In this bulletin:

• President Karzai Leaves for the United Arab Emirates
• Up to 80 Taliban Dead in U.S.-Led Strike
• Afghan led mission detains Taliban leader
• President Karzai Expresses His Regret at the Death of 4 Afghan National Army Soldiers
• Taliban in Pak behind violence’
• More die in fresh Afghan fighting
• Taleban kill Afghan president's former advisor in eastern district - agency
• Suicide blast kills two as Afghan insurgency rages
• French, US soldiers among 15 dead in new Afghan battles
• It’s not UK govt’s policy, says envoy
• Not all Pakistan machinery ‘on board’ in fighting Taliban
• Afghan leader thanks Harper for extending mission
• Afghans look to Canada to build peace
• US sets up £215m deal for Afghan arms - from Russia
• Neglected Afghanistan Flares Up
• Afghan drugs, poverty and anger fuel Taliban war
• Parliament rejects proposed budget
• Capture riddle of Taliban leader
• Afghan women complete a lofty goal

President Karzai Leaves for the United Arab Emirates - Date of Release: 22 May 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, left for the United Arab Emirates this morning.

During this visit, the President will meet with H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

The Governments of Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates will sign agreements on a project to asphalt the Kabul City roads, UAE’s assistance to religious schools, expansion of trade ties and the improvement of the situation of Afghans living in the United Arab Emirates.

The President will hold meetings with senior UAE authorities and heads of private companies and banks to discuss the expansion of trade ties between Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The President will meet with representatives of Afghans who are living and working in the United Arab Emirates and listen to their problems.

The President is accompanied on this trip by H.E. Hedayat Amin Arsala, Senior Minister and Acting Minister of Commerce, H.E. Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Dr. Zalmay Rasoul, National Security Advisor, H.E. Yosouf Pashtun, Minister of Urban Development, H.E. Ameerzai Sangeen, Minister of Communication, H.E. Dr. Eshaq Naderi, Senior Advisor to the President on Economics, H.E. Gul Agha Sherzai, Governor of Nangarhar Province, H.E. Noorullah Delaware, Head of the Da Afghanistan Bank, H.E. Fatima Gillani, President of the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

The President will also be accompanied on this trip by four Members of Parliament and twenty leading businessmen and private investors.

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

Up to 80 Taliban Dead in U.S.-Led Strike

Kandahar (AP) - A U.S.-led nighttime airstrike against Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan killed up to 80 suspected militants, the coalition said Monday. The local governor said 16 civilians were killed and 16 wounded.

At a hospital, wounded residents of Azizi village described how aircraft bombed mud-brick homes where Taliban rebels were hiding, having fled there from a religious school after the airstrikes started. Among the wounded was an 8-month-old infant.

In a statement, the coalition said it had confirmed 20 Taliban killed in the attack on the village in Kandahar province late Sunday and early Monday, while there were "an unconfirmed 60 additional Taliban casualties."

U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry told The Associated Press that the military was "looking into" civilian casualties.

The airstrikes brought the death toll of militants, Afghan forces, coalition soldiers and civilians to as many as 285 since Wednesday, according to coalition and Afghan figures. The storm of violence that erupted last week in the south was among the deadliest combat in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

At Mirwaise Hospital in Kandahar city, a man with blood on his clothes and turban said insurgents had been hiding in an Islamic religious school, or madrassa, in the village since the recent fierce fighting.

"Helicopters bombed the madrassa and some of the Taliban ran from there and into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed," said Haji Ikhlaf, 40. "I saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban and around 50 dead or wounded civilians."

Another villager, Zurmina Bibi, cradled her wounded 8-month-old. She said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. "There were dead people everywhere," she said, crying.

A doctor, Mohammed Khan, said he had treated 10 people from the village. Moments later, a pickup vehicle pulled up at the hospital with five wounded men lying in the back.

"These sort of accidents happen during fighting, especially when the Taliban are hiding in homes," Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid told reporters. "I urge people not to give shelter to the Taliban."

U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said, "It's common that the enemy fights in close to civilians as a means to protect its own forces. "We targeted a Taliban compound and we're certain we hit the right target," he told The Associated Press.

It was not possible for reporters to reach Azizi village because police and foreign troops had blocked off the area, about 30 miles southwest of Kandahar.

The village, also known as Hajiyan, has about 30-35 large mud-brick compounds, each housing an extended family with up to 50 members. The village has a mosque and one madrassa, where boys study. It has no electricity and relies on wells for water.

The Taliban resurgence, despite the presence of more than 30,000 foreign troops, including 23,000 from the United States in Afghanistan, has halted postwar reconstruction work in many areas and raised fears for this country's future.

In other violence, Mohammed Ali Jalali, the former governor of eastern Paktika province, was found dead after being kidnapped Sunday, local police chief Abdul Rehman Surjung said. Jalali was a respected tribal elder and a supporter of President Hamid Karzai.

Meanwhile, a war of words between Islamabad and Kabul over the burst of violence escalated, with Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam saying her country shouldn't be blamed for the bloodshed.

"The Afghan government's failure to deal with the situation cannot be placed at Pakistan's door," she said at a weekly news conference.

On Sunday, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told reporters in Kabul that Taliban leaders are in Pakistan and that "the movement and the communication during these terrorist attacks" comes from the Pakistan side of the border.

Afghan led mission detains Taliban leader

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan– Afghan National Army and Coalition forces captured a mid-level Taliban leader during a combat operation on Friday in the Tarin Kowt District in Uruzgan Providence.
Afghan forces from 3rd Kandak, 1st Bde, 205th Corps and Coalition members received information that Mullah Mohibullah, Helmand Province Taliban commander, was located at a Tarin Kowt local bazaar. The joint force maneuvered to detain Mohibullah without firing a single round.
Mohibullah is responsible for o rchestrating a Taliban ambush in Musa Qalay that killed one U.S. service member and wounded several others. He was also involved in numerous terrorist attacks against Afghan government officials and Coalition members.
“Mullah Mohibullah and other insurgent leaders attempt to undermine the government of Afghanistan ” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force -76 spokesman. “The Afghan people won’t be denied the security and prosperity they deserve.”

President Karzai Expresses His Regret at the Death of 4 Afghan National Army Soldiers - Date of Release: 21 May 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, expressed his deep regret at the unfortunate death of 4 Afghan National Army soldiers.

According to reports, the enemies of Afghanistan attacked an Afghan National Army vehicle in the province of Helmand, killing 4 Afghan National Army soldiers.

In his reaction to the news the President said “The people of Afghanistan will never forget the valour and courage of these soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.”

The President expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims.

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

T aliban in Pak behind violence ’ - By AFP

Kabul, May 21: The Afghan foreign minister said on Sunday that the leaders of the Taliban and "other international terrorist groups" are directing attacks inside Afghanistan from bases in neighbouring Pakistan.

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta’s comments follow similar statements last week by President Hamid Karzai and come amid some of the heaviest Taliban-linked fighting in Afghanistan in years. Islamabad has rejected such claims. "We know that the ideological leadership, also the political leadership and military leadership of the Taliban and other international terrorist groups are living in Pakistan," Mr Spanta told reporters in Kabul.

Asked if he thought the insurgent attacks which have surged in Afghanistan in recent weeks were being coordinated from Pakistan, Mr Spanta said: "Exactly." The "strategical background of the terrorism" is behind the Durand Line, the minister said, referring to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that was imposed by Britain in 1893.

"The movement and also the communication during some terrorist attacks are also from the other side of the Durand line," Mr Spanta said. Afghan officials have made similar comments before, angering Pakistan’s leaders who point out they have 80,000 troops on the border to hunt down militants. The accusations have sent relations between the allies in the United States’ "war on terror" to a low this year. Mr Karzai said on Friday that hardliners in Pakistan were sending their students over the border to fight "holy war" in Afghanistan, where vast swathes of tribal territory are outside government control.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb aimed at a US military convoy struck Kabul on Sunday, killing at least two civilians and wounding around eight others, security officials and witnesses said. The car bomb exploded as the convoy was passing by on a main road about 100 metre from a coalition military base used to train Afghan security forces, US military spokesman Major Chris Miller said. A US soldier was slightly hurt, Mr Miller said confirming the attack was aimed at the convoy.

More die in fresh Afghan fighting – BBC

Fierce battles with insurgents over the past two days in the south of Afghanistan have left at least 16 Afghan soldiers dead, officials say. The battles took place mainly in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

Afghan officials said nine soldiers were killed on Saturday after their convoy was ambushed in Helmand. Twenty insurgents were killed or hurt. At least seven other Afghan soldiers were killed in earlier clashes in Helmand and also in Kandahar.

Up to 200 rebels have been killed in a dramatic upsurge of violence in the region since Wednesday, officials estimate. On Sunday, Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta said Taleban leaders were directing attacks from their bases in neighbouring Pakistan.

"The leadership of the Taleban and other terror groups are living in Pakistan," Mr Spanta told reporters in Kabul. The minister said Afghanistan was "very unhappy with this", urging Pakistan to deal with the issue.

Pakistan has rejected similar claims before, pointing out it has tens of thousands of troops on the border between the two nations. Earlier on Sunday, a suicide car bomb attack apparently targeting a US military convoy killed three people in Kabul - the driver and two civilians.

The bomber detonated his explosives some 400m from the American base at 1130 local time (0700GMT). A coalition convoy was passing nearby and it is thought the explosives may have gone off prematurely.

It is the first time this year there has a been a suicide bomb in Kabul, the BBC's Alastair Leithead in Afghanistan says. However, there have been roadside bombs and occasional rocket attacks on the city, our correspondent says.

Taleban kill Afghan president's former advisor in eastern district - agency

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Ghazni city, 21 May: Taleban have kidnapped and later killed former governor of Paktika [Province] and ex-advisor to President Hamed Karzai on Sunday [21 May] evening.

Mohammad Ali Jalali, former governor of the southeastern Paktika Province, was kidnapped in the perilous Andar District. Later Taleban said they had killed Jalali while his other colleague, who was abducted with him, was set free.

Earlier, provincial officials confirmed kidnapping of the former strongman. Talking to Pajhwok Afghan News, security chief of the province Abdorrahman Sarjang said Jalali was kidnapped along with former police chief of Paktika Dawlat Khan Gharwal on Sunday afternoon.

The police chief said the two men had gone to the Chardiwal area, some 30 kilometres south of Ghazni city, to offer Fateha [prayers] for the security of the Gharwal when they were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen [sentence as received].

Hours after the news of kidnapping of the two people, a Taleban commander, introducing himself as Mullah Mohammad Sharif Anas, telephoned to Pajhwok Afghan News and said they had killed Jalali. "We killed the former governor Jalali at 2030 [local time; 1600 gmt] while his other colleague was set free."

About their kidnapping, the commander said their three security guards were overpowered and disarmed by Taleban in the Joyshash area, where they had come to attend Qul of a security guard.

Prior to the news about his death, Mawlawi Habibollah Hashemi, secretary to a former mojahedin commander Mawlawi Arsala Rahmani, who was a close associate of Jalali during jihad, said driver of the abductee had told that they had established contacts with the kidnappers.

Jalali was governor of the southeastern Paktika Province till last year. He resigned the governorship to contest the parliamentary elections but failed to win a seat. He also served as advisor to President Hamed Karzai on tribal and frontiers affairs.

Suicide blast kills two as Afghan insurgency rages

Kabul (AFP) - A suicide car bomb aimed at a US military convoy succeeded in killing two people in Kabul while one of the worst bouts of Taliban-linked violence in years claimed more lives.

The blast Sunday struck the heavily barricaded capital as Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said the insurgency was being directed by leaders of the Taliban and other "international terrorist groups" based in Pakistan.

The car bomb exploded as a coalition convoy drove east on a road where many suicide blasts have taken place, most of them directed at foreign and Afghan security forces. "As a result the bomber himself, a driver of a truck nearby and a civilian passer-by were killed," ministry of interior spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.

A coalition soldier was lightly wounded. Afghanistan has seen a rash of suicide blasts since last September, most blamed on Taliban insurgents. Purported spokesmen for the group have said there are hundreds ready to carry out suicide attacks.

The ultra-Islamist Taliban has been waging an insurgency since being toppled from government in late 2001. The violence has peaked in recent days with major clashes in the south including Uruzgan province where, the coalition said, 20 Taliban were killed two days ago in a battle in which a US soldier died.

A tally of death tolls issued by Afghan and coalition forces for the engagements puts the number of rebels killed since Wednesday at more than 200, with more than 50 Afghans dead, mostly police and soldiers.

Five foreign nationals have also been killed, including two French special forces troops the French defence ministry said died in fighting in the south on Saturday. The recent violence comes just weeks before a NATO-led force is due to move into the hostile south and take over the bulk of the coalition force operating there.

While a Taliban commander has reportedly said the clashes showed his movement was strong, coalition forces say the surge in fighting is because they are moving into militant nests that had previously been untouched.

"The enemy fighters realise we are coming and we are going to push farther and farther into those areas where they had safe havens," coalition spokeswoman Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence said. "There will be more contact, there will be more interaction with those forces," she said.

A man claiming to be Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban field commander, was quoted by the Pakistan-based AIP news agency Saturday as saying he was leading 12,000 well-armed men against the government.

"We have control over 20 districts in Uruzgan, Helmand, Zabul and Kandahar (provinces)," he said, adding the Taliban had "plenty of weapons" and had recently acquired an anti-aircraft gun.

The Taliban leadership is believed to have escaped into Pakistan after they were forced out of power in 2001 by a US-led coalition which attacked when they did not surrender Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Spanta, the foreign minister, added to accusations that Pakistan -- which was a firm supporter of the Taliban regime -- was not doing enough to root out the militants. "We know that the ideological leadership and also the political leadership (and) military leadership of the Taliban and other international terrorist groups ... are living in Pakistan," he told reporters.

Islamabad rejects such claims, which have soured relations between the "war on terror" allies.

French, US soldiers among 15 dead in new Afghan battles

Kandahar (AFP) - Security forces continued to battle Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan with two French commandos and a US soldier among the latest 15 fatalities in days of violence.

Authorities meanwhile would not confirm if a wounded one-legged militant captured after heavy gun battle last week was a top Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, one of the brains behind the four-year Taliban insurgency.

The two French commandos were killed and a third was wounded in fighting in the south, according to the defence ministry in Paris.

The south has seen most of the major battles that have raged in different parts of Afghanistan since Wednesday, leaving around 200 Taliban dead, according to coalition and Afghan officials.

More than 30 Afghan troops, police and civilians as well as five foreign nationals -- four of them soldiers -- have been killed across the country since Wednesday.

The French special forces soldiers deaths had occurred during an "engagement against the Taliban in the region of Kandahar," a defence ministry statement said.

A US soldier was killed and six others wounded in a separate battle with "enemy" in southern Uruzgan province late Friday, the US-led coalition said.

Afghan security forces also clashed with Taliban on Friday in Helmand province. A soldier and six Taliban were killed, said southern area commander General Rahmatullah Raufi. The same unit was ambushed early Saturday as it was moving to another area.

The 20-vehicle convoy was separated in the attack. Six vehicles were able to escape but 50 men were left in Taliban territory, a military commander on the scene said, labelling the encounter "a disaster."

Reinforcements reached the men and fought off the rebels hours later. "The fighting is over now. We have found the bodies of four of our soldiers. Thirteen are missing and 24 have been wounded," the commander said on condition of anonymity.

He said six military vehicles were also destroyed in the fighting, in which Afghan security forces called on coalition air support. The latest clash was not far from a major battle that erupted in Helmand's Musa Qala district on Wednesday. Sixty "enemy fighters" and 16 police were killed in the battle, the coalition said Friday.

The bloodiest battle in the recent bout of fighting -- among the heaviest since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 -- was in Kandahar province, where the religious movement was born in the early 1990s and took up arms to control most of the country by 1996.

About 100 militants were killed in Panjwayi district as were 12 Afghan police, soldiers and civilians, provincial governor Asadullah Kahlid said.

Among the 35 Taliban commanders arrested was a "very important" commander, Khalid said Friday, refusing to confirm reports the captured man was the famed commander, Mullah Dadullah.

The military said the man may be Dadullah because he had similar features to the commander, including only one leg. The Taliban repeated a denial that the commander had been captured.

A man claiming to be Dadullah reportedly told the Pakistan-based AIP news agency that he was alive and leading 12,000 well-armed men against the government, with 1,200 ready to carry out suicide attacks.

The recent bout of violence comes just weeks before a NATO-led force drawn from 39 countries is due to move into the hostile south and take over the bulk of the coalition force operating there.

It’s not UK govt’s policy, says envoy - Dawn (Pakistan) May 21, 2006 issue

ISLAMABAD, May 20: The British High Commission here on Saturday clarified that a British colonel, who accused Pakistan of letting Taliban militants infiltrate Afghanistan to carry out attacks, had commented in his personal capacity and had nothing to do with the UK government policy.

In a statement issued here, British High Commissioner Mark Lyall Grant said his government was concerned about insurgent activity in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But, he said, Col Chris Vernon, chief of staff for southern Afghanistan, had made the comments in his “personal capacity” and did not reflect his government’s policy.

Not all Pakistan machinery ‘on board’ in fighting Taliban

By Khalid Hasan Daily Times (Pakistan) Sunday, May 21, 2006

WASHINGTON: A new report released here quotes American officials as stating privately that “parts of the Pakistani state may not be fully on board” in the fight against the Taliban.

The report published by the Council on Foreign Relations and authored by Barnett A Rubin, who was UN special representative Lakhdar Brahmi’s adviser on Afghanistan and is the author of a number of books on Afghanistan, quotes these American officials as arguing that, given President Pervez Musharraf’s “vulnerability,” Washington should stick to a policy of “public support and private pressure” so as to not destabilise his regime. He argues that this approach rests on the belief that stability in Pakistan depends solely on the military, a “self-serving view” promoted by the latter to their American counterparts for decades.

According to Rubin, the US government must recognise that security in Afghanistan hinges on democratising Pakistan. Military domination of the Pakistani state is the problem, not the solution. Elections will not democratise Pakistan as long as the military continues to control state institutions. The US needs to signal at a high level that it wants to see the withdrawal of military control from Pakistan’s civilian institutions and genuine freedom for political parties. It should support Pakistan’s development by immediately lifting restrictions on Pakistani textile imports into the US, as Pakistani business has a strong economic interest in Afghan stabilisation.

Rubin believes that the Bush administration should insist on the Pakistani government’s full cooperation in fighting the Taliban as part of a larger strategy that offers Pakistan benefits other than military equipment. In this component of the strategy, Washington must push the Pakistani government to arrest Taliban leaders whose locations are provided by US and Afghan intelligence agencies; take aggressive measures to close down the networks supporting suicide bombers; end public recruitment campaigns for the Taliban and pro-Taliban speeches at government institutions, including those by former leaders of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate; close training camps for Taliban and their allies, including camps for Kashmiri guerrillas; and cut off housing and pension benefits to retired military and government personnel engaged in supporting the Taliban.

He writes, “Afghanistan will have to respect legitimate Pakistani concerns about the border and an Indian presence … Afghanistan also should refrain from relations with Pashtun leaders in Pakistan that give the impression that the government represents Pashtuns.”

Rubin believes that the US should help Afghans realise that Islamabad will not respect a border that Kabul does not recognise. “In order to launch a long-term programme to stabilise and develop the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, the United States and the UK should sponsor both official and second-track discussions involving all stakeholders in the border region. These discussions should ultimately aim to create a context in which Afghanistan can recognise an open border, the tribal territories of Pakistan can be integrated into and receive a full range of services from the Pakistani state, and the border area can become a region for cooperative development rather than insecurity, extremism, and antagonism.”

Afghan leader thanks Harper for extending mission - Sunday, May 21, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has offered his formal thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for extending the Canadian military mission to Afghanistan for an extra two years.

In a 10-minute phone call Sunday, Karzai also expressed his condolences for the casualties Canada has suffered. Sixteen soldiers and one diplomat have died since the mission began under the former Liberal government.

The Prime Minister's Office provided no further details about the call, which came four days after Harper's Conservatives won a tight parliamentary vote backing the decision to keep Canadians on the scene for an additional 24 months.

The call also came the day after the remains of Capt. Nichola Goddard, the first female Canadian combatant to perish on the mission, arrived home.

The current deployment, which has seen more than 2,000 troops dispatched to the troubled Kandahar region, had been scheduled to expire next February.

Harper is now proposing that Canada take over leadership of the command centre for the U.S.-led mission to Afghanistan in late 2007 and assume leadership of a wider mission under NATO auspices in 2008.

He has repeatedly cited requests from Karzai as one reason for continuing the Canadian involvement.

The Afghan Embassy, in a separate statement, said Sunday that Karzai told Harper he would be taking him up on a previously issued invitation to visit Canada. The visit will take place sometime later this year.

Afghans look to Canada to build peace - Sunday, May 21, 2006

WEYAND, Afghanistan -- In a courtyard bristling with the tools of war, Afghan tribal elders held their first-ever meeting Sunday to discuss how Canadian money and local leadership can help build a lasting peace.

In a project that could be duplicated across Afghanistan, Canadian aid workers brought together 300 rural elders to get them planning how to improve the lives of their people and give them a reason to turn away from the Taliban.

"The whole point is community participation," said an official from the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA. "If an insurgent comes to your school, you're more likely to defend it if it's your school as opposed to being built by foreigners."

The Confidence In Government program is designed to build support for the central government in Kabul by making it the agency of development in the Afghan countryside.

The government has virtually no presence in villages such as Weyand and delivers no services. By working through local people and agencies to change that, CIDA hopes rural Afghans will be convinced their future lies with the government in Kabul and not the Taliban.

"It's a uniquely Canadian approach," said the CIDA official. "It's brand new. It's never been done before."

By reducing their support base in communities, the program is also designed to fit with Canada's military attempt to control the Taliban. Officials acknowledge that development assistance can serve the same goals as armed force.

"It's a useful counterinsurgency tool," said Lt.-Col. Tom Doucette, who commands Camp Nathan Smith, the Canadian base where CIDA is headquartered.

CIDA has budgeted $900,000 for each of the 17 districts in Kandahar province. The aid agency's entire budget for Afghanistan is $100 million this year, making Canada the largest international donor of aid to the country.

The meeting in Weyand, in the Shah Wali Kot district about 50 kilometres north of Kandahar, was the first time anywhere in Afghanistan that elders gathered to discuss the proposal.

The Taliban remain strong in Shah Wali Kot, despite the presence of two Canadian forward bases in the region. Violence has been increasing throughout southern Afghanistan, and security at Sunday's meeting was tight.

A platoon of Canadian soldiers and two light armoured vehicles were on hand, as were the Afghan army and police.

In addition, elders brought their own militias and bodyguards, who appeared seemingly from out of the middle of the desert in pickup trucks and motorcycles. Dozens of weapons, from handguns to AK-47s -- some gaily decorated with pompoms and plastic flowers -- to rocket-propelled-grenade launchers, greeted the speakers.

Assadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar, was unfazed as he encouraged people to get involved.

"It's not only the Canadian soldiers that are here with us bringing security, it's also the development side bringing strength and security."

Khalid told his people it was time they stood up to the Taliban and took action to improve their lives.

"If the people of the country don't support the Taliban, it's very easy to control the Taliban. They burn our clinics, they burn our schools and we are daydreaming."

"If we people keep supporting the Taliban from the communities, we are always going to have the same kind of life. It will never improve."

Projects to be funded by the Confidence In Government program are identified by local councils and approved by a committee from the national government, the governor's office, and the locally elected provincial council.

"We're really happy for this program because it listens to us," said Badshah, one of the elders at the meeting. "This is a good thing the Canadians have," said Mohammed Nasim.

"Through this program they're going to build schools, dams, water. This is the first time for the government to provide services."

Hayat Kha welcomed the emphasis on local control.

"Whenever support comes from the international community, the people in the district shura (council), they just divide it among themselves and it doesn't reach the people."

US sets up £215m deal for Afghan arms - from Russia - Telegraph, UK 05/22/2006 By Thomas Harding

American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.

The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.

White House insiders fear that Afghanistan could "drift" and consequently, they want heavily to arm President Hamid Kharzai's government before the 2008 US presidential election.

Diplomatic sources also believe that the US may be offering the estimated $400 million (£215 million) deal, including transport costs, to the Russians as an inducement to embargo its arms and nuclear technology exports to Iran.

Defence specialists said Russian arms chiefs at first "fell about laughing" because they thought the order was a joke when it arrived this month. But with the Americans said to be pressing for a price and earliest delivery date, the request is being rapidly processed and exports could begin before the end of this year.

The "decade's worth" of ammunition will give the Afghan National Army a vast arsenal to deal with Taliban or drug warlords if Washington withdraws its troops.

It would allow Kabul to defend its borders against outside interference but could also be used for offensive operations against neighbours such as the old enemy, Pakistan.

"This is a request for a price indication from the Pentagon to the Russians," said an arms source connected to Russia. "After that comes back they will look at their budget and turn it into an order - and it will be an order of huge magnitude.

"The operations and planning staff at the Pentagon came up with numbers for their wish list. "The final order may be more or may be less but the broad aim is to spend the budget while they can. They want to stack the country up with ammunition.

"It's the equivalent of buying yourself a plane to fly to Le Touquet for lunch and you get yourself a 747 jumbo instead of a light aircraft." All of the material will come from Rosoboron Exports, the sole state intermediary agency for Russia's military exports.

Most Afghan weaponry is either Soviet era or compatible with Russian munitions, making shipments from Western countries unnecessary. Rosoboron is one of a few companies that could handle such a big order and should give favourable prices.

The Afghan army is 35,000 strong but is expected to grow to 70,000 trained soldiers by 2009. Its troops are already beginning to receive advanced infantry training - the American order includes 50 million blank rounds - with soldiers specialising in artillery and special forces work.

The order also suggests the Afghan army will be equipped with T62 tanks, Mi24 Hind attack helicopters and Spandrel anti-tank missiles. If fully trained it will provide a formidable force against insurgents and potential foreign aggressors, including Pakistan where tensions are high on the southern border.

"This is completely refitting the Afghan army for the long term and it should stop a resurgence of the Taliban in its tracks," a British arms expert said. "The order will take a year to make and deliver but the Russians are used to large quantities."

A senior British officer said: "The point of getting Afghanistan up and running is so they can take on their own operations. "This deal makes sense if we are going to hand over military control to them."

Some observers pointed to the irony of the deal, because when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan the Americans sold Stinger surface-to- air missiles to the Mujahideen to enable them to shoot down Moscow's aircraft.

Neglected Afghanistan Flares Up - Common Dreams 05/21/2006 By Elizabeth Sullivan

Dusty Helmand province thrusts north from an ill-patrolled Paki stan border into the heart of Afghanistan's bandit country.

Forty years ago, Afghans called it "Little America" for the small army of U.S. government do-gooders who had come to plant trees, dig canals and build air-conditioned hospitals, state-of-the-art irrigation systems and cotton factories.

These days, the canals are silted up, the hospital is a Third World wreck and Afghanistan remains an afterthought in U.S. war spending. With only 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, versus 150,000 in Iraq, the military is spread pretty thin.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Taliban are back -- and with them questions about whether America neglected the first and most important front in the "war on terror."

Scores of Taliban fighters died this week in Helmand and nearby provinces in pitched battles with U.S. coalition and Afghan forces. A Canadian captain also lost her life in what's believed to be Canada's first female combat fatality since at least World War II.

When night falls, the Taliban -- supplied and directed from Pakistani safe houses and allied with local warlords and drug barons -- run much of southern Afghanistan and its lucrative smuggling routes and drug fields.

Yet, because of Iraq, precious little money has gone into Afghanistan since U.S. and Afghan forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. That has allowed the Taliban to rebuild, stoking a newly hot war full of suicide bombings, improvised explosives and other techniques borrowed from Iraq. The 98 U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan last year represented a seven-fold increase over 2001, when the Taliban were defeated.

America should have known better. In a country as immensely poor and dependent on family and tribal ties as Afghanistan, money greases relationships.

In the 1980s, America spent $3 billion arming the same Afghan religious militants who are battling us now. It was the precipitous withdrawal of that honey pot after the 1989 ouster of the Soviets that fueled the barbarous civil wars that wiped out Afghanistan's traditional village leadership.

That, in turn, allowed the rise of the extreme Taliban movement of religious students -- and enabled their blood alliance with Osama bin Laden and his Arab fighters.

And though bin Laden is gone, he didn't go very far. He and his closest lieutenants are believed to be just over the border in Pakistan.

Compared with the billions spent on Iraq, humanitarian and development aid in Afghanistan has been averaging just $425 million a year. And even though security and anti-drug assistance push the yearly total closer to $1 billion, corruption, security and overhead (read: padding) gobble up dimes on the dollar.

More importantly, it's a pittance compared with what's needed in a country where 160 babies die out of every 1,000 born and opium poppy cultivation is increasingly the farmer's ticket to survival. Fortunately, there are signs the world is awakening to the peril.

Other countries pledged $6 billion in February on top of earlier promises of $9.5 billion in aid. In December, America offered another $5.5 billion over the next five years.

NATO allies also are finally stepping up, sending in thousands more troops to Taliban-infested parts of southern Afghanistan like Helmand province. More than 3,000 British forces arrived in the old Little America this month, and formally take over from U.S. troops at the end of July.

The pending withdrawal of several thousand U.S. troops doesn't make all Afghans happy, however. Many see it as a slackening in the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's future. And the erroneous notion that America is running may be what encouraged the latest Taliban offensives. Still, the Brits don't hesitate to point fingers -- right at Pakistan.

"The thinking piece of the Taliban is out of Quetta in Pakistan," the British local commander, Col. Chris Vernon, told the Guardian newspaper last week. "It's the major headquarters. They use it to run a series of networks in Afghanistan."

Pakistani officials bristled, demanding "actionable intelligence." But truth to tell, it's just as it was when the CIA used Pakistan's lawless border regions to run the Afghan mujahedeen against the Soviets. Only now, the muj answer to the Taliban, and they're hunting the Americans to kill.

Afghan drugs, poverty and anger fuel Taliban war – Reuters 05/21/2006
By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL - Drugs, poverty and frustration with the Afghan government are fuelling an insurgency by Taliban militants, who appear to be growing stronger just as more foreign forces are arriving to try to improve security.

Violence in the past week has been some of the worst since U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power. In recent days, more than 100 people have died in bombings and gunbattles in the Afghan south. Two French soldiers, an American and a Canadian were among the dead.

On Sunday, a car bomb in the Afghan capital killed three people, security officials said. The violence comes as     NATO is expanding its peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000, in preparation for taking over security responsibilities in the south from U.S.-led forces.

NATO troops from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are spearheading the expansion into parts of the country where few, if any, foreign or government troops have set foot, and where the insurgents and drug cartels hold sway.

"It's hardly surprising the opposition want to disrupt it and contest it," NATO spokesman Mark Laity said of the alliance's push into new areas. "They know this is a substantial expansion."

With 23,000 U.S. troops in the country,     Afghanistan will soon have nearly 40,000 foreign troops, the most since 2001, facing off against the insurgents and their drug-gang allies.

But as foreign forces and President Hamid Karzai's government seek to push their authority into the countryside, the Taliban too have been expanding their reach.

The militants are now operating in areas where they have not been since since late 2001. Ever larger swathes of the south and east are off-limits to the government and aid workers.

In Ghazni province southwest of Kabul, for example, the Taliban have infiltrated villages just 10 km (six miles) from the provincial capital, residents say.

Police and other government workers are abandoning their homes for the safety Ghazni town in the face of Taliban threats. Across the countryside, the Taliban are finding a population frustrated with the government and disillusioned with foreign forces.

"People have grievances to do with governance, transparency and corruption. There's frustration, people are not getting what they expected," said a Western analyst.

"I think this would be happening regardless of what's going on with deployments," he said of the violence.

Many impoverished, deeply conservative Afghans are also receptive to the insurgents' rallying cry of jihad, or holy war, said Waheed Mozhdah, a writer and political analyst who served as a government official during Taliban rule.

"Every war needs a cause more so than weapons. The Taliban have a cause and that is Islam," Mozhdah said.

The recent release of a Christian covert who many thought should have been punished for abandoning Islam had raised questions over the legitimacy of the government from an Islamic point of view, he said.

At the same time, there was resentment of heavy-handed tactics by foreign forces searching for militants and many Afghans saw no improvement in their lives nearly five years after the Taliban were driven out.

"There was hope among people after the Taliban's ouster that things would improve economically, Afghanistan would be reconstructed. But it seems those hopes did not come true," Mozhdah said.

The Western-backed government's efforts to eradicate opium-growing were also playing into the hands of the Taliban. "Instead of arresting officials involved in trafficking the government has resorted to punishing poor farmers. That has caused anger," he said.

"If you put those factors together, you get a picture of why the Taliban have been successful in increasing their attacks and recruiting fighters," Mozhdah said.

Another huge advantage for the Taliban are sanctuaries on the lawless Pakistani side of the border from where arms and fighters stream in, analysts say.

NATO's top military commander in Europe said on Saturday Afghanistan was teetering on the brink of becoming a narco-state with drug cartels posing a greater threat than the Taliban.

NATO forces hope to provide a window of security for the government and aid agencies to start improving lives. Their exit strategy is building up Afghan forces so they can take over. That will take years.

Parliament rejects proposed budget - Makia Monir

KABUL, May 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) on Sunday rejected the proposed annual budget after refusal by the Finance Minister to entertain the proposal about increase in salaries of government employees.

Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi, in a bid to convince the MPs, argued that the government had no extra fund to approve the raise in salaries as proposed by the legislators. Ahadi said the government's domestic revenues were so little while foreign donors would not enhance the aid before bringing administrative reforms in all the ministries.

The minister asked the MPs to keep in mind the limitations of the government in terms of finances. He was of the view that they would not be able to pay the existing salaries of government employees if the donors refused to provide aid. Therefore, he asked the members of the House, to keep the whole situation in mind before taking a step.

In an effort to woo the parliamentarians to approve the budget, the minister said the international donors had first earmarked $355 millions, but when they came to know that salaries of government employees were lower than what they had estimated, they cut the budget and reduced it to $312 million.

However, the MPs were unmoved by the minister's statement. They were determined to approve the proposed budget only when the ministry accepts the amendments they had proposed. Some of the speakers among the MPs were of the view that the minister should directly talk to the donors and inform them that increase in salaries would address problems of the government employees, which will have indirect impact on security and other issues.

Later the speaker asked the parliamentarians to decide the matter through show-of-hand, during which only six MPs supported the approval while the rest rejected. The annual budget was submitted to the parliament in March for approval.

Capture riddle of Taliban leader - The Sunday Herald (Scotland) By Kate Clark in Kabul - 21 May 2006

Speculation has intensified around reports that the most feared Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, has been captured by international forces in southern Afghanistan.

The BBC reported Afghan officials saying he had been captured after two days of fighting in the Zarai district in the southern province of Kandahar. There has been no confirmation from the US military and very mixed comments from Taliban sources. The Kandahar governor, Assadullah Khalid, said: “We’ve arrested three high-ranking Taliban, members of the leadership council.” He declined to identify the prisoners.

If confirmed, the capture of Mullah Dadullah would be the most senior arrest of any Taliban since December 2001 and a huge setback for the movement. However, the reports might be a piece of disinformation, sowing unease in Taliban ranks at a time when the ferocity and confidence of their attacks has been increasing. Last week saw the heaviest fighting since early 2002, with as many as 100 people killed in large-scale attacks and suicide bombings.

The story of Dadullah’s arrest has triggered excitement in Afghanistan. Since the US has been tracking communications, any attempt by the Taliban to confirm Dadullah’s capture could lead to further arrests. This, however, is not the first time Dadullah has been reported captured or killed during Afghanistan’s long civil war.

Dadullah’s reputation for brutality and mastery of the battlefield emerged in the 1990s when some anti-Taliban forces nicknamed him the Lame Englishman (he lost a leg during the anti-Soviet jihad while the English are considered cunning strategists). He was the first commander to regroup after the Taliban’s defeat in 2001, launching attacks against both civilians and the US and Afghan military and helping to turn large areas of the south into no-go areas for aid agencies and government officials. Eyewitnesses said that when Taliban gunmen ambushed a Red Cross engineer in the southern province of Kandahar in March 2003, it was Dadullah who gave the order by telephone to shoot Ricardo Mungia dead. The deliberate killing of a humanitarian worker shocked Afghans and foreigners alike, as the Red Cross had always given medical treatment to all factions and provided prosthetic limbs to thousands of people like Dadullah.

The execution was an early indication of the brutality of the new jihad. At the time, Dadullah gave the Taliban’s first broadcast interview since 2001, promising to fight “Jews, Christians, all foreign crusaders”, until they were expelled from Afghanistan.

Dadullah has emerged as the most effective Taliban military leader, appointed to the 10-member leadership council and chosen by Taliban leader Mullah Omar to become the overall commander for military operations. He has boasted of having scores of suicide bombers ready to attack foreign forces, including British troops deployed to the southern province of Helmand.

His value for US and Afghan intelligence is of the highest rank, as he would have been in close contact with Omar and foreign al-Qaeda commanders supporting the Taliban. He is also near the top of the list of suspected Afghan war criminals whom human rights activists would like to see on trial. In June 2001, he openly boasted on the Taliban Radio Sharia that the district of Yakowlang would no longer be considered a civilian area, but a war zone. His forces launched a scorched earth policy, burning villages in an operation from which locals have still not recovered.

Dadullah was my neighbour in 2001 and his house was guarded by small, wiry fighters from his home province of Urozgan, one of the most conservative and backward provinces in all of Afghanistan.

Granting a rare interview in February 2001, he said he had been in the Taliban movement from the very beginning and described what he believed was the purity of his jihad. A hand grenade had just been thrown into his compound and he had publicly hanged two suspects from lamp-posts in the middle of Kabul. His standing already meant he could carry out summary justice without recourse to the Taliban courts.

Five years on, he remains the Taliban’s most feared commander and, after Mullah Omar, probably the US-British coalition’s biggest target.

Afghan women complete a lofty goal - By Jenna Russell The Boston Globe
May 21, 2006

BRISTOL, R.I. -- Their ambitions are bold, and when they talk about their goals, they hold their heads high and look you straight in the eye.

Mahbooba Babrakzai, 21, intends to be the finance minister of Afghanistan someday. Arezo Kohistani, 24, wants to serve as an ambassador for her country. And Nadima Sahar is aiming even higher: The 20-year-old, whose family fled home to escape the Taliban when she was 10, said she will be the first female president of Afghanistan.

The three young Afghan women, who collected their diplomas from Roger Williams University yesterday, are among the first six graduates of an ambitious, four-year-old campaign to bring Afghan women to colleges in the United States.

Next year, 30 Afghan women will be enrolled at US colleges under the program, which requires them to return home after graduation. They will be among the first women of their generation to receive a college education.

Four years ago, when they arrived in Rhode Island, homesick and frightened, Babrakzai, Kohistani, and Sahar were much more timid.

''Their eyes were down when they came, out of respect. They were very quiet," said Paula Nirschel, the founder of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women and the wife of Roy Nirschel, Roger Williams president. ''They were devastated to be away from their families. There was lots of sadness."

Occupied by the Soviet Union during the 1980s, Afghanistan was wracked by years of civil war before the Taliban took control in 1996, closing schools for girls and barring women from working or showing their faces in public. Desperate to escape the repressive regime and seek education for their children, the families of Babrakzai, Kohistani, and Sahar fled to neighboring Pakistan.

Living there as refugees, the girls attended school and English classes, but the facilities were poor. Some took jobs to help support their families; Kohistani taught English and then worked for the United Nations.

When offered the scholarship at Roger Williams, she worried how her family would get by without her income. But her father insisted that she go, she said.

On the small, seaside campus, the girls soon were too busy to be sad. Sahar, who changed majors five times before combining political science, business, and philosophy, became a key member of the school's mock trial team. Kohistani mentored freshmen and earned top grades in her business major, winning memberships in three honor societies. Babrakzai majored in finance and politics and tutored classmates.

Together, the three women founded the Muslim Student Association to educate other students about their religion. The group has 25 members from countries including India, Syria, and France.

''The only way the world can be a better, safer place is if we get to know each other," Babrakzai said. ''We came here and we realized, we're all human, with families, hopes, and dreams."

Funded by individual donors and participating colleges, including Simmons, Middlebury, and Mount Holyoke, the Afghan initiative covers all the students' living expenses and tuition. The women are required to return to Afghanistan each summer, and permanently after graduation.

During their summers at home, the young women have helped rebuild their country. Two years ago, with knowledge gleaned from her finance classes, Babrakzai helped an Afghan woman in Kabul write a business plan and win a $20,000 grant to open a clothing store. The business now employs 45 people, including other women who make clothing to sell there, Babrakzai said.

Five years after the US military helped oust the Taliban, in October 2001, the young women say they have been encouraged to see new houses and hospitals rising there, and boys and girls going back to school.

All three will attend graduate school next year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where they won full scholarships. They plan to return to Afghanistan in two years with master's degrees in public policy.

The decision to stay away longer was difficult for Kohistani, whose father recently had a stroke. But he urged her again to pursue her education. ''He says, 'I don't want you to stop dreaming,' " she said.

Their political aspirations have a larger purpose, Sahar said: inspiring other Afghan women to reach for lofty goals.

''Hopefully, we will be like a mother to future generations," she said. ''They will see that we had limited resources and used them efficiently, and they will be persuaded to do as we did."

[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.]