[Stoner]

Freedom Isn't Free


_____________
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-7-2003_pg7_50


UN for urgent release of funds for Afghanistan

KABUL: A United Nations official urged international donors on Thursday to pay more attention to help a cash-strapped Afghanistan overcome its financial and security difficulties.

“Unless there is a real influx of funds, the government can’t even pay the salaries to its employees by coming August,” an official from the UN mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, said.

Nigel Fisher said international commitments had been made but the disbursement was slow and inadequate. The reconstruction fund allocation for this year was 600 million dollars but only 83 million dollars had been made available so far for projects and related activities in Afghanistan.

He said the UN set-up in Afghanistan has received 220 million dollars of its promised 728 million dollars. The official said the overall security situation in the country remained unsatisfactory.

“Insecurity remains a major factor, daily intimidation of ordinary Afghans by the security forces, conflicts between commanders, Taliban and Hezb-i Islami activities, and the slow rate of security sector reform”, he emphasized. Fisher said some progress had been made in the social sector — notably in education. —AFP

[Stoner]

I was going to present this site as just a look into Afghan culture/news/whatever...........but , then I saw the line under the pic and thought 'what the hell is this!' !

[Wino]

Roses???? Poppy's may be - that would make them pretty friendly.

[Stoner]

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?o...6A216FDE61D4AF

Afghanistan's Red Crescent Health Clinics Face Cutbacks
Lisa Schlein
Geneva
20 Jul 2003, 14:54 UTC



The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says a network of 50 health clinics in Afghanistan may be forced to cut back drastically due to a lack of money.

The International Red Cross says Afghanistan's health system is in shambles after many years of conflict and misrule. The threatened health clinics operate in remote areas of the country. A network of 14,000 volunteers provides the only health service available to about 12,000 villages.

Red Cross spokesman Dennis McClean says these facilities are under threat because of poor donor support. He says the same health network functioned well throughout the 1990s under Taliban rule.

"In the absence of any health system inside Afghanistan, they were a vital element of civil society," said Mr. McLean. "And now, it is quite ironic that we are seeing little donor support for them now that we are trying to usher in a new age of democracy and freedom in Afghanistan."

The Red Cross only has received about one-fourth of the $10 million for which it appealed. Mr. McClean says he believes the work of the Afghan Red Crescent is not adequately recognized. In the past couple of years, he says humanitarian aid to Afghanistan has tripled, but little of the money has gone to support the health network. But he says the clinics have managed to stay open.

"But certainly, it is an issue that we will have to address in the coming months if the donor response does not pick up," he said. "I think one element of our program in Afghanistan that might be affected first might be the emergency mobile units which are part of this program. In the first three months of this year, they treated over 10,000 people."

If the mobile units have to disband, the Red Cross spokesman says thousands of people in rural areas would have no hope of receiving health support of any type. He says the clinics provide services ranging from treatment of simple diseases to health education and assistance to pregnant women.

[Stoner]

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabt...p?ID=800&cat=b

Taleban, Qaeda may resort to terror attacks in Afghanistan - US forces

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, (Agencies): US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan expect Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters to resort to terror attacks after their failure on the battlefield, a US military spokesman said on Saturday.

Colonel Rodney Davis said the Taleban and al-Qaeda have been reluctant to attack coalition forces en masse, opting not to confront troops engaged in a major US-led Afghan national army combat operation underway in southeast Afghanistan. "They tend not to want to take us on head-on and this is when they typically resort to acts of terrorism: criminal acts, killing people in mosques, burning up schools," the colonel told reporters at Bagram Air Base 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul.

"Given the fact that we're experienced in this type of warfare, we would expect anti-coalition forces to probably try to commit acts of terrorism, because whenever they are unable to be successful on the battlefield they resort to criminal and terrorist acts so of course we're preparing ourselves for any possibility," he said.

Four German troops with the separate peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by a suicide car bomber in Kabul on June 7 in an attack blamed on al-Qaeda. Suspected Taleban also last month carried out a bomb attack and assassination in mosques in their former heartland of southern Kandahar province.

US soldiers last weekend killed as many as 24 Taleban in a failed ambush in Kandahar near the Pakistan border in what Davis called the biggest attack on the coalition in months.

Some 1,000 Afghan national army soldiers backed by US and Italian troops are engaged in Operation Warrior Sweep against suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda remnants in the Zermat valley south of Paktia province's capital Gardez, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kabul.

"Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division ... conducted an air assault in the Shahi Khot area, south of Gardez, to disrupt the planning of future terrorist activities within Afghanistan," Davis said. "The purpose of the assault was to clear the area, which is a traditional sanctuary for anti-coalition and anti-government fighters." Coalition forces have also cleared illegal checkpoints on the road linking Gardez to Khost, 70 kilometres (44 miles) to the southeast, while Afghan troops have wrested control of access to Zermat town from local militia leaders, Davis said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Saturday denied that remnants of the Taleban were regrouping on its territory following stepped up attacks by the hardline Islamists in neighboring Afghanistan.

Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistani forces had been actively chasing the Islamic militants who might have corssed into Pakistan from Afghanistan. "The problem about the Taleban is not on our side. We don't patronize them. We don't give them sanctuary, " he said.

[Wino]

Hey, Stoner! What kinda pull do you have to keep this thread in the "normal" Forum and not get it placed in the "civilized debate" section.LOL

[Stoner]

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/afghan072903.htm

Afghanistan: Warlords Implicated in New Abuses
Report Details Threats to Women's Rights, Freedom of Expression
(New York, July 29, 2003) - Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to adopt a new constitution and could derail national elections scheduled for mid-2004, Human Rights Watch said in a new report( http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/afghanistan0703/ ) released today.

The report warns that violence, political intimidation, and attacks on women and girls are discouraging political participation and endangering gains made on women's rights in Afghanistan over the last year.
"Human rights abuses in Afghanistan are being committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "These men and others have essentially hijacked the country outside of Kabul. With less than a year to go before national elections, Afghanistan's human rights situation appears to be worsening."

The 101-page report, "Killing You Is a Very Easy Thing for Us": Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan, documents army and police troops kidnapping Afghans and holding them for ransom in unofficial prisons; breaking into households and robbing families; raping women, girls and boys; and extorting shopkeepers and bus, truck and taxi drivers. The report also describes political organizers, journalists and media editors being threatened with death, arrested and harassed by army, police and intelligence agents. The subject area of the report, the southeast of Afghanistan and Kabul city, is one of the most densely populated areas of Afghanistan.

Because soldiers are targeting women and girls, many are staying indoors, especially in rural areas, making it impossible for them to attend school, go to work, or actively participate in the country's reconstruction. In many places, human rights abuses are driving many Afghan families to keep their girls out of school. The atmosphere of violence, along with resurgent religious fundamentalism in parts of the country, is endangering the most important human rights improvement since the end of the Taliban--the ability of girls to go back to school.

"The fact is that most girls in Afghanistan are still not in school," said Adams. "In many cases, returning refugee families who sent their girls to school in Pakistan or Iran are afraid to do the same in Afghanistan."

The testimony of victims and witnesses implicates soldiers and police under the command of many high-level military and political officials in Afghanistan. These include Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the Minister of Defense; Hazrat Ali, the military leader of the Eastern Region; Younis Qanooni, the Minister of Education; Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president of Afghanistan; and Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful former mujahidin leader to whom many of the officials involved in the documented abuses in Kabul city and province remain loyal.

The report urges the Afghan government to sideline and pressure abusive leaders and to seek more international assistance in its efforts.

Human Rights Watch called on the United States, the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia and other external powers to end their support for local strongmen and commanders involved in human rights abuses.

"External support for warlords is destabilizing Afghanistan," said Adams. "The United States and the United Kingdom, in particular, need to decide whether they are with President Karzai and other reformers in Kabul or with the warlords. The longer they wait, the more difficult it will be to loosen the warlords' grip on power."

Human Rights Watch emphasized the need for the Afghan government and the international community to redouble efforts to reform the Afghan Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense in Kabul is currently dominated by the political and military faction "Shura-e Nazar," a loose alliance of former mujahidin parties. Making the ministry more ethnically and politically representative is a vital prerequisite for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs that could lessen the power of abusive military rulers and their troops.

Human Rights Watch urged NATO to expand the geographic scope of the U.N. authorized security force, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently stationed only in Kabul, when it takes over ISAF command in August. Human Rights Watch also urged NATO to widen ISAF's mandate to include disarmament and human rights protection. Plans to deploy more international Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) may be a positive step if they focus on security, but they are not a substitute for an expanded security force.

Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations to increase its human rights monitoring and protection efforts through the deployment of significant numbers of U.N. human rights officers around the country.

"With more U.N. human rights workers on the ground, victims will be better able to seek redress and protection. An increase in monitoring will have the added benefit of giving the Afghan administration and the international community better information about what is happening around the country," said Adams. "This is standard operating procedure in other U.N. missions, but so far the United Nations has refused to take this step."

Human Rights Watch also urged the United Nations to increase its public reporting on the human rights situation and to supply more personnel to work side-by-side with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

[Stoner]

http://www.eurasianet.org/department...av072803.shtml

EURASIA INSIGHT


TALIBAN STEPPING UP ATTACKS AGAINST TARGETS IN AFGHANISTAN
Ahmed Rashid: 7/28/03

Taliban forces based in Pakistan are intensifying attacks on US and Afghan government forces. According to the top US general in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters and affiliated Islamic militants have divided eastern Afghanistan into three zones for launching attacks. Meanwhile, al Qaeda is offering bounties for killing or capturing US troops.

July has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan since the US-led anti-terrorism coalition drove the Taliban from power in December 2001. The Taliban raids are coming as Afghanistan prepares for nationwide debate on a new constitution. A Loya Jirga, or grand tribal council, is scheduled to convene in October to put the finishing touches on a new Afghan constitution.

US officials say thousands of Taliban are living in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, studying in Islamic schools and being recruited to fight US forces. Taliban leaders are openly giving press conferences and talking to reporters on mobile phones. Pakistan denies it is helping the Taliban, but Islamabad has done nothing to stop Islamic radical activity despite repeated requests by President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan leaders to take action. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. ( http://www.eurasianet.org/department...v072303a.shtml )


General F.L. "Buster" Hagenback, the acting commander of the US-led coalition force in Afghanistan, acknowledged an increase in Islamic radical activity in several key Afghan regions ? mainly in the south and east of the country, along the country’s long border with Pakistan. Hagenback insisted, however, that the anti-terrorism coalition had the resources to contain the security threat.

"We will go to all the places that we need to [in order] to track down the Taliban. There are large numbers of Taliban coming back into southern Afghanistan [from the Quetta region] but there have been some recent successes in resisting them," said Hagenback. "We have a very robust intelligence feed out there."

"There are three groups made up of between 25-100 Taliban operating in Helmand Province and they are facilitating the drugs trade," added Hagenback, the acting commander of the US-led coalition force in Afghanistan.

Hagenback said that in north eastern Afghanistan, also close to the Pakistan border, forces under renegade commander Gulbuddin Hekmetyar, who is allied to the Taliban, are "operating on the Jalalabad road moving up and down." The US commander added that "there are second- or third-level al Qaeda leaders trying to establish cells on the road between Khost and Gardez." Jalalabad is on the main road between Peshawar, Pakistan and Kabul, while the other two towns are traditional Taliban strongholds and adjacent to the Pakistan tribal agencies.

"The Taliban and al Qaeda are offering monetary incentives to kill or capture a US soldier in order to undermine the Afghan government, but it is clear they have very little local support," said Hagenback, speaking at his headquarters located at the main US base at Bagram, about 25 miles outside Kabul. Captured Taliban have confirmed that bounties range between $5,000 and $100,000, depending on the target. One Taliban interviewed by reporters in mid July said he had been offered $2,000 to kill a civilian and $5,000 to kill an American soldier.

One notable clash in recent weeks occurred July 18-19. On the night of July 19, US warplanes launched air strikes on a Taliban position close to the Pakistan border. The bombing raid came in response to a Taliban attack on a government check point near the border town of Spin Baldak. Afghan government officials asserted that 24 Taliban fighters were killed during the counter-attack. A Taliban commander said that 20 government troops died in the raid. None of the claims could be independently verified.

The Spin Baldak raid reportedly involved upwards of 200 Taliban. Until a few months ago the Taliban groups were never more than a dozen or so and the increase in their numbers reflects the impunity with which they believe they can now operate. Over 120 Afghan soldiers and civilians have been killed in Taliban attacks since the start of the year.

[Stoner]

Originally posted by Wino:
Hey, Stoner! What kinda pull do you have to keep this thread in the "normal" Forum and not get it placed in the "civilized debate" section.LOL

......I'm sure that'll change.

[Stoner]

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...fig&sec=latest


Fierce fighting in southern Afghanistan

QALAT, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghan soldiers were waging a fierce ground battle with entrenched Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan after a night of heavy U.S. bombing that left many Taliban fighters dead, an Afghan intelligence chief said Friday.

U.S. warplane began bombing two suspected Taliban positions in the Chinaran and Larzab mountains of Dai Chupan district in southern Zabul province, late Thursday, provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak told The Associated Press.

The bombing ended at about 4 a.m., and some 500 local Afghan soldiers moved in on the Taliban fighters - who had taken up fortified positions in a deep mountain gorge and along a stream that runs through the area, Hotak said in a command center set up in Qalat, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of the fighting.

It was impossible to know the exact number of Taliban killed in the bombing and subsequent fighting, but Hotak said the number of fighters killed could be as high as 35.

The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment.

"The fighting was intense and we have inflicted heavy damage on the Taliban,'' Hotak said. "Our forces counted 35 Taliban bodies.''

As he spoke, Hotak received calls from commanders at the scene, barking back orders for the ongoing fighting.

The fighting was still going on by mid-morning Friday, Hotak said. He said his forces believe hundreds of Taliban have taken up positions in the area, with at least 15 hideouts.

Hotak said he had no word yet on fresh casualties among the Afghan soldiers.

Four Afghan soldiers were wounded in fighting Thursday.

Zabul has seen heavy fighting this week. The province's governor, Hafizullah Hashami, said even before the most recent fighting that about 40 Taliban had been killed in an ongoing operation to clear out guerrillas hiding in the mountainous area.

Afghan officials say they believe at least two prominent Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Shafiq, were leading the fighting in the area.

Haji Granai, an Afghan military commander, told AP that at least two U.S. bombers and two helicopters helped in the operation, and Hotak said 20 American troops and 12 military vehicles were on the ground to aid the Afghan forces.

Two fighters arrested in the area two days ago told investigators they were recruited by the Taliban and fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

They said they received 38,000 Pakistani rupees (US$650) from the two groups, Hotak said.

A former prime minister who has since fallen into disfavor, Hekmatyar has so far eluded U.S. efforts to arrest or kill him.

The renegade warlord has issued calls for a jihad, or holy war, against foreign troops in Afghanistan. - AP

[Stoner]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ws/6716325.htm

Breaking News


Posted on Sun, Sep. 07, 2003

U.S. General Sees Taliban in Afghanistan
MATT KELLEY
Associated Press

GARDEZ, Afghanistan - Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaida, are pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the top American commander in Afghanistan said Sunday.

Lt. Gen. John Vines said the Taliban were trying to regroup and regain control of the country they ruled until ousted by the United States in late 2001. His comments to reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were the first confirmation from a top U.S. military official of reports of a Taliban resurgence out of Pakistan into Afghanistan.

American, Afghan and coalition forces have responded with military operations against the radical Islamic fighters. As many as 200 Taliban have been killed this week alone, Vines said.

"They have been attempting to (regroup) for nine months," Vines said. "Every time, we've disrupted them, we've interdicted them, we've denied them sanctuary, and we've killed them."

The most intense fighting in Afghanistan in a year has come during what the U.S. military calls Operation Mountain Viper. Starting in late August, teams of American troops and local Afghan militia have pounded Taliban fighters in the mountains of Zabol province south of the capital, Kabul.

Vines said perhaps as many as 1,000 Taliban were in and around the area. They are among Taliban fighters who have either hidden out in Afghanistan or crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan, Vines said.

"They're attempting to regain power," Vines said. "They've been attempting to do that for a year and a half."

American military officials have indications the recent Taliban resurgence is spurred in part by operatives of the al-Qaida network, who have been giving the Taliban training and funding, Vines said. Apparently frustrated with the Taliban's lack of success, their al-Qaida sponsors have urged the Taliban on or risk losing al-Qaida's support.

Vines called it a "use it or lose it" ultimatum from Osama bin Laden's network.

Three American soldiers have died in Afghanistan in the past month, two in a gunbattle with Taliban militants near the border with Pakistan. The other died in a fall from a helicopter during a Mountain Viper operation.

Rumsfeld and Vines said the Taliban are not a serious threat. The defense secretary said this week the Taliban's regrouping gave the U.S. an advantage, since larger groups of Taliban fighters are easier to find and attack.

Vines said he sees no reason to dispatch more soldiers into Afghanistan. About 8,500 Americans are among the 11,500 international troops in Afghanistan. Separately, 5,000 troops under NATO command act as peacekeepers in Kabul.

Still, an administration official, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the Taliban and al-Qaida pose the most serious threats to the government of interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Rumsfeld met with Karzai Sunday and told him the United States plans to increase significantly its spending to reconstruct the country. U.S. officials have said President George W. Bush is considering an additional US$1 billion in spending on rebuilding Afghanistan, roughly double the current level.

Karzai, in a news conference with Rumsfeld outside the presidential palace, spoke of the Taliban threat with a defiant tone.

"We will be working together to fight terrorism to the very end," Karzai said. "This is not something we are going to be soft on, even for a fraction of a second."

Karzai said he speaks frequently with Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, about the problem of Taliban and other terrorists crossing into Afghanistan.

"He promised everything would be done to stop it," Karzai said. "We hope this cooperation will increase." Vines said he, too, was in frequent contact with his counterparts in Pakistan.

Border security is a touchy subject between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though Pakistan joined the anti-terrorism coalition shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, it previously had been a longtime backer of the Taliban.

Some Afghans have said Pakistani officials still sympathetic to the Taliban have allowed the group to operate in the remote and largely lawless area along the border with Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld touted the progress Afghanistan has made since the Taliban's ouster. He visited a U.S. "provincial reconstruction team" in Gardez, in a mountain valley south of the capital.

[Stoner]

In my previous post Lt. Gen. John Vines stated that he didn't see any need for increased troop strenth.
Now Rumsfeld thinks that the Peace Keeper force needs to be 'expanded'.

++++++++++++++
http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationwo...orld-headlines

Rumsfeld seeks larger NATO force in Afghanistan
Increased violence raises concerns about stability
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune
Originally published September 8, 2003



KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he would like NATO to expand its operations in Afghanistan, where a surge of violence linked to Taliban guerrillas has deepened concerns about the stability of the government.
Speaking alongside President Hamid Karzai during a brief visit to Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said he agreed that it would be a good idea for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to extend its presence beyond Kabul.



But with the United States scrambling to find nations to share in peacekeeping duties in Iraq, it seems unlikely that there will be much effort to find new forces for Afghanistan.

"For whatever reason, there have not been many countries lining up to expand ISAF," Rumsfeld said. However, he added, "there is at least a possibility" that the 5,000-member peacekeeping force could be expanded.

The United States has about 8,500 military personnel in Afghanistan, all part of a separate coalition force of 11,500 that is hunting members of the terror network al-Qaida and remnants of the former Taliban regime.

On his last visit to Afghanistan, in May, Rumsfeld declared that major combat operations were over and that the focus would turn to reconstruction.

But since then, a rejuvenated Taliban has made its presence felt across southern and eastern Afghanistan through guerrilla attacks targeting aid workers and government officials.

In fighting over the past two weeks in southeastern Zabul, U.S. and Afghan officials said at least 100 Taliban fighters were killed. In comments to reporters traveling with Rumsfeld, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, said as many as 200 enemy fighters were killed.

"They're attempting to regain power," he said.

Karzai said the reappearance of the Taliban is a major concern to his government. Although the capital is secure, growing lawlessness elsewhere in the country, some of which is linked to the Taliban, has intensified calls for more international troops.

The Chicago Tribune is a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

[Stoner]

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/as...istan.warning/


Afghanistan dangers 'underrated'
From National Security Correspondent David Ensor

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The American public and news media are underestimating the continuing dangers and challenges remaining in Afghanistan, senior German officials have said.

Germany's ambassador in the United States, Wolfgang Ischinger, said Wednesday, "Afghanistan should be on the front burner," given the danger of renewed Taliban and al Qaeda activity there and the magnitude of the task of rebuilding the country after 24 years of war and occupation.

Yet from American journalists, "I only get questions about Iraq."

Ischinger said the Bush administration and Berlin "see eye to eye" on the need for additional resources for Afghanistan, but the American public understanding of the urgency of the matter is "lagging" due to media preoccupation with Iraq.

Lt. General Norbert van Heyst, the German commander of international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters he wants to put a few hundred troops in each of eight provincial cities to protect proposed reconstruction teams.

Van Heyst is in Washington discussing how to get more nations to contribute troops to the effort in Afghanistan. "Opponents of peace are reorganizing" in Afghanistan, van Heyst said.

A senior German official said many of the recent attacks against international forces there were "planned across the border" in Pakistan.

The official said he believed General Pervez Musharraf's government in Pakistan had the "political will" to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaeda in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan but were being held back by military problems.

"They don't have enough forces to cover the whole area," the official said.

[Stoner]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...1,00050004.htm


Taliban recaptured town in August, says Afghan official
Agence France-Presse
Urgun (Afghanistan), September 20

The Taliban have been in control of a Southeast Afghan town near the Pakistan border since hundreds of them attacked government offices a month ago and sent officials fleeing, a provincial security head said.

Barmal, 220 kilometres south of Kabul and 15 km from the border, was seized by the militants in August, Paktika province security chief Dawlat Khan said on Friday.

Government forces were "chased from Barmal in mid-August after an attack by hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda members coming from Pakistan," Khan said in Urgun, 40 kilometres north of Barmal.

"Barmal has been under Taliban control since then," deputy provincial governor Sado Khan said.

Afghanistan's Southeast border regions are bearing the brunt of an apparent resurgence by the hardline militia, almost two years after they were smashed from power by a United States-led military assault.

Afghan officials, aid workers and the US military have reported an increase in armed attacks especially against humanitarian workers in recent months.

The US military, which has 10,000 troops hunting remnants of the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies, has said the Taliban were trying to revive their hardline regime.

Afghan and US officials have reported seeing assailants retreating across the porous border into Pakistan after attacking troops and officials.

At least 10 government militiamen were killed in last month's attack in Barmal. Some had their throats slit.

The local administration building was destroyed by the attackers, who seized a large supply of weapons, according to soldiers who took part in the fighting.

An official close to the deputy governor said the Taliban were "not militarily settled into the town."

"But they come and go freely in the market," he said, requesting anonymity.

Pro-government forces "withdrew north to the neighbouring district of Urgun and have not intervened beyond" the district boundaries, Urgun police chief Jalil Zadra said.

The area is currently totally inaccessible for government representatives and security forces, he said.

Former Barmal security commander Haji Zaher, who lost two sons in the August attack, abandoned his post and fled to neighbouring Khost province.

All other district officials had also fled, according to Zadra.

With the retreat of government forces, the only military in the area are US troops based in Shkin, on the border 10 kilometres from Barmal.

US troops there have come under repeated attack from suspected Taliban since mid-August. The US military has said Shkin was the most regularly attacked base in Afghanistan.

US soldiers on Thursday fought an hour-long gunbattle near Shkin after coming under machine gun and mortar fire. The attackers "retreated toward the Pakistani border," a US military spokesman said.

[pyritechips]

Anti-tank mine killed Canadians, Afghan commander arrested

Last Updated Tue, 07 Oct 2003 10:15:30

KABUL, AFGHANISAN - A senior commander of an Afghanistan militant organization has been arrested after Canadian forces determined that at least one anti-tank mine caused the explosion that killed two Canadian soldiers in Kabul.

Kabul police, assisted by Canadian and German units, arrested Abu Bakr, the senior most commander in Kabul of Afghanistan's third-largest militant organization, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG).

"We have indication he is under orders to orchestrate attacks on ISAF personnel using rockets and mines," said Maj.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of Canada's 1,950-member peacekeeping contingent in the country.

Bakr is being held in a secret location.

A preliminary report said the explosion was probably caused by at least one Soviet-made TM-57 anti-tank mine.

The mines weigh about nine kilograms and are "designed to kill or immobilize a main battle tank."

Investigators believe up to three explosive devices were involved because of the shape of the crater. They do not yet know what the other devices were.

Investigators found the mine's fuse assembly near the scene and debris from two anti-tank mines.

Leslie said they cannot yet conclude that this was a deliberate attack but " the inference is certainly pointing that way."

"And, by the way, I am treating it as if it was a deliberate attack," he said.

Engineers had combed the route for explosives two and a half hours before the patrol.

Sgt. Robert Alan Short, 42, of Fredericton and Cpl. Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger, 29, of Ottawa, were killed when their jeep hit the explosive device while on a routine patrol in Kabul.

Three other soldiers were injured in the blast.

Several thousand people are expected to attend a memorial service Tuesday for the soldiers in Ontario.

Funerals for the two soldiers will be held separately at CFB Petawawa. Sgt. Short's funeral will be held Wednesday morning and Cpl. Beerenfenger's funeral will be on Thursday afternoon.

All five soldiers were members of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 3rd Battalion, based in Petawawa, Ont.

Canada is one of the largest contributors to the Kabul force.

The soldiers were riding in an Iltis jeep, which has been in service since the mid-1980s and is slated to be replaced next year.

The death of the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan has raised questions about the equipment Canada's troops are using on their mission.

Written by CBC News Online staff