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November 9, 2007 

59 schoolchildren died in Afghan blast
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 9, 4:07 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's deadliest suicide attack since the Taliban regime's ouster killed 59 schoolchildren, while 96 other students were wounded in the blast, the Education Ministry spokesman said Friday.

The attack in the northern province of Baghlan on Tuesday killed at least 75 people. The dead children were ages eight to 18, said Zahoor Afghan, an Education Ministry spokesman.

Five teachers were also among those killed in the attack, the worst in the country since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban militant movement from power. Six lawmakers also died.

The death toll among children was released as violence continued in the beleaguered country. NATO-led troops and Afghan forces captured a remote district in western Afghanistan, as militants ambushed and killed a district chief in the volatile south, officials said.

The schoolchildren were lined up to greet a group of lawmakers visiting a sugar factory when a suicide bomber detonated explosives, officials said. Witnesses have said some victims may have been killed or wounded by guards who opened fire after the blast.

"The education minister have ordered that no children should be ever again be used in these sort of events," Afghan said.

In Kabul on Thursday, thousands of mourners gathered to bury five of the six slain lawmakers, among them Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the spokesman for the country's largest political opposition group. The sixth lawmaker was to be buried in the southern province of Helmand.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared three days of mourning Wednesday and ordered an investigation into the bombing, calling it a "terrorist attack." No officials have publicly named any suspects, however, and no group has claimed responsibility.

The Taliban have denied involvement.

NATO-led and Afghan troops battled Taliban militants near Gulistan district, in the western Farah province on Friday, after seizing the district center, which was overrun by militants last week, said Bariyalai Khan, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.

In southern Zabul province, Taliban militants on motorbikes ambushed and killed Shahjoy's district chief and two bodyguards Thursday, said Mohammad Rasool Khan, a district police chief. The victims were shopping in the market when four militants on two motorbikes shot them, Khan said.

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban in southern Helmand province's Nahr Surk district Wednesday, leaving several militants dead, a coalition statement said.

The joint force was conducting a reconnaissance patrol near the district when insurgents engaged them with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the statement said.

"The combined force immediately engaged the Taliban fighters with small-arms fire and close air support, killing many of the insurgents before they fled the area," it said.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001 invasion. More than 5,700 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.
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Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report
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Afghan police detain two over big bomb attack
Fri Nov 9, 3:37 AM ET
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police have detained two men on suspicion of involvement in a suicide bomb attack this week that killed more than 50 people in the north of the country, the provincial governor said on Friday.

Tuesday's blast, in the relatively peaceful north, shook public confidence in the ability of the government and the 50,000 foreign troops in the country to provide security more than six years after the Taliban were ousted from power.

Taliban insurgents have carried out more than 130 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, but denied responsibility for the attack in the northern town of Baghlan that killed six opposition parliamentarians and a large number of schoolchildren.

The insurgent denial has sparked widespread speculation and conspiracy theories over who might be responsible amid a general atmosphere of fear and suspicion.

Police arrested two men in Baghlan -- one a mosque prayer leader, the other a resident of the industrial part of the town where the blast took place -- provincial governor Mohammad Alam Ishaaqzai told Reuters.

"The initial investigation shows these men may have had a hand in this attack," he said, but declined to say whether the men were affiliated to any insurgent or political group.

A high-ranking Interior Ministry team from the capital Kabul were questioning the pair, he said.

Northern Afghanistan has been relatively peaceful and prosperous compared with the south and east, where Taliban suicide attacks are common and insurgents are locked in daily battles with Afghan and foreign forces.

(Reporting by Tahir Qadiry; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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Ball bearings used in Afghan bomb
By Alix Kroeger BBC News, Kabul Friday, 9 November 2007, 11:32 GMT  
Early investigations into Tuesday's bombing in the Afghan province of Baghlan indicate that the attacker used ball bearings to maximise casualties.

The ball bearings were mixed with explosives, the interior ministry says.

Efforts to establish an accurate casualty toll will get underway later on Friday.

The provincial governor says the death toll now stands at 52, with 106 people injured. The Taleban have denied that they were responsible.

Scattered

This is not the first time an Afghan suicide bomber has used ball-bearings to increase the force of the blast, but it is certainly the deadliest.

Investigators at the scene of Tuesday's bombing found ball bearings scattered around.

The interior ministry estimates around 1,000 may have been used, one of the reasons the death toll was so high.

Credible estimates range from 52 to 75. Other figures go even higher.

Later on Friday, officials will go house to house in Baghlan, asking if any members of the family were killed in the blast.

This is necessary because some families took away the bodies of their relatives before they could be added to the casualty figures.

The police chief and the provincial governor of Baghlan have come in for criticism because they were out of town when the bomb went off.

They have defended their actions.

The police chief said he was at a conference, while the governor was meeting one of Afghanistan's vice-presidents in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

But in the absence of any evidence as to who carried out the attack, that has not been enough to stop the rumours and speculation swirling around the country.
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Afghan MP credits God for delay that spared her life
Kelly Cryderman , CanWest News Service Friday, November 09, 2007
KABUL -- It was a car tire low on air - just a two-minute delay while her driver filled it up - that Afghan MP Safia Siddiqi believes saved her from an horrific death.

"My car was a little bit behind the others," said Siddiqi, who lived in Canada for several years and still makes regular visits. "I was the last person to arrive."

The Afghan parliamentarian was just outside the sugar mill near the northern town of Pul-i-Khumri on Tuesday afternoon, rushing towards the metal gate to catch up with other colleagues for a tour of the factory, when the huge blast went off.

The ground shook so it felt like an earthquake, she said, and screams filled the air.

More than 50 people, many of them children, teachers and tribal elders, died in what has become the largest bomb blast in Afghanistan in recent memory. Dozens more were injured.

"It was only 1 1/2 minutes. If I was earlier I would not be here," said a visibly distraught Siddiqi in an interview at her apartment in northeast Kabul Thursday evening.

"There were so many bad things, so many bloody things," she said. "Everyone had the signs of blood on their clothes ... in the difference of 10 minutes, we had lost everything."

In her car were her driver, a nanny and her seven-month-old son, who travels with her when she tours Afghanistan's districts and provinces. She panicked at the thought of another attack following the explosion.

Having survived two Taliban attacks as she campaigned for her seat in the eastern province of Nangarhar, she said it is God who has kept her alive.

"It might be because of my baby and it might be because of my people."

The blast killed six of Siddiqi's colleagues, including Mustafa Kazimi, a popular Hazara opposition leader.

Thousands of Kazimi supporters filled the streets of Kabul on Thursday, many waving his picture or taping it to their car as they moved towards his funeral. Police blocked off main thoroughfares to control the procession, checking vehicles and credentials.

Many ended their journey at the burial site for five of the six slain MPs, which sits near the bombed-out shell of the Darulaman Palace.

"All the people, all the population is shocked," said bus driver Ghulam Hussien as he watched a large group of mourners rush forward.

Aside from the funeral procession, Kabul on Thursday was a quiet, anxious city as people privately mourned the dead or stayed inside for fear of further attacks or violence. Traffic, normally chaotic, flowed with ease for most of the day.

Part of the worry centres on questions of who was behind the bombing and how it was pulled off. The Taliban, who usually target southern provinces, claim they weren't behind the attack. Siddiqi and others ask why there wasn't better security provided for the trip.

And although the attack has been widely referred to as being the work of a suicide bomber, the parliamentarian has her doubts. She said suicide bombs usually aren't as large and deadly.

"I don't think a suicide bomb can kill that many people."

It has been a stressful two days since. Siddiqi has been visiting the families of the dead and wounded, and she had to call up to correct Afghan TV stations that were reporting her dead.

She only smiles when she talks about the breakfast all the 14 members of parliament shared before heading off on their tour of development projects in the north Tuesday. They were all outside in the sun at the Salang Pass, talking and enjoying the meat kabobs.

"It was the last gathering of the committee members," Siddiqi said, "and I don't think we will have that nice, enjoyable time again in the future."

Siddiqi is known as a passionate proponent of women's rights and rural development. It's hard now to muster her usual optimism.

It's only at the end of the interview, just as the last of the Kabul sun fades away and a smoggy darkness moves in, that a bit of defiance returns.

"We are struggling and we believe in the development of Afghanistan, and we are working for it," she says. "Nobody can stop us."
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Afghan mourners decry poor level of security
At funeral for five parliamentarians, MP admits government missteps have put all at risk
GRAEME SMITH From Friday's Globe and Mail November 9, 2007 at 4:48 AM EST
KABUL — When the state funeral for five Afghan parliamentarians had finished, after the loudspeakers fell silent and the wailing mourners had been dragged away from the graves, a solitary man ambled out of the crowd with a thoughtful expression.

Daoud Sultanzoy, a member of parliament for Ghazni province, had been scheduled to attend the factory tour where a suicide bomb killed at least 73 people on Tuesday. He would have stood among the chief dignitaries at the ceremony, and likely would have died in the blast if an illness hadn't forced him to stay home.

"It makes you wonder about the overall security status of this country," Mr. Sultanzoy said, gazing at the thousands of people who thronged to the burial site on a dusty plateau at the edge of the city. "It's deteriorating," he said.

The politician said he has always avoided cloistering himself inside convoys of armoured vehicles and surrounding himself with bodyguards, which is how many of his colleagues have dealt with the rising threat of assassination.

This week's bombing forced him to reconsider, he said, and he's now thinking about hiring protection.

Other parliamentarians had similarly grim thoughts as they said farewell to their friends. Security was a problem even during the burial itself, as hundreds of police linked arms and struggled to restrain a crowd of men visibly overcome with emotion. White-gloved soldiers in dress uniform carried flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of five parliamentarians and their slain bodyguards; a sixth MP will be buried in southern Helmand province.

Supporters of the slain politician Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, spokesman for Afghanistan's main opposition group, hoisted signs demanding an international investigation into the blast. Some of the mourners appeared to believe that Afghan officials had colluded with the attacker. Officials at the blast site reportedly said that some of the dead were not killed in the initial bombing, but died later as panicky security personnel raked the area with gunfire.

"The government killed my brother!" screamed a young man, flailing in the dirt near the open graves.

The dignitaries who stood nearby didn't share the crowd's enthusiasm for conspiracy theories, but Noorolhaq Olomi, a member of parliament from Kandahar, said a bit of truth lies under the mourners' complaints: In a general sense, the government's missteps have worsened security for everybody.

"All of us politicians are acting weakly," Mr. Olomi said. "It's not that the Taliban are strong, it's that the government is weak and the international community is weak."

Government authorities who spoke at the funeral blamed foreign terrorists for the attacks. Others expressed anger at the foreign troops, saying NATO has failed in its mission.

"We're very sorry the international community cannot provide security," said Sediqa Balkhi, a member of the upper chamber of parliament. "The troops should leave, and let us take care of this."

Others saw the attack as a reason for more international help with security teams.

"The Taliban are trying to target leaders more and more," said Mohammed Daoud Zazai, a member of parliament from Paktia. "Especially they are attacking the tribal leaders who have power over the people."

Mr. Zazai, a towering figure in a black turban, said he learned not to fear death during his days as an anti-Soviet warrior in the 1980s.

Many of his fellow parliamentarians feel the same way, he said, trusting God to end their lives at the right time.

"The Afghan parliament will not lose their morale because of this attack," he said.

Mr. Sultanzoy didn't seem so confident. He hunched his shoulders into his leather jacket and turned away from the noisy crowd, telling the story of the moment when he heard about the bombing. A friend called him a few minutes after the blast, he said, and at first he refused to believe it.

"I was completely shocked," he said. "You work with these people every day; they're close friends, and you go into denial at first."

He continued, in flawless English: "Then it hit me, that I could have been one of them. I was supposed to be there."

Worsening security has already limited parliamentarians' ability to travel, Mr. Sultanzoy said, and this latest incident will probably mean further restrictions. He toured the districts he represents only twice in the past year, he said, and that's not enough to stay informed about the needs of his electorate.

"It's surreal," he said. "You just want to pinch yourself."
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District chief among several killed in Afghan violence
Fri Nov 9, 5:18 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban militants gunned down the head of a hard fought-over district in Afghanistan, while US-led forces killed several insurgents in separate fighting, officials said.

The governor of troubled Shahjoy district in the southern province of Zabul was shot dead while shopping in a local bazaar on Thursday under the protection of his two bodyguards, who were also killed, police chief Mohammad Rasoul said.

The four attackers fled on motorbikes.

"Our district chief, Tor Jan, and two guards were killed by Taliban," Rasoul said.

The extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which was similar to scores of others carried out by the Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Shahjoy lies on the key road that links Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, the first major centre captured by the rebels when they swept to power 11 years ago.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition said it killed several Taliban fighters in the southern province of Helmand after coming under attack on Thursday with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and small weapons.

The Taliban insurgency, joined by other extremist outfits, has gained steam since it was launched in the months after the hardliners were driven from government in 2001 by a US-led force.

A suicide blast on Tuesday killed 75 people, including 59 children and six lawmakers, outside the northern town of Pul-i-Khumri, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Kabul.
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Afghanistan pushes reconciliation effort
Facing a resilient insurgency, officials say President Karzai is seeking negotiations with elements of Taliban to end the conflict.
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 9, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan — After nearly two years of increased bloodshed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is reaching out to Taliban militants, who have been waging battle against his government, in a renewed push for a political settlement to a conflict that increasingly seems unwinnable militarily, analysts and diplomats say.

Speaking of the need for national reconciliation, Karzai has invited insurgents to lay down their arms and talk, and even join his administration. His overtures have met with responses that range from contempt to cautious consideration by various elements within the Taliban, the radical Islamic movement that U.S.-led forces ousted from power in 2001.

But observers say that those differences can be exploited and that the signs of flexibility, however tentative or fleeting, are encouraging.

"There's more space than there's ever been for a solution to this other than endless conflict," said Adrian Edwards, a United Nations spokesman here in the Afghan capital.

The push for dialogue comes after a summer of deadly militant attacks. The country was hit Tuesday by its most devastating suicide bombing yet, which killed as many as 73 people, including more than a dozen children and six lawmakers. The Taliban has denied responsibility.

Such incidents have deepened public unease and anger with Karzai's government, which many Afghans blame for the lack of improvement in their lives and the deterioration in security.

An estimated 5,700 people, a large number of them civilians, have been killed this year in clashes between insurgents and allied troops working in conjunction with Afghanistan's fledgling security forces. Taliban attacks and kidnappings have spread beyond the group's traditional stronghold in the south and east to northern provinces around Kabul and in the capital itself, leaving residents fearful.

Amid a marked increase in suicide and roadside bombings, 206 coalition soldiers, about half of them Americans, have died in Afghanistan so far this year, according to icasualties.org. The combined coalition toll for all of 2006 was 198.

As winter approaches, battle fatigue may be setting in for the Afghan government, and possibly the Taliban as well, prompting the search for some sort of political accommodation to curb the violence.

The question is what kind of deals can be struck, and with whom.

The Taliban is not a monolithic organization, making it impossible to reach an overarching agreement but possible to exploit factional divisions. Critics warn against any deals offering amnesty or political favors that would, in effect, reward extremists.

Many people here were alarmed when Karzai, just hours after a suicide bomber killed at least 30 people aboard an army bus in Kabul on Sept. 29, appeared to offer to meet with two notorious anti-government figures, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and factional warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me. I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said. "If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, 'President, we want a department in this or in that ministry, or we want a position as deputy minister . . . and we don't want to fight anymore,' . . . I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan."

The president's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said that Karzai's comments were taken out of context and that no offers to negotiate had been extended to Omar, Hekmatyar or any "hard-core elements" of the Taliban with links to Al Qaeda.

"This offer is for others -- people who are stuck in the middle," Hamidzada said. Many of the Taliban's rank and file are believed to be alienated Afghans who have joined the insurgency less out of Islamist fervor than out of anger with the government over lost homes, unremitting poverty and a feeling of disenfranchisement.

Hamidzada dismissed as a nonstarter the demand by some Taliban leaders that foreign troops must leave before any negotiations can take place. He underscored that any talks with militants would require them to give up their weapons and abide by the constitution.

"At this stage we are talking about the principle of talking," Hamidzada said. "Everything will be within the framework of the constitution. We're not going back on human rights; we're not going back on women's rights. We're not returning to the days of the Taliban."

Reports recently have surfaced of an impending deal with Mullah Abdul Salaam, a prominent Taliban and tribal leader in the south who commands hundreds of armed followers.

Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper said the deal would see Salaam and his fighters pledge support to the Afghan government and British troops stationed in the south. Hamidzada would not confirm the report but said, "Some figures are working on switching sides, and we are working closely to make it happen."

What Karzai offers in return will be under close scrutiny. Human rights and other groups already have decried the involvement in government of former warlords and other leaders accused of wartime atrocities, and the lack of progress in holding such men to account.

"All along, reconciliation in Afghanistan has been taken to mean pure amnesty," said Joanna Nathan, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. "What a political solution has got to mean, rather than rewarding violent extremists at the top, is actually community-level reconciliation, reaching out to the disillusioned and disenchanted before they join such movements."

The new buzz about possible negotiations with insurgents could actually undermine the government's efforts to prevent more Afghans from linking up with the Taliban, analysts say.

"This public talk of talks is incredibly damaging," Nathan said. "If you have a community right now in the deep south or the borderlands on the east thinking, 'Do I stand up to the Taliban?' why will they, if they think the international community or the government are going to negotiate with them anyway?"

The government's calculations are influenced by domestic pressures. In a recent nationwide poll by the nonprofit Asia Foundation, Afghans ranked public security as the No. 1 problem facing the country, leapfrogging unemployment, which topped the survey last year.

"When I leave the house, I pray to God that it won't happen to me," said Mohammed Ibrahim, 21, who runs a clothing stall in one of Kabul's busiest markets. "Those aren't the actions of human beings."

External pressures probably play a part as well in the Afghan government's decision to engage with the insurgents. Meeting last month in the Netherlands, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization declined to significantly boost its commitment of 41,000 troops in Afghanistan, more than a third of whom are American. The decision elicited a harsh response from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Britain and Canada, whose soldiers patrol the volatile, Taliban-ridden south, are under pressure at home to cut back or withdraw their troops. British officials, diplomats and military commanders have begun emphasizing the need for Afghanistan's problems to be "resolved politically" -- through talks with some insurgents.

The U.S. has reacted more cautiously, but has left the door open to selective negotiations.

"It's very important to be precise about this," U.S. Ambassador William B. Wood said last month in an interview on Afghan television. "The United States is not opposing the invitation of the government of Afghanistan to talk to elements of the Taliban who are willing to come in and respect the constitution and respect the authority of the democratically elected government. . . .

"We also, of course, agree with [Karzai] that this can have no effect on military operations, that this cannot include people who were associated with Al Qaeda."

Hamidzada, Karzai's spokesman, said there was credible intelligence of a "serious debate" and "considerable friction" among Taliban members over engaging politically with the Afghan government. He said Karzai's doors were open as part of the president's search for a "comprehensive solution."

"Any war ends in negotiation," Hamidzada said, "even if it's surrender."

henry.chu@latimes.com

Chu, The Times' New Delhi Bureau chief, was recently on assignment in Kabul.
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NATO, Afghan troops capture western district; several Taliban killed in the south
AP - Friday, November 9
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops and Afghan forces captured a remote district in western Afghanistan, as militants ambushed and killed a district chief in the volatile south, officials said Friday.

The battles around Gulistan district, in Farah province were continuing into Friday, after the joint NATO-led and Afghan seized the district center, which was overrun by Taliban militants last week, said Bariyalayi Khan, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.

In southern Zabul province, Taliban militants on motorbikes ambushed and killed Shahjoy's district chief and two of his bodyguards on Thursday, said Mohammad Rasool Khan, a district police chief.

Victims were shopping in the market when four militants on two motorbike's shot them dead, said Khan.

The U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops, meanwhile, clashed with the Taliban militants in the southern Helmand province's Nahr Surk district on Wednesday, leaving several militants dead, a coalition statement said.

The joint force was conducting a reconnaissance patrol near the district when insurgents engaged them with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the statement said.

"The combined force immediately engaged the Taliban fighters with small-arms fire and close air support, killing many of the insurgents before they fled the area," it said.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power. More than 5,700 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.
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Secret Khadr witness disclosed
Doubt cast on whether teen was 'unlawful' combatant, defence says
PAUL KORING Globe and Mail November 9, 2007 at 1:17 AM EST
U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — A never-before-disclosed American eyewitness to the furious battle in Afghanistan where Omar Khadr allegedly tossed a grenade has cast doubt on whether the teenager was an “unlawful” combatant, his defence team said Thursday.

The stunning disclosure, after a short and largely uneventful arraignment Thursday, was the latest twist in the tortuous process of bringing the only Canadian held at Guantanamo to trial.

It remains unclear whether Thursday's revelation amounts to a bombshell that shatters the government's case – conceivably by showing that Mr. Khadr has Geneva Conventions protection as a legitimate combatant, and thus throwing a grenade was combat, not murder – or just adds new complexity and further delay to the case.

Mr. Khadr, now 21, attended Thursday's proceedings and quietly accepted his assigned U.S. military lawyers, calmly answered questions from the judge and seemed attentively engaged by the process. He exercised his right to defer entering a plea to the charges.

But defence lawyers suggested the eyewitness account could undermine the central prosecution claim that Mr. Khadr was an “unlawful” enemy combatant and thus can be tried as a war criminal for killing a U.S. Special Forces medic.

Because the eyewitness's identity remains a secret and his account is classified, defence lawyers couldn't provide, and don't know, all the details. It came from a “U.S. government employee,” confirmed Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler, the U.S. navy lawyer heading Mr. Khadr's defence.

That wording suggests, perhaps, a Central Intelligence Agency operative, some of whom are known to have been with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan.

In July of 2002, a U.S. Special Forces group fought a gun battle at a remote compound near Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The only survivor among those engaged by the U.S. forces was the teenage Mr. Khadr, then 15, who was gravely wounded. An American medic was killed in a grenade explosion and several other U.S. soldiers were injured.

“It's classified evidence of an exculpatory nature,” Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler said, adding prosecutors “made us aware of this at the last minute.” Some observers, flown to Guantanamo to witness the proceedings, denounced the prosecution.

“It is totally outrageous that the prosecution would try to push ahead with a hearing on whether or not Khadr was an unlawful enemy combatant, while all the time withholding from the defence potentially exculpatory information,” said Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch. “Anyone who has ever gone to law school knows the fundamental legal and ethical rule: The prosecution cannot withhold exculpatory information from the defence.”

Others, like James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, praised the open, adversarial character of the proceedings. “Today the American people had a good day, today the system won,” he said.

Nevertheless, not only might the eyewitness evidence have a significant bearing on the case, defence lawyers were at pains to claim that the secrecy and pattern of lack of disclosure underscore the problems inherent in the process.

Several prosecution witnesses, including a Federal Bureau of Investigation interrogator have flatly refused to even be interviewed by defence lawyers, Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler said.

“How much more exculpatory evidence is out there, somewhere?” he asked at a news conference after the hearing.

Disclosure of the eyewitness's existence didn't occur during the two-hour hearing, when, it seems, Mr. Khadr's long-delayed trial finally got under way more than five years after he was brought to this special prison for terrorist suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Instead, it was first revealed to the press by Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defence counsel, who suggested questions be put to prosecutors as to why it had not been disclosed to the defence until 36 hours before the court appearance.

The prosecution team declined to provide any explanation or meet with the news media group flown in to Guantanamo for the hearing.

“They are going to do their talking in the courtroom,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Helmer, who said he was authorized to deliver a message from prosecutors.

But it may explain why Army Colonel Peter Brownback, the presiding military judge, flatly refused to let prosecutors proceed with their effort to portray Mr. Khadr as an al-Qaeda member. Their effort to play a video purportedly showing Mr. Khadr making roadside bombs was bluntly rejected by the judge, who had been told at a meeting prior to the hearing about the mystery eyewitness.

Marine Major Jeffrey Groharing said he could show Mr. Khadr was an unlawful combatant if allowed to present the video purportedly recovered from the compound where the battle occurred.

During the hearing, Col. Brownback rejected a defence challenge that he was unfit to preside and ordered both sides to get pretrial motions ready by next month.

In striking contrast to his previous appearances before the military tribunal, Mr. Khadr was attentive and relaxed during the session.

Full-bearded, wearing freshly laundered and strikingly white baggy pants and long, loose overshirt, the attire assigned prisoners considered the most compliant with the rules, with his long hair neatly coiled inside a black stocking cap, Mr. Khadr was marched into the court by two towering soldiers.

Once seated, he ignored the “All rise” as Col. Brownback strode into the converted courtroom inside an old airport terminal building. But Mr. Khadr did stand when instructed by the military judge, who asked him if he accepted his assigned military counsel. “Yes sir,” he said clearly when the judge asked whether he could hear him. And then, without hesitation, Mr. Khadr politely replied “Yes” to a short series of questions about whether he was satisfied with his defence team that now includes two Canadian lawyers who have only advisory status in the court.

Otherwise he sat, engaged, playing occasionally with papers on the polished table before him or tapping his thumbs silently as the teams of lawyers thrashed through a procedural session.

After a quick lunch with his lawyers, during which Mr. Khadr apologized for not having food for everyone, he disappeared back to the complex of prison camps along the Cuban coast. He isn't expected back in court until some time next spring, although no trial date has been set.

“He's a decent young man with a good heart, suffering from a terrible injustice,” Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler said.

Mr. Khadr's lawyers are preparing a two-pronged defence: attempting to undermine the prosecution's case while challenging the legality of the entire military-commission process.

“This is a process that was not designed to be fair,” Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler said. “We don't expect a fair trial for Omar Khadr. … Our ultimate hope is that Canada, like Britain and Australia,” will demand the repatriation of its citizen.

Mr. Khadr, whose father was a friend of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiring with al-Qaeda, providing material support for terrorism and spying by conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison if convicted. If he is acquitted, senior Bush administration officials have said he might remain detained indefinitely at Guantanamo anyway.
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U.S. ponders future of spraying Afghan opium crops
By David Morgan Thu Nov 8, 9:56 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A heated debate within the Bush administration over Afghanistan's surging opium trade could lead the United States to shelve a contentious plan to spray poppy crops with herbicide from the air, officials say.

Aerial spraying, used by the United States to fight cocaine production in Latin America, is championed by counternarcotics officials in the White House and State Department as the most effective way to destroy poppies in Taliban-controlled areas and cut a key source of funding for the Islamist militants.

But it has run into broad resistance from Afghan officials, the U.S. Congress and Defense Department, and European allies who fear it could backfire on efforts to win over the Afghan people, according to officials and experts involved in the discussions.

Critics say spraying would give the Taliban a powerful propaganda tool among villagers devastated by a Soviet campaign that destroyed food crops with aerial defoliant.

"Aerial spraying would likely have a serious detrimental effect on the counterinsurgency front," said Seth Jones of the RAND Corp, a global policy think tank based in California.

"It's hard to overstate how much disinformation there is among Afghan farmers. It would be fairly easy for insurgents to say: 'The U.S. is spraying chemicals to kill your crops.' And in fact, they've already started saying this."

Record poppy harvests have given Afghanistan a $3 billion opium industry whose corrupting influence poses a serious threat to government authority and saddles other countries with the criminal and health problems of the heroin trade.

The Afghan crop, which produces 93 percent of the world's opiates, is a major source of income for Taliban insurgents in the south who have deepened ties with farmers and traffickers, according to U.S. defense and counterterrorism officials.

"It's fueling the insurgency. Removing that revenue would diminish the threat considerably," said Beth Cole of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

CHEMICALS OR TRACTORS?
U.S.-backed herbicide spraying proved controversial in Latin America, where its use on coca fields is blamed for anti-American sentiment that helped bring leftist Evo Morales to power in Bolivia.

The U.S. House of Representatives endorsed a funding ban on Afghan herbicide spraying in its 2008 appropriations bill for foreign operations, while the Senate version declared aerial spraying as less effective than manual eradication. Final legislation is expected later this year.

The U.S. National Security Council entered the debate on Thursday at a meeting that considered whether aerial spraying should be part of U.S. policy on Afghanistan.

"The question is whether aerial spraying would be an option. This would be a decision by the administration as a whole as to what avenue to pursue here," said one U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Thursday's NSC discussion illustrated the divided positions of the State Department and Pentagon, according to a knowledgeable source. There was no immediate word on whether the meeting reached a resolution.

Formal NSC backing could escalate U.S. efforts to persuade the Afghan government to accept a limited aerial spraying program, experts said.

NSC officials declined to comment, while a State Department spokeswoman said only that the United States will implement whatever strategy the Afghan government chooses to adopt.

In 2007, Afghan poppy cultivation jumped 17 percent to 477,000 acres -- more than all of the land set aside for coca in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Hemming in Kabul and Andrew Gray and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Kristin Roberts and Mohammad Zargham)
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Afghan troops lack weapons
BILL GRAVELAND - THE CANADIAN PRESS The Daily News
The buildup of the Afghan National Army, considered an integral part of Canada's "exit strategy" will continue at a snail's pace unless NATO provides better weaponry, a senior Afghan military commander says.

There are about 38,000 soldiers in the Afghan army, about half the number believed necessary to keep the Taliban at bay on its own.

Canadian commanders have nothing but praise for the bravery of Afghan troops, who only earn about US$100 a month.

But after years of work and training, there are still only about two battalions of Afghan soldiers in Kandahar province where most Canadian soldiers are based.

The matter was raised when Gen. Rick Hillier, the Chief of Defence Staff, visited Afghanistan last month.

"An army is what's required to allow them to keep their security, so that's a long-term project," Hillier told reporters.

"It's going to take 10 years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number that Afghanistan will have, and make them professional and let them meet their security demands here," he said.

Bravery aside, Afghan soldiers are in dire need of better weapons, said the commander of the Kandak 21 battalion, which has been working with the Canadian Operational Mentoring Liaison Team.

Most Afghan troops are armed with old Soviet AK-47s and covet the same kinds of firearms being used by Canadian and American troops.

"We are still having the same old weapons. The same complaints exist," Lt.-Col. Shirin Shah Kowbandi told The Canadian Press.

"The Canadian teams, when they first arrived for the training, said they would try and provide us with the good weapons but unfortunately we have not received any (such) weapons yet," he noted. "The old weapons are still misfiring."

What worries him the most is the danger his men are in when doing battle against the Taliban.

"It is a very bad effect, indeed. It puts them in danger. If the weapon is not good, the soldier is not courageous to go towards the enemy and fight because he does not trust his weapon," said Shirin Shah.

That, he said, also makes it harder to recruit new soldiers into the ANA.

Better firearms are not all the Afghan Army needs. The military vehicle used by the ANA is a Ford Ranger truck with a mounted machine-gun. It's not uncommon to see a dozen soldiers on the trucks, with rifles and rocket launchers slung over their shoulders, heading off to battle.

Shirin Shah said he worries that Hillier may be too optimistic on the time frame for an independent Afghan army.

"I acknowledge his words. He was right. If the process is going the same slow speed as it is going on now, I would say it would take more than the 10 years," he warned.

"But if the process gets improved and the weapons are provided as soon as possible, it wouldn't take 10 years."
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Journalist Held Over Musa Qala Visit Freed
Police deny claims that they sought to curb press freedom.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By IWPR staff (ARR No. 272, 9-Nov-07)
Abdul Wadood Hejran, a reporter for Ariana Television in Helmand, was freed on the evening of November 8, after nearly 24 hours in detention following a trip with three other journalists to the Taleban stronghold Musa Qala.

Hejran, whose colleagues were briefly detained, was unavailable for comment today, November 9, though he did indicate in a brief telephone conversation with IWPR that he was well and back at work.

Hussain Andiwal, police chief of Helmand province, told IWPR that there had been no intent to curb freedom of the press by holding the journalists.

"We do not want to lock journalists' mouths," he said. "But leaving for Musa Qala, where a 15-year-old boy was hanged because he had a one dollar bill in his pocket … the police need to know who is going to these places. If they had been killed, it would have been our responsibility. So we have a right to ask questions."

The journalists on the Musa Qala trip say that they informed the local authorities about their plans to visit the town.

The detention of Hejran was unfortunate, added Andiwal, but dictated by circumstances. On November 8, most of the Helmand police force was occupied with the funeral of Engineer Abdul Matin, the parliamentarian who was killed in a bombing in Baghlan on November 6.

The body was flown from Kabul to Helmand that day, with most of the province's officials in attendance.

"We did not want to jail [the journalists]," he insisted. “But due to the burial ceremony we were delayed. We just wanted to ask them questions."

IWPR has been informed unofficially that its reporter, Aziz Ahmad Tassal, one of the journalists on the Musa Qala trip, is no longer wanted for questioning by the security forces.

On his return from Musa Qala, he had received calls from policemen who said they wanted to interview him. Officers had also come to his home.
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3 Pakistani Soldiers Found Dead Near Afghan Border
By VOA News 08 November 2007
Pakistani security officials say they have found the bullet-riddled bodies of three soldiers abducted earlier this week in the tribal North Waziristan region near the Afghan border.

Officials say the men were among four Frontier Corps troops kidnapped Tuesday by suspected Islamic militants as they were on their way to duty in Razmak, near the region's main town, Miran Shah.

The fate of the fourth soldier is not known.

Remnants of Afghanistan's Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists are believed to be hiding in Pakistan's North and South Waziristan regions.

Elsewhere in northwestern Pakistan, fighters loyal to a radical Islamic cleric seized more territory in Swat Valley Wednesday, after paramilitary troops and police surrendered their weapons to militants in the towns of Kalam, Madian and Bahrain.

Militants earlier seized the town of Matta and Khawazkhela, hoisting flags over captured police and military posts.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule last week in part he said, to quell growing militancy by pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The government sent 2500 troops to the Swat Valley to counter the cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, who has opened an FM radio station calling for holy war against Islamabad.

Scenic Swat Valley is a top tourist destination - known as Pakistan's "Switzerland."

The advance of militants into Swat marks a branching out from their traditional strongholds in tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan.
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Pakistan instability could endanger Canada's troops
Andy Johnson, CTV.ca News Staff Thu. Nov. 8 2007 11:07 AM ET
The ongoing political instability in Pakistan could have a direct impact on Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan if the situation continues to erode, according to experts on the region.

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule on Sunday, suspending the country's constitution ahead of a decision from the Supreme Court that could have floored his re-election as president. He also fired independent-minded judges, muzzled the media and beefed up law enforcement powers, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

Canadian troops serving in nearby Afghanistan could soon be affected if the situation continues to spiral downwards, says Eric Margolis, an expert on the region and author of "War at the Top of the World."

"It's gravely worrying for Canadian forces in Afghanistan," Margolis tells CTV.ca.

That's because Pakistan, the United States' closest ally in the region, is home to three U.S. air bases that provide a whopping 85 per cent of air cover to Canadians fighting on the ground in Afghanistan .

And 75 per cent of military supplies used by NATO troops in Afghanistan come into the country from Pakistan -- much of it over land, by truck.

If Musharraf's government was to fall, those air bases and supply lines could be jeopardized. And the safety of Canadian troops, by extension, could also be put at risk, Margolis said.

"They might at some point become jeopardized by a new government in Pakistan or by guerilla attacks," Margolis said. "It's a possibility within months if the situation continues to deteriorate."

Canada's standing in the world could also suffer in addition to the direct threat that could be posed to its troops, Margolis says. Canada sends aid to Pakistan and has supported Musharraf -- who took power in a 1999 coup.

"Canada could become a target of terrorist attacks as more and more Pakistanis become angry at Canada and see it as a junior enemy and as an ally of the United States," Margolis says. He adds that while Canada claims to be striving to uphold democracy in Afghanistan, it is also supporting what he describes as Musharraf's "military dictatorship."

Margolis dismissed comments made by Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who warned Monday that political strife in Pakistan could lead to greater numbers of Afghan refugees fleeing Pakistan to return home, providing a potential pool of new recruits for the Taliban.

Margolis said the situation in Pakistan is unlikely to boost Taliban numbers dramatically, since the militants have a longstanding tradition of crossing the frontier to bolster their ranks.

In terms of Pakistan's future, much is at risk, Margolis says.

"Its whole stability (is at stake)," he says. "The kind of government that rules it, whether it sticks together as a nation -- it's a very fragile nation -- whether some kind of democracy is restored or whether its military dictatorship is maintained."

Tariq Amin-Khan, a Pakistan analyst at Ryerson University, says the situation in Pakistan amounts to a political and constitutional crisis. Musharraf's actions have only encouraged extremism in the country -- something that could endanger Canadian troops, Amin-Khan said.

"Whenever dissent is curtailed, whenever civil liberties are effectively removed or people don't have civil liberties, in those circumstances extremism actually rises, and the border with Afghanistan will be affected, and will be affected in a very adverse way," Amin-Khan told CTV Newsnet.

"So it behooves the Canadian government to put pressure on the military in Pakistan as well as the U.S. and other Western countries."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his first comments on the crisis, said he was troubled and concerned by Musharraf's crackdown on rights and suspension of the constitution.

He said Musharraf is muzzling legitimate opposition voices under the guise of fighting terrorism and extremism.

"That is not in the interests of the world and this government is going to work with its allies to continue the pressure on Pakistan because this is a very serious, very wrong and very dangerous development for that part of the world," Harper said.

The U.S. is also facing some public embarrassment over its close relationship with Pakistan in light of Musharraf's decision to declare a form of marshal law.

Bush has called Musharraf a personal friend and stabilizing force in the region. But now that a different picture has emerged of Musharraf -- one of a leader willing to use harsh measures against his own people -- his credibility and standing as the "defender of freedom" touted by Bush at the White House, have been thrown into doubt and Bush has been forced to do some tough talking.

"Our hope is that he will restore democracy as quickly as possible," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office this week.

But he added, the U.S. is not about to cut aid to Pakistan and can only work with Musharraf and make the U.S. position clear.

"It's a hypothetical," he said. "I certainly hope he does take my advice," Bush said.

The list of countries opposing Musharraf's actions is growing. In addition to the U.S. and the U.K., the European Union's 27 member nations have called on him to seek reconciliation, return media freedoms and release all political prisoners, including members of the judiciary.
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Musharraf's grip is looking unbreakable
TheStar.com - November 08, 2007 Haroon Siddiqui
What can we expect in Pakistan in the days ahead?
Not much. At least not much that would make much of a difference to Gen. Pervez Musharraf's march to reconsolidating his power. And not much to the Canadian troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, notwithstanding Peter MacKay's alarmist musings from Kandahar.

The defence minister, who fortunately escaped injury as Taliban rockets landed near a Canadian outpost he was visiting, was incoherent in his reaction to the imposition of emergency in Pakistan.

He raised the spectre of a flood of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan, the chances of which are less than zero.

The 2 million Afghans in Pakistan are a holdover from the 1980-88 Soviet occupation and subsequent Taliban rule. The reason they haven't gone back is that NATO forces, including Canadians, have failed to stabilize Afghanistan.

A Pakistan under emergency rule is a still whole lot safer than Afghanistan with its daily bombs and deadly narcotics economy.

MacKay also fretted about the Taliban recruiting in Afghan camps in Pakistan. If so, he should've been welcoming the prospect of the refugees going home, thus emptying those camps. Or, he should have been offering them all refugee status in Canada.

Absent either proposition, he should have stayed mum and saved Canadians the embarrassment of seeing their defence minister flounder on his most important file.

As for Pakistan, events are unfolding as planned by Musharraf and, perhaps, acquiesced by some level of the American administration.

His main goal, which he has achieved, was to pre-empt the Supreme Court's pending judgment about the legality of his recent election as president by the national and provincial assemblies.

Having fired the judges, Musharraf's main concern is to get to Nov. 15, the date he's to be sworn in, without the lawyers' protests snowballing into a mass movement.

Iftikhar Chaudhry, the fired chief justice, may be a symbol of resistance but his participation in political rallies and his exhortations to the lawyers to take to the streets has been less than judicious.

Besides, the legal community is too small to have a strong street presence. Its ability to draw news coverage, and thus act as a spark for public outrage, is now denuded by Musharraf throttling the media.

Street power belongs to Islamists and to Benazir Bhutto's People's Party.

But the Islamists' concerns aren't the same as the secularists'. And while her agenda coincides with the lawyers', she cannot go all out in confronting the man she's relying on for a job: that of prime minister, to give the Musharraf presidency a democratic sheen, as per a deal worked out in Washington.

So she'll make just enough noises to satiate the public appetite for anti-military protests but not more.

Musharraf, who views her as a cagey customer, has further limited her options with his emergency. She's either with him or she's not.

Barring unforeseen developments, he would be sworn in next week. He would have shed his uniform, just as George W. Bush urged him to. He would no longer head the army, just as Bush said he shouldn't (having already named a loyalist to that post). And he may even end the state of emergency and set a date for the election, just as Bush said he should.

There will be "democracy" and there will be "military rule," a compact of crooked politicians and power-drunk generals and the U.S.

I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.
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British soldier dies in Afghanistan
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed Friday after the vehicle he was travelling in came off a road and rolled over a bridge, the Ministry of Defence said.

The soldier, from 36 Engineer Regiment, died at the accident scene early Friday morning near Sangin in the restive southern Helmand Province.

No enemy forces were involved, the ministry added.
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Afghan-born man to lose citizenship after criminal trial1
The Fresno Bee - Nov 08 11:00 AM
An Afghan-born man faces up to 10 years in federal prison for lying on his citizenship application, authorities said Thursday.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Ahmadzai, 35, lied on his citizenship application papers by not disclosing prior convictions for drug sales, assault and battery, forgery and receiving stolen property.

Rarely do naturalization fraud cases reach criminal trial, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The jury verdict, reached late Wednesday, means that a federal judge will strip Ahmadzai of his citizenship at a Jan. 28 sentencing, setting him up for deportation to Afghanistan, Kice said.

ICE has obtained guilty pleas in three criminal naturalization fraud cases in the past year in the Los Angeles area, but none have gone to trial, she said. ICE has stripped about 200 people of their citizenship through civil proceedings since 1999.

Ahmadzai, who applied for citizenship 15 years ago, also pleaded guilty to passport fraud in 2006, she said.

Ahmadzai's attorney, David Kaloyanides, said his client pleaded guilty to passport fraud in hopes the government would drop the naturalization fraud charge, but they didn't. He had no choice but to go to trial, the attorney said.

"We could not work out any agreement with the government that would preserve his citizenship, so in his mind he had nothing to lose," Kaloyanides said.
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Massacre of civilians comes in for strong denunciation
NEW YORK/KABUL, Nov 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States, Canada, Britain and NATO Tuesday condemned the suicide attack killing and wounding scores of people, including legislators and children, in relatively calm northern Afghanistan.

They called the brazen attack that claimed the lives of six parliamentarians, many schoolchildren and others a direct assault on fledgling democracy in the war-hit country and said their resolve to fight terrorists had become even stronger.

Sending condolences to families of the victims, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: There is no political cause that can justify the murder of innocent people. Those responsible seek only to foster fear and limit freedom; and they should be brought to justice."

The enemies of peace and freedom wanted to gain through violence, threat and intimidation what they could not win in free and fair elections, a statement from the spokesman said.

The United States continues to support and work with the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan people to eliminate terrorist threats and build an open, stable, and democratic Afghanistan," Sean McCormack added.

Denouncing the bombing as a deliberate attack on democracy, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said: By targeting members of Afghan Parliament, these terrorists were seeking to undermine development. Their utter disregard for schoolchildren and other innocent civilians gathered to greet the Afghan parliamentary delegation is reprehensible."

It was a deplorable attempt to hinder Afghanistan's progress but only strengthened their resolve, Bernier observed, assuring: Canada remains unequivocally committed to supporting Afghanistan and its democratically-elected government."

In Kabul, ISAF Commander Gen. Dan McNeill said: "ISAF is deeply saddened by the senseless terrorist attack in Baghlan province and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their friends and families.  The ISAF community will extend all possible support to the people of Afghanistan in the wake of this heinous act."

A statement from the NATO-led force quoted the commander as describing the blast an act of terrorism on a most indiscriminate scale.  "Whoever was responsible, obviously, cared nothing about the intolerable pain and suffering they would inflict on innocent civilians."

British Ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said: "The attack against the people of Baghlan and the parliamentary representatives of the nation of Afghanistan was a cowardly and abhorrent act of terrorism.

"I offer my condolences to the president and to the brave and suffering people of Afghanistan on behalf of the government of the United Kingdom. There can be no justification for such an attack. We must never allow the enemies of the people of Afghanistan to win." 
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'Private security firms involved in mercenary activity'
GENEVA, Nov 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A number of private security companies operating in conflict zones were engaging in new forms of mercenary activity, a United Nations team warned on Tuesday.

The group of experts warned the countries employing such firms could be liable for human rights violations committed by their personnel. It noted a significant rise in the number of private security companies operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although heavily armed, the personnel employed by the companies were neither civilians nor combatants, added the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries. They represent a new form of mercenarism, similar to irregular combatants, which itself is an unclear concept.

In a press release issued here, the group said states employing their services might be held responsible for violations of internationally recognised human rights committed by the personnel of such companies.

"This is especially true if the companies are empowered to exercise elements of governmental authority or are acting under governmental direction or control," the UN experts observed.

Since it was difficult for war-torn countries to regulate private security companies, the group said, it believed a significant part of that responsibility fell on states from where the companies exported services. The exporting states should avoid granting immunity to the companies and their personnel, they said.

The group said it was concerned that only 30 states have ratified the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, as well as by the lack of regulation at the regional and national levels regarding private military and security companies which operate without oversight and accountability.
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