3 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan :

Three Taliban militants have been killed in a fight with Afghan and Coalition troops in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, an Afghan official said Tuesday.
http://english.people.com.cn/200510/04/eng...004_212519.html

Two killed, eight injured in bomb explosion in Afghanistan :

"One woman and one child were killed in the bomb explosion near the passing gate of Spin Boldak district of Kandahar
http://english.people.com.cn/200510/04/eng...004_212521.html

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GJ06Ag01.html
US back to the drawing board in Afghanistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Top Pakistani and US officials are to develop a new consensus strategy to combat the renewed al-Qaeda and Taliban threat as US-led coalition intelligence is convinced that this nexus has consolidated in Afghanistan to such an extent that it is using the country as a sanctuary from which to direct global operations.

It was for this very reason that the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 as the Taliban had allowed Osama bin Laden to take up residence in the country, set up jihadi training camps and, among other things, plan for September 11.

Since the Taliban's almost overnight retreat in face of that invasion, they have slowly reestablished themselves in parts of



Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistani territory in remote border areas.

Against this backdrop, US and Pakistan officials are expected to meet in Islamabad in the near future. "The date of the meeting is yet to be determined and so far Washington has conveyed to Islamabad a message on the extraordinary nature of the meeting," a senior security contact told Asia Times Online.

High on the agenda will be the issue of drawing up a new roadmap to combat terror in Afghanistan. According to the contact, who is familiar with the preparations, the meeting is the first of its kind since the immediate post-September 11 period and officials will brief one another on sensitive intelligence issues, and share ideas.

Although Pakistan has supported the US's "war on terror" since September 11, the US has frequently accused Islamabad of being less than whole-hearted and forthcoming in rooting out al-Qaeda-linked people from its territory, this despite several arrests of such characters.

Many in the Pakistani military and intelligence establishments are also known to still be sympathetic to the Taliban as they helped put the extremists in power in Kabul in the first place, in 1996.

Amid these concerns, Pakistani security forces announced on Tuesday the arrest of Abdul Latif Hakimi, the purported chief spokesman for the Taliban. Interior Minister Aftab Shir Pao confirmed Hakimi's arrest, but did not disclose details. Some reports said he had been apprehended in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai's office welcomed the news and thanked Pakistan for the arrest. Hakimi has often spoken on behalf of the Taliban, mostly claiming responsibility for attacks against US-led coalition forces.

Hakimi began giving telephone interviews, beginning with Pakistan-based news organizations and then to other outlets, including Western and Kabul-based media. He seemed to have no fear of being found through his telephone number and gave almost daily and lengthy interviews, much to the public annoyance of officials in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US.

The Pakistan Army is currently engaged in a military operation in the North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan to flush out foreign fighters. Over the past few years it has launched several such operations, including in South Waziristan, with limited results, apart from inflaming local passions in the volatile area.

Resistance takes new shape
With an intensification in the Afghan resistance, a new phenomenon has become apparent in recent guerrilla activities: the attackers included Chechen, Uzbek and Arabs fighters. This in itself is not entirely new, foreign fighters have for a long time been a part of the resistance.

What is new is that while previously the foreign fighters were involved in raids close to the Pakistan border (across which they could return), the latest attacks were carried out in provinces such as Logar and Ghazni, well inside Afghan territory, where foreign fighters targeted US conveys or bases and then melted into the local population.

"The US and coalition troops only stay in their bases and only carry out special search operations. The responsibility of routine patrolling and local intelligence-gathering lies with the Afghan National Army and police. However, there are frequent signs in recent months that local forces are looking the other way. The trend is so frequent that it cannot be named as ignorance. Apparently it is deliberate and points to a more dangerous trend for the coalition forces. In the near future, more foreign ground troops will be inevitable to more closely monitor the performance of the Afghan troops and increase its coordination in search operations," a security source told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity.

Apparently, a picture is emerging in which foreign fighters and their Afghan comrades have established pockets around various strategic centers, on which they launch sporadic attacks.

These developments are clearly unsatisfactory for the coalition forces, as it appears that after four years they have still to stamp their control on the country. The al-Qaeda presence in the country is nothing like it was, but the mere fact that it is gaining calls for a new approach.

To start with, and this is expected to be discussed at the highest level, is the loyalty of the Afghan security forces. Various warlords and their followers were given administrative positions in the army, police and intelligence as a part of a reconciliation program. They are already suspects. They include former Taliban, but mostly former mujahideen from the days of the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s.

They could be expected to have a strong influence on people active in the field, which would explain recent concerns of soldiers looking the other way during resistance attacks.

Even Afghanistan's chief of army staff, General Bismillah Khan, is under discussion. He is a warlord from the days of the former Northern Alliance, which fought against the Taliban during the US invasion after September 11, but he was in negotiations with the Taliban to change sides. Khan was talking to no other than Tahir Yaldevish, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, who is currently fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Similar cases exist at all levels within the resistance, as well as in the administration throughout Afghanistan. Many of these people have been elected to Afghanistan's new parliament (official results are due this month).

One could say that the same politics and ideology that govern Afghanistan, also drive the resistance.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GJ06Ag02.html


Western-trained, Western-armed, enemies
By Ramtanu Maitra

From Iraq to Afghanistan to the Central Asian republics, Western militaries are finding it is one thing to train a local army, quite another to obtain its loyalty.

The US and British militaries have suspended their training programs for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan after more than 800 troops from these countries deserted, and many reportedly joined militant groups, such as al-Qaeda and Chechen rebel forces.

According to intelligence sources quoted in the media, the deserters escaped with weapons, including M-16s, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), communications equipment, night vision goggles and other ordnance items.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, IRIN News of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this year quoted an Afghan Ministry of Defense report saying that more than a quarter of the Afghan National Army (ANA) had deserted since its formation in mid-2002. "Around two to three thousand soldiers have fled the ANA so far," General Zahir Azimi, a spokesperson for the ministry, told IRIN.

The ANA is under the supervision of the US Army, with assistance from Britain, New Zealand, France and Germany. Technical assistance to the new army - envisaged to provide security to Afghanistan's emerging post-Taliban government - has also been provided by Bulgaria, Romania, Canada, South Korea and Mongolia.

In Iraq, the Americans and British are trying to build up an Iraqi army, but it is an uphill struggle. An estimated 500,000 Iraqis have signed up for the new army and security forces, but more than half have been dismissed as untrainable or deserted. Among those who remain, their loyalty is frequently questioned. Many reports indicate that the army and police have been penetrated by insurgents.

Shifting allegiances
Desertions in Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly worrying for US-led forces for two reasons. The first is that the lives of allied soldiers are placed directly on the line by disloyal forces. The second reason is that some of these deserters are not simply leaving the army, they are changing sides and joining the resistance with their new-found skills.

Last fall, news appeared for the first time that Afghan rebels were buying sophisticated Russian and Chinese-made SAMs (See The Taliban's battle over the ballot, Asia Times Online, September 10). The report quoted an unnamed rebel saying: "A general conduit of the weapons smuggling for Afghanistan is from Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the weapons are transported through Iran to Afghanistan. The SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin are available at a cost of US$2,500 each. The main market of these missiles is Afghanistan."

In a September 27 article, "The Taliban's new face", noted-Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who met with Afghan officials, was told that the Taliban were buying weapons from local warlords and also across the border from Pakistani tribes. This official also confirmed the Asia Times Online story that the Taliban were in possession of SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin, which they were getting from Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the US military remained silent about the existence of these missiles in resistance hands, on September 25 another US military helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing all five American crew members. The Pentagon summarily said, "There is no indication of hostile fire."

It is not difficult to understand why the Pentagon is cautious over what may turn out to be a bitter truth. Helicopters are the most effective vehicles in the moon-like terrain of much of Afghanistan. When choppers get shot down, it is really bad news.

It is widely acknowledged that the Soviet military was demoralized in the 1980s by the Stinger missiles supplied by Washington to the Afghan mujahideen fighters, who routinely shot down Russian Hind helicopter-gunships.

It is quite possible that the people now using the SAMs were trained by the US in the ANA, or in Iraq. In Afghanistan it is accepted that the resistance penetrated the recruitment process at the very outset, as in Iraq.

A part of the problem is that the Pentagon employs private contractors to train many of the foreign troops. This made it easier for the resistance to penetrate the recruitment process and get training. Since the private contractors are paid by the number of people they train, vetting of the trainees becomes somewhat less rigorous.

Most of these US-UK trainers are private outfits, often run by retired military officers, including three- and four-star generals. A few are familiar names, like Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Other private trainers have more cryptic names, like DynCorp; Vinnell, a subsidiary of TRW; SAIC; ICI of Oregon; and Logicon, a unit of Northrop Grumman. One of the best known, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), boasts of "more generals per square foot than in the Pentagon".

A new challenge
The growing number of helicopter crashes in almost picture-perfect Afghan weather in recent months cannot be explained away too easily. The September 25 downing of a Chinook is one of many. A US helicopter crashed on July 29 during a routine training mission in Bagram, north of Kabul, injuring the two crewmen on board. That crash came a day after a Chinook CH-47 helicopter was destroyed in what the military called "a hard landing" during an operation to hunt down insurgents in the south. In April, a CH-47 crashed in Ghazni province, killing 15 American servicemen and three US civilian contractors.

In all these cases, the Pentagon cited the weather, "technical problems", or a "hard landing". On the other hand, the resistance has routinely claimed credit for shooting down these choppers.

Prior to the Afghan legislative elections on September 18, Washington was expressing concern about the resistance-induced violence.

However, now that the elections are over, the US military is not showing any sign of lessening its hardline approach. A senior US Army commander in Afghanistan, General Jason Kamiya, said recently that using airpower to eliminate militants continued to be an essential component of US military operations.

This despite a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he saw no more need for air strikes to be used in the "war on terror". Karzai also called for a halt to searches of Afghan houses by coalition troops and urged the US military not to enter homes without authorization from the Afghan government.

SAM missiles or not, the US is having to do some serious rethinking in Afghanistan.

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)

That other war
--------------------


October 5 2005

BOMBINGS, SHOOTINGS AND VIOLENT deaths continue in Afghanistan, site of the first post-9/11 American war. Although the campaign in Afghanistan became the "other" conflict once the invasion of Iraq began, the country remains dangerous and uncertain, and international cooperation there is as crucial as ever.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editor...ment-editorials

Four Years After US Campaign, Perils Abound:

Afghanistan still ranks among the half-dozen poorest countries in the world, and, according to a State Department report published in July, has the highest level of malnutrition in the world at 70 percent.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30545

Nations affected by South Asia earthquake Seattle Post Intelligencer
A look at the nations affected by Saturday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the India-Pakistan border that killed more than 2,300 people.

• PAKISTAN: A predominantly Muslim nation of more than 150 million that is almost twice the size of California. It borders India to the east, Iran and Afghanistan to the west and China to the north. The earthquake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital Islamabad in the forested mountains of the Pakistani side of the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
• INDIA: A predominantly Hindu nation with just over 1 billion inhabitants, including a sizable Muslim minority. Geographically, it is slightly more than a third the size of the United States and borders Pakistan to the west, and China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and has been a source of conflict and wars for decades.
• AFGHANISTAN: A predominantly Muslim nation of an estimated 25 million people that is emerging from more than two decades of war, culminating with U.S.-led airstrikes that ousted the hard-line Taliban militia in 2001. Slightly smaller than Texas, Afghanistan shares an eastern border with Pakistan, with Iran to the west and with the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan to the north.

Earthquake in Kashmir: "I thought Doomsday had fallen" TIME
Casualty Toll Rises After 7.6 Earthquake Hits South Asia Los Angeles Times
Bru Direct - BBC News - Reuters - Free Internet Press - all 1,251 related »

Afghan suicide bomber strikes Globe and Mail
A suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into an armored vehicle carrying British government officials Sunday in southern Afghanistan, wounding four of them, a US-led coalition commander said.
4 British Officials Hurt in Afghan Attack ABC News
British civilians wounded in Afghan suicide attack Telegraph.co.uk
Reuters.uk - Independent - BBC News - Aljazeera.net - all 155 related »

6 killed, 5 injured in suicide attack in south Afghanistan :

Six local people were killed and five others injured Monday morning in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, a local official said.
http://english.people.com.cn/200510/10/eng...010_213617.html

===
One US soldier killed in firefight in Afghanistan :

One US soldier was killed, another was injured Sunday during a firefight with suspected Taliban in Afghanistan's southern province of Zabul, US military said Monday
http://tinyurl.com/99hqy

Hope of finding quake survivors fades Xinhua
On the third day of a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, hope was dwindling on Tuesday of finding more survivors. The official death toll remained at 21,000, although officials in Pakistan's part of Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, areas that bore the brunt of Saturday's quake, suggested it could be almost twice as high.
Pakistan Quake Victims Scuffle for Aid Guardian Unlimited
Quake victims scuffle for supplies International Herald Tribune
Ireland Online - San Francisco Chronicle - Newsday -Washington Post - all 3,759 related »

Land mine blast kills 2 soldiers in S. Afghanistan :

Two Afghan soldiers were killed Thursday as their vehicle hit a land mine in Baghran district in southern Afghan province of Helmand, the provincial police chief said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/...ent_3657026.htm

Freedom's Just Another Word for Blowing up Buddhas and Killing People :

AP reports that the Taliban wild man in charge of blowing up two giant, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha in 2001 has been duly elected to parliament, where he will add his wise voice to the guidance of policy in the regime of warlords, druglords and virulent extremists installed by Bush.
http://snipurl.com/ir81

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2002074_pf.html

Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated
U.S. Military Acts to Control Muslim Backlash After Incident in Afghanistan

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; A16

The senior U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, flew to the southern city of Kandahar yesterday to confer with officers about the alleged burning of two Taliban fighters by U.S. soldiers in the area as the Bush administration moved to try to limit the damage from the reported incident.

Fearing a Muslim backlash against television images of the apparent desecration, the State Department sent U.S. embassies instructions "to engage on this issue" and to stress that the pictures do not reflect U.S. values or the actions of "the vast majority" of the U.S. military, said spokesman Sean McCormack.

Specialists in U.S.-Muslim relations warned that the alleged incident could deepen hostility against the United States and further damage an American image already tarnished by scandals over mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.

The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains.

Military officials identified the soldiers involved in the burning as members of the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The brigade has been in Afghanistan since March and has seen considerable combat in southern Afghanistan, where resistance from Taliban fighters remains significant.

The psychological operations specialists were identified as reservists from an Arkansas unit attached to the brigade.

Army Lt. Col. Jim Yonts, U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said he knew of no previous problems involving either the infantry soldiers or psychological operations troops, all of whom are now under criminal investigation.Cremation is shunned by Islamic custom, which calls for even the sinful to receive a proper burial. Several U.S. officers with experience in Afghanistan said normal U.S. military procedures involve either burying dead enemy fighters or handing bodies over to local representatives.

U.S. troops have blown up bodies as an act of self-defense, after discovering explosives on them, one officer said. At times, too, U.S. forces have laid ambushes near enemy dead to entrap others who return to collect the bodies, the officer said.

The alleged body burning near the village of Gonbaz would go well beyond these precedents. "It would be a violation of both military law and the Geneva Conventions, which list mistreatment of the dead as a war crime," said John Sifton, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in New York.

According to the account broadcast by the program "Dateline" on Australia's SBS network, the U.S. airborne unit was ambushed the day before the burning. A battle left one American and one Afghan soldier dead, along with the two Taliban fighters. "Dateline" showed the U.S. soldiers searching Gonbaz for anyone associated with the militants and indicating frustration at the lack of cooperation from residents.

Stephen Dupont, the Australian journalist who took the video, said the airborne troops who burned the bodies indicated they had been ordered to do so purely to dispose of them.

"They said to me, 'We've been told to burn the bodies because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they're starting to stink,' " Dupont said in an interview on the network's Web site. "So for hygiene purposes, this is what we've got to do."

It was later, he said, that the psychological operations team decided to use the event for propaganda purposes. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban, so the Taliban could attack them," he said.

Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.


© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051020/wl_as...nistanattacksus

US worried by impact of Taliban body burning in Afghanistan
Thu Oct 20, 6:40 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States expressed concern about film of US soldiers burning the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants which comes as a new blow to the image of the US military.

"From our point of view, these are very serious allegations, and if true, very troublesome," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, commenting on the alleged desecration of the bodies reported by Australian television.

He said that an investigation would be held "and if there is, in fact, wrongdoing that was found, then those who are responsible for that wrongdoing will be held to account."

News of the burning of the Taliban fighters in violation of Islamic tradition came as the United States struggled to overcome its tarnished reputation after the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay 'war on terror' camp in Cuba.

The New York Times and Washington Post said senior US officials were worried about the impact of the new video on the US image in the Muslim world.

Islamic tradition requires the bodies of Muslims to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried, if possible, within a day.

Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead "should be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged."

"The Department of Defense has said that it is the policy of the United States to treat all remains consistent with the Geneva Convention and with the utmost respect," McCormack said.

"Our military personnel receive clear instructions to this effect," he said.

In an apparent bid to contain any flareup of anti-American feelings, the State Department had told US embassies to convey the message that the alleged actions of a few US soldiers did not represent American values.

"We have gone out to our embassies around the world with instructions to engage on this issue to make clear that, again, what people might see in this videotape are not at all reflective of the actions of the vast majority of our US military as well as they are not reflective of our values," McCormack said.

The US military in Afghanistan had launched a criminal investigation and would take "corrective action" should it prove to be true, Major General Jason Kamiya said in a statement.

"This command does not condone the mistreatment of enemy combatants or the desecration of their religious and cultural beliefs," he said.

The Afghanistan government has ordered an independent inquiry.

The US soldiers said they burned the bodies for health reasons after they had been left out in the open for more than 24 hours, according to Australian SBS's Dateline program.

But the report said the US troops used the burning of the corpses of the Taliban fighters, who had died during an ambush of a US patrol in southern Afghanistan, to broadcast inflammatory messages as a taunt to flush out other militants.

"Attention Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs," one message reportedly said.

"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."

The Australian photojournalist who took the footage, Stephen Dupont, told SBS the troops apparently wanted to enrage the Taliban so that they would attack.

A US-led coalition of about 20,000 troops has been in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 and has been battling loyalists who have vowed to overthrow the new Afghan government.

The Taliban were removed from power in a US-led campaign after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States organised by Al-Qaeda from bases in Afghanistan.

Rights groups have heavily criticised the US military for abusing Afghanistan detainees, at least eight of whom have died in custody.

Two US soldiers were this year sentenced to up to three months in jail for the abuse.

In May, 15 people died in Afghanistan in widespread protests after Newsweek magazine reported accusations that the Koran holy book had been thrown into a toilet by a US guard at Guantanamo.

Though Newsweek later retracted the article, the US authorities later said that there had been five incidents at the camp, including one where a guard had "accidentally" urinated on a Koran.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2...tent_486788.htm


Afghans outraged over alleged desecration
(Afghanistan)
Updated: 2005-10-21 08:59


Islamic clerics expressed outrage Thursday at television footage that purportedly shows U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters to taunt other militants and warned of a possible violent anti-American backlash.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the alleged desecration and ordered an inquiry. The operational commander of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, which launched its own criminal probe, said the alleged act, if true, was "repugnant."

Worried about the potential for anti-American feelings over the incident, the State Department said it instructed U.S. embassies around the globe to tell local governments that the reported abuse did not reflect American values.

Cremating bodies is banned under Islam, and one Muslim leader in Afghanistan compared the video to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

"Abu Ghraib ruined the reputation of the Americans in Iraq and to me this is even worse," said Faiz Mohammed, a top cleric in northern Kunduz province. "This is against Islam. Afghans will be shocked by this news. It is so humiliating. There will be very, very dangerous consequences from this."


A US soldier watches the sunset over the desert in Afghanistan while on patrol. The United States expressed concern about film of US soldiers burning the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants which comes as a new blow to the image of the US military.[AFP/file]
Anger also was evident in the streets.

"If they continue to carry out such actions against us, our people will change their policy and react with the same policy against them," said Mehrajuddin, a resident of Kabul, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Another man in the capital, Zahidullah, said the reported abuse was like atrocities committed by Soviet troops, who were driven out of Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade of occupation. He warned that the same could happen to American forces.

"Their future will be like the Russians," Zahidullah said.

In Washington, the U.S. government also condemned the alleged incident.

The allegation was "very serious" and "very troubling," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. His comment came after the department said U.S. embassies had been told to inform foreigners that abuse of remains "is not reflective of our values."

The move suggested U.S. worries about an anti-American uproar like Afghan riots in May that erupted after Newsweek said U.S. soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility desecrated Islam's holy book, the Quran. Newsweek later retracted the story.

The alleged body burning comes as the U.S. military is struggling to bolster its image in Afghanistan amid charges by Karzai of heavy-handed tactics in fighting the Taliban.

Australia's SBS television network broadcast the video purportedly showing soldiers burning the bodies of two suspected Taliban fighters in hills outside Gonbaz village in the southern Shah Wali Kot district — an area plagued by Taliban activity and considered by the local security forces as too dangerous to venture into unless accompanied by U.S. troops.

The network said the video was taken by a freelance journalist, Stephen Dupont. Dupont, who told The Associated Press that he was embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, said the burnings happened Oct. 1.

He told SBS that soldiers in a U.S. Army psychological operations unit later broadcast taunting messages targeting the village, which was believed to be harboring Taliban fighters.

"They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them. ... That's the only way they can find them," Dupont said.

The video did not show those messages being broadcast, although it showed some military vehicles fitted with speakers and playing loud music.

According to a transcript released by SBS, the messages called the Taliban "cowardly dogs."

"You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies," said one message, according to the transcript.

Dupont told the AP the messages were broadcast in the local dialect but were translated into English for him by members of the Army unit. He declined to provide further information.

The U.S. military said the Army Criminal Investigation Command was looking into the matter.

"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values," Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said from the U.S. base at Bagram. "This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation."

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Sgt. Marina Evans, said investigators would check whether the purported act violated the Geneva Convention, which says the dead must be "honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged."

The Afghan Defense Ministry launched its own investigation, Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said.

"We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," he told the AP.

Alleged Desecration of Bodies Investigated

By Bradley Graham

The senior U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, flew to the southern city of Kandahar yesterday to confer with officers about the alleged burning of two Taliban fighters by U.S. soldiers in the area as the Bush administration moved to try to limit the damage from the reported incident.

Fearing a Muslim backlash against television images of the apparent desecration, the State Department sent U.S. embassies instructions "to engage on this issue" and to stress that the pictures do not reflect U.S. values or the actions of "the vast majority" of the U.S. military, said spokesman Sean McCormack.

Specialists in U.S.-Muslim relations warned that the alleged incident could deepen hostility against the United States and further damage an American image already tarnished by scandals over mistreatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.

The latest scandal surfaced Wednesday when an Australian television network aired video showing members of a U.S. airborne unit purportedly setting fire to the Taliban bodies, followed by other soldiers, identified as specialists in psychological operations, using the event to taunt other enemy fighters and draw them out of nearby hills to retrieve the remains.

Military officials identified the soldiers involved in the burning as members of the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The brigade has been in Afghanistan since March and has seen considerable combat in southern Afghanistan, where resistance from Taliban fighters remains significant.

The psychological operations specialists were identified as reservists from an Arkansas unit attached to the brigade.

Army Lt. Col. Jim Yonts, U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said he knew of no previous problems involving either the infantry soldiers or psychological operations troops, all of whom are now under criminal investigation.Cremation is shunned by Islamic custom, which calls for even the sinful to receive a proper burial. Several U.S. officers with experience in Afghanistan said normal U.S. military procedures involve either burying dead enemy fighters or handing bodies over to local representatives.

U.S. troops have blown up bodies as an act of self-defense, after discovering explosives on them, one officer said. At times, too, U.S. forces have laid ambushes near enemy dead to entrap others who return to collect the bodies, the officer said.

The alleged body burning near the village of Gonbaz would go well beyond these precedents. "It would be a violation of both military law and the Geneva Conventions, which list mistreatment of the dead as a war crime," said John Sifton, a researcher with Human Rights Watch in New York.

According to the account broadcast by the program "Dateline" on Australia's SBS network, the U.S. airborne unit was ambushed the day before the burning. A battle left one American and one Afghan soldier dead, along with the two Taliban fighters. "Dateline" showed the U.S. soldiers searching Gonbaz for anyone associated with the militants and indicating frustration at the lack of cooperation from residents.

Stephen Dupont, the Australian journalist who took the video, said the airborne troops who burned the bodies indicated they had been ordered to do so purely to dispose of them.

"They said to me, 'We've been told to burn the bodies because the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they're starting to stink,' " Dupont said in an interview on the network's Web site. "So for hygiene purposes, this is what we've got to do."

It was later, he said, that the psychological operations team decided to use the event for propaganda purposes. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban, so the Taliban could attack them," he said.

Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.




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Botched Ambush Leaves Six Afghans Dead

By AMIR SHAH

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Militants opened fire on a police vehicle near the capital early Tuesday, killing two senior police officers who were teachers at a police academy, officials said.

The violence followed a botched ambush of a U.S.-led coalition convoy south of the city late Monday that left six Afghan civilians dead, including a child, said Khan Mohammed, the police chief in Logar province. Three civilians were wounded.

Security forces also uncovered a cache of bombs in Kabul that militants were suspected of plotting to use against international peacekeepers.

It was not immediately clear whether the two attacks were coordinated, but they underscored the security threat facing the tightly guarded capital, home to thousands of foreign aid workers and diplomats, among others.

Tuesday's assault came just before dawn as militants attacked police 30 miles east of Kabul, near a key trade route linking the capital with the eastern Pakistani border, said Ghafor Khan, a police spokesman in the eastern town of Jalalabad.

Khan said investigators suspect the victims were targeted because they "are teaching new police recruits and are crucial to bringing peace to our country."

The fledgling police force has been hit hard in recent months in a string of ambushes that have left dozens of officers dead.

Hours earlier, rebels fired rockets at a U.S.-led coalition convoy 10 miles south of Kabul. The rockets missed their target and instead hit three civilian cars that were traveling close behind the five military Humvee vehicles, Mohammed said.

Extra security forces rushed to the area and surrounded a run-down fort where the assailants were thought to be hiding, he said.

A coalition spokeswoman, Lt. Carmen Nicely, confirmed the ambush and said it started with a roadside bomb explosion. She said no soldiers were hurt. They fled the area and returned later with reinforcements.

The bombs discovered in Kabul were found in a junkyard of old military vehicles in the northern part of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanekzai.

The explosives were made from old anti-personnel mines, and rebels were "suspected to be planning to use them against ISAF," he said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which guards the capital.

Militants fired rockets at the northern city of Fayzabad during the past two nights, wounding a local U.N. staff member and damaging a compound belonging to the government's intelligence agency, police chief Fazil Ahmad Nazari said.

Taliban-led rebels have stepped up violence in the past half-year and killed more than 1,400 people. The bloodshed has left many southern and eastern regions off limits to aid workers and raised fears for the country's fragile democracy.


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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GJ27Ag01.html

Facing the music in the US
By Ron Synovitz

Law enforcement officials in New York say 47-year-old Afghan Haji Baz Mohammad is a Taliban-linked drug lord who tried to wage war against America by selling millions of dollars of heroin there.

A conspiracy indictment unsealed at a US federal court in New York this week accuses Baz Mohammad of smuggling more than $25 million worth of heroin into the US and elsewhere since 1990.

Baz Mohammad was arrested in Afghanistan in January by Afghan authorities. His transfer from an Afghan jail to New York on October 21 marks the first time an alleged drug lord has been extradited from Afghanistan to the US.

"Baz Mohammad is well known to American law enforcement. On June 1 of this year, President [George W ] Bush identified Baz



Mohammad as one of the world's most-wanted drug kingpins," said prosecutor Michael Garcia, the US attorney for the New York district handling the case.

The indictment alleges that Baz Mohammad controlled opium fields in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar - the country's second-largest opium-producing region. The indictment also accuses him of using laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to convert raw opium into heroin before smuggling it into the US inside suitcases and in clothing.

US Drug Enforcement Agency administrator Karen Tandy said investigators believe Baz Mohammad's organization provided financial support to the Taliban and "related Islamist-extremist organizations in Afghanistan" in exchange for protection. "Haji Baz Mohammad's organization was closely aligned with the Taliban," she said. "His opium trade financed the Taliban. And in turn, the Taliban protected Haji Baz Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs, his drug transportation routes, and his associates."

Garcia cited an incident that appears to illustrate that Baz Mohammad may have extremist tendencies. The incident allegedly occurred in or around 1990, when Baz Mohammad was meeting with members of his organization at what was then his residence in Karachi, Pakistan.

"Baz Mohammad even went so far as to tell associates in Pakistan that selling heroin in the US was a jihad, because they took the Americans' money and at the same time, the heroin they sold was killing them," Garcia said.

New York District Attorney Garcia said, however, there was no evidence of any direct connection between the alleged drug lord and al-Qaeda. "Clearly, when you have a group like the Taliban who's accepting this funding from Baz Mohammad, you have the potential that that's being used in operations against the United States - although there's no specific evidence of that as charged in this indictment," he said. "What we do have evidence of, as charged, is money from this operation going to the Taliban and other groups. And that clearly presents a national security risk for this country."

At his arraignment in a US federal court in Manhattan, Baz Mohammad told the judge through a translator that he was innocent. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to violate US narcotics laws. But he made no application for bail and was detained until another hearing scheduled for November 14.

Baz Mohammad also was given a court-appointed attorney after telling the judge he had no money in any bank accounts.

Thirteen members of Baz Mohammad's organization have been arrested since an investigation into its activities was launched in 2001. His extradition follows the arrest in New York last April of another alleged Taliban-linked drug trafficker, Bashir Nurzai.

Nurzai was indicted under a separate investigation. US authorities say he was a source of opium for Baz Mohammad.

Nurzai has said through his lawyer that he thinks his arrest was politically motivated and aimed at weakening the Taliban. The Taliban has denied any links with Nurzai.

Copyright © 2005, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036

US soldier killed in Taliban attack in E. Afghanistan Xinhua
A US soldier was killed Saturday when Afghan and US troops came under attack by militants in Afghan eastern province of Paktika, US military said.
Afghanistan: 21 killed in fighting Ireland Online
UK soldier killed in Afghanistan BBC News
Channel 4 News - Sydney Morning Herald (subscription) - San Jose Mercury News - Reuters.uk - all 132 related »

Small US units lure Taliban into losing battles
How the strategy works, and how it may have weakened the Taliban
movement's effectiveness as a military force - for now. By Scott Baldauf
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1031/p01s04-wosc.html?s=hns

Blast aimed at U.S. convoy kills one Afghan, hurts 5:

A blast aimed at a convoy of U.S. troops killed an Afghan civilian and wounded five others on Monday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a government spokesman said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL303522.htm

Mullah Omar purportedly issues statement as five police killed:

Taleban leader Mullah Omar purportedly issued a statement on Wednesday urging the rebels to unite and warning of an increase in insurgent attacks, while militants killed five police in a mountain ambush in southern Afghanistan.
http://tinyurl.com/dqg7j

Taliban attack on oil tanker kills four US soldiers:

At least four US soldiers were killed when Taliban targeted an oil tanker in the eastern part of the capital city on Wednesday, said Taliban spokesman.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Lan...=en&DSNO=783947

Washington Paratrooper Dies After Afghan Firefight:

A 24-year-old paratrooper from St. John, Wash., died from injuries he received when his patrol was fired on in Afghanistan, the 82nd Airborne Division said Wednesday.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/5231890/detail.html

Top al Qaeda operative escapes before testimony in Afghan prisoner abuse case :

A Pentagon official confirmed Tuesday that Omar al-Farouq, formerly one of Osama bin Laden's top aides until his capture in 2002, escaped from a US-run detention facility in Afghanistan in July with three other prisoners.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005...apes-before.php

Amnesty concerned by new claims against US soldiers in Afghanistan:

New claims of abuses by US soldiers in Afghanistan are more evidence of rights violations in the "war on terror", with a pattern of impunity for such infractions, Amnesty International said.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=5254

Dragon Eye Protects Troops, Improves Recon
http://www.spacewar.com/news/uav-05zzzzzn.html

Jalalabad, Afghanistan (SPX) Nov 07, 2005 - U. S. Marines and sailors from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, use the Dragon Eye to minimize friendly casualties and maximize surveillance during missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The Dragon Eye is the smallest functioning unmanned aerial vehicle.

7 Police Killed in New Afghan Violence:

Rebels killed seven police officers and abducted two after ambushing them on a road in southern Afghanistan, while two villagers were abducted and beheaded, officials said Thursday.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1298565

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article327097.ece

Afghanistan: The war with no end
By Justin Huggler Asia Correspondent
Published: 15 November 2005
British troops have come under attack in Kabul and Nato forces were targeted in two co-ordinated suicide car bombings in which at least four people died.

The attacks took place as ministers revealed that units are preparing to extend Britain's role in Afghanistan when it takes command of the international peacekeeping operation next year.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, told Parliament that Britain faced a "prolonged" involvement in the country. But MPs warned last night that British troops faced being mired in a long-term military commitment to a country in the grip of a growing insurgency.

They insisted yesterday's extension of Britain's role in Afghanistan, four years after troops first arrived, also reflected the size of the task facing coalition forces in Iraq.

Fears for Afghanistan's future emerged in the wake of suggestions, by the British and Iraqi governments, that British troops could begin pulling out of Iraq by the end of next year. For British troops, however, yesterday's violence in Kabul was a taste of what they will face next year when they deploy to the turbulent province of Helmand as part of a move by Nato to take over security in the Taliban heartlands.

At least four people were killed in the attacks, including one German soldier and an Afghan child, but the implications of the attacks were far wider. The insurgency that has been worsening while the world's attention has been focused on Iraq has now reached Kabul.

Mr Reid said British troops had to open fire to defend their camp in Kabul against "unauthorised entry". Few further details emerged, but Mr Reid said British troops were not targeted in the car bombings.

A German soldier died when the Nato vehicle he was travelling in was rammed by a Toyota Corolla stuffed with explosives just after 3pm local time. Two German soldiers and three Afghan civilians were wounded.

An hour later, another Nato vehicle was rammed in a near-identical attack on the same road. Three Afghan civilians were killed, including a young boy, and two Greek soldiers were wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"We have plans for more of the same," Mullah Dadullah, a top-ranking Taliban commander, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

The insurgency in Afghanistan has been largely confined to the Pashtun area in the south and east. Until now, British troops have operated in Kabul and the north, where international forces have been largely welcomed by Afghans who suffered persecution under Taliban rule.

But in the south there is widespread support for the insurgency and opposition to any Western presence in Afghanistan. Helmand in particular is notorious even among Afghans for the ferocity of its tribesmen. British troops are moving into the province under a plan for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to take over security in the area. And it was no coincidence that yesterday's attacks specifically targeted Isaf troops in Kabul.

The message from the Taliban was clear: this is what is waiting for Isaf in the south. But the message was also that the Taliban can now strike in Kabul, which until now has been an oasis of stability largely unaffected by the insurgency.

Kabul is home to 3,000 foreigners, most working for NGOs, who live in an city that often seems utterly disconnected from the rest of the country. Replete with bars and expensive restaurants that sell alcohol to foreigners, but not Afghans, Kabul even boasts two designer boutiques for women's clothes. Yesterday another Afghanistan came crashing up against that world. Both car bombings came on the Jalalabad Road, which has long been the scene of the most serious attacks in Kabul.

There was a suicide bombing on that road in September, and there have been countless improvised bombs hidden along it - partly it is because there are several Western and Afghan military bases, and the UN's headquarters, on it. The road runs through a Pashtun suburb of Kabul where the Pashtun Taliban can operate freely. The fact that so senior a commander has claimed responsibility for the attacks is a sure sign the Taliban are stepping up their actions. Known as Dadullah-I-Leng, or Dadullah the Lame, he is known for his part in massacres of Hazara Shias, which have been described as attempted genocide.

One of the main failures of the Taliban's insurgency has been its inability to attract support among other ethnic communities.

British troops have come under attack in Kabul and Nato forces were targeted in two co-ordinated suicide car bombings in which at least four people died.

The attacks took place as ministers revealed that units are preparing to extend Britain's role in Afghanistan when it takes command of the international peacekeeping operation next year.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, told Parliament that Britain faced a "prolonged" involvement in the country. But MPs warned last night that British troops faced being mired in a long-term military commitment to a country in the grip of a growing insurgency.

They insisted yesterday's extension of Britain's role in Afghanistan, four years after troops first arrived, also reflected the size of the task facing coalition forces in Iraq.

Fears for Afghanistan's future emerged in the wake of suggestions, by the British and Iraqi governments, that British troops could begin pulling out of Iraq by the end of next year. For British troops, however, yesterday's violence in Kabul was a taste of what they will face next year when they deploy to the turbulent province of Helmand as part of a move by Nato to take over security in the Taliban heartlands.

At least four people were killed in the attacks, including one German soldier and an Afghan child, but the implications of the attacks were far wider. The insurgency that has been worsening while the world's attention has been focused on Iraq has now reached Kabul.

Mr Reid said British troops had to open fire to defend their camp in Kabul against "unauthorised entry". Few further details emerged, but Mr Reid said British troops were not targeted in the car bombings.

A German soldier died when the Nato vehicle he was travelling in was rammed by a Toyota Corolla stuffed with explosives just after 3pm local time. Two German soldiers and three Afghan civilians were wounded.

An hour later, another Nato vehicle was rammed in a near-identical attack on the same road. Three Afghan civilians were killed, including a young boy, and two Greek soldiers were wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"We have plans for more of the same," Mullah Dadullah, a top-ranking Taliban commander, said by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
The insurgency in Afghanistan has been largely confined to the Pashtun area in the south and east. Until now, British troops have operated in Kabul and the north, where international forces have been largely welcomed by Afghans who suffered persecution under Taliban rule.

But in the south there is widespread support for the insurgency and opposition to any Western presence in Afghanistan. Helmand in particular is notorious even among Afghans for the ferocity of its tribesmen. British troops are moving into the province under a plan for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to take over security in the area. And it was no coincidence that yesterday's attacks specifically targeted Isaf troops in Kabul.

The message from the Taliban was clear: this is what is waiting for Isaf in the south. But the message was also that the Taliban can now strike in Kabul, which until now has been an oasis of stability largely unaffected by the insurgency.

Kabul is home to 3,000 foreigners, most working for NGOs, who live in an city that often seems utterly disconnected from the rest of the country. Replete with bars and expensive restaurants that sell alcohol to foreigners, but not Afghans, Kabul even boasts two designer boutiques for women's clothes. Yesterday another Afghanistan came crashing up against that world. Both car bombings came on the Jalalabad Road, which has long been the scene of the most serious attacks in Kabul.

There was a suicide bombing on that road in September, and there have been countless improvised bombs hidden along it - partly it is because there are several Western and Afghan military bases, and the UN's headquarters, on it. The road runs through a Pashtun suburb of Kabul where the Pashtun Taliban can operate freely. The fact that so senior a commander has claimed responsibility for the attacks is a sure sign the Taliban are stepping up their actions. Known as Dadullah-I-Leng, or Dadullah the Lame, he is known for his part in massacres of Hazara Shias, which have been described as attempted genocide.

One of the main failures of the Taliban's insurgency has been its inability to attract support among other ethnic communities.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GK16Ag01.html
Afghan drug problem solved, praise the laudanum
By Ramtanu Maitra

Reports indicate the West is now working toward a "solution" to the opium explosion in Afghanistan, namely the licensing of legal opium production for medical purposes.

The formal proposal was floated in September by the Senlis Council, a French think tank on narcotics. The council's study was conducted in partnership with Kabul University as well as academic centers in Europe and North America, such as Ghent University, Lisbon University and the University of Toronto.

The proposal comes in the wake of a general admission by Washington, its adjunct in Kabul and the United Nations that eradication of drugs in Afghanistan cannot be accomplished by the warriors against terror.

Touching a sensitive chord, however, Afghanistan's Counter-



Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi questioned the timing of the Senlis report. "We don't want to confuse the Afghan people, because while the government on the one hand wants to control and stop cultivation, we are talking about licensing."

What Qaderi did not say was that the West, being unable to eradicate opium, is moving to repackage Afghanistan's uncontrollable scourge as a legalized and regulated industry, to be included along with elections among the "democratic successes" in that benighted land.

Scale of the problem
The massive annual growth in opium production coincided with the "liberation" of Afghanistan from the Taliban by US occupation forces in the winter of 2001. Having registered unprecedented growth in 2002, 2003 and 2004, the 2005 harvest showed a slight reduction. But if the numbers made public are correct, the reduction will not affect the drug users of Europe significantly.

In its Afghanistan Opium Survey 2005, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the area of opium cultivation in the country decreased by 21% from a record high of 131,000 hectares to 104,000 hectares. In other words, one out of five opium fields cultivated in 2004 was not replanted in 2005. This decline in cultivation was attributed to several factors: the farmers' choice to refrain from poppy cultivation, the government's eradication program, the ban on opium and law enforcement activities.

But according to UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, despite the overall decline in cultivation, Afghanistan remains far and away the world's largest supplier of opium (87%). According to the UN survey, opium production in Afghanistan in 2005, by comparison with the production figures in 2004, dropped by only 2.4%. Favorable weather conditions resulted in a 22% higher yield. Cultivation also increased in some provinces. In 2005, the drug economy accounted for 52% of the country's gross domestic product.

If you can't beat it ...
At least a year before the Senlis Council stuck its neck out on behalf of the United States and NATO, hand-wringing in Washington over the West's inability to curb opium production in Afghanistan had begun in earnest.

After the record production of more than 4,200 tons of opium in 2004, not only officials serving the Bush administration - the Pentagon, in particular - but also behind-the-scenes policy directors lodged in various think tanks, began putting forward arguments against taking on the drug warlords.

For example, Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute (a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington) and a former special assistant to Ronald Reagan, writing soon after the presidential elections in Afghanistan last fall, acknowledged that "controlling opium trafficking has not been the top US priority in Afghanistan".

Therefore, the opium explosion in Afghanistan during the US occupation should not be considered a US failure. Although the Defense Department is careful to appear to be cooperative, Bandow points out, US forces have largely ignored drug trafficking unrelated to enemy action. "Attempting to suppress the drug trade with more than rhetoric will make it even harder to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda," he said. "Yet Washington's most important goal today remains destroying transnational anti-US terrorist networks, led by al-Qaeda."

Soon after the Senlis Council came out with its study, a view similar to Bandow's was expressed by another Cato Institute academic and vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, Ted Galen Carpenter. In a recent article he argues that the US military must not become an enemy of Afghan farmers whose livelihood depends on growing opium poppy.

"If zealous American drug warriors alienate hundreds of thousands of Afghan farmers, the Karzai government's hold on power, which is none too secure now, could become even more precarious," he wrote. "Washington would then face the unpalatable choice of letting radical Islamists regain power or sending more US troops to suppress the insurgency."

Throwing an economic spin into his argument, Carpenter pointed out that for many Afghans involvement in the cultivation of opium poppy crops and other aspects of drug commerce is "the difference between modest prosperity and destitution. They will not look kindly on efforts to destroy their livelihood."

According to Carpenter, US efforts to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crop actually amount to beating plowshares into swords: such efforts drive Afghan farmers, who have so far helped in the "war against terror", straight into the arms and camps of anti-American terrorists.

Naivety or avoidance?
If Bandow and Carpenter could be considered apologists for burgeoning opium production in Afghanistan under the US and NATO's close watch, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statements prior to her October 2005 visit to Kabul demonstrated that, indeed, Washington has nary a thought about the opium explosion in Afghanistan.

In her news conference en route to Kabul from Kyrgyzstan, Rice heaped praise on the US "success" in Afghanistan and congratulated the Karzai administration for bringing about "remarkable progress".

On the narcotics issue, however, all she could come up with was the following: "I'm going to have a meeting with the members of the cabinet who are responsible for the narcotics problem and to discuss with them how we might accelerate those efforts. We and the British - the British, of course, have the lead on this - [want] to help the Afghans to root out narcotics. If they can do that then I think they really have made a major step forward in stabilization - they will have made a major step forward in stabilization."

Several hard realities raise questions about Rice's words. To begin with, Rice was fully aware that the US Department of Defense had made it clear that they would not antagonize the warlords and thus forsake their friendly alliance by going after opium cultivation.

Secondly, Rice is fully aware of the lack of strength of the Hamid Karzai presidency. It has been observed again and again that the writ of the US-backed Karzai does not extend beyond Kabul. It is ridiculous to try to make others believe that a president, who has to depend for his personal security on a foreign country - the occupying forces, really - would be able to go on a campaign to eradicate opium, battling hundreds of powerful warlords and about 30% of all Afghan families.

Finally, opium is not domestic garbage. Unfortunately, it is valuable, indeed, almost as expensive as gold, if not more so in some countries of the West. Those who bring it into western Europe, and carry it further west, generate enough money to corrupt not only the security infrastructure but the entire political economy of Europe. To suggest that a weak president, without any real help from US and NATO forces, will be able to eradicate opium in Afghanistan is simply a cruel joke.

Moreover, while Carpenter concludes that terrorist and other anti-government forces are hand in glove with the opium growers and traffickers, and that the connection between drug trafficking and terrorism is a direct result of making drugs illegal and, therefore, extremely profitable, Rice chose to remain mum. During her talks with reporters, she did not bring up the close nexus between drugs and terrorism.

And along comes the Senlis Council
As Washington and London came to the conclusion that opium eradication in Afghanistan is neither useful nor of immediate importance, the Senlis Council conveniently trotted out its proposal and supporting study.

Prior to the feasibility study, funded by a dozen European social policy foundations, the council held a series of seminars to hone its arguments. Because the Blair government in the UK has been the loudest voice heard on eradication of opium poppy in Afghanistan, the council held one seminar, "The Opium Policy Challenge in Afghanistan: Current Responses and New Strategies," at the British House of Commons on July 20.

The seminar brought together British policymakers and senior officials responsible for UK reconstruction policies in Afghanistan, with representatives from United Kingdom-based policy centers and organizations, and academics engaged in research work on Afghanistan, according to news reports. At the seminar, Senlis Council Executive Director Emmanuel Reinert presented the "Feasibility Study on Opium Licensing in Afghanistan for the Production of Morphine and other Essential Medicines", ostensibly a ground-breaking project to consider the licensing of opium production in Afghanistan for medical uses.

In his opening remarks, Chris Mullin, a British MP who is chairman of the council, made clear Afghanistan's reconstruction has been threatened by the failure of current counter-narcotics policies and that there exists no simple solution to the drugs problem. Mullins told the audience to take a good look at the study.

In response to questions raised, Reinert explained the benefits the Afghan farmers would gain within the proposed legal and controllable framework. He also explained the importance of non-governmental organization involvement in achieving a successful and viable intervention, especially with regard to economic development, farming and health treatment.

Though Western countries have begun pushing the Senlis Council's concept as a viable proposition, it was greeted with opposition by Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi stated plainly that the country's security system was still too weak to police the legal production of opium.

"Without an effective control mechanism, a lot of opium will still be refined into heroin for illicit markets in the West and elsewhere. We could not accept this," Qaderi said in a statement.

UNODC, careful not to antagonize the Western countries, said the proposal would offer little attraction to opium farmers because they would earn less selling their crop on the legal market than on the black market.

The fallacy
To sell the concept, Reinert points out that the plan is modeled on programs in India and Turkey, which have helped reduce illegal opium production through a strictly supervised licensing scheme backed by the US Congress. In addition, legal opium production programs are already in place in several other countries, including Australia, France and Japan. With India and Turkey these nations provide the bulk of the world's legal opium for medicine, notably morphine and codeine.

The salesman in Reinert allowed him to suppress the obvious. Neither in India nor Turkey, nor any of the other countries that produce legal opium, does opium make up 52% of the gross domestic product. None of these countries has ever produced 87% of world's opium annually. The fact of the matter is that apart from Turkey, which did have a problem concerning illegal production of opium poppy, no other country mentioned has had any opium-related problems. And none were ever under the control of drug warlords.

The fact of the matter is that the political system that has evolved in Afghanistan following the US invasion is extremely fragile, and verges on being a joke. What really has been strengthened in Afghanistan since 2001 is opium production. Afghanistan now has "pro-democracy" drug warlords who raise illegal opium by the hundreds of tons every year. But pro-democracy sentiments notwithstanding, they have so far remained illegitimate in the eyes of the world.

Now, along comes the Senlis Council to give legitimacy to what is otherwise a political embarrassment. In their study, the council recommends the government fast-track the establishment of a national authority to license opium producers and research an amnesty that would "integrate illegal actors into the opium licensing system".

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing .)

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view....20-060938-7734r

Talabani looks to Iran, not to Arabs
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is taking two trips within a single week. In the first, this weekend, he flew west to Cairo, and said a lot less than he appeared to; in the second, starting Monday, he is flying east to Tehran and will almost certainly say a lot less than he will do.

Over the weekend, Talabani was in Cairo attending the heavily-advertised Arab League conference on national reconciliation in Iraq. Moderate Sunni Muslim nations traditionally close to the United States like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are alarmed by both the extreme Sunni Islamist insurgency and the relentless rise of Iranian influence among Iraqi's Shiite majority. They want to see the civil war there ended or defused as quickly as possible.

But while the Kurdish Talabani paid lip service Sunday to opening a new political dialogue with the Sunni insurgents, in practice he continued to rule it out.

"I am committed to listen to them, even those who are criminals and on trial," Talabani told a news conference. But then he added, "But of course that does not mean I will accept what they say."

Talabani tried to strike a note of national reconciliation and inclusiveness at the conference, telling it he was "responsible for all Iraqis" and wanted to "listen... even to criminals"

But on the other hand, he seemed to make this offer a dead letter by ruling out any political participation or real power for either former loyalists of ousted president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party or for the Islamist extremists spearheaded by al-Qaida and its Iraqi operational commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He ruled out explicitly any role for them in Iraq's still nascent political democracy.

In following this course of action, Talabani was being consistent to his own Kurdish nationalist background and to the distrust that Iraq's 60 percent majority Shiite Muslims as well as its 15 percent of Kurds in the north have towards the long dominant Sunni minority in central Iraq that has dominated the country's politics and army for the past 85 years since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the region in 1918.

And sure enough, Talabani is following his visit to Cairo by flying east to the Iranian capital Tehran to start a three day visit Monday, the Iranian Fars news agency reported Sunday.

His visit follows remarkably warm and cordial mutual visits by senior Iranian and Iraqi Shiite national leaders to their respective capitals since July.

For while U.S. influence and prestige in Iraq has remorselessly declined, given the continued inability of the woefully under-strength U.S. forces to contain the Sunni insurgency and protect Iraq's Shiites from its wrath, Iran's influence in the neighboring country has quietly and steadily risen at the same time.

British military intelligence assessments now rate Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand, fiercely anti-American charismatic young leader of the Mahdi Army, as the most influential political figure in all of oil rich southern Iraq. The British assessments are that paramilitary gangs and organizations whose only allegiance, if any is to Iran now weld far more power in the south of the county where the Shiite majority lives than the Iraqi government in Baghdad does.

For that reason as well, Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari are paying ever more respectful attention to every signal that comes out of Tehran, even though new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making statements at least as extreme, and even more unpredictable than any ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did in his prime. And Ahmadinejad has vastly more military manpower and resources -- including even the real possibility of several nuclear warheads in the future -- than Saddam ever able to grab.

By contrast, Talabani leads an Iraqi government in crisis. With the December elections -- the first under the recently ratified constitution looming -- the Sunni 20 percent minority in the country is more alienated than ever and the Baathist loyalist-Islamist extremist insurgency within that community is running riot, apparently slaughtering Shiites at will.

The disastrously undermanned U.S. troops in Iraq, at around 150,000 in number, would need between three times to as much as four times the manpower they currently have there to break the back of the Sunni insurgency, U.S., Middle Eastern and many European military analysts privately say. These numbers are not plucked from the air: They are based on analyses of the trained military manpower that were needed to defeat or even stalemate major guerrilla insurgencies through the 20th century.

Also, the continued lack of military effectiveness of the much touted new Iraqi armed forces is now taking center stage in the U.S. political debate. A new article by James Fallows in the November issue of "The Atlantic" magazine paints a devastating picture of an Iraqi army and police force that remains ineffectual and in essentially defenseless against continued Sunni insurgent attacks. Far from taking the pressure off U.S. forces in Iraq and taking over the main burden of counter-insurgency operations from them, the Iraqi armed forces remain almost totally unable to carry out serious combat operations against serious opposition without U.S. protection and support.

Official military testimony given to the Senate Armed Services Committee at the end of September revealed that only a single battalions out of the 119 organized so far in the Iraqi army and security forces is capable of operating fully on their own.

It was not meant to be this way. When U.S. and Iraqi forces launched "Operation Lightning" in Baghdad in May, it was meant to break the back of insurgent operations in the Iraqi capital of five million people. More than 40,000 troops from the new Iraqi army were involved. President George W. Bush at the time publicly expressed confidence it would hammer the insurgency.

Instead, the operation did not even marginally dent insurgent capabilities. As documented in UPI's weekly Iraq Benchmarks column, apart from a few all too short lulls -- usually measured in days, none lasting longer than two weeks -- the number, frequency and casualties inflicted by multiple fatality bomb attacks -- as the large suicide car bombs are known -- in the capital has remorselessly risen since.

The worst month yet was September with 46 such attacks throughout Iraq, a nation only the size of California with half its population. October was almost as bad, 39 such bomb attacks. And November looks set to outstrip both.

Fallows' article in "The Atlantic" brings all these failures and weaknesses of the rapidly raised Iraqi armed forces to the fore in the political debate in Washington. He wrote that currently the insurgents are killing an average of around 10 Iraqi police and soldiers per day. In fact, according to official U.S. and Iraqi figures collated by the Iraq Index Project of the Brookings Institution, a centrist Washington think tank, the rate at which they were being killed in the first 16 days of this month was 5.5 per day. That is not nearly as bad as 10 per day: But it is still bad enough.

Also, not all serious American analysts share Fallows' pessimism about the Iraqi army. Respected military analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies believes that in fact much of the training and deploying of the new Iraqi forces is now going much better and there is still real possibility they could become an effective force on a significant scale next year.

However, even the major issue of how effective or ineffective the Iraqi army is going to be may pale compared to the importance of what Talabani did not say publicly in Cairo this weekend and what he might say privately in Tehran this week.





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Time to talk: US engages the Taliban
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Despite deposing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in quick time at the end of 2001, the United States has not been able to rid the country of the Islamic hardliners, who four years later lead an Afghan resistance that shows no signs of abating, let alone buckling.

US efforts to combat the Taliban include outright military action (there are 18,000 US troops in the country, in addition to 12,000 members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the International Security Assistance Force), and attempts to embrace "good" Taliban.

And now, most significantly, come efforts to deal directly with the real "problem" - Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the only person with the ability to influence decisions of import related to the Taliban



and their future activities in the country.

Reports emerged in the Pakistani media at the weekend that the US had contacted the Taliban leadership with the aim of establishing a truce in Afghanistan. The reported linkman is a Pakistani, Javed Ibrahim Paracha, but he has denied the story, saying he had never met any US officials, only US businessmen.

There is more to this story, though, according to information acquired by Asia Times Online.

In fact, the latest peace initiative was started a few months ago when the US realized, finally, that it simply was not making significant progress in stabilizing Afghanistan, despite the relatively successful conclusion of presidential and parliamentary elections.

To date this year, about 90 US troops have been killed in the country, compared with the 186 who have died since the 2001 campaign began. Resistance attacks have become more frequent as well as more sophisticated.

The momentum for finding a strategy that will allow for an honorable exit is becoming irresistible.

Enter Mansoor Ijaz, a US citizen of Pakistani origin with close ties to the right wing of the Republican Party. In London, with the help of British authorities, he began the peace process.

Mansoor's point man in Pakistan is Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official who was a close friend of Osama bin Laden. Khawaja's associates included Paracha, a former member of the provincial assembly in North West Frontier Province and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group). His claim to fame is his advocacy for the families of al-Qaeda operators detained by Pakistani authorities.

One of the inducements put on the table for the Taliban leadership was their inclusion in the government of President Hamid Karzai, but Mullah Omar rejected this, saying there could not be any form of a deal until all foreign forces were pulled out of Afghanistan. Thus there was no possibility of the Taliban laying down their weapons.

"Actually, the media have jeopardized the peace initiative when it is still in its initial stages, though part of the news is correct, that yes, there is a discourse between the Taliban and the US, but it is wrong that any US officials met Javed Ibrahim Paracha," Khalid Khawaja told Asia Times Online.

Asia Times Online sources in the Afghan resistance across the border from Pakistan confirm that there has been recent contact between Karzai and the Taliban leadership. This took place through a go-between. Karzai, according to the contacts, sought support for himself and agreed that any cooperation with the Taliban would hinge on one single point - the evacuation of foreign troops.

The contact was confirmed at a time the Afghan parliamentary results confirmed that members of the former Taliban regime and former mujahideen leaders had won seats in parliament with heavy mandates.

The general perception is that these new parliamentarians are split into small political groups, and will therefore not be able to make much of an impression.

However, most of the Taliban warlords who won in the elections are still in contact with the Taliban leadership, and so are the members of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-i-Islami, whose leadership sits quietly in Peshawar, Pakistan. Veteran warlord Hekmatyar is still active in the Afghan resistance.

Far from being splintered, these new parliamentarians are believed to be in a decisive position, and they are taking guidance from their Taliban or Hizb leaders.

For instance, once Mullah Omar received Karzai's communication agreeing that the withdrawal of foreign troops was the minimum starting point for any negotiations, Mullah Omar called a shora (council) and then sent messages to all former Taliban members in parliament to support Karzai.

Taliban unbowed
As the might of the US military descended on Kabul in late 2001, the Taliban simply retreated, apart from sporadic opposition. In that sense they were never defeated. It took them some time to regroup, but they have done that.

The reasons are rooted in Afghan society. From the very beginning, the Taliban movement was inextricably linked to tribal bonds, especially as the Taliban brand of Islam dovetails with Pakhtoon Wali (Afghan tribal values). Tribes are the ultimate social order in Afghanistan, and nobody will ever wash that away.

Washington never truly came to grips with this. They undertook decisions based on universal wisdom and common sense to isolate the Taliban, but failed to comprehend that this lonely planet called Afghanistan has its own dynamics. As a result, step after step to isolate the Taliban simply complicated the situation.

In mid-2003, the US agreed on a "good Taliban" policy (see Asia Times Online, US turns to the Taliban, Jun 14). Negotiations failed immediately as the Taliban refused to remove Mullah Omar as their head.

The US invested a lot of time and effort in cultivating groups, some of which cooperated, but invariably they drifted back to the Taliban camp.

For example, the Jamiat-i-Khudamul Furqan (or Koran) was a breakaway faction carved out in Peshawar by the ISI and US intelligence. Within a couple of years it secretly joined the Taliban again.

Similarly, the Jaishul Muslim was formed by the US in Peshawar to infiltrate the Taliban and stage a coup against Mullah Omar. Once they were effectively launched in Afghanistan with money and weapons, a segment of the group promptly pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar and is now fighting alongside the Taliban resistance.

Tribal bonds and allegiances run too deep. This is the reality, as obvious as the sand in the broad light of day in the desert. Anything hinting at a Taliban demise is a mirage.

The administrations in Washington and Kabul at last appear to have come to terms with this.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)

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Troops Who Burned Taliban Face Discipline By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 26, 6:55 PM ET



Four U.S. soldiers face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of two Taliban rebels — a videotaped incident that sparked outrage in Afghanistan — but they will not be prosecuted because their actions were motivated by hygienic concerns, the military said Saturday.

TV footage recorded Oct. 1 in a violent part of southern Afghanistan showed American soldiers setting fire to the bodies and then boasting about the act on loudspeakers to taunt insurgents suspected to be hiding in a nearby village.

Islam bans cremation, and the video images were compared to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Afghanistan's government condemned the desecration. Muslim clerics warned of a violent anti-American backlash, though there have been no protests so far.

American commanders immediately launched an inquiry and vowed that anyone found guilty would be severely punished, fearing the incident could undermine public support for the war against a stubborn insurgency four years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban.

The U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, said two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned would be reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding, but that the men had been unaware at the time of doing anything wrong.

Kamiya also said two noncommissioned officers would be reprimanded for using the burning of the bodies to taunt the rebels. The two men also would face nonjudicial punishments, which could include a loss of pay or demotion in rank.

"Our investigation found there was no intent to desecrate the remains but only to dispose of them for hygienic reasons," Kamiya said. He added that the broadcasts about the burned remains, while "designed to incite fleeing Taliban to fight," violated military policy.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid, who attended the military's news conference in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, said, "We have confidence in this investigation."

But Islamic clerics criticized the findings of the probe.

"These soldiers should be severely punished," said Khair Mohammed, a senior cleric in Kandahar. "Foreign soldiers in Afghanistan must respect our religion. If they continue to do things like this, every Muslim will be against them."

A purported Taliban commander in Shah Wali Kot district, where the bodies were burned, said he was "outraged the Americans burned the bodies of our dead.

"The Americans always claimed to respect human rights, our culture and religion, but now the whole world knows that these are all lies," he told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

The footage shows about five soldiers in light-colored military fatigues, which did not have any distinguishing marks, standing near a bonfire in which two bodies were laid side by side.

Kamiya said the temperature at the time was 90 degrees, and the bodies had lain exposed on the ground for 24 hours and were rapidly decomposing.

"This posed an increasing health concern for our soldiers," Kamiya said. "The criminal investigation proved there was no violation of the rules of war."

The Geneva Convention forbids the burning of combatants except for hygienic purposes.

The bodies were found atop a hill after a fire fight, and Kamiya said soldiers, intending to stay on the hill for two or three days for strategic reasons, believed other Taliban had fled into the village below.

The cameraman, freelance journalist Stephen Dupont, said he shot the footage while embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his own inquiry into the videotape. That probe has also been completed, but officials say it is not clear when its findings will be released.

Though Afghan media have reported the alleged desecration, the videotape has not been broadcast in the country, which some observers believe is the main reason there have been no demonstrations.

The last violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan were in May over a report by Newsweek — later retracted — that U.S. soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility abused Islam's holy book, the Quran.



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Afghans Confront Surge in Violence

By Griff Witte

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 -- An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

The success of the September vote, which was relatively peaceful despite Taliban threats of sabotage, initially raised hopes that the insurgency was losing strength. But after two of the bloodiest months since U.S. forces entered Kabul in 2001, officials now say the Taliban might have been using that time to marshal foreign support and plot new ways to undermine the Western-backed government.

The attacks have been particularly noteworthy for their use of suicide bombers. Some have struck in waves, with one explosive-laden car following the next in an effort to maximize casualties. That sort of attack has been a hallmark of al Qaeda and a regular occurrence in Iraq. But in Afghanistan, suicide attacks of any kind have been relatively rare, despite a quarter-century of warfare.

Attackers have also shown a growing appetite for strikes in cities, particularly Kabul, setting residents' nerves on edge and leading them to take new security precautions at work, home and social events.

At a wedding Saturday, armed Afghan police officers meticulously searched guests before they were allowed to enter -- a practice unknown here until recent months. "Maybe somebody will bring a bomb and explode it at the wedding," said Nasrullah, a guest in his fifties who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. "It used to be that we could trust people. But right now, we cannot trust."

Col. Jim Yonts, spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, said the Taliban is resorting to suicide attacks and remote-controlled bombings in urban areas "out of desperation" as it continues to lose ground -- and men -- to international forces in the mountains and other rural areas. "They only lose one person in a suicide attack, not 10 or 15," as they would in battle, he said.

But Yonts acknowledged "grave concern" among U.S. officials over the idea that the Taliban might be taking a page from Iraqi insurgents' playbook by attacking with explosives in cities.

Afghan officials said the recent attacks demonstrate that the Taliban fighters are continuing to receive considerable outside assistance, such as advanced explosives and computerized timing devices that are being used to build more devastating bombs.

"There has been . . . more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in recent months," Defense Minister Rahim Wardak said in a recent interview with the Associated Press. "We see similarities between the type of attacks here and in Iraq."

In the past two weeks, Afghanistan has experienced near-daily attacks. Among the incidents:

Eight civilians and a German soldier were killed when two cars -- one coming minutes after the other -- plowed into crowds in Kabul. Soldiers thwarted a suspected third attack when they shot and killed the driver of a car speeding toward the scene.

An Indian truck driver was taken hostage while working on a road reconstruction project in Nimruz province in southern Afghanistan. The Taliban later asserted it had killed him when a deadline passed for the worker's company to agree to abandon its operations in Afghanistan. Villagers found his nearly decapitated body the following day.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed by separate roadside bombs, bringing the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year close to 90 -- double the total in 2004. A Portuguese soldier and a Swedish soldier were also killed in bombings.

Insurgents burned down a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan and took five Afghan officers hostage. Dozens more Afghans across the country were killed by bombs planted in homes, or in suicide attacks and ambushes.

The level of violence in Afghanistan is still nowhere near that in Iraq. The insurgency here is generally considered to have far less public support and to be less capable of pulling off attacks that cause mass casualties. Reconstruction projects are ongoing in most parts of the country, and Westerners can move freely in many areas with little fear of violence.

"Compared to Iraq, where the suicide bomber is such a cheap commodity they could throw them at almost any target, that's not where we are here," said U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann, noting that the bombers have been a mix of Afghans and foreigners.

Neumann said he did not believe the stepped-up attacks were a sign of widening Taliban support, but rather represented "a change in tactics and in targets, which makes the violence more evident."

But the increased violence has added another obstacle to the country's reconstruction effort, still struggling nearly four years after the overthrow of Taliban rule and the conference of international officials and Afghan leaders in Bonn that charted Afghanistan's democratization process.

"We've seen a deterioration in the security situation. And that's something that all of us who work here are worried about," said Adrian Edwards, the Kabul-based U.N. spokesman. "I don't think any of us [at Bonn] would have expected that this kind of security environment is something we would be faced with four years down the road," he said.

Gen. Zaher Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said he believes one reason the Taliban has become especially active is that the road map to democracy outlined in Bonn is nearly complete, with the new parliament set to convene in December. "That makes the enemies of Afghanistan upset," he said.

The enemies of Afghanistan, according to government officials, include not just the Taliban, but also militant Islamic groups worldwide -- especially al Qaeda -- that have had a reciprocal relationship with the Taliban for the past decade. Taliban authorities used foreign financial and military support in the 1990s to defeat their domestic opponents; in turn, international terrorists, Osama bin Laden among them, received sanctuary here.

The recent spate of urban violence has alarmed Afghans, even after years of exposure to civil strife and warfare.

"This is the worst security that we've had," said Abdul Karim, 26, who drives a construction crane and used to work at a job site on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad. He has refused to return to the site since nine people were killed in an attack there two weeks ago. "I'm too worried about suicide bombers," he said.

Nafisa Faqirzada, a 43-year-old high school teacher, said she believes the suicide attacks are the work of foreigners who follow the teachings of bin Laden, because "Afghans know that a suicide attack is forbidden in Islam."

Faqirzada said she wants U.S. soldiers to stay in Afghanistan and help keep the peace, but she also blames them -- both for failing to catch bin Laden and for exposing her to risk through their presence. "The suicide bombers won't do anything to me because I'm a common woman," she said. "But if I see the American military, I worry because maybe someone will try to blow them up, and I will get hurt."

But other Kabul residents said they had other, more immediate concerns. Abdul Rauf, 41, said he had heard about the recent suicide bombings, but was far more worried about how he would buy firewood and food for his six children this winter on the $120 a month he makes repairing shoes.

"What will I do with security if I don't have food to eat, and don't have work to do?" Rauf said.


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Deadly attacks in Afghanistan spur fears of foreign support
Taliban strikes mimic tactics by Iraqi rebels

By Griff Witte, Washington Post | December 1, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge, and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers, and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

The success of the September vote, which was relatively peaceful despite Taliban threats of sabotage, initially raised hopes that the insurgency was losing strength. But after two of the bloodiest months since US forces entered Kabul in 2001, officials now say the Taliban might have been using that time to marshal foreign support and plot new ways to undermine the Western-backed government.

The attacks have been particularly noteworthy for their use of suicide bombers. Some have struck in waves, with one explosive-laden car following the next in an effort to maximize casualties. That sort of attack has been a hallmark of Al Qaeda and a regular occurrence in Iraq. But in Afghanistan, suicide attacks of any kind have been relatively rare, despite a quarter-century of warfare.

Attackers have also shown a growing appetite for strikes in cities, particularly Kabul, setting residents' nerves on edge and leading them to take new security precautions at work, home, and social events.

At a wedding Saturday, armed Afghan police officers meticulously searched guests before they were allowed to enter -- a practice unknown here until recent months. ''Maybe somebody will bring a bomb and explode it at the wedding," said Nasrullah, a guest in his fifties who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. ''It used to be that we could trust people. But right now, we cannot trust."

Colonel Jim Yonts, spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, said the Taliban is resorting to suicide attacks and remote-controlled bombings in urban areas ''out of desperation" as it continues to lose ground -- and men -- to international forces in the mountains and other rural areas. ''They only lose one person in a suicide attack, not 10 or 15," as they would in battle, he said.

But Yonts acknowledged ''grave concern" among US officials over the idea that the Taliban might be taking a page from Iraqi insurgents' playbook by attacking with explosives in cities.

Afghan officials said the recent attacks demonstrate that the Taliban fighters are continuing to receive considerable outside assistance, such as advanced explosives and computerized timing devices used to build more devastating bombs.

In the past two weeks, Afghanistan has experienced near-daily attacks.

The level of violence in Afghanistan is still nowhere near that in Iraq. The insurgency here is generally considered to have far less public support and to be less capable of pulling off attacks that cause mass casualties. Reconstruction projects are ongoing in most parts of the country, and Westerners can move freely in many areas with little fear of violence.

''Compared to Iraq, where the suicide bomber is such a cheap commodity they could throw them at almost any target, that's not where we are here," said US Ambassador Ronald Neumann, noting that the bombers have been a mix of Afghans and foreigners.

Neumann said he did not believe the stepped-up attacks were a sign of widening Taliban support, but rather represented ''a change in tactics and in targets, which makes the violence more evident."
© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Security threat has changed in Afghanistan, says French army chief
(AFP)

1 December 2005


KABUL - The security threat in Afghanistan has changed, notably with an increase in suicide attacks encouraged by the presence of foreign fighters, the head of the French army said during a visit to Kabul this week.

“The threat has changed. Today there are no longer the groups of organised terrorists that move around in gangs as was the case only one year ago,” General Henri Bentegeat told AFP Wednesday.

“Instead, what has appeared and poses today a general problem of security is the individual attacks, suicide attacks or attacks with homemade bombs or mines,” he said.

These attacks have multiplied in the past months, killing several soldiers from the US-led coalition and a NATO-led peacekeeping force based in the country, as well as scores of Afghans.

Some analysts say the apparent shift in tactics points to an “Iraqisation” of the insurgency, although on a lesser scale, brought about by the increased presence of the Al Qaeda terror network.

Posted 12/1/2005 9:49 AM


U.S. aid to Afghans expected to top $5B in next five years
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. development assistance to Afghanistan is expected to reach $5.5 billion in the next five years, the Afghan finance minister said Thursday as the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on aid agreements.

The agreements set out plans for U.S. support to programs in education, health care and economic and democratic development, among other things. The programs will be implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Afghan government.

The United States has committed $479.6 million this year, and Afghan Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi said total U.S. funding over five years is expected to reach $5.5 billion.

"Supporting a prosperous and democratic Afghanistan is vitally important to all branches of the United States government and to the American people," U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said at the signing ceremony.

"Afghanistan has suffered three decades of destruction. It will take a long time to fix the damage that has been done, not only to roads and buildings, but to institutions and civil society," he said.

Neumann called the planned aid "an investment in a better educated and healthier population" and "a stimulus to build a thriving economy built on private venture. Businesses succeed and jobs are created when people invest their own money and rely on their own work."

He said the programs would help Afghanistan build on its September parliamentary elections — the final formal step on an internationally backed path toward democracy following decades of war and the defeat of the hard-line Taliban in 2001.

President Hamid Karzai, who has strong U.S. backing, hosted the signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul. Three U.S. congressmen — Republicans Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Fred Upton of Michigan — also attended.

Ahadi said the promise of long-term aid would help the Afghanistan plan development spending.

"I'm thanking you for coming up with these agreements because it helps us with the element of predictability in our budget," he said.

USAID said the Afghan government will also provide funding for the programs and has already contributed $199.2 million.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NATO approves plan to expand Afghan force Thu Dec 8, 1:18 PM ET

NATO foreign ministers have approved a plan to expand its peacekeeping force in Afghanistan into the volatile south of the war-scarred country, after overcoming concerns about troop safety.

The so-called operational plan is expected to see British, Canadian and Dutch personnel take leading roles in the NATO push into the south around next May, with 6,000 extra troops being added to the 9,500-strong force.

"NATO will then be operating in three quarters of the territory of Afghanistan," alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday, following talks with the military organisation's ministers in Brussels.

The plan notably sets out a "double-hatted" command structure under which the NATO-led International Security Force (ISAF) will work more closely with the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).

ISAF will set up an extra four provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), a mixture of troops and civilians helping to spread the Kabul government's rule into the distant provinces, at all points of the compass except the east.

The move has been championed by the United States but resisted by some European countries who fear being dragged into frontline combat operations and away from the peacekeeping role which is the main function of ISAF.

"Of course this expansion will take NATO into more volatile territory, but there should be no doubt... our forces will have the equipment and the support they need for the job," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.

"They will have the rules of engagement they need to carry out their mission and they will do something very important indeed, they will bring peace to more people in Afghanistan who have suffered terribly," he said.

To fulfil its mission, ISAF's rules of engagement -- the political rules governing the use of deadly force -- have been beefed up, not just in the south, but across the country.

"It is imperative in a military mission that there are no weak links, no weak spots," a NATO spokesman said. "They will not be sent with one arm tied behind their back."

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said that the Netherlands had received guarantees that 1,100 of its troops likely to be working in the southern Oruzgan province would have the backing of OEF soldiers in any crisis.

Any prisoners they hand over to Afghan police will also be treated humanely and not face the death penalty. All ISAF detainees must be released or transferred to the Afghan authorities within four days.

The United States has long pushed NATO to take a larger role in Afghanistan, where its own 20,000-strong mission has been fighting