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The latest news out of Afghanastan. TVNL reminds you of Bush’s ‘victory’ in Afghanistan. This page was created 25-May-2003. News prior to this date may be added in the future.
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death” Broadcast for the First Time Ever in the US: Eyewitnesses Testify that US Troops Were Complicit in the Massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban Prisoners During the Afghan War - No light in the Afghan tunnel
- Afghans' uranium levels spark alert
- Anti-U.S. Protest Turns Violent in Kabul
On the roads of ruin - Tony Blair vowed that the West would not walk away from Afghanistan. But in a remarkable journey, meeting militia leaders and the heavily guarded President, Peter Oborne found a nation left to fend for itself - and Taliban thugs undeterred Plane Crashes in Fog in Turkey - 74 Killed on Jet Carrying Mostly Spanish Troops, TV Reports Taliban 'aims to regain power' - A senior Taliban military commander has told the BBC that the Taliban hope to regain power in Afghanistan, with popular support. Taliban-like fires burn in Pakistan - Elected Islamists imposing strict law in province - The U.S. military may have claimed victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan, but the movement's ideological soul mates just across the border in Pakistan are steaming ahead with plans to reproduce the Taliban's rigidly fundamentalist governance. - This ascendancy of Islamists in democratic elections, only 18 months after the Taliban was driven out of power, is a worrying development for American policy in the region. U.S. forces are struggling to contain Taliban guerrilla forces in the border regions of eastern Afghanistan, forces that U.S. officials say are aided by the Taliban's allies in Pakistan. - TVNL comment: Yep, Bush rid the world of these evil people! They are gone; from the news reports that is! US turns to the Taliban - Such is the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, compounded by the return to the country of a large number of former Afghan communist refugees, that United States and Pakistani intelligence officials have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart. UN warned over Afghan 'time bomb' - Dozens of relief agencies have urged the United Nations to expand peacekeeping operations across Afghanistan amid growing concerns that rampant insecurity is jeopardising the country's recovery. Afghanistan rapped over arrests - International pressure is mounting on the Afghan authorities over the arrest of two journalists accused of defaming Islam in the country. Afghan court to try journalists for blasphemy - Afghanistan's Supreme Court is to try two journalists arrested for running articles considered blasphemous in this conservative Islamic society, a court official said on Saturday. The other unfinished war - In Afghanistan, too, stability is elusive - Barely reported in the U.S. media, the push into the mountainous border region by U.S. special operations forces and others is only the latest sign of deepening trouble in a country President Bush has promised to rebuild. US and Afghan soldiers killed - One US soldier and two government soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in south-eastern Afghanistan. - Earlier this week, the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar was reported to have organised a new war council to fight the US-led forces. More UK troops for Afghanistan - Crime and disorder are described as rife throughout Afghanistan, and the country is the world's leading exporter of opium. Fresh Clashes Erupt Between North Afghan Factions - Fighting between rival factions in northern Afghanistan has flared anew as Britain announced it was sending extra troops to the area to help the country's transitional government tackle lawlessness. US shooting in the dark in Afghanistan - Despite the best efforts of its military and intelligence apparatus and political manipulation in Pakistan, in the year and a half since the demise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies have failed to break the Taliban and al-Qaeda in that country. Bush 'indicted' over war crimes - A group of Japanese lawyers unveiled documents Monday "indicting" U.S. President George W. Bush for war crimes allegedly committed against the Afghan people since the United States-led coalition began its antiterrorism campaign in Afghanistan in October 2001. - "This is an act that breaks international rules, such as the idea of (honoring) human rights, that have been formed over so many years," Bomb Injures 16 in Afghan Mosque - Fayaz and local officials said they suspected militants from the former Taliban regime or their allies placed the bomb because he had condemned their interpretation of Islam. Desperation in Kabul - "The world had promised us so much and yet . . ." Nasser said, trailing off, as a black Land Cruiser blew by. "N.G.O.," he said, as if it were a dirty word. He complained that millions of dollars in aid money had gone to nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies that spent it on fancy cars and fancy offices, a belief that I found was common in Kabul. "What have they done for us?" he said. "I have yet to see them put two bricks together." Afghan Rebel Leader Vows to Oust U.S. - In his first video message, Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar urged his people to rally together and drive all U.S. and foreign troops from the country. THE FORGOTTEN ORPHANS OF AFGHANISTAN - "I hated the Taliban, but now I hate the Americans even more. I want to kill them when I grow up," said Hamat chillingly. "One day, I want to gain revenge for my family." Renewed clashes in Afghanistan - At least 11 people have been killed in clashes over the last four days between two rival militias in northern Afghanistan. Afghan Rebels Plotting Coordinated Strikes -Governor - Several Afghan opposition leaders, including senior members of the ousted Taliban, have met near the Pakistan border to plot coordinated attacks on government and foreign troops and aid workers, a provincial governor said Washington's Afghan plan unravels - In recent weeks, two major incidents along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have laid bare the new complexities in the area. And a large part of the blame for these two incidents lies with the United States's duplicitous role in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan Minister Warns U.S. That Credibility at Stake - The Afghan foreign minister warned the United States on Monday that its credibility around the world would be at stake unless it does more to help his country rebuild and to strengthen the central government. U.S. Soldiers Injured, Germany To Cut Afghanistan Troops - Five American troops were injured Saturday, July 19, in two separate attacks on U.S. troops in the war-scarred country, as Germany decided to cut the number of its troops serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan by one-third. US troops strike Afghan fighters - US-led troops in Afghanistan have killed up to 24 Afghan fighters who attacked a coalition convoy in southern Afghanistan overnight, the US military says. Villagers feared US wrath - KABUL: Villagers in southern Afghanistan hid their Qurans and other religious items because they were afraid US soldiers would kill them if they discovered they were Muslim, a US military spokesman said yesterday. Taliban's Omar Orders More Attacks on US-Led Troops - Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar approved a new deputy military commander for southern Afghanistan and ordered him to intensify guerrilla attacks on U.S. and government forces, a Taliban official said. Who Will Count the Dead? - U.S. Media Fail to Report Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan - It is simply unacceptable for civilians to be slaughtered as a side-effect of an intentional strike against a specified target. There is no difference between the attacks upon the WTC, whose primary goal was the destruction of a symbol, and the U.S.-U.K. coalition's revenge bombing of military targets in populated urban areas. Both are criminal. Slaughter is slaughter. Killing civilians, even if unintentional, is criminal. Afghans 'live in climate of fear' - Warlords backed by the United States are creating a climate of fear in Afghanistan, an international human rights group has said. - TVNL comment: This is the exact news that the networks should be reporting. It shows the diference between what the Bush/PNAC administration is saying and what they are doing. Bush/PNAC and the US broadcast media completely “misrepresent” reality. Afghans on Edge of Chaos - As opium production and banditry soar, the country is at risk of anarchy, some warn, and could allow a Taliban resurgence. Taliban Attack Kills Six Afghan Soldiers - Dozens of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a government office in southern Afghanistan early Thursday, killing six Afghan soldiers and an Afghan driver for an American aid organization, a provincial intelligence chief said. Afghans seek relief in drugs - The first ever assessment of drugs usage in the Afghan capital Kabul has shown that heroin, opium, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs are being used by thousands of people across the city. Women protest over Afghan security - A thousand women protesters have gathered in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to call for action to improve security in the country. - This reflects a concern that innocent people have sometimes been caught up in continuing American and coalition operations in pursuit of Taleban and al-Qaeda supporters in the east of the country. U.N. Suspends Road Travel in Afghanistan - The United Nations suspended road travel for its workers in a southern Afghanistan region where five policemen were wounded and Afghan aid workers were tied up and beaten, a U.N. spokesman said Sunday. U.S. troops kill Pakistani soldiers - U.S. forces in Afghanistan accidentally shot and killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded another Monday when they fired across the border into Pakistan's northwest frontier area, a Pakistani army spokesman said. Drugs? What Drugs? - The U.S. military may be turning a blind eye to Afghanistan's drug trade, which fills the coffers of both enemies and allies Afghan bus blast 'kills 15' - An explosion has torn through a minibus in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, killing at least 15 people, reports say. 63 killed as Afghan violence escalates - * 25 die in factional fighting - * 15 perish in bus explosion - * 16 guerrillas, 5 Afghan soldiers killed in Taliban attack
* Pakistani and Arab Qaeda men held - TVNL Comment: Yep, we sure as hell had a victory over there! Afghan security crisis deepens - Two aid workers from the Afghan Red Crescent Society have been killed and three others injured in an ambush south-west of the capital, Kabul 22 die in major Afghanistan raid - Hundreds of insurgents in a convoy of trucks attacked a police headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan, triggering a gunbattle Sunday that killed 22 Afghan Rebels Kill 7 in Attack on Police - Insurgents attacked a police headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan with rockets, grenades and heavy machine guns in a battle that killed seven Afghan police officers today, a police chief said. Aid workers attacked in Afghanistan - KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Tightly guarded independence day celebrations in Afghanistan were marred by new attacks on aid workers and security forces as well as an explosion that ripped through the home of President Hamid Karzai's brother. US soldier dies after Afghan attack - A US soldier died overnight of injuries received after fighting in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province, where at least 25 people were killed at the weekend in battles with hundreds of suspected Taliban, the US military said. Afghan Governor Says 2 Troops, 4 Taliban Killed - Jan Mohammad Khan, governor of Uruzgan, said a group of 250 to 300 Taliban fighters fought government forces in the Khas Uruzgan district for around three hours in the afternoon before escaping. US soldiers die in Afghan clash - Two American soldiers have been killed in south-east Afghanistan in a clash with guerrilla fighters, the US military says. - Another US soldier was wounded in the clash in which four opposition fighters reportedly died. Taliban sending 300 more fighters in to battle - Afghanistan's Taliban has sent 300 more fighters to the southern province of Zabol to help battle Afghan government and U.S.-led troops, a commander from the ousted militia - TVNL Comment: Just last night on FOX News they were talking about Bush’s re-election and they mentioned that he still had the “victory” in Afghanastan as a good credit. “Victory”. Afghanistan campaign becomes guerrilla war - The campaign to kill or capture Taliban fighters regrouping in Afghanistan’s mountains has broken down into a guerrilla war with no front lines, Aljazeera’s correspondent reports. Taliban's army is recruiting in Pakistan for holy war - Troops cross into Afghanistan to fight U.S., allied forces - "The fact is that now the situation in the Pashtun belt is very critical compared with other parts of Afghanistan," he added. "Now all Pashtuns are reuniting against the Americans." For Afghans, the enemy isn't Taliban but U.S.-backed warlords - The opium industry, harshly suppressed by the Taliban, has made a roaring comeback. - The United Nations says production in 2002 generated up to $1.2 billion or almost a fifth of Afghan GDP. Central Asian states and Russia are complaining bitterly about the increase in Afghan drugs flowing north. - Those benefiting most are the commanders aligned to the government and working with the U.S.-led coalition, say Afghans in eastern Jalalabad who spoke to The Associated Press. - A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drug trade couldn't possibly flourish without the patronage of government officials and military commanders. - Human Rights Watch recently issued a 101-page report warning that ''Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan.'' It named a string of men in senior government positions. Afghan soldiers killed in ambush - Afghan Government officials say five Afghan soldiers have been killed in an attack by suspected Taleban rebels in Kandahar Province. AFGHANISTAN: Attack on road construction team kills six - The US based construction and engineering company Louis Berger Group (LBG) said that four people were killed and another four kidnapped when unidentified assailants attacked one of the company's guest houses on the Kabul-Kandahar road, about 100 km north of Kandahar Taliban Destroy Afghan Police Station - More than 15 heavily armed attackers riding motorcycles raided a compound housing the station and district offices in Jani Khel in Paktika province early Saturday. Police briefly traded gunfire but were forced to retreat after running out of ammunition, provincial police chief Doulat Khan said. - ``The Taliban also retreated after burning down a part of the compound,'' Khan said. - TVNL Comment: You remember the Taliban, don’t you? They are the ones that George W. Bush and his PNAC pals “defeated!” Raiders Strike U.S. Troops in Afghanistan - Guerrillas fired at U.S. soldiers with mortars and machine guns in a troubled eastern province of Afghanistan before retreating toward the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said - TVNL COmment: Hey folks, we are still at war, both in Iraq and Afghanastan. It’s far fromover. US bombing kills two Taliban, 10 civilians in southern Afghanistan - US helicopters have bombed a tent in southern Afghanistan, killing two Taliban terrorists and 10 gypsies, a deputy governor in Zabul province claimed on Saturday. Attempts to confirm the incident with US forces in Afghanistan were not immediately successful. - TVNL Comment: Think abou this; a helicopter to bomb a TENT! 2 Taliban killed an 10 CIVILIANS KILLED! Great ration! We lost this one too folks. We can kill all the people we want but the rest of the workd will keep turning against us. What good friends left behind - Two years ago, as the bombs began to drop, George Bush promised Afghanistan 'the generosity of America and its allies'. Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. What was the purpose? - Almost every word they spoke was false. Their declarations of concern were cruel illusions that prepared the way for the conquest of both Afghanistan and Iraq. As the illegal Anglo-American occupation of Iraq now unravels, the forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the first "victory" in the "war on terror", is perhaps an even more shocking testament to power. Afghans Call for Expanded Peacekeeping - NATO Considers Increasing Size of International Mission, Extending Mandate Beyond Capital - But ISAF officials here pointed out that expanding their role, even if approved by the United Nations and European participants, would require a substantial increase in funds, troops and logistical support. More than 5,000 troops have been stationed here since the current Afghan government took office with U.N. backing in December 2001. Taliban Kill Seven Bodyguards of Afghan Governor - The period since early August has been the bloodiest since the Taliban fell, with around 290 people killed, among them civilians, aid workers, police and militiamen, three U.S. soldiers and guerrillas. US troops in Afghan gun battle - A United States soldier has been killed and two others wounded in heavy fighting in south-eastern Afghanistan, the US military says. - TVNL Comment: Note that the UN Soldier’s death was not in the headline. NATO Mulls Expanding Its Forces in Afghanistan - NATO was considering sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan and linking special teams in the troubled provinces to its peacekeeping forces in the capital Kabul, diplomats said Tuesday. - President Hamid Karzai's government, the United Nations and aid agencies have called repeatedly for the NATO-led force's mandate to be extended beyond Kabul into provinces troubled by a resurgent Taliban movement and unruly warlord armies Afghan Disarmament to Start Soon, May Take 2 Years - An ambitious plan to disarm around 100,000 fighters from Afghanistan's unruly regional militias is likely to start this month but could take up to two years, the U.N.-backed body supervising the process said on Wednesday. The Afghan New Beginnings Program (ANBP) said it was clear that the plan, which has suffered repeated delays, could not be completed by elections scheduled next June, when only a few pilot areas would have been covered. Silenced Again in Kabul - Despite reports to the contrary, the current draft versions of the constitution enshrine particular schools of Islamic law, or Shariah, that criminalize dissent and criticism of Islam through blasphemy laws. Blast at Home in Afghanistan Kills 7 - Explosion at Home Near U.S. Military Facility in Afghanistan Kills Seven, Wounds Six Others, Residents Say - An explosive device exploded Friday in a home near a U.S. military facility, killing seven people and wounding six others, residents said. Serbia Will Send Troops and Police to Afghanistan - The United States has accepted an offer by Serbia and Montenegro to send up to 1,000 combat troops and police officers to Afghanistan to join American forces there, senior Serbian officials and foreign diplomats said today. Afghan Worker Wounded, Canadian Dead Repatriated - The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kabul held a ceremony on Saturday to repatriate the remains of two Canadians killed in a suspected mine blast, while in the south an Afghan mine clearer worker was hurt in an attack on his vehicle. - TVNL Comment: Note that the death of the Canadian troops went unreported in the American media. Two Years In, U.S. Struggles Toward Afghan Stability - "People need to understand that the political situation in and around Afghanistan is intractable. It's an almost insoluble challenge," said analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. - "If we just take the simple example of our inability to find Osama bin Laden, when you look at the terrain, you look at the ethnic frictions, you look at the ambivalence of the Pakistanis, it isn't hard to see why our strategy was going to produce mixed results." Afghan support for Karzai falters - Northern Alliance rivals say they'll field their own candidate - Over the past three days, several spokesmen said, the group has decided not to support Karzai's run for the presidency and to field its own candidate instead. Dozens Said Killed as Afghan Disarmament Signed - Dozens of people were reported killed or wounded in fighting on Wednesday between pro-government factions in northern Afghanistan as a deal was signed on a key U.N.-backed plan to demobilize warlord armies. Afghan battle 'worst in months' - Heavy fighting between two warlords in northern Afghanistan has left up to 80 fighters dead or wounded. - The battles, between followers of Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Atta, "are the worst we've seen in months," a foreign ministry spokesman said. Taliban inmates in jailbreak - About 40 prisoners including fighters of the former ruling Taleban are being hunted after escaping from jail, say officials in southern Afghanistan. Remnants of the Taleban, the former regime in Afghanistan carry out attacks in the south and south-east of the country regularly.
- Nearly 300 people have been killed, including Taleban fighters, since the beginning of August. - The dead include aid workers, government soldiers and police, US troops and many guerrillas. Taliban Fighters Launch Bold Strike on Government Office - uspected Taliban fighters killed at least seven people and injured two in the early hours today in a bold attack on a government district office in the southern Afghan province of Zabul, local security officials said. - An American soldier was wounded in a separate attack today, when gunmen opened fire on a special forces unit training the Afghan National Army on a firing range on the edge of Kabul, the capital. The soldier's injuries were not serious, but the attack was a reminder that hostile elements still threaten the capital. Afghanistan's slide towards chaos - The eruption of violence in northern Afghanistan is a graphic reminder of the challenges facing the Afghan interim administration and the international community. Post-Taleban, post-war: justice for women in Afghanistan? - Two years after the beginning of the military action against the Taleban, the women of Afghanistan are still subject to horrific abuses, from honour killings to forced and underage marriage, virginity testing, and prosecution and imprisonment for adultery, said Amnesty International in a major new report published today (6 October 2003). - 'No one listens to us and no one treats us as human beings: Afghanistan - Justice denied to women is based on interviews with women in many parts of Afghanistan and finds that the day-to-day lives of many Afghan women are little changed from the oppression they endured under the Taleban. Afghanistan: New Terror & Tactics - There were new signs of worry Wednesday over the security situation in Afghanistan, with a commander of international peacekeepers warning of new terrorists coming in and Pakistan erecting new border fortifications to keep them out. Attack shatters Afghan cease-fire - Attackers fired rockets and machine guns at a pickup truck ferrying passengers to a northern Afghan town, killing 10 people including two children, a local commander has said. Taliban retaking land says UN - Taleban forces are retaking parts of Afghanistan as the post-war government shows signs of weakening, the UN's top peacekeeping official has said.Germany has agreed to send 450 troops to deploy around the northern city of Kunduz where President Hamid Karzai launched the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme on Friday. - But so far no other countries have committed to the international force which the Security Council last week authorised to deploy outside the capital Kabul. - TVNL Comment: Keep this in mind when the TV News jokers are insulting Germany for their anti-American position. UN suspends Afghan operations - The United Nations has suspended operations in four southern Afghan provinces due to increasing violence and concerns that aid workers could be seen by local militants as targets, a top UN official has announced. - According to Guehenno, every border district in the country except one has been labeled "high risk" by the UN security co-ordinator. U.S. civilians die in Afghan battle - Pentagon sources say two Americans civilians -- identified as U.S. State Department contract workers -- were killed in a raid against suspected Taliban and al Qaeda forces Saturday southwest of the Afghan border town of Shkin. - While some sources indicated to CNN the dead Americans may been working for the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA referred all inquiries to the State Department. - "They are listed as State Department contract security officers," a U.S. official told CNN. Afghan ambush kills CIA workers - Two US nationals working for the CIA in Afghanistan were killed in an ambush at the weekend, the American intelligence agency has said in a rare statement. - The two men were veterans of military special operations forces, the CIA said, and working for the agency's Directorate of Operations, which conducts clandestine intelligence-gathering and covert operations. Afghanistan 'at the mercy of narco-terrorists' - Afghanistan risks degenerating into a state controlled by "narco-terrorists" and drug cartels unless the soaring level of opium and heroin production is curbed, the UN warned yesterday. - Two years after US airpower and northern guerrillas drove the Taliban from power, the world's biggest source of heroin is cultivating opium poppies and processing the opium into heroin at near record rates despite the introduction of western programmes aimed at eliminating the drug . U.S. Soldier Dies From Afghan Wounds - The U.S. soldier died from ``wounds received in combat'' after he was evacuated by helicopter to an airfield in the southern city of Kandahar, the coalition said. His identity wasn't released pending notification of relatives. Eight from Afghan family die in air raid-official - At least eight members of an Afghan family were killed in an aerial bombardment in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nooristan, a top official in the area said on Sunday.- The victims killed in Friday night's raid were relatives of Ghulam Rabbani, an influential tribal chief of Arsent village in the remote Vigol district, colonel Ghulamullah Nooristani, police chief of Nooristan, told Reuters in Kabul. - Nooristani did not have further details or say who may have carried out the attack, but sources in the capital assumed the raid was carried out by U.S.-led forces stationed in Afghanistan, as they control the country's air space. Taleban demand hostage swap - The leader of a Taleban militia holding a Turkish engineer hostage in south-western Afghanistan have demanded the release of 250 Taleban fighters by the Afghan Government. Bomb Damages U.N. Office in Afghanistan - Car Bomb Explodes Outside U.N. Office in Afghanistan, Wounding at Least One Person - Taliban has been blamed for other attacks in Kandahar since losing power, and its supporters often fight there with Afghan security forces and coalition troops. 6 Afghans Die in U.S. Raid, Reports Say - The operation is the first big sweep by the American military against fighters in the remote mountains of the Hindu Kush, and suggests that militants have spread their influence to new areas. Gunmen kill Romanian soldier in Afghanistan - Unknown gunmen killed a Romanian soldier in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the Balkan country's first death since Romania sent troops to help the U.S-led coalition in 2001, the Defence Ministry said. Blast Near U.S. Troops Kills 4 Afghans - At least four Afghans were killed and three hurt when their car was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb apparently intended for a U.S. vehicle close to a U.S. military base, witnesses said on Thursday. Second Romanian soldier dies - A Romanian soldier has died of his wounds in Afghanistan after a guerrilla attack earlier this week, the country's Defense Ministry said. Operation Forgotten: Afghans build a future with hope, not help from the west - Soon after the dust had settled following the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Tony Blair made a pledge to the people of Afghanistan - a country that was about to be attacked by US-led forces. - "To the Afghan people, we make this commitment. We will not walk away as the west has so often done before. If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to make sure its successor is one that is broad-based, that unites all ethnic groups and offers some way out of the poverty that is your miserable existence." - "You go and tell the president that, and you tell him to come here and sort things out," Attacks in Afghanistan Are on the Rise - Gen. Abizaid Calls Combat Situation 'Every Bit as Difficult' as in Iraq - With most public attention focused on the growing insurgence in Iraq, Afghanistan is also heating up. In contrast to President Bush's Veterans Day declaration that "in Afghanistan we're helping to build a free and stable democracy as we continue to track down and destroy Taliban and al Qaeda forces," the U.S. intelligence community recently reported stepped-up activities by those forces. A Scary Afghan Road - Every foreign and local official said then that Afghanistan desperately needed security on roads like that one. But the Pentagon made the same misjudgment about Afghanistan that it did about Iraq: it fatally underestimated the importance of ensuring security. The big winner was the Taliban, which is now mounting a resurgence. - If Afghanistan is a White House model for Iraq, heaven help us Afghan civilian deaths blamed on US "friendly fire" - Six Afghan civilians were killed in an aerial bombardment by U.S.-led forces hunting Islamic militants in the eastern province of Paktika, provincial governor Mohammad Ali Jalali said on Monday. - Here is a short list of some previous incidents and allegations of U.S. forces killing Afghan civilians since the fall of the radical Taliban regime in November 2001. U.N. Suspending Some Afghan Operations - The United Nations suspended operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Monday after the killing of a French U.N. worker and a series of terrorist attacks. US says Taleban still a threat - The US strategy is to win more popular support for the government of Hamid Karzai by accelerating the re-building of the country. - But critics wonder whether the Bush administration has simply become too distracted by dealing with the parallel crisis in Iraq. Taliban on the rise in Afghanistan - Critics call for troops, aid to bolster anti-terror, anti-drug effort - While the world has been busy watching Iraq, an increasingly dangerous situation has been building in the original target of the U.S. war on terror — Afghanistan. In his speech Wednesday, President Bush said the United States would not abandon its mission, but with some 11,000 U.S. troops still there, the resurgence of the Taliban is posing a growing problem. U.S. helicopter crash kills five in Afghanistan - A U.S. military helicopter has crashed in Afghanistan killing five service personnel, U.S. Central Command says. - The helicopter crashed near Bagram and early reports indicated that seven members of the U.S. military were injured in addition to the dead, a statement said on Sunday. NATO's 'embarrassing' Afghan gaps - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson will press alliance nations next week to fill "embarrassing" gaps in resources available to the 5,700-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, diplomats said on Wednesday. - They said the so-far fruitless search for allies willing to provide helicopters and intelligence officers in Kabul was starting to undermine the credibility of NATO's ambition to expand its mission beyond the capital. Losing Its Few Good Men - Many of those who signed up to be trained for Afghanistan's fledgling army have quit, saying the pay isn't worth the risk. - As often happens in Afghanistan, things haven't worked out quite as planned. Army recruits have quit by the hundreds, in many cases because they don't think the pay is worth the risk. NATO Official Urges More Afghan Troops - Four months into the NATO-led operation in Kabul, the alliance is still lacking specialist troops, helicopters and other equipment for the 5,700-strong force. U.S. : Afghan poppy production doubles - Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than in the last year of rule by the Taliban, according to White House figures released Friday. Marriage spells the end of learning - In Afghanistan, the enforcement of a 1970s law banning married women from the classroom is setting back the female education cause - TVNL Comment: Democracy for women, Bush/PNAC style. Taleban chief 'seen in Pakistan' - Former Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was seen in the Pakistani border town of Quetta last week, according to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. - But Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed denied the report of the sighting and said it was "irresponsible". U.N. Suspends Travel on 2 Afghan Roads - Two Attacks on Soldiers Force United Nations to Suspend Travel on Two Afghan - Two attacks on Afghan soldiers taking part in a U.N.-sponsored weapons collection program in northern Afghanistan forced the United Nations to suspend travel along two main roads in the area, an official said Sunday. Taleban release Turkish engineer - Hassan Onal was working on the US-funded Kabul-Kandahar road-building project when he was seized late last month in the unstable southern province, Zabul. - TVNL Asks: Have the US TV news networks even told you that this guy was kidnapped? No. Why you ask? Because it would indicate that George Bush’s claimed victory in Afghanastan may not exactly be a victory at all. Dispursing an enemy is not defeating an enemy. Blast Near U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan - The blast occurred after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and held a news conference with him at the Presidential Palace in another part of the city. But it was not known if Rumsfeld was still in Kabul when the explosion occurred. Census worker shot dead in Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of government census workers in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing one and wounding 11, officials said. A Brewing Constitutional Crisis - Afghan Delegate Meetings Foreshadow Difficult Battles - "We want democracy, but only if it is according to Islamic law," asserted Nasrullah, 55, a farmer from Ghazni province, as a dozen men around him nodded vigorously. "In this document it is written that killing criminals is not allowed, but we need qisas to stop crime," he said, referring to the Islamic doctrine of eye-for-an-eye vengeance. "This is not the law of the Taliban. It is the law of God." - TVNL Comment: The US poked it’s nose into cultures that it does not understand. This is not America. Afghanastan and Iraq have cultural issues that Americans can not even begin to identify with. Russian Deputy Drug Czar: US soldiers becoming drug addicts in Afghanistan - US soldiers are developing a drug addiction problem in Afghanistan, said Deputy State Drug Controller Alexander Mikhailov. He said that there have already been several occurrences of drug addiction among US soldiers in Afghanistan, but the US leadership is keeping it quiet. 'They don't have control of the situation. UN condemns Afghan child killings - The UN has called for a swift inquiry into the "profoundly distressing" deaths of nine children in a US bombing in Afghanistan. - Five more people working on reconstruction projects have been kidnapped in the past three days - two Indians, and two Turks and an Afghan working with them. Afghan Village Angry After Gunship Attack - "First they fire their rockets. Then they say it was a mistake," Haji Amir Mohammed told The Associated Press, as dozens of American soldiers sent to investigate the incident offered condolences or lay in the warming winter sun. "How can we forgive them?" Violence Casts Pall Over Constitutional Assembly - A flurry of terrorist attacks over the past several days, as well as the deaths of nine children Saturday in a U.S. air assault on a village where a lone Taliban terrorist was said to be hiding, have cast a jittery pall over preparations for an historic constitutional assembly scheduled to begin Wednesday. Afghan constitutional debacle - The Taliban's wretched theocracy in Afghanistan succumbed to the U.S. military two years ago. Ordinary Afghan citizens wept with joy. But few shed the religious, tribal and ethnic based attitudes and practices that have defeated freedom, democracy and the rule of law in Afghanistan for millennia. More Afghan children die in raids - The US military in Afghanistan has revealed that six children died in a raid on suspected militants in the eastern province of Paktia last week. - News of the deaths came shortly after the US apologised for killing nine children in a separate raid in the neighbouring province of Ghazni. The new tragedy in Afghanistan - A genuine chance to reconstruct the country is being squandered - At least 11 aid workers have been murdered in the past three months as part of a new strategy by opponents of President Karzai's government. The killings are a demonstration that much of the country is still ungovernable and they increase the suffering of the civilian population by disrupting the delivery of assistance. Afghan Warlord Urges War Versus Coalition - In a video recording released Wednesday, renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar urged the Afghan people to join a jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition and to drive ``the occupying infidel forces'' out of the country. Video reveals Taleban regrouping - A video sent to the BBC's office in Pakistan shows in detail for the first time regrouping Taleban fighters roaming freely in southern Afghanistan. - TVNL Comment: But isn’t Iraq the new front line in our war on terror? For sale: Brooklyn Bridge! Afghanistan: the forgotten war - While the eyes of world are on Iraq, the Taliban are reborn across much of this country and their al-Qa'ida allies are once more in the ascendant. As attacks mount and the death toll rises, Kim Sengupta in Kabul sees the US losing control Desertions deplete Afghan Army - Indeed, about half of the 9,000 Afghan Army recruits trained so far have quit, taking their boots and uniforms with them, he says Shift in US Afghanistan strategy - The new US commander in Afghanistan has outlined a major change of strategy to improve security in the areas plagued by continuing Taleban attacks. Taliban claims Kabul suicide blast - A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for an apparent suicide blast which killed six people near Kabul airport on Sunday and warned that another 60 suicide bombers planning to attack foreigners had entered the capital. 3000 new soldiers desert - THOUSANDS of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have deserted the fledgling service after completing training by instructors from the United States, France and Britain, defence ministry officials said today. - TVNL Comment: Did we just train the enemy? 100 Now Killed in Afghan Military Campaign - A U.S. soldier died over the weekend after a traffic accident near Kabul, becoming the 100th American death since the U.S.-led military campaign began in Afghanistan two years ago. Seven United States soldiers have been killed and one is missing after an explosion at a weapons cache where they were working in Afghanistan. Afghan probe finds U.S. killed 10 - The U.S. military had said it killed five militants during a January 17 raid against suspected Taliban leaders in southern Uruzgan province and insisted it fired only on armed men. - But Karzai said an Interior Ministry investigation into the attack, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, established that 10 civilians had died. UN warns on Afghanistan reverting to terrorism - The UNDP report notes Iraq is receiving "10 times as much development assistance with roughly the same size of population". Development inflows amount to $67 per person, compared with $248 in Bosnia Herzegovina and $256 in East Timor, according to the report. Liberation eludes Afghan women - Forced marriages, beatings, suicides persist despite Taliban's fall - This country supposedly was liberated by the U.S.-led military campaign that ousted the Taliban, but the conservative warlords who run Afghanistan's far-flung provinces support strict rules that bar women from public life and turn a blind eye when their armed militias rape women and girls. Record poppy crop makes mockery of Afghanistan's 'jihad' on opium - President Hamid Karzai's promise that 25 per cent of the opium harvest in Afghanistan would be destroyed is no closer to being realised. Last year, the harvest provided three quarters of the world's heroin, and 95 per cent of Europe's. This year a record harvest is expected.
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