In this bulletin:

• U.S. Marines meet little resistance
• Marines fan out in massive offensive
• British troops expand major Afghan operation
• Russia to allow US weapon shipments to Afghanistan
• Reducing civilian casualties new priority
• U.S. seeks to ensure Afghan elections
• 'A NATO Exit Would Be Devastating for Afghanistan'
• Migrant squalor in Calais 'jungle'
• GI seemingly seized in Afghanistan
• Militants may plan attacks before German vote-minister

[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.]

U.S. Marines meet little resistance

The Globe and Mail, 3 July 2009- U .S. Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan today, meeting little resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest military operation here since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

One Marine was killed and several others injured or wounded on Thursday, when some 4,000 Marines launched the operation in Helmand province — a remote area that is at the centre of the country's illegal opium cultivation, which helps finance the insurgency.

So far, however, there has been little resistance from the Taliban, according to a military spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier.

In the country's east, meanwhile, a roadside bomb today killed three Afghans and a foreigner working on a road construction project, said Bismillah Mangal, the deputy governor Paktia province. The blast ripped through their vehicle as it was travelling on a road that connects Paktia and Khost province, Mr. Mangal said.

The aim of the operation in Helmand is not simply to kill Taliban fighters but to win over the local population, Capt. Pelletier said — a difficult task in a region where foreigners are viewed with suspicion.

“We are not worried about the Taliban, we are not focused on them. We are focused on the people. It is important to engage with the key leaders, hear what they need most and what are their priorities.”

The offensive along 88 kilometres of Taliban-controlled areas in southern Afghanistan will test the Obama administration's new strategy of holding territory to let the Afghan government sink roots in rural areas where Taliban influence is strong.

The insurgency has proven particularly resilient in the area, and foreign troops have never before operated in such large numbers there. Large areas have been under Taliban control, with little or no government presence.

As the operation entered its second day, the units secured control of the district centres of Nawa and Garmser, and negotiated entry into Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, Capt. Pelletier said.

“They waited for the local and village elders,” outside Khan Neshin and “with their permission they went in and now are engaged in talks.”

As the Marines in the village of Nawa sat for a meeting with a group of 20 Afghan men and boys who were squatting on dirt ground, they listened as a list of their concerns came in a form of questions.

“Are you going to enter our houses?” asked 25-year old Mohammad Nabi, who was there with five of his younger brothers. “We are afraid that you will leave, and the Taliban will come back,” he said. And they all described the police as predatory thieves not to be trusted.

Marine officers tried to reassure those around them they would not enter their homes and that they are here to stay throughout their deployment.

In a display of deep misunderstandings that any foreigner is at pains to overcome, an elder with a grey beard asked the Marines whether they will stop them saying prayers.

In describing the Taliban, they compared them to Americans.

“They spend one night in the village and then move onto another village, just as you guys,” Mr. Nabi said.

Taking ground from the Taliban in Afghanistan has always proved easy. Keeping it and ensuring the government's presence has been the difficult part. The military challenges are compounded by the fact that the area is the world's largest producer of opium, and drug profits feed the insurgency and corrupt government officials.

Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's production of opium, and Helmand alone is responsible for about half that amount.

Haji Akhtar Mohammad, from Gereshk village now living in Helmand's capital of Lashkar Gah, said the U.S.-led force will not have community support in the region weary of any foreign interference.

“It is difficult to tell who is Taliban and who is civilians,” Mr. Mohammad said. “They all have the same face, same beard and same turban,” he said. “It is very difficult to defeat them.”

Three years ago, only a handful of U.S. troops were in Helmand, Afghanistan's biggest province that is bisected by the Helmand river.

While Pelletier said winning hearts and minds was the mission's main focus, other military officials have said the immediate goal of the offensive is to clear away insurgents before Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election.

Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen. Without such a large Marine assault, the Afghan government would likely not be able to set up voting booths where citizens could safely travel.

The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.

Even bigger challenges, perhaps, will come in the weeks and months after the Marines have established their presence here.

The U.S. will have an opportunity to help develop alternate livelihoods for farmers whose opium poppy crops bankroll the Taliban, who have made a violent comeback since the U.S.-led invasion ousted them from power in 2001.

Marines fan out in massive offensive

The Globe and Mail, 3 July 2009- Insurgents believed to have captured American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. military says

U .S. Marines hiked through searing heat and took fire from small pockets of militants after landing in this Taliban-controlled southern region of tree-lined fields, mud homes and crisscrossing waterways in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize Afghanistan.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced that insurgents were believed to have captured an American soldier missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. The missing soldier was not involved in Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, under way in southern Afghanistan.

The southern offensive was launched shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday as thousands of Marines poured from helicopters and armoured vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages along roughly 30 kilometres of the Helmand River in Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.

One Marine was killed and several others were injured or wounded throughout the day, the military announced.

Officials described the offensive as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase and the biggest Marine assault since the one in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. It involves nearly 4,000 newly arrived Marines plus 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar province.

Pakistan's army said it had moved troops from elsewhere on its side of the Afghan border to the stretch opposite Helmand to try to stop any militants from fleeing the offensive. It gave no more details, but U.S. and Pakistani officials have expressed concern that stepped-up operations in southern Afghanistan could push the insurgents across the border.

Transport helicopters carried hundreds of Marines into the village of Nawa, 30 kilometres south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, in a region where no U.S. or other NATO troops have operated in large numbers.

The troops took many insurgents by surprise, dropping behind Taliban lines, said Captain Drew Schoenmaker, from Greene, N.Y.

"We are kind of forging new ground here. We are going to a place nobody has been before," said Capt. Schoenmaker, 31, who commands Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

Several hundred Marines took positions in a freshly plowed dirt field at 3 a.m. The soft, deep dirt proved challenging for troops weighed down with days' worth of water, food and gear, and many frequently stumbled.

At daybreak, the Marines walked along tree lines, and at 6:15 a.m. the company took its first incoming fire, likely from an AK-47 along a tree line. The next three hours brought repeated bursts of gunfire and volleys of rocket-propelled grenades, sending deep booms across the countryside.

A small force of Afghan soldiers accompanying the Camp Pendleton-based Marines got into several scraps with an insurgent force of about 20 fighters. The fire came from a mud-brick compound, and the Marines, the Afghan soldiers and their British advisers surrounded the compound on the east and the south.

Before the mission, Capt. Schoenmaker said he would practice "tactical patience" as a way to avoid civilian casualties, an issue newly arrived U.S. General Stanley McChrystal has underscored in recent weeks. Though troops in many similar circumstances have called in air strikes on such a militant-controlled compound, Capt. Schoenmaker did not.

"We made the decision to isolate the compound and not destroy it because we couldn't confirm if civilians were inside," he said. The militants were believed to have escaped out the back.

A Cobra helicopter circling overhead for most of the day fired rockets at a tree line nearby. Other troops walked through fields of corn and past mud-wall homes. Only a handful of villagers dared to venture outside.

Helmand's deadly heat, well over 40 degrees, proved to be another enemy the Marines had to fight. Because soldiers were on foot, they had to carry all their own water and food. Forward observers and snipers spent the entire day under the cloudless sky.

The Marines trained for months in the heat of the Mojave Desert for the deployment, and many appeared happy to be here.

At one point yesterday, about 50 Marines were relaxing in an abandoned and dilapidated mud-brick compound, their dusty-brown uniforms stained with perspiration. Suddenly someone spotted an Afghan male who appeared to be watching them from a nearby road.

The Marines quickly threw on their flak jackets and Kevlar helmets.

"It sucks but it's what you've been training for your whole life," Lieutenant Chris Wilson, 25, of Ramsey, N.J., said with a smile as he held a radio with a long antenna. Yesterday was Lt. Wilson's first mission into a combat zone.

British troops expand major Afghan operation

Canada.com, 3 July 2009- SORKHDOZ, Afghanistan - Hundreds of British troops have key seized canal crossings in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, military officials said on Friday, part of a new U.S.-led operation to wrest the initiative from insurgents.

The British push, one of the largest its overstretched troops have made in the Taliban heartland and key opium-producing province of Helmand, is part of a wider offensive launched by thousands of U.S. Marines on Thursday.

The Marines met little resistance on the first day of Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, the first big test of U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its allies and stabilize Afghanistan.

Their objective is to seize virtually all of the lower Helmand River valley, the world's biggest opium poppy-producing region, and hold the ground they win, something British-led NATO troops have so far been unable to do.

Violence in the Taliban-led insurgency is at its highest since the Taliban's ouster in 2001 and the offensive in the short-term at least is meant to provide a secure environment for August 20 presidential elections.

In the longer term, U.S. and NATO troops want to engage with local populations as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy under General Stanley McChrystal, appointed as the new commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan after previous conventional warfare tactics failed.

With new tactics to win over the Afghan population and new commanders in place, the U.S. military hopes the operation will mark the turning point of a war some in Washington have admitted they are not winning.

Hundreds of British soldiers have seized 13 canal crossings since Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, began 10 days ago with an airborne assault north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. It is part of the overall Marine-led operation.

On Friday, another 800 British troops began pushing north toward Gereshk, Helmand's main industrial city.

"Taking control of the crossings will now allow British troops to prevent insurgents' movements between Helmand's two largest cities, Gereshk and Lashkar Gah, and will ultimately improve security and freedom of movement for the local people," the British military said in a statement.

SCATTERED CLASHES

Large areas of Helmand have been outside government control for many years. It produces more than half of Afghanistan's opium crop, which accounts for 90 percent of the world's heroin. The opium trade is a major source of funding for the Taliban.

Only scattered clashes were reported on Friday as the Marines fanned out through towns and mud-brick villages in the Helmand River valley, a crescent of opium poppy and wheat fields criss-crossed by canals.

The Marines were accompanied by "civilian stability advisers" and were meeting local community leaders, spokesman Captain Bill Pelletier said.

"What this is doing is starting to transition from the clearing operation to the holding part, our Marines are going to stay there and continue to provide security," he said.

One Marine was killed and several wounded on Thursday. No reports of civilian casualties were received, while the Taliban said one of its fighters had been killed.

Pelletier said most resistance so far consisted of groups of two or three insurgent fighters.

"As soon as our resources were brought to bear on them they would break contact and run away," he said. "We're not taking anything for granted, the enemy will resist."

Such a bold operation carries great risk because a protracted, bloody fight could erode support for the war in the United States, among its NATO allies and Afghans.

Insurgents had launched a series of attacks against Welsh Guards troops during their operation to seize the canal crossings, the British military said, and almost 100 roadside bombs were found and made safe since it began.

Russia to allow US weapon shipments to Afghanistan

(AP) 03 July 2009 — A Kremlin aide says Russia will allow the U.S. to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan.

President Dmitry Medvedev's foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said Medvedev and President Barack Obama are expected to sign a deal on the issue during their summit next week in Moscow.

Russia has been allowing the U.S. to ship non-lethal goods across its territory to help operations in Afghanistan. Prikhodko said the expected deal would enable the U.S. to ship lethal cargoes and would include shipments by air and land.

It is a significant goodwill gesture from the Kremlin before the summit, which both nations hope will put long-troubled ties back on track.

Reducing civilian casualties new priority

  Canwest News Service, July 3, 2009- Canadian commanders in Afghanistan received new fighting orders on Thursday that will prevent their troops from shooting at the Taliban if there is any risk of civilian casualties.

The stricter rules of engagement were sent to all foreign forces in Afghanistan by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands NATO and American forces in the country.

"The guidance to the troops clarifies that citizens are the centre of gravity ... and we must do everything to avoid civilian casualties," U.S. military spokesman Col. Greg Julian said in an interview.

There was "no doubt" that the Taliban would try to take advantage of the new measures, Julian said, but he cautioned that the policy was not absolute. Such decisions still rest with commanders on the ground and "we are not precluding them from firing back in all circumstances," he said.

U.S. seeks to ensure Afghan elections

The Washington Times, July 3, 2009 -Two months before Afghan civilians head to the polls, U.S. military reinforcements have mounted an offensive against a growing Taliban insurgency that is threatening to destabilize the upcoming presidential elections.

Still, clinics, schools and other facilities have refused to let the government set up polling stations out of fear they will be targeted by the Taliban and tribal leaders in the dangerous southern, western and eastern provinces.

The U.S. offensive, launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday in the western Helmand province, was the first step in a campaign that aims to strike at the heart of the Afghan Taliban. As 4,000 U.S. Marines debarked from helicopters in the searing hot insurgent-controlled territory, it became apparent that quelling the Taliban's growth would not be easy.

The offensive - named Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword - led to the death of one Marine, and several others were injured on the first day of the assault. It was the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

Within hours, the Marines captured the Khanishin district in the province, Agence France-Presse reported.

The U.S. military also announced that suspected Taliban insurgents were believed to have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan. A Taliban commander, Mullah Sangeen, told Reuters news agency by phone that the soldier was taken as a patrol walked out of its base in Paktika province and would only be released when the U.S. military freed Taliban fighters.

The U.S. offensive comes in the middle of the campaign for the Aug. 20 election, in which President Hamid Karzai faces dozens of rivals, chief among them former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

"First, at a technical level the preparations are going well, with some glitches," said a European official who is involved in the election. The official spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation and for security reasons.

"For example, a few days ago the Ministry of Public Health officially refused to allow their clinics to be used as polling stations for fear of disruption of medical services as well as violence and destruction of their premises."

Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health could not be immediately reached for comment due to the time difference and late hour in that country.

The region, which is the largest area of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, is made up mainly of Pashtun tribes, similar to other areas of the southern and eastern provinces, and plays an important role in getting Mr. Karzai, a Pashtun,re-elected for his second term.

Resentment against U.S. operations has intensified among farmers and locals in the southern and western regions since last summer when The Times first visited the region. A resident of Helmand told The Times by telephone that the increased civilian deaths and uncertainty of international security efforts have led many of the people thereto shift their loyalty to the Taliban.

"Even if [the farmers and locals] didn't want the Taliban in control they still feel vulnerable," said Abdul, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used, for fear of retribution. "They have lost many of their loved ones in air strikes and they don't trust that international forces will protect them. They turn to Taliban for security."

However, Afghan, European, U.S. government and military officials told The Times that the current U.S.-led offensive is a necessary measure in curtailing the Taliban's growing strength and that it is part of the "near term" goal to break apart the various Taliban groups who are threatening violence, in an attempt to disrupt the election.

"In order to have security we have to change the dynamic on the ground," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. "The near-term goal for this offensive is to provide free and fair secure elections in the south, west and eastern provinces."

Christine Fair, a senior political scientist at the research think tank Rand Corp. who specializes in the internal security environment in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that "the Taliban are consolidating their hold and they're expanding into new territory," making it difficult for U.S. and international forces to gain control of the region.

Ms. Fair, who recently returned from Afghanistan, said the Taliban "have a much lower bar" to meet with the people than that of the U.S.-led international security forces.

"They only have to be cohesive, and placate some basic concerns for the locals," she said. "In a sense, they actually provide expeditious justice - basic stuff, like land disputes, marriage disputes. The Taliban are able to get in there and fix this stuff. No one is going to mess around with a Taliban verdict. In contrast, the international security forces have to secure, clear and build" the regions.

If Afghans do cooperate with international and U.S. security forces, explained Ms. Fair, "as soon as everyone leaves they are going to have to pay the price to the Taliban."

"The Afghans don't want to be on the losing side," Ms. Fair added. "They want to be on the side of the winner."

She said the Afghans do not have many incentives to side with the U.S. "In reality, there is no obvious fix to it. ... You can build Afghan security forces, but can you build a competent, capable, non-corrupt Afghan government?"

Mr. Morrellsaid the eastern and southern provinces, particularly Helmand and Kandahar, considered the spiritual center of the Taliban, are the particular areas where the military operations - current and future - will be focused.

"The biggest challenge will be in the south," he said. "I don't think anyone on the ground has any doubt that the Taliban will try to destabilize the situation. The Taliban is bent on fear, intimidation and terror to dissuade Afghans from participating in the democratic process."

Currently there are 57,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 34,000 non-U.S. allied troops. President Obama has ordered in 21,000 U.S. troops, which will bring the number to roughly 68,000 before the end of this year. The recent offensive, under newly appointed U.S. Commander Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, is part of a much larger deployment of troops being ordered to fight the Taliban.

British forces have also been engaged in heavy fighting in the southern and western provinces. In early June, a British-led offensive in Helmand ended in the death of Mullah Mansur, considered by some to be one of the most dangerous Taliban leaders in the province.

On Thursday, the British commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was killed in Helmand province, becoming the most senior commander killed in action since the Falklands war 27 years ago, the Associated Press reported.

Lt.-Col. Rupert Thorneloe, 39, who commanded the Welsh Guards, was killed while traveling as a passenger in the back of a Viking armored vehicle in Helmand. He had been visiting troops who were engaged in combat throughout the year in the province.

'A NATO Exit Would Be Devastating for Afghanistan'

Spiegel, 3 July 2009- While the German parliament has voted to extend the Bundeswehr mandate in Afghanistan, most Germans want to see their soldiers return home as soon as possible. But with the Americans ramping up their mandate, it looks like the Bundeswehr is in for the long haul.

Despite the fact that the majority of Germans want their troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, Berlin is committing more not less soldiers and equipment to the NATO-led mission at a time when the US is ramping up its offensive in the country.

On Thursday, the German parliament voted with an overwhelming majority to send four AWACS surveillance aircraft to Afghanistan, accompanied by up to 300 Bundeswehr soldiers. A total of 461 of the 557 lawmakers in the Bundestag approved the extended mandate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung also took pains to reiterate their support of the Afghanistan mission on Thursday. Speaking at the memorial service for three Bundeswehr soldiers who were killed by Taliban near Kunduz on June 23, Jung refused to name an exit date for the German mission.

The AWACS decision came after a long debate over the intended purpose of the deployment. While the German Defense Ministry insists that the aircraft will be used solely to regulate the increased air traffic over Afghanistan, critics warned that, with their capability of transferring digital images in real time, the planes are likely to end up steering combat operations.

Hans-Peter Uhl, security spokesman for the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), broke ranks with his party to demand an end to the Afghanistan mandate. He told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung German troops should be withdrawn by the end of the year, and claimed that the number of soldiers training Afghan police and security forces is half of what it should be to meet the goal of entrusting them with the safety of their own country.

According to a poll published Thursday by the German public broadcaster ARD, 69 percent of Germans believe that the Bundeswehr should leave Afghanistan as soon as possible. This is a 5 percent increase since April of last year, and the highest figure yet in the ARD polls on the issue.

Roughly 3,700 German soldiers are currently stationed in the Hindu Kush, as part of the NATO-led peace-keeping force ISAF. Last October, the Bundestag voted to raise the maximum limit of the number of troops to 4,500.

Also on Thursday, the Americans launched the biggest offensive in Afghanistan since President Barack Obama took office. Four thousand marines stormed the southern Afghanistan Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold. The attack reflects the new strategy of the Obama regime, which has made Afghanistan a priority over the war in Iraq. The strategy involves stocking up the troop contingent to 21,000 soldiers and placing greater emphasis on civil reconstruction and economic development.

Most German commentators on Friday praise both the Bundestag decision to extend the mandate and the American offensive.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The American military offensive in Helmand province was long overdue, but wasn't possible until now, because too few soldiers were stationed in southern Afghanistan. The mission was focused on a strategically key valley, of which there are several in Afghanistan."

"But with the offensive, the armed forces are sending out a message that will be heard across Afghanistan and the US: we're coming, and this time we're staying. The troops are going to set up posts in villages and communities, to prevent the return of the Taliban. Then Afghanistan police are going to be brought in, and delegates of the provincial governor. They will be followed by 50 teams of reconstruction helpers with large money bags. The commander says tribal meetings are going to be held immediately. Obviously, they've learned something."

"And we're seeing the same learning process in the German microcosm. The minister explained why the war is somehow a war, but should be called a combat operation. Parliament voted without much to do in favor of the deployment of AWACS aircraft, which can be justified in both military and civilian terms. Suddenly there's consensus that the Bundeswehr's instruction booklets have to be revised, because the extremely defensive understanding of the mission is in fact endangering soldiers. After eight years, we're finally getting a new picture of Afghanistan, a realistic one."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The American forces launch a new offensive in Afghanistan, while in Germany, the Bundeswehr mission is subject to ever more criticism. In this context, Defense Minister Jung deserves all the more respect for refusing to engage in a discussion of exit dates. At the present time, as the Obama government is sending ever more soldiers to Afghanistan, such a discussion would prove deadly: politically, because the Afghanistan mission is being Americanised, and strategically, because the Taliban and their pals could start planning for the time after the departure of the foreign troops. The Afghanistan mission won't last forever but to end it now or soon, would mean not being able to guarantee the security of the country in Afghan hands, and jeopardizing what's already been accomplished. The German government should be clear on one thing: an exit by NATO when things are tending toward defeat would be devastating for the Afghans, the region and beyond."

The left leaning Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung writes:

"It's Barack Obama's war and he doesn't have much time to win it. If the US isn't showing an upper hand over the Taliban by the time of congressional elections next year, the Democrats are bound to lose seats."

"The Americans have made it very clear in recent weeks that they expect from their NATO allies not only more soldiers but also more resources for civil reconstruction and the training of Afghan police and soldiers. The American government considers the civil component especially important towards persuading Afghans that the American mission is indeed intended to help them."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Until now, when American politicians and military officials talked about 'change' for Afghanistan, they meant finally promoting civil and economic development. They claimed the increase to 21,000 troops was necessary primarily for the training of Afghan army and police."

"But now with this offensive we see that more soldiers -- obviously -- also means more war. The numbers reveal how much progress has been made on the Afghan army training front: for every 4,000 US marines, there are 650 Afghan fighters."

"Neither the boost in troops nor the attack on the Taliban stronghold in the Helmand Valley should cast doubt on Obama's long overdue strategy change. It seems entirely plausible that more money, more reconstruction of cities and even more troops make sense."

"What's missing from the new strategy, and central to its credibility, is a means of measuring its success. How are we going to recognize, by the end of 2010, whether the page has turned and the downward spiral has turned into an upward one? Evidently, Obama's people don't want to promise growing support in the Afghan population, or a decrease in attacks. Their 'change' names no examples. If it remains so, then we're left to assume that the US and NATO are more lost in Afghanistan than ever before."

Migrant squalor in Calais 'jungle'

BBC, 2 July 2009-On a slip road close to the port of Calais in northern France, a group of dusty Afghan men are huddled around a single tap, filling water bottles and washing their feet.

They have only recently got this facility - until some weeks ago, most of the migrants washed in the sea or in waste water next to a chemical plant.

Hamkar, a 17-year-old from Helmand Province, looks weary and hot but he says he is happy to have the tap because at least now he can try to wash once a week.

The only problem is finding a moment of privacy because this one tap is shared with around 800 other members of "the jungle".

"The jungle" is the main illegal makeshift camp that sprang up in the woods around the Calais port shortly after the closure of the Red Cross Reception Centre at Sangatte in November 2002.

It was hoped that shutting down Sangatte, which was a magnet for migrants trying to cross the Channel to Britain, would stem the flow of refugees and asylum seekers, but instead numbers have swelled.

The increase has prompted the UN Refugee Agency to set up a permanent office in the northern port to offer asylum advice and to help migrants make informed decisions.

"Every day the people are increasing here," said Mussa, a shy young Afghan in his early twenties.

Landfill home

"They're trying to go to England but they don't know about the conditions of this jungle. If they knew about the conditions of this jungle, they would not come."

He invited me to take a look for myself and I followed him through the sands into the trees.

One hundred metres into the woods and I am in the heart of the makeshift, insanitary campsite.

It is a sort of shanty town and there is so much rubbish and litter lying about, it looks as if it has been built in the middle of a huge landfill site.

Tents have been made out of metal grilles and chicken wire which have been covered by plastic sheeting and bin liners - in Mussa's tent, which is about 10ft square, the roof has been patched over with a sheet of birthday paper.

Mussa told me that eight people sleep here regularly but sometimes they have to make room for 10.

Inside the tent, it is stiflingly hot and the bits of old carpet and car floor mats that line the floor are giving off a smell like old meat.

There are no beds or mattresses. One of Mussa's friends said they often had skin problems and strange itches.

Twenty-year-old Nassid from Helmand Province has been in the jungle for six months and is determined to make it to Britain.

He tries twice a day to climb aboard lorries and trucks to cross the Channel undetected but each time he has been discovered.

He knows the routine perfectly now - a quick trip to the police station, a written warning, sometimes a court appearance, but then he is just set free to return to the jungle and to make a new attempt.

Ten of his friends he claims have already succeeded in getting to the UK.

"Britain has a good government" he said, "Britain will help me to get a better life."

I asked him if he has paid people traffickers to help him get to Britain but he shook his head and said he had no money. He had to try alone, he explained, which made things very difficult so he had to try twice a day.

Most of the migrants do pay smugglers to help them get across. Last April the Calais police launched a major raid to try to break up the trafficking rings, arresting more than 190 migrants and bulldozing tents.

Starvation fear

But the migrants just came back. In dealing with the problem, the French authorities have a difficult balancing act - they cannot leave the migrants to starve but equally, they cannot offer too much humanitarian aid in case it encourages even more to come here.

But Vincent from the charity group Salaam, which provides a soup kitchen and clothes for the jungle's inhabitants, believes the government has to do much more to help.

He said: "Currently it's only volunteers with the immigrants. And if tomorrow we decided to stop, what would happen?"

"If they needed to eat, what would they do? They would maybe go to the shop and steal what they need to survive. "

Vincent pointed to a dirty cotton sheet in Mussa's tent and asked how he was supposed to keep warm with just that.

Legal fear

He said they used to have more, but the riot police raided the tent and sprayed tear gas all over their clothes and blankets.

He added: "They were forced to throw them out because they couldn't use them again.

"But what do the police think - that with no blankets the people here will be forced to go home and the problem will just go away?"

In fact, Vincent and his organisation have to be very careful with the type of aid they give.

In France, housing and transporting undocumented migrants is a crime which can result in hefty fines or even prison sentences.

A recent hit film here, called Welcome, showed a Calais-based swimming coach helping a Kurdish teenager to train to swim the Channel to Britain - when he invited the desperate young boy home, his neighbours informed the police.

Political dilemma

The film, with its resonances of World War II deportations, caused a political storm.

It managed to portray the huge dilemma of this seaside town. With 14% unemployment, many residents loathe the presence of the refugees while others loathe the fact that in civilised France, men are forced to bathe in waste water from a chemical plant.

The French authorities are under growing pressure from Britain to stem the tide of migrants trying to cross the Channel.

But the French government has also called upon Britain to tighten its controls, warning that migrants still see the British illegal job market as the promised land.

Many of the migrants in the jungle say that with no identity card system, Britain is a much easier place for an illegal immigrant to find work.

The French and British governments are currently discussing the creation of a new immigrant holding centre within the British side of the Calais docks which would allow London and Paris to break through the quagmire of asylum law to send illegal immigrants home more easily.

In Mussa's tent Khab, who has run away from family feuds in his native Kabul, asked why Britain cannot just end the misery and let in the 800 men in the jungle.

He said: "We have come here because we had problems in Afghanistan - we are not here for enjoyment.

"We have problems with water, we have problems with doctors, we have problems with sleep. I just want to say help. Please help."

GI seemingly seized in Afghanistan

Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2009-The capture of the soldier would be a first for militants in the war. The incident in the east of the country comes just as an anti-Taliban offensive involving U.S. Marines has begun in the south.

The apparent capture of an American soldier by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, believed to be the first such case in nearly eight years of warfare, presents U.S. military officials with potentially agonizing choices just as a major military offensive is underway in one of the most guerrilla-filled areas of the south.

The soldier could provide insurgents with both a propaganda bonanza and a bargaining chip. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any insurgent group, but a number of different militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan.

The U.S. military said in a terse statement that the soldier had disappeared Tuesday, but disclosed virtually nothing of the circumstances other than to say he was believed to have been captured. However, an American military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident, said that for unknown reasons the soldier apparently left his base near the Pakistani border. Like most U.S. installations in the country's rugged eastern sector, the base is surrounded by hostile territory where a number of insurgent groups operate. The soldier was reported to have been in the company of several Afghans.

"We are using all of our available resources to establish his whereabouts and provide for his safe return," said Army Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for American forces.

In southern Afghanistan, one Marine was killed in action during the first day of the military assault in a large swath of Helmand province, the Marine Expeditionary Brigade- Afghanistan said in a statement, adding that "several" others were injured or wounded. The slain Marine was not immediately identified.

Nearly 4,000 U.S. Marines and more than 600 Afghan troops pushed before dawn Thursday into the lower Helmand River valley, a string of villages and farms where insurgents have long ranged freely. The area is a center of Afghanistan's flourishing opium trade as well as the insurgency, which uses its share of drug profits to bankroll attacks on Western troops.

The helicopter- and convoy-borne assault, among the largest in the south since the start of the conflict in October 2001, met with little initial resistance from Taliban fighters, who largely slipped away. Temperatures exceeding 100 degrees slowed down the movement of some of the troops, who dismounted from convoys to press ahead on foot in body armor, laden with heavy packs.

"There has been sporadic fighting, but so far no heavy engagement," said Capt. Bill Pelletier, a spokesman for the Marine Expeditionary Brigade- Afghanistan, which is based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. "We've had individuals or several people fire on our forces, but they broke contact pretty quickly once they gained the Marines' attention."

The attacking force also appeared mindful of new instructions from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to make it a priority to avoid civilian casualties. Troops have been told that even if they believe insurgents have taken shelter in a particular location, they should refrain from bombardment if there is a possibility that civilians might be present, unless they themselves are in immediate danger.

Pelletier said the Marines so far had "not used indirect fire at all in our operations -- no artillery or bombs from aircraft."

The operation is likely to be a sustained one, involving the taking and holding of territory where until now thinly deployed British troops have mainly engaged in hit-and-run encounters with the insurgents.

The apparent capture of an American soldier in the country's eastern sector adds a complicating factor to this new phase of the Afghan conflict, which was driven by a fresh counterinsurgency strategy crafted by the Obama administration. The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will reach 68,000 by year's end, reflecting a shift in priority away from the conflict in Iraq.

The Reuters news agency quoted a senior Taliban commander, Maulvi Sangeen Zadran, as saying the soldier was seized after leaving a base in Paktika province. Sangeen is allied with the Haqqani network, one of the most virulent of the Pakistani-based insurgent groups active in the border zone.

News accounts quoted Sangeen as saying that video of the captive, together with demands for the release of insurgent prisoners, would soon be forthcoming.

Abductions of aid workers, journalists and Afghan nationals are not unusual, but a military official said the U.S. soldier's apparent capture was believed to be the first of its kind in the course of the Afghan conflict.

The soldier's disappearance could raise embarrassing questions about an unauthorized departure from what are supposed to be heavily fortified bases where comings and goings are closely monitored.

The case was also a grim evocation of some of the most emotionally wrenching events for the U.S. military in Iraq.

In 2007, three American soldiers were captured during an ambush in an area just south of Baghdad then known as the "triangle of death." The body of one soldier, Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr. of Torrance, was found days later in the Euphrates River. Those of his slain comrades were not found until more than a year later. Another U.S. soldier, Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, was taken in 2004; his remains were found outside Baghdad nearly four years later.

Eastern Afghanistan borders on Pakistan's tribal areas, and kidnappers have in the past proved able to move captives across the frontier. New York Times correspondent David Rohde, who was abducted in Afghanistan in November, last month escaped from his captors, who had taken him across the border to the tribal area of Waziristan.

Despite a conflict that involves daily clashes, insurgents rarely have the chance to get close enough to a Western soldier to carry out an abduction. American forces in eastern Afghanistan occupy a string of bases near the Pakistani border, some of them large installations and some of them small outposts. It would be very difficult for insurgents to penetrate a base and make a capture.

However, U.S. troops routinely leave their bases to patrol roads where insurgents are suspected of planting improvised explosive devices and occasionally exchange small-arms fire with militants they encounter.

Militants may plan attacks before German vote-minister

Reuters, 2, July 2009-Islamic militants may be planning attacks aimed at influencing public opinion against Germany's Afghanistan mission ahead of a national election, a senior official said on Thursday.

Authorities have detected an increase in threatening video messages ahead of the Sept. 27 parliamentary elections, Deputy Interior Minister and former spy chief August Hanning told a news conference.

Hanning said the 2004 Madrid bombings -- when militants killed 191 people in train bombings in an attempt to influence an approaching election and pressure Spain to pull its troops from Iraq -- was a scenario on everyone's mind.

"There has been a rise in the number of video messages and they are extraordinary," Hanning said after a meeting of security officials in Berlin.

"We're also seeing more travel towards Pakistan in particular," he said. "This is disturbing, but no reason for alarmism yet."

Several militants who have carried out attacks in Europe travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan for training at guerrilla camps, intelligence sources say.

British security services say there have been Pakistani links to almost all of the dozen major terrorism plots foiled in Britain since 2001, and to the London bombings in 2005.

Four Islamic militants on trial for planning bomb attacks on U.S. targets in Germany last year have confessed to some of the charges. They were arrested while planning attacks in 2007 that were designed to influence German public opinion on Afghanistan.

Germany has about 3,700 soldiers on a NATO mission in Afghanistan that is increasingly unpopular at home. A total of 35 German soldiers have been killed there in the last six years.

"We are the country with the third-largest number of troops in Afghanistan...making us a particular target for (militant) groups," said Hanning. The videos showed that the groups were well aware of the political situation in Germany, he added.

"When you look at the video messages, you get the impression that people are following the political situation in Germany very closely," he said, noting their aim was to force foreign troops to leave Afghanistan. "We take these threats seriously."

[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.]