In this bulletin:

• Two more suicide attacks in Afghanistan
• 'Taleban' raid Afghan police post
• Afghan NATO mission will test European resolve
• FACTBOX-Timeline for NATO operations in Afghanistan
• Afghan Ambassador meets with Canada’s Minister of National Defence
• Kabul releases army official
• 25 Pakistanis being held at US detention facility in Bagram:
• Afghan intel boss in heroin arrest
• Coalition turns over Amir Gul to Afghan government
• A Leader of mujahideen dies
• Cameron makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
• Karzai inaugurates road
• Third cell-phone company launches services
• Afghan Development Continues Amid Violent, Indiscriminate Attacks
• Role-playing lets Afghan-Canadians help Canadian troops prepare
• US calls on Pakistan to avoid using new atomic reactor

Two more suicide attacks in Afghanistan - Jul 24, 2006 By Mirwais Afghan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers targeted Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan on Monday, amid a wave of such attacks before NATO takes over security in the country's violent south.

Two coalition troops and one Afghan army soldier were wounded. The identities of the foreign troops were not given.

One bomber detonated explosives in a vehicle as a coalition convoy passed outside the southern city of Kandahar, where Canadian troops form the bulk of coalition forces.

In the second attack, a motorcycle bomber blew himself up in the western province of Farah, a forces statement said. Police and Afghan soldiers came under small arms fire from militants as they approached the scene and one Afghan soldier was wounded.

The attacks come just two days after twin suicide attacks killed seven people in Kandahar, a stronghold of Taliban militants and one of six provinces which will come under NATO control on July 31.

Violence has risen steeply in Afghanistan in recent months particularly in the south where hundreds of militants and civilians have been killed, as well as more than 20 foreign soldiers.

Militants on Monday also attacked a police station in Farah, firing off hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades before retreating, and killed two local employees of international aid agency World Vision, in neighbouring Ghor province.

Two years ago suicide attacks were a rare occurrence in Afghanistan, but this year alone there have been more than 30 such attacks aimed at the U.S.-led coalition.

"We face an adaptive and innovative enemy," forces spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told a news conference in Kabul.

"Most of the them get their training here in Afghanistan in the Taliban sanctuaries, principally in the south. There is a small degree of foreign fighters' influence."

Collins said a weapons cache as well as an assault vest, wires and switches had been found in a cave complex.

The 26-nation NATO alliance takes on the biggest ground operation in its history next week when it assumes security responsibilities from the U.S.-led coalition in the south. It already runs operations in the north, west and Kabul.

More than 1,700 people have been killed in Afghan violence this year, most of them Taliban, according to U.S. and Afghan figures. More than 70 foreign troops as well as scores of civilians have also been killed.

The Taliban have vowed to drive out foreign forces from Afghanistan and topple President Hamid Karzai's government.

(Additional reporting by Yousef Azimy, Mohammad Riza)

'Taleban' raid Afghan police post – BBC

Suspected Taleban fighters have killed at least three policemen in an attack in western Afghanistan. Police in Farah province said that hundreds of militants drove from Helmand province in pick-up trucks and attacked a police post.

They say that government offices in the Bakwa district were also attacked. In a separate incident, a suspected suicide bomber wounded two coalition soldiers on patrol near Kandahar, in the south of the country.

Seven policemen were injured - in addition to those killed - when Taleban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades carried out the attack on the police post in the west of Afghanistan.

Correspondents say the attack was one of the Taleban's boldest strikes, and could reflect a drive by militants to expand their fight against Afghan and US-led coalition forces beyond the insurgency-wracked southern and eastern provinces.

The battle is reported to have lasted five hours until the gunmen withdrew. Suicide bombings, roadside bombings and shootings have claimed hundreds of lives across Afghanistan this year, the most violent since the Taleban were removed from power in 2001.

In other attacks, a doctor and his driver who was employed by a foreign health charity were killed by gunmen in Ghur province as they made their way to a clinic.

In the province of Khost, an attacker who arrived at a border post from Pakistan in a taxi blew himself up, killing another person in the vehicle and wounding three more, authorities said.

The violence in Kandahar follows on from Saturday, when two Canadian soldiers and six Afghan civilians were killed in double attacks by suicide bombers in the city.

Afghan NATO mission will test European resolve - Jul 24, 2006 By Mark John - ANALYSIS

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO faces an uphill battle to bring security to violent southern Afghanistan and analysts question whether the trans-atlantic alliance is fully prepared for what will be the first true ground war in its history.

The handover of military operations there from the U.S.-led coalition to NATO scheduled around July 31 will bring European soldiers into the thick of a battle against hardened al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents fighting in their heartlands.

Doubts remain over whether Europe's leaders have committed enough troops or understand what those soldiers will encounter on the ground, and whether they will pull out if rising casualties fracture delicate public support for the mission.

"It's do-able, but it's a matter of addressing the issue head-on," said analyst Michael Williams at London-based thinktank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

"For me, NATO is not properly prepared. It has a confused and vague mandate and is short on both manpower and equipment," he added, further accusing some European governments of having "sugar-coated" a treacherous mission to their publics.

A mere spectator of the U.S.-led ousting of Afghanistan's hardline Islamic Taliban leaders in 2001, and hopelessly divided two years later over the Iraq war, NATO knows that failure now would knock its claim to a meaningful post-Cold War existence.

Until now, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force has kept to the capital Kabul and safer north and west of the country, while U.S. troops have borne the brunt of fighting the insurgency in the south and east.

That will change as Britain, Canada and the Netherlands lead an expansion into the south expected to pave the way for NATO to cover the whole country by the end of the year.

NATO's estimate of the size of ISAF after the move south has ticked up from less than 16,000 to 19,000, including reinforcements from Britain, the Netherlands and others.

NATO stresses it will be backed by Afghan forces and the U.S.-led coalition will continue the pursuit of Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents. But some alliance officials acknowledge that is relatively few troops for a country larger than France.

"There are not nearly enough troops to get it right," said Sean Kay, international security specialist at Ohio Wesleyan University, noting that NATO deployed 60,000 troops to keep the peace in tiny Bosnia after the 1990s Balkans wars and only started cutting numbers as security conditions improved.

"In Afghanistan we are going in with a smaller presence and should be bringing it up. That will be much harder to sell to public opinion (in Europe) given the likelihood of casualties."

More than 400 soldiers from the United States, Britain and other nations have already been killed in Afghanistan and the insurgency is at its bloodiest phase since 2001.

The Netherlands could be the bellwether. The Dutch committed 1,400 troops to Uruzgan province only after a debate which rocked the ruling coalition and raised broad public concerns.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, himself a Dutchman, argues that the debate braced his compatriots for the likelihood of casualties. But no one knows how much the Dutch -- or other Europeans -- will stomach.

"We are not worried when the first body bag comes there will be a huge clamour to withdraw," said one Dutch political source.

"People accept that there is no point in having military if there is no risk. The question is: what level of risk?"

Acknowledging the violence in Afghanistan was worse than expected when NATO began planning its mission, ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards has warned that shortages of aircraft and easily deployable reserves were a problem.

"We are not unable to operate, but we could do it more efficiently," he said in London last Friday.

Other concerns abound. NATO insists its job will not be to knock down doors and flush out Taliban insurgents. But that is what the U.S-led coalition will continue doing on its doorstep, potentially drawing NATO into battles it did not start.

The NATO strategy is to focus on the activity which U.S. forces have been accused of neglecting -- reconstruction.

Speed up the building of schools, clinics and roads, the argument goes, and local Afghan support for the insurgents, warlords and drug barons will fizzle out.

That in turn will lead to better security, allowing a faster pace of reconstruction to show to European publics back home, and shoring up the authority of President Hamid Karzai and the often precarious situation of his provincial governors.

RUSI's Williams said the question was whether European governments were committed to staying for the long haul.

FACTBOX-Timeline for NATO operations in Afghanistan

July 24 (Reuters) - The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is due to expand military operations into southern Afghanistan in coming days, launching what could be NATO's toughest ground combat mission in its history. Here is a chronology of NATO's presence in the country.

2001

Oct. 7 - U.S.-led forces begin bombing Afghanistan to root out Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and its Taliban protectors. Washington does not take up NATO's offer of help, concerned the consensus-based alliance would slow it down.

2003

August - Nearly two years after the invasion, NATO takes command of the U.N.-mandated ISAF force in Afghanistan in the alliance's first mission outside the Euro-Atlantic area. Its presence is initially limited to the capital, Kabul.

December - ISAF expands north with a pilot provincial reconstruction team (PRT) under German leadership in Kunduz.

2004

Oct. 13 - Transatlantic differences emerge over NATO's role in Afghanistan as France and Germany reject a U.S. proposal for an outright merger of ISAF and the U.S.-led coalition fighting remnants of the Taliban.

2005

Sept. 14 - A new U.S. bid to deepen NATO's role is thwarted as France, Germany and other European members block ISAF from taking part in high-end counter-terror missions to hunt insurgents, saying its prime focus must remain peacekeeping.

May 31 - After months of delays as it struggles to find volunteers for the move, NATO expands to the west with four bases in Herat, Farah, Chagcharan and Qala-i-Naw.

Dec. 8 - Washington continues to advocate a greater NATO role. The alliance prepares a future move into the south and east by approving tougher rules of engagement, allowing troops to deal more aggressively with the enemy.

2006

June 29 - Amid rising violence, ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards, says the world underestimated a resurgent Taliban largely because of the Iraq war.

July 10 - Britain announces it will send 900 extra troops and additional helicopters to southern Afghanistan, bringing its total deployment there to some 5,500.

July 31 - Expected date for formal transfer of authority from the U.S.-led coalition forces in the south to NATO.

Late 2006 - U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan are expected to join ISAF, effectively putting the whole of foreign military operations in the country under ISAF command.

Afghan Ambassador meets with Canada’s Minister of National Defence

Ottawa – The Ambassador of Afghanistan to Canada paid a courtesy call on the Honourable Gordon O’Connor, Minister of National Defence on Monday. The two sides exchanged views on the security situation in Afghanistan, and on the role of the international community that is engaged in helping Afghans combat terrorism and reconstruct war-torn Afghanistan.

Amb. Omar Samad conveyed his government’s sympathies to the families, friends, and colleagues of Corporal Francisco Gomez and Corporal Jason Patrick Warren, who were killed on July 22 in a suicide attack on members of the Canadian Forces in Southern Afghanistan.

Minister O’Connor reiterated Canada’s commitment to carry out the current mission to help stabilize Afghanistan, and help create conditions conducive to reconstruction and development work.

The Ambassador expressed his nation’s deep appreciation for the brave Canadian engagement alongside other Coalition and NATO members. He agreed that every effort has to be made to address the root causes of extremism that feeds terror, and to help the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.

Embassy of Afghanistan - Canada

July 24, 2006

Kabul releases army official - By Syed Irfan Raza (Dawn) July 24, 2006

ISLAMABAD, July 23: The Afghanistan government has released a serving official of the Pakistan Army as a goodwill gesture, and 27 civilians will be released next week.

A source in the interior ministry on Sunday said that Lieutenant Shahid was handed over to a three-member Pakistani team that returned on Thursday after completing a three-day visit to Afghanistan.

The delegation, headed by Interior Ministry’s Additional Secretary Chaudhry Qamar Zaman, visited Afghanistan to secure the release of Pakistani prisoners from Afghan jails.

The source could not tell how and when Lieutenant Shahid was arrested. However, Pakistani’s foreign office had been negotiating with Afghan authorities for several months for release of the military official, the source added.

Mr Zaman said that 27 Pakistani civilians would be released next week, including four from the US-controlled Bagram airbase and 23 from Pul-i-Charkhi.

The official said that 76 Pakistanis were in Afghan jails, including 46 in Pul-i-Charkhi and 30 at Bagram airbase.

Pakistani prisoners detained at Bagram airbase, were shifted there from the US-controlled prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. However, the additional secretary did not confirm that they were sent from Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Zaman said a committee comprising official of Afghan interior ministry and Pakistani embassy in Kabul had been formed to secure the release of Pakistani prisoners.

He said Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) to settle bilateral issues of prisoners, visa and immigration and arrest of their nationals under minor offences.

25 Pakistanis being held at US detention facility in Bagram: official - Islamabad, July 22, IRNA

Pakistani officials on Friday disclosed for the first time that 25 Pakistanis are being held at the US' detention facility in Bagram air base in Afghanistan. An Interior Ministry spokesman told Voice of America

radio that a high-level Pakistani delegation led by Additional Secretary of the Interior Ministry Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry visited Bagram detention center earlier this week to negotiate the release of Pakistanis held there.

He said US authorities have promised to release 18 Pakistanis in the next few weeks. He said the Pakistani delegation has also met the Pakistanis detained in the air base.

He did not specify the charges but merely said the detainees were held under minor charges. The spokesman said that 57 Pakistanis are currently held in various jails in Afghanistan.

A committee has been constituted comprising representatives of the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, Afghan Foreign Ministry and Afghan Interior Ministry to expedite the release of the Pakistanis.

Pakistan's former ambassador to Kabul Rustam Shah Mohmand, meanwhile, has said that Pakistanis held in Bagram Air Base have been there for quite some time.

He said more than 4,000 Pakistanis were detained in various jails of Afghanistan after the US military operation in 2001. However, he said most of them had been released since then and only a few are still in Afghanistan jails.

Afghan intel boss in heroin arrest - Agence France-Presse (AFP)
From correspondents in Kabul July 24, 2006

THE intelligence chief of an Afghan district on a major drug trafficking route to Tajikistan has been caught with 33kg of heroin in a government vehicle, an official said today.

The intelligence director of Rustaq district - in northern Takhar province on the border with Tajikistan - was arrested last week, national secret police chief Abdul Wahab Khetab said in the capital, Kabul.

"He was carrying 33 kg of heroin in his government-owned vehicle," he said, adding the suspect was being questioned by authorities. Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium, most of which ends up on the streets of Europe as heroin.

Opium cultivation is flourishing despite internationally-backed efforts costing millions of dollars to block production. The interior ministry has said it has a list of officials alleged to be involved in the drugs trade but has no evidence against them, and there have been few arrests.

Experts say the trade, worth about $US2.7 billion ($3.6 billion) a year, threatens to turn the destitute nation into a narco-state and is fuelling the increasingly vicious Taliban insurgency.

Tajikistan this month accused the US-led military coalition and NATO of failing to tackle Afghanistan's illegal drugs trade because they were too focused on quashing extremism. Tajikistan is a major transit route for illegal Afghan drugs to Russia and the West.

Coalition turns over Amir Gul to Afghan government

Blackanthem Military News, KABUL, Afghanistan, July 22, 2006

At the request of the Government of Afghanistan, the Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan transferred custody of Amir Gul Hassanyar to a representative of the National Director of Security this morning at Kabul International Airport .

Gul was detained by elements of the 2nd Kandak, 1st Brigade, 209th ANA Corps, and Coalition forces during a cordon and search of a compound south of Kunduz near the village of Baghlan on July 16.

Gul is believed to be responsible for numerous attacks using improvised explosive devices, trafficking in illegal weapons and drugs, and engaging in other anti-Coalition and anti-Government of Afghanistan activities.

"Amir Gul Hassanyar remains a security threat, and the Coalition believes that returning him to the custody of the Afghan Government is in the best interest of the Afghan people," said Col. Thomas Collins, Coalition spokesperson.

A Leader of mujahideen dies – BBC

One of the leaders of the Afghan mujahideen, Maulvi Yunis Khalis, has died at the age of 87. A statement from his son delivered to media organisations in Pakistan said he died on 19 July, but did not say where. Maulvi Yunis Khan was a strong supporter of the Taleban and had been in hiding since declaring jihad (holy war) against US-led forces in 2003.

Yunis Khan headed a faction of the Hezb-i-Islami during the war against Afghan Communists and Soviet troops. in 1988 he led a delegation of mujahideen leaders to the United Nations and met US President Ronald Reagan.

Cameron makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

By Times Online and PA News in Kandahar - David Cameron, the Conservative leader, today made a surprise visit to the former Taleban stronghold in Afghanistan where the majority of British troops are based. His flight by Ministry of Defence jet into Kandahar was conducted in the conditions of strict secrecy for security reasons.

Mr Cameron said his first visit to troops stationed overseas since becoming Conservative leader would be devoted to listening, learning and showing his support for what is being done.

The recent upsurge of violence in the south of the country, which has seen six British soldiers killed in the past two months, had led to criticism from some quarters of the Government decision to commit UK troops to the lead role in Nato’s deployment there.

But Mr Cameron has remained supportive of the mission and today stressed that he wanted to show there was cross-party consensus behind the work of British armed forces in Afghanistan.

Mr Cameron is meeting military commanders and air crew from the RAF squadrons operating Harrier GR7s, Chinook helicopters and Hercules transport aircraft from Kandahar airfield, one of the UK’s three main bases in the country.

Donning body armour as the planes came into land, he said: "The purpose of this visit is extremely straightforward and simple. It is to show support for what our troops are doing in Afghanistan and show that there is a cross-party consensus for the very difficult and important work that they are doing.

"The second purpose is to see for myself the challenges, the difficulties and the opportunities and to learn about what we are doing and how well it is working."

Following the July 10 announcement by Des Brown, the Defence Secretary, of 900 additional troops for southern Afghanistan, Mr Cameron said that manpower and equipment levels remained an "ongoing issue" about which he wanted Conservative to ask "sensible, legitimate, reasonable" questions in Parliament.

But he added: "The Government say that they have always responded positively to requests from the Army and it will obviously be interesting being here, being able to ask the questions myself."

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, yesterday used a newspaper article to urge the Government to make the case for more troops from other Nato nations.

But today, Mr Cameron said only: "Britain has got a very substantial contribution and it is important always to stress the multinational nature of what is being done in Afghanistan, with 36 countries involved."

Mr Cameron hailed the "professionalism and dedication and sheer ability to get the job done" of British troops and said it was important for politicians to see first hand the conditions in which they are asked to serve.

Accompanying Mr Cameron and Liam Fox, the shadow Defence Secretary, was Brigadier Ed Butler, the Commander of Britain’s 5,000-strong contribution to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.

He said UK troops in the lawless southern province of Helmand had faced "persistent and ferocious" attacks from supporters of the former Taliban regime, allied with local drug lords and criminal gangs.

But he said he believed that "the tip of the spike of enemy activity" had been reached and that within weeks or months the violence could be expected to tail off. Brig Butler confirmed that military top brass were considering a "rebalancing" of their deployment in Helmand, but declined to confirm reports that this might involve pulling back detachments from the more remote outposts in the north of the province where they have come under fiercest attack.

Karzai inaugurates road

KABUL, July 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai opened a road from Qargha bridge of Kabul to Taq Zafar of Paghman on Saturday.

The president termed opening the road as his dreams. Recalling his past, Karzai said he had visited the area several times and wanted to construct the area again.

He urged the locals to plant saplings on both sides of the road. The road has 9 metre length and 7 metre width. Lauding the assistance of Afghan Construction Limited, Karzai voiced pleasure on women participation in reconstruction.

Minister for Public Works Shurab Ali Safri said the road was constructed with $0.7 million fund granted by Asian Bank and was completed in six months. He

said 20,000 people of the area would be benefited with the road.

In the past, the road was dirt and rough, he said, adding the travelers were facing tough times. Governor of Kabul, representative of World Bank, national leaders and high-ranking officials also attended the meeting.

Third cell-phone company launches services - Mustafa Basharat 

KABUL, July 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): With an investment of $140 million, the third private cell-phone company launched its services in Kabul and three other cities on Saturday.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, president of Areeba - the cell-phone company - said purchase price for the company's sim card had been set at 750 afghanis. Per minute charges for a call is said to be 5.5 afghanis.

He said the consumers would be charged as per duration of the call. Even 30 seconds would be counted and the consumers would have to pay only for as much air time as the duration of their call, he explained.

Besides Kabul, he said Areeba had launched its service in three big cities, including Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad. Its service would soon be extended to other cities as well.

The credit cards would be available for 150, 250, 500, 1,500 and 4,000 afghanis. He said some 800 offices had been established to sell the credit cards. Besides, Syria, Ghana, Cyprus and Sudan, the company is providing services in five other countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Communication Minister Amirzai Sangin said they hoped the company would extend its operation to other cities and villages soon. He informed another company in the name of Etisalat would also start operation soon. Two mobile phone companies, Roshan, and AWCC are presently operating in the country.

Afghan Development Continues Amid Violent, Indiscriminate Attacks

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2006 – Coalition forces continue to aid and develop Afghanistan, even as they fight back terrorist extremists who are determined to stop progress, U.S. military officials reported today.

Aid and reconstruction efforts include a rebuilt mosque in the Paktya province and medial and humanitarian aid to hundreds of Afghan villagers in the Kandahar province, said Combined Forces Command spokesman Army Col. Thomas Collins.

The refurbished mosque, he noted, was a joint effort by the Afghan government and coalition forces; it took three months and $16,000 to complete. The project had been identified by the people of the Zormat district as "something they needed for their people," Collins said. A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the mosque's completion on July 20.

Also last week, a cooperative medical assistance team provided preventive health care to more than 230 Afghan villagers and some 450 children in the Kandahar province. All children under the age of 5, Collins said, were given de-worming medication. A second medical assistance team, he added, is en route to villages in the Uruzgan province.

But for every two steps forward that the Afghan people make, terrorist extremists launch attacks designed to bring the country one step backward.

For example, two suicide bombers in Kandahar City yesterday killed five local Afghan civilians and two coalition soldiers. Thirty-two civilians and eight coalition soldiers were wounded in the attacks. Another coalition soldiers was killed July 21 in the Sharana district of Paktika province, when rocket and mortar rounds landed inside a coalition base.

"The killed and wounded were coalition soldiers who were here in Kandahar, away from their homes and families, to work with the Afghan people to help them have the opportunity for a safe and secure way of life," Collins said. "They were honorable, caring soldiers who were here to help build schools, give out shoes and wheat seed to villagers. They were soldiers who were here to free Afghanistan of extremists, who thrive on intimidation and spread fear among the people. They were soldiers who only wanted to help."

Collins said the Afghan villagers who were killed in the attacks also were innocent. They "only wanted to take care of their families and give their children the chance for a healthier, happier life," he said. They "wanted progress and peace."

Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, said the soldiers killed by the suicide bombers were Canadians.

"We grieve for our lost Canadian soldiers who served so willingly," Freakley said. "They were superb teammates, and we will always remember their selfless sacrifice. We are honored to have served with them."

Coalition forces, he added, are not now and will not ever be dissuaded from their mission of building a free, secure, and independent Afghanistan. Otherwise, the terrorist extremists will have won and the myriad sacrifices of U.S., Afghan and coalition forces will have been in vain, the general said.

"Out of respect and admiration for (their) courage and commitment, we will continue the fight until extremism is defeated in this country," Freakley said.

Coalition forces continue to root out the terrorist extremists, and "Afghan National Security Forces continue to build in strength and capacity to root out enemy fighters and to take the lead in these critical missions," Collins said.

For example, the Afghan Air Corps recently opened a flight operations facility at Kabul International Airport. The new center will allow aircrews from the various ministries to coordinate flight plans and check routes before flying, Collins said.

The Afghan Air Corps has a fleet of helicopters and fixed wing planes, and plans call for more aircraft. With these new capabilities, Collins said, the air corps can take on more missions and provide greater security to the Afghan people.

Afghan and coalition forces, meanwhile, remain on the offensive by continuing to attack Taliban safe havens and interdicting their movements to further extend the authority of the Afghan government throughout the region.

Yesterday, Combined Forces Command Afghanistan transferred custody of terrorist Amir Gul Hassanyar to a representative of the national director of security at the Kabul International Airport.

The 2nd Kandak, 1st Brigade, 209th Afghan National Army Corps, and coalition forces detained him, during a search of a compound south of Kunduz near the village of Baghlan on July 16.

"Gul is responsible for numerous attacks using improvised explosive devices, trafficking in illegal weapons and drugs, and engaging in other anti-coalition and anti-government-of-Afghanistan activities," Collins said. "Amir Gul Hassanyar remains a security threat, and coalition forces believe that returning him to the custody of the government is in the best interest of the Afghan people"

Moreover, in the past few days, coalition forces discovered a suicide vest in Uruzgan province and unexploded ordnance near an intersection in the Urugan district in Paktika province. The unexploded ordinance may have been planted as a possible IED; coalition forces disabled it, Collins said.

In Wardak province, the Nerkh police station defended itself against a group of enemy fighters. Some Afghan National Police were wounded, but the police station held its own and repelled the extremists, Collins said.

(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases.)

Role-playing lets Afghan-Canadians help Canadian troops prepare – CanWest News Service; Edmonton Journal - Sunday, July 23, 2006

EDMONTON -- More than 50 Edmontonians of Afghan or Muslim descent attended a casting call Saturday to help make Canadian troops more understanding of cultural differences when on Mideast peacekeeping missions.

If selected, the people will play villagers in a war-torn Mideast country. They will live in mock towns and experience simulated car bombs and riots at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright this fall to help train Canadian troops.

On a day when two Canadian soldiers were killed in his home country, Zahir Azizi said he is glad to have the opportunity to help educate more soldiers and, in turn, people in the Middle East.

"It's a job and something an Afghan should do. It's for them and it's for peace," Azizi said.

Casting organizers said that this type of simulated-event training has helped U.S. and U.K. mission injury and death rates drop after troops participate in three of the training sessions.

This spring, the Canadian military contacted DB Entertainment to produce the training event, including using makeup and special effects to create the most realistic scenes possible for the soldiers.

"Basically, we're going to create virtual villages and we're going to have people playing citizens from the villages," said casting agent Kris Rurka. "I thought it was a fantastic idea."

"When these soldiers go to Afghanistan, everything is strange to them the topography, the culture and the traditions," said Azizi, who is hoping to get a part. "It (the training) reduces casualties and miscommunication, and that is important."

Azizi is hoping to get a speaking role that will pay $250 a day, as he is able to speak the Farsi, Pashtoun and Dari languages. Other people, some of whom came to the casting call wearing traditional headdresses and clothing, will be paid $150 a day for non-speaking roles.

"In villages (in Afghanistan) the people are mostly uneducated and they can't understand why they (Canadian soldiers) are there. They just take what the Taliban or other parties or groups tell them about the soldiers," said Azizi. That could lead to a dangerous situation, he said.

Rurka said the actors would not be cast in a stereotypical way. "I think people are comfortable because they are helping so many people in their own countries," he said.

A military spokesperson was not available to comment. Ninety people from Edmonton and Calgary will be cast for the training.

US calls on Pakistan to avoid using new atomic reactor

Washington (AFP) - The United States urged Pakistan not to use a powerful new atomic reactor under construction to bolster its nuclear weapons capability amid warnings of a new South Asia arms race.

The US administration confirmed it knew about the reactor at Pakistan's Khushab nuclear complex after satellite images were released by a US nuclear non-proliferation group.

The International Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the heavy water reactor could produce more than 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds) of weapons grade plutonium a year. This would be enough to make 40-50 nuclear weapons every year.

Pakistan is believed to currently have 30-50 uranium warheads in all, "which tend to be heavier and more difficult than plutonium warheads to mount on missiles," the Washington Post reported Monday.

"South Asia may be heading for a nuclear arms race that could lead to arsenals growing into the hundreds of nuclear weapons, or at a minimum vastly expanded stockpiles of military fissile material," the ISIS warned.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said: "We have been aware of these plans and we discourage any use of that facility for military purposes such as weapons development."

He added: "Pakistan of course is outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty and therefore they do develop their capabilities independently."

Neither Pakistan nor India are signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and as the US Congress prepares to hold new debates on a proposed civilian nuclear cooperation deal with India, the ISIS report on Pakistan has set alarm bells ringing among some lawmakers who oppose the India deal.

Representative Ed Markey, the Democratic co-chairman of the Bipartisan Taskforce on Nonproliferation, said: "The nuclear arms race in South Asia is about to ignite, and instead of doing everything possible to stop this vicious cycle, the Bush Administration is throwing fuel on the fire.

"If either India or Pakistan starts increasing its nuclear arsenal, the other side will respond in kind; and the Bush Administration's proposed nuclear deal with India is making that much more likely."

He called on President George W. Bush to press India and Pakistan to suspend production of bomb-grade fissile materials while an international treaty limiting bomb-making material stockpiles is negotiated.

"Both Pakistan and India need to reverse their decisions to increase their nuclear arsenals, and take a step back from the brink," Markey said.

Khushab is in Pakistan's Punjab province. The new reactor is adjacent to Pakistan's only plutonium production reactor, a 50-megawatt unit that began operating in 1998.

The dimensions of the new reactor suggest a capacity of 1,000 megawatts or more, according to ISIS experts David Albright and Paul Brannan.

Pakistan would not confirm plans for the new reactor. In Islamabad, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the existence of the Khushab nuclear facility "ought to be no revelation to anyone because Pakistan is a nuclear weapon state.

"I have no specific comments on Pakistan's facility or details of the facility and our programme in this sector."

India made no immediate comment about the ISIS report or the US administration's reaction. The ISIS also called for accelerated efforts to reach agreement to halt production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

"Not only are such arsenals a waste of precious resources, they increase instability in the region and could needlessly provoke China to respond by increasing the size and lethality of its own nuclear capabilities," said the ISIS report.

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