President Karzai Lays Foundation Stone of Bridge on Amu River, Leaves
For Tajikistan - Date of Release: - 18 June 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, joined in Sher Khan Port, Kunduz, by H.E. Imam Ali Rahmanov, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, inaugurated the construction work of the Sher Khan Port-Panjdh Payan bridge on Amu River linking Afghanistan and Tajiksitan. The President later left for Dushanbe on a one day working visit to Tajikistan.

The Afghanistan-Tajikistan bridge project will provide a two-lane vehicular bridge with a pedestrian walkway on one side connecting Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The bridge will span the Amu Darya /
Pyandzh River at Sher Khan, Afghanistan and Nizhniy Pyandzh, Tajikistan. The Bridge construction is funded by the United States of America. The Project is expected to be completed in Spring 2007.

In Tajikistan, the President will hold talks with President Rahmanov, on a range of issues notably bilateral and regional trade.

Karzai inaugurates work Amo River bridge

KABUL, June 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Tajik counterpart Emamali Rahmanov Saturday jointly inaugurated construction work on the Amo River (Oxus) bridge linking the neighbouring countries.

While launching the huge project, the visiting Afghan leader hoped construction of the bridge would go a long way in boosting trade and cultural links between the two countries.

"This bridge will play a significant role in improving trade between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries; investors can boost their businesses using this opportunity," Karzai told the inaugural ceremony held in the border town of Shir Khan.

Dr Wali Mohammad Rasuli, deputy minister for public works, revealed the 630-metre-long bridge would be built in a period of 18 months. With the US providing a $30 million grant for it, the bridge would be the biggest transit route between Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbours, he added.

Ghulam Nabi Farahi, deputy commerce minister, also believed trade in the region would witness a huge boom once "the win-win" project was executed. He was optimistic the bridge would take relations with the Central Asian states to new heights.

Afghanistan imports cars, trucks, motorbikes, soap, nickel wares and fertilizers from the former Soviet republics, which offer a huge market for dry and fresh fruits produced by the landlocked country. After opening work on the bridge and launching a customs office at the Shir Khan Port, President Karzai and his ministerial delegation headed for Dushanbe, where he would go into an official meeting with Rahmanov.

Economic Affairs Minister Amin Farhang, Borders and Tribal Affairs Minister Abdul Karim Barahawi, Public Works Minister Suhrab Ali Safari and National Security Advisor Zalmay Rasul are accompanying the president. Karzai was earlier scheduled to arrive in Tajikistan on Monday last, but had to set back his visit for health reasons.

AP Exclusive: Afghan defense minister says al-Qaida regrouping, planning Iraq-style attacks - By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer 6/17/05

Kabul - Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak said Friday he had received intelligence that al-Qaida has ferried about half a dozen Arab agents into Afghanistan in the past three weeks, two of whom detonated themselves in suicide bombings in the south targeting a packed mosque and a convoy of U.S. troops.

He told The Associated Press that Osama bin Laden's terror group is regrouping and intends to bring Iraq-style bloodshed to Afghanistan, and warned that the country could be in for several months of intense violence ahead of key legislative elections.

"We have gotten reports here and there that they have entered _ at least half a dozen of them," Wardak said. "The last report is that they came in just close to the time of the mosque attack."

The blast at the mosque on June 1 killed 20 mourners at the funeral of a moderate cleric who had been assassinated days earlier. The same day, a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at an American aircraft, but missed. Then on Monday, another suicide bomber drove up to a U.S. military vehicle in Kandahar and detonated himself, wounding four American soldiers.

"It looks like there has been a regrouping of al-Qaida and they may have changed their tactics not only to concentrate on Iraq but also on Afghanistan," Wardak said over tea at his wood-paneled office next to the heavily-guarded presidential compound.

Authorities recovered the head of the mosque attacker and said he appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Wardak said initial indications are that the second suicide attacker was also Arab.

US criticizes Pakistan on fugitive Taliban leaders

KABUL, June 18 (Reuters) - The outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan has suggested that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been hiding in Pakistan and sharply criticised Islamabad's failure to act against Taliban leaders.

Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghanistan's Aina Television that a Pakistani TV channel had interviewed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders.

"If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces, not find them," Khalilzad said in the interview with Aina broadcast on Friday evening.

"Mullah Omar and other Taleban leaders should have been in Pakistan," Khalilzad said. "Mr Usmani, who is one of the Taleban leaders, spoke to Pakistani Geo TV, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed that they did not know where they were."

An English transcript of the interview with Aina, which the Afghan-American Khalilzad gave in the Dari language, was made available by the British Broadcasting Corp.

Khalilzad also questioned Pakistan's inability to find Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, who had given interviews from the Pakistani city of Quetta, and repeated a call for Pakistan to do more to track down Taliban figures.

"It is very important for Pakistan to make every effort seriously. Afghanistan's success is for the benefit of Pakistan, too," he said. Khalilzad praised the efforts of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government in helping to arrest leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, but added: "We ask them to launch wide-ranging campaigns to detain the Taliban extremists."

On Thursday, Khalilzad, who has since been confirmed as the new U.S. envoy to Iraq, told a news briefing he did not believe fugitive al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar were in Afghanistan, but did not make clear where he thought they were.

Khalilzad was responding to comments by Usmani in his interview with Geo broadcast on Wednesday in which he said bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was in good health and Omar in direct command of Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have said in the past that bin Laden was thought to be hiding in the rugged border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Khalilzad has repeatedly upset Pakistan by accusing it of sheltering Taliban militants. On Thursday he said capturing bin Laden required the cooperation between a variety of countries.

Recent weeks have seen a surge in Taliban-linked violence in the Afghan south and east bordering Pakistan, raising fears for the security of parliamentary elections due on Sept. 18.

Pakistan was the main supporter of the Taliban during the group's period in power but became a key ally of the United States in its global war on terror in 2001.

Nevertheless, U.S. and Afghan officials have long complained that the guerrillas have been able to launch attacks in Afghanistan then slip across the border into Pakistan.

Pakistan condemns US envoy remarks on Taliban leader – IRNA 06/18/2005

Pakistan on Saturday described as "irresponsible" remarks by the outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar has been hiding in Pakistan.
"The fresh statement by Mr Zalmay Khalilzad indicates his irresponsible behaviour, which he has been demonstrating for some time," Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said.

Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghanistan's Aina Television that a Pakistani TV channel had interviewed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders.

"If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces, not find them," Khalilzad said in the interview with Aina broadcast on Friday evening.

"An interview of a purported Taliban leader with a TV channel does not mean that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar are in Pakistan. They could be in any country including Afghanistan," the Pakistani spokesman said when his reaction was sought.

"Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders should have been in Pakistan," Mr Khalilzad claimed. "It is not appropriate for senior diplomats like Zalmay Khalilzad to issue such irresponsible statements. The interview of a Taliban member does not mean that Mulla Omar is in Pakistan," Mr Jilani said.

He said Pakistan does not know where the interview has been conducted. "If Zalmay Khalilzad has specific information about the presence of Taliban and al-Qaeda top leaders in Pakistan, he should share the information with Pakistan rather than making irresponsible statements or creating confusion."

"Zalmay Khalilzad is the US Ambassador in Afghanistan and it is not proper for him to issue such statements against neighbouring country, especially such a country which has very good relations with the United States. His statements about Pakistan are contrary to the thinking of top US leadership," the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman said.

Taliban attack Afghan town, capture 18 policemen

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 18 (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas attacked the main town of a southern Afghan district for a second straight night and took 18 policemen prisoner, a day after detaining more than a dozen people, police said on Saturday.

A senior police officer in Kandahar said the main government building in Mian Nishin town was under Taliban control after the attack on Friday night.

"The Taliban surrounded the district headquarters and captured 18 officers," said the officer, who declined to be named. "Right now the district headquarters is under the control of the Taliban."

Mian Nishin in Kandahar province was the scene of joint operations by Afghan and U.S.-led forces early this week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.

On Thursday, the Taliban captured 11 police officers, the district police chief and the senior local government official in Mian Nishin and said their fate would be decided by the guerrilla leadership.

Taliban-linked violence has surged in the south and east, raising fears for the security of parliamentary elections due to be held on Sept. 18. Much of the violence has been in Kandahar.

On Friday, a roadside bomb exploded in neighbouring Helmand province, killing a soldier and wounding three policemen, including a district police chief. On Monday, four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a suicide attack outside Kandahar city, where at least 20 people lost their lives in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque on June 1.

The Taliban have threatened more violence, and the government has said the guerrillas are likely to step up attacks ahead of the elections. More than 150 insurgents have been killed this year, according to U.S. and government figures. Dozens of government troops and 29 U.S. soldiers from the 20,000-strong U.S-led foreign force hunting the militants have also died since March, including 18 in a helicopter crash.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Pakistani tribesmen vow to oust US from region - June 18, 2005

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Thousands of Pakistani tribesmen have vowed to fight US forces as they marked the first death anniversary of a slain militant leader in a tribal region near Afghanistan.

Witnesses said up to 3,000 people, some brandishing assault rifles and some masked, turned up in the remote district of Azam Warsak, in South Waziristan tribal region, to offer prayers at the grave of militant leader Nek Mohammad.

Mohammad, a former Taliban commander, was killed in June last year after leading a bloody resistance to the Pakistan army's largest-ever offensive to drive-out Al-Qaeda linked militants in South Waziristan. Pakistan's military said it killed the militant.

"We will complete the mission of our commander Nek Mohammad and we will continue our jihad (holy war) against the US forces in the region," militant leader Maulvi Abdul Aziz told the gathering amid shouts of "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is greatest) on Saturday.

Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan has long been suspected of providing refuge to hundreds of Al-Qaeda-linked and Taliban militants who fled there after the ouster of the extremist Muslim Taliban regime by US-led forces in 2001.

Afghan and US government officials have said that Taliban militants hiding in the Pakistani tribal regions were conducting hit-and-run attacks on the US-led coalition and Afghan forces inside Afghanistan.

Since last year Pakistan, a key ally in what the US calls a war on terrorism, has conducted several major operations in its tribal regions. It says it has destroyed hideouts and training camps of militants linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network which claimed responsibility for attacks on the United States that killed about 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

A US-led 18,000-strong coalition force is battling militants in Afghanistan's south and eastern provinces which border the Pakistani tribal belt, three years after the Taliban's ouster by a US-led military campaign. Taliban have stepped up attacks on US and government targets over recent months after a winter lull in fighting.

Nearly 400 people, mostly militants, have been killed since the beginning of the year in Taliban-related and other political violence, most of them in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan government scrambles to deliver aid after floods kill dozens, destroy homes - Associated Press - June 18, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan: Airplanes loaded with food, tents and other emergency supplies rushed to northern Afghanistan on Saturday after floods left dozens dead and thousands homeless, officials said.

About 700 homes and several roads have been washed away in the floods over the past four days, said Abdul Majid, the governor of Badakhshan province, which was worst hit.

The exact death toll was not known. Majid said at least 25 people were believed killed in Badakhshan. An official with a government disaster management team in Kabul, Abdul Hamid, said the province's toll was thought to be 36, while more than 50 were estimated to have died across all of northern Afghanistan.

He said officials in two helicopters had flown over the region on Friday, but that the extent of the damage was still not clear. Two planes loaded with relief aid flew to the region on Saturday and additional aircraft would join the airlift in the next few days, Hamid said.

"We are in need of emergency help. We need 4,000 blankets, 1,000 tents and lots of food,'' Majid told The Associated Press. He said heavy rains had pounded the region over the past four days and low-lying areas have been flooded by water running off mountains. --AP

Afghan drug traders seize two Tajik hostages: source

DUSHANBE, June 18 (AFP) - Afghan drug traffickers seized two Tajik nationals hostage for debts and dragged them off to Afghanistan's north, a Tajik military source told AFP late Friday.

"Armed Afghans captured two Tajiks, brothers from the mountain village in Shuroabad region that is on the Afghan border. The hostages' elder brother took a large drug load from Afghans, but could not pay back his debt in time," the source said.

In January, four Tajik nationals, including two border guards, were similarly taken hostage after they failed to pay back their drug debts.

Tajikistan serves as one of the main transit routes for drugs grown in its southern neighbor Afghanistan and destined for the Russian and European markets.

Afghanistan donors conference postponed - Fri Jun 17

LONDON (AFP) - An Afghanistan donors conference, planned for London on Tuesday, has been postponed, the British government said.

"The conference had been put off at the request of the Afghan ministry of finance," a spokesperson for the organisers, Britain's Department for International Development, told AFP.

"It should take place at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year," the spokesperson added. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the postponement.

A spat broke out between the Afghan government and the international donors during a forum in Kabul in April. The Afghan government wanted to run a bigger part of the international aid itself.

The donors, comprising various countries, the United Nations and international financial institutions, thought the Afghan government was not offering the necessary guarantees concerning the fight against corruption, over three years after the fall of the Taliban.

Karzai hopes Iran's new gov't to expand ties with Kabul - Kabul, June 18, IRNA

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai here on Saturday expressed hope that Tehran-Kabul relations will be promoted with the help of Iran's new government. He made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad-Reza Bahrami.

Karzai said that establishment of the new government will consolidate bilateral cooperation, adding that the two states have had good cooperation during the Khatami's tenure. The Iranian envoy, for his part, briefed Karzai on the process of June 17 presidential elections in the country.

He said that Iran will not change its stand toward Afghanistan, adding that bilateral ties will be continued on the basis of friendship and mutual cooperation.

Wardag Province turned into "region of violence" – Hindokosh 06/18/2005

Kabul - Saydabad District of [eastern] Wardag Province has been turned into a region of violence and security crises for some weeks now. Unidentified people destroyed a school that was built by a Swedish organization and where girls and boys studied twice a day in (?Nurayo) village of Shekhabad District of Saydabad on Friday [17 June] night.

Armed people set fire to another girls' school in the Dara-e Nur area of this district on the same night. The armed men also fired a rocket on the home of the person, who rented out his home for the girls' school. These attacks have not caused any casualties. However, people are scared and concerned about the security situation.

A rocket was fired on a security checkpoint in the (?Top) area of Saydabad District, wounding two security officials two days ago. Though the second phase of disarmament has been implemented in Wardag, armed men still walk freely, and rob and kill people. The killing of Mohammad Wali, chairman of the National Solidarity Council of (?Lachikhel) village of this district, is a good example for this. Security officials reach the scene of incident immediately after, but people accuse them of failing to ensure security and arrest the real culprits.

US ambassador to Iraq confirmed by Senate - June 18, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Senate approved Zalmay Khalilzad as US ambassador to Iraq by a simple hand vote, according to Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Richard Lugar.

Khalilzad had been the US ambassador to Afghanistan for a year and a half when President George W. Bush nominated him to his new post. He was warmly encouraged by Republicans and Democrats in hearings last week.

Khalilzad's nomination was approved Wednesday by Lugar's committee, clearing the way for the full Senate to vote on his appointment. The diplomat will lead one of the largest US embassies in the world, with a staff of some 1,160 under his authority.

Khalilzad takes over the US embassy in Baghdad at a critical juncture, as the new Iraq government faces a deadline of drafting a constitution by August 15 and holding a referendum on the document on October 15.

National elections to choose a permanent Iraqi government by December 15 would also take place on his watch. In comments made Thursday during a farewell news conference in Kabul, Khalilzad said: "My premise is that failure is not an option. There is too much at stake."

"We have to isolate those who have no interest in Iraq's success, whose agenda is a global agenda, who would like to bring about a civil war in Iraq to back their unholy agenda and then to promote a war of civilisation."

The US military and their allies would have to tailor a strategy to bring all their power against extremist Baathists and other militants "to break the back of the insurgency. And I think it can be done," he added.

Khalilzad said Tuesday he was "disappointed" that Osama bin Laden remained at large but pledged the Al-Qaeda leader would be captured. An Arabic speaker and Muslim who was born in Afghanistan, Khalilzad has served in various capacities in the US Departments of State and Defense, as well as with the National Security Council, and in academia.

He was also an adviser to the giant oil company Unocal during Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Khalilzad was picked two months ago by US President George W. Bush to succeed John Negroponte, who became the new US Director of National Intelligence.

The Senate also confirmed a score of other nominations Thursday, including Craig Stapleton as ambassador to France. Stapleton was ambassador to the Czech Republic from September 2001 to the end of 2003. He was for 18 years president of Marsh and McLennan Real Estate Advisors.

Former Taliban Spy for U.S. Pleads Guilty to Fraud By Stephen Braun / The Los Angeles Times / June 18, 2005

WASHINGTON — An Afghan immigrant who acted as an FBI informant while he was the Taliban's second-highest ranking diplomat in the U.S. pleaded guilty on Friday to federal fraud charges.

Noorullah Zadran, 53, a naturalized U.S. citizen, admitted in a New York courtroom to not fully reporting his income tax and to lying on a home mortgage application. The plea agreement allows Zadran to avoid three other tax charges. He will face a recommended prison sentence of two to eight months when he is sentenced in September.

The details of the deal were not disclosed by either side. But defense lawyer Jared J. Scharf said after the court hearing that "the agreement does not require Mr. Zadran to cooperate with the government." Scharf said Zadran had "been in negotiations for several weeks" with federal authorities. "We have not discussed cooperation," he added.

Before being charged in October with tax and bank fraud, Zadran was the focus of a two-year federal grand jury investigation into his work as first secretary of the Taliban's now-shuttered diplomatic mission to the United Nations.

While he acted as the Taliban's media voice and participated in meetings with U.S. diplomats and other U.N. envoys from 1998 to 2001, Zadran was informing against the militant Afghan leadership — working for the FBI under a previous plea bargain disclosed by the Los Angeles Times last month.
Under terms of the 1995 agreement in a federal smuggling case, Zadran met regularly with FBI agents and was obligated to provide information on "terrorist activity" and on the Taliban's now-exiled leadership until November 2001.

But four months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Zadran's name appeared on federal terrorism watch lists. Federal agents investigating possible U.S. connections to the plot seized Taliban materials from Zadran's Long Island home and examined his computer.

During a 25-minute hearing Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Zadran never mentioned the Taliban by name, referring to his former superiors as the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In brief comments to federal Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dollinger, Zadran admitted that he had failed to report $1,541 on his 2000 federal income tax return. He also acknowledged that he had falsely claimed on a 2001 home mortgage application that his wife worked at the Taliban mission.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen Miller declined to elaborate on the charges against Zadran or on the former diplomat's past. But he did raise the possibility that prosecutors might require Zadran to pay restitution to the bank for the underpayments of interest.

Outside the courtroom, according to Associated Press, Scharf described the prosecution as a "nothing case." He later explained that the "agreed tax loss in this case is between $5,000 and $8,000." Zadran, he said, already had repaid the mortgage loan.

Zadran's double life as a Taliban envoy and federal informant did not come up during the hearing. Scharf said afterward, "As to the political atmosphere contributing to the charges against him, we know nothing about that."

Zadran, now a real estate agent on Long Island, did not discuss the case when he left the courtroom and did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Fire breaks out at Kabul tyre market

KABUL, June 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A huge fire broke out at a carpenter's shop and spread to the main tyre market in this capital city Saturday noon. Firefighters had to struggle for hours before they extinguished the blaze, which caused no casualties but sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky.
As losses could not be ascertained immediately, officials feared the blaze might have inflicted damage on the bustling tyre market in Shahrahrah.

The fire that erupted at about 1.00 pm was put out just before 4.00pm, said Press Officer at Interior Ministry Dad Mohammad Rasa. He added the carpenter was being searched by police to ascertain what caused the flames.

Iran pipeline plan a mistake: US – DAWN (PAK)

NEW DELHI, June 16: The US tersely told India on Thursday it would be a mistake to proceed with the proposed gas pipeline from Iran via Pakistan as it could attract sanctions. “We think it will be a mistake to proceed with the construction of such a pipeline,” visiting Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen G Rademaker was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying in Delhi.

“Primarily because we think such a pipeline would provide oil revenue to the Iranian government which would likely use such revenue to contribute funding to its weapons of mass destruction programme and to its support to terrorism,” Mr Rademaker said when asked about the reason for Washington’s view on the project.

The US has for long discouraged oil development in Iran. “We have in place legislation in the US that threatens sanctions against particular projects that will develop oil resources in Iran.”

Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar in Teheran recently has said India and Iran have agreed to form a special joint working group to thrash out technical, commercial, financial and legal issues for the pipeline to take off in early 2006.

[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.]