taliban claims have proved exaggerated.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan meanwhile said it destroyed a "known insurgent command post" also in Helmand, in an airstrike Thursday that it believed killed a senior Taliban leader and his deputies.
"The precision-guided munitions impacted on target, completely destroying the compound but causing no damage to the surrounding area.
"A senior Taliban leader and his deputies are believed to have been killed in this strike," ISAF said in a statement.
In another incident early Friday, 10 Taliban militants and a police officer were killed in a five-hour gun battle after guerrillas attacked a border post in southeastern Paktika province, the provincial governor said.
Fifteen Taliban and five police were wounded in the incident in the Gomal district bordering Pakistan, governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak told AFP.
The Islamist Taliban have made a violent comeback last year after being driven from power by US-led forces in 2001.
Separately, a police officer who was on his way home was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on motor bikes in southern Kandahar province late Thursday, police officer Mohammad Ali told AFP.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would present a plan to fellow NATO foreign ministers in Brussels Friday to provide Afghanistan with 10.6 billion dollars in new aid over the next two years.
The Pentagon meanwhile announced that about 3,200 US soldiers currently operating in Afghanistan would remain in the war-torn country for an extra four months, effectively increasing overall troop numbers.
Back to Top
EU troika-Afghanistan meeting to be held in Berlin next week
Berlin, Jan 25, IRNA - Officials from the European Union troika and Afghanistan will meet in Berlin on Monday, the German Foreign Ministry announced here Thursday.
Talks will focus on assessing the developments in Afghanistan over the past year, the EU's activities in Afghanistan as well as Afghanistan's relations with its neighbors.
Chaired by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the meeting will include EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The Afghan delegation will be headed Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta. Within the framework of the EU troika, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado will also take part in the talks.
In other related news, the German Foreign Ministry will also host on Tuesday a two-day, high-level coordination conference (JCMB) on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which Germany is organizing in its capacity as president of the G8 group of industrialized countries.
Back to Top
Italian Cabinet OKs Afghanistan mission
Thu Jan 25, 5:52 PM ET Associated Press
ROME - Italy's government on Thursday approved financing for the country's military mission in Afghanistan despite calls for a pullout by far-left parties in Premier Romano Prodi's coalition.
The approval includes financing for all of Italy's military missions abroad, from the Balkans to Lebanon, and must be approved by parliament within 60 days.
Prodi said that it also provides for money for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
Greens and communist lawmakers in the center-left have threatened to vote against more financing for Italy's 1,800-strong contingent in Afghanistan. They were further angered after Prodi said his government would not oppose a U.S. request to expand a military base in northern Italy.
A rebellion against the Afghanistan mission could put Prodi in a tight spot as his government relies on a slim parliamentary majority to pass legislation.
However, the financing could be approved even without the far-left's backing if it wins support from members of the opposition. Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other center-right leaders have said their parties will vote in favor of the measure.
Prodi has agreed to keep Italy's troops in Afghanistan, although he has resisted NATO's request to increase the contingent.
The government has also pledged to step up political activity to help Afghanistan. Foreign donors and international organizations are set to discuss the country's troubles at Rome conference in the spring.
Back to Top
Afghan Art lover on India visit
Hindustan Times Renuka Narayanan New Delhi, January 26, 2007
The Afghan who saved his country's art collection is overwhelmed to have visited India this week on an ICCR tour of Delhi and Jaisalmer. Dr Mohammad Yusuf Asefi (45) is the deceptively mild and softspoken gastro-enterologist and artist in oils, who quietly saved 40 old paintings in Kabuls National Gallery from destruction by the Taliban three years ago by painting over them.
Like other Afghans leading regular, decent lives, Asefi was heartbroken by the unhappy events in his country since the last many years. A born Kabuli, he took his medical degree at Kabul University but alongside, pursued his boyhood passion for oil painting, learnt from a private tutor.
Post-Bamiyan, when the Taliban decided to find and destroy any artifact or image that they considered "non-Islamic" to "purify" the Afghan nation, Asefi quietly offered, at his own cost and with free labour, to "restore" damaged paintings in Kabul's National Gallery of Art.
Keeping a very low profile, he succeeded, over five months, in covering up 80 old paintings that had human figures, technically forbidden in orthodox Islam. Asefi turned them into unexceptional landscapes, using a thick overlay of watercolours over the original oils.
When the Taliban finally trooped into the gallery, they found nothing on their list of taboo objects and left, satisfied that all was as Mullah Omar had decreed. It was almost the same story in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Asefi had managed to cover up 42 paintings.
After the fall of the Taliban from Kabul, Asefi went back to the paintings and painstakingly washed the watercolours off each. They include the works of famous Afghan painters of the 20th century like Abdul Kadir Brishna, Professor Ghulam Mohammed Maimaneghi of the Kabul University Fine Arts Faculty and Master Abdul Aziz, an Indian from Delhi who settled in Kabul long back and lived there for a good 80 years.
Asefi says he thoroughly enjoyed the Hindustani vocal by Madhup Mudgal and the Kathak by Aditi Mangaldas's students that experienced at an art camp last week in Jaisalmer. "I have great hope for the future of my country," he says gently, as he excuses himself for the evening prayer, with the poignantly unnecessary disclaimer, “I am not a mullah. But I like to pray."
Back to Top
Mysterious disease kills 7 persons in central Afghanistan
Xinhua / January 25, 2007
A mysterious disease has claimed the lives of seven persons in Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, a local newspaper said Thursday.
Seven persons lost their lives due to out break of a mysterious disease in Panjab district last week and local health officials are yet to ascertain the disease, Daily Outlook reported.
The victims include two women and five men, the newspaper said.
Disease, according to locals, first attacked the feet of the victim, following which the color of the body become yellowish.
In addition to the seven dead, some 60 others have been affected so far, the daily added.
However, health officials in Afghan capital Kabul were not immediately available to make comment.
Back to Top
After NYT, Washington Times slams Pak for Afghan insurgency
Washington, Jan 26 (ANI): Close on the heels of a report in the New York Times that said that the Pakistani intelligence was supporting a "Taliban restoration" in order to assert greater influence on the country's "vulnerable western flank", comes fresh allegations in another Washington daily that Pakistan has become a "sanctuary for Taliban insurgents".
The Washington Times in an editorial said that "scepticism about the September 2006 agreement in North Waziristan had turned out to be justified" as the "area had become a "sanctuary" for the Taliban".
Now, its ill-effects were being felt in Afghanistan, the paper said.
It said that armed attacks had increased from 1,558 in 2005 to 4,542 in 2006.
"Suicide attacks also increased from 27 in 2005 to 139 last year. The upsurge in violence predates the September peace accords, but even though the accords are not solely responsible for the increased violence, it is evident, even in the relatively short four-month span, that the deal has done nothing but exacerbate the situation," the Daily Times quoted the editorial as saying.
The editorial quoted John Negroponte, director of National Intelligence as telling the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, that while it was true that Pakistan was an ally in the war on terror, it had also become "a major source of Islamic extremism".
He said Defense Secretary Robert Gates also noted a "significant increase in cross-border attacks," during his visit to Kabul last week, adding, that the "al Qaeda networks were operating freely on the Pakistan side".
The paper said the Pakistani belief that the NATO and the US will fail in its efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, might have something to do with the resurgence of the banned militia.
Pakistan therefore feels compelled to re-establish its traditional influence in Afghan affairs through positive support of the Taliban insurgency, even as it vehemently repudiate this claim, asserting Islamabad's strong interest in a peaceful border with a stable Afghanistan, its rejection of the Taliban's radical ideology, its 80,000 troops in the northwest provinces and more than 900 checkpoints along that stretch of the border, the editorial said.
The editorial concludes by saying that while President General Pervez Musharraf might not be himself actively supporting cross border insurgency, the involvement of some elements of the Pakistani military, especially its powerful intelligence, cannot be discounted. (ANI)
Back to Top
ISAF in Afghanistan using some Pak airbases for emergency
Zee News, India
Islamabad, Jan 26: The Nato coalition forces in Afghanistan are using some Pakistani airbases for standby operations in the ongoing war on terror, the military said.
The coalition forces had used different airbases of the country after the 9/11 terror attacks with the approval of the Pakistani government, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Tariq Wasim Ghazi said here yesterday during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee.
The International Assistance Security Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan are still using some of the bases in emergency situations and standby operations, he was quoted as saying by the online news agency said.
Nonetheless, he said the bases were under the control of Pakistan.
Bureau Report
Back to Top
Afghanistan: More Women Operating Their Own Businesses
By Golnaz Esfandiari Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
January 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Women in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif have recently begun running their own businesses. The project is strongly supported by the country's Ministry of Women's Affairs, which hopes to get women into an area currently dominated by men and make them financially independent.
In Mazar-e Sharif in recent weeks, several women have begun operating their own shops and selling handicrafts, cosmetics, and clothing.
A New Beginning
It is an unusual sight for Afghanistan -- where for years women were barred from public life -- and it is also a small step in bringing them into spheres previously considered to be reserved for men.
Among the new shopkeepers is Bibi Roghya, who has a small stall at a busy market. She sells traditional clothing that has been made by other Afghan women.
She says while there is some disapproval of her and her fellow women's work, most people hail the new trend.
"Maybe 10 percent of people don't agree with women being shopkeepers but the rest of the people, 90 percent, welcome us," she said. "A lot of women have expressed their happiness, they say they want a big market for women selling stuff."
Greater Independence
Some women have said that they feel more comfortable buying from a woman rather than from a male shopkeeper.
The move has also been welcomed by men, including this Mazar-e Sharif resident, Wakeel Ahmad, who says he's thrilled to see women run their own shops.
"I saw these two women's shops here and it makes me very happy to see women doing business," he said. "I'm very happy -- it's a good move. We hope to have more and more women's shops here, it will make life easier for women."
There has been also some criticism but not enough to stop the project.
Ahmad Shah Ansari, who leads prayers at the town's main mosque, says it is inappropriate for women to sell in public without proper Islamic dress.
"At this moment women should not open shops," he said. "Shari'a [law] lets men and women do business on the condition that they wear an Islamic veil. But under the conditions we have here, women [cannot have shops]."
Concept To Spread?
But officials at Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs say they are determined to help more women operate their own businesses and become economically self-sufficient.
Karimeh Salek is a senior public relations official at Afghanistan's Women's Affairs Ministry. She tells RFE/RL that the ministry will help set up more shops for women in the coming weeks and months.
"Women have the permission to do so in Mazar," she said. "But In Bamyan women [also] run their own shops. Women come from all over Bamyan and are excited to buy what they need from other women; we want to apply [this practice] in 34 provinces, of course in provinces that enjoy better security. We want women to have their own shops, like they do in Kabul, in the women's garden (a Kabul market where there are women shopkeepers) we have about 20 shops."
Salek said the move is part of the ministry's efforts to break free from the last remnants of the Taliban regime -- which had banned women from schools and the workplace -- and to change the society's attitude and views toward women.
She believes that the project could also lead to a reduction in domestic violence against women.
"The better the [financial situation] of a family gets, you see that there is less violence," she said. "If a family has a bad economic situation there are tensions, fights, and violence, and the rights of women get violated."
Inspiring Hope
Women in Mazar-e Sharif enjoy relatively more freedom than women living in the southern parts of Afghanistan.
Yet Zohreh Safi, a correspondent with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan in Mazar-e Sharif, says the project has given women courage and hope for a better future.
"There is great interest and a happiness among women [knowing] that they can work as shopkeepers or that women can do what men can do," Safi said. "It's a very good move [and] has lifted women's morale."
Salek from the Women's Affairs Ministry said she hopes the project will have an impact on women's situation in other parts of the country as well.
"Since the establishment of the interim government the ground for women has been made step by step -- we can't make people accept things by force," she said. "When they will see that in one province women make good achievements, slowly the situation will change in other provinces."
Most observers believe the future of women's rights in Afghanistan depends very much on improved security.
Back to Top
RTA chief resigns
Hamim Jalalzai
KABUL, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Head of the state-run Radio/Television Afghanistan (RTA) Najib Roshan Wednesday tendered his resignation to the President Hamid Karzai.
However, Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabit is determined to initiate enquiry against the former head of (RTA). Roshan has resigned from his position due to many charges leveled against him.
A copy of his resignation received to Pajhwok Afghan News, former head of RTA has enumerated his achievements. He has termed the accusations of embezzlement as an attack on his personality.
In a brief chat with this news agency, Sabit said Roshan had lavishly spent money on technical tools. He said Roshan was not allowed to leave country until his case was decided. Hamid Nasiri, spokesman for the information, culture and youths affairs said Roshan had brought some changes to tv, but had paid less attention to radio. Confirming the illegal appointment, he said Roshan had ignored rules in appointment.
Back to Top
Five new buildings completed
Shir Muhammad Jahish
PUL-I-KHUMRI, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Five new buildings, including, district office and police headquarters were completed on Wednesday in Nahrin district of the northern Baghlan province, officials said.
United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) granted $217,000 for the project. Engineer Mohammad Mubin Amin, acting chief of Nahrin district, told Pajhwok Afghan News district and police headquarters had two-storey buildings. He said each new buildings had dozen of rooms. Earlier, the district officials were working in municipality office, he added.
Back to Top
Iran pledges $0.7m for training of govt employees
Lailuma Sadid
KABUL, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government of Iran will provide 700,000 US dollars for the Independent Administrative Reforms and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC).
An agreement to this effect was inked by Iranian ambassador to Kabul Mohammad Reza Bahrami and head of the IARCSC Dr Ahmad Mushahid.
Speaking on the occasion, Bahrami said they would impart training to government officials in the provinces of Kandahar and Herat and the central capital Kabul.
The Iranian ambassador said that his country had provided $250 million to Afghanistan over the previous five years.
Lauding the generous assistance by the neighbouring country, Dr Ahmad Mushahid said they would organise training courses for government employees in Kabul and the two provinces of Herat and Kandahar.
Last year too, Iran had provided one million US dollars for reconstruction activities and capacity building of government employees, he recalled.
Back to Top
Feature: Role of women police in Kandahar
Bashir Ahmad Nadim
KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): While wearing a police uniform, and busy with investigating cases of women in Kandahar police headquarters, 25-year-old Sadiqa, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "I have devoted myself to country service, and am ready to do best job even at the cost of my life."
Sadiqa said she joined women police forces some two years back and wanted to serve her countrymen. She said she was not a victim of any inferiority complex. The 25-year-old police official said she could perform her duty like male police officials.
This is not only Sadiqa, who is busy with policing, but number of women police in the provincial police headquarters has reached 20. Naqiba, another police official, said she had completed her training in women police academy and was now doing her job.
She said women police were doing her job shoulder by shoulder with male policemen. Naqiba said they were helping her male colleagues in home-search and other security affairs.
She said she was much pleased with her job. Despite insecurity and customs limitations, still some women are busy with policing in few provinces including the southern Kandahar.
Women police station at the provincial police headquarters was the only source of investigating the cases and crimes, dozens of women reach here for resolving their problems on daily basis. Palwasha, 32, while waiting to register her complaint, told this news agency: "If there was no women police, where we may go for resolving our problems."
She said she was helpless and all alone as her brothers and father had deprived her of property right. Another young girl, requesting anonymity, told this news agency: "I have come here along with my mother to resolve my problem." She said: "My father gave my hand to a married person in return of huge dowry. Now my husband treats me badly and also beats me."
She said her father had died some months back and thus she was compelled to contact women police station for help. Malaly Kakar, head of the women police station, said each day women were visiting them with complaints and they were trying to help them in resolving these problems.
She said: "Majority of the complainants are those women, who have been married in younger age, and now they are not pleased with their spouses." She said they were also having women prisons for investigating such cases and crimes. Malaly Kakar said they were investigating a case for three days and then gave their decision.
She said they sent the women to general prison once their crimes were confirmed. The senior police officer said though they were not equipped with arms, still they were performing their duties in the best of manner.
She said there were three women police officers in women police academy. Malaly Kakar said the women police were employed in different police stations after completing of their training in the academy.
She hoped number of the women police would be further increased in Kandahar in future. Large number of locals also want that number of the women police should be increased in the province. Dad Mohammad, 45, a shopkeeper, told this news agency: "Like lady doctors, women police are also needed in the province." Abdul Qayum, an official at Kandahar police headquarters, said male policemen would also not be able to perform their duties in efficient manner.
Back to Top
Taliban want to get popularity with new plan
KABUL, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The NATO civil representative to Afghanistan on Wednesday termed recent announcement by Taliban's about launching schools in parts of the country as mere propaganda.
Mark Laity, spokesman for the NATO's civil representative to Kabul, told a press conference here the rhetoric by the Taliban was against their tradition of burning schools. He dubbed the announcement by Taliban as mere propaganda of the fighters.
He said: "The fighters set many schools on fire in parts of the country."
He said with new announcement Taliban wanted to improve their popularity in the public, but this plan would never work. Laity said real aim of Taliban was burning of schools and killing of teachers and students.
A statement from Taliban, quoted chief spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmain as saying they wanted to open schools in parts of the country under their control. Earlier, Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi also termed the announcement by Taliban a false propaganda.
Najib Khilwatgar
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).