Iran Support for Taliban ‘Pretty Limited’: Gates

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday downplayed Iran's influence on Afghanistan, but the war of words escalated, with Iran's president promising that the region's people would "cut your hands off of the Persian Gulf oil." Visiting a military base that houses an air refueling wing serving Afghanistan, Gates said Iranian support for the Taliban in Afghanistan is "pretty limited" — so far. Gates noted his public exchange of barbs with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week over which country is doing harm in Afghanistan. He had accused Tehran of undermining U.S. and NATO efforts by helping the Taliban. "I have talked about Iran playing a double game in Afghanistan, wanting a good relationship with the Afghan government and wanting to make our lives harder," he said. "At this point the level of their effort I think is not a major problem for us," Gates said. "The level of their support for the Taliban, so far as best we can tell, has been pretty limited. I was just trying to express the hope that it wouldn't get any worse." The Pentagon asked press traveling with Gates not to name the military base. In Riyadh on Wednesday, Gates asked Saudi leaders for help winning wide backing for strong economic penalties against Tehran. Ahmadinejad responded Thursday, saying, "The Iranian nation will not allow the world power (the U.S.) to corrupt and create chaos in the Persian Gulf." "You are wrong if you think that you will be able to dominate the oil of Iraq and the Persian Gulf through deploying military forces," Ahmadinejad said. "The young people of the region will cut your hands off of the Persian Gulf oil." "Pakistanis, Afghans, the Persian Gulf states should be watchful," Ahmadinejad told a crowd at the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. "They do not serve anybody." 'Long-standing friendship' On Thursday, making the last stop of a weeklong trip to Afghanistan and the Middle East, Gates was sitting down with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, although flashy Dubai is better known in the West. First, Gates toured an Abu Dhabi mosque that is the third largest in the world. The sprawling white building was built with the vast oil wealth of the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. defense chief usually skips tourist attractions when he travels, but his visit to the Sheik Zayed mausoleum and mosque was meant as a gesture of respect to one of the United States' most steadfast friends in the Arab world. "For many years the United States and the United Arab Emirates have been close partners," Gates said outside the mosque. His meetings Thursday are part of "the deep and long-standing friendship between our two nations," he said. UAE is also friendly with Iran, although the Shiite state's rising influence and expanded ballistic missile capability are a source of growing unease. The Emirates sit just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, and they have vast trade with Tehran even as the predominantly Sunni Arab Middle East — and Persian Gulf nations in particular — are wary of the rising influence of the Shiite republic. Arab states warn of the potential for a nuclear arms race in the Gulf region if Iran develops a bomb, and see Iran's expanding missile capability as an even more immediate threat. The United Arab Emirates is one of four Gulf countries that host U.S. Patriot missile batteries, U.S. military officials said on condition of anonymity because some aspects of the defensive strategy are classified. The Patriot missile systems, which originally were deployed in the region to shoot down aircraft, have now been upgraded to hit missiles in flight, such as those that Iran might one day fire. (AP)

US State Department findings freely posted on website while Tories refuse to release Canadian documents
OTTAWA - Torture and other serious abuses remain commonplace in Afghanistan prisons, says the U.S. State Department's 2009 report on Afghan human rights. "Human rights organizations report local authorities tortured and abused detainees. Torture and abuse methods included ... beating by stick, scorching bar or iron bar, flogging by cable, battering by rod, electric shock, deprivation of sleep, water and food, abusive language, sexual humiliation and rape," says the report released Thursday. The 25-page report, available on the department's website, comes at a time when the Canadian government is refusing to release documents that opposition critics say may shed light on how much Canadian officials knew between 2005-07 of allegations of torture and abuse of prisoners they handed over to Afghan officials. Conservative cabinet ministers, government officials and military brass have argued there were no credible allegations of torture, despite information such as current and previous reports from the U.S. State Department. NDP defense critic MP Jack Harris said it was sad to think the U.S. government openly provides information on torture while the federal government refuses to even release independent human rights reports, citing confidentiality. "They should be public documents just the like the Americans' are ...," Harris said. Stuart Hendin, a University of Ottawa expert on armed conflict and human rights law, said the U.S. report is clear that Afghan detention centers are fraught with problems, "and it is difficult to comprehend why the U.S. State Department can make that finding and somehow our military leadership seems to take the position there were no problems." The Conservatives have appointed retired Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci to vet secret documents to determine what can be released, but the government is defying a Commons order to turn them over in the meantime. (Agencies)

KANDAHAR - Canadian soldiers are repairing a key bridge on the road between Kandahar city and Pakistan after it was badly damaged by a suicide bomber's blast earlier this month. Canadian soldiers repair a key bridge on the road between Kandahar city and Pakistan on Thursday, March 11, 2010 that was badly damaged when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle on it while attacking coalition troops earlier this month. The March 1 attack on a convoy of NATO-led troops killed four Afghan civilians and one foreign soldier. The attacker struck the convoy on a bridge spanning the Tarnak river, which is several kilometers away from Kandahar Airfield where Canadian and other coalition troops are based. For the past two days, Canadian troops have been putting metal replacement pieces over the blown-up sections of the bridge. "What the plan is, as we're speaking, is to over-gap that was damaged or partially destroyed by the vehicle-borne IED," said Warrant Officer Eric Rousseau. The bridge itself is 250 to 300 meters long. The Canadians are replacing a 42-metre section damaged by the blast. Earlier in the week, Afghan and Canadian soldiers assembled pieces of the bridge within the relative safe confines of Kandahar Airfield. Those pieces were then trucked out to the bridge site. Although Afghan soldiers were involved in the initial stage of bridge building, Canadian and Afghan journalists who visited the bridge site Thursday saw only Canadian troops doing the repair work. The military expects to finish repairing the bridge in the next few days. Several countries share responsibility for protecting the bridge and the land around Kandahar Airfield. A British infantry unit protects the land around the airport. Afghan police carry out most road checks, while sweeps along major highways for roadside bombs are done by a U.S. army Stryker brigade. (CP)

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's unprecedented crackdown on its homegrown Taliban may have weakened the militants but the insurgency is still a threat to the unpopular U.S.-backed government. The stakes are high and nuclear-armed Pakistan is being pulled in several directions. Washington wants the Pakistani military to hunt down Afghan Taliban group’s crossing over the border to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But Pakistan is already stretched against its own militants, who have a history of bouncing back and have started to carry out suicide bombings again after a relatively quiet period. "It seems to me that this is a tactical retreat and the structure and the militant network still exists," said Khadim Hussain, a researcher with the private Arayana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. "There is a relative lull in militant attacks but there is a question mark about how long this lull will last." The battle is draining Pakistan's sluggish economy, already battered by chronic power cuts and starved of foreign investment. Pakistani officials are boasting of major successes; despite the fact militants have demonstrated they will attack all kinds of targets -- from a volleyball game to the headquarters of the powerful military -- to destabilize the state. "We have shaken them, they are running helter-skelter. They are on the run," said Fiaz Toru, a top home ministry official in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), home to most militants. ELUSIVE TALIBAN Granted, Taliban bases were destroyed in a major offensive in South Waziristan on the Afghan border and the military said it had cleared insurgents out of Bajaur, another Taliban sanctuary. But officials acknowledge the Taliban often melt away during offensives, sometimes returning to areas taken over by the state. They fled the assault in South Waziristan, for instance, and regrouped in other tribal areas such as North Waziristan. It's a familiar pattern. The army launched an offensive a year ago to clear Taliban fighters out of Swat Valley, from where the militants had pushed out towards the capital, Islamabad. Luckily for Pakistan's military, the public started backing the state in the battle. This was because they were angered by the Taliban's austere version of Islamic rule involving public executions and whippings for those deemed immoral. But the Swat crackdown also raised concerns that militants would simply flee to Mansehra district, just to the east. Suspected Islamist militants stormed an office of a U.S.-based, Christian aid agency near Mansehra on Wednesday, killing six Pakistani aid workers after singling them out and then bombing the building. Deep down, Pakistani officials may not be as confident as their boasts suggest, even in Peshawar, a key city on the road to Afghanistan where security has been tightened and security checkpoints abound. "We have made Peshawar comparatively peaceful but our main concern is now that they may be running sleeper cells in southern and eastern districts of the province," said a senior security official involved in the anti-Taliban crackdown. More than 700 civilians were killed in attacks in NWFP in 2009, most of them in its capital Peshawar, eroding confidence in the country's security forces. On Thursday, a roadside bomb killed another four people in the city. A new push by the Taliban, which staged a suicide bombing that killed 13 people at a police intelligence office in eastern Lahore city on Wednesday, would renew pressure on weak President Asif Ali Zardari, who can't afford new political crises. Such a push may not be possible for now. It is widely believed that Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a U.S. drone aircraft missile strike in January, a big blow to the Taliban. Nevertheless, analysts say the Taliban are capable of producing one leader after another. Mehsud's predecessor was also killed in a drone attack. Despite ongoing security challenges, Washington expects Pakistan also to go after Afghan Taliban groups who cross the border to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan has arrested the Afghan Taliban number two, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, earning praise from the Americans. But an all-out siege against all Afghan militant groups would open new fronts and likely cost more Pakistani lives. Hundreds of police and army troops have died in the fight against the Pakistani Taliban in the past year. "We can't afford to do things in a hurry. We have to move at our own pace. While we are consolidating our gains in South Waziristan and Swat we can't afford to go to North Waziristan right away," said a senior security official. (Reuters)

PUL-I-ALAM - The US forces released eight Afghan prisoners, hailing from Logar province, from their detention centre at the Bagram airfield in Parwan province on Thursday, officials said. Officials in Logar said most of the freed detainees had been captured during different raids and air-strikes by foreign troops. One of the released persons, Haji Muhammad Katal, 46, said he spent more than one year in prison at the Bagram. He said he was among 20 people detained by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) a year back. However, he said the 19 others inmates were freed 19 days after their detention with the help of tribal elders. To a question that why he was detained, Katal said he did nothing that could lead to his arrest, but it was a result of wrong information given to the troops. The detainees were treated well by the troops who did not humiliate anyone during their detention, he revealed. Katal said there were many inmates from Logar awaiting their release. “Most of the prisoners have spent three to four years since they were taken to the jail,” he added. Logar governor, Gen. Attiqullah Lodin, said that the detainees were released in light of a decision made by provincial officials and tribal elders a month back. He hoped all the captives from Logar would soon be freed from the Bagram base. “In order to maintain security in Logar, we have suggested the coalition troops to free all the 42 prisoners held at the Bagram airbase,” Lodin said, who added a dozen more prisoners would be released next week. “Most of the inmates being held at the Bagram jail are religious scholars, tribal elders and innocent people,” said Alhaj Abdul Hakim, member of provincial council.” Their release will help bring stability to the province and will result in reducing the gap between the government and the people,” he opined. (Pajhwok)

LONDON - US soldiers will take over security from British troops in the Musa Qala area of southern Afghanistan as Washington builds up its force as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy, Britain said today. The British government said the move was a first step in a ''rebalancing'' of forces in the southern province of Helmand to ensure NATO forces are fully effective in countering Taliban insurgents and protecting civilians. Helmand is the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between US and NATO forces and a resurgent Taliban. About 500 British troops based in the Musa Qala district, in the northeast of the province, will move in the coming weeks to central Helmand, the most heavily populated part of the province where most British troops are already based. There will be no change to Britain's overall force of around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan. Twenty-three British troops have been killed in Musa Qala since British forces first deployed there in 2006. Control of the town of Musa Qala has passed back and forth between British forces and the Taliban in recent years. US President Barack Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to seize insurgent-held areas before a planned 2011 troop drawdown. The new strategy, designed by US and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal, puts greater emphasis on securing Afghan population centres and on training Afghan security forces so that they can gradually assume control. The arrival of US reinforcements ''allows us to rebalance all our forces to achieve much improved force densities in central Helmand delivering better protection of the Afghan people,'' Major General Nick Carter, the British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said in a statement. The improving situation in Musa Qala and nearby Now Zad had also made the move possible, he said. Further changes in how the forces are deployed were likely ''in due course'', the government said. Mainly due to the US surge, troop numbers in Helmand have risen from around 7,700 to more than 20,000 over the last year. Britain's opposition Conservatives, favorites to win an election due within weeks, have said British troops in Helmand could be stretched too thin to conduct a successful counter-insurgency strategy. British, US, Afghan and other troops last month launched a major offensive in the Marjah area of Helmand -- the biggest since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. The hotspot for British forces in Helmand in recent weeks has been the Sangin area in the east of the province, where six British soldiers were killed in the first week of March, bringing their total losses to 272 since 2001. (Reuters)

KABUL - It is perhaps the only solution in the search for a better future for Afghanistan that world leaders have not yet considered: gardening. A British scientific institute is planning to set up a botanical garden in Kabul where future generations of green-fingered Afghanis will be able to appreciate native plants and learn horticultural skills. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), which dates back to 1670, is working with Kabul University's agricultural faculty to establish the project on a four-hectare (ten-acre) site in the capital. Experts from the RGBE have visited Kabul to advice on the garden, which they hope will one day play a small part in helping Afghanistan emerges from decades of turmoil. "We see great potential in this," said Matthew Hall, a botanist at the Scotland-based RBGE. "It will promote plant diversity, which underpins all ecosystems and is fundamental to any country. (Asia-Plus)

GHAZNI CITY - As many as 112 people have been killed in traffic accidents in the central Ghazni province during the current year, officials said on Friday. Ghulam Muhammad Rasikh, traffic department head in the province, told Pajhwok Afghan News the casualties included 73 men, four women and a dozen children. He said the accidents also caused financial losses. Another 46 men, five women and eight children were killed in the accidents. He explained majority of the traffic mishaps occurred due to the dilapidated condition of roads in several areas of the province. He said another cause was rash driving by some passenger vehicle drivers. Rasikh reprimanded some drivers for taking drugs and violating traffic laws, which often resulted in road tragedies. Noorullah, on the Ghazni-Kabul road, admitted most accidents were caused by carelessness of the drivers. He mentioned narrow and broken roads as another cause of the increasing number of accidents. Samiullah, a passenger who was on way from Kabul to Kandahar, complained the drivers sometimes did not care at all. He said traffic authorities should strictly implement laws. (Pajhwok)

KANDAHAR CITY - A roadside blast killed three border police while 15 Taliban fighters perished in a NATO air strike in southern Kandahar province, a day after US defense secretary Robert Gates visited troops from his country, officials said on Wednesday. Commander of 4th brigade of border police, Gen. Abdul Razzaq told Pajhwok Afghan News a police vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Lway Karez area of Spin Boldak district at 12pm. The blast killed three cops and a civilian and wounded another policeman. Police have reached the site of the blast for investigation, but no arrest could be made so far, Razzaq said. Separately, 15 Taliban insurgents were killed when a NATO air strike targeted their hideouts in Myanshin district of the province. Provincial governor's office in a statement said the air strike was carried out Sunday night in light of intelligence reports. No civilians were hurt in the strike, the statement added. (Pajhwok)

OTTAWA - Canada should maintain a presence in Afghanistan even after its troops leave next year, a new report says. But the priority needs to become building up Afghanistan's civil society, investing in education and upgrading the country's shockingly low literacy rate, according to the survey by the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee. The report draws on extensive interviews with Afghan Canadians and Afghans, ranging from war lords to women's rights activists. Canada should not be shy about using its influence to pressure the Afghan government toward democracy, according to Terry Glavin, lead author of the report, being released Tuesday in Ottawa. "What people told us was not to be (afraid) of treading on Afghan sovereignty," Glavin said. "We must tell the president that rule of law is important." A blue-ribbon panel is to discuss the committee's findings Tuesday. Members include retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie; Nipa Banerjee, former head of the Canadian International Development Agency in Afghanistan; Afghan ambassador Jawed Ludin and Douglas Bland, chair of defense management studies at Queen's University. "When we debate the army leaving Afghanistan, we forget that the root cause of the conflict is lack of development, aid and education," said Banerjee, who led the CIDA mission in Kabul 2003 to 2006. "In the (UN) human development index, Afghanistan is going down. But security and development go together, which is why Afghans feel so helpless." After 2011, he said, Canada should loosen its ties with Kandahar, where the troops are based. MacKenzie said resettling development away from turbulent southern Afghanistan would be possible but moving Canadian Forces would be difficult and costly. After 2011, he said, Canada should focus on training, mentoring Afghan troops and maintaining reconstruction teams. (Agencies)

M Arif Shafi Our correspondentin Peshawar
PESHAWAR: At least four persons including a woman were killed and 16 other injured in a car bomb in Tehkal area, near KFC Restaurant at University Road here on Saturday.   Sources said that a powerful blast took place in a parked car at United plaza in Tehkal area. Soon after blast the shops caught fire and several persons were trapped in nearby shops and offices.The fire brigade and other relief agencies reached soon after the incident and started operation. The injured were rushed to the Lady Reading and Khyber Teaching Hospitals. Police cordon off the area and closed University road for all kind of traffic, which was opened after some time. . After two hours of relief operation the fire was extinguished and all the trapped persons were vacated safely. A shopkeeper and eye witnessed told this correspondent that the car used in the blast was parked there for a long time, which blew up, while he had also heard some minor blast afterwards. The area where the incident took place is a commercial place where most of the residents and traders are Afghan refugees.

Afghanistan's civilian death toll has risen alongside that of U.S. and international forces this summer. A U.N. report issued Saturday said August was the deadliest month of the year for civilians as the Taliban stepped up a campaign of violence to discourage voting in the Aug. 20 election. A total of 1,500 civilians died in Afghanistan from January through August, up from 1,145 for the same period of 2008, the U.N. report said. On Sunday, Taliban militants ambushed a group of truck drivers in eastern Kunar province, killing six of the drivers and burning their vehicles, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A seventh truck driver was kidnapped. Also Sunday, a private van hit a roadside bomb in northern Faryab province, the ministry said in a separate statement. Six of those inside were killed and another seven injured, the statement said. The planted bombs have become a major cause of deaths and injuries for both international troops and Afghan civilians. Some are remotely detonated, but many are simply placed on roads and triggered by a vehicle riding over the explosive. The U.N. report said about three-quarters of the civilian deaths recorded this year were the work of militants. Coalition forces were responsible for the remaining deaths, most the result of airstrikes. (AP)

KUNDUZ CITY - The government on Monday extended cash assistance to family members of victims of a September 4 air strike that killed scores of civilians in northern Kunduz province last month. The much-condemned NATO raid took place in Chardara district, where people were emptying fuel into jerry canes from two oil tankers hijacked by Taliban insurgents. Residents and civil society organizations said all the victims were ordinary civilians. Around 30 families were given cash assistance at a ceremony held in Kunduz City, the provincial capital. Relatives of each victim received 100,000 Afghanis while every injured person was provided 80,000 Afghanis, a spokesman for the governor, Muhammadullah Saeedi, told Pajhwok Afghan News. Asadullah, whose brother perished in the bombing, thanked the government for the recompense. "I lost my brother who carried two jerry canes to fetch fuel from the tankers," the resident of Isakhel village recalled. A team of investigators from the Interior Ministry, led by crime branch chief Mirza Muhammad Yarmand, said around 120 people including civilians were killed and nine others wounded in the deadly strike. However, residents of the district claimed the bombing killed more than 150 people and wounded around 200 others. The Taliban, who released a list of 79 civilian fatalities, insisted no fighter was killed or injured. The raid triggered a hot political debate over German military presence in Afghanistan, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's government trying to keep the unpopular mission out of the campaign for the polls held on Sunday. Reaction to the airstrike was mixed; French, Italian, and Swedish foreign ministers criticized the incident. But German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung emphasized the danger posed by the stolen tankers. ISAF Commander General Stanley McChrystal made a statement on Afghan television and visited the site of the bombing the following day. A NATO team charged with investigating the strike also visited the scene. (Pajhwok)

KABUL - The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Monday claimed detaining several suspected militants during a search operation in the central Maidan Wardak province. The suspects were arrested from a compound used by a Taliban element responsible for supplying a large quantity of weapons to subordinate rebel commanders in the area, the force said. Afghan and ISAF personnel conducted the search in the Chaki Wardak district without incident. “No shots were fired and no civilians were harmed during the operation.” (Pajhwok)