The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (September 2007)

[The Bread Guy]

Canada has until next April to announce Kandahar decision: MacKay
Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press, 24 Sept 07
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Despite political pressure for a quick answer, the Conservative government says it has until April to announce whether it will extend Canada's combat mission in southern Afghanistan.  Opposition parties are demanding an announcement in next month's throne speech but Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Canada has until a NATO summit next year in Bucharest, Romania.  That statement drew a scornful response from the opposition and warnings that government foot-dragging could help provoke an election.  The pressure on Canada to decide - coupled with the prospect of an election campaign - suggests Afghanistan is about to become the focus of an even more heated debate.  "There is a NATO meeting in April 2008," MacKay told a news scrum Monday.  "It will be necessary to communicate a final decision before that meeting."  The governing Conservatives are the only party that favours an extension of the current mission.  The Liberals and Bloc Quebecois want an end to the mission once Canada's international commitment concludes in February 2009, and New Democrats want Canadian troops withdrawn even sooner ....



Canada should back Afghan president's Taliban peace bid: think tank
Canadian Press, 24 Sept 07
Article link
"Peace in Afghanistan-Made in Canada" report (.pdf) - Alternate download site

Canada is throwing away an opportunity to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai break the Taliban by not actively supporting his repeated peace overtures to moderate insurgents, says an international think-tank.  The Senlis Council, a European-based agency that's conducted extensive research in war-torn southern Afghanistan, says the appeal to less dogmatic Taliban has a good chance of succeeding if NATO countries throw their full support behind it.  Norine MacDonald, a Vancouver lawyer and council president, says separating hard-core Islamic fundamentalists and al-Qaida supporters from moderates would weaken the insurgency and reduce its offensive capacity.  It's time for Canada to take the diplomatic lead and step out from the shadow of U.S. foreign policy, she says.  "We believe there are defining moments in every nation's history when there's an opportunity to demonstrate who we are as a nation and how we conduct ourselves in Afghanistan at this critical moment is one of those times," MacDonald said Monday at the beginning of a day-long conference meant to explore policies that could lead to peace.  This so-called fast-track for peace and stability should also include keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan past the February 2009 deadline, she said, and opposition to a U.S. demand that opium poppies be eradicated with aerial spraying ....


British minister says Taliban will need to be involved in Afghanistan's peace process
Associated Press, 24 Sept 07
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The Taliban will need to be involved in the peace process in Afghanistan at some point and it may not be possible to establish a Western-style legal system there, the defense secretary said Monday.  Des Browne seemed to join other officials, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who have signaled increased interest in negotiating with the Taliban.  Six years after Taliban's fall, fighting in Afghanistan has been intensifying, but the U.N. and NATO have said a growing number of militants want out of the conflict.
«In Afghanistan, at some stage, the Taliban will need to be involved in the peace process because they are not going away any more than I suspect Hamas are going away from Palestine,» Browne said in Bournemouth ....



Dutch may send more troops to Afghanistan on temporary assignment
Associated Press, 24 Sept 07
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The Netherlands may send extra soldiers on temporary duty to Afghanistan to reinforce its troops in the southern district of Uruzgan, the defense chief said Monday.  The Dutch had asked NATO for reinforcements in Uruzgan, but were unlikely to get them, and would likely have to fill the gap on its own, Gen. Dick Berlijn said.  More troops were needed in the Deh Rawod district, where a Dutch soldier was killed in combat last week, he said. The soldier, whose body was being flown home Monday, was the 11th fatality since the Netherlands dispatched troops to the area in August 2006.  The national broadcaster NOS put the number of extra troops to be sent at 80.  The Dutch have kept about 1,200 soldiers in the restive province since last year, and the government was expected to decide next month whether to extend its two-year commitment.  Berlijn told reporters in The Hague that the security situation in Afghanistan had worsened. The Taliban is better trained and has grown more professional, he said.
Foreign fighters had joined their ranks, but he declined to say from which countries ....


Dutch may increase troops to Afghanistan
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DEU), 24 Sept 07
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The Dutch may send extra troops to the Afghan province of Oruzghan, Dutch chief of staff Dick Berlijn announced during a press briefing Monday afternoon.  Berlijn said NATO is considering to increase the number of troops participating in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) it established in 2001 to bring peace and security to Afghanistan.  Under the move, the Dutch would dispatch more military to the area of Deh Rawod, in the south-east of Oruzghan, he said.  Fighting in the region has surged in recent months due to more effective and focused attacks by the Taliban, Berlijn acknowledged to reporters ....

 

[GAP]

Articles found September 25, 2007

Italian minister: condition of Italian injured in rescue operation in Afghanistan deteriorates
The Associated Press Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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ROME: Premier Romano Prodi defended the decision to stage a risky raid to free two Italian intelligence operatives taken hostage in Afghanistan after the condition of one of the men deteriorated Tuesday.

"We are very worried" about the fate of the operative, Prodi said from New York, speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The intelligence operative has been put on a respirator to help him breathe, Defense Minister Arturo Parisi said in a statement. The man has been in a NATO-run hospital in Afghanistan since being rescued Monday.

The two Italians, who worked for the SISMI intelligence service, disappeared along with their two Afghan colleagues Saturday. They were freed Monday by Italian commandos aided by other NATO forces and aircraft after the kidnappers began to move their hostages.

Italian special forces ambushed the convoy, sparking a gunbattle that killed at least nine of the kidnappers. Both Italians were injured, the other one not seriously.

Prodi — who at home faces growing tension from his radical leftist allies over Italy's continuing involvement in Afghanistan — defended the decision to authorize the rescue operation.
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Lawyers for Canada Guantanamo inmate mull appeal
Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:26 PM EDT
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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Lawyers for a young Canadian detainee in Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday said they might appeal the decision of a U.S. military court to reinstate terrorism charges against their client.

Omar Khadr, 21, is accused of killing one U.S. soldier with a grenade and wounding another during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr, who was 15 at the time, is the only Canadian inside Guantanamo.

In June, a U.S. judge for a special war crimes tribunal set up for Guantanamo cases dismissed murder and conspiracy charges against Khadr but on Monday the decision was overturned.

"We are considering an appeal," Khadr lawyer Dennis Edney told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

A spokeswoman for the tribunals said that once Khadr has formally been notified of Monday's ruling, his lawyers would have 20 days to petition the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington.

Rights groups say Guantanamo should be shut on the grounds that holding prisoners for years without trial violates international standards.

"Omar Khadr is being forced to be tried under a process that was not suitable or good enough for American detainees ... (or) for British detainees but is good enough for a young man who was arrested when he was 15 years of age," Edney said.
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Elite UK troops rescue Italians in Afghanistan
Richard Norton-Taylor Tuesday September 25, 2007 The Guardian
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· Eight kidnappers killed in fierce gunfight
· Intelligence reports led to use of special forces

Helicopter-borne British special forces yesterday rescued two Italian soldiers, killing their captors in a gunfight in western Afghanistan, defence sources said.
Troops from the Special Boat Service, the navy's equivalent of the SAS, were called in by Nato after intelligence reports that the Italians were about to be moved from a building east of the town of Farah. The SBS troopers were taken to the area by helicopter, and as Italian commandos stormed the building, the SBS attacked the two trucks in which the captors were about to drive the Italians away.

"The SBS was very much in the forefront of the mission. Most of the firefight was with our guys," a defence source said. "They are very chuffed," he added.

The Italian soldiers were last seen on Saturday at a police checkpoint in Herat province, west of Farah.

Brigadier General Vincent Lafontaine, a French officer with Nato staff in Afghanistan, said intelligence reports soon revealed where they were being held.

"There is a sort of window of opportunity if you achieve reliable intelligence," he said. "It's a success story because it was very quickly solved."
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Iranian General: U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan Are Within Iran's Firing Range
Monday, September 24, 2007
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U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being monitored by Iran using satellites and other technology and are well within range of Iranian missiles, a top Iranian military official said.

"The Americans should realize that the 200,000 troops they have deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are in Iran’s firing range,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in remarks published by Iranian newspapers Monday.

Speaking on the 27th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Safavi, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, said Iran was now in a strong position to defend itself.

"Iran has now a strong intelligence system and missiles. We are closely watching the foreigners' moves in neighboring countries by highly advanced satellite technology and advanced radars. If they enter our airspace or our territorial waters, they will get a fair response," the Iran Daily quoted Safavi as saying.

Speculation about an attack against Iran has been spurred on by recent comments by French officials who have said a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable.
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Canadian exit won't make Afghanistan better off
TheStar.com September 25, 2007 Richard Gwyn
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The meeting on Afghanistan organized by the United Nations this week of representatives from 18 countries, produced, as UN meetings usually do, fine words but precious little action.

Those taking part, including Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, agreed on a communiqué that condemned "terrorism ... which hindered the establishment of the rule of law and the provision of basic services to the Afghan people."

There was one reason for paying any attention. This meeting served as a reminder that military intervention in Afghanistan, including Canada's, is sanctioned by the UN.

According to the latest poll by Ipsos-Reid, two in three Canadians polled (68 per cent) want us to pull out when our mission there reaches its agreed deadline of February 2009 but a majority (56 per cent) wants our troops out even earlier.

At a glance, those results seem to make it certain we will be gone from Afghanistan relatively soon.
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N.S. college setting up scholarship for soldier killed in Afghanistan
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PICTOU, N.S. - The Nova Scotia Community College is setting up a student bursary named after a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan earlier this year.

The college's campus in Pictou is setting up the Kevin Megeney Memorial Award, a $2,000 bursary that will be given out every year.

Megeney, a 25-year-old reservist from Stellarton, N.S., died on March 6 in an accidental shooting at the NATO base in Kandahar.

The award, funded by a $50,000 anonymous donation, will be given to a full-time student who demonstrates a commitment to community involvement.

The first award will be handed out later this year or early 2008.

Member's of Megeney's family will participate in a ceremony to dedicate the award on Tuesday.

"Even though he's gone, Kevin will keep on making a difference because of the kindness of such a great gift," Megeney's mother, Karen, said in a news release.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Canada may add IRGC to terror list
Canadian government is going to consider adding the notorious Iranian Rev. Guards to terror list.

This is outstanding and will embolden the people of Iran in their fight against the tyranny and will send a powerful message to the weakened mullahs that the world is united in confronting their vicious ambitions.

This is also true that IRGC is arming the insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan where coalition forces including Canadians troops are being targeted. The Canadian government must also make sure that all Iranian regime agents, including the intel section of IRGC, operating in Canada be detained, deported or prosecuted based on their crimes and their assets be frozen. There are many many of them here who have infiltrated the Iranian-Canadian community and have been spying on dissidents living in this country.
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[GAP]

Chronicle of a roadside attack
DENE MOORE The Canadian Press September 24, 2007
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MA'SUM GHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The logistics convoy, carrying rations and other supplies to two of Canada's forward operating bases in Kandahar province, rolls through the gates and out the relative safety of Kandahar Air Field around 7:30 p.m. Friday.

A short way into the trip, the vehicles are sidelined by a mechanical problem into Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City. For the next couple of hours soldiers cool their heels at the base of the provincial reconstruction team.

The problem fixed, the convoy rolls out just shy of midnight. The stars are shining far overhead in a big Afghan sky.

A half-hour later, most of the oddball mix of soldiers, civilians, interpreters and journalists are half asleep in the back of the convoy's Bison. It seems it will be a long and boring night but this is Afghanistan, and the sands shift quickly.

12:31 a.m.: A loud boom vibrates the Bison. "We've got contact," yells a voice from the back of the rig. An RG-31 has been hit. One person was thrown through the hatch. Three others, at least, are unconscious inside.

12:47 a.m.: There is one "priority 2" injury, meaning it's serious but not life-threatening.

12:49 a.m.: A second boom hits in front of the Bison. "They found an RPG not far away. Awfully close," says one voice in the dark, referring to a rocket-propelled grenade.

12:57 a.m.: It comes over the radio that there are possible enemies in the area.

1:12 a.m.: The Bison moves down the highway to create a safety cordon while the injured are treated.

1:20 a.m.: The Bison moves again, about 150 metres down the road.

1:35 a.m.: The radio says it will be 60 minutes for a medivac. The conditions of the injured change constantly as they're assessed and reassessed.

1:37 a.m.: "Everybody inside. Let's go," yells a voice. The hatch of the Bison slams shut with a bang.

2:08 a.m.: We'll be heading to the forward operating base at Ma'sum Ghar for medivac.

2:29 a.m.: We arrive at the base just as the first of the helicopters heads in to retrieve the injured.

2:50 a.m.: The helicopters are headed for Kandahar, loaded with two Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter injured in the blast. Two other Canadian soldiers are treated for minor wounds in Ma'sum Ghar and released.

Military officials said none of the injuries was life threatening.

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have become the weapon of choice for Taliban insurgents as they increasingly turn to guerrilla tactics. A conservative estimate is that one vehicle a week is hit with a roadside bomb. More often, the bombs are discovered and defused by Canadian troops.
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[tomahawk6]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/ap_afghanistan_070925/

60 Taliban, 1 coalition soldier die in battle
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 25, 2007 16:36:06 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — A daylong battle Tuesday near a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan’s poppy-growing belt killed more than 60 Taliban fighters and one soldier from the U.S.-led coalition, military officials said.

Several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement. Taliban reinforcements flowed in from Musa Qala all day, it said.

The coalition returned artillery fire and called in fighter aircraft, killing more than 60 of the Taliban fighters, the coalition said. One coalition soldier was killed and four were wounded.

The coalition said there were no immediate reports of civilian deaths or injuries.

“The end is near for the Taliban that believe Musa Qala is safe from Islamic Republic of Afghanistan forces,” said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. “This combined operation is just one more step to securing the Musa Qala area of the Helmand Province.”

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since.

Situated in northern Helmand province, Musa Qala and the region around it have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. It is also in the middle of the country’s poppy-growing belt. Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin, made from opium poppy.

More than 4,400 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Karen Tandy, said counternarcotics forces will soon work alongside counterinsurgency troops to try to bust the drug lords that have helped Afghanistan produce a record amount of opium poppy this year.

“The alliance between these high-value drug traffickers and the insurgents clearly has grown, and it is through the relationships and work and partnerships that we have built on the interdiction side together with the military side that is our way forward,” Tandy said during a three-day visit to Afghanistan.

NATO troops, she said, would not “pull plants or spray plants,” but would support interdiction efforts.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, a NATO helicopter overturned while trying to land during a mission to evacuate Afghan police wounded by a roadside bomb in the western province of Badghis. A second helicopter landed and recovered the crew and two wounded police, NATO said. There was no hostile fire during the incident, it said.

In the southern province of Kandahar, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a convoy of a border security commander, leaving five policemen dead, said district border security commander Abdul Raziq Khan, who was not hurt. Three other police and a civilian were wounded.

In Zhari district of Kandahar, a joint Afghan and coalition forces operation Monday targeted militants suspected of planting roadside bombs and launching rocket attacks against NATO and Afghan forces, leaving six suspected insurgents dead, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Elsewhere, a Canadian soldier, Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, 24, was killed and four others were wounded while on patrol Monday in nearby Panjwayi district of Kandahar, Canadian military officials said.

Canada is a key contributor to the 39,000-strong NATO security force trying to stabilize Afghanistan. Seventy-one Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have now died in the country since 2002, including 24 combat deaths this year.

On Monday, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the government would announce by next April whether it plans to extend its combat mission in southern Afghanistan, which is set to expire in February 2009.

 

[GAP]

Articles found September 26, 2007

Suicide Attacker Targets Police Convoy in Southern Afghanistan
By VOA News 25 September 2007
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A suicide attack in southern Afghanistan has killed five policemen and wounded at least three others.

Tuesday's bombing in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province near the Pakistani border targeted the convoy of a border police commander, who survived the attack.

Officials say the attacker was riding a motorcycle when he detonated his explosives outside of the police headquarters.

In other news, NATO reports a Canadian soldier with its International Security Assistance Force was killed and four others wounded in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar on Monday.

Elsewhere, a head-on collision of two buses killed at least 32 people Monday on the main road linking the capital, Kabul, and Kandahar city. At least 35 other people were injured.
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Rye trains Canadian troops
Posted on 09/25/07 Written by Drew Halfnight
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(The Eyeopener) - Lt. Kevin Dulude is administering health care in one of the hottest war zones in the world, and Ryerson had a hand in getting him there.

Dulude is one of 88 Canadian Forces officers to graduate from the Chang School’s Health Services Management (HSM) certificate program, and one of many in Afghanistan.

“These guys manage clinics, field ambulances and hospitals when they’re overseas,” said Winston Isaac, director of the HSM course. “They’re in Afghanistan, for sure, and they were in Bosnia.”

Since the program’s inception in 2001, CF contingents have been sent to Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Golan Heights and Afghanistan.

“They enjoy going overseas; they come back and say, ‘It was such a great experience,’” Isaac said.

Dulude and other overseas grads were unavailable for comment.

The HSM-certificate students are flown from their home bases all over the country to get to classes at Canadian Forces Base Borden outside of Barrie.

Once there, they meet their Ryerson instructors, who travel for an hour and a half to deliver their lectures.
The intensive course takes one full school year to complete.

“If we’re going to train people, we might as well train them in an appropriate manner,” said Lt. Denis Hearn, a recruiting officer with the Canadian Forces Health Services.

The 15 students enrolled in the program this year will take six classes at Borden, plus two online, in subjects ranging from leadership and management to human resources, law and health care systems.

Upon graduation they will join the 5,102 health workers in the CF as health administrators and analysts.
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Ottawa unlikely to seek release of Omar Khadr
TheStar.com September 26, 2007 Michelle Shephard Staff Reporter
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Canada will not interfere with the U.S. military trial of Omar Khadr at Guantanamo Bay, despite increased calls for action.

"Mr. Khadr faces serious charges. Any questions regarding whether Canada plans to ask for the release of Omar Khadr from Guantanamo are premature and speculative as the legal process and appeals process are still ongoing," Neil Hrab, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, said yesterday.

A military appeals court ruled on Monday that Khadr's trial at the U.S. naval detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should resume, overturning a lower court decision that dismissed the charges against the Toronto-born detainee.

"We're surprised Canada's not taking a leading role for one of its citizens," Human Rights Watch's Canadian director Jasmine Herlt said last night.

"It's a travesty of justice to have this kid who has been there for five years with no end in sight."

Khadr, who turned 21 last week, is accused of throwing a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 that killed a U.S. special forces medic. He was 15, and has spent most of his detention in solitary confinement.

The case has received little political attention since his capture in July 2002, largely due to the unpopularity in Canada of his family, whose members have admitted links Al Qaeda's top leaders.

But last week Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand Khadr's trial be held in a U.S. civilian court. Failing that, Harper should demand Khadr be sent home to face justice in Canada, Dion said.

The Pentagon has tried for years to bring Khadr to trial on charges that include murder.

Military judge Col. Peter Brownback threw out the charges against Khadr in June after deciding that under the Congress-endorsed rules of the military commission, only "alien unlawful enemy combatants," could be tried. Khadr, and the other 340 detainees still held in Guantanamo, had been declared "enemy combatants" but had not specifically found to be unlawful.
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More Articles available here
MILNEWS.ca

CANinKandahar

 

[GAP]

Canada at work in Afghanistan
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Article Link

I don't know whether the U.S. Government is doing something like this, but if not, it certainly should. The Canadian government has a website devoted to ways that Canada has aided Afghan civilians, and it can be found here:
Canadian government website

We need more emphasis on what it is that the NATO troops are doing in Afghanistan, and the extremely positive contributions that the representatives of the NATO nations are making to a country that was literally in the Dark Ages before 2001.
End

 

[GAP]

Articles found September 27, 2007

Any chopper is better than none
Colin Kenny, Citizen Special
Published: Thursday, September 27, 2007
Article Link

Canadians are surely divided about whether we should have combat troops in Afghanistan. But there is no evidence that Canadians are divided about whether those troops should be provided with every reasonable bit of equipment to bring them home alive.

Which is why I was astounded to see a letter to the editor in the Citizen ("Not same chopper," Sept. 4) under the name of Peter MacKay, minister of national defence, ridiculing my suggestion that we send Griffon helicopters to Afghanistan to help prevent our young soldiers from getting blown to bits by roadside bombs.

When I made this suggestion in an interview with CanWest defence writer David ********, I made it clear that the Griffons are not the ideal solution to the predicament that Canadians are the only forces operating in hot areas without their own helicopter support. The ideal helicopters would be medium-to-heavy lift Chinooks, which can carry three times the number of soldiers and/or ammunition and equipment as the Griffons.

But Canada doesn't have any Chinooks. The current government is committed to ordering them, but for whatever reason no contract seems to have been signed yet and if the normal delivery process is followed they won't be available until 2012. Given that Canada's commitment to keep fighting in Kandahar ends in 2009 that isn't very comforting to the troops risking their lives on exploding roads every day.

Canada did have the bigger Chinook helicopters at one point, but we sold them to the Dutch in the early 1990s as a cost-cutting measure. Mr. MacKay's letter blames the Liberals for that: "Senator Colin Kenny really should be asking why he and his Liberal colleagues chose not to equip the Canadian Forces with appropriate equipment."
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Two foreign Red Cross workers abducted in southern Afghanistan
09.27.07, 3:26 AM ET AFX News Limited
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GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Thomson Financial) - Two foreign employees of the International Red Cross have been abducted in southern Afghanistan by unknown kidnappers, a provincial police chief said today.

The two were kidnapped in Wardak province as they travelled on the main highway between Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar late Wednesday, Mohammad Awaz Mazloom, the police chief for the province, told AFP.

'Two foreign nationals working for the Red Cross were kidnapped in Salar area (of Wardak province) yesterday,' he said. The Red Cross office in Kabul was not immediately available for comment.
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Taliban spokesman arrested in Afghanistan: Ministry
27 Sep 2007, 1200 hrs IST,AFP Article Link

KABUL: The main spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement, Yousuf Ahmadi, has been arrested in southern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

Ahmadi was seized with his brother on Wednesday in volatile Helmand province, where the Taliban are in control of several districts, the ministry said in a statement.

Ahmadi regularly contacted the international and Afghan media from secret locations about Taliban engagements in southern Afghanistan, saying he was speaking on behalf of the extremist movement.

He was the main port of call for the media during the recent crisis over the Taliban's abduction of 21 South Korean evangelical workers in southern Afghanistan in July.

Two of the hostages were killed and the rest were released in August. He is the third Taliban spokesman to have been arrested since the hardline Islamic movement began their insurgency after being toppled from government by US-led forces in late 2001.

Mohammad Hanif, the prime Taliban spokesman for eastern Afghanistan, was arrested in January at an eastern border post with Pakistan.

The previous Taliban mouthpiece, Abdul Latif Hakimi, was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in October 2005. 
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Two NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan were Danes: Denmark
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COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Two NATO soldiers killed when Taliban extremists attacked their base in southern Afghanistan were Danes, the Danish army said on Thursday.

A third Dane was wounded in the arm and leg in the attack Wednesday which lasted several hours, the army said in a statement.

The two dead were identified as Mikkel Keil Soerensen, 24, and Thorbjoern Reese, 22, both part of an infantry reconnaissance troop.

A total of six Danish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

The Danish contingent currently numbers around 400 and is primarily deployed in the southern Helmand province under British command.

Including the latest deaths, 175 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year alone, most of them in combat operations against Taliban militants.

One of those, a soldier from the separate US-led coalition, was killed on Tuesday in southern Afghanistan during one of two major battles with the Taliban that also left nearly 170 militants dead.
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165 suspected Taliban killed in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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KABUL, Afghanistan: U.S.-led forces called in artillery and airstrikes to kill more than 165 insurgents, repelling massive assaults on coalition patrols in two strongholds of Taliban militants and Afghanistan's rampant drug trade, officials said Wednesday.

The battles in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces came shortly before President Hamid Karzai and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush insisted that Afghanistan was making progress.

Nearly six years after American-led forces ousted the Taliban for hosting Osama bin Laden, insurgency-related violence is surging. More than 4,500 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The two latest battles came amid a spike in violence during the holy month of Ramadan and as the military makes a last thrust against insurgents before colder weather forces a lull in fighting.

"Heading into the winter season, the (Afghan army) wanted to ensure that the Taliban know there are no safe havens," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher said.

Several dozen insurgents armed with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in Helmand early Tuesday. Taliban reinforcements continued to join the fray during the day, according to a statement from the U.S.-led coalition.
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Gates Seeks $190 Billion More for Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Deborah Tate Capitol Hill 26 September 2007
  Article Link

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Congress to approve nearly $190 billion more in funding for the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He made his request at Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, as VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

Secretary of Defense Gates says the additional money is needed to train more Iraqi and Afghan security forces, buy new armored vehicles that can protect U.S. troops against roadside bombs, refurbish equipment worn down by combat and consolidate U.S. bases in Iraq.

Gates urged quick approval of the money, which is for the new budget year beginning Monday.
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Canada should lead by example, not lectures: PM
Updated Tue. Sep. 25 2007 9:23 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Action - not rhetoric - will determine Canada's success in global affairs, declared Prime Minister Harper during a speech at one of the world's most influential foreign policy think tanks.

Speaking in New York before an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations, the publisher of the internationally renowned journal "Foreign Affairs," Harper said Canada must use its middle power status to lead, not lecture.

"Success demands governments who are willing to assume responsibilities, seek practical, do-able solutions to problems, and who have a voice and influence in global affairs because they lead, not by lecturing, but by example," Harper said.

Harper says another minority government likely
Harper claimed numerous examples of Canada's influence on the world stage, including its roles in Afghanistan and climate change.

Harper cited the fact that Canada has just lost its 71st soldier in Afghanistan to show that there can be little doubt about Canada's contribution to fighting terrorism.
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Canada should cease combat as NATO test, Liberals say
PAUL WALDIE From Wednesday's Globe and Mail September 26, 2007 at 4:35 AM EDT
Dion says troops must withdraw in 2009 even if no other country will take over
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Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says Canada should end its combat role in Afghanistan in 2009 even if no other NATO country is prepared to step in.

"We need to know if NATO works," he told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday. "Because otherwise other countries will be more and more reluctant to take any responsibility, because they will be afraid to be there forever."

Mr. Dion said the Afghan mission is a challenge for NATO because it marks the first time the alliance has ventured beyond its geographic base. He said a strong commitment by Canada to cease combat operations after February, 2009, will be a test of whether NATO is truly a multilateral organization.

If elected prime minister, he would pull Canadian troops out of Kandahar after February, 2009, even if that left the region without a NATO combat force, he said.
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New mine-clearing vehicles being road-tested in Afghanistan
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service  Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The deadliest war within the war in Afghanistan entered a new era Wednesday as Canadian combat engineers tried out for the first time some high-tech devices designed to stop Taliban improvised explosive devices from killing Canadians.

A South African-made Husky mine detection vehicle, which looks like an awkward road grader with several wheeled extensions trailing behind to detonate buried explosives, was put through its paces on a dusty field near the Kandahar airfield.

“The guys who are going to use it are really eager to get out there because they know that with this they will save the lives of their buddies,” said Capt. David Holsworth of Kingston, Ont., an engineer with the 5th Combat Engineers Regiment of Valcartier, Que. “This is the best piece of kit there is.”

Life-saving innovations are urgently needed. Of the 71 Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan so far, 30 were killed when their vehicles hit home-made bombs buried in or near roads.

The Husky, which has four wheels set far apart with the driver riding high in the middle on an armoured, V-shaped hull, is designed to work in concert with two other huge vehicles. One, called the Buffalo, will be equipped with a long robot arm to defuse, disable or detonate whatever is found hidden in the ground. The second, known as a Cougar, will carry explosives experts, robots and electronic suppression devices.
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Troops salute fallen reservist71st Canuck to die in conflict
By DENE MOORE September 27, 2007
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CP -- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A full Afghan moon was fading in the sky early yesterday morning as members of the Canadian Forces bade goodbye to a fallen comrade.

Cpl. Nathan Hornburg became the 71st Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan when he was killed in a mortar attack during Operation Honest Soldier on Monday.

Hornburg was a reservist with the King's Own Calgary Regiment and chose to serve in Afghanistan.

"Edmund Burke said the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," said Maj. Pierre Bergeron, the military chaplain who eulogized the 24-year-old soldier on the tarmac before his final journey home. "As a reservist, Cpl. Hornburg could have stayed in Canada and continued working as a landscaper. Rather, he chose to serve and do something to make this world a better place."

Bergeron called it a sad reminder that death is always painful for those who remain and urged hundreds of fellow soldiers who lined the tarmac in the first light of day to pray for those who loved the young soldier.

He also acknowledged the challenge of the mission ahead.

"For those of us who remain, we too have chosen to do something," Bergeron said after Hornburg's flag-draped casket was delivered to pallbearers on the tarmac in a LAV armoured vehicle.

"Courage is not the absence of fear but the determination to do what is right in spite of our fear," Bergeron told the gathered crowd.
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Troop pullout would jeopardize Afghanistan aid: official
  CanWest News Service; Victoria Times Colonist Thursday, September 27, 2007
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VICTORIA - Canada's foreign aid workers can't remain in Afghanistan until 2011 if it's too dangerous after a possible pullout by troops in 2009, a foreign affairs official said Wednesday.

The number of civilians in Afghanistan with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs Department alone have almost doubled in the last year, said David Mulroney, associate deputy minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

But, "We couldn't maintain it without somebody providing that degree of security we have now," said Mulroney, who spoke at the Union Club in Victoria.

The 71st Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, was killed Monday.

His body is being returned to Canada tonight at CFB Trenton in Ontario.

Afghanistan is the largest recipient of Canada's foreign aid, with $200 million spent last year. The number of CIDA and Foreign Affairs workers almost doubled to 13 from seven, and 20 from nine, respectively, in just the last year.
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Husky vehicles will help protect soldiers
By DENE MOORE The Canadian Press Published Thursday September 27th, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian troops in Afghanistan have a new weapon against deadly roadside bombs.
Military officials unveiled the first of their new RSD Husky armoured vehicles Wednesday.

The South African-built Huskies are equipped with sophisticated metal and electronic detectors that scan roads and ditches for improvised explosive devices, roadside bombs and landmines.

Roadside bombs have become the deadliest threat facing international troops in Afghanistan.

Twenty-nine of the 71 Canadian soldiers who have died were killed by roadside bombs, 22 of them in the past year. Another 11 Canadian soldiers have died in suicide bombing attacks.

Capt. David Holsworth, of the 5th Combat Engineers Regiment based in Valcartier, Que., said that Canadian troops used to rely on their American counterparts to clear roads with this type of equipment.

However, U.S. Huskies are largely tied up clearing roads for American convoys.

"A lot of the (soldiers who were killed by IEDs) could have been saved if we had had these earlier," Holsworth told reporters at Kandahar Airfield. "It's extremely important."

The Huskies look like road graders, minus the blade and with armour plate.

The vehicle is built to resist the blast from underneath, with the driver seated high away from the bomb beneath.
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[tomahawk6]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Taliban_spokesman_arrested_in_Afghanistan_Ministry/articleshow/2407766.cms

KABUL: The main spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement, Yousuf Ahmadi, has been arrested in southern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

Ahmadi was seized with his brother on Wednesday in volatile Helmand province, where the Taliban are in control of several districts, the ministry said in a statement.

Ahmadi regularly contacted the international and Afghan media from secret locations about Taliban engagements in southern Afghanistan, saying he was speaking on behalf of the extremist movement.

He was the main port of call for the media during the recent crisis over the Taliban's abduction of 21 South Korean evangelical workers in southern Afghanistan in July.

Two of the hostages were killed and the rest were released in August. He is the third Taliban spokesman to have been arrested since the hardline Islamic movement began their insurgency after being toppled from government by US-led forces in late 2001.

Mohammad Hanif, the prime Taliban spokesman for eastern Afghanistan, was arrested in January at an eastern border post with Pakistan.

The previous Taliban mouthpiece, Abdul Latif Hakimi, was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in October 2005.

 

[GAP]

Articles found September 28, 2007

Canada won't bribe Afghans after protest over civilian deaths: officer
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A military official says Canada will continue to build ties with Afghans but won't rush in with "bribes" because of a false belief that Canadian soldiers were involved in the deaths of two Afghan civilians.

Angry Afghans closed the main highway out of Kandahar city on Wednesday, blaming international troops, including Canada, for the deaths of a religious scholar and his brother during a raid on a suspected insurgent's home the night before.

Some of the approximately 500 protesters chanted "Death to Canada," along with other nations involved in the war against the Taliban. Most of the anger was directed toward the United States.

Military officials say no Canadian soldiers were involved, but the family of the dead men demanded amends on Thursday.

"My cousins are killed illogically," said Abdul Hai, 25. "They must be given compensation."

Qudratullah, an area elder at age 39, said the family should receive land or money for the deaths.

"There are 18 family members left at the same house, including children and women," said Qudratullah.
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No plans for troops to go
Waiting for Parliament, says official
  Ethan Baron The Province Friday, September 28, 2007
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Canada is not preparing to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in 17 months, a senior Foreign Affairs official says.

"The government of Canada is not making any preparations for departure," the official, who would not be identified, said in a background session put on by Simon Fraser University at the Wosk Centre in Vancouver yesterday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in June that an extension of the military mission in Afghanistan would require opposition support in Parliament.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said that consensus would "never exist."

The Foreign Affairs official said there is no reason for departure planning when a decision about prolonging the military mission has not yet been made.

Pressed about the absence of a government plan, in light of the Canadian International Development Agency's commitment to work in Afghanistan until 2011, the official said the army was addressing the post-pullout issue.

"I think we can assume that the Department of National Defence has a number of contingency plans," he said.

"Canadian involvement in Afghanistan will continue to be Canada's top foreign-policy priority for the foreseeable future."

Parliament last year extended the military mission to February 2009.

Canada likely won't accomplish its goals by the pull-out date, the official said.

"We are unlikely to achieve our security, governance, and development objectives . . . by 2009," he said.
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Canadian troops move to counter protest while denying shooting allegations
  Matthew Fisher and Meagan Fitzpatrick CanWest News Service Thursday, September 27, 2007
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Van Doo battle group intends "to do a lot of listening" to better understand Afghan concerns following a street protest this week in Zhari District at which Canada was denounced amid allegations that they had entered a home and fatally shot two mullahs - allegations that Canada has denied.

"To a great extent, just giving them a forum can really count," said Lieut. Derrick Farnham, a liaison officer CIMIC, a civilian-military co-operation element with Joint Task Force Afghanistan.
But Farnham said Canada would not get involved in the centuries old "Great Game," of trying to play Afghan factions against each other.

Pointing to a map, Farnham said Zhari was "peculiar" because a line could be drawn with the tribes of the eastern half of Zhari enjoying good relations with the Afghan government and Canadian troops and the tribes of western half mostly opposed to the government and the Canadians. Inevitably, these two groups also had differences with each other.

Because only one group was willing to deal with Canada, Farnham said: "It is quite possible it may harden attitudes" on the other side, but Canada had little choice if only one group wished to establish relations.

"After 30 years of revolt and fighting, to think it is just going to end because we're here is unrealistic," Farnham said. The key, he said, was to take small steps to establish good governance.

A Van Doo officer at Patrol Base Wilson in Zhari District repeated what had been said a day earlier by colleagues in Kandahar, categorically denying that Canadian troops had any part in the alleged raid earlier this week.

Enlisted troops at the same small base were incredulous that such allegations had been made.
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Building trust tricky business
By RICHARD LATENDRESSE September 28, 2007
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Afghanistan -- It takes a while for soldiers to trust a reporter. They're a defensive bunch -- even when it comes to journalists. But I've noticed that after you've been on operations, on patrol or simply sharing a military tent, the guard comes down.

After a month with Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan, they were willing to talk. And in some cases, willing to share with me that they feel they're wasting their time here. Some of the Canadians talk about how ungrateful -- devious, even -- the locals are, as they smile at NATO forces by day and collaborate with the enemy by night.

Granted, it's a small number, but those soldiers on the ground are not alone in their pessimism.

The Afghanistan mission is seen as a failure by 69% of Germans, 66% of Italians and 63% of British and French respondents to an international Angus Reid poll released last month. Of the Canadians sampled, 49% think the operation is futile.

Before leaving Kandahar, I sat down with the top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche. I wanted three concrete examples that this mission is a success.

SAFETY

He cited improved safety in parts of the region, a better capacity for Afghans to run their own affairs -- in particular, the progress in training Afghan soldiers -- and reconstruction in the country.

All of that may be true, but it's in very small doses.

I did chat with locals in villages repopulated under better security. But I came across just as many abandoned villages.
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Attacks by Taliban increase, approach Afghanistan capital
Seen capitalizing on public concern, weak government
By John Ward Anderson, Washington Post  |  September 28, 2007
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KABUL, Afghanistan - Preying on a weak government and rising public concerns about security, the Taliban are enjoying a military resurgence in Afghanistan and are now staging attacks just outside the capital, according to Western diplomats, private security analysts, and aid workers.

Of particular concern, private security and intelligence analysts said, is the new reach of the Taliban to the provinces ringing Kabul, headquarters for thousands of international security troops. Those troops are seeking to shore up the government of President Hamid Karzai, help stabilize the country, find Osama bin Laden, and rebuild a nation deeply scarred by almost three decades of warfare. So far, they have had only mixed success.

"The Taliban ability to sustain fighting cells north and south of Kabul is an ominous development and a significant lapse in security," said a recent analysis by NightWatch, an intelligence review written by John McCreary, a former top analyst at the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

While the number of attacks around the capital has been small compared with the number of attacks in other areas of the country, McCreary wrote, the data showed that the Taliban this summer "held the psychological initiative. They still lack the ability to threaten the government, but moved closer to achieving it than they have in six years."

Analyses by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a project funded by the European Commission to advise private aid groups about security conditions across the country, found "a significant monthly escalation in conflict" in the first half of the year. Attacks by armed opposition groups increased from 139 in January to 405 in July, according to the project's director, Nic Lee.
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New efforts to free Red Cross workers in Afghanistan
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GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) — Negotiators were in touch Friday with the captors of four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, who were held in Afghanistan during a mission to free a German kidnapped by the Taliban.

Contact had been made with the group that seized the men on Wednesday in the province of Wardak, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul, and military action had been ruled out to free the men, an Afghan official told AFP.

"The Red Cross office advised us not use any military action for the safety of the kidnapped people and the issue must be solved via mediation through tribal elders," said the governor of Sayed Abad district where they were taken.

"We are in contact with the kidnappers via tribal elders and influentials," governor Anayatullah Mangal said. Mangal has said previously it was not clear who was holding the four.

The Red Cross workers did not return to Kabul on Wednesday after their mission in Wardak, where the 62-year-old German engineer and five Afghans were captured 10 weeks ago.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not say they have been kidnapped but that they had been detained and were expected to be freed soon.
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The Macleans.ca Interview: Dawn Black
The NDP defence critic on allegations the Canadian military drafted a speech by the Afghan President and the Afghan Ambassador's outrage
Kate Lunau | Sep 27, 2007 | 9:37 am EST
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Yesterday's allegations that the Canadian military helped draft a speech given in Canadian Parliament by Afghan President Hamid Karzai - in which he praised the Canadian war effort and criticized NDP leader Jack Layton for opposing the mission - inspired an outraged response from the Afghan Ambassador to Canada. The claims are "not only ludicrous but also verge on being insulting," Ambassador Omar Samad said.
But NDP Defence Critic, Dawn Black, says the allegations are based in fact. They come from a document she obtained through an Access to Information request, which she says show the Canadian government was behind Karzai's words - making the speech nothing more than an "elaborately staged political stunt."
In an exclusive interview with Macleans.ca, Black responds to Samad's comments and explains why this issue should be of concern to Canadians.
Macleans.ca: First of all, tell me about this document.

Dawn Black: This is a document that was put together by the Department of National Defence. I’ll read to you right from it. It says that the SAT [Strategic Advisory Team] "prepared initial draft of President’s address to Parliament 22 Sep." So that’s clear; that’s what it says.  Then it says, “It was noted that key statistics, messages, themes, as well as overall structure [of the speech], were adopted by the President in his remarks to the joint session.” I mean, I don’t know how much clearer it could be.

M: So why is it a concern that the Canadian military might have had a hand in drafting this speech?
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[GAP]

Dutch will send 80 more troops to Afghanistan
Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:08pm BST
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands will send a further 80 soldiers to Afghanistan to support Dutch troops serving in the troubled south of the country as part of a NATO mission, the government said on Friday.

Troops would leave within the next few days and would serve provisionally for two months near the town of Deh Rawod, where a Dutch soldier died earlier this month, and where fighting with insurgents has intensified.

"NATO asked the Netherlands to send extra units to Uruzgan. The government has decided to meet this request," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The Dutch news agency ANP quoted Wouter Bos, deputy prime minister and finance minister, as saying on Friday: "It is irresponsible to leave troops there without extra assistance."

Between 1,500 and 1,700 Dutch troops are serving in Afghanistan, on a mission due to last until August 2008.

The government has yet to decide whether to keep the troops there beyond that date, as growing casualties increase public pressure to withdraw them.
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Two Lopsided Battles Bloody Taliban in Afghanistan
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Amid reports of uneven al-Qaeda-Taliban strength in different parts of Afghanistan, two separate battles have resulted in killing approximately 165 Taliban. An ambush on a joint Coalition-Afghan patrol in northern Helmand province resulted in a day-long fight in which Coalition artillery and aerial attacks killed more than 100 enemy, with one Coalition soldier killed and four wounded. In another Taliiban attack in neighboring Uruzgan province, artillery and airstrikes were once again effectively employed, killing 65 of the 80-man enemy attacking force.

But there are growing concerns about NATO-member commitment to the mission in Afghanistan as well as concerns of growing al-Qaeda-Taliban strength in Uruzgan province in particular. Radio Netherlands, with reporters and sources on the ground there, reported that a surge in enemy strength is due primarily to the import of foreign fighters - though few will acknowledge officially - including battle-hardened and experienced Chechens. According to their report, “the presence of fighters from Pakistan and Bosnia is known beyond any doubt - in fact, prisoners have been taken from their ranks and handed over to the Afghan authorities. It is assumed that Chechen fighters are also active in Dihrawud district.”
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Canadians won't pay Afghan cleric 'bribe'
TheStar.com -September 28, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan–Canadian officials have moved quickly to assure Afghan officials that their troops played no part in this week's shooting deaths of a local religious leader and his brother.

But military officers say they won't rush to use development projects to appease simmering public anger over the deaths, which prompted some 500 Afghans to block a highway west of here Wednesday.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we're seen as just bribing people who have a grudge against us," said Lieut. Derrick Farnham, a Canadian who works with the civil-military team on reconstruction.

"That's something that's been done in the past and it's been termed the great game in Afghanistan where locals play one side off the other in terms of getting treats and gifts. That's something we want to avoid," he said.

"There's been too long a history in Afghanistan or giving things and doing projects to try and solve problems. That's not the goal at all. It's to re-establish a country and make it work by itself."
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[GAP]

Articles found Sept 29, 2007

A Haven of Prosperity in Afghanistan
U.S. Building Effort Blooms in Panjshir
By John Ward Anderson Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 29, 2007; Page A11
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PARAKH, Afghanistan -- Slashed across the side of a rugged mountain like the sign of Zorro, the Z Road started as a simple $59,000 U.S. project to put a radio tower atop a small peak in the Hindu Kush, so people in the remote Panjshir Valley could for the first time pick up commercial radio from Kabul, about 60 dusty, bone-jolting miles away.

After road crews conquered the mountain's 270-foot face last November, other forces took over. By the new year, private companies had extended the road to the next hilltop, two-thirds of a mile away and 640 feet higher, for a bank of cellphone towers. Then came another half-mile extension to the next peak for a TV tower, then plans for a wind farm and, last month, a series of switchbacks down the far side of the range to give villages in the next valley their first road to the outside.

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This is the way reconstruction in Afghanistan was supposed to be. A little bit of U.S. pump priming, combined with profit motive and human need, would be harnessed by a grateful, liberated population to transform their lives and country. In the process, the people would become loyal allies in the fight against terrorism.
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Army Bus Blast in Kabul Kills 27
By AMIR SHAH
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion Saturday while trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 27 soldiers, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

The blast, which also injured 29 people, ripped off the roof of the bus and tore out its sides, leaving a charred hull of burnt metal. The attack was reminiscent of the deadliest insurgent attack in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 — when a bomber boarded a police academy bus at Kabul's busiest transportation hub in June and killed 35 people.

Dozens of civilians and police officers picked through the site in search of bodies. The Interior Ministry said 27 soldiers were killed and 29 people wounded.

"For 10 or 15 seconds, it was like an atom bomb — fire, smoke and dust everywhere," said Mohammad Azim, a police officer who witnessed the explosion.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed the militant group was responsible for the blast in a text message to The Associated Press. Mujahid said the bomber was a Kabul resident named Azizullah.

The bus had stopped in front of a movie theater to pick up soldiers when a bomber wearing a military uniform tried to board around 6:45 a.m. local time, army spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
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Canada defends policy on Afghan clans
GRAEME SMITH  From Friday's Globe and Mail September 28, 2007 at 12:38 AM EDT
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada will not immediately try to douse the anger that flared up this week in a village near Kandahar city after two religious teachers were killed in their homes, a military officer says, in a case that reveals the way Canadian forces are handling rebellious tribes.

The raid by foreign soldiers that left two mullahs dead on Wednesday was only the latest reason for upset in the village of Senjaray, a suburb of Kandahar city. Almost all of the people who protested in the hours afterward were members of the Alizai tribe, a group that often feels disenfranchised by the new government. They claim they're denied reconstruction projects and shut out of positions of influence in the local administration.

A Canadian official confirmed yesterday that some of the Alizais' complaints have a factual basis. Villages considered hostile to the government are shut out of assistance programs in the hope they will become more compliant, and that policy won't change just because the Alizais are shouting “death to Canada” in the streets, said Lieutenant Derrick Farnham, a civilian-military liaison officer at Canadian headquarters in Kandahar.

“We try very hard not to be reactionary, to go and quell anger and solve it immediately,” Lt. Farnham said. “That's something that has been done in the past, and it's been termed the ‘great game' in Afghanistan, where locals play one side off the other in terms of getting treats and gifts, and that's something we want to avoid.”
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Ottawa looks at protecting jobs of reservists on active duty or training
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OROMOCTO, N.B. - Canada's labour minister says no one who wears the country's military uniform should ever have to go directly from the front line to the unemployment line.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn is travelling across the country as the federal government looks for ways to protect the jobs of military reservists who are absent from work while training or on active duty.

The consultation comes after some soldiers lost their jobs while deployed in Afghanistan.

"Canada's New Government is committed to doing everything possible to ensure that the men and women of the Canadian Reserve Force who serve our country are well supported when they return to civilian working life. They deserve it," Blackburn said to a group of reservists at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick on Friday.

"We ask them to serve their country, they risk their lives sometimes, and those people don't have any job protection," he said.

Blackburn said protecting jobs is the right thing to do, but the process will require co-ordination among several government departments and the provinces
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Private firm trains Canadian troops
Forces send soldiers to Blackwater outfit under scrutiny for killings in Iraq
David ********, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, September 29, 2007
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The Canadian Forces is using a controversial private security firm to train some of its troops sent to Afghanistan.

Select Canadian soldiers have been sent to Blackwater U.S.A. in North Carolina for specialized training in bodyguard and shooting skills. Other soldiers have taken counter-terrorism evasive-driving courses with the private military company now at the centre of an investigation into the killings of Iraqi civilians and mounting concerns about the aggressive tactics of its workers in the field.

Critics of Blackwater label the firm as a mercenary organization and question why a professional military such as the Canadian Forces can't do its own training in specialized areas.
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One proud trucker
Canadian Forces Army News - 2007-09-28 | Sgt Robert Comeau and Cpl Tom Parker
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WHITBY, Ontario — Thanks to the initiative of a trucker from Cobourg, drivers who regularly commute along the 401 will now have something to think about on their travels between Montreal and Cobourg.

In honour of the Year of the Veteran, which was commemorated in 2005, Larry Josie, an independent trucker, had his vehicle emblazoned with vinyl artwork.

A veteran himself, Mr. Josie found a unique way to support the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. As the owner of a tractor-trailor for the past 18 months, he had been dreaming of giving his vehicle a new look, and began to do some research on the Internet.

That's when he discovered Sign Design, a company based in Whitby, Ontario. The company emblazes vinyl graphics on vehicles like his. Following a meeting with artist Chris McGregor, Mr Josie's project began to take shape.

After an exhaustive search of the National Defence and Combat Camera Web sites, a sketch was presented to the trucker in which the artist succeeded in portraying the lives of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. The photo of a CF soldier in Afghanistan served as the inspiration for one of the silhouettes on the rear doors of the truck. In order to accomplish this project, company employee Loretta Janes donated a photo of her son-in-law.

Even though he disagrees with the war in Afghanistan, Mr. Josie unconditionally supports the Canadian soldiers, their families and friends.

"If I provide moral support to the soldiers, and can put a smile on their faces, my mission is accomplished," he explained.
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Afghanistan's Karzai Offers to Talk With Taleban
By VOA News 29 September 2007
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he would personally meet Taleban leader Mullah Omar and another top insurgent, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to bring peace to his country.

Mr. Karzai told reporters in Kabul Saturday that he would even allocate some government posts to the Taleban.

However, he rejected Taleban demands that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan before talks could begin.

Mr. Karzai rejected reports that the United States opposed holding talks with the Taleban, saying his government would make any decision to hold negotiations with insurgents.

Both Omar and Hekmatyar are wanted by the United States.
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4 Red Cross Hostages Free in Afghanistan
Saturday September 29, 2007 2:01 PM
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Four Red Cross employees who had been kidnapped earlier this week were freed in good health Saturday, Afghan officials said.

The four men - two from Afghanistan, one from Myanmar and one from Macedonia - were taken captive on Wednesday in central Wardak province while working to secure the release of a German hostage.

Mohabullah, the police director of criminal investigations of the Sayad Abad district where the four were taken, said the men had been released and were in good health. He said he had no news about the German.
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[The Bread Guy]

Afghan govt 'ready to talk' to rebel leaders
Agence France Presse via the Daily Star (Bangladesh), 30 Sept 07
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday he would talk to top insurgent leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both wanted by the United States, to bring peace to his country.  The president, however, again rejected demands from the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, and Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami faction that the 50,000 international troops helping Kabul must quit for any negotiations to occur.  "We're ready to talk to all Afghans, any Afghan wanting talks, we're ready," Karzai said when asked if he would negotiate with Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar, both of whom have multi-million-dollar bounties on their heads.  He told reporters that if peace could only be brought to Afghanistan through talks, "we're ready to do it."  This was his most direct invitation yet to leaders of the growing unrest, with previous invitations of talks vague about the whether they were included.  Karzai said he was even ready to give government posts to the Taliban if they renounced violence.  If they asked "'President, give us this or that post in a ministry and we won't fight,' if they ask me for such thing, I would immediately accept," he said ....


After Afghan bomber kills 30, Karzai offers olive branch
Kirk Semple, International Herald Tribune, 29 Sept 07
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A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan military uniform detonated his explosive belt near a bus full of Afghan soldiers on their way to work here in the capital Saturday, killing at least 30 people, including two civilians, officials said. The bombing was among the deadliest in Afghanistan this year.  Later in the day, President Hamid Karzai said he was willing to travel to the hideout of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to conduct peace negotiations, and that he was prepared to allocate the leadership of some ministries to Taliban officials if they rejected further violence.  The comments appeared to reflect a more conciliatory and open posture toward peace negotiations with the Taliban, and they came a day after Karzai's return from a trip to the United States that included talks at the United Nations and the White House. Earlier this year he forswore direct negotiations with Omar and has apparently never publicly said he was prepared to name Taliban fighters as ministers ....


Any co-operation with Taliban must come with conditions: MacKay
Canadian Press, 29 Sept 07
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Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Taliban will have to renounce violence and accept the NATO mission in Afghanistan if it wants to work with the Afghan government.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed his call Saturday for talks with the Taliban after a deadly suicide bombing in Kabul.  Karzai said he wants to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar for peace talks and is willing to consider giving the militants a position in government.  Speaking at an enrolment ceremony for new military personnel in Halifax, MacKay says any co-operation must include the preconditions that Karzai has laid out. Those include the Taliban's renunciation of violence and acceptance of the fact that NATO forces aren't leaving the country any time soon.  MacKay said he's comfortable with anyone who is prepared to move away from activities on the ground that put Canadian soldiers, and others who are part of the NATO mission, at risk ....



Liberal defence critic goes on unauthorized fact-finding trip to Afghanistan
Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press, 29 Sept 07
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The Liberal defence critic says he's headed on an unauthorized fact-finding trip to Afghanistan after having his request to visit the troops consistently ignored by the Harper government.  Denis Coderre says he's set to leave for Kabul and Kandahar to visit with development workers, Afghan government officials and Canadian soldiers.  "(Afghanistan) is a major issue for the Canadian people," Coderre said in an interview Saturday.  "I think that for the sake of the debate it's important that I go. Since I couldn't get an answer I decided to go on my own."  The Montreal-area MP says he's made multiple requests with Defence Minister Peter MacKay's office but that they were systematically ignored or rejected. He said he first asked to go when Gordon O'Connor was defence minister but sometimes didn't get his calls returned.  Coderre says that he has the full blessing of his leader, Stephane Dion, and that his boss has also informed the Harper government that Coderre wants to go to Afghanistan ....



Kidnapped NSP officials swapped for five Taliban
Pajhwok Afghan News, 28 Sept 07
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Two government officials, kidnapped in the Nimroz province some 20 days back, were freed in exchange for five militants last night, officials said on Friday.  Khashrud district chief Muhammad Hashim Noorzai told Pajhwok Afghan News the National Solidarity Department employees were released at midnight as a result of hectic efforts by tribal elders.  Nimroz police head Brig. Gen. Muhammad Daud Askaryar confirmed the two officials were swapped with five Taliban insurgents. The kidnappers had earlier demanded ransom for freeing the men.  The rebels had been arrested in connection with the kidnap incident, explained Askaryar, who would not give further details of the swap deal.  National Solidarity Programme (NSP) head in Zaranj Abdul Khalil, when approached for comments, said he had spoken to the men by phone. Held captive in the Farah desert, he claimed, both were in good health.



Biggest blitz by paras since WW2 to crush Taliban
Michael Smith and Louise Armitstead, Sunday Times, 30 Sept 07
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BRITAIN is to deploy its biggest contingent of paratroopers and special forces since the second world war in a bid to crush the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Ministers are to send 3,000 paratroopers, including the entire Parachute Regiment, to southern Afghanistan in the spring, as well as trebling the number of special forces in the country.  It will be the first time in the regiment’s history that all four para battalions, including its reservists, have fought together on the same battlefield. The number of UK special forces personnel will rise to more than 800 and will include the bulk of the Special Forces Support Group, which is largely comprised of paratroopers.  The deployment comes amid fears that the Taliban are likely to regroup over the winter and retake terrain from weaker Afghan forces unable to hold their positions ....



German special forces commanders "drunk" in Afghanistan: report
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 29 Sept 07
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German special forces serving in Afghanistan were commanded by senior officers who were often drunk, Der Spiegel news magazine reported Saturday.  The report spoke of 'serious cases of alcohol abuse by those in charge' of the elite commando unit KSK based in the southern town of Kandahar since December 2001.  Among those regularly intoxicated were the officer in overall charge of the contingent and the company commander, Der Spiegel said in an article released in advance of publication on Sunday.  The news magazine said it based its report on eyewitness accounts as well as 'internal documents' of the German armed forces.  A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment on the allegations, saying they were part of a complex of issues currently under investigation by a parliamentary committee ....



Dont abandon Afghanistan, says Dutch premier
Pajhwok Afghan News, 28 Sept 07
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Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende Thursday urged the international community not to abandon Afghanistan as it required sustained support in coming years.  The international community must not abandon Afghanistan to its fate. The hopes of millions of Afghans rest with us, Balkenende said in his address to the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly.  The Netherlands, which has its troops in Afghanistan, said that lasting peace could be secured only if defence was combined with development and diplomacy ....

 

[GAP]

Taliban's deadliest weapons lie in wait
TheStar.com September 29, 2007 Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau
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31 of Canada's 71 fallen soldiers in Afghanistan killed by buried bombs

KANDAHAR–Canadian troops are winning the war on the battlefield but risk losing their way on the roads, as the Taliban use buried bombs as their weapon of choice against Canadian convoys.

Surprisingly simple to make, easily buried in the dirt roads and deadly effective, one chilling estimate suggests there are hundreds of these bombs lying in wait for soldiers in Kandahar region.

"It is the major threat here in theatre," said Maj. Max Messier, of the 5th Combat Engineers Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que.

"That's the biggest challenge. We don't know where and how we're going to face it. On a daily basis, we are facing that threat."

Roadside bombs have been the biggest killer of Canadians here – of the 71 soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2002, 31 have been killed by buried bombs. And 22 of those deaths have occurred this year.

Perhaps most chilling for the Canadians is just how easy it is to make one of these weapons.

To prove that point, Messier reaches into a cardboard box and pulls out the components of a bomb, some of it taken from devices the Canadians have discovered and defused.

"This they can find everywhere, this is easily made," he said.
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Logistics support in Afghanistan among military's toughest jobs
Matthew Fisher CanWest News Service Saturday, September 29, 2007
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MASUM GHAR, Afghanistan -- Cpl. Johan Sauvageau and Cpl. Charles Hebert have what may be the most dangerous jobs in the Canadian military.

The baby-faced reservists play a deadly game of cat and mouse with Taliban bombers almost every day. As members of 1st Platoon, Force Protection, National Support Element, they are literally part of Task Force Afghanistan's lifeline, escorting food, ammunition and mail as well as rotating troops and repaired vehicles to infantry combing the insurgent heartland to the west of Kandahar City.

To reach these distant outposts, the Canadians must run a deadly gauntlet. More than 40 of the Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan have been struck down by suicide bombers driving cars or trucks packed with jury-rigged explosives or by improvised explosive devices buried in the roads.

"With our job we never know what the menace might be or when it will hit," said Sauvageau, a 22-year old student from Dolbeau, Que., now attached to the Regiment du Saguenay.

"Still, we like the challenge," says the young man, who forsook one of the coldest places in Canada, 330 kilometres northeast of Montreal, to spend half a year riding on point as a gunner in the heat and dust of Afghanistan. "We like the adrenalin. And we like to be out with the guys in situations where we can achieve something in life that we cannot achieve at home."

Since arriving in theatre in June, both Sauvageau and Hebert, a 24-year old medic's assistant and university student from Montreal's Regiment du Maisonneuve, have been on convoys that have come under attack.

Sauvageau had to extract a badly wounded soldier from a vehicle that had been hit by an IED. Hebert was in a convoy where two IED explosions were the first act in a wild ambush in which the Taliban fired rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles.

Fear is always part of the equation. Sauvageau and Hebert have coped with it in different ways.
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On the brink
Tom Hyland September 30, 2007
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IN a pebble-strewn river valley enclosed by bare jagged mountains, smiling Afghan boys run alongside the foreign soldiers, as boys often do. The foreigners are US Marines and the boys often ask them for a dollar, a biscuit, a pen. And they ask: "How are you?"

On this day a Marine gives his standard reply to a mate, who records it on video.

"I'm on a field op. I have no f---ing money." As for the biscuit: "Do I look like Little Red Riding Hood, carrying around a load of biscuits? What the f---?"

What about the pen? "What the f--- they want a pen for?"

And how is the Marine doing? "I'm doing bad. That's how I'm doing. I'm in this shit-faced country."

The scene, and what it revealed about the attitudes of US troops, shocked US officers when it was posted on Liveleak.com, a video website, earlier this year.

In the video a Marine says to one of the boys: "You know your country stinks like ass? What you think about that? You think it sucks? You stink like ass, too."

The same Marine gives a group of boys an impromptu English lesson, and they recite after him: "I am an idiot! We beg too f---ing much! F--- this country!"

One one level, the video is harmless. Soldiers grumble, their humour is raw. The Marines are young, tired, not knowing what they are doing so far from home, and the Afghan boys seem not to know that they and their country are being mocked.

But on another level the video is a glimpse of part of what's wrong with a foreign military enterprise that includes 1000 Australians — and maybe more if Kevin Rudd is elected.

The video reveals foreign troops who are ignorant about the country they have been sent to save. They either don't know — or don't care — that the kids ask for dollars, biscuits and pens because their country is one of the world's poorest, where almost half of the children under five don't get enough to eat, and only a third finish primary school.

The Marines are stressed, jaded and want to go home
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Kabul army bus suicide attack kills 30
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KABUL (AFP) — A suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew up an Afghan military bus in Kabul Saturday, killing 30 people and wounding 30 more in one of the deadliest attacks of the Taliban's insurgency.

Hours after the devastating blast claimed by the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai called for "stronger vigour" in the fight against terrorism. He also reiterated an offer of talks with the rebels if they renounced violence.

The rush-hour blast was the deadliest in the city since a June explosion on a police bus killed about 35 people in the worst attack in the Taliban-led insurgency launched after the hardliners were driven from government in 2001.

The attacker, who had been carrying a briefcase, detonated his explosives at the entrance of the bus as it picked up army personnel going to work, the defence ministry said.

The force of the explosion blew off the roof and sides of the large bus, which was reduced to mangled metal. Television pictures showed rescuers rushing bloodied bodies from the vehicle. Some of the dead were still in their seats.
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Liberal defence critic goes on unauthorized fact-finding trip to Afghanistan
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OTTAWA - The Liberal defence critic says he's headed on an unauthorized fact-finding trip to Afghanistan after having his request to visit the troops consistently ignored by the Harper government.

Denis Coderre says he's set to leave for Kabul and Kandahar to visit with development workers, Afghan government officials and Canadian soldiers.

"(Afghanistan) is a major issue for the Canadian people," Coderre said in an interview Saturday.

"I think that for the sake of the debate it's important that I go. Since I couldn't get an answer I decided to go on my own."

The Montreal-area MP says he's made multiple requests with Defence Minister Peter MacKay's office but that they were systematically ignored or rejected. He said he first asked to go when Gordon O'Connor was defence minister but sometimes didn't get his calls returned.

Coderre says that he has the full blessing of his leader, Stephane Dion, and that his boss has also informed the Harper government that Coderre wants to go to Afghanistan.
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Canada to UN: Send 'Blair-like' envoy to Afghanistan
YANIV SALAMA-SCHEER, Jerusalem Post correspondent , THE JERUSALEM POST  Sep. 29, 2007
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Canada will ask the UN to appoint a special envoy to Afghanistan to raise global awareness of international efforts there, modeled on Quartet representative Tony Blair's work in the Middle East.

Canada currently has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan's Kandahar region.

Foreign Ministry officials here said the UN should be leading efforts to promote positive awareness of the NATO operation in Afghanistan, as it already does for the Middle East peace process.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier will begin lobbying for the proposal when he addresses the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, having already raised the issue with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in meetings last week.

Discussions on the initiative were still in the preliminary stages, officials in Ottawa told The Jerusalem Post, and it was not yet known how much weight Ban and Karzai would throw behind the proposal. However, they had responded "positively" so far, and Ban said he would continue to discuss the issue with Karzai and representatives of other UN member states.

"The Middle East has Tony Blair, who's doing a very good job, and we believe that at the leadership level in Afghanistan we need someone of a high level and with a clear mandate," Bernier said this week. "The UN mission is already there, and Canada is there under UN mandate, but we believe that the UN itself has to be more active in the coordination process."

Norway, Spain and the US are also throwing their support behind a heightened UN profile in Afghanistan
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Wounded Vets Also Economic Casualties
By JEFF DONN and KIMBERLY HEFLING
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TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) — He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.

Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.

Gamal Awad, the American son of a Sudanese immigrant, exemplifies an emerging group of war veterans: the economic casualties.

More than in past wars, many wounded troops are coming home alive from the Middle East. That's a triumph for military medicine. But they often return hobbled by prolonged physical and mental injuries from homemade bombs and the unremitting anxiety of fighting a hidden enemy along blurred battle lines. Treatment, recovery and retraining often can't be assured quickly or cheaply.

These troops are just starting to seek help in large numbers, more than 185,000 so far. But the cost of their benefits is already testing resources set aside by government and threatening the future of these wounded veterans for decades to come, say economists and veterans' groups.
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