In this bulletin:

• Afghan Cabinet Completed
• Afghan parliament approves cabinet line-up; another step toward democracy
• Afghan foreign minister asks for help
• 'External elements' helping Taliban to regroup: Afghanistan
• President Orders Creation of New Afghan Ulama Posts
• UN to open two more offices in Afghanistan
• War on drugs in Afghanistan needs a change of strategy: UN
• Canadian soldier dies in Afghan accident
• U.S. Forces Push Further Into Afghanistan
• Securing Afghanistan
• UN to boost presence in restive Afghan areas
• UK says controls Afghan valley after 10-hour battle
• British forces in Afghanistan need back-up: former colonel
• In Afghanistan, a Crackdown on Imported Pleasures
• Afghanistan’s ancient Buddhas might be reborn - Project would help impoverished region
• We've failed in Iraq: let's get it right in Afghanistan
• First wave of Canadian soldiers return home from Afghanistan

Afghanistan's parliament approved President Hamid Karzai's choices for the vacant portfolios in his cabinet on Aug. 7, 2006

Afghan Cabinet Completed - RFE/RL 08/07/2006

Afghanistan's parliament today approved five ministers nominated by President Hamid Karzai, thereby completing the 25-member cabinet.

Karzai had nominated the candidates to fill slots left vacant after the legislature rejected five of the people he had initially picked to form his government in April.

Among the ministers approved today is a woman, Hosna Banu Ghazanfar. She will be in charge of women's affairs.   With 159 lawmakers endorsing her candidacy, Ghazanfar garnered more support than the other four candidates.

The other four are Mir Muhammad Amin Farhang (commerce and industry), Namatollah Ehsan Jawed (transport and aviation), Abdul Karim Khorram (culture and youth), and Mohammad Jalil Shams (economy and labor).

Shams has dual Afghan-German citizenship. Afghan authorities have previously German citizenship.

Afghan parliament approves cabinet line-up; another step toward democracy - But growing cynicism about Karzai's government is diluting Afghans' enthusiasm

KABUL ( The Associated Press 08/07/2006 )- Afghanistan's parliament approved the final vacant portfolios in President Hamid Karzai's cabinet on Monday, marking another step toward democracy, even as his government struggled with a resurgent Taliban and to provide relief to flood-hit villagers.

Karzai nominated the candidates to fill slots left empty when Parliament rejected five of the 25 people he initially chose for his cabinet in April. The completed cabinet is the first approved by the Parliament since it was elected last year.

Its new members include the minister of women's affairs, Hosn Banu Ghazanfar, who is the dean of the literature and language faculty at Kabul University. She was supported by 159 legislators, garnering the most support of the five new ministers in Monday's voting. Some 54 voted against her nomination and 35 legislators were absent or abstained.

The other portfolios filled were the ministries of commerce and industries, economy and labour, transport and aviation, and culture and youth. All of the new ministers were educated abroad.

But growing cynicism about Karzai's government is diluting Afghans' enthusiasm over the progress toward democracy following the 2005 elections for the country's first representative Parliament in more than 30 years.

The government is increasingly viewed as ineffective, tainted by corruption, and failing to deliver security, services or jobs to much of the country.

Making matters worse, Taliban rebels have stepped up attacks this year, particularly in southern provinces, sparking the bloodiest fighting in nearly five years.

NATO forces have embarked on a mission to defeat the rebels and create the conditions for much-needed development to take root in the south. Nine NATO troops have been killed in the past week since the alliance took command of security. Five of them were Canadian.

Tom Koenigs, the top UN official in Afghanistan, warned Monday that the Taliban still posed a threat to Afghanistan and that the insurgency will not be defeated quickly.

"We should be more careful if we are going to tell you that (the insurgency) is going to be over in a year," Koenigs told reporters.

U.S.-led forces on Monday uncovered a plot to ambush security forces in Ghazni, said spokesman Col. Tom Collins. They also learned that the Taliban were going door-to-door in some villages in the province, demanding each house provide at least one fighter to join their attacks on Afghan and foreign troops, he said.

Meanwhile, government officials from Kabul visited southeastern Ghazni province on Monday to make the first direct delivery of aid to thousands of homeless people, three days after heavy rains caused floods that killed at least three people and destroyed 1,600 homes.

The officials gave tents, plastic sheets and blankets to 45 families living with their relatives in the provincial capital, said Abdul Rahim Zareen, a spokesman for the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry.

Because of the dangerous security situation, he said the responsibility to deliver aid outside the city limits fell to local police and officials.

Afghan foreign minister asks for help - By FISNIK ABRASHI- Associated Press / August 7, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's foreign minister urged the world to stem the flow of extremists, weapons and terror funding into the country, as a British soldier was killed and the main base of the NATO-led security force came under rocket attack.

Insurgents fired three rockets at Kandahar Air Field, a sprawling base near the main southern city of Kandahar, home to some 10,000 international troops and civilians, military spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said Monday. The attack late Sunday caused no damages or injuries.

British and Afghan forces used air power and ground troops to kill 17 Taliban in the southern Helmand province over the weekend, police said,

A British soldier was killed Sunday as NATO-led troops pushed into Helmand's mountainous Musa Qala district, where three other British soldiers were killed last week. It was the alliance's ninth death since taking over security in southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition last week. Ten British troops have been killed in the past two months.

A suspected suicide truck bomber injured a U.S. soldier and wrecked a vehicle in a military convoy in Kandahar province.

Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, said his country remains the main victim of Osama bin Laden's terror network and eliminating it is "an international task."

He urged the international community to do more to fight what he called the sources of terrorism: Islamic schools, international sponsors and the influx of weapons — although huge amounts of weapons are believed to remain in Afghanistan from a quarter century of war.

NATO-led troops are attempting to extend the government's reach in the insurgency-wracked south amid an escalation in attacks by Taliban-led rebels.

Tom Koenigs, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, warned Monday that the insurgency could not be defeated quickly. "We should be more careful if we are going to tell you that (the insurgency) is going to be over in a year," Koenigs told reporters.

In recent months, the militants have stepped up their attacks against Afghan and NATO-led forces in the worst upsurge of violence since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaida.

Before NATO took charge, U.S.-led troops conducted a six-week offensive, which the military said killed, wounded or captured more than 1,100 suspected Taliban militants.

Spanta said the resurgent Taliban militants and al-Qaida network are working together in Afghanistan. "They are different elements of the same terrorist network," Spanta said, without providing any evidence.

Associated Press reporters Chris Hawke in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

'External elements' helping Taliban to regroup: Afghanistan

Dhaka, Aug. 7 (PTI): Amid allegations that Pakistan is helping Taliban to regroup again, Afghanistan has said the militia are being given military and financial support by "external elements", lending prowess to it to carry out deadly strikes as witnessed recently.

"Taliban must be getting financial support, weapon support and training, possibly from somewhere... It is not internal but external elements (that is supporting them)," Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Rangin Spanta said here without naming anybody.

"Without that they will not be in a position to attack our civilians and security forces and bomb our schools and hospitals, and kill our teachers, etc," he said.

Spanta's remarks assume significance considering widespread allegations that Taliban, the notorious face of fundamentalism, are regrouping again with support from Pakistan.

About a month back, UN Secretary General's special representative on Afghanisan Tom Koenigs was more blant, as he said that Taliban's "logistical and ideological support" comes from Pakistan.

Diplomatic efforts are needed to be made to "address the threats (to Afghanistan) from within Pakistan and supporting networks", he told BBC. via The Hindu (India)

President Orders Creation of New Afghan Ulama Posts - RFE/RL 08/07/2006 By Amin Tarzai

President Karzai has ordered the creation of 500 new posts for Afghan religious scholars within the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Endowments, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported on August 6.

The plan prescribes three tiers of positions for ulama and prayer leaders, "given the high status of religious scholars" in Afghan society. Karzai has ordered the Finance Ministry to release funds for the creation of the new posts.

Bringing the clergy and religious scholars under government authority through the creation of official posts may allow the Afghan government to exert a degree of control over an otherwise independent, yet powerful, segment of society.

UN to open two more offices in Afghanistan - Press Trust of India New York, August 8, 2006|12:03 IST

The United Nations will soon open two more offices in Afghanistan's southern and southeastern region to help the country fight the growing insurgency in the area.

The offices, to be part of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), will be opened in Qalat in the province of Zabul and in Asadabad.

"These new offices will closely cooperate with the local government and local governors and with all the administration to strengthen the good governance and the rule of law, as well as monitor human rights and support to the local population," the world body said.

The offices will also provide assistance to UN agencies in implementing their programmes. The two new UNAMA offices, according to UN, are only the first step in an expanded UN presence in Afghanistan.

The mission also plans to open more offices throughout the country, beginning at the end of this year and continuing into next spring.

War on drugs in Afghanistan needs a change of strategy: UN – AFP 08/07/2006

KABUL - The war against drugs in Afghanistan needs a change of strategy because it has been unsuccessful so far, the top United Nations official in the world's biggest heroin-producing country said.

"Nobody can say that we have been successful if the poppy production has increased," Tom Koenigs, the UN secretary general's special representative in Afghanistan told a monthly press conference on Monday.

"Certainly the strategy and the effort have to be rethought," said Koenigs, adding: "The problem has increased and the remedy has to adjust".

Figures for Afghanistan's 2006 harvest of opium poppies -- which are used to make heroin -- are not yet known but the UN has said that it is set to pass the 4,100 tonnes produced in 2005. Last year's haul was worth 2.7 billion dollars, forming a sizeable part of the destitute and insurgency-wracked country's economy.

Afghanistan is the world's top producer of opium and supplies 90 percent of the heroin sold in Europe, despite moves by world powers including the United States and Britain to help combat the trade.

Afghan officials have linked the drugs trade to a soaring insurgency headed by the Taliban, the fundamentalist regime which ironically slashed opium output before its ouster in late 2001 by a US-led coalition. Koenigs stressed that there was no easy answer to the problem.

"We know that if we start eradicating the whole surface of poppy cultivation in Helmand (the main opium producing province) we will increase the activity of the insurgency and increase the number of insurgents," he said.

The international community had to rethink its plans to help farmers substitute other crops for opium, which is hardy, easily-transportable and reaps relatively big profits for growers, Koenigs said.

"Do we have a market for the alternative product and do we get the product quickly to the market?" he asked. "We should carefully rethink the concept of what could be the alternative for the farmers and implement and support it with the necessary funds", he said.

He also cautioned against focussing on one province and ignoring other areas in Afghanistan. "We cannot say, because you have cultivated so much poppy we focus all the development aid on Helmand, and nothing for other provinces."

However coming up with new ideas would be "very difficult and costly" he added. Koenigs said he was not advocating the legalisation of poppy growing but said "those who make big money" from the trade should be targeted. Yet the task would be difficult in Afghanistan's unstable environment where the government did not have control over the whole country.

NATO's chief in southern Afghanistan, General David Richards, said Sunday that the rebels involved in the unrest were not only Taliban but also drug traffickers and other criminals upset by the NATO deployment, which is twice the size of the previous US-led coalition force in the south.

Canadian soldier dies in Afghan accident - NOOR KHAN – 8/8/2006 AP

— KANDAHAR, Afghanistan _ NATO-led troops suffered their eighth fatality since taking command of southern Afghanistan when a road accident Saturday killed a Canadian soldier and injured three others. The soldiers were accompanying a supply convoy through Kandahar province when their armored jeep hit a civilian truck, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. The province has been the scene of heavy action since NATO took over Monday: four Canadian troops were killed by militants there Thursday.

A roadside bomb attack in the province killed two policemen and wounded eight people, said Dawood Ahmadi, the Kandahar governor's spokesman, who blamed Taliban militants.

The militants have stepped up their attacks against Afghan and NATO-led forces in recent months in the worst upsurge of violence in the country since the late 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime for hosting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

Before NATO took charge of security in the south, U.S.-led troops conducted a six-week offensive aimed at expanding the reach of the Kabul government into the region. More than 1,100 suspected Taliban militants were killed, wounded or captured during the operation, the coalition said in a statement Friday.

Police in nearby Ghazni province arrested 15 local residents Saturday on suspicion of belonging to the hard-line Taliban militia, after fighting Friday left one insurgent and one Afghan intelligence officer dead, provincial police chief Thassir Khan said.

In Paktya province in the east, police officers escorting a convoy bound for a U.S. base fended off an attack, killing a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform, provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Anan Roufi said.

Authorities in Ghazni also pleaded for help after flooding caused by heavy rain late Friday killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes.

U.S. Forces Push Further Into Afghanistan - By PAUL GARWOOD The Associated Press Tuesday, August 8, 2006

NARAY, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of U.S. soldiers have established their northernmost base in Afghanistan, pushing further up the border with Pakistan to block militants crossing jagged mountains, train fledgling local forces and build support among wary tribesmen.

In doing so, they have put themselves further into harm's way, drawing rocket fire from enemies on surrounding mountain peaks and losing at least seven soldiers since February, including their previous commanding officer in a May 5 helicopter crash in bad weather.

With NATO taking charge of security in southern provinces wracked by a Taliban resurgence, the U.S. is increasingly able to focus on stabilizing the dangerous east, extending the Afghan government's authority there and hunting for fugitives like Osama bin Laden.

More than 600 U.S. soldiers have deployed to Naray, a clutch of mud-brick and stone villages inhabited by 30,000 Pashtun tribespeople in Kunar province _ a virtually forgotten corner of Afghanistan at the northern end of the belt of eastern provinces patrolled by U.S. forces.

Bin Laden is familiar with Kunar's mountainous terrain from the days of the war against the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The province was once a stronghold of Afghan warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose Hezb-e-Islami faction has long held ties with bin Laden and now fights the government of President Hamid Karzai.

American officials say heavily armed remnants of Hekmatyar's group are still active in Kunar and receive aid from militants crossing into Afghanistan from lawless tribal regions in Pakistan. They are also supported by holdouts from the Taliban regime, which was toppled in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces for harboring bin Laden.

But Lt. Col. Michael Howard, commanding officer of Forward Operating Base Naray, said the main challenge facing his American forces is not the virtually impossible task of sealing the frontier from militant incursions but winning the trust of villagers from five local tribes.

"You have a group of people who for years have had one option, and that was to cower to, or be a part of the likes of the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami or al-Qaida. That was their only choice," said Howard, who runs the 3rd Battalion, 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y.

"The greatest challenge is making folks realize that things have changed." Some soldiers in Naray have recently arrived from southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where NATO has deployed thousands of forces in recent months _ mostly British and Canadian _ and last week took over command from the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition. More U.S. soldiers are expected to be shifted to the east in the months ahead.

In recent weeks, U.S. soldiers broke ground further north in Kunar's neighboring province of Nuristan, establishing a tiny outpost and trying to launch road, water and power projects in Kamdesh, an isolated village surrounded by sheer cliffs and often shrouded by low clouds.

Poor weather regularly closes Kamdesh to Chinooks and other U.S. supply helicopters, cutting it off from vital supply routes for several weeks at a time.

On Monday, about 100 U.S. and Afghan forces launched an operation in Nuristan province to destroy a suspected anti-craft gun operated by militants and threatening American helicopters flying between Kamdesh and Naray, said Capt. Dan Walker of the 4th Battalion, 25th Artillery Unit of the 10th Mountain Division. Soldiers were setting up howitzers and mortars, and infantry were preparing to move on foot into mountains to locate the high-powered weapon.

Few foreigners have ventured into this isolated region of Afghanistan. Even in Naray, the only foreigners villagers had previously seen were hashish-smoking Soviet troops, who were based here briefly during the Russian occupation, and U.S.-funded Arab, Chechen and Pakistani mujahedeen who would cross from Pakistan to fight against them.

"The Russians would come knocking on our doors with guns looking for hashish whenever they ran out," said Naray's most prominent tribal elder, white-bearded Rahmat Noor, in his fortified home built on the eastern bank of the roaring Kunar River.

"We all made jihad (holy war) against the Russians because we didn't like them. They were occupiers," Noor said. "But we like the Americans. They came to help. They built a mosque on their base for our soldiers."

Following the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent hunt for bin Laden, a U.S. Special Forces contingent established a small outpost in Naray. The 10th Mountain Division base has grown around it and has employed more than 1,000 local people.

About 160 Afghan soldiers live side-by-side with U.S. forces at the base, training to use American weapons, like Howitzer cannons.

A medical facility run by the 758th Forward Surgical Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash., and medics from the 3-71 Cavalry's reconnaissance unit have treated dozens of Afghans.

They include a 12-year-old Kamdesh girl, Aleema, whose right foot and bottom half of her shin were blown off by a land mine planted by tribesmen along a tribal border.

"These people first understood that we were here to kill them and the kids would stand off, but now we treat them, give them teddy bears and soccer balls," said cavalry medic Sgt. Michael La Clair, 38, of San Diego. "They know now that we are here to help."

Securing Afghanistan – WSJ 08/07/2006 editorial

Securing Afghanistan was never going to be an easy task. The timing of the grenade attacks that killed three British soldiers Tuesday -- only a day after NATO assumed command of the country's restive southern provinces -- highlights the challenges that remain nearly five years after the U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban.

Afghanistan's is NATO's first mission outside Europe and a test of the alliance's relevance in the war on terror. In recent months, a combination of Taliban fighters, foreign terrorists, warlords and drug traffickers has embarked on a sustained spree of violence aimed at testing NATO's resolve. The "spring offensive" is a reaction to NATO's expanding presence in Afghanistan, as it assumes command from the U.S. of more and more of the coalition forces. By targeting the 7,000 British, Canadian and Dutch troops who are stationed in the south, the terrorists are hoping to weaken political support in London, Ottawa and The Hague.

In the south, NATO will lead the fight against the Taliban and the drug lords who are backing them. It also plans to establish secure zones, allowing development to take place. While U.S.-led coalition forces have been successful in routing the Taliban from the areas to which it has returned, it's often not a permanent solution. As soon as the international forces leave, the Taliban comes back.

A strong, credible Afghan police force would help here. Unfortunately, there's a distinct lack of funding for one. Less than half of $26 billion of the international aid pledged to Afghanistan has actually arrived. Police officers are paid only $40 a month, Said Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States told us in a meeting in our offices in New York last week. It's hard to fight the temptations of corruption or the drug trade with that tiny paycheck. Kabul can't do much to pitch in yet, as its economy is tiny and its tax revenues are almost non-existent beyond customs duties.

 The lack of funding also hinders crucial reconstruction efforts, such as the building of roads, bridges and schools, which in many cases are being built from scratch. There are successes to boast of -- such as the skyrocketing number of children, especially girls, who are back in school.

But Kabul could certainly use the monies promised to it. Foreign donors have focused on equipping and training the Afghan army, which is halfway toward its goal of putting 70,000 men under arms. But more is needed. At present, much of its equipment is outdated and not interoperable with NATO. It has no armored vehicles, for example, and no communications equipment through which to coordinate activities with NATO forces. NATO is quietly negotiating with the Afghan government, we're told, to provide more equipment. We hope the headquarters in Brussels ponies up.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's neighbors -- in particular, Pakistan -- could do more to help. It's no secret that many of the insurgents coming across the borders enjoy refuge in Pakistan's Baluchistan and Waziristan provinces. It wasn't so long ago that Islamabad refused to acknowledge the problem, refusing to go after terrorists holed up in Pakistan even when Afghanistan provided their addresses or the locations of training camps. Now that Islamabad perceives a domestic threat from the same groups -- a trend replayed in London and Madrid not so long ago -- its attitude is starting to change.

Still, it's reasonable to assume that for a long while yet, Afghanistan's security will rest on the broad shoulders of NATO. Here, there's lots of good news to relate. When NATO troops arrived in August 2003, they patrolled only around Kabul. Today, after scaling a remarkably steep learning curve, a 37-nation-strong force reaches into the north, west -- and now, south -- of the country. The U.S. remains in command of the forces in eastern Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan, where Taliban and al Qaeda are active. If things go as planned, NATO will take command of the international forces in all of the country by the end of November.

The challenge for NATO is to maintain its political support. As the Dutch parliament's public wavering demonstrated in January, even when countries agree on a mission, they don't always have the nerve to carry it through.

Afghanistan's new government has a lot of work to do, too. The drug trade is a serious problem, and worsening. Meanwhile, the country's judiciary is short of qualified candidates, and corruption has been a problem. A stellar army and police force will mean little if criminals can't be brought to justice.

Today, nearly five years down the road, Afghanistan is a much better place than it was. It's a democracy, backed up by NATO's guns. As the past few months have shown, that won't be enough to achieve a lasting peace. Only the Afghans can do that. Here's hoping that NATO will stay there long enough to help them succeed.

UN to boost presence in restive Afghan areas

KABUL, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) - The United Nations said Monday it would set up offices in southern and eastern Afghanistan to help get aid to the volatile regions and better take part in development zones planned by NATO forces.

In coming weeks the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) will open satellite offices in Qalat in south-central Zabul province and in Asadabad, the capital of eastern Kunar province, UN representative Tom Koenigs said.

"These new offices will closely cooperate with the local governement and the local governor and with all the administration to strenghen the good governance and the rule of law, as well as monitor human rights and support the local population to ensure that more development reaches those areas," Koenigs said.

Other UNAMA offices will open in southern Afghanistan between the end of 2006 and and spring 2007.

The missions will help the UN "get a better understanding of what can be done to stabilise Afghanistan" and to act as a point of contact for aid agencies that are wary of the south for security reasons.

The United Nations had previously limited operations in the southern province of Kandahar and elsewhere because of a growing insurgency by the fundamentalist Taliban militia.

The opening of the new offices is "in harmony with the strategy of the military forces, particularly ISAF, to guarantee in certain security zones the working conditions for NGO and international agencies," Koenigs said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over command of Afghanistan's six southern provinces from a US-led coalition a week ago. Nine of its soldiers have since been killed in militant attacks.

ISAF has proposed "development zones" -- details of which are still vague -- that are to play a central role in the multinational force's strategy for winning over the local population through development aid.

UK says controls Afghan valley after 10-hour battle - Reuters 08/07/2006
By Peter Graff

LONDON - Britain said on Monday its troops had "dominated" a mountain town in southern Afghanistan after one of the biggest operations of NATO's new mission there.

Britain airlifted 500 troops to the town of Musa Qala by helicopter to reclaim it from Taliban guerrillas trying "to rule local villages with fear and intimidation" the British military said in a statement.

"The priority of the operation was to dominate Musa Qala and disrupt enemy forces in order to return stability to the area. This objective was overwhelmingly achieved," it said.

The operation lasted 10 hours, and was backed by Apache attack helicopters and Harrier jets.

Britain announced on Sunday that one of its soldiers had died in the operation, but did not give full details of the battle until Monday. The dead soldier was named on Monday as Private Andrew Cutts, a member of a logistics unit.

"It certainly is one of the biggest operations we've done yet," a defense ministry spokesman said in London. "The Taliban would have certainly taken casualties but we do not have any figures."

Musa Qala is one of a handful of remote towns in mountain valleys in Helmand province where British and Afghan government forces are trying to establish control. Three British soldiers were killed there in an ambush on a convoy last week.

The 3,600 British troops in Helmand -- increasing to 4,500 by October -- are part of a NATO force which has entered the area for the first time this year. Until they arrived, there was a token force of 100 American troops in Helmand, a vast province which produces nearly a third of the world's heroin.

Over the last few months, southern Afghanistan has seen its worst fighting since 2001. NATO's British commander says an absence of foreign troops in areas like Helmand allowed Taliban guerrillas to return and seize control of towns and villages.

Political opponents accuse the British government of failing to send enough manpower to Afghanistan to do the job. British forces are also in Iraq, and British military experts say there is little slack left for reinforcements.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper quoted a senior officer as saying British troops in Afghanistan were "on the brink of exhaustion" from defending remote outposts in Helmand's rugged conditions with little backup. The Ministry of Defense insisted that British forces are not being outgunned.

"Let's be clear. It was a demanding operation but morale is, has been and remains high," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Reynolds said in the statement about the Musa Qala battle. "The guys on the ground are highly motivated, well trained and well equipped."

British forces in Afghanistan need back-up: former colonel - August 7, 2006

LONDON (AFP) - A former British colonel hailed for his impassioned speech to soldiers before the Iraq war has said that British forces in Afghanistan needed far more support if they are to succeed.

Tim Collins said Monday that a "radical rethink" of funding for the Afghanistan mission was needed, a day after the British deployment in the troubled central Asian nation suffered its 17th fatality since 2001.

Collins, one of the most senior officers in Iraq in 2003, said forces in Afghanistan were taking on Taliban fighters with too few soldiers, and he warned that Britain needed to brace itself for further troop deaths.

"I think the armed forces have really backed themselves into a corner," he told Britain's GMTV television.

"This is a shooting war and it needs to be properly resourced. If we are going to win, it needs the full backing of the nation and the government."

"A radical rethink of how we fund our forces in Afghanistan needs to be looked at," he added. "This isn't going to be over by Christmas -- we are going to be there for a number of years."

Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said troop levels were "guided by requests from commanders on the ground," and that she was unaware of any such appeal being made recently from British generals inside Afghanistan.

Collins became something of an Iraq war hero for his eve-of-battle address, telling his soldiers they were joining the US-led invasion in March 2003 "to liberate, not to conquer".

US President George W. Bush was understood to have requested a copy of the speech for the wall of the Oval Office. The outgoing head of the British army, General Sir Mike Jackson, said Sunday that British troops were "getting stuck in" to Taliban rebels.

Collins agreed, but added: "We are getting stuck in with too few troops." "The army is at risk at the moment. There will be more casualties, we have got to face that."

Private Andrew Barrie Cutts, of the Royal Logistic Corps, became the 10th British soldier to die in Afghanistan in the last two months when he was killed in Musa Qualeh in the restive southern Helmand province on Sunday.

"The immediate aim of the operation was to disrupt Taliban command and control in Musa Qualeh along with their ambush sites and logistics operations," the ministry of defence in London said in a statement.

"Our short-term aim is to dominate the Musa Qualeh area. In the longer term we seek to create conditions that will enable the Afghan national army and police to assume increased responsibility for the towns' security."

Some 4,000 British troops are in Helmand, with the figure set to rise to around 4,500. A further 1,000 are in Kabul, while a few hundred are in the southern city of Kandahar.

In Afghanistan, a Crackdown on Imported Pleasures - By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Monday, August 7, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 6 -- Behind an unmarked door on a quiet residential street, half a dozen young Chinese women in miniskirts shimmy to disco tapes or sit entwined with beefy European men. Next to the fully stocked bar, a plastic Christmas tree pulses with tiny lights.

Behind a desk in a spartan government office, a bearded official says he is swamped with job applicants for a proposed department to promote virtue and discourage vice, which would send out religious monitors to uncover and correct un-Islamic behavior in the populace.

Both scenes coexist in a confused, newly democratic Muslim society grappling with a five-year influx of foreign troops and visitors, who have provided aid and protection but have also brought alcohol, prostitution and other tempting taboos to the deeply traditional and long-isolated country.

In recent weeks, the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has moved aggressively to crack down on what Afghans call imported vices. He is acting partly in response to pressure from domestic religious leaders and partly to upstage Islamic Taliban insurgents who are stepping up attacks across the south.

Police in this capital of 4 million, which is also home to several thousand foreigners, have raided about a dozen restaurants and shops suspected of selling alcohol to Afghans and have seized and destroyed thousands of bottles. Officers have detained more than 100 Chinese women as suspected prostitutes, seven of whom were deported at the airport here Wednesday.

The cabinet also approved reviving the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Discouragement of Vice, a body that Afghan governments have maintained through much of the country's history. It became notoriously punitive under Taliban rule, from 1996 to 2001, when turbaned enforcers whipped women if their veils slipped and arrested men for wearing too-short beards or playing chess.

The proposal, which must be ratified by parliament, has outraged human rights groups, Western-oriented Afghan leaders and Western diplomats here because of the concept's association with the Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S. military assault in 2001 and replaced by a transitional democracy with U.N. guidance and international military and economic support.

Afghan officials have hastened to reassure their international allies that the reconstituted vice and virtue squads would focus on education.

"We would be as different from the Taliban as earth and sky," said Sulieman Hamid, an official of the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs who would oversee the virtue and vice monitors. "They used Islam for political purposes. We only want to stop people from committing bad acts and help maintain the honor of Islam."

He said the monitors would not replace police enforcement of law, intrude in private homes, operate separate prisons or contradict constitutional rights.

"No one has any reason to be frightened," said Abdul Jabbar Sabit, an adviser to the Interior Ministry who supervised the recent bar raids and deportations. "We would not beat people or force women to wear scarves. But we have to do something to protect society, to tell people they should not drink alcohol or smoke hashish or kill their Muslim brothers."

If the parliament takes up the issue, it is likely to pit factions led by Islamic clerics and former militia leaders against others composed of professionals, women and Western-educated figures. These groups represent major competing strains in Afghan society as it charts a path between traditional Islamic values and modern democratic norms.

"It is very difficult for people here to say they are against the virtue and vice committee, but I am against a department that could be a way of bringing the extremists back," said Shukria Barakzai, a female legislator. "If they want to do something about corruption and domestic violence, fine, but I don't need a department to decide if I am a bad or a good Muslim."

In the same week that the government sent alleged prostitutes back to China, it faced a different foreign challenge to Islamic culture -- the arrival of about 1,200 evangelical Christians from South Korea. They intended to stage a public rally last weekend, but after diplomatic negotiations, they were sent home because Afghan officials feared they would offend local Muslims by proselytizing and risk being physically attacked.

The depth of Islamic passion here -- and the wide disparity between Afghan and Western views of religious rights -- were also dramatized in March when an Afghan man who converted to Christianity was threatened with capital punishment. Under foreign pressure, the government let him quietly flee to Italy, but the incident shocked many Americans who thought their troops had liberated Afghanistan from Islamic persecution.

Today, Afghan officials are eager to please their foreign benefactors and guests, yet also face pressure from local religious leaders to stem the accompanying flow of imported pleasures -- from French wines to Internet pornography -- that can now easily reach young Afghans.

"Some of the foreign aid groups help us, but others have another agenda to influence us in the wrong direction. They are unwanted guests," said Enayatullah Balegh, a Muslim cleric who teaches Islamic law at Kabul University. "We need the aid and the coalition forces, but we do not want the West interfering in our religion."

The trickiest part for officials is how to treat establishments that cater to both foreigners and Afghans, who increasingly socialize together. Under Afghan law, a business may serve liquor to foreigners but not to Afghans, even if they are at the same table, which can cause embarrassment and discomfort.

Since the police raids two weeks ago, a number of restaurants have shut down, most of them Chinese-owned businesses that allegedly provided prostitutes. Others have hid their liquor, put up placards barring Afghans and reported a sharp drop in customers of all nationalities.

Sabit said U.N. officials and foreign diplomats had complained about the raids, which also affected successful Thai- and Lebanese-owned establishments. But he said that "government enemies" were spreading lies about the crackdown and that it was aimed solely at places that had illegally provided liquor or prostitutes to Afghan Muslims.

For many Afghan Muslims, the issue of foreign vices arouses contradictory emotions. Young men often acknowledge hankering to explore forbidden pleasures, even while saying they disapprove. Until the recent deportations, ogling Chinese women on the streets was a major pastime here, but angry mobs attacked and vandalized several Chinese brothels during an anti-foreign riot May 29. Indian movies featuring sensual dancing women are usually sold out, and online pornography sites are constantly perused at local Internet cafes.

"These movies have a very bad impact on people, and they should be banned," said Reza Mousani, 21, who was in a crowd of young men waiting outside a movie house covered with posters of buxom Indian film stars. "People who have been away in the West came back with the habits of freedom. Those who stayed here want freedom, but only within our religious framework."

Nisar Ahmad, 26, a tinsmith, said he had been beaten by the Taliban police as a teenager for having long hair. "We were prisoners in those days, and I hope they never return," he said. "But that does not mean we want our culture to change. I might wear jeans, but Islam is in my heart."

While human rights activists warn that raids and religious police might reopen the door to fundamentalist persecution, on Thursday night it was business as usual -- loud, licentious and tipsy -- at one nameless bar and brothel, less than two weeks after police had raided the place and confiscated its liquor.

The manager complained about the raid but said he had been able to hide the women in time, and had restocked his bar a few days later. But in several other restaurants, managers said they were losing business because of the crackdown and had suffered under vague and shifting policies on liquor licenses and Islamic law enforcement.

"We are all scared now, and it is not fair," said Hashmat, a supervisor at one Italian restaurant. He said a large group that came for dinner this week left after being told the Afghans could not be served wine or beer. "Our customers are angry," he said. "They should leave us alone. This is not Taliban time, it is a democracy."

Afghanistan’s ancient Buddhas might be reborn - Project would help impoverished region - August 07, 2006 Rahim Faiez ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Five years after the Taliban blew them up, Afghan laborers are picking up the pieces of two once-towering Buddha statues, hoping they will rise again and breathe new life into this dirtpoor province.

While they wait for the Afghan government and international community to decide whether to rebuild them, a $1.3 million UNESCO-funded project is sorting out the chunks of clay and plaster — ranging from boulders weighing several tons to fragments the size of tennis balls — and sheltering them from the elements.

Progress is slow in the central highland town of Bamiyan where the statues were chiseled more than 1,500 years ago into a cliff face.

They were originally painted in gold and adorned with wooden faces and ornaments. Mural paintings of Buddha covered cave rooftops flanking the niches from which the statues were hewn. Fragments of the murals are also being collected.

Rebuilding the statues, one 174 feet tall and the other 115 feet tall, will be like assembling giant jigsaw puzzles. Bamiyan, so poor that dozens of its people live in caves, has high hopes.

"We can change the local people’s lives from being dominated by poverty if we rebuild one of the Buddha statues," said Habiba Surabi, the province’s governor. She is Afghanistan’s first female governor.

The province, on the ancient Silk Road that linked Europe to eastern Asia, was once a center of Buddhism. Today most of its 400,000 people are Hazaras, a largely Shiite Muslim ethnic group that was persecuted by the Taliban.

The Taliban dynamited the Buddha statues in March 2001, deeming them idolatrous and anti-Muslim. It was one of the regime’s most widely condemned acts.

UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has since placed the entire Bamiyan Valley on its World Heritage in Danger list.

"Our job is to safeguard the pieces left from the Buddha statues and put the fragments in a shelter," said Ernst Blochinger, a German expert with the International Council on Monuments and Sites. The Parisbased group is working with UNESCO on the project, which began in 2004 and is due for completion in 14 months.

The project relies heavily on Japanese funding. Rebuilding the statues would cost $30 million each, scientists say.

"Whenever UNESCO finishes its work, we will appeal to the international community to try to find the funds to rebuild at least one Buddha statue," Surabi said.

The Bamiyan Valley is starkly beautiful. Dominated by mountain ranges, it includes the vast Band-i-Amir lake and the red stone ruins of the once-great city of Shahr-i-Zuhak. Tourists still trickle in despite a lack of amenities and a road from Kabul that is in such bad shape that the 80-mile journey takes nine hours.

A cave-dweller, Mohammed Ayub, 34, walks more than a half-mile daily to fetch water for his family.

"I hope for the Buddha to be built again," Ayub said. "We don’t have power, we don’t have running water, we don’t have jobs. We are living inside these caves like wild animals." via The Columbus Dispatch

We've failed in Iraq: let's get it right in Afghanistan - Telegraph, UK By Col Tim Collins

The pessimistic assessment of the situation in Iraq by the outgoing UK ambassador, William Patey, which was leaked last week, warning that "a low intensity civil war" was more likely than a transition to a stable democracy, comes at a time when the situation on the ground in Iraq has never been so unstable. Senior American commanders are admitting that sectarian attacks, and the emergence of more unified and confrontational Shia militias, threaten to tear Iraq apart.

Meanwhile, British troops are engaged alongside our US and Nato allies in a mission in Afghanistan in which we must not fail, because the consequences of any failure there, unlike in Iraq, will be felt on our own doorstep in the equally lethal forms of increased heroin supply and increased domestic terrorism. An Afghanistan not brought into the 21st century will be fertile territory for both.

During my numerous visits to Iraq and in discussion with former colleagues in the Army, one thing is clear: the UK has failed in its strategic objectives of achieving peace and stability in Iraq. The policy of handing over the provinces we control must continue and be accelerated so that we can bring our Forces home as soon as possible. Only then can we address our main effort in Afghanistan with adequate force "packaging".

Once having pulled back from Iraq, Government ministers should question why we did not succeed. If they were asked, senior commanders would tell them that the failure in Iraq was down to a half-hearted approach to the problem and an under-resourced and overstretched force being asked to perform the impossible. We cannot afford as a nation to repeat these failures in Afghanistan.

The Government needs to rethink its defence policy now and prepare fully for the conflict ahead. That means expanding and improving our ability to deliver a rapid ground effect at short notice and in a -sustainable manner. This reorganisation must be radical and it must begin with the culture of leadership in the Armed Forces. The feeble appeasers among the top brass, many still yearning to fight the Cold War, need to be cleared out to make way for a more dynamic and aggressive new breed equal to the scourge of global terrorism.

Commanders must empathise with the men they lead and be prepared to put their jobs on the line for them, just as the troops at the front are prepared to put their necks on the line for the nation. As a guide, any prospective Army commander should study Blair's defence of his closest clique, Prescott, Blunkett et al, and aim to deliver that sort of loyalty downwards, too. Remember, it is for the good of the nation.

The morale of all the Armed Forces, but the Army in particular, needs a boost. Money needs to be spent on recruitment and the generals need to defend their servicemen and women's terms of service and accommodation from an envious Civil Service, as a doberman would defend its bone from a poodle.

Just as important, the equipment needs of the Forces must be addressed and the accepted policy of "in the nick of time" replaced with some sensible form of forward planning: a policy eschewed by Blair and his administration at the cost of British lives. Ask the widow of Sergeant Steve Roberts, who died because there wasn't enough kit delivered in time and not everybody was trained on the kit that was there (Sgt Roberts did not have body armour: he was accidentally shot by a comrade insufficiently trained on his tank-mounted machine gun). I must add that it was not the soldier's fault either. The new Minimi light machine gun only arrived with my Battalion, the Royal Irish, the night before we crossed into Iraq. When asked about training on it, my response was: "It's on-the-job training, lads - we have no choice; this is war".

Several prominent members of the House of Lords have expressed their disquiet about helicopter support for forces deployed in combat zones. Senior ministers and civil servants tut-tut about this from the safety of Westminster. I commanded an Air Assault Battalion in war - here are the facts. The UK's helicopter fleet is exhausted. It is too small to begin with and many of the aircraft are elderly. The effects of operating in the deserts of Iraq and in the hot and high environments of Afghanistan have taken a serious toll of the main components, and there is a crisis in the availability of spares and, more importantly, in the skilled technicians who fit them. We have a finite number of pilots and they are badly overstretched, too.

The hostile conditions - physical and military - in both theatres dictate that much of the daily administrative movement must be done by air, increasing the workload on the airframes and crews, and depriving the front line of support. So the helicopters are not available when needed and soldiers are going on patrol on foot or in antique vehicles such as the Spartan in which three men were killed in Afghanistan last week. These were designed in the 1950s and provide no protection against the modern weapons with which most guerrillas are equipped. Like the Snatch Land Rovers, they are not fit for purpose in the 21st century.

No war can be fought without sufficient numbers of troops, so front-line units must reflect the age-old norms for deployment. And there must also be sufficient, uncommitted reserves - of one fifth to one third the size of the deployed combat troops - to deal with the all-too-common unexpected. Additionally, we need to hold an uncommitted reserve at home to deal with the unexpected globally.

Finally, there needs to be a realistic exploration of workable short-term solutions. There are available now, for instance, support helicopters with British firms, piloted by retired British Services pilots, some of them Special Forces, ready to go forward to do whatever is required in Afghanistan. The US already harnesses private companies for these tasks. Why not our own nation in support of the hard-pressed servicemen?

Tony Blair has delayed his holiday to reflect on the crisis in the Lebanon. While you are at it, Tony, give five quality minutes to the plight of your own Armed Forces.

• Col Tim Collins commanded the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment during the invasion of Iraq, 2003

First wave of Canadian soldiers return home from Afghanistan

By LISA ARROWSMITH - EDMONTON (CP)

For months, they lived on nerves worn thin by frequent rocket attacks and suffered the grief of seeing comrades killed by suicide bombers.

Early Saturday morning, a planeload of about 100 travel-weary Canadian soldiers left all that behind as they climbed off a military plane onto the cool tarmac of Edmonton's airport, joking about the 10 C temperatures and sipping Tim Hortons coffee at a table set up in an airport hangar.

Two CF-18 fighters from CFB Cold Lake in northeastern Alberta flew alongside the military jet for the last leg of its journey as a tribute to the returning soldiers, roaring off over Edmonton's airport as the soldiers' plane approached the runway.

After an hour of filling out reams of paperwork and updating medical reports, the soldiers were rushed by three buses and a police escort to the city's sprawling military base and a tearful reunion with their families.

As children in pyjamas tumbled around them in excitement, and the dozens of families gathered there sent up a cheer, soldiers lugging backpacks anxiously scanned the crowd and were quickly engulfed in a flurry of hugs and tears.

Military officials estimate it will take at least 14 planeloads of soldiers back home to Edmonton and Manitoba over the next month, as approximately 2,000 Canadian troops rotate out of Afghanistan.

Another 2,000 replacement troops, mainly from Ontario and Manitoba, began to arrive in Kandahar on Wednesday.

Andelaine Nelson, 21, cradling her two-month-old son Laken, held him out in front of her when she caught sight of her husband, Cpl. Kevin Pavan, who rushed toward the pair to scoop up his young son.

"He' so excited to see his baby," Nelson said as Pavan cried and buried his face in the tiny boy's neck.

Parents Jan and Mario Pavan and Kevin's three brothers flew in from Vancouver to surprise him, excitedly whooping and waving banners bearing the Canadian flag and reading: We Support Our Troops.

But the spectre of the deaths of four Canadian soldiers earlier this week hung over the joyful reunion.

"I'm very excited about him coming home," said Jan Pavan. "But I have mixed feelings because I'm also sad for all the parents that their kids aren't coming home."

Pte. Kevin Dallaire, Sgt. Vaughn Ingram, Cpl. Bryce James Killer and Cpl. Christopher Reid were killed Thursday during fighting with Taliban forces west of Kandahar.

Their bodies were to arrive at CFB Trenton, Ont., late Sunday afternoon. Another soldier, Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, was killed in an accident Saturday, also west of Kandahar.

While Kevin Pavan was clearly relieved to be home, his thoughts were still with the buddies he'd left behind. "I'll be relieved when all the boys come home safe," he said.

The excitement of finally getting her arms around her son Darcy had kept Trudy Ressler awake for the past few nights. Her grandson Dakota, 11, decided to pay his uncle a special tribute, dressing up in camouflage pants and combat boots.

"He wanted to go and buy an outfit just like Uncle Darcy's," she laughed. "He said when Uncle Darcy came home, he's going to salute him. Yes Sir!"

Darcy, an Edmonton paramedic and reservist with 8 Field Engineer Regiment, said he was looking forward to a day without nosebleeds from the extremely dry, 55-degree heat in Afghanistan.

"I've had nosebleeds for the last six months," he laughed. "Now, all of a sudden they just stopped."

Despite the risks Canadian soldiers take every day in the increasingly chaotic environment in Afghanistan, Ressler said he still believes Canadian soldiers are making a difference there.

"I do feel we've made a lot of progress in helping social programs, helping some of the villagers with the necessities they didn't have before we came, like running water, digging wells, helping them with crops," he said.

But he, too, had mixed feelings about coming home - on one hand glad to get out of harm's way, but also worrying about the men and women left to fight on.

Most of the soldiers who will return over the next few weeks will spend the next month on vacation, getting reacquainted with their families and easing back into life without dust, giant bugs and constant fear. Canadian troops are facing a conflict that is growing more and more dangerous.

More than 800 people have been killed in fighting, suicide bombings and road side attacks in southern Afghanistan and at least 24 Canadian soldiers have died since troops began the mission in 2002.

[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.]