In this bulletin:

• Taliban commander caught fleeing in Afghan burqa
• 'Militants' caught in Afghan raid - BBC
• President Hamid Karzai Expresses His Sympathies to the Families of the Victims of Nangarhar Incident
• Taliban have lost Afghan 'hearts and minds': US
• String of Afghan deaths cause outrage, put government, U.S. mission in jeopardy
• Afghanistan: US Should Investigate Civilian Deaths
• Fatal U.S.-led air strike targeted militant's house: Afghan official
• Briton reportedly kidnapped by Taliban in Afghanistan
• Officials Search for Italian Reporter
• Friendly fire - Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan; 45 have been killed since 2002
• Top soldier says Canada's Afghan military role more than just security
• Afghanistan's top Islamic scholars reject calls for war-crimes amnesty
• Afghans caught in war's rising tide
• Pak-Afghan co-operation essential to Afghanistan’s future: Dr.Howells        
• Pakistani Clashes Leave 15 Dead
• Taliban website blocked in Pakistan
• Outside View: Hope in Afghanistan
• Etisalat Academy to provide training for 200 Etisalat Afghanistan Staff

Taliban commander caught fleeing in Afghan burqa

By DPA Mar 7, 2007

Kabul - NATO's newly launched offensive called Operation Achilles in Afghanistan bore swift results when a senior Taliban commander was captured - dressed in a women's head-to-toe burqa veil, officials said Wednesday.

Mullah Mahmood, an accused suicide-attack facilitator for Kandahar province, was caught Tuesday trying to evade Afghan units in the Panjwaii area in the disguise, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

'Yesterday's security crackdown in Panjwaii is an example of the ultimate goal of Operation Achilles,' said Major General Ton van Loon, southern commander for ISAF operations.

Coming on the first day of the NATO offensive involving more than 5,500 foreign and Afghan troops, the capture indicated that normal life is returning to the area, he added.

'Militants' caught in Afghan raid - BBC

US-led coalition and Afghan troops have detained 11 suspected militants in two raids in the east, the coalition says. Five men were arrested in a building near the city of Khost on Monday evening. Six others were captured near Jalalabad in Nangarhar province.

The men are suspected of involvement with terrorist groups and one of having links with al-Qaeda, a statement said. The Afghan government and foreign forces fear that Taleban and al-Qaeda attacks will rise as winter snows thaw. There were no reports of injuries in the two raids.

Bloodshed in Afghanistan last year returned to levels not seen since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, with the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar and areas in the east of the country particularly hard-hit.

Some 4,000 people are believed to have died last year in the insurgency - about a quarter of them civilians.

President Hamid Karzai Expresses His Sympathies to the Families of the
Victims of Nangarhar Incident

Arg, Kabul - H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan, in a telephone call expressed his sympathies to elders and
family members of the victims of Nangarhar incident who had gathered in
office of the Governor of Nangarhar province.

During this telephone conversation, the President expressed his heartfelt
sympathies to them and prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the
injured.

The families of the victims requested for the identification of the
perpetrators of this incident and bringing them to justice.

The President yesterday issued an order for conducting investigation and
sending the inquiry team to Nangarhar province.

In today's cabinet meeting, the President and the cabinet prayed for those
who were martyred in the incident and instructed the relevant authorities to
assist the families of the victims.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Taliban have lost Afghan 'hearts and minds': US

AFP - 03/06/2007 - WASHINGTON - The White House said Monday that the Taliban had "already lost" the fight for Afghan "hearts and minds" ahead of what is expected to be a Spring offensive by the Islamist militia.

Spokesman Tony Snow also declined to comment in detail on an incident involving the US military in Afghanistan that may have left as many as 10 Afghan civilians dead, saying "everything is under review."

"There's a real difference between the Taliban, which kills innocent as a matter of policy, and the United States, which abhors the death of any innocent," Snow told reporters.

"And, frankly, in the battle of hearts and minds, the Taliban already lost that. What they're trying to do, once again, is to use terror to impose their will -- and it's not going to happen," the spokesman said.

His comments came after an incident in eastern Nangarhar province, where US troops opened fire after an ambush. Afghan officials say 10 civilians were killed. The US-led coalition says eight died in the ambush and subsequent return fire, but has not admitted outright to causing civilian deaths.

Asked how the United States would prevent such incidents in the future, Snow replied: "If somebody tries to hold innocent civilians, put them in harm's way, it's very difficult to at all times avoid unfortunate circumstances."

"But, look, again, we're still studying it. So what you're asking me to do is to give you a detailed explanation of what happened and how one would fix it in the future, and I'm not in a position to do it," he said.

String of Afghan deaths cause outrage, put government, U.S. mission in jeopardy

The Associated Press - 7 March 2007 JASON STRAZIUSO

KABUL, Afghanistan_On a trip to the market, Haji Lawania says he drove his
gray SUV into a hail of U.S. gunfire that shattered his windshield and
killed his father, nephew and a village elder.

The three companions, who died Sunday in the aftermath of a suicide bombing
in eastern Nangarhar province, are among 40 civilians whose deaths this
year could be attributed to NATO or U.S. action, according to an Associated
Press tally based on figures from military and Afghan officials.

The high number of casualties and fresh accusations that Marines fired on
civilians along miles of highway have sparked rage everywhere from dusty
streets to the halls of Parliament, threatening to turn the support of
wavering Afghans against U.S. and NATO troops and, more ominously,
President Hamid Karzai's fledgling Western-backed government.

NATO spokesman Col. Tom Collins said civilian casualties are caused
"overwhelmingly" because militants operate in populated areas, hiding in
civilian homes after attacks and setting off suicide bombs in public.

But he acknowledged the harm the deaths do to the international mission's
image.

"It would seem to me that the enemy benefits when (NATO) forces take what
we consider appropriate action against threatening behavior," Collins said.
"Nonetheless, the enemy is able to gain from that because there is this
perception that we're shooting people, civilians."

Karzai has pleaded repeatedly for Western troops to operate with care, but
the long list of civilian deaths since 2001 seems only to grow. The
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100 Afghan civilians
died as a result of NATO and coalition assaults in 2006.

In three separate incidents Sunday and Monday, Afghan witnesses and
officials said U.S. military action may have killed up to 20 civilians _ up
to 10 shot by Marines after the suicide bombing, nine killed in an
airstrike after Taliban fighters sought refuge in a home, and one shot and
killed after driving too close to a convoy.

At the site of the suicide bombing and gunfire in Nangarhar province,
police estimated that 4,000 Afghans staged an angry but peaceful
demonstration Tuesday. One sign read: "Killer Bush! Stop the Killing of
Afghans. Down with America."

"Afghan civilians are angry about the security situation today," said John
Sifton, a researcher on terrorism for Human Rights Watch. "All parties need
to work harder to ensure that the conflict doesn't fall heavy on
civilians."

Lawmakers in Afghanistan's upper house of Parliament expressed outrage
Tuesday at the recent killings, and lawmaker Mohammad Hassan Otak said they
would summon the NATO commander, the defense and interior ministers and a
U.N. representative to address the matter.

"If it happens again, we will not sit by quietly," Otak said. "This kind of
action ruins the dignity of the government, and if it is repeated the
coalition will lose the trust of the Afghan people, and they may not sit by
quietly either."

A senior Afghan official said the government has repeatedly told the U.S.
and NATO that civilians must not be harmed during operations, and that top
generals have always agreed with those demands.

"To what extent that is followed through down the chain of command I can't
say," the official said on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter.

The militant attacks are specifically designed to prove an overreaction
that proves counterproductive, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at
Georgetown University.

"The suicide attacks, I believe, are calculated to raise tensions _ place
troops in the desperate life or death situations that give rise to random
fire," he said.

Afghan witnesses in Nangarhar province say Marines opened fire along a
six-mile stretch of road, wounding 34 Afghans, including Lawania, in
addition to the 10 killed.

"We were about to turn onto the main road when we heard the suicide
explosion," Lawania, 45, said by telephone from the hospital. "Suddenly on
the main road I saw the Humvees. They opened fire on us even though we'd
stopped on the side road.

"Maybe the Americans thought we were a second suicide attacker, so they
opened fire. Otherwise there's no reason to shoot up civilian cars."

The U.S.-led coalition says militant gunmen shot at Marines and may have
caused some of the casualties, but no Afghan officials or witnesses have
yet corroborated that account.

"Did I see any militants? If you want to ask me this question, you must
trust me first," said Lawania, who may lose his right hand because of the
bullet injury. "No single shot was fired from our village or vehicle toward
the Americans."

Lawania's SUV took about 100 bullets. A U.S. soldier made four Afghan
journalists _ including two AP cameramen _ erase photos and videos of the
car.

Still, new revelations about an attack later Sunday night in Kapisa
province suggest that militants are indeed using civilian homes for cover.

Militants fired rockets at a U.S. base, then dashed into a nearby home. A
U.S. airstrike then destroyed that home in an attack which killed nine
people including four young children.

Sayed Mohammad Dawood Hashimi, the deputy governor of Kapisa province, said
the house's owner was a known militant named Mirwais who had fired rockets
at the U.S. base. He was hurt in the strike but managed to flee.

Before the airstrike, Afghan elders had asked Mirwais and his associates to
stop attacking the base, "but they're Taliban and they didn't listen. So
the result is that Mirwais lost his family," Hashimi said Tuesday.

"We didn't know who was in that building, but we saw fighters move into
that area who were legitimate targets," Collins said. "The building was
struck and as we all know, unfortunately, civilians were killed."

Human Rights Watch researcher Sifton said Taliban attacks that harmed
civilians and excessive force by NATO troops in response were both
inexcusable.

"It's legal to return fire during a conflict setting. We would never deny
that," he said. "We're just saying international forces have to take
additional precautions. ... It's simply not believable that so many
civilians could be killed. You can't open fire and shoot anything and
everything, 360 degrees around you."

Afghanistan: US Should Investigate Civilian Deaths

Human Rights Watch - 6 March 2007 - (New York, March 6, 2007) – The United States should abide by Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s call for immediate investigations into US military operations on March 4 and 5 that resulted in high loss of civilian life, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 4, 2007, insurgents in a civilian van carried out a suicide bomb
attack on a US military convoy on the Jalalabad highway in eastern
Nangarhar province. No US personnel or Afghan civilians were reported
killed in the suicide attack. Witnesses told journalists and Afghan
officials that US forces, while speeding away from the attack, shot at
vehicles and pedestrians along at least a six-mile stretch of highway. At
least eight and as many as 16 civilians were killed, and approximately 25
others were wounded. The dead included a woman and two children.

“Suicide bombers in Afghanistan regularly pose as civilians, but that
doesn’t give coalition forces carte blanche to respond with indiscriminate
fire,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that
the insurgents violate the laws of war doesn’t absolve the US and its
allies of the need to observe them.”

Human Rights Watch is concerned that the US military is attempting to
control information about the March 4 incident. An Associated Press
photojournalist and two television cameramen from APTN and Ariana, a local
broadcaster, said that US forces confiscated their cameras and deleted
digital images and footage they had taken that day of civilian casualties.

The day of the incident, the US military stated that the suicide attack was
part of a “complex ambush” by insurgent forces that “was wholly or partly
responsible for the civilian casualties.”

In a second incident, on March 5, 2007 in Kapisa province north of Kabul,
US forces responded to an insurgent rocket attack with an aerial bombing in
which at least nine civilians, including five women and three children,
were killed. A US military spokesperson said today that after an outpost in
Kapisa came under attack, coalition forces observed two armed men flee into
a civilian compound. Coalition forces dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on the
compound. The US spokesperson did not state whether the suspected insurgent
fighters were killed in the attack.

“Insurgents shouldn’t hide among civilians to protect themselves, but the
fact remains that coalition forces need to take better precautions to
prevent needless civilian deaths,” said Adams.

Human Rights Watch said that the US military should ensure that meaningful
investigations take place in both cases. Appropriate action, including
disciplinary measures and prosecution, should be undertaken as warranted.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the Afghan government’s intention to
participate in these investigations.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured in insurgent-related
violence since January 2006. Many of these casualties were the result of
insurgent attacks, but US-led coalition and NATO operations and patrols
were also responsible for a significant number of civilian casualties in
2006.

Under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, all parties to a
conflict are prohibited from conducting attacks that target civilians, from
using means and methods of attack that cannot discriminate between
civilians and combatants, and from carrying out attacks that are expected
to cause loss of civilian life that is disproportionate to expected
military gain. Armed forces must take all feasible precautions to avoid
harm to civilians and to verify that targets are military objectives.

Fatal U.S.-led air strike targeted militant's house: Afghan official

KABUL (AP) - A U.S.-led coalition strike that killed a family of nine, including a 6-month-old baby, targeted the home of a known Taliban militant involved in attacks on coalition troops, an Afghan official said Tuesday.

Sayed Mohammad Dawood Hashimi, the deputy governor of Kapisa province where the air strike Sunday destroyed a mud-brick home and killed nine people, said the house's owner was a known militant named Mirwais who was involved in rocket attacks on the nearby U.S. base.

"Mirwais fired several rockets from behind his house, then came back and entered his house along with five others," Hashimi said. He said Mirwais was wounded in the attack, but managed to flee.

Before the Sunday strike, a group of Afghan elders had asked Mirwais to stop attacking the coalition base. "But they're Taliban and they didn't listen. So the result is that Mirwais lost his family," Hashimi said.

Briton reportedly kidnapped by Taliban in Afghanistan

The New York Times 03/06/2007 By Stacey Stowe

A Briton and two Afghans have been kidnapped in Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed today. The kidnapping is said to have happened yesterday in the southern province of Helmand. The Taliban gave no further details.

Early reports suggest the kidnap victims may be journalists. "All we can say is that we are looking into these reports," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are certainly not aware of any British soldier being kidnapped." Later, Nato revealed that a coalition soldier had been killed in action in southern Afghanistan today.

No further details were immediately available about the incident. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment. The death came as a major new combined offensive was launched in the northern part of Helmand province.

Codenamed Operation Achilles, the push against the Taliban and drug traffickers will eventually involve 4,500 troops from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and 1,000 troops from the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).

Major-General Ton van Loon, Commander of Regional Command (South), said: "This is the largest multinational combined ANSF and Isaf operation launched to date and it signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area."

Officials Search for Italian Reporter

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 6, 2007

ROME (AP) -- The Italian newspaper La Repubblica said it has lost contact with its reporter in Afghanistan, and a spokesman for the Taliban claimed Tuesday the group had captured a Briton posing as a journalist who previously worked for that paper.

La Repubblica has had no contact with Daniele Mastrogiacomo since Sunday, the ministry said. The Foreign Ministry and the Italian Embassy in Kabul were trying to find the reporter.

''We have not heard from him since Sunday, he was in Kandahar on assignment,'' said the paper's editor-in-chief, Ezio Mauro, according to La Repubblica's Web site. Kandahar is the Taliban's former stronghold in the country's volatile south.

In Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman claimed the hard-line militia had detained a Briton who told them he had previously worked for the paper, as well as two Afghans as they traveled together by vehicle Monday in Nad Ali district of Helmand province.

''Taliban higher authorities'' will decide what to do with them, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. ''We are investigating whether they are British spies.''

He identified the Afghans as Sayed Agha and Ajmal. He gave only one name for the second Afghan and did not identify the Briton at all.

In Rome, Deputy Foreign Minister Franco Danieli told the Senate that a statement attributed to the Taliban and released in Kabul claimed the group had captured a journalist from La Repubblica and accused him of being a spy. Complicating matters, Danieli said the Taliban statement ''speaks of the capture of an Italian journalist who works for Repubblica.''

It was not immediately clear if the man detained was, in fact, Mastrogiacomo. La Repubblica newspaper said Mastrogiacomo, 52, was born in Karachi, Pakistan, where his father was an engineer for an Italian company. He has dual Italian-Swiss citizenship, but was traveling only with his Italian passport, the paper said. Mastrogiacomo has worked since 2002 as a staff correspondent in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq.

Ahmadi said the Briton claimed to have worked for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, but had been living with British forces in Helmand and gathering information for them. The British Foreign Office said later Tuesday it now appeared unlikely that the missing journalist was one of its nationals.

''We've been doing extensive work to see if that is the case but we haven't been able to find any citizens missing in Afghanistan,'' a spokesman said on condition of anonymity due to government policy.

''We will continue to make inquiries, but we have already made extensive inquiries and we haven't been able to find a British citizen missing along those lines.'' Afghan officials had no immediate information on the reported kidnapping.

Most of the NATO-led troops in Helmand province are British, and the alliance on Tuesday launched an offensive against militants in the northern part of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold.

Friendly fire - Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan; 45 have been killed since 2002

CanWest News Service - Tuesday, March 06, 2007 - A Canadian soldier died Tuesday in Afghanistan, the victim of an accidental shooting. Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, a reservist from Stellarton, N.S., and a member of 1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders, is the 45th Canadian military death in Afghanistan since 2002.

Cpl. Megeney was shot through the chest and left lung in what's believed to be a "friendly fire" incident and died about 1900 Kandahar time.

The Department of National Defence said no further details were available at this time regarding the circumstances surrounding this incident, although enemy action has been ruled out, since the incident occurred within the secure confines of Kandahar Airfield.

His uncle, George Megeney, said the family was informed of the incident around 10 a.m. today.

Cpl. Megeney went to Afghanistan in the fall as a volunteer with the Nova Scotia Highlanders Militia.

The death comes on a day when NATO launched its largest multinational operation to date in Afghanistan. On Tuesday morning, coalition soldiers led by Britain and supported by Canada kicked off Operation Achilles to target Taliban fighters, foreign terrorists and drug traffickers in Helmand province, to the west of Kandahar province.

By the time the operation is up to full strength, 4,500 coalition soldiers, as well as 1,000 Afghan troops, will be involved, more than in any other offensive.

For now Canada’s troops are playing a supporting role in the operation. Of the 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan, fewer than 10 per cent are directly involved in Operation Achilles.

The soldiers taking part are from the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Gagetown, N.B. Their job will be to act as a screening force in the Maywand district on the border between the two provinces, preventing insurgents and others from escaping from Helmand eastward down Highway 1 towards Kandahar City and Pakistan.

The bulk of Canadian troops will continue to focus their efforts in Kandahar province which is relatively quiet compared to Helmand. The latter region has seen a resurgence of Taliban activity and is a major centre for trafficking in opium and heroin due to the region’s large poppy crops.

Top soldier says Canada's Afghan military role more than just security

VANCOUVER (CP) - One of Canada's top soldiers is defending the country's role in Afghanistan. Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, the chief of land forces, says Canadian soldiers are doing far more than simply providing security for the war-torn country. He told a Fraser Institute policy briefing in Vancouver that since the mission began, women in Afghanistan have won the right to vote and there are more young girls going to school.

Leslie also says the country's literacy rate has improved and substantial new infrastructure has been built.

He says the toughest battle right now is turning the Canadian public's attention to the army's successes and away from the constant images of war and terror associated with Afghanistan. Leslie's comments came the same day a Nova Scotia reserve soldier was killed in an apparent accidental shooting in his tent in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's top Islamic scholars reject calls for war-crimes amnesty

By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press / March 7, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's highest body of Islamic clerics ruled Wednesday against the parliament's calls for an amnesty for Afghans suspected of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting. The religious scholars said the rights of victims are enshrined in Islamic law and should be respected.

Fazel Ahmad Mahnavi, a member of the Islamic council, said scholars ruled that the parliament cannot issue a blanket amnesty because only the victims of crimes can forgive the perpetrators.

The ruling comes after both houses of the parliament passed a highly controversial resolution calling for an amnesty for Afghans suspected of war crimes during the 1980s anti-Soviet resistance, and the 1990s Afghan civil war.

Such an amnesty, if signed into law by President Hamid Karzai, would also apply to former warlords who now serve in the government. The resolution has been condemned by the U.N. and human rights groups.

The scholars' decision opens the way for Karzai to return the resolution to the parliament for revision without signing it. Officials close to the president have said that Karzai would reject any legislation that is unconstitutional or goes against Islamic principles.

The resolution applies only to those who accept Afghanistan's Constitution and government authority, meaning it would apply to some former Taliban who have reconciled with the government but not to current leaders such as Mullah Omar. Although lawmakers describe it as a resolution rather than a bill, they say it would be made law if Karzai approves it.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has called for some officials, including Vice President Karim Khalili and army Chief of Staff Abdul Rashid Dostum, to face trial before a special court for alleged war crimes. In a report published last year, it listed Energy Minister Ismail Khan, Karzai security adviser Mohammed Qasim Fahim, and lawmaker Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani as among the "worst perpetrators."

The rights group said Omar and fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar should also be brought to trial.

In December, Karzai launched a plan to help the country come to terms with decades of human rights violations by documenting past abuses. U.N. officials said the plan called for people who committed crimes to be held accountable, but the government has yet to spell out what that might mean.

A U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the hardline Taliban regime and ushered in an era of democracy, but it also has seen a number of powerful warlords elevated to high office or seats in parliament.

Afghans caught in war's rising tide

NATO launched its largest offensive since 2001 in an effort to preempt a Taliban attack.

From the March 7, 2007 edition

Kandahar, Afghanistan - Along Afghanistan's long southern frontier, the guns of spring have begun. For months, the Taliban has warned that when the highland snows melt, they will unleash their largest offensive since falling from power in 2001.

In recent weeks, the tempo of Taliban attacks has increased, hinting at the opening of the spring campaign. Last weekend alone, insurgents detonated a bomb in the western city of Herat and performed what US officials called a "complex ambush" near the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Tuesday, NATO responded in kind, launching Operation Achilles, its largest offensive ever in the country, at the Afghan government's request. With some 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, the operation is a bold attempt to preempt the Taliban's first blows and take the initiative.

It is also a clear escalation of the stakes, with both sides seeing this as a year that could determine the future of Afghanistan's Western-backed government. And it is here in the Afghan south that the hammer blow is expected to fall hardest.

Operation Achilles is focused on the southern province of Helmand, where NATO troops are attempting to clear Taliban from the area around the Kajaki Dam so that it can be upgraded and repaired. When fully operational, the dam can provide power for some 2 million Afghans in the south.

Moreover, Helmand has emerged as the Taliban's leading front in recent months. The Taliban claim that they control three rural districts in the province, including Musa Qala, which was the subject of a controversial peace deal between British forces and insurgents before the Taliban captured it on Feb. 1.

Tuesday, the Taliban in Helmand said that they captured an Italian journalist who confessed to spying for British forces, according to a Taliban spokesman. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica says it lost contact with reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo Sunday.

In many respects, the developments in Helmand are an echo of what happened last year in neighboring Kandahar Province, which, as the home of leader Mullah Omar, has long been the Taliban's heartland. In the past few years, Kandahar has suffered 73 suicide bombings, by one local newspaper's count, and last summer, the Taliban pushed to within 10 miles of the city.

Now, on the eve of what could be a crucial spring, Afghanistan's second-largest city, less than 50 miles from the front lines, is in a state of suspension, uncertain whether to remain faithful to the government that initially promised so much or to resign itself to the return of the Taliban.

"If I shave my beard and take off my turban, I will be killed by the Taliban. If I grow my beard, I will be killed by [NATO forces]," says Kandahar resident Dost Mohammed, standing on a street corner. "It is a place with two governments – we don't know who we should surrender to."

Like most Afghans both here and elsewhere, Mr. Mohammed speaks not from fear but from an oppressive fatigue born of the mounting sense that his country is once again descending into the cycle of revolution and civil war that has consumed it for a generation. Along with a lingering hope, there remains a deep fatalism that no matter what Afghans do, they will be swept into the whirlwind of war – ever the victims of forces beyond their control.

The events of recent weeks have helped strengthen this perception. On one side, Afghans see the Taliban, which they almost universally consider a Pakistani-equipped army designed to destabilize Afghanistan and who spawn suicide bombers so despicable that they will target the opening of an Afghan medical clinic, as was the case in Khost late last month.

On the other, Afghans see foreign forces who, according to common perception here, usurp the authority of local elders, happily let their male soldiers search Afghan women, and are inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.

In the space of 24 hours last weekend, US forces bombed a family home in a village 50 miles north of Kabul killing nine and engaged in a firefight near Jalalabad that left 10 Afghan civilians dead. In both cases, US forces say that they were attacked first and that insurgents sought to create civilian casualties in the chaos.

But the incident outside Jalalabad in particular has focused on what is perceived as a disproportionate and incautious response by NATO forces to the initial threat from the Taliban, leading Afghan President Hamid Karzai to call for an investigation.

Western forces deny these characterizations. "We are here to protect the people of Afghanistan," says Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's force in Afghanistan.

Operation Achilles is an example of this, ISAF officers say. "It signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area," Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, commander of ISAF's southern forces, said in a statement.

Last year, similar military sweeps, such as Operation Medusa, had a significant effect. When the Taliban seized large swaths of territory and tried to hold onto them, the militants sustained heavy losses. But the Taliban's strategic advantage lies in their ability to sow confusion and draw Western forces into attacks that cause civilian deaths.

This year, the Taliban may be more inclined to harry and harass, experts say, stretching NATO as thin as possible by kindling dozens of flash points across the country simultaneously.

"You're not going to see a mass attack – you're going to see a more spread-out offensive," says Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban." "They would like to see more crises in European capitals and countries being forced to pull out" of the ISAF alliance.

This has already happened in Italy, where questions of the country's commitment to Afghanistan almost toppled the prime minister recently.

But it also has a clear impact here, where some Afghans protested the deaths in Jalalabad not only with chants of "Death to America!" but also "Death to Karzai!"

Indeed, on the streets of Kandahar, some see the local Canadian ISAF contingent as a greater menace than the Taliban.

Among a clutch of rickshaw drivers assembled by a dusty curbside recently, one says that the Canadians shot his nephew; and another claims that they shot two of his cousins, who were only riding their bicycles.

It was not possible for The Monitor to verify or discredit these claims, but they are indicative of a prejudice among some sections of the population here. "As soon as we see troops on the road, we pull off," says driver Sardar Mohammad, whose weathered face crinkles in lines of grandfatherly concern. "We are afraid of them."

For these men, the concern about the Taliban is something different. No one wants to kneel to perceived Pakistani imperialism. But at least the Taliban are of their same Pashtun stock. They do not fear every bearded face, and they understand the customs of Afghanistan – as well as the importance of Islam.

"There is a reason the fighting is not stopping in Afghanistan: [Foreign troops] don't know our culture," says Dost Mohammad, whose voice seems to be pleading as much as condemning. "They come with their boots into our mosques. This is why everyone is fighting against them."

Nearby, the corpulent figure of Neda Mohammad stands amid the crowd, his hands folded regally, his large frame cloaked in many folds of fine brown fabric. He is from the neighboring province of Oruzgan, but he says that he fled here because Western jets bombed his village. "If there is less persecution on us, then we would prefer the Taliban," he says matter-of-factly.

Alima, however, would not. She ghosts through the muddy back-alleys of Kandahar, the fringes of her silvery-blue burqa fluttering behind. To some, her job of walking door-to-door to give children a free polio vaccination would be seen as humane. But even now, it is enough to get her killed here.

Not only is she a woman doing work – something forbidden in the most conservative interpretations of Islam – but zealous mullahs have also claimed that the immunization program is part of a covert campaign by foreign powers to sterilize Muslims.

If the Taliban were to come back, things would only get worse. "Of course I am scared of the work I am doing during the day – I have nightmares," she says, offering only her first name. "I am afraid that someone will come and shoot me in the head."

But she attempts to steady herself. She needs work to feed her family and buy them clothes, and she wants to serve her people. "If I don't do it, who will?"

To be sure, the potential return of the Taliban offers a far different prospect for the women of Kandahar than it does for the men. "See, I am working!" says Zahra Suliemani, another volunteer in the vaccination campaign, whose bony hands sway beneath her back veil, gripping her medicine box tightly. "I can go out and work as much as a man can work."

"No one wants the Taliban to come back," she says firmly.

But here, amid the ebb and flow of war, lives are already changing. Among the crumbling earthen houses and green spinach fields of her neighborhood, 9-year-old Nazeka chases her friends down dirt paths, shrieking with delight. But when she walks to school, her shoulders cautiously brush the walls by the side of the road. She tries to stay as far from the road – and the car bombs – as possible.

Sometimes, when she has to cross the road, she will ask a Canadian soldier to help her. Sometimes, she says, they do.

"I am afraid of the Taliban, because they are the ones making explosives," says Nazeka. "And I am afraid of the foreign soldiers because wherever they go, there are explosions."

At 9, Nazeka has already seen enough suffering. Unconsciously, she grasps a friend's hand as she explains, in an unwavering voice, how one night in the past "some people took my grandfather and tore him in pieces and then brought him back."

She does not know who did it or why they did it. Nor does she seem to care. "People should be so happy in this country," she says, smiling. "I do not like this war."

Along the city's main thoroughfare, however, those old enough to have seen many such wars merely shrug.

Abdul Bashir, for one, does not seem to be an overly worried sort of person. With a roguish grin, he somewhat curiously attributes his good business this

Pak-Afghan co-operation essential to Afghanistan’s future: Dr.Howells         

  LONDON, March 7 (APP): The British Foreign Office Minister Dr.Kim Howells has termed  regional cooperation as essential to Afghanistan’s future stability and prosperity, and that of the neighbouring countries.

          “The rise in trade between Afghanistan and her neighbours since the fall of the Taliban is testament to that,” he said in his opening remarks to the Wilton Park conference on ‘Afghanistan Compact-One Year on’ on Tuesday evening.

          Speaking about Afghanistan and Pakistan relationship, he opined these have not always the easiest.” There are urgent need between the two countries to have cross border cooperation and tackling the insurgency have been particularly difficult to manage. But this would be the case in many parts of the world, where two countries with so much in common have such difficult issues to tackle. So we need to think strategically about the Afghanistan/Pakistan relationship. We need to support both countries in efforts to remove the conditions which allow space for the Taliban to operate.”

          Dr Howells said the UK has been working closely with Pakistan. “As a result Taliban operatives have been arrested on their side of the border. Only recently, the Pakistani authorities arrested Mullah Obaidullah, a significant Taliban leader. His arrest will cause disruption, and we expect the Pakistani authorities to keep up the pressure on other insurgents using Pakistan as a safe haven.”

          He noted that  Afghanistan and Pakistan share a rich history and the links between the two countries transcend national barriers. Trade and commerce between the two countries continues to grow at a significant rate. The key is to build on all this, and use it as a force for good, he added.

          Supporting the idea of a Cross-Border Jirga ,the British Minister said it has the potential to begin rebuilding lost confidence on both sides of the border.

          He praised Pakistan hospitality in hosting millions of Afghan refugees who fled from war in their country. “ I can’t claim here today that difficulties between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be resolved quickly and easily. Not least there is the legacy of the refugee camps to manage, witness to the hospitality Pakistan offered to millions fleeing from war. But there is a lot that can be done to build on traditional ties, and with the assistance of the international community. I hope we help to move this forward.”

          Dr. Howells also spoke drugs trade in Afghanistan which he said remains such a major obstacle to progress. He said the threat from drugs to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development ranks alongside the threat from the Taliban.

          President Karzai, he remarked, has described the trade as the most corrosive element in Afghan society. He pointed out that the opium economy accounts for more than 30% of Afghanistan GDP.

          “Drug addiction within Afghanistan is rising. Drug related crime and corruption are rife and permeate all levels of society. And if not dealt with, the trade will continue to be exploited by the Taliban.”

          The British Minister observed that security challenges, insurgent activity and the lack of extension of the rule of law continue to present obstacles toward poppy elimination.

          But he also noted some encouraging signs and said with the support of the international community the Afghan government has so far financed over 17,000 community projects, which have reached some 8.5 million rural Afghans.

          “We are working to build up the criminal justice system and establish and support the Counter Narcotics Police Force and the Afghan Special Narcotics Force.

          “In the last year and a half this has resulted in the conviction of over 320 traffickers, and an increase in drug related seizures. There are no ‘silver bullets’ or quick fixes however. This will take time and will require the full support of the international community.”

Pakistani Clashes Leave 15 Dead

Published: March 6, 2007 - DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Armed tribesmen attacked suspected Uzbek militants in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, triggering a battle in which 15 people were killed, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

A group of about 60 tribesmen attacked the Uzbeks as they drove through a village near Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area, one intelligence official said.

Twelve militants, two tribesmen and an Afghan shopkeeper were killed in the ensuing battle, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of their job.

One official identified the two dead tribesmen as brothers of Saeedullah Khan, a tribal elder who has been targeted in failed militant attacks in the past because of his suspected ties with the Pakistani government.

Hundreds of Arab, Central Asian and Afghan militants suspected of having links with the Taliban and al-Qaida fled to South Waziristan and the adjoining North Waziristan region after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Under intense U.S. pressure, Pakistani troops have fought a string of bloody battles in the border region since 2004 to root out militants hiding there.

During a visit to Pakistan last week, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney expressed concern to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf over al-Qaida regrouping inside the tribal regions and an expected Taliban spring offensive in neighboring Afghanistan.

Taliban website blocked in Pakistan

Daily Times 7 March 2007 - ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan-based Internet service provider has blocked a Taliban website after complaints that the ousted militia had posted pictures of dead US soldiers and announced their attacks over it. Peshawar-based Jan Technologies said it had blocked the www.alemarah.org website after receiving a complaint from its US-based host server company, but denied it was done under government pressure. “Someone complained to one of our host server companies that this site appeared to be a Taliban site, which contained hate material and carried photos of dead marines,” Jan Technologies General Manager Tehsin Ullah Jan told AFP. “We have notified the client by email about the suspension,” he said. Visitors to the website – which was called the ‘Voice of Jihad’ and said it was run by the ‘Cultural Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ – were greeted with a message saying “account suspended”. afp

Outside View: Hope in Afghanistan

By PYOTR GONCHAROV - UPI Outside View Commentator - MOSCOW, March 6 (UPI) -- It has become bad form not to lash out at NATO and the United States for their actions in Afghanistan.

Many analysts are convinced that NATO's affairs there could not get any worse, and that the U.S. is getting bogged down there like it is in Iraq; that the situation in Afghanistan is going from bad to worse; that NATO and the U.S. are repeating the Soviet Union's mistakes and are doomed to the same fate. However, I believe these assessments are not quite fair.

Needless to say, Afghanistan is going through troubled and sensitive times. The nation has been in the process of consolidation for the last five years, since the rout of the Taliban from Kabul. Today, the situation has reached a boiling point. On the one hand, the reformers want to build a modern democratic society in an Islamic framework that will be based on universal human values and will therefore be largely secular; on the other hand, the Taliban and their eternal opponents, the Mujahideen (war lords), would like to return Afghanistan to their own versions of the past.

Today, the balance has clearly tilted in favor of the reformers, and now the main goal is to keep this success going. During his meeting with Russian experts in Moscow in early February, Ambassador Christopher Alexander, deputy special representative of the United Nations secretary general for Afghanistan, outlined two obvious trends now underway. First, the Taliban has become markedly more active; second, the economy and social relations are getting better, and, most importantly, Afghan society is undergoing consolidation. There are some grounds for these conclusions.

In 2006, the Afghan economy grew by 10 percent-12 percent. I will disappoint the cynics right away: this growth has nothing to do with drug trafficking. It resulted from the intensive development of communications and construction, including road building, and trade. Agriculture, the economy's backbone, is showing signs of hope. Before, it seemed to have been shattered beyond repair. For the first time in 10 to 15 years, Afghan peasants had a surplus of produce, meager as it was, for export to neighboring Pakistan and India.

Credit for this success goes to the financial support Kabul receives from donors around the world, first and foremost, the Afghan assistance package agreed upon in London in February 2006. Essentially, this is a five-year contract between Afghanistan and the world to revive the former's economy by providing $10.5 billion in aid.

Importantly, it provides support to the Afghan national solidarity program, whose primary objective is to invigorate government agencies at the grassroots level. Up to now they have been the weakest link in the process of Afghanistan's recovery.

Under the program, local authorities at the level of shuras, or councils, of kishlaks, or villages, and regions submit their development plans for consideration by the Afghan Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development and international sponsors.

These plans provide for repairs of roads and bridges, construction of schools, paramedical centers, hospitals, and irrigation facilities. The international organizations earmark up to $50,000 to every recipient of aid, and monitor the spending. The ministry has received a total of $650 million. The program has already covered more than 17,000 of Afghanistan's 34,000 kishlaks. Indicatively, women are active on the local shuras, and not only in Kabul's suburbs, but also in eastern provinces, such as Paktia.

Consolidation is a painful process for the nation, because it is bound to run into a huge obstacle: the Pashtuns' historical dominance will run up against the growing role of national minorities, first and foremost, Tajiks, Hazara, and Uzbeks. These minorities were predominant in the Northern Alliance, which fought the Taliban, and now that they have come to power, they are reluctant to share it with Pashtuns. This problem is not unsolvable, but it requires time.

Afghans themselves believe that the government in Kabul has substantially enhanced security in the country's northern, western, and central provinces. A car ride from Herat to Kabul is a routine event now. The situation in all northern provinces is about the same, but it is much worse in the south and southwest, where the Taliban have become much more active.

Thus in 2006 more than 2,000 militants took part in hostilities on the Taliban's side. In effect, these were army operations. The number of terrorist attacks with explosives grew substantially, and there were 176 suicide bombings: In 2005, the relevant figure was no more than 100. The past year set a record in the number of victims -- more than 4,000 dead, compared with about 1,000 in 2005.

In the early stages of its counterterrorist campaign, the U.S. considerably weakened the Taliban's influence in the south and southeast of Afghanistan. The latter started increasing their influence mostly in the Pashtun-inhabited south for both objective and subjective reasons. But one of the main factors in the Taliban's revival was the support it received from some quarters in Pakistan's political establishment and radical Islamic movements.

This question is very sensitive for Afghanistan. Many local experts believe that Britain and China, which have levers of influence on Islamabad, should increase their efforts to end this support.

Today, there are two foreign military structures in Afghanistan: American troops and NATO's International Security Assistance Force with a total strength of 43,000. But today Afghanistan needs not only -- and maybe not so much -- military aid, as political and economic assistance from the world community.

-- (Pyotr Goncharov is a political commentator with the RIA Novosti news agency. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily coincide with those of the RIA Novosti editorial board. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti.)

Etisalat Academy to provide training for 200 Etisalat Afghanistan staff

UPI 03/06/2007

Etisalat Academy to provide training for 200 Etisalat Afghanistan staff Dubai, Mar. 6, 2007 (WAM) -- Etisalat Academy has extended its services to assess and train team leaders and managers from Etisalat Afghanistan..

A total of 32 candidates from Etisalat Afghanistan, the first batch of 200 candidates, visited the Etisalat Academy to commence assessment using the most advanced strategies and techniques in competency measuring.

This is part of the Academy's 2007 strategic plan for assisting in training and developing employees' competency from regional organizations and corporations.

The training course spans over a period of three months and aims to build and develop the technical and behavioral skills of the participating candidates. The training will cover subjects such as sales, marketing, and customer service. Also, they will undergo telecommunications training for Next Generation Network technology. This is inline with Etisalat Afghanistan's services soon to launch in May, where Etisalat has invested $300 million.

"We are always proud of our excellence and leadership in the training and development of cadres in various local and regional business sectors. . From this perspective comes our role as a training institution and pioneers in building and developing competencies for various companies and institutions in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf Region and the Middle East. The training held for Etisalat Afghanistan, is in conjunction with our intensive training of 800 Etisalat cadres in Egypt," Dr. Doaa Fares, General Manager, Etisalat Academy said..

Through the training workshops, the Academy will be able to view and asses the current status of the competency of the team leaders, and will be able to determine the procedures needed to develop them. Etisalat Academy consultants will be dedicated to Etisalat Afghanistan staff throughout the period of the training.

[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.]