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March 3, 2007 


Explosion in western Afghanistan kills 2
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 3, 2:18 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A bomb blast in western  Afghanistan killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 17 others on Saturday, officials said.

The remote-controlled bomb was placed on a bicycle and went off on a road between Herat and that city's airport, said Noor Khan Nekzad, the spokesman for the province's police chief.

The blast killed two Afghan civilians and wounded 17 others, said Abdul Hakim Tamana, chief of health department for Herat province

There were no Afghan or Western officials on the road at the time of the blast, Nekzad said.

Western Afghanistan, which borders  Iran, is relatively quiet in comparison to the country's south and east, where Taliban-led insurgents and other militants battle U.S.,  NATO and Afghan government forces. But the region has seen an increasing number of attacks over the last year.

In eastern Afghanistan, insurgents attacked a police post on Friday night, leaving one police officer dead and two wounded, officials said.

Some 30 militants using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the police post in the Sirkanay district of Kunar province, about one mile from the Pakistan border, said Gen. Abdul Sabor Alluhyar, province's deputy police chief.

Also Friday, a mortar round landed on a U.S. military outpost in the same province, wounding 12 civilian Afghan workers and two Afghan soldiers, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

"ISAF Forces immediately responded by providing medical assistance. All were treated at nearby ISAF medical facilities," the statement said.
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NATO short on troops in Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 2, 9:32 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Signs of a new spring offensive by Taliban insurgents in  Afghanistan have begun to emerge, but  NATO commanders are still short more than 1,000 combat troops, despite repeated requests to allied nations, the top commander said Friday.
 
U.S. Gen. John Craddock told reporters that while the allies are winning more battles with insurgents, they are losing the counter-narcotics war, and more work and greater coordination is needed in the reconstruction effort.

Craddock said there has already been a slight increase in suicide attacks and roadside bombs — the beginnings of an expected increase in violence as the weather improves. And he said he is still short by as much as two battalions, largely combat units, despite recent commitments for about 7,000 additional troops there, including more than 3,500 from the United States. A battalion is generally about 800 soldiers.

Craddock also said that 30 percent to 40 percent of the 25 provincial reconstruction teams working to rebuild the country do not have all the people they need, particularly State Department and agricultural experts. In those cases, he said the agencies either have no presence or not enough people on the teams, which number about 100 people.

The teams are small units of troops and civilian personnel placed around the country supporting local authorities and aid groups with security and assisting in setting up essential services for the provinces.

More agricultural experts are considered critical because officials are struggling to control a drug crop that dominates the country's economy and provides key financing for the insurgency. Opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons — or enough to make about 670 tons of heroin, more than 90 percent of the world's supply.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the  Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that there are typically one or two State Department specialists and an Agriculture Department specialist on the teams, because the economy is so reliant on agriculture. The rest of the team is largely military, including civil affairs and psychological operations officers. The U.S. is responsible for 12 of the 25 teams, which are assigned to provinces.

Craddock also agreed that Pakistan must do more to control its border, as Taliban and other insurgents continue to flow through the region into Afghanistan.

"NATO will not be able to prevail, ... will never control the border, without greater control of the border areas by Pakistan and greater coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," said Craddock.

He said both countries need to put up more checkpoints and inspection stations along the border, and there needs to be more political cooperation between the two nations.

Craddock said the countries are making progress in efforts to cooperate more, and there is some expectation there will be increased political dialogue between the two governments this spring. And overall, he said, he is encouraged by the progress he is seeing.

While saying there will still be challenges particularly this spring, he said, "between the security aspect that's presently there and what NATO is capable of ... partnered with the reconstruction, we're seeing some progress and we're seeing increased capabilities."

Currently there are about 26,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Roughly 15,000 of them are serving in the NATO-led force, which now totals about 35,000. The other 11,000 are special operations forces or are training Afghan troops.
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Afghan Taliban says sending fighters to Iraq: TV
Fri Mar 2, 3:28 PM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Taliban commander said in remarks broadcast on Friday that the Afghan Islamist group was sending fighters to  Iraq to support anti-U.S. insurgents.

"Whenever there is a chance the (Afghanistan-based holy fighters) mujahideen travel to Iraq and the opposite is also true," Mullah Dadullah told Al Jazeera television in an interview.

"We have very strong relations with the mujahideen in Iraq. The mujahideen stay in Iraq for a month for example then they come here," he added in remarks dubbed in Arabic. "We also share intelligence."

"Travel from and to Iraq is at a peak currently ... if any mujahid wants to carry out an operation in Iraq he can travel."

Several Sunni Muslim groups including a wing of al Qaeda, which is allied to the Taliban, have been fighting U.S.-led and Iraqi government forces in Iraq.

The interview appeared to have been recorded before news emerged on Friday that Pakistani security forces had arrested Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the third most senior member of the Taliban's leadership council.

Asked if he was aware of the whereabouts of al Qaeda leaders including top chief  Osama bin Laden, Dadullah said: "I do not know where they are ... (but) Osama bin Laden is alive, praise God, and he sends his orders to the mujahideen and sends us news of victory."

The Taliban were toppled in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for refusing to hand over leaders of al Qaeda after the group's September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Dadullah repeated that the Taliban plans to escalate operations against foreign soldiers in Afghanistan in the spring with at least 6,000 fighters which he said might rise to up to 20,000 once the fighting intensified.

Dadullah was speaking to a Jazeera correspondent outdoors interview with heavily armed bodyguards nearby.

Dadullah said the Taliban has obtained weapons but did not say from where, adding that the group was making its own weapons when necessary.

"The Taliban today is not the same as the Taliban of five years ago," he said.

NATO, the United States and the Taliban are promising spring offensives in what they and analysts regard a crunch year in a country still in crisis more than five years after the Taliban's fall.
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Arrest in Pakistan Spurs Hope of Stronger Effort
By Griff Witte and Kamran Khan Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, March 3, 2007; A11
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 -- The arrest of a senior Taliban leader in a Pakistani city long reputed to be a haven for the group kindled guarded hope among Western and Afghan security officials Friday that the government here plans to move more aggressively against insurgents taking refuge on its territory.

The arrest, confirmed by two senior Pakistani intelligence officials, marks the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that authorities here have acknowledged apprehending or killing a senior Taliban commander on Pakistani soil. It comes as Pakistan faces pressure from the Bush administration to step up its involvement in a counterinsurgency campaign that has foundered in the past year, with Taliban attacks in Afghanistan becoming more deadly and audacious.

Obaidullah Akhund, arrested hours after Vice President Cheney made a visit to Islamabad this week, is a former Taliban defense minister and is viewed in intelligence circles as one of the highest-ranking figures in the Islamic movement, which U.S.-led forces drove from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the international security force that patrols Afghanistan, said Friday its forces were not involved in any operation against Akhund but that his arrest by Pakistan would be "a very good development."

"He's what we would consider tier-one Taliban," Collins said.

Pakistani officials would not comment for the record Friday. While the arrest is likely to bolster Pakistan's counterterrorism bona fides, it is also potentially embarrassing: Akhund was caught in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta, where terrorism analysts believe much of the Taliban leadership resides, though Pakistan denies it.

Afghan officials have long asserted that Pakistan's government is either looking the other way as insurgents recruit and train on its soil or actively aiding the Taliban's cause. In recent months, U.S. officials have become sharply critical as well, saying Pakistan must crack down on border sanctuaries.

Cheney, traveling this week with the deputy director of the CIA, repeated that message here Monday to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The next day, Cheney was in the largest U.S. air base in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber struck just outside the base's gate, killing 23 people.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Friday that the night Cheney left Pakistan for Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities arrested Akhund in Quetta. The arrest was reported Friday in the New York Times and in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

"It's pure coincidence and our good luck that we found . . . Obaidullah within 24 hours of Cheney's visit," said the official, who spoke from Quetta and on condition of anonymity. The official said the arrest begins a new thrust by Pakistani intelligence agencies to arrest about 100 prominent Taliban members.

A second senior intelligence official, in Islamabad, confirmed the initiative and said it was based on "massive intelligence-sharing that has been going on between us, Americans, NATO and Afghans."

Some analysts questioned whether Pakistan really would be more aggressive. In recent years, Pakistan has carried out raids on al-Qaeda targets to coincide with visits from Western officials. "The Pakistanis have done it again," said Marvin Weinbaum, scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "They've come up with a high-profile person at just the right time."

A senior Afghan official said: "We hope that more of these arrests are made, and not just for show when Vice President Cheney comes to town."

Khan reported from Karachi, Pakistan.
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‘Obaidullah capture won’t stop Afghan offensive’
Dawn (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD, March 2: Pakistan’s reported capture of the former Taliban defence minister boosts its anti-terror credentials and delivers a setback to the insurgent movement, but is unlikely to curb another wave of militant violence this year, analysts said on Friday.

Intelligence officials say Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, one of the two top deputies of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, was arrested in Quetta on Monday, the highest-ranking Afghan militant to be captured since the fall of the Taliban regime.

The Taliban media machine has dismissed the report of his arrest as a ‘rumour’. A militant spokesman claimed to have spoken with Akhund by phone on Friday.

“'There is no truth in the report. I have told you, I have talked to him. He is in Afghanistan,” Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the AP by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

In December, the Taliban issued a similar initial denial of the killing of another top Omar lieutenant, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was later confirmed to have died in a Nato airstrike in southern Helmand province.

Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said if Akhund’s arrest was confirmed, it would affect the Taliban’s command and control system.

“He was a very important person in the Taliban movement,”' Azimi said. “'It will be a big blow to Taliban morale.”

Akhund’s capture is a success, yet government spokesmen either declined to take calls on Friday or refused comment -- a cagey approach that likely reflected concerns over how the news would be received.

While Akhund’s arrest is a feather in Pakistan’s cap as a key ally in the US-led war on terror, it also exposes an awkward truth that it has repeatedly sought to deny: that Afghan militant leaders hide not just in its border regions, but its cities too.—AP
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Policeman killed in Afghanistan ambush
Sat Mar 3, 1:23 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents attacked a police post in eastern  Afghanistan, leaving one police officer dead and two wounded, officials said Saturday.

Some 30 militants using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the police post in the Sirkanay district of Kunar province on Friday night, about one mile from the Pakistan border, said Gen. Abdul Sabor Alluhyar, province's deputy police chief.

Also Friday, a mortar round landed on a U.S. military outpost in the same province, wounding 12 civilian Afghan workers and two Afghan soldiers,  NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

"ISAF Forces immediately responded by providing medical assistance. All were treated at nearby ISAF medical facilities," the statement said.
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Pakistan denies US claim of having authority to target militants inside Pakistan
The Associated Press Saturday, March 3, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has vehemently denied the U.S. military's claim that coalition forces in Afghanistan have the authority to pursue Taliban fleeing across the border into Pakistani territory.

"There is no authorization for hot pursuit of terrorists into our territory," Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, spokesman for the Pakistan Army, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

"Whatever actions are needed to fight terrorism, we are taking them," Arshad said.

Also Saturday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected an assertion by Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, chief operations officer for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that his forces routinely fire on and pursue Taliban into Pakistan.

"No foreign forces are allowed to cross into our territorial border," said ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. "Pakistan and United States are partners in the war on terror — not adversaries."

Aslam's and Arshad's comments came two days after Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington that "we have all the authorities we need to pursue, either with (artillery) fire or on the ground, across the border."

Lute provided a detailed description of when U.S. forces can fire on and pursue insurgents across the border into the Islamic nation of Pakistan, an important ally of the United States in campaign against terrorism.

However, Lute did not elaborate on whether there were restrictions on how deep into Pakistan his soldiers could go. He said the decision is based not on distance, but on the immediacy of the threat involved.

Also Saturday, Nisar A. Memon, chairman of the Pakistani Senate's Standing Committee on Defense said in a statement that his country alone would take any action against militants on its side of the border near Afghanistan.

"Pakistan has contributed more than any other country to the successes in the fight against terrorism and extremism," he said, adding Pakistan's resolve to fight extremism and terrorism is unshakable.

The fight against terrorism is a joint challenge, and not just the responsibility of Pakistan, he said, adding "while we are having determined efforts to counter this danger, on the Afghanistan side, there is equal responsibility of the coalition and Afghan forces to stop undesirable elements from crossing into our territory."

Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 troops near Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban remnants are believed to be hiding.

Pakistan used to be a main supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, but it switched sides after the attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

Its forces have since arrested at least 700 al-Qaida and Taliban.

The latest reported arrest came Monday, when Pakistani agents — during a raid in the southwestern city of Quetta — captured the Taliban's former defense minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

However, Pakistan so far has not announced Akhund's arrest, although individuals with knowledge of Pakistani intelligence workings say the man was being questioned near the capital, Islamabad.

Akhund is said to be a key associate of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
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UN refugee agency plans for 250,000 Afghan returns in 2007
Sat Mar 3, 1:57 AM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - The UN refugee agency has estimated that some 250,000 Afghan refugees could return home this year from neighbouring Pakistan and  Iran.

"The planning figure for returns from Pakistan and Iran in 2007 is 250,000 Afghan returnees," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

The UNHCR was unable to give a breakdown between the two countries.

The agency has helped a total of 3.7 million Afghan refugees return home from neighbouring countries since 2002, UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort told AFP.

They included some 2.87 million from Pakistan and 837,800 from Iran.

Some 2.1 million Afghans are still in Pakistan and 915,000 in Iran, according to the UNHCR.

However, the numbers of voluntary repatriations has been dwindling over the years and many Afghans are not expected to return to their homeland.

"This displacement has been going on for two decades or more and many of the Afghans in neighbouring countries are integrated in local society -- they have businesses or jobs and families," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists.
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U.N.: Return of Afghan refugees from Iran, Pakistan could surpass 5 million this year
The Associated Press Friday, March 2, 2007
GENEVA: The number of Afghan refugees who have returned home from Pakistan and Iran since the overthrow of the Taliban could surpass 5 million this year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday.

But more than 3 million refugees remain in the two neighboring countries, many of them well integrated after two decades of violence in Afghanistan, and the pace of return has slowed considerably, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.

"There is still a large number of Afghans who feel more at home in Pakistan than in Afghanistan," he said, noting that many own property and businesses.

UNHCR resumed assisted repatriations from Pakistan on Thursday after a pause for the winter months, during which a registration of refugees counted 2.1 million Afghans still in the country, Redmond said.

That is in addition to the 915,000 Afghans still in Iran.

The agency assists refugees who want to return voluntarily, and hopes that many will return to rural areas, but some parts of the country are still too dangerous, he said.

"We provide them with a return package — tools, building materials" and in some cases cash, Redmond said.

The agency plans to help 250,000 more Afghans return from the two countries this year, Redmond said.

That comes on top of the 4.8 million of the Afghan refugees in the two countries who have gone back since U.S.-led forces toppled the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime at the end of 2001, the agency said.
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South Asia: Pashtun Elders In Pakistan Request NATO, U.S. Troops
By Ron Synovitz and Mohammad Dauod Wafa
March 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- About 60 Pashtun tribal elders from Pakistan's tribal regions met with Afghan authorities in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on March 1 to discuss how to bring security to the border regions.

Led by Malak Abdul Sabor Afridi, the delegates have suggested that Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan have put too much trust in Pakistan's government. Afridi said Karzai and NATO officials should be talking directly with the Pashtun tribal leaders in Pakistan instead of relying on officials from Islamabad.

"People in the border areas -- in the semi-autonomous tribal agencies [of Pakistan] -- have sent their proposals to President Karzai and other leaders several times in the past," Afridi told RFE's Radio Free Afghanistan. "We are saying that the policy of the foreigners -- even the international alliance [of ISAF and NATO] -- is not right. This conflict cannot be resolved through military operations or by militants."

'They Are Protecting Them'

Afridi said he is angered by reports suggesting that Pashtun tribes in Pakistan's border areas have been sheltering Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.

"We are not giving safe haven to the enemies of Afghanistan or to the enemies of the international community," Afridi said. "We have evidence of this. It is clear. And we have evidence that these terrorists and militants [from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda] are getting help from Pakistan's military and intelligence services to create training centers. They protect them and give them safe haven. They are protecting them. It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions. But they do not have links with local tribal men. They are either with the militant armed groups or with [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI)]."

"It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions. But they do not have links with local tribal men. "President Pervez Musharraf -- who also heads Pakistan's military -- has repeatedly denied allegations that his own military or intelligence officers support militants in Pakistan's tribal regions. Musharraf said Pakistan is the only country that has delivered "maximum support" in the fight against both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

"The trouble lies in Afghanistan and the solution lies in Afghanistan, but there is support [for terrorists] going from Pakistan, which we know," Musharraf said. "We are tackling them with 30,000 troops, so let it not be said that Pakistan is not doing enough. If there is anybody who is not doing enough, it is others who are not doing enough."

International 'Protection'

The deployment of those forces marks the first time in Pakistan's history that its military has been sent into the semi-autonomous tribal regions. Afridi said his delegation is concerned that Islamabad has another agenda -- that is, to reduce the independence of ethnic Pashtuns in the tribal regions.

"We want the international community to come to us and protect us -- send us soldiers: NATO soldiers," Afridi said. "We are under tough pressure from Pakistani forces. In the end, we will ask the international community to send NATO soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers are causing problems for us. They've destroyed our tribal systems. They've created armed groups among us. Now we have blood in the Kyber Agency -- an area that once was very safe. Muslims are being killed and hundreds of houses have been destroyed."

Afridi said NATO, U.S., and UN representatives should go into Pakistan's tribal regions in order to build contacts with the elders. He says that if the international community did so, the security problems in the area would be resolved easily.
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NATO stepping up aid to Afghan drug war
By Thom Shanker Friday, March 2, 2007 International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON: The new supreme commander of NATO forces said Friday that he had ordered alliance officers in Afghanistan to increase their assistance to the local counternarcotics authorities in the battle against a drug trade that threatens the entire international security mission there.

The commander, General John Craddock of the U.S. Army, said that while NATO was not authorized to play a direct role in the anti-narcotics effort, alliance forces were allowed under their rules to supply intelligence, as well as security and logistical assistance.

"We have some authorities to support the Afghan forces in their counternarcotics efforts," Craddock said.

And as part of his inspection of the NATO mission in Afghanistan last week, in which he discussed those authorities with his commanders, Craddock said he had told NATO officers "to optimize those right to the limit of the authority we have" and to "push it to the edge because it's important."

The growing narcotics trade in Afghanistan not only undermines the authority of the central government and creates an environment of endemic corruption, but profits from the trade also are a major source of income to insurgents.

"There is no easy answer," said Craddock, whose previous position was commander of American military forces in Central and South America, including Colombia, which is battling drug rings. "It will take an international effort over a long period of time," he said.

Craddock said the NATO mission in Afghanistan was still short one or two combat battalions; a battalion usually averages about 650 soldiers.

The military effort is also short what Craddock called enablers, a term that refers to cargo aircraft, troop-carrying helicopters and intelligence-gathering equipment.

Even so, Craddock said, Afghan and NATO forces are winning individual battles with insurgents, although Afghanistan is losing the drug war.

On Friday, NATO's troop strength in Afghanistan, including American forces committed to the international military effort, stood at 35,000 troops drawn from the 26 alliance partners and 11 other nations. American troop numbers in Afghanistan totaled 26,000, with approximately 15,000 committed to the NATO mission and another 11,000 carrying out a separate counterterrorism and training efforts.

After a NATO summit meeting in Riga, Latvia, and a defense ministers' meeting in Seville, Spain, alliance partners have increased commitments to the Afghanistan mission by 7,000 troops. That includes a brigade of about 3,500 American forces.

The British military has committed 1,400 additional troops; Poland has promised to add 1,000 troops; and Norway will contribute a special operations task group, Craddock said.

"We are very grateful for that," he said. "We are getting close."

There has been a "slight increase" in attacks by suicide bombers and with improvised roadside explosives over the past few weeks, Craddock said, although he said it was too early to determine whether the anticipated spring offensive by Taliban and other insurgents had begun.

Craddock said many of the Taliban forces were "day fighters" who took up arms against the central government in Kabul and its foreign partners simply to earn wages to support their families.

Creating economic stability — in particular, jobs — would be the best way to persuade those fighters to disarm, the general said.

Repeating a theme heard often in Washington in recent weeks, Craddock said the U.S. government's civilian agencies needed to fulfill their commitments to the Afghan effort.

He said that about one-third of the 25 provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were short personnel from other government agencies, whether the State Department, the Agency for International Development or the Agriculture Department.
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Bulgaria Sends Troops to Guard Another Afghan Airport
3 March 2007, Saturday Sofia News Agency, Bulgaria
Bulgaria's Defense Ministry will come up with a decision on sending a battalion to take care of security at the southern Afghan airport in Kandahar within ten days.

This was announced by Defense Minister Vesselin Bliznakov after speaking via a video link to Bulgaria's troops in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Afghanistan on the occasion of the national holiday March 3.

It is up to the government to decide whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan, a decision, which does not require to be put to the vote in parliament.

Bulgarian soldiers are currently on a safekeeping mission at the Airport in Kabul.
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Afghan Indians not given relaxation in citizenship procedures
PTI Saturday, March 03, 2007  14:27 IST
NEW DELHI: Hindus and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan for India following the rise of the Taliban militia there more than a decade ago have been given no relaxation in citizenship procedures.

Despite a recommendation almost six years ago by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to deal with their case in the most sympathetic manner, there is no new move by the government to address their requests for early Indian citizenship except for allowing them a year-to-year extension to stay in the country.

"Year-to-year extension to stay in India has been granted to Afghan nationals. Present extension of stay is up to June 30, 2007," the Minority Affairs Ministry has said in its report on the NCM's recommendations.

In its recommendations, the NCM had also suggested that Afghan nationals be granted amnesty over passports and other documents.

It recommended that provisions of the Foreigners' Act could also be relaxed if necessary to address their problems.

In December last year, delegations of Afghan nationals living in India met Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay to request that the government should ease citizenship norms for the displaced community of Indian origin.

"The Commission's request has not been addressed. Hindus and Sikhs who left Afghanistan years ago should have been treated sympathetically and granted relaxation in citizenship procedures. But they are only being granted year-to-year extension in stay as before," Tarlochan Singh, who dealt with the issue as vice-chairman of the NCM in 2000-01, said.
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Exchange of fire on Afghan border
By Shams Mohmand  Dawn (Pakistan)
GHALLANAI, March 2: The Afghan National Army and Pakistani troops exchanged fire in the Kudakhel area of Mohmand Agency on Friday, sources said.

The agency’s political administration confirmed the incident, but said there was no casualty.

The sources said the Afghan army fired several rockets on a border post of the Pakistan army in the Kudakhel area, about 20 kilometres from here. Army and paramilitary troops are jointly manning the post.

The rocket attack triggered skirmishes and the two sides exchanged fire.
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Afghan official lauds Pak support for refugees
The News International (Pakistan)
PESHAWAR: The people and the government of Afghanistan are thankful to Islamabad for its extended support for their refugees still living in Pakistan in a large number.

Dr Abdul Shakoor Haidri, member of the Afghan Ministry of Drug Regulation and Counter Narcotics, said this here on Friday.

“The Afghan people and the government are highly appreciative of Pakistan’s continuous assistance and cooperation to the refugees for decades,” Haidari told APP.

The Afghan official was here to receive a certificate following the completion of a five-day “Joint Pakistan-Afghanistan Precursor Training Course” organised by the United National Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) with the financial assistance of the high commissions of the UK and Canada.

A total of 26 officers of the law-enforcement agencies and organisations — 14 from Pakistan and 12 from Afghanistan — participated in the weeklong course.

Responding to a question, Haideri said narcotics was an international problem, adding that chemicals were imported by Afghanistan only for use of research activities and industrial and pharmaceutical works.

He said a Drug Regulation Department has been set up, which is closely working with Afghan Health Ministry to create awareness about the worst effects of drugs.

“We are seizing properties of narcotics’ smugglers,” said Haidari, adding that focus is on eradicating poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. “We have launched an alternative livelihood programme to encourage farmers to avoid cultivation of poppy by giving them financial incentives.”

He said the drugs awareness programme has been started and it was showing encouraging results.
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An Afghan road less traveled
Christian Science Monitor 03/02/2007 By Mark Sappenfield
In a drive from Kabul to Khenj, we encounter dogfights, emerald miners, and a hard history.
Zalmay and the car he's driving seem to be having a disagreement while in the passing lane. As Zalmay presses the accelerator, heedless of the oncoming cars blinking their lights in a panicked Morse code, the engine of the Toyota Surf audibly shrugs. Finally, he admits defeat and slides back into his lane as relieved traffic whooshes by.

Zalmay, my brazen driver, likes to be in the passing lane. The Toyota Surf, however, is not at all convinced. Perhaps it is a prescient piece of metal, because the four-hour drive to Panjshir will involve a slalom course of potholes, hairpin curves clinging 1,000 feet above a valley floor, an ominously hissing front tire, and 50 minutes where we jostled like Jell-O on a dirt road leading to the roof of the Hindu Kush mountains. There, last winter's snows stretch their besooted fingers to the remote village of Khenj ? our destination for a story about emerald mining.

So there's no need to get worked up only 10 minutes outside Kabul on a perfect piece of asphalt. Driving toward the Hindu Kush from Kabul is like that scene in "Star Wars" where the Millennium Falcon is being sucked toward the Death Star. Every passing minute brings you closer to an immensity that strains the neck and the imagination. Fortunately, the Hindu Kush ? being rock ? hasn't yet mastered the complexities of a tractor beam, meaning that, unlike Han Solo, we were allowed diversions along our way.

***
An hour outside Kabul, Ahmed, our guide to Khenj, veers off the highway in his white Corolla onto a dirt road. We follow in the Surf. I look with befuddlement at Farouq, my Afghan interpreter and purveyor of slightly sinister jokes. He's clueless, too. Usually not a good sign.

Moments later, we arrive at the base of a treeless hillside, eroded to form a perfect natural amphitheater. It swarms with shivering Afghans. Below, at the foot of the hill, kiosks selling hot food steam in the winter sun. Boys no older than 12 hawk snacks and cigarettes. "Dogfighting," Farouq says knowingly.

He's right. Thankfully, this is not the "bloody" kind ? to the death. But dog fighting (and betting) is big business in Afghanistan, and the crowd "ooohs" when the action begins.

For someone who grew up wanting to save the whales, it's rather uncomfortable. But this is Afghanistan. Outside Kabul, there are no think tanks or yoga studios, only the rusted carcasses of countless Soviet tanks, turrets half buried in the soil ? a roadside rosary of Afghanistan's unyielding spirit. The Soviets didn't leave because the Afghans were soft, and Panjshir is no exception. Quite the opposite.

The valley is, in fact, part of national myth. It is Afghanistan's unassailable fortress, a cleft of rock that has lured conquerors to its doorstep for centuries and then defied them. Here, Ahmed Shah Masood led the last pockets of resistance against the Taliban before he was assassinated by Al Qaeda operatives ? two days before 9/11.

How strange, then, to stop at the mouth of the valley, where cliffs of granite squeeze the Panj- shir River, and to meet only a clutch of kids asking for pens and photos of themselves.

It's one of the many faces of Afghanistan. While the Taliban have seized entire towns in the south, they are virtually nonexistent in the north, meaning we can stop and click photos like any tube-sock-wearing tourist.

OK, I wear Afghan clothes. But there is hardly the scent of fear here, just the smell of wood-burning stoves struggling against the cold in a place still awaiting reliable electricity.

Along the way, stereotypes tangle with reality. Before I came to Afghanistan, I had thought that America freed women from the burqa. In Kabul, perhaps it has. But here, in a place free of the prying eyes and culture police of the Taliban, I don't see any women not in burqas. It turns out it's a way of life for a conservative tribal society.

We arrive in Khenj at lunchtime, one tire still leaking air ? overwrought by basketball-size divots in the road. Like the rest of the villages in the valley, Khenj is part Stone-Age San Francisco, part Santa Fe. With little flat land on which to build, houses cling to precipitous slopes in a curious echo of Telegraph Hill ? but built in an earthen style reminiscent of adobes.

In town, the muddy street squelches underfoot, and residents turn to stare at the puffy man in Afghan clothes (I was wearing approximately 83 layers to stay warm), and the blue-eyed foreigner (my fellow photographer).

Ahmed leads us to the one restaurant in town, up a narrow set of wooden steps and into a dark room with an unused (unfortunately) wood stove. We sit cross-legged on a shin-high platform, and the owner brings us bowls of rice and meat with Afghan flatbread, all of which we eat only with our right hands.

We start up a conversation through Farouq with three emerald miners. One looks like an extra from "Doctor Zhivago," with a furry hat and sweeping beard the color of black shoe polish.
Is this a hard life? Yes.

Can it help create a new economy? Maybe.

Could foreign investment help? No. No ambiguity here.

I glimpse, for the first time, that to be Afghan is to feel both abandoned and exploited by the world. From the time of Alexander the Great to Leonid Brezhnev, Afghanistan has been the plaything of greater powers interested in its strategic location as the crossroads of Asia. Now I see how that gnaws on a nation's mentality. The same applies to the US presence here. Most Afghans desperately want help. But they've been conditioned to assume they will be abandoned: Eventually, America will leave, allowing Afghanistan's neighbors to meddle again.

We have one last stop in Khenj, at the office of the district chief. All our previous interviews have been loud, even raucous, and often funny. But not here. Inside what looks like a general store, a half dozen men slink in silence. The chief sits on an elevated platform, his feet warmed by hot coals. He invites Farouq and me to sit.

I'm a bit unnerved. He does not fit the "Lawrence of Arabia" image of an exotic tribal chief ? old, wizened, and regaled in acres of fine cloth. He appears more like any ordinary Afghan, but with an obvious air of authority. I ask a question, and Farouq gently interrupts, "First, don't you want to thank him for speaking with us?"

Suddenly, you realize how important a good translator is. Chastened, I move on with the interview without getting us drawn and quartered.

At last, the tire, which Zalmay had been attending to, is fixed. Zalmay sits in a shop, chatting with the store owner, who claims to have been a jihadi 20 years ago, fighting on the frontiers of Pakistan. He is, of course, jovial. Afghans exude something of a Viking spirit ? an ability to war and be merry. He jokes that the economy in Khenj is so bad that all the items in his store are things owned by members of his family.

We are ready to leave, and he gives Zalmay and Farouq the kiss of an Afghan farewell. Then, to my surprise, he offers me the same ? a scratchy brush of his beard on my cheek.
The manners, I hope to learn. The clothes, I can buy. But the beard? Perhaps I can never be a true Panjshiri.
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Bush faces three major Afghanistan stumbling blocks
The Age 03/02/2007 By Amin Saikal
AFTER more than five years on the path of post-Taliban reconstruction, Afghanistan still faces a dire situation. Many Afghans have become disillusioned with their Government and its international backers, and the Taliban and their supporters have rebuilt their fighting capacity with more ferocity than ever before. The US and its allies have found it imperative to deploy more troops, pour in more money and put pressure on Pakistan to prevent the Taliban's cross-border raids. The fear is that Afghanistan could slide down the same path as Iraq, with the war on terror reaching a dead end.

The Afghan situation has worsened over the past two years for a number of reasons, but three of them are critical. The first is that the Government of President Hamid Karzai has not been able to build a unified ruling elite and a clean, efficient and effective system of governance. The elite has become increasingly divided and locked in serious infighting, with a focus on promoting individual rather than national interests, and personalising rather than institutionalising politics. The politics of ethnic entrepreneurship, bribery, nepotism, backstabbing and character assassination have become the order of the day.

The second is that the US and its allies failed from the beginning to grasp the complexities of Afghanistan as a country whose basic fabrics had been pulverised after more than two decades encompassing years of Soviet occupation, the Pakistan-backed rule of the medievalist Taliban, and domestic fragmentation and bloodshed. Acting against the advice of many specialists on Afghanistan, Washington moved to stabilise, rebuild and secure the country with as little military deployment and financial assistance as possible. This saw the initial deployment of only 10,000 American troops ? primarily to hunt Osama bin Laden and his operatives ? and a 5000-strong International Assistance Security Assistance Force, at first operating only in Kabul in support of the Karzai Government.

By 2004, the Bush Administration realised the need to increase the American force, which now numbers around 20,000, and the ISAF, which is now about 15,000 under NATO's command. It also supported the need for more reconstruction aid. However, its original decision left the field wide open for the Taliban and their al-Qaeda and Pakistani allies, as well as poppy growers, drug traffickers and local power holders (popularly known as warlords) to rebuild their positions rapidly.

In addition, hundreds of commercial contractors and non-government organisations, which found in Afghanistan new fertile soil for their operations, were soon co-opted into a culture of self-indulgence, enhancing rather diminishing Afghans' dependence on them. Furthermore, the US adventure into Iraq simply relegated Afghanistan into a secondary place on the list of strategic priorities.

The third is that Washington underestimated Pakistan's destructive role in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule, and turned a blind eye to Islamabad's potential for renewing its ambitions towards Afghanistan in the post-Taliban period. It adopted Islamabad as partner in the war on terror, built it up as a significant non-NATO ally, and remained satisfied that it would not misbehave any more. It embraced President Pervez Musharraf's military rule, and accepted at face value its declaration of non-interference in Afghanistan. In the process, it ignored the fact that Musharraf had personally defended the Taliban as a "security imperative" for Pakistan, and that he relied heavily on those Pakistani forces that were intimately linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Those forces were Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI), the main instrument of Musharraf's rule, and the radical Islamic political groups that now dominate the politics of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces on the border with Afghanistan. These forces have remained loyal to the Taliban as a militia, with an expectation that it could enable Pakistan to regain its past leverage in Afghanistan when one day foreign troops have left the country.

For all their commitments and declarations, the US and its allies have not made the efforts necessary to secure the long and treacherous Afghan-Pakistan border. They have failed to deploy sufficient forces, equipped with all the necessary advanced ground and air combat and surveillance means, along the border, and to prompt Pakistan to renegotiate the border with clear demarcation, an issue that has been a major point of dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan ever since the creation of the latter in 1947.

Unless substantial progress is made in these areas, no matter how much more military and non-military assistance the US and its allies pour into Afghanistan, the country remains at the risk of unravelling.
The US and its allies will do well by themselves and the Afghan people, if they now urgently focus on administrative reforms, reconstruction and border security.

Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University.

In addition, hundreds of commercial contractors and non-government organisations, which found in Afghanistan new fertile soil for their operations, were soon co-opted into a culture of self-indulgence, enhancing rather diminishing Afghans' dependence on them. Furthermore, the US adventure into Iraq simply relegated Afghanistan into a secondary place on the list of strategic priorities.

The third is that Washington underestimated Pakistan's destructive role in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule, and turned a blind eye to Islamabad's potential for renewing its ambitions towards Afghanistan in the post-Taliban period. It adopted Islamabad as partner in the war on terror, built it up as a significant non-NATO ally, and remained satisfied that it would not misbehave any more. It embraced President Pervez Musharraf's military rule, and accepted at face value its declaration of non-interference in Afghanistan. In the process, it ignored the fact that Musharraf had personally defended the Taliban as a "security imperative" for Pakistan, and that he relied heavily on those Pakistani forces that were intimately linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Those forces were Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI), the main instrument of Musharraf's rule, and the radical Islamic political groups that now dominate the politics of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces on the border with Afghanistan. These forces have remained loyal to the Taliban as a militia, with an expectation that it could enable Pakistan to regain its past leverage in Afghanistan when one day foreign troops have left the country.

For all their commitments and declarations, the US and its allies have not made the efforts necessary to secure the long and treacherous Afghan-Pakistan border. They have failed to deploy sufficient forces, equipped with all the necessary advanced ground and air combat and surveillance means, along the border, and to prompt Pakistan to renegotiate the border with clear demarcation, an issue that has been a major point of dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan ever since the creation of the latter in 1947.

Unless substantial progress is made in these areas, no matter how much more military and non-military assistance the US and its allies pour into Afghanistan, the country remains at the risk of unravelling.

The US and its allies will do well by themselves and the Afghan people, if they now urgently focus on administrative reforms, reconstruction and border security.

Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University.
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Iran pledes cooperation in education sector
KABUL, March 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government of Iran will continue its assistance and cooperation with Afghanistan in the education sector.

This was stated by Iran Minister for Education Sayed Mahmud Farshidi during a ceremony here on Thursday.

The Iranian minister signed an agreement regarding assistance in education sector with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

Addressing a joint news conference, Atmar said establishment of the first national teacher training centre, construction of a study centre for religious affairs, provision of education scholarships, construction of a vocational training centre, were part of today's agreement signed by the two sides.

In addition, Atmar said, Iran would send experts to train Afghan teachers. A number of Afghan teachers from religious seminaries and schoolteachers would also be sent to Iran to get training in relevant fields.

Appreciating the assistance offered by Iran, Atmar said: "The agreement signed today was very effective and was of unique importance in the education history of Afghanistan."

Speaking on the occasion, the Iranian minister said his country would provide books and other material for 100 libraries in Afghanistan.

Mustafa Basharat
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Shopkeeper beheaded in Khost
KHOST CITY, Mar 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Armed men, suspected to be the anti-government Taliban, kidnapped and beheaded a shopkeeper in Alisher district of the southeastern Khost province.

Wazir Badsha, a provincial police official, said the retailer was kidnapped by gunmen while on way to his house Wednesday evening. His headless body was found in the area this morning, said the officer.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the dastardly act.

Meanwhile, a police officer wounded when their patrol came under attack from Taliban fighters near Babrak police station last night.

The fighting lasted for one hour. Police said they arrested two of the attackers. Condition of the injured police officer is stated to be stable.
Abdul Majid Arif
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Germany seeks end to fundamentalism in tribal areas
ISLAMABAD, Mar 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): German ambassador to Pakistan Dr Gunter Mulack has said that his country will oppose the mining and fencing of the Pakistan - Afghanistan border.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday, the German envoy saidy they would oppose the Pakistani decision of mining the border. "We appreciate Pakistan's efforts to stop movement of smugglers and terrorists on Pak-Afghan border, but the fencing and mining will not solve the problem," said the ambassador.

For this purpose, he said, Pakistan should root out fundamentalism in its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Seminar on mining

Participants of a seminar held here on Thursday observed that mining of the Pakistan - Afghanistan border would endanger lives of civilians instead of proving helpful in stopping infiltration of terrorists.

The seminar, titled: "1997-2007: Ten years of Mine Ban Treaty, A success in progress", was organised by the Sustainable Peace and Development Institute (SDPI).

Addressing the gathering, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner Stuart Hughes said his country would suggest Pakistan alternatives to mining its border with Afghanistan.

"It (proposals) is going to be a mix of political and technical stuff. A combination of things so as to make the idea of landmines redundant," said the Canadian diplomat.

He said a Canadian inter-agency team in its recent visit to Pakistan had held meetings with the officials of relevant agencies, and visited Chaman border and refugee camps. It would send proposals in light of the region's specific requirements.

He said Canada never supported nuclear weapons and also considered anti-personnel mines as a global problem.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States Akram

Zaki termed anti-personnel mines as "indiscriminate killers" that did not discriminate between a combatant and a non-combatant, child or adult, in times of war or during peace, and after the wars are long over.
He opposed the decision by the Pakistani border of mining the undefined border on the ground that it would result in harm for civilians.
Pashtun Sahar
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