14 Brit troops die

Afghan National Army soldiers are seen after exercising at the Kabul Military Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006. Militants have increased their attacks on Afghan and coalition forces in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

In this bulletin:

• Hundreds of suspected Taliban killed
• 230 Taliban, four ISAF soldiers killed in Kandahar operation
• Four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan - Canadian Press
• President Karzai Is Saddened by the Death of 14 British Soldiers
• Canadians lead latest offensive into Taliban stronghold west of Kandahar
• Canada hints at stationing troops along Pakistan border
• Canadian-trained Afghan police say duty, patriotism compel them to risk violence
• NATO gives itself six months to tame the Taleban
• Afghan foreign minister picks holes in war on terrorism
• President Karzai Disappointed by the Increase in Poppy Cultivation
• Afghan opium cultivation soars 59 percent in 2006, UNODC survey shows
• Religious scholars press govt to improve security
• Suicide bombing attack statistics
• Afghanistan-Turkmenistan: Blurred Borderlines
• Pakistani intelligence grills Afghan journalist
• Kabul Traffic Waits for Green Light
• Air Force Reservist Sen. Lindsey Graham served in Afghanistan

Hundreds of suspected Taliban killed

Kandahar (AP) - NATO and Afghan forces killed more than 200 suspected Taliban guerrillas with air strikes and artillery fire in a major offensive in a volatile province in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Sunday.

A statement said four soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force also died and seven were wounded in the fighting in Panjwayi district, about 10 miles from the city of Kandahar.

The casualty counts could not be independently confirmed because the government ordered vehicles to stay off roads leading to the area and reporters were unable to gain access to the battle zone. There was no indication of bodies being taken to local hospitals.

"Reports indicate that more than 200 Taliban fighters have been killed since Operation Medusa began early Saturday morning," the NATO force said in a statement.

It said more than 80 suspected Taliban fighters were captured by Afghan police and a further 180 insurgents were seen fleeing the district.

NATO said there were no reports of civilian casualties, despite the heavy weight of fire being used. An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Zahir Azimi, said earlier in the day that a number of civilians were killed.

NATO said its estimate of Taliban casualties was based on information from its "surveillance and reconnaissance assets" and reports from Afghan officials and civilians living nearby.

A NATO spokesman, Maj. Scott Lundy, said NATO and Afghan troops had gained ground during Operation Medusa and had disrupted the militants' command and control so their fighters were moving in a confused way.

On Saturday, a reconnaissance plane supporting the offensive crashed, killing all 14 British military personnel on board. NATO said the plane was not brought down by hostile fire.

230 Taliban, four ISAF soldiers killed in Kandahar operation

KANDAHAR CITY, September 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): As many as 230 Taliban

fighters have been killed in two days of fierce fighting in Panjwayee and Zherai districts of the southern Kandahar province, a source told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday.

The fighters were killed in the operation launched by the NATO and Afghan forces in the two districts, which have been scene to attacks on Afghan and foreign forces over the past few months.

The source, which did not want to be named, said the operation was still going on to eliminate or flush out the miscreants from those areas.

Meanwhile, a military statement release from Kandahar airfield said four ISAF soldiers and more than 200 Taliban fighters had been killed since the beginning of the Operation Medusa early Saturday morning.

This figure was obtained after reviewing information from ISAF surveillance and reconnaissance assets operating in Panjwayee and Zherai districts as well as information reported by various Afghan officials and citizens living nearby, said the statement.

Four ISAF soldiers also killed during todays operations and seven others were wounded. More than 80 suspected Taliban fighters were captured by the police and a further 180 insurgents were seen fleeing the districts, said the statement.

Four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan - Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Four Canadian soldiers were killed during a major NATO offensive involving air strikes and artillery barrages against insurgents in the Panjwaii district of southern Afghanistan, Canadian military officials said Sunday.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser announced the deaths during a briefing with reporters. In addition, up to nine Canadians were reported wounded. Injuries to two of them apparently were light enough for them to stay on in the combat area.

Earlier Sunday, an official with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the four NATO soldiers were killed by enemy fire in the fighting in Panjwaii district, west of the city of Kandahar. Seven NATO soldiers were wounded.

The Afghan Defence Ministry, citing intelligence reports, also said 89 militants had died during two days of fighting during Operation Medusa, launched Saturday.

NATO claimed to inflicted far higher casualties on the insurgent. "Reports indicate that more than 200 Taliban fighters have been killed since Operation Medusa began early Saturday morning," said a NATO spokesman.

"This figure was arrived at by reviewing information from ISAF surveillance and reconnaissance assets operating in Panjwaii and Zhari districts, as well as information reported by various Afghan officials and citizens living nearby."

The NATO statement said more than 80 suspected Taliban fighters were captured by Afghan police and a further 180 insurgents were seen fleeing the district. There were no reports of civilian casualties, despite the heavy bombardment in the area, the alliance said.

Canadian, British and U.S. troops are taking part in Operation Medusa, with the goal of gaining control of the Taliban stronghold of Panjwaii, which covers an area roughly between 20 and 40 kilometres west of Kandahar city.

NATO hopes the operation would clear out insurgents and enable Afghan government forces to hold the area and prevent it from slipping back under Taliban influence.

ISAF, the NATO force, is in Afghanistan to help the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai exert its control and maintain security in a country where insurgents, warlords and drug kingpins hold influence over wide swaths of territory.

A NATO statement said its forces had gained ground in Panjwaii and the operation was continuing Sunday.

On Saturday, a reconnaissance plane supporting Operation Medusa in Panjwaii crashed, killing all 14 British troops on board. NATO said the crash was not caused by hostile fire.

President Karzai Is Saddened by the Death of 14 British Soldiers - Date of Release: 03 September 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, was deeply saddened by the unfortunate death of 14 British soldiers.

According to reports, the Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 aircraft crashed due to a mechanical fault in the province of Kandahar on Saturday, killing 14 British military personnel.

In his reaction to the news the President said “These British soldiers lost their lives for the sake of peace in Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan will never forget their sacrifices. These soldiers lost their lives during the fight against global terrorism.”

The President, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan , expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Britain.

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

Canadians lead latest offensive into Taliban stronghold west of Kandahar

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The first day of a Canadian-led incursion into Taliban strongholds met little resistance Saturday, but 14 British troops died in the crash nearby of a surveillance aircraft. NATO officials blamed the crash on a technical problem, scoffing at Taliban claims that it had been shot down.

Troops from several NATO countries launched the latest major offensive designed to take back a Taliban hotbed near Kandahar.

The plane, a British Nimrod surveillance aircraft, went down about 15 kilometres west of Kandahar, about halfway between the city and the heart of the NATO operation.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed guerrillas shot the plane down in Kandahar province with a Stinger missile, but British Defence Secretary Des Browne said the crash appeared to be "a terrible accident."

Col. Fred Lewis, head of the Canadian contingent, scoffed at the Taliban claim. "They don't have the technical ability to shoot down an aircraft like that," Lewis told a briefing at Kandahar Airfield.

Abdul Manan, a witness in Chalaghor village, told The Associated Press the plane crashed about 100 metres from his home and that pieces of wreckage landed nearby. He reported seeing a small fire at the back of the plane before it hit the ground with a huge explosion that "shook the whole village."

The British Ministry of Defence said the dead included 12 Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an army soldier. A NATO statement said the plane's crew reported a technical problem before the crash.

Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO troops, including most of the combat units among Canada's 2,200 soldiers in Afghanistan, were set up in strategic high ground in Panjwaii by Saturday night.

They launched fierce artillery and aerial bombardments on the Arghandab River valley, one of the few green ribbons of land in southern Afghanistan. Insurgents responded with at least one rocket of their own, setting off an explosion in Kandahar Airfield at the end of the day. No injuries were reported.

Officials also reported no alliance combat casualties in the mission - dubbed Operation Medusa - but Canadian commanders expected fierce fighting.

"I think we're talking in the neighbourhood of hundreds" of Taliban fighters, said Lewis, the Canadian commander. "Certainly not thousands, not tens (of thousands). Might they just fade away? If they're smart, they will."

Unconfirmed reports said Taliban fighters died in the action but NATO and local officials did not provide figures. The officials said no civilian casualties were reported.

Pro-government forces moved into the area at dawn Saturday backed by artillery and air support, including helicopter gunships.

Canadians repelled one Taliban ambush but found little other resistance and have established control of the Panjwaii district centre, according to Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie, the commander of Canadian troops on the ground.

"We're quite happy that we came in with no casualties and got up in our positions really quickly," Lavoie said as artillery exploded behind him.

The area has been a constant thorn in the side of Canadian troops. At least six have died and 32 have been wounded in dozens of bomb attacks, ambushes and pitched battles there over the last six months, according to reports compiled by The Canadian Press.

The soldiers are concentrating on a small triangle of land between the district centres of Zhari, Panjwaii to the south and the tiny village of Pashmul just to the west.

The Arghandab River, a dry bed by the end of summer, cuts through arid scrub, providing irrigation for the poppy fields and grape farms that drive the local economy. Walled compounds and small villages dot the area.

Another major operation known as the Battle of Panjwaii was launched in the same area at the beginning of summer. At the time commanders bragged they had broken the back of the insurgency there.

Instead, coalition troops withdrew and the Taliban took over again. Officials promise pro-government forces will hold the area this time, although the bulk of Canadian troops will again withdraw.

"I don't think it will be Canadians" securing the area after Operation Medusa, Lewis said. "I think it will be Afghan led.

Canada hints at stationing troops along Pakistan border

OTTAWA, Sept 2: Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor said on Friday Canadian soldiers could be deployed along the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan to help protect the forces from attacks.

Mr O’Connor, speaking in Islamabad, urged his Pakistani interlocutors to redouble efforts to prevent attacks on Canadians in Afghanistan.

“Among other things, I suggested that some Pakistani officers be stationed with our troops in Kandahar and Canadian troops be stationed on the Pakistan side,” he said in an interview. “This will assist in information gathering and intelligence sharing.”—AFP

Canadian-trained Afghan police say duty, patriotism compel them to risk violence - Canadian Press - Sunday, September 03, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - They face chaos in the streets, bribes from drug traffickers and sometimes even the possibility of being shot at by the international forces that are supposed to be their allies and mentors.

It isn't easy being a police officer in Afghanistan, especially when their paycheque averages $45 US per month - a paycheque that all too often never arrives.

Still, hundreds of Afghans sign recruitment papers every week in southern Afghanistan. They do it for the money, even if it isn't much. They also do it for the uniform and the sense of pride and respect that they hope it will bring.

For many, though, they do it for their country, says RCMP Supt. David Fudge. "It's a sense of nationalism that they have," he said. "They want a better Afghanistan and they're willing to put their lives on the line for it."

Fudge is in Kandahar as part of Canada's provincial reconstruction team, a multi-level unit that includes soldiers, police officers and officials from Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Fudge's job is to help train police recruits who often arrive at Kandahar's security training compound wearing tattered clothes and flip-flops on their feet.

A police officer in Canada for 30 years - five of which were spent teaching recruits at the RCMP's national academy - Fudge knows the job won't be easy.

He is training police officers who, for the most part, are illiterate, have little in the way of education and who will upon graduation become targets for insurgents bent on punishing anyone who co-operates with foreigners.

The fear of being killed worries Abdul Nasir, 31, the gate commander whose men are the front line of defence for Canada's 2,200 soldiers and other international forces living and working at Kandahar Airfield.

"I'm tense about it," said Nasir, who complained that his unit has been waiting months to get protective gear that is promised but not yet delivered.

Nasir earns roughly 9,000 Afghanis per month, the equivalent of about $140. By Afghan standards he is well paid. His men collect about one third of that amount.

None of them do the job for the money, Nasir said, adding that they take the risk out of a sense of patriotic duty. "I do it for my country," Nasir said in an interview. "If I had money, I would still be here."

"It is my belief and my trust that I have to do something for my country because my country has done so much for me."

Afghanistan is experiencing its worst bout of violence since the late-2001 U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

More than 1,600 people, mostly militants, have died in the past four months, according to an Associated Press tally of violent incidents reported by U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.

Canada has lost 27 soldiers since early 2002, 19 of them in just the past six months, plus one diplomat. Many Afghan security forces, including soldiers and police, have also died.

On Aug. 26, Canadian soldiers mistook a truckload of police officers for insurgents, firing on them, killing one and injuring four others.

A short while later, the same soldiers fired on two men on a motorcycle who they later discovered were also police officers. Both incidents are under investigation by the military's National Investigation Service and Afghan authorities.

Despite the incidents, and others like them recently involving U.S. soldiers, Canada and other NATO countries have to continue plodding down the slow road toward training as many Afghans to work for the police and military as possible, said another RCMP officer, Supt. Wayne Martin.

He knows all too well the challenges Fudge will face in the coming year. Until last week, Martin had been in Afghanistan for just over a year doing the same job that Fudge is just embarking on. Progress has come "at a glacial rate," said Martin.

"You're starting with institutions that were so eroded by 30 years of turmoil, upheaval, insurgency, war that the government was weakened very seriously," he said. "Supervision, management, operational training, you name it, it's required."

Martin predicted it would take years to build Afghanistan's police service to the point where the international community can step away and leave the country to its own. He said now that the job has been started, it's no time to quit - as some politicians back home have suggested.

"You don't change a society, you don't change a culture, you don't change a country in three years or five years," he said. "This is a long-haul project . . . and I think we've set the foundation for that."

NATO gives itself six months to tame the Taleban – AFP 09/02/2006

LONDON - NATO forces in Afghanistan have set themselves a six-month deadline to establish a clear advantage over Taleban insurgents, their commander said in an interview published on Saturday. Lieutenant General David Richards, the British general in charge of the international force in the war-shattered country said they had to prove that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration had the upper hand in the battle against supporters of the deposed Taleban regime.

'We have to show in the next six months that the government is on the winning side,' Richards told Britain's Financial Times business daily. His comments highlight the growing concern that Afghan and international officials needed to do more to win popular support in the lawless south of the country.

Taleban fighters have been waging an increasingly sophisticated insurgency since being driven from government in late 2001 in a US-led military operation. 'Over the past five years there has never been a united agenda,' Jawed Ludin, Karzai's chief of staff, told the FT.

He said Karzai had established a high-level multi-national Policy Action Group focused on tackling the insurgency in a more co-ordinated fashion.

He said the group included Karzai, Afghan ministers, NATO and US military commanders and the ambassadors of Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, countries which have all contributed troops in the troubled four southern provinces.

'It has been understood that the situation in the south calls for a much more coherent policy to win hearts and minds,' said Mohammed Hanif Atmar, the Afghan minister of education.

He heads a working group on reconstruction in the south which is part of Karzai's initiative. 'Afghanistan has had two administrations: one that the government of Afghanistan has established and another that the international community has set up. We are trying to make them work together.'

On Friday, a British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan, the latest victim of fighting between NATO and Taleban insurgents. Some 22 British soldiers have now been killed in Afghanistan -- 15 in combat -- since the start of operations against the Taleban following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Afghan foreign minister picks holes in war on terrorism – DPA 09/02/2006

KABUL - Five years after the beginning of the international crackdown on terrorism, the Afghan government has accused the international community of key omissions in its struggle against terrorism.

The world has "focused too heavily on the military components of the fight against terrorism," Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said in Kabul.

"The anti-terrorism fight is not only a military task, it also involves development politics and social programmes," Spanta said, admitting the Kabul government had also made mistakes in this respect.

Corruption, cultivation of drugs and terrorism had increased over the past few years in Afghanistan, Spanta said. Without a three- pronged strategy to combat these ills simultaneously, "we will have no success," he added, noting that drug barons and terrorist leaders were now working together.

"We have serious problems," he conceded, while dismissing as exaggerated suggestions that Afghanistan was "in danger of failing," given what he called the development on several fronts.

Speaking about the insurgency in the south and east of the country, Spanta said Afghan and international forces were "confronted with a well-organised international terrorist network."

The rebels had modern weaponry and means of communications and transport. Asked whether German soldiers should be temporarily redeployed to the south, the minister said that was an internal matter for Nato.

Although the rebels should be fought using mainly military means, "we must also create a development policy," said Spanta who spent several years in Germany.

Such a policy would include improving the drinking water supply, building schools and clinics in areas where most of the fighting takes place.

"The problem is that NGOs and reconstruction teams have completely pulled out of the south and east," said Spanta, reiterating the importance of bolstering the state's presence in these areas.

"How can we defend an area of more than 40,000 inhabitants with 41 very badly-equipped policemen?

"Unless the Afghan government and the international community manage to improve living conditions and security and fortify state institutions in restive areas we cannot talk of a successful, plausible anti-terrorism campaign," Spanta pointed out.

Afghan opium cultivation soars 59 percent in 2006, UNODC survey shows

KABUL, 2 September (UNODC) – Opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose 59 percent in 2006, largely due to a dramatic increase in the troubled southern provinces, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Saturday.

UNODC’s Annual Opium Survey for Afghanistan showed the area under opium cultivation reached a record 165,000 hectares in 2006 compared with 104,000 in 2005. In the southern province of Helmand, where Taliban insurgents have scaled up their attacks on Afghan government and international forces, cultivation soared 162 percent to 69,324 hectares.

“These are very alarming numbers. Afghanistan is increasingly hooked on its own drug,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in Kabul after presenting the survey to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 tons of opium – a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent.”

The Survey will be published in full at the end of October. A detailed summary, with commentary, will be released on September 12.

The UNODC chief said the southern part of Afghanistan was displaying the ominous hallmarks of incipient collapse, with large-scale drug cultivation and trafficking, insurgency and terrorism, crime and corruption. In other provinces, especially Badakhshan in the north-east, opium crop increases were the result of weak governance, poverty and the influence of powerful warlords.

Only six of the country’s 34 provinces are now opium-free. Cultivation fell this year in eight other provinces, mainly in the north of the country. In Nangarhar, the huge success in reducing opium cultivation in 2005 was not reversed, although some increase took place this year.

“Public opinion is increasingly frustrated by the fact that opium cultivation in Afghanistan seems out of control, and that the political, military and economic investments by coalition countries are not having much impact. Afghan opium is fuelling insurgency in western Asia, feeding international mafias and causing a hundred thousand deaths from overdoses every year,” the UNODC Executive Director said.

Mr Costa called on the Afghan government to take much tougher action to root out corruption and arrest major drug traffickers and wealthy opium-farming landlords, seizing their assets.

“We trained police and prosecutors, we constructed court houses and detention centres. Now the government has the responsibility to use the judicial system to impose the rule of law and re-establish confidence in Kabul. Significant arrests and convictions will set an example and serve as a deterrent.”

Mr Costa urged the Afghan authorities to double the number of opium-free provinces by the end of 2007 and again by 2008, so as to create a drug-free Afghanistan province by province.

“Drug-free areas should be rewarded with more substantial and more visible development aid. Governors and police officials presiding over opium growing provinces should be removed and charged. This would draw a battle line in what could otherwise be an un-winnable war against insurgency mixed with drug trafficking.”

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Better living standards, especially in the countryside, and better governance are both vital for tackling the drug problem.

The United Nations drugs chief said Afghanistan had not received as much economic aid per head of population as other post-conflict areas and greater efforts were needed.

“It is not only a question of more money. Aid money gets stuck due to bureaucratic delays. Some is misused, or even stolen, by incompetent intermediaries and corrupt administrators. International aid is plagued by huge overhead costs. Add the arrogant power of the warlords turned drug-lords and you understand why people’s confidence in the government and in the international community is being undermined,” he added.

The Afghan Government, the Parliament and partner nations have made it clear that legalizing cultivation or buying up the opium crop for medical purposes is not an option under current circumstances. The price differential between the legal market, where opium costs about $20-30 per kilo, and the illegal one, where the price is $100, would lead to even greater cultivation and the massive diversion of supplies to the black market.

The UNODC Executive Director also called on western governments to do more to curb drug abuse in their countries, not least in order to protect the health and safety of their own people. “Heroin habits in the West put huge sums of money into the pockets of criminals and insurgents who destabilize Afghanistan and kill soldiers and civilians alike,” he said.

Religious scholars press govt to improve security

Pajhwok 09/02/2006 - By Abdul Mueed Hashmi - JALALABAD - More than 200 religious scholars in the eastern Nuristan province have demanded of the government to improve security and launch reconstruction projects in the province.

During their two-day meeting, which was started on Wednesday, the religious scholars said in order to get the support of the people, the government should improve security and start developmental works in Nuristan.

Spokesman for the provincial government Abdul Wakil Atak told Pajhwok Afghan News the meeting was held in Paroon, capital of the remote province. The ulema also discussed and presented suggestions to officials on how to improve the security situation.

He said the extraordinary meeting was held in two phases. On the first day on Wednesday, they deliberated on the reconstruction projects while on the second day, the ulema and the governmental officials discussed the security situation.

Chief of the pro-government ulema council in the province Maulvi Rashidi observed the law and order situation was getting from bad to worse day by day. He said the meeting was called to bridge the gulf between the government and people by improving security and providing jobs to people through the reconstruction projects.

He said clerics could bridge the gap between the government and the people by preaching peace and urging upon people to cooperate with the government.

Speaking on the occasion, a member of the council Maulvi Fazal Mohammad suggested the government should take immediate steps to bridge the gulf between officials and common citizens.

Pointing to the backwardness of the province, he said the government should provide facilities like health, education, telephones and constructs roads in the province.

The meeting was called at a time when lawlessness is prevailing in the remote province over the past one month. Last week, tribal elder and a pro-government former commander Haji Mohammad Younus was kidnapped along with his two bodyguards in the Kamdesh district. His headless body was recovered in the same area after a few days.

Suicide bombing attack statistics - COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER KABUL

KABUL , Afghanistan –More than 84 percent of the people killed by suicide bombers throughout Afghanistan this year are civilians.  As of Aug. 12, 105 out of the 124 people killed by suicide bombers were civilians.
            In the past year, five Coalition service members were killed while 14 Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police were killed.  The other 105 were innocent civilians.
            “This is what the Taliban extremists offer the people of Afghanistan – death and destruction,” said Col. Thomas Collins, Coalition forces spokesman.  “These suicide bombers place no value on human life and continue to threaten the safety of the Afghan people.  They hide behind the mask of being devout, but nowhere in the Koran does it say the killing of innocent civilians is justified.”
            Collins also said that Taliban extremists purposely inflict death and destruction on their own people and show no remorse for their actions.
            “Their blatant disregard for human life cannot be justified under any circumstance,” he said.

Afghanistan-Turkmenistan: Blurred Borderlines - IWPR By Muhammad Tahir in Sheberghan

Tough regulations and confusion over where the border runs make life hard for Afghans living along the frontier with Turkmenistan.

Imam Nazar used be to a bustling trading post, the last stop on a main road from Afghanistan to Turkmenistan, but these days it looks more like a ghost town. Those residents who have not yet left blame the authorities in Turkmenistan for the slump in border trade.

Apart from a few Afghan soldiers manning a deserted border checkpoint, the only people out and about are several of shopkeepers hoping a driver will stop to pick up provisions. Much of the custom comes from truck drivers from Turkmenistan working on contract for international aid groups sending supplies to Afghanistan, but their numbers are falling away these days.

The plight of this town in Faryab province highlights the difficult situation along the border between northwest Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, where tighter regulation and frequent arrests of people who inadvertently stray across the line have made life harder for local residents.

Gurban Nazar, 37, is among the many shopkeepers in Imam Nazar who are considering closing down. He blames the authorities in Turkmenistan for creating disincentives to travel.

"Since Turkmen consular officials introduced the most complicated ever visa procedures, people rarely travel there. On the other side, Turkmen citizens are not allowed to travel here, either, so there's nothing left in the border zone," he said. "Our businesses target people crossing this checkpoint, but now no one comes for days, so we are just wasting our time."

Apart from border trade, the Turkmenistan authorities' attitude is also making life tough for local farmers - many of whom are ethnic Turkmen in this part of Afghanistan.

Farmers have always grazed their herds of livestock along the rivers here – the Shirin Taghab in Faryab, the Murghab in Badghis province to the west, and the great Amu Darya to the east in Jowzjan - whose waters provided a lifeline during many drought years. But these days they risk arrest or at least the loss of their animals if they cross invisible state boundaries.

"Some parts of the border are open and have no border signs especially in Andkhoy district, and we used to go there for years even when the Taleban was in power in Afghanistan and during the Soviet period as well," said Allah Berdy, a 42-year-old resident of Andkhoy district in Faryab. "Over the last year, Turkmen border guards have started stopping us doing this. If our animals cross the unmarked border without realising it, the border guards will confiscate them."

Allah Berdy himself was arrested and held in a Turkmen jail after being accused of crossing the boundary illegally. He says he paid local authorities a bribe to secure his release.

"There are still dozens of [similar] people in Turkmen prisons. I expect this will continue, since there is no proper demarcation of the border and more importantly, the Turkmen border guards are using this legal loophole to extort bribes from people," he said.

Sections of the Murghab and Amu Darya rivers traditionally served as the state boundary, but the course of these waterways has shifted in recent years, and Afghan villagers say land that was once theirs is now claimed by Turkmenistan and patrolled by that country's frontier guards.

Although neither government has raised the issue of demarcation, talks on the border have been taking place since last year.

Local Afghan authorities would not comment either on the border problems or on people detained in Turkmenistan. Nor was it possible to contact officials in Turkmenistan, but the authorities there have said publicly that tougher border security is a move designed to stop drug smuggling out of Afghanistan, the world's leading opium producer. Local residents say opium and heroin does cross the border, and that powerful outsiders are involved.

One man, who did not want to be named, said, "The people involved in this business are high-level figures, including officials from either side of the border, and the people now being held in Turkmen prisons have got nothing to do with drug smuggling."

Pakistani intelligence grills Afghan journalist

QUETTA, Sep 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): An Afghan journalist was arrested and later released by Pakistani security agencies on Chaman - Spin Boldak border crossing on Thursday.

Ghousuddin Firoten, an Afghan national and correspondent of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained by intelligence officials as he crossed into Pakistan on Thursday morning.

The intelligence officials grilled him for three hours and was set free around 11am the same day. The journalist was arrested despite having all the legal documents. He was later released with the help of Deutche Welle correspondent Abdul Raziq Barq.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Firoten said he had presented the passport and valid visa and introduced himself as a journalist. However, the security officials charged him of working for Afghan intelligence agencies.

He said after being questioned for three hours, the intelligence officials released him on the intervention of his colleague and another correspondent of a foreign radio station.

Condemning the detention of the Afghan journalist, Ahmad Ali Babak, Consul-General of Afghan Consulate in Quetta, asked the Pakistani authorities to treat the journalist in accordance with the international laws.

Babak said he had raised the issue with the provincial governor and other Pakistani authorities from time to time and would discuss it in future as well. He said Pakistani journalists were freely performing their duties in Afghanistan and Afghan journalists should also be given similar treatment.

Meanwhile, Afghan journalists in Pakistan have also condemned the detention of Ghousuddin Firoten and demanded of the Afghan government to raise the issue with Pakistani authorities.

Editor of the TolAfghan.com Pashto Website Mujeebur Rahman Angar in Peshawar asked journalists in Afghanistan to raise their voice for their brothers working in Pakistan.

Kabul Traffic Waits for Green Light

IWPR - By Wahidullah Amani - Even if the long-promised traffic lights were put up around the Afghan capital, there would be no electricity to switch them on. More than a year after traffic in the Afghan capital Kabul was supposed to have been tamed by traffic lights, the roads are congested worse than ever.

Even with four or five traffic policemen gesticulating at the cars and bicycles trying to shove their way across the busiest city junctions, the traffic remains at a near-standstill and it can take hours to get from one part of Kabul to another. The number of cars on the capital's roads is now estimated at 400,000 – 100,000 more than last year, when traffic police said the city could only cope with 80,000 or so.

That is not how it was supposed to be. In February 2005, the then head of Afghanistan's traffic police force, General Abdul Shakoor Khairkhwah, told IWPR that work was well under way on installing traffic lights at some 100 intersections and roundabouts, and would be completed by the end of the following month.

It is now August 2006, but the only traffic lights to be seen in Kabul - standing at 14 intersections - were there even before Khairkhwah spoke about his ambitious plan.

The traffic authorities justify the delay by pointing out that there is little value in putting up lights if they are not going to work anyway.

Abdul Sami Nazar, who heads the Kabul traffic police department, told IWPR the installation plan was ongoing, but had been delayed by the local power authorities' refusal to provide electricity. The Kabul Electricity Office has a point - the Afghan traffic police have not paid their energy bills for years.

"We need electricity to activate the traffic lights, but the energy ministry wants us to pay off previous electricity charges first. We are in contact with them and will switch the lights on as soon as they supply the power," said Nazar.

Other problems contributing to the delay included the difficulty of buying the right electrical cables, added Nazar.

According to Mohammad Sarwar Sediqi, deputy head of the Kabul power authority, "The Afghan traffic department owes the energy ministry two million afghanis [40,000 US dollars] from past years. They have to pay this money first and then we will take action to supply power to the intersections and meet other needs of the traffic department. We cannot write this money off."

Sediqi said the traffic lights now standing at 14 junctions were still not fully working because the police had failed to provide the cabling.

However, apportioning blame may be academic, since Sediqi says that even if all the planned traffic lights were installed properly across the city, it would be impossible to guarantee a constant electricity supply.

"We are unable to supply power to all of the city intersections continuously. At the moment, we can supply power only to those located close to our power stations," he said, recommending that the traffic police look into alternative energy sources such as solar power.

Police chief Nazar insisted that even when the traffic lights finally start working, the sheer volume of cars on the road means there will always be a need for the policeman on the spot trying to make order out of chaos. "We have to have traffic police too, because lights alone cannot regulate the massive traffic," he said.

On the streets of Kabul, people told IWPR that working red stop signals would mean little to the many drivers who ignore all the rules, have never taken a test and either bought their driving license with a bribe or do not possess one at all.

"Most of these drivers are ignorant of the traffic laws, so lights aren't going to make my job any easier," said one traffic policeman who asked not to be named. "They don't follow our instructions - how are they going to obey traffic lights?"

Air Force Reservist Sen. Lindsey Graham served in Afghanistan

By James Rosen - McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON - Col. Lindsey Graham, wearing Air Force desert fatigues and carrying a loaded 9mm pistol and, was growing frustrated as he stood before a roomful of Afghan military lawyers on a steamy August day in Kabul.

Graham was trying to use his Southern wit to lighten the complex principles and practices of U.S. military law he was teaching. The Republican's self-deprecating, cornball jokes play well on the Senate floor or back home in South Carolina, but in the Afghan capital, delivered through an interpreter, they were falling flat.

Each time the colonel cracked a joke, the few other Americans in the room broke out laughing while the Afghans sat stone-faced. In mock exasperation, Graham turned to the translator and said: "You're not very funny!"

During his mid-August mission to train Afghan judges, lawyers and prosecutors in the struggling democracy's armed forces, Graham was the first sitting member of Congress in decades to perform military duty in a war zone.

"When you've been working in the military most of your life like I have, you relish the opportunity to put your skills to use in a time that it matters the most," Graham said Thursday in a phone interview from Montenegro in the Balkans.

An Air Force Reserve colonel, Graham served more than six years' active duty as a military lawyer, most of it in Europe, before joining Congress in 1995. Since then, he's sat as a judge on the Air Force Court of Appeals and pulled other Reserve duty. His eight-day trip to Afghanistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates was his first foreign assignment as a reservist.

The Afghanistan assignment appealed to Graham, 51, because he felt it would aid the country's rough transition to democracy.

"For us to win the war on terror, it's going to take more than bullets," Graham said. "Our hope is that if we can transform the military to accept the rule of law, it will spread to the civilian population in Afghanistan."

Almost five years after U.S. forces toppled the Taliban regime, drug trafficking is soaring, the Taliban have retaken parts of the country and Afghanistan still endures widespread violence. There was a car-bombing in Kabul shortly before Graham's arrival, and NATO forces were fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan during Graham's visit.

Training at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Graham, an avid hunter, qualified as an expert marksman before his departure. He carried a pistol and traveled in an unmarked convoy with three other visiting U.S. officers.

Graham said he never felt directly threatened in Afghanistan, but felt the general danger.

"I realized I was in a war zone - that was never lost on me," Graham said. "I was probably at more personal risk because I went as a senator. I'm just a more visible target."

For security and personal reasons, Graham's trip wasn't publicized in advance, and his office issued no news releases afterward. Word of the unusual journey filtered out after the American Forces Press Service ran an article for military publications.

"I wasn't going to say a word about it because I know that my contribution is minimal," Graham said. "Quite honestly, I know the sacrifices that people are making are so much more than mine. It was something that was personal to me."

The Afghan parliament recently approved the post-Taliban government's first military code of justice. Graham spent part of his time describing its similarities with, and differences from, the U.S. military legal system.

Graham traveled with Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, who as Air Force judge advocate general is his boss in the Air Force Reserve.

Rives noted that while he had his own room and a private bathroom during the trip, Graham bunked with another colonel; they shared a hallway bathroom.

"He traveled as a colonel in the Reserves, and he was treated as a colonel in the Reserves," Rives said. "A lot of folks we met, of course, were aware of his status in civilian life, but not all of them were. Some of them were surprised when they found out."

A declining number of senators or representatives have any military experience - only about a quarter of the 535 members, at last count.

Graham is the only senator in the National Guard or Reserves. There are three representatives: Reps. Stephen Buyer, an Indiana Republican, and John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, are in the Army Reserve; Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, is in the Navy Reserve. Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, retired from the Army National Guard three years ago.

Buyer attends weekly drills with Graham, the other congressional Reservists and senior executive agency officials who retain their military commissions. Their unit is a special one for "Individual Mobilization Augmentees," Pentagon-speak for officers who because of their government positions aren't deployable for active duty.

"What is extraordinary about Lindsey doing this overseas is that he serves at no pay and he does not seek reimbursement for his expenses," Buyer said. "Lindsey is a talented lawyer, he is a good Air Force officer, and he's a good person. For him to go over and participate in teaching is crucial because, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, establishment of the rule of law is so important."

Graham's experience as a military lawyer has helped put him in the middle of the most controversial policy debates and power struggles between Congress and the executive branch since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Graham has helped to try to negotiate compromises over the Bush administration's bid to try accused terrorists in closed military tribunals, employ rough interrogation techniques that border on torture and hold detainees without access to lawyers.

But during his two-day teaching stint in Kabul, it wasn't Graham's analysis of complex military and legal issues that drew the biggest response from the Afghan military lawyers.

The moment that most impressed them was when Graham said that he was following in the footsteps of earlier senators who also served in the military. As Graham paid homage to Strom Thurmond, he mentioned that the late senator from South Carolina had fathered two children after turning 70.

The Afghans broke out in applause, some rising to their feet. "He almost got a standing ovation," said Rives, the Air Force judge advocate general. "The Afghans did appreciate that."

[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.]