In this bulletin:

• 2nd Korean hostage killed in Afghanistan
• Malaysia Concerned Over South Korean Hostage Issue In Afghanistan
• Al-Jazeera runs footage of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan
• ASEAN calls for release of South Korean hostages
• Texan killed in Afghanistan
• Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Kabul
• Llano Soldier Dies In Afghanistan Combat
• Afghanistan: Attacks on schools on the rise
• AFGHANISTAN: Rights group, UN sceptical about reduced civilian casualties
• Germany Debates Boost in Afghanistan Troops
• Germany may end ransom payments for kidnap victims
• Bush, new British prime minister show differences over Afghanistan, Iraq, terrorism
• Unmanned Reaper aircraft to be deployed in Afghanistan
• UNESCO helps to develop educational broadcasting in Afghanistan
• Polk residents help Task Force Phoenix build security forces in Afghanistan
• Country ready to turn history's page, colonel says
• French Advised to Skip Afghanistan
• 'They seem to be as far from peace as ever'
• Is Media Coverage of Terrorist Activities Responsible For Spreading Terror?
• Government signs three-year, $1.5M contract with company to prepare soldiers' remains
• British PM calls Afghanistan terror's front line
• Minister's rift with general erodes support, PM warned
• Pak worried about Indian penetration from Afghanistan: Cohen
• Pakistani Troops Kill At Least 12 Islamic Militants
• US must take preventive action in Pak, but carefully: Ex-CIA officer
• Training Afghans will take 'a long while'
• Afghanistan needs help to achieve stability–CSTO secretary-general
• Local Afghan ranks too thin to take on Taliban
• Project Kandahar
• US PRT grants $3.5m for reconstruction of Salang Highway
• Kandahar musclemen qualify for Mr. Afghanistan contest
  

2nd Korean hostage killed in Afghanistan

By Amir Shah The Associated Press

GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- Police at daybreak today discovered the body of a second South Korean hostage slain by the Taliban, officials said. A purported Taliban spokesman had said the man was killed because the Afghan government failed to release imprisoned insurgents.

The Taliban threatened to kill more hostages if their demands were not met by the latest of several deadlines -- noon Wednesday.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed that 29-year-old Shim Sung-min's body had been found. The former information-technology worker was volunteering with a South Korean church group on an aid mission to Afghanistan; 21 others remain captive.

"The government expresses deep condolences to his family," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said. "We cannot contain our anger at this merciless killing and strongly condemn this."

The body was found on the side of the road in the village of Arizo Kalley in Andar District, six miles west of Ghazni city, said chief administrator Abdul Rahim Deciwal.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said senior Taliban leaders killed the hostage Monday because the government had not met Taliban demands to trade prisoners for the Christian volunteers, who were in their 13th day of captivity today.

The Taliban commanders set a new deadline of noon on Wednesday.

"If the Kabul government does not release the Taliban prisoners, then we will kill after 12 o'clock -- we are going to kill Korean hostages," Ahmadi said. "It might be a man or a woman... It might be one. It might be two, four. It might be all of them."

The Al-Jazeera television network, meanwhile, showed shaky footage of what it said were several South Korean hostages. The authenticity of the video could not immediately be verified.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans riding on a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway July 19. They have set several deadlines for the Koreans' lives.

Last Wednesday the insurgents killed their first hostage, pastor Bae Hyung-kyu. His body arrived back in South Korea on Monday.

Malaysia Concerned Over South Korean Hostage Issue In Afghanistan

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is concerned over the issue of the South Korean hostage in Afghanistan and appeals to the kidnappers to show compassion to the innocent Koreans.

A Wisma Putra statement Tuesday said the killing of hostages would not solve problems.

"As Muslims, the hostage takers most not resort to such action to pursue their agenda.

"For the sake of humanity, Malaysia hopes that the hostage takers will release the hostages immediately," it said.

Reuters today reported that Afghan authorities recovered the body of a second South Korean shot dead by Taliban kidnappers who threatened to kill more of the 21 hostages if Kabul does not free Taliban prisoners by Wednesday.

-- BERNAMA

Al-Jazeera runs footage of South Korean hostages in Afghanistan

Posted: 31 July 2007 0306 hrs

DUBAI : The Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera on Monday ran footage of a group of people it said were the South Korean hostages held by the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

In silent footage lasting less than one minute, which would be the first to show the hostages since their capture, Asian-looking women in the group were shown seated with their heads covered in headscarves and appearing weakened.

"We received the video today outside Afghanistan," an editorial team member of Al-Jazeera told AFP, without adding details.

The Taliban said on Monday it had shot dead another of the 23 South Koreans kidnapped on July 19, after its deadlines expired for the government to free prisoners, although there was no immediate confirmation of the claim.

The hostage, said to have been executed in a remote part of the southern province of Ghazni, would be the second killed in by the militants, who last week gunned down the leader of the Christian aid group - a 42-year-old pastor.

"We set several deadlines and the Afghan government did not pay attention to our deadlines," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP after a tense day during which government negotiators admitted that talks had so far failed.

Ahmadi said the body had been left in Ghazni's Qarabagh area, about 140 kilometres south of Kabul, where the pastor's bullet-riddled body was also dumped. His body arrived in South Korea on Monday.

The South Korean church group was captured in Qarabagh while travelling by bus on a key highway from the troubled southern city of Kandahar where they had officially been on an aid mission.

In a telephone interview with CBS television, a South Korean woman in the group begged for help last week. "We are in a very difficult time. Please help us," said the woman, who told CBS that her name was Yo Cyun-ju.

CBS said it interviewed Yo on Wednesday, after an interview was arranged with a Taliban commander. She spoke in Korean and an Afghan dialect of Farsi, the network added.

"All of us are sick and in very bad condition," she said, begging the South Korean government and the international community to make a deal with the Taliban to win their freedom. - AFP/de

ASEAN calls for release of South Korean hostages

Manila, July 31, 2007 DPA

East Asian foreign ministers on Tuesday called for the immediate release of the remaining 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan after the body of a second captive allegedly killed by the Taliban was found.

The ministers were meeting in Manila as part of the 40th Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, who is chairing the meetings, said the foreign ministers agreed to call for the "early and unconditional release of the remaining South Korean hostages in Afghanistan".

The ministers also expressed condolences to the families of the slain hostages and the Korean people.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans riding on a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19, the largest group of foreign hostages taken in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

The hostages were members of a South Korean Christian church group on an aid mission in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has set several deadlines for the Koreans' lives. Last Wednesday, the insurgents killed their first hostage, a male leader of the group. On Tuesday, police said they have found the bullet-riddled body of another slain South Korean.

The East Asia ministers attending the meetings in Manila are ASEAN members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Texan killed in Afghanistan

08:11 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Another Texan has been killed in action overseas.

The Defense Department on Tuesday announced the death of 37-year-old Major Thomas G. Bostick, Jr. of Llano.

Bostick died Friday near Kamu, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when his unit came under fire from enemy forces.

Bostick was assigned to 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy.

Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Kabul
TheStar.com July 31, 2007 RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide car bomber blew himself up near a convoy of U.S. troops on the outskirts of Kabul Tuesday, leaving up to seven civilians and three soldiers wounded, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

In the aftermath of the attack, U.S. troops opened fire on police arriving at the scene, killing one policeman, officials and a witness said.

The bomber targeted the convoy outside Camp Phoenix, a U.S. base on Jalalabad road – an area frequently targeted by suicide bomb attacks.

A statement from the U.S.-led coalition said three Afghan civilians and three coalition service members were wounded.

Lt. Cmdr. Brenda Steele, a spokeswoman for NATO forces, said one foreign soldier suffered minor injuries in the attack and seven civilians were wounded. She would not disclose the nationality of the wounded soldier.

The differing figures could not immediately be reconciled.

Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of police criminal investigations in Kabul, said that when he and his men arrived on the scene, someone opened fire on them, and one of his guards was killed.

"There was a misunderstanding between the forces present at the scene of the suicide attack this morning and new forces who were trying to get to the scene," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary said.

Ahmad Basir, who owns a shop about 200 yards from the blast site, said he saw U.S. soldiers open fire on the police as they arrived.

"When they were about to reach the blast site, about 100 meters away, suddenly the Americans opened fire on the police convoy," Basir said. "Everyone on the street ran away to escape the shooting. I ran into my shop, too. I was afraid I'd get hit.''

A U.S.-led coalition spokesman said he didn't have any details about the alleged shooting and would have to investigate before commenting.

Meanwhile, a purported Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujaheed, said the militant group was behind the attack. Mujaheed's claim could not immediately be verified.

Separately in southern Kandahar province, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint Monday night in Maiwand district, and the ensuing two-hour gun battle left three Taliban dead, including a senior commander, said provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib. He said the police suffered no casualties.

Also Monday in northern Kunduz province, a suicide bomb attack killed one employee of the intelligence service, and wounded eight civilians, a policeman and three other intelligence personnel, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

Llano Soldier Dies In Afghanistan Combat
Jul 31, 2007 6:59 am US/Central

(CBS 42) ALEXANDRIA, Va. A soldier from Llano died Friday in combat in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday.

Defense officials said Maj. Thomas G. Bostick Jr., 37, of Llano, and Staff Sgt. William R. Fritsche, 23, of Martinsville, Ind., died July 27 near Kamu, Afghanistan, of injuries they received when their unit was fighting enemy forces using small arms. Bostick and Fritsche were assigned to 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy.

Afghanistan: Attacks on schools on the rise

Kabul, 31 July (AKI) - Security incidents in schools and threats against students and teachers in Afghanistan have spiked in recent months, disrupting education in the country, which this year has seen some of the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, according to the United Nations mission there.

"Over 30 attacks against schools, many involving the torching or blowing up of school premises have been reported in all parts of the country from January until June" Nilab Mobarez, Information Officer with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said at a press conference in Kabul .

Deliberate attacks on girls and female teachers have resulted in at least four deaths and six injuries so far this year, he told reporters.

According to estimates by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 262 of the total 740 schools in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul are currently unable to provide education to their students.

“UNAMA appeals to all parties concerned for the resumption of normal education activities across the country, particularly in the south, so that boys and girls can exercise their right to education in a peaceful and secure environment,” Mr. Mobarez said.

Speaking out recently against continued attacks against schools and schoolchildren, Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF’s Representative in Afghanistan, expressed the agency’s concern at the incidents and intimidation in some communities aimed at stopping families from sending children to school.

“Schools of course are a visible sign of reconstruction and progress, and there are those who perhaps fear such progress,” she stated.

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.”

AFGHANISTAN: Rights group, UN sceptical about reduced civilian casualties

Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

KABUL, 31 July 2007 (IRIN) - Afghan and international forces fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have agreed on a number of measures designed to minimise civilian casualties in their military operations, officials told IRIN.

According to various unverified reports, over 800 civilians have died in fighting between government military personnel supported by international forces and Taliban insurgents in the past few months of 2007.

"One point in our new joint strategy is to use smaller and lighter bombs in aerial strikes," Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence (MoD), said in Kabul on 30 July.

After strong criticism from different parts of Afghanistan over scores of civilian deaths - allegedly in NATO and US aerial bombardments - the MoD set out plans for better coordination between Afghan and international forces and ways to reduce unwanted deaths.

The new strategy has been discussed, agreed upon and will be announced in the near future, the MoD said.

The Afghan government and its international partners, including the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US military-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), have expressed willingness to address growing concerns about the situation of non-combatants in their military operations.

"Civilian casualties are a very serious matter. They need to be avoided," said a NATO-ISAF spokeswoman in Kabul, who requested anonymity.

In an interview with the Financial Times, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer confirmed that ISAF will start using smaller bombs in its air strikes in Afghanistan "as part of a change in tactics aimed at stemming a rise in civilian casualties that threatens to undermine support in the fight against the Taliban".

However, it is still unclear whether NATO's decision to use smaller bombs will also apply to thousands of US forces operating in Afghanistan outside the NATO command structure.

Asked whether the US military would also go along with NATO's decision, an OEF spokesperson at Bagram airbase declined to comment.

While the government of Afghanistan welcomes NATO use of lighter bombs in aerial bombings of combat zones, the country's human rights commission (AIHRC) and the UN have doubted the hype about smaller bombs not harming civilians.

"We cannot say whether a small or a big bomb is good," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN in Kabul. "Any civilian casualty is unacceptable," he added.

Meanwhile, the AIHRC said if insurgents continued to shield civilians in their armed conflicts the smaller bombs used would still harm civilians.

Some Afghans fear that a reduction in the size of aerial bombs might be balanced by an increase in the number of aerial strikes - already higher than the number of aerial attacks in Iraq.

Ahmad Nader Nadery, an AIHRC spokesperson, said: "International forces should increase their ground presence and stop reliance on aerial strikes which mostly affect non-combatants."

Currently there are over 33,000 international forces from 37 countries, led by NATO, and over 10,000 extra US troops operating under OEF command in Afghanistan.

On 29 July, 12 passengers of a civilian convoy were killed and eight wounded by gunmen allegedly associated with Taliban insurgents in Zabul Province, southern Afghanistan, said a press release issued by NATO forces in Kabul.

It is still not yet known why insurgents killed and injured the passengers.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior said those killed in Zabul were employees of a private security company.

Over 20 civilians, meanwhile, died recently as a result of NATO bombings of two districts in insurgency-torn Helmand Province in the south of Afghanistan, provincial officials said.

In the last week of July, clashes between Taliban rebels and Afghan forces, backed by international forces, resulted in the death of scores of Taliban guerrillas, officials said.

Unverifiable owing to limited access to the volatile regions, reports of civilian casualties have turned into a controversial propaganda tool for parties to the conflict, specialists in Kabul said.

The UN has urged local media not to disseminate the propaganda of the parties to the conflict and ensure impartial coverage of events in Afghanistan.

Germany Debates Boost in Afghanistan Troops
Afghanistan | 31.07.2007

Germany is debating whether to send more soldiers to Afghanistan. Currently, the ISAF mission there enjoys broad support, but two other engagements seem likely to face resistance.

German politicians said they would first decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan after discussing the matter with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there and NATO partners, and once the army has determined whether or not it has the capacity to expand.

Senior politicians from Germany's two main parties have come out solidly behind the training and reconstruction role played by the 3,000 German ISAF troops in northern Afghanistan, ahead of a parliamentary decision on renewing their mandate this autumn.

But support for two other German missions to Afghanistan -- elite troops are deployed to the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and reconnaissance aircraft are assisting combat operations in the south -- is wavering.

Volker Kauder, who heads the parliamentary caucus backing Christian Democratic Chancellor Angela Merkel, says he is prepared to consider sending more troops to buttress the ISAF mission led by NATO.

"If the government considers it necessary to augment the German contingent, then that is right in my view," said Kauder.

"The [Social Democrats] will certainly hold intense discussions. But I don't expect much opposition," Kauder said.

And as long as the Taliban hasn't been conquered, there is no question of a pullout, he said. "That would lead to a dramatic increase in the danger of terrorism in Europe," he said.

He was speaking after Kurt Beck, chairman of the Social Democrats, who recently paid a visit to Afghanistan and has taken a keen interest in Afghan affairs, said he backed sending more troops.

The aim was to stabilize the Afghan government by creating effective security, Beck said. "And then we have to discuss the question whether we should dispatch more troops and police officers."

Before she left last week on her summer vacation, Chancellor Merkel made her commitment clear.

"Germany's engagement in Afghanistan must continue. We need all three components to be extended," the chancellor said.

Backing his chief, Kauder advocated rolling the three missions into one and pushing through a decision on all three simultaneously in the Bundestag.

But the Social Democrats are not keen on this idea. Party defense spokesman Rainer Arnold says there is growing concern about OEF which mounts counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban in the south and east of Afghanistan.

The mandate for the deployment -- about which little is made public -- should be allowed to lapse when it comes up for renewal in mid-November, he said.

Mandates for the Tornado reconnaisance deployment and the ISAF reconstruction mission come up for renewal in the Bundestag a month earlier, in mid-October.

There is a widespread belief in Germany that ISAF's mainly reconstruction role is being confused in Afghan minds with OEF's combat operations, which have come under severe criticism for the number of civilian casualties caused.

And there is deep concern that the deployment of six Tornado aircraft in April to help detect Taliban positions is turning Germany into a target for terrorists.

Meanwhile, the German Federal Armed Forces Association, a group that represents the interests of German servicemen and -women, was skeptical of the idea of enhancing the Afghanistan troops. The association's acting chairman, Wolfgang Schmelzer, told the Mittelbayrischen Zeitung newspaper that he was opposed to general troop increases.

"But I do think it makes a lot of sense for the Bundeswehr [German armed forces] to send more German trainers for the Afghan army to the Hindukush," he said.

He also advised against a troop pullout, despite the number of German soldier casualties and the fact that two German engineers were kidnapped on July 18. Germany should only pull out after the Afghan army is turned into a viable fighting force and if the police and legal systems function, he said.

On Monday, NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer acknowledged concern over civilian casualties in Afghanistan, in an interview with London's Financial Times. He said NATO was considering using smaller bombs.

The July abduction of two German engineers in Afghanistan, along with the murder of one of them, has highlighted concerns about terrorism.

The government, which has come under fire for the way it handles abductions, is reported to be considering taking a tougher line.

But it is no secret that Germany has paid large sums to criminal groups in previous cases, particularly in Iraq, to secure the release of its citizens, as have other European countries.

Germany may end ransom payments for kidnap victims

31 July 2007 | 05:36 | FOCUS News Agency

Berlin. A debate is raging in Germany about the government's policy on negotiating the release of hostages taken abroad after the interior ministry implicitly acknowledged that secret ransom payments were made to kidnappers, British newspaper Guardian announces.

Following a string of kidnappings of German nationals, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, the government is reportedly discussing ways of implementing a tougher strategy in an apparent attempt to reduce the frequency of the seizures.

Because it is known that the German government - like those of Italy and France - is willing to pay ransoms, the "value" of German kidnap victims has risen in the Middle East, experts have acknowledged. Observers in the field say that ransom money often goes to finance weaponry for insurgents.

Bush, new British prime minister show differences over Afghanistan, Iraq, terrorism

By WILLIAM DOUGLAS Posted on Mon, Jul. 30, 2007 McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON | President Bush and the new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, sought to display unity Monday. But some cracks appeared to divide the two in ways that never surfaced when Tony Blair led Great Britain.

Bush and Brown essentially sang from the same page on Iraq, Iran and Darfur. But their smiles and mild joshing after their first meeting at Camp David couldn’t hide some differences that could prove to be significant over time.

Brown, for example, initially called Afghanistan “the front line against terrorism,” seemingly contradicting Bush’s assertion that Iraq is the front line. When Brown was asked during a post-meeting news conference about this view, he tried to move slightly toward Bush, noting that “al-Qaida is operating in Iraq. There is no doubt that we’ve had to take very strong measures against them.”

Still, Brown’s initial remark seemed intended for consumption in Europe.

“Most (European) people really believe that Afghanistan is the real test in the war on terror because of the extent to which it was endorsed by the United Nations, by NATO and by the European Union,” said Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Europe Program. “It’s easier to sell Afghanistan in the U.K. instead of Iraq.”

Similarly, while maintaining that he shares the U.S. view that there are “duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep” in Iraq, Brown stressed that British troops have secured three provinces and intend to move to “overwatch” responsibility of a fourth as soon as his commanders there give him the word.

“It’s a hint,” Serfaty said. “There’s nothing for Brown to gain by staying (in Iraq) longer, but he cannot immediately say, ’We’re coming home’; he’s got to wait a little bit. Brown is torn between waiting a decent amount of time and getting out before the (British) elections in 2009.”

Bush and Brown exchanged worldviews over meals Sunday and Monday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. At a news conference afterward, the difference in chemistry from the Blair era was unmistakable.

While both affirmed that the “special relationship” remains primary, it seems that they do not speak the same language when it comes to terrorism. Bush routinely describes the U.S. effort as the “war on terrorism.” Brown conspicuously avoided the phrase, which key members of his Labour Party dismiss as meaningless.

Brown described terrorism “as a crime” and “not a cause,” another difference from Bush, and more than a semantic one. The words suggest differences in scale of response. In 2004, Bush rhetorically attacked Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry for wanting to treat terrorist acts as law-enforcement matters rather than requiring military responses.

Unmanned Reaper aircraft to be deployed in Afghanistan

New York, July 31 (PTI): Faced with increasing insurgent activity, the US Air Force plans to deliver its newest and deadliest unmanned aircraft, the Reaper, to the theatre of operations in Afghanistan.

"The Reaper is an attack aircraft loaded to the hilt with weapons," Gen. T. Michael Moseley, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told ABC News.

Four MQ-9 Reapers, defined by the Air Force as "hunter-killers," are expected to arrive within several months, the television channel said quoting Gen. Moseley.

While previous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have largely served surveillance and reconnaissance functions, the Reaper is geared more toward weapon and attack purposes.

Named for its lethal nature, the Reaper can carry as many as 14 air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, while its precursor, the Predator, only has the capacity for two.

If necessary, the new aircraft can substitute 10 Hellfires with two 500-pound bombs. The Reaper can also remain airborne up to 14 hours fully loaded, with a maximum speed of 300 mph versus the Predator's 135, ABC said.

"It flies higher and carries more than our older systems, giving our skilled and experienced operators additional capability to find, fix, track and engage a target," said Gen. Moseley about the Reaper's capabilities.

"Not only do we give theatre military commanders the capacity to survey the battle space and keep a vigilant eye on targets and insurgent activities," said Gen. Moseley, "we are also capable of striking those targets."

The Pentagon budgeted USD 349 million for Reaper-and Predator-related spending for the fiscal year 2007, ABC said quoting the Air Force budget report.

UNESCO helps to develop educational broadcasting in Afghanistan

UNESCO handed over 82 pieces of equipment, for the price of US$271,000, to create a new TV studio at the Educational Radio and Television (ERTV). The equipment was granted under a US$2,5 million project, funded by Italy, aimed at developing educational broadcasting in Afghanistan.

The project, the first phase of which is being completed, started in 2003 and supported a range of reconstruction and training activities to help the Ministry of Education achieve its goal of providing education to Afghans in all parts of the country. Given the mountainous landscape and the difficulties that many people face in getting education, distance education via radio and TV programmes is seen as a key vehicle to improve literacy and provide access to information. Distance education forms a central part of the Ministry’s Five Year Strategy.

"ERTV has been seeking help since long time in order to play its essential role in the Afghanistan education system", said Hanif Atmar, Afghan Minister of Education, at the ceremony of handing over the equipment, which took place at the ERTV office in Kabul. "Lack of experienced teachers and deficiency of schools made the distance learning so important in Afghanistan. The Minister thanked UNESCO for its support which will bring a significant change in the education system of the country.

Shigeru Aoyagi, Director of the UNESCO Office in Kabul, expressed his pleasure on the behalf of Director-General of UNESCO and the Italian government. "Under this project, ERTV staff members were sent to India, Pakistan and Malaysia for training, and many training programmes were conducted in Afghanistan, he added, UNESCO is very happy to see the progress in capacity building of the ERTV staff and the development of ERTV itself."

The equipment provided by UNESCO will be used to improve the quality of the existing radio and TV programmes and to produce first distance education courses in the country.

Polk residents help Task Force Phoenix build security forces in Afghanistan

July 31, 2007 Polk County residents 2nd Lt. David House (PCHS class of 2001) and Maj. John House are part of the effort to build security forces in Afghanistan.

The Houses are with the 218th Brigade Combat Team of the South Carolina National Guard. The 218th has had “boots on the ground” for more than three months now, having taken on the Task Force Phoenix mission of training Afghan National Security Forces.

The Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police are improving in numbers, equipment, training, and effectiveness.

David House is a platoon leader in B-Troop 202 Cavalry out of Beaufort. B-Troop makes up part of the brigade’s security force (SECFOR). SECFOR is responsible for base security, convoy protection, and manning observation points. David is “outside the wire” almost everyday escorting convoys, mostly in and around Kabul and up to Bagram Airfield. His platoon also patrols villages often on foot so that they can get to know the people and build community relations.

“Every day is something new,” said David. “There’s never a dull moment.”

David has to be on his toes, since he is often in command of convoys transporting dozens of soldiers and sensitive equipment.

The roads of Afghanistan are in poor condition and choked with traffic: “jin-gle trucks,” donkey carts, cyclists, and pedestrians. And any of the above could be toting a bomb.

John House is the public affairs officer for the task force. His staff publishes a biweekly magazine: “The Phoenix Patriot.” It can be viewed on the website: www.taskforcephoenix.com.

House serves as media relations officer and manages embeds for civilian journalists covering the war.

Besides training the Afghan Security Forces, the task force conducts hundreds of humanitarian missions throughout the country. David often escorts the trucks delivering supplies to refugee camps, schools, and hospitals.

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Country ready to turn history's page, colonel says

July 31, 2007: His troops need better weapons and the help of foreign soldiers, who, this time, are in Afghanistan to help, not occupy

PAUL KORING

CAMP SHIRAZ, AFGHANISTAN -- Since he was 12 and joined the army cadets, more than 40 years ago, Abdul Basir has watched armies march into Afghanistan, armed with big plans and promises to transform the country. Mostly, he has also watched them fail, driven defeated from this rugged and untamed land.

Now, Colonel Basir sits behind a polished desk in a newly built, sprawling base not far from the Tarnak Farms where Osama bin Laden once trained jihadists.

Nearby, children play in the bombed-out ruins of buildings that once housed Russian officers' families.

Col. Basir is newly appointed to command a brigade (at least on paper) in the nascent Afghan National Army - the brigade, in fact, that is supposed to take over the fighting from Canada's heavily armed battle group in Kandahar province, the heartland of the Taliban.

French Advised to Skip Afghanistan

Paris, Jul 30 (Prensa Latina) The French government told its citizens Monday to avoid traveling to Afghanistan, because the situation has deteriorated and insecurity predominates.

The French Foreign Ministry issued a release inviting French citizens in Afghanistan to contact the Afghani Embassy in Paris to request instructions on how to proceed.

The ministry referred to the serious situation in Afghanistan, where the local government warned foreigners of the lack of security even in the capital, due to confrontations between the rebels and NATO troops.

The call coincides with the announcement by French Defense Minister Herve Morin that 50 to 200 more French soldiers will be training the Afghani Army, but the overall number of 2,000 French soldiers in Afghanistan will not be increased.

Morin also confirmed the French government wants to maintain 12,000 French soldiers in indispensable missions in the world.

'They seem to be as far from peace as ever'

Tue 31 Jul 2007: AFTER 38 years, the nightmare of the Northern Irish Troubles officially ends tonight when the British Army formally ends its active operations. But it is sadly ironic that, as one chapter in British military closes, two others rage on, with the lessons of Ulster seemingly forgotten by those responsible.

Having arrived as peacekeepers to protect the Nationalist community, the Army were soon the enemy of hardline Republicans and the violence reached its peak in 1972 when there were approximately 25,700 Army personnel in the province, with an astonishing 15 battalions in Belfast alone. That was in addition to the police and part-time Ulster Defence Regiment personnel. For a province of only 1.5 million people, it was a massive security presence, given that only a small minority were actively hostile to the government forces.

In the most troubled areas, like West Belfast and South Armagh, the ratio was approximately one officer to ten people, so when children, the elderly and infirm were taken into account, the number of security personnel was utterly overwhelming. Although the killing went on, ultimately the IRA had nowhere to go and, by the time of the first ceasefire in 1994, no terrorist could move without the security services' knowledge. It took a combination of the later truce, renegade Republicans and intelligence errors to create the circumstances for the Omagh bomb in 1998 which left 29 dead.

By then, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams had already realised that the IRA should abandon the bomb for the ballot box because the effectiveness of the security operation and the end of tolerance for violence in the south left little choice. And the evaporation of what little sympathy was left in the US after 9/11 meant there was no turning back.

So, after 38 years, there are now just 5000 army personnel left in Northern Ireland, but in the hell-holes that are Afghanistan and Iraq, there are scarcely more than that on active duty. It should be no surprise, then, that those places should seem to be as far away from peace as ever, given what and how long it took to bring Northern Ireland to its senses.

What is so tragic is that none of this was lost on British military commanders. All the right things were done in Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion and also in Southern Iraq in 2003. But the days of the Black Watch wearing berets and red hackles in the streets of Basra seem so far off. Warnings of a situation far worse than Ulster were dismissed as defeatism. All the while, British military experts could see that the American strategy was all wrong, yet were powerless to influence disastrous decisions such as the disbanding of the Iraqi army and police force.

The death rates in a week match those of an entire year through most of the Troubles. To reach the saturation in Iraq and Afghanistan which brought peace to Ulster will require mobilisation on a scale not seen since the Second World War, and that is impossible.

For Ireland, peace is here to stay. In the Middle East, the horror goes on.

Is Media Coverage of Terrorist Activities Responsible For Spreading Terror?

Accra Mail (Accra) OPINION 30 July 2007 Posted to the web 31 July 2007

By Abdulhadi Hairan: All of us are aware of the importance of media in prevailing political and geographical situations and know also about the day-to-day events of terror across the world.

By nature, the human being inspires from the events taking place around him and if these events are linked to his or her religious thoughts and ideas then the effects of such events would be more deep and effectual.

There is no doubt that the media is giving more importance to incidents of terrorism and extremism taking place in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the world.

In the last few years, major incidents of terror took place in which thousands of people were killed or wounded but there's neem no let up in place terrorist activities. The major reason behind the no letting up in terror activities in the region is the widespread coverage of terrorists and their activities.

It is indeed a matter of great concern that underage boys are often used in carrying out suicide attacks. When they watch or hear militants on TV screens being interviewed by electronic and print media, the youth get inspiration from their activities. In addition, inflammatory statements of extremist clerics further fuel their intentions to take part in terrorism thinking as if it is a job of heroism.

Nowadays, all TV channels and newspapers are flooded with the news of suicide attacks and bomb blasts across the world. The most harmful thing is the coverage of such incidents by international and local media. They pose a serious threat to the overall economic and political situation of the countries affected by terrorism and extremism:

1) The excessive coverage of terror acts encourages terrorists and they get attention.

2) Fanatic elements and low age youth get inspiration from these happenings.

3) Common people feel insecurity and remain in constant fear.

4) Threat of more terror activities would increase.

The more excessive the media give coverage to the terrorists and their activities, the more they will become famous and active.

If the media gives coverage to healthy activities and other key political issues concerning scientists, intellectuals, players, artists, inventions, reconstruction, education and other positive things, it would be in the larger interests of every one as it would divert the attention of the youth from terrorism to constructive activities. This will help in creating healthy societies.

For example, there are NATO, Coalition Forces and armies of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have been fighting against terrorism for nearly seven years in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have got more strength and terrorism is growing every passing day. It is because the media is giving extraordinary coverage to their activities and thus helping them to be popular and reorganized. This is a negative aspect of the media coverage.

On the contrary, when Gen. Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chohadry, lawyers launched a historical movement until the Supreme Court reinstated the CJ. Lawyers won this war by their firm stand and excessive media coverage. This was a war between democracy and dictatorship and democracy won it. This is a positive aspect of media coverage.

If media give coverage to healthy activities, it will create a healthy society, and, if the media will give coverage to terrorist activities, it will help the terrorists to grow their activities and it will bring the society nothing but more terrorism, extremism, violence, fear, uncertainty and insecurity.

I think media persons are a responsible community of the global society who should immediately recognize this fact and stop coverage of terrorist and extremist activities. Ignore them for only one year, I assure you, 90 percent of them will die!

Government signs three-year, $1.5M contract with company to prepare soldiers' remains

Glen McGregor The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, July 31, 2007

In a move that appears to signal expectations of continuing casualties in Afghanistan, the Harper government has signed a $1.5-million agreement with a Toronto company to help prepare the bodies of dead soldiers for return to Canada.

The standing offer awarded by Public Works and Government Services Canada gives funeral home MacKinnon and Bowes Ltd. the right to provide "care of remains and funeral services" to the Department of National Defence on an ongoing basis.

The offer is valid until April 2010 -- more than a year after the current Canadian mission in Afghanistan is slated to end -- with two optional one-year extensions.

MacKinnon and Bowes has received individual contracts in the past for similar work, but the offer allows the government to call up the company's services on an if-and-when needed basis, at a fixed price, to the maximum of $1.5 million.

When a Canadian soldier is killed in Afghanistan, the body is typically sent to the U.S. army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. DND usually dispatches one or more civilian morticians to Landstuhl to prepare the body for the flight back to Canada. The mortician can do some non-invasive preservation work, but does not embalm the body.

The morticians and other staff must be ready to travel on short notice.

The repatriation process is done as quickly as possible. With long flights back to Canada, decay can become a factor.

The Canadian Forces owns refrigerated caskets but they weigh about 360 kilograms with a body inside and are so unwieldy they must be moved by forklift and conveyer belts. They are rarely used. Instead, bodies are returned in "transfer cases" -- the aluminum coffins that are draped with Canadian flags at ramp ceremonies.

The offer with MacKinnon and Bowes does not specify a fixed price for repatriation of each body, but sets the value of travel costs, per diems for staff and other expenses.

The Defence Department referred questions about the standing offer to Public Works.

The offer includes, "mortuary services for timely and comprehensive response to international casualty situations," said Lucie Brosseau, a Public Works media officer.

It also covers advice from a mortuary expert, including forensic and pathological advice, and training, when requested. The offer includes work on international casualties sustained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and does not pertain specifically to Afghanistan.

Ms. Brosseau said the offer makes no reference to the number of repatriations that are expected will be required.

"We can't anticipate that," she said.

Allan Cole, president of MacKinnon and Bowes, described the contract as a "more formalized process" than the company's previous arrangement with DND.

The company specializes in bringing home the bodies of Canadians who die overseas, but Mr. Cole said his employees find the experience of working with dead soldiers particularly sad.

"The tragedies that we have been involved in, they have an impact on anybody," he said.

"You're dealing with young people. It's always a very heart-wrenching tragic event,"

Canada has lost 66 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

British PM calls Afghanistan terror's front line

Less aligned with Bush than Blair

Steven Edwards The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, July 31, 2007

UNITED NATIONS - Gordon Brown presented a united front yesterday with U.S. President George W. Bush, but while the British prime minister spoke of "duties and responsibilities" in Iraq, he declared Afghanistan as the front line in the war on terror.

Meeting at Camp David, the two leaders buttressed the notion that their countries' "special relationship" stood above ties with all others.

But analysts noted their first meeting since Mr. Brown became prime minister last month offered hints the British leader is less aligned with Mr. Bush than predecessor Tony Blair.

While Mr. Brown said international terrorism was the most important of the "great challenges" facing the world, he veered from the Bush administration's refrain that Iraq is ground zero for conducting the fight.

"Afghanistan is the front line against terrorism," he said. "As we have done twice in the last year, where there are more forces needed to back up the coalition and NATO effort, they have been provided by the United Kingdom."

He acknowledged that the presence of al-Qaeda in Iraq showed the conflict was more than just a civil war, as many critics of the U.S.-British deployment claim. But he said supporting NATO and coalition forces to fight the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan was more important.

"In Iraq, we have duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep in support of the democratically elected government," Mr. Brown said. "Our aim, like the United States, is step by step to move control to the Iraqi authorities, to the Iraqi government and to the security forces as progress is made."

Mr. Brown's emphasis on Afghanistan will be welcomed by the government of Stephen Harper as it seeks to switch the focus for Canada's 2,500 troops -- deployed mainly in Kandahar province, next door to British forces in Helmand -- from primarily combat to training Afghan forces.

"Canada wouldn't want the U.K. to lessen its role in Afghanistan because that would put more pressure on us at a time when we're trying to lessen our role," said Alex Morrison, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.

There had been speculation on both sides of the Atlantic that Mr. Brown might seek to respond to the unpopularity of the Iraq war in Britain by seeking to more quickly reduce Britain's commitment, currently being scaled back from 5,500 to 5,000 troops.

Mr. Bush brought up the speculation about their personal relationship, saying his British counterpart was not the "dour Scotsman" he'd been made out to be, and declaring him "the humorous Scotsman."

He also paid tribute to Mr. Brown's personal strength in overcoming the death of the eldest of his three children, saying "instead of that weakening his soul, (it) strengthened his soul."

"In terms of the war on terror, Brown is saying there has been a seamless transition, and that the U.K. is there," said Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute think-tank, based in Washington and London.

"It was a great day for George W. Bush simply because Gordon Brown appeared shoulder-to-shoulder with him."

Maintaining strong ties with the United States is as important as ever for Britain, given the country is one of the biggest targets for al-Qaeda-linked terrorism, and that co-operation between U.S. and British intelligence services benefits the junior partner in the relationship more.

Mr. Brown said he and Mr. Bush shared concerns over a range of other issues, including speeding up peace efforts in Darfur, advancing the Middle East peace process, mobilizing private, public and activist bids to end world poverty and pumping new life into global trade talks.

To view a video report on Bush and Brown's first meeting, go to Today's Videos at ottawacitizen.com

Minister's rift with general erodes support, PM warned

'Public is getting the perception that Ottawa is all over the map'

ALAN FREEMAN AND JANE TABER From Tuesday's Globe and Mail July 31, 2007

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper was warned Monday that the rhetorical duelling between Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and his chief soldier, General Rick Hillier, threatens to undermine already waning political support for the Afghanistan mission.

“Afghanistan has got to be very high on the list of problems he [Mr. Harper] has to fix,” said David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, as the Tories prepare for a caucus in Charlottetown this week to plot their fall political agenda.

Mr. Bercuson and other military and political experts said that there are too many voices speaking out on the Afghan military mission.

“The public is getting the perception that Ottawa is all over the map on this issue, and this isn't the way to manage a war,” he said in an interview. “He has to improve the unity of the message of his people, find someone who will be the chief spokesperson or change out the Minister of Defence.”

Even one of Mr. Harper's close friends, former chief of staff Tom Flanagan, said he didn't think the situation could continue for “very long.”

“It strikes me as unusual to have the minister and the chief of the defence staff saying different things,” said Mr. Flanagan, a professor at the University of Calgary.

“All I can say is that it looks odd. It makes you wonder what's going on.”

But two senior Tories said Monday they believe the timing is wrong for a cabinet shuffle and that it's not the Prime Minister's style to make a move when his back is against the wall.

“The PM is not going to make a move when it's [the O'Connor/Hillier rift] in the news,” said one official. “He'll sort of take stock over the summer and figure out what he wants to do.”

Over the weekend, Gen. Hillier, once again seemed to take a different tack from Mr. O'Connor, insisting that it will take “a long while” until the Afghan National Army is ready to carry on the fighting against the Taliban now in the hands of Canadians and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. A week ago, Mr. O'Connor had made a more optimistic forecast about the shifting of responsibility from Canadian troops.

The two men, who are not known to have particularly good personal chemistry, have frequently expressed different views on issues since the Tories took power 18 months ago. Just last week in a CBC interview, Gen. Hillier dismissed the idea of establishing new territorial defence battalions in Canada's big cities, a key element of the O'Connor-authored Tory defence platform in the past election, saying the last thing the Forces needed was new reserve units.

Wesley Wark, associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, said Mr. Harper must stop the public bickering.

“I don't think you can continue to tolerate distinct and publicly expressed differences between the CDS and the Minister of National Defence for too long,” he said. “Either the Prime Minister has to adjudicate or one of them has to go.”

Mr. Wark said that one problem is knowing exactly if and when Gen. Hillier is stepping over the line and getting involved in political affairs that are outside his purview. “The line is not clear,” he said. Unlike in the United States, where politicians have clashed with the likes of General Douglas MacArthur, Canada has little such experience.

“The line can be crossed in both ways,” said Terry Liston, a retired major-general and frequent commentator on military affairs. “The minister is not the commander in chief of the Armed Forces. The minister establishes policy but he does not direct the troops.”

“You can have a chief of defence staff who gets too political but you can also have a minister who micro-manages,” he said.

The problem is exaggerated in the current coupling of the gaffe-prone Mr. O'Connor, a former brigadier-general, and Gen. Hillier, whose straightforward manner and gift of the gab makes him ideal TV material.

“We have a minister that knows the military too well and who therefore knows all details, and we have a CDS who is very confident of himself and very much at ease politically,” Mr. Liston said, noting that the result is that each tends to “get in each other's way.”

Conservative MPs have not raised concern about the contradictions between the country's top defence officials as a problem, according to Tory sources. In fact, some MPs believe the so-called rift has been overstated.

“It does not seem to be a big deal to me,” said one veteran MP.

A senior Prime Minister's Office official said that “Gen. Hillier has and will continue to provide important comment on operational issues, which is his purview.”

With a report from Brian Laghi

Pak worried about Indian penetration from Afghanistan: Cohen

Washington, July 31 (ANI): An expert on South Asian affairs has said that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf cannot be blamed entirely for the deterioration of civil society in his country, and adds that he should avail of all opportunities to set things right and build up civilian competence, allowing for the army's retreat from governance.

According to Stephen Cohen, there is however, room for skepticism about Pakistan's role with regard to the Taliban.

He says that Pakistani officials freely admit that their main concerns in Afghanistan are Indian penetration (which would mean encirclement for Islamabad) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's dependence on New Delhi.

"Given this strategic compulsion, it is not surprising that Pakistan tolerates, if it does not directly support, the Taliban; it has no other instrument available to it than this Pashtun tribal hammer," Cohen says in an article for the Washington Post.

But he rules out the end of the "Musharraf system" in Pakistan. He says military rule in Pakistan will continue, even it is from behind the scenes.

"Abroad, they might get tougher with India (what better way to unite Pakistanis than a crisis with New Delhi?), and they would try to fake it with the Americans regarding Afghanistan: They will not willingly give up their Taliban assets," he says of the Pakistan armed forces.

He believes that the United States is paying lip service to a regime that is collapsing before its eyes and that may yet turn truly nasty.

Pakistani Troops Kill At Least 12 Islamic Militants

By VOA News 31 July 2007

A Pakistani army official says government troops backed by helicopter gunships have killed at least 12 militants who attacked a military checkpoint in the northwest near the Afghanistan border.Major General Waheed Arshad said Tuesday the violence erupted when around 40 militants fired at a military patrol in North Waziristan.

Also Tuesday, Pakistani officials said a roadside bomb wounded six paramilitary soldiers near the Afghan border, two of them seriously. Police said the paramilitary vehicle was in South Waziristan when it was hit by the improvised explosive device.

Violence has risen in Pakistan ever since security forces stormed the radical Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, earlier this month following a week long stand-off. More than 100 people were killed.

US must take preventive action in Pak, but carefully: Ex-CIA officer

Washington, July 31 (ANI): A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer has urged the Bush Administration to take careful preventive action to neutralise the terrorist threat in Pakistan's volatile Waziristan area.

Henry Crumpton, who served with the U.S. State Department after retiring from the CIA in 2005, has said that the right model for a Waziristan campaign is the CIA-led operation in Afghanistan, not the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.

He says that teams of CIA officers and Special Forces soldiers are best suited to work with tribal leaders, providing them weapons and money to fight an al-Qaeda network that has implanted itself brutally in Waziristan through the assassination of more than 100 tribal leaders during the past six years.

"It would be better to conduct such operations jointly with Pakistan, but if the government of General Pervez Musharraf can't or won't cooperate, the United States should be prepared to go it alone," Crumpton argues.

"The United States has an obligation to defend itself and its citizens. We either do it now, or we do it after the next attack," he added.

Crumpton says that he proposed a detailed plan last year for the rolling up these sanctuaries, which he called the Regional Strategic Initiative. It would combine economic assistance and paramilitary operations in a broad counter-insurgency campaign.

In Waziristan, it would involve U.S. and Pakistani operatives giving tribal warlords guns and money, to be sure, but they would coordinate this covert action with economic aid to help tribal leaders operate their local stone quarries more efficiently, say, or install windmills and solar panels to generate electricity for their remote mountain villages.

A successful counter-insurgency program would need Pakistani support, he said.

Training Afghans will take 'a long while'

PAUL KORING AND ERIN ANDERSSEN Globe and Mail  / July 30, 2007

KANDAHAR, OTTAWA — Top Canadian military commanders voiced doubts Sunday about how rapidly the Afghan National Army can shoulder the fighting load – raising the possibility of NATO pressure to extend Canada's Afghanistan mission past the current commitment that expires in February, 2009.

In Ottawa, General Rick Hillier seemed to contradict Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's optimistic predication that the Afghans would be taking on most of the front-line combat by next spring in Kandahar province, where Canada's powerful battle group is waging a tough counter-insurgency war against the Taliban.

“It's going to take a long while,” Gen. Hillier told CTV's Question Period, referring to the training of the Afghan National Army. “We've just started the process.” He also said it would be a “significant challenge'' for the ANA to be ready in the time frame proposed by Mr. O'Connor only a week ago on the same program.

Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal foreign affairs critic, said inconsistent statements between the Defence Minister and the country's top soldier create confusion for the international community and at home, where Canada's position on its mission in Afghanistan needs to be clear.

“Canadians need to know who's in charge here,” he said in a telephone interview from Vancouver Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Kandahar, the general running all of Canada's overseas deployments said defeating the Taliban and rebuilding Afghanistan won't be done by February, 2009, adding that if Canadians don't remain to complete the job, then some other nation will have to do it. Already, NATO is struggling to find nations willing to contribute to the mission – especially if it involves sending troops to the war-torn southern half of the country.

“Whether we accomplish it ourselves or it's accomplished by others doesn't matter a whole lot in the greater scheme of things,'' Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, commander of all Canadian expeditionary forces overseas, said Sunday.

Gen. Gauthier, who knows Afghanistan well, is soldiering on in the full knowledge that a political debate is raging over whether Canada's commitment to Afghanistan should be extended beyond February, 2009. Mounting casualties, rising disquiet at home and sagging public support for Canada's first sustained combat in half a century hangs like a cloud over the mission's future.

Last week, Mr. O'Connor seemed to be putting a positive political gloss – and a hurry-up timetable – on shifting the combat burden to the Afghan National Army.

“We will continue to withdraw, train them, put more emphasis on training, and at, some stage, basically be in reserve,” he said.

It's a stand that's seen as an attempt to soften opposition to the war in Afghanistan, which is particularly strong in Quebec.

But Gen. Hillier made it clear that Canada's soldiers will remain in the thick of the fighting. “We are in the fight. There are direct combat actions required to keep the Taliban from stopping the progress in southern Afghanistan and tearing the country further apart,” he said.

In Kandahar, as one battle group heads home and another – based on Quebec's famed Vandoos, the Royal 22nd Regiment – is arriving, Gen. Gauthier rejected the notion that Afghanistan in general, and Kandahar province, the Taliban's original heartland, would be safe, secure and thriving by the end of the Harper government's commitment.

“I don't think anybody believes the job is going to be done by February, '09,” Gen. Gauthier said.

“From an international community perspective, no one is under any illusions that Afghanistan will be self-sustaining and self-sufficient by February, '09,” he said from the Canadian headquarters at the sprawling NATO base at Kandahar Airfield.

But nor is Gen. Gauthier planning for a Canadian role in Kandahar beyond the troops who will arrive next summer and leave at about the time the current commitment ends. The high command is working on plans “for the group that will be deploying in August, '08 – we have no plans beyond that right now,” he said.

“Trying to anticipate where we might be in February, '09, would be a waste of time,” he said, adding that in the international community there's no specific expectation that Canadians will do “everything that needs to be done,'' to achieve the long-term objectives of security and rebuilding in Kandahar.

Afghanistan needs help to achieve stability–CSTO secretary-general

MOSCOW, July 31 (Itar-Tass) -- The secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization believes that if the situation in Afghanistan fails to return to stability now, its neighbors will be faced with problems for many years to come.

“I am certain that if countries sharing a common border with Afghanistan, including those affiliated with the CSTO, fail to extend assistance in returning the situation there to stability, there will emerge problems for many years ahead,” CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha said in a television link-up between Moscow and Beijing on Tuesday.

Bordyuzha believes that every single CSTO member-state must take part in post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan, including measures to maintain security.

“The international community provides arms supplies and extends financial assistance to Afghanistan, but, regrettably, this is not enough,” Bordyuzha said. “Afghanistan is to be assisted in a variety of ways, including measures to prevent terrorists from penetrating into its territory, and to fight drugs trafficking. All this must be within the range of the international community’s attention. There is no other way of achieving stability in Afghanistan.”

Local Afghan ranks too thin to take on Taliban

PAUL KORING From Tuesday's Globe and Mail July 31, 2007 at 8:30 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers are tough, brave and willing to fight, say Canadians who have watched them take on the Taliban. The proof is grimly evident in the surgical ward at the main NATO base hospital where wounded Afghan soldiers fill nearly every bed.

But what they have in courage they lack in numbers, which argues that the Afghan National Army is far from ready to take over the battle against the Taliban from Canada and its allies.

There will only be 1,400 fully trained – and still woefully under-equipped – Afghans ready for battle by the time fighting season begins next year, according to officials here.That's up from roughly 500 available last fall, thanks to a ramped-up training program, say Canadians shaping the effort, and the army is vastly improved.

Still, even that is far from a fighting force capable of replacing the combat punch of the heavily armed Canadian battle group with its tanks, artillery, night-fighting ability and tight integration with helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers capable of raining death from the skies. And it's far short of the 3,000 combat-ready Afghan soldiers that Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor predicted would be operational early next spring.

Even as the Afghan forces grow in numbers and fighting ability, they still have no armoured vehicles, no body armour, sometimes no helmets, no artillery bigger than mortars and no way of calling in air strikes. They fight with worn Kalashnikovs and drive around in open pickup trucks.

“They are making great progress,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Wayne Eyre, who heads Canada's 70-soldier Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT), attempting to transform Afghan soldiers deployed in Kandahar into combat-capable formations that will eventually supplant the heavily armed foreign forces now leading the fight against the Taliban.

“These guys can fight – it's almost a joy to watch them fight their way through enemy positions,” Lt.-Col. Eyre recounts front-line Canadian commanders as saying.

The ANA – at least that part of it that most concerns Canadians – has come a long way since last fall. Then, a single, under-strength kandak (an Afghan infantry battalion) with perhaps 500 soldiers – although about one-third of them would be absent, usually visiting their homes halfway across the country – was the sum total of the Afghan National Army in Kandahar province.

Since then, teams of Canadian trainers embedded with and fighting alongside the Afghans, coupled with close pairing of small Afghan units and elements of the Canadian battle group, have transformed that kandak into what Brigadier-General Tim Grant calls the “best Afghan battalion in the entire Afghan army.”

Trouble is, there's still only one fighting infantry kandak in Kandahar. Another, consisting of raw recruits who have just finished basic training, will deploy in a few weeks. The brigade's third infantry kandak doesn't yet exist. However, on the plus side, both the combat support and logistics kandaks needed to round out the brigade are functioning.

If Canada (and other NATO nations) have a viable exit strategy in Afghanistan, then marching home with honour will mean leaving behind an ANA capable of sustaining a peace and winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans.

“We're not going to win this war by sending out the battle group to kill five or 10 Taliban who can be replaced by five or 10 more,” said Lt.-Col. Eyre. Ultimately, winning the counterinsurgency requires the Afghan security forces to win the trust and support of the people and cut off the Taliban's lifeblood of support in the hinterlands.

So far, building that ANA is a campaign of much promise, modest success and a long way to go.Much of the progress may seem mundane, but it's vital to developing a capable army. Afghan units fighting alongside the Canadians in Kandahar now organize and provide their own convoys, plan their own (small) operations and are slowly integrating the combat support and logistics elements.

“The new leadership is good. … They understand the fundamentals of fighting a counterinsurgency, including the importance of keeping the population on side,” Lt.-Col. Eyre said.

A tiny case in point. Last week, a young Afghan officer stopped his soldiers from stealing grapes from a farmer's vines in Panjwaii. Without that sort of discipline, the ANA would be just another armed band roaming the countryside.

“They are now at the point where they are initiating, planning and executing their own operations, with Canadians only providing indirect support and things like casualty evacuation,” Lt.-Col. Eyre said.

Meanwhile, the AWOL (absent without leave) rate has dropped from a stunning 30 per cent to a still-intolerable – by NATO standards – but much better 10 per cent.But the process will be gradual and it will be years before the Afghan army – even under the most optimistic of predictions – can project the kind of combat punch provided by 40,000-plus NATO troops backed by the world's most sophisticated warplanes.

Canada has ramped up its training effort. More than 130 officers and soldiers will be assigned to the OMLT during the current rotation based on the Van Doos battle group. That's up from 70 in the current OMLT. Still, that's only a fraction of the 1,000-soldier-plus Canadian battle group. However, deployed Canadian units will work alongside, and, it is hoped, in support of Afghan units.

“2008 will be the transition year,” predicts Lt.-Col. Eyre. “I'd like to see them in the lead by the summer of 2008.”

Project Kandahar

The Ottawa Citizen Published: Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Citizen reporter Andrew Mayeda is in Afghanistan covering the war for the CanWest newspaper chain. He will spend the bulk of his six-week tour "embedded" with the Canadian military in the southern province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are battling the Taliban. Mr. Mayeda will also be blogging about his experiences on a regular basis. In his first blog entry he writes about "making the necessary preparations" for his trip. "The checklist ranges from the sobering (drafting a will) to the amusing (apparently you can never have enough baby wipes in the field). Ticking off this list gives you a comforting sense of control." Read the entire entry and follow his blog at

US PRT grants $3.5m for reconstruction of Salang Highway

CHARIKAR, July 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A US Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) based in Bagram has allocated $3.5 million for the reconstruction of the Salang Highway, linking Kabul to 11 northern provinces.

Parwan Governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday the reconstruction of the key road - damaged by flash floods and torrential rains in April - would begin in three weeks from now. He promised the project would be completed in three month before the commencement of snowfall.

Sayed Muhammad Younus Zajafizada, provincial public work departments head, said a stretch of the road - from Qalatak to Tajikan area of Salang district - would be asphalted. Supportive walls would also be established along the road to keep it from being washed away by floods in the future.

The director added the Public Work Ministry had listed as a top priority the rebuilding of the Salang Highway, a vital north-south link that had to be fixed before the onset of the winter. In Kabul, construction work was launched on a womens mosque next to the Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa Masjid in Macro Ryan neighbourhood. The project has a three-month timescale.

Qari Muhammad Ihsan Saqil, prayer leader at the Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa Masjid, said the under-construction worship place was being co-financed by the Haj Ministry and local residents. The mosque, with capacity for about 200 females, is being erected over 200 square metres of land.

Kandahar musclemen qualify for Mr. Afghanistan contest

KANDAHAR CITY, July 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two bodybuilders from the southern Kandahar province - the birthplace of the Taliban movement - have qualified for the Mr. Afghanistan contest, a sports director said on Sunday.

Nine provincial clubs participated in the bodybuilding event, with Syed Ahmad emerging at the top of the table in the senior class and Wais Ahmad in the junior category, the official said.

Provincial head of Olympic Committee Muhammadullah Gulalay, in a brief chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, said the victorious pair of musclemen - each earning the title of Mr. Kandahar - would go on to vie for the Mr. Afghanistan title in Kabul.

If they triumphed in the all-Afghanistan competition, to be held in Kabul, the duo would be entitled to take part in the Asian Bodybuilding Championship, Gulalay added.

[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.]