Photo: An Afghan vendor stands in front of his wares of drums and riddles as he waits for customers in the city of Herat, south west of Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)

Security Incidents on November 18, 2007

"At least 100 Taliban militants have been killed and injured in the clean up operation in the Jalai district so far," provincial police chief Syed Aqa Saqib told Xinhua, adding "25 bodies of insurgents were buried in one grave in the Narghan village of Jalai."

Five policemen, who have been captured by Taliban insurgents two months ago, were found dead by hanging on a tree Saturday in Dihrawud district of southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, provincial police chief said on Sunday.

Security Incidents on November 19, 2007

At least six police officers are dead and 14 other people are wounded after a suicide bomber struck outside a governor's residence in Afghanistan. Officials say the bomber set off his explosives as people were on their way to work. The governor of Nimroz province says he was the target of the attack, and that his son was among those killed.

Security Incidents on November 20, 2007

Afghan and coalition troops killed a large group of Taliban fighters in a battle that involved several air strikes in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, the US-led force said. A "company-sized" group of Taliban guerrillas ambushed a combined Afghan and coalition patrol in the southern province of Uruzgan. It did not say if any civilians were killed.

Taliban insurgents have captured around 10 people allegedly belonging to a private security company in Garmser district of southern Afghan Helmand province, police said Tuesday. The incident occurred on Monday night and the people had been providing protection service for a foreign building company working on a road linking southern province Kandahar to western Herat, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Xinhua.

As thirty-five more persons including 16 Taliban and seven soldiers were killed in fresh clashes between the security forces and militants thousands of people fled the troubled areas in Swat on Monday.

Thanks whisker for many of the links above.

REPORTS

How to Help Afghanistan people

U.N. report: Afghan bodyguards shot children

An internal U.N. report obtained Monday said bodyguards protecting parliamentarians fired indiscriminately into a crowd after a suicide bombing and that children bore "the brunt of the onslaught." The report also said there was no evidence to show authorities had tried to identify those behind the shootings or bring them "to account for their crimes." The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said the report is one of many conflicting views inside its organization and has not been officially endorsed. The report by the U.N. Department of Safety and Security, obtained by The Associated Press, said it was not clear how many people died in the suicide bombing and how many died from subsequent gunfire after the Nov. 6 attack in Baghlan province. The report said that as many as two-thirds of the 77 killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire; however, some estimates said the number of people shot was much lower.

Losing Afghanistan, One Civilian at a Time

The road between the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and the Pakistani border is one of the busiest in the country, congested with gaily painted trucks, battered taxis, buses packed to the rafters and Afghans riding bikes. One morning in early March, a suicide bomber plowed a Toyota packed with explosives into the middle of a U.S. convoy patrolling that road, killing himself and injuring a Marine. That was bad enough, but what may be the key to Afghanistan's future was what happened next. As pedestrians scattered in the resulting confusion and chaos, other Marines opened fire as their convoy sped away, shooting at vehicles and pedestrians over the course of some 10 miles, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. They left at least 12 civilians dead in their wake and injured dozens more. "They opened fire on everybody," one wounded bystander told a reporter, "the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot." A court of inquiry is scheduled to convene next month at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to determine whether the Marines acted improperly. Investigations by the U.S. military and the Afghan human rights commission have already concluded that the American convoy was not fired upon after the suicide attack.

The incident near Jalalabad is part of a disturbing larger pattern in Afghanistan. Last year was the worst year for civilian casualties since the fall of the country's cruel Taliban regime, and 2007 is shaping up to be even worse. The most alarming point: As of July, more civilians had died as a result of NATO, U.S. and Afghan government firepower than had died due to the Taliban. According to U.N. figures, 314 civilians were killed by international and Afghan government forces in the first six months of this year, while 279 civilians were killed by the insurgents. So why on Earth are the NATO and U.S. forces and their Afghan allies killing more civilians than the Taliban?

U.N. blames all sides for Afghan civilian deaths

United Nations Humans Rights envoy Louise Arbour criticized both Taliban insurgents and international troops in Afghanistan on Tuesday for killing civilians. There has been a steady escalation of violence in Afghanistan this year, and the United Nations estimates the number of security incidents has risen by 20 to 30 percent from last year. More than 200 civilians have been killed by Taliban suicide bombs this year, and overall some 1,200 civilians have died, about half in operations by Afghan and international troops. Afghanistan's biggest problems -- poverty, drug production, corruption and weak government -- are all linked to the lack of security due to the Taliban insurgency. "Some seem to think that human rights are a luxury that can be enjoyed only after security is ensured. But the major sources of insecurity in the country stem from human rights violations or the failure effectively to address the violations of the past," Arbour told a news conference in the capital, Kabul.

Afghan governor says suicide blast kills seven including son

A suicide attack outside the office of the governor of Afghanistan's southwestern Nimroz province on Monday killed one of his adult sons and six of his bodyguards, the governor told AFP. The blast happened at the gate of the provincial headquarters in Zaranj city soon after the governor entered. Nimroz is a relatively peaceful province sharing a long border with Iran. "Just as I got into my office today, there was a suicide attack outside the compound. Apparently I was the target of the suicide attacker," Governor Ghulam Dastageer told AFP. "Six of my bodyguards and my son were martyred in the suicide attack," he added. "Fourteen other people, including police and civilians, were wounded."

Helmand Buries Politician Killed in Suicide Blast

The wailing of mourners could be heard all through the ancient village of Qala-ye-Bost, where hundreds had gathered to pay their respects to the body of Engineer Abdul Matin, a local member of parliament killed by a massive suicide bomb in northern Afghanistan last week. Matin and five other members of the Afghan parliament were among dozens of people killed in the November 6 attack. The investigation is still ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that a suicide bomber blew himself up while the visiting politicians were meeting a group of local schoolchildren at Baghlan’s sugar factory. The final death toll may never be known, but officials put the number of dead at close to 60, with 150 injured, making this one of the bloodiest attacks since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. There is no shortage of suspects, but the Taleban, who often rush to take responsibility for incidents of this kind, denied involvement. Qari Yusuf, spokesman for the Taleban in southern Afghanistan, told IWPR that he condemned the attack and grieved for the victims.

Afghan boys suffer mental scars after suicide bomb

Afghan schoolboy Naqibullah fears closing his eyes. Each time he tries to go to sleep, he relives a suicide bombing that killed dozens of his classmates. "I dream about the attack. I see the wounded and dead bodies around me," said Naqibullah, 14, who was wounded in the blast two weeks ago in the northern Afghan town of Baghlan. The bomber blew himself up as boys from a high school lined up to greet a group of parliamentarians visiting a sugar factory. Survivors are suffering dangerous psychological scars, doctors say. Khalilullah Narmgoy, the head of the local hospital, said most of the children, while slowly recovering from their physical wounds, needed long-term psychological care. "Most of these children are suffering from depression," he said. "I, as a doctor, who was standing 15 meters (yards) from the attack, have been affected by it. I was shocked by it and now dream about dangerous things." The blast killed 72 people, including 52 schoolboys and five of their teachers. Six parliamentarians also died. "I panic badly. I dream about very dangerous things and wake up shouting," said Lotfullah, 14, who is also being treated for wounds in the Baghlan hospital.

Afghan boy dancers sexually abused by former warlords

They are known as "bacha bereesh," boys without beards, teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties in northern Afghanistan. It's an age old practice that has led to some of the boy dancers being turned into sex slaves by wealthy and powerful patrons, often former warlords, who dress the boys up as girls, shower them with gifts and keep them as "mistresses." Afghan police are battling to crackdown on the practice which has angered Islamic clerics who say those involved should be stoned for sodomy, forbidden under Islamic law. In a society where the sexes are strictly segregated, it is common for men to dance for other men at weddings in Afghanistan. But in northern Afghanistan, former warlords and mujahideen commanders have taken that a step further with competitions for their dancing boys. "Every boy tries to be the first. They are dressed in women's clothes, have bells on their feet and have artificial breasts," said Mohammad Yawar, a former mujahideen fighter against the Taliban and resident of the northern town of Pul-e Khumri.

Nobody guarding Afghanistan’s guards

The Afghan government and its international partners are struggling to bolster the country’s security forces, fighting the twin problems of boosting the numbers of the national army and trying to disband illegal armed groups. Yet, an unmonitored, unregulated and unauthorized force is on the streets, not just under the noses of authorities but also hired and legitimized by those working on building the security sector. As many as 28,000 armed personnel are hired by private security companies (PSCs), which have been operating as a lucrative business in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001, providing protection to foreigners and elite Afghans, guarding institutions, homes and individuals. The number of armed contractors is more than half the Afghan National Army, which is estimated at between 35,000 to 50,000, and could be larger if the numbers of “irregular” forces are added to the ranks of legal contractors.

Drones Will Replace Manned Aircraft Squadron in Afghanistan

Yet this is already clear: "As an attack platform, it allows me to do several things, he said. "Number one, I can take and airplane out and fly it for up to 20 hours. I can range the battlespace at more than three times the speed of the Predator. I can carry six munitions on the airplane. The beauty of it is," he continued, "that when the weapons are gone, you can keep that airplane up for a long time and use it for that persistent stare." The Reapers are controlled by operators from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

The Taleban’s Northern Front

While the attention of the Afghan government and the media is focused on major battles in the south of the country, the Taleban are making major headway in a northern region. Badghis, a north-western province wedged between Herat and Faryab, has been the scene of heavy fighting for the past two months, and the insurgents have occupied three of the province’s seven districts. They have also established intelligence and operational networks in most district centres. This was the first of the north-western provinces to fall to the Taleban in 1997. Now the insurgents are looking to repeat their earlier success, using Badghis as a launchpad for operations in the provinces further east, which include Jowzjan, Balkh, Takhar, and Badakhshan. In Faryab, directly to the north of Badghis, the Taleban have established a foothold in mountainous areas, and are trying to expand their networks there as well. The Taleban have launched several sorties in both provinces in the past two months and claim that the Bala Murghab, Ghormach and Qades districts of Badghis are largely in their hands.

AFGHANISTAN: Fifth least developed country in the world

Afghanistan has dropped a place in a UN global human development index, which ranks countries based on their citizens’ economic income, life expectancy and literacy rate, according to the country’s National Human Development Report (NHDR) for 2007. Afghanistan was ranked 174th out of 178 countries - ahead of only Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Niger. In Afghanistan’s first-ever human development report, which was released in 2004, the country was ranked 173rd and was widely expected to improve its human development indicators. Afghans live almost nine years less than people in other Least Developed Countries, the report’s findings show. “Life expectancy [in Afghanistan] has dropped from 44.5 years in 2003 to 43.1 years in 2005,” states the report, which was released on 18 November in Kabul. The report acknowledges Afghanistan’s steady progress in improving its health services and reducing child and maternal mortality figures (1,600 deaths per 100,000 births), but warns that over 30 Afghans still die from tuberculosis every day.

AFGHANISTAN: Conflict-affected displacement “major” humanitarian challenge - Afghan Red Crescent

Afghan civilians displaced by armed conflict in volatile parts of the country have become a “major” humanitarian challenge, the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) told IRIN on 20 November. Due to access restrictions there are no reliable statistics about the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan, but in a report to the UN Security Council on 28 October the Secretary-General said about 44,000 Afghans were displaced as a result of fighting in the first half of 2007. “While this country does not have the luxury to prioritise one among several of its humanitarian problems, in general, conflict-affected displacement has become a major humanitarian challenge,” said Fatema Gailani, president of the ARCS. According to Gailani, thousands of civilians have been displaced in southern, southwestern and southeastern parts of the country because warring parties had allegedly breached international humanitarian law and not paid adequate heed to civilian protection. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says displacement of populations affected by armed conflict and other causes is a major humanitarian issue in the country. However, Salvatore Lombardo, head of the UNHCR in Afghanistan, said it was difficult to determine the magnitude of the problem.

AFGHANISTAN: Oxfam calls for aid to be more effective, transparent

Over US$15 billion of international aid money spent in Afghanistan in the past six years has not met the urgent humanitarian and development needs of the Afghan people because aid has either been insufficient or delivered ineffectively, a British charity organisation, Oxfam GB, said in a report. "Too much aid to Afghanistan is provided in ways that are ineffective or inefficient," said the report which was submitted to a committee of the House of Commons, in London, last week and made publicly available on 20 November. According to Oxfam, a big portion of the overall aid to Afghanistan "is absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, by non-Afghan resources and by high expatriate salaries and living costs". "Each full-time expatriate consultant costs up to half a million dollars a year," the report has found. The Oxfam report points to poor coordination among donors and a lack of transparency in aid spending which badly affects aid effectiveness. It also mentions weak implementing capacity, corruption and lack of resources in Afghan government institutions, exacerbating aid inefficiencies.

Afghanistan trailing badly on development: study

Afghanistan is fifth last on a global index of human development, according to a report released Sunday, despite billions of dollars in aid and help since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. The country's ranking on the Human Development Index -- a composite survey of education, longevity and economic performance -- is the lowest outside Africa, according to the Afghanistan Human Development Report 2007. The score was fractionally lower than that in the last such report, which was in 2004, but officials said this was more due to changes in data than a reflection of a real decline. Accurate statistics are difficult to find in Afghanistan, where even the size of the population is not clear. The report urged donors to fulfil aid commitments, adding that since 2006 they have contributed or pledged 10 billion dollars, "only half of what the government believes is needed to implement its development strategy." Afghanistan's position of 174th out of 178 placed it above only Niger (the lowest), Sierra Leone, Mali and Burkina Faso, and it was second to last on a separate ranking reflecting inequalities between men and women.

The Limits of Afghan Press Freedom

No reporters have been to Musa Qala since the district centre fell to the Taleban in February. It was a difficult decision for us to go there, but we had made contact with the Taleban spokesman, Qari Yusuf, and he told us it would be okay. We left Lashkar Gah around noon, and made a stop in Greshk, 30 kilomteres away. When we got there, my colleague made a call to our Taleban contact Taza Gul, who was going to be our guide. He took us to his house, about two km away from the centre of Greshk. We went by motorcycle. It was too far to walk because Taza Gul, who looked about 45, had an artificial leg. I think he probably lost it during the Jihad against the Soviets. I was very afraid as we got to the area. When we entered the house, I saw a television set in the corner of the room. Our host told us that this was a centre for controlling the media. The Taleban watch all of the broadcasts, and if they see something they don’t like, they send a warning to the reporter. They tell him that if they arrest him, they will not let him live.