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October 8, 2007 

Afghanistan executes 15 prison inmates
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan executed 15 prisoners by gunfire at its main prison outside Kabul, carrying out the death penalty for the first time in more than three years, the chief of prisons said Monday.
The mass execution took place Sunday evening according to Afghan law, which calls for condemned prisoners to be shot to death, said Abdul Salam Ismat.

Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime used to carry out executions in public, many of them at the war-shattered Kabul stadium, but the practice stopped after they were ousted from power by the U.S.-led coalition in late 2001.

The killings are the country's first state-sanctioned executions since April 2004. Amnesty International said after the 2004 execution that President Hamid Karzai had assured the group he would institute a moratorium on the death penalty.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Sixteen militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. Separately, an Afghan child who apparently walked onto a NATO training site was killed, officials said Monday.

A roadside bomb killed a soldier in the NATO-led force in Uruzgan province, said Maj. Charles Anthony, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Australian and Dutch troops make up the majority of troops in Uruzgan.

Also in Uruzgan, two Dutch Apache helicopters were hit by enemy fire Monday, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. Both landed safely and their crews were not injured. The helicopters supporting to ground troops when they were hit in the rotor blades. Dutch forces based in Tirin Kot have five Apache helicopters.

U.S. forces early Sunday called in the airstrikes against fighters of Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander, said Nabi Jan Mullahkhail, the provincial police chief of Paktika province.

The U.S. military late last month released a list of 12 Most Wanted militants in Afghanistan, and Yuldash was one of five listed with the top reward of $200,000.

Mullahkhail said one enemy fighter — an Uzbek — was captured during the fighting in the Sorobi district of Paktika and said that the militants from Uzbekistan and Chechnya were fighting under Yuldash.

In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a joint NATO and Afghan patrol in Helmand province's capital of Lashkar Gah on Monday, wounding three civilians, including two children, the alliance said in a statement.

In eastern Khost province, meanwhile, an Afghan child was killed and two others were wounded, most likely in the area used by NATO-led troops as a training range, the alliance said in a statement.

"At this time, it is unclear as to exactly how the incident occurred," the statement said.
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Australia suffers first combat death in Afghanistan
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia suffered its first combat fatality in the war on terror on Monday when a soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan, said the Australian defense department.

Another soldier was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated next to their vehicle in Oruzgan province, the department said in a statement.

"This is a tragic day for the Australian Defense Force and our thoughts are with the families and friends of the two soldiers involved," said the statement. The department said the wounded soldier's injuries were not life threatening.

Australia, a close U.S. ally, was one of the first nations to commit troops in late 2001 to the U.S. led war to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda militants from Afghanistan. It also has about 1,500 troops in and around Iraq.

Australia has about 950 troops deployed in Afghanistan, but the number will grow to more than 1,000 by the middle of 2008.

Australia is sending special forces commandos back to Afghanistan to hunt down the leaders of the resurgent Taliban as part of a doubling of Australia's troop numbers there announced earlier this year.

When last deployed in Afghanistan, Australia's special forces were sent on clandestine missions penetrating deep in to the Taliban heartland, spending weeks at a time away from their base.

They were involved in heavy fighting and 11 Australians were injured, although none of the injuries were serious.
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Strikes kill 16 fighters in Afghanistan
Mon Oct 8, 8:16 AM ET Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Sixteen militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. Separately, an Afghan child who apparently walked onto a NATO training site was killed, officials said Monday.

A roadside bomb killed a soldier in the NATO-led force in Uruzgan province, said Maj. Charles Anthony, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Australian and Dutch troops make up the majority of troops in Uruzgan.

Also in Uruzgan, two Dutch Apache helicopters were hit by enemy fire Monday, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. Both landed safely and their crews were not injured. The helicopters supporting to ground troops when they were hit in the rotor blades. Dutch forces based in Tirin Kot have five Apache helicopters.

U.S. forces early Sunday called in the airstrikes against fighters of Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al-Qaida operational commander, said Nabi Jan Mullahkhail, the provincial police chief of Paktika province.

The U.S. military late last month released a list of 12 Most Wanted militants in Afghanistan, and Yuldash was one of five listed with the top reward of $200,000.

Mullahkhail said one enemy fighter — an Uzbek — was captured during the fighting in the Sorobi district of Paktika and said that the militants from Uzbekistan and Chechnya were fighting under Yuldash.

In southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked a joint NATO and Afghan patrol in Helmand province's capital of Lashkar Gah on Monday, wounding three civilians, including two children, the alliance said in a statement.

In eastern Khost province, meanwhile, an Afghan child was killed and two others were wounded, most likely in the area used by NATO-led troops as a training range, the alliance said in a statement.

"At this time, it is unclear as to exactly how the incident occurred," the statement said.
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Suicide blast targets NATO convoy in Afghanistan
Mon Oct 8, 4:54 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber struck near a NATO-led military convoy in southern Afghanistan, injuring two civilians, police said.

The bomber had been trying to target the convoy in Lashkargah, the capital of volatile Helmand province, in the latest attack in a wave of deadly suicide blasts across the war-ravaged country, police said.

"A suicide bomber on foot exploded himself near a NATO convoy. It did not cause any harm to the NATO troops but two men nearby were badly wounded," local police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told AFP.

He blamed the attack on remnants of the Taliban who are waging an insurgency after they were removed from government six years ago by a US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

"No doubt it was the work of the Taliban," Andiwal said.

NATO, which has nearly 40,000 troops in Afghanistan, was not immediately available for comment.

The Taliban had vowed to step up its deadly attacks during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. A suicide car bomber struck in the capital Kabul on Saturday, killing a foreign soldier and five Afghans.
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U.S. and Afghan officials meet on aerial opium spray
By Jon Hemming Mon Oct 8, 6:37 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. government scientist has met Afghan officials to ease concerns over a herbicide that can be used to spray opium crops from the air, officials said on Monday, a policy the Afghan government has so far resisted.

The Afghan government is under pressure to do more to tackle opium production after another record harvest in 2007. Afghanistan now makes 93 percent of the world's opium, with more land cultivating drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined.

The United States has advocated eradication of opium fields, many of them in Taliban rebel-held areas, using chemical herbicides sprayed from the air, but the Afghan government has rejected the idea, citing health concerns for residents.

Dr. James Helling, senior scientific advisor to the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, met officials from the Afghan ministries of counter-narcotics, health, and rural rehabilitation on Sunday, officials said.

His aim was to explain how glyphosate -- the herbicide used to destroy crops -- works, not to recommend it be used, an embassy official said.

"He is here to explain what it is and how it works. He is here to discuss the science of glyphosate, not to persuade anyone they should be spraying from planes or anything," said the official who declined to be named.

While those close to the talks said the scientist had stuck to speaking about the safety of glyphosate -- more commonly known as Roundup -- the implication was clear.

"I think they believe that if they give the scientific evidence on this chemical they will be able to have another kind of debate on whether to use it," said a United Nations official speaking on condition of anonymity.

ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES
U.S. officials argue strongly in favor of aerial spraying. "Aerial eradication is undoubtedly the most effective way," Thomas Schweich, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, told a news conference in Kabul in August.

"You go in, you get large blocks of land in a very short period of time. You do it with minimal loss of life, since you don't have to fight your way in and you don't have to fight your way out. You don't ever negotiate with anybody," he said.

But Britain, Afghanistan's lead international partner on drug eradication and the country with the most troops in the biggest opium-producing area, objects to the practice.

"Our position is very clear. We see more disadvantages than advantages of aerial spraying," said a senior British diplomat. But, he said, "we are prepared to look at a trial of ground-based spraying if the government of Afghanistan wanted one."

Aerial spraying would destroy food crops planted in and around opium, and the Taliban would also use it as propaganda, saying the spray poisons and kills children and livestock and thereby strengthen the insurgency, he said.

The final decision on whether to go ahead with aerial spraying lies with the Afghan government which, for now at least, is standing firmly against it.

"The Afghan government opposes this on two accounts, not only because of the health hazards, but we are also opposing this because we don't want to punish farmers," said Afghan presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada.
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U.S. Renews Bid to Destroy Opium Poppies in Afghanistan
By KIRK SEMPLE and TIM GOLDEN The New York Times / October 8, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 7 — After the biggest opium harvest in Afghanistan’s history, American officials have renewed efforts to persuade the government here to begin spraying herbicide on opium poppies, and they have found some supporters within President Hamid Karzai’s administration, officials of both countries said.

Since early this year, Mr. Karzai has repeatedly declared his opposition to spraying the poppy fields, whether by crop-dusting airplanes or by eradication teams on the ground.

But Afghan officials said that the Karzai administration is now re-evaluating that stance. Some proponents within the government are even pushing a trial program of ground spraying that could begin before the harvest next spring.

The issue has created sharp divisions in the Afghan government, among its Western allies and even between American officials of different agencies. The matter is fraught with political danger for Mr. Karzai, whose hold on power is weak.

Many spraying advocates, including officials at the White House and the State Department, view herbicides as critical to curbing Afghanistan’s poppy crop, officials said. That crop and the opium and heroin it produces have become a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.

But officials said the skeptics — who include American military and intelligence officials and European diplomats in Afghanistan — fear that any spraying of American-made chemicals over Afghan farms would be a boon to Taliban propagandists. Some of these officials say that the political cost could be especially high if the herbicide destroys food crops that farmers often plant alongside their poppies.

“There has always been a need to balance the obvious greater effectiveness of spray against the potential for losing hearts and minds,” Thomas A. Schweich, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics issues, said in an interview last week in Washington. “The question is whether that’s manageable. I think that it is.”

Bush administration officials say they will respect whatever decision the Afghan government makes on the matter. Crop-eradication efforts, they insist, are only part of a broad, new counter-narcotics strategy that will include increased efforts against traffickers, more aid for legal agriculture and development, and greater military support for the drug fight.

Behind the scenes, however, Bush administration officials have been pressing the Afghan government to at least allow the trial spray of glyphosate, a commonly used weed-killer, current and former American officials said. Ground spraying would likely bring only a modest improvement over the manual destruction of poppy plants, but officials who support the strategy hope it would reassure Afghans about the safety of the herbicide and make eradication possible. Aerial spraying, they add, may be the only way to make a serious impact on opium production while the Taliban continues to dominate parts of Southern Afghanistan.

On Sunday, officials said, a State Department crop-eradication expert briefed key members of Mr. Karzai’s cabinet about the effectiveness and safety of glyphosate. The expert, Charles S. Helling, a senior scientific adviser to the department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, met with, among others, the ministers of public health and agriculture, both of whom have opposed the use of herbicides to eradicate poppy, an Afghan official said.

For all the controversy over herbicide use, there is no debate that Afghanistan’s drug problem is out of control. The country now produces 93 percent of the world’s opiates, according to United Nations estimates. Its traffickers are also processing more opium into heroin base there, a shift that has helped to increase Afghanistan’s drug revenues exponentially since the American-led invasion in 2001.

A United Nations report in August documented a 17 percent rise in poppy cultivation from 2006 to 2007, and a 34 percent rise in opium production. Perhaps more importantly for the NATO-led effort to stabilize Afghanistan, taxes on the growers and traffickers have become a major source of financing for the Taliban.

The problem is most acute in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. Helmand produced nearly 4,400 metric tons of opium this year, nearly half of the country’s total output, according to United Nations statistics.

Moreover, as Afghanistan’s opium production has soared, the government’s eradication efforts have faltered. Federal and provincial eradication teams — using sticks, sickles and animal-drawn plows — cut down about 47,000 acres of poppy fields this year, 24 percent more than last year but still less than 9 percent of the country’s total poppy crop.

And even that effort had to be negotiated plot by plot with growers. Powerful and politically connected landowners were able to protect their crops while smaller, weaker farmers were made the targets. The eradication program was so spotty that it did little to discourage farmers from cultivating the crop, American and European officials said.

“The eradication process over the past five years has not worked,” Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said in an interview. “This year, it was a farce.”

The Americans have pushed the Afghan government to eradicate with glyphosate for at least two years. According to current and former American officials, the subject has been raised with President Karzai by President Bush; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser; and John P. Walters, the director of national drug-control policy.

American officials thought they had the Karzai administration’s support late last year to begin a small-scale pilot program for ground spraying in several provinces. But that plan was derailed in January after an American-educated deputy minister of public health presented health and environmental concerns about glyphosate at a meeting of the Karzai cabinet, Afghan and American officials said.

Since then, Mr. Karzai has said he opposes spraying of any kind.

“President Karzai has categorically rejected that spraying will happen,” Farooq Wardak, Afghanistan’s minister of state for parliamentary affairs, said in a recent interview. “The collateral damage of that will be huge.”

Yet in the weeks since the latest United Nations drug report, the Bush administration’s lobbying appears to have made new headway. The administration has already won the backing of several members of Mr. Karzai’s government and the spray advocates here are now trying to swing other key Afghan officials and Mr. Karzai himself, one high-level Afghan official said

“We are working to convince the key ministers and President Karzai to accept this strategy,” said the official, who supports spraying but asked not to be identified because of the issue’s political sensitivity. “We want to convince them to show some power. The government has to show its power in the remote provinces.”

General Khodaidad, Afghanistan’s acting minister of counter-narcotics (who, like many Afghans, goes by only one name), said in an interview last week that ground spraying is under careful consideration by the Afghan government. A high-level official of the Karzai administration said he believed some spraying might take place during this growing season, which begins in several weeks.

The American government contends that glyphosate is one of the world’s safest herbicides.

One noted supporters of glyphosate as a counter-narcotics tool is the American ambassador in Kabul, William B. Wood, who arrived in April after a four-year posting as ambassador to Colombia. There, Mr. Wood oversaw the American-financed counter-narcotics program, Plan Colombia, which relies heavily on the aerial spraying of coca, the raw material for cocaine.

Mr. Wood has even offered to have himself sprayed with glyphosate, as one of his predecessors in Colombia once did, to prove its safety, a United States Embassy official in Kabul said.

But among European diplomats here, a far greater concern than any environmental or health dangers of chemical eradication is the potential for political fallout that could lead to more violence and instability.

These diplomats worry particularly that aerial spraying would kill food crops that some farmers plant with their poppies. European officials add that any form of spraying could be cast by the Taliban as American chemical warfare against the Afghan peasantry.

The British have been so concerned that on the eve of Mr. Karzai’s trip to Camp David in August, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called President Bush and asked him not to pressure the Afghan premier to use herbicides, according to several diplomats here.

In something of a reversal of traditional roles, officials of the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency have also challenged the White House and State Department support for spraying, raising concerns about its potential to destabilize the Karzai government, current and former American officials said.

American officials who support herbicide use do not dismiss such concerns. They say an extensive public-information campaign would have to be carried out in conjunction with any spraying effort to dispel fears about the chemical’s impacts.

Mr. Schweich, the assistant secretary of state, emphasized that a new American counter-narcotics strategy for Afghanistan, introduced in August, went far beyond eradication. He noted that it would increase punishments and rewards, including large amounts of development aid, to move farmers away from poppy cultivation. It also calls for more forceful eradication, interdiction and law-enforcement efforts, and closer coordination of counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency efforts, which until now have been pursued separately.

“We will do what the Afghan government wants to do,” Mr. Schweich said, referring to the use of herbicides. The Bush administration, he added, simply wants to ensure that the Afghans “have all the facts on the table.”

Kirk Semple reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Tim Golden from New York.
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Afghan reporter interviews German hostage-report
08 Oct 2007 15:35:39 GMT
More  KABUL, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Taliban militants holding a German man and five of his Afghan co-workers hostage in Afghanistan have allowed an Afghan journalist to interview their six prisoners, an Afghan news agency reported on Monday.

The independent Afghan news agency Pajhwok said in a report on its Web site that the six men were being held in a remote mountainous region of the country in a cold, dark room and had only one blanket between them.

The German engineer, identified in the report as Rudolf Blechschmidt, told the reporter that he had been in contact with his family but expressed frustration that neither the German nor the Afghan government had been able to secure their release.

"The Afghan and German governments should step up efforts for our release," he was quoted as saying by agency.

The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined to comment, saying only that it was working hard to free the German hostage.

Blechschmidt, whom the German government has only identified only as Rudolf B., was abducted along with another German engineer in July. The body of the other engineer was discovered with bullet wounds shortly after he was captured.

The Taliban militants have repeatedly threatened to kill their captives unless Germany withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and the Afghan government releases Taliban prisoners in its custody.

Both the German and Afghan governments have rejected the demands.

The reporter, who said he visited the hostages on Sunday, photographed Blechschmidt along with other hostages and some of their armed and masked captors. The engineer was wearing a traditional Afghan robe.

All six hostages appeared in good health but expressed concerns about their continued captivity and the harsh Afghan winter that has already started setting in, the report said.

Germany has some 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led peacekeeping force.
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German camp attacked in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle
There has been another attack on German soldiers in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the defence ministry in Berlin said that the Bundeswehr camp in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz had been hit by four missiles. No injuries were reported. This came two days after three German soldiers were injured in a suicide attack in Kunduz. They are being flown back to Germany for further treatment.
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Report says war on terror is fueling al Qaeda
By Kate Kelland Mon Oct 8, 8:29 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.

A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a "fundamental re-think is required" if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.

"If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut," said Paul Rogers, the report's author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.

"Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level."

He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "disastrous mistake" which had helped establish a "most valued jihadist combat training zone" for al Qaeda supporters.

The report -- Alternatives to the War on Terror -- recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region, including with Iran and Syria.

In Afghanistan, Rogers also called for an immediate scaling down of military activities, an injection of more civil aid and negotiations with militia groups aimed at bringing them into the political process.

If such measures were adopted it would still take "at least 10 years to make up for the mistakes made since 9/11."

"Failure to make the necessary changes could result in the war on terror lasting decades," the report added.

Rogers also warned of a drift toward conflict with Iran.

"Going to war with Iran," he said, "will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region. Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs."
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50 Pakistani soldiers missing after clashes near Afghanistan
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Around 50 Pakistani troops are missing in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan after fierce battles with Islamic militants that have already claimed 80 lives, the army said Monday.

The soldiers have been out of radio contact since early Monday in rugged North Waziristan, where the United States says Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and its pro-Taliban allies are regrouping.

News of the missing troops comes as a fresh blow to the army, with hardline rebels already holding more than 200 members of the security forces in another part of the insurgency-plagued ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.

"We have reports of around 50 troops missing. They are out of communications and their whereabouts have not been found," chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

The soldiers went missing as they were moving from place to place following fresh clashes near Mir Ali, the second biggest town in North Waziristan, Arshad said.

Violence has spiked in the mountainous region since Pakistani security forces besieged and then raided the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July -- an operation that bin Laden has urged militants to avenge.

The military said earlier that the death toll from fierce clashes on Sunday in North Waziristan had risen to 60 militants and 20 soldiers.

Troops backed by helicopter gunships launched an assault against militant bases and hideouts in retaliation for attacks on military convoys overnight on Friday, sparking hours of intense battles.

"Sixty militants have been killed by security forces in North Waziristan Agency since Sunday morning," an army statement said Monday. "Twenty security forces persons have also embraced shahadat (martyrdom) in the ensuing clashes."

Local residents said four civilians also died, including three women, although the army could not confirm this.

Around 30 houses were destroyed or badly damaged as troops and rebels exchanged heavy weapons fire, they said.

President Pervez Musharraf has been under mounting pressure to tackle militants who fled over the Afghan border into Pakistan after the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Musharraf, a key US ally at the centre of international efforts to combat Islamic extremism, won a landslide victory in Saturday's presidential election and pledged to continue the fight against terrorism "100 percent."

He has promised to quit the army and restore civilian rule by November 15 and on Monday his designated successor as military chief, former spymaster General Ashfaq Kiyani, officially took over as vice chief of army staff.

Nearly 300 people in Pakistan have died in attacks since the Red Mosque crisis, most of which have been suicide bombings. A further 250 militants have been killed in clashes with security forces since then, the army says.

Pro-Taliban militants are also holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers in nearby South Waziristan district since abducting them in late August, apparently without the troops firing a shot.

Three of them have been killed by militants to press their demands for an end to military operations in the tribal areas.

The insurgents also recently released a video of teenage militants beheading one of 15 soldiers who were kidnapped in a separate incident earlier in August in South Waziristan. The others were released.

A rights group Sunday accused the government of ignoring pleas for help from civilians living in the tribal areas who are being targeted by Islamic militants.
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Scots troops plan for Afghanistan
Monday, 8 October 2007, 14:59 GMT 15:59 UK BBC News
The Ministry of Defence is planning to send more Scottish troops to Afghanistan next year, it has emerged.

"Large numbers" of soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland are already being trained for the deployment.

Military sources have confirmed the intention to send troops from the Royal Highland Fusiliers and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to Helmand.

However, the proposals will not be finalised until the defence secretary makes a statement to MPs.

It has been reported that up to 1,400 Scots soldiers could be involved in the deployment.

Military sources

BBC Scotland's Westminster correspondent David Porter said the troops would probably be sent to Helmand next March.

"Although the MoD is not confirming it publicly, military sources have confirmed to me that there are plans to send large numbers of Scottish troops from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Royal Highland Fusiliers out to Afghanistan next spring," he said.

"These plans won't become finalised until the secretary of state for defence gets up and makes a statement in the House of Commons. These plans could change."

Military analyst Gordon McKenzie told BBC Radio Scotland that many soldiers returning from Iraq could be redeployed to Afghanistan next year.

"The fighting there (Helmand) tends to be ratcheted down over the winter season because conditions are so hard, but it would be started up again in the spring," he said.

"They are talking about sending all the parachute troops that the British has, including the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who now train with the parachute regiments, and taking the numbers in Afghanistan up to something like 8,000."

There are currently more than 6,000 British troops in Afghanistan, with the majority in the southern part of the country.
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AFGHANISTAN: Boys' education slides in Helmand
LASHKARGAH, 8 October 2007 (IRIN) - More than 30,000 pupils who attended schools in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan last year have been absent in 2007, the provincial department of education told IRIN. About 102,700 students attended school in 2006, fewer than 14 percent of them girls.

"This year we have 70,000 students in 90 functioning schools in Helmand province," said Saeed Ibrar Agha, head of the provincial education department.

While schooling started on 10 September in southern Afghanistan, education facilities have remained closed in several districts in Helmand, which has been severely affected by the insurgency, including Sangin, Gereshk and Musa Qala, according to education authorities.

In 2002, less than a year after the Taliban were toppled, there were 224 functioning schools all over the province, officials said.

For the past 15 months, gunmen associated with Taliban insurgents and other armed radical groups have torched more than 20 schools and killed 17 students, teachers and staff, Ibrar Agha added. "In several districts 98 schools remain closed due to insecurity."

Female students increase

Ironically, numbers of female students have steadily increased, with 14,500 now against 12,228 in 2006, government statistics show.

As more rural families flock to Lashkargah, the provincial capital, because of insurgency-related violence and search for employment, female children get more chances to attend school.

Moreover, a World Food Programme (WFP) project designed to boost girls' education urges destitute families to send their daughters to school and receive aid in return. WFP distributes cooking oil, wheat and fortified biscuits to schoolchildren in food-insecure provinces of Afghanistan, a WFP spokesman said.

The Taliban banned female schooling during their reign from 1996 to late 2001.

Soft targets

About 400 schools remain out of commission in the south, east and central part of the country due to violence, the Ministry of Education (MoE) said.

A 13-year-old student was reportedly shot dead on his way to Zokur high school in Lashkargah in February 2007.

Four days later armed assailants started shooting indiscriminately outside Karte Laghan School, killing a student and a gatekeeper, officials said.

"Men identifying themselves as Taliban regularly send me warnings by phone, night letters and other ways ordering me to quit my job," Jamila Niazi, headmistress of a girls' high school in Lashkargah, told IRIN.

Taliban rebels and other anti-government forces have repeatedly targeted schools and teachers as symbols of the government - often the only sign of officialdom in rural areas.

Influx to Lashkargah

Owing to deteriorating security, more and more boys come to Lashkargah in search of education. Officials in Helmand's education department say the influx is beyond the capacity of only 27 schools open in the city.

The headmaster of Zokur high school, Shadi Khan Ilham, said: "Every day tens of students seek admission in this school." It has admitted more than 800 students from several districts in the past 10 months alone, Ilham added.

Half of all provincial students - 35,000 - attend schools in Lashkargah city, officials say.

As a result, classes are being held in the open, where students sit on the ground, either sweating in hot weather or shivering in the cold.

Overwhelmed by hundreds of extra learners, many schools in Helmand also lack proper water and sanitation facilities.

Teachers and other school staff, meanwhile, complain about numerous problems, particularly low salaries. On average, teachers earn about US$60 a month, according to the ministry.

Even so, said Ilham: "We are happy to teach students even under worse circumstances, only if security is ensured."

Hardship

Students who stay in rented rooms in Lashkargah say financial hurdles force them to abandon education. "My parents send me 2,000 Afghanis [$40] monthly, but I have to pay 2,500 for a single room," said Hamidullah, a 15-year-old student from Musa Qala district.

Others face threats from Taliban insurgents and criminal gangs. On 30 September, armed Taliban men reportedly hanged a 15-year-old boy in Sangin District on charges of spying for foreign troops in Afghanistan.

"Every afternoon before departing Lashkargah I double-check my pockets and other belongings and make sure I do not carry a book, an identity card or anything which may cause Taliban's suspicion," said another teenager, who travels five hours daily to attend school in the provincial city.

"I fear, one day, if Taliban know that I am coming to school, they will kill me," the boy, who cannot be identified for security reasons, told IRIN.
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Lucky Afghanistan athletes come to Shanghai "under pressure"
Xinhua / October 8, 2007
Unable to cover all the expenses, Afghanistan finally sent only nine of the 20 sign-ups to Shanghai for the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

"Taking part in the games and sharing joys are the spirit of the Special Olympics. However, my athletes are under certain pressure as they are bringing the hope of those absent," head of the delegation Lzat Nasrullah said Sunday.

"We want to take our medals home to share with them," athlete Zohra Jaan said, with a firm tone. Jaan was only ten years old, the youngest in the delegation.

When asked about her performance at a 25-meter race, Jaan seemed rather confused, turning to Nasrullah. After his explanation with body language and their mother tongue, she said loudly: "It's good. I feel good."

"She was born healthy, but a bomb to her family years ago made her deaf and intellect-disabled," Her coach Tahmina Tanta said. "She likes running, but she can only start to run by watching the starting gun instead of listening to it."

According to Nasrullah, Afghanistan originally decided to have 20 athletes come to Shanghai. "We trained them at home. But at the last minute, the Special Olympics International told us that they could only afford nine of them. And we ourselves can't afford it, so we leave the football team at home."

"It's really a pity that they can't come to the modern, wonderful city," Nasrullah said.

"Tomorrow, I will take the 50-m. race, and I will get two panda toys (the Special Olympics souvenir). I will take them home," Jaan said.
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US backing freedom in Muslim societies: Bush
WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States is siding with pro-peace mainstream citizens of Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Middle East, President George W. Bush has said.

Violent extremists attempting to stop the advance of freedom in Muslim societies around the world would not succeed in their mission, he hoped while addressing a gathering at an Iftar dinner.

The extremists attack holy sites, destroy mosques and minarets and kill innocent men, women and children including Muslims who do not share their radical views," the American leader said.

He added the extremists - by spreading chaos and violence - believed they could frustrate the desire of Muslims to live in freedom and peace. America was standing with mainstream citizens across the broader Middle East, Bush said while citing efforts by freedom-loving Iraqis, Afghans and Lebanese.

Americans have a history of standing with Muslims facing suffering and hardship - and its a proud history. Our country defended Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo after the breakup of Yugoslavia," he maintained.

Bush recalled US support to Kuwait following its invasion by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. "Americans came to the aid of victims of devastating earthquakes in Pakistan, India, and Iran."

Americans also responded with urgency and compassion to the wreckage of the tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and Thailand, he continued, claiming: "Were rallying the world to confront the genocide in Sudan and deliver humanitarian aid for those in dire need."
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Kunar residents want withdrawal of foreign troops
ASADABAD, Oct 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Thousands in the eastern Kunar province took to the streets to demand removal of military bases from residential areas in face of mounting civilian casualties in attacks and clashes between militants and Afghan and foreign troops.

The protestors, number around 3,000, blocked the Asadabad-Jalalabad road in Sawkai district for all kinds of vehicular traffic for two and half hours.

Chanting full-throat slogans against the provincial governor and foreign troops, the demonstrators asked the central government to remove bases of foreign and local troops from civilian areas in the district.

"Twenty-two citizens have been perished in rocket attacks and exchange of fire between Taliban and Coalition troops in Sawkai over the previous two months," said Gul Rahim, 40, dweller of the district and one of the organisers of the protest meeting.

The government troops, he insisted, had failed to maintain security in the province. "They must leave and remove their bases from our areas," he said in a loud voice.

Large number of police contingents were deployed around the scene of the protest meeting to avoid any untoward incident.

Rahim said the residents would continue peaceful demonstrations till the acceptance of their demands by the government and the US-led Coalition troops.

Maulvi Naik Muhammad, another protestor and resident of the district, said: "We want withdrawal of foreign forces from the district."

They had settled their centres amid civilian population, and clashes with militants often resulted in killing of innocent citizens, he argued.

"We've nowhere to go," lamented the grey bearded man, who added that people of the district were being perished in fighting between Taliban and Coalition troops on one hand, while on the other hand, they were not allowed to enter the neighbouring Pakistan to save their lives and those of their families.

Later, the participants peacefully dispersed after negotiations with local administration.

Deputy police chief of the province Brig. Gen. Abdul Saboor Allahyar told Pajhwok grievances of the residents would soon be forwarded to the governor and the Interior Ministry in Kabul.

Abdul Rahim said they wanted redressal of their demands in 30 days. Otherwise, the residents would again resort to protest demonstrations, he warned.
Khan Wali Salarzai
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UNICEF supports teacher training in Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): UNICEF has said it is supporting the Ministry of Education in training professionals to address the shortage of qualified teachers in Afghanistan.

The UN agency added it was helping the ministry in training 80 master trainers and 16,000 female teachers from 11 provinces with courses in pedagogical skills, teaching methodologies, classroom management, lesson planning and child development.

Since 2004, UNICEF continued, it had supported the Ministry of Education in establishing nine teachers training colleges across the country. The colleges are designed to help redress years of underinvestment in teacher training, which led to a marked decline in the number of teachers and teaching standards.

According to a press release mailed to this news agency, UNICEF and partners supported the training of 40,000 teachers on pedagogy through a joint Teachers Education Programme. Also 57,766 teachers of primary grades were oriented on new textbooks for grades two and five with UNICEF support.

When I started teaching, I only had a 12th grade education and I knew nothing about the profession, says Toorpaikai Roshngar, a second grade teacher who has taken part in five training sessions on textbook orientation, child development, classroom management skills and child-friendly teaching.

UNICEF and partners are also supporting the government of Afghanistan in developing two-year training curriculum, syllabi and instructional materials for pre-service training of teachers as well as a comprehensive teacher-training system in primary education, including strategies for enlarging the pool of female teachers.

The drive to improve the numbers of female teachers and improve standards of teaching is important step in ensuring that girls continue to return to the classroom, and to reduce risk of drop-out amongst pupils already enrolled, said Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan.
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