#2 of Articles found 9 August 2006
Top soldier fears Afghanistan's security uncertainty could benefit Taliban
Donald McArthur, CanWest News Service; Windsor Star Wednesday, August 09, 2006
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=f856665e-cb03-44f4-8af2-9576ac1b1a7c&k=72733
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - If the security situation in Afghanistan's volatile south doesn't improve over the next few months, civilians who have yet to choose sides in the conflict could cast their lot with the Taliban and the country could be used once more as a staging ground for international terror attacks, the British general in charge of the NATO-led mission here said Tuesday.
Lt.-Gen. David Richards, who met with NATO officials and troops at Kandahar air field after a grim week in which five Canadian and four British soldiers were killed, said NATO will be redeploying troops and police over the next four to six weeks. They should know "within three to four months whether we've made a dent" in the insurgency and an impression on the "floating population" of Afghan civilians yearning for peace and stability.
The 37-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force assumed command for operations in the four southern provinces including Kandahar last week, and Richards made it clear NATO was going to keep taking the fight to insurgents so that development and reconstruction projects necessary to win popular support for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai could proceed.
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Afghan, US forces kill 12 Taliban militants in Afghanistan
Aug 9, 2006,
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1188590.php/Afghan_US_forces_kill_12_Taliban_militants_in_Afghanistan
Kabul - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed at least 12 Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border after the militants attacked a joint Afghan and US base in Nuristan province, US spokesman said Wednesday.
A group of suspected Taliban militants attacked a joint Afghan and US forces military base in Andar district of eastern Nuristan province Tuesday night and wounded two US and one Afghan national army soldiers, US military spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
In the ensuing firefight in which close air support was also called in, 'The Afghan and coalition forces killed some 12 suspected Taliban in Andar district near Pakistan border,' Collin said.
He said that the wounded soldiers were evacuated to a coalition hospital but did not provide more details regarding their condition.
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More Australian troops head for Afghanistan
Wed Aug 9, 2006 6:11am ET By James Grubel
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-09T101101Z_01_SYD151557_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-AUSTRALIA-AFGHANISTAN.xml&archived=False
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will send an extra 150 troops to Afghanistan due to the deteriorating security situation, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday, briefly boosting Canberra's commitment to Afghanistan to more than 600.
"Security beyond Kabul, particularly in the east and south, is the worst since the Taliban fell -- suicide bombings have increased," Howard told parliament.
Australia was one of the first countries to commit forces in late 2001 to the U.S.-led war which ousted the Taliban and began fighting Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks on the United States.
"We must stick with our allies and stand up for our values," said Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, outlining the new Australian Defense Force (ADF) deployment.
"A failure to do so will inevitably mean leaving the next generation hostage to global forces they will never control."
The bulk of the extra troops will be being sent to protect Australian military engineers, who will join a Netherlands-led reconstruction team in the central province of Uruzgan.
"The level of violence has increased in Afghanistan in recent months as the Taliban and other terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, seek to chip away at the credibility of the Afghan government and prevent reconstruction taking place," said Howard
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Vile message horrifies family
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | Wednesday August 9, 2006 By KELLY SHIERS Staff Reporter
The Chronicle Herald
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/520863.html
Skull image vandalizes ribbon honouring mom in Afghanistan
On the day Canadian Forces nurse Lindsay Elford arrived in Afghanistan, her husband tied a yellow ribbon around the elm tree in front of their Vernon Street home as "a reminder to think of Mommy" for three-year-old Julia and one-year-old Stephen.
Last week, as Robert Elford was getting the children into the car to go to day care, he was shocked when Julia asked him about the picture on the tree.
"I looked over and I was surprised — horrified — to see a skull spray-painted underneath the yellow ribbon," recalled Lt.-Cmdr. Elford, who’s been in the navy for 18 years.
"It was about two feet high — quite big."
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Afghanistan ambassador named
By Sandra O'Malley August 09, 2006 06:41pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20071746-1702,00.html
AUSTRALIA send its first ambassador to Afghanistan next month.
While Australia has had on-and-off diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, it is the first time its ambassador will live in the country.
Career diplomat Brent Hackett, who has spent three years as deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, will take up the appointment next month.
He will arrive in Kabul as Australia sends the bulk of a 400 member reconstruction task force to help rebuild Afghanistan.
Prime Minister John Howard today formally announced an increase in Australia's newest deployment to Afghanistan, sending in extra reconstruction personnel, as well as an infantry company to deal with the increased security threat.
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Vice and virtue in Afghanistan
By Aunohita Mojumdar South Asia Aug 10, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HH10Df01.html
Vice and virtue in Afghanistan
By Aunohita Mojumdar
KABUL - The Afghan government's move to reactivate the Department of Vice and Virtue has set alarm bells ringing among sections of the international community. Under the Taliban, a full-fledged ministry was responsible for formulating some of its most contentious laws.
The Taliban's tal-Amr bi al-ma'ruf wa al-Nahi 'an al-Munkir or Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was responsible for implementing a wide range of codes governing public behavior, including bans on activities ranging from homosexuality and apparently innocent pastimes such as kite-flying and music to the absurd, including on women showing their ankles, as well as diktats on the length of men's beards.
Reacting to the move by President Hamid Karzai government, Human Rights Watch said it raised "serious concerns about the
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Feature: Bamyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan may be rebuilt by 2009
UPDATED: 08:22, August 09, 2006 People's Daily Online
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/09/eng20060809_291148.html
Some workers are clearing and sorting out the pieces of the two best-known disrupted Bamyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan's Bamyan province, and an official told Xinhua a possible project of rebuilding the statues may be wrapped up by the end of 2009 if everything goes smoothly.
At the site, hundreds of meters north of Bamyan city, capital of the province, some Afghan workers with yellow safety helmets were clearing and collecting the two statues' pieces with shovels and handcarts on Sunday.
The two Buddha statues, which used to be the highest ones in the standing style in the world, were exploded by the extremist Taliban regime in March 2001. The regime claimed they were idolatrous and anti-Islam.
Some stones, from the two destroyed statues, are lying below them and have been noted with sequence numbers.
A program of sorting out the debris is being carried out with a fund of about 1.3 million U.S. dollars sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
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Top soldier fears Afghanistan's security uncertainty could benefit Taliban
Donald McArthur, CanWest News Service; Windsor Star Wednesday, August 09, 2006
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=f856665e-cb03-44f4-8af2-9576ac1b1a7c&k=72733
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - If the security situation in Afghanistan's volatile south doesn't improve over the next few months, civilians who have yet to choose sides in the conflict could cast their lot with the Taliban and the country could be used once more as a staging ground for international terror attacks, the British general in charge of the NATO-led mission here said Tuesday.
Lt.-Gen. David Richards, who met with NATO officials and troops at Kandahar air field after a grim week in which five Canadian and four British soldiers were killed, said NATO will be redeploying troops and police over the next four to six weeks. They should know "within three to four months whether we've made a dent" in the insurgency and an impression on the "floating population" of Afghan civilians yearning for peace and stability.
The 37-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force assumed command for operations in the four southern provinces including Kandahar last week, and Richards made it clear NATO was going to keep taking the fight to insurgents so that development and reconstruction projects necessary to win popular support for the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai could proceed.
More on link
Afghan, US forces kill 12 Taliban militants in Afghanistan
Aug 9, 2006,
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/article_1188590.php/Afghan_US_forces_kill_12_Taliban_militants_in_Afghanistan
Kabul - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed at least 12 Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border after the militants attacked a joint Afghan and US base in Nuristan province, US spokesman said Wednesday.
A group of suspected Taliban militants attacked a joint Afghan and US forces military base in Andar district of eastern Nuristan province Tuesday night and wounded two US and one Afghan national army soldiers, US military spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
In the ensuing firefight in which close air support was also called in, 'The Afghan and coalition forces killed some 12 suspected Taliban in Andar district near Pakistan border,' Collin said.
He said that the wounded soldiers were evacuated to a coalition hospital but did not provide more details regarding their condition.
More on link
More Australian troops head for Afghanistan
Wed Aug 9, 2006 6:11am ET By James Grubel
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-08-09T101101Z_01_SYD151557_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-AUSTRALIA-AFGHANISTAN.xml&archived=False
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will send an extra 150 troops to Afghanistan due to the deteriorating security situation, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday, briefly boosting Canberra's commitment to Afghanistan to more than 600.
"Security beyond Kabul, particularly in the east and south, is the worst since the Taliban fell -- suicide bombings have increased," Howard told parliament.
Australia was one of the first countries to commit forces in late 2001 to the U.S.-led war which ousted the Taliban and began fighting Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks on the United States.
"We must stick with our allies and stand up for our values," said Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, outlining the new Australian Defense Force (ADF) deployment.
"A failure to do so will inevitably mean leaving the next generation hostage to global forces they will never control."
The bulk of the extra troops will be being sent to protect Australian military engineers, who will join a Netherlands-led reconstruction team in the central province of Uruzgan.
"The level of violence has increased in Afghanistan in recent months as the Taliban and other terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, seek to chip away at the credibility of the Afghan government and prevent reconstruction taking place," said Howard
More on link
Vile message horrifies family
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | Wednesday August 9, 2006 By KELLY SHIERS Staff Reporter
The Chronicle Herald
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/520863.html
Skull image vandalizes ribbon honouring mom in Afghanistan
On the day Canadian Forces nurse Lindsay Elford arrived in Afghanistan, her husband tied a yellow ribbon around the elm tree in front of their Vernon Street home as "a reminder to think of Mommy" for three-year-old Julia and one-year-old Stephen.
Last week, as Robert Elford was getting the children into the car to go to day care, he was shocked when Julia asked him about the picture on the tree.
"I looked over and I was surprised — horrified — to see a skull spray-painted underneath the yellow ribbon," recalled Lt.-Cmdr. Elford, who’s been in the navy for 18 years.
"It was about two feet high — quite big."
More on link
Afghanistan ambassador named
By Sandra O'Malley August 09, 2006 06:41pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20071746-1702,00.html
AUSTRALIA send its first ambassador to Afghanistan next month.
While Australia has had on-and-off diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, it is the first time its ambassador will live in the country.
Career diplomat Brent Hackett, who has spent three years as deputy high commissioner in Islamabad, will take up the appointment next month.
He will arrive in Kabul as Australia sends the bulk of a 400 member reconstruction task force to help rebuild Afghanistan.
Prime Minister John Howard today formally announced an increase in Australia's newest deployment to Afghanistan, sending in extra reconstruction personnel, as well as an infantry company to deal with the increased security threat.
More on link
Vice and virtue in Afghanistan
By Aunohita Mojumdar South Asia Aug 10, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HH10Df01.html
Vice and virtue in Afghanistan
By Aunohita Mojumdar
KABUL - The Afghan government's move to reactivate the Department of Vice and Virtue has set alarm bells ringing among sections of the international community. Under the Taliban, a full-fledged ministry was responsible for formulating some of its most contentious laws.
The Taliban's tal-Amr bi al-ma'ruf wa al-Nahi 'an al-Munkir or Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was responsible for implementing a wide range of codes governing public behavior, including bans on activities ranging from homosexuality and apparently innocent pastimes such as kite-flying and music to the absurd, including on women showing their ankles, as well as diktats on the length of men's beards.
Reacting to the move by President Hamid Karzai government, Human Rights Watch said it raised "serious concerns about the
More on link
Feature: Bamyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan may be rebuilt by 2009
UPDATED: 08:22, August 09, 2006 People's Daily Online
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/09/eng20060809_291148.html
Some workers are clearing and sorting out the pieces of the two best-known disrupted Bamyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan's Bamyan province, and an official told Xinhua a possible project of rebuilding the statues may be wrapped up by the end of 2009 if everything goes smoothly.
At the site, hundreds of meters north of Bamyan city, capital of the province, some Afghan workers with yellow safety helmets were clearing and collecting the two statues' pieces with shovels and handcarts on Sunday.
The two Buddha statues, which used to be the highest ones in the standing style in the world, were exploded by the extremist Taliban regime in March 2001. The regime claimed they were idolatrous and anti-Islam.
Some stones, from the two destroyed statues, are lying below them and have been noted with sequence numbers.
A program of sorting out the debris is being carried out with a fund of about 1.3 million U.S. dollars sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
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