President Karzai is Saddened by the Loss of Lives Caused by Hurricane Katrina - Date of Release: - 1 September -2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul –H.E Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in a written letter to George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, extended his deepest sorrow and condolences to the people of the United States for the loss of lives and massive destruction caused by hurricane Katrina.

The President stated, “I pray for the full recovery of the injured and for swift rebuilding of the lives of those affected.”

“We in Afghanistan share your sorrow and understand the difficulties of experiencing large scale death and destruction. On behalf of the Afghan people, I express our solidarity to you and to the people of the United States at this difficult day.”

Bodies found in Afghanistan may be missing Japanese

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept 2 (AFP) - Two bodies found in restive southern Afghanistan may be those of Japanese tourists who vanished near the border with Pakistan last month, an official said Friday.

The Japanese teachers, a man and a woman, were reported missing after they failed to return home from a holiday in the region last month. Officials said they entered Afghanistan from Pakistan on August 8.

"Two bodies have been found on the Spin Boldak highway, possibly they're those two Japanese who were missing in this area since August 8," Kandahar provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said.  They were found late Thursday, he added.

A Japanese diplomat in Kabul told AFP that there had been no official confirmation that the bodies were those of the missing pair. Their school identified the Japanese as technical arts teacher Jun Fukusho, 44, and 30-year-old female English teacher Shinobu Hasegawa.

Media reports in Tokyo have said that they apparently set out on their own in a taxi to see the remains of the Bamiyan Buddhas, a set of huge 1,500-year-old structures dynamited by the hardline Taliban regime in 2001. Southern Afghanistan is wracked by violence linked to militants from the Taliban. More than 1,000 people, including hundreds of militants, have died so far this year.

The dead man and woman appear to have been killed a week ago, governor Khalid added, saying the pair were found 10 kilometers (six miles) from the main highway some 60 kilometres outside the city of Kandahar, he said.

Kandahar is known as the birthplace of the Taliban, who were toppled by a US-led invasion nearly four years ago. "Over the past time we believe that they were kept somewhere. It seems that they were killed some one week or so ago," he said.

The pair arrived in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on August 6 and shortly afterward contacted their families in Hiroshima for the first and last time, officials said.   

A senior Japanese diplomat in Islamabad has said the pair had entered Afghanistan from the border crossing at Chaman, near Quetta. They were due to return to Japan on August 19 but did not, leading their families to ask the government for help.

Japan, a close US ally, discourages its citizens from visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan due to safety concerns. Al-Qaeda militants have repeatedly threatened Japan and in October last year beheaded a 24-year-old Japanese tourist who was abducted in Iraq. 

Afghans hunt for kidnapped Briton, interpreter - By Yousuf Azimy

KABUL, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Afghan security force were hunting on Friday for a British man kidnapped with his Afghan interpreter by gunmen who attacked a convoy in western Afghanistan and killed three police escorts, a provincial official said.

The government initially said the Briton was an engineer working on a road construction project in western province of Farah but the provincial governor said he was working for a security company guarding road construction crews.

"The kidnapped person is a security guard, he is not an engineer. We are trying our level best to free him," said Farah governor Izatullah Wasifi. "He is alive, but we don't know which group has kidnapped him. We have started a big operation in the area," he said.

Taliban guerrillas, who have not been known to operate in force in the west, say they kidnapped the man. The government says criminals were responsible although they might be working for the Taliban.

Neither the government nor the British embassy in Kabul have released the man's name but a Taliban spokesman identified him as David.

A private U.S. security company, U.S. Protection and Investigations, is guarding road construction teams in the area. A company official declined to comment.

The attack took place on the main road between the southwestern city of Kandahar and the western city of Herat.One of the attackers had been captured but the rest had escaped into nearby mountains, Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said on Thursday. No demands had been made for the man's release, he said.

Mashal said the area where the attack took place was infested with robbers and the kidnappers too were criminals, not militants, although they might be in league with the Taliban.

Taliban guerrillas are battling about 20,000 U.S. troops,mostly in the south and east. About 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers operate mostly in Kabul, the north and the west.

About 1,000 people, including 48 U.S. troops, have been killed in a surge of violence this year, but Afghan and U.S. officials say Sept. 18 elections will not be disrupted.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the British man was a soldier and he was being kept in a Taliban hideout. His fate would be determined by a Taliban council, or shura, he said.

The British man had suffered a slight bullet wound to a hand but he had been treated and he was fine, Hakimi said.

Nearly four years after U.S.-led forces forced the Taliban from power, security remains a major problem in Afghanistan.

Suspected Taliban members have kidnapped several Turkish and Indian nationals working on road projects in the south, but have released them unharmed after ransoms were paid. A Lebanese engineer kidnapped by the Taliban last month was freed unharmed.

Gunmen kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Kabul in May. She was released unharmed after more than three weeks in captivity. Her captors were members of a criminal gang, the government said.  A British aid worker was shot dead in Kabul in March. That crime has not been solved. 

Afghanistan surge in violence "not al-Qaeda's work "- Financial Times, UK 09/01/2005 By Peter Spiegel

Kabul - US and allied intelligence agencies believe that the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan is not related to a reinvigorated offensive by the remnants of the al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgency but rather is the work of "disparate elements" that are unconnected and unco-ordinated.

General James Jones, Nato's supreme commander who was in Afghanistan to gauge security ahead of this month's parliamentary elections, said intelligence briefings had led him to believe the rise in attacks was largely due to domestic issues rather than external anti-coalition forces.

"The reasons for the attacks are clearly disparate," he told a small group of reporters travelling with him. "Some are religious fundamentalists, some are drug-related or narco-trafficking related, some just criminals. This is not a co-ordinated threat we think could lead to any greater insurrection."

Recent months have seen one of the most violent periods in Afghanistan's postwar history, with more than 1,000 deaths including 75 US soldiers occurring since the start of the year, the most in any year since the Taliban was deposed in 2001.

The upsurge in violence has led to speculation that remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban elements, which continue to engage in cross-border raids from Pakistan's frontier provinces, have become bolder, more numerous or better trained.

But while acknowledging that "it is sometimes difficult to figure out who exactly is conducting these attacks", Gen Jones, who was briefed by US and allied intelligence officials on Tuesday, said Afghan-based analysts have dismissed these theories, a finding he says he agrees with.

The determination is a key one for Nato, due to expand its mission in Afghanistan to include the still unsettled south around the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar early next year. But Lieutenant General Mauro Del Vecchio, the Italian officer currently leading Nato's 10,000-troop International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said recent analyses by his staff had determined that the current level of violence, while alarming, mirrored a rash of attacks that occurred ahead of last year's presidential election, which eventually passed without serious incident.

Violence Predicted Ahead of Afghan Vote - By PAUL AMES, Associated Press / September 1, 2005

SHARAN BASE, Afghanistan - U.S. commanders in one of Afghanistan's most volatile provinces expect violence to peak a week ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections but are confident the vote can go ahead without major disruptions.

Violence has surged in Paktika province — a former Taliban stronghold that shares a long, porous border with Pakistan — in recent weeks.But commanders of U.S. troops camped on a dust-blown plain outside the provincial capital, Sharan, played down the ability of Taliban holdouts to pose a major threat to the vote.

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Timothy McGuire said Wednesday the violence would likely spike a week before the election, without attacks taking place on election day.

U.S. and coalition forces say they will leave the primary protection of Paktika's 150 polling stations to the fledgling Afghan police and army, with international troops providing backup, as will be the case throughout Afghanistan.

"Our expectation is that the Afghans are going to do 98 percent of this," said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of Coalition Forces-Afghanistan. Eikenberry was briefing NATO commander Gen. James L. Jones, who was visiting Afghanistan ahead of the election.

NATO has 11,000 mostly European troops providing security in northern and western Afghanistan, while around 19,000 U.S.-led troops cover the south and east, including Paktika province.

Militants have stepped up attacks ahead of the landmark vote, and more than 1,100 people have been killed in the past six months.

Militants have regularly clashed with U.S. forces and their Afghan allies in Paktika. An Afghan police officer was being treated at the base's medical post Wednesday morning for shrapnel wounds from the latest attack.

However, U.S. commanders say the attacks are uncoordinated and often involve criminal elements as well as Taliban remnants who have vowed to disrupt the election.

"In Paktika there are some terrorist elements that run through the province, but that's a relatively weak element," Eikenberry said. "That (terrorist) network has been pretty well broken here in Afghanistan."

In addition to scattered bomb attacks, militants are using bullying and threats to try to intimidate voters, the U.S. officers told Jones. However, they said voter registration in the provinces is up from last year's presidential vote.

Afghan authorities expect a high turnout, including among woman voters. "We expect 75 to 80 percent will vote," said Governor Haji Mohammed Ghulab Mangel, who attended the briefing at the U.S. base.

U.S. commanders said they were working with candidates to ensure they remain in the democratic process, even if they lose the vote. They said the main focus of their operation would be protecting ballot boxes as they are transported to vote-counting centers.

Foreigners taking security for granted in Afghanistan: US envoy

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (AFP) - The US envoy in Afghanistan said Thursday that some foreigners were taking security for granted in the insurgency-hit nation, after a British engineer became the latest victim of abductions by suspected Taliban rebels.

Ambassador Ronald Neumann said although the security situation was "something of a grey environment, if you take reasonable security precautions you can probably live and work pretty safely."If you insist on being an idiot, you can serve with the consequences," he said in a teleconference with reporters in Washington from Kabul.

The unidentified British engineer was kidnapped together with his Afghan interpreter following a rebel attack reportedly on a convoy around a road project in western Farah province late Wednesday, raising security fears before key elections this month.

Three policemen were killed in the attack, for which militants from the Taliban have claimed responsibility.It was the latest in a wave of violence in the run up to September 18 parliamentary polls that has left more than 1,000 people dead.

When asked whether he implied that some of those attacked in the convoy were idiots, Neumann said, "No, but I know foreigners who like to say: "things are safe, I can just walk around.

"If people do that, then they can get into trouble. There is still a level of risk -- convoys get attacked, run over bombs and come under small arms fire."I am not saying the place is safe but most operations can be conducted with a reasonable level of safety."

Neumann, who took over as envoy about a month ago after a stint in war-wracked Iraq, said the number of abductions in Afghanistan "don't seem to me to be all that threatening given the nature of the country." 

He also said security did not pose a threat to parliamentary elections scheduled on September 18, seen as a crucial step on the country's road to democracy almost four years after the fall of the Taliban regime.

"The overall situation is in reasonably good shape," he said.But Neumann hastened to add, "I do not see an early end to the level of violence that threatens governance in Afghanistan.

"I think that is a long term problem because of the nature of the country, its disorganization and fragmentation after 25 years of warfare," he said, pointing out that aside from the Taliban there were 1,800 armed militias there.

Press Briefing by Adrian Edwards Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and by United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan - Kabul – 1 September 2005

• Polio eradication campaign

Some seven million Afghan children under the age of five will be vaccinated against polio in a three-day campaign starting September 5 th. This is a further crucial stage in the efforts to eradicate this crippling disease.

The campaign is being led by the Ministry of Public Health. It is also being supported by the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Forty thousand people are involved in vaccinations and monitoring, working in more than 16,000 teams. These teams will move from house to house in every community. The aim is to reach all children over a three day period from 5 to 7 September.

• Returnees from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas climbing

The number of Afghans returning to Afghanistan from refugee camps in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has risen to 46,339 - the majority of returns have been to the provinces of Paktya, Khost and Nangarhar.

Despite an August 31 st deadline for the camp closures, the government of Pakistan has agreed that the repatriation operation will continue for Afghans who have chosen to return with UNHCR assistance.

During a meeting between the Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR in Kabul earlier this week, Pakistani authorities reiterate d commitment to the voluntary return of Afghans and said camps for those choosing to relocate have been identified.

As you may know the parties also moved to extend the Tripartite Agreement that regulates the repatriation programme. The extension, from March 2006 to December 2006 will provide Afghans living in Pakistan additional time to return home under the current UNHCR assistance programme.

• Reintegration and Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG)

There has been a slight rise since last week in the number of former officers and soldiers who have entered the reintegration process. Today that number stands at 60,334.

As of today 9,539 weapons are verified as having been handed in under the Disbanding of Illegal Armed Groups programme, which has been running since early June. A breakdown of the figures shows that 124 candidates handed in weapons [in accordance with the initial stage of DIAG]. The remaining arms have come from 231 other individuals or armed groups.

The Joint Secretariat has agreed to form a Joint Planning Group to create a document that will guide the main phase of DIAG. The document will outline steps, which should be taken in the areas of disbandment operations, development/good governance and public information. The first meeting took place this past Tuesday with a task deadline of 7 to 10 days.

Meanwhile, wok on clearing mine and ammunition stockpiles continues, with 24,058 tons of ordnance having been identified around the country during a survey of 442 caches.

For those interested in the numbers this comprises 565,458 boxes of ammunition and 1,755,487 individual pieces.

13 ammunition caches have been surveyed in the northern region this week containing 2,645 boxes of ammunition and 19,356 individual pieces. The highest concentration has been in Samangan, where more than a third of the ammunition was found [1,039 boxes and 5,566 individual items].

• UNDP supporting first ever women and children book fair

A book fair for women and children is being held from September 3-13, 2005 at the University of Education in Kabul.

The fair aims at helping in the revival of Afghan culture by encouraging women and children to read more. Fifteen women’s NGO’s, international organizations as well as the United Nations will be attending.

The 10-day event, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is expected to draw approximately 10,000 visitors. Members of the media are invited to a press conference this Saturday September 3 rd at 10:30am at the university. Details are on the side table.

Questions & Answers

Question: In terms of the ordnance and weapons that are being handed in, are these still operable, are these outdated? I know that some mines have shelf lives on them. Are you finding new weapons that are being brought into the country from a legacy of other conflicts?

Spokesman: With weapons and ordnance that is being uncovered during these surveys, the majority tends to be unserviceable. Those that are unserviceable are disposed of by two implementing partners, Halo Trust and RONCO. With weapons handed in under DIAG, which are serviceable, these are handed over to the Ministries of Defence and Interior. Essentially they are put into safekeeping.

Question: You mentioned that 124 candidates have decided to hand in weapons. Weren’t they supposed to have handed in these weapons before, at the time of their nominations?

Spokesman: I don’t have the dates in front of me when these weapons were handed in, however I think what we are dealing here with weapons that were handed in during the period of DIAG in which candidates were allowed to do this [ending July 1].

Question: The last two nights we have had news that bodyguards of the Chief Justice were attacked. There was an encounter between them and the UN protection forces or something. Does that concern you?

Spokesman: I’m not aware of that incident.

Pakistan seizes one tone of smuggled Afghan opium

QUETTA, Pakistan, Sept 2 (AFP) - Pakistani anti-drugs forces have seized more than a tone of opium in a raid on a hut near the Afghan border, officials said Friday.

The raid was conducted on a tip off that the drugs smuggled from Afghanistan were dumped in a hut in Kharotabad, on the outskirts of the main southwestern city of Quetta, counter-narcotics official Major Mohammad Imtiaz said.

The raiding party recovered 1,110 kilos (2,420 pounds) of opium, he said. However two men jumped from the roof of the hut and disappeared. Traffickers often use Pakistan as a transit point for drugs from Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium. Opium is used to make heroin.

Million children to be vaccinated as Afghanistan strives to eradicate polio - Source: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - In spite of isolated cases, nation remains confident of ending crippling disease

Kabul, 1 September 2005 – 7 million Afghan children under the age of five will be vaccinated against polio in a three day campaign, starting on 5 September, marking another crucial stage in the country's efforts to eradicate the crippling disease.

The campaign, which is led by Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health with support from UNICEF and WHO, gets underway as health officials confirms a total of four cases of the disease being reported in 2005, the same number as identified last year. The localised nature of the cases – all have been discovered in the southern border provinces – indicate that Afghanistan is winning the battle against the indigenous virus thanks to a massive drive that has seen millions of children vaccinated each year in every community in the country.

The September campaign will utilise the skills of 40,000 people, working in more than 16,000 teams of vaccinators and monitors. The vaccination teams will move from house to house in every community, in an effort to ensure that all children are reached over the three day period from 5 to 7 September. Afghanistan's rough terrain, and the fact that many small children remain within the household compounds throughout the day, makes access to families a challenge – the work of the mobile vaccination teams is therefore a critical aspect of the campaign approach.

One important group of advocates for polio immunization in Afghanistan is made up of the nation's religious leaders, who traditionally inform families of forthcoming vaccination campaigns through Friday worship. This year their information messages will incorporate a new element – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, destination for millions of Muslims making their 'haj' or holy pilgrimage to Mecca, has announced that all pilgrims under the age of 15 must have received polio vaccine before they can enter the country.

While the four National Immunization Day campaigns held each year are an important defence against the spread of polio, health experts believe that investment in routine immunization – the systematic immunization of children as part of ongoing health care programmes – is essential to ensure complete eradication. Afghanistan's routine immunization levels average just 66 per cent; well below the global standard of 80 per cent of children. The Ministry of Public Health held a major multi-partner conference earlier in 2005 that won commitments from key health partners to develop nationwide integrated health care, including routine immunization.

One key partner in the Afghan polio eradication campaign is Rotary International which, through the Polio Plus initiative, has been actively involved in immunization and polio eradication since 1985. Through the initiative, Rotary clubs and individual Rotarians voluntarily dedicate themselves to a polio-free world. Rotary International official Mr. Abdul Haiy Khan, recently visited Kabul to provide guidance and support to the country's re-emerging Rotary Clubs, which in most countries play an active role in immunization campaigns, with members working as vaccinators and social mobilizers.

"As Afghanistan finds it place once more on the world stage, the role of national Rotary Clubs will become increasingly important in helping the country to tackle some of its major health and social challenges," said Mr. Khan. "I find it heartening that in a country devastated by so much conflict and upheaval there is a growing desire within civil society to play its part in helping the nation to rebuild and that Rotary is once more establishing its presence in Afghanistan."

In addition to Rotary International, Afghanistan's National Immunization Days receive financial assistance from a number of international donors, including the Governments of Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Govt to invite bids for mines excavation - Pajhwok Afghan News 09/01/2005 By Zainab Mohaqiq

KABUL - The Ministry of Mines and Industries Thursday announced leasing out two big mines of copper and iron through a bidding to be joined by private companies and contractors in the next two months.

Ahmad Shah Karim Uloomi, spokesman for the ministry, said bids received from different companies would be jointly scrutinized by the Finance and Mines ministries and the contract would be awarded on the basis of highest offer.

The Ainak and Hajigak mines in Logar and Bamyan provinces are containing huge copper and iron reserves in the region.

Uloomi said the Ainak mine, considered as one of the biggest in the South Asian region, had an estimated 10 million tons of copper reserves while the Hajigak, located some 45 kilometres southeast of Bamyan city, contained around 200 million tons of iron reserves.

Officials said there were about 300 different mines including gas, gem stones, copper, ore, uranium and coal, which can earn millions of dollars revenues for the war-hit country.

Officials further said the government would sign an agreement under which the successful bidder would have to pay royalty, rent and other lawful taxes to the government.

Red carpet return for skilled Afghans from Pakistan - UNHCR 09/01/2005

ATTOCK, Pakistan – More than 3,000 Afghans are rolling up their carpets and packing up to go home this week from Pakistan's Attock city, bringing their renowned weaving skills back to Afghanistan.

On Thursday, some 500 Afghans in 125 families – most of them ethnic Turkmen – were registered for return by UNHCR mobile teams in Attock, 82 km outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. They were among the more than 3,000 Afghans registered to leave the city for Afghanistan between August 28 and September 3 under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation operation.

"We had made up our minds earlier this year to repatriate to Afghanistan before Ramadan and winter season with UNHCR assistance," said Abdul Rahim, who was heading back to Jawzjan province of Afghanistan. "Many of our carpet weaving setups have moved to Afghanistan during the last few years. This also means that our jobs are now in Afghanistan."

Attock is home to 38,892 mostly-Turkmen Afghans, according to a census of Afghans in Pakistan taken earlier this year. Some of them have been in Attock since 1979, after fleeing the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. The census also showed that many of the Turkmen Afghans were self-employed in their small carpet-weaving factories, while Afghans of other ethnicities were mostly reported doing daily wage or labour work in Attock.

"All Turkman families who live here are remarkable carpet weavers and we were able to get a decent living out of the business," said Agha Mohammad as he loaded his family belongings on a truck bound for Baghlan in Afghanistan.

Sources say Afghans working in the carpet weaving setups at Attock earn an average of 2,500 rupees (US$41) for weaving a piece measuring one square foot. "We had to calculate our move for voluntary repatriation from Pakistan so that we would be able to re-establish our carpet weaving set-ups in Afghanistan," Agha explained.

Since UNHCR started its voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan in 2002, around 50,000 Afghans have been assisted to return from Attock, including more than 6,000 so far this year.

"The fact that the Turkman community in Attock is repatriating voluntarily to their homeland is encouraging as it indicates an increased confidence among Afghans to return home," said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's Assistant Representative in Pakistan.

In a separate development, camp closures are continuing for the 27 refugee camps in the Kurram and Bajaur agencies of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Pakistani government had announced the camps would be closed on August 31, and offered camp residents a choice between repatriating to Afghanistan and relocating to another camp in Pakistan.

UNHCR has said it will continue assisting people who want to repatriate after the August 31 deadline. Some 72,000 Afghans out of more than 100,000 Afghans in these camps have returned home voluntarily so far.

More than 2.6 million Afghans have left Pakistan under the UNHCR repatriation programme from Pakistan since 2002. This number includes over 300,000 who have returned to Afghanistan so far this year.

The returns are governed by a tripartite agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR. The agreement, which was due to expire in March 2006, was extended to December 2006 by the three parties in a meeting held in Kabul earlier this week.

‘ Old warrior’ B-52 gets call in Afghanistan - By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Thursday, September 1, 2005

The U.S. military has called on a few of its oldest warriors to the fight in a recent series of offensive actions in Afghanistan. B-52 Stratofortresses — twice as old as some of the crewmembers aboard them — are dropping satellite-guided bombs on targets called for by forces on the ground.

Capt. Andy McElvaine, weapons officer for the 40th Air Expeditionary Group, said “B-52” and “close air support” historically don’t belong in the same sentence. But technological advances have changed that. “We’ve been providing a lot of close air support pretty effectively,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Some A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, Army helicopters and Marine Corps aircraft continue to support ground operations in more traditional roles, flying in low while engaging the enemy. But now those fighting against Americans and Afghan government forces on the ground also have to contend with enemies they’ll never see.

That’s because the B-52s perform their missions between 22,000 and 39,000 feet. Sometimes they leave vapor trails. But Capt. Adam, an aircraft commander who declined to give his last name because he said he’s engaged in ongoing operations, said most of the time crews never see their enemies or the effect of the weapons they drop.

He said there was an exception recently on a mission after dark. The 2,000-pound GBU-31 bomb “lit up the entire night sky” when it struck its target, he said.

Capt. Bobby, a navigator who also wouldn’t provide his last name, said Afghanistan doesn’t provide any special problems for crews. The mountains, dust and swirling winds make flying helicopters treacherous, but none of those problems exist at the B-52s’ altitude.

Before the advent of precision bombs, B-52s’ roles in close engagements were severely limited because bombs dropped from 30,000 feet were just as likely to fall on friendly forces as those they were fighting.

There are still restrictions on how close forces can be engaged before the precision bombs are put in play. But McElvaine said the GBU-31 hits within about 42 feet of its programmed target.

“It’s a very diverse group of targets,” he said. “Sometimes larger groups [of entrenched enemies] and sometimes cave complexes.”

The three Air Force officers, all based with the 5th Bombing Wing from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., expressed confidence in the weapons they’re dropping. The aircraft commander said if numbers programmed into the bombs are accurate, they’ll hit their targets.

So, he said communication is important not only between those on the ground and in the air, but also within the crew. It takes only about a minute for the bomb to hit its target after it’s launched.

The five-member crews and aircraft aren’t based in Afghanistan, though the Air Force won’t release their home base. It’s a flight of several hours to reach the country, and crews normally take off without any specific targets. They hover around until they’re called upon, or until it’s time to head back.

Missions last 16 to 18 hours, but those flying them say it’s worth the time and effort. “Our main mission here is to make sure those guys on the ground — American or Afghan allies — are protected,” the commander said. “They’re the ones slogging around down there and they have our respect and support.”

New weapons fire up Afghan National Police - September 1, 2005 Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs) - By U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Leslie Brown Office of Security Cooperation-Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan National Police increased their ability to train under realistic conditions recently when the ANP’s six Regional Training Centers received shipments of new weapons for use in training the police force.

The need for the new weapons at the RTCs was urgent. Mock rifles had been used to train the police officers.

“We desperately needed these weapons,” said Charles Wilson, the DynCorp lead advisor and police mentor to the commander at the Herat RTC. “We have been training the police with wooden weapons without movable parts. Now we can start training them with the weapons they will be using.”

Realistic training means more confident policemen when they are out fulfilling their duties, he said.The Hungarian government donated 18,800 new AMD-65s to the ANP. Similar to an AK-47, the AMD-65 has a rifle stock that folds to become more compact and fires 7.62-caliber ammunition, the same type of round used in the AK-47.

Afghan National Police Col. Allah Noor Mohammadi, commander of the Herat RTC, was elated to see the initial arrival of the new weapons and immediately inspected the shipment.

“These weapons will be used right away for training our policemen,” Mohammadi said. “When we receive the entire inventory we will begin distributing them to all those who are trained. We need them for the security of Afghanistan .”

The weapons distribution plan is being carried out in two phases. The first phase began in early July when the first shipment of 90 AMD-65s was delivered to the Kandahar RTC.

Deliveries of 90 weapons each to the remaining RTCs in Herat , Gardez, Jalalabad, Konduz and Mazar-e-Sharif were completed by Aug 21. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jose Lebron, a logistics plans manager from the Office of Security Cooperation-Afghanistan, helped develop the weapons distribution plan for the ANP.

“The initial distribution of the training weapons will include three magazines and a sling for each weapon, enough to begin proper training,” Lebron said.During the second phase, all six of the RTCs will receive additional new weapons to distribute to police officers as they complete their training and report to their assignments.

“Our goal is to have all of the weapons delivered and in use prior to the September elections,” Lebron said.The ammunition for the weapons will be delivered with the larger shipments in phase two. After the second phase of distribution to the training centers is complete, the next priority is to equip the Afghan Border Police with the new weapons.

“We are starting from the outside and working in,” Lebron said. “Securing the borders of Afghanistan is a very important first step.” After the border police receive new weapons, the ANP regional commands in the south and east of Afghanistan receive their issue. In addition to the Hungarian weapons donation, other members of the International Community donated more than 2 million rounds of ammunition to Afghanistan for use with the rifles. Additionally, DynCorp, the private contractor that mentors and trains the ANP at the regional training centers, transported the weapons to all of the RTCs using their own aircraft.

“The weapons and ammunition donations and their delivery methods are truly a Coalition project,” Lebron said. “The concerted efforts of all of those involved will enable the ANP to be proficient in firearms and enforcing the rule of law.”

Pakistan's soldier-president woos the West with Israel talks

Islamabad (AFP) - For a career soldier who seized power in a military coup, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been making a lot of peace recently in a move analysts say is mainly about improving the Muslim country's image abroad.

On Thursday, he dispatched his foreign minister to meet his Israeli counterpart in Turkey for the first-ever high-level talks between the two countries after six decades of hostility.

Key US ally Musharraf insisted Pakistan, the world's second largest Muslim country, was not yet ready to recognise the Jewish state but said the visit was part of a policy to move forward internationally.

At the same time in Islamabad, Pakistani officials were engaged in the latest stage of a peace process with nuclear rival India to solve an equally long-running dispute over the Himalayan state of Kashmir and other problems.

So what is going on in the mind of General Musharraf, who before 1999's bloodless putsch was best known for allegedly ordering a risky incursion into Kashmir that heightened tensions with New Delhi?

Musharraf has already angered religious hardliners at home with a mass crackdown after the July 7 London bombings, and an alliance of Islamist parties is planning nationwide protests at home.

Instead, Musharraf stands to reap benefits abroad, by improving Pakistan's terrorism-tarnished image and lifting the heat from the west over a proliferation scandal by the father of its nuclear bomb, analysts said.

"Pakistan is likely to gain a lot from President Pervez Musharraf's bold decision," Ishtiaq Ahmed, professor of international relations at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, told AFP.

Analysts said it was an effort by Pakistan to increase its diplomatic options by defusing the opposition of influential Jewish groups in the United States, especially on Capitol Hill.

Over the past year Musharraf himself has been touting his personal brand of moderate Islam around the world, and is due to address Jewish leaders in New York later this month.

"Pakistan will now be seen as a state which acts independently and is not part of the group of Muslim hardline states," said Hasan Askari, former head of political science at Punjab University in Lahore.

Musharraf will be keen to overturn the continuing suspicion with which the West -- and Israel in particular -- regards the Muslim world's only nuclear-armed state, despite its support for Washington's "war on terror".

Much of this comes from the disclosure in early 2004 that Pakistani atomic scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had passed nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Khan was pardoned by Musharraf but remains under house arrest.

Punjab university's Askari said the basic concern of US Jewish groups was that nuclear technology would not be transferred from Pakistan to Israel's adversaries in the Arab world. "Pakistan must have now assured them that its nuclear programme has relevance only in the South Asian context," he added.

Just as crucially for Islamabad, though, the move could also help Pakistan to counter the close relations between India and Israel. Israel last year approved a 1.1-billion-dollar arms deal with India which included the sale of airborne early warning radar systems.

Ever paranoid about its bigger and stronger western neighbour, with whom it has fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan said the deal highlighted the strategic imbalance in South Asia.

"The Pakistani move is an attempt to successfully neutralise the Indo-Israeli nexus," Ahmed observed. Not all the credit can go to Musharraf, however. Analysts point out that the Israel talks, while kept under wraps, were not a sudden development.

A football match between the two countries was held during late dictator Zia ul Haq's rule and successive Pakistani governments have reportedly held behind the scenes talks with Israeli officials.

More recently, in January this year, deputy Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres gave an interview to private Pakistani television in which he urged Islamabad to establish contact with the Jewish state.

Islamic extremists reacted to the broadcast by ransacking the offices of the TV channel. Two years ago, Musharraf floated the idea of a debate "to develop a national consensus" on whether to recognize the Jewish state.Political commentator and writer Mohammad Afzal Niazi said the Israel talks, despite the denials by Pakistani officials, were a "halfway house towards recognising Israel".

US, Israeli flags torched in Pakistan protests

Islamabad (AFP) - Hardline Islamic parties in Pakistan protested over the first formal talks with Israel, burning American and Israeli flags and calling for the ouster of US ally President Pervez Musharraf.

Hundreds of supporters of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six religious parties that leads Pakistan's opposition, took to the streets outside mosques after Friday prayers.There were no reports of clashes with police but security was increased for the protests and officers stood by without intervening.

"You have to overthrow the Musharraf government, which is given the country's sovereignty in the US hands," the alliance's chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed told a rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The alliance rules the government of North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital. "Stand up against Musharraf who is protecting American interests," Qazi told a gathering of some 300 people shouting slogans outside a mosque, witnesses said.

Musharraf has defended Thursday's talks between Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom in Turkey, the first official diplomatic contact after nearly 60 years of hostility.

He said the meeting did not mean Pakistan, which is the world's second biggest Muslim country, recognised the Jewish state, and that it would only do so once a Palestinian homeland was established.

Musharraf was once backed by the Islamic parties but has angered them by supporting Washington's "war on terror", refusing to step down as army chief and cracking down on extremists after the July 7 London bombings.

In the eastern city of Lahore, some 400 people flocked to the headquarters of MMA chief Qazi's Jamaat-e-Islami party, saying Thursday's meeting was a step towards recognising Israel. "The steps taken towards recognition of Israel will be stopped by force," party secretary general Syed Munawwar Hasan told the crowd.

Around three dozen MMA workers staged a rally in the capital Islamabad. "The meeting was an insult to sentiments of 150 million people in Pakistan," alliance leader Mian Aslam said. "Musharraf is a stooge of US President George Bush."

Protesters carried placards saying "We will not approve friendship with Israel" and "Israelis are murderers of Palestinians". The Islamic leaders criticised Musharraf for not consulting parliament and the people of Pakistan before the talks.

Some 300 people held a rally in central city of Multan, regarded as a hotbed of extremism, and burned US and Israeli flags, witnesses said. "Friends of Jews are foes of Muslims," read one protester's placard.

"The meeting was a stab in the back for the Palestinian struggle and a withdrawal of Pakistan's stance on the issue of Palestine," Islamic leader Mufti Hidayat ullah Pasroori said.

Love's 'Labour' not a lost cause in Kabul - By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor - 9/1/05

Shakespeare ... in Kabul? -Granted, it is an idea that takes some getting used to. But there is much about modern-day Afghanistan, a Central Asian country emerging from 23 years of war, that William Shakespeare would have found familiar: autocratic leaders playing great games with the lives of men, doomed lovers defying ethnic or tribal taboos, nobles and servants trading bawdy jokes, and devious warlords and ambitious mistresses hatching foul plots.

And an ambitious Afghan theater group is hoping that their fellow Afghans - in a two-week theater run of "Love's Labour's Lost" that started Wednesday - will find deep connections to their own society today.

"Shakespeare was a great writer, a great performer, an actor, not famous only in England but all over the world," says Wali Faisal Azizi, the handsome actor who plays the nobleman, Dumain. "Shakespeare's secret is that beside knowing about people of his own country, he had insight into the human heart. That is why he is great."

He smiles. "Obviously, I can't tell you that Shakespeare was an Afghan," he says, "but he was a great writer."

Part of that greatness is the universality of tales like "Love's Labour's Lost," a drama set in 15-century France but still relevant to today's Afghanistan. The story is centered on four noblemen who take a vow to study, fast, pray, and not see women for three years. This highly unnatural, and vaguely Talibanesque plan, falls apart just as soon as four beautiful princesses arrive in town, and the noblemen fall instantly in love. Pride prevents them from breaking their vow openly, which leaves them easy prey for the princesses and their bag of tricks. The remainder of the play is a hilarious roundabout of mistaken identity and ham-handed romance.Mullah Omar may not find any of this amusing, but then again, he's not invited.

Director Corinne Jaber says the idea for putting on "Love's Labour's Lost" was the happy result of a trip last spring, in which she met some local actors and held a few acting workshops. Right away she noticed that the Afghan actors were brilliant at improvisation, and were aching to take on meatier roles. But nobody, after 23 years of war, wanted to do tragedies - so that left the comedies. And they wanted to do it in the Afghan dialect of Farsi, called Dari.

"It does not make sense in a country like this where there's just been war and destruction and no culture for almost 25 years to hold a European play in English," says Ms. Jaber, a Canadian actress. "I think the only reason to do a play like this is to give it to them," the Afghans, in their own tongue. Jaber envisions the group taking this play and others to those few Afghans cities where theater, and particularly the inclusion of women actors, would be welcome.

Getting a Persian translation of the play proved easier than expected. An Iranian scholar who spent his school years at Oxford had translated all of Shakespeare into Persian, and a team of US, European, and Afghan drama lovers quickly set about making the Bard work in an Afghan context.

The first thing they did was to change the nationality of the characters from Frenchmen to Afghans. One scene in which the noblemen disguise themselves as a troupe of Russians was seen as distinctly unfunny, so the Russians quickly became Indians. But the central theme of the play - love - required no translation at all.

Sabah-e Sahar, a famous Afghan filmmaker who plays the lead female role, says that the Afghan people will easily understand the motivations of these medieval characters. She says the traditional rules of Elizabethan England about love and modesty are very similar to the strict ban on affection in modern Afghanistan.

"Love is not new in this country," says Ms. Sahar, who has supported herself for years as a policewoman. "But you can't tell people, oh, I've fallen in love. There's lots of change from that black period until now, the Taliban period, when you couldn't even walk with your own husband in the street. In this time, we have lots of freedom. But love is still something you should keep secret."

Nabi Tanha, a veteran actor of film and television and an acting instructor at Kabul University, says that it's about time the Afghan people get a good love story."Ishq, or love, is a miracle from God, and everybody in the world is like this, they can't resist love," says Mr. Tanha.

Tanha recognizes that war has dispersed the educated Afghan audience that would have easily appreciated the nuances of Shakespeare. But Tanha says this just means he and his fellow actors have to work harder to get their message across.

This being theater, there have been occasional tantrums by actors, fainting spells, and complicated backstage lives. Marina Gulbahari, for instance, has to travel around the city in a burqa to avoid harassment because of her fame as the preteen star of the Afghan movie, "Osama."

There is also a strange appearance of the stuffy declamatory style of Shakespearean acting that has been difficult to squash.

Yet the greatest difficulty, Jaber says, has been to get these actors to reach down deep into themselves to that fragile part of each person where love resides, a part that most Afghans have kept hidden for years.

"All these people are in, or about to go into, arranged marriages," says Jaber. "So they're not asked, very rarely, whether they want to marry this lady or not. Marriage is not linked to love. The boys don't want to go to that point in themselves, that imagination that everybody has where love is," Jaber says. "Which is difficult, because the whole play is about love."

Yet, from a recent rehearsal in the garden, it's clear that these actors are in their element. The scene is set outside the castle walls, near the tent where the princesses are staying - uncomfortably - as guests of the king. The four noblemen have sent love letters and gifts to the princesses. Now they are arriving, disguised in Mahatma-Gandhi-style dhotis as a group of visiting Indian dancers, to profess their love to the women in person.

Led by Tanha, who plays a nobleman Biron, the men improvise a dance scene fit for a Bollywood comedy. The women break out in laughter.

The sound of Shakespeare translated into Persian is a bit jarring. Missing is the thump-THUMP of iambic pentameter and the end-rhyme scheme. But it's clear even to a non-Dari speaker that the richness of the poetic expression has survived the rocky transfer from Elizabethan English to modern Persian, which itself has a rich poetic tradition.

But the biggest test is the effect of these pretty words on the actors themselves. In a rehearsal of the play's finale, the actors - men and women - spontaneously broke into tears. Jaber asked them what had happened, and they replied, "This is the last time these lovers will see each other." After a break, the actors melted into puddles all over again.

Somehow, one feels the bard would have been pleased.

[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.]