In this bulletin:

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, centre, speaks while standing next to Chris Alexander, Deputy UN Representative for Afghanistan, left, and Francesc Vendrell, EU Representative for Afghanistan, during a media briefing at ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

• World must step up efforts to develop Afghanistan, says NATO chief
• NATO leaders visit Afghanistan to finalise move into south
• International community must 'lift its game' in Afghanistan: NATO
• Troops cannot fail in bid to save, reconstruct Afghanistan, NATO chief says
• Lebanon strife erodes support for Canada's Afghanistan mission
• Man killed by dumped bomb in Afghanistan-Thu 20 Jul 2006
• Coalition soldier wounded in Afghanistan
• Aussie soldiers injured in Afghanistan
• German troops to stay in Afghanistan until peace restored
• Paris Club Agrees Afghan Debt Relief Deal
• Le Président Hamid Karzai considère l’insulte au drapeau comme une insulte à la religion et à l’identité nationale du peuple afghan

World must step up efforts to develop Afghanistan, says NATO chief

Canadian Press Thursday, July 20, 2006

KABUL (AP) - NATO's secretary-general said Thursday the international community must step up efforts to develop war-ravaged Afghanistan.

"The international community has to lift its game . . . by also showing commitment to the development of Afghanistan," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during a press conference with President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai also urged the international community to do more to stop terror financiers and trainers in and outside Afghanistan.

Canadian troops in Kandahar and British forces in Helmand, currently working with U.S. troops as part of an anti-terror campaign, have met stiff resistance in outlying areas from insurgents wanting to disrupt their mission there.

"In the fight against terrorism the international community, and all of us, should go and address if there are any sources of training, places of training, of equipping or of motivation to terrorism in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world," Karzai said.

The Afghan president didn't specify any country, but officials here routinely accuse neighbouring Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militants using its territory to stage attacks in the country. Pakistan said it is doing all it can to prevent extremists operating on its soil and planning attacks in Afghanistan.

The two-day trip by de Hoop Scheffer comes during the deadliest period of Afghan violence since the Taliban's 2001 ouster. More than 800 people, mostly militants, have been killed since May. Most of those fatalities came during fierce fighting in volatile southern Afghan provinces that NATO troops are soon to take over.

De Hoop Scheffer said Afghanistan's reconstruction and stabilization is NATO's "most important operation."

The military alliance is poised to take control of international security operations in southern Afghanistan by the end of July, amid an upsurge in attacks by Taliban militants that have set back efforts to bring much-need development aid.

While stressing that the NATO force's role will be to promote Afghanistan's reconstruction, de Hoop Scheffer said troops would also be "robust" in defending themselves if attacked.

"Let nobody make the mistake that NATO sends its soldiers . . . with one arm tied behind their back."

Karzai also said his country's police forces and military needed better training and equipment to deal with Afghanistan's insurgent threat.

Afghanistan has about 60,000 policemen, many of whom are poorly armed and have limited training, and some 30,000 soldiers in its fledgling national army.

NATO is deploying around 8,000 mostly British, Canadian and Dutch troops to the south, bringing its strength nationwide to about 18,000 by September.

The NATO alliance hopes eventually to take on eastern Afghanistan by November, completing its expansion across the country and increasing its total numbers to 21,000.

The United States has at least 21,000 troops in Afghanistan, but there has been talk of a cut of up to 20 per cent.

NATO leaders visit Afghanistan to finalise move into south

AFP-by Lorne Cook Thu Jul 20, 8:21 AM ET

NATO will help bring stability to Afghanistan but this must be matched by the international community's commitment to develop the country, the alliance's chief has said.

Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is in Afghanistan for talks with President Hamid Karzai and others to finalise the alliance's troop expansion into the insurgency-hit south around the end of July.

"There is still a lot to do on all sides," de Hoop Scheffer said after talks with officials from the European Union and the United Nations here about the move south and later into the east of the country.

"There is no security without development, the precondition for development is security. NATO came and will stay to see that stability is provided. That should be matched by the development side of the coin," he said.

Scheffer arrived with NATO military commander General James Jones late Wednesday with both meeting Karzai and top Afghan officials later Thursday to hammer out details of the expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

NATO will take over from a 28,000-strong US-led coalition that has been operating mainly in counter-terrorism operations in the south and east since after the Taliban fell in 2001.

A date for the transfer of authority is expected to be announced within a week.

"They are here to have the final discussions needed prior to such an important moment for Afghanistan," ISAF spokesman Major Luke Knittig told AFP earlier.

"A big objective of course is to listen to the Afghan leadership and to get their view on how things should go forward," he said.

The meetings would also likely focus on stepped-up violence linked to the Taliban, a spokesman for Karzai said.

"They will discuss the situation in Afghanistan, expansion of NATO and the reasons for the increased attacks," spokesman Siamak Hirawi said.

An insurgency launched by the extremist Taliban after they were removed from government by a US-led coalition in late 2001 has spiked this year with the militants appearing better organised than ever.

Military experts have linked this surge in violence to the transition, saying militants are trying to exploit the changeover and scare off some of the incoming NATO nations and their partners in ISAF.

The coalition and Afghan army in mid-May launched their biggest operation against the rebels, Mountain Thrust, which is focused on the south and is aimed at "setting the conditions" for the ISAF takeover.

Around 800 people have been killed in insurgency-linked violence since then, most of them rebels.

At the handover ISAF will take command of British, Canadian, Dutch and some US troops, most of whom have been moving into the south since the beginning of the year.

Officials said earlier in the year this would almost double the number of foreign troops in the south to about 6,000 from what it had been in December 2005.

The transfer will also see the ISAF force, which arrived soon after the Taliban fell and came under NATO command in 2003, almost double in number to about 18,000 troops.

It expects to reach about 23,000 when it takes over the eastern quarter of the country late in the year.

ISAF has until now been operating mainly in the north and west of the country, and the capital Kabul, areas which see relatively little of the Taliban-linked violence plaguing the south.

The changeover is expected to see a larger focus on reconstruction of the war-shattered country as part of a strategy to win over popular support and promote stability.

Confronting militants will continue to be a major task and the United States will also maintain a counter-terrorism task in the south.

International community must 'lift its game' in Afghanistan: NATO

AFP- by Lorne Cook Thu Jul 20, 1:27 PM ET

NATO is "lifting its game" in Afghanistan and so should the international community by giving full attention to the troubled nation's development, the alliance's chief has said.

The expansion of a NATO-led force into the troubled south in the coming weeks will boost security and should be matched by equal commitment from the government and its partners, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.

"We have to lift our game," De Hoop Scheffer told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai on a visit to finalise the southwards expansion of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) due around the end of July.

"NATO is lifting its game in the south and hopefully soon in the east so that the whole of Afghanistan will be under the control of NATO-ISAF," he said.

"But the international community has to lift its game as well by also showing commitment to the government of Afghanistan.

"If NATO is creating security and stability, it must be accompanied by the full attention of the international community."

Scheffer arrived with NATO military commander General James Jones late Wednesday for a two-day visit to finalise ISAF's assumption of command of the country's southern region from a US-led coalition.

A date for the transfer of authority is expected to be announced within a week.

The visit comes amid a surge in attacks by Taliban militants in the south, with officials acknowledging the militants had benefitted from the international community diverting its attention to the troubles in Iraq.

The 28,000-strong US-led coalition has been operating mainly in counter-terrorism operations in the south and east since after the extremist Taliban government fell in a US-led invasion in 2001.

ISAF is now in the north and west, and Kabul, focusing on reconstruction projects which officials say are an essential part of persuading the people of this war-torn nation to support the post-Taliban government.

"There is no security without development, the precondition for development is security," De Hoop Scheffer said earlier after talks in the capital with the government's EU and UN partners.

At a press briefing after his meeting with the NATO chief, Karzai said his destitute country still relied on the help of the international community.

"We will not be able to travel this journey alone without the international community," he said.

Military experts have also linked the surge in violence this year to the transition, saying rebels are trying to exploit the changeover and scare off some of the incoming NATO nations and their partners in ISAF.

The coalition and Afghan army in mid-May launched their biggest operation against the rebels, Mountain Thrust, which is focused on the south and is aimed at "setting the conditions" for the ISAF takeover.

Around 800 people have been killed in insurgency-linked violence since then, most of them rebels.

At the handover ISAF will take command of British, Canadian, Dutch and some US troops, most of whom have been moving into the south since the beginning of the year.

Officials said earlier in the year this would almost double the number of foreign troops in the south to about 6,000 from what it had been in December 2005.

The transfer will also see the ISAF force, which arrived soon after the Taliban fell and came under NATO command in 2003, almost double in number to about 18,000 troops.

It expects to reach about 23,000 when it takes over the eastern quarter of the country late in the year.

ISAF has until now been operating mainly in the north and west of the country, and the capital Kabul, areas which see relatively little of the Taliban-linked violence plaguing the south.

Troops cannot fail in bid to save, reconstruct Afghanistan, NATO chief says

AFP- July 20, 2006 By Constant Brand

KABUL (AP) - NATO troops moving into insurgency-racked southern Afghanistan cannot fail in their mission to defeat the Taliban and promote reconstruction, the alliance's secretary general said Thursday.

Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also warned Taliban holdouts, Islamic extremists and heavily armed opium dealers that they could not thwart the mission.

"Every party which tries to spoil this process in the south will feel the consequences," he said at a news conference with President Hamid Karzai. "We cannot afford to fail."

De Hoop Scheffer is in Afghanistan for two days to review the 26-country alliance's expansion into the volatile south, which has recently seen an increase in fighting between coalition forces and Taliban as NATO tries to take control of the region.

The violence, the heaviest in more than four years, has set back efforts to bring development aid to the impoverished region.

NATO countries are expected to give their final go-ahead to expand their mission during a July 26 meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

More than 800 people, mostly militants, have been killed in Afghanistan since May, mostly in the south. Poor security has severely restricted efforts to develop the impoverished region, hub of Afghanistan's booming drug trade.

Countries going into the south "realize . . . it might be tough, it might be difficult because the situation is very volatile," de Hoop Scheffer said.

An Australian soldier was wounded in a rocket attack on a coalition military base late Wednesday in the southern city of Kandahar, spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said. There was no material damage to the Kandahar Air Field.

A coalition helicopter also came under rocket-propelled grenade attack in Kandahar's Panjwayi district late Wednesday, but there were no casualties, Lundy said.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said coalition forces had cleared Taliban insurgents from several southern flash points, but limited security forces throughout the desert-and mountain-dominated region made it difficult to stop them completely.

The NATO chief urged world donors to keep Afghanistan's development a top priority.

"The international community has to lift its game ... by also showing commitment to the development of Afghanistan," de Hoop Scheffer said.

Karzai appealed for help training and equipping Afghanistan's fledgling military and police forces, and said other countries must do more to stop terror financiers and trainers in Afghanistan and abroad.

"In the fight against terrorism the international community, and all of us, should go and address if there are any sources of training, places of training, of equipping or of motivation to terrorism in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world," Karzai said.

The Afghan president did not specify any country, but officials here routinely accuse neighbouring Pakistan of not doing enough to stop militants using its territory to stage attacks here. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to prevent extremists operating on its soil.

In Islamabad, Pakistan, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that Pakistan was committed to supporting the U.S.-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had "evolved a new strategy against Taliban," but he did not elaborate.

"We are fighting against terrorism and are helping the coalition. We should make collective efforts to fight terrorism," said Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S. war against terrorism.

NATO is deploying about 8,000 mostly British, Canadian and Dutch troops to the south, increasing its total force to about 18,000 by September. The alliance hopes to take on eastern Afghanistan by November, completing its expansion across the country and increasing its force to 21,000.

About 2,300 Canadian military personnel are involved in the Afghanistan mission, most of them in the Kandahar region.

The United States has at least 21,000 troops in Afghanistan, but there has been talk of a reduction of as much as 20 per cent. Many of those that remain will be incorporated into the NATO force. However, the United States also will maintain an independent combat force to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Also Thursday, the U.S. military said it was paying $112,000 US in compensation to victims of a May 29 accident in which a military truck that apparently suffered a brake failure rammed into cars at an intersection, killing at least one person.

The accident sparked rioting in which 20 people were killed, many apparently from gunfire by Afghan security forces.

A military statement said the payments for 24 claims of property and personal damage related to the accident in Kabul demonstrated the U.S. government's "commitment to responsibility and accountability for the actions of U.S. armed forces."

Lebanon strife erodes support for Canada's Afghanistan mission

AFP- Thu Jul 20, 11:55 AM ET

Violence in Lebanon has eroded Canadians' support for their country's combat mission in Afghanistan, according to a new poll.

Almost half of Canadians surveyed, want to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan for fear of getting drawn into a new Middle East crisis.

The Strategic Counsel poll found that 56 percent of Canadians now oppose the Afghanistan mission, up from 15 percentage points in March when Harper made an impromptu visit to Canada's Kandahar base in volatile southern Afghanistan.

Some 41 percent of Canadians want their troops brought home now, while 34 percent would accept that they remain in Afghanistan for the duration of Ottawa's two-year commitment.

Only 21 percent said Canadian troops should stay for as long as it takes to stabilize Afghanistan.

The poll was taken after a 17th Canadian was killed in Afghanistan and eight Canadians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon over the weekend.

"Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East -- they're very far away and Canadians probably aren't making a lot of distinction," pollster Timothy Woolstencroft of the Strategic Counsel told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

"There's a feeling that it's gotten much worse, 'so get them out now, it's becoming a quagmire,'" he said.

Almost 50,000 Canadians, many with dual Lebanese citizenship, have been caught in fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group, which has captured two Israeli soldiers.

Critics lamented the government's slow response in evacuating as the first of seven chartered vessels sailed from Lebanon to Cyprus on Wednesday with hundreds of evacuees.

Canadian media said Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government would likely face a voter backlash over his dogged support for Israel, despite the Canadian deaths.

Harper said last weekend that Israel had been "victim of the initial attack," referring to the abduction of the two soldiers and repeated rocket attacks into Israel.

Over the weekend, thousands in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal protested Harper's position on the Middle East conflict.

But according to the poll, Harper's government maintains an 11 percentage point lead ahead of the opposition Liberals.

The poll of 1,000 Canadians was taken July 13 to 16 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Man killed by dumped bomb in Afghanistan-Thu 20 Jul 2006

A fghanistan : An artillery shell dumped in a pile of rubbish exploded in Kabul, killing one Afghan man and wounding two others today, police said.

The explosion happened in the west of the capital early Thursday and police raced to the scene to investigate the cause, local police chief Zulmay Khan said.

Coalition soldier wounded in Afghanistan

C News-Canada 7/20/06

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Militants fired a rocket at a coalition air field in southern Afghanistan, wounding one soldier, the U.S.-led military said Thursday.

The attack took place late Wednesday on Kandahar Air Field and caused no material damage, said spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy. One soldier suffered light wounds.

A coalition helicopter also came under rocket-propelled grenade attack in Kandahar's Panjwayi district late Wednesday, but there were no casualties, Lundy said.

Aussie soldiers injured in Afghanistan

Sydney Morning HeraldJuly 20, 2006

Australian soldiers have received minor injuries during military action in southern Afghanistan.

The Defence Department confirmed Australian soldiers had been injured, but refused to give further details.

AAP understands three soldiers had to be evacuated for medical treatment after a firefight on July 17.

Australia has 300 troops in Afghanistan, with another a 200-member Provincial Reconstruction Team to be deployed this month.

Australian Special Air Service Regiment troops already have exchanged fire with anti-government forces in Oruzgan province, and defence force chief Angus Houston warned in February of a rising incidence of suicide bombings.

Southern Afghanistan was the stronghold of the Taliban until late 2001, when their government was ousted as a result of US-led attacks.

Since then, Taliban forces have targeted coalition and Afghan troops and have stepped up attacks over the past year.

Earlier this week, Afghan and US-led coalition soldiers reclaimed two southern towns that had been overrun by the Taliban.

Hundreds of ground forces were involved in reclaiming the town of Garmser, while earlier troops had been required to root out Taliban militants from Naway-i-Barakzayi.

Aid agencies have reported that thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes because of the battles.

German troops to stay in Afghanistan until peace restored

Source - Reuters 7/20/2006

MAZAR-e-SHARIF • German troops will stay in insurgency-hit Afghanistan until “ permanent peace ” is established, the German defence minister said yesterday.

Franz Josef Jung met German troops in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on the second day of a visit to Afghanistan, which thousands of foreign troops have been helping to secure since the Taleban regime fell in 2001.

“ We have come here to bring permanent peace and unless that is accomplished, we will not leave Afghanistan, ” Jung said in response to a reporter ’ s question.

Jung also praised the work of the German deployment, which has since last month been commanding the northern region of a Nato-led force that covers the north and the west and is due to move into the south in the coming weeks.

Germany has about 2,200 troops with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them based in the north.

The country is in charge of two reconstruction teams in the north, which sees relatively little of the Taleban-led insurgency plaguing southern and eastern Afghanistan although attacks have been picking up in the region.

ISAF has been deployed in Afghanistan under a UN mandate since the Taleban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Paris Club Agrees Afghan Debt Relief Deal

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

July 20, 2006 -- The Paris Club has agreed on a multibillion-dollar debt relief deal for Afghanistan.

The group of creditor nations says in a statement today that they agreed to cut and reschedule Afghanistan's public debt, writing off some $1.6 billion of it.

The move is part of international pledges to cancel 100 percent of the country's estimated $11.3 billion debt.

Le Président Hamid Karzai considère l’insulte au drapeau comme une insulte à la religion et à l’identité nationale du peuple afghan

Communiqué de Presse

Kaboul, Palais Présidentiel  : Comme nos chers compatriotes ont dû l'apprendre, le district de Garmser dans la province de Helmand était devenu hors de contrôle des forces de sécurité afghanes en raison d'ingérences étrangères, et ce pendant quelques heures. Selon les informations fournies par des habitants de la région, des étrangers traversant la frontière et s’infiltrant sur le sol afghan, ont commis des pillages, détruit des bâtiments publics et injurié le Drapeau d’Afghanistan portant les mots sacrés de “Allah o Akbar”, l'ont piétiné et y ont mis le feu. Ensuite ils ont hissé à la place un drapeau étranger.

Hamid Karzai, Président de la République Islamique d’Afghanistan, a réagi vivement à cet acte grave, en déclarant que "le Drapeau de l’Afghanistan est le symbole de notre identité religieuse et nationale. Nous considérons que toute insulte au Drapeau de l’Afghanistan est une insulte à la religion, à notre identité nationale et à notre histoire", faisant remarquer que "ce genre d’insulte aux valeurs religieuses et nationales n’est acceptable pour aucun Afghan".

Il faut dire qu’au cours d’une opération pour la reprise du contrôle du district de Garmser, nos forces de sécurité ont réussi à chasser très rapidement les envahisseurs étrangers et à faire flotter de nouveau le drapeau honorifique du pays.

Hamid Karzai a demandé au peuple afghan qu’il ne permette pas que des étrangers humilient la terre afghane ni qu’ils injurient nos valeurs sacrées, notamment notre Drapeau national.

Diffusé par  le Bureau du Porte Parole de la Présidence

[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.]