In this bulletin:

• Karzai says world not doing enough on Afghan drugs
• Afghanistan destroys over 100,000 acres of poppy fields
• Afghanistan: Increased Opium Farming Reported In South
• Fighting leaves 14 Taliban dead
• Four NATO soldiers injured in Afghan suicide blast
• 'Militants' killed in Afghan raid
• AFGHANISTAN: USAID pledges US $105 million to road project
• President Karzai Expresses His Regret at the Death of 58 People in Egypt
• Spanta lauds Germany's help in reconstruction
• USAID, EU to finance 43 welfare projects
• Italy-led PRT to construct four schools in Heart
• ISAF to get Pakistan's logistic support for Afghanistan mission
• Afghan-based al-Qaeda behind London terror plot, claims Pakistan
• New fighting force, same Afghanistan
• Archeologists discover Stupa, Buddha in central Afghanistan
• Female literacy rate up in Badakhshan

Karzai says world not doing enough on Afghan drugs

By Yousuf Azmiy – Reuters Tuesday, August 22, 2006

KABUL (Reuters) - Drugs pose a far greater threat to Afghanistan than terrorism but the international community is not doing enough to tackle the scourge, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material for heroin, and production is expected to rise to record levels this year as drug barons and Taliban insurgents cash in on the harvest.

"Once, we thought terrorism was Afghanistan's biggest enemy," Karzai told a counter-narcotics conference in the Afghan capital. "Poppy, its cultivation and drugs are Afghanistan's major enemy," he said.

The narcotics trade accounts for about a third of Afghanistan's economy -- and about 87 percent of the world's illegal heroin -- and the United Nations fears the country could become a narco-state.

The Taliban managed to stamp out poppy cultivation during the last year of their rule, but despite tens of millions of dollars in anti-narcotics aid from donor countries, opium growing has boomed since they were ousted.

Now the Taliban have joined forces with the drug gangs, security officials say, promising to help impoverished farmers protect their crops and reaping a share of the profits.

The Taliban are fighting to keep foreign forces and government authorities out of opium-growing regions such as the southern province of Helmand, the country's main opium area.

The drug gangs are also intent on resisting the spread of government authority and Karzai said drug barons were responsible for some of the attacks on schools and aid workers in drug-producing regions.

Afghanistan's opium output last year was about 4,100 tonnes, a slight drop over the previous record year, largely because of efforts by the government to persuade farmers to stop, coupled with threats to destroy fields.

But international experts say production has ballooned this year and might be a third or more bigger than 2005. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime is compiling figures for this year's crop and is expected to release its findings shortly.

Karzai said the world was not doing enough. "We are not happy about the aid so far. The effects are not really visible," he told the conference, attended by government and aid officials and diplomats.

"The aid has been scanty and minor ... we ask the world to help us in this regard substantially," he said. Karzai said Afghans had to fight narcotics even if the world did not help as it threatened the country's stability and future.

Karzai said it was drug barons and mafia outside Afghanistan who gained most from drugs and that farmers would abandon the crop if they got alternative ways to earn a living.

Experts say that in the long-term, the key to stopping drugs was providing farmers with other ways to survive, but that means developing the rural economy, which could take years.

In the meantime, farmers must be convinced that they risk having their fields destroyed and facing punishment if they grow opium, experts say.

Karzai has opposed the aerial spraying of herbicide over opium fields. Some experts say spraying fields would enrage farmers and drive rural communities into the arms of the Taliban.

Afghanistan destroys over 100,000 acres of poppy fields

Afghan government has destroyed more than 100,000 acres of poppy-cultivated lands over the past five months, Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal said Sunday.

"The government has smashed 101,614 acres of poppy fields since the beginning of Afghanistan's new year, the year of 1385, over the past five months," Muqbal told a seminar, which opened on Sunday, of the country's provincial governors and police chiefs here.

In the two-day conference, strengthening security, good governance and war on illegal drug would be discussed. Afghan administration, he also added, had destroyed nearly 70 tones of narcotics since the start of 1385 falling on March 21.

293 drug smugglers have also been arrested during the period, he added. The post-Taliban Afghanistan, with an output of 4,100 tones of opium poppy in 2005, became the single largest supplier of the raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world.

However, there are concerns that the menace would further increase in the current year of 2006 as more farmers have allocated swathe parts of their lands for poppy cultivation.

Under a counter-narcotics strategy launched in May 2003, the post-war Afghanistan has been fighting to reduce a poppy cultivation by 75 percent by 2008.

Afghanistan: Increased Opium Farming Reported In South
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty By Ron Synovitz

PRAGUE, August 21, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- As the Afghan government prepares to host its second counternarcotics conference in Kabul on August 22, with plans to announce new details about its antidrug efforts, Western officials warn that a soon-to-be released UN report on opium farming shows record cultivation this year.

Though UN officials will not comment, Western diplomats tell RFE/RL that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime September 12 report will show a record level of opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan this year -- up by more than 40 percent over 2005. "Narcotics has got to be eradicated from this country or there will never be the peace and stability in the long term." NATO commander


Diplomats who help Kabul with its counternarcotics strategy already are expressing concerns, saying the statistics confirm that more Afghan farmland is being used to grow opium poppies than ever before.

Offering Alternatives To Farmers - Mohammad Mosa Hamid, an adviser for Afghanistan's Counternarcotics Ministry, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that he was surprised to hear what Western diplomats are saying.

"We hear some information from here and there [about increased poppy cultivation this year], but we need to wait until we receive the evidence. And then we can judge whether poppy has been cultivated [at a record level] or not," he said. "I hope it hasn't been cultivated. I do not think that poppy cultivation has increased because we have aid programs distributing seeds for alternative crops."

Hamid explained that the focus of the government's counternarcotics strategy has been to help wean farmers away from growing opium poppies.

"We have been launching such programs this year -- successful programs like providing farmers with alternative livelihoods," Hamid said. "And we have tried to explain to them through other legal ways that the poppy illness is a bad thing. It causes a lot of problems internally and internationally."

The British government has a lead role in supporting Afghanistan's counternarcotics programs. A British government spokesman told RFE/RL that officials in London also want to wait until the new UN statistics are published before commenting.

But privately, British and U.S. officials in Kabul and London say there is no doubt that poppy cultivation has risen significantly since last year, possibly by as much as 40 percent.

Crucially, they say cultivation did not increase across all of Afghanistan's provinces. Eradication efforts have been successful in some parts of the country. But they say the resurgence of Taliban violence in southern Afghanistan this year has prevented eradication efforts from being effective in the most volatile provinces, such as Helmand, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of opium-poppy cultivation nationwide.

Tom Koenigs, the top UN official in Afghanistan, has said that fears of fanning the insurgency have constrained efforts to destroy the poppy crops of impoverished farmers in Helmand. Koenigs says that if foreign troops start destroying poppy fields in Helmand, the effort will lead to a popular backlash that increases both the number of Taliban fighters and their attacks.

For that reason, officials say, little eradication work has been done there by the Afghan government or British soldiers deployed to Helmand this year as part of the expanding NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The ISAF commander, Lieutenant General David Richards, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that bringing security to remote provincial areas has been a more immediate priority than opium eradication. "[Counternarcotics] isn't my principal concern," he said. "If we are asked by the government to support an operation to do with narcotics in some way, we will positively look at it. And that is our obligation to them."

Indeed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government faced a backlash from farmers in southern Afghanistan last year amid rumors that Western military aircraft were being used to spray poison chemicals on poppy fields.

Richards said the rumors about foreign troops being deployed to destroy poppy fields are not true. "NATO-ISAF is not targeting farmers. We understand exactly that there must be other ways for them to make a living before we stop them -- if we ever got involved with it -- growing their poppy, because they have to feed their families in some way," he said.

"We also know that, at the end of the day, narcotics has got to be eradicated from this country or there will never be the peace and stability in the long term," Richards added. "So [counternarcotics efforts are] there. But it is not our immediate agenda. And we have other things that we'd like to do to help people out of their predicament."

Kabul's counternarcotics strategy received international backing in the spring at the London Conference on Afghanistan. That strategy envisions Afghan officials leading the effort with foreign troops providing support only when requested to do so by Kabul.

But the apparent increased cultivation in the south has raised fresh concerns about links between Taliban fighters and Afghan drug lords. President Karzai has also said that corruption within provincial governments, as well as within the administration in Kabul, has contributed to the problem.

The Afghan government is due to announce new details later this week about its wide-ranging counternarcotics strategy. New or amended drug laws are anticipated along with the construction of high-security prisons, the creation of special courts for drug barons, and a program to train judges and prosecutors about the narcotics trade.

Some success has resulted from the millions of dollars spent by the United States and Britain to help combat Afghanistan's flourishing drug trade.

The eastern province of Nangarhar, with the help of a strong governor and police chief, reduced opium output by 96 percent last year. Since March of this year, counternarcotics police have raided 10 opium laboratories throughout the country, seizing 1,225 kilograms of heroin and nearly 800 kilograms of opium.

(Farida Hod Saifi of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report.)

Fighting leaves 14 Taliban dead - By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -  NATO and Afghan forces used aircraft in clashes that left 14 militants dead, capping several days of intense fighting that killed more than 100 people and threatened efforts to stabilize southern Afghanistan.

But in a sign that the government has not closed off channels of communication with their Taliban enemies despite the bloodshed, authorities in southern Kandahar province returned the bodies of 22 militants to their families through tribal elders, officials said.

Afghanistan's volatile south, where a NATO-led multinational force recently took over control of security from a U.S.-led coalition, has seen the bloodiest and fiercest fighting this year since the end of the Taliban rule in 2001.

Thousands of NATO and Afghan forces have been battling to extend the reach of the government of President Hamid Karzai. In the province's Naw Zad district, a NATO airstrike late Sunday killed nine militants including a local insurgent leader, said Maj. Toby Jackman, an alliance spokesman.

Also in Helmand, a roadside bomb Sunday killed three Afghan policemen traveling on the main highway linking Murja and Lashkar Gah districts, said Muhaddin, who blamed Taliban militants.

Meanwhile, two roadside bombs targeting border police in southeastern Khost province killed two officers and wounded five others Sunday, said Mohammad Zaman, deputy provincial police chief.

The spate of attacks followed heavy fighting earlier in the weekend, particularly in Kandahar, where some 71 militants were slain by NATO and Afghan forces on Saturday and Sunday in Panjwayi district. Roadside bombings, rocket attacks and other clashes across the country left more than 20 others dead, including militants and security forces, among them four U.S. and one British soldier.

On Monday, the bodies of the 22 Taliban killed in the Panjwayi fighting were handed over to their families through tribal elder, said Agha Lalai, an official with a reconciliation commission that is charged with trying to reach out to insurgents and bring them over to the government side.

Four NATO soldiers injured in Afghan suicide blast - Aug. 22 2006 - CTV.ca News Staff

Four NATO soldiers and one civilian were wounded Tuesday after a suicide bomber rammed his car into their convoy near Kandahar City, NATO officials reported. The nationality of the wounded soldiers has not yet been disclosed.

At the same time, a series of explosions rocked the city not far from a compound housing Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

The blasts come just hours after two Canadian soldiers were injured, one seriously, after their patrol came under attack on a treacherous highway in southern Afghanistan.

Lieut.-Col. Ian Hope, the outgoing commander of Canada's battle group in Kandahar, described Monday night's incident as an "ambush."

The patrol was struck at around 9:30 p.m. local time while driving on Kandahar's infamous Highway One, in an area known by Canadian soldiers as ambush alley.

"There have been dozens of ambushes on that highway in the past two or three months," said Hope. "There were dozens last year as well."

The two Canadians were hurt when their patrol came under small arms fire about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar.

One of the injured, Cpl. Jesse Melnyck, was listed in stable, non-critical condition in Kandahar before being flown to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany for further treatment.

The other soldier was in hospital at Kandahar Air Field, and was in good condition. His name was not released.

The patrol was on its way back to Kandahar Airfield from the Zhari District centre, very near where Canadian and Afghan government soldiers fought intense battles with Taliban forces over the weekend in the volatile Panjawaii District, west of Kandahar.

Afghan government officials said 72 Taliban were killed in the massive ground, air and artillery assaults.

NATO called the battles, which began late Saturday and ended in the early morning hours Sunday, a "big blow" to the Taliban, eliminating up to 10 per cent of their estimated numbers in southern Afghanistan. Canada has roughly 2,200 soldiers working in Afghanistan as part of ISAF.

Most of the soldiers currently in place are newly arrived in Kandahar within the past few weeks, and are mainly from CFB Petawawa in eastern Ontario as well as CFB Shilo in Manitoba.

They have replaced an almost equal number who are in the process of returning to Canada, mainly out of CFB Edmonton.

'Militants' killed in Afghan raid – BBC

Nine insurgents have been killed in an air raid in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, the Nato-led international force, Isaf, says. Isaf said it launched the strike on a group who were "responsible for recent militant attacks in Nowzad district".

In Kandahar city, an apparent suicide bomber struck Nato troops - casualties are unclear. Two Canadian troops were hurt elsewhere in the province.

Isaf troops are ostensibly peacekeepers but are increasingly fighting rebels. Helmand, in the south-west of the country and Afghanistan's top opium-producing area, sees regular violence between troops and suspected Taleban fighters or drug gangs.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition and Afghan forces say they detained three suspected "terrorists" in a raid in eastern Khost province early on Tuesday.

The three men were picked up in the village of Paru Kheyl, a statement said. Three other men were detained, then released after questioning. No shots were fired and no troops were injured, the coalition said.

Militants have recently stepped up their insurgency against the government and foreign forces, particularly in south and east Afghanistan. Hundreds of people have been killed in the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taleban five years ago.

AFGHANISTAN: USAID pledges US $105 million to road project

KABUL, 21 August (IRIN) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has pledged US $105 million to construct a 110 km road in northeastern Badakhshan province that will serve 730,000 people.

The road would link Kishem district to Faizabad, Badakhshan's capital. Construction was expected to start next year, USAID said. "The rehabilitation of this road is one of the critical elements in Afghanistan's development," Ronald Neumann, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, said during a visit to the area on Sunday.

USAID said the road would be an important trading link to major markets in Badakhshan, the north and neighbouring Tajikistan. It would enhance Afghanistan's position as an internal land bridge between central and south Asia, promoting the import and export of goods.

USAID said it would also increase access to education and health care, the opportunity for international travel, decrease ethnic divisions, reactivate the agriculture sector, reduce unemployment and improve the country's security and stability.

Neumann said that the road was essential to the development of Afghanistan's legal economy. "Roads connect market centres and reduce transaction costs for alternative crops, enabling farmers to reduce their dependency on opium for their livelihoods," Neumann said.

The country's roads have been terribly damaged by decades of fighting making access to certain regions all but impossible. On 3 August this year USAID said it would supply 27,010 mt of food worth more than $16 million to help 2.5 million drought-hit people in Afghanistan. It also pledged $20 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)in late July.

President Karzai Expresses His Regret at the Death of 58 People in Egypt - Date of Release: 22 August 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, expressed his deep regret at the unfortunate death of 58 people in Egypt.

According to reports, one commuter train slammed into another at about 7 a.m. at the edge of a cornfield outside this town 20 kilometers north of Cairo, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 140.

 The President, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan, expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Egypt.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Spanta lauds Germany's help in reconstruction

KABUL, Aug 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta has said that the previous four and a half years has put Afghanistan on the road to peace and prosperity and the country had achieved tremendous progress in a number of fields.

Speaking at a banquet the minister had hosted in honour of his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Spanta thanked the people and government of Germany on behalf of the people and government of Afghanistan for its present and past assistance.

Spanta said both Germany and Afghanistan had deep and historical bonds of friendship and interaction between them. He said they were grateful to the generous support of people of Germany in helping Afghans' resistance against the Red Army. The minister also thanked Germany for providing asylum to thousands of Afghan refugees during the occupation of the country.

He said since the overthrow of Taliban, Afghanistan has changed a lot. The country has taken big steps towards reconstruction, strengthening state institutions and ensuring security. He said today, 28 per cent of members of parliament were women. Nearly 40 per cent of seven million school and university students are female. He said there are more than 300 independent radio and TV stations and newspapers, magazines and journals in the country.

Spanta said there were still some fundamental challenges and the foremost of them was the international terrorism. Ideological, financial and logistical sources of the menace are outside Afghanistan, said Spanta. Another problem faced by the country was narcotics.

He hoped Afghanistan would overcome the problems with the help of the international community. He said the international community has assured its support to Afghanistan during the London Conference. In this regard, Spanta thanked the world community for consolidating peace and stability in his country.

Regarding the future goals, he said Afghanistan is an Islamic country and wants to become a bridge between the Islamic world and the family of pluralistic democracy. Although it is a huge task, but Afghanistan would continue its journey to achieve the goal.

Speaking on the occasion, the German minister said his coming to Afghanistan was to assure his country's support for peace and reconstruction of this country. He said the Afghans had done a lot on democratic and other fronts because an elected president was in office and an elected parliament was in place.

Achieving these goals after nearly 30 years of war was a huge job. He said his country was helping Afghanistan in imparting training to its police and building of its infrastructure. He said he would visit the northern region to see the joint projects of Germany and Afghanistan there.

Regarding the trouble in the south and southeast, the minister said it would be beneficial for them to present true picture of the situation in those areas because it would help them in restoring peace there.

The dinner was attended by Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, Minister for Higher Education Azam Dadfar, Senior Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala, foreign envoys and other senior civil and military officials.

Press Conference - Earlier, addressing a joint news conference with Dr Spanta, the German minister assured his country's continuous support for Afghanistan. He hoped the German parliament would extend the stay of German forces in Afghanistan.

He said Germany would not only help in keeping security, but it would also assist the Afghan government on the fronts of democracy, reconstruction and freedom of _expression.

Without raising accusing finger at any one or naming any country, the minister said terrorism had its sources outside Afghanistan. He expressed concern over the lower literacy rate in Afghanistan and asked for steps to increase education.

USAID, EU to finance 43 welfare projects

KABUL, Aug 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) has signed contracts of 43 welfare projects with local companies on Sunday.

The projects will be completed at the cost of over $11 million while the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union (EU) will provide the requisite funds. The projects included construction of schools, roads and digging of wells in different provinces.

Speaking on the occasion, MRRD Minister Ihsan Zia said work on those projects would begin in a week. He said 54 schools would be constructed in Balkh, Bamyan, Ghazni, Kabul, Lugar, Panjshir and Parwan provinces. The work would be completed in eight to ten months and the schools would house 35,000 students, said the minister.

He said the projects also included digging of 149 wells in Daikundi, Badghis, Jawzjan, Ghor and Kunduz provinces which would benefit more than 1,000 families. The project would be completed in a period of three months, said the minister.

The third project is related to the construction of 46-kilometre roads in Paktia, Kabul and Faryab provinces. The project would facilitate over 1,000 families.

The minister said construction of bridge and rural rehabilitation department and purchase of Internet tools in Kapisa, Baghlan, Panjshir, Khost and Kabul provinces are also part of the new projects.

Italy-led PRT to construct four schools in Heart

HERAT CITY, Aug 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Italy-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) will construct four schools in the western Herat province in the next four months, officials said on Sunday.

Foundation stones of the schools were laid in Dara-i-Takht village of Chisht-i-Sharif district, Shirzad village of Adraskan district, Farsi and Ooba districts on Sunday. Each school will have the capacity of 1,500 students.

Director of the Education Department Muhammad Din Fahim told Pajhwok Afghan News the schools would be constructed at the cost of $600,000.

Students in those areas are currently studying in open or under tents. It was the first time that any school with proper building would become operational in Farsi district.

Meanwhile, a new school, constructed by the National Solidarity Programme (NSP), was handed over to local officials in Hazrat Sultan district of northern Samangan province.

The middle school was constructed at the cost of $52,000 in Kilcha village. Muhammad Ishaq, officer at the education department, said the school had eight classrooms for about 500 students. He said more than 6,000 students were studying in 23 schools in the district.

ISAF to get Pakistan's logistic support for Afghanistan mission - Islamabad, Aug 21, IRNA

Pakistan would extend assistance to International Security Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) in terms of logistic support to make their presence in Afghanistan safe and effective, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Pakistan also agreed to facilitate transit of equipment to ISAF through Pakistan, a Defense Ministry statement said after a meeting of Pakistan senior defense officials and a visiting NATO team.

The NATO team also offered training facilities for the Armed Forces of Pakistan, the statement said. The two sides agreed to further enhance and intensify cooperation in the areas of common interest, it said.

The meeting discussed various areas of cooperation and emphasized the need for greater collaboration between Pakistan and the NATO currently stationing in Afghanistan under Untied Nations Resolutions.

The meeting, co-chaired by Baldwin de Vidts, head of the NATO Legal Office and the secretary general's principal level adviser, was also attended by Rear Admiral Tanveer Faiz, additional secretary, Ministry of Defense.

Earlier the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Ms. Tasnim Aslam said negotiations are underway with a delegation of NATO for signing of an agreement for provision of facilities similar to those provided by Pakistan to ISAF.

She said such cooperation would mainly be with regard to provision of logistic support. The NATO delegation also called on Secretary Defense, Lt General Tariq Waseem Ghazi (retd) and discussed with him matters of mutual interest, the statement said.

The secretary thanked the NATO team for the whole-hearted support provided by NATO troops to Pakistan in the wake of October 8, 2005 earthquake. The secretary hoped that this would go a long way in enhancing and strengthening the relationship between Pakistan and NATO.

Afghan-based al-Qaeda behind London terror plot, claims Pakistan

Islamabad - Pakistan said on Monday it stood by its claim that the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda was responsible for the abortive London terror plot.

'Islamabad does not provide a hospitable climate to al-Qaeda and has arrested a large number of its operatives on its soil,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam told reporters in Islamabad.

However, she said Pakistan did not mean to accuse Kabul of providing shelter to the terrorist network by making Afghanistan- based al-Qaeda responsible for the plot.

On August 11, Pakistani officials had confirmed the arrest of Rashid Rauf, whom they called a key person with links to Afghanistan- based al-Qaeda in connection with the London terror plot.

They said that the arrest of Rauf, a British national, led to a series of arrests in Britain. However, spokeswoman Aslam refused to give out details about ongoing investigations into the foiled plot. 'It would be tantamount to compromising investigations,' she said.

New fighting force, same Afghanistan Asia Times Online By Dad Noorani August 21, 2006

KABUL - Two weeks ago, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over command of insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the top general warned that he would "strike ruthlessly" against Taliban rebels when necessary.

British Lieutenant-General David Richards indicated that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under NATO command would continue to use the heavy firepower the coalition had employed in recent months in response to an escalation in militant attacks. "We will retain the capability and will to strike ruthlessly at the enemies of Afghanistan when required," he said.

But is this all it will take to defeat the insurgents? In the past week, 12 Afghan policemen, including a senior officer traveling in

two trucks, were killed in a mistaken attack by a coalition plane in the southeastern province of Paktika.

The coalition spokesman at the main Bagram base, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick, insisted the two trucks belonged to Taliban trying to flee the area after an engagement with a joint patrol of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and coalition forces.

On Friday, a day after the incident, he said: "Coalition forces are confident that the trucks destroyed by the aircraft were the same two trucks fleeing the site of the attack on the joint coalition patrol." He promised that the coalition would cooperate with Afghan authorities on an investigation.

But provincial authorities did not wait. On Saturday, Paktika Governor Dr Akram Khpalwak said the probe had been completed, and the report would be submitted to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The families of the slain policemen had received 50,000 afghanis (US$994) as compensation, he said. The president has ordered more assistance.

Karzai, who reacted swiftly to the killing, said in a statement: "I am extremely saddened by this tragic incident and I want an immediate investigation to find out what exactly happened. I have repeatedly asked the coalition forces to take maximum caution while carrying out operations."

Since deployment to Afghanistan three years ago in the north and west, ISAF has gradually expanded its presence. Its new mission in southern Afghanistan - considered the most dangerous and challenging - coincides with the deadliest surge in fighting in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

NATO's priorities include maintaining security, extending the central government's authority and speeding up the reconstruction process. It will consult and coordinate all its activities with the Afghan government and the international community and will evaluate its strategy every other month.

This is where the US-led coalition failed. This decision of NATO is likely to go well with the Afghan government and public.

NATO officials declared that they would not engage in counter-terrorism operations, but would assist the reconstruction process and strongly react to those who intend to disrupt the efforts aimed at extending and strengthening the Afghan government's authority.

But the key question many Afghans ask is whether NATO countries are capable and willing enough to win the war against the insurgents and their local and foreign backers.

This would include taking on the drug mafia and some neighboring countries and getting tough with Karzai over corruption in the government. But NATO's greatest difficulty in the south lies in ending foreign support for the insurgents.

The Western alliance is unlikely to defeat its battle-hardened foes by simply chasing them in the Afghan villages. The net has to be cast much wider. The fact that massive insecurity in the south is directly linked to cross-border infiltration by insurgent and terrorist elements from across the Durand Line (border with Pakistan) is well accepted inside Afghanistan and in international diplomatic and military circles.

Foreign support for the Taliban must end for security to improve inside Afghanistan. The time is running out and polite diplomatic protestation must be replaced by a more robust action on the part of the international community.

The other front where Afghanistan must focus urgent attention is to strengthen the public's confidence and trust in the ability of domestic and international forces and other state institutions to provide security and reconstruction in the south. The people are eager to be liberated from the tyranny of rebels and extreme poverty.

Up to now, neither foreign nor Afghan security forces have systematically ventured out into most parts of southern Afghanistan. The provincial reconstruction teams have largely been deployed to safer areas in the north and west of the country.

Much like the Soviets before them, the international forces are largely confined to large bases in big cities from where they conduct ad hoc military operations against the insurgents. As soon as they are gone, the insurgents are back in business. With its expansion to the south, NATO has been presented with an opportunity to change all this.

(Released by arrangement with The Killid Group) (Inter Press Service)

Archeologists discover Stupa, Buddha in central Afghanistan - Xinhua 08/21/2006

A joint archeologist team of Afghan and France has discovered a vast Stupa of Buddhism and 22 other artifacts including a statue of Buddha near the destroyed giant Buddhas in Afghanistan's central Bamyan province, a local newspaper reported Monday.

"The newly discovered Stupa with a length of 20 meters and 5 meters width dated back between fifth and seventh centuries," daily Outlook writes in its Monday edition.

The dome-shaped structure was erected by Buddhists to perform their rituals, it added ,A number of historical objects including a half-meter statue of Buddha were also found from the area which is close to the two destroyed giant Buddhas.

Taliban regime dynamited both the 55-meter long and 35-meter giant Buddha in March 2001.

However, Ahad Abasi, director of artifacts department at the Ministry for Information and Culture, told Xinhua that the excavation is going in the area to find more ancient objects belong to Budhism.

Abasi, who was on way to Bamyan said that the renowned Afghan archeologist Zamaryal Tarzai has been supervising the digging of historical sites in Bamyan.

Female literacy rate up in Badakhshan

KABUL, Aug 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The ratio of female enrolment in schools in the northern Badakhshan province has considerably increased over the previous few years.

A survey conducted by officials of the education department said literacy rate among female had increased from 39 to 48 per cent in 2004. Gul Pari Sarwari, headmaster of Girls' High School No 1 in Faizabad, capital of the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News 2,800 girls and 150 boys were attending the school in two shifts.

She said the girls were more willing to attend school. At the same time, their families are also happily sending them to schools. But the problem, she said, was lack of proper school buildings. She said majority of schools were housing children beyond their capacity.

She said most of the students were sitting in the open due to non-availability of space in the rooms. She said 98 per cent of teachers were female in schools in Faizabad.

Asifa, a young girl, when asked about her studies, said education was a weapon for female. She said it was lack of education and awareness among women that they often face problems in families and social life.

Director of the Education Department Abdul Rashid Khan said the provincial government was doing its utmost in promoting education in the province. He said they had constructed 24 classrooms in the Girls' High School No 1.

Rashid Khan said 227,000 students were presently studying in 562 schools in this province. He said half of the total schools in this province had no buildings. He said there were 12,219 teachers in the province; however the Education Ministry pays salary to only 8,613 teachers.

[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.]