Afghan soldiers carry a wreath to the tomb for Afghan rebel Ahmed Shah Masood in Panjshir during a memorial marking the 4th anniversary since his death at the hands of suicide bombers. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Afghans remember Masood – Reuters 09/09/2005

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai reminded Afghanistan of the sacrifice of countless countrymen on Friday as he and other leaders marked the fourth anniversary of the assassination of mujahideen guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Masood.

Masood was killed by al Qaeda suicide bombers two days before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. His troops, among the mujahideen, or holy warrior, forces who ousted the Soviets, helped the United States rout the Taliban two months later.

"We didn't achieve this huge victory for free," Karzai said in a speech at a ceremony at Kabul's sports stadium. Untold thousands of sons of the soil had died in holy war and resistance for the freedom and honour of the nation, he said.

The country will on Sept. 18 elect a lower house of parliament and provincial councils in the last step of a U.S- and U.N.-backed plan to restore democratic government and stability, drawn up days after the Taliban were ousted.

Karzai, who was also in the anti-Soviet mujahideen alliance, was elected president for a five-year term in October last year. He did not refer to the elections in his speech.

The president does not have a political party and has promised not to interfere in the legislative elections but has called for people to shun ethnic factions and elect honest people who put the country first.

Yunus Qanuni, leader of a loose alliance of parties opposed to Karzai, was a top political official in Masood's faction and has inherited much of his support. He attended on Friday.

One of Masood's brothers, Ahmad Zia Masood, is Karzai's first vice president. Masood was credited with playing a key role in defeating Afghanistan's Soviet occupation. He was killed by two Tunisian al Qaeda militants who posed as journalists and died when they detonated a bomb packed in a video camera during an interview.

A huge portrait of Masood dominates the Kabul stadium where the Taliban used to stage public executions. Thousands of people watched as Karzai and other leaders laid wreathes and a guard of honour marched.

Karzai also did not refer to the Taliban insurgency in the south and east where 20,000 U.S. troops are trying to ensure security for the election. About 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers are also helping to guard the vote. More than 1,000 people have been killed in violence this year, the bloodiest period since U.S. troops arrived in late 2001.

Masood, an ethnic Tajik, was known as the "Lion of the Panjsher" after his home valley northeast of Kabul from where he battled the Soviets and the Taliban. In May, a French court jailed three men for helping the al Qaeda agents who killed him.

Ahmad Shah Masood remembered

KABUL, September 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A largely attended ceremony was held here on Friday to mark the fourth death anniversary of Afghan national hero Ahmad Shah Masood.

President Hamid Karzai, his cabinet members, representatives of the diplomatic corps here and civil and military officials participated in the event. On the occasion, speakers paid glowing tributes to the man who valiantly led his forces against occupation Soviet troops.

Floral wreaths were placed at a monument erected in this city to the great commander who had been killed in a suicide attack in 2001 in the Bahauddin region of the northeastern Takhar province.

Similar gatherings were also arranged in different provinces including Kunduz, where the government announcedd a two-day mourning. At a meeting arranged in his remembrance, a day earlier in Kabul, the title of 'Ghazi' was conferred on the late Masood.

Nine arrested for firing at Defence Minister's car - Pajhwok Afghan News

09/10/2005 By Khalid Ahmad Moahid

KABUL - The car of Afghan Defence Minister came under attack outside Kabul airport soon after the minister embarked a helicopter bound for the northern Panjshir province.

The convoy was attacked as it was returning from the airport after dropping Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who had to left for Panjshir to attend a memorial held in connection with the fourth death anniversary of the Ahmad Shah Masood.

Defence Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said nine assailants wearing military uniform were arrested in connection with the bungled assassination attempt. Speaking at a news conference here, Azimi said it was an assassination attempt on the minister.

The spokesman said at least four bullets hit the car while one of them pierced through the seat at which the minister was supposed to sit. Azimi stopped short of telling identity of the attackers, saying they were under investigations.

Azimi further said a helicopter carrying army chief Bismillah Khan and three cabinet ministers crashed shortly after takeoff in the Panjshir province. The officials were there to attend a memorial in honor of Ahmed Shah Masood, who was killed by two Tunisian suicide bombers posing as journalists.

Azimi said the helicopter's rotor blades clipped a tree during takeoff and caught fire. He said the officials managed to escape the burning chopper. Two pilots and the army chief received minor injuries.

The two incidents happened at a time when the much-hyped parliamentary elections are only a week away. Taliban have warned to disrupt the polls while the US and Afghan forces have stepped security to ensure peace during the elections.

Three senior officials injured in copter crash

KABUL, September 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three senior Afghan government officials were injured when a military helicopter crashed soon after takeoff and caught fire in the northern Panjsher valley, a knowledgeable source said on Saturday.

A security official, requesting not to be named, told Pajhwok Afghan News cabinet ministers Dr. Mir Mohammad Amin Farhang and Amina Afzali and Afghan army chief Bismillah Khan Mohammadi were injured in the crash.

Government officials, who confirmed the crash caused by the helicopter's engine failure, denied any one had been wounded in the accident. The top officials were flying back to Kabul after attending a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of renowned commander Ahmad Shah Masood.

In an exclusive chat with this news agency, Panjsher Governor Haji Bahlol said the chopper caught fire when one of its blades hit a tree immediately after the takeoff and crashed to the earth. He insisted no one was injured in the accident.

On the other hand, Afghan Air Force officer Mohammad Dauran said two pilots received minor injuries in the crash that took place around noon.

Thirty suspected militants killed, 60 captured in Afghanistan - September 10, 2005

KABUL (AFP) - At least 30 suspected Taliban fighters were killed and "a large number" of militants captured during a fresh operation by Afghan and US-led forces in southern Afghanistan.

"During an operation in Grishk district of Helmand on Friday, Afghan and coalition forces killed 30 enemies and captured... 60 others," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters Saturday.

Soldiers try to kill Afghan defense minister; U.S. warns of 'spectacular' attacks - AP 09/10/2005

KABUL — Afghan soldiers botched a brazen attempt to assassinate the defense minister at the capital's airport today, while fighting in southern Afghanistan left 30 suspected militants dead, officials said.

The violence came as U.S. military commanders warned in an interview with The Associated Press that Taliban insurgents might try to disrupt the Sept. 18 legislative elections with "spectacular'' assaults using car bombs and suicide attackers.

But Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the top operational commander in Afghanistan, said he was confident that enough American troops and other forces were in place to ensure the balloting succeeds.

"We are in a posture to disrupt, pre-empt and discourage enemy actions,'' he said. Asked if the election would be successful, Kamiya said, "I am 100 percent confident.''

Meanwhile, a helicopter carrying Afghanistan's army chief and three Cabinet ministers crashed and burst into flames while taking off, but all on board escaped with only minor injuries. The government called it an accident.

Nine Afghan soldiers were arrested in the attempt to shoot Defense Minister Rahim Wardak at the airport, said ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi.

Four bullets hit his convoy as the vehicles left the airport, but Wardak and several other ministers had gotten out, he said. One bullet hit "the exact place where the defense minister had been sitting in the car,'' and a ministry staffer was wounded, Azimi said.

"It is clear that it was an assassination attempt on the defense minister,'' he said. The motive for the shooting was not announced. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the soldiers were angry over a pay dispute.

Coming after last fall's presidential ballot, the Sept. 18 election is the next key step toward democracy after a quarter-century of war. Insurgents loyal to the ousted Taliban regime have stepped up activities the past six months seeking to wreck the vote, and more than 1,200 people have died in the fighting.

A U.S. military intelligence official, Chief Warrant Officer Larry Tersone, told AP that insurgents were expected to "start ramping up operations'' even more. He said the main threat was believed to be car bombs and suicide attacks at polling stations.

"I think they will try to conduct an operation of a spectacular nature within a significant population center because that is the immediate attention-getter they are looking for,'' Tersone said.

He said the military also was on the lookout for lone militants using rockets against people lining up to vote. About 20,000 American soldiers are in Afghanistan as part of a 21,000-strong U.S.-led coalition. There is a separate force of 11,000 NATO-commanded peacekeepers.

Coalition forces have gone on the offensive in recent weeks, reporting the killings or arrests of hundreds of suspected insurgents during operations in volatile southern and eastern regions.

Azimi said Afghan and U.S.-led forces killed 30 suspected militants and arrested a large number of others Friday in southern Helmand province, which has suffered several insurgent attacks in recent weeks. Dozens of weapons were found in the area, including some lying in farm fields, he said.

The helicopter carrying army chief Bismillah Khan and three Cabinet ministers crashed during takeoff in the Panjshir Valley, about 60 miles north of Kabul. Presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmed blamed the crash on the chopper's rotor blades clipping a tree during takeoff.

The craft was about 30 yards in the air when it wobbled, then quickly descended, flipped on its side and crashed, said an AP photographer at the scene. It burst into flames and then exploded.

Azimi said Khan, Sediqa Balkhi, minister for the disabled, and the helicopter's two pilots, suffered minor injuries. Hundreds of spectators, including government leaders and foreign ambassadors, fled as screaming as chunks of metal flew into a group of vehicles parked nearby.

The officials had attended a memorial service in honor of Ahmed Shah Masood, the former head of the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance who was killed by two suspected al-Qaida assassins Sept. 9, 2001.

Top UN envoy warns that violence in Afghan may continue for years - The Associated Press 09/10/2005 - "A driving force behind the rebellion was assistance that the rebels were receiving from supporters in Pakistan and elsewhere"

KABUL - Rebel violence in Afghanistan may drag on for at least another two years unless the international community does more to stop it, the top U.N. envoy to the country warns.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Jean Arnault urged neighboring Pakistan to do more to prevent aid being channeled to the insurgents. He warned of possible large-scale attacks during landmark legislative elections in a week, although he said he was still optimistic the vote would be a success.

"We need certainly to take all the steps we can take to make sure the elections will not be derailed by the violence," Arnault said on Friday. "Spectacular incidents in Kabul or elsewhere are absolutely not ruled out. "It would be unrealistic to think we can prevent them from happening."

The Taleban have vowed to try to subvert the polls and have stepped up attacks, leaving more than 1,200 dead in the past six months and much of the country off-limits to aid workers.

Arnault said each of the 6,000 polling stations would be guarded by up to seven police officers, backed up by Afghan soldiers and roving police commando units. The 21,000-strong US-led coalition and a separate force of 11,000 NATO-led peacekeepers would also be scattered throughout the country, ready to respond to any assaults, he said.

A huge amount of preparations has gone into safeguarding the elections, but the envoy urged the international community to look beyond the polls to find ways to ensure the rebellion doesn't drag on indefinitely.

"We must use all our resources .... to deny the extremists the opportunity to make 2006 and 2007 again years of violence," he said. "Those who have an extremist agenda, dragging Afghanistan back into the Taleban years, they will not stop just because of the parliamentary elections have taken place."

Arnault said a driving force behind the rebellion was assistance that the rebels were receiving from supporters in Pakistan and elsewhere. "More will have to be done to control this problem of external support ... by the Pakistani government," he said.

Asked to comment on allegations by Afghan officials that the militants are receiving help by some sections of Pakistan's government and military, Arnault said, "You hear a lot of information or reports by people who know better than us."

Pakistan vehemently denies the allegation and points to the deployment of some 80,000 of its troops along the rugged mountainous frontier that divides the two countries.

Pakistani Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in a separate interview with The Associated Press on Friday, said his government has proposed building a barbed-wire fence along the border to help keep Islamic insurgents from crossing the area freely.

But he cautioned that curtailing the violence in Afghanistan would be difficult. "Afghanistan is a tribal society. ... converting a tribal, feudal society into a homogenous body under a democratic set up is not that easy. It will take some time," he said. "We will remain supportive to all that they are doing."

Looking to the long-term, Arnault predicted that Afghanistan would need assistance from the international community for at least a decade. The United States and other countries are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Afghanistan to help rebuild roads and schools, recruit and train new security forces, and reconstruct other infrastructure destroyed during a quarter-century of war.

The United States has also boosted the number of its troops in the country because of the escalating violence. "We have to be patient and realize it takes a long-term engagement," he said. "Let us brace ourselves for a process that will have to be lengthy."

Afghan poll candidate escapes ambush which leaves two dead

HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept 10 (AFP) - A parliamentary candidate narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in which one of his bodyguards and an attacker were also killed in western Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.

Ghulam Nabi Balouch, candidate for the war-torn country's September 18 parliament elections escaped unharmed when unknown gunmen opened fire on his campaigning vehicle just outside Herat city on Friday, the official said.

"Mr. Balouch survived, but one of his bodyguards was killed in the firing," Noor Ahmad Alizai, district chief of Kohsan district where the attack occured told AFP. He said one of the attackers was killed and another captured.

Investigations were underway to find out who was responsible for the attack, which was the second assassination attempt this week after an attack on a female candidate in eastern Jalalabad district late Wednesday.

Six candidates have so far died in the political violence since early July when some 5,800 Afghan men and women signed up to run in the country's first parliamentary polls in more than 30 years.

Taliban rebels and other Islamic militants have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign troops, tribal elders, mullahs and candidates in a bid to disrupt the US-backed vote.

More than 1,100 people have died so far this year in attacks linked to the Taliban, whose radical regime was ousted in late 2001 by a US-led military campaign.

Work on WB-funded water supply scheme underway

GHAZNI CITY, September 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A World Bank-funded potable water project, which would benefit 60 percent of residents, is under way in this southern city, an official said on Saturday.

Muhammad Azim Muslim, in charge of drinking water supply, told Pajhwok Afghan News, with the completion of the project, they would be able to store at least 300 cubic metres of water.

The scheme, for which the World Bank would provide two million dollars, would enhance water storage capacity to meet the requirements of more than 50 percent population of the city, he added.

Azim Muslim explained clean drinking water would be supplied daily to city dwellers for four hours from 7.00am to 11.00am. Presently, only 160 houses have access to potable water.

Metres would be installed to record the quantity of water consumed by citizens, 1000 litres costing seven afghanis. Currently, a cess of 200 afghanis is charged per month for tape water supplied through pipes with a half-inch diametre.

Engineer Abdur Rahman, World Bank's representative in Ghazni, said: "We are using such water supply resources as are used by very few Asian countries."

The pipes used in the project were so durable as to work effectively for a century at least, he maintained.

A resident of the city, Noor Agha (30) said several houses in the Shamir locality collectively used a hand pump until recently to meet their needs. But the pump has now gone out of order, forcing the households to fetch water from river one kilometer away.

AIB's first provincial branch opens in Balkh

KABUL, September 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A branch of the Afghanistan International Bank (AIB), the first outside the nation's capital, was inaugurated in the northern Balkh province on Saturday.

A ceremony - attended by Afghan central bank chief Noorullah Dilawari, Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor and AIB officials, was held in Mazar-i-Sharif to mark the branch's opening in the province.

AIB's Executive Director John W. Haye, addressing the inaugural ceremony, said: "We are glad opening our first regional branch in the historic Balkh province."

According to a press release issued here by the bank, John Haye said: Our objective is to provide Balkh residents with modern banking facilities and participate thereby in the development and prosperity of the region."

Syed Ishaq Maqsudi, chief of the AIB branch, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Mazar-i-Sharif is a strategic city, where traders from all northern provinces gather for business activities. We will provide them quick cash transfer services."

Afghans can capture a trench but can't retain it: Ex-PM - Pajhwok Afghan News 9/10/2005 Janullah Hashemzada

PESHAWAR - Afghanistan's former prime minister Dr Hasan Sharq has said Afghans are brave enough to capture a post, but cannot retain its control. In his recently published book 'Tasees-o-Takhreeb,' Dr Sharq has painstakingly highlighted factors behind decades of turmoil and war in Afghanistan.

A resident of the Anar Dara district in the western Farah province, Dr Hasan Sharq had been prime minister in the Dr Najeebullah government from 1986 to 1990. He also served as spokesman for then prime minister Daud Khan and his Milli Ghurzang Party.

The 437-page book is an analysis of events that occurred during years of turmoil, political intrigues culminating in bloody coups, the Russian invasion, jihad and interference by neighbours in Afghanistan as well as the six-plus-two group.

The author has dilated on the political situation and geographical position of Afghanistan and the nature of Afghan society and people. Referring to fresh developments in Afghanistan, he says Afghans have the muscle and might to secure what they want but cannot maintain their control over it.
Commenting on Dr Sharq's effort, an official of the Afghan Cultural Centre Ustad Haseebullah told Pajhwok Afghan News: "The meticulously produced book contains many disclosures and incidents shrouded in mystery so far."

A bookseller in the upscale Arbab Road market in Peshawar observed a number of books had been written on Afghanistan over the years. But the recently published books of former Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil and Dr Hasan Sharq were the best sellers, he added.

Written in Dari language, the book titled as Tasees-o-Takhreeb (construction and destruction) refers to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, era of jihad and large-scale interference from neighbours and big powers and the current international military presence in the war-ravaged country.

HIA's fugitive leader Gulbadin Hekmatyar, General Nabi Azimi, General Faqir Mohammad Wadan, Suleman Laiq and Dr Attaullah Faizi have also written comprehensive books on Afghanistan.

Bin Laden hunters a step behind 9/11 mastermind

Islamabad (AFP) - It's been more than two years since they last picked up the trail of the world's most wanted man, says a top Pakistani intelligence officer in a hasty meeting at a secret rendezvous point.
"At one stage in early 2003 we thought we were quite close to him," murmurs the anti-terrorism official, whose high rank and sensitive work meant that he would only speak if his identity was not revealed. "But a few hours before the operation could start in the border terrain near Afghanistan, he moved out."

Since then, nothing. Osama bin Laden's vanishing act continues to baffle the world's biggest military power and its allies, four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

While the smoke was still rising from the rubble of the Twin Towers, US President George W. Bush vowed to track down the Al-Qaeda chief dead or alive. Weeks later, US-led forces invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, the hardline Islamic regime that harboured bin Laden.

Many officials believe he was trapped late in 2001 by the ferocious US bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, but he managed to slip out of the region, possibly across the porous border into Pakistan.

Thousands of people have since been arrested around the world, many confined to Guantanamo Bay without charge, but none has been able to provide the crucial nugget of information.

The Saudi, who has acquired poster-boy status in parts of the Muslim world, is also credited with inspiring Al-Qaeda offshoots to carry out new atrocities, including the March 2004 Madrid bombings and this year's July 7 suicide attacks in London.

Also wanted by the United States is bin Laden's right-hand-man Ayman al-Zawahiri, who appeared on a new video aired 10 days before the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The tape also showed one of the London bombers.

Even a 25-million-dollar reward offered by the United States has yielded no visible results, while Pakistan's military ruler President General Pervez Musharraf said late last year that the trail had "gone cold".

Inevitably, the focus remains on Pakistan, an enthusiastic ally in Bush's "war on terror" and the site of almost all the key Al-Qaeda captures since 9/11.

"We have been saying previously and we still maintain that we are not into manhunt," Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, told AFP at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

"If your sole objective was capture of OBL, yes we remain where we were but ... in Pakistan that is not our sole objective. Our objective is to root out terrorism and we have progressed quite a lot."

Two years ago, at around the time of the bin Laden sighting reported by the intelligence official, Pakistan captured the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Earlier this year it snared Mohammed's alleged successor as Al-Qaeda's third in command, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, using intelligence agents disguised as women wearing burqas.

Sultan admits the captures of these men, both of whom have been handed over to the United States, have not provided the hoped for leads to bin Laden.

But he adds that apart from a menacing video tape delivered to a satellite TV channel in Islamabad just before the 2004 US elections, bin Laden's silence shows the authorities there are having some success.

One key Al-Qaeda suspect revealed under interrogation that bin Laden was using couriers travelling on foot or horseback instead of communicating by satellite telephone or the Internet, Sultan said.

"It generally takes them about two months to get the message across and get its response," said Sultan. "This is the time involved in that, so one can make rough guess about where would the man be."

US Central Intelligence Agency director Porter Goss in June said he had an "excellent idea" of where bin Laden was hiding -- though he didn't say where.

Meanwhile officials and analysts say there are signs that Washington is again stepping up its efforts to track down bin Laden, after two years of concentrating on the bloody, Al-Qaeda-linked insurgency in Iraq.

Elite US Delta Force and Navy SEAL units have just started to come back to Afghanistan after tours of duty in Iraq, a US counter-terrorism official based in Washington told AFP, and are spearheading the hunt.

"Several special forces teams are stationed right at the border and use special sensors along the roads to pick up sound and vibration from the movement of cars," he said.

In a potentially controversial move, US agents have also been secretly pursuing what the US calls "Operation Enduring Freedom" beyond Afghanistan itself, he said.

"Some cross-border reconnaissance raids by intelligence agents are taking place from Afghanistan into South and North Waziristan, and all the way up to Bajaur and the Northern Areas," the official added, referring to three of Pakistan's wild tribal zones plus its most mountainous region.

But even if the opportunity that passed so fleetingly in 2003 came up again, it is a widely held view among security officials that neither bin Laden nor al Zawahiri would let themselves be captured alive.

Security sources say the pair are reported to wear explosive belts and their huge retinue of Arab bodyguards have orders to kill them if it is impossible to escape.

[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.]