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November 1, 2007 

Taliban in retreat after Afghan offensive: Canada
By Finbarr O'Reilly November 1, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban rebels were retreating on Thursday after Afghan and Canadian troops halted their effort to take a district guarding the approaches to the main southern city of Kandahar, Canada's military said.

Insurgents have massed in unusually large numbers to attack three district centers in the west and south in the last week and a Taliban leader threatened to extend the offensive northward and maintain its intensity through the harsh Afghan winter.

Taliban fighters attacked the Arghandab district, only 12 km (8 miles) northwest of Kandahar, this week in what Canadian forces said was one of the most organized Taliban offensives they had seen and appeared to be a move towards the city.

But Afghan National Army (ANA) and mostly Canadian troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) struck back, killing at least 50 rebels, according to Afghan police, and battled another 200 to 250 rebel fighters.

"The ANA and the coalition forces are pushing back the insurgents," Major Eric Landry told reporters in Kandahar.

"The insurgents are actually fleeing the Arghandab district ... We know they are not being reinforced. They are retreating. They are heading north," he said.

Kandahar "is stable and is not under any threat at any moment," Landry said. Only one Afghan soldier had been killed in the operation.

The area, a lush strip of irrigated land along the banks of a river through the desert, was quiet overnight and there were only sporadic clashes on Thursday.

"They are trying to leave pockets of resistance, but they are being ineffective," Landry said.

Hundreds of villagers fled the fighting.

"We are certain the local population will come back to their homes in the next days," he said.

But as Afghan and ISAF troops also battled to regain another district centre, Gulistan in the western province of Farah, the Taliban overran the neighboring centre of Bakwa on Wednesday and more than 400 families fled.

"Bakwa district centre fell into the hands of the Taliban in an attack yesterday afternoon," said Maolavi Yahya, the district chief of neighboring Delaram.

"The Taliban wanted to keep Afghan and foreign troops busy (in Gulistan) as another group of Taliban tactically overran the district centre."

CHILDREN KILLED
"During the confrontation 14 Taliban insurgents and two Afghan police were killed and the Taliban set the district centre building on fire," said Yahya. More than 400 families have fled the fighting and have set up camp by a river, he said.

Prominent Taliban leader Mullah Mansour Dadullah vowed to keep up the fight and extend it north.

"Our operations are blazing across the southern provinces, and we shall reach the northern provinces in the same manner," he said in a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

The Taliban campaign of hit-and-run attacks, suicide and roadside bombs, and larger offensives where possible is aimed at convincing Afghans their government and the 50,000 foreign troops in the country cannot provide them with security.

As the fighting drags on, security analysts say, almost inevitable mistakes by the security forces will only help to drive a wedge between the government and the people.

Afghan forces backed by U.S.-led coalition troops killed two children as the soldiers battled with a militant holed up in a compound in the east of the country, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

Afghan security forces backed by a small team of coalition troops raided the compound in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province after intelligence that a militant was present.

"While resisting multiple requests to surrender, the militant barricaded himself in a room. Unbeknownst to Afghan forces, his family was barricaded in the room with him," the U.S. military said in a statement.

"The team began receiving small arms fire after they entered the compound and they returned fire," it said. "It wasn't until after the hostilities had stopped and the team had performed a search of the room that they found two children dead."

The militant was also killed and a woman and child wounded and treated at a coalition medical facility.

Afghan and Western officials accuse the Taliban of deliberately courting civilian casualties by fighting from homes and built-up areas in order to undermine support for the government and its foreign backers.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Sarifuddin Sharafiyar in Herat)
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Fifty Taliban killed in western Afghanistan: police
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan forces said Thursday they had killed 50 more Taliban militants in the heaviest fighting in a western province since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001.

An operation by local and NATO troops to retake a district in the increasingly troubled Farah province from the hardline rebels entered its third day, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Gul Sarjang said.

"The fighting is still ongoing in Gulistan district. We killed 20 more Taliban since yesterday," Sarjang said. "Five soldiers and seven police have also been killed so far."

On Wednesday Afghan police said up to 40 Taliban militants were killed and 20 wounded.

"There is fighting going on to retake the district, but I cannot confirm any casualties at this stage," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said Thursday.

The Taliban dispute the casualty figures and maintain they are in control of the district.

The Islamist insurgents also attacked another district of Farah on Wednesday night, sparking a six-hour fight with security forces, Sarjang said.

"Taliban attacked Bakwa district last night. Thirty Taliban were killed in six hours of fighting, two police were wounded," Sarjang said.

Azimi later said the fighting had ended but he could not confirm the toll.

The figures could not be independently confirmed and the interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Taliban militants have taken over several districts in Afghanistan for brief periods of time but have kept control of only one, Musa Qala district in southern Helmand province, which they captured almost a year ago.

Rebels attacked a police post in Helmand's Nadali district Thursday, killing five policemen and wounding two others, police said.

"Five police are martyred and three have been wounded in the Taliban attack," provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal told AFP.

Helmand, Afghanistan's biggest opium-growing region, borders Farah and hundreds of militants from the province have crossed over into Gulistan district during the current bout of fighting.

Separately police were carrying out follow-up operations in the southern district of Arghandab, close to the former Taliban base of Kandahar, where they said on Wednesday they had surrounded more than 200 militants and killed 50.

"Since yesterday there has not been any direct fighting in Arghandab district," provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.

"We are carrying out our clean-up operations. We have not faced any resistance so far."

Meanwhile US-led coalition forces killed three civilians, including two children and a 75-year-old man, in a raid on a house in the eastern province of Nangarhar, local police said.

The coalition confirmed that two children had died in the incident but said that the third person killed was a Taliban militant who barricaded himself in a room with his family.

"While resisting multiple requests to surrender, the militant barricaded himself in a room. Unbeknownst to Afghan forces his family was barricaded in the room with him," the coalition said.

Civilian casualties from the US-led coalition and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan have come under sharp criticism from Afghans.

Some 55,000 foreign troops are deployed in Afghanistan to fight a growing insurgency by the Taliban, whose hardline Islamist regime was ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
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Afghan Governor Says District Retaken From Taliban
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
November 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan and NATO-led troops have recaptured a district near Kandahar city recently seized by Taliban fighters, while another battle to retake a Taliban-controlled town area the Iran border entered its third day, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA) reported today.

Assadullah Khaled, the governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province, told RFA that Taliban fighters, who had overtaken Arghandab district earlier this week, have been driven out during three days of fighting with Afghan and NATO troops. Khaled said some 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the operation, which is now focused on tracking down more than 200 Taliban militants who fled the area.

RFA correspondent Javed Ahmad Wafa, who traveled with Khaled to Arghandab, the district's administrative center, and to two nearby villages, said that civilians who had fled the area earlier this week had begun to return home. Wafa added that there have been no reports of fighting in Arghandab since late on October 31.

In the western province of Farah, Afghan police said today that 50 Taliban militants had been killed during a battle close to the border with Iran.

Provincial police spokesman Mohammad Gul Sarjang said an operation by Afghan and NATO-led troops to retake Farah's western-most Ghulistan district is now in its third day. Up to 40 militants reportedly were killed earlier this week when some 300 Taliban fighters launched a coordinated attack on Ghulistan.

Meanwhile, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said today that U.S. and Afghan troops clashed with suspected militants overnight, sparking a gun battle that left three people dead, including two children.
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2 children die in US raid in Afghanistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by U.S. and Afghan troops sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children, and the military said Thursday it was investigating the deaths.

Civilian casualties have incited resentment and demonstrations against U.S. and NATO forces, though officials blame militants who use civilian homes as cover during clashes. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths.

The latest civilian casualties came as U.S. and Afghan troops raided a compound suspected of harboring militants belonging to a suicide bombing network. They were fired on as they approached late Wednesday in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said. A woman and another child were wounded, he said.

"It is regrettable that the civilian lives were put in danger by the militants and our sincere condolences goes to the families of the deceased and wounded," Belcher said, adding that the military had launched an investigation.

A policeman also was wounded during the raid, said Ghafoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. Three men at the house were detained by U.S. troops, Khan said.

Also Thursday, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others, said Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.

There were no reports of militant casualties, but authorities recovered one of the vehicles used in the attack and an assault rifle, Andiwal said.

In western Farah province, six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army soldiers were missing after clashes with Taliban militants Wednesday, said governor Muhaidin Baluch.

A large number of Taliban crossed into Farah from neighboring Helmand province and were still in control of Gulistan district, Baluch said.

Police have battled militants for three days in the area, and several guerrillas were killed, said Baryalai Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban militant movement from power in the country. More than 5,600 people have died this year due to insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

In Kandahar province, hundreds of Taliban militants fled from Arghandab district, 15 miles north of Kandahar city, following three days of fighting that left more than 50 militants dead and hundreds of people displaced, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.

On Wednesday, a provincial police chief said up to 250 militants were surrounded in the area. There was no sign of militants in the village streets Thursday.

Arghandab's villages were quiet as Khalid, accompanied by over 200 Afghan soldiers and Canadian soldiers, inspected houses and orchards vacated because of the fighting.

A Canadian officer said the insurgents failed in an attempt to seize control of a corridor leading to Kandahar, the biggest city of the south.

"The insurgents are actually fleeing the Arghandab district because the environment has become very unpermissive to them. And we also know they are not being reinforced," Maj. Eric Landry, chief of planning for the Canadian military in Afghanistan, told the Canadian Press news agency.

The Taliban had moved into Arghandab earlier this week after the recent death of tribal leader Mullah Naqib, who had kept Taliban fighters out of his region.

Tribal loyalties are an important weapon that the government and militants use in their fight. Securing the support of major tribes in the country's traditional south is a key strategy employed by both sides.

"There are no more Taliban, and the people now can come back to their homes and orchards and live a normal life," Khalid said.
____

Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Arghandab contributed to this report.
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Afghanistan: Civilians flee as NATO-Afghan forces fight insurgents in Kandahar
KABUL, 1 November 2007 (IRIN) - Civilians are fleeing two districts in the southern province of Kandahar as NATO and Afghan forces battle Taliban insurgents who have moved into the area, according to local residents and provincial officials.

"Hundreds of people have already swarmed into Kandahar city, leaving their homes and livelihoods in Arghandab and Shah Wali Kot districts," Najib Barithi, provincial head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), told IRIN from Kandahar city on 1 November 2007.

Many displaced families have sought temporary refuge with relatives while others have set up tents around Kandahar city, Barithi added.

Officials called an emergency meeting on 31 October to organise a humanitarian response after displaced families approached the ARCS office and other government bodies for assistance, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, chairman of the provincial council.

A rapid assessment will be conducted in the coming days to determine urgent needs and help aid organisations to respond, officials said.

Possible crisis

Tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) already live in several camps in Kandahar province. However, aid workers warn that a dramatic increase in the number of IDPs would escalate needs beyond the capacity of the province and contribute to a possible humanitarian crisis in Kandahar and surrounding areas.

Barithi said: "We only have limited resources in Kandahar province which are not sufficient to meet the increasing needs."

Saeed Aqa Saqib, the police chief in Kandahar, said ongoing military operations in Arghandab district would be completed shortly. "Within two to three days the operation will conclude and we will encourage people to return to their homes," he told IRIN.

Arghandab district, about 30km northwest of Kandahar city, is a lush agricultural area, with pomegranate trees a major income source. But Arghandab's farmers are worried because the conflict coincides with their annual harvest season and the fighting has damaged pomegranate plantations.

Rising death toll

Intensifying armed conflict in south, southeast and southwestern Afghanistan has not only adversely affected civilians but also complicated humanitarian access and response, according to the UN and international aid organisations.

At least 250 people - mainly Taliban insurgents but also Afghan government forces and civilians - have reportedly been killed in insurgency and counter-insurgency-related violence in different parts of the country in October alone.

According to a tally by Associated Press, more than 5,500 people have died this year in Afghanistan, where violence has risen 30 percent against 2006, the Secretary-General reported in September.

As a result, about 100,000 people have been displaced in several volatile provinces in Afghanistan, UN officials estimate.
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Afghan Taliban commander denies Iran links
Wed Oct 31, 7:52 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top Taliban military commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Mansour Dadullah, has denied any links between the Taliban and Iran, according to the transcript of a video interview posted online.

The video was distributed by Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, and contains 15 minutes of video with Mansour answering questions by an unknown interviewer, said the US-based SITE group which monitors extremist websites.

Asked about the relationship between the Taliban and other mujahedeen fighters, Mansour describes "reciprocity" with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Islamist resistance fighters in Iraq, saying "military strategies and methods are shared between the groups so as to hit the enemy with the strongest force."

However, asked about collaboration with Iran, as is often alleged by the United States, Mansour denies any ties.

"This is the claim of the Americans who are looking for something to take as a reason to defend their defeat in front of the world," he said according to the transcript released by SITE.

"They tried to find a way to prove that Iran helps the Taliban, and this is false propaganda. Neither Iran nor others help us, but we have help from Allah alone and we receive help directly from the Muslims in general."

US officials allege that Tehran is supporting the Taliban in their bloody rebellion against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and the 50,000 foreign soldiers backing him, most of whom are American.

Tehran denies the charge and many Afghan officials also say there is no proof Tehran is directly involved, with Washington irked by Karzai's insistence that Iran is a good neighbor.

The 928-kilometer (575-mile) border between Iran and Afghanistan is porous and difficult to patrol. It is relatively easy for traffickers moving through the semi-desert of plains and hills to avoid detection.

All kinds of items smuggled over the border have been seized, including arms and drugs -- especially opium, which is being produced at record levels in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: Taliban plans new assault in the north
Kabul, 1 Nov. (AKI) - A prominent Taliban leader has threatened to reignite the war in Afghanistan with a fresh offensive in the north of the country.

Mansour Dadullah, the brother of Mullah Dadullah who was killed in a NATO raid earlier this year, issued the warning in Pashtun and Arabic, in an audio message released on Islamic websites on the Internet.

In the message, Dadullah promised a new military offensive in the north of the country during the forthcoming winter.

"If Allah wants, we will continue to fight vigorously even during winter," Dadullah said. "Operations now taking place in the south of the country will extend to the north."

The Islamic military commander from the southern province of Helmand denied receiving any support from Iran and accused the US of spreading this information to discredit his movement.

"In reality, they are looking for excuses to justify their defeats," he said.

On Wednesday 50 Islamic militants were reportedly killed in clashes with NATO troops in southern Afghanistan while an official in Helmand said 30 militants had surrendered to authorities.

Dadullah and his brother were among five Taliban prisoners released by Kabul in exchange for the liberation of kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in May 2007. His brother was later killed.

The Taliban - drawn from the Pashtun majority - controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan until 2001 when it was ousted by the US-led coalition.

The country is still suffering from chronic conflict and a NATO force of around 30,000 troops is working with local leaders in a bid to enforce peace and stability.
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UN: Opium surge to hit Afghan neighbors
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 12:43 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A "tsunami" of opium will hit Afghanistan's neighbors if border security remains weak and officials fail to intercept the drug, whose profits fund terrorism, the U.N. anti-drug chief said Wednesday.

Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest poses a "major threat" to global public health and to the security of neighboring countries because more than 90 percent of the profits flow to international criminal gangs and terrorist networks, said Antonio Maria Costa, chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Since 2005, new heroin routes have emerged through Pakistan and Central Asia into China and India, he said.

"If border control is not improved, Afghanistan's neighbors will be hit by a tsunami of the most deadly drug," Costa said in a statement on the opening day of an international anti-drug meeting.

Afghanistan saw a record harvest of 9,000 tons of opium in 2007, the U.N. said, a 34 percent increase from 6,724 short tons in 2006. The export value of the country's opium is estimated at $4 billion, up 29 percent from 2006. The opium sales equal more than half of Afghanistan's legal gross domestic product.

Gen. Khodaidad, Afghanistan's acting counter-narcotics minister, who uses one name, told a group of counter-narcotics officials from Afghanistan's neighboring countries, the European Union, the United States and NATO, that the country can't solve its drug problem by itself.

"We all know that opium and heroin cause severe, severe problems, addictions, corruption, criminality, terrorism," Khodaidad said at the opening of the two-day meeting. "Afghanistan is not alone. Many countries in the region share this problem. If we are all part of the problem we are all part of the solution."

Jean-Luc Lemahieu, a UNODC official, said the international body is looking at regional border solutions for Afghanistan such as purchasing communications equipment that officials in neighboring countries could use to coordinate with each other on drug searches. UNODC is also exploring the possibility of joint operations by neighboring countries, he said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has said it will increase its role in the drug fight next year, stepping up interdictions of drug traffickers and raiding drug labs.

"We hope they have a far more outspoken role in the drug labs and in the trafficking," Lemahieu said. "If you see a big drug convoy, don't let it go."
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Japan halts Indian Ocean mission
By KOZO MIZOGUCHI Associated Press / November 1, 2007
TOKYO - Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan to return home Thursday after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.

The move is not expected to have a major impact on the U.S. operations, though American officials have urged Tokyo to maintain its commitment. Despite the setback, Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed to pass legislation that would let Japan to take on at least a more limited role in fighting terrorism in the region.

"In order to fulfill our responsibility for international efforts toward eradicating terrorism, we do need to continue our refueling mission," Fukuda said. "The government will do all it can to pass the special bill for the refueling mission so we can restart our mission as soon as possible."

Japan, America's top ally in Asia, has refueled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001, but opposition parties, bolstered by recent election wins, effectively scuttled the mission by raising concerns it was too broad and possibly violated the constitution.

Legislation had been passed repeatedly to renew the mission, but the latest extension expired Thursday amid a stalemate in parliament. Japan refueled its final ship on Monday.

The two ships in the mission — a destroyer and a refueler, with 340 troops aboard — were to begin heading for Japan later Thursday. They were expected to take about three weeks to return, navy spokesman Kozo Okuda said.

"We were able to complete this mission because of your pride and training," Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a message broadcast to the troops. "We all await your return."

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and envoys from coalition countries met with Japanese lawmakers on Wednesday and stressed the importance of Tokyo's refueling role. However, U.S. Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters earlier in the week that the halt would not have "any operational impact whatsoever."

During its six-year mission, Japan provided about 126 million gallons of fuel to coalition warships in the Indian Ocean, including those from the U.S., Britain and Pakistan, according to the Defense Ministry.

Still, analysts said the political disarray in Tokyo could have repercussions with the U.S. alliance. "I think ending the mission would give the impression to the U.S. that Japan is not fulfilling its responsibility," said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a political scientist at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.

The failure to extend the mission was seen as a major defeat for Fukuda, who is to visit the U.S. later this month. The prime minister took office just over a month ago after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, resigned.

In an effort to placate the opposition, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is proposing narrowing the mission to refueling ships engaged in anti-terror patrols in the Indian Ocean. Until now, the mission also supported U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. The new legislation would ban the refueling of ships involved in supporting troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

The LDP — which controls the more powerful lower chamber of Japan's parliament, or Diet — could muscle through approval of a more limited mission, allowing Japanese ships to eventually return. The opposition won control of the upper house in elections in August, and made blocking the Afghan mission a major campaign goal.

Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa and his Democratic Party of Japan oppose the mission because it does not have the specific mandate of the United Nations. Critics also say it violates the country's post-World War II, U.S.-drafted constitution, which forbids Japan from engaging in warfare overseas.
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U.S. urges Japan to continue to aid Afghan mission
Thu Nov 1, 12:05 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will press Japan to resume refueling missions supporting the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan after they were halted earlier on Thursday, the White House said.

"We would like for those refueling to continue and we'll be talking to the Japanese," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. "They have played a very important role in support of the troops that are there."

Japan's new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, was unable to reach agreement this week with the main Japanese opposition party to continue providing free fuel for U.S. and other ships that are patrolling the Indian Ocean.

The Pentagon has said the halt would not affect military operations in the combat zone.

Fukuda's government has pledged to try to get a new law passed so its navy could continue the refueling support, although it could take months to resume the program. Fukuda faces opposition in Parliament on the issue.

The White House said Bush had not spoken to Fukuda by telephone about the matter yet but that the prime minister would visit Washington during the week of November 12.

The fuel provided by Japan's supply mission accounted for about 19.6 percent of total fuel consumed by coalition vessels from December 2001 through February 2003, according to Pentagon data. Since then, it has accounted for about 7.3 percent of fuel consumed by coalition vessels.
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NATO praises Canada's Afghan role
November 01, 2007 - ALLAN WOODS TORONTO STAR
OTTAWA–Canada is making an "enormous contribution" to the NATO mission in Afghanistan but the military alliance needs more countries to offer relief and support within the next six months, NATO's deputy secretary general said.

Claudio Bisogniero said the coming months will be a critical test for the alliance as it prepares to meet in Bucharest next April. Canada, the U.S., Britain and top NATO officials are desperately trying to drum up more soldiers from member countries.

"In the run up to Bucharest we need to show a continued and strong political commitment to our Afghanistan mission," said the former Italian ambassador. "We must also underpin this commitment with sufficient troops and resources."

He was speaking at a conference yesterday of the Atlantic Treaty Association, a non-governmental organization closely allied with NATO.

The group is meeting this week to discuss the military and development work in Afghanistan, the political challenges that the country faces and the future of NATO.

Top of mind as the group convened in Ottawa was the future of Canada's participation in Afghanistan, a question has become more urgent as NATO struggles to find more troops to fight the Taliban.

Association president Robert Hunter, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Canada has "shouldered far more than its share of responsibility," a reference to the 71 soldiers killed since 2002.

"If we are going to ask Canada to continue to make sacrifices and the other countries to endure sacrifices, somebody has to convince the people and the parliaments of our individual countries that is in our deepest interests to do so," he said.
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Cohen: Afghanistan at the tipping point
By Roger Cohen Wednesday, October 31, 2007 International Herald Tribune, France
KABUL: Afghanistan is not Iraq. That's the good news. Decades of war are devastating, but they are not as crippling as decades of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian hell. The glint of initiative outweighs fear's residue in Afghan eyes. Therein lies hope.

Across this dirt-poor country - think sub-Saharan Africa - small signs of initiative and awakening abound: new carpet-weaving businesses, surging wheat production, just-opened schools, solar panels on mud-brick village homes. Annual growth of over 8 percent is significant.

Since the Taliban's fall in 2001, more than 4 million Afghan refugees have come home in one of the biggest post-1945 returns of people. About 38 percent of school students are girls, up from zero. Roads, clinics, mine-clearing and several million cellphones are changing Afghan lives.

Such transformation may seem a decent return on about $22 billion of American investment since 2002. A further $5.6 billion of U.S. taxpayers' money will likely be spent in 2008. The strategic aim is a stable Afghanistan no longer up for rent from one-eyed mullahs as terror's launch pad.

But if Afghanistan is not Iraq, it's not delivered from war either. Lebanon looks stable by comparison. Like Poland, Afghanistan has long suffered the fate of a weak state squeezed between powerful neighbors. Unlike Poland, it grows poppy and inhabits a region of explosive volatility.

That's the bad news.

I heard many assessments of how long Afghanistan will depend on Western military assistance, but Abdul Jabar Sabet, the attorney general, was bluntest: "The Afghan army will not be able to defend the country for 10 years, so the international force has to be here for at least a decade."

He's realistic. An intense U.S. effort is going into producing a credible 72,000-man Afghan army by 2009. The number may be met, but the force's ability to sustain itself, maneuver, and mount large operations will lag. Captain Sylvain Caron, a Canadian "mentoring" a nascent battalion, said "the cultural change will take 20 years."

The police are way behind the army. Police training has been a disaster. Low salaries, belatedly rising toward $100 a month, have made corruption endemic, particularly in narco-territory. The formation of a credible police force is at square one.

"We're looking at a long-term commitment," William Wood, the U.S. ambassador, told me. How long? "A number of years." How many? "It would just be dishonest to pretend to be able to give you a number." But, he added, "The role of the U.S. military will change."

Yes, it will recede, but slowly. The next U.S. president will face an enduring challenge in Afghanistan of immense proportions. He or she will need to level with the American people, in a way President George W. Bush never has, about the real burden of an attempt to build two countries from the ground up at once. That burden can no longer be borne by military families alone, however much Iraqi extrication is achieved.

For now, unlike in Iraq, the United States has real allies in Afghanistan. Peter Struck, the former German defense minister, said Germany "will also be defended in the Hindu Kush." But that European conviction is fraying as casualties rise. The Dutch seem set to reduce their contingent next year.

The next president will have to fight to maintain NATO solidarity. Huge problems loom. Among them are containing the rampant corruption of governors chosen by President Hamid Karzai; breaking the growing overlap between drug traffickers and a resurgent Taliban; better integrating the disparate and sometimes contradictory international efforts; and limiting the degree to which Pakistan and Iran meddle to ensure a weak Afghanistan.

"The insurgents go some places I cannot go," said General Dan McNeill, the NATO commander in Afghanistan. "The NATO mandate goes only so far as the borders." Wood told me the country "is facing an insurgency that is able to reconstitute itself outside the country." That's grave.

As these comments suggest, the Taliban remains a product of Pakistan, at least in part. U.S. efforts to get the needed cooperation from its ally have proved inadequate.

All these problems are exacerbated by the unpopularity of Bush's America. Of course Iran sees in Afghanistan another chance to hurt U.S. interests. But it's not alone. Russia likes that game these days, and China is not averse.

Within the alliance, the Iraq-tinged European view of the United States as belligerent, simplistic and insensitive to Islam does not help unity of purpose.

I can't see Bush righting these problems. But the cost of defeat is unacceptable. It would destroy NATO. It would further destabilize nuclear-armed Pakistan. It would propel the ideologues of jihadism to new power.

Not least, it would take those girls out of school. Kabul lessons, and not in kite-flying, are in order for all serious White House candidates.

Readers are invited to comment at my blog: www.iht.com/passages
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U.S. and Pakistan: A Frayed Alliance
As Military Efforts Falter, Trust Suffers
By Joby Warrick -  The Washington Post Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Five years ago, elite Pakistani troops stationed near the border with Afghanistan began receiving hundreds of pairs of U.S.-made night-vision goggles that would enable them to see and fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the dark. The sophisticated goggles, supplied by the Bush administration at a cost of up to $9,000 a pair, came with an implicit message: Step up the attacks.

But every three months, the troops had to turn in their goggles for two weeks to be inventoried, because the U.S. military wanted to make sure none were stolen or given away, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. Militants perceived a pattern and scurried into the open without fear during the two-week counts.

"They knew exactly when we didn't have the goggles, and they took full advantage," said a senior Pakistani government official who closely tracks military operations on the border.
The goggles are but a fragment of the huge military aid Washington sends to Pakistan, but the frustrations expressed by Pakistani officials are emblematic of a widening gulf between two military powers that express a common interest in defeating terrorism.

The Bush administration has provided nearly $11 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001, most of it in military hardware and cash support for the country's operating budget. But frustrations are rising among military officers on both sides because the aid has produced neither battlefield success nor great trust, said government officials and independent experts who study relations between the two countries.

U.S. officials say part of the problem is that the Pakistani government has lacked sufficient commitment to engage the enemy, a task that may be further undermined by the country's growing political instability as its leadership is challenged by an invigorated opposition.

U.S. equipment is not being used "in a sustained way," said Seth Jones, a Rand Corp. researcher who recently visited the region. "The army is not very effective, and there have been elements of the government that have worked with the Taliban in the tribal areas in the past," making them ambivalent about the current fight against those forces, he said.

Independent Western experts also wonder whether Pakistan is devoting too much of U.S. aid to large weapons systems, while shortchanging its own counterinsurgency forces; they say it also is not spending enough on social problems that might address the root causes of terrorism. Of $1.6 billion in U.S. aid dedicated to security assistance in Pakistan since 2002, for example, more than half went for purchases of major weapons systems sought by Pakistan's army, including F-16 fighters, according to U.S. officials.

The officials and experts also say U.S. aid has typically lacked sufficient oversight, or any means of measuring its effectiveness.

The aid spigot -- now pegged at more than $150 million a month -- has remained open even during periods when Pakistan's leadership ordered its counterterrorism forces confined to barracks under a cease-fire agreement with the insurgents, the officials note.

Pakistani officials, for their part, say that strict U.S. controls over equipment and a failure to provide other equipment, such as spare parts, have impeded their ability to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathizers. In addition to complaining about the goggles, they cite U.S.-made attack helicopters that are grounded for weeks because of parts shortages.

Pakistani officials acknowledge slow progress in driving terrorists out of the frontier provinces, but they chafe at suggestions that U.S. military aid is being squandered. Pakistan needs still more help, including persistent access to night-vision goggles, helicopters and other gear that is particularly useful in fighting an insurgency, said Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.

"Is our military effort going as well as we hoped? No. But is Iraq going as well as hoped?" Durrani asked. "We will fight terrorism because it is for our own good. But it is a very big job."

By most measures, the country's security problems are worsening. Hundreds of government troops have died in clashes with militants since August, including at least 17 killed last Thursday in an attack on an army convoy. A total of seven people died in a suicide bombing yesterday near the president's army residence. U.S. intelligence officials said two months ago that al-Qaeda has managed to build an operating base inside autonomous tribal areas ostensibly controlled by Pakistan.

"The billions of American taxpayer dollars to Pakistan since September 11 have clearly failed to prevent our number one enemy from setting up shop in that country," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of Bush administration policies in Pakistan. "It's hard to argue that this aid has been an overall success when that's the bottom-line result."

Advanced night-vision equipment of the type provided to Pakistan -- which amplifies tiny amounts of infrared light to spot people, equipment and other heat sources -- has been used by American GIs for more than a decade. But when President Pervez Musharraf's government requested them in 2002 and 2003 for use against insurgents fleeing across the border from Afghanistan, U.S. officials initially voiced serious reservations.

Eventually, after the accounting procedures were put in place, Washington provided more than 1,600 to Pakistani forces, according to figures compiled by Alan Kronstadt, a South Asia specialist with the Congressional Research Service. Pakistan was allowed to purchase about 300 from a U.S. contractor, and the rest -- about 1,300 pairs of goggles valued at $6.4 million -- were provided without charge by the Defense and State departments, Kronstadt said. A small number were also provided to Pakistan by U.S. intelligence agencies, said U.S. officials and independent experts.

The Pentagon's monitoring is conducted under a special program -- EUM, or Enhanced End-Use Monitoring -- that allows U.S. officials in Pakistan to check all the serial numbers every three months.
To Pakistani soldiers, giving up the goggles meant that, for up to eight weeks each year, they had to fight blind against an adversary who quickly caught on to the troops' vulnerability and exploited it, said two Pakistani government officials familiar with the issue. The policy was also considered insulting.

"It says, 'We don't trust you,' " said Durrani, the Pakistani ambassador. "We need more night-vision equipment, but every three months you withdraw what we have. This is what happens when bureaucrats dictate policy."

A Pentagon official acknowledged the complaints and said the department plans to conduct less-frequent checks. "We are working closely with Pakistani authorities to ensure a proper balance of security and accountability requirements with their operational needs," said Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman.

But U.S.-Pakistan frictions extend to other parts of the U.S. aid program. No other country receives more assistance from Washington for military training, and since 2001, Pakistan has received more than $6 billion from the Coalition Support Fund, government documents show. That's 10 times as much as Poland, the No. 2 recipient, according to Pentagon documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington nonprofit group. The fund reimburses U.S. allies for costs incurred in fighting global terrorism.

The aid has not bought much goodwill: A poll in August conducted for the Washington-based nonprofit group Terror Free Tomorrow found that 19 percent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States, down from 26 percent the previous year. Osama bin Laden had a far higher approval rating, at 46 percent, than either Musharraf (38 percent) or President Bush (9 percent).

Shuja Nawaz, a longtime Pakistani journalist in Washington who recently published a book on Pakistan's military, said the country's army leaders frequently complain about the type as well as amount of support they get from the United States.

"The United States asked Pakistan to move its troops into areas where they aren't supposed to be, and then it failed to provide them with what they need most: operational training and support for converting from conventional warfare to counterinsurgency," Nawaz said. "The United States was very efficient in giving out money quickly, but the concern is whether it was the right kind of help."

The large weapons systems Washington has funded have little relevance to terrorism and counterinsurgency, said Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official who is now a research fellow at Harvard University. "The money is mostly to make Musharraf happy and to engage the Pakistani army as an institution," he said. Meanwhile, civilian law enforcement agencies scramble for adequate training and weapons.

The U.S. government could do more to improve security by helping Pakistan address rampant poverty and shore up schools and health care -- attacking the root causes of militancy and terrorism, according to an August study of the U.S. aid program by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Less than a tenth of overall U.S. aid to Pakistan since 2001 has gone to support the country's economy and social infrastructure, including about $64 million for schools -- a sum smaller than the funding level for education in a typical small U.S. city, said the CSIS report, written by Craig Cohen and directed by Frederick Barton and Karin von Hippel.

"We just haven't put very much into securing hearts and minds," Barton said. "It is possible to generate goodwill. If the United States were the champion of teachers in Pakistan, we'd probably all be okay."
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Afghanistan: Photograph Exhibit Documents Afgahns Ability to Preserve in the Face of Adversity
11/01/07 Text by Gelya Leshchinskiy; Photos by David Trilling. EurasiaNet, NY
A photography exhibit by David Trilling, a EurasiaNet contributor, emphasizes the resiliency of the Afghan people, as their country struggles to overcome almost three decades of foreign occupation, civil strife and despotic rule.

The exhibit, titled Baharistan Journal: Images from Afghanistan 2003-2007, runs through November 5 at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. It shows how Afghans cope with adversity on a daily basis in Baharistan, a neighborhood in Kabul.

"Corruption and [a lack of security] are prevalent problems in Afghanistan that are definitely getting worse, but it does not prevent its people from being happy and genuinely hospitable," noted Trilling, commenting on his numerous visits to Afghanistan over the past four years.

Trilling’s images examine Afghanistan from a street-level perspective, capturing the essence of daily existence. Most of the photos depict simple moments, including soccer-playing, praying and shopping at the neighborhood market. One image encapsulates the public displays on Ashura, a Sh’ia holy day during which the devout remember the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammad.

"In terms of actually photographing individuals, I have always found Afghans some of the friendliest people in the world. They are curious when they see a foreigner with a camera, and almost always eager to be photographed," Trilling said.

Despite a rising sense of pessimism over flagging reconstruction efforts, many Afghans retain a remarkable sense of dignity, Trilling found. "The presidential elections in the fall of 2004 were an exciting time, but for many people they just legitimized a sitting government without bringing any massive, expected changes," he said. "I think for many Afghans, the international promises of the immediate post-Taliban period – when Afghans were expecting their country to be lifted up and rebuilt – have yielded great disappointments."

Polling data supports the impression that Afghans now hold a bleaker view of the future than they did four years ago. The San Francisco-based Asia Foundation released a survey October 23 in which 42 percent of the over 6,000 respondents said Afghanistan was moving in the right direction. That figure was down from 44 percent in 2006, and 64 percent in 2004. Conversely, 24 percent in the 2007 survey said the country is moving in the wrong direction, up from 21 percent last year and 11 percent in 2004. Security issues, namely terrorism and political violence, were cited by 46 percent of those polled as the biggest problem confronting Afghanistan today.

More than 5,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence so far in 2007. Despite the growing security concerns, almost half of Afghans believe their families are more prosperous today than they were under the Taliban regime, according to the Asia Foundation survey.

"While most recognize some improvements, they often complain about growing corruption and the deaths of Afghans at the hands of foreign troops," Trilling observed.
Editor’s Note: Geyla Leshchinskiy is an editorial associate at EurasiaNet. David Trilling is a photojournalist working in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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Portugal to slash troops in Afghanistan to just 15
November 01, 2007 10:03am NEWS.com.au, Australia
PORTUGAL will cut its military presence in Afghanistan by more than 90 percent from August 2008, Defense Minister Nuno Severiano Teixeria told parliament, according to Lusa news agency.

Portugal will reduce its contribution to NATO's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) from 162 soldiers to a single C-130 transport plane and 15 soldiers to train members of the Afghan army, the defence minister said during a parliamentary commission meeting.

Mr Teixeira later told journalists that "the principles of rotation and the needs" of NATO were behind the planned troop reduction.

"States which are engaged in the most difficult zones (of Afghanistan), such as Portugal, can make changes to troop numbers," he said.

Part of the Portuguese mission has been stationed in the south of the country, guarding Kandahar airport.
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Stitching an Afghan-American connection
How a gold brocade jacket employed a tailor in Herat and dazzled the mother of an American soldier.
By Teresa Méndez and Mark Sappenfield | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor
Alexandria, Va.; and Herat, Afghanistan - In the thick of a 12-day sewing flurry in a makeshift workshop in Herat, Amin Ullah could only imagine who might one day wear the clothes he was constructing.

He knew 100 pieces would travel back to Alexandria's Elegance Fashion Boutique. Its owner, Roya Hashimi, had returned to her family home in Afghanistan to commission the batch, a veritable trousseau. There were wedding dresses, sweeping formal skirts, gossamer tops, and satin sashes. Confections of whorled lace and tulle thick with beading.

What Mr. Ullah could not have known six months ago was that one of the jackets – in cream tulle with sheer sleeves and thick gold embroidery, almost a brocade, creeping up the high neck – would end up on Pat Meyer, a psychotherapist in Reston, Va.

The cloth has forged a sort of bond between the two. They have never met. But this jacket connects them, across continents and through a war.

For Ullah – not yet 20, but a tailor for nine years already – it is a link to the United States, to Ms. Hashimi's shop where he hopes one day to work. For Mrs. Meyer, the jacket, with seams sewn by Ullah, is a tie to her son – a US Army Airborne Ranger stationed in Afghanistan. She'll wear it to her daughter's wedding on Nov. 3 and, wrapped in its delicate fabric, be reminded of her youngest child, the son who cannot be there.

Then there is Hashimi, who returned to help her town and her people. "I was successful in Europe and America," she says, "and I wanted to give something back. I'm not rich, but I live well." Besides providing income for Ullah and more than a dozen others, she hoped the proceeds would let her build a school for 70 girls who were being taught in a clay barn partially destroyed under the Taliban.

Ullah's tiny shop – down a narrow alley where children dart among scooters and cycles in chattering flocks – is silent but for the low whir of a sewing machine. Ullah could be mistaken for a banker as much as a tailor. His gaze is sharp and attentive, his hair impeccably groomed. All he lacks is a pinstripe suit. Instead, he wears the loose-fitting tunic and pants of a traditional Afghan salwar kameez.

These are not good times for a tailor in Herat. Afghans used to come to tailors for every stitch of clothing. But these days, boys are wearing jeans sewn in factories and T-shirts imported from other countries – and Ullah often doesn't have enough money to pay the rent.

"If I have work, I can make $20 a day, but sometimes I make nothing," he says. It is why he hopes that Hashimi will return, along with the promise of a guaranteed $30 a day.

"This was the best money I have ever made in my life," he says. With the cash from two weeks' work, he gave his shop a fresh coat of paint, and he adds with an expectant smile: "She promised that if the business is successful I will come back [with her to the US] and work for her."

The Elegance Fashion Boutique is a splinter of a store – the front is just 6 feet wide – on King Street, a coveted stretch of brick-lined real estate in affluent Old Town Alexandria. With its cotton-candy-pink walls and rows of gowns, one customer called it Cinderella's workshop.

Hashimi came here via Hamburg, Germany, where, fleeing war, she moved from Herat with her parents when she was 16. In Hamburg she studied fashion and took to wedding dresses, a garment that leaves not even a millimeter of room for error. "I was the only girl with a lot of patience," she says. "Believe me, our work is not easy."

In 1997, Hashimi married an Afghan man whose family is in Virginia, where they settled. She searched for the right spot for a store. "Everywhere else in Virginia was so different," she says, "but Alexandria looked close to Europe to me."

Meyer first walked into the boutique with her daughter Jenny. They were there for a wedding dress. And sometime in the course of designing Jenny's custom gown, between the fittings and alterations, Meyer came across the jacket.

Jenny and her younger sister didn't love it at first, says Meyer. "But when we pulled it down and I put it on, they said, 'Wow, Mom. That's really beautiful.' "

Meyer knows the material, some of the finest Hashimi could find in Herat, came from Dubai. But Hashimi suspects it may have been made in Korea. Yet there was more to it than its beauty.

"We were also so moved by her story," says Meyer. "Here I see Roya trying to bring freedom and possibility to women in Afghanistan," she continues. "We are great patriots.... My son is over there fighting for their freedom, and ours."

The jacket is a way for Meyer to support Hashimi, to be a part of her story. But it provides something more literal as well, something tangible that she can run her fingers over, that makes her feel connected to her son.
When Hashimi returned to Herat in April, for the first time in 24 years, she set up a small factory in the back of the 70-year-old family home that her parents recently returned to. She hired 15 locals – including Ullah. But her timing was off. She missed the dress-buying peak for summer weddings. So far she has only sold 10 of the 100 pieces, priced between $350 and $1,300.

Hashimi says when she first presented her patterns to the workers in Herat, some were shocked by the strapless styles. But not Ullah. In a country famed for the burqa, that all-enveloping sack of pleated fabric, Ullah says that Hashimi's designs "are not very different from the designs we are making for women here."

It's not an aspersion on her designs, which he liked, but evidence that Afghan women – as much as their Western counterparts – want to look good. "Even in Afghanistan people have started wearing these sorts of things," he says with a mixture of pride and amazement. "When I go to a wedding party, I see women with bare shoulders."

(Yet if he were to take one of Hashimi's dresses to a local shop, he imagines he might get only $100 for it, which wouldn't even cover expenses. And even at that, $100 amounts to more than one-third of the average annual salary.)

In Hashimi's store, she and Meyer joke that it may be the American Meyer who is best suited to the dress of an observant Muslim.

"I'm freaking out about the see-through arms, as you know," she says, looking to Hashimi. "She would be a good Muslim wife," Hashimi says, smiling. "I would be," agrees Meyer. "I'm so modest."

The jacket closes in front with a hook and eye. It will be tied at the waist with a gold sash made of the same material as the dress Hashimi is sewing for Meyer to wear beneath.

Meyer's younger daughter is also engaged, and Hashimi will make her wedding dress, too. The hope is that Meyer's son will be home in time for that October wedding. And who knows? Ullah may even have a hand in stitching her gown.

Hashimi believes the Afghan-made dresses remaining in her boutique will sell with the next flux of wedding shoppers. She has plans to go back to Herat in March to commission another batch, and still hopes to build the school.

Until then, Ullah, whom Hashimi has kept in touch with by phone, has asked if it is time yet for him to claim his job in her workshop. Perhaps it's the yards of lace and tulle he was surrounded by, because when she explained the complications of bringing him here he offered another solution: "Then could you find me someone to marry?"

"No," she says she told him firmly, her long dark hair shaking as she laughs at the idea.
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Trouble on Kabul’s Doorstep
Wardak province, next door to the capital, is now a focus for Taleban activity as alienated civilians turn away from local government officials.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, By Wahidullah Amani in Wardak (ARR No. 271, 31-Oct-07)

The sound of bombers is no longer a rarity in Wardak, a province that begins just 40 kilometres southwest of the Afghan capital. For the past few weeks, the Afghan National Army, backed by NATO, has been fighting fiercely to free the area from an increasingly overt insurgent campaign.

But residents say the growing strength of the Taleban can be largely attributed to the behaviour of local officials whom they accuse of mistreating them and allowing crime to flourish.

A Taleban regional commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IWPR the movement now had over 1,000 fighters in Wardak.

“We are not afraid of anyone,” he said. “We can attack anywhere, in broad daylight. We hold meetings openly. We can send 200 or 300 of our people to the Kabul-Kandahar highway to attack American and other military forces. We only target vehicles carrying supplies to the Americans.”

Travellers who have recently passed through Wardak province told IWPR of intense fighting along the highway that leads from Kandahar in the south to Kabul. Construction of the road has been one of the chief successes of the post-Taleban reconstruction effort, transforming a journey that used to take days into a five-hour ride. But it has proved a mixed blessing, as the 550-kilometre highway has become a magnet for insurgent attacks.

The Taleban commander claimed that the insurgents had infiltrated the government and was received intelligence from officials.

“We have many people in the government who help us,” he said. “They inform us when a military convoy is moving from Kabul to Kandahar, so we can prepare for an attack.”

The Taleban also receive generous assistance from neighbouring countries, said the commander. “We are now stronger than the government in every respect,” he said. “We get money and ammunition from Pakistan, and now we have more modern weapons.”

A major source of Taleban strength, he claimed, was the corruption and crime rampant in the province, which he alleged are actively encouraged by elements within local government. He said Wardak residents often turn to the Taleban in hope of being protected against officials.

“The government sends officials and soldiers to the province who hail from the north and have a history of enmity with Wardak,” he said. “They do not behave properly, and the people hate them. That makes them support the Taleban.”

The commander’s assertions might seem like so much propaganda, but some local administrators and police accept that much of the blame for the rise of the Taleban lies with the authorities in Wardak.

“The reason for the present lack of security in Wardak is the corruption of security officials and other government figures,” said Dr Fazel Karim Muslim, the head of Chak district in the southwest of the province. “Officials were involved in theft and in abusing the local population. That’s why people headed for the mountains and began this fight.”

Muslim insists that Chak, at least, has been improving since his appointment one month ago.

“When I came to Chak district, I talked to people. They agreed unanimously to help me. Now security is improving, and the local population doesn’t let the insurgents commit bad acts.”

There have been more than enough “bad acts” to go around. In July, two German engineers were kidnapped in the Jaghatu district. One died in captivity, and the other was freed two months later after protracted negotiations that reportedly resulted in the release of five lower-level Taleban commanders.

In September, four aid workers from the Red Crescent were seized in Sayed Abad district, but were released one day later.

According to Muslim, the Taleban gained complete control of one district, Day Mirdad, and were planning to move south into Chak. But fierce resistance from the local population forced the insurgents to abort the campaign and withdraw from Day Mirdad.

Residents say that until the police and officials are reined in, the security problems will continue.

“Our district used to be very safe,” said Jamaludin, 42 a resident of Sayed Abad, south of Chak. “There were no Taleban or other insurgents. But people are fed up with the police and the ineffective government. The provincial security commander shouts at people and uses immoral language, instead of asking people for help.”

Residents turned against the Mohammad Awaz, the provincial police chief referred to by Jamaludin, after one incident when he made a lewd and incendiary remark in Sayed Abad about the wives of local men. In this mainly Pashtun, conservative and well-armed community, his behaviour led to violence. Several men began firing at the police chief, who was forced to flee. He was later dismissed from his post.
“People help the Taleban and other groups because of this kind of action,” said Jamaludin.

Sayed Abad district, which borders on Logar and Ghazni provinces to the south, is considered one of the most unstable in Wardak. The head of the district government, Enayatullah Sahibzada Mangal, told IWPR that the police themselves were the main source of the security problems here.

“We don’t have many Taleban in the district,” he said. “There are just a small number of thieves and other criminals who create problems with the help of the police. They have attacked Sayed Abad’s district headquarters and tried to kill me. Their main motivation is money.”

The Afghan National Army and National Police have launched a major clean-up of the district, he said, and things are improving. Some arrests have been made, and local policemen are being replaced.
“We are trying to work with tribal elders to help those who commit crimes to return to the right path,” he said.
 
Wardak’s new security head, Muzafarudin, hails from the province and is a prominent former mujahedin commander. He has promised to listen to people and resolve problems through discussion rather than military action.

The fighting continues, however. Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said the current operation in Wardak, which involves the army, national police and other security forces, as well as NATO troops of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, will not stop until the province is cleared of insurgents.

“We have been fighting in Wardak for two months now,” he said. “Our operations will continue until the enemy is destroyed. This operation has had many successes. We have killed or arrested many insurgents and captured many weapons.”

Such military operations involve air strikes, and with them comes the uncomfortable question of civilian casualties.

International forces in Afghanistan have come under heavy criticism for indiscriminate use of air power that has caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. The issue is clouded by the close ties between insurgents and local communities.

In Jalrez district, in the north of the province, a recent air strike killed more than 20 people. ISAF and the Afghan army insist that the dead were militants, but local residents say the victims included civilians.
“Our area was bombed, which left local people dead,” said Baryalai, 34, a resident of Jalrez. “Nine people were killed, including seven members of one family. The Taleban are operating openly, and the government cannot deal with them, so they bomb civilians.”

A NATO statement on October 28 said an ISAF investigation had concluded that the allegations of civilian casualties in the Jalrez operation were “completely without merit”. The air strikes were called in after ISAF troops identified a group of militants laying an ambush. Claims by a district official that 11 or more civilians had been killed were unsubstantiated, the statement said, adding that this was the second time such a claim had been made in Wardak in recent weeks.

Defence ministry spokesman Azimi also denied civilians were killed in the Jalrez incident. “We have no reports of civilian casualties,” he said. “The people who fight us turn into civilians once they are dead. Those who were killed had weapons. They were fighters.”

Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul.
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British Get Blamed for Helmand’s Security Problems
Allegations in an Afghan parliamentary report that British forces are actively promoting strife reflects lingering suspicions of a country many still see as a historical enemy.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting

By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul and Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 271, 30-Oct-07)
“The British do not want to bring security to Helmand,” said Hazrat Sebghatullah Mojadeddi, speaker of the Meshrano Jirga, parliament’s upper house. “They could wipe out the Taleban in a day if they wanted to. The Taleban are not as strong as they say.”

Mojadeddi’s words were salt in an already raw wound. The British have been bogged down in an increasingly bitter battle in the southern province of Helmand for more than a year, when they took over command from the United States-led Coalition.

The transition was not a smooth one. The British forces came in as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, with a different mission and rules of engagement from the Coalition. Whereas the latter was – and in other parts of the south still is - involved in an aggressive counter-terrorism campaign, the British were supposed to be bringing the security needed to allow reconstruction efforts to take place.

Over the past 18 months the insurgency in Helmand has boomed, reconstruction has stalled, and the local population has become more and more disaffected. The British have had to engage in operation after operation to clear the province of hostile elements, while the top NATO commander publicly admits that Afghan government forces are unable to hold the territory gained in such battles.

Now the British are being criticised by Afghanistan’s senate, in the wake of a report delivered by Helmand member of parliament Abdulwahid Karezwal. After a fact-finding trip to his home province, Karezwal told the Meshrano Jirga that British soldiers are involved in intrusive and offensive house searches, and that they bomb villages and kill civilians, including children.

“The real reason behind the insecurity in Helmand is the behaviour of the British soldiers,” he said. The senators reacted angrily to his report, demanding that the accusations be investigated and action taken.
The contents of the report and the Meshrano Jirga’s response to it highlight one of the major stumbling blocks in the British campaign to bring security and stability to Helmand - many local residents simply do not accept that the foreign troops are on their side.

“The British want to avenge their ancestors,” asserted Mohammad Hanif Hanifi, a senator from neighbouring Uruzgan province, expressing a commonly-held view.

The British have had a long and troubled history in Afghanistan, beginning with the Great Game of the 19th century, in which they tried several times to create an Afghan buffer state to safeguard their Indian empire from the expansionist Russians. The rebellious locals were not cooperative, and three unsuccessful wars ensued. The most disastrous military engagement came in 1880 at the Battle of Maiwand, on the Helmand river, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,900 British and Indian troops.

Nearly 130 years later, Helmand’s residents still remember the tales, and they are convinced that the British do, too. “Their predecessors were defeated in Helmand, and that is why they are creating insecurity in the province,” said Hanifi. “This is why they kill local people.”

Prior to the arrival of the British, security was much better, he insisted. “When the US forces were here, the province was safe, and people had a better relationship with the foreign forces.”

According to Hanifi, the Meshrano Jirga intends to send a copy of its report to President Hamed Karzai, with a request that strong action be taken. “Security cannot be restored in Helmand province until the British are removed and another country’s forces are deployed,” he said.

Hanifi’s opinions are widely echoed in Helmand. Locals are convinced that the rapid downhill spiral in security that occurred with the British arrival was no coincidence.

“If the British are here today, it is because they want to fight the Pashtuns,” said Sultan Mohammad, a resident of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. “The British have modern technology and weapons, but they are unable to defeat the Taleban. Why can’t they ensure security, with more than 7,000 troops present in the province? They cannot do any reconstruction; they cannot win the hearts and minds of people. In reality, they do not want security.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Eaton, ISAF spokesperson in Helmand, rejects any suggestion that the British troops aim to do anything other than provide security and stability.

“We are here at the request of the Afghan government, and by decision of the United Nations Security Council,” he said. “NATO forces launch joint operations with the national army and police. They do not conduct searches alone.”

The only reason the British were in Helmand was to create security, he insisted. “NATO and ISAF are here to prevent Taleban attacks on the Afghan government and on ISAF,” he said.

The head of Helmand’s provincial council, Mohammad Anwar, also rejects the senators’ accusations. “Many years have passed since the Afghans and British fought,” he said. “The British are here to help, not for revenge.”

Ghulam Sarwar Ghafari, a political expert from Helmand, condemned the parliament’s verbal assault on the British. “It is a very bad thing for parliament to accuse the British of not wanting security,” he said. “That is not parliament’s job.”

Ghafari was not quite ready to leap to the defence of the foreign troops, however. “The UN should establish a supervisory council and investigate the British actions,” he said. Public opinion tilts towards the parliamentarians’ view.

“The people of Helmand cannot tolerate searches of their homes by the British,” said Sardar Mohammad, a schoolteacher in Lashkar Gah. “For a foreigner to enter the house of a Pashtun without permission is a crime against humanity. The soldiers should be tried and punished. They kill or imprison innocent people, calling them al-Qaeda or Taleban.”

Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul. Aziz Ahmad Tassal is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.
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Ahady, WB official underline steps to check corruption
KABUL, Oct 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady and World Bank Afghanistan Country Director Alastair McKechnie Wednesday outlined the measures being taken to prevent corruption in the national budget.

Ahady and McKechnie, addressing a joint press conference here, advocated focusing on preventive measures to curb corruption. It was important to probe, arrest, prosecute and punish corrupt officials, especially in sending strong signals to discourage corrupt behaviour, argued the minister.

"However, in these cases half the battle is already lost, as the corruption has already occurred. Over the longer run, prevention as part of an effective overall anti-corruption strategy can help stop corruption from happening in the first place," he commented.

Ahady added an effective anti-corruption strategy also included awareness-raising and accountability to the public as well as law enforcement detection, investigation, judicial and administrative processes.

Prevention involved reducing the scope for corruption and the incentives for government officials to engage in corrupt behaviour by putting in place, implementing and monitoring sound systems and clear processes, with appropriate checks before, during and after transactions, he explained.

Computerisation of government financial processes had facilitated external reporting and independent review, the minister claimed, saying these are both elements of transparency - a powerful constraint on corrupt acts. The preventive measures were closely linked with accountability, which further discouraged corrupt behaviour, he maintained.

For his part, McKechnie stressed an effective budget process and sound public financial management were essential steps to minimise corruption associated with the national budget. Starting from a low base, he acknowledged, Afghanistan had made major progress over the past five to six years in strengthening public financial management.

"Afghanistan is inherently a high-risk environment for managing public finances given increasing insecurity, narcotics production and sleaze. Yet the improvements in the Ministry of Finance systems, processes and capacity are reducing the risk of misappropriation of funds and corruption in budgetary transactions," he pointed out.

Ahady and McKechnie noted public financial management systems and processes and the associated benefits pertained only to the public spending channelled through the national budget. But most of aid, not part of the national budget, is not protected by these systems or accountable through the budget process in Afghanistan.

In this regard, Ahady and McKechnie encouraged donors to channel more of their assistance through the national budget, based on continuing improvements in budgeting and public financial management. The minister thanked the donors who channelled most of their assistance through the budget.
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Japan pledges $2 million for welfare projects
KABUL, Oct 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Japan has pledged to provide two million US dollars for 20 welfare projects in this capital city and provinces.

The Japanese government also promised to provide two loaders to the Kabul municipality during a ceremony on Wednesday.

Mayor of Kabul city Rohullah Aman and Japan ambassador to Afghanistan Junichi Kosuge signed the agreement.

Speaking on the occasion, the Japanese ambassador said of the 20 projects, 13 would be implemented in Kabul.

The schemes included construction of a health clinic and two school buildings in Balkh, three school buildings in Nangarhar and one each in Laghman, Bamyan and Jawzjan provinces.

He said other projects included construction of bridges and clearance of 476 square metres area from mines in Kabul and Kunduz.

He said construction of schools would benefit over 6,000 students. More than 7,000 schools had no proper buildings in the country.

He informed around 400 school buildings were accomplished at the cost of 50 million US dollars, provided by the government of Japan.

Afghan official present on the occasion lauded the Japanese assistance and described it as an important step in the ongoing reconstruction process of the country.

Japan has provided around 1.5 million US dollars for reconstruction projects since the ouster of Taliban in late 2001.

Mustafa Basharat
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Foundation stone of five schools laid in Takhar
TALUQAN, Oct 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foundation stone of five middle schools for girls and boys was laid in the northern province of Takhar on Wednesday.

Two of the schools will be constructed in Taluqan, capital of Takhar, while one each will be built in the districts of Warsaj, Kalafgan and Baharak.

The schools will be constructed at the cost of 220,000 US dollars provided by the United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF). The construction work will be completed in six months.

Director of the education department Sibghatullah Shafiq told Pajhwok Afghan News more than 230,000 boys and girls had been enrolled at 300 schools in the province.

He added 20 schools for girls and boys had been constructed with assistance from UNICEF, PRT and the Ministry of Education in the province during the current year.
Abdul Matin Sarfaraz
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Many Pakistanis Oppose Military Operations Along Afghan Border
By Barry Newhouse 31 October 2007 Voice of America
An opinion survey in Pakistan indicates most people do not support military operations against Al Qaida and Taliban groups in the country's tribal areas. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad.

Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghan border are considered a critical base for al Qaida militants and Taliban forces fighting in Afghanistan. The remote region has significant autonomy, operating under a different legal and political system than the rest of Pakistan.

For the past several years, Pakistan has tried to contain the militants in the region. But a recent opinion poll of Pakistanis in urban areas shows only 44 percent support sending the military to the region to capture al Qaida fighters.

Thirty-six percent of the people surveyed opposed military intervention.

The response was similar when people were asked if the military should pursue Taliban fighters from Afghanistan.

Political analyst Hassan Askari is not surprised. He says that although the Pakistani government supports the U.S. war against terrorism, the public largely does not.

"That is the basic failure," he said. "The government has not been able to convince the people that the war on terrorism serves their interests."

The poll, by WorldPublicOpinion.Org in Washington, also shows that 80 percent of those surveyed strongly oppose allowing U.S. or other foreign troops into the tribal areas to pursue al Qaida fighters.

Pakistan is a leading ally in the U.S.-led effort to fight terrorism.

Pakistan has experienced a surge in suicide bombings this year with more than 100 attacks, spreading from tribal areas to the cities.

President Pervez Musharraf and other political leaders say that cracking down on militants in the tribal regions is necessary to stop the region's escalating violence.

But Islamic opposition parties argue that those crackdowns have angered many people and sparked retaliatory attacks. Askari says Islamic parties think that stopping the military operations will halt the suicide attacks.

"The Islamic parties are basically arguing that, it is in fact because the Pakistani government is pursuing an American agenda," he said. "If they stop pursuing the American agenda this problem would be solved."

The poll also reported widespread sympathy for some goals of the Islamic opposition parties. The results indicated some 60 percent of Pakistanis believe Sharia, or Islamic law, should play a larger role in Pakistan's legal system than it does now.
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Secret agencies behind rise of militant leaders: Bhutto
PESHAWAR, Oct 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Some Pakistani intelligence organisations are involved in projecting extremists as top political leaders and eliminating them once their objectives are served, a former prime minister has alleged.

Speaking to reporters at a hospital in the port city of Karachi on Tuesday, Benazir Bhutto called for an immediate end to the making and unmaking of leaders by secret agencies for the sake of political stability and elimination of extremism.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairperson cited the examples of Naik Muhammad and Abdul Rashid Ghazi - both killed after being used by the spy masters. What firebrand militant cleric Maulana Fazlullah was currently doing in the troubled Swat Valley was another case in point, she argued.

The PPP leader assailed the government and the Investigation Bureau (IB) - responsible for internal intelligence and maintaining security - for the deadly twin suicide bomb attacks on a huge rally that marked her homecoming rally on October 18.

Bhutto characterised the ongoing wave of terrorism as a legacy of former military dictator General Ziaul Haq, whose followers were still trying to stoke the fires of militancy. The remnants of the late dictator vehemently opposed her to return to power with a public mandate, she alleged.
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Afghan farmers receive certified seeds for first time
KABUL, Oct 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Farmers across Afghanistan are for the first time receiving certified seeds of international quality standards to sow their wheat crop this autumn season, a UN agency has said.

UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said around 8,000 metric tonnes of the new certified seeds of 22 improved wheat varieties for both irrigated and rain-fed conditions were being supplied by implementing partners - Seed Enterprises - of the FAO Variety and Seed Industry Development Project.

"The project is implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and supported by 10 million funding from the European Union for five years," FAO said in a statement.

Earlier in the month, a participatory workshop at the FAO Conference room in Kabul, where up to 60 seed producers from all over Afghanistan gathered to finalise production planning for the 2007/08 cropping season. Participants were drawn from private enterprises, NGOs as well as government stations involved in agricultural research and seed multiplication.

The workshop was organized by the Variety and Seed Industry Development Project, which is being implemented collaboratively by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture. Recent developments taking place in the Afghanistan seed sector are in accordance with the National Seeds Policy that was adopted in 2005.

The purpose of the workshop was to give producers an opportunity to freely select the type of crop varieties and corresponding amounts of foundation seed they desire, and the quantities of certified seeds they would like to produce and sell next year.

In order to help the producers in making informed decisions, FAO said, it provided real time market survey data and results on variety preference and seed demand at province and district levels nationwide to ensure that both supply and demand sides of seed production match as closely as possible in order to meet the actual needs of farmers.
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Foreign Fighters of Harsher Bent Bolster Taliban
By DAVID ROHDE, The New York Times Published: October 30, 2007
GARDEZ, Afghanistan — Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer.

When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives.

Afghan and American officials say the Siberian intended to be a suicide bomber, one of several hundred foreign militants who have gravitated to the region to fight alongside the Taliban this year, the largest influx since 2001.

The foreign fighters are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than even their locally bred allies, officials on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border warn.

They are also helping to change the face of the Taliban from a movement of hard-line Afghan religious students into a loose network that now includes a growing number of foreign militants as well as disgruntled Afghans and drug traffickers.

Foreign fighters are coming from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, various Arab countries and perhaps also Turkey and western China, Afghan and American officials say.

Their growing numbers point to the worsening problem of lawlessness in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which they use as a base to train alongside militants from Al Qaeda who have carried out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Europe, according to Western diplomats.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented level of reports of foreign-fighter involvement,” said Maj. Gen. Bernard S. Champoux, deputy commander for security of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. “They’ll threaten people if they don’t provide meals and support.”

In interviews in southern and eastern Afghanistan, local officials and village elders also reported having seen more foreigners fighting alongside the Taliban than in any year since the American-led invasion in 2001.

In Afghanistan, the foreigners serve as mid-level commanders, and train and finance local fighters, according to Western analysts. In Pakistan’s tribal areas, they train suicide bombers, create roadside-bomb factories and have vastly increased the number of high-quality Taliban fund-raising and recruiting videos posted online.

Gauging the exact number of Taliban and foreign fighters in Afghanistan is difficult, Western officials and analysts say. At any given time, the Taliban can field up to 10,000 fighters, they said, but only 2,000 to 3,000 are highly motivated, full-time insurgents.

The rest are part-time fighters, young Afghan men who have been alienated by government corruption, who are angry at civilian deaths caused by American bombing raids, or who are simply in search of cash, they said. Five to 10 percent of full-time insurgents — roughly 100 to 300 combatants — are believed to be foreigners.

Western diplomats say recent offers from the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to negotiate with the Taliban are an effort to split local Taliban moderates and Afghans who might be brought back into the fold from the foreign extremists.

But that effort may face an increasing challenge as foreigners replace dozens of midlevel and senior Taliban who, Western officials say, have been killed by NATO and American forces.

At the same time, Western officials said the reliance on foreigners showed that the Taliban are running out of midlevel Afghan commanders. “That’s a sure-fire sign of desperation,” General Champoux said.
Seth Jones, an analyst with the Rand Corporation, was less sanguine, however, calling the arrival of more foreigners a dangerous development. The tactics the foreigners have introduced, he said, are increasing Afghan and Western casualty rates.

“They play an incredibly important part in the insurgency,” Mr. Jones said. “They act as a force multiplier in improving their ability to kill Afghan and NATO forces.”

Western officials said the foreigners are also increasingly financing younger Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal areas who have closer ties to Al Qaeda, like Sirajuddin Haqqani and Anwar ul-Haq Mujahed. The influence of older, more traditional Taliban leaders based in Quetta, Pakistan, is diminishing.

“We see more and more resources going to their fellow travelers,” said Christopher Alexander, the deputy special representative for the United Nations in Afghanistan. “The new Taliban commanders are younger and younger.”

In the southern provinces of Oruzgan, Kandahar and Helmand, Afghan villagers recently described two distinct groups of Taliban fighters. They said “local Taliban” allowed some development projects. But “foreign Taliban” — usually from Pakistan — threatened to kill anyone who cooperated with the Afghan government or foreign aid groups.
 
Hanif Atmar, the Afghan education minister, said threats from foreign Taliban have closed 40 percent of the schools in southern Afghanistan. He said many local Taliban oppose the practice, but foreign Taliban use brutality and cash to their benefit.

“That makes our situation terribly complicated,” Mr. Atmar said. “Because they bring resources with them, their agenda takes precedence.”

Large groups of Pakistani militants operate in southern Afghanistan, according to Afghan officials. In the east, more Arab and Uzbek fighters are present.

Mr. Bataloff, the Russian arrested in a burqa, insists he is a religious student who traveled to Pakistan last year to learn more about his new faith. In an hourlong interview in an Afghan jail in Kabul, he said his interest in Islam blossomed three years ago when he was living in Siberia.

“First, I heard from TV, radio and newspapers about Islam,” he said in Russian. “I found Islam had a lot of good things, especially that Islam respects all prophets, including Jesus.”

But he declined to describe many details of his trip and grew angry when asked about his personal background. “Homicide and suicide is not allowed in any religion,” he said, when asked about the allegations against him. “Why are you asking me these questions?”

Mr. Bataloff said he grew up in Siberia, but would not identify his hometown or region. He said he could not remember the names of the Pakistanis he met or the two Afghan men who drove the pickup truck.
He said he decided to go to a predominantly Muslim country last fall to study Islam and learn about “the morals, the customs, the ethics and the literature.” He flew alone from Russia to Iran, he said, and met a Russian-speaking “guide” in the airport.

After spending 10 days in Iran, he crossed into Pakistan and traveled to North Waziristan, a remote tribal area that is a longtime Taliban and Qaeda stronghold. There, he spent a year living and studying in a small mosque in Mir Ali.

Pakistani security officials say the Islamic Jihad Union, a terrorist group led by militants from Uzbekistan, operates a training camp in Mir Ali.

[In mid-October, in some of the heaviest fighting in four years, the Pakistani military said 50 foreign fighters were among 200 militants reported killed in three days of clashes around Mir Ali. The dead foreigners were said to include mostly Uzbeks and Tajiks, as well as some Arabs, the army said.]

Some of the suspects arrested in a failed bombing plot in Germany in September received training in the tribal areas, according to German officials. Several men involved in the July 2005 London transit bombings and a failed August 2006 London airliner plot did as well.

Mr. Bataloff said he met no foreign militants in his 10 months in the tribal areas. But American military officials said he had told interrogators that he had attended a terrorist training camp in North Waziristan. He said local militants forced him to go to the camp and taught him how to fire an AK-47 assault rifle, the officials said.

“I didn’t have any specific teacher,” he said, when asked about Pakistanis he met there. “There were local people who knew the Koran.”

A second foreign prisoner produced by Afghan officials identified himself as Muhammad Kuzeubaev, a 23-year-old from Temirtau, Kazakhstan. Afghan officials said he was a bombmaker arrested in September in Badakhshan Province in northern Afghanistan.

In an interview, Mr. Kuzeubaev, who also spoke fluent Russian, said he was visiting Afghanistan as a tourist. “I was close to the border,” he said. “I thought I would go explore the country.”

In Badakhshan, he said, two Afghan men abducted him and demanded he join Al Qaeda. He agreed to do so fearing he would be killed, he said. That night, the men showed him parts of a suicide vest and promised to take him to Pakistan for training.

“They showed me the explosives, the vest and grenade,” said Mr. Kuzeubaev. “The next day, they brought some kind of weapons.”

Two days later, Afghan police officers surrounded the house and arrested him, he said. Afghan interrogators beat him, chained him to a wall and prevented him from sleeping for four days, he said.

“They are saying, ‘You are the man who was making the vests,’ ” said Mr. Kuzeubaev. “But the ammunition and other explosives were not mine.”
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