In this bulletin:

• 12 school children killed in Afghan blast
• UN criticises Afghan insurgents
• Top UN envoy condemns suicide blast in Afghanistan
• As War Enters Classrooms, Fear Grips Afghans
• US soldier said not killed in Afghan army dispute that left two dead
• Residents of central Afghan province say nomad influx now a crisis
• Situation in Afghanistan "extremely critical" - German documents
• No plans to extend Afghanistan mission: PM
• Kandahar elders say Canadians setting example for international troops
• Ban on detainee details `undemocratic': Critics
• NATO Didn’t Lose Afghanistan
• Criticism over diplomatic post for Afghan counter-narcotics minister
• Poppy Seeds of Discontent
• Afghans caught in the middle
• Bush Reaffirms Support for Musharraf
• Fighting bothers EU
• US must ditch ‘blundering’ Musharraf: NYT
• Think Tank Report Faults Pakistani Military
• Pakistani Cleric Pushed Agenda Too Far
• Editorial: Lessons of Lal Masjid
• Pakistan pledges security for Chinese after murders

12 school children killed in Afghan blast

BBC - 07/10/2007 - Seventeen people, including 12 schoolchildren, have been killed in a suicide bombing in south Afghanistan, the country's interior ministry says.

Another 30 people were injured, some seriously, in the attack on a market place in Dehrawood in Uruzgan province, where Taleban militants are active.

The bomber blew himself up near a Nato-led convoy, police said. The Nato-led international force (Isaf) said seven of its soldiers were among the injured.

If the death toll is confirmed, this would be the third deadliest bomb attack in Afghanistan this year, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul.

Many children were caught in the explosion as they were leaving classes near a crowded bazaar in Dehrawood.

A Nato spokesman told the BBC he believed more than a dozen people had been killed and that Isaf troops were among the wounded. The wounded were all being treated at an Isaf medical centre. Some of them were said to be in a serious condition.

Isaf had earlier said that at least six people had been killed in the attack.
The Nato spokesman said the attack showed a "wanton disregard" for the safety of civilians. The bombing contradicted recent public calls by insurgents that civilian casualties should be avoided, he said.

Isaf has not given the nationalities of its injured troops, but most of its contingent in Uruzgan comes from The Netherlands.

Less than a month ago, another suicide attack in the same province killed at least 10 people including a Dutch soldier. More than 6,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence in the past 18 months.

Uruzgan was also the scene of heavy fighting last month between Afghan and foreign forces on the one hand and Taleban rebels on the other.

About 90 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most in combat for the Nato-led military force Isaf in the country's south.

Correspondents say the south of the country this year has seen the worst violence since the Taleban were ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led international coalition.

UN criticises Afghan insurgents

By Charles Haviland - BBC News, Kabul

The United Nations in Afghanistan has accused insurgents of acting with a "staggering disregard" for civilian lives and "perpetrating mass murder".

The statement comes a day after a suicide bombing in the south of the country killed 17 people. The Afghan interior ministry said 12 of the dead were school children.

The bomber blew himself up in a crowded marketplace in Uruzgan province near a convoy of Nato-led international force (Isaf) wounding eight soldiers.

The UN secretary-general's special representative in Kabul, Tom Koenigs, said that such disregard for "innocent lives" was staggering.

He said there had been heavy violation of international humanitarian laws and that there could be no excuse for this "mass murder".

Mr Koenigs said the UN mission had repeatedly stressed the need for all sides to prevent civilian casualties.

Many civilians have also been killed in actions by international and Afghan government forces in recent months. They have repeatedly said such deaths are a mistake.

Reports quote a Taleban rebel spokesman as saying the attack in Uruzgan was "bravely carried out by one of its fighters".

Isaf described the attack as inhuman and despicable. Reports said many children were caught in the explosion as they were leaving classes near a crowded bazaar in Dehrawood.

Less than a month ago, another suicide attack in the same province killed at least 10 people including a Dutch soldier. More than 6,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence in the past 18 months.

Uruzgan was also the scene of heavy fighting last month between Afghan and foreign forces on the one hand and Taleban rebels on the other.

Top UN envoy condemns suicide blast in Afghanistan

UN News Center - 10 July 2007 – The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has expressed his outrage over today’s terrorist attack in Uruzgan province resulting in several deaths and injuries, stating that such utter disregard for innocent lives is “staggering” and makes a “mockery” of recent statements indicating concern for the safety of civilians.

“In no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for mass murder,” Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said in a statement.

Mr. Koenigs, who is also head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan ( UNAMA), added that today’s incident underscores UNAMA’s deep concern about the use of suicide attacks.

He voiced particular concern at reports of a large number of children being among the dead, and noted that the mission has “stressed repeatedly the need for all sides in this conflict to do their utmost to prevent harm coming to civilians.”

Mr. Koenigs said today’s attack represents a “heavy violation” of international humanitarian and human rights laws, and stressed that those behind it must be held responsible.

Afghanistan has witnessed a string of attacks in recent weeks, constituting some of the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, including an attempt on the life of President Hamid Karzai, the bombing of a bus carrying police trainers, shootings outside a girls’ school and the murder of prominent female Afghan journalists.

Today’s attack also drew criticism from the UN Children’s Fund ( UNICEF), whose Representative in Afghanistan spoke out against continued attacks against schools and schoolchildren.

“UNICEF is concerned by these incidents and the intimidation in some communities aimed at stopping families from sending children to school,” Catherine Mbengue said in a statement. “Schools of course are a visible sign of reconstruction and progress, and there are those who perhaps fear such progress.”

Over the past couple of days, rockets fired by militants struck a primary school in Kunar province, killing one child instantly and injuring three other children, and a school in Ghor province was burnt down.

UNICEF continues to be in discussion with local leaders, village elders and religious leaders to identify ways in which education can be continued, she said, adding that the agency stands ready to support any initiative “that will keep children learning in safety.”

As War Enters Classrooms, Fear Grips Afghans

NY Times - By BARRY BEARAK Published: July 10, 2007

QALAI SAYEDAN, Afghanistan, July 9 — With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

The staccato of machine-gun fire pelted through the stillness. A 13-year-old named Shukria was hit in the arm and the back, and then teetered into the soft brown of an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl’s precious breath and trying to help her stand.

But Shukria was too heavy to lift, and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they already had shot, killing Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart. Then the attackers seemed to succumb to the frenzy they had begun, forsaking the motorbike and fleeing on foot in a panic, two bobbing heads — one tucked into a helmet, the other swaddled by a handkerchief — vanishing amid the earthen color of the wheat.

Six students were shot here on the afternoon of June 12, two of them fatally. The Qalai Sayedan School — considered among the very best in the central Afghan province of Logar — reopened only last weekend, but even with Kalashnikov-toting guards at the gate, only a quarter of the 1,600 students have dared to return.

Shootings, beheadings, burnings and bombings: these are all tools of intimidation used by the Taliban and others to shut down hundreds of Afghanistan’s public schools. To take aim at education is to make war on the government.

Parents are left with peculiar choices. “It is better for my children to be alive even if it means they must be illiterate,” said Sayed Rasul, a father who had decided to keep his two daughters at home for a day.

Afghanistan surely has made some progress toward development, but most often the nation seems astride some pitiable rocking horse, with each lurch forward inevitably reversed by the backward spring of harsh reality.

The schools are one vivid example. The Ministry of Education claims that 6.2 million children are now enrolled, or about half the school-age population. And while statistics in Afghanistan can be unreliably confected, there is no doubt that attendance has multiplied far beyond that of any earlier time, with uniformed children now teeming through the streets each day, flooding classrooms in two and three shifts.

A third of these students are girls, a marvel itself. Historically, girls’ education has been undervalued in Afghan culture. Girls and women were forbidden from school altogether during the Taliban rule.

But after 30 years of war, this is a country without normal times to reclaim; in so many ways, Afghanistan must start from scratch. The accelerating demand for education is mocked by the limited supply. More than half the schools have no buildings, according to the Ministry of Education; classes are commonly held in tents or beneath trees or in the brutal, sun-soaked openness.

Only 20 percent of the teachers are even minimally qualified. Texts are outdated; hundreds of titles need to be written, and millions of books need to be printed. And then there is the violence. In the southern provinces where the Taliban are most aggressively combating American and NATO troops, education has virtually come to a halt in large swaths of the contested regions. In other areas, attacks against schools are sporadic, unpredictable and perplexing.

By the ministry’s estimate, there have been 444 attacks since last August. Some of these were simple thefts. Some were instances of tents put to the torch. Some were audacious murders under the noon sun.

“By attacking schools, the terrorists want to make the point of their own existence,” said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the minister of education.

Western-educated and notably energetic, Mr. Atmar is the nation’s fifth education minister in five and a half years, but only the first to command the solid enthusiasm of international donors. Much of the government is awash in corruption and cronyism. But Mr. Atmar comes to the job after a much-praised showing as the minister of rural redevelopment.

He has laid out an ambitious five-year plan for school construction, teacher training and a modernized curriculum. He is also championing a parallel track of madrasas, or religious schools; students would focus on Islamic studies while also pursuing science, math and the arts. “This society needs faith-based education, and we will be happy to provide it without teaching violence and the abuse of human rights,” Mr. Atmar said.

To succeed, the minister must prove a magnet for foreign cash. And donors have not been unusually generous when it comes to schools. Since the fall of the Taliban, the United States Agency for International Development has devoted only 5 percent of its Afghanistan budget to education, compared with 30 percent for roads and 14 percent for power.

Virtually every Afghan school is a sketchbook of extraordinary destitution. “I have 68 girls sitting in this tent,” said Nafisa Wardak, a first-grade teacher at the Deh Araban Qaragha School in Kabul. “We’re hot. The tent is full of flies. The wind blows sand and garbage everywhere. If a child gets sick, where can I send her?”

The nation’s overwhelming need for walled classrooms makes the killings in Qalai Sayedan all the more tragic. The school welcomed boys through grade 6 and girls through grade 12. It was terribly overcrowded, with the 1,600 students, attending in two shifts, stuffed into 12 classrooms and a corridor.

But the building itself was exactly that: two stories of concrete with a roof of galvanized steel, and not a collection of weather-molested tents. Two years ago, Qalai Sayedan was named the top school in the province. Its principal, Bibi Gul, was saluted for excellence and rewarded with a trip to America.

But last month’s attack on the school caused parents to wonder if the school’s stalwart reputation had not itself become a source of provocation. Qalai Sayedan is 40 miles south of Kabul, and while a dozen other schools in Logar Province have been attacked, none has been as regularly, or malignly, singled out. Three years ago, Qalai Sayedan was struck by rockets during the night. A year ago, explosives tore off a corner of the building.

In the embassies of the West, and even within the Education Ministry in Kabul, the Taliban are commonly discussed as a monolithic adversary. But to the villagers here, with the lives of their children at risk, it is too simplistic to assume the attacks were merely part of some broad campaign of terror.

People see the government’s enemies as a varied lot with assorted grievances, assorted tribal connections and assorted masters. Villagers ask, has anyone at the school provided great offense? Is the school believed to be un-Islamic?

At the village mosque, many men blame Ms. Gul, the principal. “She should not have gone to America without the consultation of the community,” said Sayed Abdul Sami, the uncle of Saadia, the other slain student. “And she went to America without a mahram, a male relative to accompany her, and this is considered improper in Islam.”

Sayed Enayatullah Hashimi, a white-bearded elder, said the school had flaunted its success too openly. “The governor paid it a visit,” he said disparagingly. “He brought with him 20 bodyguards, and these men went all over the school — even among the older girls.”

Education is the fast track to modernity. And modernity is held with suspicion.

Off the main highway, 100 yards up the winding dirt road and through the blue metal gate, sits the school. It was built four years ago by the German government.

On Monday, Ms. Gul greeted hundreds of children as they fidgeted in the morning light: “Dear boys and brave girls, thank you for coming. The enemy has done its evil deeds, but we will never allow the doors of this school to close again.”

These would be among her final moments as their principal. She had already resigned. “My heart is crying,” she said privately. “But I must leave because of everything that people say. They say I received letters warning about the attacks. But that isn’t so. And people say I am a foreigner because I went to the United States without a mahram. We were 12 people. I’m 42 years old. I don’t need to travel with a mahram.”

In the village, she wears a burqa, enveloped head to toe in lavender fabric. This is a conservative place. For some, the very idea of girls attending school into their teens is a breach of tradition.

Shukria, the slain 13-year-old, was considered a polite girl who reverently studied the Koran. Saadia, the other student killed, was remarkable in that she was married and 25. She had refused to let age discourage her from finishing an education interrupted by the Taliban years. She was about to graduate.

A new sign now sits atop the steel roof. The Qalai Sayedan School has been renamed the Martyred Saadia School. Another place will be called Martyred Shukria.

For three days now, students have been asked to return to class. Each morning, more of them appear. Older girls and women are quite clearly the most reluctant to return.

Shukria’s home is only a short walk from the school. Nafiza, the girl’s mother, was still too scalded with grief to mutter more than a few words. Shukria’s uncle, Shir Agha, took on the role of family spokesman.

“We have a saying that if you go to school, you can find yourself, and if you can find yourself, you can find God,” he said proudly. “But for a child to attend school, there must be security. Who supplies that security?”

Zarmina, the 12-year-old who had seen her sister killed, was called into the room. She was not ready to return to school, she said. Even the sound of a motorbike now made her hide. But surely the fear would subside, her uncle reassured her. She must remember that she loves school, that she loves to read, that she loves to scribble words on paper.

Someday, she would surely resume her studies, he told her. But the heartbroken girl could not yet imagine this. “Never,” she said.

US soldier said not killed in Afghan army dispute that left two dead

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 10 July

[Presenter] The attack by a national army soldier on his fellow soldier in Herat Army Corps No 207 yesterday was not a deliberate act, but occurred after an argument.

A Defence Ministry spokesman has rejected the involvement of insurgents in the incident.

[Correspondent] The clash occurred between two national army soldiers in Herat Army Corps No 207 and led to the death of two soldiers and the injury of eight others.

The Defence Ministry spokesman says the attacking soldier suffered from mental problems and that this was the main cause of the argument and the armed attack.

[Gen Zaher Azimi, Defence Ministry spokesman] The two men were in the same car and argued inside the car. They then stop and got out of the car somewhere at the army corps. A fight started. One of the soldiers opened the car, took out the weapon that belonged to the driver sitting inside the car and shot dead the soldier. The man tried to escape, but other soldiers around the area ran after him. He shots at them, killing one and wounding a few others.

[Correspondent] Some media reports say two US soldiers were also wounded in the incident, one of whom has died of his injuries. The Defence Ministry spokesman rejects the report.

Residents of central Afghan province say nomad influx now a crisis

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 10 July

[Presenter] A number of residents of Behsud District of Maidan Wardag Province, at a gathering at the International Press Centre, protested against the influx of members of Kochi [nomad] tribe to their district. They asked the government to look into the crisis seriously.

The protestors say the government and other relevant organizations have so far not done anything to address the crisis.

[Correspondent] The protestors accuse the nomads of armed attacks, and say three residents of the district have been killed, 12 others wounded in shootings by nomads, eight arrested by the nomads, tens of schools, mosques, and Shiite mosques have closed down and more than a hundred houses looted since the beginning of the incident in Behsud.

They asked the government to look into the crisis, which they describe as an invasion by nomads into the territory of the Hazara people.

[Aziz Royesh, representative of people of Behsud] The relevant authorities have so far not acted seriously to address the problem. What we are saying today, and will mention at the general gathering the day after tomorrow, is that we have to raise our voice and inform the relevant authorities who are in charge of looking into the problem.

[Correspondent] The chairman of the council of nomads says the problem should be addressed by the parliamentary speaker and chief justice.

[Hashmat Ghazni Ahmadzai, chairman, council of nomads] The only way out of the problem is for the president to assign the parliamentary speaker and head of the Supreme Court to sit and talk to both sides. They should try to satisfy the nomads, who have legal ownership documents, and the Hazara brothers, who have property there. Those who have legal documents should be given some property instead. The problem with figures should also be addressed.

[Correspondent] The protestors reiterated that the nomads should leave their areas.

President: Iran ready for unlimited contribution to Afghan reconstruction - Tehran , July 10, IRNA

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that there is no limit for Iran's contribution into progress and welfare of the innocent Afghan people.

"The government, parliament and people of Afghanistan should launch constant activities for renovation and reconstruction of Afghanistan and rebuild a country the Afghan nation deserves," said President Ahmadinejad in a meeting with Afghan ambassador to Tehran Yahya Marufi.

President Ahmadinejad said enemies' ill-nature attempts to block Afghan progress would not be effective.

Marufi, presenting his credentials to President Ahmadinejad, lauded the leading role of Iran in Afghan reconstruction and said Kabul has always been favoring close ties with Iran, seeking Iranian experience in the area of reconstruction.

Situation in Afghanistan "extremely critical" - German documents

Text of report by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag on 8 July

[Report by "pm": "Documents Say Situation in Afghanistan Extremely Critical"]

Five and a half years after the expulsion of the Taleban, the Foreign Ministry and the Defence Ministry have assessed the situation in Afghanistan and the prospects of reconstruction as extremely critical. This follows from internal documents of which Welt am Sonntag has copies.

"All in all, not only a quantitative increase of attacks in Afghanistan can be seen, but the activities of the militant opposition have become more refined and more subtle also in qualitative terms," a report of the Foreign Ministry on the security policy situation in Afghanistan dated early July reads. It goes on: "The tactics of the militant opposition to retreat into populated areas after attacks on the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), using the civilian population to protect itself, has confronted the international troops with an almost unsolvable problem." According to another document, on the three days from 22 to 24 June alone, ISAF recorded a total of 72 attacks.

This assessment will certainly heat up the debate on the extension of the deployment of the 3,150 Bundeswehr troops. The Bundestag will have to make a decision in the fall. Support, particularly in the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is crumbling. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) has again come out in support of the mandate and a stronger German engagement in training Afghan armed forces. Their poor condition is also mentioned in the documents as a problem.

No plans to extend Afghanistan mission: PM

Jason Fekete, Calgary Herald - Canada.com July 10, 2007

CALGARY - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday his government has no plans to prolong Canada's combat role in Afghanistan beyond its February 2009 commitment, arguing any extension would be for a new mission and contingent upon beefed-up NATO support.

Harper reaffirmed his government's plans to seek a "reasonable degree" of parliamentary support before considering any extension to the current Afghan mission or agreeing to a new one.

But when asked whether he has any desire to prolong the combat mission in southern Afghanistan beyond 2009, Harper said: "No."

"I think Canadians are expecting that if we're in Afghanistan after 2009, it would be a new mission," Harper told a Calgary radio talk show on Tuesday. "Canadians have been fairly clear that if we were to be in after 2009, that they would expect our participation to evolve in some way."

That evolution requires NATO to substantially increase the number of its soldiers in the country from the roughly 30,000 currently stationed there, he said.

Additional NATO forces would be a critical factor in renewing Canada's mission in Afghanistan or pursuing a new commitment in the country beyond February 2009, the prime minister added.

"The truth of the matter is NATO still is not putting in near the amount of forces that are necessary to really bring permanent stability to Afghanistan," Harper said. "Canadians have been clear they want to see a more equitable burden-sharing in Afghanistan."

Dutch NATO troops patrolling a crowded bazaar in southern Afghanistan were the intended target Tuesday of a suicide bomber who killed 17 Afghan civilians, including 12 school children. Some 30 people, including seven Dutch soldiers, were wounded in the attack.

Back in Canada, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said Harper is lying to Canadians when he suggests his government won't continue its combat role beyond February 2009.

The prime minister, he argued, is only selling the message to woo voters who are becoming increasingly concerned with a mission that's already killed 66 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat since 2002.

"I don't believe the prime minister. He's given the signal from Day 1 that he wants to extend it," Coderre said in an interview. The government, he noted, has invested billions in new military equipment that won't be delivered until 2009 or later.

Some political observers have suggested the Harper government has softened its stance in recent weeks on whether to extend the Afghanistan mission due to eroding public support.

David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said Harper would almost certainly extend the mission if he had a majority government.

But he's rethinking his strategy as it becomes clear there won't be majority support in the House of Commons for the initiative, and might be publicly negotiating with the Liberals and NATO, he said.

"He's clearly feeling a lot of heat from the public opinion polls," Bercuson said Tuesday. "If he's asking himself what's more important - that I maintain governance or that I get approval for a combat mission, then a combat mission is coming second."

Harper said he doubts the NDP will agree to an extension or any new role, but suggested the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois "have given some signals" they're open to some degree of Canadian involvement in the Afghanistan mission.

Coderre said it's "inappropriate" to pull Canada's 2,500 troops out of southern Afghanistan prior to 2009, as the NDP have suggested. He concurred with Harper that any continued military effort in the war-torn country would require a new mission for Canadian troops.

"We don't want to abandon Afghanistan. Rotation is in order," he said.

And while the country's involvement in future Afghan missions remains uncertain, the prime minister served notice his government will continue to expand Canada's military presence in the Arctic and exercise its sovereignty in the region.

"Some countries, even our friends, have been less than fully accepting of our sovereignty claim so we want to make sure that Canada is present there at all levels," Harper said. "You can't assert sovereignty in this world unless you have a military presence prepared to defend that sovereignty."

Harper revealed this week the government will purchase up to eight Polar Class 5 Arctic offshore patrol ships and establish a deep water port in the Arctic.

Kandahar elders say Canadians setting example for international troops

July 11, 2007 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Chaos created by international troops roaring through Kandahar City on military convoys needs to be reigned in, Afghan elders said Tuesday, and they're counting on Canada's military leadership to do the job.

The elders applauded Canadian efforts to make connections with civilians on the ground, such as a simple yet profound gesture to honour the families of two Afghans killed by coalition troops.

Canadian troops weren't involved in the men's deaths earlier this month. But a presentation made by Canadian soldiers to compensate their families won the respect of several local elders who say Canada should teach other international forces to respect Afghan customs.

"We know that when a suicide bomb hits a Canadian convoy, the Canadians aren't going to start shooting at everyone on the streets," said Kandahar's provincial governor Asadullah Khalid.

"But we must be able to say that of other forces as well."

City elders, along with provincial and national politicians, met Tuesday with Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canada's current mission in Afghanistan, to discuss ways to mitigate the impact of military convoys on the residents of Kandahar City.

Soldiers are visibly tense when riding through the city, the only route available to reach several of the main highways in the region. Cluttered with traffic, the routes present all manner of potential threats.

The sudden sight of massive military vehicles bearing down on Kandahar's rough-hewn streets sends a jumble of jingle-trucks, donkey-driven carriages and taxicabs down side alleys and into gutters. Still, despite bright-red signs warning locals to stay back, occasionally some do stray into the path of the armoured convoys.

Convoys have been breached by suicide bombers, such as one who struck a Canadian convoy over the weekend outside the city. Four Canadians were injured in the blast.

But sometimes civilians can get caught in the convoy conga lines. Elders said that's what happened to the two men who were shot dead by coalition troops on July 2.

The official International Security Assistance Force report on the incident says a motorcyclist approached a convoy in a threatening manner and was shot in the ankle. Locals say the two men were killed in ensuing fire.

The incident is under investigation by British forces, Grant told elders Tuesday, but a spokesman for Regional Command South, the governing body for international efforts in the southern part of Afghanistan, said he was unaware of two civilians being killed that day.

Grant said he had spoken to the commander of the British forces who was both angry and sad about what happened. "He told me he is being very aggressive with his troops and the soldiers are heartbroken," Grant told the gathering.

As a gesture of respect, Grant decided to present the two families with several items customarily given to those who have had a family member killed.

He said the fact that the incident happened in Canada's area of control meant it was the right the thing to do. The military spent about C$700 on the items, which included bags of rice, tea, sugar and two sheep.

"They were pleased we were making the effort, but still angry because the circumstances were preventable," said Capt. Kent MacRae, an operations officer for the Civil-Military Co-operation Team, who presented the items to the families.

"We are not upset that people help us," said Zaland, an engineer and local elder who goes by his first name. "But we are upset that people hurt our honour and our culture. We don't want history to get repeated."

At Tuesday's meeting, elders said a priority is to build a bypass road around the city to give coalition forces another way to reach the main highways. They also urged convoys to start travelling only at night, when traffic in the city is lighter.

"We feel that Canadian forces are different than other forces," said Khalid, "and the issue we have right now is to work with you and with international troops to find a solution to this problem."

American and British officials have approached Canadians to receive training on tactics for navigating Kandahar's crowded streets, said Grant.

"They are very comfortable that we are operating effectively in the city, more effectively than they are," he said in an interview. "The end result of some of the other allies moving through Kandahar City have been catastrophic."

Last December, two people died and five were wounded when British soldiers opened fire after their convoy came under attack. Countless more civilians have been killed and wounded after suicide bombers targeted international troops.

Grant said a key solution lies in getting the southern bypass built to get soldiers off roads where there is a high chance of civilian contact. "If we can get them out of the city and into a proper paved road outside the city, it will go a long, long way," he said.

Negotiations on building the road continue, with the Afghan government required to navigate the thorny issue of land rights to secure the space to build the road.

Elders have also suggested that all international convoys be accompanied at the front and back by Afghan National Police. The issue of civilian casualties is reaching a boiling point in Kandahar, said Shakiba Hashimi, a member of the national parliament.

"People have lost their dear ones for nothing," she said. "There is still unemployment and so much sadness. If this does not stop, we will protest like they did in Kabul and make the international forces pay attention."

Tuesday's meeting was a highlight of Canadian-Afghan relations, with local elders clearly feeling comfortable enough with Canada's military mission in the city to approach them to discuss the problems in the city, even though the problems were not directly caused by Canadians.

Grant called it proof Canadians are winning the trust of Afghans and said he hopes it is a relationship that will continue to grow.

Ban on detainee details `undemocratic': Critics

July 10, 2007 - Richard Brennan - OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA–Canada's Conservative government and military should be ashamed they are undermining the very democracy they say they're fighting for in Afghanistan, critics say.

Liberal MP Denis Coderre (Bourassa) said yesterday it is "shocking" the military has unilaterally put a gag order on any information relating to detainees captured in Afghanistan – all in the name of national security. "It is shocking. It is totally undemocratic," the former Liberal immigration minister said.

"Just because this information has now become embarrassing to the government is not a valid reason to withhold information from the Canadian public. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor must take responsibility for this decision and his role in it," Coderre said.

During the last session of Parliament, O'Connor and his government were dogged with controversy over the treatment of detainees it was turning over to Afghan officials.

O'Connor was forced to apologize after misleading MPs and Canadians on the role of the Red Cross in monitoring the treatment of detainees who had been captured by Canadians and handed over to the Afghan authorities.

It was revealed yesterday that, on direct "guidance" from military brass, National Defence director of Access to Information Julie Jansen is refusing to release any information that in any way deals with detainees.

Even documents that had been previously released are now being blocked, since the Official Opposition began raising this issue in the House of Commons in March. Jansen was unavailable for comment.

NDP MP Alexa McDonough (Halifax) said she finds it "quite frightening that they would put a blanket order on all information on detainees. "It just adds to the crisis of confidence that Canadians are already having about the war in Afghanistan," she said.

McDonough accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government of preaching democracy to suit the occasion but practising the opposite when it comes to giving information to Canadians.

A spokesperson for the Information and Privacy Commission said it would first have to receive a complaint before it would review Jansen's blanket decision. Coderre called on the embattled O'Connor to be transparent on the issue. O'Connor couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

NATO Didn’t Lose Afghanistan

By SARAH CHAYES - Kandahar, Afghanistan

WHEN things go wrong — touchdown passes are missed, products come out defective, wars are lost — it is typical to blame the equipment, or the help. In the case of the unraveling situation in Afghanistan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has become the favorite whipping boy of American officials and military personnel. NATO countries aren’t sending enough troops, we hear. Those who do arrive are constrained by absurd caveats that prevent them from engaging in combat. NATO lost Helmand Province to the Taliban.

In fact, after watching rotation after military rotation cycle through here since late 2001, I see NATO as an improvement over its American predecessors.

One key difference is NATO’s training program, born of the challenge of gathering troops from different countries, speaking different languages, into a cohesive fighting force. In March, I joined about a dozen civilians who had lived and worked in Kandahar for years at the final training exercise for the NATO officers who recently took over Afghanistan’s Regional Command South. We spent 10 days briefing them, fielding their questions on everything from tribal relations to the electricity supply, eating meals with them and playing roles in a simulation of three days in southern Afghanistan.

“Uh ... we’ve got a bit of a situation here,” I heard one of my fellow teachers, an Australian who was a top United Nations security official, say calmly into the phone. He threw me a wink. He was starting the simulation by reporting the sounds of a large detonation and small arms fire. Later, on another line to an officer training to run public information, a sociological researcher played the role of a journalist, her voice incredulous: “Are you sure you want to say that?”

With the help of these seasoned civilians, experienced NATO officers and some Afghans, the new team was rigorously tested on the many aspects of its mission that go beyond combat tactics. Three months later, after these trainees had taken up their new jobs, the training staff traveled to Kandahar to debrief them to learn which aspects of the training had been useful and which needed improvement.

Given the constant disruption caused by short troop rotations, competent training is key to improving officers’ effectiveness as soon as they hit the ground.

The American troops’ training, in contrast, seemed ad hoc, usually carried out by each unit on its own, rather than by a dedicated training staff. And it involved very few civilians, despite the crucial humanitarian and political aspects of the mission here. (I have occasionally been invited to address American officers, but only when a friend in the unit has convinced a commander that I might have something to offer.)

NATO’s second advantage is continuity, despite its multinational makeup. I observed rivalry between American units lead to confusing policy reversals each time new troops came in. The best American commanders were those who understood that Afghanistan is no toy-soldier battlefield, that they would have to bone up on anthropology, diplomacy and civil engineering. But such commanders were rare, and their replacements — seeking to make their own mark — usually undid their work within weeks.

NATO has tried to reduce the disruption of replacing troops and officers en masse. Rotations are staggered. This may cause some logistical headaches, but it reduces abrupt changes in direction.

But if NATO is doing better than the United States, why is Afghanistan doing worse? The answer is twofold. NATO was brought in too late, and under false pretenses.

Within days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, NATO voted to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty — its core principle, which states that an armed attack on one member will be viewed by the others as an attack on themselves. Never before in the history of the organization had the principle been activated. The American reaction was thanks but no thanks. Our government was sure we could go it alone in Afghanistan, that allies would be an inconvenience.

In 2003, NATO moved peacekeeping forces into Kabul and parts of northern Afghanistan. But not until 2005, when it was clear that the United States was bogged down in Iraq and lacked sufficient resources to fight on two fronts, did Washington belatedly turn to NATO to take the Afghan south off its hands. And then it misrepresented the situation our allies would find there. NATO was basically sold a beefed-up peacekeeping mission. It was told, in effect, that it would simply need to maintain the order the United States had established and to help with reconstruction and security.

In fact, as was clear from the ground, the situation had been deteriorating since late 2002. By 2004, resurgent Taliban were making a concerted push to enter the country from Pakistan, and intensive combat between American forces and Taliban fighters was taking place north of Kandahar. By 2005, top Afghan officials could be blown up in downtown Kandahar without drawing much of a reaction from either the Afghan government or ours. Notorious drug lords governed the three main southern provinces to which we were dispatching our allies. It was the bloodiest and most belligerent situation since the fall of the Taliban.

NATO should have been brought in from the start and given the kind of muscular peacekeeping mission it learned to conduct in the Balkans. Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, begged for peacekeepers, spread throughout the country, in those early years when they could still have made a difference.

Having snubbed our allies when we should have accepted their help, and having stuck them with the most difficult, yet most strategically critical, part of Afghanistan, the least we could do now is offer gratitude and support, rather than blame our friends for our own follies.

Sarah Chayes is the author of “The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban.”

Criticism over diplomatic post for Afghan counter-narcotics minister

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 10 July

[Presenter] The reasons for the resignation of Habibollah Qaderi, the former minister of counter-narcotics, are still unclear.

Mr Qaderi resigned from his post for health reasons two days ago. He has been appointed as Afghan general consul in Canada.

A number of analysts say the government should act with full caution in appointing Afghan diplomats abroad.

[Correspondent] The Counter-Narcotics Ministry said Habibollah Qaderi had resigned for health reasons, but the main reasons for Qaderi's resignation are still not clear.

A number of analysts have criticized the government for appointing him as the Afghan general consul in Canada. They say the government should observe meritocracy in its foreign policy.

[Latif Pedram, political analyst] If the esteemed minister of counter-narcotics was really sick, and if someone cannot carry out his job for health reasons, they should, of course, not be sent as general consul to an important country like Canada. They also need to work there and carry out their duties.

[Mir Ahmad Joyenda, MP] In addition to observing meritocracy in our internal policies, in our foreign policy too, we should appoint people who can change our foreign policy from a defensive policy to an insistent [Dari: Tarozi] one. I am against the government policy of appointing a minister or head of an organization at a diplomatic mission abroad just because the esteemed minister or head of department is no longer working in his previous department or ministry.

[Correspondent] We tried to contact the Foreign Ministry for their reaction to this, but could not get through.

There were previous rumours about the dismissal or reshuffle of some ministers. The minister of counter-narcotics was also one of the ministers assumed to be part of the reshuffles. The government has so far not introduced anyone for the post.

Poppy Seeds of Discontent

From Afghanistan, a Sobering Look at the Eradication Game

By Peter Carlson - Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Driving around Afghanistan in a white Ford pickup truck, heading off to rip up some farmer's poppy fields, David Lockyear, an American contractor with a goatee and lots of tattoos, was having a blast.

"This is redneck heaven," he said. "You get to run around the desert on ATVs and pickups, shoot guns and get paid for it. Man, it's the perfect job!"

The next day, the job got a little tougher when Taliban guerrillas ambushed American eradicators, starting a four-hour firefight that left at least eight people dead. Caught in the middle of the battle was one of the world's best war correspondents, Jon Lee Anderson, who lived to tell the tale in a terrific but disturbing story in the July 9 and 16 issue of the New Yorker.

Anderson has spent much of this millennium covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in dispatches published first in the New Yorker and then in his widely praised books "The Lion's Grave" and "The Fall of Baghdad." He's a brave, smart reporter with a great eye for detail and a straightforward writing style that gives the reader a feel of what it's like to be there. His portrait of the current state of the war in Afghanistan will not leave you feeling optimistic.

In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, driving out the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden while he plotted the 9/11 attacks. But in the last two years, the Taliban has made a comeback and now controls large portions of the country. Their resurgence was bankrolled by an alliance with the opium trade: The Taliban protects farmers from the U.S.-backed opium eradication program, Anderson writes, in return for a cut of the profits.

This spring, Anderson hooked up with a team of 40 Americans working for DynCorp, a Virginia-based company hired by the U.S. government to help eradicate the Afghan opium crop, which happens to be the main source of cash for many of the country's farmers. On the first day, the Americans, aided by some Afghan policemen, started tearing up fields of opium poppies while the local farmers watched, sullen and angry.

"You've made a big mistake," one farmer told them.

That statement proved prophetic. The next day, as the Americans continued ripping up fields, they were attacked by Taliban fighters and driven from the area. For the next 10 days, the Americans stayed in their camp, lifting weights, watching DVDs and surfing the Web.

Anderson used this lull to go out and do some reporting, talking to farmers, politicians and foreign observers. He learned that the poppy eradication program was rife with corruption. Farmers who were politically connected -- or bribed the right people -- were allowed to continue growing poppies. Farmers without clout were liable to have their crops destroyed.

After their 10-day lull, the American contractors were sent back to the area where they had been ambushed, just to prove that they couldn't be scared off. Protected by police, they destroyed one poppy field. But when they set out to destroy a far richer field across the road, the police balked and promptly departed, going off to -- and here's a great little detail -- smoke hashish.

Without police protection, the Americans fled, angry but impotent. "We ought to take all those guys and hang them in public, beginning with the governor," one American contractor grumbled. Then he laughed. "Good thing I'm not an idealist -- I'm just here for the money."

If Anderson's account is accurate, and I suspect it is, the war in Afghanistan won't be over anytime soon.

Afghans caught in the middle

By Bilal Sarwary - BBC News, Ghazni

Just minutes before our helicopter swept into the dusty town of Miray, two rockets had struck just a few hundred metres away and wounded a villager.

It was a sign that the American and provincial officials we had flown in with were going to face a tough audience.

The town in Andar district in southern Ghazni province is like many places in the Afghan outback: teetering between government and Taleban control, and it's just 135km south east of Kabul.

This is where President Hamid Karzai was greeted with rockets by the Taleban when he arrived to address a meeting in June. No one was hurt, but the insurgents were sending out another warning about their growing strength in the region.

The rocket attack was just another episode in the violence that regularly visits the area with clashes between the insurgents and security forces happening almost daily. No one feels safe here.

Open support for the Taleban can get you arrested. Supporting the Afghan government can get you killed.

The climate of violence, intimidation and fear has stalled progress on badly-needed reconstruction efforts in the area, which is the largest district in the province.

Take, for example, education. Last year the insurgents closed down all 29 schools in the district, openly threatening the students and teachers. "We've reopened 16 of them," says Najib Kamran, director of education for Ghazni province.

"But just recently the education chief for the district got a death threat from the Taleban. Now he's stopped coming to work."

Even when the officials arrived in the district to inaugurate a new road recently - a seven-km stretch of road that cost a whopping $1.5m to build - local people were sceptical of the government's efforts and believed too little was being done.

The Afghan and American officials urged a gathering of about 300 tribal elders and students to support the government, not the Taleban. They promised more reconstruction and security. The tribal elders listened politely, but their frustration was plain to see.

"I welcome the building of this road," said Haji Sahib, 60, one of the leaders gathered. "But we need much more here - clinics, schools, and water. Most importantly, we need security."

Other villagers, like 38-year-old Shahbaz, complained that corruption was the biggest problem. "I voted for this government because I believed they would make our lives better," he said. "But today, there is more corruption than ever before."

Provincial governor Mirajudin Patan listened to their grievances, and agreed there remain many problems. But he insisted that a lot had been achieved.

"We have provided people with roads, clinics and schools, but the Taleban destroy them," the governor said.

"But we don't have enough ammunition such as heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs). And police salaries are low which leads to more corruption."

The governor of the nearby Qarabagh district, agreed the problem was lack of resources. "I have just 100 police to cover hundreds of villages, and protect an estimated 250,000 people," said Khawaja Mohammad Siddiqi.

"Each Taleban fighting group of 12 has two heavy machine guns, RPGs and a lot of money; I don't have any of that."

Almost six years since the Taleban was toppled, even remote outposts like Andar not very far away from Kabul seem as far from finding peace and stability as ever.

Afghanistan lives in its villages, but for the moment, these villages are finding it hard to live.

Bush Reaffirms Support for Musharraf

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Published: July 10, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush reaffirmed his confidence Tuesday in Pakistan's president as a strong ally in the war against extremists. ''I like him and I appreciate him,'' Bush said in Cleveland. The president also called President Gen. Pervez Musharraf a partner in promoting democracy.

Bush's remarks followed an expression of approval by the State Department of Pakistan's decision to storm a mosque in Islamabad where militants were holding hostages.

Deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the militants had been given many warnings before the commandos moved on the sprawling Red Mosque compound before dawn.

''The government of Pakistan has proceeded in a responsible way,'' Casey said. ''All governments have a responsibility to preserve order.''

The White House reaction was subdued. Deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said it was ''an internal matter for the Pakistani government to address.''

''What remains clear is, in places throughout the world the threat of extremists is real, but that operation is a matter for the Pakistani government,'' Stanzel said.

A few hours later, Bush gave his unqualified support to Musharraf as ''a strong ally in the war against these extremists.''

''I am, of course, constantly working with him to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Pakistan,'' Bush said.

The extremists had used the mosque as a base to dispatch radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality. A radical cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, was killed after refusing to surrender, Pakistani officials said.

The incident coincided with a report issued by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that called for ''the end of the army's quasi monopoly on every lever of power in the country.''

The author, Frederic Grare, a visiting scholar at the private think tank, proposed ''eliminating the army's interference not only in the politics and economics of Pakistan, but also in the country's judiciary and administration.''

In the report, he said that of about $10 billion in U.S. assistance to Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States only $900 million had gone to development. The bulk of the assistance was channeled through the military, he said.

''The question is the extent to which this money has effectively increased U.S. and international security,'' the report said.

Joining Grare at a news conference, Mark L. Schneider of the International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Brussels, Belgium, faulted Musharraf's government for going after the al-Qaida terror network but not the Taliban, which has increased its attacks on U.S. and other NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Grare's report said 41 al-Qaida operatives had been arrested but very few Taliban leaders had been caught and that Pakistan had been unwilling to move decisively against Taliban decision-makers living in Quetta. The government also has not moved against major warlords or dismantled their terrorist infrastructure, he said.

The report called on Musharraf to cease violating Pakistan's constitution by holding both the position of president and chief of the army staff and hold free and fair elections for parliament under the supervision of international inspection.

Among the report's conclusions was that the army had inflated the threat of religious sectarianism and jihad extremism in Afghanistan and Kashmir for its own self-interest.

Fighting bothers EU

Daily Times 11 July 2007 - BRUSSELS: The EU is ‘gravely concerned’ about fighting between government forces and militants in Pakistan, fearing it may spill over into Afghanistan, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday. “We are concerned because the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan is fundamental for peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, where many European countries have deployed troops,” Solana said. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downs said his country is concerned with extremism in Pakistan but backs President Musharraf’s efforts to overcome the menace. agencies

US must ditch ‘blundering’ Musharraf: NYT

Daily Times 11 July 2007

LAHORE: America needs to maintain friendly relations with Pakistan, which is why it should “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,” writes The New York Times on Tuesday.

In an editorial headlined ‘The General in His Labyrinth’, the newspaper says Gen Musharraf has done “far less than he promised — and far less than is needed” in the fight against the Taliban. “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 … Meanwhile, Washington continues to uncritically support the general’s highhanded rule.” The editorial compares the situation in Pakistan to that in Iran under the shah, and to Pakistan under 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,” it says.

“Pakistan is approaching a turning point. Local Taliban militias and their Islamist allies have capitalised 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,” says The New York Times. “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 favours the earliest possible return to free elections and civilian rule.” daily times monitor

Think Tank Report Faults Pakistani Military

10 July 07 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan bears responsibility for worsening security in South Asia, and its powerful military is the core of the problem, according to study released on Tuesday by a U.S. think tank.

Frederic Grare of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading scholar on South Asia and former French diplomat in Pakistan, took a tough line on the military that has dominated Pakistani politics since 1958.

His report was endorsed by two other experts, Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution and George Perkovich of Carnegie.

Grare recommended that in addition to providing billions of dollars in aid, the United States should also be willing to impose sanctions when Islamabad fails to meet its commitments, as he said it has done in key areas.

"This report makes the case that the Pakistani state bears responsibility for the worsening security situation in Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban, terrorism in Kashmir and the growth of jihadi ideology and capabilities internationally," Grare wrote.

"At the core of the problem is the Pakistani military...," the study said.

"Pakistan's military leaders have mobilized religious parties, militants, foreign 'freedom fighters,' and other players to get and keep national power and resources," it added.

Grare called for a new U.S. strategy designed to encourage Pakistanis, and especially the military, to restore civilian government according to the country's constitution.

The United States considers Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf to be key allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but increasingly U.S. officials are questioning whether they are doing enough.

The United States and many Pakistanis have urged Musharraf, who is also army chief of staff and seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, to give up his military post and run for re-election as a civilian. But his intentions are unclear.

At a briefing, Grare acknowledged that any change in U.S. strategy will have risks and "there are a lot of reasons to be skeptical" about the return of civilians to power in Pakistan. Still, he argued: "Breaking the links between the military and politics (in Pakistan) is a strategic imperative."

Cohen, who wrote a book on Pakistan, called Grare's report "excellent" and said the trend from moderation to radicalism in Pakistan has accelerated in the past year and is so worrying it should be discussed by NATO and with China and India.

Two Pakistanis at the briefing, one a diplomat and the other who identified himself as a former military officer, objected to the report's conclusions and defended the Musharraf government.

Pakistani Cleric Pushed Agenda Too Far

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Published: July 10, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Once respected by the Pakistani establishment, the smooth-talking pro- Taliban cleric killed in the mosque siege Tuesday pushed authorities too far with a sometimes bizarre drive to enforce strict Islamic law in the capital.

When a student, he was regarded as a moderate Muslim, but Abdul Rashid Ghazi, 43, was radicalized by the assassination of his cleric father in 1998. After Pakistan's president allied with the U.S. following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Ghazi emerged as an increasingly outspoken critic of Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government.

With his elder brother, Abdul Aziz, the Red Mosque's chief cleric, Ghazi cultivated links with Islamic militants and often lashed out at Pakistan's support of the U.S.-led war against terrorist groups -- tapping an antipathy shared by many people in this conservative Muslim nation.

A 2004 fatwa, or religious edict, declaring that funeral prayers should not be offered for Pakistani soldiers who died fighting al-Qaida set him on collision course with the government.

Then a vigilante campaign launched by the mosque's leaders this year to impose Islamic social law in Islamabad mocked Musharraf's claim to be combatting religious extremists and directly challenged the government's authority.

Stick-wielding student supporters of Ghazi kidnapped alleged prostitutes and police officers and they warned vendors against selling music and movies, in a brash but largely symbolic attempt to impose Taliban-style rules.

Their actions caused little physical harm, but the abduction last week of seven Chinese at an acupuncture clinic that the students claimed was a brothel proved a diplomatic embarrassment for China, a key ally of Pakistan.

The kidnappings were followed by a day of gunbattles between the militants and security forces, triggering a nearly weeklong military siege that culminated in the army's attack on the mosque before dawn Tuesday. The battle killed about 50 militants and at least eight soldiers.

About 15 hours after the assault began, officials reported that commandos had slain Ghazi in a firefight after the cleric and other militants pinned down in a basement refused to surrender.

Ghazi's brother, Abdul Aziz, was caught last week trying to sneak out of the mosque wearing an all-covering woman's burqa and high heels.

Born in the village of Basti Abdullah in southwestern Baluchistan province, Ghazi studied at two seminaries in Rawalpindi, a military garrison city near the capital, but he was regarded as less pious than his older brother.

He earned a master's degree in international relations from Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University and later worked at the Education Ministry and, according to some reports, for UNESCO.

Naeem Qureshi, a professor who taught Ghazi history in 1987-88, remembers him as a good if not exceptional student. He described Ghazi as religiously minded like many of his generation and motivated by the mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

''He was a well-adjusted young man. We had no problem with him. He was not a firebrand,'' Qureshi told The Associated Press.

Ghazi's father, Mohammed Abdullah, who became the prayer leader at the Red Mosque in the 1960s, frowned on his son's secular appearance, said a friend of Ghazi, who agreed to discuss the cleric only if not quoted by name, because he feared problems with the government over previous links to militants.

''Before his father's martyrdom he used to wear pants and shirt and a small beard,'' the friend said. ''His life changed after his father's martyrdom. He became a religious man. He adopted his father's life.''

The father, who was a vocal supporter of the U.S.- and Pakistan-backed Muslim guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan, had close ties with both the government and Sunni Muslim militants. He was fatally shot by a gunman inside the mosque Oct. 17, 1998. The attacker was suspected to be a Shiite Muslim.

The brothers assumed control of the mosque and two associated religious schools, which housed thousands of male and female students.

Rahimullah Yousafzai, a leading Pakistani journalist and expert on Islamic militancy, said the brothers were believed to have maintained ties to Pakistan's intelligence agencies because the mosque helped motivate extremists to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan and against Indian troops in divided Kashmir in the 1990s.

But the links were strained after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America and the Musharraf government's renunciation of its ties with the Taliban and decision to fight al-Qaida. ''Pakistani military operations after 9/11 changed everything,'' Yousafzai said.

The brothers openly supported militants fighting Pakistani security forces and refused to rescind the 2004 fatwa that decreed army casualties in counterterrorism operations in the country's tribal regions should not be treated as ''martyrs'' -- the designation favored by the army.

In August 2004, Ghazi was detained for 10 days by military intelligence for alleged involvement in a plot to bomb high-profile targets in Islamabad. He denied involvement and was freed, reportedly following the intervention of Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz ul-Haq.

Officials now say the brothers were wanted in over 20 criminal cases. While officials and experts say the brothers had links with outlawed militant groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat Jihad-e-Islami, it was the anti-vice campaign begun in March that was their downfall.

Ghazi proved an articulate and media-savvy spokesman for the campaign, which veered from the sinister to the surreal.

In incendiary sermons and radio addresses, Ghazi's brother, Aziz, claimed the immorality of brothels in Pakistan had stirred divine vengeance in the form of the October 2005 earthquake in Kashmir that killed more than 80,000 people. He also accused diplomats' wives of ''spreading nudity'' in Islamabad.

The Islamic court they set up at the mosque also issued a fatwa against Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, accusing her of committing a ''sin'' after she was shown in newspaper photographs embracing a parachuting instructor following a charity jump in France.

Still, the anti-vice campaign was backed by some citizens who also respected the mosque's charity for earthquake victims. But the brothers became increasingly isolated as their defiance of the government escalated, and most Islamic clerics frowned on the mosque taking law into its own hands.

The bespectacled Ghazi, who was married with three sons and two daughters, was usually courteous to visitors to the Red Mosque and eagerly courted foreign and local journalists.

While critical of U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and an eager proponent of holy war, he spoke in more worldly terms than his brother. He sometimes likened the Red Mosque's anti-vice effort to Rudy Giuliani's crackdown on

Editorial: Lessons of Lal Masjid

Daily Times 11 July 2007

As the Lal Masjid saga moved to its endgame on Monday, the clergy represented by Wifaqul Madaris of the Deobandi school of thought decided to split from the Musharraf government. The delegation of clerics led by the old Taliban admirer Maulana Rafi Usmani of Darul Ulum Karachi announced that it was disappointed by the way the government had reacted to their efforts to “resolve” the Lal Masjid standoff. They kept the “agreed plan” secret but the federal state minister of information Mr Tariq Azim disclosed that the government could not accept the clerical position that the abandoned seminaries of Lal Masjid be handed over to the Wifaq instead of the law.

As the troops finally broke into the seminary held by Maulana Abdur Rashid Ghazi and his foreign terrorists, the nation was agonised over what should have been done. The foremost thought, naturally, was for the women and children kept hostage by the terrorists. The media talked about it all the time; one TV channel hyped it up unfairly through old school hymns from Allama Iqbal. This had the effect of watering down the universally accepted state principle of not negotiating with terrorists in a “siege-and-hostage” situation.

A justifiable lack of trust affected all efforts at talking to the terrorists inside Jamia Hafsa. As some of the ulema and the country’s top philanthropist Abdus Sattar Edhi offered to go inside the seminary to talk to Mr Ghazi, it was realised that even a single well-known personage taken hostage by the terrorists would immediately mean defeat of the government. For instance, had Mr Edhi been taken hostage by the terrorists during negotiations, the demand for safe passage would have had to be conceded. Once safe passage was allowed, the terrorists would have gone on to commit more acts of revenge in areas where the writ of the state is already weak.

The gap between the politico-religious minded and expert opinion has been evident during the siege and will continue to dog the government in the coming days. The inmates of Lal Masjid will be lionised by some while the collateral damage in the shape of women and children killed will be pinned on the government as “criminal neglect of the life of the common man”. Other “ungoverned spaces” inside the country will step up their “revenge” actions. Already, the killing of Chinese mechanics in Peshawar — providing repairs backup to Chinese rickshaws — was a crude retaliation for what happened after the Lal Masjid vigilantes abducted some Chinese nationals in Islamabad.

The situation confronted by the government has been compared to what happened in India after the hijack of an Indian passenger airliner from Nepal in 1999. The hijackers brought the plane to Kandahar and asked for the release of three Al Qaeda terrorists from an Indian jail in return for the Indian passengers. As days rolled by with the Indian government refusing to negotiate with the hijackers, the Indian public reaction to the killing of one passenger and the unspeakable suffering of the women and children on board the plane began to inflict its toll. The Vajpayee government gave in finally and released the terrorists, not least since the plane was on foreign territory sympathetic to the hijackers (the Taliban) and an effective operation could not have been carried out. In the event, the Indian government has not forgiven itself for its mistake. The terrorists released by India went on to perpetrate history’s worst crimes. Maulana Masood Azhar headed straight for Jamia Banuria in Karachi and announced his new jihadi outfit called Jaish Muhammad. In 2001 it attacked the Indian parliament and unleashed a military standoff between India and Pakistan lasting for nearly one year. The same year Umar Sheikh took part in the planning of the 9/11 terrorist acts in the United States, acting as the funnel for the funds that went from Al Qaeda to the hijackers in the United States. He was caught after he was instrumental in the kidnapping and beheading of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. Jaish, under different names, has since tried to kill President Musharraf a number of times.

The fact is that Lal Masjid was feeding ideologically into the anarchic order of Talibanisation in the Frontier and Tribal Areas. Eighty percent of the acolytes in its residential seminaries were from FATA and from the provincially administered tribal region of Malakand, Swat and Dir. Messrs Ghazi and Aziz regularly applauded the “state within the state” of the “FM radio mullah” Fazlullah of Malakand enjoying direct connections with Al Qaeda. No one paid heed to this. No one registered the trend of increased Al Qaeda “appearances” in the country. Over the last six months, many Al Qaeda terrorists were caught in the country and Lal Masjid remained an ally of Al Qaeda. Significantly, the “free media” knew about it but didn’t take it to task!

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies arrested 32 Al-Qaeda activists in Pakistan from January 2007 onwards. Nasir Suleman Zakaria, an Arab and Al Qaeda member, was arrested while travelling to Balochistan from Wana (South Waziristan). Two of the 32 arrested men were German, 3 were Turkish, 2 Kyrgyz, and 5 Uzbek, all attached to the different jihadi organisations of the country. Those who advocated “safe passage” for Mr Ghazi and his terrorists wrongly believe, together with Imran Khan, that General Musharraf has “unleashed an artificial war in Pakistan to please the Americans”.

Let us be clear. No government can violate the universal principle of “no negotiation with terrorists” and live to be praised. This time around, the “free media” didn’t play its cards fairly. It was allowed to carry on its own “negotiations” with the terrorists, tacitly bending public opinion in favour of “safe passage” — one FM radio in Lahore actually recommended it — and was not able to comment objectively on the vested interest of the Wifaq clerics negotiating with the ulterior motive of grabbing the madrassa property in a city already home to 88 seminaries bristling with rejectionism.

Pakistan pledges security for Chinese after murders

Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistan promised on Monday to provide adequate security for Chinese citizens after three were shot dead by gunmen in an attack apparently linked to the siege of a mosque in Islamabad.

The statement came after Beijing's ambassador to Islamabad condemned the killings by suspected Islamic militants of the Chinese workers at their home on the outskirts of Peshawar.A fourth Chinese man was seriously wounded in the attack.

"President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have strongly condemned the killings and have ordered an immediate inquiry," Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a briefing.

"They have given a message to the Chinese leadership in which they have assured that all Chinese nationals will be provided with security," she added.

The Pakistani leaders had also sent messages of condolence to Beijing, Aslam said. Pakistani security officials said the attack was a "targeted killing."

Immediate suspicion was on a hardline Islamist group from northwest Pakistan with ties to Islamabad's Red Mosque, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, which is campaigning for the imposition of Islamic law, they said.

Islamist students at the mosque, whom the government says are now led by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, including foreign fighters, have been locked in a bloody seven-day standoff with security forces.

Aslam said there were no Chinese militants in the compound. Several Muslim separatists from China's Xinjiang region have previously been caught or killed in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Students from the mosque were last month involved in the brief kidnapping of seven Chinese people who were working in an Islamabad acupuncture clinic that the abductors insisted was a brothel.

[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.]