# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (April 2007)



## GAP (1 Apr 2007)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (April 2007)  * 

*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*

*Articles found 1 April, 2007*

Long road home
Master Cpl. Jody Mitic was on patrol in Afghanistan when his life changed forever. As his foot met the ground for the last time, there was no eerie click, no dramatic pause. There was a flash, a bang and his feet were gone. 
By HOLLY LAKE, SUN MEDIA
Article Link

The last steps Master Cpl. Jody Mitic ever took with his own feet, he was trying to regain his balance. 

Three months later, both feet now gone, he's still trying. 

It was 3 a.m. on Jan. 11 when he set out in the cool darkness on an insurgent patrol. As troops did a "soft knock" in an Afghan village, he and three fellow snipers from the Petawawa-based 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment watched for any surprises. 

After crossing a grape field, the group passed through an opening in the surrounding wall, one by one, covering off the man behind them. As the patrol lead, Mitic was last in line. When he moved ahead, he lost his balance momentarily and tried to steady himself. 

"I remember stepping forward with my right leg," he says. 

As his foot met the ground for the last time, there was no eerie click, no dramatic pause as unfolds in the movies when a character realizes the gravity of what's about to happen. 

Mitic never felt the mine underfoot, never knew what was coming. There was a flash and a bang, like a firecracker, only louder. 

"I felt a bit of a concussion go over my body. My eyes closed instinctively." 

He dropped on the spot, his ears and nose full of dirt. Then the pain hit, in excruciating waves. 

"I realized I must have stepped on something. I freaked out ... I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was calling (for the others) but they were already working on me to stop the bleeding." 

Sweating due to shock, he started to shiver. Despite the bone sticking out of his left leg, he kept talking to his guys to keep his mind off the injuries. "My job was to let them help me, stay focused, to control my breathing." 
More on link


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## Mike Bobbitt (1 Apr 2007)

...more of GAP's post:

Friendly fire incident reveals training gap: commander
Canadian troops shot Afghan policeman in nighttime encounter in February
Article Link

EDMONTON - When his soldiers gunned down and killed an Afghan policeman during a confused and violent night encounter on Sunday, Feb. 18, Canada's military commander in Kandahar realized there was something wrong with their training. 

"What became evident fairly quickly was that some of the troops had a training delta (gap), that I was able to identify," Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant said this week. "We were able to put together a new training regime on fairly short notice." 

Until that training was complete, the soldiers involved in the friendly fire incident weren't allowed back on the road. 

"That weekend was perhaps the longest weekend I have served in Afghanistan," Grant told the Edmonton Journal's editorial board this week as he made a brief visit to his home base. 

"It was just one thing after another." 

By this time next week, Grant will be on his way back to Kandahar where he commands 2,500 troops drawn from bases across Canada. Members of one those Canadian contingents -- 2 Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment -- were found wanting last month when they were apparently attacked twice while travelling through Kandahar's darkened streets. 

At least they thought they'd been attacked twice. For some, apparently only the first attack was real, Grant said. 

"We had vehicles that were attacked in one location, but they didn't break down until they were two or three kilometres away and in one case they broke down in front of the governor's palace," said Grant. "It was probably the most secure location in Kandahar city." 

What happened next was a confusing shambles. It is now a matter for the military's National Investigation Service so Grant can't divulge most of the details. He will only say that what happened shouldn't have happened. 
More on link

Pakistan prepares for onslaught
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent  April 02, 2007 
Article Link

MORE than 8000 troop reinforcements were on their way to Pakistan's crucial border with Afghanistan last night amid reports that President Pervez Musharraf, bowing to concerted pressured from the US and NATO, is mobilising for a major onslaught against al-Qa'ida and other militants based in the area.
The two brigades of crack Pakistani troops will join the more than 80,000 soldiers already based in North and South Waziristan, where local tribesmen have been fighting running battles with mostly Uzbek, Chechen and Arab militants in the area. 
Fierce fighting has been going on in the strategic terrain, with nearly 60 people killed in the latest 48 hours of exchanges. These have seen the tribal militants attacking bunkers occupied by the foreigners from which they have launched assaults on the town of Wana. 

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said last night of the fighting: "Tribes are insisting on their demand these people either surrender or quit the area." 

Pakistan says the determined action by the tribesmen to expel the more than 500 foreign al-Qa'ida fighters estimated to be based in the area is an important product of Islamabad's controversial policy of signing peace deals with local Taliban-supporting militants in North and South Waziristan, and last week in the Bajaur Agency tribal area. 

While Pakistani officials were seeking to downplay the significance of the two brigades being rushed to the area, highly placed military sources said the mobilisation was linked to the fighting now under way, as well as a planned Pakistani offensive in the border region in response to pressure from Washington and the NATO-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan. 

Authoritative reports in Pakistan spoke last night of a "major operation" being planned in the area. Significantly, this is in sharp contrast to just about all that has happened since the peace deals with the tribal militants were concluded last year. 

To the chagrin of coalition commanders in Afghanistan, the peace deals have resulted in Pakistan's army virtually retreating to barracks, allowing open slather to the militants. 
More on link

What do we do in Afghanistan? The opposite of the U.S. in Iraq  
RICHARD GWYN 
Article Link

IN ITSELF, the bill passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives requiring the withdrawal from Iraq of most American troops by the end of 2008 is little more than a gesture.

President George W. Bush has already said he will veto it. 

Yet there is a good reason for Canadians to keep a close eye on the progress of these political struggles and also of manoeuvrings between the White House and Congress and between the Democrats and Republicans.

This reason is that what’s happening there today may well happen to us in a few years time.

There, the source of the challenge confronting the political system is Iraq; here, it will be Afghanistan.

The comparisons aren’t exact. Canadians haven’t been deceived, by either the incumbent Conservative government or its Liberal predecessor, about the reasons Canadian soldiers are in Afghanistan.

There has been here no explicit expression of public opinion about the war in Afghanistan, unlike the anti-Iraq war vote in the U.S.’s mid-term elections. 

Even the regular polls don’t show strong public opposition 
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Taliban hang three alleged informers in southern Afghanistan
April 01, 2007 07:28 EDT
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Violence in southern Afghanistan continues with three men hanged by the Taliban and seven police officers killed in ambushes.

A local militant commander says the hanged men had been accused of spying for NATO and government forces.

The three men from Helmand province were arrested and allegedly "confessed to their crime." The militant says two Taliban commanders were killed as a result of information from the three men.

In neighboring Kandahar province, suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed two convoys of Afghan police, killing seven policemen and wounding four others. The second convoy was hit coming to help the first.
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Afghanistan asks SAARC members to dismantle political barriers  
Article Link

Kabul, Apr 01: Set to join SAARC as its eighth member, Afghanistan has favoured dismantling of "political barriers" and rejection of terrorism and extremism by the member countries to allow progress of the region. 

Ahead of his visit to New Delhi to attend the 14th SAARC summit, Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticised the tendency of some countries to "talk one way and act in another".

He strongly advocated for going beyond the "narrow definitions of national interests for the benefit of the entire region.

"If we, in SAARC, have a different definition of national interest from the one we have, we won't have terrorism," Karzai told reporters in an interview here.

"We have to defy tendencies that slow down progress... That means fighting terrorism and extremism," he said.

Terrorism is expected to be a major issue at the upcoming summit on April 3-4, when Afghanistan will join as eighth member of the South Asian organisation.

The leaders of the SAARC countries would deliberate on the proposed convention on suppression of terrorism that is awaiting endorsement by all member nations.
More on link

Deadly floods, avalanches hit Afghanistan, Pakistan
01 Apr 2007 12:16:00 GMT Source: Reuters
Article Link

(Updates with highway linking Afghan south to north cut off)

KABUL, April 1 (Reuters) - Floods and avalanches killed scores of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said on Sunday, as heavy rains destroyed villages, flooded farmland and drove hundreds from their homes.

At least 30 people died in the central Afghan province of Daikundi and seven in Herat, in the west, on Saturday. Another 11 died elsewhere in the country, government officials said.

"Six hundred people urgently need to be evacuated by air and are exposed to danger from rising waters in Uruzgan province," an Interior Ministry official said, referring to a southern district.

In neighbouring Pakistan, an avalanche killed at least 23 people on Saturday night and rescuers were struggling to find 15 more missing in a remote village of Turkoh in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Chitral region.

Hundreds of cattle also perished in the heaviest rains for years in drought-stricken Afghanistan. The floods inundated thousands of hectares of land and washed away or damaged key bridges around the country, including in the capital, Kabul.

The floods have also washed away part of a highway and a key bridge north of Kabul, cutting off links between the north and south of the country, residents said.

Rains also caused avalanches and landslides in northeast Afghanistan, where nearly 20 people died last week.
More on link

Ottawa Senators owner arrives in Afghanistan with gifts for soldiers
Updated at 6:52 AM
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) — The owner of the Ottawa Senators is delivering gifts including $50,000 worth of hockey equipment to Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Eugene Melnyk is visiting the NATO base in Kandahar. 
Melnyk stepped off of a C130 Hercules transport aircraft wearing body armour and carrying an army helmet. 

The troops — for whom ball hockey is a major pastime — are getting new goalie equipment, hockey sticks, inline skates, balls and NHL and Team Canada jerseys. 

The billionaire businessman is also delivering 2,500 Tim Hortons gift certificates. 

Melnyk was scheduled to be on a business trip in Dubai this week and decided to make the stop in nearby Afghanistan. 

“As I was planning for the trip (to Dubai) I found myself paying more attention to the news and sacrifices that our Canadian troops are making for our country,” he said in a news release.    
“I want to bring a slice of Canadian hockey and Canadian coffee for our soldiers to enjoy in the few personal hours that they have when they’re not on duty. 
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Pakistani soldiers killed in fighting between foreign militants, tribesmen, officials say
The Associated PressPublished: April 1, 2007
Article Link

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: Pakistani security forces were caught in the firing line in clashes between foreign militants and tribesmen in northwestern Pakistan, leaving four soldiers dead, officials said Sunday.

The fighting between suspected Uzbek militants and Pakistani tribesmen erupted on Friday in South Waziristan, a tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, and has left dozens dead on both sides.

Four soldiers died when a rocket fired in fighting between suspected al-Qaida linked foreign militants and their tribal opponents struck a military post near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the army's top spokesman.

Arshad did not say which side might have fired the rocket.

Following several days of peace, the fighting kicked off again Friday after the militants failed to comply with a deadline by Pakistani tribal elders to leave their territory, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said on Friday.
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Taliban Hang 3 Alleged Informers, Kill 7 Police Officers in Ambushes in Afghanistan
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan —  The Taliban on Sunday hanged three men accused of spying for NATO and government forces in southern Afghanistan, a local militant commander and villager said.

The three men from Helmand province were arrested and allegedly "confessed to their crime" of being spies for NATO and the Afghan government, said Mullah Abdul Qasim, a Taliban commander in the north of Helmand.

Qasim said that two Taliban commanders were killed as a result of information from these three men.

A villager from Musa Qala town, Namatullah Khan, said that one of the men hung on the town's main street for three hours before villagers took him down and buried him.

• More coverage is available in FOXNews.com's Afghanistan center.

"The Taliban told the other people of Musa Qala that whoever gives information to the government or enemies will be punished in the same way as this informer," Khan said.
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Tribal offensive could curb rebel attacks: officials
 Sunday, 1 April, 2007, 09:00 AM Doha Time 
Article Link

WANA, Pakistan: Pakistani officials have said an “onslaught” by local tribesmen against foreign Al Qaeda militants in which 56 people died could curb cross-border attacks by the rebels in Afghanistan.
The clashes in the lawless South Waziristan region come as President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally, faces international pressure to get tough on extremists who have regrouped in Pakistan’s tribal-run regions since 2001.
Uzbeks, Chechens and some Arab militants have traded rocket and mortar fire for two days with pro-government tribal forces led by a former Taliban commander after a tense ceasefire broke down on Thursday, officials said.
The Pakistani government “is not intervening,” a top security official said on condition of anonymity.
“We hope this onslaught against foreign militants will help reduce cross-border activity. The foreigners were involved in this cross-border activity,” the official said.
“This is a decisive battle for us.”
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said late Friday that 56 people were killed on Thursday and Friday, 45 of them foreigners, after fighting “intensified after peace talks failed.”
“Tribes are insisting on their demand that these people either surrender or quit the area,” Sherpao said.
More on link

Pitched battles in Afghanistan 'unlikely'
BOB WEBER Canadian Press
Article Link

EDMONTON — The commander of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan says his troops aren't likely to face another summer of pitched battle against hundreds of Taliban.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant says NATO troops will have to fight smarter — using both intelligence and development assistance — as insurgents may well turn to tactics such as kidnapping.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Canadian Press, Grant also compared the difficulty Afghanistan and Pakistan have policing their Taliban-friendly border areas to the trouble Canada had on the Kanesatake reserve during the Oka crisis in 1990 when a land claims standoff saw one police officer killed.

“There is a tribal structure there that's been in place for a long time,” said Grant, who is on leave in Edmonton. “And for the federal government to come in and try and regulate it, Pakistan has the same challenges that we had during the Oka crisis
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Two British marines from Afghanistan accused of assaulting Cypriot cab driver 
April 01, 2007          
Article Link

Two British Royal Marines have been charged with assaulting a Cypriot taxi driver and robbing his car following a disagreement over the taxi fare last week, local media reported on Saturday. 

The two marines, who had come to the Mediterranean island after serving eight months in Afghanistan, were charged with assault, theft and reckless driving, the daily Cyprus Mail said. 

During Friday's hearing, the soldiers, aged 22 and 27, expressed their sorrow over the incident. 

According to the taxi driver, the two marines asked to be driven back to a British base near the southern city of Limassol after a night out last Friday. They were staying at the base. 

The driver discovered that the marines did not have enough money for the taxi fare and asked them to get out of the car, at which point they assaulted him, fracturing his jaw. 

They then forced the driver out of the car and sped off, but struck a roadside barrier and a tree shortly afterward. 

The two are to reappear at the court on Tuesday and their legal team has been discussing the possibility of a financial settlement with the taxi driver's lawyer and the prosecutor, said a spokesman for the British base, who implied that they would probably plead guilty for lenity. 
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NATO forces kill, capture, key Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan
March 31, 2007 - 15:11 By: JOHN COTTER 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - NATO forces are zeroing in on the Taliban command structure in southern Afghanistan, killing or capturing more than 10 insurgent leaders and key people in March alone.

The tactic is disrupting the insurgents, affecting their ability to fight, plant roadside bombs and organize suicide bombers in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, said Lt.-Col. Stephane Grenier, a public affairs officer for the International Security Assistance Force.

"We have taken a fairly significant chunk out of their ability to operate," Grenier said Saturday.

"Over 10 people, key people; decision makers who have a lot of influence over Taliban extremist activities."

"When I say key individuals, I mean that is everything from a key Taliban leader to a suicide cell facilitator, IED facilitators, people who facilitate the fabrication of bombs."

He declined to give an exact number of Taliban leaders who have been killed or captured. ISAF launched Operation Achilles on March 6.

Grenier's comments came after ISAF announced the capture of what it called three key Taliban extremists during a raid Friday in Kandahar city.
More on link

Nato in spot over increasing civilian casualties in Afghanistan  
Article Link

WASHINGTON: Foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan are beginning to draw the resentment of Afghans fed up with growing civilian casualties and the lack of material progress in their lives, experts say. 

Resentment has posed special problems in the south, where villagers who have suffered from Western military firepower have responded to the Taleban’s call to arms against foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai, the experts said. 

"There is growing resentment because of the kinds of military operations that have been carried out, not because of the international troop presence," Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for International Crisis Group think tank, said this week in an interview. 

Ahmed, who is based in Pakistan and travels frequently to Afghanistan, cited bombing raids based on faulty intelligence that have killed innocent villagers and shootings of innocent civilians by panicky troops as especially damaging to Afghan support for Western forces. 

"What has also led to greater resentment is the fact that Kabul is not delivering," she added, referring to the Afghan government’s difficulty in providing services to the people. 

The United States provides about 27,000 of the 45,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, some in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force and the rest under a separate US-led coalition. 
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Berlin: Jets to deploy to Afghanistan in first half of April
Mar 31, 2007, 15:03 GMT 
Article Link

Berlin - German reconnaissance jets are to deploy to Afghanistan in the first half of April, according to Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung in remarks to the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. 

Germany's Left Party had failed Friday in a lawsuit seeking a temporary injunction against the use of the Tornado planes to gather intelligence for NATO ground forces fighting in southern Afghanistan. 

The case is to be heard later without time pressure. Jung told the Sunday newspaper, 'We have a majority in parliament to deploy them.' 

Jung added, 'We are sticking to the plan: reposition the jets on April 2 and place them under NATO command on April 9.' His remarks were released prior to publication. 

The Defence Ministry meanwhile confirmed Saturday another news report that 10 jets would be sent on the repositioning trip to maximize the likelihood that six would arrive without defects. 
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What Happened In Afghanistan?
Saturday, March 31, 2007 
Article Link

The family of Pat Tillman - who left pro football after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Army and fight in Afghanistan - still seeks the truth about his death.

The family wants the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about Tillman's death April 22, 2004, and the aftermath. The survivors - and the nation that Tillman served - deserve as much.

The U.S. Central Command release reported that the incident took place at 7:30 p.m. local time near the village of Sperah. Tillman's Army Ranger unit, part of a coalition patrol, was ambushed. "The enemy action was immediately responded to by the coalition patrol with direct fire and a firefight ensued," the release said. "During the engagement, one coalition soldier was killed and two wounded."

The Defense Department reported this week that nine high-ranking officers, including four generals, made "critical errors" in reporting how Tillman died.

The report is blunt in its assessment of what went wrong, but the Tillman family makes a strong case that the report doesn't adequately explain why errors occurred and misinformation was disseminated.

"The truth is not what we received today," a family statement said. "The characterization of criminal negligence, professional misconduct, battlefield incompetence, concealment and destruction of evidence, deliberate deception and conspiracy to deceive are not 'missteps.'"
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Reporter's Notebook: The Real Reasons Why Opium Still Grows in Afghanistan
by Dana Lewis for FOX Fan Central
Article Link

Back then the best route into the country was through Tajikistan into northern Afghanistan where the Northern Alliance was still fighting the Taliban. The road was more than rough. It was a moonscape after seven years of severe drought. The dust blew up mini twisters, like some kind of sneezing powder, and got into everything. It damaged our equipment and infected our eyes and throats. What a dry, practically colorless place it was.

So when I drove the road last week from Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad, my eyes couldn't open wide enough to take in the color green! The road has been improved since the days of the Taliban but it's still a treacherous 3-hour trek down a winding mountain road to the fields of Jalalabad. The river is overflowing this year because of heavy winter snowfalls and spring rains. It's a great site. Farmers are expected to have record crops of everything — including opium, the main ingredient of heroine!
More on link


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## GAP (2 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 2, 2007*

No easy solutions in Afghanistan
Desperately poor nation lacks money and time to rebuild capability to defend itself from Taliban
Graham Thomson, The Edmonton Journal Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - To get a better idea of the challenges facing Canada in Afghanistan, you need look no further than the Kabul Military Training Centre. Here, instructors from various coalition countries, including Canada, help prepare Afghan soldiers to protect their homeland.

The latest training battalion, called Kandak 61, has almost 900 new troops ready to graduate and fight the Taliban. The problem is, 15 weeks ago Kandak 61 started out with 1,242 recruits.

More than 300 have simply walked away and not come back. Coalition military officials downplay the issue, saying many of the troops are only a few days overdue or they have left to help their families temporarily. Some were trapped in their home provinces by a landslide, said one official, but they will be back.

"The main problem for me is that for three months I haven't received pay," said recruit Ali Gawhar, 27, through an interpreter. "I'm married and I've got two sons and it's very difficult."

Gawhar hasn't gone AWOL but others in his position have. Gawhar blames his pay problem on careless senior Afghan officers who didn't bother to find out that he was on duty elsewhere in the training centre the day they did a head count. He expects to get paid on graduation day next week or else he says the officers risk angering impatient troops and making even more go AWOL.

However, even if they were paid on time and had brand new weapons, they'd still leave here ill-prepared compared to Canadian troops who get at least 12 months of training before finding themselves at the sharp end of a military operation. Afghan troops get 16 weeks.
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'Walking dead' cross line into Afghanistan to kill
By Philip Smucker THE WASHINGTON TIMES April 2, 2007 
Article Link

KHOST, Afghanistan -- Gazing out at the wheat fields, a haggard police chief pointed to the distant goat paths leading from Pakistan's territory of North Waziristan. Known here as "Osama bin Laden's children" or "the walking dead," nearly two dozen suicide bombers entered Khost province over those paths in the past year. 
    "The only thing left of them after they are done is two feet and a lot of skin," said Maj. Bismullah, a local police chief who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. "If we get a finger, we have to send it to Kabul to analyze the prints." 
    Orphaned by war and schooled in anti-American religious madrassas, the bombers often smile for a final video testament in Pakistan before walking or riding to their deaths in Afghanistan. As new explosives technology and tactics from the war in Iraq arrive in this remote corner of South Asia, suicide bombing attacks in the past 12 months have more than quadrupled from fewer than half a dozen in the previous year. 
    At least some of the bombers cross the border with a blessing from Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's bespectacled ideological lieutenant, said Lutfullah Mashal, a senior intelligence official with Afghanistan's National Security Council. 
    Afghan and U.S. officials say the bombers are trained in Waziristan, a tribal-administered border region of Pakistan. Several weeks of reporting along the rugged border suggests that al Qaeda and its affiliates are regrouping with charitable funds from Gulf Arab states, assistance from rogue elements of Pakistan's intelligence services and profits from the heroin trade. 
    Pakistan, which sanctioned U.S. bombing raids on suspected al Qaeda hide-outs last year, has all but retreated from its effort to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda in border areas, say Western diplomats. 
More on link

Al-Qaida video: Attack on U.S. camp in Afghanistan
UPDATE: 7:07 PM, Sunday, April 1, 2007
Article Link

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida released a video Sunday showing what it said was militants launching an attack against a U.S. military camp in Afghanistan. 

The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified, but the tape appeared on a Web site commonly used by Islamist militants and carried the logo of al-Qaida’s As-Sahab media production wing. 

Al-Qaida said the tape, which was about four minutes long, was part of a series of videos that the terror network has released to show that its insurgents are continuing to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan. 

The video clip was titled “Holocaust of the Americans in the land of Khorasan, the Islamic emirate.” Khorasan, a name from the Persian empire, is the militant word for Afghanistan. 

The video carried a subtitle that read “A heroic operation against an American center in Kunar.” It showed four bearded young fighters wearing traditional Afghani clothing and ammunition vests, carrying machine guns as they walked down a single-track trail road hugging the mountainside. 

The video also showed small arms fire breaking out after several blasts hit the camp. The video gave the date of the alleged attack, using the Islamic calendar, as late last year. 

The fighters launched their attack from the mountain on what looked like a camp in a valley that al-Qaida said in the tape was a U.S. camping site in Kunar. 
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All is not lost in Afghanistan, Dutch diplomat
Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Published: Sunday, April 01, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA — The Taliban insurgency was able to gain strength in southern Afghanistan because of NATO’s reluctance five years ago to broaden its military power beyond the capital of Kabul, says a senior Dutch diplomat.

“I think we can admit that the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) presence initially, only limited to Kabul, was perhaps not the way to go,” said Rochus Pronk, who recently ended a seven-month term as the Netherlands senior political adviser in the southern Afghanistan province of Uruzgan.

The Dutch, along with their Canadian, British and U.S. NATO partners, are facing the brunt of the Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan, and are in charge of the province that borders Kandahar, where Canada’s 2,500 troops are based.

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Pronk emphasized that all is not lost despite the challenges that lie ahead for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. He said notable gains have been made in terms of establishing an elected Afghan parliament and constitution as well as a large-scale return of refugees.
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Pakistan prepares for onslaught
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent  April 02, 2007 
Article Link

MORE than 8000 troop reinforcements were on their way to Pakistan's crucial border with Afghanistan last night amid reports that President Pervez Musharraf, bowing to concerted pressured from the US and NATO, is mobilising for a major onslaught against al-Qa'ida and other militants based in the area.
The two brigades of crack Pakistani troops will join the more than 80,000 soldiers already based in North and South Waziristan, where local tribesmen have been fighting running battles with mostly Uzbek, Chechen and Arab militants in the area. 
Fierce fighting has been going on in the strategic terrain, with nearly 60 people killed in the latest 48 hours of exchanges. These have seen the tribal militants attacking bunkers occupied by the foreigners from which they have launched assaults on the town of Wana. 

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said last night of the fighting: "Tribes are insisting on their demand these people either surrender or quit the area." 

Pakistan says the determined action by the tribesmen to expel the more than 500 foreign al-Qa'ida fighters estimated to be based in the area is an important product of Islamabad's controversial policy of signing peace deals with local Taliban-supporting militants in North and South Waziristan, and last week in the Bajaur Agency tribal area. 

While Pakistani officials were seeking to downplay the significance of the two brigades being rushed to the area, highly placed military sources said the mobilisation was linked to the fighting now under way, as well as a planned Pakistani offensive in the border region in response to pressure from Washington and the NATO-led coalition fighting in Afghanistan. 

Authoritative reports in Pakistan spoke last night of a "major operation" being planned in the area. Significantly, this is in sharp contrast to just about all that has happened since the peace deals with the tribal militants were concluded last year. 

To the chagrin of coalition commanders in Afghanistan, the peace deals have resulted in Pakistan's army virtually retreating to barracks, allowing open slather to the militants. 

Reinforcement of the Pakistani forces with two full-strength brigades suggests that, for the first time in many months, Islamabad is about to go on the offensive. 

"It may look like a schizophrenic strategy, and it probably is. But they reckon the peace deals give them wriggle room to get the tribal militants on side, while they (operational commanders in Islamabad) prepare a new offensive against al-Qa'ida and foreign terrorists based in the area," one analyst in Pakistan said yesterday. 
More on link

Warlords and weapons - gunpowder for Afghanistan  
Friday March 30, 2007 (0439 PST)
Article Link

 MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Powerful warlords and smaller commanders in Afghanistan's relatively calm north and west are a latent threat to the fragile government because of their stockpiles of arms, officials and analysts say. 
President Hamid Karzai, facing a crippling insurgency in the south and east, has used the offer of jobs to draw into his shaky administration an array of potentially destabilising players. 

They range from one-time members of the extremist Taliban and the Islamist party of fugitive ex-premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to leaders of the Northern Alliance that helped remove the Taliban from government in 2001. 

Many of the men in this troubled alliance were on-and-off-again enemies or allies in the 30 years of war that wrecked Afghanistan. 

And if they claim to have put away their arms, the reality appears to be something else, according to officials. 
More on link

It’s hockey night in Kandahar  
Senators owner donates gear in show of support for soldiers  
By JOHN COTTER 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Hockey night in Kandahar has a major league fan.

Standing on an armoured vehicle in the desert sun, a Canadian flag flapping on a radio antenna overhead, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk handed out $50,000 worth of hockey gear to soldiers to show his support for their efforts in Afghanistan.

Melnyk first told a joke to the troops about his willingness to do anything to sell a season’s ticket. But then he got serious.

"I had no idea, as probably a lot of people don’t, what exactly you do out here. It is more than just fighting. It is more about building," Melnyk said Sunday.

"I am your No. 1 fan . . . I think you are doing a phenomenal thing out here and whatever I can do to promote you I’m going to. I’m going to make a point of it and I want to thank you on behalf of my family, who sleep better at night because of you, for everything you do."

Playing and watching ball hockey is an important ritual for some of the 2,500 men and women who make up Canada’s Task Force Afghanistan.
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## NL_engineer (2 Apr 2007)

Stockwell Day pays surprise visit to Afghanistan

LINK: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/04/02/stockwell.html



> Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who made a surprise visit Monday to Afghanistan, said more RCMP will be sent to the war-torn country to help train the Afghan National Police.
> 
> Day said 12 Mounties will be sent to teach the Afghan police how to operate road blocks, provide weapons training and how to respond to roadside bombs.
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## GAP (3 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 3, 2007*

War taking unexpectedly harsh toll on vehicles
GRAEME SMITH   Globe and Mail
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All LAV IIIs to be replaced within the year 

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — All of Canada's LAV III armoured vehicles in Afghanistan will need to be replaced within the next six to eight months, Canada's army chief told troops Monday, because hard fighting and harsh conditions are taking a greater toll than expected.

“We're going to replace them faster than we'd planned,” Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie said of the vehicles that are the backbone of Canada's fighting force. 

The army's fleet of available LAVs, however, is shrinking because 20 of the $3.5-million Light Armoured Vehicles have been destroyed and they're no longer manufactured. The remaining ones will have to be refurbished for service.

In an open-air forum with troops in Kandahar last night, the general responsible for all Canadian land forces also described maintenance issues with two other military vehicles that have forced the military to scramble for spare parts and look at replacing old tanks
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Afghanistan police to get RCMP help, Day pledges
Canadian Press
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Canada is sending 12 more RCMP officers to train Afghan police and will encourage Pakistan to do more to prevent Taliban insurgents from crossing the border, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.

During a quick visit to Kandahar, the minister shook hands with Afghan National Police officers and pledged Canada's continued support to make their country more secure.

Mr. Day said he will go to Islamabad to urge senior Pakistani government officials there to stop the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan.

"We are making it very clear that we want everything done that is possible to be done to stop Taliban from coming across the border, killing our troops and killing the children and the innocent citizens of Afghanistan," Mr. Day said. 
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Earthquake hits north Afghanistan
03 Apr 2007 Source: PA News 
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A 6.2-magnitude earthquake has hit a remote and mountainous area of north-east Afghanistan, shaking buildings in the capital and as far away as Pakistan, Tajikistan and India.

The earthquake in Badakhshan province was about 200 miles north-east of the capital, Kabul, where residents felt shaking buildings and ran outside their homes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

"It was a very strong earthquake," said Agha Noor Kemtoz, the provincial police chief of Badakhshan, which shares a border with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. "My room was shaking and the light was swinging back and forth."
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U.S.-led troops kill 10 Taliban in Afghanistan
03 Apr 2007 11:55:21 GMT Source: Reuters
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KABUL, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed at least 10 Taliban fighters on Tuesday in an attack on a compound in the southern province of Helmand after a tip-off that a junior commander was hiding there.

In the western province of Farah, NATO and Afghan forces raided a mosque and captured 22 Taliban they said were being trained for suicide and other attacks, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told Reuters.

During the Helmand attack, two Taliban fighters were also captured by coalition troops, who came under fire from small arms, mortars and rocket propelled grenades, according to a coalition statement.

Western and Afghan forces have opened a campaign, code named Operation Achilles, to seize the initiative before the Islamist guerrilla's anticipated spring offensive gets fully underway.
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Iraqi abductors of two Germans issue new ultimatum on Afghanistan
Apr 3, 2007, 6:07 GMT 
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Berlin - The group holding two Germans hostage in Iraq has issued a new ultimatum demanding that German troops be pulled out of Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said Tuesday after the ultimatum was posted on the internet. 

The hostages, Hannelore Kadhim, a 61-year-old woman married to an Iraqi, and her 20-year-old son, were abducted from their Baghdad home on February 6. 

The abductors, calling themselves the Brigades of the Arrows of Righteousness, demanded the withdrawal of German troops in Afghanistan within 10 days. If the German government did not comply, the hostages would be killed, the ultimatum said. 

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman aid the crisis team set up immediately after the abduction was looking into the new ultimatum. 

A previous similar deadline passed on March 20. 

A video released with the ultimatum showed an apparently exhausted Kadhim begging for help. 
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German base in north Afghanistan awaits Tornados
Apr 3, 2007 - 10:17:53 AM   
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The troops are not allowed to leave the base during the brief periods of free time they are granted.  
By DPA, [RxPG] Mazar-e-Sharif, April 3 - Camp Marmal on the steppes of northern Afghanistan is the new home of a flight of six German Tornados equipped with sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment that are due to arrive Thursday.

The camp in the shadow of the Marmal Mountains lies just eight kilometres from Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province. Around half the 3,000 German troops in northern Afghanistan are based here.

The camp is a huge building site, with its beige-coloured barracks protected by sandbags on the roofs. Containers, hangars and tents dot the two square kilometres of the camp.

Gravel between the structures helps to drain off the rainwater and to keep snakes and scorpions at bay.

The German army, deployed to the relatively peaceful northern provinces on a reconstruction mission, has over the past few months moved 450,000 cubic metres and used 75,000 tonnes of construction steel.
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Day visits Afghanistan
 TheStar.com - April 02, 2007 John Cotter canadian press
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Canada sending 12 more police officers to train Afghan police

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canada is sending 12 more police officers to train Afghan police and will encourage Pakistan to do more to prevent Taliban insurgents from crossing the border, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Monday.

During a quick visit to Kandahar, Day shook hands with Afghan National Police officers and pledged Canada's continued support to make their country more secure.

Day said he will go to Islamabad to urge senior Pakistan government officials to stop the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan.

"We are making it very clear that we want everything done that is possible to be done to stop Taliban from coming across the border, killing our troops and killing the children and the innocent citizens of Afghanistan," Day said. He wouldn't say who he will be meeting in Pakistan, or when.

The new police officers being sent will bring the total number of Canadian military- and civilian-police officers in Afghanistan to 36. Day said the 12 will be from the RCMP, but other officials indicated it's possible the group could include some municipal police officers.

They will be teaching Afghan National Police officers how to properly check vehicles, provide weapons training and what to do in the aftermath of a roadside bomb explosion.

Afghan police officers in rough wool uniforms smiled in appreciation as they shook Day's hand.

"It is a great honour and privilege that you visit us," Col. Tor Jan, an Afghan police commander, said through an interpreter. ``It gives us courage that there are some friends who are taking care of us."
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Two N.C.-based soldiers killed in Afghanistan crash
The Associated Press
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. | Two North Carolina-based soldiers died last week from injuries suffered during a non-combat vehicle accident in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Monday.

Sgt. Edmund W. McDonald, 25, of Casco, Maine, and Spc. Agustin Gutierrez, 19, of San Jacinto, Calif., died last Thursday, one day after their vehicle overturned while traveling with a convoy in North Kabul, military officials said.

The Department of Defense said it was investigating the deaths.

Both McDonald and Gutierrez were assigned to the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg.
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## GAP (4 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 4, 2007*

Canada's Role in Afghanistan Will be Reviewed Next Year: O'Connor  
Josh Pringle  Wednesday, April 4, 2007 
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Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor is promising Canada will stay in Afghanistan until permanent progress is made. 

In a speech in Montreal, O'Connor said Canadian troops will remain part of the International mission in Afghanistan because of the continued threat posed by the Taliban. 

O'Connor says he noticed that life is returning to normal in villages and towns on his recent visit to Afghanistan, adding "villages appeared more active." 

But O'Connor warned that the "hardcore of the Taliban are determined to undermine the progress being made." 

The Defence Minister says Canada is committed to helping rebuild and re-establish a stable society for the Afghan people. 

Canadian troops are committed to Afghanistan until 2009. 

O'Connor says Canada's participation will be reviewed next year.
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Land mine accidents drop in Afghanistan
By ALISA TANG Associated Press Writer  04/04/2007 01:59:22 AM PDT
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KABUL, Afghanistan- At a lecture on dangers of land mines, the schoolchildren listened in horror as a guest speaker recounted how his left leg was blown off above the knee. It was three years ago, 11-year-old Massoud said, and he had been playing with a kite near his home. 
"When I arrived over the top of the hill, suddenly a bomb exploded," the sweet-faced boy said. "No one would come near me because they were afraid another mine would explode. Then I crawled out of the mined area." 

After a quarter century of war, Afghanistan is still littered with millions of land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and more mines are being planted in regions of the south where a Taliban-led guerrilla war against NATO forces has been escalating. 

Yet as Afghanistan marks International Mine Awareness Day Wednesday, there is some cause for optimism. Accident rates have declined dramatically, thanks to the imaginative and culturally sensitive efforts of organizations such as OMAR—a mine-clearing NGO that recruited Massoud for the recent lesson in a Kabul mosque. 

His audience, a classroom full of boys about his age, listened, their mouths agape. Their wide eyes moved from his face to the artificial leg under his gray tunic. 

Massoud, who like many Afghans uses only one name, is one of nearly 800 people maimed and killed by the debris of war in Afghanistan every year. That's less than half the number five 
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Slovak peacekeeping troops reported to be moving south in Afghanistan  
April 04, 2007    
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Slovak troops in Afghanistan have started moving south from Kabul in response to a request from NATO, reports from Slovakia said on Tuesday. 

The first part of a military engineering unit have left Kabul by aircraft for Kandahar, a key front of NATO peace-keeping troops' fighting with the Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, Pravda, a Slovak daily, quoted a source close to the military as saying. 

The unit's equipment was transported in convoys, it added. 

The Slovak Defence Ministry refused to comment on the mobilization. 

"We will not comment on the move of the soldiers to a camp near Kandahar due to security reasons," Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Gemela said. 

Last year, NATO demanded that Slovakia deploy its troops in the turbulent south of Afghanistan. 

Around 60 Slovak soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force. 

The commanders of the Taliban have claimed that they had prepared 10,000 fighters including 2,000 suicide bombers to speed up their attacks against Afghan and foreign forces based in Afghanistan. 

Recently, the attacks have been more frequent in the mountainous areas in the south than in the relatively calmer north. 

The Slovak government approved the transfer of the troops to southern Afghanistan in late February on condition that they will not operate only in the air base. 

Source: Xinhua 
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Iraqi Abductors Of Two Germans Issue New Ultimatum On Afghanistan
10:55 AM, April 3rd 2007 by Playfuls Team
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The group holding two Germans hostage in Iraq has issued a new ultimatum demanding that German troops be pulled out of Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin said Tuesday after the ultimatum was posted on the internet. 

The hostages, Hannelore Kadhim, a 61-year-old woman married to an Iraqi, and her 20-year-old son, were abducted from their Baghdad home on February 6. 

The abductors, calling themselves the Brigades of the Arrows of Righteousness, demanded the withdrawal of German troops in Afghanistan within 10 days. If the German government did not comply, the hostages would be killed, the ultimatum said. 

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman aid the crisis team set up immediately after the abduction was looking into the new ultimatum. 

A previous similar deadline passed on March 20. 

A video released with the ultimatum showed an apparently exhausted Kadhim begging for help. 
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Canada to lease new tanks for Afghanistan
David ******** and Jonathan Fowlie CanWest News Service Tuesday, April 03, 2007
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OTTAWA — The federal government is proceeding with the lease of some of the most modern Leopard tanks on the market as it boosts its equipment in Afghanistan.

Defence sources told CanWest News Service that Ottawa will lease 20 A6M tanks from Germany. The tanks, which have improved protection against landmines and other enemy weapons, could be shipped to Afghanistan direct from Germany, sources said.

In addition, the new Leopards are air conditioned so they could operate in Afghanistan’s stifling summer heat. Canada’s older Leopard tanks now in Kandahar do not have air conditioning and there have been concerns the heat could limit their usefulness on the battlefield. 

Temperatures inside the vehicles could soar beyond 60 C.

The lease was approved last week by the cabinet priorities and planning committee.

Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor wasn’t releasing details about the Leopard tank lease Tuesday, but he did say the tanks were a necessity for the Afghan mission. 

"Our experience in Afghanistan has proven we need main battle tanks," he said. "It’s really to offer security to our soldiers."
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Canada in for the long haul in Afghanistan: O'Connor
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | 5:18 PM ET CBC News 
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Afghanistan is a "success story" and Canada will have a presence in the country until the progress made cannot be reversed by Taliban extremists, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Tuesday.

"Afghanistan is improving," O'Connor told reporters in Montreal after a luncheon speech. "There are 37 countries in there. There's a lot of aid and a lot of effort going in to build that country up."

In his speech, sponsored by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, O'Connor said Canada is making a major contribution to the international effort to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan.

"It is because of the continuing threat posed by these extremists that the Canadian Forces remain a vital part of this mission," he said.

"This government will support the mission — by our words and by our actions — until the progress in Afghanistan becomes irreversible."

Asked by reporters later to explain exactly how long Canada will stay in Afghanistan, O'Connor said Canada has pledged support over the next two to five years in the form of both troops and development aid.
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## GAP (4 Apr 2007)

Taliban says it kidnapped two French aid workers
04 Apr 2007 17:35:23 GMT Source: Reuters
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KABUL, April 4 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Wednesday they had kidnapped two French aid workers -- a man and a woman -- along with two Afghan colleagues in the southwest of the country.

Rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusuf told Reuters by satellite phone the four were abducted on Tuesday in Nimroz province, between Iran ad Afghanistan's opium heartland of Helmand province.

Afghan and French officials said two French nationals and at least two Afghans have been missing in Nimroz since Tuesday. They did not confirm they had been abducted.

In Paris, foreign ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said the two working for Terre d'Enfance had been reported missing along with three Afghan guides.

"The foreign ministry as well as our embassy in Kabul are following this matter closely in cooperation with the local authorities as well as with the French NGO," he told an online news conference.

Nimroz police chief Mohammad Dawood Askaryar said the pair, their Afghan driver and their translator went missing while driving to neighbouring Farah province.

Taliban insurgents have been active in the area recently.

Terre d'Enfance focuses on education and other projects for children in Nimroz.

The disappearance follows the kidnapping of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for the Italian daily La Repubblica last month in Helmand.

He was released after two weeks when Kabul freed five Taliban officials, but his driver was beheaded and his translator remains hostage.

That deal drew strong criticism in Italy and security officials in Afghanistan warned it would embolden the insurgents into taking more Western captives. (Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in Spin Boldak and Paris newsroom) 
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## GAP (4 Apr 2007)

Taliban says it kidnapped two French aid workers
04 Apr 2007 17:35:23 GMT Source: Reuters
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KABUL, April 4 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Wednesday they had kidnapped two French aid workers -- a man and a woman -- along with two Afghan colleagues in the southwest of the country.

Rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusuf told Reuters by satellite phone the four were abducted on Tuesday in Nimroz province, between Iran ad Afghanistan's opium heartland of Helmand province.

Afghan and French officials said two French nationals and at least two Afghans have been missing in Nimroz since Tuesday. They did not confirm they had been abducted.

In Paris, foreign ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said the two working for Terre d'Enfance had been reported missing along with three Afghan guides.

"The foreign ministry as well as our embassy in Kabul are following this matter closely in cooperation with the local authorities as well as with the French NGO," he told an online news conference.

Nimroz police chief Mohammad Dawood Askaryar said the pair, their Afghan driver and their translator went missing while driving to neighbouring Farah province.

Taliban insurgents have been active in the area recently.

Terre d'Enfance focuses on education and other projects for children in Nimroz.

The disappearance follows the kidnapping of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for the Italian daily La Repubblica last month in Helmand.

He was released after two weeks when Kabul freed five Taliban officials, but his driver was beheaded and his translator remains hostage.

That deal drew strong criticism in Italy and security officials in Afghanistan warned it would embolden the insurgents into taking more Western captives. (Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in Spin Boldak and Paris newsroom) 
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## GAP (5 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 5, 2007*

NATO sends assault force into Helmand province
Updated Thu. Apr. 5 2007 7:56 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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NATO has announced that it sent a sizable assault force into Helmand province as part of Operation Achilles in Afghanistan.

Several hundred troops, including British and American soldiers, entered Helmand province Wednesday night, CTV News' South Asia Bureau Chief Paul Workman reported.

Canadian soldiers are also playing a supporting role in this assault.

"An artillery troop was sent in to Helmand province this morning to help the assault forces," Workman told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.

The Canadian troops are the first to have moved into the province in more than a year, he said.

"I watched the helicopters leave about midnight. They were dropped in an area around the town of Sangen, which has been a troublesome Taliban stronghold for a long time," Workman said Thursday.

The citizens of Sangen have been warned not to venture outside or to carry weapons.

"The NATO people say that they have cleared several mortar positions, and found and destroyed a cache of weapons, including a couple of larger guns and about 20,000 rounds of small arms ammunition," Workman said.

The goal of Operation Achilles, which was launched last month, is to hamper the Taliban's ability to attack NATO troops

In other developments in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in Maywand district in Kandahar province late Wednesday.

One officer was killed and another eight were wounded, the provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said.
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Forces Discover Weapons Caches in Afghanistan
American Forces Press Service BAGRAM AIR BASE, April 5, 2007
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 Acting on reports from Afghan civilians, coalition forces and Afghan National Army discovered several weapons caches in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province April 3. 
Three weapons caches, consisting of 30 82 mm recoilless rounds, were found hidden along a ridgeline near the Pakistani border, military officials report. The recoilless rounds, commonly used to create improvised explosive devices, were destroyed in place. 

Over the past week, coalition forces in the province have discovered 60 82 mm recoilless rifle rounds, 28 85 mm rocket propelled grenade rounds, 17 rocket-propelled grenade boosters, six 107 mm rockets, three 75 mm RPG rounds and an RPG launcher in the Bati Kot, Shinwar, Achin and Khogyani districts. 

“The weapons recovered will no longer be available for use by Taliban fighters and other militant forces,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. “Afghans are taking responsibility for their safety and security by reporting the locations of weapons caches.” 
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British troops facing air supply crisis in Afghanistan  
By Tom Coghlan in Kabul Published: 05 July 2006 
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British forces in Afghanistan are facing a supply crisis because nearly half of their helicopter transport fleet is unable to fly in daylight hours due to the searing Helmand heat. 

The 3,300 British troops in the south rely on six Chinook and four Lynx aircraft for all transport and supply. The extreme heat and thin, rising air of the Helmand desert has limited the Lynx, an attack and utility helicopter, to use between dusk and dawn, when temperatures fall to acceptable levels, military sources confirmed.

Captain Drew Gibson, the British military spokesman with the Helmand force, declined to comment on the Lynx problems, citing "operational reasons". Lt Rob Hunt, the military spokesman in Kabul, said: "The Lynx is just one of a range of aircraft available to ground commanders in theatre. All air assets have their own operating margin and this is true of the Lynx. They are still a valued and useful asset in theatre, whatever their operating restrictions."

Brigadier Ed Butler, the commander of British forces in the south, admitted he had made a request for new equipment in Helmand amid a sharp increase in attacks and "changing circumstances". Five British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the past three weeks.

Questions surrounding the Lynx have compounded an already precarious situation for logistical support elements of the British force. General David Richards, overall Nato commander in Afghanistan, admitted last month that the transport helicopters available to forces in the south remained at the level they were at the start of this year, even though the number of troops has more than doubled since that time.

A Chinook resupply flight - able to carry 54 troops or 11 tons of equipment - was cancelled last month when a US soldier based with British troops in Musa Qala needed air evacuation with appendicitis. A Lynx would normally be used. British forces pinned down by Taliban guerrillas near the town of Gereshk last week waited for more than four hours for air support because no Lynx could fly. 
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Resurgent Taliban hangs three Nato 'spies' as warning  
By Kim Sengupta Published: 02 April 2007 
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Taliban fighters hanged three men in Afghanistan yesterday after accusing them of collaborating with British troops, while four children were killed in a suicide bomb attack. 

In further violence across the country over the weekend, eight policemen died in two separate ambushes amid increasing evidence of Taliban activities after a winter lull.

The three "spies" were killed in the Musa Qala region, where the British had arranged a local deal - which had since collapsed - under which tribal leaders pledged to keep insurgents out in return for the withdrawal of Nato forces.

Two of the men were hanged from a tree in front of a crowd in a village between Musa Qala and Gereshk, and the third was hanged in the main street in Musa Qala. The Taliban said they had been killed for supplying information to the enemy. A local Taliban commander, Nizamuddin Khan, said: "They were spying for the British troops and had tipped them off about the location of one of our commanders, who was killed by an air strike. The men had confessed to their crimes."

Namatullah, a resident of Musa Qala, said: "The Taliban told us that whoever gives information to the government or the foreign soldiers will be punished in the same way as these informers. The body of the man here was left hanging from a tree for three hours. It was then taken down and buried by local people."

At Gereshk, where there had also been an informal truce between the British and tribal chiefs, the hanging took place near a bridge. A local man, Syed Gul, said: "This was a warning. We were told that this is what would happen to anyone who betrays his own people to the British. There has been a lot of fighting here in the past, and we think that will happen again."

The children were killed when a bomber detonated his car packed with explosives at Mehtarlam, in Laghman province, near an Afghan army convoy. Yar Mohammed, a senior police officer, said: "It was a suicide attack and unfortunately it was children who were the victims. There were some injuries and they, too, were civilians."
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200 police search for missing French aid workers, Afghans in southwest Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Thursday, April 5, 2007 
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 KABUL, Afghanistan: Two hundred Afghan police have been dispatched to search for two French aid workers and their three Afghan staff missing in southwestern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Thursday.

The French man and woman, who work with the aid group Terre d'Enfance, left their office in Nimroz province on Tuesday morning and were traveling with their cook, driver and bodyguard, said provincial police chief Daud Askaryar.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said militants kidnapped the five in Nimroz province — a claim that could not be independently confirmed.

Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir said 200 policemen were searching houses in Khash Rod district, where the French workers' car was last seen. Nimroz officials have not heard from the Taliban or the missing people, he said.

Ahmadi, who spoke by phone to an Associated Press reporter from an unknown location, named the kidnapped Afghans as Mohammad Rasoul, Zahir Shah and Abdullah. All five were in one vehicle when they were captured and are being held by militants in Nimroz, he said.

Taliban militants will conduct an investigation, and the group's higher authorities will decide what to do with them, Ahmadi said.
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Leopard tank squadron in Afghanistan won't get to use new models this summer
April 5, 2007  By JOHN COTTER
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MAYWAND, Afghanistan (CP) - Leopard tank troops in Afghanistan are going to have to drive their old battered machines a little longer. 

Maj. Dave Broomfield, commander of the squadron, said he's been told that a batch of 20 new modern Leopards the federal government is expected to lease will go to another unit that is training to come to Kandahar. 

The decision is good for Canada's armoured corps, but a let down for his troops who are going to have to work the 30-year-old tanks through the heat of the Afghan summer without air conditioning, he said Thursday. 

"We will be carrying on with the Leopard C2," said Broomfield, of the Edmonton-based A Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). 

"It looks like the soldiers of C Squadron will be getting the new tank. Obviously the guys are excited for the corps, but at the same time there is probably a might bit of disappointment." 

A federal cabinet committee has approved the lease of new tanks to replace old models now deployed in the rocky desert west of Kandahar. 

The lease recommendation is not expected to be overturned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 

Broomfield, a friendly, straight-forward man not much older than his tanks, said his troops will do the best they can with the old Leopards. 

Temperatures inside the tanks have already crept up once to 50 C - hotter than a sauna bath, and it is only April. The squadron will be in Afghanistan until the end of August. 
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German fighter jets land in Afghanistan  
The Associated Press  Thursday, April 5, 2007 
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 MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan: Six German fighter jets landed in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, where the planes will conduct reconnaissance missions in support of NATO-led forces in the country.

A squadron of Tornados, equipped with special camera systems, will be used for intelligence gathering. They were dispatched from Germany on Monday and will be based at a German military base outside the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Afghanistan's government welcomed the deployment of the aircraft as a "very effective" tool for operations and intelligence gathering, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a Defense Ministry spokesman.

"It's very important for the security of Afghanistan, because we have no air force, and it is good news for the Afghan nation and will have a positive effect on security and stability," Azimi said.

The German Parliament last month approved the planes' deployment, which had been requested by NATO. They are being accompanied by some 200 military personnel.

The decision has irked some in Germany — particularly on the left — who worry that the Tornado deployment is a combat mission in disguise that will suck the country into fighting in southern Afghanistan
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In Afghanistan's rugged mountains, U.S. soldiers fight Taliban with lessons learned in Germany  
By: DENIS D. GRAY - Associated Press 
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BAYLOUGH, Afghanistan -- As his snipers watched the Taliban fighters from hilltop hideouts, the sergeant had a flashback: He was in the Alps, dressed in an Afghan turban and vest, cradling an AK-47 and impersonating the very insurgents his unit was about to confront.

Staff Sgt. Lukas Hearn could slide easily into shoes of the Taliban in Afghanistan, picturing that when the shooting started they would flee their stronghold, veer up a narrow pass and vanish into the mountains.

In a conflict waged on unfamiliar terrain, Hearn's unit -- the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment -- enjoys an edge. Since 1990, soldiers from the battalion have acted as "OPFOR" -- Opposition Forces -- in war games staged in Germany against U.S. and NATO units. And in the German Alps, they played the part of the Taliban.

"Except for our light skin, short haircut and combat boots, we looked exactly like Afghan insurgents, and sometimes they let us wear our hair long. They even gave us glue-on beards," said Hearn, of Moore, Okla.

Now his unit is deployed in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a vital staging post for insurgents in southern Afghanistan, and the role-playing experience has paid dividends.

Recounting a recent clash, Hearn said his unit rushed in a blocking force to cut off the valley that was the site of the Taliban stronghold. Mortars were targeted on the expected escape route and airstrikes readied before fighting erupted.
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Lesser term sought for Taliban fighter
By Paul Elias The Associated Press 04/04/2007 09:50:07 PM MDT
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American John Walker Lindh converted to Islam and fought in Afghanistan for the Taliban. (Special to The Post)San Francisco - The lawyer and parents of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Wednesday to commute his 20-year prison term, citing the case of an Australian man who was sentenced to less than a year for aiding terrorism. 

Lindh, 26, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 by American forces sent to topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and support terrorists but pleaded guilty to lesser offenses, including carrying weapons against U.S. forces. 

Lindh's lawyer and father said the lighter sentence given to Australian David Hicks should be reflected in Lindh's case. 

"It is a question of proportionality. It is a question of fairness, and it is a question of the religious experience John Walker Lindh had," attorney James Brosnahan said. "And it was not in any way directed at the United States." 

Lindh converted to Islam and went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, which received U.S. backing. He is serving his sentence at the federal Supermax prison in Florence. 
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60 Killed In Afghanistan Fighting
 Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer 4/4/2007 10:27:19 AM
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Heavy fighting between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants allegedly linked to al-Qaida has killed 60 people near the Afghan border, security officials said Wednesday.

Local tribes turned viciously against foreigners living in the lawless South Waziristan region on March 19. The government says the violence shows Pakistan is winning its fight against international terrorism.

About 50 of those killed in the past 24 hours in the South Waziristan region were Uzbeks, three security officials told The Associated Press. About 10 local tribesmen and one Pakistani soldier also died, they said.

The officials asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to make media statements.

The latest casualties bring the overall toll reported by various government and security officials to more than 250, the vast majority of them Uzbeks, Chechens and Tajiks and their local allies.

Poor security in the region, where the government has minimal control, puts it largely off-limits to reporters, making it hard to verify what little information emerges.

Hundreds of Central Asian militants settled in Pakistan's remote border zone in the past two decades, where they have formed alliances with some of the tribes and married into local clans.

Some came to fight in the Afghan war against Soviet forces in the 1980s, others to escape U.S. forces that drove the Taliban and al-Qaida from Afghanistan in 2001 or repression in their home countries.

Pakistan has failed to prevent Taliban militants finding sanctuary and support in the same region for their insurgency in Afghanistan.

However, it has cracked down more visibly on foreigners. It scaled back army operations in the border region last year under a series of agreements for tribal leaders to disarm or expel foreigners living there.
More on link

German Government Says Hostage Video Shocking and Inhumane  
Article Link

German government officials condemned a video in which two Germans taken hostage in Iraq plead for their lives. Terrorism experts said the video shows that the kidnappers want to grab attention and money.

The video shows a German woman hostage and her son pleading for help as their Iraqi kidnappers threatened to execute them unless Berlin withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

Hannelore Krause, 61, and her 20-year-old son Sinan were sobbing and visibly distraught in the video picked up by the US-based SITE Institute which monitors Islamist websites.

Their captors extended by 10 days the deadline for Germany to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or see the hostages executed, although the exact date of the new deadline was not immediately clear.

"It is really very difficult to watch how these people are humiliated on video," foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jäger told a press briefing.

He said ministry staff had studied the video overnight. "Many of us did not sleep much last night. We will be meeting with the ministry's crisis team this afternoon to give our interpretation of the video and try to draw final conclusions about it," Jäger said.
More on link

Police detain 22 at "suicide school" run by Taliban
Article Link

HERAT: Police raided a religious school in remote western Afghanistan and arrested 22 people, an official said, alleging the madrassa was involved in organising Taliban suicide attacks. 

Afghan police acting on a tip-off raided the school in the western province of Farah - which last month saw several suicide blasts - provincial police chief Sayyed Agha Saqib said. 

The school in the Bala Buluk district was being used as a "terrorist centre" and was supported by Pakistani nationals and Arabs, he said. 

A Taliban commander named Mullah Hayatullah was alleged to be using the madrassa to provide military training for the Taliban, who were ousted by US-led forces in 2001. 

The mullah was not among those caught in the raid and some of those arrested confessed to being Taliban, he said. 

Afghan and Western officials say that many of the men behind the almost daily attacks in Afghanistan are trained in madrassas run by extremist Islamists in areas of Pakistan along Afghanistan`s eastern border. 

Farah province, which is however in the west of the country and adjoins Iran, has until the last few weeks seen relatively little of the Taliban violence stalking mainly southern and eastern Afghanistan. 
More on link

Political foes team up to challenge Afghan president  
Thursday April 05, 2007 (0339 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: Former mujahedeen leaders, Communists and a member of Afghanistan's royal family - all former foes - have formed a new political group which aims to curtail Afghan President Hamid Karzai's power. 
The National Front is led by Afghanistan's former president Burhanuddin Rabbani and includes members of Karzai's current administration. 

Speaking to a packed hall at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, Rabbani said the new group will advocate increased power for the legislature and also called for direct elections for 34 provincial governors. 

The U.S.-backed Karzai is currently the highest authority in the country. He also appoints the provincial governors. 
More on link

Germany sets aside interest on loan  
Thursday April 05, 2007 (0339 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Germany has written off over $6 million interest on its $44.1 million loan to Afghanistan. 
Agreement to this effect was signed between Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi and German ambassador to Afghanistan. 

The interest rate on the loan was about five per cent a year, said the Finance Minister. He added the loan would also be written off if Afghanistan successfully implemented the International Monitory Fund (IMF) three-year programme. 

The programme includes, bringing reforms in the country's finance system and consulting IMF in financial matters, like increase in income, reduction in expenditures and introduction of administrative reforms. 

He added the write off of $105 million American loan was also depended on Afghanistan's successful implementation of the programme, as agreed with the Paris Club. 

According to Ahadi, the total loan received by Afghanistan over the past years is amounting to $11.9 billion. 
More on link

Armor Group wins $189m deal to guard US embassy in Kabul  
Wednesday April 04, 2007 (0412 PST)
Article Link

WASHINGTON: Armor Group has become the largest British company in Afghanistan after signing a five-year $189m contract to guard the US embassy in Kabul. 

The deal is Armor`s biggest contract to date and is in line with the company`s strategy to diversify away from Iraq, which currently accounts for around half of its revenues. 

Towards the end of last year, Armor lost a contract to provide training for 1,000 bodyguards for the judiciary in Iraq which led to full-year profits falling 21 per cent, despite the underlying business growing strongly as tensions in the Middle East continue. 

The new contract, which was previously operated by private rival Global Risk Management, will roll out over the next three months and will see the number of Armor personnel working in Afghanistan increase from 600 to around 1,000. 

Armor has recruited former Gurkha soldiers and local Afghan guards to protect staff and facilities within the Embassy compound. It will also supply dogs, trained to detect explosives, to patrol the perimeters of the compound. It has also taken on catering and laundry contracts for the Embassy and other facilities in Kabul. Dave Seaton, the chief executive, said he expects to extend the company`s leading position in Afghanistan as the market grows. 
More on link


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## GAP (6 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 6, 2007*

Reservists won’t lose jobs
Thu Apr 5 15:07:00 CDT 2007
Article Link

Military reservists sent oversees won't risk losing their jobs while they're away serving their country, thanks to new provincial rules passed today. 
The Employment Standards Act already offers unpaid leave and job protection to new parents or people who have lost family members. On April 30, the rules will apply to reservists sent into active duty in places like Afghanistan and Bosnia. 

Manitoba has about 700 reservists and half hold civilian jobs.    
End

NATO widens Afghan offensive, general says
POSTED: 0133 GMT (0933 HKT), April 5, 2007 
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of NATO troops descended on southern Afghanistan's Helmand province overnight as part of an offensive against Taliban fighters, U.S. and allied officials said Thursday.

The assault, which began late Wednesday, included the airlift of troops into the Sangin Valley area, north of the onetime Taliban base of Kandahar, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

The new push is an expansion of the alliance's spring offensive, dubbed "Operation Achilles," said Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Washington. Gen. Dan McNeill, the chief of NATO troops in Afghanistan, is leading the operation, Pace added.

"I do not want to get into the specifics of the operations, but it will unfold very clearly here in the next couple of days what he has begun," Pace told reporters at the Pentagon.

The month-old operation involves nearly 5,000 NATO and Afghan troops in Helmand province, the scene of recent heavy fighting between Taliban and NATO-backed Afghan government forces. The push is also aimed at curbing drug traffickers in the country's south, Maj. Gen. Ton Van Loon, NATO's southern regional commander, said in March.

Recent fighting has displaced nearly 5,000 families in Helmand province, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has reported. 

The area targeted by coalition troops includes the strategic Kajaki dam, which is projected to provide electricity to about 1.7 million Afghans when refurbished. The Taliban overran the town of Musa Qala, near the dam, on February 1.

The Taliban is the Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and allowed the al Qaeda terrorist network to train and operate from its territory. A U.S.-led invasion deposed the Taliban after the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, but the movement has regained strength in southern Afghanistan since then.
end

The 'lost platoon' in Afghanistan
U.S. soldiers, scarce in numbers, are trying to secure a stronghold
April 5, 2007, 10:52PM By DENIS D. GRAY Associated Press 
Article Link

BAYLOUGH, AFGHANISTAN — As his snipers watched the
Taliban fighters from hilltop hideouts, the sergeant had a flashback: He was in the Alps, dressed in an Afghan turban and vest, cradling an AK-47 and impersonating the very insurgents his unit was about to confront.

Staff Sgt. Lukas Hearn could slide easily into shoes of the Taliban in Afghanistan, picturing that when the shooting started they would flee their stronghold, veer up a narrow pass and vanish into the mountains.

In a conflict waged on unfamiliar terrain, Hearn's unit — the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment — enjoys an edge. Since 1990, soldiers from the battalion have acted as "OPFOR" — Opposition Forces — in war games staged in Germany against U.S. and NATO units. And in the German Alps, they played the part of the Taliban.

"Except for our light skin, short haircut and combat boots, we looked exactly like Afghan insurgents, and sometimes they let us wear our hair long. They even gave us glue-on beards," said Hearn, of Moore, Okla.

Now his unit is deployed in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a vital staging post for insurgents in southern Afghanistan, and the role-playing experience has paid dividends.
More on link

Four killed in Afghan suicide bombing  
Updated Fri. Apr. 6 2007 6:37 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint in Afghanistan's capital Friday, killing four people, including a policeman who tried to stop him, police and witnesses said. 

At least four other civilians were wounded in the attack in western Kabul, police chief Esmatullah Dauladzai said. 

"It was a suicide attack. The attacker exploded his car when a policeman tried to stop his vehicle," Dauladzai said. There were no foreigners near the area at the time of the blast, he said. 

Samiullah Ahmad Rahim, a witnesses, told The Associated Press that he heard a big explosion and saw a large fireball shortly after the blast. 

The pieces of the vehicle were strewn around the road leading toward Afghanistan's parliament, and charred remains of the bomber were covered by plastic and white cloth in at least two places nearby. Windows of the nearby buildings and shops were shattered and the blast gouged a small crater on the road. 

Police closed the road, and officers were collecting pieces of the vehicle and those of the bomber. Most of the shops lining both sides of the wide road were closed at the time of the blast
More on link

Afghan President acknowledges meetings with Taliban  
RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL — Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said Friday he met with Taliban militants in attempts to bring peace to the country and urged supporters of the fundamentalist militia to lay down their weapons.

“We have had representatives from the Taliban meeting with different bodies of Afghan government for a long time,” Mr. Karzai told a news conference in Kabul. “I have had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well,” he said.

Mr. Karzai did not disclose any details of these meetings, or indicate if they included talks with senior militant leaders.

Hundreds of former members of the hard-line Taliban regime have reconciled with the government since they were ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
More on link

No-name Canadian team builds Afghan civil service
 TheStar.com April 06, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

KABUL–They applaud themselves a great deal, the countries that have brought their money and energy to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The multinational "branding'' of projects and services is a proprietary theme throughout the capital and beyond, an omnipresent – rather annoying – reminder to Afghans that they are supplicants for global largesse, the tacit message one of alms extended to an enfeebled society.

Signs, signs, everywhere a blatantly benevolent sign: "Brought to you by the government of Germany ... the people of Japan ... Norway ... China ... the Netherlands.'' And NGOs, of course, a plethora of them, sprouting like weeds in the fertile loam of crisis, as often as not propagating a culture of reliance without which these agencies would have no reason to exist.

But outside a nondescript house in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood – down the road from the Pakistani embassy, around the corner from Oscar's Restaurant – there are no postings, no national markings.

"We do not put a Canadian flag or sticker on anything,'' stresses Col. Donald Dixon. "Zero.''

Discretion is the byword for the Strategic Advisory Team, a small component of Canadians with a very large and formidable task: nurturing the bureaucratization of Afghanistan so that it can eventually manage itself, no longer dependant on the administrative tutoring of foreign advisers.

It's called "capacity building,'' in the lexicon of officialdom, Operation Argus by military moniker. No other country has attempted such a thing, though the British plan to create a team based on the Canadian model.

Composed of 16 Canadian Forces members and civilian employees, the SAT is "embedded'' in a dozen government ministries, up from the two that launched the ambitious undertaking in 2004. They are the inside men and women, working intimately with Afghanistan's executive hierarchy as the Hamid Karzai regime strives for administrative nuance and sophistication while simultaneously attempting to assert authority over 34 provinces, areas that feel estranged if not downright hostile to centralized government.

"When we got here, we found that the bureaucracy was an inch deep and a mile wide,'' says Dixon, the urbane chief of the SAT team who spent years as a military policeman, formerly commanding officer of the CF National Investigations Service. "One of the things we're trying to show them is how to delegate responsibilities, always consistent with their goals and objectives.
More on link

Czech government agrees to donate helicopters to Afghanistan  
Friday April 06, 2007 (0536 PST)
Article Link

PRAGUE: The Czech government approved the donation of 12 redundant combat and transport helicopters to Afghanistan in response to a request from NATO. 
The Czech Republic will donate six transport Mi-17 helicopters and six Mi-24 combat helicopters to Afghanistan, local media reported. 

The reconstruction, which cost several hundred million crowns (20.966 crowns equal one U.S. dollar), will be paid by NATO, according to the report. 

The first helicopter is to be accepted by Afghan authorities this September. All the 12 helicopters are to be used in the country by the end of 2008. 

NATO demanded that the republic donate weapons to Afghanistan last year.
More on link

Security, water, key to weaning Afghanistan`s Maywand area from opium poppy  
Friday April 06, 2007 (0536 PST)
Article Link

 MAYWAND: More police and cheap water are needed if the remote Maywand district of Kandahar province is to wean itself off of its opium poppy- based economy, its leader says. 

Haji Saifullah said he has only 250 Afghan National Police officers to patrol the sprawling desert district that borders Helmand province - where NATO has launched Operation Achilles against the Taliban. Saifullah, who depends on an armoured task force of Canadian soldiers to help keep order in the region, said he needs at least 200 more police officers. 

Poor farmers grow poppies because they can`t afford to irrigate their fields to grow other crops, such as corn or wheat. Fuel for water-well pumps is too expensive. 

"They would like to grow something else," Saifullah said Wednesday in his compound guarded by Afghan police. 

"They have no choice. If they grow something else they are not going to get enough money." 
More on link

WB to give $3m for embankment in Takhar  
Friday April 06, 2007 (0536 PST)
Article Link

 TALUQAN: The World Bank (WB) will provide three million US dollars for construction of protective wall on the banks of Amu Darya (River Oxus) in the northern province of Takhar. 
Provincial Governor Ghulam Ghaus Abubakar told journalists they signed the contract with Tajikistan deputy prime minister during his visit to that country. Representative of the World Bank was also present on the occasion. 

He said the amount would be channeled through the Ministry of Water and Energy. More than 10,000 acres of land had been washed away by river over the past four years in that region, said the governor. 

He said Tajikistan had assured not to construct dam on its side on the river. 
More on link

Land mine accidents drop in Afghanistan  
Friday April 06, 2007 (0536 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: At a lecture on dangers of land mines, the schoolchildren listened in horror as a guest speaker recounted how his left leg was blown off above the knee. It was three years ago, 11-year-old Massoud said, and he had been playing with a kite near his home. 
"When I arrived over the top of the hill, suddenly a bomb exploded," the sweet-faced boy said. "No one would come near me because they were afraid another mine would explode. Then I crawled out of the mined area." 

After a quarter century of war, Afghanistan is still littered with millions of land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and more mines are being planted in regions of the south where a Taliban-led guerrilla war against NATO forces has been escalating. 

Yet as Afghanistan marks International Mine Awareness Day Wednesday, there is some cause for optimism. Accident rates have declined dramatically, thanks to the imaginative and culturally sensitive efforts of organizations such as OMAR - a mine-clearing NGO that recruited Massoud for the recent lesson in a Kabul mosque. 

His audience, a classroom full of boys about his age, listened, their mouths agape. Their wide eyes moved from his face to the artificial leg under his gray tunic. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (6 Apr 2007)

Dutch Soldiers Stress Restraint in Afghanistan
_NY Time_s, April 6
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/world/asia/06afghan.html?ref=world



> The Dutch infantrymen stood on a ridge near the Baluchi Valley, an area in south-central Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban and tribes opposed to the central government.
> 
> In Qala-e-Surkh, Afghanistan, a Dutch-led task force, prepared for another day after sleeping outdoors. The unit stresses diplomacy. More Photos »
> 
> ...



Islamabad faces suicide bomb call
BBC, April 6
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6532825.stm



> The head of a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has threatened to use suicide bomb attacks against the government.
> 
> Maulana Abdul Aziz made his defiant call to thousands of followers during Friday prayers.
> 
> ...



Pakistan troops secure area seized from Al-Qaeda
AFP, April 6
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070406/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistan_070406160106



> Pakistan Friday moved its army into a tribal area cleared of foreign Al-Qaeda militants by tribal fighters, an official said, the first troop movement in the district since a peace agreement was signed with local tribesmen in 2005.
> 
> Troops entered the mountainous Sheen Warsak area near Wana, the main town in volatile South Waziristan, the official said, after the last three days of fighting between tribal forces and foreign Al-Qaeda-linked fighters left more than 60 militants dead.
> 
> ...



Canadian combat team herds huge coalition convoy through southern Afghanistan
CP, April 6
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070406/world/afghan_cda_helmand



> Like an alert sheepdog with its fangs bared, a Canadian combat team herded a huge column of coalition vehicles through Taliban country Friday.
> 
> A line of trucks and Humvees stretching back kilometres slowly rumbled through Helmand province, their headlights vainly trying to stab through thick clouds of dust in the pre-dawn light.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (7 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 7, 2007*

Lt.-col hit in rocket attack
Marty Klinkenberg Telegraph-Journal Friday April 6th, 2007 
Article Link

A native of Saskatchewan, Walker was riding in a seven-vehicle convoy from the Kandahar Air Field to Patrol Operating Base Wilson when the incident occurred. The base is west of Kandahar City in the Zhari Region, an area where confrontations continue between NATO-directed troops and the Taliban, the fundamentalist group deposed by the U.S. military and Afghan opposition forces in late 2001.

Canada has committed 2,800 troops to the mission to strip the Taliban of its influence in Afghanistan, including about 700 soldiers from Gagetown. A significant portion of soldiers are from the Second Royal Canadian Regiment near Oromocto, which is operating out of Patrol Base Wilson.

Late Thursday Walker said he would be fine, having survived a previous attack by a suicide bomber and several involving improvised explosive devices. 

"All I saw was a flash," Walker said after receiving medical attention from a Camp Wilson medic. 

Walker was a passenger in a Bison, a former troop carrier that has been modified for combat, when the incident occurred just outside Kandahar City. Two rockets were fired at the caravan, with the other passing in front of the vehicle. Two other passengers suffered minor injuries.

Chief Warrant Officer Mark Baisley of Miramichi was riding in the vehicle behind Walker's and witnessed the attack.
More on link

Whether new or old, tanks just not for this war
April 07, 2007 James Travers
Article Link

Hard to win the hearts of Afghans with battle tanks

If crew comfort and safety are the biggest problems with deploying battle tanks in Afghanistan, then the federal government has a compelling solution. Air-conditioned and more heavily armoured, the new generation of German Leopards are far superior to the ones the Canadian Forces declared obsolete before hurriedly deploying them against the Taliban last year.

But as important as those considerations are, they are not the ones that should concern Canadians most. The rush to lease nearly two dozen Leopard 2 A6M tanks is the most compelling evidence yet that neither the Afghan mission nor the master plan for the new military is unfolding as predicted.

No matter how sophisticated, tanks are inconsistent with this country's objectives of rescuing a failed state and creating a light, fast and flexible armed forces capable of responding to a new century's chaotic threats.

Designed for set-piece, Cold War confrontations, the 55-tonne behemoths are hardly the weapons of choice in the close and often urban encounters of today's hearts-and-minds wars. Too often they cause the collateral damage that turns locals against foreigners and isolates soldiers from the civilians they were sent to help.

Worse still, even the world's best battle tanks – and the new Leopards are among them – are vulnerable to fast-evolving insurgent tactics and improvised weapons. During last summer's failed Israeli incursion into Lebanon, a minimum of 18 of its tanks, all various generations of the highly regarded Merkava series, were seriously damaged and at least two destroyed.

For complex political reasons, the deadliest anti-tank arms used by Hezbollah have not yet surfaced in Afghanistan. But it's far from certain that even the newest Leopards would fare as well against mines and rocket-propelled grenades as the specially modified Merkavas.

What is known is that the commander of Canada's army, the parade-ground crisp and refreshingly cerebral Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, studied the Israeli experience and drew vital conclusions. Among the most important is that even though the Merkavas had weaknesses, the survival rate of crews was high.

It's no coincidence that Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor stressed this week that Canadian casualties have dropped since September when the nearly 30-year old Leopards were pressed into service. While the reasons for that happy decline have more to do with changed enemy tactics and limited winter fighting, any equipment that saves soldiers' lives is both welcome and a persuasive part of the continuing military campaign for more procurement.

Not surprisingly, Stephen Harper's government is susceptible to that persuasion. Having planted the Conservative flag alongside Canada's in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister now has little choice but to write monster cheques when the military argues publicly that its fighting machinery isn't up to the job.

That raises interesting questions. Did the military not know that its aging Leopards would be unusable in Afghanistan's summer heat? Or was it an exercise in planned failure, one that would put irresistible political pressure on the government to acquire the tanks that, in more cost-conscious times, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier deleted from his already-long shopping list?
More on link

NATO troops take over Taliban stronghold
Updated Sat. Apr. 7 2007 7:43 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- More than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban and took over control of a district center in southern Afghanistan long held by the militants, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The troops used helicopters, armored vehicles and infantry in their push toward the town of Sangin in Helmand province, the world's biggest opium-producing region, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement late Friday.

"Military troops have successfully engaged several Taliban extremist strongholds and discovered a number of large weapon caches," the statement said.

The operation to retake Sangin from militants started late Wednesday and is part of NATO's largest ever offensive in Afghanistan, Operation Achilles, launched last month to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of Helmand province and open the way for multimillion-dollar repair work on a dam in Kajaki district which would supply the country's south with electricity.

"There was very heavy fighting between foreign forces, Afghan forces and Taliban in Sangin two nights ago," Sangin resident Haji Akhtar Mohammad said Saturday.
More on link

Friendly fire probe in killings of Canadian, U.S. soldiers finished
WILSON RING  Associated Press and Canadian Press
Article Link

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The U.S. Army has completed a probe into whether a Vermont National Guardsman and a Canadian soldier were killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan during a fierce night-time battle just over a year ago, a Guard official said Friday.

But the results of the investigation into the March 29, 2006 death of Master Sergeant Tom Stone and Canadian soldier Private Robert Costall won't be released until MSgt. Stone's family has been briefed about the findings, said Guard spokesman Captain Keith Davio.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Defence Department was checking Friday to see if a similar briefing would be given to Pte. Costall's family.

The delay in the release of the results was due to the nature of the incident, Capt. Davio said.
More on link

Soldier's dad battled to honour the fallen
Denis Poroy, the Associated Press (Apr 7, 2007) 
Article Link

In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the coffins are being met by honour guards, not baggage-handlers with forklifts.

That change -- which took effect quietly in January and applies to members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan as well -- came after a campaign waged by a father who was aghast to learn his son's body was going to be unloaded like luggage.

John Holley -- pictured with his wife, Stacey, holding a portrait of their son -- said an airline executive told him that was the "most expeditious" way to bring the body home.

"I said: 'That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,'" said Holley, an army veteran from San Diego, Calif., whose son, Specialist Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005.

"If it was 'expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"
More on link


Dutch DM to discuss Afghan mission with allies 
Saturday April 07, 2007 (0307 PST)
Article Link

BRUSSELS: -- Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop will visit Canada next week to meet his counterparts from Canada, the United States, Australia and Britain and discuss the Afghanistan mission, the minister said after the cabinet meeting. 
Van Middelkoop will, among other things, inform his counterparts that the Netherlands will take a decision this summer on whether to extend the Dutch mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, 

Dutch news agency ANP quoted the minister as saying. The Netherlands has about 2,200 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. 

The Dutch troops in Uruzgan have a two-year mandate ending in August 2008, and so far the government has refused to make any commitment to an extension of the mission as is requested by Washington. The defense minister will also discuss improving the training of Afghan police officers and the Afghan army. All the allied partners are doing something in this respect, but the tasks and the information exchange should be better coordinated, the minister said.
More on link

Talks with moderate Taliban "a waste of time": Ex-envoy  
Saturday April 07, 2007 (0307 PST)
Article Link

Kabul: The former Taliban regime`s envoy to Pakistan says that talks proposed by the German government with the moderate Taliban are a "waste of time" and a "conspiracy" to create a rift among their ranks. 

"The sharing of power with some Taliban, and to separate the Taliban, is a conspiracy that the Taliban know, and it will not be successful," Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban regime`s ambassador to Islamabad, said in an exclusive interview at his Kabul house. 

Senior German officials, including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have asked Berlin to host an Afghan peace conference where Taliban moderates could discuss terms with the Kabul authorities. 

Kurt Beck, who is leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel`s coalition partner, first made the proposal during his visit to Afghanistan. Beck told reporters about his proposal after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. 

After the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 in a US-led military operation, Zaeef was arrested by Pakistani forces and was then handed over to US authorities in January 2002. 
More on link

Suspected Taliban ambush mine clearing workers in Afghanistan, 7 killed, 4 wounded
The Associated PressPublished: April 7, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan: Suspected Taliban militants ambushed Afghans working for a U.S. land mine clearing company in southwestern Afghanistan on Saturday, leaving seven people dead and four others wounded, an official said.

The incident happened as more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban militiamen and took control of a district center in southern Afghanistan long held by the militants, officials said.

The deminers and their guards working for Ronco Consulting Corp., a U.S.-based company, were ambushed in a populated area in western Farah province as their two-vehicle convoy was traveling on the highway from Kandahar to the western province of Herat, said Mohammad Anwar, spokesman for Farah's police chief.

Six of those killed worked for Ronco. One was a woman caught in the crossfire between militants and armed guards working for the company, he said. Two of those wounded also worked for the company and two others were women caught in the clash.

All the victims were Afghan, and it was not immediately clear how many of those killed were guards and how many were deminers, Anwar said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (7 Apr 2007)

A United Front Against the Taliban
_NY Time_s, April 7, by Munir Akram
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/opinion/07akram.html



> AS the spring fighting season opens, Afghanistan faces many challenges: terrorism, the Taliban, Islamic extremism, drugs and criminals, warlords and factional friction, weak government and an inadequate national and international security presence.
> 
> This is a good time to make an objective assessment of the Afghan and regional environment and to put together a strategy to overcome those challenges. This strategy should be comprehensive, combining military containment with political reconciliation, administrative control and rapid socio-economic development. It must build peace through a bottom-up approach — village by village, district by district — by offering incentives and disincentives to secure the support and cooperation of local populations.
> 
> ...



Talibanization of Pakistan
_Washington Times_, April 7, by Arnaud de Borchgrave



> For President Pervez Musharraf, America is a force for good. But most Pakistanis now see the Bush administration as evil...
> 
> The U.S. intelligence community recently acquired a Pakistani insider's look at what makes Mr. Musharraf tick these days. As much as he wanted U.S. victory in Iraq, he has long since concluded the United States has lost the hand to Iran. To recoup America's loss before he leaves the White House in January 2009, Mr. Musharraf believes Mr. Bush will strike Iran's nuclear facilities from air and sea. And this, in turn, will unite Sunnis and Shi'ites in Pakistan against all things American -- and provoke a gigantic upheaval throughout the Middle East. With the whole world turning against Israel and the United States, he could not afford to continue his policy of "constructive ambiguity" toward the Bush administration...
> 
> ...



(A modified quote one cannot resist adding:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/31000.html



> I cannot forecast to you the action of...It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is...national interest.)



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (8 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 8, 2007*

Roadside bomb kills 6 NATO soldiers
Last Updated: Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 1:15 PM ET  CBC News 
Article Link

Six NATO soldiers were killed after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the multinational force said Sunday.

The explosion took place in Helmand province, where there is a major offensive underway against the Taliban. The nationality of the soldiers is still unknown.

The main thrust of the offensive is being handled by British and American troops, with Canadian soldiers offering backup and security.

About 5,000 soldiers in all are engaging the Taliban, including elements of Afghanistan's army.

In February, the Taliban said it has 6,000 fighters ready for a spring offensive and could dramatically increase that number if necessary.

Al-Jazeera reported at the time that Taliban leader Mullah Dadallah had recruited 500 suicide bombers for the campaign.
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Abducted Afghan reporter killed, says Taliban
Last Updated: Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 11:03 AM ET CBC News 
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An Afghan journalist and translator was killed on Sunday, a month after he and an Italian reporter were kidnapped, a spokesman for the Taliban said.

Ajmal Naqshbandi had been held by the insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province since the beginning of March.

His Italian colleague, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, was freed on March 19 after five Taliban officials were released. The two men were seized along with their driver, Sayed Agha, who was later found beheaded.

A failed attempt to arrange a second prisoner swap led to the beheading of Naqshbandi, said Shahabuddin Atal, who claimed to be a spokesman for the regional Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.

"We asked for two Taliban commanders to be released in exchange for Ajmal Naqshbandi, but the government did not care for our demands," Atal said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said that police had no evidence on the weekend that Naqshbandi had been killed.
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Suicide Offensive
By Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau Newsweek
Face to face with the Taliban's new favorite weapon in the Afghan war: human bombs
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April 16, 2007 issue - The village was in Taliban country, roughly 170 miles southwest of Kabul and more than an hour by foot from the main road. When a NEWSWEEK reporter walked in alone through the snow one cold February day, a guerrilla with an AK-47 was there to meet him. The visit had been arranged in advance through Taliban officials who have been consistently reliable news sources. Our aim was to speak to volunteers who had trained to be suicide bombers, hoping to shed light on their minds and motives. The guide led our reporter to a mud-brick house, where a boy of 10 or so hauled out something heavy in a flour sack. The Taliban man took the sack and slung it over his shoulder, heading toward another house. Then he told his visitor what was in the bag: a pair of suicide vests, stuffed with explosives. "If these jackets go off, anyone within 100 meters will be killed," the fighter warned, with a twisted smile.
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Security Council: Efforts to secure peace in Afghanistan not working
By Saeed Shabazz Staff Writer Updated Apr 7, 2007, 07:41 pm
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UNITED NATIONS (FinalCall.com) - It is year six of the UN-backed NATO occupation of Afghanistan and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon admitted in a report to the United Nations Security Council on Mar. 20 that the resistance in Afghanistan appears “emboldened.” In 2006, the casualty rates increased on the ground and NATO lost 46 troops. 

Mr. Ban said a record number of 77 suicide attacks were recorded in the last six months, up from 53 over the previous six months, with most directed against foreign military convoys. The secretary general proposed a 12-month extension of the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA).

The Security Council held an open debate on the issue of peace and security in Afghanistan after the secretary general issued his report, with more than two dozens speakers participating. The UN’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, told the Security Council: “Given the conflict in the south of the nation and militarily vulnerable borders in the east and southeast, the threat to peace has not diminished.”

Mr. Koenigs noted that civil unrest, loss of public support, as well as the right of victims to justice, places the international effort to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan under additional stress. He cautioned Afghan and international forces to “take greater care to ensure that they are doing no harm to civilians.”
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NATO soldier killed by Afghan roadside bomb
Updated Sun. Apr. 8 2007 8:27 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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One NATO soldier was killed and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan, an official said Sunday.

The bomb exploded Sunday morning, said Lt.-Col. Maria Carl, a spokesperson for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

No details were released about the names or nationalities of the soldiers, or even where the deadly attack took place.

Earlier Sunday, the ISAF press office confirmed there had been an attack that caused some casualties in Zabul province in the south.

However, officials would not confirm whether it was the same attack Carl mentioned.

In another Sunday attack, in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, a suicide attacker detonated his car bomb next to a U.S.-led coalition convoy. 

Ghafor Khan, a spokesperson for the provincial police chief, said no one was killed or wounded in the attack.

And in eastern Khost province, a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle fired on Afghans who were working for ISAF. Two Afghans were killed and another was wounded, ISAF confirmed.
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Sunnis, Shi’ites clash in Pakistan; 40 killed  
Web posted at: 4/8/2007 2:27:38
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan • Some 40 people have been killed and more than 70 injured in fierce sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in northern Pakistan, officials said yesterday. 

“So far we have received reports that 40 people have been killed in clashes in two days of fighting between two religious groups in Parachinar,” said Arif Habib, a top official dealing with security in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. 

Local officials said more than 70 people were also injured in the fighting. The trouble began on Friday when unidentified people opened fire on Shi’ites near their mosque in Parachinar, a town about 150 miles south-west of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan. 

Authorities immediately imposed a curfew, and called troops, who were trying to restore order in the town, said Arbab Mohammed Arif Khan, secretary for law and order in Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal regions. 

The Pakistani army used helicopter gunships yesterday to quell clashes between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in a remote tribal town, officials said. 

“People from both sides damaged each other’s property on Friday and yesterday, and sporadic clashes are still continuing there,” he said. 

Khan provided no further details, and only said they were seeking help from clerics from Shiite and Sunni sects to control the situation. 
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Foreign militants and Pakistan  
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Nearly three hundred people have been killed, mostly Uzbek militants, and many more have been injured in the latest round of clashes between foreign elements and the local tribesmen in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan. Local inhabitants had to leave their homes to save themselves from the collateral damage, which always accompanies such conflicts. The fighting began some weeks ago and was still continuing at the time of writing. Heavy weapons and, reportedly, even artillery guns have been used. 

Who are these foreign militants? Should they be given shelter by the local tribesmen? The government had given them an ultimatum but is presently hesitating to use force against them. Is there a change in tactics? Will the defeated Uzbeks turn their guns on to soft targets outside the tribal areas? These are questions which need examination.

It is believed that the Uzbeks militants in the tribal areas belong to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the aim of which is to establish an Islamic state in the Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are being commanded by Tahir Yaldushove, an Uzbek, who is living in exile and who keeps moving between North and South Waziristan.

There are around 10 mobile terrorist groups in the Central Asian Republics. The two strongest militant organisations are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, known to be the most extremist group, and the Hizbut Tahrir (HT) - a softer version of the IMU. Tahir Yaldushev and Juma Namangani first formed the Adolat Party in Uzbekistan. When that was banned they moved to Chechnya and finally to Afghanistan, where they formed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in 1998. 

The aim of the IMU and HT is to get rid of their present rulers and establish an Islamic regime in the whole of Central Asia including Afghanistan. The ultra religious Taliban attracted many members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Hundreds of Uzbeks, Chechens, Tajiks and Arabs moved into Afghanistan during the Taliban rule Though some of them have settled down and are living peacefully there are a large number whose aims and objectives are not in keeping with the declared policy of the Pakistan government. 

The reported strength of the IMU was around 2,000 when the US attacked Afghanistan. US pro-Israel policies and the killing of civilians by the coalition forces in Afghanistan have fuelled anti-American feelings amongst all Muslims including the Uzbek militants. The IMU derived support from the fact that if the Afghans can force the Soviet troops out of Afghanistan they too could compel the American and coalition forces to leave Afghanistan. 
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Diggers return home from Afghanistan
April 08, 2007 
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MORE than 100 soldiers have celebrated Easter by returning home to their families today from reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.
In Townsville, 110 Australian Army personnel returned home, while 57 were greeted at Darwin International Airport by their families and top brass.

The Townsville troops were part of the 5th Aviation Regiment and, along with two CH-47 Chinook helicopters, provided transport for troops, heavy lifting of equipment and supplies and medical evacuation.

Their efforts were marked by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence Peter Lindsay today, who welcomed the “unsung heroes” of the Australian Defence Force.

“It is a great honour to welcome them home to Townsville following a job well done,” Mr Lindsay said today.
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A-10s take off from D-M for Afghanistan  
12 pilots in Saturday's Easter parade are following support team on its way 
By Kim Smith Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.08.2007
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With their bright yellow and pink hair ribbons, matching dresses and shiny patent leather shoes, the little girls were more than ready Saturday for an Easter parade. 
Despite the early morning hour and the slight chill in the air, Paige Hargis, 6, and her sister, Summer, 4, danced around their mother, Sarah, 28, who was waiting with the rest of the crowd for the parade to start. 
This parade, however, was like no other. 

For one, many of those in the crowd wore plastic orange cones in their ears to muffle the roar. 
And, instead of being made up of the fashionably dressed, this parade consisted of excited pilots taxiing down a runway in A-10 attack aircraft. 
On Saturday, 12 pilots with the 354th Fighter Squadron were deployed to Afghanistan, Paige and Summer's father among them. 
As the pilots slowly rolled by, pumping their fists in the air and blowing kisses, their families, colleagues and friends waved goodbye, holding American flags and homemade posters. 
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WFP Accelerates Emergency Aid To Flood Stricken Afghanistan  
By Lisa Schlein  Geneva 07 April 2007
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The World Food Program says it is accelerating delivery of emergency relief supplies to thousands of flooding victims in Afghanistan. It says it has so far managed to deliver enough emergency rations to feed 60,000 Afghans, but more people are in need. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

Afghans watching the flood water destroying farmland in Jalalabad City, 01 Apr 2007 
The rains began in mid-March, as is normal for this time of year. But the rains were exceptionally heavy and combined with melting snow to turn the routine into a catastrophe for tens of thousands of Afghans. 

A spokesman for the World Food Program, Simon Pluess, says Afghanistan's vice president has declared 13 of the country's 34 provinces as disaster areas because of the extensive damage caused by the flooding.

"The floods, since the beginning of the rains, have claimed dozens of peoples lives, scores of domestic livestock," he said. 

"It has destroyed or damaged thousands of homes and washed away tens of thousands of hectares of cultivated land. So, for example, we have 300 kilometers of road that have been washed away that kind of cuts the north and south from Kabul," Pluess added. 

WFP estimates 500 homes have been damaged or destroyed and 900 families have been displaced by the flooding in Kabul. 

Simon Pluess says while the situation in the capital is serious, more worrying still is the plight of thousands of people who are stranded in remote mountainous regions. He says these areas are beyond immediate help because many of the access roads are cut off by landslides and avalanches.
More on link


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## GAP (9 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April  9, 2007*

Canadians in Afghanistan mark Vimy Ridge anniversary with solemn ceremony
John Cotter  Canadian Press Monday, April 09, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - To the skirl of a lone bagpiper, Canadian troops in Afghanistan bowed their heads Monday to mark the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. 

Only hours after losing six of their comrades to a roadside bomb, the troops were told there are parallels between the sacrifices they're making in Kandahar and those of Canadians during the First World War. 

"We found our way among nations in 1917. Now we are finding our way on the international stage," said Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan. 

"We are doing good things in tough parts of the world." 

The ceremony was held near a small cenotaph that contains the pictures and names of 45 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat who have been killed in Afghanistan since April 2002. 

Soon the names and pictures of six more troops, all members of Hotel company, will be added to the marble monument. 

Sgt. Donald Lucas, Cpl. Aaron Williams, Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy and Pte. David Robert Greenslade, all of the Gagetown, N.B.-based 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, died Sunday in the explosion along with Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, a reservist with the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers. 

The identity of the sixth victim was not released at the request of his next of kin. 

The troops died when their LAV-3 light armoured vehicle was destroyed in the Maywand district near the border with Helmand province. 

The explosion also caused serious but non-life-threatening injuries to one Canadian soldier and light injuries to another. 
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When soldiers die, an internal military process takes over
COLIN FREEZE From Monday's Globe and Mail
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One month ago, Private Kevin Kennedy said he could hardly wait to take on the Taliban. "Everyone is really pumped here this morning," the 20-year-old told The Canadian Press, as 5,000 allied forces prepared to launch a massive assault. "We came here. We've trained for years and we are finally going to go out and do our job and we are ready to do it."

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, the young soldier's hometown of 1,500 was plunged into mourning by news of his death. 

"This is devastating news. There's a lot of broken hearts," said Wayde Rowsell, mayor of St. Lawrence, Nfld. He remembered seeing the young infantryman in a cadet's uniform just a few years ago in high school. Pte. Kennedy came back to the province last Christmas, to see his family, prior to deploying.

"His mom was pretty emotional, like any mom would be if her son was going off to war. . . . It did affect him that his mom was upset, but his ambition was to serve his country," Mr. Rowsell said. 
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NATO soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press
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KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb killed one NATO soldier and wounded two others Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while a clash in the east left two Afghan guards and two insurgents dead, officials said.

The bomb exploded Sunday morning, said Lieutenant-Colonel Maria Carl, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. She declined to give further details about the victims or where the attack took place.

Earlier, the ISAF press office said there was an attack with some casualties in southern Zabul province, but would not confirm whether this was the same attack as the one Lt.-Col. Carl mentioned.

In the eastern Paktika province, two Afghan guards were killed and five wounded during a four-hour firefight with Taliban insurgents near the border with Pakistan, according to the U.S.-led coalition, which is operating separately from the NATO-led force.
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Small N.B. town shocked by Afghanistan deaths of five soldiers from CFB Gagetown
Kevin Bissett Lawrence Canadian Press Monday, April 09, 2007
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CFB GAGETOWN, N.B. (CP) - The small town of Oromocto, N.B., was rocked Sunday with news that five of the six soldiers killed in the deadliest day for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan hailed from the nearby Gagetown military base. 

"It's going to be one of the greatest shocks to the town of Ormomocto - when you have five, it's a big shock," said Mayor Fay Tidd as news that a roadside bomb killed five soldiers from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, swept through the riverside community. 

"It's going to be very hard on the families. We said goodbye to so many people, over a thousand people last year," she said referring to soldiers from the area who have been sent to Afghanistan. 

"You can never prepare for it." 

Oromocto, a town of about 9,000 people, was developed around Canadian Forces Base Gagetown - one of the largest military training bases in the country. 

Almost all the townspeople are members of the armed forces or are connected to the military in some way. 

"It has been an extremely tough day for CFB Gagetown and for the community," base commander Col. Ryan Jestin told a news conference on the base late Sunday. 

"This is a very tragic incident, especially as today is Easter Sunday, and most of us gathered with our family and our friends to enjoy this special season." 

Jestin, who appeared phyiscally and mentally shaken after spending the day helping to contact the soldiers' families, said the tragic news was nothing the base could have prepared for. 

"We've been talking about what-if scenarios probably for six or eight months," he said. "This was not anywhere close to what we'd been expecting. This is really, really tough to come to terms with." 

The dead men were identified as Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of Burton, N.B., Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B., and Pte. David Robert Greenslade, 20, of Saint John, N.B. 

Also killed was Pte. Kevin Kennedy, 20, of St. Lawrence, NL, and Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., who was a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers. 
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On patrol, shadowed by the Taliban
POSTED: 0307 GMT (1107 HKT), April 8, 2007 
Article Link

BAYLOUGH BOWL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Rarely do Afghanistan's insurgents take on American troops in the Baylough Bowl. But in a gray world where allegiances are fluid and identities are closely guarded, the Taliban are always watching and waiting.

No sooner does a U.S. patrol leave its primitive mud fort on foot or wheels than the chatter on Taliban frequencies begins: "The Americans have just left. They're coming this way. We will need more reinforcements if they approach any closer. ..."

"They're probably looking at us right now from one of those peaks," says Abdul Farid, an Afghan interpreter and radio monitor, as he leaves Forward Operating Base Baylough (sounds like "buy low") in the southeastern province of Zabul.

These almost daily patrols are the staple of U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan, coping with a rekindled Islamic insurgency more than five years after the Taliban regime fell to American and Afghan forces.

What this expenditure of sweat, and sometimes blood, will do to win the war is difficult to gauge.

1st Lt. Jason Cunningham explains the purpose of being on the ground, face-to-face with villagers: to keep the Taliban at bay, establish authority, and enable troops to take the local pulse and dispense aid to gain converts where loyalties are questionable and violence sometimes erupts.

"It's very possible that I've had tea with the Taliban," says Cunningham, who commands 50 U.S. Army soldiers.

At one stop, the soldiers and a party of Afghan police inspect a roadside bomb, a mortar round attached to a trip wire. It's hidden among rocks at the base of a pole flying the Afghan national flag.

It's the fifth such device planted 
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Taliban behead Afghan translator
POSTED: 1105 GMT (1905 HKT), April 9, 2007 
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- The kidnapped translator for an Italian journalist was beheaded in southern Afghanistan, Afghan authorities and a purported spokesman for the Taliban said.

Ajmal Naqshbandi, a freelance journalist and translator, was kidnapped along with a driver and Daniele Mastrogiacomo of the Italian daily La Repubblica, in southern Helmand province on March 5. The driver, Sayed Agha, was beheaded, and Mastrogiacomo was released March 19 in a much criticized swap for five Taliban militants.

The Taliban made a similar demand in return for the release of Naqshbandi.

"We asked for two Taliban commanders to be released in exchange for Ajmal Naqshbandi, but the government did not care for our demands, and today, at 3:05 p.m., we beheaded Ajmal in Garmsir district of Helmand province," said Shahabuddin Atal, who claimed to be a spokesman for regional Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.

Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, confirmed the killing and said that the Taliban executed Naqshbandi on behalf of al Qaeda. "Once again the Taliban showed that they are following the steps of terrorist networks," Ansari said.

Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, condemned the murder and called on authorities to bring those responsible for Naqshbandi's death to justice.

"The perpetrators of this crime have shown absolute indifference to the value of human life by ignoring the calls of family, journalists and Afghans who with one voice called for his safe return," Koenigs said in a statement. "The rights of journalists to go about their work, free from interference or harm, should be recognized and respected by all," he said.

U.S. officials also condemned the translator's execution.

"This barbaric killing reminds us of why the United States and NATO are in Afghanistan in the first place: to help the good people of that country defeat the Taliban extremists and their al Qaeda allies," said Gordon Johndroe, national security spokesman for U.S. President George W. Bush.
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Fatigue possible friendly-fire factor: Report
Apr 08, 2007 04:21 PM Murray Brewster Canadian press
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OTTAWA – An American pilot may have been tired and struggling with confusing instructions when he opened fire on Canadian troops in Afghanistan last September, killing one and wounding 36, suggests a newly declassified report.

The "lessons learned" document also suggests an electronic vehicle identification system might have prevented the tragedy.

"Incidents of this nature will always be a reality of combat, however technologies that have not been fully exploited to their full potential exist which could reduce the number of incidents," said the report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The pilot of the A-10 Warthog mistakenly sprayed members of Charles Company, 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, with Gatling gun fire as they camped at the base of Ma'sum Ghar, a squat, rugged mountain outside of Bazzar-e-Panjwaii.

The three days previous to the accident had seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the newly launched Operation Medusa. Two American attack planes were ordered to repeatedly blitz Taliban positions, near the Canadians, north of the Arghandaub River – a tense, physically draining type of air operation.

"The two A-10s in this sortie had been strafing the enemy for over three hours and were about to hand over the (air operations)," says the document.

"The incident occurred in the shift from night to day. This could have been a factor."

The soldiers, who had lost four comrades through three exhausting days of fighting in an arid vineyard a few hundred metres away from their camp, had just finished breakfast when the air strike happened.

"Most of the company had not yet donned Personal Protective Equipment (body armour and helmets)," the Sept. 9, 2006, report noted.

The army refused to comment on the document, saying its own board of inquiry investigation was not complete. The status of U.S. Air Force investigation was also unclear.
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New equipment could deter friendly fire attacks  
Report says vehicle identification system might have prevented accidental shooting 
MURRAY BREWSTER Canadian Press
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OTTAWA — An electronic vehicle-identification system might have prevented a U.S. pilot from accidentally shooting at Canadian troops last September, killing one soldier and wounding 36, according to a newly declassified report on the incident.

"Incidents of this nature will always be a reality of combat," according to the Canadian report, obtained under the Access to Information Act. "However, technologies that have not been fully exploited to their full potential exist which could reduce the number of incidents."

The "lessons learned" report, based on interviews with soldiers, also describes in gripping detail the efforts of medics, other soldiers and battle-group headquarters staff to treat the wounded, and suggests the U.S. pilot may have been tired and struggling with confusing instructions.

The pilot had mistakenly sprayed members of Charles Company, 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, with Gatling gun fire as they camped at the base of Masum Ghar, a squat, rugged mountain outside of Bazaar-e-Panjwai.
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Taliban talks open rift in Kabul leadership
By Philip Smucker THE WASHINGTON TIMES April 9, 2007 
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai's announcement that he has held talks with the Taliban has opened a rift between his Pashtun backers and mainly Tajik northerners, who have coalesced in a new opposition party led by parliament speaker Younus Qanooni. 
    "For us, his admission last week that he has been talking to the Taliban comes as a complete surprise," Mr. Qanooni said yesterday as he reclined in the well-appointed salon of his home and fingered a set of red prayer beads. "We were not informed about these closed-curtain talks, which can never come to any good." 
    The president's supporters said the unexpected announcement last week of negotiations with the Taliban leadership was long overdue, and hinted that Mr. Karzai had acted with the approval of Washington and its NATO allies. 
    "If serious peace talks had been carried out earlier, this country would be in a much stronger position today," said an Afghan-American member of parliament, Daoud Sultanzoy, who has many Taliban-leaning Pashtun constituents in his district of Ghazni province. 
    "The northern thugs who oppose this, including Mr. Qanooni, prefer that the Pashtuns keep fighting in the south so they can enrich themselves." 
    Mr. Qanooni is a leading player in a new opposition alliance dominated by the same northern-based ethnic groups that helped U.S. forces overthrow the Taliban in 2001. The United National Front's members include former Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Prince Mustafa Zahir, the grandson of the deposed and ailing King Mohammad Zahir Shah. 
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Afghans pin hopes on a new economy  
Monday April 09, 2007 (1119 PST)
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KABUL: Listen long enough on the streets of this dusty, bustling city and the whir of generators, the cry of hawkers, and the jingle of cell phones blend together into one constant hum. It's the sound of Afghans trying to make money. 
The swirl of activity starts before dawn and lasts until dusk, interrupted only by the blast from an occasional suicide bombing. 

Five and a half years after the US-led war toppled the Taliban government, and two years after historic parliamentary elections, the sense of euphoria here has worn off, replaced by the daily struggle to make ends meet and the search for the ever-elusive better life. As a competitive economy awakens in one of the world's poorest countries, the residents of Kabul are jockeying to get ahead in a city flush with cash from US soldiers, foreign aid workers, new investors, parliamentarians, and drug traffickers. 

Some have already made fortunes catering to the emerging desires of this nation of 31 million people. Ehsanullah Bayat, a US-trained Afghan engineer, is one of the nation's richest men after starting the first cellphone company here in 2001, and a radio and television station. The inventors of Super Cola, a local soda, hold their own here against Coke. 

But most Afghans are trying to climb a far more modest ladder of success. 

"For those people who have a job, like a shop, or who have a small amount of capital, things are good and getting better," said Mohammad Nadir, who sells home made yogurt and other groceries at a shop his father opened the day he was born, 26 years ago. "But the poor stay poor. The government is not able to help them." 

Costs have skyrocketed, Nadir said. During the Taliban years, his family paid $5 in monthly rent for the shop. Now they pay $200. That leaves about $500 per month in profit. 

"Good money," he said. But he'd like to make more. 

Kabul is teeming with people who are desperately trying to earn more, no matter what their current salary is. The crowd of unemployed graduates from University of Kabul clamor for jobs in the civil service, civil servants seek higher-paying work with the foreign non governmental organizations, while many employees at those organizations have their eyes on better-paid positions with the United Nations. 

Ashraf Ghani, who was finance minister from 2002 to 2004, said the arrival of foreign aid organizations had spurred an unhealthy hunger for higher pay. 
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Taliban seize southern Afghan district
Article Link

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban rebels seized control of a district in the south of Afghanistan Friday, officials said, as more than 1,000 ISAF and Afghan soldiers attacked a Taliban stronghold. 

The Taliban move came as a suicide bomber in a taxi killed six people near the national parliament in Kabul. 

President Hamid Karzai meanwhile said he had met with members of the Taliban movement — which is leading a deadly insurgency five years after being toppled by US-led forces — to bring reconciliation to his country. 

Karzai said Taliban representatives had been regularly meeting with government bodies, adding: “I’ve had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well, so this process has been there for a long time.” 

But he ruled out talks with Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar, a close ally of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, or with foreign militants. 

Hours before he spoke, 100 Taliban militants overran Khak Afghan district in the troubled Zabul province, the latest of several rebel attempts to exert control in parts of southern and western Afghanistan. 

Police made a “tactical” withdrawal after insurgents attacked the headquarters of the mountainous district from several directions at once, said Ghulam Shah Alikhil, a spokesmen for the provincial governor. 

There were no immediate plans in place to retake the area, he said. 

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, including US and Romanian soldiers in Zabul, said it was checking the information. 

The Taliban have also occupied other districts in Afghanistan this year. In most cases, the rebels have been driven out after a short time. 
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan
08 Apr 2007 17:37:02 GMT Source: Reuters
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April 8 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan as of 1700 GMT on Sunday:

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - Seven foreign soldiers were killed by two roadside bombs, including six troops killed in one of the single worst incidents for the alliance in recent months. In a new policy, NATO refused to say where the attacks occurred because it could identify the nationality of the victims.

SPIN BOLDAK - The Afghan translator for an Italian journalist was killed after a month in captivity because the government refused to release more rebel prisoners, the insurgents said. Afghan officials later confirmed the killing. Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed after two weeks when five Taliban officials were released but his driver was beheaded.

JALALABAD - A suicide bomber died in an attack on a U.S.-led coalition military convoy, police and the United States said. One U.S. soldier was wounded.

PAKTIKA - Two Afghan security guards and two Taliban fighters were killed in a gun battle near the Pakistan border in Paktika province, officials said.

KANDAHAR - A U.S. soldier suffered a gunshot wound at Kandahar airfield, a major NATO base in the south, NATO said, giving no details.

SALERNO - Two Afghan civilians working for NATO were shot dead and another injured by gunmen near a school in Khost province, NATO said.

GHAZNI - One Afghan worker was killed and another injured in two separate attacks on fuel trucks, NATO said. 
End


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## The Bread Guy (10 Apr 2007)

*Message from Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, on the death of six Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan*, 9 Apr 07
Article link

"My husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and I were filled with great sadness when we received news of the terrible tragedy that claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers: Sergeant Donald Lucas, Corporal Brent D. Poland, Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix, Corporal Aaron E. Williams, Private David Robert Greenslade and Private Kevin Vincent Kennedy. Our thoughts also go out to the soldiers who were injured during this incident.  Exactly one month ago in Kandahar, I witnessed their immeasurable devotion, their sense of duty, their courage, and their steadfast determination to never back down from completing the dangerous mission with which they were tasked.  The Canadian women and men who are participating in the multilateral NATO effort to bring the peace and stability that are so crucial to Afghanistan’s development deserve our recognition and utmost admiration.  To the families and loved ones of the victims of this unexpected tragedy, know that this entire nation mourns your loss, and that our thoughts are always with you during this difficult time." 


*Statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the deaths of six Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan*, 9 Apr 07
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement on the deaths of six Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan:  "Canada is mourning the deaths of six soldiers killed in the line of duty yesterday while participating in a NATO offensive against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan. On behalf of all Canadians, I express my deepest condolences to the loved ones of Sergeant Donald Lucas, Corporal Brent D. Poland, Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix, Corporal Aaron E. Williams, Private David Robert Greenslade, and Private Kevin Vincent Kennedy.  The incident that claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers and injured a number of others took place while Canadian troops were supporting an effort by allied forces to create a safer environment for the reconstruction of this region of Afghanistan. Our soldiers were conducting convoy security operations when an improvised explosive device detonated close to their armoured vehicle.  Our hearts ache for them and their families and our thoughts and prayers are with them. These events coming on the 90th commemoration of the battle of Vimy Ridge once more remind us of the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform have made and continue to make to defend our country and their fellow human beings.  I also extend my wishes for speedy recovery to those injured in the attack, and pray for the safety of their comrades as they press on to complete their mission.”


*Statement by the Minister of National Defence on the deaths of Six Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan*
DND news release NR-07.020, 9 Apr 07
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OTTAWA – The Honourable Gordon O'Connor, Minister of National Defence, issued the following statement today on the deaths of six Canadian soldiers:  “It is with the utmost sorrow that I extend my condolences, and those of all Canadians, to the families and friends of Sergeant Donald Lucas, Corporal Brent D. Poland, Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix, Corporal Aaron E. Williams, Private David Robert Greenslade, and Private Kevin Vincent Kennedy.  Those who fell will be deeply missed by the Canadian Forces family.  The dedication and bravery of these soldiers will be forever remembered.  I also extend my wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured in the attack.  Our troops have a clear mission - to build security and stability in Afghanistan. And it is because our soldiers are succeeding in this mission that they came under attack.  It is in Canada’s national interest that the people of Afghanistan regain control of their own destiny - to ensure their country never again becomes a launching pad for global terrorism. There can be no doubt that the desperate terrorists who carried out yesterday’s attack want to return a murderous regime to power.  On both sides of the Atlantic yesterday, Canadians paid their respects for the soldiers who fought in the Great War.  These six soldiers who gave their lives carry on the valiant tradition of putting country before self.” 



*UN condemns bloody weekend in Afghanistan; agencies help flood victims*
UN News Centre, 9 Apr 07
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....  a UNAMA spokesperson in the Afghan capital Kabul expressed the world body’s sadness and condolences over the deaths and injuries to the Canadian soldiers, which also occurred in the south of the country.  “The commitment and sacrifice of the men and women of the Canadian armed forces, together with all those serving together under NATO-led ISAF command is an inspiration to us all as they continue to play a crucial role in efforts to restore peace in Kandahar, Helmand and all of Afghanistan,” said Aleem Siddique. ....



Some more news highlights available here


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## GAP (10 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 10, 2007*

Yarmouth native wounded in Afghanistan 
 By Michael Gorman/The Vanguard 
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By Michael Gorman THE VANGUARD NovaNewsNow.com 

The mother of a wounded Canadian soldier with local ties said her son is doing well and she is proud of him. 

Cpl. Shaun Thomas Fevens, 24, a former resident of Chebogue, was on board a light armoured vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb near Kandahar city in Afghanistan on Sunday. Six of the soldiers on board were killed. Fevens was seriously wounded while three other soldiers on board who were wounded were treated and later released from hospital. 

Fevens was able to use advanced first aid training to instruct a comrade how to treat his injuries. It is believed Fevens's first aid training is what saved his own life. 

His mother, Maurietta Fevens, said he has a crushed ankle and broken leg. He has other injuries, but his mother wasn't certain as their extent. 

"He has burns," she said from her home in Chebogue. "I don't know (where); maybe hands, feet, I don't know — I didn't want to know." 

Cpl. Fevens was transported from Afghanistan to Germany to the American military hospital where he underwent a second, more minor, surgery and received a visit from Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of staff for the Canadian Forces. 

Arrangements are already in place for him to return to Halifax where a room and doctor are waiting for him at the Q.E. II Health Science Centre. 

Fevens said she learned of the incident from her son. 

"Shaun phoned me around 3 o'clock (Sunday) afternoon and said, 'Mom, you're going to hear a lot of things on the TV,' and he said, 'I'm OK, I'm all intact. I love you.' And that's all he could tell me." 
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Newfoundland soldier who survived Sunday’s roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan ‘emotionally torn’    
 The Canadian Press and The Telegram
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The mother of Newfoundland soldier Master Cpl. Bill Molloy — who survived a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan Sunday that killed six of his comrades in the LAV-3 armoured vehicle the soldiers were travelling in — said the incident has left her son emotionally torn.

“His wife has been speaking to him,” said Donna Molloy of her 30-year-old son. “He said he was OK, mentally and physically.”

Speaking from her home in St. Lawrence, Molloy said, “But I know personally he is emotionally torn. He has to be. As are all the soldiers that were there.”

Master Cpl. Molloy was among 10 soldiers who were accompanying coalition convoys to the Sangin district, the scene of fierce fighting between the coalition and the Taliban, when the bomb exploded.

Two of the soldiers tragically killed are from Newfoundland and Labrador — 31-year-old Sgt. Donald Lucas of St. John's and 20-year-old Pte. Kevin Kennedy of St. Lawrence.

Donna Molloy said her son and Kennedy were both involved with cadets growing up in the small south coast town.

“(Kevin) was well-liked, and had no problems with anybody,” she said.

The six soldiers killed Sunday make it the deadliest day for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Kennedy and Lucas were two of five soldiers from the Gagetown, N.B.-based 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment. The other three were Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B.; Pte. David Robert Greenslade, 20, of Saint John, N.B.; and a soldier who was not identified at the request of his family. Also killed was Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., who was a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers.
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Chief of Defence visits wounded Canadian soldier
Updated Tue. Apr. 10 2007 12:12 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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A Canadian soldier wounded in Sunday's deadly roadside bombing in Afghanistan received a special visit from his boss Tuesday. 

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier met with Cpl. Shaun Fevens, who is recuperating from surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. 

Canadian Forces medical officer Capt. Richard Hannah was present for the visit, and says Fevens was appreciative of the visit. 

Fevens received a broken ankle and a broken leg in the attack, as well as shrapnel in his wrist. 

Military officials believe Fevens is alive because he had the presence of mind to orchestrate his own first aid. Though he was bleeding profusely after the blast, he gave order to a nearby gunner, who was lightly injured, on how to save his life. 

"The major I was speaking to said at one point, he went up to this corporal and asked him: how are you doing, are you going to make it?' And he answered, 'Yes I will sir, absolutely sir,'" reports CTV's Paul Workman in Kandahar. 

Lt.-Col. Rob Walker, commander of the Canadian battle group, said of Fevens: "He's a very lucky man and I'm proud of him.'' 

"He was seriously injured and he had the wherewithal... to tell the gunner what to do to stop the bleeding, to render first aid, until the platoon medic was able to get there.'' 

"I was inspired by him.'' 

Fevens' family is now eager to see him return home. 
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6 Taliban, 2 Afghan soldiers killed in violence in southern Afghanistan  
The Associated Press Monday, April 9, 2007 
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KABUL, Afghanistan: U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban militants in the volatile south and called in an airstrike that left four militants dead, the coalition said Tuesday.

Militants attacked coalition and Afghan troops Monday in the Sangin district of Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement. The troops called in an airstrike on a compound used by militants, it said.

"As Taliban fighters began to flee, coalition aircraft engaged and killed four Taliban fighters who were attempting to escape," the coalition said.

In neighboring Kandahar, Taliban militants clashed with border police on Tuesday, leaving two militants dead and one officer wounded, said border security police Gen. Abdul Raziq.

Suspected Taliban militants, meanwhile, ambushed an Afghan army convoy with rocket propelled grenades in southern Zabul province, killing two soldiers and wounding up to 14, officials said.

The troops were attacked Monday as they were traveling on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway in Zabul, said Mohammad Omar, an official with the Afghan National Army.

Fourteen wounded soldiers were brought to a NATO base in the province for treatment. Suspected militants fled the area after the ambush, Omar said
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Afghanistan hero among Victoria crash dead
Tuesday Apr 10 05:00 AEST By ninemsn staff and wires
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A man honoured for his work in the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan was among three elite soldiers killed in a car crash in Victoria yesterday. 

The men were returning to the joint SAS-Australian Secret Intelligence Service at Swan Island when their hire car fell off the edge of a causeway and into the water near Queenscliff. 

SAS soldiers Sgt Craig "Crackers" Linacre, 34, Cpl Michael McAvoy, 32, and Cpl Dave O'Neil, also in his early 30s, died in the tragic accident. 

Witnesses said the car was travelling at high speed before hurtling off the side of a bend on the causeway. 

All three soldiers were married with children, and died despite desperate attempts to free them from the wreck. 

Sgt Linacre, who has spent the past 11 years in Special Operations Command, had served in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, winning the Commendation for Gallantry for his work in Afghanistan. 

Corporal McAvoy, who joined the army in 1992, had served in Special Operations Command for six years, including service in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Police said the off-duty soldiers were returning after a night out when the accident happened
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Soldier Wounded in Afghan Bombing Helped Save Own Life  
Josh Pringle Tuesday, April 10, 2007 
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The commander of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan says an injured soldier saved his own life in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombing. 

Lt.-Col Rob Walker says Cpl Shaun Fevens orchestrated his own first aid. 

Walker told the Toronto Star that Fevens gave a lightly injured gunner on the LAV-III orders on what to do to save his own life. 

Six soldiers were killed when the LAV-III hit a roadside bomb near Kandahar. 

Fevens was flown to Germany on Monday after surgery in Kandahar to mend a shattered ankle, broken leg and burns. 
End

'Big bomb' killed troops instantly  
GRAEME SMITH From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Hotel Company was finishing up its mission in the arid plains of western Kandahar when one of its patrols hit a dangerous obstacle on Sunday afternoon. Few things can stop a Canadian LAV III armoured vehicle in the empty wastes of Maywand district, but the LAV crews were worried about driving across an ancient canal system, called a kareez, which resembles a series of deep holes hacked into the earth.

Their company had spent more than a month in that sun-baked expanse, and their clothes probably stank of sweat, garbage fires and anti-fungal foot powder, but their time in the desert would have made them familiar with threats such as the kareez holes, which could trap an unwary driver.

A gap between the holes, about four metres wide, seemed to offer a way past. Canadians had passed that way recently, so the soldiers had no reason to suspect that the narrow passage concealed the deadliest bomb to hit a Canadian military vehicle in half a century.

The explosive device was probably hidden in the dust within the past few days, and rigged with a pressure sensor, a battery and a detonator. Its punch was so powerful that six soldiers inside the troop compartment in the first of three LAVs died instantly. A seventh, a soldier who was seriously injured, was blown out of a hatch.
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Last task before break proved fatal
Needed rest awaited fallen soldiers 
Tue Apr 10 2007 By Jonathan Fowlie
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Caked with several layers of dust and fatigued from almost five weeks in the field, the soldiers of Hotel Company took to their vehicles on the afternoon of Easter Sunday knowing a warm shower and a fresh meal were only one task away. 
The troops of Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, had been patrolling the Maywand District of northwest Kandahar province since March 6 and Sunday's task -- to escort a convoy of troops and supplies through the desert into Helmand province, as they had done the two previous days before -- was to be their last before returning to base for some much-needed rest. 

Not only that, but there had been no attacks on police checkpoints during the weeks they were patrolling the Maywand area and their company commander had formed strong and fruitful relationships with local leaders and elders. 

Morale would have to have been sky-high. 

Then at about 1:30 p.m. a LAV III carrying 10 Canadian soldiers hit an improvised explosive device (IED) that ripped through the back of the armoured carrier, killing six soldiers. 

Military leaders said Monday that the bomb was laid at a choke point among a collection of deep irrigation wells -- at the only place vehicles would have to drive in order to avoid a major diversion.    
Lt.-Col. Rob Walker, commanding officer of the 2 RCR battle group, added the charge was much more powerful than most average IEDs. 
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'Gramps, would you look after my dog?'
By ANTHONY REINHART and ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ  Globe and Mail Anthony Reinhart
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By rights, Donnie Greenslade should have been working some construction site yesterday, slinging concrete for Strescon Ltd. in Saint John.

Instead, Mr. Greenslade wandered the mall in search of a suit to wear on a trip no father wants to take: to the Canadian Forces base in Trenton, Ont., to greet the coffin of his only child when it arrives from Afghanistan later this week.

Private David Greenslade, 20, was in a light-armoured vehicle carrying 10 Canadian soldiers west of Kandahar on Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded, killing him and five colleagues: Sergeant Donald Lucas, 31, Corporal Aaron E. Williams, 23, Private Kevin Vincent Kennedy, 20, Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, and Corporal Brent Poland, 37.

All 10 soldiers, one of whom is recovering from injuries, had at one time served together in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick.
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Australia to nearly double Afghanistan force
Updated Tue. Apr. 10 2007 8:21 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Tuesday that his country plans to nearly double its troop level in Afghanistan. 

The Australian Defence Force will add 400 troops -- including an elite 300 soldier task force -- to its current contingent of 550 by mid-2007. 

"Afghanistan faces a crucial phase as international and Afghan national security forces work to consolidate the gains made since the overthrow of the Taliban regime," said Howard. 

The elite task force was pulled out of Afghanistan last September but will return to help hunt Taliban commanders. 

"Their role will be to enhance provincial security by disrupting Taliban command and control supply routes and they will directly support the Australian reconstruction task force," said Howard. 

In addition to the task force, Australia will also send air force radar crews and logistics and intelligence officers. 

Another 50 troops will then be added in 2008, raising the total to 1000. The soldiers will serve in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. 

Howard said Australia could send more troops if a need arises. 

"If terrorism acquires a safe haven again in Afghanistan that will be of direct consequence to this country and to other countries in the region," he said. 
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Canadians Will Continue to Use LAV-IIIs: Hillier  
Josh Pringle Tuesday, April 10, 2007 
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Canada's top soldier says he still has full confidence in the LAV-III's. 

Six Canadian soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Easter Sunday when their armoured vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of Kandahar. 

Officials believe the "large" roadside bomb was probably set by the Taliban only days or hours before it exploded. 

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Randy Hillier told CBC News "any armoured vehicle can be taken out by explosion. We've got tactics, we've got procedures that we use to reduce the chances of that occurring." 

Military officials believe the roadside bomb used a pressure-plate detonation system that required a power source
End

Iran to send Afghan refugees packing  
Monday April 09, 2007 (1119 PST)
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LONDON: Iran says it will send some 1 mln Afghan refugees back to their embattled homeland this month, UPI reported. 
Iranian Press TV reported the refugees have already been told to get themselves and their possessions ready to move out in the near future. 

Interior Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi was quoted as saying repatriation had been stalled by winter weather and budget limitations. 

He also said "illegal" Afghan immigrants would each get about $100 for their trip home, a policy that will cost Iran about 200 bln rials ($21.6 mln) for the repatriation of 1 mln people. 

Iran has been detaining and deporting refugees this year, but Afghans continue entering the country.
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Afghans pin hopes on a new economy  
Monday April 09, 2007 (1119 PST)
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KABUL: Listen long enough on the streets of this dusty, bustling city and the whir of generators, the cry of hawkers, and the jingle of cell phones blend together into one constant hum. It's the sound of Afghans trying to make money. 
The swirl of activity starts before dawn and lasts until dusk, interrupted only by the blast from an occasional suicide bombing. 

Five and a half years after the US-led war toppled the Taliban government, and two years after historic parliamentary elections, the sense of euphoria here has worn off, replaced by the daily struggle to make ends meet and the search for the ever-elusive better life. As a competitive economy awakens in one of the world's poorest countries, the residents of Kabul are jockeying to get ahead in a city flush with cash from US soldiers, foreign aid workers, new investors, parliamentarians, and drug traffickers. 

Some have already made fortunes catering to the emerging desires of this nation of 31 million people. Ehsanullah Bayat, a US-trained Afghan engineer, is one of the nation's richest men after starting the first cellphone company here in 2001, and a radio and television station. The inventors of Super Cola, a local soda, hold their own here against Coke. 

But most Afghans are trying to climb a far more modest ladder of success. 
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Taleban burn music, video shops in Khost  
Sunday April 08, 2007 (0656 PST)
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 KHOST: Taleban extremists torched or damaged nearly two dozen music and video shops selling "un-Islamic" materials in a small town in eastern Afghanistan, an official said. 
The fundamentalist rebels also left leaflets warning that merchants in Alisher in eastern Khost province will be "badly punished" if they do not stop selling CDs and DVDs, police official Wazir Badshah said. 

"The enemies came and burned down some nine music shops and destroyed the doors of 12 others. They've also dropped leaflets in the area threatening to punish people selling musical materials," Badshah said. 

He said the act was aimed at creating fear amongst residents and to show the weakness of the government of US-backed President Hamid Karzai. 
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Taliban talks open rift in Kabul leadership 
Tuesday April 10, 2007 (0504 PST)
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KABUL: President Hamid Karzai's announcement that he has held talks with the Taliban has opened a rift between his Pashtun backers and mainly Tajik northerners, who have coalesced in a new opposition party led by parliament speaker Younus Qanooni. 
"For us, his admission last week that he has been talking to the Taliban comes as a complete surprise," Qanooni said as he reclined in the well-appointed salon of his home and fingered a set of red prayer beads. 

"We were not informed about these closed-curtain talks, which can never come to any good." The president's supporters said the unexpected announcement last week of negotiations with the Taliban leadership was long overdue, and hinted that Mr. Karzai had acted with the approval of Washington and its NATO allies. 

"If serious peace talks had been carried out earlier, this country would be in a much stronger position today," said an Afghan-American member of parliament, Daoud Sultanzoy, who has many Taliban-leaning Pashtun constituents in his district of Ghazni province. 

"The northern thugs who oppose this, including Mr. Qanooni, prefer that the Pashtuns keep fighting in the south so they can enrich themselves." 
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Italy to send copters, armor to Afghanistan  
Tuesday April 10, 2007 (0504 PST)
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 ROME: Italy is set to send attack helicopters and tracked armored vehicles to beef up its military presence in Afghanistan, but will not send extra troops or relax caveats on the use of soldiers in front-line fighting there. 
After a tense Senate vote in March that approved more funding for its overseas military missions, senior Italian politicians and military commanders met April 2 to discuss ways to better protect the roughly 1,900 Italian troops spread between Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan. 

Using an amendment to the Senate vote allowing new equipment, the commanders planned to dispatch up to five A-129 Mangusta attack helicopters and tracked Dardo armored vehicles, said sources familiar with the talks. 

Rome had already committed to sending an extra C-130J aircraft and two unarmed Predator UAVs, which Defense Minister Arturo Parisi said would be dispatched shortly. The promise followed the February publication of a letter by the ambassadors to Rome of six NATO nations, including the United States, asking Italy not to abandon them in Afghanistan. 

Italian soldiers were lightly wounded in three attacks on patrols last month. AgustaWestland-built Mangusta helicopters had been deployed in Somalia in 1993 and were sent to Iraq after an Italian helicopter gunner was killed by ground fire as he flew in an AB412 over Nassiryah in southern Iraq. 
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MPs form fourth parliamentary group  
Tuesday April 10, 2007 (0504 PST)
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 KABUL: Parliamentarians on Saturday announced the formation of a fourth parliamentary group, named, Afghanistan Parliamentarian Group (APG). 
Mirwais Yasini, member of parliament from the eastern Nangarhar province, is chief of the newly formed group. Other office-bearers of the 41-member group included Muhammad Hussain Fahimi, deputy chief, and Humaira Akakhel, secretary. 

Mirwais Yasini said the new group would support all the positive steps of the government and the parliament. 

He said main objectives behind the formation of the group were to remove difference in the society and bring harmony and promote national unity
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Afghan president suspects foreign hand behind rival party
Apr 6, 2007, 14:03 GMT 
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Kabul - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said he had information that some neighbouring countries had a hand in the newly-formed political coalition that has brought together many influential figures to curtail his power. 

Former mujahedeen leaders, members of the former communist regime and a figure from country's royal family, most of whom fought each other during country's decades-long war, formed a new political party on Tuesday. 

The Jabhey Mili or National Front is headed by the former president of the mujahedeen government Burhanuddin Rabbani and some members of Karzai's current cabinet, including Vice-President Ahmad Zia Massoud. 

'We have information that some neighbouring countries' embassies had a hand in it (new party) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is collecting information on it and National Security Directorate (intelligence) is also working on it,' Karzai told reporters at a press conference in his fortified presidential palace on Friday. 
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Cdn. Forces complete Arctic sovereignty patrol
Updated Mon. Apr. 9 2007 7:17 PM ET Canadian Press
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CFB ALERT, Nunavut -- After nine days of slogging through blinding daily blizzards and at times measuring their progress by inches, eight members of an Arctic sovereignty patrol ended their mission at Canada's most northerly military base early Monday morning. 

The team, made up of regular soldiers as well as Canadian Rangers, travelled 785 kilometres up the coast of Ellesmere Island in nine days, between Eureka and Alert, along a route believed never to have been taken before. 

Maj. Chris Bergeron, the team's commander, said they worked through temperatures of -50 C and winds that regularly hit 80 to 115 kilometres an hour. 

"Visibility was serious,'' he reported. "We fought our way inches by inches. It was hell. In seven years in the Arctic, I have never experienced anything like it. It was the first time I have ever experienced such rough terrain and bad weather. 

"We were supposed to see some of the most beautiful scenery in Canada. All we saw was white.'' 

Bergeron's team was one of three that travelled a combined 5,589 kilometres over the last 17 days to assert Canadian sovereignty in the North -- the longest sovereignty patrol in Canadian Forces history, dubbed Operation Nunalivut. 
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Clerics demand Pakistan's tourism minister be fired for hug
SADAQAT JAN Associated Press
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ISLAMABAD — Islamic clerics at a radical mosque in Pakistan's capital have demanded the tourism minister be fired for hugging a foreign man, saying she committed a “great sin.”

Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar rejected the Taliban-style edict Monday and said her family and friends were concerned for her safety.

Two clerics at Islamabad's Red Mosque demanded her dismissal Sunday, two days after setting up a court to deliver Islamic justice in a bold challenge to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a U.S. ally who has promised to promote moderate Islam.

The mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, threatened last week to stage suicide attacks if authorities tried to raid the mosque.
More on link


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## GAP (11 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 11, 2007*

Troops may leave by 2010
Defence Minister says Afghan Mission is not open-ended; Exit timing depends on when nation is secure
John Ivison, National Post Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA - Canadian troops could be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2010, the Minister of National Defence suggested yesterday.

However, Gordon O'Connor said the withdrawal would be conditional on Afghan security forces meeting their targeted levels of expansion.

"We don't want to be there forever. Our exit strategy is to try to get Afghan governance, development and security to such a level that they can look after themselves," he said in an interview with the National Post. "We will probably have to provide aid there for many, many years but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to keep large security forces there. If the Afghan army and police can get to some reasonable level -- in their value system, not ours -- that will allow NATO to withdraw."
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Expert, military back use of LAV-3 after Afghanistan deaths   
CP
Article Link

The death of six soldiers on Easter Sunday in a LAV-3 hasn't changed the backing the armoured vehicle gets from military experts.

"The LAV has survived an awful lot of roadside bomb attacks and this one just happened to be more powerful, and perhaps hit in the right place," said David Charters, a military expert at University of New Brunswick's Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

Charters joins a chorus of military voices who have come out in support of the LAV-3 since an improvised explosive device destroyed the 20-tonne vehicle and killed six of seven soldiers riding in its rear passenger compartment on Sunday.

Charters argued the deaths should not dictate whether the LAV-3 has a future in the Canadian military

"Unless what happened on Sunday becomes the norm, the LAVs are fine," he added.

"One incident doesn't necessarily tell you this will be the end of the LAV."

Five of the six soldiers killed were based at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B.

Their commander, Lt.-Col. Rob Walker of the Royal Canadian Regiment battle group, also offered an endorsement for the vehicle.

"The LAV is a great vehicle," he said.
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Let's not lose focus on mission  
By Lorrie Goldstein April 11, 2007 
Article Link

If Canadians are going to be derailed from our mission in Afghanistan by the loss of 51 soldiers and one diplomat, we should never have sent them there in the first place. 

Honouring the dead and respecting the grief of their families and comrades is one thing. 

But using every death to argue the mission should be abandoned, as so many in Canada's chattering classes do, is obscene. 

Yes, war is hell. Yes, talking is better than fighting. Yes, peacekeeping is honourable. 

But sometimes talk fails. Sometimes, there's no peace to keep. Sometimes, a freedom-hating enemy must be defeated, if a freedom-loving nation like ours is to stand for anything meaningful in this world. 

Nice talk won't stop the Taliban. Nice talk won't deter al-Qaida. 

Nice talk won't prevent Afghanistan from falling back under the iron-fisted rule of dangerous religious fanatics who turned it into a training ground for terrorists, while forcing its civilian population to live under a reign of terror. 

If opposing that, if trying to prevent that from happening again, isn't something Canada stands for, then we stand for nothing worthwhile. 

And if we stand for nothing, if every soldier's death is enough to make us doubt why we fight, then let's bring our soldiers home from Kandahar, now. 
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Military police probe DND contracts
Employee fired over irregularities in transport deals worth $100M
James Gordon, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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Military police have been called in to investigate irregularities surrounding almost $100 million worth of National Defence transportation contracts.

The Citizen first reported last month that the department's internal auditors had raised red flags over the "vast majority" of 109 contracts for air, rail, sea and road freight transportation.

Officials now reveal one employee has already been fired as a result and the military's law enforcement arm is taking a closer look.

The audit was highly critical of how bidders were selected for work with the department, citing problems such as improper sole-sourcing of contracts and the absence of a clear method to determine winning bids.

It found that "while 89 of these contracts were technically awarded via competition, the methods used -- i.e. e-mailing or faxing requirements to at least two selected companies -- may have omitted many potential suppliers and may not have resulted in the best price.

"For air transport contracts, there was no clear method of determining how the winning bid was selected, and 18 of the 87 sampled air contracts were sole-sourced with no documented rationale."

The sole-sourced contracts ranged in value from $22,000 to $5.7 million, the audit noted, adding one air broker landed 56 per cent of the work.
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Ammunition cache seized  
Wednesday April 11, 2007 (0510 PST)
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KABUL: Police in the central Maidan Wardak province said they had seized huge quantity of ammunitions in Jalrez district of the province. 
Abdul Wadood Pakhtoonzar, spokesman for the provincial government, told Pajhwok Afghan News the ammunition dump was found during a search operation. 

He added the dump contained heavy and light weapons as well as bullets of different rifles and machineguns. He said police were investigating but not arrest had been made thus far. 

Security officials had earlier said that they would launch operation to search illegal weapons at the melting of snow in the province. 

Four days back, the provincial government had handed over dozens of light and heavy weapons to officials of the disarmament of irresponsible armed groups (DIAG) programme
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Ghosts of the ridge  
By EARL McRAE April 10, 2007 
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In the bitterly cold dark an hour before dawn a woman’s voice behind me says to the man she’s standing with: “Six Canadian soldiers killed today in Afghanistan. Awful. It’s getting out of hand.” 

They are solemnly looking up at the names being displayed in light on the National War Memorial. The names of soldiers, all dead. Canadians, mothers’ sons, 3,598 of them whose fate was to have their lives come to an end in the same week, the second, in the same month, April, in the same year, 1917, in the same country, France, and in the same place, Vimy Ridge. 

The first of their 3,598 names, Daniel Gillis, was projected on the memorial at 7:53 in the gathering darkness of the night before, Easter Sunday, and the names — along with 80 photographs — go up six at a time, every 10 seconds, for 50 seconds, and at this pace the last will go up, as planned, at 6:15 a.m. as the light of morning breaks. 

That’s how long it will take, almost 12 hours, to show the names of each and every one of the 3,598 soldiers, almost entirely of the Christian faith, who died in action over four days at Vimy Ridge 90 years ago, about 3,240 on the first dreadful day, the Easter Monday, when — despite the terrible Canadian death toll the day after the Christ rose for their salvation — “God is with us” majestically defeated “Gott Mit Uns,” inscribed on the uniform belt buckles of the enemy. 

Six Canadian soldiers killed in one day. 

Had the names of the latest Afghan dead been projected on the National War Memorial at the pace of display for the Vimy Ridge dead, it would take less than a minute, not almost 12 hours. Canada’s population in World War One was seven million. And 3,240 of that population died in one day at Vimy Ridge. 
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Volunteering for harm's way
 TheStar.com - News - April 11, 2007  Isabel Teotonio Staff Reporter
Article Link

Two young men put their schooling on hold to serve – one lived, one died

Halifax–At a time when many of their peers were dreaming of their holidays last summer, two university students from Halifax had other thoughts.

The young men, both army reservists, were thinking of shelving their textbooks, undergoing months of rigorous military training then leaving the shores of Nova Scotia for the dusty desert of Afghanistan.

After all, Master Cpl. Christopher Stannix and Cpl. Shaun Fevens, both 24, had volunteered to put themselves in harm's way, which is exactly where they ended up Easter Sunday.

"The guys in Afghanistan are regular guys who are put in extraordinary situations," said John Sime, a 20-year-old army reservist from Halifax who trained with both men.

"But they're heroes because of the extraordinary situations they're willing to tackle and the passion they have."

Both soldiers, who were among 27 of Halifax's Princess Louise Fusiliers reservists volunteering for deployment to Afghanistan, shared a deep passion for the military.

Stannix, a military buff whose father is in the air force, had long been drawn to the army and relished the opportunity to serve his country. He was so excited about the chance to serve overseas that he even took a voluntary, and temporary, demotion to corporal so he could go.

And Fevens, whose passion for the military swelled after joining the air cadets when he was 12, was also driven by the need to serve – not only his country but the women and children of Afghanistan.

Theirs was a drive that sent them during their first tour of duty on a devastating collision course last Sunday, when a roadside bomb exploded, about 75 kilometres west of Kandahar, striking their LAV III.

Crammed inside the armoured vehicle were 10 soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Gagetown, N.B. – six of whom died, including Stannix. Fevens was the only person in the back of the vehicle to survive the blast, suffering a broken leg, shattered ankle and burns to both arms.

"It's remarkable that these young soldiers want to go and do their part," said Lieut. Ron Kronstein, a public affairs officer with Joint Task Force Atlantic.

Many reservists, he added, put their lives on hold for up to a year. Unlike those in the regular forces whose duty it is to serve overseas, reservists apply for the chance, and only after a thorough check and rigorous training do they get the green light.
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A solemn farewell for six fallen comrades
GRAEME SMITH From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Tears streamed down the faces of the men in uniform who carried six caskets into a plane in Kandahar last night, some of them wiping their wet cheeks on the silky fabric of the Canadian flags that draped the coffins.

They set down the caskets in the cavernous cargo bay of the C-130 Hercules with a metallic thud that echoed across the tarmac, across the silent rows of 2,500 soldiers from eight countries who stood at attention to watch the fallen Canadians fly home.

The pallbearers walked away from the plane without their heavy loads, but the young men were still burdened. They threw arms around each others' shoulders, put their heads together and gripped one another in sorrowful hugs.

Two days after their comrades' vehicle hit a Taliban bomb in the desert of western Kandahar, the immensity of their loss was still settling in.

Nobody seemed more weighed down than Lieutenant Ben Rogerson, of West Bolton, Que. As commander of 5 Platoon, the tall, lanky 23-year-old with a close-shaved haircut was responsible for leading his group of three armoured vehicles across the treacherous barrens of Maywand district.

None of Lt. Rogerson's superiors have criticized him for taking his platoon across the narrow dirt channel between two water holes, a path that the Taliban bomber apparently guessed might be used by the foreign troops. Military officials have described the route as a natural choice, and praised Lt. Rogerson and his men for their quick and efficient response to a terrible situation.

Still, the lieutenant said he carries a feeling of responsibility.
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Canadians in Afghanistan face grief, guilt after death of comrades
John Cotter Canadian Press Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Lt. Ben Rogerson will never forget the explosion that destroyed a light armoured vehicle killing six soldiers under his command. 

Last Sunday, the three LAV-3s of 5 platoon, Hotel company, were rolling across the desert, trying to find their way through an area criss-crossed with irrigation wells and ditches. 

Rogerson, 23, was in hatch of the vehicle in the middle of the column when a huge blast ripped the air in front of his LAV. He didn't actually see the explosion. 

"It was obviously a very intense situation. For us as soldiers, what happens is, you think immediately, I need to do my job, I need to make this right," said Rogerson, a tall, gentle man from West Bolton, Que. 

"I heard the loud explosion, and immediately after I saw the vehicle, and I knew we had a situation we needed to deal with." 

The lead LAV had hit a massive improvised explosive device that had been buried by the Taliban deep in the rocky ground. 

Rogerson declined to explain what happened next, other than to praise the four wounded survivors and the men of his platoon who went to their aid. 

He said while he feels terrible, it is too soon for him to reflect on what happened. As platoon commander, the welfare of his remaining troops comes first. 

But the responsibility of being in charge that day is already weighing heavily on his young shoulders. 
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Taliban Release Body of Journalist Seized in Afghanistan Last Month  
By TAIMOOR SHAH April 11, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 10 — The body of an Afghan journalist abducted and slain by Taliban insurgents after they freed his Italian colleague in a prisoner trade was delivered Tuesday to Kandahar’s hospital. The physician on duty confirmed the identification and said the cause of death was a slit throat.

The physician, who identified himself only as Dr. Zafar, said the body of the slain journalist, Ajmal Naqshbandi, would probably be flown on Wednesday to his hometown, Kabul, on Afghanistan’s commercial airline, Ariana, or a helicopter provided by NATO forces.

Dr. Zafar did not explain how he had confirmed Mr. Naqshbandi’s identity or provide details on who had taken his body to the hospital.

Mr. Naqshbandi was working as an interpreter for the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo of La Repubblica, when they and their driver were seized on March 4 in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold. 

The kidnappers beheaded the driver and threatened the two others with death, but they released Mr. Mastrogiacomo on March 15 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government. 

That exchange, which the Italian government helped to negotiate, was the first in which prisoners had been openly traded for a hostage in either of the wars that the United States and its allies are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. The exchange was criticized by the United States and other nations, which said it would encourage further abductions and make victims more vulnerable to ransom demands. 

On Sunday, the Taliban announced that it had killed Mr. Naqshbandi after efforts to arrange a second prisoner trade had failed. 

News of the killing was greeted with fresh anger, particularly in Italy, where Prime Minister Romano Prodi was accused by political opponents of a double standard by making a deal for Mr. Mastrogiacomo but not Mr. Naqshbandi
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Hardline Taliban netting millions from poppy trade it once banned in Afghanistan  
By: JASON STRAZIUSO - Associated Press 
Article Link

CHINAR, Afghanistan -- When the Taliban ordered Afghanistan's fields cleared of opium poppies seven years ago because of Islam's ban on drugs, fearful farmers complied en masse.

Today, officials say the militia nets tens of millions by forcing farmers to plant poppies and taxing the harvest, driving the country's skyrocketing opium production to fund the fight against what they consider an even greater evil -- U.S. and NATO troops.

"Drugs are bad. The Quran is very clear about it," said Gafus Scheltem, NATO's political adviser in southern Afghanistan. But to fight the enemy, he said, "all things are allowed. They need money and the only way they can get money is from Arabs that support them in the (Persian) Gulf, or poppies."

Corrupt government officials, both low-level police and high-level leaders, also protect the drug trade in exchange for bribes, a recent U.N. report found. Warlords and major landowners welcome the instability the Taliban brings to the country's southern regions, causing poppy eradication efforts to fail.

The Taliban denies it supports poppies. Mullah Abdul Qassim, a top commander in Helmand province, told The Associated Press last month that the militia's goal is to defeat foreign troops and it doesn't have time to regulate poppies. He noted that the militia virtually eliminated poppies after leader Mullah Omar banned them in July 2000.
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Afghanistan set to release American convicted of torturing detainees  
Alexis Unkovic at 8:27 PM ET Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Article Link
  
[JURIST] Former US Green Beret Jonathan 'Jack' Idema [BBC profile], the last of three US citizens jailed in 2004 on charges [JURIST reports] of running a private jail and torturing eight Afghan men, will reportedly be released from an Afghan prison soon. Idema, US journalist Edward Caraballo [personal website], and ex-servicemen Brent Bennett entered Afghanistan [JURIST news archive] on a freelance terrorist hunt and were arrested as vigilantes in July 2004 when Afghan forces raided their house in Kabul and found that the men were holding eight Afghan citizens captive. The US government has repeatedly refused to corroborate [JURIST news report] Idema's claim that US counter-terrorism officials had sanctioned the trio's mission. Caraballo and Bennett have already been released and Idema's lawyer said Tuesday that US lawyers acknowledged in court papers last week that Idema's release is "imminent."

In 2005, the three men filed a federal lawsuit challenging their detention. On March 21, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered [text, PDF; opinion, PDF] the US Department of State and Federal Bureau of Investigation to respond by Tuesday to allegations by Idema that they ordered his torture while in Afghan custody. US government attorneys have asked that the case be dismissed because the Afghan government has granted Idema amnesty. 
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Repairs leave Afghanistan troops without helicopters
April 11, 2007. 10:43am (AEST)
Article Link

Australian soldiers in Afghanistan will be without their own helicopter support for the rest of the year after two Chinook helicopters were called back to Townsville for repairs.

The first of the two helicopters sent to Afghanistan has already arrived back in north Queensland to be stripped down and rebuilt.

Its return coincides with the Government's commitment of an extra 300 special forces troops to the region.

Another Chinook is also due to return to Australia for maintenance, leaving troops in Afghanistan without any Australian helicopters for the remainder of the year.

Fifth Aviation Regiment commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Mick Pricton says the helicopters need to be rebuilt after logging 1,215 combat hours overseas.

"Basically they were under threat the whole time they were being shot at on every type of mission they did, so we consider it all to be combat hours," he said.
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Wars are contests of will not popularity
By Neil James April 11, 2007. 8:50am (AEST)
Article Link

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is currently deployed on four major overseas operations: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the peacekeeping and nation-building tasks in East Timor and Solomon Islands. 

Three of these are popular tasks in the sense they enjoy strong and reasoned bipartisan political support and are not controversial deployments among the Australian public generally.

The exception is our participation in the continuing counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq stemming from our earlier participation in the collective intervention to topple the Saddam Hussein regime in early 2003. In this case, the continuing controversy over the earlier phase of the war continues to envelop the views of many Australians about the subsequent phase.

The news that we are reinforcing our commitment to Afghanistan has attracted little criticism. Many Australians have at least some knowledge of the situation in that country. While the democratically-elected Karzai government might be struggling to satisfy popular demands for law and order and public services, it is undoubtedly a better option than the two likely alternatives: a return of Taliban medievalist theocracy or rule by unstable coalitions of corrupt, brutal and incompetent local warlords.

Many Australians also recognise that it was from Taliban-controlled sanctuaries in Afghanistan that various Islamist terrorist groups built up their capabilities throughout the mid to late 1990s, before striking out at the ‘West’ with the type of large-scale terrorist attacks that have killed over 100 Australians and affected millions more.

While the war in Iraq is not lost, it is certainly unlikely to be won in terms of the US-led coalition’s original strategic goals. Significant reinforcement of that theatre, to the extent our small defence force could mount and sustain it anyway, would be unlikely to affect the overall result. The best we can do is continue to support the new Iraqi government and our US allies, as they grapple with an increasingly intractable political problem in Iraq and wider strategic problem regionally. 

The war in Afghanistan is also not yet won, but is certainly not lost. What’s more it is not a war of choice that we can afford to lose but a war of necessity that must be won. Significant strategic and moral issues are at stake.

This will require effort there for at least five years and probably longer, just as our counter-insurgency commitments to the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War lasted 12 and 10 years respectively.

Over such a timeframe our national efforts will fluctuate, as the war is just as dynamic as previous ones. It too will kill, wound and maim ADF personnel but hopefully not many.
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Voices: Afghanistan casualties
 TheStar.com - opinion - April 10, 2007
Article Link

We asked you whether you think our commitment in Afghanistan worth the price. Here's what you had to say.
We have a choice as a civilized nation; do we let terrorists take over a country or do we try to stop them? Whatever consequences ultimately come from this decision must be accepted as the cost of our choice. 
Sean Doolittle, Mississauga

Stephen Harper owes it to the country to explain plainly what we intend to accomplish in Afghanistan and under what conditions our troops will be brought home. 
William Bedford, Toronto

We cannot get an explanation of our goals so that we may evaluate our progress. We cannot get the truth of what is happening on the ground. 
Allan Eizinas, Simcoe, Ont.

My answer is a question: Would you sooner that we fight them on our soil? 
Don Lowther, Halifax

No, It is not worth the price. What are we doing sending our young men to die for something that is not our business? 
Badet Ellen, Windsor

Why are our troops in Afghanistan to begin with? This was never our war and our troops should never have been sent there. 
Mary Matheson, Toronto

If I say I'm going to do something, then I usually do it. So yes, I believe Canada should remain committed to this cause (without judging the merits of our presence there). 
Virginia Furlong, Pickering

Absolutely it is worth the price. While I agonize over every report about another member of our forces being killed or maimed, I think too of the children who may now have an opportunity for a normal life, Afghan girls who may now receive an education, Afghan women who may now engage in a career if they wish. 
David Carr, Whitby

No. We rushed to help the U.S. in the context of stopping bin Laden and Al Qaeda and we inherited an unwinnable tribal war when the U.S. imperiously moved into Iraq. 
John Ansara, Toronto

The question should be: "Do we Canadians think that the Afghanis deserve the same freedoms that we enjoy?" That's what you're really asking. If we believe that our freedoms are worth fighting for, then how can we deny them to others? 
Andrew Mannie, Barrie

Since "our commitment in Afghanistan" is all about protecting central Asian petroleum for transnational corporations, it may well be worth the "price" (of the oil), but it is definitely not worth the cost (in lost Afghani and Canadian lives). 
Al Eslami, Toronto
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AFGHANISTAN: ITALIAN CHARITY'S PERSONNEL LEAVE COUNTRY
Rome, 11 April (AKI) 
Article Link

The Italian and foreign workers of Italian charity Emergency left Afghanistan Wednesday to protest against the detention by Afghan authorities on terror charges of Rahmatullah Hanefi, an employee who mediated in the release of an Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taliban, Italy's state radio Giornale Radio Rai reports. The 30 Italians and eight foreigners working for Emergency's three hospitals in the country, including one in the volatile southern Helmand province, flew to Dubai Wednesday morning where they will meet with the management of Emergency to decide by Thursday whether to continue to operate in the country. 

The three Emergency hospitals have not been closed yet and Afghan personnel are still working there. 

The founder of the medical charity, surgeon Gino Strada, had recently told Italian and Afghan authorities the organization would pull out as it was in great difficulty since the arrest mid-March of Hanefi, who was in charge of the Emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah in restive southern Helmand province. Afghan authorities accuse him of links with the Taliban. 

"We will remain in Afghanistan only if Rahmatullah will be freed and if we will be allowed to work in security," Strada said. 

The Emergency employee was key in negotiations which led to the release on 19 March in southern Afghanistan of La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo by his Taliban captors. Mastrogiacomo was held hostage for 15 days. He was freed in exchange for the release of Taliban commanders from Afghan jails - five according to Taliban sources. Mastrogiacomo's driver Sayed Agha and his translator, local reporter Adjmal Nashkbandi, were killed by the Taliban.
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US seeks 'czar' for Iraq, Afghanistan
11/04/2007  06:19
Article Link

The White House wants to appoint a high-profile overseer to manage the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but has had trouble finding someone to take the job, The Washington Post reported today. 

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have turned down the position, the report said. 

The war "czar" would report directly to US President George W Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley and would have authority to issue directions to the Pentagon and the State Department, the newspaper said. 

Retired Marine Gen John "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander, was among those who rejected the job, the newspaper reported. 

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," Sheehan told the Post . 

Gen Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Dick Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq, the Post reported. 

"So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " Gen Sheehan told the paper. 

Retired Army Gen Jack Keane and retired Air Force Gen Joseph Ralston were also approached and said they were not interested in the position, the newspaper said, citing sources. 

Gen Ralston declined to comment while Gen Keane confirmed he turned down the job, the Post said. 

The White House has not publicly disclosed its interest in creating the position, hoping to find someone to fill the post before the job is announced. 
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Taliban attacks leave 10 dead in Afghanistan
From correspondents in Kabul, Afghanistan, 10 Apr 2007 - (www.indiaenews.com)
Article Link

At least ten people, including five Afghan security forces, were killed and 19 army soldiers wounded in separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

At least ten people, including five Afghan security forces, were killed and 19 army soldiers wounded in separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of Afghan army soldiers in southern Afghanistan Monday, killing four soldiers and wounding another 19, defence ministry said in a statement.

The military convoy was on its way from Hassan Kariz district to Qala, the capital city of Zabul province, when it was attacked by a large group of Taliban fighters Monday afternoon, said the statement.

The wounded soldiers, including four with serious injuries, were evacuated to Qala hospital, the statement said. Army reinforcements were deployed to the battle site but the militants had already fled.

The attack on the fledgling Afghan army came one day after seven NATO soldiers were killed in two separate roadside bomb blasts in neighbouring Kandahar province.

In southern Helmand province, four suspected Taliban were killed in a coalition airstrike Monday night, after the militants attacked Afghan and coalition forces with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Sangin district of the province, the US military said in statement.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (11 Apr 2007)

New strategy in Taliban's offensive
Kidnappings are the Taliban's new weapon of choice in Afghanistan.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, April 11
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0411/p01s01-wosc.htm



> Like any modern fighting force, the Taliban have learned the benefits of emotional warfare.
> 
> As the Taliban's spring offensive gets under way, kidnappings have become their new weapon of choice, targeting a growing chink in NATO's armor: Across Europe, the United States, and Canada, public opinion for the war in Afghanistan is sliding.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (12 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 12, 2007*

U.S. defence chief to call for more NATO troops
Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 8:05 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The U.S. is calling on Canada and Britain and other NATO allies to pump more resources, including soldiers and equipment, into Afghanistan.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor will meet with his U.S. counterpart Robert Gates, along with five other NATO countries in Quebec City Thursday.

Gates is expected to remind the leaders of the military alliance's need for aircraft, medical equipment and military trainers to fuel the massive spring campaign against the Taliban, The Canadian Press reports.

There is also speculation that Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier will announce on Thursday morning plans to rebuild Canada's fleet of 30-year-old tanks with more modern Leopard tanks.

There are reports that the 17 Leopard C2s currently in use in Afghanistan will be replaced by newer models purchased secondhand from the Netherlands.

In the meantime, the military is expected to lease 20 high-tech Leopard A6Ms from Germany.

CTV's Paul Workman has reported on the incredible heat endured by personnel inside the aging Leopard tanks, which are not equipped with air conditioning.
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Fallen Canadian soldiers back on home soil
Updated Wed. Apr. 11 2007 9:20 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The bodies of six Canadian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan last Sunday have been returned to Canadian soil.

Their remains arrived at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario about 7:15 p.m. 

The families asked that the media not be allowed on the tarmac for the arrival. Media and spectators massed outside the base on a cold, blustery Wednesday night.

"I think (the families) are going to be very, very happy to see such a large contigent of people from Trenton," CTV's Rosemary Thompson told Newsnet from the scene.

"They've brought flags, they've brought poppies, they've brought their prayers."

The military's Combat Camera unit, which takes still photos and video for the Canadian Forces, was allowed to attend the arrival. 

Sgt. Don Lucas, Master Cpl. Chris Stannix, Cpls Aaron Williams and Brent Poland, and Ptes David Greenslade and Kevin Kennedy were killed when their Lav-III armoured vehicle ran over a roadside bomb 75 kilometres west of Kandahar City. 

Their deaths mark the single worst day for the Canadian military since the Korean War of more than 50 years ago, Thompson said.
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Clashes kill 35 suspected Taliban in Afghanistan
Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 6:22 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan security forces clashed with suspected Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, and a subsequent airstrike in the area left 35 militants dead, an Afghan official said Thursday. 

The clash in southern Zabul province occurred as NATO military leaders met in Canada to ask for more resources for their fight in the volatile south. 

Afghan security forces were ambushed and clashed with militants for about an hour in Zabul's Shahjoy district late Wednesday before an airstrike was called in on militants positions, said Ali Kheil, a spokesman for the Zabul governor. 

Authorities recovered the bodies of 35 dead militants, Kheil said. There were no casualties among Afghan security forces. 

U.S.-led coalition and NATO officials did not immediately comment on the attack. 

Also Wednesday, two Canadian soldiers were killed and three wounded in a bomb explosion in the southern, said Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan. 

He did not disclose the exact location of the attack. Most of the Canadian troops serving in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan are based in the volatile southern province of Kandahar.
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War zone first aid training debated
By MURRAY BREWSTER April 11, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA (CP) - As the casualties in Afghanistan mount, the army wants many more soldiers trained in highly realistic battlefield first aid, but military doctors are resisting. 

A recent report into a friendly-fire incident, in which an American plane accidentally strafed Canadian troops in Afghanistan last September, recommended more soldiers be qualified in this specialized care, a step above the standard combat first-aid course given to all troops deployed overseas. 

"This incident illustrates the requirement to have as many soldiers as possible . . . qualified," said the document, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. 

"The training is considered critical given the (combat operating environment). Combat first aid should be a consideration like firepower when considering the building blocks of the forces." 

The Sept. 9 report recommended that two soldiers in each section be trained in combat casualty care to help save lives. Currently, the army requires only one soldier per section to be certified in advanced battlefield first aid, known as Tactical Combat Casualty Care. 

The need for first-aid training came brutally into focus Easter Sunday with the roadside bombing that killed six soldiers and injured four others. One of the wounded - Cpl. Shaun Fevens - managed to instruct another soldier on what to do in order to save Fevens' own life. 

The friendly fire review, completed in the immediate aftermath of the Labour Day incident that killed one soldier and wounded 36 others, has since been greeted with skepticism by Ottawa-based medical staff. 

All soldiers heading into war zones receive combat related first-aid training, a two-day course on how to stop bleeding, apply bandages and tourniquets and use QuickClot, a powder that quickly dries up bleeding. 
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Deaths of Afghani civilians now a criminal investigation
POSTED: 0022 GMT (0822 HKT), April 11, 2007 
Article Link

From Mike Mount 
CNN Washington Bureau
Adjust font size:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military commander investigating the actions of Marines after a suicide car bomb struck their convoy in Afghanistan last month has referred the case to the Navy's Criminal Investigative Service, Pentagon officials said.

Army Maj. Gen. Francis Kearney III, chief of Central Command's Special Operations unit, examined the March 4 case in which the Marines -- acting as special forces -- are alleged to have used excessive force on civilians after the attack.

Kearney later ordered the entire unit involved to leave the country.

His office said the case warrants further inquiry and that the investigation was passed up to the Central Command headquarters to "determine future courses of action." 

In the eastern Afghanistan attack, a minivan packed with explosives crashed into a Marine convoy and detonated. No Marines were killed. 

Witnesses allege that as the convoy sped away, the Marines began shooting into cars and at pedestrians. 
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AFGHANISTAN: Television airs footage of Taliban beheading
Reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo's driver and translotor were beheaded
Times of India Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Article Link

Rome --- An Italian television channel has aired footage of the beheading of a driver of an Italian journalist, who was held for about two weeks by Afghanistan's Taliban militants until Kabul negotiated his release.

The RAI-1 channel on Tuesday beamed images of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his driver Sayed Agha and his interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi, kneeling blindfolded before some gun-wielding militants.

It then showed Agha being beheaded following which a shaken Mastrogiacomo made an impassioned appeal to Italian authorities to "do something," while underlining that the situation was "very difficult".

The Taliban members have also beheaded Mastrogiacomo's interpreter, who was also a journalist.

The Italian journalist was freed on March 19 after Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered the release of five Taliban prisoners under a controversial deal.
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Taliban Release Body of Journalist Seized in Afghanistan Last Month  
Thursday April 12, 2007 (0614 PST)
Article Link

KANDAHAR: The body of an Afghan journalist abducted and slain by Taliban insurgents after they freed his Italian colleague in a prisoner trade was delivered Tuesday to Kandahar's hospital. 
The physician on duty confirmed the identification and said the cause of death was a slit throat. 

The physician, who identified himself only as Dr. Zafar, said the body of the slain journalist, Ajmal Naqshbandi, would probably be flown on Wednesday to his hometown, Kabul, on Afghanistan's commercial airline, Ariana, or a helicopter provided by NATO forces. 

Dr. Zafar did not explain how he had confirmed Mr. Naqshbandi's identity or provide details on who had taken his body to the hospital. 

Mr. Naqshbandi was working as an interpreter for the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo of La Repubblica, when they and their driver were seized on March 4 in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold
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WB Provides Further Grant Support to Help Improve Irrigation Infrastructure in Afghanistan  
Thursday April 12, 2007 (0614 PST)
Article Link

 Washington: The World Bank approved a US$25 million additional grant to the Afghanistan Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project, to continue supporting the Government of Afghanistan's effort to provide farmers with adequate and reliable supply of water in the traditional irrigation schemes. This grant will be additional financing to the US$40 million Credit approved by the World Bank on December 23, 2004 to sustain these efforts. 
The original project was estimated to cost US$75 million and to be co-financed by the World Bank and other donors. It was designed to increase agricultural productivity and farm income, improve food security and livelihoods, and reduce vulnerability of farmers to droughts. However, apart from the US$40 million Credit funds provided by the Bank, the Government could not secure the balance funding requirement to complete the scope of the project. This additional grant financing from the Bank will ensure the completion of 635 water irrigation schemes which could have been left out if the award of contracts were terminated due to lack funds. 
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Chinook choppers return home from Afghanistan  
Thursday April 12, 2007 (0614 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: The first of two Australian Chinook helicopters sent to Afghanistan has arrived back in Townsville. 
Its return coincides with the Government's commitment of an extra 300 special forces troops to the region. 

Both Chinooks are being returned to Australia for maintenance, leaving troops in Afghanistan without any Australian helicopters for the rest of the year. 

Commanding officer of 5th Aviation, officer Lieutenant Colonel Mick Pricton, says the helicopters will be torn down and rebuilt after logging 1,215 combat hours overseas. 

"Basically they were under threat the whole time they were being shot at on every type of mission they did, so we consider it all to be combat hours," he said.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (12 Apr 2007)

Allies Meet to Discuss Afghan War, as Taliban Offensive Looms
_NY Times_, April 12
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/world/asia/12gates.html



> Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and allied defense ministers gathered here on Wednesday to discuss the war in Afghanistan at a moment of reckoning for the nations carrying the brunt of combat there.
> 
> The spring thaw is again opening the way for a new Taliban offensive. And even as the allies prepare for another season of fighting, critics of the Bush administration continue their accusations that the focus on the Iraq war has jeopardized the early military victory in Afghanistan in 2001.
> 
> ...



Canada's limited engagement
John Ivison, _National Post_, April 12
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=b8a4a756-238f-404e-8d8f-66c69639f5a9



> Denis Coderre, the Liberal defence critic, was in a froth of indignation yesterday over the National Post's interview with Gordon O'Connor, the Defence Minister.
> 
> Mr. O'Connor's suggestion that Canadian forces might be able to leave Afghanistan in 2010, if the Afghan Army can reach its target strength of 70,000 by that time, showed "incompetence" at such a level he should resign, said Mr. Coderre. "They [the Conservatives] have no intention of leaving in 2009 [when the current mandate expires]. They want to stay in Afghanistan," he said.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## MarkOttawa (12 Apr 2007)

Dutch patrol in Afghanistan is hit by a Taliban ambush
International Herald Tribune, April 9, by C.J. Chivers
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/09/news/afghan.php



> Captain Abdul Rakhman peered over a chest-high mud wall as gunfire and shouts rose to a crescendo. Beside him were two Afghan Army soldiers and a Dutch marine. A few meters away another Afghan soldier knelt in the dirt, reloading a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
> 
> The patrol was stuck, enveloped in a poppy field in a Taliban ambush. Automatic rifle fire came toward them from a tree line about 175 meters, or 575 feet, to the west and from a row of mud-walled Afghan houses to the east and north.
> 
> ...



Note the "Multimedia" at the left.

And compare with this April 6 story by the same reporter:

Dutch Soldiers Stress Restraint in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/world/asia/06afghan.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (13 Apr 2007)

*Articles found * 
Friday April 13, 2007                                                                                          Friday April 13, 2007                                                                                          Friday April 13, 2007


NATO says one soldier killed, two injured in firefight in southern Afghanistan Canadian Press
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - NATO says a firefight in southern Afghanistan has left one NATO soldier dead and two others injured. 

NATO says the two injured soldiers are being treated in a military hospital. An alliance statement does not give the nationality of the soldiers or provide any other details on the clash. 

Canadian officials in Kandahar said Friday that Canadian soldiers were not involved. 
More on link

Rising toll prompts purchase of tanks
ALAN FREEMAN 
Article Link

QUEBEC -- Insisting that tanks can save the lives of Canadian soldiers deployed in its increasingly dangerous Afghan mission, the government announced yesterday it would spend $650-million to acquire up to 100 second-hand tanks from the Netherlands and lease 20 more from Germany.

The German-designed Leopard 2 tanks will replace Canada's 30-year-old Leopard 1 tanks deployed to Afghanistan last fall, which are not air-conditioned and could leave troops sweltering in 60-degree temperatures in the Afghan summer.

"We feel that it's best for our troops that we acquire stronger, heavily armoured main tanks that increase protection," said Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, who made the announcement at the end of a meeting of defence ministers from the eight countries participating in the NATO-led force in southern Afghanistan.

The acquisition of 100 tanks for a mission that now uses only 17 indicates that the armed forces have persuaded the government that Canada will need a robust tank force in the future. It also suggests that Ottawa has not ruled out extending the current Afghan mission since it is unlikely that the refurbished Dutch tanks will be ready for deployment until 2008, just months before the mandate is due to expire.
More on link

Taliban got lucky, troops say
Fri Apr 13 2007 By Jonathan Fowlie
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- As Canadian soldiers grapple with their worst week ever in Afghanistan, a constant three-word refrain has echoed throughout the dusty desert air: They got lucky. 
Rebuffing suggestions the much-vaunted Taliban spring offensive is underway, infantrymen and officers alike say the recent cluster of eight Taliban-inflicted Canadian deaths are more about odds than any official campaign. 

"We have gone through this number of attacks before," Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan, said from the NATO base in Kandahar Thursday morning. "It is a spike in casualties, obviously we examine it closely, but certainly I am not convinced that we are seeing a Taliban spring offensive." 

On Sunday, Cpl. Brent Poland, Sgt. Donald Lucas, Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy, Pte. David Robert Greenslade and Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix died when their LAV III struck a large explosive device planted underneath a sandy desert track. 

Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick James Pentland were killed Wednesday after their Coyote vehicle hit a roadside bomb and flipped over. Canadian convoys faced three attacks that day. 

In a series of recent interviews, Canadian soldiers of varying stripes agreed the Taliban have not increased their offensive, but that the regular course of attacks have coincidentally landed a few punishing blows.   
"The (last) couple of months we were very lucky," Maj. Dan Bobbitt, a commander with the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, said Thursday. "We had incidents but we didn't have any serious casualties." 
More on link

Afghanistan: Italian NGO Under Fire For Taliban Talks
Article Link

The Italian parliament today is holding an open hearing into developments related to the kidnapping and release in Afghanistan of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

The case has sparked political turmoil in Rome and Kabul, where authorities have accused the Italian NGO Emergency, which negotiated the reporter's release, of collusion with the Taliban. The NGO runs hospitals and first-aid points across Afghanistan, but is now threatening to leave.

Emergency, which says it has cared for more than 1.4 million Afghans since 1999, claims the Afghan government has now declared war on it.

'Declaration Of War' 

Emergency Vice President Carlo Garbagnati spoke to Italian reporters on April 11 following reports that Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan secret services, had accused the Milan-based organization of collusion with the Taliban.

"The [spokesman] of the head of the Afghan secret services, Amrullah Saleh, has called us a terrorist organization, or para-terrorist organization," Garbagnati said. "If that were just an insult, we would simply ignore it. Instead, it's a declaration of war from the head of the secret services. It's a frightening situation for us to be put it."
More on link

Pakistan's Musharraf says tribes killed 300 Al-Qaeda militants near Afghanistan
04.12.07, 8:59 AM ET
Article Link

ISLAMABAD (Thomson Financial) - President Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistani tribesmen have killed around 300 foreign Al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border and admitted that the army had helped the tribal fighters.

The comments by Musharraf come after months of pressure from the US and other nations with troops in neighbouring Afghanistan to crack down on militants in the tribally ruled border areas.

'The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners. They have killed about 300 of them,' military ruler Musharraf told a conference of defence officials from 22 countries.

'They have support from the Pakistan army. They asked for it.'

Previously, officials have only said that the army had secured parts of South Waziristan after the tribesmen drove out the insurgents themselves, and that the military provided medical aid.
More on link

NATO Wants More Trainers for Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR 04.12.07, 5:44 PM ET
Article Link

NATO wants about 3,400 more trainers for the Afghanistan Army and police, and the United States may fill some of those jobs despite difficulties finding available troops, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

The United States would likely be responsible for fewer than 1,000 of the training spots, while U.S. offficials hope European nations will provide the rest.

"We would like to try and fill some of them, but quite frankly we're having trouble identifying (troops)," Gates said, speaking to reporters on the plane en route back to Washington from meeting with allies on the Afghanistan war effort. "We can fill some of them, but we don't have the ability right now to fill all of them."

Gates said the American troops would come from new forces that would be deployed to Afghanistan. And he added that part of the problem is that many of the trainers are National Guard forces, "and we have a hard time identifying who would go."
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Troops Rescue Five in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Friday, April 13, 2007; 3:32 AM
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. and Afghan troops rescued five civilian contractors pinned down by insurgents in central Afghanistan after their helicopter made an emergency landing due to mechanical failure, a statement from the U.S.-led coalition said Friday.

The helicopter made a distress call before it landed near the village of Oaleh-e Ghafur in Ghazni province on Thursday evening before troops, including U.S. special forces, came to the rescue, the statement said.

"The civilian contractors began receiving small arms fire from Taliban extremists, shortly after the helicopter landed," the statement said.

A coalition aircraft attacked the militants, leaving three of them dead, it said.

The contractors were evacuated to a nearby coalition base, where they were treated for minor injuries, the statement said.

The coalition did not identify the company or the nationalities of those rescued.
More on link

Terrorism suspect freed from Kingston prison
COLIN FREEZE AND UNNATI GANDHI From Friday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

TORONTO — Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub, an Egyptian who once ran a Sudanese farming operation for Osama bin Laden, was released after seven years of detention Thursday night.

For the first time since 2000, the terrorism suspect, who had been held under Canada's controversial security certificate law, is allowed to live with his Toronto family, albeit under a very strict form of house arrest.

"I just couldn't believe it was him. I just ran to hug him ... I feel like here he is, and I'm happy to have him, and that's good enough for now," his elated wife, Mona El Fouli, told The Globe and Mail in an interview outside her Toronto apartment Thursday night.

"We'll worry about everything else later," she said, speaking of the stringent controls her family will now live under. She said she could not permit a reporter to enter her home, but Mr. Mahjoub was visible through the doorway, sitting in the living room with his hands on his knees. He wore an off-white Islamic tunic and his beard came down to his stomach.
More on link

Will the Taliban try to reclaim Kandahar?
Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 6:37 PM ET Andy Johnson, CTV.ca News
Article Link

As Mother Nature releases her icy grip on the mountain passes and secret high altitude roadways of southern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan troops are gearing up for a long-expected Taliban spring offensive. 

Each year since 2002, when the U.S.-led coalition first invaded, Taliban militants have stepped up their attacks as the spring thaw began. And this winter the militants fighters have been promising such a campaign would again arrive with the warmer weather. 

But what exactly does that mean in the context of a shadowy army that wears no uniform, and has few known bases of operations? Whose soldiers can be peasant farmers one day, and armed Islamist militants the next? 

Most likely, says Geoff Hayes, it will mean more of what Canadian troops have experienced in the past few days: Small, hit-and-run style attacks that are difficult to defend against and -- as proven this week -- often prove deadly. 

Since Sunday two such attacks, one the result of a roadside bomb, the other a suicide attack, have claimed the lives of eight Canadian troops. 

"It becomes like the campaign season when the weather finally is warm enough and the ground is hard enough that the Taliban are massing forces," Hayes told CTV.ca. 

A history professor at the University of Waterloo and associate director of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Hayes has written a book titled "Afghanistan: Transition Under Threat." 
More on link

Analysis: Modern tanks will not halt the Taliban
Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 7:04 PM ET Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
Article Link

OTTAWA -- The government's plan to re-equip the Canadian army in Afghanistan with modern Leopard 2 A6M tanks was greeted with skepticism by experts who question whether the iron monsters will counter roadside explosives and suicide bombers. 

"In the short term, it may provide a measure of additional protection -- but no armour is impenetrable,'' said Steve Staples of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute, an international affairs think-tank. 

With the army in its bloodiest week of fighting since the Korean War, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor emphasized the added protection the heavy vehicles will afford when he announced the procurement Thursday. 

"We feel it's best for our troops that we acquire stronger, heavily armoured main battle tanks that offer increased protection,'' O'Connor said following a meeting in Quebec with some of his NATO counterparts. 

"These tanks have proven to be truly effective. This government has not and will not hesitate to provide the Canadian Forces with the heavy protection they need to do the very demanding jobs we've asked of them.'' 

The deeper Canada has gone into the Afghan war, the more it has been forced to break out the heavy equipment, he said. 
More on link

Canada ‘firm' on Afghanistan despite losses
ALAN FREEMAN Globe and Mail Update
Article Link

QUEBEC CITY — Canadian military leaders mourned the loss of eight soldiers in Afghanistan this week, but said that Canada's commitment to the mission remains firm.

“We've had a bad week,” National Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said at a news conference called to announce the acquisition of 100 tanks for the Canadian forces.

Commenting on the deaths of eight Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in the past five days, “I've got my fingers crossed it won't happen again,” he said.

Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier added his condolences. “It's been a tough week. We have lost eight incredible young men,” he said.
More on link

As night follows day, the Taliban return  
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Fear darkens the bloodshot eyes of Abdul Rahman as he explains why he can't sleep. A few months ago, he felt confident that life was improving in Sangisar, a cluster of villages about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar city, where a double bombing killed two Canadians this week.

The Canadian troops had recently asserted control by building a new forward base near Mr. Rahman's home, and the foreign troops were popular: They didn't steal from anybody, they respected local customs and they gave the villagers an electrical generator and lights.

But eventually the Canadians went away, he said, and that's when the trouble started again. Sangisar is just one warren of mud huts among thousands where the Canadians are trying to maintain security, in the dangerous swath of farmland along the Arghandab River. The Canadians are following the textbook rules of counterinsurgency, establishing dominance in a so-called ink spot, and hoping the zone of security will grow as they push outward.

That doctrine calls for backfilling the foreign troops with Afghan forces, but the well-trained ranks of the Afghan National Army are stretched thin. As the Canadians grew embroiled in operations elsewhere in the province, the villagers of Sangisar noticed that the Canadian and ANA forces at local outposts had been replaced by men who wore police uniforms but didn't behave like professional officers.
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Troops face quagmire, Dion says
DANIEL LEBLANC 
Article Link

MONTREAL -- The Canadian military is heading into a quagmire in Afghanistan under the Conservative government, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion warned yesterday in comments intended to show the differences between the two parties on the military mission.

Mr. Dion offered his condolences to the families of the eight soldiers who died this week before launching a blistering critique of the Harper government's refusal to guarantee when Canada will be out of Afghanistan.

"We have to tell NATO that in February, 2009, our combat mission in Kandahar is finished," Mr. Dion said. "We face the risk of getting bogged down with the current Prime Minister, of getting bogged down in an incompetent manner. Imagine what they [the Conservatives] would do if they had a majority. Happily, we will never find out."

Mr. Dion said that under the Conservatives, the Canadian Forces stand to serve alongside other forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization until 2012. He did not say where he got that date, although military planning documents show planned troop rotations through 2011.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (14 Apr 2007)

Mythical invasion of Afghanistan  (my form letter - MC)
_Toronto Sta_r, April 14, 2007 

Where is Afghan mission heading?
Column, April 12.
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/202191
http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/009237.html



> Haroon Siddiqui writes of "the U.S.-led invasion in 2001" of Afghanistan. But there was no such "invasion." Before the fall of Kabul, and of most of the rest of Afghanistan, to the insurgent Afghan Northern Alliance in November 2001 – and the consequent collapse of the Taliban regime – there were no foreign regular combat formations in Afghanistan.
> 
> The Northern Alliance did receive air support and assistance from special forces (both American and British); that, however, is not an invasion. Substantial foreign ground combat forces – including Canadian – only entered the country after the Taliban had been deposed by indigenous Afghan forces, and those foreign troops entered with the agreement of the Northern Alliance.
> 
> ...



Rafale Earns Its Combat Stripes
_Aviation Week & Space Technology_, 04/09/2007, page 28 (text subscriber only)
http://www.aviationnow.com/search/AvnowSearchResult.do?reference=xml/awst_xml/2007/04/09/AW_04_09_2007_p28-01.xml&query=rafale+combat



> French Rafale F2 fighters bombard Taliban positions in Afghanistan, marking their first use in combat
> 
> Printed headline: First Blood
> 
> ...



Kabul Security Operations Evolve
_Aviation Week & Space Technology_, 04/09/2007, page 30 (text subscriber only)



> French, partner forces rely on civil, military approaches to secure Afghanistan's capital area
> 
> Printed headline: Carrot and Stick
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (15 Apr 2007)

DND asks for extension to defend detainee policy
Ministry requests three more months to respond to rights groups' accusations 
PAUL KORING From Friday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

After missing a court deadline, Canada's Department of National Defence has decided it now wants to defend itself against accusations that its Afghan detainee policy violates international law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Defence Department e-mailed a letter late Wednesday asking lawyers for Amnesty International of Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to agree to a three-month extension of a 30-day deadline to respond to the charges of the two groups.

The groups had filed an application in Federal Court for a judicial review of Canada's policy of handing detainees over to Afghan police who, according to the United Nations and Afghan human-rights organizations, are known to torture and abuse prisoners.

Under a controversial policy, Canada hands battlefield detainees to Afghan police and army forces without any follow-up.
More on link


Deadly 'IED cell' aims to disrupt Canadian efforts near Kandahar, officials say
GRAEME SMITH  From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadians and their allies are hunting for a group of Taliban bombers who have infiltrated the farmland west of Kandahar from neighbouring Helmand province, military officials confirmed yesterday.

But the insurgents' strike with an improvised explosive device in Zhari district this week, which killed two Canadians, does not mean the Taliban's spring offensive has arrived, said Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Walker, the battle group commander. Nor does the bombing mean that the security situation in Zhari has deteriorated, he added.

“We were just in the process of starting operations to target that particular cell when we had this most recent IED strike,” Lt.-Col. Walker said.

“It's my understanding that this IED cell is still there, and it certainly will be a focus of both the Afghan national army and police, and our collective efforts over the next number of days, to try get better definition on it, so that we can collectively work together to try to detain, capture, or persuade them to leave the area.”
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N.B. soldier determined to stay in Afghanistan despite 2 near-misses
James Mccarten  Canadian Press  Sunday, April 15, 2007
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A Canadian Forces soldier who braved the fiery aftermath of a deadly roadside bomb in a futile bid to save the life of Trooper Patrick Pentland told his harrowing tale Saturday to help his worried family understand why he's not yet ready to come home. 

Cpl. Dave Gionet, 34, was part of a quick-response unit that was heading to the scene of an earlier attack Wednesday when the Coyote armoured vehicle in front of him hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in the volatile Zhari district west of Kandahar. 

In halting English that betrayed both his Acadian roots and fragile state of mind, Gionet - who hails from the town of Lameque in northeastern New Brunswick - read from an emotional letter that described how he entered the burning, upended Coyote to try to extract his friend. 

"When I arrived, the soldier was unconscious but breathing; I tried to stop the fire and the fuel leak from getting to us, but the flame was close and I could not put them out," Gionet said, the fabric name tag from Pentland's combat shirt lying on the table in front of him. 

"I said to myself . . . I would not let him burn." 

It took another vehicle's strength to drag free the dislodged engine panel - Gionet himself became briefly trapped underneath it as it was removed - before the unconscious Pentland could be carried away from the wreckage, he said. 
More on link


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## GAP (16 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 16, 2007*

Fleet of armoured trucks plagued with problems
Mon Apr 16 2007
Article Link 

OTTAWA -- At the height of fierce fighting in Afghanistan last summer, more than a quarter of Canada's new fleet of heavily armoured RG-31 Nyala patrol vehicles were in the shop with maintenance problems, army records show. 
The sturdy South African-built trucks, which resemble a sport utility vehicle on steroids, were beset with a series of electrical and software glitches, many relating to the roof-mounted, remote-controlled machine gun. 

The former director of the Nyala project at National Defence says the army aims to have 95 per cent availability for its fighting vehicles. 

"We were running into a couple of systemic problems," Mike Moggridge, who recently stepped down as program manager, said in an interview. 

"We do our best to provide the best performance. The only thing worse than trying to introduce a new piece of equipment into theatre during an operation is not to deliver that capability at all." 

Meanwhile, the bodies of two more Canadian soldiers were saluted Sunday for paying the ultimate price for serving their country.    
Relatives clutched one another as the dark grey military Airbus carrying the bodies of Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick Pentland, 23, touched down at CFB Trenton. 

The two soldiers from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based at CFB Petawawa, Ont., were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. 

In terms of equipment, over the last 18 months, Canada has purchased 75 Nyalas at a cost of about $91 million. The big-wheeled trucks were hurried into service as the threat of Taliban roadside bombs became more intense
More on link

Afghan deployment a model for the future: O'Connor
Updated Sun. Apr. 15 2007 3:07 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said the government was looking past the current war in Afghanistan and towards the future when it decided to purchase 100 mothballed tanks from the Netherlands. 

Ottawa announced last week that it was getting 100 Leopard A6Ms from the Dutch and leasing 20 Leopard II tanks from Germany at a total cost of $650 million. 

Speaking Sunday on CTV's Question Period, O'Connor said the government and military made the decision to acquire the tanks after considering Canada's future deployments to trouble spots around the globe. 

"We see Afghanistan is the future. Afghanistan and these type of engagements are the future for 10, 15 years," said O'Connor. 

"And we have to be prepared when governments, our government and future governments, commit soldiers to off-shore activities -- they're going to have to be equipped with armour to protect their lives." 

O'Connor mentioned Somalia and Darfur as examples of conflict zones where Canada could possibly send troops. 

Canada's new fleet of tanks will replace the small 1970s-era Leopards and will offer soldiers stronger firing capabilities, faster land speeds and more armour to protect against roadside bombs. 

The defence minister reiterated that renewing the fleet doesn't mean extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan past the end of February 2009. 

"Just to be clear, our commitment in Afghanistan militarily is to the end of February '09, ... and our aid commitment is to the year (2010-2011)," said O'Connor. 
More on link

Commons returns to debate environment, Afghanistan after campaign-style break
Stephen Thorne The Canadian Press  Sunday, April 15, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent a good part of his Easter break rejecting speculation that his minority government was preparing to engineer its own defeat in order to bring about a spring election.

But parliamentarians return to work Monday following a flurry of travel, speeches, advertisements and announcements that made their two-week hiatus seem more like a mini-campaign than a holiday.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and the Green Party’s unelected Elizabeth May even struck a controversial deal not to enter candidates in each other’s ridings in the next election so that May - one of the country’s leading environmentalists - might gain her party’s first Commons seat and Dion’s environmental policy could receive her high-profile endorsement.

As debate resumes over Canada’s role in Afghanistan and the country’s environmental responsibilities, strategists will be watching the ebb and flow of voter opinion polls as Conservative popularity rises tantalizingly close to the magic 40 per cent needed to form a majority government.
More on link



A suicide bombing in Afghanistan kills 10 policemen.
Written By:James Rono/bbc   , Posted: Mon, Apr 16, 2007
Article Link

Ten policemen have been killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, security sources say. 

At least 10 people were wounded in the attack at a police training ground, in the northeastern city of Kunduz. 

It comes two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight people. 

There has been a sharp rise in suicide bombings by Taleban and other militants in Afghanistan since 2005. 

In the latest attack, the bomber ran up to the police as they were training and blew himself up at about 0900 (0430 GMT), officials said. 
More on link

Several key Taliban leaders killed in S. Afghanistan: NATO forces  
Article Link

Several key Taliban leaders have been eliminated in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan over the past week, a statement of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Monday. 

ISAF in joint operations with Afghan security forces launched a series of attacks and precision strikes against Taliban extremists in northern Helmand over the past seven days, it said, adding several major Taliban leaders were killed. 

However, it did not exactly say how many were killed and their position in the Taliban hierarchy. 

"Striking at the heart of the problem and removing these key leaders has paid off," stated Major General Ton van Loon, ISAF Commander in southern Afghanistan. 

"We fully realize the influence these Taliban extremist leaders have on the population of southern Afghanistan who have clearly told us they felt like they were hostages in their own communities."
More on link

Time for Canada to review policy on Afghanistan
Article Link

SCOTT TAYLOR On Target

LAST WEEK was undeniably a tough one for the Canadian battle group in Kandahar.

With eight soldiers killed and two seriously wounded in just four days, the Afghanistan mission was propelled back into the headlines and caused Canadians to once again question whether the mounting casualties can be justified as pursuant to our national interest.

The most recent losses came as a result of three separate roadside bomb attacks in which our soldiers were simply victims of the Taliban’s terror tactics. This follows the pattern of the insurgency to date, wherein less than 10 per cent of our casualties have been sustained in actual firefights with enemy combatants.

The overwhelming majority of the fatalities and injuries incurred by our troops have been a result of either suicide bombers or improvised explosive devices. 

Canadian soldiers — along with their NATO coalition allies — are well equipped with the most advanced technology and weaponry ever deployed on a battlefield. Given the fact that our soldiers are fit, well-motivated, experienced, disciplined, well led and possibly the best-trained combat troops in the world, it is easy to understand why the Afghan insurgents opt out of engaging us in conventional-style warfare.
More on link

German defence says army video is 'unacceptable'
Updated Mon. Apr. 16 2007 6:27 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

BERLIN -- The German Defence Ministry said Monday that an incident in which an army instructor ordered a soldier to envision himself facing hostile blacks in New York while firing his machine gun was "absolutely unacceptable." 

"This behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and contradicts the training standards of the German army," Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said. 

He said the army is investigating the incident, which was recorded in an Internet video. He didn't say when the probe will be completed. 

A video of the army instructor telling the soldier to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African-Americans in the Bronx aired on German national television Saturday and prompted calls for an apology by the New York City borough's president. 
More on link

Islamic militants warn Austria, Germany to leave Afghanistan or face attacks  
Tuesday March 13, 2007 (1024 PST)
Article Link

CAIRO: Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two European countries break ranks with the U.S. and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan, according to a Web statement. 
"Germany will face more threats and dangers if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Afghanistan," an unidentified speaker said in a video statement posted Saturday on an Islamic website used by al-Qaida-linked militants. 

The authenticity of the video could not be verified, but it was released by the Voice of the Caliphate, which is said to be run by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group.
More on link

11 Taliban held in Paktia 
Monday April 16, 2007 (1219 PST)
Article Link

GARDEZ: Security officials in the southeastern Paktia province claimed arresting 11 Taliban fighters following an overnight clash. 
Police chief of the province Abdul Rahman Sarjang told Pajhwok Afghan News the clash took place in the Kolalgo area of the Zurmat district. 

He said the fighting erupted when Taliban opened fire at a joint patrol of the Afghan police, military and the coalition forces. 

He said the detainees were being investigated by the security agencies. He said the security forces stayed unhurt. 

Deputy commander of the 203 Thunder Corps in the province Murad Ali Murad also confirmed the clash. He said operation was underway in the Zurmat district for the previous two months.
More on link

As snows melt, Afghan hopes rise for Buddha statue  
Monday April 16, 2007 (1219 PST)
Article Link

BAMIYAN: Snows are melting in central Afghanistan and roads to the town of Bamiyan have reopened after unseasonal rain -- and work on restoring the giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban can resume. 
Piles of stone and rubble lie below two gaping niches in the red-brown cliff facing the town where the 6th-century statues had stood until the Taliban used dozens of explosive charges to bring them down in 2001, branding them un-Islamic. 

The larger, identified chunks of stone from the standing Buddhas have been stored or tied down under white tarpaulin, but thousands of fragments and rubble lie in the open.
More on link

Coalition Kills, Detains Extremists in Afghanistan, Rescues Civilians  
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 15, 2007
Article Link

 Coalition forces killed and captured several extremists in Afghanistan over the past few days, U.S. military officials reported. 
Coalition forces detained an extremist and discovered makeshift bomb-making material in a compound in Afghanistan’s Paktika province today. 

The compound consisted of multiple safe houses that use natural terrain to facilitate the movement of fighters from Pakistan. The bomb-making materials were destroyed in place. No shots were fired and no one was injured during the operation, officials said. 

Meanwhile, Afghan National Army and coalition troops operating in Afghanistan’s Helmand province received rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire from an unknown number of Taliban fighters yesterday. 

Afghan and coalition troops returned fire and maneuvered to the enemy observation site. After pinning down the Taliban fighters, coalition close-air support was requested and destroyed the enemy observation site. 

Six Taliban fighters were killed, and there were no Afghan civilian injuries reported, officials said. 

"The Taliban are fighting a losing battle," said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. "The Afghan people demand peace in the Sangin District area; and the Afghan National Army and Coalition forces will attain it." 
More on link

Afghans love a good rooster fight
 TheStar.com April 16, 2007  Rosie DiManno
Article Link

KABUL–Palwan Azam cradles the bird as if it were an infant, cooing and caressing.

Summoning up a mouthful of saliva, he spits into its face and massages the damp into a lather.

In rooster fighting, this is akin to working the boxer's corner between rounds, refreshing the punch-stunned combatant.

The russet gamecock, startlingly huge – more the size of a condor than a domestic fowl – is bloodied about the shoulders. Its back feathers, behind the crown, have been plucked clean in this bout, leaving a patch of grey, pimply flesh.

Lovingly, Azam wraps the bird in burlap, gathering it to his breast.

"Good Saus," he murmurs. "Champion Saus."

Azam is not the owner of Saus, a fine fowl specimen. He's its trainer, a 76-year-old Afghan who's been in the cockfighting business – the sport of kings and peasants, known here as morgh janngi – since his teens, every season turning out a stable of valiant competitors that attract touts from far and wide for a piece of the betting action.

The owner is actually Ghulamnabi, fat and formidable at 70, leaning on his walking stick as he carefully counts out his victor's purse. A sort of cockfighting Don King, he has made more than $2,000 from this morning's matches. The average monthly salary for an Afghan is about $40.

Ghulamnabi points to the no-name challenger of this 
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Building a nation with body bags
 TheStar.com April 13, 2007 Linda McQuaig
Article Link

The old refrain "War, what is it good for?" raised a valid question. But it's a question that doesn't much trouble the Harper crowd.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government – and the military lobby with which it is closely associated – isn't squeamish about war. It promotes war as the stuff of nation-building. 

Last week was a big week for war. First there was the full-court commemoration of the almost 3,600 Canadians who died at Vimy Ridge 90 years ago.

Then there were the tragic deaths of eight Canadian soldiers killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan. 

Our political and military leaders wasted few opportunities to draw comparisons between Vimy and Kandahar, in an attempt to equate the puzzling, unpopular Afghan mission in the minds of Canadians with the country's most celebrated military battle.

Of course, the personal sacrifice and bravery of the Canadians who died – both at Vimy and Kandahar – deserve our gratitude and respect.


At issue is not their laudable courage, but the Harper government's use of it to glorify war, to cultivate the notion of war as the great nation-builder.

What's striking in this way of thinking is how little attention is paid to the purpose of any particular war and how much is paid to the idea of waging war. 

Consider the current slogan of the Canadian Forces: "Fight with the Canadian Forces." No mention is made of what or whom is being fought, or why. The message instead is just get out there and fight. 

How's that for a notion to instil in our young people! Hopefully they'll know not to try it out at home or school, but to confine their aggression to fighting unidentified foreign people in faraway lands. 

For that matter, despite the heroism at Vimy, it has never been particularly clear what World War I was all about. Few wars, with the exception of World War II, have a clear and compelling purpose.
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## GAP (16 Apr 2007)

First an article by the The Ottawa Citizen and then an excellent response from a member of these boards.

War is hell, Afghanistan is worse
When we lose eight smiling young men, couldn't someone somewhere just say -- out loud -- 'What a terrible and meaningless waste of lives'
Janice Kennedy The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, April 15, 2007
Article Link

Cliches are like convenience foods -- easy, predictable, often bland. We stuff them into our mouths gratefully when we don't feel like thinking.

No news is good news. Look for the silver lining. Chalk it up to experience. Who ever said life was fair?

We hear cliches and we see them in print. They spring up, weed-like, every time we pick up a newspaper and find a story about someone who has "struggled with addictions" (apparently without success, we think uncharitably) or a person "struggling to come to terms with" some fresh grief.

But cliches do more than save time and effort. They are also effective screens. When an ugly truth needs to be disguised, there's no better mask, ironically, than a threadbare cliche.

The masking cliches have been bombarding us during the past week. Ever since the latest disaster in Afghanistan and its grim timing during the Vimy memorializations, cringe-making cliches have been pouring out of the mouths of politicians, military brass, media types and -- because the words have become molecules in the very air they breathe -- those who knew the eight young men killed last week.
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ER Campbell's response
Response Link

First off: I take Ms. Kennedy at face value.  I believe she does support the troops even as she hates this war.  Perhaps it’s not just this war she hates, perhaps she objects the use of force to e.g. prevent the Taliban from imposing their twisted, medieval social mores on the people of Afghanistan.  In any event I believe her: she does support the troops and she wants to keep them alive.

But she’s not above trotting our clichés and strawmen of her own to bolster her opposition to this mission in that poor, sad, backward, far-away, war ravaged country: 

”Why Afghanistan and not, say, Darfur?” she asks.  Well, Ms. Kennedy, maybe it’s because the United Nations has, over and over again, asked us to go to Afghanistan and to stay in Afghanistan to help bring some peace and some stability to that unfortunate country – just enough to allow the Afghan people to make their own decisions about their own future in their own way without some religious fanatic blowing their brains out if they fail to agree that the 11th century was infinitely preferable to the 21st.  It may be, also, because we are in Darfur – not, to be sure, in the numbers that Sen. Romeo Dallaire and his mob want but that’s because the United Nations has not asked us to do more.  We did not invade Afghanistan, we were invited.  We are not going to invade Darfur, either – we are not accustomed to going about the globe waging aggressive war to pacify the demons of failed military commanders.  When (if ever) the United Nations gets its act together and decides that it needs the Western liberal democracies to do something about Darfur it is highly likely that Canada will be there – even as we stay the course in Afghanistan.

” Why is our commitment so different from that of some other NATO countries?” she also asks.  That’s a good question.  Why Kandahar and not, say, some safe military tourism zone up where the French, Germans and Italians do their good works?  The answer lies back in the Paul Martin regime.  Mr. Martin was prime minister of Canada when NATO asked members to take on a provincial Reconstruction task.  Provincial Reconstruction sounds to so good, so much in the Lester Pearson ’helpful-fixer’ tradition, so peaceful ... so Canadian.  Canada agreed but Prime Minister Martin, it was reported, dithered: “where to go,” he asked and while he was asking and asking other countries – most of the big, well armed European countries, took all the soft jobs leaving Kandahar for us.  We stepped up to the plate, Ms. Kennedy, because Prime Minister Martin, like Prime Minister Harper, wanted Canada to play an active, leadership role, because he understood that during decades of darkness we had neutered ourselves – sacrificing our vital political, economic and social interests on the alter of too many peace dividends.  He committed us to a tough combat mission in Kandahar because that’s what we need to do in our national interest.  We are sending men and women into harm’s way because they, being professional soldiers, are tools of the government, they are being used by the government to advance its (our) global policy interests.  That’s what professional soldiers do, Ms. Kennedy; they fight and kill and die to serve the policy aims set by the ”old men and comfortably safe politicians” who were elected by people just like you and I, Ms. Kennedy.  This is not a great crusade like World War II when the nation takes up arms against a monstrous evil.  The men and women in Afghanistan are ”warriors for the working day” and that’s what they do: they give muscle and voice to the soft platitudes from bureaucrats and politicians and the commentariat in Ottawa.
End

Finally she asks, ” If we're there to help little girls go to school, why aren't we freeing the oppressed girls and women of neighbouring nations?”  Well, Ms. Kennedy, perhaps because neither they nor the United Nations has asked us for that sort of help.  Maybe the need is not quite as great.  Maybe Pakistan and Uzbekistan do not forbid education for little girls.

Ms. Kennedy, I believe you really support the troops and oppose the war.  I also believe that you are incredibly naive and short sighted.  We all grieve when our soldiers are killed and wounded.  Mostly we wish there was some other place, some other way for us to accomplish our vital national aims in Central Asia.  For the time being, at least, there isn’t.  We’re there because no one else wanted to be.  We’re fighting because the Taliban needs to be contained.  Our soldiers are dying because the Taliban is killing them – because the Taliban is a tough, ruthless, brave, implacable enemy.  We all want our soldiers safe at home – after they have accomplished the mission, after they have served Canada’s vital interests. 
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## GAP (17 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 17, 2007*


Building trust to rebuild a nation
MARTY KLINKENBERG Telegraph-Journal Published Tuesday April 17th, 2007 
Article Link

A few weeks ago, a group of school children came for a picnic to Camp Nathan Smith, a military base in a gritty residential neighbourhood in Kandahar City.

The kids were guests of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, a group of soldiers and civilians who are working to forge relationships with Afghanis and help them rebuild a country in tatters after decades of war, drought and Taliban rule.

The children, all blind or hearing-impaired, reveled in the attention cast their way by strangers from Canada.

"They ate ice cream for the first time," Maj. Shawn Courty said Monday, seated at a table outside his office beneath the broiling sun. 

"They ate so much they had brain freeze."

Born in Moncton, raised in Campbellton and for 10 years a resident of Saint John, Courty helps oversee the reconstruction team working in and around Kandahar, a sprawling city that is dangerous if not entirely unfriendly, and critical to the success of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

At Camp Nathan Smith, named after a friendly fire victim, Courty has at his disposal more than 300 troops to earn the trust and respect of Afghanis and to repel insurgents opposed to the efforts.

A reservist who joined the forces out of high school, Courty has been in Kandahar since February. 

He gave up an excellent job and left his wife, Danika, and two young children behind to support a war campaign whose viability is being questioned in some quarters.

"I guess the best way I can explain why I am doing this is this way," Courty said. 

"Canadians always like to harp about their rights and freedoms. 

"Well, I believe there is a sense of duty and obligation that goes along with it."

Request denied

Shawn Courty worked as a security supervisor at NB Power for three years, and nominated his employer for a national award after it gave him a six-month leave in 2004 to serve in Haiti.
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'Close enough to feel the agony'
marty KLINKENBERG Telegraph-Journal Tuesday April 17th, 2007 
Article Link

In the first 48 hours Lee Windsor toured the countryside in Afghanistan, the University of New Brunswick professor was a passenger in two military convoys attacked by the Taliban.

The first time, the Albert County native was riding with soldiers from a CFB Gagetown battle group when they were ambushed in the Arghandab River Valley west of Kandahar.

The next time, a suicide bomber in a taxi plowed into a light armoured vehicle ahead of his, injuring 10 civilians in downtown Kandahar.

"I was close enough to feel the agony, close enough to feel that pain," Windsor, who is embedded with soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, said. "It gave me some sense of what the troops here have to face to deliver the payoff."

The director of the Gregg Centre for War & Society at UNB's campus in Fredericton, Windsor is conducting a research project focused on the Canadian military. He made the long journey to Afghanistan last month to better understand the challenges and measure the success of the NATO-led mission, and to evaluate Canada's contribution.

Oddly enough, Windsor is not critical of what he has seen here, despite almost immediately getting shot at and nearly blown up.

The native of Pleasant Vale, near Elgin in Albert County, says the progress he has witnessed outweighs the setbacks. And coming from a guy who dodged two bullets, that says a lot. 

"What really opened my eyes is how things in Afghanistan have started to change," Windsor, 35, said. "The image Canadians have is that it is complete and utter chaos all of the time.

"I came here like everyone else, imagining I'd run off the plane and be dodging rockets the whole time.
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Suicide attack kills 10 in Afghanistan  
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: A suicide attacker ran onto a police training field and blew himself up, killing up to 10 policemen and wounding dozens of others Monday in northern Afghanistan, officials said. 
The attack happened in the relatively quiet city of Kunduz, where police were doing their regular morning exercises in a field, said Abdul Hadi, a security official. Hadi said that according to preliminary reports, 10 police were killed and 10 were wounded. 

Azizullah Safar, chief of the Kunduz hospital, said 41 victims were brought to his hospital - and that nine of them died, and 32 were wounded, including four in critical condition. 

Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi blamed the attack on the Taliban and al-Qaida, but he did not provide any further details. 

The north is one of the quietest places in war-torn Afghanistan, and militant violence there is rare. 

The attack comes a day after a suicide bomber targeted a private U.S. security firm in violence-wracked southern Kandahar province, killing up to four Afghans working for the company and wounding another, officials said. 

The security firm U.S. Protection and Investigations said a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up near a convoy, killing two employees and wounding another. 
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Taliban are eluding U.S. hunters  
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)
Article Link

DAVUDZAY: Troops with powerful rifle scopes scanned mountain ridges for elusive, black-clad Taliban infiltrators. Afghan soldiers, hit by a roadside bomb, pressed on into the valley. U.S. Special Forces swept through the sinister alleys of its main settlement. 
The strike, carried out by about 200 American and Afghan government forces, was supposed to sever a major insurgent infiltration and supply route from neighboring Pakistan to Islamic fighters deep in Afghanistan. 

But the attack didn't work _ an object lesson in why 47,000 U.S. and NATO forces are struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban movement. 

Field officers say eradicating fighters who cross the porous 1,470-mile border is like trying to drain a swamp when one cannot shut off the streams feeding it. Pakistan's failure to dam those streams has deepened the five-year-old conflict, they say. 

"Stopping the infiltration is not the only way we are going to win this war, but it's a very key factor," said Capt. Samuel Edwards, who led U.S. Army troops in a recent drive into the Davudzay mountain bowl in the southeastern province of Zabul. 

The Zabul routes are just a fragment of a vast cross-border network, reminiscent of the Ho Chi Minh Trail of jungle tracks and secret roads that carried Vietnamese communist troops and equipment to battle. 

NATO "will never control the border without greater control of the border areas by Pakistan and greater coordination and cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," Gen. John Craddock, the current NATO commander, said recently in Washington. 

Taliban fighters and al-Qaida militants converged on the frontier after U.S.-led forces drove them from Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistan is now under greater pressure to act _ particularly after the U.S. military last fall reported a threefold increase in cross-border attacks into eastern Afghanistan. 
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Afghan FM discusses status of migrants in Iran  
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)
Article Link

 LONDON: Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that Afghan migrants was one of the most important issues discussed during his meeting with high-ranking Iranian officials in Tehran, IRNA reported. 
He made the remark while briefing reporters on the outcome of his last week's three-day visit to Iran, adding that the main problem is the great number of Afghan migrants currently residing Iran. 

Spanta said that 80 percent of the migrants who went on trip to Iran last year did not return home. 

"About one million Afghans are residing in Iran illegally. An equal number of legal migrants also live in Iran. 

"Iran is determined to expel illegal migrants, but in our talks with Iranian official, we called for letting them leave the country gradually rather than at once," he added. 

The Afghan minister said that during his visit, matters of mutual concern, including campaign against terrorism and drugs, Iran's greater participation in Afghanistan's reconstruction, implementation of infrastructural projects and expansion of cooperation were on the agenda of talks. 
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Parliamentary system harmful for country: Analysts  
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: Analysts believe that parliamentary system, as demanded by leaders of the newly-formed Afghanistan National Front, is not viable in the current situation and may drop the country into serious political crisis if implemented. 
The Afghanistan National Front was established by former jihadi and senior officials of the then communist regime on April 3 in Kabul. 

The manifesto of the party included points like change in the system of governance, and election for governors instead of the existing way of nominations. 

The front leaders believe the changes will prove helpful for the country and the people, but parliamentarian and political expert Kabir Ranjbar said they were carrying forward their personal agenda. 

In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Ranjbar said: "I'm not opposing the system, but in current situation, where weapons have not been collected, implementation of such a system will empower the armed men and they will grab the posts of governors." 
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Taliban are eluding U.S. hunters  
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)
Article Link


Taliban are eluding U.S. hunters 
Tuesday April 17, 2007 (0446 PST)




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Related Links  
 Taliban talks open rift in Kabul leadership 
 Execution, bombings highlight Taliban insurgency 
 Deal with Taliban dented govt?s image: Analysts 
 Islamic militants warn Austria, Germany to leave Afghanistan or face attacks 
 Taliban kills 4 pro-gov`t militias in S. Afghanistan 









DAVUDZAY: Troops with powerful rifle scopes scanned mountain ridges for elusive, black-clad Taliban infiltrators. Afghan soldiers, hit by a roadside bomb, pressed on into the valley. U.S. Special Forces swept through the sinister alleys of its main settlement. 
The strike, carried out by about 200 American and Afghan government forces, was supposed to sever a major insurgent infiltration and supply route from neighboring Pakistan to Islamic fighters deep in Afghanistan. 

But the attack didn't work _ an object lesson in why 47,000 U.S. and NATO forces are struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban movement. 

Field officers say eradicating fighters who cross the porous 1,470-mile border is like trying to drain a swamp when one cannot shut off the streams feeding it. Pakistan's failure to dam those streams has deepened the five-year-old conflict, they say. 
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Tories grilled over length of Afghanistan mission
Mon. Apr. 16 2007 7:21 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan resumed in full force Monday when parliamentarians returned to the House of Commons. 

Opposition parties pressed the prime minister to outline a withdrawal date for the Canadian military in the war-torn nation. 

Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the minority Conservative government of refusing to be straight about its intentions in Afghanistan. 

"First the defence minister said Canada will be there until the progress is irreversible. Then he said we may withdraw by 2010 -- but only if certain conditions are met. Now we learn the Conservative cabinet hasn't even discussed the issue of withdrawal and won't do so until next year," Ignatieff, who was standing in for party leader Stephane Dion, said during question period on Monday. 

The House of Commons narrowly approved last year an extension of the mission to February 2009. But there have been repeated questions about whether the Tories plan to keep soldiers there longer. 

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor added to the uncertainty by suggesting last week in an interview that soldiers would likely not be able to come home until 2010. 

"There are too many different answers for the same basic question," said Ignatieff, "which is, 'How long are we going to be there?' When will this government begin to level with the Canadian people about its intentions in Afghanistan? 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refuted suggestions the government had been elusive on its plans. 

"On the contrary, this government has been extremely clear. We bought forward a motion in this House to extend the current Afghanistan motion to 2009," Harper said. 
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Man slits wife's throat
PUL-I-ALAM, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Article Link

 A man allegedly slaughtered his 14-year-old wife in Mohammad Agha district of the central Logar province last night, police said. 

Colonel Qudratullah Arabzai, crime branch chief of the police headquarters, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the couple had married six months back. 

The marriage was on the basis of Badal or exchange marriage, and the two families used to quarrel with each other, said the police officer. 

Arabzai said the accused Dad Mohammad was in police custody. Body of the slain woman was still in the house of her in-laws and had not been handed over to her parents, he informed. 

Nasrin's mother Qudsia said her daughter did not visit them since her marriage six months back. She told Pajhwok Afghan News, Nasrin was upset and used to complain her over the telephone about the rude behaviour of her husband for the previous two weeks. 

Revealing the ordeal of her teenaged daughter, the dejected mother said Dad Mohammad (the accused) used to tie her (Nasrin's) hands and feet and beat her severely. 

Faqir Mohammad, neighbour of the accused, said family life of the couple was very disturbed. He said Nasrin was banned from meeting any one outside the four walls of her house. 

Shahpur Arab
End

Bomb hits U.N. vehicle in Afghanistan, killing 5
Four foreign security guards, Afghan driver killed in explosion, police say
April 17, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb hit a U.N. vehicle in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing four Nepalese security guards and an Afghan driver, a police official said.

The victims were traveling through Kandahar city in a gray vehicle with blue U.N. license plates when the explosion hit, said Ahmad Jan Agha, a police officer at the scene.

Four Nepalese men working as U.N. security guards and their Afghan driver were killed in the blast, said Esmatullah Alizai, Kandahar’s provincial police chief
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Local Afghans Lead Troops to Weapons, Explosives
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 17, 2007 
Article Link

Afghan and coalition forces found three caches containing weapons and explosive materials during operations around Afghanistan the past two days. 
Afghan national police and coalition forces found two weapons caches yesterday near Jalalbad after receiving tips from Afghan citizens of Pachir village in the Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar province. 

The stockpiles found in Pachir and Candibagh villages contained two artillery rounds, 37 rocket propelled grenade rounds, two RPG boosters, 54 bomblets, 300 rounds of 12.77 mm machine-gun ammunition and a bag of powder explosives. The munitions recovered are commonly used by Taliban extremists and foreign fighters to build improvised explosive devices, military officials said. 

“The Afghan populace is tired of the destruction brought about by the Taliban and foreign fighter insurgents,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a Combined Joint Task Force 82 spokesman. “Their continued effort to turn in weapons caches is a significant indication that there is growing support for the Afghan government.” 

Cooperative Afghan civilians revealed the location of an IED weapons cache to Afghan border police and coalition forces April 15 in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province. 

Hidden in a compound in Tutu village, combined forces discovered a cache containing 14 rocket propelled grenade rounds, five 82 mm mortar rounds, grenades, multiple brands of chargers, various types of fuses, and 500 feet of detonation cord. The contents of the weapons cache, commonly used to build IEDs, were believed to be used in several recent IED attacks in Sherzad and Khogyani districts, military officials said. 

“Afghan tribal leaders have called upon their people to turn in all weapons and munitions not used for personal protection,” said Belcher. “Afghans are taking responsibility for their safety and security by reporting the locations of weapons caches.” 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (17 Apr 2007)

Afghanistan not Canada’s fight alone
_ChronicleHerald.ca_, April 17, by PAUL SCHNEIDEREIT
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/638130.html



> ARE the Taliban invincible?
> 
> That’s the sense one gets, listening to some of the critics of Canada’s Afghanistan mission. But it all depends on how you define the term.
> 
> ...



Human-rights agency dubs Taliban tactics as war crimes
_Globe and Mail_, April 17
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070417.AFGHAN17/TPStory/International



> Taliban attacks on civilians and a deliberate terror campaign targeting girls schools were condemned as war crimes yesterday by Human Rights Watch in its latest report on the spiralling violence racking Afghanistan....
> http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/16/afghan15688.htm
> 
> "Suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have risen dramatically since 2005, with almost 700 civilians dying last year at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups," said Joanne Mariner, Human Rights Watch terrorism and counterterrorism director.
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (18 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 18, 2007*


Human-rights agency dubs Taliban tactics as war crimes
PAUL KORING From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Article Link

WASHINGTON — Taliban attacks on civilians and a deliberate terror campaign targeting girls schools were condemned as war crimes yesterday by Human Rights Watch in its latest report on the spiralling violence racking Afghanistan.

As foreign troops, including a Canadian battle group operating in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province in the south, stepped up combat, insurgent attacks on both military and civilian targets rose sharply last year, the report says, with hundreds of civilians killed in attacks by Islamic extremists.

"Suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks have risen dramatically since 2005, with almost 700 civilians dying last year at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups," said Joanne Mariner, Human Rights Watch terrorism and counterterrorism director.

Although this report focused on war crimes committed by Taliban forces, a previous Human Rights Watch report castigated NATO and U.S. forces for failing to adequately safeguard Afghan civilians during combat operations
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Offering alternatives to part-time Taliban
Marty Klinkenberg Telegraph-Journal Published Wednesday April 18th, 2007
Article Link

The village of Ghazai rests at the bottom of a steep mountain west of Kandahar, frozen in time. A shepherd holding a staff leads a flock of sheep and goats across a narrow, dusty road. A withered man with a long white beard sits on the ground beneath a tarp, prayer beads in hand. Children peek at visitors from behind mud walls.

"Sometimes I think that if I went to sleep one night and woke up back in Jesus' time, this is what I'd see," Capt. Bob Wheeler, a soldier based at CFB Gagetown, said. A native of Corner Brook, N.L., Wheeler spends countless hours meeting with Afghans and assessing their needs. He is a member of the Provincial Recovery Team, the group of soldiers and civilians who co-ordinate efforts aimed at helping locals get back on their feet.

On Tuesday, his work took him to Ghazai and Kobay, the first visits the villages have received as part of the NATO-directed campaign against the Taliban.

Wheeler arrived in a convoy of light-armoured vehicles, with Vandoos, the famous soldiers from Quebec, providing protection.

The journey took him from Camp Nathan Smith through the bustling streets of Kandahar, past market stalls where meat hung on ropes out front and barber shops where customers watched the military caravan from their chairs. They skirted some of the many construction sites popping up in the city of more than one million people, and passed one of the prisons Canadian corrections officials are helping to upgrade as part of another project sponsored by the recovery team.

In Ghazai, just beyond the outskirts of Kandahar, Wheeler chatted through an interpreter with one resident, jotting notes about wells needed to assure clean drinking water, the lack of power supply, the state of local health care and education.

He repeated that a few kilometres down the road at Kobay, a cluster of about 250 families who live along a chalky stream that nourishes the ground and, for at least a short distance, turns the stark landscape green.

There, Wheeler met with two earnest young men, one a Grade 9 student who is teaching local children part time, the other an auxiliary member of the Afghan National Police.

A number of issues were discussed, including an effort to clean the irrigation canals local farmers use to water their fields.

"A project like that seems simple, but there is more to it than meets the eye," he said. "It not only helps farmers, but it allows us to hire 100 local people or more, most of whom have no money at all, and it keeps them occupied and away from the Taliban.

"Some of these people who lack cash in hand are farmers by day and Taliban by night."

On visits like these, Wheeler also tries to learn how safe the environment is, and asks questions about the local mosque.

"In North America, the one thing you try to stay away from when talking to people is religion. But here, if you go into a village and fix the mosque for them, that scores a lot of brownie points."

An auto salesman in Newfoundland, Wheeler has been a reservist for 26 years. He spent a large portion of last year at Gagetown training for this mission, and has been in Afghanistan since February.

The days are long, the risks are many and the heat is becoming less and less bearable. But Wheeler enjoys his work with the Provincial Reconstruction Team and the satisfaction that goes with it.

"A commanding officer here told us that at the end of each day, we should ask ourselves what we had done that day for Afghanistan," Wheeler said. "And every day I can say that I've done something for Afghanistan.

"This is a wonderful experience. The Afghans are excellent, honourable people. You couldn't ask for a better bunch to work with."

Marty Klinkenberg is contributing editor of the Telegraph-Journal. He is currently embedded with Canadian troops in Afghanistan helping in the NATO-directed campaign against the Taliban. He can be reached at mklinkenberg@rogers.com
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Afghanistan's Hazaras still await their due
Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:02 AM BST  By Raju Gopalakrishnan
Article Link

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - When U.S.-led forces defeated the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan in 2001, the Hazaras, a tribe living in the central mountains, cheered the loudest.

The mostly Shi'ite Hazaras had been oppressed by the Sunni rulers in Kabul through centuries of tumultuous Afghan history.

But when the strictly Sunni Taliban came to power in 1996 they didn't just oppress the Hazaras, they massacred them. 


Thousands of Hazaras, reviled by the Taliban as infidels, were killed and buried in mass graves or thrown into wells. Tens of thousands more were jailed.

More than five years after the U.S.-backed administration of President Hamid Karzai took power, many Hazaras say they are still waiting for signs that their community, and their homeland Hazarajat, will get equal treatment in the new Afghanistan.

"Even when Karzai sleeps, he does not turn his face to Hazarajat," said one man in Bamiyan, the main town in the area.

Billions of dollars in foreign aid have poured into Afghanistan since 2001. But there are no paved roads in Bamiyan province at all. Many of its 500,000 people live in caves or in mud huts through searing summers and harsh winters, and perhaps a handful have piped water and electricity.   Continued
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Bomb hits U.N. vehicle in south Afghanistan, killing 4 Nepalese guards, Afghan driver  
By: FISNIK ABRASHI - Associated Press 
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A powerful remote-controlled bomb destroyed a U.N. vehicle in southern Afghanistan's main city on Tuesday, killing four Nepalese guards and an Afghan driver, officials said.

The attack on a three-vehicle U.N. convoy in Kandahar was the bloodiest in Afghanistan for the world body since the hard-line militia's 2001 ouster and illustrated how violence continues to impede much-needed reconstruction.

The convoy was driving along the side of a canal in Kandahar when unidentified assailants detonated the charge. It struck a gray sport-utility vehicle, killing the four guards and their driver, police and the U.N. said.


An Associated Press reporter saw two charred bodies lying on the road near the damaged vehicle. The explosion blew off two of the car's doors and gouged a crater in the road.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the U.N. will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," a U.N. statement said.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the attack came a day after a Human Rights Watch report accused Taliban militants of committing war crimes by targeting civilians.

The rights group said nearly 700 Afghan civilians were killed by militants in 2006 -- more than three times the civilian deaths attributed to U.S. and NATO forces, which have been criticized for using excessive force in civilian areas.
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Afghanistan won`t deal on hostages, official says 
Wednesday April 18, 2007 (0321 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: Afghanistan`s foreign minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, ruled out any further deals with kidnappers after a video was broadcast showing two French aid workers whom the Taliban claimed to be holding hostage. 

Yesterday, a suicide bomber on a motorbike killed four Afghan guards from an American security company near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, and fighting was reported on the border with Pakistan in Paktika Province and farther south in Helmand Province. 

President Hamid Karzai has been criticized for giving in to Taliban demands to win the release of an Italian journalist last month but failing to save the Afghan interpreter who worked with him. 
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Rebuilding Afghanistan a challenging task: Afghan finance minister  
Wednesday April 18, 2007 (0321 PST)
Article Link


 KABUL: The government of Afghanistan, even with support of the international community, is not yet able to create enough jobs for its citizens. 
Anwar ul Haq Ahadi, Afghanistan's finance minister, said the Afghan government and the international community must cooperate to fight the insurgents not only by military action but also by freezing the insurgents' financial resources and providing more profitable opportunities to the general population. 

In a discussion hosted by the Brooking Institution, Ahadi said that strengthening security is the top priority for the Afghan government. 

He said 70 percent of the $11.8 billion U.S. aid budget is planned for strengthening Afghan security forces, but what's left is not enough to meet the government's plans for reconstruction and development projects. 
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Suspected militants attack int`l aid group`s compound in E. Afghanistan  
Wednesday April 18, 2007 (0321 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: Suspected militants attacked a compound housing an international aid group in eastern Afghanistan, wounding its driver before police shot and wounded three assailants, police said Tuesday. 

Militants fired rocket propelled grenades and light weapons during the attack on a compound used by the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees, or DACAAR, on Monday evening in Alishing district of Laghman province, said Abdul Karim, the provincial police chief. 

Police, aided by villagers, clashed with the attackers for about an hour, leaving three militants wounded, Karim said. Police detained the three and were questioning them, he said. 
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UNHCR helps more than 200,000 unregistered Afghans return home as deadline passes  
Wednesday April 18, 2007 (0321 PST)
Article Link

 ISLAMABAD: A grace period for unregistered Afghans to return home from Pakistan ended at the weekend after more than 200,000 Afghans had repatriated with UNHCR assistance. 
The sixth year of UNHCR-facilitated returns to Afghanistan was linked to the registration of more than 2.15 million Afghan citizens in Pakistan. The exercise ended earlier this year and Pakistan said Afghans who were not registered and did not have Proof of Registration (PoR) cards would be given a six-week grace period to return voluntarily. 

The return deadline passed on Sunday and Pakistan has said it will prosecute unregistered Afghans remaining in the country. 
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Taliban blamed for "deadly phone virus" rumour 
Wednesday April 18, 2007 (0321 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: The rumour, which raced like wildfire late Sunday among the country`s estimated two million cellphone users, said that anyone answering calls from certain numbers or codes would contract a fatal disease. 

"I find it necessary to assure the people that the rumour spreading around the city is absolute nonsense -- it`s baseless," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told a news conference. 

"It`s the work of the enemy," said Bashary, using the government`s usual term for Islamist insurgents led by the Taliban, adding that they were trying to cause panic in the war-weary nation. 

"There are some numbers which contain the virus. As soon as you answer your phone blood comes out of your mouth, nose and ears and you die," said Kabul resident Mohammad Akter, who said he was told about the virus by a friend. 
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Suicide blast kills three in Kandahar
KANDAHAR CITY, Apr 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Article Link

Three people were killed and as many injured in a suicide attack at the vehicle of a US security agency in the southern province of Kandahar Sunday morning. 

The blast took place on the Kandahar - Spin Boldak road around 10:20am. The vehicle was targeted near the Auch Posta (post) area.

Witnesses said the bomber targeted a vehicle of the USPI (US Protection and Investigation) security company.

Haji Ghafoor, a witness, told Pajhwok Afghan News the dead included three policemen and a driver of the vehicle. 

However, Kandahar police chief Asmatullah Alizai said all the victims of the blast were civilians. He said, among them, three civilians were killed and two more wounded. 

The security agency so far did not issue any comment. 

Saeed Zabuli
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School principal shot dead
KHOST CITY, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Article Link

 Unidentified gunmen shot dead a school principal in Gurbaz district of the southeastern Khost province last night. 

The slain Faiz Mohammad, principal of the Gurbaz High School, was on way home from market when attacked and killed by two armed men. 

The assailants, riding in a car, managed to escape in the same vehicle after committing the crime. 

Wazir Badshah, an official of the Khost police headquarters, told Pajhwok the incident happened around 5:45pm last evening. 

He said the slain was a true educationist. His aim was to promote education among people of the area, and this was why the enemies of the country attacked and killed him, said Badshah. 

Abdul Majid Arif
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Projects launched in Kapisa, Parwan
MAHMUD RAQI, Apr 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Article Link

A girls' school was handed over to provincial officials after its completion in the central Kapisa province, while foundation stone of a sport stadium was laid in the neighbouring province of Parwan.

The newly-constructed school will accommodate 1,200 students in two shifts. According to local officials, construction of the building was completed at the cost of $90,000 assistance by the government of Japan.

While lauding the Japan-funded NGO, Sharq Foundation for Rehabilitation and Development (SFRD), head of the education department Abdul Zahoor Hakim said they were trying to attract more assistance from the international community to construct more schools.

Aziz-ur-Rahman, an official of the education department, said only 50 of the 150 schools in the province had proper buildings. The school has been constructed on one acre area in Kora Taz area of the province.

Stadium in Charikar

Foundation stone of a sports stadium was laid in the central Parwan province on Sunday. The stadium will be constructed with the $200,000 assistance from Bayat Foundation in Charikar, capital of Parwan. 
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Afghanistan in a downward spiral
By Haroun Mir SPEAKING FREELY Apr 18, 2007 
Article Link

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. 

KABUL - Despite a successful presidential election in 2004 and parliamentary elections in 2005, the situation in Afghanistan has been worsening since then. The year 2006 was a bloody one in terms of casualties for both coalition and Afghan forces as well as for the civilian population. 

In addition to long-lasting problems such as military conflict, narcotics and warlordism, the Afghan government is increasingly facing new dilemmas which emanate from people's dire social and economic conditions. People demand jobs, shelter and legitimate means to live a decent life. It is the prospect of political turmoil that poses the far greater danger for the stability of the country than military threats by the Taliban. 

In fact, the Taliban and their allies have been able to improve their fighting capacity and propaganda capabilities, as well as to considerably extend their territory inside Afghanistan because they were able to improve their organizational structure, train a considerable number of new recruits and receive better supplies of arms and ammunition. 

It will enable them to increase their attacks on NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and Afghan forces while terrorizing the civilian population with occasional, but ever more frequent, suicide bombings. This year, they will extend their control over major districts in the south and southwest of the country and improve their capacity to interrupt the main highways connecting Kabul to major cities in the south and west of the country. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (18 Apr 2007)

Expected Afghan Rebel Foray May Be Late, General Warns
_NY Times_, April 18
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/world/asia/18afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



> An anticipated spring offensive by insurgents in Afghanistan has not materialized on a large scale, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday, but he warned that violence in the country could still reach the levels of last year and that poppy production would continue to increase.
> 
> The commander, Gen. Dan K. McNeill of the United States Army, also said he expected insurgents to shift tactics toward using more suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices. That prediction was consistent with recent events; several bombings have occurred in Afghanistan in the last week, aimed at the police and the United Nations.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## a_majoor (18 Apr 2007)

Maybe the war will become an election issue after all:

http://jojourn.blogspot.com/2007/04/will-afghan-mission-vote-force-election



> *Will Afghan mission vote force an election?*
> The Star reports that the Liberals are putting forward a motion demanding Canada's withdrawal of troops by February 2009 (H/T National Newswatch).
> 
> If this motion is passed next week, Canada will have to serve notice to Nato immediately. If the government makes this a confidence vote, we may be into an election, depending on how the other two opposition parties vote.
> ...




http://www.bloggingtories.ca/btFrameset.php?URL=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/langhjelm/~3/110138886/stephane-dion-is-not-leader.html&title=Stephane%20Dion%20is%20not%20a%20leader



> *Stephane Dion is not a leader *
> Putting aside for the moment the fact that Stephane Dion was a member of the cabinet that initiated our current mission in Afghanistan, this is what the man had to say on the subject just one year ago:
> 
> “We don't want to second guess it. It's a very important mission, and we want to be there.”
> ...


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## MarkOttawa (18 Apr 2007)

Damian ("Babbling") Brooks' post at _The Torch_:

Notice Paper
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/04/notice-paper.html

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (19 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 19, 2007*

Canadian special forces soldier dies in accidental fall in Afghanistan
Jonathan Fowlie, CanWest News Service  Thursday, April 19, 2007
Article Link

 MAYWAND, Afghanistan — Another Canadian soldier has died in Afghanistan, this time the victim of an accidental fall in Kandahar.

Canadian military officials in Kandahar said the special forces soldier died Wednesday after falling from a communications tower during what they described as being a routine operation.

     “I believe this was a routine activity that was underway, it was not operationally related,” Canadian military Col. Mike Cessford, deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan told Global National. 

 “It was simply and unfortunately an accident.”

     Wednesday’s death brings the total number of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan to 54 soldiers and one diplomat.

     Cessford said that though other members of the special forces have been injured, the unidentified soldier is the first on the elite team to be killed while on duty in the country.

     “This accident took place within the area of Kandahar City, but clearly for the reason of operational security, I cannot go over the exact location,” he said.
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Kids make mission worth it
MARTY KLINKENBERG tELEGRAPH-JOURNAL Thursday April 19th, 2007 
Article Link

It's not the apprehension or the blooming poppies in a rainbow of colours that J.C. LeBlanc will most remember when he returns to New Brunswick this summer.

No, when the military police officer from St. Antoine completes his six-month tour of Afghanistan, it will be the children here, running barefoot over rocks and broken glass, playing in garbage, that he will think about.

"I've been sending pictures of kids home from here like there's no tomorrow," LeBlanc, who has four children between the ages of nine and 15, said Wednesday as he sat outside police headquarters at Camp Nathan Smith. "Seeing the kids, seeing the children here who have been left behind, makes this mission worth it to me.

"They're just kids, defenseless kids."

A member of the Canadian Forces for nearly two decades, LeBlanc has been a military policeman at CFB Gagetown since 2005.

It is his second posting at the base in Oromocto, after serving there as an infantry soldier in the 1990s for eight years.

He is working out of the military base in Kandahar City as part of Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, a group of soldiers and civilians helping Afghans get back on their feet after decades of war, drought and Taliban rule.

"The primary thing I'll think about when I get back home is to see how lucky we are, not only in Canada but at home, in a surrounding you are comfortable with.

"As much as you love it when you are there, you miss it even more when you're not.
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RCHA battery flexes its military muscle
April 18, 2007 By JAMES MCCARTEN
Article Link 

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ROBINSON, Afghanistan (CP) - The arid plains of southern Helmand province shuddered under the deafening thunder of Canadian military might Wednesday as an artillery battery pounded Taliban insurgents engaging coalition forces in the Sangin River valley. 

Three Taliban fighters were confirmed killed as soldiers from 2 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Petawawa, Ont., shattered a three-day silence with 22 rounds from two 155-mm M-777 Howitzers. They were aimed at an enemy compound dozens of kilometres north of Forward Operating Base Robinson, roughly 100 kilometres west of Kandahar. 

A fog of dust the consistency of powdered chalk leaped from the parched ground with every tug of the lanyard as two crews - one of eight soldiers, another of six - peppered the target with wave after thunderous wave of 50-kilogram shells. 

Later, with the sun dipping behind the tranquil foothills west of the river, soldiers scrambled into position again as the radio crackled with a second fire mission, this time in support of troops who were tracking four Taliban in a position not far from the site of the earlier attack. 

No casualties were reported in the second barrage. 
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27 Taliban killed in Afghanistan
April 19, 2007, 6:37AM
Article Link


© 2007 The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters and called in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, leaving 24 suspected militants dead and two coalition soldiers wounded, the coalition said Thursday.

The joint forces battled Taliban fighters for seven hours after they were ambushed while patrolling Wednesday in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, a coalition statement said.

Acting on intelligence of militant activity involving 40 Taliban, coalition forces then called an airstrike, the statement said. The battle left 24 militants dead, while two coalition soldiers suffered minor injuries and are in stable condition, it said.

NATO and Afghan troops launched their largest-ever offensive last month in southern Afghanistan to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of opium-producing Helmand province.

In western Herat province, U.S. special forces and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents disguised as police officers manning a makeshift checkpoint, leaving three suspected militants dead, the coalition said Thursday.

The militants, wearing fake police uniforms, opened fire on the troops as they approached the illegal checkpoint in Herat's Shindand district on Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement. The patrol returned fire, killing three enemy fighters and wounding another three, it said.

Troops have confiscated over 100 fake police uniforms and more than a dozen false identification documents in Herat province since Tuesday, the coalition said.

On Tuesday, Afghan troops searched a compound and discovered 18 rocket propelled grenades and 27 AK-47 weapons. The compound's guard later confessed that he commanded more than 100 Taliban fighters, the coalition said.

In Kapisa province, 40 miles northeast of Kabul, police and Afghan soldiers were preparing an assault on a group of militants in Tagab district, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Eawaz Muzlim.
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Tories won't risk power on Grits' Afghanistan motion
Tim Naumetz, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, April 19, 2007
Article Link

The Harper government has backed down from a confrontation with the opposition over Canadian combat in Afghanis-tan, declining to consider a Liberal motion setting a two-year limit on the mission a vote of confidence.

Though the motion to be debated today is sure to pass with the support of at least the Bloc Quebecois, it will not topple the minority Conservatives as a confidence vote would have.

Even so, the motion urging the government to notify NATO that Canada intends to withdraw from combat in the Afghan province of Kandahar by 2009 will be a setback for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has made the mission his top priority and authorized nearly $1 billion in new arms and military deployments to support it.
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U.S. official says NATO must prevail in Afghanistan by end of 2008 
The Associated Press Wednesday, April 18, 2007 
Article Link

WASHINGTON: A senior State Department official said Wednesday that NATO-led forces in Afghanistan have only until the end of 2008 to achieve success over the Taliban.

Assistant Secretary of Daniel Fried said allied forces have been on the attack this year, as mountain snows began to melt, in an effort to head off an expected Taliban offensive.

"The much-heralded spring offensive has turned out to be ours," Fried said in a speech at the Center for International Policy. The allied force have "seized the momentum this spring," said Fried, who heads the European affairs bureau.

He pointed to recent allied success in securing a dam in Helmand Province that is a major source of electric power for the region.

But, he said, the allied effort is far from over, citing a spike in opium production last year and the income it provides to the Taliban
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Two soldiers buried in Maritimes  
April 18, 2007 By TARA BRAUTIGAM AND CHRIS MORRIS
Article Link

(CP) - Two young soldiers were laid to rest in their home provinces in Atlantic Canada on Wednesday, far from the hostile land and deadly war that claimed their lives. 

Hundreds of mourners attended funeral services for Cpl. Aaron Williams, 23, of Perth-Andover, N.B., and his commander, Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of St. John's, N.L. 

Both were members of the 2nd battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B. 

The two were killed along with four others on Easter Sunday when the vehicle in which they were travelling struck a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. It was the worst single-day casualty toll for Canadian soldiers serving there. 

Col. Ryan Jestin, base commander at Gagetown, said it's difficult to come to terms with the youth of the slain soldiers. 

Several leave behind small children who will never know their dads. 
More on link


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## GAP (20 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 20, 2007*

Soldier who fell is from Ontario
 TheStar.com  April 20, 2007 Nick Kyonka Staff Reporter Greg Mercer The Record of waterloo region
Article Link

12 brothers and sisters gather to mourn in Waterloo-area homeThe Canadian soldier who fell to his death in Afghanistan on Wednesday has been identified by family members as Anthony Klumpenhower, 26, of Kurtzville, about 50 kilometres northwest of Waterloo.

The member of Canada's special forces died after falling from a communications tower while on duty, according to the defence department.

Klumpenhower grew up in a farming family of 13 children in the small community of Kurtzville, near Listowel. He was not married, but had a girlfriend whom he planned to marry, said his 16-year-old cousin, Lynn Klumpenhower.

Reached at home last night, Klumpenhower's aunt Judi described him as a happy, fun-loving young man who had a flair for playing pranks and loved to joke around.

"Anthony was a great guy who had a great sense of humour," she said. "All I think of when I think of him was his beautifully blue eyes and his beautiful big smile."

The young man joined the military initially for a short term, but ended up staying on, his cousin said. He was extremely fit and placed 14th in an annual relay race in Hamilton last year, with two other soldiers from CFB Kingston. 

"He was just going to go (in the military) for the first three years, just for the experience. But he ended up staying on, because he liked it a lot," she said.

Since hearing of the accident Wednesday night, his aunt said, Klumpenhower's six brothers and six sisters have returned to their parents' home, banding together in the family's time of need. 

"They're all there for each other," she said. 
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Two NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL — Separate explosions in southern Afghanistan on Friday killed two NATO soldiers, the alliance said.

In its statement, NATO did not identify the dead soldiers or where in the country they died.

Gen. Dick Berlijn, the Dutch defence chief, said a Dutch soldier was killed in an explosion in southern Helmand province while on a foot patrol as part of Operation Achilles, launched last month by NATO to flush out militants entrenched in the opium-producing area.

Most Dutch troops are stationed in neighbouring Uruzgan province on a reconstruction mission, but Dutch forces also have taken part in NATO offensives against the Taliban
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Afghan refugees forced home, but to what?
Updated Fri. Apr. 20 2007 10:54 AM ET Lisa LaFlamme, CTV News
Article Link

Daman District, Kandahar Province -- An open desert plain just off a road that Afghans now refer to as the "Bloody Highway," has become a dumping ground for displaced people, forced out of Pakistan by a mandatory repatriation order. 

The deadline was April 15 and in the week that followed, 1,200 families have now crowded into a refugee camp in Daman District, just a 20-minute drive from Camp Nathan Smith (PRT), where Canadian Reconstruction Teams are deployed. 

Refugees here, armed with ratty old rugs and a few thin blankets, have been forced home to an unwelcoming country still dominated by warlords, still crawling with foreign armies. 

Inside the camp, the first thing that hits like a brick wall, is the stench of human waste and sickness, so strong that even those, who now call it home, cover their noses to protect against the pungent smell. 

Children lie in clusters on the ground, seemingly lifeless, covered in flies and sick with diarrhea and fever. The camp doctor shakes his head, knowing with no medicine there is little he can do. He lost three children to disease in the first few days of their arrival. 
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Foreign soldiers not to be prosecuted in Afghanistan  
Friday April 20, 2007 (0236 PST)
Article Link


 KABUL: Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabit has said the soldiers of the foreign military accused of crimes will not be prosecuted in Afghanistan. 
Answering questions from members of the audit and assessment commission of the lower house of parliament, the attorney general said Afghan prosecutor could not interfere in cases pertaining to foreign military. 

Representative of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said according to their agreement with the Afghan government, foreign soldiers, accused of crimes, would be prosecuted under the laws of their native country. 

However, parliamentarian Abdul Sattar Khwasi said it was against the law of the land that a soldier committing crime against the Afghan people would not be prosecuted here. 

In response to Khawasi's remarks, Sabit asked the MPs to go through the agreement if they were not satisfied with his explanation. 
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New strategy in Taliban's offensive
Kidnappings are the Taliban's new weapon of choice in Afghanistan.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor 
Article Link

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Like any modern fighting force, the Taliban have learned the benefits of emotional warfare. 

As the Taliban's spring offensive gets under way, kidnappings have become their new weapon of choice, targeting a growing chink in NATO's armor: Across Europe, the United States, and Canada, public opinion for the war in Afghanistan is sliding. 

That disenchantment is proving as devastating as any bomb. Last month, after the Taliban kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, the Italian government nearly collapsed when opposition parties raised a storm of protest. Out of fear that Italy's parliament might decide to withdraw its 1,950 troops – what could have been a hefty blow to NATO's mission – President Hamid Karzai traded five Taliban prisoners for Mr. Mastrogiacomo's release, a stunning and highly criticized victory for the extremists. 

And when Mr. Karzai refused to negotiate for Adjmal Naqshbandi, Mastrogiacomo's Afghan translator, the Taliban won again. Mr. Naqshbandi was beheaded on Sunday, prompting expressions of outrage and betrayal for the apparent double standard and further driving a wedge between Karzai and the Afghan public. 

Now, buoyed by the "Italian deal," the Taliban say they have kidnapped a total of two French aid workers and 13 Afghans. The Taliban also threatened to kill four Afghan medical personnel this week if a similar deal is not struck for the release of more Taliban prisoners. 

An end to catch and release

In the weeks to come, the Taliban's greatest weapon is likely to be its emotional assault on international will.

"I hope the international community, who has forces in Afghanistan and has supported us, knows our position, and they will not insist on dealing with the terrorists," says Sultan Ahmad Baheen, the spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, by telephone from Kabul
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Ethnic spat heats up Pakistan-Iran border
April 18, 2007 edition By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Article Link

Balochistan rebels may damage Iran's relations with neighboring Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - While Tehran stares down Washington and deflects Arab concerns over its nuclear ambitions, it is now also fighting a skirmish with militants across its Western border with Pakistan, fanning concerns that an area already mired in Taliban violence and an ethnic insurgency could be further destabilized. 

For weeks, Jundallah, a militant group with operatives in Pakistan and Iran, has launched a wave of attacks on Iranian policemen, security forces, and even the vaunted Revolutionary Guards, Iran's elite fighting corps, leaving dozens dead in escalating violence. The group, which claims to have 1,000 operatives at its disposal, says it fights for the rights of the Baloch people, a Sunni ethnic minority clustered in Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province, which borders Pakistan and the Southern tip of Afghanistan. 

This week, in its largest measure to date to crack down on the group, Tehran announced the arrest of 90 Jundallah members in a sweeping raid. 

The crackdown has many observers worried. Sistan-Balochistan straddles areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban's Sunni-extremist violence is already raging and where Baloch separatists in Pakistan are fighting an insurgency with the Pakistani government. What happens on the border could have the most immediate consequences for Pakistan, given that more than 1 million Balochis are settled within Iran and have strong ties to more than 3 million Balochis across the border in Pakistan. 

"If the Baloch in Iran are targeted by the state, obviously the Baloch in Pakistan are going to feel sympathy," says Samina Ahmed, the South Asia project director of the International Crisis Group (ICG). "We often say that what happens to the Pashtun population in Afghanistan affects the Pashtuns in Pakistan. Why shouldn't we use the same analogy?" 

Like Pakistan itself, Iran is a confederacy of ethnicities, each with its own nationalist priorities. Although the central government champions the Persian Shiite dimension of the state over other groups, Persians constitute only half the country's 69 million people. Kurds, Azeris, Arabs, and Balochis comprise the other half, and many of them are Sunni. 
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27 Taliban killed in ambushes 
Article Link

NATO and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban fighters and called in an air strike in southern Afghanistan, killing 24 suspected militants.

Three more died in an ambush in the west, the US-led coalition said.

The joint forces battled Taliban fighters for seven hours after being ambushed while on patrol on Wednesday in Sangin, a volatile district of Helmand province. Two coalition soldiers had minor injuries.

Nato and Afghan troops launched their largest offensive last month in southern Afghanistan.

In eastern Khost province, Nato troops shot at a civilian vehicle, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding another girl, aged two, said police. The alliance said the vehicle ignored verbal warnings and hand signals to stop at a checkpoint.
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Policeman beheaded in Helmand
Article Link

KANDAHAR CITY, Apr 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban militants beheaded a policeman kidnapped from Marja district of the southern Helmand province. 

Saraw Jan, police chief of the district, told Pajhwok Afghan News the slain Shah Mohammad, was kidnapped from his house in Yazad area last night. 

His headless body was found in the same district this morning, said the police officer.

Alishah Mazloomyar, a tribal elder, said Taliban sneaked into the house of the policeman and took him away with them last night. 

Mulla Abdul Razaq, calling himself a Taliban commander in the area, said they had kidnapped two policemen. One was beheaded last night while fate of the other would be decided soon. 

Marja is one of the lawless districts of Helmand province despite its proximity to the provincial capital of Lashkargah. Three weeks back, Taliban kidnapped a commander along with his five men and killed him later in the same district.

Samad Rohani
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Over 100,000 people involved in drug business"  
Friday April 20, 2007 (0236 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Daud Daud has said that more than 110,000 people are active involved in drug business across the country. 
Speaking at a news conference here, the minister said the number had been estimated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC). 

He said the ministry had arrested over 1,000 smugglers, including some government officials, over the previous three years. 

He said those involved in drug business were getting an estimated 6.7 billion dollars on annual basis. Of that amount, 20 per cent goes to farmers and the rest to local and foreign smugglers. 

Referring to another UNODC's survey, the minister said over two million people were involved in poppy cultivation across the country. According to unofficial figures, poppy production is on the rise despite hectic efforts by the government and the international community.
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Bin Laden name used to lure voters
POSTED: 1325 GMT (2125 HKT), April 18, 2007 
Article Link

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine elections are largely a battle of name recall, so Agakhan Sharief has chosen a moniker he thinks will capture the attention of voters well beyond his backwater southern province -- Osama bin Laden.

Unlike the world's most-wanted terror suspect, Sharief is known by many in Lanao del Sur province as a peacemaker who has helped broker truces when sporadic clashes have erupted between government troops and Muslim insurgents.

Sporting an 18-inch long beard, turban and a neck scarf similar to that worn by bin Laden in TV images, the 35-year-old Sharief has been campaigning frenziedly for a seat in Lanao's legislative council in May 14 elections.

Posters bear his real name with the explosive moniker plastered in the middle in big, bold letters: "BIN LADEN."
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All six German Tornados operational in Afghanistan
Apr 20, 2007, 8:51 GMT 
Article Link

Kabul - All six German Tornado surveillance jets deployed in Afghanistan are now operational, an armed forces spokesman said Friday at their base near the northern town of Mazar-e Sharif. 

Two of the jets undertook reconnaissance missions during the morning and another two were scheduled to go on patrol in the afternoon, military spokesman Hartmut Beilmann said. 

The Tornados, which arrived in Afghanistan on April 5, each carry two hi-tech optical cameras along with an infra-red sensor in a pod slung below the fuselage. 

Their mission is to support NATO-led ground forces fighting the Taliban, particularly in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan, where British, Canadian and Dutch troops are deployed. 

The first surveillance mission took place last Sunday. 

Beilmann said the flights covered 'the entire region of Afghanistan' and had passed without incident. The jets had flown at high altitude and did not come under attack, he said. 
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Liberals being 'unfair' to soldiers, PM asserts
GLORIA GALLOWAY 
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Stephen Harper has accused the opposition Liberals of trying to capitalize on the deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Liberals introduced a motion yesterday asking Parliament to confirm that Canada's military deployment in the war-torn country will end in February, 2009, and that the government will "notify NATO of this decision immediately."

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told the House of Commons that the Prime Minister said "he would continue a combat mission until at least 2011, and that we would stay until the progress made is irreversible and that we might leave by 2010 if certain conditions are met, which is exactly what [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush said about his war in Iraq, where the Prime Minister wanted to send Canadians. 

"Will the Prime Minister end our mission in Kandahar in February, 2009, and inform NATO now?"
More on link


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## Colin Parkinson (20 Apr 2007)

Canada talks to United Arab Emirates about joining Afghan fight
April 20, 2007 - 9:33 am 

OTTAWA (CP) - Canadian diplomats and senior military commanders have held high-level talks with the United Arab Emirates about that country joining the fight against the Taliban.

The Arab nation was interested in contributing a small number of special operations troops that would have come with battle tanks and self-propelled artillery.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says the mission in Afghanistan is not limited to NATO countries and he would encourage others to join the effort.
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n042025A


Documents obtained by the federal New Democrats show the deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan, Col. Fred Lewis, met Emirates military staff over a five-day period in January to discuss the possible alliance.

It's not clear whether there was a resolution to the discussions.

NDP member Libby Davies accused the Conservatives of trying to create a "Bush-style troop surge," referring to U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to increase American troop strength in Iraq.


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## GAP (21 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 21, 2007*

Secret ramp ceremony for Canadian soldier who died in fall
Last Updated: Friday, April 20, 2007 | 2:53 PM ET CBC News 
Article Link

Canada's special forces held a secret ramp ceremony Thursday for a soldier who fell to his death from a communications tower in Afghanistan, the military said. 
Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, 25, who grew up in a small farming community near Listowel, Ont., was conducting surveillance earlier this week in Kandahar City.

Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer, 25, was conducting surveillance in Kandahar City when he fell to his death this week.
(Department of National Defence) Klumpenhouwer's family said he was the second-eldest boy in a family of 13 children and had planned to marry his girlfriend.

"It is with great sadness that we learned of Anthony’s death in Afghanistan. He was such an important part of all our lives and will be dearly missed. The coming days and weeks will be an intensely private time for the family," they said in a statement released Friday.
More on link

Jihadist Video Shows Boy Beheading Man   
 Apr 20 02:24 PM US/Eastern By ABDUL SATTAR Associated Press Writer 
Article Link

KILI FAQIRAN, Pakistan (AP) - The boy with the knife looks barely 12. In a high-pitched voice, he denounces the bound, blindfolded man before him as an American spy. Then he hacks off the captive's head to cries of "God is great!" and hoists it in triumph by the hair. 
A video circulating in Pakistan records the grisly death of Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official who was killed in a December airstrike in Afghanistan. 

An Associated Press reporter confirmed Nabi's identity by visiting his family in Kili Faqiran, their remote village in southwestern Pakistan. 

The video, which was obtained by AP Television News in the border city of Peshawar on Tuesday, appears authentic and is unprecedented in jihadist propaganda because of the youth of the executioner. 

Captions mention Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's current top commander in southern Afghanistan, although he does not appear in the video. The soundtrack features songs praising Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and "Sheikh Osama"—an apparent reference to Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border. 

The footage shows Nabi making what is described as a confession, being blindfolded with a checkered scarf. 

"He is an American spy. Those who do this kind of thing will get this kind of fate," says his baby-faced executioner, who is not identified. 

A continuous 2 1/2-minute shot then shows the victim lying on his side on a patch of rubble-strewn ground. A man holds Nabi by his beard while the boy, wearing a camouflage military jacket and oversized white sneakers, cuts into the throat. Other men and boys call out "Allahu akbar!"—"God is great!"—as blood spurts from the wound. 
More on link
  
Afghan and Pakistani Troops in Skirmish  
Turkey to host meeting between Musharraf and Karzai 
Published 2007-04-21 22:11 (KST)    
Article Link 

ISLAMABAD: After a recent clash between Pakistani and Afghan troops on the border, diplomatic efforts have been increased to cool tensions between the two sides. 

This time the Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has come forward to mediate between President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai.

The leaders of the two neighboring Muslim nations have repeatedly exchanged hot words over the handling of the Taliban insurgency during recent months.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai blames Pakistan for failing to prevent Taliban-led militants from attacking Afghanistan from their bases in Pakistan's tribal areas, where militancy has been on the rise over the last three years.

Pakistan government officials confirmed that President Pervez Musharraf will be visiting Ankara in Turkey on April 29-3O for talks with his Afghan counterpart. 

This is not the first time a third country has tried to mediate between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the question of the handling of the Taliban insurgency. 
More on link

French TV says captors of 2 French aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan issue ultimatum  The Associated Press Friday, April 20, 2007 
Article Link

PARIS: The captors of two French aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan earlier this month have issued an ultimatum to the French government, French media reported Friday.

LCI all-news channel cited a message on an Islamist Web site as saying the kidnappers have given the French government one week to withdraw France's roughly 1,100 troops from Afghanistan. In the message, they also call for the two aid workers to be exchanged for Taliban prisoners, the channel said.

The channel did not give the name of the site.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said French officials were studying the message, but he refused to comment further.
More on link

Forces Detain Militants, Capture Weapons Cache in Afghanistan
American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 16, 2007 
Article Link

Coalition and Afghan forces nabbed eight enemy combatants and found a weapons cache during operations in Afghanistan over the past two days. 
Afghan and coalition forces captured four militants during an early morning raid today in the Barmal district of Paktika province. The detainees maintained a safe house for extremists responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, military officials said. 

In another raid this morning, Afghan and coalition forces captured four militants in the Nahr Surkh district of Helmand province. Military officials said the targeted individuals have ties to a high-ranking Taliban leader. 

Afghan border police and coalition forces seized a weapons cache yesterday in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province after being tipped off by Afghan civilians. 

The cache, containing 14 rocket-propelled-grenade rounds, five 82 mm mortar rounds, grenades and bomb-making materials, was hidden in a compound in Tutu village. Military officials believe materials that came from the cache were used in several recent improvised explosive device attacks in Sherzad and Khogyani districts. 

Over the past two weeks, multiple weapons caches have been recovered from the Bati Kot, Shinwar, Achin, Khogyani, and Sherad districts of Nangarhar province. 
More on link

Britain could be fighting in Afghanistan for 10 years: A report         
Written by pub Friday, 20 April 2007  LONDON, 
Article Link

Britain could be stuck in Afghanistan for 10 years and lose thousands of troops unless it alters its strategy in the lawless south of the country, reports “Daily Telegraph” quoting a former Army officer. Leo Docherty, who served in Helmand province as a captain in the Scots Guards, said that UK troops were little more than a “big target” for militants in the south. 

The high-intensity fighting they were engaged in was stoking antagonism among local people angry over the deaths of Afghan civilians and fearful for the opium industry which provides their livelihood. 

He called for operations in Helmand to be drawn back to the area immediately around the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in order to focus on reconstruction work there. 

He warned that Britain risked becoming bogged down in the same disastrous quagmire in Afghanistan experienced by the Soviet Union after it invaded the country in 1979. 

“If we keep up with high-intensity war-fighting and killing the local population, we are on a hiding to nothing and could be there in 10 years’ time with more than 30,000 dead, which is what the Russians had.” 

According to the paper, Mr. Docherty was disciplined last year for speaking out publicly against the Army’s strategy while a serving officer. 
More on link


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## GAP (22 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 22, 2007*

In war, there's little time to mourn
Comrades of fallen soldiers put grieving on back burner 
Fri Apr 20 2007 By Jonathan Fowlie
Article Link

MAYWAND, Afghanistan -- Squeezed into the back of a hot and cramped LAV III, Master Cpl. Brian McCallum peeled his eyes from a glossy car magazine and tried to explain what had been running through his mind all morning. 
"Every time I drive across this frigging dirt, I I , " the veteran of five military tours said, slowly trailing off into a quiet slouch to avoid saying the obvious. 

Nine days before, on Easter Sunday, the Gagetown, N.B.-based crew commander was leading a similar armoured vehicle when it struck a massive roadside bomb. Six of McCallum's crew mates died in that blast -- the largest toll to have hit the Canadian forces in more than 50 years -- and one was badly injured. 

McCallum and two others were left with only minor injuries. 

On Tuesday, wedged into the back of another LAV III, and amidst similar sandy terrain, McCallum and those other two spent furtive moments readjusting to life on the battlefield. 

They, along with the rest of Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, went back into the field early Tuesday morning after a week on the main NATO base in Kandahar to rest, recover and to give the six fallen soldiers a final farewell.    
CanWest News Service followed those soldiers this week as they returned to their operating area in Maywand district -- about a two-hour drive away from Kandahar City across both paved highway and sandy desert track -- and once again began running patrols, meeting with local leaders and helping the Afghan National Police. 

As the soldiers got back to work it was obvious they were making good on their oft-cited resolve to put the mission ahead of any grief, regret or fear. 
More on link

Suicide bomber in Afghanistan kills 6 civilians, wounds 40
Updated at 6:37 AM By Amir Shah
Article Link 

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in an eastern Afghan city, killing six civilians and wounding 40 others, officials said, while a blast in a nearby market killed a shopkeeper. 
Acting on a tip, police tried to stop a suspicious looking man in the city of Khost, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub. When he tried to flee, police chased him and opened fire, at which point he detonated his explosives, Ayub said. 

Khost public health director Gul Mohammad Mohammadi said that six civilians were killed and 40 others were wounded, most of them with minor injuries. Fifteen people suffered serious injuries and were hospitalized, he said. 

Ayub had initially said three civilians were killed and two policemen wounded. 

An earlier bomb attack at a shop in a Khost market left a shopkeeper dead and eight people wounded, Ayub said, describing the incident as a dispute between different tribes. 

In neighbouring Paktia province, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol Saturday in the Zormat district, and the ensuing clash left five militants and a police officer dead, said Paktia police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjan.    
Officers recovered five militants’ bodies with their weapons and one of their vehicles, Sarjan said. 

In Nangarhar province, U.S. and Afghan troops killed one person and detained nine others during a raid on a compound Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement
More on link

Charter doesn't apply in detainee-rights case, Ottawa will argue
PAUL KORING From Saturday's Globe and Mail April 21, 2007 at 2:29 PM EST
Article Link

Canada's Charter of Rights doesn't cover Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan, the government claims, and it will ask the Federal Court to toss out a case brought by rights groups demanding that prisoner transfers be stopped because of the risk that they will be tortured or abused in Afghan jails.

Details of the government's position came to light late yesterday afternoon. The Defence Department didn't respond to requests for comment.

"The fate of the detainees hangs in the balance, as does the conscience of the country," said Jason Gratl, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one of the groups demanding an end to detainee transfers.

The two groups had filed an application in Federal Court for a judicial review of Canada's policy of handing detainees over to Afghan police who, according to the United Nations and Afghan human-rights organizations, are known to torture and abuse prisoners.
More on link

Minister`s call for aid effectiveness upsets US official  
Sunday April 22, 2007 (0612 PST)
Article Link

WASHINGTON: The call for "aid effectiveness" by Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahady and his suggestion regarding routing of foreign aid through the government and not directly to the NGOs, created some tense moments at the Congressional forum meeting on Afghanistan. 

Ahady`s articulate observations that aid, especially coming through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), was not being put to the best use for the people of Afghanistan, was immediately termed "unfair and inaccurate" by John Gastright, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. 

The meeting was organised by the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce. 

A visibly upset Gastright said USAID was "regrettably being maligned" and that he did not agree with the observations on aid effectiveness. 

The Finance Minister had earlier observed that there was no discussion on "output" of foreign aid and works not routed through the Afghan government were being done at a much higher cost.
More on link

"Taliban not 10 feet tall" 
Sunday April 22, 2007 (0612 PST)
Article Link

WASHINGTON: A top Bush administration official said the Taliban though being a "significant" adversary, "is not 10 feet tall" and asserted that the advantage lies with the Afghan government and not the insurgents. 
"I believe that while the Taliban is a significant adversary that has some strength and has some support in the country. But we do need to assess the Taliban correctly. They are a significant adversary. But they are not 10 feet tall. The government has the advantage," said Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State. 

Addressing a Congressional forum meeting on "Reassessing Priorities for US Funding to Afghanistan," Burns said: "The long expected Taliban offensive was preceded this spring by a NATO offensive. This was correct in most of the battles particularly in August, September and October 2006 when the Taliban while it fought aggressively, and perhaps even bravely, did melt the advantage. But the advantage did lie with the Afghan forces and with the NATO and international forces." 

The Congressional forum was organised by the Afghan American Chamber of Commerce and was held at the Capitol Hill, the first for an Afghan American organisation. 
More on link

Tillman sent Army into 'lockdown mode'  
Documents: Ranger's death prompted information blackout 
April 22, 2007 BY SCOTT LINDLAW 
Article Link

SAN FRANCISCO -- Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform.
New investigative documents reviewed by the Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman's family for five weeks.

The clampdown, and the misinformation issued by the military, lie at the heart of a congressional investigation.

''We want to find out how this happened,'' said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. ''Was it the result of incompetence, miscommunication or a deliberate strategy?''

It is also a central issue as the Army weighs punishments against nine officers, including four generals, faulted in the latest Pentagon report on the case of the NFL star-turned-soldier.
More on link

Afghanistan's bloody new year   
Article Link

The Taleban have threatened that hundreds of suicide bombers will attack the Afghan government and foreign military targets this year. Mark Dummett reports from Kabul on the increasing fear of violence in the country. 

It seems as if the Taleban's much-hyped spring offensive may have finally begun, but not in any formal sense, at least not in the contested provinces of southern Afghanistan. 

There the British, American and other Nato forces remain on the front foot. 

But since the country celebrated Nowruz - the Persian New Year - with picnics, dancing and kite flying competitions about a month ago, the insurgents have stepped up their attacks elsewhere. 

In the past week alone, bombers have killed 25 people - most of them policemen and private security guards - in the normally peaceful northern town of Kunduz, in the Taleban's home city of Kandahar in the south and near the eastern border with Pakistan, in Khost. 
More on link

NATO troops kill 1 suspected Taliban militant in southern Afghanistan
Canadian Press  Sunday, April 22, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - NATO-led troops shot and killed a suspected Taliban militant and wounded another in southern Afghanistan, an alliance statement said Saturday. 

The troops "surprised a couple of Taliban extremists" on Friday, close to the area where two separate explosions killed two NATO International Security Assistance Force soldiers earlier that day, statement said. 

"The extremists were successfully engaged by ISAF troops as they attempted to escape from the area," it said. 

One militant was killed and another was wounded. Troops found bomb-making materials on them, statement said. 

One soldier killed was from the Netherlands, the other was an American. 

NATO and Afghan troops launched their largest-ever offensive last month in southern Afghanistan to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of opium-producing Helmand province. 
More on link

Talibans demand withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan
04/21/2007 
Article Link

A purported Taliban statement, posted on the Internet, demanded the release of a number of the group's fighters and a withdrawal of French troops in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers.
 Troops in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo EFEA purported Taliban statement, posted on the Internet, demanded the release of a number of the group's fighters and a withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers.

The Taliban has claimed it abducted a French man and woman and three Afghans from the aid group Terre d'Enfance who disappeared from the southwestern Nimroz province on April 3.

In the statement posted on a Web site on Friday, the Taliban gave the Afghan government one week to meet their demands. Afghanistan's authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The French Embassy in Kabul was aware of the posting and is analysing it, said an embassy official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

France has about 1,000 troops in the 36,000-strong NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) led force.

The apparent kidnapping of the French aid workers came after Afghan authorities released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian newspaper reporter, who was kidnapped along with his two Afghan colleagues by the Taliban in southern Helmand province on March 5.

The two Afghans, a freelance reporter working as the Italian's translator and his driver, were killed. The exchange was widely criticised by Afghan lawmakers, analysts and international workers, who said it would encourage further abductions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ruled out any future exchanges, but told French President Jacques Chirac, in a phone call last week, that Afghan authorities will do their best to secure the release of the kidnapped aid workers.
More on link

Pak-Afghan border fencing at all costs: Kasuri
From our ANI Correspondent Islamabad, Apr 22
Article Link

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said that the decision to fence the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border would be implemented at all costs

He said the decision was taken to curb the cross border movement of terrorists into and from Afghanistan.

Pakistan desired friendly ties with Afghanistan, but relations could only be improved through mutual understanding rather than through media exposure, the Daily Times quoted him as saying, adding that President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai would soon hold a meeting to discuss the fencing issue and other pressing concerns. 

Pakistan had in December 2006 announced its plan to fence and mine parts of its border with Afghanistan to prevent cross border movement of terrorists.
More on link


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## The Bread Guy (23 Apr 2007)

*From Canadian custody into cruel hands*
Savage beatings, electrocution, whipping and extreme cold: Detainees detail a litany of abuses by Afghan authorities
GRAEME SMITH, Globe & Mail, 23 Apr 07
Article link  - Permalink

Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers and sent to Kandahar's notorious jails say they were beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks during interrogation.  In 30 face-to-face interviews with men recently captured in Kandahar province, a Globe and Mail investigation has uncovered a litany of gruesome stories and a clear pattern of abuse by the Afghan authorities who work closely with Canadian troops, despite Canada's assurances that the rights of detainees are protected.  Canadian forces regularly hold detainees for a few days of questioning at Kandahar Air Field, then give them to the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's feared intelligence police.  Over and over, detainees described how Canadians tied their hands with plastic straps, marking the start of nightmarish journeys through shadowy jails and blood-spattered interrogation rooms.  None of the abuse was inflicted by Canadians, and most Afghans captured -- even those who clearly sympathized with the Taliban -- praised the Canadian soldiers for their politeness, their gentle handling of captives and their comfortable detention  facility ....



*Seven Afghan intelligence officers killed in fresh Taliban violence*
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 23 Apr 07
Article link

Six Afghan intelligence officers were killed in eastern Afghanistan Monday when their vehicle was blown up by a mine, while one more agent was kidnapped and killed in the southern region of the country by Taliban insurgents, officials said.  The six agents were on their way from Alinegar district of eastern Laghman province to the neighboring province of Nooristan when their vehicle was hit by a newly-planted mine, Noor Agha, a provincial deputy governor, said.  He said that the officers belonged to the intelligence department of Nooristan province and were returning to their office on Monday morning after the completion of a mission. Three more officers were wounded, Agha added.  Meanwhile, another intelligence officer was kidnapped and later killed by suspected Taliban militants in southern Ghazni province, said the provincial police chief, Alishah Ahmadzai ....


*Afghanistan: intelligence service officer beheaded*
Associated Press, via Pravda (RUS), 23 Apr 07
Article link

One Afghan intelligence service employee was abducted and beheaded and the agency's vehicle was struck with a remote-controlled bomb in a separate attack by assailants, with six employees killed and three wounded, officials said Monday.  Another roadside bomb attack in the south killed two policemen, while a large car bomb was found and defused in the capital, Kabul.  On Monday, in Laghman province's Alingar district, an intelligence service vehicle driving from neighboring Nuristan province was hit by a remote-controlled bomb, said provincial police chief Abdul Karim. He said six of the agency's workers were killed, while three others were wounded.  An intelligence service vehicle was also bombed in the same province on Sunday, in an attack that killed two intelligence service officers, a soldier and a driver in the provincial capital Mehtar Lam.  In Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, an intelligence service employee was invited into a home, then kidnapped and beheaded Sunday by the Taliban, said deputy governor Mohammad Kazim Allayar. He said the owner of the house is currently under investigation .....



*Charter doesn't apply in detainee-rights case, Ottawa will argue*
Paul Koring, Globe & Mail, 21 Apr 07
Article link  - Permalink

Canada's Charter of Rights doesn't cover Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan, the government claims, and it will ask the Federal Court to toss out a case brought by rights groups demanding that prisoner transfers be stopped because of the risk that they will be tortured or abused in Afghan jails.  Details of the government's position came to light late yesterday afternoon. The Defence Department didn't respond to requests for comment.  "The fate of the detainees hangs in the balance, as does the conscience of the country," said Jason Gratl, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, one of the groups demanding an end to detainee transfers.  The two groups had filed an application in Federal Court for a judicial review of Canada's policy of handing detainees over to Afghan police who, according to the United Nations and Afghan human-rights organizations, are known to torture and abuse prisoners ....



*New bombs add fuel to enemy’s fire*
Canadians on lookout for latest threat
CHRIS LAMBIE, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 22 Apr 07
Article link

Canadians have added fuel bombs to the list of potential threats their convoys face in Kandahar.  Before soldiers leave the gates of fortified camps here, they get threat briefings from various intelligence-gathering organizations about what they might face outside the wire.  "The one we just got — they basically referred to it as a fuel bomb," said Sgt. John Gorrell, a Nova Scotian from Oxford who works as a bodyguard for the commander of the provincial reconstruction team.  "The key thing for us is we normally look for certain types of vehicles. They usually steal a white Toyota Corolla or they steal a yellow taxi (to use as suicide bombs). So that’s what we normally look for; whereas now, with these fuel bombs, supposedly they’re putting them in sort of unobvious things, like a fuel cart. They’ll put it in a fuel cart, cover it with food, a guy walks along, puts it by the side of the road, and the next thing you know — boom." ....



*Canada wrestles over troop deployment in Afghanistan*
Christopher Mason, International Herald Tribune/New York Times, 22 Apr 07
Article link

The sound of bagpipes and drums and the slow, marching footsteps of about 1,200 mourners marked the beginning of the journey from church to cemetery here for the body of Corporal Brent Poland, a Canadian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan on April 8.  People streamed out of the church Friday to form a procession made up of soldiers, police officers, family, friends and residents in this city of 74,000 on the shores of Lake Huron.  Those at the back of the parade had barely marched out of the church parking lot by the time the hearse at the front had reached the end of the route two blocks away. Traffic in the area came to a stop and many, including a group of Vietnam veterans that had crossed the border to attend, lined the street carrying Canadian and U.S. flags.  The outpouring of grief that led funeral organizers to move the service to the largest church in the city played out eight times this month, following the deaths of that many Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Seven of them were killed during the deadliest week for Canada's military since the Korean War.  Poland, 37, and five other Canadian soldiers were killed Easter Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded under their light-armor vehicle. Two more soldiers died three days later in a similar attack. An eighth Canadian soldier was killed Wednesday when he fell from a communications tower.  The deaths further brought the war home for a country mostly determined to contribute to the mission. But they also led many to look at NATO casualty counts in Afghanistan, which have become the measuring stick in assessing Canada's role in the mission, and wonder more loudly whether it is time for other NATO countries that have suffered fewer casualties to assume greater responsibilities ....



*Aid groups wearing out welcome*
Seem to be competing with local government
Rosie Dimanno, Toronto Star, 23 Apr 07
Article link

Memo to Canada's non-governmental agencies in Afghanistan: Your humanitarian passport is no longer valid.  Not, at least, if you keep this up – spiting Afghanistan to save NGO face, purpose and proprietary agenda for the country.  So says Mohammad Ehsan Zia, who comes to the escalating controversy of who knows what's best for his nation from the perspective of a former NGO operative, 17 years in Afghanistan with Norway Church Aid.  Now he's minister of rural rehabilitation and development, a position that has put him in abrasive conflict with the very constituency of altruism to which Zia dedicated much of his life.  "The NGOs are the only uninvited entities in this country," the minister says provocatively. "My government has invited Canadian soldiers to come and assist us. But the NGOs cannot show any such invitation from any member of this government."  Do non-governmental agencies really want Afghanistan to get off its knees, no longer reliant on the international humanitarians bountiful? ....



*New tanks will buy Afghan mission more time*
SCOTT TAYLOR, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 23 Apr 07
Article link

 ....  The new tanks will not win the campaign in Kandahar; they will simply add more armoured protection for our soldiers, which in turn buys the mission a little more time. Increased casualties means decreased public support, and ultimately domestic politics will determine the duration of our commitment to Afghanistan ....


*Let us give tanks*
It's time to clear up some confusion about the importance of the recently announced acquisition of Leopard 2 tanks to the conflict in Afghanistan
Lewis MacKenzie, Ottawa Citizen, 23 Apr 07
Article link

....When all is said and done the comment that has been the most misleading in recent days has been, "the new tank will provide better protection for our soldiers."  Most civilians will assume that means better protection for the tank crew. While that is true, the primary beneficiaries of the protection offered by the new tank will be the infantry, as the synergy of the "knife, fork and spoon" is enhanced, much to the dismay of the insurgents.



*Life in Afghanistan is getting better*
Recent history shows clearly that isolationism doesn't work. If we try to ignore a problem, it doesn't mean the problem will go away
Kim Howells, Ottawa Citizen, 23 Apr 07
Article link

.... Women, excluded from society by the Taliban, are now in government: They form a quarter of the total number of MPs sitting in the 351-member National Assembly. Gender equality is enshrined in the Afghan Constitution. On March 30, Cherie Booth Q.C., the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, opened a roundtable meeting in London on women's rights in Afghanistan that brought together a group of leading Afghan women, representatives from the U.K.'s Afghan and Muslim communities and major non-governmental organizations active in Afghanistan. The meeting concluded that, though Afghan women still face considerable challenges, their voices are finally being heard and they are actively participating in shaping their country's future ....  Kim Howells is British minister of state responsible for the Middle East, Afghanistan and South Asia, counter-narcotics, counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, UN and UN reform.



*Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Added to the List of Countries Eligible for Assistance Under the HIPC Initiative*
International Monetary Fund news release No. 07/75, 21 Apr 07
Article link

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have deemed the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan eligible for assistance under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative based on a preliminary assessment.

To start benefiting from debt relief at the HIPC decision point, Afghanistan will need to take the following actions:

• continue the satisfactory performance under the program supported by the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility;

• work toward regularizing its relations with creditors; and

• reach an understanding with the World Bank and IMF on a set of specific reforms to be implemented to benefit from irrevocable debt relief ....


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## MarkOttawa (23 Apr 2007)

Dutch troops in Afghanistan to adopt more offensive tactics
People's Daily Online (Xinhua), April 23 (no mention in major Canadian media--via _Afghanistan Watch_)
http://english.people.com.cn/200704/23/eng20070423_369027.html
http://afghanwatch.blogspot.com/2007/04/afghanistan-april-23-2007.html



> The Dutch troops in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan will change its strategy this month, which could lead to more fighting with hostile groups, Dutch daily Trouw reported on Monday.
> 
> The battle group of the Dutch mission in Uruzgan will patrol around the clock to prevent movement by any gatherings of insurgents, including members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, lieutenant colonel Rob Querido, commander of the battle group, told Trouw.
> 
> ...



Fighting the last war ... again
Globe and Mail (online only), April 23 by Eugene Lang
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070423.wcomment0423/BNStory/GlobeSportsFootball/



> The Canadian Forces are acquiring new/used tanks from the Netherlands. We've seen this movie before. It has a tortured plot and an unhappy ending.
> 
> In the mid-1990s, our Forces bought four new/used submarines from the United Kingdom. Known as the Upholder Class, these boats were built in the 1980s for the Royal Navy and were mothballed shortly thereafter. The Upholders replaced the Canadian Navy's three-decade-old Oberon Class submarines. The Upholders were alleged to be state of the art and more new than used. Given a fresh coat of paint, Canada would have four world-class submarines at a bargain-basement price.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (24 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 24, 2007*

Canada helps finish work on vital Afghan road
Updated Mon. Apr. 23 2007 10:35 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Canadian money is helping put the finishing touches on one of the most important roadways in southern Afghanistan, an act officials hope will provide both symbolic and real progress.

Highway 4 is one of the most travelled roads in Afghanistan, linking Kandahar city to Spin Boldak, a border town and major port of entry to Pakistan -- Afghanistan's most important but least trusted trading partner.

The road leads to Quetta, considered by many to be a city of refuge for the Taliban in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. While U.S. special forces and Afghan troops try to patrol about 600 kilometres of border in the district, it's still very insecure.

"Cross-border terrorism and violence is here, many violence, many terrorists is here -- they come from Pakistan," said Afghan border guard Ahmed Sadullah.

Canada has a role in mentoring Afghan customs and border officials. Searching just one jingle truck, the Afghan equivalents of a Canadian 18-wheeler, can take up to eight hours. As a result, many pass through without inspection.
More on link

Opium funds Taliban operations, hurts Afghan economy, Fallon Says  
Sunday April 22, 2007 (0612 PST)
Article Link

WASHINGTON: The illicit, but lucrative, opium trade is helping to finance Taliban operations while placing a stranglehold on Afghanistan's economy, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified during a Congressional hearing the other day. 
In fact, some military analysts credit the recent relative lull in Taliban activity to their participation in the annual opium harvest that?s under way now in Afghanistan, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members. 

This is opium harvest season, I'm told, and that's probably one of the reasons why the Taliban have been relatively quiet in the last couple of weeks because (intelligence analysts) tell me they're busy out in the fields harvesting their crops Fallon told committee members. 
More on link

Critics blast Tories over Afghan detainees
Updated Mon. Apr. 23 2007 9:24 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Critics are blasting the Canadian government and calling for the defence minister's resignation over new allegations that Afghan prisoners had been tortured.

"If this report is accurate, Canadians have engaged in war crimes, not just individually but as matters of policy," said Michael Byers, a professor of international law, on Monday. 

"Canadian forces cannot be turned into a collection agency for torturers, and Mr. O'Connor and Gen. Hillier have let it become that," added law professor Amir Attaran.

He was referring to Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff for the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Monday that Afghans handed over to local authorities after being interrogated by Canadian soldiers say they have been beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and interrogated by electric shock in Kandahar jails. 
More on link

Afghan forces surround 200 Taliban fighters
Updated Mon. Apr. 23 2007 12:59 PM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan forces have trapped up to 200 Taliban fighters in a southern village, possibly including the militia's military commander, demanding they surrender or come under attack, Afghan officials said Monday. 

Afghan police and government officials said the suspected Taliban fighters were surrounded as they gathered for a meeting in the mountain village of Keshay in Uruzgan province on Saturday. 

Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO spokeswoman Lt. Col. Angela Billings said she had no such information. 

Khan told The Associated Press that Mullah Dadullah, a close aide to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, and other regional Taliban commanders were at the meeting when the village was surrounded. The security forces were still positioned around the village on Monday, he said. 

"We are trying to get him to surrender and to arrest these Taliban without fighting," he said. 
More on link

Operations underway to clear Helmand of insurgents
Article Link

KABUL, Apr 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan and NATO-led ISAF officials said on Sunday joint operations had been launched to purge the lawless southern Helmand province of insurgents.  

Major General Zahir Azimi, defence ministry spokesman, and a representative of ISAF told a joint news conference here the counter-insurgency operations would soon yield positive results. 

Azimi said: "We did tolerate for a while the insurgents for certain political and tribal reasons in the hope to achieve the twin objectives of peace and security without exercising the military option. But that did not work." 

Although operations Akilaza and Auqab Norozi have been in progress, Taliban remain in control of three Helmand districts including Musa Qala. 

Answering a query, Azimi claimed the insurgents were not in a position to confront the Afghan National Army "which is stronger than ever before." He added $5.312 billion would be spent on equipping Afghan Army (ANA) and air force this year. 
More on link

New bombs add fuel to enemy’s fire  
Canadians on lookout for latest threat 
By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter 2007-04-22
Article Link

KANDAHAR — Canadians have added fuel bombs to the list of potential threats their convoys face in Kandahar.

Before soldiers leave the gates of fortified camps here, they get threat briefings from various intelligence-gathering organizations about what they might face outside the wire. 

"The one we just got — they basically referred to it as a fuel bomb," said Sgt. John Gorrell, a Nova Scotian from Oxford who works as a bodyguard for the commander of the provincial reconstruction team.

"The key thing for us is we normally look for certain types of vehicles. They usually steal a white Toyota Corolla or they steal a yellow taxi (to use as suicide bombs). So that’s what we normally look for; whereas now, with these fuel bombs, supposedly they’re putting them in sort of unobvious things, like a fuel cart. They’ll put it in a fuel cart, cover it with food, a guy walks along, puts it by the side of the road, and the next thing you know — boom."

Sgt. Gorrell passed on the warning to his crew members as they prepared to leave Camp Nathan Smith today, destined for Kandahar airfield.

The new threat means the 40-year-old convoy commander will have to change his tactics, especially in built-up areas where there are lots of market stalls that could hide fuel bombs.
More on link

An excellent daily source for Military News....worth a read.

MILNEWS.ca - Military News for Canadians
MILNEW.ca Link

Brits warn Canadian Afghan pullout by 2009 ‘illogical’
CanWest News Service  Monday, April 23, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA — Withdrawing Canadian troops from Afghanistan by 2009 would be an “illogical” decision that would not spare Canada from being an al-Qaida terrorist target, a visiting British cabinet minister warned Monday.

“I find it illogical really when I hear politicians say, well you know, we shouldn’t really be there, they’re not a threat to us. This is a worldwide threat. These people will attack whichever target they think is the easiest to attack and brings the most spectacular results. That could be London, it could be Paris, it could be Madrid, it could be New York, or it could be Toronto or Vancouver,” British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the Ottawa Citizen in an exclusive interview.

Howells made the comment after being asked for his reaction to a motion tabled in Parliament by the Liberal opposition that calls for a two-year cap on Canada’s military involvement in southern Afghanistan
More on link

Canadians want troops home by 2009: poll
Tue Apr 24 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA -- Almost two-thirds of Canadians say the country's troops in Afghanistan should be brought home on schedule by February 2009, a new national poll says. 
The poll, conducted exclusively by Ipsos-Reid for CanWest News Service and Global National, also said a slim majority of Canadians -- 52 per cent -- expressed support for the troops role in Afghanistan despite a rash of eight deaths in the field since Easter Sunday. 

The poll, conducted last Tuesday through Thursday, is the first time Ipsos-Reid has asked Canadians whether Canada's troop commitment should go beyond February 2009. 

The findings land as MPs prepared to vote today on a Liberal motion limiting the Afghanistan mission to February 2009. 
More on link

Combat death rattles Holland
 TheStar.com  April 24, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link

Rules, not courage, dictate Dutch role in war zone

KANDAHAR–Outside the little clapboard church on base, Dutch soldiers gather to commiserate and mourn.

One, squatting on his haunches, sobs into his hands. A colleague wraps comforting arms around his shoulders.

They are not accustomed to this – grieving for the dead, their own.

Early last Friday, the Netherlands suffered their first combat casualty in Afghanistan, a soldier killed when he stepped on a roadside bomb. It happened less than two kilometres from Forward Operating Base Robinson – where Canadians troops are deployed – in the Sangin River Valley, just over the border in Helmand province.

Last night, the remains of Cpl. Cor Strik were flown out of Kandahar Airfield following a ramp ceremony that was closed to the media, save for a Dutch TV crew – and they can only broadcast their footage after the 33-year-old victim's funeral is held back in Holland on Friday.
More on link

Detainee watchdog: 'We can't monitor these people'
Despite repeated assurances by O'Connor, Afghan agency says its staff are barred from visiting key detention centre in Kandahar 
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update April 24, 2007 at 2:08 AM EST
Article Link

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The watchdog agency Canada is relying on to prevent abuse of detainees in Afghan custody says it can't do the job properly because it has been barred from access to the notorious detention cells of the intelligence service.

Despite assurances that any abuse would be reported, repeated in the House of Commons by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor on Monday, the regional head of investigations for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission conceded in a recent interview that his staff are being prevented from visiting detainees in the National Directorate of Security's detention cells in Kandahar.
More on link

BMS world mission supports new businesses in Afghanistan  
Tuesday April 24, 2007 (0313 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: BMS World Mission is supporting the Micro Enterprise Development project in Afghanistan as it boosts the development and expansion of business in Afghanistan with the addition of two new consultants and a number of new business start-ups. 
The new consultants will set to work immediately on strengthening existing businesses and providing business training to some of the entrepreneurs already receiving MED loans. 

The BMS Development Committee approved a grant of approximately ?10,200 in January which will go towards the funding of the Business Development Services sector of the MED project for all of 2007. 
More on link

New U.N. office opens in central region  
Tuesday April 24, 2007 (0313 PST)
Article Link

 NEW YORK: The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has opened a new office, in Daikundi, to drive development in the central highlands of Afghanistan. 
"We believe that our presence can help cement peace, stability and progress for the people of Afghanistan and that is why we will open more offices around the country as the security situation allows," said secretary general Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative, Tom Koenigs. 

Established three years ago the Daikundi region, 310 kilometres from Kabul, had previously been an isolated district of Uruzgan province and is populated mainly by Hazaras not the majority Pashtun
More on link

Afghan leaders lack "strategic vision": Abdullah Abdullah 
Tuesday April 24, 2007 (0313 PST)
Article Link

 ALMATY: Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah warns that the government of President Hamid Karzai suffers from "shortcomings in strategic vision" that are contributing to a deteriorating security situation in an ethnically diverse country. 

In an interview with Inter Press Service (IPS) writer Peyman Pejman, on the sidelines of the annual Eurasia Media Forum in Almaty, Abdullah, who was minister from 1998 to 2004, said lack of attention on the part of the Karzai government to severaleconomically deprived provinces has made it possible for the Taliban to return. 
More on link


Afghan police seize 140 kg heroine  
Tuesday April 24, 2007 (0313 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Afghan police confiscated 140 kg heroine after fire exchange with drug smugglers in the western Herat province, a local newspaper reported Monday. 
The police seized 140 kg heroine and a motorbike after a 30-minute clash with smugglers on Saturday evening in Goryan district along the border with Iran, daily Outlook quoted a police officialdom Ahmad Saghar as saying. 

However, the smugglers made their escape, it said. 
More on link

Fusion system aids war on drugs in Afghanistan  
Monday April 23, 2007 (0032 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: An effort between the 350th Electronic Systems Group here and one of its small-business partners has yielded a big pay-off for U.S. and coalition forces waging the war on terrorism. 
An Afghanistan-based fusion center they developed has helped officials seize more than 45 tons of narcotics and boosted the related arrest rate by 75 percent. 

"It is gratifying to know that a small contract action can have such a large impact supporting our warfighters in the (war on terrorism)," said Col. Steven Webb, 350th Electronic Systems Group commander. 

The counter narcotics-terrorism Intelligence Fusion Center is a commercial off-the-shelf-based system designed to capture, share and disseminate counter narcotics-terrorism intelligence data. Information gathered by Global Positioning Systems, human intelligence and coalition partners furnish the IFC's database, specially tailored for the counter narcotics-terrorism mission. 
More on link

Secret ?1million payout to SAS soldier crippled by US helicopter  
Monday April 23, 2007 (0032 PST)
Article Link

 Washington: The Ministry of Defence has secretly paid ?1million to a wounded SAS soldier in the first case of compensation for injuries sustained on the battlefield during wartime. 
After a five-year legal battle, the MoD privately settled the claim made by "Soldier J', who was crushed beneath a United States helicopter in Afghanistan while fighting the Taliban. 

By settling out of court, the MoD avoided creating a legal precedent. Soldier J, a 37-year-old former corporal, is also banned from discussing details of the incident
More on link


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## Colin Parkinson (24 Apr 2007)

What Are We Doing in Afghanistan?
Canadian troops in Kandahar. The question grips parliament. Tyee panelists debate it this Thursday.
By Richard Warnica
Published: April 24, 2007
  

TheTyee.ca
When Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer fell from a communications tower in Kandahar last week, he became the 54th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since Canada's mission there began in 2002.
That number, 54, makes the Afghan mission Canada's bloodiest since the Korean War. And for a generation born and raised after that conflict, it marks their first regular dose of flag-draped coffins and heartbroken young families. 
Canada and Afghanistan: A Tyee Panel
Tyee regulars Michael Byers, Jared Ferrie and Terry Glavin, plus human rights expert Lauryn Oates debate and discuss Canada's role in fighting the Taliban and rebuilding Afghanistan. 
When: Thursday, April 26th, 7:30 p.m. 
Where: The Alibi Room, 157 Alexander Street at Main, Vancouver, B.C. 
Free? Yes.
The deaths, costs and moral compromises of the Afghan mission have proliferated since Canadian soldiers moved out of the areas surrounding Kabul two years ago and into the Taliban strongholds in the south. As the mission has bloodied, its status as political football has strengthened. When news of Klumpenhouwer's death reached Canada, it quickly became part of a growing political battle. 
Last week, the Opposition Liberals tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling for Canada to withdraw its troops no later than the end of the current deployment in February 2009. The Conservative government responded by accusing the Liberals of using dead soldiers to their political advantage. The NDP, meanwhile, continue to call for an end to the bloody campaign. 
Vexing questions
But divisions on Afghanistan don't break down easily along ideological lines. The questions about what we're doing there and why aren't partisan. Many advocates of the mission are hugely critical of its tactics. While among those who want to pull out, the why and the when are far from agreed on points.
ADVERTISEMENT
Here's just a sample of the many questions that remain open about the mission:
Is it right to ask Canadian soldiers to die for a cause only tangentially related to Canadian security? On the other hand, what will the sacrifice of those who have already died mean if Canada pulls out before the mission is complete? For that matter, what does a complete mission in Afghanistan look like? 
On the tactical end, if Canada leaves, does that mean the Taliban will return? And if we stay, can the Taliban be beaten? 
On human rights, the Karzai government is rife with former warlords and accused war criminals. What does it mean for Canadian values when our military cooperates with them? That said, the Taliban regime had one of the worst human rights records of any the world, particularly when it came to women. How can we claim to be committed to rights if we allow them to come back to power?
On drugs, opium production has doubled since the Taliban was overthrown. What are we doing about that, and what should we? 
Tyee panel: mixed perspectives
This Thursday in Vancouver, Michael Byers, an early critic of Canada's detainee policy, will join other Tyee regulars and Afghanistan experts to probe those questions at an informal forum in Gastown's Alibi room. 
Joining Byers will be Vancouver journalist and writer Terry Glavin, reporter Jared Ferrie, who recently returned from his second trip to Afghanistan and whose writing on the country has appeared in the Tyee, This Magazine and Metro, among others, and human rights advocate Lauryn Oates, the vice-president of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. 
The panelists are all experts on the issue. But they don't all agree about the mission's future. If you want to learn more and live in the Vancouver area, feel free to come down and watch. If you don't live in Vancouver, but still have a question for the panel, email me at rwarnica@thetyee.ca, or put a comment below and I'll do my best to put it to them. 
Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. Byers is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. He is the author or editor of five books, including War Law: Understanding International Law and Armed Conflict (2005) and Intent for a Nation: What is Canada For? (June 2007).
Byers is a prominent public critic of Canada's Afghan mission. He made his case against the deployment in these pages in October of 2006 and again, more recently, in the spring issue of Maisonneuve. 
Byers was also one of the first to criticize Canada's policy of handing captured prisoners over to American and Afghan authorities, an issue that exploded Monday when a report in the Globe and Mail revealed that 30 detainees handed over by the Canadians had gone on to be tortured. 
Jared Ferrie is a journalist who has written extensively about Afghanistan, where he has been and reported from twice since the fall of the Taliban. Ferrie's reporting on Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers recently earned a citation for excellence from the Canadian Association of Journalists.
In a recent piece for This Magazine, Ferrie dissected some of the errors in NATO strategy and acknowledged the human rights failings of many Karzai allies. But, he argued, Canadian efforts are making a difference in the lives of ordinary Afghans and only with continued military and humanitarian support can those changes be secured and built upon.
Terry Glavin is a journalist, author and adjunct professor in UBC's department of theater, film and creative writing. Since he left daily journalism 14 years ago, he has won a dozen national and regional writing awards. His latest book is The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost and Left Behind.
In recent years, Glavin has emerged as a leading proponent of liberal interventionism, the idea that military action is sometimes necessary to protect human rights abroad. You can read Glavin's writing on Afghanistan and related thoughts on Iraq and the left online in The Tyee and the Georgia Straight.
Lauryn Oates has worked as an activist on women's rights in Afghanistan since 1996, as the founder of the Vancouver and Montreal chapters of the non-profit solidarity network, Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan). 
Oates is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2000 Chatelaine Women of the Year, the 2001 National Post/L'Oréal Canada Women of Influence and a YTV Achievement Awards finalist for public service. She is based in Vancouver as an independent consultant and travels frequently in the Middle East and Central Asia. 
Related Tyee stories:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/04/24/AfghanForum/


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## GAP (25 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 25, 2007*

European allies urge Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan
Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Article Link

Canada received another plea on Tuesday to keep troops in Afghanistan.

"It would be sending a very negative signal if today, for example, one nation, which is seriously involved here, would to decide to call it off and to pull back its troops," Hansjorg Kretschmer, the European Commission ambassador to Afghanistan, told CanWest News Service in an exclusive interview from Kabul.

Kretschmer prefaced his comments by saying he did not want to be involved in Canada's "internal debate," but added: "I think any debate about this, and any decision about this today would certainly be premature because … we all fulfil an important role."

Kretschmer said a withdrawal of military forces would compromise the billions of international dollars already invested in rebuilding Afghanistan. 

"When you look at the need to build the education system, build the economic structures, to build a functioning government, a functioning court system, this is not done within two, three, four years," he said. "So everyone in the world that is contributing to this effort of building Afghanistan must be aware of that … It will be a long haul exercise."

Kretschmer spoke before Tuesday's vote in the House of Commons on a Liberal opposition motion — which was defeated 150 to 134 — to end Canadian military involvement in southern Afghanistan by 2009.

He said he was aware of the debate.

His comments came one day after the visiting British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told CanWest News Service that it would be "illogical" for Canada to announce an early withdrawal of its 2,500 military personnel in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province. 

Kretschmer said the Afghans do not have an adequate number of trained army and police personnel to protect their population so it is incumbent on the NATO mission to continue its security operations.
More on link

What Ottawa doesn't want you to know
By PAUL KORING  Wednesday, April 25, 2007 
Article Link

Government was told detainees faced 'extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial'

The Harper government knew from its own officials that prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extrajudicial killing, The Globe and Mail has learned.

But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access-to-information request.

Initially, Ottawa denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week.

Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe.

The Foreign Affairs report, titled Afghanistan-2006; Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights, was marked "CEO" for Canadian Eyes Only. It seems to remove any last vestige of doubt that the senior officials and ministers knew that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan jails.

It leaves untouched paragraphs such as those beginning "one positive development" or "there are some bright spots."
More on link

U.S. charges Canadian detainee with murder
By Carol Rosenberg Apr. 24, 2007 McClatchy Newspapers
Article Link

The Pentagon on Tuesday formally charged a Canadian citizen being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with murder for allegedly killing a U.S. Army medic during fighting in Afghanistan. The charge sets the stage for his trial by a military commission.

Omar Khadr, now 20, was just 15 on July 27, 2002, when he allegedly threw a grenade at U.S. soldiers who'd attacked a suspected al-Qaida compound near Khost, Afghanistan. The explosion killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, N.M., and partially blinded both Khadr and another American soldier.

Khadr also has been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorism and spying. The United States has accused him of helping al-Qaida convert land mines into roadside bombs, plotting with al-Qaida to kill U.S. troops, undergoing al-Qaida weapons training and surveilling American military convoys in preparation for al-Qaida attacks.

Lawyers for Khadr have argued that he never should have been held or charged and instead should have been treated under international law as a "child soldier" in a conflict zone.
More on link

Afghanistan ‘will do all it can’ to stop border fencing
Article Link

KABUL: Afghanistan will use all means to stop Pakistan erecting a fence on their border to stop the movement of Taliban militants, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry also denied Afghanistan had apologised for an incident last week in which its troops tore down part of the new fence being erected by Pakistani soldiers, sparking a gun battle which caused no casualties.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said in Islamabad the incident was raised in a commission of the Afghan, Pakistan and NATO-led militaries and “there was an apology”.

This was rejected by her Afghan counterpart, Sultan Ahmad Baheen. The ministry had this week summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul to lodge a protest about the fence, he told AFP. “We will use all legal tools to stop this fence,” he said. “It is not a solution to cross-border attacks, it divides families living in the area.”
More on link

Military cover-up revealed in Afghanistan friendly-fire death
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Link

WASHINGTON - An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former football star was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan said Tuesday a commanding officer had ordered him to keep quiet about what happened. 

The military at first portrayed Tillman's death as the result of heroic combat with the enemy. 

Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal told a congressional hearing that when he got the chance to talk to Tillman's brother, who had been in a nearby convoy on the fateful day, "I was ordered not to tell him what happened." 

"You were ordered not to tell him?" repeated Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 

"Roger that, sir," replied O'Neal, dressed in his Army uniform. 

The revelation came as committee members questioned whether, and when, top Defense officials and the White House knew Tillman's death in eastern Afghanistan three years ago was actually a result of gunfire from fellow U.S. soldiers. 
More on link

Canada Parliament rejects exit date from Afghanistan  
Article Link

TORONTO (AP) -- Canada's Parliament on Tuesday narrowly defeated a motion calling for the country to pull its 2,500 troops out of the NATO alliance fighting in Afghanistan by 2009.

The motion, which would have been nonbinding, was brought by Liberal opposition lawmakers who have been pushing for a troop withdrawal as the Canadian death toll has steadily mounted. Fifty-four Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed thus far in Afghanistan.

The motion was aimed at guaranteeing the combat mission wouldn't be extended beyond the current commitment, which is scheduled to end in February 2009.
More on link

Roadside blast kills 7 Afghan soldiers
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer   April 25, 2007
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan --A roadside bomb attack on an Afghan military convoy in eastern Afghanistan left seven soldiers dead Wednesday, a day after militants ambushed a police car in the west, killing four officers, officials said.

The soldiers were part of a 10-vehicle convoy traveling in the Wazekha area, in Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan, when a remotely controlled bomb exploded under one of their vehicles, said Gen. Murad Ali, Afghan National Army's deputy commander for the southern regions.

The blast left seven soldiers dead and one wounded, Ali said.

The blast occurred a day after a police vehicle was ambushed in Guzara district in Herat province on Tuesday evening, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. Four officers were killed and two others wounded in that attack.

Afghan and international forces, meanwhile, clashed with Taliban insurgents in two separate gun battles in the south and west on Monday, leaving 13 suspected militants dead and four other people wounded.
More on link

Suicide Bombings Backfire on Taliban, U.S. Officer Says
By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service
Article Link

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 – Recent suicide-bombing attacks against innocent Afghans indicate a changed Taliban strategy that is backfiring on the radical Islamic group, a senior U.S. military officer in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters today. 
A spate of suicide bombings targeting residents of the city of Khowst and other areas in Afghanistan have turned Afghans against the Taliban, Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Divisionâ€™s 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference. Schweitzerâ€™s command operates in Paktika, Paktia, Lowgar, Ghazni and Khost provinces in the southeastern part of the country. 

â€œKhowst is a pretty developed city in Afghanistan, and it has been a target of suicide (improvised explosive devices),â€ he said. â€œWe think it is going to continue to be a target of IEDs for the Taliban.â€ 

However, the Talibanâ€™s plan to intimidate Khowstâ€™s citizens into not cooperating with the Afghan government or its coalition partners â€œis just not working for them,â€ the colonel said. 

Angry residents of Khowst and other towns plagued by terror bombings are telling the Taliban not to attack their children, families or schools, Schweitzer said. 
More on link

Poppies over 21,000 acres of land eradicated
Article Link

KANDAHAR CITY, April 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Twenty-one thousand acres of poppy crops have been eradicated so far in the southern Kandahar province that borders Pakistan.

A governmental drive to wipe out the banned crop was currently underway in seven districts of the insurgency-wracked province, Governor Asadullah Khalid said on Monday.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, the governor revealed around 4,000 acres of land was purged last week of poppies in the said districts.

Police were pressing on with the anti-poppy campaign in Kandahar, said Khalid, who voiced strong determination to cleanse the whole province of the illegal crop.

Brigadier Gen. Asmatullah Alizai, Kandahar police chief, told this scribe they had encountered no resistance during the last one week to the anti-poppy effort.

The campaign was going on at a steady clip in Shah Walikot, Daman, Arghandab, Zherai, Takhta Pul, Maiwand and Dand districts, the police chief continued
More on link

Harper stands by O'Connor as furor grows
DANIEL LEBLANC 
Article Link

With a report from Rhéal Séguin in Quebec and Alex Dobrota

OTTAWA -- Stephen Harper brushed off growing calls yesterday for his Defence Minister's head and dismissed the furor over the torture of Afghans captured by Canadian soldiers as "allegations of the Taliban."

The Prime Minister said his officials haven't been able to corroborate complaints by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which told The Globe and Mail it cannot do the job Ottawa has contracted it to do because it cannot follow up on all prisoners captured by Canadian troops.

In addition, Mr. Harper rejected arguments that Canadians could be committing war crimes for complicity in torture if they continue to transfer detainees into Afghan custody. Under the Geneva Conventions, Canada must ensure prisoners it transfers to other authorities are not abused.

"We do not have evidence that [the torture] is true. And certainly I have to say that to suggest the Canadian Forces would deliberately violate the Geneva Convention, and to make that suggestion solely based on the allegations of the Taliban, I think is the height of irresponsibility."
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (26 Apr 2007)

Leopard-kampvogne til Afghanistan
dr.dk, April 19
http://dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2007/04/19/045403.htm?wbc_purpose=update+-+81k



> Hæren planlægger at sende en kampvogns-deling bestående af fem Leopard-kampvogne som forstærkning til soldaterne i Helmand i Afghanistan.
> 
> - Det er militært set en god ide, mener major Kenneth Pedersen, selvom de er så tunge, at der kun kan være en med hvert transportfly.
> 
> ...



More here:

Afstan: More Leopards leaping in
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/04/afstan-more-leopards-leaping-in.html



> The Danish Army is deploying five Leopard 2 tanks to join its troops (around 400) in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan. I await reaction from the usual suspects.



Thanks to an e-mail from the Conference of Defence Associations: an excerpt:



> ...And by the way Denmark will also be deploying Leopard tanks in Southern Afghanistan.



I hope this is not an abuse of this topic but it is news.

Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (27 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 27, 2007*


Taliban take over south Afghan district  
Updated Fri. Apr. 27 2007 6:12 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants have seized control of a district in eastern Afghanistan after an hours-long clash that killed five people, including the local mayor and his police chief, a senior official said Friday. 

The Taliban takeover is an embarrassment to the Afghan government and its foreign backers, and shows how vulnerable remote areas remain despite the presence of some 47,000 U.S. and NATO troops. 

Militants launched the attack Thursday evening on the Giro district of Ghazni province, setting fire to several buildings and cutting communication lines, said provincial deputy governor Kazim Allayer. 

The district mayor and four policemen, including the police chief, were killed in a battle that lasted several hours, Allayer said. Police reinforcements have been sent to the area, Ghazni's deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman said. 

Giro is about 200 miles east of northern Helmand province, where a large NATO operation is under way. 

"Giro collapsed last night, captured by the Taliban after heavy fighting between the police and the Taliban," said Gen. Murad Ali, deputy regional corps commander of the Afghan army. 

The Afghan army sent troops early Friday from Ghazni and Paktika to assist, Ali said. 
More on link

Cdns. have had access to detainees all along: Day
Updated Thu. Apr. 26 2007 4:41 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

The Conservative government seems to be changing its story on the status of Canada's access to Afghan detainees. 

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced Wednesday that a deal had been struck with Afghan intelligence to get access to prisoners to investigate allegations of torture. 

Today, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day stunned the opposition by saying corrections officers have always had access to Afghan detainees after they have been transferred to Afghan officials. 

The conflicting statements arose during a raucous question period, where members of the opposition once again called for O'Connor's resignation after it was learned no new agreement was in fact finalized to ensure the safe transfer of Afghanistan prisoners -- as was previously stated by the defence minister. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed on Thursday during question period that officials had yet to draft the aforementioned agreement. 
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Protocol: Canadian detainee agreement (pdf)  

ARRANGEMENT
FOR THE TRANSFER OF DETAINEES
BETWEEN
THE CANADIAN FORCES
AND
THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
AFGHANISTAN
THE CANADIAN FORCES and THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE OF THE
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN (the “Participants”), have
consented to the following Arrangement:

Agreement Link
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MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
BETWEEN
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
NORTHERN IRELAND
AND
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF
AFGHANISTAN
CONCERNING
TRANSFER BY THE UNITED KINGDOM ARMED FORCES TO AFGHAN
AUTHORITIES OF PERSONS DETAINED IN AFGHANISTAN.

UK Agreement Link
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Harper's role as point man questioned  
BRIAN LAGHI Globe and Mail Update April 26, 2007 at 10:38 PM EDT
Article Link

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper regularly travels across the country to make even the smallest of government announcements because, according to his handlers, leaving it to the ministers responsible won't draw television cameras to the show.

But as the controversy grows surrounding reports that Afghan detainees have been tortured, some Tories were left wondering Thursday whether Mr. Harper shouldn't start fading a little more into the background. A prime minister who wants to be known for competence shouldn't be the point man, they say, for a story that changes every day.

“When you take everything on on your own, how can you possibly – no matter how brilliant you may be – know the sensitivities of a file?” a senior Tory asked. “You're bound to make mistakes when you don't have the day-to-day, hour-to-hour, second-to-second knowledge.”

The government found itself changing its approach yesterday on the issue for the second time in as many days. On Wednesday, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced that his government had a new deal with the Afghans that would allow Canadian officials full access to prisoners that Canadian troops hand over in the war. That announcement came with the full knowledge of the PMO, whose spokespersons told reporters it was coming.
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War in Afghanistan being lost, says Musharraf  
Malaysia Sun Thursday 26th April, 2007  
Article Link

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is being lost.

He has also lashed out at Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai saying he is doing 'nothing against terrorism.'

The Pakistan president has also admitted, 'most Pakistanis are anti-American,' and has labeled his critics, those who say Pakistan is fueling the unrest in Afghanistan, as 'liars.'

The extraordinary outburst by Musharraf was revealed in an interview he gave to a daily newspaper in Spain, which was published on Thursday. The president was in Spain on a 3-day visit which ended on Thursday. Whilst he was being freely reported in Spain, Musharraf's interventionist role in his own country's media was about to be spotlighted by the international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch.
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French candidate eyes troop withdrawal in Afghanistan
April 26, 2007, 9:43PM Associated Press 
Article Link
  
PARIS — French presidential front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his stance on key foreign policy issues today, saying he might pull France's troops out of a NATO force in Afghanistan if he is elected.

He also denounced the United States' refusal to cap carbon emissions and proposed taxing imports from China because it too has refused to limit greenhouse gases.

Sarkozy, the governing conservatives' candidate, said he supported outgoing President Jacques Chirac's decision to pull 200 French special forces out of Afghanistan late last year. He said he would continue that policy if elected in the May 6 runoff vote. Some 1,100 French soldiers are currently part of a NATO force in Afghanistan.

"The long-term presence of French troops in that part of the world does not look definitive to me," he said in an interview with France-2 television.

Sarkozy will face Socialist Segolene Royal in the runoff after he finished first in an initial round of voting on Sunday.
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Keep troops in Afghanistan  
Editorial - Friday, April 27, 2007 @ 07:00 
Article Link

Maybe the partisan Canadian politics entwined with the Afghanistan mission debate are a sign of divided public opinion. 

Many Canadians are still of two minds about whether our military should be there, especially as the number of troop deaths continue to rise. But there's something distasteful about our MPs, sitting in their plush chairs in the House of Commons, playing politics to determine when the Canadian military should withdraw from combat duties in Afghanistan. 

Earlier this week in Parliament, the Liberals tabled a motion calling for a troop withdrawal by 2009. It was supported by the Bloc Quebecois. The ruling Conservatives, however, and the New Democrats, put aside their differences to defeat the Grits and Bloc by a 150-134 vote. 

There's a great deal that's strange about this scenario, even from a purely political perspective. 

It was the former Liberal government, for example, that first sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan. They've been there since 2001. And if the Grits say they never believed it was a war or combat situation, they're either incredibly naive or they're lying. 

As for the Bloc, somehow voting against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government must be seen as another step toward the inevitable - Quebec separating from Canada - since that is the only Bloc agenda (other than wringing our every last dollar). 
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France sees no long-term army role in Afghanistan
27 Apr 2007 10:36:02 GMT Source: Reuters
Article Link

PARIS, April 27 (Reuters) - France has no intention of playing a long-term military role in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Friday, hours before a Taliban deadline for a pullout to save French hostages expired.

Douste-Blazy, who supports right-wing presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, told Europe 1 radio that Sarkozy was right to say he saw no long-term presence in Afghanistan for the roughly 1,100 French forces stationed there.

"I think he is totally right. It goes in the same direction as the policy of President Jacques Chirac," Douste-Blazy said, adding that France had already withdrawn 200 special forces troops before the hostage crisis.

"We have no vocation to stay, occupying a country in the long-term. Moreover it is against France's values of respecting sovereignty, national independence and territorial integrity," Douste-Blazy added.
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Corps Restricts Non-Issued Armor Use
Military.com  |  By Christian Lowe  |  April 19, 2007
Article Link

The Marine Corps issued a directive Tuesday restricting the use of store-bought personal protective equipment in the war zone, including body armor, ballistic glasses, armor plates and fire-retardant clothing. 
Corps officials say Marines may not use such protective equipment in place of gear issued by service. Marines are free to buy and wear their own safety equipment - including body armor- officials explained, but they must also use their issued items and will not be reimbursed for their purchase. 

The Army issued a similar message in March of 2006 after controversy erupted over claims that a certain type of body armor vest designed by Fresno, Calif.-based Pinnacle Armor was more effective than service-issued Interceptor vests. But for more than a year, the Corps declined to follow suit. 
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Canada could utilize private security partnerships in Afghanistan
Kevin Dougherty  CanWest News Service  Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Article Link

QUEBEC - Canada is considering greater use of public-private partnerships to help bolster security both in Afghanistan and here at home, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told a counterterrorism conference Tuesday.

Already Canadian troops in Afghanistan are housed at the Kandahar Airfield base run by Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney used to run.

Halliburton has been awarded close to $10 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Asked what partnerships the Conservative government is considering in Canada, Day said the controversial formula, granting turn-key contracts to private-sector companies, could be used for Canada's border security.

"That's going to require massive infrastructure," Day told reporters. "To get the best system of delivery at the best price and there's a possibility for the private sector there."

In a wide-ranging speech to counterterrorism experts from Canada and the United States, Day recalled that western powers equipped Islamic fundamentalists in the 1980s with modern weapons to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan.

He said the Taliban, one of those Islamic groups armed by the West, "wanted a better country" and were "extremely zealous" in cracking down on corruption.

But drawing on the allegory of George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, Day said once in power the Taliban wielded "unbridled force."
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U.N. pushes for more women`s health aid in Afghanistan  
Thursday April 26, 2007 (0453 PST)
Article Link

NEW YORK: Afghanistan, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, must intensify efforts to improve the health of women and children as part of overall efforts to boost conditions in the war-ravaged country, the head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in Kabul. 

"I would like to make a strong call for greater investment in the health and well-being of Afghanistan`s women and their families," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. 

In Afghanistan, UNFPA is supporting a national census while seeking to promote gender equity and women`s empowerment and foster maternal health, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS 
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NATO pushes to improve Afghan army  
Friday April 27, 2007 (0448 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: NATO forces are putting more trained Afghan troops on the front lines and plan "rolling operations" against Taliban insurgents who are intensifying their attacks but remain unable to mount territory-seizing offensives, military officers say. 

Still, there`s little prospect the suffering of combatants or civilians will abate. After a bloody 2006, violence has escalated again, leaving more than 1,000 people dead in the first four months of 2007, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press. 

In the field and at NATO headquarters, there`s twofold optimism for the military campaign in the months ahead: that large-scale operations against the Taliban`s southern strongholds have blunted what appeared to be a drive to seize vital terrain, and that the Afghan National Army is crystalizing into an effective fighting force
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (28 Apr 2007)

Taliban Frees French Woman After 3 Weeks
AP, April 28
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/28/ap3664713.html



> The Taliban on Saturday freed a French aid worker who was kidnapped more than three weeks ago along with another French citizen and three Afghan colleagues.
> 
> Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the French woman was handed over to tribal leaders in the Maywand district of southern Kandahar province.
> 
> ...



Karzai offers peace, Taliban free Frenchwoman
Reuters, April 28
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070428/ts_nm/afghan_dc



> ...
> Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said Celine was freed in the southern province of Kandahar as a gesture of goodwill.
> 
> Speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location, he said a *deadline for France to meet the Taliban's demands for the release of the remaining four hostages had been extended a week* [emphasis added]...



'I am Movement Man'
_Toronto Star_, Apr 28, by Rosie DiManno
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/208248



> SPURWAN GHAR–He is either legend or myth, the lines have blurred.
> 
> But in person, Saddiq is one formidable human being.
> 
> ...



Passing the torch to a new generation
_Globe and Mail_, April 28, by Editor-in-Chief Edward Greenspon
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070428/GREENSPON28/Comment/comment/commentColumnistsHeadline/4/4/7/



> When reporter and author David Halberstam, one of my journalistic heroes, died in a California car accident this week at 73, I couldn't help but think of Graeme Smith, The Globe and Mail's 27-year-old correspondent in Afghanistan. Mr. Halberstam first came to prominence as an uncompromising truth-teller in Vietnam, a war that ended four years before Graeme was born.
> 
> But they shared a penchant for independence of mind and courage in pursuit of the truth. Mr. Halberstam, a great one for the blend of anecdote and analysis, would have loved the stories his peers told of him this week, such as the time a general berated the assembled press for a perceived transgression and Mr. Halberstam's arm shot up in response: "General, you don't understand. We are not corporals; we don't work for you." Another former colleague remarked on his contribution in establishing the vital importance of bearing witness with one's own eyes. "He didn't accept the word of generals and admirals. He stayed the course and kept the faith. He was more honest with the American public than the government."
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


----------



## GAP (29 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 29, 2007*

Torture in Afghanistan: the liberals knew
Joel-Denis Bellavance The Press Ottawa
Article Link Translation 

The old liberal government had been prevented by Canadian diplomats in station in Kabul, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, that torture was a current practice in the Afghan prisons.

In spite of these warnings, the Martin government decided to sign an agreement with the Karzaï government, in December 2005, in order to deliver to the Afghan authorities all the prisoners captured by the Canadian soldiers, reveal documents of the Ministries for Foreign Affairs obtained by the Press.

Between 2002 and 2005, Canada was accustomed to giving to the Americans the Afghan prisoners suspected of having bonds with the talibans. But Ottawa decided to negotiate an agreement of transfer of the prisoners with the Afghan authorities, following the controversy caused by the ill treatments in the center of military detention American of Guantánamo, in Cuba, and the tortures inflicted to the prisoners by American soldiers with the prison of Abou Ghraib, in Iraq.

The Canadian soldiers then started to transfer from the prisoners to the Afghan authorities as from December 2005. The documents obtained by the Press are annual reports prepared by the Canadian diplomats. They brush a general picture of the situation which prevails in Afghanistan, in particular the progress recorded as regards respect of the rights of the person and in creation of democratic institutions.

“The reports/ratios of monitoring of the Commission independent of the rights of the person of Afghanistan indicate that torture remains a current practice of the police officers, in particular at the stage of the investigation. This measurement is used to obtain confessions of the prisoners”, can one read in the annual report of 2004.

“Although the State of Afghanistan does not encourage physical violence, the military forces, the police officers and the services of information were implied in arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, cases of extortion, cases of torture and murders of individuals suspected of having made crimes. The commanders of the police force and their troops were implied in many cases of rape of women, girls and boys”, write the Canadian diplomats in their annual report of 2005.
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Alertness a survival skill for Canadian troops in Afghanistan
Jonathan Fowlie CanWest News Service Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article Link

ZANGABAD, Afghanistan — Driving a narrow path through the grape fields of Afghanistan’s Panjwaii district, a gunner sitting in the back of a Canadian RG-31 armoured vehicle attentively trains his gun on a young boy shuffling through the dirt ahead.

The child, who must be no older than 10 years old, seems harmless, though a warning has just come across the radio that strikes momentary fear in everyone in the vehicle: "he has a cell phone," it says. 

In most countries the child’s phone would barely have been noticed, or at least written off as a simple accouterment of modern living. Here, in a place where cell phones can be used to trigger roadside bombs aimed at coalition forces, it can be the observation that keeps you alive.

As the war against the Taliban in Kandahar province — the area Canadians are tasked with securing — drifts further away from open combat, and more towards an insurgency of rockets and hidden bombs, the need for constant vigilance has become exceedingly more important.

"It’s frustrating, because you can’t see your enemy so you play the reaction game," Master Cpl. Geoff Sgarbossa said while on a recent walking patrol through a small village in the Zangabad area of Kandahar province.

Sgarbossa, who is with 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry’s Charlie company said one of the ways to combat an enemy like the current Taliban in Kandahar is to be proactive and to run patrols throughout the local areas to demonstrate the NATO force is not going away.
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Torture allegations are lies, Afghan official says
Detention staff 'should be praised not punished'
John Ivison, National Post Published: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA - The head of Afghanistan's intelligence service says allegations of torture in detention centres operated by his security forces are "lies" and that Canadian officials and human rights groups can have full access to monitor detainees in future.

In a letter to Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador in Canada, which was obtained by the National Post, Amrullah Saleh, the head of the National Directorate of Security, rejects allegations of torture made in Canadian media this week. He said that NDS staff are "patriots who risk their lives on a daily basis to provide security for the people of Afghanistan. At the end of the month, they get 4800 Afghanis or $80. They should be praised not punished."

In the letter, which was forwarded to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Saleh said officials from Canada's embassy can visit detention facilities whenever they wish and interview as many detainees as they wish. He said

the same offer is open to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. "I have issued a letter to AIHRC allowing them unhindered access ... they have not used it so far." Representatives of the AIHRC could not be reached for comment yesterday.
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Afghan ambassador says Canada has not monitored prisoners
Juliet O'Neill CanWest News Service Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article Link

OTTAWA - Urging an end to the "political circus" over Afghan detainees, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says no Canadians, including corrections officers, have monitored treatment of prisoners turned over by Canadian military forces.

However, Ambassador Omar Samad said in a Global National interview that Canadian officials will soon have "unrestricted access" to prisons under an agreement currently being worked out with Canada in the wake of political uproar over alleged torture of detainees.

Samad contradicted assertions by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day that Corrections Canada officers have been monitoring prisoner treatment - an assertion Day repeated in the Commons Friday, saying they are there "to see if there are cases of torture."

Samad said Corrections Canada officers have for many months, under their mandate to help build Afghan police capacity, had access to some prisons in Afghanistan and may have come across prisoners.
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Death toll in Pakistan bombing reaches 28
Updated Sun. Apr. 29 2007 7:25 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- The death toll from a suicide bombing that targeted Pakistan's top security official rose to 28 Sunday, the country's information minister said.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao was left spattered in blood but only slightly injured in the attack Saturday in Charsadda, a town near his home village in North West Frontier Province.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which took place just after Sherpao completed a speech to a rally of his political supporters.

But suspicion inevitably fell on Islamic militants who have repeatedly targeted top Pakistani officials, including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for supporting the U.S.-led war on terror.

"It is a challenge to stop terrorism, and we are fighting it with full commitment," Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said.

Hamid Karzai, the president of neighboring Afghanistan, sent a message of condolences and said long-suffering Afghans knew the hurt that Pakistanis were feeling.
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French hostage released by Taliban heads home
Updated Sun. Apr. 29 2007 7:24 AM ET Associated Press
Article Link

PARIS -- A French aid worker who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan returned home to France Sunday, diplomatic officials said.

The woman, identified as Celine Cordelier by the French Embassy in Kabul, was flown home overnight after giving a tearful statement Saturday pleading for the release of four colleagues still held in southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban is demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan. Cordelier worked in southwestern Nimroz province and was kidnapped April 3 with her colleagues from the aid organization Terre d'Enfance.

The Taliban said the three Afghans and a French man, identified by the embassy as Eric Damfreville, would be continue to be held until French troops leave. Cordelier and Damfreville are both in their 20s, the Embassy said, without providing further details.
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Two soldiers, 14 Taliban killed in Afghanistan  
Sunday April 29, 2007 (0240 PST)
Article Link

KHOST: Afghan and NATO forces killed at least 14 suspected Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan, in a clash in which close air support was used, while two international soldiers died in separate incidents, officials said on Saturday. 
A group of Taliban militants attacked the district headquarters of Alisher district in eastern Khost province on the early hours of Saturday but Afghan police forces repelled the attack 'forcefully,' provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 

'The NATO Air Force engaged the militants from the air as the militants were taking their dead and wounded comrades while retreating from the are area,' Ayoub said. 
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Afghan fury over UK troops telling farmers they can grow poppies  
Sunday April 29, 2007 (0240 PST)
Article Link

LONDON: Afghan officials have reprimanded British diplomats over a campaign by UK troops in Helmand telling farmers that growing poppies was understandable and acceptable. 
A radio message broadcast across the province assured local farmers that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would not interfere with poppy fields currently being harvested. 

"Respected people of Helmand. The soldiers of ISAF and ANA do not destroy poppy fields," it said. "They know that many people of Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy. ISAF and the ANA do not want to stop people from earning their livelihoods
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Religious scholars slam suicide attacks as un-Islamic  
Sunday April 29, 2007 (0240 PST)
Article Link

KANDAHAR CITY: Religious scholars from the restive southern provinces of Helmand and Ghazni have denounced increasing suicide attacks by Taliban militants as an un-Islamic act. 
Helmand Ulema Council chief Haji Maulvi Ahmad, addressing a meeting of pro-government religious scholars, argued most suicide attacks took place in crowded public places and caused harm to civilians. 

"Which face of Islam are Taliban projecting to the world by killing innocent civilians in the name of Jihad (holy war)?" Ahmad asked while lashing out at the use of suicide bombers by the militants. 
More on link

Taliban take over southern district, kill district chief, head of police  
Saturday April 28, 2007 (0424 PST)
Article Link

 KABUL: The Taliban conducted a raid in Afghanistan's volatile south and took control of a provincial district, killing five people including the district chief and the head of the district police, the deputy governor said on Friday. 
The Taliban launched the attack Thursday evening on the Giro district of Ghazni province and during an hours-long clash killed the district chief and four policemen, including the district police chief, said provincial deputy governor Kazim Allayer. 

Allayer said the Taliban set fire to several buildings in the district and cut communications lines. Deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman said police reinforcements have been sent to the area
More on link

Taleban video of boy executioner angers Afghans 
Saturday April 28, 2007 (0424 PST)
Article Link


SPIN BOLDAK: A Taleban video of a 12-year-old boy beheading a man accused of spying has angered many Afghans, drawing condemnation from tribal and religious leaders. 
"It's very wrong for the Taleban to use a small boy to behead a man," religious teacher Mullah Attullah said yesterday. "I appeal to the Taleban to please stop this because non-Muslims will think Islam is a cruel and terrorist religion. 

"The Taleban do not follow the laws of Islam. They are taking advice from foreigners." 

The video released this week shows the boy in a camouflage jacket and a white headband using a knife to behead a blindfolded man accused of being a spy for foreign forces as men cry "Allahu Akbar! (God is Great)". 
More on link

200 cases of anti-women violence registered in three months  
Saturday April 28, 2007 (0424 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: More than 200 cases of violence against women were registered across Afghanistan in the first quarter of the current year, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said. 
AIHRC executive head Dr. Syed Hussain Faramarz told a news conference here the cases registered over the last three months pertained to different crimes against the women. 

The rights watchdog recorded 116 cases of beatings, 40 of forced marriages, 11 of expulsion from home, 10 runaways, eight of giving women to settle enmity, 10 of property disputes and a dozen of self-immolation. 
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Infant mortality rate in Afghanistan down 18 percent in 5 years  
Saturday April 28, 2007 (0424 PST)
Article Link

KABUL: Infant mortality has dropped by 18 percent in Afghanistan since 2001, in one of the first real signs of recovery for the country five years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, health officials said. 
"Despite many challenges, there are clear signs of health sector recovery and progress throughout the country," said Muhammad Amin Fatimi, the minister of health. 

The infant mortality rate - the number of children who die before their first birthday - has dropped to 135 per 1,000 live births in 2006 from 165 per 1,000 in 2001, according to a countrywide survey by Johns Hopkins University, he said. By comparison, the infant mortality rate in France in 2005 was 5 per 1,000, according to Unicef. 
More on link

NATO's Afghanistan effort at risk: officials
Updated Sat. Apr. 28 2007 3:36 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link

Allegations of torture, abuse and execution within the Afghan prison system will be investigated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Afghanistan government, the head of NATO said Saturday.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the secretary general of NATO, said during a security meeting in Brussels said NATO countries are in Afghanistan to "defend universal values," and the alleged abuse of prisoners handed over to Afghans is not acceptable.

De Hoop Scheffer was just one of a number of top security officials from NATO countries to voice an opinion on the situation in Afghanistan.

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, said NATO risks losing the war because of a "tremendous deterioration" in the popularity of the government of President Hamid Karzai -- the U.S. backed democratic leader of the country.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (29 Apr 2007)

US aircrews show Taliban no mercy
_Sunday Telegraph_, April 29
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JVYHE0IHG1AZVQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/04/29/wafg29.xml&page=2



> Caught in the middle of the Helmand river, the fleeing Taliban were paddling their boat back to shore for dear life.
> 
> Smoke from the ambush they had just sprung on American special forces still hung in the air, but their attention was fixed on the two helicopter gunships that had appeared above them as their leader, the tallest man in the group, struggled to pull what appeared to be a burqa over his head.
> 
> ...



Mark
Ottawa


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## GAP (29 Apr 2007)

US 'halted Taliban' by ending British ceasefire
By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph 29/04/2007
Article Link

American forces in Afghanistan claim they have blocked the Taliban's planned spring offensive by overriding British deals with the insurgents and launching an aggressive air and land campaign.

American officers said they could no longer stand by and watch as the Taliban picked off British soldiers who had been left "isolated" in their bases in Helmand province.

The British Army denies that it was forced to abandon its previous approach by the Americans, but Dan McNeill, the US general who was recently given overall command of Nato operations in Afghanistan, has made no secret of his dislike of the ceasefire agreements struck under his British predecessor, Gen David Richards.

British commanders made ceasefire deals with local leaders in a number of areas of Helmand last year, arguing that a halt in the fighting would strengthen the hand of the tribal elders.

But America believed that the ceasefires merely allowed the Taliban time to re-arm and reinforce its positions, and American commanders and diplomats criticised the deals.

The American ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, criticised the British decision to pull out of Musa Qala in northern Helmand last year and he appeared to be vindicated when the town was taken over by the Taliban in February.

Lt Andrea Anthony, the intelligence officer for the 82nd Airborne Division's Task Force Corsair - which includes the Apache helicopter gunship force - said last week that American commanders had adopted a more aggressive approach, out of concern for what was happening on the ground.

"It was difficult for the Brits to have the support they needed," she said. "The ground elements in Helmand were so isolated that they would get shot at and mortared.
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (29 Apr 2007)

Canadians are the aliens in this moonscape
This mission means playing with children but also invading the space of proud Afghan males
_Toronto Star_, Apr 29, by Rosie DiManno
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/208519



> ZANGABAD, Panjwaii District–The middle-aged villager squats and scowls. Resentment carves deep brackets on his Old Testament face. His is a heart and mind likely lost.
> 
> The irony is that 1 Platoon, Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry has come here today not only to acquaint themselves with their new region of patrol – just rotating into Panjwaii from Zhari to the north – but to impress upon civilians that Canadians have got a protective eye on this village. They come not to intimidate, not to kick in doors and certainly not to conquer.
> 
> ...



Mark 
Ottawa


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## GAP (30 Apr 2007)

*Articles found April 30, 2007*

British troops launch offensive in Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan
Fisnik Abrashi Canadian Press Monday, April 30, 2007
Article Link

 SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan (AP) - Hundreds of British troops swept into the lush opium fields of southern Afghanistan on Monday, drawing hostile fire at the start of a NATO operation to expel the Taliban from a valley stronghold. 

Operation Silicon, which is to involve more than 3,000 NATO and Afghan troops, is the latest effort to bring insurgency-roiled Helmand province under the control of President Hamid Karzai's shaky government. 

Before dawn Monday, a long column of armoured vehicles brought several hundred British soldiers to the Sangin Valley, near the town of Gereshk and Afghanistan's strategic ring road that links the cities of Kandahar and Herat. 

"It is all part of a longer-term plan to restore the whole of Helmand to government control," said Lt. Col. Stuart Carver, a British commander. "You have to do it a piece at a time." 

The lower valley is only about five kilometres long. But its 100 or so high-walled compounds and maze of deep irrigation channels offer good cover for determined defenders. 

After fanning out to patrol on foot, the British soldiers soon came under attack, first from mortar rounds, then from regular bursts of machine-gun fire. 

An Associated Press reporter travelling with the troops heard officers ordering British artillery units to respond. Three Apache helicopters flew overhead but didn't immediately open fire. 

There were no reports of casualties. 

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has carried out several operations in southern Afghanistan this year, hoping to pre-empt a feared Taliban onslaught, open the way for development aid, and persuade ordinary Afghans to side with the government. 
More on link

Civilian deaths spark protests in Afghanistan
POSTED: 0157 GMT (0957 HKT), April 29, 2007 
Article Link


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Hundreds of angry protesters chanting "Death to Bush" demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan after six people -- including a woman and a teenage girl -- were reportedly killed when U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces raided a suspected car-bomb cell.

The U.S. said four militants were among the dead, but it was the civilian deaths Sunday that infuriated the protesters, who carried five bodies to a main highway and blocked traffic with felled trees during the demonstration. The bodies of the women were entirely covered by sheets, while the men's faces were revealed.

"Their operation was based on incorrect reports, and they carried out a cruel attack on these houses," said local resident Akhtar Mohammad at the protest. "We are not the enemy, we are not al Qaeda. Why are they attacking us?"

Afghan officials have repeatedly pleaded with the United States and NATO to take care during operations that might harm civilians, and the latest violence is sure to deepen distrust among Afghans, whose support for international forces and the shaky U.S.-backed government is waning.

"It is extremely unfortunate that militants put others' lives in danger by hiding among their families," said U.S. Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman.

The protest was held on the same highway where a U.S. Marines convoy, fleeing after being hit by a suicide car bomb on March 4, fired indiscriminately on vehicles and pedestrians, killing 12 people
More on link

British airmen killed in Afghanistan returned home in wrong coffins  
Published: 30 April 2007
Article Link

A mix-up led to the remains of British airmen killed in a crash in Afghanistan were returned home in the wrong coffins, the Defence Ministry said yesterday. 

The Defence Ministry called the incident regrettable, but insisted it had been sorted out before the airmen's funerals.

The error occurred after a Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft crashed near Kandahar in September, killing 14 airmen, a soldier and a Marine.

Trish Knight, whose son Ben, 25, was among those killed, was quoted as telling "The Observer" newspaper that she had considered canceling her son's funeral and raised concerns of a wider problem.

"We just thought 'how can we go ahead if we are not sure if it's Ben's body in there or maybe somebody else's?"' she was quoted as saying. 
More on link

U.S.-led poppy-eradication team attacked in southern Afghanistan
April 29, 2007 - 6:45 pm 
Article Link

TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan and U.S. security officials were attacked with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire as they hacked away at opium poppies in southern Afghanistan.

"We are taking fire!" said a panic-stricken voice over a radio Sunday.

The Afghan and U.S. agents involved in the poppy-eradication operation fled on foot, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters. Four Afghans were wounded in the attack, said NATO's International Security Assistance Force at a base in southern Uruzgan province.

"They are Taliban. They are fighting us," an Afghan agent said as bullets whizzed past.

Sunday's attack underscores the danger the counter-narcotics teams face in the south after the eradication operation was launched a day earlier in the area.

Afghanistan is the biggest producer of opium poppy in the world, yielding enough to produce 90 per cent of the world's supply of heroin.
More on link

Afghanistan suffers inability to rebuild says Karzai
AFP April 29, 2007
Article Link

KABUL --  Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted at a conference of donors Sunday that his government lacked the capacity to effectively deliver the help required to rebuild the country after years of war. 

Widespread corruption, an insufficiently powerful police force, and burgeoning poppy cultivation were also hampering the country, Karzai told a conference of nearly 200 people representing more than 60 countries and organizations. 

"We still suffer, as a major difficulty for Afghanistan, from lack of capacity ... a legitimate government [is] unable to deliver the way other governments are able to deliver," he said. 
More on link


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## MarkOttawa (1 May 2007)

British Maj. Gen. Jacko Page takes helm of ISAF's southern command
CP, May 1
http://www.news1130.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w050129A



> Training and building up local military and security forces will remain a central priority for coalition forces in Afghanistan, the new leader of NATO's southern command said Tuesday as he formally took the helm from his Dutch predecessor.
> 
> To the strains of the Afghan national anthem, Maj.-Gen. Jacko Page - a 25-year veteran of the British military - was formally installed as the new commander of the southern command of the International Security Assistance Force, known as RC South.
> 
> ...



Some informative stuff here:

DoD Press Briefing with Royal Netherlands Army Maj. Gen. Van Loon from the Pentagon
DoD News Transcript, April 30
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=3952

Canada listening in on Taliban exchanges
_National Post_, May 1
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=b68ad20e-ac56-4b2c-a000-0724984bfc62



> Canada's ultra-secret electronic spy agency revealed yesterday it has been heavily involved in Afghanistan and has deployed a team to the country.
> 
> The Communications Security Establishment acknowledged its role in Afghanistan for the first time in testimony to the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence.
> 
> ...


 
Biography of Maj. Gen. (ret'd) Adams:
http://myschool.gc.ca/events/archives/Armchair/arm_descrip06_e.html



> Prior to his appointment as Chief, CSE, Mr. Adams served from 2003 to June 2005 as Associate Deputy Minister and Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, and from 1998 to 2003 as Assistant Deputy Minister, Marine Services and Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard. Both positions were held within Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
> 
> Before joining the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. Adams enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the Canadian Armed Forces, from 1967 until retiring as Major General in 1993. His early career culminated with command of 1 Combat Engineer Regiment in Chilliwack, British Columbia. The second phase of his career included numerous staff assignments including several postings to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. This phase culminated in promotion to Brigadier General in 1987 and secondment to the Defence and Foreign Policy Secretariat of the Privy Council Office for two years prior to assuming command of the Special Service Force and Canadian Forces Base Petawawa in 1989. His military career culminated in promotion to Major General and appointment as Chief of Construction and Properties for the Canadian Forces - the senior serving Canadian Military Engineer. Upon retiring from the Canadian Forces in 1993 he was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Environment, for National Defence, a position he held until 1998.



Mark
Ottawa


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