Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) walks with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at his presidential palace in Kabul December 9, 2005. Karzai discussed with Stoltenberg the expansion of NATO into south and hailed the decision. Norway has several hundred troops in the mission as well as with the U.S.-led troops hunting Taliban guerrillas. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Afghan president welcomes NATO expansion, Norway's F-16 fighters

(Kyodo) _ Afghan president Hamid Karzai welcomed Friday NATO's plan to send up more troops into volatile southern Afghanistan.

At joint news conference with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Karzai said the NATO's expansion shows the world's attention on Afghanistan.

NATO foreign ministers in Brussels approved plans Thursday to deploy up to 6,000 more troops in southern Afghanistan, a major expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's peacekeeping mission to some of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan.

Stoltenberg said his government will contribute F-16 fighter jets to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan in an effort to improve security for the peacekeepers.

Stoltenberg also said Norway was planning to send more soldiers to the NATO-led force. There are now 330 Norwegians in the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

With around 10,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan, NATO's expansion is expected to allow U.S.-led coalition forces to scale back on its 18,000 troops almost five years after the United States invaded Afghanistan.

Afghans welcome NATO expansion, Taliban threaten - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan welcomed NATO's decision to expand its peacekeeping mission on Friday, saying it would boost security, while the Taliban said more alliance troops would only increase opportunities for guerillas to attack them.

NATO foreign ministers approved mission rules on Thursday for an expanded Afghan peacekeeping force next year, which Washington hopes will allow it to cut U.S. troop levels in the country.

The agreement leaves the most dangerous counter-insurgency work in the hands of the 20,000-strong U.S.-led force but gives NATO more scope to help Afghan forces with training and other tasks such as disarming illegal groups.

"The people of Afghanistan thank them for their contribution to security and reconstruction," President Hamid Karzai told reporters at his heavily fortified presidential palace.

Afghanistan lacked the resources and its security forces were not equipped to maintain security itself, he said. NATO wants to raise its 9,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to about 15,000 from early next year. It will spread its bases in the north and west, and the capital, Kabul, to the more volatile south, a base for many insurgents.

Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are earmarked to lead the expansion into the south but NATO still needs further troop contributions before it can go ahead early next year.

U.S. proposals last year for NATO to take overall command of foreign military operations in Afghanistan were rejected by European allies, including France and Germany, who insisted that the alliance should stay clear of counter-insurgency operations.

Under the rules agreed by the ministers in Brussels, the NATO-led ISAF will be operating in three-quarters of the country where it will continue to focus on peacekeeping and security.

"When the expansion happens, NATO will focus on security matters and this will allow the U.S. army to better concentrate on counter-insurgency activities," said Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi.

A Taliban commander said an increase in foreign troops would make no difference to the war against such forces, which he said would continue until Afghanistan gained its independence. In fact, said Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, more troops would mean more targets for his fighters.

"The expansion of NATO operations in Afghanistan and increase in the number of NATO troops will make it easier for the Taliban to target and attack them," Dadullah told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

Nearly 60 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the Taliban-led insurgency this year, most of them in the south and east where the militants are most active.
It has been the bloodiest period for U.S. forces since they ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

ISAF peacekeepers have also been attacked and four of them have been killed in violence this year, including a German soldier killed last month when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an ISAF convoy on a Kabul road.

A Portuguese soldier died in a blast on the outskirts of Kabul last month and a British soldier and a Swedish soldier were killed in recent attacks in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Seventeen Spanish troops were killed when their helicopter crashed near the western city of Herat in August. In the worst attack against the peacekeepers, four German troops were killed by a suicide car bomber in Kabul in 2003.

While a greater role for NATO has led to speculation the United States might reduce its troops in Afghanistan and media reports speak of a reduction of up to 4,000. But Washington has given no figure and stresses any cuts would depend on conditions.

US troop reduction likely in Afghanistan with NATO expansion

Washingotn (AFP) - US troop levels are likely to come down in Afghanistan next year as a NATO-led force expands its presence to the volatile south of the country, the commander of US forces there said.

"If NATO does move down to the south, clearly I can expect with the adjustment of forces there could be less US presence in that region," Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry said on Thursday.

Eikenberry, who said there are now about 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, would not predict how many American troops might come home.

Alliance foreign ministers agreed earlier Thursday in Brussels on a plan to expand the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into the south next year.

The move is part of a transition that could ultimately bring the US and ISAF forces under NATO's command. The general said the NATO troops who will be deployed in the south will have "sufficient rules of engagement to vigorously fight the threat that exists in that area."

He said the United States would contribute to the NATO force and maintain an army aviation force in southern Zaboul province. The US-led force and ISAF have had separate roles in Afghanistan in the years since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

American-led combat forces have been fighting militants in the south and along the country's volatile eastern border with Pakistan, while ISAF has kept the peace in Kabul and gradually expanded its reach to less troubled regions in the north and west.

The latest expansion will add 6,000 NATO troops to the 9,500-strong ISAF. It comes amid an upsurge of violence as US and Afghan forces press deeper into remote areas where sympathy for the Taliban remains strong.

And militants have introduced suicide bombings and roadside explosions this year, mimicking tactics that insurgents have used to devastating effect in Iraq. Eikenberry said militants in Afghanistan were receiving foreign funding, but he said the US military has found no direct links to the Iraqi insurgency.

"We have no concrete evidence about, let's say, fighters or facilitators moving from Iraq into Afghanistan and conducting direct training of the Taliban forces or the associated movements of Al-Qaeda," he said.

While acknowledging the rise in suicide bombings and attacks with improvised explosive devices, Eikenberry said the US military saw no sign that the situation is slipping toward an Iraqi-style insurgency.

He noted a recent poll by ABC News that found that 77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction; 91 percent preferred the current elected government to the Taliban and 87 percent said the US-led overthrow of the Taliban was good for the country.

"If you're on their side and looking at the trends that are out there right now, the tide of history's moving against you," Eikenberry said, referring to the Taliban and other likeminded rebel groups.

"So a shift in tactics is not necessarily a sign of strength," he said. "My belief is that the shift in tactics right now is very much a sign of weakness."

Afghan Forces Now Able to Take Fight to Taliban, says Coalition Commander - By Al Pessin Washington 08 December 2005- VOA

The commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan says Afghan forces have improved to the point that, working with coalition troops, they can take the fight to Taliban insurgents in areas the insurgents have controlled in the past.

Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry says he has been emphasizing quality, rather than quantity, in developing the new Afghan army, which he says is now 30,000 strong.  He says there has been more fighting in Afghanistan in recent months than there had been before, but he says much of that is being initiated by Afghan and coalition forces.

"These forces, now, these combined forces, are able to operate in areas that, ... in previous years, we were not able to move into," he said.  "So in places, say, in northern parts of southern Afghanistan, traditionally points of Taliban influence, points in eastern Afghanistan, traditionally places of Taliban influence, that are very difficult to get to, mountainous areas, we are now able to move into those areas."

General Eikenberry also says he has no evidence of any cooperation between insurgents in Afghanistan and those in Iraq, although he says money continues to flow to the Afghan insurgents from outside the country.  He acknowledged an increase in bombings in Afghanistan, but he said it does not necessarily mean the insurgency is getting stronger.

"A shift in tactics is not necessarily a sign of strength," he said.  "My belief is that the shift in tactics right now is very much a sign of weakness." General Eikenberry says the Taliban is getting weaker, because of some military defeats and because of the continuing progress in the Afghan political process.  The newly elected parliament is to begin meeting within two weeks.

The general also says there has been a steady increase in the willingness of ordinary Afghans to cooperate with the new army and the coalition.  But he added that the army has some work to do to establish its credibility in the former Taliban strongholds where it is now starting to operate. General Eikenberry also welcomed the results of a public opinion survey in Afghanistan by the U.S. television network ABC. 

The poll found that 77 percent of Afghans believe their country is moving in the right direction, and 91 percent prefer the current government to the ousted Taliban regime. In addition, 90 percent said they have a negative view of the al-Qaida terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden. ABC notes that those views prevail even though most Afghans do not have electricity, easy access to good medical care or many economic opportunities.

U.S. General Says Bin Laden Is Alive - By LOLITA C. BALDOR, AP

WASHINGTON - The top military commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that he believes Osama bin Laden is still alive, but there is no evidence of al-Qaida fighters moving from Iraq into Afghanistan to train terrorists there.

Coalition commander Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said there is no reason to believe bin Laden was killed in the earthquake that struck the mountains along the Pakistan border.

"Our forces will not rest until he is either found and captured or killed," Eikenberry told Pentagon reporters in a conference call. "Our working assumption is he is alive today."

He also acknowledged that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is likely to be reduced as the NATO-led coalition takes over control in the south.

The Pentagon has tentative plans to halt the deployment to Afghanistan of the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Polk, La., according to defense officials who did not want to be identified because the plans have not been finalized. There are about 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Eikenberry said there has been an increase in the use of suicide bombers and homemade bombs, but coalition forces are working to train the Afghan Army and security officials in how to detect and fight those threats.

Eikenberry also said he has reviewed the information operations in Afghanistan, and there is no program to pay media there to run favorable articles similar to the one now under investigation in Iraq.

In Iraq, Rear Admiral Scott Van Buskirk has been appointed to conduct a full investigation of the propaganda program .

Eikenberry added that if coalition forces see Afghan national security forces abuse prisoners, they will both stop the abuse and report it. He said he is not aware of any incident where the coalition soldiers had to use force to stop any abuse.

NATO and Russia launch Afghanistan counter-narcotics training
Source: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) 08 Dec 2005

At their meeting on 8 December, Foreign Ministers from the NATO-Russia Council agreed to launch a pilot project on counter-narcotics training of Afghan and Central Asian personnel.

The pilot project is meant to support international efforts to promote security and stability in and around Afghanistan , and particularly those aimed at addressing the threats posed by the trafficking in narcotics, including its links to the financing of terrorism.

Building local capacity - Training courses will be offered to relevant personnel from Afghanistan , Kazakhstan , the Kyrgyz Republic , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan . The aim is to build local capacity and to promote regional networking and cooperation.

The project will be conducted in close cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which will play a key role in its implementation.

Taking into consideration the specific needs of trainees from the region, and in consultation with the relevant national authorities of the eligible states, the training offered will draw upon relevant elements of courses developed by various agencies in NATO-Russia Council member countries – such as the Turkish International Academy Against Drugs and Organised Crime (TADOC), the Russian Domededovo Counter-Narcotics Training Centre, as well as existing bilateral training courses offered in the region by NRC member states.

Courses will be two-to-three-weeks long and will be offered to mid-level officials from relevant national agencies in Afghanistan and Central Asia .

Curricula will include both theoretical preparation and operational field exercises, and may also include the use of “train-the-trainers” approaches to maximise the impact of the initiative.

Rebuilding the Afghan Police ? Germany Extends Project - Germany Info 12/08/2005

Germany is extending its participation in helping rebuild the police force in Afghanistan by one more year, until December 31, 2006. The extension, on the condition that the protection of workers in the project office can be secured by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), was decided by the federal Cabinet on December 7. It complies with a request by the Afghan government to the United Nations.

Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan on September 18, 2005, laid the foundation for democratic structures. However, the security situation across many parts of the country remains tense. The process of democratization needs to be accompanied by security measures.

The establishment of a police force which is bound by the principles of the rule of law and by international law and in which all ethnic groups are equitably represented is an important step toward more security and more democracy. The Afghan government aims to have 50,000 national police officers and 12,000 border police officers, all well trained, fulfill their duties.

The German project office in Kabul:

Advises Afghan security agencies on the establishment of a police force and on fighting criminal drug activity Supports the training of police recruits Helps in setting up a police academy Coordinates international assistance for the establishment of the police force This is a joint project of the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Office and is financed by the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Germany took on the mission of assisting Afghanistan in establishing a police force during the international Petersberg Conference in December 2001.

Afghan legislators receive orientation under project jointly designed by UN - Source: United Nations News Service 08 Dec 2005

New members of the Afghan National Assembly, the Loya Jirga, which opens on 19 December after a three-decade break, will undergo a week-long orientation programme on the functions they will be performing for the next five years under a project co-sponsored by the United Nations.

Designed and implemented jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the SEAL (Support to Establishment of Afghan Legislature) project and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the programme includes introductions to the constitution, rules and procedures of legislation and the budget process.

The 249 members of the lower house, Wolesi Jirga (the House of People), all elected, and the 102 members of the upper house, Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders), some of them appointed, will receive the training in three groups beginning on Saturday.

The programme will be conducted by Afghan academicians, professors of political science and Constitutional Law, as well as international consultants.

Poll: Four Years After the Fall of the Taliban, Afghans Optimistic About the Future - ABC News 12/08/2005 By Gary Langer

Despite Deep Challenges in Daily Life, Afghans Express a Positive Outlook

Four years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghans express both vast support for the changes that have shaken their country and remarkable optimism for the future, despite the deep challenges they face in economic opportunity, security and basic services alike.

An ABC News poll in Afghanistan - the first national survey there sponsored by a news organization - underscores those challenges in a unique portrait of the lives of ordinary Afghans. Poverty is deep, medical care and other basic services lacking, and infrastructure minimal. Nearly six in 10 have no electricity in their homes, and just 3 percent have it around the clock. Seven in 10 Afghan adults have no more than an elementary education; half have no schooling whatsoever. Half have household incomes under $500 a year.

Yet despite these and other deprivations, 77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction - compared with 30 percent in the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country. Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban; nine in 10 view him unfavorably.

Progress fuels these views: Despite the country's continued problems, 85 percent of Afghans say living conditions there are better now than they were under the Taliban. Eighty percent cite improved freedom to express political views. And 75 percent say their security from crime and violence has improved as well. After decades of oppression and war, many Afghans see a better life.

More can be done; most say each of these is better, but not "much" better, than under the Taliban. And in a fourth crucial area - jobs and economic opportunity - progress is badly lacking: In this basic building block, just 39 percent see improvement.

In a separate measure, Afghans by nearly 2-1, 64 percent to 34 percent, say their own household's financial situation is bad (most Americans, by contrast, say theirs is good.). Yet that economic discomfort has not produced political dissatisfaction: Ratings of President Hamid Karzai, the current government and the newly elected parliament are all high.

Better hopes for the future are a likely reason. This poll finds broad expectations - expressed by two-thirds of Afghans - that life overall will improve in the year ahead. That optimism, while encouraging, also carries the danger of discontent if those expectations go unmet.

This survey was conducted for ABC News by Charney Research of New York with fieldwork by the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research in Kabul. Trained Afghan researchers interviewed a randomly selected sample of 1,039 adults across the country.

Concerns - Some results may raise particular concerns. One is that, despite broadly favorable views of the United States, three in 10 Afghans say attacks against U.S. forces can be justified. There are about 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with more than 250 killed to date - including nearly twice as many in 2005 as in any previous year.

Acceptability of attacks on U.S. forces spikes among disaffected and socially conservative Afghans, who account for about 15 percent of the population. In this group, just 29 percent say such attacks cannot be justified, compared with 60 percent of all Afghans.

At the same time, even among all Afghans, 30 percent say such attacks can be justified. That may reflect social mores in a country where violence is not an uncommon means of settling disputes, and perhaps specific grievances in areas where administrative or legal remedies are lacking.

In another result that may give pause, one in four Afghans say there are circumstances in which it's acceptable to grow poppies for opium production, a trade that's soared since the Taliban were ousted. Acceptance of poppy farming - if no alternative source of income is available - reaches 41 percent in the highest opium-producing provinces as identified by the United Nations last year. And acceptability soars in the two provinces that historically have been the country's centers of poppy cultivation, Nangarhar in the East and Helmand in the West. (While cultivation in Nangarhar reportedly is down sharply this year, it appears that attitudes that tolerate it have not followed.)

Many fewer Afghans - just five percent - say poppy cultivation is acceptable in all cases; more say, rather, that it's acceptable only if no alternatives are available. That suggests that the opium trade may be vulnerable, to the extent other income-earning opportunities - such as the cultivation of alternative crops - can be provided in its place. But it won't be easy: The United Nations estimates that one in 10 Afghans is involved in cultivating opium poppies.

The survey also finds substantial suspicion of cheating in the recent parliamentary elections. Nearly half of Afghans, 46 percent, believe there was vote buying, intimidation of voters or cheating in the vote count in their area. Still, 77 percent are confident nonetheless that the parliament will work for the benefit of the people, although far fewer, 34 percent, are "very" confident that will be the case.

In terms of threats the country faces, most-cited is the Taliban, an insurgent group since it was ousted with the fall of Kandahar on Dec. 7, 2001. Forty-one percent call the Taliban the biggest danger to Afghanistan, 28 percent cite drug traffickers and 22 percent say it's local warlords. (The program to disarm those warlords enjoys vast popular support, detailed below.)

Greatest Danger to Afghanistan - Taliban 41% Drug Traffickers 28 Warlords 22 U.S. 4 Current Afghanistan Govt. 2

Women - The survey also finds broad majority support for women's rights in Afghan society, albeit, as in other readings, with more modest strength of commitment behind it. Nine in 10 Afghans support girls' education and women voting, three-quarters support women holding jobs and two-thirds support women holding government office - remarkable in a country where the Taliban so thoroughly repressed such rights. Perhaps surprisingly, support for most of these is nearly as high among men as it is among women.

At the same time, while 89 percent of Afghans support women voting, fewer, 66 percent, strongly support this right. And only about four in 10 "strongly" support women taking jobs outside the home or holding government office. Even among Afghan women, fewer than half strongly support women working outside the home or holding government office. Personal experience may be a factor: Just 14 percent of Afghan women are employed, compared with about 60 percent of women in the United States.

There is equivocation on some of these issues among Afghan women themselves; fewer than half strongly support women working outside the home or holding government office. Personal experience may be a factor: Just 14 percent of Afghan women are employed, compared with about 60 percent of women in the United States.

There also are ethnic and regional differences, with support for women's rights much lower among Afghanistan's Pashtun population, Sunni Muslims who are dominant in the South and East of the country. Also, support for women holding political office, in particular, is much weaker in rural as opposed to urban areas, and weakest among rural men.

Current Conditions - Afghans give positive reports to several aspects of their daily lives: Eighty-three percent rate their overall living conditions positively, and ratings are nearly as high both for local schools and the availability of food. Just more than seven in 10 likewise say their security from crime and violence is good. In each of these, though, far fewer - ranging from just 15 percent to 28 percent - say things are "very" good.

Fewer overall, 59 percent, say clean water is readily available, and other basic conditions - medical care, jobs and economic opportunity, roads and bridges and power supply - are rated far worse.

There are significant differences in conditions across the country. Security is better in urban areas (of which the largest by far is Kabul, where about one in seven Afghan adults live); 40 percent in urban areas describe their security as "very good," compared with 24 percent in rural areas.

Both security and economic conditions are notably worse in the Southwest and East (where the Taliban have been active) than elsewhere. And services seem weakest in the Northwest, where fewer than two in 10 report having clean water, good medical care or good roads, bridges and other infrastructure. In Kabul, just 18 percent lack any electrical power; that soars to more than two-thirds in the North and East.

Security - Security is especially critical in a country so long wracked by war. When the 77 percent of Afghans who say the country is headed in the right direction are asked in an open-ended question why they feel that way, three related answers dominate: security, peace or the end of war, and disarmament.

Mentions of freedom, democracy and reconstruction follow; women in particular mention freedom for women, who were repressed under the Taliban regime: Twenty percent of women (compared with 4 percent of men) cite freedom for women as a reason they say the country's going in the right direction.

Similarly, when asked the single most important priority for the country, 40 percent of Afghans say security from crime and violence remains paramount. That's followed fairly closely by creating jobs and economic opportunities, then much more distantly by the need for infrastructure improvements. When first- and second-highest priorities are combined, however, these rank about evenly. There's much to do.

Another _expression of the importance of security comes in support for the country's "DDR" - disarmament, demobilization and reintegration - program. Largely Japanese-funded, the program is said to have disarmed 70,000 fighters under local warlords, offering them vocational training in exchange for their weapons. Not only do 95 percent of Afghans support the program, but 72 percent "strongly" support it, by far the highest level of strong support for any program, individual or entity measured in this survey.

Views of the United States - Eighty-three percent of Afghans express a favorable opinion of the United States overall, similar to the 87 percent who call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban a good thing. That compares to favorable ratings of a mere 8 percent for the Taliban, and 5 percent for bin Laden. People who are unhappy with their local living conditions are twice as likely to have an unfavorable opinion of the United States.

Support for the United States is less than full-throated. Far fewer, 24 percent, regard it "very" favorably. And while 68 percent rate the work of the United States in Afghanistan positively, that's well below the ratings given to Karzai, the United Nations or the present Afghan government (83 percent, 82 percent and 80 percent positive, respectively).

Still, an 83 percent favorable rating for the United States, and a 68 percent positive work performance rating, are remarkable - in sharp contrast to negative views of the United States in many other Muslim nations. (Another contrast is Karzai's job rating - 83 percent positive - compared with President Bush's in the United States, where 39 percent of Americans approved in the last ABC News/Washington Post poll.)

Given the Afghan public's security concerns - and distaste for the Taliban - there is little demand for prompt U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Just 8 percent say the United States should leave now, and another 6 percent say it should withdraw within the next year. The most common answer by far: Sixty-five percent say U.S. forces should leave Afghanistan "only after security is restored."

Shiite and Sunni - Notable in this survey is the similarity of views between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the two doctrinal groups so sharply at odds in Iraq. As in most of the Arab world, Sunnis dominate in Afghanistan - 85 percent of the population is Sunni (including nearly all members of the Pashtun and Tajik ethnic groups) while 15 percent is Shiite (including nearly all ethnic Hazaras).

There are differences: Thirty-two percent of Sunnis say attacks on U.S. forces can be justified, compared with 19 percent of the Shiite minority. And 51 percent of Shiites describe the Taliban (a Sunni group) as the biggest danger facing the country, compared with a (still high) 39 percent of Sunnis.

But few Sunnis or Shiites alike view the Taliban favorably (9 percent and 6 percent, respectively). Their ratings on improved conditions are similar, as are their expectations for the future and their views on Karzai, the current Afghan government, the United Nations, the United States, the "DDR" disarmament program and women's rights.

Work and Possessions - A simple accounting of household possessions tells volumes about life in Afghanistan. Barely one in 10 households has a refrigerator or a car. Three in 10 have a mobile phone; almost no one has a landline telephone. Nearly everyone has a radio, but barely four in 10 have a TV. About half own a work animal.

Farming is the main occupation; nearly a third of working Afghans are farmers or farm laborers. As befits the low levels of education, illiteracy is high, 42 percent.

The population is largely rural, with 79 percent of Afghans residing in small villages. And it's a young country, with a median age (calculated among adults only) of 32 years, compared with 44 in the United States.

Methodology - This survey was conducted for ABC News by Charney Research of New York, with fieldwork by the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research in Kabul. Interviews were conducted in person, in Dari or Pashto, among a random national sample of 1,039 adults from Oct. 8-18, 2005. Sampling points were selected at random in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, with households selected by random route/random interval procedures. The results have a 3.5-point error margin.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]