In this bulletin:

• AFGHANISTAN: Bilqees, Afghanistan "I found my daughter's body soaked in blood"
• Children die in Afghan air raid – BBC
• U.S.-led air raid kills 7 Afghan children
• Recruiting Taleban 'child soldiers'
• President Hamid Karzai Strongly Condemns Terrorist Attack in Kabul
• Blast raises fears in Afghanistan
• Who is responsible for civilian deaths in Afghanistan?
• Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, UN official issues ringing denunciation
• Afghanistan says cooperation with Pakistan improving
• EU calls on Afghanistan, Pakistan to improve bilateral cooperation
• Vested interest behind scuttling India`s role in rebuilding Afghanistan: Antony
• Dutch sergeant major killed in Afghanistan, defense chief announces
• Norwegian peacekeeper injured in northern Afghanistan attack
• Dr. Spanta received Norwegian MPs
• Can the war in Afghanistan be won? – BBC
• There's grounds for hope in Afghanistan
• America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames
• Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN: Bilqees, Afghanistan "I found my daughter's body soaked in blood"

18 Jun 2007 10:56:33 GMT 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.

LOGAR, 18 June 2007 (IRIN) - On 12 June two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a crowd of female students coming out of high school in the central province of Logar. Three schoolgirls were killed and five wounded. Bilqees' 13-year-old daughter, Shukria, was one of the three killed. The bereaved mother gave IRIN an account of the day her daughter was killed.

"That morning she recited the holy Koran longer than usual and told me she wanted to drink two glasses of milk, instead of one. Before leaving she looked back several times and asked me whether I needed anything - I said 'No'.

"It was about 10am when my younger daughter burst into the house screaming 'Shukria has been martyred!'

"I do not remember how I got out of the house to inquire what had happened, but I recall I ran outside, barefoot, to find my daughter.

"On my way to the school I found Shukria's sandal, but could not find her. There were small pools of blood in front of the school gate. As I was crying and screaming somebody pointed to a parked car and said my daughter had been taken there.

"I threw myself towards the car and there in the boot I found my daughter's body soaked in blood. Her beautiful eyes were open and her right hand was clutched to her stomach where she was shot. I was told later that she was shot three times - in the stomach, heart and back.

"That afternoon she was buried in the village cemetery.

"I miss my daughter very much. Shukria was a very intelligent girl. She was always telling me about her enthusiasm to become a doctor in the future. Last year I banned my daughters from going to school after a rocket was fired at it. But Shukria insisted and made me change my mind.

"I will let my younger daughter, Zarmina, continue going to school only if it is safe for her to do so. I want my daughter to be educated and serve her country, but I do not want to lose her, too."

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Children die in Afghan air raid – BBC

Seven children were killed in a US-led coalition air strike against a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition has said. A statement said that a number of militants were also killed in the raid in Paktika province near Pakistan.

The children are believed to have been students at a madrassa, or Islamic school, at the targeted compound. In the south, three coalition soldiers and their Afghan interpreter died in a bomb blast, the US military said. The deaths came after "an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Kandahar province" on Sunday, a statement said.

Afghan police and coalition forces also fought "prolonged battles" with militants in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, the coalition says. It says "several dozen" militants were killed in Helmand but there is no independent confirmation of this.

Hours before the Sunday night air raid in Paktika, a devastating bomb attack on an Afghan police bus in Kabul killed 35 people and injured more than 30 others.

A coalition statement said the air raid followed "credible intelligence" that al-Qaeda militants had taken shelter at the complex.

"Coalition forces confirmed the presence of nefarious activity occurring at the site before getting approval to conduct an air strike on the location," the statement said.

It said the compound in Zarghun Shah in Paktika province, about 120 miles (180km) south of the capital, Kabul, also contained a mosque and a madrassa (Islamic school).

The statement said that residents of the targeted compound reported that militants had been at the camp all day.

"This is another example of al-Qaeda using the protective status of a mosque, as well as innocent civilians, to shield themselves," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher said. "We are saddened by the innocent lives that were lost as a result of militants' cowardice."

In a later statement, the coalition said it did not believe any children were in or around the compound during the day.

It said other children who survived the air strike alleged that the seven children who died were held inside the building all day and beaten and pushed away from the door if they tried to go outside.

Paktika's governor has so far refused to comment on the attack, and there has been no word from locals themselves. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul says foreign forces in Afghanistan constantly accuse militants of using civilians as human shields.

There is, however, anger at the rising number of civilians killed in such foreign-led strikes, and President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly asked the coalition and Nato-led forces to try to minimise such casualties, he says.

The fact that the coalition issued this statement quite rapidly suggests it is expecting a negative reaction, our correspondent says.

Sunday's bomb attack on the police bus in Kabul is thought to be the most devastating bomb attack in the capital since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

Police said a number of civilians were also among those killed in the rush-hour attack close to police headquarters in the city centre. Five foreigners were wounded in the attack.

The BBC's world affairs editor, John Simpson, says such an attack is disturbingly new on the streets of Kabul and the tactics appear to have been borrowed directly from Iraq.

U.S.-led air raid kills 7 Afghan children

Mon Jun 18, 2007 - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - At least seven children were killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike on a religious school in Afghanistan, the coalition said on Monday, amid rising anger over civilian deaths from foreign military operations.

A U.S. military spokesman said some children who survived Sunday's raid said pupils had been forced by insurgents to stay inside the madrasa. "We are truly sorry for the innocent lives lost in this attack," said Army Major Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman, in a statement.

"We had surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building."

The air strike on the school occurred on the same day a suspected suicide bomber killed more than 20 people in an attack on a police bus in the heart of Kabul.

Other violence around the country made it one of the bloodiest days since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

The U.S.-led and Afghan forces killed several dozen insurgents in a "prolonged battle" in southern Helmand province that day, the U.S. military said on Monday.

The forces were attacked by an unknown number of guerrillas, prompting the troops to call in air support. Two coalition soldiers were wounded, the U.S. military said, adding it had no report of civilian casualties.

Also on Sunday, in a separate incident, three coalition soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed after a roadside bomb hit their vehicle near Kandahar city, also in the south.

The air strike on the madrasa occurred in southeastern Paktika province near the Pakistan border. The coalition said it had been part of an operation aimed at a compound containing a mosque and a madrasa thought to have been used as a safehouse by al Qaeda fighters.

"Witness statements taken early this morning clearly put the blame on the suspected terrorists saying that if the children attempted to go outside they were beaten and pushed away from the door," the coalition said.

"Al Qaeda operatives have hidden amongst the people of Afghanistan in the past and caused unnecessary injury, and often death, to law-abiding citizens," it said. There was no immediate way of confirming the coalition claims.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan recent months after the traditional winter lull, with foreign forces launching attacks against Taliban strongholds in the south and east and Taliban guerrillas hitting back with suicide bombings.

Al Qaeda is fighting alongside the Taliban to overthrow Afghanistan's Western-backed government and drive out foreign troops. U.S.-led forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

More than 120 civilians have been killed by foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, according to the government and residents.

The deaths have sparked street protests calling for President Hamid Karzai's resignation and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. U.S. forces make up the bulk of the more than 50,000 foreign troops operating in the country.

Faced with resurgent Taliban attacks, growing frustration over corruption and lack of economic development, Karzai has warned that civilian deaths would have dangerous consequences for his government and the troops.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 17 months. About 1,500 have been civilians.

Recruiting Taleban 'child soldiers'

By Syed Shoaib Hasan - BBC News, Tank - Children in Tank, a remote town at the centre of Taleban activity in north-west Pakistan, are going missing.It is a disturbing phenomenon that Tank shares with other towns on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt.

Reports says the children - some as young as 11 - are being kidnapped by pro-Taleban militants. Most people in Tank are unwilling to admit it is happening and few will talk about it.

Pro-Taleban militants in the region deny they are recruiting children, blaming the region's troubles on government policy. When people in Tank can be persuaded to talk about the missing children, most appear to guard every word.

"They don't really kidnap the children," says a local teacher. But he is hesitant and thinks his words through. "The Taleban convince them it is their duty to carry out jihad [holy struggle]."

But then he admits what he's left unsaid. "How much convincing does a child need? ... Especially when promised adventure."

The trouble is that in most cases, the "adventure" the Taleban offer usually results in no possibility of return. "They are being trained as fidayeen," the teacher half whispers.

"Fidayeen" literally means "those who sacrifice their lives". In Afghanistan today, the term has a new meaning - suicide bomber.

The tale of a local school administrator in the town is typical of what is happening. "The purpose of their visit [in January] was clear from the start," he said.

"The militants came to town with a mission, and wanted to convert us to their cause. "They said that jihad was obligatory and those who heed the call are rewarded," the principal said.

"As many as 30 students from each of the four government schools in Tank 'enlisted'. A similar number have also joined from private schools. The ages of those taken are between 11 to 15 years.

Asked why the school administration has not simply refused, the staff appear flabbergasted. "Do you want me to lose my neck?" one asks bluntly. "The Taleban don't ask for permission - they just tell us."

Even so, not everyone has given way to the militants. At the private English medium school, Oxford High, an extraordinary battle for influence over the pupils was recently fought.

"They came on 23 March but the children had left," said a school teacher. "The Taleban said they would be back later."

They did indeed return three days later, while an exam was taking place. The militants agreed for the exam to finish before they tried to take them away.

"They went outside to wait at 1000," the teacher said, "and an hour later all hell broke loose." Local police and security forces had been monitoring the militants' activities.

"The first sound we heard was of a helicopter flying in low and then a loud explosion," a local explained. This was at 1100. Over the next two hours the militants and security forces fought pitched battles.

The militants suffered greater losses in the earlier exchanges. But they were soon back in greater numbers, and rolled through the town attacking anything or anyone connected with the government.

Some of the fighters were children as young as 12, eyewitnesses told the BBC. The security forces were also attacked, and now keep a low profile. Since then, the militants have had a free hand in the town.

But the authorities are not willing to admit anything is amiss. "I have been here just two months," says Muhammad Idrees Khan, the town's deputy chief of police.

He argues that the parents should come forward if there is a problem. But locals says that parents are extremely scared.

"They harbour hopes of their children returning if they keep quiet," explains one. "But if they open their mouths, the whole family would suffer the Taleban's wrath."

On the streets of Tank, students coming out of the local college have ambivalent feelings about the situation. "We are not extremists... we are liberal people," says a student who has just appeared for his physics paper.

"But our identity is Islamic." Others are highly critical of the government. "They are the ones who should be protecting us," said one, "and yet there is not much sign that they are even half-prepared to do so."

President Hamid Karzai Strongly Condemns Terrorist Attack in Kabul

Date of Release: 17 June 2006

Arg, Kabul – His Excellency Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned today's terrorist attack in central Kabul.

The terrorists attacked a police bus near the police headquarters in Kabul city this morning which martyred 22 police officers and a number of civilians and injured many others.

The President expressed his deep sadness at the death of police officers and civilians and said, "These police instructors trained our young Afghan policemen and worked hard to strengthen security in the country."

"The enemies of Afghanistan, by committing these inhumane acts, want to prevent Afghanistan from strengthening of its national institutions and its national police and army. They carry out their terrorist attacks in places of Afghanistan where reconstruction work is progressing smoothly as they have tried to hamper the progress of work on Kabul-Bamyan and Kandahar-Farah roads."

"Despite these terrorist attacks, Afghanistan will continue to move towards peace and stability and thousands of young Afghans will continue to join the Afghan police force and play their crucial role in defeating their enemies and strengthening security in the country."

The President expressed his heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims, and prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.  

Office of the Spokesperson to the President of Afghanistan

Blast raises fears in Afghanistan

By Rahim Faiez and Fisnik Abrashi Associated Press 06/18/2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - The deadliest insurgent attack since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 52, officials said.

The enormous suicide blast, which raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The blast sheared off the bus's metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.

Later, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops launched airstrikes against a compound suspected of housing Al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven children and several militants, a coalition statement said today.

The strike was launched Sunday on a compound that also contained a mosque and a madrasah, or Islamic school, in the Zarghun Shah district of Paktika province, a coalition statement said.

"Coalition forces confirmed the presence of nefarious activity occurring at the site before getting approval to conduct an airstrike on the location," the statement said.

Early reports said seven children at the school were killed in the strike and that "several militants" also were killed, the coalition statement said. Two suspected militants also were detained.

The explosion Sunday in Kabul was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country. In the south, in Kandahar province, a roadside bomb killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The soldiers' nationalities were not released, but most in the coalition are American.

Condemning the Kabul attack, President Hamid Karzai said the "enemies of Afghanistan" were trying to stop the development of Afghan security forces, a key component in the U.S.-NATO strategy of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government one day, allowing Western forces to leave.

A self-described Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a Taliban suicide bomber named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman caused the blast. Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter from an undisclosed location. His claim could not be verified.

Zemeri Bashary, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said late Sunday that 35 people were killed and 52 wounded in the blast. Karzai's office said 22 police instructors died, indicating that 13 of the dead were civilians.

At least one person survived the 8:10 a.m. bus blast. Nasir Ahmad, 22, a janitor at the police training academy, was sitting in the back of the bus when the bomb exploded. Speaking from a hospital bed where he was recovering from wounds to his face and hands, he said: "There were between 30 to 40 police instructors in the bus."

It was the only full sentence he managed to utter before stopping from exhaustion.At the entrance to the hospital, a blue plastic trash can overflowed with the bloodied shoes and sandals of victims.

Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal said initial indications were that a suicide bomber boarded the bus as it stopped to pick up police instructors at an open-air bus station in central Kabul. Such a suicide attack would represent a sizable jump in lethality compared to more typical Taliban suicide bombings, which often kill far fewer people.

Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said it was too early to tell if the attack was a sign of more lethal bombings to come, or heavier involvement by Al-Qaida. NATO commanders have long predicted a rise in suicide attacks this year.

A civilian bus was driving just in front of the police vehicle and was damaged when the bomb went off. A police officer at the scene said the civilian bus's position likely prevented more civilian casualties.

Afghan government officials, police and army soldiers are commonly targeted by insurgents trying to bring down Karzai's U.S.-backed government, and buses carrying Afghan police and army soldiers are common targets.

In May, a remote-control bomb hit an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding 29 people. In October, a bomb on a bicycle exploded as a police bus went by in Kabul, wounding 11.

At least 307 Afghan police, army or intelligence personnel have been killed in violence so far this year through June 15, according to an AP tally of figures from the U.S., U.N., NATO and Afghan authorities.

Who is responsible for civilian deaths in Afghanistan?

Reuters - Monday, June 18 - -- After the U.S. ousted the Taliban government in November 2001, forces regrouped in their historic stronghold, the southern ethnic Pashtun provinces. The Taliban are thought responsible for the majority of suicide attacks in 2006, in which some 803 Afghan civilians were killed or injured (272 killed and 531 injured) - (Reuters) - At least seven children have been killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike on a religious school in Afghanistan, the coalition said on Monday, amid rising anger over civilian deaths from foreign military operations.

Some 1,500 of the 6,000 people who have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 17 months have been civilians, with last year the deadliest for civilians since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Human Rights Watch said.*

Here is an overview of the groups believed responsible.

-- After the U.S. ousted the Taliban government in November 2001, forces regrouped in their historic stronghold, the southern ethnic Pashtun provinces. The Taliban are thought responsible for the majority of suicide attacks in 2006, in which some 803 Afghan civilians were killed or injured (272 killed and 531 injured).

-- Spokesmen often justify attacks as permissible against supporters the government of Hamid Karzai.

-- Ex-leader of the Taliban government, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is the supreme authority for the movement, which has lost several top military figures in the past seven months. If alive, the low-profile Jalaluddin Haqqani is widely believed to be military commander.

-- Analysts say up to 40 militant foreign groups support the movement, and that disparate groups can mobilise between 5,000 and 15,000 troops, including Pashtun tribal militias.

-- "The Islamic Party" is led by Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an university-trained engineer who was one of the leading insurgent commanders who fought the Soviet-backed communist government in the 1980s and early 1990s, and was notorious for shelling and rocket attacks on Kabul in the 1990s.

-- Forced into exile when the Taliban conquered Kabul in 1996, Hekmatyr has moved on from bitter rivalry with the Taliban to publicly announcing they would work together against the government and international forces.

-- The acronym AGE is used by the Afghan government and allied forces to describe a number of armed insurgent groups.

-- These include tribal militias contesting central government authority, criminal networks such as opium cartels involved in the booming narcotics trade, and smaller groups associated with Taliban or Hezb-i- Islami, like Jaish al Muslemin, the "Army of Muslims".

-- Roughly 38,000 of the nearly 50,000 international troops in Afghanistan are under the UN-mandated and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Stationed in Kabul and various provinces, the largest concentrations are in the south.

-- The U.S. and some of its allies have about 10,000 to 13,000 troops in the country not under NATO command, primarily at Bagram air base north of Kabul and in southern and eastern areas along the Pakistani border.

-- At least 230 civilians were killed during NATO/coalition operations in 2006, HRW said, with the worst incident last October when separate NATO operations in Kandahar and Helmand province killed some 50 civilians.

* This number does not include police deaths. Police normally have civilian status, and insurgent groups have carried out many attacks on police, but are not included in this count, as they may be targeted as combatants when they take part in military operations.

Sources: Human Rights Watch report, The Human Cost: The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan

Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, UN official issues ringing denunciation

by SOPnewswire Posted 24 minutes ago

A senior United Nations official today sounded a ringing denunciation of Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, decrying the group’s atrocities as crimes against humanity and Islam while urging a concerted international response to the violence.

Chris Alexander, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, cited the weekend attack on police trainers and the recent killing of nearly a dozen schoolchildren in calling for strong action against the perpetrators.

“What is clear is that those attacking Afghanistan today – its institutions and its international partners – are arrogant, criminal and marginal. They are the enemies of Afghan life, faith and law. They will not succeed,” he declared.

Mr. Alexander pointed out that just hours after yesterday’s attack, the European Union inaugurated its new police mission for Afghanistan, which will bring nearly 200 mentors and trainers to all parts of this country, while President Hamid Karzai announced new police leadership for south and southeast.

“Terrorists are swimming against the tide in Afghanistan,” said the UN official. “Police reform will continue to improve the quality of law enforcement in this country: better training, better leadership and better equipment are already prevailing.”

The deputy envoy offered a personal account of the devastation wrought by the attack on the schoolchildren, naming the victims and their parents to underscore the suffering endured by the families at the hands of the terrorists. “Who on the side of those calling themselves ‘Taliban’ will take responsibility for these crimes?” he asked. “Who are those that celebrate the killing and the injuring of innocent civilians, of Afghans who so richly deserve peace?”

He demanded answers to these questions and condemned the actions and motives of the perpetrators. “Those responsible for these attacks – those who have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians this year in cold blood – are committing brutal crimes – these are crimes against the holy religion of Islam, they are crimes against humanity,” he said.

“Those responsible have placed themselves outside the law, certainly, but also outside of morality and faith – beyond the community of Afghans and their institutions. They have joined the company and infamy of terrorists.”

Mr. Alexander called on Afghans to speak out against the terrorists, and on insurgent leaders to stop deliberately killing innocent civilians.

“We also call on the Afghan Government and its international partners to continue their efforts to protect Afghans and to end this violence,” he said.

“Our responsibility – as Afghan citizens, government officials, police, international military forces and international partners – is to work together, to stand together for decency and humanity, for the founding values of this country and of Islam itself, to end this violence.”

In another recent attack, 20 armed perpetrators attacked a team of 60 deminers in Kandahar on 13 July, locking them up overnight and robbing their compound. The incident followed earlier attack on deminers, whose work is critical to preventing further mine casualties and paving the way for a peaceful future for Afghanistan.

‘Despite these repeated attacks against deminers, the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) does not intent to stop its activities in any part of the country; the Programme never ceased its activities even during the wars period,” the UN said in a statement today.

“The MAPA extends its heartfelt thanks to the deminers for their unwavering courage, sacrifice and commitment to their country.” said Mohammad Sediq, the Chief of Operations of the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA), which oversees mine action on behalf of the Government of Afghanistan.

“Deminers are heroes who risk their lives each day to save innocent lives and free Afghanistan of landmines and unexploded ordnance to return the cleared land back to their countrymen. They should be praised for their hard work and not attacked.” Source:UN

Afghanistan says cooperation with Pakistan improving

BRUSSELS: Afghanistan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has said his country's cooperation with Pakistan to stop the flow of terrorists was improving.

"With the help of NATO and the international community our cooperation with Pakistan has improved and we are trying to have more coordination as far as the borders are concerned," Wardak told a press conference in Brussels .

Wardak also briefed NATO foreign ministers on the security situation in Afghanistan, the Inepnext news agency said.

"This cooperation is in its initial phases but we do hope that the joint cooperation of ISAF, Afghanistan and Pakistan will bear fruit and I think we will be more able to entrap the flow of the terrorists," he added.

Wardak appeared to downplay American accusations that Iran was supplying arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"There is definitely evidence that weapons and other supplies are coming from that side of the border (Iran), but it has not been identified if it is the drug mafia or the Al Qaeda or some other elements", he said.

"We have always had very good relations with Iran. They have helped us in our reconstruction. We do believe that the stability, peace and prosperity in Afghanistan is in the interests of Iran and also the whole region," Wardak added.

On his part, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has about 40,000 personnel now in Afghanistan.

EU calls on Afghanistan, Pakistan to improve bilateral cooperation

By IANS Monday June 18, 08:03 PM

Brussels, June 18 (IANS) The European Union Foreign Ministers' Council Monday called on Afghanistan and Pakistan to strengthen regional cooperation and develop an open and constructive dialogue, saying it will play 'an important role in the overall reconstruction effort in Afghanistan'.

'This issue should feature prominently on the agenda of the next Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB) meeting,' the Council said in a statement, INEPNEXT news agency reports.

Meeting in Luxembourg, the foreign ministers of the 27-member EU called on Afghanistan and Pakistan 'to put their commitments in this regard into practice.'

The Council also welcomed the meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan on May 30 in Potsdam, Germany, and endorsed the 'Joint Statement on the G8 Afghanistan-Pakistan Initiative'.

The EU and its member states will play their part in implementing this initiative, added the statement.

Vested interest behind scuttling India`s role in rebuilding Afghanistan: Antony

New Delhi, June 18: In a veiled reference to Pakistan, India today accused "vested interests" for scuttling role of New Delhi in rebuilding war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Expressing concern over the resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan, Defence Minister A K Antony said "certain vested interests are trying to scuttle our role in rebuilding Afghanistan.

"We are committed to support this (rebuilding) process and help Afghanistan to emerge as a stable, democratic state," the Defence Minister said while inaugurating the two-day Unified Commander's-in-Chief conference here.

India has already despatched a fresh batch of commondos to Afghanistan from the Indian Tibetan Border Police to protect the Indian projects and those working there.

During his address to the top brass of Army, Indian Air Force and the Navy, Antony delved on the security scenario in the immediate neighbourhood and beyond. "The most crucial challenge facing is in the near future is growing instablity in our neighbourhood."

He said the rising tide of religious fundamentalism and cross border terrorism continued unabated and this had affected "our regional securty environment too."

The conference has been called to draw a roadmap for the transformation of the Forces to meet the varied security challenges. "The transformation plan must be developed under the overreaching principle of jointness for highest efficacy," he said while expressing confidence that the plan was not only "efficient and cost effective but also keeping in pace with the changing times."

Maintaining that the 11th Army Plan document had been finalised and was expected to be approved soon, Antony said "this will help in planned development, modernisation and upgradation of the army, by ensuring timely actions for acquisition of requisite weapons and equipment."

Asserting that Government was committed to absolute transparency and fairness in defence deals, he said the Offset Policy to provide equal opportunity to medium and small entreprenurs. "This will assist smaller players in upgrading their engineering and manufacturing skills".

On globalisation, the Defence Minister said though it was accompanied by widely accepted international rules to cope with the economic and commercial dimensions, similar mechanism "are either absent or are still in the process of evolution when it comes to dealing with terrorism and the emergence of non-state players.

He asked the commanders to factor the changing security architecture while evolving a long-term strategic thought as the global war on terror had shifted the focus of major powers to the Asian region leading to realignments.

Seeking the evolution of a "security paradigm" relevant to the emerging multi-polar world, Antony said it should ideally be "a mix of security cooperation, developing strategic partnerships and deterrence in consonance with our security and strategic interests. Our strategic policy must reorient our relations with major powers, developing economies and our neighbours."

On suicide and fratricide in the forces, Antony asked the Commander to address the issue urgently. "....The officers and commanders have to become more accessible to jawans and promptly attend to their grievances."

Dutch sergeant major killed in Afghanistan, defense chief announces

The Associated PressPublished: June 18, 2007

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A Dutch solider was killed and three others wounded Monday in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the chief of the Dutch defense forces announced.

The 44-year-old sergeant major, Jos Leunissen, was the second Dutch soldier killed in action in four days in Afghanistan and the eighth fatality among the 2,000-strong Dutch contingent in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

Defense chief Gen. Dick Berlijn told reporters Leunissen was killed in a battle that started over the weekend with Taliban fighters near the town of Chora in the southern province of Uruzgan and was continuing Monday.

"At the moment, it looks like it was an accident that happened during the fighting," Berlijn said, without elaborating.

Dutch troops had been providing backup to local forces in and around Chora since Saturday when several hundred Taliban fighters began launching attacks, particularly targeting police posts.

"The town is considered of strategic importance by the Taliban," Berlijn said.

Military officials said they could not give figures for any Taliban or civilian casualties in the fighting and declined to give more detail because the battle was still raging.

The latest casualties in Afghanistan come just weeks before what are expected to be tough negotiations in the Dutch parliament and the Cabinet on whether to extend the Dutch involvement in NATO's mission in Afghanistan beyond its scheduled end in August 2008.

Among the other Dutch fatalities in Afghanistan, two soldiers were killed in bombings, three died in aviation accidents, one in an armored car crash and another in an apparent suicide.

Norwegian peacekeeper injured in northern Afghanistan attack

The Associated Press Published: June 18, 2007

OSLO, Norway: A Norwegian peacekeeper was slightly wounded when his patrol came under fire in northern Afghanistan, the military said Monday.

The officer, whose name was not immediately released, was wounded in the arm late Sunday and was evacuated to a field hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif, the Norwegian Joint Command said.

The patrol had camped for the night when they saw a group of men approaching, command spokesman Lt. Col. John Inge Oeglaend said. The peacekeepers shouted at the men, who Oeglaend said opened fire, drawing return fire from the Norwegians.

He said it was impossible to know who was behind the attack.

"The power structure in northern Afghanistan is so complex that it could be anything from Taliban to regular criminals to drug smugglers," he said on the state radio network NRK.

A military statement said the patrol quickly gained control of the situations, and remained in place until daylight, when reinforcements arrived.

The patrol was based near the northern city of Maymana, where a Finnish solder at the Norwegian-led base was killed by a bomb in May.

Dr. Spanta received Norwegian MPs

Posted On: Jun 18, 2007

Visiting delegation of members of Norwegian parliament called on Afghan Foreign Minister, Dr. Spanta and discussed with him latest developments in Afghanistan. By thanking the Norwegian’s commitment to Afghanistan, Dr. Spanta highlighted the need for continued long-term commitment of the international community to help Afghanistan address its remaining challenges. In particular, he called upon the European nation to increase their assistance to promoting and consolidating rule of law, good governance and human rights. On their part, the Norwegian MPs reiterated the Norway’s commitment to remain fully engaged with Afghanistan.

Can the war in Afghanistan be won? – BBC

The BBC begins a week of in-depth coverage of Afghanistan by asking its World Affairs editor, John Simpson, to consider if the Afghan government and the West can win the war against the Taleban.

The Taleban have new confidence and new tactics, and their campaign against the government and its Nato backers has been increasingly successful since the beginning of this year.

In the east of the country, around Jalalabad, suicide bombings have become such frequent occurrences that the road from there to Kabul is now known as "the Baghdad road".

I have been coming to Jalalabad since 1989, but for the first time in my experience we needed a police escort to drive around there. In the countryside near the town, they urged us not to get out of our vehicle when we stopped, despite the intense heat.

"There are spies everywhere," the police explained. The police themselves are a major target for the Taleban and al-Qaeda guerrillas who operate here now.

Outside the main police headquarters in the town, a senior policeman ran out and ordered us to stop filming in case our presence attracted the attentions of a suicide bomber.

There have been several attacks there, and an unexploded rocket is still lodged in a tree in front of the building. Until the end of last year, Jalalabad was relatively quiet. Now it is becoming a battleground.

Along part of the length of the so-called "Baghdad Road", local people point out the places where American soldiers fired at passers-by a few weeks ago, after an attempted suicide bombing.

The soldiers claimed they had come under small-arms fire from the side of the road. The local authorities later apologised and paid compensation for the deaths.

As a result of this and other incidents in this part of the country, Nato and US troops are often regarded with dislike and distrust. The Taleban's tactics are designed to make people feel there is no safety anywhere.

Last week, just north of Kabul in an area which has always been a stronghold of support for the government and for the Northern Alliance which swept the Taleban from power in November 2001, the Taleban staged a fierce and concerted attack on a pro-government village.

Just south of Kabul, in Logar province, two schools have been attacked in the past few days, and schoolgirls murdered or injured. The Taleban are particularly opposed to the education of women.

At the hospital where one of the schoolteachers and her pupils were being treated, they begged us not to film them for fear of the consequences.

And the capital itself experienced on Sunday its worst bombing since the fall of the Taleban in 2005, when more than 30 people were killed in an attack on a police bus.

For several years after the Taleban were chased out of power, they seemed to be finished. Girls went back to the schools which the Taleban had closed down, women's groups started up and women appeared on television as newsreaders.

Now a new campaign of murder against prominent women has begun. With Nato troops mostly tied up in the southern part of the country, the Afghan police and army are finding it harder to operate elsewhere. New recruits, new weapons and new tactics are coming in to help the Taleban from outside.

Especially from Iraq. Al-Qaeda, the Taleban's close ally, is redirecting some of its forces here. The new al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa bin Yazid, has himself had combat experience in Iraq, and is thought to be behind the new tactic of suicide-bombing; something that was relatively rare in Afghanistan until recently.

But the Taleban are not winning all the battles. I spoke to a senior Taleban figure who has just defected to the government in Kabul after falling out with the overall Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

He maintained that many Taleban leaders like himself are hostile to al-Qaeda, and are looking for some third way between the government with its Nato allies and the foreign extremists led by bin Yazid.

But he agreed the Taleban were proving increasingly successful against the government, and confirmed that their strategy was to surround Kabul and eventually capture it.

While Nato forces are in the country, that will not happen. But so far neither Nato nor the government of President Karzai seems to know how to counter the resurgent Taleban.

There's grounds for hope in Afghanistan

CRAIG CHARNEY AND ISOBEL COLEMAN - Special to Globe and Mail Update

June 18, 2007 - As the Taliban and NATO spring offensives grind on, many people's perceptions of Afghanistan are pessimistic. Some say our Western efforts have changed nothing, so we will fail: The ongoing abuses against women, corruption, and warlordism are opening the door to the Taliban. Others say unless we change nothing, we will fail: Steps towards gender equality and democracy are disturbing a male-dominated, ultra-conservative society and reviving Taliban support.

These perspectives miss the real grounds for hope in Afghanistan: Afghans themselves are changing their society, with Afghan women playing a leading role. Despite the Taliban's military revival, Afghan women have won broad support for their rights to study, work, and vote, largely gained since the Taliban's 2001 ouster, and overwhelmingly reject their former oppressors. But, at the same time, Afghans are struggling to reconcile many of their Islamic traditions with the modern world, as the case of women also shows.

The stereotype of a tribal society resistant to all change does injustice to most Afghans, who want a society very different from that which the Taliban imposed. But applying unrealistic yardsticks to Afghanistan leaves us unable to see important changes taking place there. If we are to respect the Afghans' reform consensus, we must support the incremental progress under way and accept their limits to change.

Surprising as it may seem, grassroots support for women's rights — the antithesis of Taliban policy — is widespread in Afghanistan today. An ABC News survey of 1,036 Afghans last October found that 80 per cent accept women as members of parliament; 70 per cent of both sexes agree women should be able to work outside their home; and 88 per cent of the population supports education for girls. This is a sea-change from 20 years ago, when sending girls to Soviet-run schools generated widespread resistance. Indeed, opposition to girls' education under the Soviet occupation was a rallying cry of the mujahadeen. Now, polls show that Afghans see lack of education as Afghan women's biggest problem and the rights to work and study as women's most important gains since the Taliban's fall. Nor are women's rights merely theoretical: 43 per cent of Afghan girls are in school now and one woman in seven has a job — while under the Taliban, females had little place in school or the workplace. Some 60 per cent of women also voted in the 2004 presidential election, and women won 26 per cent of parliamentary seats in 2005.

Afghans themselves are well aware of the changes: Four-fifths say women's rights have improved since the Taliban fell, which is a major reason why a majority still says the country is headed in the right direction. In fact, when they are asked what democracy will bring them personally, women's rights is a leading response.

Support for women's rights is an important part of Afghanistan's struggle to define its own democracy. It is also a powerful barrier to the return of the Taliban. Support for Taliban fighters, while limited among men, is almost non-existent among Afghan women, the ABC survey found. This should be no surprise. It is hard to imagine that Afghanistan's women, who have the most to lose, would welcome a Taliban comeback. Indeed, as the military threat of the Taliban increased last year, polling found the group experiencing the greatest loss of confidence was young, urban women — those who had made the greatest gains from their new freedom. While Taliban violence, often targeting women and girls, is spreading fear, it is not winning converts. After attacks on 400 schools and 40 teachers in the past year, there are some districts where Taliban intimidation has virtually shut down girls' education. But 96 per cent of Afghans say that attacks against teachers and schools are wrong.

Make no mistake: Afghanistan is still a very conservative society where tribal traditions, puritanical Islam, and gender inequalities run deep. Some 55 per cent of Afghans say a woman should wear a burka; half still won't accept a woman singing on television; 60 per cent of men and women endorse arranged marriages; 60 per cent say women should not supervise male employees.

Forced marriages, male domination, and domestic violence are deeply-rooted problems, unlikely to be solved soon. Yet Afghans — men and women alike — spelled out what they want in the ABC poll: development and security. Their priorities are jobs, schools, electricity, roads, and health care. Asked about the presence of American, British, and Canadian troops, more than 70 per cent expressed gratitude for all of them. They do not want foreign economic or military aid scaled back; indeed, their goals cannot be met without more support from abroad.

In policy terms, this means that, however tempting, abandoning our social, economic, and military engagement with the Afghans would run against their wishes and our interests. But we must also understand that they, not we, are setting the pace of change. It is a mistake to expect them soon to meet the Western standards applied by some well-intentioned foreigners. We must be prepared, long term, to sustain efforts to help Afghans meet basic needs and defend themselves as they shape a society in their own image.

Of course, if we persevere, success in Afghanistan is likely to be partial at best. It will look less like paradise than like Pakistan: a violent, underdeveloped Pashtun tribal belt in the South and East, and corruption-plagued semi-normality elsewhere. Yet such a state would be many Afghans' dream — while a Taliban comeback is their nightmare, as well as ours.

For our part, even as we must be realistic in our aims and humble about our role in Afghanistan, we should show no less commitment to its future than the country's own women and men have. When an American TV producer recently visited a girls' school the Taliban had burned down three times, he found their mothers and fathers rebuilding the school for a fourth time. There's a lesson for us.

Craig Charney is president of Charney Research, the polling firm that conducted the ABC News survey. Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, directs its Women and Foreign Policy program.

America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames

By Ahmed Rashid - Sunday, June 17, 2007 - LAHORE, Pakistan Pakistan is on the brink of disaster, and the Bush administration is continuing to back the man who dragged it there. As President Pervez Musharraf fights off the most serious challenge to his eight-year dictatorship, the United States is supporting him to the hilt. The message to the Pakistani public is clear: To the Bush White House, the war on terrorism tops everything, and that includes democracy.

The crisis began on March 9, when Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Mohammed
Chaudhry, the chief justice of the supreme court, who bravely threatened
Musharraf's plans to consolidate his power. That triggered street protests
demanding Musharraf's resignation, which were met by a government-led crackdown
on lawyers, the opposition and the media. Thousands of lawyers nationwide,
looking like penguins in their courtroom black suits and white shirts, braved
police batons and the heat to lead marches. They were joined by women's groups,
journalists and the opposition. For the first time in two decades, Pakistan's
civil society has taken to the streets.

The roots of the crisis go back to the blind bargain Washington made after 9/11
with the regime that had heretofore been the Taliban's main patron: ignoring
Musharraf's despotism in return for his promises to crack down on al-Qaeda and
cut the Taliban loose. Today, despite $10 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since
2001, that bargain is in tatters; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and
al-Qaeda's senior leadership has set up another haven inside Pakistan's chaotic
border regions.

The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in U.S. history, nobody ith serious Pakistan experience is working in the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State's policy planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice President Cheney's office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American "drugs and thugs"; Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia. "They know nothing of Pakistan," a former senior U.S. diplomat said.

Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is essentially
being run from Cheney's office. The vice president, they say, is close to
Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of him. This all fits; in
recent months, I'm told, Pakistani opposition politicians visiting Washington
have been ushered in to meet Cheney's aides, rather than taken to the State
Department.

No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions. Boucher,
for one, has largely limited his remarks on the crisis to expressions of support for Musharraf. Current and retired U.S. diplomats tell me that throughout the previous year, Boucher refused to let the State Department even consider alternative policies if Musharraf were threatened with being ousted, even though 2007 is an election year in Pakistan. Last winter, Boucher reportedly limited the scope of a U.S. government seminar on Pakistan for fear that it might send a signal that U.S. support for Musharraf was declining.

Likewise, I'm told, he has refused to meet with leading opposition figures such as former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf has exiled. (Boucher says he has met with "people across the full political spectrum of Pakistan" during his nine visits there, from government parties to Islamic radicals to Chaudhry's lawyer.)

Meanwhile, Boucher's boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demands
democracy and media freedom in Venezuela but apparently deems such niceties
irrelevant to Pakistan.

With Cheney in charge and Rice in eclipse, rumblings of alarm can be heard at
the Defense Department and the CIA. While neither agency is usually directly
concerned with decision-making on Pakistan, both boast officers with far greater expertise than the White House and State Department crew. These officers, many of whom have served in Islamabad or Kabul, understand the double game that Musharraf has played -- helping the United States go after al-Qaeda while letting his intelligence services help the Taliban claw their way back in
Afghanistan.

The Pentagon and the CIA have been privately expressing concern
about the lack of an alternative to blind support for Musharraf. Ironically,
both departments have historically supported military rulers in Pakistan. They
seem to have learned their lesson. It's a pity that those calling the shots have not.

What is at stake? Quite simply, the danger of a civil war or the country
unraveling even more dramatically than it did when it lost Bangladesh in 1971.

The establishment that has sustained four military regimes is deeply divided.
The judiciary and the legal system are out in the streets, demanding an end to
military rule. They are backed by the country's gleeful federal bureaucracy,
which resented being shunted aside by Musharraf, and joined by civil society
organizations and opposition parties. The protesters' ranks have also been
swelled by poor people protesting increases in the price of food and other
necessities and shortages of electricity during an already blistering summer.

These dissenters have been joined by an increasingly influential media. Under
military regimes, the media always grow in stature as they act as the conscience of the people and give voice to political opposition. For the first time, the public can watch demonstrations live on private satellite-TV channels -- something that has bewildered the army's Orwellian thought-control department.

On the opposing side stand Musharraf's remaining allies. The most important is
the powerful, brooding army. On June 1, its top brass issued a strong statement
of support for Musharraf that dismissed the protests as a "malicious campaign
against institutions of the state, launched by vested interests and
opportunists. " But on live TV talk shows, pundits are lambasting the army for
the first time, shocking many viewers. Such withering criticism has forced
younger officers to question whether the entire military establishment should
risk the public's wrath to keep one man in power.

Musharraf is also supported by the business community, which has experienced
economic stability and rising investment from the Arab world during his regime.
He also retains -- for now -- the backing of a motley group of politicians who
came to power after the military rigged elections in 2002, although many of them are considering jumping ship or ditching Musharraf.

Running parallel to this domestic political crisis is the growing problem of
radical Islam; the Taliban and al-Qaeda are now deeply entrenched in the tribal
border belt adjacent to Afghanistan. These groups gained political legitimacy
last year when Musharraf signed a series of dubious peace deals with the
Pakistani Taliban. They are now coming down from the mountains to spread their
radical ideology in towns and cities by burning down DVD and TV shops, insisting that young men grow beards, forcibly recruiting schoolboys for the jihad and terrifying girls so that they won't attend school. The military has refused to put a brake on their extremism.

Musharraf promised the international community that he would purge pro-Taliban
elements from his security services and convinced the Bush administration that
his philosophy of "enlightened moderation" was the only way to fend off Islamic
extremism. But Pakistan today is the center of global Islamic terrorism, with
Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar probably living here.

Instead of confronting this threat, the army has focused on keeping Musharraf in power -- negotiating with extremists, letting radical Islamic students set up a base in Islamabad and so forth. Meanwhile, to spook the West into continuing to support him, Musharraf continues to grossly exaggerate the strength of the Islamic parties that he warns might take over his nuclear-armed country. In fact, the United States would be far safer if it pushed for a truly
representative Pakistani government that could marginalize the jihadists, rather than placing all its eggs in Musharraf's basket.

How will the current crisis end? It's unlikely to peter out; the movement has
lasted three months now, despite Musharraf's intelligence services' prediction
that it would end within days. And Chaudhry is a formidable foe -- not a mere
politician (who, in Pakistan, are inevitably corrupt) but a judge perched above
the political fray.

The logical strategy for Musharraf would be to apologize to the nation for
hounding the chief justice, bring all parties to a reconciliation conference and agree to early elections under a neutral interim government. If he still
insisted on running for president, he would have to agree to take off his
uniform first so that no matter who won, Pakistan would return to civilian rule.

But how can a commando general carry out such a U-turn without losing face,
especially when he is being publicly backed by the White House? A secretary of
state with vision -- a James Baker or a Madeleine Albright -- could have
recognized that Musharraf's time is up. Instead, we have Rice and Boucher and
Cheney, who -- just as in Iraq -- can only reinforce a failed policy. Washington is doing itself no favors by serving as Musharraf's enabler. Indeed, the Bush administration' s policy of sticking by Musharraf is fast becoming eerily reminiscent of the Carter administration' s policy of sticking by the shah of Iran.

Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan

June 18, 2007 - 1:35PM AFP

Britain joined the United States' invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke the shit" out of Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington reportedly told a television documentary to be screened on Saturday.

In comments printed in advance in the Daily Mirror tabloid today, Christopher Meyer said that fear explained why Prime Minister Tony Blair chose to stand with US President George W Bush in his decision to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks - to temper his aggressive battle plans.

"Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a knee-jerk reaction' by the Americans ... they would go thundering off and nuke the shit out of the place without thinking straight," Meyer reportedly told the documentary, according to the Mirror.

In other excerpts of the documentary, printed in The Observer newspaper yesterday, members of Blair's inner circle said the prime minister agreed to commit troops to the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq despite believing that the United States had failed to prepare adequately for post-war reconstruction.

Britain's Channel 4 will air the first part of The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair on Saturday.

[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.]