ANTI-US RIOTS GRIP AFGHAN CITY: MOBS RAMPAGE AFTER TRUCK CAUSES CRASH - PAMELA CONSTABLE AND JAVED HAMDARD (BOSTON GLOBE, MAY 30): The riots in Kabul exposed the bitter resentment that many Afghans harbor toward the US-led military forces that have been stationed here since the Taliban was driven from power.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeas...ip_afghan_city/

KABUL UNDER CURFEW AFTER ANTI-US, ANTI-KARZAI RIOTS; 14 DEAD, OVER 100 WOUNDED; 50 KILLED IN US AIRSTRIKE JUAN COLE (INFORMED COMMENT: THOUGHTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, HISTORY, AND RELIGION, MAY 30)
http://www.juancole.com/

TALIBAN CIRCULATES GRUESOME PROPAGANDA DVDS - GUARDIAN NEWS SERVICE (HINDU, INDIA, MAY 27)
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200605271450.htm

NATION-BUILDING ON THE CHEAP INTERVIEW (WASHINGTON POST, MAY 28): Former Afghan Interior minister Ali Jalali: ??If, God forbid, the Afghanistan government fails, it will not fail because of the Taliban. ... It will fail because people do not see significant changes in their lives.?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6052601712.html

Photo Gallery: Chaos in Kabul :

US troops reportedly shot dead at least four people when they opened fire on a crowd of Afghans demonstrating after an accident involving a coalition military vehicle.
http://tinyurl.com/ngyvf

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Afghan parliament demands arrests after US crash : I

t was still uncertain how many people were killed in the violence, in which gunshots rang out throughout the city as security forces tried to control the crowds.
http://tinyurl.com/luwu5

===
Attacks kills six Afghan staff with international groups :

Six Afghan staff working for international organisations were killed in attacks in Afghanistan while two US nationals were slightly wounded, police and the US embassy said.
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=21641

Attack kills Afghan police chief BBC News
A police chief in the southern Afghan province of Zabul has been killed in a suspected Taleban attack. Ghulam Rhasoul was killed when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade near the city of Qalat, a local official told the AP news agency. At least three other people travelling with him are said to have been hurt. Hundreds of people have died recently in clashes between Taleban-linked guerrillas and Afghan security forces, backed by foreign troops. More than 350 people have died in the recent violence - some of the worst since a US-led invasion ousted the Taleban government in 2001. Most of the dead are said to have been militants, killed in air strikes - but the number also includes dozens of police and four international troops. Aid workers employed by foreign organisations have also been targeted. Three women and a man working for the ActionAid charity in northern Afghanistan were shot dead on Tuesday.

'Reinforcement'
A local government spokesman quoted by the Associated Press news agency said the Zabul police official had been travelling in the area to warn of possible Taleban attacks when he was killed. However, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman quoted by the Reuters news agency said Mr Rhasoul was killed while coming to the aid of security forces targeted in an earlier attack. "They were part of a reinforcement sent to help a group of highway police who had come under Taleban attack on a road of Zabul," Yousuf Stanizai told Reuters. He said more than 10 policemen had been killed in the earlier assault.

KABUL TRAFFIC ACCIDENT SPARKS ANTI-US RIOTS (UPDATED 5/31) (ECCENTRIC STAR, MAY 31)
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/public_di..._traffic_a.html

SHAKEN BY RIOTS, AFGHANS GRIPPED BY UNCERTAINTY -- TOLERANCE OF U.S. TROOP PRESENCE TESTED - PAMELA CONSTABLE (WASHINGTON POST, MAY 31): The most seriously damaged building was the headquarters of CARE International, with half-dozen other foreign aid agencies also attacked and looted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6053001177.html

RIOT IN KABUL EDITORIAL (BOSTON GLOBE, MAY 31): The rioting provoked by a traffic accident Monday in Kabul signifies more than an Afghan version of road rage.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial.../riot_in_kabul/

AFGHANISTAN, UNRAVELING EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 1): Poorly thought-out American policies are at least partly to blame for Afghanistan's rising carnage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/opinion/...r=1&oref=slogin

US troops shot 3 Afghans in crowd: police chief :

U.S. troops fired into a crowd of hundreds of stone-throwing rioters, killing at least three Afghans, as their convoy left the scene of an accident that triggered Monday’s anti-American riots, Kabul’s chief of highway police said.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=145522

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U.S. Troops Killed 4 in Kabul Riot, Witness Says :

American soldiers involved in a car crash in the capital Monday fired into the crowd of protesters and killed four people, according to the chief of highway police in Kabul, Gen. Amanullah Gozar, who was at the scene.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13453.htm

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U.S. Says Troops Fired at Crowd In Afghan Capital:

U.S. military officials acknowledged Wednesday that American troops had fired at an angry mob that surrounded the scene of a traffic accident in the Afghan capital Monday morning. Officials previously had said the troops fired only into the air.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13463.htm

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/14716786.htm
Karzai condemns gunfire by U.S. troops
EDWARD HARRIS
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai on Thursday condemned the use of gunfire by U.S. troops to suppress Afghans angered by a traffic accident involving a military truck that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.

Speaking in his native Pashto language, Karzai used phrases that left open whether the U.S. troops had fired into a crowd that had gathered at the scene of Monday's accident, or only over their heads. But he was strongly critical.

"The coalition opened fire, and we strongly condemn that," Karzai said in a national radio address. "I have to say, all the time we tell them to be careful because we have one joint aim, which is the struggle against terrorism."

A U.S. military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Karzai's brief address, which is likely to cause some friction between his U.S.-backed government and Washington amid growing disenchantment among Afghans over America's powerful presence in the country.

Afghan authorities and the U.S. military are investigating the crash in which a U.S. truck that the military says suffered brake failure rammed into cars at an intersection, killing up to five people.

Investigators are also looking at whether U.S. troops fired on Afghans angered by the accident, which sparked citywide rioting, the worst since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. Hundreds rampaged through Kabul, shouting "Death to America!" In all, about 20 people died, mostly from gunshot wounds, Afghan authorities said.

AP Television News video from Monday shows the mounted machine gun of a U.S. Humvee firing over the heads of Afghans shortly after the accident. Many Afghans at the scene and some officials say the U.S. troops also fired into the crowd. The U.S. military has only confirmed that its soldiers used their weapons in self-defense.

On Thursday, a top judge said foreigners could be tried for crimes committed in Afghanistan, after lawmakers passed a nonbinding resolution calling for local prosecution of U.S. troops responsible for the crash.

U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann, however, said that American troops in Afghanistan couldn't be punished under local law.

"But should the investigation reveal some wrongdoing, I'm sure the military would follow up on its own," he told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast Thursday.

He said the U.S. military hadn't signed any pact with Afghanistan that would allow local prosecutors to try U.S. forces in an Afghan court.

"I don't want to turn lawyer without being absolutely sure of my grounds, but you really can't fight a war that way," he said.

The deputy chief justice of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Malik Kamawi, said his interpretation of the law is that foreigners who commit a crime in the country are subject to trial there.

The lawmakers' motion can't compel the judiciary to pursue any charges against U.S. troops, and no senior Afghan executive official has indicated they want to.

There also is outrage in Afghanistan over civilian deaths caused by coalition military action against Taliban guerrillas. The latest incident occurred last week, when a U.S. airstrike killed at least 16 civilians in a southern village. A rights group said as many as 34 civilians died.

Neumann said it didn't add up to rising hatred against Americans - or a push to get U.S troops to leave Afghanistan.

"I do not see any groundswell of anti-Americanism or any desire that we leave," he told NPR.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HF03Df04.html
The day that changed Afghanistan
By M K Bhadrakumar

The eruption of anti-government, anti-American rioting on Monday in Kabul has inevitably led to post-mortems about what happened. This in turn has led to the drawing up of checklists of failures on the part of the "international community" (read the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO) and the Afghan government in their inability to provide troops, security and funds for reconstruction and nation-building to the Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan.

A few additional details have also been thrown in as regards Afghanistan's drug economy, the nexus between drug traffickers, "warlords" and corrupt bureaucrats, the pompous lifestyle of the expatriate community singularly unmindful of the extreme poverty surrounding their sequestered life, and of course the venality that comes in the wake of any invading army.

The story is complete. It is utterly familiar. This was how Saigon used to be in the 1960s.

But these accounts meticulously count the trees - leaving one to wonder how dark and deep the woods might be. Therefore, when Tim Albone, correspondent for The Times of London in Kabul, wrote that he believed the riots could mark a turning point in the Afghan situation, it caught attention as a unique description. Albone wrote:
I've been in Kabul for nine months and there has never been anything like this before. There is a real feeling in the air that today Kabul changed. There has been a lot of fighting in the south but this has been mainly between the militias and the American forces ... I've spoken to friends who work in Iraq and they say that there was one day when it all changed. That could be the case here ... They [Afghans] have realized that they can take on the police and take on the Americans - they could easily do it again.
What distinguishes Monday's rioting is that Kabul is a largely Tajik city. It seems the agitators carried posters of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary "Lion of Panjshir" who led the Northern Alliance during the anti-Taliban resistance and was assassinated by al-Qaeda on the eve of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US and eliminated from the political equations with clinical precision, just as Afghanistan's need of his leadership would have become most pressing.

The agitators in Kabul burned banners of President Hamid Karzai. The violent incidents had heavy anti-Karzai and anti-American overtones. It is a very bad sign indeed that the Tajiks, who constitute about 30% of Afghanistan's population, are openly turning against Karzai, caricaturing him as an American puppet.

Yet the groundswell of Tajik alienation should not have come as a surprise. Anger was building up at the systematic neglect that the Afghan government meted out to Panjshir (Massoud's power base) over the recent period.

Any serious observer of the Afghan scene would have noted as far back as March that something fundamental was changing in Afghan political alignments. Former president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, the politically astute Tajik leader who founded Jamiat-i-Islami as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1960s, and played a key role in the Afghan jihad, refused point-blank to put blame on Pakistan for the growing instability in Afghanistan.

Instead, he went on to exonerate Pakistani officials - this at the end of March, when Karzai was mounting a virulent campaign that Pakistan was supportive of the Taliban's resurgence.

More important, Rabbani did this in the course of an interview with the Pakistani media. He was evidently carrying his message across to the Pakistani audience - conveying in subtle terms his antipathy toward the dispensation in Kabul and at the same time renewing his old links with Peshawar and Islamabad.

It takes time and effort to comprehend the quicksands of Afghan politics. Not many would even know that Rabbani, who headed the mujahideen government in Kabul (which was overthrown by the Taliban in 1996), also had covertly funded the Taliban militia in the late-1994-early-1995 period. In Rabbani's estimation at that time, the Taliban were capable of vanquishing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was the principal adversary of the Rabbani government.

The twin pillars of Jamiat-i-Islami ideology - Islam and Afghan nationalism - are also, curiously, the driving force behind today's Afghan resistance spearheaded by the Taliban. Herein lies the "terrible beauty" (to borrow the words of W B Yeats) of what happened in Kabul on Monday.

Rabbani recently spelled out his political platform in some detail during an interview with a publication from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Some extracts from the interview hold the key to the shape of things to come in the Afghan political landscape. Rabbani said:
Westerners, because of their corrupted culture, want to prevent things that are beneficial to the Muslims. Besides, they entice us toward things that are harmful to our [Muslim] society. For example, why shouldn't an Islamic country such as Iran use nuclear technology? It does not want to make any nuclear bomb, but wants to use nuclear technology. The goal of Westerners is that an Islamic country should not develop. Thus, all these cries of conspiracy and uproar are because Islamic countries should be denied the fruits of development, they should rather serve as markets for those countries so that they get raw materials, produce goods and sell them back to Islamic countries.

Now, Americans have shown their attitude to human rights in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It is surprising that they disallow girls from going to schools wearing a headscarf. But they will not get away with this in Afghanistan ... We consider this a conspiracy against our religion, our freedom and security. They talk about women's issues, while thousands of women die, and nobody cares for them. But that does not stop them from talking about "moral corruption". They haven't come here for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, but they have come here to corrupt us ...

The regime that rules our country stands against the wishes of the entire nation ... In Afghanistan, our policies should be defined by our nation, not by any foreign country. The current Afghan government's policies are not acceptable to the Afghan people. We must protect our freedom. If a foreign country gives aid, that should be without any strings attached. If the donors put conditions, we should not accept such aid.
It does not require much ingenuity to see that Rabbani's platform can easily converge with that of the Taliban-led Afghan resistance - or of Hekmatyar. In fact, the Canadian daily Toronto Star reported recently that clerics in Kabul mosques had been urging worshippers to join the resistance against Karzai's government and the occupation troops.

The report said, "Some imams here [Kabul] believe the time is ripe to call for holy war [jihad]." There have been reports of weapons from the northern regions in the possession of erstwhile Northern Alliance elements finding their way to the Taliban in the south. Political divides are getting blurred.

Much of the Tajik alienation has arisen out of the easing out of two important Tajik leaders, Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanooni, from Karzai's government. These leaders enjoy grassroots support among Tajiks. The summary fashion in which Karzai removed them from office humiliated the "Panjshiris" as a whole.

In fact, it was in the most bizarre way conceivable that Karzai chose to sack the charismatic former foreign minister, Abdullah (another close aide of Massoud), from his post in March. According to Abdullah, he was intimated about his removal by telephone while he was on an official visit to Washington. Abdullah said he had met with Karzai just before leaving Kabul for Washington but the latter assured him that his portfolio wouldn't be affected in any cabinet changes.

"It [removal from cabinet] did come out of the blue because no one had talked to me or consulted me about it beforehand," Abdullah claimed.

Yet another factor of disaffection among the Tajiks is the deliberate attempt by the Karzai government to limit the Tajik presence in the Afghan National Army. To add to Tajik resentment, Karzai has subjected Panjshir to "benign neglect" by not allocating any substantial development funds for the region's reconstruction. Karzai's political intention would have been to bring the cradle of Tajik nationalism to its knees, while at the same time pandering to Pashtun chauvinism with a view to consolidating a power base in the Pashtun regions in the south and southwest.

But the tactic has not worked, as the Taliban's resurgence shows. Meanwhile, Karzai's ties with the Tajiks (who were his erstwhile allies and supporters in the 2002-05 period) soured. Karzai may be unwittingly preparing the ground for a consolidation of pan-Afghan nationalism.

The indications are that Karzai has also alienated other Northern Alliance groups. It is intriguing as to where exactly Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek leader from the northern Amu Darya region, currently stands in political equations.

Karzai appointed Dostum as chief of staff in March in a smart move aimed at removing him from his power base in the north and bringing him to live and work in Kabul. It soon began to dawn on Dostum that his job carried more rank than responsibility. Feeling belittled, he stormed out of Kabul and returned to his native Shibirghan. The relatively placid northern provinces have since become volatile.

The paradox is that Karzai is winning all the petty political skirmishes. He choreographed the entire spectacle in April leading to the resounding endorsement of his cabinet appointees by parliament. He deftly manipulated the internal divisions in the newly elected parliament and capitalized on its inexperience. The Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group, which was supportive of Karzai, criticized him for preventing the Afghan parliament from becoming a viable working body.

No matter the post-mortem reports regarding the eruption of violence in Kabul on Monday, the shift in political templates is the central issue. It seems a critical mass is developing around which an Afghan resistance transcending ethnic divides may take shape. Against this background, NATO is not helping matters by posing as a lone ranger.

Almost all Afghan ethnic groups enjoy kinship with neighboring countries. Therefore, in any enduring Afghan settlement, Afghanistan's neighbors must be made stakeholders. NATO, on the other hand, is wasting precious time, lost in the thought of making 2006 a "pivotal year" in its history.

True, NATO has come into physical possession of a country far away from Europe, where it is at liberty to act without the prying eyes of international law. NATO is understandably keen to prove its grit in safeguarding Western interests in tough conditions - and indeed to claim a raison d'etre for itself.

But the riots in Kabul are a reminder that Afghanistan is a country that is deceptively easy to invade but almost impossible to occupy. The unseemly haste with which all fair-skinned Westerners had to run for cover on Monday showed that discretion would be the better part of valor.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

Karzai condemns gunfire by U.S. troops:

President Hamid Karzai on Thursday condemned the use of gunfire by U.S. troops to suppress Afghans angered by a traffic accident involving a military truck that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/14716786.htm

===
Worse to come for US, UK in Iraq, Afghanistan, says expert:

The insurgent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan are exerting severe pressure on US and UK forces - and there is more to come, according to a leading British security expert.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...21445154731.htm

===
Taliban kill 12; Abduct 40 in Afghanistan:

Taliban fighters have killed at least a dozen Afghan police and abducted up to 40 others in two separate attacks in the south of the country.
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/06/01/top16.htm

===
Afghanistan 'suicide blast' kills 3':

THREE civilian men riding a motorbike were killed Friday when a suspected suicide car bomb exploded outside Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan, police said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19348111-23109,00.html

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...02-090952-1510r

Taliban's fiercest campaign predicted
By Jason Motlagh
The Washington Times
Published June 2, 2006


WASHINGTON -- The Taliban will wage its fiercest campaign of attacks in the coming months in an attempt to hamper the transfer of security duties in Afghanistan from the U.S. military to NATO, Kabul's ambassador in Washington says.

"During the upcoming months, the Taliban will resort to the utmost violence to prevent reconstruction and discourage NATO countries from further deployment," Said Jawad told The Washington Times.


More than 300 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the past two weeks as Taliban insurgents, with the help of al Qaeda allies, stepped up the frequency and sophistication of attacks for a summer fighting season.

Mr. Jawad estimates that 20 to 25 heavily armed militias are operating in five southern provinces with 3,000 to 5,000 men bent on testing the resolve of Western forces.

A continued "spike in terrorist activity" is likely, "especially where NATO troops are scheduled to be deployed," he said.

The swell of Taliban activity coincides with a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from militant strongholds in the south, where NATO forces have begun assuming security operations.

The multinational force, led by Britain and Canada, will boost troop strength to about 21,000 from 9,000 by July, while the United States plans to draw down its 23,000-strong presence by 6,500.

Afghans living in distant provinces where infrastructure and economic opportunities have been slow to improve have "some concerns at the local level about the commitment and capability of NATO," Mr. Jawad said. "They will have to see that NATO is as committed as the United States."

The Bush administration and military commanders are confident the situation will improve.

Half of the 141 American servicemen killed in action in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion died last year.

"We are winning, but the war is not yet won," Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said at a Pentagon press briefing last month.

He said the Taliban resurgence in the southern provinces is primarily a result of the fledgling Afghan government's inability to combat them, not a testament to the movement's strength.

The Taliban also has been emboldened by more advanced weaponry and greater mobility within the country and across the porous border to terrorist safe havens in Pakistan, Mr. Jawad said. "This is something even the government of Pakistan does not dispute."

Pakistan-based foreign militants with links to al Qaeda and experience in Iraq have been offering large bounties to Afghans to kill U.S. soldiers and have encouraged the wider use of suicide bombings and kidnappings, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported recently.

Mr. Jawad said the Taliban relies on "intimidation tactics" such as hiding in villages, burning down schools and medical clinics, and killing moderate tribal leaders and clergy to create a climate of fear.

He said it was critical that the international community help reinforce the capacity of the cash-strapped Afghan government to deliver services "so the presence of the state will be felt in areas experiencing attacks."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/chaos-kabul.html

Chaos in Kabul
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Before eyes turned to the investigation of the US murders of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, or the US murders of civilians in Ishaqi, Iraq, and new outrage broke out over the military murder of two women, one of them pregnant, in Mosul, Iraq, there was news pouring out from another outpost of the US empire.

Only last week, Kabul, Afghanistan, was on fire with mass outrage. Today curfews and martial law reign, barely keeping a temporary lid on a situation that cannot last. The 23,000 foreign troops there are outnumbered and under fire.

The riots in Kabul are an ominous sign for the US empire. Watch the videos on television. These people are ever more bold. They aren't guerillas operating in private. They are not military people. They are regular citizens rising up against an empire and using every means at their disposal to drive the invader out.

They throw rocks, sticks, and are glad to kill anyone who is tainted with the slightest hint of collaboration, even humanitarian workers and merchants. They walk in daylight, almost hoping for the status of martyrdom. They defy police, military, guns, and tanks. They have a focused demand: the US must leave their country immediately.

The riots came in response to a ghastly event that the US media usually calls a "traffic accident." A tank rolled down a hill in Kabul and crashed into a big line of cars. You can imagine if an SUV owned by a suburbanite did that in Manhattan: the media would be talking about the deaths. But in this case, we were given little by the media but firm assurance that it was all easily explained.

More than a hundred people were injured. Something like a dozen were killed (people are still arguing over numbers). The US military dismissed it as a mechanical failure. We're so sorry that you are upset! But aid workers who were there said that it was caused by a military convoy that was driving fast and recklessly, hitting cars on the side of the road even before the pileup.

During the rioting, twenty more people were shot. Video footage shows US troops firing machine guns over the heads of hundreds of rioters. US soldiers claimed that they were firing in self-defense. But the issue came to a head when three of the dead were clearly civilians just minding their own business. That's when the chief of police in Kabul, a guy the US is supposed to control completely, came forward to say that the US fired into the crowd just as a means of control.

This is only the latest carnage. Since May 17, 2006, 372 Afghanis have been killed by what is called the US-led coalition, which, again, means by the US.

Meanwhile, guerilla fighters killed two dozen Afghan police in the employ of the US-controlled state. Guerillas are firing rockets at cars and killing politicians. No place is this vast, strange country safe for anyone suspected of collaboration with the occupiers. Suicide bombers are on the increase.

This is not a stable situation. There is no way that the US can control this country. For years, people said that the US does not and will not face a situation like the Soviet Union did in this country in the 1980s. But increasingly, it is hard to tell the difference, except that the US might show even more stupidity by hanging around even longer.

You know what government hates the most? Resistance. This is true in all times and in all places. They try to crush it no matter what, as if the life of the state depended on it, which it does. Still, resistance can sometimes be too much for a state, which, after all, constitutes a minority of the population with only one advantage: it has the biggest guns.

Other than that, there is no good reason to obey any state if it is making society worse rather than better. In fact, any state that calls forth mass resistance should be overthrown as a matter of justice, since the alternative is to turn all of society into a giant prison camp.

We are supposed to be against making countries into prisons. But that is precisely the direction things are going in Afghanistan.

This is a remarkable state of affairs given the recent history. The US overthrew the Taliban regime because it had shown sympathy to Osama Bin Laden, even though there was no evidence that the Taliban was involved in 9-11 and no final evidence that Osama was actually the criminal mastermind behind 9-11 (we only know that he wanted the Islamic world to give him credit for the hijacking).

So the US went in, the Taliban scattered, and the US declared victory. In the meantime, the country has completely devolved into tribal-controlled regions, drug production has soared (hey, folks gotta make a living!), the Taliban is on the march, and the US is loathed and hated in every corner of the country.

Talk about US intentions going awry! And do we dare bring up the fact that the US supported the Taliban's formation in the 1980s to oppose the Soviet occupation? That's right, back then we called them freedom fighters.

When will the US leave? Not soon. In fact, I would predict that the US will prove even less willing to admit defeat than the Soviets or the British, who met the same fate in this wild, far-flung, bloodied land.

Once again, war has proven to be good for absolutely nothing.

June 2, 2006

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail] is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com and author of Speaking of Liberty.

Copyright © 2006 LewRockwell.com

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060...01143-5334r.htm

Ambassador predicts Taliban ferocity
By Jason Motlagh
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 2, 2006


The Taliban will wage its fiercest campaign of attacks in the coming months in an attempt to hamper the transfer of security duties in Afghanistan from the U.S. military to NATO, Kabul's ambassador in Washington says.
"During the upcoming months, the Taliban will resort to the utmost violence to prevent reconstruction and discourage NATO countries from further deployment," Said Jawad told The Washington Times.
More than 300 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the past two weeks as Taliban insurgents, with the help of al Qaeda allies, stepped up the frequency and sophistication of attacks for a summer fighting season.
Mr. Jawad estimates that 20 to 25 heavily armed militias are operating in five southern provinces with 3,000 to 5,000 men bent on testing the resolve of Western forces.
A continued "spike in terrorist activity" is likely, "especially where NATO troops are scheduled to be deployed," he said.
The swell of Taliban activity coincides with a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from militant strongholds in the south, where NATO forces have begun assuming security operations.
The multinational force, led by Britain and Canada, will boost troop strength to about 21,000 from 9,000 by July, while the United States plans to draw down its 23,000-strong presence by 6,500.
Afghans living in distant provinces where infrastructure and economic opportunities have been slow to improve have "some concerns at the local level about the commitment and capability of NATO," Mr. Jawad said. "They will have to see that NATO is as committed as the United States."
The Bush administration and military commanders are confident the situation will improve.
Half of the 141 American servicemen killed in action in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion died last year.
"We are winning, but the war is not yet won," Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said at a Pentagon press briefing last month.
He said the Taliban resurgence in the southern provinces is primarily a result of the fledgling Afghan government's inability to combat them, not a testament to the movement's strength.
The Taliban also has been emboldened by more advanced weaponry and greater mobility within the country and across the porous border to terrorist safe havens in Pakistan, Mr. Jawad said. "This is something even the government of Pakistan does not dispute."
Pakistan-based foreign militants with links to al Qaeda and experience in Iraq have been offering large bounties to Afghans to kill U.S. soldiers and have encouraged the wider use of suicide bombings and kidnappings, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported recently.
Mr. Jawad said the Taliban relies on "intimidation tactics" such as hiding in villages, burning down schools and medical clinics, and killing moderate tribal leaders and clergy to create a climate of fear.
He said it was critical that the international community help reinforce the capacity of the cash-strapped Afghan government to deliver services "so the presence of the state will be felt in areas experiencing attacks."

Afghan spring offensive stronger than expected Thu Jun 1, 11:46 PM ET

The offensives against NATO forces in Afghanistan are particularly strong this spring, the commander of the Dutch armed forces said, shortly after Dutch soldiers were ambushed in the south of the country.

"We were expecting a resurgence of offensives in spring, but not like this. However the attacks are not of such a nature that it will keep us from carrying out our mission," General Dick Berlijn said at a press briefing in The Hague.

Earlier Thursday Dutch soldiers escaped unharmed from an ambush in the southern Uruzgan province where the troops are stationed as part of the NATO-led ISAF force in Afghanistan.

"During the ambush Apache helicopters intervened. There were no casualties on the Dutch side and the attackers withdrew," General Berlijn said.

General Berlijn warned journalists not to attribute every attack to the Taliban.

"It could also be other groups who reject (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai or farmers upset that the convoys destroyed their field or even people who want to take our equipment," he said.

It was not the first time that the Dutch soldiers have been fired upon.

The Netherlands is due to send a total of 1,400 soldiers to Uruzgan as part of the ISAF force. Some 600 troops are already on the ground in Afghanistan to prepare for arrival of the Dutch mission in August.




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U.S. says it'll cooperate in Afghan probe
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

An Afghan investigation into a road crash involving a U.S. military vehicle that sparked Kabul's worst riots in years will start Saturday, and the U.S. military vowed to cooperate, officials said.

The U.S. military also is probing Monday's crash and whether its troops fired into a crowd of angry, stone-throwing Afghans afterward.

The anti-foreigner unrest left about 20 people dead, mostly from gunshot wounds, Afghan authorities have said. It was the worst such violence in the capital since the 2001 fall of the Taliban regime.

The head of Afghanistan's investigation, police Maj. Gen. Abdul Wakil, told The Associated Press on Friday that its work would officially begin Saturday.

U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann has said American troops in Afghanistan could not be punished under local law. But the military said it would work with the Afghan inquiry.

"The coalition is committed to cooperating with the government of Afghanistan and specifically the Ministry of the Interior in determining the circumstances surrounding the accident," said Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

She said the military had already begun coordinating with Wakil.

The U.S. military says its truck that rammed into cars at an intersection suffered brake failure, and that U.S. troops fired their weapons in self-defense after a crowd that gathered at the scene turned violent.

Military officials have not made clear whether U.S. troops fired into the crowd, as some Afghan officials claim.

President Hamid Karzai has said the truck accident killed up to five people. On Thursday he condemned the use of gunfire by U.S. troops, though he did not say whether he thought troops had fired into the crowd.

AP Television News video from Monday shows the mounted machine gun of a U.S. Humvee firing over the heads of Afghans shortly after the accident.

On Thursday, the deputy chief justice of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Abdul Malik Kamawi, said his interpretation of Afghan law was that foreigners could be tried for crimes committed in Afghanistan.

Afghan lawmakers on Tuesday passed a nonbinding resolution calling for local prosecution of U.S. troops responsible for the crash.

The lawmakers' motion cannot compel the judiciary to pursue charges against U.S. troops, and no senior Afghan official has indicated they want to.




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AFGHANISTAN: Business community angry in aftermath of riot
02 Jun 2006 07:33:46 GMT
Source: IRIN
Background
Afghan reconstruction
More KABUL, 1 June (IRIN) - "There is nothing but burnt chairs and tables… first they looted everything they could carry and then set fire to the rest of the restaurant," said owner Mohammad Arif standing in front of a smoke-blackened, windowless building burnt down by demonstrators during Monday's deadly riot in the Afghan capital Kabul.

"This is the result of our investment here," Arif, who suffered thousands of US dollars damage during the disturbances, told IRIN.

The fledgling Kabul business community has raised concerns regarding security following the riot - the worst since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban by US-led coalition forces in late 2001.

During the riot, apparently sparked by a road accident involving US troops, demonstrators looted and set fire to several private restaurants, guesthouses and shops. Eight Afghans were killed and over 100 were injured, according to Afghanistan's interior ministry.

The war-ravaged country, which is one of the poorest nations in the world, is recovering from nearly three decades of brutal civil war and internal strife, and insecurity remains a huge problem.

"How is it possible to invest here when there is no safety and security for investors?" Ehsanullah Bayat, owner of a private TV channel Ariana, said, adding that the TV channel had suffered nearly US $200,000's worth of damage during the riot.

"They set fire to our building and four vehicles and then looted our machinery," Bayat explained. "There were no police and security forces for nearly three hours. The government is asking foreigners to invest here, but unfortunately it cannot even ensure the safety of its own traders," Bayat remarked.

According to Abdul Jamil Kohistani, head of the criminal department of Kabul police, more than 100 suspects have been detained by the security forces in connection with the widespread looting and torching of private and government property.

"The riots demonstrated that our government is too weak and unable to handle such problems. Therefore, more should be done to create a safe environment for the people and traders of our country," Afzal Habib, general manager of a private Kabul bank, said.

Analysts believe that without taking strict measures to ensure security in the country, economic investment will be difficult. They argue that security forces are too small and have called on the government to accelerate the process of building a competent army and police force.

"Investment needs a secure environment in the country, [because] without this, no one will invest in the private sector and eventually there won't be development and jobs for people," Afghan analyst Habibullah Rafi explained.

"In order to bring security and stability to the country, the government should implement crucial reforms, particularly in national security institutions such as the national intelligence department and the interior ministry," Rafi maintained.

The Afghan National Army (ANA) and police were still on high alert Thursday with armoured vehicles on several street corners and at the city's main intersections.

According to Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), up to 20 premises belonging to United Nations (UN) affiliated offices and NGOs, as well as some 10 private venues such as guesthouses, restaurants and an unknown number of small shops were attacked.

"I did not expect that such a serious incident would happen in the capital in such a short time, but unfortunately it occurred and it is a matter of serious concern for people," Christian Willach, ANSO operations coordinator, told IRIN in Kabul.

Tensions have been high in Kabul since the riot, during which UN and foreign diplomatic staff were sent to bunkers. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) evacuated a European Union (EU) compound, which is located near the office of the British humanitarian organisation, CARE international, which was burnt down by rioters.

US-led coalition forces said that following an investigation into the road accident that sparked the violence in the capital, they would pay compensation to the victims.

"In accordance with appropriate polices, compensation will be paid to those who are entitled," coalition spokesman Col Thomas Collins said in Kabul on Wednesday.

But analysts say that despite billions of dollars from donors pouring to the country, many ordinary Afghans are still mired in poverty and unemployment, which, critics believe, has contributed to widespread frustration against the US-backed government and foreign forces in the country.


IRIN news




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Nato promises new Afghan tactics BBC News
The Nato commander in Afghanistan has pledged to use new tactics to win over the support of disenchanted Afghans. Lt Gen David Richards said Nato soldiers would be a "people-friendly force" when they take over security in the south from US forces in July. He said troops would "accept more risk" when driving, to prevent a repetition of rioting in Kabul last week after a US road accident killed several people. Meanwhile, UK troops say they have killed five suspected Taleban fighters. A British military spokesman said there had been an "intense battle" after UK troops had come under fire in a village in north-western Helmand province. There were no UK casualties, the British army said and two suspected Taleban fighters had been taken into custody. Earlier the Taleban said they carried out a suicide attack in Kandahar city. The attack left four civilians dead. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says that for the last four years many people in southern and eastern Afghanistan have been complaining of aggressive tactics used by American troops. These have included house-to-house searches in which doors are broken down and male soldiers searching Afghan women. There has also been widespread anger over a number of bombing operations in which civilians have been killed.

'People focused'
"We will be a very people focused and a very people-friendly force," Lt Gen Richards said at a news conference in Kabul. "I will use military power not necessarily just to defeat the Taleban but just as importantly to secure the future of their villages and their localities." The British commander also referred to last Monday's fatal rioting in Kabul that began after a US military vehicle crashed into a number of cars, killing several people. He said there were too many people among the US-led forces, the Nato forces and others in the international community who "drive too quickly and in an inconsiderate way". He said: "We are all determined to improve that so the people here don't look on us as people who don't care about the Afghans."

Convoy rammed
Earlier on Sunday a suicide bomber killed four civilians and injured 13 in the southern city of Kandahar. The attacker rammed into a convoy of Canadian troops, a BBC journalist with the troops says. Earlier reports had said the target of the attack was the governor of Kandahar province, Assadullah Khalid, who was travelling close by. Mr Khalid and the Canadian troops were unhurt. The Taleban say they were behind the attack. Reports from the scene say the mangled body of the suicide bomber was visible in the charred wreckage of the black vehicle. The BBC's Paul Wood, who was on one of the vehicles in the convoy of Canadian troops, says the vehicle used by the attacker was driven at speed at the Canadian convoy from a side road in the centre of the city. It exploded between the last two vehicles of the convoy. The blast was deflected by the armour of Canadian vehicles into the nearby crowds. The explosion shattered the windows of several shops, with one said to have been destroyed. The number of suicide attacks recorded in Afghanistan has shot up since the US-led invasion which toppled the Taleban in late 2001. There were five recorded suicide attacks in 2004, 17 in 2005, and 2006 has already seen 21 such attacks. About 900 people have been killed in the Afghan insurgency since the beginning of this year, with half of that total dying in May. In another incident, the director of health in the province of Paktika, Edi Mohammad, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen as he was leaving his home on Saturday. Our correspondent says the Taleban and al-Qaeda-led militants are targeting prominent public figures, such as doctors and religious leaders, to try to weaken support for the government in rural areas.

Afghanistan's Second Intifada :

By Mike Whitney

The Taliban have reclaimed southern Afghanistan, reconstruction has been miniscule, and there’s been no attempt to establish security beyond the capital of Kabul. Afghanistan continues to languish in grinding poverty with less clean water and electricity than before the war. It is a failed narco-state with 99% of the countryside under the iron-grip of the regional warlords and drug-kingpins.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13519.htm

Afghan police kill 7 comrades, defect to Taliban:

Five Afghan police shot dead seven fellow officers as they slept, before defecting to join Taliban guerrillas fighting in southern Afghanistan, a provincial official said on Monday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060605/wl_nm/afghan_police_dc

===
Five Afghan policemen killed, four abducted:

Suspected Taliban rebels stormed a highway police checkpost in southern Afghanistan on Monday and killed five policemen, abducted four others and stole weapons, police said.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/06/top12.htm

===
Afghan mosque blast 'kills four' :

At least four people have died in a bomb attack in a mosque in the Afghan province of Ghazni, officials say.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/06/top12.htm

===
Roadside bomb kills two US soldiers-Afghan officials:

A roadside bomb killed two U.S. coalition soldiers and wounded two others in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to Afghan officials in the Nangahar province.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/06/top12.htm

===
Southern Afghanistan in “state of war":

Security think-tank: state of war is gripping southern Afghanistan as Taleban fighters win public support and it will spread unless newly deployed British troops regain control, a security think-tank warned on Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/nsdcz

===
Afghanistan Can't Prosecute Driver In Riot Incident :

"There is a status of forces agreement and U.S. retains criminal jurisdiction for acts committed by military personnel in Afghanistan," he said.
http://tinyurl.com/nt2v9

Taleban vow to defeat UK troops BBC News
A local Taleban commander in Afghanistan has promised to inflict a massive defeat on British forces there. Mawlawi Amira Hamza al-Ghazi said it was his fighters' Islamic duty to defeat the enemy. "We have to give them a teeth-breaking defeat again," he told the BBC in an exclusive interview. The Taleban commander's group is based in the southern province of Helmand, where more than 3,000 British soldiers are currently deploying.

Local support
Helmand is one of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces, and a centre of Taleban activity. It produces 20% of the world's opium. British soldiers replaced US forces in the area as part of an expansion of peacekeeping operations by Nato at the start of May. The British commander in Helmand, Col Charlie Knaggs, said he was convinced the Taleban had been put under severe pressure by the international forces there. A soldier with the parachute regiment's elite Pathfinder unit told the BBC's defence correspondent Paul Wood that they had killed some 30 Taleban insurgents since arriving in Helmand three months ago. Our correspondent says people in the towns do not seem to support the insurgents. But one British soldier told our correspondent that he felt there was more support in the region's countryside.

'Plans for the enemy'
Mawlawi al-Ghazi was with 50-70 fighters - armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades - when he spoke to the BBC's Pashto service in Afghanistan.


The Taleban fighters said they were just leaving on an operation against the enemy - the enemy being British soldiers and Afghan security forces. "It is our Islamic duty... we have plans for the enemies. All Muslims, local and international, are supporting us," said their commander. "We have advanced equipment to use against them. Throughout our history we have defeated them many times, but they do not understand." Asked why they were fighting, Mawlawi al-Ghazi said US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to destroy Islam. "It is the order of our commander, [Taleban leader] Mullah Omar, that we must fight against these people... He is alive and we are all under his command."

Suicide attacks
British forces are in southern Afghanistan to help the newly-formed Afghan National Army (ANA) fight the increasingly violent militant groups based around the Pakistan border and curb the drugs trade that funds them. Violence has shot up in recent months. About 900 people have been killed in the insurgency since the beginning of this year - half have died in May alone. The number of suicide attacks recorded in Afghanistan has also risen sharply since the US-led invasion which toppled the Taleban in late 2001. Foreign troops, pro-government clerics and officials and mosques have all been targeted.

Roadside bomb hits Afghan troops BBC News
Three soldiers of the Afghan National Army have been killed and three injured by a roadside bomb in the province of Ghazni, Afghan military officials say. They say that the bomb went off 10 kms (5.5 miles) south-east of the town of Ghazni on Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses say that the bomb completely destroyed the vehicle that the soldiers were travelling in. The army said the attack was the work of "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase used to the denote the Taleban. Correspondents say that the Taleban and their allies have increasingly used roadside bombs against the US-led coalition in Afghanistan. A roadside bomb is also reported to have wounded four US-led coalition soldiers when it blew up near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the force said on Thursday. He said that the attack occurred on Wednesday in Zabul province, about 300 kms (185 miles) south of the capital Kabul. The US military said earlier this week that two US soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. In other violence on Tuesday, four died in a bomb attack in a mosque in Ghazni province, officials said. Three Afghan soldiers died in a separate bombing.

Taleban battle kills UK soldier BBC News
One British soldier has been killed and one seriously injured after a battle with the Taleban in southern Afghanistan, military sources say. The death is believed to be the first fatality since British troops deployed to the volatile area of Helmand province in recent months. It came after a US soldier was killed in a bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan. About 3,300 British troops are based in Helmand as part of the Nato-led peacekeeping force. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "It is with great regret that I can confirm that UK forces have suffered a fatality as a result of an incident in the Helmand province of Afghanistan." The death happened when gun fire was exchanged in Sangeen, a small town taken from Taleban control earlier this year by Afghan security forces backed by US air power. The injured British soldier had been taken by helicopter to the main military base in Helmand, Camp Bastion. Afghan sources said several Taleban soldiers were killed in the fighting. British Apache helicopter gunships were called in to support the troops. The Army's deployment to Helmand, led by 16 Air Assault Brigade, began earlier this year and was expected to be completed by June. In the east of the country, a coalition spokesman said a bomb hit a US armoured vehicle in a village in Ghazni province after a shoot-out with suspected Taleban fighters. Elsewhere in Ghazni, gunmen shot dead three people on Saturday night, officials said. In Kandahar province four road workers were also killed.

15 "militants" killed, 2 captured by Afghan forces :

Fifteen suspected militants were killed and two others wounded as they engaged with Afghan national troops in the volatile southern Uruzgan province, a press release of the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200606/1...611_272953.html


US soldier killed in Afghan blast :

Elsewhere in the province, gunmen shot dead three people on Saturday night, officials said. In Kandahar province four road workers were also killed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5068882.stm


Bomb Kills Afghanistan Politician, 2 Others -Kabul Police : -

A roadside bomb killed three people, including an Afghan politician, just south of Kabul, the Kabul police chief said Saturday.
http://tinyurl.com/gynyl


Afghan violence kills more than 500:

The worst three weeks of violence since the fall of the Taliban have left more than 500 people dead, the U.S.-led coalition said Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060611/ap_on_...nistan_violence

Troops 'kill 37 Afghan Taleban' BBC News
Afghan and US-led forces have killed up to 37 suspected Taleban fighters in central and southern areas since Sunday, a top Afghan general has said. Gen Rahmatullah Raufi, the Afghan army commander in the south, said a relative of fugitive Taleban leader Mullah Omar may also have been killed. There has been no confirmation of the clashes by coalition forces. An upsurge in violence in southern and central Afghanistan in the past few months has left hundreds dead. Gen Raufi said the militants had been killed in three separate battles. The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says that number of clashes in just 24 hours gives an idea of the scale of the fighting in the country. US-led coalition troops, including Canadian and British soldiers, have been involved in a number of clashes against suspected Taleban fighters in southern and central Afghanistan in the past few months. Officials estimate that hundreds of rebels have been killed in some of the fiercest fighting since the fall of the Taleban in late 2001.

UK soldier killed
At least 15 Taleban fighters were killed in overnight fighting in Uruzgan province, Gen Raufi told a news conference in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday. "Most probably Amanullah, the brother-in-law of Mullah Omar... was also killed," he said, Reuters news agency reports. Separately, 12 Taleban fighters died during a raid by Afghan and coalition troops on a village in Kandahar province early on Monday, the general said. And in neighbouring Helmand province, between six and 10 Taleban fighters were reported killed in fighting on Sunday evening. A British soldier was also killed in the gunfight, the first such casualty since the UK sent troops to southern Afghanistan. Defence Ministry spokesman Gen Azimi confirmed the casualty figures in the bloodiest of the three clashes. He told the BBC that 15 Taleban fighters had died in Uruzgan's Dihrawud district, and seven others had been arrested. But he said Mullah Omar's brother-in-law had been among those detained, not killed. A Taleban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, confirmed the clashes but said only one of the movement's fighters had been killed, in Helmand overnight.

Nearly 40 "Taliban" believed killed in Afghanistan:

Major strikes by Afghan and coalition troops killed up to 37 Taliban fighters, including a man believed to be related to the movement's leader, the military said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=128148


UK soldier killed in Afghanistan :

Two others were seriously injured in the clash in the south-west of the country.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/63864.html


UN report accuses Afghan MPs of torture and massacres :

A controversial UN report that has been shelved for 18 months names and shames leading Afghan politicians and officials accused of orchestrating massacres, torture, mass rape and other war crimes.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13582.htm


Desperate Afghanistan mulls forming militias :

Unable to offer protection to vulnerable villagers against intimidation by Taleban fighters, the Afghan government says it is considering forming tribal militias to guard the places security forces can’t reach.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=146659

Foreign troops die in Afghanistan BBC News
Two US-led coalition soldiers have been killed in separate clashes with suspected Taleban militants in Afghanistan, the US military says. A number of suspected insurgents were also killed or hurt in air strikes which followed, a spokesman said. Attacks blamed on the Taleban and their allies have risen sharply this year, with hundreds of people killed. More than 30 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year, most of them American. On Sunday, a UK soldier and another member of the US-led coalition were killed in separate incidents in the south.

UK back-up
One coalition soldier was killed late on Tuesday in southern Helmand province, while a second died on Wednesday in the eastern province of Kunar, the US military said. The statement did not divulge their nationalities, but US military officials in southern Afghanistan told the Associated Press news agency the soldier killed in Helmand was American. British troops were first on the scene to provide back-up in Helmand's Sangin district, Lt Col Chris Toner told AP. Two other US soldiers were wounded. He said 12 "suspected Taleban" had been killed or wounded in aerial bombing after the ambush. Two other Taleban fighters were killed in a clash in the province of Zabul, the US military said. It rejected what it said were "false" Taleban claims that the group's fighters had killed nine US soldiers in the province. Local officials said one Taleban fighter was also killed in Ghazni province. The past month has been one of Afghanistan's bloodiest since 2001. Last week, coalition forces said that more than 40 suspected Taleban militants have been killed in clashes in Zabul and Uruzgan provinces. On Monday, the Afghan army said up to 37 suspected Taleban fighters had been killed in fighting in three southern provinces in the previous 24 hours. There are more than 26,000 coalition troops in Afghanistan, of which 18,500 are US. The remaining 7,500 come from another 25 countries.

A TALIBAN TEST REVIEW & OUTLOOK (WALL STREET JOURNAL, JUNE 13): The Afghan people, by and large, support the presence of international troops, whom they correctly perceive as vital to instilling stability in the war-torn country.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1150152772...ain_europe_asia
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

AFGHANISTAN AND THE GHOST OF KIM: WHAT THE HISTORY OF THE "GREAT GAME" CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE WAR IN CENTRAL ASIA - CONN HALLINAN (MOTHER JONES, JUNE 13):
It is time to retire the 'Great Game' to the pages of history and literature and
bring the troops home.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/colu...ost_of_kim.html

A QUESTION OF MOTIVES - TULIN DALOGLU (WASHINGTON TIMES, JUNE 14): Everyone in the Pashtunistan area of Aghanistan -- an autonomous tribal area -- seems to believe that the United States once used Islam "radically" to watch its
interests against the Soviets, and now they are unsure of Washington's
intentions. The American failure to clarify this issue breeds anti-Americanism.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060613-095037-6025r.htm

AFGHANISTAN: ON THE BRINK - AHMED RASHID (NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, JUNE 22): What has gone wrong has been the invasion of Iraq: Washington's refusal to take state-building in Afghanistan seriously and instead waging a fruitless war in Iraq.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19098

ALL UNQUIET ON THE EASTERN FRONT: WITH AFGHANS ENRAGED BY A WORSENING SECURITY SITUATION AND THE WEST'S FAILURE TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES, AFGHANISTAN IS IN DANGER OF FALLING BACK INTO VIOLENT CHAOS - MITCHELL PROTHERO (SALON, JUNE 14)
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/14/afghanistan/

30 Killed in Afghan Fighting Before Offensive:

Fierce battles killed at least 30 people across Afghanistan on Wednesday as the
U.S.-led coalition readied to launch its largest anti-Taliban offensive since
the Islamic extremist government's 2001 ouster.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2075483


Two foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan:

An American soldier was killed in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday,
said Major Quentin Innes, a spokesman for international forces in the Afghan
south.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=873862006

U.S.-Led Forces in Afghanistan Poised for New Strike on Taliban

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-At least one American soldier was killed in
fighting with Taliban guerrillas as the U.S.-led coalition
prepared to launch a fresh offensive today against insurgents in
southern Afghanistan, the military said Wednesday. By Paul Watson.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e4A...Io30G2B0HcrP0E7

Taleban target Afghan civilians BBC News
The Taleban say they have carried out a bomb attack on a minibus in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar which killed at least 10 people. The vehicle was carrying Afghan labourers on their way to work at a coalition military base in the city. Correspondents say it was the first such major attack on Afghan civilians working with US forces in the country. Police say the bomb was possibly hidden on the bus, and detonated during morning rush hour. Attacks blamed on Taleban have risen in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year, with hundreds of deaths. A Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for the latest incident in a telephone call to a local news agency. He said that the Taleban had warned Afghan nationals not to work with US forces. Meanwhile officials say that the second most senior judge in Ghazni province, Jan Mohammad, was killed on Wednesday after he was abducted along with his young son. Officials say that the judge was shot dead outside his house, and that the whereabouts of his son - who was taken away in the car of the attackers - is unknown. The Governor of Ghazni province, Sher Alam Ibrahimi, described the incident as "the work of enemies of peace and stability".

'Totally destroyed'
Officials were also swift to condemn Thursday's bomb blast in Kandahar in which at least 15 people were injured. "It is a bomb explosion and it seems that the bomb was inside the minibus," Colonel Shir Shah told Reuters news agency. Kandahar bakery owner Amidullah was working in his shop when the bus exploded outside."I heard an explosion and one of my customers and one of my workers was injured," he told the Associated Press. "When I came out of the shop, I saw the bus totally destroyed on the ground. I saw people dead and wounded lying on the ground."

Worsening violence
US officials said the bombing marked a change in Taleban tactics. "It's the first time Afghans working here have been deliberately targeted by the Taleban," coalition spokesman Maj Quentin Innis said. "They are clearly a non-military target being targeted. That's a shift in tactics for the Taleban." There has been a surge in violence in southern Afghanistan, coinciding with the arrival of thousands of international troops trying to help the government bring security to areas where it has little control. As well as fighting between coalition forces and Taleban rebels, there have been many roadside bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations of local government officials. Thursday's blast came two days after two US troops were killed in clashes with the Taleban, and less than a week after the death of UK soldier. More than 30 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan this year, most of them American.

Afghan violence leaves14 dead, including two US soldiers:

Suspected Taleban fighters killed one US soldier and wounded two in southern Afghanistan, sparking a coalition retaliation that left 12 militants dead or wounded,
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/w...p?ID=7976&cat=a


10 Afghans killed in bomb attack :

A bus carrying Afghans working for the US military blew up in an explosion, killing at least 10 people and injuring 15 in the city of Kandahar Thursday morning, police said.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=146999

http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2006/0...9964675820.html




Afghan POWs denied rights because 'it's not a war'
Date: June 16 2006


Cynthia Banham Defence Reporter

DETAINEES captured by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are not being given prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions, because the Federal Government says there has been no declaration of war and it is not an armed conflict between nation states.

This means that prisoners have no right to a fair trial and no right to be released at the end of the hostilities.

The situation, confirmed by Defence this week, has been criticised by an international law expert because it sets a bad precedent and means that in future conflicts, Australian troops who are taken prisoner might lose the protection of the Geneva Conventions.

Devika Hovell, the director of the international law project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, said: "The problem with refusing to apply the law in the short term is that you lose its protection in the long term."

In a statement to the Herald, Defence confirmed that the Geneva Conventions relating to the treatment of POWs do not apply "as a matter of law to the current circumstances in Afghanistan because there is no case of declared war or of any other armed conflict arising between two or more" parties to the conventions. But Defence said any prisoners would still be given the rights under Article 3, which prohibits certain conduct against detainees including "violence to life and person and outrages upon personal dignity".

Its statement went on: "When detainees are taken, Defence will also as a matter of policy apply the relevant fundamental humanitarian principles relating to the treatment of detained persons outlined in the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War."

But the very detailed POW provisions which were set out in the Geneva Conventions after World War II, and which Ms Hovell said were designed to inject a "modicum of humanity into warfare", will not be applied.

These provisions include the right of prisoners not to be interrogated, other than to give their name and rank, and the right not to be punished for mere participation in hostilities.

The situation is the same with Canadian troops in Afghanistan, who have been told the Geneva Conventions regarding the rights of POWs do not apply to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured on the battlefield.

Ms Hovell questioned the Government's argument that the conflict in Afghanistan was not covered by the Geneva Conventions, referring to a Yugoslav Tribunal finding that an internal conflict may become international where another state intervened through its troops.

"One problem with the Government applying the Geneva Conventions only as a matter of policy, and not law, is that it forms state practice that other states or armed groups may imitate," she said. "In this and future similar conflicts, Australian troops might justifiably be denied the protections of the [conventions]."

The admission by Defence comes as both the Australian and US governments are coming under increasing pressure over the continued detention at Guantanamo Bay of David Hicks and some 400 other prisoners taken into custody during the original war in Afghanistan.

Hicks, who has been there for more than 4½ years, was never given POW status, and is being tried by a widely-condemned military commission.




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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HF16Df01.html
Taliban's call for jihad answered in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

CHAMAN, Pakistan - The "Afghan" market of Chaman in Balochistan province is within walking distance of the checkpoint that marks the border with Afghanistan's Spin Boldek area. Many thousands of people criss-cross between the countries every day.
Electronic items such as new and used video-disc players, old Pentium laptop computers and second-hand digital cameras are on sale for throwaway prices.

But as dusk settles, much of the main activity takes place in small shops that rent laptop computers, which attract teenage boys like magnets.

This correspondent entered one of the shops, where an action movie with noisy background songs was playing. The scene showed some Middle Eastern-looking youths with long beards surrounding a convoy and firing bullets and rockets. They yelled for an ambulance when one of their colleagues was injured in crossfire.

"What are you watching?"

"Jihad," replied one of the kids.

"What?" (The reply was not immediately comprehensible.)

"Jihad, jihad. Do not you understand 'jihad'?" asked the shopkeeper incredulously.

No word could better sum up the situation in this volatile area than "jihad".

But it was not meant to be the case.

More than a decade ago, the area was the back yard of the Taliban movement, from where many of its second-tier leaders emerged to bolster the government in Kabul.

But as recently as a year ago, after concerted efforts by the Pakistan government as a partner in the US-led "war on terror", the region was said to have been won over, as was to serve as a hub for trade between South and Central Asia.

Billions of dollars were poured into infrastructure, notably highways, tunnels and railway tracks to connect Chaman with Gwadar port on the Balochistan coastline and Karachi port as the foundations for an international trade grid.

A town-planning blueprint was drawn up to transform Chaman into a modern commercial city in preparation for its new role as a gateway to Central Asia.

In one respect the plan worked. There are definite signs of prosperity in the town and its surrounds, manifested in flashy cars, abundant markets and lavish houses.

And it has become a hub - a hub for radicalism.

"All the districts near the Afghan border, whether it is Chaman or Pashin, have been heavily radicalized. We hear news every other day in our villages or nearby villages that the body of a youth has came back from Afghanistan," Abdul Rahman, a resident of Pashin who runs a non-governmental organization (NGO) for HIV/AIDS awareness, told Asia Times Online.

"We wander from village to village in Chaman and other districts and we see that youths do not have any other passion in life but to go to Afghanistan and kill Americans," Rahman said.

Asghar, a local trader, added: "Exactly the same trend exists on the other side of the border in Spin Boldek and Kandahar." Asghar, who frequently travels to Kandahar and Spin Boldek, continued: "It's the same tribes, the same people on the both side of the divide."

It's no surprise, therefore, that the favorite movies for young males are Jung hi Jung ("War and War" - a story of Taliban-led operations against the Americans) and Kelai Jungi, the story of the massacre of Taliban detainees in Mazar-i Sharif in 2001.

Also popular are old-stock videos of the Iraqi resistance and jihadi songs and films. Stores also sell new movie releases, whether they be Pashtu, Indian or Persian.

"All the CDs [compact discs] come from Afghanistan. We just cut and paste from the CD writer and make copies for sale," a store owner said. They sell for about 50 US cents each.

NGO worker Rahman blames the radicalization of the youths on the mullahs, who he says deliberately whip up the fever of jihad so that they can get their hands on the steady flow of jihadist funds from abroad.

"No, this is not the case," said cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan. "This [radicalization] is [because of] America's worldwide oppressive policies, which generate this sort of reaction, and also what has been done by the government of Pakistan.

"They killed hundreds in the name of the 'war on terror' and handed over hundreds to the US. They carried out assaults in Waziristan [Pakistani tribal area]," Imran Khan told Asia Times Online in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. "Had I been a Waziristani, I would have been doing the same that the Waziristanis are doing against the Pakistani security forces."

Tellingly, the road from Quetta to Chaman reveals fresh wall chalkings lauding the Amirul Momineen ("commander of the faithful", Taliban leader Mullah Omar) and Quaidul Mujahideen ("leader of the mujahideen", Osama bin Laden), along with slogans wishing long life to the Taliban movement and the mujahideen.

Jihad all over again
As stated above, the Pakistani border area with Afghanistan was a fertile ground for the Taliban as it gained strength and eventually took power in Kabul in 1996. The numerous madrassas (seminaries) churned out thousands of sufficiently eager and ideologically programmed students (both Pakistani and Afghan) to join the movement.

The feeling on the ground is that once again the Pakistani border towns will fuel the Taliban fire. Here, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) is the major power broker.

The JUI is the most influential component of the six-party opposition religious grouping, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

The JUI has two factions, one led by Maulana Samiul Haq and the other by the leader of the opposition in the national parliament, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Both factions were key patrons of the Taliban in the mid-1990s.

However, despite being a part of the MMA, Samiul Haq openly sides with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, while Rehman's JUI is believed to have some arrangement with Musharraf's government to allow it to dominate the provincial governments in North West Frontier and Balochistan provinces.

As such, the factions officially distance themselves from the Taliban and claim they will boot out any members with such affiliations.

However, it is not as simple as that. The JUI's election success was based on its unequivocal support for the mujahideen struggle in Afghanistan against foreign invaders.

Further, the hard core of the JUI still comprises former jihadi commanders who fought alongside the Taliban during their rise to power. Because of their immense popularity, they were given tickets for national elections, in which they scored sweeping victories.

A call for action
Now, as the Taliban's spring offensive gains unprecedented momentum, these contradictions within the JUI are becoming sharp, and forcing members to take a stand.

In the latest reports of violence, news wires said that 15 suspected militants, apparently including a relative of Mullah Omar, were killed on Monday by Afghan security forces. Further heavy casualties were reported in clashes on Wednesday. Over the past month, more than 550 people, mostly militants, have been reported killed.

More than 30,000 foreign troops will be in Afghanistan within the next few months, bolstered by a large North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence, which is strengthening its position in the south of the country, including 8,000 from Britain.

Hekmit Cetin, NATO's chief civilian representative in Iraq, as quoted by Conn Hallinan of Foreign Policy In Focus, said, "NATO can't afford to fail in Afghanistan. If we don't go to Afghanistan, Afghanistan will come to us, as terrorists, as narcotics traffickers."

The Taliban will be ready. Mullah Mohammed Kaseem Faroqi, the Taliban commander in Helmand province, recently told The Times of London, "My message to [Prime Minister] Tony Blair and the whole of Britain is, 'Do not send your children here. We will kill them.'"

One of the voices calling for the JUI to clarify its stance is that of Maulana Noor Mohammed, a member of the National Assembly in Islamabad from Quetta and a top leader of the JUI's Rehman faction. He recently urged the JUI to support the Taliban, no matter what the cost.

Asia Times Online met Noor, who is about 80, in his Quetta office.
ATol: You asked for complete support for the Taliban. What is the rationale behind this? Do you not think that this would be an intervention in the affairs of a neighboring country?

Noor (Opening the constitution of the JUI): The constitution of the JUI clearly states that when Muslim traditions and Muslim lands are under threat, the JUI must play a role [he cited many clauses backing this up]. It clearly speaks of supporting Muslim liberation movements across the globe, that is why we support Hamas [in Palestine], we support Bosnian Muslims. When the US invaded Afghanistan we formed a council for the defense of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which we later converted into the six-party religious alliance [MMA]. The Taliban are still fighting against a foreign presence, and we should support them.

ATol: Will such support not cost you and your party heavily?

Noor: You have to understand that the JUI is actually a movement which has strong traditions and history. Our first leader was Mujadid Alf-i-Thani [who stood up against the Mughal emperor Akber when he developed the religion Din-i-Illahi, which is a mix of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism].

Shah Waliullah Dehalvi [a renowned reformist during the Mughal era who is still followed throughout South, Central and Southwest Asia] was another one, and then came Shah Abdul Aziz Dehalvi, who further picked up the pace of the movement. [Noor then gave a long list of JUI leaders over the years who had resisted oppression.]

You can see the whole legacy of our leaders is jihad, the fight against oppression and support for Muslim movements. This is what the JUI constitution speaks for.

ATol: The whole movement was just for the Indian subcontinent. It did not go into other countries.

Noor (once again reading from the JUI constitution): "To strive for the [safeguarding] of Islam, Islamic tenets and the center of Islam ... to provide support to Muslims in occupied territories and to support Muslim minorities in non-Muslim majority areas." Where is it written that it has any territorial limits? It is a global agenda.

Now I will again go back to history.

When the British attacked Afghanistan, we supported the Afghan rulers and sent our leaders, like Ubaidullah Sindhi, who stayed there for seven years, and worked for the cause of the liberation of Afghanistan. The Ulema-i-Deoband [who graduated from the Deoband Islamic seminary in northern India] had a special status in Afghanistan and was admired by Afghan rulers.

... Similarly, we had a role when the former USSR invaded Afghanistan and our leader, Maulana Mufti Mehmood [a former chief minister of North West Frontier Province and father of Maulana Fazlur Rehman], issued a religious decree in favor of an Afghan jihad, and even when the Taliban emerged we supported them.

So the question is, why not now, when [President George W] Bush and his allies have launched a wicked crusade on Muslims? Should we not support the Taliban movement because a mean General Musharraf is our ruler and he turned the Pakistan army into a US force which caught 600 Muslim mujahideen and handed them over to the US? And Musharraf proudly says this, and he killed dozens of others and detained their families.

ATol: But the MMA rules in two provinces and is not sure what to do in the "war on terror".

Noor: The MMA should adopt a clear policy about the Taliban. Does it support the Taliban or not? When the Americans threatened to invade Afghanistan [2001], as I said, we formed the council for the defense of Pakistan and Afghanistan. So what is the point to retreat?

I spoke to the MMA leadership and asked for a debate at an upcoming session of the MMA. So why not announce clear support to mujahideen all over the world, including the Taliban?

The mujahideen are the opposition force of the day against Bush and his allies. Those who keep two opinions on the MMA's role, other than [being with the mujahideen], are just Bush's allies.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
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Bus Bombing Kills Afghans; Operation Mountain Thrust Continues

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2006 – A bus bombing in Afghanistan killed several passengers this morning, and Operation Mountain Thrust continues in the southern portion of the country, military officials said.

A bus exploded near the intersection of highways 1 and 4 in Kandahar City at about 8 a.m. today. The explosion, caused by a bomb on the bus, killed seven and injured 17. It was believed to be a deliberate attack against Afghan civilians.

Afghan national security forces and coalition forces have responded by assisting with the evacuation of casualties to the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar City.

"This is a cowardly and senseless attack on innocent Afghans, trying to make a better life for themselves and their families," said C