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November 5, 2007 

Taliban briefly capture western Afghan district
Mon Nov 5, 5:19 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban extremists briefly captured a third district in western Afghanistan early Monday but were driven out by Afghan forces and their international allies, officials said.

Taliban fighters in about 40 vehicles stormed into Khaki Safed district in the province of Farah around 1:30 am and took the administration headquarters, police and government officials said.

"Government authorities, police and the governor made a tactical withdrawal of the district administration centre," said General Ekramuddin Yawar, police commander for western Afghanistan.

"Later Afghan police, army and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) went back to the district and retook control at 3:30 am," he told AFP.

Farah province, which borders Iran, had its Gulistan and Bakwa districts seized by Taliban rebels last week after intense fighting.

Yawar said the rebels had fired some rockets at the district administration building, which was slightly damaged, but there were no casualties to the government forces.

The Farah government spokesman, Mamnoon Rashidi, said it took 90 minutes for troops to take back Khaki Safed.

"Bakwa and Gulistan are in Taliban hands now. The forces are getting ready to retake control of those districts as well," he said.

The Taliban, in government between 1996 and 2001, have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan but have been easily ejected with the help of the international forces on which the country relies.

They have, however, held the district of Musa Qala, close to Gulistan, since February and the area is considered a Taliban base.

President Hamid Karzai said at the weekend that the capture of remote districts was a result of the weaknesses of his own security forces.

The head of the Farah provincial council, Abdul Kader Daqiq, said his province had warned Kabul that the security forces were not capable of withstanding the Taliban.

"There are not enough police in these places and the army is not doing anything," he said. "There is an emergency situation in Farah and the government should be careful."

Farah is a strategic province in Afghanistan because of its border with Iran, across which opium and weapons are smuggled. A key road linking southern and western Afghanistan also runs through the province.
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Pakistan unrest could help Taliban: MacKay
BILL GRAVELAND Canadian Press November 5, 2007 via Globe and Mail (Canada)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Continuing political uncertainty in Pakistan could cause refugees to flood into Afghanistan and put Canadian soldiers battling the Taliban at increased risk, Defence Minister Peter MacKay warned Monday.

Mr. MacKay, making his first visit to Afghanistan since taking over as defence minister in mid-August, had hoped to focus on Canadian successes so far in the war in Afghanistan.

But since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule in neighbouring Pakistan on the weekend, he now has other things to worry about.

With between two and four million Afghan refugees living in camps just inside the Pakistan border, MacKay said there could be a flood of unemployed and angry people returning to their homeland, making them prime recruiting material for Taliban insurgents.

“If there was to be significant turmoil within the country (because of Gen. Musharraf's crackdown), there may be an incentive for a large wave of refugees to return to Afghanistan,” he said.

“This is something both countries have been trying to manage for some time,” explained Mr. MacKay, shortly after addressing Canadian troops at Kandahar Air Field.

“Specifically the concerns are around the number of recruits that the Taliban are able to draw out of some of these refugees camps so this could lead potentially to more insurgents. That would be the concern.”
Mr. MacKay said it's estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 people cross the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan daily during normal times. With constant battles with the Taliban in Kandahar province and along the border continuing, he is worried.

“The issue is still around the flow of refugees, predominantly Pashtun, who are tribal and nomadic by nature,” Mr. MacKay said. “This is an area that is very close to Kandahar province so it directly effects, and in some instances, may directly imperil Canadian soldiers.”

Security and surveillance along the border has been stepped up and Mr. MacKay said Ottawa is continuing to monitor the situation in Pakistan, where Gen. Musharraf suspended the constitution Saturday ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could have nullified his re-election as president.

He has also ousted independent-minded judges and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent. More than 1,500 arrests have been reported.

Mr. MacKay, who intends to stay in the war-torn Afghanistan for a few days, encouraged troops at the Canadian compound to continue their work.

Since Canada joined the mission five years ago the economy had tripled in size, 80 per cent of Afghans now have access to health care and more than six million children are now enrolled in school, a third of them girls, he said.

“And more importantly, Afghans themselves are taking more responsibility every day for their own security,” Mr. MacKay said in a 20 minute speech.

“Your day-to-day actions are fundamental to making these impressive accomplishments a reality and you see the tangible evidence to the progress every day.”

Mr. MacKay later told reporters he was impressed at the success of a recent military operation against the Taliban north of Kandahar city.

It involved Canadian, American and Afghan troops and prevented the Taliban from gaining control of the region, seen as a corridor leading directly into Kandahar. Fifty Taliban were reported killed in the fighting and an equal number wounded.

“This, quite frankly, is the exit strategy. This is the ticket home,” said an optimistic Mr. MacKay.

“When we have the Afghan and national security forces capable of providing their own security, stabilizing their own borders, getting on with the police and national army training, this is very much in line with the overall strategy of this mission.”
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South Korean troops leaving Afghanistan
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- South Korea's Defense Ministry on Monday announced its 210 soldiers serving in Afghanistan would be recalled before presidential elections next month.

While Washington had asked Seoul to extend the tour, which was scheduled to expire at the end of the year, the government had promised Taliban insurgents in July it would end its military role in the country in exchange for the release of 21 South Korean aid workers kidnapped by the group, the Yonhap news agency reported.

However, the government isn't abandoning Afghanistan altogether, as there are plans to send about 20 civilian specialists to help in regional reconstruction, the report said.

Defense sources told Yonhap the 150 engineers and 60 medics will leave Afghanistan on Dec. 14, five days before South Korea's national election.

With regard to Iraq, the ministry also proposed to parliament withdrawing 600 troops by next month, leaving 650 South Korean soldiers in place, the report said.
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Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south
By Jon Boone The Christian Science Monitor November 5, 2007
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghans affected by an outbreak of Taliban fighting in a strategic district bordering the southern city of Kandahar have returned to their villages after a week of crisis sparked by the death of a tribal strongman.

Local authorities said Sunday that life was returning to normal following successful operations by Afghan security forces and Canadian troops to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lush agricultural lands of Afghandab district.

The insurgents were apparently intent on capitalizing on the death of Mullah Naqib, the former mujahideen warrior who led the Alokozai tribe of the district, north of Kandahar city.

For years, Mullah Naqib had kept the Taliban out of a district that offers a perfect route for attacking Kandahar city, the spiritual home of the hardline Sunni movement from its emergence in 1996 through its removal from power by US-led forces in 2001.

But up to 300 Taliban fighters entered the district last week, less than three weeks after Mullah Naqib's death created a political vacuum in one of southern Afghanistan's most important tribes.

The fighters, who local sources say were all in their mid-20s, remained for two days and came within 15 miles of the provincial capital. They occupied and trashed Naqib's ancestral home before being expelled by more than 600 Afghan and international forces.

The swift collapse of political authority in the province highlights the reliance of overstretched international forces on friendly power brokers remaining loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Rising insecurity, official corruption, and the widespread belief that the government has failed to deliver basic public services have all undermined popular support, according to a European diplomat who spoke anonymously.

"It is very worrying that an area that had previously been secure should become vulnerable to the Taliban," he says. "But the big problem is, who is sitting on the fence? Are they going to remain against the insurgents or join them?"

In the case of Arghandab, the local tribe remained loyal. Lt. Commander Pierre Babinsky, spokesman for international troops in Kandahar Province, says the Afghan Army and police force had played a vital role in expelling the Taliban.

"This was one of the first truly joint operations between Canadian and Afghan forces operating together as equal partners," he says.

The police and Army have been the focus of intense training efforts to leave them capable of operating without direct foreign support and holding Taliban-free territory.

Much of the local police success against the Taliban fighters appeared to be because it is not yet a fully reconstituted force purged of tribal identity. With most of the fighters drawn from the Alokozai, analysts said, they were fighting out of tribal loyalty rather than as professional police officers.

Last week's political and military drama may have demonstrated the Taliban's weakness as a conventional military force. According to Haji Padshah, a tribal elder, "The Taliban are so weak that even our women could have beaten them."

The NATO-led forces refused to give estimates of Taliban deaths, but Sayed Agha Saqib, the regional police chief, says 50 were killed, 40 injured, and eight captured.

The apparent attempt to seize Afghandab also represented a surprising tactical step backward for the Taliban, which has been forced to abandon conventional military tactics in favor of kidnappings and suicide bombs.

Rates of insurgent attacks and terrorist violence are at least 20 percent higher this year, with an average of 548 incidents per month compared with 425 in 2006, according to a UN report published in September, with most of the victims being ordinary Afghans.

Adoption of these so-called "asymmetric" tactics have caused acute concern because they are much harder to prevent and have proved effective in undermining public confidence.

A Kabul-based Western analyst said that the Taliban were prone to forgetting their limitations as a military force. But according to Sarah Chayes, a former journalist who has lived for years in Kandahar city, the Taliban never had any ambition to seize control of Afghandab. "Far from being annihilated by the security forces, they actually executed a fighting retreat," she says. "It's clear that they wanted to send a very strong message ... saying that 'our advance is inevitable and we can dance on the roof of Mullah Naqib's house within three weeks of his death.' In Kandahar, it just knocked people sideways."

Protecting the exposed flanks of the city will be tough for overstretched Canadian forces. The Taliban's assault forced commanders to move men and equipment out of the other districts that border the northern edge.

"We would like to have more resources," Commander Babinsky says, "but the work we have done training the Afghan Army units mean we did not have to leave any districts unsecured."
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Afghan 'soft target' getting tougher
Matthew Fisher, National Post (Canada) Monday, November 05, 2007
The predominately Push-toon province of Maidan-Wardak, which guards the southern approaches to Kabul, has a warrior tradition going back centuries. But it has been an oasis of calm the past few years, as the Taliban have been off fighting Afghan government forces and their American, Canadian, British and Dutch allies in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan.

All that suddenly changed at the beginning of the long, blazing Afghan summer. Decimated by heavy battlefield losses elsewhere, the Taliban arrived in Maidan-Wardak, which had no Afghan army or NATO military presence to speak of, and began blowing things up. As the province is only 35 kilometres from the capital, the Taliban instantly succeeded in shaking confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government.

"We have problems with roadside IEDs. We have problems on the main highway at night," said Jabar Naeemi, the youthful governor of this province, which is home to 800,000 Afghans and a road that connects to a dozen other provinces including Naeemi's hometown, Kandahar City, where Canadian troops are based. "In the name of religion, terrorists and thieves have been working together looting and kidnapping women and exporting drugs and we must fight all of this at once.

"Some of the Taliban have left the South because they have no place to hide there. When they come here, they bring security problems with them that require a lot of attention. They are very well equipped and our police aren't."

Naeemi, who speaks English well and has visited Canada several times, made an urgent appeal for help when the Taliban showed up. But with the fledgling Afghan army and NATO combat troops badly extended, reinforcements did not arrive until a few weeks ago. The cavalry -- in this case an Afghan army battalion and a company of paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 82 Airborne -- has made an immediate difference. Insurgent attacks have dropped off.

"The Taliban will not win," Naeemi said defiantly as he took a visitor on a driving tour of his area of jurisdiction, which is made up of wild, rustcoloured mountain ranges and equally arid plateaus.

"When they ruled this country they gave the people nothing. Women could not be educated. There was no order or development at all. There were no roads. This is why the people do not like them."

Even without the Taliban wreaking havoc, Maidan-Wardak had all the problems to be found elsewhere in Afghanistan and then some. One of the poorest of the country's 34 provinces, it had only a couple of government buildings and virtually no electricity when Naeemi was appointed in March, 2005.

"I was not even aware of Wardak, it is so small and backwards," said Naeemi, a 40-year-old husband and father of five with an immaculately groomed jet-black beard.

"When I got here, water had to be fetched from two kilometres away. There was no television, no radio and no facilities of any kind. There was no filing system, there were no plans. And I thought to myself that it would be very difficult to bring change here."
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Mottaki: Iran supports Karzai government
Tehran, Nov 5, IRNA
Visiting political advisor to Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi conferred on Monday with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on expansion of friendly ties between the two countries.

At the meeting, Mottaki said Iran's foreign policy is based on supporting the Karzai government and deepening ties between the two nations.

According to the Information and Press Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mottaki called the two sides' relations as historical with ample commonalties.

"We continue our cooperation with Afghanistan in line with our religious beliefs, good neighborliness and common interests," Mottaki said.

On illegal immigration of Afghan nationals to Iran, he said the Islamic Republic of Iran tries to take the views of the Afghan government into consideration in dealing with the issue.

The Afghan envoy, for his part, lauded the spiritual and material support provided by Iran for the Afghan people and said the Afghan nation regards Iran as its friend. He also thanked the country for its assistance for Afghanistan's reconstruction and hosting Afghan refugees.

Continued support by Iran for the Afghan government and its nation have encouraged them, he said and expressed hope that through assistance of Iran, Afghan nationals would complete their higher education and return home for the country's reconstruction.

The two sides called for expansion of bilateral cooperation in various fields.
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Anger at legal Afghan opium plan
By Alix Kroeger BBC News, Kabul Monday, 5 November 2007
Afghan and international narcotics experts have strongly criticised a proposed pilot project to grow opium poppy legally in Afghanistan for use in medicines.

The scheme is the brainchild of the Senlis Council, a think-tank working on security, development and counter-narcotics issues.

It has the backing of the European Parliament and will go to European Union foreign ministers for consideration at a meeting later this month.

But while the idea is unlikely to win the support of ministers, the parliament's move has left officials in Afghanistan fuming.

The Senlis Council argues that efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation haven't worked. Worse still, it says, eradication programmes have driven poppy farmers into the arms of the Taleban.

So why not cut the ground out from under the feet of the warlords and the Taleban, without depriving poor farmers of their livelihoods? Why not set up pilot projects where whole villages would be licensed to grow poppy legally? It's been done successfully in India, Thailand and Turkey, so why not Afghanistan?

Successful model

This is the core of the Senlis proposal. The poppy would be processed into morphine for medical use, using laboratories based in Afghan villages.

The licences would be given to villages, not individual farmers. If one farmer sold poppy for heroin, the whole village would lose its licence. This is the model followed successfully by microfinance projects elsewhere.

Norine McDonald of the Senlis Council says it's the only viable alternative. Poppy cultivation is increasing; efforts to switch farmers to alternative livelihoods have been unsuccessful.

Southern Afghanistan, where most of the opium poppy is grown, has suffered from a drought for several years.

Poppy is a notably drought-resistant crop. Farmers would need expensive irrigation systems to switch to other crops, she says.

"The idea that southern Afghanistan has an agricultural future is false," she argues.

"By allowing pharmaceutical processing at village level, young men can be trained for light industrial work. This is important for the future of Afghanistan."

'Supporting terrorism'

But officials working to stem the opium trade from Afghanistan are appalled.

"Poppy is supporting terrorism and drug dealers," says Afghanistan's acting narcotics minister, Khodaidad (who, like many Afghans, has only one name).

"The Senlis Council and the European Parliament are supporting insecurity in Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's mullahs issued a fatwa (decree), saying people must not grow poppy because it is haram (forbidden in Islam), he says.

Opium is banned under the Afghan constitution, and the government opposes any form of legalisation.

Licensing the sale of poppy for medical purposes won't get rid of the demand for illegal opium, warns a British narcotics official in Afghanistan who preferred not to be named.

In fact, he believes it would just create a new cash crop for farmers, meaning that even more opium would be grown.

Many farmers grow poppy under duress, he points out. The Afghan police would be hard-pressed to stop drug traffickers from forcing farmers to divert part or all of their crop for heroin.

"Afghanistan needs a rule-of-law structure to stop people growing opium," he says. "But if it had a rule-of-law structure, it wouldn't have an opium problem in the first place."

Incentive?

A European Commission (EC) document obtained by the BBC argues that buying poppy from farmers could have a perverse effect.

"Farmers could see this as an incentive to further expand production. This would not be an appropriate use of resources for the international donor community or the Afghan government."

And the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has serious reservations.

"At the moment, in the Afghan context, any proposal should be taken with utmost caution," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the head of UNODC's Europe and West and Central Asia desk.

The idea of laboratories in the villages is problematic, he says.

"Where will the precursor chemicals [needed to convert poppy into opiates] come from, and who will control them?" he asks. "Who would ensure they're not diverted to other frameworks?"

The Senlis Council says there's a shortage of medical opiates on the world market, especially in developing countries, which Afghanistan can fill. But the British narcotics official disputes this.

The International Narcotics Control Board, which licenses countries to produce opiates legally, has a two-year surplus, he says. "Developing countries don't have opiates, but they don't have penicillin or aspirin, either," he adds.

And he questions the economic benefits the Senlis scheme would bring. The price of legal opiates on the world market is $35 to $40 a kilogram. Illegal opiates fetch nearly three times as much, around $100 a kilo.

The EC says "exorbitant subsidies" could be needed to bridge the gap between legal and illegal prices.

'Not ready'

In the end, the British official says, poppy-for-medicine would undermine the authority of the Afghan government. It would be impossible to justify allowing one village to grow poppy under licence while eradicating the same crop just a few kilometres away.

Counter-narcotics experts acknowledge that similar schemes have worked in other countries which used to have a serious drug problem, such as Pakistan and Thailand. But Afghanistan, they say, just isn't ready.

With violence and instability still wracking the country, they fear that any move to legitimise poppy production could make a bad situation even worse.
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Tehran expels 8,000 Afghans
HERAT, 5 November 2007 (IRIN) - The government of Afghanistan has called on Iran to stop deporting thousands of Afghan citizens without work permits or refugee status, Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IRIN on 5 November.

"Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to any mass deportation during winter," said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the ministry, adding that the country lacked the capacity to integrate a large number of deportees.

In April and May this year, Iranian authorities deported thousands of Afghans - a move that caused a humanitarian problem for ill-prepared Afghanistan.

Iran slowed down the expulsions after the government of President Hamid Karzai, the UN and several other international organisations criticised the move and called for a more gradual deportation process.

However, Afghan officials in western Herat province, bordering Iran, say the deportations have restarted in the past 10 days, with at least 500 Afghans being sent home daily.

"Since 23 October, about 8,000 people have been deported from Iran to Herat province," said Shamsuddin Hamid, director of the provincial department of refugee and returnee affairs.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the issue.

Vulnerable deportees

Most deportees are young, single men who migrated to Iran mostly in search of employment and economic opportunities, aid agencies say.

Provincial officials, however, are concerned that hundreds of women, children and elderly people have also been evicted.

"There are deported women whose husbands still remain in Iran," Hamid told IRIN. "There are also deported men whose children and wives are left in Iran," he added.

UN agencies have helped Afghan authorities set up two transition centres in Nemroz and Herat provinces where deportees receive assistance and shelter for up to 48 hours. Some also receive help to reach their final destinations inside the country, according to the UN.

Refugees and "illegal migrants"

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says there are more than 900,000 registered Afghan refugees in Iran. The government has given assurances it will not force Afghan refugees to return home, UNHCR has confirmed.

However, the large numbers of Afghans who do not have refugee status and are considered illegal are not protected by UNHCR.

Since 2002, about four million Afghans - three million from Pakistan and about 850,000 from Iran - have been repatriated to Afghanistan with UN help, according to UNHCR.

Meanwhile, at least 35 people, allegedly with valid refugee identity cards, have also been deported to Herat in the past 10 days, provincial officials said.

Salvatore Lombardo, head of UNHCR mission in Afghanistan, said the organisation was verifying these reports.

Iran has reportedly ordered all foreigners, including thousands of Afghan refugees, to leave Sistan and Baluchestan province.
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News: Anger at legal Afghan opium plan
By Alix Kroeger, BBC News, Kabul
Afghan and international narcotics experts have strongly criticised a proposed pilot project to grow opium poppy legally in Afghanistan for use in medicines.

The scheme is the brainchild of the Senlis Council, a think-tank working on security, development and counter-narcotics issues.

It has the backing of the European Parliament and will go to European Union foreign ministers for consideration at a meeting later this month.

But while the idea is unlikely to win the support of ministers, the parliament's move has left officials in Afghanistan fuming.

The Senlis Council argues that efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation haven't worked. Worse still, it says, eradication programmes have driven poppy farmers into the arms of the Taleban.

So why not cut the ground out from under the feet of the warlords and the Taleban, without depriving poor farmers of their livelihoods? Why not set up pilot projects where whole villages would be licensed to grow poppy legally? It's been done successfully in India, Thailand and Turkey, so why not Afghanistan?

This is the core of the Senlis proposal. The poppy would be processed into morphine for medical use, using laboratories based in Afghan villages.

The licences would be given to villages, not individual farmers. If one farmer sold poppy for heroin, the whole village would lose its licence. This is the model followed successfully by microfinance projects elsewhere.

Norine McDonald of the Senlis Council says it's the only viable alternative. Poppy cultivation is increasing; efforts to switch farmers to alternative livelihoods have been unsuccessful.

Southern Afghanistan, where most of the opium poppy is grown, has suffered from a drought for several years.

Poppy is a notably drought-resistant crop. Farmers would need expensive irrigation systems to switch to other crops, she says.

"The idea that southern Afghanistan has an agricultural future is false," she argues.

"By allowing pharmaceutical processing at village level, young men can be trained for light industrial work. This is important for the future of Afghanistan."

But officials working to stem the opium trade from Afghanistan are appalled. "Poppy is supporting terrorism and drug dealers," says Afghanistan's acting narcotics minister, Khodaidad (who, like many Afghans, has only one name).

"The Senlis Council and the European Parliament are supporting insecurity in Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's mullahs issued a fatwa (decree), saying people must not grow poppy because it is haram (forbidden in Islam), he says.

Opium is banned under the Afghan constitution, and the government opposes any form of legalisation.

Licensing the sale of poppy for medical purposes won't get rid of the demand for illegal opium, warns a British narcotics official in Afghanistan who preferred not to be named.

In fact, he believes it would just create a new cash crop for farmers, meaning that even more opium would be grown.

Many farmers grow poppy under duress, he points out. The Afghan police would be hard-pressed to stop drug traffickers from forcing farmers to divert part or all of their crop for heroin.

"Afghanistan needs a rule-of-law structure to stop people growing opium," he says. "But if it had a rule-of-law structure, it wouldn't have an opium problem in the first place."

A European Commission (EC) document obtained by the BBC argues that buying poppy from farmers could have a perverse effect.

"Farmers could see this as an incentive to further expand production. This would not be an appropriate use of resources for the international donor community or the Afghan government."

And the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has serious reservations.

"At the moment, in the Afghan context, any proposal should be taken with utmost caution," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the head of UNODC's Europe and West and Central Asia desk.

The idea of laboratories in the villages is problematic, he says.

"Where will the precursor chemicals [needed to convert poppy into opiates] come from, and who will control them?" he asks. "Who would ensure they're not diverted to other frameworks?"

The Senlis Council says there's a shortage of medical opiates on the world market, especially in developing countries, which Afghanistan can fill. But the British narcotics official disputes this.

The International Narcotics Control Board, which licenses countries to produce opiates legally, has a two-year surplus, he says. "Developing countries don't have opiates, but they don't have penicillin or aspirin, either," he adds.

And he questions the economic benefits the Senlis scheme would bring. The price of legal opiates on the world market is $35 to $40 a kilogram. Illegal opiates fetch nearly three times as much, around $100 a kilo.

The EC says "exorbitant subsidies" could be needed to bridge the gap between legal and illegal prices.

In the end, the British official says, poppy-for-medicine would undermine the authority of the Afghan government. It would be impossible to justify allowing one village to grow poppy under licence while eradicating the same crop just a few kilometres away.

Counter-narcotics experts acknowledge that similar schemes have worked in other countries which used to have a serious drug problem, such as Pakistan and Thailand. But Afghanistan, they say, just isn't ready.

With violence and instability still wracking the country, they fear that any move to legitimise poppy production could make a bad situation even worse.
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Afghanistan, Oman share T20 trophy
Khaleej Times 5 November 2007
DUBAI — The ACC Twenty20 Cricket Tournament came to a sensational end at the Hubara Oval at Ahmadi on Friday when Afghanistan tied with Oman in controversial circumstances in front of a huge partisan crowd of Afghan supporters, a Press release said.

Circled by thousands of impassioned fans, the ICC President, Ray Mali and ACC President Jayantha Dharmadasa and the heads of the Bangladesh and Pakistan cricket boards, Afghanistan and Oman, the best teams in the competition produced the ultimate cliff hanger but had to be satisfied with shared spoils in a highly charged final.

Earlier in the day Kuwait beat UAE by three runs to take the third place.

Oman, chasing 152 for victory, were on 150 for 7 when Afghanistan’s captain Nowroz Mangal bowled the last ball to Oman’s Awal Khan. Khan stepped forward, heaved, missed, and keeper Karim Sadiq took off the bails and thousands of Afghanistan’s supporters invaded the field to celebrate.

But Awal Khan wasn’t out, stumped. The umpire hadn’t raised his finger. Awal was rooted at the crease, with his partner half-way down the wicket. The ball was still in play as the umpire had not called time. Khan responded to his partner’s call and completed the single amidst the confusion of the appeal turned down and the crowd invasion. With Oman’s batsmen having completed the run, a tie was declared by the match officials once the players left the field.

Oman started their chase disastrously as Hamid Hassan took an Omani wicket in the very first ball and another three balls later. The dangerous Hemin Desai and Zeeshan Ahmed both gone without scoring. Nilesh Parmar and Adnan Ilyas then rebuilt superbly, stealing singles, rotating the strike, hammering boundaries whenever possible.

The hundred partnership, the first of the tournament, came up in the 14th over. Then Ilyas fell for 52, Hemal Mehta went soon after to a fine catch by Mangal and Parma was run out for 66. The match was going down to the wire. Farhan Khan – Oman’s man for any crisis came in to bat in the 19th over with 12 wanted. He hit his second ball for a massive six.

The last over began with five required for a famous run chase but two wickets a single and a scrambled two leg byes brought on the drama of the last ball.

Earlier Afghanistan got off to a great start thanks to Nowroz Mangal and Karim Sadiq, putting up 50 in the 7th over but three wickets fell in four deliveries and thoughts of 160 and above had to be tempered with the need to bat out the overs. Some enterprising hitting by Raees Ahmadzai towards the end of the innings saw Afghanistan finish on 151 for 9.

In the end the Afghanistan supporters created a part of the mayhem that cost them the match. “I don’t know whether to be happy or sad,” said Afghanistan’s coach Taj Malik. “We could have won, we could have lost. We should have won!”

A bowl-out which was in order according to the playing conditions was deemed impossible with the crowd still gathered on the pitch and the square in a little disrepair, match officials declared the match a tie and the trophy shared between the two teams.

Brief scores: Afghanistan 151 for 9 (T. Hussain 3-31, Z. Ahmed 3-30) in 20 overs tied with Oman 151 for 7 (A. Ilyas 52, N. Parmar 66) in 20 overs.

Kuwait 126/7 in 20 overs (Yaseen Mughal 24, Hisham Mirza 23, Shadeeb De Silva 2/35, Ahmed 1/12 beat UAE 123/8 in 20 overs (Saqib 53, Prashant Braggs14 Yaseen Mughal 4/21, Khalid Butt 2/10)
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Calgary man released from Kabul jail
CBC News (Canada) November 5, 2007
A Calgary man who was arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly having links to a militant group has been cleared of all wrongdoing and has been released from a Kabul prison, officials have confirmed.

Suhail Qureshi, 24, was allowed to return to Canada a month ago, after Afghan authorities found no evidence linking him to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, Afghan justice official Sakhi Abassi told CBC News.

"The intelligence, police and security organs tried their best in order to find any evidence showing that he was planning to do something, but there was nothing found," Abassi said.

Qureshi and his family have so far not spoken to the media about the arrest.

Qureshi, who is of Pakistani origin, was arrested at a Kabul bus station in May on suspicion of attending a militant training camp in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, media reports said at the time. He was carrying a Canadian passport.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed his detention at the time, and said consular officials were visiting him and checking on his condition.

Neighbours on Qureshi's street in Calgary say he is now under surveillance in Canada, with men with cameras and laptops watching his home for hours from a parked pickup on the street.

The RCMP told CBC News it knows Qureshi has returned, but the police force will not confirm if Qureshi is under surveillance. CSIS said it never talks publicly about operational matters.
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Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south
After a week of battle, Afghan and international forces pushed the resurgent Taliban out of a key district north of Kandahar.
Christian Science Monitor - By Jon Boone  - Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor from the November 5, 2007 edition
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghans affected by an outbreak of Taliban fighting in a strategic district bordering the southern city of Kandahar have returned to their villages after a week of crisis sparked by the death of a tribal strongman.

Local authorities said Sunday that life was returning to normal following successful operations by Afghan security forces and Canadian troops to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lush agricultural lands of Afghandab district.

The insurgents were apparently intent on capitalizing on the death of Mullah Naqib, the former mujahideen warrior who led the Alokozai tribe of the district, north of Kandahar city.

For years, Mullah Naqib had kept the Taliban out of a district that offers a perfect route for attacking Kandahar city, the spiritual home of the hardline Sunni movement from its emergence in 1996 through its removal from power by US-led forces in 2001.

But up to 300 Taliban fighters entered the district last week, less than three weeks after Mullah Naqib's death created a political vacuum in one of southern Afghanistan's most important tribes.

The fighters, who local sources say were all in their mid-20s, remained for two days and came within 15 miles of the provincial capital. They occupied and trashed Naqib's ancestral home before being expelled by more than 600 Afghan and international forces.

The swift collapse of political authority in the province highlights the reliance of overstretched international forces on friendly power brokers remaining loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Rising insecurity, official corruption, and the widespread belief that the government has failed to deliver basic public services have all undermined popular support, according to a European diplomat who spoke anonymously.

"It is very worrying that an area that had previously been secure should become vulnerable to the Taliban," he says. "But the big problem is, who is sitting on the fence? Are they going to remain against the insurgents or join them?"

In the case of Arghandab, the local tribe remained loyal. Lt. Commander Pierre Babinsky, spokesman for international troops in Kandahar Province, says the Afghan Army and police force had played a vital role in expelling the Taliban.

"This was one of the first truly joint operations between Canadian and Afghan forces operating together as equal partners," he says.

The police and Army have been the focus of intense training efforts to leave them capable of operating without direct foreign support and holding Taliban-free territory.

Much of the local police success against the Taliban fighters appeared to be because it is not yet a fully reconstituted force purged of tribal identity. With most of the fighters drawn from the Alokozai, analysts said, they were fighting out of tribal loyalty rather than as professional police officers.

Last week's political and military drama may have demonstrated the Taliban's weakness as a conventional military force. According to Haji Padshah, a tribal elder, "The Taliban are so weak that even our women could have beaten them."

The NATO-led forces refused to give estimates of Taliban deaths, but Sayed Agha Saqib, the regional police chief, says 50 were killed, 40 injured, and eight captured.

The apparent attempt to seize Afghandab also represented a surprising tactical step backward for the Taliban, which has been forced to abandon conventional military tactics in favor of kidnappings and suicide bombs.

Rates of insurgent attacks and terrorist violence are at least 20 percent higher this year, with an average of 548 incidents per month compared with 425 in 2006, according to a UN report published in September, with most of the victims being ordinary Afghans.

Adoption of these so-called "asymmetric" tactics have caused acute concern because they are much harder to prevent and have proved effective in undermining public confidence.

A Kabul-based Western analyst said that the Taliban were prone to forgetting their limitations as a military force. But according to Sarah Chayes, a former journalist who has lived for years in Kandahar city, the Taliban never had any ambition to seize control of Afghandab. "Far from being annihilated by the security forces, they actually executed a fighting retreat," she says. "It's clear that they wanted to send a very strong message ... saying that 'our advance is inevitable and we can dance on the roof of Mullah Naqib's house within three weeks of his death.' In Kandahar, it just knocked people sideways."

Protecting the exposed flanks of the city will be tough for overstretched Canadian forces. The Taliban's assault forced commanders to move men and equipment out of the other districts that border the northern edge.

"We would like to have more resources," Commander Babinsky says, "but the work we have done training the Afghan Army units mean we did not have to leave any districts unsecured."
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Taliban the big winners
Telegraph.co.uk - By Ahmed Rashid  Last Updated: 05/11/2007
By imposing these draconian martial law-type measures, President Pervez Musharraf hopes to ensure his own political survival. But the move is more likely to lead to much greater political confrontation, protests and larger territorial gains by the extremist Pakistani Taliban.

General Musharraf's primary aim was to cleanse the Supreme Court bench. That he has achieved — all its judges have been forced to resign and several, including the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, are under arrest. The Supreme Court had become a major irritant for military rule, and was due to rule on a petition whether Gen Musharraf could remain president for another five years.

Thus the emergency's first target is not the extremists terrorising northern Pakistan, but the democratic, secular elite. Dozens of judges, lawyers and human rights workers have been arrested while more have gone underground to avoid arrest. Journalists and the media are being targeted and harassed in an unprecedented manner.

Asma Jehangir, Pakistan's leading human rights activist, who is now under house arrest, appealed yesterday to the American and British governments "to stop all support of the unstable dictator".

In his actions and his speech to the nation on Saturday night, Gen Musharraf treated the Supreme Court with absolute contempt — a move that has devastating long-term implications for the ever widening gulf between an unaccountable army and a public that wants an independent judiciary, the rule of law and respect for the constitution.

Gen Musharraf and the army have once again decided they are above the law or international obligations, even though his political support collapsed months ago after four months of non-stop demonstrations by lawyers, professionals and opposition parties.

Diplomats from Britain and the United States fell into the trap of believing that Gen Musharraf wanted a deal with the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to restore his crumbling popularity. It now seems that both governments were taken for a ride by the wily general. An embarrassed Ms Bhutto has now been forced into a U-turn to condemn Gen Musharraf. She will now attempt to gather all the opposition around her.

The key winner in this will be the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who is popular in Punjab and has refused to strike any deal with the army. His hard line towards Gen Musharraf has now been vindicated, while Ms Bhutto's soft line is being criticised.

A major loser will be the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), with its politicians now reviled and virtually unelectable. PML leaders, including Shaukat Aziz and Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, had urged Gen Musharraf to impose an emergency, believing that it would allow them to rule for another year or so.

The real battleground for Gen Musharraf should be the north of his country, where a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, helped by al-Qa'eda, are conquering more territory and imposing their version of a so-called Sharia [Islamic law] state. The army has lost hundreds of men and at least 400 soldiers are being held hostage by the extremists. But Gen Musharraf's first concern is his own survival rather than combating the extremists, while the army is deeply demoralised and unwilling to fight a never-ending war against its countrymen.

So we can now expect a flurry of truces and shaky peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban, which will leave them in place for the time being. As a sop to the US military, we can expect the "timely" arrest of a few high-level leaders of the Afghan Taliban who are living in Pakistan, and possibly even an al-Qa'eda leader or two. For the long term the extremists know that the Pakistani state has been irretrievably weakened and this is the moment to push home their offensive.

The future of stability of Afghanistan also hangs in the balance as does the safety of 40,000 British, US and Nato troops based there. The Afghan Taliban will now continue their offensive through the harsh winter months. They can only be encouraged by the mayhem in Pakistan from where they receive recruits, logistics and support.

The spread of anti-Westernism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has been fostered by a US policy that has sought only to keep Gen Musharraf in power. However, the dramatic lack of public support for Gen Musharraf will mean that his rule, and the emergency, is unsustainable for long, and could trigger even worse political chaos. The West has a vital stake in seeing stability in Pakistan, but so far its response has been too tepid to make a difference to the generals.
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Four cops perish in explosion; fuel tankers set ablaze
GHAZNI CITY, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - Four policemen were killed and two others wounded as their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the southern Ghazni province on Sunday.  

Provincial security chief Col. Muhammad Zaman told Pajhwok Afghan News the blast took place near Gudaly village at 2 pm. The policemen were heading to Zana Khan district from provincial capital, he said.

The wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital, Zaman said without giving further details.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the blast killed the district police chief and a large number of cops.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants set afire two fuel-supplying tankers on the Kandahar-Kabul Highway in the restive Syedabad district of the central Maidan Wardak province.

Wardak police Chief Gen. Muzaffaruddin told Pajhwok militants on motorbikes opened fire on the oil tankers in Haftaasyab area at 11:30am. Police were investigating the incident, he added.

Abu Tayyeb, who introduced himself as Taliban commander in the area, took responsibility for the attack, saying they also snatched drivers and conductors of the vehicles.
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US troops not here to terrorise Afghans: Wood
ASADABAD, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - US forces were not in Afghanistan to frighten its citizens but wanted to help them rebuild their war-devastated country, a top American diplomat said on Sunday.

Those terrorising civilians, a reference to Taliban insurgents, were common enemies of the Afghans and Americans, US Ambassador William Wood told a news conference here.

He held out the assurance to scotch speculation the American troops would not spare anyone attacking them. A week back, a Coalition commander had allegedly warned residents of Manogai district of the eastern Kunar province of bringing grief to every home in the area if US soldiers were harmed.

Provincial Governor Deedar Shalizai told Pajhwok Afghan News the US ambassador, at the head of a delegation, visited the provincial capital Asadabad this morning. The envoy met the governor, members of the provincial council and US forcers based in Kunar.

Wood insisted commanders statement had either been misinterpreted or reported out of context by media-people. Even if the statement had really come from the commander, he explained, it was inconsistent with the position of the US military and government.

In 2007, the ambassador claimed, Coalition troops had scored a string of successes in defeating the Taliban, who were no longer in a position to confront the soldiers directly.

Instead the guerrillas had resorted to explosions, suicide bombings, arson attacks on educational institutions and killing of teachers and students, the diplomat maintained.

Civilian deaths during counter-insurgency operations were disturbing, Wood acknowledged, blaming the Taliban for collateral damage. The militants even used civilians as human shields, he charged.
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CENTCOM chief meets Khost governor, district chiefs
KHOST CITY, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral William Fallon Saturday met the governor and other senior officials of the southeastern Khost province.

Governor Arsala Jamal told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday Fallon paid a daylong visit to the province at the head of a high-powered delegation. He went into talks with Jamal, district chiefs and security officials at a NATO base in Khost City.

The governor added Admiral Fallon, who flew into Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan, also visited troops based in Tani district before having a chat with media representatives.

Of his trip to the province bordering Miranshah area of Pakistan, the CENTCOM chief said: "Khost has immense strategic importance. And the security situation here is good." The provincial leadership had been efficient and there was good coordination between Afghan and foreign troops, he acknowledged.

Arsala Jamal, who discussed the issue of house searches and uplift projects with Fallon, told reporters three provinces - Khost, Kabul and Kandahar - had strategic importance for Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Keeping in mind the dilapidated condition of roads in the province, the governor said, the US-led Coalition would allocate more funds to Khost. Issues related to water, power and agriculture sectors were taken up with Fallon, he added.

The NATO spokesperson for southeastern provinces claimed the security situation in Khost had improved, enabling them to launch two programmes aimed at further improving law and order.

She explained under the first programme, Afghan police would be trained and the second called ear-and-eye programme would reward those who tipped them off about IED attacks, insurgent operations and drug smugglers.
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Four rebels eliminated, three wounded: Afghan general
QALA-I-NAW, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - An army officer Sunday claimed four Taliban fighters were killed and another three wounded in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in the northeast Badghis province.

Police, Afghan National Army (ANA) and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) conducted the sweep in Ghormach district of the province, the 209 th Shaheen Military Corps commander said.

Maj. Gen. Murad Ali Murad told Pajhwok Afghan News a local Taliban commander named Mullah Abdul Sattar was among the militants killed.

He added the operation was designed to clear the area of insurgents. It was a third joint operation by Afghan and foreign troops in Ghormach in a weeks time, the general explained.

Two Taliban militants were killed and 18 others captured during an earlier crackdown in the same district on October 31, Murad recalled. The guerrillas have not yet reacted to the claim of casualties inflicted on them.
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Former interior minister Jalali returns to Kabul
KABUL, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - Former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali gas returned, reportedly on an invitation from President Hamid Karzai, from the United States on Sunday.

It is Jalalis first visit to Afghanistan following his resignation as interior minister two and a half years back. He is widely respected for sweeping police and army reforms in an unfavourable environment.

Wolesi Jirga member Hilaluddin Hilal, who had arrived at the Kabul airport to receive the former minister, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "I think Jalali has returned in response to an invitation from President Karzai."

Noorul Haq Ulumi, head of the Lower Houses defence commission, hinted at Jalalis appointment as head of one of the three panels on defence, economy and international affairs.

During his ministerial term, Jalali repeatedly pointed to the involvement of top-ranking officials in the burgeoning drug trade and sought action against them. He received higher education in the US and UK before his appointment as interior minister in 2002. But he resigned the job two years later.
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