In this bulletin:

• Four Canadian soldiers killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan
• Suicide Bomber Kills 21 in Afghanistan
  Kabul Cancels Korean Christian Group's Event, Sends Organizers Away
• Explosive Found in Korean Red Cross Vest in Afghanistan
• Corporal killed in Afghanistan laid to rest
• U.S. To Send 11,000 More Troops To Afghanistan
  82nd Airborne units to head to Afghanistan
• Armed forces chief warns of more British deaths in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: UN official honours winners of first-ever girls football competition
• Afghan President Picks 5 for Cabinet
• Pakistan president accepts invitation to visit Afghanistan
• Officials discuss Iran gas deal

Four Canadian soldiers killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan

17 minutes ago By Terry Pedwell

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Two roadside bombings and a hail of rocket-propelled grenades killed four Canadian soldiers and injured 10 more Thursday in the single heaviest day of death and injury Canada has endured in Afghanistan.

Three Canadian soldiers died and six others were injured when suspected Taliban fighters launched the grenades from a school near the village of Pashmul, west of Kandahar city.

A fourth Canadian soldier - Cpl. Christopher Reid of Truro, N.S. - was killed when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb planted on a highway near Kandahar city. Another soldier was injured in the same incident.

All four of the dead were from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton. The Defence Department said it would not identify two of the soldiers at the request of their families; another was not immediately named pending notification of next of kin.

Reid, 34, died in an area where Canadian soldiers have been advancing on Taliban insurgents, said Col. Tom Putt, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan.

Three more Canadians were hurt when a second roadside bomb exploded along the same road three hours later.

"That area west of Kandahar is known to be a Taliban area," Putt said. "That's why we're there."

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser denied the Taliban had timed the attacks to coincide with the turnover of a new batch of Canadian soldiers coming in from Canada, saying the battle was initiated by coalition forces.

"We picked it ... we, being the Afghan government, picked the fight," he said. "They had information that there was Taliban there and so we picked the conditions (and) we went in after them."

Some of the soldiers who were killed or injured were just a couple of weeks away from returning home; some had even been scheduled to leave Afghanistan within days.

"The operation today did come at a cost, but the operation will carry on in a co-ordinated fashion with Afghan security forces," Fraser said. "The cost today was significant. The cost against the Taliban was even more significant."

The wounded were receiving top medical treatment from coalition force hospitals, he added.

The seriously wounded were evacuated to a hospital at the Canadian base in Kandahar and a British facility. All were in stable condition.

Fraser says he visited the soldiers in hospital in Kandahar and they're all doing well.

Thursday's fatalities brought to 23 the number of soldiers killed since Canadians moved into Afghanistan in 2002; 15 have died in the last six months alone. There are now about 2,200 Canadian troops in Kandahar region.

In April, four soldiers were killed when their G-Wagon patrol vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb near Gumbad, north of Kandahar. In 2002, four soldiers died and eight others were injured when a U.S. F-16 fighter mistakenly bombed the Canadians as they were on a pre-dawn training exercise.

Reid's parents held a brief news conference in the garden of their Truro home on Thursday, describing their grief at the loss of their son before urging Canadians to support their troops.

"We are shocked, saddened and we are lonely already," said Angela Reid, adding her son died doing what he loved. "We are truly thankful to have had a son such as Christopher. He will be in our hearts forever."

Reid was remembered as an avid outdoorsman who loved being a soldier and was eager to get to Afghanistan, said Sgt. Mike McNeil, a friend who'd known Reid since they were in the militia together in Truro in the early 1990s.

"Chris was very excited to go. Very excited. He was actually disappointed that he had missed some previous trips to Afghanistan," McNeil recalled from Halifax.

"He was very proud to be in the army, an excellent soldier and he was probably one of the most outgoing people I've ever met."

Speaking in Cornwall, Ont., Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered the country's condolences to Reid's family but pledged to stand behind Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

"What the men and women in harm's way want and need to know at moments like this is that the government and Canadians stand behind their mission," Harper said.

"Through good times and bad, this government will honour their sacrifice, we will stand behind their mission and we are proud of the work that they are doing."

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor was unflinching in his defence of the Canadian mission.

"This is a very unfortunate day and this happens," he said. "It's high-risk. We train our soldiers as best we can, we equip them as best we can, and sometimes they're unlucky."

The carnage in Afghanistan happened just hours after a memorial service was held in Montreal for Cpl. Jason Warren.

He and Cpl. Francisco Gomez of Edmonton died July 22 when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives beside their Bison armoured vehicle.

Gomez and Warren were interred Thursday at the Beechwood National Military Cemetery in Ottawa.

In Thursday's deadliest attack in Afghanistan, a suicide car bomber detonated a huge explosion in a crowded market near a Canadian patrol in Panjwayi, a town about 25 kilometres from Kandahar, killing 21 civilians and wounding 13. Police blamed the Taliban.

The blast tore through the main bazaar in the early afternoon, leaving a carnage of body parts, twisted metal and burning shops.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai said children were among the dead.

It was one of the deadliest bombings in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces.

Suicide Bomber Kills 21 in Afghanistan
Deadliest Attack to Date in the Wake of NATO Takeover

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 4:40 PM

KABUL, Aug. 3 -- A suicide bomber detonated his car in the market of a southern Afghan town Thursday, killing 21 civilians and wounding 13, officials said. It was the deadliest attack to date in a wave of violence accompanying the NATO alliance's takeover of military operations from a U.S.-led force in southern Afghanistan.

No troops were injured in the blast, but officials said that four Canadian troops in a NATO contingent were killed and 10 others were wounded in other attacks Thursday, all of them in volatile Kandahar province.

Officials said the market's attacker exploded his vehicle about 200 yards from a NATO military convoy in the town of Panjwayi about 30 miles west of Kandahar City. Survivors, some of them children, were taken to a hospital. Police secured the scene of the explosion, which left shop fronts and motorcycles charred.

Islamic insurgents from the revived Taliban militia have been aggressively testing the resolve of NATO forces and their governments as the command transition unfolds. They have killed seven NATO troops since Monday, when the official handover took place in Kabul.

This summer, more than 8,000 soldiers from 26 countries, led by British, Canadian and Dutch contingents, have poured into southern Afghanistan in one the most ambitious military deployments in NATO's 57-year history. In addition to Islamic militias, an increasingly entrenched and violent network of opium poppy traffickers operates in the dry southern provinces.

The troops are gradually replacing a large, mostly U.S. force that has been battling Taliban fighters in conjunction with Afghan army troops for months. Since the insurgents' southern offensive began late last year, more than 1,700 people have been reported killed in combat or other violence, including some 70 foreign troops.

NATO officials here have pledged to pursue the insurgents relentlessly and remain in Afghanistan as long as needed, but public support is already faltering in some member countries. A poll this week in Canada showed that almost half of Canadians want their troops withdrawn; a total of 17 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

In other attacks Thursday, officials said, a bomb exploded during an early morning NATO patrol on the outskirts of Kandahar, killing one Canadian soldier. A second bomb went off in the same spot three hours later, wounding three more Canadians. In a separate incident, insurgents hiding in a school fired rockets at a NATO patrol in Pashmul village near Kandahar, injuring six troops, officials said.

The great majority of the recent attacks have occurred in the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Kandahar City has been a recurring target.

In May, U.S. airstrikes killed 15 civilians in Panjwayi district, scene of Thursday's suicide bombing, after Taliban attackers ambushed U.S. and Afghan troops from positions in civilian homes.

Tribal and political leaders in the region have said people are intimidated by the Taliban forces, which have burned schools, overrun remote government facilities and threatened to kill teachers and workers who collaborate with foreign forces.

The resurrected militia, which was originally based in Kandahar and ruled much of Afghanistan between 1996 and late 2001, has also garnered some local support because of the Western-backed central government's inability to protect and develop the country's impoverished and neglected southern region.

Kabul Cancels Korean Christian Group's Event, Sends Organizers Away

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KABUL, August 3, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan officials say a three-day "peace festival" proposed by a South Korean Christian group has been canceled and its organizers expelled from the country.

The event, which had been scheduled to start Saturday (August 5), was to include a medical conference and two soccer matches at Kabul's Olympic Stadium. It was being organized by the Institute of Asian Culture and Development, a Seoul-based Christian humanitarian aid group that has run medical clinics in Afghanistan since January 2002.

But Islamic clerics accuse group members of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, a crime in the Islamic republic.

The group's Central Asia director, Kang Sung Han, tells RFE/RL that the allegations of evangelism are "wrong" and that group members are shocked by the negative reaction they have received in Afghanistan.

Explosive Found in Korean Red Cross Vest in Afghanistan

Korea Times / August 3, 2006

Seoul warned on Thursday the danger of holding an evangelical event in Afghanistan, saying it recently found bombs in a Korean relief worker's vest at a city near Kabul, the capital of the strictly Islamic country.

It concerned Seoul as more than 1,200 Koreans are ready to participate in the ``peace festival'' set to be held for three days starting from Saturday.

``Our embassy in Afghanistan got the information that the yellow vest of a Korean National Red Cross volunteer was packed with a hand grenade and home-made bombs,'' an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul told reporters.

He said the vest was found at Surobi, near Kabul, on July 24, adding that the ministry is checking where the explosives were manufactured and how they were packed in the vest.

The official, however, said it was not clear whether the explosives were targeting Koreans who plan to attend the religious event organized by the Institute of Asian culture and Development (IACD), a South Korea-based Christian humanitarian group.

The Afghan authorities estimate that around 1,200 Koreans have already entered the country, while the event organizers say the number is higher than 1,500. Currently, most of them are on their way to Kabul to attend the peace march, the ministry said.

Organizers have argued that their aim is to engage in volunteer service and stage cultural performances. But there is evidence they are also preaching Christianity, the ministry said.

The Seoul official said a director of the Afghan Police Agency asked Seoul to come up with proper measures to prevent Koreans from conducting religious activities, saying some of them held mass and distributed handouts on Christianity in Bamian on Aug. 2.

Koreans' religious activities are also a cause of concern for international NGOs working in Afghanistan.

Christian Willach, an operations coordinator of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, recently warned in an email that the peace march could trigger wide-spread anger in Afghanistan.

``We just have to be aware of possible reactions by the population like for example the reaction towards the wrong report of the desecration of the holy Quran last year or against the cartoons published by a Danish newspaper,'' Willach said in the email that was obtained by the foreign ministry.

A total of 37 Koreans have been denied entrance at Kabul airport as of Monday and two local planes in Delhi and Dubai declined on Thursday to give a ride to around 200 Koreans who bought tickets for Afghanistan, the ministry said.

But the organizers were still pushing for the plan to host the peace march by renting a stadium in Kabul, the ministry said. Seoul said 402 Koreans have stayed in Afghanistan, but many of them, especially around 180 of 200 in Kabul, departed for nearby countries or South Korea.

Corporal killed in Afghanistan laid to rest

Thu. Aug. 3 2006 Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- As a piper played Amazing Grace, comrades in arms carried Cpl. Francisco Gomez of Edmonton in a flag-draped coffin to burial at the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa.

Gomez, 44, of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, of the Black Watch, the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, based in Montreal, were killed July 22 in Afghanistan.

Eight other Canadian Forces personnel were injured when a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives beside the Bison armoured vehicle that Gomez was driving.

They were on the tail end of a large convoy returning from fighting west of Kandahar. Warren was to be buried in a later ceremony. The two were the 18th and 19th Canadian soldiers to be killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

U.S. To Send 11,000 More Troops To Afghanistan

August 3, 2006 Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent

Washington DC (AHN) - The Pentagon has announced it will deploy some 11,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan late this year. However, the announcement did not mention if the troops were additional forces or will replace soldiers for recall.

There are currently 22,000 U.S. troops stationed all-over Afghanistan.

According to the AP, the combat brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, headquarters staff and various unidentified support unit will be shipped from Fort Bragg, North Carolina to Kabul in the fourth quarter of the year.

In a press conference held inside the Pentagon, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is optimistic about the peace and stability in the region. Pace has just visited Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The U.S. contribution has stayed stable and will remain stable."

In 2005, Pentagon said the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would be reduced to 3,000 before the end of 2006. However, the resurgence of Taliban attacks particularly in the volatile southern areas has forced Washington to rethink its plans.

82nd Airborne units to head to Afghanistan

Fayetteville Online Thursday, August 03, 2006

The Defense Department said Wednesday that the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team will deploy to Afghanistan beginning late this year.

The 82nd Airborne headquarters and the 4th Brigade Combat Team are the major units heading up the next rotation of forces to Afghanistan.

A Defense Department statement said individual services will announce smaller, supporting units for this rotation.

The 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team is leaving for Iraq this month. It will be part of a task force made up of units from the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division and 1st Cavalry Division.

Armed forces chief warns of more British deaths in Afghanistan

Independent, UK :  03 August 2006

The chief of the armed forces warned yesterday that more British lives will be lost in the escalating war with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of defence staff, said that it was a sad but inevitable consequence of Britain sending forces into the highly dangerous region. He also said he would have no hesitation in sending more troops if the commanders on the ground deemed it necessary.

The comments came on the bloodiest day for British forces with four soldiers dead in Afghan-istan and Iraq. The Ministry of Defence has released details of the three killed in Helmand in Afghanistan. They were 2nd Lt Ralph Johnson, 24, of the Household Cavalry Regiment; L/Cpl Ross Nicholls, of the same regiment; and Capt Alex Eida, 29, of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. Lt Johnson, from Windsor, Berkshire, had joined the Life Guards in August 2005. His commanding officer, Lt-Col Edward Smyth-Osbourne, said: " He was brave, determined and thoroughly loyal to his soldiers and superiors. It was typical that he was leading from the front when killed in an ambush."

L/Cpl Nicholls had joined the Army in August 1995. He leaves his wife Angela, a baby girl, Erin, and a two-year old son, Cameron. They live in central London. Lt-Col Smyth-Osbourne described him as: "A very brave man. He volunteered to deploy in Afghanistan despite the fact that he had decided to leave the Army. With his death, the Household Cavalry Regiment has suffered the loss of a talented soldier."

Capt Eida, who was single and lived in Hooley, Surrey, was a former Territorial Army officer who became full-time in April 2002 and served in the Iraq war as well as in Kosovo. Lt-Col David Hammond, his commanding officer, said: " He was a real character and personality who grew up as an officer among us and gave so much to the regiment. We have lost a gifted young officer and a friend who was a leading light."

The soldier who was killed at Basra, the first British soldier to die in a direct attack on a British base in the country, was 29-year-old Cpl Matthew Cornish from West Yorkshire. Cpl Cornish, of the 1st Battalion Light Infantry, who was the father of a two-year old son and a daughter aged one, died on his third tour of Iraq.

Sir Jock said: " No matter how much we regret it, we do take casualties - that's part of the essence of the use of military force. I know some people said it was going to be easy. I certainly never believed it. We knew it was going to be difficult, we knew we were going to take casualties.

"Casualties are always extremely sad and the losses we have just recently suffered, in addition to those earlier, are something we mourn and regret. We will continue to put into Helmand whatever our commanders on the ground feel they need to deliver the mission effectively."

Sir Jock added: "We are now on a good path to hand over control of Basra in the first part of next year. But these are difficult issues we are grappling with and I can't forecast what will happen over the next several months. This is a dynamic situation and we have to be.

Afghanistan: UN official honours winners of first-ever girls football competition

UN News Centre 3 August 2006

A senior United Nations official today presented a trophy to the winners of the first-ever Kabul Girls Football Competition, a milestone event for young women in Afghanistan, where their rights were severely curtailed under the ousted Taliban regime, and voiced hope that sports would inspire them to pursue all of their dreams.

“Sports provide children of all ages, boys and girls, with opportunities to express themselves, to contribute their opinions, and to become agents for change,” UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan Ameerah Haq stated following the match, held at the Ministry of Defence Sports Field.

“Today’s competition marks a milestone for young girls in Afghanistan, who just five years ago were not even allowed to attend school, let alone play sports,” she said. “Hopefully, their participation in events such as this one will inspire young girls to pursue their dreams, in whatever fields interest them.”

Kabul boasts 15 girls’ football teams, consisting of young women from the ages of 13 to 20. The winners of today’s match will go on to face the winners of other regional competitions in the finals, under the auspices of the Afghanistan Football Federation.

All of the participants in today’s competition were presented with footballs made especially for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan ( UNAMA) by disabled Afghans and paid for from staff donations. Over 1,000 footballs will be delivered to schools, orphanages and prisons across Afghanistan.

able to react to any changes. We are making good progress."

Afghan President Picks 5 for Cabinet

Associated Press / August 2, 2006

Afghanistan's president on Wednesday nominated five candidates - including a woman - to fill vacant posts in his now all-male Cabinet, officials said.

If approved by lawmakers, the candidates will round out Afghanistan's first elected Cabinet in its democratic revival since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

President Hamid Karzai nominated the candidates to fill slots left empty when Parliament rejected five of the 25 people he chose for his Cabinet in April.

His candidate for minister of women's affairs, Hosn Banu Ghazanfar, is dean of the literature and language faculty at Kabul University, said lawmaker Shakria Barekzai.

The previous nominee was rejected partly because she lacked political connections, said Barekzai.

The candidate for minister of commerce and industries, Muhammad Amin Farhang, was rejected earlier this year as head of the ministry of economy and labor.

Pakistan president accepts invitation to visit Afghanistan

Wed Aug 2, 11:41 PM ET

KABUL (AFP) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accepted an invitation to visit Afghanistan, an Afghan official said, amid tension between the neighbours over the Taliban-led insurgency gripping this country.

Musharraf was last in Afghanistan in April 2002, months after the extremist Taliban government was toppled by a US-led coalition when it did not surrender Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai extended the invitation in a telephone call with Musharraf Wednesday evening during which they discussed "issues relating to the region," presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi told AFP.

"The president of Pakistan accepted the invitation and said he would visit Afghanistan at a convenient time," Rahimi said on Wednesday.

"At this time, this is of great importance to have good relations and good discussions," he said.

Karzai was in Pakistan in February on a visit that led to a dramatic plunge in ties between the "war on terror" allies.

A dispute arose about Afghan intelligence handed over during Karzai's trip on Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives said to be in Pakistan.

Afghan officials have long alleged that the Taliban-led insurgency is being plotted by militants in Pakistan where they say conservative Islamic circles are funding and training fighters sent to Afghanistan to carry out attacks.

Pakistan rejected the intelligence as outdated and "nonsense", with Musharraf charging that Karzai did not know what was going on in his own country.

After weeks of bitter sparring through the media, tempers have cooled. The insurgency has however peaked this year, with Taliban stepping up more and more organised attacks.

Officials discuss Iran gas deal

By John Sudworth BBC News, Delhi Thursday, 3 August 2006

Officials from India, Pakistan and Iran are meeting in Delhi to discuss proposals to build a gas pipeline linking the three countries.

The project would carry natural gas more than 2,500 kms (1,562 miles) from Iran to India. Work could begin as early as next year.

But there is disagreements about how much India and Pakistan should pay.

The pipeline would be a huge boost for energy-starved India, which currently produces only half of the gas it needs.

And the country's energy demands are expected to double within the next 15 years.

Benefits to Pakistan

The pipeline would also bring financial benefits to Pakistan, earning the country millions of dollars in transit fees.

Earlier in May, talks between the three nations failed due to disagreement on the price of the gas.

India wants to pay a fixed amount per unit delivered to its border.

But Iran says the price being offered by India and Pakistan is half of what it is looking for and wants the cost to be linked to fluctuating international energy prices.

If these issues can be resolved work could begin by the end of next year.

The US had earlier opposed the project because of the financial and strategic benefits it would bring to Iran.

But during a visit to Pakistan in March this year, President George Bush indicated that the US had dropped its staunch opposition to the pipeline.

Mr Bush said he understood the need for natural gas in the region and that the US argument with Iran was over nuclear weapons.

The project is estimated to cost $6bn.

[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.]