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July 23, 2007 

Last king of Afghanistan dead at 92
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, died in Kabul on Monday aged 92, mourned by the war-torn country where he had spent his final years after returning from three decades of exile.

President Hamid Karzai declared three days of mourning for the "Father of the Nation," whose 40-year rule until 1973 is remembered as a time of peace and stability in the Central Asian country before its descent into chaos.

Afghan flags flew at half mast and state-run and private television channels alike replaced scheduled programmmes with recitations of the Koran and sombre religious chanting.

Zahir Shah ended Afghanistan's centuries-old monarchy when he abdicated while on holiday in Italy in 1973, after hearing his former premier Mohammad Daud, who was also his cousin, had staged a coup.

He stayed in exile during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation and ensuing civil war but returned home months after the 2001 collapse of the ultra-Islamist Taliban regime brought by the US-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks.

Karzai announced the king's death in the presidential palace, saying: "I want to inform all my compatriots that his majesty, the Father of the Nation, Mohammed Zahir Shah, passed away today at 5:45 am."

The former king died in his Kabul residence after a long illness, he said.

"We announce three days of national mourning over the death of the father of the nation, and the Afghan flag will be at half mast for three days," Karzai added.

"Prayer ceremonies will be held across the country, in the capital, in the provinces, by Afghan refugees overseas and in Afghan embassies."

Prayers for the late king will be held on Wednesday, and the funeral will take place the following day to allow time for foreign guests, including prime ministers and foreign ministers, to attend, a government official told AFP.

Zahir Shah was awarded the title "Father of the Nation" at a constitutional assembly after his return home from exile.

Despite pressure from tribal leaders and fellow Pashtuns, Zahir Shah repeatedly said he had no desire to again lead his country.

He was in poor health for the last years of his life.

His wife Homaira, whom he married in 1931, died as preparations were under way for her to return to Afghanistan to join her husband in 2002. The couple had five sons and two daughters.

Born on October 15, 1914, Zahir Shah took the throne at age 19 after being at the side of his father, king Nadir Shah, when he was shot dead in 1933 by a teenager at a school awards ceremony on the lawns of a Kabul palace.

Under his reign, a 1964 constitution turned Afghanistan into a modern democracy with free elections, a parliament and civil rights.

However there were underlying problems, as the king was considered weak, there was widespread nepotism and a faltering economy. The tensions boiled over into the 1973 coup.

From Europe, Zahir Shah watched his country unravel, wracked by the Soviet occupation, an ensuing civil war and the hardline rule of the Taliban.

The Taliban paid tribute to the king's earlier years but said that he was used by the United States to serve its own interests after his return -- a five-year period that has seen the militants intensify a bloody insurgency.

"The father of the nation was a known figure in the history of Afghanistan and enjoyed a lot of credibility," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.

"Unfortunately, recently the Americans used him for their interests -- from his return to Afghanistan until the day he died, he served US interests and became a stooge in recent years," Ahmadi said.
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Afghanistan's former King dies aged 92
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Former King Mohammad Zahir Shah, whose 40-year reign until his exile in 1973 coincided with one of the most peaceful periods in Afghanistan's recent history, died on Monday, aged 92.

"With paramount grief, I would like to inform my countrymen that ... Mohammad Zahir Shah has bid farewell to this mortal world," President Hamid Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace.

State television interrupted its normal broadcast and a woman dressed black with a black headscarf announced Zahir Shah had died. Prayers and recitals from the Koran followed.

The former king died in his bed after months of illness.

Describing him as the founder of Afghanistan's democracy and a symbol of national unity, Karzai announced three days of national mourning for the former king and ordered flags to be flown at half mast.

Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933 until he was deposed by his cousin in 1973. He lived in exile in Italy before returning home as an ordinary citizen in 2002, but was accorded the honorary title "father of the nation."

"When I saw the mountains of my country, my people, my friends -- what is better than this," he said shortly after his return. "I wish just to be able to do things for my country and serve it."

Zahir Shah came from a long line of ethnic Pashtun rulers and is a distant relative of President Karzai.

The former king's reign is remembered as one of the most tranquil periods of Afghanistan's turbulent history.

Born in Kabul on October 15, 1914, Zahir Shah received part of his education in France and returned to Kabul for military training. He ascended the throne in 1933 after his father was assassinated by a deranged student.

For two decades, the bookish king remained in the shadows, allowing three uncles to run the government. But he gradually gained in confidence and took full control in 1953, overseeing a cautious modernization of his backward realm.

He supported an end to purdah -- the wearing of the veil -- for women, used foreign cash to develop the country's medieval infrastructure and managed to keep a balance between rival Soviet and Western interests.

In 1973, while holidaying in Italy, Zahir Shah was ousted in a bloodless coup orchestrated by his cousin and brother-in-law, Prince Daoud, ending two centuries of rule by the Durrani dynasty.

Daoud was later killed in a coup and after Soviet troops entered the country in 1979 to prop up the communist government, Afghanistan has barely seen peace.

Some Afghans look back with nostalgia Zahir Shah's rule, but others saw him as an ineffective ruler.

Zahir Shah will be buried in a mausoleum next to his father on a hill overlooking Kabul.
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US: 50 Taliban killed in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan soldiers "routed" a large number of Taliban fighters in a two-day battle in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing heartland, killing more than 50 suspected militants, the coalition said Monday.

The battle in Helmand province's Sangin district saw the insurgents attempt to shoot down a coalition aircraft and attack soldiers with a suicide car bomb, the coalition said in a statement.

Coalition aircraft dropped four bombs during the engagement, and Afghan forces counted "more than four dozen" insurgents killed, it said.

The Sangin district chief, Eizatullah Khan, said a big group of Taliban had attacked a convoy of vehicles Sunday afternoon. He said the battle left more than 30 Taliban dead and many wounded.

Coalition and Afghan forces "only engaged legitimate military and enemy targets to minimize the potential of Afghan casualties," said U.S. Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. "We did this even as the insurgents tried to create some propaganda value by placing innocent civilians in harms way."

Civilian casualties have been a major problem for U.S. and NATO forces this year. Taliban militants often fight in populated areas or seek cover in civilian homes, leading to the deaths of ordinary Afghans. There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties during the battle, but those reports sometimes take a day or two to surface.

In Zabul province, meanwhile, Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior said Afghan police forces killed 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle Sunday, including a Taliban commander identified as Mohammad Hassan. The ministry said Hassan was the head of administrative affairs during the Taliban's rule.
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Taliban extends deadline on Koreans
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban spokesman said Monday the hard-line militia has extended its deadline on the fate of 23 South Korean hostages who were seized last week.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the militants had pushed back the deadline until Tuesday evening after the Afghan government refused to release any of the 23 Taliban prisoners the insurgents want freed.

The developments came as the U.S.-led coalition reported killing some 50 militants in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing heartland.

The kidnappers have extended their ultimatum at least three times. Afghan officials in Ghazni province have met the militants in person and are also negotiating over the phone, but little progress appears to have been made so far.

"If the government won't accept these conditions, then it's difficult for the Taliban to provide security for these hostages, to provide health facilities and food," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by satellite phone. "The Taliban won't have any option but to kill the hostages."

Though some of Ahmadi's statements turn out to be true, he has also made repeated false claims, calling into question the reliability of his information.

Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Khaliq, meanwhile, said Afghanistan was not prepared to make a deal "against our national interest and our constitution," though he did not explicitly rule out freeing any prisoners.

President Hamid Karzai in March authorized the release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian reporter, but he called the trade a one-time deal. Karzai was also criticized by the United States and European nations who felt that trade would encourage more kidnappings.

Khail Mohammad Husseini, a lawmaker from Ghazni province, where the Koreans are being held, said a delegation of provincial leaders tried to meet with the kidnappers Monday but that the militants didn't show.

He said officials were also speaking with the militants by telephone, and that the insurgents at one point had increased their demands, saying all jailed militants in Ghazni province had to be released. But Ahmadi denied that the demands had changed, suggesting the Taliban weren't presenting a unified front.

Meanwhile, Ahmadi also said the militants are still holding one German and four Afghan hostages, despite the fact Ahmadi on Saturday claimed those six people had been shot and killed.

He said the Taliban were demanding the release of 10 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the German and Afghans. Originally there had been five Afghan hostages, but one of them, the brother of Afghanistan's Parliament speaker Arif Noorzai, "escaped" from Taliban custody, Ahmadi said.

Francesc Vendrell, the EU representative for Afghanistan, said officials are not convinced the Taliban is actually holding the German and the Afghans. Police have suggested that the five might be held by a separate criminal group.

The body of the second German, Ruediger Diedrich, 43, was to be flown back to Germany on Monday, where authorities will carry out an autopsy, the German Foreign Ministry said. His body was discovered riddled with bullet holes, but officials haven't concluded if he first died of another cause and was later shot.

The South Korean hostages were kidnapped Thursday while riding on a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul to Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.

The Afghan military has the region surrounded in case the government decides the military should move in.

South Korea has banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan in the wake of the kidnappings, said Han Hye-jin, a Foreign Ministry official. He said Seoul also asked Kabul not to issue visas to South Koreans and block their entry into the country.

South Korea had previously asked its nationals to refrain from visiting Afghanistan, citing political instability.

Earlier, the South Korean church that the abductees attend said it will suspend at least some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also stressed that the Koreans abducted were not involved in any Christian missionary work, saying they only provided medical and other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country.

Neither the Afghan nor Korean governments have commented on the purported Taliban trade offer. A delegation of eight Korean officials arrived in the capital of Kabul on Sunday and met with Karzai to discuss the crisis.

The 23 South Koreans, including 18 women, were working at an aid organization in Kandahar, said Sidney Serena, a political affairs officer at the South Korean Embassy in Kabul.

South Korea has about 200 troops serving with the 8,000-strong U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, largely working on humanitarian projects. They are scheduled to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2007.

In the two-day battle in the Sangin district in Helmand province, the insurgents tried to shoot down a coalition aircraft and attack soldiers with a suicide car bomb, the coalition said. Coalition aircraft dropped four bombs and Afghan forces counted "more than four dozen" insurgents killed, it said.

The Sangin district chief, Eizatullah Khan, said a large group of Taliban had attacked a convoy Sunday, and the resulting battle left more than 30 militants dead and many wounded.

Coalition and Afghan forces "only engaged legitimate military and enemy targets to minimize the potential of Afghan casualties," said U.S. Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. "We did this even as the insurgents tried to create some propaganda value by placing innocent civilians in harms way."

Civilian casualties have been a major problem for U.S. and NATO forces this year. Taliban militants often fight in populated areas or seek cover in civilian homes, leading to the deaths of ordinary Afghans.

Officials reported a Norwegian coalition soldier was shot and killed while on operation in central Afghanistan.

In Zabul province, Afghan police forces reported killing 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle Sunday, including a Taliban commander identified as Mohammad Hassan.

Afghan elders leading the hostage negotiations met with the kidnappers Sunday and reported that the Koreans were healthy, said Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi, a local police chief in Ghazni district. The Koreans were kidnapped there Thursday while riding on a bus from Kabul to Kandahar on Afghanistan's major highway.

The Afghan military has the region surrounded in case the government decides the military should move in.
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Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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Afghan Taliban say Korean hostages in good health
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Twenty-three South Korean kidnapped by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan are in good health, but any use of force to rescue them would put their lives at risk, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday.

The Taliban on Sunday extended a deadline for South Korea to agree to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan government to release Taliban prisoners to 1430 GMT on Monday. After that they would start killing the Koreans.

"They are in good health and fine, but we would like to repeat that any use of force will claim the lives of the hostages and the Taliban then would not be responsible," said Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf.

The 23 belong to the "Saemmul Church" in Bundang, a city outside South Korea's capital, Seoul. Most of them are in their 20s and 30s, and include nurses and English teachers.

While tribal elders tried to mediate between the militants and government negotiators, Afghan forces have surrounded the group of some 70 kidnappers in the Qarabagh area of Ghazni province, south of the capital Kabul.

The Afghan government was hopeful of a peaceful outcome.

"We are working on it. We are hopeful that we will have good achievements and good results from what we are doing," said Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari.

"We have assigned a working group in Ghazni province to work on the issue and we are serious about what we are doing," he said, declining to give further details.

A delegation of South Korean diplomats were also aiding the negotiations, a Korean embassy official said.

"The diplomats from the embassy are still in negotiations with community elders of Ghazni province to solve the matter peacefully and secure the safe release of the hostages," he said.

South Korea ruled out a rescue bid without its say-so.

"There will be no rescue operation without our government's agreement ... a discussion over this matter has been made," said Seoul presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon.

"The government will not stop in our efforts to ensure the hostages' safety, which is our top priority," Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying. "We're trying to find out what are the most substantial and final requests from the hostage takers."

An unnamed government official told Yonhap: "Our government is maintaining contacts with the militants through various channels, jointly with the Afghan government and other allies ... There was no offer for direct negotiation from the hostage takers (with the South Korean government)."

But another Taliban spokesman quoted by the Pakistan-based Afghanistan Islamic Press news agency said talks with the Afghan government were heading for failure.

The spokesman asked the South Korean government to contact the Taliban as soon as possible and threatened to kill the hostages if the matter was not resolved by evening.

"WE WILL NOT GIVE IN"
The Saemmul Church that sent the 23 volunteers said on Monday he was calling off work in Afghanistan and apologized to the families and South Koreans for causing concern.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would not give in to the demands of the kidnappers -- who also seized two German engineers and killed at least one of them -- to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. "We will not give in to blackmail," she said.

German authorities have seen the body of a German hostage who died in captivity in Afghanistan and it had gunshot wounds, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

He said it was unclear what was the exact cause of death and added that Berlin wanted the remains returned to Germany as soon as possible for a closer examination.

The Koreans are the biggest group of foreigners kidnapped so far in the Taliban campaign to oust the Western-backed government and force out foreign troops.

The area south of Kabul where the Germans and Koreans were seized this week has seen a marked escalation of violence in the last month as Taliban militants have moved in from the south.
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Frantic talks to save Taliban's S Korean hostages
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan officials continued frantic talks Monday with Taliban militants who have threatened to kill 23 South Korean hostages by sunset unless their demands are met.

The Islamic fighters -- who earlier released the bullet-riddled body of one of their two German hostages -- have demanded that 23 of their fellow fighters be freed from jail before 1430 GMT, a deadline they had extended by 24 hours.

"We are working on the issue constantly, around the clock," said Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. "We have more hope of success for the release of both the South Koreans and the German.

"We hope to win their release via talks rather than military operations."

Afghan troops have surrounded the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni province where the Taliban are holding the aid workers, who are mostly female in their 20s and 30s and members of a South Korean church, the defence ministry said.

"We have positioned our forces in the area," said Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammd Zahir Azimi. "We are awaiting further orders... We will carry out military operations to free the hostages only if we are told to do so."

The militants' spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi warned that if attacked they would kill the captives, the largest group of foreigners taken hostage since the country's US-led invasion in 2001.

The South Korean foreign ministry said Seoul was in contact with the kidnappers through "various direct and indirect channels."

Ghazni province police chief Alishah Ahmadzai, said early Monday talks through tribal chiefs and religious elders "have resumed today. The Taliban has assured us that the hostages are in good health."

An Afghan defence ministry official, who asked not to be named, told AFP: "We strongly believe that the issue will be solved via negotiations."

The Koreans were abducted last Thursday on the main highway leading from Kabul to the insurgency-wracked south, a day after two German engineers and five Afghans were captured on the same road.

The Taliban have also demanded that Berlin and Seoul withdraw their forces from the war-torn country, where 3,000 Germans serve under NATO command, and some 200 South Korean troops are stationed as part of a US-led coalition.

Taliban spokesman Ahmadi, speaking by phone from an unknown location, has repeatedly claimed both Germans and the five Afghans were shot dead Saturday, while Germany said it believes one of the Germans is still alive.

It earlier said the other hostage had died of a heart attack in captivity.

Bashary said the German's body bore several bullet wounds, but said it was unclear whether the militants had shot him dead or fired bullets into the body later in a bid to add force to their threat against the other captives.

"At this stage the cause of his death is not clear," said Bashary. "The forensic tests will show whether he died of a heart attack and was later shot, or whether he was murdered with gun fire."

In Berlin foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger confirmed that German officials saw bullet wounds in the body of the 44-year-old building engineer when it was transferred to a Kabul hospital Sunday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "it is our mission" to save the second German hostage but warned that her government would "not accept blackmail" from the al-Qaeda linked insurgents, saying this would be dangerous.

South Korea has dispatched a crisis team to Kabul and said it was in communication with the rebels, with Seoul also reiterating that it will pull out its troops this year under its existing withdrawal plan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Siamak Hirawi said "the interior and foreign ministries and intelligence services are working together in consultation with the South Korean delegation and the South Korean embassy here to win the release of the South Koreans."

In South Korea, a nation agonising over the fate of its citizens, the government Monday announced new rules to punish unauthorised travel to Afghanistan with fines and possible jail terms.

Both the government and their families have stressed that the Koreans, belonging to a Presbyterian church on the outskirts of Seoul, were on an aid mission and not an evangelical one.

The double hostage crisis is the latest abduction targeting the 37 countries with forces in Afghanistan, where the US invasion ousted the Taliban regime sheltering al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks.
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Afghanistan asks elders to help in hostage release
By Sayed Salahuddin Sun Jul 22, 9:14 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan government team went to an area on Sunday where 23 Koreans were kidnapped to ask tribal elders to mediate for their release while Afghan and foreign troops stood by ready for an operation to free them.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said insurgents would start killing the hostages if South Korea did not agree to withdraw its 200 military engineers and medics by 1430 GMT on Sunday and the Afghan government did not free Taliban prisoners.

The South Korean government has said it will withdraw its troops at the end of this year as planned.

"An Afghan government delegation has gone to begin talks with tribal elders in Qarabagh, Ghazni, as part of an effort to try to secure the freedom of the Koreans," provincial governor Mirajuddin Pattan told Reuters.

He said the government was keen for the elders to play the role of mediators between the government and the Taliban rebels.

But the Afghan Defense Ministry said Afghan army and coalition forces were also on stand-by in Ghazni province, south of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"They are awaiting orders to assault suspected locations," the ministry said in a statement. "The operation will be launched if Defense Ministry authorities deem it necessary."

Taliban spokesmen Yousuf said fighters were holding the captives at different locations and any attempt to free them by force would put the Koreans' lives at risk.

A South Korean government delegation was in the Afghan capital Kabul holding talks with government officials.

"We are working very hard considering the deadline," said a South Korean embassy official, but declined to give more details.

URGENT MISSION
The Taliban spokesman said militants had killed two German hostages on Saturday after Berlin refused to yield to similar demands for it to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

German authorities have cast doubt on the authenticity of the Taliban spokesman and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said analysis suggested one of the German hostages was alive while the other had died of "stress and strain."

The online edition of German weekly Der Spiegel said the dead German hostage, identified Ruediger B., was diabetic and died after his kidnappers failed to get him the necessary medications through intermediaries.

The police chief of Wardak province, north of Ghazni, Mohammad Hewas Mazlum denied media reports quoting him as saying that the body of one of the Germans had been found.

"I have not said to anyone that the body has been found. This is wrong," he said.

The 23 Koreans belong to the "Saemmul Church" in Bundang, a city on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Most of them are in their 20s and 30s and include nurses and English teachers. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said on Saturday the Koreans were providing only free medical or educational services with no missionary intentions.

The Koreans are the biggest group of foreigners kidnapped so far in the Taliban campaign to oust the Western-backed government and force out foreign troops.

Tearful relatives prayed for their safe release at their church on Sunday.

"My kids went to the war-ravaged country to do volunteer work, carrying love," said Seo Jung-bae, 57, whose son and daughter were both taken hostage. "I feel like chopping off my foot for letting you go. I hope you will return to us and the country without a single hair damaged."

The area south of Kabul where the Germans and Koreans were seized this week has seen a marked escalation of violence in the last month as Taliban militants have moved in from the south.

Residents say government troops only hold the major towns and much of the countryside is beyond their control.

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in Seoul)
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Merkel Defends Troops in Afghanistan
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER The Associated Press Sunday, July 22, 2007; 10:52 PM
BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday defended Germany's troop deployment in Afghanistan, even as a kidnapped German was found dead there and government officials warned the country is facing a higher risk of terrorist attacks.

Some 3,000 German soldiers are serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Merkel's government is committed to keeping them there under a series of mandates passed by parliament. But those mandates are up for renewal later this year, and opposition politicians have called on the government to withdraw the troops.

Merkel stressed Germany's commitment to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, especially its efforts to rebuild civilian infrastructure. She said Germany would not respond to Taliban militants' demands that it withdraw its troops, which are situated in Afghanistan's relatively peaceful north.

"We will do everything responsibly, and we will not be blackmailed," the chancellor said on ARD public television.

On Saturday, a purported Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan said militants shot and killed two German hostages because Germany had not agreed to leave. Officials said Sunday that villagers recovered the body of one German, a construction worker.

Afghan and German officials said intelligence indicated that one died of a heart attack and the other was still alive. But German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said the body had bullet wounds and would be transported to Germany for an autopsy.

Other government officials warned over the weekend that there were indications al-Qaida terrorists and other militants may be planning suicide bombings in Germany.

German Islamists trained in terror camps in Pakistan re-entered Germany a few weeks ago, the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported Sunday.

"We must assume that these people who have returned from Pakistan, are planning attacks," August Hanning, a deputy interior minister, was quoted as saying in the paper.

"We have a lot of evidence that al-Qaida has an eye on Germany and German institutions, for example embassies," Hanning said. "This is a new, concrete threat and for us a reason of concern."

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted by the daily B.Z. on Saturday as saying: "In the past days, there have been many concrete indications that Germany is increasingly in the sights of international terrorists."

Germany has not faced any major terror attacks, but in July 2006, extremists planted bombs on two German trains which failed to explode. In March, Islamic militants threatened in a video to attack Germany unless it withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.
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Militants vow 'gift of death' for Pakistani troops
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Pro-Taliban militants warned Pakistani soldiers to quit fighting or face more suicide attacks, as peace talks faltered in the conflict-torn area bordering Afghanistan.

The Islamist hardliners threatened that explosives would bring soldiers the "gift of death" in a pamphlet entitled "Till Islam Lives in Islamabad", distributed in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal district.

The chilling warning came as Washington reiterated its threat that it reserved the right to launch unilateral strikes against targets in Pakistan's tribal belt, where it says Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have set up "safe havens."

Fighting along the Afghan frontier has intensified amid a nationwide wave of Islamist bloodshed that has killed more than 200 people, mostly security forces, after the July 10-11 raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.

In the latest attacks Monday, seven Pakistani soldiers were wounded in two separate rocket and bomb attacks, a security official told AFP.

The pamphlet, issued by a group calling itself the Mujahedin-e-Islam (Islamic holy warriors), accused Pakistani troops of doing the bidding of the United States and leading impure lives.

"Go to your homes and earn halal (pure) income for your families... instead of serving the Americans," the pamphlet said.

It warned that its suicide attackers "love death more than you love your 5,000-rupee salary, nude pictures of Indian actresses and liquor."

"We know that you have become America's slave and are serving infidel (non-believer President Pervez) Musharraf and have become a traitor to your religion for food, clothes and shelter."

Nineteen rebels were killed in weekend clashes in North Waziristan.

Two soldiers were wounded Monday when rockets hit a checkpost in Razmak town, and a remote controlled improvised explosive device wounded five more as they rushed to help their colleagues, a security official told AFP.

Amid the violence, talks to salvage a collapsed peace accord in North Waziristan ended with no result, with government envoys leaving the area after talks with tribal elders and religious leaders from the seven tribal districts.

The deal, signed in September, was heavily criticised by Washington and Kabul. Militants tore it up over a week ago amid complaints about new checkpoints and a lack of compensation for damage in previous army operations.

The governor of North West Frontier Province, Ali Jan Aurakzai, the architect of the accord, again met tribal elders in Peshawar to continue efforts to restore peace in nearby North Waziristan, officials said.

US director of national intelligence Mike McConnell earlier said he believed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was alive and sheltering in the lawless frontier zone where pro-Taliban tribal leaders hold sway.

White House Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend reaffirmed the US stance when asked whether the United States would use "direct military force" against Al-Qaeda or Taliban elements inside Pakistan.

"No question that we will use any instrument at our disposal to deal with the problem of Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda," she told CNN, referring to bin Laden's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The US administration's remarks sparked a curt response from Islamabad.

"Our stance is that Osama bin Laden is not present in Pakistan," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP in the Pakistani capital. "If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can apprehend him.
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Britain losing 'hearts and minds' in Afghanistan
By David Harrison Sunday Telegraph (UK) Sunday, July 22, 2007
Britain faces a critical 18 months in Afghanistan and may need to send troops in US-style "surges" to defeat the Taliban, a senior Foreign Office official has warned.

He said that British troops were losing the battle for "hearts and minds" because of rising civilian casualties and war damage.

The official, who has worked for a long time in Afghanistan, told The Sunday Telegraph: "The next 18 months will be crucial. If we do not make progress in that time then we could be in deep trouble.

"We are losing the consent of the Afghan people and that is a serious concern. There is a real risk that Nato might win the battle but lose the war."

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the head of the Army has warned colleagues that Britain has almost run out of troops to defend the country.

In a memo, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, said that fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, training commitments and leave meant that only a single battalion of 500 troops would be available in the event of an emergency.

In the memo, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, he wrote: "We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected."

The warnings follow a Commons Defence Committee report last week which said that Nato was beginning to fail in Afghanistan, and called for thousands more soldiers to be deployed to take on the resurgent Taliban and accelerate the pace of construction projects.

In their report, the MPs said they were "deeply concerned" that the reluctance of some Nato members to provide troops for the Afghanistan mission was undermining Nato's credibility.

Army generals fear that failure in Afghanistan could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in Pakistan and spark a regional civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The high-ranking Foreign Office official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that British and other Nato soldiers were losing support because so many innocent civilians were being killed and their homes were being destroyed.

He said he feared that Nato might not have the "strategic patience" to continue the fight for 10 years or more, whereas the Taliban would fight on for 20 or 30 years. There was a genuine possibility that Holland and Canada would pull their troops out of Afghanistan after 2009, he said.

"We may have the watches but the Taliban have the time," the official added.

The official said that to achieve a serious breakthrough it was "crucial" to open talks with the Taliban and try to persuade their less extreme members to "cross over" in return for a stake in the government of Helmand and other volatile provinces.

But this had to be done by the Afghan government and not by Nato, he said. He feared that Hamid Karzai, the Afghan leader, was not strong enough to carry this out.

Increased reconstruction work, creating hundreds of local jobs and providing locals with water and electricity, was necessary to regain the support of local people, the official said.

Britain has provided 7,700 out of Nato's 36,750 troops, in Afghanistan, the second biggest contribution after the US.
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Musharraf used militias to further his own ambitions in India, Afghanistan
By ANI Monday July 23, 02:07 PM
Washington, July 23 (ANI): President General Musharraf, the Pakistan Army, and the elite have a long history of bolstering Islamic right as a bulwark against the working class and of using various militias to further the country's and their own geo-political ambitions in Afghanistan and India, claims Keith Jones in an article for the World Socialist Website.

According to Jones, the Musharraf regime has proclaimed a war with "Islamic extremism" due to the US pressure to act tough against militants, and a desire to pre-empt the Talibanisation of Pakistan, as it would hamper the interest of the country's elite.

The analysis further claims that there is a mounting public anger in Pakistan over Musharraf's alliance with the US, because Washington has for decades armed and supported military rule in Pakistan.

"Pakistani elite is angered that the military, its crony politicians and various business insiders have used their control of government to unduly monopolise state patronage, the benefits from US aid, and the business opportunities arising from privatisation," the Daily Times quoted Jones, as saying.

Commenting on the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Jones says the apex court ruling constitutes a stunning rebuke for Musharraf, which can only embolden popular opposition to his military rule.

Everyone knows that Musharraf calls the shots in Pakistan and to say that he was constitutionally bound to follow the advice of his Prime Minister to take action against the chief justice as "farcical", adds Jones.

"Facing a myriad of domestic and international challenges, the Musharraf regime is increasingly emitting a 'fin de regime' stench, while lashing out periodically with deadly violence, he concludes. (ANI)
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A Talk With a Suicide Bomber
By ROBERT BAER Mon Jul 23, 4:10 AM ET TIME.COM
Last week, at the Directorate of National Intelligence in Kabul, I met a failed suicide bomber. Arrested two weeks before in Jalalabad, preparing to assassinate the governor of Nangahar Province, Farhad was setting outside of Pakistan's Waziristan Province for the first time.

Only 17, he was terrified. Not only because of an uncertain fate, but perhaps more so because the world was not as the Taliban had described it. The Taliban indoctrinated him well, convincing him the Americans were stealing the faith of Afghan Muslims. Turning them into kafirs. I asked him if he hated the governor. No, it was simply that in working with the Americans he'd fallen away from Islam. He deserved to die.

It was immediately clear this kid was ignorant of the world; the boundaries of his village were his world. I asked him if he'd heard of Iraq. He had, but when I asked him if he could point it out on a map, he said he couldn't. The same with Palestine. I doubt that he'd ever seen a map.

That raised the question what he knew about Islam. When I asked he said he'd read the Quran. I asked it him if he understood it. He shook his head. It was then it became apparent his education went no farther than the madrassa - he was taught to recite the Quran in Arabic but did not understand a word. Other than what he was told.

And this is where the Taliban came in. Spotting him in the village mosque, they invited him to attend what can only be called an indoctrination course in Waziristan. There he was taught that suicide bombers go directly to heaven, where they're met by virgins and lush gardens. Farhad was also taught that any Muslim working with the Americans in Afghanistan was no longer a Muslim, but a "munafiq," a pretend Muslim. It was written in the Quran, Farhad was assured.

Even I, who have tried to get a grip on Muslim suicide bombing, was stunned by the depth of the brainwashing. I'd never seen anything like it. So I asked the question, What religion is Musharraf, the president of Pakistan? He's a Jew, the Taliban had assured Farhad.

No wonder Farhad agreed to go to Jalalabad to kill a fellow Muslim. Still, wasn't there a doubt in his mind about taking his life like that and who knows how many others? No. The Taliban had told him that when he pushed the button on his suicide vest, it was Allah then who would decide whether to summon him to heaven or not.

Earlier that day I'd visited NATO headquarters to talk to an American Marine colonel who tracks suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices. He came straight to the point: neither military force nor intelligence is going to stop suicide bombings. Only "mitigate" them. What NATO is pressing the Afghans to do is to deindocrinate young men like Farhad. But how do you get someone like Farhad, who may never have seen a map, change his radical worldview?

Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down.
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Pakistan rejects 'Bin Laden raid'
Monday, 23 July 2007 BBC News
Pakistan has responded angrily to suggestions from the United States that American forces might be sent into Pakistan to strike at Osama Bin Laden.

A senior US official has said he believed the architect of the 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington was in northern Pakistan.

Pakistani FM Khurshid Kasuri said Bin Laden was not in the country.

A recent US intelligence report says al-Qaeda is intensifying efforts to put operatives into the US.

The report says the nation is at a heightened risk of attack.

Analysts warn that al-Qaeda's leaders have found a "safe haven" in Pakistani tribal areas which has allowed them to regroup.

All options available

US director of national intelligence Mike McConnell said recently he believed Bin Laden was in northern Pakistan, near the Afghan border.

President Bush's homeland security adviser Frances Townsend said that in the pursuit of Bin Laden, no options were off the table.

Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri said he did not believe that the al-Qaeda leader was in Pakistan - and in any case, if the US shared its intelligence, Pakistan's army could do a better job.

Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said: "Our stance is that Osama Bin Laden is not present in Pakistan.

"If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can apprehend him," he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

President Pervez Musharraf last week vowed to root out extremists "from every corner of the country".
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Factbox -- The five Asian countries worst hit by monsoon floods
July 23 (Reuters) - Heavy rain and storms have triggered floods and landslides across large parts of Asia, killing hundreds of people.

Here is an overview of the five Asian countries worst affected by this year's monsoon weather.

INDIA, about 750 dead:

-- Heavy rains and landslides have displaced more than eight million people since the start of this year's monsoon season, authorities in the affected states say.

-- Northwestern Maharashtra state has been worst hit, with 362 recorded deaths. In southern Kerala state, 143 have been killed by floods and more than 27,000 displaced since the monsoon began in June.

CHINA, at least 400 dead:

-- Floods, landslides and lightning killed more than 150 people last week across vast tracts of China. More than 3 million have been displaced by this year's rain season.

-- In recent weeks, parts of China have suffered the heaviest rainfall since records began. Last year was the country's second deadliest for floods and typhoons, with 2,704 people killed, according to the China Meteorological Association. The worst year on record was 1998, when 4,150 died in summer floods.

PAKISTAN, nearly 350 dead:

-- South-western Pakistan suffered severe early rainy-season storms and flooding while flash floods killed people in northern Pakistan. A powerful storm killed about 230 people in the biggest city, Karachi, on June 23. Three days later, a cyclone and subsequent floods killed 119 people in the state of Baluchistan, leaving 250,000 people homeless and 204 people missing.

BANGLADESH, nearly 150 dead:

-- Nearly 130 people died in the port city of Chittagong and five million people across the country were either marooned or threatened by flooding in early June. In July, another 15 died and half a million were stranded in their homes by three days of relentless monsoon rains.

-- Bangladesh's monsoon season runs until mid-September. Two-thirds of the low-lying country is regularly inundated during the monsoon, as rain-swollen rivers and streams flow into Bangladesh from the hills of bordering east India.

AFGHANISTAN, about 100 dead:

-- Floods and landslides have killed scores of people, destroyed roads and damaged thousands of homes. Very heavy snow melt has caused flooding in the mountainous north, as swollen rivers burst their banks after winter.
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