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The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread September 2008

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Suicide bombers strike Kandahar police HQ
Updated Sun. Sep. 7 2008 7:31 AM ET The Associated Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Officials say two suicide attackers detonated their bombs inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan's second-largest city Sunday, killing at least two police and wounding 37 people.

The two bombers targeted Gen. Abdul Raziq, a border police commander, two police officers at the scene in Kandahar said. The blasts went off within a minute of each other, one on a ground floor and one on an upper floor, officials said.

The governor's spokesman, Najib Pervaiz, said two police were killed and 29 police and eight civilians were wounded. He said 16 of the wounded were in critical condition.

Karim Agha, a police officer wounded in the attack, said the bomber wanted to get close to Gen. Raziq, but his guards stopped him. After that, Agha said, he didn't know what happened because he went unconscious.

One high-ranking officer, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, said six police were killed and 13 wounded, including Raziq. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different figures.

Canadian troops and Afghan soldiers surrounded the police headquarters shortly after the explosions.
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Deaths in Afghanistan could hurt Tory campaign
Updated Sun. Sep. 7 2008 2:21 PM ET The Canadian Press OTTAWA -- The enemy has a vote.
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It was a favourite phrase of now retired Gen. Rick Hillier, one of Canada's most quotable military commanders.

His well-worn expression was meant to illustrate the violent unpredictability of the Taliban and how insurgent attacks could disrupt the best-laid military and development plans.

But it could take on a more significant meaning as the country embarks on the first federal election campaign since 1945 with Canadian troops at war.

Hillier, arguably the Conservative government's most articulate spokesman for the Kandahar mission, always followed his warning with reassurance that the military does everything possible to "make sure that vote can't be exercised very often."

But preventing the Taliban from influencing Canadian voters this fall may be easier said than done, a military historian warns.

Desmond Morton, a professor at McGill University, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is wrong if he thinks Afghanistan has been neutralized as political issue.

"The Conservatives want a quiet month -- or two -- to have their campaign, but I don't think anyone will say that out loud to you," said Morton, who informally advised former Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney on military matters.
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Afghans unearth 19-metre Buddha statue, relics
SAYED SALAHUDDIN Reuters September 8, 2008 at 5:08 AM EDT
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KABUL — Archaeologists have discovered a 19-metre Buddha statue along with scores of other historical relics in central Afghanistan near the ruins of giant statues destroyed by the Taliban seven years ago.

The team was searching for a giant sleeping Buddha believed to have been seen by a Chinese pilgrim centuries ago when it came upon the relics in the central province of Bamiyan, an official said on Monday.

“In total, 89 relics such as coins, ceramics and a 19 metres statue have been unearthed,” Mohammad Zia Afshar, adviser in the information and culture ministry, told Reuters.

He said the idol, in sleeping posture, was badly damaged. The other relics dated back to the Bacterian era and from Islamic and Buddhist civilizations.

Lying on the old Silk Road and linking West with the East, Bamiyan was once a thriving Buddhist centre where monks lived in caves. In 2001 the Taliban blew up two giant standing Buddha statues carved into a cliff face saying they were offensive to Islam, despite appeals worldwide.

Later that year U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government, and work has begun to restore the biggest of the two destroyed statues, once the tallest standing Buddha in the world. The mammoth task is expected to take a decade.

The latest discovery has raised hopes of finding a 300-metre-long Buddha statue that according to an ancient Chinese pilgrim is lying in Bamiyan, Mr. Afshar said.

Afghanistan has suffered decades of foreign interventions and civil war, and many of its historical relics, belonging to various civilizations, have been destroyed or looted.

Scientists said in April that they had found conclusive evidence the world's first ever oil paintings were in caves near the two destroyed giant statues of Buddha in Bamiyan, hundreds of years before oil paint was used in Europe.

Samples from paintings dated to the 7th century AD, they said. Paintings found in 12 of the 50 caves were created using oil paints, possibly from walnut or poppy, according to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).

It was not until the 13th century that oil was added to paints in Europe and oil paint was not widely used in Europe till the early 15th century.
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More Diggers wanted for Afghanistan
The Australian, Sept. 8
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24309831-2702,00.html

General David McKiernan has asked Washington to boost US troop numbers with the addition of an extra brigade-size combat force, beyond an already flagged 10,000 increase in the US military presence.

He also wants a commensurate commitment from America's NATO allies and coalition partners, including Australia.

In a candid interview with The Australian in Kabul, General McKiernan said he needed "upwards of four manoeuvre brigade combat teams" - about 15,000 extra troops - to manage the counter-insurgency fight now focused in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

Asked whether he would like to see a greater military contribution from Australia, General McKiernan replied emphatically: "Yes. I think whatever contributions Australia might decide to contribute - whether it's combat arms, combat support logistics or aviation - any of that I would welcome."

Senior ISAF sources in Kabul said US military leaders had made it clear they would like Australia to lift its military contribution to Afghanistan.

But the Rudd Government is insisting on sticking to a strict cap of approximately 1080 personnel.

General McKiernan said the speed at which the US troop build-up in Afghanistan would occur would depend on how quickly troops could be diverted from Iraq.

"My predecessor asked for a minimum of three brigade combat teams (about 10,000 soldiers). I have said that was a valid requirement. But since I got here I have asked for some additional forces in the east.

"I can say that I have asked - and that in Washington, there is an understanding - for a requirement for upwards of four manoeuvre brigade combat teams [emphasis added] with enablers such as intelligence, aviation, logistics that go with that.".. 

General McKiernan is shortly expected to take on a two-hatted role as both commander of ISAF forces as well as American troops fighting in Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom, which will give him operational control of the US war effort in Afghanistan.

Pakistan reopens supply lines to Western forces
Reuters, Sept. 8
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINISL6605120080908

Pakistan has reopened supply lines to Western forces in Afghanistan, after the road through the Khyber Pass was blocked on Saturday, days after a raid by U.S. commandos on a Pakistani village, a minister said on Monday.

Rehman Malik, the top Interior Ministry official, said the road was unblocked after a few hours, and traffic had only been halted for security reasons, although the country's defence minister had earlier said the action was taken in response to violations of Pakistani territory by Western forces.

"There was a suspension for a few hours due to security reasons but later, supplies to Afghanistan were resumed after clearing the road," Malik told Reuters.

Militants have been attacking trucks in the Khyber Pass, on the way to Torkham, the main crossing point on the Pakistani-Afghan border near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found September 8, 2008

Afghanistan toll will mount unless new strategy is found
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Sep 8 - 5:40 AM
Article Link

THE TALIBAN attack in Kandahar last Wednesday that killed three Canadian soldiers and wounded another five is a shocking example of how brazen the insurgents have become in southern Afghanistan.

This attack was not just another roadside bomb but rather a bold ambush by as many as 40 Taliban fighters. It is also believed that the insurgents used a powerful anti-tank weapon, possibly an 82-millimetre recoilless rifle, to penetrate the Canadian light armoured vehicle.

Since the fall of 2006, after the Taliban suffered enormous casualties during NATO’s Operation Medusa, the insurgents have been capable of mounting only pinprick attacks using suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices. Although such tactics continue to kill our soldiers, NATO commanders insisted that the Taliban’s fighting capability had been greatly diminished.

The latest fatalities, including the death of an infantryman in Panjwaii district on Sunday, bring the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 97 soldiers and one diplomat, with at least 750 injured.

As we approach the seventh anniversary of the U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan, even the most wilfully blind can no longer deny that the security situation is spiralling out of control.

Large-scale terrorist attacks have rocked Kabul several times this year, and 10 French soldiers were killed in an ambush just outside the Afghan capital last month. In July, a battalion-sized force of insurgents practically overran an American outpost in southern Afghanistan. That bloody battle left nine U.S. soldiers dead and 15 wounded.
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A big, red show of support for Canadian troops in Afghanistan
September 08, 2008 Greg Mercer RECORD STAFF NEW HAMBURG
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This time next week, Private Brad Dickin will be leaving for a place very different than this green soccer field.

So he considered it a send-off, of sorts, as he stood in his crisp beige uniform among a sea of people in red.

Dickin, 23, was one of two soldiers who joined a crowd of hundreds of civilians yesterday hoping to send a message of support to Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

As a helicopter flew overhead, the crowd formed the shape of a giant ribbon and unfurled a banner. They sang the national anthem and waved as a photographer hundreds of metres above snapped away, documenting their gathering for the soldiers overseas.

"I feel bad being here, doing this, when I've got friends over there," said Dickin, who is leaving Monday for a six-month-tour of duty in Afghanistan with 2,500 soldiers from CFB Petawawa.

"But this means a lot to me . . . the worse it gets over there, it's great to see people still support us."

Dickin spoke on a day the military confirmed the death of the 97th Canadian soldier since the Afghan mission began in 2002 -- Sgt. Scott Shipway, who was killed when his armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb outside Kandahar.
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U.S. Strikes Taliban Stronghold in Pakistan
By Shaiq Hussain Special to The Washington Post Monday, September 8, 2008; 9:53 AM
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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 8 -- At least 20 people were killed and 25 others injured Monday after several missiles fired by unmanned U.S. Predator drones hit a religious school and the house of a powerful Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan, near the border of Afghanistan, according to witnesses and a Pakistani security official.

The missile strike occurred around 10:30 a.m. in the small village of Dande Darpa Khel in the tribal area of North Waziristan. Bashirullah, a resident of the village who like many ethnic Pashtuns only uses one name, said two Predator drones fired six missiles at a religious seminary school run by top Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. The intense, rapid-fire bombing raid also destroyed Haqqani's nearby home and several other houses, Bashirullah said.

A Pakistani security official in North Waziristan confirmed local villagers' accounts of the attack, saying that the Taliban commander's supporters immediately cordoned off the area around the bombsite and barred anyone from entering. He said that Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin -- a leading Taliban fighter -- were not in any of the targeted buildings when the missiles struck.
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Would-be suicide bomber arrested in Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A 16-year-old boy wearing a suicide bomber jacket and carrying a hand grenade was arrested Monday in an army cantonment area in Pakistan's troubled northwest, police said.

Senior police officer Akhtar Ali Shah said the youth was taken into custody Monday morning about 30 miles east of Peshawar, site of a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 35 people.

"Swift action by the police yielded the arrest of the boy, who was brought into the cantonment area by accomplices who are being traced," Shah said.

He said the boy was being interrogated by a joint team of senior investigators from the police and security agencies. He would not speculate on the possible target but said the army's supply corps is located in the area.

In recent weeks, the Pakistani Taliban have said they were to blame for a string of suicide bombings in revenge for military offensives in the northwest region that borders Afghanistan. One attack killed nearly 70 people at a major weapons factory.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide attack on a police checkpoint on the edge of Peshawar, killing seven police officers and 28 other people. He speculated the driver of the explosives-packed pickup truck feared being discovered at the checkpoint and decided to detonate.
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Infantry could help SAS in Afghanistan
Samantha Maiden, Online political editor | September 08, 2008
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DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon will consider sending Australian infantry into combat roles in Afghanistan to ease the burden on the elite SAS unit.

In the wake of a warning in The Australian today from NATO's new top commander in Afghanistan that the international coalition is "struggling to win" and about 15,000 more troops are needed, Mr Fitzgibbon said he would not be increasing troop numbers in the region.

However, he would not rule out using infantry in combat roles, for the first time since the Vietnam War.

"It is true that our Special Operations Task group - that is, our special forces people - have had to sustain rotations for a long, long time now," he told ABC Radio today.

"We'll constantly look at how we can take the pressure off our special forces by constantly reviewing and potentially reconfiguring our commitment."

Mr Fitzgibbon said the unrest on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border continued to be a problem.

"We've got to deal with those north-west border regions which are becoming a breeding ground for al-Qa'ida and other insurgent groups, who can too easily make their way across the border into Afghanistan to do their bad work," he said.

"So there are a number of variables and how we deal with each of those variables will determine how long we're there."

General David McKiernan told The Australian's Patrick Walters that he believes the Taliban-led insurgency will never win, with the vast majority of Afghans not wanting a return to a government led by extremists

"That said, however, we are struggling to win,” he said.
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Conservative MP Laurie Hawn thinks Taliban may target Canadian soldiers to impact election
By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA
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Canadian soldiers could be targeted by the Taliban as a political ploy, Conservative MP Laurie Hawn said, as news broke that the 97th soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban know we’re having an election and they’re not just targeting Canadian soldiers, they’re targeting the Canadian public opinion. That’s just the way they operate,” said Hawn, a former fighter pilot and MP for Edmonton-Centre.

Just hours after Prime Minister Stephen Harper pulled the plug on parliament and called an election, news filtered out of Afghanistan that Sgt. Prescott Shipway, a soldier based out of Shilo, Man., had been killed when his armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Panjwaii district.

The timing could have been coincidental but Hawn believes the Taliban know the election has been called and they could step up attacks.

“The Taliban are very sensitive politically. They know what’s going on and they think they can disrupt things by being more active.”

Looking at polls, the war has been an issue with Canadians but it hasn’t been considered one of the voting public’s top issues.
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Berlin pays $20,000 for Afghan deaths
Published Date: September 07, 2008
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BERLIN: Germany paid 20,000 dollars in compensation to relatives of a woman and two children shot dead last week at a checkpoint manned by its soldiers in northern Afghanistan, a report said yesterday. The weekly Der Spiegel, in the report to appear in its next edition out Monday, said two payments had been made by German army officers, initially of 5,000 dollars, with the remainder being handed over on Friday.

A tribal chief in Kundu who received the cash remarked that "the problem with the Germans" was now settled, Der Spiegel added. A German military spokesman in Potsdam, near Berlin contacted by AFP refused to comment yesterday. On Wednesday defense ministry spokesman Christian Dienst said the payment of compensation and an apology for the previous Thursday's incident had prevented the family launching a "vendetta" against German soldiers in revenge.

The measures led to a significant calming of the situation among the Pashtun clan concerned and leads to an improvement in security for German soldiers on the ground," he said. He refused to say how much money had been paid. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung also made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday to pay his respects to the relatives.

German and NATO forces said that the three were killed after both German and Afghan troops opened fire on a vehicle that had failed to stop at a checkpoint even after warning shots had been fired. It was one of a recent string of incidents that analysts say are damaging the reputation of the almost 70,000 international troops as well as the Afghan government, which need the backing of the local population if they want to beat a Taleban-led insurgency.
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'Beggar' suicide blast, other attacks kill 21 in Afghanistan
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HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — A Taliban suicide bomber dressed as a beggar blew up an Afghan government building Saturday, killing six people, as two NATO soldiers and a dozen other people died in more unrest, officials said.

The disguised bomber gunned down a security guard and then detonated explosives at the government offices, with two state prosecutors among his victims, Nimroz provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad said.

The blast brought down the single-storey building in the town of Zaranj on the southwestern border with Iran, the governor told AFP.

"We have recovered so far six bodies," he said. The dead were provincial attorney Anwar Shah Khan, his 20-year-old son, his deputy and three civilians, Azad said.

"The whole building has collapsed. There might be more casualties," he added.

A spokesman for the rebel Taliban movement said the bomber was a member of the militia, which has dramatically stepped up attacks this year.

There has been a wave of suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past three years, most of them claimed by Taliban extremists who are waging an insurgency against the US-backed government in Kabul.
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Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South)
081140EDT Sept 08

.pdf version attached at bottom of message

NOTE:  The following material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban, or analysis thereof.  Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content - it is shared for information only.  When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original (indicated by "GoogEng") - this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.


"9 Canadian invaders soldiers Killed in Kandahar"
Monday morning   08-09-2008 at approximately 8:10 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmines blew up a patrolling unit of Canadian invaders army in Lako Khil area of Zhari district of Kandahar province. In explosion 9 soldiers terrorists were killed and few wounded.. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf


"2 vehicle of puppet army blew up in Kandahar"
Sunday noon 07-09-2008 at approximately 11:30 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmines blew up a vehicles of puppet army in Loi Kariz area of Boldak district of Kandahar province.  The landmines completely destroyed the vehicles and 6 puppet terrorists in it were killed.  Also in Khaki Chopan area of Mewand district of Kandahar province Mujahideen with a remote controlled landmine blew up a vehicle of puppet army in which the vehicle was completely destroyed and 5 puppet soldiers in it were killed. Reported by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi


"In Martyrdom Operations 10 intelligence officers killed in Zabul"
Sunday evening 07-09-2008, A courageous Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,Muhammad Hashema side   "Allahu Akbar" and open fire on Puppet intelligence officers  inside the intelligence office in Qalat city  capital of Zabul province,  in which 10 puppet officers were killed few wounded.. We ask Allah to accept our brother among martyrs in Eelleyeen (high rank in the paradise). All praise and gratitude are due to Allah.  Reported by  Qari Muhammad Yousuf


"4 vehicle of  puppet army in Zabul"
Monday morning 08-09-2008 at approximately 9:30 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmines blew up 2 ehicles of puppet army  on Kabul Kandahr highway in Ghashi area of Shari Sapa district  of Kandahar province. The landmines completely destroyed the vehicles and  6 puppet terrorists in it were killed , Also in same time mujahideen attacked on same convoy and 2 more vehicles were damaged in which 10 more soldiers were killed.   Reported by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi


"Outspun by the Taliban"
The Afghan air is thick with dangerous munitions. Compared with Iraq, more than twice as many combat sorties are flown. But as the Afghanistan conflict becomes more a war of information and propaganda, the words, graphs and data produced on both sides can be as lethal as the rockets and missiles dropped on the Taliban.

Inevitably, the information business is hazy. The US with its allies and the Taliban both seek to influence public opinion, either across the steppes of Central Asia or in the sitting rooms of the 40 nations that comprise the US and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

But analysts dissecting their media efforts find the battle for hearts and minds is poised precariously. On the ground in Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, the Taliban and their allies are winning analysts' plaudits for the efficiency and effectiveness of a propaganda machine that increasingly keeps locals sitting on the fence in conflict-prone areas of the country .... (more on link)
 
Marines hand ex-Taliban stronghold to Afghans
Reuters, Sept. 8
http://news.yahoo.com/story/nm/20080908/ts_nm/afghan_marines_dc

U.S. Marines handed over control of a former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan to the Afghan army and their British mentors on Monday after killing more than 400 militants in a four-month operation, the NATO-led force said.

The northern part of Garmsir district in Helmand province, known as the snake's head for its appearance on a map, served as a transit and logistics hub for Taliban fighters.

About 2,400 Marines moved into the insurgent-held area along the Helmand river in late April and seized control after 35 days of intense fighting.

"During these 35 days, the Marines were in 170 engagements in which they caused severe insurgent casualties, more than 400 according to the Helmand governor, and zero civilian casualties," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

Mounting civilian casualties, especially in U.S.-led coalition air strikes, have fuelled public anger across Afghanistan and driven a wedge between the government and its Western backers.

By restoring stability in the Garmsir area, the Marines allowed many Afghans to return to the district, some of them after an absence of two years, the ISAF statement said.

The main market and the hospital in Garmsir have been reopened, the canal system evaluated for repairs and the first shura, or council, held in three years, it said. Schools have also been repaired.

"Coming here I told the Marines that wherever we went had to be better for us having been there. Today I can say we have accomplished that," said Colonel Peter Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit...

The Afghan army's 4th battalion, helped by British forces, is now responsible for maintaining peace in Garmsir.

A British commander said last month the two forces would ensure that the gains made by the Marines in Garmsir would not be lost after fears were raised that the Taliban could be lying low, waiting for the Marines to leave...

Germany Discovers a War in Afghanistan (long article)
Spiegel Online, Sept. 8
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,577023,00.html

For years, Germans have preferred to see their country's presence in Afghanistan as armed development assistance. That myth is now becoming more difficult to maintain as the violence spreads to the north where the Germans are based...

Kunduz, of all places, is where the Germans and the rest of the world had hoped to prove that the war against terrorism could also be waged with peaceful means. It is a place where German soldiers could have been mistaken for aid workers, if it weren't for their weapons -- where men in camouflage built schools, delivered supplies to hospitals and dug wells, while their NATO allies in the country's south and west waged a brutal and costly war.

Those allies whose troops were stationed in Kunduz managed to avoid the deadly W word -- W as in War -- or so it seemed. The coalition governments in Germany, under former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and now under Chancellor Angela Merkel, had various terms for what the Bundeswehr was doing in Afghanistan, calling it "networked security," a "civilian-military approach," "stabilization" and "reconstruction assistance." But the W word was one they preferred not to use. Two-thirds of German citizens are opposed to the Bundeswehr's Afghanistan mission, and politicians in Berlin read opinion polls more often than reports on the military situation.

But now, after the death of a young German paratrooper at the end of August and the first civilian casualties at the hands of German soldiers a few days later, Bernhard Gertz, the chairman of the German Armed Forces Federation, has finally uttered the unmentionable word. Last week, Gertz, a colonel, said that the mission in Afghanistan was nothing other than a "war against a fanatical enemy willing to do anything." The dead soldier did not merely "lose his life," as Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said at the memorial service, but "gave his life for Germany," as Gertz said.

"Are we at war here?" a reporter asked the defense minister in Kabul the next day, to which an exasperated Jung replied: "We are fighting terrorism, but we are not at war." Only seconds later, his host corrected him in front of live cameras. War? "Yes, we are waging a war," said David McKiernan, the American four-star general commanding the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF)...

Mark
Ottawa
 
ARTICLES FOUND SEPT. 9

U.S. to Pull 8,000 Troops From Iraq Early in ’09
NY Times, Sept. 8
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/middleeast/09prexy.html?ref=todayspaper

President Bush has accepted the recommendation of his senior civilian and military advisers to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq by 8,000 in the early months of next year.

The reduction will begin with a Marine Corps battalion set to leave this fall from Anbar Province, once the center of the antigovernment insurgency.

In an address on Tuesday to the National Defense University here, Mr. Bush will unveil his decision on future force levels in Iraq, which includes withdrawing a full brigade of combat troops in the first few weeks of 2009, according to a draft of the speech released late Monday by the White House.

Neither the Marine battalion nor the Army brigade will be replaced...

Mr. Bush accepted a consensus set of recommendations presented last week from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior Iraq commander; Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, acting commander of the military’s Central Command; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, according to Pentagon and White House officials.

Mr. Bush will also announce a decision to increase American force levels in Afghanistan by about 4,500 troops, according to the draft of the speech.

“The president’s decision paves the way for us to get even more troops out of Iraq this year and into Afghanistan,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “So the progress our forces are making in Iraq continues to pay big dividends for the commanders in Afghanistan."

A Marine battalion that was scheduled for service in Iraq will instead enter Afghanistan by November. And in January, an Army combat brigade that had been scheduled for service in Iraq will deploy instead to Afghanistan.

The president’s speech also highlights decisions to vastly increase the size of the Afghan National Army, which will grow from its current size of 60,000 troops to 120,000, beyond the 80,000 goal of previous plans. If the progress in Iraq continues, Mr. Bush’s speech says, additional reductions would be possible in the first half of 2009...

Nato tightens rules of engagement to limit further civilian casualties in Aghanistan
The Guardian, Sept. 9
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/09/nato.afghanistan

Nato has issued new military rules of engagement in Afghanistan in an attempt to limit civilian deaths, after the air strike last month which reportedly killed 90 people, including 60 children, it emerged yesterday.

The orders were issued by General David McKiernan, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, who also asked the US central command to reopen an inquiry into the air strike in the western district of Shindand, as video footage surfaced showing the bodies of child victims.

US drone air strikes on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are meanwhile reported to have hit a house and madrasa linked to a Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani. Taliban officials claimed Haqqani was not there at the time of the attack and that 20 people had been killed in the attacks.

The rules of engagement for Nato troops will focus on house searches, saying they should be led by Afghan forces, and that permission from homeowners should first be sought. A limit on the size and weight of bombs used in air strikes was imposed last year, but there is continuing anxiety in Nato about the counterproductive impact of civilian casualties on the majority Pashtun population.

The new directives seek to "sharpen tactical directives, to give more clarity to commanders on the ground", one official said. It was an attempt "to re-educate commanders, to re-emphasise how careful everyone should be" in carrying out air strikes and air support for ground troops.

"Killing civilians is not the best way to attract hearts and minds," one European official noted sarcastically yesterday. But western officials also say that troops on the ground have to rely on air support because they often find themselves outnumbered.

A report by the independent New York-based group Human Rights Watch said yesterday that civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes nearly tripled in the past year and recent bombings have led to more killings, fuelling a public backlash.

It said that despite earlier changes in the rules of engagement which had reduced the rate of civilian casualties since they peaked in July last year, continuing air strikes had greatly undermined local support for the efforts of international forces in the country...

There is...trepidation over the expected withdrawal from combat of Dutch and Canadian forces in the next 18 months.

Western officials say that the counter-insurgency effort against the Taliban should be strengthened by the unification of the Nato and US missions in Afghanistan under the single command of McKiernan, which is due to be confirmed by Congress later this month
[emphasis added].

U.S. Team to Reinvestigate Deadly Strike In Afghanistan
Washington Post, Sept. 9
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090800633.html

The U.S. Central Command will send a senior team, headed by a general and including a legal affairs officer, to reinvestigate a U.S. air attack last month that U.N. and Afghan officials say killed 90 civilians, amid mounting public outrage in Afghanistan and evidence that conflicts with the military's initial version of events.

The U.S. decision to again probe the Aug. 21 attack in Azizabad, near the western city of Herat, came at the urging of Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan. McKiernan said he was prompted by "emerging evidence" that threw into question the finding of a U.S. investigation that five to seven civilians died. McKiernan had earlier said he concurred with that finding.

The attack and the widely divergent accounts of its toll have exposed long-standing tensions between U.S. forces in Afghanistan and other major players in the war there, including the government of President Hamid Karzai, the U.N. assistance mission and the NATO military command. Underlying the dispute over civilian casualties are a lack of communication, a diffuse command structure and differing military rules of engagement.

Military officials said the new evidence included a cellphone video showing dozens of civilian bodies, including those of numerous children, prepared for burial in Azizabad after the attack. McKiernan was shown the video Friday by Kai Eide, the chief U.N. representative in Afghanistan...

Deadly airstrike on school set up by bin Laden friend, Jalal-uddin Haqqani
The Times, Sept. 9
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4710041.ece

At least 20 people were killed yesterday when US missiles struck an Islamic school founded by a friend of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan's lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.

The attack by unmanned American drone aircraft was the third aimed at militant leaders and their hideouts just inside Pakistani territory. Officials and residents of the village of Dande Darba Khel in North Waziristan said that two drones fired three missiles, which also hit houses close to the Islamic seminary, killing three women and two children.

The madrassa, founded by Jalal-uddin Haqqani, a veteran Afghan commander and old associate of bin Laden, was closed by Pakistani forces in 2002 but several members of Mr Haqqani's cabal were believed still to be living in the area.

Uzbek and Arab fighters were believed to have taken sanctuary in the village and several foreign militants were reported to have been killed in yesterday's strike. A missile struck a house owned by the Haqqani family, killing his sister, sister-in-law and two nieces, residents said...

Mark
Ottawa 
 
Articles found September 9, 2008

US's 'good' war hits Pakistan hard
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
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KARACHI - Seven years after the United States led the invasion of Afghanistan in search of al-Qaeda and to topple the Taliban government, US President George W Bush has added neighboring Pakistan to the list of countries that are "a major 'war on terror' battleground", while also announcing a "quiet surge" of troops into Afghanistan.

Bush, in remarks prepared for delivery to the US National Defense University and released by the White House late on Monday, said Afghanistan, Iraq and now Pakistan "pose unique challenges for our country" in the worldwide conflict against terror and that it is in Pakistan's interests to "defeat terrorists and extremists".

What Bush didn't spell out is that it is also in the US's interests
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Bush to send more troops to Afghanistan
Posted Tue Sep 9, 2008 10:12am AEST Updated 11 hours 18 minutes ago
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US President George W Bush is preparing to announce that more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan in the next few months.

Mr Bush will use a speech to the National Defence University in Washington to announce that a Marines battalion scheduled to go to Iraq in November will instead be deployed to Afghanistan, while around 8,000 American troops will be withdrawn from Iraq.

The improving security situation in Iraq following last year's military surge has given Mr Bush the chance to announce a slow, limited drawdown of some of the 146,000 US soldiers currently in Iraq.

Acting on the advice of his generals, Mr Bush will set out a plan to pull a total of 8,000 troops from Iraq by mid-February, without being replaced.

Just as significant, some of the units that were due to go to Iraq will now be deployed to Afghanistan instead, in a sign of the growing concern in the White House about the resurgence of the Taliban.

A US Marines battalion will be sent to Afghanistan in November followed by an Army brigade in January, totalling 4,500 troops.
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Taliban leader is targeted in Pakistan
Last update: September 8, 2008 - 9:23 PM
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U.S. forces made an apparently unsuccessful attempt Monday to assassinate a Taliban commander who sometimes shelters in Pakistan's tribal areas, witnesses and military officials said. Missiles from a suspected U.S. drone aircraft struck a compound in North Waziristan, just across the border from Afghanistan, killing at least nine people, the reports said.

The targeted village, Dande Darba Khel, contains a compound associated with the Haqqani clan, which has been blamed for a number of attacks in Afghanistan
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The Land Of A Thousand Scams
Monday, September 8, 2008
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September 7, 2008: Rumors that Afghan president Karzai is on the drug gangs payroll has become more obvious, as he pushes for getting veto power over U.S. and NATO military operations. This came to a head recently, because of a battle in western Afghanistan two weeks ago. There, a U.S./Afghan raid on a village was met with fire from several dozen Taliban who had taken shelter there. Smart bombs were used, the U.S. and Afghan troops went in to search the ruins for Taliban documents and to count the bodies. There were 25 Taliban and five civilians dead. After the troops left, the Taliban began pushing the story that 70, or more, civilians, including fifty children, were killed. The number constantly changed. The reason was that, since the Moslem custom is to bury the dead immediately, and forbid exhuming bodies for any kind of examination, you can pull off this kind of scam if you have the locals terrified into keeping quiet. Then there's the "compensation" scam angle. Foreign troops will pay thousands of dollars (often over $5,000) in compensation for loss, per civilian killed during military operations. So Afghans have an incentive to claim as many dead as they can get away with. Afghan culture puts a premium on scamming foreigners. Any Afghan who doesn't try to hustle an outsider is looked down on. It's the ancient "us versus them" mentality, which applies even of the outsider is helping you. Afghans were quick to pick up on how all this plays in the West, and have learned how to manipulate foreign journalists and NGOs (who are often adjuncts of Western media).

President Karzai knows of these scams and how Afghans regard foreigners, but he is under pressure to get the military heat off the drug gangs. Foreign troops, particularly British and Canadian, have done lots of damage to heroin production in Helmand province (where most Afghan heroin is produced), and the gangs are putting pressure on the senior Afghan officials on the payroll to do something. Karzai was told by his top military commander in the west, and the local commando commander, that the claim of 50 dead children was a scam, and Karzai reacted by relieving the two men and ordering them to Kabul for questioning. Kabul is not a safe place for those who oppose the drug gangs, as judge who could not be bribed was recently murdered there, as he was in the midst of dealing with drug cases.
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Bad UAVs Will Not Go Away Quietly
September 9, 2008
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Canada's decision, to replace its French Sperwer UAVs with Israeli Herons and Skylarks, has upset many Canadian politicians. That's because the military is apparently going to withdraw the Sperwer from service. Canada has spent over a quarter billion dollars on Sperwer in the past five years, and politicians are upset over wasted money.

The new 1.1 ton Herons can stay in the air for over 40 hours at a time and carry some 500 pounds of cameras and other sensors. According to the military, the Herons will give Canadian troops in Afghanistan better support than the Sperwer UAVs they had been using.

Canada had earlier bought 21 of the Sperwers, including ten second hand ones obtained from Denmark two years ago (the Danes were unhappy with Sperwer, which should have told the Canadians something.). France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, Greece and Canada had all used the French built Sperwer UAV, which got its first heavy use during Balkan peacekeeping missions in the 1990s. Afghanistan was another story.

The Canadians used their Sperwers heavily in Afghanistan, and have paid to improve the Sperwer flight control software, to make the UAV more stable when landing under windy conditions. It's often windy in Afghanistan. Still, troops were envious of superior UAV types they saw in use by other nations.

The $2.6 million Sperwer LE (Long Endurance) weighs 772 pounds, carries a 110 pound payload, is 12 feet long and has an endurance of 12 hours. Sperwer can operate up to 200 kilometers from its ground control unit. But the Sperwer uses a noisy engine (think lawnmower) and flies low enough to be heard. This has not proved to be a problem, as the people below, if they are Taliban, either start shooting at the UAV, or try to run away. The Canadian troops have come to depend on their Sperwers, and many would rather have more of them, than another, newer, UAV. The troops have learned that operator experience is a major factor in UAV success, and much of that would be lost if they switched a new model. But the brass believe that the higher flying (out of range of small arms) Heron is easier to operate, and more reliable.
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Three US-led soldiers, 28 rebels killed in Afghanistan
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KABUL (AFP) — Three US-led soldiers and an Afghan working with them were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan Tuesday as government officials reported that 28 rebels, some of them foreigners, were killed in air strikes.

The soldiers were killed in the east of Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said. It did not give the nationalities of the troops but most international soldiers in the east are US nationals.

"Three coalition service members and one local-national contractor were killed today during an IED (improvised explosive device) attack in eastern Afghanistan," the coalition said in a statement that gave no further details.

The new deaths take to 201 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.

Most died in a wave of insurgent unrest, particularly bomb blasts.

An Afghan soldier was meanwhile killed by a remote-controlled bomb that had been fixed to a bicycle in the southern city of Kandahar, the defence ministry said.

"One military policeman in the vehicle was martyred and two others were wounded," spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
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Anti-rebel attacks needed in Pakistan: Afghan foreign minister
AFP, Sept. 8
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080908/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanpakistanunrestgermany

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Monday the battle against insurgents in his country must be taken to its "breeding ground" in neighbouring Pakistan.

Spanta, speaking in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said "the geographical approach" to stamping out unrest in his country must be broadened.

"The ideological and military training camps (for extremists active in Afghanistan) are in the mountains of Pakistan," he told reporters, calling the region a "breeding ground for terrorists".

"We need to stop that. We must not give them the chance to use terror as an instrument of foreign policy."

Spanta, speaking in German which he learned as a political refugee and student in the western city of Aachen, said Kabul supported Pakistani president-elect Asif Ali Zardari and would aim to work with him on regional security issues.

His remarks came after at least 21 people including women and children were killed Monday in a missile strike by suspected US drones near a madrassa or Islamic seminary in a Pakistan tribal town near the Afghan border.

It was the fourth such strike in the rugged tribal region in almost a week.

US and Afghan officials say Pakistan's tribal areas are a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who sneaked into the rugged terrain after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Asked about US air strikes that Afghan and UN teams say killed more than 90 civilians, Spanta said Washington played a "decisive role in the fight against terrorism" and remained one of Afghanistan's most important allies on security...

Karzai attends Pakistan swearing in
Financial Times, Sept. 9
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81633192-7e72-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html

Pakistan’s newly elected president Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan president Hamid Karzai appeared together on Tuesday in a rare show of solidarity between leaders of the two countries central to Washington’s war on terror.

Mr Karzai’s appearance in Islamabad as the most senior foreign dignitary to attend Mr Zardari’s oath taking ceremony, was in sharp contrast to his popular image in Pakistan as a foe of Islamabad.

In remarks certain to appeal to many Pakistanis, the Afghan leader said: “The war against terrorism will only be won if we have the people with us. In order to have the people with us we must avoid civilian casualties.”

At a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart, Mr Zardari said: “We shall stand with our neighbours ... and look the problems in the eye and tell the world that we are bigger than the problems.”

The death of more than 30 Pakistanis in the past week during a US commando raid and the firing of a missile from a pilot-less drone has provoked a widespread public outcry.

France warned on Tuesday that the US missile strikes could undermine international efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. ”Not only are these creating human tragedies but also situations that have counterproductive effects on the political dynamics that we would like to see, and that means a partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the international community,” said foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier...

Right at the Edge
NY Times Sunday Magazine (long article), Sept. 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07pakistan-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

I: The Border Incident

Late in the afternoon of June 10, during a firefight with Taliban militants along the Afghan-Pakistani border, American soldiers called in airstrikes to beat back the attack. The firefight was taking place right on the border itself, known in military jargon as the “zero line.” Afghanistan was on one side, and the remote Pakistani region known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, was on the other. The stretch of border was guarded by three Pakistani military posts.

The American bombers did the job, and then some. By the time the fighting ended, the Taliban militants had slipped away, the American unit was safe and 11 Pakistani border guards lay dead. The airstrikes on the Pakistani positions sparked a diplomatic row between the two allies: Pakistan called the incident “unprovoked and cowardly”; American officials regretted what they called a tragic mistake. But even after a joint inquiry by the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan, it remained unclear why American soldiers had reached the point of calling in airstrikes on soldiers from Pakistan, a critical ally in the war in Afghanistan and the campaign against terrorism.

The mystery, at least part of it, was solved in July by four residents of Suran Dara, a Pakistani village a few hundred yards from the site of the fight. According to two of these villagers, whom I interviewed together with a local reporter, the Americans started calling in airstrikes on the Pakistanis after the latter started shooting at the Americans.

“When the Americans started bombing the Taliban, the Frontier Corps started shooting at the Americans,” we were told by one of Suran Dara’s villagers, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being persecuted or killed by the Pakistani government or the Taliban. “They were trying to help the Taliban. And then the American planes bombed the Pakistani post.”

For years, the villagers said, Suran Dara served as a safe haven for jihadist fighters — whether from Afghanistan or Pakistan or other countries — giving them aid and shelter and a place to stash their weapons. With the firefight under way, one of Suran Dara’s villagers dashed across the border into Afghanistan carrying a field radio with a long antenna (the villager called it “a Motorola”) to deliver to the Taliban fighters. He never made it. The man with the Motorola was hit by an American bomb. After the fight, wounded Taliban members were carried into Suran Dara for treatment. “Everyone supports the Taliban on both sides of the border,” one of the villagers we spoke with said.

Later, an American analyst briefed by officials in Washington confirmed the villagers’ account. “There have been dozens of incidents where there have been exchanges of fire,” he said.

That American and Pakistani soldiers are fighting one another along what was meant to be a border between allies highlights the extraordinarily chaotic situation unfolding inside the Pakistani tribal areas, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban, along with Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters, enjoy freedom from American attacks.

But the incident also raises one of the more fundamental questions of the long war against Islamic militancy, and one that looms larger as the American position inside Afghanistan deteriorates: Whose side is Pakistan really on? [emphasis added]

Mark
Ottawa
 
Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South)
092100EDT Sept 08

.pdf version attached at bottom of message

NOTE:  The following material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban, or analysis thereof.  Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content - it is shared for information only.  When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original (indicated by "GoogEng") - this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.


Taliban urges next Canadian prime minister to pull troops out of Afghanistan
The Taliban say they know that an election campaign is underway in Canada and that's why they have stepped up attacks against Canadians in Afghanistan.  Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yussef said Tuesday the insurgent movement wants Canada's next prime minister to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan.  "Yes, I know that the election is being held in Canada. That is why our attacks on Canadians are increased," Yussef said through a translator.  "One of the Canadian soldiers, who has won a medal as well, was killed in our recent attacks  .... My suggestion for the next prime minister is to withdraw Canadians from Afghanistan," he said, adding Canada needs to stop following U.S. foreign policy .... (more on link)


"A vehicle of  puppet police  blew up in Helmand"
Tuesday noon -09-09-2008 at approximately 11:10 am local , Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmine blew up 1 vehicle of puppet police on  in Norzo area of Grishek district of Helmand province. The landmine completely destroyed the vehicle and  8 puppet terrorists in it were killed . Reported by Zabihullah Mujahid



- edited to add Canadian Press story -
 
Articles found September 10, 2008

Taliban on target
Our election that is (via Danjanou):
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban say they know that an election campaign is underway in Canada and that's why they have stepped up attacks against Canadians in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yussef said Tuesday the insurgent movement wants Canada's next prime minister to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan.

"Yes, I know that the election is being held in Canada. That is why our attacks on Canadians are increased," Yussef said through a translator.

"One of the Canadian soldiers, who has won a medal as well, was killed in our recent attacks."

Sgt. Scott Shipway died Sunday when his armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in the volatile Panjwaii district of Kandahar.
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Australia in Afghanistan 'for the long haul'
10/09/2008 12:47:00 PM
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The war in Afghanistan presents some significant challenges, but Australia is in "for the long haul", Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
Mr Smith told a meeting of business leaders in India that Australia remained particularly concerned about the level of extremism in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Modern international terrorism is very mobile, and from Afghanistan it can move north to Europe, or to the south and east into Southeast Asia," Mr Smith said in a speech to the Confederation of Indian Industries in Chennai.

"We are particularly concerned about militancy and extremism in Pakistan's border areas with Afghanistan, which have a direct and deleterious effect on Afghanistan and the 1,100 Australian troops serving there."

The work being carried out by Australian troops in Afghanistan was dangerous, but essential, Mr Smith said.
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Canada's Record and Compensation Policy for Afghan Civilian Casualties
By Jeff Davis September 10th, 2008
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For the first time, the Department of National Defence has released the total number of civilians killed and injured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan, as well as details on compensation for victims.

According to DND officials, Canadian soldiers have killed 10 Afghan civilians and wounded 30 more since the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan began in 2001. While dates were provided, the department would not give any further information, such as the name or age of the victims or locations of the incidents ending in death.

According to officials with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul, there were 1,500 alleged civilian casualties in 2007. In the first five months of 2008, some 698 civilian deaths were recorded by UNAMA, representing an increase of 62 percent over the 431 non-combatant deaths recorded in the same period in 2007.

DND spokespeople told Embassy that investigations are conducted following all violent incidents that end in the death of an Afghan civilian by Canadian forces.
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coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan
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Kabul—Three US-led soldiers and an Afghan working with them were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan Tuesday as government officials reported that 28 rebels, some of them foreigners, were killed in air strikes.

The soldiers were killed in the east of Afghanistan, the US-led coalition said. It did not give the nationalities of the troops but most international soldiers in the east are US nationals.

“Three coalition service members and one local-national contractor were killed today during an IED (improvised explosive device) attack in eastern Afghanistan,” the coalition said in a statement that gave no further details.

The new deaths take to 201 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, according to AFP tally based on official statements.

Most died in a wave of insurgent unrest, particularly bomb blasts.

An Afghan soldier was meanwhile killed by a remote-controlled bomb that had been fixed to a bicycle in the southern city of Kandahar, the defence ministry said. “One military policeman in the vehicle was martyred and two others were wounded,” spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
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Taliban's IED attacks are effective - but a weapon of last resort
Kandahar seeing more strikes with makeshift bombs
SCOTT DEVEAU, Canwest News Service Published: 7 hours ago
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The blast from an improvised explosive device that claimed the life of yet another Canadian soldier on the weekend has become an all-too-familiar sound for the troops fighting the Taliban-led insurgency here in Kandahar.

Their security patrols and supply convoys encounter makeshift roadside bombs on an almost daily basis. The military reports only those IED strikes that result in a casualty, like the one that killed Sgt. Scott Shipway of Saskatoon on Sunday.

Many more go unreported, however, because the soldiers are only wounded in the blasts.
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Welcome awes troops
Tweed students greet soldiers with waving flags, excited screams
Posted By STEPHEN PETRICK, THE INTELLIGENCER
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Master Warrant Officer Marc Cloutier called it "awesome."

Capt. Brian Wright said it was "fantastic."

Cpls. Justin Rulton and Paul Rodgers were so stunned they didn't know what to say.

The troops from CFB Petawawa headed for CFB Trenton, had no idea they would receive a hero's welcome as they stopped for coffee in this Centre Hastings village, en route to a flight to Afghanistan.

Schoolchildren wearing red and waving Canadian flags screamed wildly as about 40 troops got off a bus at a Highway 37 Tim Hortons at the village's north end Monday morning.

The troops wandered in, bought coffee, then went back out to mingle with the crowd, which was made up of two classrooms from St. Carthagh Catholic School in Tweed and about a dozen other village residents.

Rulton and Rodgers, both originally from Hamilton, struggled to find words as they posed for photos with students.

"I think it's great," Rulton said, amid a mosh pit of students, with a large coffee in his hand. "It's good that kids are aware of what's going on."

Rodgers said the greeting lifted the spirits of troops who were still feeling sombre about leaving their families in Petawawa about two hours earlier.

"We just got off the bus feeling sad because we just left our families and girlfriends. To see all of them (the children) here cheers us up."
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Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South)
101845EDT Sept 08


NOTE:  The following material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban.  Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content - it is shared for information only.  When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original (indicated by "GoogEng") - this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.


"6 Canadian invaders soldiers Killed in Kandahar"
Wednesday morning 10-09-2008 at approximately 9:10 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmines blew up a patrolling unit of Canadian invaders army in Char Kochi area of Zhari district of Kandahar province. In explosion 6 soldiers terrorists were killed and 5 wounded.. Reported by Qari Muhammad Yousuf

"20 puppet soldiers killed in Kandahar"
Wednesday morning 10-09-2008 at approximately 8 am local , Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ambushed a convoy of puppet army in Hozi Madat area of Zhari district of Kandahar province. In the attack 3 pick up vehicles were destroyed  13 puppet soldiers were killed  few wounded their arms were mujahideen booty.  Also today morning 10-09-2008 at approximately 8:30 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with heavy and light weapons attacked puppet police patrol in Lako Khil area of same district. In attack the base 7 puppet police killed,their arms  were Mujahideen booty.Reported by Qari Muhmmad Yousuf

"18 puppet police killed in Helmand"
Tuesday evening 09-09-2008 at approximately 7:20 pm local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with heavy and light weapons attacked puppet police base in Spen Masjed area of Grishek district of Helmand province. In attack the base was demolished ,12 puppet police killed . their arms  were Mujahideen booty.  Also Wednesday morning 09-09-2008 at approximately 6:15 am local , Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ambushed a convoy of puppet army in Nari Seraj area of same district. In the attack 2 vehicles were destroyed  6 puppet soldiers were killed  few wounded their arms were mujahideen booty. Reported by Qari Muhmmad Yousuf

"Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan military operations 09-09-2008"
Mujahideen operations against the enemies of Islam terrorists in Afghanistan are reported to Theunjustmedia.com by the official Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan spokesmen Qari Muhammad Yousuf and Zabihuallah Mujahid by e-mails ... (More on link)

 
ARTICLES FOUND SEPT. 11

Top Military Officer Urges Major Change in Afghanistan Strategy
Washington Post, Sept. 11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091001396.html

The nation's top military officer issued a blunt assessment yesterday of the war in Afghanistan and called for an overhaul in U.S. strategy there, warning that thousands more U.S. troops as well as greater U.S. military involvement across the border in Pakistan's tribal areas are needed to battle an intensifying insurgency.

"I am not convinced that we're winning it in Afghanistan," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. But, he added, "I'm convinced we can."..

"Frankly, we are running out of time," Mullen said, adding that not sending U.S. reinforcements to Afghanistan is "too great a risk to ignore."

He said the new influx of U.S. forces into Afghanistan that Bush announced Tuesday -- an Army brigade and Marine battalion with a total of about 4,500 troops -- does not meet the demands of commanders there [emphasis added], but is "a good start."

...Many NATO countries restrict their troops' combat roles; others have set an end date for their involvement in the war, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying yesterday that all of his country's troops will withdraw in 2011, according to the Associated Press...

Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan
NY Times, Sept. 10
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11policy.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.

“The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable,” said a senior American official who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the missions. “We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued.”..

Pakistan’s Military Chief Criticizes U.S. Over a Raid
NY Times, Sept. 10
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/world/asia/11pstan.html?ref=todayspaper

In an unusually strong statement criticizing the United States for sending commandos into Pakistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the chief of the Pakistani Army said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate such incursions and would defend the country’s sovereignty “at all costs.”

“No external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan,” the military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said in what amounted to a direct rebuff to the United States by the Pakistanis, who are regarded by the Bush administration as an ally in the campaign against terrorism.

When General Kayani took over as chief of the army in November, American officials spoke highly of him and were counting on him to be their ally in much the same way, perhaps even to a greater degree, as President Pervez Musharraf had been. Mr. Musharraf was president and army chief for almost all of his nearly nine-year rule.

General Kayani’s statement on Wednesday seemed to call into question the extent of his cooperation and that of Pakistan’s army.

The warning came the day after the swearing in of the new Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and was interpreted here as a swift repudiation of Mr. Zardari, who is widely viewed as being pro-American.

There was widespread criticism in the Pakistani press on Wednesday of Mr. Zardari’s performance at his first presidential news conference, during which he refused to condemn the raid by American Special Operations forces into Pakistan’s tribal areas on Sept. 3...

Karzai backs U.S. strategy on militants in Pakistan
Reuters, Sept. 11
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080911/ts_nm/afghan_strategy_dc

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday backed a proposed U.S. strategy that would involve hitting al Qaeda and Taliban militants in neighboring Pakistan, saying he had been calling for a changed approach for years.

"Change of strategy is essential," Karzai told a news conference. "It means that we go to those areas which are the training bases and havens of (terrorists) and we jointly go there and remove and destroy them."

His comments came a day after the U.S. military conceded it was not winning the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and said it would revise its strategy to combat militant safe havens in Pakistan.

U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that he was "looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy" that would cover both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Pakistan has said it will not tolerate foreign troops entering its territory.

Angered by Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, Karzai has advocated hot-pursuit missions into Pakistan before.

But while Karzai had a prickly relationship with former Pakistani army chief Pervez Musharraf, who stepped down as president last month, he has sought better ties with the new civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari.

Karzai attended Zardari's swearing-in on Tuesday, and the two leaders said they had a common goal to defeat the militants.

Violence in Afghanistan has soared in the past three years as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped in border areas.

Karzai welcomed a U.S. plan to send more troops to Afghanistan as overstretched coalition forces have increasingly resorted to air strikes against militant targets that have led to burgeoning numbers of civilian casualties.

"There should be no civilian deaths," Karzai said...

Britain and NATO struggle for Afghanistan numbers
Reuters, Sept. 10
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-35413720080910

Two-and-a-half years into an operation to secure vast desert reaches of Afghanistan from the Taliban, British commanders quietly admit they are seriously undermanned.

While the official line is that Prime Minister Gordon Brown must decide if more troops are needed, officers on the ground in the southern Afghan province of Helmand concede privately that they do not have enough men or helicopters to seize and hold the territory they oversee.

With nearly 60,000 square kilometres of desert, mountains, a dense river valley and lush poppy fields to patrol, Britain has a little over 8,000 troops and just eight Chinook transport helicopters at its disposal.

"There's only so much we can do," a colonel in the Parachute Regiment said with exasperation last week, comparing the number of troops unfavourably to some small countries, where he said more than 8,000 police were usually available to keep the peace.

When asked if additional troops are needed, Brown and his defence minister Des Browne tend to say that they listen to their commanders on the ground, and if they do not ask for more, then no more will be sent.

When asked on the record, commanders, of course, defer to the government, creating a classic Catch-22.

The pressure is on, with Britain's troops and equipment pulled to remote corners of Helmand, trying to keep as much of it stable as possible. Hunkered down in small forts, resupplied occasionally, the Taliban are aware of the constraints.

At a small base in northern Helmand, a squad of British troops protects a dam and hydroelectric plant. They say they cannot go more than 3 km beyond their perimeter to take on the Taliban because otherwise they are overstretched...

Last month was the deadliest for foreign troops since the conflict began, according to independent website icasualties.org. Forty-three troops were killed, including 10 French soldiers hit in a single Taliban ambush.

There will be a special vote in the French parliament this month to decide if the deployment should continue. While no pull-out is expected, the debate is a sign of the times.

Canada and the Netherlands, which have a combined 4,000 troops in Afghanistan and have both suffered sustained casualties, are both considering ending their deployments when their mandates expire over the next two years.

NATO has struggled to get major nations to contribute more to its Afghan force, and as the death toll rises the challenge only gets greater. A NATO summit in April generated some increased commitment, but that momentum has since been lost as issues such as Georgia and Russia have filled the agenda.

The United States this week stepped into the breach, promising to send an extra Marine battalion and army brigade -- around 5,000 troops -- by January as it draws down in Iraq...

Britain is expected to send more forces next year, but it is still some months off and may not be substantial. What concerns commanders more is whether the long-term commitment is there.

"We must expect to invest military capability in Afghanistan certainly for the next three to five years
[emphasis added]," Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, the commander of British forces in Helmand, said last week as he skirted the issue of more troops.

"The most important thing is that the international community demonstrate both strategic discipline and patience to endure. Maybe the greatest threat is that the durability is occasionally questioned."

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found September 11, 2008  :salute:

British soldier killed in Afghanistan
September 11, 2008
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A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, it was announced today.

The unidentified soldier, from the Royal Logistic Corps, was on a routine patrol near Musa Qala yesterday when he was caught in the blast. The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

Lieutenant Colonel David Reynolds, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "This soldier's death will have a lasting impact on his family and friends as well as those who served alongside him. We will ensure that he is never forgotten."

The soldier becomes the 118th military serviceman to die as a result of violence or accidents in Afghanistan since the Taleban government was toppled in 2001.
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Canadian and Afghan forces fight off insurgent attack on painstaking road project
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canadian and Afghan troops successfully pushed back a group of insurgents who attacked a road construction project Wednesday in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar.

Military officials say eight insurgents attacked the paving crew with light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Afghan troops and their Canadian mentors were providing security to the project at the time and quickly began clearing the insurgents out of the area.

A coalition attack helicopter was also called in to support the operation. No casualties are reported.

The road paving initiative in the volatile region began some seven months ago but so far Afghan contractors, who use archaic methods of construction, have managed to pave a mere 800 metres.

Military officials say the 20-kilometre paving initiative is expected to take until the end of the Canadian mission in 2011.

Yet Canadian Forces spokesman Maj. Jay Janzen said road construction is key to reducing attacks by improvised explosive devices, which have been responsible for more than half of all Canadian soldier deaths since the mission began in 2002.

"Paving makes it harder to put IEDs on the route," Janzen said, adding it "will also be good for the economy" as it will facilitate the transport of goods from the city to the outlying areas.

Employing local workers is also believed to be a good way of keeping them busy and from siding with the insurgency.
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Suicide bomber kills 2 civilians in Afghanistan
The Associated Press  Thursday, September 11, 2008
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: A suicide bomber attacked a private security company's convoy in Afghanistan's second largest city Thursday, killing two civilians and wounding four other people, a police officer said. A British soldier was also killed in the south.

The bomber rammed his vehicle into the convoy in Kandahar city, said police officer Mohammad Shoaib.

Two civilians were killed and four other people, including two foreigners inside one of the vehicles, were wounded, Shoaib said. The bomber also died.

Taliban militants regularly use suicide bombings against Afghan and foreign troops in the country, but the majority of the victims have been civilians.
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Report: Bush Gave Permission for US Raids on Pakistan
By VOA News 11 September 2008
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A U.S. newspaper is reporting that President George Bush gave secret orders in July authorizing U.S. armed forces to carry out ground assaults in Pakistan without seeking approval from Pakistan's government.

The New York Times newspaper quotes senior U.S. officials who said the military will notify Pakistan's government when it conducts raids, but will not seek its permission.

The officials, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said the orders are part of a broader push to assert U.S. control over the Afghan-Pakistani border, considered a stronghold for the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, criticized Wednesday a recent series of suspected U.S. raids in Pakistan, vowing to defend the country's sovereignty "at all costs." Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Thursday said the army chief's statement reflects government views.

In related news, the chief of the U.S. military says his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan will tackle what he calls the "common insurgency" in the tribal areas on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.
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Afghan mission enters election fray
Harper reaffirms plan for withdrawal; Statement comes as U.S. military brass call for more soldiers
Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Canwest News Service; Reuters and The Washington Post
Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008
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The Afghan war surged to the election frontline as Conservative leader Stephen Harper yesterday reiterated his government's intention to pull most of Canada's soldiers out of Afghanistan in three years.

"We're planning for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011," he said while campaigning in Toronto on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the terrorist strikes on the United States. "I don't want to say we won't have a single troop there, because obviously we would aid in some technical capacities. But at that point, the mission as we've known it, we intend to end.
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Most troops will be home by 2011: PM
Withdrawal; Afghans should then be able to handle 'lion's share' of security
Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service  Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008
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TORONTO - A Conservative government would withdraw the bulk of Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011, Stephen Harper said yesterday.

"We're planning for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011. We've been very clear about that," the Prime Minsiter told reporters over breakfast.

"I don't want to say we won't have a single troop there, because obviously we would aid in some technical capacities. But, at that point, the mission as we've known it, we intend to end."

In May, Parliament passed a resolution that Canada would continue until July, 2011, its military presence in the volatile southern province of Kandahar, where most of Canada's roughly 2,500 troops in Afghanistan are based.

The question of what Canada would do after that date has loomed large over the election.
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MILITARY: North Carolina unit likely to get Afghanistan assignment
Marine Corps readying official announcement for fall deployment
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 10, 2008 5:34 PM PDT
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A North Carolina-based Marine battalion is expected to fill a fall assignment to Afghanistan as part of an overall increase in U.S. forces in that country.

An official announcement naming the battalion should come any day, according to a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon.

The troops are widely believed to be a contingent of Marines from North Carolina's Camp Lejeune, whose previously announced deployment to Iraq in about six weeks will shift to Afghanistan.

There have been no large-scale Iraq or Afghanistan assignments announced for locally based troops for the rest of this year or next.

President Bush's decision to send an approximately 1,000-member battalion to Afghanistan answered commanders' requests that a Marine contingent placed there in April be replaced when those forces complete their assignment in November.

Bush also said he was ordering an approximately 3,500-troop Army brigade to Afghanistan early next year.
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Afghanistan's army to double to 134,000: UN
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KABUL (AFP) — The Afghan government and its international partners agreed Wednesday to expand the national army to 134,000 soldiers, almost double its current strength, the United Nations said.

The decision, already announced by the US military last week, was adopted at a meeting in Kabul of the Afghan government and its partners, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

It comes as the country battles a wave of violence by Taliban-led insurgents and other Islamic factions that has put Afghanistan on the frontline of the US-led "war on terror."

"This increase is a huge step towards ensuring the Afghan government has the number of soldiers it needs and that it can gradually take over the responsibility for the security of the country," UNAMA chief Kai Eide said.

"We all know that ensuring security for all Afghans is of paramount importance," Eide said in a statement.

The Afghan army, which was destroyed during the civil war of the 1990s which was followed by the 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban, is being trained and equipped with international help and has reached about 80,000.

It is projected to reach 134,000 within three years and is needed to tackle the insurgent threat with the help of a NATO-led deployment, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
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Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South)
111925EDT Sept 08


NOTE:  The following material is from web pages and forums carrying statements attributed to the Taliban, Taliban spokespersons or supporters of the Taliban.  Posting of this material neither confirms nor endorses any of its content - it is shared for information only.  When material translated into English is not available, Google Translate is used to translate the original (indicated by "GoogEng") - this is only a machine translation, NOT an official one.


"5 puppet soldiers killed in Kandahar"
Tuesday noon 11-09-2008 at approximately 12:10 am local, Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with remote controlled landmines blew up 1 vehicles of puppet army in Khaki chopan area of Mewand district of Kandahar province. The landmines completely destroyed the vehicles and 5 puppet terrorists in it were killed few wounded. Reported by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi


"Martyrdom Operation destroyed 2 vehicles of foreigner invaders in Kandahar "
Thursday noon 11-09-2008, a courageous Mujahid of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Abdul Hakem said "Allahu Akbar" and rammed his booby-trapped car into a convoy of foreigner invaders in Kabul Dorahi area of Kandahar city, in which 2 vehicles were completely destroyed and 8 foreigner terrorists were killed few wounded.. We ask Allah to accept our brother among martyrs in Eelleyeen (high rank in the paradise). All praise and gratitude are due to Allah. After invaders army open fire on civilians in which a number of civilians were martyred. Reported by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi


"Does Karzai really have the sovereignty of the country?"
To days ago, Karzai has untruthly declared again that he must demand investigation about martyrdom of 150 innocent people in Shendand -district of Heart-, he added: "I have authority over the country, the foreign forces do not have ability in this country", he has emotionally explain in the meeting of Fateha (praying for the dead) that he must demand about this event, get action and punish its factors.  Since 2001, It is not the early time that masters of Karzai bombard innocent Afghan people in the country -like the calamity of Shendand- but tens of times martyred the innocent people in their cruelty bombards, killed undefended people, also he appointed different inspector delegations, looked the destroyed families by his own eyes in the past but it has not got result till now.
.... (more on link)

 
Articles found September 12, 2008

'No quick fix' for Afghan security forces
Scott Deveau ,  Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008
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KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Yet another suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into a convoy transporting private security guards Thursday afternoon in Kandahar City, wiping out whatever slim semblance of security remained in the former Taliban stronghold.

Two civilians were killed in the blast that targeted the Texas-based U.S. Protections and Investigations security firm. Another four were injured, including two USPI guards.

It was the second time in less than a week - and the third time in as many months - the insurgency has seriously undermined the Afghan National Security Forces' efforts to bring some stability to Afghanistan's second-largest city.

Last Sunday, two suicide bombers detonated their devices inside the police headquarters here, killing two officers and injuring 29 others, including eight civilians in the process.

The first, and arguably the biggest, attack, however, occurred on June 13 when insurgents blew the front gate off of the city's Sarpoza prison with a truck-load of explosives in the now infamous incident that spilled roughly 900 inmates - more than 400 suspected Taliban - into the streets.

While the civilian deaths do nothing to help the Taliban's cause, the aftermath of these attacks achieve the goal of breeding uncertainty around the forces abilities.
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British PM backs Australia's Afghan commitment
By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici Posted Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:41am AEST
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he is happy with Australia's contribution to the war effort in Afghanistan and its decision not to boost troop numbers.

Mr Brown said he was not disappointed by Australia's decision despite the new NATO leader in Afghanistan this week calling for allied countries to send 15,000 more soldiers.

The Defence Department says Australia has around 1,000 troops currently in Afghanistan, including special forces, a reconstruction task force, and artillery gunners.

Mr Brown's comments came after the death of another British soldier in Afghanistan - the 118th British national killed there since 2001
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Young Canadian diplomats fight to defend Afghan mission
Peter O'Neil ,  Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008
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PARIS - Three young Canadian diplomats are on the front line of a fierce political battle to defend the Afghanistan counter-insurgency and reconstruction mission, which has been pummelled over the summer by a string of Taliban military and propaganda coups.

United Nations senior Afghanistan political adviser Chris Alexander and North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesman James Appathurai - who met as 13-year-old schoolboys in Toronto - and their friend, Arif Lalani, who just left his post as Canada's ambassador in Kabul, are all high-profile mission defenders in the Canadian and international media.

The trio acknowledge the job is getting more challenging.
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Harper has done our soldiers - and their sacrifices - a disservice
From Friday's Globe and Mail September 11, 2008 at 11:01 PM EDT
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TORONTO — The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is worsening, with increasing support from across the border in Pakistan. Every objective report from onsite journalists, government officials, think tanks, the U.S. military and academic studies confirms the discouraging trend.

As a result, both candidates for the U.S. presidency are on record recommending additional troops be deployed there. The Bush administration has committed more than 3,000 troops, some of which are being deployed in Kandahar to help Canadian forces in that turbulent province.

The Canadian Parliament, in a resolution negotiated principally between the government and the Liberal Opposition, decreed that the country's military mission end in 2011. But one parliament's decision doesn't necessarily bind another's, and who knows how the situation will evolve between now and 2011.

These are among the reasons why Prime Minister's Stephen Harper's declaration this week that Canada would withdraw its military forces from Kandahar by 2011 merely restated an existing position, but also foreclosed any possibility of change, even if he wins a majority government.
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Stephen Harper's Afghan retreat
National Post  Published: Friday, September 12, 2008
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During a campaign stop in Toronto yesterday, Stephen Harper promised that a Conservative government would pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan by 2011. At that point "the mission as we've known it, we intend to end," Mr. Harper said. "I think our goal has to be, after six years, to see the government of Afghanistan able to carry the lion's share of responsibility for its own security."

We could not disagree more. The Canadian mission in Afghanistan, an important part of the U. S.-led coalition there, is vital to our security. The battle against Taliban insurgents who continue to terrorize Afghans is a war we can ill afford to lose.

Setting an official pull-out date is, therefore, the last thing we should do. What is needed in Afghanistan is a surge much like the American troop buildup in Iraq that has changed the tenor of that war and brought relative piece to a region that, only one year ago, was still a haven for terrorist activities.

There are not nearly enough troops on the ground in Afghanistan right now: Just 70,000 Western soldiers are deployed there -- about half the number currently in Iraq. With so little manpower, coalition forces are unable to do much to significantly uproot the Taliban. Certainly, troops have had some success moving from one place to the next and briefly ridding towns of Taliban fighters. But because of the paucity of soldiers, as soon as the good guys leave to fight another Taliban pocket, the bad guys simply sneak back in and retake those areas. It is a vicious cycle.

With more troops, coalition forces would be able to continue the current plan of attack with one crucial addition: There would be enough men to remain in each conquered spot, to ensure that the Taliban do not return as quickly as they have been driven out.
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Afghanistan and other primetime issues
Conference of Defence Associations, Sept. 12 (media round-up)
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1221247032

Mark
Ottawa
 
ARTICLES FOUND SEPT. 13

Higher-tech Predators targeting Pakistan
The U.S. drone aircraft involved in strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants across the border have enhanced tracking ability.

LA Times, Sept. 12
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan12-2008sep12,0,3916230.story

As part of an escalating offensive against extremist targets in Pakistan, the United States is deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.

The use of the specially equipped drones comes amid a fundamental shift in U.S. strategy in the area. After years of deferring to Pakistani authorities, the Bush administration is turning toward unilateral American military operations -- a gambit that could increase pressure on Islamic militants but risks alienating a country that has been a key counter-terrorism ally.

In an indication of the priority being given to the Pakistan campaign, U.S. officials said the specially equipped aircraft were being pulled from other theaters to augment aerial patrols above the tribal belt along Afghanistan's eastern border.

Pakistan's government has found itself caught between Washington's demands for action and the unpopularity of the U.S. campaign, which has included half a dozen Predator strikes and a ground raid in the last few weeks...

American officials requested that details of the new technology not be disclosed out of concern that doing so might enable militants to evade U.S. detection. But officials said the previously unacknowledged devices have become a powerful part of the American arsenal, allowing the tracking of human targets even when they are inside buildings or otherwise hidden from Predator surveillance cameras.

Equally important, officials said, the systems have significantly speeded up decisions on when to strike. The technology gives remote pilots a means beyond images from the Predator's lens of confirming a target's identity and precise location.

A military official familiar with the systems said they had a profound effect, both militarily and psychologically, on the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.

"It is like they are living with a red dot on their head," said a former U.S. military official familiar with the technology who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because it has been secret. "With the quietness of the Predator, you never knew when a Hellfire [missile] would come through your window."..

Intelligence activities will increasingly be geared now toward enabling U.S. Special Forces units -- backed by AC-130 gunships and other aircraft -- to carry out operations against Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives [emphasis added], officials said.

The change in strategy reflects frustration within the Bush administration over Pakistan's failure to root out insurgent groups or disrupt the flow of militants who launch attacks in Afghanistan and then retreat to Pakistan...

An Afghan 'October surprise'?
New technology used in Iraq and Afghanistan to hunt down and kill terrorists may inject itself into the presidential race.

LA Times, Sept. 13, by Tim Rutten
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rutten13-2008sep13,0,1586694.column

Friday, The Times' Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes reported that the United States has escalated its war against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies by "deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq."

It's a story whose significance may extend well beyond the benighted hills and valleys of Pakistan's violent Pashtun hinterlands and onto the hustings of our current presidential campaign. Coupled with Thursday's report in the New York Times that President Bush has signed a secret order permitting Afghanistan-based U.S. special operations forces to cross into Pakistan without Islamabad's permission, the odds of an "October surprise" that could influence the general election have risen appreciably.

U.S. officials also told The Times that the new surveillance systems allow the operators of the unmanned Predators to locate and identify individual human targets "even when they are inside buildings. ... The technology gives remote pilots a means beyond images from the Predator's lens of confirming a target's identity and precise location."

The Times' story confirms the most sensational revelation contained in Bob Woodward's new book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2007," which was published this week. Woodward revealed the technology's existence but, heeding requests from intelligence officials, declined to describe its operations except to say that it had allowed U.S. forces to locate and kill decisive numbers of senior Al Qaeda operatives and Iraqi insurgents. In what may be the book's most controversial claim, Woodward argues that the secret technology and the so-called Anbar Awakening -- in which counterinsurgency techniques developed by the Marines won over tribal leaders in that crucial Sunni-dominated province -- had as much or more to do with stabilizing Iraq as the "surge" in U.S. troop numbers.

Beyond the purely military considerations, there are potentially significant political implications. First and most obvious is the question of the surge's efficacy. The answer matters, particularly to John McCain, who has been one of the surge's most resolute supporters. If it turns out that it was only one -- and, perhaps, the least consequential -- in a confluence of successful American initiatives, then McCain could go from steadfast to stubborn in voters' minds.

The real wild card pops up if this new surveillance technology allows U.S. forces to find and kill Osama bin Laden. Bush wouldn't be human if he didn't desperately want to see the Al Qaeda warlord dealt with before inauguration day 2009. Moreover, as Woodward writes, the president frequently relishes the death of individual extremists and insurgents in a way that even our professional soldiers find striking. Then-American commander in Iraq Gen. George W. Casey Jr. "told a colleague in private that he had the impression that Bush reflected the 'radical wing of the Republican Party that kept saying, "Kill the bastards! Kill the bastards! And you'll succeed." ' Since the beginning, the president had viewed the war in conventional terms, repeatedly asking how many of the various enemies had been captured or killed."

If U.S. special operations forces capture or kill Bin Laden, or if a CIA technician pushes a button and puts a Hellfire missile between his eyes, Bush will have made good on the vows he made seven years ago to bring the Al Qaeda leader to some sort of justice. In the eyes of many who supported him over the years, that would allow the president to leave office with at least part of his historical reputation intact.

There also are many Republican activists who must hope that an October surprise involving Bin Laden would give McCain -- unswerving supporter of the war and advocate of a muscular, hard-line foreign policy -- a boost by association. At the very least, anything that makes his connection to his party's now dismally unpopular president less of a stigma helps the GOP candidate...

Mark
Ottawa
 
Articles found Sept 13, 2008

  New batch of Canadian mentors to begin training Afghan soldiers
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A larger team of Canadian Forces mentors are arriving in Afghanistan with plans to step up the training of Afghan soldiers in a variety of combat specialties, the new commander said Saturday following an evening change of command ceremony.

Col. Joseph Shipley has officially assumed command of the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) as members of the fifth rotation of troops in Afghanistan wrap up their tour and head home.

His 250-strong sixth rotation of troops from Petawawa, Ont., will, for the first time, have complete coverage of all the Afghan army brigade's capabilities - including its artillery, engineering and reconnaissance companies, he said.

Up until now, Afghan forces have largely relied on the coalition for support in such areas.

"What we have to do is we have to take them so they're not just fighting in partnership with coalition forces but that they're doing it by themselves," he said.

"That they have the ability to sustain their own operations in the field and be able to bring in all the enablers that they need that they're relying on the coalition for right now."

It's a "significant step," he said, that won't be completed over the next six months. His rotation's job will be to "sow the seeds" for the future.
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Pakistan pursues diplomacy with US on border raids
By PAUL ALEXANDER
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's government eased its rhetoric Saturday against unilateral U.S. attacks on militant havens near the Afghan border, saying it hopes quiet diplomacy will persuade Washington that the raids only inflame sentiment against leaders of both countries.

Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar claimed Washington already has agreed to curtail its military activities against militants in Pakistan, although a missile strike Friday killed at least 12 people.

Most U.S. cross-border activity has been limited to missiles fired by unmanned drone aircraft. But in a Sept. 3 attack, helicopter-borne U.S. ground forces were used in an operation that killed at least 15, an escalation of U.S. military force.

"As far as my information, we have taken it up at the highest level with the State Department and Pentagon," Mukhtar said in an apparent reference to the U.S. using ground forces.
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Insurgent fire killed Saskatoon soldier: investigators
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Investigators looking into last month's death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan's Zhari district have concluded he was killed by insurgent fire.

Master Cpl. Josh Roberts of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Shilo, Man., was shot during a confusing gun battle between coalition forces and insurgents on Aug. 9.

There was speculation at the time that he might have been shot accidentally by an Afghan security contractor.

Military officials said Saturday that personnel from the firm Compass Integrated Security Solutions were in the area, but were not responsible for Roberts' death.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service based its conclusion on physical evidence, witness interviews, and an analysis by military police investigators.

Troops were engaging a group of about 15 insurgents along a rugged tract of farmland when the incident occurred.

Roberts, the 89th Canadian soldier to die in the Afghanistan mission, was shot in his armoured vehicle during the operation.
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Soldiers. In a Conservative Party press release. Being taken wildly out of context to attack the NDP.
By Kady O'Malley September 13th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Posted to: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway
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As headlines go, it’s not quite as bad as “The NDP caucus supports child pornography”, but it’s getting close.

From a release issued by the Tories earlier today:
JACK LAYTON INSULTS TROOPS

NDP Leader Jack Layton made the disturbing suggestion yesterday that coalition troops are targeting and recklessly killing Afghan civilians. These unacceptable comments are sadly in keeping with previous remarks by Layton and other NDP members.

First off, I like the “sadly” — yeah, guys - you were so upset, you could barely find the strength to fire off a press release. But what did that virulently anti-military Jack Layton actually say?

· Yesterday in Newfoundland Layton said the following about Canadian troops: “This horrific practice of coming in with planes and strafing villages and having civilians killed, it’s turning the civilians against the mission,” (CBC Newsworld, September 12, 2008).

Not surprisingly, the Tories don’t provide the context for the quote, but given the fact that Canadian soldiers are not, have not, and - as far as I know - will not ever be involved in aerial bombing runs, it seems pretty clear that Layton is referring to the missions that have been carried out almost exclusively by the American contingent of the NATO coalition - which have also come in for heavy criticism from the Afghanistan government, most recently in the aftermath of a US-led raid that reportedly left as many as 90 civilians dead.

In an interview in April, Mr. Karzai warned that civilian casualties were undermining the fight against terrorism, and he questioned, as many Afghans do, why Afghan villagers were under attack when the militants’ training camps in Pakistan were left untouched.

“The war against terrorism is not in Afghan villages,” he said. “The war against terrorism is elsewhere, and that’s where the war should go.”

Will “HARMID KARZAI INSULTS TROOPS” headline the next edition of “Just the Facts”? That could get interesting. Meanwhile, the release goes on:
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Articles found Sept 14, 2008

Pakistan sends fighter jets to tribal region 
www.chinaview.cn  2008-09-13 20:10:29  Special report: Pakistani Situation   
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    ISLAMABAD, Sept.13 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Saturday sent its fighter aircraft to the northwestern tribal region as the U.S.-led coalition forces are increasing cross-border raids, local media reported.

    The fighter jets conducted flights in North Waziristan tribal region, News Network International (NNI) news agency said.

    At least 12 people were killed in North Waziristan in a suspected U.S. missile attack on Friday.

    The coalition forces are increasing their missile and drone attacks on targets inside Pakistan in recent month, blaming Pakistan's local Taliban for rising insurgency in Afghanistan.

    Reports said that U.S. President George W. Bush has authorized U.S. raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from the country
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Pressure mounts on India to send troops to Afghanistan
14 Sep 2008
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NEW DELHI: India is resisting renewed pressure from the West to send its troops into Afghanistan to boost the coalition troops there. This is increasing as coalition forces are coming under severe fire in southern Afghanistan from a resurgent Taliban most of whom are getting trained and armed in Pakistan.

India is not about to enter this particular cauldron because its troops would fan the flames in a way that no others would do. They would draw fire from Pakistanis and India would be sucked into a battle, which would have huge implications for its internal security.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, in New York at the UN General Assembly. India is ready to resume dealings with Pakistan, but believes Pakistan's internal instability would be preventing it from doing so.
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Two UN officials killed in Afghanistan
September 14th, 2008
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Kabul, Sep 14 (Xinhua) Two people were killed and 15 injured when a car bomb hit a convoy of vehicles belonging to UN aid agencies in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province Sunday morning, the provincial police said.”The incident took place on Kandahar-Spinboldak highway at 9.30 a.m. when a man driving an explosives-laden car blew it up next to the convoy, killing two on the spot and wounding 15 others including one police personnel,” police chief Matihullah Khan told reporters.

“Except the police constable, all the victims are civilians,” he added.

He said that one of the vehicles bearing the UN logo was hit in the blast two of its occupants, both doctors, were killed on the spot.

Khan did not say which UN agency the car belonged to.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the the attack but Khan blamed it on Taliban terrorists.
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Another US drone strike kills 14 in N Waziristan
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MIRANSHAH: A missile from a suspected United States drone killed 14 people when it hit a house in the outskirts of Miranshah in North Waziristan tribal area on Friday.

It was the fourth such strike in a week.

The pre-dawn strike destroyed the house and 14 people were killed, an official told Reuters, adding that another 14 people were wounded.

Al Badar terrorist group: The men were believed to be terrorists, locals said, adding that the house hit in the Tol Khel area had been rented by an Afghan terrorist organisation, Al Badar, and was being used as an office.

Army confirms: “We confirm a missile attack at around 5.30 in the morning (on Thursday) ... We have informed the government,” said military spokesman Major Murad Khan.

Khan gave no more details but security officials in the region said 14 people had been killed and about 12 wounded.

Residents said two missiles were fired at a former government school where terrorists and their families were living.
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Focus on the 'stans: Afghanistan and Pakistan are keys to U.S. security
Tribune Editorial Article Last Updated: 09/12/2008 07:51:44 PM MDT
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In tandem with his announcement that he would withdraw 8,000 troops from Iraq, President Bush said he will send an additional 4,500 soldiers to Afghanistan. That's too few too late, but he's got the right idea.
    The United States took its eye off the ball early in 2002 when the Bush administration began its ill-conceived, ill-planned preparations to invade Iraq. But America's real enemies, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization that committed the attacks of 9/11, were in Afghanistan or the lawless tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan, not Iraq.
    Seven years later, the United States still is paying for diverting its gaze. U.S. forces have not seen bin Laden since he eluded U.S. surrogate forces during the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. He is believed to be hiding in the mountains that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani border.
    In the meantime, conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated. The government of Hamid Karzai has limited control of the countryside outside the capital, Kabul, and reinvigorated insurgents, including the Taliban, now are killing more American soldiers in Afghanistan than are dying in Iraq.
    Compared to about 140,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq, there are about 16,000 in Afghanistan, complemented by 40,000 NATO troops. However, these forces are stretched extremely thin, particularly as they try, unsuccessfully, to provide security in a vast, mountainous country and secure its long border with Pakistan
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Three-phase American plan to capture Al Qaeda leaders
By Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider
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WASHINGTON, Sept 13: The Bush administration has approved a three-phase plan to capture top Al Qaeda leaders and has increased military strikes inside Pakistan to achieve this target, a media report said on Saturday.

“The plan represents an 11th-hour effort to hammer Al Qaeda until the Bush administration leaves office,” reported National Public Radio.

NPR is America’s largest and most respect radio network which provides news to 797 radio stations across the country.

According to it, the raid by helicopter-borne US Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of this three-phase plan approved by President Bush.

The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign and authorises US forces in Afghanistan to take part in operations inside Fata.

“Definitely, the gloves have come off,” a US official who has been briefed on the plan told NPR. “This was only phase 1 of three phases.”
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British army suffers third casualty in a week in Afghanistan: MoD
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LONDON (AFP) — A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, becoming the third British casualty there in a week, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.

The serviceman, from 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, was killed while on a routine patrol near Kajaki in the restive Helmand province on Saturday.

He was not immediately named, but his next of kin have been informed.

He is the second soldier from the regiment to die in Afghanistan in the space of 48 hours, after Private Jason Lee Rawstron, 23, was killed in a firefight with Taliban extremists in Helmand on Friday.

Gaz O'Donnell, a 40-year-old father of four, was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday as he tried to defuse an explosive device set by the Taliban.

The deaths bring to 120 the number of British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in late 2001 that ousted the Taliban from power in Kabul.
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