President Karzai Sends Condolences for Death of Nine Afghan National Army Soldiers in Kandahar Province Office of the President

Presidential Palace, Kabul - H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is deeply saddened by the news of nine Afghan National Army soldiers killed in an ambush in Spin Ghar Area of Shah Wali Kot, Kandahar Province.

In his reaction to the news, the President said: "I am deeply saddened by this incident, and I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims".

The President asked the relevant authorities to investigate the details of the incident and to bring the culprits to justice as soon as possible. The President appreciates the contributions of the Afghan National Army in providing security to the people of Afghanistan and deeply regrets such incidents targeting people dedicated to their country.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Violence in Afghanistan leaves nine soldiers, 40 militants dead
Thursday May 5, 10:39 PM AFP

Militants killed nine Afghan soldiers in an ambush while the Taliban death toll from a battle with US and Afghan troops rose to at least 40 in a wave of violence sweeping southern Afghanistan, officials said.

Rebels loyal to the ousted Islamic regime have launched a bloody spring offensive against Afghan government and military targets as well as the US-led coalition in the past month.

The renewed Taliban drive has left at least 100 insurgents and 12 police dead as the weather has become warmer in past one month, Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali told a press conference.

Nine Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in an ambush on Wednesday by "enemies of Afghanistan" in Shawali Kot, a troubled district of southern Kandahar province, defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Nohman Atifi told AFP.

He did not link the attackers to any particular group but similar attacks have in the past been blamed on remnants of the Taliban. Kandahar is regarded as the birthplace of the hardline movement.

The wounded soldiers were taken to a local hospital, the official said. He had no information if the attackers sustained any casualties.

US and Afghan officials on Thursday said the number of Taliban militants killed in a firefight in neighbouring Zabul province had doubled to at least 40.

Initial reports said 20 militants died in the clash on Tuesday in the troubled district of Deh Chopan, along with an Afghan police officer, while six US servicemen and five Afghan police were wounded, the US military said.

"Today, further reports indicate that the toll is going up to 40 for rebels," said Lieutenant Cindy Moore, a US coalition spokeswoman.

The clash was sparked when militants kidnapped three local doctors and police tried to free them, Interior Minister Jalali said."Finally the three doctors were freed safely," he added.

General Muslim Hamed, military commander for southern Afghanistan, told AFP 44 insurgents had been killed in fighting since Tuesday.There was no independent confirmation of the figures given by the US and Afghan officials. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Meanwhile one Afghan policeman was killed in another clash between militants and Afghan and coalition forces in Zabul on Wednesday, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

"There was a joint operation with coalition forces in Khak-e-Afghan district of Zabul which went on to 7:00 pm (1430 GMT). One policeman died, two were wounded and there are no details on enemy casualties at this moment," he said.

Pockets of Taliban insurgents are still waging a rebellion in provinces along the Afghan-Pakistani border three years after they were forced out of power by the US-led coalition forces following the September 11 attacks.

President Hamid Karzai has offered an olive branch to all but a hardcore of 150 militants accused of crimes against humanity, while the Taliban's former foreign minister this week urged them to join peace talks.More than 18,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting militants along with the fledgling national army.

Over 100 suspected terrorists killed in one month in Afghanistan

KABUL, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan law enforcing agencies backed by the US-led coalition force have killed over 100 suspected Taliban and their allied militants since early last month, Afghanistan's top security official said Thursday.

"More than 100 terrorists and insurgents have been killed in encounters with Afghan security personnel and coalition forces over the past one month," Ali Ahmad Jalali told reporters at a news conference here.

He also confirmed that most of these incidents had taken place in the restive south and southeastern provinces of the country where hundreds of Taliban fighters reportedly have been hiding. He said "only 12 policemen had lost their lives in encounters with the terrorists during the period."

Remnants of the Taliban, whose regime was ousted in late 2001 have intensified their hit-and-run attacks since the inception of spring in which over 50 people, half of them, according to Taliban sources, Americans had been killed.

In the meantime, US military spokesman Cindy Moore said that onTuesday some 40 Taliban militias were killed in a fierce gun battle in the troubled Deh Chopan district of southern Zabul province.

She also confirmed the death of one Afghan police officer and injuries of 11 others including five Afghans and six US servicemen in the deadly engagement.

The south and southeastern mountainous provinces commonly known as the heartland of Taliban have been the scene of increasing insurgency for the last several months in the post-war nation. Enditem

U.N. urges Afghans to find women's killers

May 5, 2005 - KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations urged Afghanistan on Thursday to spare no effort in the hunt for the killers of three women who were raped, strangled and dumped with a note warning women not to work for aid groups.

Aid workers in Afghanistan have been targeted by Taliban rebels, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three Afghan women were found this week in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban are not active.

"In a context where violence against women remains too often unprosecuted and unpunished, it is particularly important that the authorities spare no effort to bring swiftly the perpetrators to justice," a U.N. spokeswoman said, citing Jean Arnault, special representative for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

An Interior Ministry official said an investigation was under way but authorities had only identified one of the victims. Nevertheless, three suspects had been detained.

A note found attached to the chest of one of the dead women said their killing was "retribution" for women working for non-governmental groups and those "involved in whoredom." A doctor said forensic tests showed the three were raped and then strangled.

"The seriousness of the crime is compounded by the fact that a note was left at the scene implying that the killing of the three women was linked to their work with a non-governmental organization," the U.N. spokeswoman said.

"While there is no confirmation that this was the case or the actual motive of the killing, this could constitute a threat to women working for NGOs," she said.

A group calling itself Afghan Youths Convention claimed responsibility for the murders, according to a man who telephoned a Reuters reporter in northern Afghanistan.

The caller did not say if the previously unheard-of group had any link with militant Islamic groups such as the ousted Taliban.

Police had yet to determine the motive for the killings but a woman was among three people detained on suspicion of involvement, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal.

A group of nearly 100 women protested in central Kabul to demand the punishment of the killers, as well as those behind the killing of a woman on adultery charges in northeastern Badakhshan province two weeks ago. They called on President Hamid Karzai to ensure justice.

"The president ... should pay earnest and urgent attention to the punishment of the ... culprits," the demonstrators, representing various women's groups, said in a resolution.

wenty rebels, nine Afghan soldiers killed in ambush-Friday May 6, 1:52 AM AFP

At least 20 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers were killed after militants ambushed US and Afghan forces in the southern province of Kandahar, the US military said.

Four Afghan soldiers and one US soldier were also wounded in the firefight on Wednesday evening, US-led coalition spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore told AFP.

"An initial report indicates that more than 20 insurgents have been killed in Kandahar after the ambush," said the spokeswoman.

A defence ministry spokesman had earlier confirmed the deaths of the nine soldiers but had no information on the numbers of attackers killed.

The soldiers were on a mission in Shawali Kot, a troubled district in Kandahar, when they were attacked, spokesman Mohammad Nohman Atifi told AFP.

He blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban and other Islamic militants waging a rebellion against US and Afghan forces.

Around 60 militants, most of them believed to be from the Taliban, have been killed in the past three days, according to US and Afghan officials. There was no way of independently confirming the figure.

On Tuesday around 44 suspected Taliban militants were killed in a fierce firefight with Afghan and US troops in Deh Chopan area of Zabul province on Tuesday, the US military said.

"I know that 44 insurgents were killed and six were detained" in the fighting, Moore told AFP on Thursday. She had earlier put the militants' toll at 40.

A spring offensive by the Taliban in southern and southeastern Afghanistan has left at least 100 militants and 12 policemen dead in the last month, officials said earlier Thursday.

Commander 'has more arms dumps'By Andrew North BBC News, Bajgah district, northern Afghanistan Thursday, 5 May, 2005

A militia commander whose illegal munitions dump exploded in Afghanistan killing 28 people has admitted that he has several such stores.

Thirteen people were injured in Monday's explosion in the village of Bajgah, some 120km (80 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.

The ammunition belonged to Jalal Bajgah, a militia commander who said he had disarmed under a government scheme. All the dead were relatives of Mr Bajgah, who controlled the store.

Mr Bajgah was supposed to have disarmed under a nationwide programme aimed at removing all weapons from the control of private militias.

He has now denied that he was hiding these weapons from the disarmament programme. Bizarre tragedy

Mr Bajgah told the BBC that he had asked for help from the Afghan authorities to remove the ammunition from his home district of Bajgah.

It is hard to take in the scale of this bizarre tragedy in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. Nearly half this village has been turned to rubble after the still unexplained blast. The arms store was under the house of the brother of Mr Bajgah.

At first, he said he had only kept explosives there for use in road building.

Still traumatised by the disaster, he now concedes he also had large quantities of ammunition there dating from the time of the Soviet invasion.

But Dutch Nato peacekeeping troops based in the area confirm the commander had told them about his weapons.

Just last week they said they had had discussions with him about moving some of them to safety.

He also told the troops that he had several other stores he says he wants emptying.

Mr Bajgah's men showed us one in an unguarded crumbling brick building holding hundreds of tank and artillery shells.

Most of the shell casings were rusty, many were mouldy.

A Dutch officer said it was ultimately up to the Afghan authorities to collect and clear these old and highly dangerous ammunition stores.

But with so many of them in this area alone and with only limited resources available, that is not going to happen quickly.

So the risk of another explosion like the one here at Bajgah remains high.

Empowering Afghan women-Washington Times Op-Ed Page: Thursday May 5, 2005

By Saad Mohseni and Don Ritter

Noble intentions sometimes hinder rather than help achieve noble goals.
Two decades of war and a Taliban policy that reflected total ignorance of women and their importance to society have stimulated the West to make up for the deprivations suffered by Afghan women.

Over the last three years, the international community funded hundreds of women's nongovernmental organizations and efforts associated with the development of women's groups. Although many of these projects have assisted thousands of women in achieving higher levels of self-reliance and independence, the bigger picture is that Afghanistan's women remain isolated and to a large extent still irrelevant in one essential place, the country's private sector.

Afghanistan's women generally exist in parallel to their male counterparts.

Segregated at an early age, Afghanistan's men and women have little or no opportunity to develop interpersonal skills crucial to social cohesion.

Creating new divisions and lines of privilege within the pool of limited private-sector resources slows people down; it builds new obstacles where natural activity and gender integration might otherwise flow.

An organization affiliated with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) recently proposed building a women's industrial park in Kabul referred to as the "The Kabul Textile Works." Given that industrial parks are situated on the outskirts of Kabul, it would force women to venture out of town to work and shop. The long trip out of town cancels out the potential benefits of being an all-women's environment. Many of the women could be exposed to checkpoints and possible intimidation or harassment on their lengthy trips just attempting to get to the "women's industrial park."

Employers in Afghanistan already recognize that their female employees'

biggest challenge is transport and traveling long distances with the permission of their families.

This would amount to gender division, funded by the international community, inadvertently encouraging the replication of social mores akin to a country like Saudi Arabia.

Another proposal -- a "women's bank" -- proffers similar contradictions. A large majority of Afghan women are illiterate and such an organization could just as easily as a regular bank exploit the women it intends to assist. Why not work with existing banks to provide specialized services for women customers, thereby trying to integrate them?

America's response to segregation of blacks, and women for that matter, was to integrate and to offer affirmative action, not create new segregated institutions. What's good for one of the world's most integrated societies should serve as a telling example for one of the world's most divided.
Men and women need to work together first so they can find ways to work together successfully. There are tasks in many organizations that only men can perform, and best perform in conjunction with women and vice versa. But to eliminate qualified males whose higher level of training could benefit large numbers of women is, in fact, counterproductive to the intent of "women-only initiatives."

An example is the Afghan Women's Vocational Skills Learning Center, a local nonprofit which has done far more to benefit Afghan women than many of the "women-only" NGOs in Kabul. The head of the organization is a man and a master tailor and educator of highly reputable character.

To date, he has certified over 6,000 women with vocational skills related to tailoring and handicrafts. Plus, because he is also an effective businessman, he often is able to employ his best graduates and provide them with concrete income generation. His organization has much to do with his character and years of experience.

But he has been turned down for training visits abroad and other programs that would benefit the large numbers of women that he assists. Rather than accept the reality that in modern-day Afghanistan, organizations are led by men, but still can benefit women, he was told by UNIFEM that they were only interested in "women-led" organizations.

It is time for the international community to step back a little and examine this phenomenon and ensure that the assistance provided integrates women into society and does not isolate them.

The private sector in Afghanistan is the best hope to integrate women into society. In the wider business community, experienced businessmen and women can assist in building capacity amongst women. Integration and the performance of women in the private sector should be the goals of the donors.

Integration -- particularly in developing women's business potential -- could bode well for a more cohesive existence that benefits Afghanistan's capacity to perform, not only as a market economy, but as a nation.

Saad Mohseni is a director of Moby Capital Partners, a commercial media entity in Afghanistan. Former Rep. Don Ritter is an investor in Afghanistan and senior adviser to an Afghan business-community effort to promote investment and market-based economic policies.

Afghan art goes on display -The Associated Press 05/05/2005

WASHINGTON - Tamerlane, or Timur the Lame, one of history's bloodiest conquerors, made the northwestern Afghan city of Herat his capital 600 years ago. Under his less violent heirs it became the art capital of central Asia.

The Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is putting on an exhibit that emphasizes the artistic side of the Timurids, as Timur's successors were called. One of the 33 exhibits in the show goes back to the conqueror himself, who died in 1405.

A calligrapher in Tamerlane's court, Omar Aqta, copied the whole text of Islam's Quran - hundreds of pages - in a manuscript small enough to fit inside a signet ring.

"That's common now," said Massumeh Farhad, curator of the show and of the Sackler's Islamic art. "But I think they're printed. Some people wear them in amulets around their necks."

The story goes that Tamerlane wasn't impressed by the calligrapher's miniaturization. He promoted art but he preferred things big, like the tower made of 70,000 severed human heads he once ordered built in a conquered city. So Aqta copied the Quran in letters about eight inches high, seven lines to a page. The complete work was brought to Tamerlane in a wheelbarrow, and Aqta was suitably rewarded.

A single yellowed page more than five feet high, the writing still sharp and clear, opens the Washington exhibit.

Herat's heritage as a political hot spot was underlined last week when crowds of demonstrators there chanted "Down with America." They called for the return of a war lord ousted as provincial governor by Afghanistan's central government. His successor said troops had to fire in the air to hold them back from his residence, which they had been stoning.

For 500 years the city has been known as the home and workplace of Kamal-uddin Bihzad, often called the greatest of Persian miniature painters. The city was also known for the poetry of Jami, one of the most influential of Persian writers, and for its ancient ruins and buildings. Many of the buildings were ordered by Queen Gauhar Shad, Tamerlane's daughter-in-law.

Much of the ancient construction is in poor condition and there are few tourists to admire it because of the unrest and occasional fighting.

"Mud brick buildings don't stand up as well as stone to time and weather," Ms. Farhad said. Military operations did their part after the Soviet occupation of 1979, followed by civil war and the U.S.-British war on the ruling Taliban that began in 2001.
The 33 objects in the Washington exhibit are mainly paintings and the calligraphy that many Muslims admire as the highest form of art.

Herat is still known for its mauri rugs, which resemble the traditional rugs of Persia, today's Iran. But the best-known Afghan carpets today, some made in the Herat area, are small ones like prayer rugs with childlike maps and drawings of Russian tanks and planes and a few English words - often badly spelled. But rugs and carpets are not in the show.

The Sackler Gallery claims to have more of Bihzad's work than any other American collection. Ms. Farhad estimated there are only five to 15 paintings in the world generally considered to be genuine Bihzads, but she hesitated to say how many of them are in the Sackler collection.

As happened to many famous Western painters, she explained, forgers put Bihzad's signature on work done by pupils or imitators.

"Now there's disagreement about what is authentic, as there is about Rembrandts," she said. "People spend their lives studying things like that."
One painting in the show, sometimes attributed to Bihzad, tells the story of a king whose favorite concubine ran away with a lover. The king went off in fierce pursuit and discovered the pair sitting under a canopy on a large boat. The painting shows the king on horseback, gazing at the lovers from the shore and deciding to let them go because their love is greater than his.

"Compassion was one of the attributes of kingship," Ms. Farhad explained.
The effect is a bit spoiled because the silver that the miniaturists used to represent water has faded to black over the centuries.
Admission to the exhibit is free. It will be on display through Aug. 7.

A roundup of the past month's good news from Afghanistan
Wall St. Journal 05/04/2005 By Arthur Chrenkoff (Continued from yesterday)

After decades of conflict and destruction, Kabul is starting to undergo urban renewal. Elsewhere throughout the country, some areas are thriving, like the city of Herat:

If the Pentagon started to look for a rest-and-recuperation spot for its troops inside Afghanistan, it could do far worse than this large city near the Iranian border.

"There are two words I would use to describe Herat," said Sgt. 1st Class David Stansberry, serving his second tour in country. "Prosperity and cultural."
In other words, Herat doesn't look like most of Afghanistan. It has modern buildings, paved streets and basic infrastructure. Its people, while approximating the cultural mix that makes up the country, seem a little different as well.

"The people seem to be more interested in developing their economy than shooting bullets at each other," said Maj. Tim Butts, the Task Force Longhorn engineer. "It's a very rich province, probably the richest in country."

Much of Herat's current success can be attributed to its geography. It's located in a relatively flat area that sits on trade routes to Iran and Turkmenistan.
In the past, Afghan society had much underused one of its great resources--its women. Now, various American initiatives are helping Afghan women to get into the world of business:

American businesses, especially American businesswomen, are working closely with the U.S. government to promote the interests of Afghan women, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky says. Briefing reporters in Washington April 4 on the sixth meeting of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council that took place in Kabul March 29-31, Dobriansky, who co-chairs the council with the Afghan Ministers of Women's Affairs and Foreign Affairs, said the private sector provides a dimension of assistance to Afghan women that the public sector does not. "Many of the government projects are large-scale and they might be more impersonal, like road building, but many of the projects that involve the private sector build ties in terms of personal relationships," Dobriansky said.

The under secretary said that, for instance, one of the U.S. council members arranged for 15 Afghan businesswomen to pursue a mini-MBA program at the Thunderbird School of International Management in Arizona, one of the highest rated international business schools in the United States. The 15 Afghan businesswomen will be mentored during the next two years as they implement their business plans, which involve a wide range of projects, such as promoting tourism, targeting the consumer sector and partnering with hotels. . . .

One of the most innovative ideas for entrepreneurship involves helping young artists at an 'incredible school' for orphans and abandoned children in Asiana, a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, to sell their paintings...

Dobriansky said other private-public sector projects involve an initiative to help Afghan women weave carpets and ship them to the United States for sale; a $40,000 grant from Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, for micro-enterprise loans for Afghan women; assistance from the Loma Linda Hospital in California to a hospital in Kabul; and funding from AOL-Time Warner company for a women's resource center in Parwan Province. The under secretary said she expects other companies to fund more women's resource centers in Afghanistan.

President Bush's wife, Laura, joined the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council at the Women's Teacher Training Institute in Kabul. Laura Bush, who was a librarian and works to promote literacy as first lady, has been personally involved with the creation of the institute since its inception. "The goal of this institute is to train teachers who will be dispatched out to rural areas and will target young boys and girls who may not have as many benefits as do those in urban areas," Dobriansky said...

While at the Women's Teacher Training Institute, the first lady announced that the United States will contribute $17.7 million for the construction of an American University in Kabul and $3.5 million for an international school in Afghanistan running from kindergarten through 12th grade, Dobriansky said.

Dobriansky said microenterprise is a key area in terms of providing loans for communities and for different types of economic projects. One of the projects that is expected to have a major beneficial impact on impoverished Afghan women is the Afghan Conservation Corps.

Not surprisingly, women are starting to make an impact in the business world:

Sara Rahmani, businesswoman, picks a brown burqa-style dress from the rack, and holding it in front of her face, shows with a broad smile how she refashioned it for post-Taliban Afghanistan. The all-covering shroud that was mandatory under the hard-line regime has become a flowing gown, with head uncovered and the eye-level gauze dropped to the chest--- though not too low. It's on sale now for $30 (U.S.) at her Kabul store.

The 36-year old former refugee is among the growing number of Afghan women going into business, capitalizing on new opportunities in a thriving, yet still male-dominated economy three years after the fall of the Islamist government.

Speaking of businesswomen, read also this unusual story of breaking barriers:

Looking around Kabul after the war, Sediqi saw many women entering traditionally female lines of work. She herself had worked from home as a tailor under the Taliban rule and relied on her brother to sell her goods. But when the Taliban fell, she said, many women began to set up tailoring shops, and the competition was too stiff. So she decided to defy conventional notions about what is appropriate work for women. She saw that after years of war, much of Afghanistan's infrastructure and many of its buildings were in desperate need of repair. Being an enterprising businesswoman, she launched herself into Afghanistan's newest growth industry: construction.

Throughout the country, USAID is helping with creation of vital economic infrastructure:

Industrial parks support economic growth in Afghanistan by serving as a mechanism for organizing and concentrating scarce public infrastructure resources. This encourages private investor interest, and generates employment opportunities. There are three industrial parks under various stages of construction in Afghanistan: Kabul: Design and contracting stage complete. Though delayed by the severe weather, construction is underway. Thirty-four lots have been sold. Overall, about 65% complete.
Kandahar: Land preparation, sidewalks, sewage, and drainage designs are complete. Electricity and water supply designs are nearing completion. Overall, about 25% complete.

Mazar-e Sharif: Land preparation, roads, and sidewalk designs complete. Designs for water supply, sewage, electricity, and communication are underway. Overall, about 10% complete. In April, the major pipeline project in South Asia moved one step closer, with the Asian Development Bank's audit of Daulatabad gas field now completed.

The project sounds impressive:

The 1700-km-long [1,050-mile] pipeline, with a 56-inch diameter, will carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan. It will traverse a 750-kilometer [450-mile] area in Afghanistan--starting from Herat and passing through Helmand, Farah and Kandahar.

And it has now received the final approval in mid-April, with the work set to begin in December. More here.

According to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, "bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan will touch US $1 billion mark this year and will be further enhanced by opening new rail and road links." Pakistan is also currently considering opening more border crossings with Afghanistan to accommodate the booming trade and contacts between the two countries. The number commonly mentioned is 10, on top of the three currently in operation. More about the growing trade between the two countries here.

Afghanistan's communication infrastructure is getting another upgrade thanks to an Asian Development Bank loan:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help to improve telecommunications in Afghanistan through a US$35 million loan signed Wednesday to finance the nationwide expansion and upgrading of the country's leading cellular network. According to an ADB statement, the project will use a global system for mobile communications (GSM), cellular, satellite, and radio wave transmission technologies to extend the coverage of Roshan, a private limited liability company that provides cellular telephone, public call office, international gateway, and Internet services in Afghanistan. The project will help to expand Roshan's coverage towards its ultimate goal of countrywide coverage and will help fund the deployment of public call offices which extend the reach of telecoms to the less affluent and more remote users.

After 23 years of conflict, Afghanistan is left with no functioning national fixed line telecommunications service, a barely functioning postal service, and poor roads. Cellular networks are still embryonic and require significant additional investment, particularly if they are to reach beyond the major cities. According to the ADB statement, pent-up demand for telephony services has been demonstrated by subscriber numbers significantly exceeding original projections.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government has invited bids for two more GSM mobile licenses:

According to the Ministry it is expected that these new licenses will generate large amount of revenues for the government in license fees, attract more than US$ 200 million in new foreign direct investment and create thousands of skilled, well-paying jobs. Currently the two GMS mobile companies Roshan and AWCC have a subscriber base of 800,000, accounting for 3% of the country's population.

Another loan will help Afghanistan to improve its transport infrastructure:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday granted an 80 million dollar loan for war-torn Afghanistan to improve a key part of the country's infrastructure. This project will reconstruct the last unpaved section of the national primary ring road, spanning 210 kilometres [130 miles] from Andkhoy to Qaisar in northern Faryab province, according to Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady.

The project will be an important link in the government's commitment to completing the 2,700 kilometre [1,675-mile] Afghanistan ring road as quickly as possible, Ahady said.

Construction will be also starting on a very important international link:

The US military in Afghanistan is going to connect the post-war Afghanistan with Tajikistan by building a bridge over Oxus River . . ., chief of US Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan said here on Monday. "We recently made to award a contract for the construction of the Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge spanning the Pyandzh River at Shir Khan in Kunduz province. This bridge will serve as a vital link connecting the central Asian region with outside markets," John B. O'Dowd told at a press conference. . . . The contract of the 28 million US dollars project was signed with the Italian firm Rizzani de Eccher S.P.A of Udine on March 21.

More here. And here's another recent significant project:

Construction of a road building project from Said Karam district in the eastern province of Paktia to the Afghan-Pakistan border was inaugurated on Wednesday, the head of the department of information and culture of Paktia told Pajhwok Afghan News. The official, Deen Mohammed Darwish, said the 70.3 km-long road would connect Gardez to the Dand Patan district at a cost of $1.67 million funded by the World Bank. The 9 meter-wide road will be constructed by an Afghan-Korean construction company in six months. The road will be reinforced by 3,300 meters of wall as protection against floods. Paktia governor Hakim Taniwal formally inaugurated the project on Wednesday.

The road will link four districts Sayed Karam, Ahmed Khel, Samkani and Dand Patan districts of Paktiya province Ghulam Nabi Farahi, an official of the commerce ministry said 'it is a great step for trade and investment for Afghanistan.' This is a transit road and will help to import goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan and from Afghanistan to Central Asia.

In Jalalabad, the inner-city roads will be improved at a cost of $560,000 over the next two months. According to provincial officials, "the 14 kilometer [8.5-mile] city road will be asphalted and renovated to make passenger travel easier and cheaper." Meanwhile, 35 of the 100 Hino buses donated by the government of Pakistan will arrive in Afghanistan shortly. "460 buses have been donated to Afghanistan by Japan, India and Iran over the last three years," but that's still proving not enough to cope with commuter problems in the booming Kabul.

In other transport news, "the southeastern city of Gardiz, the capital of Paktia province will have its first airport for civilian and military flights within three months. Funded by the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS), the airport will be constructed at a cost of $370,000."

And to help with the construction boom now under way,
A cement factory based in Dubai, the International Star Cement Factory has announced that it will spend US$25 million on the renovations of an old cement factory in Ghor district in northern Baghlan province. The international companies will, after talks with the United States, India and the Arab States announce the starting date soon. The Ghor Cement Factory was built in 1961 by Czechoslovakian government with a budget of 4 million Afs ($93,000). At that time the factory had 736 employees. It was later partially destroyed when fighting broke out between the Mujahideen Resistance and the Soviet forces.

A change in strategy may lead to more progress on the reconstruction front:

Afghanistan won support from the World Bank and Britain on Tuesday in its bid to have a bigger slice of the billions of dollars of aid money that flow into the country channelled through its own budget. . . . Afghan President Hamid Karzai has argued that large amounts of aid are wasted due to inefficiency or corruption among non-government organisations stepping outside their role as providers of humanitarian and development aid. . . .

A World Bank representative backed Karzai's request for greater control of the purse strings, not least to enable Afghan firms to become more involved in reconstruction.
The Turkish government, meanwhile, has committed itself to further assistance with the reconstruction of Afghanistan, mainly to build more schools and hospitals.

Electrification continues, through projects such as this:

The construction of a 110-kilowatt dam in a remote village of Worsaj district (Takhar) has brought power facility to about 150 families living there. Prior to the dam's construction, residents of Dar Hawili village had no electricity and yearned for the facility. But now they can enjoy having light for 16 hours a day. Provincial Rural Rehabilitation and Development Department's head Mohammad Nazir said the dam in Worsaj district had been built at a cost of 3.1 million afghanis [$72,000] by the National Solidarity Programme.

In a similar initiative:

About 1,500 families are enjoying the electricity facility after the construction of a power-generating dam on a self-help basis in the Manogi district of the eastern Kunar province. Costing 10 million afghanis [$233,000] pooled by residents and traders of the district, the dam started functioning on April 11--bringing to fruition a significant plan initiated by the people themselves.

Meanwhile, the Afghan water and power minister, Ismail Khan, says: "We are ready to involve the private sector in generation and supply of electricity in order to bring efficiency to this vital sector." More help comes from the Asian Development Bank:

[ADB said] it has approved a 50-million-dollar assistance package for a power supply improvement project in rural Afghanistan. This will include a 26.5-million-dollar soft loan to finance the construction of a transmission network and a 23.5-million-dollar grant for construction and rehabilitation of substations and low-voltage distribution systems... The project, due for completion in June 2008, will benefit 1.2 million people by providing electrical connections with affordable and flexible payment options.

USAID is assisting the development of Afghan agriculture:

USAID is enhancing food security and income for the rural population through its Rebuilding Afghanistan's Agricultural Markets Program (RAMP). The project's objectives are to increase agricultural output and productivity as well as boost incomes by linking producers and markets. The program supports the extension of technologies (new crop varieties, fertilizers, crop management and protection, equipment and machinery) through extensive field demonstrations, information dissemination, and building private sector capacity. RAMP has made significant strides this reporting period and each achievement serves to enhance the impact of the others. Farmer training programs, including crop demonstrations, field days, and training by extension agents, build rural capacity and enhance productivity and quality of produce. Since March 13, USAID has trained 10,128 farmers for a total of 606,364 farmers since July 2003. Rehabilitating rural roads ensures that farmers can get their produce to market. In the past two weeks, twelve km of farm-to-market roads were paved, bringing the total to 312 km. Village-based seed enterprises (VBSE) are farmer-led seed production and marketing units that help farmers get rapid access to quality seed of improved crop varieties. To date, there are 15 operational VBSEs that have produced 813 tons of improved seed. To facilitate applications of the new technologies, RAMP repairs irrigation structures: In the past two weeks, 7 km of canals were repaired in the Nangarhar Valley and, in Helmand, 8 km of the Boghra canal were fixed. Together, these repairs have improved irrigation for 400 hectares in the two provinces.

A $5.2 million project will build embankments along Amo, Afghanistan's largest river:

From Jawzjan to Takhar . . . embankments would be constructed anew along Afghanistan's largest river, whose water recently gushed into populated areas, damaging about 55 villages. . . . The Amo River--in full spate in the wake of snowmelt upstream--has already eroded 168,000 hectares of land in northern provinces. Also washing away crops and orchards, the flooding has inflicted losses on farmers.

Even some not much more fortunate neighbors are trying to help: "The government of Uzbekistan has sent humanitarian aid to neighboring Afghanistan. Jahon [the Uzbek government's information agency] reported that some 60,000 plating stocks [were sent] to Mazari-Sharif."

• Humanitarian aid. More help is coming for those most in need:

The World Food Program (WFP) have pledged 600 metric tons of food stuff worth US$158 million to the Afghan people who can't afford food, for the year 2005... Abad Ullah Abadi, the spokesman for the WFP . . . said the program would donate food in exchange for work and training people. He said in the last few months, 367,000 Afghans have taken advantage of this assistance.

In addition the WFP is committed to 178 other projects, aimed at making Afghan people self-sufficient in farming, rebuilding streets, cleaning of canals, carpentry and tailoring.

"On April 20 (Wed), the Government of Japan decided to extend emergency assistance in kind equivalent to about 13 million yen (approx. 12.5 thousand dollars) including tents, blankets and plastic sheets to the Government of Afghanistan, which has sustained great damage from flooding caused by heavy rains." More here. The International Commission for the Red Cross (ICRC) has over the past four months built a water supply system to bring clean drinking water to 2,200 homes in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Twelve year-old Adnan, "who was often seen in the streets pushing his wheel barrow laden with water," had the right idea: "Thank God that we now have water that comes through a pipeline straight to our house, I can now go and play [soccer] instead of wasting time getting water."

Speaking of Nangarhar:

In a remarkable gesture of community help, officials and traders of Nangarhar got together to help 6,000 victims of flood and rain in 21 districts of the province. The secretary to the Nangarhar Governor, Engineer Munir said that each family got 30 kgs [66 pounds] of food including sugar, tea and rice on April 20th. He told Pajhwok Afghan News that sometime ago they had helped 1000 house in Hasark district.

Grass-roots efforts continue across the United States. From Penn State University:

Outreach employees teamed up to help see women and children through the grueling Afghanistan winter with warm clothing donations. Outreach staff collected and sent a total of 14 boxes full of warm coats, gloves, hats, scarves, sweaters, boots, long johns and blankets to Afghanistan after receiving a request from a World Campus student living and working near the Uzbekistan border in Mazar-e-Sharif.

There is also help from Canada:

Members of the 49th Field Regiment were busy during lunch hour Monday at the Sault Armoury loading some precious cargo for an important trip halfway around the world. Boxes full of clothing and pencils are on their way to Afghanistan thanks to the generosity of a wide range of Sooites. The pencils are part of the Zonta Club's "A Million Pencils for Afghanistan" project. The organization of business and professional women help out various causes. Lucy Holden, a grade 12 student from Mount St. Joseph College, spearheaded a clothing drive campaign to help Afghan children after she received an email from her father who is serving with the Canadian Forces in the war ravaged country.

This American woman finally gets the chance to see the results of her work:

Sally Goodrich, whose son died in the Sept. 11 attacks, kept a grip on her grief as she surveyed the foundations of the Afghan school being built with money she raised in the United States. But the 59-year-old, who lost her son in the second plane to hit the World Trade Center, has been overwhelmed more than once as she surveyed the striking landscape of mountains and plains where al-Qaida honed its plot.

"How could it possibly have come from a place of such reverence and tranquility?" she told The Associated Press in the Afghan capital this week, the thought bringing fresh tears and a determined smile.

And one little patient is coming back home from the U.S.:

A frail 16-month-old boy diagnosed with severe cardiac problems at a refugee camp near Kabul began his return trip home . . .--surgically repaired and chubby-cheeked. The long journey for Qudrat Wardak began in September, when an Indiana National Guard doctor examined him at the camp near the Afghan capital and found numerous heart defects--the worst being the reversal of the heart's main blood vessels that stunted the baby's growth.

He weighed about as much as a typical 5-month-old when he arrived in the United States in late February for surgery. "He couldn't talk, he couldn't play, he couldn't eat or do anything," Qudrat's father, Hakimgul Wardak, said as the boy and his father prepared to leave Indianapolis International Airport. He spoke through an interpreter.
Hakimgul Wardak said his wife won't recognize her little boy. "She will be so amazed and she's probably not going to be able to take her eyes off Qudrat," he said."
More about Qudrat's welcome home here. • Coalition troops. Provincial Reconstruction Teams, the main vehicle through which the coalition forces are assisting Afghans in rebuilding their country, are reporting on the successes so far:

The US-led coalition forces revealed on Monday they had successfully completed 16,000 projects in different Afghan areas since 2001 as part of the reconstruction effort. Director of Civil-Military Operations Col. Guy Sands told journalists at a news conference here that in 2004 alone, $60 million had been spent on a string of projects in different provinces through provincial reconstruction teams.

Col. Guy Sands explained the projects initiated after the fall of the Taliban government covered the reconstruction of schools, health clinics and sanitation plans in different provinces.

According to the spokesperson for the coalition forces, at the moment 20 provincial reconstruction teams were busy trying to rebuild Afghanistan. Of these teams, 14 are led by the coalition and the rest by the peacekeeping forces.

Speaking of which:

Italian Col. Aldo Guaccio assumed command of the Herat Provincial Reconstruction Team today from U.S. Navy Cdr. Kimberly Evans. The ceremony was part of the International Security Assistance Force expansion into western Afghanistan, marking the reduction of U.S. forces in the west.

And the Japanese government, which has not deployed armed forces to Afghanistan, has now reached an agreement with NATO to provide other support for their efforts to rebuild the country.

Sometimes less lofty efforts of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams can be important
Rows of shoes stand at attention next to neat stacks of T-shirts and sweaters folded dress-right-dress. These items have all passed Sgt. Rena Brownridge's inspection. Brownridge, with the Gardez provincial reconstruction team's Civil Affairs Team Alpha, is in charge of sorting all of the boxes of humanitarian aid sent to the PRT. "I saw all the boxes just kind of sitting around and that was kind of it," she said. "I rolled up my sleeves and got busy."

Surrounded by mountains of shoes, clothing and toys, Brownridge methodically works her way through the piles, sorting items by size, color and even season. "It's amazing some of the stuff we get. A lot of it is brand new or close to it," she said, smiling as she held a tiny red corduroy jumper at eye level. "A lot of the children here don't get toys. They're like little adults. It's hard for them to be children when they're already out working, supporting their families. Even if it's just a Beanie Baby or a box of crayons, I think it gives them a piece of their childhood back."

After sorting and re-boxing the items, Brownridge and her team take them to area villages. "We don't just go out and drop off boxes. We physically go out and give it to the people ourselves because we want to make sure that it actually gets to them," she said. "We also want to put a human face on our presence here. Some of these people have never seen an American soldier up close and they don't know what to expect. . . . It's important that we show them that we're people too and we're here to help them, no strings attached."
The troops also continue to support Afghan schools:
Soldiers of the 109th Engineer Group, deployed here from Rapid City, S.D., took a break from their engineer management duties in and around Bagram to deliver much-needed school supplies to the Boys Uzbashi Secondary School April 4. The supplies will prove beneficial to the 135 boys who attend the school. The school is located in Parwan Province.

On April 16, the Gardez Provincial Reconstruction Team members participated in the official opening of a new school, the Sadet Khail School in Ahmad Aba, designed and built by the team:

The new school replaces a cramped three-room building that was previously used for grades one through six. It is more than twice as big as the old school and will teach grades one through nine, about 550 students in all. . . . Local residents hope the school will become a beacon, drawing students from surrounding villages there to further their education.

And this "adopt a village" action is bringing assistance to Afghan kids:

Airpower's "global reach" took on a whole new meaning March 29 when 50-plus Airmen traveled to two villages a few miles outside Bagram to equip local Afghan children with supplies for their future. Men and women of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing delivered bags filled with school supplies to about 400 children from Ja Farkel and Langi Khail, two villages within Afghanistan's Parwan Province.

In addition, each child received his or her own toy, said Senior Master Sgt. Tim Bolon, the 455th Expeditionary Mission Support Group first sergeant. "We also dropped off about 40 large bags of men's, women's and children's clothing at each location--all donated by our troops here and their support system back home."

As bad weather continues across Afghanistan, the troops continue to be called on for humanitarian and rescue missions. In Uruzgan province, helicopter crews have been helping villagers stranded by flooding:

Three days of heavy rains caused flooding along the Helmand River near Deh Rawod, roughly 70 kilometers [45 miles] northeast of Kandahar. More than 200 villagers were stranded on an island that was shrinking amid the rising water. U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, followed by flights of CH-47 Chinook helicopters, launched from a military base near Kandahar. They rescued the trapped villagers and took them to a nearby aid station set up by the coalition.

Elsewhere, U.S. troops, together with the Afghan National Army soldiers, rescued 300 residents of the village of Lublan from rising waters.

On one day, March 21, C-130 Hercules airlifters with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron flew from Karshi-Khanabd Air Base in Uzbekistan with three humanitarian airdrop missions "bringing needed supplies and water to remote areas of Afghanistan."

"Flying three airdrop missions in one day is nearly unprecedented for us," says 774th EAS Commander Lt. Col. Jesse Simmons, from the Georgia Air National Guard at Savannah. "That many airdrop missions is more than we would normally do in a given day, but we did it and the missions were very successful."

Medical evacuation of Afghans in need is also routine for the coalition medical0 personnel, whether to treat gunshots, burns or infections:

An 18-month-old boy was treated by Coalition personnel for third-degree burns to both feet after an oil lamp in the child's home spilled flaming oil over the floor. The toddler was originally evacuated to Asadabad, but the medical facilities there were insufficient to care for the severity of his burns. He was flown by a Coalition aircraft to Bagram Airfield's Lacy Hospital for treatment.

In Kunar province:

Children suffering from difficult-to-treat medical conditions in rural Afghanistan may have no better friend than the Marines of "America's Battalion." Over the course of their deployment to Afghanistan, the Marines and Navy Corpsmen of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, have come to the aid of several local children who otherwise were not receiving treatment for very serious injuries. One such local teenager named Syed Ullah, recently received a prosthetic eye after Marines on patrol in Nagalam discovered his wounds. Near Khwost:

A new brick-and-mortar medical clinic opened April 24 at Forward Operating Base Salerno. . . . The building will be used by Coalition forces to offer medical services to Afghans in what is known as a Medical Cooperative Assistance Program, or MEDCAP.

Medical expertise doesn't just benefit humans:

Task Force Victory Surgeon Cell held a cooperative medical assistance mission for Afghan livestock here March 22--24. Taking care of 3,256 animals is a big step in raising the health level of the Afghan people, said head veterinarian Dr. (Lt. Col.) Mark Martinez. Livestock in Afghanistan can be infected with worms if un-vaccinated. When eaten, the meat from these animals can pass the parasites to humans, said Dr. (Lt. Col.) Mike Lennon, an operations officer for the TFV Surgeon Cell. "Livestock is the largest industry in Afghanistan," he said. "Over 80 percent of families make a living from their livestock."

Sometimes, it's inspiration rather than perspiration, as these American servicemen--and women--at the Bagram Air Base recently showed what's possible:
American and Coalition forces celebrated International Women's History Month by holding a Women's Bazaar and Women's Day Commemoration honoring women from all over the world March 25 and 26. Women began serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in 1901 by enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps. In 1948 women were allowed permanent status in all the armed services. Throughout the years, women in the military have come a long way. Women are now pilots, mechanics, command sergeants major and officers. Currently, more than 350,000 women comprise approximately 15 percent of the active duty, reserve and guard units of the U.S. Armed Forces.

In honor of International Women's History Month, a women's bazaar for Afghan women was organized by Sgt. Jamila Hodges, TSA Force Unit. "This is our first ever women's bazaar. The women were scared to participate due to threats and rumors circulating throughout their villages," said Hodges. "But change is a focus, and we must be patient."

Celebrating International Women's History Month is very important in Afghanistan. "The women of Afghanistan need to see that American Soldiers are trying to create change. When we tell them and then show them (how to change), it is easier for them to mimic our actions. If we take baby steps, it will change to bigger steps, which leads to improvement," said Hodges.

Zuhra Hussine, a vendor at the bazaar, had a smile on her face as she completed a sale. "I will go back to my village and let them know the business here is good and we are so happy. The people here are so good to us," said Hussine."

It's not just American troops, of course. Read about how U.S., Afghan and Romanian troops are cooperating in counterinsurgency operations in Kandahar province. The Italians, meanwhile, have recently taken over the Herat Provincial Reconstruction Team. "There are about 70 Italians in place at Herat, with more than 200 slated to arrive by the end of May." Italian soldiers have already been helping for some time now, both in security and humanitarian fields:

Italian soldiers of Italfor 10 contingent in Iraq distributed four tons of humanitarian aids (clothes, food, toys) in Kabul to 800 children of the greatest orphanage of the country, Tahai Maskan, in western suburbs of Kabul. A note reads that it was the occasion for a direct meeting between militaries and children. 'The example of civilisation and solidarity shown by the Italian soldiers is a tangible sign of their action and presence aimed at stabilising our country after a devastating 10-years-long war' the orphanage director, Soraya Abdullah Hakim, said.

Mongolian troops, meanwhile, are providing howitzer and mortar training to Afghan soldiers:

To date, they have trained over 50 officers, 100 non-commissioned officers and 300 soldiers. Of significant note, the Mongolian trainers have graduated 20 D-30 gun instructors who will become the cadre for training the next class of future Afghan artillery specialists.

And this from our other Asian allies:
For almost two years, the soldiers of the Korean Hospital at Bagram Airfield have been providing medical support to Afghans and members of the Coalition. After many months of hard work and dedication, the 924th Medical Group of the Korean Hospital reached the achievement of treating 130,000 patients.

• Security. Good geo-strategic news:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said . . . he is seeking a long-term security partnership that could keep U.S. troops there indefinitely and make permanent the military relationship that began when U.S. forces invaded his country in 2001.

Meanwhile, the close security cooperation between the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan continues with the 10th meeting of the tripartite anti-terror commission. And in the clearest possible case of "for your freedom and ours," Afghanistan will be sending some troops to Iraq.

The amnesty offered by the Afghan and the American authorities for more junior Taliban who haven't committed crimes is paying off. According to presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin, "a large number of Taliban high-ranking leaders accepted the government-initiated national reconciliation policy and would soon announce their support publicly. . . . His remarks came amid reported presence of Taliban's senior leader Mawlawi Abdul Kabir to Kabul and talks with government officials." Here is another interesting overview.

Among recent developments:

The surrender of a high-ranking Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Wahed (also known as Rais Baghran) in Helmand province on 30 March. "Baghran addressed the gathering and said: 'While I was fighting the Russians, there was a need for that and now I am agreeing to lay down my arms and listen to the Karzai government, this is also a need.' According to him, this is a national, Islamic Afghan government; therefore, he joined it and he will try to convince other members to surrender."
The surrender of Mullah Mohammed Naseem Akhund, the former Taliban governor of Zabul province. He has been living in Pakistan, but crossed the border back and gave himself in to the authorities in his home province of Helmund.

The surrender of Habib-ur Rehman, who headed the criminal investigation department at the ministry of interior under the Taliban.

"Three senior Taliban officials have surrendered to the government in the eastern province of Paktia. A former chief of Zurmat district during the Taliban's regime, the head of the Zurmat madrassa and a teacher of that madrassa surrendered to the government" on April 27.

Seventeen former commanders of the Hezb-e-Islami party of Afghanistan's "most-wanted" warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have recently come in from the cold. "Gathered in Khost city, the commanders from Khost, the neighbouring province of Paktia and Paktika provinces announced late on Wednesday that their joining the government was not a surrender but a declaration of support." Troops in the south of the country, the Taliban's traditional power base, are reporting on the improving security situation:
Much improvement in the southeastern part of the country can be attributed to concerted efforts among coalition and Iraqi forces to improve conditions as construction progresses along the Ring Road, between Kabul, Kandahar and Herat. The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing $21 million to complete the road. Construction is being carried out by U.S. Army National Guard engineers and is about one-third complete. . . . A fledgling Afghan highway patrol is making inroads in security as well. . . . The force has begun setting up checkpoints along the Ring Road and has made some drug busts...

Part of the coalition's strategy for decreasing Taliban influence in these areas is to move firebases out into the communities. U.S. Army Special Forces A teams operating out of these firebases are "changing the conditions" in Taliban strongholds. . . . Several of these SF soldiers, many sporting full beards and relatively long hair, attended today's briefing. In time, coalition officials hope to hand over these firebases to Afghan National Army forces.

The successful disarmament program has concluded in southern Afghanistan:

As of the end of March, 44,414 members of armed formations have been disarmed under the program, 39,466 people have been included in the program of retraining and switchover to civilian professions.

Meanwhile:
Noted Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) commander Pacha Khan surrendered weapons to security officials in Said Karam district in the southern Paktia province. . . . "Today's jihad is that we hand over arms to the government and take part in the reconstruction of our country," said Pacha Khan, whose party has played a crucial role in the holy war against Russians.

The Afghan army is getting some new equipment:

The Afghan National Army is getting a new look over the next few months. As a result of a recent equipment donation, they will appear a little less Soviet and a little more like their Coalition partners. The ANA recently took delivery of 10 M113A2 armored personnel carriers from the United States at Camp Pol-e-Charkhi, on the outskirts of Kabul. This was the first shipment of vehicles with more to follow.

The rush to join the Afghan army continues; in Nangarhar province 5,000 people are waiting to enlist and budgetary restraints making it hard to keep up with the enthusiasm. New battalion headquarters and accompanying recruitment centers have also opened in Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif:

The recruiting battalion headquarters were the second and third to open in Afghanistan. A total of seven are planned throughout the country, each having command over a recruiting region. The first to open was in Gardez in November 2004.

For the enlisted, a training regime. One of the units that will spend a year in Afghanistan training its new army is the Nebraska Army National Guard's 209th Regional Training Regiment. Meanwhile, "officers assigned to the Afghan National Army's new Counterintelligence Directorate have completed a six-month course in the fundamentals of counterintelligence operations for their country's new army."

Not all the training is strictly military:

On a hot and exhausting day, there's nothing better than a cool drink of water. For soldiers of the Afghan National Army, water is not only nice, it's a necessity. But in a difficult environment such as that found here, understanding and applying appropriate field sanitation measures can mean the difference between helping or hurting a unit's combat effectiveness. On April 14, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Terrill Jones, the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan's food service adviser to the ANA, conducted a comprehensive field-sanitation training class for the 2nd Kandak (Battalion), 1st Brigade of the 203rd Corps, located in the country's Ghazni Province.

Some of the training is being carried on outside Afghanistan:

The six Afghan army officers have fought the Soviets, the Taliban, maybe even each other. This week, the men, a lieutenant colonel and five captains, are learning a different way to fight--the American way. Their thick black hair, moustaches--two sported beards--and chiseled faces suggested age and combat experience well beyond the clean-shaven Marine Corps officers teaching them yesterday about the intricacies of the M82 sniper rifle.

The soldiers are part of a Marine Corps pilot program to give Afghan military officers in the middle ranks--company and battalion officers--a taste of American military leadership and training to take back to the troops of the fledgling Afghan National Army, said Lt. Col. Keith Jensen, a Marine officer escorting the Afghans.
They have flown halfway around the world to tour Marines bases here, Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Parris Island, S.C. Back in Afghanistan, Marines are training two battalions, about 600 men each. U.S. Army advisors are training more than a dozen other battalions.

More here. Meanwhile, "the German police are training, some 80 Afghan officers in the art of using computer technology to track down criminals in eastern Herat... The German government has built six new training centers in Herat, and donated 1.5Million Euros to the provincial police department." And Afghan police officers are training at the Advanced Course on Scientific Investigation at the Central Detective Training School in Chandigarh, India.

Speaking of the police, in Paktia "ten women from former Taliban strongholds have enrolled in the provincial police academy in southeastern Afghanistan, for the first time in the region's history." Here's a similar story:

By day Malalai Badahari wears dark glasses, combat fatigues and wields an AK-47. But at dusk the diminutive counter-narcotics cop slips her veil back on her head and goes back to her home life, where all her neighbours think she is a teacher. In the mud-brick street in Kabul where she lives with her husband, father-in-law and her five sons, revealing what she does for a living could mean death as the streets of the Afghan capital are crawling with gangsters and warlords linked to the country's booming drugs trade.

The Taliban continue to get disarmed. In recent developments: The recovery, by the police in Khost province, of 60 kilograms of gunpowder used to manufacture explosive devices.

The collection of munitions by local police from a district southwest of Kabul and delivery to the Coalition forces near Ghazni. "The items included 19 107 mm rockets, 31 82 mm mortar rounds, a 40 mm round, eight rocket-propelled grenades, three recoilless-rifle rounds, 23 fuses, two cases of ammunition, and 100 assorted small-arms rounds." As Army Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76 said, "the voluntary turn-in of caches is a promising sign that the Afghan people are tired of war and violence and that they are investing in a more peaceful and better tomorrow."

"A former Afghan militia division commander informed coalition forces April 3 about a large weapons cache in a village near Bagram. Coalition forces from Bagram found more than 24 tons of munitions in three industrial-sized shipping containers, along with various wells and holes nearby containing a variety of munitions."

New Zealand troops have also been busy disposing of munition: "Army explosives experts have blown up another cache of weapons, ammunition and bombs which were handed to them in Afghanistan. The New Zealand provincial reconstruction team (NZPRT) was handed six tonnes of weapons and ammunition last month by people in the Darrahe Jalmes Valley about 30km from the New Zealand base. The cache included 165 high explosive rockets, 242 boxes of ammunition, 457 mortar rounds, 103 high explosive recoilless rifle rounds and 600 rocket and mortar fuses."

The discovery of a weapons cache on the outskirts of Kabul, following a tip from local residents.

In Gardez province, in Khara Toot village in Dand Patan district, the police seized drugs and weapons cache containing missiles and anti-personnel mines.
"Police have seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition from a house in Khanabad district of Kunduz province in North Afghanistan which was earlier a Taliban base. The seizure made on Saturday [April 16] included 10 anti tank mines, 90 mortars, 30 rockets and 1000 bullets." The same day, another large ammunition caches was seized in Kandahar.

The discovery, following a tip, of a large arms cache in the Spin Boldak district of the Kandahar province. According to the local police chief, "We discovered weapons including three rockets, heavy machine guns and 107 different types of guns and two wireless communication devices."

Two more weapons caches were discovered in Chak district of Maidan Wardak province, and one in Sarobi district of Kabul. In other recent security successes:
The arrest of three regional Taliban commanders after they surrendered without fighting in their surrounded hideout. "The surrender came Thursday [31 March], shortly after the US-led coalition forces surrounded the trio and Afghan National Army in Charchino district of Uruzgan province, 250 kilometres [155 miles] north of Kandahar, said Gen. Muslim Ahmad, an Afghan commander. He said the suspects, Mullah Nabi, Mullah Saifullah and Mullah Ghani, were later handed over to the coalition forces."
The arrest in the Balkh district of 14 people in connection with a mine explosion that had killed two and injured one outside Mazar. "The men were found in possession of small weapons, drugs and other ammunition."

The killing of 12 Taliban fighters by U.S. helicopter gunships and tankbuster jets on a road between Kabul and Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, in an ambush that went badly wrong for the Taliban.

The arrest of three men in Kandahar province suspected of connection with local Taliban operations.

The arrest of suspects trying to transport bombs in a car on the Jalalabad-Torkham Highway. In a similar incident, two Pakistanis were arrested on the border while trying to smuggle in bombs in their Datsun pickup.

The killing of two suspected Taliban fighters and the capture of a local commander, Mullah Allah Noor, in a gun battle in Charchino district of the Oruzgan province.
The arrest of 24 suspected Taliban in the Khost province on April 17.

"A firefight between Afghan soldiers and suspected Taliban rebels left at least eight militants dead in a remote mountain region of southern Afghanistan [on April 17]. . . . Eleven other Taliban fighters were captured in the fighting in Zabul province, including Chechens and Arabs."

The killing of 12 Taliban in an attack on a base in the Khost province, on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

On April 18, "at least eight Taliban militants were killed and 10 captured in a joint operation conducted by the Afghan National Army and coalition forces in Zabul."
The arrest in the Nangarha province of Noor Rahman, a former commander allied to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami movement. Hekmatyar is one of Afghanistan's most wanted.

The foiling of a suicide car bomb attack in Herat, with the police arresting the driver of a car laden with rockets, landmines and antiaircraft shells.
The killing of four Taliban in clashes near the Pakistani border. Afghanistan is also making strides in combating the scourge of drug cultivation. As one report notes:
This year, by all indications, fewer poppies are being grown nationwide. President Hamid Karzai declared a holy war on poppies after his election in October. A new Counternarcotics Ministry was created. The international community stepped up its anti-poppy campaign. Local officials and the police--a number of whom were involved in the drug trade--appeared to take poppy fighting more seriously.

In one of the epicenters of the problem, opium cultivation collapses:

Abdul Khaleq Watengul stopped growing poppies this year. He now prunes olive trees for $3 a day. The nearby opium market, once thriving, is a dusty trail of boarded-up stores and locked doors. Hundreds of men sit nearby, with nothing to do but complain about their unemployment. In Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, people buy poppy seeds only to feed birds or to use in cookies.

The opium poppy trade has fallen on hard times in Nangarhar, once one of the top producers in Afghanistan.

Traffickers, too, are hitting tougher times:

Rivers flooding, US soldiers at the border and corrupt militias losing their jobs and weapons--life as a drug smuggler in southern Afghanistan isn't what it used to be for Ahmed Jan. Getting convoys of 60 or 70 off-road vehicles, each filled with a ton of dry opium resin, through a day's drive from southern Kandahar city to the border with Iran has become complicated in recent months... "It is much more difficult to get stuff out of the country so it's only a few secret routes that are running, like rivers of drugs," says Jan, a rotund man in his 40s using a pseudonym.

His problems are an indication that Afghanistan's fight against narcotics is paying off.

For more background on Afghanistan's war on drugs see here. A lot more work remains to be done, both in terms of eradication of poppy fields and in finding alternative livelihoods for the farmers. But as the Taliban wane and warlords become less of a problem, the U.S. military will now be taking "a major role in training Afghanistan's police and will provide intelligence and transport for the country's new anti-drug forces, dramatically expanding American efforts against a booming narcotics trade." You can read more about how the US armed forces are contributing to counternarcotics fight here.

And in other recent successes in the war on drugs:

In the Badakshan province, "six heroin factories and nearly 7,000Kgs of opium and heroin were destroyed by a special task-force from the ministry of interior and the international peace keeping forces (ISAF) on the 28th of March." Three months ago, seven other illegal factories were destroyed, and the poppy cultivation today is said to be 60% lower than last year.

The arrest by the police of four drug smugglers and recovering of 480 kilograms of opium in Helmand on April 3. "Over the past two weeks, police have seized about 3,000 kilos of opium in Helmand and Kandahar provinces." "The second phase of poppy eradication has begun in the eastern province of Laghman in the mountainous region of the province. The area could not be cleared of poppy earlier as it was snowbound."

On April 16, police seized 93 bags of narcotics from a truck near Pul-i-Charkhi and arrested 10 people in connection.

By mid-April, the police had eradicated 2,500 acres of poppy fields in Farah province and 100 acres in Kandahar province (more from Kandahar here). "The Transitional Afghan Border Security Forces along with a small contingent of Coalition forces seized 479 kilograms of heroin along the northwestern border April 17. The bust also netted seven Afghans suspected of smuggling operations"; the seizure is worth $2 million.

A mobile laboratory for the production of heroin was seized by the counternarcotics police in the Nangarhar province. "More than 30 heroin factories were discovered and seized in the same area of Achin district during joint operations of the Afghan police and the US-led coalition forces last November."

The arrest by the U.S. authorities of Bashir Noorzai, drug kingpin suspected of connections with the Taliban, as he attempted to smuggle 500 kg of heroin into the U.S.

The recovery of 1,000 kilograms of heroin in Kandahar on April 25. The seizure of 90 kilograms of heroin by U.S. troops in several villages in Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province on April 26. Afghanistan still has a long way to go, not surprising for a country that endured a quarter century of communism, civil war and theocracy.

But 3 1/2 years after liberation, Afghanistan has come a long way already.

[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.]