In this bulletin:

• Al-Qaeda 're-emerging' in Pakistan sanctuaries: US military
• Taliban seize Afghan district, two police killed
• Canada issues Afghan rally cry
• Afghans' anger muted in fatal shooting
• Afghanistan: Would-Be Suicide Bomber Speaks Of Indoctrination, Fear
• Suicide Bomb Brings Taleban War to Kabul Suburbs
• Teenager hanged by Taliban in latest child killing
• Crossing the Taleban Line
• Struggle to unite Afghan tribes, one by one
• Costing $5m, 47 schools under construction in Khost
• Afghanistan Carpet Industry Prepares for Global Market

Al-Qaeda 're-emerging' in Pakistan sanctuaries: US military

Bagram (AFP) - The US military said Tuesday it expected Al-Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan.

Sanctuary was provided to Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a US military official said.

The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those raids.

"This area remains a support and sanctuary area for the insurgency as results of those peace accords," US Major Tim Williams, future operations intelligence planner, told reporters at Bagram Air Field, the main US base in Afghanistan.

He said the Islamic rebels were likely to maintain their presence in those areas despite apparent efforts by Pakistani army to root them out.

"In the federally administered tribal areas, we anticipate sanctuary in this region to continue the Al-Qaeda re-emergence," Williams said.

"What we're looking into over the next 12 months ... is the ability and the capability of the enemy to attempt to retain the success, some of the successes, that they have had in that area."

This "sanctuary" could shelter the fugitive Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban's supreme chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, the officer said.

Most Taliban leaders fled to the Pakistan's mainly Pashtun tribal belt following the 2001 US invasion which toppled the largely Pashtun group from power for sheltering Al-Qaeda, which had training camps here.

Asked if there was an increased Al-Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, Williams said Al-Qaeda operatives did not normally cross into this country to carry out operations but provided the necessary resources and training.

The Taliban's insurgency has grown steadily, particularly in the past two years, with suicide bombings in a hallmark of the violence. The militia claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Kabul Tuesday that killed 11 people.

Taliban seize Afghan district, two police killed

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) — Hundreds of Taliban attacked and captured a remote district in central Afghanistan overnight, torching the district centre and killing two policemen, the government said.

Police pulled out of the Ajristan district centre in the province of Ghazni after the attack and were sending police and military reinforcements, they said. The area is 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of Kabul.

The interior ministry in Kabul said police had pulled out in a "tactical move" following heavy attacks by the rebels, who used artillery and rocket fire that damaged the district centre, which includes the offices of the police and district administration.

The two policemen were killed while leaving, spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. "The district centre is out of our hands," Ghazni deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told AFP. Provincial police chief General Alishah Ahmadzai said it had been set alight.

The Taliban have captured several remote districts over the past months. Most have been retaken fairly easily but several parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan are in rebel control.

The Islamic rebels were in government between 1996 and 2001 when they were ousted in a US-led invasion for sheltering Al-Qaeda. They are waging a bloody insurgency to take back power.

Canada issues Afghan rally cry

TENILLE BONOGUORE - Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press October 2, 2007

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier issued a rallying cry Tuesday to the United Nations, calling on member nations to support the bid to appoint a special UN envoy for Afghanistan.

In his debut speech to the UN General Assembly, Mr. Bernier said the world needed to show the “determination” and “political will” to truly uphold human rights in the country.

And they can rely on Canada to be “a reliable partner” in that effort, he said. “Security is the crucial pillar on which everything rests, and long-term stability means the sustainable development of the country,” Mr. Bernier said.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier addresses the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters Tuesday in New York City. Leaders and diplomats from around the world are in New York City for the United Nations yearly General Assembly. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Canada is calling for the appointment of a high-level Afghan envoy, to be modelled on the work of former British prime minister Tony Blair in the Middle East peace process.

Mr. Bernier said the very foundation of democracy in Afghanistan relies on strong support from other nations.

“Canada believes a united international community must support efforts to rebuild Afghanistan. No one country can do this alone,” he said.

“... The challenge is great, we all know that, but the principles we defend are even greater.”

Without security, he said, there was no way to ensure democracy, political stability, health services or education.

“The challenges which we must face to preserve our security are of such a magnitude that no country can hope to tackle it alone,” Mr. Bernier said.

“... Canada will remain a reliable partner for all countries that want to promote freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”

Mr. Bernier said the efforts of about 60 countries and international groups in Afghanistan are commendable, but a new high-profile envoy for the NATO effort should be able to attract more help and better co-ordinate efforts.

The UN's role in Afghanistan is the world body's “most important special political mission,” he said.

Bernier has talked about the idea in some 30 bilateral meetings at the UN last week.

“We built a strong case,” he said after the 10-minute speech. It was not immediately clear how UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will respond.

Mr. Bernier, who used the meetings to ask for military and humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, said the French government committed to putting more planes into the southern province of Kandahar and sending 150 more soldiers to train Afghan forces.

Mr. Bernier, who became foreign minister in a cabinet shuffle in August, also said Canada wants the UN to extend the stabilization mission in Haiti.

And he praised the UN Human Rights Council for holding a special session on Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country also known as Burma.

“In Burma, it is imperative to restore democracy and human rights. We expect the UN to be at the forefront of these efforts,” he said.

In Sudan, he said, peacekeeping missions are forming a security framework for durable peace. “The international community must demonstrate the political will to find new solutions.”

The prime minister usually addresses the annual General Assembly session, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper couldn't get on the roster last week on the day when U.S. President George W. Bush and other leaders spoke. He chose to speak to a special UN panel on climate change instead.

Afghans' anger muted in fatal shooting

GRAEME SMITH - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail October 3, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The road where a Canadians soldier accidentally shot two Afghans yesterday morning had returned to normal by afternoon, as Kandahar avoided the kind of angry demonstrations that followed another killing last week.

Amid the jostle and clamour of ordinary traffic on the west side of Kandahar city, people at the scene of the shooting voiced a grim acceptance of the deadly mishaps that happen when heavily armed convoys make daily forays into Afghanistan's second-largest city.

“Please tell the Canadians to be careful on the road, because you make people very afraid,” said Mohammed Kabir, 59, a money changer.

The voices were more emotional at the funeral for Esmatullah Zia, the teenager who died of gunshots to the head. In the village of Karam Kalacha, a northern suburb of the city, throngs of relatives and tribesmen gathered to bury the 18- or 19-year-old garage employee. They declared the Canadians “enemies of Islam, and our enemies.”

Emergency personnel transfer Ahmad Zia, 12, to the military hospital at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan after he was accidentally shot by Canadian troops. He underwent surgery Tuesday, a military spokewoman said, and appeared to be conscious. (Dene Moore/CP)

But the reaction was far less raucous than the street protests that followed the shooting of two religious teachers in a village west of Kandahar last week. In that case, the mullahs had been shot dead in their bedrooms during an apparent raid by U.S. forces, and the villagers received no apology, no compensation and no statement from anybody taking responsibility for the killing.

The Canadian military and NATO made a greater effort at damage control in the aftermath of the latest incident. Press statements from both organizations quickly acknowledged an “accidental discharge” of a weapon had occurred at 6:45 a.m.

Soldiers at the scene gave first aid to the teenager and his younger brother Ahmad Zia, 12, who had been struck by the Canadians' gunfire during their morning drive to work.

The shooting will be examined by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, and the military released few details of the circumstances because of the probe.

“Unfortunately, a motorcycle came near the convoy and a shot was fired, and the driver of the motorcycle died and a passenger was injured,” said Captain Josée Bilodeau, a military spokeswoman. “For sure it didn't result from enemy activity. It was an accident.”

Afghan police initially took the injured boy to Mirwais hospital for treatment, but with a bullet wound in his head, the chances of his survival in the poorly funded local facility were not good. The boy's family pleaded for help from the Canadians, who responded within hours. An ambulance took him to Kandahar Air Field, where he was allowed into the sophisticated military hospital. His head swaddled in bandages, he appeared to be conscious.

“This afternoon he was in surgery, so I don't know whether he's doing well, but for sure we are doing our best to provide him the best treatment we can,” Capt. Bilodeau said.

Military officials from the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city are also expected to negotiate a payment to help the family in the coming days.

“We have to stop this cruelty,” Ghusudin, the boys' uncle, told a CTV News cameraman at the hospital. “The head of the [provincial] council and other elders have to take serious action; otherwise, we will hold another demonstration.”

Several locals in Kandahar complained that they have never seen a foreign soldier punished for any action that harmed a civilian. “The Canadians are just saying ‘sorry,' and they've killed so many people like this,” said Akbar, 49, a businessman. “They say ‘We will discipline our soldier,' but always we see zero results.”

But the launch of a CFNIS probe of the events does indicate that consequences are possible. An independent body, the CFNIS reports to the military's top police officer, the Provost Marshal, outside the operational chain of command.

“Our National Investigative Service is taking this very seriously,” Capt. Bilodeau said. “There is an investigation ongoing, and we will know what happened.”

Afghanistan: Would-Be Suicide Bomber Speaks Of Indoctrination, Fear

By Ron Synovitz -

October 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Akhunzada is a 46-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province.

The father of 10 children, Akhunzada spent years studying Islam in Afghanistan and as a refugee in Pakistan.

Until early this year, Akhunzada was teaching at a religious boarding school for the poor, a madrasah, in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province. He says he saw two Taliban commanders come to his madrasah repeatedly in order to recruit young students as suicide bombers.

In February, amid intense pressure from others at the madrasah, Akhunzada says he joined a group of three dozen young men who were recruited by Pakistani militants to become suicide bombers.

"It was in the middle of the night [when we left]," he told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. "They took us in a specially prepared vehicle when it was dark. [There were no windows but] there were some small holes in the roof [of the vehicle] to allow air for us to breathe. Through those small holes, we could see the sky. They took us from Kuchlagh [a small town in Baluchistan near the city of Quetta]. Then we went to a madrasah in Quetta. But I don't know where they took us after that.

"On the way [to a training camp somewhere near the Pakistan-Afghan border], I was looking at the mountaintops [through the holes in the roof] and I was trying to draw them on paper," Akhunzada says. "I was imagining that these could be mountains in Afghanistan. That's when I began to think that this work was not being done for God's sake. It is against Islam and it is against Afghanistan. That's when I realized that this is absolutely a case of interference [by militants] of Pakistan within Afghanistan."

Akhunzada says that despite his doubts, he completed a short training program with the other recruits. Often militant trainers indoctrinate young men -- using passages from the Koran out of context to justify the killing of innocent people, including Muslims.

Akhunzada says he became convinced that his militant trainers were manipulating and misleading the younger students. But he feared for his own safety if he spoke out. Instead, he kept his thoughts to himself until after the training was completed and each recruit had been given explosives along with instructions to carry out suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

"There were 36 of us [including one Chechen], who were transported [to the training camp]," Akhunzada continues. "We all completed our training. And after we finished the training, we were allowed to return to our homes for a week to 10 days to say goodbye to our families, to pray, and to prepare ourselves mentally for a suicide attack. This is the normal process for suicide bombers. But I didn't return [to the militants]. They were very much on my trail, trying to catch me. But I went into hiding instead."

During the six months that have passed since Akhunzada went into hiding, he says four suicide attacks have been carried out in Helmand Province by men that he knew from the mountain training camp.

Akhunzada says he managed to convince two young recruits from the group to abandon plans to commit suicide attacks in Afghanistan. Those two also have gone into hiding, fearing that they would be killed by militants because of what they have learned about the Taliban's recruiting and training infrastructure.

At the age of 46, Akhunzada is an unusual recruit for a suicide attack. Officials in Kabul say it is more common for suicide bombers and Taliban fighters to be recruited from among impressionable youths at madrasahs in Pakistan's border regions near Afghanistan.

In July, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pardoned a 14-year-old Pakistani boy who was caught wearing a suicide bomber's vest while riding a motorbike in the southeastern Afghan city of Khost. The boy's father says he lost contact with his son after he sent the boy to a madrasah in Pakistan to study the Koran.

Another would-be suicide bomber told RFE/RL that he felt trapped and helpless once he had been trained for a suicide mission.

Mohammad Feroz, a man from southern Afghanistan, says he was recruited by militants who trained and paid him to carry out a suicide attack in Kandahar in late 2006.

Feroz went into hiding and contacted Radio Free Afghanistan by telephone after he decided not to detonate the suicide bomber's belt that his trainers had given him. He credited a Radio Free Afghanistan report on suicide bombers with dissuading him from carrying out the attack.

"I am in Kandahar right now," Feroz said. "I want to get out of this place. I was listening to Radio Free Afghanistan and they had a report. Thank you for such a good message -- it has saved my life. I received [the equivalent of $10,000 in afghanis] from a man who told me that I must become a suicide bomber in Kandahar. [But] I have escaped and I am in hiding now."

Feroz's whereabouts today are unknown. Radio Free Afghanistan has been unable to contact him since his initial telephone calls to the station.

Suicide Bomb Brings Taleban War to Kabul Suburbs

Insurgents strike with apparent impunity, and promise an intensifying campaign of attacks.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting - By Jean MacKenzie and Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 267, 02-Oct-07)

Kart-e-Parwan counts as one of the safest areas in Kabul. Largely residential, it does not boast the large foreign presence of flashier neighbourhoods. There are no embassies or big offices, just houses, shops, a cinema and a park.

In the early morning, herds of goats and sheep cross the main road, and day-labourers gather on the corner near a fruit seller’s cart, waiting for someone to come and hire their muscle for a few hours. Children hurry by on their way to school, the girls in white headscarves, the boys with rucksacks slung over their backs.

IWPR’s offices are in the heart of Kart-e-Parwan, nestled beside a family-planning clinic and over the road from a mosque and a bread kiosk. The latter is closed in the mornings because it is the month of Ramadan, and it will not open until closer to evening, when the fast is broken.

It is the kind of place where neighbours know each other and swap greetings in the street, and where a foreign woman can walk alone and do her fruit and vegetable shopping in peace, attended only by friendly cries of “Salaam” and “How are you?”, from the locals, even the occasional “Bonjour” or Russian “Zdravstvuyte”.

The kidnappings and killings that have marred other parts of the city seem very far away here.

That cheerful calm was shattered at seven in the morning on Saturday, September 29, when a suicide bomber wearing the uniform of an Afghan National Army soldier climbed onto a military bus and detonated his explosives. Eyewitnesses say he was carrying a bag.

Officials say at least 30 people died, the majority of them from the Afghan military. Another 29 people were injured.

“I saw the bus stop, and three people with military uniforms got on,” said a security official in Kart-e-Parwan, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “One minute later there was a big explosion, and I saw people lying on the ground on either side of the bus. When we went into the bus, we were able to get 15 injured people out. The rest were dead.”

The security officer said the force of the explosion threw body parts up to the sixth floor of a nearby building which houses the famous Baharistan Cinema. “I collected body parts from up there and we put them in plastic bags,” he said.

Windows in local shops and offices, including IWPR’s premises, were blown out. A small piece of shrapnel penetrated into the newsroom. A hellish scene greeted eyewitnesses once the smoke had cleared.

“The blast knocked me into a ditch,” said 18-year-old Mustafa, who sells cigarettes by the roadside. “When I got up, there were hands and legs everywhere. I was very scared.”

Faraidun, 21, said friends and neighbours were among those who were killed. “I saw three brothers - they were house painters,” he said. “They were all dead.”

Two days after the bomb, city workers were still cleaning bits of flesh and broken teeth from trees in the area. But the real legacy of this bombing is likely to last much longer.

It is now apparent that the Taleban can strike anywhere in the capital. Residents of Kabul will be looking nervously over their shoulders as they go about their daily business, never sure when the next attack will come.

The explosion was one of the largest to date in a city that has seen a rapid rise in violence over the past few months. In June, a bomb rocked a bus full of police officers, killing 35. Just one week ago, a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, killing a French soldier. Kart-e-Parwan was isolated from such horrors, but that is no longer the case.

“This was the most secure area of Kabul,” said Faraidun. “Now the Taleban can target even this kind of place. The government has to do something about it; things are getting worse every day.”

But the Afghan government seems as much at a loss as everyone else. Zahir Azimi, spokesperson for the defence ministry, limited himself to the usual platitudes about enemies of Islam and the nation.

The Taleban, on the other hand, were full of certainty. Their spokesman for central Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahed, claimed responsibility for the bomb.

IWPR was not able to contact him, but his more media-friendly colleague, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, who speaks for the insurgents in the violence-torn south, was ready to comment.

“This is jihad, and the enemy is going to sustain casualties,” he said. “We are upset about the civilian deaths, but the attack was carried out early in the morning. There are not so many people on the streets at that hour, and the people near the bus worked for the government; they were leaving for their offices.”

The official tally lists six civilians among the injured. The dead were all military personnel, as were the rest of those wounded by the blast.

Qari Yusuf added that with the onset of the holy month of Ramadan, the Taleban had begun a new operation codenamed Nasrat or “Victory”.

“We hope to intensify this operation in the course of the month,” he added.

Kabul residents were unmoved by the Taleban bluster. Instead, they were angry and bitter about the attack and its timing.

“Those who kill during Ramadan are not Muslims,” said Mohammad Saboor, 45. “People are getting ready for Eid, and now all these families will be mourning instead of celebrating.”

Eid al-Fitr is the holiday of feasting and family gatherings that marks the end of the Ramadan fast, “Whoever the attacker was, he will go to hell,” said Sayed Rahim, 38. “God never gave anyone permission to kill.”

As this report was published, reports came in of a new suicide bombing on October 2, this time targeting a police bus. Jean MacKenzie is IWPR’s Programme Director in Afghanistan. Wahid Amani is lead trainer and reporter. Aziz Ahmad Tassal, an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand, also contributed to this report.

Teenager hanged by Taliban in latest child killing

KABUL, 2 October 2007 (IRIN) - The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has condemned the hanging of a teenager boy by Taliban insurgents in Sangin District of volatile Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.

"We share the revulsion of the Afghan people that children and young people are being targeted so cynically," Aleem Siddique, a UNAMA spokesman, told IRIN on 2 October.

"This goes against all norms in Afghan society, is against international law and we condemn such actions unreservedly," Siddique added.

On 30 September armed Taliban men hanged a 15-year-old boy on charges of espionage for foreign forces based in Afghanistan, said Ezatullah Mujahid, the administrator of Sangin District.

For hours the dead body of the boy was hanging from a tree with warning notes stuffed in his mouth ordering locals not to collaborate with foreign troops, according to Mujahid.

The teenager had US currency in his pockets and a notepad with several telephone numbers on it, and was immediately sentenced to death, Mujahid said.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, confirmed the incident, adding that anyone working for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his international supporters would face a similar fate.

In the early morning of 2 October a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of a bus carrying Afghan police officers, west of Kabul. "The explosion killed 11 people including three children," read a statement by Afghanistan's Interior Ministry. The Taliban have reportedly claimed responsibility for the blast.

In another incident on 30 September two children died and five others were wounded in Khost Province after a bomb planted in a toy exploded, provincial officials said. Wazir Pacha, a provincial police spokesman, said the toy was purposely left in front of a house in Baak District. No group has claimed responsibility for the toy bombing so far.

Afghan officials and international forces based in the country have repeatedly accused Taliban rebels of using children and civilians as "human shields" in their ongoing insurgency. During a military operation in Uruzgan Province on 19 September, "Coalition forces as well as aircraft identified several insurgents in one compound using children as 'human shields'", said a US military press release.

On 15 June a suicide attacker blew himself up while schoolchildren were coming out of a school in Tarinkot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan Province, killing 11 children and wounding several others.

Armed men allegedly associated with Taliban insurgents have also frequently attacked schools, schoolchildren and teachers in insecure parts of the country. As a result, about 400 schools remain closed in southern provinces. Almost half of all Afghan children do not have access to basic education, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Education.

In April, Taliban insurgents circulated a video depicting a 12-year-old boy beheading a man who was allegedly accused of anti-Taliban activity. International human rights organisations, religious leaders and the government of Afghanistan expressed outrage and denounced the video.

Under international humanitarian law all warring parties must respect the safety of children and other civilians and avoid using them for military purposes.

Crossing the Taleban Line

A reporter visits the area where he was born to find civilians traumatised by recent air attacks and angry with the government in Kabul.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting - By Aziz Ahmad Shafe (ARR No. 267, 01-Oct-07)

Hyderabad is only 80 kilometers north of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, but it takes you four days to get there.

Those 80 kilometres are neatly divided between followers of President Hamed Karzai and supporters of Mullah Omar. In other words, the first 40 kilometers are controlled by the government, and the last 40 belong to the Taleban.

I was born in Kajaki, a district just to the northeast of Hyderabad, so I should have felt at home there.

But no man entering a country illegally could have been more afraid than I was when I approached the Taleban “border”.

I had tried to plan ahead, and had made contact with local Taleban commanders. I followed their instructions, but I was still nervous and had no idea how I would be treated.

I also hedged my bets – after setting out for Hyderabad, I called the Helmand police chief and told him of my travel plans. He was very angry, and began shouting at me.

“What can I do for you now? You didn’t call me until after you went into the area. All I can do now is pray that God will bring you back alive.”

That did not make me feel much better. Shortly after we arrived in Hyderabad, our car was surrounded by a group of Taleban. They pointed their guns at us and shouted, “Give us as much money as you can.”

I turned out my pockets - you see, I have a real love for life. After taking some money, they turned their guns away and let us go.

When we got to our destination, Hyderabad bazaar, we were again surrounded by armed Taleban. I gave them my press card, thinking that since it was written in English, they would not understand. But it seems that the Taleban are also linguists, and they understood very well.

Afterwards, I relaxed a little, and began talking to local people. They were not

happy to see us. Among them were people whose family members had been killed in a recent air strike, and the way they were looking at us, you would think that it was we who killed them.

“What are you doing here?” said one of them. “First you kill us, then you come to take our pictures.”

I tried to tell him that no, I was here to listen to them; to make sure that their voices were heard. Finally, some residents agreed to talk to me.

One man, Mohammad Gul told me how five members of his family had been killed in the bombing. “The troops must have been able to see us. It’s in the desert, and there isn’t a single tree. We entered a house and tried to hide, but the jets came and began bombing us,” he said. “How is it that the foreigners say they can aim at one specific person, but here they can’t tell whether they are killing a woman or a child?”

Like many in the area, Mohammad Gul was angry and bitter at the international forces deployed in Helmand province.

“The foreign troops don’t kill the Taleban, they only kill us,” he said. “They don’t build roads or do anything useful. They just ruin us. Some people here have lost their entire families. They say they will go off and become suicide bombers. They are tired of living .”

Mohammad Gul was not comforted by the prospect of receiving compensation for his loss - the idea made him furious.

“The government gives us 100,000 Afghani [2,000 US dollars] for each person killed in the bombings,” he said. “I want to say to the president, ‘What am I supposed to do with this money?’ My family is dead, buried in the ground. I will give the government two million afghani [40,000 dollars] if it gives me the head of one of its officials. For Karzai’s head, I would pay 100 million afghani.”

He challenged the Afghan president, “Karzai can invite all of us to go to see him and he can butcher us with a knife, rather than kill us with bombs.”

“We sent tribal elders to the foreign troops, asking for permission to bury our dead,” he said. “They told us to wait until after they’d gone. I myself buried 14 people in one grave. I couldn’t do it the proper way – we were all on the run, trying to find a place of safety.”

After Mohammad Gul had finished, I took a walk around the area – after first obtaining permission from the Taleban. It looked to like a place that had been abandoned hundreds of years ago; the houses were all destroyed.

I did see one house that looked intact. It was not until I got closer that I saw the hole in the wall. When I stepped inside, I saw that everything had been destroyed. There were clothes, dishes and children’s books all mixed up in the rubble.

The owner, Fatih Mohammad, told me how four members of his family were killed in an air strike. “We were having dinner when the jets came,” he said. “I stood next to a wall, and God kept me alive. But when I saw my children and wife dead, I was sorry I hadn’t been killed, too. I asked God, “If You did not want me to die, why did You make me see this?”

Fatih Mohammad asked, “Who will help me bury my dead?” Many people in the area seemed lost, and were shaking as if their dead were still lying in front of them.

I saw a tractor sitting just one kilometer outside the village, pitted with holes and with blood mixed with fuel staining the ground around it. Villagers say the tractor was hit while it was taking 35 civilians away from the bombing.

“There were old men, women and children who wanted to seek refuge with the foreign troops,” said local resident Habibullah. “The men were trying to collect the dead from houses that had been bombed, but someone called to us, ‘Rahmatullah’s children are on fire in the tractor’. I rushed over there, and saw that everyone was burning. We could do nothing except pour water on them.

“When the flames were extinguished, we saw that they were all dead. Some were headless, others had lost arms or legs. I saw one child, the bones of his hand were still burning. That was the most shocking thing for me. There were children aged from three months old to ten years old.”

“We collected the dead, their flesh and body parts, and wrapped it all in patus,” said Habibullah, referring to the long scarves worn by Pashtuns. “We buried them all in one grave, because we could not identify individuals.” He paused, his face creased with sorrow and rage.

“This is the work of Hamed Karzai,”he said. “If he cannot put an end to the killing, he must resign. These jets do not recognise women and children. When there is a bombing like the one here, the foreign troops announce that 60 Taleban have been killed. But I want to tell them that there was not even one Taleb among the dead.”

Locals said the tractor was hit as a deliberate reprisal for a Taleban attack which destroyed foreign armoured vehicles some two kilometers away.

The Taleban took me to the scene of a battle with foreign troops. There were some armoured vehicles, which they said they blew up with improvised explosive devices.

They also showed me about 15 fuel tankers that had been used to supply the international forces. The Taleban say they siphoned off the fuel and sold it before torching the tanker trucks.

I could not visit many other places, as the whole area was mined. So I took my leave of the Taleban and left for home. I did not feel safe until I reached the government-controlled stretch of road.

When I finally reached home, I felt that I had been given a new lease of life.

Aziz Ahmad Shafe is a journalist based in Helmand.

Struggle to unite Afghan tribes, one by one

The Christian Science Monitor, 10/02/2007 By Scott Peterson

On a recent day, a US Army officer offered to build a school if two embattled tribes would make peace.

Shabak Valley, Afghanistan - The land dispute had plagued two rival Afghan tribes for 70 years. Afghan military officers were to begin mediation efforts on a recent afternoon, to prevent further bloodshed.

But a US Army officer, intent on making a positive impact – and with $100,000 to spend on solving local problems as part of a broader US counterinsurgency effort – made an initial peacemaking bid that morning.

"Will it make a difference if I make a school on it?" asked the officer, hoping the project might provide extra glue for unity and in turn weaken the pull of the Taliban and other militants in this mountainous patch of southeast Afghanistan.

"They don't have to agree on whose land it is, just agree that we build a school there," the officer said. Otherwise, he added, "All that's going to happen is they will argue about the land until they are dead, then their kids will argue."

The peacemaking effort was an American input into an Afghan problem, on the sidelines of a recent US and Afghan military medical and veterinary clinic.

In the end, it wasn't clear to what degree the US offer had influenced the feuding elders. But the narrative of the day shows the difficulty of implementing a joint US-Afghan counterinsurgency effort amid tribal disputes.

'Brilliant futures' for your kids

On hillsides of this disputed area, a 16-square-mile parcel adjacent to the medical clinic – the Sultan Khel families have taken up residence and are cutting the trees. But, another tribe, the Piraangei, say decades-old official documents show the land is theirs.

In the first of two meetings that day, elders from the two tribes sat in a semi-circle beside stacks of thick, rough-hewn logs – a reminder of the raw material at stake.

An Afghan officer buttered up the elders. "Does everyone want their kids' future to be brilliant?"

"Yes," the elders replied in unison, as if in a classroom themselves.

"You see that school? It's like a horse stable," says the Afghan, waving toward a distant, old structure. "Do you agree, if well educated [your children] can be doctors and engineers?"

"Yes" the elders said. They also agreed that a new American-funded school was a great idea, though its location – and the US military requirement that its door be open to pupils of all four sub-tribes – was a problem.

"I am very grateful," the lead Piraangei elder, called Maligul, told the US officer. "But location matters. If it is by that hill," he said, pointing his arm behind him, "the answer is 'No.'"

Elders of each tribe set off on foot in turn, with a handful of US soldiers, to show their preferred spot for the American gift.

"The Piraangei want to build the school on their own land; it's not good," complains Sultan Khel chairman Miakee Khan, during the walk. Wearing a long black beard and black turban with grey stripes, he professes allegiance to the American plan.

Rivals accuse the Sultan Khel of siding with the Taliban in the 1990s and even today. Not true, protests Mr. Khan, who claims to have received a threatening "night letter" from the Taliban, and has a personal guard. When an US officer walking beside him asks if Khan can ensure the safety of the students, he says he can't speak for the other three subtribes.

"I can guarantee safety from my tribe, but not others," declares Khan. "If the Taliban is going to kill the kids, first they will have to kill me."

The Piraangei lead the Americans to another place, but Maligul insists on a deal-breaker: If the school is built on the disputed turf, there must be an official document saying it is Piraangei land.

"This land is useless!" says an exasperated Afghan US military translator, stepping through dusty knee-high scrub. "Why are they fighting over this useless land?"

That question dominates the second elder pow-wow, convened by Afghan officers in the afternoon. In the shade of the only tree left standing, the Piraangei state that documents in the provincial capital, Gardez, will prove their case. They want all Sultan Khel families moved away until it is settled.

The American offer of the school appears not to be a factor. "Even if you fight and fight and fight, in the end you must solve this problem by talking," lectures Lt. Col. Fazel Rahman, an Afghan battalion commander who says the government aim is to ensure "no more dead."

With no agreement in sight an hour into the confab, the officers point to another reason for peace. "If you don't come down [from the mountains], fighting will start, and the BBC and Washington Post will not say there were two tribes, but Taliban fighters and the government couldn't stop them," says Colonel Rahman.

Amid threats of firefights and funerals, the Afghan officers draft a written agreement for both parties to sign, pledging not to resume fighting and to cease any harvest of trees from the disputed land.

"This is awesome," says US Army Lt. Col. Dave Woods of Denbo, Pa. The commander of the 4th Squadron 73rd Cavalry, he's sitting a few feet back, up the stony hillside. "Think about it. I ain't down there. And no one is shooting at each other on the mountain." Instead, his Afghan counterparts are mediating, putting Afghanistan one step closer to establishing order and security themselves.

But elders here are reluctant to sign anything, despite the added school inducement. Running out of patience, Rahman makes a dramatic gesture. He literally tears up the agreement, and warns: "All of you go to the mountains, and we'll send artillery strikes onto all of you!"

At last, an agreement - Finally the bickering men reach a verbal agreement. There will be no fire fights. The Sultan Khel families can stay, but there can be no more "taking from the trees." And four representatives from each tribe will journey to Gardez the following Sunday, to get documents and face a judge. If a single representative fails to show up, that side automatically forfeits the dispute.

While the results of the meeting with the judge were unknown at press time, the day's events were a small step towards peace in this corner of Afghanistan. "I call that progress" said Woods diplomatically, giving an assessment of the proceedings.

"Right now they brought us together," acknowledged Maligul, the Piraangei elder. "Otherwise we would be separate."

Costing $5m, 47 schools under construction in Khost

Pajhwok News, 10/03/2007 - KHOST CITY - Construction work on 47 schools, costing about five million dollars, began in the southeastern Khost province on Monday.

Aziz Ahmad Hashmi, director education department, told Pajhwok Afghan News the schools would be built in Alisher and Tani districts at the cost of $4.7 million by the end of the current year.

Khost Governor Arsala Jamal laid the foundation of five primary schools in Tani and one in Alisher. Addressing gathering in Tani, he announced: "Forty-seven schools will be constructed with the help of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) by the end of the current year."

Meanwhile, construction work on two primary schools was launched by the UNICEF in Gardez and Ahmadabad districts of the Paktia province. The foundation stone of the school was laid on Monday by Governor Rahmatullah Rahmat.

Education Director Mehrabuddin Shafaq said the schools would be constructed at the cost of $100,000 in three months. He said each school would have 14 classrooms and administrative sections. Work on 21 primary and middle schools is underway in Paktia, where 30 other such projects are on the boil.

Afghanistan Carpet Industry Prepares for Global Market

via newsblaze.com, October 2, 2007 By Phillip Kurata - Increased sales could reduce lures of terrorism, poppy growing

Afghanistan's drive to resurrect its fabled carpet industry with U.S. assistance is a key element in the economic reconstruction of the land-locked Central Asian country, according to U.S. officials.

The Afghan carpet industry employs more than 1 million people, about 3 percent of the population. Millions more work in related industries, such as wool production, cutting, washing and design. Because these dominant industries have significant growth and export potential, the carpet sector has become a major focus for Afghanistan's government and private-sector support organizations.

In 2005, Afghanistan sold abroad $140 million worth of carpets, its largest official export. If the country could repatriate the portion of its carpet industry that has migrated to Pakistan, the size of the industry would double, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Projected to grow 11 percent a year, Afghan carpet exports could reach $350 million by 2015, according to the study.

For centuries, Afghanistan was recognized as a global leader in carpet production. But after the Taliban took power, many Afghan carpet makers fled to Pakistan. Since the Taliban were defeated in 2001, some 60 percent of the carpet makers who fled have returned to their homeland and are producing goods of exquisite beauty.

A recent article published by a newspaper in Pittsburgh described how Afghan women weavers are channeling their artistic talents into carpets because weaving is one of their few outlets for expression. The article described one woman weaver who created the design of a falling leaf to symbolize her loss of a child.

Unfortunately, just a small fraction of Afghanistan's intricate and beautiful rugs are sold abroad as Afghan products. The reason for this is that more than 90 percent are sent to Pakistan for cutting, washing and finishing. Those carpets are exported to foreign markets with labels that say "made in Pakistan."

The Commerce Department's director of the Iraq and Afghanistan investment and reconstruction task force, Susan Hamrock Mann, says, "We're helping Afghanistan get its identity back and return the entire production to Afghanistan so that they can start stamping the carpets made in Afghanistan."

In January, the Commerce Department orchestrated the first Afghan carpet exhibition in the United States in Atlanta.

A media commentator wrote afterwards, "I've never seen anything quite like what I saw in Atlanta last week at the January rug show. Because it wasn't just another bunch of people selling another bunch of products. It was a group of people trying to change the world."

Carpet makers changing the world? As the commentator explains, his assertion was not far-fetched.

"It doesn't take an economics major to figure out that if the business climate improves over there because we are buying more of their products, then perhaps the Afghan people will be more focused on business than on some of the other things that have torn that country apart over the past 25 years," he writes. "Making rugs is a lot easier, safer and productive than making war or making drugs."

To burnish the allure of Afghan carpets at the Atlanta show, the Commerce Department arranged for rug merchants to exhibit artifacts, art work, and other textiles along with rugs to give the customers a flavor of the country's exotic culture.

Working with the Afghan government, the department helps Afghan rug merchants and government officials deal with import procedures into the United States, marketing, wholesalers, financing, transport and other issues, according to Hamrock Mann. The director and her colleagues played a key role in supporting the first Afghan International Carpet Fair, which took place in Kabul August 26-28. By the end of the third day of the fair, $3 million in sales had been rung up. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who led the U.S. delegation, said, "The industry is expected to grow substantially over the coming years, and this event is a truly historic moment in the re-emergence of Afghanistan in the global carpet market."

The next major event in the Commerce Department's efforts to integrate the Afghan carpet industry into the global market is an international rug show in Las Vegas January 28-February 1, 2008.

[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.]