In this bulletin:

• Karzai safe after strike by gunmen at Kabul parade
• Authorities probe attack on Afghanistan's president
• World Condemns attack on Karzai
• Iran Condemns Attack on Afghan President
• Canada condemns attack against Afghan leader
• German Chancellor Expresses Regret Over Kabul Attack
• Brains, not brawn, in Afghanistan
• Top Pakistan militant halts talks
• German Foreign Minister Apologises To Afghan Trade Minister Amin Farhang
• Afghan trade minister says bugging affair is "over"
• US-trained Afghan fighters hit Taliban
• Australian killed in Afghanistan
• Militants behead 'spy' in Pakistani tribal area: police
• US working to link subcontinent with C. Asia
• Kabul business choked by fear and corruption
• Making Their Own Mistakes
• No Afghan spring
• Afghanistan: Taliban Evolves Into Network Of Groups
• Turkmen, Iranian Presidents Moving Ahead With Rival Pipelines
• Prince Harry to get campaign medal for Afghan stint
• AFGHAN FIREFIGHTERS AND JOURNALIST ARRIVE IN VICTORIA

Karzai safe after strike by gunmen at Kabul parade

GRAEME SMITH – Globe and Mail, April 28, 2008

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- President Hamid Karzai and hundreds of his guests scrambled to get away from gunfire and explosions during a deadly Taliban attack on a celebration in the heart of the capital city yesterday, as a parade showcasing Afghanistan's military strength turned into the latest display of the country's fragility.

Canadian Ambassador Arif Lalani was in the front row of foreign dignitaries standing to Mr. Karzai's left when the crack of gunshots interrupted a live band playing the national anthem. Three people were killed in the chaos: a parliamentarian, a 10-year-old boy and a local Shia leader.

They had gathered to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet-backed regime, and watch ranks of Afghan soldiers marching past three canopied platforms containing many of the most prominent figures in the country. "It was meant to be a normal march past," Mr. Lalani said afterward. "It was disrupted by gunfire."

The Canadian ambassador refused to say how close the bullets came to his own position, but Afghan officials say he was likely less than 100 metres from the platform where gunfire hit two parliamentarians and others threw themselves to the ground. Bodyguards pulled the Canadian diplomat and other dignitaries into sport-utility vehicles and sped away.

It remains unclear what weapons were used in the attack, and how the Taliban got past the heightened security during one of the country's biggest annual holidays. A spokesman for the insurgents said the assassination team consisted of six men armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests. No suicide bombing was reported, but witnesses said they saw mortars strike nearby. Some officials also expressed doubt about whether the attack was a serious assassination attempt, saying the shooters were too far away to aim at Mr. Karzai with any accuracy.

Several accounts described shots coming from a three-storey building near the parade grounds, while others said the assailants had disguised themselves with military uniforms in the assembled ranks of the Afghan army.

Mr. Karzai later appeared on state television, telling viewers that "everything is okay," and the Canadian ambassador emphasized the same assurances. "Frankly, I don't want to sensationalize it," Mr. Lalani said. "I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood they shouldn't get alarmed by it."

Others reacted differently. Television footage showed Afghan soldiers fleeing in a panic, and a British diplomat said the scene felt like a battlefield. "It was pretty chaotic," the diplomat said.

Still, some observers say a greater disaster was likely avoided because the Afghan security forces did not react by shooting into the crowd, as happened in previous attacks. A suicide bombing that killed six parliamentarians in November at Baghlan, in northern Afghanistan, started a spate of panicked shooting by Afghan bodyguards, and the gunfire was later blamed for the majority of the 70 deaths in that incident.

Mr. Karzai has survived at least three other attempts on his life, but none of them happened in the capital. The latest attack was widely viewed as a symbol of the country's deteriorating security.

"It's a very bad experience for us, even by the standards of the last 30 years of war," said Safia Siddiqi, a member of parliament. The annual victory celebrations had never been halted by violence, she said, despite the intense civil war that followed the expulsion of Soviet forces.

"Security in Afghanistan is, of course, getting worse," she said. Prakhar Sharma, head of research at the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies in Kabul, said the Taliban are showing a worrying new sophistication in their high-profile attacks.

Once ridiculed as the least-effective suicide bombers in the world, and regularly mocked by their NATO opponents for their poor marksmanship, certain Taliban groups have demonstrated newfound proficiency with attacks that defeated some of the toughest security precautions in the country - most spectacularly, by invading the well-guarded Serena Hotel in Kabul earlier this year.

"They are better trained and co-ordinated," Mr. Sharma said. "It's a completely different story now, in terms of lethality."

Recent studies have disagreed about whether the Afghan conflict is spreading beyond the Pashtun tribal lands in the south and east of the country. The United Nations' latest security assessment, in December, showed deepening insecurity in the Pashtun areas but little spread into other provinces; the Red Cross has disagreed, saying its network is reporting a rise of violence in new parts of the country.

Mr. Sharma's group has studied vulnerable provinces in the north, and concluded that the insurgency has made some limited geographic gains.

"They are getting more effective at targeting areas beyond the southern and eastern belt," he said. "They have more capability to strike in the north, especially in the capital."

Afghan police have reportedly detained dozens of people for questioning over the incident. An Afghan official in the capital said suspicion will likely fall on Mr. Karzai's own security forces, as investigators try to learn how the Taliban planned their attack on an event whose details were secret.

Authorities probe attack on Afghanistan's president

By AMIR SHAH – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security officials hunted Monday for suspects in the attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai during an attack that killed three people and underscored the fragility of his U.S.-backed government.

Militants also wounded eight people when they fired rockets and automatic rifles at Karzai and other dignitaries during a Sunday ceremony in Kabul to mark the mujahedeen victory over the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault, which sent Karzai and foreign ambassadors scurrying for cover. Three of the attackers were killed, the government said, but the Taliban said additional attackers were involved.

Sunday's strike launched so close to Karzai was a serious security lapse at a time when the Afghan police and army are expanding and the government is demanding greater control of security, still provided in much of the country by U.S. and NATO-led forces.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the defense ministry, said that the authorities were investigating who could have helped the assailants perpetrate the attack.

The gunfire apparently came from a three-story guesthouse about 300 yards from the stands where Karzai was seated alongside Cabinet ministers and senior diplomats, who all escaped unharmed.

Residents said a 30-minute gunbattle broke out between security forces and gunmen holed up in the guesthouse.

On Monday, Afghan troops were deployed in parts of the city where government officials and foreigners live, while investigators still focused on the area where the attack was launched.

About 100 people were rounded up for questioning, an Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Some of those detained have since been freed, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.

Lawmaker Fazel Rahman Samkanai, who was about 30 yards from the president, was killed in the attack. Nasir Ahmad Latefi, a local Shiite leader, and a 10-year boy also died.

Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak said three attackers were killed by security forces, and assault rifles and machine guns were confiscated.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said six militants were sent to target the president, and three them died. He said they were armed with guns, rockets and suicide vests although no suicide bombings were reported.

The initial moments of the attack, which came as a marching band played the national anthem, were broadcast live until TV transmissions were cut. Hundreds of dignitaries could be seen diving for cover.

Less than two hours later, Karzai appeared on state-run TV and said "everything is OK." Appearing calm and smiling, Karzai said "the enemy of Afghanistan" tried to disrupt the ceremony but was thwarted. He said several suspects were arrested.

The live coverage of the assassination attempt will add to the sense of insecurity in the Afghan capital, which has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting has escalated between Taliban insurgents and NATO and U.S.-led forces. The attack raises questions about the ability of the intelligence service, police and army to provide adequate security in the heart of the city.

The fighting left about 8,000 dead last year, mostly militants in the south and east of the country, where Karzai's government has only a tenuous grip and little public support.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer joined several foreign leaders, including neighboring Pakistan, in condemning Sunday's attack.

"The Taliban has demonstrated once again that they will use the most extreme violence to oppose Afghanistan's freedom and democratic development," de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

In eastern Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan army troops fought off coordinated insurgent attacks, leaving a dozen militants dead and a dozen others wounded, a U.S. military statement said Monday.

As many as 40 insurgents attacked five military outposts on Sunday in Korangal Valley of volatile eastern Kunar province, using small arms fire, rockets and mortars, the statement said.

The joint force returned fire and called in airstrikes that left 12 militants dead and 12 others wounded, the coalition said. No U.S. or Afghan soldiers were hurt.

World Condemns attack on Karzai

AFP 04.28.06 – International leaders denounced the Taliban-claimed attack on President Hamid Karzai, which left three dead during Victory Day celebrations in Kabul.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon led international condemnation of an extremist attack which saw Afghan President Hamid Karzai survive a hail of rockets and bullets that killed three people.
  
"I condemn in the strongest terms the attack against President Karzai that occurred at a victory parade in Kabul today," the UN secretary general said in a statement Sunday.
  
The extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack which they said showed their ability to strike "wherever we want to" but also saw three gunmen shot dead by security forces, the Afghan defence ministry said.
  
"This attack against the legitimate institutions of the Afghan state and the Afghan people is unacceptable," Ban said.
  
French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier slammed the "cowardly" and "odious" attack, vowing France's "resolute and constant" support for efforts to stabilize the country, in a latter to Karzai.
  
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Karzai to express her "dismay" over the attack. “The chancellor assured him that Germany will remain closely engaged by Afghanistan's side," Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said in a statement.
  
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani assured Afghanistan of his support to defeat the "common enemy" and overcome "terrorism and extremism."

"We are greatly relieved and grateful to Allah that no harm has come to His Excellency Hamid Karzai," he said, in a statement condemning the attack.
  
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee described the attack as "dastardly" and expressed relief that Karzai was unhurt. He also "underscored the need for the international community to show zero tolerance for terrorism," a foreign ministry statement said.
  
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" in Kabul, saying in a statement: "This senseless act of violence injured and killed innocent Afghans, including civilians and security personnel."
  
"This attack will not deter us in our support for the Afghan people, President Karzai and the Afghan government," he said.
  
Ban also reaffirmed UN support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan "through legitimate state institutions, in a manner that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable and that provides both justice and security."
  
And he urged the international community and the Afghan government to continue their joint efforts towards these goals, "undeterred by vicious attacks such as the one today."
  
Karzai escaped unharmed Sunday after militants attacked a high-profile military parade with rockets and gunfire, killing three people including an MP and wounding around 10.
  
The annual Victory Day parade -- which normally includes a display of troops, tanks and aircraft -- is a show of might for the Afghan army, which was in ruins at the fall of the Taliban regime and is being rebuilt with international help, notably from the United States.
  
The attack was broadcast live on television and about an hour later Karzai appeared on camera to reassure the public and announce some of the attackers had already been caught.
  
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said earlier it was clear the radical Taliban aimed to topple the Afghan government and terrorise those working to rebuild the war-ravaged country.
  
"This cannot and will not succeed," Steinmeier said.

Iran Condemns Attack on Afghan President

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini condemned a Taliban assassination plot against Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Hosseini criticized the attempt on the Afghan president's life on the anniversary of the downfall of the communist government of Afghanistan in 1992, a press tv report said.

"The terrorist attempt on the occasion of the victory of the Muslim nation of Afghanistan only serves the aims of the enemies of peace and stability in the country," he maintained.

Karzai, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past, is one of the prime targets for Afghan insurgents.

"Today, the enemies of Afghanistan, the enemies of Afghanistan's security and progress tried to disrupt the ceremony and cause disorder and terror," Karzai said in a televised appearance to reassure citizens of his wellbeing.

Canada condemns attack against Afghan leader

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier on Sunday strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" in Kabul in which Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unharmed.

"Canada strongly condemns the terrorist attack at today's ceremony in Kabul," Bernier said in a statement. "This senseless act of violence injured and killed innocent Afghans, including civilians and security personnel."

As well, Bernier said Canada has conveyed its support to Karzai's office, through its ambassador to Afghanistan, Arif Lalani, who was at the event but was not injured.

"This attack will not deter us in our support for the Afghan people, President Karzai and the Afghan government," he said.

Karzai escaped unharmed Sunday after militants attacked a high-profile military parade with rockets and gunfire, killing three people including an MP and wounding around 10.

The extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack which they said showed their ability to strike "wherever we want to" but saw three gunmen shot dead by security forces, the defense ministry said.

German Chancellor Expresses Regret Over Kabul Attack

DW - The German chancellor and other world leaders have condemned an assassination attempt on Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. They reiterated their commitment to securing peace in the country.

In a telephone call with Karzai on Sunday, April 27, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her "dismay" over a fatal terrorist attack in Kabul earlier that day.

She had asked Karzai to pass on her sympathies to the victims' families, Merkel's spokesman said in a statement. The attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, killed three people -- a parliamentarian, the head of a minority group and a 10-year-old -- and wounded 10 others.

President Karzai escaped unharmed. Gunfire erupted at an event in the capital city marking the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Afghan communist government. The numerous dignitaries present were quickly whisked to safety.

Taliban sources said three of their members were killed when they exchanged fire with security forces at the event. NATO, which leads the 47,000-member international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, condemned the attack.

"NATO will continue to support the Afghan government and people in defending their security and their democracy," said the military alliance's head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in a statement.

He added that the assault showed the Taliban is willing to turn to violence to counteract Afghanistan's democratic development.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Sunday's attack "unacceptable," reiterated his support for reconstruction in Afghanistan and called on the international community to continue their efforts.

Karzai has survived several assassination attempts since he came to power after US and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

Brains, not brawn, in Afghanistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Sunday's brazen attack on a military parade in the Afghan capital Kabul at which President Hamid Karzai was officiating marks the beginning of a new phase in the Afghan insurgency in which attrition will be the focus.

Taliban fighters armed with machine guns and grenade launchers sent salvos into the back of the stage on which Karzai was seated with a host of Afghan and foreign dignitaries gathered to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the last communist government.

Three Afghans and three Taliban were killed. Sunday's event was also aimed at showcasing the Afghan army's new training and equipment, mainly from the United States. It had been planned for weeks and security was at maximum levels, yet the Taliban came within 500 meters of the stage.

Sunday's attackers penetrated no fewer than 18 security rings around the parade's venue and they used their latest weaponry - small mortars that are only manufactured by a few Western countries, including Israel. In Al-Qaeda adds muscle to the Taliban's fight (Asia Times Online, April 19, 2008) it was reported how the Taliban will use specialized weapons to launch precision attacks on high-profile targets.

Asia Times Online contacts say the armed men belonged to legendary Afghan mujahid Jalaluddin Haqqani's network and were facilitated by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami network in Kabul. Hekmatyar is an Afghan warlord and politician par excellence.

Ironically, Sunday's parade celebrated the victory of the mujahideen over the communists, which in turn led to several years of the country's worst-ever factional fighting until the student militia - the Taliban movement - seized power in 1996 and kicked out all the mujahideen leaders from governance.

The parade was attended by senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and United Nations officials, tribal leaders, diplomats and parliamentarians and was the most high-profile assault by anti-Western coalition militants since the suicide attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul on January 14.

The incident serves as a sharp reminder to people in the capital that the Taliban are not a spent force, as senior US commanders in Afghanistan like to relate.

Last week, Karzai criticized US-led coalition forces for their conduct in the "war on terror" in Afghan villages, alleging the real terrorist threat lay in the sanctuaries of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.

These differences highlight the complex nature of the struggle in Afghanistan, and the constant changes both sides make as they try to exploit and bleed each other's weak spots.

The Taliban, for instance, have forgone their traditional direct-confrontation offensives against NATO's powerful war machine, while NATO is becoming less reliant on indiscriminate large-scale aerial bombing.

The Taliban tried to chop off NATO's supply lines through Khyber Agency in Pakistan, and this time NATO responded with intelligence rather than bullets, managing to get the Taliban's key patron in the agency to change sides. (See Taliban bitten by a snake in the grass Asia Times Online, April 26, 2008.)

This month, US-led troops and Afghan security forces, backed by air power, reported they had killed a "significant" number of militants in a fight in the northeast province of Nuristan.

Initial reports said the attack involved Hekmatyar's fighters. However, the operation was conducted by a special Taliban guerilla group commanded by Shaheen Abid, whom Asia Times Online interviewed last November at Nawa Pass on the Pakistan border with Afghanistan. (See Death by the light of a silvery moon.)

In a change from previous years, NATO has made it a priority to understand the workings of the Taliban. So it was able to identify Abid as the leader of the attack, and tracked him back to Nawa Pass, where he was placed under surveillance.

On April 22, Abid's group launched another attack, on the Afghan National Army in eastern Afghanistan. But this time his movements were followed, and while returning to Nawa Pass he and nine of his group were killed.

By being smart, rather than relying on "smart bombs", NATO has eliminated a highly skilled Taliban combat group.

Similarly, commanders such as Haqqani have refined their methods, in Haqqani's case by orchestrating suicide attacks and missions such as Sunday's in Kabul.

Indeed, the Taliban have lined up a stream of attackers to target Kabul to rattle the Afghan government and NATO forces in coming days and weeks.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

Top Pakistan militant halts talks

BBC (04.28.08) - A top Taleban commander in Pakistan has halted peace talks with the government, his spokesman says. Last week Baitullah Mehsud ordered a ceasefire amid reports that he was close to reaching a peace deal with the new government.

But his spokesman says talks have broken down because the government refuses to order troops out of the tribal areas by the Afghan border. The government says it will deal with militants by dialogue and development.

Baitullah Mehsud is the man the Pakistani authorities say ordered the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

"The government refused to pull out its forces from the tribal areas which forced Mehsud to call off the talks," Mehsud's spokesman Maulvi Omar, told the AFP news agency.

However the spokesman said that they did not plan to start fighting again at this stage. "Taleban remain firm in the ceasefire but Mehsud warned that if the government launched any action his fighters would retaliate," Maulvi Omar said.

Last week Mehsud's fighters issued pamphlets containing his order for his fighters to stop fighting. They said that anyone found violating the order would be punished.

Baitullah Mehsud's stronghold is in South Waziristan, an area that has seen many of the heaviest clashes between militants and the security forces in recent years.

American officials cautiously support the new government's efforts to reach peace through talks.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that previous deals have turned the tribal areas into a sanctuary for Taleban and al-Qaeda-linked militants from where they have launched attacks in Afghanistan.

They also began hitting Pakistani targets when the army tried to stop them. Baitullah Mehsud is said to command about 20,000 pro-Taleban militants and a majority of them belong to the Mehsud tribe.

The previous government, that supported President Musharraf, said it had evidence from phone intercepts that Mehsud had organised the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi in December. He denies the charge.

German Foreign Minister Apologises To Afghan Trade Minister Amin Farhang

4/26/2008 1:35:04 PM German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier apologized to Afghan trade minister Amin Farhang for spying by the Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND. An Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman said the apology was accepted.

German media had reported last week that the BND had spied on the Afghan trade minister and a German journalist.

It is said that the BND could face legal action over claims it spied on Suzanne Koelbl, a reporter for Der Spiegel, and Afghan trade minister Amin Farhang in 2006. Der Spiegel said the head of the BND, Ernst Uhrlau, had apologised to Koelbl for monitoring e-mails to the trade minster. Farhang said the BND has endangered his life.

A German parliamentary committee investigating the affair condemned the fact that Uhrlau had not informed the government or the committee about the case.

Afghan trade minister says bugging affair is "over"

Posted April 28th, 2008 by Sahil Nagpal

Kabul  -  Afghan Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview Monday that as far as he was concerned the affair surrounding his being monitored by the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, was over.

Farhang said: "I do not want relations between Afghanistan and Germany to be disrupted. We owe Germany a lot. But I also do not want a repeat of such incidents."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had apologized to him on Sunday and assured him that "such things will never happen again."

However, Farhang also said: "Naturally, I am sad and disappointed that they invaded my private space," adding, he still did not know why BND had chosen to bug him. "They have not given me a reason. That hit me hardest because I spent half of my life in Germany."

Farhang stressed that contrary to German media reports, he no longer had a German passport.

"I was the first minister who gave up dual nationality after the new constitution was passed," he said and termed claims that he still had German citizenship "absurd." (dpa)

US-trained Afghan fighters hit Taliban

Commandos will replace Americans - By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post  |  April 27, 2008

KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Night after night, commandos in US Chinook helicopters descend into remote Afghan villages, wielding M-4 rifles as they swarm Taliban compounds.

Such raids began in December in the Sabari District here, long considered too dangerous for US patrols, and have already resulted in the death or capture of 30 insurgent leaders in eastern Afghanistan, according to American commanders.

"The Americans are doing this," the Taliban fighters concluded, according to US intelligence.

But though the commandos carry the best US rifles, wear night-vision goggles, and ride in armored Humvees, they are not Americans but Afghans - trained and advised by US special forces teams that are seeking to create a sustainable combat force that will ultimately replace them in Afghanistan.

"This is our ticket out of here," a special forces company commander said last month at a US base in Khost, where his teams eat, sleep, train, and fight alongside the commandos.

The creation of a 4,000-strong Afghan commando force marks a major evolution for US special forces in Afghanistan.

After small teams of Green Berets spearheaded the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, they took the lead in combat, with the disparate Afghan militia forces they trained and paid playing a supporting role.

Today, by contrast, the special forces advisers are putting the Afghan commandos in the lead - coaching a self-reliant force that American commanders say has emerged as a key tool against insurgents.

Three of six planned Afghan army commando battalions - with 640 commandos each - have begun operations over the past five months.

US commanders say hurdles remain, from basic logistical issues such as teaching the commandos to conserve water to the larger challenge of ensuring that they are well integrated into the regular Afghan Army.

Still, the program is a bright spot in the broader effort to train Afghan security forces, a crucial aspect of the NATO and US-led strategy to stabilize Afghanistan - one that is slowed by a shortage of thousands of trainers and recruits as well as equipment problems.

The new approach also offers the prospect of relief for the special forces, strained by years of deployments in Afghanistan, commanders say.

At any one time, more than 2,000 special forces soldiers and support personnel are on the ground, many operating in 12-man teams partnered with Afghan forces in the country's most troubled districts.

In violent parts of Khost and elsewhere, the commandos play a narrow but critical role: They capture or kill insurgent leaders, financiers, and bombmakers as the first phase of the strategy to clear areas of enemy cells, hold the territory, and build security and governance.

The need for an Afghan force that is skilled in attacking insurgent networks is particularly pressing, as roadside bombs and suicide attacks have increased since 2006

Australian killed in Afghanistan

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Taliban militants attacked an Australian patrol with automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades in southern Afghanistan, and the ensuing battle left one of the commandos dead and four others wounded, officials said Monday.

The battle occurred Sunday in Uruzgan province about 16 miles southeast of the town of Tirin Kot, said Air Marshal Angus Houston, the chief of Australia's defense forces.

Taliban gunmen opened fire on the elite Australian Special Forces troops without warning, Houston said.

"The commandos were involved in a deliberate assault. They were out in the open and, as they were doing their preparations, they were engaged by the Taliban," Houston said. "There was a heavy exchange of fire." He said he did not have information on Taliban casualties.

Australians should brace themselves for more casualties in Afghanistan in the months head, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned Monday.

Rudd said Australia's 1,000 troops in Afghanistan will face a more "difficult and dangerous and bloody" campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents as the winter snow melts with spring.

"This toll will become worse. Let's accept that reality and prepare ourselves for it," Rudd told reporters in the national capital Canberra.

Lance Cpl. Jason Marks, 27, was killed in the fighting and four other Australians were seriously wounded Sunday. They were airlifted to medical treatment and their wounds were not considered life threatening, Houston said.

Australia joined the U.S.-led attack to unseat the Taliban regime from power in 2001, and still has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan. Marks is the fifth Australian soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan.

The attack came hours after militants made an apparent assassination attempt on the Afghan president at a ceremony in the capital, Kabul, on Sunday. They missed their target but killed three other people and wounded eight.

Militants behead 'spy' in Pakistani tribal area: police

WANA, Pakistan (AFP) — Pro-Taliban militants beheaded a policeman in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan on Monday after accusing him of spying for security forces, police said.

The body of 35-year-old Shaukat Khan was found dumped in a field at Dabar village in the tribal zone of South Waziristan, a day after he was abducted by gunmen, senior police officer Mumtaz Zarin told AFP.

A note found near the body said he was involved in the killing of Islamist warlord Nek Mohammad in a suspected US missile strike in June 2004 in the region, Zarin said.

"He had admitted his role in providing intelligence to the authorities," the note said. "We have repeatedly said we will teach such people a lesson."

Khan had been working as a tribal policeman at the local administration office in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, which is inundated with Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants have killed several tribesmen in recent months over allegations that they were spying for Pakistani forces in the tribal areas and US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's new government is in talks with local militants over a possible peace pact and a key commander in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, last week declared a ceasefire with the military.

US working to link subcontinent with C. Asia

WASHINGTON, April 27: Pakistan and Afghanistan enjoy a pivotal role in US policies which also envisage India playing a key role in the region.

“Everybody (benefits) from India with a potential new source of energy and a place to export to, to Pakistan, which becomes a logical port and hub for a lot of this trade,” says US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

“Afghanistan, which becomes a transit point and contributor to the trade, or Central Asia which in addition to their ties to Russia, China, and Europe gets to open up another set of export routes and avenues,” he added.

But a transcript titled “The year ahead in South and Central Asia” released at the weekend, acknowledges that this goal cannot be achieved unless there’s stability in both Afghanistan in Pakistan.

Interestingly, there is no mention of Iran, an oil-rich country with borders and influence in both South and Central Asia.

Mr Boucher, however, does talk about a US suggestion to Indian leaders that they should ask Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to abandon Iran’s nuclear programme when he visits New Delhi on Tuesday.

Mr Boucher also failed to mention the Iran-Pakistan-India gas project Mr Ahmadinejad hopes to finalise during his visit.

The US opposes any major investment in an Iranian project.

Instead, Mr Boucher underlined US efforts to link Central and South Asia through Afghanistan. He pointed out that the US, Japan, China, the Asian Development Bank and others were building roads between Central and South Asia, including one that links the Kazakh city of Almaty to Karachi.

“That’s new. That’s different. That’s good. And that’s an opportunity,” he said. The US, he said, was working with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to develop electricity lines for Afghanistan and with Tajikistan to help bring electricity to Pakistan.

Kabul business choked by fear and corruption

von Jon Boone (Kabul) – Financial Times (Germany) 4.25.08

Kidnappings, killings and organised crime together with huge power and infrastructure problems are hampering Afghanistan's attempts to improve its economy. With Business leaders accusing the Afghan government of incompetence, investors are looking to neighbouring countries.

Mohammad Mirza Kundazi, a goods importer with a sideline in money changing, haggled his own ransom down to $100,000 from $2m seven days after being bundled into a car outside his house last month but his kidnapping, and others like it, are costing his country much more.

On his release from the toilet in which he was chained throughout the ordeal, Mr Kundazi joined a growing band of Afghan entrepreneurs who are moving their businesses to Dubai or at the least scrapping investment projects.

Cases such as his are, the Afghan business community says, damaging the country's efforts to build its economy, so Afghanistan can pay its own way when the foreign cash that pays for almost everything the government does dries up.

But the private sector is so limited - and so reliant on money spent by international consultants, diplomats and aid workers - that a French restaurant in Kabul catering to the culinary needs of the city's expats is one of the country's 100 biggest taxpayers.

Law enforcement officials claim that fear of violence is overblown. Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of criminal investigations in Kabul, says there have been "no more than three" kidnappings in the last year and the Dubai-bound business leaders are just in search of "luxury".

But Azarakhsh Hafizi, chairman of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce, has a list of almost 30 recent cases of attacks on businessmen or their families. According to his list, ransom payments are as high as $3m, and several children have been killed.

One Afghan entrepreneur is scared enough that members of his extended family believe he is a hotel employee, rather than the wealthy owner of a chain of hotels. He says he has scrapped two multi-million dollar hotel projects in the beauty spots of Bamiyan and Istalif because of security concerns.

The chief executive of Afghanistan's investment agency, Omar Zakhilwal, says a crime wave is just one problem choking off investments. Another big problem, he says, is the intermittent electricity supply.

Sarah Chayes, a former journalist turned soap manufacturer in the southern city of Kandahar, says that with just four hours of city power every two or three days her staff sleep with the electric lights switched on. When the bulbs light up they leap out of bed and start running the soap press for as long as possible. She says that although she is "swimming in demand" she is unable to increase production.

Saad Mohseni, chief executive of Moby Media, which runs television and radio stations, says another vexing problem is taxes. He recently had videotapes of imported Indian television programmes impounded at Kabul airport because a government agency believed they should be paying on the content. "The government says it is dealing with these so-called nuisance taxes, but it's ridiculous that after seven years we are still facing these problems. Why can't the whole lot just be declared null and void?" He says his frustration with Afghan government "incompetence" is so great that the company has set up a business division in Dubai.

One leading international logistics company came close to pulling out of Afghanistan last year after it discovered it had been paying taxes to the Ministry of Communications - technically illegal because only the Ministry of Finance is allowed to raise revenue.

Some efforts to improve the tax system have made the situation worse. Draft laws prepared in English by foreign consultants have been mistranslated into Dari - the official language of government. The garbled version is then treated as the law.

A western official, who declined to be named but has worked closely on tax reform issues, said the "cheques had been made out to the ministry of post, which doesn't exist, so God knows who actually got the money". He estimates the cost of business is at least twice the official amount after bribes, corruption and taxes of questionable legality are included.

"There is an internationally imposed taxation system, which is sensible," he says. "But then there is a parallel Afghan system which requires the permanent employment of full-time staff to pay bribes. Big international companies just can't pay these bribes."

Making Their Own Mistakes

April 28, 2008, Editorial New York Times

When Pervez Musharraf was running Pakistan he repeatedly cut deals with tribal leaders intended to calm the country’s lawless regions. The results were always disastrous. The Taliban and Al Qaeda used the time to regroup and launch attacks both inside Pakistan and against Afghanistan.

Now Pakistan’s newly elected civilian government is trying again. We doubt it will have any more luck. The new leaders will need to do a better job than Mr. Musharraf monitoring developments along the border. And they need to develop a military fallback plan for when this deal falls apart.

It is not surprising that the new government is trying to set its own course. When then-General Musharraf and the United States did battle the extremists, both showed a lack of concern for civilian casualties. Mr. Musharraf never tried to explain why it was in Pakistan’s interest to fight at all. It was always Washington’s war.

The latest agreement, as reported by The Times, would require the tribes to expel foreign militants, cease their own attacks and kidnappings, and allow freedom of movement to the Frontier Corps, the local security force. The deal also calls for an exchange of prisoners in return for the gradual withdrawal of the Pakistani military from part of the tribal region of South Waziristan.

The top militant leader accused of masterminding former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination has ordered his fighters to halt activities in the regions.

The Bush administration doesn’t like the deal, but its own policy failure is undeniable. The C.I.A. calls the lawless border “a clear and present danger” to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the West. A recent Congressional investigation says the administration never developed a comprehensive plan — one integrating diplomacy, intelligence, law enforcement and economic aid — to address that clear and present danger.

Since 9/11, the United State has poured $10 billion into Pakistan — mostly for ex-General Musharraf’s army. But it has not crushed Al Qaeda or managed to shut down militant safe havens. American intelligence officials say Al Qaeda is gaining strength in its Pakistani refuge.

The new democratic government so far has exceeded expectations: rival politicians are cooperating and they have promised to lift media restrictions and make other needed reforms. It deserves Washington’s support and some time to find its way.

American officials need to work quietly with the new government to lay the ground for a new military strategy, should the peace agreement unravel. And it needs to do a lot more to help strengthen Pakistan’s democracy and improve the lives of ordinary Pakistanis.

The Bush administration may — finally — throw its weight behind Senator Joseph Biden’s call for a $2.5 billion package of additional nonmilitary aid. The administration and Congress should approve that aid immediately. That will give the new government more political room to go after the militants if yet another peace deal falls apart. And it is the only hope of persuading Pakistanis that this is more than just Washington’s fight.

No Afghan spring

European Council on Foreign Relations – 04.28.2008 By Daniel Korski

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's narrow escape from an assassin's bullet this weekend illustrates, once again, the precarious state of his country's reconstruction. Even though they failed at their assignment, the Taliban's would-be assassins have yet again shown that they can strike at the heart of the capital, infiltrate the Afghan security forces and endanger the lives not only of the President - upon whom so much rides - but also his international helpmates, who also narrowly escaped.

At NATO's Bucharest Summit, the U.S-led coalition had been working hard to advertise trans-Atlantic unity, helped by a French offer to send 1000-odd soldiers to the eastern parts of the country. President Karzai returned from the summit beaming, feeling that he had put paid to months of Western sniping following his rejection of British peer Paddy Ashdown as the UN's envoy. The eventual choice, Norwegian ambassador Kai Eide, had set about his tasks with considerable gusto.

But whoever wrote this script forgot to consider the Taliban and the real state of Afghanistan's reconstruction. After six years of warfare and a massive aid effort, the Taliban re-entered the fight. Using asymmetric tactics - suicide bombings, threats to the local population - it has forced many aid agencies to withdraw and development to cease in key districts. 2007 saw insurgents carrying out more attacks over a wider area and 6,000 people killed. Earlier in the year, the Taliban attacked Kabul's swishest hotel, killing six people and leading many NGOs to reconsider their work in the capital

President Karzai, meanwhile, is refusing to acknowledge that his government is facing more than foreign-born terrorists, deleting the words "counter-insurgency" in every document he sees. His government is shot-through with corruption; and a criminalised economy - of which opium is only one of many problems - has grown up around him.

With the next elections only a year away, the President has begun turning his attention to his own job security. Usually a shoe-in for the Pashtun vote and the support of the old Northern Alliance, he now fears he will get neither automatically and is gearing up for a campaign characterised by anti-Western sniping, Pashtun nationalism and, according to a senior international official who asked to remain anonymous, attempts at biasing the electoral process in his favour.

The worst thing that can happen after a failed assassination attempt is a panic, leading to rash decisions, which, in the calmer light of day, are seen for what they are. But in this case, it should serve as a wake-up call to put things right.

First, the international community must hold the Afghan government and itself to commitments already agreed - such as the vetting process for governors, police chiefs and other senior officials. Building workable and accountable institutions must trump placing relatives and loyalists in positions of power.

More than anything, in the next two years of institution-building means ensuring that the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections are beyond reproach. The world community is at real risk of losing all political legitimacy in eyes of ordinary Afghans if the elections are dirty. An active diplomatic effort will be required to guarantee the credibility of the electoral process, including by ensuring a credible complaints mechanism.

Second, the UN must help the government re-launch outreach to the Taliban and other combatants. The Afghan government's cafeteria-style approach, whereby Taliban who offer themselves up are given parlay, does not work. It needs to be re-launched and focused on strategic "targets", i.e. mid-ranking "pragmatic" Taliban leaders. A package of financial and other incentives - including genuine security guarantees - should be developed. Such deal-making will be controversial but is necessary.

Political negotiations, however, must be conducted from a position of strength and cannot replace military action. European countries should commit to sending more trainers and civilians while lifting some of the 60 "caveats" which hamper their soldiers' effectiveness. The EU's police mission, universally seen as underpowered, must be radically rethought and perhaps augmented by the European Gendarmerie Force. A study should be carried out into expanding the Afghan National Army from its currently size of 70.000 to 200.000 - even it will become reliant on external funding for a decade.

Supporting a new strategy in Afghanistan should be a new approach to the region. There can be no lasting stability in either country until Afghanistan and Pakistan move away from mutual suspicion and policies of interference in each others affairs. This, in turn, means dealing with Pakistan-India relations. Recent developments in Pakistan could help.

The electoral success of mainstream secular political parties and the resounding defeat of Islamist groups are a major setback for the ‘Pakistani Taliban' and are expected to erode support for the militants, including Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives sheltering in the region.

To take advantage of this opening, however, the EU should appoint a wise men's committee, along the lines of the U.S. Baker-Hamilton commission, chaired by a prominent European, to develop a new EU approach to the region, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

All is not lost in Afghanistan. However, a new strategy, including strengthened relations with Pakistan, is required. When this weekend's attack took place the Afghan government were preparing for another international conference, this time in Paris. To turn things around, the Paris Conference must hold the Afghan government's feet to the fire while ensuring that the international community coalesces around a tightly prioritised strategy. Next week, a visit by a delegation of European parliamentarians to Kabul could helpfully begin this process.

Afghanistan: Taliban Evolves Into Network Of Groups

By Ron Synovitz, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty April 26, 2008

When the Taliban began its rapid rise to power in Afghanistan in 1994, the vast majority of its members were young students of the Koran recruited from hundreds of madrasahs set up at Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Fourteen years later, the Taliban leadership and its supporters no longer consists of young students, as the movement has evolved into more of a network of divergent groups and individuals.

Drawn mostly from Afghanistan's majority Pashtun ethnic group, the original leadership of the Taliban chose the name for the movement because it denotes students of Islamic theology.

Barnett Rubin, a leading expert on Afghanistan and director of New York University's Center on International Cooperation, explains that the youngest of the original Taliban were Afghans who were born or grew up in refugee camps in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

"The Taliban, of course, are an indigenous Afghan or Afghan-Pakistani organization which really grew up during the 20 years that there were millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan -- where the only education available for them was in madrasahs, often in [Pakistan's] tribal territories," Rubin says. "It recruited from those people and it really had a local agenda."

But the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is much older. Born sometime around 1959 in the village of Nodeh near Kandahar, Omar's family members were poor, landless members of the Hotak tribe -- one of many sub-tribes and clans within the Ghilzai branch of Pashtuns.

Omar became a village mullah in the Mewand district of Kandahar Province. He also fought against Afghan President Najibullah's communist regime from 1989 to 1992 as a member of Mohammad Yunus Khales' Hizb-e Islami -- a mujahedin group headquartered in Pakistan that had received Western aid and support during the 1980s that was channeled through elements of Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI).

Significantly, Mullah Omar's Ghilzai tribe is a historical adversary of another important ethnic-Pashtun group -- the Durrani tribe of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Antonio Giustozzi is a research fellow at the London School of Economics who has studied the evolution of the Taliban since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Giustozzi tells RFE/RL it would be wrong to consider today's Taliban a single ethnic group or tribe.

"I would basically describe it as a religious network which turned into a political movement," Giustozzi says. "And then they started expanding -- co-opting other religious networks, and then gradually going beyond those religious networks to start forming alliances with local communities or local power players."

He explains that the Taliban lacks a strong organizational structure and is essentially still a network based on personal relations between the leadership and people at the local level.

"Mullah Omar is not an authoritative leader," Giustozzi says. "He is more like a broker among different members of the leadership who may have differences over issues of how to fight the war or whether to negotiate or not. So in a sense, it is modeled from their experience as clerics."

In his recently published book, "Koran, Kalashnikov And Laptop: The Neo Taliban Insurgency In Afghanistan," Giustozzi describes how the Taliban leadership has recently embraced new strategies and technologies, including computers and suicide bombings. Giustozzi's book also describes how the Taliban has reorganized and adapted to changing political conditions in Afghanistan since 2002.

"Of course, the top leaders are people who have been with the Taliban for a long, long time. So in that sense, the very top leaders are still the same," Giustozzi explains. "What is new is that they are trying to incorporate new constituencies and, therefore, represent different tribes and communities. So as their constituencies change, they also adapt to those constituencies."

He says the original Taliban were largely Ghilzai, from the Ghilzai confederation, while in 2003 and 2004, the majority of the leadership were actually Durannis.

"We actually are not totally sure today what the composition of their leadership is," Giustozzi adds. "But one can detect an attempt to represent the different constituencies at the level of the leadership."

Giustozzi also notes that the goals claimed by the Taliban have changed, along with its fighting tactics, as the security and political situation in the country has evolved.

"Today, the Taliban are essentially a guerrilla movement, whereas in the 1990s -- even in the early days of 1994 or 1995 -- they were never something like that," Giustozzi says. "Even when they were fighting for power, they were not using these guerrilla tactics. They were more like an army moving along the highways and trying to occupy the provincial centers. In that sense, the main difference is the way they operate. It is not so easy to say what their actual aims are."

But he says that, too, might change. "Essentially, they say what they want is just to get the foreigners out of the country," Giustozzi explains. "But even in the early days, they were claiming that their main aim was to pacify the country and bring back law and order -- not to become a kind of government which would stay in power indefinitely, which, of course, proved not to be correct once they actually took Kabul."

As for ordinary Taliban foot soldiers, recent research suggests that the Taliban has been recruiting a younger generation of Afghans to carry out suicide attacks and to fight within its rank and file.

Working for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Christine Fair last year studied the phenomenon of suicide bombings across Afghanistan. Her work led to important conclusions not only about suicide bombers, but also about the emergence of this new generation of Taliban fighters.

"The important big picture is Afghans like to tell you that this is a Pakistani phenomenon," Fair says. "As we all know, there is Pakistani involvement. There is recruitment across the border. In the tribal areas, madrasahs figure prominently. But even if Pakistan went away, you still have a largely Afghan-driven insurgency."

Fair describes the situation as a "cross-border phenomenon," and says that "the insurgency is not going to be resolved if you think that the problem stops either at one side or the other of the Afghan border."

Her findings are supported by a series of interviews with Taliban fighters in Kandahar Province that was published online last month by the "Toronto Globe And Mail."

Those interviews suggest NATO air strikes and drug-eradication programs have fed the insurgency in southern Afghanistan. Many Taliban soldiers said their family members had been killed in air strikes or that they had been opium-poppy farmers until their crops were destroyed by drug-eradication teams.

Some said family members who were killed were innocent civilians. Others admitted that they joined the insurgency to replace older male relatives who were killed while fighting in the Taliban ranks.

Paul Fishstein, the director of the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, an independent Kabul-based research organization that receives funding from the United Nations, the European Commission, and other international donors, says that researchers should be careful not to oversimplify the demographics of today's Taliban.

"We always have to be careful about referring to 'The Taliban,'" Fishstein says. "Often, anything violent -- anything bad that happens -- is attributed to either 'the enemies of Afghanistan' or, more generally, 'The Taliban.'"

Fishstein concludes that the structure of today's Taliban is complex -- and that foreign researchers often have difficulty understanding the rivalries and local agendas that have contributed to the resurgence of the movement.

"What we generically refer to as 'The Taliban' is a set of different individuals and groups who have differing grievances, differing motivations, differing attitudes -- and take a hostile attitude toward the [Afghan central] government," Fishstein says. "There's an awful lot of groups out there that either have personal grudges, political grudges, or actually profit from the lack of law and order in the country."

Turkmen, Iranian Presidents Moving Ahead With Rival Pipelines

RFE/RL, 04/28/2008 By Bruce Pannier

Pipeline politics took center stage as Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad went on the road to promote competing pipelines to export their natural gas.

Berdymukhammedov was in Kabul on April 28, making the case for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI), while Ahmadinejad was in Islamabad on the same day, discussing details of the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline (IPI).

Both pipelines have several pros and cons, and the consumer countries -- Pakistan and India -- have signaled they want both TAPI and IPI to help sate their energy needs.

Berdymukhammedov spoke about TAPI with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the first-ever visit by a Turkmen president to Kabul in independent Turkmenistan's 17-year history. The two countries signed deals on energy, transport, and culture. The meeting came just days after representatives from their countries, along with Pakistan and India, signed an agreement to start construction of the pipeline in 2010, with operations slated to begin in 2015.

"We had a discussion with the Turkmen president on a series of issues that involve our two countries," Karzai said. "The main areas of our talks were on the exchange of energy between the two countries, developing transportation, communications, and on the gas pipeline that will export natural gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. We discussed a railway between our two countries -- and how to extend the railroad through Afghanistan to neighboring countries. Also, we spoke about the importation of electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan. And we had a discussion on terrorism threats and regional problems."

The Turkmen president hailed the event as signaling a "new era" in relations between the two states. "Today, our historic friendship has endured much, but we are entering a completely new era that brings broad possibilities for developing the mutual and useful relationship between our countries," Berdymukhammedov said.

According to plans, the 1,680-kilometer TAPI pipeline would start in the Turkmen city of Dauletabad and pass through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar before entering Pakistan at Quetta and proceeding to the Indian border town of Fazilka. Six compressor stations will be built along the route. Plans for the pipeline call for it to export some 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from the field annually. Estimates of the cost for building the TAPI pipeline range from $6 billion to $7.5 billion.

Analysts point to two major drawbacks with TAPI. The first is the route through Afghanistan, where it will be difficult to ensure security for the pipeline, especially as it turns eastwards and approaches Kandahar, where fighting between militants and the Afghan government and foreign forces is still a daily occurrence. Turkmenistan and Pakistan have been trying for more than a decade to get the pipeline built, but security problems in Afghanistan have always held up the deal. If security could be guaranteed, Afghanistan stands to receive large and badly needed revenues from transit fees.

The second problem is the question of how much natural gas Turkmenistan actually has. The April 28 edition of the Russian daily "Kommersant" points out that Turkmenistan has a contract with Russia's Gazprom to export up to 50 bcm of gas annually to Russia for two more decades, a contract with China that starts in 2009 for 30 bcm annually, and a deal with Iran for 8 bcm annually. Berdymukhammedov also promised earlier this month to send 10 bcm to Europe Union countries, though the details of that agreement are still unclear. The acceptance of the TAPI deal would bring annual Turkmen natural-gas exports to well over 100 bcm annually -- a huge amount of natural gas to export when Turkmenistan's proven reserves of gas are not fully known.

No Iranian Participation

But TAPI enjoys two advantages that the IPI does not -- support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and no Iranian participation. The ADB's support gives the project a greater international profile and, since Iran is not involved, TAPI may also find other investors -- including U.S. companies that are forbidden by U.S. law to deal with Iran, and European investors who fear U.S. sanctions if they commit to IPI instead of TAPI.

Ahmadinejad's visit to Pakistan was similar in nature to Berdymukhammedov's in Afghanistan. Pakistani and Indian officials also met about IPI last week in Islamabad when Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora was there for talks. Iran, under intense pressure from many countries over its controversial nuclear program, would benefit greatly from signing such a major deal, which would also bring in much-needed revenue.

Reports from Islamabad on April 25 indicated that India and Pakistan were close to finalizing their part of the deal. Ahmadinejad is trying to push the potential partners to sign that deal. For its part, Iran has already started constructing the pipeline on its territory and could have its section to the Pakistani border completed by 2012.

The IPI pipeline would be some 2,600 kilometers long and would cost an estimated $7 billion. The IPI pipeline would initially carry some 30 bcm annually, but within three to four years after starting up that amount would increase to 70 bcm. Iran first proposed the pipeline in the 1990s, but tensions between Pakistan and India kept the project on hold until now. In their meetings last week, Pakistani and Indian officials stressed that cooperation between the two nuclear neighbors is better now.

IPI's disadvantage is the U.S. objection to the pipeline -- but both Pakistan and India have indicated publicly that their countries' demand for energy is such that Islamabad and New Delhi are prepared to endure the possibility of complicating ties with Washington. The ABD has not come out in favor of IPI, and many potential international investors may be frightened of facing Washington's wrath for being part of IPI.

A distinct advantage for IPI is that there are two major companies that have expressed interest in joining the project -- Russia's Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation. Gazprom has supported the IPI project for several years but China's interest is relatively new and may have to do with a proposal from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf earlier this month that his country could build a "Karakorum" pipeline to deliver gas or oil to China through mountain passes in the Himalayas. Such pipelines could bring not only Iranian natural gas but also gas and oil delivered to Pakistani port cities along the Arabian Sea.

Another meeting on TAPI -- at which the major parties will attempt to agree on transit prices -- is scheduled for May. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad travels to Afghanistan on April 29.

The Kabul Bureau of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan and RFE/RL Turkmen Service correspondent Guvanch Geraev contributed to this report.

Prince Harry to get campaign medal for Afghan stint

London (PTI): Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, will receive a campaign medal for his brief stint in Afghanistan.

The 23-year-old will be among about 160 household Cavalry troops attending a ceremony in Windsor on May 5 to be honoured for their role in fighting the Taliban.

His aunt, the Princess Royal will pin the Afghanistan Medal on him next week. According to the Sun, a tabloid, the ceremony will take place at the Household Cavalry's Combermere Barracks in Windsor.

The prince's tour of Afghanistan was cut short after ten weeks when a news blackout on his presence there broke at the end of February, but having served well over the required minimum of four weeks, he is entitled to the Afghanistan Medal.

The Operational Service Medal (OSM) for Afghanistan is round and silver showing the Queen on one side and the Union Flag and compass on the reverse.

The ribbon has a red stripe down the centre with royal blue and light blue stripes on both sides and a light brown line at each edge. The stripes represent the three armed services, while the brown line reflects the desert landscape of Afghanistan.

Harry's role in Afghanistan included calling in air strikes, carrying out surveillance of Taliban fighters, giving final clearance for attacks on Taliban targets and also guiding in some bombing runs.

AFGHAN FIREFIGHTERS AND JOURNALIST ARRIVE IN VICTORIA

Apr 27, 2008 - THREE AFGHAN FIREFIGHTERS AND A TELEVISION JOURNALIST HAVE ARRIVED FOR A 12 DAY VISIT IN THE VICTORIA AREA.

LT. GEOFF SPRIGGS, WITH THE LANGFORD FIRE DEPT, IS GUIDING THE FOUR ON A TOUR OF VICTORIA TODAY. HE SAYS SOME OF THEM WILL SEE THEIR FIRST HOCKEY GAME THIS EVENING.

“WE WERE ABLE TO GET TICKETS TO THE SALMON KINGS GAME SO THE FOUR AFGHANS, THE THREE FIREFIGHTERS AND THE REPORTER, ARE GOING TO BE CATCHING – FOR SOME OF THEM – THE FIRST HOCKEY GAME THEY HAVE EVER SEEN.”

THE VISITORS ARE STAYING AT THE LANGFORD FIRE DEPT'S LIVING QUARTERS. THE THREE FIREFIGHTERS WILL BE TRAINING WITH THE LANGFORD DEPARTMENT DURING THEIR STAY.

THE TELEVISION JOURNALIST, MEANWHILE, WILL BE WORKING WITH OUR COLLEAGUES AT A-CHANNEL VANCOUVER ISLAND.

[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.]