Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, left, reviews an honor guard with Chinese President Hu Jintao during a welcome ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People Monday, June 19, 2006. Karzai arrived Sunday from Kazakhstan where he attended a security summit, following last weeks's Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

In this bulletin:

• Karzai arrives in Beijing
• Afghanistan-China pledge to deepen ties as leaders meet
• Taliban kill 32 in Afghanistan, MP says
• Afghan stampede kills schoolgirls
• Taliban ambush of Afghan police convoy kills 5
• Target Taliban: More than 100 fighters reported dead in first three days of Afghan offensive
• British troops kill six Taliban attacking Afghan power plant
• Suicide attack in Afghanistan
• Two coalition soldiers killed in Kunar
• Two de-miners perish in Helmand, Paktika
• Taliban trying to 'test' Nato
• Putin promises aid to Afghanistan
• Russia to continue to contribute to Afghanistan development
• Iranian, Afghan officials discuss Sangan-Herat railroad project
• Pakistan denies transit route for Indian goods
• Afghanistan torches 1.5 tonnes of drugs, 15,000 bottles of alcohol
• U.S. fights Taliban from air
• ISLAMABAD WRESTLES WITH ITS OWN NEO-TALIBAN DILEMMA
• Ignatieff lambastes opponents
• Ignatieff defends views on Afghanistan
• Afghan immigrant supports rebuilding homeland
• Desert outpost the last stop until Taliban
• Captured Taliban leader given amnesty
• Pakistan journalist found killed

Karzai arrives in Beijing - Xinhua 06/19/2006

At the invitation of Chinese president Hu Jintao, the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai arrived here Sunday afternoon, kicking off his four-day state visit to China.

According to the information from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Karzai is expected to hold talks with Hu and meet with other Chinese leaders including Wu Bangguo and Jia Qinglin. The two sides will exchange views on the bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common concern.

Besides Beijing, Karzai will pay a visit to northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Afghanistan-China pledge to deepen ties as leaders meet

Beijing (AFP) - Afghanistan and China pledged to deepen economic and military ties, as President Hamid Karzai met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on the first full day of a state visit.

The two nations signed eleven trade and economic agreements following the meeting, according to China's foreign ministry on Monday. No details were released.

"China and Afghanistan relations have entered a new stage of development," Hu told Karzai as they began their meeting at the Great Hall of the People. "Your visit at this particularly important time will go a very long way towards enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries."

Karzai had earlier told a forum of Chinese businessmen that they were welcome to take part in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and invest in infrastructure projects, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Karzai particularly welcomed Chinese investment in telecommunications, transport and construction.

Annual trade between Afghanistan and China was worth between 400 and 500 million dollars, mainly exports from China to Afghanistan, Xinhua quoted Karzai as saying. Also on Monday the two nations' defense ministers met and pledged to build closer relations, according to Xinhua.

"China is committed to developing its military ties with Afghanistan and will continue efforts to upgrade such relations," Xinhua quoted Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan as telling his Afghan counterpart, Abdul Rahim Wardak.

Wardak replied that: "Afghanistan regards China as a reliable neighbor and partner, and is ready to... further bilateral military ties," according to Xinhua. No details of further military cooperation were released.

Karzai, who arrived in Beijing on Sunday evening, will during his trip travel to China's far northwest Xinjiang region, which shares a narrow border with Afghanistan. His visit ends on Wednesday.

Taliban kill 32 in Afghanistan, MP says

Kandahar (AFP) - Taliban militants killed 32 friends and relatives of an influential lawmaker in southern Afghanistan and 10 others are missing, the member of parliament said.

MP Dad Mohammad Khan told AFP that 27 of the men had been killed in Helmand province when they had gone to the scene of an earlier attack in which five others were shot dead.

"Yesterday morning in Taliban attacks, 32 of my relatives and friends were killed," said Khan, the influential former intelligence chief of the province. "Ten relatives of mine are still missing and five are wounded," he said.

One of the five men killed in the earlier ambush was a brother of Khan named Juma Gull, a former governor of Helmand's Sangin district. The group had been returning from a visit to Ghorak district in neighbouring Kandahar province. "Taliban attacked their vehicle and killed my brother, my son and three other people," Khan said.

"On hearing the news my other brother Gull Mohammad and other relatives rushed to the site of the incident. They were ambushed by Taliban again. Some of them were killed at the site, and some were killed in different locations.

"Today we have recovered 32 bodies of my family members, relatives and friends." A self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman on Sunday claimed responsibility for the first attack. The incident was confirmed by deputy provincial governor, Mullah Amir Akhund.

"A total of 30 people were killed in the two attacks in Sangin district yesterday, which includes two brothers of MP Dad Mohammad, one of his sons and the rest are mostly his relatives," he said. "His other son and three more are wounded."

Helmand is among several provinces in the south and east that have been hard-hit by an insurgency launched by the Taliban movement after it was removed from power in late 2001 by a US-led coalition.

It also produces most of Afghanistan's opium crop, which makes up about 90 percent of the heroin and opium used in Europe.

Some experts have said there is a link between the opium farmers and rebels, who have been said to offer to protect opium poppy fields from government eradication attempts.

Around 3,300 British troops are being deployed to Helmand province as part of a US-led coalition force that is fighting the Taliban and their allies.

British commanders told reporters in the capital Kabul Sunday that their troops were enjoying success in the region after pushing faster than expected into rebel territory, including areas in the north that have been without government control for three decades.

Coalition and Afghan troops have also stepped up their efforts against the rebels, launching last month a new campaign called Operation Mountain Thrust. The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 in a US-led offensive after they failed to hand over Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.

Afghan stampede kills schoolgirls - BBC News Sunday, 18 June 2006

Four girls have been killed in a stampede at a school in the western Afghan city of Herat following an accidental gas explosion, police say. Eight other children were also injured as people started to panic and flee after a fire broke out, officials said.

"The fire started to engulf a nearby classroom and the children started to flee," provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told Reuters news agency. The fire from the gas cylinder had been brought under control, he said.

Taliban ambush of Afghan police convoy kills 5 - June 18 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters)

Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan police convoy on Sunday, killing five people, an official said, the latest attack in the bloodiest phase of violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the Islamist government.

Along with four policemen, a senior former provincial official was killed in the clash in the southern province of Helmand, provincial spokesman Mahaiuddin said. "I do not have more details about it or of possible Taliban losses," he added.

Violence has flared in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban heartland, as NATO troops move in to take over from the U.S. military to allow Washington to pull out 3,000 soldiers.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf phoned Reuters from an unknown location to say Taliban guerrillas were behind Sunday's ambush.

Almost 1,000 people have been killed in Taliban violence and coalition-led operations in Afghanistan this year, including more than 40 foreign soldiers, most of them Americans.

The U.S. military last week announced its biggest operation since ousting the Taliban in 2001 to crush the militants in the south. Operation Mountain Thrust has involved several air strikes, Afghan officials say.

Target Taliban: More than 100 fighters reported dead in first three days of Afghan offensive - Independent, UK 06/18/2006 By Jason Burke

Bombing raid is a rare decisive blow against an elusive enemy getting help from al-Qa'ida and linking up with drug lords, report Tom Coghlan in Kandahar and Raymond Whitaker

More than 100 Taliban fighters have been killed so far in the biggest offensive against the former rulers of Afghanistan since they were overthrown in 2001, US commanders claimed yesterday.

The most successful action in the three days of Operation Mountain Thrust was an overnight bombing raid against a compound in Uruzgan province, in the lawless central highlands of Afghanistan. More than 40 Taliban fighters were said to have died in what was described as an attack on a meeting of insurgents in a "known enemy camp", including a bomb-making team, local financiers and commanders.

"Coalition forces tracked the development of this meeting until there were more than 50 extremists gathered before attacking the compound," said a US military spokesman, Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick. "The compound was severely damaged, and we anticipate most of those present were killed."

It is rare, however, for the US-led forces to encounter the enemy in such large numbers. More typical was another clash in Uruzgan in which American and Afghan forces reported killing five Taliban insurgents in a compound near the provincial capital, Tarin Kowt.

Eight pounds of opium was discovered, adding to evidence that the Taliban is joining forces with drug lords in southern Afghanistan. That in turn emphasises how difficult it will be for the 3,300 British soldiers based in Helmand province, the largest single component among the 11,000 troops taking part in Mountain Thrust, to stay out of counter-insurgency or drugs eradication operations. Officially they are supposed to be in Helmand purely to support the Afghan authorities in reconstruction efforts, but a British military spokesman, Captain Drew Gibson, said they were continuing with "cordon and search" operations similar to that on 4 June which produced the biggest British firefight to date, an engagement in which 21 Taliban fighters were reported to have died.

Last week British forces in Helmand suffered their first death. Captain Jim Phillipson, from 7 Para, Royal Horse Artillery, was killed when his night patrol came under fire from insurgents in Sangin district. It signalled that the mission will only get tougher, with the number of clashes increasing as living conditions get worse. Helmand is just beginning what is known locally as the "120 day wind", a savagely hot summer blast that produces week-long sandstorms.

Last week, when British troops patrolled the area around Grishk, an area of known Taliban sympathies, they attempted to win local support through a game of football. Troops diplomatically lost 2-0 to a local school, and after handing out ice cream to schoolchildren, an officer delivered a speech explaining that they were there at the request of the Afghan government to support the people. The crowd response was jeers, followed by a volley of stones.

Mullah Naqib Ullah, head of the Alakozai tribe, and one of the most prominent tribal leaders in Kandahar province, warned yesterday that counter-narcotics eradication campaigns by Afghan government forces in the south were forcing local people into the arms of the Taliban. "The Taliban have encouraged people to cultivate poppy and promised to protect them when they do," he said.

One senior British officer hinted to The Independent on Sunday that a halt, or at least a slowdown, might be sought in eradication efforts in the short term. "We may have to say to the farmers that there will be a period of grace, while we develop the economy to give them an alternative."

Mountain Thrust , which is expected to last for at least a month,is aimed at reversing the gains the Taliban has made in recent months. Since late last year the movement has regrouped across the border in Pakistan and infiltrated its former strongholds in southern Afghanistan. With al-Qa'ida assistance it has adopted tactics which have been successful in Iraq, notably the use of suicide bombers and increasingly powerful and well-targeted roadside bombs.

One Western diplomat based in the south told the IoS that the quantity of explosives appearing in such devices had increased four times over during 2006, with insurgents packing multiple anti-tank mines together to produce bombs which could penetrate the armour of any Western vehicle deployed in Afghanistan. "These devices are certainly the product of expertise that is coming in from outside the country."

The latest offensive follows a similar, much smaller operation, named Mountain Lion, carried out by American and Afghan National Army troops in April in the eastern border province of Kunar. "Mountain Thrust aims to root out Taliban safe havens across an area 20 times larger than that covered by Operation Mountain Lion," said a spokeswoman, Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence.

But while the Kunar offensive succeeded in reducing the level of insurgent activity, it failed to capture or kill significant numbers of insurgents, who simply melted away into the local populace.

Two American soldiers died yesterday when the vehicle they were travelling in struck a roadside bomb in Kunar. Taliban insurgents have also continued to mount terrorist-style attacks in urban areas, with Thursday's bombing of a mini-bus carrying Afghans to the main US airbase in Kandahar the first specifically to target local people working for US forces at the base.

British troops kill six Taliban attacking Afghan power plant - June 18, 2006 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP)

British troops said they had killed six Taliban rebels who had been firing mortars at one of Afghanistan's few functioning hydro-electric dams.

British forces returned fire with mortars after they also came under fire late Saturday near the Kajaki dam and power plant in southern Helmand province, a British military spokesman said on Sunday.

"Suspected Taliban have fired mortars against Kajaki power plant for the past couple of nights," Captain Drew Jabson told AFP.

A British force went to the area on Saturday. "When they fired mortars at us, British troops fired back. We were able to confirm six Taliban killed," he said.

The plant is one of the few hydro-electricity-generating systems that functions in Afghanistan. It is in Kajaki district near Musa Qala and Sangin, where the Taliban are active.

"By this, the Taliban have shown their desire to fight people, destroy their infrastructure. Taliban have a cause to fight the people of Afghanistan and we are here to support the Afghan government," Jabson said.

There have been attempts to attack the dam in the past. The day before last year's September 18 parliamentary election, the first legislative election in around three decades, about 20 Taliban were arrested while planting bombs at the site.

Helmand has been hard-hit by an insurgency launched by the Taliban movement after it was removed from power in late 2001 by a US-led coalition. The violence peaked last month in a two-week stretch in which about 400 people were killed, most of them Taliban.

There are around 3,300 British troops stationed in Helmand province as part of a US-led coalition force that is fighting the Taliban and their allies.

The United States said Monday it would invest 103 million dollars in rehabilitating the Kajaki dam, including its power-generating turbines, as well as on power lines and building a new road to the facility.

Few donors work in the area because of the insurgency-linked dangers, which have kept the province trapped in an opium economy. Helmand produces about a quarter of Afghanistan's opium crop, which makes about 90 percent of the opium and heroin in Europe.

Suicide attack in Afghanistan
The Australian From correspondents in Kandahar  June 17, 2006

A SUICIDE bomber with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up near an Afghan army vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, wounding three civilians and two soldiers, an official said.

The bomber detonated his explosives as the vehicle approached him in the southwestern province of Nimroz, provincial spokesman Waheed Khairzad said.

"Two soldiers and three civilians were wounded as a result of the suicide attack in Delaram district today. The suicide bomber was also killed. His body was torn in pieces," he said.

Nimroz has been relatively quiet in comparison to southern and southeastern Afghanistan, where Taliban-linked roadside bomb blasts, including suicide attacks, occur regularly.

However three Afghans working for foreign groups were killed when roadside bomb struck their vehicles in Delaram on Thursday as the Taliban warned it would target Afghans working for international companies, which it wants to leave the country.

Two were employed by a Turkish road construction company and the third was a deminer contracted to the UN mine removal agency in Afghanistan.

The attacks came as a bomb planted by the Taliban exploded on a bus taking Afghans to work at a US-led coalition run air field in the southern city of Kandahar Thursday.

Ten people were killed: seven on the bus, most of them interpreters, and three bystanders.

The insurgency launched by the Taliban movement after it was removed from power in 2001 has grown with each year and saw a surge of attacks last month, when the coalition and Afghan army kicked-off their biggest operation yet -Mountain Thrust.

The insurgency is mostly made up of guerrilla-style attacks, with about 30 suicide attacks this year, including some in the capital Kabul. Most of the suicide attacks killed few people other than the attacker.

Two coalition soldiers killed in Kunar

KABUL, June 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two coalition soldiers were killed while conducting a combat operation in Asadabad, capital of the eastern Kunar province on Friday, said a military statement released here on Saturday.

A coalition patrol was conducting security operations in Asadabad when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the roadside.

"We sincerely regret their loss. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten," said Major General Benjamin C Freakley, commander of the Combined Joint task Force - 76. "Our thoughts and prayers extend to the families and comrades of our two soldiers who sacrificed their lives in pursuit of their mission to make Afghanistan a safe and secure nation." The statement did not mention names and nationalities of the two dead soldiers.

Two de-miners perish in Helmand, Paktika

KABUL, June 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two de-miners were killed and three others wounded in two separate incidents in Paktika and Helmand provinces on Thursday.

The workers of Organisation for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation (OMAR) were on the way from Herat to Kandahar province when their car was hit a roadside bomb in Shorab area of Greshk district in Helmand.

A senior official with OMAR in Kabul Shah Zalmay said the explosion was caused by remote-controlled bomb. Initially, all the four staffers were wounded, but one of them succumbed to wounds on the way to hospital. He said 17 workers of OMAR has died in action and dozens wounded since it was founded in 1990.

In a separate incident, a de-miner of the Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC ) de-mining agency was killed while clearing landmines in Paktika province. Ahmad Mirwais, in charge of the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) in the southeastern region, said the incident happened in Ahmadkhel district's Nary Kotal area. The de-miner, named Abdul Latif from Nangarhar province was killed in the explosion.

Taliban trying to 'test' Nato - 18/06/2006 Washington

Taliban forces are seeking to "test" Nato troops in areas of Afghanistan where they are taking over from the US military but have "overwhelmingly been losing," White House spokesperson Tony Snow said on Sunday.

The White House press secretary, in an interview on CNN's Late Edition, said the increased military activity by members of the former ruling Islamic militia was "predictable".

"I think what the Taliban is doing - and it's predictable - is they are trying to test in the south, where the US forces are handing over to Nato," Snow said. "There's been a test."

"But A, it's predictable, and B, in the encounters, as you know, the Taliban fighters have overwhelmingly been losing," he said.

"It is predictable that the Taliban tries to assert itself in Afghanistan, and furthermore, as the government begins to expand beyond the boundaries of Kabul ... you can expect there to be pushback by the Taliban," he said.

Snow confirmed reports that the United States had increased its use of air power in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that US airstrikes in Afghanistan had surged in the past three months, with the number of strikes double those in Iraq.

Citing the US military headquarters for the Middle East, the newspaper said Washington carried out 340 air strikes in Afghanistan in that time frame, "more than twice the 160 carried out in the much higher-profile war in Iraq".

The air strikes have been conducted with aircraft ranging from B-52 bombers to small Predator drones, the Post said. The air strikes have coincided with Operation Mountain Thurst, the largest US offensive in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The offensive includes Canadian and British forces that have been setting up in southern Afghanistan over the past few months ahead of Nato's takeover of command of the region.

Putin promises aid to Afghanistan

ALMATY, June 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will continue helping Afghanistan's development and recovery, President Vladimir Putin said.

Putin told his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, that he "was following the developments in his country and saw how difficult it was to resolve problems."

Karzai highlighted the development of cooperation with Russia, adding that his country's strengthening "met the interests of Russia and the world."

He said he hoped Russia "would be playing a more important role in Afghanistan's development and restoration and investment in its economy."

Russia to continue to contribute to Afghanistan development - Kazinform, Kazakhstan 06/18/2006 ALMATY

Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday that he very attentively watched developments in the country and saw how difficult it was to solve problems there. "We are always in sympathy with Afghan people," the Russian leader stressed. Russia made and will make its contribution within its capabilities to Afghanistan's development and revival, Putin said.

Karzai noted that, with each meeting, relations between the two countries became better and better, and personal relations developed into personal friendship, Kazinform quotes Itar-Tass. Afghanistan and Russia are to live together and consolidate cooperation, he said.

Afghanistan's strengthening meets interests of Russia and the whole world, the Afghan president said, and the Russian leader agreed. Russia's Afghan friends hope that Russia will step up its role in Afghanistan's development and reconstruction and investments in its economy. Afghanistan wants friendship with Russia to be more and more consolidated, the Afghan leader added

Iranian, Afghan officials discuss Sangan-Herat railroad project

TEHRAN, June 17 (MNA) -– During their visit in Iran on Saturday, Iranian and Afghan officials stressed the importance of the construction of a railroad line to connect the Iranian township of Sangan to Herat in northwest Afghanistan.

Es’haq Naderi, the economical advisor to the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the director general of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Company Mohammad Saeednejad agreed on the construction of a railroad line to speed up the rail link between the two nations. Iran has undertaken to supply 60 percent of the project costs from the funds it had previously allocated to Afghanistan reconstruction programs.

Preliminary studies for the construction of the 189-km railroad are already complete and the project is expected to be put into tender for completion soon.

About 86.8 kilometers of the railway will lie in Iran’s territory.

Pakistan denies transit route for Indian goods - Nirupama Subramanian - The Hindu (India) Sunday, Jun 18, 2006 ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has once again turned down a request for a transit route to Afghanistan through the Wagah border for Indian goods.

At the June 14-15 Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Economic Commission meeting, Afghan Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahady reiterated the demand that Pakistan provide a transit route through the Wagah border for Indian goods bound for his country. Mr. Ahady said later that there had been no progress on this demand.

The Afghan Minister said Pakistan had its compulsions for not giving the transit rights. "However, if the transit was extended, it would provide a relief to Afghanistan," he was quoted as saying.

Pakistan has linked permission for the overland trade corridor to progress on solving the Kashmir issue. Pending that, Pakistan has said India could make use of the Karachi port to transport goods to Afghanistan.

At present, Pakistan allows Afghan goods to reach India through the Wagah border but India sends its goods to Afghanistan through Iran.

Afghanistan torches 1.5 tonnes of drugs, 15,000 bottles of alcohol - June 18, 2006 KABUL (AFP)

Nearly 15,000 bottles of alcoholic drinks and 1.5 tonnes of drugs went up in smoke near Afghanistan's capital as officials torched illegal substances confiscated three years ago.

It was one of the biggest amounts of drugs to be destroyed in this manner, the ministry of interior said in a statement on Sunday. The haul included 876 kilograms (1,930 pounds) of opium, 374 kilograms of hashish, 156 kilograms of heroin and 14 kilograms of morphine.

The drugs and the alcohol were seized in different parts of the country during 2002 and 2003, the statement said. Alcohol is in theory banned in Afghanistan, which is an Islamic republic, except for foreigners who can only buy at certain shops with proof of identity or in restaurants. However it is available to Afghans under the counter in some places.

The country grows about 90 percent of the opium used in Europe, mostly to make heroin, and authorities are trying to curtail the illegal production including by persuading farmers to plant other crops. The country also has about one million drugs users, a number which is growing.

"Our struggle will not stop until Afghanistan totally gets rid of illegal drugs," said Lieutenant General Mohammad Daud Daud, the deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics. "Drugs have brought nothing but shame and misery to Afghanistan. They have destroyed lives here and destroyed lives abroad," he said.

U.S. fights Taliban from air - The Washington Times 06/18/2006

In the past three months, the United States has carried out 340 airstrikes in Afghanistan, twice the number in Iraq. Officials told The Washington Post the military has been responding aggressively to Taliban aggression.

"I think the Taliban realize they have a window to act," said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, who commands the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. "The enemy is working against a window that he knows is closing."

The Taliban has been especially active in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The toll includes the deaths of 300 civilians, insurgents and soldiers and the burning of 200 schools.

Barnett R. Rubin of New York University told the Post the Taliban is probably trying to show European leaders that they must be prepared for casualties as NATO takes over in southern Afghanistan.

"They are trying to show that there is a war in the south and that the British, Dutch, Canadian or any other forces will have to take casualties and fight, not just patrol and build schools," Rubin said. "They hope that this will have an impact on internal politics in these countries."

ISLAMABAD WRESTLES WITH ITS OWN NEO-TALIBAN DILEMMA RFE/RL June 2006

Pakistan officials refer to those fomenting unrest along the country's border with Afghanistan -- primarily in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northwest Pakistan -- as "miscreants." It is a term reminiscent of the label that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration uses for antigovernment fighters in his country:

"enemies of peace and security." It might also indicate a shortsightedness that hinders both countries' security efforts. Situated along the disputed Afghan-Pakistani boundary, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) include seven agencies and four tribal areas adjoining districts of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The inhabitants of these regions are predominately ethnic Pashtuns, the same case as on the Afghan side of the border. The Pakistani Constitution states that acts of that country's parliament are nonbinding in the FATA unless the president declares otherwise.

The president has discretionary power to order all or part of any of those tribal areas to be brought under direct government control -- provided that local views, reflected in a traditional Pashtun tribal council, or jirga, are taken into consideration. The situation in the FATA -- especially in the agencies of North and South Waziristan -- has steadily deteriorated since demise of the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan in late 2001. A large number former Taliban leaders are thought to have settled in the FATA, along with some of their foreign supporters.

As part of its counterterrorism effort, Pakistan has for the first time in its history introduced upwards of 70,000 regular and irregular military troops to the FATA. The introduction of regular Pakistani forces has failed to halt neo-Taliban activities on either the Pakistani or the Afghan side of the border. Since March, some 300 "miscreants" -- including foreign fighters -- have been reported killed in FATA. In the same period, some regions of the FATA have come under the control of Pakistan's neo-Taliban and their sympathizers. In early June, the "miscreants" carried out a suicide attack on a Pakistani military convoy in the in Banu district of the North-West Frontier Province, killing four soldiers. A previous attack in North Waziristan killed a policeman and a soldier.

Islamabad's "Pakistan Observer" commented on June 4 that suicide bombing, "introduced by the Palestinians... has spilled over to Iraq and Afghanistan and is seemingly falling out to Pakistan as well." The Pakistani neo-Taliban have begun to exercise greater control over aspects of daily life in areas of the FATA. In addition to policing and the collection of duties -- mimicking the tactics of their allies across the border in Afghanistan -- the neo-Taliban in Pakistan have targeted a mother-and-child health center, and have beheaded individuals on charges of providing intelligence to the United States. Engaging Locals Pakistani authorities have also adopted a tactic similar to one being employed in Afghanistan. Traditional Pashtun councils (jirgas) have been organized under government supervision in the North-West Frontier Province to solicit the aid of local tribes in fighting what officials call the "miscreant" menace.

According to a June 7 report in the Lahore-based "Daily Times," the newly appointed governor of NWFP, retired Lieutenant General Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, told a recent gathering in Peshawar of tribal leaders from North Waziristan that Islamabad needs their help to "put out the fire that has engulfed the entire Waziristan." Orakzai vowed to convene a grand assembly, or loya jirga, that would possess decision-making powers to address the current problems. He added that it would represent all segments of society in the troubled FATA areas.

Pakistan reportedly is also considering replacing civilian administrators in the FATA with military personnel. The use of tribal militias -- known as "levies" -- is being considered to help quell the growing power of the neo-Taliban areas of the FATA. Afghanistan is also toying with the idea of establishing local Pashtun militias to counter the neo-Taliban in that country.

The use of tribal militias could offer a short-term tactical solution to challenge the neo-Taliban ascendancy in parts of the Pashtun heartlands on either side of the Afghan-Pakistani border. But the strategic endgame for both countries is the establishment of strong and effective state control in those areas.

As with the use of militias in the early stages of the defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, tactical approaches might complicate the strategic mission of firmly establishing state institutions. If the states become weak and ineffective, neither NATO nor Pakistan's own nuclear-armed military can be of much use. Before debating the creation of more fragmented military units that could actually help an elusive enemy, Kabul and Islamabad need to realize that both are losing ground to an enemy that they are not even prepared to properly identify. Instead of blaming each other over security or intelligence failures, Afghanistan and Pakistan should join hands in operations to counter antigovernment activities that neither side appears prepared to defeat at the moment. (Ron Synovitz) MANY FACTORS BEHIND INCREASED VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN.

There have been more combat-related deaths in Afghanistan during the past two months than any similar time period since the U.S-led coalition's campaign against the Taliban regime in late 2001. Hundreds of suspected Taliban have been killed this year by the coalition's ground and air strikes in southern Afghanistan. Tailban fighters also have increased the frequency and veracity of their attacks compared to recent years.

The death toll is also boosted by civilian casualties caused mainly by suicide bombers. The escalation of violence in Afghanistan comes as NATO troops prepare to take over security operations from U.S.-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan. General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week during a visit to India that the death toll is particularly high in southern Afghanistan because Taliban fighters are concentrating their forces more than in the past. A Tactical Problem "In the last two months, the Taliban have been conducting larger attacks this year than they did during the same time last year," Pace said. "The problem for the Taliban is that as they have gotten larger groups together, they have become much bigger targets. And they have lost about 300 Taliban in the last two months during those operations.

So the Taliban are a tactical problem for the coalition in Afghanistan. [But] the coalition in Afghanistan is a strategic problem for the Taliban." NATO spokesman Mark Laity said in Kabul today that it is not right for journalists to characterize the violence as worse than any time since 2001. But all agree that there has been an upsurge in Taliban attacks. "I would slightly challenge the word 'worse,'" he said. "I think the situation is probably more difficult and more complicated than in the past because there is an upsurge in attacks." In London, independent defense analyst Ian Kemp said the Taliban is simply trying to undermine public support for the expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force into southern Afghan provinces like Kandahar and Helmand. "One reason for the increase in violence is [because the Taliban wants] to show the NATO forces as they arrive that they are not going to have the situation their own way," Kemp said. "And the second reason is that there is going to be an impact on public opinion. This is going to serve to undermine public morale in [NATO's] troop-contributing nations." Amin Tarzi, RFE/RL's analyst on Afghanistan, said recent Taliban attacks are a reaction by militants to increased offensive operations by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition. He said the reasons for the escalation of violence are mainly twofold. "One is the offensive nature of the coalition forces right now," Tarzi said. "There is a [coalition] effort to clear [things] up, especially in southern Afghanistan, before NATO takes over there totally in July.

[And the Taliban] are being attacked, so you see more reaction [by them as well.] The second [reason] is a broadening of the base of the opposition -- what I call the neo-Taliban. There is a manifestation of different groups within the neo-Taliban. [And there is] the Afghan government's own inability to even recognize their own enemy. They don't want to officially recognize the enemy because there is a political issue. All of that combined has created a more violent situation." Tarzi said some recent violence reported as Taliban attacks may be related, instead, to Afghan drug lords trying to protect opium harvests and smuggling routes.

Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of an international security and development policy group called the Senlis Council, said ordinary Afghans are increasingly angry about civilian casualties caused by foreign troops. He said efforts by the Afghan government and its Western backers to eradicate poppy cultivation also contributes to greater sympathy in some regions for Taliban fighters (see below). "The local population is now totally disillusioned in relation to what the government in Kabul and the coalition has been trying to do," Reinert said. "They see no change in their daily lives. They still live in extreme poverty. And this is only getting worse. And the only thing they see coming from Kabul is eradication forces destroying their livelihoods --

and kids and women being killed." During a visit to Tokyo on June 6, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta admitted that the Afghan government and its international supporters have made mistakes in the way they are conducting the war on terrorism. "The problem is, I think, we have [made] some mistakes in our war against international terrorism because we have [aimed] our war against terrorism -- and [against] the phenomenon of terrorism in Afghanistan -- at the symptoms of terrorism," Spanta said. "But not against the sources of terrorism. And this is the main problem." Spanta concluded that the three most important and critical challenges now facing Afghanistan are terrorism, drug lords, and how to make the government in Kabul more effective so that it can better deliver services to the people of Afghanistan. (Ron Synovitz)

Ignatieff lambastes opponents - CAMPBELL CLARK - Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — An unrepentant Michael Ignatieff aimed a pre-emptive strike at opponents who have criticized his support for extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan on the eve of today's second Liberal leadership debate, insisting peacekeeping missions cannot be abandoned “when the going gets tough.”

The campaign's apparent front-runner toughened his arguments for keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan until 2009. Other contenders sought to exploit that position as his chief vulnerability in last week's first leadership debate, portraying his view as too conservative and perhaps un-Canadian.

Mr. Ignatieff maintained in a speech yesterday that to prevent human-rights disasters, the world needs more muscular peacekeeping missions that are prepared to return fire with fire, rather than the traditional blue-beret peacekeepers.

To underline his case, he pointed to a newly announced supporter, Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, who led the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1994 and appealed in vain for other countries to send troops to stop an impending bloodbath. The former lieutenant-general, whom many Canadians view as a peacekeeping hero, introduced Mr. Ignatieff, who then argued that abandoning peacekeeping missions such as the one in Afghanistan will lead to a repeat of disasters like the Rwandan massacres.

“Traditional Canadian peacekeeping met its Waterloo in Rwanda,” Mr. Ignatieff said in a text for a speech in Saint John, N.B.

“For weeks, brave Canadians watched without being able to intervene while 800,000 people were massacred. Dallaire sought to stop this massacre. But he lacked the equipment, weapons, and rules of engagement needed to act. The Liberal government, all Canadians even, promised it would never happen again. We are in Afghanistan to keep that promise.”

The Afghan mission has opened a rift among the contenders for the Liberal leadership, and in the Liberal Party.

Some insist Canada must re-focus on more traditional peacekeeping roles, such as policing and smoothing the delivery of aid. Others, such as Mr. Ignatieff, insist that the world now needs more robust peace-building missions that can involve fighting insurgents and warlords.

Mr. Ignatieff, the MP for Toronto's Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding, and Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison are the only two of the 11 Liberal leadership candidates who supported a Conservative government resolution to extend the Afghan mission to 2009.

Several candidates, including Bob Rae, Gerard Kennedy and Joe Volpe, have expressed concern that the role of Canadian troops there has changed from traditional peacekeeping to counter-insurgency, or even occupation.

Some have suggested Mr. Ignatieff's views on the issue are too conservative for Liberal Party members.

“I haven't heard one person yet — not one person — support a changed mandate in Afghanistan,” Mr. Volpe said in an interview this week. “In fact, if the truth must be said, they want us out of there — period.”

Mr. Ignatieff responded to suggestions that his position is too conservative by noting that the troops were sent to Afghanistan by a Liberal government under Jean Chrétien in 2001, moved to the southern province of Kandahar in 2005 by Paul Martin's government, and that their mission has not changed.

“First of all, Liberals need to remember that this is a Liberal mission,” he said. A major Taliban offensive has made that mission more dangerous, but more crucial for defending the human rights of the people of Afghanistan, he said.

“There is a mounting fear that, if the international community fails here, Afghanistan will fall back into the hands of the Taliban,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “We cannot let that happen.”

He said Canadians want to defend the rights the Taliban would take away, including democratic votes and women's rights, and should not back out because of an offensive.

“Leadership means standing firm. It means remembering who we are. The question of this extension really comes down to whether we were prepared, as a nation, to withdraw in eight months from now, leaving the job undone.”

Mr. Ignatieff's critics have included some of the stalwarts of the Liberal left, and its dovish wing on foreign policy.

In a commentary published yesterday in The Globe and Mail, former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy said that Mr. Ignatieff “continues to espouse the views supporting American military adventures he adopted as an American-based public intellectual.”

Mr. Axworthy wrote that Canada's peacekeeping should focus on the Canadian idea of the “responsibility to protect” endangered populations.

“To utilize this Canadian-sponsored R2P principle in Afghanistan would mean recalibrating our strategy away from simply adopting the counterinsurgency followed by U.S. forces and developing one that focuses much more on the protection of civilians.”

Mr. Ignatieff, who sat on a UN commission that recommended the principle be adopted by the international community, appeared to make a direct reply in his speech.

“Responsibility to protect is a great Canadian idea,” he said. “We should have the guts to stand by it, when the going gets tough.”

Ignatieff defends views on Afghanistan - Sat, 17 Jun 2006 CBC News

Michael Ignatieff, one of 11 Liberals seeking the federal party leadership, defended his stand on Canada's mission in Afghanistan as the group prepares for a second debate.

In the first debate last weekend in Winnipeg, some of the candidates attacked Ignatieff for supporting the mission until 2009.

Ignatieff said in a speech Friday in Saint John, N.B., that Liberals can't abandon the mission they started and shouldn't walk away "when the going gets tough."

He said Canadians need to take a leadership role in the world, and spread democracy and responsible government in places that have been ruled by tyrants, he said Friday on the eve of the second debate in Moncton, N.B.

"We're not there as occupiers and we're not there to do American business," he said. "We're there at the request of the Afghan people." He said there is mounting fear that, if the international community fails in Afghanistan, the country will back into the hands of the Taliban.

Ignatieff's views have won him the endorsement of Senator Romeo Dallaire, the retired Canadian general who tried but failed to stop the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.

"We need someone who can articulate where we are going as a nation in the world, and (who has) that intellectual rigour and also the ability to make it palatable to Canadians," Dallaire told reporters after Ignatieff's speech to the Saint John Board of Trade.

Saturday's debate at the University of Moncton begins at 1 p.m. EDT. The candidates are expected to face questions dealing with regional, social, economic and international issues. The leadership convention will take place in Montreal in December.

Afghan immigrant supports rebuilding homeland – Edmonton Sun

An Afghan immigrant who moved to Edmonton almost five years ago is praising Canada’s $15 million cash infusion to rebuild Afghanistan’s battered rural irrigation system.

“Afghanistan is an agricultural country. The irrigation system that they have is not very developed,” said Shoujauddin Akbari. “It’s really needed for the country.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the $15 million pledge on Thursday, as Canadian soldiers joined an allied offensive to root out Taliban insurgents.

In announcing the money, Harper said it is important to improve irrigation because half the Afghan economy depends on agriculture.

He also said that if more land is devoted to growing food, less will be planted with poppies to fuel the narcotics trade.

Now a Canadian citizen, 19-year-old Akbari, along with his four brothers and parents, arrived in Edmonton roughly a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Akbari has relatives who are farmers in northern Afghanistan, but he’s not sure they would benefit from the aid because it’s not a dry region. Akbari, a University of Alberta biomedical sciences student, supports Canada’s mission to Afghanistan.

Canada has about 2,200 soldiers on the ground in the Kandahar area since increasing its presence in the country earlier this year. They are trying to stabilize a troubled southern region around Kandahar. Canada has also committed $1 billion over 10 years for reconstruction efforts in the country.

Desert outpost the last stop until Taliban - via The Australian June 17, 2006

MUSA QALA, Afghanistan: A week ago, it was nothing but a dusty patch of desert, seemingly devoid of value.

But now, the spot of land outside Musa Qala is a bustling outpost protected by 105mm howitzers, sniper riflemen and a growing wall of sand - a US base erected in the middle of nowhere to support an offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan's volatile south.

The sand is so fine it blows everywhere and covers everything. A nonstop wind cakes the soldiers in dust, and the daily temperature nears 43C.

Sergeant Ryan McIntosh's opinion of his new home is in line with most of the soldiers here. "Think of the worst place you can think of, and times that by 50," says McIntosh, a heavy-equipment adviser.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Toner, the commanding officer, says the base will house supplies - food, fuel and ammunition - to help support Operation Mountain Thrust, a new offensive against Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan that has already resulted in the deaths of 40 insurgents.

"I've got everything I need here to conduct sustained operations," Toner says.
The outpost is 300km from the nearest permanent base in Kandahar. It is about 10km outside Musa Qala, a small village in northern Helmand province where Taliban fighters have been active.

The distance "is very extreme, but it allows me to operate out of here and extend my reach," the commanding officer says. Toner does not doubt that Taliban fighters are watching the activities at the base. Howitzer cannons fire rounds into the desert night - harassment fire, in military terms.

"We're just knocking on the door," says Staff Sergeant DL Stewart, part of the team that loads up the guns. "We haven't used our full power yet. That's down the road."

There is a surgeon in the small first- aid tent and a makeshift kitchen prepares breakfast and dinner. But there is no running water and soldiers slept under the stars for the first couple of days here, covering themselves in sleeping bags for shelter from the blowing sand.

More than a dozen Humvees circle the American camp's exterior, providing a security cordon until soldiers finish building a 2.5m-high wall of sand around the base.

The outpost is surrounded by miles of flat desert, interrupted by rocky mountain peaks. A patrol of 11 Humvees earlier this week scouted a peak only a couple of kilometres from the base that could be used as high ground by militant fighters.

The patrol wound its way through dry riverbeds and desert plains, broken only by the occasional mudbrick home. The soldiers waved to the locals, and although many wave back in other parts of the country, they did not here.

Captured Taliban leader given amnesty
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service National Post, Canada Saturday, June 17, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Faced with a devil's choice between dealing severely with an arrested Taliban commander or scoring a propaganda coup by allowing him to switch sides, the Afghan government granted amnesty to Mullah Ibrahim on Friday despite allegations that he had fought against Canadian troops in Panjwai District as recently as last month.

Flanked by heavily bearded men wearing black and grey turbans, a battery of Canadian and American public affairs officers and a heavily armed private American security detail, Ibrahim faced a carefully orchestrated news conference at the main coalition airbase on the outskirts of Kandahar.

"I want all Afghans to unite and come together and those disgruntled with the government to come back from outside the country," the one-legged mullah said in an exhausted voice. "I want peace and unity in Afghanistan and elsewhere and an Islamic system."

After the news conference, Ibrahim left for Kandahar from the base, where he had been treated for severe jaundice and a nervous system disorder since being brought unconscious to the Canadian military hospital here after he was arrested May 19.

There had been no mention at the news conference that Ibrahim might have been active in the Taliban recently, but in response to questions about his past from Canadian journalists, Maj. Mario Couture said later, "We let him go out the gate because he is involved in an Afghan, not a Canadian program ... It is not up to us to decide whether he is a good candidate for amnesty or not."

Told by several journalists that local sources were alleging that the mullah may have been involved in actions specifically directed against the Canadian battle group, Couture said, "I don't have facts to support what you are saying."

The reports were also denied by Haji Agha Lalai, who runs the amnesty program in Kandahar. "He was not involved in any fighting or attacks in Panjwai against the Canadians," Lalai told a reporter.

Ibrahim commanded 100 to 150 Taliban fighters in the city of Kandahar and the area of Panjwai, about 30 kilometres to the southwest, according to Agence France Presse. Given his poor health, it is doubtful he could have taken a leading role in battles a few weeks ago between the Taliban and the Canadians.

Ibrahim was arrested and entered hospital two days after Capt. Nichola Goddard was killed May 17 during a protracted firefight between Canadians and the Taliban in Panjwai.

Despite Ibrahim's long links to the Taliban, providing him with amnesty from past crimes to prevent future acts might be "for the greater good," Couture said. "Over time we may save lives because of this program."

The mullah said Friday that he was about to take advantage of an amnesty offered by the Afghan government when he was arrested by authorities.

Showing for a brief moment the bravado of the Pashtun warrior class, the mullah, who is known in Pushtu as Mullah Got because he walks with a pronounced limp, glared at the gathering and said, "If I had come to fight, nobody would have defeated me."

More than 1,000 former Taliban fighters have been allowed to go free under the Karzai government's amnesty program, but few of those signing documents stating they had given up the fight have been Taliban leaders or have been tied to specific military actions. "It was God and the Canadians who saved my life," Ibrahim said, singling out the Canadian battle group commander, Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, whom he misdescribed as a general, for special praise.

"This is good for all of us and will make a difference in Kandahar in the next few months," said Hope, whose troops have been involved in fighting in Panjwai District over the past couple of months. "He is an influential man. He is a man people respect, especially young men."

The Canadian commander and the mullah had spoken about "chocolate and tea ... fighting in general" and the mullah's days as a mujahedeen or holy warrior while he was recovering at the Canadian hospital, Hope said.

Kandahar media described Ibrahim as a fairly well-known second-tier Taliban commander, but much about his past remains murky. The mullah said he had severed his ties with the Taliban when it was ousted from power by the U.S. military in 2001. Lalai indicated that Ibrahim had been keen to defect for years, but had been forced by the Taliban to flee to Pakistan, and then was coerced by the Taliban into returning to Afghanistan.

Ibrahim did his best to show he truly had switched allegiances, stating he was off to Kabul to work for peace and condemned a bombing in Kandahar on Wednesday. Ten Afghans, including seven who worked for the western coalition, were killed in that attack, for which the Taliban has claimed credit.

"We do not approve of that kind of killing," the mullah said. "Killing one Muslim is like killing the entire Muslim people. We don't approve of it."

Pakistan journalist found killed - Friday, 16 June 2006 BBC News

A Pakistani journalist who reported the death of an alleged al-Qaeda commander has been killed, officials say. The body of Hayatullah Khan, 30, was discovered near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal region.

"He was shot in the back," an official, Fida Mohammed, told AFP news agency. He said the killing appeared to be recent. Mr Khan disappeared in December after reporting that Abu Hamza Rabia had been killed by a US missile - not in a bomb making accident as claimed by Pakistan.

Relatives found Mr Khan's body 3km south of Mir Ali near the Afghan border on Friday. He had been handcuffed and appeared to have been shot from behind while trying to escape, his brother, Ehsanullah, told the BBC.

The journalist had lost a lot of weight and had grown a long beard. Mr Khan's brother said the handcuffs were of a type usually used by security forces.

The BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says it is a mystery who kidnapped and killed Mr Khan. Both the militants and the authorities denied knowledge of his whereabouts during the six months he was missing. Local tribal journalists' organisations have blamed the government for his death because it failed to rescue him.

Mr Khan was seized by unidentified gunmen on 5 December. Days earlier, the Pakistani authorities had said an al-Qaeda commander they named as Abu Hamza Rabia had been killed with four others in a blast at an alleged militant hideout in North Waziristan.

The official version was that bomb-making materials had exploded by accident.
But locals said the men were killed by a missile fired from an unmanned US drone.

Mr Khan took photographs of what appeared to be pieces of a US missile at the scene. Pakistan is a close ally of the US in its "war on terror" but reports of US strikes on Pakistani soil provoke anger among opponents of the government in Islamabad.

Hayatullah Khan worked for a Pakistani English-language newspaper and a foreign photo agency. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said he had in the past been threatened by security forces, suspected Taleban members and tribesmen for his reporting. He leaves behind three children and a widow.

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.]