In this bulletin:

• US may be 'undermining' Pakistan
• Iran cleric says Pakistan becoming 'terrorist sanctuary'
• Pashtun Elders In Pakistan Want NATO, U.S. Troops In Tribal Regions
• Talibanization Takes Root in Pakistan
• Shopkeeper beheaded in Khost
• Twelve Taliban killed in Afghanistan
• Officials Hopeful Following Taliban Arrest in Pakistan
• NATO Short on Troops in Afghanistan
• U.S. forces pursue Taliban into Pakistan
• Combat, reconstruction troops still lacking for Afghanistan as new offensive looms
• Taliban arrest may help Pakistan's image
• The Star of Afghanistan's Jihad
• Afghan refugees used as political football
• Negotiation with Taliban best chance for Afghanistan peace: study
• Bush faces three major Afghanistan stumbling blocks
• Iran pledes cooperation in education sector

US may be 'undermining' Pakistan

By Shahzeb Jillani - BBC News, Washington

Pakistan's ambassador to the US has warned that American pressure to do more in the war against terror could undermine President Musharraf. He said the country could be destabilised as a result.

Ambassador Mehmud Ali Durrani told the BBC that recent US congressional threats to cut off military aid to Pakistan could create major problems. He said it could strengthen anti-American extremist elements in Pakistan and jeopardise warm relations.

The ambassador's statement is an attempt to paint a doomsday scenario for Pakistan if the US continues to step up pressure on Pakistan's military leadership.

Pakistan is the only Muslim country armed with nuclear weapons and the thought of "a destabilised Pakistan" where staunchly anti-American Islamists could prevail over an apparently moderate leader has long worried many in Washington.

Ever since President Musharraf signed a controversial peace deal with the militants in North Waziristan last September, US pressure has been steadily growing on Pakistan to act more decisively in crushing the Taleban and al-Qaeda threat in its tribal areas.

Pakistan has been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to convince the western world that the country is doing, and has done, all it can to tackle the extremist threat.

The Pakistani ambassador's statement reflects the frustration Pakistani officials are experiencing on this front. He told the BBC: "We are telling Americans that Pakistan is your friend. We want to help you. Let's work together instead of exerting undue pressure on us."

In January, the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives passed a measure effectively linking all future military sales to the country's performance in the fighting the war on terror. The proposed legislation is currently under consideration in the US Senate.

The White House publicly says it values the co-operation from President Musharraf and does not support putting new conditions on the country. But, as hinted during Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Pakistan earlier this week, the Bush administration is reportedly growing impatient with what it regards as inadequate results from Pakistan.

Iran cleric says Pakistan becoming 'terrorist sanctuary'

Tehran (AFP) - A top Iranian cleric accused Pakistan on Friday of becoming a "terrorist sanctuary," following an upsurge of violence on the two nations' border area that Tehran blames on plots by arch foe the United States and on Pakistan's inability to control its border.

"Though Pakistan is our neighbour, little by little it is losing its neighbourly manners. Pakistan has become a sanctuary of terrorists who kill people in Zahedan," hardline cleric Hojatoleslam Ahmad Khatami told Friday worshippers in Tehran.

Zahedan is the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which is home to a population of minority Baluch Sunni Muslims. It borders Pakistan to the south and Afghanistan to the north.

Thirteen Revolutionary Guards were killed last month when militants set off a car bomb in Zahedan, and security forces also clashed with militants in the city when a percussion bomb exploded.

And on Tuesday, four policemen were killed, one abducted and another wounded in Sistan-Baluchestan by rebels who then allegedly fled towards Pakistan.

"Pakistan should be careful not to fall into the US trap, since it will be the loser, undoubtedly," Khatami added in a sermon broadcast live on state radio.

"Iran is a strong country. Certainly being Iran's friend is much better than being the US and Israel's friend. There is no benefit in being the US and Israel's friend," he said to the habitual chants of "death to America, and death to Israel."

Iran summoned Pakistan's ambassador after the unrest last month and both sides agreed to reinforce border security.

Pashtun Elders In Pakistan Want NATO, U.S. Troops In Tribal Regions

RFE/RL - 03/02/2007 - About 60 Pashtun tribal elders from Pakistan's tribal regions met with Afghan authorities in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on March 1 to discuss how to bring security to the border regions.

Led by Malak Abdul Sabor Afridi, the delegates have suggested that Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan have put too much trust in Pakistan's government. Afridi said Karzai and NATO officials should be talking directly with the Pashtun tribal leaders in Pakistan instead of relying on officials from Islamabad.

"People in the border areas -- in the semi-autonomous tribal agencies [of Pakistan] -- have sent their proposals to President Karzai and other leaders several times in the past," Afridi told RFE's Radio Free Afghanistan. "We are saying that the policy of the foreigners -- even the international alliance [of ISAF and NATO] -- is not right. This conflict cannot be resolved through military operations or by militants."

Afridi said he is angered by reports suggesting that Pashtun tribes in Pakistan's border areas have been sheltering Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.

"We are not giving safe haven to the enemies of Afghanistan or to the enemies of the international community," Afridi said. "We have evidence of this. It is clear. And we have evidence that these terrorists and militants [from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda] are getting help from Pakistan's military and intelligence services to create training centers. They protect them and give them safe haven. They are protecting them. It is true that terrorists are active along the border and in the tribal regions. But they do not have links with local tribal men. They are either with the militant armed groups or with [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI)]."

President Pervez Musharraf -- who also heads Pakistan's military -- has repeatedly denied allegations that his own military or intelligence officers support militants in Pakistan's tribal regions. Musharraf said Pakistan is the only country that has delivered "maximum support" in the fight against both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

"The trouble lies in Afghanistan and the solution lies in Afghanistan, but there is support [for terrorists] going from Pakistan, which we know," Musharraf said. "We are tackling them with 30,000 troops, so let it not be said that Pakistan is not doing enough. If there is anybody who is not doing enough, it is others who are not doing enough."

The deployment of those forces marks the first time in Pakistan's history that its military has been sent into the semi-autonomous tribal regions. Afridi said his delegation is concerned that Islamabad has another agenda -- that is, to reduce the independence of ethnic Pashtuns in the tribal regions.

"We want the international community to come to us and protect us -- send us soldiers: NATO soldiers," Afridi said. "We are under tough pressure from Pakistani forces. In the end, we will ask the international community to send NATO soldiers. The Pakistani soldiers are causing problems for us. They've destroyed our tribal systems. They've created armed groups among us. Now we have blood in the Kyber Agency -- an area that once was very safe. Muslims are being killed and hundreds of houses have been destroyed."

Afridi said NATO, U.S., and UN representatives should go into Pakistan's tribal regions in order to build contacts with the elders. He says that if the international community did so, the security problems in the area would be resolved easily.

Talibanization Takes Root in Pakistan

By STEPHEN GRAHAM - Associated Press / March 2, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Barbers are too scared to shave their customers' chins. Alleged thieves are paraded before jeering crowds. People suspected of spying for Americans are found beheaded.

Tales of Taliban-style justice in the tribal belt along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan are proliferating, a sign the region, which already serves as a rear base for militants fighting in Afghanistan, is slipping further out of government control.

The United States voiced growing concern this week that al-Qaida was regrouping in the same region. U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell said Tuesday in Washington that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were believed to be hiding in northwestern Pakistan and trying to establish an operational base there.

A day earlier on a visit to Islamabad, Vice President Dick Cheney delivered that message of concern to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose recent strategy to seek peace with pro-Taliban tribesmen in preference to military confrontation appears to have backfired.

``The pro-Taliban militants are making their presence felt in some very ugly ways,'' said Samina Ahmed, South Asia director for the International Crisis Group, a non-governmental organization that works toward conflict resolution. ``They seem to be dictating the agenda.''

For instance, in Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan border region and a militant stronghold, residents say the Taliban run an office where locals can file complaints and receive a quick ruling based on Islamic law from a 10-member committee that includes a rebellious militant commander, Sadiq Noor.

The committee has reputedly dealt with family feuds and seized suspected thieves. Shopkeepers report that three men accused of stealing cars were driven through jeering crowds in the nearby town of Mir Ali last week, their faces blackened and their heads shaved.

The committee has not yet dealt with any major crimes, partly as the fear of Taliban justice has succeeded in curbing lawlessness, at least in the main towns, residents say.

Further north, several barbers in the Bajur region said in January that they would no longer shave customers' beards after receiving a warning that it was ``un-Islamic'' and threatening unspecified punishment.

The warning echoed a decree issued under Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime ordering all men to grow beards. There is little indication that authorities are willing or able to confront such developments in an area steeped in Islamic radicalism since it was a base for the mujahideen war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Taliban fighters and al-Qaida militants - including Arabs and Central Asians - poured into Pakistan's rugged border zone in 2001 and 2002, as U.S.-led forces drove them from Afghanistan, and found refuge in the fortress-like houses of sympathetic tribes and Afghan refugee communities.

Under U.S. pressure to pursue the militants, Musharraf sent troops into the semiautonomous region for the first time in Pakistan's 60-year history. Hundreds have been killed in the operations, most since 2004.

Then Musharraf changed tack. A truce struck in North Waziristan in September demanded militants stop attacks into Afghanistan and halt 'Talibanization' in return for troops moving out of towns like Miran Shah, while retaining a presence along the border. A peace agreement was signed in neighboring South Waziristan in 2005.

Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, the top official in northwestern Pakistan, defended the government's strategy. He recently told reporters that the reports of barbers refusing to shave beards and Taliban-style courts were isolated incidents that reflect ethnic Pashtun tribal tradition rather than a fundamentalist takeover.

But tribal elders who act as guarantors for the deal in North Waziristan appear powerless to enforce it, and even Musharraf has acknowledged that some security forces have been turning a blind eye to militant infiltration.

American and Afghan officials complain of rising cross-border attacks and U.S. intelligence director Mike McConnell said Tuesday in Washington that the September deal is helping efforts by al-Qaida to establish training camps and other operations there.

It remains very difficult to verify that intelligence, and Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao on Wednesday denied it, saying the U.S. had shared no such information with Pakistan.

Perhaps the most ominous sign on the ground that the peace deal is not working are the scores of individuals accused of being aligned with the government or working as foreign agents who have been found shot or beheaded.

The latest case came Tuesday, when the body of a school teacher was discovered in a sack by a road in South Waziristan.

A note found with the corpse identified the slain man as ``Akhtar Usman, the one who spied for America.'' The single word ``Hypocrite'' was scrawled on the temple of his severed head in Urdu, Pakistan's main language.

Shopkeeper beheaded in Khost

KHOST CITY, Mar 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Armed men, suspected to be the anti-government Taliban, kidnapped and beheaded a shopkeeper in Alisher district of the southeastern Khost province.

Wazir Badsha, a provincial police official, said the retailer was kidnapped by gunmen while on way to his house Wednesday evening. His headless body was found in the area this morning, said the officer.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the dastardly act. Meanwhile, a police officer wounded when their patrol came under attack from Taliban fighters near Babrak police station last night.

The fighting lasted for one hour. Police said they arrested two of the attackers. Condition of the injured police officer is stated to be stable.

Twelve Taliban killed in Afghanistan

Kabul (AFP) - The NATO force in Afghanistan said Friday its soldiers and warplanes had killed 12 Taliban in a battle in the south while a "known terrorist" was arrested separately.

The battle was in Zabul province on Tuesday and kicked off when 30 militants attacked an International Security Assistance Force and Afghan patrol with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, ISAF said in a statement.

The military struck back with heavy-weapons fire and close air support, it said. An ISAF soldier was wounded. Most foreign soldiers in Zabul are US nationals.

The US-led coalition, which works alongside ISAF, announced meanwhile it arrested a "known terrorist" and seven other people Friday suspected of "aiding terrorist fighters and facilitating terrorist operations" in Paktika province.

In other violence linked to the Taliban insurgency, gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying food and other supplies from Pakistan to the US military base at Bagram, near Kabul, late Thursday, police said. Three Pakistan drivers were wounded and three trucks were set ablaze, police said.

The extremist Taliban launched the insurgency after being removed from government in 2001 by the coalition and Afghan resistance factions.

The US Defence Department expects the offensive will be stronger this year than last, which was the deadliest since their ouster.

The Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Dadullah, said in an interview with British television released Thursday that the militia have hundreds of suicide bombers waiting to attack NATO troops this spring.

Officials Hopeful Following Taliban Arrest in Pakistan

By Griff Witte and Kamran Khan - Washington Post, Friday, March 2, 2007

ISLAMABAD, March 3 -- The arrest of a senior Taliban leader in a Pakistani city long reputed to be a haven for the group kindled guarded hope among Western and Afghan security officials Friday that the government here plans to move more aggressively against insurgents taking refuge on its territory.

The arrest, confirmed by two senior Pakistani intelligence officials, marks the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that authorities here have acknowledged apprehending or killing a senior Taliban figure on Pakistani soil.

It comes as Pakistan faces intense pressure from Bush administration officials to step up its involvement in a counterinsurgency campaign that has foundered during the past year, with Taliban attacks in Afghanistan becoming more deadly and audacious.

Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, arrested hours after Vice President Cheney made a visit to Islamabad, was a former defense minister in the Taliban government in Kabul and is viewed in intelligence circles as one of the highest-ranking figures in the Islamic movement, which a U.S.-led forces drove from power in Afghanistan in late 2001.

A spokesman for the international security force that patrols Afghanistan said Friday its forces were not involved in any operation against Akhund but that his arrest by Pakistan would be "a very good development."

"He's what we would consider tier-one Taliban," said Col. Tom Collins. "We have a continuing, ongoing effort to capture and to decapitate the Taliban leadership. Taking these people out can only help."

Pakistani officials would not comment for the record Friday. While the arrest is likely to bolster Pakistan's counterterrorist bona fides, it is also potentially embarrassing: Akhund was caught in the southern Pakistani city of Quetta, where terrorism analysts believe much of the Taliban leadership resides, though Pakistan denies it.

Afghan officials have long claimed Pakistan's government is either looking the other way as insurgents recruit and train on its soil, or actively aiding the Taliban's cause. In recent months, U.S. officials have become sharply critical of Pakistan as well.

Cheney, traveling this week with the deputy director of the CIA, repeated that message to President Pervez Musharraf here Monday, saying he needs to keep the Taliban and al-Qaeda from using the relatively lawless border region as a sanctuary. The next day, Cheney was in the largest U.S. air base in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber struck just outside the base's gate, killing 23 people.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Friday that the night Cheney left Pakistan for Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities arrested Akhund in Quetta city. The arrest was reported in Friday's editions of the New York Times, and in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

"It's pure coincidence and our good luck that we found Mullah Obaidullah within 24 hours of Cheney's visit,'" said the official, who spoke from Quetta and on condition of anonymity.

The official said the arrest represents the beginning of a new thrust by the Pakistani intelligence agencies to arrest 100 prominent Taliban members.

A second senior intelligence official, in Islamabad, confirmed the initiative, and said it was based on "massive intelligence sharing that has been going on between us, Americans, NATO and Afghans."

Some analysts questioned whether Pakistan really will become more aggressive, and whether the timing of Akhund's arrest was truly coincidental. In recent years, Pakistan has carried out raids on al-Qaeda targets coinciding with visits here from top Western officials.

"The Pakistanis have done it again," said Marvin Weinbaum, scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "They've come up with a high-profile person at just the right time."

A senior Afghan official echoed those comments Friday. "We hope that more of these arrests are made, and not just for show when Vice President Cheney comes to town," said the official.

Pakistan helped build the Taliban in the 1990s. Many top Afghan officials believe that Pakistan continues to keep the Taliban alive in case the West withdraws from Afghanistan and the weak government in Kabul fails.

NATO Short on Troops in Afghanistan

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - The Associated Press Friday, March 2, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Signs of a new spring offensive by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have begun to emerge, but NATO commanders are still short more than 1,000 combat troops, despite repeated requests to allied nations, the top commander said Friday.

U.S. Gen. John Craddock told reporters that while the allies are winning more battles with insurgents, they are losing the counter-narcotics war, and more work and greater coordination is needed in the reconstruction effort.

Craddock said there has already been a slight increase in suicide attacks and roadside bombs _ the beginnings of an expected increase in violence as the weather improves. And he said he is still short by as much as two battalions, largely combat units, despite recent commitments for about 7,000 additional troops there, including more than 3,500 from the United States. A battalion is generally about 800 soldiers.

Craddock also said that 30 percent to 40 percent of the 25 provincial reconstruction teams working to rebuild the country do not have all the people they need, particularly State Department and agricultural experts. In those cases, he said the agencies either have no presence or not enough people on the teams, which number about 100 people.

The teams are small units of troops and civilian personnel placed around the country supporting local authorities and aid groups with security and assisting in setting up essential services for the provinces.

More agricultural experts are considered critical because officials are struggling to control a drug crop that dominates the country's economy and provides key financing for the insurgency. Opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons _ or enough to make about 670 tons of heroin, more than 90 percent of the world's supply.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that there are typically one or two State Department specialists and an Agriculture Department specialist on the teams, because the economy is so reliant on agriculture. The rest of the team is largely military, including civil affairs and psychological operations officers. The U.S. is responsible for 12 of the 25 teams, which are assigned to provinces.

Craddock also agreed that Pakistan must do more to control its border, as Taliban and other insurgents continue to flow through the region into Afghanistan.

"NATO will not be able to prevail, ... will never control the border, without greater control of the border areas by Pakistan and greater coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," said Craddock.

He said both countries need to put up more checkpoints and inspection stations along the border, and there needs to be more political cooperation between the two nations.

Craddock said the countries are making progress in efforts to cooperate more, and there is some expectation there will be increased political dialogue between the two governments this spring. And overall, he said, he is encouraged by the progress he is seeing.

While saying there will still be challenges particularly this spring, he said, "between the security aspect that's presently there and what NATO is capable of ... partnered with the reconstruction, we're seeing some progress and we're seeing increased capabilities."

Currently there are about 26,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Roughly 15,000 of them are serving in the NATO-led force, which now totals about 35,000. The other 11,000 are special operations forces or are training Afghan troops.

U.S. forces pursue Taliban into Pakistan

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 1 - WASHINGTON - American forces on Afghanistan's eastern border routinely fire upon and pursue Taliban enemies into Pakistan, defense officials told Congress on Thursday, offering the most detailed description to date of U.S. action in that region.

They said the Taliban threat is greater now than it was a year ago, and they agreed that the Pakistan government can and must do more to get at the large, ungoverned sectors along the remote Pakistan border that are safe havens for Taliban insurgents.

"We have all the authorities we need to pursue, either with (artillery) fire or on the ground, across the border," said Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Lute, who is chief operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said soldiers can respond if there is an imminent threat. But he said they would have to seek the Pakistan government's permission to go after a munitions factory further inside the Pakistani border.

The discussion came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in an effort to urge a more aggressive Pakistani effort to hunt al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who are expected to increase attacks into Afghanistan this spring.

The Pakistani military has been more aggressive in going after al-Qaida than the Taliban, who are more protected by tribal leaders in some of the border regions.

Musharraf has insisted that his forces have done all they can against the extremists, but senators said it's simply not enough. And they quizzed Lute and undersecretary of defense for policy, Eric S. Edelman, about what more the U.S. can do if Pakistan won't or cannot do more.

"I think we really have no alternative but to continue to work with him as best we can to encourage him to do more," Edelman said under repeated questioning from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. "It means he has to face some difficult political choices at home and we have to encourage him to face up to those."

There have been suggestions that Congress could cut off some aid to Pakistan, but there was no discussion of that Thursday.

Lute, meanwhile, provided a detailed description of when U.S. forces can fire on and pursue insurgents across the border into Pakistan. He said they can respond when faced with a hostile act, or anyone "demonstrating hostile intent." The final decision is made by the commander at the scene.

He would not say, however, if there are restrictions on how far into the country soldiers can go. He said the decision is based not on distance, but on the immediacy of the threat involved.

"If just across the border, inside Pakistan, we have surveillance systems that detect a Taliban party setting up a rocket system which is obviously pointed west, into Afghanistan, we do not have to wait for the rockets to be fired. They have demonstrated hostile intent and we can engage them," Lute said.

He added that if U.S. forces learned of a munitions factory inside Pakistan, they would have to share that intelligence with the government, and would have to get permission to strike the building. Asked if Pakistan had ever turned down such a request, Lute said he would have to answer that in a closed, classified setting.

Asked about Iran's involvement in roadside bombs in Afghanistan, Edelman said it is not the same situation as in Iraq. Military officials have displayed weapons and other equipment they said is evidence that Iran is deeply involved in deadly explosives being used in Iraq.

"We do not have the body of evidence in Afghanistan as we do in Iraq," Edelman said. "So the sophistication of the (explosive devices) is, sort of, in a different order of magnitude."

Combat, reconstruction troops still lacking for Afghanistan as new offensive looms

The Associated Press - 03/02/2007 - WASHINGTON - Signs of a new spring offensive by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have begun to emerge, but NATO commanders are still short more than 1,000 combat troops, despite repeated requests to allied nations, the top commander said Friday.

U.S. Gen. John Craddock told reporters that while the allies are winning more battles with insurgents, they are losing the counter-narcotics war, and more work and greater coordination is needed in the reconstruction effort.

Craddock said there has already been a slight increase in suicide attacks and roadside bombs ? the beginnings of an expected increase in violence as the weather improves. And he said he is still short by as much as two battalions, largely combat units, despite recent commitments for about 7,000 additional troops there, including more than 3,500 from the United States. A battalion is generally about 800 soldiers.

Craddock also said that 30 percent to 40 percent of the 25 provincial reconstruction teams working to rebuild the country do not have all the people they need, particularly State Department and agricultural experts. In those cases, he said the agencies either have no presence or not enough people on the teams, which number about 100 people.

The teams are small units of troops and civilian personnel placed around the country supporting local authorities and aid groups with security and assisting in setting up essential services for the provinces.

More agricultural experts are considered critical because officials are struggling to control a drug crop that dominates the country's economy and provides key financing for the insurgency. Opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons (6,080 metric tons) ? or enough to make about 670 tons (608 metric tons) of heroin, more than 90 percent of the world's supply.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that there are typically one or two State Department specialists and an Agriculture Department specialist on the teams, because the economy is so reliant on agriculture. The rest of the team is largely military, including civil affairs and psychological operations officers. The U.S. is responsible for 12 of the 25 teams, which are assigned to provinces.

Craddock also agreed that Pakistan must do more to control its border, as Taliban and other insurgents continue to flow through the region into Afghanistan.

"NATO will not be able to prevail, ... will never control the border, without greater control of the border areas by Pakistan and greater coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," said Craddock.

He said both countries need to put up more checkpoints and inspection stations along the border, and there needs to be more political cooperation between the two nations.

Craddock said the countries are making progress in efforts to cooperate more, and there is some expectation there will be increased political dialog between the two governments this spring. And overall, he said, he is encouraged by the progress he is seeing there.

While saying there will still be challenges particularly this spring, he said, "between the security aspect that's presentaly there and what NATO is capable of ... partnered with the reconstruction, we're seeing some progress and we're seeing incresed capabilities."

Currently there are about 26,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Roughly 15,000 of them are serving in the NATO-led force, which now totals about 35,000. The other 11,000 are special operations forces or are training Afghan troops.

Taliban arrest may help Pakistan's image

Islamabad (AP) - The reported capture of the former Taliban defense minister will likely boost Pakistan's anti-terror credentials and deliver a setback to the insurgent movement, but some doubt it will curb militant violence.

Pakistani intelligence officials said Friday that Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, one of the top deputies of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, was arrested in the southwestern city of Quetta this week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The Pakistani government did not formally announce Akhund's arrest, which would be the highest-ranking Afghan militant to be captured since the ouster of the regime in 2001.

With official confirmation lacking, a Taliban spokesman dismissed the report as "rumor," claiming he had spoken with Akhund by telephone Friday. "There is no truth in the report. I have told you, I have talked to him. He is in Afghanistan," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

In December, the Taliban issued a similar denial over the killing of a top Omar lieutenant, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who was later confirmed to have died in a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials sought to play up Akhund's reported capture, saying it would have a noticeable effect on the Taliban's command and control structure.

"He was a very important person in the Taliban movement," said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. "It will be a big blow to Taliban morale."

Ronald Neumann, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, said Wednesday before news of Akhund's arrest broke that intelligence showed taking out Taliban leaders such Osmani had a bigger impact on the Taliban than U.S. military operations against the group.

But Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban, said he expected the impact of Akhund's arrest would be limited, as the militants have become increasingly flexible in their operations.

"The arrest will demoralize them, but I don't think it will decrease the number of Taliban attacks," he said. "Like al-Qaida, the Taliban has become fairly autonomous. People gain responsibility and they actually do things on their own."

The reported arrest came on the same day Vice President Dick Cheney made a swift visit to Islamabad to express concern over al-Qaida regrouping along the border and a feared Taliban spring offensive in Afghanistan. Taliban-led militants have staged a resurgence in the past year, particularly in their former southern heartland, threatening Afghan President Hamid Karzai's elected government.

The explosion of violence has demonstrated the Taliban's ability to regenerate after years of military pressure, drawing on recruits from Pashtun villages in southern and eastern Afghanistan and jihadi volunteers from Pakistan.

Islamabad, which already has 80,000 troops along the frontier, has come under growing international pressure to crack down on cross-border militancy.

Akhund's arrest is a feather in Pakistan's cap as a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, but it also exposes an awkward truth that Islamabad has repeatedly sought to deny: that Afghan militants hide not just in the country's border regions, but in its cities, too.

The capture also adds credence to Karzai's claim that the Taliban insurgency is commanded from Quetta. Karzai has said he believes Omar himself is hiding in the city, but Musharraf maintains the fugitive militant, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, is in southern Afghanistan.

The Star of Afghanistan's Jihad

SPIEGEL (Germany) March 1, 2007 - By Matthias Gebauer in Peshawar, Pakistan

The Taliban are gearing up for their "spring offensive" in Afghanistan. A series of brutal propaganda films is heralding thousands of suicide attacks. And the Taliban have a new bloodthirsty leader, whom Western intelligence agencies are taking very seriously: Mullah Dadullah.

If Osama bin Laden likes being in the global spotlight, he's likely a bit depressed in his hideout these days. The leader of the al-Qaida terrorist organization hasn't made an appearance on the evening news for quite some time. What's more, the Taliban no longer need bin Laden as a figurehead. Western intelligence agencies warn that the Taliban now have "their own star" in their struggle against Western soldiers and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai. The new nightmare from the Hindu Kush Mountains is called Mullah Dadullah. He sports a pitch black beard, always wears a military jacket and these days, he is omnipresent in the media.

Bloodthirsty propaganda is everywhere in northern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. Virtually every CD salesman in Peshawar is selling the latest films released by the Taliban leader. "Oh, you want the Dadullah tapes," says one. "They're very popular right now." He disappears for barely a minute and then returns with an entire stack. He charges about €3 ($4) per film. Those who buy several get a discount. But he doesn't want his picture taken. He says Pakistani police already causes him enough trouble when they find terror DVDs in the suitcases of journalists at the airport.

The images on these DVDs reveal the Taliban's self confidence and new professionalism. The films herald a bloody spring in Afghanistan, one in which Western troops will face a newly strengthened Taliban army under a re-organized leadership. Well armed and better logistically organized than ever before, the Taliban are preparing for their fight against the hated NATO troops, whose alliance has recently shown signs of internal division. "They say it will be the decisive summer," says a man who occasionally drinks tea with the Taliban commanders.

Western intelligence agencies believe the Taliban have used the winter to thoroughly tighten their organizational structure. Some Taliban commanders are even reporting that Taliban leader Mullah Omar -- who disappeared from the scene entirely for years -- is once again writing letters to his supporters, congratulating successful commanders and the parents of suicide bombers and reminding militants of their "Islamic duties" via audio recordings. For years, one-eyed Omar had disappeared without a trace -- likely afraid of being tracked down by the CIA.

But Mullah Omar seems to be feeling more secure these days -- as does Mullah Dadullah, who only recently outlined his vision for the coming months. Behaving almost like any normal politician, he invited al-Jazeera journalists to visit him in the mountains. His words were alarming despite being full of rhetoric and propaganda. Dadullah said he commands 6,000 men who have volunteered for suicide attacks, and that their offensive is "imminent." He added that some of his men are already set off on their mission, which he described as a "bloodbath for the occupiers." This week's symbolic attack on US Vice President Dick Cheney is reason to fear that Dadullah is issuing more than just empty threats.

Dadullah's films serve to provide the Taliban with present-day legends. They're professionally produced in al-Sahab, the Taliban's media center in Qetta, southern Pakistan. Hundreds of Taliban fighters are seen performing military exercises with machine guns. Then they fire grenade-launchers -- of which they seem to have plenty. Every shot is accompanied by a chorus of voices emphatically shouting: "God is great!" Next, the films show footage of wrecked US military vehicles. "We will hit them again," a voice-over announces triumphantly.

Perhaps the main message conveyed by these films, however, is that the Taliban is no longer afraid of being chased down. Only some of the militants' faces have been pixelated. Many others give their full names as they sign up for the holy war. Almost all the DVDs feature footage of the brutal execution of alleged CIA spies. The "helpers of the infidels" have their heads removed while still alive. About 250 such murders have occurred in recent months.

Mostly, however, the films show the new hero -- the new face of resistance. Mullah Dudallah, a stocky man, about 40 years old, is worshipped like a saint. Although he lost a leg in battle during the 1990s, he is seen vigorously pacing up a mountain with his fighters. Once at the top, he can't resist firing a rocket into the distance himself. Then he kneels down to pray with his men, his AK-47 next to him the whole time. The sun sets blood-red behind the mountains. It's hard to imagine a more effective propaganda film.

Mullah Abdullah has been a genuine nightmare for the foreign troops and intelligence agencies in Afghanistan for quite some time. The videos are analyzed with a meticulousness that matches their menacing character. "We know from experience that many of his pronouncements are not propaganda," says one Western anti-terrorism agent. "He's carried out most of his threats." Dadullah already threatened a wave of suicide attacks in 2006. No one took him seriously at first. By the end of 2006, the CIA's statisticians counted about 139 such attacks throughout the country -- five times more than in 2005. 2007 could be even bloodier.

More than anything, it is Dadullah's biography that has propelled him to the Taliban leadership. He escaped a trap organized by the warlord Dostum following the US invasion: Dostum lured thousands of Taliban to northern Afghanistan, near Kunduz, and massacred them. Legend has it that Dadullah escaped on horseback. Then he spent several years devoting himself to rebuilding and re-arming the Taliban. He's now considered the top commander in the region surrounding the provincial capital Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. The Taliban have gained the upper hand there, more or less controlling the area despite many losses.

Dadullah's merciless violence fascinates many of his younger followers, who already respect him as a great authority. When they kidnapped a South American worker in late 2006, they turned to him for advice. His instructions were clear, and it wasn't long before the hostage's massacred corpse was found. Such violence impresses young would-be holy warriors.

Not long ago, the United States unwittingly contributed to the Dadullah legend. After an operation in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, intelligence agents told the media that Dadullah and one of his closest followers had been killed. It only took half a day for him to appear on al-Jazeera via satellite phone. "He can always be reached somehow and loves to play with journalists," says Afghanistan expert Rahimullah Yusufzai, who himself sometimes speaks to Dadullah. The Taliban leader doesn't seem concerned that the signals from the Thuraya phones he uses can be traced. He feels invincible.

Experts on the conflict believe the new Taliban tactic will cause serious difficulties for NATO. "If suicide attacks are carried out all over the country, it becomes difficult to decide on how to allocate troops," Pakistani Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid points out. NATO could quickly be demoralized, like the United States in Iraq, since it is already internally divided and disposes of no military reserves, much less a rapid reaction force. "2007 will be a very serious year," Rashid predicts.

In a reaction to the wave of Taliban propaganda, NATO generals have announced their own offensive. The message from Kabul is that the troops will not wait for the Taliban to attack. Rather, they will strike hard themselves. Whether that will be enough to master the onslaught of suicide attacks is doubtful. "The Taliban don't need more training camps or military camps for their new strategy," Rashid fears. The only remaining option would be that of attacking presumed houses of the fighters, which would cost civilian lives.

Such attacks merely provide the Taliban with new recruits for their struggle. In the fall of 2006, US military officer Chris Cavoli concluded from his experiences in Kunar province that: "Every Afghan killed by a bomb leads to two new militants, regardless of whether the person killed is a civilian or a militant." This means a military offensive against Mullah Dadullah's men would only serve the interests of the new Taliban hero.

"Our sources will never run dry," he says self-confidently in one of his many propaganda films.

Afghan refugees used as political football

By Haroon Siddiqui - The Hamilton Spectator

JALOZOI (Mar 1, 2007) - In the current sniping between the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- with Canada piping up periodically, mostly to echo America -- it is useful to think of the ordinary people most affected by all this geo-politics: the Afghans, more particularly, the Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

This camp, 25 kilometres southeast of Peshawar, is not far from the Afghan-Pakistan border. When I first came to this area after covering the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in early 1980, there were a few tents and a few hundred refugees.

Now Jalozoi is a semi-permanent ghetto of 54,000 people in mud houses abutting narrow lanes with open sewers. It's one of nearly 50 camps across Pakistan. Between them and the urban centres, there are about three million Afghan refugees, out of the five million who originally came. (Many of those who did go back after the 2001 fall of the Taliban have since returned.)

The latest bad news is that a new batch of refugees is coming, fleeing the current chaos of southern Afghanistan. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says Iran has closed its border and Pakistan has placed tight controls at its border posts, forcing the refugees to "pay local smugglers" to cross over.

The irony of Afghans first fleeing the Soviet occupation and now NATO's is not lost on Pakistan. That aside, Pakistan wants the refugees gone. If they won't go voluntarily, it wants to deport them.

Not only have they outlived their welcome, Pakistan is tired of being accused of harbouring the Taliban among them. It says that since most refugees, such as the Taliban, are Pushtuns, it cannot know who is and is not a Taliban. So, take them all back, please.

Pakistan is also planning to fence and/or mine parts of its 2,400-kilometre border with Afghanistan. This is in response to Western accusations that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are infiltrating into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

It has another motive. It wants to stop, or at least reduce, the smuggling of Afghan opium. It has given up hope that the problem can be brought under control anytime soon by the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- viewed as both corrupt and incompetent.

All this may merely be posturing on the part of Pakistan. But there's little doubt that the refugees are the football being kicked around by the big players.

The Afghans and the NATO allies want Pakistan to close the border to Taliban. But Karzai, posturing to his home audience, wants the Pushtuns to retain their traditional freedom to criss-cross it. The UNHCR, too, wants the border kept open, to allow even more refugees to come. Canada, the leading voice against landmines, is horrified at the idea of a border being mined.

So, everyone is going in circles. Meanwhile, a drive to register all Afghan refugees continues -- as does their resistance. Pakistani authorities fear fraud has crept into the old identity papers given the refugees. It wants new papers issued and biometrics installed at border crossings.

The first protest was over the requirement of a photo for women. The authorities relented. Next, there was the stoning of the busy border post of Chaman in Balochistan to protest the biometric machines, since closed. Many Afghan refugees clearly like the estimated one million phoney IDs in circulation.

In addition, the Afghans who have bought property and are engaged in business, or those born in Pakistan, have no desire to go back -- and are reluctant to come forward.

Only 1.7 million refugees have been registered. "Those who aren't will be considered illegal immigrants and deported," I was told by Badshah Gul Wazir, senior official of the North-West Frontier Province.

At the Jalozoi camp, Haji Abdul Qahhar, 67, says he was among the original inhabitants who set up tents here. He says he won't go back, because "conditions are still bad back home and foreign troops are present in my land."

As the 30 or so people in a circle around me nod approvingly, I ask how many have been back home. Only two raise their hands, and report there wasn't much there to stay for. As bad as life has been here -- mostly casual labour work -- it is worse there.

How many of you support the Taliban? All the hitherto noise turns to silence, accompanied by some knowing smiles. How long can you stay here? "Only Allah knows." As darkness descends, the driver and the translator insist it's time for us to leave.

Negotiation with Taliban best chance for Afghanistan peace: study

Thu Mar 1, 2:45 - OTTAWA (AFP) - Western governments must negotiate with the Taliban to end their guerrilla war against NATO forces in Afghanistan and allow a peaceful state to emerge, said a Canadian report released Thursday.

The study by a small team of Afghanistan geopolitical experts from across Canada said negotiations with the Taliban are not guaranteed to succeed, but "failure to negotiate will almost certainly cede the field to them."

"I think it's the best chance for success and the least bad option," said lead author Gordon Smith (news, bio, voting record), a former Canadian ambassador to NATO and now director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.

"Negotiating with the Taliban would be very difficult and very distasteful. These are not people I would want around my dining table. But I don't see any alternative. We need some form of political resolution," he told AFP.

Canada has deployed 2,500 troops in the volatile Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan, hunting down Taliban militants. Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers and one senior diplomat have died in attacks or roadside explosions. Ottawa has already refused to negotiate with the Taliban.

But Smith's team said: "We do not believe that the Taliban can be defeated or eliminated as a political entity in any meaningful time frame by Western armies using military measures, and certainly not with the relatively small increases in force strength that are currently planned."

As well, reconstruction efforts aimed at winning the support of local Pashtuns tribes against the Taliban have been stalled by insecurity in several parts of the war-torn country. "A massive troop surge is not going to happen and relying solely on development assistance is naive," Smith told AFP.

The Taliban may not be universally accepted as a legitimate force, he noted, but most Pashtuns now believe the Taliban will remain long after NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

The best hope for peace is for "back channel negotiations" with the Taliban leadership and local tribal leaders to draw the Taliban into greater participation in central and provincial governments, the study said.

Bush faces three major Afghanistan stumbling blocks

The Age (Australia) - 03/02/2007 By Amin Saikal

AFTER more than five years on the path of post-Taliban reconstruction, Afghanistan still faces a dire situation. Many Afghans have become disillusioned with their Government and its international backers, and the Taliban and their supporters have rebuilt their fighting capacity with more ferocity than ever before. The US and its allies have found it imperative to deploy more troops, pour in more money and put pressure on Pakistan to prevent the Taliban's cross-border raids. The fear is that Afghanistan could slide down the same path as Iraq, with the war on terror reaching a dead end.

The Afghan situation has worsened over the past two years for a number of reasons, but three of them are critical. The first is that the Government of President Hamid Karzai has not been able to build a unified ruling elite and a clean, efficient and effective system of governance. The elite has become increasingly divided and locked in serious infighting, with a focus on promoting individual rather than national interests, and personalising rather than institutionalising politics. The politics of ethnic entrepreneurship, bribery, nepotism, backstabbing and character assassination have become the order of the day.

The second is that the US and its allies failed from the beginning to grasp the complexities of Afghanistan as a country whose basic fabrics had been pulverised after more than two decades encompassing years of Soviet occupation, the Pakistan-backed rule of the medievalist Taliban, and domestic fragmentation and bloodshed. Acting against the advice of many specialists on Afghanistan, Washington moved to stabilise, rebuild and secure the country with as little military deployment and financial assistance as possible. This saw the initial deployment of only 10,000 American troops primarily to hunt Osama bin Laden and his operatives and a 5000-strong International Assistance Security Assistance Force, at first operating only in Kabul in support of the Karzai Government.

By 2004, the Bush Administration realised the need to increase the American force, which now numbers around 20,000, and the ISAF, which is now about 15,000 under NATO's command. It also supported the need for more reconstruction aid. However, its original decision left the field wide open for the Taliban and their al-Qaeda and Pakistani allies, as well as poppy growers, drug traffickers and local power holders (popularly known as warlords) to rebuild their positions rapidly.

In addition, hundreds of commercial contractors and non-government organisations, which found in Afghanistan new fertile soil for their operations, were soon co-opted into a culture of self-indulgence, enhancing rather diminishing Afghans' dependence on them. Furthermore, the US adventure into Iraq simply relegated Afghanistan into a secondary place on the list of strategic priorities.

The third is that Washington underestimated Pakistan's destructive role in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule, and turned a blind eye to Islamabad's potential for renewing its ambitions towards Afghanistan in the post-Taliban period. It adopted Islamabad as partner in the war on terror, built it up as a significant non-NATO ally, and remained satisfied that it would not misbehave any more. It embraced President Pervez Musharraf's military rule, and accepted at face value its declaration of non-interference in Afghanistan. In the process, it ignored the fact that Musharraf had personally defended the Taliban as a "security imperative" for Pakistan, and that he relied heavily on those Pakistani forces that were intimately linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Those forces were Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI), the main instrument of Musharraf's rule, and the radical Islamic political groups that now dominate the politics of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces on the border with Afghanistan. These forces have remained loyal to the Taliban as a militia, with an expectation that it could enable Pakistan to regain its past leverage in Afghanistan when one day foreign troops have left the country.

For all their commitments and declarations, the US and its allies have not made the efforts necessary to secure the long and treacherous Afghan-Pakistan border. They have failed to deploy sufficient forces, equipped with all the necessary advanced ground and air combat and surveillance means, along the border, and to prompt Pakistan to renegotiate the border with clear demarcation, an issue that has been a major point of dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan ever since the creation of the latter in 1947.

Unless substantial progress is made in these areas, no matter how much more military and non-military assistance the US and its allies pour into Afghanistan, the country remains at the risk of unravelling. The US and its allies will do well by themselves and the Afghan people, if they now urgently focus on administrative reforms, reconstruction and border security.

Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University.

Iran pledes cooperation in education sector

KABUL, March 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government of Iran will continue its assistance and cooperation with Afghanistan in the education sector.

This was stated by Iran Minister for Education Sayed Mahmud Farshidi during a ceremony here on Thursday.

The Iranian minister signed an agreement regarding assistance in education sector with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

Addressing a joint news conference, Atmar said establishment of the first national teacher training centre, construction of a study centre for religious affairs, provision of education scholarships, construction of a vocational training centre, were part of today's agreement signed by the two sides.

In addition, Atmar said, Iran would send experts to train Afghan teachers. A number of Afghan teachers from religious seminaries and schoolteachers would also be sent to Iran to get training in relevant fields.

Appreciating the assistance offered by Iran, Atmar said: "The agreement signed today was very effective and was of unique importance in the education history of Afghanistan." Speaking on the occasion, the Iranian minister said his country would provide books and other material for 100 libraries in Afghanistan.

[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.]