History > 2007 > USA > War > Afghanistan (IV)

Steve Breen

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The San Diego Union-Tribune

Cagle        5 November 2007

U.S. Airstrikes Kill 14 Afghans

November 28, 2007
Filed at 6:20 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition troops killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan after receiving faulty intelligence, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The coalition said it was looking into the incident in Nuristan province, but did not immediately comment. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it has conducted airstrikes against Taliban fighters in the area, but did not say when.

''ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab (districts), and in those places we used airstrikes against (Taliban),'' ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco told a news conference. ''The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture.''

The engineers and laborers had been building a road for the U.S. military in mountainous Nuristan province, and were sleeping in two tents in the remote area when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

''All of our poor workers have been killed,'' Jalili said. ''I don't think the Americans were targeting our people. I'm sure it's the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information.''

Jalili earlier said 22 workers were killed, but he said the latest reports indicated the death toll was 14. He did not say why the preliminary figures were higher.

The report could not be independently verified because the area is remote and inaccessible.

The company has requested that the U.S. military investigate the source of its information, Jalili said.

Nuristan Gov. Tamim Nuristani said the coalition conducted airstrikes after receiving reports that ''the enemy'' was in the area, and hit the road construction workers as they were sleeping. Afghan officials often refer to the Taliban and other militants as ''the enemy.''

Jalili said the workers were from four nearby provinces, and that all but three of the bodies had been returned to their homes.

Earlier this year, foreign troops came under scathing criticism for conducting airstrikes based on poor intelligence and causing a number of civilian casualties.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai pleaded repeatedly with NATO and coalition troops to cooperate closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian deaths, and the number of such incidents has dropped significantly in the past few months.

NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week in Kabul that the alliance has ''worked hard'' to change its procedures in order to avoid civilian deaths, following U.N. criticism that the foreign troops were behind an alarming number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

This has been the deadliest year yet for Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, with more than 6,000 people killed in militant attacks and military operations, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.

Amerifa, an 11-year-old company, received the contract to build 135 miles of road for the U.S. military last year, Jalili said.

U.S. Airstrikes Kill 14 Afghans, NYT, 28.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Op-Ed Contributor

Caution: Taliban Crossing

November 28, 2007
The New York Times
By ARTHUR KELLER

Albuquerque

IN the early 1900s, a crusty British general, Andrew Skeen, wrote a guide to military operations in the Pashtun tribal belt, in what is now Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. His first piece of advice: “When planning a military expedition into Pashtun tribal areas, the first thing you must plan is your retreat. All expeditions into this area sooner or later end in retreat under fire.” This was written decades before the advent of suicide bombers, when the Pashtuns had little but rifles yet nevertheless managed to give their British overlords fits.

These same tribal areas are now focus of Pakistan’s struggle with the Pakistani Taliban, particularly the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the Afghan border and the Swat region further north. The government trumpets it has more than 80,000 troops in the tribal areas, fighting bravely to root out the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Unfortunately, these troops — supported with tens of millions of dollars in American aid — appear even less able to police this wild frontier than were the canny British.

Despite the government’s claims of a successful offensive over last weekend, for the most part the Pakistani Army is totally on the defensive and doing almost nothing to bring the fight to the militants. Yes, there have been heavy casualties in recent months, but this is very misleading: they are largely coming from roadside-bomb attacks against convoys and Taliban assaults against Pakistani military bases and checkpoints. There are relatively few reports of casualties during foot patrols, raids or any offensive assaults.

The only consistent reports of offensive action by the Pakistani Army involve the use of helicopter gunships and artillery to attack militant compounds. Aerial assaults, when carried out without support from “boots on the ground,” serve but one purpose: they help sustain the illusion that the Pakistani government is taking effective action.

The truth is that the soldiers have lost the will to fight. Reports in the Indian press, based on information from the very competent Indian intelligence agencies, describe a Pakistani Army in disarray in the tribal areas. Troops are deserting and often refusing to fight their “Muslim brothers.”

Nothing illustrated this apathy more clearly than the capture of hundreds of troops in August by the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud with nary a shot fired in resistance.

While the Pakistani Army has been giving up, the Taliban has been on the offensive, and not just in combat operations. The Pakistani Taliban churns out a stream of propaganda videos and radio broadcasts from “black” stations, aimed at undermining morale within the army while cutting away support for the military within wider Pakistani society. If the Pakistani Army is too weak to act effectively, what about cooperation on the intelligence front? After all, most major Qaeda members now in United States custody were captured with Pakistani cooperation. Unfortunately, that relationship, too, now appears to be losing steam.

This year has seen a notable lack of Qaeda members killed or captured in Pakistan. The Afghan government has turned over detailed lists of names and addresses for Taliban members residing in Pakistan, particularly in the city of Quetta. Not only has this information not led to arrests, Pakistan has routinely continued to deny that the Taliban’s leadership is in Quetta. A Pakistani military officer told me last year (in an uncharacteristic fit of honesty): “If we are not catching the Taliban, it is not because the Taliban is so clever, or so good at hiding. We just aren’t trying.”

So what is America’s retreat strategy? We should not divert our attention from the frontier, which is home to so much Qaeda and Taliban activity. We should, however, stop blindly supporting President Pervez Musharraf, his army and intelligence services.

As in Iraq, we should make financial support contingent on benchmarks. If the Pakistani Army claims it is effectively battling militants in Waziristan and elsewhere, great — but such claims need to be verified by military observers accompanying the Pakistani troops on offensive raids.

Likewise, the Bush administration and Congress could demand concrete measures of Qaeda or Taliban members killed and captured, proof that actionable intelligence passed to the Pakistanis by American or Afghan sources is being acted on rather than ignored.

Yes, this may well weaken President Musharraf, whom we have given a great deal of support over the years. But our expensive investment in him has yielded little in the way of tangible results. We need policy based on what is actually happening along the Afghan frontier, not on wishful thinking that someday Pakistan will become an effective partner in the war against terrorism.

Arthur Keller is a former C.I.A. case officer in Pakistan.

    Caution: Taliban Crossing, NYT, 28.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/opinion/28keller.html

Suicide Attack in Afghanistan Kills 7 but Spares Governor

November 20, 2007
The New York Times
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 19 — A provincial governor in southwestern Afghanistan narrowly escaped a suicide attack on Monday, but his 25-year-old son and five of his bodyguards were killed in the blast. A civilian bystander was also killed, and 14 others were wounded, the police said.

The bomber approached the governor’s compound on foot on Monday morning just 10 minutes after the governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, had entered his office in the town of Zaranj, in Nimruz Province. He detonated his charge at the entrance to the compound, where the governor’s son was standing among a group of people, according to the provincial police chief, Muhammad Dawood Askaryar. Chief Askaryar said that of the wounded, six were policemen, three were employees of the governor’s office and three were civilians.

Zaranj lies on the border with Iran and has been relatively free of insurgent attacks and the strong Taliban presence seen in the rest of the south and southeast of the country.

In Kabul, security forces thwarted a suicide attack on a military bus carrying Afghan Army trainers and staff members to work. A man wearing an explosive vest tried to climb into the bus, but a man at the door knew immediately that he was not an officer and grabbed him, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.

Other people on the street also helped subdue the man and somehow prevented him from detonating. They called the police, who defused the explosives. The man later said he was from Pakistan, General Azimi said.

Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, the director of the criminal investigation department of the Kabul Police, confirmed the man’s nationality and said he was 25. He said the man was the second Pakistani to be arrested as a suspected suicide bomber on Monday.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Kabul over the past few months. On Sept. 29, an attacker detonated his charge in a military bus, killing about 30 people. A similar explosion in June killed at least 35, most of them trainers at the Afghan Police Academy.

    Suicide Attack in Afghanistan Kills 7 but Spares Governor, NYT, 20.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/world/asia/20afghan.html

Taliban Execute 5 Afghan Police

November 18, 2007
Filed at 6:57 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban militants tortured five abducted policemen in southern Afghanistan and then hung their mutilated bodies from trees in a warning to villagers against working with the government, officials said Sunday.

The discovery of the bodies came as officials said that recent violence and clashes had left at least 63 other people dead across Afghanistan.

The officers had been abducted two months ago from their checkpoint in southern Uruzgan province, said Juma Gul Himat, the provincial police chief. The Taliban slashed their hands and legs and hung the bodies on trees Saturday in Gazak village of Derawud district, he said.

''The Taliban told the people that whoever works with the government will suffer the same fate as these policemen,'' Himat said. ''This village is under Taliban control. There are more than 100 Taliban in this village.''

Two tribal elders received the bodies of the policemen on Sunday, he said.

Insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan has soared this year, killing more than 6,000 people, a record number, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

The executions followed several days of violence in the country's south which left at least 63 people dead, including 58 militants and two Canadian soldiers.

Also in Uruzgan, police shot and killed two suspected Taliban militants on Sunday as they approached a police checkpoint on a motorbike, Himat said.

In Zabul province, the Taliban ambushed and clashed with an Afghan army patrol Saturday night, leaving 11 suspected insurgents dead and four soldiers wounded, said Qasem Khan, a provincial police official.

Authorities recovered the bodies of the 11 militants alongside their weapons, Khan said.

In southern Helmand province, a suicide bomber attacked a NATO patrol Sunday in Gereshk district, damaging a vehicle but causing no casualties, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

In Kandahar province, Canadian and Afghan troops battled militants and called in airstrikes in Zhari district on Saturday, leaving an Afghan soldier and at least 20 suspected militants dead, said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb.

A roadside bomb hit a NATO vehicle during the same battle, killing two Canadian soldiers and their translator and wounding three other Canadian troops, officials said.

Separately, a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a NATO convoy in Nangarhar province's Chaparhar district, killing an Afghan civilian and wounding another NATO soldier, officials said Saturday.

Elsewhere, 23 Taliban militants were killed during a U.S.-led coalition operation on Thursday aimed at disrupting a weapons transfer in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said.

    Taliban Execute 5 Afghan Police, NYT, 18.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Iraq, Afghan War Costs Are $1.6 Trillion

November 13, 2007
Filed at 12:45 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economic costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to total $1.6 trillion -- roughly double the amount the White House has requested thus far, according to a new report by Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee.

The report, released Tuesday, attempted to put a price tag on the two conflicts, including ''hidden'' costs such as interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars, lost investment, the expense of long-term health care for injured veterans and the cost of oil market disruptions.

The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said. The Bush administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, the report stated.

For the Iraq war only, total economic costs were estimated at $1.3 trillion for the period from 2002 to 2008. That would cost a family of four $16,500, the report said.

Future economic costs would be even greater. The report estimated that both wars would cost $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. Under that scenario, it would cost a family of four $46,400, the report said.

The report, from the committee's Democratic majority, was not was vetted with Republican members. Democratic leaders in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., seized on the report to criticize Bush's war strategy. The White House countered that the report was politically motivated.

''This report was put out by Democrats on Capitol Hill. This committee is known for being partisan and political. They did not consult or cooperate with the Republicans on the committee. And so I think it is an attempt to muddy the waters on what has been some positive developments being reported out of Iraq,'' said White House press secretary Dana Perino. ''I haven't seen the report, but it's obvious the motivations behind it,'' she added.

The report comes as the House prepares to vote this week on another effort by Democrats to set a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq as a condition for providing another $50 billion for the war.

Reid said the report ''is another reminder of how President Bush's stubborn refusal to change course in Iraq and congressional Republicans' willingness to rubberstamp his failed strategy -- has real consequences at home for all Americans.''

Perino, while acknowledging the dangers in Iraq, defended Bush's stance.

''Obviously it remains a dangerous situation in Iraq. But the reduction in violence, the increased economic capacity of the country, as well as, hopefully, some continued political reconciliation that is moving from the bottom up, is a positive trend and one that we -- well, it's positive and we hope it is a trend that will take hold,'' Perino said.

Oil prices have surged since the start of the war, from about $37 a barrel to well over $90 a barrel in recent weeks, the report said. ''Consistent disruptions from the war have affected oil prices,'' although the Iraq war is not responsible for all of the increase in oil prices, the report said.

Still, the report estimated that high oil prices have hit U.S. consumers in the pocket, transferring ''approximately $124 billion from U.S. oil consumers to foreign (oil) producers'' from 2003 to 2008, the report said.

High oil prices can slow overall economic growth if that chills spending and investment by consumers and businesses. At the same time, high oil prices can spread inflation throughout the economy if companies decide to boost the prices of many other goods and services.

Meanwhile, ''the sum of interest paid on Iraq-related debt from 2003 to 2017 will total over $550 billion,'' the report said. The government has to make interest payments on the money it borrows to finance the national debt, which recently hit $9 trillion for the first time.

The report was obtained by The Associated Press before its release. An earlier draft of the report, which also had been obtained by The Associated Press, had put the economic cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at a slightly lower, $1.5 trillion.

''What this report makes crystal clear is that the cost to our country in lives lost and dollars spent is tragically unacceptable,'' said Joint Economic Committee Chairman said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

    Iraq, Afghan War Costs Are $1.6 Trillion, NYT, 13.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-War-Costs.html

Troops Made US Citizens in Afghanistan

November 12, 2007
Filed at 11:11 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sixty U.S. service members from countries including Cuba, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Vietnam became American citizens on Monday during a ceremony in Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, congratulated the soldiers on their new citizenship and thanked them for the oath they took to defend the United States.

''Today they will swear a second oath to the country they've already pledged to defend,'' Rodriguez said at a ceremony coinciding with Veterans Day. ''An oath of allegiance to the nation they are supporting as a member of her armed forces, deployed in harm's way, defending the citizens of the world from terrorism.

''There is no better way to recognize the sacrifices they are making here than to grant them the right to call themselves U.S. citizens,'' Rodriguez said at the main U.S. base, Bagram.

A day earlier, more than 150 American soldiers in Iraq were sworn in as U.S. citizens during a ceremony at the Balad Air Base in Balad, north of Baghdad.

Citizenship is not a requirement to join the U.S. military, but serving in the armed forces is a way to qualify for citizenship, said spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher.

Christopher Dell, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, told the soldiers that their presence in Afghanistan, in uniform, is the ''greatest possible testament to your readiness for citizenship.''

''As you sit here today you have already sacrificed tremendously for our country,'' he said. ''You have left your families behind, endured difficult training and placed yourself in great danger, all to serve America before you could truly call her your own.''

Dell recounted how Gen. John Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to the U.S. from his birthplace in the Republic of Georgia at age 16, joining the military as a private and eventually earning the rank of four-star general.

''As you know better than I, by becoming a citizen you are opening up a door for yourself within the military,'' Dell said. ''Gen. Shalikashvili's story is just one of many tales that inspire us to dream the American dream. It is my hope that today each one of you holds your own part of that dream within you.''

More than 20,000 service members have become U.S. citizens since 2002, Rodriguez said.

    Troops Made US Citizens in Afghanistan, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Citizen-Ceremony.html

US - Led Troops Kill 18 in Afghanistan

November 12, 2007
Filed at 6:32 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition troops battling suspected militants in southern Afghanistan lobbed a grenade that destroyed a house and killed 15 militants as well as a woman and two children, the coalition said Monday.

Meanwhile, weekend reports of other violence included the deaths of three policemen and a coalition soldier in separate explosions and raids.

The U.S.-led troops were raiding compounds suspected of housing bomb makers in the Garmser district of Helmand province on Sunday when militants attacked them with heavy fire, the statement said. Coalition forces responded with small-arms fire, killing several militants, it said.

''During one of the engagements, several militants barricaded themselves in a building on the compound and engaged coalition forces with a high volume of gunfire. Coalition forces used a single grenade which killed the attacking militants,'' the statement said. ''However, the building the militants were fighting from collapsed.''

After the clash, troops recovered the bodies of a woman and two children from the collapsed building, along with several militants and their weapons, it said. Another woman was wounded during the battle and taken to a medical facility for treatment. Two suspected militants were detained for questioning, the coalition said.

''We would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased,'' said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman.

''When militants knowingly engage coalition forces with innocent people in the background, it only shows the extremists' complete disregard for innocent lives,'' Belcher said in a statement.

More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence this year, a record, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

Civilian casualties in particular have incited resentment and demonstrations against U.S. and NATO forces, though officials blame militants for using civilian homes as cover during clashes. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths.

In other violence, a soldier with the U.S.-led coalition died after a battle Saturday about 40 miles northeast of Kabul, the coalition said on Sunday. It did not disclose the soldier's nationality.

In Helmand province, Afghanistan's center for opium-poppy production, a suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives near a NATO convoy, wounding three bystanders, said Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

And elsewhere in the country, Afghan police came under attack by land-mine blast, ambush and an assault on a checkpoint. Three policemen died, one was missing and three were wounded in the scattered attacks.

This has been the deadliest year for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with more than 100 U.S. troops killed, according to an AP count.

New Zealand Defense Minister Phil Goff said Monday his nephew was one of six U.S. soldiers killed in eastern Nuristan province in a recent attack.

Lt. Matthew Ferrara was born in the United States and had dual U.S.-New Zealand citizenship, Goff said. He had graduated near the top of his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and had been serving in Afghanistan for about five months.

New Zealand has about 120 of its own troops in Afghanistan, most of them in a provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan province. No soldiers in New Zealand's contingent have been killed, though five have been wounded.

------

Associated Press writers Noor Khan and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

    US - Led Troops Kill 18 in Afghanistan, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Afghans Bury Lawmakers Killed in Attack

November 8, 2007
Filed at 5:23 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Under tight security, thousands of people gathered in Kabul on Thursday for the funeral of lawmakers who died in the country's deadliest-ever suicide attack, a strike that killed some 73 people, many of them schoolchildren.

Clerics recited prayers in the empty field next to Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings in the city's western outskirts, as the flag-draped bodies of five slain lawmakers and their five bodyguards were lowered into the ground, one by one.

Six lawmakers, including Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the chief spokesman of Afghanistan's only opposition group, were among those killed Tuesday in northern Afghanistan. Witnesses said some victims may have been killed or wounded by guards who opened fire after the blast.

Kazimi was one of five lawmakers to be buried in the capital. The sixth is to be buried in southern Helmand province, officials said.

Hundreds of relatives of the slain lawmakers cried and rushed toward the grave as the body of Kazimi was lowered into the ground. Local and international dignitaries stood in silence in a tent, overlooking the ceremony.

Police and army troops were deployed throughout the city as authorities blocked off several of Kabul's streets to traffic, fearing bomb attacks.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday declared three days of mourning. He called the blast a ''terrorist attack,'' but neither Karzai nor any other officials publicly named any suspects, and no group has claimed responsibility.

The Taliban militant movement has denied it had carried out the bombing.

The Tuesday blast took a heavy toll on the young. It struck just as the lawmakers were about to visit a sugar factory in the province of Baghlan, where local schoolchildren, tribal elders and government officials had lined the streets to greet them.

Gen. Abdul Rahman Sayed Khail said that 106 people also were wounded in the blast, and that authorities were investigating whether some of the casualties were caused by the gunfire that erupted after the incident in Baghlan, some 95 miles north of the capital.

Two Afghans have been arrested in connection with the attack. The two had ordered women to leave the blast site before the bombing, raising officials' suspicions, Khail said.

A deputy education minister, Abdul Ghafor Ghazniwal, said students he had visited in Kabul hospitals told him a conservative cleric had urged female students to go home because they should not be out in public.

Dr. Khalil Narmgui, of the Baghlani-jadid hospital, said 62 people had been buried in Baghlan province on Wednesday.

Most of those killed were students, Narmgui said, though he did not have an exact figure. The Ministry of Education confirmed only that at least 18 schoolchildren and five teachers were killed.

Gunfire erupted from security personnel for a short time after the explosion, said Narmgui, who was at the blast site. ''I ran into a compound, and when the gunfire stopped, I came out and saw that there were dead bodies everywhere,'' he said.

Five people had been treated for bullet wounds in Baghlani-jadid hospital, Narmgui said. Baghlan's governor, Halam Isakzai, said it was ''possible'' some victims were killed by gunfire.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power. More than 5,700 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

    Afghans Bury Lawmakers Killed in Attack, NYT, 8.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

26 Reported Dead

and Scores Injured

in Afghan Attack

November 7, 2007
The New York Times
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 6 — A suicide attacker threw himself at a delegation of lawmakers visiting a town in northern Afghanistan, killing as many as 26 people, including a leading opposition figure, and wounding scores more, many of them school children forming a welcome parade, local and regional Afghan officials said.

Such an attack, in the relatively peaceful town of New Baghlan, near Pul-i-Khumri, in northern Afghanistan, is unusual and appears to represent another effort by the Taliban to extend its reach to the north of the country. There was an immediate denial of responsibility from a Taliban spokesman, but he has often been unreliable in the past, and no other other group perpetrates suicide attacks in the country.

The former minister of commerce, Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, was among the dead, along with four other members of Parliament. One female Parliament member, Shukria Isakhel, and an influential local commander, Amir Gul, were among the wounded, Afghan National Television reported in its evening news.

Eyewitnesses described a scene of carnage outside the sugar factory where the bomber detonated his explosives mid-afternoon, and said the bodies of dead policemen were still lying on the ground three hours later.

The death of Mr. Kazemi is a blow to Afghanistan’s nascent political scene. A prominent member of the Northern Alliance movement which had fought the Taliban, he was one of a younger generation of leaders eager to pull Afghanistan out of the poverty of war. He is one of the leaders and the spokesman of a recently formed opposition movement, the National Front, which was a coalition of representatives of the northern minorities and some prominent Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, including the grandson of the late king.

Mr. Kazemi and his delegation were walking toward the factory when the bomber attacked, said the deputy mayor of Pul-i-Khumri, Shaheen, who uses only one name. He confirmed that 10 people had been killed, including Mr. Kazemi. The governor, Muhammad Alam Eshaqzai, said more than 50 had been wounded. Reuters quoted the head of the town hospital, Dr Khalilullah, saying they had received the bodies of 90 people, and 50 wounded, but the governor would confirm only 10 dead.

But a police officer, Commander Kamin, said that he had counted 26 bodies at the scene and that there were 60 wounded at one hospital in New Baghlan, a newly developed part of the town where the factory lies. “Most of those killed are elders who gathered to welcome these parliamentarians in front of the factory, and schoolchildren, and especially children who were there to sing,” he said in a telephone interview. “Definitely it was a suicide attack, I saw the body of the attacker,” he added.

Farid Ahmad, a local reporter for Radio Good Morning Afghanistan, said he saw the bodies of three police soldiers lying on the ground at 6:30 p.m., some three hours after the explosion. “The area is chaotic,” he said. He estimated that 50 had been killed and 150 injured.

Afghan National Television gave the names of the other members of Parliament killed as Abdul Mateen, a former communist engineer from the southern province of Helmand; Qudrutallah Zaki from the northern province of Takhar; Said Rahman Hehmat from Kunar Province in the east. The fifth was Muhammed Arif Zarif from Kabul, Mr. Ahmad said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman who has often made erroneous claims in the past, denied the Taliban was responsible. “The Taliban has no involvement or no hands in the blast that killed civilians in Baghlan Province,” he said. “We, the movement of the Taliban, condemn the action and whoever carried it out. It took the lives of ordinary people mostly.”

Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

    26 Reported Dead and Scores Injured in Afghan Attack, NYT, 7.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/world/asia/07afghan.html

Taliban Retreat Is Seen

After an Advance Near Kandahar

November 2, 2007
The New York Times
By TAIMOOR SHAH

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan, Nov. 1 — Afghan officials said on Thursday that several hundred Taliban fighters had withdrawn from a strategic area near Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city, ending two days of clashes just outside it.

Local officials showed journalists what they said were abandoned Taliban positions several miles inside the area, the Arghandab district, but blocked them from venturing alone farther into it. No gunfire was heard in the area on Thursday, and villagers said Taliban fighters withdrew on Wednesday night, telling the villagers that they had come to the area to spread their views.

“They told us, ‘We are here for two days. We are not here to fight; we are here to preach,’” said Abdul Samad, 25, a farmer who remained in the area. “‘To make the people aware to not help the infidels and their cronies.’”

Afghan officials said 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the clashes and described the Taliban withdrawal as a major government victory. “They have received heavy casualties, faced humiliation, and they are gone,” said the governor of Kandahar Province, Assadullah Khalid, who led the tour.

The clashes with Afghan and NATO forces took place 15 miles north of the city. It was the closest the Taliban had come to Kandahar since 2001. Fearing a major battle, thousands of villagers fled.

The advance occurred two weeks after a local pro-government leader died of a heart attack. The leader, Mullah Naqibullah, had prevented the Taliban from entering the Arghandab area since 2001 and had survived repeated assassination attempts.

Afghan elders who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution, said they believed that the Taliban had moved into the area to test whether elements of Mr. Naqibullah’s tribe, the Alokozai, would support them. The vast majority of residents fled the area, they said, indicating that the Taliban enjoyed little popular support.

Abdullah Jan, a villager who remained in the area, said many of the Taliban appeared to be 18 to 20 years old. Some covered their faces with scarves, he said, a sign that “they were not Afghans.” He praised Afghan and NATO forces for not bombarding the area and killing civilians.

“They didn’t use air power; all operations were infantry,” Mr. Jan said.

Earlier this week, the Taliban seized two districts in a remote part of western Afghanistan, in the Farah Province, Afghan officials said on Thursday. The Taliban fighters forced the local police to abandon their posts and burned at least one police station.

Local government officials said 16 police officers and 11 pro-government militia members died in the attacks.

David Rohde contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

    Taliban Retreat Is Seen After an Advance Near Kandahar, NYT, 2.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html

2 Children Die

in US Raid in Afghanistan

November 1, 2007
Filed at 7:30 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by U.S. and Afghan troops sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children, and the military said Thursday it is investigating the deaths.

Civilian casualties have incited resentment and demonstrations against U.S. and NATO forces, though officials blame militants who use civilian homes as cover during clashes. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths.

The latest civilian casualties came as U.S. and Afghan troops were raiding a compound suspected of harboring militants belonging to a suicide bombing network. They were fired upon as they approached late Wednesday in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said. A woman and another child were wounded, he said.

''It is regrettable that the civilian lives were put in danger by the militants and our sincere condolences goes to the families of the deceased and wounded,'' said Belcher, noting the military has launched an investigation.

A policeman also was wounded during the raid, said Ghafoor Khan, a spokesman for provincial police chief. Three other men from the house were detained by U.S. troops, Khan said.

Also Thursday, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others, said Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.

There were no reports of militant casualties, but authorities recovered one of the vehicles used in the attack and an assault rifle, Andiwal said.

In western Farah province, six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing after clashes with Taliban militants on Wednesday, said governor Muhaidin Baluch.

A large number of Taliban have crossed into Farah from neighboring Helmand province and were still in control of Gulistan district, Baluch said.

Police have battled militants for three days in the area, and several guerrillas were killed, said Baryalai Khan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban militant movement from power in the country. More than 5,600 people have died this year due to insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

In Kandahar province, hundreds of Taliban militants fled from Arghandab district, 15 miles north of Kandahar city, following three days of fighting which left more than 50 militants dead and hundreds of people displaced, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.

On Wednesday, a provincial police chief said up to 250 militants were surrounded in the area. There was no sign of militants in the village streets Thursday.

Arghandab's villages were quiet as Khalid, accompanied by over 200 Afghan troops and Canadian soldiers, inspected houses and orchards vacated because of the fighting.

The Taliban had moved into Arghandab earlier this week after the recent death of tribal leader Mullah Naqib, who had kept Taliban fighters out of his region.

Tribal loyalties are an important weapon that the government and militants use in their fight. Securing the support of major tribes in the country's traditional south is a key strategy employed by both sides.

''There are no more Taliban, and the people now can come back to their homes and orchards and live a normal life,'' Khalid said.

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Arghandab contributed to this report.

    2 Children Die in US Raid in Afghanistan, NYT, 1.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Villagers Flee

As Troops Surround Taliban

November 1, 2007
Filed at 4:38 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan civilians piled belongings onto trucks Wednesday and fled two villages infiltrated by hundreds of Taliban militants outside Afghanistan's second-largest city. U.S., Canadian and Afghan troops had about 250 of the insurgents surrounded.

The troops killed 50 militants in three days of fighting 15 miles north of Kandahar city, the provincial police chief said. Three policemen and one Afghan soldier also died.

''The people are fleeing because the Taliban are taking over civilian homes,'' Sayed Agha Saqib said. ''There have been no airstrikes. We are trying our best to attack those areas where there are no civilians, only Taliban.''

Saqib said 250 militants were surrounded, and 16 suspected Taliban have been arrested.

In eastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, a nighttime raid on a compound sparked a gunbattle late Wednesday that left three people dead, including two children, officials said Thursday.

The U.S. and Afghan troops clashed with suspected militants belonging to a suicide bombing network at a compound in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said, and a woman and another child were wounded. The military has launched an investigation in the case, he said.

''It is regrettable that the civilian lives were put in danger by the militants and our sincere condolences goes to the families of the deceased and wounded,'' Belcher said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pleaded repeatedly with Western forces to do all they can to prevent civilian deaths, which have sparked resentment and demonstrations against U.S. forces.

Fighters moved into the Arghandab district of Kandahar province this week, about two weeks after the death of a tribal leader, Mullah Naqib, who had kept Taliban fighters out of his region. Karzai traveled to Kandahar for Naqib's funeral.

''He was a good influence for his tribe. He was supporting the government,'' Saqib said of Naqib. ''After he died the Taliban were thinking they would go to Arghandab and cause trouble for Kandahar city. But now they're surrounded and they're in big trouble.''

The gathering of fighters on the doorstep of Kandahar -- the Taliban's former power base -- is reminiscent of last year's battle in neighboring Panjwayi district, one of the biggest fights in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

NATO officials have said hundreds of Taliban tried to overrun Kandahar last year. But Saqib said he did not believe the militants occupying the villages of Chaharqulba and Sayedan would attempt a run on Afghanistan's main southern city.

''We are capturing and killing them and I don't think it will cause any problem for Kandahar,'' he said.

U.S. Humvees and Canadian jeeps crossed Arghandab's countryside on patrols Wednesday alongside hundreds of Afghans fleeing the area in the middle of harvest season, leaving their pomegranate crop at prime picking time.

Karimullah Khan piled his three children into the front seat of a pickup truck and put three female relatives in the back beside household goods and clothes. He was driving to Kandahar city to stay with relatives, he said.

''The Taliban came into our village and they told us to leave,'' Khan said. ''We just packed up our necessities and left. Our pomegranate orchard and home we left behind.''

Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest since the invasion that toppled the Taliban regime. More than 5,600 people have died in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Zarif Khan, the head of a fleeing family of 15, said he had no place to take his relatives, and may have to rent a room in Kandahar city. His family also left its pomegranate crop.

''Our livelihoods depend on this pomegranate crop, but these stupid Taliban came and started fighting,'' he said. ''We've got big trouble after losing our leader.''

The insecurity in the south has also fueled an explosion in Afghanistan's opium crop, source of most of the world's heroin. In Kabul, the U.N. anti-drug chief warned that a ''tsunami'' of opium will hit Afghanistan's neighbors if border security remains weak and officials fail to intercept the drug, whose profits fund terrorism.

Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest poses a ''major threat'' to neighboring countries because more than 90 percent of the profits flow to international criminal gangs and terrorists, said Antonio Maria Costa, chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghanistan saw a record harvest of 9,000 tons of opium in 2007, the U.N. said, a 34 percent increase from 2006. The export value of the opium is estimated at $4 billion.

------

Associated Press Writer Amir Shah in Kabul

contributed to this report.

Villagers Flee As Troops Surround Taliban, NYT, 1.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghanistan.html

Japan Halts Afghanistan Support Role

November 1, 2007
Filed at 5:03 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan to return home Thursday after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.

The move is not expected to have a major impact on the U.S. operations, though American officials have urged Tokyo to maintain its commitment. Despite the setback, Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed to pass legislation that would let Japan to take on at least a more limited role in fighting terrorism in the region.

Japan, America's top ally in Asia, has refueled coalition warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001, but opposition parties, bolstered by recent election wins, effectively scuttled the mission by raising concerns it was too broad and possibly violated the Constitution.

Legislation had been passed repeatedly to renew the mission, but the latest extension expired Thursday amid a stalemate in parliament. Japan refueled its final ship on Monday.

The two ships in the mission -- a destroyer and a refueler, with 340 troops aboard -- were to begin heading for Japan later Thursday. They were expected to take about three weeks to return, navy spokesman Kozo Okuda said.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and envoys from coalition countries met with Japanese lawmakers on Wednesday and stressed the importance of Tokyo's refueling role. However, U.S. Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters earlier in the week that the halt would not have ''any operational impact whatsoever.''

During its six-year mission, Japan provided about 126 million gallons of fuel to coalition warships in the Indian Ocean, including those from the U.S., Britain and Pakistan, according to the Defense Ministry.

Still, analysts said the political disarray in Tokyo could have repercussions with the U.S. alliance. ''I think ending the mission would give the impression to the U.S. that Japan is not fulfilling its responsibility,'' said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a political scientist at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo.

The failure to extend the mission was seen as a major defeat for Fukuda, who is to visit the U.S. later this month. The prime minister took office just over a month ago after his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, resigned.

''In order to fulfill our responsibility for international efforts toward eradicating terrorism, we do need to continue our refueling mission,'' Fukuda said. ''The government will do all it can to pass the special bill for the refueling mission so we can restart our mission as soon as possible.''

In an effort to placate the opposition, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is proposing narrowing the mission to refueling ships engaged in anti-terror patrols in the Indian Ocean. Until now, the mission also supported U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. The new legislation would ban the refueling of ships involved in supporting troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

The LDP -- which controls the more powerful lower chamber of Japan's parliament, or Diet -- could muscle through approval of a more limited mission, allowing Japanese ships to eventually return. The opposition won control of the upper house in elections in August, and made blocking the Afghan mission a major campaign platform.

Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa and his Democratic Party of Japan oppose the mission because it does not have the specific mandate of the United Nations. Critics also say it violates the country's U.S.-drafted constitution, which forbids Japan from engaging in warfare overseas.

    Japan Halts Afghanistan Support Role, NYT, 1.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Afghanistan.html