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Afghan cabinet demands review of international presence
by Sardar Ahmad
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan cabinet demanded Monday a renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of international troops in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians were killed in US-led air strikes.
Afghanistan attack was 'legitimate' hit at Taliban: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military said Monday that an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan last week which allegedly killed dozens of civilians was a "legitimate" assault on Taliban forces.
Norway criticizes civilian killing in U.S. bombing in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Aug 25 5:13 AM
The Norwegian government on Monday criticized the killing of a large number of civilians in the U.S bombing of a village in Afghanistan last Friday, according to reports on Monday.
Killing civilians outrages Afghans, damages international troops popularity
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Aug 25, 2008 (Xinhua) -- Roundup: Killing civilians outrages Afghans, damages international troops popularity
NATO Not Told Of Afghan Demand For Troop Review - Spokeswoman
BRUSSELS (AFP)--The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Monday it hadn't been informed of any Afghan government plan to renegotiate agreements on the presence of foreign troops after dozens
Taliban threat 'underestimated'
Financial Times, UK By John Thornhill in Paris August 25 2008
A senior French general in Afghanistan has admitted that the international security force has underestimated the threat posed by the resurgent Taliban.
Taliban gains strength; al-Qaida could follow
Los Angeles Daily News By Jason Straziuso The Associated Press 08/24/2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -Taliban insurgents, once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops, have transformed into a fighting force - one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace.
1.2 tons of opium seized in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 25, 3:29 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says its troops have confiscated 1.3 tons of opium in southern Afghanistan.
Two Afghan-bound NATO vehicles torched in Pakistan: police
Mon Aug 25, 7:38 AM ET
KARACHI (AFP) - Suspected militants in the Pakistani port city of Karachi torched two armoured vehicles destined for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, police said Monday.
U.S. chopper makes precautionary landing in E Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- A U.S.-led Coalition helicopter made a precautionary landing in the Sabari district of eastern Afghanistan's Khost province Monday morning but caused no injuries to the pilot, said a Coalition statement.
Russia denies halting NATO transit to Afghanistan
August 25, 2008
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is not planning to halt the vital transit of NATO cargoes to Afghanistan through its territory, Interfax news agency quoted the Russian armed forces deputy chief of staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying on Monday.
French general sees overconfidence in Afghan deaths
Mon Aug 25, 4:51 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - Overconfidence was probably a factor in the incident that led to the deaths of 10 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan, the French commander in the region was quoted as saying on Monday.
Pakistan government bans Taleban
Monday, 25 August 2008 BBC News
Pakistan has banned the Taleban militant group which has been behind many suicide attacks in the country since 2007.
Afghan President pardons men convicted of bayonet gang rape
The Independent By Kate Clark in Kabul 08/25/2008
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan.
BBC presenter Lyse Doucet: Media fail to convey 'humanity of the Taliban'
Media coverage of the conflict in Afghanistan is failing to convey the "humanity of the Taliban", a BBC presenter has said.
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom 25 Aug 2008
Lyse Doucet, a presenter and correspondent on BBC World News, was speaking at a discussion of TV reporting of the war in the country.
Smoke, diesel smell fill Canadian armoured vehicle hit by bomb in Afghanistan
The Canadian Press
PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — It happened around 11:30 a.m. Sunday as we were returning from a forward operating base in the Panjwaii district.
Danish Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
COPENHAGEN (AFP)--A Danish soldier serving with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led forces in Afghanistan was killed Monday when his tank drove over an improvised explosive device, the Danish military said in a statement.
A neighbor in Turmoil
Syed Hassan Kazim, Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 25, 2008
Decent into Chaos: The US and the failure of Nation-building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
Price: Rs 495/- Penguins publication
Gunmen murder judge and his son, police say
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 24 August 2008
Gunmen open fire on judge after he opens his front door, police chief says
GUNMEN have killed the chief judge of a local court and his son outside their house in the southern city of Kandahar, the province’s police chief said.
Taliban 'execute two government spies'
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 24 August 2008
Militants kill two men accused of spying for foreign troops
TALIBAN rebels have murdered two men accused of spying for foreign troops and the Afghan government, an official said.
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Afghan cabinet demands review of international presence
by Sardar Ahmad
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan cabinet demanded Monday a renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of international troops in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians were killed in US-led air strikes.
The cabinet said the review should focus on the "authorities and responsibilities" of international troops and demand a halt to air strikes on civilians, illegal detentions and unilateral house searches, a statement said.
A government commission said Sunday that more than 90 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat on Friday.
It is one of the deadliest civilian tolls in international military action since US-led forces invaded in 2001 to topple the hardline Taliban regime after it did not hand over its Al-Qaeda allies for attacks on the United States.
The US-led coalition says Friday's strikes were targeted at Taliban rebels and 30 of them were killed although it is investigating claims of civilian casualties.
The regular Monday cabinet meeting expressed "extreme sorrow for loss of so many civilian lives" in a string of incidents caused by troops in various provinces, said an official translation of an earlier Dari-language statement.
A resolution adopted by the ministers said they had tasked the foreign and defence ministries to negotiate with "officials of international forces".
"The presence of the international community in Afghanistan must be reviewed through a mutual agreement," it said.
"The authorities and responsibilities of the international forces in Afghanistan must be regulated through a 'status of force agreement' consistent with both international and Afghan laws," it added.
And, "air strikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians must be stopped."
There are now nearly 70,000 international soldiers from around 40 countries in Afghanistan to fight a Taliban-led insurgency and help bring security.
About 53,000 are with a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force mandated by the United Nations with a resolution extended annually since 2003 that says it should assist the Afghan government maintain security.
The deal is due to be extended in October.
The remainder are with the US-led coalition, under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom, which unseated the Taliban.
A May 2005 bilateral agreement between the United States and Afghanistan outlines the coalition's operations including counter-terrorism operations, intelligence sharing and training the Afghan security forces.
There has been growing anger in Afghanistan about the number of civilians being killed in insurgency-linked violence.
The country's top rights group, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said last week that 900 civilians have been killed this year in attacks and international military action.
In another incident, an Afghan investigation found that around 50 civilians, most of them women, were killed in coalition air strikes in early July when they had gathered for a wedding in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The coalition has however not acknowledged killing any civilians, saying the strikes hit militants.
The cabinet statement said the government had "repeatedly" discussed with international troops the issue of civilian casualties in raids and the "harassing" of ordinary people.
"Unfortunately, to date, our demands have not been addressed, rather, more civilians, including women and children are losing their lives as a result of air raids," it said.
President Hamid Karzai, who on Sunday sacked two senior army officers over the Herat killings, told legislators Monday about the cabinet's resolution and asked for "national consensus" on the issue, a separate statement said.
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Afghanistan attack was 'legitimate' hit at Taliban: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military said Monday that an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan last week which allegedly killed dozens of civilians was a "legitimate" assault on Taliban forces.
"We continue at this point to believe that this was a legitimate strike against the Taliban," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"Unfortunately there were some civilian casualties, although that figure is in dispute, I would say. But this is why it is being investigated," he said.
Whitman declined to comment, though, on the demand Monday by the Afghan cabinet to renegotiate agreements regulating the presence of international troops following the strikes.
An Afghan government commission said Sunday that more than 90 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat on Friday.
It is one of the deadliest civilian tolls in international military action since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the hardline Taliban regime.
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Norway criticizes civilian killing in U.S. bombing in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Aug 25 5:13 AM
The Norwegian government on Monday criticized the killing of a large number of civilians in the U.S bombing of a village in Afghanistan last Friday, according to reports on Monday.
Every single civilian death in such an operation is most tragic and very serious, Norwegian State Secretary Espen Barth-Eide was quoted as saying by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
The international forces depend on trust from the local population, and incidents like these are harmful to such relations, he added.
But he underlined that the international military presence in Afghanistan is necessary.
Norway has deployed about 500 soldiers in Afghanistan under the leadership of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
"The reason for our presence in Afghanistan is that it is very important to assist this nation in getting back on its feet after years of bloody war, and it is necessary with a continued military presence in the country," Barth-Eide said in a statement.
An airstrike of the U.S.-led coalition forces in western Afghanistan's Herat province last Friday killed 76 civilians, including women and children, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.
Source: Xinhua
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Killing civilians outrages Afghans, damages international troops popularity
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Aug 25, 2008 (Xinhua) -- Roundup: Killing civilians outrages Afghans, damages international troops popularity
Killing of more than 80 civilians by international troops in western Afghan province Herat in a single day on Aug. 22 has drawn nationwide condemnations and demand for trial of those responsible for the bloody incident.
The U.S.-led Coalition forces, in a joint operation with Afghan army, carried out air raids on the suspected hideout of Taliban militants in Azizabad village of Shindand district on Friday, leaving 89 civilians including women and children dead.
This is the biggest-ever casualties inflicted to non-combatants by international troops since their deployment after the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001.
Both Afghan and U.S. military disputed the claim in the beginning, saying no or just five civilians were killed in the strike.
Afghan defense ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said that the raid left 25 militants and five civilians dead while the U.S. military put the number of militants' casualties at 30, denying any damage to civilians in the operation.
Nevertheless, media outlets citing villagers put the number of casualties as high as 91, while the Afghan interior ministry in a statement issued later on Friday confirmed the death of 76 civilians including 19 women in the bombardments.
The U.S. military later on promised to look into the matter after surging reports of huge civilian casualties in the air strike surfaced.
The gruesome incident prompted hundreds of Afghans in the affected area to take to the streets, chanting anti-America slogans.
In efforts to calm down the residents' anger, Afghan troops, according to local media, sent humanitarian aid including wheat to the affected area but the locals rejected it by throwing stones at the soldiers.
In a bid to express sympathy with the bereaved families, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had dismissed two senior army officers in west Afghanistan for "negligence and concealing facts", besides strongly condemning murdering civilians, a statement issued by his office said Saturday.
"The unilateral and imprecise operation which included both ground and air strikes in Azizabad district caused a tragic incident claiming 89 civilian lives including women and children," the statement added.
Karzai also constituted a commission comprising of government functionaries and parliamentarians to investigate the shocking incident.
Both the NATO-led peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the U.S.-led Coalition forces have committed such "mistakes" during operations since their deployment here nearly seven years ago and claimed many civilian lives. Despite persisting demands by the people and officials of Afghanistan, such bloody incidents are still repeated and the war- weary people are still suffering.
So far, no reports on how those responsible for the so-called erroneous killing of Afghan civilians have been published. Only last year, according to Afghan media, two U.S. soldiers had been tried by U.S. authorities for shooting down over a dozen civilians after they came under militants attack on a road outside Nangarhar 's provincial capital Jalalabad in east Afghanistan in March 2007.
The Afghan president has more than once called on the currently 70,000-strong international troops based in Afghanistan to coordinate their operations with Afghan authorities in order to avoid harming civilians.
The repeated killing of civilians have prompted some lawmakers to call for legalization of the presence of international troops in the post-Taliban nation, with some saying the long-term stay of foreign troops have facilitated Taliban's campaign for support from local residents in attacking "foreign occupiers."
A member of parliament from Herat province while criticizing such mischief in Shindand told Afghan Wolesi Jirga, or Lower House of parliament, on Saturday that "Afghans will not need the presence of foreign troops and democracy if they continue to kill innocent civilians."
Afghan Wolesi Jirga on Saturday decided to constitute a commission and talk with President Karzai on how to avoid harming civilians and end the crisis.
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NATO Not Told Of Afghan Demand For Troop Review - Spokeswoman
BRUSSELS (AFP)--The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Monday it hadn't been informed of any Afghan government plan to renegotiate agreements on the presence of foreign troops after dozens of civilians were killed in U.S.-led air strikes.
"The Afghan government has not notified such a decision to NATO," said spokeswoman Carmen Romero.
She underlined that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force "is in Afghanistan on the basis of a United Nations mandate and has been invited there by the government of Afghanistan."
The Afghan cabinet said the review should focus on the "authorities and responsibilities" of international troops and demand a halt to air strikes on civilians, illegal detentions and unilateral house searches.
A government commission said Sunday that more than 90 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat Friday.
It was one of the deadliest civilian tolls in international military action since U.S.-led forces invaded in 2001 to topple the hardline Taliban regime.
The U.S.-led coalition says Friday's strikes were targeted at Taliban rebels and 30 of them were killed, although it is investigating claims of civilian casualties.
There are now nearly 70,000 international soldiers from around 40 countries in Afghanistan to fight a Taliban-led insurgency and help bring security.
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Taliban threat 'underestimated'
Financial Times, UK By John Thornhill in Paris August 25 2008
A senior French general in Afghanistan has admitted that the international security force has underestimated the threat posed by the resurgent Taliban.
"We sinned through an excess of confidence," said General Michel Stollsteiner, the French commander of the International Security Assistance Force in the Kabul region, following an ambush by the Taliban last week that killed 10 French troops and injured a further 21.
Gen Stollsteiner said that the French patrol had been surprised by the scale of the attack in what was thought to be a relatively secure region less than 50km outside the Afghan capital. He told the AFP news agency that a French patrol had passed through the same region three days previously without encountering any resistance.
The general said vigilance and intelligence would be the international forces' watchwords as they made more use of special forces and drone aircraft to gain a better understanding of Taliban movements.
The French public has been shocked by the killing of 10 of their soldiers in the most lethal ambush by the Taliban since the fall of their regime in 2001.
Hervé Morin, France's defence minister, has said that the Taliban's attacks were intended to sow doubts among the European public. In all, 25 of the European Union's 27 member states have sent soldiers to Afghanistan.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, this year increased the number of troops deployed to about 3,000. Most mainstream French politicians continue to support this presence.
However, opposition parliamentarians have called a debate next month on the French force's preparedness and strategy in Afghanistan in the face of mounting public concern. An opinion poll conducted by the CSA polling organisation shortly after last week's attack found that 55 per cent of respondents supported the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan. * The US yesterday ex-pressed regret for any civilian deaths from international military operations in Afghanistan, without confirming reports that 89 local people had recently been killed in one incident in Herat province.
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Taliban gains strength; al-Qaida could follow
Los Angeles Daily News By Jason Straziuso The Associated Press 08/24/2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -Taliban insurgents, once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops, have transformed into a fighting force - one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace.
The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year - 111 - was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed.
Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.
"The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban," Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday. A resurgent al-Qaida, which was harbored by the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, could soon follow, Cordesman warned.
Cordesman called for the U.S. to treat Pakistani territory as a combat zone if Pakistan does not act. "Pakistan may officially be an ally, but much of its conduct has effectively made it a major threat to U.S. strategic interests."
An influx of Chechen, Turkish, Uzbek and Arab fighters have helped increased the Taliban's military precision, including an ambush by 100 fighters last week that killed 10 French soldiers, and a rush on a U.S. outpost last month by 200 militants that killed nine Americans. Multi-direction attacks, flawlessly executed ambushes and increasingly powerful roadside and suicide bombs mean the U.S. and 40-nation NATO-led force will in all likelihood suffer its deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a visit to Kabul last week, said he knows that something must "be raised with Pakistan's government, and I will continue to do so."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who rushed to Afghanistan after the French attack, warned Thursday that "terrorism is winning."
Complicating relations between the Afghan government and the U.S., last week a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation in Herat province killed about 90 civilians, President Hamid Karzai's office says. The U.S. said it is investigating.
Some 188 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including the 101 Americans, according to an Associated Press count. This year's toll is easily on track to surpass the record 222 international troop deaths in 2007.
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1.2 tons of opium seized in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 25, 3:29 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says its troops have confiscated 1.3 tons of opium in southern Afghanistan.
In a statement Monday the ministry said its counter-narcotics force seized the drugs during a raid in Marjah district of Helmand province last week. Three smugglers were detained.
Helmand is the world's largest producer of opium, the main ingredient in the production of heroin. Afghanistan last year accounted for 93 percent of the world's opium supply. In 2007 it produced 9,920 tons of opium.
Some of the proceeds from this multibillion dollar trade go to fund the Taliban-led insurgency. Profits also line the pockets of corrupt government officials.
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Two Afghan-bound NATO vehicles torched in Pakistan: police
Mon Aug 25, 7:38 AM ET
KARACHI (AFP) - Suspected militants in the Pakistani port city of Karachi torched two armoured vehicles destined for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, police said Monday.
The vehicles were parked outside the Karachi port when unidentified assailants set them on fire, destroying one and damaging the other, senior police officer Iqbal Mehmood told AFP.
The consignment was to be transported to southern Afghanistan via the Chaman border in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.
But a truck drivers' strike in Karachi had held up delivery of the vehicles, which were loaded on a trailer, for the past three days.
"A group of unknown people set the vehicles on fire near the Karachi Port, which totally burnt one vehicle while another was damaged," Mehmood said. "We are investigating whether any extremist group is behind it."
Authorities stepped up security of Afghanistan-bound NATO consignments after the incident, he said.
Contractors handling NATO consignments for landlocked Afghanistan were also being contacted and told to provide adequate security in the future, Mehmood said.
Suspected Taliban militants have in the past attacked oil tankers supplying fuel to US bases in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Islamic militants in the northwestern border town of Landikotal blew up 36 tankers carrying fuel for US and NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan in March. Officials blamed pro-Taliban militants for the attack.
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U.S. chopper makes precautionary landing in E Afghanistan
KABUL, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- A U.S.-led Coalition helicopter made a precautionary landing in the Sabari district of eastern Afghanistan's Khost province Monday morning but caused no injuries to the pilot, said a Coalition statement.
"The helicopter was preparing to attack an enemy mortar site near the center of Sabari district when a tail rotor blade struck the ground," the statement said.
The helicopter, according to the statement, has minor damage while the pilot successfully landed the aircraft with no injuries.
The site is currently secured by Afghan and international forces and this incident is currently under investigation, it added.
The incident just came a day after a Mi-8 supply helicopter with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) was forced to make an emergency landing in Kunar province, killing one service member and injuring three others.
The Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government and international troops claimed responsibility later the day, saying the outfit shot the NATO helicopter down.
A U.S. military helicopter was shot down by militants also in Kunar province, neighboring the restive Pakistan tribal areas in 2006, killing all 16 aboard.
Taliban insurgents who staged a violent comeback three years ago have intensified their activities across Afghanistan over the past weeks to mount pressure on the government despite around 70,000 foreign troops stationed in the war-torn country vowing to keep peace and help reconstruction here.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of over 3,000 people so far this year.
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Russia denies halting NATO transit to Afghanistan
August 25, 2008
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is not planning to halt the vital transit of NATO cargoes to Afghanistan through its territory, Interfax news agency quoted the Russian armed forces deputy chief of staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying on Monday.
"I know nothing about Russia unilaterally halting the transit of civilian cargoes for the alliance's forces through Russian territory to Afghanistan," he said. "Generally speaking this is not our position. We don't take such demonstrative steps."
Interfax said Nogovitsyn was responding to a question whether Russia was planning to halt the transit, crucial for NATO's operations in Afghanistan after the alliance froze regular contacts with Russia over Moscow's military operation in Georgia.
(Writing by Oleg Shchedrov; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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French general sees overconfidence in Afghan deaths
Mon Aug 25, 4:51 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - Overconfidence was probably a factor in the incident that led to the deaths of 10 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan, the French commander in the region was quoted as saying on Monday.
"In the past two weeks we had largely secured the zone but you have to be frank, we were guilty of overconfidence," General Michel Stollsteiner told the daily newspaper Le Parisien.
"We were surprised instead of surprising our adversary," said Stollsteiner, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Kabul region since August 5.
Ten soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in the ambush in a rugged mountain region some 60 km from the capital Kabul, the worst French military loss in 25 years and the heaviest allied combat loss in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
French commanders have said they will go through what happened in the ambush to try to draw lessons for the future and President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised the families of the dead soldiers they would be kept fully informed.
The incident shocked France and has led to calls for a reassessment of strategy, although Sarkozy has insisted France will maintain its engagement and no major political party has called for a pullout.
Defense Minister Herve Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will appear before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday to answer questions and the National Assembly will vote at the end of September on whether to keep French troops in the region.
Kouchner said the military effort alone would not succeed in bringing stability to the region.
"I am sure...that the military strategy, which has been indispensable initially, will not be enough," he told France Inter radio.
"We need what is called 'Afghanisation', that's to say to pass responsibilities, all responsibilities, as quickly as possible to the Afghans."
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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Pakistan government bans Taleban
Monday, 25 August 2008 BBC News
Pakistan has banned the Taleban militant group which has been behind many suicide attacks in the country since 2007.
The Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) will have its bank accounts and assets frozen, the interior ministry said.
The militants said the ban would have no effect on their current policies.
Last week the Taleban claimed responsibility for an attack on a munitions plant in Punjab province in which 67 people were killed.
The TTP is a loose grouping of militants headed by Baitullah Mehsud, who is based in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal district on Afghanistan's border.
The ban on the Taleban comes a day after the man likely to be Pakistan's next president, Asif Ali Zardari, advocated such a move in a BBC interview.
'Created mayhem'
"We have banned Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan because of their involvement in a series of suicide attacks," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said.
"They themselves have claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks and the government cannot engage in a dialogue with such people," he said.
Mr Malik said the Taleban had "created mayhem against the public life".
A ministry official told the BBC that the state bank had been asked to freeze any accounts the organisation might have.
A spokesman for Pakistani Taleban, Maulvi Omar, said the ban would only make them stronger.
"No, we do not have any accounts," he said. "We have no assets or any relationships with any banks. We have no need... we do very well on our own."
He continued: "As long as the Pakistan army continues its operation against us, we will remain united and together.
"In fact the ban will bring greater unity and will force more groups to join us. We will continue our current policies come what may."
Pakistan's Taleban is fighting for an Islamic state and the militants see it as their religious duty to fight the international forces currently in Afghanistan, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Islamabad.
Meeting journalists in May, Baitullah Mehsud said his organisation did not want to fight Pakistan's army, but that it was being forced to do so because the army were "slaves to US demands".
There have been a number of local ceasefire deals with the Taleban and other militants but none have been successful in stopping the violence or preventing incursions into Afghanistan, our correspondent says.
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Afghan President pardons men convicted of bayonet gang rape
The Independent By Kate Clark in Kabul 08/25/2008
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan.
The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village.
“Everyone was shocked,” said Sara’s husband, Dilawar, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “These were men who had been sentenced and found guilty by the Supreme Court, walking around freely.”
Sara’s case highlights concerns about the close relationship between the Afghan president and men accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.
The men were freed discreetly but the rape itself was public and brutal. It took place in September 2005, in the run up to Afghanistan’s first democratic parliamentary elections.
The most powerful local commander, Mawlawi Islam, was running for office despite being accused of scores of murders committed while he had been a mujahedeen commander in the 1980s and a Taliban governor in the 1990s, and since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Sara said one of his sub-commanders and body guards had been looking for young men to help in the election campaign.
“It was evening, around the time for the last prayer, when armed men came and took my son, Islamuddin, by force. I have eye-witness statements from nine people that he was there. From that night until now, my son has never been seen.”
Dilawar said his wife publicly harangued the commander twice about their missing son. After the second time, he said, they came for her. “The commander and three of his fighters came and took my wife out of our home and took her to their house about 200 metres away and, in front of these witnesses, raped her.”
Dilawar has a sheaf of legal papers, including a doctors’ report, which said she had a 17mm wound in her private parts cut with a bayonet. Sara was left to stumble home, bleeding and without her trousers.
When I met the couple in May 2006, they were in hiding and struggling to pursue the four men through the courts, petitioning the parliament, the president, human rights organisations and the United Nations. Sara and Dilawar say that one of the men involved in the attack used money and connections to repeatedly evade justice, particularly after his boss, Mawlawi Islam, became an MP and, they allege, was fully able to protect him.
In January 2007, Mawlawi Islam was assassinated. However, the other three men accused of the gang rape were put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Abdul Basir died in jail. The other two rapists, Nur Mohammad and Kheir Mohammad, were released last May. The commander was found not guilty.
A copy of the pardon was numbered, dated in May and appeared to bear the personal signature of Hamid Karzai. It recommended the men’s release because, it said, “they had been forced to confess to their crimes.”
When showed copies of the presidential pardon and court papers, President Karzai’s spokesman, Hamayun Hamidzada, was visibly shocked and said that if the documents proved genuine, Mr Karzai would be “upset and appalled.”
He said it was impossible that President Karzai could knowingly have signed a pardon for rapists, but refused to speculate on how the pardon could have come about. He promised an investigation into all aspects of the case, including the - as yet unsolved - mystery of Sara’s missing son.
He denied that there was one law for the rich and well-connected in Afghanistan and another for people like Sara. “There are difficulties - we’re rebuilding institutions, including our justice institutions and there are shortcomings, but the president and the government are committed to the rule of law on all equally.”
A UN human rights official said that, although she could not remember a similar case of the president giving a pardon in such a serious case, corruption in the police and courts was endemic.
The MP, Mir Ahmad Joyenda, said cases similar to Sara’s were actually becoming more common. The police and the courts, he said, were usually under the sway of local commanders. “The commanders, the war criminals, still have armed groups,” he said. “They’re in the government. Karzai, the Americans, the British sit down with them. They have impunity. They’ve become very courageous and can do whatever crimes they like.”
Sara and Dilawar are again in hiding, having felt too vulnerable to stay in their village. Dilawar was prepared to discuss the case. In Afghanistan, speaking about rape means risking further dishonour, but when asked whether he minded Sara’s story being publicised, Dilawar said, “We’ve already lost our son, our honour, we’ve sold our land to pay for legal costs and we’ve lost our home – what else can we lose?”
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BBC presenter Lyse Doucet: Media fail to convey 'humanity of the Taliban'
Media coverage of the conflict in Afghanistan is failing to convey the "humanity of the Taliban", a BBC presenter has said.
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom 25 Aug 2008
Lyse Doucet, a presenter and correspondent on BBC World News, was speaking at a discussion of TV reporting of the war in the country.
Doucet, who has been at the BBC since 1983, also spoke out against the nature of the reports on Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan.
The veteran correspondent and presenter, who played a key role in the BBC's coverage of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, told the Edinburgh International Television Conference: "What's lacking in the coverage of the Afghans is the sense of the humanity of the Afghans.
"In the Prince Harry coverage for example, there were all these people out there you never really saw them.
"You knew that the bombs were dropping in that direction and the guns pointing in that direction but you never got a sense of how Afghans are as a people."
Asked what was missing in British coverage, she added: "It may sound odd but the humanity of the Taliban, because the Taliban are a wide, very diverse group of people.
"Some of them would like to talk to the British Government. Some of them don't want to be fighting British troops. Some of them would. This is the ideological Taliban.
"We never have the ability or sometimes the desire to present this in a different way, so that people would be interested it's a regret."
She told the conference: "In a country which is as complex, and as difficult and dangerous as Afghanistan you can't really cover it properly and get the full picture unless you are there day in, day out. Unless you are living there and feeling and eating the heat and the dust."
She added: "What does it feel like to be a British soldier under fire? It's bloody frightening and difficult and dangerous, exhilarating as well.
"But we also want to know what it feels like to be an Afghan involved with such hopes in 2001 that things would get better and they've got a lot worse."
She said that it was "getting more and more dangerous" to cover the country.
Of the news black-out on Prince Harry's trip to Afghanistan, she said: "It's a hard one because with an issue like Prince Harry it meant that there was a series of decisions taken all along the way. Journalists were one bit of a very long chain.
"If Harry went, there was no doubt that he was going to put himself and the lives of his commanders at risk.
"We are making these deals all the time. When Gordon Brown goes to Afghanistan we are not allowed to report. Perhaps it (the deal) won't happen again."
Canadian-born Doucet said: "It probably did bring a lot of people to think about Afghanistan who normally wouldn't ordinarily think about Afghanistan. If the Prince Harry story can bring more people to think about Afghanistan then that's a good thing.
"There was a lost opportunity. There was hardly any mention of Afghans, even of Afghanistan (just a) sense of 'I went to a country far away'.
But she added: "Viewing figures went up, Prince Harry got a hero's welcome and recruitment for the British Army went up so an objective was achieved. Did that mean people knew more about why Britain was there? I don't think so.
"Journalists focused on the human story but it should part of a wider picture."
Doucet, who also covered Iraq in 2003, and the war between Israel and Hizbollah in 2006, added: "The right questions were not asked."
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Smoke, diesel smell fill Canadian armoured vehicle hit by bomb in Afghanistan
The Canadian Press
PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — It happened around 11:30 a.m. Sunday as we were returning from a forward operating base in the Panjwaii district.
We were tagging along on a Canadian supply convoy, having just witnessed a three-day military operation in neighbouring Zhari district. After living for days on army rations, sleeping under the stars and getting eaten alive by sand flies, we were looking forward to our return to the main coalition base at Kandahar Airfield, where living conditions in comparison seemed positively like Club-Med.
With little else to do on the agonizingly slow journey, we chatted.
Two soldiers got out of the vehicle to inspect the road for possible IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.
We were discussing which vehicles are best able to withstand the impact from an IED when - Kaboom!
The bomb struck the front right side of our vehicle, spinning it around and flipping it onto its side, leaving a deep crater on the road.
"Is everyone OK? Is everyone OK?" soldiers shouted as the smell of diesel and smoke filled the vehicle.
"Get out of the vehicle! Get out of the vehicle!" they ordered as several of us were dangling from the ceiling, fumbling to release our seatbelts.
We quickly exited a tiny, square air sentry and sought cover beside a large transport truck. We were worried that insurgents might follow up the assault with AK-47 gunfire.
I felt my legs and quickly patted myself down to make sure everything was intact before climbing into the truck.
C7 rifles in hand, several soldiers moved into the rugged landscape to secure the perimeter. Others helped evacuate the driver and gunner from the vehicle.
Another soldier inspected the crater while others began unloading salvageable gear from the damaged vehicle.
Five people, including my colleague Scott Deveau from the National Post, were airlifted by helicopter to the multinational hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Two soldiers and I were assessed and deemed well enough to continue the road journey.
Despite a little whiplash and bruising, I am fine. Deveau has an aching back and a cut on his noggin.
The soldiers with us in the armoured vehicle are going to survive, although one of them suffered more serious wounds than the others.
The blast might have had something to do with the operation in Zhari.
The military does not release figures, but the offensive is believed to have resulted in the death of some 40 insurgents, including several commanders. A variety of bomb-making materials and weapons were recovered.
A known insurgent website has laid claim to the assault on our vehicle.
"Mujahedeen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmine blew up a military tank of Canadian occupation army when it was travelling in Demrasi area of Panjwaii district in Kandahar province," their news release said.
"In the explosion the tank was completely destroyed and four occupation terrorists were killed," it claimed - incorrectly.
When the panic and fear began to subside, I chatted with other soldiers on the way to Kandahar Airfield. But each bump in the road made my heart skip a beat.
Thinking about the courage of soldiers I've met gave me strength to endure the rest of the journey down the deadly highway. Many soldiers have survived IED blasts and not hesitated to get back in their vehicles to continue on with their jobs.
IEDs are responsible for nearly half the 93 Canadian soldier deaths since the mission began in 2002.
Just last week, a similar blast killed Sapper Stephan Stock, Cpl. Dustin Wasden and Sgt. Shawn Eades, combat engineers with 12 Field Squadron, 1 Combat Engineer Regiment based out of Edmonton.
One could call this a typical day in war-torn Afghanistan - a good day, since we have all lived to tell about it.
And judging by the black-humoured well wishes I've been receiving, you could say my 30th birthday was a blast - literally.
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Danish Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
COPENHAGEN (AFP)--A Danish soldier serving with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led forces in Afghanistan was killed Monday when his tank drove over an improvised explosive device, the Danish military said in a statement.
The soldier was seriously injured in the blast and was evacuated by helicopter to a field hospital at Camp Bastion in southwestern Afghanistan where he died, the statement said.
The death brings to 16 the number of Danish troops killed in Afghanistan since it deployed soldiers there for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in 2001 - one of the highest per-capita death tolls among coalition forces.
Last week, 10 French soldiers were killed in the highest NATO death toll on the ground in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.
Denmark currently has some 700 troops in the country, most of whom are stationed in the southwestern Helmand province under U.K. command.
Separately, the Afghan cabinet demanded Monday a renegotiation of agreements regulating the presence of international troops in Afghanistan after more than 90 civilians were killed in U.S.-led air strikes.
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A neighbor in Turmoil
Syed Hassan Kazim, Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 25, 2008
Decent into Chaos: The US and the failure of Nation-building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
Price: Rs 495/- Penguins publication
News coming out of Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent months has shattered many assumptions about the US war on terror. The resurgence of Taliban and the perceived danger of Afghanistan turning into a failed state have led both Obama and Mc Cain to call for increased troops and resources to stabilise the country.
Although the developments may be disturbing, but Pakistani journalist Ahmad Rashid makes the case that they should not be surprising.
In his new book Decent into Chaos: The US and the failure of Nation-building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Rashid, who is also the writer of the best selling book Taliban demonstrates that the failures and contradictions of US policy in the region have been visible from the beginning of the war on terror.
At one point Rashid says that "The international community's lukewarm commitment to Afghanistan after 9/11 has been matched only by it's incompetence, incoherence and conflicting strategies - all led by the US. Rashid is not a foaming leftist but still less an enthusiast for the Islamist militancy. In fact Rashid's account stresses on the Afghanistan's recent history as a battlefield for proxy wars between other powers. To combat the Indian influence in Afghanistan, Pakistan's ISI has since long been supporting the Taliban and other militant groups. We can see the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul as a direct fallout of Pakistan's policy of harbouring anti-India elements on it's soil.
At one point Rashid says that a "group of ignorant, extremely powerful and dangerous men in Washington led by Donald Rumsfeld, the worst of them all sought to exploit America's shock after 9/11 to pursue their own global agenda, on which ousting Saddam, once the best friend of successive US administrations was the top of their agenda.
The neo-conservatives in White House were serious about only one thing viz. in Mr Bush's terminology "smoking out the terrorists from their hideouts and getting Saddam Hussain ousted.
Rashid also criticises Islam Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan, whom he describes as one of the nastiest dictators of Central Asia, who is also a major ally of America in it's war against terror. It's a great irony on the part of the American policy that the US accuses the countries with which it has not a good relationship of supporting the terrorists, or being undemocratic or violators of Human Rights.
While at the same time its supports various countries being ruled by dictators, which shows it's double standard vis a vis the developing or the underdeveloped countries and also shows that, in American foreign policy there is no any permanent friend or enemy, but only permanent interests.
The Pakistan's ISI still plays a deadly game by providing enough assistance to America and it's allies in their war against terror while at the same time supporting Taliban to cause unrest in the Southern areas of Afghanistan. Rashid says that the main responsibility on the part of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq is to undo the damage done to these states by the always confrontational policy of Bush administration due to which in Afghanistan the drug agency has become more powerful and the Taliban have become widely resurgent. Rashid, who is also a good friend of Afghan president Hamid Karzai tries to portray Karzai as a noble man caught in the unfavorable circumstances which are getting from bad to worse.
The central factor behind the mess which is Iraq and Afghanistan now-a-days is the malevolent foreign policy of the Republicans vis-à-vis the Islamic world, especially Afghanistan, Iraq and now Iran.
From the beginning, after 9/11, the US was already looking ahead on a mission to capture Iraq and dethrone Saddam Hussain, which resulted in its unwillingness to devote much resources to Afghanistan.
Through this book, Rashid has tried to find out the main reasons behind the chaos, on the brink of which is Afghanistan today, reading which one can also grasp the roots and magnitude of the problems in the region.
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Gunmen murder judge and his son, police say
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 24 August 2008
Gunmen open fire on judge after he opens his front door, police chief says
GUNMEN have killed the chief judge of a local court and his son outside their house in the southern city of Kandahar, the province’s police chief said.
"Two killers riding a motorbike reached the judge's house and knocked at the door at about 1 pm," Matiullah Khan told the Xinhua news agency. When the judge opened the door, the gunmen opened fire, killing him and his son, Khan said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the alleged murders.
The Taliban dispense their own style of justice in districts under their control.
Some residents prefer to use Taliban courts as the judicial process is often far swifter and less corrupt than the government’s.
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Taliban 'execute two government spies'
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 24 August 2008
Militants kill two men accused of spying for foreign troops
TALIBAN rebels have murdered two men accused of spying for foreign troops and the Afghan government, an official said.
The spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, where the two men were executed close to the provincial capital on Saturday, said the men were innocent and had never worked for the government.
The Taliban, who often dispense their own style of justice in areas under their control, have not commented on the alleged killings.
Last month, militants in the neighbouring province of Zabul dragged seven men and women from buses and taxis before shooting them dead for working with the government.
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