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October 6, 2007 

Afghan suicide attack kills US soldier
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Reporter
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and four Afghans and sending flames shooting into the sky, officials said.

The bombing — on the sixth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan — threw several vehicles on their side. Four Afghans were killed and 12 wounded, the Health Ministry said.

The attack was against U.S. troops responsible for training the Afghan military and police. Lt. Col. David Johnson, a U.S. spokesman, said one American soldier died in the blast and one was wounded.

"There was an enormous explosion, the windows of my shop shattered," said tailor Mohammad Isaq. "When I came out I saw the foreigners' vehicles on fire. I saw two injured Afghans and I ran to help them."

This year has been the most violent of the six-year effort, the result of the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

More than 5,100 people have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on Afghan and Western officials.

The suicide bombing was the third major attack in Kabul in a week. On Sept. 29, a bomber targeted an Afghan army bus, killing 30 people. A similar attack Tuesday against a police bus killed 13.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and said the violence is forced upon Afghanistan from abroad — a reference to Pakistan, where many Taliban fighters come from.

"In the religion and culture of the Afghan people, there is no place for such wild and un-Islamic attacks, but these kind of conspiracies are pressed onto our people from the outside," Karzai said in a statement.

Abdul Manan Farahi, Kabul's counterterrorism chief, said Kabul police in the last six months prevented 156 terror attacks, including 18 suicide bombings. He said one man from Morocco, one from Saudi Arabia and several from Pakistan were among the 18 would-be suicide attackers arrested.

Saturday's attack occurred on a tree-lined, four-lane road that leads from the U.S. Embassy to the airport — a route frequently traveled by foreign convoys.

In the south, in Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan security company guarding a road construction project, killing five of the security guards, said Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. Ten Afghan guards were missing, he said.

Some 40 to 50 fighters in Ghazni province, meanwhile, laid down their arms and joined the government's reconciliation process, said Kazim Alayar, deputy governor. The fighters are from Andar district, a notorious Taliban stronghold where militants held some of the 23 South Korean hostages kidnapped in July. Ghazni's new governor, Abdul Manan, comes from Andar.

More than 4,500 fighters have joined the government through the reconciliation process.

In Helmand province's Gereshk district, a roadside bomb explosion killed a policeman, said Abdul Manaf Kahan, the district chief.

Britain's Ministry of Defense on Saturday announced the death of Maj. Alexis Roberts, Prince William's former Sandhurst platoon commander, who was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. Roberts, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was the highest ranking British officer killed there since operations there began in November 2001, the Ministry of Defense said.

Separately, Japan's Defense Ministry denied a media report Saturday that it planned to withdraw its naval mission to support U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Nov. 1, saying the government expected parliament to approve an extension before then.
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Two MP's arrive in Afghanistan
Saturday, October 06, 2007 CanWest News Service
Maxime Bernier, the recently-appointed foreign affairs minister, touched down in Afghanistan Saturday following a week of lobbying the U.N. to appoint a special envoy to the war-torn nation.

Bernier and Minister of International Co-operation Bev Oda arrived in Kabul on short notice to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The jaunt, a first for both ministers, comes at a time of great controversy in both host and guest nations. On Thursday in Toronto, Afghan Minister of Education Haneef Atmar thanked the Canadian mission in his native land, calling Canada Afghanistan's "greatest ally." In an address to the U.N. earlier this week, Bernier urged the multinational body to ramp up its presence in the Central Asian country to help stabilize dangerous Taliban-controlled regions. "The challenge is great but the principles we defend are even greater," he said at the time. His motion to create a permanent U.N. liaison in Afghanistan similar to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's position in the Middle East was supported by NATO allies France, Spain, Norway, and the United States.

Bernier has received far less support in Canada. The nature of Canada's Afghan mission will likely be at the forefront of debate when the House of Commons sits again on Oct. 16. Last week, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre announced he would visit the Kandahar base which temporarily serves as home for about 2,500 Canadian troops on an independent fact-finding mission as his party prepares for another session of Parliament. Liberal leader Stephane Dion expressed his own intent to visit the far-flung airfield.

Divisions over the international presence in Afghanistan have frequently led to violence in the six years of NATO-led intervention. Shortly before the ministers landed, a suicide attack in Kabul killed five Afghans and an American soldier on patrol in the capital city.

Karzai has repeatedly asked Canada to extend its NATO mission until Afghanistan is able to defend itself. However, barring consensus in support of an extension, the commitment which has claimed the lives of 71 Canadian soldiers will likely expire in 2009.
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Canada says focused on boosting Afghan police
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) - Canada said on Saturday bringing the notoriously corrupt, under-staffed and under-equipped Afghan police up to strength would be the focus of its mission in Afghanistan.

Ottawa's military presence in Afghanistan is a divisive issue in Canada where the minority Conservative government faces a vote of confidence next month and public opinion is deeply split over the mission.

Pressure is on the government to show progress in development in Afghanistan, where 71 Canadian soldiers have been killed since 2001, one of the highest casualty rates of any of the nearly 40 nations with troops in the country.

As Taliban insurgents switch tactics from head-on clashes with the military to more suicide and roadside bombs, the role of the Afghan police, with a permanent presence in most districts, becomes ever more important.

The Afghan National Police suffers many more casualties than any other force. The number of trained policemen is far below that required, pay is low and is often siphoned off by senior officers, and desertions rates are high.

"One of the challenges is Afghan National Police. We agree that we must support the Afghan National Police to give them more training and more equipment. I can assure you it will the focus of our government," Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier told a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Canada has some 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, mostly in and around the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

"We are in Kandahar, the dangerous part of the country, but we are proud to be there because we can see improvement in the life of Afghan people everyday," he said.

Canada is committed to help Afghanistan with development aid until 2011, Bernier said, though the mandate for Canadian troops to remain runs out in February 2009.

"I want to make sure that in the near future, the people will have a stable country specifically the people of Kandahar," Bernier said. "We still have to work to do, we still have to train Afghan National Army and police, but we will stay in Afghanistan until the end of our commitment."
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Why? Six years on from the invasion of Afghanistan
06 October 2007 Independent, UK
Six years after a war was launched to overthrow the Taliban, British solders are still being killed in bloody skirmishing in a conflict in which no final victory is possible. Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan by the US, Britain and allies, an operation codenamed Enduring Freedom. But six years on, Britain is once again, as in Iraq, the most junior of partners, spending the lives of its soldiers with little real influence over the war.

The outcome of the conflict in Afghanistan will be decided in Washington and Islamabad. There is no chance of defeating the Taliban so long as they can retreat, retrain and recoup in the mountain fastnesses of Pakistan.

Yesterday, we learned of the death of another British soldier. Although his identity has not been released, it is believed that the dead man acted as a mentor to Prince William. Two others were injured when their vehicle was caught by an explosion west of Kandahar, bringing the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 82 since 2001.

The drip-drip of British losses underlines how little has been achieved in the past six years, and how quickly any gains can be lost. Most of southern Afghanistan was safer in the spring of 2002 than it is now and at no moment during the years that have elapsed is there any evidence from the speeches of successive British ministers that they have much idea what we are doing there and what we hope to achieve.

This week, the Conservative leader David Cameron told supporters that he would restore Afghanistan to the "number one priority in foreign policy" . The remark highlighted how this conflict has all but slipped from the political agenda.

Yet, Afghanistan is filled with the bones of British soldiers who died in futile campaigns in the 19th century and beyond. The lesson of these long forgotten wars is that military success on the ground in Afghanistan is always elusive and, even when achieved, seldom turns into lasting political success.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan through Pakistani support and it was when this support was withdrawn in 2001 that the Taliban abandoned Kabul and Kandahar in the days and weeks after 7 October without a fight. But six years later, the Taliban are back.

The violence shows no sign of ending. Suicide bombings, gun battles, airstrikes and roadside bombs have killed 5,100 people in the first nine months of this year, a 55 per cent increase over the same period in 2006.

I went to Afghanistan in September 2001 a few days after 9/11 when it became obvious the US was going to retaliate by overthrowing the Taliban because they had been the hosts of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

It was a very peculiar war that followed, distinguished, above all, by a lack of real fighting. When Pakistani support and Saudi money were withdrawn, the Taliban's regime unravelled at extraordinary speed. By early 2002, I was able to drive from Kabul to Kandahar without feeling that I was taking my life in my hands.

But, for all the talk of progress and democracy and the presence of thousands of British, American and other Nato troops on the ground, it is impossible to undertake such journeys across the country safely.

Yet, back in 2001, from the moment I saw the first American bombs falling on Kabul and the sparks of light from the feeble Taliban anti-aircraft guns, it was obvious the two sides were completely mismatched.

Taliban fighters who expected to be targeted, simply fled before they were annihilated. The victory came too easily. The Taliban never made a last stand even in their bastions of support in the Pashtun heartlands in south. It was a very Afghan affair in keeping with the traditions of the previous 25 years when sudden betrayals and changes of alliance, not battles, had decided the winner.

Driving from Kabul towards Kandahar in the footsteps of the Taliban, I visited the fortress city of Ghazni on the roads south where the Taliban had suddenly dematerialised and received a de facto amnesty in return for giving up power without a fight.

Qari Baba, the ponderous looking governor of Ghazni province, who had been appointed the day before, said: "I don't see any Taliban here", which was surprising since the courtyard in front of his office was crowded with tough-looking men in black turbans carrying sub machine-guns.

"Every one of them was Taliban until 24 hours ago," whispered a Northern Alliance officer.

One fact that should have made the presence of British, American and other foreign troops easier in Afghanistan was that the Taliban were deeply hated for their cruelty, mindless religious fanaticism (leading to the banning of chess and kite flying) and the belief that they are puppets of Pakistani military intelligence. And unlike Iraq, the foreign presence in Afghanistan has had majority support, though that is slipping.

Drawing parallels between Iraq and Afghanistan is misleading because Saddam Hussein had sought to run a highly centralised state. In Afghanistan power had always been fragmented. But Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 were mired in poverty. One reason why both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein went down so quickly is that Afghans, like the Iraqis, hoped for a better life.

They did not get it. Lack of jobs and services like electricity, clean water, hospitals and food continued or got worse.

Iraq is potentially a rich country because of its oil wealth. In Afghanistan the only equivalent to oil money is the money from the poppy fields on which impoverished farmers increasingly depend. One of the reasons the Taliban lost the support of Pashtun farmers in 2001 – though this was hardly highlighted by the victors – is that they enforced a ban on poppy growing which was highly effective. If the US adopts a policy of killing the poppy plants by spraying them with chemicals from the air, then they will also be engulfed by the same wave of unpopularity. The opium trade is fuelling lawlessness, warlordism and an unstable state.

Both Afghanistan and Iraq are notoriously difficult countries to conquer. They have for centuries, been frontier zones where powerful neighbours have fought each other by proxy.

Victory in Afghanistan six years after the start of the war to overthrow the Taliban is not likely. Even massively expanding troop levels would just mean more targets, and more losses. Armies of occupation, or perceived occupation, always provoke a reaction.

Ultimately what happens in Afghanistan will be far more determined not by skirmishes in Helmand province, but by developments in Pakistan, the Taliban's great supporter, which are wholly beyond British control. And the agenda in both the Afghan and Iraqi wars is ultimately determined by US domestic political needs Successes in faraway wars have to be manufactured or exaggerated. Necessary compromises are ruled out, leaving Iraqis and Afghans alike with the dismal outlook of war without end.

Six years in Afghanistan

* October, 2001 – British-backed US-led air strikes against Taliban strongholds. Taliban leader Mullah Omar flees to Pakistan border as his forces forced to withdraw.

* December, 2001 – The Bonn deal on the future of Afghanistan sees the creation of an interim government, headed by the US-backed President Hamid Karzai. .

* January, 2002 – Nato peacekeepers arrive with a year-long mandate.

* June, 2002 – The "grand assembly" selects Hamid Karzai as interim president.

* July, 2002 – Attacks increase throughout country and a vice-president, Haji Abdul Qadir, is shot dead with his son-in-law in Kabul.

* September, 2002 – Assassination attempt on President Karzai.

* January, 2004 – The Assembly backs a new national constitution

paving way for elections.

* September, 2004 – Another attempt on life of Karzai who is confirmed as President with 55 per cent of vote in elections - first for a generation.

* Spring/summer, 2006 – Taliban regroup in the south and carry out a series of fierce attacks there and elsewhere.

* July-October, 2006 – Nato peacekeeping forces, 18,500 and rising, take over full control.

* Spring, 2007 – Renewed efforts made by British-led coalition troops to force Taliban out of south.

* October, 2007 – Violent incidents, especially suicide bombings, are up 30 per cent on last year, with an average of 550 a month.
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Amid ancient Afghan rubble strides the bionic Canuck
Oct 06, 2007 04:30 AM Rick Westhead Staff reporter Toronto Star,  Canada
Before patrolling the dirt roads that snake around their base near Kandahar, Canadian soldiers grab uniforms that feature special dyes and fibres designed to help them blend into the night. They also pack QuikClot, a chemical powder that can be poured into seeping wounds to staunch blood loss.

Troops may soon be able to add yet another high-tech gadget to their growing arsenal: X-ray vision.

Later this month, Canadian Forces officials are scheduled to review a device that promises to allow soldiers to literally see through concrete walls.

"It's a radar for finding people," says Robert Judd, president of Virginia-based Camero Inc.

The device is called Xaver and it sends and receives radio signals through walls up to a foot thick. Those signals are then converted into rough images on a small video monitor.

In another era, Judd might have had trouble coaxing Canadian Forces personnel to even meet with him.

These days, however, the military's doors are wide open to defence contractors. In 2005-06, the most recent fiscal year for which statistics are available, Canada's defence-related spending was $14.7 billion, 44 per cent more than the $10.2 billion spent in 1997-98.

"The war may not be good for innocent Afghans, but it's been a bonanza for companies," says John Pike, an analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a non-profit research centre in Washington.

It's also meant a bonanza of new gear for Canadian soldiers, but some fret the rapid spending increase may be leading to rushed, ill-advised buys.

Purchases are approved so quickly that there's little long-term consideration, says Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps, a military magazine.

Canada already has some 66 Leopard tanks, Taylor says, yet has agreed to buy more from the Dutch, some of which require major retrofits, and lease still more from Germany.

"Our troops may be out of Afghanistan by the time we finish retrofitting some of the German tanks," Taylor says. "What do we do then? Send them down the streets of Haiti or pay for them to be sent back to Germany, if they'll take them back?"

The list of the Forces' recent acquisitions is lengthy and, by military standards, impressive.

Late last month, officers in Kandahar were showing off the Husky, an oversized tractor-like vehicle with electronic and metal detectors designed to find and blow up deadly roadside bombs.

Some Canadian troops have assault rifles equipped with so-called "holographic sights" that allow soldiers to shoot on the run with improved accuracy thanks to a video screen the size of a cellphone display atop the rifle.

"They don't have to shut their eyes and squint to see their target," says Major Pierre Caron, a Canadian Forces weapons expert.

Ottawa's Dew Engineering is refurbishing LAV 3 vehicles with improved armour plating and designing a new seat that promises to better absorb the crippling shock wave created by detonating roadside bombs.

"When a bomb goes off, it's not just the shrapnel that kills, the percussion of the blast moves the organ around," says Tim Page, president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Securities Industries, a trade group. "The seat absorbs that percussion."

But some of the recent purchases are not working exactly as hoped.

Canada bought four unmanned aerial vehicles for $33.8 million in August 2003, through Oerlikon Contraves Inc.

The four-metre-long, French-made Sperwer aircraft were equipped with cameras, parachutes, inflatable crash bags and computer circuit boards.

But it had never been flown in extreme heat or in altitudes as high as Afghanistan. There were immediate concerns the new units would fail. Those worries were dismissed by an Oerlikon spokesperson.

Yet, four years on, Canadian soldiers now complain the Sperwer units have limited range and endurance and are struggling to cope with the Afghan heat.

The defence department is now planning to spend as much as $100 million to buy improved unmanned aerial vehicles.

A string of emails in April 2003 shows that some officers at the Canadian Forces Experimentation Centre – it tests new equipment before purchase – were concerned that Canada's first UAV purchase was being done hastily.

In an April 28, 2003 email to two colleagues obtained under the Access to Information Act, Lt.-Col. Stephen Newton wrote that he was worried about the fast tracking of the UAV purchase.

"It does not appear that anyone is quarterbacking this event and what is worse is that whoever is doing it is basing all their efforts on outdated procedures and criteria," Newton wrote. "At this stage of the game I am beginning to believe that the request for a tactical UAV is coming from the two staff instead of the operators. That is the only way I can explain such a lack of thought..."

Despite such misgivings, Dan Ross, the assistant deputy minister for materiel and the person in charge of major military purchases, said in an interview he wants to make the approval process faster still.

"Before I was hired in May 2005 it was not uncommon for (documents outlining) new project requirements to be 60,000 pages long," Ross said.

In 2004, an internal report suggested it took 107 months to procure equipment. Ross said he wants to pare that to 48 months.
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Germans promise more aid to Afghan army and police 
Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:10:10 GMT  EARTHtimes.org
Berlin - Days before a crucial parliamentary vote on rolling over authorization for German troops in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung promised in Berlin more aid for the Afghan army and police. In remarks to appear Sunday in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, he voiced confidence that the Taliban could be beaten, but said it was too soon to withdraw the German troops.

"Only when the security there is self-sustaining can be begin to talk about withdrawing," he said.

He did not elaborate in the interview on how the training for the Afghan forces will be stepped up.

The commander of German ISAF forces in the north of Afghanistan, Brigadier-General Dieter Warnecke, told the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag that boosting the Afghan forces was "the biggest challenge of the year to come."

The German parliament in Berlin is set to vote on Friday on an extension of the period during which the German troops are deployed in both the north and air-force units fly reconnaissance missions over the south.
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Musharraf admits al-Qaeda has hideouts in FATA
ISLAMABAD, Oct 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Gen. Pervez Musharraf General Musharraf has said policies on subjects including terrorism and militancy should always be reviewed in the national interest.

In the war on terror, the president said in an interview on Wednesday, Pakistan was taking actions that might benefit others. But those decisions were essentially in its own interest, he insisted.

The general told a private TV channel he was adopting measures to deal with the challenge of terrorism and extremism. "There is no room in Islam for extremist views," he observed, stressing an understanding of the spirit of the great religion.

Speaking to Geo TV, Musharraf called the interference of foreign elements in Afghanistan a grave threat to regional security, saying the situation must be contained. Conditions in tribal areas were not satisfactory, acknowledged the general, who said administrative and economic measures were being taken in addition to the military action to address the issue of militancy.

Asked about former premier Benazir Bhutto's statement that she would allow the United States to conduct operations against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Pakistani, Musharraf said he was opposed to the remarks.

However, he hastened to add Bhutto had the right to vent her views on the issue. His government was fighting al-Qaeda in accordance with an agreement, he said, explaining the war on terror on Pakistani soil was its internal matter.

Reminded of Osama bin Laden's call for Pakistani people to wage a jihad against him, Musharraf said he was not scared of threats because he had already had a brush with death on several occasions. He believed the al-Qaeda threat and the absence of peace hampered Pakistan's progress.

Al-Qaeda might have its bases in the tribal areas Pakistan but no state organ was supporting it, Musharraf said, claiming terrorist elements were on the run or confined to their hideouts because of the stern action being taken against them.
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Ban considering 'high-level envoy' for Afghanistan
NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Unite Nations is considering the Canadian proposal to appoint a 'high-level special envoy' on Afghanistan.

A press official at the UN Secretary General's office told Pajhwok Afghan News that Ban Ki-moon was considering the proposal put forth by Canada.

He would also discuss the Canadian proposal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other member states before taking any decision, said the official.

The issue was also discussed at the recently-held "High Level Meeting", co-chaired by Ban Ki-moon and Karzai and attended by foreign ministers of 22 countries, at the UN.

The proposal, which was formally put forth before the General Assembly by Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier on Tuesday, argues that appointment of a high-level special envoy on Afghanistan would help in better co-ordination among all member nations on the issue of Afghanistan.
Lalit K. Jha
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Development councils constituted in Seghan district
BAMYAN CITY, Oct 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Development councils - tasked with implementing reconstruction projects - are being constituted in Seghan district of the central Bamyan province, an official said on Thursday.

Thirty-three councils from Seghan, declared as district of peace by the Disarmament of Irresponsible Armed Groups (DIAG), met at the Bamyan University in this regard.

Rural Rehabilitation Director Muhammad Younus Baaser, speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, said local council members discussed with government officials the reconstruction schemes in the district.

Ten local councils were made into a development council that would carry forward the rebuilding plans in the district, said the director, who promised an amount of $200,000 pledge to Seghan by the DIAG process would also be spent by the newly-formed body.

Seghan district chief Abdul Hadi Seghani believed the amount pledged by the DIAG should be utilised for the construction of a health clinic. Residents of the district faced complex health problems in the winter, he observed, saying most pregnant women died on their way to hospitals because roads were closed as a result of snowfall.
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Militant commander threatens to try kidnapped soldiers
PESHAWAR, Oct 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A militant commander in South Waziristan Agency, near the Pak-Afghan border, has warned to put on trial around 300 security personnel held hostage by his supporters if his detained loyalists are not released.

Local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud was quoted by a newspaper on Wednesday as asking the government to swap the detainees for the soldiers and pull out troops from the Mehsud-inhabited restive region.

Mehsud conveyed his conditions to a tribal jirga negotiating the release of the troops, who have been in his captivity for weeks. He reportedly gave tribal elders the names of the miscreants, threatening: "I will put the soldiers on trial. I have my own courts and they will try them for violating an agreement (with militants).

Senator Saleh Shah, speaking to Daily Times, said the commander insisted the army had contravened the 205 Sararogha deal between the government and the Mehsud tribes. Under the accord, the authorities agreed to abolish security posts built in Mehsud-controlled areas.

For its part, the government argues it cannot free the militants being tried by courts, a stance that has irked the rebel leader, who told the MMA lawmaker: "If the government has courts, we also have our own courts to try the soldiers."

The parliamentarian dismissed the impression the jirga had failed to secure the soldiers release. He said they were doing their bit but the political administration's indecision was hampering a breakthrough.

In response to the query how long it would take to free the soldiers, the senator said: As long as the United States remains in Afghanistan, these kidnappings, killings and destruction will go on (in the tribal areas).
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Afghan documentaries at South Asian International Film Festival
NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The fourth edition of the South Asian International Film Festival has two Afghan documentaries, including one on late jihadi commander Ahmed Shah Massoud.

However, no feature film from Afghanistan could make it to the feature film category of the South Asian International Film Festival that kick started Wednesday evening with the screening of "Loins of Punjab Presents".

Organizers of the film festival told Pajhwok Afghan News they were looking for feature films from Afghanistan to be included and screened during the week-long event, but none of them could make the grade this time.

In all 60 South Asians shorts, documentaries and feature films from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan would be screened during this period. The two Afghan documentaries included in the festival this year are: "Are You Alright Afghanistan" and "Massoud: Destiny's Afghan."

"Are you Alright Afghanistan" is directed by Indian film maker Soumitra Ranade, who grew up in Kabul as a teenager. Twenty-six years after leaving the country, he returns to post 9 / 11 Afghanistan to revisit definite years of his youth.

In a country devastated by war, Ranade rediscovers its beauty through his memories and encounters with his people. Showing sides of Afghanistan often ignored by international media, the 60-minute film takes the viewers on a hopeful journey through the past and present of a country that has yet to see lasting peace.

"Massoud: Destiny's Afghan" is directed by Iqbal Malhotra looks at Massouds life through the eyes of his colleagues and friends and examines what made him the great leader that he was.

The documentary is of 53 minutes and its screening here would be the North American premiere of the film.
Lalit K. Jha
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