In this bulletin:

• Karzai to co-chair "high-level" UN meeting on Afghanistan
• Bangladesh man kidnapped in Afghanistan
• More than a dozen rebels killed in Afghanistan
• 3 alleged Taliban kidnappers killed
• Iranian Arms Destined for Taliban Seized in Afghanistan, Officials Say
• NATO commander confirms more weapons from Iran seized
• Germany's Greens in disarray over Afghanistan
• Greens criticised for anti-Afghan mission stance
• UK slashes Afghan anti-drugs funding
• Canada should consider Afghan detention facility
• Turning ragtag Afghan warriors into cops
• AFGHANISTAN: Effects of suicide attacks extend far beyond the grave
• Osama has lot of places to hide: Rice
• Iraq and Afghanistan two sides of same coin
• Taliban stooge

Karzai to co-chair "high-level" UN meeting on Afghanistan

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United Nations would hold a special "high-level" meeting on Afghanistan during the upcoming General Assembly session, a senior UN official said here.

The "high-level" meeting to be held on September 23 on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the General Assembly would be co-chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and President Hamid Karzai.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, along with representatives of several key nations, would also attend the meeting. Expected to last nearly three hours, the meeting is being held to review progress of the mission in Afghanistan and set the pace for coming years.

"The objective of the meeting is to galvanize the international communitys long-term commitment to assist Afghanistan under the framework of the Afghanistan Compact, as well as to reaffirm the United Nations' central role in a strategically coordinated international partnership in support of Afghanistan," Nicolas Haysom, Director for Political Affairs in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, said.

"The event would also examine ways to help Afghanistan face the issues of counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, governance and regional cooperation," Haysom said.

The UN Security Council is also schedule to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan sometime around September 23 or before that. While reviewing the progress made in Afghanistan, the Security Council is expected to give a six-month extension to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan or UNAMA, whose current tenure expires on September 23.
Lalit K. Jha

Bangladesh man kidnapped in Afghanistan

by Sardar Ahmad - Sun Sep 16, KABUL (AFP) - A Bangladeshi development worker was kidnapped in Afghanistan by unknown men in a brazen daytime attack on his office, officials said Sunday -- the latest in a string of abductions of foreigners.

Six men on Saturday burst into the man's office close to the town of Pul-i-Alam, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Kabul, and "forcefully took him away," a Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) official said.

Another Bangladeshi employee from the same group was shot dead in the mountainous northeast of the country five days ago. He was working on a microfinancing project, as was the abducted man.

It was not clear who was behind the kidnapping, said the head of the non-governmental organisation's Afghan mission, Gunendu Roy.

"We could not contact him because he left his mobile on the table. No one has contacted us," he told AFP.

The insurgent Taliban movement, which has taken hostage several foreign nationals this year -- including 23 South Korean aid workers in July -- could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest kidnapping.

The governor of Logar province, Abdullah Wardak, said he suspected the kidnappers were criminals hoping to secure a ransom.

"I don't think there's a political motive behind the kidnapping," he told AFP from Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital.

"We searched for him throughout the night and are still searching, but we've not been able to find him."

The Pajhwok Afghan news agency cited local staffers saying that four of the abductors were wearing police uniforms. They also stole 35,000 afghani (700 dollars), they said, identifying the captive as a 39-year-old general manager.

Crime has soared in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, with regular reports of Afghans kidnapped by ransom-seekers and a string of foreigners being abducted, sometimes for political reasons.

The 36-hour kidnapping last month of a pregnant German woman, who was snatched from a restaurant in what is considered a safe part of Kabul, was blamed on criminals looking for cash.

BRAC has been in Afghanistan since 2002 and works on development projects, including building schools, roads and clinics. Its microfinance programmes in Afghanistan work largely with poor and disadvantaged women.

Several of its Afghan staff have been killed. In May 2005, suspected Islamic militants beat to death a mother and her two daughters who were working for BRAC.

A letter left with their bodies and attributed to a wing of the radical Hizb-i-Islami faction, which operates separately from the Taliban, said they were killed for working for the NGO, a Western official said at the time.

The first Bangladeshi staff member to die in the country was shot dead on Wednesday while travelling by motorbike in remote Badakshan province to accept loan repayments, BRAC said.

Two men arrested for the murder said they had planned to pose as the Bangladeshi and his Afghan colleague to collect the money, provincial police commander Aqa Noor Kendoz told AFP Sunday.

Insurgents linked to the Taliban are still holding a German engineer and four Afghans that they captured mid-July, also near the capital. They have said they want Taliban prisoners freed from jail in exchange for the hostages.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban in July shot dead two of their 23 South Korean captives because the government refused to release certain jailed militants.

Details about the deal that led to the release of the remainder last month are still unclear. The Taliban later said that kidnapping foreign nationals was a useful tactic to pressure the government in Kabul.

The extremist Taliban government was toppled in a US-led invasion launched weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda, which was allowed to shelter in Afghanistan and had training camps here.

More than a dozen rebels killed in Afghanistan

KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan and US-led troops backed by air forces fought new battles with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, killing more than a dozen of the rebels, officials said Sunday.

About 10 insurgents were killed early Sunday when US-led warplanes pounded militant positions in the southern province of Helmand, the US military said.

"Precision munitions were employed on locations in Garmser district where the combined forces suspected Taliban militants were hiding," a statement from the US-led coalition said. A military spokesman told AFP that about 10 rebels had been killed.

Four other rebels were killed overnight in a battle that erupted after they attacked a police post in the eastern province of Paktia, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai told AFP. Five other rebels were wounded in that attack, he added.

The attacks were the latest in an upsurge in violence over the past two years linked to the Taliban-led insurgency that was launched after the hardliners were removed from government in late 2001 by the US-led coalition.

Around 5,000 people have been killed this year, most of them rebel fighters, according to an AFP count. Nearly 550 Afghan security forces and 160 international soldiers have also died, most of them in action.

Large areas of the country are considered out of bounds for foreign nationals, and Afghans not resident there, because of the deteriorating security situation.

3 alleged Taliban kidnappers killed

Sun Sep 16, KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police killed three Taliban commanders allegedly involved in the abduction of 23 South Koreans two months ago, the Interior Ministry said.

The police operation took place Friday in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, where insurgents seized the 23 South Koreans on July 19, the Interior Ministry said.

"The commanders who were killed during this operation were directly involved in the kidnapping case of the Korean hostages," the ministry said in a statement Saturday. It did not provide any further details or the identities of the slain Taliban.

There have been several military operations in Ghazni since the release of the last of the captives on Aug. 30, possibly reflecting the Afghan government's desire to assert authority over the rebellious region following the abductions.

Earlier this month, Afghan officials said they killed a Taliban commander called Mullah Mateen, accused of being behind the kidnapping of the South Korean church workers.

Two of the Korean hostages were slain soon after the kidnapping. Two women were released during Taliban negotiations with South Korea, and the remaining 19 were freed after Seoul repeated a long-standing commitment to withdraw its 200 soldiers in Afghanistan by year's end and prevent Christian missionaries from traveling to Afghanistan.

Early Sunday in Garmsir district in the south, Afghan and coalition forces using small-arms fire and airstrikes "killed several suspected militants" during an operation, the coalition said.

Meanwhile, an estimated 40 insurgents armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades attacked an Afghan police and coalition patrol Saturday afternoon in the Musa Qala district of nearby Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement.

The joint forces repelled the attack and called in airstrikes, leaving a dozen suspected militants dead, it said.

Iranian Arms Destined for Taliban Seized in Afghanistan, Officials Say

'Large' Shipment Said to Include Armor-Piercing Bombs

By Robin Wright, Washington Post Sunday, September 16, 2007

An Iranian arms shipment destined for the Taliban was intercepted Sept. 6 by the international force in Afghanistan in what appears to be an escalating flow of weaponry between the two former enemies, according to officials from countries in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The shipment included armor-piercing bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, the sources said, which have been especially deadly when used as roadside bombs against foreign troops in Iraq. The NATO-led force interdicted two smaller shipments of similar weapons from Iran into southern Helmand province April 11 and May 3.

"It's not the fact that it's qualitatively different, but this was a large shipment which got people's attention," a U.S. official in Washington said of the most recent interception.

This time, the arms were shipped into the western province of Farah, a vast but sparsely populated area, the sources said, indicating an attempt to find routes less likely to be discovered.

"They're clearly trying to vary their routes and not get caught," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because the interdiction has not been formally publicized.

A senior Iranian official called the allegation baseless. "We have no interest in instability in Iraq or Afghanistan. We have good neighborly relations with the heads of state, who have praised Iran recently. Why should we send weapons to the opposition?" the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by the Iranian government to comment on the allegation.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, has long opposed the Taliban, a Sunni Muslim group with different ideas about society, government and religion. But their cooperation is based on common opposition to foreign, and particularly Western, troops in Afghanistan, according to the United States and officials from other countries in the international force.

"They're playing with the enemy. They have no love lost for the Taliban. The Taliban killed several Iranian diplomats. We believe it's about hurting the Americans and the international community," an official from one of the participating countries said on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence.

The Iranian arms shipments are a threat to the forces in Afghanistan but not enough to tip the balance in the Taliban's favor, the sources noted. But the explosively formed projectiles can also cause psychological and political damage because the loss of two or three troops for some of the three dozen countries in the force could lead them to reconsider their commitment, the sources added.

U.S. officials began to publicly accuse Iran of aiding the Taliban several months ago. R. Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, said in June that there was "irrefutable evidence" Iran was using its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps to arm the Taliban.

At the time, other officials were more cautious about earlier intercepted arms shipments. U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said there was no concrete evidence that the Iranian government was backing the Taliban. But he said it was possible that some elements in Iran were aiding the Taliban as a way of hedging their bets in Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said then that it was likely that Iranian officials at least knew about the shipments. "I haven't seen any intelligence specifically to this effect, but I would say, given the quantities that we're seeing, it is difficult to believe that it's associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government," he said in June.

About the same time that the officials made their statements, the NATO-led force in Afghanistan divulged for the first time that it had discovered an explosively formed projectile in Afghanistan. The bomb was found before it could detonate. Officials said they did not know the bomb's origins.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has played down accusations that Iran is seeking to undermine his government by supporting the Taliban. He has referred to the two countries as "brothers" and said Iran has taken on a constructive role in the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Correspondent Griff Witte in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

NATO commander confirms more weapons from Iran seized

Sunday, September 16, 2007- KABUL (AFP) - A convoy of explosives seized by NATO troops in Afghanistan definitely came from Iran but not necessarily from the government in Tehran, the top NATO general here said Sunday.

General Dan McNeill, head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), confirmed a report in Sunday's Washington Post which said the shipment had been discovered last week.

"The geographic origin of that convoy was clearly Iran but take note that I did not say it's the Iranian government," the US general told AFP in an interview.

"In that convoy there were explosive materials that could be made into more advanced improvised explosive devices," he said, refusing to make any further comment on the shipment, as it was still being analysed.

"It is not the first convoy that we have intercepted that had geographical origins from Iran, but it is one that has my attention."

Citing unidentified ISAF officials, The Washington Post said the weapons stash included armour-piercing bombs, which have been especially deadly when used as roadside bombs against foreign troops in Iraq.

The NATO-led force interdicted two smaller shipments of similar weapons from Iran into southern Helmand province on April 11 and May 3, the report said.

"It's not the fact that it's qualitatively different, but this was a large shipment which got people's attention," the paper quoted a US official as saying.

This time, the arms were shipped into the western province of Farah, indicating an attempt to find routes less likely to be discovered, The Washington Post said.

US and British officials have alleged for months that weapons from Iran are going to the Taliban rebels fighting the Afghan government and its international allies.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, has long opposed the Taliban, a fundamentalist Sunni group. But officials say their cooperation may be based on common opposition to the presence of foreign, and particularly Western, troops in Afghanistan.

Germany's Greens in disarray over Afghanistan

Sat Sep 15, 4:55 PM GOETTINGEN, Germany (AFP) - Germany's Green party, which when in power helped launch their country's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, on Saturday failed to agree a common line on the deployment of troops there.

A raucous party congress, aimed at bridging a deep rift over whether to pull out the military contingent, came five days before the parliament in Berlin is to discuss the issue.

A majority of the 800 delegates disavowed their leadership, rejecting a motion to unconditionally approve the planned extension of the troops' mandate.

Instead they adopted a motion setting conditions for the participation of German troops in any military operations in Afghanistan.

They also rejected any use of German Tornado reconnaissance jets in the war-torn country and sending German troops to fight in operations against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Party leader Reinhard Buetikofer warned delegates that a withdrawal from Afghanistan "now would not bring peace but a new escalation of violence, war and civil war."

Germany has pledged it will help Afghans to rebuild their country after nearly 30 years of war, he said. "I still believe this was the right thing to do and we will stand by our responsibility," he added amid heckling and booing by delegates.

Germany has deployed 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The Greens were the junior partner in a centre-left coalition headed by chancellor Gerhard Schroeder between 1998 and 2005.

NATO has led the International Security and Assistance Force, with contingents from 37 countries totalling around 39,000 men, since 2003. It has been in charge of almost all international operations in the country since the east came under its authority late last year.

Germany has also sent about 40 instructors to Afghanistan to train Afghan police officers.

More than 50 percent of Germans want an immediate withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan according to a poll carried out by the Forsa institute earlier this month.

Rejecting criticism by some political leaders and opinion polls showing waning support for the German military presence in Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday she wanted the troops' mandate to be extended.

"There is no alternative ... this military commitment is important for those who live in Afghanistan but also for the security and freedom of German citizens," she said in a video podcast on her official website.

Several hundred people protested against the German troop deployment during a march in central Berlin Saturday which ended near the parliament building.

Greens criticised for anti-Afghan mission stance

Deutsche Welle, September 16, 2007

Germany's Greens are being criticised after rank and file members voted at a special caucus to reject an extension of the country's missions in Afghanistan. The general secretary of the Christian Democrats, Ronald Pofalla, said the Greens were avoiding taking responsibility for the people in Afghanistan. Politicians from the CDU's sister party, the CSU, and the opposition Liberals were also critical of the decision. The Green delegates rejected on Saturday the motion of the party's leaders to vote for a continued participation in three Afghanistan operations. In October and November, the parliament is due to debate over an extension of the mandates.

UK slashes Afghan anti-drugs funding

By Eleanor Mayne in Kabul The Telegraph (UK) September 16, 2007

Britain has slashed funding for Afghanistan's fledgling anti-drugs ministry in a move that Afghan government officials have described as a "disaster" in the battle against opium production.

The UK spent £12.5 million hiring Adam Smith International, a firm of consultants, to offer advice on running the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics but staff there now face dramatic pay cuts, in some cases from £450 a month to £100.

A dozen staff have resigned as a result and officials fear as many as half of the 298 workers will go.

The crisis comes after Ahmad Zia Massoud, the first vice-president of Afghanistan, warned in an article for The Sunday Telegraph that Britain's anti-poppy policy in southern Afghanistan had "completely failed".

Opium production in Afghanistan has risen by 34 per cent this year and Mr Massoud described the British approach as "too soft", adding: "We are giving too much carrot and not enough stick."

Abbie Aryan, chief of staff at the ministry, said staff would take jobs with aid agencies and the United Nations rather than work for such low pay.

"Why train someone for five years then suddenly cut it off and say we are not interested?" he said. "It is a disaster. We asked if it was possible to extend this for a short period of time or make it gradual. To cut it off, that is nonsense."

Britain set up a counter-narcotics directorate in 2002. It became a ministry in 2004 and is responsible for developing policy and co-ordinating activities from drug eradication to alternative livelihoods.

Until this month the staff were paid by Britain, but the Afghan government has now taken over that responsibility. According to Mr Aryan, the total cost of the salaries to the UK was £70,000 each month.

He added: "That is the same cost as having two or three British Embassy drugs team staff with accommodation and security. To them it was nothing."

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Kabul said: "We need to see an Afghan institution built on sustainable foundations, not funded by international donors, and the move to a reformed Afghan civil servant pay scale has been a long time coming.

"This will bring them into line with the rest of the government and is a requirement of Afghan law."

The unhappiness over the salary cuts reflects a wider Afghan disaffection with international efforts to tackle the opium trade.

Canada should consider Afghan detention facility

via CTV.ca News, September 16, 2007

The Canadian Press - HALIFAX -- Ottawa should examine whether Canada needs its own detention facility in Afghanistan, a legal adviser with the Canadian Red Cross said Saturday.

"I'm not saying that it's ideal that our country detains, but it should be an option," said Isabelle Daoust during a panel discussion.

The discussion, which focused on Canada's role regarding the treatment of detainees in the war-torn country, was part of a one-day humanitarian conference at Dalhousie University.

Daoust, who's based in Ottawa, said the federal government must find a way to ensure the rights of detainees in Afghanistan are being upheld.

"That's a political decision that needs to be taken by our government," she said in an interview following the panel discussion.

There have been allegations that some prisoners taken by the Canadian military were abused after being transferred to Aghan jails.

In response to the claims, Ottawa renegotiated its prisoner transfer agreement with Afghanistan to give Canadian officials access to the detainees once they were transferred to Aghan authorities.

Amnesty International has launched a court challenge to bar Ottawa from transferring any more prisoners to the Afghan jails.

Hilary Homes, a campaigner with the human rights group, said NATO countries ultimately have to decide how to handle detainees.

"These countries have together to decide can they do something jointly," Homes, who also took part in the panel discussion, said in an interview.

"If they do that, can it also involve some Afghan officials and be part of that long-term reconstruction that needs to take place? ... There is the capacity, if they choose to have it, to detain somebody in the right conditions."

Turning ragtag Afghan warriors into cops

Canada's new focus is on training willing but inept Afghans to handle the security mission - Sep 16, 2007 04:30 AM bruce campion-smith Ottawa bureau chief Toronto Star,  Canada

ZHARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan–The sun has barely crept above the horizon when Capt. Marc-André Langelier assembles his class for morning lessons.

His pupils, Afghan police officers, gather around him, old Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders.

At first glance, they might not look like a crack fighting force. But don't underestimate their capacity to do battle.

Having fought against the Russians and the Taliban, Langelier says many of the police officers are accomplished fighters, "warriors since they were born."

But as Canada has painfully learned in recent weeks, it takes more than a fighting spirit to be a good cop; it takes honesty, discipline, organization, all qualities in short supply with the Afghan police today.

So, as Canada looks to eventually turn over responsibility for Afghanistan' s security to the country's own police and army, there's a lot riding on lessons like the one Langelier is teaching – the future of Ottawa's mission in Afghanistan.

Yesterday morning, Langelier was walking the Afghans through the basics of a foot patrol in a dusty field next to a joint Canadian-Afghan base in Zhari district near Sangasar, where Canadians have frequent contact with insurgents.

"In my country, we practise a lot before going out on a mission. That way we'll know how to react when we meet the enemy," he told the Afghans through an interpreter.

But the local police commander seems to take offence at the implication his men need lessons. He replies with a long speech that the officers know all that they need to know.

It's a frustrating two-step between the Afghans and the Canadians, complicated by the use of an interpreter. Langelier quickly turns from soldier to diplomat, assuring the commander that he's not questioning the ability of his officers.

"I'm sure that us working with you we will be able to fight the enemy," said Langelier, of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que.

"My aim is not to impose things on you but to try to understand better so we can work together."

The session ends with warm handshakes and no hard feelings. But despite the Afghan commander's assurance of his men's abilities, Langelier doesn't underestimate the job ahead of him in training the Afghans to handle their own security.

"To do the job will take years," he said in an interview. "They learn very slowly. Very few of them are literate.

"I explained some things to their commander, but I don't think he understood part of it. I will have to explain five or six times."

The story of this checkpoint offers a window into the frustrations and pitfalls of Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Over the last year, the territory around the checkpoint has been won and lost. It's in Canadian and Afghan hands again; secured in an offensive earlier this month that cost Canadian lives.

But the see-saw battles show that Canada's goal of turning over security to a troubled Afghan National Police force won't happen anytime soon. The Canadians left the Afghans in charge of this region last fall only to see it lost to insurgents this year. Now, wary about leaving the Afghans in charge again, Canadian soldiers are helping to reinforce this checkpoint and another one nearby.

"We have overestimated their capacity ... and when the fighting season came back this spring, the bad guys had the opportunity to regain some of the ground," said Col. Christian Juneau, deputy commander of the Canadian task force in Afghanistan.

"How long the Canadians stay now depends on how long it takes to build up the capacity of the police force," he said during a visit to the checkpoint yesterday.

Training the Afghan police has become a new focus for the Canadians in Afghanistan. Soldiers are teaching the Afghan police defensive techniques. A new team of military police officers is providing lessons in policing.

Juneau estimates it will be several months before the Afghan police are ready to assume complete control of the checkpoint, in an area where insurgents remain active despite the recent offensive.

Canadians and Afghans routinely come under attack during their daily patrols around the fortified stronghold. And when Juneau's convoy arrived at the checkpoint Friday night, a loud boom rocked the air as an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade smashed into a distant tree line.

"We're going to stay until they're ready because there's no point in us going out and coming back again next spring. The end state in this area really is for the Afghan security forces to have control," he said.

That's likely to take a while.

New recruits are pressed into service with no formal training. Instead, they're handed a gun, a uniform and for now, will learn on the job. But the troubles run deeper than that.

While the Canadians report good progress in training the Afghan army, the police force – ultimately the real force that will provide security in the rural areas – remains a troubled agency feared even more than the Taliban in some parts.

The police chief in Zhari district is on his way out, in part because of Canadian complaints about his performance.

"He was probably more part of the problem than the solution," Juneau said.

There are widespread problems with corruption as police squeeze bribes from local residents. Some recruits are the very militants disarmed during recent government initiatives meant to quell violence, a problem Juneau acknowledges.

"It was pretty lax with some groups of individuals," he said, adding that screening the recruits is the job of the provincial government.

"They're the ones who can say who is a bad guy, who will make a good police officer," he said.

Even the honest ones face the prospect of being murdered at their posts by insurgents while working for the equivalent of $70 a month, a salary that often goes months without being paid.

Still, officers like Saieed Mohammed are optimistic. The former army captain from Zhari district draws on a cigarette, cradles his AK-47 across his leg and says he's confident his force can handle security, even if it means making overtures to the insurgents.

"You are my brothers, come and give the hand with me to rebuild Afghanistan again," he said through an interpreter.

Mohammed admits the police force has trouble with "thieves, insurgents" in the ranks. But asked if his fellow officers can defeat the insurgents, he replies: "If they are really sincere and hard-working, they can."

AFGHANISTAN: Effects of suicide attacks extend far beyond the grave
16 Sep 2007 13:16:11 GMT

KABUL, 16 September 2007 (IRIN) - Wahidullah, 35, died in June after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a car packed with explosives near his auto-mechanic shop on Puli Charkhi Road in the eastern outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Ostensibly, the attack was targeting a convoy of NATO-led international forces that was passing down the road when it killed or wounded five Afghan civilians.

Wahidullah has left behind a family of five, desperately struggling to make ends meet. His eldest son, Samiullah, 10, now works with his uncle in a car repair garage. He dropped out of school to earn money to feed his destitute family.

"After my father died, I am the breadwinner of my family," Samiullah said, adding that for his 10-hour daily job he gets 100 Afghans (about US$2).

The boy's mother, uneducated and illiterate, adds a little to the family income by doing home-based tailoring and needlework for local customers – a job her young daughters will soon grow into.

Rise in suicide attacks

Their story is one that typifies how families struggle to cope with the loss of the head of a household in Afghanistan. This can happen in many ways, but in recent times, it has increasingly been by way of suicide attacks.

Suicide attacks are a relatively recent phenomenon in Afghanistan, with the first being the assassination of military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud on 9 September 2001, according to a UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) report released on 9 September 2007 entitled Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan.

The report goes on to say that only four suicide attacks occurred in 2003 and 2004, but 17 occurred in 2005 and 123 in 2006. In the first eight months of 2007, 125 suicide attacks have killed over 120 civilians, establishing suicide missions as an integral part of insurgent strategy.

In addition, in the first six months of this year, 36 would-be suicide attackers were prevented from detonating their explosives, the report said, adding that Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand and Khost were the top four provinces in terms of numbers of suicide attacks.

Road to suicide

Most of the suicide attacks in Kabul have happened on Puli Charkhi Road, where Wahidullah was killed and along which convoys of Afghan and international forces frequently travel.

The newly asphalted road connects Kabul to its eastern province of Nangarhar, which has a long porous border with neighbouring Pakistan. According to the UNAMA report, most suicide attackers originate from madrasas (religious schools) in Pakistani border areas.

Afghan officials say suicide attackers enter Kabul from the east and detonate their explosives mostly on Puli Charkhi Road for fear of being spotted and arrested as they drive into the capital.

"Every morning when I leave home for my job I wonder if I will return and see my family," Saeed Afzal, a bicycle repair man on Puli Charkhi Road, said.

Several shopkeepers on this main road told IRIN that customers have been avoiding traveling on it for fear of being caught in a suicide attack. As a result, their businesses have suffered.

Civilians bear the brunt

Tom Koenigs, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, said in his introduction to the recent suicide attacks report that the reason why such attacks were being highlighted in the study was because "to a greater extent than with any other form of warfare we are witnessing, the victims (around 80 percent) are civilian".

"Suicide attacks traumatise entire communities, undermine popular faith in institutions of the state, provoke responses that limit freedoms, and intimidate populations into a sense that hopes of peace rest only with the providers of violence," the UN report said.

And yet, as suicide missions are relatively cheap, unsophisticated and require no exit strategy, this war tactic continues to gain popularity with the Taliban and other insurgents fighting the government of President Hamid Karzai and his international supporters.

"It is due to the very widespread effects of these attacks that insurgents have more and more concentrated on their increase," Rohullah Amin, from the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies, told IRIN. "Nearly all suicide attackers are illiterate and brainwashed individuals who do not know about their victims."

Stopping the attacks

UNAMA believes these insurgents can be defeated if the government of Afghanistan and its international friends ensure preventative measures and address problems which contribute to suicide attacks.

"Immediate and long-term intervention in the conduct of counter-insurgency operations… extending the authority of an Afghan government that enjoys widespread legitimacy among its citizens together with an ability to provide justice and rule of law for its war-battered people," are some of the UNAMA report recommendations for tackling the problem.

Suicide attacks in Afghanistan cannot be dealt with solely through military means, experts warn. "End poverty, unemployment and illiteracy and there will be no suicide attack in the country," said Amir Khisraw, an Afghan scholar.

Osama has lot of places to hide: Rice

NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden has lot of places to hide in Afghanistan and Pakistan and it is extremely difficult to nab him due to the difficult rugged terrain there.

But the Bush administration is committed to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, she said in an interview with a television channel. "The hard part is that he has a lot of places to hide," Rice said.

Explaining reasons why Osama bin Laden has not been caught so far, Rice said: "If you flew over Afghanistan and Pakistan, you would immediately see the problem - high mountains with caves and holes - and it's just difficult to find somebody like that." The US President, George Bush, has said several times in the past that his administration wants to catch Osama bin Laden dead or alive.

Regarding the recent video message of the al-Qaeda mastermind, Rice said: "The interesting thing is this that he is not somebody who's out there bravely leading the fight."

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic leaders continued to criticize the Bush administration for abandoning Afghanistan for Iraq as a result of which terrorists in Afghanistan have emerged much stronger than ever.

Participating in a presidential forum debate, sponsored by Slate, Yahoo and Huffington Post, key Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Christopher Dodd said Afghanistan had emerged as an epicentre of terrorism and there was need to put more focus on this South Asian country than Iraq.

 Responding to a question from moderator Charlie Rose, he said: We have got a major issue in Afghanistan that we do not talk about. But we know that this is deteriorating. The Taliban is emerging more strongly than ever. Al-Qaeda seems to be fine. Here's Osama Bin Laden issuing proclamations from either Pakistan or Afghanistan."
Lalit K. Jha

Iraq and Afghanistan two sides of same coin
Sep 16, 2007 04:30 AM Haroon Siddiqui Toronto Star

On the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Canadians have been inundated with what are largely American concerns:

Is it time to scale back the annual commemoration at the World Trade Centre?

What to make of the week-long photo-op by Gen. David Petraeus, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and President George W. Bush?

How many troops can be pulled out of Iraq and when?

Why can't the Democratic Congress tame this White House?

Understandable as these preoccupations are, they blur the big picture that concerns Canadians.

Iraq is a doomed enterprise, arguably worse than Vietnam, its domino effect reaching the West in the form of terrorism, increasingly homegrown.

Iraq is the central but not the only element in the disastrous policies that have destabilized the Muslim world and unleashed civil wars.

Others are the failed War on Terror, the tottering mission in Afghanistan, the tragedy of the Israeli Occupied Territories and the increasing instability of Lebanon, plus Washington's war of words against Syria, Iran, even Pakistan.

On the domestic front – besides Guantanamo Bay, Maher Arar, etc. – Islamophobia is creeping up in Canada, Quebec in particular.

Ontario is not immune, as we saw during the so-called "sharia" debate and may see in the debate on John Tory's ill-advised idea of funding private schools, opposition to which is no longer driven by anti-Catholic bigotry but fear of Islamic schools, about which we'll no doubt be told some horror stories soon.

Whatever damage this does to that beleaguered minority, its greater danger is in rattling all of us to the point of irrationality, as illustrated by the furor over veiled women voters. Politicians are ordering the chief electoral officer to, in effect, break the law to favour mob rule.

This potential undermining of our democratic institutions is the inevitable outcome of the post-9/11 politics of fear, just as terrorism is of the wars on and in Muslim lands.

All this underscores the need for a holistic view of the world, difficult as it is amid the CNN-ization of our media and the Americanization of our politics under Stephen Harper.

America is mired in Iraq and we are mired in Afghanistan. Bush does not have a clear exit strategy there, nor does Harper in Afghanistan. The instincts of both are to keep the wars going and "win." Yet neither quite knows how.

There are other parallels, though the Afghan mission has the approval of the United Nations, and cannot be abandoned for fear of creating a failed state there.

Both missions are hobbled by similar man-made problems – an inability to provide security for parts of the population or the essentials of life; too much infrastructure destroyed; too many civilians killed; too much reliance on warfare, not all successful, as territory is won and territory is lost and must be re-won; too many suicide attacks and roadside bombs.

The political rhetoric is also the same: We'll stand down in Iraq (Afghanistan) when Iraqis (Afghans) stand up. We are there to keep us safe from terrorists. Or, to spread democracy and liberate women.

Washington blames Nuri al-Maliki, Ottawa Hamid Karzai. But the two are not the real problem any more than Mahmoud Abbas in West Bank or Fouad Siniora in Lebanon. Bush blames Syria and Iran, and Harper Pakistan. Mischief-makers as those regimes are, they, too, are not the real problem.

The problems are the policies.

More and more allies understand. Distancing itself from Washington, Britain has abandoned Basra city to the mercies of Shiite militias. The Germans and other NATO allies won't join us in southern Afghanistan. Either they are cowards or they are smarter than us.

Unless Ottawa comes to grips with these realities, Harper will be spinning his wheels as much as Bush – at the expense of our troops, our international credibility and, more ominously, perhaps our security.
Haroon Siddiqui, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday in the World & Comment section and Sunday in the A section.

Taliban stooge

Yvonne Ridley Is A Strident Apologist For Islamist Terrorists. So What Is She Doing At Canadian Islamic Congress Fundraisers?

Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Muslim Turkey doesn't allow it. Neither does Muslim Jordan. Nor Muslim Iran. Veils in the voting booth, that is. Moreover, no Muslim organization in Canada is asking for faceless voting, and some are downright opposed to it. There seems to be only one Muslim in Canada at the moment making an issue out of it.

Visiting globetrotter Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist who catapulted to celebrity after 11 days of captivity by the Taliban in 2001 turned her into an Islamist apologist, and who later converted to Islam, has accused Canadian politicians of Islamophobia, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of racism for voicing opposition to face-concealed voting.

At a fundraising dinner for the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) in Montreal I attended last Friday, keynote speaker Ridley challenged the women in the audience to "put on a niqab" (i.e., face veil) on voting day -- an exhortation that drew a round of applause.

Ridley's agenda in stirring up grievance around such a trifle is doubtless what has become her stock in trade: Nurturing Muslim revanchism and fomenting tension between Muslims and their fellow citizens.

Take a closer look at the woman the CIC saw fit to honour:

Like many other adult converts, Ridley went from Islamic zero to zealotry after she became a Muslim in 2003. She adopted colourful Middle Eastern garb and the hijab, issued savage denunciations of the United States, Israel and Tony Blair, and became a strident apologist for the worst of the worst of Islamist terrorists.

Apart from the Islamist fringe and the far left, Ridley has lost whatever personal and professional credibility she once enjoyed. She was even fired by al-Jazeera after a brief stint for her "overly-vocal and argumentative style." She joined disgraced MP George Galloway's pro-Islamist RESPECT party in Britain, and subsequently lost three elections in a row with ever-diminishing support (6.4% in the 2005 general election). She is now reduced to shilling for Iran's oppressive regime on PRESS TV, a 24-hour news channel, and peddling endless reprisals of her Taliban adventure to the curious and uncritical.

Controversy dogs her. In 2006 she outlined her viewpoint in a debate at Imperial College London as "pretty much in line with Hamas." She defended the utility of British Muslims watching videos of Iraqi insurgents beheading hostages as a necessary counterpoint to Western media propaganda. When Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev, the mastermind of both the Moscow theatre hostage crisis and Beslan school massacre, was killed, Ridley opined that he had become a shaheed (i.e., martyr) whose place in paradise was now assured.

Most problematic for Canadians, who appreciate that our security depends on Muslim co-operation in identifying jihadist elements amongst them, Ridley is on record counselling British Muslims "to boycott the police and refuse to co-operate with them in any way, shape or form." For this pernicious advice alone, the CIC must realize that her views are more than incompatible with Canadian values: They run dangerously counter to Canadians' national security.

In addition to her obsessive Islamocentrism, Ridley's Friday night speech revealed a narcissism that has her bizarrely detached from objective reality. Particularly surreal was the sitcom-storyboard pitch of her Afghanistan adventure: Set in rubble-strewn Kabul instead of verdant Sherwood Forest, nevertheless the nostalgically backlit narrative of her sojourn with the Taliban evoked a latter day Maid Marian kidnapped by a turbaned version of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.

In Ridley's weirdly jolly, revisionist account, the Taliban come off as roguish and unsophisticated, but well-meaning idealists who accepted her rudeness, cursing and spitting with bemused tolerance: "The harder I pushed them, the nicer they were to me!" (By the Prophet's beard, what zany prank will this English spitfire Ridley think of next?!). Not a word about the Taliban's notoriously ruthless oppression of Afghans, especially women.

On the contrary. "Thank God," Ridley twinkled mockingly, "I was captured by the (air quotes) 'most evil regime in the world' and not by the Americans." She spoke more respectfully of her Taliban warders than of the "happy clappy" Evangelical Christian prisoners with whom she was briefly incarcerated, whose daily prayer sessions "tortured me."

Ridley closed her remarks with a wistful recollection of a previous fundraiser where she had raised thousands of pounds by waving a Hezbollah flag: "I wish I had that flag tonight."

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and officially recognized as such in Canada. And whether one approves or not, Canada is at war against the Taliban. Ridley's laundering of the latter and support for the former are, or should be, offensive to all Canadians.

The CIC erred in lending its name to the odious views of this Islamist dupe. I hope its leadership will not compound the mistake by reflexively adopting the Ridley strategy of labelling legitimate opinion as Islamophobia. From now on Yvonne Ridley should be persona non grata amongst all Canadian Muslims.

[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.]