In this bulletin:

• US: Al-Qaida Active in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan army to reach targeted strength by March
• Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Afghanistan
• Defense Official: Afghanistan In Its 'Bloodiest' Year
• Forty Taliban killed: Afghan police
• Canada Announces $80 million for a Mine Action Program in Afghanistan
• Remarks by Afghan Ambassador at event for mine action aid announcement
• Canada wants bulk of food aid sent to Kandahar
• Killing fields of Wakhan
• Afghan women's shelter helping women, child brides
• Don’t Give Up on Afghanistan
• 'Kite Runner' author urges US to hang on in Afghanistan
• Canadian soldier in Afghanistan making a name for himself as a wood ‎artist
• Renewed calls over military funding
• Iran hopes new Kazemi trial will lead to improved relations with Canada
• Booming tanks give Canadian troops confidence

US: Al-Qaida Active in Afghanistan

By LOLITA C. BALDOR – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. military is seeing early signs that al-Qaida may be stepping up its activities in Afghanistan, a senior defense official revealed for the first time Monday as Secretary Robert Gates made his third trip to this country.

Gates said he has not yet seen data on any uptick in al-Qaida activity, but he said increasing levels of violence in the country are a concern and he plans to talk about it with other defense leaders from NATO nations operating in Afghanistan.

"I'm not worried about a backslide as much as I am (about) how we continue the momentum going forward," Gates told reporters in Djibouti on Monday just before he left for Kabul. "One of the clear concerns that we all have is that in the last two or three years there has been a continuing increase in the overall level of violence."

The senior defense official said the U.S. military is concerned and is looking for definitive signs of greater activity by al-Qaida and foreign fighters, but the U.S. has not seen enough proof to draw any final conclusions. The official discussed the terrorist network on condition of anonymity because of the security concerns.

As Gates headed to Kabul, U.S. officials also said they are now considering the possibility of providing arms to local tribes in Afghanistan, along with training, equipment and other support. The effort would be modeled after successful efforts in Iraq to empower the locals to police their own neighborhoods.

While no decisions have been made, officials said the plan is under review.

The U.S. military has been pushing the idea that more attention must be paid to tribal leaders in the provinces in both Afghanistan and Iraq, rather than focusing all the attention on buttressing the central governments of those two wartorn nations. The thinking is that the locals are closer to the community and their people, and thus can better police their own streets.

Military officials have said they believe that the Taliban in Afghanistan is being refueled, possibly by militants in Pakistan crossing the border, or through support from other countries in the region sympathetic to the militants.

Insurgents are also finding more financing, including by taxing the widespread poppy crops that are used to make opium drugs.

Senior officials with Gates said they are troubled by the overall increase in violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the south. And they said it will be a key topic of discussion when Gates and other defense leaders from countries involved in the coalition in that region meet in Scotland later this month.

This year has been the most violent since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Insurgency-related violence has claimed nearly 6,200 lives, according to a tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The number of attacks has surged, including roadside bombings and suicide assaults.

Currently there are about 26,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including 13,000 with the NATO-led coalition. The other 13,000 U.S. troops are training the Afghan forces and hunting al-Qaida terrorists.

Defense officials said that while NATO is still looking for at least a battalion of troops to supplement the fight in Afghanistan, the U.S. is not, at this point, moving to fill that need. Gates pressed NATO leaders earlier this year to fill some of the gaps in equipment and troops in Afghanistan, but got only a lukewarm response.

Gates is expected to meet with key country leaders, including President Hamid Karzai, during his visit, as well as talk to commanders about the conditions across the provinces.

He also is hoping to gauge what impact, if any, the internal problems in Pakistan have had on the ability of that country's military to adequately monitor the volatile border region.

Gates' visit coincides with the release of a new poll that found Afghans are increasingly critical of U.S. military efforts, with just over half of Afghans still having confidence in the ability of U.S. and NATO forces to provide security — down from two-thirds a year ago.

The survey — conducted for ABC News, the BBC and the German public TV station ARD — noted that Afghans overwhelmingly prefer the government of Karzai to the Taliban, but they also believe that government should negotiate with the Taliban to end the war.

In southwestern Afghanistan, support for NATO-led forces has plummeted to 45 percent this year, from 83 percent a year ago, it found.

"Civilian casualties blamed on these forces is a prime complaint," the survey said.

Afghanistan army to reach targeted strength by March

By Hamid Shalizi Sun Dec 2, KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's army will reach a targeted strength of a trained force of 70,000 within four months, but that will be insufficient to stand against internal and external threats, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

Currently the Afghan National Army stands at around 57,000 out of the 70,000 target, set at an international conference after the Taliban's removal in 2001.

"We think we need a 200,000 (strong) Afghan National Army which is in the interest of both Afghanistan and the international community," defense ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said at a news conference.

He said a force of that size was needed to deal with possible external threats and to tackle the insurgency led by the resurgent Taliban.

It will also be much cheaper than the military expenditures by the nearly 50,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. army in Afghanistan, Azimi said.

"If the 200,000 are capable of providing security to the entire country, it will cost international forces less than the expenses of their forces in Afghanistan," he said.

Azimi said the expenses of one foreign soldier was equivalent of 70 to 100 Afghan troopers.

The United States, which provides the bulk of the foreign troops in Afghanistan, is also the lead country in funding, training and equipping the Afghan army, which disintegrated in 1992 after the collapse of Kabul's communist-backed regime.

Foreign military commanders in Afghanistan say they will keep their troops in the country until the domestic forces can stand on their own feet.

Azimi said the United States will soon start shipping NATO standard weapons and helicopters to the Afghan army to replace its Soviet-era arms.

Afghanistan in the past two years has been going through its worst spell of violence since Taliban's ouster. More than 10,000 people including over 300 foreign soldiers have been killed during that period.

(Editing by Sayed Salahuddin and Jerry Norton)

Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol in southwestern Afghanistan on Monday, killing four people including two policemen, an official said.

The bomber attacked the police patrol in Khash Rod district in Nimroz province, leaving seven other people wounded including three officers and four civilians, said provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir.

Defense Official: Afghanistan In Its 'Bloodiest' Year

December 2, 2007 - KABUL (AFP)--The past year has been the "bloodiest" for Afghanistan since the Taliban fell in 2001 with the rebels doing their utmost to deter international troops, the defense ministry said Sunday.

Taliban insurgents were using "all their resources" to try to persuade Afghanistan's international allies to withdraw their forces, senior defense ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters.

"I agree this year was the bloodiest Afghanistan (has) gone through," Azimi said in a response to a question, as police reported a new suicide attack near international soldiers and the killing of 40 Taliban in two days of clashes.

"In fact, the enemies' vision was if they use all their resources it would change the international community's vision towards Afghanistan. But The Netherlands' decision, in fact, proved their vision as wrong," he said.

The Dutch government announced this week it would keep its more than 1,600 troops here until December 2010, more than two years longer than the end of their original mandate in August 2008.

Azimi said the increase in Taliban attacks could also be a desperate attempt to avenge the killing of some key rebel leaders in military operations this year, including military mastermind Mullah Dadullah.

"We see a kind of revengeful reaction from Taliban as their key leaders... were killed," he said.

Azimi said the Islamic rebels had lost the capacity to face Afghan and international forces in significant numbers and were instead operating in small groups able to cover a larger area, often using suicide attacks.

A suicide bomber blew up a car bomb in the southern province of Kandahar on Sunday but he was the only casualty, police said.

The attack was in the Shah Wali Kot district, where police said 35 Taliban were killed in two days' fighting.

There were also new clashes in the province's volatile Zhari district late Saturday, in which five Taliban were killed, police said.

The Taliban have stepped up their insurgency every year since 2001, when they were driven from government in a U.S.-led invasion because they refused to surrender al-Qaida leaders behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

The violence has this year killed about 6,000 people, most of them Taliban fighters but also about 1,000 Afghan security forces and more than 200 foreign soldiers.

Forty Taliban killed: Afghan police

December 2, 2007 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Around 40 Taliban fighters were killed in days of fighting between insurgents and security forces in southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Sunday.

Afghan and international forces backed by strike aircraft fought the rebels over two days in Kandahar province's Shah Wali Kot district, General Sayed Agha Saqib said.

"In the fighting, 35 Taliban were killed and 10 more captured," he said. An Afghan soldier was slightly hurt, the police chief said.

There were also new clashes in the province's volatile Zhari district late Saturday, he said. Five Taliban were killed and four captured. There was no way to independently verify the toll issued by the police chief.

The media offices of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and separate US-led coalition could not immediately confirm their involvement.

The two forces, which together number around 55,000 soldiers, are helping Afghanistan fight a rebel insurgency that has been its bloodiest this year since the Taliban were forced from government in late 2001.

Around 6,000 people have been killed since January, according to an AFP count based on official reports. Most of them have been rebel fighters, who are said to get reinforcements from training camps across the border in Pakistan.

Canada Announces $80 million for a Mine Action Program in Afghanistan
2007-12-03 (CIDA)

OTTAWA — The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, accompanied by Afghanistan Ambassador Omar Samad, and Mr. John Flanagan, Acting Director, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), today announcedd today that that the Government of Canada is continuing its role as a lead supporter of mine action in Afghanistan by contributing $80 million over four years to help the country address the issues of mines.

This announcement coincides with the ten-year anniversary of the Convention on the Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and Their Destruction, known as the Ottawa Convention.

Canadians can be proud that our country continues to show international leadership in helping to clear land mine areas,” said Minister Oda. "We do so because clearing land mine areas is essential to the prosperity of communities – to protect individuals and their families from the dangers of land mines, and to make land safe for useful activities like farming and housing and commerce."

Funding, administered through UNMAS, will support the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA), the UN body responsible for the oversight and coordination of mine action activities on behalf of the Government of Afghanistan. Priority activities include surveying, clearing, mine risk education and victim assistance in communities listed as high risk or with the highest numbers of casualties.

“The Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has been one of the pivotal supporters of mine action in Afghanistan,” said Mr. Flanagan. “Canada has played an enormous role in the progress made in overcoming the threat of mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), and this ongoing commitment is greatly appreciated.”

Canada is the principal donor for demining activities in Afghanistan. So far, the average number of monthly victims has decreased by 55%, and more than one billion square metres of land—equal to 175,000 football fields—have been cleared of mines.

Today’s announcement builds on the significant announcement made by this Government in February 2007, in which we contributed $8.8 million for demining activities in Afghanistan. Canada is proud to be a leading contributor in Afghanistan, with our commitment to invest more than $1 billion over 10 years in Afghanistan and improve governance, security and development.

Remarks by Afghan Ambassador at event for mine action aid announcement

(Ottawa, Dec. 3, 2007)

Hon. Minister Oda,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

J’ai l’honneur de vous joindre aujourd’hui à Ottawa, au Musée Canadien de la guerre, alors que nous commémorons le 10eme anniversaire de la traite d’Ottawa sur les mines antipersonnel ici et a travers le monde.

TR [ I have the honor to join you today in Ottawa, at the Canadian Museum of War, as we celebrate the 10 th anniversary of the Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty here and across the world.]

Certes, ce jour commémorative est d’une importance capitale pour l’humanité et représente surtout une opportunité de se rappeler des victimes de mines et aussi d’apprécier la bravoure des démineurs dans leur travail. Cette journée nous permet aussi de saluer les ONG spécialisées, les Nations Unis et les pays donateurs comme le Canada qui continue a jouer un rôle exemplaire et avant garde sur le plan globale envers l’élimination des mines, et maintenant aussi, des bombes a fragmentations.

[Certainly, this day of commemoration is of high importance for humanity as a whole, as it represents especially an opportunity to remember all the victims of mines and also to appreciate the bravery of the deminers in their hazardous line of work. This day also is an occasion to salute the specializing NGOs, the UN and contributing nations, like Canada, that continue to play an exemplary and leading role on the global scale towards the elimination of all mines, and now also the deadly cluster bombs.]

Nos progrès en Afghanistan dans les quatre dernières années sont en grande partie grâce au support important du Canada et d’autre donateurs dans le secteur d’action anti-mine.

[The progress made in Afghanistan over the past four years are to a large extent due to the significant support provided by Canada and other donors in the area of anti mine action.]

Honorable Minister,

Canada should be proud of its leading role in helping us eliminate to date almost half a million antipersonnel mines stockpiled in Afghanistan. Afghans are very thankful for your past contributions and those of our other friends. However, your generous increase announced today to provide multiyear support through CIDA to make Afghanistan a mine-free nation by 2013 is a major step that is not only warmly welcomed by all Afghans, but is, once again, a testimony to your country’s strong friendship and commitment to help us rid Afghanistan of a ghastly symbol of warfare and human suffering. I thank you for this strong Canadian pledge.

As we tackle the various layers of damage from the past, and current gigantic rebuilding tasks, we are reminded every day in Afghanistan that children and adults alike continue to fall victim to various types of explosive devices strewn across the valleys, fields, mountains and villages of our country. Today, even your brave soldiers and others, serving in Afghanistan as part of ISAF/NATO contingents, are targeted by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) planted to cause serious injury or death. The number of mines and other devices and their locations are not known unfortunately, but it is evident that not only do they devastate human lives, families and communities, but also hamper our joint efforts to promote development and security.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite the achievements, more than four million Afghans living in more than 2,300 mined communities today are struggling to cope with this daily menace. In order to better express the Afghan context, both in terms of achievements and remaining challenges, I am very happy today to be joined by our former Deputy Minister and colleague at the Foreign Ministry, a strong advocate for landmine action in Afghanistan, Dr. Haider Reza, who has traveled all the way from Kabul to commemorate this important anniversary in Ottawa… and seems to also have brought a large amount of snow with him last night.

Dr. Reza is Director of the UN Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan, and a medical doctor by profession, who spent years in Afghanistan’s war zones treating victims and the injured. He brings a unique perspective about this issue, and I am pleased to welcome him. Dr. Reza.

Canada wants bulk of food aid sent to Kandahar

December 03, 2007 - Mitch Potter Toronto Star

NILI, Afghanistan–Even before the UN helicopter vectors down for landing, the plight of Afghanistan's forgotten province is evident. As far as the eye can see, timeless, tormented Daikundi stretches to the horizon, the whole of it isolated by an impossibly tight girdle of bone-dry mountains, with more mountains between.

This remote ethnic enclave straddles the two battlefronts in today's Afghanistan: the fight against the Taliban; and the war against hunger. An unseen enemy; and an invisible menace.

A race against time is playing out below. From the east, an 18-truck World Food Program convoy – buttressed by Canadian aid money, but still reeling from 30 previous attacks on convoys this year – is approaching the last crucial pass in its five-day journey from Kabul with emergency provisions.

From the north, winter is about to sink its teeth into Daikundi, and when it does the province will become not one but four separate cantons, cut off from the world, cut off from each other, by three-metre snowdrifts for the next five hungry months.

Canada heavily bankrolls the World Food Program – ranking fourth in 2007 with overall contributions of more than $120 million. In Afghanistan, Ottawa has proven even more generous, with a $12.3 million pledge that makes it, alongside Japan, the third-highest donor to the current WFP project.

But UN sources are disturbed that Canada wants to more precisely target its food donations – as much as three-quarters – to the Kandahar region, where Canadian soldiers are struggling to establish a footprint against a rising Taliban insurgency. With such conditions, places like Daikundi – where human needs exceed political needs – are left more vulnerable than before, said Rick Corsino, Afghanistan country director for WFP operations.

"This is an issue and it is not unique to Canada. All the NATO countries want their aid going to their patch," he says. "But it is important to stress that our job is to move food where needs arise. And right now there is an abundance of food in the south, but we are not allowed to move it where it is needed most."

Sprinkled among Daikundi's parched crevasses and narrow valleys are close to a half-million Afghans – rugged highlanders tending tiny farm plots and almond orchards with hands like old leather – for whom everyday life hasn't changed a great deal in 500 years.

Life is harsh, something to be endured with insufficient food, water and almost no electricity. Only the lucky ones will live past 42, an average life expectancy low even by Afghan standards.

All of which is news to most people because Daikundi, like a half-dozen other of Afghanistan's least developed provinces, stands just to the north of the struggle against the Taliban – off the map of NATO's war, yet fully in Afghanistan's hidden battle against hunger.

Or at least it was off the map until three weeks ago, when Daikundi made a surprise appearance in the news after Taliban insurgents seized Kajran, one of the province's eight districts and a crucial gateway abutting the embattled provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan to the south.

Like many leaders in the impoverished north, Daikundi Governor Sultan Ali Orazgani has joked often about how a few Taliban might be good for his province's plight, if only because such friction seems to attract the lion's share of development aid pouring into Afghanistan.

Sipping tea at his guest house, Orazgani no longer jokes about such matters. He relates how he responded to the Taliban incursion by mounting a "people's uprising" – moving among the neighbouring villages to rouse provincial police, deputize reserve militias and rally tribal elders.

"We stood with 500 people, including the elders, and the Taliban snuck away. In three days the district was back in our hands. And we intend to keep it," said Orazgani.

Others in Daikundi doubt the Taliban meant to do more than temporarily snatch the geographically strategic district.

"Many say the Taliban's real purpose was logistics," one Daikundi aid worker said. "They aren't interested in Daikundi yet. They wanted to transfer weapons and ammunition between Helmand and Uruzgan. In three days, they could have moved a lot."

Whatever the truth, these are nervous days for Daikundi's capital, Nili, a one-road frontier town just a 15-minute drive from the southern mountain pass over which lies a belt of Taliban hideaways stretching all the way south to Kandahar. In this one instance, the district-sealing snows of winter will be welcome.

Daikundi consists entirely of dirt roads, many suited more to goats than vehicles. A bumpy hour's drive east of Nili, the village of Band Burlan is a scene of great rejoicing. The WFP convoy has just arrived, laden with some 200 tonnes of provisions – the vast majority wheat flour in 50-kilogram sacks, plus mixed beans, vegetable oil and salt.

Children dart among the rising stacks of provisions, smiling broadly, as crews offload the bounty. A weary UN driver points to one of his truck tires, its rubber pocked deeply by the jagged-rock journey from Kabul. "This was new when we left. Now it is ruined. That's what it takes to bring help to Daikundi."

It is an important shipment, but just one in the dozens of convoys required to reach the target of 4,600 tonnes the UN agency intends to deliver to Daikundi before winter closes in.

"We are in pretty good shape, about 75 per cent of the way there and unless there is a colossal snow we are going to make it," said the WFP's Corsino.

"But Daikundi is a place known for colossal snows ... so we're doing all we can to beat the storms this year."

The recent Taliban threat was disconcerting for the World Food Program overseer, who already is limited in where he can send the WFP's fleet of 135 vehicles. A rash of attacks on the food convoys have forced a drastic shift to commercial transport contractors, who in most cases assume the responsibility for safe deliveries in Afghanistan.

"One of the unique challenges of Afghanistan is that when you are attacked, it is difficult to know who hit you," he said.

"Was it motivated by ideology or was it simple theft?"

In a three-day blitz, the Star was able to accompany WFP monitors on a broad array of program checks, foremost among them school distribution. Visits to two school locations in Nili proved to be visceral lessons in the power of food as a weapon against illiteracy, due to the WFP policy of assigning winter food rations to the families of children who attend class.

Where classrooms show a gender imbalance of more than 15 per cent, an additional tin of cooking oil is offered to each family that sends their girls to school. But the added incentive is rarely needed in Daikundi, where the predominantly ethnic Hazara population takes a more relaxed view of female education compared to the more conservative Pashtun south.

Indeed, the full-body, face-cloaking burqa is unseen in Daikundi, where the head scarf is veil enough for most women.

"Releasing the food through schools is a story told in the numbers. We've gone from 280 students in 2003 to 780 students today," said Sardar Mohammedi, principal of Nili Secondary School.

"The community is behind it, as you can see today," she said, pointing to the hundreds of families awaiting the release of rations.

"The challenge now is to find more teachers and the means to pay them. And, in the longer term, to create opportunity so that the literate population we are producing will be able to find meaningful employment."

Elsewhere in Daikundi, the WFP is a partner in a range of food-for programs – food for work, which has seen the creation and expansion of Daikundi's road network; food for learning, used to encourage the upgrading of teachers skills; and food for vocational training, targeting the more vulnerable ex-combatants from previous Afghan wars.

Killing fields of Wakhan

The Hindu (India) December 2, 2007 AUNOHITA MOJUMDAR

Because of the inhospitable terrain, the people of Wakhan, Afghanistan, lack access to medical care. So, while poppy cultivation is on the decline, addiction is on the rise.

Amidst growing concern over the record levels of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the province of Badakshan provided some good news this year. Contrary to the general trend, the province was one of those showing a drastic decline — 72 per cent in one year. And up in the remote mountainous region of the province, however, Mubarak Kadam spent the festival of Id in an opium de-addiction clinic in Khandud village in the province’s Wakhan corridor.

Kadam is 49 years old but looks more like 60. A teacher at the local high school where he has been employed for 12 years, Kadam is now trying to cure an opium habit of 20 years. Until his family forced him into the clinic, he spent 100 Afghani everyday on teryak, as opium is called here, selling his sheep and wheat to feed the habit.

Kadam still has his job to return to. Mohammad Zayar is not so lucky. The 50-year-old farmer lost all his land to his habit, forcing his sons to go out to work as cattle traders. The close family unit which lived together off the land fell apart. Zayar realised he was losing his family and entered the de-addiction programme.

Root cause

Opium grown in Badakshan and elsewhere in Afghanistan feeds heroin addiction on the streets of London and NewYork, where youngsters fuel their desire for excitement with heroin and cocaine. Here in remote Badakshan, neither Zayar nor Kadam were using opium for recreational purposes. The single biggest reason for opium addiction in the isolated area of the Wakhan is the lack of access to medical care.

Located in the eastern region of the country, Badakshan’s rugged terrain and inhospitable geography ensured that it was the only province where the Taliban could not enter. It is also the reason for its isolation and economic deprivation.

On the province’s eastern extremity is the Wakhan, a slender corridor of Afghan land separating Tajikistan from Pakistan, and the source of the mighty Amu Darya, or Oxus as it was named by the Bactrians. The Karakoram, Pamir and Hindukush ranges come together here.

Astoundingly beautiful, the Wakhan, all of which is above 2,500 metres altitude with valleys of 3,500 metres and bordered by mountains 7,000 metres high on the South, is even more inaccessible and economically deprived. A flourishing trade corridor on the silk route in earlier times, the area is today isolated and marginalised. International borders have been sealed off due to the war, cutting off access to the closest points of goods and services.

Not a viable crop

One of the reasons for the decrease in poppy cultivation in the province this year was the drastic decline in poppy prices, says the Counter Narcotics chief of Badakshan, Abdul Jamel Hadafmand. Poppy cultivation in Badakshan was simply not competitive, says Hadafmand, compared to other areas with better connections. Strict policing on the borders also led to the drop in poppy growth. Tajikistan for example, has such strict enforcement that it does not allow even medicines through some of the border crossings, a cost that is paid by the people of Wakhan. The farm gate price of dry opium in Badakshan and two adjoining provinces was the lowest in Afghanistan this year, having fallen by 31 per cent in one year.

In the lower Wakhan, inhabited by the Wakhi people, the economy is agro-pastoral. But crop yields are low and few vegetables grow in the stony, arid terrain, forcing the province to import most of its basic goods and vegetables. In the higher regions, inhabited by the Kyrghyz community, the economy is completely dependant on livestock which graze on the high altitude pastures of the Pamirs.

The nearest petrol station in the Wakhan is at the mouth of the Wakhan in Ishqasim. Summer is a short few months between June and September and the severe cold and heavy snow makes most of the Wakhan inaccessible during the long winter. There are few motorable roads and most areas are accessed on foot or using donkeys, mules, camels and yaks.

Medical services have been scarce in this inhospitable terrain. Doctors from the plains are reluctant to be posted to this isolated area, even at higher salaries. Medicines have to be brought via the provincial capital of Faizabad, a two-day drive away and villagers may have to travel hours, if not days, on foot to receive medical attention.

“Providing healthcare is not just a small job for the health provider if the support of other sectors is not there” says Dr. Abdul Momin Jalaly, the Director of Health Services in Badakshan. It has to be an integrated effort here, Jalaly says, pointing out that even to reach the services roads are needed while implementation needs initiatives to reduce poverty and malnutrition.

In this situation opium works as an easily available analgesic, as it did for Kadam and Zayar, both of whom started the habit to relieve themselves of pain. The acceptability of the practice also widened its use, and locals would take it not just for extreme pain but to counter the stress of the daily struggle.

In the de-addiction centre in Khandud, Nigar, a 35-year-old woman, says she has been taking opium for 25 years. “I do very hard work,” she says when asked how she started her habit. Nigar was sent there by her husband, who got himself cured at the clinic.

The livestock that Kadam and Zayar lost to the habit is not unusual. The plentiful livestock are an attraction for traders from the lower regions who travel to the area bringing basic goods. Opium is carried from the lower poppy producing regions into the mountainous regions where it can be exchanged for a large number of cattle once a farmer is addicted. Local addiction also helps smugglers seeking to use the route to take out the opium into Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Habib Jalali, the manager of the Aga Khan de-addiction clinic in Khandud which is named “Omid” (Hope), says they work with local shouras to try and stop traders from selling opium. Initially located in the Futur village, the clinic treated 500 addicts before moving further up the Wakhan to target another stretch of population. With one doctor and three nurses, the clinic relies on medicine, social counselling, community pressure and religious leadership to try and curb the habit. Addicts typically spend 12-15 days at the clinic where they are provided tranquilisers and analgesics, good food and take part in group activities including music and sports.

The provincial public health Director Abdul Momin Jalaly mentions unemployment as a major reason for the addiction. Agricultural land is scarce and other employment opportunities almost non existent. Poppy cultivation has decreased but addiction may be increasing, he warns.

In Kabul there are other fears. The UNODC has emphasised that it is especially important to achieve zero opium cultivation in the provinces of Nangarhar and Badakshan (both in eastern Afghanistan) in order to confine the opium problem totally to the southern insurgency infested areas. The UNODC’s chief warned earlier of the risk of some provinces sliding back to poppy cultivation. In Badakshan the lack of alternative livelihoods is a very real danger for the backsliding. It is also a very real danger for increase in addiction.

Afghan women's shelter helping women, child brides

Kelly Cryderman - CanWest News Service Sunday, December 02, 2007

HERAT, Afghanistan -- The women's shelter in Herat looks like many others seen around the world. There are guards at the heavily fortified gatehouse, and three single dormitory-style beds in every room. The building is filled with women who have sad stories of uneasy marriages.

But different from most shelters is the presence of 11-year-old Mahbakhat, an orphan whose own life tale -- however short -- seems more sorrowful than all the rest.

"Now she finds this courage," said Suraya Pakzad, the executive director of Voice of Women Organization, which runs the shelter, one of the first in Afghanistan.

Although the shelter managers say Mahbakhat has gained a lot of weight since she arrived emaciated five months ago, she is still mousey-looking.

It is difficult to fathom the slight, cross-eyed child as anything else than a schoolgirl. The youngest wife in the shelter barely speaks and stays burrowed in Pakzad's arms throughout an interview.

"She's just a kid," Pakzad said.

At age nine Mahbakhat was an unhappy orphan, living with her brother and his wife. There aren't many details from this period but the girl believed life was unbearable enough that she set herself on fire with matches and oil -- a common method of suicide among Afghan girls and women. She badly burned her arms, chest and face.

When asked, she shows her scars with trepidation. She doesn't like to talk about it because her brother, who is her guardian, thinks it was an accident.

After she was burned, her brother had Mahbakhat engaged to a much older man. He told her with her scars it was unlikely anyone else would ever want to marry her.

Seven months ago, the marriage vows took place and she moved in with her 45-year-old husband. The man told Mahbakhat's brother he wouldn't have sexual relations with her until she was a few years older.

But her husband broke this promise and Mahbakhat became his unwilling lover once, twice or several times a day, Pakzad said.

Mahbakhat ran away from her husband and back to her brother's house. Her brother's wife helped Mahbakhat get to the shelter -- an unusual act in Afghanistan.

"This is the first time I've seen a woman help a woman," Pakzad said. "Usually the abuse woman against woman is the worst."

Pakzad said when Mahbakhat arrived at the shelter, she had terrible infections and was in so much pain she could not sit down comfortably. She often cowered in the corner of the room and would not speak to anybody, even as the other women around her joked and worked at needlepoint.

Mahbakhat, which means "lucky moon" in Dari, now has to stay in the shelter until she can get a divorce. Otherwise the men in her family will take her back to her husband.

Once the divorce goes through, she will return to the home of her brother and his wife. Her brother will be asked to sign a paper promising that Mahbakhat will not be married again until age 18.

Now, months on, Mahbakhat is beginning to smile regularly, talk a bit more, and takes delight in her pink painted toes and fingernails. She will travel to Kabul next week for surgery, to try to fix some of the damage that has been internally done to her young body. Pakzad hopes to get her surgery for her scars as well.

It is some happiness to Pakzad, a married mother of six who has been crusading for women's rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban days of the late 1990s. Secretly at homes in Kabul she taught school classes to girls and women.

"I cannot see a woman suffering," she said. "We are half of the population of the world. We are created by the same God."

Although women are not completely confined to the house as they were in those years, and Pakzad can now teach in the open, Afghanistan remains one of the most conservative countries in the world. Any woman who comes to her shelter is automatically tainted in the eyes of many.

"She is against Afghanistan culture because according to the point of view of many people, the definition of a good woman is to be tolerant, accept any kind of violence that comes from their family, think about the family name, her father's name and reputation," Pakzad said.

The shelter started up because several years ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees found itself with a problem -- what to do with the few single Afghan women who were among the masses being deported from Iran.

Herat is about 100 kilometres from the border with Iran and there is a constant flow of Afghans being "repatriated." Single women cannot rent accommodation on their own in Afghanistan, and if they had no family to return to they ended up in being put in jail because there was no other place for them.

By early 2006, the shelter had become a haven for women whether they were coming from Iran or not. Currently there are about 36 women and six children, even though the shelter should only be housing 25.

Counselling is provided. Women are encouraged to go out and get jobs so they can meet people and find a way to re-marry. It is one of the only ways they can leave the shelter.

Some will also go back to their families or return to their husbands, Pakzad said.

"Sometimes the women agree to the divorce but sometimes they are afraid for the future. They say, 'if I divorce, even my father and my brother will not support me. They will not allow me to go to their home because they told me we have to take care of our family's name.'"

But the shelter itself is in a bit of danger. Pakzad has had regular funding for the past two years but that will run out in January. She is hoping one of the Western governments or non-governmental organizations will come to her aid and provide the $10,000 US it takes to maintain the shelter each month.

Ultimately, she said the Afghan government should be paying for the costs.

"We cannot think about sustainable projects," Pakzad said. "We are looking for a donor."

And it seems there will always be a need. Mahbakhat's case is it far from being exceptional. Pakzad can't remember whether Mahbakhat is the youngest wife that has ever stayed in the shelter or not.

Marriages at age nine, 10 or 11 are unusual but not unheard of, and forced marriages are still the norm in Afghanistan rather than the exception. The women's ministry and women's organizations say about three in five girls in Afghanistan are wed before the legal age of 16.

"This situation is not common but also not rare," Pakzad said.

Calgary Herald

Don’t Give Up on Afghanistan

The fact that Afghans haven't is all the more reason for us to stay engaged

By Khaled Hosseini, NEWSWEEK Magazine December 10, 2007 Issue

Every time I step before a podium, someone will inevitably raise his hand, and say, "So, Mr. Hosseini, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of Afghanistan?" The first thing I do is remind the audience that I am a novelist. If I have any expertise, it is in the inner lives of the characters I have created in my books—which makes me spectacularly underqualified to answer a question of such magnitude. But even as I say these words—and they are true—I know that I am stalling because I do not have a ready answer. So I do give an answer, but one that in the end amounts to the verbal version of a shrug.

To say you are optimistic about Afghanistan opens you to charges of being hopelessly naive. I can hear the retorts in my head: Do you need reminding that there is a raging Taliban insurgency in the south that has taken nearly 6,000 lives this year? Don't you know that your country produces 93 percent of the world's opium? Are you not aware of the corruption in the government, the still-powerful warlords, the rampant poverty in the provinces, the illiteracy rate, the persistent oppression of women, the suicide bombings that kill children?

Yes, I am aware of these things. I traveled to Afghanistan this past September with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and I saw for myself the high blast walls on the streets of Kabul, aimed at protecting against suicide attacks. Those walls did not exist the last time I was in Kabul, in the spring of 2003, and I didn't feel then the unease I did this time when I walked through crowded streets and bazaars. I saw thousands of young people in Kabul living in slums without work, without direction. In the north, I met homeless families of 20 or more who had spent the past two winters cooped up in holes they had dug underground. In village after village between Kunduz and Mazar-e Sharif, I met people who had no access to clean water, to a school for their children, to a clinic for their sick; families who lived on less than $1 per day—that is, if they could find work—and who received little or no help from a central government still struggling to meet the basic needs of its people.

Perhaps, then, I should be pessimistic about the future of Afghanistan. But that hardly takes an intellectual leap. And besides, what about the positive developments that have taken place over the past six years? When I visited Kabul in 2003, it looked like a war zone, a grim landscape of jagged debris, flattened buildings and roofless walls. The Kabul I saw in September is dramatically improved. Many of its neighborhoods have been rebuilt. I was happily surprised to visit cultural landmarks, like the famed gardens of Babur, and find them successfully renovated. In many towns, I saw children in uniform walking to school. School enrollment, in fact, has increased to more than 5 million children over the past five years. Land mines are being cleared, the press is relatively free (if under attack by religious conservatives) and telecommunication is booming. (Even in the poorest, most remote villages, I had the surreal experience of seeing old men in tattered clothes speaking on cell phones.) The rebuilt roads I traveled in northern Afghanistan were in excellent shape, and traffic on them was brisk, boding well for commerce.

And what message does relentless skepticism send to all the people—both Afghan nationals and expatriates—who are risking their lives trying to rebuild the beleaguered country? People like Dawood Salimi, an Afghan UNHCR worker I met in Kunduz, who has decided to remain in Afghanistan and help refugees even though a suicide blast in July barely missed his 3-year-old son. Or the countless rural teachers who refuse to leave their classrooms despite death threats from the Taliban.

Pessimistic or optimistic? Maybe it is too early—a handful of years after 9/11—to ask such a question about a country that is still recovering from nearly 30 years of war, famine, drought, extremism, lawlessness and massive displacement. Or maybe I, and even legitimate experts on Afghanistan, are the wrong ones to ask. Maybe someone should ask the Afghans.

Earlier this year the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission conducted a survey in 32 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, and found that nearly 80 percent of Afghans polled said that they felt optimistic about the future. Nearly 80 percent. I find this to be an extraordinary statistic (I suspect far fewer of us here in America would say the same about our own future). This finding isn't proof of a dramatic improvement in Afghan standards of living. Rather, it reflects the constitutional ability of Afghans to remain hopeful and optimistic in the face of overwhelming hardship. Which, to me, makes it a moral imperative that we in the West not give up on a people who have not given up on themselves.

The only certain thing about Afghanistan is this: without a genuine and sustained long-term commitment on the part of the United States and its allies, Afghanistan is doomed. Though Afghans take pride in their sovereignty, polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of Afghans view the foreign presence in their country favorably. They know that a weakened Western resolve will mean that the gains made so painstakingly will vanish swiftly. I suppose that then, if someone were to raise his hand and ask me about the future of Afghanistan, I would have a ready answer. For now, I will settle for the shrug.

Hosseini is the best-selling author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” He has served as a good-will envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2006.

'Kite Runner' author urges US to hang on in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Best-selling Afghan author Khaled Hosseini has pleaded with the United States and its allies not to abandon Afghanistan, warning without their help the land of his birth is doomed.

Hosseini, whose novel "The Kite Runner" is a runaway global bestseller and has been turned into a film, said that "without a genuine and sustained long-term commitment on the part of the United States and its allies, Afghanistan is doomed."

In an essay in Newsweek magazine out on Monday, Hosseini writes that despite the Taliban insurgency, enduring poverty and corruption, he saw signs of improvement during a visit to Kabul in September.

"When I visited Kabul in 2003, it looked like a war zone, a grim landscape of jagged debris, flattened buildings and roofless walls," he writes.

"The Kabul I saw in September is dramatically improved. Many of its neighborhoods have been rebuilt."

Hosseini, who now lives in the United States, also praises the rise in the number of children enrolling in school, which he writes "has increased to more than five million children over the past five years."

Land mines which littered the countryside from decades of conflict are being cleared, and telecommunications and road networks are improving, the author writes.

A recent poll by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which interviewed people in 32 of the country's 34 provinces, found that nearly 80 percent of Afghans were optimistic about the future.

The finding "reflects the constitutional ability of Afghans to remain hopeful and optimistic in the face of overwhelming hardship. Which, to me, makes it a moral imperative that we in the West not give up on a people who have not given up on themselves," Hosseini writes.

Canadian soldier in Afghanistan making a name for himself as a wood ‎artist

‎KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - What started as a hobby several years ago has ‎catapulted a reluctant Canadian soldier into the spotlight as a wood artist. ‎Sgt. Major Gary Crosby has a secret life at Kandahar Air Field.‎

‎"My friends call me Bing," said the 27-year member of the Canadian Forces who ‎now calls Meaford, Ont. home when he is not serving in Afghanistan.‎

His secret life involves intricate wood carvings that have caught the eye of ‎members of the coalition forces here in Afghanistan.‎

His most visible work is a huge totem pole sitting in the Canadian compound at ‎the airfield. The eagle at the top symbolizes the flights that brought soldiers ‎to Kandahar. A native Canadian is a symbol of the fighting spirit and the third ‎character is a Viking in tribute to Canada's European allies serving in the ‎mission in Afghanistan.‎

But Crosby is doing his best to avoid the spotlight and works his magic with a ‎mallet and chisels away from the curious eyes of his co-workers.‎

‎"I try and keep a low profile. I do it as a hobby," said Crosby standing in ‎front of his latest work in the RC (Regional Command)-South Compound late in ‎the afternoon.‎

‎"I go out about 5:30 in the morning until 6:30 or quarter to seven and then ‎sometimes at night in the dark with the lights so no one gets to see me do it."‎

His first major effort involved a carving for a warehouse in Kabul in 2002, his ‎second was at the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) headquarters ‎in 2003 and his last was the totem here at Kandahar Air Field earlier this ‎year.‎

What started as a hobby four years ago after he viewed some wood carvings while ‎on a mission to Africa has become almost a second job for the veteran soldier.‎

He credits his wife - sort of - for challenging him to become proficient at his ‎craft.‎

‎"My wife started me in this. I went down in my basement and carved a rainbow ‎trout for my fly-tying desk and brought it up and showed it to her and she ‎laughed and said it looked like a piece of pipe with fins," he chuckled. "So ‎like a typical man I went to the basement and did it all over again and three ‎times after that I finally got it right. I realized it was actually quite easy ‎to do."‎

Each one of the major carvings takes between 130 and 140 hours to do and is ‎done totally with handtools, including a mallet and chisels. For the finer work ‎he uses razor sharp Japanese and Chinese carving tools.‎

Crosby was just putting the finishing touches on a sign for Camp Roberts which ‎will be taken back to England by British soldiers.‎

‎"It was done for a fallen comrade from another country and will be taken back ‎to a camp in the U.K.," he said.‎

A four-metre long piece of pine is ready to be tackled for Crosby's next totem.‎

‎"This one here that is going to be done will be in the boardwalk probably and ‎it's going to be multi-national so it's going to have the flags of all the ‎countries that are serving and soldiers," Crosby said. "It will have a weapon ‎on the bottom, the Canadian flag in the middle and also a helmet on it ‎symbolizing soldiers lost."‎

‎"The last thing will be a weapon and it will be one of ours of course ...a C-‎‎7."‎

Renewed calls over military funding

Press Association Sunday December 2, 2007 3:28 PM

Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced renewed calls from a former defence chief to address the "huge imbalance" between military funding and fighting commitments.

Admiral Lord Boyce said Mr Brown should recognise that the armed forces are over-committed and that he should take steps to ensure they are properly resourced.

Lord Boyce was one of five former chiefs of defence staff who complained last month that the decision to make Des Browne Scotland Secretary as well as Defence Secretary was an "insult" to forces.

Speaking to the Kent on Sunday newspaper, Lord Boyce returned to the warpath and said the decision not to have a full-time Defence Secretary was viewed by troops as showing a "complete lack of judgment".

"That's felt very strongly in particular by the people who are fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "Their lives are in danger, they see some of their friends being killed or maimed and they look to the top and they see a person who's only part-time."

On funding, Lord Boyce said: "The defence slice of the country's budget has got smaller over the last years. As that's gone down, our levels of activity have gone up and there's clearly a huge imbalance."

Lord Boyce added: "What (Mr Brown) needs to do is recognise the fact that at the moment the forces are over-committed and he needs to make sure they're properly resourced. Somehow that message has got to be drilled in."

And he voiced concern that the war in Afghanistan would be lost unless other European countries sent reinforcements to support Britain's soldiers.

Meanwhile, Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox launched a withering attack on the Government's treatment of the Royal Navy since they came to power.

Dr Fox said the Navy had been left battered and bloodied after years of cuts and under-funding. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the implications of the cuts could have an impact on Britain's ability to defend itself in the future.

Iran hopes new Kazemi trial will lead to improved relations with Canada

OTTAWA - Iran's top diplomat in Canada says he hopes a resolution of the Zahra Kazemi case will be the first step toward improved relations with Ottawa - and the pursuit of what he calls common interests in Afghanistan.

Seyed Mahdi Mohebi, Iran's charge d'affaires in Ottawa, says he has twice asked for a resumption of high-level contacts up to the foreign minister level. But he says that offer has been ignored by the Conservative government.

"It is one-sided love," Mohebi said in an interview conducted in Farsi with The Canadian Press. "Love should be mutual."

Iran-Canada relations have been strained since Canada helped spirit Americans out of the U.S. embassy in 1980 before they could be taken hostage shortly after the Iranian revolution.

Relations thawed slightly when reformers were elected, but Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that Israel should be wiped off the map, and the death of Kazemi while in custody in Iran have driven the relationship into a deep freeze.

Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, died in custody in 2003 three weeks after being arrested outside a prison in Tehran during a student protest. Authorities said she died after falling ill. Her son believes she was tortured and raped before being killed.

Canada placed further restrictions on relations with Iran after the trial of an intelligence official charged with Kazemi's death fell apart in 2005. Those restrictions included a ban on high-level discussions between the two countries and discouraging business between both nations' corporate sectors.

Former Liberal foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew said the restrictions would remain in place until Iran launched "a credible and independent investigation and judicial process into the Kazemi case."

Last week, the Iranian supreme court surprised observers by ordering a new examination of the Kazemi case.

"The supreme court of Iran has ruled that the previous court did not have the credibility and the expertise to investigate this specific case," Mohebi said.

"Therefore the case has been transferred to a new division under the authority of the supreme court."

Details on the next step in the Kazemi case would be coming soon, he said, adding that he expects a resolution of the matter to improve Iran-Canada relations.

"We hope that the Zahra Kazemi case will be solved soon."

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department said it would not comment on Iran's desire to improve relations, or on Tehran's rebuffed attempts to implement discussions at a senior level.

Instead, Canadian officials nade it clear there would be little movement in the relationship until the Kazemi case is resolved.

"Our government would welcome any decision to reopen this case and hope that it offers justice to Ms. Kazemi's family and to her memory," Helena Guergis, junior minister for foreign affairs, said in the House of Commons last week.

Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi said he was skeptical about Iran's decision to reopen the investigation into his mother's death. He has little faith in the Iranian justice system and believes the new investigation is motivated by his $17-million civil lawsuit launched against Iran.

Mohebi said Iran was ready to be helpful to Canada and the international community in Afghanistan. U.S. President George W. Bush has said he has little faith in the sincerity of Tehran's offer, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai has welcomed Iran's help.

"Why can't we help?" asked Mohebi. "Iran is a powerful country in this region, it's a stable country and it has influence on its neighbours."

Mohebi said the safety of Canadian troops in Kandahar is an Afghan internal problem. But Iran's main concern in this region is peace, said the charge d'affaires.

Iran has been supportive of Karzai, who has thanked his Persian neighbour for its help in blocking drug smuggling across their common border while facilitating the movement of refugees - help that Mohebi was eager to point out.

"Recently, Karzai thanked Iran for his involvement in Iran. It has never supported rebels in Afghanistan."

Reaction from the Foreign Affairs Department was bereft of enthusiasm for the Iranian offer.

"Canada expects the government of Iran to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that no support is provided to any insurgent group in Afghanistan," a spokesperson said.

There is little chance of an enhanced relationship between Canada and Iran in the near future, most observers believe. The trading relationship between the two countries has been halved from around $600 million annually before Kazemi's death to $300 million, according to Iranian embassy officials.

Mohebi said Canada refuses to grant visas to Iranian journalists. As a result, Iran bars Canadian reporters from working in the Islamic Republic.

Currently, Iran has no ambassador in Canada. Two potential ambassadors have been refused standing by Ottawa.

"But Canada does have an ambassador in Iran," Mohebi said.

Booming tanks give Canadian troops confidence

By Kelly Cryderman CanWest News Service Sunday, December 02, 2007

PANJWAII AND ZHARI DISTRICTS, Afghanistan - The boom that comes from a Leopard 2A6M firing is a bone-shaking, deafening noise that can rattle even the most experienced of tankers if they aren't expecting it.

On Sunday, Canada's newest shipment of tanks, received this week, was tested out against a craggy Afghan mountain in the desert west of Kandahar city. The new Leopards created tidy, plate-shaped holes in paper targets, hitting bull's eyes from 500 metres away.

Less accurately, they will be able fire as far away as four kilometres.

"It's probably the most modern battle tank today in the world," said Maj. Trevor Gosselin, the officer in command of C Squadron, the battle group's tank squadron.

The test results led to yelps of delight and high-fives from the armoured soldiers as they worked through a cold wind. The new tanks are bigger, offer greater protection from bombs and landmines, and break down less often than the old Leopards - which have no air-conditioning and are still in use in Afghanistan even after three decades of service.

"It's big, it's strong, it's aggressive and it's noisy," said Sgt. Dave Malenfant, a tank commander based in Valcartier, Que.

"When you go somewhere you know you have power. It's awesome," Malenfant said. "I'm glad that we bought these tanks. It save lives."

The tanks tested Sunday are part of a loan of 20 tanks from Germany through an agreement announced in April. Canada is also purchasing up to 100 used tanks from the Netherlands.

The type of war seen in Afghanistan has moved the previously sidelined tanks closer to centre stage. Before Canada became involved in heavy fighting in Afghanistan, tanks had not been used in any major way since the Korean War.

When Rick Hillier was still army commander in 2003, he said the Leopards were a "less relevant platform for the kinds of missions that we now undertake" and vowed to build Canada's future combat capability around a mobile gun system, according to Esprit de Corps, a Canadian military magazine.

Now Gen. Hillier, chief of the defence staff, says tanks are necessary and save lives.

"Tank use was on the decline because we didn't envision we'd need that capability," Gosselin said in Kandahar.

Last year's major battles in the Panjwaii district - including Operation Medussa - made it clear that tanks are required alongside infantry, engineers and artillery forces, Gosselin said.

"It took battles last summer for the realization to sink in that we needed armoured mobility and armoured machinery to deliver our infantry."

On the same day soldiers tested the powerful Leopard 2A6M tanks, a need for strong Canadian firepower was shown with another rocket attack aimed at the forward operating base in Panjwaii district.

There have been two rockets lobbed toward the post in the last three days. No one has been hurt.

"In Quebec, a lot of people must pray for us . . . a lot of people in other parts of Canada too," said Maj. Jean-Sebastien Fortin, the senior mentor for the operational mentor liaison team. Most of the current rotation of troops is from Valcartier, Que.

Many soldiers here take it in stride that the rockets will come, and they are living in the heartland of the Islamic insurgency - just a short but dangerous drive away from major battle sites and Taliban hot spots.

[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.]