Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai (C) poses with his Indian counterpart Abdul Kalam (R) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a ceremonial welcome in New Delhi April 10, 2006. Karzai arrived in India on Sunday to boost ties with New Delhi that have blossomed after the fall of the Taliban regime, in a trip a nervous Pakistan will be closely watching. REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

In this bulletin:

• India announces additional 50 million dollars aid to Afghanistan
• India, Afghanistan pledge to fight terrorism
• India-Afghanistan Joint Statement
• Karzai in India with a packed agenda
• Karzai in India to boost ties, Pakistan wary
• Afghan president cancels Shimla trip
• Cherie Blair visits Afghanistan
• Gunmen Kill 5 Afghan Medical Workers
• Three bomb blasts in Afghanistan: 17 people wounded
• Two Taliban commanders killed in Afghanistan
• 'When we kill enough ... they will quit' - Taliban spokesperson sees parliamentary debate as sign of weakness
• Afghan, Pakistan Alliance Will Beat Taliban, U.S. General Says
• MP says Afghanistan debate will help clear the air
• Western-Trained Professionals Dominate New Afghan Cabinet
• ANA chief of staff, Task Force – 76 commander discuss security
  Afghan Weightlifting Relaxes Post-Taliban
• Raw recruits brave death daily to rebuild a land Low-paid Afghans on front line of war
  

India announces additional 50 million dollars aid to Afghanistan
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India pledged an extra 50 million dollars in aid to Afghanistan for a total of 650 million dollars since 2001 and said it would consider a new credit facility to boost trade.

"I informed the president that India will provide additional assistance valued at 50 million dollars to Afghanistan," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters after talks with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"That amount will thereby raise the total assistance we have committed to 650 million; the amount of 200 million dollars has already been spent on various projects," he said on Monday.

India is one of the six top donors to post-Taliban Afghanistan and has engaged in many reconstruction projects in the war-ravaged country since November 2001 when the hardline Taliban militia were driven out of Kabul.

Singh said India was also keen to boost trade with Afghanistan which would help energise its fledgling economy. "In order to encourage trade and investment ties, we shall consider establishing a line of credit of 50 million dollars," Singh added.

Karzai, who arrived in New Delhi Sunday for a three-day visit, said he placed great emphasis on boosting trade and regional economic growth with India. "We are here to seek investment from India," Karzai told reporters.

"If India is willing, we would be very happy to have Indian companies in Afghanistan," Karzai said, adding that his country could become a "launching pad" for firms to trade with Central Asia.

Karzai, who was last in India in February 2005, said his accompanying delegation included businessmen aiming to expand economic relations.

Karzai is scheduled to address a meeting of businessmen later Monday to seek Indian investment and to inaugurate an Afghan craft fair in New Delhi on Tuesday, an Indian official said.

In a joint statement, Singh and Karzai "condemned global terrorism as a threat to democracy and declared that there can be no compromise with its perpetrators".

Afghanistan's relations with India's long-time rival Pakistan have been hit by Kabul's accusation that militants fighting in Afghanistan have been plotting their insurgency from Pakistan.

Afghan and foreign troops are battling remnants of the Islamist Taliban movement that was ousted from power in late 2001 for failing to surrender Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.

Afghan officials in February handed their counterparts in Islamabad intelligence about Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants whom they said were based in Pakistan and engineering the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Pakistan dismissed the information as outdated and "ridiculous" and President Pervez Musharraf alleged Afghan intelligence was influenced by India. India backed the Northern Alliance in its fight against the Taliban, who were supported by Pakistan until 2001.

India, Afghanistan pledge to fight terrorism - 10 Apr 2006

NEW DELHI, April 10 (Reuters) - India and Afghanistan, both battling Islamic militants, are looking for ways to cooperate in the fight against terrorism including sharing of intelligence, their leaders said on Monday.

Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also pledged to boost economic links between their nations, whose ties have blossomed after the fall of the Taliban regime.

India has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan and is looking to expand its economic presence in the Islamic nation, which has prompted concern in Pakistan. The two countries have separately been urging Pakistan to do more to curb their activities.

"There is a need for pooling our knowledge, our experience, our intelligence-gathering activities in this region to deal effectively with this menace," Singh told a news conference referring to the fight against terrorism.

"Afghanistan has every reason to work with India and the rest of the international community and our neighbours to get rid of this menace for the sake of Afghanistan, for sake of the region and for the sake of people all over the world," Karzai said.

India on Monday pledged an additional $50 million in aid to Kabul for development and training projects, taking the total Indian assistance promised in the past four years to $650 million.

New Delhi also wants to expand trade with Afghanistan through a transit route via Pakistan and has asked Kabul to push the issue with Islamabad, which has not allowed the movement. "I have not given up hope," Singh said.

Analysts in Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India, said Islamabad was worried over India's growing influence in Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan. Karzai said he wanted companies from India, Asia's third largest economy, to invest in his country.

"We will be very happy for Indian companies in Afghanistan to produce their goods and to have Afghanistan as a hub or launching pad for those products in Central Asia."

India-Afghanistan Joint Statement

1. At the invitation of His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime
Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is currently paying a State visit to India (April 9-13, 2006).

2. During the visit, the two leaders held talks on a wide-range of bilateral issues as well as regional and international matters of common interest. They welcomed the progress achieved in bilateral relations since President Hamid Karzai’s visit to India, February 23-25, 2005 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Afghanistan, August 28-29, 2005, and agreed to take this relationship further into a new paradigm of friendship and cooperation. They affirmed that the time-tested friendly relationship between the two countries, underpinned by historical and cultural ties, had overcome many challenges and were today based on a shared commitment to the ideals of democracy, peace and security.

3. India expressed full support to the goal of a sovereign, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan, which is also necessary for peace, security and stability in the region. It expressed admiration for the courageous steps taken by the Afghan people and Government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai towards the adoption of a democratic polity, including the holding of the Parliamentary elections and convening of the new Parliament, while addressing the challenge of economic development and reconstruction.

4. President Hamid Karzai thanked India for its demonstrated commitment To Afghanistan by providing more than US $ 600 million for projects in all parts of Afghanistan, in different sectors - including infrastructure, human resource development, and humanitarian assistance. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh reaffirmed India’s continued commitment to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and pledged an additional US $ 50 million under India’s Assistance Programme for Afghanistan. To broaden cooperation between the two countries, three cooperation agreements were signed today in the areas of Rural Development, Education and Standardization in the presence of President Karzai and Prime Minister Singh.

5. In the field of institutional and human resource development, both sides expressed encouragement at the ongoing process of annual award of 500 Scholarships for Afghan students for University education in India And 500 short-term ITEC Programme for Afghan nationals, as announced during Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to Afghanistan in August, 2005.

They agreed that this initiative had great potential of contributing significantly towards skills development of the Afghan youth, which could be expected to become the vanguard in tackling the challenge of institution building in Afghanistan.

6. Going beyond the core areas of government-to-government developmental cooperation, both leaders also explored the possibilities of expanding business-to-business cooperation, particularly between the small and medium entrepreneurs of the two countries. President Karzai is also accompanied by a strong business delegation on this visit, which will be interacting with Indian business and industry counterparts from CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM this afternoon. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh offered to consider extending a US $ 50 million line of Credit facility to promote trade and investment between the two countries.

7. As provided for under Article 11 of the Preferential Trade Agreement signed between the two countries on March 6, 2003, the two sides agreed to constitute a Joint Committee at Ministerial level to review the progress in the implementation of the Agreement, thereby promoting mutually beneficial bilateral trade.

8. Tomorrow, President Karzai will be inaugurating a Festival of Afghanistan in India, which would be displaying traditional Afghan Products and having components of dance, music and cuisine, as a follow-up to the recently concluded MoU on Tourism.

9. Tomorrow, President Karzai will also go to Hyderabad where he will visit the Hi-Tech City, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the National Remote Sensing Agency and a Rural Development Pilot Project.

10. At the regional level, the two leaders reiterated their vision of Afghanistan regaining its strategic position at the cross roads of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The need for greater regional
cooperation by encouraging trade and people-to-people contact among the countries of the region was emphasized. President Karzai thanked Prime Minister Dr. Singh for India’s strong support for Afghanistan’s Membership of SAARC and pledged to work together with the member countries in all fields to affect greater harmonization of political, economic, social and security policies.

11. President Karzai welcomed that India would host the Second Regional Economic Cooperation Conference for Afghanistan in New Delhi, November 18-19, 2006, with participation of all the regional countries, G-8 Member States and international organizations. This Conference will also have a business-to-business component to promote private sector linkages.

12. Confronting the shared challenges of fundamentalism and terrorism, The two leaders condemned global terrorism as a threat to democracy and declared that there can be no compromise with its perpetrators. India expressed its support to the efforts made by Afghanistan in recent months in tackling the increased terrorist activities in certain provinces in the country.

13. The two leaders reaffirmed that India and Afghanistan, have a Common interest in reinvigorating the past ties and developing a new, Strategic partnership for the 21st Century. The two leaders emphasized the importance of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries for taking this partnership to greater heights.

New Delhi April 10, 2006

(Distributed by the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson)

Karzai in India with a packed agenda - Parul Malhotra CNN-IBN 4.9.06

New Delhi: Five months have passed since Indian border roads worker Maniappan Kutty was killed by a resurgent Taliban militia in the southern Afghan province of Nimroz.

As Afghan President Hamid Karzai's grip over the region wanes, the fate 2,000 other Indians based in Afganistan hangs in balance. Karzai, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday night, is likely to address this concern in official-level talks during his four-day visit.

Among other things, Karzai will discuss security cooperation and India's contribution to Afghanistan's reconstruction with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is also likely to sign three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) during this visit.

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, G Parthasarathy, says, "I think certainly I would be surprised if there was not a measure for exchange of information on the terrorist groups operating in Pakistan. We will share strategies on how to deal with it."

India has committed over $600 million to help re-build Afganistan, but is unwilling to take up new projects due to the Taliban insurgency, Pakistan's denial of transit rights and complicated relations with Iran.

Politically, Karzai is on a sticky wicket at home. And if the US commitment to Afghanistan starts to flag, his own position could become even more untenable.

But herein lies Delhi's dilemma - support for Karzai is necessary to secure its assets in Afghanistan. But Karzai is also gradually marginalising old friends, key Northern Alliance leaders, and thereby minimising South Block's options for the future.

"The sidelining of some key leaders, who have been friendly with India over the years, is a matter of some concern to us. I don't think it is correct for Delhi to directly interfere," says Parthasarathy.

As India tries to consolidate its space in Pakistan's backyard, Afghanistan is carving out a role for itself in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Delhi will also want Karzai to sign on the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), forcing Pakistan to provide transit access.

Karzai in India to boost ties, Pakistan wary - 09 Apr 2006

NEW DELHI, April 9 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in India on Sunday to boost ties with New Delhi that have blossomed after the fall of the Taliban regime, in a trip a nervous Pakistan will be closely watching.

Afghanistan has received hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid from India in the past four years, but its ties with Pakistan have strained after Karzai asked Islamabad to do more to stop Taliban militants infiltrating the border.

"Well, we are very happy in Afghanistan with India helping us in a manner that is not expected," Karzai told Indian state TV, Doordarshan, in comments aired on Sunday before his arrival.

Karzai starts the official leg of his five-day trip on Monday and will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India, which did not recognise the radical Taliban regime, lost its foothold in the rugged country where arch rival Pakistan held diplomatic sway for years before the September 2001 attacks on the United States sparked a U.S-led invasion.

India is now involved in training Afghanistan's police and diplomats, building roads, hospitals and supporting trade and services as Afghanistan tries to rebuild its war-ravaged economy, despite continuing attacks by Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents. Singh visited Afghanistan last August.

"India went out of its way to provide us with great economic assistance. India's help is reaching up to $600 million. It has helped us in all walks of life," Karzai said.

Analysts in Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India, said Islamabad was worried over India's growing influence in Afghanistan, which borders Pakistani territory.

"Pakistan should improve its relations with Afghanistan to check the growing Indian influence," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, Lahore-based foreign policy analyst.

"The visit should not be a cause of concern for Pakistan because it can't stop it. But the growing influence of India in Afghanistan creates problems for Pakistan."

New Delhi was a key backer of Afghan forces led by the Northern Alliance which, along with the U.S. military, overthrew the Taliban, aided by Pakistan up to September 2001.

Islamabad has not allowed overland transit for Indian goods bound for Afghanistan, further hitting Indo-Afghan trade.

Militant attacks in Afghanistan have increased and relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have cooled after Karzai's complaints that Pakistan was not taking enough action against Taliban operating on its side of the border.

President Pervez Musharraf responded angrily, saying members of the government in Kabul were out to malign Pakistan. Analysts in India said Singh and Karzai were likely to discuss the activities of Islamic militants on Pakistani soil.

"Pakistan's territory is a hub for terrorist activities that affects both for Afghanistan and India," New Delhi-based strategic affairs analyst C. Raja Mohan said.

"Both have a stake in Pakistan adopting a policy that is more harmonised with regional interest ... The Taliban resurgence is a huge problem for Karzai," he said. (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in ISLAMABAD)

Afghan president cancels Shimla trip - The Times of India 04/08/2006

NEW DELHI - Afghan President Hamid Karzai comes to India on Sunday afternoon on a five-day state visit during which the two countries will sign three pacts and discuss critical security issues like the resurgence of Taliban-fuelled violence.

Earlier India-educated Karzai was to go to Shimla, but he has cancelled his personal trip, not part of his official programme, to the idyllic hill station where he studied in the early eighties.

"He has done it for personal reasons as he had very limited time for it," said a source in the Afghan embassy.

Karzai will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday and discuss a host of bilateral and regional issues, including the recent spurt in violence in his country, which has killed many American soldiers and Afghans, and Pakistan's suspected role in providing refuge to the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Karzai and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had a spat recently over Pakistan's alleged hand in the violence that Islamabad strongly denies.

Karzai is also likely to ask Manmohan Singh for a further expansion of India's already considerable assistance for a slew of developmental projects ranging from the building of roads and power projects to education and small-scale industries in Afghanistan. India has already pledged $550 million for the reconstruction of that country.

Two memorandums of understanding will be signed for rural development and education exchange programmes on Monday. Another pact will be signed on standardisation between the Bureau of Indian Standards and Afghan National Standardisation Authority.

Accompanied by ministers, senior advisers, parliamentarians and a business delegation, Karzai will address a joint business meeting to be organised by India's premier industrial bodies on Monday.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will host a banquet in honour of the visiting Afghan president. Karzai will go to Hyderabad on Tuesday where he will visit Hi-Tech City, Tata Consultancy Services, the National Remote Sensing Agency and a project organised by the National Institute of Rural Development.

The security for nearly 2,000 Indian workers in Afghanistan - an issue that hogged media headlines when an Indian worker was brutally murdered by the Taliban militia last year - will also come up for discussions.

Cherie Blair visits Afghanistan - Sun Apr 9

KABUL (AFP) - Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has arrived in Afghanistan for a visit that will include a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, the president's office said. The British embassy would not immediately release details of Blair's visit Sunday.

She was also in Afghanistan in November 2001, soon after the hardline Taliban government was overthrown in a US-led invasion that followed the September 11 attacks by the Al-Qaeda network then based in Afghanistan.

Britain has since played a key role in post-war rebuilding efforts and currently has about 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, both in the US-led coalition and NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

In coming weeks, a further 3,300 troops are due to arrive in Helmand, in the volatile south, for counterinsurgency and counternarcotics operations.

French First Lady Bernadette Chirac is also visiting Afghanistan. She attended the inauguration Saturday of the French Medical Institute for the Child, a French-built hospital, and was meeting French troops Sunday.

Gunmen Kill 5 Afghan Medical Workers - Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - Gunmen attacked a government health clinic in northwestern Afghanistan and shot dead five medical workers, and a bombing in the south killed two police Monday, officials said.

The clinic in a remote part of the northwestern Badghis province was set afire after the assailants stormed it late Sunday night and killed all those inside, including a doctor and several nurses, said provincial Gov. Hanayatullah Hanayat.

Hanayat said he did not know who carried out the attack and security forces were investigating. "This clinic was essential for this area. It was the only health care there," he said.

Three bomb blasts in Afghanistan: 17 people wounded

Kandahar (AFP) - Three bombings including a suicide blast wounded 17 people in Afghanistan, officials said, in the latest in a spate of attacks linked to Taliban insurgents.

The suicide attacker struck an Afghan army checkpoint in the eastern province of Paktika near the border with Pakistan, provincial government spokesman Salam Mangal said. Six soldiers were wounded.

It was the first suicide attack in the province, provincial governor Akram Khealwak said on Sunday. The bomber blew up a taxi in front of the checkpoint in Barmal district on a main route to Pakistan, Mangal said.

The wounded soldiers were taken to a nearby base of foreign coalition soldiers for treatment but their condition was not known.

There have been regular suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past two weeks, with the Taliban's fugitive leader last month promising a wave of such attacks as part of a spring offensive. Most of the attacks have been in the south and have killed only the attackers .

One of the deadliest was however in the relatively peaceful west on Saturday, in the city of Herat. Two Afghans were killed and seven wounded in a suicide car bomb attack outside a base of mainly Italian troops.

Twin bombings in the centre of the main southern city of Kandahar on Sunday wounded six security force members and five civilians, officials said.

A remote-controlled bomb was detonated in the city centre as a five-vehicle army convoy was passing, army officer Khair Mohammad told AFP from the site. As police and soldiers rushed to the scene, a second bomb went off on the opposite side of the road.

Officials said three soldiers were wounded in the two blasts and doctor Abdul Razaq also said three wounded policemen and five civilians, including two children, had been admitted for treatment.

The Taliban regime was toppled by US-led forces weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by the Al-Qaeda network which the Taliban were sheltering.

US Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher said during a visit to Kabul last week that violence was likely to increase as NATO forces expand into southern Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

Two Taliban commanders killed in Afghanistan

Kabul (AFP) - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed three Taliban, including two commanders directly linked to deadly attacks, and captured five more in a series of operations, the coalition said.

The Taliban were killed in volatile southern Helmand province which has seen several clashes including a March 29 attack on a coalition base that was one of the biggest in months and left two foreign troops and 32 attackers dead.

The first commander was killed on Friday in Helmand's Musa Qala district, the coalition said in a statement. He was directly involved in bomb blasts that had "killed and crippled multiple Afghans" since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led campaign.

He was also responsible for the deaths of Afghan army and coalition soldiers, the statement said on Saturday. The second commander, described as an "operational-level terrorist leader", was killed early Saturday in Helmand's Sangin district, where the base was attacked.

A US and a Canadian soldier were killed in the March 29 attack and five soldiers wounded. The coalition said afterwards it was investigating if any of the casualties were caused by friendly fire.

A lower level Taliban was also killed in Saturday's operation in which "coalition forces used close-air support to destroy an insurgent headquarters..."

"Once our ground forces seized the objective, we confirmed that two Taliban were killed, and we captured two terrorists," coalition commander Major General Benjamin C. Freakley said.

Afghan and coalition forces meanwhile captured three Taliban insurgents Saturday in neighbouring Kandahar province, a separate statement said.

Taliban militants have been waging an insurgency since their regime was toppled by US-led forces weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda, which was sheltered by the Taliban government.

They claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack in the western city of Herat on Saturday in which two Afghans were killed and seven wounded.

Violence blamed in large part on the insurgency has claimed nearly 2,000 lives since last year, most of them militants killed by security forces.

'When we kill enough ... they will quit' - Taliban spokesperson sees parliamentary debate as sign of weakness - Apr. 9, 2006. MURRAY BREWSTER - CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - As MPs gather in Ottawa to discuss Canada's more combative role in southern Afghanistan, a senior Taliban official and coalition commanders painted two disparate images Sunday of where the war is headed.

In a weekend interview with The Canadian Press, insurgent spokesman Qari Yuosaf Ahmedi said the Taliban are convinced the resolve of the Canadian people is weak.

As suicide attacks and roadside blasts increase, the public will quickly grow weary, he said. "We think that when we kill enough Canadians, they will quit war and return home," Ahmedi said in an interview, conducted through a translator, over a satellite telephone.

Given the fact troops are already deployed, Ahmedi suggested Monday's House of Commons debate as a sign of indecision among Canadians. In addition to his fire-breathing rhetoric, the Taliban's public relations spokesman claimed that the insurgency had recruited 180 suicide bombers for operations in and around Kandahar over the next few weeks.

He said they are prepared to attack Canadians "any one else, at any place and at any time." But coalition commanders had a vastly different assessment, painting the Taliban as cornered, marginalized into rural pockets, struggling to raise money and find recruits.

"The reason we think the Taliban are falling apart is because the pattern of attacks we're seeing is not co-ordinated," said Maj. Quentin Innis, a Canadian liaison officer with the local community.

"It may appear there are a lot of attacks going on and those are regretable."
On Sunday, Kandahar city was rocked by two separate remote-control improvised explosive device (IED) attacks, which injured 11 Afghans, including two children.

Senior Taliban commanders reside on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border and where many suiciders — as they known by local Afghans — are recruited, said the chief of staff to multi-national brigade commander.

British Col. Chris Vernon said, while the coalition has faced increased attacks, it has been successful is eliminating junior insurgent commanders.

"Various middle level leaders in Afghanistan have been removed from the circuit over the last month," he told reporters on Sunday.

"When they're asking for volunteers to come in and take those mid-level positions, there is a distinct lack of volunteers coming forward, particularly out of Pakistan."

He also said requests by front-line Taliban for more funds and equipment have not been answered. Canada's more front-line involvement in this dirt poor, war-ravaged country will be the subject of a "note-taking" debate in the House of Commons on Monday. It will be largely a symbolic exercise as the matter will not be the subject of a vote.

The new Conservative government has been reluctant to hold the debate because of its potential impact on the morale of the country's 2,200 troops deployed in southern Afghanistan. A few weeks ago, a public opinion survey found that a majority of respondants were opposed to Canada's more aggressive posture and wanted the country to return to its more traditional role of peacekeeping.

Since 2002, the conflict has cost the lives of 11 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat. A senior Afghan army officer said Sunday that Canadian politicians need to understand the positive contribution the army has made to the region, beyond military assistance.

"The Canadians did a lot of things, especially for Kandahar," Maj. Rahmatullah Sha, the deputy garrison commander of the city, said through a translator.
"They've done a lot of reconstruction and security help. The security of Kandahar is normal. It's not that bad."

His account was somewhat contradicted by Innis, who laid out statistics from the local media that show there have been 24 roadside explosions or suicide car attacks between June 2005 and March 2006. Those assaults have killed 32 civilians.

"We understand the citizens of Kandahar don't feel secure, but there are two things you have to realize," said Innis. "The first thing is that there are more unsuccessful Taliban attacks than successful. I can't go into the details but we've prevented more attacks than those that have occurred."

The carnage can be blamed on foreign fighters, including jihadists from Pakistan, Chechnya and some Arab countries, said Sha. Coalition forces claimed to have killed a senior Taliban commander during an offensive in southern Helmand province Friday, said a statement by the U.S. military. Although the man was not identified, authorities claimed the commander "was directly tied to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks."

Afghan, Pakistan Alliance Will Beat Taliban, U.S. General Says
April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Afghan and Pakistani cooperation on security will help defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan being waged by Taliban fighters, the commander of the U.S.-led military task force in Afghanistan said.

``The way we are going to solve this problem is if practical military men from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the coalition work together to defeat this common enemy,'' Army Major General Benjamin C. Freakley said yesterday after meeting General Bismullah Khan, chief of staff of the Afghan National Army, according to the military command.

The 30,000-strong Afghan National Army is working with coalition forces expanding their operations into areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan where fighters from the Taliban militia and al-Qaeda have bases.

The Taliban movement, which was ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001, has responded with attacks, including suicide bombings against coalition forces and Afghan officials. At least 17 people were injured in three bomb attacks yesterday, two of them in Kandahar, the southern city where the Taliban had its powerbase, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

A first bomb targeted Afghan army trucks passing through the Kandahar city center, the BBC reported, without saying where it obtained the information. A second blast minutes later targeted people who gathered at the scene of the first attack, it said.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber in a car attacked an Afghan army base in the eastern province of Paktika near the border with Pakistan, wounding six soldiers, the BBC reported.

Insurgents threaten Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, Khan and Freakley, who heads the Combined Joint Task Force - 76, said after their meeting. ``Much progress has been made, but more work remains,'' Khan said, according to the command.

Afghan and Pakistani military officials meet regularly with U.S. officers within the forum of the Tripartite Commission that discusses security in the region.

Tensions have risen between Afghanistan and Pakistan over Afghan charges that Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters use bases in Pakistan to carry out attacks on Afghan territory, a charge Pakistan's government denies. Many Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters crossed the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border to escape the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader, in a purported statement issued March 16 said fighters will intensify suicide attacks to make the country like a ``flaming oven,'' AFP reported at the time. Young people have ``filled lists'' volunteering for such attacks, he said.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will expand its security operations throughout Afghanistan by the end of the year involving about 21,000 soldiers, U.S. Marine General James Jones, NATO supreme allied commander, said March 6. NATO forces in July will move into southern Afghanistan.

MP says Afghanistan debate will help clear the air
Updated Sun. Apr. 9 2006 - CTV.ca News Staff

A debate set to begin Monday on Canada's commitment to Afghanistan will answer questions about the nature of the country's involvement, according to one opposition MP.

New Democrat Defence Critic Dawn Black appeared on CTV's Question Period on Sunday. Although the NDP has called for a full debate with a vote to decide the future of the commitment, Black welcomed the scheduled debate as a step in the right direction.

"I think it does serve a purpose," Black said. "We are sorry that it's not a full debate in the House, but we will have an opportunity to ask the government a number of questions that we have about our current commitment to Afghanistan which…ends in February."

Black emphasized however, that the NDP feels "very strongly" any decision to extend Canada's commitment beyond February should be subject to a full debate, discussion, and vote in the House of Commons.

The NDP is fully supportive of the troops who are currently serving in Afghanistan, but still has questions about the current mission that they will be raising during the debate, Black said.

Rob Nicholson, the Conservative House Leader, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to hold a debate doesn't represent a reversal in the party's policy, despite his earlier pledges that the commitment to the troops in Afghanistan was unwavering.

The Conservative party has never intended to hold a vote on the issue, but was always open to the possibility of a take-note debate, Nicholson said.

"What we said no to was the idea of voting on this," Nicholson told Question Period. "We made a commitment last Parliament to commit to the peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, and our commitment to help rebuild that country hasn't changed and I think the prime minister was clear on that."

It is neither necessary nor desirable to hold a vote on the issue since the troops are already deployed to the field, Nicholson said.

Liberal Defence Critic Ujjal Dosanjh supports the mission in Afghanistan, but he told Question Period the scheduled debate will help MPs better understand Canada's role in the war-torn country.

"I think a debate is a great idea and a take-note debate can be very constructive and I think it will give members of Parliament an opportunity to express their views and their support for Canadian forces overseas," Dosanjh said.

Dosanjh said he believes the government should have the power to decide when and where to deploy troops.

"Government has always been able to do that without a vote, and I think it's important sometimes in times of great need and crisis the government can make those decisions without necessarily having a vote in the House of Commons. And I think that power should reside with the government."

It is only natural to debate such matters of national importance in any democracy, but given the circumstances, a decision has to be taken responsibly as to whether it is wise for a troop-contributing country part of an alliance and under a UN mandate to divulge a withdrawal timetable prematurely.

Western-Trained Professionals Dominate New Afghan Cabinet
The Jamestown Foundation 04/08/2006 By Akram Gizabi

On March 23 Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered his newly reconstituted cabinet to the new Afghan parliament for a vote of confidence. After days of wrangling, the parliament unanimously approved the formation of the new cabinet on Saturday, April 1. However, the process to approve the portfolios of each minister still requires a thorough study of his or her biography, citizenship documents, qualification certificates, and professional experience. All ministers must submit their paperwork to the parliament, and the approval process is estimated to take at least two weeks.

Legislators agreed to keep the current number of ministers, arguing that reducing the number of ministries would render hundreds of people jobless. The vote of confidence is scheduled to be conducted through a secret ballot, and each minister will be evaluated and voted on individually. Each minister will have 15 minutes to present his ministry's priorities, and he will also answer 18 questions from the parliamentarians. After this exchange of opinions, the MPs will cast their vote for or against the candidate (Pajhwok, April 3).

The new cabinet, announced one day after the March 22 Afghan New Year, contains some rather major changes. The most surprising development is the removal of Dr. Abdulah, one of the three Panjshiri Tajik ministers who had been in the government since the Bonn Agreements of late 2001. He was the last strongman from the Northern Alliance, the group that toppled the Taliban regime with the help of the coalition forces.

The other significant change is the reduction of the number of women in the cabinet. Previously there were at least two female ministers, but now there is only one woman, Dr. Suraya Raheem Sabarang, who heads the Ministry of Women's Affairs, a post traditionally reserved for a female since its creation. The new minister is unknown to most Afghans. She replaces Dr. Masouda Jalal, who was the only female candidate in the 2004 presidential election.

Some ministers have been "demoted" from their previous positions, including Noor M. Qarqin, the former minister of education who is now the minister of the disabled and martyrs, a rather symbolic ministry with no real power or influence. Qarqin, the only minister of Turkmen origin in the cabinet, was rumored to be incompetent. Some other ministers were "promoted," such as the former minister of commerce, Hedayat Amin Arsala, who has been appointed "senior minister." President Karzai created this position to accommodate Arsala. Another minister to receive a "promotion" is Azam Dadfar, who moved from minister of refugees, a relatively minor post, to minister of higher education. Dadfar, one of two Uzbek members of cabinet, is a close associate of Karzai. There also are some new faces in the cabinet; prominent among them is Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, a political affair advisor to President Karzai. He has been appointed minister of foreign affairs. His Maoist past makes him a rather controversial figure, given his new claim of being a liberal democrat (New Kerala, March 24).

The most important feature of this cabinet is the predominance of professionals and technocrats. More than half of the cabinet is made up of doctors and engineers, and the balance all have college or university degrees. There are fewer alleged warlords in the cabinet, with the exception of Ismael Khan, the former governor of Herat who is now minister of water and power. There are only three former Mujahideen commanders to hold portfolios now. Most, if not all, of the ministers are considered non-fundamentalists who opposed the Taliban regime and favor the coalition forces in Afghanistan. They have either studied or lived in the West during the last twenty-five years of war in Afghanistan.

President Karzai faces a few obstacles in gaining parliamentary approval of his new appointees, particularly regarding the candidate for foreign minister. The majority of the MPs are either former Mujahideen or Mujahideen commanders who fiercely oppose communism. Spanta, although a former Maoist, may still stir negative emotions among the Islamists. The reduction of the number of women in the cabinet may bring criticism from the 68 or so women members of the parliament. Already there are complaints expressed both inside and outside of the parliament.

Some parliamentarians, such as Ramazan Bashardost, plan to reject most of the cabinet appointees for not being qualified for their jobs. In December 2004 Karzai sacked Bashardost from his post as minister of planning in a dispute over non-governmental organizations (Kabul Press, April 4).

The real test for the new cabinet will be its ability to steer Afghanistan toward economic development and reconstruction. President Karzai's track record in stemming corruption, the drug trade, and violence has been abysmal. Few ordinary Afghans have seen improvements in their day-to-day lives. Many of the shortcomings of the Karzai administration have been blamed on the absence of a watchdog that would hold it accountable. The election of a new parliament in 2005, although itself plagued with shortcomings, should rectify this. Approving Karzai's cabinet is a first step in that direction.

ANA chief of staff, Task Force – 76 commander discuss security - COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN - COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

KABUL , Afghanistan – The commanding general of the Coalition’s Combined Joint Task Force – 76 visited the Afghan Ministry of Defense today at the invitation of the Afghan National Army’s chief of staff.

Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley and ANA Gen. Bismullah Khan sipped tea in Khan’s office while discussing security in Afghanistan .

The ANA and Afghan National Police force have enjoyed good cooperation and coordination with NATO and Coalition forces, Khan said. But, recognizing that the international community’s attention is now focused on Afghanistan , he stressed the importance of seizing what he termed a “golden opportunity” to shape his nation’s future. “In the past four years, we have had many successes, and much progress has been made, but more work remains,” he said.

Khan and Freakley identified insurgents in Afghanistan as a threat to not the country, but to Coalition forces, Pakistan and the entire world. The continuing series of meetings involving Afghan, Coalition and Pakistani military representatives will be important to defeating the insurgents, they agreed.

“The way we are going to solve this problem is if practical military men from Afghanistan , Pakistan and the coalition work together to defeat this common enemy,” Freakley said.

Referring to a map of Afghanistan , the generals reflected on the growth and increased capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces. Freakley spoke of the “excellent coordination and cooperation” that is occurring between Coalition and Afghan forces, at the company level, in Regional Command East.

As the meeting ended, Khan expressed his desire to visit Freakley at the Combined Joint Task Force –76 headquarters at Bagram Airfield. He also thanked Freakley for the contributions of Coalition forces in Afghanistan. “The people of Afghanistan will never forget your help,” he said.

Afghan Weightlifting Relaxes Post-Taliban – AP - By DAVID GUTTENFELDER 4/8/06

KABUL, Afghanistan - In a country famous for the body-shrouding burqa and the Islamic puritanism of the former Taliban rulers, a gym's advertisements are jolting: a shirtless man in bikini briefs with bulging arm and abdominal muscles rippling, his massive chest flexed.

Gyms for bodybuilders are opening all over Kabul. Growing numbers of men are working out in places like Super Gym and Afghan Gold's that have set up shop in abandoned war-ravaged buildings and new high-rises.

Sayed Mohammed Payanda, secretary-general of Afghanistan's National Bodybuilding Federation, says bodybuilding is second in popularity only to soccer in Afghanistan.

All over the city, hand-painted Arnold Schwarzeneggers and other iron-pumping heroes point down alleys to gyms that have sprouted up behind crowded markets and next to red-carpeted mosques.

At every gym, patrons leave their shoes by the door. Some are state of the art, with imported computer-monitored running machines. Other gyms lack electricity, and the men pump battered barbells in the flickering light of lanterns. They square their shoulders and pose in front of cracked mirrors. Bodybuilding is a long tradition in Afghanistan's male-dominated culture.

Even under the Taliban, bodybuilding was allowed, but it was tightly controlled: Men had to exercise and compete wearing T-shirts and traditional baggy pants. Long beards were mandatory.

Now, young men work out while showing off bare chests and flat stomachs. Competitors on stage strip to their briefs and oil their skin.

Raw recruits brave death daily to rebuild a land Low-paid Afghans on front line of war - Toronto Star, Canada Apr. 8, 2006 ROSIE DIMANNO

HABIB CITY, Afghanistan—They are death lances spiked into the hard grey moraine. Votive pennants affixed to their shafts — black and green and purple and pink — snap in the wind, raggedy pieces of fabric frayed by incessant desert dust.

Scores of them, in clusters and singly, marking small stone mounds, the higgledy-piggledy graveyards of Afghanistan's besieged and beleaguered security forces.

Here, there, everywhere are the haphazard resting places of those — patriotic, desperate, mercenary — slain in the front lines of an internecine battle for a nation a-borning; a country as old as the rock cataracts and shattered boulders strewn across its lunar landscape but reinventing itself anew, with faltering steps, in the third millennium: From mud-hut medieval to cellphone modern in the blink of an eye.

This bleak cemetery has sprung up behind an Afghan National Army substation by the highway — a death highway of daily improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings, ambushes and shootouts — 42 kilometres north of Kandahar city, the macadam heading off toward a cliff-hemmed mountain fastness, jagged slopes honey-combed with caves where the enemy hides and plots.

Two weeks ago, a white Toyota — it's nearly always a white Toyota, the bushwhack vehicle of choice for "anti-government elements" — drove unmolested to this very spot in the middle of the night, and opened fire on the army checkpoint, killing seven Afghan troops, before it was in turn machine-gunned to shreds. The bullet-riddled carcass of that vehicle remains marooned behind the station, not yet examined by any forensic team, because the slaughter of Afghan soldiers and police does not draw the same exacting enquiry as attacks against coalition forces, much less the blanching prospect of friendly fire casualties.

They die in bunches and daily, their posts and patrols pathetically vulnerable to assault, their vehicles and body armour — when such a thing exists — grossly inferior to that of coalition troops, their weapons unsophisticated and sometimes obsolete.

But, oh my, they do have balls. "Hardcore," says Master Warrant Officer Al Rishchynski admiringly, as a Canadian patrol stops by to pick up a local guide for a detonation assignment a few kilometres distant. "These guys are awesome."

Every day when these Afghan soldiers come to work — indeed, most live in the grim compound — they are confronted by the graves of colleagues, a stark reminder, if any were needed, of the perils they face, and do so quite stoically.

Perhaps violent death is so common a companion in Afghanistan that it has lost its shadow. Thirty years of occupation and civil war and bombardment and the usurpation by terrorists will do that to a country.

Come the day when the multinational forces ultimately withdraw, Afghanistan will again have to rely exclusively on the abilities of its own army and police, which is why the indigenous security forces are working so closely in mentorship with the foreign troops. And, while the homegrown product has come in for harsh evaluation — both army and police were infested with Taliban infiltrators, anti-coalition saboteurs and basic incompetents who'd attained senior positions because of tribal affiliations — they've made huge strides in a relatively short time.

"We don't have professional officers," says Col. Hussain Andiwa, now a liaison official between Canadian commanders and the ministry of the interior but for 34 years a member of the Afghan National Police until the Taliban came along. (He sat out the Taliban period as a shopkeeper.)

"We cannot train a person in two weeks and it's difficult to draw good people when you're paying them only $60 or $70 a month to start."

Hussain is nostalgic for the days when army service was mandatory for every male at age 21, a practice that ceased 14 years ago. "That was a good law because, in the military back then, it didn't matter who was Pashtun or Tajik or Hazara. We were all Afghans."

It was this unity of Afghans — so notoriously fractious in tribal and ethnic loyalties — that made the mujahedeen extraordinarily successful against the Soviet occupation and eventually triumphant, as the invaders withdrew in ignominious defeat. But rid of the occupiers, the valiant fighters reverted to factionalism and warlords plunged the country into chaos such that the citizenry were at first grateful to the pacifying surge of the emerging Taliban.

Incubating a professional army and disciplined police force, under the present circumstances, is a tall order. The perks are better, in fact, for those drawn toward the insurgency — motorbikes, lucre, the power to bully and loot villagers and, for the most fervid, promises of glory in heaven for their suicidal martyrdom.

Against this are the humble stipends and lousy living conditions of an Afghan trooper or policeman: terribly exposed in their checkpoint bunkers, endlessly targeted in their rural substations and shabby vehicles, outgunned by insurrectionists, branded as traitors for collaborating with the coalition. Yet still, enough of them are game to accept the risks, whether out of idealism, love of country or insupportable poverty.

"I married when I was 19 and have two children," says Hiqmattulah, a 22-year-old member of the Afghan National Army, originally from Mazar-e-Sharif, who'd fled to neighbouring Pakistan in the Taliban era, part of the diaspora of Afghans. "None of us were happy as refugees. Now I thank God that I can breathe the air of our motherland again."

Upon his return, Hiqmattulah bowed to his father's wishes and joined the army. "He'd always had this dream, from when I was a child, that I would go into the army and defend my country. He knew it was a risky job but if we, Afghans, don't do it, then who will? Who will support the army and the nation?"

He earns 3,500 Afghan dollars a month — $71 in U.S. funds. "What we make is not enough to support a family, so you can understand that I don't do this for the money. It's for my country."

Hiqmattulah is almost pitifully grateful to coalition troops and in awe of their professional soldiering. "Afghanistan is thankful to the coalition forces, that they left their home and came here to keep the peace. We respect the coalition because they are here to help us rebuild. And they look very professional because they are trained very well. We want also to be trained like them."

It would help, though, Hiqmattulah adds delicately, if these assisting countries would provide better equipment and munitions to the Afghan force, "so we could protect ourselves and fight more effectively against our enemies, with full confidence. Every day is a new day for us, with new hope. But we don't know if we'll be alive the next day or dead."

He looks across at the graveside lances. "It is sad for every one of us when we lose one of our friends in the battlefield."

Abdullah Shah Agha was also among those Afghans who returned to his native land after the Taliban was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001. He'd been in Quetta, Pakistan, and jobless for nine months. With four children, he admits he turned to the Afghan National Police for employment because there was no other option and despite the poor salary.

"I felt compelled to join because I had to take care of my family," he says. "But now, thank God, I don't do this job only for the money. Now I understand that, first comes country, then comes family."

Abdullah, 33, has been wounded twice on the job, and he begs the West for better gear. "Our equipment isn't very good and there isn't enough of it. We implore the coalition forces to provide us with better equipment."

But he's been especially impressed by the Canadian troops. "Oh, they're great. They're more collaborative and more friendly than the others."

What frustrates Abdullah is the extent to which Afghan forces had been compromised by infiltrators. He fears the covert alliance with insurgents goes even farther than that. "The Taliban can't do anything without support. So they must have support within the Afghan government and other countries that are interfering, that don't want Afghanistan to be stable. The Taliban have people who are — how should I say this? — imitating love for Afghanistan but actually planning attacks against us, just like they have crazy people who do the suicide bombings."

That refrain is taken up by Najibullah, a 29-year-old city policeman. "Just the way we work for the government, the Taliban and Al Qaeda have people on salary to them, coming right into our stations, pretending to be on our side."

Such an incident took place last weekend when a man, presenting himself as companionable and interested in joining the force, spent several hours chatting with police at a station in Helmand province. Having shared a supper, some of the officers went to sleep, at which point their new "friend" grabbed a rifle and shot four of them dead.

On Wednesday, five more policemen were killed by insurgents on motorbikes who opened fire on a checkpoint south of Kandahar city. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi boasted responsibility for that one. In just over a year, more than 2,000 Afghan police have been killed in such attacks.

And still, Najibullah — for one — scoffs at the ever-present threat. "I don't care if it's dangerous or not. I'm going to die sometime, and only one time, so what is there to fear?"

[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.]