Thousands march in Germany against US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Berlin, April 11, IRNA -- Thousands took to the streets of major German cities during traditional Easter peace marches to protest against US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, media reports said Saturday.
Dozens of peace rallies and demonstrations in 30 cities urged the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Easter peace marchers called also for a nuclear weapons-free world, less than a day after German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for the removal of US atomic weapons from his country.

Peace activists targeted several cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Bremen, Duesseldorf, Munich, Leipzig Mainz, Kiel and the American military base in Ramstein for their Easter marches which kicked off Friday and are to last until Monday.

The Easter peace marches reached its peak in 1983 when more than 500,000 people demonstrated against the deployment of medium-range
US Pershing missiles in Europe.

Kandahar air-traffic controllers brace for doubling flights at busy airport
11 April, 2009 07:06:00 The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Alex Marsha loves sailing but these days he's keeping his eyes on the sky.

As manager of air-traffic control, he's getting ready to cope with an expected doubling of the volume of flights into Kandahar airport.

"We'll have to talk faster," Marsha said in an interview.

Last month, the airport recorded the largest number of flights in a month since it opened in 2005. Air-traffic controllers handled 20,000 flights, up from the average of 16,000.

It means an aircraft took off or landed in Kandahar every four minutes in March.
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http://www.military-world.net/Afghanistan/1111.html

Taliban is thriving on Afghan corruption

REALPOLITIK: Trevor Royle

THE WISEST observation of the week came from an anonymous Afghan politician who clearly knew his onions. While presidential emissary Richard Holbrooke was in Kabul he was taken aside and told the simple truth that the Taliban aren't particularly strong, it's the government that is dreadfully weak. In a square go Nato forces will always defeat the Taliban but those same fighters enjoy the support of thousands of Afghans who despise the venality and weakness of President Hamid Karzai's regime.

Holbrooke was in the area last week at the behest of President Barack Obama to come up with some answers to what officials in Washington are calling the Af-Pak problem, and he was certainly given some food for thought. The bulk of the menu he would have known already. To almost universal acclaim the US and its Nato allies invaded Afghanistan in 2002 and swept away the Taliban regime. Then, seduced by the neocons who preached illegal regime change in Iraq, they took their collective eyes off the ball and slowly but surely the Taliban regrouped and came back to threaten the state.

Only this time it wasn't just Kabul that was under the lash, it was also Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan. Despite all the endurance and courage shown by Nato forces in Helmand province the simple truth is that the Taliban will not be defeated in the field. That's why they have turned to guerrilla tactics, using roadside bombs and proxy suicide bombers. They are also able to operate at will, playing fast and loose with a porous border and melting away into the sanctuary of the wild west tribal areas.
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http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opi...corruption.php

Soldier's death signals end of Afghan safety
11 April, 2009 10:28:00 Tom Hyland
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LIFE just got a little more tenuous for the bulk of the Australian troops in Afghanistan who live and work in the relative security of a fortified camp known as a forward operating base, or FOB.

Many never go outside the wire and some of the soldiers who do leave the base and risk combat have a derogatory term for them — Fobbits.

The derisory tag may have lost some of its sting. Last week the Taliban lobbed two rockets into the base, killing a Dutch soldier who had been in Afghanistan only a week and wounding seven others, including two Afghan soldiers.

No Australians were injured but the fatal rocket landed in the centre of the base and Australian troops rushed to the aid of the wounded.
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Allies Ponder How to Plan Elections in Afghanistan

By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: April 11, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan — Inside the office of the Afghan interior minister is a map showing that nearly half the country is a danger zone. Ten of Afghanistan’s 364 districts are colored black, meaning they are under Taliban control, and 156 are colored to indicate high risk.

Afghans registered to vote last month in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. The presidential election is scheduled for August.
The map raises a difficult question: How, in such an environment, can Afghanistan hold countrywide presidential elections in less than five months?

The election, plus votes for provincial council seats, has become a prime focus of discussion, according to Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who visited Kabul last Sunday.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/wo...er=rss&emc=rss

Female member of Provincial Council shot dead in S Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-12 19:56:52 Print
KABUL, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men shot dead a female member of Provincial Council Setar Achakzai in Taliban former stronghold Kandahar Sunday, head of the Council Ahmad Wali Karzai said.

"It happened at around 04:00 p.m. local time when Setara Achakzai was on her way home and two motorcyclists opened fire killing her on the spot then made their good escape,"Wali Karzai told Xinhua.

He did not blame any group or individuals for the gruesome incident.

Achakzai is the second well-known female figure murdered in Kandahar over the past one year.

Previously another lady who served as police officer in the Taliban former stronghold was gunned down by unidentified armed men in 2008.

Taliban militants, who has deprived women from work and other public activities during their fundamental regime, often fired down girls school and assassinated government officials in southern Afghanistan.

Is the US selling out to the Taliban?
Nushin Arbabzadah
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 April 2009 11.00 BST
Article history
Ask any Afghan on the ground or abroad what they think of President Obama and the answer you'd get is that he's sending us mixed signals. Obama is an excellent communicator back home in the US and abroad at international meetings but when it comes to Afghanistan his clarity of thought disappears in the fog of war.

The people of Afghanistan want a clear stance from Obama: is he or is he not serious about fighting terrorism? At present, the general feeling is that he is not – at least not as serious as he appeared to be during his campaign for presidency. In the polite words of Afghan daily, Hasht-e Sobh, "The main concern felt in progressive and civil society circles is that the international community, the US in particular, might negotiate with terrorists and bargain the people's fundamental rights in the process."

In other words, the US might offer the Taliban a role in the government in return for abandoning the pursuit of democracy and human rights in the country. A frightening thought for all those Afghans who have risked their lives to fight for women's rights, freedom of speech and civil society. According to Hasht-e Sobh, if such suspicion turned out to be true, "the biggest loser in the deal would be the US itself". The paper continued: "This is because the US came here to spread and support democracy and to fight terrorists. The same terrorists who eight years earlier, on 11 September, created such widespread fear in America that the whole world became witness to their horror."
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2 Taliban commanders killed, 7 soldiers injured in clash in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-12 20:11:30 Print
KABUL, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A clash erupted between government troops and Taliban insurgents in the southern Helmand province claimed several Taliban militants' lives including their two group commanders, a press release of Defense Ministry said Sunday.

"The gun battle occurred on Saturday in Nad Ali district during which some insurgents along with two of their commanders were killed," the press release said, adding "seven soldiers were also slightly injured in the clash."

It also said that the troops discovered two mines in Shahjoy district of the neighboring Zabul province on the same day and defused them.

In another incident, three soldiers with Afghan National Army (ANA) were wounded as their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Afghan eastern Khost province on Sunday, said an ANA officer.

"A roadside bomb which planted by rebels hit the vehicle of ANA in Duwa Manda district, wounding three soldiers," Gen. Hisrar told Xinhua.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that the explosion claimed five ANA soldiers' lives.

Conflicts and Taliban-link insurgency are expected to go up in Afghanistan as Taliban militants vowed to intensify assaults against government and foreign troops.

Pakistani Taliban ablaze NATO supplies
Written by Quqnoos.com
Sunday, 12 April 2009 17:09


Taliban militants torched 11 trucks loaded with Nato supplies in Pakistan on Sunday

According to local media in Pakistan, dozens of militants attacked a terminal of the trucks firing rockets and set on fire 11 trucks loaded with the commodities for Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Local police said the Taliban militants beat up the security guards, and then entered the terminal and set at least 11 trucks on fire.

The major supplies and equipments required by the foreign troops in Afghanistan across the border is shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber.

Taliban militants have carried out a series of strikes on trucks carrying supplies for US and NATO-led foreign forces fighting an insurgency in Afghanistan.

Two days ago, Pakistani Taliban militants also raided on supplying convoy of the Nato troops in Samkanai of North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan on Saturday, where six trucks were destroyed.

Pakistan’s restive tribal area is still the channel for the Nato and the US to feed their troops in Afghanistan, as more than seventy per cent of the supplies come through volatile remote provinces of Pakistan.

The Taliban raids on the Nato supplies have significantly increased in the recent months.

Reports says hundreds of Nato supplying vehicles have been torched by the Taliban militants in Pakistan, not those Taliban, battling the US and Nato troops in Afghan soil.

The US Officials in Washington and the Europeans are seeking solutions to supply their forces in Afghanistan through Russia and Middle East countries which is called a secure supplying channel.

Written by Quqnoos.com
Sunday, 12 April 2009 17:24


Afghan Ministry of Interior said they have killed 22 Taliban militants, including 4 foreign terrorists in Zabul

Meanwhile, the Taliban militants attacked a joint US-Afghan patrol on Saturday where four insurgents were killed in return fires.

The incident occurred in Shinkay district of Zabul, in southern Afghanistan – the province has witnessed mounting insurgency over the past few years.

Meanwhile, Afghan Ministry of Interior said Afghan Army and Police have killed 22 Taliban fighters in the same district of Zabul on Friday evening as a reaction to a Taliban ambush on Afghan forces.

MoI press release adds a Taliban local commander was also killed in the Afghan raids.

Coalition troops said the insurgents were equipped with Rocket Propelled Grenades RPG and light artillery.

Quick air support was asked by the coalitions on the ground which raided the Taliban havens in the restive district, four Taliban militants were killed in the air strike.

A US forces press release denied any casualties in civilian and troops side.