In this bulletin:

· Suicide attack near Canadian convoy in southern Afghanistan
· Suicide Bomber Kills 18 in Southern Afghanistan
· 3 Pakistani tribesmen linked to attack coalition in Afghanistan freed
· Four-star general to lead U.S., NATO forces
· Poland Will Speed Up Troop Deployment in Afghanistan, NATO Says
· Rumsfeld, to Meet With NATO on Afghanistan
· Afghanistan mission 'not failing': Defence Secretary
· Afghan Karzai shrugs off Musharraf complaints
· Karzai promotes Afghan investing
· AFGHANISTAN: 19 killed in suicide attack in Helmand
· Truce deals may be helping Taliban rebels
· Taliban says bin Laden alive: Al Arabiya TV
· Bodies Tajiks, Pakistanis brought to Waziristan from Afghanistan
· Bradley, Bass OK 70 billion dollars more for Iraq, Afghanistan
· Clinton: Afghanistan needs more troops
· Afghan mission has gone off track: Martin
· Our Northern Hypocrites

Suicide attack near Canadian convoy in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide car bomb exploded near a Canadian convoy in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, wounding an Afghan civilian, the NATO-led force and police said.

The blast occurred in a busy area of the city that sees the most of the regular suicide attacks in volatile Kandahar which are carried out by the extremist Taliban movement.

"There was an IED (improvised explosive device) on a Canadian convoy," a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force told AFP. The spokesman, Major Quentin Innis, confirmed later it was a suicide attack.

There were no Canadian casualties, he said.

"It was a suicide car bomb attack targeting NATO troops," Afghan police Colonel Shir Shah said at the site.

"Only one Afghan civilian has been wounded," Shah said.

The blast was so powerful that it tore the car that had been carrying the explosives into chunks, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Pieces of the attacker's body were also strewn across the site.
The attack comes a day after a suicide blast tore through a security checkpost in the town of Lashkar Gah on Tuesday, killing 18 people.

The Taliban said it had carried out that attack.

There has been a spike in suicide and roadside attacks in Afghanistan this year carried out by the Taliban, which has stepped up an insurgency launched after it was removed from power five years ago.
Canada has about 2,300 troops based in Kandahar, the birthplace of the extremist movement, which emerged as an armed force in the early 1990s to take control of government by 1996.

Canada has lost nearly 24 troops in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action, and there have been calls at home for the country to.

Suicide Bomber Kills 18 in Southern Afghanistan
VOA News

It was another violent day in Afghanistan, where Taleban insurgents are pressing their attack against the country's democratically elected government and the international forces protecting it. A suicide bomber killed at least 18 people in Southern Afghanistan, and a second attack south of the capital, Kabul, killed another two.

Officials say the larger attack occurred Tuesday morning at the governor's compound in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashary says local police apparently managed to stop the bomber outside the compound during a routine security check.

"This suicide bombing happened when the police forces were inspecting people, and the guy who had tied explosives on his body suddenly exploded himself," said Bashary.

He says the explosion killed at least 18 people, including police and civilians.

This is the first week of the Muslim holy month Ramadan, and among those killed were a number of local pilgrims beginning their trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.

Officials say the province's governor, Mohammed Daoud Safi, was inside during the attack and escaped injury.

Helmand is part of the Taleban's traditional stronghold in Southern Afghanistan. Despite a major counter-offensive launched by NATO forces last month, local officials say the insurgents remain a powerful presence throughout the region.

But their attacks are by no means limited to the south. A NATO military convoy was attacked outside Kabul, also on Tuesday, killing an Italian soldier and a young Afghan child.

NATO spokesman Major Luke Knittig says an improvised explosive device hit the vehicle just before eight o'clock Tuesday morning.

"That blast did kill an ISAF soldier and a local child and injured several others at the scene," said Major Knittig. "We used air and ground medical evacuations to treat those injured, and our mission continues despite this sad start to the day."

The Western alliance currently has about 20,000 troops in the country. However, NATO officials say reinforcements may be needed to help defeat the resurgent Taleban threat.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is also pushing for greater international support amid the growing violence. Mr. Karzai is currently in the United States for a series of meetings with U.S. leaders, including President George Bush.

The two are due to hold joint talks with Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, at the White House on Wednesday.

Speaking to the United Nations last week, Mr. Karzai said the Taleban would not be defeated inside Afghanistan until their sanctuaries outside the country were also eliminated.
Both Afghan and U.S. officials say insurgents are using bases in Pakistan to stage their attacks.
President Bush this week praised both leaders for their efforts in combating terrorism.

3 Pakistani tribesmen linked to attack coalition in Afghanistan freed

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan Three Pakistani tribesmen suspected of attacking coalition forces in Afghanistan were released here on Wednesday under a truce deal between pro-Taliban militants and the Pakistani government, two intelligence officials said.

Pakistani paramilitary troops detained the three men on Sept. 19 after they crossed from neighboring Afghanistan into Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, said one of the intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.

The three were suspected of attacking a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan's Khost province that same day but were later released for lack of evidence, the second official said without providing further details.

The three were turned over to tribal elders in Miran Shah, the main town in the semiautonomous North Waziristan region, on Wednesday under a Sept. 5 peace deal between the Pakistani government and militants suspected of links with the Taliban militia.

"They were handed over to the elders on the condition that if there was any case against them they will be produced" to the authorities, one of the officials said.

Pakistan's government had deployed 80,000 troops to Pakistan-Afghan border region after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to topple the hard-line Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The Pakistani deployment to North Waziristan angered tribesmen in the conservative region and sparked a violent campaign against the government that killed hundreds of soldiers, militants and civilians.

Under the recent truce, soldiers that had been deployed to security posts throughout the region were returned to their barracks and militants agreed to no longer take part in attacks inside North Waziristan or in Afghanistan.

Four-star general to lead U.S., NATO forces

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American four-star general will take charge of both U.S. and NATO forces, boosting the stature of the military mission in Afghanistan and unifying an international operation.

Provided he is confirmed by the Senate, Army Gen. Dan McNeil will assume joint command in February, said Maj. Luke Knittig, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. He said the posting was made in consultation with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The move appears to elevate the importance of the Afghan war for the Pentagon, because four stars is the U.S. military's highest rank, and both the U.S. and NATO forces now are led by three-star generals.

Poland Will Speed Up Troop Deployment in Afghanistan, NATO Says

By Ed Johnson Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Poland will speed up the deployment of 950 soldiers in Afghanistan to bolster an international force fighting the Taliban, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said.

``The initial elements of the battalion will be going in relatively soon and will continue to flow into the country until early next year,'' NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels yesterday. The deployment, originally set for February, will start ``much earlier than previously planned.''

The 26-nation alliance, which took command of military operations in southern Afghanistan on July 31, says resistance by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters has proved stiffer than expected. The alliance wants 2,000 additional soldiers to reinforce the 19,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, which is trying to bring security to Afghanistan's six southern provinces so reconstruction work can take place.

NATO defense ministers begin a two-day meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia tomorrow to discuss further troop reinforcements and the need for more attack helicopters and transport aircraft.

``Afghanistan is not a problem for NATO alone,'' NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning John Colston said in Brussels yesterday. ``Nations individually and other international organizations have to engage.''

Canada, which has about 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, will immediately send an additional 200 soldiers, including military engineers, a tank squadron and an infantry company, the country's Chief of Defense Staff General Rick Hillier said Sept. 15.
No Caveats

The Polish deployment will bring to 1,050 the total number of soldiers it has in Afghanistan, the fifth largest mission in the NATO-led force, Defense Ministry spokesman Leszek Laszczak said Sept. 14. The troops will be based at the Bagram base, north of the capital Kabul, he said.

Appathurai said yesterday that the Polish government has agreed to drop any caveats on where the troops can be deployed, so they can be used ``where necessary'' by the ISAF commander.

ISAF forces, who battled Taliban rebels during a two-week operation in southern Kandahar province earlier this month, had experienced the ``most intense ground battle in NATO's history,'' Appathurai said.

The offensive, codenamed ``Operation Medusa,'' killed more than 1,000 Taliban fighters, U.S. Marine General James Jones, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, said Sept. 20.

Rumsfeld, to Meet With NATO on Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR , 09.27.2006, 03:38 AM

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is checking up on promises for continued support in the war in Afghanistan by checking in with NATO defense leaders in southeastern Europe.

NATO countries have been slow recently to meet needs for more coalition forces. NATO-led troops are in command of the southern portion of Afghanistan and are expected to take over the eastern section - which U.S. troops now command - later this year. U.S. military teams are working to train Afghanistan troops to take over the security of their country.

Meetings on Wednesday in the capital of Albania also will touch on the violence that continues in Afghanistan. Then Rumsfeld will travel to a NATO defense ministers meeting in Slovenia.

Earlier in his trip to the region, Rumsfeld became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the new republic of Montenegro, which gained its independence from the much larger Serbia in June. While criticized at home over the Iraq war, the defense secretary found Balkan leaders eager to join the battle.

Albanian military officials declared their unequivocal support for America's battle against terrorism. And Montenegro's prime minister said his small country would like to participate in peacekeeping operations. Albania has 120 troops in Iraq.

Both Albania and Montenegro are working to gain admission to NATO and other international groups, and the U.S. has pledged to support their efforts.

Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic made no firm commitment to supply troops to either Iraq or Afghanistan, but said his country "prepared to participate in the U.S.-led coalition in fighting terrorism."

Afghanistan mission 'not failing': Defence Secretary
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

MANCHESTER (AFP) - Afghanistan is "not a failing mission", Defence Secretary Des Browne said as he tried to justify British involvement there amid rising casualties and strong Taliban resistance.

In a rallying call to the Labour Party, which has members deeply opposed to British policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, Browne told the party's conference here the international community was united over the purpose of the NATO-led mission.

Countering claims that previous forays into the conflict-riven country, such as those of the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and Britain in the 19th century, had failed, Browne said: "This doesn't appreciate the nature of what we are trying to do.

"We are not invading; we are there at the invitation of an elected government which has legitimacy and support."

Browne paid tribute to the sacrifice of British soldiers who had died, and said the international mission had "brought real change" to people in Afghanistan since NATO arrived there in late 2001.
"There are five million children in school today -- more than a third of them girls; in the last five years, 2,000 new schools have been built; and 72 new clinics and hospitals; four million refugees have returned home," he said.

"This is not a failing mission."

Browne restated the British government line that tackling the remnants of the hardline former ruling Taliban in lawless southern Afghanistan would be more difficult, but still pledged to bring security to the country.

A measure of growing concern over Taliban resistance was seen in the fact that Browne mentioned little else in his speech, including Iraq.

In recent weeks there have been rows between the British army and Royal Air Force over performance in Afghanistan, a resignation by one officer over what he called "grotesquely clumsy" tactics, and a parliamentary committee claiming the military was ill-equipped and over-stretched.

Thirty-three British troops have died since Britain took over command of the NATO force in the south in May, out of a total of only 40 British armed service personnel deaths since deployment began in 2001.
US-led forces launched the war against the Taliban and its Al-Qaeda allies shortly after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States.

Afghan Karzai shrugs off Musharraf complaints
By Steve Holland Reuters

Tuesday, September 26, 2006; 5:51 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday shrugged off complaints from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf about his handling of a resurgent Taliban a day ahead of joint talks with Musharraf and President Bush.

Karzai and Musharraf have been trading barbs before a three-way White House dinner on Wednesday night that Bush hopes will ease tensions between two key allies in the war against Islamic militants.
Asked at a joint news conference with Bush about Musharraf's comment on Monday questioning whether Karzai understood the political environment in his country, the Afghan leader said: "We know our problems, we know our difficulties."

Musharraf said on Tuesday he believed Karzai was aware of the political situation.
"He is not oblivious. He knows everything. But he is purposely denying, turning a blind eye like an ostrich. He doesn't want to tell the world what is the fact for his own personal reasons," Musharraf told CNN.

The resurgent Taliban has become an issue in the November 7 congressional elections in the United States because Democrats charge Bush short-changed Afghanistan in order to pour troops and money into the Iraq war.

Bush, dismissing the charge, sought to assure Karzai that the United States was sticking with him.
"I know there are some in your country who wonder whether or not America has got the will to do the hard work necessary to help you succeed. We have got that will," he said.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry said Bush failed to give Americans a realistic assessment of the situation in Afghanistan.

"We need to get our priorities in order by recommitting to the real front line in the war on terror," he said.

PAKISTANI BORDER

Bush and Karzai discussed a deal Pakistan signed with Islamic militants in Pakistan's border region earlier this month.

Musharraf last week called it a "holistic approach" to fighting terrorism that would require them to leave the tribal area of North Waziristan or take up a peaceful life.
Karzai has complained that Taliban fighters carrying out armed attacks inside his country are being sheltered on the Pakistani side of the rugged border.

Karzai was cautious on the deal, saying he wanted to see if it would work. His top priority was to ensure that "the terrorists will not be allowed to cross over into Afghanistan" to launch attacks, he said.

"We will have to wait and see if that is going to be implemented exactly the way it is signed," he said. "So, from our side, it's a wait-and-see attitude."
Bush said he did not believe any tensions between Karzai and Musharraf would dampen the effort to find al Qaeda's elusive leader Osama bin Laden but that he wanted to see the body language between Karzai and Musharraf "to determine how tense things are."
He later said he was teasing when he made that remark.

"I'll be good," Karzai, wearing his trademark hat and robe, interjected with a smile.
He expressed embarrassment that his country is a major source of the world's opium. "We have worked on the problem. In some areas of the country, we have succeeded. In other areas of the country, we have failed," he said.

Karzai promotes Afghan investing

By Steve Hirsch THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published September 27, 2006

Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday made an impassioned pitch for outside trade and investment for his country, proclaiming that Afghanistan "is a business place."

Not only is Afghanistan a good place to do business, he said, but given the globalized world, prosperity in his country will help other countries.

"The prosperity of Afghanistan will eventually mean prosperity in America. The prosperity of Afghanistan is eventually prosperity in Australia. So hurry up and help the contribution to the prosperity of Afghanistan so we all can be prosperous all over the world," he said.

He played down security problems potentially facing companies interested in investment and cited business-level Internet, phone, computer and hotel facilities. He added that a new five-star hotel is expected to be built soon near the U.S. Embassy.

Speaking to a gathering at George Washington University, Mr. Karzai stressed his country's desire to sell its products to the outside world, including the United States, and emphasized the benefits of doing business in his country.

The country's key exports include textiles, fruits and nuts, and marble, said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who also addressed the session.

U.S. companies will be able to make money and will find it easier to do business in Afghanistan than under the Taliban regime and will be able to get their profits out of the country, he said.

Mr. Karzai also stressed the ease of making investments in Afghanistan, citing profits made by such companies as Coca-Cola, cement companies and mobile phone companies.

In the case of mobile phone companies, he said four years ago they were paying $4 million for licenses, but last year Afghanistan sold three licenses to phone companies for $40 million each -- a testament, he said, to the profits possible there.

Mr. Karzai inaugurated a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kabul earlier this month, at the time describing the investment as "an important step forward" toward economic growth, self-sufficiency and a better future for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said at George Washington University, is geographically placed at the "crossroads" of key world business regions, meaning that road construction, railroads and gas pipelines are areas with great potential, as are minerals, gas, oil and such other areas as housing construction and aviation.

This year, Afghanistan has given out investment licenses worth $1.4 billion, more than double the $650 million handed out last year.

"The sooner you come, the better it is, " he said.

The United States is committed to Afghanistan's long-term succession, Mr. Gutierrez told the gathering.

The Bush administration is looking at trade missions to and from Afghanistan as part of U.S. efforts to help the country's success, he said.

AFGHANISTAN: 19 killed in suicide attack in Helmand

KANDAHAR, 26 September (IRIN) - Some 19 people, including 13 civilians, were killed and another 20 were wounded when a suicide bomber on Tuesday blew himself up at a security post near a mosque in Lashkar Gah, capital of the restive southern Helmand province, local officials and hospital sources confirmed.

"Security forces had identified this man [the bomber] and as they tried to arrest him, he detonated himself near the police check post, killing 19 people, including a woman," Mohayedin Khan, a spokesman for the Helmand governor, said.
Many of the dead were ordinary Afghans, who had gathered in front of the mosque to register their names and go on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca later this year, Khan explained.

Two police and four national army soldiers were also killed in this attack, Khan told IRIN.

Irshad Sharifi, a doctor at the local emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, which is funded by Italy, said that 11 of the wounded civilians were in critical condition.

The United Nations condemned the attack and said that it was directed against the people of Afghanistan, who had suffered nearly three decades of brutal civil war.

"Today's suicide attack in Helmand was directed against the people of Afghanistan and it is so troubling that this happened during the holy month of Ramadan and many of the victims were preparing to go on Hajj," Dan McNorton, public information officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN from Kabul.

Afghanistan has seen a spate of suicide and roadside attacks this year carried out by the Taliban militants who were toppled by US-led coalition forces in 2001, and are now waging a deadly insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops in the country.

On 28 August, a suicide blast in a market in Lashkar Gah city killed 17 people, many of them civilians.

Suicide bombings have caused 154 civilian deaths so far this year, the chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said on 18 September in Kabul.

According to NATO figures, released on 3 September in Kabul, more than 84 percent of the people killed by suicide bombers throughout Afghanistan this year were civilians.

Also on Tuesday, a remote-controlled bomb was denonated just south of the capital in an attack against an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) armoured personnel carrier, killing one Italian soldier and a child, and wounding five other Italian soldiers.

Rome has nearly 2,000 troops in Afghanistan as part if the 40,000-strong ISAF or coalition, to boost security and development and curb the growing Taliban insurgency.

However, deteriorating security in the south, southeast, and west, coupled with extreme poverty and unemployment and the existence of widespread corruption in government institutions, have resulted in growing dissatisfaction with the internationally backed government of President Hamid Karzai, analysts say.
SM/JL/DS

Truce deals may be helping Taliban rebels
By James Rupert and Zubair Shah Newsday

KABUL, Afghanistan — As Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf visits the White House today for talks about the war on terror, evidence is growing that his peace deals with Pakistan-based Taliban groups are letting them step up attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Since Pakistan signed a truce in June with the Taliban in its border region of North Waziristan, "we have seen a 300 percent increase" in Taliban attacks in the adjacent Afghan provinces, a U.S. intelligence officer said Tuesday. Most came from Pakistani soil, he said.

This month, Pakistan converted that truce into a long-term pact that Musharraf said bars the Taliban from crossing to fight in Afghanistan. Military analysts in Pakistan and Afghanistan say the deal cannot be enforced and is a surrender to the Taliban. President Bush has defended Musharraf, saying simply, "I believe him."

But new signs suggest the deal is letting the Taliban continue — and escalate — the fight.

North Waziristan residents say the Taliban have set new rules to make their infiltration of Afghanistan less visible to U.S. surveillance. A source close to the peace talks said these provisions were part of an oral agreement with the Pakistani government that accompanied the written peace deal. A Pakistani government spokeswoman denied there was a secret part to the agreement.

Last week, one of the Pakistani Taliban leaders who approved the North Waziristan peace deal was killed battling U.S. and Afghan troops in Afghanistan, Pakistanis and U.S. military sources said. The leader, Mullah Abdul Qalam, was buried in Pakistan, where other Taliban leaders vowed to continue the fight across the border.

In North Waziristan, a mountainous region where foreigners are banned, the Taliban are in control and the mood following the peace deal was buoyantly militant. Residents said there was a general expectation that the peace deal with Pakistan's ruling army will let the extremists step up fighting in Afghanistan.

In one village a few miles from the Afghan border, men said Taliban officials have declared that the jihad now will be more organized and disciplined. Men who volunteer to fight now must cross in smaller groups and stay for longer periods — at least 40 days, according to one source.

The Sept. 5 peace deal, following a similar pact with Taliban in South Waziristan 18 months ago, marks Pakistan's abandonment of a 30-month campaign of blunt military offensives that failed to clear Waziristan of al-Qaida fighters or Taliban. The army attacks destroyed villages, uprooted thousands of the ethnic Pashtun tribe members and inspired legions of local young men to join the Taliban.

Pakistan says the Taliban in Waziristan now are being controlled by the region's tribal leaders. But Waziristan residents and analysts say the Taliban have killed hundreds of pro-government tribal leaders. The Taliban is "too strong to be controlled by the tribes," said retired Pakistani Brig. Gen. Mehmood Shah, a former security chief for the Pashtun tribal zone that includes Waziristan.
For U.S. forces in Afghanistan, there is no doubt the Taliban are mainly Pakistan-based, the U.S. intelligence officer said. "Some of the incidents [Taliban attacks] are generated from inside Afghanistan," he said, "but the financing, logistics, recruiting and safe haven are all centered in Pakistan."

Taliban says bin Laden alive: Al Arabiya TV
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai-based Al Arabiya television on Tuesday quoted a Taliban official as saying al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was alive and in good health.
The Arabic channel said its Pakistan bureau had received a call from the unnamed Taliban official a few days after a leaked French secret document said Saudi intelligence believed bin Laden died last month in Pakistan.

"The official said bin Laden was alive and that reports that he is ill are not true," said Bakr Atyani, Al Arabiya's Islamabad correspondent. "The Taliban checked with members who are close to al Qaeda that these reports are baseless."

Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was last seen in a video statement aired to coincide with the November 2004 U.S. presidential elections.

A report in French regional daily L'Est Republicain last week quoted a document from the DGSE foreign intelligence service, saying the Saudi secret services were convinced bin Laden had died of typhoid.
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had no evidence that bin Laden was dead. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said that as far as he knew the Saudi-born militant was alive.

Bin Laden has issued several audio messages in the past two years, the last one in July 2006 in which he vowed al Qaeda would fight the United States anywhere in the world.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to flush out al Qaeda and the government of the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement that supported it after the militant network carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Bodies Tajiks, Pakistanis brought to Waziristan from Afghanistan
Islamabad, Sept 25, IRNA

Bodies of two Tajik and five Pakistani nationals, who died while fighting allied forces in Afghanistan, have been brought to Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region, local correspondents said on Monday.
It is the second time dead bodies of Pakistani fighters have been brought from Afghanistan in less than a week.

There was no official word on the report.

Five bodies, including that of a local Taliban commander Mulla Muhammad Kalam, were brought to North Waziristan tribal agency four days ago.

Reports said two Tajik militants were buried in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan.
One Pakistani was identified as Farooq, 25, who belonged to local Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, died while fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Correspondents said that four fighters were the residents of Charsadda, a major town near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

Their corpses were sent to their home town from Waziristan for burial.
Official sources said that several injured militants were also shifted to Wana for treatment.
But it is not clear where they are being treated and who is providing money for their treatment.
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of not doing much to stop militants from crossing the border.
Pakistan says it has deployed some 80,000 troops along with Afghan border to check the illegal cross-border-movement.

Bradley, Bass OK 70 billion dollars more for Iraq, Afghanistan
September 27, 2006
CAPITOL HILL --New Hampshire's two House representatives have voted to send 70 billion dollars for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House lawmakers remain deeply divided over the course of the war in Iraq, but the measure on defense spending was approved easily yesterday by a vote of 392 to 22.
New Hampshire's two Republican Congressmen, Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley, voted for the record Pentagon budget of 448 billion dollars. The Senate is due to act before adjourning this weekend for the fall campaign.

With Iraq alone costing about eight (b) billion a month, another infusion of money will be needed next spring.

Even Democratic opponents of the war generally embraced the Pentagon measure.
It includes one-point-nine (b) billion dollars for new jammers to counter improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan and a (b) billion for body armor and other personal protective gear.

Clinton: Afghanistan needs more troops
Tue Sep 26, 10:17 PM ET LONDON - Former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday the resurgence of the Taliban and growth of the poppy harvest in Afghanistan are signs there are insufficient coalition troops in the country.

Clinton also said the global hunt for al-Qaida leaders must be intensified and warned that fighting terrorism through military methods alone carried a risk of encouraging people to turn to extremism.
"There are not enough troops to serve the country (Afghanistan)," he told an audience at London's Royal Albert Hall. The United States has 21,000 troops in the country, and NATO has about 20,000 there.

Afghanistan has been suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001 in a U.S.-led war. Also opium production in Afghanistan has boomed since 2001. Last year, more than 4,500 tons of opium were harvested, about 90 percent of the world supply.
Securing good government in Afghanistan and tracking al-Qaida suspects were the two global priorities today, he said.

"I think it is important that the fight against terror secures a genuine Muslim democracy in Afghanistan and that we intensify the hunt for the leaders of al-Qaida, because they are still by far the most dangerous global network with global targets," Clinton said.
The former president said he did not believe
Iran's nuclear program was the world's most critical problem. Rather, he said, it was the risk of terrorists acting independently of nations and their potential ability to access nuclear weapons.

Afghan mission has gone off track: Martin
Former PM stands by his decision to send troops
Sep. 27, 2006. BILL SCHILLER STAFF REPORTER

OTTAWA—The man who sent Canadian soldiers to Kandahar — Paul Martin — said he doesn't approve of the way the military mission is unfolding and there must be far more emphasis on aid and reconstruction if Canada and NATO hope to succeed.

"I'm the person who sent them there and I don't back away from that one iota," the former prime minister said yesterday during a 90-minute interview in his parliamentary office.

But he repeatedly said that rebuilding the country was the aim of the mission — a fact that seems to have been obscured in recent months by increasingly intense fighting on the ground.

"I know what the answer is. The answer is going to be — and actually I've been told — `oh my God, you can't do the reconstruction while you're going through this period.'

"I don't buy that," Martin said. "The original concept was that you could. So do it."

Martin said that concrete and positive action in Afghan communities was crucial to winning support from the local population. "You can't win the military war if you can't win the hearts and minds of the people," Martin said.

Martin, whose Liberals were defeated by Stephen Harper's Tories in January, also said that if the United Nations called on Canada to send troops to the Darfur region of Sudan, Canada should go.

"If the UN issues a call and the African Union approves. I believe Canada must respond," he said.

Martin made the decision for Canadian soldiers to go to Kandahar based on a commitment given to him by Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, that should other international missions arise, Canada would have enough soldiers to deploy.

Martin said Canada's military "has the capacity to make a contribution" in Darfur.

Martin convened a meeting in March, 2005, at which the decision was made to transfer Canadian troops from the then-relative calm of Kabul to the pointy edge of battle in Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban and an insurgent stronghold.

He made the move, he said, aiming to spread security throughout Afghanistan, to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid and to speed reconstruction.

"It wasn't going to be sufficient if all you held was Kabul," he said. "You can't build a reconstructed Afghanistan if all you build is Kabul."

It was necessary, Martin said, for Canada to assist coalition forces in broadening the zone of security so that eventually reconstruction could take place throughout the country.

But since sending the troops to Kandahar, beginning in August last year, Canadians have confronted increasing resistance and taken heavy casualties. Twenty-eight soldiers have died this year and many more have been wounded. In the last three months alone, 20 have died.

Martin didn't downplay the difficulty or danger faced by Canadian soldiers and their commanders in Afghanistan, acknowledging the task at hand is "more difficult than the military thought it would be."

He expressed sorrow for the soldiers who have died, and for their families, as well as those injured in "a worthy cause."

But he made it plain that the ongoing mission is not the one he approved.
"I approved a 3-D approach," he said, referring to what military planners also call the "whole government approach," involving diplomacy, defence and development.

"We are doing the defence," he said. "In fact we are doing the defence quite aggressively — and you can't do it passively.
"But are we doing the amount of reconstruction, the amount of aid that I believe was part of the original mission? The answer unequivocally is that we're not. And I believe that we should."

Martin added, "it's called a PRT," referring to the provincial reconstruction teams that are supposed to be the key components of the mission, carrying forward the reconstruction and development work. "The purpose of that is reconstruction ... to reach out to people.

"I think they're trying diplomacy. I'm really not sure."

Martin said that "if all nations pull their weight, I believe that ultimately we will succeed. But I do not underestimate the cost."

Martin said that Darfur has long been a priority for him and remains so. "The problem in Darfur is that there are insufficient troops on the ground ... to protect not only the refugees, but the people who are trying to protect the refugees," he said.

About 200,000 people have died in Darfur, either in violence or from disease and famine, since rebels rose up in 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-led government of discrimination. Another 2 million have been forced from their homes, many by the Janjaweed militia, accused of killings and rapes in attacks on ethnic African villages. The Sudanese government denies charges it backs the militia.

Originally, Martin noted, the African Union insisted that any peace support troops originate from African countries.

But in the face of mounting challenges to its effectiveness, the African Union now appears ready to accept troops from non-African nations, he said.
The African Union said yesterday that its deployment plans for more troops from African nations are uncertain because of a continuing lack of funds.
Martin said that helping Darfur was central to Canadian values, including the Canadian-initiated doctrine of Responsibility to Protect that was adopted by the UN a year ago.

Our Northern Hypocrites
By Stephen Brown - FrontPageMagazine.com | September 22, 2006
“It was a good attack” – if you like mangled, bloody children.
Four Canadian soldiers dead, dozens of soldiers and civilians wounded, including numerous children, and that’s how bloodthirsty, Taliban “spiritual” leader Mullah Hassan summed up a “successful” suicide attack in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan last Monday. Fifteen additional innocent people were also killed across that suffering country in other coldly calculated suicide bombings that day.

The Canadian soldiers, who are in a tough fight to reclaim the province and former Taliban stronghold from these murderous thugs, were part of a patrol stopped near villages in a rural area. The Canucks, whose contingent numbers about 2,200 in Afghanistan, were handing out toys and school supplies when a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up, causing indescribable carnage. The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper in which Hassan’s heartless quote appeared, also cited a local farmer who said “all the children were crying and bloody”, while there were bloodstains and chunks of flesh left on the road. It was also the second suicide attack against Canadian troops in as many days.

“Every time we get the chance, we will kill Canadian soldiers. And the ordinary people must learn to stay away from foreigners,” continued Hassan in another proud, jihad moment.

A Liberal government committed Canadian troop to Afghanistan in 2002. Since then, they have suffered 36 deaths, including one diplomat. Their stellar performance on the battlefield, however, has earned them high praise from many quarters, including Condoleeza Rice. On a recent visit to Canada, the U.S. Secretary of State called the Canadian soldiers “fierce fighters”, saying the Taliban have “learned a tough lesson from that.”

But while Canadian troops are pounding the Taliban, incredibly, it is the Canadian Left that has not learned Afghanistan’s lessons. The leader of Canada’s socialist New Democratic Party, which is home to a myriad of current and former Maoists, Trotskyites and other assorted Marxist-Leninists, has recklessly and repeatedly called for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, breaching our NATO agreement that has already passed Parliament.

“There is no sign that it is making the Taliban weaker or the world safer,” said Layton at recent NDP party conference in Quebec. “There is no hope of changing the realities on the ground in Afghanistan - with the forces we have or can commit.”

In his appeasement comments, Canada’s Neville Chamberlain went even further - if that is possible. The leader of Canada’s third largest political party, which has 29 seats in the House of Commons, has actually called for negotiations with the Taliban, a gang of cutthroats that currently murders Afghan teachers for teaching girls, saying this is not the right mission for Canada. Which then begs the question: What is there to be talked about? Layton might as well just show up with a white flag; and then you can bet the Taliban will be eager to talk to him.

But like the Canadian and American Left during the Vietnam War, ‘Cut and Run’ Jack avoids talking about what would happen if coalition troops suddenly and in such cowardly fashion pulled out in the middle of a fight, leaving their Afghan friends in the lurch. The world has already seen the Taliban in power in Afghanistan and knows what to expect: no education for girls; women would be whipped in open stadiums; the certain reappearance of Osama bin Laden; and the reestablishment of a terror state with 9/11-like terrorist attacks against the West. And all this would probably come after a vicious war between the Taliban/ al-Qaeda jihadists and the Afghan national army, in which many more people would perish than are currently dying now.

Bad as it is, Layton’s Afghan position, however, might receive a modicum of respect if it wasn’t so hypocritical. The NDP prides itself on being the champion of women’s and gay rights in Canada and yet is willing to cease fighting against, and even negotiate with, the biggest abusers of women and murderers of homosexuals in the world.

What’s more, the Canadian political leader’s position on the deployment of the Canadian military to Afghanistan may actually be putting the Canadian troops’ lives in more danger than they currently are. According to an interview with Afghanistan’s Consul General in Toronto that appeared in the Toronto Sun, the Taliban are politically astute, understand political pressure, are well aware of any critics and “were pleased to exploit that.” The suicide attacks against the Canadians may have been timed to coincide with the opening of Canada’s parliament this week as well as with the upcoming visit of Afghanistan’s president to Canada.

If this is the case, Canadian troops can expect increased Taliban attacks at election time in order to take advantage of Canada’s political division and help topple the current, tough-on-terror minority government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a more yielding Liberal/NDP coalition. Both the Liberals and the NDP currently play the casualty card after Canadian troops die in Afghanistan to score political points for the next election, calling for a change in the military mission instead of condemning the actual enemy and lauding our soldiers as the heroes they really are. For the record, one of Monday’s heroes’ names has been released: Pte. David Byers of Espinola, Ontario.

Harper, true to his non-compromising, steely stance against the Taliban, has responded to critics by sending the first squadron of Canadian tanks to Afghanistan. The Canadian Prime Minister also kept the latest Canadian casualties, and the war, in perspective, saying in the House of Commons: “Nothing more than this incident illustrates the evil they are fighting and the goodwill and the nobleness of the cause that they are taking to the Afghan people.”

But it is Conservative Defense Minister Gordon O’Connor who articulated best the NDP’s and the Canadian Left’s divisive position regarding the Afghan conflict.

“Only they and the Taliban want us out of Afghanistan,” he said.

[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.]