President Karzai Orders the Governors and Provincial Security Chiefs to Stop Poppy Cultivation - Date of Release: 31 October 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, ordered the governors and provincial security chiefs to take drastic actions against poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The President said, “Our country’s national interests require us to refrain from poppy cultivation. The fight against poppy cultivation is a top priority for the Government of Afghanistan and no excuse will be accepted for the continuation of poppy cultivation. Afghanistan will not become self-reliant unless we completely stop this menace with strong determination.”

In a meeting with governors and provincial security chiefs, the President instructed them to inform the land owners of the Government’s strong determination in fighting against illicit poppy cultivation. The cultivation of poppy is an illegal act which undermines the rule of law and weakens our economy.

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

President Karzai Condemns the Terrorist Attacks In India - Date of Release: 30 October 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Delhi, the capital of India, which killed over 55 people and injured many more.

According to reports, three explosions rocked India's capital Delhi killing at least 55 people and injuring many others. The blasts came within minutes, when many people were out for shopping ahead of Diwali festival and Eid celebration. In another incident, over 100 people were killed after a passenger train derailed in floods in southern India.

In his reaction to the news the President said, “These attacks are criminal act of terrorism and I condemn it in the strongest terms. I was deeply saddened by the news of train crash, which killed over 100 people in southern India.”

The President, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan, expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks and train crash as well as to the people of India, and prayed for the full recovery of the injured.

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

Press Release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attacks that took place in New Delhi on Saturday and expresses its deepest sorrow and condolences to the people, the Government of India and the families of the victims.

H.E Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, expressed great sympathy and grief upon hearing the tragic news regarding the number of civilian casualties resulting from the terrorist attack.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan reaffirms that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security which requires sustained collaboration among members of the international community to defeat this menace.

Released by the Office of the Spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kabul, Afghanistan October 30 th, 2005

UK 'may add to Afghanistan force' - BBC News, 30 October 2005

More UK troops may be sent to Afghanistan, the Defence Secretary John Reid said on Sunday. Mr Reid told the BBC's Sunday AM that Britain would be willing to play its part if the coalition wanted to boost troops in the south of the country. Reports have suggested Britain could send as many as 3,000 soldiers, but Mr Reid did not give details.

On Saturday it was announced a British soldier had been killed in a gun attack in northern Afghanistan. Mr Reid told the programme: "We will be prepared if others are [to send more troops], and if we can get the resources and the right back up," he said.

"No reports at the moment can in any way be accurate because I have not made a final decision." He also said that trade and aid were needed to bring peace to the country, but that military efforts were occasionally required.

On Saturday the MOD confirmed a soldier from the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry, was killed and five others injured as they travelled between bases in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. On Iraq, Mr Reid said the high voter turn-out in the recent Iraqi elections showed "every single effort" by British troops had been worthwhile.

But he also said the controversy over Iraq and the deaths of four young recruits at the army's Deepcut barracks in Surrey, may have affected the recruitment of British soldiers.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the whole question of Deepcut and the accusations of bullying, which we are trying to deal with, and the controversy around Iraq, the mums and dads then get worried about it."

But he said he believed the main reason recruitment was so low was high employment. The Deepcut barracks has been under investigation since the deaths of four recruits - privates Sean Benton, James Collinson, Geoff Gray and Cheryl James - between 1995 to 2002.

An army instructor, Leslie Skinner, was jailed in October 2004 for indecent assaults on male soldiers. Families of the four recruits have repeatedly rejected suggestions the deaths were suicides.

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

Kabul (Reuters) - A blast aimed at a convoy of U.S. troops killed an Afghan civilian and wounded five others on Monday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a government spokesman said.

There was no immediate reports of casualties among U.S. troops from the blast, south of the city of Jalalabad.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai said the explosion was apparently caused by a bomb attached to a bicycle which went off as the convoy was passing. Nangarhar's deputy governor Mohammad Asef blamed the Taliban guerrillas and said the bomb could have been triggered by remote control.

Taliban officials could not be reached for comment, but insurgents from the ousted Islamic movement have been behind attacks this year in which more than 1,100 people have died.

Most of those killed have been militants, but the toll has included more than 50 U.S. soldiers, the bloodiest period for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since they overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

NATO forces kill attacker in W. Afghanistan  

KABUL, Oct. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) killed an unknown attacker in the relatively peaceful province of Farah in west Afghanistan late last week, spokesperson of the multinational force said Monday.

"Last Friday ISAF soldiers from the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Farah killed a man when he attacked the PRT compound by throwing a hand grenade toward the entrance," Riccardo Kristoni told journalists at a news briefing.

The suspected militant, he spokesman added had also targeted a vehicle of a non-governmental organization (NGO) in the area but missed the target. "ISAF forces immediately secured the area and after a thoroughsearch, no further assailants were found," the official emphasized. He gave no more details.

It is the first time that NATO-led peacekeeping troops came under attack in the peaceful Farah province. The attack occurred just a day before a deadly offensive on British contingent in northern Balkh province Saturday that left one soldier dead and five others wounded.

Remnants of the former Taliban regime who have waged a violent comeback claimed responsibility for Saturday's bloody incident in Balkh's provincial capital Mazar-e-Sharif.
About 1,500 people with majority of them militants are said to have been killed in Taliban-led insurgency since the beginning of this year.

Afghanistan's parliament, on the frontline of a troubled history - Sun Oct 30

KABUL (AFP) - The bullet holes have been plastered over and the last bricks are being cemented into place: Afghanistan's parliament building is getting the finishing touches ahead of its first sitting in more than 30 years.

The scores of dust-covered labourers working on the complex in west Kabul are proud to be playing a part in this battle-scarred nation's first steps to democracy after years of occupation and brutal civil war.

"I feel good when I'm working here," grins Mohammad Ibrahim. "I'm working for the future of my country," he says, pressing down the last in a long line of bricks.

The building has witnessed many of the bloody episodes that have shaped modern Afghanistan. Constructed in the late 1960s to house the first-ever parliament during the reign of King Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last parliamentarians to occupy it were elected in 1969 in the last legislative vote before this year's elections.

It was abandoned after a 1973 coup ended centuries of rule by the monarchy. The new president, Mohammad Daud, had plans to form a new parliament but his regime was toppled by a communist coup in 1978 in which he was assassinated.

The building stood empty during the brief communist rule that followed and in the long years of Soviet occupation that started with the 1979-1989 Russian invasion. But it was wrenched back into Afghanistan's history when holy warriors, the mujahedin, began the 1992-1996 civil war that toppled the Soviet-backed regime.

Standing on the frontline of heavy battles between rival factions, the building was nearly reduced to rubble. "Only the walls existed," says Azizullah Lodin, the secretary general of the new House.

"It was in between two fighting groups," recalls resident Mohammad Daud. "They were firing all sort of weapons -- artillery, mortars and tanks -- at each other. The shots that missed hit the parliament building."

More than 50,000 civilians were killed during the civil war, many of them in and around what was once the proud nation's parliament. When the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban scholars arrived from the south to overthrow the mujahedin government in 1996, the frontline moved north.

As fighting raged in the Shomali Plains outside the capital, where the Taliban had chased Ahmad Shah Massoud, the last resistance leader, hundreds of people fled to Kabul for safety, many taking shelter among the destroyed marble-pillared halls of the former parliament.

The refugees remained during the Taliban's brutal rule and after the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the hardliners. They had to leave this year after President Hamid Karzai decided to spend three million dollars to repair the building so it could accommodate parliamentarians elected on September 18, pending the construction of an entirely new structure, Lodin said.

"The reconstruction started early this year," he told AFP. "It's almost done." The complex has several new buildings, including a five-storey block for the secretariat and MP offices.

With safety concerns high in the heavily fortified city because of an anti-government insurgency launched after the Taliban were removed, a security force of some 52 staff will have its own section from where they will monitor cameras around the compound.

There are two halls: one for a still-to-be-elected 102-member upper house and the other for a 249-seat lower house chosen in September that will include some of the warlords who led the battles that devastated this city.

The new 25-million-dollar building, designed by Indian engineers, will take about four years to construct. "Maybe after we get the new building, we will turn this one to a library," Lodin says.

And to reassure residents worried about the changes to their neighbourhood, with security barricades snarling major sections of the city, he says: "We will not install lots of security barriers. If we do, we will plant roses on them to make them look beautiful."

US troops on Afghan abuse charge – BBC

Two US soldiers have been charged with assaulting two Afghan detainees at a US base in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

The soldiers are accused of punching the detainees in the chest, shoulders and stomach, it said. The charges come a week after accusations that US forces burned the bodies of Taleban fighters, an act considered sacrilege in Islam. Rights groups have accused US forces of a number of abuses in Afghanistan.

The US military said the detainees who were allegedly assaulted were being temporarily held at a forward operating base in Uruzgan province. It said the detainees did not need medical attention.

However, army Brig Gen Jack Sterling said: "The command remains committed to investigate all allegations of misconduct and will hold individuals responsible for their actions consistent with US military law."

The charges include conspiracy to maltreat, assault and dereliction of duty. They come a week after Australian TV channel SBS aired footage alleged to show the corpses of two Taleban fighters laid out facing Mecca and then being set alight.

The US military ordered an immediate investigation. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the incident if proved could harm the country's image abroad. Rights groups have on a number of occasions accused US forces of abusing Afghans held at US detention centres in the country. At least eight prisoners have died in US custody since 2001.

Last month a US military interrogator was sentenced to five months in prison for assaulting a detainee in Afghanistan who later died. Five other US soldiers have been convicted following the deaths of two prisoners at the military base at Bagram, outside Kabul, in 2002.

US military condemns abuse after latest Afghanistan claims

KABUL (AFP) - The US military said it would not tolerate abuse by its soldiers after new claims against American troops in     Afghanistan, where they were this month accused of burning the bodies of Taliban suspects.

The US-led coalition announced late Sunday that two US soldiers had been charged with allegedly assaulting two detainees in their custody in southern Uruzgan province, including by punching them in chest, shoulders and stomach.

"These alleged offences do not reflect the values of the members of this command," coalition spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts told reporters on Monday.
"We will not tolerate the kind of behaviour that is alleged against these soldiers," he said.

He said the US military was conducting three investigations into television footage broadcast this month showing US soldiers burning the bodies of suspected Taliban fighters in contravention of international law and the tenets of Islam, which says the bodies of Muslims must be buried.

The Australian report said the soldiers had burned the bodies because they had been left in the open for more than 24 hours. They used the incident to taunt other Taliban fighters in an attempt to goad them into battle, it said.

Besides a criminal investigation into the claims, the military was looking into how US forces were taught to handle human remains on the battlefield, Yonts said.

It was also investigating psychological operation techniques, doctrine and training, he said. These are measures used to influence an enemy. Coalition soldiers in Afghanistan have also been accused of abusing Afghan detainees, at least eight of whom have died in US custody since 2001, when the coalition entered the country to help topple the hardline Taliban government.

Two US soldiers were this year sentenced to up to three months in jail for the abuse, terms Afghan government officials said were "unexpectedly lenient." Reacting to the latest allegations involving US soldiers, the government reiterated it was against all acts that were in violation of the Geneva Convention.

"Any step which intends to curb such abuses in Afghanistan is welcomed," foreign ministry spokesman Naveed Ahmad Moez said. Such allegations put public pressure on the government, which is dependent on the international community to rebuild after decades of war and occupation, and to try to stem an insurgency blamed on Taliban loyalists, he added.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan is made up of some 20,000 troops, about 90 percent of them American.

'Failure Is Not an Option' - Washington's envoy to Iraq speaks out about the new Constitution, and his strategy for containing the insurgency. Newsweek

Nov. 7, 2005 issue - Zalmay Khalilzad has been America's troubleshooter on the most important challenges facing the country. He recently finished a stint as the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, and now he's ambassador to Iraq. He spoke last week to NEWSWEEK's Michael Hirsh in Washington. Excerpts:

HIRSH: Let's start with the vote on the Constitution. What's your reading?

KHALILZAD: The Constitution won by a landslide in terms of popular vote—78 percent. For the Constitution to be rejected, three provinces had to vote it down by two thirds. Two did. So it was therefore close in electoral terms. I think there are additional opportunities for amendments to be made.

Some observers were concerned that this would only exacerbate the sectarian tendencies in the country.

The majority of Sunnis voted against it. That's a fact. But I am hopeful that it will not lead to exacerbation because of the last-minute agreement we made before the vote. It allows for a one-time package of [constitutional] amendments during the first six months of the next Assembly. And I think that will [motivate] Sunnis to participate in the Assembly.

Are you drawing on your experience in Afghanistan, where a unifying leader had prestige and presence? It seems as if it's been impossible to find someone similar in Iraq.

The fact that Afghanistan had a charismatic leader, broadly accepted in Hamid Karzai, was a huge asset. The fact that such a figure was not identified [in Iraq] has been a problem. I think a Hamid Karzai-type figure could have been identified early on, because when there is a role, usually a person can be found to fill it. But in Afghan-istan we immediately went to an Afghan interim-government formation. Here we had a period of the CPA.

You think that was done wrong.

No, I'm not saying that. I wasn't responsible for Iraq at that time and the complexity of the situation may not be entirely clear to me.

One of the people some in the Pentagon thought should have been head of the government was Ahmad Chalabi. Interestingly enough, Chalabi is now one of the leading contenders heading into the December election. When you talk about finding a Hamid Karzai-like figure, is that who you have in mind?

Well, Mr. Chalabi is one of several candidates who are running for office.

Let's talk about the Sunni insurgency. It seems as if the strategy of trying to divide extremists from those Iraqi Sunnis with whom we can negotiate has been central to your approach.

Absolutely.

Could you talk about which Sunni insurgent groups you are hopeful about winning away?

My philosophy is that we need to isolate two groups from the rest. The first is [Abu Musab] Zarqawi and the jihadists, some foreign and some Iraqis. And the second is the Saddamists, those who want Saddamism to come back. As far as the rest are concerned, our effort has been to win them away. I have been very active with Sunni Arabs, reaching out to them.

On the tribal level?

Across the board. Tribes, yes. Nontribal political leaders, yes. Academics, professionals, yes. Some former government officials who were not criminals, yes. You name it.

What particular successes can you point to?

One is we've got some key Sunnis supporting the Constitution. Second, many more are supporting the political proc-ess. Now we have some tribes coming forward, like the Albu Mahal, that are saying they will fight against Zarqawi. So what's happening for maybe the first time since the liberation is a real struggle going on in the Sunni community between those who want to participate in the process and those who want a protracted insurgency.

Some observers say your strategy is exactly right—the only problem is that you're at least a year too late in coming in.

Well, I don't want to look back. But it's very important in my view to engage politically. And to communicate our goals. Our goal is not to rule Iraq. Our goal is not to have permanent bases in Iraq. Our goal is not to take over Iraqi oil or other Iraqi patrimony... It's very important that there is a balance between our various instruments—military, political, diplomatic, economic, cultural. If you have a hammer, pretty soon everything looks like a nail. I believe if I could say one thing, we're rebalancing the instruments.

What do you say to the mother and father of a soldier who has died in Iraq about why?

I have participated in a lot of ceremonies for dead Americans. The price has been extremely high for the United States. I believe that given that, we have to be extremely careful about the use of military force. [But] whatever you think of the circumstances that led us into Iraq, now that we are there, the struggle has been joined, and it is a struggle not only for Iraq but for the entire region. Failure is not an option.

Unfinished business in Afghanistan – Commentary By Swanee Hunt / Washington Times (USA) / October 30, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan. - The Afghan election September 18 was an important benchmark on the road to democracy. For the first time in 36 years, citizens chose national and provincial representatives. A daunting 5,805 candidates, with campaign posters hanging in trees and affixed to walls, competed for hundreds of positions. Among them were 347 women who came forward in the face of intimidation and violence to claim a place in the lower house of parliament.

Half of the ballots have now been counted. When the process is complete, a form of "positive discrimination" will ensure that women electees comprise at least the 25 percent mandated by the constitution.

Afghanistan has taken a momentous step toward a model of inclusive security, whereby all stakeholders -- including women --participate in governance and other aspects of peace building. But it was only one small step. Women have the potential to play key roles in fostering openness and religious and political moderation that will facilitate a peaceful, prosperous future for a democratic Afghanistan. Two critical policies will help the Afghan people and the international community turn that potential into reality.

First, tribal warlords must be disempowered. The elections were marred by candidates with histories soaked in blood who, given a nascent judiciary, have not been brought to justice. Instead, political legitimacy increases the warlords' strength. One openly asserts that human rights, including women's rights, are contrary to Islam. An Afghan diplomat I met shortly before the election insists the warlords spell disaster: "Their strength grows day by day. International troops will leave soon. If we can't go after them now, when will we be able?"

Second, the Afghan judicial system must be profoundly reformed and revitalized. The justice system is neither fair nor functional. For example, despite contravening laws, too often, women are denied the right to divorce, frequently forced into marriage by family members, and jailed for "moral crimes" like refusing arranged marriages, speaking with an unmarried man, or traveling without a male guardian. Afghan women face gender-based discrimination in the application of laws and crimes against them go unpunished.

The current supreme court, though charged with interpreting the constitution, offers little hope for women. These nine influential judges -- all male -- are required to have "higher education in law or in Islamic jurisprudence," but that education may be religious training in madrassas or local villages that favor tribal customs over human rights and civil law. Afghan women lawyers and international human rights experts recognize the vast disconnect between the new constitution and the application of its legal protections. Conflicts between traditional and modern jurisprudence must be addressed and the judicial system reformed to include women who will protect the rights of all Afghans.

On election day, the women of Afghanistan proved they're determined despite the challenges. I met with several candidates, including television journalist Howa Nooristani. Afraid the single seat reserved for women in her family's rugged eastern district would go unfilled, she decided to run herself. On a steep mountain path, she was accosted by fiery-eyed men. Three of her campaign workers were kidnapped and are still missing. Shot four times in the leg, she dragged herself to a village. Several young men took turns carrying her on their backs the five hours to her car. When I visited her, bedridden at her Kabul home, her husband was still in the district campaigning for her. "Tell the world Afghans aren't afraid of terrorists," she appealed. "We'll build our country, no matter what."

Howa Nooristani isn't alone. I talked with scores of Afghans on their way to the polls. Not one mentioned the violence the Western press focuses on. Instead, they spoke of hope and of a new, transformed Afghanistan. "Women are kinder, and they'll bring that kindness into our government," insisted a retired government official with a beard as white as his hat.

Kinder, maybe. But impatient. One bent old woman described the pressure she faced on election morning from her husband, who wanted to control her vote. "Get lost," she told him. But beyond the personal, at a policy level, women are perceived by many as untapped resources in a country emerging from decades of hardship. "All the men in my family are going to vote for women," an Afghan nongovernmental organization leader told me. "They say women run things better in peace time, and now we have peace."

There's a limited window of opportunity to make an Afghan democracy flourish. Without a government of untarnished elected officials and true judicial reform, Afghanistan will never fulfill its democratic promise and certainly not its promise to the majority of its population -- its women.

Swanee Hunt, a former U.S. ambassador to Austria, directs the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University, where she also teaches. She is author of "This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace."

Small US units lure Taliban into losing battles - By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Mon Oct 31

QALAT, AFGHANISTAN - It's mid- morning on June 21, and Lt. Timothy Jon O'Neal's platoon has just been dropped onto a dusty field north of a mud-walled village of Chalbar. Their mission: to check out reports that a local Afghan Army commander has defected to the Taliban and burned the district headquarters, and is prepared to fight.

Within minutes, it becomes clear that the reports are true, and the platoon is in trouble. The radio crackles with Taliban fighters barking orders to surround the Americans. Gunfire comes from the hilltops. Lieutenant O'Neal's men are easy targets. The Taliban have the high ground.

This has been the most violent year here since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The US Army is moving in smaller numbers to lure the Taliban out of hiding for fights they cannot win. The result: More than 1,200 enemy deaths this year, including high-level commanders. But it is also a strategy with profound risks, and one that may be difficult to sustain in Zabul Province - a region so unstable that commanders call it the "Fallujah of     Afghanistan" - as current troops return home, their replacements as yet undecided.

Through interviews with soldiers of Chosen Company, of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the Monitor has reconstructed two recent battles that illustrate how this strategy works, and how it may have weakened the Taliban movement's effectiveness as a military force - for now.

As the Taliban start shooting, O'Neal's platoon scurries for cover. But there's no panic. "They think, without a doubt, they have us outnumbered," recalls O'Neal, a native of Jeannette, Pa., and leader of 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company. "We've got only 23 people on the ground, and I would say the Taliban had over 150 before the day was over."

But O'Neal and his men are not alone. Just to the south, 1st platoon is clearing a village; to the east, the 3rd platoon are marching toward Chalbar. O'Neal's platoon calls for close air support from nearby Apache helicopters. But on the ground, 2nd platoon will have to hold its own, and fight for every inch - uphill.

Much is made about the high-tech gear that US soldiers carry: body armor, rapid-firing machine guns, night vision goggles. But the chief advantage of the US military - especially in a low-intensity conflict, pitted against a crudely trained force like the Taliban - is training and air power.

Taliban fighters, meanwhile, appear to gain courage from numbers, the ability to swarm a smaller enemy unit. A sense of safety in numbers, however, is often the Taliban's undoing if a US platoon can fix an enemy's position long enough for aircraft or other infantry units to arrive. This is the backbone of US military strategy in Zabul, and one reason why the Taliban have lost so many fighters this year.

"We've had a lot of success with textbook tactics, getting the smallest element engaged, and then using other assets to just pile on," says O'Neal. "The Taliban are more willing to engage with us when we have smaller numbers."

Lt. Col. Mark Stammer, the commander at Forward Operating Base in Qalat, is quick to clarify that the US Army is not using small units as "bait." "I've never sent a squad in as bait," says Colonel Stammer, a native of Redfield, S.D. "I'm sure that it has emboldened the Taliban to attack. But there's no fight where our squads have made contact and lost. Whenever the Taliban fight us, they're decimated."

Darting from boulder to boulder, Sgt. Justin Hormann, a native of Melbourne, Fla., is leading a team of about six men up the hill, just behind 1st squad leader, Staff Sgt. Michael Christian of Montrose, Pa. Above them, about 50 Taliban fighters are raining down a torrent of gunfire with their Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades.

Sergeant Christian reaches a shallow plateau on the hill, and pulls himself up to establish a fire position. Almost immediately, he's shot. He crouches behind a boulder and shouts out, "I'm hit." The Talib who shot him is barely 30 feet away.

Sergeant Hormann can see his squad leader is bleeding and needs immediate help. "When he got hit, they were right in front of us," recalls Hormann, while on break between missions at the Forward Operating Base at Qalat. "He could see the fighter in front of him, but he couldn't see the Taliban who was just alongside him."

Hormann makes a snap decision: He bounds up the hill to give Christian first aid. "I said 'to heck with it.' I just ran up," says Hormann. All around him, Taliban bullets continue to ping off rocks as Hormann applies a tourniquet. Under constant fire, he sets up Bravo team to deliver suppressing fire, while he and Alpha team carry Christian off the hill. At the bottom, he regroups the squad for another assault.

"And then we all went back up the hill a second time," says Hormann, who was recently awarded a Bronze Star with valor for his actions that day. For the next four hours, Hormann and a 10-man ad hoc squad move back up the mountain within 60 feet of the enemy. Only when Pfc. Joseph Lorman of Sloughhouse, Calif., is wounded in the neck and shoulder does Hormann move the squad back down the mountain.

By that time, reinforcements from the 1st and 3rd platoons have arrived. All escape routes are blocked. The Taliban are trapped. "The fire was extremely close," says O'Neal, who was with a second team providing covering fire lower down the hill. "But toward the end it got dark, so we just ran to the bottom."

As night falls, American AC-130 Specter gunships arrive to engage Taliban fighters who have also decided to make a run for it. By the end of the day, 76 Taliban bodies are counted, and another nine Taliban fighters are captured.

To this day, the men of the 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company, can't figure out what the Taliban were thinking. Were they suicidal? Why did they gather so many Taliban in one place? Did they really think they had enough men to defeat the Americans? "They called the BBC to tell them they had taken the district headquarters," says O'Neal. "They knew we were going to come."

It's been just over a month since the men of 2nd Platoon, Chosen (Few) Company, were in a battle with the Taliban.

O'Neal and his men are in Kandahar, on call as a quick-reaction force, when they get a call to deploy. They catch helicopters to Uruzgan, a region that has been a headquarters of sort for Taliban remnants. Their mission is to clear the village of Siahchow, where US Special Forces units have taken fire from an unknown number of Taliban fighters. The Special Forces will continue to block escape routes, while O'Neal's men take the village, one building at a time.

"The whole purpose of an infantry is to close in on the enemy and finish them off," says Capt. Eric Gardiner, commander of Chosen Company in Qalat. "Here in Afghanistan, we've had over 75 percent of our contacts within hand grenade range."

Missions like this one, with its elements of intense urban warfare, test an infantryman like no other. The closest comparison to what is about to happen in Siahchow is what one occasionally sees in the street battles of Iraqi towns like Fallujah, Ramadi, or Najaf. But Siahchow has another hazard: a fruit orchard in the center of town, with hiding places for the enemy.

Spc. Christopher Velez, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who is in the lead squad, says he senses something is wrong. Normally, children come up to American soldiers, asking for candy or pens. Here, there is nobody. Even the roosters are silent.

The village follows the shape of the valley: narrow at one end, and then opening up, with houses along the outskirts. The men begin to search each of those houses, north to south. Specialist Velez's team searches houses. Sergeant Hormann and his men line up shoulder to shoulder and search the orchard.

The Taliban are there. "We are close enough that we could hear their movements," says Hormann. "We could see the hand of some guy reaching for his weapon."

A fierce gun battle breaks out with eight Taliban fighters in the orchard. Hormann and his team leader, Sgt. DaWayne Krepel, and his team maneuver around the Taliban. The firefight lasts an intense 15 minutes; Sergeant Krepel kills two enemy fighters just two feet away.

Lieutenant O'Neal hears the gunfire nearby, but continues with his objective of clearing houses. For the most part, the Taliban are poorly trained, firing wildly enough that they can't hit American soldiers even at close range. "If we were that far from you," Velez says, pointing at a table just 10 feet away, "and I missed you, I would be upset at myself."

On the eastern edge of the orchard, Velez prepares to cross an open field toward a pair of mud-walled homes about 50 feet away. But as soon as he steps on the grass, he hears Kalashnikov fire aimed at him. He ducks back into the orchard, while other team members move into position, and Afghan National Army soldiers fire at the rooftops of the closest housing compound.

No one knows which home the gunfire is coming from. So O'Neal's men prepare to move in on the house to the left, while Sgt. Michael Schafer of Spring Hill, Fla., and the 2nd squad prepare to assault the house on the right.

What happens next unfolds quickly. "I hear fire, and somebody calls for a medic," says Velez. Sergeant Schafer kicks down the front door, steps inside, and gunfire erupts. Schafer is hit, but doesn't die instantly. He pushes his team leader, Sgt. Brian Hooper, back out the door, before falling to the floor.

O'Neal's squad rushes over. "Where's Sergeant Schafer? What's been cleared?" he demands. Sgt. Hooper is in shock. "When I see Hooper, I get scared. He's completely out of it," says O'Neal.

Finally, O'Neal peers inside the doorway at an angle, and sees Schafer slumped against the wall. He reaches for an automatic weapon, an M-249, and steps a bit closer to peer inside. The room is shrouded in darkness. He tries to turn on his tactical light on his helmet, but it doesn't work. There are no Taliban fighters in sight, but they are there.

"I'm not thinking very clearly," O'Neal admits later. "I just want to try to pull Schafer out with one hard pull." Finally, after three attempts and several injuries, O'Neal tosses smoke grenades into the room while three soldiers pull Schafer's body out. The men toss standard grenades into the room to kill the Taliban inside. But some survive and fire back.

The Americans have now taken two gunshot casualties, one of them fatal, and five casualties from heat. Velez has been injured by shrapnel from a grenade. And they are just halfway through checking the village.

At one point, there is a massive explosion in a nearby house, perhaps an attempt by Taliban fighters to destroy a weapons cache. A Taliban fighter attempts to jump from the exploding roof, landing in a tree. Velez shoots him.

Hormann says the ferocity of the battle still leaves him surprised. "Usually the Taliban just shoot and run." O'Neal says it's possible that there was a meeting of relatively high-level Taliban commanders on that day, and the Taliban felt obliged to fight in defense, rather than run. In any case, in Siahchow, the Taliban were trapped by Special Forces; they didn't have any choice but to fight.

"In my opinion, the reason so many Taliban got together [to fight in large groups] this year is that they're trying to get a big victory under their belt," says O'Neal. He pauses. "Well, that's not really working out for them."

Sometime in March, the men of the 173rd Airborne Division will finish their year-long deployment in Afghanistan, and will return to their home base in Vicenza, Italy. Nobody knows yet who will replace them, or what methods those fighters will use.

Long-term, the Afghan National Army (ANA) will have to take over the defense of their country, but US military commanders at the ground level say that time is still a long way off. ANA fighters are enthusiastic learners, and they are picking up a great deal of real-life training under American advisers in real missions.

But the ANA still have a disconcerting habit of shooting themselves with their own weapons. "The problem is muzzle discipline," says 2nd Lieut. Ben Wisnioski, a commander of an ANA unit based in Qalat. In the week before the elections, Lieutenant Wisnioski lost three ANA soldiers to self-inflicted wounds.

Instead, most American commanders expect the southern command in Kandahar will be taken over by     NATO. While NATO has generally conducted peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan thus far, heading the International Security and Assistance Force that guards Kabul and other cities in the north, American commanders say that the NATO force will have a strong counterinsurgency component.

"The British have more experience than everybody in counterinsurgency," says Maj. Douglas Vincent, spokesman for Forward Operating Base at Qalat, and a native of Boca Raton, Fla. "They have very good experience from Northern Ireland."

But will the British continue to use a similar strategy of small ground forces that has worked for the 173rd Airborne? Maybe they shouldn't, says Major Vincent. "It's good to keep changing things, keep them guessing."

In central Asia, US bid to be a 'friendly' base - The US reaches out to gain popular support in Kyrgyzstan, where it hopes to retain use of a key airbase.

By Nicholas Schmidle | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN – Jumagul Cyradinova has worked at the Infant Home orphanage in Bishkek for 24 years, but the facility, she says, has never looked so good. In the kitchen, there is a new sink. The bathroom has a big, shiny tub. In every room, fluorescent ceiling lights glow off the freshly painted walls.

The improvements, Ms. Cyradinova says, have been steady since December 2001. That's when the Pentagon established the Manas Coalition Airbase at Manas International Airport to support combat operations in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. "The Americans donated all the money [for the renovations]," says Cyradinova, the assistant director of Infant Home. "And then they came here and built this," she adds, pointing to a massive new oven.

Infant Home is just one of many places in Bishkek where the Manas Airbase Outreach Society (MABOS), the volunteer community service arm of the base, is active. On weekends, MABOS works with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, as well as the Babushka Foundation, an NGO that "adopts" Kyrgyz pensioners.

MABOS's efforts represent part of Washington's campaign to keep the Kyrgyz government, and the people, on its side. The airbase is set to become the only American military base in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia at year's end, following a diplomatic scuffle with Uzbekistan that resulted in Tashkent evicting the US from Karshi-Khanabad Airbase.

Over the past four months, two high-level delegations - led by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in July and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month - to this mountainous country of 5 million people, show its increasing importance to US strategy in "the war on terror." The airbase hosts more than a dozen aircraft responsible for logistical support - fuel, cargo, and people - in Afghanistan.

Both Mr. Rumsfeld's and Ms. Rice's visits followed a provocative statement issued on July 5 by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security and economic bloc made up of Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

The statement called on the "appropriate participants in the antiterrorist coalition to decide on the final timeframes for the temporary use ... and the maintenance of military contingents on the territory of SCO member states." American military installations in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were clearly the target, though Russia keeps military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. After a meeting in Moscow last week, the SCO sought to clarify that the request for timeframes for withdrawal from the bases was not an ultimatum.

By the end of July Uzbekistan announced that Washington would have 180 days to clear its personnel, aircraft, and equipment off Uzbek territory. Tensions had risen between Washington and Tashkent over the US push for an international investigation into the bloody crackdown by Uzbek authorities on demonstrators in Andijan in May.

Amid high-level diplomatic efforts to stay close with Kyrgyzstan, MABOS's community projects emphasize "street-level" diplomacy - often a tough job.

"Seven decades of Soviet propaganda," says Edil Baisalov, president of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, "have left many Kyrgyz skeptical of America's every move." The Russian press, which is the most widely read in Kyrgyzstan, is unsympathetic to America. "This society has been indoctrinated to be suspicious of Americans," he says.

The youth, however, tend to be less skeptical of the US than older generations. "Most people I know are proud that we have an American base in the capital," says Rostam, a university student.

While the "Tulip Revolution" here in March suggests a population deeply concerned with politics, many people don't think the base affects their lives significantly - unlike many residents in South Korea, Japan, and the Middle East, where the issue of US military bases is a major topic of debate.

But Mr. Baisalov warns against relying too much on public opinion here. While the Tulip Revolution has heightened the perception that "people power" matters in Kyrgyzstan, "Public opinion is not the decisive force on the future of the base," he says. "Russia and Uzbekistan are."

Cricket fever grips Afghan youth - India Express - Oct 30

[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.]