In this bulletin:

• Karzai Highlights Agenda Ahead Of UN Address
• Bombings kill 18 across Afghanistan Dozens hurt, many of them children, in 3 suicide attacks
• Taliban executes Turkish engineer in Afghanistan
• Canadians die in Afghan bombing
• Troop casualties will not affect Canada's resolve in Afghanistan: MacKay
• Taliban vow to retake Panjwai redoubt
• Thirteen Taliban dead in Afghanistan battle
• Black & Veatch, N.J. firm win $1.4B Afghanistan contract
• Paktika gets new middle school
• Ulema, Taliban excoriate Pope Remarks
• Pakistan defends peace deal
• Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban
• Air Arabia temporarily cancels all flights to Kabul

Karzai Highlights Agenda Ahead Of UN Address

RFE/RL 09/19/2006 By Nikola Krastev

NEW YORK - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will spend the next week in North America -- speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on September 20 before traveling to Canada and then returning for talks with senior officials in Washington. On September 18, Karzai highlighted his agenda and the problems facing rebuilding efforts in a speech he gave at a New York-based educational foundation called the Asia Society.

A key theme of Karzai's speech in New York was that religious extremism is fueling terrorism -- not only in Afghanistan, but throughout the region.
 
"The terrorism in our part of the world emanates from some of us relying solely on extremism -- on religious extremism -- as an instrument of policy," Karzai said. "The more we do that, the more we lead to violence. The more we do that, the more we endanger our own region and beyond. The vision for our part of the world -- South Asia and Central Asia, is one of tremendous hope -- for better prosperity, tremendous manpower, better education, more trade, more openness -- if we can handle this particular problem."
 
But Karzai warned that Kabul's efforts to fight terrorism are complicated by the failure to build up a strong police force. "Afghanistan's biggest problem is lack of strong institutions. Especially law enforcement. Especially the police," he said. "The problem that we have today in Afghanistan in fighting terror -- all the attacks of the Taliban in our districts -- is not because they are strong. It's because we don't have the strength in terms of the number of police, in terms of the trained number of police, in terms of the resources and the spread of the police force."

Karzai also described illegal opium farming -- and the funds that it brings to both drug lords and Taliban fighters -- as a menace to the future of his country. He said the lack of economic opportunity for ordinary Afghans after three decades of war has caused some to turn to opium-poppy cultivation.
 
"Alongside this -- a much sinister problem -- the problem of narcotics," Karzai said. "That again is because of desperation, lack of hope, and war and which caused all of this. Now Afghan people went to growing poppies, some of them. I know families, ladies and gentlemen, who destroyed their pomegranate orchards, which is the most beautiful of the orchards that we know of in the world, to replace them with poppies. Or vineyards, to replace them with poppies. That menace has become an economic reality in Afghanistan."
  
Karzai expressed concern mingled with hope about a recent deal that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made with a pro-Taliban group in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal regions. The pact calls for no cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. But Karzai said terrorists could use the deal to gain time in order to regroup and gain strength.
 
"President Musharraf, our brother, was in Kabul about a week ago, 10 days ago. And he mentioned the deal signed with the Taliban or the associates there," Karzai said. "The first item in that deal is that they would not cross over into Afghanistan for attacks against Afghanistan. And when President Musharraf mentioned this I was very happy. I said, 'Good! That's quite reassuring.' And we would wait to see if that will be honored. Now, if that deal removes terrorism from affecting the lives of our brothers in Pakistan, and sisters in Pakistan, or if that deal also removes the dangers to us as it comes across the border -- we'll be happy. If it does not, it would give them time to get stronger and then attack both sides with strength. That would then worry us a lot."
 
Karzai acknowledged that Pakistan's government might not have the means to stop cross-border raids into Afghanistan from the tribal regions that stretch along the porous mountain border.
 
"There's definitely this problem of cross-border activity, terrorism that affects Afghanistan," he said. "I have raised this with President Musharraf. He told me and he also said in his public address to the Afghan people that there may be such cross-border activity taking place. It may not be a question of intentions on the part of the government of Pakistan, but a question of capabilities to prevent such attacks. Now we are working on this together and we will have discussion together with [U.S.] President Bush. Let's hope that we can together address this problem."
 
Karzai also expressed concerns about some of the most radical of Pakistan's madrasahs -- religious boarding schools for the poor -- that have been blamed for encouraging Islamic extremism and fostering terrorism.
 
"And let's hope that we can also address the problem of madrasahs preaching hatred -- not religion, not religion -- [preaching] hatred, pure hatred. Hatred of mankind and exploiting poor, uneducated, desperate young children, motivating them into killing themselves, motivating them into attacking other people," Karzai said. "That is a serious question that we have to find a solution to."
 
Karzai is due to address the UN General Assembly on September 20. After that, he plans a two-day visit to Canada before traveling to Washington for talks with Bush and Pakistan's visiting president.
 
Others due to meet with Karzai in Washington include Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Bombings kill 18 across Afghanistan Dozens hurt, many of them children, in 3 suicide attacks - Carlotta Gall and Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

(09-19) 04:00 PDT Kabul, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan was hit by three devastating suicide bomb attacks on Monday, killing 18 people and wounding more than 60, many of them children, in one of the country's worst days of violence against civilians.

Four Canadian soldiers were killed in one explosion, when a suicide bomber on a bicycle set off a bomb as the soldiers were handing out gifts to children in a village in southern Afghanistan.

Eleven other soldiers were wounded as well as 27 villagers, many of them children, local government officials said.

The bombing was in the southern village of Char Kota, in Pashmul, one of the areas that NATO troops had only just wrested from the control of Taliban fighters after two weeks of heavy fighting.

The NATO commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Richards, declared victory in the area Sunday, saying that NATO had taken control of the area and had forced out the remaining Taliban fighters.

NATO confirmed that four soldiers from its International Security Assistance Force had been killed and several injured but did not confirm their nationality.

NATO said the four were on patrol in a village and talking to children when the bomber approached on his bicycle. Another suicide bomber struck in the western town of Herat, killing 11 people and wounding 18, and a third blew up his car in Kabul, killing three police officers and wounding nine other people.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack in southern Afghanistan, identifying the bomber as a man from the southern city of Kandahar.

The attacks came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai left for state visits to the United Nations, Canada and the United States. Karzai is hoping to win more support for his beleaguered country as violence escalates, and in particular to ask President Bush to bring more pressure to bear on neighboring Pakistan to help prevent the violence.

The Afghan government says Pakistan is providing refuge to Taliban insurgents across the border.

The attack in Herat came at 7 p.m., as townspeople were leaving the main town mosque after evening prayers, according to the provincial governor's office. It said most of those killed were young men and the wounded included a 4-year-old boy.

While the first spokesman said he could not confirm that it was a suicide bombing, another city official said it was a suicide bomber on a bicycle, the Associated Press reported.

But Karzai, speaking later Monday in New York where he was attending the U.N. General Assembly, said Herat was not a suicide attack as initial reports indicated. Karzai did not elaborate on how the attack did take place in his remarks to the Asia Society.

In Kabul, a suicide bomber blew up his car as the police approached a suspicious-looking vehicle on the main road leading east out of the city, said an Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashari.

Three police officers were killed and one was wounded, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, director of the crime unit for the Kabul police. Eight civilian passers-by were wounded, and a civilian truck was damaged.

The three apparent bombings in one day were a clear escalation in insurgent tactics, possibly linked to Karzai's visit to the United States and to NATO claims of success on the battlefield.

Suicide bombings have caused 154 civilian deaths so far this year, the chief of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said Monday morning, before news emerged of the day's carnage.

At a news briefing in Kabul, Koenigs also appealed for foreign countries to increase contributions of troops, aid and support for Afghanistan.

"If we want to succeed in Afghanistan the answer is clear: Afghanistan needs more sustained support from the international community, and not less," he said.

He called on NATO countries to rise to the challenge and provide more troops, and he called for more development and political support through diplomacy to help Afghanistan resolve its problems with Pakistan.

NATO commanders say they need 2,500 more soldiers, plus greater air support, to crush the Taliban threat more quickly.

Taliban executes Turkish engineer in Afghanistan

Xinhua 09/19/2006 - KABUL - Taliban fighters have executed a Turkish engineer after holding him two weeks in captivity, a purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said Tuesday.

    Mustafa Asimi, who was working for a Turkish construction company, was abducted by Taliban militants in Dilaram district of the southern Nimroz province about two weeks ago.

    Ahmadi said the Taliban had killed the hostage as his company refused to withdraw from Afghanistan as the Taliban had demanded, but he did not mention when and where he was killed.

    Ahmadi just said Taliban militants abandoned his body in Gereshk district of the neighboring Helmand province on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an official with Interior Ministry told Xinhua the ministry has not received any reports about the incident.

    Taliban militants have kidnapped and killed several Turkish and Indian engineers working for construction companies this year.

Canadians die in Afghan bombing

BBC News / Monday, 18 September 2006 - A suicide bomber has killed at least four Canadians in an attack on a Nato patrol in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, Canada's military says.

Canadian commander Gen David Fraser said other troops were wounded. Police said a number of civilians were also hurt when the bomber rode a bicycle laden with explosives into a crowd of troops and children.

The blast occurred in Panjwayi district, scene of recent fierce clashes between troops and the Taleban.

Isaf - the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force - announced on Sunday it had successfully completed a mission to drive out the insurgents from the district, about 25km (15 miles) west of the city of Kandahar.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the worsening violence in Afghanistan this year, many of them in suicide bombings across the south and east. A spokesman for the Taleban said the group carried out the latest attack.

Isaf said the latest bomb attack in the south occurred about 0930 local time (0500 GMT).

Local police said a patrol of Canadian soldiers were outside a school on foot, handing out pens and other items to children when a suicide bomber on a bicycle rode into the crowd.

The explosives were in a crate on the back of his bike, an official said. One bystander described a horrific scene after the explosion.

"Kids were running towards the Canadian convoy because they were giving out pens and notebooks to the children," Mohammed Karim told the AFP news agency.

"A man riding on a bicycle approached the crowd and detonated in the crowd. "With the explosion, all the shouting of kids was ended and you could hear cries and people running to all sides. Some of the wounded were also running."

Troops cordoned off the blast site, Isaf said, and soldiers were evacuated to military medical facilities for treatment. Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the bomber was a young Afghan from Kandahar and promised more attacks.

Nato said on Sunday that at least 400 Taleban fighters had been killed in a two-week operation codenamed Medusa, the biggest offensive since Nato took over southern Afghanistan from US-led forces at the end of July. The deaths cannot be independently verified.

Isaf commander Lt-Gen David Richards said the Taleban had been forced out of the district and the next phase was to maintain security to allow thousands of people who had fled the fighting to return home, and then to start rebuilding and development projects.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says the Nato mission emphasises this aspect, but has been bogged down by fighting over the past six weeks.

The operation in Panjwayi is seen as a major test of the mission's strategy, which is attempting to win the support of local people for the government, our correspondent adds.

Troop casualties will not affect Canada's resolve in Afghanistan: MacKay

Montreal (AFP) - Canadian troops will remain in Afghanistan until the country's borders are secure and democratic institutions are in place, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said after four Canadian soldiers were killed in south Afghanistan.

Four Canadians with the NATO force in Afghanistan were killed on Monday and several others wounded in a suicide bombing attack as the troops were distributing pens and notebooks to local children.

Canada's conservative government, facing increasing criticism over its foreign policy, defended the Afghan mission as a worthy cause despite recent casualties.

Canada would leave Afghanistan "when Afghans are able to control their borders, when they are able to exert their own democratic principles," MacKay said after a meeting with his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer.

"I believe, in spite of some casualties and some very high cost as far as our investment there with the men and women in uniform, these are values and principles worth fighting for," MacKay said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the Afghan deployment in parliament, saying the circumstances of the latest attack -- in which Canadian soldiers were distributing gifts to children -- illustrated the nobility of the mission.

"I think nothing more than this incident illustrates the evil that they are fighting and the goodwill and the nobleness of the cause that they are taking to the Afghan people," Harper said.

But Jack Layton, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), demanded the withdrawal of the Canadian contingent, and said: "This government simply doesn't know what it's doing in Afghanistan."

Opinion polls show declining support for Canada's contribution to the NATO force. A survey by the Ekos Institute published Monday in Canadian newspapers had 49 percent opposed to the mission and 39 percent in favor. Since 2002, Canada has lost 36 soldiers in Afghanistan, of which 28 died this year.

The suicide bombing coincided with a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-leaning think tank, that concluded Canadians at the Kandahar base in southern Afghanistan were more likely to be killed than US soldiers in Iraq.

If the rate of troop deaths continues at the present rate, the mission could cost the lives of 108 soldiers or more by the end of the mission's mandate in February 2009, the report said.

In May, Harper announced a two-year extension of the military deployment in Afghanistan through February 2009. And last week, the government said it would send an additional 200 soldiers and tanks to reinforce the 2,500-strong contingent.

Taliban vow to retake Panjwai redoubt

GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail (Canada) Monday, September 18, 2006

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The Taliban fighter who passed through Kandahar city this weekend seemed remarkably calm and happy, considering the horrors he has seen in the past two weeks.

The 37-year-old watched friends torn apart by bombs and shredded by gunfire. More agonizingly for a proud warrior, he saw foreign soldiers seize control of the farmland where he grew up. Hundreds of insurgents had dug trenches to defend Panjwai District, but they ran away when confronted with an onslaught of air power and a grinding advance by the Canadians and their allies, who declared victory in the battle yesterday.

"The Taliban will continue their fight for Panjwai," the fighter said. "No Muslim wants the human garbage of foreign soldiers in beautiful Afghanistan."

It was one of several bold claims by the fighter during an hour-long interview, none of which could be verified. The Taliban have buried their weapons, he said, and returned to Pakistan for new instructions about how to take revenge against the foreign troops.

He confirmed that the insurgents have lost their stronghold of Pashmul, a cluster of villages about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, but he described the pullout as a tactical retreat.

"We were ready to fight," the fighter said. "But there were a lot of bombs, a lot of dust. It was hard to see. We decided to fight somewhere else." He spoke the words seriously, but then cracked a smile and threw up his hands in a gesture that would be understood anywhere, as if to say, "What are you gonna do?"

It was a typically incongruous gesture from the tall, graceful man, who wouldn't give his name or allow his photograph to be taken. One minute he would talk seriously, disputing NATO's casualty figures and making wild claims about the number of civilians killed by bombs.

A heartbeat later he was cracking jokes, or speaking with dreamy optimism about Afghanistan's future after the foreign troops retreat. His face was difficult to read; the weathered creases around his cat-like eyes seemed permanently crinkled in an expression of amusement.

But his seriousness was unmistakable when he threatened to take back the lost ground. Despite his low rank among the Taliban, he said, he has been invited to join an urgent meeting of insurgent leaders this week in Pakistan, where they will discuss their next steps. Local Taliban leaders are already talking about a counterattack, he said.

Most of the fighters hid their weapons in underground caches so they could slip back into civilian life, he said, and those depots remain ready for the next wave of insurgent attacks.

"The guns, the ammunition, these things are safe," he said. "Many fighters died, but this is not important. Please understand. We can easily find more fighters." He continued: "We trust in God, that some day the foreign troops will leave Afghanistan. They will run away. The reason is they are not fighters like us. I saw 11 Taliban hit by a bomb. Two survived, and they were crying out: 'Why did we survive? Our friends have left us behind! We pray for our chance of martyrdom.' "

The fighter was responsible for leading a small cell of insurgents, perhaps 20 men in total, on the south edge of the two-week battle, around the villages of Zangabad and Sperwan. His descriptions of the fighting suggests that he confronted elite soldiers from Task Force 31, a special forces group.

During his visit to the provincial capital, the fighter appeared to be spreading the Taliban's version of events on the battlefield. Even though the insurgents had prepared for a massive confrontation with NATO troops in Panjwai -- using bunkers, booby traps, and fresh reinforcements from neighbouring Helmand province -- the fighter now described the Panjwai battle, in part, as a diversionary tactic.

While the NATO troops were busy with that strip of farmland near Kandahar city, he said, Taliban fighters were overrunning towns in Farah and Nimroz provinces. (The governor of Nimroz recently complained that Taliban fighters retreating from Kandahar province were launching attacks in his region.)

Another idea the Taliban appear to be popularizing in response to their losses in Panjwai is that they retreated to stop the NATO air strikes from killing any more civilians.

Kandahar's governor says 13 non-combatants were killed in weeks of heavy bombardments; the fighter repeatedly emphasized his claim that the real total was much higher, although he offered no evidence. "For every Taliban killed, they killed 10 innocent people," he said.

"So the Taliban decided to quit, to stop fighting, because of the many innocent people who were dying." He continued: "We don't know whether it was a mistake, but they [NATO air strikes] killed two small children. They killed them. I saw them lying on their beds, with blood running down, like they were still asleep.

"In Panjwai most people are very poor," he said. "The governor and coalition announced, 'You have to leave Panjwai.' But in every village there were people who didn't have money to leave."

As he was standing to leave, the fighter hinted that the insurgents haven't yet unleashed the worst of their arsenal. "We have some advanced weapons, which we took from the old mujahedeen," he said, with smile. "But we are waiting for the right time, and then we will use these things."

Thirteen Taliban dead in Afghanistan battle

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) Mon Sep 18 - Police and Taliban rebels fought a two-hour gunbattle in volatile southern Afghanistan, leaving 13 insurgents dead including a local commander, police said.

The firefight erupted late Sunday after residents of Awasay village in the Girishk district of troubled Helmand province asked police for help because of a heavy Taliban presence in the area, the provincial police chief said.

"We launched an operation in Awasay village. In the two hours of exchange of fire 13 Taliban were killed and their bodies are still at the site," Ghulam Nabi Mullahkhail told AFP on Monday. "Among the dead is a local Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammad Akhund."

Four other Taliban fighters were wounded, he added. The police chief said there were no casualties on the police side and that the area is now under control.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed in a telephone call from an unknown location that two Taliban were killed but said the rest of the dead were police officers.

The attack comes a day after NATO and Afghan forces declared success in a major anti-Taliban drive in the neighbouring province of Kandahar.

Taliban threatens to kill abducted Turkish engineer

KABUL, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants in Afghanistan have threatened to kill a kidnapped Turkish engineer being accused of working for Americans, local reports said Sunday.

The engineer named Mustafa Asimi was abducted by the Taliban nearly two weeks ago in Dilaram district of the southern Nimroz province.

"The Taliban's executive committee has reached a conclusion that Asimi was working in the U.S. interests," Daily Afghanistan quoted Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, as saying.

The spokesman said the Taliban would kill the hostage unless a Turkish construction company withdraws from the country by a Sunday evening deadline, other media reports said.

According to available information, it is unclear whether the engineer was working for that company, and whether the company serves in the U.S. interests.

Meantime, Interior Ministry failed to give any information on the matter. "We have no information," an official with the ministry told Xinhua, but refused to be named.

Taliban militants have kidnapped and killed several Turkish and Indian engineers working for construction companies this year in this volatile country. Enditem

Black & Veatch, N.J. firm win $1.4B Afghanistan contract

Kansas City Business Journal - 11:10 AM CDT Tuesday

A joint venture between Black & Veatch and The Louis Berger Group Inc. has won a $1.4 billion, five-year contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development to rebuild infrastructure in Afghanistan.

Ownership of the joint venture is split evenly between the two companies, Black & Veatch spokesman George Minter said Tuesday. He wouldn't say how much revenue Black & Veatch will get from the contract.

Minter said that the $1.4 billion is an overall cap for the project and that both companies will use many Afghani subcontractors to do the work, which fits the USAID's goal of standing up Afghanistan's economy during the rehabilitation.

The Louis Berger Group, privately held and based in East Orange, N.J., is a global engineering firm specializing in roads and bridges. Black & Veatch will complement that specialty with its engineering expertise in power and water infrastructure.

In a release, the companies said their work in Afghanistan will include rehabilitating power transmission networks, generation capacity, roads, water and sanitation systems, and public building improvements.

Industry publication Engineering News-Record ranked Black & Veatch as the largest designer of power projects in the United States last year, with $333 million in power design revenue. Overland Park-based Black & Veatch recorded revenue of $1.6 billion in 2005.

Paktika gets new middle school

Syed Jamal Asifkhel - SHARAN, Sep 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A middle school worth $119,000 was opened on Saturday in Sharan, capital of the southeastern province of Paktika.

Syed Ahmad Kharoti, head of the Education Department, told Pajhwok Afghan News the newly-built school named Hazrat Bilal had 12 rooms and administration block.

He said the construction work was completed in six months. Kharoti said United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had granted fund for the project. There were 298 schools and 100 of them had no building, he added.

Ulema, Taliban excoriate Pope remarks

KABUL, Sep 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A number of Ulema, parliamentarians as well as Taliban Saturday condemned Pope's anti-Islamic remarks.

In his lecture, the 16th Pope Benedict said: "Show me just what Mohammad (SAW) brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Afghanistan Ulema Council excoriated the pope's remarks and branded his speech as his wrong understanding of Islam and Prophet Mohammad (SAW).

The statement released by this council described such statements as dangerous. "Such statements causes enmity between divine religions and could face the humanity with another great danger," the statement added.

Such statements will increase insecurity and chaos in countries where there is fighting and enemies of peace use such statements as a good mean of advertising.

The statement also said Islam was a religion of peace and wanted to maintain the peace but the none-Muslims spark violence with such acts.

Muslims respected all religions and had faith on all divine messengers and religions, the statement added. The Ulema council also urged the government to cut off its diplomatic ties with the Vatican and to officially seek pope's apology.

By the same token, a press statement released from the lower house of the parliament termed the remarks as personal belief of the pope and sought pope's apology from all Muslims and hoped pope would stop such statements in future.

Taliban also angrily condemned pope's remarks as Taliban purported spokesman Dr Hanif told this news agency:" Pope's remarks is the first series of crusade that began by Christian."

Pope's remarks had harmed and sparked emotions of all Muslims in the world and should apologize to all Muslims, he concluded.

meanwhile, according to BBC Pope Benedict XVI apologised for causing any offence to Muslims amid growing fury across the Islamic world over a speech he made implicitly linking Islam and violence. In a statement read out by a senior Vatican official, the Pope said he respected Islam and hoped Muslims would understand the true sense of his words.

Pakistan defends peace deal

By Foster Klug Associated Press September 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan's foreign minister yesterday strongly defended a truce with militants along his country's border with Afghanistan, saying ``not just brawn but brains" are needed in the fight against terrorists.

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's deal with militants in an area where Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden could be hiding has drawn criticism that Islamic extremists will have a haven.

``I can understand why people are confused, but there's a time when not just brawn but brains are also needed," Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said. ``Sometimes what happens is that when you have acts of violence you end up alienating the local population."

Kasuri took on those who have accused Pakistan of not doing enough in the hunt for bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, saying ``Pakistan's commitment to the war against extremism and terrorism is very much in place."

``President Musharraf is a strong leader, and I think the time has come where President Musharraf's leadership on this issue should not be questioned," the minister told CNN's ``Late Edition."

As part of the truce, militants have agreed to stop attacking Afghan and US-led coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. Kasuri said ``there's no question of withdrawing the army" from the semiautonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border.

Musharraf sent the Army into the area in December 2001, an attempt to pursue Al Qaeda militants fleeing Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government.

Heavy fighting in Pakistan, however, killed hundreds of militants, soldiers and civilians. It also caused deep resentment among local Pashtun tribesmen.

Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said last week that the United States thinks ``the overall effort is a good one."

Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban

Analysts say U.S. focus on Iraq is hurting mission, allowing insurgency to grow

Anna Badkhen - San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, September 17, 2006

A car bomb rips through a U.S. military convoy in the capital. A suicide bomber assassinates a provincial governor; another bomber kills six guests at the governor's funeral the following day. Gunmen launch fierce daily attacks on Western troops and government security forces.

However much it sounds like the war in Iraq, this is the war in Afghanistan, started in 2001 to oust the radical Taliban regime, capture Osama bin Laden and destroy the safe haven for his terrorist network al Qaeda.

Five years later, U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban at the highest scale since the government was toppled in November 2001. Bin Laden remains at large, opium production is at a record high, and Afghanistan resembles a feudal hodgepodge of fiefdoms run by warlords instead of a centrally governed nation of 31 million people.

At least one top Western military official, British Capt. Leo Docherty, quit last month, describing the failed campaign to rein in the Taliban as "a textbook case of how to screw up a counterinsurgency."

"The state-building hasn't really proceeded as far as people have hoped for," said Robert Templer, an Afghanistan expert at the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organization based in Brussels. In the absence of a strong government, "there is space out there for something like the Taliban to exist."

The Islamic militia, which had all but disappeared in the first years after the war, has adopted Iraqi-insurgent-style suicide attacks. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan have killed 173 people this year, mostly civilians, NATO officials said last week. Hundreds of Taliban fighters are believed to operate in provinces along the porous border with Pakistan, where the Pashtun population shares ethnic ties with the Islamic militia.

As unsettling as the notion of a Taliban revival may be, the core of the problem lies in Afghanistan's failure to establish a strong central government, analysts warn.

"The return of opium cultivation, the insurgency in the countryside and the failure to catch Osama bin Laden are all indicative of this larger problem," said Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute in Washington. The control of President Hamid Karzai's pro-Western government "doesn't extend much beyond the suburbs of Kabul."

In Afghanistan's north, warlords control most of the territory. In the south and east, the Taliban is trying to re-create the safe haven the U.S.-led campaign of 2001 aimed to destroy. In the west, along the border with Iran, the presence of the Taliban is growing. On Thursday, up to 200 Taliban fighters in pickup trucks clashed with government forces in the predominantly Pashtun western province of Farah.

Although most Taliban operations are "limited to a certain area ... uprooting the Taliban from the regions where it is ensconced is beyond the capacity of the (Afghan) government or international community at the moment," said Marina Ottaway, an expert on Afghanistan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Government officials face a vicious campaign of suicide bombings. Last Sunday, a suicide bomber killed the governor of the southern Paktia province; on Monday, another suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at his funeral, killing at least six people. At least two other governors and the chairman of the upper house of parliament have been targeted in similar attacks.

In parts of the country where the government is functioning, the reconstruction of Afghanistan's infrastructure, scanty and ravaged by nearly 30 years of conflict, is slow. An ABC News poll last year -- the latest such survey available -- showed that nearly 6 out of 10 Afghans still had no electricity in their homes, and only 3 percent have it around the clock. In northwestern Afghanistan, fewer than 2 out of 10 people reported having access to clean water, bridges and medical care.

"The failure of the reconstruction effort so far has had a very corrosive effect on the government," said Alexander Thier, who served as the adviser to the Afghan government on constitutional and judicial reforms in 2003-04, and who visited Afghanistan in the spring. Many Afghans view their government as unable "to deliver public goods in the form of security, education, infrastructure," said Thier, who now works at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, congressionally funded organization promoting conflict resolution and democratic post-conflict stability.

The decreased interest in Afghanistan in Western capitals, where the war in Iraq has overshadowed the effort to rebuild Afghanistan, has contributed to the lackluster reconstruction efforts, analysts say. For example, Congress has appropriated $9 billion for Afghan reconstruction, compared with $34 billion for Iraq, "even though Afghanistan is larger, more populous and has greater infrastructure needs," Peter Bergen, author of the book "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden," wrote recently in the Washington Post. Of that amount, only $2.5 billion has been spent, Bergen wrote.

The Bush administration says it is still paying attention to Afghanistan. But Bush's critics say the war in Iraq has diverted resources away from finishing the fight in the country that gave refuge to al Qaeda. The Central Intelligence Agency last year disbanded its unit dedicated to hunting down bin Laden; the Senate approved $200 million to resurrect it last week.

President Bush is scheduled to meet Karzai in the Oval Office next week. "The visit will be an opportunity for the president to congratulate President Karzai on the progress Afghanistan has made over the last five years and to reaffirm America's commitment to stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

Security concerns have limited the international aid groups' participation in reconstruction. Last week, gunmen kidnapped a Colombian and two Afghans working with a French-funded nongovernmental organization west of Kabul, and, in a separate incident, killed an Afghan employee of U.N.-Habitat, the United Nations housing and shelter agency.

A combination of fear of being targeted for their association with the government and disillusionment in its effectiveness has made Afghans less supportive of Karzai's efforts, Thier said. "People are evaluating what it is that they will get out of cooperation with the government," he said, "and they decide that it's not much."

Instead, 2.9 million Afghans are now involved in opium farming, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

A third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product of $9 billion comes from the production and export of opium, the raw material for heroin, which has increased by almost 60 percent this year to a record 6,100 tons -- more than 90 percent of total world supply, the agency reported. The revenue from this year's harvest will hit more than $3 billion, it predicted, despite the Karzai government's attempts at destroying poppy fields and stemming the production.

The drug trade supports both the Taliban and the northern warlords, who use drug money to buy weapons and pay recruits. The Taliban pays its fighters $8 a day -- twice the pay of Afghan soldiers, and four times the pay of the police, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

"The Taliban are providing an active alternative to the government," Thier said.

As long as Western troops operate in Afghanistan, the Taliban is unlikely to become strong enough to gain control, experts say. But the bombing in Kabul last week proved that the militia can launch attacks even in areas it does not control.

On Sept. 8, a car bomb rammed into a U.S. military convoy in Kabul, killing two U.S. soldiers and 14 others. Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman, said a cell "whose primary mission is to seek coalition or international troops and hit them with suicide bombs" in the capital was behind the bombing.

Such attacks can intensify, warned Michael O'Hanlon, an expert on the region at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "Even if it's only the Pashtun south that is hospitable to the Taliban, it could provide them with a base from which they can launch attacks on other cities throughout the country," he said.

Strategic Forecasting, a Texas-based security consulting group, said suicide bombings are becoming more frequent and effective because of an influx of al Qaeda fighters "who have honed their skills fighting coalition and Iraqi forces in Iraq," and also because the Taliban is recruiting more U.S.- and NATO-trained defectors from the Afghan security forces.

In the first six months of 2006, the Taliban staged 42 suicide bombings -- twice as many as in the last six months of 2005, and killing almost four times as many people, the group reported last week.

American and NATO forces have been involved in fierce fighting with the Taliban in the south since May, and claim to have killed at least 517 militants since the latest offensive began Sept. 2. If these figures are accurate, Mohammed Arbil, a former Northern Alliance commander, told the Associated Press, "the Taliban must have thousands of fighters on that front." NATO says 20 of its troops have died, including 14 who were killed in an accidental plane crash.

According to an Associated Press count based on reports from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, 2,800 people have died this year in violence across Afghanistan, including militants and civilians -- about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005. At least 272 American troops have died in or around Afghanistan since the war began.

Some military officials say the outlook is grim. Docherty, the former aide-de-camp to the commander of the British task force in southern Afghanistan, quit last month, saying that "having a big old fight is pointless and just making things worse," the Times of London reported last Sunday.

Despite the growing threat, NATO troops have been unable to muster more soldiers to fight the Taliban. On Friday, NATO commanders said the 8,000 troops they have in the south are not enough to contain the violence, and called for up to 2,500 more, as well as for additional planes and helicopters. So far, Canada said it would send 200 more troops and a squadron of heavy Leopard tanks, and Poland promised Thursday to send 900 troops, but not until February.

Air Arabia temporarily cancels all flights to Kabul

AME Info (United Arab Emirates) September 18, 2006

Air Arabia LLC, the first low-fares airline in the Middle East and North Africa, has announced that it will temporarily cancel its operations to and from Kabul effective Tuesday, September 19, 2006.

The airline has made the announcement due to the recent escalation of military activities in Afghanistan. The airline has decided, as a precautionary measure, to suspend it's operations until the situation in Kabul is clearer.

Adel Ali, CEO of the Air Arabia said, 'The safety and security of our passengers, crew and aircraft are paramount. We remain hopeful that the overall situation in Afghanistan will return to an acceptable degree of normality quickly. Our services to Kabul have proved very popular and we will resume our operation once the situation improves. We remain in touch with the relevant authorities in Afghanistan. Passengers booked to travel with us on this route after the 19th of September will receive a full refund and are asked to contact Air Arabia to coordinate this.'

Current Air Arabia destinations include Aleppo and Damascus (Syria); Alexandria, Assiut and Luxor (Egypt); Amman (Jordan); Astana and Almaty (Kazakhstan); Bahrain; Beirut (Lebanon); Colombo (Sri Lanka); Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh (KSA), Doha (Qatar); Istanbul (Turkey); Kabul (Afghanistan); Khartoum (Sudan); Kuwait; Jaipur, Kochi, Mumbai and Nagpur (India); Muscat (Oman); Sana'a (Yemen); Sharjah (UAE) and Tehran (Iran).

[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.]