Photo: Relatives surround the dead bodies of Afghans who were allegedly killed by U.S. and Afghan forces during an operation in Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007. A nighttime raid on the compound in eastern Afghanistan sparked a gunbattle that left three people dead, including two children, while six policemen were killed in clashes with the Taliban in the west, officials said Thursday. AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Security Incidents on November 1, 2007

Fifty Taliban killed in western Afghanistan: police Afghan forces claim they killed 50 Taliban in Farah province in the third day of fighting there. They also report that five Afghan soldiers and seven police have been killed so far.

A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by U.S. and Afghan troops sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children, and the military said Thursday it is investigating the deaths. They were fired upon late Wednesday in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said. A woman and another child were wounded, he said. A policeman also was wounded during the raid, said Ghafoor Khan, a spokesman for provincial police chief. Three other men from the house were detained by U.S. troops, Khan said.

Also Thursday, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district, in the southern Helmand province, killing five officers and wounding three others, said Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief. There were no reports of militant casualties, but authorities recovered one of the vehicles used in the attack and an assault rifle, Andiwal said.

In western Farah province, six police officers were killed and two others wounded, and 14 Afghan army troops were missing after clashes with Taliban militants on Wednesday, said governor Muhaidin Baluch. A large number of Taliban have crossed into Farah from neighboring Helmand province and were still in control of Gulistan district, Baluch said.

Security Incidents on November 2, 2007

Twenty killed including two NATO force soldiers, three wounded in eastern Afghan attack. Officials in Afghanistan say insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in the eastern part of the country leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded. They also say a coalition airstrike in the south killed 18 suspected militants on Friday.

Afghanistan: 'Key' Taliban-Allied Commander Killed by Afghan security forces and US troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Afghan Troops battle Taliban for fifth day in west of the country on Friday for the control of two districts.

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REPORTS

How to Help Afghanistan people

2 children die in US raid in Afghanistan

A nighttime raid in eastern Afghanistan by U.S. and Afghan troops sparked a gunbattle that killed three people, including two children, and the military said Thursday it was investigating the deaths. Civilian casualties have incited resentment and demonstrations against U.S. and NATO forces, though officials blame militants who use civilian homes as cover during clashes. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with Western forces to do all they can to prevent such deaths. The latest civilian casualties came as U.S. and Afghan troops raided a compound suspected of harboring militants belonging to a suicide bombing network. They were fired on as they approached late Wednesday in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said. A woman and another child were wounded, he said.

AFGHANISTAN: Training Cops Not To Be Robbers

In a mud-walled village on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Qalat, police checkpoint commander Abdul Rasool complains he is tired of his country's six-year war and longs for peace. Despite Rasool's appeal, he represents what the U.S. military thinks is wrong with Afghanistan's police, a force wracked by corruption that was long neglected as the army took front and centre in securing the nation's borders and fighting the insurgency. Standing nearby, U.S. army Capt. Dave Perry points out that trucks are being "destroyed" close to the checkpoint the Afghan commander supervises. Perry mentors the Afghan police and is the project officer for a checkpoint consolidation plan which aims to clean up police crime in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province. Rasool, a slight, sun-weathered man appearing older than his 27 years, seems oblivious to the veiled accusation. "Maybe the situation is getting bad because we have a lot of checkpoints now, so more Taliban come," he responded. And the Taliban have been known to turn up at any time. Minutes before IPS spoke with him, rattled Afghan police officers returned from a firefight with the Taliban to brief their commander at a nearby checkpoint on Highway 1, the province's main thoroughfare. The police are the insurgency's number-one target, according to U.S. military commanders.

Japan pulls out of Afghan mission

Government orders navy to end its mission in support of coalition forces after failing to secure opposition backing to renew the deployment before today's midnight deadline. Since 2001, Japan has provided about 126m gallons of fuel to US, British and other vessels operating in the Indian Ocean. The two Japanese ships on duty - the supply ship Tokiwa and the destroyer Kirisame - are expected back home in about three weeks. Opposition parties, which gained control of the upper house of Japan's parliament in July, said the mission did not have a UN mandate and possibly violated the country's pacifist constitution, which severely limits the military's overseas role.

AFGHANISTAN: Civilians flee as NATO-Afghan forces fight insurgents in Kandahar

Civilians are fleeing two districts in the southern province of Kandahar as NATO and Afghan forces battle Taliban insurgents who have moved into the area, according to local residents and provincial officials. “Hundreds of people have already swarmed into Kandahar city, leaving their homes and livelihoods in Arghandab and Shah Wali Kot districts,” Najib Barithi, provincial head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), told IRIN from Kandahar city on 1 November 2007. Many displaced families have sought temporary refuge with relatives while others have set up tents around Kandahar city, Barithi added. Officials called an emergency meeting on 31 October to organise a humanitarian response after displaced families approached the ARCS office and other government bodies for assistance, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, chairman of the provincial council. A rapid assessment will be conducted in the coming days to determine urgent needs and help aid organisations to respond, officials said.

Taliban overrun another Afghan district

TALIBAN fighters have overrun a second district in western Afghanistan, a district governor said today, warning the rebels could be planning to sweep into his area. The police and administration heads of the strategic Bakwa district in Farah province had fled after days of attacks by scores of rebels, the official said, after the militants took the adjacent Gulistan district late on Monday. Taliban insurgents have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan, including Bakwa, but have been easily ejected by the international militaries here to aid the country's weak security forces. They have, however, held the district of Musa Qala, close to Gulistan, since February and the area is considered a Taliban base.

NATO General Sees Potential for Failure in Afghanistan

One of Britain's most outspoken military officers issued stark warnings about the potential for failure in Afghanistan at a forum hosted by the Canadian high commission Thursday. Lt.-Gen. David Richards, who commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from May, 2006 to February, 2007, said he remains optimistic that western allies will ultimately stabilize the war-ravaged country and keep it out of Taliban hands. But Mr. Richards said the military's poppy eradication campaign could backfire, NATO's efforts in the country lack focus, and there aren't nearly enough boots on the ground in Afghanistan's incendiary southern region, where Canadian, U.S., British and Dutch forces are concentrated.

Afghanistan Complains to Iran Over Death Penalty, Refugees

Afghanistan said Friday it had summoned Iran's representative here to complain about reports of Afghan minors being sentenced to death for drug smuggling and the forced expulsion of refugees. Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi also raised concerns at the meeting on Thursday about claims that Afghan nationals were beaten up in Tehran, the foreign ministry said in a statement. It is not unusual in Iran for drug smugglers of Afghan origin to be executed in border provinces. An unconfirmed report late October cited an Afghan human rights group saying a 17-year-old may have been hanged for smuggling 1.5 kilograms (three pounds) of heroin. Farahi said "these children are being misused by drug smugglers and their conviction is contrary to human rights, international standards and the very good relations between two countries," according to the statement.