In this bulletin:

• U’Pakistan arrests 'Taleban aides'
• Afghanistan, Pakistan agree to boost anti-terror fight: Turkey
• Taleban kill three pro-govt officials
• Taleban claim beheading three for spying for Afghan, US forces
• Religious scholar gunned down in Afghan south
• Tribal elder said killed by Taleban in Afghan east
• Afghan civilian casualties sometimes exaggerated: NATO
• Western forces hooked on air power in Afghan war
• Tribal Chief Says NATO Airstrike Killed 108 Afghan Civilians
• Villagers forced out by 'Taliban' nomads
• Afghan opposition front calls for end of dispute between nomads, locals
• Afghan counter-narcotics minister resigns
• Afghanistan's anti-drug man takes posting to Canada
• Civilians 'hostage in Red Mosque' – BBC
• ‘Eight top terrorists inside Lal Masjid’
• Profile: Abdul Rashid Ghazi
• The General in His Labyrinth
• Six dead soldiers returned to Canadian soil
• Tories soften stance on Afghan mission extension
• New initiatives needed, Afghanistan experts say
• MacKenzie calls for 15,000 more troops
• A Colombian model for Afghanistan?
• Minister says Germany should strengthen Afghan role

U’Pakistan arrests 'Taleban aides'

By Charles Haviland - BBC News, Afghanistan

Several key aides to the leader of Afghanistan's Taleban rebels, Mullah Omar, are reported to have been arrested in Pakistan.

An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC four senior associates of Mullah Omar were being held after operations by Pakistani security forces. The arrests took place in two areas of the city of Quetta in western Pakistan.

The source said those arrested included two men responsible for Mullah Omar's letters and communications. They have been named as Mullah Jahangir and Mullah Mohid.

Others now in detention are said to be Mullah Nazir, who was Taleban commander in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, and Mullah Tahir, the former Taleban commander for the capital, Kabul.

Afghanistan observers say these four men were all close to the reclusive Mullah Omar, whose whereabouts remain unknown. In the past year or more, there have been rising tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some senior Afghan leaders accused their neighbour of letting the Taleban use its soil, including Quetta, as a sanctuary.

Pakistan denies such accusations and four months ago it arrested another key Taleban leader, Mullah Obaidullah, on its own soil.

Afghanistan, Pakistan agree to boost anti-terror fight: Turkey

(AFP) - 7 July 2007 - ANKARA - Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed on closer cooperation in fighting the Taleban, during talks in the Turkish capital, the foreign ministry announced Saturday.

The agreement between the two countries covers the exchange of information in matters concerning their security. They will also deny refuge to people involved in subversive and terrorist activities, the ministry said in a statement.

In a bid to strengthen ties, politicians, academics and lawmakers are to travel to the neighbouring country more frequently.

The agreement was reached during talks on Friday between Afghanistan’s junior foreign minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi, Pakistani foreign ministry official Riaz Mohammed Khan and Turkey’s junior foreign minister Ertugrul Apakan.

Their talks came after the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf, met in Ankara in April. Officials from the two countries are to meet again in Istanbul shortly.

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul, both US allies in the restive region, have become strained over the past years amid accusations that Pakistan was not doing enough to fight the Al Qaeda-backed Taleban.

Taleban fighters launched an insurgency soon after being driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001 in an invasion led by the United States following the September 11 attacks.

Taleban kill three pro-govt officials

Web posted at: 7/9/2007 - AFP - kandahar • Taleban rebels gunned down three pro-government officials and one of their sons in Afghanistan, authorities said yesterday, also reporting a dozen more insurgents were killed in new clashes.

The head of the religious council of southern Uruzgan province, Mawlana Ahmadzada, was killed by machinegun fire hours after he was dragged from his home late on Saturday in the provincial capital, police said.

He was captured with 10 bodyguards who were freed, provincial police commander Mohammad Qasim said.

A self-proclaimed Taleban commander, Mullah Ubaydullah Haqyar, said the cleric was killed for his links to the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

"We killed him. He was working for the government," the purported commander said by telephone from an unknown location.

Ahmadzada had also provided security forces to assist the Nato-led force in the province, officials said.

An influential tribal elder in the neighbouring province of Ghazni was also dragged from his home and shot dead late on Saturday, provincial police chief General Alishah Ahmadzay said.

Abdul Qayoom, in his mid-fifties, was known to have good relations with the government and was respected in his district of Giro.

"Afghanistan's enemies killed him," the general said. A Taleban spokesman confirmed his organisation was involved.

In another assassination claimed by the Taleban, a police colonel was shot dead outside his home yesterday as he was leaving for work at the police headquarters in troubled southern Helmand province.

Abdul Hadi's 16-year-old son was also killed, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said. The extremist Taleban confirmed they had killed the officer but denied gunning down the teenager.

Andiwal also announced that 10 rebel fighters were killed in an overnight operation in the province's dangerous Kajaki district.

The fighting started after Taleban attacked soldiers from the Afghan army and the Nato-led force, which called in air strikes against the rebels, Andiwal said.

In a separate incident, two Taleban were killed and one wounded in a gunfight that erupted after the rebels attacked police in the southern province of Zabul, a district chief said.

The Taleban's insurgency, backed by Al Qaeda, includes a range of terror attacks aimed at intimidating Afghans and a campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks targeted at the security forces.

The violence has grown steadily since the extremist Taleban movement was removed from government in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

More than 4,500 people were killed in the violence last year, most of them rebels. More than 2,600 people have been killed in insurgency-linked unrest this year.

Taleban claim beheading three for spying for Afghan, US forces

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Peshawar, 8 July: Taleban insurgents have claimed decapitating three people in North Waziristan Agency, lying close to the Pak-Afghan border, on the charge of spying for Afghan and US forces.

Mawlawi Salahoddin, introducing himself as Taleban commander in the southeastern Khost Province, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday [8 July] the three Afghan nationals were caught a fortnight back.

Speaking over the telephone from an undisclosed location, Salahoddin named the alleged spies as Nur Ali Jan from Khost, Mullah Ehsanollah from Nangarhar and Saidollah from Paktika.

Captured in borders areas of Khost and Paktika, the rebel commander added, the men had confessed to their crime during interrogations. They were beheaded in compliance with a verdict of the movement's Islamic Court, he continued.

A Miranshah-based journalist Haji Jamil, who confirmed the executions, said the victims bodies had been handed over to their relatives. Nur Ali was buried in Mir Ali town last evening, he said.

Meanwhile, a deputy of Taleban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani revealed they had captured another six other spies. Mawlawi Sangin said the cases of the detainees had been referred to the Islamic Court that would soon decide the fate of the detainees.

But Taleban spokesman Zabihollah Mojahed was unaware of the arrests.

Religious scholar gunned down in Afghan south

Excerpt from report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Tarin kot/Ghazni City, 8 July: A religious scholar, a tribal elder and a police officer were shot dead by suspected militants in Urozgan, Ghazni and Helmand Provinces, officials said on Sunday [8 July].

Police chief of the southern Urozgan Province Muhammad Qasim said the cleric Mullah Muhammad Akhund was member of the ulema council in the province. He was forced out and gunned down in front of his house by a group of armed men.

He blamed enemies of peace, the term Afghan officials use for Taleban, for the killing. The police chief added that the deceased was a religious scholar and did not possess a government job.

Mullah Obaydollah, calling himself a Taleban commander in Urozgan, said their men were responsible for the murder. Mullah Muhammad Akhund was head of the vice and virtue department in Urozgan during the reign of Taleban.

Tribal elder said killed by Taleban in Afghan east

Text of report by Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Ghazni: 8 July: A tribal elder has been killed.

Speaking to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP] today, the Ghazni security commander, Alishah Ahmadzai, confirmed the incident and said: The Taleban last night attacked the home of a tribal elder, Mahlem Abdol Qayum in Gero district and killed him.

According to the security commander, the Taleban had accused Mahlem Abdol Qayum of cooperating with the government.

No one has been arrested so far and the investigation into the incident continues, said the governor. When asked, the Taleban spokesman, Qari Yusof Ahmadi responded: I have no knowledge about the incident.

Afghan civilian casualties sometimes exaggerated: NATO

Daily Times 9 July 2007

KABUL: Figures issued by Afghans, including officials, of civilian casualties in military operations were sometimes exaggerated, the North American Treaty Organisation (NATO) force’s commander said on Sunday amid new claims of heavy losses of life.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had taken every “reasonable measure” to avoid casualties, even choosing not to attack high-value targets on occasion, US General Dan McNeill said in an interview. “There have been some reported figures that are in my view exaggerated for whatever reason, for disinformation, misinformation or simply failing to give an accurate account,” he said.

“It is my experience that if an Afghan official gets a call from a local person saying something or the other has occurred, they accept it without further inquiries and report it to the media. We have been able to prove that such figures are simply not true,” he added.

ISAF and its partner, the US-led coalition, have been criticised by many including President Hamid Karzai, for the numbers of civilians being killed in operations against alleged insurgents.

The forces admit that there have been losses but sometimes dispute the numbers issued by residents and officials immediately after an incident. There is also often dispute about whether the dead were rebels or just ordinary villagers.

In two recent cases, the ISAF rejected claims by the police that 25 civilians were killed in the eastern Kunar province and around 100 in Farah in the west, a number even Afghan officials dismiss.

Once tolls were released, people believed them, McNeill said. The number of civilians being killed by the international forces in Afghanistan fed into Taliban propaganda against the mostly Western soldiers in the country to help the fragile Afghan government beat back the insurgency, he added. “Soldiers don’t go out to deliberately harm civilians or their property,” he said. afp

Western forces hooked on air power in Afghan war

By Mark John - Daily Times 9 July 2007

Excessive reliance on air power has been blamed on the small size of the troop presence - less than a third of that in Iraq for a country 1.5 times as big

WESTERN forces are unlikely to curtail the use of lethal air power against Taliban forces in Afghanistan, despite a wave of civilian casualties threatening support for the mission, analysts and military sources say.

An aversion in NATO capitals to allied casualties, plus all-too-frequent shortages of ground troops, have forced commanders to turn to the sky in efforts to beat insurgents still going strong six years after the US-led invasion. Despite repeated criticism of Western tactics by President Hamid Karzai, and pledges by NATO and US officials to review procedures, few expect an overhaul of strategy by the 50,000 international troops there any time soon.

“We are aware this problem has grown and we must redouble our efforts. But there will be no overnight transformation,” an alliance source said on condition of anonymity. The Afghan government, rights and aid groups say over 300 civilians have died this year from Western operations, mostly when air power is called in to get allied troops out of trouble. While NATO officials point to surveys showing a majority of Afghans still in favour of their presence, the deaths tarnish the image of the Western-backed Karzai and have triggered protests demanding the exit of foreign troops.

NATO’s top operational commander, US General John Craddock, announced a review of procedures in May. Days later President George W Bush pledged with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to try to reduce the casualties. Yet the deaths keep coming. Afghan officials say 45 civilians were killed last weekend by an air strike in the south - a figure the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says is inflated.

Too few troops? De Hoop Scheffer has urged better coordination on the ground between NATO forces, the separate US-led coalition and Afghan troops. He also wants faster investigations of incidents and more humanitarian relief for victims. While coordination with Afghan forces has been messy, alliance sources are broadly happy with ties between ISAF and the US-led coalition.

The coalition has focused on aggressive counter-terrorism operations, whereas the 40,000 ISAF troops have a peacekeeping mandate, but the line between the two has been blurred by the mounting insurgency. Some say more aid and faster probes of accidents might limit the public relations damage from incidents, but would not in themselves reduce casualties. Others blame the small size of the troop presence - less than a third of that in Iraq for a country 1.5 times as big - for what they see as excessive reliance on air power.

“If the Taliban withdraw to a village, there is an inability to send troops forward on the ground to clear that village. That is very manpower-intensive,” said Christopher Langton of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Even if further troops were available - and there are no signs that any of NATO’s 26 members or partner nations are in the mood to stump up more - some analysts sense a preference for air power over riskier deployments of ground troops.

“Countries such as Canada are already under pressure to reduce troops,” said Matthew Clements, Eurasia editor at Jane’s Country Risk report. “They don’t want more casualties.”

Fine-tuning: Given the limitations of Western forces and the Taliban tactic of using human shields, Langton said NATO and its allies would do better to adopt a less aggressive approach and consider negotiating ceasefire deals in some cases. However, noting how the US general currently running the NATO Afghan effort bluntly condemned one such pact made by his British predecessor, Langton added: “I don’t think Dan McNeill would ever accept that.”

Reacting to criticism that they were losing the public relations battle, NATO officials have stepped up criticism of the insurgents, with de Hoop Scheffer lashing out at those who “behead people, burn schools, kill women and children”. And, despite McNeill’s reputation as a no-holds-barred commander, alliance sources insist there has been a subtle fine-tuning of operations under his watch that they hope will start to translate into a lower toll in civilian lives.

“Ultimately it is up to a commander whether there are fewer air strikes. But is killing 10 Taliban worth killing five civilians? The answer is ‘No’, and that is fully understood,” one source said. reuters

Tribal Chief Says NATO Airstrike Killed 108 Afghan Civilians

NY Times - By BARRY BEARAK Published: July 8, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 7 — Amid a continuing flurry of reports about civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the leader of a tribal council in Farah Province said Saturday that 108 noncombatants had been killed Friday in a NATO airstrike.

The report was denied by a NATO spokesman and could not immediately be confirmed from other sources.

“NATO soldiers, along with the Afghan National Army and people from the national police, came to Shewan Village and told us they needed to search three or four houses,” the tribal chief, Hajji Khudai Rahm, said in a telephone interview. “As we talked, a firefight began and 20 houses were destroyed when the planes dropped bombs.

“We counted 108 bodies, including women and children,” he said. “Fourteen local policemen were among the dead. Right now, things are calm, but people are digging through the rubble to find more bodies.”

Also, Reuters reported that residents and officials in Kunar Province said 36 civilians had been killed in recent airstrikes, 11 of them on Thursday during a bombardment, and 25 more on Friday as they attended a funeral for the deceased.

Hajji Shalizai Didar, the governor of Kunar, said Saturday via telephone that he had heard the reports about the deaths, in Watapoor District, but had been unable to confirm them because the fighting continued.

Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO, said the alliance had ordered airstrikes in both Farah and Kunar during the times in question.

“We’re aware of the reports of civilian casualties but none of it tracks with the information we have, which is pretty extensive,” he said. “In both cases, we had good reconnaissance before and after.”

American and NATO forces in Afghanistan have relied on airstrikes to help fight resurgent Taliban fighters in many parts of the country. But the rising number of civilian casualties in the bombardments has brought criticism from Afghan officials, who have accused foreign forces in the country of being cavalier with civilian lives. They have also accused the Taliban of using civilians as human shields.

Villagers forced out by 'Taliban' nomads

By Tom Coghlan in Behsood District Wardak Province

Telegraph.co.uk 09/07/2007

A new dimension to Afghanistan's troubles has emerged with reports that thousands of villagers are being forced out of their villages in the centre of the country by gunmen said to be allied with the Taliban.

The district of Behsood, in the central province of Wardak, is now a scene of devastation with dozens of burned, looted and deserted villages.

"Don't go that way, the Kuchis will cut your head off," shouted one man as this newspaper's vehicle drove into the troubled area.

With its lofty peaks, streams and carpet of wild flowers, Behsood ought to be a tourist's delight. Instead, refugees are pouring out in clapped-out cars and minibuses; more than 4,000 are estimated to have fled so far. In the villages, week-old plates of half-eaten food sit on abandoned tables.

"Since the last 10 days they have taken 80 villages," claimed one local government official, who did not wish to be named. The minority Shia Muslim inhabitants of Behsood, ethnic Hazaras who suffered acute religious persecution under the Taliban regime, claim the gunmen forcing them out of their homes are nomads allied to the Taliban.

They point to slogans in support of Osama bin Laden scrawled on the walls of looted houses and to the heavy weapons the nomads, known as the Kuchi, have managed to obtain, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

"During the Taliban period these Kuchi-Taliban were with them and dominated this area, we know them. Now they have come back for revenge," said Noor Agha, a shepherd whose family had already fled.

But representatives of the Kuchi nomads, several million of whom migrate every year on circular routes from the Pakistan border to Iran and Turkmenistan, counter that this is an issue that has nothing to do with Taliban sympathies. They claim it is entirely to do with long-standing competition between Hazaras and Kuchis, both marginalised groups in Afghan society, for scarce water and pasture.

Around a dozen Hazaras have been reported killed or injured in fighting and hundreds of livestock stolen in Kuchi raids. Another eight Hazaras were reported missing yesterday.

They point to slogans in support of Osama bin Laden scrawled on the walls of looted houses and to the heavy weapons the nomads, known as the Kuchi, have managed to obtain, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

"During the Taliban period these Kuchi-Taliban were with them and dominated this area, we know them. Now they have come back for revenge," said Noor Agha, a shepherd whose family had already fled.

But representatives of the Kuchi nomads, several million of whom migrate every year on circular routes from the Pakistan border to Iran and Turkmenistan, counter that this is an issue that has nothing to do with Taliban sympathies. They claim it is entirely to do with long-standing competition between Hazaras and Kuchis, both marginalised groups in Afghan society, for scarce water and pasture.

Around a dozen Hazaras have been reported killed or injured in fighting and hundreds of livestock stolen in Kuchi raids. Another eight Hazaras were reported missing yesterday.

Western diplomats in Kabul remain sceptical about Hazara claims that the Behsood attacks represent a Taliban attempt to foment inter-ethnic tensions. "It is traditional to seek to label your opponents Taliban or al-Qa'eda," said one senior diplomat. "We have seen clashes in these areas in past years between Kuchi and Hazaras over land issues."

A month after the problem began the Afghan government has not sent any troops or additional police to the area.

The head of the government delegation dealing with the issue played it down. "There is a lot of fear in Wardak but the fighting has not been heavy," said Obaidullah Sabawoon. "There have been reports by the Hazaras of schools being burned and the Taliban flag being raised but we have not found evidence of this."

Haji Naim Kuchi, the most senior representative of the nomads in Kabul, blames Hazara encroachment on traditional Kuchi areas for the problems. "The Hazaras are using these lies about the Taliban to try to get the international community on their side. These areas are Kuchi lands and we have the documents to prove it."

He claimed the Kuchi were dying under Hazara attacks, the latest of which killed a young man on Saturday.

Afghan opposition front calls for end of dispute between nomads, locals

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 8 July

[Presenter] The [United] National Front says the government should take serious measures to address the dispute between members of the Kochi [nomad] tribe and local residents of Behsud District, Maydan Wardag Province, warning that the violence could spread to other provinces if serious attention is not paid to prevent it.

The National Front claims the commission, set up by the government to look into and find ways out of the dispute, is not successful.

[Correspondent] The National Front says the delegation assigned by the government to address the dispute has not been effective. The delegation is composed of the president's minister advisors and local elders.

[Sayed Mostafa Kazemi, spokesman of National Front] It is not the way out if we merely say that the Hazaras have documents or the nomads have legal documents from the past. We should observe the interests of the two sides, gain their satisfaction, and finally issue a firm verdict about it. Otherwise, it would prepare the ground for insurgents and government opponents to take advantage of the situation.

[Correspondent] An MP from Kochi tribes says the nomads will accept whatever the assigned delegation decides. According to the MP, the nomads have ownership documents and want the government to address the problem.

[Mullah Tarakhel, MP, in Pashto] We have told the government about this problem several times that there should be no aggression against the nomads. An authorized delegation should be established to make sure that nomads are not stopped or disturbed in areas where they have ownership documents.

[Correspondent] Disputes and arguments between residents of Behsud District and members of nomad tribes have been going on for the past five weeks. Tens of people from the two sides have been killed or wounded in disputes in the past five weeks.

In the beginning of the month, hundreds of residents of Behsud District staged vast demonstrations in Kabul in protest against the occupation of their pastures by nomads, calling on the government to address the problems.

Afghan counter-narcotics minister resigns

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Kabul, 8 July: Following the acceptance of his resignation by President Hamed Karzai, Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibollah Qaderi has assumed charge as Afghan consul-general in Toronto, Canada.

Deputy Counter-Narcotics Minister Gen Khuda Dad told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday [8 July] the minister - formerly a teacher at the University of Nebraska in the US - had quit voluntarily after consultation with President Karzai.

Qaderi, who saw a considerable surge in poppy cultivation across the country during his ministerial tenure, was given a warm farewell by the ministry staff today, Khuda Dad said, adding his successor was yet to be named by the president.

Meanwhile, the city is rife with rumours the minister has stepped down because of the steady rise in poppy growth. But Khuda Dad scotched this speculation, insisting: Qaderi's decision is no way linked to the cultivation of poppies.

An independent source, who did not want to be named, confided to Pajhwok three people including Gen Khuda Dad, former Helmand governor Eng Daud, Peshawar-based Afghan Consul-General Abdol Khaliq Farahi were in the run for the top ministerial slot.

A mechanical engineer from an Indian university, Qaderi served as adviser to the refugee affairs ministry for a year in 2002 after working for 12 years for UNHCR. He took over as the first-ever counter-narcotics minister in 2004 when the ministry was created.

Afghanistan's anti-drug man takes posting to Canada

Associated Press - July 8, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister has resigned and is reported to be taking up a diplomatic posting in Canada.

Word of the resignation comes from the deputy counter-narcotics minister, who says Habibullah Qaderi submitted his resignation to President Hamid Karzai about five days ago.

General Khodaidad says the resignation was voluntary and was driven in part by health problems, although he says Mr. Qaderi has taken a new position in Canada as Afghanistan's consulate general.

Mr. Qaderi's resignation comes just weeks after Afghan labourers finished cultivating an opium poppy crop that is expected to equal or exceed last year's record haul.

Mr. Qaderi headed the ministry since December 2004 and survived several cabinet shuffles. But Afghanistan's poppy crop has ballooned under his watch and the country's production last year accounted for more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin supply.

Western and U.N. officials have said this year's harvest would equal or exceed last year's record crop.

The resignation comes as behind-the-scenes negotiations take place in the Afghan government and Western embassies — notably the United States' and Britain's — about how to tackle the growing drug problem.

The U.S. has said it wants to spray the crop with herbicide like it does with coca plants in Colombia, a controversial idea that was rejected by Mr. Karzai for the 2007 growing season. Britain, whose troops are in charge of Helmand province, the world's largest poppy growing region, has said it would support a limited spraying program.

General Dan McNeill, the top general in charge of NATO-led troops in Afghanistan, has said he expects Western soldiers to step up efforts to combat the drug trade, though they would not be involved in manual eradication of poppy fields.

A significant portion of the profits from the country's $3.1-billion (U.S.) trade is thought to flow to Taliban fighters, who tax and protect poppy farmers and drug runners.

Mr. Khodaidad said Mr. Qaderi did a “wonderful job” in Afghanistan's north, where cultivation is expected to drop, but said “we have some problems” in the south, where violence has spiked this year. The poppy crop in Helmand province in particular is expected to soar this year and will likely account for more than 50 per cent of the country's poppies.

Civilians 'hostage in Red Mosque' – BBC

Pakistan's religious affairs minister has said radical Islamists are holding women and children hostage inside a besieged mosque complex in Islamabad.

Ejaz-ul-Haq told the BBC those in control of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, were "hardened terrorists". Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said he suspected some of the combatants were trained militants.

At least 21 people have died since fighting erupted when the army surrounded the mosque last week. An army commander was shot dead by gunmen inside the mosque on Sunday.

The mosque's leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, has said he and his followers would commit suicide rather than surrender. Abdul Rashid Ghazi said as many as 1,800 followers remained in the mosque, although this cannot be verified.

Mr ul-Haq said women and children have been locked up on two floors of the Jamia Hafsa religious school, which is attached to the mosque.

"The situation still is that the control of Jamia Hafsa and Red Mosque is now in the hands of the militants who were taken in by the brothers to guard them," he said.

The minister added that there were "as many as five hardcore terrorists inside the mosque".

Mr ul-Haq said a combatant killed on the first day of the siege was identified as Maqsood Ahmed, a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad, an outlawed radical Muslim organisation which has been linked to al-Qaeda.

Ahmed was wanted in connection with an assassination attempt against Mr Aziz in the northern Pakistani town of Attock in 2004. Mr Aziz said the identity of the combatants inside the mosque was unclear.

But he said there seemed to be trained militants "and whenever they come out, we will know who they are and if they are wanted criminals".

Abdul Rashid Ghazi has denied the presence of any banned extremist groups. He says those inside are students of his religious school and he is in charge. Earlier, Mr ul-Haq said up to 250 militants - including foreign radicals - were leading the

The commander, Lt Col Haroon Islam, was shot dead during an operation to blow holes in the mosque compound walls to enable civilians to escape. Water and power to the mosque have been cut off and food is said to be getting scarce.

The BBC's Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says he has heard intermittent gunfire in the area and the boom of heavy weapons.

An increased military presence on the streets, combined with the refusal to let a delegation of Islamic figures through to the mosque, suggests that the government is now closing the door to negotiation, our correspondent says.

On Saturday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the students they had no option but to surrender. "We have been patient. I want to say to the ones who have been left inside: they should come out and surrender, and if they don't, I am saying this here and now: they will be killed," he said.

More than 1,000 supporters left last week under mounting pressure from security forces, although only about 20 have left since Friday.

‘Eight top terrorists inside Lal Masjid’

Daily Times 9 July 2007 - ISLAMABAD: Eight “high value terrorists” wanted by Pakistan and other countries are holed up inside Lal Masjid, while another was killed by security forces in the ongoing operation, Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq said on Sunday.

“Nine suspected terrorists said to be far more dangerous and harmful than Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives were hiding inside the mosque compound,” Haq told a press conference here. He refused to reveal the identities of these militants.

He said that security forces killed one of these suspected terrorists inside Lal Masjid on the second day of the ongoing operation. He was the mastermind of the failed suicide attack on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Attock in 2005, he said.

Haq said that the militants and not Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Lal Masjid’s deputy chief cleric, were controlling the mosque. “The militants are holding children and Ghazi hostage,” he said. He said that of those who had surrendered to the security forces, three girl students were still unclaimed. They were being kept at the Pakistan Sports Complex.

He said that about 500 male and female students were still stranded inside the mosque. He also ruled out the government launching any action against other madrassas in Pakistan, including Jamia Faridia.

AFP adds: The hardcore militants inside include two commanders from the banned Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, security officials said.

“We believe there are militants from Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, which was involved in the [Daniel] Pearl murder. Based on intelligence we suspect that two commanders from the group are in there,” one senior official told AFP. “They have taken control and they are putting up fierce resistance.” The information was based on “intercepts” and other intelligence, the officials said.

A source inside the mosque said there was a “lot of tension among the various groups inside the compound on how to conduct the fight”. He identified one of the Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami militants as Abu Zar, said to be a one-time accomplice of the group’s late leader Amjad Farooqi, who was killed by security forces in 2004.

He also named a Pakistani Taliban militant from Waziristan, Mohammad Fida, as the “security chief” of the compound. There was no official confirmation of the names.

Profile: Abdul Rashid Ghazi

Sanjay Dasgupta - BBC News

He is bespectacled and articulate - an alumnus of one of Pakistan's most prominent universities, the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. This may not fit one's mental image of a militant Islamist, a jihadi.

But for the hundreds of hardliners holed up inside Islamabad's radical Red Mosque (Lal Masjid), Abdul Rashid Ghazi is the leader.

He has come a long way since his days as a student of history with moderate views, who had a relatively westernised lifestyle and worked, for a time, at the UN's culture organisation, Unesco.

His life changed when his father Abdullah Aziz, who headed the Red Mosque, was shot dead by a lone gunman, believed to be from a rival Islamic group. He joined his elder brother, Abdul Aziz, who took over the mosque in 1998 and nominated him as his deputy.

This is where Abdul Rashid Ghazi's route to hardline Islam becomes less open to public scrutiny. There are dark hints of links with Pakistani intelligence services, and then the Taleban in Afghanistan.

What is clear is that by the time the US launched its campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan's President Musharraf chose to support it, Abdul Rashid Ghazi's friends said there was no trace left of the moderate history student.

He had agitated against President Musharraf at that time. Now, years later, he has thrown down another hardline Islamist challenge to the Pakistani president and the forces laying siege to the Red Mosque.

"We will not agree to any condition which makes it appear that we have made the slightest concession or that we have bowed to pressure from the government," he told the BBC. "We would rather die than to make any such concession."

Last Wednesday, his brother Abdul Aziz was caught trying to flee in a burqa, the traditional dress used by Muslim women that covers of the body from head to toe.

But Abdul Rashid Ghazi still remains inside, defying the security forces to launch a frontal attack on the mosque. Such an attack would almost certainly lead to huge casualties, something President Musharraf seems understandably keen to avoid.

The General in His Labyrinth

NY Times editorial - Published: July 9, 2007

America needs to maintain friendly relations with Pakistan. That is exactly why Washington should hasten to disentangle itself from the sinking fortunes of Gen. Pervez Musharraf — a blundering and increasingly unpopular military dictator and a halfhearted strategic ally of the United States.

After 9/11 — fearing he could become a target in President Bush’s declared war on terrorism— General Musharraf agreed to drop his open support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and provide limited intelligence and logistical help to U.S. forces there.

Still, he has done far less than he promised — and far less than is needed. It’s not clear which side his intelligence services are rooting for, while Taliban and Qaeda fighters continue to find shelter and support on Pakistan’s side of the Afghan border. Yesterday, The Times reported that the Bush administration scrubbed a 2005 American attempt to capture Qaeda leaders on Pakistani soil so as not to cause trouble for General Musharraf. Meanwhile, Washington continues to uncritically support the general’s highhanded rule.

We’ve seen this story too many times before. One version starred the shah of Iran, others some of General Musharraf’s predecessors. None ended happily for the United States or the nations involved. Dealing with dictators is sometimes necessary. Clinging to them when their people want them gone is unbecoming of the world’s greatest democracy and unhealthy for America’s long-term interests.

Pakistan is approaching a turning point. Local Taliban militias and their Islamist allies have capitalized on General Musharraf’s appeasement policies and are extending their influence. The middle class is in revolt over the general’s sacking of Pakistan’s chief justice, his attempts at media censorship and his effort to award himself a new presidential term without free and fair elections. Military officers are tired of taking the heat and some are now pressing for a return to civilian government.

General Musharraf may hold on to power a while longer, or he may not. But it is past time for the Bush administration to stop making excuses for the general. Washington needs to make clear to the Pakistani people that America is the ally of their country, not their dictator, and that the United States favors the earliest possible return to free elections and civilian rule.

Six dead soldiers returned to Canadian soil

Updated Sun. Jul. 8 2007 5:31 PM ET Canadian Press

CFB TRENTON, Ont. -- The bodies of six Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan last Wednesday have returned to Canadian soil.

The soldiers' families, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier and other dignitaries were on hand as the military aircraft carrying the bodies landed at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario Sunday afternoon.

Capt. Matthew Dawe, Cpl. Jordan Anderson, Pte. Lane Watkins and Pte. Cole Bartsch were all based at CFB Edmonton.

They died along with Capt. Jefferson Francis from CFB Shilo, Man., and Master Cpl. Colin Bason, a reservist from New Westminster, B.C.

Their armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City -- an Afghan interpreter was also killed in the attack.

Sixty-six Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since the war began in 2002.

Tories soften stance on Afghan mission extension

CanWest News Service - Saturday, July 07, 2007

CALGARY - As the bodies of six Canadian soldiers killed this past week in Afghanistan return home, Conservative MPs said Saturday extending Canada's combat assignment in the war-torn country beyond February 2009 will depend on "consensus" in Parliament.

But Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, in Calgary for the Stampede, insisted there won't be majority support to prolong a mission that's already killed 66 Canadian soldiers since 2002 - most of them in the past 18 months.

While Tory MPs maintain the government is completely committed to the Afghan effort, political analysts said the Tories have undoubtedly softened their support for extending the mission beyond February 2009.

Calgary Southeast MP Jason Kenney said Saturday the Conservative government has not made a decision on whether it wants to extend the mission.

"We need the support of Parliament if we were to seek to extend the mission and the government hasn't decided whether or not it wants to do that yet," Kenney said Saturday.

"This current mission will terminate in February 2009, and whether there's an extension depends on whether there's parliamentary consensus."

The flag-draped coffins carrying the bodies of Capt. Matthew Dawe, 27, Cpl. Cole Bartsch, 23, Cpl. Jordan Anderson, 25, Pte. Lane Watkins, 20, Capt. Jefferson Francis, 37, and Master Cpl. Colin Bason, 28, were loaded onto a military aircraft at the Kandahar Airfield on Friday night as hundreds of solemn coalition troops looked on.

Their bodies are scheduled to arrive Sunday at CFB Trenton in Ontario for a repatriation ceremony. Four other Canadian soldiers were injured early Saturday morning when a suicide bomber struck a coalition convoy, eight kilometres west of Kandahar City.

The injured soldiers were transported by helicopter to the Canadian-led multinational hospital at Kandahar airfield, where two of them were treated and released and two were still undergoing treatment Saturday.

"The injuries sustained by the soldiers are not serious, the soldiers notified their next of kin themselves,"said Maj. Dale MacEachern, a spokesman for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. They were expected to rejoin their unit. The bomber was killed in the attack.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who teamed up with Kenney to flip and serve flapjacks at a Stampede pancake breakfast at a Calgary mall, wouldn't speak to the media.

But Indian Affairs Minister and Calgary MP Jim Prentice, who hosted his own breakfast, echoed Kenney's comments that opposition parties deserve a say in whether to extend the increasingly deadly mission.

"We respect the House of Commons and the other parties will have a point of view on this," Prentice said.

Prentice recognized there is growing public angst as the body count in Afghanistan rises - including the deaths of the six soldiers this past week and the wounding of the others early Saturday - but he hoped the public will continue to support the 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan for the work they're doing to rebuild the country.

"To be sure, there are many questions to be asked after casualties," Prentice added. "But that discussion will crystallize in 2009."

Still, the Tory government's commitment to prolonging the Afghan mission doesn't appear to be as strong as it was in 2006, when the government survived a 149-145 vote in the House of Commons to extend the mission two more years to next February.

"If we need further efforts or a further mandate to go ahead into the future, we will do so alone and we will go to the Canadian people to get that mandate," Harper said in May 2006, following the vote.

But more questions are raised with every soldier who is killed or wounded in the volatile southern region of Afghanistan. The issue is particularly poignant in Alberta, where a large number of the dead soldiers have been based.

Liberal leader Dion is pressing the federal government to notify NATO and the Afghan government that Canada's combat mission in Kandahar will end in February 2009. "We have 18 months to work together for a replacement," Dion said Friday.

New initiatives needed, Afghanistan experts say

Updated Sun. Jul. 8 2007 3:59 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff

The Senlis Council policy group says the work of Canadian soldiers is being undermined in southern Afghanistan because development funds aren't making it to ground level in Kandahar.

Edward McCormick, the country director in Afghanistan for the Senlis Council, told CTV's Question Period that Canada needs to do more to ensure that projects are carried out in the region.

McCormick, who lives in Kandahar, said despite what is being said in the House of Commons, he is seeing few CIDA development projects carried out in southern Afghanistan.

"There may be something going on in the north where areas are more secure, where it has been possible to have schools set up for girls, but it's not happening in the south."

"Instead when I walk into the villages and refugee camps, which I do daily, I'm seeing children dying of starvation." That kind of desperation leads to unrest.

"When we don't enhance the excellent work that the military is doing by providing a positive environment through a variety of initiatives, we are further endangering the troops there. We are undermining their efforts," McCormick said Sunday.

From the military perspective, Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie said the number of NATO troops in Afghanistan needs to be doubled in order to enhance the security of Canada's soldiers and to guarantee the projects that do come about aren't destroyed by the Taliban.

"Any success we have, when we are able to secure an area, when there is another problem and we have to abandon that area and go to another area, than naturally the insurgents move in behind us. You have to keep boots on the ground," MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie said countries such as Spain and Italy need to abandon their "tokenism" efforts and start securing the country. Increasing the number of troops is not only important in aiding development, but will also decrease the amount of civilian casualties.

"When you don't have enough troops on the ground and you can't secure an area, with what you have, often times what you're seeing are the troops that are there are backing out and calling for air strikes," McCormick explained.

"Then what we're seeing is innocent civilians being injured or killed by the bombs."

The Senlis Council is calling on a complete overhaul of the mission so that it is managed to properly complement the Canadian military's efforts in Afghanistan.

International Co-operation Minister Josee Verner maintains evidence of redevelopment is abundant in southern Afghanistan.

"Since last year, we have increased a lot of development projects in Kandahar. I went there in April and I could see the results at that time," Verner told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.

"Of course it's difficult; of course we face challenges in Kandahar, but what I can say is we have increased a lot of our funding in Kandahar this year. As an example, last year only $5 million was spent in Kandahar, but this year it is close to $39 million."

MacKenzie contends that despite the increase in funding, Afghan civilians can't see the progress on the ground and are becoming frustrated.

"CIDA's strategy in the past doesn't play necessarily well in Afghanistan in the hearts and minds direction in that they are funding long term efforts through other large international organizations like the UN for example. So, when the money shows up in the UN, the Canadian flag disappears from it and it becomes a project of someone else," MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie calls for 15,000 more troops

By MERITA ILO, CP - TORONTO -- In the wake of six more Canadian deaths in Afghanistan, a retired army general said the military mission in that country can only be successful if NATO doubles the number of troops on the ground.

"We need more boots on the ground," said retired Canadian major-general Lewis MacKenzie, who has commanded troops in some of the world's most dangerous places.

"I know the commanders (in Afghanistan) can't ask for the numbers they would like because it's politically sensitive to do that, but they need another 15,000 troops, a division in the south, to help the Dutch, the Canadians, the Brits and the Americans do their jobs."

Canada has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, most of them based in the southern province of Kandahar.

MacKenzie insisted the mission has achieved significant successes, citing the return of more than three million refugees to their homes, the opening of 300 new schools and the fact that girls are now free to go to school, something unimaginable under the Taliban.

"Kabul was almost abandoned when I first went there and when I was there last year, it was a bustling city," MacKenzie said. But he is highly critical of NATO's handling of the war in the impoverished country.

MacKenzie said there are more than a million troops available throughout NATO, but only about 35,000 in Afghanistan. He said the ratio of soldiers to the population in an insurgency is the lowest in the history of warfare.

The retired major-general said he is frustrated that NATO has failed to make good on its promise for more troops for the Afghan mission.

"For some reason we have a tiny, tiny force and an alliance that was supposed to preach one for all and all for one -- well, it sure in hell hasn't turned out that way," MacKenzie said.

He says it's clear some NATO members are not doing enough and should step up to the plate. If NATO as an alliance fails to generate the troops necessary, MacKenzie said, "then I would agree that the time has come to part (leave Afghanistan)."

Canada has one of the highest death tolls of any NATO member in Afghanistan, with 66 soldiers killed since 2002. The latest victims were six soldiers killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb.

MacKenzie said the loss of Canadian lives in Afghanistan is something that had to be expected and there have already been warnings by both the Conservative and the former Liberal governments.

"The centre of gravity of this operation are the hearts and minds of the Canadian public. It's just like Vietnam and the American public," said MacKenzie, warning that calls for withdrawal would give the wrong signals to the insurgents. The Afghan society is a warrior society, he said .

"They understand insurgency and they understand where they should attack and attacking the soldiers is an indirect way of attacking the morale of the Canadian public."

A Colombian model for Afghanistan?

By Luis Fajardo - BBC Spanish American Service

Sergeant Sayed Naqib Sadat, a 27-year-old Afghan police sergeant from the province of Kunar, has spent the past 17 weeks learning commando tactics from Colombia's counter-narcotics police.

Speaking of the gruelling training course, which included time spent in the Colombian jungle, he says it was "tough but satisfying".

He is the only Afghan to have graduated from the US-sponsored training programme run by special forces within the Colombian National Police.

Four of his colleagues from Afghanistan's National Interdiction Unit (NIU) dropped out during the training.

Colombia and Afghanistan have several problems in common, including a booming drug trafficking industry and a raging insurgency. Both countries also receive substantial political and military support from the US.

The US hopes that some of the lessons learned in Colombia can be applied to Afghanistan - sponsoring such training is part of the strategy. "We had good training here and good teachers," Sergeant Sadat told BBC News. "The best experience for me was helicopter training. In Afghanistan we need helicopters", he added.

His final test was to take part in a simulated early morning raid against drug dealers hiding in a campsite, 2,650m (6,562ft) high in the mountains .

Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine in the world, has faced a four-decade guerrilla war, with government troops fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other armed rebel groups. Like Afghanistan, profits from the drugs trade fuel political violence.

Since 2000, the US has implemented Plan Colombia, a military and economic assistance programme that has made Bogota the largest recipient of US aid in the western hemisphere. Around $600m a year goes to funding military operations and development projects in drug-growing regions.

The US believes a similar approach could help solve the problems of Afghanistan. To help cement this, US ambassador to Colombia William Wood was moved in April to Kabul, where he took up the post as US envoy.

Contacts between Afghan and Colombian police forces started in 2005. In July that year, the Afghan counter narcotics minister Habibullah Qaderi visited the Colombian capital, Bogota.

A spokesperson from the US embassy there told the BBC that the "educational exchanges had fostered greater co-operation and understanding in countering global drug-trafficking."

The Bush administration often portrays Plan Colombia as a major foreign policy success.

In a congressional hearing last April, Charles S Shapiro, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, praised the "remarkable gains that Colombia, with US and other international support, has made".

These included, according to the official, reversing the rate of growth in illicit crops, reducing kidnappings and murders, and improving the state of the economy.

However, sceptics argue that it is wrong to try to replicate in Afghanistan strategies that have not been conclusively proven to be effective in Colombia.

In particular, they claim that after nearly $4.7bn and seven years of Washington's assistance to Bogota, there is still no significant reduction in the availability of cocaine on the streets of the US.

Adam Isaacson, a Colombia expert at the Center for International Policy, a Washington think-tank, told the BBC that Plan Colombia had been a "perfect failure" in its fight against drugs. He predicted a similar failure if the same tactics were applied to Afghanistan.

According to Mr Isaacson, while Colombia's counter-narcotics police forces are well-trained, they are operating in territory in which there is very little state presence. He said the same is true in Afghanistan.

"Sending in a few eradicators who come in and then leave, will not solve the problem in either country," he says.

Minister says Germany should strengthen Afghan role

BERLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany should strengthen its military training mission in Afghanistan, although some lawmakers in his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) want a withdrawal of troops.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine to be published on Monday, Steinmeier said any reduction in the number of German troops in the NATO mission to Afghanistan would be problematic.

"During the course of the summer, we're going to have to discuss strengthening Germany's engagement with the training of the Afghan army," Steinmeier said. "Obviously, I'll first be speaking about that with Defence Minister (Franz Josef Jung)."

Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to countenance reducing participation in the NATO-led mission. Some lawmakers in her conservative Christian Democrats even want to send more troops. But some members of her SPD coalition partner want a full withdrawal and many are pushing for Germany to at least slim down its role.

More than 20 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, making the mission increasingly unpopular in Germany. A recent poll showed that nearly two thirds of Germans want to bring their troops home.

Germany's NATO peacekeeping mandate permits the deployment of up to 3,500 troops as part of the alliance's 40,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The SPD is lagging behind Merkel's conservatives and is hoping to boost its performance in polls by returning to its traditional role as Germany's peace party -- a position that is threatened by the rise of the new pacifist Left party.

Steinmeier recently said it may be time to look critically at Germany's mandate and possibly change it.

But in the interview with Der Spiegel, he said: "Any reduction in our engagement would be in principle very difficult to explain, no matter what individual aspect would be affected."

[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.]