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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2008

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Canadian troops find massive Taliban stash of weapons, supplies
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at 12:19 on October 10, 2008, EDT.
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have seized a series of major Taliban supply depots containing everything from winter clothing and medical supplies to bomb-making equipment and anti-tank weapons.

The discoveries came after three days of patrolling in a village long believed to be an important staging point for insurgents.

The operation was intended to increase security in Kandahar City by disrupting the flow of Taliban fighters into the region.

Together with soldiers from the Afghan National Army, the Canadians found dozens of homemade explosives, mines, mortars, radios and an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle - a weapon capable of taking out an armoured vehicle.

The soldiers also found what appeared to be a Taliban infirmary, complete with IV bottles, bloodstained clothes and two 50-kilogram sacks of dried peas from the United Nations, originally donated by Canada.

Insurgents declined to tangle directly with the heavily-armed battle group from the Royal Canadian Regiment, although the operation did encounter several improvised explosive devices.
Article link

http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?src=n101049A.xml


Well done MMRP and the remainder of the Troops!
 
Afghanistan: turbulent times
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1223663958

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found Oct 11, 2008

NATO to Target Afghan Drug Lords Who Aid Taliban
By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service  Saturday, October 11, 2008; Page A16
Article Link

BUDAPEST, Oct. 10 -- NATO defense ministers reached a compromise agreement Friday that allows forces operating in Afghanistan to target heroin networks funding the Taliban. The deal, viewed by the Pentagon as critical to beating back a resurgent Taliban, essentially allows some members of the military alliance to opt out of counternarcotics operations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, backed by Britain, had called on NATO allies to begin striking drug traffickers, who are a key source of funding for the Taliban's increasingly lethal insurgency. Gates estimated this week that as much as $80 million a year flows into the Taliban's coffers from the drug trade.

But some European countries, including Germany and Spain, said drug interdiction was beyond their mandate in Afghanistan and could incite Afghans who depend on income from growing opium poppies.

The agreement "allows some to do things that others did not want to do. It's better than nothing," Gates told reporters on a military flight to Washington after the two-day meeting in Budapest, the Hungarian capital. "You will see more willing to do this in the south than in other parts of the country. . . . I think obviously the United States and the U.K. are interested in doing this. I think there are several others who would
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Bomber Strikes Anti-Taliban Meeting, Killing More Than 40
By QAZI JAWADULLAH and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH Published: October 10, 2008
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle laden with explosives during a meeting of elders in Pakistan’s tribal territories on Friday, killing more than 40 people and wounding more than 100, according to a government official, television accounts and witnesses.

Elders in the Orakzai tribal area, vowing to push Taliban extremists out of their area, were planning the details of how to wipe out a Taliban headquarters, said Kamran Zeb, the government’s senior official in Orakzai.

As the armed elders gathered outdoors, a pickup truck loaded with explosives drove into the meeting, participants said. The explosion was so powerful that the pickup truck carrying the bomb was buried in the ground after it blew up, they said.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, attacked the headquarters of the antiterrorism police, which is supposed to be a crucial force in protecting the city.
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Pakistan Tribes Raze Taliban Houses After Bombing
By REUTERS Published: October 11, 2008
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KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Angry Pakistani tribesmen traded fire with Taliban militants and demolished their houses in a northwestern tribal region after a car suicide attack killed at least 40 people, residents and officials said on Saturday.

Television channels put the death toll at as high as 70.

The bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the middle of a tribal council meeting in Orakzai tribal region on Friday where hundreds of tribesmen were discussing a government-backed plan to raise a lashkar or tribal militia to evict militants.

Pakistan's tribal areas on the Afghan border are regarded as safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban militants, and the government is under tremendous pressure from the United States to take stern action to stem the flow of insurgents to Afghanistan.

"Everyone is angry and upset here. The tribesmen attacked houses of the Taliban in Khadizai after the bombing. Two houses have been demolished," Noorzad Orakzai, a resident of the Khadizai area where attack took place, told Reuters by telephone.

"There have been exchanges of fire throughout the night. It's still going on," he added.

Jehanzeb Siddique, a senior government official dealing with tribal areas, told Reuters that they had confirmation of 40 deaths from the car bombing.

Other officials said the death toll could rise further as many of the nearly 100 wounded people were in critical condition while several bodies were still unidentified.

The attack in Orakzai came a day after a suicide blast inside the heavily guarded police headquarters in the capital Islamabad in which eight policemen were wounded.

Orakzai has been the most peaceful of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions. Unlike most of the others, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan.
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Talk to the Taliban? Later, maybe, but not now
David Frum, National Post  Published: Saturday, October 11, 2008
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KABUL -Talk to the Taliban? That's the big policy question everybody asks about Afghanistan. After an eight-day NATO-sponsored tour of the country, I can report that the best minds at work on the country all give the same answer: "Maybe later. Not now."

Here's why: 1. The current push to talk to the Taliban comes from Afghanistan's Karzai government for short-term electioneering advantage.

The Taliban are most active in Pashtun areas of Afghanistan. If the Taliban are still fighting, the Pashtun may not be able (or willing) to come out to vote in the presidential elections scheduled for 2009. President Karzai comes from a leading Pashtun family, and low Pashtun turnout would threaten Karzai's re-election hopes.

Karzai's government is not well liked in the other areas of Pakistan, where it is perceived as corrupt and incompetent. So Karzai badly needs a deal that will allow voting to proceed in the Pashtun areas.

Last weekend, The New York Times published a thickly sourced story in which half a dozen current and former U. S. officials accused Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, of massive involvement in Afghanistan's huge heroin industry. This accusation represents a devastating challenge for the Karzai government. (I was in the presidential palace to meet Karzai's official spokesman on the day the story broke. He arrived looking as if a bomb had just gone off in the building.)

Obviously, Karzai cannot sustain the war without American backing. Threatened with the loss of American support, he may be seeking to try to end the war -- transferring his base of support from the ethically fussy Americans to the more understanding Pashtun tribes. You can see why he'd want to do that. Harder to see why the Western world should endorse it. 2. Right now, the Taliban are looking strong; the West is looking weak. But 2009 will see substantially more NATO forces in the country than at any time since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Up to four U. S. combat brigades will be arriving. The Germans are sending 1,000 more troops. Other NATO forces have reached peak strength.
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'Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please'
KEEBLE McFARLANE Saturday, October 11, 2008
  Article Link

A few days ago a senior British military officer made a comment which reminded me of an old Hans Christian Andersen children's story. In the tale, some very persuasive salesmen met the king and told him they had a suit made from a magic fabric which was invisible to fools. Not wanting to appear a fool, the king accepted their story and convinced the queen and court, who all went along with the scheme to avoid being thought of as fools. The word went out across the land, and people came out one day to see the king modelling his new clothes. It took a little boy who hadn't heard the story to burst the bubble by pointing out, loudly and publicly, that the king wasn't wearing any clothes.

The officer in question is Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the British commander in Afghanistan, who told the Sunday Times newspaper that "We're not going to win this war."
Instead, he offered a more realistic prognosis for ending what seems an open-ended affair: "If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this." He added that no one should be uncomfortable with the idea.

As of June this year, Britain has more than 8,500 military personnel in the country, principally in the south, where it shares responsibility with Canada and the Netherlands. Generals from these three countries rotate in command of the southern region from their headquarters in Kandahar. This is perhaps the most dangerous region for the occupiers, who daily face attacks from the Taliban as they patrol the small towns and settlements in the harsh terrain. These troops make up the International Security Assistance Force, an operation organised and run by NATO. In all, there are about 53,000 personnel from 43 countries, with the largest contingents from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Australia.
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Dyer: Unwinnable Afghanistan: A negotiated settlement is needed
Gwynne Dyer Article Launched: 10/11/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
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The main purpose of British generals, it sometimes seems, is to say aloud the things that American generals (and British diplomats) think privately but dare not say in public. Things like: "We're not going to win this war."
    That was what Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the senior British commander in Afghanistan, said last week at the end of his six-month tour in command of the 16 Air Assault Brigade.
    His force saw a great deal of combat and lost 32 killed, but it didn't lose any battles. Regular troops rarely lose battles against guerrillas. But there were no lasting successes either - which is also typical of wars where foreign troops are fighting local guerrillas.
    Carleton-Smith did not say that the foreign forces in Afghanistan will lose the war. He said that they could not deliver a "decisive military victory." The best they might do, over a period of years, would be to reduce the Taliban insurgency "to a manageable level . . . that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army."
    This will not be news to any professional soldier who knows the conditions in Afghanistan. The question is whether it comes as a surprise to American and British politicians (including Barack Obama) who still promise "victory" in the Afghan war. Because if victory is not possible, then in the end the Afghan government will have to talk to the Taliban and negotiate a peace
settlement.
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Pakistanis shelter in Afghanistan as battles rage
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SHULTAN, Afghanistan (AFP) — Things are bad back home, says school director Said Nabi Said, one of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled into Afghanistan to escape an offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

"The Pakistani government bombed us with airplanes and artillery strikes to punish the people of Bajaur for having good relations with the militants," said the 27-year-old just across the border in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.

"Since the start of the fighting two months ago, the situation is critical: thousands of houses have been destroyed and hundreds of civilian people, mostly women and children, were killed," he claimed.

Around him in the village of Shultan, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Pakistan, several hundred people -- not a woman among them -- gathered for food handouts from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

They are among about 20,000 people whom the United Nations refugee agency says have fled the Pakistan military operation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked Islamic militants in the Bajaur tribal region.
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Coalition forces kill al-Qaeda, Taliban commanders in central Afghanistan 
www.chinaview.cn  2008-10-11 13:33:18
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    KABUL, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led Coalition forces on Friday killed four militants, including an Al-Qaeda commander and a Taliban commander, during an operation in Ghanzi province of central Afghanistan, said a Coalition statement released here on Saturday.

    The al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders were known as weapons and foreign fighter facilitators in Andar district of Ghazni province, both of whom were also believed to have coordinated and directed militant activities against interests of Afghan government and international troops, the statement said.

    "Two suspected militants were detained during the operation," it said.

    An AK-47, 600 blasting caps, 6,000 rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, rolls of detonation cord and a mine were discovered in the further search, it added.

    Conflicts and spiraling insurgency so far this year have claimed the lives of over 4,000 people, mostly militants, despite over 70,000 foreign troops stationed in the war-torn Afghanistan.
End

Free coffee, doughnuts for Canadian soldiers
Posted By THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Canadian soldiers arriving in Kandahar have at least one thing in their personal arsenal that other forces don't -- a stack of certificates to buy as many double-doubles or Boston creams as they can stomach.

"Those guys never have to buy a coffee," boasts Calgarian Dave Murphy, one of the people behind an effort to give soldiers serving in Afghanistan their Tim Hortons fix.

Members of the Royal Canadian Legion and a web-site with a similar theme have raised at least $223,000 for the cause.

Legion branches across the country have placed cans on their counters labelled Troop Morale Fund.

"People throw in their spare change," said Brad White, a spokesman for the legion's national head office.

That change adds up. Since the campaign started in March 2007, more than $200,000 has been raised, White said
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They came, they saw, then left the Afghan war without a single mission
09 October 2008 By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
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GERMANY has admitted its Special Forces have spent three years in Afghanistan without doing a single mission, and are now going to be withdrawn.

More than 100 soldiers from the elite Kommando Spezialkrafte regiment, or KSK, are set to leave the war-torn country after their foreign minister revealed they had never left their bases on an operation.

The KSK troops were originally sent to Afghanistan to lead counter-terrorist operations.
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Same story, different headlines and editing:

'A big morale booster' in Afghanistan
National Post, Oct. 11
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=873899

Nakoney, Afghanistan -- The Afghan soldier rustled vigorously about in the grape vines, then jumped back and jubilantly held up his find. "Alahu Akbar!" -- God is great! -- he cried, as cheers erupted from fellow troops scattered throughout the vineyard.

In the soldier's hands was an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle: an anti-tank rocket launcher that is one of the Taliban's most fearsome weapons. It was the pinnacle of a major find by Canadian and Afghan troops of insurgent arms, ammunition and bomb-making supplies hidden innocuously in a farmer's field.

"That's a big morale booster," said a Canadian soldier watching the scene.

"That's f---ing glorious," added another.

The cache also included a treasure trove of sophisticated, Western-made medical products ideal for treating combat casualties. One Canadian medic estimated the drugs, intravenous bags, dressings and even surgical instruments were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Whoever they've got doing their medical stuff knows what they're doing," he said. "They're as well trained or better than we are."

The discoveries were the high point of a massive, week-long operation by the Canadian and Afghan armies that failed to flush out and eliminate any actual Taliban.

As proof the insurgents remained active after the impressive show of force, the huge convoy transporting the soldiers back to base was hit by two improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a dramatic counter-attack on the bomb's suspected trigger man.

It can be frustrating not to be able to confront the insurgents in larger numbers, admitted Major Rob McBride, commander of November company, part of the Royal Canadian Regiment's third battalion and the core of the current battle group.

Aside from unearthing the supplies cache, the mission was able to generate important intelligence about the Taliban and its relationship to residents in an area that has been largely overlooked by NATO forces, he said...

Soldiers unearth Taliban arms, medicine cache
But Canadian patrol fails to find enemy

Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 11
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=ac748288-62e0-4824-ba0f-dda3821422b1

The Afghan soldier rustled vigorously in the grape vines, then jumped back and jubilantly held up his find. "Alahu Akbar!" -- God is great! -- he cried, as cheers erupted from fellow troops scattered throughout the vineyard.

In the soldier's hands was an anti-tank rocket launcher that is one of the Taliban's most fearsome weapons.

It was the pinnacle of a major find by Canadian and Afghan troops of insurgent arms, ammunition and bomb-making supplies hidden innocuously in a farmer's field.

Perhaps more intriguingly, the cache also included a treasure trove of sophisticated, western-made medical products ideal for treating combat casualties. One Canadian medic estimated the drugs, intravenous bags, dressings and even surgical instruments were worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Whoever they've got doing their medical stuff knows what they're doing," he said. "They're as well trained or better than we are."

The discoveries were the high point in a week-long operation by the Canadian and Afghan armies that all but failed to flush out and eliminate any actual Taliban.

As proof the insurgents remained active after the impressive show of force, the huge convoy transporting the soldiers back to base was hit by two improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a dramatic counter-attack on the bomb's suspected trigger man.

It "can be frustrating" not to be able to confront the insurgents in larger numbers, admitted Maj. Rob McBride, commander of November company, part of the Royal Canadian Regiment's third battalion and the core of the current battle group.

But, aside from unearthing the supplies cache, the mission was able to generate important intelligence about the Taliban and its relationship to residents in an area that has been largely overlooked by NATO forces, he said...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found Oct 12, 2008

More than 100 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes
Updated Sun. Oct. 12 2008 7:09 AM ET The Associated Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants launched a surprise attack on a key southern Afghan town, sparking a battle that killed some 60 insurgents, an Afghan official said Sunday. A second clash in the same region killed another 40 militants.

Taliban fighters used rockets and other heavy weapons to attack Afghan forces on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand's governor.

Militants attacked the city from three sides starting just after midnight and were pushed back only after a battle that involved airstrikes, Ahmadi said. Rockets landed in different parts of the city but there were no civilian casualties, he said.

NATO said its aircraft bombed insurgents after they observed them gathering for a major attack, killing "multiple enemy forces," the military alliance said in a statement.

"If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure," said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the spokesman for the NATO-led force.

Authorities recovered the bodies of 41 Taliban fighters on the city's outskirts, from where the attack was launched, he said. He estimated the bodies of another 20 fighters were taken from the battle site by the militants, citing intelligence reports.

British forces are responsible for protecting the area around Lashkar Gah.

In a second battle in Helmand province, Afghan and international troops retook the Nad Ali district centre -- which had been held by militants -- during a three-day fight, Ahmadi said. That battle, which also involved airstrikes, ended Saturday, Ahmadi said.

Afghan police and soldiers were now in control of the district centre. There were no casualties among Afghan or NATO troops, Ahmadi said.

Ahmadi's death tolls could not be verified independently
end

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
TheStar.com | Opinion | Troops need resources to do their job
Troops need resources to do their job
Oct 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Re:Afghan costs stir uproar
Article Link

I am a little annoyed about the $18.1 billion budget for the war in Afghanistan till the end of 2011. This is an example of the media only telling people what they want them to know and not the whole story.

As a mother of a son who has just gone there I was amazed at the figure, but I took the time to understand why it was costing so much. I started to go down a list of things where there would be expenses incurred whether the troops were in Afghanistan, Canada or in any other country. The military must pay for salaries, food, equipment and ammunition, no matter where the soldiers are posted.

So, if you break it down over the eight to nine years that they have been involved in Afghanistan, it would be approximately $2 billion. In order for our military to work properly, you have to put money into it to provide the resources necessary for the troops to do their job.

Instead of tearing our military apart, people need to remember that the soldiers are doing their job in helping the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country by building schools and roads, and training their police and military.

Please, we need to support our soldiers. When I talk to any of my son's military friends, they are all of the opinion that if they pull out now, then their fallen comrades have died in vain.
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US drones fly after missile strike in Pakistan: residents
5 hours ago
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MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) — US pilotless spy planes on Sunday flew over a Pakistani tribal town bordering Afghanistan just hours after a missile strike killed at least four people, residents said.

Two missiles from suspected US drones overnight struck a compound just outside Miranshah, the main town in the restive North Waziristan district, which is seen as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The targeted compound was the residence of Taliban militant Omar Daraz, a security official told AFP, giving no further details.

There was no reaction to the attacks from the Pakistan government, though the military said they were aware of the strike.

"We have reports about an explosion incident in Miranshah," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

He said he could not confirm whether the missile attack was launched by US aircraft.

Residents on Sunday said they could see three drones overhead as they sifted through the remains of the destroyed compound searching for further casualties.

Some tribesmen fired at the drones, but there was no damage to the aircraft or any return fire.
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ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 13

General Says He’s Hopeful About Taliban War
New York Times, Oct. 12, by John Burns
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/asia/13afghan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

Less than 12 hours after NATO troops in Afghanistan defeated an ambitious attempt by the Taliban to storm a provincial capital in the far southwest, killing dozens of the fighters, the top American commander in the country urged doubters Sunday to believe that the war against the Taliban would be won.

The commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, who leads more than 65,000 troops from about 40 foreign countries, including 33,000 Americans, said at a news conference in Kabul that there had been “too many” reports in the media recently asserting that the foreign forces and their Afghan allies were losing the war.

“I absolutely reject that idea, I don’t believe it,” the general said, adding: “It is true that there are many places in this country that don’t have an adequate level of security. We don’t have progress as even and as fast as any of us would like. But we are not losing in Afghanistan.”

At another point, he was more emphatic. There are major challenges facing the war effort, he said, “But we will win.”

The news conference was held on the general’s return from Washington, where he participated in a wide-ranging review of war strategy in Afghanistan. Earlier, the NATO command confirmed that its forces battled several hundred Taliban fighters at nightfall on Saturday as they prepared to attack Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, the center of Afghanistan’s opium trade and one of the most heavily contested battlefields of the war...

Confidence among Afghan citizens has plummeted, contributing to urgent calls by Western commanders and diplomats for a new war-fighting strategy that can put the effort here back on an ascending path.

At his news conference, General McKiernan appeared concerned about stemming the tide of pessimism. The general took command here in June, and he introduced a note of concern early on by saying that he did not believe NATO troops were winning, but that they could with a more effective approach. The message he appeared to have brought back from Washington was that doubts about the war had gone too far.

But he issued a new warning about inadequate NATO troop levels, a point made insistently in recent weeks by Robert M. Gates, the American defense secretary, and General McKiernan and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the two four-star American commanders who will now oversee the war here.

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found September 15, 2008

Taleban raid on key Afghan town
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At least 18 Taleban militants have been killed while attacking a police checkpoint in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say.

Police say dozens of insurgents took part in the attack - the second major assault on Lashkar Gah this week.

At least six policemen died in fighting elsewhere in the area, officials say.

On Tuesday, UN special envoy Kai Eide said attacks on troops, civilians and aid workers in Afghanistan were at their highest level for six years.

'Worrying development'

Provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad said that three policemen were also wounded in the latest fighting around Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, which took place on Tuesday.

He said the authorities had been able to recover the body of only one militant because the others had been carried away by their fighters
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Charges against Canadian soldier dropped
Leader-Post Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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REGINA -- A Regina father who sought to have charges dropped against the soldier accused of killing his son in Afghanistan got his wish on Tuesday.

Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh, 33, was killed by a bullet from an assault rifle inside the troop carrier on Aug. 9, 2006, while on routine patrol in Afghanistan. Following his son's death, Ben Walsh circulated a petition for charges to be dropped against Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser, who was accused of fatally shooting the Regina native.

On several occasions, Walsh voiced frustration about the lack of information the family had received about Jeffrey's death from the National Investigation Service, an independent military police unit. Last year, Walsh told the Leader-Post, "All I want is the truth from this organization ... the truth of what happened in my son's death."
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UN warns against expecting lull in rebel attacks in Afghanistan
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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN special envoy for Afghanistan warned Tuesday not to expect a lull in attacks by Taliban rebels and Al-Qaeda extremists this winter as was the case in previous years.

Briefing the UN Security Council on the latest developments in the strife-torn country, Kai Eide confirmed a "deteriorating (security) situation in last few months."

"In July and August, we witnessed the highest number of insecurity incidents since 2002," he said, with attacks up 40 percent compared with the same period last year.

He cited a decrease in attacks last month during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan but quickly added: "We now see an increase again in the number of incidents and we must expect that this number ... will continue to climb further over the next weeks."

In this regard, Eide noted that the insurgents had spread their influence of insurgents beyond the traditional areas in southern and the eastern Afghanistan.

He also pointed to a hike in "asymmetric (unconventional warfare) attacks (by insurgents), some of them very sophisticated" and to more "and sometimes deadly attacks against aid-related and humanitarian targets, including against NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and UN personnel."
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3 NATO soldiers, 16 Afghans killed in bomb blasts 
Oct 14 09:01 AM US/Eastern By AMIR SHAH Associated Press Writer
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. military successes in Iraq have forced sophisticated and well-trained insurgents to pour into Afghanistan instead, part of the reason violence has spiked in Afghanistan, the Afghan defense minister said Tuesday.
In a demonstration of the increasingly deadly attacks, a roadside blast in the east where U.S. soldiers operate killed three NATO troops, while two separate roadside bombs in the south killed 16 Afghan civilians, officials said.

The Afghan defense minister, Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, said terrorists who would have once fought in Iraq have been "diverted" to Afghanistan.

"The success of coalition forces in Iraq and also some other issues in some of the neighboring countries have made it possible that there is a major increase in the foreign fighters," Wardak told a news conference. "There is no doubt that they are (better) equipped than before. They are well trained, more sophisticated, their coordination is much better."

The top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, told The Associated Press last month that he is seeing a spike in the number of foreign militants—including Arabs and Chechens—flowing into Afghanistan. He said militant Web sites have been encouraging fighters to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

"I can't prove they are coming from Iraq to Afghanistan, but I've seen it on Web sites that that's what they're being told to do," Schloesser said.

The Iraqi insurgency at its height drew Arab extremists and other jihadi leaders who were once focused on Afghanistan, including the Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri, believed to be the current leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Iran also stepped up aid to Shiite militias as sectarian strife grew after 2006. But the precise number foreign fighters in Iraq was never clear and many U.S. commanders believe local Iraqis comprise the bulk of the al-Qaida and other jihadi forces.

In Afghanistan, militant attacks have turned deadlier and more sophisticated this year, part of the reason more U.S. and NATO troops have died there in 2008 than in any year since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
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Four-legged heroes saving lives in Afghanistan
Bomb-sniffing dogs can be Canadian soldiers' best friends
Tom Blackwell ,  Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - When Canadian and Afghan troops unearthed a major cache of Taliban weaponry and medical supplies last week, the unsung hero of the day was a "soldier" with four legs and the Florida-based private contractor that trained him.

Heading into a grape field as others looked elsewhere, Ouzo the German shepherd quickly zeroed in on a mound of dried twigs. A Canadian soldier pulled away the debris and discovered a bag packed with lethal anti-personnel mines. The vineyard was full of such booty.

The find by Ouzo and his Peruvian handler was no shock, however. The pair are among 16 explosive-sniffing dog teams that the Canadian Forces have increasingly turned to in their fight against the IED menace.
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Articles found September 16, 2008

Afghan police officer kills U.S. soldier
Last Updated: Thursday, October 16, 2008 CBC News
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An Afghan police officer shot and killed a U.S. soldier on patrol in eastern Afghanistan Thursday, said the U.S. military.

The Afghan officer opened fire and tossed a grenade at the coalition patrol from a watchtower in the Bermel district of the eastern Paktika province, said the military statement.

Coalition troops returned fire on the tower, killing the Afghan officer.

Provincial governor Akram Akhpalwak said he didn't know why the attack took place.

The U.S. military said it is investigating the incident.

It was the second time in less than a month that an Afghan officer has killed a U.S. soldier. An Afghan policeman opened fire on U.S. troops at a police station in Paktika province in August, killing an American soldier and wounding three other troops.

U.S. forces shot and killed the Afghan police officer.
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Germany backs extra troops for Afghanistan
ReutersPublished: October 16, 2008 By Kerstin Gehmlich
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Germany's lower house of parliament voted Thursday to increase the number of troops Berlin can send to Afghanistan by 1,000 soldiers.

The extension of Berlin's participation in the NATO peacekeeping mission follows a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, but is unpopular with many voters wary of rising violence in Afghanistan.

A large majority of 424 out of 570 parliamentarians voted in support of the new mandate, which allows Germany to send up to 4,500 troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led force that includes more than 50,000 troops overall.

The new mandate is valid for 14 months. Previously, Germany was allowed to send up to 3,500 troops to Afghanistan.
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Afghan soldiers transfer allegiance to their country
Published Thursday October 16th, 2008
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NAKONEY, Afghanistan - Canada's military exit strategy from Afghanistan sprawls on tarps spread out over the desert dust just outside this village southwest of Kandahar.

Some clean their weapons; some sip sweet, apple-flavoured tea by garbage-fuelled fires. A few wrestle playfully like wolf cubs and at the far end of the camp, some toss around a borrowed football in spirals that are wobbly at best.

Throwing the unfamiliar, oddly shaped ball may baffle the soldiers of the Afghan National Army, but they are quickly learning to take a handoff.

In 2011, Canada plans to withdraw its combat troops and leave this murky conflict to Afghan government troops.

Six days patrolling a Taliban stronghold with these former farmers, taxi drivers and labourers revealed plenty of weaknesses -- field discipline that can resemble six-year-olds playing hockey, logistics problems that force them to consider enemy caches as resupply opportunities, and a life so harsh that even these tough men last only a few years.

But during Operation Array earlier this month, the ANA also showed the stirrings of what may become Afghanistan's most functional and trusted national institution. Here, men from a warlord culture are learning to transfer their loyalties to a nation, and each other.

"We are brothers," said Sgt. John Mohammed, a three-year veteran who says he joined the army because he liked the vehicles and thought the uniforms looked snappy. The comrades squatting beside him include a Hazara, a Tajik, a Pashtun, an Uzbek and a Turkman, but something larger has brought them together.

"There are not any differences between us," Mohammed said through a translator.
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Pakistan's plight the focus of Ottawa conference
Mike Blanchfield ,  Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, October 16, 2008
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OTTAWA - The young man was a fully trained suicide bomber, but his future plans included something perhaps more devious - spying on the terrorists who recruited him.

His job application stood out from the hundreds the Pakistani government received recently after running a series of newspaper advertisements seeking "human intelligence" from their lawless tribal regions along the Afghanistan border - the new home of the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgency that threatens the Canadian Forces and their allies across that border.

He wanted the government to pay his admission and board to a college near the capital, Islamabad. In return he would go back to his home village on weekends, keep his ears peeled and report back to the government.

Hassan Abbas, a Harvard University scholar, author and former Pakistani government official under both Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf, said the young man's attitude showed that terrorism's recruitment cycle could be breached, that some ensnared by it "see there is a way out."

"Their demand, of course, is opportunity - education, economic opportunity," said Abbas, noting that Pakistani authorities were still mulling the young man's offer.

Abbas and other Pakistani analysts say bringing economic opportunity as well as strengthening traditionally weak democratic institutions are the key to wrestling back control of their country from the terrorists that have set up shop there. Islamist terrorists now use the country's lawless west as a launch pad for attacks in Afghanistan, as well as for brazen acts of violence on their own soil such as the recent Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad that left more than 50 dead.

Abbas joined several dozen experts from his country, foreign embassies, and the Canadian government at a recent symposium in Ottawa sponsored by the Canadian International Council.
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A surge of pessimism
America worries about Taliban advances and British despondency

The Economist, Oct 16
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12437731&fsrc=nwlptwfree

THE Taliban have been brave and brazen this fighting season. They have used more “asymmetric” tactics, such as suicide bombings, but have not shied away from direct combat. In July, they tried to overrun a new American outpost in Nuristan province, killing nine Americans. In August, they attempted to fight their way into a big American base outside Khost, a town that for a year had been a model of stability. Earlier this month they made a three-pronged stab at Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

All these attacks were repelled. But despite heavy losses for the insurgents, they sent a powerful message: the Taliban are getting stronger and areas once deemed safe are under threat. Provinces around Kabul are more violent and roads leading out of the capital are frequently cut off. Though there are fewer bomb attacks than a year ago, the capital feels besieged, prompting some to recall the days when the anti-Communist mujahideen moved to take over the city in 1992, and again when the Taliban rode in four years later.

This is much too gloomy. America shows no sign of giving up as the Soviet Union did in 1989; indeed, both American presidential candidates have pledged to reinforce the military operation. Still, Admiral Mike Mullen, America’s most senior officer, makes no secret that Afghanistan is “not going in the right direction”.

In its dying days, the Bush administration has begun a wholesale reassessment of its mission in Afghanistan. The Americans worry not just about the Taliban, but also about their own NATO allies, particularly Britain. Two reported sets of comments by senior British figures—the ambassador to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, and the recently-departed British military commander, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith—have raised concern that the British are tiring of the fight...

Both men claim to have been misrepresented. Moreover, American commanders say similar-sounding things: no purely military solution is possible; a political dialogue is vital. But perception and nuance matter. There is a difference between saying there is no military solution and believing the mission is bound to fail; between trying to draw individual commanders away from the Taliban and sharing power with their leader, Mullah Omar...

Britain’s position is important not just because it makes the second-largest military contribution in Afghanistan, but because a British loss of will could prompt other allies to rush for the exit. The Dutch are already expected to stop fighting next year and the Canadians could leave in 2011 [emphasis added]. Robert Gates, America’s defence secretary, says extra American troops being sent to Afghanistan—an additional brigade in January and possibly two or three more later in the year—should be seen as reinforcements, not replacements. In reality, though, the NATO venture is becoming ever more Americanised.

Along with a surge of foreign forces, there needs to be a surge of Afghan ones. The Afghan army is being expanded, and a rudimentary air force is being built. But the new ceiling of 122,000 men is far short of the nearly 260,000 soldiers in Iraq, a country smaller in size and population than Afghanistan. There are about 80,000 Afghan policemen, many of them seen as bandits, compared with about 250,000 Iraqi ones. In addition, in Iraq the Americans set up 100,000-strong tribal militias that were instrumental in evicting al-Qaeda from large parts of the country.

Perhaps the most important element of any new strategy is one the United Nations envoy, Kai Eide, calls a “political surge” to boost the Afghan government. It is the most difficult to achieve. President Hamid Karzai, once regarded as a saviour of the country, is increasingly seen as ineffective. Diplomats say President George Bush has treated him uncritically. A report in the New York Times about American suspicions concerning alleged drug connections of the president’s half-brother, Ahmed Wali (which he denies), may be a sign that Washington’s patience is running out. Not certain, however, is whether a credible alternative leader can emerge—and whether, faced with a stronger Taliban, a new American president would ever dare engineer Mr Karzai’s replacement.

To fight Taliban, US eyes Afghan tribes
Some tribes have forced insurgents from their area, but many risks remain.

CS Monitor, Oct. 16
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1016/p01s04-wosc.htm

JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN

With sticks, knives, and 600 men drawn from his own tribe, Hajji Malik Zahir did what the armies of Afghanistan and America could not: He drove the Taliban from his district.

Now, the United States increasingly wants to encourage other tribal elders in Afghanistan to do the same. In what is taking shape as a substantial policy shift, it wants to use tribes to bring law and order to the vast areas of the country beyond the government's authority.

The successful uprising of tribal chiefs in Iraq against Al Qaeda – the "Anbar Awakening" – has created momentum, as has endemic corruption in President Hamid Karzai's government.

The government is not competent enough to deal with the dire threats now facing Afghanistan, says Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corp., a security consultancy in Arlington, Va., that works with the Pentagon. "This means working with the tribal leaders," he says.

Such a policy promises great risk and reward. Done carelessly, it could unleash the tribal and ethnic forces that led to civil war in the early 1990s, warns tribal leader Mr. Zahir, as well as analysts. Yet his experience – and that of aid agencies and local law-enforcement officials – suggests that tribal elders can often deliver results that the government alone cannot.

In a Pentagon briefing last week the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, said: "It seems to me that, with the lead of the government of Afghanistan, engaging those tribes and connecting them to governance – whether it's at the provincial level or the district level – seems to be a smart thing to do to assist with the security of a huge country."

US fears reviving civil war

It has taken Washington seven years to get to this point, largely because of the tremendous dangers and complications inherent in such a policy.

As recently as the 1980s, America was arming and training local fighters in Afghanistan to drive out the Soviet Army. The result was four years of civil war after the Soviets withdrew, as the new warlords fought each other, killing thousands. The chaos led to the rise of the Taliban.

Moreover, Afghanistan is an enormously complex web of intersecting tribal and ethnic allegiances that must be negotiated with great delicacy. Bolstering one Pashtun tribe in eastern Afghanistan, for example, could upset Tajiks and Hazaras in the north – who feel that their old foes are being strengthened – as well as rival Pashtun clans in the south.

For this reason, a consensus is emerging here and in Washington that whatever program emerges must be run by the Afghan government itself – perhaps by the police or Army [emphasis added]...

Petraeus Mounts Strategy Review
Team to Focus On Afghanistan, Wider Region

Washington Post, Oct. 16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/15/AR2008101503685.html

Gen. David H. Petraeus has launched a major reassessment of U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the surrounding region, while warning that the lack of development and the spiraling violence in Afghanistan will probably make it "the longest campaign of the long war."

The 100-day assessment will result in a new campaign plan for the Middle East and Central Asia, a region in which Petraeus will oversee the operations of more than 200,000 American troops as the new head of U.S. Central Command, beginning Oct. 31.

The review will formally begin next month, but experts and military officials involved said Petraeus is already focused on at least two major themes: government-led reconciliation of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the leveraging of diplomatic and economic initiatives with nearby countries that are influential in the war.

The review comes as Petraeus, who led a counterinsurgency effort credited with drastically reducing attack levels in Iraq, faces widespread expectations that he will find a way to arrest escalating violence and U.S. troop casualties in Afghanistan, fueled by growing militant havens in Pakistan.

It also coincides with the Bush administration's own urgent reassessment of Afghanistan strategy amid pessimism that the situation there is rapidly deteriorating. Indeed, some senior administration officials have expressed concern that Petraeus is casting his net too widely with a regional review at a time when Afghanistan and western Pakistan desperately need rescuing...

Petraeus is recruiting a brain trust of advisers, much as he did for Iraq, taking the studious approach that has become the hallmark of the four-star general who holds a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University.

Petraeus's Joint Strategic Assessment Team -- led by a longtime adviser, Col. H.R. McMaster, and with the Central Command deputy, Maj. Gen. John Allen, as executive director -- is reaching out to handpicked experts as well as State Department, Pentagon and other civilian and military officials with experience in the region.

The team will comprise about 100 people [emphasis added], organized initially into six subregional teams, tasked with investigating the root causes of insecurity in the region with the goal of finding solutions that integrate military action, diplomacy and development work.

Afghanistan and Pakistan experts consulted so far include Shuja Nawaz, author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within," whom Petraeus consulted during a private lunch in Washington last week, and Ahmed Rashid, author of "Descent into Chaos," a sobering look at Afghanistan that officials say Petraeus has read. 

Reconciliation of moderate Taliban insurgents who are willing to ally with the Afghan government is emerging as one main thrust [emphasis added] of Petraeus's approach, according to officials and experts who have discussed it with him recently.

"In Afghanistan, or in any country where society is dominated by tribes, reconciliation really needs to be a focus," said a senior Central Command official.

Petraeus agreed but stressed that any outreach needs to be done in conjunction with the Afghan government [emphasis added]. "I do think you have to talk to enemies," he said at the Heritage Foundation. "Clearly you want to try to reconcile with as many as possible. . . . The key there is making sure all of that is done in complete coordination and with the complete support of the Afghan government and President [Hamid] Karzai."...

Afghan co-ordination must improve, Gates says
Reuters, Oct. 15
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081015.wafghangates/BNStory/International/home

NATO and its partners need to get better at co-ordinating efforts to defeat a “ruthless and resilient” insurgency in Afghanistan, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.

Mr. Gates said America's security depended on being able to combine military, political, and economic endeavours to stabilize failing states and he cast Afghanistan as the ultimate test of that approach.

“To be successful, the entirety of the NATO alliance, the European Union, NGOs [non-governmental organizations], and other groups – the full panoply of military and civilian elements – must better integrate and co-ordinate with one another and also with the Afghan government,” he said.

“These efforts today – however well-intentioned and even heroic – add up to less than the sum of the parts,” Gates said in a speech at a dinner organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.

He said the objective of a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Budapest last week was to improve that situation. But he struck a cautionary note.

“Whether we will make progress remains to be seen,” he said...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found September 17, 2008

Boots on the ground, Canadian style
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes  Mideast edition, Friday, October 17, 2008
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Spend a few weeks working with the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, and you’ll notice that while they share a lot of things in common with U.S. troops, they also have their differences. Some of them are subtle, others are more distinct.

For instance, most of the basic small arms, equipment and vehicles are the same. Both militaries use the same rifles, squad machine guns and general purpose machine guns. But the Canadian version of the M-240 is called the C-6, the M-16 is known as the C-7, the M-4 is called a C-8, the M-249 SAW is the C-9, and all of them are made in Canada.

The workhorse vehicles of the Canadian infantry are the Light Armored Vehicle, or LAV, and the Bison. They’re basically the same vehicle, but the LAV has a turret on top with and 25 mm gun, and the Bison is a troop carrier. U.S. Marines use a variant of the LAV, calling it by the same name. The U.S. Army uses a version of the Bison, but calls it the Stryker.

Canadian troops refer informally to their LAVs and Bisons as "boats."

Both armies use the MRAP and Buffalo, mine-resistant vehicles. Canadian engineers also use the old U.S. M113 armored personnel carrier, but they call it the TLAV, for Tracked Light Armored Vehicle.
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Afghanistan chief is new Army head
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A former commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan who recently called for more troops to be sent to the country has been named as the next head of the Army.

Sir David Richards, the current Commander-in-Chief Land Forces, will succeed the outspoken General Sir Richard Dannatt as Chief of the General Staff in August next year.

At the same time, it was announced that Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope is to become the next head of the Royal Navy while Air Marshal Stephen Dalton will become the head of the Royal Air Force.

Both will take up their posts next July.

Gen Dannatt, the current head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, and the head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, will all retire when they stand down next year.

The announcement means that the next overall head of the services, the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), will be drawn from the new generation of service chiefs.

It was confirmed earlier this year that the current CDS, Sir Jock Stirrup, will remain in post until 2011. The move was widely seen as a sign that ministers did not want Gen Dannatt to succeed to the top job.
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Canadian terror messages worrying officials
Stewart Bell, National Post  Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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Quebec man has posted messages on the Internet encouraging al-Qaeda to attack Canada, the latest in a series of similar sentiments that are worrying counterterrorism officials.

The author of the messages, who uses the pseudonym Altar, praised terror leader Osama bin Laden and asked why al-Qaeda was focusing its efforts only on Europe instead of Canada.

"Allah is great and may Allah bless Sheikh bin Laden. That the sword held by the hand of al-Qaeda hits not only Europe, but that is hits all our enemies. Wherever they are," he wrote in a Sept. 25 posting.

"Me, I live in Canada and the Canadian government supports the Americans. The government of Canada supports Israel. Canadian soldiers are sent to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Now it's Canada's turn."

A copy of the message, posted to a French-based Internet forum called Minbar-sos, was found by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist Web sites.

In his online biography, Altar writes that he is a Sunni Muslim who lives in Quebec and that: "I want to chase the non-Muslims from Canada. Only their deaths will make Islam triumphant. God is Great."

The message concludes: "May Allah guide us to always defend our religion. That the Crusaders whether in Iraq or in Ottawa, the sword of Islam will fall on their head. God is Great."

This kind of rhetoric has been appearing increasingly on the Internet, often the work of young radicals who join online forums that promote al-Qaeda.

"Don't forget, these al-Qaeda sites, normal people can't get onto them," said terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

"They're password protected; you have to be vouched for personally. So the access is controlled, so you have to take something like this somewhat seriously."

The RCMP in Quebec could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Canadian counter-terrorism police have already investigated several similar cases involving online activities.

The RCMP arrested a Moroccan man in Trois-Rivières, Que., last September for allegedly posting messages on the Internet threatening terrorist attacks in Germany and Austria.
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Glance at Islamic terror money
By The Associated Press – 19 hours ago
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A look at the ways analysts say al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist groups get money and how it has changed over time:

_ Soviet war in Afghanistan:

Many Islamic terror groups have their origins in the Soviet war in Afghanistan that started in 1979. During the war, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other countries funded Islamic militants who eventually drove the Soviets to withdraw in 1989.

_ Al-Qaida's early years:

Saudi Arabia denied Osama bin Laden access to much of his inherited wealth in the early 1990s after he became critical of the Saudi royal family. He then relied more heavily on wealthy donors and Islamic charities in the Gulf.

A U.S. investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks said it cost al-Qaida an estimated $30 million per year to sustain its activities before the attacks — with almost all the money raised through donations.

A 2004 U.S. investigation found banks in the United Arab Emirates had unwittingly handled most of the $400,000 spent on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

_ Post-Sept. 11 attacks:

Crackdowns on banks and other financial institutions by the U.S. and its allies disrupted terrorist financing networks in the wake of Sept. 11.

The groups continue to rely heavily on wealthy donors and Islamic charities in the oil-rich Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia.

The groups have also benefited from the drug trade in Afghanistan that boomed after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Former U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey estimates al-Qaida and the Taliban are principally funded by some $800 million from the drug trade.

_ Related groups and sympathizers:

Spanish officials have said illegal drug sales funded the Madrid train bombings in 2004. The U.N. estimated those attacks cost only about $10,000.

British officials say the terrorists who carried out the 2005 London subway bombings financed themselves by defaulting on a personal loan and overdrawing bank accounts. The British estimated those attacks cost about $15,000
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Military preparing reserves for Afghanistan experience
Derek Putz, Leader-Post Published: Thursday, October 16, 2008
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REGINA -- Soldiers are to invade the city of Moose Jaw this weekend.

Before the alarm bells sound and mass panic ensues, Moose Javians can relax, because it's completely safe and just an exercise.

Saskatchewan army reserve units will be training in the Moose Jaw area today until Sunday. They will be practising scenarios on civilian secondary road networks based out of 15 Wing Moose Jaw ranging from Pense/Drinkwater in the east to Mortlach in the west.

According to Maj. Brad Hrycyna, commanding officer of the Saskatchewan Dragoons and the exercise director, army reservists from across Saskatchewan will be taking part in the training exercise.

"We're training in what we call the contemporary operating environment. We're training for tasks that we could be faced with in the immediate future, such as what we could (face) in Afghanistan," he said.

Hrycyna will have the troops practising convoys and convoy escorts. He will be conducting a scenario where 15 Wing Moose Jaw is a coalition air base that is under siege from insurgents in the surrounding area.

Officer Cadet Donna Riguidel, public affairs officer for 28 Canadian Brigade Group, ensures that residents of the area will not face any danger and have nothing to worry about.

"It's absolutely safe," Riguidel said. "Any ammunition they use will be blank ammunition and they are going to pick up anything after. They are not going to be using any live fire (or explosives) at all."
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US plan to help Pakistan fight insurgents
The Pentagon wants to send more F-16 fighters. Critics say the jets could threaten India.
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor  from the October 17, 2008 edition
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Washington - The American military is beginning a training effort inside Pakistan this week that holds promise as the US helps Pakistan fight tribal militants blamed for much of the increase in violence there as well as in neighboring Afghanistan.

But a separate initiative to provide jet fighters to the Pakistani Air Force that Bush administration officials believe will be instrumental in the fight has been held up over concerns that Pakistan will use the planes against India, not against extremist elements in its border with Afghanistan.

The US deployed a small unit of about 30 special forces personnel into Pakistan this week to bolster the ability of Pakistan's Frontier Corps to fight its own insurgency.

The team, which also includes some British special forces, is significant, not for its size, but for the expectation that it can give Pakistan the tools to fight militants on its own. That is key to American defense officials who are desperate to reverse violence in the region but say any counterinsurgency there must have a Pakistani face.

That is why a long-proposed sale of new and refurbished F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan has become so critical to the Bush administration, which believes the old fleet of fighters the Pakistani Air Force is using now aren't effective.

The older planes aren't able to fly night missions, and they aren't equipped to drop the kind of precision munitions that could be instrumental in the ground fight against militants.

"Right now, they're basically dropping dumb bombs in the daylight, a fact that does not escape the enemy," says one defense official.

But Congress isn't so sure the Pakistani government can be trusted to use the planes against the tribal militants thought to be responsible for violence in Pakistan as well as in neighboring Afghanistan.

Members of Congress want to know why Pakistan would need a jet fighter that has "air-to-air" fighter capability when all the Pakistanis really need to fight militants from the air is a plane or helicopter with "air-to-ground" or "close air support" capabilities to support its efforts against militants on the ground.
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Afghanistan investments offer risk but also reward
Updated Fri. Oct. 17 2008 11:23 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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A Canada-Afghanistan matchmaking effort is underway in Markham, Ont., with the goal of teaming Canadian businesses up with partners in the war-torn region.

It's a land ripe with opportunities for Canadian investors, and the time has never been better to buy-in, said Aziz Amiri, the president of the Canada Afghanistan Business Council, which organized the event.

He told CTV's Canada AM there are dangers to investing in Afghanistan, but companies that take that "calculated risk" stand to make high returns.

"There are challenges as well as opportunities. Canadian companies are in places that aren't safer than Afghanistan. It's a calculated risk," Amiri said.

The primary areas of opportunity, Amiri said, are in reconstruction and mining, so the conference has targeted Canadian and Afghan companies that work in those industries.

Governments around the world have committed to helping rebuild Afghanistan, and money is available to finance appropriate projects, he said.

Mining is also is a major resource in Afghanistan, with largely untapped resouces of copper, aluminum and oil. The nation also has an iron mine worth $60 billion, Amiri said.

"Afghanistan is located very strategically, close to China, we have a border with China, and close to India. So a lot of these raw materials from Afghanistan have a good market in that area becuase of the emerging markets in China and India and Central Asia."

There is also room for development in the export of Afghanistan's natural gas resources, agricultural products and hand crafts, he said.

And while investing in Afghanistan has the potential to be financially rewarding, it is also a vital part of helping the nation emerge from the shadow of the Taliban, Amiri said.
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Petraeus seeking broad support for U.S. strategy
Reuters, Oct. 16
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49F8SL20081016

Even before he takes command of U.S. military strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gen. David Petraeus is reaching beyond the military sphere to encourage international support for stabilizing the region.

Petraeus, whose innovative thinking is credited with helping save Iraq from civil war, met International Monetary Fund and World Bank representatives [emphasis added] last week in preparation for new efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.

The move, unusual for a military commander, underscores the Pentagon's emphasis on unifying military, economic, political and diplomatic aid to help the two countries cope with militant violence and economic dislocation, officials said...

Afghan Officials Say Airstrike Killed Civilians
NY Times, Oct. 16, by John Burns
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/world/asia/17afghan.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike on Thursday on a village near the embattled provincial capital of Lashkar Gah killed 25 to 30 civilians, Afghan officials in the area said. While NATO confirmed that an airstrike had taken place in the area, where Taliban fighters have been battling NATO forces, it said that the reports were being investigated and that the command was “unable to confirm any civilian casualties.”..

The strike occurred at a time when General McKiernan, who took command here in June, had made curbing civilian casualties a high priority. At the moment when the airstrike in Nadali was said to have taken place, 1 p.m. Thursday, senior officers on the general’s staff were holding a briefing in Kabul, 340 miles away, at which they laid out for reporters and Western aid groups the new measures that General McKiernan had ordered for the purpose of “protecting the civilian population” during combat operations.

At a news conference in Kabul on Sunday, General McKiernan, just back from a top-level review of war strategy at the Pentagon, said the International Security Assistance Force, the coalition he commands, had adopted the most elaborate measures ever undertaken in war for avoiding civilian deaths. “Never in history has a military coalition taken greater measures to try and avoid civilian casualties than have been taken by ISAF,” he said.

At the briefing, Lt. Gen. Jonathon Riley, the British officer who is General McKiernan’s deputy, staunchly defended the way airstrikes were conducted, saying that the combat aircraft involved — mainly from the United States, Britain, France and Canada [emphasis added] — used “precision-guided weapons that are much more precise than machine guns” and other battlefield weapons, and that airstrikes were not ordered without multiple sources of intelligence indicating that the targets were combatants...

6,000 Indian troops to protect missions in Afghanistan Special Correspondent
The Frontier Post (Peshawar and Quetta), Oct. 17
http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ts&nid=2594&ad=17-10-2008

KABUL: India has agreed to send up to 6,000 paramilitary troops to Afghanistan by the end of this year, for boosting up security of the Indian diplomatic missions and on-going projects, a top ranking Afghan intelligence source disclosed this to The Frontier Post here. India decided to send its paramilitary troops, after receiving formal request from Afghan government in July, this year. After thoroughly considering the invitation, India finally, reached an agreement with Afghan government this year in August, to send 6,000 paramilitary troops to Afghanistan, the source disclosed while giving details of the agreement between the two governments . India has largest share in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan and 4,000 Indian nationals are engaged in different projects in many areas. Some mega Indian projects are said to be Zarange Della Ram Road Project, and the construction of a dam in Herat. Besides its reconstruction activities, India has a chain of diplomatic missions in various cities of Afghanistan, whose security is the major concern for Afghan government, particularly after attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul. India was reluctant to send its regular troops to Afghanistan because it has a stance that Indian troops can only operate in UN peace keeping activities outside India. Indian military chief, Deepak Kapoor while visiting Kabul in August this year, had said India was not considering the option of sending its troops to Afghanistan . However, Indians after repeated requests from Afghan government and its allies in Afghanistan, agreed to send 6,000 of its paramilitary troops called ITBP (Indian Tibitain Border Police), and sources in the Afghan capital confirmed its first contingent will reach Kabul by mid-December this year, whereas another presidential source said, it will be next year in January. About 3500 to 4000 Indians are working in Afghanistan for whose security, already some 500 security personnel from the same Tibitain squad are there. Last year the United States, Canada [emphasis added] and Afghanistan had jointly requested Indians to send troops to Afghanistan...

Afghanistan: no time to go wobbly
Conference of Defence Associations' media-round up, Oct.17
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1224259474/

Mark
Ottawa
 
ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 18

Senior U.S. commanders to assess Afghanistan mission
International Herald Tribune, Oct. 17
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/17/america/17military.php

The commander of the United States' Special Operations forces is meeting this week with the senior American commander in Afghanistan, as well as top Special Operations officers there, to assess the mission in Afghanistan, senior military officials said Thursday.

The commander, Admiral Eric Olson [interview ShadowSpear.com here], was in Pakistan on Thursday to meet the new leader of Pakistan's Frontier Corps paramilitary force, Major General Tariq Khan, and to observe a new American-led training program for the Pakistani corps.

Over the next several months, about two dozen American and British military trainers will instruct Pakistani officers [emphasis added] at a base in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. The Pakistani officers will in turn train Frontier Corps soldiers next year, in what both countries say is a crucial step in building an effective indigenous force to combat fighters from Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's unruly tribal areas.

But the bulk of Olson's time in the region will be spent conferring in Afghanistan with senior American Special Operations officers from across the country, as well as with the senior American commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, on Friday...

Olson, McKiernan and another senior commander, General David Petraeus, the former top officer in Iraq who takes charge of the Central Command on Oct. 31, are reviewing the Afghanistan mission...

American officials say they hope that the creation of a more unified command structure under McKiernan will improve the coordination of all forces in Afghanistan [emphasis added] — most notably American units near the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan, which have been independent of the NATO-led force in southern Afghanistan.

Olson was expected to meet with Special Operations officers this week at Bagram air base in Afghanistan to discuss details of how many of the Special Operations forces could improve coordination with McKiernan's command [emphasis added].

U.S. Strike Is Said to Kill Qaeda Figure in Pakistan
NY Times, Oct. 17
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

A missile attack from a remotely piloted American aircraft is believed to have killed a senior member of Al Qaeda in South Waziristan on Thursday, a former member of a militant group in the region said in an interview.

The operative, Khalid Habib, an Egyptian who was chief of operations in Pakistan’s tribal region, is described by the Central Intelligence Agency as the fourth-ranking person in the Qaeda hierarchy.

The attack, on the village of Taparghai, killed four people, some of them Arabs, according to initial reports on Thursday.

A Pakistani intelligence official declined Friday to confirm the death of Mr. Habib. An American official involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas said he could not confirm the report that Mr. Habib had died. It often takes American officials some time to determine the success or failure of attacks by remotely piloted aircraft in the rugged and remote terrain of the tribal areas.

Mr. Habib recently moved to Taparghai from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, which is in an area that the Americans have been attacking with increasing frequency. Their primary goal is to break the militant network there related to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a Taliban leader closely allied to Al Qaeda, the former member of the militant group said.

Mr. Habib had relocated to Taparghai expressly to avoid missile strikes, the former militant said. The area around Taparghai is near Makin, a base of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban.

Mr. Habib was in a parked Toyota station wagon, a favored vehicle of the militants in the tribal area, when he was hit by the missile, the former member of the militant group said...

Pakistani army 'kills 60 Taleban'
BBC, Oct. 18
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7677492.stm

At least 60 militants have been killed after the Pakistani army launched air strikes on two Taleban training camps in north-west Pakistan, the army says.

The operation in the Swat Valley occurred late on Friday shortly after troops found a Chinese engineer alive who had been kidnapped by the Taleban.

The military said efforts were under way to rescue a second Chinese hostage.

There was no confirmation of the attack. Militants have been fighting to impose Sharia law in Swat.

"According to our information, at least 60 Taleban died and many others were wounded during yesterday's operation around Matta town. This is the same area where one Chinese engineer was recovered," the army statement said...

Jet fighters pounded positions of the militants, destroying two of their training camps, military spokesman Major Nasir Ali told the Reuters news agency...

Pakistan army arrests 168 foreign militants in tribal regions
Xinhua, Oct. 18
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/18/content_10214561.htm

Pakistan's security forces have arrested about 168 foreign militants from the northwestern tribal regions in the past two days, military sources said on Saturday.

The foreign militants have been arrested from Darra Adamkhel of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and other tribal regions, said a military statement.

The security forces arrested 38 foreigners, who were riding three vehicles, from check-posts set up in NWFP capital Peshawar and Darra Adamkhel.

Besides, 30 more militants were arrested from various parts of the NWFP, and Uzbeks and Afghans were among the arrested.

The foreign militants, who are believed to enter Pakistan through porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, have been involved in the increasing Taliban insurgency in Pakistan's tribal regions.

The Pakistani army is intensifying its military operation against militants in Bajaur tribal agency and NWFP's Swat valley.

Create A Desert And Call It Peace
Strategy Page, Oct. 17
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20081017.aspx

Largely out of the media spotlight, at least in the West, the Pakistani army has taken on the most numerous and aggressive part of the Taliban organization, and is tearing it to pieces. For the last two months, the Pakistani Army has been moving through the Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), killing Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who have largely controlled the rural parts of the 1,300 square kilometer district for years. There were only a few thousand armed men working for the Taliban, and several thousand more who have come in since the fighting began. Over a third of these Taliban have been killed or wounded, and they have been driven from one compound (the fortress like groups of houses that are favored in this part of the world) after another. The army has used air power (mostly armed helicopters) and artillery to do most of the killing, using infantry to guard the roads and urban areas. The Taliban have had a hard time moving around, and have not been able to inflict many casualties on the army. Most of the civilian population has fled, as trying to use civilians as human shields does not work against the Pakistani army...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found Oct 19, 2008

Taliban kill around 30 people after stopping bus
By NOOR KHAN – 1 hour ago
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, captured some 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them, officials said Sunday.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia's fighters carried out the attack but that the insurgents killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus.

Militants stopped one bus in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province — a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles west of Kandahar city, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief. Around 50 people were taken hostage, though several were freed, he said.

Officials offered varying death tolls from the attack, which occurred in an area of Afghanistan that government forces cannot safely travel to without heavy military protection. That may explain why news of the Thursday hijacking did not emerge until Sunday.

The Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said 31 people were killed. Six of the dead were beheaded in a separate area of Maiwand from where the other 25 bodies were found, he said.
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Afghanistan - Suicide attack wounded 5 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
October 18, 2008 by 
Article Link

Suicide attack wounded 5 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
A suicide car bomber struck international troops near the western Afghan city of Herat Saturday, wounding five soldiers, officials said.

17 Afghan civilians reported killed (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
KABUL, Afghanistan - With public anger running high over alleged civilian deaths in air strikes by Western forces, Afghan authorities said yesterday that at least 17 civilians had been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan.

Tribal elder, 22 insurgents killed in Afghanistan attacks (IANS via Yahoo! India News)
Kabul, Oct 18 (DPA) Gunmen killed a tribal elder and his son in southern Afghanistan, while elsewhere in the country at least 22 insurgents were killed and eight were detained in separate operations by Afghan and international forces, officials said Saturday.

Rallies held across Canada to call for end to Afghan war (The Canadian Press via Yahoo! Canada News)
OTTAWA - Anti-war activists are taking to the streets in more than a dozen cities across the country this weekend to demand an end to Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

Former Karzai bodyguard killed in Afghanistan (USA Today)
Taliban gunmen fatally shot a tribal elder and his son, a former presidential bodyguard, inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.

Afghan elder, ex-Karzai bodyguard gunned down (AFP via Yahoo! Canada News)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Men on motorbikes shot dead a prominent pro-government Afghan tribal elder and his son, a former bodyguard for President Hamid Karzai, as they left a mosque Saturday, authorities said.
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Taliban offers fresh talks with Pak govt
19 Oct 2008, 1244 hrs IST,
Article Link

ISLAMABAD: Amidst the ongoing military offensive against Taliban in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the militants have re-offered talk
s with the government but said that they will not lay down their weapons.

Responding to the Taliban's offer to hold an unconditional dialogue if the government halted military operations against them, top Pakistani leaders including President Asif Ali Zardari have said that talks can be held only with militants who laid down their weapons.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Omar told journalists in Peshawar on Saturday that negotiation is the best option for the resolution of disputes.

Repeating the Taliban's offer of peace talks made on October 15, Omar said the government should stop operations against the militants before the talks.

Replying to a question, he said the government had not yet responded to the talks offer. "We are waiting for the government's response and are also ready for talks through a mediator," he said.

"Taliban are ready for talks with the government but we will never lay down arms," Omar said. The Taliban, he said, sincerely believed that talks are the best way to resolve issues because conflicts created complications. "Weapons will be retained for self-defence," he said.

Omar said the Taliban were willing to hold talks with the government because Pakistan's tribal areas are directly under its control. The Taliban would also negotiate in the restive Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province.

The militants did not want to go to war with the government but "war has been imposed on the Taliban", he said.
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I heard on the CBC last night that  the Taliban had taken two buses in the Maywand district and beheaded some of the passengers.

Where is Jack Layton? He should be denouncing this......as should all politicians..... :rage:
 
Articles found September 20, 2008

Taliban kill dozens in brazen bus hijacking
JESSICA LEEDER  Globe and Mail October 19, 2008 at 11:06 PM EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Police and government officials in Kandahar are accusing the Taliban of slaughtering nearly 30 civilians – some of whom were decapitated – in a brazen bus attack staged outside the city.

However, a spokesman for the Taliban, which yesterday took responsibility for the gruesome killings, said the attacks were made because passengers were members of the Afghan National Army.

“We found government documents on them and we killed 27 of them,” the Taliban spokesman said. “The rest, who were civilians, we freed.”

The attacks happened as the group was travelling west in a two-bus convoy in Maywand district, along the dangerous highway that connects Kandahar and Helmand provinces. The area is known as a hotbed for militants.

The attacks took place last Thursday, but officials learned of the attacks only yesterday.

Six bodies were discovered near the highway in Maywand and government officials denied that any of the victims were members of local army or police forces.

“We reject these claims,” said Zalmai Aybi, a spokesman for the Governor of Kandahar. “When we transport military guys … we use airplanes. Police … they use their ranger cars. They do not sit, dozens of them, in the middle of a civilian bus.”

Mr. Aybi's denial that soldiers have been killed was repeated by several government officials, including Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, and local Kandahar Police Chief Matiullah Qateh. All three men dismissed the Taliban's claims as deliberate propaganda.

Mr. Aybi said officials are still working to confirm exactly how many passengers Taliban fighters killed.
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Soccer replaces executions at Kandahar stadium
Updated Mon. Oct. 20 2008 9:34 AM ET The Canadian Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Muhamudullah Gulalai stands on the balcony overlooking the first row of bleachers and watches the soccer match below him.

It's two of Kandahar's B-league teams, but still the young men pass the ball expertly, flying into the air for headers and whirling bicycle kicks.

Slowly, afternoons like this are erasing the memory of what this stadium was under the rule of the Taliban -- a place of public execution.

"If you ask each person of Kandahar, they know what the history of this place is," says Gulalai, who now manages the stadium.

"The shooting of people ... Each child knows these things."

Now, Canadian-funded renovations to the stadium may help those memories fade faster.

A $25,000 project begun last spring and finished early this fall has freshened the paint, polished the marble, rebuilt the plumbing and electrical systems and generally restored Kandahar's soccer stadium to its place at the heart of the city's social life.

"The place was in fairly rough condition," says Sgt. Kevin Stanford, a military engineer based in Equimalt, B.C.

Marble cladding had fallen off. The kitchen facilities were unusable and the bathrooms unspeakable. The electrical systems were so makeshift that scorch marks from short-circuits covered the walls.

"(Cables) were hanging everywhere," said Stanford. "If it was North American standards, you'd fire the guy on the spot."

The Kandahari love of soccer was such that games were still being played on the pitted pitch. But the battle-scarred facility just wasn't up to hosting the kind of events that fans remembered from the old days, and the local government came to the Canadian-run Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar with a plan to renovate the stadium and hold a massive, 25-day tournament involving teams from a dozen provinces.

Canada said yes.
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Afghanistan: Italian foreign minister rejects call for extra troops
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Islamabad, 20 Oct. (AKI) - On a visit to Pakistan, Italian Foreign Minister,Franco Frattini, announced no extra troops would be sent to war-torn Afghanistan."I do not think sending more troops is the right solution today," Frattini told the media on Monday, while en route to Pakistan. Frattini arrived in the country's capital, Islamabad, for talks on bilateral ties and regional issues with his counterpart, Makhdoom Qureshi.

Frattini's visit is his first official to Pakistan and he is due to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, and Pakistan's army chief of staff.

Frattini said that Italy had recently made "a further effort sending four Tornado aircrafts to reinforce defence" and that "the troops that are present make Italy the fourth (largest) contingent in Afghanistan controlling a strategic province that the Taliban want to make, or make seem, less secure."

The Italian Tornado aircraft will carry out surveillance flights over the country's troublespots.

"Italy's strategy is right because it does not respond (to aggression) with raids, instead, continues to cooperate with the people," he said.

Frattini said Italy has set an example by using a combination of cooperation and peacekeeping, winning the sympathy and admiration of the people, an Italian model the other should follow.

Frattini also rejected the idea of dialogue with the Taliban.
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2 German soldiers killed by blast in Afghanistan
3 hours ago
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says a suicide bomber in northern Afghanistan has killed two German soldiers and five children.

The governor of Kunduz province, Mohammad Omar, says two other German soldiers and two children were wounded in the blast Monday.

NATO confirms that some of its soldiers were killed and wounded in the attack in the province's Chahar Dara district.

Omar says the soldiers were patrolling on foot when the bomber riding a bicycle hit them.

Taliban militants regularly use suicide bombers to attack foreign and Afghan troops. But many of their victims have been civilians.
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Pakistan muzzles its guns
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
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KARACHI - Cash-strapped Pakistan, after the failure of operations against militants in Bajaur Agency and the Swat Valley, has had to call off an offensive in the North Waziristan tribal area, and instead negotiate ceasefire deals.

Nevertheless, relentless pressure from the United States will not allow Islamabad to remain inactive for too long. This would have been the message relayed by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan at the weekend. The US is all too aware how militant strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas fuel the Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is in a deep financial hole, however, and the best it cando is buy time with the militants until the crisis eases.

Both China and the United States appear reluctant to bail out Pakistan, which is in danger of defaulting on debt worth US$3 billion in the next few months. Saudi Arabia, too, has not offered deferred payment on oil or any cash relief and at the weekend Pakistan said it might have to seek assistance from the unpopular International Monetary Fund.
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Taliban kill Christian aid worker in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH – 4 hours ago
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban gunmen on a motorbike killed a Christian aid worker in the Afghan capital on Monday, and the militant group said it had targeted the woman because she was proselytizing.

The woman, a British national, worked with handicapped Afghans and was killed in the western part of Kabul as she was walking alone around 8 a.m., police said. Najib Samsoor, a district police chief, originally said the woman was from South Africa, but the British government later said she was British.

The gunmen shot the victim in the body and leg with a pistol, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. Officials did not release her name.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the slaying, saying the woman was killed because she was spreading Christianity.
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Paid and Played
October 20, 2008:
Article Link

The Taliban appear to have 20-30 percent more gunmen in operation this year, largely because of greater earning from the drug business. They have adopted new tactics that emphasize operating in smaller groups, and trying to avoid the foreign aircraft and UAVs that appear to be everywhere. This year, the Taliban are leaving attacks on foreign troops up to terrorists (al Qaeda and Taliban). However, only about four percent of the victims of these attacks are foreign troops. Some 80 percent are Afghan civilians, and the rest Afghan police and soldiers. So far this year, 5,100 people have died in Taliban related violence. Most of the dead were Taliban or al Qaeda, killed by foreign and Afghan forces..

Most Taliban concentrate on trying to control the population around drug producing areas, and along the smuggling routes the gangs use to get the stuff out. All this work for the drug gangs brings in enough money so the Taliban can pay their gunmen twice what the soldiers or police get. Taliban commanders get paid more than police and army commanders, and there's plenty of money available to bribe government and military officials. The drug gangs back the Taliban because the Islamic zealots distract the police and army from disrupting drug operations. The drug lords don't think that the Taliban have much chance of regaining control of the entire country. All Afghans remember how widely reviled the Taliban were in the years before they were overthrown in late 2001. But if the Taliban should regain power, the pre-2001 deal with the drug gangs will be revived. That is, the Taliban will tax the drug trade while telling the world that they have banned it. To the drug gangs, the current government is much too dangerous. Although many senior members of the government have been bought, most are hostile to the heroin trade, and willing to work with NATO and the U.S. to attack the drug business. So the Taliban get paid and played by the drug gangs, who have a more certain future than their religious allies
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NATO: 20 insurgents killed west of Afghan capital
8 hours ago
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says its troops assaulted an insurgent stronghold just west of the capital in a two-day battle that left 20 militants dead.

NATO said in a statement Monday that the battle took place in Wardak province. The province has become an insurgent stronghold at the gates of the capital just 40 miles west of Kabul.

NATO says its troops were flown into Wardak's Jalrez District on Thursday and were attacked by insurgents. That sparked a two-day battle in which airstrikes were used to kill more than 20 militants.

No NATO troops were killed in the clash.
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Investigation drags even as more soldiers accuse Afghan allies of abusing young boys
October 19, 2008 Rick Westhead Staff Reporter
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The Canadian military's National Investigation Service is telling some witnesses it could take up to two years to investigate claims by Canadian soldiers that they've seen Afghan soldiers and interpreters raping young boys near Canadian bases outside Kandahar.

That would leave the problem unresolved until about 2011 – the year Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged to pull Canada's soldiers from the country – when the issue could well become moot.

"It's unconscionable," said Michel Drapeau, a retired Canadian colonel who practises military law in Ottawa. "It's completely unacceptable that they would take two years. How many more boys will be forced to go through this before we finally get around to looking at this seriously?"

Canadian investigators, who were initially slow to move on the claims, saying they lacked formal complaints, began reviewing the allegations in July at the request of military police.

That followed comments by Gen. Rick Hillier, then Canada's top soldier, who said in June that Canadian soldiers have a duty to intervene when they see abuse committed.

"We have all the authority we need," Hillier, who has since retired, told the Commons defence committee. "If somebody is being seriously abused and we are witness to it, we are not going to stand by ... no ambiguity from this chief of defence staff," Hillier told the committee, adding he'd just "reconfirmed that direction through the entire chain of command into Kandahar province."

Soldiers who allege they have witnessed assaults are continuing to return home from Afghanistan seeking trauma counselling.

The latest soldiers to request counselling are from a group of about 30 based in Newfoundland, said a senior military source who asked not to be identified. A medical officer is scheduled to go to Newfoundland to help the soldiers later this month.

In June, the Star reported that several Canadian soldiers had complained about the abuse of Afghan children to military officers in Afghanistan and chaplains and medical staff in Canada.

The first soldiers to complain said their allegations were ignored.

John Pike, an analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank, said a two-year timetable is "preposterous."

"Two years is enough time to complete your doctoral dissertation."
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ARTICLES FOUND OCT. 21

Nato chief attacks lack of will on Afghanistan
• General points out failure to increase troop presence
• Call for reform of funding and decision making

The Guardian, Oct. 21
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/afghanistan-nato

The failure of Nato countries to send more combat troops to Afghanistan revealed a "wavering" political will that raised fundamental questions about the relevance of the alliance, its supreme military commander warned yesterday.

In a scathing attack on member states for reneging on their promises, General John Craddock painted a depressing picture of Afghanistan while demanding reform of the Nato alliance and the way it took decisions. In a passage demonstrating growing US - and British - impatience with other allied countries, Craddock asked: "Do we really need to achieve consensus at every level" of Nato decision-making?

It took Nato an average of 80 days to respond to an urgent request for equipment from a commander in the field, alliance officials said later...

US and UK military commanders are drawing up plans for a "surge" deploying thousands more Nato troops, including some British soldiers [emphasis added], for a three-month period around the election.

There are about 50,000 troops in the Nato-led international force. The US maintains a separate force in the southeast, which it is intending to expand by up to 15,000, making a total of more than 40,000. Britain has about 8,000 troops in southern Afghanistan. "I want more forces from all nations," a senior Nato commander said yesterday.

Referring to what he called "real shortcomings" in Nato, Craddock said there were more than 70 caveats - national operational restrictions - imposed by different alliance governments on their soldiers in Afghanistan, and added that Nato countries were not delivering the number of troops they had promised. "It is this wavering political will that impedes operational progress and brings into question the relevancy of the alliance in the 21st century," he said.

Craddock said Nato countries had to draw up a new strategic concept directed at present, rather than cold war, threats. It should also introduce a system of common funding. At present, those countries deploying troops on operations have to pay for them. "An expeditionary alliance must find a better way," Craddock said...

Pakistani Legislators Show Little Appetite for a Fight
NY Times, Oct. 20
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/world/asia/21pstan.html?ref=todayspaper

An unusual parliamentary debate organized to forge a national policy on how to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda has exposed deep ambivalence about the militants, even as their reach extends to suicide attacks in the capital.

In one of his first initiatives as president, Asif Ali Zardari called the session in an effort to mobilize Pakistan’s political parties and its public to support the fight against the militants, which he has now called Pakistan’s war.

But instead, the nearly two weeks of closed sessions have been dominated by calls for dialogue with the Taliban and peppered with opposition to what lawmakers condemned as a war foisted on Pakistan by the United States, according to participants.

The tenor of the debate has highlighted the difficulties facing Mr. Zardari and Washington as they urgently try to focus Pakistan’s full attention on the militant threat at a time when the Pakistani military is locked in heavy fighting in the tribal areas.

Mr. Zardari’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, who was long both president and leader of the army, never consulted Parliament, and he as well as the fight against the militants came to be seen as tools of American policy and grew increasingly unpopular.

By contrast, Mr. Zardari, as the newly elected leader of Pakistan’s fledgling civilian government, will need the backing of Parliament and the public if he is to live up to his pledge to fight terrorism, which he made during a visit to Washington this month.

But the parliamentary proceedings, which included criticism of a lengthy military briefing by a senior general on the conduct of the war, showed that the political elites had little stomach for battling the militants...

Saudis confirm push for Afghan-Taliban peace talks
AFP, Oct. 21
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=896964

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal confirmed for the first time on Tuesday that the kingdom has been sponsoring talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban militia.

But Prince Saud warned that any further talks would require a readiness by the warring Afghan factions to lay down their arms and embrace the political process.

"At the request of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the kingdom has led an attempt with the Afghan parties to put an end to the fighting in Afghanistan and restore security and stability," he said.

"If we detect a willingness on the part of the Afghan parties to resolve political problems, renounce violence, lay down their arms and enter the political mainstream, there will be further attempts.

"But if that doesn't happen, it will be difficult to undertake any new initiative," the foreign minister told a joint news conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The elder brother of the U.S.-backed Afghan president said on October 9 that a visit he made to Saudi Arabia last month was part of an Afghan push for the kingdom to convene peace talks with Taliban insurgents.

Qayoum Karzai said no representatives of the militia were present at the meeting although the Afghan delegation had included former Taliban leaders...

France to host regional Afghan meeting by year-end
Reuters, Oct. 21
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/081021/n_top_news/cnews_us_france_afghanistan_meeting

France will host an informal meeting between Afghanistan and its neighbors before year's end in hopes of stabilizing the violence-wracked country, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
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Attacks on Afghan government forces and NATO troops supporting them have been on the upswing this year, as have been fighting in neighboring Pakistan between government troops and insurgents who operate on both sides of the border.

Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told a weekly news briefing that the meeting will "explore cooperation between Afghanistan and its immediate neighbors on several subjects, including political, economic, trade... and also security."

It would focus on countries bordering Afghanistan, but others may also participate.

"We'll see if, in a broader way, other actors can be included and associated, at a different level and with different modalities -- for example members of the P5 or other actors [emphasis added--Canada?]," he said, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council known as the P5...

Hit and miss with Afghan air strikes
Asia Times, Oct. 22, by Gareth Porter
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JJ22Df01.html

The present United States policy in Afghanistan of using air strikes to target local Taliban leaders was rejected by the top US commander in Afghanistan in early 2004 as certain to turn the broader population against the US presence.

Lieutenant General David Barno, the three-star general who commanded the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, the overall US and coalition command for Afghanistan from October 2003 to mid-2005, recalled in an interview that he had ordered that such air strikes be halted in Afghanistan in early 2004. He said the decision did not prohibit air strikes for close support of US troops in contact with the Taliban.

Barno, now retired from the army and director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, said he decided to stop the use of pre-targeted air strikes in early 2004 because the civilian casualties they caused were eroding the tolerance of the Afghan population for US military presence in the country.

"I felt that civilian casualties were strategically decoupling us from our objective," said Barno. "It caused blowback that undermined our cause."

But Barno said he had viewed the Afghan population's willingness to accept US troops in the country as a "bag of capital", which US forces were "spending too rapidly every time we caused civilian casualties with air power or knocked down doors or detained someone in front of their family".

After Barno left Afghanistan in 2005, air strikes aimed at killing local Taliban or al-Qaeda leaders resumed, and air strikes have come to be used routinely in military encounters with Taliban troops. The same tactic has also been used to target local al Qaeda leaders in northwest Pakistan.

US planes flew just 86 bombing missions in Afghanistan in all of 2004, but in 2007, the number of such air strikes had risen to nearly 3,000, according to US Air Forces Central Command figures.

The exponential rise in bombing continued in 2008. In the two months of June and July 2008 alone, the United States dropped nearly 600,000 pounds (272,727 kilograms) of bombs in Afghanistan - roughly equivalent to the total tonnage dropped in all of 2006 - according to statistics collected by Marc Gerlasco of Human Rights Watch...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found September 21, 2008

Court Spares Afghan Journalist’s Life
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — An appeals court sentenced a young Afghan journalist to 20 years in prison for blasphemy on Tuesday, overturning a death sentence ordered by a provincial court but raising further concerns of judicial propriety in the case.

The defendant, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, was a student in journalism in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and worked for a daily newspaper there. He was arrested last October and accused of printing and distributing an article from the Internet about Islam and women’s rights, on which he had written some comments about the Prophet Muhammad’s failings on that issue.

While insults to Muhammad are anathema in Afghanistan, the decisions by both the lower court and appeals court shocked many of Mr. Kambakhsh’s supporters and outraged international journalism organizations, which suggested that neither of the trials had been fair. The defendant’s brother, also a journalist, said the proceedings had been prompted by his own critical writings about local militia and political leaders.

Mr. Kambakhsh’s defense lawyer said he would appeal to the Supreme Court, and he called on President Hamid Karzai for help.

“We request the president of Afghanistan to intervene and to not let the corruption in the judicial system violate the rights of Afghan citizens,” said the lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Nuristani.

Reporters Without Borders said, “Afghan justice has again failed to protect Afghan law and guarantee free expression.” In a statement on its Web site, it continued: “The appeal proceedings were marred by ideological distortion, a glaring lack of evidence and incomprehensible delays.” Mr. Kambakhsh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said the sentence was issued under pressure from local militia and political leaders he had criticized in his articles, according to The Associated Press.

The court in Mazar-i-Sharif sentenced Mr. Kambakhsh to death in January, after a five-minute trial in which he was not allowed to offer any defense. The appeal was held in a Kabul court before a panel of three judges and involved several hearings over a number of months.

John Dempsey, an American lawyer observing the trial in Kabul, said Mr. Kambakhsh was not accorded fair treatment. “He was detained far longer that he should have been legally held,” he said, according to The A.P. “The defense lawyer was not even allowed to meet the witnesses until a night before the trial.”
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Canada must protest sentence of Afghan 'blasphemer,' brother says
Tom Blackwell, Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The brother of the Afghan journalism student who now faces 20 years in prison for blasphemy says countries like Canada must lobby hard against the harsh punishment if they care at all about justice and freedom.

On Tuesday, an appeal court overturned the death penalty meted out to Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh in January, sentencing him instead to 20 years in prison. His lawyers and supporters had expected him to be freed.

Kambakhsh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, told Canwest News Service he is sure Islamists pushed President Hamid Karzai and the appeal court to impose the stiff penalty. The judges, who are "living in the Middle Ages," did not understand the case and readily complied, he said.
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Articles found September 22, 2008

Exit date demands exit strategy
TheStar.com - Opinion - Exit date demands exit strategy
October 21, 2008 Martin Regg Cohn
Article Link

Remember Afghanistan?

Largely forgotten during the election, it may soon be impossible to ignore. Canada's 2011 withdrawal deadline, restated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in mid-campaign, will hang over the life of the next Parliament as more soldiers lose their lives in combat.

Now that we have an exit date, we need an exit strategy. For this country's biggest military operation in recent memory, this is just the beginning of the ending.

The clamour to cut our losses will grow louder when our 100th fatality is announced in the days or months ahead.

Opponents of the war will argue that we need to recalibrate the 3D equation of development, diplomacy, defence. With more aid, better negotiations, less military might.

But when the 100th Canadian death comes, let's remember that one of the first to die was Glyn Berry. A veteran Canadian diplomat who volunteered for our Provincial Reconstruction Teams, he and other aid workers have been targeted by the Taliban.

This is a reminder that development and security are symbiotic. Without one, the other withers and dies. Reducing military spending wouldn't magically boost development aid, because a deteriorating security situation would swiftly leave NGOs even more exposed to Taliban fire. And Afghanistan's fledgling government lacks the capacity to absorb more funding just yet.

As for talking to the Taliban: Not so fast.

First, the Taliban are not of a mind to negotiate, because they are hardly of one mind. They are nowadays a loose coalition of tribal fighters, highway bandits, Islamist mujahideen and Al Qaeda partisans.

Second, even if the Taliban were chanting from the same prayer book as before, negotiation was never their forte. Nor mutual tolerance a ready tactic.

Remember Bamiyan?

The Taliban deemed the ancient Buddhist images of that isolated region to be idolatrous – and dynamited the colossal limestone statues. I can recall the despair on the streets of Kandahar after the Taliban defied the pleas of Muslim scholars from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to spare Bamiyan's priceless heritage.
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Afghanistan. Slain worker's charity suspends operations
Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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The charity SERVE Afghanistan has suspended its operations in the country after one of its aid workers, Gayle Williams, 34, was killed in Kabul, its board chairman said yesterday. Ms. Williams, who held British and South African citizenship, was shot by two gunmen on a motorcycle as she walked to work. SERVE Afghanistan chairman Mike Lyth said the charity had closed its offices and told foreign workers to stay home, and was now considering whether to operate solely with Afghan staff or withdraw entirely from the country
End

The US vs. Pakistan: With Allies Like These
By Simon Robinson / Islamabad Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008
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For one 34-year-old Pakistani soldier, it is a simple matter of respect. The soldier, a Major in the Frontier Corps in the mountainous badlands along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, says recent U.S. military incursions into Pakistan not only breach an agreement between the two countries, but call into question the very spirit of the alliance President Bush says is the most important in the war on terror. "As a Pakistani, nobody likes someone to enter their home. It raises doubts about American credibility and the sincerity of their alliance with Pakistan," says the Major, who asked not to be named because military rules discourage soldiers from speaking to the media. "We have clear territorial limits and when you cross them, it is humiliating for us. The Americans are pushing us against the wall." Far from helping in the fight against terrorist groups, the incursions hurt it, says the Major. Under the circumstances, he adds, "I have to ask myself: 'Why am I doing this?'"
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Foreign troops kill nine Afghan soldiers
Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:13pm BST 
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FACTBOX- Security developments in Afghanistan By Elyas Wahdat

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Foreign troops killed nine Afghan soldiers in a mistaken air strike in the southeast of the country overnight, the Afghan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

The U.S. military confirmed Afghan soldiers may have been killed and wounded in a case of mistaken identity but said it did not have any casualty figures.

Scores of Afghan civilians have been killed in air strikes by international troops in Afghanistan this year, Afghan officials say, feeding a perception that NATO-led and U.S. coalition forces do not take enough care when calling in air support.

But it is still rare for foreign troops to hit their allies in the Afghan security forces

Helicopter gunships pounded an Afghan army post on a road in Dowa Manda district of Khost province, a Taliban stronghold, district chief Lutfullah Babakarkheil said. Eight soldiers were killed and four wounded, he said.

The Afghan Defence Ministry in Kabul put the number of troops killed at nine.
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Articles found September 23, 2008

Editorial: A dangerous lack of consensus
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After meeting the FATA and NWFP representatives on Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the political leaders of the country to “own” the war on terror because “military and security agencies cannot be left to fight the war alone”. He explained that “the fight against terrorism is part of a larger struggle to save the country, the federation and its democratic structure”.

The representatives of the Tribal Areas at the meeting reportedly insisted on ceasefire and negotiation. A similar effort to evolve a consensus in parliament is meeting with disagreement. An in-camera session of the parliament has tapered off without making a dent in the discord that prevails there. Therefore a 16-member “multi-partisan” committee is not expected to make great headway in arriving at an agreed text of a resolution aimed at “owning the war against terrorism”.

The opposition inside and outside the parliament is toughening. The plan to expand the “democratic principle” has run up against a clear politicisation of the subject under discussion. If the appeal was to set aside politics for a moment and focus on the danger to the state, it has not worked. The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ) has departed from its old stance under General Pervez Musharraf and has drafted a resolution to canvass the MQM against consensus, whittling down the majority which the coalition now enjoys. The JUI has already beaten a retreat with its leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman saying that he wants the military operation stopped and foreign policy changed on Afghanistan .

The situation denotes the following factors. The primary democratic principle of “majority in the house” is no longer tenable because of the weakness of the state institutions in Pakistan. All third world states suffer from this weakness but in the case of Pakistan it concerns particularly the acceptance on the part of state institutions of an order based on the majority principle. But democracy doesn’t promise consensus. The people can bestow majority on a party or a coalition but they cannot bestow consensus through elections. The present situation seems to be seeking a consensus that is both intra-parliamentary and extra-parliamentary, an impossible task.
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Afghanistan: Taliban fail to seize Lashkar Gah
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... for now, anyway, according to local reports from southern Helmand Province.

Elsewhere in this critical southern province, a shortage of Afghan National Army troops has forced a retreat by Danish and ANA forces, according to Danish press reports. Coalition forces reportedly will reconsolidate their operations in Helmand Province in Garmsir, Lashkar Gah, Sangin, Musa Qala and Gereshk, a strategy that holds faint echoes of the old Soviet idea of controlling Afghanistan from its main towns and the Ring Road.

The capital of Helmand and a center of Taliban activity, Lashkar Gah was the focus of a concerted but unsuccessful Taliban offensive this month. The Taliban's ability to mass and resupply its fighters around the outskirts of the city was surprising, given that a reinforced Marine battalion had just spent six months in central Helmand Province seeking to decimate Taliban forces and disrupt their supply network.

Intelligence analyst John McCreary notes that hundreds of Taliban were killed or wounded in wave attacks on the city and were beaten back by coalition air strikes.

On Monday, for example, an Air force MQ 9a Reaper dropped a 500-pound GBU-12 on insurgents firing small arms and RPGs, and a B-1B bomber unloaded 500-pound GBU-38s onto insurgents attacking the city, according to U.S. CENTAF headquarters.

The Afghan National Police also took heavy casaulties defending the city.
McCreary adds: "The fighting is continuing in adjacent districts, but at a lower level. It is not clear that the lull of the past five days is more than the prelude to another assault.

"The evidence for that is the torture and execution of 27 passengers kidnapped from a long-distance bus to Kandahar. Some were beheaded and mutilated. The Taliban insist they were Afghan National Army reinforcements for Lashkargah, but wearing civilian clothes.''

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, however, accused the Taliban of deliberate killing of civilians in that instance and others.
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Journalist sentenced to die in Kabul lives to tell his tale
JESSICA LEEDER From Thursday's Globe and Mail October 23, 2008 at 12:07 AM EDT
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — On the morning of Oct. 27, 2007, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh got the call that changed his life.

The phone rang early, before Mr. Kambakhsh had started his day as a second-year journalism student. The caller identified himself as an official from the notorious National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's national intelligence agency.

“They said come to the NDS office,” Mr. Kambakhsh recalled. At the time, he couldn't fathom what the visit was about. “I arrived over there at 10 a.m. And I waited until 3 p.m., when I asked for the manager to see if I could go home,” he said. “It was my working time. They said to me, ‘You cannot go. You are under arrest.' Then, they arrested me.”

This week Mr. Kambakhsh narrowly escaped the death penalty over alleged actions that – even had he committed them, which he denies – would be nothing more than a typical classroom debate for a journalism student in the West.
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U.S.: Al Qaeda commander believed killed in Pakistan
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior al Qaeda operational commander is believed to have been killed recently in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, several U.S. officials told CNN Wednesday.

The officials identified the man as Khalid Habib, who is considered to have been an operations coordinator for al Qaeda in the tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding.

One official described him as the "chief of external operations" for al Qaeda.

Officially, the U.S. intelligence assessment is that Habib was "probably" killed last Thursday, because there is no final DNA match, but there is every reason to believe he was killed, the officials said. Local groups in Pakistan also reported his death over the weekend.

The U.S. officials would not confirm Habib's apparent death was the result of a missile strike by a U.S. Predator unmanned drone.

But a Pakistani intelligence official and eyewitnesses reported October 16 that unmanned planes fired missiles over the village of Saam, in Wana -- the capital of South Waziristan -- killing at least four civilians and wounding seven others.

The United States, which has a presence in Afghanistan, is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.

At the time, U.S. Forces Afghanistan in Kabul had no comment on such strikes, as part of its standing policy.
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan
Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:07am IST
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Oct 23 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0530 GMT on Thursday:

WESTERN AFGHANISTAN - A roadside bomb killed three soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition force in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. It did not give the nationality of the soldiers.

HELMAND - Soldiers from the NATO-led force shot dead a civilian when he failed to stop approaching a military patrol on Wednesday in Helmand's Sangin district, some 490 km (305 miles) southwest of Kabul, the alliance said.

URUZGAN - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 15 militants, including a Taliban commander, in an air strike on Tuesday in Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan province, some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Kabul, the U.S. military said.

URUZGAN - U.S.-led and Afghan soldiers killed three militants in Uruzgan's Khas Uruzgan district, some 300 km (185 miles) southwest of Kabul, after their patrol came under attack, the U.S. military said.

FARAH - U.S.-led and Afghan soldiers killed three militants after coming under attack in the Bala Boluk district of western Farah province on Wednesday, some 660 km (410 miles) southwest of Kabul, the U.S. military said. (Compiled by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Valerie Lee)
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Secret American hostage in Afghanistan freed
From Mike Mount  CNN Pentagon Producer
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. citizen who was held hostage for ransom in Afghanistan since mid-August was freed last week by U.S. special forces troops in a rare raid, according to Pentagon officials.

The unidentified American is a civilian who was working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on infrastructure projects when he was abducted. The U.S. government never announced the man's abduction, according to military officials who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to talk about the subject.

Officials would not say why the kidnapping was kept quiet, but speculated it was to prevent publicity that could notify captors of the search efforts.

The kidnapped American was held about 30 miles from Kabul in the Nirkh district of Wardak province, officials said.

They would not talk about the intelligence or methods used by the military to discover and free the American, but the officials said his captors in the compound were killed in the raid.
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Exclusive dispatch: Pakistan's hidden war
Thursday, 23 October 2008
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War has come to the world's only Muslim nuclear state. Not just terrorist bombs, but pitched battles bringing refugees down from the mountains and even into Afghanistan. In a powerful dispatch, Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich report on the conflict which has left 200,000 people caught between the Pakistani Army, the Taliban and the tribal warlords

There was a loud, sharp sound followed by flames and massive blast of wind that threw the young boy twenty yards through the air. It felt as if he had fallen off the mountain.


When he pulled himself to his feet, dazed and battered, he discovered nine members of his family were dead and that his mother was badly wounded. All were victims of a deadly artillery shell fired by the Pakistani military battling with Taliban fighters in the country's mountainous border region. As soon as they were able, the boy's remaining family and the rest of his village fled.

That was two months ago. Now 12-year-old Ikram Ullah sits with thousands of others in a wretched, fly-ridden refugee camp close to the north-west city of Mardan, his face streaked with dirt and tears as he tells his story and wonders what will happen to him. The food is poor, there are few proper facilities and there is nothing to do. "Life here," he says, crouching in the dust among rows of canvas tents, "is filled with sadness and grief."

Ikram is not alone. Aid agencies estimate up to 200,000 desperate people have been forced to leave their villages as a result of the fighting. Scattered in camps across northern Pakistan, they offer a glimpse into a deadly conflict largely overlooked by the West but which has created chaos and misery for the region's civilian population. All the while, as the Pakistan Army bends to pressure from the US to do more to confront the Taliban militants building strongholds and extending their influence in the tribal areas, so the fall-out for the civilians gets worse. Every day their lives are threatened both by the pounding jets that sweep into the valleys on bombing runs and by the clattering helicopter gunships that the Pakistan military is using to spearhead its assaults. The people sitting in the dust are the so-called "collateral damage" of Pakistan's own war on terror.
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Pentagon sees fewer foreign fighters slipping into Afghanistan
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WASHINGTON (AFP) — Fewer foreign fighters are slipping into Afghanistan since Pakistan launched its offensive in August against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in border tribal regions, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

In a media briefing, US Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell welcomed "stepped-up operations" by the Pakistani military in Peshawar, and in Swat in particular, over the past two months.

"It is stepped up not just in terms of tempo, but in terms of effectiveness," Morrell said. "As a result, we have seen some improvement in the flow of foreign fighters across the border into Afghanistan."

He said the assessment came from US sources, but he gave no figures as to how many fewer foreign militants might be crossing the frontier since the Pakistani offensive -- launched amid strong US pressure -- began.

It appears that Pakistani operations are not only more frequent, but also "more effective," with "more forces, more resources, perhaps a better strategy" being dedicated to the mission, he said.

The Pakistan military said in late September that more than 1,000 militants -- including Al-Qaeda's operational commander in the region, Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri -- have been killed in its offensive in Bajaur.

Washington and Kabul say Islamic militants use the remote border areas of Pakistan to launch attacks on US-led and NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.
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