In this bulletin:

• Taliban kill 5 Western soldiers in Afghanistan
• Report: 18 Afghan Civilians Killed
• Afghan forces strike Taliban inside Pakistan
• New Tajik-Afghan bridge sparks hope
• Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again
• Afghan police training to be standardized
• Europe may cut military role in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: South Korean Muslims seek release of hostages
• Canada boosts Afghanistan aid
• Afghan Ambassador Expresses Appreciation for Canadian Aid Announcement
• Harper skips Afghanistan in Que. byelection speech
• Let's not tear down Afghan gains
• Canadian military focuses on handover to Afghans
• Army pullout from FATA after January: Musharraf
• Disguised as woman, Russian man held in Paktia
• Young Afghan Cricketers Notch Historic Success
• Afghan women stores make a mark

Taliban kill 5 Western soldiers in Afghanistan

Kabul (Reuters) - Five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.

The Americans were killed along with two Afghan soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Monday in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, the district police chief told reporters.

NATO officials in Kabul said earlier that two soldiers had been killed while on patrol Sunday, one in an attack in eastern Afghanistan and the other in the south. NATO did not identify the victims.

However, the Netherlands' military said a Dutch soldier had been killed overnight by a bomb in southern Afghanistan.

It said the 30-year-old sergeant was in a unit searching for explosives in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded, Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn told a televised news conference. A 23-year-old corporal was wounded, Berlijn said.

The Netherlands has about 1,700 troops in Afghanistan. Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan where more than 100 Western troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military have been killed this year while fighting a renewed Taliban-led insurgency.

Report: 18 Afghan Civilians Killed

The Associated Press, 08/26/2007

KABUL - Witnesses said Sunday that clashes between coalition troops and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan left at least 18 civilians dead. NATO officials, however, said no noncombatants were killed.

The alleged civilian deaths occurred in the southern Helmand province. Coalition and Afghan troops clashed late Saturday with militants near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala.

A spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that 12 militants were killed during the overnight clash, which started after Taliban ambushed the joint coalition and Afghan army patrol 15 miles south of Musa Qala.

But Haji Abdul Manan Agha, the tribal leader from the area, said two homes were bombed by coalition forces late Saturday. "In one home 18 people attending an engagement party were killed, including women, children and men," he said.

In the second house, eight Taliban were killed, he said. More than 30 people were wounded in both strikes, Agha said.

Mohammad Gul, a taxi driver who brought six wounded to a nearby hospital, also said that 18 civilians were killed in the clash.

Mohammad Nabi, whose relatives were among the wounded, said dozens of people were killed. "If the Taliban shoot at NATO or American convoys, than NATO and Americans come back and bomb all of the area," Nabi said. "And when we bring our casualties to the hospital then they say they are Taliban," he said.

The claims could not be independently verified due to remoteness of the area where the clash took place.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly deplored civilian deaths caused by NATO or U.S. military action, saying more must be done to prevent such casualties. But military officials have begun saying that some reports are nothing but information warfare by the Taliban.

Coalition and Afghan government officials have said that it is easy for Taliban fighters to falsely claim that civilians were killed by Western or Afghan military action and that militants are forcing locals to lie to journalists.

Meanwhile, 12 Taliban fighters were killed by artillery fire along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after insurgents attacked a military post with rockets and mortars, officials said.

Coalition and Afghan troops in eastern Paktika province were attacked by insurgents who used Pakistan's territory to fire rockets and mortar rounds toward a coalition observation post Saturday, a coalition statement said.

Pakistani authorities gave permission for the troops to return fire, it said.

"Coalition counter-fire batteries destroyed the six confirmed insurgent firing sites, three on each side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," the statement said, adding 12 Taliban were killed.

Insurgents move back and forth through the porous border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghan authorities have accused Pakistan in the past of not doing enough to prevent the movement of militants across the border to attack Afghan and foreign troops in the country.

Pakistan denies the charge and says it has deployed tens of thousands of the troops along the volatile frontier to stem the flow of militants.

Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. This year more than 3,800 people _ most of them militants _ have died, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.

Afghan forces strike Taliban inside Pakistan

Reuters, 08/26/2007 -KABUL - US-led and Afghan troops struck Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with the extremist Islamic militia that left at least 19 rebels dead, security forces said Sunday.

The US-led coalition said it received permission from Pakistan to attack across the border on Saturday, but this was denied by the chief military spokesman in Islamabad.

Afghan and coalition forces used mortars and artillery fire to destroy insurgent attacking positions on both sides of the border after a military post in Afghanistan came under attack, the coalition said in a statement.

The Afghan army saw Taliban fighters firing mortars and rockets from several positions and Pakistan's military confirmed three of the firing sites were on their soil, the statement said.

"The Pakistani military gave permission for the Afghan National Security Forces to fire on the targets located within Pakistan," it said.

Six insurgent firing sites were destroyed, three on each side of the border, and more than a dozen insurgents were killed.

A Pakistani military spokesman denied any permission was given. "There was no attack, no firing from our side of the border. And there was no permission asked by them or given by us," Major General Waheed Arshad said.

US military spokeswoman, Captain Vanessa Bowman, insisted to AFP however that "this was fully coordinated with Pakistan and agreed on."

"There is a very close working relationship (with Pakistan) to eliminate this kind of threat," she said.

Remnants of the Taliban regime are believed to have fled into Pakistan after they were driven from government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

From there they are said to train militants, with the help of Al-Qaeda, who launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have said repeatedly they would not allow any foreign troops to hunt militants on its soil, and insist they are doing what they can to hunt down the extremists.

US President George W. Bush this month refused to rule out unilateral US strikes on Pakistani soil if specific intelligence pinpointed top Al-Qaeda leaders.

But he also expressed confidence in the efforts of Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Pakistan army operations in North Waziristan and neighbouring South Waziristan to drive out the insurgents since 2004 have left more than 700 soldiers and 1,200 militants dead.

In another incident near the border Saturday, Afghan troops clashed with rebel fighters in southern Zabul province and killed nine of them, the defence ministry said. Eleven more were wounded, it said.

The same day, three suspected militants -- one of them a foreign national -- were arrested in another border province, Paktia, dressed in all-covering burqas worn by most Afghan women, the ministry said.

Militants have previously used the burqa to escape detection by security forces.

Elsewhere, dozens of Taliban guerrillas attacked police in the eastern province of Nangarhar, injuring a district chief and one of his guards before they were repelled, police said.

The Taliban's insurgency against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has grown steadily over the past years and now sees near daily attacks across the country.

The weak Afghan security forces are being assisted in their gruelling fight against the rebels by nearly 50,000 international soldiers.

About half of the foreign soldiers are from the United States and several thousand are from European nations, some of which are debating their involvement in Afghanistan as their casualties mount.

New Tajik-Afghan bridge sparks hope

By Natalia Antelava - BBC News

The presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan have inaugurated a new bridge linking the two countries across the River Panj.

The $37m (£18.4m) project is the United States' gift to the region, and Washington hopes that it will restore the ancient trade ties, as well as helping to bring much needed economic relief to the two countries.

Things by the Tajik-Afghan border have been hot and hectic. Covered in dust, and sweating under the blistering sun, several dozen men worked to build a massive stage there.

A few feet away from them, a group of teenagers in traditional dresses had spent a day giggling away and rehearsing their performance dance.

The US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez joined the Afghan and Tajik presidents inaugurating the bridge that the Americans have built for them.

The money is nothing compared to the political investment. For the US this is a showcase project, a proof that things can go right for Afghanistan and its neighbours.

For two years Brian Walls of the US Army Corp of Engineers, has been in charge of the construction here.

He says the bridge is the missing link of the ancient Silk Road, and that linking Afghanistan with its neighbour will help the economies on both sides, and beyond.

"Of course first of all it will be beneficial for Afghanistan and Tajikistan, but I think other countries too will get involved, and commerce will be able to flourish," Walls said.

There is not much traffic between the two countries at the moment. An unreliable ferry service is the only way of getting across the fast-flowing river, and no more than a dozen cars a day manage to make the journey.

The bridge could increase this number to 1,000. The potential economic gains of this project are enormous, but according to the Tajik journalist, Ilhom Nazriev, so are the potential risks.

It sits along the world's biggest drug trade routes and much of the Afghan opium makes its way to Europe via Tajikistan. Enhancing communication, some fear, could make the problem worse.

Mr Nazriev said: "No question that this is hugely important both for Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It may allow us to trade with places like China or India, but we are also going to lose a natural buffer zone.

"The river used to protect us from Afghanistan's troubles in some ways. It made drug trafficking more difficult, it did not allow extremism to spread, now we no longer have that buffer."

The bridge does offer a link to the outside world that Afghanistan has long needed.

But with the security situation deteriorating and with drug trafficking on the rise, the question is whether bringing Afghanistan closer to the world will help to solve its problems, or will it, in fact, allow them to spread.

Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again

The New York Times, 08/26/2007 By David Rohde - LASHKAR GAH - Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released Monday.

The report is likely to touch off renewed debate about the United States’ $600 million counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been hampered by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government.

“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report’s overall findings. “And I think that we are finding one.”

Mr. Wood said the current American programs for eradication, interdiction and alternative livelihoods should be intensified, but he added that ground spraying poppy crops with herbicide remained “a possibility.” Afghan and British officials have opposed spraying, saying it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

While the report found that opium production dropped in northern Afghanistan, Western officials familiar with the assessment said, cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers to grow poppies.

Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade, opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public support by protecting farmers’ fields from eradication, according to American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from traffickers they protect.

In Taliban-controlled areas, traffickers have opened more labs that process raw opium into heroin, vastly increasing its value. The number of drug labs in Helmand rose to roughly 50 from 30 the year before, and about 16 metric tons of chemicals used in heroin production have been confiscated this year.

The Western officials said countrywide production had increased from 2006 to 2007, but they did not know the final United Nations figure. They estimated a countrywide increase of 10 to 30 percent.

The new survey showed positive signs as well, officials said.

The sharp drop in poppy production in the north is likely to make this year’s countrywide increase smaller than the growth in 2006. Last year, a 160 percent increase in Helmand’s opium crop fueled a 50 percent nationwide increase. Afghanistan produced a record 6,100 metric tons of opium poppies last year, 92 percent of the world’s supply.

Here in Helmand, the breadth of the poppy trade is staggering. A sparsely populated desert province twice the size of Maryland, Helmand produces more narcotics than any country on earth, including Myanmar, Morocco and Colombia. Rampant poverty, corruption among local officials, a Taliban resurgence and spreading lawlessness have turned the province into a narcotics juggernaut.

Poppy prices that are 10 times higher than those for wheat have so warped the local economy that some farmhands refused to take jobs harvesting legal crops this year, local farmers said. And farmers dismiss the threat of eradication, arguing that so many local officials are involved in the poppy trade that a significant clearing of crops will never be done.

American and British officials say they have a long-term strategy to curb poppy production. About 7,000 British troops and Afghan security forces are gradually extending the government’s authority in some areas, they said. The British government is spending $60 million to promote legal crops in the province, and the United States Agency for International Development is mounting a $160 million alternative livelihoods program across southern Afghanistan, most of it in Helmand.

Loren Stoddard, director of the aid agency’s agriculture program in Afghanistan, cited American-financed agricultural fairs, the introduction of high-paying legal crops and the planned construction of a new industrial park and airport as evidence that alternatives were being created.

Mr. Stoddard, who helped Wal-Mart move into Central America in his previous posting, predicted that poppy production had become so prolific that the opium market was flooded and prices were starting to drop. “It seems likely they’ll have a rough year this year,” he said, referring to the poppy farmers. “Labor prices are up and poppy prices are down. I think they’re going to be looking for new things.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Stoddard and Rory Donohoe, the director of the American development agency’s Alternative Livelihoods program in southern Afghanistan, attended the first “Helmand Agricultural Festival.” The $300,000 American-financed gathering in Lashkar Gah was an odd cross between a Midwestern county fair and a Central Asian bazaar, devised to show Afghans an alternative to poppies.

Under a scorching sun, thousands of Afghan men meandered among booths describing fish farms, the dairy business and drip-irrigation systems. A generator, cow and goat were raffled off. Wizened elders sat on carpets and sipped green tea. Some wealthy farmers seemed interested. Others seemed keen to attend what they saw as a picnic.

When Mr. Stoddard and Mr. Donohoe arrived, they walked through the festival surrounded by a three-man British and Australian security team armed with assault rifles. “Who won the cow? Who won the cow?” shouted Mr. Stoddard, 38, a burly former food broker from Provo, Utah. “Was it a girl or a guy?”

After Afghans began dancing to traditional drum and flute music, Mr. Donohoe, 29, from San Francisco, briefly joined them.

Some Afghans praised the fair’s alternatives crops. Others said only the rich could afford them. Haji Abdul Gafar, 28, a wealthy landowner, expressed interest in some of the new ideas.

Saber Gul, a 40-year-old laborer, said he was too poor to take advantage. “For those who have livestock and land, they can,” he said. “For us, the poor people, there is nothing.”

Local officials said all the development programs would fail without improved security.

Assadullah Wafa, Helmand’s governor, said four of Helmand’s 13 districts were under Taliban control. Other officials put the number at six.

Mr. Wafa, who eradicated far fewer acres than the governor of neighboring Kandahar Province, promised to improve eradication in Helmand next year. He also called for Western countries to decrease the demand for heroin.

“The world is focusing on the production side, not the buying side,” he said.

The day after the agricultural fair, Mr. Stoddard and Mr. Donohoe gave a tour of a $3 million American project to clear a former Soviet airbase on the outskirts of town and turn it into an industrial park and civilian airport.

Standing near rusting Soviet fuel tanks, the two men described how pomegranates, a delicacy in Helmand for centuries, would be flown out to growing markets in India and Dubai. Animal feed would be produced from a local mill, marble cut and polished for construction.

“Once we get this air cargo thing going,” Mr. Stoddard said, “it will open up the whole south.”

That afternoon, they showed off a pilot program for growing chili peppers on contract for a company in Dubai. “These kinds of partnerships with private companies are what we want here,” said Mr. Donohoe, who has a Master’s in Business Administration from Georgetown University. “We’ll let the market drive it.”

As the Americans toured the farm, they were guarded by eight Afghans and three British and Australian guards. The farm itself had received guards after local villagers began sneaking in at night and stealing produce. Twenty-four hours a day, 24 Afghan men with assault rifles staff six guard posts that ring the farm, safeguarding chili peppers and other produce.

“Some people would say that security is so bad that you can’t do anything,” Mr. Donohoe said. “But we do it.”

Mr. Wafa, though, called the American reconstruction effort too small and "low quality." "There is a proverb in Afghanistan,” he said. “By one flower we cannot mark spring."

Afghan police training to be standardized

By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune Monday, August 27, 2007

BERLIN: The United States, the United Nations and the European Union have agreed with the Afghan government to introduce common standards in building up the police force in Afghanistan after several governments criticized the lack of coordination since the program was set up five years ago, officials said over the weekend.

The decision comes as violence there rises. The Interior Ministry said 41 people were killed and at least six wounded in suicide bombings and gun battles near the capital, Kabul, over the weekend. In the southern province of Kandahar, eight Afghan officers were killed after insurgents attacked a police patrol. Two Afghans who were guarding a convoy carrying supplies for NATO-led forces were also killed, The Associated Press reported.

The agreement to standardize police training means that different methods adopted by the United States, Germany and other countries will be put under a single new authority: the International Police Coordination Board Secretariat, based in Kabul.

The international approach, agreed to with President Hamid Karzai, could be the start of a more efficient police force able to move in quickly to maintain security once a military operation has been completed and provide protection to development agencies so that the local population can see tangible improvements to their living conditions.

"There was replication previously," Colonel Many-Bears Grinder of the U.S. Army, deputy head of the police secretariat, said during an interview with the International Herald Tribune over the weekend. "When you have limited manpower and resources, it does not make sense to waste these resources in the duplication of efforts where there are other areas that may need some of those resources."

Grinder is assigned to the Combined Security Transition Command, the American-led military unit that supervises the development of the security forces.

After October 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, Germany and the United States agreed to take over the responsibility of establishing and training a new police force.

Until 2006, the United States spent more than $1.3 billion in training a force that is mostly focused on border control and highway security in courses lasting about three weeks. Germany, in contrast, spent €70 million, or $95 million, training officers in courses that lasted up to three years and concentrated on community policing.

Security experts have said that the U.S. course was too short, and the German courses too long and bureaucratic.

The courses also failed to train a force capable of dealing with the growing narcotics trade or the re-establishment of the Taliban, those experts said. The EU took over the German police training mission this summer, increasing the number of trainers from about 50 to nearly 200.

"This is now becoming a coordinated effort," Grinder said. "We also strive for an international joint effort in reviewing the curriculums as well as projects."

She said the training for police officers and for the most basic training levels were now under review. The International Police Coordination Board Secretariat was also working closely with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

One project, she said, involved training police officers about rights. "We are trying to get human rights offices assigned in every province, down to the district level," Grinder said.

Afghan elders said Sunday that airstrikes had killed 12 civilians in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday night, but an American military spokesman blamed Taliban militants for the civilian deaths, The New York Times reported from Kabul.

Exactly what occurred in the remote area was unclear. But the charges and countercharges reflected growing tensions in Afghanistan over civilian deaths.

Hajji-Agha Muhammad, an Afghan elder, said airstrikes had killed 12 civilians and wounded 12 others in Kobar, a village in the volatile Musa Qala district, Saturday night. Muhammad said the dead included six children ages 3 to 6 and two women.

Europe may cut military role in Afghanistan

AFP, 08/26/2007 By P. Parameswaran - WASHINGTON - The United States is worried about weakening Italian and German military commitments in Afghanistan as casualties increase in the fight to stem the bloody Taliban insurgency, officials said.

Debate is raging in Italy and Germany, and to a lesser extent the Netherlands and Denmark, on whether they should remain in the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), already grappling with a shortage of troops in the face of one of the most intense military engagements in decades.

"There is a good prospect that we are going to lose some" contributions from certain countries, a US administration official told AFP, as European nations face upcoming votes at home on their reconstruction, military and training commitments in Afghanistan.

The NATO-led 37-nation ISAF and a separate US-led coalition, in total about 50,000 foreign soldiers, are together with Afghan security forces fighting to block the return to power of the Taliban after the hardline Islamic militia was ousted in late 2001.

But with the fighting now at its toughest since then, and more deaths among ISAF forces -- including the friendly fire" incident Friday that killed three British soldiers -- Washington is deeply worried about eroding support for the effort.

"It will be disappointing if there are fewer NATO partners that are involved in this mission," the US official said.

"Italy and Germany are the ones that are of serious concern," the official added, citing Italy as "one that we are really concerned about."

With 2,500 troops, Italy heads NATO's Herat-based regional command in western Afghanistan.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema recently blamed a lack of coordination between US and ISAF forces for hundreds of Afghan civilian deaths, which he called "morally unacceptable."

"The Italians can be proud of what they are doing but at the end of the day it's not so much a referendum on 'are we making a difference?' but really a referendum about how closely do you want to be associated with the US administration," the US official said.

In Germany, where polls show a strong 64 percent majority calling for withdrawal, parliament would have to vote on whether to continue with commitments for reconstruction, military deployment and training of Afghan forces.

The United States is particularly worried about the military commitment.

"As the issue of civilian casualties becomes more and more an issue in German politics, that is another one that is of real concern," said the US official.

"And if the concerns are really high, that might spill over into the training of security forces."

Germany has lost 25 soldiers, three police officers and four civilians in Afghanistan since 2002.

The past month has been particularly grim with the abduction by the Taliban of two German engineers, one of whom was shot dead. The other is reportedly ill and begging for his life.

Germany has contributed some 3,000 troops to the NATO mission and has six Tornado reconnaissance planes helping to spot Taliban hideouts.

About 100 elite troops have a mandate to participate in the US-led anti-Taliban Operation Enduring Freedom but are not currently deployed against insurgents in the south.

In the Netherlands, there is some unease about how long the Afghanistan effort will continue but US officials believe cuts in the military deployment will be spared.

Similar concerns face Denmark but officials say its deployment is not on the US radar screen as one that is really in danger.

Other key countries like Canada and Britain remain committed despite their own losses. On Friday three British soldiers were killed while fighting Taliban forces near Kajaki Dam in Helmand Province after being hit by a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet.

Two other soldiers were injured in the incident. The United States and British military and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, under which the troops were serving, have all said they will investigate.

The blunder was the latest in a string of "friendly fire" deaths involving US planes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kurt Volker, the principal US deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, is expected to travel to Europe in early September to prod countries to maintain their Afghan presence.

"I think he is going to make some public remarks illustrating how important Afghanistan is and some of the things the European countries can be particularly proud of, in terms of achievements in Afghanistan," the US official said. "We are hoping that can help."

Afghanistan: South Korean Muslims seek release of hostages

Peshawar, 27 August (AKI/DAWN) - The Korea Muslim Federation (KMF) has asked the Taliban to release the 19 Koreans being held hostage in Afghanistan.

A four-member delegation of the federation visited the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar and told journalists on Sunday that the Muslim community in Seoul was facing problems after the kidnapping.

“Ramadan is approaching and we request the Taliban to release the hostages immediately and prove to the world that Muslims do not believe in violence,” said Suleman Lee Haeng, the imam of the Seoul central mosque.

The delegation also includes KMF director Abdul Rahman Lee, its member Zaki Jeong and a Pakistani businessman in Korea, Zulfiqar Ali Khan.

“About 15 policemen have been posted at the central mosque in Seoul round the clock due to some minor incidents when someone hurled stones into the mosque,” said Rahman.

He said some people used bad language against the Muslims there. Although, such people were few in number, it still affected the day to day life of Muslims there, he said.

The delegation met chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Sami) Maulana Samiul Haq at his seminary in Akora Khattak.

Haq is dubbed the "Father of the Taliban" because many taliban, including Mullah Omar, were schooled in a madrass he ran.

The members of the delegation said Haq had assured them that he would request the Taliban for the release of the hostages. They said would also meet other religious figures in Peshawar.

“There are about 35,000 Muslims in Korea and before this incident we had been preaching Islam in a very effective manner,” said Khan, a native of Peshawar who settled in Korea about 10 years ago.

“While my family or other Muslims, especially non-Koreans, travel in public transport or roam around, people look at them with suspicion and some of them even say that Muslims are killers,” he added.

The group of 23 South Korean Christian volunteer aid workers were kidnapped on 19 July on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. The Taliban killed two male members of the group and released two female members. Nineteen members of the group are still being held hostage.

“Being representatives of the Muslim community in Korea, we initiated this visit to plead the case of our people and request our Taliban brothers that these hostages are innocent and they should be released for the sake of humanity," said Suleman Lee Haeng, the imam of the Seoul central mosque

The visitors said they had been advised in Korea not to visit Peshawar because of security reasons but they had preferred to travel to the city to try and put forward their request to the Taliban.

A member of the KMF, Zaki Jeong also showed some pictures of the mosque in the South Korean capital where police had been deployed and some roads in Seoul where banners had been hoisted asking the Taliban to release the hostages.

Canada boosts Afghanistan aid

CanWest News Service , Sunday, August 26, 2007

TORONTO -- Canada is boosting aid to Afghanistan by providing $45 million for five health and community development projects in Kandahar province.

Beverley Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, made the announcement Saturday while taking part in Afghanistan Independence Day Celebrations in Toronto.

The new projects build on major funding announced in February 2007 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to speed up reconstruction and development.

"Canada's new government is proud to stand beside the Afghan people as they strive to build better lives for themselves and secure a better future for their children," said Oda.

The funding is going to programs to fight polio and tuberculosis, build local governance and improve access to health services.

The $45 million announced Saturday is part of Canada's total contribution of more than $1 billion over 10 years aimed at governance, security and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Afghan Ambassador Expresses Appreciation for Canadian Aid Announcement

Toronto - Hon. Beverley Oda, Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation, announced Saturday that Canada will fund health and community development in the province of Kandahar to the tune of CAN $45 million. The funding is going to programs to fight polio and tuberculosis, build local governance and improve access to maternal health services at the Mirwais Hospital.

The minister made the announcement at the Afghan Independence Day festivity hosted by the Afghan Association of Ontario in Toronto. Also present, Ambassador Omar Samad, thanked Canada for making good on its pledges to help the Afghans.

The Ambassador said, "this allocation is vital to our overall attempt at creating the enabling environment for peace and economic progress, especially in Kandahar province."

He added, "I am certain that thousands of lives will be touched and even saved by these contributions. Much has been achieved over the past few years, and the overall Canadian contribution has been outstanding."

Remembering the three Canadian soldiers killed in Southern Afghanistan last week, Amb. Samad said, "due to many decades of conflict and regional complexities, Afghanistan will not be rebuilt nor stabilized within a few short years. Security, development, good governance, rule of law, human rights and democratic rights are part of the wishes and aspirations of the Afghan people, and that is why they have welcomed international assistance in all fields to attain those objectives as fast as possible."

The funding announced Saturday is part of Canada's total contribution of more than $1.2 billion over 10 years aimed at helping Afghanistan’s Afghanistan.

Embassy of Afghanistan

August 26, 2007

Harper skips Afghanistan in Que. byelection speech

Updated Sun. Aug. 26 2007 CTV.ca News Staff

At his first Quebec appearance since two Quebec-based soldiers died in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper nearly completely refrained from commenting on the mission in the war-ravaged country.

In a wide-ranging, 20-minute speech in Victoriaville on Sunday, Harper had just one paragraph for the military.

"When men and women volunteer and find themselves in dangerous places to defend our values and our way of life, we thank, from the bottom of our hearts, these men and women who wear the uniform for the peace, freedom and prosperity that their efforts allow us to enjoy," he said in French, adding that Conservatives weren't ashamed of "Canada's rich military heritage."

Later that afternoon, a Canadian Forces aircraft touched down at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario, returning the remains of Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier and Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne to Canadian soil.

They died Wednesday, along with an Afghan interpreter, when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb. Two Radio Canada journalists were in the vehicle. One was injured, along with another soldier.

Harper, who didn't use the word "Afghanistan" in the speech, wouldn't answer reporters' questions afterwards.

Officials from the Prime Minister's Office say Harper refuses to play politics with the deaths of soldiers.

The two soldiers returned to Canada on Sunday and a third -- Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, to be buried Monday -- all served with the Royal 22nd Regiment, based at CFB Valcartier in Quebec.

Public opinion polling has found opposition to the Afghanistan mission to be highest in Quebec.

Harper has called three Quebec byelections for Sept. 17. His Sunday speech was delivered to party supporters. All three byelection candidates were there.

Some of the Conservatives' opponents have said they may use those byelections as referendums on the Afghanistan mission.

Earlier this month, Harper shuffled his cabinet. He placed Quebec MP Maxime Bernier in the foreign affairs portfolio and Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay in the defence portfolio in a move many saw as an attempt to improve communications about the Afghanistan mission -- particularly in Quebec.

On CTV's Question Period, a former federal Liberal politician said there's been silence in Quebec so far from the Tories.

"People have never heard them," Jean LaPierre said of Bernier and MacKay. "So now it's time for them now to go on a speaking tour and explain the mission because as of now, they haven't talked since the day of their swearing-in."

Also speaking on Question Period, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion continued to push the Conservatives to commit Canada to withdrawing its troops from a combat role in Afghanistan by February 2009.

On Sunday, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe issued a statement responding to remarks Saturday by Sen. Michael Fortier, the government's public works minister, who said Duceppe had only spoken up about the Afghanistan mission in recent days because Quebec troops had died.

Duceppe, who called Thursday for an emergency debate when Parliament resumes on Sept. 17, called Fortier's comments "baseless" and in "bad taste."

The Bloc caucus is "saddened by the deaths of all Canadian soldiers, Stephen Harper knows that," he said.

In his speech Sunday, Harper referred to the previous Liberal government as corrupt and called the Bloc, the most popular political party in Quebec, impotent.

Let's not tear down Afghan gains

August 27, 2007 - Rosie DiManno Toronto Star

Just four months ago, I stood on the crest of Ghundy Ghar, in the company of Canadian snipers, surveying a valley that was lush, thriving and, in the context of Southern Afghanistan, remarkably calm. Our troops held the high ground, firmly.

Others had fought for it, the previous autumn and winter, but the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Recce squadron, had made the crucial vantage point habitable, secure, battening down the hatches and clearing the approach road of mines. They had eyes on, through the telescopic sights of rifles and surveillance radar. Regularly, in convoys, they patrolled the larger area – a crucial chunk of Zhari district criss-crossed by dirt trails used to hustle out opium and muster in fighters. It was this Canadian presence that had the insurgents on their heels. They couldn't tyrannize at will.

Last week, two Van Doos were killed trying to retake that position. What happened, in so brief a span? Short answer: Canadian troops left.

They turned Ghundy Ghar over to Afghan national security forces – an Army encampment at the bottom of the hill, Afghan police checkpoints along the arterial road on the northern bank of the Arghandab River. Gift-wrapped it for the Afghans. And they couldn't hold it. Couldn't even prevent insurrectionists from planting massive improvised explosive devices right inside what had been the Canadian compound.

"It just goes to show, in this complex country, in this complex terrain, how easy it is for insurgents to slip back into an area and intimidate the locals, in a short period of time,'' Gen. Rick Hillier told the Star on Friday.

"We've countered that in a variety of ways. Long term, the most important way is to grow the Afghan army and police. We're light years ahead of where we were last September and not as far advanced as we will be come Christmas. But there's a long way to go.''

Two Afghan battalions have been trained, one already in the field. They've certainly showed willing, more so than Afghan police who are notoriously corrupt but also infrequently paid. Neither army nor police are properly equipped.

Ghundy Ghar is a microcosm of the peril that Afghanistan faces when, as seems increasingly certain, Canadian troops depart combustible Kandahar in early 2009, hard-won military successes crushed on the anvil of domestic politics back home.

It happens repeatedly, all over the southern provinces where the neo-Taliban has been most resurgent. Villagers come back, when they feel NATO troops have pacified the environment, rural life is resurrected, families start sending their children to school, the local economy begins to percolate. Then, NATO withdraws from a location, either because they have pressing assignments elsewhere – Recce squadron was rotated to Spin Boldak – or because somebody decides the time is ripe for handoff to Afghan forces.

It was Afghan civilians who'd pleaded for Canadians to return last week. Transferring security to Afghan forces, as long-term masters in their own house, has been promoted as the best pullout strategy for foreign troops. But the long-term is disastrously short-term, with political pressure in Canada – and other NATO countries – guaranteed to dismantle the incremental gains. Politicians, with their eyes on opinion polls, lack the backbone of soldiers. A great many Canadians have grown weary of the whole involvement, because Afghanistan is far away, theoretical, not worth Canadian lives.

Some, I think, perversely covet defeat, dead soldiers exploited as little more than ideological clubs with which to batter the mission. Abandoning Afghanistan prematurely, on some arbitrary deadline, really will mean that those Canadians died in vain.

Canadian military focuses on handover to Afghans

CanWest News Service , Sunday, August 26, 2007

MASUM GHAR, Afghanistan -- A convoy of light armoured vehicles pulls up to a sun-baked intersection, stirring up white dust and the curiosity of onlooking villagers.

Two Canadian engineers dismount and, as their LAV scans the horizon with its cannon, they inspect a drainage culvert for signs of an improvised explosive device.

It's a critical task-one that would eventually be thrust into the spotlight by the death of 23-year-old Pte. Simon Longtin along this very road. Today, a platoon of Afghan National Army troops has been called upon to protect the engineers.

There are only a few problems. Instead of fanning out in a "V" to create a security cordon, for instance, several of the ANA platoon members are still lounging in their cream-coloured Ford pickup truck.

Meanwhile, the others aren't leaving enough space between them to create an effective cordon. And, instead of scanning the ground for explosives, as they're supposed to be doing, they're checking the hills for incoming Taliban.

Such bumbling execution normally invites the wrath of a commanding officer. But Capt. Richard Bernatchez, the young Canadian mentoring the ANA platoon on this day, is quick to defend his charges.

"It's partially our fault. We want them to be involved in the planning of operations," says Bernatchez, a soft-spoken Quebecer who arrived in Afghanistan only two weeks ago. "In this case, the ANA was not as involved as we would have liked."

"We have to teach Canadian soldiers that it's not our fight-it's their fight."

With Canada's military commitment in Afghanistan slated to end in a little more than 18 months, training the ANA has evolved from an afterthought into a crucial component of the Canadian mission.

The new emphasis reflects a shift in political tone in Ottawa. Until this summer, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appeared determined to extend the deployment beyond the scheduled withdrawal date of February 2009.

But, support for the war among Canadians has remained split, forcing the government to soften its position. The prime minister now says he will seek the consensus of Parliament before extending the mission.

In interviews with CanWest News Service, senior military commanders overseeing Canada's training efforts praised ANA soldiers for their bravery and fighting instincts.

For example, Afghan troops seem to have an uncanny sense for sniffing out Taliban and spotting IEDs. And, overall, the ANA has made significant progress in the past year toward becoming a reliable modern army that can fight a counterinsurgency, the Canadian officers say.

But they also concede that absenteeism and a lack of equipment remain serious problems, and the Afghan army has a long way to go before it can organize itself in large numbers.

They won't commit to a timeline for when Afghan battalions will be ready to fight on their own-a crucial benchmark that could determine whether Afghanistan stabilizes or lapses back into civil war once western forces depart.

"We're not at that point yet, and that's the overall situation in Afghanistan right now," said Lt.-Col. Stephane Lafaut, who recently assumed command of Canada's Operational Mentor Liaison Teams.

Afghanistan has a reputation for producing some of the fiercest guerrilla fighters in the world, but it's had only limited success in maintaining a centralized army.

For years after the Soviet pullout in 1989, there was no standing army, as rival warlords jockeyed for power.

Following the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the United States spearheaded an effort to cobble together a national army from the country's disparate rebel factions.

Teams of U.S. special forces initially led the training efforts, but several nations in the NATO-led coalition have since assumed part of the responsibilities, including Britain, the Netherlands, Turkey and France. Canada took over training in Kandahar province from the U.S. in May.

Recruits are first sent to Kabul for 10 weeks of basic training. Once in Kandahar, the Canadians put them through a three-stage cycle that includes two months of individual and collective training at Kandahar Airfield, six months of operating in the field with Canadian Forces, and one month's leave.

At forward operating base Masum Ghar, a strategic outpost at the border of Zhari and Panjwaii districts, Canadian soldiers are taking a collaborative approach to the mentoring process. An ANA battalion, known as a Kandak, has been training here for more than six months.

The command post of the Canadian training team is located in a traditional Afghan mud-walled home, where Afghan commanders sleep a few doors down from their Canadian mentors.

"We eat with them, we live with them, we share everything with them," said Maj. Jean-Sebastien Fortin, who commands a team of 27 Canadians. "They call us brothers."

Fortin says the Canadians take care not to undermine the confidence of the ANA in their Afghan commanders, many of whom fought against the Soviets as mujahedeen.

ANA platoons stationed at the base now regularly fight alongside Canadian soldiers, and in some cases lead the way, said base commander Maj. Patrick Robichaud.
"If we are doing a patrol through a village, for example, we will have Canadian Forces on the outer cordon, and the ANA will be at the front so they can talk to the locals," said Robichaud.

In total, about 150 Canadians are training roughly 3,000 ANA troops throughout the province, including three infantry battalions, one "combat support" battalion, and a logistics battalion. A year ago, only about 500 soldiers were under Canada's watch.

Canadian commanders hope at least one of these Kandaks will be fit to operate independently by the end of the current six-month rotation. That might be too optimistic.

Most ANA soldiers still tote Soviet-era Kalashnikovs, and many do not wear bulletproof vests or helmets. They travel in Ford Ranger pickups, rather than the armoured vehicles that protect Canadians.

"They're built Ford-tough, but not that tough," said Maj. James Price, who recently turned over command of ANA mentoring at Masum Ghar.

The federal government is expected to announce soon that it will supply C-7 assault rifles, the standard weapon used by Canadian soldiers. But the ANA has only recently started to accumulate artillery units such as mortars and heavy machine guns.

Canadian commanders say the ANA's ability to perform the support functions of a sophisticated army, such as logistics, supply and medical services, is rudimentary.

"They have difficulties planning operations at higher levels ... to synchronize all the combat support and logistics that's required to accomplish the mission," said Lafaut.

Army pullout from FATA after January: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan Army troops will withdraw next year from the militancy-plagued tribal region, lying close to the border with Afghanistan, President General Pervez Musharraf has assured.

Speaking to a group of legislators from the federally administered tribal areas (FATA), where the military presence has been a divisive issue, the general pledged army troops would quit the troubled region after January 2008.

A group of tribal parliamentarians that called on Gen. Musharraf at his camp office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday succeeded in winning 'a strong assurance' from the embattled leader regarding the army pullout from the strategically important belt, haunted by militant-linked violence.

Paramilitary forces including Frontier Constabulary (FC), Levies and Khasadars will take charge of tribal areas from the military, which would be withdrawn after January 2008, the president was quoted as telling the lawmakers.

Citing unnamed sources, a media report said paramilitary forces would be fully equipped and trained to shoulder security responsibilities in the lawless area, where al-Qaeda has allegedly reorganised. The NWFP governor would take FATA MPs into confidence on the question.

Daily Times reported Gen. Musharraf had entrusted Governor Ali Jan Aurakzai with devising a strategy in consultation with the parliamentarians for the proposed military pullout from the areas. About a hundred FC platoons currently deployed outside of the NWFP are being recalled to the province.

With an eye on his re-election, Musharraf reportedly agreed to amendments in the Political Parties Act so as to address concerns of FATA parliamentarians. Additionally, sources told the newspaper, the president promised changes in a much-maligned British-era law called the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

The president said his government attached high priority to the development of FATA as part of its strategy to curb the twin menace of militancy and extremism

Disguised as woman, Russian man held in Paktia

PNA 08/25/2007 By Syed Jamal Asifkhel

GARDEZ - A Russian man, disguised as a woman, was arrested during a search in the restive southeastern province of Paktia Saturday afternoon.

Governor Rehmatullah Rehmat produced the detainee - named Andrei - before tribal elders at the governor's house here. Afghanistan's foes were in an effort to steal into the country for disruptive activities, Rehmat alleged.

The suspect insisted he had arrived in Afghanistan to return to his country, and that he did not want to support militants or perpetrate violence against anyone. However, he would not say what prompted him to put on women's clothes.

Officials claimed it was the first time that a Russian national had sneaked from Pakistan into Afghanistan, where miscreants from different countries had been held occasionally on charges of having links to rebels.

The lanky man, in an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, said he was a resident of Siberia. Sporting a long beard, the 28-year-old added he had embraced Islam.

Initially, he went to Egypt for receiving religious education. Later on, the young man moved to Iran for higher Islamic studies. Prior to his entry into Afghanistan, he was studying in a Pakistani seminary.

Andrei continued he spent some time in the southern port city of Karachi before shifting to Mir Ali town of Waziristan, lying close to the Pak-Afghan border. He lived in Pakistan's troubled northwestern tribal region for six months.

From Mir Ali, he managed to enter Khost in an effort to reach Kabul. The detainee planned to go from the Afghan capital to Tajikistan and then to Russia.

The governor hinted at showing Kabul-based journalists the man after he was grilled by law-enforcement personnel. Also apprehended with Andrei are two Afghans from Charasiab district of Kabul.

According to the Afghans, they were handed over the Russian citizen by a man in Khost. The unnamed 'man' asked the detainees to take the foreigner - unfamiliar with roads and streets in Afghanistan - to Kabul in exchange for money.

Young Afghan Cricketers Notch Historic Success

August 27, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's under-19 cricket team has reached the final of an international tournament for the first time in its history.

The Afghan cricketers beat the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a semifinal match today in Kuala Lumpur, paving the way to the Asian Cricket Council's U-19 Elite Cup.

Shortly after the match, the Afghan team's coach, Taj Malik, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that it was a tough match, but the young players pulled through to beat the UAE team. Afghanistan will face Nepal in the final.

Cricket was not widespread in Afghanistan until early 2002, when Afghan refugees who had spent years in Pakistan brought their love for the game back home.

Afghan women stores make a mark

By Charles Haviland, BBC News, Mazar-e Sharif Monday, 27 August 2007

The women's affairs department in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif has launched a scheme to help women set up their own retail businesses.

Five shops, owned and run by women, have already opened in the city and the women say the stores are doing well.

The provincial governor is now planning a shopping centre with about 200 shops, exclusively owned by women.

The initiative is also helping customers as many families do not allow their women to enter shops run by men.

Since the Taleban were ousted from Afghanistan, many women have found that gaining or regaining their rights is a long and difficult process. Yet in some places, they are managing to chip away at patriarchal institutions.

North Afghanistan's biggest city, Mazar-e-Sharif, is trying to put behind it the bloody years from 1997 to 2001, when it was fought over by militias, including the Taleban, and thousands of people were killed in the streets.

Today, this low-rise city, baked by the sun of the central Asian grasslands, is thriving again.

The broad boulevards have been resurfaced with Japanese funding.

Each city roundabout is being designed by a different local business, some with outlandish sculptures as their centre-pieces, and Mazar is the hub of a part of Afghanistan vastly more peaceful and secure than the south or the east.

It remains socially conservative, with most women going about in white or blue burkhas, the all-encompassing veil.

But the provincial women's affairs department has now started a scheme for women to own their own shops, something almost unheard of in Afghanistan.

The five that have so far opened in Mazar-e Sharif are mostly devoted to women's clothing or foodstuffs.

The shop owners are getting good returns, giving them more financial security. And they appear to be popular with the customers - in conservative Afghanistan, many families do not want their womenfolk entering shops run by men.

And now, the number of such shops is set to soar. The provincial governor has laid the foundation stone for a complex called Bagh-e-Zanana, or Women's Garden, which will contain about 200 shops owned by women.

Men as well as women will be able to shop there, but officials say their behaviour will be closely monitored. Some conservative local clerics are unhappy with the moves.

One has said that the new female entrepreneurs are misleading other women, encouraging them to claim freedoms that are inappropriate. But other religious scholars are satisfied with the initiative, arguing that the new commercial activities are a step towards advancing women's role in society.

The new shopping complex is expected to open within weeks.

[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.]