AFP: Another District in Farah falls to Taliban

November 2, 2007

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Taliban fighters have overrun a second district in western Afghanistan, a district governor said Friday, warning the rebels could be planning to sweep into his own 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 late Monday took the adjacent Gulistan district.
Taliban insurgents have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan, including Bakwa, but are easily ejected by the international militaries here to aid the country’s own 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.
Bakwa police had made a “tactical withdrawal” to Delaram district after a new Taliban attack late Thursday, said Delaram governor Yahya Riadth.
“Taliban have control over Bakwa district now and the police and district governor have retreated to our district,” he said.
Riadth warned his district, bordered by both Bakwa and Gulistan, could also be attacked.
“The government needs to reinforce our district urgently otherwise we have intelligence reports that the Taliban will attack us from both districts they have captured,” he said.
Bakwa district governor Mawlawi Janan said the district administration centre was burnt down in Thursday’s assault, which police said earlier was carried out by about 100 Taliban.
Officials had been forced to “temporarily” move elsewhere, he said, without confirming his whereabouts.
Farah police chief Abdul Rehman Sarjang said one policeman was killed and one wounded in the heavy fighting in Bakwa overnight. “An unknown number of Taliban were also killed and wounded,” he said.
Bakwa police chief Mohammad Hashim said the withdrawal had been on the orders of authorities but was not significant. “We are ready to take back the district,” he told AFP.
The main road to Iran, one of Afghanistan’s most important trading partners, runs through the volatile district, which has seen a surge in Taliban-linked violence in the past few months.
NATO-led and Afghan security forces were preparing a fresh attempt to regain control of Gulistan, police said.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, when they were driven from power for harbouring Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks.
The hardliners have regrouped to wage an insurgency that is focused on southern and eastern Afghanistan but has gained footholds in other parts of the country, such as Bakwa.
The violence has claimed at least 5,000 lives this year, with most of the dead rebel fighters, according to a tally of tolls released by various officials.
In other attacks linked to the insurgency, a remotely detonated bomb blew up a police vehicle near the border with Pakistan, killing three policemen and wounding three more, Kunar province police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal told AFP.
Elsewhere in the same mountainous province, Taliban militants attacked a police post overnight and killed a policeman and wounded another, Jalal said.
A suicide attacker blew himself up in the eastern town of Sharan, wounding four civilians, most of them taxi drivers, Paktika province deputy police chief Farooq Sangari said.
“The suicide bomber has been torn into pieces and only his head is remaining,” he said.
The target of the blast was unclear as there were no security convoys in the area. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban have carried out scores of such attacks this year.

Milan Il Sole: “Italian Soldiers Engaged in Battle; They Are Fighting 400 Jihadis From Helmand”

Italian Report Details Battle Between Afghan Forces, ‘Jihadis’ in Farah Province

[Report by Gianandrea Gaiani: "Italian Soldiers Engaged in Battle; They Are Fighting 400 Jihadis From Helmand"]

The Taliban have entered in great numbers the sector of Western Afghanistan that is controlled by NATO troops under Italian command. On Monday [ 29 October], around 400 jihadis coming from the southern province of Helmand entered Gulistan District, in Farah Province, the hottest of the four provinces entrusted to NATO’s Regional Western Command, led by Alpine Regiment General Fausto Macor.

According to Abdol Rehman Sarjang, the Gulistan chief of police, the Taliban joined local guerrillas in order to take over the district capital, where “they shot at the local population, killing seven.” Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, has confirmed the conquest of the district, which has 55,000 inhabitants, 80% belonging to the Pashtun ethnic group, while the rest are Tajiks.

Sarjang reported that his officers suffered three losses, but that they killed or injured around 20 Taliban before withdrawing because of the enemy’s greater numbers. “We have had to make a tactical withdrawal,” but the officer confirmed that Afghan and NATO troops are fighting to “regain total control of the district.” This statement could confirm the involvement of the Italian troops deployed in Farah along with 200 US soldiers from the Provincial Reconstruction Team and a Green Berets division — special forces that are, however, under the command of Enduring Freedom.

Precisely in order to oppose Taleban advances, since last year the Italian command has deployed around 100 infantry soldiers from the Rapid Reaction Force and some special forces detachments. So far, no official Italian source has given any information regarding the operations that are under way. According to leaks, Italian troops are not directly involved in the clashes for the time being, but they are thought to be supporting an Afghan Army battalion and the police divisions engaged in the fighting.

The vehicles available include three CH-47 transport helicopters, two unmanned Predator recognition aircraft (which are able to maintain a systematic surveillance of the land for longer) and five Mangusta fighter helicopters (two of which were recently moved from the airport in Herat to the base in Farah).

If the figures given by the police are confirmed, the Taliban offensive under way in Gulistan is the largest in the sector under Italian command. For this reason it seems unlikely that Italian and allied troops are not involved in the fighting, particularly given the weakness of the government’s troops and the fact that Italian and American military advisors train Afghan battalions and accompany them into action.

Gulistan District was previously occupied by the Taliban, who were kicked out of there after heavy fighting in September 2005. This follows the usual tactic of taking control of a district and then withdrawing when allied reinforcements arrived. This is with the exception of Musa Qala, in Helmand [Province], which has been in the hands of Mola Omar’s men for a year now.

[Description of Source: Milan Il Sole-24 Ore (Internet Version-WWW) in Italian -- leading financial and economic daily. OSC EUP20071031058009 31 Oct 07]

Il Giornale: “No Vehicles for Italian Soldiers: This Is How the Budget Helps the Taliban”

Italian Commentary Fears Effects of Defense Budget Cuts on Afghanistan Mission

[Commentary by Fausto Biloslavo: "No Vehicles for Italian Soldiers: This Is How the Budget Helps the Taliban"]

This time the wall of silence surrounding the armed forces and our most difficult missions abroad has been broken. This was ensured by General Fabrizio Castagnetti, the army’s chief of General Staff, who denounced the shortcomings of the new budget. “If we go on like this, we risk not being able to replace the vehicles that the Taliban blow up,” the top officer said, referring to the worrying cuts planned for the defense budget.

A few hours later, at the NATO summit in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, there came another blow for the Prodi government’s low profile policy on Afghanistan, which is dictated by his governing majority’s pacifist blackmail. The NATO secretary, the Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, wants all member countries to rotate on the front line against the Taliban in the hostile southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan. So, sooner or later, Italian soldiers will also be involved in the bloodiest part of the mission.

For the time being, given the dark forecasts for the budget, it will already be a success if we continue to be fully operational in Afghanistan. Gen Castagnetti, speaking in Turin yesterday morning at the opening of the academic year of the army’s practical school, opened up a can of worms. It will be the army, with its 7,000 men engaged abroad, that will suffer most from the cuts. Thinking about Afghanistan, the general’s quip must have been spontaneous: “If we go on like this, we risk not being able to replace the vehicles the Taliban blow up.”

The latest of these are the Puma armored vehicles, which have fallen prey to several ambushes in the Musay Valley, on the outskirts of Kabul. There are still too few of the new Lince vehicles — which, according to the soldiers on the ground, are better equipped to survive bomb ambushes. Furthermore, according to the magazine Analisi Difesa, there are no funds to purchase either additional towers for the Pumas or the second version of the vehicle, to which further armor can be added.

The remark by General Castagnetti was not only a quip, because there are reportedly problems with the replacement parts for the five Mangusta attack helicopters, which have been operational for only a few months in Herat. In Afghanistan, vehicles are affected by wear and tear more than elsewhere. The ceremony in Turin was also attended by Defense Undersecretary Marco Verzaschi — who was kind enough to agree about the lack of funds. Despite belonging to the ruling coalition that will present a budget of blood and tears for our soldiers, he pointed out the following: “For the third year in a row, cuts are expected for the Armed Forces. These cuts limit training, education, and safe vehicles.”

Castagnetti also pointed out that if the security package — which is being blocked at the Council of Ministers by tit-for-tat vetoes — is not approved swiftly, “there is a risk of thousands of people being left without permanent employment, young people who, after they have ended their stint of voluntary enrolment, need to be sent home.” He was referring to the section in the package that reintroduces the so-called “transit,” that is, the possibility for army volunteers to join the police.

The informal meeting of NATO defense ministers — including Arturo Parisi [Italian defense minister] — which was held yesterday in The Netherlands poured cold water on the ultra-pacifist expectations held by fringes in our government. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that he “would like to see more rotation” of troops on the hottest fronts of the Afghan conflict. In the south and east, only Dutch, British, Canadian, and American soldiers are fighting on the front line. De Hoop Scheffer would like the other allies, too, to share the responsibility, on rotation, for the most difficult and bloody part of the ISAF mission.

Italy and Germany do not even want to hear about it, but the issue will come to the fore at the NATO conference called for November, aimed at sending more troops to the “hot” areas, too.

[Description of Source: Milan Il Giornale (Internet Version-WWW) in Italian -- right-of-center daily owned by the Berlusconi family. OSC EUP20071025058006 25 Oct 07]

AIP: Afghan official says Iran forcefully repatriating refugees

Text of report in English by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Herat: Iran has forcefully repatriated approximately 35 Afghan families during the past some days, an Afghan official alleged Wednesday (31 October).

The Iran government has once again started forced repatriation of Afghan refugees and during the last some days 120 members of 35 families have been forcefully repatriated to the bordering Herat Province of Afghanistan, said Shamsuddin Hamad, director of refugees in Herat.

They were forced to repatriate despite the fact that they had valid documents to live in Iran, he told Afghan Islamic Press, adding that some have left behind parents, brothers while the others wives and husbands.

He said, “We demand of the Iran government to delay this process a few months as the weather is cold here and the Afghan government does not have resources to provide necessary facilities to the repatriated families.”

The refugee director sad they had taken up the matter with Iranian consular but feared human tragedy if Iran did not stop the forced repatriation immediately.

A man who was forcefully repatriated from Iran while talking to Afghan Islamic Press said, “My family live in Iran and have valid documents but police arrested me [and I was] forcefully repatriated.”

A woman named Marhaba said she was also forcefully repatriated while her husband was still in Iran.

Iran had also reportedly forcefully repatriated large numbers of Afghan refugee which cause numerous problems for Afghan government.

[Description of Source: Peshawar Afghan Islamic Press in English -- Peshawar-based agency, staffed by Afghans. The agency used to have good contacts with Taliban leadership; however, since the fall of the Taliban regime, it now describes itself as independent and self-financing. OSC IAP20071031950074 1323 GMT 31 Oct 07]

Herat TV: ECO relations to pave way to EU-style economic alliance, FM Spanta hopes

Herat state-own television broadcast a recorded interview with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar-Spanta in his birthplace, the district of Karokh, in Herat Province on 30 October. The minister was in the western province to visit the joint Afghan-Iranian trade exhibition.

The minister thanked the people of Herat for their hospitality and concerted efforts during the ECO conference on 17-20 October.

Asked what the impact of the ECO conference on the country’s economy might be, the minister said the main aim was to prove that Afghanistan can stand on its own two feet and regain its position in the region. “Fortunately, the international community has got this message and, during my recent visit to Britain, foreign observers also mentioned that Afghanistan was now trying to connect other countries with each other. This is the most important thing for us,” he said.

He said the second priority was regional cooperation and that they wanted to show that they considered this as highly important.

“Thirdly,” Dadfar-Spanta said, “we have been thinking about globalization and the way the world is now becoming a small village and that is why no single government, regardless of its strength and national unity, is able to play its role as an effective member of the international community [on its own]. As a result, our objective is to turn the region into a free market and to remove the customs departments of the 10 member states… My wish is that we can remove the obstacles and become like the European Union.”

The minister said many of the programmes discussed at the ECO meeting require time to be put into practice. He said preliminary discussions have been held on the construction of the railway from Iran to Herat and from Turkmenistan to Herat.

Touching on his priorities during his chairmanship of the Economic Cooperation Organization, the minister said he would be trying to establish contacts among the young generations of the member states, so that they can exchange views, experiences and learn from each other.

Joint cooperation to tackle narcotics was an important subject which he touched on at the ECO meeting, the minister said. “You are aware that all the ECO members suffer from this problem and large quantities of narcotics are grown and trafficked in our country with the involvement of the mafia. So we should work on a joint mechanism to fight drugs,” he said.

Another of his aims, the minister said, was to adjust the view the world has of Afghanistan. “People outside the country believe that Afghanistan is a country of the Taleban. That is why we are trying to show the true picture of the country and that the Afghan young generation is a modern, civilized generation with Islamic beliefs and part of the international community.”

The minister urged the young generation to serve the country and to set aside ideological and religious differences.

[Description of Source: Herat Herat Television in Dari -- state-run television. OSC IAP20071031950077 30 Oct 07]

Radio sahar: Policeman, one other man shot dead in Herat

Excerpt from report by Afghan female-orientated community Radio Sahar on 30 October

[Presenter] A number of unidentified armed men have killed a policeman in Herat. The policeman was the former head of the crime prevention office in Chesht-e Sharif District. Security officials say an investigation has been launched into the case. Hami Azad has further details:

[Correspondent] The policeman and his colleague were shot dead by a number of unidentified armed men. A doctor at Herat provincial hospital said both had been shot ten times. [Passage omitted: surgeon and eyewitnesses' remarks on the incident.]

This is not the first assassination attempt in Herat. Several people have been killed by unidentified armed men since the beginning of this year.

[Description of Source: Herat Radio Sahar in Dari -- local independent radio station in Herat run mainly by women. OSC IAP20071030950080 1230 GMT 30 Oct 07]

Radio Sahar: Missiles fired at airport in Herat

Text of report by Afghan female-orientated community Radio Sahar on 30 October

[Presenter] Provincial security officials have reported that government opponents fired a number of missiles at Herat airport last night. It is said that the missiles targeted a police training site, but caused no damage.

[Correspondent] Gen Rahmatollah Safi, commander of the Border Brigade No 4, says that six missiles were launched at Herat airport on Monday night [29 October]. He says, however, that the attack has caused no damage.

Mr Safi added that the target was the police training camp to the east of the airport.

According to the commander, government opponents are organizing these offensives to prove that the situation is unstable. The police force is said to have launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators of the attack.

A self-proclaimed local Taleban commander in Herat Province called Hekmatollah has claimed responsibility for the missile attack, adding that their target was the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] military base at the airport.

This is the fourth time the airport has come under attack by unidentified armed men. The previous attacks did not cause any damage, either.

[Description of Source: Herat Radio Sahar in Dari -- local independent radio station in Herat run mainly by women. OSC IAP20071030950081 1230 GMT 30 Oct 07]

Slovene News Agency: Slovene troops in Herat come under rocket attack

Text of report in English by Slovene news agency STA

Herat, 30 October (STA) – Rockets have landed in the vicinity of the base in Herat in Afghanistan where Slovenian soldiers are stationed, but all of the troops are alright, STA was told on Tuesday [30 October] by army spokesman Simon Korez.

Korez told STA that as many as six rockets landed near the base, including some that hit very close to where the 60 Slovenian troops serving in the NATO-led ISAF mission are stationed.

The Slovenian soldiers were out of harms way and are performing their duties as normal, Korez added.

Slovenia has a total of 66 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, with the majority stationed in Herat. Their task is to patrol the area in the vicinity of the base.

The western Afghan city has until now been spared most of the violence that has hit the south and east of the country.

[Description of Source: Ljubljana STA in English -- national press agency. OSC EUP20071030950052 1049 GMT 30 Oct 07]