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May 27, 2007 

Taliban frees three Afghan hostages
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban militants have freed three Afghans abducted with two French colleagues nearly two months ago, their aid group and a spokesman for the extremist movement said Sunday.

Their ongoing detention even after the release of the French nationals had raised fears the Afghans would be executed like some previous hostages.

But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they were found "not guilty," and that there had been numerous demands for their release.

"Our court and leadership council decided to free them," he told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location, adding that they had been released Saturday.

The French aid organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children) and local police confirmed Sunday that the men were now free.

"Fifty-two days after their kidnapping, Rasul, Hashim and Azrat have today been freed," Antoine Vuillaume, the president of the organisation, told AFP.

"They arrived this morning in Zaranj where they have rejoined their families," referring to a town in Nimroz province, southwest  Afghanistan.

Nimroz police chief Mohammad Daud Askaryar said: "The families of the three abducted Afghans assured us that they have returned home safe and sound."

The French embassy in Kabul declined to comment.

The three Afghans and their two French colleagues, Eric Damfreville and Celine Cordelier, were kidnapped in southern Afghanistan on April 3.

The hardline Islamic militants first freed Cordelier on April 28 with a written message to the French government demanding it withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

Damfreville was freed two weeks later and handed over to the Red Cross, which then delivered him to French authorities at the airport in the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold.

The five aid workers were driving in Nimroz, where they were working on a children's project in Zaranj on the border with  Iran, when they were seized.

Days before, a five-person Afghan medical team was kidnapped in Kandahar province, and militants said they wanted certain Taliban prisoners freed in exchange for the five.

The Taliban has killed several of its Afghan hostages, including a driver and a reporter abducted early March with an Italian journalist who was freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, some of them high-profile militants.

Kabul has vowed there will be no more prisoner exchanges after the deal for the Italian journalist, which provoked angry accusations that the government cared more about the foreign hostage than the two Afghans who were killed.

The insurgents target Afghan and foreign forces, aid groups, the  United Nations and those who work for the Afghan government.
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French minister confirms three Afghan hostages freed
PARIS (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Sunday confirmed the release of three Afghan hostages who were abducted by the Taliban militia along with two French aid-workers.

"It is with great joy that I have learned of the freeing of the three Afghan hostages working for the aid organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children)," Kouchner said in a statement.

The three were kidnapped with Celine Cordelier and Eric Damfreville on Aporil 3. Cordelier was freed on April 28 and Damfreville on May 11.

Antoine Vuillaume, president of Terre d'Enfance, also confirmed the release of the three Afghans.

"Fifty-two days after their kidnapping, Rasul, Hashim and Azrat have today been freed. They arrived this morning in Zaranj (in Nimroz province, southwest Afghansitan) where they have rejoined their families," he said.

Earlier a spokesman for the Taliban said the three men were freed on Saturday.
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Taliban launches new Afghan operation
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban has launched a new operation targeting government and foreign forces in  Afghanistan, a spokesman said Sunday, as two policemen died in an ambush in the volatile south.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the group's leaders announced the beginning of operation "Kamin," or "Ambush."

"In this operation, we will target our enemies and use our tactics — suicide bombs, remote-controlled (roadside bombs) and ambushes — against occupying forces and the government," Ahmadi said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. "We start this operation today in all of Afghanistan."

After a winter lull in violence, militant attacks and military operations have surged.  NATO and the U.S.-led coalition stepped up operations in the early spring, hoping to pre-empt a spring offensive by militants that threatened the already-shaky grip of President Hamid Karzai's government.

In Kandahar, the Taliban ambushed a police convoy on Saturday, and the ensuing one-hour gun battle killed two policemen and wounded three others, said Shah Wali Kot district chief Obaidullah Khan. He said the Taliban also suffered casualties, but he had no details.

In neighboring Zabul province, a roadside bomb exploded Saturday as an Afghan army vehicle passed, wounding two soldiers, said Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi, the regional army corps commander.

Meanwhile, five children were killed in eastern Ghazni province Saturday when a bomb they were playing with exploded, said provincial police chief Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzia. He said they were 5 to 12 years old, and two other children were wounded.

The explosive was "planted by the enemy at the side of the road in Andar district," Ahmadzia said.

Afghan police and coalition forces, acting on a tip, raided a compound and detained a suspected Taliban cell leader Saturday night in Ghazni's Andar district, a coalition statement said. It said no shots were fired and no Afghan civilians were wounded.

The coalition said the suspect was responsible for planting roadside bombs and recruiting suicide bombers. He also was believed to be behind rocket attacks on the Sardeh Band Dam complex, the coalition statement said.
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Blast hits foreign forces in Afghanistan: witnesses
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded near a convoy of foreign troops in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province on Sunday and some soldiers were wounded, witnesses said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion in the Manogai district of Kunar and said three foreign soldiers died in the blast, a spokesman for the militants said.

Officials with NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the U.S.-led coalition battling the Taliban said they knew nothing about an attack in Kunar.  NATO and the U.S. coalition have nearly 50,000 troops in  Afghanistan.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent weeks following the traditional winter lull in fighting.

Ousted from government by U.S. forces in 2001, the Taliban says it has trained hundreds of suicide bombers to carry out attacks.

A British soldier was killed early on Saturday during a mission to clear a Taliban compound on the outskirts of Garmsir in Helmand province.

NATO said last week that 85 people, including 40 civilians, had been killed during the first 23 days of May by improvised explosive devices, a favorite tactic of the Taliban.
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Eighteen police killed this year in Afghan war on opium
Sun May 27, 4:00 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's efforts to stem opium production have left 18 police dead and another 33 wounded this year, most of them in clashes during poppy eradication, a deputy minister said.

The deputy interior minister, General Mohammad Daud Daud, also announced that more than 26,000 hectares (64,220 acres) of opium fields out of a targeted 30,000 hectares for the year had been eradicated, an improvement over 2006.

About 160,000 hectares was under poppy cultivation in 2006, a 59 percent increase from the previous year, according to the government and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The area was expected to have risen this year although exact figures were pending a new survey due to be released in July.

"One counternarcotics policeman and 17 national police helping poppy eradication have been martyred," Daud told reporters.

"Three counternarcotics police and 30 national police have been wounded so far this year," he said.

The eradication drive had been more successful this year than last "despite some armed resistances in some provinces," said Deputy Minister for Counternarcotics General Khodadad, who uses only one name.

In 2006 the eradication campaign destroyed more than 15,000 hectares of opium fields, a 330 percent increase compared with 2005, according to the survey.

Officials say funds from Afghanistan's opium trade, which makes up 90 percent of the world's supply of the drug, finance a Taliban insurgency that is fiercest in the south where most of the crop is grown.

"Drug traffickers, Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other enemy elements of  Afghanistan have joined hands against peace in our country," said Khodadad.

The Group of Eight nations expressed concern about the surge in opium poppy production in Afghanistan on Friday in a declaration adopted at the end of a two-day meeting in Munich.

"We remain fully committed to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the government in its efforts to bring about a sustainable reduction in the cultivation and trafficking of narcotics," they said.
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NDP leader wants new approach in Afghanistan following soldier's death
Sat May 26, 6:11 PM By Sean Patrick Sullivan
TORONTO (CP) - Following the death of yet another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, NDP Leader Jack Layton says he hopes Canadians will ask the government to take a different approach to combat in the war-torn country.

Cpl. Matthew McCully, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb on Friday in the Zhari district of Kandahar province.

In an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto, Layton said his heart goes out to the family and friends of the fallen soldier, but stressed the need for a continued debate about the mission in Afghanistan.

"Our soldiers will risk their lives, according to what we request them to do. We saw yesterday the profound reality of that commitment," he said.

Layton said his party is concerned about what he calls an "aggressive" counter-insurgency campaign being waged by Canadian forces.

McCully was participating in Operation Hoover, a major anti-Taliban offensive, alongside Afghan and Portugeuse troops when he stepped on an anti-tank mine that instantly killed him.

On Saturday, eight members of McCully's squadron carried his flag-drapped coffin into a Hercules aircraft that would take him home to Ontario.

It was the first Canadian death since mid-April, when eight soldiers were killed by a massive roadside bomb.

Layton said it is "distressing" that the prime minister has opened the door to a prolonged mission in Afghanistan, where 55 Canadian soldiers have been killed since 2002.

In a surprise visit to Afghanistan last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told troops it would be wrong to guarantee a pull-out date in advance.

"You know that your work is not complete," Harper told the assembled troops. "You know that we can't just put down our weapons and hope for peace."

The NDP has called for an immediate withdrawal, while the Liberals want Canada to pull its troops when the current mission expires in 2009.

Citing the rising costs - both human and financial - Layton said multibillion-dollar purchases of tanks and helicopters could have been avoided if the military was not engaged in a "search and destroy mission."

"I think many Canadians are asking themselves whether Mr. Harper hasn't lost track of the priorities of Canadians," said Layton.

Friends, family members, and fellow soldiers are remembering McCully as a good friend who was enthusiastic about his tour in Afghanistan.

McCully's sister, Shannon McGrady, said the 25-year-old was a role model who acted a father figure to his younger siblings while growing up in Orangeville, Ont. He was also a soldier who loved his job, she said.

"I thought he was crazy. He loved the army," McGrady said. "If he was asked to do this all over again, he wouldn't change it."
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U.S., Britain asked Japan to send GSDF chopper unit to Afghanistan
Sunday, May 27, 2007
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States and Britain called on Japan in February to send a military helicopter unit to Afghanistan to help the two countries maintain security there, Japanese and U.S. diplomatic sources said Friday.

The request is apparently for a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter unit centered on large CH-47 choppers. The aircraft would transport U.S. and British troops and provide supplies for them.

A senior Japanese Defense Ministry official replied that it is difficult to comply with the request, the sources said.

The request from the U.S. and Britain apparently signals a desire for Japan to increase its participation in their military operations in Afghanistan amid continued security concerns in the area.

It also means the prolonged U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq is becoming a serious burden on the U.S. military.

Even after the Defense Ministry official turned down the request, expectations remained high on the part of the United States for Japan to participate in the operation, prompting Tokyo to convey its reluctance to U.S. President George W. Bush via Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their summit last month, they said.

The planned reply was not conveyed because Bush did not broach the issue during their talks at Camp David outside Washington, the sources said.

It is legally possible to send a GSDF chopper unit under the special antiterrorism measures law that was drawn up for Japan's participation in the war, but the dispatch would force Tokyo to a make risky political bet, given the lingering security concerns in Afghanistan, one source said.

The U.S. is still hoping Japan will render assistance even now, the source said.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force has been providing free fuel and water to warships from the U.S. and other coalition forces in the Indian Ocean since December 2001 to support antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan under the special law.
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Afghan, Pakistan foreign ministers to meet in Germany for border security talks
2007-05-27
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministers are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Germany to discuss their lawless border region, where terrorists are believed to have taken shelter, officials said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, will attend the Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting
in Potsdam to talk about peace, stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan and the region, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Kabul.

Both have been «specially invited» to meet on the G8 sidelines to discuss how they can ease their differences, better control the border to stop militant movement and help in fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan, a senior Pakistan government official said.

The G8 countries are also expected to «show their concern» over the recent increase in the number of Western troops dying in attacks in Afghanistan, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make media comments.

Afghan officials say Pakistan harbors terrorists who live and train on Pakistani soil and then cross the border to wreak havoc in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies the allegation.

German Foreign Minister Frank Steinmeier invited Spanta to attend the meeting during his visit to Kabul last week.

The G8 members are United States, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada and Germany.
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Hunt for 'traitors' splits Taliban
The Observer 05/26/2007 By Jason Burke in Karachi 
Spy mania grips the Afghan rebels as top commanders fall victim to tip-offs by informers to coalition troops
Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hit by a wave of defections and betrayals that has resulted in a witch-hunt within the militant movement.

The news has boosted morale among commanders of the Nato operation in Afghanistan, which includes more than 6,000 British soldiers. The British contingent has struggled to contain the insurgency in the country's southern provinces over the past 18 months. Last week saw renewed violence with a series of suicide bombings.

However, two of the Taliban's most senior commanders have now been killed after being betrayed by close associates. Up to a dozen middle-ranking commanders have died in airstrikes or other operations by Afghan, Nato or Pakistani forces based on precise details of their movements received from informers. Few details have been publicly released, but senior military sources speak of 'major hits' that they wish they could talk about openly. The successes may be the result of the more sophisticated strategy now employed by coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, say observers.

'There have been desultory efforts over several years to penetrate the Taliban and to play off the various factions within the militancy and along the frontier against each other, but now that has become the keystone of the intelligence effort,' said one Pakistan-based source. 'That's paying off.'

Last week three Central Asian militants were killed in a Pakistani army operation against makeshift training camps and Nato airstrikes in western Afghanistan are thought to have wiped out a dozen mid-ranking Taliban members returning from a meeting.

'There is a feeling that there are spies everywhere,' said one tribal leader speaking by telephone from the violent and anarchic North Waziristan 'tribal agency' along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. 'People are very worried and no one is trusting anyone any more.'

One suspected spy in North Waziristan, Saidur Rehman, 50, was shot dead 10 days ago after being tortured. A note pinned to his body accused the victim of 'working for the Americans'.

Taliban sources have confirmed that two men had been arrested for betraying Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a brutal and powerful military commander who was killed earlier this month. 'We have captured the spy who helped US forces kill Mullah Dadullah, said Shahabuddin Atal, a Taliban spokesman speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Atal said Dadullah had stopped at the suspect's house in the Bahramcha district of Afghanistan's Helmand province when he came under attack from coalition forces. Those accused of spying are brutally executed. One suspected traitor accused of betraying senior commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani last December was decapitated with a knife by a 12-year-old boy before cameras. Such scenes revolted even some members of the Taliban as well as local tribesmen who try to navigate a careful path between the Pakistani army and government and local Afghan, Central Asian and Arab militants.

However, Hassan Abbas, a retired police chief on the Northwest Frontier and an expert on radical Islam, said that many were unjustly accused of spying. 'A lot of those killed are just local maliks [chiefs] who have had contact with the government,' he said. 'They are not spies.'

According to Taliban sources, Dadullah's body was recovered by his fighters after the airstrike, but further information passed to coalition forces by a spy allowed the corpse, later displayed to the media, to be retrieved. 'Each time there was a [coalition] strike the man would disappear and then reappear after the bombing was over,' Atal said. 'He has now confessed.'

The Afghan national intelligence department in Kabul said that Dadullah had been tracked 'with [the] most modern intelligence technology from the Pakistani border before being killed'.

Three Taliban prisoners, among five senior militant commanders controversially freed early this year in return for the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, died alongside Dadullah, Afghanistan security officials said.

The continual attrition of high-level commanders has hindered efforts by the Taliban to launch a major 'spring offensive'. However, it has successfully maintained a relatively high rate of suicide bombings and similar attacks and has maintained its hold over large portions of southern and southeastern Afghanistan.

According to Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban, 'suspicion is now falling even on trusted men and is creating tension in Taliban ranks'.

Dadullah Mansoor, brother and replacement of Mullah Dadullah, on Friday pledged to continue fighting the 'Western occupation' of Afghanistan.
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The plight of Afghan workers
The Montreal Gazette 05/26/2007 By Tom Blackwell 
Under threat of death from the Taliban, hundreds of defiant villagers work as interpreters for foreign military forces in order to feed their families
Every day, Saleh comes to this Canadian outpost to wash floors, empty garbage and do other odd jobs. Although his pay of $6 a day might seem meager, it is enough to sustain a family of 10.

Almost as regularly, the Taliban show up at night in his village, he says, leaving letters in the mosque that threaten to kill any local who continues to work for the Canadian soldiers. One of the half-dozen villagers on the base's payroll quit last week in terror.

"I am scared, and my friends as well," admits Saleh, a typically wizened-looking Afghan man who claims to be only 35. CanWest News Service decided to witRating 2 old his family name for his safety.

"When the Taliban catch me, they would just slit my throat. No talk, no investigation, just slit." Even so, he says he has no choice but to keep showing up for the menial work. His wage is more than twice what he would earn at his regular job as a teacher, and he has no land on which to grow grapes, poppies or other cash crops.

Saleh embodies the plight of many Afghans who have chosen to work directly for Canadian and other NATO forces, ignoring intimidation from insurgents who have a nasty habit of carrying through on their threats.
Just this week, for instance, suspected Taliban militants beheaded a man and dumped his body in Herat province, with a note warning that anyone working for foreign military forces would be killed.

The hundreds of interpreters attached to foreign troops may face the greatest risk, and several have already been killed in targeted attacks. They can also be caught up in assaults aimed generally at the NATO soldiers. Last week, a rocket fired randomly into the Canadian-held Ma' Sum Ghar forward operating base killed one translator and seriously injured another.

The interpreters, or "terps" as the soldiers call them, often go out on missions with their faces covered by balaclava masks or scarves.

Many of the local employees, however, seem sanguine about the perils of their work. Although frightened, they say they are grateful to take home what, by Afghan standards, are handsome salaries, and proud to stand up to the insurgents.

The U.S.-owned company that supplies most of the interpreters to coalition forces says there is not nearly enough work for all those who apply.

"We don't have anything to do besides this job," says Taz, an interpreter working for Charlie company at Sperwan Ghar operating base. "Afghanistan doesn't have factories, it doesn't have any jobs, so we have to do this. ... We should serve our country. Who else is going to do it?" For the custodial work at Sperwan Ghar, the Canadians employ an equal number of men from each of the two tribes in the immediate area, in part just to create local employment, said base commander Capt. Andrew Vivian. As for the interpreters, he said he has nothing but respect for them and their indispensable role as a bridge to the Afghan people.

"It's not an easy job," he said. "We've gone to places before and some of them have been heckled by the locals. Some people aren't nice to them. They call them names because they are supporting us." Such abuse, however, is only the beginning. In the span of a few weeks last summer, 10 interpreters were slain at the hands of the Taliban: three in a gunfight after being stopped at a Taliban checkpoint near Kandahar, five when a van exploded next to them as they walked to work at a coalition base, one while on a family outing, and another while on patrol with NATO forces.

International Management Services Inc., the region's main source of English translators, cautions its employees to keep quiet about where they are working. Moles are everywhere, says Ash, an Egyptian-American who helps manage the firm's operation at Kandahar Airfield.

"Sometimes they don't (even) tell their families," says Ash, who wanted his surname witRating 2 eld for safety reasons. "They tell them that they're working overseas or abroad. It's a dangerous job." Max, another interpreter for the Canadians at Sperwan Ghar, said the $600 he earns every month enables him to support his family, although they dislike his line of work. He muses it would be preferable to be shot by the Taliban if captured, rather than having body parts sliced off, as he heard happened to one unfortunate translator.

"I am not scared of them," says the slightly built 20-year-old. "They are enemies of Afghanistan." Like the others, Taz, not his real name, says he believes in the international forces' work in Afghanistan, and his own contribution to the effort.

"More than 20 times, my father, my parents told me not to do this job," he said, "but I tell them, 'Who's going to do it?' This is my job."
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Additional funds for Afghanistan to fight drugs
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US' House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved additional funding for development, economic and security assistance programmes in Afghanistan for the next three years.

The committee passed the Afghanistan Freedom and Security Support Act, providing additional support for programmes, like assistance to women and girls, energy development and counter-narcotics.

It authorises $6.43 billion for fiscal years 2008 through 2010, of which $2.14 billion is authorised to be spent in fiscal year 2008.

The bill requires the president to set out an enhanced strategy with specific and measurable reconstruction, counter-narcotics and security goals for Afghanistan.

It also requires the administration to submit a report to Congress describing a large range of political, economic, development, security and counter-narcotics performance goals and progress.

The bill also mandates a cut-off of US assistance to local or provincial governments where there is credible evidence that officials have links to terrorist activities or the drug trade.

The legislation requires the appointment of a US coordinator with authority to work across all US government departments and agencies to implement a counter-narcotics strategy.

The legislation paves the way for Pentagon assistance to counter-narcotics programmes in Afghanistan operated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The legislation also emphasises the importance of targeting "sensitive sites" which harbour major drug kingpins and narcotics processing labs.
PAN Monitor
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Earthquake hazards assessment to be unveiled on 30th
Pajhwok Report
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government, in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) will unveil an earthquake hazards assessment of Afghanistan on May 30.

The Embassy of Afghanistan will host officials of the USGS to unveil report, said a statement released from the Afghan embassy in Washington.

The USGS was commissioned by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the government of Afghanistan to develop a preliminary Seismic-Hazard Map of the country, the statement said.

The aim of the project was to assist this landlocked country in the reconstruction efforts, it added. 

According to the statement, the report incorporates data from thousands of historical earthquakes, information about active faults and models of how earthquake energy travels through the earth's crust to define expected levels of ground shaking throughout the country.

The newly released seismic-hazard map of Afghanistan provides government officials, engineers and private companies, who are interested in participating in Afghanistan's economic growth, with crucial information about the location and nature of seismic hazards. 

This new information will enable officials to make informed decisions about the designs and locations of critical structures such as power plants, dams, pipelines and  hospitals, and will facilitate growth and development throughout Afghanistan by designing facilities that can better withstand strong earthquakes.
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Headless body of young man found in Ghazni
GHAZNI CITY, May 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Headless body of a young man was found on the outskirts of this provincial capital Friday morning.

Resident of Mangor village, requesting anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News the body was dumped in an open area outside the village.

Without revealing name of the dead, the source said he was resident of the same village. His head was separated from his body and placed on the chest, said the unnamed resident.

Muhammad Anas Sharif, the self-proclaimed Taliban commander in Ghazni, told Pajhwok they were responsible for killing the young man. The purported commander said the slain was serving with police in the western province of Herat.

However, provincial officials said the he was a common citizen. Security chief Colonel Muhammad Zaman said the slain was neither a government employee, nor working with any NGO.

He said investigations were underway to arrest the culprits. A day earlier, armed men killed a man named Ghulam Muhammad in Bata village of Andar district of the same province.
Sher Ahmad Haidar
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ARCS team reaches Samkani to retrieve bodies
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, May 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) have sent a team into the Samkani district of Paktia to identify and retrieve bodies of 'dozens of militants' killed in recent fighting.

A statement issued here said all the parties to the conflict had been informed about their operation in Samkani district.

"Our purpose is to collect, and if possible, to identify the bodies so that we can return them to the families, or failing that, ensure that suitable arrangements are made for their dignified burial," said the statement.

The international law specified that families had a right to know the fate of their relative, said ICRC's head of the delegation in Kabul Reto Stocker.

"With the help of the tribal elders, we will do our utmost for the families," said the official.

Meanwhile, Netherlands will provide humanitarian assistance for people of Deh Rawod district, Uruzgan province, who were affected by recent floods.

The agreement was signed between Dutch ambassador to Kabul Hans Blankenberg and secretary general of the Afghan Red Crescent Society Abdul Ghani Kazimi here on Thursday.
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