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Afghanistan frees al-Qaida suspect's young son
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - An al-Qaida suspect's 12-year-old son, who was taken into custody with his mother and held for two months, was handed over to Pakistan on Monday to be returned to relatives there.
Pakistani troops, jets target border militants
By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 15, 6:56 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets killed 15 suspected militants Monday as security forces advanced on Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border, an official said.
Afghan official survives attack, 3 dead
Press TV (Iran) Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:32:02 GMT
An Afghan district chief has survived a roadside bomb explosion that killed three of his bodyguards and wounded five others.
Afghanistan: IRC reviews option to resume activities
KABUL, 15 September 2008 (IRIN) - The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it is still "reviewing and analysing" the security situation before deciding whether to resume activities in Afghanistan.
Bomb kills three guards in Afghan district
Mon Sep 15, 3:25 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - A bombing Monday killed three bodyguards of a district chief, including his son, in an area of Afghanistan at the centre of claims that US air strikes killed dozens of civilians last month, the official said.
Afghan gov't reviews preparation for strategic talks with U.S.
www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-15 16:24:06
KABUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government on Sunday reviewed the preparation for the third round of strategic talks with the United States, a press release of Afghan Foreign Ministry received here Monday said.
Pakistan soldiers 'confront US'
Monday, 15 September 2008 BBC News
Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say.
US attacks raise stakes in Pakistan
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Karachi Monday, 15 September 2008
"I am not convinced we are winning in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said at a Congressional briefing on 10 September.
Iran 'sending weapons to Taleban'
By Kate Clark BBC News, Afghanistan Monday, 15 September 2008
Elements in the Iranian state are sending weapons across the border to the Taleban in Afghanistan, a BBC investigation has uncovered.
UN chief blasts 'cowardly' Afghan attacks
Mon Sep 15, 1:17 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-Moon blasted as "unacceptable and cowardly" the suicide attack on a UN convoy that killed three people, his spokesman said.
Drug production in Afghanistan grows two-fold since NATO operation
15.09.2008, 13.40
MOSCOW, September 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Since the beginning of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, drug production in the country has increased two and a half times, director of the Russian Drug Control Federal Service (DCFS)
Rebels cut off Afghan teacher's ears as 'punishment': official
Monday • September 15, 2008 todayonline.com
Taliban militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the government, an education official said.
Petraeus: more than troops needed in Afghanistan
By KIM GAMEL Associated Press Writer Sun, Sep. 14, 2008
BAGHDAD-U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Is in Its Worst Shape Since 2001, European Diplomat Says
New York Times, United States By ALISON SMALE September 14, 2008
GENEVA-One of the most experienced Western envoys in Afghanistan said Sunday that conditions there had become the worst since 2001. He urged a concerted American and foreign response
Afghanistan freezes ties with regional security group
17:30 | 15/ 09/ 2008
MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - Afghanistan has had virtually no contact over the past year with a regional security group on the post-conflict settlement, the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization said on Monday.
Coalition forces arrest 8 militants in E Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-15 13:44:09 Print
KABUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led Coalition forces detained eight suspected militants during operations to disrupt Haqqani network in eastern Afghan province of Khost on Sunday, said a Coalition statement issued here on Monday.
6 Afghan policemen killed in Taliban ambush
People's Daily - Sep 14 11:28 PM
Six Afghan policemen including an officer were killed as they came under Taliban attack in Afghanistan's central Ghazni province, provincial administration's spokesman Ismael Jihangir said Sunday.
Comment: U.S. Afghan surge to lessen Canada's influence
Early withdrawal ignores other military options
Matthew Fisher, National Post Monday, September 15, 2008
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's much criticized edict last week that all Canadian forces will be out of Afghanistan by the summer of 2011 comes three months before the hazardous mission in Kandahar has
Kajaki Dam 'not enough for provinces'
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 September 2008
Governor says electricity will not be enough even when all three turbines are up
THE INSTALLATION of the third turbine in Helmand’s largest dam will boost electrical output to 51 megawatts per hour.
Shadow of Guantanamo follows freed inmates back to their homes
After years in detention, Afghan returnees have bitter memories as they face new hardships. Jason Burke reports from Kabul
The Observer (UK) Jason Burke Sunday September 14 2008
They call them the Bandi Guantánamo, the Guantánamo returnees, and their welcome home is far from warm. All across Afghanistan in recent months, scores of men have been coming back from a long journey halfway
Milk industry booms
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Sunday, 14 September 2008
But lack of electricity still hinders dairy production in many parts
LIVESTOCK owners saw the wholesale costs of their dairy products increase by 13% between 2002 and 2007, the United Nations said.
Outbreak of anthrax hits north-east
www.quqnoos.com Written by Tamim Hamid Sunday, 14 September 2008
Doctors sent to examine claims that deadly disease has struck
THE HEALTH Ministry has dispatched a team of specialist doctors to Badakshan to investigate claims that the deadly anthrax disease has infected more than a dozen people in the northern province.
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Afghanistan frees al-Qaida suspect's young son
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - An al-Qaida suspect's 12-year-old son, who was taken into custody with his mother and held for two months, was handed over to Pakistan on Monday to be returned to relatives there.
The boy's mother, Aafia Siddiqui, was detained outside the governor's house in Afghanistan's Ghazni province in July on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and taken to the U.S. military base there. The Pakistani-American citizen was then flown to New York to face charges of assault on U.S. personnel in Ghazni.
The U.S. indictment alleges that during Siddiqui's interrogation in Ghazni, she picked up a soldier's rifle, announced her "desire to kill Americans" and fired at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. She was wounded by return fire.
Her son Ali Hassan, also a dual American-Pakistani national, was with his mother at the time of her arrest and has been in Afghan custody ever since.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, Sultan Ahmed Baheen, said the boy has spent the last 10 days in a "guest house" of Afghanistan's intelligence service. Before that, the ministry said he was in the custody of the prosecutor who deals with minors.
Ali Hassan was expected to arrive in Pakistan later Monday and be handed over to his mother's relatives.
Siddiqui, 36, came to the United States in 1990 and studied at the University of Houston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she got a bachelor's degree in biology in 1995. She later studied neuroscience as a graduate student at Brandeis University.
She vanished in Pakistan in 2003.
In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III identified Siddiqui as one of seven people the FBI wanted to question about suspected ties to al-Qaida. Her family has vehemently denied any link.
Her lawyers claim that before she was arrested and brought to New York, Siddiqui was kidnapped by U.S. operatives and kept in secret captivity in Pakistan. The ordeal, they said, left her with severe physical and mental problems.
U.S. officials deny she was ever in their captivity before she surfaced in Afghanistan in July.
Last week, a warden at a federal prison in Brooklyn notified a judge that Siddiqui is suffering from major depression.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Baheen said Ali Hassan was adopted by Siddiqui after his biological parents were killed in a massive earthquake that struck Kashmir in 2005.
But Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq contradicted Baheen's statement, saying the DNA tests done by U.S. authorities showed that the boy was Siddiqui's biological son.
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Pakistani troops, jets target border militants
By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 15, 6:56 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets killed 15 suspected militants Monday as security forces advanced on Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border, an official said.
The deaths — along with 22 wounded — are the latest toll from a bloody six-week military offensive that has reportedly killed hundreds in the Bajur tribal region. Some 32 people, including three women, died Sunday, senior government official Iqbal Khattak added.
U.S. officials say the Taliban and other militant groups have been using Bajur as a base from which to support the insurgency in Afghanistan. It has also been named as a possible hide-out of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The Pakistani operation comes amid tension with the U.S. over whether the Muslim nation is doing enough to combat insurgents on its territory and whether the U.S. should pursue unilateral strikes there.
Khattak said Pakistani forces had used helicopter gunships, fighter jets and heavy artillery to attack suspected militant positions in various areas in Bajur.
In a statement late Sunday, the military said ground forces were advancing toward Loi Sam, a key areas for the militants. Khattak said security were also trying to secure Nawagai, a strategic town on a main road.
The casualty figures and details of the operation are difficult to confirm independently because of the region's remote and dangerous nature.
The government said late last month that it would cease military operations in Bajur for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but reserved the right to retaliate against insurgent activities.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said factors including persistent militant mortar attacks and threats to pro-government tribes prompted the military to restart its operation.
Abbas said the issue "has to be resolved once and for all."
"It may take a long time. We cannot just hand over this area to the Taliban."
A series of suspected U.S. missile strikes and an American-led ground assault in Pakistani territory in the northwest in recent days have prompted official protests from Pakistan's military and government.
Although Pakistan has vowed to defend its territorial integrity and publicly denounced U.S. incursions, top officials have indicated they would prefer to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to discuss the incursions with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week.
The Bajur operation in August forced as many as 500,000 people to flee to neighboring regions, but the announcement of a Ramadan halt in fighting prompted many to return.
Now, people are again fleeing.
One resident, Abdul Malik, was heading Sunday to the Dir area north of Bajur with his wife and three children. He said they were trying to return to the relief camp they'd vacated after hearing of the Ramadan suspension.
"This is more fierce fighting than before, and we don't know who is killing whom, as no big figure has been killed as yet, only innocent civilians," Malik said.
___
Associated Press writer Habib Khan in Khar contributed to this report.
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Afghan official survives attack, 3 dead
Press TV (Iran) Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:32:02 GMT
An Afghan district chief has survived a roadside bomb explosion that killed three of his bodyguards and wounded five others.
The explosives, apparently hidden in a three-wheel motorcycle near the Shindand district government compound, were remotely detonated as the convoy of the district chief Lal Mohammad Omarzai passed.
Omarzai's son along with two of his bodyguards were killed in the attack. Omarzai, who was the target of the attack, survived the blast but sustained slight injuries.
"Three of my bodyguards, one of them my son, were martyred and five others were wounded," Omarzai said.
Taliban militants took responsibility for the attack.
Militants frequently target government leaders in their campaign of violence against Afghan authorities. On Saturday, the Taliban killed the governor of Logar province Abdullah Wardak and three others in a roadside bombing outside Afghan capital Kabul.
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Afghanistan: IRC reviews option to resume activities
KABUL, 15 September 2008 (IRIN) - The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it is still "reviewing and analysing" the security situation before deciding whether to resume activities in Afghanistan.
The IRC, an international NGO, suspended operations after four of its staff (three internationals and one national) were assassinated by armed men in Logar Province on 13 August.
The attack - for which Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility - was widely condemned.
"Local communities are anxious to see our programmes resume," Ciaran Donnelly, IRC's country director, told IRIN.
"We want to serve the Afghan people and we hope to resume some programmes in the near future," Donnelly said.
The IRC has been in Afghanistan for more than 20 years providing humanitarian and developmental assistance.
Unprecedented risks
Afghan and international aid organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN have frequently voiced concerns about shrinking humanitarian operating space because of insurgency-related violence.
At least 24 aid workers (Afghans and internationals) have been killed in security incidents this year, according to the Afghanistan NGOs Safety Office (ANSO).
Figures compiled by ANSO from 25 of the 34 provinces revealed 117 security incidents involving NGOs and aid workers from 1 January to 31 August 2008.
An international aid worker, who preferred anonymity, said: "Aid workers are suffering unprecedented attacks ... Never before were they attacked so widely, repeatedly and deliberately".
In the most recent incident, three Afghans working for the UN were killed in a suicide attack on their convoy in the Spin Boldak District, in southern Kandahar Province, on 14 September, the UN said.
The convoy was carrying doctors to assess polio vaccination in Spin Boldak, which borders Pakistan.
"These unacceptable and cowardly actions show the brutal face of those opposing progress towards peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan," the UN Secretary-General said in a statement.
Reliance on communities
"We don't use armed escorts, we don't use armed vehicles and bullet-proof vests; we rely on protection from communities," said Donnelly.
But civilians have also been the victim of attacks and violence across the nation and therefore communities are deemed unable to protect aid workers from belligerent armed groups.
The IRC echoed calls made earlier by the ICRC and other aid agencies: "We call on all warring parties to respect International Humanitarian Law and restrain from attacks on civilian people and aid workers".
Misperceptions
The IRC said aid workers had come under attack mostly due to "misperceptions".
"Some people think aid organisations are supporting western military forces," said Donnelly. "This perception is incorrect. Aid agencies are impartial actors and don't take sides in conflict."
Others such as Oxfam International say the increased involvement of military forces in humanitarian and development activities had caused a "blurring of lines" and fuelled misperceptions.
Whatever the reason for the increasing attacks on aid workers, it has become too risky for humanitarians and development workers to assist vulnerable Afghans, experts say.
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Bomb kills three guards in Afghan district
Mon Sep 15, 3:25 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - A bombing Monday killed three bodyguards of a district chief, including his son, in an area of Afghanistan at the centre of claims that US air strikes killed dozens of civilians last month, the official said.
Lal Mohammad Omarzai told AFP the bomb was apparently hidden in a three-wheel motorcycle near the Shindand district centre and remotely detonated as his two-vehicle convoy passed.
"Three of my bodyguards, one of them my son, were martyred and five others were wounded," said Omarzai, who was not hurt in the attack.
Shindand is the focus of one of the biggest claims of civilian casualties in air strikes since international troops arrived in Afghanistan to remove the extremist Taliban in late 2001.
An Afghan investigation and a UN rights team have said more than 90 civilians, many of them women and children, were killed in August 22 strikes called in after international and Afghan troops came under attack.
The US military says only five to seven civilians were killed along with 30-35 militants. It has, however, agreed to review its investigation.
Shindand is home to armed rebels, including Taliban, who regularly carry out attacks on government officials as part of their campaign against their Western-backed government. Other groups are also involved in the unrest.
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Afghan gov't reviews preparation for strategic talks with U.S.
www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-15 16:24:06
KABUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government on Sunday reviewed the preparation for the third round of strategic talks with the United States, a press release of Afghan Foreign Ministry received here Monday said.
In the meeting attended by several Afghan cabinet ministers and high ranking government functionaries, the Afghan foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that the talks on strategic partnership scheduled to be held in U.S. on Sept. 25 would focus on development security and good governance.
Afghan foreign minister and his U.S. counterpart would chair the talks in Washington, the press release added.
Declaration for Strategic Partnership between the United States and Afghanistan was agreed in 2005 and the first round of the talks was held in Washington on the same year while the second round took place in early 2008 in Kabul.
President Hamid Karzai who is going to visit United States soon would hold meeting with his U.S. counterpart on September 26 and seeks more support for the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
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Pakistan soldiers 'confront US'
Monday, 15 September 2008 BBC News
Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say.
Reports say nine US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border.
South Waziristan is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.
The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan over increasingly aggressive US attacks along the border.
The latest confrontation began at around midnight, local people say.
They say seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.
US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.
Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains.
The incident happened close to the town of Angoor Adda, some 30km (20 miles) from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.
A Pakistani military spokesman in Islamabad confirmed that there was firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved.
Diplomatic fury
It emerged last week that US President George W Bush has in recent months authorised military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is a growing American conviction that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to eliminate militant sanctuaries in its border area.
There have been a number of missile attacks aimed at militants in Pakistan territory in recent weeks.
Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan.
Locals in the Musa Nikeh area said American soldiers attacked a target with gunfire and bombs, and said women and children were among some 20 civilians who died in the attack.
In the latest incident, the tribesmen say they grabbed their guns and took up defensive positions after placing their women and children out of harm's way.
Pakistan's army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban.
Last week the army chief declared that Pakistan would defend the country's territorial integrity at all cost, although the prime minister has since said this would have to be through diplomatic channels rather than military retaliation.
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US attacks raise stakes in Pakistan
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Karachi Monday, 15 September 2008
"I am not convinced we are winning in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said at a Congressional briefing on 10 September.
The statement came less than two weeks after he held a secret meeting with Pakistani army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, aboard a US aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean.
It now appears that the military leaderships of the two countries failed in that meeting to evolve a shared vision of where the US-led "war on terror" should be going.
On 3 September, US special forces conducted their first ground assault on a suspected al-Qaeda target in Pakistan's South Waziristan region.
Since then, suspected US missiles fired either from inside Afghanistan or from CIA-operated Predator drones have hit at least five targets inside Pakistani territory.
This spate of attacks comes amid reports that US President George Bush authorised unilateral ground action in Pakistani tribal areas two months ago.
The Pakistani army has raised questions over this new strategy, stating that the rules of engagement do not allow foreign troops to operate on Pakistani soil.
It has also warned of "retaliation to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression".
And now there has been another incident in South Waziristan, with local officials saying Pakistani troops fired warning shots to stop US soldiers crossing the border from Afghanistan.
Coming to blows?
Meanwhile, talk-show hosts of Pakistan's powerful electronic media are whipping up anti-US sentiments amid suggestions that war against militancy is not "our war" and that Pakistan should formulate a "matching" response to US attacks.
So are the two top allies in the "war on terror" in danger of coming to blows with each other?
If unilateral US attacks continue, warns defence analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, "the military commanders and major political circles will build strong pressure on the civilian government to downgrade cooperation with the US, and target American drones".
The general view is that if the Pakistani government ever goes to that extreme, it would be on the assumption that the Americans cannot fight Islamic militants without the logistical support offered by Pakistan.
Few in Pakistan believe though, that its political or military leadership would risk an outright confrontation with Washington.
In an editorial comment on Sunday, Pakistan's influential Dawn newspaper wrote, "we have no choice but to tackle the issue diplomatically".
But even this will require a hard sell, analysts say.
A core American belief is that elements within the Pakistani intelligence apparatus have been funding the Taleban and offering them intelligence on coalition troop movements.
The new civilian government which took power in March has inherited the problem of extended militant sanctuaries on its north-western borders which mostly emerged due to some questionable policies pursued by the military regime of former president Pervez Musharraf.
"I still have no answers as to why the proposed reforms to religious seminaries were not carried out by the Musharraf regime, or why some religious groups were promoted out of proportion to their political or spiritual clout," says Najmuddin Shaikh, a former foreign secretary.
Whatever the legacy of President Musharraf, Dr Askari argues that the new government's efforts "to contain the activities of Islamist groups and parties, which often act as political front for militants, have received a setback due to American raids".
It is now under pressure to placate anti-American hawks in the political establishment as well as an army which is known to harbour political ambitions at home and security interests in Afghanistan.
'Our problem'
And what about the Americans?
They may give in to their growing impatience to win the war against militants before the US presidential elections later this year by more attacks on Pakistani territory. The danger is that they may weaken the very forces that could turn the war against extremists into a popular war supported by most Pakistani citizens.
Or they might choose to stand back and give the new government more time to confront the militants on its own terms.
Najmuddin Shaikh is among those who believe that Pakistanis are only now beginning to realise the magnitude of the threat the militant's pose to the state of Pakistan.
"For the first time, all centres of power in Pakistan appear to be moving towards a recognition that this is our problem and we have to tackle it," he says.
"The Americans need to identify this opportunity, and allow it enough time to run its course."
He also says the Taleban are not as popular in the tribal areas as they are made out to be. People have accepted them because they were abandoned by the government.
"You need only to assure the people that you are with them, and the change will come much more quickly," he says.
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Iran 'sending weapons to Taleban'
By Kate Clark BBC News, Afghanistan Monday, 15 September 2008
Elements in the Iranian state are sending weapons across the border to the Taleban in Afghanistan, a BBC investigation has uncovered.
Taleban members said they had received Iranian-made arms from elements in the Iranian state and from smugglers.
The UK says its troops have intercepted arms which it believes were given by a group within the Iranian state.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul dismissed the allegations, saying Tehran supported the Afghan government.
'It's called Dragon'
Among the Taleban, Iranian-made weapons are greatly sought after in the fight against the government of Hamid Karzai and the Nato and US-led forces deployed to support him.
They are considered to be reliable and particularly destructive.
For example, an Iranian-made Kalashnikov rifle can be adapted to fire grenades. It costs $200-$300 more than one made in Pakistan, Russia or China.
Iranian-made weapons, one commander told me, had really improved the Taleban's ability to attack the American military deployed in his area.
"There's a kind of mine called Dragon. Iran is sending it, we have got it," the Taleban commander said.
"It's directional, it destroys. If you lay an ordinary mine, it will cause only minor damage to Humvees or one of their big tanks. But if you lay a Dragon, it will be destroy it completely."
'Limited supply'
The question is - are Iranian weapons only being brought across the border by smugglers for profit or are elements of the Iranian state also donating arms?
The Taleban commander and other sources in the south told me both routes were operating.
The British ambassador in Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, made the same allegation.
"We've seen a limited supply of weapons by a group within the Iranian state, not necessarily with the knowledge of all other agencies of the Iranian state, sending some very dangerous weapons to the Taleban in the south.
"It's a very dangerous game for Iran, a Shia state, to be supplying Sunni extremists, like the Taleban."
Seven years on, the worsening of American-Iranian relations might give some groups within the Iranian state a reason to help the Taleban fight their mutual enemy - the US army deployed in Afghanistan.
Kate Clark's full report will be broadcast on Newsnight on BBC2 on 15 September at 2130 GMT, and on Assignment on the BBC World Service on 18 September.
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UN chief blasts 'cowardly' Afghan attacks
Mon Sep 15, 1:17 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-Moon blasted as "unacceptable and cowardly" the suicide attack on a UN convoy that killed three people, his spokesman said.
"The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms the suicide attack against a United Nations convoy in southern Afghanistan earlier today," spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement on Sunday.
"These unacceptable and cowardly actions show the brutal face of those opposing progress towards peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan."
The attack in Kandahar province killed two Afghan doctors working for the World Health Organization as well as their driver. They were in "clearly marked UN vehicles ... carrying out a polio vaccination campaign," he said.
On the same day as the attack on UN workers, six children were killed in a bomb explosion, officials said.
The bloodshed comes amid growing concern over deteriorating security, seven years after a US-led invasion ended the Taliban regime, with top-level talks on rising extremist attacks due in London and Washington due in the coming days.
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Drug production in Afghanistan grows two-fold since NATO operation
15.09.2008, 13.40
MOSCOW, September 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Since the beginning of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, drug production in the country has increased two and a half times, director of the Russian Drug Control Federal Service (DCFS) Viktor Ivanov said after a meeting of the CSTO Coordination Council of leaders of competent bodies on opposing illegal trafficking of drugs.
“Since the beginning of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, drug production (in Afghanistan) has increased two and a half times. We feel it,” he said.
“The military-political situation in Afghanistan remains complex. This is not only my opinion, this is an estimate of the world community and NATO too. Disengaging myself from the problem of combating terrorism, I want to say that drug production in this country is growing with every passing day,” the DCFS director ascertained.
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Rebels cut off Afghan teacher's ears as 'punishment': official
Monday • September 15, 2008 todayonline.com
Taliban militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the government, an education official said.
The rebels took another dozen people, most of them elderly men, out of the mosque in the southern province of Zabul and beat them up on similar charges, provincial education chief Mohammad Nabi Khushal said Sunday.
The men had burst into the mosque while dozens of worshippers were in a late night prayer session Saturday and singled out primary school teacher Bismillah Khan, Khushal said, blaming Taliban rebels.
"They took him out of the mosque and cut off his ears. They said, 'Anyone working for the government will be punished like this'," he said.
The teacher, who worked at a refurbished school re-opened five months ago, was on Sunday admitted to a US military-run medical facility in the area for treatment, he said.
A villager who refused to be identified confirmed the incident to AFP by telephone. The rebels had introduced themselves as members of Taliban militant group, he said.
But a spokesman for the extremist militia, Yousuf Ahmadi, said Taliban were not involved. "Whoever they were, they were not our mujahideen (holy fighters)," Ahmadi said.
The rebel group has killed dozens of Afghans employed by the government or its international military or development partners as part of a campaign to undermine support for President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government.
Education is one of the successes of post-Taliban Afghanistan with about 6.2 million children enrolled in school, up from one million in 2001, when the extremist Taliban regime was removed in a US-led invasion.
It is also one of the main targets of a Taliban insurgency. Attacks left 220 pupils and teachers dead in 2007, the education ministry says. — AFP
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Petraeus: more than troops needed in Afghanistan
By KIM GAMEL Associated Press Writer Sun, Sep. 14, 2008
BAGHDAD-U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan.
"You don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
His comments come as a debate over the need to redeploy troops from Iraq to Afghanistan has become a central issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.
Petraeus, who is widely credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of civil war, is taking over as chief of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters overseeing U.S. military involvement throughout the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia.
He'll hand over the reins in Iraq to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno Tuesday during a ceremony at the U.S. military headquarters at Camp Victory on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy has paid off in Iraq, where the number of attacks has dropped to its lowest point in more than four years. But he will face a new challenge with violence rising in Afghanistan.
It will be a delicate balancing act to tackle a resurgent Taliban enjoying refuge in the lawless border areas of Pakistan without losing ground in Iraq.
"We've got a situation in Afghanistan where clearly there have been trends headed in the wrong direction," Petraeus said. "Military action is absolutely necessary but it is not sufficient."
"Political, economic and diplomatic activity is critical to capitalize on gains in the security arena," he said.
The 55-year-old general assumed control of U.S. forces in Iraq about 19 months ago after President Bush ordered some 30,000 additional American forces to Iraq as part of a so-called surge aimed at stopping spiraling Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence.
The reason for the decline in violence is hotly debated, but the U.S. military cites the troop buildup, along with a Sunni revolt that saw former insurgents turn against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire ordered by a strident American foe Muqtada al-Sadr.
Petraeus also acknowledged the military's dual role, calling U.S. troops "builders and diplomats as well as guardians and warriors" in his farewell letter posted on the military's Web site.
"The progress achieved has been hard-earned," he wrote. "There have been many tough days along the way, and we have suffered tragic losses. Indeed, nothing in Iraq has been anything but hard."
Petraeus stressed it was premature to discuss strategy but suggested he will carry over lessons from his playbook in Iraq - including possible outreach to try to bring hostile players into the political process.
Petraeus, however, stressed the ultimate decision to reach out to militants would be up to the Afghan government.
"We did reaffirm in Iraq the recognition that you don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial-strength insurgency," he said.
"Clearly there are so-called irreconcilables who must be killed or captured or run out of the country," he added. "But reconciliation with some of those who are currently part of the problem and making them part of the solution is something that I know is being examined as an option."
Bush announced last week that one Marine battalion and one Army brigade would be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan this fall and winter - far fewer than the 10,000 troops U.S. commanders there had requested. Meanwhile, about 8,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by February.
George Friedman, the head of Stratfor, an independent intelligence risk assessment agency based in Austin, Texas, said Petraeus faces a more organized enemy in Afghanistan with the Taliban and must consider reaching out to them along with tribal chiefs.
"He's struggling with the question of limited forces and a political climate that's much different than Iraq," he said. "But it's impossible to imagine how the United States can create an Iraqi-style solution without the Taliban because they're getting stronger every day."
Petraeus and other military leaders have consistently warned that the security gains in Iraq are reversible and need continued U.S. attention - a point underscored by persistent bombings that bear the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents.
And while security gains have been remarkable, the Iraqi government has largely failed to take advantage of the calm to make political progress.
Petraeus said the new challenges in Iraq include stalled provincial elections that are expected to redistribute power among Iraq's deeply divided groups, growing tensions between Arabs and Kurds over disputed territory in the north and the need to provide new employment for Sunnis fighters currently on the U.S. payroll.
He also warned al-Qaida and "residual militia elements" remain a threat.
"There are still very significant challenges and there will be for the foreseeable future," he said, warning against an overly rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
"What we're wary of doing in a country that has had a surprise around every corner is unduly jeopardizing the gains for which our soldiers and our Iraqi partners have fought so hard," he said.
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Afghanistan Is in Its Worst Shape Since 2001, European Diplomat Says
New York Times, United States By ALISON SMALE September 14, 2008
GENEVA-One of the most experienced Western envoys in Afghanistan said Sunday that conditions there had become the worst since 2001. He urged a concerted American and foreign response, even before a new American administration took office, to avoid “a very hot winter for all of us.”
The envoy, Francesc Vendrell, a Spanish diplomat with eight years’ experience in Afghanistan, especially criticized the growing number of civilian deaths in attacks by American and international forces.
Those deaths have created “a great deal of antipathy” and widened the distance between the Afghan government and citizens, he said here at an annual review of global strategy organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Mr. Vendrell recently stepped down as the European Union envoy in Kabul.
The United States military is investigating an assertion by villagers in western Afghanistan that some 90 men, women and children died in a missile attack on Aug. 22. The Afghan government and a United Nations investigation have backed that assertion, but American officers have said that only seven civilians were killed.
Mr. Vendrell warned that the situation was precarious among the Pashtun tribes who live mainly in southern Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan. He also said that the Taliban-led insurgency had spread not only to the east but also close to Kabul and, in pockets, to the north and west, hitherto relatively peaceful.
While only a minority of Pashtuns actively support the Taliban, he said, most Pashtuns “are sitting on the fence to see who is going to be the winner.”
Because the country faces a number of problems — the rising cost of food and fuel, the deterioration in security and what Mr. Vendrell called the international community’s failure to engage either the Taliban or regional powers like Pakistan, Iran and India in the search for solutions — Afghanistan could be facing “a very cold winter” that threatened to become “a very hot winter for all of us,” he said.
He urged that Afghan authorities and foreign agencies follow up any military successes against the Taliban with concrete assistance to convince local citizens that Westerners and the Kabul government can deliver security and at least some well-being.
Mr. Vendrell bluntly recited what he called a long series of foreign mistakes in Afghanistan. While he played a leading role in the conference in Bonn, Germany, that set up the post-Taliban government, he said Sunday that the “first great mistake” made in 2001 was holding that conference. By the time the Bonn talks took place, he said, Northern Alliance warlords and their allies already controlled two-thirds of Afghanistan, making their rule a “fait accompli.”
In addition, he said, the United States and its allies placed too much faith in President Hamid Karzai and did too little to ensure that his government had a monopoly of force, with a strong police force and other institutions.
“We thought we had found a miracle man,” Mr. Vendrell said, alluding to Mr. Karzai without naming him.
“Miracle men do not exist. Too much responsibility without power was invested in this person,” he said.
Mr. Vendrell’s audience included dozens of security and foreign policy specialists, as well as a smattering of American military officers and some government ministers, including Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister. His alarm about Afghanistan and Pakistan was echoed in conversations at the conference.
Mr. Vendrell said that nevertheless it was time not to abandon Afghanistan but to redouble efforts there, both military efforts and those to build up civilian institutions and ensure that elections are held next year. In particular, he said, the United States must develop clear standards to govern the detention of hundreds of Afghans it holds without trial.
“This is not the time to leave; we are not destined to fail, but we are far from succeeding,” he concluded.
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Afghanistan freezes ties with regional security group
17:30 | 15/ 09/ 2008
MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - Afghanistan has had virtually no contact over the past year with a regional security group on the post-conflict settlement, the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization said on Monday.
The CSTO is a security grouping comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
"There has been no cooperation with the Afghan side over the past year. A year ago, the Afghan side stopped all diplomatic contacts with CSTO representatives on the issue of a post-conflict settlement," Nikolai Bordyuzha.
He added that the behavior could be linked to "big brother giving the Afghans appropriate instructions."
The CSTO group of the post-conflict settlement in Afghanistan was established in 2006 and includes national coordinators from all the CSTO member states. It was meant to provide assistance to Afghanistan's law enforcement, drug-control and other security agencies.
Moscow continues to permit non-military supplies for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan to pass through Russian territory, despite suspending in August all peacekeeping operations with NATO for at least six months.
Russia made the decision to continue supporting NATO operations in Afghanistan over concerns about the worsening military and political situation in the Central Asian country amid a rise in extremist attacks and heroin production.
Since the Taliban regime was overthrown in the 2001 U.S.-led campaign, Afghanistan has become the world's leading producer of heroin.
Afghanistan's opium production increased from 6,100 tons in 2006 to 8,200 tons in 2007, according to the UN. The narcotics trade has become an acute problem for Russia and the Central Asian republics due to a continual flow of illegal drugs from Afghanistan.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has about 53,000 troops operating in the country under a UN mandate to help give security support to the Afghan government and stop the flow of drugs from the country.
However, despite international efforts, the Taliban, ousted from power after a U.S.-led military operation in 2001, have stepped up their operations over the past year with an increase in suicide and other attacks.
On Sunday two UN doctors and a driver were killed, when a suicide bomber rammed into their vehicle in southern Afghanistan. And in a separate incident, around six children died with 12 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated outside of the country's capital Kabul.
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Coalition forces arrest 8 militants in E Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-15 13:44:09 Print
KABUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led Coalition forces detained eight suspected militants during operations to disrupt Haqqani network in eastern Afghan province of Khost on Sunday, said a Coalition statement issued here on Monday.
Coalition Forces detained three suspected militants during an operation in Qalandar district of Khost targeting a Haqqani subcommander suspected of financing and directing attacks, as well as, facilitating the movement of foreign fighters into the region, the statement said.
In a second operation in Sabari district, Coalition forces targeted a suspected militant, who is suspected of coordinating with the Haqqani network to emplace IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) in Khost area, it said.
"Five suspected militants were detained as a result of the operation," it added.
Jalaludin Haqani, who served as a minister and chief of army staff during Taliban regime in Afghanistan, is a close aide to Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar and has been leading Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan to mount pressure on the Afghan government and international troops deployed there in the post-Taliban nation.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of around 4,000 people, mostly militants, so far this year in the war-torn country.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia
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6 Afghan policemen killed in Taliban ambush
People's Daily - Sep 14 11:28 PM
Six Afghan policemen including an officer were killed as they came under Taliban attack in Afghanistan's central Ghazni province, provincial administration's spokesman Ismael Jihangir said Sunday.
"A group of policemen were patrolling in Zana Khan district on Saturday when Taliban insurgents ambushed and killed six policemen on the spot," Jihangir told Xinhua.
He added that Mira Jan, acting police chief of the district, was among the deceased bodies.
However, an official at the press department of the Interior Ministry on the condition of anonymity, disputed the claim, saying only four policemen were killed in the attack, while locals said seven police constables were murdered in the ambush.
Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahed, who claims to speak for the Taliban insurgents, told media from an unknown location, that eight police were killed in the attack.
Around 4,000 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed in violent incidents so far this year in war-battered Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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Comment: U.S. Afghan surge to lessen Canada's influence
Early withdrawal ignores other military options
Matthew Fisher, National Post Monday, September 15, 2008
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's much criticized edict last week that all Canadian forces will be out of Afghanistan by the summer of 2011 comes three months before the hazardous mission in Kandahar has even reached its previously announced half way point.
But Canada's influence there will actually begin to wane next year. The next Canadian commander, Brigadier-General Jon Vance, slated to be in charge from next March to November, is likely to be last.
Gen. Vance, who is now deeply involved in training and planning his troops in Wainwright, Alta., will probably be followed by a U. S. one-star general. Furthermore, NATO's regional command in the south, now held Canadian Major-General Marc Lessard, will almost certainly be taken over by a U. S. two-or three-star late next year.
Whoever wins the U. S. presidential election, Canadian troops there are about to be subsumed by a surge in U. S. forces far larger than anything the Bush White House has announced so far.
A U. S. Marine expeditionary unit with up to 5,000 troops will deploy to Kandahar next spring, according to U. S. military sources, with other Marine Corps units entering training cycles that will see them in southern Afghanistan, rather than Iraq, before the end of next year. This is in addition to the Marine battalion just ordered to move to southern Afghanistan in November and a U. S. army battalion that arrived in Kandahar a few weeks ago.
Many of the Marines headed to Afghanistan may end up in Helmand or other southern provinces. But there is a heavy expectation U. S. army numbers in Kandahar will also double or triple in the next 15 months.
Whoever is in charge, it looks inevitable the Canadians will be given the job of continuing to oversee Panjwaii/ Zahri, where, despite suffering heavy losses, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have not been vanquished because of the seemingly endless supply of fresh recruits, whose brains have been addled at madrassas in Pakistan.
The new U. S. forces are probably going to take the fight to the enemy in places where the Canadians have not gone much, such as the border with Pakistan, the incubator for so many of Afghanistan's problems.
Wherever they have been sent, the Canadians, who have been well-trained and well-led, have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to engage and crush the enemy. Alas, this has not been enough to overcome one great shortcoming.
Because the army has shrunk so much over the past few decades, there are never more than 1,000 Canadian combat troops in Kandahar at any one time. This has not been nearly enough manpower to secure a treacherous territory the size of New Brunswick.
But this is very old news. Three months before the Canadians took over responsibility for Kandahar in February, 2006, a reconnaissance squadron from the Royal Canadian Dragoons made a foray deep into the mountains near the Pakistan border to see whether it made sense to set up a base there.
That wild ride into remote Taliban-infested territory revealed Canada could not possibly hope to maintain order in Kandahar city, protect the heavily populated Panjwaii/ Zahri area and seal the border. With its European allies deaf to Ottawa's appeals for help, Canada was obliged to forget about the porous frontier. It is that huge and crucial gap a swarm of U. S. forces will soon try to plug, at least partially.
Canada's long goodbye from Afghanistan is badly out of sync as the war enters a critical phase. The Dutch government is considering extending its mission in southern Afghanistan beyond 2010, Australia is contemplating sending more troops. The U. S and Britain have already decided to despatch thousands more.
Mr. Harper was right when he said his generals do not want to continue the current mission beyond 2011. There are not enough combat troops available to do so.
But the Prime Minister ignored other reasonable military options when he categorically stated Canada will quit Afghanistan in 24 months. The most obvious one, which dovetails with longstanding Canadian humanitarian aims, would be to keep the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city.
With NATO still terribly short of airlift, Canada's six refurbished Chinook helicopters could stay on to support other NATO armies. The air force could also help a lot of it did the same with a few of the new generation of C-130 Hercules transports Ottawa has on order.
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Kajaki Dam 'not enough for provinces'
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 September 2008
Governor says electricity will not be enough even when all three turbines are up
THE INSTALLATION of the third turbine in Helmand’s largest dam will boost electrical output to 51 megawatts per hour.
Currently, only one turbine is operational at Kajaki Dam, with the second under construction and the third arriving last month escorted by about 5,000 foreign and Afghan troops.
The province’s governor, Gulab Mangal, said the electricity produced after all three turbines are up and running will still not be enough to power Helmand and Kandahar.
But, by the time the turbines are in place, more than 1.7 million people in Helmand and Kandahar will have electricity.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funds the project, will have to fork out more than $500 million for the reconstruction of the dam over the project's lifetime.
Governor Mangal said: "With the installation of the new turbine in the dam, with the assistance of USAID, the problems of the people in Kandahar and Helmand will be solved to some extend and, in the future, we will do our best to look after the dam."
About 5,000 foreign and Afghan land and air forces carried the third turbine through a 180 km mountainous route under the Taliban control to reach Kajaki.
The district was pounded with heavy bombs to clear the route for the convoy.
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Shadow of Guantanamo follows freed inmates back to their homes
After years in detention, Afghan returnees have bitter memories as they face new hardships. Jason Burke reports from Kabul
The Observer (UK) Jason Burke Sunday September 14 2008
They call them the Bandi Guantánamo, the Guantánamo returnees, and their welcome home is far from warm. All across Afghanistan in recent months, scores of men have been coming back from a long journey halfway around the world. About 100 have been released from Guantánamo Bay by United States authorities in the last 12 months as Washington, under mounting pressure from governments around the world, attempts to moderate the damage done to America's image by the Cuba-based detention centre. A third are Afghan and more are due to return in the coming weeks.
After more than five years in detention thousands of miles away, often traumatised, often angry, or just broken and poor, the Bandi Guantánamo try to build new lives, with limited success. Most claim innocence. Others are unashamed of their acts of violence. Interviewed in Kabul last month, Mohammed Umr described how he had trained in terrorist techniques, met Osama bin Laden and fought at the battle of Tora Bora in 2001. Released 10 weeks ago, he spoke of how angry the presence of his former jailers in his homeland made him. 'If they have come here to help us, why do they kill civilians and why can't they even provide electricity to Kabul seven years after invading?', asked the 30-year-old former footballer, arrested in Pakistan during the closing days of the war of 2001.
Almost all the former detainees describe mistreatment - ranging from waterboarding - the repeated half-drowning of prisoners to get them to talk - through to beatings, sleep deprivation, being kept in 'stress positions' and exposure to extreme temperatures for long periods. Most say that the worst abuse occurred in US bases in Afghanistan, notably in the eastern and southern cities of Jalalabad and Kandahar, or at the logistics centre of Bagram airfield, where a 500-capacity makeshift prison was built. American military spokesmen in Afghanistan deny any mistreatment.
By comparison, the former prisoners say, Guantánamo was relatively bearable. 'It was better there,' said Abdul Nasir, who added that he had been deprived of sleep in the Bagram prison. 'The food was OK. There was more exercise. When I arrived [in 2003] we had just 20 minutes twice a week. By the end it was two hours a day.' Like others interviewed by The Observer, Nasir, 26, claimed that rows frequently broke out in Guantánamo over religious practice. 'The guards made noise when we were praying. They shouted bad things,' he alleged. 'There was nearly a riot because they were handling the Koran that we were allowed in our cells.'
Many former detainees say they have been told by the Afghan government or their former jailers not to talk to journalists. Several senior former Taliban figures, such as Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, their former ambassador to Pakistan, are under house arrest in Kabul, supposedly as part of the largely moribund 'reconciliation process'. The head of the reconciliation commission was in Canada and unable to comment, his office said.
Mirwais Yasini, Deputy Speaker of the Afghan parliament, played down the danger of returnees joining Taliban insurgents in control of large parts of the south and east of the country. 'We should try to reintegrate them, but [the returnees] should not get any special treatment,' he said from his office in the new Afghan parliament building. 'Their story is that of Afghanistan: a tragic tale.'
Many former detainees return to hardship, chaos and violence. In the six years he has been gone, Abdul Nasir's village on Kabul's outskirts has barely changed but for a new road and new insecurity. 'We are worried to go into the fields at night because the coalition think we are Taliban and shoot at us,' said Nasir's elder brother. 'Every week, the Taliban are firing at the police in the village. Our school was burnt down and there have been bomb attacks.'
Nasir was arrested by Afghan troops in 2002, accused of attacking a border post with a group of Pakistani Taliban. Though he now denies the allegation, legal sources close to his case said he had confessed, claiming he had been press-ganged by fellow students at the religious school where he had been studying in the anarchic Pakistani tribal zones.
Saeed Jan was freed two years ago. He says he does not know why he was arrested in 2002 and says he was repeatedly beaten after his arrest in the eastern Kunar province and again at Bagram by American personnel. He returned to his village to find his sick wife and mother had died and his 12-year-old son had been killed in a fall while collecting wood. 'When I got home I said to myself it would have been better to have stayed in detention,' he said. 'At least my village is peaceful, but I have four other children and no money. We are hungry and I cannot afford food.'
The detainees are being released into Afghan custody after their cases are reviewed by US authorities. They are usually held in the new wing, built with American funds, at Pul-e-Sharqi prison near Kabul, where they are tried under Afghan law by local terrorist courts. Most are released and given about £5 and some clothes. Many claim to have been the victims of denunciations by tribal enemies or rivals in complex local power struggles. It is difficult to confirm their stories, although many details appear convincing. In the aftermath of the invasion of 2001, with large bounties on offer for information leading to the arrest of al-Qaeda or Taliban supporters, coalition authorities with little knowledge of Afghanistan were often manipulated by factions and individuals to eliminate long-standing enemies.
Haji Ghalib, a tribal elder from eastern Nangahar province released late last year, claimed he was falsely denounced after closing down a drugs bazaar when he was police chief in a rough district near Jalalabad. 'It was a ridiculous accusation, but the Americans believed it. They beat me, gave me no food and interrogated me by strapping me to a wooden plank and pushing my head into water. I kept telling them they had got the wrong person,' he said.
Independent sources confirm that Ghalib, a former fighter against the Russians, had fought against the Taliban in previous years and was allied with an anti-Taliban warlord.
'I spent four years in Guantánamo without any evidence of any guilt at all because I am innocent,' he said in Kabul. 'But I am not angry at the Americans because they were the victims of bad information. But I would like the money and vehicles they took from me. I am in a very difficult situation now, and I am worried about the people who accused me, because they could do it again.'
More than 500 detainees have been released from Guantánamo and American authorities have indicated that only about 70 of the 263 still in their custody will be tried. They include at least a dozen senior al-Qaeda figures. A few hundred prisoners are still held in Bagram, where two have died of injuries sustained during interrogations.
The detainees often return to tragedy and destitution. Saeed Ameer, from the eastern Nangahar province, was arrested in 2002 after explosives were found in his home. He denies all knowledge of the cache and blames a relative. 'I told the US that I had fought against the Taliban and spent five years in their jails,' he said last week. 'But they took me to their base, beat me until I was unconscious and kept me awake for days and days. Then they took me to Guantánamo and I stayed there for four years.' Ameer now scrapes a living trading livestock, though he cannot afford meat himself. 'There are 30 people in my family and a kilo of mutton is £2. How can I afford that?', he said.
Tora Bora veteran Mohammed Umr said he just wanted to join his family in Saudi Arabia, where he grew up. It was from Medina that he travelled in 2001 for 'jihad'. He said that he had now forsworn violence and hoped to get married, settle down and have children.
Yet Umr was still angry. 'Osama bin Laden is the only person who is concerned about the plight of the Muslim world. This Afghan government are un-Islamic collaborators with the West,' he said. 'No one here likes the Americans. In the provinces there are civilians being killed for nothing. There is chaos, violence, tyranny. This is enough to make even an ordinary person furious. Imagine how someone who has suffered for years in prison feels.'
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Milk industry booms
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Sunday, 14 September 2008
But lack of electricity still hinders dairy production in many parts
LIVESTOCK owners saw the wholesale costs of their dairy products increase by 13% between 2002 and 2007, the United Nations said.
The rise in the amount of cash farmers can get for their dairy products was only observed among those who kept pedigree animals, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
The FAO collected 32,500 litres of milk from Maidan Wardak, Logar, Kunduz, Balkh and Kabul provinces in 2002, but the figure increased to 2.1 million litres of milk in 2007, a 72% rise in the average farmer’s income.
The head of the FAO’s dairy products project, Dr Lutfullah, said: "The purpose of this project is to increase animal products, especially dairy in the rural areas of Afghanistan, and to bring them to the cities for consumption.
"On the other hand, the project has increased the animal owners’ incomes, and we were successful here."
Head of Kabul’s dairy union, Ghulam Zikirya Ahmadzai, said: "We urge the government to build us more facilities to collect and process milk.
"For example, we lack electricity now. If there is no electricity, our milk will sour, which is a major problem for us."
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Outbreak of anthrax hits north-east
www.quqnoos.com Written by Tamim Hamid Sunday, 14 September 2008
Doctors sent to examine claims that deadly disease has struck
THE HEALTH Ministry has dispatched a team of specialist doctors to Badakshan to investigate claims that the deadly anthrax disease has infected more than a dozen people in the northern province.
Twenty days ago, the ministry said it received reports that the disease, which is highly lethal in some strains, had infected 20 people in the province.
The disease has already killed hundreds of livestock but there are no human casualties yet, the ministry said.
Unconfirmed reports say that as many as 60 people could be infected withy the disease, which is spread through infected bacteria, producing toxins that can cause haemorrhaging and tissue decay.
When spores are inhaled, ingested, or come into contact with a skin lesion on a host they reactivate and multiply rapidly.
Humans catch the disease if they eat infected animals or are exposed to the blood of infected animals.
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