In this bulletin:

• Fifty more Taliban killed in western Afghanistan: police
• Afghan Governor Says District Retaken From Taliban
• 2 Children Die in US Raid in Afghanistan
• 5 policemen killed, 3 others wounded in S Afghanistan battle
• Afghanistan: Taliban plans new assault in the north
• Portugal to cut troops in Afghanistan
• Japan left red-faced over Afghanistan withdrawal
• Maliki to become Iran’s new ambassador to Afghanistan
• Efforts in Eastern Afghanistan Boost Confidence in Afghan Government
• Afghan, NATO troops launch new operation in central Afghanistan
• Heroin addicts of Kabul
• NATO praises Canada's Afghan role
• Taliban Deny Ties With Iran
• U.S. and Pakistan: A Frayed Alliance
• Trouble on Kabul’s Doorstep
• British Get Blamed for Helmand’s Security Problems
• Stitching an Afghan-American connection

Fifty more Taliban killed in western Afghanistan: police

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Afghan forces said they had killed 50 more Taliban militants in the heaviest fighting in a western province since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001.

An operation by local and NATO troops to retake a district in the increasingly troubled Farah province from the hardline rebels entered its third day, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Gul Sarjang said.

"The fighting is still ongoing in Gulistan district. We killed 20 more Taliban since yesterday," Sarjang said. "Five soldiers and seven police have also been killed so far."

On Wednesday Afghan police said up to 40 Taliban militants were killed and 20 wounded. The Taliban dispute the casualty figures and maintain they are in control of the district.

The Islamist insurgents also attacked another district of Farah on Wednesday night, sparking a six-hour fight with security forces, Sarjang said.

"Taliban attacked Bakwa district last night. Thirty Taliban were killed in six hours of fighting, two police were wounded," Sarjang said.

The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Afghan interior and defence ministries were not immediately available for comment.

Taliban militants have taken over several districts in Afghanistan for brief periods of time but have kept control of only one, Musa Qala district in southern Helmand province, which they captured almost a year ago.

Helmand, Afghanistan's biggest opium growing region, borders Farah and hundreds of militants from the province crossed over into Gulistan district during the current bout of fighting.

Separately police said on Wednesday that they had surrounded more than 200 militants and killed 50 in the southern district of Arghandab, close to Kandahar, the former powerbase of the Taliban.

The militants ousted from power in late 2001 by a US-led invasion of Afghanistan have waged a bloody insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives.

There are more than 55,000 foreign soldiers fighting against the Taliban who have paralysed the country's post Taliban, western-backed reconstruction drive.

Afghan Governor Says District Retaken From Taliban

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

November 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan and NATO-led troops have recaptured a district near Kandahar city recently seized by Taliban fighters, while another battle to retake a Taliban-controlled town area the Iran border entered its third day, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA) reported today.

Assadullah Khaled, the governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province, told RFA that Taliban fighters, who had overtaken Arghandab district earlier this week, have been driven out during three days of fighting with Afghan and NATO troops. Khaled said some 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the operation, which is now focused on tracking down more than 200 Taliban militants who fled the area.

RFA correspondent Javed Ahmad Wafa, who traveled with Khaled to Arghandab, the district's administrative center, and to two nearby villages, said that civilians who had fled the area earlier this week had begun to return home. Wafa added that there have been no reports of fighting in Arghandab since late on October 31.

In the western province of Farah, Afghan police said today that 50 Taliban militants had been killed during a battle close to the border with Iran.

Provincial police spokesman Mohammad Gul Sarjang said an operation by Afghan and NATO-led troops to retake Farah's western-most Ghulistan district is now in its third day. Up to 40 militants reportedly were killed earlier this week when some 300 Taliban fighters launched a coordinated attack on Ghulistan.

Meanwhile, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said today that U.S. and Afghan troops clashed with suspected militants overnight, sparking a gun battle that left three people dead, including two children.

2 Children Die in US Raid in Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by U.S. and Afghan troops sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children, and the military said Thursday it is investigating the deaths.

Civilian casualties have incited resentment and demonstrations against U.S. and NATO forces, though officials blame militants who use civilian homes as cover during clashes. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths.

The latest civilian casualties came as U.S. and Afghan troops were raiding a compound suspected of harboring militants belonging to a suicide bombing network. They were fired upon as they approached late Wednesday in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said. A woman and another child were wounded, he said.

"It is regrettable that the civilian lives were put in danger by the militants and our sincere condolences goes to the families of the deceased and wounded," said Belcher, noting the military has launched an investigation.

A policeman also was wounded during the raid, said Ghafoor Khan, a spokesman for provincial police chief. Three other men from the house were detained by U.S. troops, Khan said.

Also Thursday, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others, said Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.

There were no reports of militant casualties, but authorities recovered one of the vehicles used in the attack and an assault rifle, Andiwal said.

In western Farah province, six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing after clashes with Taliban militants on Wednesday, said governor Muhaidin Baluch.

A large number of Taliban have crossed into Farah from neighboring Helmand province and were still in control of Gulistan district, Baluch said.

Police have battled militants for three days in the area, and several guerrillas were killed, said Baryalai Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban militant movement from power in the country. More than 5,600 people have died this year due to insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Associated Press Writer Amir Shah contributed to this report.

5 policemen killed, 3 others wounded in S Afghanistan battle

21:07, November 01, 2007

A group of Taliban insurgents attacked one police post early Thursday in southern Afghan province of Helmand, killing five policemen and injuring three others, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

"A group of Taliban insurgents attacked a police station in Nad Ali district of Helmand at 04:00 a.m. this morning," Andiwal said, adding "the ensuing three hours' fighting left five policemen killed and three others wounded." He said there were no casualties from the Taliban side.

Taliban insurgency-related violence and attacks have claimed over 5,400 lives, mostly of insurgents, in Afghanistan so far this year. Source: Xinhua

Afghanistan: Taliban plans new assault in the north

Kabul, 1 Nov. (AKI) - A prominent Taliban leader has threatened to reignite the war in Afghanistan with a fresh offensive in the north of the country.

Mansour Dadullah, the brother of Mullah Dadullah who was killed in a NATO raid earlier this year, issued the warning in Pashtun and Arabic, in an audio message released on Islamic websites on the Internet.

In the message, Dadullah promised a new military offensive in the north of the country during the forthcoming winter.

"If Allah wants, we will continue to fight vigorously even during winter," Dadullah said. "Operations now taking place in the south of the country will extend to the north."

The Islamic military commander from the southern province of Helmand denied receiving any support from Iran and accused the US of spreading this information to discredit his movement.

"In reality, they are looking for excuses to justify their defeats," he said.

On Wednesday 50 Islamic militants were reportedly killed in clashes with NATO troops in southern Afghanistan while an official in Helmand said 30 militants had surrendered to authorities.

Dadullah and his brother were among five Taliban prisoners released by Kabul in exchange for the liberation of kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in May 2007. His brother was later killed.

The Taliban - drawn from the Pashtun majority - controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan until 2001 when it was ousted by the US-led coalition.

The country is still suffering from chronic conflict and a NATO force of around 30,000 troops is working with local leaders in a bid to enforce peace and stability.

Portugal to cut troops in Afghanistan

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:42:39

Portugal plans to cut its military presence in Afghanistan by more than 90 percent, Portuguese Defense Minister has told the Parliament.

Portugal will reduce its contribution to NATO's International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) from 162 soldiers to a single C-130 transport plane and 15 soldiers, beginning on August 2008, Defense Minister, Nuno Severiano Teixeria said.

According to Teixeria's speech during a parliamentary commission meeting, the soldiers are to train members of the Afghan army.

Part of the Portuguese mission has been stationed in the southern region of the country, guarding Kandahar airport.

Japan left red-faced over Afghanistan withdrawal
By North Asia correspondent Shane McLeod

It was a day of diplomatic embarrassment for Japan today as it was forced to withdraw from the military coalition supporting operations in Afghanistan.

Tankers from Japan's Maritime Self Defence Force have been operating in the Indian Ocean since 2001, providing fuel supplies at sea for the navies of the United States and other countries.

But Japan is being forced to pull out as a consequence of a domestic political stand-off, itself the result of the Government's abysmal showing in Upper House elections earlier this year.

While it never sent ground troops to join the US led operations in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, Japan was keen to play a role.

Today Japan has been forced to concede its role in the mission is at an end after it failed to convince the Opposition to renew special legislation to allow the refuelling operation to continue.

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba says it was a disappointing day for the Government. "I feel it's truly unfortunate and sad that the SDF's operation is going to disappear," Mr Ishiba said.

"I feel responsible that the opposition couldn't spend enough time on essential discussions with us."

The failure is the result of domestic politics and a bemusing few months as Japan's Government has come to terms with its poor showing in Upper House elections in July.

It has lost its majority, which means the Opposition can block legislation, at least unless the Government is prepared to use a rarely invoked provision for the Lower House to over-ride it.

The Opposition wants to use its majority to force an early election and is trying to use the refuelling mission as a trigger. Its position is that the Indian Ocean operation is not properly sanctioned by the United Nations.

For the first time this week, the Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has been able to discuss the stalemate with his Opposition counterpart, trying to hammer out a compromise.

But there has been no sign that Opposition Leader Ichiro Ozawa is prepared to budge, and that is despite a determined lobbying campaign.

Yesterday the US Ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, led a briefing with ambassadors from other countries including Australia, emphasising to members of parliament the role that Japan has been playing in the anti-terrorism operation.

"We tried to answer whatever questions we could and to provide as much information as we could to emphasise how important Japan's contribution is to what we're doing," he said.

"I hope that after whatever debate goes on in the (inaudible) that Mr Ozawa will accept the fact that this is an international undertaking and I hope that he will support it in the end."

For now, the Government's proposed extension appears lost. Technically it has not even put the laws to a vote in the Lower House, but it knows that without a positive signal from the Opposition, there is little point in proceeding.

This afternoon the formal orders have been issued for its refuelling ships to return home. The former head of Japan's Defence Academy, Masashi Nishihara, says the result is damaging for Japan's reputation and its relationship with the international community.

"The US Government has so far said they will not be damaged but I think it does, I think it gives an image to the American public that Japanese are withdrawing from the international efforts," he said.

"The European countries, Canada and other countries also feel that Japan is withdrawing from this effort.

"The Government says this is an entirely domestic issue, domestic politics but yet this shows to the international society that the Opposition party is not so responsible and that gives also a very poor impression to the international society."

Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hopes the suspension of the mission will be only temporary. But with only just few sitting days left in the current session of parliament, any compromise would need to be settled fast if it is to be enacted this year.

Maliki to become Iran’s new ambassador to Afghanistan

Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN – The presidential advisor and former director of the Anti-Narcotics Organization Fadahossein Maliki is soon to be sent to Kabul as the new Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan.

Maliki will replace Mohammad Reza Bahrami, the current Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, the Mehr News Agency correspondent has learned.

Maleki was dismissed from his post earlier this year as the director of the Anti-Narcotics Organization. His dismissal aroused many rumors.

Efforts in Eastern Afghanistan Boost Confidence in Afghan Government

By Donna Miles A merican Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, DC - Progress in eastern Afghanistan continues as more Afghan security forces take the lead in security operations, more reconstruction and development projects provide sorely needed quality-of-life improvements, and the national government extends its reach, a senior military officer in the region said today.

Army Brig. Gen. Rodney Anderson, deputy commander for support for Combined Joint Task Force 82 and Regional Command East, said he’s seen “many encouraging signs” since the 82nd Airborne Division’s arrival in February.

“This will take some time, but in pursuit of the (United Nations’) Millennium Development Goals and supporting the Afghan National Development Strategy, we firmly see signs and clear evidence of movement toward a stable Afghanistan,” he told Pentagon reporters via video teleconference from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

Anderson said projects being undertaken in Regional Command East -- an area about the size of South Carolina that includes 14 of the country’s 34 provinces -- reflect eight goals the U.N. adopted in 2000 to improve health, education and economic and social lives worldwide by 2015.

They also support aims of the Afghan National Development Strategy, a five-year plan being finalized by the Afghan government to establish milestones in the security, governance, development and other arenas, he said.

Among the most promising developments in Regional Command East has been the building of about 480 miles of roads that have spurred gas stations, hotels and other commerce. Meanwhile, the NATO International Security Assistance Force is partnering with the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, whose capability is increasing daily, he said.

As development continues and security improves, Anderson said, there’s a steady growth in confidence in the Afghan government.

While buoyed by steady progress, Anderson conceded challenges to be overcome. Security remains shaky in some areas, with “harassing attacks” against platoon-sized coalition outposts and Afghan civilians inflicting casualties. But despite a stepped-up Taliban presence in the south, near Kandahar, enemy activity in the east has remained relatively stable since Ramadan.

Corruption, including pay and kickback schemes, is evident throughout the Afghan government. While corruption hinders development progress, Anderson said, it hasn’t brought it to a stop. Other challenges include narcotics and limited government capacity at the community and district levels, he said.

Anderson said he credits partnerships between coalition forces, the Afghan National Army and National Police and international organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development with addressing these challenges head-on.

“In places we have been able to provide security … and deliver reconstruction and development aid, the population has been very supportive of the government,” he said.

“That has been our key to success -- to have the Afghans take the lead and to demonstrate to those locations that might have previously had a Taliban presence that reconstruction and development and the security of their own police is definitely in their best interest.”

Source: American Forces Press Service

Afghan, NATO troops launch new operation in central Afghanistan

Afghan troops and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have launched a joint operation against militants in central Afghan province of Ghazni, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

The operation, featuring Afghan police, army and ISAF personnel, got under way Thursday morning in Taliban-infested Qarabagh district of Ghazni, the Outlook Afghanistan newspaper reported, quoting provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai.

"The sweep is aimed at clearing the troubled district of insurgents," Ahmadzai said.

But he would not say how many days the anti-Taliban operation would last.

In Qarabagh, where kidnappings and shootings have been on the increase, the current sweep followed two similar operations carried out by Afghan and ISAF troops during the last three months.

Currently some 55,000 international troops are fighting militants and securing peace in Afghanistan.

Taliban insurgency-related violence and attacks have claimed over 5,400 lives, mostly of insurgents, in the war-torn country so far this year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2007)

Heroin addicts of Kabul

by Dheera Sujan 01-11-2007

Thorne Anderson is a freelance photo journalist who has recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan where, amongst other things, he documented the hidden murky world inhabited by the ever increasing number of drug addicts in the country.

Afghanistan was always a poppy growing country, but because of a Koranic loophole that allows for the production but not the consumption of intoxicants, its opium was largely for export. However the situation has changed in recent years. Afghans are for the first time becoming serious consumers of their most deadly crop. In the early years of the Taliban, poppy cultivation was all but stamped out. However since the US-led invasion, it became one of their most reliable sources of income, with the result that something like 12 percent of Afghans are now involved in growing, processing or trading in the drug. And using it.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime has just published a  report that says there are now more than half a million drug addicts in the country. Kabul alone has more than 60,000 heroin addicts, though the majority of them live in rural areas. In the north of the country entire villages are addicted, including the women and children.

The Afghan government has an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of the harmfulness of the drug. For largely illiterate villagers, they display posters showing a father sucking on a pipe and blowing the smoke in his child's face - to illustrate the traditions that people must stop following.

Thorne Anderson says there are three main factors contributing to the alarming rise in heroin and opium use in Afghanistan: decades of war and its accompanying trail of ruined families and communities, the presence of facilities in the country for the first time for processing opium into heroin, and the flood of returning refugees from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. Both countries have serious drug addiction problems of their own. "Most of the addicts I met there were these sweet simple villagers," says Thorne, "farmers who'd gone to Iran to look for work and came back addicted."

The addicts of Kabul inhabit the countless hulls of buildings destroyed by years of bombardment. "They're creepy places and there are figures skulking in corners, huddled over fires, some of them near death… it's like seeing scenes from Dante's Hell," says Thorne.

While photographing in these places, Thorne would ask the addicts if there was a place they could go for treatment. They told him there wasn't, but after doing some investigating of his own, he found the Nejat Centre in Kabul - with its limited facilities, it can only treat some 40 patients a month. So they have very strict rules about the people they accept into their programme. It was here that Thorne came across Zabihollah, a young ex-police officer who had been a heroin addict for two years.

"At first the drug took me to the stars and the skies," Zabihollah told Thorne, "but it's a terrible thing that destroys families." Zabihollah's habit was costing him more than his monthly policeman's income and he was desperate to stop it.
 
Zabi, as Thorne refers to him, was to become Thorne's chief subject. When the two met, the young Afghan had just completed the first month at the Nejat centre rehabilitation centre where he was required to prove his good intent by reducing his intake gradually until at the end of the month he was taking only a fraction of the amount of heroin he was used to.

Then he entered the brutal detox programme of the centre. His head was shaved as a sign that he was about to embark on a new life and then with four other men, he was put in a room where he went through cold turkey.

Monitored by doctors and helped as much as possible by a sympathetic staff, these men endured - and Thorne documented - the torments of withdrawal: days of sleeplessness, inability to eat or drink, extreme discomfort, and the night madnesses - with nothing stronger than paracetamol to see them through it.

Afghanistan has not nearly enough detox centres in the country to cater for its growing population of addicts. And even the ones lucky enough to be accepted into places like Nejat have a very high chance of relapse. But Thorne was optimistic about Zabi's chances: "He has a very strong close family who are helping him through this, and a very clear vision of the future."

Zabihollah's dream is to go back to his police job and to specialise in treating drug addicts. Thorne witnessed many police beatings of drug addicts, he was present when they were hunted out of their corners and kicked on to the streets. Zabihollah wants to train his police colleagues to handle drug addicts in a better way than they do now because as he continuously repeated: "Mr Thorne, drug addicts are not bad people; we are sick people."

NATO praises Canada's Afghan role

November 01, 2007 - Allan Woods TorontoStar

OTTAWA–Canada is making an "enormous contribution" to the NATO mission in Afghanistan but the military alliance needs more countries to offer relief and support within the next six months, NATO's deputy secretary general said.

Claudio Bisogniero said the coming months will be a critical test for the alliance as it prepares to meet in Bucharest next April. Canada, the U.S., Britain and top NATO officials are desperately trying to drum up more soldiers from member countries.

"In the run up to Bucharest we need to show a continued and strong political commitment to our Afghanistan mission," said the former Italian ambassador. "We must also underpin this commitment with sufficient troops and resources."

He was speaking at a conference yesterday of the Atlantic Treaty Association, a non-governmental organization closely allied with NATO.

The group is meeting this week to discuss the military and development work in Afghanistan, the political challenges that the country faces and the future of NATO.

Top of mind as the group convened in Ottawa was the future of Canada's participation in Afghanistan, a question has become more urgent as NATO struggles to find more troops to fight the Taliban.

Association president Robert Hunter, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Canada has "shouldered far more than its share of responsibility," a reference to the 71 soldiers killed since 2002.

"If we are going to ask Canada to continue to make sacrifices and the other countries to endure sacrifices, somebody has to convince the people and the parliaments of our individual countries that is in our deepest interests to do so," he said.

Taliban Deny Ties With Iran

WASHINGTON, Nov 1--A high-ranking Taliban military commander in Afghanistan has denied any links between the extremist group and Iran, according to the transcript of a video interview posted online.

Answering questions by an unknown interviewer in a 15-minute video distributed by Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, Mullah Mansour Dadullah flatly rejected US claims that the Islamic republic helps the terrorists in Afghanistan.

Asked about the relationship between the Taliban and other mujahedeen fighters, Mansour described "reciprocity" with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and resistance fighters in Iraq.

He said: "Military strategies and methods are shared between the groups so as to hit the enemy with the strongest force."

According to the transcript released by SITE that monitors the group's website, Mansour said: "This is the claim of the Americans who are looking for something to take as a reason to defend their defeat in front of the world."

He added: "They tried to find a way to prove that Iran helps the Taliban, and this is a false propaganda."

Mansour elaborated neither Iran nor others helped the Taliban, saying "we have help from Allah alone and we receive help directly from the Muslims in general."

US officials have so far alleged that Tehran is supporting the Taliban and Masour's assertion is a fresh blow to the US stature.

Tehran denies the charge and many Afghan officials also say there is no proof Tehran is involved, with Washington irked by Karzai's insistence that Iran is a good neighbor.

Taliban killed eight Iranian diplomats and IRNA reporter in Mazar-i-Sharif after it overpowered the legitimate government of Burhanuddin Rabbani in August 1998.

U.S. and Pakistan: A Frayed Alliance

As Military Efforts Falter, Trust Suffers

By Joby Warrick - Washington Post Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Five years ago, elite Pakistani troops stationed near the border with Afghanistan began receiving hundreds of pairs of U.S.-made night-vision goggles that would enable them to see and fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the dark. The sophisticated goggles, supplied by the Bush administration at a cost of up to $9,000 a pair, came with an implicit message: Step up the attacks.

But every three months, the troops had to turn in their goggles for two weeks to be inventoried, because the U.S. military wanted to make sure none were stolen or given away, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. Militants perceived a pattern and scurried into the open without fear during the two-week counts.

"They knew exactly when we didn't have the goggles, and they took full advantage," said a senior Pakistani government official who closely tracks military operations on the border.

The goggles are but a fragment of the huge military aid Washington sends to Pakistan, but the frustrations expressed by Pakistani officials are emblematic of a widening gulf between two military powers that express a common interest in defeating terrorism.

The Bush administration has provided nearly $11 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001, most of it in military hardware and cash support for the country's operating budget. But frustrations are rising among military officers on both sides because the aid has produced neither battlefield success nor great trust, said government officials and independent experts who study relations between the two countries.

U.S. officials say part of the problem is that the Pakistani government has lacked sufficient commitment to engage the enemy, a task that may be further undermined by the country's growing political instability as its leadership is challenged by an invigorated opposition.

U.S. equipment is not being used "in a sustained way," said Seth Jones, a Rand Corp. researcher who recently visited the region. "The army is not very effective, and there have been elements of the government that have worked with the Taliban in the tribal areas in the past," making them ambivalent about the current fight against those forces, he said.

Independent Western experts also wonder whether Pakistan is devoting too much of U.S. aid to large weapons systems, while shortchanging its own counterinsurgency forces; they say it also is not spending enough on social problems that might address the root causes of terrorism. Of $1.6 billion in U.S. aid dedicated to security assistance in Pakistan since 2002, for example, more than half went for purchases of major weapons systems sought by Pakistan's army, including F-16 fighters, according to U.S. officials.

The officials and experts also say U.S. aid has typically lacked sufficient oversight, or any means of measuring its effectiveness.

The aid spigot -- now pegged at more than $150 million a month -- has remained open even during periods when Pakistan's leadership ordered its counterterrorism forces confined to barracks under a cease-fire agreement with the insurgents, the officials note.

Pakistani officials, for their part, say that strict U.S. controls over equipment and a failure to provide other equipment, such as spare parts, have impeded their ability to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathizers. In addition to complaining about the goggles, they cite U.S.-made attack helicopters that are grounded for weeks because of parts shortages.

Pakistani officials acknowledge slow progress in driving terrorists out of the frontier provinces, but they chafe at suggestions that U.S. military aid is being squandered. Pakistan needs still more help, including persistent access to night-vision goggles, helicopters and other gear that is particularly useful in fighting an insurgency, said Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.

"Is our military effort going as well as we hoped? No. But is Iraq going as well as hoped?" Durrani asked. "We will fight terrorism because it is for our own good. But it is a very big job."

By most measures, the country's security problems are worsening. Hundreds of government troops have died in clashes with militants since August, including at least 17 killed last Thursday in an attack on an army convoy. A total of seven people died in a suicide bombing yesterday near the president's army residence. U.S. intelligence officials said two months ago that al-Qaeda has managed to build an operating base inside autonomous tribal areas ostensibly controlled by Pakistan.

"The billions of American taxpayer dollars to Pakistan since September 11 have clearly failed to prevent our number one enemy from setting up shop in that country," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of Bush administration policies in Pakistan. "It's hard to argue that this aid has been an overall success when that's the bottom-line result."

Advanced night-vision equipment of the type provided to Pakistan -- which amplifies tiny amounts of infrared light to spot people, equipment and other heat sources -- has been used by American GIs for more than a decade. But when President Pervez Musharraf's government requested them in 2002 and 2003 for use against insurgents fleeing across the border from Afghanistan, U.S. officials initially voiced serious reservations.

Eventually, after the accounting procedures were put in place, Washington provided more than 1,600 to Pakistani forces, according to figures compiled by Alan Kronstadt, a South Asia specialist with the Congressional Research Service. Pakistan was allowed to purchase about 300 from a U.S. contractor, and the rest -- about 1,300 pairs of goggles valued at $6.4 million -- were provided without charge by the Defense and State departments, Kronstadt said. A small number were also provided to Pakistan by U.S. intelligence agencies, said U.S. officials and independent experts.

The Pentagon's monitoring is conducted under a special program -- EUM, or Enhanced End-Use Monitoring -- that allows U.S. officials in Pakistan to check all the serial numbers every three months.

To Pakistani soldiers, giving up the goggles meant that, for up to eight weeks each year, they had to fight blind against an adversary who quickly caught on to the troops' vulnerability and exploited it, said two Pakistani government officials familiar with the issue. The policy was also considered insulting.

"It says, 'We don't trust you,' " said Durrani, the Pakistani ambassador. "We need more night-vision equipment, but every three months you withdraw what we have. This is what happens when bureaucrats dictate policy."

A Pentagon official acknowledged the complaints and said the department plans to conduct less-frequent checks. "We are working closely with Pakistani authorities to ensure a proper balance of security and accountability requirements with their operational needs," said Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman.

But U.S.-Pakistan frictions extend to other parts of the U.S. aid program. No other country receives more assistance from Washington for military training, and since 2001, Pakistan has received more than $6 billion from the Coalition Support Fund, government documents show. That's 10 times as much as Poland, the No. 2 recipient, according to Pentagon documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington nonprofit group. The fund reimburses U.S. allies for costs incurred in fighting global terrorism.

The aid has not bought much goodwill: A poll in August conducted for the Washington-based nonprofit group Terror Free Tomorrow found that 19 percent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States, down from 26 percent the previous year. Osama bin Laden had a far higher approval rating, at 46 percent, than either Musharraf (38 percent) or President Bush (9 percent).

Shuja Nawaz, a longtime Pakistani journalist in Washington who recently published a book on Pakistan's military, said the country's army leaders frequently complain about the type as well as amount of support they get from the United States.

"The United States asked Pakistan to move its troops into areas where they aren't supposed to be, and then it failed to provide them with what they need most: operational training and support for converting from conventional warfare to counterinsurgency," Nawaz said. "The United States was very efficient in giving out money quickly, but the concern is whether it was the right kind of help."

The large weapons systems Washington has funded have little relevance to terrorism and counterinsurgency, said Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official who is now a research fellow at Harvard University. "The money is mostly to make Musharraf happy and to engage the Pakistani army as an institution," he said. Meanwhile, civilian law enforcement agencies scramble for adequate training and weapons.

The U.S. government could do more to improve security by helping Pakistan address rampant poverty and shore up schools and health care -- attacking the root causes of militancy and terrorism, according to an August study of the U.S. aid program by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Less than a tenth of overall U.S. aid to Pakistan since 2001 has gone to support the country's economy and social infrastructure, including about $64 million for schools -- a sum smaller than the funding level for education in a typical small U.S. city, said the CSIS report, written by Craig Cohen and directed by Frederick Barton and Karin von Hippel.

"We just haven't put very much into securing hearts and minds," Barton said. "It is possible to generate goodwill. If the United States were the champion of teachers in Pakistan, we'd probably all be okay."

Trouble on Kabul’s Doorstep

Wardak province, next door to the capital, is now a focus for Taleban activity as alienated civilians turn away from local government officials.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting, By Wahidullah Amani in Wardak (ARR No. 271, 31-Oct-07)

The sound of bombers is no longer a rarity in Wardak, a province that begins just 40 kilometres southwest of the Afghan capital. For the past few weeks, the Afghan National Army, backed by NATO, has been fighting fiercely to free the area from an increasingly overt insurgent campaign.

But residents say the growing strength of the Taleban can be largely attributed to the behaviour of local officials whom they accuse of mistreating them and allowing crime to flourish.

A Taleban regional commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IWPR the movement now had over 1,000 fighters in Wardak.

“We are not afraid of anyone,” he said. “We can attack anywhere, in broad daylight. We hold meetings openly. We can send 200 or 300 of our people to the Kabul-Kandahar highway to attack American and other military forces. We only target vehicles carrying supplies to the Americans.”

Travellers who have recently passed through Wardak province told IWPR of intense fighting along the highway that leads from Kandahar in the south to Kabul. Construction of the road has been one of the chief successes of the post-Taleban reconstruction effort, transforming a journey that used to take days into a five-hour ride. But it has proved a mixed blessing, as the 550-kilometre highway has become a magnet for insurgent attacks.

The Taleban commander claimed that the insurgents had infiltrated the government and was received intelligence from officials.

“We have many people in the government who help us,” he said. “They inform us when a military convoy is moving from Kabul to Kandahar, so we can prepare for an attack.”

The Taleban also receive generous assistance from neighbouring countries, said the commander. “We are now stronger than the government in every respect,” he said. “We get money and ammunition from Pakistan, and now we have more modern weapons.”

A major source of Taleban strength, he claimed, was the corruption and crime rampant in the province, which he alleged are actively encouraged by elements within local government. He said Wardak residents often turn to the Taleban in hope of being protected against officials.

“The government sends officials and soldiers to the province who hail from the north and have a history of enmity with Wardak,” he said. “They do not behave properly, and the people hate them. That makes them support the Taleban.”

The commander’s assertions might seem like so much propaganda, but some local administrators and police accept that much of the blame for the rise of the Taleban lies with the authorities in Wardak.

“The reason for the present lack of security in Wardak is the corruption of security officials and other government figures,” said Dr Fazel Karim Muslim, the head of Chak district in the southwest of the province. “Officials were involved in theft and in abusing the local population. That’s why people headed for the mountains and began this fight.”

Muslim insists that Chak, at least, has been improving since his appointment one month ago.

“When I came to Chak district, I talked to people. They agreed unanimously to help me. Now security is improving, and the local population doesn’t let the insurgents commit bad acts.”

There have been more than enough “bad acts” to go around. In July, two German engineers were kidnapped in the Jaghatu district. One died in captivity, and the other was freed two months later after protracted negotiations that reportedly resulted in the release of five lower-level Taleban commanders.

In September, four aid workers from the Red Crescent were seized in Sayed Abad district, but were released one day later.

According to Muslim, the Taleban gained complete control of one district, Day Mirdad, and were planning to move south into Chak. But fierce resistance from the local population forced the insurgents to abort the campaign and withdraw from Day Mirdad.

Residents say that until the police and officials are reined in, the security problems will continue.

“Our district used to be very safe,” said Jamaludin, 42 a resident of Sayed Abad, south of Chak. “There were no Taleban or other insurgents. But people are fed up with the police and the ineffective government. The provincial security commander shouts at people and uses immoral language, instead of asking people for help.”

Residents turned against the Mohammad Awaz, the provincial police chief referred to by Jamaludin, after one incident when he made a lewd and incendiary remark in Sayed Abad about the wives of local men. In this mainly Pashtun, conservative and well-armed community, his behaviour led to violence. Several men began firing at the police chief, who was forced to flee. He was later dismissed from his post.

“People help the Taleban and other groups because of this kind of action,” said Jamaludin.

Sayed Abad district, which borders on Logar and Ghazni provinces to the south, is considered one of the most unstable in Wardak. The head of the district government, Enayatullah Sahibzada Mangal, told IWPR that the police themselves were the main source of the security problems here.

“We don’t have many Taleban in the district,” he said. “There are just a small number of thieves and other criminals who create problems with the help of the police. They have attacked Sayed Abad’s district headquarters and tried to kill me. Their main motivation is money.”

The Afghan National Army and National Police have launched a major clean-up of the district, he said, and things are improving. Some arrests have been made, and local policemen are being replaced.

“We are trying to work with tribal elders to help those who commit crimes to return to the right path,” he said.

Wardak’s new security head, Muzafarudin, hails from the province and is a prominent former mujahedin commander. He has promised to listen to people and resolve problems through discussion rather than military action.

The fighting continues, however. Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said the current operation in Wardak, which involves the army, national police and other security forces, as well as NATO troops of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, will not stop until the province is cleared of insurgents.

“We have been fighting in Wardak for two months now,” he said. “Our operations will continue until the enemy is destroyed. This operation has had many successes. We have killed or arrested many insurgents and captured many weapons.”

Such military operations involve air strikes, and with them comes the uncomfortable question of civilian casualties.

International forces in Afghanistan have come under heavy criticism for indiscriminate use of air power that has caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. The issue is clouded by the close ties between insurgents and local communities.

In Jalrez district, in the north of the province, a recent air strike killed more than 20 people. ISAF and the Afghan army insist that the dead were militants, but local residents say the victims included civilians.

“Our area was bombed, which left local people dead,” said Baryalai, 34, a resident of Jalrez. “Nine people were killed, including seven members of one family. The Taleban are operating openly, and the government cannot deal with them, so they bomb civilians.”

A NATO statement on October 28 said an ISAF investigation had concluded that the allegations of civilian casualties in the Jalrez operation were “completely without merit”. The air strikes were called in after ISAF troops identified a group of militants laying an ambush. Claims by a district official that 11 or more civilians had been killed were unsubstantiated, the statement said, adding that this was the second time such a claim had been made in Wardak in recent weeks.

Defence ministry spokesman Azimi also denied civilians were killed in the Jalrez incident. “We have no reports of civilian casualties,” he said. “The people who fight us turn into civilians once they are dead. Those who were killed had weapons. They were fighters.”

Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul.

British Get Blamed for Helmand’s Security Problems

Allegations in an Afghan parliamentary report that British forces are actively promoting strife reflects lingering suspicions of a country many still see as a historical enemy.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul and Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 271, 30-Oct-07)

“The British do not want to bring security to Helmand,” said Hazrat Sebghatullah Mojadeddi, speaker of the Meshrano Jirga, parliament’s upper house. “They could wipe out the Taleban in a day if they wanted to. The Taleban are not as strong as they say.”

Mojadeddi’s words were salt in an already raw wound. The British have been bogged down in an increasingly bitter battle in the southern province of Helmand for more than a year, when they took over command from the United States-led Coalition.

The transition was not a smooth one. The British forces came in as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, with a different mission and rules of engagement from the Coalition. Whereas the latter was – and in other parts of the south still is - involved in an aggressive counter-terrorism campaign, the British were supposed to be bringing the security needed to allow reconstruction efforts to take place.

Over the past 18 months the insurgency in Helmand has boomed, reconstruction has stalled, and the local population has become more and more disaffected. The British have had to engage in operation after operation to clear the province of hostile elements, while the top NATO commander publicly admits that Afghan government forces are unable to hold the territory gained in such battles.

Now the British are being criticised by Afghanistan’s senate, in the wake of a report delivered by Helmand member of parliament Abdulwahid Karezwal. After a fact-finding trip to his home province, Karezwal told the Meshrano Jirga that British soldiers are involved in intrusive and offensive house searches, and that they bomb villages and kill civilians, including children.

“The real reason behind the insecurity in Helmand is the behaviour of the British soldiers,” he said. The senators reacted angrily to his report, demanding that the accusations be investigated and action taken.

The contents of the report and the Meshrano Jirga’s response to it highlight one of the major stumbling blocks in the British campaign to bring security and stability to Helmand - many local residents simply do not accept that the foreign troops are on their side.

“The British want to avenge their ancestors,” asserted Mohammad Hanif Hanifi, a senator from neighbouring Uruzgan province, expressing a commonly-held view.

The British have had a long and troubled history in Afghanistan, beginning with the Great Game of the 19th century, in which they tried several times to create an Afghan buffer state to safeguard their Indian empire from the expansionist Russians. The rebellious locals were not cooperative, and three unsuccessful wars ensued. The most disastrous military engagement came in 1880 at the Battle of Maiwand, on the Helmand river, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,900 British and Indian troops.

Nearly 130 years later, Helmand’s residents still remember the tales, and they are convinced that the British do, too. “Their predecessors were defeated in Helmand, and that is why they are creating insecurity in the province,” said Hanifi. “This is why they kill local people.”

Prior to the arrival of the British, security was much better, he insisted. “When the US forces were here, the province was safe, and people had a better relationship with the foreign forces.”

According to Hanifi, the Meshrano Jirga intends to send a copy of its report to President Hamed Karzai, with a request that strong action be taken. “Security cannot be restored in Helmand province until the British are removed and another country’s forces are deployed,” he said.

Hanifi’s opinions are widely echoed in Helmand. Locals are convinced that the rapid downhill spiral in security that occurred with the British arrival was no coincidence.

“If the British are here today, it is because they want to fight the Pashtuns,” said Sultan Mohammad, a resident of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. “The British have modern technology and weapons, but they are unable to defeat the Taleban. Why can’t they ensure security, with more than 7,000 troops present in the province? They cannot do any reconstruction; they cannot win the hearts and minds of people. In reality, they do not want security.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Eaton, ISAF spokesperson in Helmand, rejects any suggestion that the British troops aim to do anything other than provide security and stability.

“We are here at the request of the Afghan government, and by decision of the United Nations Security Council,” he said. “NATO forces launch joint operations with the national army and police. They do not conduct searches alone.”

The only reason the British were in Helmand was to create security, he insisted. “NATO and ISAF are here to prevent Taleban attacks on the Afghan government and on ISAF,” he said.

The head of Helmand’s provincial council, Mohammad Anwar, also rejects the senators’ accusations. “Many years have passed since the Afghans and British fought,” he said. “The British are here to help, not for revenge.”

Ghulam Sarwar Ghafari, a political expert from Helmand, condemned the parliament’s verbal assault on the British. “It is a very bad thing for parliament to accuse the British of not wanting security,” he said. “That is not parliament’s job.”

Ghafari was not quite ready to leap to the defence of the foreign troops, however. “The UN should establish a supervisory council and investigate the British actions,” he said. Public opinion tilts towards the parliamentarians’ view.

“The people of Helmand cannot tolerate searches of their homes by the British,” said Sardar Mohammad, a schoolteacher in Lashkar Gah. “For a foreigner to enter the house of a Pashtun without permission is a crime against humanity. The soldiers should be tried and punished. They kill or imprison innocent people, calling them al-Qaeda or Taleban.”

Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul. Aziz Ahmad Tassal is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.

Stitching an Afghan-American connection

How a gold brocade jacket employed a tailor in Herat and dazzled the mother of an American soldier.

By Teresa Méndez and Mark Sappenfield | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor

Alexandria, Va.; and Herat, Afghanistan - In the thick of a 12-day sewing flurry in a makeshift workshop in Herat, Amin Ullah could only imagine who might one day wear the clothes he was constructing.

He knew 100 pieces would travel back to Alexandria's Elegance Fashion Boutique. Its owner, Roya Hashimi, had returned to her family home in Afghanistan to commission the batch, a veritable trousseau. There were wedding dresses, sweeping formal skirts, gossamer tops, and satin sashes. Confections of whorled lace and tulle thick with beading.

What Mr. Ullah could not have known six months ago was that one of the jackets – in cream tulle with sheer sleeves and thick gold embroidery, almost a brocade, creeping up the high neck – would end up on Pat Meyer, a psychotherapist in Reston, Va.

The cloth has forged a sort of bond between the two. They have never met. But this jacket connects them, across continents and through a war.

For Ullah – not yet 20, but a tailor for nine years already – it is a link to the United States, to Ms. Hashimi's shop where he hopes one day to work. For Mrs. Meyer, the jacket, with seams sewn by Ullah, is a tie to her son – a US Army Airborne Ranger stationed in Afghanistan. She'll wear it to her daughter's wedding on Nov. 3 and, wrapped in its delicate fabric, be reminded of her youngest child, the son who cannot be there.

Then there is Hashimi, who returned to help her town and her people. "I was successful in Europe and America," she says, "and I wanted to give something back. I'm not rich, but I live well." Besides providing income for Ullah and more than a dozen others, she hoped the proceeds would let her build a school for 70 girls who were being taught in a clay barn partially destroyed under the Taliban.

Ullah's tiny shop – down a narrow alley where children dart among scooters and cycles in chattering flocks – is silent but for the low whir of a sewing machine. Ullah could be mistaken for a banker as much as a tailor. His gaze is sharp and attentive, his hair impeccably groomed. All he lacks is a pinstripe suit. Instead, he wears the loose-fitting tunic and pants of a traditional Afghan salwar kameez.

These are not good times for a tailor in Herat. Afghans used to come to tailors for every stitch of clothing. But these days, boys are wearing jeans sewn in factories and T-shirts imported from other countries – and Ullah often doesn't have enough money to pay the rent.

"If I have work, I can make $20 a day, but sometimes I make nothing," he says. It is why he hopes that Hashimi will return, along with the promise of a guaranteed $30 a day.

"This was the best money I have ever made in my life," he says. With the cash from two weeks' work, he gave his shop a fresh coat of paint, and he adds with an expectant smile: "She promised that if the business is successful I will come back [with her to the US] and work for her."

The Elegance Fashion Boutique is a splinter of a store – the front is just 6 feet wide – on King Street, a coveted stretch of brick-lined real estate in affluent Old Town Alexandria. With its cotton-candy-pink walls and rows of gowns, one customer called it Cinderella's workshop.

Hashimi came here via Hamburg, Germany, where, fleeing war, she moved from Herat with her parents when she was 16. In Hamburg she studied fashion and took to wedding dresses, a garment that leaves not even a millimeter of room for error. "I was the only girl with a lot of patience," she says. "Believe me, our work is not easy."

In 1997, Hashimi married an Afghan man whose family is in Virginia, where they settled. She searched for the right spot for a store. "Everywhere else in Virginia was so different," she says, "but Alexandria looked close to Europe to me."

Meyer first walked into the boutique with her daughter Jenny. They were there for a wedding dress. And sometime in the course of designing Jenny's custom gown, between the fittings and alterations, Meyer came across the jacket.

Jenny and her younger sister didn't love it at first, says Meyer. "But when we pulled it down and I put it on, they said, 'Wow, Mom. That's really beautiful.' "

Meyer knows the material, some of the finest Hashimi could find in Herat, came from Dubai. But Hashimi suspects it may have been made in Korea. Yet there was more to it than its beauty.

"We were also so moved by her story," says Meyer. "Here I see Roya trying to bring freedom and possibility to women in Afghanistan," she continues. "We are great patriots.... My son is over there fighting for their freedom, and ours."

The jacket is a way for Meyer to support Hashimi, to be a part of her story. But it provides something more literal as well, something tangible that she can run her fingers over, that makes her feel connected to her son.

When Hashimi returned to Herat in April, for the first time in 24 years, she set up a small factory in the back of the 70-year-old family home that her parents recently returned to. She hired 15 locals – including Ullah. But her timing was off. She missed the dress-buying peak for summer weddings. So far she has only sold 10 of the 100 pieces, priced between $350 and $1,300.

Hashimi says when she first presented her patterns to the workers in Herat, some were shocked by the strapless styles. But not Ullah. In a country famed for the burqa, that all-enveloping sack of pleated fabric, Ullah says that Hashimi's designs "are not very different from the designs we are making for women here."

It's not an aspersion on her designs, which he liked, but evidence that Afghan women – as much as their Western counterparts – want to look good. "Even in Afghanistan people have started wearing these sorts of things," he says with a mixture of pride and amazement. "When I go to a wedding party, I see women with bare shoulders."

(Yet if he were to take one of Hashimi's dresses to a local shop, he imagines he might get only $100 for it, which wouldn't even cover expenses. And even at that, $100 amounts to more than one-third of the average annual salary.)

In Hashimi's store, she and Meyer joke that it may be the American Meyer who is best suited to the dress of an observant Muslim.

"I'm freaking out about the see-through arms, as you know," she says, looking to Hashimi. "She would be a good Muslim wife," Hashimi says, smiling. "I would be," agrees Meyer. "I'm so modest."

The jacket closes in front with a hook and eye. It will be tied at the waist with a gold sash made of the same material as the dress Hashimi is sewing for Meyer to wear beneath.

Meyer's younger daughter is also engaged, and Hashimi will make her wedding dress, too. The hope is that Meyer's son will be home in time for that October wedding. And who knows? Ullah may even have a hand in stitching her gown.

Hashimi believes the Afghan-made dresses remaining in her boutique will sell with the next flux of wedding shoppers. She has plans to go back to Herat in March to commission another batch, and still hopes to build the school.

Until then, Ullah, whom Hashimi has kept in touch with by phone, has asked if it is time yet for him to claim his job in her workshop. Perhaps it's the yards of lace and tulle he was surrounded by, because when she explained the complications of bringing him here he offered another solution: "Then could you find me someone to marry?"

"No," she says she told him firmly, her long dark hair shaking as she laughs at the idea.

[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.]