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June 16, 2007 

Suicide bomber kills 4 in Kabul: police
By Abdul Saboor
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber attacked a military-civilian convoy on Saturday in the Afghan capital, killing at least three civilians, the government and police said, in the third such attack on foreign forces in two days.

Later, a U.S. soldier "mistakenly" opened fire at the scene of the blast, on the outskirts of Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding another, police said.

A spokesman for the U.S. military said it was looking into the incident and he could not comment further.

Suicide bombings and civilian casualties from both sides in the Afghan conflict are raising security and political tensions and threatening to erode local support for foreign troops, which are fighting with the government against Taliban insurgents.

"An American soldier fired on civilians, killing one and wounding another," said Ali Shah Paktiawal, chief of Kabul police's criminal branch. He did not have more details.

NATO-led and U.S.-coalition forces have more than 50,000 troops in  Afghanistan and are under growing pressure to curb civilian casualties after a series of recent killings brought into question their tactics, such as aerial bombardment.

But NATO has blamed the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan until U.S.-led forces invaded in 2001, for using civilians as human shields and sucking innocent people into the conflict.

On Saturday, a suicide attacker maneuvered a taxi packed with explosives close to vehicles carrying both foreign troops and civilians, then detonated the blast, Paktiawal said.

He said four people had been killed, apart from the bomber, but the Interior Ministry said the four included the bomber.

Another five people were wounded, Paktiawal added.

A member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was among those wounded in the blast, ISAF said. It was unclear if the wounded ISAF member was military or civilian.

"Right now we think it may have been a private convoy of private contractors," an ISAF spokesman said.

The Taliban have been fighting the Afghan government and its allies since U.S.-led forces ousted the Islamist group for refusing to give up their ally, al Qaeda leader  Osama bin Laden.

But suicide bombings are a relatively recent phenomenon in Afghanistan. In the past two years, the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have stepped up such attacks, though there had not been a suicide bombing in the capital for many weeks.

On Friday, a suicide car-bomber attacked foreign troops in central Afghanistan, killing 10 people, including five children and a Dutch soldier.

Later in the day, a second suicide bomber on foot attacked a foreign troop convoy in the southern Kandahar city, wounding at least five civilians, a police official said.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said authorities were investigating Saturday's suicide attack but he doubted it was part of a new, intensive campaign to disrupt security across the country.

"This is something different," he said. He did not elaborate.

On Friday, an Afghan teenager was shot and killed in crossfire between U.S.-led forces and Taliban fighters in the southern province of Zabul, the U.S. military said on Saturday. Another boy was also shot and taken to a military hospital.

"Coalition and Afghan forces strive to avoid civilian injuries and are saddened by the loss of life," said U.S. military spokesman Major Chris Belcher.

"But when extremists insist on hiding among civilians, as they clearly were here, they are abusing the kindness of their hosts and putting innocents at risk."
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Shooting after Kabul blast was accidental: US military
KABUL (AFP) - A shot fired by US soldiers at the scene of a deadly suicide blast in Kabul Saturday was not deliberate but an "accidental discharge," the US military said.

Kabul police said the shooting killed one Afghan and wounded three others, though US military spokesman Colonel David Accetta said he was aware of only two were wounded.

"It appears to have been an accidental discharge. The US soldiers did not intend to fire on anyone," he told AFP.

"There might have been a weapons malfunction or some other cause. We don't know, we are investigating," he said. The force regretted the casualties.

The suicide blast appeared to have struck a civilian security company, the colonel said. The US soldiers had been responding to the attack.

The Afghan interior ministry said earlier the blast killed three Afghan civilians and wounded five.

US soldiers had fired "mistakenly," Afghan police said.

"They killed one person and injured three others," Kabul deputy police chief Zalmai Oriakhil told AFP.

Hundreds of people mobbed the soldiers afterwards, thinking the firing was deliberate.

They were persuaded to disperse after police and elders intervened, although about 100 men later chanted "Death to America" for television cameras at the scene.

A traffic accident last year in which a US military vehicle crashed into civilian cars and killed several Afghans prompted a demonstration that led troops to fire into the crowd.

That incident led to a day of rioting which was the worst violence in the city since the Taliban were driven out in 2001. Buildings and police checkposts were torched and offices looted.

Seventeen people were killed and nearly 200 injured in the accident, shooting and demonstration, the government said after an official investigation.
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Italian aid group worker freed in Afghanistan
ROME (AFP) - An employee of an Italian aid group, arrested three months ago in  Afghanistan and accused of involvement in the kidnapping of an Italian journalist, has been released, a spokesman for the group said Saturday.

Rahmatullah Hanefi, the Afghan head of a hospital run by the group, Emergency, in southern Afghanistan, "was freed Saturday morning and is currently at our hospital in Kabul", spokesman Vauro Senesi said.

He said Hanefi had been cleared of accusations brought by the Afghan secret services against him.

Afghan authorities arrested Hanefi on March 20, the day after his negotiations with the Taliban as an intermediary resulted in the liberation of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, an Italian journalist who had been held hostage for two weeks.

The Afghan rebel group freed Mastrogiacomo in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government. Two Afghans working with the journalist as a translator and as a driver were decapitated by the Taliban.

Afghan officials accused Hanefi of being implicated in the kidnapping of Mastrogiacomo.

In April, Emergency announced it had closed all its medical centres in Afghanistan after the country's secret service accused it of "supporting terrorists" by brokering the release of the journalist.

The group ran three hospitals and 26 clinics in Afghanistan.

Hanefi's release opens up the prospect of the group returning to Afghanistan, the spokesman added.
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British paper says troops in Afghanistan lack equipment
Sat Jun 16, 1:56 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British newspaper charged Saturday that the country's troops in  Afghanistan were suffering severe shortages of equipment, but the defence ministry said the soldiers had the tools to accomplish their mission.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper said that just half of the Apache helicopter gunships were working and only 70 percent of the Chinook transport helicopters were available.

But the Ministry of Defence insisted that British forces, who are mostly based in the restive southern Helmand province fighting insurgents, had the helicopters required for the job.

One garrison was down to its last 200 mortar rounds because there were no helicopters to supply it, the broadsheet said.

Meanwhile just 16 of 96 promised new armoured vehicles have been delivered, engineers were travelling in lightly-armed trucks while transporting high explosives and some soldiers had bought their own binoculars to replace Army sights, it said.

British troops had to borrow a truck from the small Estonian contingent, said the newspaper.

Prime Minister  Tony Blair pledged in October that commanders on the ground in Afghanistan would be provided with whatever equipment they thought was necessary in order to take on the Taliban.

The MoD acknowledged that helicopters were crucial in the fight against Taliban rebels and said that more were on the way to Afghanistan.

"Our military commanders have the helicopters required to provide combat and medical support for our troops in combat," a spokeswoman said.

"These helicopters have proved vital to the success of our operation in Afghanistan which is why we are spending 230 million pounds (455 million dollars, 340 million euros) making 14 additional aircraft for deployment over the next two years.

"There is no shortage of combat fighting vehicles in Afghanistan. We are part of a coalition and so we share assets."

A total of 60 British troops have died in Afghanistan since the US-led drive to overthrow the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime began in November 2001.

British forces are in Afghanistan as part of the  NATO-led International Security Assistance Force mission.

There are over 6,000 British troops in Afghanistan, a figure set to increase to around 7,700 over the year.
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NATO Pledges More Troops, Promises to Avoid Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan
By VOA News 15 June 2007
Defense ministers meeting in Brussels have pledged additional support for NATO forces in Afghanistan and agreed on measures to avoid civilian casualties.

NATO officials said Friday that several countries had pledged to provide more military trainers for the Afghan National Army. But the additional troops and trainers fell short of the top NATO commander in Afghanistan's stated requirements.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said several allies will remove restrictions on the use of their forces in Afghanistan. Gates also said the U.S. will extend the assignment of U.S. helicopters in Afghanistan for six months, after allies failed to come up with replacements.

Officials at the meeting in Brussels also promised the 40,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would do everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.

NATO officials say they would continue to review combat operations, but indicated that no major changes were planned and that new measures were proving effective.

A NATO spokesman, James Appathurai, blamed Taleban insurgents for most civilian deaths, and for deliberately using civilians as shields.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says civilians have been hit hard in the past year by a rise in violence between international forces and insurgents.

The organization blames the increase in civilian casualties on a rise in suicide attacks by insurgents, and military aerial bombings to support NATO troops.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN: Some Afghan refugees said under pressure to leave Dushanbe
DUSHANBE, 16 June 2007 (IRIN) - Afghan refugees living in Tajikistan are calling on the Tajik government and international organisations to protect them after reported pressure on Afghans in Dushanbe to move to their places of registration outside the capital.

"My son was detained last night at 11pm by a policeman and then put under arrest," Guloba, a woman about 45 sitting with a group of some 50 Afghan refugees in front of the local Human Rights and Protection non-governmental organisation (NGO) office in Dushanbe, told IRIN on 15 June.

According to the group of Afghan refugees, Tajik policemen are chasing them out of Dushanbe and sending them back to the districts and villages where they are registered.

The group said refugees who came to Tajikistan during the civil war in Afghanistan were registered in Dushanbe. But those who had arrived in the past two years had all been registered in districts outside the capital.

"We cannot live in the districts; we simply cannot survive there. Even local Tajiks themselves are leaving rural areas and migrating to Russia and the capital to earn money," said Khayri, a middle-aged Afghan refugee woman.

"We cannot afford to travel to the capital every day. My son makes eight somoni [US$2.32] per day. That is not enough to travel daily to Dushanbe and back and support the entire family with food," Khayri added.

According to Human Rights and Protection, there are about 1, 300 Afghan refugees in Tajikistan.

Tajik officials respond

Tajik foreign ministry officials told IRIN there was no change in the lives of the refugees.

"There has been a simple passport-checking operation in the city for a month now - run by the security services. Anyone registered as resident in other parts of the country but working in the city is facing these check-ups, including Tajik citizens," Davlatali Nazriev, head of the ministry's press centre, said.

"There isn't any [new] government policy or law regarding refugees," Nazriev said.

Afghan shops closed

"Our children cannot read Russian or Tajik. The only school for Afghans is in Dushanbe," said Nuriya, a 35-years-old female refugee.

"Most of us are female-headed families. We cannot go back to Afghanistan. Our lives are in danger there. And now, we are facing problems here as well," Nuriya added.

Some Afghan refugees who make their living in Dushanbe running small shops said their shops had been closed.

OSCE
Payomi Furug, human dimension officer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Tajikistan, said there had been no official statements regarding refugees. "So we don't know the real reasons behind this."

"The government should assist and be friendly to refugees. The OSCE has not taken any specific action up till now. If necessary we could embark upon a dialogue and see what happens," Furug said.

Zarrina Halikova, director of the local NGO Training and Support Centre, said the registration period of most Afghans had expired. "So it is those without refugee status, citizenship or registration that are facing these problems," Halikova said.

The office of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is reportedly negotiating with the authorities on the issue.
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Camp destruction stirs resentment of Afghan refugees in Pakistan
The Associated Press Friday, June 15, 2007
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistani authorities on Friday bulldozed homes at an Afghan refugee camp earmarked for closure, stirring anger among residents unwilling to return to their troubled homeland.

Police and officials supervised the destruction of about 10 houses at the Katchagari camp, a warren of mud-walled houses near the northwestern city of Peshawar, on Friday morning.

None of the buildings were occupied and residents said clearance work began weeks earlier after families began accepting U.N. assistance to cross the border to their homeland.

But knots of men in the once-busy bazaar — now lined with rubble from demolished shops — eyed the work with resentment, saying eviction would wreck their already marginal existence.

"We will not go to Afghanistan. There is no peace, no water, and no place to live. Otherwise everyone loves their own country," said Shaikh Mohammed, a 60-year-old man with a long white beard and a black and white turban. "We spent 20, 30 years in Pakistan and we are happy here."

Katchagari is one of four camps — together housing more than 220,000 refugees — that Pakistan aims to close by September as part of a drive to persuade Afghans to go home.

Most of the refugees, who flooded into Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the civil war that followed, have returned since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

However, some 2 million remain in Pakistan and authorities want them all to repatriate by the end of 2009, despite the escalating violence in Afghanistan and the deep roots of many families in Pakistan.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has said the camps are havens for Taliban militants and drug smugglers from Afghanistan, source of most of the world's illicit opium and heroin.

Officials initially set Friday as the deadline for the closure of Katchagari and the Jungle Pir Alizai camp near Quetta, further south.

However, both have been given a little more time.

Saddiq Ahmed Khan, a government official watching the work on Friday, said Katchagari residents now have until June 30 to leave. He said officials had faced no resistance.

A recent U.N. report found that 84 percent of Afghans still in Pakistan do not intend to return. Of those, 41 percent cited insecurity as the primary reason — double the figure recorded during a refugee census in 2005.

Sanam Khan, a 45-year-old timber merchant who came to Katchagari camp from Afghanistan's Nangarhar province when he was 7, said about 250 families had already left and that the others had little choice but grudgingly to follow.

However, he pleaded with authorities to give families more time to organize their future.

"Those who have some resources are gone," he said. "Those still here are helpless. What else can we do?"
___
Associated Press Television News reporter Inam Ur Rehman in Peshawar contributed to this report.
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Negroponte lauds Pakistan for promoting peace in Afghanistan
Staff Report Daily Times, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Friday praised Pakistan for its counter-terrorism contributions, and for promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

In talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri at the Foreign Office the two diplomats discussed Pak-US relations, counter-terrorism cooperation and Afghanistan, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office. US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher also attended the meeting.

Negroponte said that the US viewed its long-term relationship with Pakistan as vital. “We are committed to further strengthening and expanding existing relations,” he added.

Negroponte and Kasuri both emphasised the importance of the Pak-US strategic relationship. Kasuri said cooperation in diverse fields should be enhanced and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to extending cooperation in all areas of common interest.

Kasuri also expressed appreciation for the US administration’s efforts in moving various Pakistan-related initiatives forward in the US Congress, particularly its support for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Sustainable Development Plan and the establishment of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs).

Kasuri also reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to fighting extremism and terrorism and highlighted the efforts being made to strengthen security by improving controls along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He stressed the importance of effective Pakistan-US counter-terrorism cooperation.

Kasuri apprised Negroponte of developments in Pak-Afghan relations. He briefed Negroponte on his meeting with Afghan FM Rangeen Dadfar-Spanta on the sidelines of the G-8 meeting in Potsdam on May 30, 2007. Negroponte expressed US support for Islamabad’s efforts to improve Pak-Afghan relations.

Negroponte arrived in Islamabad on Friday on a two-day visit and is scheduled to meet President General Pervez Musharraf today (Saturday). This is his first visit to Islamabad after assuming office on February 2007.

Online adds: A joint commission was constituted to remove misperceptions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The commission will hold its first meeting in Kabul in August, Kasuri said.

Negroponte termed US relations with Pakistan very vital and said misconceptions of the past had been removed. “We will continue to play our role in the socio-economic development of Pakistan. The efforts on eliminating terrorism and establishing peace in Afghanistan will be further integrated,” said Negroponte.

Sources said that Kasuri would leave for the US on June 18 to hold meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The agenda for the meeting was drafted during the talks between Kasuri and Negroponte, sources added.

Earlier, Kasuri and Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao held a separate meeting in which Sherpao briefed the FM on the Pak-Afghanistan Jirga Commission. Later, Kasuri took Negroponte into confidence on the performance and decisions of the jirga.
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Fears that Afghan boys at risk of terror grooming
· Secret papers reveal link to West Midlands suburb
· Carer for trafficked youths claims Taliban connection
Paul Lewis Saturday June 16, 2007 The Guardian
Afghan boys trafficked into Britain are at risk of being groomed for terrorism by extremists, secret immigration briefing papers seen by the Guardian reveal.
More than 270 Afghan teenagers have been brought to Britain as stowaways in the space of 12 months, the UK immigration service report says.

The restricted intelligence assessment warns that most of them end up in the West Midlands, where refugees from Afghanistan are suspected of radicalising them. Police are monitoring men in the Alum Rock suburb of Birmingham who they believe may be involved in a child trafficking gang.

The report states: "The security implications of large numbers of vulnerable persons living without proper supervision, in a potentially volatile area, should be addressed as a matter of urgency."

It also raises concern over Afghan boys, some as young as 11, housed with older men in the deprived terraced streets, an area known for extremist activity. "The housing of minors that are in a vulnerable state and of an impressionable age in the same establishment is open to those of certain nationalities being mentored into possible extreme activity."

The nine-month inquiry found that smuggled Afghan children who had gone missing from foster placements were later discovered at addresses in the area.

Birmingham social services identified at least 10 minors who have been or continue to be "cared for" by Afghan men in Alum Rock. The internal document names nine Afghan men who have been acting as guardians, including one 38-year-old who is said to have told authorities he was a Taliban commander.

The chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on trafficking, Anthony Steen MP, said: "This discloses an outrageous situation. The government is culpably negligent if it allows dangerously inappropriate carers to act in loco parentis for children. We have been concerned for a very long time that trafficking and terrorism are part of the same networks."

In a separate case, six Afghan minors found in the back of a lorry in Peterborough said they were going to Alum Rock.

The man who has told of his Taliban connections - an asylum seeker who entered Britain in 2002 - still had guardianship of three children this year. In May last year officials found between 10 and 12 "unknown Afghan males" at his two-bedroom flat. A further 15 Afghans were listed by police as "connected" with the first-floor apartment, above a shop on a busy street.

Three were Afghan children who had been placed in the care of the 38-year-old by different social services. At least one, a 14-year-old Afghan boy, was removed from his care last month after police inquiries about the man's Taliban connections.

Police intelligence suggests the man is "high up in the Muslim hierarchy" and regularly holds meetings at the flat. He is believed to have links with solicitors involved in processing Afghan asylum applications. Staff shortages led to the immigration service abandoning an investigation into one legal firm known to represent several Alum Rock men who are guardians to newly arrived boys, including the 38-year-old, the report reveals.

A local authority source told the Guardian his department had placed Afghan teenagers in the care of men in Alum Rock after the boys produced telephone numbers belonging to guardians they described as "family friends" from Afghanistan.

Police sources involved in the monitoring the suspects confirmed that grooming for "terrorism" - as well as sexual and labour exploitation - may be a motivation for smuggling teenagers into the area.

There has been a threefold increase in unaccompanied Afghan asylum seekers entering the country since 2003.
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NATO to Build Up Afghan Army in Fight Against Taliban
By James G. Neuger
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- NATO vowed to send more trainers and equipment to build up Afghanistan's army, trying to hand more of the fight against the Taliban to local forces and ease the burden on the U.S. and Britain.

Seven allies including France will send army-training teams, some will increase their own force levels and four will deploy more unmanned aerial drones, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said.

``There were a number of additional commitments made,'' U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the close of a two-day meeting of allied defense ministers in Brussels today.

NATO has 36,000 troops in Afghanistan battling the resurgent Taliban, the radical Islamic movement toppled from power by the U.S. in 2001. France, Germany and Italy are facing criticism for keeping their forces out of Taliban strongholds in southern and eastern Afghanistan, leaving the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands to do the bulk of the fighting.

While ``several'' countries announced the removal of restrictions on the use of their troops in the war zone, Gates said the alliance still hasn't provided 20 helicopters to relieve a U.S. unit in Kandahar.

The U.S. will extend the helicopter deployment for another six months, Gates said, ``but I expected the allies to come up with a solution by that time in terms of helicopters that had the capability to operate in Afghanistan.''

Falling Short

Some 17,000 American troops are part of the NATO mission and another 12,000 are under a separate U.S. counterterrorism command. Britain, which is shifting forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, now has 6,700 under the NATO banner.

NATO has fielded 20 army-training teams in Afghanistan. Today's pledge of seven more leaves the alliance short of a goal of 46. Each team -- an OMLT in military jargon -- consists of 12 to 19 trainers. Afghanistan's army, negligible three years ago, has grown into a 35,000-strong force.

``We don't want to be a burden on the international community -- we would like to stand on our own feet,'' Afghanistan's defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, told reporters.

Dozens of Islamist fighters were killed in clashes in separate engagements in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the U.S. military said.

Under public criticism for a spate of civilian casualties, the defense ministers decided that the right procedures are in place to prevent coordination snarls between the NATO force, the separate U.S. command and the Afghan army.

Civilian Deaths

U.S. forces accidentally killed at least seven Afghan police officers in a gunfight in eastern Afghanistan earlier this week, and the U.S. is investigating reports that as many as 40 civilians died in a raid in southern Afghanistan in May.

Classified NATO statistics show a decline in civilian casualties in recent months due to alliance forces, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. The figures leave out accidental fatalities and ``friendly fire'' incidents attributable to the U.S. command.

The Taliban is trying to lure alliance troops into killing civilians by deliberately using populated areas as cover, NATO officials said. Defense ministers discussed starting a fund to provide relief for victims.

``Taliban and other spoilers are using the most brutal violence to try to overthrow a democratic government, and they are using humans as shields,'' NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

Afghanistan is also short of police, with the current 40,000 officers well below a goal of 82,000. The European Union is sending experts to train Afghan police in running command and control systems.

Separately, the defense ministers agreed to dispatch 50 NATO trainers to school paramilitary police in Iraq, Appathurai said.

NATO also agreed to airlift African Union peacekeepers into Somalia, though the date and scope of that mission has yet to be decided.
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Canada may pay to restore Afghan irrigation dam
Saturday June 16, 2007 (0150 PST) PakTribune.com, Pakistan
SHAHWALI KOT: A long-neglected dam in the midst of this volatile pocket of Kandahar province could become one of Canada's single-biggest aid projects in Afghanistan, military and civilian officials say.
Federal authorities are seriously looking at helping pay to refurbish the 50-year-old Dhala irrigation dam, a project unofficially estimated to cost about $100-million.

Canada has already sent a team of experts to examine the site.

Fixing the country's second-largest dam has the potential to transform Kandahar province's agricultural sector, giving it much-needed insurance against drought years.

"The Dhala dam is really crucial to the improvement of living conditions," Mohammed Ehsan Zia, Afghanistan's minister of rural rehabilitation and development, said in an interview.

"Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in Kandahar, to which the Dhala dam plays the most important role ... This project is such an important one."

In fact, it has become a top priority for President Hamid Karzai, Zia said. Boosting the area's economy and creating more jobs is considered central to sapping the Taliban of support among the people.

The structure happens to be in the midst of a district that, in recent weeks, has become a gathering place for Taliban and allied Arab and Chechen fighters, according to Canadian officers.

A Canadian soldier was killed Monday when his vehicle, part of a convoy to resupply troops fighting those insurgents, hit a roadside bomb.

U.S. and Canadian forces are battling the militants in the north of Shahwali Kot, a few hours drive from the dam itself, and securing the area is important for the development project, said Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of the Canadian forces here.

He compared the situation to fighting in Helmand province around the Kajaki hydroelectric dam. Once renovated, it is hoped this installation will become a reliable source of power to large parts of southern Afghanistan.

"This is a real paradigm shift," Cessford said in an interview. "Here we are with military operations being directed by economic objectives. Who would have figured that one?"

Dhala was built in the 1950s by the American government, part of a Cold War competition for influence in Afghanistan between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The idea is that it traps water in years of good rainfall, and can provide sufficient irrigation for two years of drought, said Kevin Rex of the Canadian International Development Agency.

Between 1952 and 1970, the earthen dam tripled the amount of land that could be used for agriculture along Kandahar's Arghandab river valley, said Rex, an adviser to the Canadian general in charge of the Afghanistan mission.

Since the early '70s, however, it has been all but ignored and heavy silting appears to have significantly reduced its capacity, he said.

Five government and private-sector experts from Canada recently visited the site to assess its condition, said Rex. Interim recommendations have already been provided to the Afghan government.

Cessford said Canada is likely to look favourably on a request for funding to help defray the estimated $100-million cost of the project, which could have "a huge and positive impact."
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Women of Afghanistan hold public prayer for peace on Mother`s Day
Saturday June 16, 2007 (0150 PST) PakTribune.com, Pakistan
KANDAHAR: Heartbreaking sobs pierced the soothing melodies of prayer as the mothers, daughters and sisters of war-torn Afghanistan gathered to do the only thing left they can think of - pray.

Thursday was Mother`s Day in Afghanistan, and from house to house went the call for women to gather at the one of Islam`s holiest sites in what some say is the first such public prayer event by women in Kandahar.

Women said doors to education, health care and jobs have opened to them since the fall of the Taliban, but the continuing instability in the country is holding back progress.

"We are sick and tired of waiting," said Majuba, 55, who like all of the women would only give her first name.

"We can`t wait anymore for international forces or government employees. If they cannot hear our cries, we want to let God hear our cries."

About 1,000 women flooded the square and mosque of the Shrine of the Prophet`s Cloak, reputed to house a garment belonging to the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad. It`s said to have been stolen and brought to Afghanistan in 1768 by a former ruler, Ahmad Sha Durrani.

The mullah, or holy leader, of the shrine said the site is always open to women on Thursdays, but the Mother`s Day gathering was much larger than usual. And for the first time they used the public-address system to make their voices heard throughout the crowd.

"They were here to pray for peace, for their families," the mullah said through an interpreter.

"They were welcome."

The International Red Cross said earlier this week that the current conflict is holding up development efforts across the country and having a greater impact on the population than earlier times.

Some estimates suggest that at least 1,000 civilians were killed last year.

"It`s insecurity, the killing and the suicide bombing that has really left the community back in a very fearful state," said Gulpati, 37.

"We can`t really hope about development or making ourselves better because we`re every day dealing with deaths and crimes."

Gulpati said she`s known only war in Afghanistan her entire life and prays not to die before seeing peace.

It is prayer that holds her country together, she said.

"The one thing that keeps us strong, that keeps us going is our faith and belief in God in spite of all these international forces, every country snatching at one piece or one part of Afghanistan," she said.

"If any other country had lived through the chaos that Afghans lived in these past 30 years, they would not be a nation today."

Gatekeepers at the shrine allowed the women to use of the public-address system, sending the voices of the 150 women who each recited a chapter of Islam`s holy book, the Qur`an, soaring over the crowd polka-dotted with the palette of burkas on display.

The floor-length garment made mandatory for women by the Taliban captivated the world`s attention in the late 1990s. It was seen as a symbol of all that was repressive about the Taliban regime.

But six years since the fall of the Taliban, blue and green burkas are still commonly seen along the dusty streets.

Women are quick to point out the burka is the least of their concerns.

"After the Taliban, women are going out to work in non-governmental organizations, working with the government, going to school," said Amanah, 42.

"The burka is not preventing them from getting anything in their lives, it is just the opportunity to get educated that will change things."

Illiteracy runs rampant in Afghanistan, with some 90 per cent of rural women unable to read or write at a functional level.

Though schools for girls have opened across the country, it requires a massive cultural shift to get more children behind the desks, said Rangina Hamidi of Afghans for Civil Society, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization founded by the brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

"There are schools but it takes a strong father to send his daughter to class," Hamidi said.

"We need people to fight against the tradition that girls have to stay home."

It`s been particularly hard on the mothers, the women said, watching an entire generation of children know only war.

"As a mother my biggest wish and desire for my children is they would all become college graduates and at least have bachelor`s degrees," said Majuba.

"But they only have basic minimum education. I`m sad and I`m mad as to why as a mother I was not able to fulfil my dreams and my children will also not have their dreams fulfilled."
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'Let us defeat Taliban': ex-warlord
A former commander famous for helping defeat the Soviets in the 1980s wants to fight again
Tom Blackwell, CanWest News Service  Saturday, June 16, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan
Three times the shadowy representatives from the Iranian consulate in Kandahar visited Ustad Abdul Halim at his home. Three times, he recalls, they urged him to take up arms against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

But each time the former mujahedeen commander -- famous in the region for helping defeat the Soviet occupiers in the 1980s -- turned them down, he says.

That was two years ago. Now Halim wants to go a step farther, and is offering his services to the Afghan government and Canadian troops to finally rid the area of Taliban.

He says the insurgents will only grow stronger unless authorities bring back mujahedeen generals like he was, with strong tribal followings in the very areas where Canada is now fighting the Islamists.

"Within five days, we can finish all the Taliban," the retired warrior said in a recent interview at his comfortable house in suburban Kandahar. "This is the only solution that can bring stability and peace to the region... Let's put our hands together to defeat the enemy."

As if to underline his point, an improvised explosive device blew up next to a Canadian military convoy on Friday, just as it was passing his house. No Canadians were hurt, although three local civilians were injured.

Halim's ancestral homeland includes Panjwai and Zhari districts, the latter being the area west of Kandahar City where Canadian troops have repeatedly fought with insurgents of late. People there like the foreign soldiers, but disenchantment with the Afghan government and police is driving some to the fundamentalists, he said.

Halim argues he could quickly raise hundreds of fighters, turn support away from the Taliban among his Noorzai tribe, and defeat the insurgents in quick order -- if only given the authority to intervene.

Former "Muj" commanders elsewhere in Kandahar province and throughout the country could do similar work where the insurgents still operate, he says. Those commanders stepped aside after the Taliban fell, letting a new government form a national army and police force. The security situation, however, "is worsening day by day," charges Halim.

With a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a jovial manner, the thickly bearded ex-commander makes for a beguiling figure. It is easy to forget the darker side of his past.

After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, and their puppet Communist regime was finally overthrown in 1992, the commanders became warlords, fighting each other for supremacy in a vicious civil war.

It was in reaction to such bloody feuding and thuggery that the Taliban first gained support among the people, promising to impose longed-for stability.

In fact, Halim became part of a key chapter in that history when he and his men helped hijack a convoy of trucks sent by Pakistani government and intelligence officials in October 1994 to test out a new smuggling route. The Taliban, in turn, attacked the hijackers and soon moved on to take Kandahar, while cementing their support from Pakistan, notes Ahmed Rashid, a respected Pakistani journalist, in his book, Taliban.

Halim later left the country, returning to help topple the Taliban in 2001.

One senior Canadian officer questions whether putting any power back in the hands of such leaders would be a wise course for Afghanistan, although he notes the Armed Forces do include some former mujahedeen fighters.

"This is a new nation ... with a president, a parliament, a national army," said Col. Mike Cessford, second-in-command of the Canadian task force here. "If we were to slip back into warlordism, that would be a very significant marker that things are going the wrong way."

Halim admits now that the warlord period was a terrible mistake and insists that he and other Muj commanders have learned their lessons.

Even if they could just go on patrols with Canadian troops, he says, they could help identify Taliban and prevent the arrest of innocent people, which tends to turn public sentiment against the foreign soldiers.
At his Kandahar house, whose dusty, nondescript exterior conceals a lovely, English-style garden within, Halim proudly shows off a miniature orchard that includes pomegranate trees and grape vines. In a chaotic, crumbling city, such a refuge could provide a relatively pleasant retirement.

The former commander, however, clearly itches for more.

"We are like gold," he says of the mujahedeen alumni, "but we have not been utilized."
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20-bed hospital inaugurated in Parwan
CHARIKAR, June 13 -(Pajhwok Afghan News)-A 20-bed hospital was inaugurated in Koh-i-Safi district of the central Parwan province on Wednesday.

Muhammad Qasim Saeedi, director of the public health department, said the hospital contained gynecology ward and a diagnosis clinic. It would be upgrade to 40-bed hospital in future, he hoped.

Governor of Parwan province Abdul Jabbar Taqwa said the project would solve health problems of the people.

In the southern Ghazni province, the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) will establish two health clinics at the cost of 0.4 million US dollars.

In this connection, an agreement was signed between the PRT and provincial government in Ghazni City on Wednesday.

The PRT commander told Pajhwok one clinic would be constructed in Ibrahimzai area of Andar and the other in Moshkai area of Qarabagh district.

The health clinic in Ibrahimzai would be erected on five acres while that in Moshkai would be built on 2.5 acres of land. The construction work would be completed in six months, he informed.

Governor Merajuddin Patan said construction of the two clinics would solve health problems of people of those areas.

In Kohistan district of the central Kapisa province, building for a post office was completed at the cost of $36,000 provided by the US-led provincial reconstruction team.

Engineer Hamidullah Qalandarzai, Deputy Minister for Communications and Governor Abdul Sattar Murad attended the opening ceremony of the post office.
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Afghan mountaineers to get training in Italy
KABUL, June 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Seven mountaineers will leave for Italy on Friday to attend a month-long training course there.

Deputy head of the National Olympic Committee Ahmad Zia Dashti told journalists on Wednesday the team also included three girl hikers.

Besides theory, said Dashti, the team would get practical training in mountains in the border area between Switzerland and Italy. He said the trip was aimed to promote hiking in the country.

He said the committee was financially supported by Italy, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and Suriya Malik, daughter of the late king Amanullah Khan.

Seventeen climbers, including the existing 7-member team, had attended a training programme organised and funded by Italy in Hindu Kush mountain range in the Afghanistan last year, said Dashti.

He said promoting the sport needed commitment and "we hope to achieve positive results in the days ahead."

Hiking competitions in the name of Peace, held in the Wakhan and Pamir mountain range in the country, were attended by Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain.

Akmal Dashti was the only Afghan who represented the country at those competitions. Dashti, who later laid official foundation of the sport here, also attended a training session in Italy.

According to the National Olympic Committee, Italy has been supporting the sport in the country over the previous five years.
Zarghona Salehi
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