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March 21, 2007 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 1386

Afghan wrestlers' feat forecasts new year of peace and security
The Associated Press Wednesday, March 21, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghans celebrated their new year on Wednesday by watching a few dozen beefy wrestlers smoothly erect an 8-meter (26-foot) flag pole topped with a bouquet of plastic flowers — a sign of good fortune for the next year.

Thousands of people poured into Kabul's Sakhi Shrine to see the wrestlers erect the pole using ropes, sticks, ladders and grit on the first day of the new year — 1386 by the calendar used in Afghanistan and Iran.

According to belief, if the flag pole falters or falls on its way up, the year's outlook is grim — as happened last year, when Afghanistan saw a huge spike in insurgent attacks. But a smooth hoisting of the pole, which is draped in green fabric and topped with red, orange, pink and purple plastic flowers, is seen as a good sign.

On Wednesday, the wrestlers, wearing green overcoats tied at the waist with red fabric, used their hands and ladders to hoist the pole into place in a fluid 20-second run. The men pumped their fists and roared in triumph, looking like professional wrestling champions.

"This year, the holy flag went up very smoothly, which is a good sign to start the new year," said Najiba Sadad, a housewife who came to the shrine to watch the pole from a specially designated area for women.

The pole-erecting event is held at several sites around the country on or around March 21 for "Nawroz," the new year. The most popular ceremony in Kabul is held at the Sakhi Shrine, one of the most important Shiite sites in Afghanistan.

Some Afghans believe a faltering pole last March forecast a turbulent year. The Taliban in 2006 launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on numbers from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

Despite the ongoing attacks in the country's south, Kabulis in their finest festive clothes hiked up the city's muddy mountains to enjoy a sunny New Year's Day.

On a mountain behind Sakhi Shrine, thousands of people covered every contour, rooftop and lined the entire ridge. The grounds around the shrine, which is a large graveyard, were packed with men and children playing tabla drums and dancing after the auspicious pole-raising.

"I'm very happy. This year the pole stood up so easily," said 70-year-old Nikbakht, who watched from a nearby rooftop. "Last year it fell down, and it was a very bloody year. Everybody was praying that it would stand up easily this year."
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Afghanistan: Record numbers enrol in new school year
KABUL, 21 March 2007 (IRIN) - Schools in Afghanistan will open their doors to more than six million pupils at the start of the new academic year on 24 March - almost double the number of the past five years.

"This is a historical moment in Afghanistan," said David McLoughlin, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official in Kabul. "Afghans have reaffirmed their commitment towards an educated society."

In 2002, more than three million students enrolled in grades one to 12, according to Keiko Miwa, an education specialist with the World Bank.

Girls comprise about two million of all students who will join school from Saturday. In an effort to ensure equal access to education, Afghanistan's Ministry of Education plans to enrol 400,000 more female students in 2007.

During the Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, girls were deprived of any formal education. Enrolment rates vary greatly between urban and rural areas, however. In the capital, Kabul, and western city of Herat, enrolment rates for girls can reach 50 percent, while in insurgency-hit Uruzgan and Zabul provinces in the south, more than 90 percent of girls cannot go to school.

More than three decades of conflict and conservative customs have restricted female education, with the result that about 80 percent of Afghan women are now illiterate, according to UN agencies.

The Afghan government has placed education at the top of its development agenda. It has allocated 4.3 percent of its national budget to education and has requested donors for an extra US$300 million development fund.

The country needs 7,800 additional schools over the next five years, the international agency Oxfam said in a report in late 2006.

UNICEF is supporting endeavours to fight widespread illiteracy among Afghans. "UNICEF will provide assistance to the Ministry of Education in rural girls' education, teachers' training, curriculum development, capacity building and women's literacy," McLoughlin said.

The UN agency spent $6 million on stationary kits, which will be distributed to students in grades one to six on their first day at school in 2007. About 100,000 teachers in Afghanistan's 34 provinces will receive similar assistance.

Other major donors, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and European Union (EU), have printed millions of textbooks in addition to supporting an extensive teacher training programme.

Insurgency shuts schools in south

In 2006, hundreds of schools were shut in the south and southeast of Afghanistan where the Taliban resurgence threatened students and teachers.

At least 120 public schools were torched and 10 teachers killed in 2006, while 273 schools were set on fire in 2005.

In some provinces insurgents have circulated 'night-letters', threatening parents who send their children to school.

"We do not have soldiers to guard all schools and protect every student," said Zahur Afghan, a spokesman for the education ministry, "but we have tried to attract people's support for their children's education."

Hundreds of schools will remain closed in volatile provinces in the south and southeast, denying thousands of children the right to education, say officials and aid workers.
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Afghan NATO supply truck driver beheaded
Wed Mar 21, 2:12 AM ET AFP
The decapitated body of an Afghan truck driver supplying NATO forces in southern Afghanistan was found dumped at the side of a highway, a district chief said.

The murdered man was captured with his vehicle in Zabul province about a week ago by suspected Taliban who are active in southern Afghanistan.

His body was found at the side of the Kabul-Kandahar highway Wednesday with the head next to it, Shah Joy district chief Tor Jan said. The remains were taken to the district hospital, he added.

The drivers of trucks supplying foreign forces are regular targets of the extremist Taliban, which was toppled from government in 2001 by a US-led coalition.

Militants at the weekend cut off the noses and ears of three drivers supplying US military bases in the mountainous eastern province of Nuristan. Police blamed the Taliban.

The Al-Qaeda-linked movement also last week beheaded the driver of an Italian journalist captured March 4 in the southern province of Helmand.

The journalist was freed Monday in exchange for Taliban prisoners. His Afghan interpreter is still being held.
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Italian journalist freed by Taliban returns to Rome
Wed Mar 21, 1:38 AM ET
ROME (AFP) - Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, freed after being held for two weeks by the Taliban in        Afghanistan, arrived in Rome on an Italian military plane to be welcomed by his wife and two children.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Mastrogiacomo's boss, La Repubblica director Ezio Mauro, were also present to greet him when he arrived at Ciampino airport.

Mastrogiacomo had told Monday how he was forced to watch his Afghan chauffeur being beheaded by their suspected Taliban abductors.

Mastrogiacomo, 52, said in interviews with the Italian media after his release on Monday that he was bound by his hands and feet and feared execution at any moment during his two-week hostage ordeal in Afghanistan.

He said the death of his chauffeur had been the most terrifying moment of his captivity.

"I saw him being decapitated, it was horrific," the journalist for told the TG3 televisions channel.

The driver had "his eyes covered and he was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back," Mastrogiacomo said in the interview.

Mastrogiacomo, his interpreter and driver were abducted on March 4 in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. The militia accused the journalist of spying for Britain and announced last week through an Afghan news agency that the driver had been "executed" for spying. His interpreter Adjmal Nashkbandi was also freed Monday, the Italian foreign ministry said.
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UN Official: World Must Increase Support In Afghanistan
UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The top U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday the international community must step up efforts to help develop the war-ravaged country, improve security and eradicate the drug trade in order to counter a Taliban resurgence.

"To be candid, international participation needs to improve," Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, told an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

"I am counting on the support of the council to make the Afghanistan National Development Strategy work," he said, referring to the Afghan government's overarching plan for rebuilding the country. "It will only deliver results if everyone contributes to the process."

Afghanistan's U.N. Ambassador Zahir Tanin echoed the call for international aid, saying his country has received "far less assistance from the donor community in comparison to other post-conflict countries."

Tanin said reconstruction projects and basic services should be expanded throughout Afghanistan and more attention should be paid to the "inextricable link between development and security."

The Bush administration has said it would ask Congress for $10.6 billion for training Afghan security forces and reconstruction. The U.S has given $14.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in violence over the past year as supporters of the former Taliban regime have increased suicide and roadside bombings, particularly in the volatile south.

The country's problems also include widespread judicial corruption, porous border areas that provide training ground for insurgents and increasing poppy cultivation.

The U.N. drug office warned this month that 2007 cultivation could expand again after last year's record crop, which spiked upward by 59%. Profits from poppy, the raw material for heroin, are being used to fuel terrorism and the Taliban insurgency, experts say.

"The vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorism funding the drug trade is stronger than ever," Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told the Security Council.

Koenigs said all donor governments should ensure "meaningful participation" in Afghanistan, beefing up staffing and resources on the ground and strengthening the military presence.

Germany, France, Italy and other European allies have been criticized in the past for limiting the role of their NATO troops to relatively quiet areas of Afghanistan, while the U.S., U.K., Canada and the Netherlands operate in the dangerous southern region.

Koenigs also criticized the Afghan government, saying that many agencies, including the Interior Ministry, which runs the police, "need to take more seriously their responsibilities."

"The continued passivity of many government agencies in the expectation that the international community will come to their rescue ... only serves to delay progress and in some cases undermine it," he said.

Still, he said there are signs of hope, citing the northern part of the country as a cause for cautious optimism. A strategy in the north to help farmers replace poppy fields with legal crops is succeeding, he said, "creating an opium-free belt across the middle of the country."
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AFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN CLAIM FREED FIGHTERS TOOK PART IN ATTACKS
Kabul, 21 March (AKI) - The Taliban have said that the fighters released by Afghan authorities in exchange for the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, were involved in planning and carrying out attacks by the militant group. "The mujahadeen who were freed in the exchange for the Italian journalist participated in the planning and execution of the military operations by the Taliban in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," said Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Yusuf, in a statement released on Wednesday on Islamist forums on the Internet.

In the statement which was dated 20 March, the spokesperson announced that another three Taliban leaders joined the first two whom the Taliban said were released on Sunday.

"The number of mujahadeen released up until yesterday (Monday) has reached five in exchange for the Italian who was captured about two weeks ago. The exchange operation was carried out by tribal leaders in the province of Helmand," said the statement.

On Tuesday Mohammad Karim Rahimi, a spokesperson for Afghan president Hamid Karzai confirmed that the government had released Taliban prisoners in exchange for Mastrogiacomo but he did not specify how many prisoners had been exchanged. He also said that it was an "exceptional measure" that would not be repeated.

In the statement posted on Islamist websites, the Taliban said that the five Taliban fighters released were five Taliban leaders.

"Mufti Latifallah (Hakimi) was an official spokesperson for the islamic emirate, Ustad Muhammad Yaser was the president of the culture commission of the Islamic emirate," said the statement. "The other three mujahadeen who were liberated were people who have participated in the planning and execution of military operations within the Islamic emirate and they are Mullah Akhtar Muhammd, Hafith Hamed Allah and Mullah Abdel Ghaffur. Some of them were deatined at the Bul Tharkhi jail for two to three years."
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More suicide bombers enter Afghanistan
By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer Tue Mar 20, 11:19 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - Suicide bombers are crossing the border from Pakistan into        Afghanistan with increasing frequency, launching attacks directed against foreign military convoys with funding from abroad, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council on Tuesday.

Despite high losses during the past year, the Taliban insurgency appears to be "emboldened by their strategic successes, rather than disheartened by tactical failures" in Afghanistan, Ban said in the report.

The September 2006 peace agreement between Pakistan and pro-Taliban fighters in that country's North Waziristan region did not prevent the border area from being used as a staging ground for attacks on Afghanistan, Ban said. Instead, the agreement led to a 50 percent increase in security incidents involving insurgents in Afghanistan's Khost province and a 70 percent increase in Paktika province — both on the border — between September and November, he said.

A record number of 77 suicide attacks occurred in the last six months, up from 53 over the previous six months. Most were directed against foreign military convoys, "but civilians were increasingly targeted," Ban said.

"Many attacks appear to have been financed from abroad," he said in the report.

"According to national and international security sources, the training camps for these attacks are located outside Afghanistan," Ban said. "The al-Qaida affiliated trainers in these facilities reportedly include Chechens and Uzbeks, as well as Yemenis and other Arab nationals. Four of the 12 identified suicide bombers in January 2007 were not Afghans."

The United States voiced concern earlier this month that al-Qaida was regrouping in the same border region. U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell said in Washington that        Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were believed to be hiding in northwestern Pakistan and trying to establish an operational base there.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has vowed to take tough action to expel foreign militants from Pakistan's mountainous border regions, but he has said there is no evidence that bin Laden is on Pakistani soil.

During an open meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday, the top U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said the international community must step up efforts to help develop the war-ravaged country, improve security and eradicate the drug trade in order to counter the Taliban resurgence.

"To be candid, international participation needs to improve," said Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan.

"I am counting on the support of the council to make the Afghanistan National Development Strategy work," he said, referring to the Afghan government's overarching plan for rebuilding the country. "It will only deliver results if everyone contributes to the process."

Afghanistan's U.N. Ambassador Zahir Tanin echoed the call for international aid, saying his country has received "far less assistance from the donor community in comparison to other post-conflict countries."

Tanin said reconstruction projects and basic services should be expanded throughout Afghanistan and more attention should be paid to the "inextricable link between development and security."

The Bush administration has said it would ask Congress for $10.6 billion for training Afghan security forces and reconstruction. The U.S has given $14.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government.

Koenigs said all donor governments should ensure "meaningful participation" in Afghanistan, beefing up staffing and resources on the ground and strengthening the military presence.

Germany, France, Italy and other European allies have been criticized in the past for limiting the role of their        NATO troops to relatively quiet areas of Afghanistan, while the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands operate in the dangerous southern region.

Koenigs also criticized the Afghan government, saying that many agencies, including the Interior Ministry, which runs the police, "need to take more seriously their responsibilities."

"The continued passivity of many government agencies in the expectation that the international community will come to their rescue ... only serves to delay progress and in some cases undermine it," he said.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told the Security Council that eradicating poppy cultivation is also key to defeating the Taliban.

The U.N. drug office warned this month that 2007 cultivation could expand again after last year's record crop, which spiked upward by 59 percent. Profits from poppy, the raw material for heroin, are being used to fuel terrorism and the Taliban insurgency, experts say.

"The vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorism funding the drug trade is stronger than ever," Costa said.

Still, he said there are signs of hope, citing the northern part of the country as a cause for cautious optimism. A strategy in the north to help farmers replace poppy fields with legal crops is succeeding, he said, "creating an opium-free belt across the middle of the country."
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Australia Considering More Troops for Afghanistan, Howard Says
By Fergus Maguire
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his government is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan to help NATO forces counter Taliban insurgents.

``We are looking at the possibility of sending more,'' Howard said in an interview on Sydney radio station 2UE. ``It's a distinct possibility, but we haven't made a final decision.''

Howard said he had discussed the plans with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization command in Afghanistan last week when he visited serving Australian troops.

Supporters of the Taliban regime that was ousted by a U.S.- led coalition in 2001 are waging a guerrilla war against President Hamid Karzai's government and international troops. NATO expects an offensive by insurgents in coming weeks and has appealed to allies to commit more resources and end restrictions on where their soldiers are deployed.

Australia's reinforcement plans may include sending an additional 450 soldiers to Afghanistan, including a Special Air Service group and an air defense radar team, the Sydney Morning Herald reported March 16, without saying where it got the information.

Australia currently has 550 soldiers in Afghanistan, including 110 personnel belonging to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter detachment that provides logistical support to coalition partners, according to the Defense Department's Web site.

The government has no plans to increase its 1,450 soldiers serving in and around Iraq, Howard said.
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Rafale Goes to Afghanistan On A Marketing Mission
Strategy Page - Mar 21 3:02 AM
March 21, 2007: France is trying to get its new jet fighter, the Rafale, some combat experience. So six are being sent to Afghanistan. Three French Air Force Rafale F2s were sent to a base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. From there, the Rafales can fly down to Kabul, and make themselves useful. Three navy Rafale F2s arrived on the carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is operating off the Pakistani coast. The F2 version has the hardware and software required for precision bombing (laser or GPS guided smart bombs). The de Gaulle also has nine older Rafale F1s, which are equipped only for air-to-air combat.
 
The Rafale is France's latest fighter, and has a reduced radar signature (but not truly stealthy), a top speed of 2,130 kilometers per hour, and the ability to carry 8.5 tons of bombs, missiles, and other weapons. The French military has only been able to buy 120 (82 for the air force, 38 for the navy) Rafales so far, but would like to eventually purchase as many as 292.

The French Air Force activated its first squadron of Rafale fighters on June 29, 2006. The navy had received ten navalized Rafales two years earlier, for service on the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The first prototype of Rafale was shown in 1986, and the aircraft should have entered service in the late 1990s. While one of the more modern combat aircraft in the world, development of the Rafale was delayed by technical problems, and shortages of money. Entering development just as the Cold War ended meant that there was little enthusiasm to spend billions on an aircraft that would face no real opposition. But, facing the need to eventually replace all those older Mirage fighters, development did get restarted, creating an aircraft superior to the American F-15s and F-16s, and very similar to the F-18F, but inferior to the F-22 and F-35.

France expected to pay for all this with export sales. That has been difficult, with stiff competition from Eurofighter, F-35, F-15E and Grippen. The 28 ton Rafale sells for up to $100 million each, and so far, export orders have been hard to come by. Noting that the considerable combat experience of the F-15E has made that older design a formidable contender in the export market, the French have gone to great expense to put some Rafales into harms way.

The F2s typically use GBU-12 (the 611 pound Paveway II) and GBU-22 (the 720 pound Paveway III) laser-guided bombs, carrying three bombs under each wing, in addition to about four tons of additional fuel, in drop tanks. Rafale still can't use its 30mm cannon for strafing ground targets, until a vibration problem is cleared up. The Rafale has not yet been fitted with a laser designator, so that function will have to be provided by Mirage 2000Ds, which are also based in Tajikistan.
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Critics ask if Italy gave too much to Taliban
By Phil Stewart Tue Mar 20, 8:23 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Euphoria over the release of an Italian reporter kidnapped in Afghanistan was tempered on Tuesday by concern that Rome and Kabul paid too high a price for his freedom by exchanging him for five jailed Taliban.

Although Rome has not officially confirmed that Kabul released five Taliban, including the brother of a guerrilla commander, the details were confirmed on Tuesday by the Italian charity group that mediated the talks in Afghanistan.

The Taliban reportedly called the nearly two-week abduction of Daniele Mastrogiacomo a "victory for all the Taliban."

"The government sold out," ran the front-page headline in Italy's right-wing Libero newspaper. "Reporter released in exchange for 5 Taliban," said leading daily Corriere della Sera.

La Stampa daily questioned whether the negotiations to free the La Repubblica journalist were hypocritical, given that Rome had 1,900 peacekeepers in Afghanistan meant to help NATO secure the country after the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

"If this is the just price chosen to pay to save the life of Mastrogiacomo, it's up to (the government) to show Italy is still able to continue fulfilling its role in Afghanistan without becoming the weak link in the international alliance."

KARZAI AUTHORISED RELEASE
Gino Strada, head of aid group Emergency which describes itself as neutral and provides medical assistance to victims of war, said Afghan President Hamid Karzai authorized the Taliban prisoners' release to protests by his own government.

"The Afghan government was not a big help," Strada told La Stampa. "(Italy's ambassador) spent hours and hours fighting with ministers and Afghan officials that refused to carry out Karzai's orders."

Alfredo Mantovano, a senator with the right-wing National Alliance, called on Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government to explain itself in parliament.

"What's happened is that the negotiations to get an Italian's freedom has a price of freeing terrorists -- there are no precedents for this," said Mantovano.

But it is not the first time that Rome has been accused of bowing to kidnappers' demands. Italian hostages in Iraq, including a reporter and charity workers, were released amid rumors of huge payments to the Islamic militant kidnappers.

In 2004, Italy's Red Cross said it treated four presumed Iraq "terrorists" and four of their children to secure the release of two Italian charity workers kidnapped in Iraq.

Mastrogiacomo was picked up in the lawless southern province of Helmand on March 5 along with two Afghan colleagues and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops.

The Taliban often executes Afghans it accuses of spying and Mastrogiacomo was forced to watch his driver being beheaded.

"Four young men grab the driver and shove his face into the sand. They cut his throat and continue until they have cut his whole head," Mastrogiacomo wrote in La Repubblica, his daily.

Libero newspaper wrote in a front-page editorial: "To have opened the jail doors to five friends of throat-cutters in exchange for an unwise journalist is straight-out repugnant."
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Taliban kidnappings rise, but style differs from Al Qaeda
By Mark Sappenfield The Christian Science Monitor March 20, 2007
NEW DELHI - Italy's confirmation Monday that the Taliban had released Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo marked a positive end to an increasingly familiar story in Afghanistan.

Unlike insurgents in Iraq, the Taliban had largely refrained from abducting journalists in the past, and had never killed one that they had captured. In the past five months, however, the Taliban have held four different sets of reporters, including Mr. Mastrogiacomo, and they killed his Afghan driver last week, claiming that the man was a government spy.

Although all the journalists have been freed, the events suggest that flashpoints between journalists and the Taliban are on the rise. As the Taliban and NATO dial up operations for what could be a crucial spring, tensions are mounting, and journalists are being caught in the middle.

"Given the military situation there, the ante has been upped for journalists," says Bob Dietz, Asia expert for the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York.

Although details were uncertain at press time, media reports suggested that Mastrogiacomo had been freed in exchange for at least two Taliban prisoners: a former spokesman named Latif Hakimi, and a former leader named Ustad Yasar. He spent one night with tribal elders as an interim step toward freedom as the Taliban pushed for more concessions. The Taliban demanded that a third person – also a former spokesman – be released, but it was not certain if this had occurred.

Mastrogiacomo, a veteran journalist who has covered conflicts including Iraq and Lebanon, was kidnapped on March 4 while reporting in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold and currently the site of the largest NATO operation since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. He appeared to be well aware of the dangers of reporting from the area, which is largely outside government control. According to one report, shortly before he was captured, he told an editor at the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, for which he works, that he had a "rather delicate meeting" scheduled.

Mastrogiacomo's capture and release are a window into why the Taliban have been more tolerant of journalists than has Al Qaeda.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq has ... the idea that all foreigners are the enemy. This has never been the case with the Taliban," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban."

Instead, the Taliban have targeted those they see to be working for the current Western-backed government, whether they be politicians, Western troops, or contractors and aid workers. This also might have played into the abduction of Mastrogiacomo. The Taliban initally misidentified him as a British writer named John Nichol – who had previously been a member of the Royal Air Force – calling Mastrogiacomo a British spy.

The Taliban consider themselves the legitimate Afghan government, and require journalists to alert them of their plans to travel through Taliban-controlled areas. In the past, most journalists have been detained for not alerting the Taliban of their travel plans, and then released once Taliban authorities have established that they were not spies or government officials.

This is an outgrowth of the Taliban's roots in the "holy war" against the Soviets, when journalists were often the best allies of the mujahideen. "These people know what Western journalism is," says Mr. Rashid.
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British troops target Taliban chiefs
March 20, 2007
LONDON (AFP) - British troops in Afghanistan have changed tactics, targeting top Taliban leaders in order to counter their switch to a new wave of bombings and suicide attacks, a senior commander said on Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, the chief of joint operations, said British forces were attempting to drive a wedge between Taliban chiefs and ordinary Afghans.

Taliban militia have seemingly ditched their tactics of last summer, when they suffered heavy casualties attacking heavily defended British positions, Houghton told the defence committee of parliament's lower House of Commons.

"Increasingly, the switch this year has been towards the Taliban not taking on this tactic of mass attack but adopting a more asymmetric approach -- the utilisation of improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers, that sort of thing," he said.

"What we are attempting to do is use a far more intelligence-focused approach to the elimination of key Taliban leaders.

"We recognise that the (wholesale) eradication of the Taliban is not a sensible option. That alienates the public, locally and internationally.

"Therefore, to attempt to dislocate the key Taliban leadership and attempt to drive a wedge between the irreconcilable, tier one Taliban leadership and the local potential Taliban fighters, that is the nature of the tactic we are following."

Defence Secretary Des Browne told the committee that the Taliban may have been forced to switch tactics because they were suffering too many casualties.

Afghanistan's Islamic hardline former rulers were ousted from power by US-led forces in late 2001.

The new British tactics were designed to send "a very clear message to the people who do the fighting in the numbers that their leadership is not invulnerable and is capable of being arrested or killed by us," Browne said.

Browne added that he was preparing to send more helicopters to Afghanistan.

Britain has pledged an extra 1,400 troops for Afghanistan, taking the country's contingent in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to 7,700.

Most of Britain's forces there are based in the restive southern Helmand province.

Fifty-two British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown.
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Taliban's Change in Tactics May Prove a Mistake, Browne Says
By Mark Deen
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan may have made a strategic mistake by using conventional military attacks last year rather than sticking to terrorist tactics, U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne said.

``It may well be that from their point of view, strategically, they made a great error and they won't have the resources to sustain the operations,'' Browne told Parliament's defense committee today. ``Time will tell.''

Fending of criticism of NATO's Afghan mission, Browne said the Taliban's tactics came as a surprise, resulting in the bloodiest year of conflict there since the invasion in 2001. The U.K. and its allies had expected resistance through suicide bombings and other forms of ``asymmetric'' fighting, rather than conventional head-on military attacks.

The conflict claimed almost 4,000 lives last year as British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers moved into the unoccupied south of Afghanistan, closer to the border with Pakistan, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. As fighting intensified, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization responded by increasing troops and equipment, inflicting damage on Taliban forces.

``There were significant casualties inflicted on Taliban because of the tactics of mass attacks they employed,'' General Nick Houghton told the defense committee.

A record 77 suicide attacks occurred in the six months from September, up from 53 during the previous six months. Twelve suicide attacks took place in January, three times as many as in January 2006, according to the United Nations.

The NATO counter-attack has weakened the Taliban by undermining local support and the willingness of young Afghan men to fight for it, Houghton said.

``We're trying to drive a wedge between the leadership and the local fighters,'' he said. ``The eradication of the Taliban is not a sensible option and would alienate the public.''
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Khalilzad Brings Political, Cultural Savvy to UN Ambassadorship
Bill Varner
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Zalmay Khalilzad had two secret weapons when he brokered deals between warring factions as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq: a string of green stone prayer beads and a string of personal contacts from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas.

Diplomats and lawmakers say Khalilzad, an Afghan-American and Muslim, would bring that same combination of cultural savvy and political pragmatism to the United Nations as U.S. ambassador, capitalizing on President George W. Bush's new openness to bargaining.

Khalilzad would also build on decades of policy work with Republicans, starting with the arming of anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan under President Ronald Reagan.

Democrats and Republicans praised Khalilzad at his confirmation hearing last week, and the panel may vote to approve his nomination this month. It would then go the full Senate for approval.

``He is not going to lead the Bush administration where it doesn't want to go, but if they really are ready to pursue policies that head us out of the morass of death and destruction that we are in, then I think we have a great person in Ambassador Khalilzad,'' Senator Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat and Bush critic, said during a visit to the UN.

Regional Support

Bush tapped the 55-year-old Khalilzad, known as Zal, to succeed John Bolton at the world body as the U.S. seeks to increase European troop commitments in Afghanistan, build regional support to stabilize Iraq, block Iran's nuclear ambitions and make headway in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Khalilzad told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his hearing on March 15 that his style at the UN would mimic his approach in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he would be ``in the mode of seeking to solve problems that we face, not assuming that we always have the answers.''

Diplomats consider Khalilzad the right man for the mission, pointing to the agreement on ending North Korea's nuclear-arms program and talks in Baghdad with Iran and Syria as signs the U.S. is moving away from confrontational tactics.

``That is what we hope,'' Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said. ``We want to see from the U.S. an ambassador who believes in diplomacy, who will try to strengthen the collective role of nations in these areas, not impose his own unilateral view. We want someone we can talk to.''

Pashtun Heritage

The prayer beads often seen in Khalilzad's hand reflect his heritage as a Pashtun born in northern Afghanistan. His father was a Sunni Muslim, and his mother was a Shiite. He became a U.S. citizen in 1984 and speaks Dari, an Afghan dialect of Farsi, which is spoken in Iran.

``If you know the language and culture of the other side, that helps you understand his intentions and expectations,'' Zahir Tanin, the Afghan ambassador to the UN, said in an interview. ``There is a sphere in which Khalilzad is understood, not just by name but by the contacts he has made with Afghans, Iranians, Indians and many others.''

Some observers still wonder whether Khalilzad, or any U.S. envoy, would make much difference. Richard Holbrooke, ambassador to the UN under President Bill Clinton, said while Khalilzad's background will be an asset in cleaning up what he called a ``lot of broken crockery'' left by Bolton, most envoys dutifully follow instructions from their capitals.

'Undermined and Underfunded'

Bush ``undermined and underfunded the UN and sent to New York an ambassador who was openly hostile,'' Holbrooke said of Bolton.

This is the president's ``last chance to get it right,'' Holbrooke said in an interview. ``But remember that the UN is not the central arena for relations with Pakistan or Afghanistan or Iraq, and that some in the administration still don't want a strong or effective UN.''

Tanin, the Afghan envoy, and Iraqi diplomats to the UN have high expectations for Khalilzad, based on his performance in Kabul from November 2003 to June 2005 and in Baghdad for the past 21 months.

Tanin said he wants to keep UN diplomats focused on his war- scarred nation while President Hamid Karzai's administration attempts to extend its control beyond the capital.

That will be an easy sell for Khalilzad, who was instrumental in fortifying the fledgling Afghan government. Tanin said Khalilzad once flew from Kabul to the western city of Herat, on a private mission for Karzai, to persuade a dissident warlord to back the central authority.

No Interpreter Required

Khalilzad succeeded because he was greeted ``as a Muslim who didn't need an interpreter,'' Tanin said.

Feisal al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the UN, said he looks to Khalilzad to help rally political and economic support for Iraq at the UN. One of Khalilzad's last acts as ambassador to Iraq was to help negotiate the draft of an oil law designed to unify Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in the country, which is beset with sectarian violence.

``There's a difference between someone who had an intellectual grasp of the situation, like former ambassador John Negroponte, and someone like Zal who grasps it intellectually but also understands it emotionally,'' Istrabadi said in an interview. ``It's in his blood.''

Istrabadi said Khalilzad persuaded Shiites and Kurds to accept a compromise that led to ratification of the Iraqi constitution in October 2005 and convinced the Sunni minority to participate in the December 2005 elections.

Connections

Besides using his cultural background, Khalilzad built his career with connections to policy makers under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense under Donald Rumsfeld, pulled Khalilzad into the State Department in 1985, where he directed U.S. efforts to arm mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Later, in the elder Bush's Defense Department, Khalilzad helped future Vice President Dick Cheney write the ``Defense Planning Guidance,'' which argued that the U.S. should adopt policies that would help it remain the sole superpower after the Cold War.

Khalilzad was part of the Project for the New American Century, a group that included Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others labeled ``neoconservatives.'' In a 1997 statement, the group called for increased defense spending to ``carry out our global responsibilities.'' It later backed the invasion of Iraq.

``He is one of the architects of the Bush administration's hard-line policies in the Muslim world,'' said Jeff Laurenti, international affairs analyst for the Century Foundation, a policy research group in New York.

The net effect of Khalilzad's roots, according to Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, is that he has the neoconservative credentials to be trusted by Bush and Cheney, yet is no ideologue.

``Zal's instinct is to believe you can negotiate,'' said Galbraith, who has written extensively on Iraq. ``He understands that other people in the world want things too, and now he will have a chance to convey to the top levels of the administration the views of other countries, and enough clout to change their minds.''
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Fresh U.S. prisoner abuse claims made
NEW YORK, March 20 (UPI) -- An Australian man captured while training with al-Qaida in Afghanistan claims he was beaten and abused by his U.S. military captors.

David Hicks made the claims in documents supporting his bid for British citizenship, the New York Times reported Tuesday. He was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, and has become the first detainee to be formally charged under secret U.S. military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

His case is scheduled to be heard March 26, and his lawyer, Maj. Michael Mori said he will plead innocent to a single charge of providing material support for terrorism.

Hicks wrote that he was repeatedly beaten and witnessed other detainees also being beaten before he was transferred to Guantanamo.

He said during the time he was shuttled from ships and helicopters to aircraft hangars, prisoners were also made to kneel for 10 hours at a time, the Times said.

He made no claims of abuse at Guantanamo, but said he was repeatedly injected with liquids that "would make my head feel strange."
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Afghanistan: Museum Director Applauds Return Of Historical Objects
March 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Nearly 1,500 ancient artifacts that were taken out of Afghanistan to save them from destruction and looting have been returned. The items were taken to Kabul's national museum last week from Switzerland, where they have been stored since 1999 in the Afghanistan Museum-in-Exile in Bubendorf. RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari spoke to Omara Khan Massoudi, the director of Afghanistan's national museum, about the importance of the artifacts' return.

RFE/RL: You were involved in the return of the ancient Afghan artifacts. Their return has been described as one of the biggest repatriations of a country's historical heritage in several decades. How were they returned?

Massoudi: The items that were kept in Afghanistan's Museum-in-Exile in Switzerland were returned to Afghanistan on March 16. A delegation from Afghanistan's national museum, headed by me and one of my colleagues, had traveled to Switzerland about a week ago. The items were packed in front of us and placed in a container and, with the cooperation of Germany's Defense Ministry, they were transferred via a direct flight to Afghanistan.

RFE/RL: Please tell us about the collection, which includes different objects such as textiles and artwork.

Massoudi: It includes 1,423 items and the majority are ethnographic items objects that different Afghan tribes use in their daily lives based on their culture and traditions. Fortunately they had been stored in Switzerland by some Afghans and also Europeans who are affiliated with Afghan culture; in the past years they had cooperated with the museum and donated [historical objects] to it. A limited number of archeological objects that were kept in the museum are some of the items that had been lost from Afghanistan's national museum. They include two ivory items from the first and second century, they're from the Bagram historical site. There are also several objects made of stone and glass from the city of Ai-Khanum. Some of these items were excavated illegally.

RFE/RL: Among them is reportedly a foundation stone from the city of Ai-Khanum in northern Afghanistan laid by Alexander the Great.

Massoudi: Yes this item is there, unfortunately this piece had not been found during excavations by French and Afghan archeologists. But it was [discovered] recently during illegal and unauthorized excavations by looters who have damaged the Ai-Khanum historical site very badly. Fortunately the historical artifact was given to Afghanistan's Museum-in-Exile in Switzerland and it was transferred to Afghanistan along with the other items. Unfortunately I don't have more information about it and exact scientific research about this item is needed so that those who are interested in Afghan culture can find out more about it. It has been said that this [object] is from Ai-Khanum and, based on some opinions, this item was touched by Alexander the Great.

Another of the artifacts (file photo)RFE/RL: Is the national museum in Kabul really safe enough for these historical objects?

Massoudi: I hope so. Kabul's situation is good and since the fall of the Taliban there hasn't been any [violent] incident at the national museum. The security situation in the capital is improving and there hasn't been any worrying incident, [therefore] we hope we'll be able to protect [these objects].

RFE/RL: How is the national museum being protected and secured?

Massoudi: The national police are protecting the museum from the outside to a degree that is needed and inside the museum is also protected by the museum's staff during the day and also at night. It's the duty of some of the museum's personnel to stay inside the building 24-hour a day.

RFE/RL: The return of these objects gathered by private collectors and people who worked in Afghanistan obviously means a lot to the Afghan people. Does it mean the country is recovering from its past?

Massoudi: As you know, Afghanistan's national museum suffered the worst damage during the wars. Most of its items and objects were ransacked. Afghanistan's Culture Ministry and the office of the museums see as its duty to work for the return of the objects that belong to the national museum and items that are part of the country's cultural heritage and have been looted, illegally excavated, and transferred outside Afghanistan. The return of this big collection to the national museum is extremely valuable and is a good beginning. I hope other countries that are Afghanistan's friends and have some of Afghanistan's historical objects that have been transferred outside the country illegally will follow the example of Afghanistan's friend, Switzerland. This gives hope to the people of Afghanistan but also for the scientists and all of those who are very much attached to Afghan culture. We hope that it will encourage them so that we can slowly regain some of our lost belongings.

RFE/RL: When will the public in Afghanistan be able to see the historical collection that has returned home?

Massoudi: We are planning to have an exhibition of some of the items in two or three months. We had some problems in the museum but they have been removed: we didn't have shelves for displaying the items, but about a month ago we received some glass cabinets from our friend, Japan. We will use these cabinets [to have] a temporary exhibition of these items for the broader public.
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Losing Afghan hearts, minds
Toronto Star 03/20/2007 By Olivia Ward 
Taliban gains as non-combat efforts fall short, poll finds
Canada and other Western countries are losing the battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan while the Taliban is seizing the advantage, says a survey from a European-based think-tank.

According to the Senlis Council, nearly half of the men in Afghanistan's southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar ? where Canadian troops are based ? believe the international community will lose the war against the Taliban.

"The military forces are doing a remarkable job in extremely difficult circumstances," said Norine MacDonald, Senlis's Canadian founder, in a phone interview from London.

"But woefully inadequate aid and development, and misguided counter-narcotics policies, are turning people against them and making their work much more dangerous."

Figures from the survey show alarming gains in Taliban support in the south, with 27 per cent of respondents backing the militants, compared with only 3 per cent in December 2005, MacDonald said.

The random survey of 17,000 Afghan men was done March 3-12 in the two southern provinces and Nangarhar, to the northeast.

In Nangarhar province, where American troops are operating, more than 51 per cent of Afghans surveyed wanted them to leave the country and more than 87 per cent believed the U.S. response to insurgent attacks was wrong. But local people were more optimistic the international forces would win: 49 per cent believed they would be victorious, and 30 per cent that they would lose to the Taliban.

MacDonald said other results were equally telling.

"Eighty per cent of people surveyed said they worry about feeding their families, and 70 per cent know how to fire a weapon. People are hungry and angry, and when bombing campaigns level villages, it's not difficult to see how those facts come together."

In Kandahar and Helmand provinces, 80 per cent of respondents said the international troops were not helping them personally, and 71 per cent believed the Afghan government was also unhelpful.
Violence has escalated in southern and eastern Afghanistan in the past two years.

Yesterday in the capital Kabul, a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. embassy convoy, killing a 15-year-old pedestrian and wounding five security guards on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road. It was the first suicide attack in Kabul since December.

Elsewhere, Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, was released by his Taliban captors. In an interview with an Italian broadcaster, Mastrogiacomo said he saw his captors cut off the head of one of the two Afghans abducted with him on March 5 in Helmand province. The fate of the other Afghan was unknown.

Meanwhile, a survey by the independent monitoring group Integrity Watch Afghanistan said that in the past five years ? after the Taliban lost power ? "corruption has soared to levels not seen in previous administrations," and about 60 per cent of responders believed it was the most corrupt government in two decades.

The poll of 1,258 Afghans said that under President Hamid Karzai, money "can buy government appointments, bypass justice or evade police" with impunity. Weak law enforcement was mainly to blame, said the group's executive director, Lorenzo Delesgues.

"Corruption has undermined the legitimacy of the state," he said yesterday in Kabul.
With files from the Star's wire services
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Afghan envoy values ties with Canada
NEW YORK, Mar 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan ambassador to Canada Omar Samad has said that the role of Canada in restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan has grown over the previous five years and hoped the assistance would continue in the future.

In an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, the envoy said Canada had been part of the international community's efforts to help restore stability and security to Afghanistan.

This role, he said, had grown over the past five years to the point where Afghanistan is Canada's largest ever aid recipient, and the largest number of Canadian military and non-military personnel have served in Afghanistan since World War II.

About the relationship between the two countries, the ambassador said while Canada had provided small-scale humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since the 1970s, its commitments increased in the post 9/11 period.

About the coming into power of Conservative government in Canada, Samad said both the previous Liberal and current Conservative governments have had a strong commitment to Afghanistan since 2001. However, in 2006, Prime Minister Harper government had extended the Canadian military mission in the south till 2009 as well as increased the aid from 600 million Canadian dollars in 2005 to almost 1.2 billion in 2006.

Asked about reservations expressed by some circles in Canada about the presence of their country's troops in Afghanistan, the ambassador said most Canadians were now realising that the Afghan mission was a UN mandated operation and geared towards creating a better future for the Afghan people. The recent polls in Canada showed a majority support for the mission, said the envoy.

Regarding the stay of Canadian troops in Afghanistan beyond 2009, he said that was a Canadian decision. "This decision will depend on conditions on the ground in Afghanistan. It will depend on how successful we are to check the Taliban attempt to derail Afghanistan's revival and rebuilding."

He believed the increasing visits of Canadian officials to Afghanistan were the pointer to the growing relations between the two countries.

About the Afghan population in Canada, he said there were an estimated 100,000 Afghans in that country. The Afghan government thinks that the professionals, especially young professionals among them, can play an important role in reconstruction of their country.

About the formation of the Canada Afghanistan Business Council, he said it was comprised of Afghan Canadian businesses, traders and investors. Their goal is to promote business opportunities between the two countries and expand the possibilities for trade and investment.
Lalit K. Jha
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Kabul provincial council elects new Chief
KABUL, Mar 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Kabul Provincial Council elected a new Chief, although the outcome of the election has not been accepted by his predecessor.

The election took place in the presence of all 29 members of the Council, on Saturday.

Maulavi Habibullah, the former chief was contesting against Maulavi Abdul Aziz Mujahid, who won by five votes.

Taj Mohammad Wardak, a member of the Kabul Provincial Council told Pajhwok Afghan News the polling result was 17 to 12 in favour of Maulavi Abdul Aziz.

Wardak said the polling was free and fair, while the ex-chief considered the it illegal and a conspiracy against him, saying the law for provincial councils has not been signed by President Hamid Karzai.

Habibullah added that during the voting, no officials from the Ministry of Parliament Affairs, UNAMA or the Elections Commission were present.

Responding to a question on why he decided to contest the election, if he thought it was not legal, Habibullah said that he had been told by all the members that there would be no election and he would be the Chief but Mujahid did not agree.

He added: I participated in the elections for ethical reasons. He said 11 other members had boycotted the election results along with him.

But Mujahid said Habibullah was ready for elections. He told Pajhwok Afghan News 22 members had promised Habibullah to vote for him but when he lost, he objected to the election.

Taj Mohammad Wardak said Paktika and Badakhshan had already voted for the Chief of their Councils and after the Parliaments approval of the law for the Provincial Councils, the elections were legal.

Dr. Mohammad Karim Baz, Head of the Provincial Councils coordination, said voting in other provinces had stopped, pending the approval of the President.

He said elections in the two other provinces varied with Kabul as the Chiefs of the Provincial Councils had resigned.

Baz said the matter should be referred to the Ministry of Justice and, If the ministry considers the elections illegal, the election result will be cancelled.

The Provincial Council law was approved by the Parliament some time ago and has been sent to the President for the final signature.
Zubair Babakarkhil
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