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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (March 2007)

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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (March 2007)

News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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Articles found March 1, 2007

Salesmen for Afghanistan
Embassy, February 28th, 2007 By Lee Berthiaume
Article Link

Talking about an early Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan encourages the insurgency and will only drag out the mission as Afghans wonder which side to support.

That was the message two Canadians, one working for the UN and the other NATO, brought to Ottawa as they testified on Parliament Hill and spoke before a who's-who of Canadian foreign and military policymakers yesterday.

"The major challenge for all of us today is to show resolve, to show will, and to demonstrate unity of effort," Christopher Alexander, deputy representative of UN secretary-general for Afghanistan, told members of the Standing Committee on National Defence.

"If we are rushing for the exit, if we are trying to cut things short, if we are flagging in our commitment to achieving the objectives...we will be giving comfort to the enemies of this transition and we will be undermining the achievements and the effort that is underway today to bring stability to Afghanistan."

Over the past year, Canada's role in Afghanistan has been the subject of heated debate across the country.

Canada has committed $1.2 billion to reconstruction efforts within the Central Asian country through to 2011, including $200 million announced by the government on Monday. At the same time, about 2,500 Canadian soldiers are operating in Afghanistan, with the government committed to staying until at least 2009.

While the Conservative government has stood firm on Canada's commitments to Afghanistan, opposition parties have called for everything from a shift away from combat operations towards reconstruction to outright withdrawal.

With such divisions, there was a perception that Mr. Alexander and NATO spokesman James Appathurai, both of whom will be in Toronto today for more presentations, are in the country to sell the mission's progress.

"Afghanistan will not succeed unless countries like Canada remain committed," Mr. Alexander said when asked whether he was in Canada to shore up support for the mission.

"We hope to continue a debate and show people that the past five years...have yielded a result," he added. "And if we're prepared to make more investments, than we will make more progress."

During their presentation to the defence committee, the two men said the mission will take a long time, with Mr. Alexander citing one study that found insurgencies take on average 14 years to lose and 17 years to win.
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Family of Korean soldier killed in Afghanistan leaves for Kuwait
SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap)
Article Link

South Korea sent a delegation on Thursday to Kuwait to bring back the body of a South Korean soldier killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan, officials said.

The delegation included seven family members of Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho, who was killed in a suicide bombing Tuesday, officials said. Yoon's body will arrive at a Seoul airport Friday morning.

Yoon, 27, was among about two dozen people killed in the suicide bombing Tuesday in Bagram, north of Kabul.

The soldier was the first South Korean serviceman killed in an attack while on an overseas assignment since the country fought on the U.S. side during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

The U.S. military transferred Yoon's body to Kuwait Wednesday on a C-17 transport plane and handed it over to South Korean defense officials, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

South Korea has deployed around 200 troops to Afghanistan since 2002 as part of a multinational force occupying the country.
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Afghanistan: UN Monitor Cites 'Rapid Deterioration' As Drugs Spread
By Breffni O'Rourke (RFE/RL) March 1, 2007 (RFE/RL)
Article Link

The international body that monitors the implementation of UN antidrug efforts has warned that Afghanistan is failing to make progress on drug control; on the contrary, things are getting worse.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) concludes in its annual report that iIlicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached record levels in 2006.

It adds that, apart from exporting narcotic substances, Afghans are themselves falling victim to drug dependency.

The INCB also says a full one-third of the Afghan economy is based on the production of narcotics, and that this is contributing inexorably to the corruption gripping the country.

Message For Kabul

The Vienna-based board says it is "seriously concerned" at the deterioration in drugs control. It also calls on the government of President Hamid Karzai to urgently address this problem with the help of the international community, particularly donor countries.

The report says that the production of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, has grown by almost half in the past year.

"Illicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has reached record levels -- the highest level in history in 2006 -- and this is a main concern of the board," INCB spokeswoman Liqin Zhu tells RFE/RL.

The opium crop is estimated at a massive 6,100 tons, making Afghanistan by far the largest producer of opium in the world.

Afghanistan is more than just the source of much of the heroin flooding into North America and Europe. It is itself falling victim to drug consumption. The board says a nationwide survey of drug abuse in Afghanistan in early 2006 revealed that the country has 1 million drug users -- 60,000 of whom are children under the age of 15.
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Bomb blast in western Afghanistan kills 3 civilians, wounds up to 48
Amir Shah Canadian Press Thursday, March 01, 2007
Article Link

KABUL (AP) - A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said Thursday.

The blast targeted a passing police vehicle in the city of Farah, killing the civilians, wounding 10 children and dozens of construction workers, said Mohammad Qasem Bayan, the chief of public health department for Farah province. The attack happened in the city centre, near a school, Bayan said.

The police vehicle was slightly damaged and two officers were also wounded, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the ministry of interior.

"It is the work of enemies of Afghanistan," Bashary said, suggesting that resurgent Taliban militants were behind the attack.

Western Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence rocking the country's south and east, but that area lays on a major route for heroin smuggling into Iran.

Last week, suspected Taliban militants briefly took over one of the districts of Farah province after police fled the posts. That followed a roadside attack last Sunday on the province's police chief on his return from destroying poppy fields. The police chief was unharmed, but four other officers in the vehicle were killed and two wounded.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium poppy. In 2006, production in the country rose 49 per cent to 6,000 tonnes - enough to make about 600 tonnes of heroin.
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"No one is doing enough to curb Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan"
Malaysia Sun Thursday 1st March, 2007  (ANI)
Article Link

Kabul, Mar 1 : British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said that no one was doing enough to tackle a Taliban-led insurgency gripping Afghanistan. He said this in reply to a question if Islamabad was doing enough against rebels on its soil.

"I would say in all sincerity that no one is doing enough to tackle the security problems," the Daily Times quoted her as saying while referring to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Britain.

She added: "If we were doing enough then we would have had a great deal more success than we have had so far. It is very important for us to do more together and to cooperate together to tackle these problems because they cause such harm whether it be in Pakistan itself or in Afghanistan."

Beckett said this while addressing reporters after meeting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.

She had arrived in Kabul on Tuesday after US Vice President Dick Cheney flew out following a visit marred by a suicide attack at Bagram Air Base outside the capital where he had spent the night. At least 20 people, including three foreigners, were killed in the blast
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Pak girds for blowback on Al Qaeda intelligence(Reuters)
1 March 2007
Article Link

ISLAMABAD - It has been an extraordinarily bloody start to 2007 in Pakistan, and analysts, intelligence officials and ordinary Pakistanis fear it is likely to get worse.

US Vice President Dick Cheney this week asked President Pervez Musharraf to stop Al Qaeda rebuilding in Pakistani tribal lands and stem the flow of Taleban fighters going to Afghanistan for a spring offensive against NATO and Afghan troops.

“The Americans will have said: ‘If we find a camp, either you go in and destroy it, or we do it ourselves’,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times.

President George W. Bush is being asked to push Pakistan harder, not just by the American media, the think-tanks, but also by unhappy NATO allies, his own generals, and most recently Democrat lawmakers who want to make aid to Pakistan contingent on counter-terrorism results.

“There’s growing uneasiness, not only among Democrats and not only on Capitol Hill, that things are going in a wrong direction in Pakistan,” Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, said.

Success against Al Qaeda and in Afghanistan depends on Pakistani support.
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Afghanistan: Bomb threat pre-dated Cheney visit
By ASSOCIATED PRESS Mar. 1, 2007 3:03
Article Link

Intelligence reports indicated that the Taliban had the ability to carry out suicide attacks near the main US base in Afghanistan even before a bloody bombing during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney, NATO said.

Col. Tom Collins, the top spokesman for NATO's force in Afghanistan, said suicide bomb cells were present in the capital, Kabul, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Bagram Air Base.

"We know for a fact that there has been recent intelligence to suggest that there was the threat of a bombing in the Bagram area," Collins told reporters Wednesday. "It's clear that there are suicide bomber cells operating in this country. There are some in the city of Kabul."
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Britain sending Warrior missiles to Afghanistan
Article Link
 
LONDON: Britain is sending its 70km range missiles to Afghanistan for targeting the Taliban, who are reportedly regrouping for launching a spring offensive.

Britain also plans to deploy most of its additional troops near the Pakistani border to fight the Taliban who are reported to be regularly crossing into Afghanistan.

The UK used the ‘Warrior’ missiles in both the Gulf wars (1991 and 2003) against Iraqi army and now these are being introduced in Afghanistan for the first time since the war began in 2001 in a bid to punish Taliban, and might target tribal people living along the long Pak-Afghan border.

The Times has quoted Defence sources as saying that the Warrior is a precision weapon to be used to target Taliban positions. The Warrior, which weighs 37 tonnes, is unlikely to be used for protecting long-range patrols besides troops in combat operations.

The extra firepower will be sent to Afghanistan along with 1,400 more troops. The reinforcements will include heavy armour, rockets and additional ground-attack aircraft. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, told the House of Commons that the extra troops and firepower were needed to support the British force already in the Helmand province, in the south.

Browne said he was forced to take the decision because other Nato partners had failed to offer extra troops. The reinforcements will start arriving in Afghanistan in May for deployment through the early summer. The battle group will consist of the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh Regiment, formerly known as the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

The list of extra equipment includes Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicles and multiple-launch rocket systems, which are both being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time. Also included are four more Harrier GR9s, to be used as bombers in a support role for ground troops, and four extra Sea King helicopters. Another C130 Hercules transport aircraft is also being sent.

The extra battle group announced by Browne will increase the size of the British military presence in Afghanistan to 7,700. This level will be maintained, under present planning assumptions, until 2009.
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NATO off course, report concludes
GLORIA GALLOWAY  From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
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OTTAWA — A former Canadian ambassador to NATO says the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and it will require negotiation with the Taliban to bring an end to the conflict.

Gordon Smith, who was Canada's NATO ambassador between 1985 and 1990, and a team of experts from across Canada will release a report tomorrow that says the current NATO policies are not on course to achieve the objectives of peace and stability in the country, "even within a period of 10 years."

Dr. Smith, who is also a former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and is now director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, says recent announcements that will bring NATO's troop complement in Afghanistan to 37,000 will have little impact.

"One of the experts that we asked about how many troops would be needed for a military victory said, 'Oh, maybe half a million.' So adding a couple of thousand is wonderful but it doesn't do anything."
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TALIBAN LEADER MULLAH DADULLAH
The Star of Afghanistan's Jihad


Spiegel Online, March 1, by Matthias Gebauer in Peshawar, Pakistan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,469172,00.html

If Osama bin Laden likes being in the global spotlight, he's likely a bit depressed in his hideout these days. The leader of the al-Qaida terrorist organization hasn't made an appearance on the evening news for quite some time. What's more, the Taliban no longer need bin Laden as a figurehead. Western intelligence agencies warn that the Taliban now have "their own star" in their struggle against Western soldiers and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. The new nightmare from the Hindu Kush Mountains is called Mullah Dadullah. He sports a pitch black beard, always wears a military jacket and these days, he is omnipresent in the media...

Western intelligence agencies believe the Taliban have used the winter to thoroughly tighten their organizational structure. Some Taliban commanders are even reporting that Taliban leader Mullah Omar -- who disappeared from the scene entirely for years -- is once again writing letters to his supporters, congratulating successful commanders and the parents of suicide bombers and reminding militants of their "Islamic duties" via audio recordings. For years, one-eyed Omar had disappeared without a trace -- likely afraid of being tracked down by the CIA.

But Mullah Omar seems to be feeling more secure these days -- as does Mullah Dadullah, who only recently outlined his vision for the coming months. Behaving almost like any normal politician, he invited al-Jazeera journalists to visit him in the mountains. His words were alarming despite being full of rhetoric and propaganda. Dadullah said he commands 6,000 men who have volunteered for suicide attacks, and that their offensive is "imminent." He added that some of his men are already set off on their mission, which he described as a "bloodbath for the occupiers." This week's symbolic attack on US Vice President Dick Cheney is reason to fear that Dadullah is issuing more than just empty threats...

Experts on the conflict believe the new Taliban tactic will cause serious difficulties for NATO. "If suicide attacks are carried out all over the country, it becomes difficult to decide on how to allocate troops," Pakistani Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid points out. NATO could quickly be demoralized, like the United States in Iraq, since it is already internally divided and disposes of no military reserves, much less a rapid reaction force. "2007 will be a very serious year," Rashid predicts.

In a reaction to the wave of Taliban propaganda, NATO generals have announced their own offensive. The message from Kabul is that the troops will not wait for the Taliban to attack. Rather, they will strike hard themselves. Whether that will be enough to master the onslaught of suicide attacks is doubtful. "The Taliban don't need more training camps or military camps for their new strategy," Rashid fears. The only remaining option would be that of attacking presumed houses of the fighters, which would cost civilian lives.

Such attacks merely provide the Taliban with new recruits for their struggle. In the fall of 2006, US military officer Chris Cavoli concluded from his experiences in Kunar province that: "Every Afghan killed by a bomb leads to two new militants, regardless of whether the person killed is a civilian or a militant." This means a military offensive against Mullah Dadullah's men would only serve the interests of the new Taliban hero...

Mark
Ottawa
 
It's not unthinkable to bring the Taliban inside the tent
Globe and Mail,  March 1, 2007, By GORDON SMITH
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070301/COAFGHAN01/Comment/comment/comment/2/2/4/

Anyone who thinks the issue is simply one of supporting our troops in Afghanistan as they fight bravely to bring peace to that unfortunate country doesn't get it. Nor does someone who thinks our military ought to leave now, or even in 2009, with Canada turning its focus to development assistance.

I have nothing but admiration for our troops. As a behind-the-scenes drafter of a defence white paper and a former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, I know the military and am proud of the great job it is doing.

It is good news that Canada will devote increased assistance to Afghanistan and that more troops are being sent by our allies. But that won't be enough.

There is no purely, or even largely, military solution. Nor is there a solution through development assistance alone. Indeed, there may not even be a satisfactory solution at all. If anything is to work, there must be an internal political resolution. That means trying to bring in elements of the mainly Pashtun Taliban -- those not determined to fight to the bitter end -- to both the Kabul government and provincial governments, where Pashtuns are heavily underrepresented...

The central reason Canada intervened in Afghanistan -- from the first elite Joint Task Force 2 commandos to those soldiers there today -- was the al-Qaeda threat. That threat has not gone away. It is increasingly accepted that al-Qaeda is reconstituting itself in northern Pakistan. Nothing is more important to Canadian security than addressing this threat. It is critical that every possible wedge be driven between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This is an additional reason why elements of the Taliban must be brought inside the tent...

NATO and its friends have been very cautious about committing large numbers of troops. Indeed, many NATO countries have placed highly limiting conditions on the use of their forces. The reality is that Europeans (save the British) don't see Afghanistan as "their" war.

Meanwhile, some in Canada advocate pulling out militarily and providing massive development assistance instead. That won't work either. For development, there must be security. The Taliban would not just fade away if foreign troops were withdrawn. Development workers would be killed...

Finally, our troops have fallen victim to the mantra of the "militarization of aid." To a person, the aid community feels very strongly about this. Yet it is obvious, for example, that immediate assistance must be provided in the villages where our soldiers have operated. Broken doors and crushed corners of buildings must be repaired; jobs must be created, bringing some cash into the community. The aid community cannot say both that it is too dangerous for them to operate in conflict situations and that the military should not deliver assistance. The Canadian Forces should be provided with all the money needed to provide immediate assistance in the wake of their operations.

Let's talk about timelines
The Torch, March 1, by Babbling Brooks
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/03/lets-talk-about-timelines.html

Gotta love straight-up news stories, written without a hint of misplaced editorializing...or blog post written without a hint of sarcasm...

...the CF didn't wait until Attaran and Koring started fishing with abuse allegations a month ago, or when Amnesty International raised another complaint a week ago. They were talking with Abdul Quadar Noorzai, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar last summer...

The Canadian Forces didn't sign this agreement to "paper over" anything. The truth is they were committed to cooperating with the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan before the likes of Attaran and Amnesty even had a detainee agreement to object to.

Even when they do the right thing, the CF can't get decently accurate reporting from our nation's press. I wonder why.

The March 1 CP story leading to the above:

Afghan agency to monitor Canadian transfers of detainees
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/01/hrc-watchdog-070301.html

Mark
Ottawa









Mark
Ottawa
 
Taliban leader 'captured' in Pakistan
Associated Press, March 2, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2025332,00.html

Pakistani security forces have captured the former Taliban defence minister, intelligence officials said today, in what would be the highest-ranking leader to be arrested since 2001.

A Taliban spokesman denied as "rumour" the arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who is regarded as one of the two top deputies of Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Omar.

Akhund was captured with four other suspects in a raid on a home in the south-western city of Quetta on Monday, three intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

The arrests came amid growing international pressure on Pakistan to crackdown on Taliban militants and coincided with a visit to Islamabad on Monday by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney.

During his visit, Mr Cheney expressed concern to Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, over al-Qaida regrouping inside Pakistan's tribal regions and an expected Taliban spring offensive in neighboring Afghanistan.

One of the intelligence officials said Akhund's arrest was a planned operation following on a tip from US officials and was not linked to Mr Cheney's visit. He said that seven more Taliban suspects had been arrested, also in Quetta, later in the week. He had no information about the identities of the other suspects.

Pakistani government spokesmen have made no comment on the arrests. Late last night, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior interior ministry official handling counterterrorism issues, denied a top Taliban figure had been arrested. Tariq Khosa, police chief of Baluchistan province where Quetta is located, said he was not aware of Akhund's arrest.

Afghan and Nato officials could not confirm the arrest either...

Though the names are very similar, this fellow does not appear be the Taliban "star", Mullah Dadullah, covered in the Spiegel piece above.
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/58137/post-535072.html#msg535072

Whose full name is "Mullah Dadullah Akhund".
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13531827/site/newsweek/

The star is Mullah Dadullah Akhund, a one-legged guerrilla commander in southern Afghanistan who now seems bent on matching or exceeding Zarqawi's ugly reputation.

Two Talibs with very similar names:
http://news-buzz.info/a/top-taliban-leader-killed-in-airstrike-u-s-says

Osmani was described by Collins as ranking just below the most senior echelon of Taliban leadership, sharing the senior field command with two other figures, military strategist Mullah Obaidullah Akhund and Mullah Dadullah Akhund, who is noted for his ferocious battle tactics.

Mark
Ottawa
 
NATO Short on Troops in Afghanistan
AP, March 3
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/03/03/ap/washington/d8nkdt401.txt

Signs of a new spring offensive by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have begun to emerge, but NATO commanders are still short more than 1,000 combat troops, despite repeated requests to allied nations, the top commander said Friday.

U.S. Gen. John Craddock told reporters that while the allies are winning more battles with insurgents, they are losing the counter-narcotics war, and more work and greater coordination is needed in the reconstruction effort.

Craddock said there has already been a slight increase in suicide attacks and roadside bombs _ the beginnings of an expected increase in violence as the weather improves. And he said he is still short by as much as two battalions, largely combat units, despite recent commitments for about 7,000 additional troops there, including more than 3,500 from the United States. A battalion is generally about 800 soldiers.

Craddock also said that 30 percent to 40 percent of the 25 provincial reconstruction teams working to rebuild the country do not have all the people they need, particularly State Department and agricultural experts. In those cases, he said the agencies either have no presence or not enough people on the teams, which number about 100 people [sounds rather like the Canadian situation - Mark]...

US Navy: aircraft carrier for Afghanistan, not Iran
DPA, March 3
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/36249.html

The second US aircraft carrier that arrived near the Gulf in late February is focusing its operations on supporting coalition ground forces in Afghanistan and is not targeting Iran, its top commanders said. The nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis had entered the Bahrain-based US Navy 5th Fleet area of responsibility on February 19, taking position in the northern Arabian Sea...

The deployment of the Stennis alongside the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower had fuelled speculation that the US was planning to attack Iran, a claim that top US Naval officials in the region have refuted repeatedly.

Speculations over an impending attack were intensified in recent days after British naval officials revealed that their presence since October had doubled, with a French aircraft carrier steaming towards the region.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2507059&C=europe

"Our mission right now is specifically focused on Afghanistan to provide the air support for the ground coalition troops there," said the commanding officer of the Stennis, Captain Bradley E Johanson, on February 27, as the carrier launched its planes into action for the fifth straight day over Afghanistan.

"Our positioning is specifically focused to be adjacent to the air corridors that go over Pakistan into Afghanistan," he said, pointing out that coalition efforts in Afghanistan were aimed at stabilizing the country and establishing the foundation for democracy...

Mark
Ottawa

 
Articles found 4 March, 2007

Afghan civilians caught in crossfire
RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press
Article Link

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — U.S. Marine Special Forces fleeing a militant ambush opened fire on civilians on a busy highway in eastern Afghanistan, wounded Afghans said.

Officials say up to 16 people were killed and 34 wounded in the violence.

A suicide car bomber hit the American convoy with an explosives-packed minivan, said Noor Agha Zawok, the spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province.

Militant gunmen then fired from several directions, the U.S. military said. The coalition forces returned fire, the military said.
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Pakistan seizes one of Taliban's top three
Arrest signals major move for regime under diplomatic pressure to crack down on insurgents
GRAEME SMITH From Friday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

Pakistan's security forces have arrested a top Taliban commander, signalling a major loss for the movement's leadership and a significant move by a regime under intense diplomatic pressure to crack down on the insurgents.

Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Taliban's former defence minister, is considered one of the Taliban's three most senior figures. Pakistani sources told Reuters and The New York Times Thursday night that he was arrested on Monday, the same day that U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney visited Islamabad to push for help against the Taliban.

Mr. Akhund reputedly continued to serve as a trusted confidant of the insurgents' supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. According to Taliban interviewed recently in Quetta, Mr. Akhund was responsible for trying to buy more advanced shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles than the old Russian Strela-2M models now carried by the insurgents.

It's the first time that Pakistan has openly taken action against a leader of the Taliban, which enjoyed strong backing from the Pakistani government when the radical religious movement conquered most of Afghanistan in 1996.
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Pakistan denies U.S. military's border claims
American official says forces can pursue Taliban across Afghan frontier, but Foreign Ministry disagrees
By Munir Ahmad ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan vehemently denied Saturday the U.S. military's claim that coalition forces in Afghanistan have the authority to pursue Taliban fleeing across the border into Pakistani territory.

"There is no authorization for hot pursuit of terrorists into our territory," Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, spokesman for the Pakistan Army, said Saturday. "Whatever actions are needed to fight terrorism, we are taking them."

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected an assertion by Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, chief operations officer for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that his forces routinely fire on and pursue Taliban into Pakistan.

"No foreign forces are allowed to cross into our territorial border," said Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. "Pakistan and United States are partners in the war on terror -- not adversaries."
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Top commander: Afghanistan needs reconstruction and more forces for security       
Written by pub  Sunday, 04 March 2007 
Article Link

      WASHINGTON, March 3, (APP): The top commander of international forces in Afghanistan has observed that security and stability in the country have a linkage with reconstruction and economic growth and said greater coordination between Pakistan and Afghanistan is essential to check cross-border movement of militants.

Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, who has the ultimate responsibility for international forces in Afghanistan, said the country is making progress but many challenges remain.       

Craddock spoke of international reconstruction and security efforts and underlined the need for “greater control of the border areas with Pakistan and greater cooperation and coordination between Pakistan and Afghanistan” for NATO control and overall success.

Referring to two million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, he said they are a source of Taliban fighters.

“There are 2 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, and they are a great source of Taliban fighters because they don’t have any choice,” he said, according to a Pentagon press service.
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Pakistani terror policy alleged
UPDATED: 2007-03-04 01:32:25 MST By AP
Article Link

Afghan minister says neighbour continues to support Taliban
 
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's foreign minister told members of the legislature neighbouring Pakistan uses terror as its foreign policy and it once occupied almost 90% of Afghanistan, a reference to Afghanistan's former Taliban rule.

Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said the world is rewarding Pakistan with aid packages, even though it supports Taliban fighters.

"Pakistan shouldn't use terror as its foreign policy," he said yesterday. "I wish that the international community wouldn't give rewards to countries that are supporting the Taliban."

Afghan officials frequently accuse Pakistani leaders of harbouring Taliban fighters and commanders. Pakistan's government insists it does all it can to fight terrorism.

Pakistan intelligence officials said one of the Taliban's top leaders -- Mullah Obaidullah Akhund -- was arrested in the Pakistani city Quetta last Monday, the highest-ranking Afghan militant to be captured since the fall of the hardline regime in 2001.
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Taliban destroys NATO military vehicle in S. Afghanistan
Sunday March 04, 2007 (0406 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Some Taliban militants destroyed a vehicle of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF) in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on Friday, a local senior police officer told Xinhua on Saturday.
"Some Taliban insurgents ambushed an ISAF convoy and damaged one vehicle in Nadali district," Isa Khan said. There were no casualties of the attacked ISAF soldiers, who are from Britain, and Taliban militants, he added.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed the ambush, saying the Taliban caused some damage to ISAF vehicles. Over 5,000 British soldiers are deployed as part of ISAF in Helmand, known for its gigantic opium product and rampant insurgency.
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]Article Link

Shopkeeper beheaded in Khost
Sunday March 04, 2007 (0406 PST)


KHOST CITY: Armed men, suspected to be the anti-government Taliban, kidnapped and beheaded a shopkeeper in Alisher district of the southeastern Khost province.
Wazir Badsha, a provincial police official, said the retailer was kidnapped by gunmen while on way to his house. His headless body was found in the area this morning, said the officer.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the dastardly act. Meanwhile, a police officer wounded when their patrol came under attack from Taliban fighters near Babrak police station last night.

The fighting lasted for one hour. Police said they arrested two of the attackers. Condition of the injured police officer is stated to be stable
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Articles found March 5, 2007

NATO air strike hits Afghan house, killing civilians, officials say
AMIR SHAH Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO air strike hit a house during a firefight between western troops and militants, killing nine Afghans who lived there, Afghan officials said Monday.

Militants overnight fired on a NATO base in Kapisa province, just north of Kabul, and when soldiers returned fire, they hit a home, killing five women, three boys and a man, said Sayad Mohammad Dawood Hashimmi, Kapisa deputy governor.

Maj. William Mitchell, a U.S. military spokesman, said officials were looking into the incident. The NATO base in Kapisa is staffed by U.S. forces.

A deputy Interior Ministry spokesman also said nine civilians had been killed. He asked not to be identified because the ministry hadn't yet prepared a statement.
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Canadian food aid vital to Afghanistan drought victims, war refugees
14:36 on March 4, 2007, EST.
Article Link

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - His weathered face pinched by hunger, farmer Amir Jan squats on his haunches, patiently waiting in line to receive his pay for three weeks of back-breaking work digging sand out of irrigation canals.

When his name is called, Jan is given a 50-kilogram sack of wheat, a bag of dried peas, a container of cooking oil and some salt - all courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer.

Hard wages for hard labour in one of the most desperate regions of Afghanistan.

"We have nothing because of the drought. Last year there was no harvest," Jan said through an interpreter inside a mud-walled UN compound patrolled by Afghan National Police armed with AK-47s.

The compound is only six kilometres from the Pakistan border and a mountainous hinterland that is home to Taliban training camps.

But Jan, one of an estimated 340,000 drought victims, war refugees and displaced people in Kandahar province, doesn't want to talk about the Taliban.

"This is only enough food here to help feed my family for nine or 10 days," he said Sunday. "We need wells for irrigation."

The Canadian International Development Agency will spend $4.9 million this year on emergency food assistance to vulnerable families in Kandahar province through UN programs such as Food for Work.
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Soldiers with mental illnesses return to combat
Updated Mon. Mar. 5 2007 8:06 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Canadian soldiers suffering from mental illness -- including depression and operational stress injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- are still being sent to Afghanistan, according to a report.

Canadian Forces' chief psychiatrist, Col. Randy Boddam, who is currently in Afghanistan, told The Globe and Mail that the military is addressing the issue head on.

"Let's acknowledge it (mental illness), let's bring it out of the shadows and get people in so they get treatment sooner, and be employable and living their lives the best they can," he said.
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Where does Al Qaeda stand now?
Experts say the terrorist network has rebuilt in Pakistan with inexperienced leaders and murky goals.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
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WASHINGTON - Hidden in the harsh terrain of Pakistan's tribal lands near the Afghan border, Al Qaeda's senior leaders have quietly been rebuilding their terrorist network – including lines of command to cells in other nations.

This resurgence does not mean the group has regained its old strength, say US intelligence officials and outside experts. Al Qaeda's top levels are now filled with inexperienced commanders, and its new camps can train only a fraction of the recruits the pre-2001 infrastructure in Afghanistan could handle.

Al Qaeda's goals also remain murky. It is not clear whether the organization has a specific plan to strike within the United States or whether it considers Europe, or Iraq, more important in its war to impose its vision of Islam on the Middle East.
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Winning Afghan hearts mired in corruption, civilian deaths
POSTED: 0202 GMT (1002 HKT), March 4, 2007
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SPIRWAN, Afghanistan (AP) -- Abdullah Shah and his son made a pilgrimage to the holy Muslim city of Mecca this January, courtesy of the Afghan government. President Hamid Karzai himself arranged the trip to Saudi Arabia.

The invitation came after Shah's wife, two daughters and three other sons were killed by a wayward NATO bomb in Lagarnai, a village near here in southern Afghanistan.

Shah, in his 70s and wearing the white turban of a religious man, accepted the trip, but not the message.

Before the deaths, "I wasn't with the Taliban and I wasn't with the government," he said. "But, I tell you, now I am Talib."

In the sixth winter since the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban government, the radical Islamists are making a comeback. Their bold confidence was apparent last week, when a suicide bomber killed 23 outside an air base during Vice President Dick Cheney's visit there.

There are many factors. But citizens like Shah, the Afghan government and key NATO commanders agree on this: The use of force is sometimes excessive and errant. In Afghanistan's tribal society, a single death -- no matter if NATO labels it "enemy" -- can create scores of sworn foes. And NATO, like the Taliban, has killed hundreds.
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As Afghan Troops Build Capacity, Decisive Battles Loom
By Tim Kilbride American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON, March 2, 2007 – The anticipated spring offensive may mark the beginning of the end for the Taliban in Afghanistan, a military official told bloggers and online journalists in a conference call yesterday.
“If the Taliban do not make it through this offensive, we feel that by next year they’ll have limited access to Afghanistan,” Army Col. David B. Enyeart, deputy commander of Task Force Phoenix V, said.

Enyeart, whose soldiers oversee training of the Afghan forces, said coalition officials fully expect a surge in Taliban and insurgent attacks in time with the country’s spring thaw.

“We know there’s going to be a spring offensive,” he said. “There always is.”

Enyeart characterized the upcoming battles as a key fight. “We believe that this offensive is going to be probably the worst one they’ve had here in quite a while,” he said.

However, Enyeart noted, the country’s security forces are in a better position than ever to face the threat, thanks to increased recruiting numbers, solid training and a strong sense of national identity among the Afghan forces.

Enyeart compared the current Afghan National Army with what he observed during his last tour of Afghanistan in 2002. “The Afghan National Army itself is growing not only in size, but it seems that they’re growing smarter in the way they do things,” he said.
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Articles found 6 March, 2007

Canadian reservist killed in non-combat shooting
Updated Tue. Mar. 6 2007 3:39 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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A Canadian soldier was killed in a non-combat shooting in Afghanistan, CTV News has confirmed.

A government source told CTV News that the soldier was Cpl. Kevin Megeney, a reservist from Stellarton, N.S.

There has been no official confirmation of details surrounding the incident, but there are reports that Megeney, 25, was killed in an accidental shooting.

Canadian reporters in Kandahar were in a military-ordered lockdown and were unable to immediately provide any information related to the report.

Megeney's sister, Lisa, told the Canadian Press that her younger brother was apparently in his tent when he was shot.

"It was friendly fire, that's all I know," she told CP as military officials briefed the family on the incident, which occurred sometime before noon.

Megeney has been in Afghanistan since Dec. 8 as part of the militia with the Nova Scotia Highlanders.

Lisa Megeney said her brother was excited to be going to the war-torn country, despite fears amongst family members that he might be injured.

"He said that he was going to help people," she said. "He wanted to turn things around, so the Afghanis could live like we live.... He took so much pride in it."

News of the incident broke as the Canadian military is expected to announce that a large group of reservists from Western Canada will be deployed to Afghanistan to compensate for a troop shortfall.
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Coalition forces launch anti-Taliban offensive
Updated Tue. Mar. 6 2007 3:09 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Canadian troops are part of a British-led offensive that launched Tuesday in an effort to drive out Taliban extremists and improve the "quality of life" for people in a volatile region in southern Afghanistan.

A force of more than 200 Canadian soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment are part of Operation Achilles, which will eventually involve 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan soldiers.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says the troops will sweep northern Helmand province, targetting the Taliban as well as foreign terrorists and drug warlords.

"Our first manoeuvre elements reached their positions earlier today," Maj.-Gen. Ton van Loon, commander of regional command south, said in a release.

"It signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area."

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is calling Achilles the largest multi-national force ever fielded in a single operation.

As part of the effort, the Canadian soldiers will be tasked with setting up a blocking position in the Maywand district inside the northwestern border of Kandahar province.
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Taliban claims kidnapping of Briton, 2 Afghans in southern Afghanistan
The Associated PressPublished: March 6, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Britain was looking into reports Tuesday that a British man has been kidnapped in the volatile south of Afghanistan, officials said, as the Taliban claimed to have captured a Briton and two Afghans.

A Taliban spokesman claimed the hard-line militia had detained the Briton — whom he did not name — and two Afghans as they traveled together by vehicle Monday in Nad Ali district of Helmand province.

"Taliban higher authorities" will decide what to do with them, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. "We are investigating whether they are British spies."

He identified the Afghans as Sayed Agha and Ajmal. He gave only one name for the second Afghan.

Ahmadi claimed the Briton had used to work for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, but had been living with British forces in Helmand and gathering information for them while pretending to be a journalist.
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Singapore to join NewZealand in Afghanistan
05 Mar 2007
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Defence Minister Phil Goff welcomed the announcement today by Singapore Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean that Singaporean Armed Forces (SAF) personnel will join New Zealand's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan.

"I had the opportunity to discuss a possible Singapore contribution to our PRT during the visit to New Zealand earlier this year by Singapore's Second Minister of Defence, Dr Eng. I am very pleased at their decision to contribute to humanitarian and reconstruction projects as part of the New Zealand PRT", said Mr Goff.

"We worked together well with the SAF in East Timor when they joined New Zealand troops there from May 2001 to November 2002. We also have a close relationship as partners under the Five Power Defence Arrangements, training and exercising together.

"This decision to deploy with us in Bamiyan will further strengthen our good defence relationship.

"The SAF will undertake two humanitarian reconstruction projects, establishing a dental clinic at the provincial hospital and working on the construction and repair of bridges in the province.

"A five person SAF dental team will bring in specialist equipment and establish the dental clinic. The Singaporean team will operate the clinic and provide training for local Afghans to enable them to eventually take over and run the clinic.

"The second project will see five SAF engineers work alongside New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) engineers and local contractors on the ongoing construction and maintenance of bridges in the province.

"The SAF commitment will increase and enhance the considerable contribution the New Zealand PRT makes to the province. In the end, stability and security in Afghanistan will be achieved if we can ensure that through development we can improve the lives of the people. Singapore's assistance will help us achieve further improvement in the well-being of the people of Bamiyan", said Mr Goff.
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Law & Order Kandahar
Canadians training Afghan police first have to teach them to read and write -- and keep them alive
Graham Thomson, The Edmonton Journal  Published: Monday, March 05, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - They travel in armed mobs, steal at will and intimidate the people. Yet nobody calls the police to complain.

Why? Because it's the police who are accused of doing the armed robbery and bullying.

While the Afghan National Army is widely respected, the Afghan national police force is widely abhorred.

Police in Afghanistan are underpaid, undertrained and under attack from a wide range of insurgents, including Taliban fighters and drug lords. To earn extra money to support their families, officers routinely shake down local residents at checkpoints. They've even been implicated in a bank robbery.

But the force is far from hopeless, says RCMP Staff Sgt. Al McCambridge, who's one of a handful of Canadian civilian police officers here as trainers.

"There's no question there are levels of corruption throughout Afghanistan, not just with the police," says McCambridge, whose home is Inuvik, N.W.T. "But I think for us to combat that, we have to make the police professional."

Building a professional police force in Afghanistan is a daunting task. At the very core of the problem for McCambridge and everyone here trying to improve conditions is the frustrating reality that most Afghans are illiterate. How does a police officer conduct an investigation when he can't read and write?
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Canadians in battle against frustration and skepticism
Reconstruction teams work against uncertain deadline to build trust before Taliban regroup
Graham Thomson, The Edmonton Journal Published: Wednesday, February 28, 2007
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NASERAN, Afghanistan -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasn't thinking of this dusty little village in Kandahar province when he announced $200 million in extra aid to Afghanistan this week.

But this is where some of that money might very well end up. Or villages like it all over Afghanistan -- forgotten clusters of crumbling walls and weather-beaten faces that have seen foreign fighters come and go over decades of conflict.

There are 40 families in Naseran who live in homes made from the same lifeless mud that barely supports their meagre crops of corn and onions. They have no electricity, little money and an uncertain supply of water.

The only thing in abundance here is frustration and skepticism, the only bumper crop disaffection with authority. In pockets like these the Taliban flourish.

The Canadians hope to change that.

On Monday, they arrived in this village for the first time, a creeping convoy of them in full battle gear buttoned up inside armoured vehicles looking very much like they expected to be ambushed at any moment.

The villagers were just as wary, remaining inside their walled compounds until the Canadians dismounted and, with interpreters at their side, urged the people to come out and talk. Tell us what needs to be done here, said the Canadians.

A few curious people came out, and then more, and finally the dam burst as locals surrounded the Canadians.

"Water and power are the priorities," said village elder Abdul Shukor. "We have no pool of power."

There's not much the Canadians can do about connecting the village to the power grid. But they can do something about water.

"I'm looking for something I can do fast, I can do right away," said Capt. Bob Wheeler.
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He'd go back in a heartbeat
One year after an Afghan teen buried an axe deep into his head, Capt. Trevor Greene is very much alive
Graham Thomson, The Edmonton Journal  Saturday, March 03, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - You might not remember his name.

But you surely remember what happened to him.

One year ago this weekend Capt. Trevor Greene was hit in the head by a crazed Afghan wielding an axe in an attack that horrified Canadians for its sheer viciousness and brutality.

His shaken colleagues, who shot the attacker dead on the spot, thought Greene was done for. Indeed, the blow was probably deep and deadly enough to kill most people, but not Greene.

Astonishingly he survived the attack and today is most assuredly alive.

And he has a message for Canadians: "Despite being clobbered in the head with a Taliban axe, I would go back in a heartbeat to finish off the mission."

It is a message that manages to convey humour, optimism and determination, which pretty much sums up the man and the traits that have seen him come so far since the attack. He is still in Vancouver General Hospital, still confined to a bed and wheelchair, still struggling through endless sessions of physical rehabilitation.

But he is getting better.
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Stalled convoy a sitting duck
Traffic jams can terrify you in Taliban territory
Graham Thomson, The Edmonton Journal Friday, March 02, 2007
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Journal columnist Graham Thomson reports from Afghanistan.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - For sheer gut-wrenching anxiety and outright fear, forget the rocket attacks or foot patrols "outside the wire."

Just sit in a military convoy that has ground to a sudden, unexpected halt.

Do it at night when every shadow, every headlight, is a potential Taliban fighter -- and you can feel the tension crawl up your spine like one of this country's notorious camel spiders.

Twice in my first week here I had the misfortune of being in a convoy that was forced to stop, both times at night.

A stalled convoy might sound trivial, but in Afghanistan speed is one of the things that helps keep you alive. A moving target is harder to hit; a halted convoy is a sitting duck.

And when you are sitting in the dark on a road unable to move and the gunner is sweeping his turret back and forth watching cars approaching from the front and rear and the sentry soldiers are calling each other over the radio about suspicious movement on either side, you feel like there might as well be a neon sign flashing overhead: "Aim rocket-propelled grenade here."

My first convoy stopped because a vehicle went off the road. The excited radio chatter mentioned "IED" -- improvised explosive device -- several times. Suddenly, the armour surrounding me seemed too thin, the guns too few, the safety of the base too far away. The only thing substantial was the tension that filled our little universe like a lightning bolt.

The front and tail vehicles immediately blocked the highway and soldiers set up a security "bubble." Traffic began to back up and I could see a long line of headlights in either direction.

The only vehicle that dared come near us was a pickup truck filled with Afghan National Police who helped stop approaching trucks.
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Troops Capture Terrorists in Afghanistan; Rocket Misses Coalition Base
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007
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American and Afghan forces captured five suspected terrorists yesterday during a joint operation in Khowst province, and an enemy rocket missed a coalition base during an attack in Kapisa province the same day, U.S. officials reported.
Afghan and coalition forces arrested five suspected terrorists, two of whom attempted to flee to a neighboring building, during a joint operation west of Khowst city yesterday evening. The suspects were arrested following a thorough search of the buildings, which also yielded a supply of grenades and armor-piercing rounds.

U.S. and Afghan authorities had been tipped off about terrorist meetings and activity at the suspected compound in Khowst province. No shots were fired during the operation, and there were no reported injuries or damages. Contraband grenades and ammunition were destroyed at the scene.

Meanwhile, an undetermined number of enemy forces fired a rocket at a coalition base located near Nijrab, in Kapisa province, late yesterday evening, officials said. The rocket missed the base, and there were no coalition casualties.

After the rocket attack, enemy forces were observed entering a nearby compound. Coalition forces requested close-air support, and aircraft dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on the enemy position, ending the engagement. There are unconfirmed reports that nine people were killed, officials said.

“Coalition forces observed two men with AK-47s leaving the scene of the rocket attack and entering the compound,” Lt. Col. David Accetta, a coalition forces spokesman, said.

“These men knowingly endangered civilians by retreating into a populated area while conducting attacks against coalition forces,” Accetta said.
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ISAF and Afghan Forces launch major operation in the South
ISAF News release # 2007-149, 6 Ma 07
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (6 March) – At the request of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) launched Operation Achilles earlier today, an effort concentrated on the northern region of Helmand Province.

“Our first manoeuvre elements reached their positions at approximately 05h00 this morning and at it’s peek, Operation Achilles will eventually involve over 4500 NATO troops and close to 1000 ANSF personnel,” said Major-General Ton van Loon, Commander of Regional Command (South). “This is the largest multi-national combined ANSF and ISAF operation launched to date and it signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area,” he added.

Operations will focus on improving security in areas where Taliban extremists, narco-traffickers and other elements are trying to de-stabilize the Government of Afghanistan. We also intend to empower village elders to take charge of their communities as they have been doing so in other parts of southern Afghanistan, without the influence of Taliban extremists.

Though Operation Achilles will initially focus on improving security conditions, its overarching purpose is to assist the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan improve its ability to begin reconstruction and economic development in the area.

“Strategically, our goal is to enable the Afghan Government to begin the Kajaki project. This long term initiative is a huge undertaking and the eventual rehabilitation of the Kajaki multi-purpose dam and power house will improve the water supply for local communities, rehabilitate irrigation systems for farmlands and provide sufficient electrical power for residents, industries and commerce,” added Major-General van Loon.

There is no scheduled end date to this operation. ISAF and ANSF forces will continue to apply pressure to extremist forces and pursue reconstruction and development objectives until they are achieved.



ISAF and Afghan Forces launch major operation in the South
ISAF news release # 2007-150, 6 Mar 07
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (6 March) – An ISAF soldier was killed today in Southern Afghanistan during combat operations.  In accordance with NATO policy, ISAF does not release a casualty's nationality prior to the relevant national authority doing so.



British forces, with Canadian and coalition troops, launch Afghan offensive
John Cotter, Canadian Press, 6 Mar 07
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British-led forces, supported by Canadian, American and other coalition troops, launched an offensive Tuesday to drive the Taliban out of northern Helmand province.  Operation Achilles will eventually involve 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, one of the largest multi-national forces the coalition has fielded in a single operation, the International Security Assistance Force announced. Maj.-Gen. Ton van Loon, commander of regional command south, said troops will sweep northern Helmand of Taliban extremists, foreign terrorists and warlords involved in the opium poppy trade.  "Our first manoeuvre elements reached their positions earlier today," van Loon said.  "It signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area." ....



Canadian, British troops launch Taliban offensive
Graham Thomson, Can West News, 6 Mar 07
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The long-awaited spring offensive in southern Afghanistan has begun — launched not by the Taliban but by NATO forces.  On Tuesday morning, coalition soldiers led by Britain and supported by Canada kicked off Operation Achilles to target Taliban fighters, foreign terrorists and drug traffickers in Helmand province, to the west of Kandahar province.  Troops began moving into position today and by the time the operation is up to full strength, 4,500 coalition soldiers as well as 1,000 Afghan troops will be involved — making this the largest multi-national operation launched to date in Afghanistan.  Even though Canadians are taking part, Operation Achilles is not a major exercise for Canadian forces.  “This is very much a supporting role,” one military official said of Canada’s participation. Of the 3,100 Canadian troops in Afghanistan, fewer than 10 per cent will be directly involved in the operation.  The soldiers taking part come from the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Gagetown, N.B. Their job will be to act as a screening force in the Maywand district on the border between the two provinces, preventing insurgents and others from escaping from Helmand eastward down Highway 1 towards Kandahar City and Pakistan ....



NATO launches major southern Afghan offensive
Reuters, 6 Mar 07
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NATO launched its biggest offensive in Afghanistan since the 2001 war on Tuesday, targeting the Taliban and drug lords as hundreds of people rallied in the east against U.S. soldiers killing civilians.  Operation Achilles, which will eventually involve 4,500 NATO soldiers and 1,000 Afghans, began about dawn in Helmand province -- the opium centre of the world's biggest producer, the head of the alliance's southern command Dutch Major-General Tonne van Loon said in a statement.  The Taliban over-ran the key Helmand town of Musa Qala a month ago, ending a controversial truce, but a NATO spokeswoman said Achilles was not specifically aimed at regaining the town.  "It signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area," van Loon said.  NATO has about 33,000 troops in the country, including support personnel.  The open-ended operation is aimed largely at allowing the repair and expansion of the province's Kajaki dam hydroelectric facility ....



NATO, Afghan forces launch largest combined offensive
Agence France Presse, 6 Mar 07
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NATO and Afghan forces Tuesday launched their biggest combined offensive, involving up to 5,500 troops, to bring security to the Taliban-plagued southern province of Helmand, the NATO force said.  The operation began at 5:00 am (0030 GMT) and at its peak would involve more than 4,500 NATO troops and close to 1,000 Afghan security force (ANSF) personnel, the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.  "This is the largest multinational combined ANSF and ISAF operation launched to date and it signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand," said Major General Ton van Loon, ISAF commander in the south.  Western officials have hinted at an ISAF operation in response to threats by Taliban commanders of a "spring offensive" that they said would unleash a wave of suicide bombings.  The combined push, codenamed Operation Achilles, was launched at the request of the Afghan government, ISAF said.  It would focus on "improving security in areas where Taliban extremists, narco-traffickers and other elements are trying to destabilise the government of Afghanistan," the statement said.  "We also intend to empower village elders to take charge of their communities as they have been doing so in other parts of southern Afghanistan, without the influence of Taliban extremists." ....



NATO launches southern Afghanistan offensive
Around 5,500 alliance and Afghan forces will target Taliban in Helmand

Associated Press, via MSNBC, 6 Mar 07
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NATO-led troops launched an offensive against Taliban militants Tuesday in southern Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province, the alliance said in a statement.  The operation, involving about 5,500 NATO and Afghan troops, was launched at the request of the Afghan government and will focus on northern Helmand, the statement said.  This is NATO’s largest operation in the country so far and will target Taliban militants and drug traffickers, the statement said ....



NATO-Led Soldier Dies in Afghanistan as Combined Mission Begins
Robin Stringer, Bloomberg news service, 6 Mar 07
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A soldier from the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan was killed today as the NATO-led troops and Afghan units began their largest combined operation in the country.  The soldier died in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in an e- mailed statement without providing further details. The combined offensive is taking place in the southern province of Helmand, the force commanded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement earlier today.  More than 4,500 NATO-led personnel and almost 1,000 Afghans will be involved in the operation at its peak, ISAF said in the statement. The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001, has increased attacks on civilians, Afghan and ISAF forces in the past year. The Islamist movement threatened to step up attacks on foreigners when spring weather arrives in the mountainous country ....



NATO launches biggest Afghan offensive
United Press International, 6 Mar 07
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NATO announced Tuesday it had launched its largest joint offensive, involving some 5,500 troops, in Afghanistan against Taliban insurgents.  In a release, Dutch Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, the NATO commander, said the push came at the request of Afghani President Hamid Karzai's government and involved the violent northern Helmand Province.  Van Loon said the offensive called Operation Achilles will involve 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan forces and target Taliban fighters and drug traffickers in the poppy-growing regions.  "We also intend to empower village elders to take charge of their communities as they have been doing so in other parts of southern Afghanistan, without the influence of Taliban extremists," the release said ....



Nato in major anti-Taleban drive
BBC Online, 6 Mar 07
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Nato and Afghan forces have begun what they say is their largest offensive against the Taleban in the south.  Operation Achilles will eventually involve more than 4,500 Nato troops and nearly 1,000 Afghan soldiers in Helmand province, the alliance says.  Most of the Nato troops will be British, with US, Dutch and Canadian troops also taking part.  Last month Helmand's governor said up to 700 insurgents had crossed to fight British forces.  The operation began at 5am local time (0030 GMT) and will focus on the northern part of Helmand, said officials ....



NATO Occupation Forces Launch Offensive on Southern Afghanistan, Soldier and Policeman Killed
Al Jazeera rewrite of Associated Press, 6 Mar 07
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NATO occupation forces launched an offensive against Taliban-led Afghani resistance fighters in a southern Afghan province where hundreds of resistance fighters have massed in recent months. One NATO occupation soldier was killed Tuesday in combat in the south.  The operation, which will eventually involve 4,500 NATO occupation troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, was launched Monday and will focus on the northern region of Helmand province, Col. Tom Collins, the spokesman for NATO occupation forces (dubbed International Security Assistance Force), said Tuesday.  Dubbed Operation Achilles, the offensive is NATO's largest-ever in the country. But it will involve only half the number of soldiers that fought in a U.S. offensive in the same region just nine months ago, when some 11,000 U.S.-led troops attacked fighters in northern Helmand province during Operation Mountain Thrust ....

 
Articles found March 8, 2007


Parachute failure destroys NATO's re-supply equipment in S. Afghanistan
March 08, 2007         
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A parachute's failure disrupted ISAF 's re-supply elements in the troubled Helmand province in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, said a statement of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Thursday.

"On Wednesday night, forces were conducting a re-supply operation near Now Zad in northern Helmand province when a parachute failed to open," the statement said, adding "Small elements of the re-supply equipment exploded on impact and ignited into flames."

It also added that there were further explosions this morning as ISAF troops deliberately destroyed dangerous equipment.

Nevertheless, the military alliance in the statement rejected militants' involvement in the incident. There was no insurgent involvement and there were no ISAF casualties or ISAF vehicles damaged by the accident, said the statement.

The incident has taken place amid fighting as ISAF and Afghan troops launched a major offensive against Taliban fighters in northern Helmand on Tuesday.
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Gov.-Gen. on first visit to Afghanistan
Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal Published: Thursday, March 08, 2007
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- In a trip designed to send a signal of hope to the women of Afghanistan, Governor-General Michaelle Jean has arrived in Kabul on International Women’s Day.

For security reasons, her trip was kept secret until she stepped off her airplane in Kabul Thursday morning.

She will be meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today before speaking to a group of leading Afghan women.
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Nato's military credibility on the line
7. March 2007, 16:02 Telegraph (UK)
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With the launch of Operation Achilles, the long-running Nato campaign to subjugate the Taliban in Afghanistan is entering the critical phase that will ultimately determine whether the alliance is successful in bringing stability to a country that has known nothing but warfare for nearly three decades.

This ambitious military offensive represents the opening salvo in what for the past 30 years has become Afghanistan's annual fighting season, and the stakes have never been higher.

Nato's whole military credibility rests on its ability to deal with a baggy-trousered force whose forebears in the bloody Afghan wars of the 19th century made life decidedly uncomfortable for an army of foreign interlopers - in that instance British red coats.

Nato commanders, of course, argue that the presence of the multi-national force is broadly welcomed by Afghans who are desperate for some semblance of normality to take root in their war-ravaged country.

But the Nato mission is as much aimed at protecting Europe and America from further terrorist attacks as providing the Afghan government with the opportunity to re-establish its authority over a country traditionally riven by tribal and ethnic conflicts.

And with the number of allied fatalities rising by the day - the death of the Royal Marine in the north of Helmand province yesterday brings the British death toll alone to 51 - and the Taliban proving determined fighters, it is no understatement to say that the fate of the Nato mission, despite its overwhelming technical superiority, still hangs in the balance.

Certainly if Nato is to be judged by the aims it set itself when it assumed control of military operations last year, there is still much that needs to be done. Its main goal of preventing the Taliban from re-establishing its power base in southern Afghanistan, remains elusive.
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Severe winter causes more pneumonia child deaths
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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KABUL: Doctors in Afghanistan say that a particularly cold winter this year has increased the number of children dying of pneumonia.
Thousands of children contract the respiratory illness every winter in Afghanistan, where difficult living conditions and inadequate medical care can make it a fatal illness.

In February, at least 50 children reportedly died of pneumonia at Herat provincial hospital, while in the eastern province of Nangarhar, there were 28 deaths.

Despite measures such as an early warning system and attempts at civic education and improving facilities, doctors at both hospitals said that child mortality from pneumonia increased this year because of the cold weather and the increased snow it brought.

Zia Gul's four-day-old daughter Parastu contracted pneumonia in the cold, windy room of their house in the Koshko Robatsangi district in Herat province.

"We are very poor people and cannot afford enough wood for the stove," Gul said. "My room also does not have proper windows and doors, allowing the cold wind to come in. I tried keeping her warm with two or three blankets but she fell sick."
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5 suspected militants nabbed in eastern Afghanistan
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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KABUL: U.S.-led coalition troops detained five suspected militants during an operation in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition said in a statement Wednesday.
The men were arrested Monday in a building in the eastern city of Khost, but the coalition did not provide details on the suspects' identities.

The five were suspected of involvement in anti-government activities and "known terrorist groups," the coalition said, without elaborating.

The troops uncovered a cache of grenades and armor-piercing rounds during their search, the statement said.

There were no shots fired and no injuries during the raid, it said.
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More Afghan detainees to be released from Guantanamo
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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NEW YORK: The US is in process of releasing more Afghan detainees from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Last week, the Pentagon had release two Afghan detainees.
A Defense Department spokesman told Pajhwok Afghan News that these Afghans are part of the 85 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, who are now scheduled to be released in the coming months.

More Afghan detainees are being released, he said.

However, the spokesman refused to give the number of Afghan detainees who are now at the Guantanamo Bay and those who are being released in due course. We do not reveal these numbers, he said.

The officials said that at the peak of 770 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, some 100 were from Afghanistan. Most of these detainees have been returned home, he said.

Transfer of these detainees is according to a decision taken by the US President George Bush and the Afghanistan President, Hamid Karzai, in May 2005.
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NATO targets Taliban buildup
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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KABUL: In its largest offensive yet, thousands of NATO troops moved Tuesday into the mountains of southern Afghanistan where hundreds of hardcore Taliban insurgents hold sway - an operation in the world's biggest opium-producing region aimed at winning over a population long supportive of militant fighters.
Comprising 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan troops, Operation Achilles marks the start of NATO's major spring military action, said Col. Tom Collins, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

NATO hopes it can establish security among a population now harboring Taliban militants, foreign fighters and drug traffickers, and rid the region of its shadow Taliban government. That would allow President Hamid Karzai's administration to make its first move into a lawless region overflowing with the poppies funding the Taliban insurgency
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Five more officials held on corruption charges
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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KABUL: Office of the attorney General informed about five more government employees arrested for corruption charges.
Secretary to the Attorney General, Ahmad Samir Samimi, told Pajhwok Afghan news that the five people belonged to Herat, Ghor, Logar and capital Kabul who were accused of corruption and bribery charges.

Without disclosing the names of the detained officials, Samimi said deputy head of the mili bus enterprises was apprehended for embezzlement of 350.000 rupees and 16000$. He said head of the petroleum and liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) department head was arrested for misappropriating of over one million US dollars.

Similarly, Administrative chief of Logar education department was arrested for misusing 18000 afghanis, he said, former civil prosecutor of Herat province was detained for releasing accused people, he said.
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Afghans, not foreigners, to inaugurate projects
Thursday March 08, 2007 (0644 PST)
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NEW YORK: Inauguration of roads, a school or a developmental work by the military officials of the US or other international forces in Afghanistan could soon be a thing of the past.
It is the elected representatives of the Afghanistan who would be seen performing this duty cutting ribbons or inaugurating new projects and thus taking credit for the massive developmental works which is now being done with international assistance.

This is part of our effort to let the Afghan Government develop its own ability to speak on behalf of its people, Gregory Sullivan, Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy for South and Central Asian Affairs, told Pajhwok Afghan News in an interview.

Afghans do not want to hear about their development form the British or the US. They would like to hear this from their own government and own representative, he said.
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Bulgaria to increase peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan: DM
Wednesday March 07, 2007 (0254 PST)
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SOFIA: The Bulgarian government will agree to send another batch of troops to Afghanistan in the summer, Defence Minister Veselin Bliznakov said. Bliznakov told a military award ceremony that about 200 troops are scheduled to be sent to defend the airport in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in mid-summer.
The defence minister said the government will make a final decision on the matter in the next few days. The government can dispatch the troops without the approval of parliament because the action is part of NATO's deployment.

Bliznakov said it will be safe for Bulgarian troops to take charge of the security inside the airport while security outside is in the hands of the British troops. Bulgaria first sent peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan in February 2002. It now has 82 soldiers in Afghanistan.
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Canadian Aid Distributed in Afghanistan
Tuesday March 06, 2007 (0520 PST)
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KABUL: Canadian food was distributed to thousands of drought victims and war refugees in southern Afghanistan.
In exchange for the food, the farmers must clear sand from clogged irrigation canals.

The United Nations World Food Program distributed wheat, peas, cooking oil and salt to hungry farmers in Spin Boldak near the Pakistan border.

The Canadian International Development Agency will spend $4.9 million this year on emergency food assistance to vulnerable families in Kandahar province.
End

Afghanistan Tenders for Nationwide CDMA Network
Tuesday March 06, 2007 (0520 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Afghanistan's telecoms regulator has issued a tender for a CDMA based mobile network, as well as a landline operator tender. The Ministry of Communications says that it plans to re-configure and re-orient the existing CDMA and Fixed Line Networks. The first CDMA based fully Mobile Pre-paid Voice and Data Network of Afghanistan is to cover all 34 Provinces in Afghanistan, and the second Network covering 6 Provinces would offer Fixed Line based Voice and Data Services, in addition to CDMA based Mobile services.
The second network, to be deployed in 6 Provinces would offer Fixed Line based Voice and Data Services, in addition to CDMA based Mobile services. In Fixed Line Network, Pre-paid Service would be given by inducting F-IN Platforms and Data Services would be offered through DSLs and ADSLs, after installing Data Cards in such Fixed Line Switches. Fixed Line Subscribers would be offered broadband Data Services through DSL and ADSL Equipment. In addition, PDSNs will be required at Kandahar, Heraat and Mazaar. At Kabul, the existing PDSN will be utilized.

The Ministry of Communications says that it has built the Telecom Infrastructure in all the 34 Provinces of the Country during last 3 years. CDMA based Networks and the Fixed Line Networks have been built and made operational for both Voice and Data Services. 31 Switches are operational now with a built up capacity of 225,000 CDMA Lines and 101,400 Fixed Lines. NOC has been built at Kabul. There are 85 BTSs deployed now throughout the Country providing CDMA Services.
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Canadian colonel in Somalia affair gets prestigious military role
Last Updated: Thursday, March 8, 2007 | 12:37 AM ET CBC News
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A Canadian colonel who was implicated in the 1993 Somalia scandal has been asked to lead one of the military's most prestigious missions in Afghanistan, CBC News has learned.

Col. Serge Labbe will take over command of Canada's Strategic Advisory Team in Kabul. The unit of 15 officers works closely with the government of Afghanistan to help with national planning.

Labbe will take over his new role later this year.

Col. Mike Capstick, a former leader of the team, said Labbe will be well suited to the role.

"He's very, very bright, very experienced," Capstick told CBC News. "He has a very good understanding of the strategic level in Afghanistan."

Labbe's career has been marked by his ties to the Somalia affair.
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'Taliban commander' says Italian journalist a spy
7. March 2007, 16:00
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AFP - A voice recording of a man claiming to be top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah has said an Italian journalist captured by the militants has confessed to spying for the British military.

The voice in the recording, received by an AFP correspondent Wednesday, gives the Italian's name as Daniel and identifies two Afghans captured with him, accusing them of telling the British military about Taliban hideouts.

He said the Taliban, which has previously executed captives accused of being spies, had not yet decided what to do with the three.

La Repubblica correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been missing in southern Afghanistan for three days and the Italian embassy in Kabul said Wednesday it feared he had been captured, in line with Taliban claims.

The recording was e-mailed to an AFP correspondent in Pakistan by a colleague who said he had been called by the man in it, who identified himself as Dadullah. Its veracity could not be confirmed.

"They were working with the British," the man says in the Pashtu language. "Their confession is that, 'The British told us to interview Taliban and then let us know their locations so we can bomb them.'"

"They were spying for the British under the name of journalists."

He names the journalist's father and mother and then gives the names of the Afghans with him, their fathers and their street addresses. The information could not immediately be verified.
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Exclusive: Warlord splits with Taliban
AP, March 8
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070308/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_hekmatyar;_ylt=AtPQ5ooKQETB_RF.ZQBOxY7MWM0F

Fugitive Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told The Associated Press that his forces have ended cooperation with the Taliban and suggested that he was open to talks with embattled President Hamid Karzai. In a video response to questions submitted by AP, Hekmatyar said that his group contacted Taliban leaders in 2003 and agreed to wage a joint jihad, or holy war, against American troops.
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"The jihad went into high gear but later it gradually went down as certain elements among the Taliban rejected the idea of a joint struggle against the aggressor," Hekmatyar said in the video, which was received Thursday. Hekmatyar wore glasses and a black turban as he spoke in front of a plain white wall at an undisclosed location.

He offered no details of the split or its timing, but said his forces were now mounting only restricted operations, partly because of a lack of resources.

"It was not a good move by the Taliban to disassociate themselves from the joint struggle," he said. "Presently we have no contact with the Taliban."

Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami fighters, who have been most active in eastern Afghanistan, were central to the CIA-backed resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and in the civil war that followed, but were sidelined by the Taliban militia's rise to power in the mid-1990s...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found March 9, 2007

O'Connor issues about-face on detainees
Defence Minister acknowledges Canada is not informed on the treatment and transfer of detainees it apprehends in Afghanistan
ALEX DOBROTA Globe and Mail Update
Article Link

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, in an about-face from earlier comments, acknowledged Thursday that the International Committee of the Red Cross does not inform Canada of the treatment of detainees captured by Canadian troops and transferred to Afghan authorities.

In a terse statement released to The Globe and Mail Thursday evening, Mr. O'Connor said: "It was my understanding that the ICRC could share information concerning detainee treatment with Canada.

"I have recently learned that they would, in fact, provide this information to the detaining nation, in this case Afghanistan."

Those comments contradict several assurances Mr. O'Connor made in the House of Commons. In May, Mr. O'Connor told MPs that the Red Cross would report any detainee abuse to Canadian authorities.
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Commando is fourth British soldier to die in Afghanistan in a week
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A BRITISH soldier was killed in a grenade attack on his base in southern Afghanistan yesterday.

The serviceman, from 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, died in hospital after the attack in Sangin, in Helmand province.

He was the 52nd British serviceman to die in the country since the start of operations in November 2001. He was also the fourth British serviceman to lose his life in Afghanistan in less than a week.

The dead soldier's regiment provides close support fire for the Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade
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Taliban kills 4 pro-gov't militias in S. Afghanistan          
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Taliban insurgents killed four pro-government tribal militias in Afghanistan's southern province Helmand on Thursday, a local senior police officer told Xinhua.

"Some insurgents ambushed a group of pro-government militias in Sangin district in the morning, killing four of them," said Isan Khan.

Khan said he did not have information of casualties of Taliban rebels.

About 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers launched the ever biggest offensive dubbed Operation Achilles against Taliban militants on Tuesday in northern Helmand, which covers Sangin district
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Jean pays tribute to female troops in Afghanistan
Updated Thu. Mar. 8 2007 4:57 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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To help mark International Women's Day, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean paid homage to Canada's female military presence in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Jean reiterated to troops the importance of telling their stories in order to put a human face on the war.

"The more we do that, the more people will understand the value of your mission here, and how important it is, every action you are taking here at great risk,'' she said.

The commander-in-chief told the packed crowd at Canada House -- a place where soldiers go to relax while on duty -- how proud she was of their continuing efforts.

After her speech, Jean jokingly called on male troops to get down on their knees and honour their female comrades.

The men urged the women soldiers in attendance to join Jean at the front of the room for a photo opportunity. The soldiers jumped and jostled at the chance to share a smile with their commander-in-chief.

"This just shows that women are part of the Canadian Forces and that we are here doing the same job as the men,'' Master Warrant Officer Mary-Ann Barnes of Barrie, Ont. said.
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German aid worker killed in Afghanistan
March 8, 2007 at 11:11 PM
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KABUL, Afghanistan, March 8 (UPI) -- The German aid group Deutsche Welthungerhilfe said that one of its staff members was shot dead in Afghanistan Thursday morning.

The German national was traveling in a two-vehicle convoy in the Sar-i-Pul region in the northern part of the country with Afghan aid workers when the group was stopped by two armed men, Deutsche Welle reported.

The gunmen berated the Afghans for working with foreigners and then forced them to leave the vehicles. They heard shots and, when they returned to the vehicles, they found their German convoy mortally wounded.

The slain aid worker was in Afghanistan on a short-term assignment to inspect building sites. Welthungerhilfe is involved in rebuilding bridges, schools and hospitals, especially in northern and eastern Afghanistan
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Afghanistan Women's Day Only a Dream
Associated Press March 8, 2007 CBNNews.com - KABUL, Afghanistan
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Wives, daughters and widows in Afghanistan are finding it hard to celebrate International Women's Day today.

That's because millions of them remain the victims of abuse. Afghan women have made progress in education and politics since the U.S. ousted the Taliban after 9/11 for harboring al-Qaeda.

But officials estimate that at least half the women are still victims of forced marriage. And a third have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused. Rarely is anyone prosecuted.

But the government and women's rights organizations are trying to make some changes. Groups are starting programs to cut down on forced marriage and child marriage and to help victims of rape and violence.
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Afghan copper lode a key to renewal?
Where miners blaze a trail, other businesses may follow
ANDY HOFFMAN From Friday's Globe and Mail
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TORONTO — Were it anywhere else in the world, its mineral riches would surely have been tapped long ago, yet millions of tonnes of copper in the Aynak deposit sit untouched.

The wealth underground has been shielded from exploitation by activity on the surface: foreign invasion, civil war, terrorism, occupation.

Aynak is in Afghanistan, a place known more for land mines than copper mines.

But the Afghan government is now trying to change all that, launching an ambitious campaign to woo foreign mining companies, despite the violence that persists in much of the country.
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Articles found 10 February, 2007

Timely Communications Thwart Taliban Movement to Pakistan
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 9, 2007 –
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Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. troops teamed up to stop a group of Taliban insurgents from crossing the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan during a March 7 incident, officials said.
Pakistani border forces reported that an insurgent vehicle was attempting to enter Pakistan from an area where Afghan and U.S. soldiers were attacked near the Afghan village of Shkin, in Paktika province.

Afghan and U.S. forces responded with two 105 mm artillery rounds, resulting in a direct hit on the insurgents’ vehicle. Secondary explosions were observed, leading the force to conclude that the vehicle was loaded with munitions to be used in further attacks against Afghan citizens and Afghan and coalition forces.

There were no reported injuries to Afghan citizens or troops or coalition forces during this engagement. Coalition officials said the strike illustrates effective coordination between Afghan and Pakistani border forces.

“The combined operations to ensure security of the border region demonstrates the Afghan government and coalition’s ability to respond to and take action against insurgent fighters who attempt to terrorize Afghans in Paktika province,” said Lt. Col. David Accetta, a coalition spokesman. “Through our combined effort we will continue to increase security and eliminate Taliban insurgents who threaten Islamic Republic of Afghanistan objectives.”

All operations were conducted inside Afghanistan in direct coordination with Pakistani forces nearby, officials said.

In other Afghanistan news, Taliban insurgents near Deh Rawood in the Oruzgan province ambushed a small group of Afghan civilians March 7, officials said.
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Soldiers in Afghanistan smitten by Jean's charms
Graham Thomson, CanWest News Service; Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, March 10, 2007
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- To soldiers in a war zone, she is a rock star.

And it's not because of the natty clothes or the entourage or even the private aircraft, although there has to be a certain cachet when you show up in a C-130 Hercules with your own close-protection team of machinegun-toting commandos.

She is charming, funny, charismatic and their commander in chief - and Canadian soldiers serving Afghanistan are simply enchanted by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean. When she'd make a speech, they'd cram together in whatever space was available and afterwards would politely jostle each other for a chance to chat or snap a quick photo.

They beamed when she donned body armour and a helmet for a helicopter ride to Camp Nathan Smith, where the Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team is based. And they were tickled when she sat in an RG-31 armoured vehicle and worked a remote-control machine gun turret.

"She is a bit of a darling, if I can say, for the troops," said Lt.-Col. Rod Matheson. "Her being here is an outstanding thing for the soldiers to feel and to know about. Not all of them will see her, unfortunately. But just knowing that she's here and knowing that she's rubbed elbows with a number of them is good enough for the boys."
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Body of Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan back in Canada
Canadian Press Friday, March 09, 2007
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CFB TRENTON, Ont. (CP) - Another Canadian soldier who lost his life serving in Afghanistan is back in Canada.

A C-130 Herculese aircraft carrying the body of Cpl. Kevin Megeney, of Stellarton, N.S., has touched down at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario. A flag-draped casket containing Megeney's remains was placed aboard the aircraft Wednesday night in Kandahar for the long flight home.

Megeney, a reservist and member of the base-security platoon, was shot in the chest in his tent on Tuesday evening and died 20 minutes later in hospital.

A newspaper report Friday cited an anonymous source who said Megeney was shot by a fellow soldier.
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New Front in Afghanistan
By Col. David Hunt
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While we have angst about the "surge" in Iraq, or if the Democrats will have the leverage to pull the plug, or we download pictures of the latest train wreck of a human being on the Internet, or comment on how cold it is, there is still a war on in Afghanistan and it just kicked up a notch this week.

Operation Achilles is the name the military has given to this new offensive in southern Afghanistan. We have great guys from the 10th Mountain Division, the 82nd Airborne Division and Special Operations-types up to their eyeballs in sand, in addition to the Taliban fighters. NATO is running this show, but we have a four-star general named Dan McNeill commanding.

I know this guy because we served together. He is a good man and this is his second tour there. The British, as always, are also with us, using their great Royal Marines in the fight.
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Articles found 11 February, 2007

O'Connor to meet with Afghan rights commission
Updated Sun. Mar. 11 2007 11:48 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor is in Kandahar for a visit with Canadian troops and to meet with the Afghan Human Rights Commission.

Earlier this month, Canada finalized a deal with the commission to monitor the treatement of Taliban detainees handed over to the government of Afghanistan.

The cooperative effort came just days after news broke that three Afghan prisoners who are considered key witnesses in a probe into allegations of abuse by Canadian soldiers disappeared.

The disappearance evoked strong criticism of Canada's prisoner handover agreement.

O'Connor was also criticized for claiming that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) monitored the treatment of the detainees and that they would report back to Canadian officials if anything was wrong.

The ICRC denied the claims saying they would never tell Ottawa about any abuses.

Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the ICRC, told The Globe and Mail that the ICRC can only make known its assessments or interventions to the government whose facilities it is visiting. Under its own charter, the ICRC is not allowed to disclose findings to third parties.

Operation Achilles

Coalition forces involved in Operation Achilles are slowly making progress against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said Sunday.

Squadron Leader Dave Marsh said British commandos backed by NATO air strikes have taken out Taliban strongholds south of Lashkargah -- in the northern Helmand province.
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New militant video demands German, Austria pullout from Afghanistan
Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 11:30
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Cairo (dpa) - A group believed to be affiliated with the al-Qaeda terror network and calling itself "The Voice of the Caliphate" has warned that Germany and Austria will face militant attack unless they start withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan.

The warning came in a new video broadcast posted on the Internet.

"(We say) to the German government that Germany is a country with a strong economy and until recently it was a safe country, so why lose all this for (US President George W) Bush and his gang?" said the masked speaker.

"Why let your interests, which are spread over the entire world, be in danger?" he added. The speaker sent a similar message to Austria, saying that it was "one of the safest countries in the world."

"But in case of security threats, Austria will be on the list of targets of the mujahideen (militants) and this will change," he said.

Germany has around 3,000 troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, while Austria has five officers stationed in the war-ravaged country.

On Friday, however, the German parliament approved the deployment of six Tornado reconnaissance warplanes to Afghanistan to assist NATO forces in their ground offensive against Islamist Taliban rebels.
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Taliban kills eight police in ambush in Afghanistan
Mar 11, 2007, 12:07 GMT
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Kabul - Suspected Taliban militants killed eight policemen in an ambush in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, while two Taliban were killed and four were wounded in a separate incident in the same region, officials said on Sunday.

The eight police were killed when their vehicle was ambushed late Saturday in Kandahar's Arghistan district, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said.

In the adjoining province of Zabul, Taliban militants attacked a police patrol on the highway between Kabul and Kandahar on Saturday night, said Gholab Shah Alikhail, provincial spokesman for the governor of Zabul.

He said that two Taliban were killed and another four were wounded in the attack, one of whom was arrested by the police.

The attack came five days after NATO-led forces launched a massive operation code-named Achilles in southern Helmand province to rid the area of the Taliban.
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GPS-guided artillery shell fielded in Kuwait
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer Saturday Mar 10, 2007 6:40:04 EST
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Excalibur, a first-of-its-kind Global Positioning System-guided artillery shell, is on its way to Kuwait for deployment in Iraq, according to U.S. Army officials with Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

Under development for eight years by Raytheon and three years by Raytheon and BAE Systems, Excalibur will be deployed after official results from recent final-stage testing.

In a late November U.S. Army test at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., 13 of 14 Excalibur rounds fired up to 24 kilometers away hit within 10 meters of their targets — an unprecedented circular error probable for cannon artillery, Raytheon program official Everett Tackett said here at the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare Winter Symposium. Conventional artillery has a CEP of about 70 to 100 meters at 10 kilometers, 200 to 300 meters at 30 kilometers.

Tackett said the shells were fired from gun barrels pointed as much as 15 degrees away from the target, testing their ability to steer themselves in flight.

“The rounds totally changed course, adjusting their ballistic trajectory toward the target,” he said.
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Followers Mark bin Laden's 50th Birthday
By MAGGIE MICHAEL Sunday, March 11, 2007
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CAIRO, Egypt - Followers of Osama bin Laden flooded Islamic Web sites with pledges of allegiance, videos and pictures Saturday to mark the al-Qaida leader's 50th birthday, reflecting his importance as a militant symbol even though he has not shown his face for years.

One user, going by the name Abu Yacoub, posted an old picture of bin Laden wearing a helmet and khaki military uniform while carrying a two-way radio in a deserted area, possibly from his fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union two decades ago.

"Osama bin Laden turns 50. God protect our leader, our Sheik Osama bin Laden. God reward him for his words and actions," Abu Yacoub wrote on a Web site commonly used by insurgents.

Another message titled the "Manhattan invasion" featured old footage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and the wills of the men who hijacked the planes. Another follower posted a poem of dedication to bin Laden.
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Italy asks for proof that reporter kidnapped in Afghanistan is alive
By: RAHIM FAIEZ - Associated Press
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- The militants who kidnapped an Italian reporter must prove he is still alive before any negotiations for his release can begin, Italy's ambassador to Afghanistan said Saturday.

Taliban insurgents claim they kidnapped Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter with Italian daily La Repubblica, on Monday along with two Afghans as they traveled together by vehicle in Nad Ali district of Helmand province.

"We do hope that people who hold Daniele (are) ready to start a dialogue based on one simple point, the proof that these people ... they hold the hostage in their hands and that they can provide the proof of life of Daniele," said Ettore Francesco Sequi.


Sequi said there is no proof that recent statements attributed to the Taliban even come from anyone linked to the kidnapping.
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U.S. Military Defends Deleting AP Images from Afghanistan
Published: March 10, 2007 10:20 AM ET
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ISLAMABAD The U.S. military asserted that an American soldier was justified in erasing journalists’ footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing and shooting in Afghanistan last week, saying publication could have compromised a military investigation and led to false public conclusions.

The comments came March 9 in response to an Associated Press protest that a U.S. soldier had forced two freelance journalists working for the U.S.-based news agency to delete photos and video at the scene of violence March 4 in Barikaw, eastern Afghanistan. At least eight Afghans were killed and 34 wounded.

“Investigative integrity is one circumstance when civil and military authorities will reluctantly exercise the right to control what a journalist is permitted to document,” Col. Victor Petrenko, chief of staff to the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, said in a letter March 9.

He added that photographs or video taken by “untrained people” might “capture visual details that are not as they originally were.”

The Associated Press disputed the assertions.

“That is not a reasonable justification for erasing images from our cameras,” said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll in New York. “AP’s journalists in Afghanistan are trained, accredited professionals working at an appropriate distance from the bombing scene. In democratic societies, legitimate journalists are allowed to work without having their equipment seized and their images deleted
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Do your fair share in Afghanistan, Nato told
LONDON
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Britain’s Nato allies who refuse to fight in Afghanistan were accused of causing "huge resentment" and a sense of betrayal among UK forces.

With four British soldiers killed within the last week, and the Taliban expected to launch a Spring offensive, senior military figures have called for Nato forces to contribute more or risk fracturing the alliance.

The 60-year-old coalition has come under pressure as countries such as Britain, America and Canada continue to shoulder the burden of the fighting, while others such as Germany and France have held their troops back.

Commanders are angry that despite pleas for reinforcements or to have "operational caveats" removed, some countries are still not heeding their requests.

Tony Blair failed to win a pledge of more fighting troops after he called for European allies to commit to a "maximum collective effort" during a summit in Brussels.

The example of German troops not being allowed to operate at night is one of many caveats that have infuriated Britain’s military leaders.

Lord Inge, who was head of the Armed Forces during the 1990s, told The Daily Telegraph that the limitations were making the alliance ineffective.

"When you go on an operation as complex and dangerous as this, where some Nato nations are not playing a full part, it makes the job of a commander much more difficult if he cannot use half the troops. It breaks a fundamental military principle."

Lord Inge added that there was now "huge resentment" among troops who were putting their lives on the line when "others are not".

He said: "It also undermines Nato’s credibility in the long term if it cannot respond to operational challenges such as this."

Nato had to be prepared for a "very long haul" of up to 20 years’ fighting, he added.
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Native American trackers to hunt bin Laden
March 12, 2007
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WASHINGTON: An elite group of Native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan's borders.
The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico.

But the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan and the US military's failure to hunt down Osama bin Laden - still at large on his 50th birthday on Saturday - has prompted the Pentagon to requisition them.

US Defence Secretary Robert M.Gates said last month: "If I were Osama bin Laden, I'd keep looking over my shoulder."

The Pentagon has been alarmed at the ease with which Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters have been slipping in and out of Afghanistan. Defence officials are convinced their movements can be curtailed by the Shadow Wolves.

The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.

Harold Thompson, a Navajo Indian, and Gary Ortega, from the Tohono reservation, are experts at "cutting sign", the traditional Indian method of finding and following minute clues from a barren landscape. They can detect twigs snapped by passing humans or hair snagged on a branch and tell how long a sliver of food may have lain in the dirt.
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British troops prepare for decisive Afghan battle
Clashes in Helmand have already cost the lives of six Royal Marines. But they are simply clearing the way for a bloodier struggle to come

The Independent, March 11
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2347520.ece

Britain is suffering its heaviest combat losses for several months as Nato seeks to forestall a Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan and prepare the way for what is expected to be the decisive battle for control of the country.

The death of Warrant Officer Michael Smith in a grenade attack on Thursday brought the number of British deaths in Afghanistan to six since Operation Achilles, an effort to clear Taliban fighters from northern Helmand province, was launched last month. Some 5,500 troops, mainly British, are confronting hundreds of insurgents said to have infiltrated from across the Pakistani border.

But Achilles, designed to prevent the Taliban from building up its strength, is merely the preliminary to a much bigger operation. One of its focal points is the district of Kajaki, where Royal Marines are attempting to clear a 6km safety zone around a dam so that work can begin on the biggest US-funded project in the country. Hydro-electricity from Kajaki could supply electricity to the entire region, giving a dramatic boost to economic development...

The aim, with the larger force, is to hold the ground so that the long-delayed electricity project can get under way. Western diplomats and commanders consider it essential to show local people that much-promised reconstruction programmes are at last being translated into reality on the ground, but it is also aimed at keeping the Taliban off-balance until the main offensive of the spring, an operation codenamed Nawruz [emphasis added]. This will begin when 1,400 extra British troops arrive in the country from next month to join American reinforcements of 3,200, as well as 1,000 Poles and 500 [mistake there - MC] more Canadians. There will be additional combat air support from France and six Tornado reconnaissance jets from Germany.

The blueprint for Nawruz was drawn up by General David Richards, the British former commander of the Nato force, and adopted by his American successor, General Dan K McNeill. The new British battle group - a mobile reserve Gen Richards had asked for, and been denied, during his nine months in charge - will operate well beyond Helmand, where British forces are concentrated. It will also range across the five other provinces of Nato's southern regional command: Kandahar, Oruzgan, Zabol, Nimruz and Daykondi.

At about the same time as the reinforcements arrive, a British commander, Major General "Jacko" Page, will take over the regional headquarters in Kandahar [emphasis added], the birthplace of the Taliban, from the Dutch. He will be responsible for Operation Nawruz, which is due to spread across the south and east of Afghanistan, as well as striking towards Taliban crossing points along the Pakistani border...

Last summer the Taliban declared that it would take Kandahar, and its attempt to position a large force in the province led to months of ferocious fighting during Nato's Operation Medusa. Canadian troops, who are mainly stationed in Kandahar province, bore the brunt of the fighting. Although some of the area around Kandahar city, notably the districts of Panjwayi and Pashmul, were cleared in a follow-up mission, Bad Zuka, there are increasing reports of recent infiltration, and British commanders expect possible renewed Taliban attacks in the future...

Additional Troop Increase Approved
President Agrees To Send 8,200 More To Iraq, Afghanistan

Washington Post, March 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001397.html

...He also decided to send a 3,500-member brigade to Afghanistan to accelerate training of local forces [emphasis added], doubling his previous troop increase to fight a resurgent Taliban...

...aides released a letter he signed Friday night aboard Air Force One as he flew to Uruguay from Brazil, asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for $3.2 billion in emergency funding to pay for the additional units. He proposed cuts in other spending to offset the cost...

For Afghanistan, it would fund Bush's decision announced last month to extend a temporary increase of 3,200 U.S. troops there "for the foreseeable future." It would also pay for an additional 3,500-member training brigade, a move that was not previously announced...

A useful Feb. 22 AP story:

Afghan army’s progress slow
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f322fde5-e698-4067-9766-c244b3bc586f&k=95539
...
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press that a goal of 70,000 Afghan soldiers has been pushed forward to December 2008 from 2011, and it is hoped to have 46,000 in place by April...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found March 12, 2007

Dead soldier's dad seeks answers
Told virtually nothing seven months after apparent accidental shooting
Mon Mar 12 2007 By Alison Auld
Article Link

HALIFAX -- The Winnipeg father of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan seven months ago in an apparent accidental shooting says the military has told the family virtually nothing about his death, leaving them frustrated and pleading with Defence officials for details.
Up until this past January, Ben Walsh knew only that his son, Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, had been killed when a gun went off during a routine patrol somewhere outside Kandahar on Aug. 9.

The father of three young children was based at Canadian Forces Base Shilo near Brandon.

Walsh said he repeatedly asked military officials probing the case to answer questions that tormented the family in the weeks after they were told of the death.

In particular, Walsh wanted to know three things: if his son had been shot twice, as he had heard; whether he was in or outside the vehicle; and whether the shot came from outside his military jeep.

For each query, the military's National Investigation Service, which was looking into the incident, said they could not reveal any more information.   
"They have no concern about the families of fallen soldiers," Walsh said in an interview.

"They don't know how to deal with the families. It's terrible I have to bang on doors to get information, even (to) tell me that my son is dead. They should be treating families, especially grieving families, with a little bit of compassion and concern and they're not."
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2 suspected Taliban killed, 1 NATO soldier wounded in southern Afghanistan
Canadian Press Monday, March 12, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - NATO and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban insurgents today in southern Afghanistan shortly before calling in an air strike on a compound that left two militants dead.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, says the clash started when militants opened fired and lobbed mortars toward NATO and Afghan troops in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.

Meanwhile, during a search operation in neighbouring Kandahar province, Afghan troops arrested a high-level co-ordinator of suicide attacks in Panjwayi district.

Mullah Mohammad Wali organized suicide attacks in Kandahar and worked for the Taliban.

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O'Connor meets with Afghan rights commission
Updated Mon. Mar. 12 2007 6:51 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor met with the head of the Afghan Human Rights Commission on Monday in an attempt to defuse a controversy over the treatment of battlefield detainees.

"He has even gone to an Afghan prison today to personally see the conditions that some of the detainees would be put in," said CTV's Tom Clark in Afghanistan.


O'Connor also held extensive meetings with Canadian staff in an effort to fully understand how the prisoner transfer process works, said Clark.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier made a surprise visit to Kandahar on Monday and will join up with O'Connor.

The pair will tour the frontlines of Canada's mission in the region, said Clark.

Earlier this month, Canada finalized a deal with the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission to monitor the treatment of Taliban detainees handed over by Canadian troops to the government of Afghanistan.

"I want to look the man in the eyes and I want to be confirmed that they are going to do what they say they are going to do," O'Connor said Sunday of his meeting with the commission head in Kandahar. "I just want an assurance from him that they will monitor and inform us of any abuses."

The co-operative effort was announced just days after news broke that three Afghan prisoners who are considered key witnesses in a probe into allegations of abuse by Canadian soldiers disappeared.

The disappearance evoked strong criticism of Canada's prisoner handover agreement.
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Tom Clark's Afghanistan Blog
Updated Sun. Mar. 11 2007 6:22 PM ET Tom Clark, CTV News
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Sunday March 11: I took last night off from this space, because I got my snout into some beer. Two beers to be precise, but after a month of enforced abstinence, they tasted awfully good and didn't encourage good work habits.

Let me quickly point out that the beers were officially legal last night by order of the very people who make it officially illegal all other nights. The Canadian military in Kandahar is dry, and as I am embedded with them, I get to share this peculiar lifestyle.

But last night, General Timothy Grant let 'er rip, and threw a barbecue for his headquarters staff (and nine grateful but grubby reporters) that included two beers per person. I believe food was involved too.

The NATO base is in many ways a model of propriety gone a little strange. There's no drinking allowed, no fraternization permitted, even among married couples, for heaven's sake, but here's the twist: everyone is armed to the teeth. It's like living with a morally upstanding street gang.

It's a city of more than ten thousand, without any discernable crime rate, poverty, or even grumpiness. Most people here are relentlessly polite, which may just be a logical reaction to everybody carrying a gun, but I think most of them mean it anyway.

Demographically, this is how a city should be; lots and lots of young people to cater to a very small number of older people. And just when you might be getting tired of seeing the same old faces, the entire population changes just like that, replaced by a new crop of non drinking, non fraternizing, polite, gun toting, smiling faces.

Having two beers in the midst of this does in fact seem a bit out of place.

Maybe three might be better.
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Elite Native American unit tracks down bin Laden in Afghanistan       
Monday, 12 March 2007 
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An elite group of Native American, dubbed the Shadow Wolves, is joining the hunt for al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
The unit, the Shadow Wolves, was recruited from several tribes, including the Navajo, Sioux, Lakota and Apache. It is being sent to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to pass on ancestral sign-reading skills to local border units.
In recent years, members of the Shadow Wolves have mainly tracked smugglers along the US border with Mexico.
The unit has earned international respect for its tracking skills in the Arizona desert. It was founded in the early 1970s to curb the flow of marijuana into the US from Mexico and has since tracked people-smugglers across hundreds of square kilometres of the Tohono O'odham tribal reservation, southwest of Tucson.
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Gen. Hillier visits Afghanistan, says he doesn’t regret detainee agreement
Updated at 6:23 AM KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP)
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Canada’s chief of defence staff is paying a visit to Afghanistan.
Gen. Rick Hillier told reporters in Kandahar today that he doesn’t regret reaching an agreement to hand detainees over to the Afghan authorities.
Human rights groups have criticized the policy, which doesn’t let Canada have any say in the prisoners’ treatment once they’re in Afghan custody.

Hillier’s visit comes a day after Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor arrived in the war-torn country.

He’s set to meet with the leader of Afghanistan’s human rights commission.

O’Connor says he wants to ensure the group is able to keep track of how the detainees are treated once they’re handed over to the Afghan government.   
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Treatment of British soldiers injured in Afghanistan, Iraq draws criticism
Associated Press 3/12/2007
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LONDON - Wounded British troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving inadequate medical treatment similar to that reported by American veterans, relatives and British media reported Sunday.

Families of the wounded British soldiers have also complained about widespread mental health problems among veterans, with some suggesting that health services in both Britain and the U.S. have been stretched by lack of planning for the conflict.

British Defense Secretary Des Browne said Sunday that an investigation had begun into the treatment of 18-year-old Jamie Cooper, the youngest British soldier wounded in Iraq. He was badly injured in November when a mortar bomb exploded in the southern city of Basra.

The soldier's older brother, Stephen Cooper, said his family was angry over the medical treatment offered to his brother and others. In a letter to hospital executives quoted by The Observer newspaper, the family complained that Cooper had spent a night lying in his own feces after hospital staff failed to carry out checks and had contracted a potentially deadly infection.

"The families of all the soldiers just want to make sure that they are guaranteed better treatment," Stephen Cooper said.
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Kiwi troops in Afghanistan for another year
Tuesday, 13 Mar 2007 
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New Zealand troops will stay in Afghanistan another year and could stay past 2008 as the rebuilding of the fragile nation continues.

A frigate is also again being deployed to the Arabian Gulf to take part in operations there.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Defence Minister Phil Goff today said Cabinet had confirmed New Zealand's contribution in Afghanistan would be rolled over another year until September 2008 at a cost of around $30 million.

This commitment includes:

a 120-personnel Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the Bamyan province;

two personnel based with the British contingent to help train the Afghan National Army;

up to five officers to serve with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters;

four police officers to help train the Afghan National Police.
A frigate would also join the Maritime Interdiction Operation in the Arabian Gulf for just over a month during the middle of 2008. This leg would be added to a planned deployment to the South/South East Asia region.

New Zealand would also send two health personnel to the Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airport.

Mr Goff said New Zealand troops had been in Bamyan for 3½ years and he was "proud" of the work they had done there. The frigates Te Mana and Te Kaha have been deployed to the Gulf previously.
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Afghanistan president signs war crimes amnesty bill into law
Caitlin Price at 2:32 PM ET Sunday, March 11, 2007
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[JURIST] A revised version of a controversial bill granting amnesty to groups that allegedly committed war crimes [JURIST news archive] was signed into law Saturday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] after being approved [JURIST report] earlier in the day by the Afghan parliament, which includes many former militia leaders. The resolution bars the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes absent accusation from an alleged victim. It also extends immunity to all groups involved in pre-2002 conflicts, as opposed to only leaders of various factions alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1980s resistance against Soviet forces and war crimes committed during the country's civil war [CNN backgrounder]. The Taliban and other human rights violators active before the establishment of the December 2001 Interim Administration in Afghanistan are protected under the bill. Critics say the law may violate Afghanistan's constitution [text] as well as certain international human rights treaties. MPs opposing the bill reportedly were threatened by former militiamen in the national assembly.
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Articles found March 13, 2007


Damage control
TheStar.com March 13, 2007 James Travers
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A single thread connects most of Canada's missteps in Afghanistan: Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier

Canada's see-no-evil handling of Afghan prisoners is more than a national embarrassment. It's also a pressing reminder that an ugly little war is exposing this Conservative government and its Liberal predecessor as at least naïve and arguably negligent.

Gordon O'Connor's surprise visit to Kabul and Kandahar this week is pure and simple damage control. Having glossed over the fact that Canada effectively washed its hands of PoWs, the defence minister is now trying to restore public confidence that prisoners will be treated as the Geneva Convention requires and self-interest demands.

But the problem runs deeper than a defence minister so superficially briefed that he either didn't understand the agreement with Afghanistan or misled Parliament that the International Red Cross is monitoring detainees and reporting any abuse to Ottawa.

O'Connor's loose grip of what's happening in Afghanistan is symptomatic of governments that put Canadians in harm's way without fully defining the mission, analyzing limitations on success or limiting the risks.

Harsh as that sounds, the record is worse.

Liberals dithered so long in shifting the mission from north to south that more decisive allies grabbed the safer reconstruction projects while Canada was left to go toe-to-toe with the Taliban.

It's just as revealing – if easier to forgive – that neither the military nor its political masters forecast the fierceness of the fighting or that major battles would require Cold War weapons left at home.

Conservatives are guilty of reckless haste and playing partisan politics. In successfully dividing Liberals by extending the mission to 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper failed to extract from NATO, Pakistan and the Afghan government any of the admittedly hard-to-get commitments necessary to give the troops a fighting chance.

Each administration has a defence.

A less dangerous than predicted maiden tour in Kabul made the military overconfident and helped convince Liberals that it was possible to get in and out of Kandahar without heavy casualties.
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Suicide bomber kills three in Afghanistan
Updated Tue. Mar. 13 2007 6:44 AM ET Associated Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber crossed the border from Pakistan into southern Afghanistan on Tuesday and blew himself up in a crowded pedestrian area, killing three civilians and wounding eight, police said.

The man was standing with luggage in a line of people waiting to be checked by border police when he detonated his bomb, in the town of Waish, about 460 metres inside Afghanistan's Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Raziq Khan, the border security police in charge.

Khan said there were no casualties among the police.

Meanwhile in two related attacks in Helmand province, troops shot a suicide bomber who tried to enter an Afghan army recruitment centre, about 45 minutes after a roadside bomb went off near a NATO convoy, police said.

Troops standing guard opened fire on the bomber, who had explosives hidden beneath his clothes, after he tried to enter the recruitment centre in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah and failed to heed their warnings to stop.
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Army father relieved by charges in son's death
Updated Mon. Mar. 12 2007 11:03 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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A Regina father is relieved that charges have been laid in connection with the death of his son in Afghanistan, even as he expressed compassion for the soldier charged.

"I cannot hold any bad feelings against the young lad that did this to my son. It's not going to bring him back," Ben Walsh, father of Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh, told CTV Regina on Monday.

He was commenting on the arrest of Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser, a close friend of Jeffrey Walsh. He expressed sympathy for what Fraser and his family must be going through.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (NIS) charged Fraser -- of the 2nd Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man. -- with one count of manslaughter and one count of negligent performance of duty.

"After taking a look at all the evidence that was gathered, the forensic, legal analysis, manslaughter and neglect performance of duty were deemed to be the appropriate charges," said Lt.-Col. William Garrick, commanding officer of the NIS.
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Ex-Liberal MP Wajid Khan visits Central Asia
Updated Mon. Mar. 12 2007 11:43 AM ET Canadian Press
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OTTAWA -- Wajid Khan, the former Liberal MP who bolted to the Conservative government after working as an adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is in Central Asia this week.

Khan, whose last trip on Harper's behalf was made while still serving as a Liberal MP, is visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan until Wednesday. Khan, a former pilot in Pakistan's air force, is Harper's special adviser on the Middle East and Central Asia.

He has refused to appear before a Commons committee to discuss the findings of his last trip - a $13,000, 19-day tour of Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in September.

Khan's report on that expedition has never been made public and the Prime Minister's Office has said it will remain confidential
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Ottawa's Afghan duty
TheStar.com - opinion - Ottawa's Afghan duty
March 13, 2007
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Canadian troops in Afghanistan have had to step in more than once to prevent our Afghan allies from executing captured Taliban fighters on the spot. So it is no surprise that Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor got off to a rocky start yesterday on a trip to Kandahar to hold officials accountable for treating prisoners humanely once they are captured by our troops and handed over.

O'Connor is in Afghanistan to tamp down concern that Canada's 2,500 troops risk violating the Geneva accords by putting prisoners in peril.

But even as O'Connor sought official Afghan reassurances to the contrary, Abdul Noorzai, who heads the Independent Human Rights Commission and knows of cases where prisoners have been tortured, yesterday cancelled a planned meeting with the minister.

This was an embarrassing setback to efforts by O'Connor to reassure Canadians that prisoners' rights are respected. All evidence suggests otherwise. The Canadian military is belatedly probing allegations that our forces handed over 18 detainees knowing they would be abused, and beat three prisoners.

And O'Connor has been embarrassed in Parliament, after wrongly insisting the Red Cross could be relied upon to notify us if prisoners are abused. In fact, the Red Cross deals only with Afghan officials. We do not necessarily know where our former prisoners are and whether they are in good health, are still in detention or have been set free.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper has insisted that Ottawa has "a firm agreement" to ensure that we do not become a party to torture or worse, we have no way of telling whether the Afghans are living up to their end. That makes no sense.
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West must deal with Pakistan
TheStar.com - opinion - West must deal with Pakistan
March 13, 2007 Benazir Bhutto
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Last month President George Bush told Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf he must be more aggressive in hunting down Al Qaeda and the Taliban along his country's border with Afghanistan. During his recent visit to Islamabad, vice-president Dick Cheney echoed the claim that Al Qaeda members were training in Pakistan's tribal areas and called on Musharraf to shut down their operations. And Britain also expressed concern recently about suspected terrorist safe havens.

Clearly, the pressure is on. Western leaders are finally beginning to recognize that Musharraf's regime has been unsuccessful in taming the Taliban, which has regrouped in the tribal areas of Pakistan while the military regime has given up trying to establish order on the Afghan border.

At the same time, the regime has strategically chosen to help the U.S. when international criticism of the terrorists' presence becomes strident.

The arrest of Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a top Taliban strategist, by Pakistani authorities late last month is a case in point. The timing, right on the heels of American and British pleas for renewed toughness, is too convenient. Akhund was arrested solely to keep Western governments at bay.

There are other political calculations in all of this. For too long, the international perception has been that Musharraf's regime is the only thing standing between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Islamic parties have never garnered more than 13 per cent in any free parliamentary elections in Pakistan.

The notion of Musharraf's regime as the only non-Islamist option is disingenuous and the worst type of fearmongering.
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Study: Thousands of veterans return with mental illness
POSTED: 0728 GMT (1528 HKT), March 13, 2007
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SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Nearly a third of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who received care from Veterans Affairs between 2001 and 2005 were diagnosed with mental health or psychosocial ills, a study published Monday has concluded.

The study was published in the March 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine and carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

They looked at data from 103,788 veterans; about 13 percent of them women, 54 percent under age 30, nearly a third minorities and nearly half veterans of the National Guard or Reserves.

Of the total, 32,010 (31 percent) were diagnosed with mental health and/or psychosocial problems, including 25,658 who received mental health diagnoses. More than half (56 percent) were diagnosed with two or more disorders. (Watch how the wars are blamed for an "epidemic" of mental disorders )

Post-traumatic stress disorder was the most common disorder, with the 13,205 veterans who got the diagnosis accounting for more than half (52 percent) of mental health diagnoses.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder that can occur after the experience or witnessing of a traumatic event, can lead to depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health.

Others included anxiety disorder (24 percent), adjustment disorder (24 percent), depression (20 percent) and substance abuse disorder (20 percent).

Of all veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan who sought VA services, post-traumatic stress disorder affected 13 percent, the study said
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Articles found March 14, 2007

Kabul copes with lots of people, little water
Afghans see a possible livelihood in the city, despite its crumbling infrastructure.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Page 1 of 3
Article Link

Monitor photographer Andy Nelson on respecting culture in Afghanistan. (0:53)KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - This is a city under siege, not from the Taliban, but from itself.

Kabul is home to 3.4 million people but has no public sewage system. Piped city water reaches only 18 percent of people. Daily power cuts last from dawn until 4 p.m. in the winter – longer in the summer.

Once renowned for green gardens and quirky bazaars, Kabul is sinking under the weight of its own citizens. More than a million migrants have flooded into the capital city since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, seeking a job and a better life in the big city.

In all, the population of Kabul has nearly doubled in seven years, straining a metropolis still riddled by the bullet holes and bombed-out roofs of many years of civil war.

Larger than the next 10 largest Afghan cities combined, Kabul estimates its most basic needs require $55 million this year; its budget is $4.5 million. Residents complain, but they cope. Despite the smell of sewage and mile-long walks to get drinking water, Kabul finds ways to function.

Yet more than five years after the international community pledged to help rebuild this tattered capital, the hard work has hardly even begun.

"Thirty years ago, everything seemed to work here, but there were not the population pressures we see now," says Pushpa Pathak, an adviser to the Kabul Municipality. "And since then, there has only been destruction, not construction."

Thirty years ago, Kabul was a charming city of 750,000 that drew hippies and exotic travelers to its quiet streets lined with pines and poplars. By 1999, however, the population had hit 1.8 million, and from 1999 to 2004, the city grew at a rate of 15 percent a year, according to World Bank estimates.
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Failing Canada's fallen
TheStar.com - opinion - Failing Canada's fallen
March 14, 2007
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How long must the families of fallen Canadian troops wait to find out how their loved ones die in the field?

Far too long, in the view of one man who lost his son.

Canada's military police "certainly have a lot to learn in dealing with ... grieving families," says Ben Walsh, a retired Mountie whose son Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh was shot and killed last Aug. 8.

While negligence was suspected from the start, the military's National Investigation Service took seven months to complete its probe, which resulted in another soldier being charged this week with manslaughter and negligent performance of duty. The military says this was a "complex" case. And police probes must be thorough.

Even so, how can it take seven months to get to the bottom of one soldier shooting another in a truck?

During all that time the Walsh family was kept in the dark, they say, despite appeals to Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier and the Provost Marshal's office to be updated.

That flatly contradicts the NIS commander, who says the family got "regular updates."

Walsh now says he hopes the family of Cpl. Kevin Megeney, shot and killed last week, does not face the same long wait for an explanation.

Indeed. Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are risking their lives for this country. When they fall, the military should promptly share what information they have with the families, in confidence if necessary. And probes should not drag on endlessly.
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NATO troops continue to target Taliban leaders in Afghanistan
March 14, 2007   
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The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would continue to attack Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, an ISAF spokesman told a press conference on Wednesday.

"We will continue to target known Taliban extremist leaders, the enemies of peace, in order to drive them out," said Tom Collins, the spokesman.

He made these remarks amid the ongoing insurgency in southern Afghanistan.

About 4,500 ISAF and 1,000 Afghan troops launched a major operation dubbed as Operation Achilles in the southern Helmand province last Tuesday against Taliban militants.

Collins said Mullah Jamaludin, a senior Taliban commander in Garmsir district of Helmand province, was killed by NATO troops recently.

The Taliban claimed 2,000 suicide bombers would launch a bloody spring offensive against foreign troops in this country.

More than 400 people, mostly militants, have been killed this year in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua
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Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Wednesday, March 14, 2007; 7:42 AM
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber on foot blew himself up near a police convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four civilians and wounding three policemen, police said.

The officers were patrolling in the city of Khost when the attacker struck, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman. The commander of the patrol unit was among the wounded police
End

3 suicide bombers strike in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Afghan, Reuters  |  March 14, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Three Taliban suicide bombers killed themselves and two people and wounded a dozen others yesterday in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The Taliban have stepped up operations in their old heartland ahead of an anticipated spring offensive against government and Western forces. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for all three attacks.

Meanwhile, NATO said a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Jamaluddin, was killed with several of his followers in a ground assault and air strike in Helmand last week.

"Jamaluddin was a violent Taliban extremist commander responsible for regular attacks" the Garmsir district, NATO said in a statement.

In Spin Boldak, a town on the Pakistani border, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpost yesterday, killing a policeman and a bystander.

"The man entered from the Pakistani side and blew himself up as police tried to search him," said Abdul Razzaq, chief of the border security force in the area. He said eight people were wounded.

Two suicide bombers killed themselves in Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern province of Helmand. One attacker targeted a NATO convoy, but wounded two Afghan bystanders, said Helmand deputy police chief, Mohammad Isa Iftikhari.
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UN envoy to Afghanistan says Pakistan cooperating in checking cross-border movement         
Written by pub Wednesday, 14 March 2007 
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     NEW YORK, Mar 14 (APP): The outgoing American ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, says that Pakistan is cooperating in dealing with the Taliban infiltration across the Pak-Afghan border.
     "We are getting more cooperation, and I think we need more cooperation," he was quoted by The New York Times as telling a small group of journalists in Kabul on Tuesday.
 
     The American ambassador said he did not see the Taliban as the big threat it appeared to represent a year or two ago, and that he was leaving feeling reasonably optimistic about the state of the insurgency and the country's progress.
 
     "We spent a lot of last year worrying about this year," he was further quoted as saying. "We will certainly face hard fighting in the south," he said, but I am going away feeling reasonably optimistic
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Near miss for Australian journalists in Afghanistan
AM - Wednesday, 14 March , 2007  08:20:00 Reporter: Brendan Trembath
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TONY EASTLEY: Australian reporters and Defence Force personnel have had a near miss on a helicopter flight over Taliban country in southern Afghanistan.

They didn't know how close they came to disaster until they reviewed a video of the flight taken by a cameraman onboard.

The tape shows what appears to be a rocket-propelled grenade arcing into the sky right behind the helicopter.

Brendan Trembath spoke to SBS reporter Karen Middleton, who was onboard the flight.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Normally SBS political reporter Karen Middleton shadows the Prime Minister and other politicians. But this week she's been with the troops in southern Afghanistan, and taking a few more risks than usual - flying at more than 300 kilometres an hour in a rocking and rolling helicopter.

KAREN MIDDLETON: We had to wear body armour. Of course, the troops who travel in these things are always wearing it and the media group, there were six of us, and a navy officer travelling with us.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: She knew it would be a wild ride, but did not expect it might have been her last.

KAREN MIDDLETON: We were heading from Tarin Kowt up to Kandahar. What turned out to have happened is that a ... it seemed like rocket-propelled grenade was fired at our helicopter.

It missed, luckily. It looks like it missed by about 20 metres. Nobody on the aircraft actually saw it happen, and it seems that nobody in the Chinook behind us saw it happen either, that was an American Chinook that was travelling with us, and we had a third aircraft, an American Apache that was flying behind.
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Holding Jirgas to facilitate peace in Afghanistan
March 14, 2007         
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday the process of holding Jirgas will facilitate peace and stability in Afghanistan and contribute towards better understanding between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Aziz was talking to the members of Pakistan and Afghan Jirga Commissions in Islamabad who had concluded a two-day discussion about holding traditional tribal jirgas to contain violence in the tribal areas straddling their borders, according to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

Pir Said Ahmad Gilani, Chairman of the Afghan Jirga Commission, led a 12-member Afghan delegation in the meeting held on March 13- 14, while the five-strong Pakistani team was headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who is chairman of the Pakistani Jirga Commission.

Aziz said Tuesday that terrorism and extremism is a common threat faced by Pakistan and Afghanistan and requires a common response.

The holding of Jirga will build bridges and the people of the two countries will be able to work collectively to solve the challenges faced by them, he added.

The prime minister said Pakistan is committed to the process of engagement with Afghanistan at all levels, and a strong vibrant Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan and the region.

He emphasized the need to improve the atmosphere and build more trust between Pakistan and Afghanistan to meet the challenges faced by the two countries more effectively.
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O'Connor meets with human rights group director
Updated Wed. Mar. 14 2007 7:57 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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After meeting with the head of an Afghan human rights commission charged with monitoring the fate of Afghan detainees handed to local authorities, Canada's defence minister says he's reasonably confident the group is up to the task.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor met Wednesday with Abdul Noorzai, the regional director of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission at a holding centre at the Kandahar base.

O'Connor, who arrived in Afghanistan on the weekend, was reportedly supposed to meet with Noorzai on Monday, but the meeting was cancelled without explanation about an hour before it was supposed to take place.

Noorzai did not speak to media representatives after the meeting, but he has said the commission has limited resources and faces challenges such as security concerns and a small staff. He also said his inspectors sometimes have trouble actually getting into prison facilities.

After the Wednesday meeting, O'Connor said Canada will work with the commission to assist in transporting prisoners and ensuring the group has access to them while they are under detention.

"The minister did say he will give the human rights commission resources, some help to be able to go out and follow prisoners who are taken by Canadian soldiers when they are handed over to the Afghans," said CTV's Paul Workman, reporting from Kandahar.

"And that's really the worry here, Canada just doesn't know what happens to these prisoners after they are handed over," Workman told CTV's Canada AM.

Canada's prisoner handover agreement, signed in 2005, does not include provisions for the Canadians to monitor the treatment of detainees after they are handed over.
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Articles found March 15, 2007

Making Every Bomb Count in Afghanistan
March 15, 2007
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In 2005, the U.S. Air Force dropped 176 bombs and missiles in Afghanistan. Last year, they dropped ten times as many. Some 3,000 Taliban fighters were killed by these bombs. Because all the attacks used missiles or smart bombs, very few civilians were killed (fewer than a hundred.) So few civilians were killed that, whenever there were civilian deaths, the Taliban press officers jumped all over it as an example of American atrocities against the Afghan people, and because such deaths happened so rarely, they caught peoples attention.

While much of that increase in bomb use came from the increased activity of the Taliban, a lot of the new bombing opportunities came from better intelligence. The air force and army (both American and NATO) deployed better electronic sensors. There were more UAVs all around. The ground forces used superior scouting and reconnaissance techniques to find an elusive enemy. But there was also a lot of help from Afghan civilians. The Taliban made a major mistake by going after the schools (burning down over a hundred of them, and otherwise shutting down more than twice as many.) Many otherwise pro-Taliban Afghans wanted the schools to stay open, and the anger at the anti-school effort, brought in a lot of tips. The Taliban were not so elusive with all those villagers informing on them.
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Suicide attack in Afghanistan kills at least 5, wounds 38
By Rahim Faiez, The Associated Press 3/15/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT
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KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber struck near a police convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding 38 in the latest in a growing wave of Iraq-style attacks.
The attacker, described as a young man wearing a Muslim prayer cap, detonated his explosives as the last in a column of police vehicles passed in front of a bank in Khost, a city near the Pakistani border, officials and witnesses said.

Four civilians and a policeman were killed, according to Gul Mohammadin Mohammadi, the provincial health chief. Nine of the 38 wounded were policemen, he said. Twelve of the injured were in critical condition.

Suicide attacks have become a key weapon for Taliban insurgents who made 2006 the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since U.S. forces drove the hard-line regime from power in late 2001. The tactic has put NATO and U.S. troops on edge, resulting in a string of deadly shootings of civilians.

In the latest incident, NATO said its forces in Kandahar fired at a truck that came too close to their convoy Wednesday, killing the driver.

Afghan and Western officials have pleaded with foreign forces to use caution to prevent civilian casualties. NATO and U.S.-led coalition
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UP TO 335 ADDITIONAL TROOPS FROM BULGARIA COULD BE SENT TO AFGHANISTAN
09:19 Thu 15 Mar 2007
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Courtesy of nato.intThe government has the political will to increase the number of Bulgarian soldiers taking part in peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Vesselin Bliznakov.

On March 14 the Cabinet examined Bliznakov’s proposal for further participation in International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Up to 335 additional troops could be sent to Afghanistan, in case the proposal received approval.

According to plans Bulgarian troops will operate in Kabul under Italian command. They will be responsible for ensuring safe environment for the provision of humanitarian aid. Bulgarian soldiers will be responsible for surveillance and for the training of Afghanistan’s army.

The mission is to begin in May.

Up to 200 Bulgarian soldiers will be responsible for the security of the Kandahar airport since the beginning of July.

Romanian troops are responsible for the Kandahar airport and have been maintaining its security for one year. Their mission ends in June.

Bulgaria takes part in ISAF since February 2002. At the moment 85 Bulgarian medics and soldiers take part in peacekeeping missions.
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Video shows Italian journalist abducted in Afghanistan
Thu, 15 Mar 2007 06:57:18 
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A video obtained by an Italian humanitarian group shows an Italian journalist - kidnapped in Afghanistan some 10 days ago - asking for help, the group and media said Wednesday.

The aid group, Emergency, which helped to release the abducted Italian photographer Gabriele Torsello in Afghanistan last year, said in a statement it had obtained a video showing abducted Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

Ansa news agency meanwhile broadcast some of the tape and reported that the journalist had urged the Italian government to help release him.

"I am Daniele Mastrogiacomo. It is March 12. It is eight o'clock in the morning in Afghanistan. I'm doing well. I am convinced that everything will end well," the La Repubblica journalist said on the film.

Italian news channel Sky TG 24 broadcast a still shot from the tape showing 52-year-old Mastrogiacomo with a drawn face and his head covered with a checkered Afghan headscarf.
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Positive Change in Afghanistan
Daniel Proussalidis Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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Canada's chief of defence staff is sounding optimistic about the military's effort to bring stability to the Panjwaii District west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

General Rick Hillier says thousands of families are moving back to the area.

"They are confident that they can now come home and that there's a hope they can now get on with a normal life that would like to live. Our soldiers are still there to help them. We're not over the hump completely yet, obviously.''

But, General Hillier adds that he's seen a positive change.
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Commentary: Afghanistan's opium tango
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE UPI Editor at Large WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI)
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Sixty percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people are under 20 -- without the foggiest notion of what democracy stands for. Thirty-seven countries are involved in normalization and reconstruction -- with different agendas; some 2,000 non-governmental organizations (out of an estimated 25,000 worldwide) are now represented in Afghanistan. A former Afghan minister, speaking privately, said, "They spend over half their time coordinating among themselves... The Afghan tango is now known as one step forward, and three steps backward."

The Shiite suburbs of Kabul are now under the control of Iranian or pro-Iranian agents. The capital city has mushroomed from 400,000 at the time of 9/11 to 2 million today. Some 500,000 acres of public land was seized and sold for the benefit of the entrenched bureaucracy. To control this vast country of 30 million would require several hundred thousand troops. The U.S. and allied-trained Afghan army numbers 20,000 instead of the 35,000 projected by now.


The consensus forged in the heady days of liberation in December 2001 is broken. Fear of the B-52 bombers is gone. And today's Afghanistan is totally insecure, so much so that it has already been promoted to the ranks of failed states -- except for an all-pervasive opium culture that keeps Afghanistan from sinking into total chaos.


The illicit opium poppy industry is, according to a former minister in President Hamid Karzai's government, "a pyramid structure. If ever there were a management prize for the perfect supply chain," it would go to what generates from one half to two-thirds of Afghan GDP. He said there are "25 mafia dons at the top of the pyramid who control the key power levers. The Interior Ministry is owned by the drug industry." In Helmand province (40% of the country's opium production), Taliban fighters protect poppy farmers from eradication efforts, and extract millions of dollars for their services.


Managing relationships with the United States, NATO, the European Union, Iran, India and Pakistan, Russia and China is beyond the capabilities of the Karzai government. The game of nations is played below the president's radar screen. The U.S. is hoping to diversify Afghanistan's regional relationships by coaxing Gulf states to become stakeholders; but the "Gulfies" are otherwise engaged by the uncertainties of the Iraq war and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
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A Washington Post article on Helmand province that does not once mention British troops :rage::

Emerging Epicenter In the Afghan War
NATO Aims to Loosen Taliban's Grip in Helmand

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402285.html

Mark
Ottawa
 
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