10/22/2007 | 09:50 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban militants used Afghan civilians as human shields during a battle with US forces in eastern Afghanistan that left 20 Taliban and one civilian dead, and 11 civilians wounded, officials said.
The joint Afghan-NATO operation was launched in the Korengal Valley in Kunar province - next to the border with Pakistan - with artillery fire and airstrikes, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said Sunday. Twenty ''enemy'' fighters were killed in battles Saturday, the ministry said.
Kunar Gov. Didar Shalizai said one civilian had also been killed, while Maj. Charles Anthony, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said 11 civilians had been wounded. Three were transported to the U.S. base at Bagram for medical care, he said.
''After talking with elders in the area it does seem the Taliban are using civilians as human shields or firing on ISAF forces from positions with civilians in the area,'' Anthony said.
NATO has frequently accused Taliban fighters of using Afghan civilians as human shields, particularly in the country's south, but Shalizai called the co-opting of civilians a ''new tactic'' in Kunar.
He said the Kunar people had ''requested'' that the operation be carried out after militants repeatedly fired rockets toward US bases, some of which went astray and hit civilian homes.
The fighting in the east comes on the heels of battles in the south that saw about 50 militants killed in two days of fighting this week near Musa Qala, a Taliban-controlled town in Helmand province - southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing belt.
This year has been the most violent since the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power in 2001. More than 5,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/65390/Civilians-used-as-human-shields-in-Afghanistan>
By Bilal Sarwary
BBC News, Shaddle Bazaar, eastern Afghanistan
Travelling on Afghanistan's main Jalalabad to Torkham road, you eventually arrive at Shaddle Bazaar, a market of around 30 shops in the eastern province of Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan.At first glance, it looks like any other normal market offering everyday goods.
But in reality, this is one of Afghanistan's biggest opium markets. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6957238.stm>
By Kevin Kim
BBC News, Seoul
South Korean hostages held by Taleban (file photo)The South Korean Christians were doing voluntary work in Afghanistan
When South Korean TV broadcast news that hostages held by the Taleban were to be released, cheers of joy echoed through the church where the families of the Christian aid workers had been waiting for more than a month. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6969185.stm>
By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, in Afghanistan
Chinook helicopter re-supplying a base in Helmand province (Pic: Sean Clee/MoD Crown Copyright/PA)A Chinook raises dust clouds as it comes in to resupply a base
Helicopter crews provide a lifeline to troops fighting the Taleban, raising dust clouds in the desert as they ferry supplies, evacuate the wounded - and come under fire themselves. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7008605.stm>
Canadian Omar Khadr was accused of killing a US soldier in 2002A Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of links to al-Qaeda will face a military commission after an appeal court overturned a judge's ruling.
A US military appeals court ruled that Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, is an "unlawful enemy combatant" and can be tried on terror charges.
The ruling reverses an earlier one by a military judge, who dismissed the charges on a technicality in June.
Mr Khadr was only 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan five years ago.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7011622.stm>
British troops in Afghanistan may have to take ground they have gained this summer again next year, the Nato commander has warned.Gen Dan McNeill said the alliance had made some important military gains over the past six months in Helmand
But he expressed concern that Afghan security forces would not be able to retain security in the territory as the Taleban regroup over winter.
About 25 British troops have been killed there in the past six months. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7017450.stm>
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Balkh, northern Afghanistan
A painting of Rumi by Haydar Hatemi (Copyright: Haydar Hatemi)For many years now, the most popular poet in America has been a 13th-century mystical Muslim scholar.
Rumi made Sufi mysticism popular (Courtesy: Haydar Hatemi)
Translations of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi's - better known as Rumi - verse are hugely popular and have been used by Western pop stars such as Madonna.
They are attracted by his tributes to the power of love and his belief in the spiritual use of music and dancing - although scholars stress that he was talking about spiritual love between people and God, not earthly love.
Rumi, whose 800th birth anniversary falls on Sunday, was born in 1207 in Balkh in Central Asia, now part of Afghanistan. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7016090.stm>
By Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Kabul
UN World Food Programme truck
Attacks on humanitarian aid missions are escalating
Six years since the Taleban fell, Afghanistan's main national road is not safe enough for aid convoys to reach those most in need in some parts of the country.That is the grim picture painted by the United Nations, of deteriorating security, more suicide bombs and increasing attacks on humanitarian workers.
UN Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom Koenigs said 34 aid workers had been killed so far this year, 76 kidnapped and that 100 UN facilities or convoys had been robbed or looted.
"Security now prevents us from travelling large parts of the southern ring road and this is a matter of great concern," he told a news conference.
"Reaching the people is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian issue, and we must send the message that the attacks on aid missions must stop.
"We need local communities to help provide our staff and convoys safe passage." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7067983.stm>
The BBC's Kabul correspondent, Alastair Leithead, has been embedded with British troops in southern Afghanistan, and has just spent a week with the Gurkhas in the southern province of Uruzgan.He is describing the operations he sees against the Taleban from across the south of the country, including in the troubled Helmand province. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7085512.stm>
By Lyse Doucet, Special Correspondent, BBC News
The mobile phone has boosted the incomes of African women farmers and empowered poor Muslim women in Bangladesh. But can it also change women's lives in a conservative country where, only six years ago, a Taleban government confined women to the home?
"Absolutely," insists Shainoor Khoja, who heads social programmes for Roshan, one of the biggest mobile telephone networks now operating in Afghanistan.Roshan call centre
Mobile companies such as Roshan have become major employers
But she admits it is still a "monumental task" to get women into the workforce.
In a country with few landlines, nearly four million Afghans now have mobile telephones and the number keeps rising.
It is big business and there are now four mobile phone companies in Afghanistan.All have social programmes including projects to distribute telephones free to women, especially in even more conservative areas outside Kabul.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7095388.stm>
|
The French president (right) was greeted by his Afghan counterpart
|
Pressure from alliesFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned the international community must not let Afghanistan fall into the hands of extremists like the Taleban.He was speaking on a one-day visit to Kabul where he met his counterpart, Hamid Karzai, and was due to see some of the 1,300 French troops based there.
Mr Sarkozy recently pledged France's support for the US in Afghanistan.
His office said the visit to Kabul was a reaffirmation of French support and engagement in Afghanistan's recovery.
Accompanied by his defence minister, he began the one-day trip with talks with the head of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, Gen Dan McNeill.
"Here there is a war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and must not lose," Mr Sarkozy told reporters after his talks with Mr Karzai.
"That is why it is important that we help with the emergence of an Afghan state that is legitimate, democratic and modern."
Mr Sarkozy told the US Congress in November that French soldiers would stay in Afghanistan "as long as needed" and that failure was "not an option".
However, Washington and other allies have repeatedly urged France to send its forces to the more dangerous southern and eastern areas to help in the fight against a resurgent Taleban.
Most of the French troops are stationed in relatively secure areas around Kabul.
Some are deployed at a base in the southern city of Kandahar, where six French Mirage jets are based.
In addition, "dozens" of French military trainers are due to be posted to the volatile southern province of Uruzgan to work with the Afghan army, the French news agency AFP notes.
Accompanying Mr Sarkozy on the visit are French Defence Minister Herve Morin and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7157109.stm>
Taleban attack Kabul luxury hotel |
||
At least six people have died in an attack by Taleban fighters on a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul.A big blast, which the Taleban say was caused by a bomber detonating his explosive jacket, shook the Serena hotel and was followed by shooting. | ||