In this bulletin:

• Rice Offers $10.6 Billion in Aid to Afghanistan
• Pelosi, Karzai discuss troop increases
• Afghan Foreign Minister met his NATO counterparts
• Kabul accuses Pakistan of using terror as tool
• Donors to review progress on Afghanistan Compact
• Denmark pledges USD10 m. additional aid for Afghanistan
• Former Afghan president's son-in-law shot dead
• More confessions from Dr Hanif
• President Karzai Condemns Killing of Mawlawi Muhammadi
• Five suspected terrorists captured in Khost
• US praises Karzai's leadership
• Extra troops to bolster Canadians in Afghanistan
• Elders attend pre-Peace Jirga gathering in Kandahar
• Ariana hires new Boeing aircraft
• Inside Afghanistan: The battle for Kajaki
• One year on, Helmand is a bloody failure
• Davos Report: The Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontline
• Pakistan to enhance Railway Links with Iran, Afghanistan
• The will, and the time, to win

Rice Offers $10.6 Billion in Aid to Afghanistan

By Molly Moore, Washington Post Foreign Service - January 26, 2007

BRUSSELS, Jan. 26 -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday offered the Bush administration's proposal of $10.6 billion in new aid to Afghanistan as a challenge to NATO and European allies to bulk up their contributions of money and manpower.

Rice's push came amid growing concern over the resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, massive increases in opium production and deepening tension between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan where Taliban leaders and fighters have been allowed refuge.

"Nations that have made pledges of support should follow through and deliver," Rice told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. They had assembled at her request to address what the U.S. considers an urgent need to bolster the Afghan government's security and development efforts before the Taliban begins even more intensive attacks in the spring when snows melt and mountainous border areas become more passable.

Her appeals elicited much empathy, but few immediate new offers among European governments. Many European ministers grumbled that they are already making significant contributions and are overstretched by military commitments around the world, and that additional money and troops should come from countries now making few, if any, contributions.

"We have more nations stepping up to the plate," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after Friday's meetings of the ministers and officials from the European Union and World Bank. He declined to provide specific examples other than the proposed U.S. aid package, which is yet to be approved by Congress, and a decision by U.S. military officials to keep 3,200 troops in Afghanistan an extra four months.

A NATO official later said Denmark and Lithuania have each offered a small number of additional personnel.

NATO officials said the 33,250 NATO troops in Afghanistan represent about 85 percent of what military commanders say they need on the ground. The U.S. contributes 12,000 of those troops and has another 10,600 forces operating in the country under U.S. command.

Pelosi, Karzai discuss troop increases

By JASON STRAZIUSO - Associated Press / January 28, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that his security forces need to be stronger as the two discussed possible U.S. troop increases on Sunday, days after the Pentagon extended the tour of 3,200 soldiers, an Afghan official said.

President Hamid Karzai stressed his desire for increased training and equipment for Afghanistan's fledgling army and police forces, the Afghan official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information publicly.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and Karzai discussed plans announced last week by the Bush administration to ask Congress for $10.6 billion for Afghanistan, a major increase aimed at rebuilding the country and strengthening government security forces still fighting the Taliban five years after the U.S.-led invasion.

About $8.6 billion would be for training and equipping Afghan police and soldiers; $2 billion would go toward reconstruction.

Pelosi, D-Calif., led a delegation of six other congressional Democrats to Afghanistan to meet with military and government leaders after traveling to Iraq and Pakistan.

The trip comes two weeks after Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., visited the region. Clinton, who entered the 2008 presidential race a week ago, said this month that U.S. leaders should be talking about increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

The attention being paid to Afghanistan by Democrats is a way for them to highlight their seriousness about the fight against international terrorism and say that the Bush administration "led us in the wrong direction" in Iraq, said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan, now scholar at the Middle East Institute.

"It makes a lot of sense, then, to highlight Afghanistan as where the real source of terrorism began and where it still has to be dealt with so that the Democrats come out of this not looking like they're weak-kneed when it comes to battling terrorism," Weinbaum said.

The Pentagon last week said a brigade of U.S. soldiers would stay in Afghanistan four months longer than planned — an effective troop increase of 3,200 soldiers. That announcement came only days after a visit here by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Pelosi, meanwhile, has led a drive in Congress against President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq as part of a new security crackdown in Baghdad.

Pelosi told Karzai that Afghanistan has bipartisan support in Congress, the Afghan official said. Members of the delegation also told Karzai they hope to see more coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Earlier on Sunday, the delegation spent about an hour at the main U.S. base in Bagram, where she thanked soldiers from the 10th Mountain and 82nd Airborne divisions for their service, said Lt. Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman. She also met with Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, the top U.S. general here.

The seven-member delegation also met with U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann and Gen. David Richards, the outgoing commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. The delegation did not talk to reporters.

The members of Congress stopped in Pakistan on Saturday, where Pelosi met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and cooperation in countering terrorism.

Pelosi's delegation earlier visited Iraq, where she met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The delegation also included Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; Rep. Tom Lantos of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a strong advocate of a phased pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Afghan Foreign Minister met his NATO counterparts

Posted On MoFA site, Kabul: Jan 27, 2007 - Visiting Afghan Foreign Minister, Dr. Spanta met separately NATO’s Secretary General, US Secretary of State, and Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian Foreign Ministers at the NATO headquarters, in Brussels. Referring to ongoing situations in Afghanistan, Dr. Spanta emphasized the need to pursue a comprehensive strategy to address Afghanistan’s remaining challenges.

Strengthening Afghan institutions, in particular the security forces, massive increase in resources-allocation to reconstruction projects, engaging with the public opinion, good governance and putting concerted pressure on certain circle within Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment as components of such a comprehensive strategy.  On their part, the NATO’s SG, and US and European Ministers assured Afghanistan of their continues and long-term commitment to help Afghanistan.

Kabul accuses Pakistan of using terror as tool

BRUSSELS: Afghanistan’s foreign minister yesterday accused Pakistan of using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and said the Taliban could be beaten in two or three years if Islamabad cooperated fully against them.

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said his country needed more money to fight terrorism, improve government and bring better lives for the people.

Speaking on the margins of talks among Nato foreign ministers, he said Pakistan, although officially an ally in the US-led war on terrorism, should do more to contain the Taliban.

"Pakistan doesn’t do enough," he said in an interview. "Pakistan is from our point of view part of the problem - they have to stop interference ... in Afghanistan.

"They have to stop using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and I think it is high time the international community began to tell Pakistan to stop."

He accused "some circles" in Pakistan of being behind this policy, but declined to identify them. "They don’t accept to have Afghanistan with national sovereignty, territorial integrity, as an equal partner in this region."

His comments came as Nato, whose 32,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan are at the sharp end of the fight against the Taliban, is trying to improve ties with Islamabad. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is to visit alliance headquarters next week.

Afghanistan released a video last week in which captured Taliban spokesman Mohamed Hanif said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was living in the Pakistani city of Quetta, protected by Pakistani military intelligence. Pakistan denies this.

Spanta said the Taliban threat could be stamped out if Pakistan cooperated more in stopping cross-border incursions, and if more international funds were available.

"If we bring all the necessary efforts together, if Pakistan co-operated in this process, I think the problem of the Taliban we can lose within two to three years," he said.

Spanta said he had no idea of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

"If I knew I would catch him and receive more than $25mn," he joked, referring to Washington’s reward for bin Laden. "But ... I know he is not in Afghanistan."

US officials have long said they believe bin Laden is hiding in the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

Pakistani leaders denied this week he was in Pakistan and have repeatedly said they are doing all they can to assist the fight against the Taliban, including stationing 30,000 troops on the border to stem infiltration.

Spanta said developments in Afghanistan has been "generally very positive" since 2001, thanks to the assistance of the international community. But he said more help was needed.

"Project Afghanistan is not yet completed," he said. "We need more efforts. We have to develop one comprehensive strategy in the process of the anti-terror war.

"I mean a strategy with development elements, the supporting of Afghan government institutions ... and also to demonstrate the determination of the international community." – Reuters

Donors to review progress on Afghanistan Compact

KABUL: Delegates from more than 20 countries, including, Afghanistan will meet in Berlin on January 30th and 31st to focus on support for Afghanistan.

The meeting comes almost a year after the Afghanistan Compact and interim Afghan National Development Strategy were presented at the London Conference on Afghanistan.

A press statement from the United Nations Assistance Mission for the Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it would be the fourth session of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board.

The challenges faced by Afghanistan and new ways for resolving these hurdles would also be discussed in the meeting, the statement added.

Progress on the benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact, security-sector issues, budget execution and national capacity, legislative matters and upcoming elections would also be on the agenda.

The job of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, as the main political coordination forum for Afghanistan and the international community, is to oversee implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, the successor to the Bonn Agreement.

The release said since its launch in April 2006 the JCMB’s membership had grown, reflecting the strong international support that Afghanistan enjoyed.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Afghanistans Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta will open the session. The meeting will be presided over by the two JCMB co-chairs, Professor Ishaq Nadiri, Senior Economic Adviser to President Karzai, and Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan.

Denmark pledges USD10 m. additional aid for Afghanistan

KABUL, Jan 27 (KUNA) -- A statement released from the Embassy of Denmark on Saturday said the government of Denmark would give an additional USD 10 million in assistance to Afghanistan.

Denmark has so far given USD 29 million in aid to Afghanistan for reconstruction and other welfare activities.

The announcement was made by Denmark Development Cooperation Minister Ulla Toernaes during the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Saturday, said the embassy statement.

The fresh amount pledged for Afghanistan by the Danish government would be spent on reconstruction and humanitarian relief activities in this landlocked country.

Quoting the Danish minister, the statement said: "It is not sufficient to send more soldiers. We need to accelerate the development process or Afghanistan will never achieve stability. Denmark would assist the Afghan government in showing that democracy was better than Taliban." The statement said Denmark assistance to Afghanistan was already amount to USD 29 million in 2007. It is mainly supporting the education sector, development in rural areas, human rights and public sector reforms.

Besides the direct assistance, the statement said, Denmark was also supporting a number of Danish and local NGOs in their work in Afghanistan . The fresh aid would be spent on strengthening Afghan children's access to education through building of more schools, training of teachers and printing of schoolbooks, said the statement. (end) gk.bz.

Former Afghan president's son-in-law shot dead

Associated Press / January 28, 2007 - Kabul, Afghanistan — The son-in-law of a former Afghan president was shot dead in his home in the capital, officials said Sunday.

Gunmen broke into the Kabul home of a son-in-law of Burhnuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan's president in the 1990s, late Saturday, said Zemeri Bashary, the Interior Ministry's spokesman.

Wahidullah, who like many Afghans goes only by one name, was killed and one of his two wives wounded. The wounded wife was not Rabbani's daughter, Mr. Bashary said. One suspect has been arrested, but a motive has not yet been established, he said.

In southern Uruzgan province, Afghan and coalition troops were involved in three separate battles with suspected Taliban, leaving an unspecified number of insurgents and one Afghan soldier dead, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

Regional Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmetullah Raufi, put the figure at five suspected Taliban fighters killed in Saturday's clashes.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said some of the suspected fighters were killed by air strikes and that no civilians were wounded or killed.

Meanwhile, coalition and Afghan forces arrested five people early Sunday near the eastern city of Khost "in connection with a known terrorist sub-commander and weapons transporter." No shots were fired during the operation, officials said and no further details were available.

More confessions from Dr Hanif

KABUL, Jan 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Former Taliban spokesman Dr Mohammad Hanif has confessed that son of former Jihadi leader Maulvi Khalis was involved in most of terrorist activities.

According to national security authority, Dr Hanif has admitted that Anwarul Haq, son of Maulvi Khalis, former leader of Hezb-i-Islami was even involved in blast in his father mourning procession in Haddi Sahib Mosque. Press officer at the intelligence department quoted Dr Hanif as saying Anwarul Haq was involved in suicide attacks on Jalalabad Torkham Highway, blast in Khogiani district which killed district police chief.

However, Dr Hanif would not disclose where Anwarul Haq was hiding at the moment. Dr Hanif, whose real name is Abdul Haq Haqiq, former Taliban spokesman was arrested by security forces in Hisar Shahi district of the eastern Nangarhar province on January 7 when he was crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

President Karzai Condemns Killing of Mawlawi Muhammadi

Date of Release: 27 January 2007 - H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned the killing of Mawlawi Islam Muhammadi, a prominent religious scholar and member of the Afghan Parliament from the province of Samangan.

According to reports, the enemies of Afghanistan killed Mawlawi Islam Muhammadi when he was on his way to attend Friday prayers at a mosque in Kart e Parwan area of Kabul.

The President expressed his deep regret at the death of Mawlawi Islam Muhammadi and said, “Mawlawi Islam Muhammadi was a prominent Jihadi figure who has made great sacrifices during the years of Jihad against the Soviet invasion.”

“The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that they will never achieve their malicious intentions by killing our innocent Ulema.”

The President expressed his deep condolences and sympathies to the families of Mawlawi Islam Muhammadi.

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

Five suspected terrorists captured in Khost

KABUL, Jan 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US-led coalition and Afghan forces arrested five suspects for their links with terrorists during an operation in the southeastern Khost province.

A press release issued here said the operation was conducted early Sunday during which the five people were detained from a compound near Khost City, capital of the province.

"The combined force called for the peaceful surrender of those inside the compound, and no shots were fired. One person attempted to flee the scene but was quickly apprehended," said the release.

Separately, clashes were reported between the coalition special operations forces and the Taliban in three areas of the southern Uruzgan province.

A press release said a joint convoy of the coalition and Afghan forces came under fire from the insurgents in Char Chino district. Close air support was requested and the engagement resulted in the death of some insurgents and the capture of three others.

In two other engagements in the same province, coalition special operation forces engaged insurgents with direct and indirect fire and again called for close air support. "These engagements lasted for more than six hours and resulted in more insurgent deaths."

One ANA soldier died of wounds he received during the second engagement. There were no injuries to the coalition's special operation forces, said the release.

US praises Karzai's leadership

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Praising President Hamid Karzai for successfully handling 'one of the most difficult jobs in the world', a top Bush administration official said he was a symbol of Afghan national unity.

"He's been a symbol and a figure of real unity for the country and so we work with him in a very - we respect him and work with him in a productive way," said US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.

Speaking at a news conference in Washington on Friday, Burns said: "We're not disappointed with President Karzai. He is a friend, he is a partner, we have great admiration for him."

Mr Burn was responding to a query about the decision of Karzai government not to go in for aerial spraying of poppy cultivated areas in Afghanistan.

As a sovereign government, Burns said, President Karzai and his ministers would make the decisions as to how these counter-narcotics programs were to be carried out.

"And one of the issues of course, is whether or not the Afghan authorities and their international counterparts will engage in ground-based spraying or aerial eradication of the poppy and that is we're having an ongoing discussion with the Afghan government on that issue," he said.

Burns said the US government had a great deal of trust in President Karzai and in his ministers. "Like any government, they have growing pains. But look, they've come from really a very, very difficult start in 2001 and 2002.

They've gone through elections. They have slowly expanded the control of the central government into the major provincial cities. And so we can see progress, but there's a lot more that needs to be done," Burns said.

Extra troops to bolster Canadians in Afghanistan

GRAEME SMITH - From Saturday's Globe and Mail

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Thousands of extra troops will stand alongside Canadians to fight an insurgency that grew in military strength and ambition over the past year, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan says.

The reinforcements will include a battalion of experienced U.S. soldiers stationed with Canadian Forces at Kandahar Air Field, said British General David Richards, describing changes expected to bring perhaps 6,000 more soldiers into the fight. “That gives us the military muscle to hold the ring,” he said.

The United States is leading the increase, providing 3,200 soldiers from 10th Mountain Division on a four-month extension of their tour.

The United States also pledged another $10.6-billion (U.S.) Friday for reconstruction, as Washington, at a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called on its allies for more support.

The U.S. delegation in Brussels warned of a “difficult and dangerous and bloody spring” if the Taliban carry out their threat of an offensive.

In Kandahar, Gen. Richards — who has been pushing for additional troops for the past 18 months — cast doubt on the U.S. warnings and declared that the worst fighting has already passed.

“It hasn't been unhelpful in resulting in this big improvement in our numbers,” Gen. Richards said, referring to the U.S. predictions of a violent spring. “[But] the real battle, conventional battle, which we fought in this area last year, that won't be repeated.”

The British commander was speaking during his last visit to Kandahar before the end of his assignment next month. It was here that Gen. Richards ordered NATO forces into the largest battles this country has witnessed since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, and he proudly noted that insurgent attacks have plunged in the months since those decisive battles in September.

Less than an hour after Gen. Richards spoke, however, two police commanders were gunned down at a grocery store in the heart of Kandahar city. A 14-year-old shopkeeper's son also died in the gunfire, police said. It was the third killing of a senior Kandahar police officer in less than 24 hours, and a reminder of the fragility of NATO's gains.

Gen. Richards said he understands the war isn't over, but he believes the Taliban no longer pose a strategic threat to the Afghan government. This optimistic view, he said, sometimes puts him at odds with his intelligence officers.

“My own intelligence people . . . continue to believe what is quite blatantly, from my perspective, Taliban propaganda,” Gen. Richards said. Taliban threats in recent months have proven empty, he said, which should make observers more skeptical about the insurgents' ability to mount a serious offensive.

“I know the Taliban will try again, because they must, but I don't personally believe it, particularly with the additional brigade, and others coming in here,” he said.

The extra battalion in Kandahar, roughly 650 troops, will form the so-called “theatre reserve” that Gen. Richards had envisioned months ago. The concept was a mobile force capable of bolstering NATO troops wherever they face a stubborn pocket of insurgents. Lacking such a battalion earlier this year, NATO was forced to pull reinforcements from at least three other provinces for the major fighting in Kandahar, and British forces largely withdrew from some parts of Helmand province next door.

Other support will likely come from a new brigade — perhaps 3,500 troops — composed of soldiers from several countries. Gen. Richards said the mixed brigade would include Polish troops, but the nationality of the others remains unclear.

A summary of troop commitments released Friday by NATO listed Canada's troop contribution as 2,700, higher than recent estimates from Ottawa. On a recent visit to Kandahar, Major-General Michel Gauthier suggested that military brass have decided to send additional support elements to Afghanistan but haven't yet made those commitments public.

In his wide-ranging comments, Gen. Richards also said Canada needs to increase the speed of its aid delivery in Afghanistan by giving military commanders more money for quick projects. Assistance took months to deliver in some parts of Panjwai district after heavy fighting in September.

“The Canadian commander here had to search around for money to do the things he wanted to do,” Gen. Richards said. “Will we meet the race against time? . . . We're on track to do it. But it's a very important issue.”

The outgoing commander praised his counterparts in Pakistan, after spending much of his time in charge of NATO forces trying to push for greater co-operation with Afghanistan's troublesome neighbour.

“Is it a deliberate act of government to support the Taliban? There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is not,” Gen. Richards said.

“It's rather like a supertanker. If you like, the decisions have been taken on the bridge, but you can't turn a supertanker in that direction,” he said, moving his hands sharply to indicate a 180-degree turn.

“A lot of this is intelligence-sensitive, so I can't give you the details, but I'm absolutely convinced that there is good activity on the part of the Pakistani army.”

Elders attend pre-Peace Jirga gathering in Kandahar

KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Hundreds of people in this southern city attended a gathering organised to inform and create awareness among them about the upcoming Joint Peace Jirga.

The meeting, held in the Mandigak Palace on Saturday, was attended by government officials, tribal elders and members of the delegation from the central capital Kabul.

Speaking on the occasion, head of the delegation Hazrat Shah Momand highlighted the importance of Jirga in the social life of Afghans.

He said they wanted to solve the problems faced by the country for the previous three decades by holding the Peace Jirga.

Representing the people of Kandahar, Abdul Qayum Karzai said that the Jirga would only focus on peace in the region and would not discuss the Durand Line. He also recalled the killing of people and burning of schools and said the Jirga would search a solution to those problems.

Addressing the gathering, Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid said the government of Pakistan was not sincere in organising the Jirga. "Pakistan believes the holding of the Jirga will harm it," said the governor.

The central government has started sending delegations into eight zones across the country to create awareness among the people. The programme was started on Thursday and meetings had been held in Herat, Kunduz, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces so far.

Ariana hires new Boeing aircraft

KABUL, Jan 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The state-owned Afghan Ariana Airlines added a new aircraft to its existing fleet to provide better traveling facilities to passengers.

The new 757 Boeing aircraft was hired by the company for two years, said engineer Abdul Ahad Mansoori, head of the state-owned company on Saturday.

Speaking at a news conference, Mansoori said the new aircraft would carry passengers to European countries and Saudi Arabia.

Mansoori said the newly hired aircraft would start flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Saturday afternoon and to Frankfurt, Germany, in the coming two days.

The new aircraft was hired three months after the European countries and Saudi Arabia disallowed Ariana from their airports. Mansoori hoped those countries would remove the ban after the inclusion of the new aircraft in Ariana fleet.

In the next three months, Ariana would be able to resume flights to France, London and other European countries, said Mansoori, who added only Germany was willing to allow Ariana to land on its airports at the moment.

Inside Afghanistan: The battle for Kajaki

The war in the open spaces of Afghanistan is very different from the one being waged by the Americans in the streets of Baghdad. But for British Royal Marines engaged in daily firefights with the Taliban, it is no less dangerous

By Kim Sengupta in Kajaki, Afghanistan - The Independent (UK) Published: 28 January 2007

Royal Marine Andy Mason, on Sparrow Hawk ridge, sighted his heat-seeking Javelin anti-tank missile and squeezed the trigger. Eight seconds later it smashed into the target, a large house from which Taliban insurgents were firing at British forces.

Half a dozen insurgent fighters jumped off the first-storey balcony just before it disintegrated. Others in the compound were trying to flee when air strikes were called in. A Tornado GR7 dropped a 1,000lb bomb, leaving the building a pile of rubble and billowing smoke.

This encounter took place on Friday night in Kajaki, one of the most ruggedly beautiful parts of Afghanistan, but also the most dangerous, with daily fighting between Royal Marines and insurgents. Just before our helicopter landed from Camp Bastion, the main British base in southern Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province, the Taliban had begun shooting at the British position, starting a firefight that went on into the night.

While violence has ebbed away at other flashpoints in northern Helmand such as Sangin and Now Zad, and a truce of sorts holds at Musa Qala, it has escalated at Kajaki. Flanked by mountains and a deep-water lake, the area has become a symbolic and logistical prize for both sides. At its heart is the Kajaki dam, the biggest United States aid project in Afghanistan, which, when fully operational, will supply power to the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

The US construction company Lewis Berger has refused to begin work until a 6km safety zone has been established around the dam. That is what the Marines of 42 Commando are creating, in attritional warfare across some of the country's most inhospitable terrain.

In one week, starting on New Year's Day, British forces said they had killed more than 120 Taliban. One Marine and one member of the Parachute Regiment have been killed, and around half a dozen injured.

"I could see the guys on the balcony in my sight when I fired the Javelin", said 27-year-old Marine Mason, from Harlow, Essex. "They had received fire from us and would have known what to expect. All they would have seen was a flash. They jumped off the balcony and the Javelin followed them down. These are awesome weapons, but it's a sobering thought that each time you fire them it is costing £65,000. We come in constant contact with them, but we have firepower they can't match."

From three vantage points - Sparrow Hawk, Athens and Normandy - the Marines attempt to control and then expand into the valleys. They live and fight from old Soviet positions where one still comes across the debris of a lost war - twisted artillery wreckage, spent shells and also personal items like spectacles and books, abandoned when Soviet forces left in a hurry. Down below, groups of men, suspected insurgents, can be seen moving along the narrow tracks and a deep wadi between walled compounds. British convoys leaving Kajaki come under frequent Taliban fire.

Resting on sandbags next to his heavy machinegun, Corporal Steve Machin, a 34-year-old from Rotherham with 15 years' service, said: "I have seen a bit of action. I took part in the Iraq war, and I have been back there. I have also spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland. But this is the scariest place I have been to. I have never had so many bullets whizzing past at such a rate. And this is constant. One of our busiest days was at Christmas - for some reason they opened up and just kept going."

Captain Anthony Forshaw, acting commander of M Company, 42 Commando, said: "We can track their communications, and we can also track down where they are by their firing positions. That is how we got the men in the balcony building. They have been well trained in military fashion - I don't really want to speculate by which country. We have watched them carry out patrols, and it is pretty professional. We have identified some of their commanders, and we know the ones we have killed."

It was not an easy mission, said the officer, but he was firm on one point: "I think we are winning."

As the British troops and Taliban fight it out, it is the Afghan civilians who are caught in the middle. Swathes of farmland around Kajaki are uncultivated because of the conflict.

Visiting the market at Lashkar Gah, farmer Shah Mohammed said: "We have gained nothing from this. The British bombed the place because the Taliban were there, and the Taliban drive us out of our homes. It is the poor who suffer.

"I have had friends killed and neighbours killed, and they are leaving behind their families. All we want is peace."

One year on, Helmand is a bloody failure

By Kim Sengupta in Lashkar Gar, Helmand - The Independent (UK) Published: 27 January 2007

The explosion tore the suicide bomber apart and set alight parked cars. The guard who had shot him was seriously injured as were some Afghans on their way to the mosque for Friday prayers. Terrified women clutching their children fled as ambulances and police cars arrived.

The attack was in the centre of Lashkar Gar, near the office of the governor, which we had passed in a convoy with British diplomats just minutes previously. The target this time, however, was neither government officials nor foreigners, but the offices of an aid agency.

The attack is ominous for British policy in Helmand. A year ago this month John Reid, then the defence secretary, announced the deployment of 5,000 British troops to Helmand. The three-year mission would hopefully end, he said, without a shot being fired in anger.

Now, after more than half a million rounds fired and dozens killed in some of the fiercest fighting that British forces have engaged in since Korea in 1950-53, intense efforts are under way to kick start reconstruction, which had been badly hampered because aid agencies had deemed Helmand too dangerous to operate in.

There are fears that the attempted bombing of one of the few agencies which had returned to the province would again keep humanitarian organisations away from Helmand and set back the process of winning loyalty and support, which British officials acknowledge is imperative, after months of fighting the Taliban. Although hundreds of insurgents were killed, there were also civilian casualties.

The British mission, the "Third Afghan War" according to many, is entering its most critical phase. A winter lull has followed a summer and autumn of conflict. But no one doubts that the Taliban will launch an offensive once the snow on the mountain passes melts. To add to the problems, Mohammed Daoud, Helmand's governor and Britain's main ally there, was sacked by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, at the end of last year.

Instead of drawing down the numbers in Afghanistan, UK forces here are likely to be reinforced. At the same time there is a growing possibility that the US "surge" in Baghdad will make it impractical to go through with the envisaged British withdrawal of 3,000 troops from Iraq.

But there appears to be hope for Afghanistan among the British military and diplomats. With that, however, is an acknowledgement that mistakes had been made in the past.

Yesterday was Nick Kay's last day as the UK regional co-ordinator for Helmand, a job encompassing reconstruction, as well dealing with the problem of opium production. He said: "It has been a lot more intense and more challenging than anything that can have been captured in the planning process.But ... we know we have to win over the Afghan population." He added that, despite the violence in Helmand, the security situation in Lashkar Gar was not as bad as that in Iraq.

But Amir Mohammed, 65, a farmer, said: "We have had nothing but fighting since the British came. A lot of people have been killed by them. The Taliban are back all over Helmand. They are in Musa Qala, Nawzad, Sangin and Garamsir. There is no security. At least there was security under the Taliban. Also they are now talking about destroying our poppy fields. How will we eat?"

Davos Report: The Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontline

By Hussain Haqani- The Huffington Post - World Economic Forum Annual Meetings at Davos were once described to me as "the Disneyland of the Mind." The description seems apt. Interspersed with interesting rounds of discussion that have all the thrill of exciting theme park rides, one also runs into Mickey Mouse and Goofy.

The shadow of Mickey Mouse became visible at this year's meeting when Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz denied flat out that Pakistan had anything to do with the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A smooth talking former executive of Citibank who was handpicked by General Pervez Musharraf to manage Pakistan's economy, Aziz speaks eloquently without passion. Unfortunately, his eloquence on the subject of fighting terrorism had little to do with reality.

Most sensible people now agree that while the war in Iraq was a war of choice, the real frontline in the struggle against terrorism are Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the world's energies have been consumed by the U.S. war of choice in Iraq, leaving the war of necessity in Afghanistan inadequately attended.

The Taliban, whom the U.S. vowed to destroy after 9/11, have regrouped and are increasingly threatening security in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, is also seriously back in business.

New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall found out the hard way recently that finding out too much about the Taliban's presence in Pakistan's provinces bordering Afghanistan can result in a thrashing from Pakistan ubiquitous intelligence services.

Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, a retired general, commented yesterday that Gall should not have gone "snooping" in areas she was not permitted to visit. He does not seem to realize that snooping is what good reporters are supposed to do.

The ambassador also did not explain why there were so many areas in Pakistan, especially along the Afghan border, that are closed to visiting journalists unless there is something there to hide.

Afghanistan is fast becoming a serious security problem and Pakistan's desire to influence the course of events in its smaller neighbor is not helping. Only yesterday, Pakistan withdrew diplomatic immunity from NATO personnel transiting Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan.

The decision is an attempt to shut up NATO and UN officials in Afghanistan, who have all criticized Pakistan's support for the Taliban.

Until recently U.S. officials have been reluctant to criticize Pakistan's military ruler General Musharraf. President Bush has convinced himself that Musharraf is the only thing standing between an Islamist take-over of nuclear armed Pakistan and has consistently showered praise since 9/11 on the Pakistani ruler whose name he did not recall in a television interview during the 2000 election campaign.

But the outgoing Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, in testimony to a Senate committee earlier this month, wrote that Al Qaeda leaders were holed up in a secure hide-out in Pakistan, without naming bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Aziz's remarks at the Davos panel on terrorism were designed to control the damage that has followed from Negroponte's statement.

Aziz denied that bin Laden or Zawahiri were in Pakistan and insisted that no one had shared any intelligence with Pakistan about the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai claims that Afghan intelligence has passed on information about the alleged location of Taliban leaders, only to be told by Pakistani officials that the intelligence was out of date. Obviously, the Taliban leaders do not maintain an address listed in the Peshawar or Islamabad phone books.

Aziz was right though when he said that it is not in Pakistan's interest to support the Taliban. But Pakistan's military governments, particularly its intelligence services, have a long history of pursuing strategic policies that have been detrimental to the country's interests.

Military rule, however benign it might seem to outsiders, leads to group think rather than genuine discussion of alternatives. Pakistan's foreign policy has suffered from military group think that gives priority to keeping Indian influence out of Afghanistan over fighting terrorists and the obscurantist Taliban.

It would have been nice to have Afghan President Hamid Karzai present the alternative view on Afghanistan here at Davos. And just as we had an extensive discussion of Iraq, with several Iraqis present, a wider discussion of Afghanistan is also needed.

H. Haqqani is a former Pakistani diplomat

Pakistan to enhance Railway Links with Iran, Afghanistan

By Sarah Kamal - Pakistan Times / January 28, 2007

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Railways is ready to enhance railway-links with neighboring countries of Iran and Afghanistan by connecting Chaman with Spin Boldak and Quetta with Taftan, Federal Minister for Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said here Thursday.

He was speaking to journalists of the twin cities at Rawalpindi Railway Station in connection with the re-introduction of Dinning Cars in Express Trains.

The minister said that PR had made all necessary preparations to link Chaman with Spin Boldak in Afghanistan and added that it was waiting green signal from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

He said that railway links between Quetta and Taftan were also on the cards and added that he would be visiting Iran next month to hold talks with Iranian officials in this regard. He expressed the hope that with Iran’s cooperation the service would be started soon.

He said, execution of these links would revolutionize the railways, adding that Pakistan would get access to Europe through Iran by this service.

Underlining the importance for power generation for running fast-moving trains, the minister said that PR would establish five power generating stations with the help of private partnership in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sukkkur and Quetta.

He said, PR was moving fast to initiate work on doubling the track which has not been done for the last sixty years, adding that track between Rawalpindi and Lahore would be straightened to minimize travel time by two and half an hours. Besides, he said, the feasibility work on blot train service would be initiated soon.

PR would soon launch three additional trains including Jinnah, Sir Syed and Nishtar in the months ahead. Jinnah train would be launched on March 23 and those who had participated in Pakistan movement would be brought to Minar-e-Pakistan by this train on the day, he said.

Sheikh Rashid said the Dinning cars would be initially introduced on four trains and extended gradually in future to facilitate and attract maximum passengers. He said, the dining cars have not been imported but were made from 40-year old bogies and added that he himself had taken part in the designing of these cars. He said, PR has saved a handsome amount by designing these cars locally.

He said, with the introduction of revolutionary changes in PR, the number of railway passengers has increased by two million and expressed the hope that it would increase to 3 million by next year.

Rashid said, all railway stations would be equipped with modern facilities to facilitate passengers and added that passenger lodges would be built at stations for poor and middle class.

PR would close all stations which fail to generate income for railways and added that he had offered private sector to establish 100 CNG stations and 55 hotels on railway property to generate income sources for PR.

The will, and the time, to win

Afghanistan | It is among the poorest countries in the world, with little infrastructure and widespread illiteracy. It has never known democracy, unity or stability. And on its forbidding ground, a desperate battle is being waged against poverty, corruption, the Taliban . . . and time. Will Canada and its NATO allies have the will to persist in a struggle that could last more than a generation? And will Afghans' patience with the presence of outsiders last equally long? Oakland Ross analyzes the volatile present and daunting future of this troubled land – Toronto Star

January 28, 2007 – KABUL - It is winter on the steppes of Central Asia, and the war on terror – a war that last year claimed 4,000 lives in Afghanistan alone – has lately been taking its annual respite from carnage and woe. If you can call it a respite.

Pauses in this conflict are never complete and death continues to taint the cold January air, even as a shroud of snow steadily thickens over the ramshackle, war-weary streets of Kabul.

This past Sunday, a car-borne suicide bomber – the first to detonate successfully in the capital in some weeks – rammed his vehicle into a NATO military convoy, managing to blow himself up, if no one else.

And several officials of the Afghan insurgent movement known as the Taliban were reported killed in a NATO air strike in the south of the country on Friday.

It was one more clash in a long and convoluted war, a contest that has no front lines, no clear territorial divisions, no easily defined measure of victory and little likelihood of concluding soon, if ever.

With some 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, based mainly in the volatile southern province of Kandahar, Canada is as deeply immersed in this drama as almost any country and bears more responsibility than most for the eventual outcome of a war that seems fated to exceed the lifespan of anyone currently waging it.

"Conflict resolution in the broader scheme takes a generation," said a NATO officer. "Some would argue it takes two."

The challenge facing Canada and her allies in Afghanistan has at least as much to do with nation-building as with pitched battles between opposing armies.

"It's the creation of a secure and stable Afghanistan," replied one diplomat in Kabul when asked to articulate that challenge.

That's a tall order, taller even than the jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Hindu Kush that shimmer above Kabul, capital of a country that has known little in the way of security or stability during the course of a long and fractious history.

Do Canada and her allies here have the weaponry, the wherewithal and the will to carry this struggle through to what very may well be a distant end, a matter of a generation or more?

Many foreign officials here express a determination to stay, combined with a conviction that this is precisely what most of Afghanistan's 30 million people devoutly wish.

"Across the vast majority of the country, the message is: they don't want us to leave," says a diplomat representing a NATO country in Kabul.

He may be right, but support for the visitors is clearly not universal. Nor is it guaranteed to last forever.

An Afghan security guard, fluent in English and paid to help protect this very diplomat in his heavily fortified compound, confided to a reporter that he, for one, wishes the foreign soldiers would go.

"We feel like we are slaves in our own country," he said. "We feel that we are a colony. We don't like it, but what can we do?"

Last May, U.S. military vehicles in the capital strayed into a traffic accident that left several Afghan civilians dead and sparked rioting that continued for hours, as incensed city dwellers chanted "Death to the Americans!" and stalked the capital in search of foreigners on whom to take out their anger.

Workers at one guesthouse, a hostelry that caters to a mainly international clientele, managed to stave off disaster only by clambering onto the roof with automatic rifles, to spray warning shots into the air.

Among the most troubled regions of the country are those in the south, near the Pakistan border, where British troops have responsibility for the province of Helmand and Canadians are fighting to secure neighbouring Kandahar province.

Last September, the two regions were the scenes of heavy and prolonged combat, as combined NATO forces launched an aggressive military operation called Medusa, an offensive that inflicted numerous Taliban casualties – no one really knows how numerous – while also wreaking widespread physical damage to villages in the region.

But criticism quickly began to mount from abroad, from human-rights groups, academics and experts in international development who argued that NATO was expending too much energy on cracking heads and blowing up buildings and too little on bolstering a blighted economy or freeing up a political system long strangled by a cult of strongman rule.

Lately, NATO has been trying to advance on both these fronts, but there is sometimes a hurried or improvised aspect to its reconstruction efforts in the south, where shipping containers filled with wheelbarrows and lumber are bestowed upon villagers who, though undoubtedly grateful for the largesse, are likely not instantly transformed into pro-Western democrats as a result.

"Some of what happens in Kandahar has a lot of feel of baubles-for-the-natives," said one expert in international development in Kabul.

NATO forces are also at work on more ambitious and possibly more effective schemes, building a new road called Route Summit in Kandahar, for example, or restoring the Kajaki hydroelectric dam in Helmand.

Thanks to these and other factors, the Afghan economy has been expanding at a brisk pace, ever since a U.S.-led multinational military force invaded the country in late 2001 to oust the Taliban from power.

"The flip side," cautioned a European diplomat, "is Afghanistan's got an incredible lack of infrastructure, incredibly low literacy rates. It's starting from such a low level."

What Afghanistan does have, in addition to a numbingly impoverished population, is a flourishing drug trade, mainly in opium, whose proceeds are channelled in part to the Taliban.

On their own, the vast poppy fields in Helmand province – a Taliban stronghold – are estimated to produce about 40 per cent of the world's supply of the drug. Neighbouring Kandahar is also an important source of opium.

"The drug trade flourishes in unstable regions," said the diplomat, who supports the Afghan government's efforts to eradicate poppy production and replace it with other crops, such as saffron, mint and pomegranates. "Why save Afghanistan to save a narco state?"

Ehsan Zia, the country's minister of rural rehabilitation and development, argues that the poppy business actually impoverishes farmers by obliging them to get rid of their livestock – in order to free up land for poppy cultivation – and by forcing them to pay high prices to purchase food they could otherwise produce on their own.

"The poppy growers are not reaping the economic benefits of poppies," he said in a recent interview. "The Taliban are really reaping the benefits of poppy production. They control trafficking."

They also appear to be able to move more or less at will across Afghanistan's southern border with Pakistan, a boundary whose precise location has long been in dispute.

Despite denials by the government in Islamabad, it is now widely assumed that the Taliban maintains a headquarters-in-exile in Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, only a modest hike from Kandahar province.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay recently visited both Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he added his voice to growing international pressure on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to seal off the porous border, although preferably not by sowing the mountain passes with land mines, as he has threatened to do.

MacKay's visit to the region also highlighted Canada's military and financial commitment to the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was formally elected in 2004.

In all, Ottawa has either spent or pledged nearly $1 billion in development assistance to the country over a 10-year period that extends to 2011. Most of those funds are earmarked for long-term projects outside war-ridden Kandahar, where Canada's military efforts are currently focused.

"The large bulk of the program is nationwide," said a development expert in Kabul. "It's critical for Afghanistan that we don't give up on the national perspective."

But long-term development assistance is, by definition, a slow and incremental process, requiring huge investments of time as well as large infusions of cash. That is so in the best of circumstances, and Afghanistan's present straits – including war, corruption, illicit drugs and wrenching poverty – are among the planet's worst.

Just now, however, it is winter in Afghanistan, and the war is in a state of at least partial abeyance, as is usual this time of year.

But the Taliban forces have not been defeated, and they will re-emerge once again, just as surely as spring will return to the steppes of Central Asia, now trembling in the winter cold.

"I think people would be surprised not to see a Taliban spring offensive," said the European diplomat. "Next year is still going to be tough."

Next year – and the following year and the year after that.

Perhaps the real challenge for Canada and her allies in Afghanistan will be to get the job done before their welcome wears out.

[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.]