In this bulletin:

• Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah killed
• NATO strike kills high-ranked Taliban commander
• Afghan, Pakistani forces exchange fire, many killed
• Afghan civilians join Pakistan clash
• Afghan allegation about Gavi post incident totally baseless :ISPR
• Roadside Bomb Kills Eight Afghan Police Officers
• Dozens of Taliban killed in Afghan south-official
• Taliban have opened office in Waziristan: Afghan elders
• 'Foreign terrorist' held in Kabul: Ministry
• Iranian diplomat arrives in Afghanistan
• Iran Says It Expeled 85,000 Afghans In Three Weeks
• Dutch military intelligence says Afghan mission achieves little
• Turkey donates 24 howitzers to Afghan Army
• Contracts for $5m development projects signed
• UAE to build Mental Rehab Centre in Kabul
• Canada stays out of Afghan opium poppy harvest
• US to build Afghan super-madrassas
• AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid

Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah killed

Associated Press - Sunday, May 13, 2007 (Kandahar)

The Taliban's most prominent military commander, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated an ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings, was killed in a US-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.

Mullah Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed on Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service. A NATO statement confirmed his death, saying it had dealt the insurgency ''a serious blow.''

Dadullah is one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders killed since the fall of the hard-line regime following the US-led invasion in 2001. His death represents a major victory for the Afghan government and the international coalition that has struggled to contain a Taliban-led insurgency wracking the south and east of the country.

''Mullah Dadullah was the backbone of the Taliban,'' said Asadullah Khalid, governor of the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. ''He was a brutal and cruel commander who killed and beheaded Afghan civilians.''

Khalid showed Dadullah's body to reporters at a news conference in the governor's compound. The body, which was lying on a bed and dressed in a traditional Afghan robe, had no left leg and three bullet wounds; one to the back of the head and two to the stomach.

The reporter said the body appeared to be Dadullah's based on his appearance in TV interviews and Taliban propaganda videos.

But Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, denied that the Taliban commander had been killed. ''Mullah Dadullah is alive,'' Ahmadi said. He did not give further details.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the death, saying that after Dadullah left his ''sanctuary'' in the south, he was killed in a US-led coalition operation supported by NATO and Afghan troops.

Dadullah ''will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow,'' the ISAF statement said.

Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based editor for the Pakistani newspaper The News and an expert on the Taliban, said Dadullah's death would be a huge blow for the militant group.

''I think this is the biggest loss for the Taliban in the last six years,'' Yusufzai said. ''I don't think they can find someone as daring and as important as Dadullah.''

But Yusufzai and Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said the death would have little long-term impact. Alani noted that insurgent attacks in Iraq didn't abate after the killing of al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, last June.

''In this sort of organization, people are replaceable, and always there is a second layer, third layer. They will graduate to the leadership,'' Alani said. ''He is important, no doubt about it. Yes, it is a moral victory, but he's replaceable.''

Yusufzai said many Taliban fighters had been unhappy with Dadullah, saying he maligned the militant group with brutal beheadings, a rash of kidnappings and boastful videos that starred himself shooting weapons and walking in Afghanistan's mountains.

''They thought he had become too big for his shoes,'' Yusufzai said.

No official would give an on-the-record account of Dadullah's death. A tribal leader from the Nad Ali district of Helmand province said ground forces and helicopters surrounded a home in Dadullah's home village of Kakeban, killing the Taliban leader and seven militants.

A Helmand government official, meanwhile, said Dadullah was killed while traveling in his vehicle in southern Helmand. Both officials said Dadullah was killed early Saturday morning, around 3 am.

An intelligence service official said Dadullah was killed near the Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts of Helmand province, an area that has seen heavy fighting the last several weeks involving British and Afghan troops and US Special Forces.

In December, a US airstrike near the Pakistan border killed another top Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani. Dadullah, Osmani and policy-maker Mullah Obaidullah had been considered to be Omar's top three leaders.

Dadullah, who comes from the southern province of Uruzgan, lost a leg fighting against the Soviet army that occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. He emerged as a Taliban commander during its fight against the Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan during the 1990s, helping the hard-line militia to capture the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

An ethnic Pashtun, the group that makes up the core of the Taliban and is prominent in eastern and southern Afghanistan, Dadullah led a Taliban massacre of ethnic Hazaras in 1999 in the province of Bamiyan, where the Taliban destroyed two large ancient Buddha statues in 2000.

Since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001, Dadullah emerged as the group's most prominent and feared commander. He often appeared in videos and media interviews, and earlier this year predicted a massive militant spring offensive that has failed to materialize.

In an interview shown on Al-Jazeera on April 25, Dadullah claimed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a US military base in Afghanistan during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney.

But the US military this month claimed a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Abu Laith al-Libi, not bin Laden, was behind it. Dadullah insisted bin Laden was alive and well.

NATO strike kills high-ranked Taliban commander

JAMES MCCARTEN AND A.R. KHAN - Canadian Press - ay 13, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Coalition forces have dealt the insurgency in Afghanistan a "serious blow," NATO said Sunday as it confirmed the death of the man known to some as the "Butcher of Kandahar" — top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah.

Mr. Dadullah, a senior military lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand during a U.S.-led operation that also involved NATO and Afghan troops, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, said in a statement.

Mr. Dadullah, whose full name was Dadullah Akhund, lost a leg fighting as a member of the mujahedeen insurgency against the Soviet army nearly three decades ago. As a result, he became known among Afghans as Dadullah Lang, or "Dadullah the cripple."

"He has been responsible for the deaths of many Afghans through many means, to include the suicide bombers he has trained in his sanctuary and subsequently deployed into Afghanistan," the ISAF statement said.

It said the operation was "enabled" by the Afghan national security forces, which include the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army, as well as the Afghan people.

Mr Dadullah's men videotaped beheadings of Afghans suspected of co-operating with international forces or the Afghan government, and the suicide bombers he is believed to have commanded who have killed or injured hundreds of Afghan civilians, soldiers and police, as well as dozens of international forces.

In 1999, Mr. Dadullah, an ethnic Pashtun, led a Taliban massacre of ethnic Hazaras in the province of Bamiyan. The coalition warned that Mr. Dadullah's death, considered Taliban's biggest loss in the last six years, would not signal the end of the Taliban.

"Mullah Dadullah Lang will most certainly be replaced in time, but the insurgency has received a serious blow," ISAF said.

Canadian Forces public affairs officials weren't offering any Canadian perspective on Mr. Dadullah's death. But Major Steve Graham, commander of Reconnaissance Squadron with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, called the news a step forward for the coalition effort.

"They texted it straight to my cellphone," said Maj. Graham, who is currently heading up a reconnaissance operation near the border town of Spin Boldak in the southeast in an effort to identify possible Taliban thoroughfares back and forth to Pakistan.

Maj. Graham and his soldiers spent nearly two months doing battle with insurgents in the volatile Zhari and Panjwaii districts of Kandahar province, regions that have long been considered Taliban strongholds.

The ISAF statement offered no details on how Mr. Dadullah died, although Assadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, told a news conference that bombing was part of the operation.

Mr. Khalid displayed the scarred, damaged face of Mr. Dadullah's body as it lay on a stretcher under a pink sheet in the governor's official residence. "Mullah Dadullah was the backbone of the Taliban," Mr. Khalid said. "He was a brutal and cruel commander who killed and beheaded Afghan civilians."

The body, which was indeed missing a leg, also appeared to have three bullet wounds, two in the torso and one in the back of the head.

NATO said Mr. Dadullah moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" — a reference to Pakistan — where he trained suicide bombers. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted in February that Mr. Dadullah had been in Pakistan several times and eluded capture.

But a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied that the Taliban commander had been killed. "Mullah Dadullah is alive," Mr. Ahmadi told The Associated Press, without giving further details.

Canadian Forces officials said that while recent coalition offensives have likely cost the Taliban many of their veteran foot soldiers, they are quickly replaced — albeit with fighters who have less experience than their predecessors. It is believed some of those fighters are coming from refugee camps in Pakistan.

"It's great news," Maj. Graham said of Dadullah's death. "Will we wake up tomorrow and everything will be different? I don't know."

In Kandahar, where Mr. Dadullah earned his fearsome reputation, local residents rejoiced at the news. "Mullah Dadullah was one of the biggest commanders of the Taliban, and he was a very cruel person," said Haji Hayatullay, 56, as he sat at the edge of a street in Kandahar city. "He did many injustices to people, killed so many innocent people. He was the biggest kidnapper as well."

Mr. Hayatullay said he's hopeful that Mr. Dadullah's death will make life safer for ordinary Afghans. "The circumstances will be all right," he said. "It will be more secure than before."

Businessman Haji Mohammad, 33, said Mr. Dadullah's activities ran counter to the teachings of Islam. "When I heard this news I became glad," he said. "In the city, most of the people are very happy, because now business will see progress. The city will be secured. People will not be scared while going outside of the city to rural areas."

Mr. Mohammad said he's confident the death will deal a serious body blow to the Taliban. "They will not be as superior as they were," he said. "Hopefully their union will break down...because they have lost one of their biggest leaders and commanders."

Afghan, Pakistani forces exchange fire, many killed

PTI - Sunday, May 13, 2007 - ISLAMABAD: Several Afghan soldiers were reportedly killed and three Pakistani para military personnel were injured when they exchanged fire at the border in Kuram agency, Pakistan's Defence officials said.

"At least six to seven Afghan soldiers were killed in 'unprovoked' firing from Afghan army which was retaliated by Pakistani troops," Waheed Arshad, Pakistan Defence spokesman, said here on Sunday.

Incidents like this were reported in the recent weeks between the two sides in the back drop of strong criticism from Afghan government that Pakistani forces were not cracking hard on Taliban militants.

Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai met in Ankara recently to iron out the differences after which they claimed to have ironed out their differences.

Afghan civilians join Pakistan clash

Herald Sun – Thousands of civilians joined Afghan forces to fight Pakistani troops who overnight took some areas in a border region, sparking the worst clash in decades between the two neighbours, an Afghan spokesman said.

Pakistan said up to seven Afghan troops were killed after they opened fire on Pakistani positions.

Afghan defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said local tribesmen had shot down a Pakistani helicopter at the site of the clash in Zazai district of southeastern Paktika province.

Mr Azimi said Pakistani forces had penetrated several kilometres in some parts of a strategic area on the Afghan side of the Durand Line, which divides the two countries.

"As soon as people heard that such an incident had happened, thousands of people started arriving at the battle front," he said in Kabul.

He said tens of thousands of tribesmen had offered to join government ranks, but Kabul had stopped them and was keen to find a diplomatic solution to the clash.

Mr Azimi said the only two fatalities on the Afghan side were two schoolchildren. Two police officers were wounded.

He said the clash, which lasted for several hours, was a provocative act by the Pakistani government designed to deflect attention from the violence that has erupted at home over the suspension of the country's chief justice.

In Pakistan, military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said up to seven Afghan troops were killed in a border clash with Pakistani forces.

Maj-Gen Arshad said Afghan troops opened "unprovoked firing" on five or six border posts in the Kurram tribal region in northwest Pakistan.

Pakistani paramilitary forces retaliated, he said. "We have reports six to seven of their troops have been killed. Three of our soldiers have been wounded," Maj-Gen Arshad said.

Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months, largely over Afghan complaints that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from the Pakistani side of the disputed border.

The clash comes two weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met for the first time in months and agreed to step up security cooperation.

Afghanistan said a resurgent Taliban are operating from Pakistani sanctuaries. Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies that and said the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan.

Stung by accusations it is not doing enough to stop the insurgents, Pakistan has begun building a fence along parts of the border to stop militant infiltration. But Afghanistan opposes fencing a border it has never recognised.

Disagreement over the internationally recognised border, known as the Durand Line after the British colonial administrator who drew it, has bedevilled relations since Pakistan's creation in 1947.

Pakistan is also deeply suspicious of involvement but it old rival, India, in Afghanistan.

Afghan allegation about Gavi post incident totally baseless :ISPR

RAWLPINDI, May 13 (APP): A spokesman of ISPR Sunday strongly contradicted the remarks by a senior Afghan Ministry of Defence official blaming Pakistani troops for a a border skirmish in Gaavi area of Kurram Agency. The spokesman stated that the Afghan allegation claiming that Pakistani troops had entered Jaji dististict of Paktia Provinca,  and when once stopped, resorted to firing, is totally baseless.

He clarified that during the past week Afghan National Army troops had made several attempts to occupy some trenches near the Gavi post in Kurram Agency.

Frontier Corps troops, exercising utmost restraint, asked Afghan National Army troops to leave but they kept returning to the post in greater strength. A Local Jirga was constituted to resolve this problem and NATO, ISAF authorities in Afghanistan were also informed.

Today at about 0700 in the morning Afghan National Army troops engaged Gavi post from five different locations. Frontier Corps  troops deployed at the Gavi post responded with force to thwart this act of aggression inflicting five casualties on Afghan National Army troops.

The spokesman added that when a NATO/ISAF helicopter with ISAF officials on board tried to approach the Gavi post for a flag meeting with Pakistani and Afghan officials, it was also engaged by Afghan National Army troops and had to return to its base. The flag meeting therefore could not be held.

Afghan forces should act responsibly and desist from such acts of aggression and Afghan Govt officials should avoid levelling baseless allegations which are of no help in our joint effort in Global War on Terrorism. If Afghan National Army troops resort to such acts of aggression again, they will meet a strong response, he concluded.

Roadside Bomb Kills Eight Afghan Police Officers

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan; May 12, 2007 -- Afghan police say that at least eight Afghan police officers were killed today in a roadside bomb blast near the southern city of Kandahar.

Provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said several other officers were wounded in the remote-controlled explosion. The Taliban, which is waging a guerrilla insurgency, have made increasing use of roadside bombs against foreign and Afghan troops in the country.

Dozens of Taliban killed in Afghan south-official

KABUL, May 12 (Reuters) - Western and Afghan troops have driven the Taliban from a southern area after a week-long battle in which more than 70 militants were killed, an Afghan security official said on Saturday.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after the traditional winter lull and an upsurge of fighting last year, the bloodiest since the Taliban's removal in 2001.

There were no casualties among Afghan and Western troops in the fighting in Nahri Saraj of Helmand province, scene of a series of operations by foreign-led forces in recent weeks, the security official said.

Five Taliban commanders were amongst those killed, the official said, adding there were no casualties among civilians. "We have driven out the Taliban from the district and it is under our control," he said.

Foreign troops led by the U.S. military and NATO as well as the Taliban could not be immediately contacted for comment about the battle. Nahri Saraj lies 25 km (15 miles) from Sangin district where witnesses said more than 40 civilians were killed last Tuesday in an air strike by U.S.-led coalition troops.

The coalition has confirmed civilian casualties in the battle of Sangin.

Separately, an air attack by Western forces has killed at least seven civilians, including women and children, in Marja district of Helmand early on Friday, witnesses said on Saturday.

Seven of the civilians wounded in the attack were brought to a government run hospital in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, they said. "I know of six or seven deaths in my village," a wounded woman said at the hospital.

Afghan officials say U.S.-led troops have killed scores of civilians in the past two months in Afghanistan.

A U.S. commander apologised last week for the deaths of 19 civilians killed by coalition forces in March. (A Reuters stringer contributed to this article from LASHKAR GAH)

Taliban have opened office in Waziristan: Afghan elders

GOMAL, May 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban have opened an office in Pakistans North Waziristan Area (NWA), bordering Afghanistan, to plan destabilisation operations in the war-ravaged country, tribal elders claimed on Saturday.

The situation resulting from Taliban activities in areas along the troubled frontier came up for discussion at a weekly meeting between tribal elders, political leaders and security officials in Gomal district of the southeastern Paktika province on.

Some of the 50 representatives of Kharot and Wazir tribes, attending the meeting, alleged the Taliban office in Angoor Adda across the border was functioning without let or hindrance. They suggested Pakistan authorities, fully aware of these activities, did not move against the rebels.

The participants accused Taliban of pretending that the office was aimed at maintaining security in the lawless tribal areas. In fact, they alleged, the Pakistan-backed militants were inciting people to violence against Afghanistan.

A Wazir tribal chieftain, speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News after the meeting, said insurgents used the office to monitor the cross-border movement of people. Supporters and employees of the Afghan government were being hampered by the militants, said the elder, who did not want to be named for security reasons.

Paktika governors spokesman Ghamay Khan, confirming the meeting, claimed both the tribes promised not to allow anti-government elements to hide in their areas, where two suicide explosions took place in recent weeks. Officials charge Pakistan is behind the miscreants operating in the restive border region.

'Foreign terrorist' held in Kabul: Ministry

KABUL, May 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The law-enforcement agencies have nabbed a would be suicide bomber in the ninth district of this capital city.

A statement from the Interior Ministry said the foreign national, arrested four days back, was under investigations with the police. According to the ministry's statement, a foreign passport had also been recovered form the alleged terrorist, who had confessed to his crime.

A source in the ministry confided to Pajhwok Afghan News the detainee was a Canadian national. His father is Iranian and his mother is a Pakistani citizen.

The statement said brother of the detainee had carried out a suicide attack at the second gate of the Interior Ministry last year. The blast had left 12 people dead and over 50 injured.

Meanwhile, governor of the eastern Nuristan province has assured the provincial government will soon arrest the killers of a religious scholar. Maulvi Fazal Wahid Muslim, former jihadi commander and head of the Reforms Shura in the province, was gunned down in late April.

The assurance from Governor Tamim Nuristani came after some 2,000 people from different villages gathered in the Bark Matal district and demanded of the government to arrest the killers of the cleric.

The protestors warned of boycotting the government if action was not initiated against the murderers. The anti-government Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing.

Matiaullah, secretary to the governor, told Pajhwok that the governor had gone to the district and held a meeting with elders from 20 villagers. He assured them the killers would be arrested soon.

Iranian diplomat arrives in Afghanistan

Kabul, May 13, IRNA - Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific and Commonwealth Countries Mehdi Safari arrived in Kabul Sunday on a two-day visit to talk with senior Afghan officials.

He was welcomed at the airport by Iranian ambassador in Kabul and a number of Iranian and Afghan diplomats.

The official is due to hold separate talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the country's Parliament Speaker Yunus Qanooni on promotion of Tehran-Kabul relations. Safari visited Afghanistan on November 2006.

Iran Says It Expeled 85,000 Afghans In Three Weeks

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - TEHRAN, May 13, 2007 -- Iran says it has expelled 85,000 illegal Afghan refugees in the past three weeks.

The announcement by Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr comes a day after Afghan lawmakers voted to sack Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta over his alleged mishandling of Iran's forced return to Afghanistan of thousands of refugees. President Hamid Karzai is keeping Spanta in the job until a Supreme Court ruling.

Dutch military intelligence says Afghan mission achieves little

Despite the deployment of Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan last year, the security situation in the area did not see much improvement and prospects for this year are nothing to be optimistic about, Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported Friday.

In its annual report for 2006, the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) of the Dutch Defense Ministry said that Uruzgan is far from reaching the permanent stabilization the Dutch troops were sent to achieve.

"Political and military successes are alternated with setbacks, " it concluded, saying that the Taliban were "extremely resilient, " the report was quoted as saying.

The Taliban still enjoy far too much freedom of movement, and the insurgents can travel to and from Pakistan almost at will, the MIVD report said.

The Netherlands currently has 1,400 troops in Uruzgan to help stabilize and reconstruct the province. Its two-year mandate ends in August 2008. The Dutch government will decide whether to extend the mission this summer.

In Afghanistan, the number of terrorist suicide attacks targeting International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops multiplied five-fold last year to 139. A growing number of home-made explosives being used by insurgents are creating major risks.

The intelligence service is not very hopeful of progress in the region. "This year the picture will again be a mixture of setbacks and successes for the ISAF troops. We expect extensive armed resistance from the Taliban," the report said, adding that conflicts between tribes as well as the drug problem will also cause unrest.

The MIVD said that the construction of sustainable, credible and reliable national government institutions in southern Afghanistan is progressing very slowly.

"Because of the failure to strengthen Afghan structures, ISAF must carry out more tasks than expected," the report said. Source: Xinhua

Turkey donates 24 howitzers to Afghan Army

KABUL: Turkey has donated 24 heavy guns, costing six million US dollars, to the Afghan National Army (ANA). Speaking at the handing over ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence, deputy minister for defence General Baz Muhammad Jauhari thanked the Turkish government for the assistance.

He said the equipment would enhance strength and capability of the Afghan National Army (ANA). Turkey had pledged the assistance on April 19. The howitzers, along with 2,200 cannon shells, gunpowder, fuses and spare parts were shipped by a Russian company to Afghanistan.

The artillery guns could hit the target up to 39 kilometres, Jawhari informed. He said the artillery guns would be moved wherever needed by the ANA inside the country. Jauhari said 110 ANA officers would be sent to Turkey in the days ahead to get training in using the donated arsenal. Speaking on the occasion, Turkish military commander Nusret Tasdeler said his country was standing side by side with the international community in helping the Afghan government in restoration of peace and security in the country.

Turkey has contributed 1,150 soldiers for peacekeeping in Afghanistan. Majority of them are stationed in the central Maidan Wardak province.

Contracts for $5m development projects signed

KABUL, May 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) will soon launch seven key development projects, costing around $5 million, in different provinces.

MCN Minister Engineer Habibullah Qaderi, after inking contracts for the uplift schemes with relevant ministries here on Saturday, said the funding would be made through the Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund (CNTF) and Good Performance Initiative.

He added the projects were essentially aimed at boosting the rural development effort, improving capacity-building of government organisations and reducing widespread dependence on illicit poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The Qala-i-Gaz Canal in Nahresaraj district would be reconstructed in six months to ensure irrigation water supply to more than 32,000 acres of land in the southern Helmand province. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD).

A 200-metre suspension bridge would be built in Qaghi village of Darqad district in the northern Takhar province, the minister said, adding the project would provide a permanent road link to around 36,000 residents. Darqad is an isolated island surrounded by Amu River.

A countrywide mosque-based drug abuse prevention programme will be implemented by the Ministry of Haj and Auqaf to raise awareness among members of the general public, particularly drug addicts and their families.

In the initial phase, the anti-drugs plan will involve as many as 121 main mosques across the country - 71 in provincial capitals and 50 in districts.

For capacity-building of government institutions, Qaderi said, the MCN would execute a project with an 18-month timeline to equip ministries and agencies with the capacity to identify, design and deliver effective programmes in support of the National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS).

In the health sector, a scheme will commence to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis-B and C in Balkh and Herat provinces. Public Health Minister Dr. Syed Muhammad Amin Fatemi said there were 71 known HIV-positive cases but the total number of Afghans infected with the deadly disease could be 2500.

Two other projects will help Paktia and Maidan-Wardak provinces achieve sustained progress towards poppy elimination. Similarly, nine greenhouses will be established in all 9 districts of Maidan Wardak.

In Paktia, a three-storey university building with 30 rooms, a corridor and a septic tank would be constructed. When completed, the university will serve around 2,000 students and 400 staff members.

The Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund (CNTF) was established in 2005 by the Afghan government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to fight poppy cultivation and drugs trade. Of the $65 million grant pledged to CNTF by various countries, only $33 million has been received so far.

UAE to build Mental Rehab Centre in Kabul

KABUL, May 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Mental Rehabilitation Centre will be established in this capital city, officials said on Saturday.

Head of the Afghanistan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) Fatima Gilani said the centre would be constructed with the financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An estimated 300 mentally impaired people will be kept at the centre, planned to be constructed in Mrastoon area of the city.

Gilani said construction of the madhouse would cost from $0.6 to 0.8 million. She said condition of the existing 73-year-old madhouse was dilapidated and was not suitable for living.

Abdullah Al-Fazili, representative of UAE delegation visiting Afghanistan, said their team was here to assess the situation.

Officials said the UAE delegation will meet Health Minister Muhammad Amin Fatimi and mayor of Kabul city Rohullah Aman during its three-day stay here.

Officials say the United Arab Emirates has provided a grant of $40 million for construction of a 400-house city for families of martyrs, and another $30 million for reconstruction of seven roads in Kabul city.

Canada stays out of Afghan opium poppy harvest

Updated Sat. May. 12 2007 - CTV.ca News Staff

Afghanistan is on the verge of harvesting its latest record opium crop, and Canadian troops are staying out of the way. “We have nothing to do with poppy eradication.  We stay away from it as far as we can," Maj. Steve Graham of the Royal Canadian Dragoons told CTV News.

The plan is to attack the insurgency first and leave the battle against drugs for another day. This approach may have bought Canadian soldiers in Kandahar province -- the second-biggest opium-producing province; neighbouring Helmand is the biggest -- some peace.

"If NATO and the Canadians don't attack our fields, then we won't fight them," said farmer Saddique Mohammad.

However, the peace came with some controversy. In April, NATO ran radio ads in Helmand that appeared to approve of opium cultivation -- much to the annoyance of the Afghan government. The ads were pulled.

Mohammad also said this: "We're not afraid of being arrested. If anybody tries to stop us, we will join the Taliban or Al Qaeda and fight."

The battle against opium poppies, which provide the key ingredient for heroin, is being mainly waged by Afghan government eradication teams.

They have destroyed thousands of hectares, but their reach is limited by the Taliban, who protect poppy fields in exchange for cash. There is some debate on how best to control poppy production.

U.S. officials had pressured President Hamid Karzai to spray this year's crops with a herbicide, because of a record-breaking harvest in 2006. But Karzai decided against the tactic.

Instead, his cabinet argued poppy fields should be eradicated using non-chemical techniques, such as plowing the fields before they could be harvested.

Herbicides could destroy legal crops, contaminate water and harm residents, Karzai has said.

But he has also said that if the country's poppy production does not show a decline, he will allow spraying in 2008, a western official told The Canadian Press earlier this year.

Poppies are a tough plant that can survive droughts. Poppy resin, the main ingredient in heroin, can keep for years.

Opium also an extremely profitable crop. More than 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium supply comes from Afghanistan, according to a United Nations estimate. Last year, that amounted to 6,700 tons of poppies, producing about 670 tons of heroin.

Critics say that Canada's hands-off approach to poppy cultivation ignores the reality that the drug trade helps the Taliban pay for weapons and the recruiting of fighters.

"In the south, the vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorists supporting drug traffickers is stronger than ever," UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in a March press release.

"In other words, opium cultivation in the south of the country is less a narcotic issue and more a matter of insurgency, so it is vital to fight them both together."

And with the harvest now complete, there will be farmers with time on their hands -- and the Taliban who have money to offer them.

With a report from CTV's Steve Chao

US to build Afghan super-madrassas

By Gethin Chamberlain in Paktika, Afghanistan - Sunday Telegraph (UK) / May 13, 2007

American forces in Afghanistan are building madrassas in an attempt to persuade parents not to send their children across the border to Pakistan for instruction at hard-line religious schools.

Work has started on two "super-madrassas" in Paktika, which borders Pakistan, and more are planned. The American government is also paying for the refurbishment of mosques in the area, in the hope of winning over religious leaders. The coalition has been under growing pressure over the deaths of civilians and American military commanders say they hope the moves will convince Afghans - many of whom rely on madrassas to provide bed and board for their children - that they are on the same side.

"We are saying that we respect their culture and religion," said naval commander Eduardo Fernandez, the man in charge of American aid efforts in the Sharana district of Paktika. "We have to give the religious leaders the respect they feel they deserve."

Each madrassa will accommodate 1,000 boarding pupils, all of them boys. The US military insists that the schools, which it calls "centres for educational excellence", will be administered by the Afghan education ministry, but admits there is a risk that they will be vulnerable to radical Islamic preachers. Madrassas in Pakistan have frequently been linked to the indoctrination of young Muslim men who have joined the insurgents in Afghanistan or been trained to become terrorists in the West.

"In Afghan terms it is a madrassa, but those words have baggage and if word gets back to a Western public that we are building madrassas, that is a bad thing," said Major Jason Smallfield, 37, an American officer in Sharana. "It is a religious school, but it is not a religious education. The governor is trying to ensure that there is some sort of control over the curriculum, to ensure that radical Islam is not being fomented through these schools."

More than five years after the fall of the Taliban, education remains a battleground in Afghanistan. For many children, the choice is still a religious education, or no education at all.

In the village of Badam Qul, about 20 miles south-west of the capital, Kabul, the only education available for 200 families is at the mosque. For a while, said Suleiman Mirafzal, a village elder, there had been a conventional school, but the money for it ran out. Now, the nearest school is a two-hour walk along a narrow dirt track which runs through a vast minefield, laid during the Soviet occupation.

In the winter, snow covers stone markers painted red and white to show the only safe path through the mines, which still claim victims regularly. There is also a threat from wolves, which come down from the mountains to search for food.

Parents wanted their children to go to school, said Amngul Didargul, a teacher, because they had noticed the improvement in their behaviour. But Mr Mirafzal said many parents, who could not afford to feed their children and keep them warm through the winter, found it simpler and safer to send them to madrassas in Pakistan.

Under the Taliban, much of the Afghan population was denied an education, and 90 per cent of women and 63 per of men are illiterate. The remnants of the old regime still try to exert their will, killing teachers and burning down schools. Of 154 schools in the south-western province of Oruzgan, 107 are closed; 58 of those have been burnt or damaged and the rest are shut because teachers are too frightened to attend.

Schools that employ women teachers and admit girls are most at risk of becoming Taliban targets - one reason why, across Afghanistan, 70 per cent of boys are in school but only 40 per cent of girls.

At the Qali Aday school outside Kabul, the British charity Save the Children covers much of the cost of educating 570 pupils, aged from six to 17, in subjects including geography, history, science and English.

Yet even in such a model school, the inherent problems facing the Afghan education system are evident. The school is short of eight teachers and there is not one woman on its staff, a legacy of the years in which women were denied access to any education. Government funding has dried up and the school relies on charity.

The headmaster, Abdul Qadir, admitted it was a struggle to persuade parents to send their daughters to school when a girl who trains to be a teacher might earn the equivalent of £30 a month, while one who learns a trade such as tailoring can pull in three times that.

"The parents of girls are saying, 'Don't go to school'," he said. "As the salaries of teachers go down they say to the girls that they won't be able to feed their families on that money."

Girls wanted to study so that they could become doctors or teachers, said one pupil, Palwasha, 14, but they face challenges unknown to Western schoolchildren. Sports such as football and volleyball are off limits because there is no walled-off area where they can be screened from male eyes.

They also fear the Taliban. Wazhma, 13, said a letter had been pushed under the door of another school recently, warning that if girls continued to attend, it would be burnt down. Yet in some places parents accept that the future lies in education. In the village of Oria Khail, over the mountains from Badam Qul, Mahtab, a mother of 10, said they had to persevere.

"I want to see development like in other countries," she said. "We can't do anything on our own. But with support, in 15 to 20 years, we will have our own doctors and teachers and engineers in this village."

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid

LASHKARGAH, 13 May 2007 (IRIN) - A year after the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan ended relief operations in the Mukhtar camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), the majority of its inhabitants still endure many hardships, according to camp residents and specialists.

Since 2002, more than 20,000 displaced people have been living in tents and mud huts in Mukhtar camp, 5km north of Lashkargah, the capital of the volatile southern province of Helmand.

Camp residents interviewed by IRIN complained about poverty and inadequate medical and educational facilities in the camp.

"No one helps us here. Our patients suffer a variety of diseases in the absence of medical services. Our children are deprived of education because there is no school at our camp. There is no work we can do to support our families," camp resident Faez Mohammad said.

A middle-aged widow living in the camp who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "My children and I have no other option but to beg on the streets of Lashkargah."

Humanitarian aid delivery was brought to an end in Mukhtar camp in mid-2006 to encourage displaced people to return to their home areas and conclude a protracted relief effort, Afghan and UN officials say.

"I think there is a drastic improvement in the overall situation in the country which allows all IDPs to return to their respective original provinces," said Shojauddin Shoja, an advisor to the Ministry of Refugees, Returnees and IDPs (MRRI).

Impossible to provide relief indefinitely

According to Shoja, it is impossible to run a complex humanitarian operation indefinitely.

"People should understand that they cannot receive relief for good. They should start building their respective lives and should be able to assume their own responsibilities," said Shoja.

About 2,000 families have left Mukhtar camp since the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) ended its operations there in 2006, while some 5,000 families still live in the camp, said Ahmad Nadir Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul.

Immediately after the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001, more than one million Afghans were displaced to many parts of Afghanistan, UNHCR said.

"From over one million IDPs in 2002, we have now less than 160,000," said Salvatore Lombardo, UNHCR country director.

"It is due to our sound policies that more than 800,000 former IDPs have now returned home. It was our plan to have no IDPs in 2007," added Shoja of MRRI.

Vulnerable IDPs need support

Sataar Muzahari, director of the department for refugees and IDP affairs in Helmand, criticised the UN and Afghan government's decision to end humanitarian aid delivery to vulnerable families at Mukhtar camp.

"There are widows, disabled and many other vulnerable people who do not have any means to support themselves. The end of assistance has virtually caused a complex humanitarian crisis among many hapless IDPs in the camp," Muzahari said.

Standing in a long queue carrying a two-bucket yoke on his thin shoulders, nine-year-old Almaas collects water for his family four times a day from a pump in the camp.

"It takes me several hours every day to collect water for drinking, washing, cooking and all other purposes for my family," Almaas said.

In addition to the vulnerability of the young, sick and old in the camp are able-bodied men who fear returning to their places of origin or say they have nothing left to go back to.

"All our properties have been plundered by militias belonging to rival ethnic groups in Faryab province," said Wali Mohammad, an IDP in the camp. "Therefore, we have nowhere to return."

Another IDP said he would be killed because of his ethnicity if he returned to his native province.

"Because I am a Pashtoon, Uzbek militias will accuse me of collaboration with the Taliban. It is very easy for them to kill, torture and detain Pashtoons under meaningless pretexts," said Shah Alaam, an IDP from northern Jozjan province.

Farmer Bashir Ahmad said it is unfeasible for his six-member family to return to their village in Faryab province because of an extended drought there.

"Where there is no water to drink, how can farmers like us, who are dependent on agriculture, continue their life?" asked Ahmad.

[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.]