 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
UN: Guns fall silent in Afghanistan on Peace Day
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.N. said guns fell silent across much of Afghanistan on Sunday for an international peace day that saw pledges by the U.S., NATO, the Afghan government and the Taliban to halt attacks.
Afghan Taliban back UN anti-polio drive, Peace Day: spokesman
Sat Sep 20, 4:33 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban said the militia would cease attacks on UN Peace Day on Sunday and would not obstruct a three-day polio vaccination starting the same day.
Eleven Afghan policemen killed in Taliban attack
21 Sep 2008 12:59:06 GMT
KABUL, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have attacked an Indian construction project in the western Afghan province of Herat killing 11 Afghan policemen and wounding several others, a provincial official said on Sunday.
Republican VP candidate Palin to meet Afghanistan's Karzai
Sun Sep 21, 2:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai next week in New York, a McCain campaign spokesman said.
Three international soldiers, two Afghans killed in blasts
Sat Sep 20, 12:25 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Three international soldiers and two Afghan civilians were killed Saturday when bombs struck patrols in separate incidents in Afghanistan, the international military forces said.
Resurgent Afghan Taliban reinvents itself
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A resurgent Taliban, whose popularity is fueled by dissatisfaction with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has set up a virtual parallel government, sources say.
UAE President Donates 200 Mln Dirham To Afghanistan
DUBAI, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- War-ravaged Afghanistan is to receive a 200 million dirham (RM188 million) donation from United Arab Emirates' (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
At least 100 Afghan officials poisoned
AAP via Yahoo!7 News - Sep 21 4:42 AM
At least 100 Afghan policemen and government officials, including a deputy provincial governor, were poisoned after eating their evening meal, officials say.
Afghan President strongly condemns suicide attack on Islamabad
People's Daily - Sep 21 1:25 AM
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday strongly condemned the massive explosion in Pakistani capital Islamabad, said a statement of Presidential Palace.
Turning to the Taleban in Pakistan
Saturday, 20 September 2008 BBC News
US raids on Taleban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistani territory have caused outrage in Pakistan. And that has added to the loathing that some people there have long felt for the way that the US conducts itself
Canadian battle commander sees Afghan progress during his time in Afghanistan
By Bob Weber The Canadian Press September 21, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It's been a rough few months for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, but the outgoing commander of the troops in the field said Sunday that Afghans are making real progress
All change in the US's Afghan mission
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / September 20, 2008
KARACHI - The direct costs of the seven-year "war on terror", which includes operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have reached US$752 billion, if the current year's appropriation of $188 billion is included
Pakistan 'won't tolerate' sovereignty violations: Zardari
Sat Sep 20, 7:48 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - New elected President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty following cross-border strikes by the US-led coalition based in Afghanistan.
NATO denies ambushed French troops were ill-equipped
September 21, 2008
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO denied Sunday that French soldiers had been ambushed by better armed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan last month but expressed concern about increasingly sophisticated cross-border attacks.
Afghans reflect on 'Peace Day'
By Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul Al Jazeera
On September 21, Afghanistan marked Peace Day, a UN-sponsored event whereby all fighting parties (Nato, Taliban, and the Afghan military) agreed to cease hostilities for one day.
Al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban eyed in Marriott bomb
By ZARAR KHAN Associated Press September 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Rescuers pulled more bodies from the shell of the truck-bombed Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Sunday, pushing the death toll from one of the country's worst terrorist strikes to 53
From Washington to Kabul the hard way
Lawrence Freedman's encyclopedic study of US strategy in the Middle East is a scrupulously fair-minded guide through a political and cultural minefield
The Observer Jason Burke Sunday September 21 2008
In 1952, the small Afghan town of Lashkar Gah became the main focus of the Helmand Valley Authority, a huge dam project largely bankrolled by American loans and designed by American experts
World Bank blames insecurity for investment drop
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Saturday, 20 September 2008
Government regulations and growing violence blamed for decline in investment THE WORLD Bank has expressed concern at the drop in investment in Afghanistan, blaming the decline on insecurity and government regulations.
MP urges Karzai to tackle 'economic mafia'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdulwali Arian Saturday, 20 September 2008
Government corruption forces food prices to rise, MP says A MEMBER of Parliament has blamed government corruption for rising food costs inside Afghanistan.
2,800 Pakistan families flee to Afghanistan: minister
KABUL, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - About 2,800 Pakistani families have crossed the border into northeastern Afghanistan over the past two months to escape fighting between extremists and security forces, an official said Friday.
Back to Top
UN: Guns fall silent in Afghanistan on Peace Day
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.N. said guns fell silent across much of Afghanistan on Sunday for an international peace day that saw pledges by the U.S., NATO, the Afghan government and the Taliban to halt attacks.
The U.N. said tens of thousands of international and Afghan soldiers as well as Taliban militants "all stood down from offensive military operations in support of the biggest International Peace Day effort that Afghanistan has known."
Government officials around the country reported no violence, and several credited Peace Day efforts.
"Today is Peace Day. The soldiers are resting," said Abdul Jalal Jalal, the police chief in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.
When asked if he had any reports of violence, U.S. coalition spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Joel Peavey said, "Not at all."
"It's crazy, but apparently the Taliban sent out an e-mail saying they were going to abide by it if we were, and we definitely are," he said. "It's a great day to show Afghans exactly what peace is like and how their everyday life would be if they just booted out the bad guys."
The day was not completely violence-free. Taliban militants attacked a security company guarding a road construction crew in the southern province of Ghazni, killing two guards, said the governor's spokesman, Ismail Jahangir.
Still, the push for peace was largely successful given that 2008 has been the most violent year in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban's hard-line Islamist government.
Taliban attacks have grown larger and more deadly this year. At least 120 U.S. soldiers and 104 troops from other NATO nations have died already in 2008, both record numbers. Overall, more than 4,500 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related attacks this year.
Sunday was the 26th anniversary of the International Day of Peace, a U.N.-backed push for a day of nonviolence and global cease-fire. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan in particular heavily promotes the day.
The U.N.'s special representative in the country, Kai Eidi, described the response as "remarkable" and urged all sides in the Afghan conflict to make peace a common goal.
NATO's top general in Afghanistan ordered all international troops to halt offensive operations from midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday in honor of the day. That order followed an announcement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Afghan troops would observe Peace Day.
A Taliban spokesman said its fighters would also lay down their guns Sunday.
Afghans around the country celebrated the day with sporting events, gatherings and marches. The Ministry of Public Health launched a polio vaccination campaign in which some 12,000 volunteers would vaccinate up to 1.8 million children from Sunday through Tuesday, the U.N. said.
The volunteers also planned to vaccinate in the violence-plagued south, where medical workers are routinely attacked. Afghanistan is one of only 14 countries in the world where polio exists, according to the World Health Organization.
In the northern city of Kunduz, a street that has seen three suicide bombs was rededicated as "Peace Avenue" during a Peace Day ceremony. In the central highland town of Bamiyan, Afghanistan's first Olympic medal winner led a march of Afghan orphans. Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze at the Beijing Olympics in taekwondo in August.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Taliban back UN anti-polio drive, Peace Day: spokesman
Sat Sep 20, 4:33 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban said the militia would cease attacks on UN Peace Day on Sunday and would not obstruct a three-day polio vaccination starting the same day.
The Afghan army and international military forces have also announced, after a call from President Hamid Karzai, that they would halt offensives on Peace Day, September 21.
"In respect for the international Peace Day, Taliban have issued a declaration that we are in a defensive position and we will cease attacks," a spokesman for the group, Yousuf Ahmadi, told AFP.
The extremists, who are linked to Al-Qaeda, posted a statement on their website to the same effect.
"If NATO and America and their followers respect this day for real, and avoid tricks and announce the ceasefire from the depth of their heart, the (Taliban) will also instruct to its own mujahedeen (holy warriors) to take the defensive position on this day," the statement said.
Ahmadi also said Taliban would "cooperate" with a three-day UN polio vaccination campaign due to start in volatile parts of the country on Sunday.
Vaccinators must however "keep in contact" with Taliban in areas they visit to make sure they were safe, he said.
Two Afghan doctors working on the polio campaign were killed in a Taliban suicide car bombing in the southern province of Kandahar a week ago.
The bomber attacked two marked United Nations vehicles as they travelled through a market, also wounding several civilians.
Ahmadi claimed the target of the bomb had been UN vehicles transporting "American soldiers."
The Taliban says its fighters are trying to free the country from Western "invaders." The militia's attacks kill more civilians than troops, also targeting school teachers, health workers and aid workers.
Afghanistan is one of a handful of countries that still has the crippling polio virus, with 18 new cases reported this year, all in the south and east where insurgent violence is the strongest and health workers most at risk.
Vaccinators have been unable to reach about 100,000 children in the south because of the insecurity, the World Health Organisation says.
The three-day campaign starting on Sunday is expected to reach 1.8 million children in six provinces in the south.
The United Nations confirmed it had received a letter from the Taliban about the Peace Day polio campaign.
"All statements of support for Peace Day are very welcome," spokesman Adrian Edwards told AFP.
"It's an apolitical campaign for peace and our objective in this is simple -- we want to open humanitarian space for initiatives such as polio vaccination.
"And on the political side, we want to open space to have peace back on the agenda."
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, when they were removed in a US-led invasion for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Their fight against the elected Afghan government and its allies has claimed thousands of lives.
In a new attack, a coalition soldier and two Afghans were killed Saturday when a bombing, similar to those used by insurgents, struck their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Eleven Afghan policemen killed in Taliban attack
21 Sep 2008 12:59:06 GMT
KABUL, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have attacked an Indian construction project in the western Afghan province of Herat killing 11 Afghan policemen and wounding several others, a provincial official said on Sunday.
Violence has hit its worst levels in Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001. At least 2,700 people including 1,100 civilians have been killed this year, aid agencies say.
While insurgents have been active in the south and east of the country, violence in recent years has spread to the north and west.
"Eleven guards and two Taliban were killed last night when a group of insurgents attacked Salma Dam in Cheshti Sharif district," said Farad Khamedi, the administrative chief of a neighbouring district.
"The dam is under construction by Indian engineers but no Indians were killed or wounded", he said.
The Afghan government has repeatedly accused Pakistan's spy agency of supporting militant attacks on Indian construction projects in Afghanistan, an accusation Pakistan denies.
India is one of the biggest aid donors to Afghanistan.
Several Indian construction and telecommunications workers have been killed or kidnapped in Afghanistan, where India has pledged about $750 million in aid for construction projects. (Reporting by Sharafuddin Sharafiyaar; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Republican VP candidate Palin to meet Afghanistan's Karzai
Sun Sep 21, 2:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai next week in New York, a McCain campaign spokesman said.
Karzai will be in New York with leaders from around the world to participate in the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds confirmed the meeting.
Palin, the 44-year-old first time governor of Alaska, is seen as a novice in the key area of foreign policy -- especially when measured against her Democratic counterpart Joseph Biden, with 36 years' experience on the Senate foreign affairs committee.
Palin got her first passport in 2007 when she traveled to visit Alaska National Guard -- of which she is commander in chief -- in Kuwait and Germany.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Three international soldiers, two Afghans killed in blasts
Sat Sep 20, 12:25 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Three international soldiers and two Afghan civilians were killed Saturday when bombs struck patrols in separate incidents in Afghanistan, the international military forces said.
Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed when a bomb hit their patrol in the east of the country, ISAF said.
And a trooper with the separate US-led coalition was killed in a similar blast in the south that also left two Afghan civilians dead, the force said.
The forces did not release the nationalities of their casualties, leaving this to their home nations. The coalition also did not say who the Afghans were.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the insurgent Taliban militia has carried out a series of similar attacks in its drive to force out the international soldiers helping the Western-backed government.
At least 215 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year alone, most of them in insurgent attacks, according to an AFP tally. Around 220 died last year.
There are around 60,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them with the NATO-led force that operates alongside the smaller coalition.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Resurgent Afghan Taliban reinvents itself
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- A resurgent Taliban, whose popularity is fueled by dissatisfaction with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has set up a virtual parallel government, sources say.
When defeated by the U.S.-led coalition in 2001, the Taliban had been reduced to a rag-tag group. But now it operates a sort of parallel government with defense and finance councils, judges and officials in some areas, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The Taliban has updated itself for a new generation, Waheed Mojda, a former official from when the Taliban ruled most of the country in the late 1990s, told the Post, saying, "They are more educated, and they don't punish people for having CDs or cassettes. The old Taliban wanted to bring sharia (Islamic law), security and unity to Afghanistan. The new Taliban has much broader goals -- to drive foreign forces out of the country and the Muslim world."
The inability of Karzai to deliver needed infrastructure is driving civilians in Afghanistan into the arms of the Taliban, some told the Post.
"Their popularity is increasing day by day, because the government has done nothing for our province," obstetrician Roshanak Wardak said. "They take our innocent boys and tell them Islam is in danger. Now everyone is becoming a Talib."
Back to Top
Back to Top
UAE President Donates 200 Mln Dirham To Afghanistan
DUBAI, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- War-ravaged Afghanistan is to receive a 200 million dirham (RM188 million) donation from United Arab Emirates' (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The money is meant to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people and assist in the country's reconstruction process, state media reported Sunday.
The president had asked the Khalifa bin Zayed Charity Foundation to coordinate with competent Afghan authorities to channel funds into sustainable social, economic, health, educational and essential services projects.
"The grant will be used to build infrastructure so as to assist the Afghan people tap their energy and resources for reconstruction," WAM news agency said.
It would also contribute towards ongoing efforts to restore security and stability in the country.
-- BERNAMA
Back to Top
Back to Top
At least 100 Afghan officials poisoned
AAP via Yahoo!7 News - Sep 21 4:42 AM
At least 100 Afghan policemen and government officials, including a deputy provincial governor, were poisoned after eating their evening meal, officials say.
A man claiming to be from the Taliban said he had carried out the mass poisoning but NATO's military force, which offered medical treatment, said it was believed to be a straightforward case of food poisoning.
About 100 men fell ill in the eastern province of Nuristan late on Saturday after eating iftar, the evening meal that breaks a day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, deputy provincial governor Abdul Halim told AFP.
They had all eaten food prepared in the kitchen of the governor which feeds some provincial authorities and police who guard the compound.
"After we had our iftar, about 100 people felt really ill," he said. Many had fainted.
Halim said he had also taken ill but had recovered by Sunday. The provincial police chief was however still being treated in a clinic, he said.
The source of the poisoning appeared to have been the bread but it was being investigated.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, in Afghanistan to help the government defeat a Taliban -led insurgency, said about 160 people were treated at a clinic and 200 more at a local police station.
"Although the cause of the illness is not fully understood it is believed to be a straightforward case of food poisoning and the matter is being investigated by the Afghan National Police," it said in a statement.
A man who gave his name as Ajab Khan and said he was a Taliban commander in the region claimed responsibility for the poisoning and said 300 people had been affected.
Nuristan is a rural and mountainous province on the border with Afghanistan . It has seen attacks by Taliban insurgents, with the radical faction of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also active there.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan President strongly condemns suicide attack on Islamabad
People's Daily - Sep 21 1:25 AM
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday strongly condemned the massive explosion in Pakistani capital Islamabad, said a statement of Presidential Palace.
"The timing of this inhumane and cowardly attack on 21st of Ramadan during the Eftar proved that terrorists had no faith in Islam and their cause was to spread blood shade and kill innocent civilians," said President Karzai in the statement.
Moreover, Karzai emphasized on honest and serious fight against terrorism, adding "as long as the evil of terrorism was active, hate rate and blasts would continue."
President Karzai extended his condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims as well as to the people and government of Pakistan.
Pakistan's Interior Ministry in a statement released Sunday said that 38 persons, including two foreigners, have been killed in the suicide attack on Marriot Hotel in the capital.
Source: Xinhua
Back to Top
Back to Top
Turning to the Taleban in Pakistan
Saturday, 20 September 2008 BBC News
US raids on Taleban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistani territory have caused outrage in Pakistan. And that has added to the loathing that some people there have long felt for the way that the US conducts itself on the world stage, as Owen Bennett-Jones discovers.
"I would rather live in the dark ages under the Taleban than be subservient to any foreign power."
The unexpected comment comes from an urbane, sophisticated and, I had always thought, Westernised Pashtun lawyer.
He wears none of the badges of Islamic piety - a beard, for example - and he normally sports a navy blazer not the local shalwar kameez.
He is a former minister with the Pakistan People's Party, the most liberal in Pakistan.
Rejecting the West
The word liberal in the Pakistani context means modern, educated, secular rather than theocratic and, up until now at least, pro-Western.
"You can't mean it," I protested. "Do you know what the Taleban were like in Afghanistan when they ran it, with compulsory prayers five times a day, do you want that?"
"Look," he said. "I can deal with Taleban, they are my own people. They come from here. I know them.
"I will be able to get around them. But the Americans never. No way."
That is how badly the battle for hearts and minds is going in Pakistan. It could scarcely be worse.
Taken aback by that conversation, I chatted about it with another senior Pakistani politician, a senator, again a well known liberal.
"I agree with him," he said. "Is there is no end to it? The Americans are now bombing Pakistani people. What are they doing here 12,000 miles away from home?"
And he told me about his children, four boys.
"I sent them to the UK for their education," he said, "I spent all my money on it. They had five, six years in England at boarding schools, it was a crucial time of their lives, they were young.
"They could have stayed and settled down there but they all choose not to. They didn't want to. All four are living here in Pakistan and praying five times a day.
"I don't pray five times a day," he said. "They do. Why? Because you in the West have forced them away, forced them towards Islam. You have forced them out."
Again, I was taken aback. Apart from the familiar complaints about foreign policy, what had those boys seen in their English boarding school that they did not like?
Drunkenness, I guess. Consumerism, maybe. Disrespect for the elderly always shocks Pakistanis, so perhaps that.
I guess that seen through some young Pakistani eyes there are things we do that they do not want.
Still, anti-Americanism in Pakistan has reached quite fantastic levels.
There are now suicide bombs every few days and no-one doubts that the Taleban recruit, train and equip the bombers.
After one recent suicide attack, the brother of one of the victims was quoted in the press.
Did he blame the Taleban? He did not. "America is responsible for my brother's death," he said. "If the Americans went back home everything would be calm here."
There is, I think, universal agreement amongst Pakistanis that, if the US continues to rely so heavily on military firepower in Afghanistan, and increasingly in Pakistan too, then the Taleban will win.
Preaching moderation
And, in fact, elsewhere in the world, there are signs that the US is using much more subtle and maybe more effective tactics.
In a US base on the outskirts of Baghdad, for example, where captured insurgents are held, US taxpayers are paying the salaries of some heavily vetted Iraqi clerics who preach moderation.
I met one of them recently. When he relaxes he mooches around in an England football shirt, when he is working he wears the long flowing, gold-edged robes denoting his clerical status.
He told me about a session he had with a group of 20 recently detained Iraqi Takfiris.
Takfiris are really the last word in intolerance. They believe that anyone who does not share their very rigid interpretation of Islam is an infidel and should be killed.
The cleric described walking into the room where the Takfiris where waiting for him and offering the traditional greeting: "Salaam Aleikum".
The leader of the group responded by hurling his slippers into the cleric's face.
'With these guys you cannot let something like that go," the cleric told me, "or you lose all authority."
'Battle of wits'
The cleric looked the Takfiri leader in the eye and asked: "What did I just say to you?"
"You said Salaam Aleikum," the man replied.
"And what does that signify?" asked the cleric.
The Takfiri leader looked confused. "The word Salaam is one of the 99 names of Allah," the cleric went on.
"You have just thrown your slippers at Allah." He then turned to the other 19 Takfiris. "This man is an infidel," he said, "are you going to kill him?" He turned and left the room.
That night, the guards woke the cleric at 3am and rushed him down to the detention centre.
The Takfiri leader was huddled in the corner of the room shivering, his arms around his knees. "I didn't mean to offend you. Please get me away from here. I think they are going to kill me," he begged.
"So, in just 12 hours," the cleric concluded, "I dealt with the leader of some of the most hard-line people ever captured in Iraq."
"It's a battle of wits," I said. The cleric laughed. "Let's see who wins."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Canadian battle commander sees Afghan progress during his time in Afghanistan
By Bob Weber The Canadian Press September 21, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It's been a rough few months for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, but the outgoing commander of the troops in the field said Sunday that Afghans are making real progress in being able to deal with their own security challenges.
"What we really worked with is enabling the Afghan security forces," said Lieut.-Col. Dave Corbould of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man.
Such progress is even more urgent now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that Canada will withdraw all its soldiers from Afghanistan in 2011.
Corbould made the remarks as he handed over command of Canada's battle group to the next group of soldiers the Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont.
In remarks after the brief handover ceremony, Corbould said the Afghan army and police have come a long way in both their fighting ability and their credibility with local people.
"That's where the progress has really been made - their interaction with the local nationals and their credibility with the local nationals in order to be a real force in providing security," he said.
"The enemy is realizing (the ANA) is not so easy to hit and get away with it."
Cobould said Afghans are becoming much more forthcoming in providing information on the location of both Taliban fighters and improvised explosive devices. He also said training in both professional police procedure - including ethics training for the notoriously corrupt Afghan National Police - is starting to pay off.
"They're whole approach to matters seems much improved."
Still, Taliban activity doesn't appear to have slackened off. In a recent briefing to reporters, officials acknowledged that the danger of IEDs has seen a steady climb despite Ramadan, the Islamic holy month now nearing an end.
At least 80 roadside bombs have been planted over the last 18 days in Kandahar province alone, the official said, although the great majority were discovered before they were detonated.
Attacks on both NATO and Afghan solidiers - including IEDs, ambushes and "shoot and scoots" - are now coming at the rate of at least 10 a day.
Those attacks have taken their toll. Since the spring fighting season began, 19 Canadians have been killed.
But Corbould maintains that's because the Canadian and Afghan armies are in more locations, pressing the Taliban harder.
"It's a reaction to our force posture, especially with the (Afghan National Security Forces)."
However, the governor of Kandahar province wondered if local forces can be trained in time to meet Harper's deadline.
"If the Canadians will go , I am sure it will create insecurity and several other problems," Rahmatullah Raufi said through a translator at celebrations for International Day of Peace in Kandahar city.
"(Afghan forces) need some more training. Canadians should live longer in Afghanistan."
Incoming battle group commander Lieut.-Col. Roger Barrett of the Royal Canadian Regiment acknowledged the size of the task his soldiers face. But he said the approach of autumn and winter may allow NATO and Afghan forces to expand their area.
"If indeed the tempo in the fighting season drops off, that allows us to deepen our gains and really take hold in the areas we're doing well in and from that position of strength keep expanding."
(With files from A.R. Khan)
Back to Top
Back to Top
All change in the US's Afghan mission
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / September 20, 2008
KARACHI - The direct costs of the seven-year "war on terror", which includes operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have reached US$752 billion, if the current year's appropriation of $188 billion is included, according to the non-partisan US Congressional Budget Office.
With the situation in Afghanistan further than ever from being settled, the US response, much like the financial crisis, is to throw more money and resources at the problem.
US General David McKiernan, who commands the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) forces in Afghanistan, said after a meeting in Afghanistan with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week that he needed a permanent increase in troop levels and other assets such as reconnaissance planes.
Although President George W Bush has said he will send an additional brigade (4,000 to 5,000 troops), McKiernan said he needed three brigades beyond that "to counter the increasing violence and speed up progress in the war". There are currently about 33,000 US troops in the country and if McKiernan gets his way, potentially more than 20,000 troops could be added once support units are counted.
Gates said the George W Bush administration was considering possible changes in its war strategy in Afghanistan, without going into detail. The Independent of London has reported that the US is pushing for sweeping changes to the military command structure in Afghanistan, so the head of international forces reports directly to US Central Command (CENTCOM) instead of NATO.
The newspaper reported that one possibility under consideration was for NATO to continue to be in charge of logistics, force protection and public affairs, while direct counter-insurgency operations would be run from CENTCOM by General David Petraeus, who now oversees US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From the US perspective, seven years after the invasion that toppled the Taliban, progress and speed are certainly needed in this very costly war.
Independent Western think-tanks paint a picture in which the Taliban have a presence in over 54% of the country, including all the important towns around the capital Kabul.
The influential international policy think-tank the Senlis Council reported recently, "Research this summer shows that over half of Wardak province - which neighbors Logar province, and is just 45 minutes from Kabul by road - is under Taliban control, according to local Afghans. This information was gathered by Senlis Council researchers in June 2008, and is proof of the Taliban's resurgence in and around the capital, as well as in their southern and eastern heartlands."
Asia Times Online has reported on Taliban preparations to reach Kabul and its surroundings (Taliban have Kabul in their sights February 27, 2008).
Taliban activities in Wardak are recorded in a recently released video by the Taliban's newly formed media organ, al-Samood. Footage shows camouflaged Taliban fighters on the main highway into the capital attacking a NATO supply convoy, driving around in captured Afghan police vehicles, ferrying ammunition and making preparations for a raid.
Neither the NATO military spokesperson in Kabul nor the Afghan presidential spokesperson responded to Asia Times Online's requests for comment on the video and the security situation around the capital.
The war theater expands
Given the lack of progress in Afghanistan, the US is actively taking the war into Pakistan, where the Taliban have sanctuaries in swathes of the tribal areas across the border.
Admiral Mike Mullen, on his fifth visit to Pakistan since he became chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff a year ago, on Tuesday tried to reassure Islamabad that the US would respect Pakistan's sovereignty. But the very next day there was a further Predator drone missile attack in South Waziristan in which it was claimed that a pile of the Taliban's rockets had been hit. This follows several other drone missions over the past few weeks and an operation by US special forces that killed about 15 people.
The Pentagon says Pakistan's military and civilian government are onboard with the missile attacks, a claim Pakistan dismisses.
Either way, the US incursions have unprecedented unity between local tribesmen, the Taliban and the rank-and-file Pakistani security forces deployed on the border regions. Tribal sources tell Asia Times Online that the next time American ground forces venture into Pakistan they will meet stiff opposition from these now-combined forces.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan 'won't tolerate' sovereignty violations: Zardari
Sat Sep 20, 7:48 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - New elected President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty following cross-border strikes by the US-led coalition based in Afghanistan.
"We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism," Zardari told a joint session of parliament, as lawmakers thumped their desks in agreement.
Zardari, addressing parliament for the first time since taking office on September 9, also told the government to ensure Pakistani soil is not used by extremists.
"I ask of the government that it should be firm in its resolve not to allow the use of its soil for carrying out terrorist activities against any foreign country," he said.
Direct US missile strikes on Al-Qaeda linked militants, and an incursion by its soldiers into Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, have raised tensions between the two "war on terror" allies.
Pakistan's parliament, government and military have repeatedly condemned the attacks and vowed not to allow further breaches of the country's borders.
Zardari said the government had a "three-pronged strategy" to deal with the threat of terrorism and extremism in tribal areas including dialogue with law-abiding tribes, a development plan for the area and the use of force as only as "the last resort" against militants.
He asked the government to hold a closed joint session for a national security briefing on the strategy.
"Let everyone have the opportunity to make an informed judgement about the risks to our beloved country and about how we should move forward with responsibility, clarity and vision," he said.
US President George W. Bush is to meet Zardari for the first time Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly being held in New York.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO denies ambushed French troops were ill-equipped
September 21, 2008
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO denied Sunday that French soldiers had been ambushed by better armed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan last month but expressed concern about increasingly sophisticated cross-border attacks.
"We have no information and have seen no information that would indicate that the French forces were in any way ill-equipped for this mission," chief NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, citing a "secret" NATO report, said Saturday that Taliban fighters who ambushed French soldiers on August 18 -- killing 10 of them -- were well-trained and better armed than their enemy.
But Appathurai said: "I am in a position to say that there is no such report, either from NATO or from ISAF," the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
"Neither the secretary general (Jaap de Hoop Scheffer) nor indeed NATO headquarters has any knowledge of such a report's existence. After some research we are still unable to find any evidence of such a report," he said.
"NATO has 100 percent, full confidence in the capabilities, training and equipment of French forces," he added.
One of the 10 French soldiers who died was stabbed to death and another 21 were wounded in the attack by about 100 Taliban in Sarobi, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Kabul.
It was the deadliest ground battle for international soldiers in the country since they toppled the Taliban regime in 2001, and the heaviest toll for the French military in 25 years.
According to the Globe and Mail's report, the 30 French paratroopers did not have enough bullets or proper communication equipment. That forced them to stop fighting after only 90 minutes.
The newspaper said the soldiers only had one radio, which was quickly knocked out, leaving them unable to call for air support.
The Taliban fighters also included snipers, and fighters used incendiary bullets that punches holes in armoured vehicles.
Appathurai conceded that ISAF was becoming concerned about fighters resting up and training at rearbases in Pakistan, and then launching attacks over the border.
"There are real concerns about foreign fighters, Al-Qaeda, who have bases across the border in Pakistan, which has led to an increase in the sophistication in attacks on NATO forces, not just the French," he said.
ISAF is trying to spread the rule of Afghanistan's weak central government across the country, but it has struggled to stop the Taliban undermining international efforts to provide security.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghans reflect on 'Peace Day'
By Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul Al Jazeera
On September 21, Afghanistan marked Peace Day, a UN-sponsored event whereby all fighting parties (Nato, Taliban, and the Afghan military) agreed to cease hostilities for one day.
Al Jazeera asked ordinary Afghans what they believe will bring peace to their war-torn country.
For Kandigul Aziz, Peace Day in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was almost like any other day.
Almost.
She said she was irritated by all the road closures due to the city-wide events held to commemorate the day.
"It took me much longer to come to work. The streets were so crowded, the vehicles could not find a way through and people were fighting with each other. What kind of a peace day is this?"
Kandigul is 40 but looks much older. The years of constant warfare and bloodletting have taken their toll as she and her family moved from province to province in search of safety; they were too poor to flee to neighbouring Pakistan.
Her house in the Kart-e-Naw area of Kabul was bombarded by artillery in the fighting which rocked the capital when rival factions fought for power in the mid-1990s.
Her husband was beaten senseless by one of the militias and is today disabled.
His arms hang limply by his side, and he is unable to do any work or earn a living. Kandigul became responsible for feeding, clothing and sheltering her family of nine children.
Her oldest boy, wants to go to Iran and find work because there are no jobs for him in Kabul.
"If there was peace, we could both have found work in the same place. It would be easier to get jobs and we would be able to lead good lives," she said.
Asked who she holds responsible, Kandigul said: "God is responsible for this."
"And our leaders. The only way peace can return is if the people sit together and talk; surrender their weapons."
Video shop destroyed
Mohammed (Zabi) Zabiullah remembers the good life he once led.
The family shop which filmed weddings and other events in Shar-e-Naw, the centre of the city, made enough money to house, clothe and feed them as well as send the children to school.
When the Taliban came, with their edicts against videos and TV, they destroyed the shop and beat his elder brother who was running the place.
The family fled the country in fear, living as refugees in the city of Peshawar, in Pakistan. They survived on handouts and loans.
Zabi, who had just finished high school when the Taliban took power saw his dreams of a higher education and a god job fade away. "I think I could have been a doctor today had the conflict not interrupted our lives. I had good marks in school," he told Al Jazeera.
Earlier this year Zabi's father died, burdening him with even more responsibility as the only wage-earner for the family. "Now there is no chance. I have to support my family."
Zabi feels Afghanistan's political leaders are to blame for the lack of change.
"No one is working honestly. Everyone wants to fill their own pocket. If they help the country develop economically they could make a real difference. What does Peace Day mean now? Only those people with a TV and electricity to watch it will have heard about it."
Blaming foreigner influence
Wahid Frogh, a student at Kabul University, feels foreign influence is the cause of the violence in his country.
"It is the interference of the international and regional powers that have brought this violence. If they left Afghanistan alone we could stand on our own," he said.
"I know politicians say that the location of this country is very fortunate because of its geo-strategic importance. But I think it is our misfortune. Because that is the reason for the interference by superpowers."
Frogh does not advocate an immediate pullout of international troops since that would make the situation worse, but feels initiatives like Peace Day "need to start with the people not the government".
"Our government is not accountable to its own people. I would not like to participate in such an occasion because it is like cheating, a political manoeuvre."
Frogh feels even the Taliban's acceptance of Peace Day is a gambit. "There are many groups within the Taliban. How can they accept Peace Day which has been announced by the Western countries. I think the Taliban wanted to make a show as well."
Frogh knows the travails of war despite his young age. Losing his father during the years of conflict, he saw his mother struggle as a seamstress to raise him and his siblings.
While in school Frogh had to work part time as a waiter to help his family and even today is searching for support that would enable him to complete his studies.
More to be done
Bahman Hares, who works with an international NGO, feels that initiatives such as Peace Day are meaningful but do not go far enough in addressing the lack of security in the country.
"The root causes of the problem have to be addressed. Unless that happens one day such as this makes no difference. It is just about speeches and the media. After 26 years of war and continuing violence this country needs more than that to bring peace.
"Look at the economic problems - the number of people below the poverty line, the economic migration due to drought. There is much injustice and corruption."
Hares and his family returned to Afghanistan after 10 years as refugees in different cities of Pakistan, and hoped they would find stability and security.
"But peace has not been restored, we are witnessing violations. I am not hopeful about this. The current policies of the government and the internationals cannot bring the change needed in Afghanistan."
Scathing criticism
Borhan Younus, a journalist and writer, is very critical of Peace Day in Afghanistan.
"This is a show produced by the UN, a waste of money. Peace is not a slogan to be chanted. It is not a flag to be given to somebody," he said.
"It is a condition to be created. The big players, the US and the foreign forces are not paying heed to what is necessary to bring peace."
Younus believes only Afghan initiatives, planned and executed by Afghans can bring about the necessary change to allow peace to flourish.
"It should not be at the behest of one side in the conflict. The UN cannot even move out of Kabul."
Younus also sees signs that the Taliban are adopting different strategies and even using diplomacy to achieve their goals.
"They are emerging as a more responsible force. They have always had a bit of respect for the UN, even when they were in power."
He says the fact that the Taliban agreed to suspend offensive operations for one day indicates their growing strength.
Nevertheless, he holds both sides equally responsible for the violence.
"The occupation forces who sometimes trigger violence and the Taliban who do not heed calls for reconciliation are both to blame," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban eyed in Marriott bomb
By ZARAR KHAN Associated Press September 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Rescuers pulled more bodies from the shell of the truck-bombed Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Sunday, pushing the death toll from one of the country's worst terrorist strikes to 53, including the Czech ambassador and two Americans.
The five-story hotel, a favorite spot for foreigners and the Pakistani elite — and a previous target of militants — still smoldered from a fire that raged for hours after the previous day's explosion, which also wounded more than 250 people.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion fell on al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors and analyzes militant messages, noted that al-Qaida's 9/11 anniversary video threatened attacks against Western interests in Pakistan, where many are angered by a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The bomb went off close to 8 p.m. Saturday, when the restaurants inside would have been packed with Muslim diners breaking their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The owner of the hotel accused security forces of a serious lapse in allowing a dump truck to approach the hotel unchallenged and not shooting the driver before he could trigger the explosives.
"If I were there and had seen the suicide bomber, I would have killed him. Unfortunately, they didn't," Sadruddin Hashwani said.
The government released footage from a hotel surveillance camera showing the heavy truck turning left into the gate at speed, ramming a metal barrier and coming to a halt about 60 feet away from the hotel.
Guards nervously came forward to look, then scattered after an initial small explosion.
Several guards tried repeatedly to douse flames spreading through the cab of the truck as traffic continued to pass on the road behind. There is no sign of movement in the truck and the footage played did not show the final blast.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the bomber attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office, where the president and many dignitaries were gathered for dinner.
"The purpose was to destabilize democracy," Gilani said. "They want to destroy us economically."
Officials said vehicles carrying construction materials are allowed to move after sunset, meaning the sight of a dump truck near the government quarters might not have aroused suspicion.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday, but the temperatures remained high, and fires were still being put out in some parts. Officials feared the main building would collapse.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the bomb contained an estimated 1,300 pounds of military-grade explosives as well as artillery and mortar shells and left a crater 59 feet wide and 24 feet deep in front of the main building.
Khalid Hussain Abbasi, a rescue official, confirmed that six new bodies had been found, but would not say if the dead were foreigners. He said he expected more charred remains to be discovered.
Gilani said the death toll had reached "about 53" and that Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was among the dead. Zdarek, 47, only moved to Islamabad in August after four years as ambassador to Vietnam.
Malik said two Americans were confirmed dead as well as one Vietnamese national. Officials in Pakistan said at least 21 foreigners were among the wounded, including Britons, Germans, Americans and several people from the Middle East.
TV footage showed at least two bodies partially visible from the wrecked facade Sunday morning. Outside, the hotel was surrounded by torched vehicles and debris.
The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to Parliament, less than a mile away from the hotel. Malik said authorities received intelligence there might be militant activity linked to Zardari's address and security had been tightened.
The attack drew condemnations from around the world, including the United States, which has pressured Pakistan to do more to wipe out militant hide-outs on its side of the Afghan border. Washington worries about Taliban and al-Qaida fighters using Pakistan as a training, recruiting and regrouping ground to aid the insurgency in Afghanistan.
President Bush said the attack was "a reminder of the ongoing threat faced by Pakistan, the United States, and all those who stand against violent extremism."
A recent series of suspected U.S. missile strikes and a rare American ground assault in Pakistan's northwest have signaled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out militants. But the cross-border operations have drawn protests from the Pakistani government, which warned they would fan militancy.
Terrorism researcher Evan Kohlmann told the AP the attack was almost certainly the work of either al-Qaida or the Pakistani Taliban.
"It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as 'barracks' for Western diplomats and intel personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them," Kohlmann said.
The Marriott blast could prompt diplomats and aid groups in Islamabad, some of whom already operate under tight security, to re-evaluate whether nonessential staff and family members should stay. U.N. officials met Sunday to discuss the security situation and, for now, made no decision to change their measures, said Amena Kamaal, a spokeswoman.
Zardari, who on Sunday was headed to New York to lead a delegation to the United Nations and was expected to meet with Bush during the week, spoke out against the cross-border strikes in his speech to Parliament. He condemned the "cowardly attack" afterward in an address to the nation.
"Make this pain your strength," he said. "This is a menace, a cancer in Pakistan which we will eliminate. We will not be scared of these cowards."
In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.
The country's deadliest suicide bombing was on Oct. 18, 2007, and targeted ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto — Zardari's wife — who survived. It killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations welcoming her home from exile.
Bhutto was assassinated in a subsequent attack on Dec. 27, 2007.
On Aug. 21, 2008, suicide bombers blew themselves up at two gates into a mammoth weapons factory in the town of Wah, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 70.
___
Associated Press writer Nahal Toosi, Stephen Graham and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
From Washington to Kabul the hard way
Lawrence Freedman's encyclopedic study of US strategy in the Middle East is a scrupulously fair-minded guide through a political and cultural minefield
The Observer Jason Burke Sunday September 21 2008
In 1952, the small Afghan town of Lashkar Gah became the main focus of the Helmand Valley Authority, a huge dam project largely bankrolled by American loans and designed by American experts, which aimed to lift millions of peasant farmers in the desert wastes of southern Afghanistan out of poverty and better project US influence in a critical zone of Cold War competition. Eight years later, in May 1960, a slightly unlikely visitor, the British historian Arnold Toynbee, drove in from the city of Kandahar, 90 miles away. Surprised by the brand new hospital, the American-style houses with their lawns and fences and the mixed-sex high school, Toynbee ruminated on this 'piece of America inserted into the Afghan landscape' and, as historians did in those days, cryptically quoted Sophocles: 'The craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.'
Toynbee drove in safety on newly built roads. In 2006, I took the journey in reverse, travelling from Lashkar Gah to Kandahar and then on to Kabul. It was an unsettling journey. The road was in and out of the hands of the Taliban insurgents at the time and was littered with burned out vehicles and the traces of improvised explosive devices. I had left a town gripped by fear, poverty and violence to drive to a capital that was sliding towards the same fate. Now, two years on, driving the same route would be suicidal.
Lawrence Freedman does not mention the Helmand Valley Project in his encyclopaedic survey of the recent history of America and 'the Greater Middle East', but it sums up many of his themes. He opens this lengthy but always readable work by noting that American attitudes have been determined by 'force, faith and fantasy' - the latter having been particularly to the fore in recent years. The book takes the reader on a scrupulously fair, level-minded and comprehensive, if necessarily rapid, journey through the astounding number of major events that have pulsed through this loosely defined region in the past five decades. Dipping back further into the past where necessary - and given how much contemporary events owe to history, it often is - Freedman takes in the creation of the state of Israel, the rise and fall of pan-Arab nationalism, the birth of political Islam, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war and so on, right up to President George W Bush's tour of the Middle East earlier this year.
This ambitious narrative, interwoven with policy debates in America, becomes a little exhausting, and the reader may regret that Freedman did not further indulge his obvious talent for concise synthesis. Deftly setting the ideological scene in the crucial year of 1979, he explains: 'As elsewhere in the Third World at this time, the failure of the left helped create the conditions for the growth of Islamic influence. The second radical wave [of Islamism] was starting to displace the first [of Pan-Arab Socialist nationalism].' In the preface, Freedman explains that one reason for the evident tensions in American policy is that the US 'is a status quo power that wishes to change the status quo'. The US, he says, 'has difficulty coming to terms with the limits of power'. This is a lesson the world has repeatedly learned the hard way.
Freedman, who is not a scholar of the region, also has the rare modesty to speak of his diffidence in venturing on to such mined terrain. Yet the path he treads is a sure one. He elegantly negotiates the Shia-Sunni split and its (fantastically complex) effect on local, regional and national politics in south west Asia in the early Seventies. His detailed exposition of the run-up to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is also nicely done, and along the way he usefully kills off the myth that the CIA assisted Osama bin Laden.
Given his general sure-footedness, it is a surprise to find him using the heavily ideological term 'Judaea and Samaria' to describe the West Bank. He also persistently describes Pakistani madrassas linked to the Taliban as 'Wahhabi' when in fact their major influence is the ultra-conservative Deobandi strand of Islam, which differs in key respects from its Gulf-based counterpart. The bibliography reveals a lack of non-academic, non-Western sources which, had they been included, might have provided extra nuance. But mostly Freedman is informed and reasonable; this book is well worth reading.
And the Helmand Valley Project? It was an expensive failure. Local cultural, political and physical factors conspired to ruin this American dream. The project languished in the Seventies and by 1980 the reservoir was being used to dump the bodies of hundreds of victims of hardline local communists. During the Eighties the project's concrete water channels provided cover for the anti-Soviet Mujahideen fighters, and in the following decade its broken terrain was the site of intense fighting between warring factions. Today Lashkar Gah is the headquarters of the British forces in Afghanistan.
• Jason Burke's most recent book is On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World (Penguin)
Back to Top
Back to Top
World Bank blames insecurity for investment drop
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Saturday, 20 September 2008
Government regulations and growing violence blamed for decline in investment THE WORLD Bank has expressed concern at the drop in investment in Afghanistan, blaming the decline on insecurity and government regulations.
Head of the World Bank in Afghanistan, Mariam Sherman, said: "It is clear that insecurity is not only a challenge for investment but it is a challenge for the expansion of the private sector as well.
"Even though we cannot overlook the gains in the investment sector in Afghanistan, insecurity has caused a decrease in investment in Afghanistan. Government regulations are another challenge that some of the investors are faced with."
A World Bank report said electricity and the lack of land to build on were the main challenges facing investors in the country.
The report said insecurity, corruption in government organisations and the lack of regular laws in investment sections were hindering investment and growth.
The Afghanistan Independent Support Association (AISA) said there was a 33% increase in the number of companies set up so far this year compared to the same time last year.
Sayid Mubeen-Shah, the head of AISA, said: "Insecurity is not only a problem in Afghanistan, it is a worldwide problem."
Ruhullah Ahmadzai, the spokesman of the Afghan Export Development Office, said: "Yes, insecurity is affecting seriously the investment in Afghanistan and it has slowed down the process."
Back to Top
Back to Top
MP urges Karzai to tackle 'economic mafia'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Abdulwali Arian Saturday, 20 September 2008
Government corruption forces food prices to rise, MP says A MEMBER of Parliament has blamed government corruption for rising food costs inside Afghanistan.
MP Mohammad Daoud Sultanzoi, the head of the Lower House’s economics commission, said the price of food would continue to increase if the government failed to clamp down on corruption.
Prices have risen sharply this year thanks to increases in the global cost of food and the rise in the cost of fuel.
Sultanzoi urged the government to curb the power of the "economic mafia" but said the government lacked the power to do this.
Some residents in Kabul said government officials should pay more attention to the rising cost of raw materials.
"The prices have reached a peak. What can people eat? What can we do on Afg5,000 a month?" One said.
Experts say the government should focus on long-term measures to solve what they term a "global food problem" by boosting agriculture and industry in the country.
Some warn that a humanitarian disaster awaits the country if food aid is not delivered to the most vulnerable areas before winter arrives.
Back to Top
Back to Top
2,800 Pakistan families flee to Afghanistan: minister
KABUL, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - About 2,800 Pakistani families have crossed the border into northeastern Afghanistan over the past two months to escape fighting between extremists and security forces, an official said Friday.
The families, which could number up to 20 people each, were mostly living with relatives just across the border in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, Afghan deputy refugees minister Abdul Qader Ahadi told AFP.
"They escaped from fighting between Pakistani Taliban and the Pakistan government," Ahadi told AFP without being able to give a number of individual refugees. Most were women and children, he said.
The families, from tribes which straddle the porous border, had mostly gone to the Shigal, Marawara and Dangam areas opposite Pakistan's Bajaur region, the minister said. "They are not permanent and will leave," he said.
Some emergency assistance had been delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations and more assistance was being planned, Ahadi said.
Pakistanis fleeing clashes on their side of the border last year crossed over into Afghanistan's Khost area, opposite North Waziristan, but later returned to their homes, he said.
The Red Cross said last month that more than 200,000 people had fled intensified fighting in areas along the Afghan border that serve as Taliban sanctuaries. About 14,000 people were in Afghanistan's Kunar, it said.
There have been major clashes in recent weeks in Bajaur and other areas in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones along the border with Afghanistan, where both Al-Qaeda and Taliban are said to have bases.
Besides offensives by Pakistani forces, there have been several missile strikes blamed on US-led forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.
Those strikes have killed civilians as well as militants.
Pakistan is already home to about two million Afghan refugees of their homeland's nearly three decades of war.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).