In this bulletin:

• Taliban launch Afghan attacks, 23 said dead
• Afghan militants getting sophisticated arms
• Afghan Officials: Militants from Iran, Iraq Now Joining Insurgency
• President Karzai Returns to Kabul After Attending the London Conference
• President Karzai Condemns the Re-production of a Blasphemous Cartoon and Welcomes the Sacking of the Editor by the Newspaper 
• Fear stalks Taliban heartland in Afghanistan
• After Long Debate, Dutch Agree to Send Force to Afghanistan
• Netherlands to send more troops to Afghanistan
• Iran pledges another $100m aid to Afghanistan
• US envoy warns on efforts to build Afghanistan
• Canada's new Afghanistan mission will be dangerous, general says
• Afghan force faces Iraq-style insurgency - Ambassador warns Canadian contingent that 'force and resolve' will be necessary
• No time to walk away
• Afghan schools face torch
• Bush to request $120B more for wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
• Pakistan, Saudi Arabia vow to fight terror

Taliban launch Afghan attacks, 23 said dead

Kandahar (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents launched four attacks in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Friday and three policemen and 20 Taliban were killed, the province's deputy governor said.

About 200 insurgents were involved in the fighting, and some of them had ambushed police reinforcements going to the scene of the initial clash, said deputy provincial governor Mullah Mir, who was in a police convoy that came under attack. "We're sending more reinforcements. The fighting is still going on," Mir said.

It was the biggest guerrilla attack in Afghanistan for several months. Aircraft from a U.S.-led force battling insurgents in the Afghan south and east had come to the help of the police and had bombed the Taliban attackers, Mir said.

A U.S. military spokesman said aircraft had "provided close air support" to Afghan security forces. He declined to elaborate. Helmand has been plagued by insurgents since U.S. forces and their Afghan allies ousted the Taliban in late 2001. It is also a major opium-poppy growing and drug smuggling region.

Several thousand British troops are due to be deployed there this year under a plan to expand Afghanistan's NATO-led peacekeeping force.

The violence, near the border with Kandahar province, began early on Friday when Taliban gunmen ambushed a polic convoy, killing a policeman, Mir said. Later, another convoy, in which he was traveling, was ambushed and briefly surrounded, he said.

A 30-vehicle police convoy, sent to help from the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, was also ambushed, he said. The insurgents then launched a fourth attack in the area, he said. Thirteen policemen were wounded, Mir said. He said 20 Taliban had been killed and 15 wounded.

But a Taliban spokesman denied his forces had suffered heavy casualties. Qari Mohammad Yousuf, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, said only two Taliban were wounded. He said 12 policemen, including a senior officer, had been killed.

Dozens of people, most of them civilians, have been killed in a wave of attacks -- including 14 suicide bombings -- across the south and east in recent months but there have been no major clashes.

The U.S. military said earlier the insurgents were increasingly turning to bomb attacks on military and soft civilian targets after suffering heavy losses in battles with U.S. and Afghan government troops last summer.

Afghan guerrillas traditionally scale back operations in the winter when mountain passes are blocked by snow.

Afghan militants getting sophisticated arms

Kabul (Reuters) - Al Qaeda and Taliban militants are coordinating attacks on Afghan government troops and foreign forces and using increasingly sophisticated, and deadly, weapons, Afghanistan's defense minister said on Friday.

The militants, who have launched a string of attacks, including 14 suicide bombings in recent months, were getting their equipment from abroad but Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak declined to speculate on where it was coming from.

"It is quite obvious that all the infiltrations to Afghanistan and all the equipment, some of it really technically sophisticated equipment, are supplied from outside Afghanistan," Wardak told Reuters in an interview.

The equipment included high explosive used in roadside bombs and remote-control mechanisms to set off blasts, he said. "We don't have this equipment readily available in Afghanistan," Wardak said.

About 1,500 people, most of them militants but including Afghan forces, aid workers, civilians and nearly 70 foreign troops, have been killed in the insurgency over the past year.

Wardak said he did not know the level of cooperation between al Qaeda and the Taliban, but said Afghan militants were able to help their foreign comrades. "It is a combination ... al Qaeda by itself will not be able to do much," he said. "There are Taliban, there are Haqqani's group, there are Gulbuddin's groups and there are other foreign militant organizations," he said.

Jalaluddin Haqqani is a pro-Taliban commander whose forces are active in southeastern Afghanistan. Militants loyal to former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar operate in the east, near the border with Pakistan.

Wardak said he could not confirm speculation that al Qaeda militants from Iraq might be slipping into Afghanistan from Iran. The militants had lost the ability to confront Afghan and foreign forces, he said, and had changed their tactics to suicide attacks, virtually unknown in Afghanistan until recently.

In the latest violence, about 200 Taliban fighters launched attacks in Helmand province in the south on Friday and more than 20 people, most of them militants, were killed, an official said. Several thousand British troops are due to move into the province, one of several in the south and east where insurgents are active, as part of a NATO peacekeeping force.

Wardak welcomed Thursday's decision by the Dutch parliament to send 1,400 troops to Uruzgan, another restive province bordering Helmand. Security there was not as bad as some Dutch politicians thought and a NATO rapid reaction force would be on hand if the Dutch troops got into trouble, Wardak said. "There should be no worry," he said.

The United States leads a separate force of about 21,000 troops battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants and hunting for their leaders.

While Wardak declined to speculate on where militants were getting their weapons from, President Hamid Karzai said he would raise the violence in talks during a visit to Pakistan this month. "Bombs go off ... the children of Afghanistan suffer," Karzai told a news conference. "This is an issue we will speak about. Both of us should find a solution."

Pakistan, which is battling militants in its border areas, rejects accusations from Afghan and some U.S. officials that militants are getting help on Pakistani territory. The past year has been the bloodiest since U.S. and Afghan opposition troops overthrew the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Afghan Officials: Militants from Iran, Iraq Now Joining Insurgency - By Benjamin Sand (VOA) Islamabad 02 February 2006

Afghan officials say militants from Iran and Iraq are now joining the insurgency in Afghanistan.  The claims come after authorities captured several suspected terrorists allegedly sneaking into the country from neighboring Iran.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry confirmed the recent arrests on Thursday.  Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai says the men, all suspected militants, were detained earlier this week after illegally crossing the border from Iran.

"The police in Nimruz Province arrested four people. One man was Iraqi, one was Iranian and two were Kashmiri," he said. The official investigation is still under way but he says the Iraqi was likely headed to southern Afghanistan, where Taleban insurgents maintain a powerful presence.

"According to the preliminary investigation the Iraqi was arrested on the way to Khandahar where he had plans to perform some terrorist activity," he added. He says all four men had ties with terrorist groups inside Afghanistan.

The charges come amid a sharp rise in suicide bomb attacks across the country. Once relatively unheard of in Afghanistan, there have been nearly 24 suicide bombings in the past four months. Wednesday, a suspected Taleban insurgent, dressed as a woman, killed five people in eastern Afghanistan.  

Security experts say it appears local militants are increasingly importing tactics used by Iraqi insurgents. Now local authorities say Iraqi and other foreign militants are themselves joining the fight in Afghanistan.

Officials claim many of the attacks originate in neighboring Pakistan where they believe hundreds of militants have established temporary bases in the semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border. Pakistan says it has deployed some 80,000 troops to secure the border area and arrest suspected Taleban and al-Qaida fugitives.

Popular resistance to the attacks is also on the rise in towns and cities across Afghanistan.  The last few suicide bombings have provoked widespread public demonstrations demanding an end to the militant campaign.

More than 1,000 people joined a protest in southern Afghanistan seeking a more secure border with Pakistan and an end to the recent wave of suicide attacks.

President Karzai Returns to Kabul After Attending the London Conference - Date of Release: 02 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, returned to Kabul this morning after his state visit to Switzerland and Denmark and attending a two-day international conference on Afghanistan in London.

The opening session of the conference was chaired by H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, H.E. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Britain and H.E. Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General, and attended by representatives from more than 60 countries and international organizations.

Speaking at the conference the President said, “Four years on from the Bonn conference, the people of Afghanistan have made great strides towards peace, stability and democracy. We owe our successes to the resilience and unfailing determination of the people of Afghanistan as well as the generous support of the international community.”

“The threat of narcotics must be fought through law enforcement and through alternative economic opportunities. This fight will prove arduous and remitting. In the past year we reduced the land under poppy cultivation by 21%, mainly through voluntary self-restraint, and we are determined to take further steps to completely eliminate this menace.”

“To improve our economy, we will focus on strengthening our country’s infrastructure with particular focus on energy – especially electricity, road networks and water. We will create an enabling environment for business to grow and for our farmers to produce and market.”

“To support the implementation of our national development strategy, we are pleased that the international community is joining us in the Afghanistan Compact today. Through the Compact we, the people of Afghanistan, renew our pledge to build on the successes of the Bonn process and lead our nation’s economic, social and political development.”

“A stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is not a blessing for the Afghans alone; it is for all of us. On behalf of the people of Afghanistan, I pledge today that we will be a dependable asset to the security of the region and of the world.”

“With this Compact we, the people of Afghanistan, move forward to the next stage our rebuilding. Over the next five years we will increase our own expertise and capacity today we were assured of the international community’s continued support and we hope they stay committed to us until we fully stand on our own two feet.”

During the conference, Foreign Secretary Straw said, “To any who, over the past four years, may have doubted international resolve to stay the course in Afghanistan today shows clearly that there has been no going back. The United Kingdom and its partners welcome Afghanistan’s return to the international community and the Afghanistan Compact is recognition of our joint determination to see that the next stage of nation building succeeds.”

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, “Bonn was an agreement to build institutions of governance in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Compact is about making sure that these institutions work. Much hard work lies ahead, but Afghanistan has made remarkable progress and the people of Afghanistan deserve to know that the international community continues to stand by them.”

Altogether over $10.5 billion was pledged by the international community for rebuilding Afghanistan.

Prior to the London conference, the President visited Switzerland and Denmark to hold talks with the Dutch and Danish authorities on bilateral issues. The President also attended the 36 th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The President congratulates the people of Afghanistan on the successes of the London conference on Afghanistan and the international community pledging more than $10.5 billion for rebuilding Afghanistan. The President also thanks the people and Government of the United Kingdom for hosting the London conference for the people of Afghanistan.

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

President Karzai Condemns the Re-production of a Blasphemous Cartoon and Welcomes the Sacking of the Editor by the Newspaper - Date of Release: 2 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, condemns in the strongest terms an action by a French newspaper which printed a cartoon featuring the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) on its front page. 

In his reaction to the news, the President said, “Any insult to the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) is an insult to more than 1 billion Muslims and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated.”

It was reported that Jacques Lefranc, the editor of the newspaper was dismissed by the owner of France Soir and the President welcomed this action. 

Similar cartoon had previously appeared in a Danish newspaper which was also condemned by the President during his visit to Denmark last weak. 

Released by Office of the Spokesperson to the President - Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan

Fear stalks Taliban heartland in Afghanistan

Kandahar (AFP) - A breeze blows down the dark deserted streets of this southern Afghan city as Mohammad Hussin closes his bakery for the night. Kandahar's streets are normally bustling with people at eight o'clock in the evening but recently they have been replaced with fear.

"It's late. It will turn into a ghost town in an hour or so," says Hussin, preparing to leave behind another day overshadowed by anxiety after at least five Iraq-style suicide bombings in the province in the past month.

Most of the attacks have been pinned on militants from the Taliban movement which rose to power in Kandahar province in the early 1990s before sweeping northwards to claim most of the war-weary country by 1996. They were eventually toppled in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

The deadliest attack struck the town of Spin Boldak on January 16, when a man on a motorbike blew himself up in a crowd leaving a wrestling match put on for the Eid religious festival. Around 25 people were killed.

The same day an attack in Kandahar city killed three soldiers and a civilian. Just one day earlier a suicide car-bomb -- also a copycat of Iraqi attacks -- killed a senior Canadian diplomat visiting Kandahar and two Afghan bystanders. "That week was the bloodiest," Hussin says.

The city has been relatively calm since then but the fear has not gone away. In fact it is increasing, fuelled by this week's arrest of an Iraqi whom authorities said was a "terrorist" on his way to Kandahar.

"You never know when and how they will attack," says Khudaidad, another resident. He acknowledges that most of the targets are military, but adds, "they don't warn you to get out of the way."

"I'm scared. I'm scared of everything and everyone, especially people on motorbikes," says Khudaidan, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Motorcycles have been used in several of about 25 suicide attacks that have struck the country in the past four months, most of them in Kandahar and the capital Kabul, where NATO-led peacekeepers have been the main target.

They have also been used to carry out a series of assassinations of pro-government figures. In one incident this month, two men on a motorcycle in Kandahar shot dead former Taliban leader Mullah Khaksar who had allied himself with the new US-backed administration.

"There is nowhere to hide," says money changer Haji Sardar Mohammad in his shop a few kilometres (miles) from the blast that killed Canadian envoy Glyn Berry. "If there is an explosion, you just get caught and killed," he says.

But provincial governor Assadullah Khalid insists recent arrests have broken the back of the militants. "During the past three days we've captured 23 terrorists including three Pakistanis who were plotting suicide attacks in and around Kandahar," he told AFP this week.Senior Taliban operatives were also detained during a "massive" manhunt which he said would continue until the province was secure "once again."

A Taliban purported spokesman however called media to say the detained men were not Taliban. Kandahar military commander Rahmatullah Raufi also says tighter security, with new checkposts and stepped-up patrols, have made the city safer.

He cites a Pakistani national captured with a minibus-laden with explosives late Monday while trying to drive into the city, as an example of better security. "We work day and night to secure Kandahar. It has worked so far," Raufi told AFP.

Afghan security forces are being assisted in their fight by a US-led force which helped to topple the ultra-conservative regime after it failed to hand over Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on US cities.

But residents say the heavily armed troops are not as visible as they were in the past. "They are less often seen patrolling after the recent attacks. They prefer to say indoors," says one Afghan military official. "Perhaps they're scared too."

The roughly 20,000-strong coalition force, most of it American, has been in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban and are hunting their remnants in the south and east of the country, destitute areas where the militants find some local support.

"The problems, including the Taliban, that we have, have their roots in poverty," said Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission regional chief Abdul Qader Noorzai.

"No power can eliminate these elements (Taliban), but the people themselves," he told AFP. "The people will help, if you help them. The people want reconstruction."

After Long Debate, Dutch Agree to Send Force to Afghanistan - By Molly Moore Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 3, 2006

PARIS, Feb. 2 -- The Dutch parliament decided Thursday to send up to 1,700 troops to Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led reconstruction mission, after months of intense pressure from U.S. and NATO officials.

NATO authorities considered the Dutch vote crucial to the 6,000-member force the alliance plans to send this summer to the troubled southern provinces of Afghanistan where Taliban insurgents remain active. The United States is depending on the NATO effort to allow it to begin reducing some of its troops in the country.

But many Dutch lawmakers said they were concerned that the troops would be drawn into combat with Taliban forces, jeopardizing the ability to win the support of local Afghans for its intended assignment of building roads and schools, digging wells and other projects in the impoverished, isolated Uruzgan province.

"It's time for us to show some guts," Hans van Baalen, a member of the free-market VVD, the country's third-largest party, told the 150-member parliament. "Fighting terrorism is in the Netherlands' interest and in the interest of Afghanistan."

No vote was held specifically to send the troops, but a motion against sending the forces was defeated 127 to 23. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he expected to confirm the deployment with his coalition cabinet Friday.

"I have seen that there is very broad support in parliament, so the mission can go ahead," he said at the debate's conclusion. The government is likely to formally announce the troop deployment after the cabinet meeting, officials said.

Dutch officials have debated it for months. As Thursday's vote neared, a parade of high-level foreign officials visited The Hague to press legislators and cabinet members to support the operation.

This week, visitors included U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the top NATO military officer, as well as Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Defense Minister Rahim Wardak. U.S. officials also have been lobbying behind the scenes.

The coalition government's smallest member, the D66 party, was one of the most vocal opponents of the deployment. "Is this, in fact, not simply a terrorism-fighting mission disguised as a reconstruction effort, and thus limited in its ability to act?" the party said in an open letter to parliament.

Other parties argued that Afghanistan and NATO needed the support of the Netherlands. "Beautiful words on international solidarity don't mean a thing if we would quit after the smallest setback," said Wouter Bos, a leader of the Labor Party, the largest opposition group, which in recent days shifted in favor of the operation.

The Dutch contingent to the reconstruction project in the south would include 1,100 to 1,400 troops dedicated to public works efforts, with the remaining personnel flying and maintaining Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets that would accompany the troops, according to Dutch military officials.

Netherlands to send more troops to Afghanistan

The Hague (AFP) - The Netherlands will send additional troops to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced, following weeks of internal political posturing and international pressure.

"The mission will take place," Balkenende said, noting "very broad support" in parliament for the decision taken in December by The Netherlands' centre-right coalition government.

The government was to formalize the decision to send between 1,100 and 1,400 troops to Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, the scene of repeated attacks against foreign troops, on Friday during a weekly cabinet meeting.

Parliament did not hold a vote on the issue Thursday as initially planned, but may do so on Tuesday, when it will be a mere formality. The mission, needed by NATO to expand peacekeeping and reconstruction work in the region, is to begin in June and last two years. The Netherlands already has 623 soldiers deployed elsewhere in Afghanistan.

NATO, the United Nations and Washington have stepped up pressure on The Netherlands in recent weeks to send the contingent, essential to NATO's plans to increase its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to some 18,500 troops.

With the additional troops NATO plans later this year to move into volatile southern regions, a key part of the international community's efforts to stabilize the nation, rebuild it and concretize the authority of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government. In addition to the troops, NATO is also hoping The Netherlands will provide attack helicopters and F-16 jets to back up forces on the ground.

Prospects for a positive decision on the deployment were boosted on Wednesday when the opposition PVDA labour party voiced its support. On Thursday PVDA spokesman Bert Koeders told the ANP news agency that his party would agree only to a two-year mission. "Two years is two years. We are not going to stay in Afghanistan five years now," he said. Opinion polls have shown that the Dutch public is about evenly divided for and against sending troops.

In December Balkenende said he was in favour of the mission, but in the face of unfavourable public opinion and a threat by the small coalition partner D66 -- which has three cabinet ministers -- to trigger a government crisis, the cabinet decided to leave the final decision to parliament.

A long period of political wrangling ensued because many parties were unwilling to take a stance about the unpopular mission in light of next year's general elections.

Also hanging over the debate is the shadow of Srebrenica, the Bosnian town where Dutch peacekeepers in 1995 were unable to stop the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by advancing Bosnian Serb troops.

On Thursday the leader of the parliamentary faction of the D66 party told the popular daily De Telegraaf that they would not force a government crisis by recalling their ministers if a majority of parliament supported the mission. Together with D66, the small opposition parties GreenLeft and the Socialist party said they would vote against the mission.

The populist LPF was initially undecided, saying The Netherlands shoulders too much of the burden for rebuilding Afghanistan, but on Thursday said it supported the mission. The GreenLeft party argued that the security conditions in Uruzgan would make it impossible for the ISAF mission to help reconstruction.

Iran pledges another $100m aid to Afghanistan

LONDON, February 3 (IranMania) - Iran vowed at the end of Conference on Afghan Reconstruction to donate another $100 mln aid to Afghanistan from the beginning of the next Iranian year (to start March 21, 2006), IRNA reported.

At the end of the two-day meeting in London, representatives of over 60 nations and world organizations committed to allocate an over $10 bln assistance to Afghanistan's reconstruction projects during the coming five years.

As one of the major donor states, Iran had primarily allocated a $570 mln aid to Afghanistan reconstruction plans in a conference in Berlin, Germany, four years ago.

It was reported at the end of London conference that the last installment of Iran's $570-mln donation to Afghanistan ($50m) will be paid before the end of the current Iranian year (to end on March 20, 2006).

Afghanistan's Finance minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady told IRNA on the sidelines of the London conference that Iranian officials have also pledged to allocate an extra aid to Afghanistan more than the promised $100-mln.

Noting that Tehran has so far, fulfilled its previous commitments in a very acceptable way, Ahady stressed that Afghan people would never forget the support of their "friendly" neighbor, Iran.

US envoy warns on efforts to build Afghanistan - Financial Times, 02/03/2006 By Rachel Morarjee

London - Afghanistan risks sliding back into chaos if western countries do not step up efforts to bolster government control outside the capital, Ronald Neumann, US ambassador to Afghanistan, said yesterday.

"If one does not want Afghanistan to return to fragmentation, then the task is to build the government. This is a rather audacious task, and there is really no margin between fairly hefty success and very disastrous failure," Mr Neumann told the Financial Times in an interview.

Speaking after a conference in London where nations pledged $10.5bn (€8.7bn, £5.9bn) to rebuild the country over the next five years, Mr Neumann said the task was far from over. "The price of not carrying through and giving it up is a very large failure that will return Afghanistan to a very chaotic existence. People need to think about that when they are wincing at the task."

Mr Neumann's comments came hours before a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into an army convoy in south-eastern Khost province, killing three Afghan soldiers and a road-worker in the latest of a spate of suicide attacks.

US casualties in Afghanistan almost doubled to about 60 in 2005 compared with the previous year, as the Taliban began aping the suicide and roadside bombings of Iraq. Mr Neumann admitted the Taliban was not a spent force but rejected comparisons with Iraq, saying violence had not derailed elections or halted reconstruction. "It is clear the Taliban has not gone away and I would expect that we will have a violent insurgency in the south for some years to come. But I think there is a huge exaggeration of their strength."

Nato, which will send more troops to southern Afghanistan in the spring when the US reduces its presence, must take the initiative and provide a security buffer behind which the Afghan army and government could build strength. "We can't leave it in Taliban hands. They are just playing a long game, keeping the government weak and waiting for the day when theforeigners walk away and they can move back," Mr Neumann said.

The Taliban had failed to derail the government or stop reconstruction. US-funded work to provide alternative livelihoods for opium farmers in southern Helmand province had resumed after an attack on aid workers halted the programme last year, and progress was being made on road-building in the south, he added.

When Nato forces took over from the US, Mr Neumann said he did not "see any reason why security in the south should not beas good or better" than in 2005.

Canada's new Afghanistan mission will be dangerous, general says - J OHN WARD

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's new mission in the perilous southern region of Afghanistan will be dangerous, with no guarantees that everyone will come home safely, says the man in charge of the force.

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who will lead 2,200 soldiers into the Kandahar region this month, says their training and equipment will reduce the risks. But in a province where suicide bombers and roadside booby traps are part of the landscape, the threat remains high.

"This is a dangerous mission, this is a dangerous environment," Fraser said. "We can mitigate the risk, but I can't reduce the risk to zero."

Fraser normally commands the 1st Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group based in Edmonton. The backbone of his Afghanistan force is based on the 1st battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, also from Edmonton.

Since Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan in February 2002, eight soldiers have been killed. Diplomat Glyn Berry was killed by terrorist bomb in Kandahar last month, an attack that also wounded three Canadian soldiers.

Fraser said his troops are well trained and have all the equipment they need, including LAV III armoured vehicles and new artillery howitzers that can fire so-called smart shells.

He is to take command of a NATO multinational brigade in Kandahar this summer, with 4,000 more soldiers from six other countries. The general said Operation Archer, as his mission is known, is aimed at helping the Afghans rebuild their country, which has been battered by years of war.

Canadian soldiers and aid workers in the provincial reconstruction team will help rebuild roads and schools. The soldiers will provide the security to let people resume normal lives.

Fraser wants his soldiers to befriend ordinary people. "Every Canadian in the task force has a responsibility to go find an Afghan to mentor . . . and help them to help themselves."

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said that is a good idea. "It is very important for all foreign security forces in Afghanistan to engage not only with the Afghan government institutions . . . but also with average Afghans, whether they are teachers or whether they are business men or whether they are students.

"It is, we think, very important to keep the relationships strong." Samad said the vast majority of the Afghani people welcome the foreign soldiers because they know they are helping provide the security and stability the country needs.

He said things have been relatively peaceful around the capital, Kabul, partly because of the presence of foreign troops. He hopes the same holds true in the south.

The region lies close to the Iraqi border and infiltration points which insurgents use to bring in men, weapons and explosives. Fraser said the priority is to help rebuild the country, but his people are prepared for combat if it comes to that. "We're ready for the fight if the fight comes to us," he said.

It won't just be defensive work. Fraser said that he plans to work with the Afghani army to root out insurgents on the 200,000-square kilometres that are his responsibility.

"Can I take the offensive? Yes." He said it will be a tough job to secure the region, to nurture a new police force, to encourage people to resume normal lives. But without that effort, Afghanistan could revert to being a failed state harbouring terrorists. "I'm confident we're going to win this.

About 6,000 Canadian soldiers have rotated through Afghanistan since 2002, not counting the latest contingent. Canada has also pledged $616 million in aid through 2009, the country's biggest single international aid contribution.

Canada has promised at least two six-month rotations of troops for Operation Archer, although an international conference in London this week said NATO should be prepared to stay in Afghanistan through the end of 2010.

Speaking to the conference, Peter Harder, Canada's deputy minister of foreign affairs said the country is committed to rescuing Afghanistan.

"We are moving forward, together, with full appreciation of the difficulties that lie ahead, ever mindful of the costs already paid," he said. "The tragic losses that Afghans, Canadians and our international partners have suffered will not dissuade us. "This struggle for stability is not a choice."

Afghan force faces Iraq-style insurgency - Ambassador warns Canadian contingent that 'force and resolve' will be necessary Mike Blanchfield, The Ottawa Citizen - Published: Friday, February 03, 2006

Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented influx of militants intent on using the methods of Iraqi-trained suicide bombers, something that Canadian-led troops must be prepared to encounter with great force in coming months, says Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada. "Unfortunately, I do see signs of an attempt by al-Qaeda and the Taliban to import an Iraqi-style insurgency into Afghanistan.

That is troubling and needs to be countered with force and with resolve," Omar Samad, the Afghan envoy to Canada, said in an interview yesterday. Canada, Britain and other western countries "have the right mindset" toward combating this new form of insurgency in Afghanistan, said Mr. Samad, who was a top adviser to Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah before being posted to Canada.

Mr. Samad said Canada's integrated approach to development and combat is essential because it will prevent these new hardcore, foreign-trained fighters from winning over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people and making them hostile toward foreign troops on their soil, as is the case in Iraq.

For many years prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the subsequent U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban, Afghanistan had been a crucible of foreign jihadists, including Chechens and various Arab groups, but this new breed of Iraqi-style fighters is something Afghanistan has not yet experienced, Mr. Samad noted. "We've never had the element of suicide bombing. Our people have faced the toughest of these extremist insurgents in the past," he said. "That is why it is so important to approach Afghanistan with the goal of winning hearts and minds.

That is why the Afghans do not see these (western) forces as occupiers. They are seen as strategic partners." Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who takes command later this month of a multinational military force in southern Afghanistan, tried to play down the combat role of the expanded international mission in Kandahar, insisting yesterday it was primarily focused on reconstruction. "This is not just about combat operations," Brig.-Gen. Fraser told a briefing. He said his troops were prepared to take the fight to militants, but he was reluctant to give details about how that would occur.

He acknowledged the risks involved and would not rule out Canadian casualties. "We are aware of what the threat is. We have the capabilities and the means to mitigate that threat," said Brig.-Gen. Fraser. "There is a risk out there. We can't reduce it to zero." Eight Canadian soldiers and one diplomat, Glyn Berry, have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for Mr. Berry's death, a brazen daylight suicide bombing in Kandahar last month that also left three Afghans dead. It was followed a day later by two more suicide bombings that killed more than two dozen people.

Brig.-Gen. Fraser will lead a 6,000-strong multinational mission in Kandahar for six months that includes 2,200 Canadian troops, combined with mainly British and Dutch forces. The Dutch contribution was contingent on a parliamentary vote in The Hague last night that was expected to approve the country's deployment, overcoming some strong opposition.

No time to walk away - Financial Times - Editorial 02/02/2006

If the world needed a new reason of self-interest to stay engaged in Afghanistan, it is that the country now accounts for nearly 90 per cent of global opium production. But the original reason still holds good. The attacks of 9/11 showed how the west's negligence, in letting post-Soviet Afghanistan slide into a Taliban state and haven for al-Qaeda terrorists, can savagely rebound on it. This lesson of Afghanistan has also shaped the broader debate about the need for a global compact whereby rich and poor countries would take each other's respective concerns about security and development seriously.

 
This week's London conference endorsed the Afghan version of this compact. This sets out a course for Afghanistan's long haul to stability with such milestones as wiping out all illegal armed groups by 2007 and creating a respected national army by 2010. It reaffirms the basic bargain in which the Afghans commit themselves to improving governance and fighting corruption and the international community backs them with troops and money. Even so, it will be a tough challenge to make up for past failings.

One of these is the recent worsening of security. Casualties have doubled as Taliban and al-Qaeda have turned to Iraq-style roadside and suicide bombings, especially in the south and east where so far only US-led commandos have dared operate in quest of terrorists. Now Nato-led peacekeepers are to move into the south with a mandate not to pursue terrorists, but to provide security back-up for aid, reconstruction and anti-drugs programmes. But such a distinction will become meaningless if and when Nato troops have to retaliate against terrorists or drug barons attacking them. This is causing some alliance angst, nowhere more so than among the Dutch whose parliament is due to vote today on whether to contribute more men to a British-led Nato force in the south.

The other main failing has been to check the past two years' surge in drug production. Just spraying or burning poppy fields now could turn Afghan farmers against their government and its international backers unless they get other ways of making a living. President Hamid Karzai rightly warns it will take a long time to wean his country off drugs that presently account for at least one-third of its national income. But Mr Karzai's "inclusive" style of governing, while key to his political survival, has not helped either. He has, for instance, eased a well-known drug trafficker out of the governorship of Helmand (where the British troops are destined), only to make him a senator.

In contrast to its Iraq invasion, the US won almost universal support from its allies and friends for engagement in Afghanistan. It would be a great shame if this unity of purpose were now to waver. But no one should think that engagement in Afghanistan is any soft alternative to involvement in Iraq.

Afghan schools face torch - The Christian Science Monitor 02/01/2006 By Scott Baldauf - Attackers tried to burn a girls' school Monday in the latest attack on education

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – Just after midnight on Jan. 8, four armed men jumped over the wall of the Kabael Primary School in Loyawala, just outside of Kandahar, and began to spread 40 liters of kerosene inside the classrooms that regularly host 1,350 students.

The caretakers, who were unarmed, could do nothing but watch, and shiver in the night. The masked men waited just long enough for the fires to engulf the primary school, and then they left, bringing yet another bit of terror to the lives of Afghan villagers here.

"For 30 years ,we have been burned by these flames, this fighting," says one of the caretakers, Mohammad Sadeq, himself a former resistance fighter against the Soviets. "But this is our country; these children are from our soil. If we don't help them learn, who will?"

Across southern Afghanistan, night raids like the one in Loyawala are eroding one of the few solid gains that Afghanistan has made since the fall of the Taliban: education. By threatening or killing teachers and principals, and burning down schools, insurgents have found a method for bringing the war home to ordinary Afghans, and to weaken their faith in a government that appears unable to protect them and their children. The repercussions are just now being felt.

"The reason they attack schools is that they are a soft target," says Engineer Abdul Quadar Noorzai, regional manager of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar. "They get a lot of attention when they burn a school. The news goes up to the sky. The sad thing is that we didn't have good schools before this happened. Now it is like putting salt in our wounds."

Kandahar is certainly not the only Afghan province where such tactics are being used. Monday night, six armed people tried to burn a girls school in Laghman Province, but the village awoke and the attackers fled. Three primary schools were burned in Helmand Province on Friday.

But with eight schools burned in the current school year, Kandahar is the center of antigovernment activity. Government officials blame the Taliban for the attacks, something that Taliban spokesmen deny. But no matter who the culprit is, the government is struggling to stop the burnings.

"All over the world, there is no protective police force for schools," says Gov. Asadullah Khalid, the new governor of Kandahar. "This is an easy target for them. We have taken some measures, but I can tell you we expect the people to feel responsible and to take further steps themselves" to protect their schools.

Hayatullah Rifiqi, the education chief for Kandahar Province, says that Kabul has been cooperative in adding police to districts where attacks have taken place. Currently, his main task is getting the far-flung district of Maruf to open up its 42 schools, which currently remain shut because of threats.

"Before and after Eid [an Islamic feast day in January], some schools were burned, some leaflets were distributed in schools, some principals were killed, guards and caretakers were killed, and people have been threatened," says Mr. Rifiqi. "But even now, in remote districts, teachers are teaching. They tell me 'The only thing that will take Afghanistan out of its troubles is education, and whatever price we pay, we have to do it.' "

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif denies that the Taliban are behind the attacks on schools. "The Taliban are supporters of education and learning," says Dr. Hanif, speaking to the Monitor by mobile phone from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. "The people who are doing this are enemies of Islam, and we condemn them. Burning schools is not allowed under Islam."

In the village of Loyawala, the burned school has gotten a fresh coat of paint, and new chairs and desks for the students. UNICEF has donated large tents for classrooms to replace the tents burned by the insurgents.

Some teachers in Loyawala say they doubt the Taliban were behind the attack. Instead, they blame the government of Pakistan for taking advantage of Afghanistan's weakness.

Noting that the arsonists didn't allow caretakers to take copies of the Koran out of the classrooms before burning them, Loyawala principal Abdul Nazir says, "I don't think this was the Taliban, they don't burn Koran. Actually you have a lot of Pakistanis arrested with explosives these days. This is what they do. It's not coming from anywhere else but from Pakistan."

Abdul Aziz, the headmaster, agrees. "Pakistan doesn't want Afghanistan's education to go higher," he says, arguing that Pakistan relies on Afghans as laborers and consumers. "They want us to remain poor, illiterate, and dependent."

In the Arghandab district, east of Kandahar city, six schools have been burnt and two of these remain shut down because of insecurity. But the district head of education, Maiwand Khan, says that he is working with tribal elders to reopen the schools, and to get villagers to take more responsibility.

"It's difficult even if the government helps us out," says Mr. Khan. "But unless we persuade the people in the village that they should send their children to school, and that teachers should go back to work, and the villagers need to protect the schools themselves, then no student and no teacher will dare to go there."

Bush to request $120B more for wars in Iraq, Afghanistan (USA Today)

The Bush administration will ask Congress soon for another $120 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing total spending since the Sept. 11 attacks to about $440 billion.

Administration officials said the request is intended to fund operations into next year. However, deputy budget director Joel Kaplan and Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that won't be enough, even as the U.S. military tries to turn more responsibility over to Iraqi forces. (Related: Bush to request $439.3B defense budget)

Training and equipping Iraqi forces will allow U.S. troops to "take more of a supporting role, a training role, and eventually be able to reduce our numbers as they take over more control," Whitman said.

The war in Iraq is costing about $150 million a day, while continued fighting in Afghanistan is costing about $27 million a day.

The cost of the Iraq war has substantially exceeded early estimates. In 2002, White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey suggested the cost could reach $200 billion. Mitch Daniels, then the White House budget director, said Lindsey's number was too high, and said the cost would be $60 billion or less. Lindsey resigned a few months later.

Taken together, the two wars' projected $440 billion cost is almost as much as the Korean War, which cost $445 billion in 2006 dollars, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Only World War II and the Vietnam War were more expensive.

The new request is not likely to include any money for reconstruction in Iraq, officials said. Congress appropriated $18 billion for that in 2003, but much of it has been diverted to train and equip Iraqi forces. All funding requests for the troops have been strongly approved by Congress, and this one is unlikely to generate much opposition.

"This Congress, in a very strong bipartisan way, has done anything they've been asked to do to be supportive of the troops," said Rep. C.W. Bill Young (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., chairman of the House defense appropriations panel.

Democrats say that with the federal budget deficit expected to reach about $360 billion this year, more should be done to offset the wars' costs. "The way we're doing this is very irresponsible," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. "We're not demanding a sacrifice from the American people."

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia vow to fight terror

Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism, money laundering and drugs trafficking.

Saudi King Abdullah held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on a wide range of issues, said a joint statement issued at the end of the monarch's two-day visit to Pakistan.

"There is a need to intensify and coordinate bilateral, regional and international cooperation to combat terrorism and to eradicate its root causes," the statement said on Thursday.

The two Islamic nations said they would cooperate to "fight the menace of terrorism and other international crimes such as money laundering, drugs trafficking and arms smuggling in a sustained and comprehensive manner," it said.

Musharraf and King Abdullah also discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories, the Middle East and Iran, it said. "The two sides expressed their hope that Hamas will form a government which preserves the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, safeguard their interests and work for progress in the peace process," the statement said.

"Both sides expressed the hope that the evolving political process would result in the establishment of a government capable of assuring Iraq's unity," it added.

Musharraf thanked the Saudi ruler for the kingdom's "prompt and continuous" aid to Pakistan in the wake of October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people.

He expressed "deep gratitude for the Saudi pledge to assist in rebuilding the earthquake-stricken areas through the Saudi Development Fund to finance housing, road, education and health projects," it said.

It also added that Musharraf and Abdullah further agreed to jointly fight terrorism and global criminal activity. Abdullah and his high-ranking ministerial delegation got a big official welcome on arrival in Pakistan on Wednesday. This was his fifth visit here since 2003, but his first as king.

[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.]