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Top Afghan diplomat abducted in Pakistan ambush
by Saad Khan September 22, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen abducted Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistan and killed his driver Monday in a brazen ambush in the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
Taliban kidnap more than 150 Afghan workers: army colonel
September 22, 2008
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Suspected Taliban militants have kidnapped more than 150 civilian labourers who were travelling in three buses in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan authorities said Monday.
Pakistani troops reportedly fire on US helicopters
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD Associated Press / September 22, 2008
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two U.S. helicopters that crossed into the country from neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Monday.
France to reinforce Afghan military operation
PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The French government is going to reinforce its military presence in Afghanistan and dispatch more helicopters, drones and equipment to support its troops, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday.
US military releases Afghan journalist
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Monday that it has freed an Afghan journalist held as an "enemy combatant" at the main American base in Afghanistan.
Four Afghans killed in Peace Day attacks: security forces
Mon Sep 22, 4:56 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Four Afghan security workers were killed in attacks over the weekend and rebels held about 100 civilians hostage for hours, authorities said Monday, accusing the Taliban of breaking a Peace Day truce.
French parliament to vote on troops in Afghanistan
by Carole Landry Mon Sep 22, 3:23 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French lawmakers are to vote Monday on whether to keep French troops in Afghanistan after 10 soldiers were killed there, raising questions about France's presence in the increasingly violent country.
Afghanistan marks Peace Day with polio vaccinations, ceasefire
Sun Sep 21, 2:58 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Medics with polio vaccinations pushed into some of Afghanistan's most volatile provinces on the United Nations' Peace Day Sunday with a Taliban pledge they should not be harmed during the three-day drive.
'Account' of ambush of French troops in Afghanistan: minister
Mon Sep 22, 4:21 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - France's defence minister confirmed Monday the existence of a NATO officer's "account" of a deadly ambush of French soldiers last month, after a newspaper cited what it said was a report that said the force was ill-equipped.
Villagers in Afghanistan flee from Taliban
Jason Motlagh The Washington Times Monday, September 22, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan | Bringing down his shovel with a dull thud, Wakhil Malik Muhammad broke ground on another home away from home.
NATO: 6 civilians killed in Afghan blast
Associated Press Mon Sep 22, 7:01 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb ripped through a civilian vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing six Afghans and wounding four others, the NATO-led force said.
Missile Attack Injures Three Czech Troops In Afghanistan-Army
PRAGUE (AFP)--A missile attack on a military base manned by a special North Atlantic Treaty Organization team engaged in reconstruction work in Afghanistan injured three Czech soldiers, Czech military command said Monday.
Germany mulls joining anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan
Berlin, Sept 22, IRNA
The German government is contemplating plans to assist Afghan troops militarily in the anti-drug campaign in the war-stricken country, Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe announced Monday at a routine press briefing in Berlin.
Pakistan leaders' 'narrow escape'
Monday, 22 September 2008 BBC News
There are conflicting accounts over whether Pakistan's top leaders were due to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel which was bombed on Saturday.
Afghans arrested for Pakistan hotel bombing
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 21 September 2008
Police seize four Afghans after 54 killed in brutal suicide attack
PAKISTANI police have arrested four Afghans for their involvement in the devastating suicide bomb attack on the five-star Marriott hotel in Pakistan.
Attacks deprive 300,000 students of education
KANDAHAR, 22 September 2008 (IRIN) - Zulaikha, 14, was the top student in her class last year but has been unable to attend school this year because of increased attacks on schools, rampant insecurity and threats to students and their families.
Russia envoy warns NATO on air space to Afghanistan
Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:51pm EDT
KABUL (Reuters) - Russia threatened to block NATO from using its air space for operations in Afghanistan if member states did not stop "hostile" policies toward Moscow, the Kremlin's top diplomat in Kabul said.
Great games (opinion)
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ambassador Mahmoud Saikal Saturday, 20 September 2008
Afghanistan needs to bolster its regional diplomacy in the face of growing influence from outside
Great Game, Cold War, New Challenges
In the past few years, several factors have brought together mixed elements of the 19th-century’s Great Game and the 20th-century’s Cold War into the 21st-century of Afghanistan and its surrounding regions
Pakistan Marriott blast shows signs of al-Qaida
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 22, 12:46 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Taliban militants based near the Afghan border and their al-Qaida allies are the most likely suspects behind a massive truck bombing at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel
Afghans lose faith as security deteriorates
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 22 September 2008
Unemployment and poverty blamed for surge in violence, research shows
MORE thank half the Afghan population thinks security has deteriorated since 2004, many are loosing faith in efforts to disarm the nation and few have any confidence in the police.
Spanta demands more foreign troops
www.quqnoos.com Written by Tamim Hamid Sunday, 21 September 2008
Foreign minister wants more competent troops to cut down on civilian deaths
FOREIGN Minister Dr Rangin Spanta has said the international community needs to pour more troops into the country to fight terrorism and the Taliban insurgency.
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Top Afghan diplomat abducted in Pakistan ambush
by Saad Khan September 22, 2008
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen abducted Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistan and killed his driver Monday in a brazen ambush in the northwestern city of Peshawar, officials said.
Six attackers in a black car chased the vehicle of Abdul Khaliq Farahi, the Afghan consul general in Peshawar, forced it to pull over and shot his driver in the head, witnesses said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the incident was likely to heighten tensions over Afghan allegations that Pakistan is failing to crack down on Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in its tribal border regions.
"The driver was killed in the firing, consul general Abdul Khaliq Farahi has been abducted," Zahir Khan Babari, an official at the Afghan consulate, told AFP.
The kidnappers were apparently aware of the Afghan diplomat's movements, Babari said.
"They were waiting for him and when he came they seized him from his car," he added.
Police said they had sealed off all entry and exit points to the troubled city near the Afghan border, which adjoins the rugged tribal belt.
The diplomat was heading from the consulate in the city centre to his home in a plush suburb when he was attacked, police officer Banaras Khan said.
"The driver was killed, it was an Afghan consulate car. Gunmen then whisked him away in their car. I am on the spot, we are investigating," Khan told AFP by telephone.
The information minister for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, confirmed that Farahi had been kidnapped.
The Afghan diplomat had recently been promoted as ambassador to Pakistan, consulate official Babari said, adding that he was yet to take over the position since his papers were still with the Pakistani foreign ministry.
Witnesses said six people pursued the Afghan envoy in a black car. They forced Farahi out of the car and when the driver resisted they shot him dead.
The attack came weeks after a US consulate car was attacked in Peshawar in August. A diplomat in the car, Lynne Tracy, was unhurt because the vehicle was bullet-proof.
Suspected Taliban militants abducted Pakistani ambassador to Kabul Tariq Azizuddin when he was driving from Peshawar to Afghanistan via the Khyber tribal district.
The Pakistan envoy was released in May after 96 days of captivity.
In other unrest, Pakistani troops twice opened fire to repel two US helicopter gunships that violated Pakistani airspace on Sunday, Pakistani officials said.
The incidents happened about half an hour apart on Sunday evening near Lwara Mundi village in the North Waziristan district, where Pakistani forces have been battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, they said.
The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan at raids from Afghanistan by US-led coalition troops targeting Islamic extremist hideouts.
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Taliban kidnap more than 150 Afghan workers: army colonel
September 22, 2008
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Suspected Taliban militants have kidnapped more than 150 civilian labourers who were travelling in three buses in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan authorities said Monday.
They were captured on Sunday in the southwestern province of Farah, they said.
"About 156 workers who were travelling in three buses were captured by Taliban and are still being held by them," an army colonel in Farah province, Farooq Na'emi, told AFP.
"They were working for a construction company which is contracted to build facilities for the ANA (Afghan National Army)," he said.
The provincial governor, Roh-Ul Ameen, confirmed the mass abduction.
"One hundred and fifty workers and three drivers have been taken hostage by Taliban since yesterday. They were driving in three buses to Herat," he said.
The men worked for an Afghan construction company building army barracks in Farah, he said. "We are trying through tribal elders to secure their release."
The group was captured in the Bala Buluk area, where Taliban have previously been active.
Other Afghan officials had said earlier that the group had been released Sunday evening.
The Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001, have carried out several abductions as part of a campaign against the Afghan government and its international allies.
This one, if confirmed to be the work of the Taliban, would be the largest abduction by the Al-Qaeda-linked militia.
Twenty-three South Korean hostages were kidnapped in the central province of Ghazni a year ago. Two were killed before the remainder were released after controversial talks between the Taliban and South Korean government.
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Pakistani troops reportedly fire on US helicopters
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD Associated Press / September 22, 2008
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two U.S. helicopters that crossed into the country from neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Monday.
The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said.
Pakistan's army and the U.S. military in Afghanistan said they had no information on the reported incursion late Sunday, which will likely add to tensions between Islamabad and Washington.
A spate of suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan's border region and a raid by U.S. commandos said to have killed 15 people have angered and embarrassed Pakistani leaders while signaling Washington's impatience with Pakistani efforts to clear out militant havens.
During a recent speech to Parliament, newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari, who is considered U.S.-friendly, warned that no country would be allowed to violate Pakistan's sovereignty in the name of the war on terror.
Zardari is on his way to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, and he is expected to meet President Bush.
The two intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
They said informants in the field told them of the incursion around one mile inside the disputed and poorly demarcated border in the Alwara Mandi area in North Waziristan, a tribal region the U.S. considers a sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
A week ago, U.S. helicopters reportedly landed near Angoor Ada, a border village in nearby South Waziristan, but returned toward Afghanistan after troops fired warning shots.
A Pakistani military spokesman said last week that troops had orders to open fire in case of another cross-border raid by foreign troops.
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Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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France to reinforce Afghan military operation
PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The French government is going to reinforce its military presence in Afghanistan and dispatch more helicopters, drones and equipment to support its troops, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday.
Fillon told parliament the government had decided to strengthen its Afghan operation following the death of 10 French soldiers in a Taliban ambush last month, adding that the new military hardware would be in place in "a few weeks".
"Caracal and Gazelle helicopters, drones, listening devices, and supplementary mortars will be sent, along with the corresponding troops, that is to say around 100 men," Fillon said in a speech on the situation in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by James Mackenzie)
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US military releases Afghan journalist
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Monday that it has freed an Afghan journalist held as an "enemy combatant" at the main American base in Afghanistan.
Jawed Ahmad, who was working for CTV, a Canadian television network, was handed over to Afghan authorities Sunday, said Capt. Christian Patterson, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
Ahmad, 22, was detained Oct. 26, 2007, at a NATO base near the southern city of Kandahar. He was later transferred to a detention center at the U.S. military base at Bagram, north of Kabul.
Patterson said Ahmad was no longer considered a threat.
Ahmad was accused of having contact with Taliban leaders, including possessing their phone numbers and video footage of them, according to a complaint filed by Ahmad's lawyers earlier this year in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
After designating him an "unlawful enemy combatant" earlier this year, the U.S. military insisted Ahmad was not arrested because of his work as a journalist. However, it never spelled out the reasons for his incarceration.
Rights campaigners compared Ahmad's case to that of Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer who spent more than two years in U.S. military custody in Iraq. Hussein initially was accused of working with Iraqi insurgents but was released in April after Iraqi judges closed his case.
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Four Afghans killed in Peace Day attacks: security forces
Mon Sep 22, 4:56 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Four Afghan security workers were killed in attacks over the weekend and rebels held about 100 civilians hostage for hours, authorities said Monday, accusing the Taliban of breaking a Peace Day truce.
The Afghan army and its international military allies had agreed to call off offensives against extremists on the UN's International Peace Day on Sunday, with Taliban insurgent militia also agreeing to halt attacks.
But Taliban-linked insurgents shot dead an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Helmand, the defence ministry said in a statement.
An Afghan policemen was also killed in a gun attack in the northern province of Baghlan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
Two security guards were meanwhile killed in the central province of Ghazni when Taliban attacked a convoy of trucks supplying foreign forces, said provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir.
A rebel attacker also shot and wounded a district chief in the eastern province of Paktika before being gunned down by troops, the defence ministry said.
Taliban held more than 100 Afghans hostage for several hours on Sunday in Farah province in the west, a deputy provincial governor said.
"They were Afghan construction workers. They were kidnapped by Taliban in the morning but all were freed in the evening," Mohammad Younis Rasouli said.
ISAF said there had been 28 incidents across the country during the 24-hour Peace Day period.
"Regrettably, but not unsurprisingly, the criminal insurgents did not honour their own declaration of support for the Day of Peace," it said in a statement.
The defence ministry also said there were several rebel attacks on Sunday. Many did not cause much damage, but they revealed the "violent and hostile nature" of the attackers, the ministry said.
Afghans rallied in marches and sports and cultural events to call for peace on Sunday as their country battles an insurgency that has grown steadily since the Taliban were removed from government in a US-led invasion in 2001.
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French parliament to vote on troops in Afghanistan
by Carole Landry Mon Sep 22, 3:23 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French lawmakers are to vote Monday on whether to keep French troops in Afghanistan after 10 soldiers were killed there, raising questions about France's presence in the increasingly violent country.
Both houses of parliament, dominated by President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, are expected to support maintaining the 2,600-strong contingent, one of the largest serving in NATO's Afghanistan mission.
But a stormy debate was in store after Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper quoted a "secret" NATO report at the weekend saying Taliban fighters who ambushed the French soldiers on August 18 were better armed than their enemy.
NATO and the French general staff denied that such a report existed.
But on Monday France's defence minister confirmed the existence of a NATO officer's "account" of the deadly ambush.
Herve Morin told RTL radio the description of the battle in Afghanistan was a "fragmented written account done in the heat of the moment the day after or 48 hours after the operation, using elements at the officer's disposal."
The mountain ambush east of Kabul was the deadliest ground attack on international troops since they were sent to Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the hardline Taliban regime.
According to the Globe and Mail, the 30 French paratroopers ran out of bullets and did not have proper communication equipment, forcing them to stop fighting after 90 minutes.
The soldiers had only one radio, which was quickly knocked out, leaving them unable to call for air support while Taliban fighters used incendiary bullets that punched holes in armored vehicles, according to the report.
But a French military spokesman denied the account, saying there was no shortage of bullets and that radio contact was only momentarily lost after a soldier carrying equipment was killed.
"We were always able to respond to Taliban fire. Supplies were flown in by helicopter during the fighting that lasted nine hours," said armed forces chief of staff spokesman Captain Christophe Prazuck.
"I am in a position to say that there is no such report, either from NATO or from ISAF," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said alliance spokesman James Appathurai in Brussels.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon was to address parliament to make the case for continued engagement and defend the decision earlier this year to send 700 extra troops to Afghanistan.
Fillon was to outline additional security measures for the French troops, drawing lessons from the ambush in which the 10 were killed and 21 were wounded.
"It is inconceivable that France, a member of the United Nations Security Council, the fifth power of the world, would contemplate a retreat," Defence Minister Herve Morin said last week.
A poll published after last month's ambush showed 55 percent of the French supported a pull-out from Afghanistan.
A few thousand people took part in about a dozen anti-war protests across France on Saturday, organised by trade unions and left-wing opposition parties.
Critics point to France's involvement in Afghanistan as a worrying sign of French alignment with US policy under Sarkozy, who is considered pro-American compared to his predecessor Jacques Chirac.
Heightening concerns is the unstable situation in neighbouring Pakistan, where a suicide bomb attack at an Islamabad hotel killed 60 people on Saturday.
The French government faced a no-confidence motion in April over its decision to deepen France's involvement in Afghanistan, but that was roundly defeated by the governing party's majority.
About 70,000 international troops -- 40,000 of them under NATO command -- are helping Afghans fight the Taliban who were ousted from Kabul in a US-led invasion launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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Afghanistan marks Peace Day with polio vaccinations, ceasefire
Sun Sep 21, 2:58 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Medics with polio vaccinations pushed into some of Afghanistan's most volatile provinces on the United Nations' Peace Day Sunday with a Taliban pledge they should not be harmed during the three-day drive.
The Taliban had also agreed to not carry out any attacks on Peace Day following a call from President Hamid Karzai that resulted in the Afghan and international military forces agreeing to refrain from offensive operations.
Afghans meanwhile rallied in marches, sport and other events to call for peace in a country ruined by nearly 30 years of war and struggling to defeat an insurgency led by the Islamist Taliban militia.
The latest campaign to vaccinate Afghan children against the crippling polio virus -- only found in a handful of countries -- was timed to coincide with Peace Day and targeted at the most risky areas, an official said.
About 14,000 health workers and volunteers aimed to deliver vaccinations to 1.85 million children under the age of five in six provinces, World Health Organisation country representative Peter Graaff told AFP.
They included Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan, strongholds of the Taliban who were in government between 1996 and 2001.
"This campaign was deliberately timed to coincide with Peace Day to access those provinces that have been given us access problems due to security problems in the past," he said.
The Taliban said Saturday it had ordered its followers to allow the vaccinators safe access to their areas. They had copies of a letter from the group's leadership asking for them to be unharmed, Graaff said.
"It does not guarantee everything but it is a useful instrument," he said.
The campaign was conducted with "new resolve" after two Afghan doctors involved in the vaccination process were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing a week ago, he said.
"We decided (after the attack) that we are going to continue, not only to get rid of polio but to honour the memories of our colleagues who died for this," he said.
A host of events were meanwhile held to mark International Peace Day.
Hundreds of blue flags were strung up in the capital, people read poetry and performed plays, while soccer and chess was played and hundreds of children took park in a kite-flying event, the UN said.
About 200 university students marched through Kabul shouting slogans such as "Peace in Afghanistan is peace (in) the world."
"I am participating in this peace rally because I want that the Afghanicide must be stopped," said one marcher, a 28-year-old philosophy student who gave his name only as Akbar.
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'Account' of ambush of French troops in Afghanistan: minister
Mon Sep 22, 4:21 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - France's defence minister confirmed Monday the existence of a NATO officer's "account" of a deadly ambush of French soldiers last month, after a newspaper cited what it said was a report that said the force was ill-equipped.
Herve Morin told RTL radio the description of the battle in Afghanistan was a "fragmented written account done in the heat of the moment the day after or 48 hours after the operation, using elements at the officer's disposal."
NATO on Sunday denied the substance of a story in Canada's national Globe and Mail newspaper that had cited a NATO report marked "secret", which said the French forces were ill-equipped.
The Globe and Mail reported that Taliban fighters who ambushed French soldiers on August 18 were well-trained and better armed than their enemy.
A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday that an email sent by an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) officer to command HQ in Afghanistan had been leaked.
There had been no official report "but there was email correspondence between an ISAF officer and command HQ in Kabul, in which the officer expressed his personal opinion on what happened during the ambush," the source said.
Morin's comments came ahead of a vote Monday by French lawmakers on whether to keep French troops in Afghanistan, triggered by the deaths of 10 soldiers in the Taliban ambush.
Another 21 French soldiers were wounded in the attack by around 100 Taliban in Sarobi, 50 kilometres (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.
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Villagers in Afghanistan flee from Taliban
Jason Motlagh The Washington Times Monday, September 22, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan | Bringing down his shovel with a dull thud, Wakhil Malik Muhammad broke ground on another home away from home.
Heavy fighting across southern Afghanistan over the past two years has forced thousands of families to flee backcountry villages caught between the firepower of coalition forces and a resurgent Taliban.
At a time when the Bush administration is re-evaluating its entire strategy in Afghanistan, a steady stream of Afghans from the Taliban-controlled south is flocking to a mud-baked refugee camp on the western edge of the capital.
"Every day we were living in fear, so we finally left," said Mr. Muhammad, a native of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, who first migrated to neighboring Uruzgan province with his wife and two daughters before coming to Kabul a month ago. "It is better to die by choice than to wait for a bomb."
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that Washington is considering changing its war strategy in Afghanistan in light of rising levels of violence, an increasingly complex insurgent threat and concern over civilian deaths from U.S. air strikes.
"You have an overall approach, an overall strategy, but you adjust it continually based on the circumstances that you find," the Associated Press quoted Mr. Gates as saying while attending a NATO meeting in London. "We did that in Iraq. We made a change in strategy in Iraq and we are going to continue to look at the situation in Afghanistan."
Mr. Gates, who visited Kabul last week, said a shortage of troops has forced the military to resort to more air raids - a situation he hopes to address by deploying more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
The Afghan Ministry of Refugees estimates that about 4,500 people now live within the tented warrens of the Kabul camp, a fraction of the estimated 15,000 that have been uprooted so far this year by violence in the south.
The precise number of displaced is hard to pin down because some families return to their homes once the fighting moves elsewhere. But camp residents familiar with the insecurity in Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces say they are not planning to go back any time soon.
"We are happy to live here now, and will stay until there is peace in our [village]," said Tawos Khan, a representative for dozens of Helmand families who said he lost eight of his neighbors in a bombardment last year.
Seated inside a makeshift mosque made of earth, southern elders recounted how Taliban militants would use their villages as safe havens when under pressure from coalition forces; or to launch attacks on convoys and foot patrols. This had the backlash of attracting deadly reprisals from coalition forces.
Din Muhammad, a truck driver from restive Musa Qala district in Helmand, said he was out running errands several months ago when an artillery barrage leveled his home, killing his uncle and aunt-in-law.
He arrived in camp a week ago with his two wives and four children after an exhausting three-day journey on the flatbed of a truck.
"We lost everything," he said.
Shah Wali, a longtime opium poppy farmer, said the Taliban controlled his village in the Sangin district of southern Helmand, the world´s largest opium-producing region. Each month he was forced to give 20 percent of his total cultivation to militants as a tax.
"They said that if we are willing to fight and kill ourselves, then you must obey us," Mr. Wali said, stroking his white beard. "They would kill us for being traitors if we ever tried to leave."
He was still able to earn as much as $8 a day to support his family, he added, until the sporadic violence became intolerable. "Here there is no work for us, nothing."
With the added worry of the oncoming winter, camp residents complain that assistance from the government and aid agencies has been slow to reach them. Food and clean drinking water are said to be in short supply. Aside from some tarpaulins, hurricane lamps and children´s clothes provided by the U.N. refugee agency, they have largely relied on the generosity of private donors and Kabulis living nearby to see them through.
On a recent afternoon at the start of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, a local man handed out oval-shaped loaves of bread and Iranian dates to a clutch of refugees gathered ahead of the evening call to prayer. Muslims break their fast each day at sundown.
Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Kabul, said his organization was in the process of screening people to distinguish legitimate refugees from those who have joined the camp to receive free handouts.
There are further concerns that if arriving families are given more than the bare essentials, a temporary camp could become a permanent one they refuse to leave.
"This is not a long-term solution for them. ... They need to go back to their places of origin soon for help to be sustainable," Mr. Farhad said.
Since the Taliban government was ousted in late 2001, Afghanistan has faced a massive inflow of returning refugees displaced by previous wars.
Last year, Iran deported more than 360,000 Afghans, causing a humanitarian emergency in parts of the west. Another 100,000 followed between January and May of this year.
Pakistan had also planned to repatriate the 2.4 million Afghans still living in camps on its side of the border by the end of next year, but now says it may review its deadline in light of the strains already placed on Afghanistan´s cash-strapped government.
"We don´t have a special budget to help these people," said Abdul Qadir Ahadi, the deputy Afghan minister of refugees and repatriation, referring to residents of the Kabul camp. "It´s a problem."
Mr. Ahadi acknowledged that worsening security in parts of the southern provinces prohibits many families from returning in the near term, forcing them to find someplace safe within his country's borders.
He said blankets, fuel and other provisions are being readied for distribution to help those displaced cope with the bitter winter months, when temperatures can drop below freezing.
Still, given the evolving security situation in the south, camp residents are divided on whether to stay or go.
"If we go home the bombs will probably kill us," said Mr. Wali, the farmer. "If we stay here the cold might do the same."
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NATO: 6 civilians killed in Afghan blast
Associated Press Mon Sep 22, 7:01 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb ripped through a civilian vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing six Afghans and wounding four others, the NATO-led force said.
The military alliance said the blast occurred in Tirin Kot, the capital of the southern Uruzgan province. It said a child was among those killed.
Juman Gul Himat, police chief in Uruzgan, blamed Taliban militants for the attack.
Militants regularly attack Afghan and foreign troops with roadside bombs and suicide strikes, but hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed.
Meanwhile, in southwestern Nimroz province Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint Sunday, sparking a clash in which nine militants were killed and three police were wounded, said provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad.
More than 4,500 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related attacks this year.
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Missile Attack Injures Three Czech Troops In Afghanistan-Army
PRAGUE (AFP)--A missile attack on a military base manned by a special North Atlantic Treaty Organization team engaged in reconstruction work in Afghanistan injured three Czech soldiers, Czech military command said Monday.
"Three missiles were fired at the Shank base, where Czech members of the ( Logar, near Kabul) Provincial Reconstruction Team (or PRT) were based," army chief of staff Vlastimil Picek said in a statement.
Hit by debris from one of the explosions, two of the soldiers have wounds described as medium-to-serious, while the third was only slightly injured, according to Picek's statement.
"Two soldiers were taken by helicopter to an American military hospital at Bagram, the third was treated by doctors at the (Shank) base," the officer added.
One Czech soldier attached to a PRT in the same province was killed and four others wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan at the end of April.
The Czech Republic approved an increase in troop numbers at the same time, and ordered an additional 30 or so armored vehicles in response to growing insecurity in the region.
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Germany mulls joining anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan
Berlin, Sept 22, IRNA
The German government is contemplating plans to assist Afghan troops militarily in the anti-drug campaign in the war-stricken country, Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe announced Monday at a routine press briefing in Berlin.
The discussion process is still ongoing, he said.
Raabe stressed his country would be likely to help in fighting narcotics in Afghanistan, if there is a need for it.
He pointed out that the Afghan drug scene was also financing terrorist activities.
Raabe's comments followed remarks by German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung over the weekend who said German troops should assist Afghan forces in clamping down on drug gangs.
"I have the impression that some of the attacks carried out on the German army also have that sort of background," Jung told the Deutschlandfunk public radio station.
"We'll make clear that we want to support the Afghan armed forces battling the drug world," he added.
The German government plans to extend the Afghan mission for another 14 months and increase the troop size in the war-stricken country from 3500 to 4500.
The German Parliament is scheduled to vote in mid-October on extending the disputed Afghan military mission which has become the source of popular mass protests in Germany over the recent months.
Germany has deployed around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
Some 28 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since January 2002, according to official statistics.
Most Germans oppose their country's participation in the war in Afghanistan.
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Pakistan leaders' 'narrow escape'
Monday, 22 September 2008 BBC News
There are conflicting accounts over whether Pakistan's top leaders were due to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel which was bombed on Saturday.
Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have dined there but changed venue at the last minute.
However, the hotel owner told the BBC there had been no bookings for the leaders to be in the hotel.
A suicide bomb devastated the hotel killing at least 53 people.
More than 266 people were injured.
The Czech ambassador to Pakistan was also killed in the blast, it was confirmed on Sunday.
President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani were planning to dine at the Marriott, Mr Malik said, before a late change of plan.
"The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership - for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs - at the Marriott that day," Mr Malik told reporters.
"The president and the prime minister changed the venue to the prime minister's house. The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved." He did not say why the dinner plans were changed.
But later on Monday the hotel owner, Saddrudin Hashwani, flatly contradicted Mr Malik. Mr Hashwani told the BBC there was never a booking for a government dinner at the Marriott hotel on the night of the bomb attack.
In other developments, it was reported that Pakistani troops fired on US helicopters that violated Pakistani airspace near the border with Afghanistan on Sunday night.
Tensions between the US and Pakistan have risen in recent weeks amid US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat Taleban militants in the region.
And in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, an Afghan diplomat was kidnapped and his driver killed, reports said.
Taleban suspects
The heavily guarded Islamabad Marriott was attacked at about 2000 (1500 GMT) on Saturday.
CCTV footage of the moments before the blast show a six-wheeler lorry ramming the security barrier at the hotel gate.
The bomb - believed to have been detonated in the lorry - left a six-metre (20ft) crater.
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Afghans arrested for Pakistan hotel bombing
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 21 September 2008
Police seize four Afghans after 54 killed in brutal suicide attack
PAKISTANI police have arrested four Afghans for their involvement in the devastating suicide bomb attack on the five-star Marriott hotel in Pakistan.
Deputy Interior Minister Rahman Malak blamed foreigners for Saturday night’s attack on the Islamabad hotel, which killed at least 54 people and wounded as many as 250 others.
Malak said an investigation into the Afghans’ role in the attack has been launched after the men were taken in for questioning.
A Western security official told Reuters news agency that the attack bore the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda operation.
Fire gutted the hotel after a suicide bomber drove his truck packed full of explosives into the building’s main gate.
The fire raged for about six hours.
The attack came hours after Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, made his first address to Parliament a few hundred metres away, calling for terrorism to be rooted out.
Zardari made a televised address to the nation on Sunday and said the bombing was cowardly.
"This is an epidemic, a cancer in Pakistan which we will root out," he said. "We will not be afraid of these cowards."
Pakistan's army is in the midst of a major offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border, while the US military has intensified attacks on militants on the Pakistani side of the border, infuriating many Pakistanis.
Militants have launched bomb attacks, most on security forces in the northwest, in retaliation for the strikes on them.
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Attacks deprive 300,000 students of education
KANDAHAR, 22 September 2008 (IRIN) - Zulaikha, 14, was the top student in her class last year but has been unable to attend school this year because of increased attacks on schools, rampant insecurity and threats to students and their families.
"I wanted to become a doctor and treat poor and ill people," she told IRIN at her home in the outskirts of Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents oppose female education and work and have frequently torched schools, killed school employees and circulated letters warning parents not to send their children, particularly girls, to school.
"We don't object to our daughter's education but we also don't want her to be killed on the way to school or her family members killed because of her going to school," said Zulaikha's father, Abdul Rahman.
Afghanistan has made impressive progress in primary and secondary education since the downfall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
At least 3,500 schools have been built since 2002 and hundreds more are planned. More than six million students, about 30 percent girls, are enrolled in 11,000 schools across the country, compared with about one million boys only in 2000, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE).
However, resurgent Taliban and worsening security have put the country's hard-won educational achievements at serious risk.
Education denied
More than 600 primary, secondary and high schools are closed, mostly in the volatile southern provinces, because of prevalent insecurity and attacks on formal education, the MoE said.
"In 45 districts of 12 provinces about 610-620 schools have been closed," Hamid Elmi, a spokesman for the MoE, told IRIN, adding that efforts were under way to re-open some schools through community support.
Most of the closures are in the four southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Urozgan, where the conflict is having a greater effect than elsewhere. "Up to 80 percent of schools are closed in these four provinces," Elmi said.
In the worst-affected Helmand Province, only 54 schools, primarily for boys, are functioning, against 223 schools that were open in 2002, according to MoE statistics.
Consequently, more than 300,000 students have been deprived of an education in 12 provinces, according to MoE officials.
Punishments
The MoE said 99 schools have been attacked, torched and/or destroyed by armed assailants this year and 117 similar cases were reported in 2007.
Dozens of students, some as young as seven, and teachers have been killed or injured by armed assailants over the past two years.
Armed men associated with Taliban insurgents reportedly cut off the ears of a teacher in Zabul Province on 14 September as a sign of punishment to those who support education.
In addition, Taliban insurgents in August reportedly attacked trucks carrying textbooks from Kabul to Kandahar province and burnt tens of thousands of books, the MoE said.
Taliban denial
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, denied the insurgents' involvement in attacks on schools and students.
"Our Mujahideen have not attacked schools and schoolchildren," Ahmadi told IRIN via telephone from an unidentified location.
"Criminals - whom the government cannot stop - are carrying out such attacks," he said.
The Taliban imposed a strict ban on females' education and employment and enforced an Islamic curriculum for boys during their reign (1996-2001).
IRIN last year received a warning letter ostensibly issued by the Taliban [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74690] in which attacks on schools and students were supported.
The government blamed the Taliban for attacks on educational facilities and school employees.
"The Taliban are attacking everything related to education because they need illiterate youths to join their ranks," Elmi of the MoE said.
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Russia envoy warns NATO on air space to Afghanistan
Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:51pm EDT
KABUL (Reuters) - Russia threatened to block NATO from using its air space for operations in Afghanistan if member states did not stop "hostile" policies toward Moscow, the Kremlin's top diplomat in Kabul said.
"(Russian air space) is still open, but if the NATO countries continue to their hostile policies with regard to Russia, definitely this issue will happen," Zamir Kabulov told BBC radio in an interview aired on Thursday.
NATO imports most of its logistics via Pakistan to Afghanistan, but also uses Russia's air space for some cargo.
The 26-member alliance upset Russia by saying its use of force in a brief war with Georgia last month was disproportionate. NATO has also said Georgia will eventually be allowed join the alliance. Russia is fiercely opposed to further NATO expansion.
NATO was not immediately available for comment.
Kabulov said the United States had made far too many mistakes since toppling the Taliban government in 2001.
"The main one ... is that it did not work with the Afghan government and the Afghan nation," Kabulov said.
"During the past 6-½ years, instead of strengthening the Afghan government, the Afghan armed forces and the Afghan economy, they strengthened their military presence and this is a main and fundamental mistake."
More than 71,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military are stationed in Afghanistan where the Taliban has made a come back since 2005.
The former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, pulling its forces out some 10 years later in the face of resistance from mostly Western-backed Afghan factions.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Jeremy Laurence)
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Great games (opinion)
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ambassador Mahmoud Saikal Saturday, 20 September 2008
Afghanistan needs to bolster its regional diplomacy in the face of growing influence from outside
Great Game, Cold War, New Challenges
In the past few years, several factors have brought together mixed elements of the 19th-century’s Great Game and the 20th-century’s Cold War into the 21st-century of Afghanistan and its surrounding regions, with a much larger number of power players.
These factors include: the Pakistan ISI’s recent suspected bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul; the nuclear stand-off between Iran and the Western powers; the confrontation between the Russian Federation and Western-backed Georgia; Pakistan’s FATA turning into the solid bedrock of terrorism; and rivalry among the Western forces in Afghanistan.
The tensions involve old players, namely the United Kingdom, Russia, Iran and the United States, assuming slightly modified positions and new players such as India, Pakistan, China and the Central Asian Republics.
They signify the fragility of Afghanistan’s inner and outer regions.
They also indicate that, once again, Afghanistan’s geo-strategic location, after a brief period of being an asset for all, might have already turned back into a liability.
Current regional tensions
The Russian Federation, the main inheritor of the Soviet legacy, after a period of political restructuring, economic recovery and military build-up, is now coming out of its historical "masterly inactivity" cocoon and wishes to regain its traditional place in regional and global games.
It had reluctantly tolerated the NATO advances in its Central Asian backyard and feels that now is the time to sharply react to the regional motives of Western forces in Afghanistan, the turning of Central Asian republics into NATO "Partners of Peace" and the transfer of their excess energy to South Asia, and the aspirations of former satellite states, Ukraine and Georgia, to become new members of NATO.
While Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have shown some tendency towards the West, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have still remained firm in their allegiances with the Russian Federation and appear shy on regional platforms.
China and Iran, who have had their own deep-rooted grievances with Western powers, have indirectly welcomed the Russian moves to Western advances in the region.
After reasserting its dominant role in world affairs, through hosting a highly successful Olympic Games, China will slowly but surely continue to challenge the superiority and regional agenda of the Western powers.
Western pressures, designed to prevent Iran from developing a military nuclear capability, led Tehran to co-ordinate its efforts with all forces hostile to the US and NATO military presence in the region.
The United Kingdom, the former colonial master of South Asia, which faced three major military defeats in Afghanistan between 1839-1919, has regained its foothold on the Afghan side of the now disputed Durand Line that it drew as the south-eastern border between British India and Afghanistan in 1893.
Since the start of the war on terror, despite the loss of over 119 soldiers and dedication of massive development aid to Afghanistan, the UK has continued to call the Taliban a homegrown movement of Afghanistan and has been a lot less vocal (compared to the US) about their Pakistani links.
On occasions and in agreement with ISI justification, British officials have classified the Taliban as a genuine side of Afghan politics which must be taken seriously and accommodated through power sharing arrangement.
The lack of trust between India and Pakistan over the last 60 years, with no prospect of a resolution in the near future, has had its own catastrophic regional impact.
Islamabad continues to look at Afghanistan through its lenses of mistrust and tension with New Delhi.
Since late 2001, India has been the biggest regional contributor towards the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s ISI has been viewing this as Indian dominance in the region, which must be stopped at all costs.
Pakistan denies a land transit corridor between India and Afghanistan. By doing this it wants to monopolise its own access to the highly profitable Afghan and Central Asian markets. Also, it stops India from developing closer trade ties with the wider region.
Some radical groups which were initially nurtured by the ISI are now out of control. Ongoing tension between Pakistani military and civilian politicians has made the matter worse.
Afghanistan itself, after taking some regional initiatives in 2002-2006, has failed to pursue the outcomes of these initiatives and develop consistent pro-active regional diplomacy.
The 3rd Afghan-led Regional Economic Cooperation Conference (RECC), which was supposed to be held in Islamabad in November 2007, is now late by ten months and it is still not known when it will be held.
Regional Cooperation Strategy of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) which was supposed to go through the phase of its implementation after the Paris Conference in June this year has already been overshadowed by a new set of contradictory and personalised foreign policy guidelines, announced in Kabul.
Afghanistan has also been unable to develop an independent image of itself, beyond Western influences, and emerge as a trusted regional partner.
Its presence on regional platforms has had more form than substance.
Victims of regional tensions
The war on terror, which once enjoyed the overwhelming support of regional and international actors, has now become the first victim of escalating tensions and rivalry among these actors.
The ISI, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have emerged as key beneficiaries, turning the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan into an independent terrorist state.
The United States, now preoccupied by its busy regional agenda, coupled with engagement in Iraq and an upcoming election, finds little time and not many genuine partners willing to fight the war on terror.
The second victim of the rising regional tension is the political, security, social and economic gains of Afghanistan in the past seven years, which has also benefited its neighbours and the world community at large.
Hundreds of newly built schools have already been torched in southern Afghanistan.
The loss of the peace dividend of Afghanistan and the return to chaos will have international consequences of great magnitude, threatening the standing of NATO and enhancing the spread of terror in Western cities.
The third victim is the current and future development programs of Afghanistan and regional economic co-operation and integration.
The upsurge of insecurity has already frozen the development of some of those regional infrastructure projects which could have improved the security situation significantly.
What should be done?
Given the complexity of regional issues, multi-pronged initiatives need to be taken at unilateral, bilateral and multilateral levels, with the following components: on the part of Western powers (United States and its allies) In close consultation and co-ordination with the United Nations and Government of Pakistan, they should refocus on the war on terror and seek a fresh mandate from the Security Council on shifting the geography of war to FATA area, where terrorist leadership, recruitment, training and logistic support are located.
At the same, time they should come up with a restructuring program for the ISI of Pakistan.
They need to take a number of confidence-building measures to reassure Afghanistan and its neighbors that their military presence in the region is solely for the purpose of war on terror and stabilization of Afghanistan and no other motive is on the agenda. They should come up with an indicative timeline for this endeavor.
They need to genuinely promote and support the regional cooperation efforts of Afghanistan and its neighbors and try to coordinate their legitimate interests with them, within a legal dialogue framework.
Major regional economic co-operation and integration, which will ultimately improve security, need the technical and financial support of G8.
On the part of regional countries, initiatives need to be taken to keep the impact of inter-regional conflicts away from Afghanistan, eg: India-Pakistan, Iran-USA, Russia-NATO etc.
Perhaps Afghanistan could be declared a neutral country, similar to Switzerland.
This requires its own set of policies and strategies.
On the part of Afghanistan, through the implementation of the Regional Co-operation Strategy of the ANDS, it should increase its regional co-operation technical, administrative and coordination capacity and chalk out a pro-active and creative regional diplomacy programme, incorporating clear strategies for resolving outstanding regional problems, such as the Durand Line, riparian waters etc. with short, medium and long-term benchmarks.
Vigorously pursue the Kabul and Delhi Declarations of RECC Process. Initiate consultation with Pakistan and other regional countries on the possibility of holding the 3rd RECC either in Kabul or another regional capital. Appoint an authoritative, trusted, decision-making, vibrant and professional ambassador at large for the promotion of regional co-peration.
The ambassador shall work within the framework of Afghanistan’s membership and affiliation in Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and RECC process and enjoy the full trust of the Afghan Government, Parliament and Judiciary.
He/she should be familiar with regional issues and make sure that Afghanistan contributes to regional stability and prosperity.
He/she should enhance the conditions for Afghanistan to resume its central role as a land bridge between Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and the Far East, as the best way of benefiting from increased trade and export opportunities.
Make specific efforts to stop the infiltration of neighboring spy agents in the state institutions of Afghanistan and strengthen its own counter-intelligence works.
Mahmoud Saikal served as Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Afghanistan (2005-2006) and Afghan Ambassador to Australia (2002-2005)
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Pakistan Marriott blast shows signs of al-Qaida
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 22, 12:46 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Taliban militants based near the Afghan border and their al-Qaida allies are the most likely suspects behind a massive truck bombing at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, officials and experts said Sunday. At least 53 died in the explosion, including two U.S. Defense Department employees and the Czech ambassador.
The truck sat burning and disabled at the hotel gate for at least 3 1/2 minutes as nervous guards tried to douse the flames before they, the truck and much of the hotel forecourt vanished in a fearsome fireball on Saturday night, according to dramatic surveillance footage released Sunday.
The attack on the American hotel chain during Ramadan, among the deadliest terrorist strikes in Pakistan, will test the resolve of its pro-Western civilian rulers to crack down on growing violent extremism which many here blame on the country's role in the U.S.-led war on terror.
While no group has claimed responsibility, the scale of the blast and its high-profile target were seen by many as the signature of media-savvy al-Qaida.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said "all roads lead to FATA" in major Pakistani suicide attacks — referring to Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where U.S. officials worry that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri are hiding.
Mahmood Shah, a former government security chief for Pakistan's tribal areas, said that while the attack had "all the signatures" of an al-Qaida strike, homegrown Taliban militants probably had learned how to execute an attack of such magnitude.
Al-Qaida was providing "money, motivation, direction and all sort of leadership and using the Taliban as gun fodder," he suggested.
A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record to media, said investigators were examining just that theory.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the attack was an attempt to "destabilize democracy" in Pakistan, which this year emerged from nine years of military rule, and destroy its already fragile economy.
Gilani also claimed that the bomber attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office, where President Asif Ali Zardari and many dignitaries were gathered for dinner.
However, the owner of the hotel accused security forces of a serious lapse in allowing a dump truck to approach the hotel unchallenged and not tackling the driver more clinically.
"If I were there and had seen the suicide bomber, I would have killed him. Unfortunately, they didn't," Sadruddin Hashwani said.
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 explosion wrecked a favorite spot for foreigners as well as the Pakistani elite that has been targeted twice before by militant bombings. The building — one of the few places outside the diplomatic district where U.S. diplomats were permitted to socialize — was still smoldering 24 hours after blast, which also wounded more than 260 people.
Anti-American feeling is running particularly high following a series of strikes by U.S. forces based in Afghanistan on Islamic militants nested in Pakistan's tribal belt.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said there was no evidence that Americans were the target.
Still, he confirmed that two Defense Department employees were among the dead and that a third American — a State Department contractor — was missing.
Three U.S. Embassy employees and an embassy contractor were injured, Fintor said.
IntelCenter, a group which monitors and analyzes extremist communications, said senior al-Qaida leader Mustafa Abu al-Yazid threatened attacks against Western interests in Pakistan in a video timed to the recent anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Malik, the interior minister, declined a reported offer of U.S. assistance in the investigation, saying Pakistani agencies could cope.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday, finding several more bodies, and Gilani said the death toll had risen to 53. A Danish diplomat was also listed as missing and rescue workers said they expected to find more human remains.
Officials confirmed that Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was also among the dead. Zdarek, 47, only moved to Islamabad in August after four years as ambassador to Vietnam.
Malik said one Vietnamese citizen was also killed. The wounded also included Britons, Germans, and several people from the Middle East.
Malik told a news conference that the bomb contained an estimated 1,300 pounds of military-grade explosives as well as artillery and mortar shells and left a crater 60 feet wide and 24 feet deep in front of the main building.
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 jolting 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 was no sign of movement in the truck and the footage played didn't show the final blast.
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.
The bombing came just hours after Zardari made his first address to Parliament since becoming president, less than a mile away from the hotel.
It drew condemnations from around the world, including from Bush, whose administration has pressured Pakistan to do more to put more pressure on militants using Pakistani soil to support the increasingly deadly insurgency in Afghanistan.
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.
The Marriott blast could prompt diplomats and aid groups in Islamabad 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.
Pakistan's powerful army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, joined the condemnation Sunday, calling the attack "heinous" and saying the army stands "with the nation in its resolve to defeat the forces of extremism and terrorism."
The army has staged offensives against insurgents in the nation's northwest that have drawn revenge attacks by Taliban militants.
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.
The last big attack in Islamabad was a suicide car bombing in June outside the Danish Embassy that killed six people in apparent revenge for the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Al-Qaida took responsibility.
___
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Nahal Toosi, Zarar Khan and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.
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Afghans lose faith as security deteriorates
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 22 September 2008
Unemployment and poverty blamed for surge in violence, research shows
MORE thank half the Afghan population thinks security has deteriorated since 2004, many are loosing faith in efforts to disarm the nation and few have any confidence in the police.
These are the bleak conclusions reached by the Afghan Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC), which conducted interviews in six of Afghanistan's provinces.
About 63% of the people interviewed believe security is getting worse and most blame poverty and unemployment for the recent surge in violence.
HRRAC policy manager Mudasser Hussain Siddiqui said: "We need to recognise that the spreading insecurity is not only affecting security forces, aid organisations and government workers. The average Afghan also is threatened."
When HRRAC conducted a similar study in 2004, 75% of those interviewed believed security had improved over the past year.
Four years later, the majority believe the security situation is getting worse.
"It is worrisome and of great concern to see that the Afghan people are starting to lose hope", said HRRAC member Lex Kassenberg, country director of CARE International in Afghanistan.
Many believe that militia commanders have retained ort increased the number of weapons they control over the past four years.
"If the disarmament had been implemented well, we would not be facing the problems we are encountering now," says a female interviewee from Faizabad in Badakhshan.
Most think insecurity is fuelled by insurgent activity, corruption within the security forces, the misuse of power by local militia commanders and the negative influence of neighbouring states.
"The establishment of a sense of responsibility among officials towards the nation and towards the poor, the eradication of unemployment and poverty and the elimination of illiteracy - these are the things that will bring security," a resident of Kandahar city said.
HRRAC, in a report released to the media on Tuesday, said poverty and corruption must be tackled before security can improve.
Links between police officers and tribal leaders, commanders and politicians must be crushed, it said, criticising the government’s efforts to build up police capacity by recognising local militias.
The rights group also called on the NATO-led ISAF force to concentrate more on providing security to ordinary Afghans and suggested that the disarmament programme needed to be reviewed independently.
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Spanta demands more foreign troops
www.quqnoos.com Written by Tamim Hamid Sunday, 21 September 2008
Foreign minister wants more competent troops to cut down on civilian deaths
FOREIGN Minister Dr Rangin Spanta has said the international community needs to pour more troops into the country to fight terrorism and the Taliban insurgency.
At a meeting in Kabul on Monday, Spanta also said the Afghan National Army must be strengthened if security is to improve in the country.
"We need enough competent foreign troops in Afghanistan to decrease the number of civilian deaths caused by air-strikes and an active military force that could efficiently fight against terrorism. We need such forces alongside ANA forces," he said.
Afghan and Western officials have already said that the ANA will almosty double in size over the next three years to a force of 134,000 soldiers.
In the past, MPs have criticised the irregular contributions made by NATO member states to the International Security Assistance Force, tasked with ensuring security.
Ghazni MP, Daud Sultanzoi, said: "NATO cannot adjust itself to the war in Afghanistan. It cannot even make the neighboring countries of Afghanistan believe that this country has the right to live beside Iran and Pakistan as an independent nation.
"Still most of the strategies in the country are implemented according to Pakistan’s will, which is a problem itself."
Since the start of this year, more than 200 foreign forces have been killed in Afghanistan, the highest figure since the 2001 US-led invasion.
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