This blog is now closed. I am finding that I do not have enough time to keep up with all my blogs, and this particular blog is having serious formatting problems, as you can see from the two prior posts. No matter how many times I try to fix the spacing, it still comes out the same. I have no idea why it is doing this, but I am taking it as a sign to focus on Iraq. Thanks for reading.

Photo: Medieval minarets are seen in the western city of Herat, Afghanistan, June 23, 2007. (Ahmad Fahim/Reuters) Security Incidents for December 7, 2007 The air strikes by NATO-led forces killed 17 Taliban fighters in western Afghanistan on Thursday, as another in a series of bomb blasts around Kabul damaged a German aid agency vehicle, police said. Police Say Taliban Ambushes Killed Nine Officers. Ambushes by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan Friday left nine policemen dead with five of the militants also killed, police said. The Taliban fighters attacked a police commander's vehicle while he was traveling with his wife and a child and some bodyguards in the western province of Herat, the police commander for western Afghanistan said. Security Incidents for December 8, 2007 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed several suspected Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Saturday. A NATO soldier, two children and 12 ‘terrorists’ have been killed in the first day of an operation to retake the southern Afghan town of Musa Qala, the Afghan defence ministry said Saturday. ‘And one ISAF soldier was killed as a result of a mine explosion,’ it said. An ISAF official confirmed the fatality but said the nationality of the soldier could not yet be released. Afghan abductors free Bangladeshi aid worker. Security Incidents for December 9, 2007 An Afghan official says 40 insurgents have been killed in a series of battles with Afghan and NATO-led troops in the country's south. A second NATO soldier was killed Sunday as Afghan and international troops advanced on the southern town of Musa Qala which the Taliban has controlled for the last 10 months, defence forces said. Taliban leaders seized in assault on Afghan town. Afghan and NATO-led forces have captured two senior Taliban leaders during an offensive to retake the insurgents' most important stronghold in Afghanistan, the town of Musa Qala, in the province of Helmand. Thanks whisker for many of the links above. REPORTS Afghan corruption threatens security attempts: watchdog Corruption in Afghanistan, which reaches up to deputy-minister level in an administration permeated by mafia-like structures, poses a danger to the nation's efforts at stability and security, a watchdog said. It was also spreading across the country which already ranks as among the 10-most corrupt in the world, research group Integrity Watch Afghanistan said at the release of a survey into Afghan opinion of the problem Sunday. Graft ranges from every day "baksheesh" (bribes) to get things done to civil servants buying and keeping their positions, it said, adding some believed it had "taken root in Afghan culture." Mafia-like networks had spread in the administration with groups using their positions for their own gain, blocking reform and protecting their own, it said in a book containing a survey of Afghans in eight provinces. "A 'bazaar economy' has developed where every position, favour, and service can be bought and sold," it said. Afghanistan's lucrative production of 93 percent of the world's opium and billions of dollars in post-Taliban government assistance were exacerbating the problem, it said. Troops closing in on Taliban-held town: residents Afghan and international troops were Saturday closing in on the Taliban-occupied town of Musa Qala after killing several militants in overnight bombing, residents and officials said. Ground troops were in villages surrounding the strategically important town, they said, after deploying from helicopters Friday to kick-off a long-awaited operation to eject Taliban rebels who stormed in 10 months ago. A rebel commander inside Musa Qala told AFP by telephone there were up to 2,000 rebel fighters ready to defend themselves. "So far there hasn't been face-to-face fighting but we are getting ready for the fighting and we will resist," said the commander, who gave his name Mullah Hafizullah. NATO nations make new offers of troops and equipment to Afghanistan NATO nations on Friday made new offers of troops and equipment for Afghanistan, but the alliance is still seeking aircraft and at least 1,000 more military personnel, a spokesman said. "A number of ministers mentioned the increased number of contributions that they would be making," spokesman James Appathurai said, after talks between NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. He said that Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski "set out what will be an increased Polish contribution, including attack and transport helicopters and a significant number of troops -- more than we had foreseen." Appathurai said the Czech Republic would also be setting up a provincial reconstruction team -- a civilian-military team helping to foster rebuilding in areas outside the Afghan capital Kabul. IWPR Reporter Under Attack in Afghan North A leading journalist in northern Afghanistan says his brother has been imprisoned on false charges as a way of pressuring him not to write articles critical of local officials and strongmen. Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi has come under mounting pressure himself, with security service officers visiting his home and anonymous phone calls threatening his life. His brother, Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, has been in prison since October 27 on charges of writing and distributing anti-Islamic literature, which he denies have any foundation. An Afghan journalists’ rights union has condemned a decision to have Parwez’s case heard by clerics rather than in the conventional judicial system. A council of Muslim scholars has recommended the death sentence. For the past four years, Yaqub has been reporting for IWPR on Afghanistan’s northern region. During that time, he has consistently covered issues of extreme sensitivity, such as continuing abuses by strongmen who maintain paramilitary forces and undermine the rule of law in defiance of the central government’s disarmament efforts. In the past two months, he has published several reports which identify factions and individuals in the north whom local residents accuse of crimes and brutality. “The people who are threatening me had nothing official against me,” he explained. “There was nothing they could use to arrest and imprison me.” Afghans close road to save minarets Afghanistan has closed a road that threatened the foundation of a group of mediaeval minarets which Kabul wants to see listed among the World's Cultural Heritage sites. The minarets, standing at more than 100 feet, are all that remain of what was once a brilliantly decorated complex for Islamic learning and devotion along the Silk Road on the outskirts of the western city of Herat. Just over a century ago, more than a dozen minarets stood in Herat, part of a madrasa-mosque complex built in the 15th century. Most of the camel-colored, mud-brick towers, which were once sheathed in sparkling blue, green, white and black mosaic tiles, have toppled during decades of war and neglect. Experts had hoped the end of Taliban rule in 2001 and the advent of a new government would save the remaining towers. However, the city's new-found wealth in the post-Taliban era had served only to heighten concerns about the towers' stability. Heavy trucks and cars rumble along a road that runs through the middle of the remaining minarets, shaking the ground and threatening their foundations. Following repeated concerns from the U.N. cultural and educational agency, (UNESCO), authorities in October banned heavy trucks from using the road.

Photo: An Afghan army soldier stands guard near the bus targeted by a suicide bomber south of Kabul. Photograph: Rafiq Maqbool/AP Security Incidents on December 4, 2007 The Taliban today carried out a suicide attack on a NATO convoy that injured at least 22 Afghan civilians to "welcome" the US defence secretary to Kabul. The attacker drove into the convoy during the morning rush hour on a road just outside Kabul's international airport. There were no casualties among NATO troops. A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said. The soldier's next-of-kin have been notified, but no further details were available, it added. Security Incidents on December 5, 2007 Taliban bomber kills 13 by ramming minibus. Suicide bomber kills six Afghan soldiers and seven civilians, including four children, in attack south of Kabul. Security Incidents on December 6, 2007 The joint command of the coalition force in Afghanistan has announced the start of a large-scale military operation against Taliban insurgents in the south of the country. A coalition spokesman said the operation will begin on Thursday in the Helmand province. Residents of neighboring villages have been ordered to leave their homes to avoid civilian casualties. More than 7,000 villagers have already left the area. UN food agency driver shot dead in Afghanistan. The United Nations food aid agency said on Thursday one of its workers had been shot dead in an ambush while driving emergency rations through Afghanistan. NATO Says 17 Taliban Killed in Air Strikes Thanks whisker for many of the links above. REPORTS Afghans' support for Taliban grows Afghans are increasingly critical of U.S. military efforts in their country, while support for the Taliban is on the rise in the violence-plagued southwest, according to poll results released on Monday. The survey — conducted for ABC News, the BBC and the German public TV station ARD — noted that Afghans overwhelmingly prefer the government of President Hamid Karzai to the Taliban, but they also believe that the government should negotiate with the Taliban to end the war. In southwestern Afghanistan, support for NATO-led forces has plummeted to 45 per cent this year, from 83 per cent a year ago. “Civilian casualties blamed on these forces is a prime complaint,” the survey said. This year has been the most violent yet since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and insurgency-related violence has killed nearly 6,200 persons — a record number, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials. AFGHANISTAN: UN ready to aid dialogue to boost prospects for peace The UN is ready to facilitate dialogue between the Afghan government and anti-government elements who want to end violence and be part of Afghanistan's current political process, with the aim of strengthening peace and development in the country, according to a top UN official. "2008 can be a year of success for Afghanistan," Christopher Alexander, deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan and deputy head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told journalists in Kabul on 3 December. The UN will spearhead efforts to resolve conflict and accelerate a process of reconciliation and peace-building through political outreach work: "We will try to include those Afghans who feel excluded from current institutions and make them part of development and rebuilding," Alexander said. UNAMA has placed "political outreach, rule of law and re-integrated strategy" at the top of its agenda for 2008. AFGHANISTAN: Disabled people have tough time, lack education, jobs Plagued by over two decades of war, poverty and underdevelopment, Afghanistan has about 800,000 people with disabilities out of an estimated total population of 24.5 million. Many of these are also illiterate, unemployed or lack access to health services and other opportunities. One in five households in Afghanistan has a disabled person, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Handicap International, an international non-governmental organisation campaigning on behalf of people living with disabilities. About 36 percent of disability in the country is physical, 26 percent sensorial, 20 percent epilepsy and 10 percent mental, the survey found. Suicide blast "welcomes" Secretary Gates to Kabul A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a car into a NATO convoy near Kabul airport on Tuesday, during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to assess rising violence in Afghanistan. No casualties were reported among NATO troops in the morning rush hour blast on a road just outside the city's international airport, an alliance spokesman said. NATO said the attack, which occurred as Gates was meeting NATO commanders less than 5 miles away, wounded 22 Afghan civilians. Kite Runner stars forced into hiding Four Afghan boys aged 11 to 14 have been spirited out of Afghanistan to a haven in the Middle East to protect them from potential reprisals ahead of the world release this month of a Hollywood movie in which they star. The boys and their guardians have been taken to an unidentified town in the United Arab Emirates where they have been placed in a school with many other Afghan children. Paramount Pictures, the studio behind the film, The Kite Runner, has promised to care for the children during the release period and possibly up to the end of their schooling. The $18m film is based on the novel of the same name by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini and is one of the highlights of the autumn season, with high hopes for the Oscars. But in recent weeks its producers have been grappling with the controversy over the casting of unknown Afghan boys to lead roles, which has brought unexpected dangers. U.S. May Recruit Afghan Tribes to Fight Taliban Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Monday to weigh new strategies for quelling insurgent violence, which has escalated here in recent years despite increases in U.S. and NATO troop levels. Senior defense officials said that under one initiative being considered, local tribesmen would be trained and armed to fight Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the stronghold of the radical Islamic militia. Attacks in that region have been particularly intense, and one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is "seeing early indicators that there may be some stepped-up activity by al-Qaeda." The tribal initiative would begin with a British pilot project in Helmand province and would be broadly similar to a U.S. military drive in Iraq that has recruited thousands of local fighters - including tribesmen and former insurgents - to police their neighborhoods, the officials said. In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, the plan reflects a concern among senior U.S. officials that coalition forces have relied too much on the central government to build security forces, an approach they say runs counter to both tribal culture and the need for community policing. A new opinion poll released Monday - conducted by ABC News, the BBC and the German public TV station ARD - showed Afghans to be increasingly critical of the performance of U.S. forces and their ability to provide security. About 42 percent of Afghans polled rated U.S. efforts in their country positively, down from 68 percent in 2005. The survey of 1,377 Afghans in the country's 34 provinces found that 42 percent believe the Taliban has gained strength in the past year, compared with 24 percent who say the group is weaker. Nevertheless, about 70 percent of Afghans polled hold favorable views of the U.S. military overall, want it to remain in Afghanistan and are glad the Taliban was overthrown in 2001. U.S. In No-Win Situations No doubt about it, the U.S. is in a no-win situation in Afghanistan, much like the Russians of a few decades back. It's too bad America didn't learn its lesson from the Russians in Afghanistan and the French in Viet Nam, but we didn't; we went ahead as if we were the "good guys" who wore the white hats and could not lose because God was on our side. Afghan Koran Translation Provokes Controversy When Ghaus Zalmai, a well-known journalist who was working as spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, lent his name and reputation to a new version of the Koran, he may have thought he was performing a service for his fellow Afghan Muslims. Instead, the book, “A Fluent Translation of the Holy Koran”, has unleashed a storm of public rage that has landed its publisher Zalmai in jail, sent the editor into hiding, and led a council of angry clerics to denounce the book as the work of an international Zionist conspiracy. The prosecutor says Zalmai now regrets his action. This could not be confirmed by IWPR, since the journalist has been held incommunicado on unspecified charges for over a month. Security Firms in Afghanistan: Part of the Problem? Former commanders, ex-special forces, demobilised militias – at times it seems like the streets of Kabul are crammed full of strongmen looking to capitalise on their most marketable skill – the ability and readiness to fight. Many have gravitated towards the new industry of private security firms, which guard banks, embassies, international organisations, and even some of the trendier restaurants in the capital. But the Afghan government is now cracking down on these heavily-armed and often unlicensed firms, saying that several have been implicated in major crimes including armed robbery, kidnap and murder. Some observers worry that the closure of security firms will make a bad situation even worse. The Afghan police cannot fill the gap, they insist, and turning thousands of armed and unemployed men loose on the streets will create an even more unstable environment. Afghanistan’s Creaking Court System The area around the Afghan Supreme Court in Kabul is teeming with people, both plaintiffs and defendants. Some have spent months, even years waiting for a resolution to their problems. Many have given bribes; many more have lost cases on lower courts because, they say, they could not afford to pay the judge. But one thing unites them all - their anger and dissatisfaction with the Afghan justice system. “In our courts, bribery is at such a level that anyone with money can buy a decision in his favour,” said Mohammad Zaki. “There is no justice.” Helmand Residents Turn On the Lights According to the deputy head of Helmand’s power department, Engineer Mohammad Nabi, the Kajaki dam now produces 20 megawatts of power, about half of which goes to Kandahar. The rest goes to Helmand, with half for the capital Lashkar Gah and the rest distributed around the province. This is woefully inadequate for the province’s needs, he added. “The Kajaki dam cannot produce more than 20 megawatts because the equipment is old and damaged,” said Nabi. “Lashkar Gah alone needs 25 megawatts.” The result is that many districts are left in the dark. “We can’t supply power to every corner of Helmand,” said Nabi. Enterprising residents of Nad Ali, a rural district adjacent to Lashkar Gah, have taken matters into their own hands, installing small turbine systems in irrigation canals to generate power for their communities. “The turbine has changed our lives,” said 35-year-old Mullah Atiqullah, a resident of Chan Jir, in Nad Ali. “We use it to run fans in the summer and lighting in the winter. Many residents also watch television.” A turbine costs 320,000 Pakistani rupees – about 5,200 US dollars - and is shared among 20 families. “This is progress,” said Atiqullah. “There are television antennas on the roof of every house and light bulbs in people’s windows.” He complained that the government has been quick to cash in by levying arbitrary taxes. Leaked aid map reveals Afghanistan no-go zones Almost half of Afghanistan is now too dangerous for aid workers to operate in, a leaked UN map seen by The Times shows. In the past two years most foreign and Afghan staff have withdrawn from the southern half of the country, abandoning or scaling back development projects in rural areas and confining themselves to the cities or the less risky north. The pullback compounds the problems of the Government in Kabul, which has struggled to extend its authority to the regions and provinces, which are increasingly lawless or Taleban controlled. Development has always been touted as a key factor in Western efforts to win over Afghans and bolster support for President Karzai but in the past six years little has been done on the ground in the critical south and east. The failure to help ordinary Afghans or to rebuild areas damaged by fighting in provinces such as Helmand has caused huge resentment and is exploited by Taleban propaganda. AFGHANISTAN: Preparations under way for possible natural disasters this winter A national disaster management commission, comprised of several government and non-government organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan, has allocated US$2.5 million for possible disaster management operations during the winter months. In addition to this, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has agreed to pre-position about 22,000 metric tonnes of wheat in 18 vulnerable provinces before winter, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) said. “The allocated funds will be used for various purposes such as evacuation, aid delivery, road clearing, conducting rapid assessments, raising public awareness and improving coordination among aid agencies,” Abdul Matin Edrak, head of ANDMA, said in Kabul on 5 December. Afghan officials say this year they are better prepared to manage winter disasters than last year when flash floods and avalanches killed about 400 people, destroyed about 5,000 houses and affected over 45,000 families between December 2006 and May 2007, ANDMA’s statistics show. AFGHANISTAN: UN prepares for repatriation of over half a million refugees The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has asked for about US$100 million from donors for its Afghan operations in the coming two years, according to UNHCR Global Appeal 2008-2009. The UNHCR will need over $49 million in 2008 and over $50 million in 2009 to assist 540,000 Afghan refugees who are expected to return primarily from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. “This 2008-2009 edition is the first Global Appeal to cover a two-year period. It corresponds to our new biennial budget cycle which, among other advantages, should help the predictability of funding,” Antonio Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement. The new funding appeal shows a slight decrease in UNHCR’s budget for its Afghan operations. The UNHCR has a budget of about $52 million for its refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) support activities in 2007, Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Afghanistan said. RAF chiefs blame fuel errors for fatal crash For years the RAF had identified potentially fatal problems with its ageing fleet of Nimrod aircraft, originally designed to follow Soviet submarines over the North Atlantic and now stuffed with sophisticated electronic surveillance devices to watch or listen to the movements of the enemy on the ground. Yet the RAF board of inquiry into the crash of the Nimrod XV230 in southern Afghanistan on September 2 last year does not apportion blame. It was set up only to identify the likely cause of the crash - though it makes 33 separate recommendations. Instead it was left to the RAF's most senior officers, in unprecedented moves, to admit blame and identify a catalogue of failures in the way the planes were inspected and maintained. AFGHANISTAN: Hundreds flee fighting in Helmand Province Hundreds of people have left their homes in Musa Qala District, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, after Afghan and international forces intensified their joint military operations to drive Taliban insurgents out of the district, according to local residents and provincial officials. "Hundreds of startled locals have fled to nearby Sangeen and Garamsir districts," said Ahmad Shah, a resident of Musa Qala. "Some people have also taken their families to Lashkargah [the provincial capital of Helmand]," another local resident said. Provincial officials told IRIN hundreds of Musa Qala residents had fled their homes fearing fighting, but they declined to be identified. Health care program for Afghan women is halving maternal, neonatal death rates Conflict-torn Afghanistan has one of the world's worst health records, but in certain provinces, infant and maternal mortality rates have dropped by more than half during the course of a Community Health Project being delivered by global humanitarian agency Church World Service. CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan staff will hold briefings in New York, December 3, 4 and 7, on the agency's maternal and neonatal program approach and success and on the current state of health overall among Afghans who are refugees in Pakistan and those returning to or still displaced within Afghanistan. The Afghanistan health program representatives will also meet with USAID, other NGOs and Capitol Hill lawmakers in Washington this week. 'Danger for Aid Workers Increasing in Afghanistan' Worsening security in Afghanistan is pushing up the need for humanitarian help while increasing risks for aid workers, 41 of whom have been killed this year, a European Commission aid official said. Growing conflict linked to a Taleban-led insurgency has also put more places out of bounds for humanitarian groups and the return of thousands of exiles is adding to the pressure, Esko Kentrschynskyj said late Wednesday. "It doesn't look very bright from a humanitarian point of view," said Kentrschynskyj, the head of European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) unit for Asia and Central and South America.

Photo: A boy warms his foot on a fire in Kabul December 3, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (AFGHANISTAN)

Security Incidents on December 1, 2007

Four Taleban rebels were killed when their ammunition exploded during a wedding party they attended as special guests in a southern Afghan village, police said Saturday. Eight other Islamic rebels were injured in the blast in southern Zabul province late on Friday, provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqoub told AFP. It was not yet known what triggered the blast, he added.

Security Incidents on December 2, 2007

The local Taliban killed three people and injured five others in an attack on a cockfight fare at the Shene Ghundae village in Shabqadar tehsil's Sro Kaley area on Sunday.

Afghan and NATO-led troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents dead, an official said Sunday.

Security Incidents on December 3, 2007

In an air strike in the Musa Qaleh district, the coalition forces destroyed a vehicle and killed all the five occupants, including one presumed to be a senior Taliban commander, the statement said.

Suicide bomber kills 4, wounds 6 in Afghanistan A suicide bomber killed four Afghans including two policemen and wounded six others in Afghanistan's western province of Nimroz on Monday.

Afghanistan's law enforcing agencies have nabbed a local leader of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, National Security Directorate (NSD) said on Monday.

Thanks whisker for many of the links above.

REPORTS

How to Help Afghanistan people

AFGHANISTAN: Disabled people have tough time, lack education, jobs

Plagued by over two decades of war, poverty and underdevelopment, Afghanistan has about 800,000 people with disabilities out of an estimated total population of 24.5 million. Many of these are also illiterate, unemployed or lack access to health services and other opportunities. One in five households in Afghanistan has a disabled person, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Handicap International, an international non-governmental organisation campaigning on behalf of people living with disabilities. About 36 percent of disability in the country is physical, 26 percent sensorial, 20 percent epilepsy and 10 percent mental, the survey found. Over half of Afghanistan’s disabled population is under 19, say organisations helping people with disability. Over 72 percent of all disabled people over six have not received any education, Afghanistan’s National Disability Survey (NDS) said in 2005. “Many hurdles impede access to education for people with disability,” said Samiulhaq Sami, an adviser to the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled. “Physical, attitudinal and financial barriers mostly deny education to disabled people,” he added. Most schools and educational centres lack facilities for disabled people and access to buildings is also a major problem for those with movement problems.

Afghans more critical of U.S efforts

Afghans are increasingly critical of U.S. military efforts in their country, while support for the Taliban is on the rise in the violence-plagued southwest, according to a poll released today. The survey — conducted for ABC News, the BBC and the German public TV station ARD — noted that Afghans overwhelmingly prefer the government of President Hamid Karzai to the Taliban. But they also believe that government should negotiate with the Taliban to end the war. The poll has found that in southwestern Afghanistan, support for NATO-led forces has plummeted to 45 per cent this year, from 83 per cent a year ago. According to the survey, the civilian casualties blamed on the international forces is a prime complaint. This year has been the most violent since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and insurgency-related violence has killed nearly 6,200 people — a record number, according to an AP tally of figures from Afghan and western officials. More than 800 civilians have died in insurgency attacks and military operations, causing a decline in support for foreign troops and the western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Al-Qaeda stepping up activities in Afghanistan

The U.S. military is seeing early signs that al-Qaeda may be stepping up its activities in Afghanistan, a senior defence official revealed for the first time Monday as Secretary Robert Gates made his third trip to this country. Gates said he has not yet seen data on any uptick in al-Qaeda activity, but he said increasing levels of violence in the country are a concern and he plans to talk about it with other defence leaders from NATO nations operating in Afghanistan. “I'm not worried about a backslide as much as I am (about) how we continue the momentum going forward,” Gates told reporters in Djibouti on Monday just before he left for Kabul. “One of the clear concerns that we all have is that in the last two or three years there has been a continuing increase in the overall level of violence.” The senior defence official said the U.S. military is concerned and is looking for definitive signs of greater activity by al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, but the U.S. has not seen enough proof to draw any final conclusions. The official discussed the terrorist network on condition of anonymity because of the security concerns.

Photo: A coffin, above, with one of the laborers killed late Monday by an airstrike that hit the camp of a construction company that had been contracted by the U.S. Rafiq Shirzad/Reuters

Security Incidents on November 29, 2007

The school principal, Fazel Mir, was shot to death Wednesday morning in Khost province, said Wazir Pacha, spokesman for the provincial police.

In Ghazni province, meanwhile, Taliban insurgents ambushed police Wednesday in Khogyani district, and the ensuing clash killed one policeman and four suspected militants, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman.

Also Wednesday, militants in Paktia province attacked trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops, killing one driver, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor.

In neighboring Paktika province, a roadside bomb hit Afghan troops on Wednesday, leaving one soldier dead and three wounded, Darwesh said.

Afghan and foreign troops fought against Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in southern Afghanistan, leaving 30 fighters dead, an Afghan police chief said Thursday. The joint forces attacked militants hiding inside two compounds on Wednesday in the Zhari district of southern Kandahar province, said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. Troops detained 12 other militants, including group commanders fighting Afghan and foreign forces in the area, Saqib said. Five of the men detained were wounded during the clash.

Two Danish soldiers were killed Thursday in a gunbattle with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, the Scandinavian country's military said. The soldiers were part of a Danish reconnaissance unit that came under fire in Gereshk Valley in Helmand Province, the Army Operational Command said. The two were evacuated by helicopter to a Danish camp where they were pronounced dead.

Security Incidents on November 30, 2007

34 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes

Taliban militants beheaded seven policemen after overrunning their checkpoints in southern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.

Thanks whisker for many of the links above.

REPORTS

How to Help Afghanistan people

"A Crude War Of Revenge"

The United States is on its way to losing the war in Afghanistan. The eventual defeat will be political not military. Public sentiment is shifting in Europe. The people have had enough. They want to get out. When European troops withdrawal from Afghanistan; NATO will gradually unravel and the Transatlantic Alliance will collapse. That will be a disaster for America. The US will again be isolated by two great oceans. But not by choice. America's days as an empire will be over. That's why the US perseveres in Afghanistan even though there is nothing to gain. Pipelines corridors will continue to be blocked by enemy fighters for the foreseeable future. The guerrilla war will intensify. American fatalities will mount. Political opposition at home will grow. The Taliban can't be beaten. They've already taken over more than half the country and they are steadily advancing on the Capital. By next spring, there'll be fighting in the neighborhoods of Kabul, just like there is now in Baghdad. American troops will be barricaded in little Greenzones spread across the countryside. Karzai will be locked away in the Presidential Palace surrounded by American mercenaries.

Failure now approaches in Afghanistan

Winter approaches, and as many as 400,000 Afghans face starvation. The trouble is not an insufficient supply of food. There is no way to get food to those who need it. Attacks on aid workers and the hijacking of food convoys -- the United Nations' main feeding program says it has lost about 100,000 tons of food to attacks by insurgents and criminals so far this year -- have made it all but impossible to transport supplies along the main road connecting vast stretches of the country between Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west. Nothing exposes a hollow promise like the prospect of mass starvation. By now, six years after the United States and its Western allies launched military operations to avenge the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and free Afghanistan from the grip of the Taliban, humanitarian workers surely should not be forced to give up on feeding the desperate. But this is only one measure of our catastrophic failure.

Leave Afghanistan, urges Bin Laden

The al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, called on European governments to end their military cooperation with the US in Afghanistan in a new audio message broadcast today. With his fifth public message this year, bin Laden sought to exploit tensions between European capitals and Washington over the ongoing Nato military campaign in Afghanistan. He reiterated that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US, not the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at the time. "The American tide is ebbing," he said in a message addressed directly to the European public. "It is better for you to restrain your politicians who are thronging the steps of the White House." In a quick rebuttal to bin Laden's audio message, parts of which were carried on al-Jazeera television, the Afghan government said bin Laden had no right to interfere with its sovereignty. It also rejected his accusations that Afghan civilians were being killed by Nato troops, saying they were being killed by extremists. His message came as Poland is reconsidering its commitment of 1,200 troops to the Nato mission, following the election of a new government.

AFGHANISTAN: Red Crescent calls for closer cooperation with UN, donors

The growing humanitarian needs of Afghans must come ahead of political and strategic priorities and the UN and other international donors ought to “better recognise” the pivotal role of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) when dealing with humanitarian emergencies in Afghanistan, Fatima Gailani, president of the ARCS, told IRIN on 29 November. Lack of resources, funding and professional capacity has complicated ARCS’s ability to respond effectively to overwhelming humanitarian needs across the country. “Afghanistan’s humanitarian response capacity has remained very weak and vulnerable despite large amounts of aid money spent by various donors,” Gailani said. Established in the 1940s, the ARCS has about 37,000 volunteers country-wide and is involved in different humanitarian operations, including health services, landmine awareness, disaster response and relief activities. The ARCS acknowledges support and assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the past 15 years, but criticises the UN for lack of “interest, coordination and support”.

Afghan agency rejects claims of prisoner abuse

Afghanistan's intelligence agency has rejected allegations that prisoners transferred to its custody by NATO nations are ill-treated and tortured. The agency said Wednesday it had looked into the charges in an Amnesty International report this month and found they were based on interviews with opponents of the government and on incorrect data. "This report is baseless and not based on accurate information," Afghanistan National Directorate of Security (ANDS) spokesman Sayed Ansari told reporters. London-based Amnesty said prisoners captured by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and transferred to Afghan custody faced whipping, beatings, exposure to extreme cold and food deprivation.

Bin Laden’s Call Ridiculous: Karzai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday called “ridiculous” a call attributed to Osama Bin Laden for Europe to break ranks with the United States and quit the fight against extremists in Afghanistan. In a statement attributed to the Al-Qaeda chief and aired Thursday, Bin Laden also said he was behind the 9/11 attacks — which led to the invasion of Afghanistan — and Afghans “had no knowledge whatsoever of these events.” The remarks were “ridiculous and contrary to Islamic culture and human values,” a statement from Karzai’s office said. “Osama Bin Laden under no name has the right to comment about Afghanistan and the sacrifices Afghans have given,” it said. By “imposing terrorism” on Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda chief was one of the reasons thousands of people had been killed and displaced in this country, the statement said. “The people of Afghanistan consider Bin Laden a criminal and the enemy of security and development of their country and put no value to his comments,” it said. They also know their “enemies and friends very well,” it said, and had solid ties with their international allies in efforts to rebuild the country.

Army Social Scientists Calm Afghanistan, Make Enemies at Home

Zenia Helbig was a little surprised when she got a call last March asking her to join a controversial U.S. Army program to embed social scientists into combat units. She was glad to hear from retired Colonel Steve Fondacaro, the chief of the Human Terrain Team program. But Helbig, then a University of Virginia graduate student, thought she was underqualified to join the project. The job description had called for a Ph.D. with Arabic language skills; Helbig was still working on her doctorate. And while she spoke five languages -- and read a sixth -- Arabic wasn't one of them. "Within five minutes, though, he offered me a position," she recalls. "I was confused." Over the course of the next nine months, Helbig was hired for -- and suddenly suspended from -- the Human Terrain Team, or HTT, program. She asked Congress to investigate her firing. And, now, on Thursday, she's joining up with the program's most bitter foes, to fight the project she once was flattered to be considered for.

Quote: At a demonstration by unemployed schoolteachers in Mazar-e-Sharif in mid-April, the mood of desperation was obvious. One protester who did not want to be named told IWPR he was quite prepared to join the Taleban. "If the government can’t employ us, I will have to join any group that will pay me so that I can bring in food for my children. If your children are hungry, you will blow yourself up in a suicide attack rather than hear them crying for food," he said.