In this bulletin:

• Senior Afghan urges action against Pakistan-based militants
• NATO soldier killed in Afghan landmine blast
• Taleban 'shifting focus to Kabul'
• Transcript: BBC Taleban interview
• UN chief slams string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan
• Taliban Loses Influence in Afghanistan, U.S. Commander Says
• NATO chief hopes Canada will stay in Afghanistan after 2009
• Dead soldiers were unprotected
• UN halts Afghan food deliveries
• AFGHANISTAN: Girls fear to go to school after shooting incident
• Women under siege in Afghanistan
• Afghan schools try to make new start
• Iran rejects allegation of its support for Taliban
• Iran Expels Thousands of Afghan Workers
• Police stop suicide bomber in Kandahar
• U.S.: Afghan Jews Keep Traditions Alive Far From Home
• Pakistan scholars honour Bin Laden in Rushdie row
• Taliban put up a new fight

Senior Afghan urges action against Pakistan-based militants

Tokyo (AFP) - A senior Afghan leader called for international assistance to eliminate alleged militant training camps in Pakistan, saying they were behind violence setting back development.

The two countries have been at loggerheads for months over accusations that Islamabad is not doing enough to stop Taliban militants based in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas from launching cross-border attacks.

"The international community needs to be aware of the danger of terrorist training sites in Pakistan and needs to eliminate them as quickly as possible in cooperation with the Pakistani government," Afghanistan's Second Vice President Karim Khalili told a conference in Japan.

"The recent increase in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan -- which is blocking our country from rebuilding -- is regrettable," he said.

But he added: "The international community, as well as our government, have forgotten the fact that terrorists in Afghanistan came from foreign countries."

"To resolve this problem and restore stability in Afghanistan, getting cooperation from Pakistan is inevitable," he said.

Despite multinational efforts to bring peace after the fall of the extremist Taliban government in 2001, Afghanistan's fledgling democracy has been facing resurgent violence.

On Wednesday, a series of roadside bombings killed eight people including three Canadian soldiers.

Pakistan says it is fighting militants as best it can and last month started erecting a barbed wire border fence in the North Waziristan tribal area, where US officials have alleged that Al-Qaeda is running terror camps.

Khalili is in Tokyo for a conference on the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups, a UN-backed project with Japanese funding that aims to improve central government control in Afghanistan.

"We still face many challenges," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso told the conference. "In particular, it is the unfortunate truth that the weak governance of the Afghan government still hinders the country's reconstruction," Aso said.

NATO soldier killed in Afghan landmine blast

Kabul (AFP) - A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was killed and four were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in eastern Afghanistan, the force said.

The 37-nation force did not say exactly where the incident happened, or give the nationality of the trooper killed, although most of the soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals.

"The deceased, along with another soldier, was medically evacuated to an ISAF treatment facility where he died of wounds," an ISAF statement said on Thursday.

Ninety-two foreign soldiers have now died in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat. About half are from the United States, which has the most soldiers in the international operation in Afghanistan.

Three Canadian soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a bomb blast struck their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.

Taleban 'shifting focus to Kabul' – BBC

The Taleban in Afghanistan are changing their tactics to mount more attacks on the capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the militant group has told the BBC. The spokesman, Zabiyullah Mujahed, said Taleban were recovering after Nato had infiltrated the group and killed some of its leaders.

But more people were volunteering to carry out suicide bombings, he said. A police bus in Kabul was bombed on Sunday killing up to 35 people, in the deadliest attack there since 2001.

Mr Mujahed said the city was the next main target of the Taleban. "It is true we are increasing our pressure on Kabul, because Kabul is the capital city and the foreign troops are concentrated there," Zabiyullah Mujahed said.

He added that the "independence and freedom of our country" was the goal of the Taleban and that they were repeating the same tactics used by insurgents in Iraq. "A lot of people are coming to our suicide bombing centre to volunteer," he said.

On Wednesday Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said support for the Taleban was diminishing. "At the moment you see the tides are turning in our favour, the Taleban have failed to materialise their so-called spring offensive, they have failed to isolate Kabul or to cut highways or to expand their area of influence," he told the BBC.

Despite the Taleban's new focus on the capital city, heavy fighting in the south of the country has continued. Three Canadian Nato soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province on Wednesday. The Taleban said it had carried out the attack.

About 90 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most in combat for the Nato-led force Isaf in the country's south. Correspondents say that the south of the country has this year seen the worst violence since the Taleban were ousted from power in 2001 by an international coalition.

Transcript: BBC Taleban interview

The Taleban in Afghanistan have told the BBC that the group is changing its tactics by targeting the capital Kabul. Taleban spokesman Zabiyullah Mujahed was speaking to BBC world affairs editor John Simpson:

JS: The Taleban led us to expect that there would be a big spring offensive, yet none has materialised.

ZM: I absolutely reject the suggestion that we have been defeated. Our operation continues, and gathers momentum day by day.

We know our power, and compared with last year, we have quadrupled our operations all over Afghanistan.

As for the spring offensive, our leadership had some problems and there was a lull, but then we were able to recover.

JS: What problems?

ZM: Some members of our leadership were killed.

JS: Nato forces say they have infiltrated the Taleban. Is this true?

ZM: The enemy has tried to infiltrate the Taleban ranks, and has targeted our leadership. Thank God, they haven't been too successful.

We are trying to catch their spies. Unfortunately, some have succeeded. But now we are using counter-intelligence to find these people.

JS: Does last Sunday's bomb in Kabul mean that you are shifting your campaign to Kabul?

ZM: With each passing day, taking into account the enemy's tactics, we are changing our own tactics. It is true we are increasing our pressure on Kabul, because Kabul is the capital city and the foreign troops are concentrated there. This is our next main target. God willing, we will be successful.

JS: How important to you is the struggle in Iraq?

ZM: Our enemy is the same, and we are repeating the tactics which they use in Iraq. They have proved effective in defeating the enemy. Our goal is the same - the independence and freedom of our country.

JS: Are you experiencing any problems in getting people to be suicide bombers?

ZM: We have a lot of people who are ready to carry out attacks. The numbers are growing. A lot of people are coming to our suicide bombing centre to volunteer. We have a problem with making sure they attack the right targets, avoiding killing civilians. It takes time to train them properly.

JS: Every suicide bombing kills innocent people. Don't you have a problem getting people to carry out the kind of mass murder we saw here last Sunday?

ZM: Using explosives in war always involves casualties. We do our best in our suicide attacks to avoid civilian casualties. These are our Muslim countrymen, and we are sacrificing our blood to gain their freedom. Their lives are important to us, of course.

But fighting with explosives is out of the control of human beings. As a result, there are casualties. But our opponents also kill ordinary people.

JS: Do you care about the lives of the people you kill?

ZM: Of course it's regrettable for us. But I can tell you, that no fighting is possible anywhere in the world without this. During the Soviet invasion we lost a million and a half people, all of them innocent.

But the important thing for us was to gain our freedom and independence.

JS: People in Nato say they will have a big presence here for 30 years.

ZM: When they came to Afghanistan, they had big objectives. They wanted to occupy the country and root out the Taleban and extend their control throughout our country in a short period of time.

But we are certain we will win, because for us independence is important. For the Nato forces, the lives of their soldiers are important.

There will be a big fuss in the Western parliaments, asking that their sons should not be killed in Afghanistan. This means we will defeat them.

UN chief slams string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan

Thu Jun 21, 4:54 AM ET - UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the recent spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, including a weekend raid on police trainers that claimed more than 30 lives.

"The Secretary General condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms, which reflect an inexcusable disregard for the value of human life," his spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.

The ousted Taliban regime claimed responsibility for Sunday's bomb attack against an Afghan police academy bus in Kabul, in which 30 Afghans were killed and dozens more injured.

"Over the past few days, there has been a spate of similar attacks in other parts of the country, reportedly claiming the lives of dozens of civilians, including 11 children," the UN statement said.

Ban urges the Afghan Government and the international community to take "the necessary measures to address the security situation, and added that in doing so, "the protection of civilian lives must remain the guiding principle".

Taliban Loses Influence in Afghanistan, U.S. Commander Says

By Ed Johnson - June 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Taliban are losing influence in southeastern Afghanistan, where 60 out of 83 districts now support the government, a U.S. Army commander in the region said.

Local leaders are saying they won't allow the Taliban to recruit children, Army Colonel Martin Schweitzer told reporters in Washington yesterday via a video link from Khost province.

``There's no better barometer that indicates these communities and these villages are looking toward their government versus the Taliban,'' he said, according to a transcript of the briefing. About a year ago, only 19 districts in the region could be classed as pro-government, he said.

The U.S. has about 10,000 soldiers carrying out anti- terrorism operations in Afghanistan and 15,000 service personnel under the command of NATO, which is leading the fight against the Taliban and trying to stabilize the country under President Hamid Karzai's government.

Insurgents have stepped up their offensive against international and Afghan troops and are targeting Afghan government officials in suicide bomb attacks.

The tactics, which often cause civilian deaths, are reducing support for the Taliban, said Schweitzer, who is commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team.

``They want more Afghan National Army forces on the ground securing their communities,'' he told reporters.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is concerned about the recent increase in violence in Afghanistan, in particular a June 17 attack on an Afghan Police Academy bus in the capital, Kabul, that killed more than 30 people, his office said yesterday.

The attack was the ``deadliest of its kind'' in Kabul since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.

Ban called on the Afghan government and coalition forces to ``take the necessary measures to address the security situation'' and ensure the protection of civilian lives remains the ``guiding principle,'' Montas said.

The U.S. military said this week that seven Afghan children were killed June 17 in a coalition air strike against a suspected al-Qaeda safe house in eastern Paktika province.

At least 230 Afghan civilians were killed last year during U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations because of lack of precautions or the use of indiscriminate force, U.S.- based Human Rights Watch said in an April report.

Bombings by the Taliban more than doubled last year, compared with 2005, killing at least 669 Afghans, according to the report.

NATO chief hopes Canada will stay in Afghanistan after 2009

Canadian Press - June 21, 2007 - MONTREAL — The Secretary-General of NATO says he hopes Canada's troop commitment to Afghanistan won't end in 2009. Japp de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday in Montreal that it's important that all 26 allies involved in the Afghan conflict carry on their missions.

But he says staying on in Afghanistan is a sovereign decision that will be made by the Canadian government. The number of Canadian soldiers killed in war-torn Afghanistan has now reached 60.

Three Canadians were killed Wednesday when their unarmored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device while on a re-supply mission. Canadian military officials have defended the use of the unarmored vehicle, but say procedures will be reviewed.

Dead soldiers were unprotected

Three Canadians killed in blast were riding unarmoured all-terrain vehicle in an area believed to be secure

GRAEME SMITH - From Thursday's Globe and Mail June 21, 2007

KABUL — Three Canadian soldiers died yesterday in a brazen bomb attack on their unarmoured all-terrain vehicle during a short trip through a patch of farmland that the troops believed was firmly within their control.

The troops were ferrying supplies between checkpoints, making a drive of only a few hundred metres through a warren of grape fields within the comforting shadow of Sperwan Ghar, a hilltop Canadian forward base 35 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city.

They were about six kilometres west of the base when the explosion hit at 8 a.m. local time, officials say, killing Corporal Stephen Frederick Bouzane, 26, Private Joel Vincent Wiebe, 22, and Sergeant Christos Karigiannis, all of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

It was an audacious attack in a region that had largely recovered from the punishing battles that swept through last year. Aid projects and local government returned to the Panjwai district this year, under the watchful eye of Canadian troops stationed in posts such as the hilltop lookout at Sperwan.

Last fall, the Canadians would have travelled around Sperwan only in heavily armoured troop carriers. At the time of the blast, however, the soldiers were riding in a small open-top vehicle known as a Gator, manufactured by John Deere, with no armoured protection.

Military officials dismissed suggestions that the light vehicle wasn't a good choice for the job.

"We will review our procedures, and if we determine that we need to change them we will do so," said Brigadier-General Tim Grant, the top Canadian commander in Afghanistan. "But at the current time we look at this as an unfortunate accident. The vehicle was appropriate for the task at hand and the terrain."

The closely constructed farmyards in the area, with their high walls divided by narrow tracks, make many routes impassable for the large Canadian troop carriers. The same geography means it's possible that insurgents crept very close to the Canadian checkpoints and planted an improvised explosive device without being visible to the troops' night-vision surveillance devices.

"A determined enemy could evade observation in that terrain," Major Dale MacEachern said.

Canadian commanders have recently pointed to Panjwai district as a model for pacifying the restive south because the Taliban presence had been largely reduced to skirmishing on the western edge of the district, after the Canadians and their allies defeated at least 1,000 insurgents in the area last September.

"It's quiet mostly around Sperwan, you don't see Talibs," Lal Mohammed, a landowner who lives nearby, said last night when reached by phone.

Instability has been rising in recent weeks, however. A unit of well-trained soldiers from the 209th Afghan National Army Corps had won the trust of local residents in the aftermath of last year's violence, but their calming influence was removed in the spring as they were called to help with Operation Achilles in neighbouring Helmand province.

The 209th was backfilled with auxiliary Afghan forces who lacked training, equipment, and sometimes even food. Locals renewed the complaints about predatory security forces stealing from them, a problem that had contributed to the previous violence, and the auxiliary units suffered from desertions.

A four-hour firefight broke out in neighbouring Zhari district yesterday, in which an estimated 15 Taliban were killed, and two Canadian and three Afghan soldiers suffered minor injuries.

The bombing brings the number of Canadian deaths to 61 in Afghanistan so far, including one diplomat. Among NATO countries, Canada now ranks second in terms of the war's human cost; Britain has suffered 60 personnel killed, while the United States has lost 405.

Each of the soldiers killed knew why they served in Afghanistan, Gen. Grant said. "They understood what they were doing, they understood the importance of the mission and they understood they were fighting the good fight," he said, speaking to reporters at Kandahar Air Field.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also expressed his condolences in Ottawa. "This is, of course, a terrible tragedy, as it always is when Canada loses brave men and women who are willing to put on the uniform not only to defend our own rights and freedoms but those of people around the world," Mr. Harper said.

Opposition MPs concurred and paid their own tributes to the men in the daily House of Commons Question Period.

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff called on the government to explain to Canadians how long the combat mission would last. Mr. Harper responded that Parliament had agreed to continue the mission until February of 2009 and that any extension would also need parliamentary approval.

UN halts Afghan food deliveries

Kabul (AP) - The U.N. World Food Program has halted deliveries in Afghanistan's most volatile provinces after 85 of its trucks were attacked, set ablaze or looted this past year by Taliban insurgents and thieves, its director said Thursday.

The world body suspended shipments from Pakistan through the violence-plagued south and west about four weeks ago, Richard Corsino, WFP's director in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press.

"The biggest thing we're concerned about is if we can't resume, and we can't meet our obligations," Corsino said in an interview in the Afghan capital.

He said he expected WFP to run out of food for its programs in the next few weeks in the seven southern and western provinces where shipments have been halted.

The WFP lost about 600 tons of wheat and cooking oil worth $400,000 in 25 incidents since June 2006, including 13 in the past three months, Corsino said, compared to zero incidents in the first half of 2006.

AFGHANISTAN: Girls fear to go to school after shooting incident

LOGAR, 21 June 2007 (IRIN) - "I do not want to go to school," 12-year-old Maryam told her father in Sadaat village in the central Afghan province of Logar, where gunmen recently assassinated two schoolgirls.

"I am afraid," the traumatised girl begged her parents. "I will be with you. I will not let anyone harm you," Maryam's father said, trying to encourage her.

Maryam witnessed the assassination of two fellow students in front of her school in Sadaat village, a suburb of Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital of Logar Province, some 30km west of Kabul, on 12 June.

The incident has sparked widespread worries among many parents who fear for the safety of their daughters at school.

According to provincial officials, many female students have been absent from school since the shooting occurred a week ago.

Pakiza Mehboob, a teacher at a neighbouring girls' school in Pul-i-Alam, told IRIN that half of her students have been absent for a week.

"If the government does not improve security I will also quit my job as a teacher," Mehboob said. "I really feel scared when I see men who ride motorcycles."

Kamaluddin Zadran, head of Logar's education department, acknowledged the shrinking number of female students, but said it was only temporary.

"The attack has had a psychological impact on some families which will soon fade away and we look forward to having every student back in class," said Zadran.

Some parents said they would only let their daughters re-join their schools if their security was ensured. Saeed Agha, a bereaved father of one of the victims of 12 June shooting, said he wants his second daughter to be educated, but not to risk her life.

"The government should change the current option of 'life or education' for our daughters," said Agha.

In the past two years the Qalai Saeeda girls' high school had experienced several attacks, according to the provincial education department. "About three months ago this school was hit by a rocket, and a little while ago some men tried to torch it," said Saeed Hasan, who works at the school.

Some villagers criticised local officials for their failure to provide better protection for the school while it repeatedly came under attack. "They [attackers] would not have caused this tragedy if police or a guard had been at the school gate," said a local resident.

But, Afghanistan's Ministry of Education (MoE) has said it cannot appoint security guards for each of the country's 9,000 schools.

"We believe attacks on schools and students will be thwarted when people actively take part in schools' protection. Given the fact that our government is still working to establish a national police force, it is not feasible to demand school protection units," Zuhoor Afghan, an MoE spokesman, told IRIN on 19 June.

In a statement released from New York the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) called the attack on schoolgirls in Logar "a heinous and cowardly act".

In a sign of sympathy Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the construction of two new schools in Logar Province to be named after the two deceased students.

Shukria, 12, and Saadia, 13, were shot dead by two motorcyclists while leaving school for home, local officials reported. One female passer-by was also killed in the same incident, which left four students wounded. "Two injured students have been sent to Kabul for extended medical treatment," local police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Taliban insurgents have repeatedly told the media of their opposition to girls' education. The Taliban imposed a ban on girls' formal education and women's work outside the home during their rule from 1996 to late 2001.

Since the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001 the number of Afghan children who go to school has progressively increased, UNICEF and the Afghan government confirmed.

According to MoE, over six million children, around 38 percent of them female, now go to schools across the country.

However, a growing insurgency, attacks on schools and a series of socio-economic barriers have still deprived millions of Afghan children of formal schooling, British charity organisation, Oxfam, reported in late 2006.

In the last two months alone, 14 cases of attacks on schools, mostly torchings, have been confirmed, according to UNICEF.

In the volatile south and southeast of the country tens of schools remain closed due to continued threats by Taliban insurgents and other local militias, an MoE official conceded.

Afghanistan's central statistics department said in 2006 that over half of the country's estimated 24 million population is illiterate.

Women under siege in Afghanistan

By Soutik Biswas - BBC News, Kabul - For the past three months, Afghan female MP Shukria Barakzai has been receiving a letter saying she may be targeted by a suicide bomber in the next six months.

The cryptic government letter contains an intelligence warning that Ms Barakzai's life is under threat and she should be careful. She is one of six MPs getting such a letter these days.

"That is all that the government does - send a letter by mail once every month saying my life is under threat. There isn't talk of even providing security," says the feisty parliamentarian and mother of three daughters.

Ms Barakzai says she is being targeted by "various elements" because of her speeches against the country's warlords, her support for women's rights and for her criticisms of Pakistan.

"I am going crazy. My friends are telling me to leave the country. My husband is worried. After all, I am also a mother and a wife," says the journalist-turned-MP.

When you consider that two women journalists have been killed recently in and around Kabul, you realise that even women of influence and power in Afghanistan live and work in fear under threats from warlords, the Taleban and other insurgent groups.

Six years after the departure of the repressive Taleban this is the paradox of women in Afghanistan. They now have a say and a position under the country's constitution. But they have to work in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

The good news is that the rights of Afghan women have been enshrined in the constitution. It even asks the government to bring changes in the law to combat traditions that work against them.

Women can participate in every walk of life, including politics. Of the 361 members of parliament today, 91 are women.

Women have also begun talking about forced marriages, honour killings, abortions and rape in a traditionally male-dominated society. Local human rights groups have begun documenting such atrocities.

The bad news is that the state cannot protect women and ensure that they can go about their work safely. Even an affluent, influential city-bred MP like Ms Barakzai is now tense about her future.

"When I leave home these days on work, I am not quite sure whether I will be back [alive]. Life has become so insecure. I am not planning to leave the country yet, but I do have to think about my kids," says the MP.

Fellow female MP Tooarpekay, the only woman parliamentarian from the restive Zabul province, echoes the same sentiment.

"There have been many attacks on women workers in Zabul. I am worried about the rise of Taleban," says the MP who studied in a boys' school.

Ms Tooarpekay should know - she has worked in Zabul, where the Taleban are now highly active, for the past 22 years as a school teacher, community and health worker.

When she stood for the elections two years ago, her 22-year-old brother was killed by the Taleban. She has soldiered on in her new job as an MP.

To add to her problems, she has not been paid her monthly salary of $937 for the past three months.

If this is the plight of some of the most "powerful" women in the country, the state of ordinary women across the country is obviously much worse. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, for example, alone documented over 1,500 cases of atrocities against women last year.

The details make for grim reading - a third of these women were victims of domestic violence - simply called "beating" in the rights group report - some 200 of them were married off forcibly, 98 of them set themselves on fire, and over 100 of them tried to take their lives by consuming poison.

Now the rights group is worried about the rising number of women who are taking to drugs in the countryside.

"Jirgas [tribal councils] are still deciding the fate of the women in most rural areas. Most of the judgements go against the women," says Soraya Sobhrang, a former gynaecologist who runs the women's rights department of the Human Rights Commission.

"We have the constitution and the courts. Who are the jirgas to decide on women?"

In the end, analysts say, it is a weak, feeble and a largely corrupt state machinery which is just not carrying out its duties - ruling with a firmer constitutionally mandated hand, and giving women more security, sometimes even from their own menfolk and community.

Zabul is a good example of this apathy - Ms Tooarpekay says government officials are lax and insincere about simple demands of local people, joblessness is rife and there are few schools.

"All this drives people into the arms of the Taleban. And the women become the worst sufferers again," she says.

Afghan schools try to make new start

By Soutik Biswas - BBC News, Kabul - A group of girls returning home from school in Afghanistan's Logar province recently did not for a moment expect what lay ahead.

As they walked down a dirt track, insurgents sprang out of the parched farms and began firing on them.

Some of them fled into the farm, but two girls, one aged 13, the other 10, were killed in the ambush. Three of their friends were wounded. This kind of attack on schoolchildren, the first incident of its kind in Afghanistan, highlights how the insurgents are trying to disrupt education in the war-ravaged nation.

A surge in violence over the past year threatens to neutralise the gains made by the country in sending its children back to school after the fall of the Taleban.

In the past 13 months, 226 schools, many run from tents, have been burnt down by the insurgents. A total of 110 teachers and students have been killed in incidents of indirect violence and another 52 wounded, officials say.

The Taleban also shut down 381 schools, the majority of them in provinces like Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan where they have a formidable presence.

This is depressing news when you consider that more than six million Afghan children have returned to schools in the past six years - a sevenfold increase from the 900,000 children, all of them boys, who were going to school during the Taleban rule.

The number of teachers has also leapt from a paltry 21,000 to 143,000 during the same period. The government says it is hiring 10,000 teachers this year alone.

Now the attack on the schoolchildren has sent shock waves through the government. "I am devastated. I am very worried that such incidents will make parents very scared to send their children to school," says Afghan Education Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar.

The insurgents have in the past burnt down schools in the night, and fired rockets to destroy some. They have been distributing "night letters" asking the Afghans to stop working for the government and going to schools.

It is not difficult to destroy schools in Afghanistan - only 40% of the 8,500 schools in the country are run out of buildings. The rest operate out of tents or are simply run under trees.

Officials worry that the Taleban may have begun targeting school children because of the "relative success" of a programme to protect schools.

Over the past eight months, the government has spent $500,000 launching what it calls a "special school protection programme" - which works by groups of parents and local villagers keeping a watch on the schools, sometimes keeping licensed guns.

Some 1,000 schools have been covered under the programme, and officials say the protection scheme is yielding results - 35 of the 381 schools shut down by the Taleban have been reopened.

"This has worked quite a bit. When the insurgents see that the local community is protecting the school, they usually don't challenge," says Mr Atmar.

But the success of this programme could be the reason why the insurgents have now begun targeting schoolchildren as they find it difficult to attack schools guarded by local people.

The only hope may be the fact that there is finally a high premium on education in Afghanistan - and most parents don't want to take their children out of the schools because of the violence, yet.

"When I went to the school in Logar to meet parents after the recent attack, the first thing that they told me was: 'Please do not close the school down. We will give your more ideas for the protection of the school,'" says Mr Atmar.

As it is there are enough problems - 80% of the teachers are untrained, and at $60 a month, an Afghan teacher's salary is among the lowest in the world. A little over 6% of the government's non-defence budget is spent on education.

Analysts are critical of how little the government continues to spend on education; neighbouring Tajikistan, for example, spends three times more on teaching its children.

Now faced with insurgent attacks on children, the government reckons it would need a quarter of the country's existing 60,000-strong policemen to guard the schools alone. That is not possible, say officials.

Ultimately, the government will need to ramp up security and pour money into education to spread learning in the country. Otherwise, a time may soon arrive when parents begin to pull children out of schools, fearing for their lives.

"How much can villagers do in fighting armed insurgents? It is ultimately the government's responsibility to secure its children," says a school teacher.

If insecurity wrecks the dreams of children to get educated, it will be a significant setback for Afghanistan in its efforts to make a new beginning.

Iran rejects allegation of its support for Taliban

TEHRAN, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Thursday dismissed the United States and Britain's allegation that Tehran was supporting Taliban rebels in Afghanistan, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Such allegations are so unfounded and irrational that independent officials and circles in the two states have assessed them unsubstantiated and unreal," said Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for the Asia-Pacific and the Common wealth of Independent States (CIS) Affairs Mehdi Safari.

He stressed that Iran's principled stance on Afghanistan is based on support for restoration of peace and stability in the country. "Iran's unique role in reconstruction of Afghanistan has always been confirmed by both enemies and friends," Safari noted.

Safari said that the anti-Iran claims are raised by foreign forces in Afghanistan due to their inability in fulfilling their undertakings.

The official also said that the recent "terrorist attack by Taliban" on Iran's consulate general in southern Afghan city of Kandahar showed the group's enmity towards Iran.

"This terrorist act, itself, proves that our country is target of terrorism, which has inflicted great cost on it," he said.

"Responsibilities of the U.S. and British forces and their negligence to carry out their duties towards such terrorist acts are clear," Safari said.

Iran Expels Thousands of Afghan Workers

By Benjamin Sand – Islamabad 19 June 2007

Iran is forcibly repatriating tens of thousands of Afghan nationals, calling the undocumented workers a drain on the Iranian economy. From Islamabad, VOA correspondent Benjamin Sand reports the United Nations says more than 100,000 Afghans have been deported from Iran in the last two months.

U.N. and Afghan officials say as many as 2,000 Afghans are being deported everyday. Afghan authorities have asked Tehran to end the immigration crackdown, saying the massive flood of forced returnees could overwhelm local resources.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards says the international body has also shared its concerns with Iranian officials in the Afghan capital. "Quite clearly it is a concern and when you do something like this it does have to be done in a humane manner," said Edwards. "It does have to be orderly and gradual so the receiving country can cope."

He says most of those being forced out of Iran are illegal workers, not refugees, so technically the Iranian operation is considered legal. Iran told the U.N. and the Afghan government in February that it would begin deporting illegal immigrants later this year.

The U.N. says there are around 920,000 registered Afghan refugees in Iran along with at least one million undocumented Afghans. Edwards says many of the Afghans being deported have been separated from their families, including young children.

Nearly all of the returnees say Iran is making them pay for their own transportation costs even as they are being forced out of the country. There are also widespread reports of Iranian abuse of Afghans.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch says many of the deportees claim they were seriously beaten before being driven out of Iran. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission says some Afghan nationals have died from injuries inflicted by Iranian police.

Human Rights Watch is calling on Iran to immediately halt the mass deportations and give the Afghans an opportunity to seek asylum if appropriate. Iranian officials in Kabul are denying any allegations of abuse along the border and say the transfers will continue as planned.

They say the undocumented workers are being forced out because of the extraordinary impact they are having on Iran's economy. Iranian businesses are under pressure from U.S.-led economic sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt its controversial nuclear program.

Police stop suicide bomber in Kandahar - By A.R. KHAN, CP

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Hours before a deadly suicide bombing wrecked a bus in Kabul, Afghan police in Kandahar city seized a car with what officials said was enough explosives to level a city block.

A police commander for District Five in Kandahar was awarded a commendation by Canadian officials on Monday for his work in thwarting the suicide attack.

Police had stopped the car early Sunday morning and discovered 14 rockets and two cans of gasoline inside. The car was stopped in a residential area just inside the city gates.

An explosive ordinance disposal team from Canada’s Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Kandahar City was called in to deal with the materials.

“I know that we did a great job, (but) it is not enough. We have to do more and more,” said Mohammad Essa, the police commander for District Five. “I am glad that we are going to save the lives of innocent civilians and we will be trying to save their lives in the future as well. We don’t have to lose courage.”

The Afghan National Police are the weaker link in the chain of national security forces building around Afghanistan. But Cpl. Barry Pitcher with the RCMP-led civilian police team at the PRT said Sunday’s bust showed their capabilities are improving.

“We are glad that the public was not hurt by these explosives,” Pitcher said. “It’s a good example of everyone working together to save Afghan lives.”

A police commander from another district in Kandahar city was also commended by the head of the PRT on Monday for his officers’ work in securing an area around a Canadian convoy hit with an improvised explosive device strike on June 15.

No Canadians were injured in the attack, which witnesses said was the result of a man walking up to the convoy and detonating a bomb.

IED strikes, and in particular suicide bombings, have spiked in the southern part of Afghanistan in recent days and national security forces are frequently the target.

Hours after the weapons seizure in Kandahar city, a suicide attack destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul’s busiest transportation hub, killing 35 people and wounding 52.

It was the deadliest insurgent attack on coalition forces since coalition troops arrived in the country in 2001.

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

U.S.: Afghan Jews Keep Traditions Alive Far From Home

NEW YORK, June 19, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 200 Jewish families of Afghan descent live in the New York City borough of Queens -- the largest group of Afghan Jews outside of Israel. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, there is officially only one Jew left, Zebolan Simanto, a 45-year old caretaker of a synagogue in Kabul.

The focal point for Afghan Jews in New York is the congregation Anshei Shalom, which is also a spiritual home to Jews from Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

Binyamin Pinchasi, a jeweler by trade, was born and raised in Israel. He has never been to Afghanistan, but both of his parents grew up in Kabul. They still have fond memories of growing up in the Afghan capital more than 50 years ago.

Pinchasi, who appears to be in his early 30s and speaks a little Dari -- which along with Pashto is one of Afghanistan's two main languages -- says he feels a spiritual connection to the country, though only a faint one.

"Some connection yes, a little bit," he said. "I think if we go to visit there, we're going to feel some more."

Like most congregants at Anshei Shalom, Pinchasi helps support Simanto, the last Jew in Kabul. This year -- like every year -- they sent Simanto a package for Passover on April 1 that was nearly 27 kilograms of grape juice, matzo and oil -- all kosher -- that cost $650 to ship to Kabul.

Pinchasi, who came to New York as a teenager, has lived in New York for about 13 years. Anshei Shalom, he says, is the place where he finds comfort and spiritual guidance.

"We're coming here almost every Sabbath, every Saturday," he said. "During the week we're coming here at least three or four times...sometimes it's every day. You feel it like you see all the people, all the [Afghans], you feel the tradition by the praying, and it's different."

Jonathan Abraham is also a member of the Anshei Shalom Synagogue. His parents left Afghanistan in the late 1940s. He was born in Italy and raised in Israel. Abraham speaks neither Dari nor Pashto, but he comes to the synagogue every week. Sermons here are conducted in Hebrew, which he speaks fluently.

"The idea is to carry on the tradition that for many-many years our parents and their parents tried to preserve and keep in Afghanistan where they were kind of isolated between a lot of Muslim countries and Russian [Soviet] countries that didn't always encouraged them to keep their tradition," he said.

Abraham says that when living in a free country where you can openly practice your religion it is even more important to keep traditions alive to ensure that the hardships one's ancestors experienced were not in vain.

Abraham says that he would like to visit Afghanistan one day when the country is not so troubled. But he says that Afghanistan was only a stop in the Jews' travels around the world.

"Afghanistan was just a station for the Jews who were exiled from Israel thousands of years ago," he said. "So, we weren't really Afghans by definition, we just lived over there. We respected the rules of the country and leaders and the king, and whoever was in charge. We are very grateful for the time we had over there but right now we're in a different place."

Jack Abraham, who was born in Afghanistan and lived there until the age of 11, is the president of Anshei Shalom. He claims that it is not the only Afghan synagogue in the United States. Abraham says that each Sunday between 30 and 40 people attend the service.

Approximately that many -- all men -- were present during the service on June 17. There are separate compartments for women on both sides of the spacious and well air-conditioned prayer room but women, Abraham says, usually do not attend Sunday services, they come for prayers separately.

"They don't have to pray with us, they can pray at home, they don't even need to pray," he said. "In our religion the women have gotten a higher, much higher level of spirituality than men because they give birth. As such, they're not required to pray like men."

Anshei Shalom is in a lush, almost suburban area of Queens. But they've moved three times, Abraham says, since initially establishing the first synagogue in a basement in 1976. The current one-story building has housed the synagogue since 1983.

Afghanistan's Jews, Abraham says, began moving out of the country long before the Soviet Union invaded in 1979.

"There was a wind of change; we felt the wind of change before the Soviets came in," he said. "We were feeling the wind of change in the 1960s. The changes were that the government was sending their students to schools in Russia [Soviet Union]. My mother is Bukharian, we ran away from the Russian Revolution to Baku [Azerbaijan], to Turkmenistan, to Bukhara [Uzbekistan], and then they passed the Amu Darya River back to Afghanistan. My father is Afghan; my mother is Bukharian. So, when we saw in the 1950s and 60s [that] Afghan students from a Muslim country [were] going to Russia [Soviet Union], we knew that the wind of change was going to come. Those kids were going to be somehow or another infused with socialism and communism and repression. So, our people started leaving already."

Abraham, who came to the United States to study in 1962 and decided to stay, says that he is very proud of his Afghan heritage. Abraham speaks fluent Dari and has a special place in his heart for the only remaining synagogue in Kabul -- it was built by his father in 1964.

"We never had persecution in Afghanistan," he said. "And the government was very helpful to us. If there was any kind of a thing happening out on the street, they would inform the Jews 'Take it easy, don't go to work' on these particular days because people were talking negative, and they would put police outside of our doors for protection. So, I'm looking at it as being fortunate, I'm grateful, I'm proud, I've never, ever hid the fact that I was born in Afghanistan. Never."

Abraham's father relocated to the United States in 1969, before the synagogue in Queens was established. After the Taliban government fell in Afghanistan in 2001, Abraham paid for the partial renovation of the Kabul synagogue, which by then had fallen into poor condition.

He says that the caretaker of the synagogue, Simanto, does not want to relocate to the United States but would rather carry on as the last member of his religion in Afghanistan.

"I talk to him but [Kabul is the] place [where] he feels at home," he said. "He's by himself, all by himself in a compound over there and he lives a life, breathes the air, he is totally alone, all by himself in that land."

Abraham says that he talks to Simanto several times a year and that they will continue to support him as long as he needs help. After the repairs were done three years ago Simanto no longer had to climb into the synagogue through a window.

Pakistan scholars honour Bin Laden in Rushdie row

Islamabad (AFP) - A leading group of Pakistani Islamic scholars awarded its highest honour to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, saying it was in reaction to Britain's knighthood for Salman Rushdie.

Meanwhile a Pakistani minister who caused outrage by remarking that the award given to the "Satanic Verses" author justified suicide attacks announced that he was set to visit Britain next month.

The Pakistani Ulema Council, a private body that claims to be the biggest of its kind in the country with 2,000 scholars, said it had given Bin Laden the title "Saifullah", or Sword of Allah.

"We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah to Osama bin Laden after the British government's decision to bestow the title of 'Sir' on blasphemer Rushdie," council chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi told AFP. "This is the highest title for a Muslim warrior."

Bin Laden has been blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. He is widely believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The group, which says it is working for religious harmony, urged President Pervez Musharraf to call an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference to press Britain to withdraw the Rushdie accolade.

Islamists have burned effigies of Rushdie and Britain's Queen Elizabeth for several days running in protests against the honour bestowed on the writer on Saturday, which allows him to call himself "Sir Salman".

Pakistan and Iran both summoned the British envoys to their countries on Tuesday. Britain hit back by expressing "deep concern" over the comments on suicide bombings by Pakistan's religious affairs minister, Ijaz-ul Haq.

Haq -- who later withdrew the remarks saying that he meant only that the award would foster extremism -- said Thursday that he planned to visit Britain at the invitation of a British delegation.

"Yes, I may travel to Britain next month as a British delegation has invited me to guide them on how to engage khateebs and imams (sermon deliverers and prayer leaders) in a constructive dialogue," Haq told AFP.

"The visit would also help clear many things and misunderstandings about my remarks about the knighting of Salman Rushdie by Britain," he added.

The British delegation met Haq on Monday and included representatives from Britain's Home Office and Foreign Office with responsibility for engaging with the Islamic world and preventing extremism, he said.

"I can confirm he did meet the delegation but I am not aware of any invitation," said Aidan Liddle, a spokesman for the British High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad.

Haq is the son of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled Pakistan from 1977 until his death in a mysterious plane crash in 1988. His father introduced Islamic punishments to the country including death for blasphemy.

The religious affairs minister's comments have provoked an angry reaction in Britain -- which on Wednesday insisted it was right to knight Rushdie for his literary career, adding it was "sorry" if it had caused distress.

A comment piece in Britain's Daily Telegraph said that if Pakistan was so angry about the issue, it should return the 480 million pounds (955 million dollars) in aid promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. "If this is tainted money, it can presumably be returned," it said.

But in the Pakistani parliament Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, said that Blair was "personally and mentally against Muslims."

Taliban put up a new fight

By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times Online / June 21, 2007

KABUL - With the Taliban geared for their biggest push of the year to take control of southern Afghanistan, district by district, coupled with suicide attacks in the cities, Western intelligence believes that the killing of Mullah Dadullah was a big mistake.

The one-legged, charismatic and battle-hardened Dadullah, 41, was killed in mid-May in the southern province of Helmand in a US-led coalition operation. He had emerged as the overall field commander of the Taliban, as well as an astute diplomat: he had courted Pakistan to act as a peacemaker between the Western coalition and the insurgents.

Highly placed Western contacts familiar with coalition operations in Afghanistan told Asia Times Online that with Dadullah dead, the Taliban have become a much more elusive adversary and the "peace route" with Pakistan is now a non-starter.

Dadullah was a natural leader who had been able to assimilate fighters of varied backgrounds and train them to follow a single coherent strategy. Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani could possibly have taken his place, but he has been seriously ill, even rumored to be dead.

In these circumstances, the Taliban leadership decided to assign a number of seasoned commanders to different areas, where they would be in charge of their own tactics depending on local conditions. The idea was to scatter as many of them as possible to spread further already stretched coalition and Afghan National Army forces.

Although the commanders chosen were experienced, they were not well-known faces, and were thus able more easily to go about their business. For instance, Amir Khan Muttaqi was sent Kunar province, Mullah Kabir was activated in the Khost, Gardez, Paktia and Paktika areas, Mullah Bredar was assigned in the western zone that includes Ghor, Badghis, Farah and Herat.

For the southeast, the Taliban will keep coalition troops engaged with suicide attacks and guerrilla operations, while at the same time increasing operations in the southwest, such as in Badghis and Farah provinces.

Coalition troops are finding that when they focus on one sector, violence escalates in another. And they simply don't have enough resources to manage the whole of Afghanistan at the same time - especially when some of the coalition partners are not interested in ground operations.

The relative obscurity of the the new Taliban commanders also rules them out of becoming involved in any back-channel peace negotiations with Kabul. Indeed, rigid Taliban leader Mullah Omar is pulling their strings and there is no way he will ever sit with any Western coalition for dialogue.

As evidence of the new Taliban approach, southern Afghanistan has witnessed an array of devastating suicide attacks and guerrilla operations since Sunday, covering Kabul, Kunar, Nooristan, Khost and Paktia. There have also been incidents in Urzgan, Helmand and Kandahar.

The district of Mian Nashin in Kandahar fell and Afghan soldiers were forced to flee and call in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air fire. Similarly, in the Chor district of Urzgan, the Taliban seized key positions from where they plan a major push deeper into the province.

There was a major battle in the district of Grishk in Helmand between NATO forces and the Taliban on Tuesday. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf, told Asia Times Online that the Taliban killed 16 NATO soldiers and destroyed three tanks. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

On Sunday morning, a suicide bomber blew up a police-academy bus in Kabul, killing 35 people and wounding 52. It was the country's worst bombing since the Taliban were ousted more than five years ago. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

The renewed Taliban activity is obviously of concern to the NATO command. Apparently as a result, Admiral William Fallon, the chief of the US Central Command, recently visited Pakistan for meetings with President General Pervez Musharraf, the vice chief of army staff, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence.

US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte have also been in Islamabad. The crux of this fresh interaction is that insurgencies do not have borders. Unlike previously, though, this does not mean that the US wants to go in hot pursuit of the Taliban in Pakistan. Rather, it wants to track them from the Pakistani tribal areas into Afghanistan.

The Taliban have several command centers in Pakistan, including in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, Bajur, Noshki and Chaman, from where recruits are sent to Afghanistan. But the Taliban also have hubs in Afghanistan in Nooristan, Kapisa, Kunar, Helmand, Kandahar, Farah and Badghis.

Massive bloodshed awaits Afghanistan's vastness, and there is currently no room for peacemakers.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.

[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.]