US, NATO set to launch massive assault against Taliban-led militants

[yellow people]

Who are the Taliban?


Who are the Taliban?

<!-- S BO --> <!-- S IIMA -->

The Taliban are active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan

<!-- E IIMA --> Recent years have seen the re-emergence of the hardline Islamic Taliban movement as a fighting force in Afghanistan and a major threat to its government. They are also threatening to destabilise Pakistan, where they control areas in the north-west and are blamed for a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks.

The Taliban emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. A predominantly Pashtun movement, the Taliban came to prominence in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1994. It is commonly believed that they first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hard line form of Sunni Islam.

The Taliban's promise - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power. In both countries they introduced or supported Islamic punishments - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers and amputations of those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka.

Madrassas

The Taliban showed a similar disdain for television, music and cinema and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over from going to school.

<!-- S IIMA --> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="226"> <tbody><tr><td>

The Taliban first came to prominence in Afghanistan in 1994

</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IIMA --> Pakistan has repeatedly denied that it is the architect of the Taliban enterprise. But there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.

Pakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until 2001. It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the Taliban.

But Pakistan has since adopted a harder line against Taliban militants carrying out attacks on its soil. The attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001.

<!-- S IIMA --> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="226"> <tbody><tr><td>

Mullah Omar's precise whereabouts are still unknown

</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IIMA --> The Taliban in Afghanistan were accused of providing a sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda movement who were blamed for the attacks.

Soon after 9/11 the Taliban were driven from power in Afghanistan by a US-led coalition, although their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was not captured - and neither was Osama Bin Laden.

In recent years the Taliban have re-emerged in Afghanistan and grown far stronger in Pakistan, where observers say there is loose co-ordination between different Taliban factions and militant groups.

The main Pakistani faction is led by Hakimullah Mehsud, whose Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is blamed for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks. Observers warn against over-stating the existence of one unified insurgency against the Pakistani state, however. The Taliban in Afghanistan are still believed to be led by Mullah Omar, a village clergyman who lost his right eye fighting the occupying forces of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Afghans, weary of the mujahideen's excesses and infighting after the Soviets were driven out, generally welcomed the Taliban when they first appeared on the scene. Their early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.

From south-western Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly extended their influence. They captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran, in September 1995. Exactly one year later, they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, after overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defence minister, Ahmed Shah Masood.

By 1998, they were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses. One notorious example was in 2001, when the Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in central Afghanistan, despite international outrage.

US onslaught

On October 7, 2001, a US-led military coalition invaded Afghanistan and by the first week of December the Taliban regime had collapsed. Mullah Omar and most of the other senior Taliban leaders, along with Bin Laden and some of his senior al-Qaeda associates, survived the American onslaught.

Mullah Omar and most of his comrades have evaded capture despite one of the largest manhunts in the world and are believed to be guiding the resurgent Taliban. Since then they have re-grouped in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, but are now under pressure in both countries, from the Pakistani army and Nato respectively.

Despite ever higher numbers of foreign troops, the Taliban have steadily extended their influence, rendering vast tracts of Afghanistan insecure, and violence in the country has returned to levels not seen since 2001. Their retreat earlier this decade enabled them to limit their human and material losses and return with a vengeance.

 

[yellow people]

Taliban 'kill adulterous Afghan couple' in marketplace


16 August 2010 Last updated at 11:02 GMT <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- $render("page-bookmark-links","page-bookmark-links-head",{ position:"top", site:'News', headline:'BBC News - Taliban \'kill adulterous Afghan couple\' in marketplace', storyId:'10983494', sectionId:'99126', url:'http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10983494', edition:'International' }); --> </script>

Taliban 'kill adulterous Afghan couple' in marketplace

A man and a woman who allegedly had an adulterous affair have been stoned and killed in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. The punishment happened in a crowded bazaar on Sunday in the Taliban-controlled village of Mullah Quli. The Taliban have not commented on the public killing, but it was confirmed by local officials and witnesses. This month the Taliban also reportedly flogged and killed a pregnant widow in western Baghdis province.

"We were also asked to throw stones, the woman was dead but the man was still alive. Some Taliban shot him three times ”
Villager Mullah Quli

​

Mohammad Ayub, the governor of Imam Sahib district in Kunduz, told the BBC on Monday: "The Taliban brought them to the local bazaar. "They stoned them because they were accused of adultery. There was a big crowd of people who watched.'' Two witnesses from Mullah Quli told the BBC that the Taliban asked the villagers to attend the stoning through an announcement on loudspeakers in the mosque.

"There was a big crowd of people," one witness said. "The Taliban made the women wear black clothes and the men were made to stand. The Taliban started throwing stones. "We were also asked to throw stones. After a while, the Taliban left. The woman was dead but the man was still alive.

"Some Taliban then came and shot him three times. The Taliban warned villagers if anyone does anything un-Islamic, this will be their fate.'' 'Climate of fear' A Kunduz-based official with the Afghan intelligence agency, the NDS, confirmed the account. He told the BBC: "It shows that they [the Taliban] want to create a climate of fear."

According to news agency AFP, the woman was 23 years old and the man was 28. A local tribal elder told the BBC that the couple had eloped and that the woman had been engaged, while the man was already married. A jirga (tribal council) met and decided that the couple could come back to the village if the man paid compensation.

"The man returned after he was assured that he wouldn't be harmed," said the elder. "The Taliban arrested them as soon as they came back.'' Ahmad Nader Nadery, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, told the BBC: "This is a big crime committed by the Taliban, an extra-judicial killing. It shows their cruelty.''

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says Kunduz is a stronghold for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants where the central government has little control.
The Taliban operates a shadow government, consisting of judges, tax collectors, district governors and commanders, in several parts of Kunduz, he adds.

 

[yellow people]

Air strike kills al Qaeda cell leader in Afghan north


Air strike kills al Qaeda cell leader in Afghan north

By Mohammad Hamed
KUNDUZ | Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:19pm EDT

A NATO soldiers on a joint patrol with Afghan Army troops in Kandahar province, August 10, 2010.

KUNDUZ Afghanistan (Reuters) - An air strike in northern Afghanistan killed an al Qaeda leader who was planning suicide attacks, NATO-led forces said on Monday, underscoring the spread of the insurgency to once-peaceful areas of the country.

In another incident demonstrating the breadth of the Taliban's reach outside traditional strongholds in the south and east, a couple were stoned to death in public in northern Kunduz over an alleged illicit love affair, government officials said. The spread of the insurgency has come despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, backed by about 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, who have attempted to take the fight to the militants in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

While Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda is widely believed to be funding and training the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the capture or killing of senior al Qaeda figures has been relatively uncommon in recent years. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Abu Baqir, a man they described as a Taliban sub-commander and al Qaeda group leader, was killed when an alliance aircraft fired on a truck in Kunduz province.

The strike was called in after insurgents attacked a police station, ISAF said. "The air weapons team killed two insurgents including Baqir, who was reportedly housing four potential suicide bombers for upcoming attacks on the city of Kunduz," it said in a statement. An ISAF spokesman said no other details, such as the man's nationality, could be made available yet.

Pursuing al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States was the main reason behind the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban later that year. In October 2009, White House national security adviser James Jones estimated there were fewer than 100 al Qaeda militants still operating in Afghanistan. He said the question of Afghanistan once again becoming a haven for al Qaeda was "hypothetical."

SCORES KILLED

Once relatively peaceful, Kunduz has been drawn slowly into the insurgency in recent months. The fragile grip of NATO-led forces there was shown last September, when a U.S. air strike called in by German troops killed scores of people, at least 30 of them civilians. The incident led to the resignation of the German defense minister.

Mohammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz, said on Monday the Taliban had a day earlier publicly stoned to death a couple for adultery. If confirmed, the executions would be the first of their kind by the Taliban in the area and follow a call last week by Afghan clerics for a return to sharia and capital punishments carried out under the Islamic law.

"The two were stoned to death in a bazaar of Dasht-e Archi district on the accusation of committing the act of adultery," Omar said. The Taliban arrested the two, who were each engaged to be married to other people, at the request of their families after they tried to elope, said district police chief Hameed Agha.

Such punishments were commonplace under the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 but they have distanced themselves from the Kunduz executions, and the public flogging and execution of a woman in northwestern Badghis last week. In the south, Afghan border police seized nearly 17 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a key component in roadside bombs that are one of the main weapons used by insurgents, officials said.

While the discovery of caches of materials used to make bombs is not unusual, the Kandahar find was the largest of its kind since the chemical was banned earlier this year. Roadside bombs accounted for about 60 percent of deaths among foreign troops in the past three years, independent monitoring group www.iCasualties.org has estimated.

The total number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 passed the grim milestone of 2,000 at the weekend, focusing attention on a strategic review of the war U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will conduct in December. The review will follow crucial mid-term Congressional elections, where Obama's Democrats face a backlash from an increasingly skeptical public.

Parliamentary elections are also due in Afghanistan on September 18, with President Hamid Karzai seeking to assert his independence from Western backers. With no real end to the war in sight, Karzai has been pushing his plan to reconcile with the insurgents, including offering cash and job incentives to Taliban foot soldiers.

Obama wants to begin a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from July 2011, depending on the readiness of Afghan forces to take over. Karzai has set his forces an ambitious goal of 2014 to take over complete security responsibility. Further angering Afghan leaders, civilian casualties have also hit record levels in Afghanistan, rising 31 percent in the first half of 2010, according to a U.N. report last week.

Such incidents have long been a major cause of friction between Karzai and his Western backers, even though the number caused by foreign forces has fallen dramatically after tactical directives were tightened by U.S. and NATO commanders. The tens of thousands of private security contractors operating in Afghanistan have also been a major irritant. Karzai's office said on Monday such firms would be dissolved within four months.

(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Hamid Shalizi and Andrew Hammond in KABUL; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by David Fox)

 

[yellow people]

British soldier rescued brother from Taliban fighters


British soldier rescued brother from Taliban fighters

A British soldier has recalled the moment he diverted his armoured vehicle so he could rescue his brother from a band of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

By Nigel Bunyan
Published: 8:00AM BST 21 Aug 2010

Less than 24 hours later the brothers were fighting side by side in an operation to push back Taliban insurgents Photo: EPA

L/Cpl Jimmy Leather, 28, was heading towards a patrol base when the voice of his brother, L/Cpl Michael Leather, came on the air requesting immediate assistance. After checking with his comrades in the 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, L/Cpl Jimmy Leather raced straight to the firefight in a Ridgeback armoured vehicle.

Within moments of reaching the location - on the border of the Sangin and Musa Qala areas of Helmand province – the fighting died down. L/Cpl Leather, of Stretford, Manchester, said: “Fighting for your brother, your protective family instincts kick in.

“We were meant to be driving straight to the patrol base and waiting there ahead of an operation, but when I heard that they were under contact I flagged it up and the others went 'Right, let's go'. "As soon as we pulled up in the Ridgebacks the fighting died down and they were able to come back to base." Less than 24 hours later the brothers were fighting side by side in an operation to push back Taliban insurgents.

They and their brother-in-law, Sgt Paul Howarth, they dodged machine gun fire and grades to uncover a cache of ammunition due to be used by the enemy. L/Cpl Michael Leather, 22, received a special mention from his commanders for the role he played in the mission. The brothers spent four months in Afghanistan but are now back at their base in Cyprus.


<!-- BEFORE ACI -->

 

[yellow people]

Iran unveils long-range drone to counter "aggressors"


Iran unveils long-range drone to counter "aggressors"

By Robin Pomeroy TEHRAN | Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:24am EDT

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran unveiled a prototype long-range unmanned bomber on Sunday, the latest in a stream of announcements of new Iranian-made military hardware as tension mounts over its nuclear programme. On a stage in front of military officials, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled a sheet away from the aircraft, called the Karrar, which Iran says is its first long-range drone.

With the United States and Israel saying they do not rule out a military strike to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb, the Islamic Republic has showed off new mini-submarines, a surface-to-surface missile and announced plans to launch high altitude satellites over the next three years.

The presentation of the drone came a day after Iranian and Russian technicians began fuelling Iran's first nuclear power station, something Israel called "totally unacceptable." In a speech at the unveiling ceremony, Ahmadinejad said Iran should seek the ability to make pre-emptive strikes against a perceived threat, although he said it would never strike first.

"If there is an ignorant person or an egoist or a tyrant who just wanted to make an aggression then our Defense Ministry should reach a point where it could cut off the hand of the aggressor before it decided to make an aggression," he said.

"We should reach a point when Iran would serve as a Defense umbrella for all freedom loving nations in the face of world aggressors. We don't want to attack anywhere, Iran will never decide to attack anywhere, but our revolution cannot sit idle in the face of tyranny, we can't remain indifferent." The exact capabilities of the new drone were not disclosed.

Iran, which says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, has warned that any strike against its nuclear sites would be countered by measures not restricted to the Middle East region. Ahmadinejad said on Saturday an attack on Iran would be "suicidal."

Iran has said it is prepared to return to talks with major world powers but the exact nature of such negotiations has yet to be defined. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week Iran would not talk to the United States unless sanctions and military threats were lifted.

 

[boundThunter]

Iran is entirely different from Iraq. I think they should have mastered the ability liked the N Korean did and then show it to the world that they are really a force to be reckoned with.

Saddam's biggest mistake was invading Kuwait before he had the Bomb.
Things would be vastly different if Saddam exploded a couple of nuclear bombs before invading Kuwait to show that he really means business. George Bush Sr. would be so yaya if Saddam really possessed the Bombs and those porlumpar UN's troops wouldn't be so yayas in the first Gulf War.

 

[nitecrawllerr]

Saddam's biggest mistake was invading Kuwait before he had the Bomb.
Things would be vastly different if Saddam exploded a couple of nuclear bombs before invading Kuwait to show that he really means business. George Bush Sr. would be so yaya if Saddam really possessed the Bombs and those porlumpar UN's troops wouldn't be so yayas in the first Gulf War.

Saddam also a Moron. If he truely love his country, he would have surrendered himself. Instead try to yaya and "invite" US to invade. Now, look at Iraq! In total devastation!

 

[yellow people]

Re: Iran unveils long-range drone to counter "aggressors"

Iran unveils long-range drone to counter "aggressors"

<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tu2yUGXPZs4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tu2yUGXPZs4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>


​

 

[yellow people]

Yemen rejects increased U.S. role in al Qaeda fight


Yemen rejects increased U.S. role in al Qaeda fight

By Mohamed Sudam SANAA | Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:47am EDT

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces do not need foreign parties to take the lead in the crackdown on al Qaeda, an official said on Thursday, responding to reports that the U.S. may increase strikes on the militant group's Yemen wing. The security official disputed statements from U.S. officials that they may step up attacks and argued that Yemen is able to fight al Qaeda without outside intervention, state news agency Saba reported.

"Yemeni forces, with support from friends and brothers, can bear complete responsibility for annihilating al Qaeda elements and whatever destructive elements assist them," he said. Yemen, neighbor to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, launched a crackdown on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's regional Yemen-based wing, after it claimed a failed attempt to bomb a U.S-bound plane in December.

The United States has been involved in Yemen's fight against militancy for a number of years, but the failed bombing so alarmed Washington that it further stepped up its training, intelligence, and military aid to Yemen and sent special forces there. The United States' role was called into question earlier this week when Amnesty International released a report which said that U.S. forces appeared to have collaborated with Yemen in attacks on militants that violated international law.

The human rights watchdog said that aerial bombings of al Qaeda suspects were extrajudicial killings, and urged the U.S. to clarify involvement of its forces or drones in such attacks. In May, Yemeni opposition media reported that a drone had carried out an air strike aimed at al Qaeda that mistakenly killed a government mediator, sparking clashes between government forces and his kinsmen.

Al Qaeda militants have stepped up their assault on Yemeni security personnel since June, claiming responsibility for attacks that have killed dozens of people and calling them reprisals for the state's increased collaboration with the U.S. On Wednesday, U.S. officials said they may consider increasing pressure on al Qaeda's Yemen wing using similar methods to their covert drone attacks against the militant group in Pakistan.

Yemen, also struggling to curb a rising secessionist movement in its south and cement a truce with a rebel insurgency in its north, has faced increased pressure to resolve its domestic conflicts in order to focus on al Qaeda. Despite a spike in violence in the southern flashpoint province of Abyan over the past week, which the government has mostly blamed on al Qaeda, the Yemeni security official said that state forces were gaining ground against militants.

"Al Qaeda is now seeing big declines in its ranks, whether from continuing strikes carried out by the security apparatus or the surrender of a number of the leadership and elements of the organization, or from arrests," he said.

(Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Diana Abdallah)

 

[yellow people]

Factbox : Iraq after U.S. troops end combat operations


Factbox : Iraq after U.S. troops end combat operations

BAGHDAD | Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:48am EDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraq that U.S. soldiers are leaving behind as they end a 7-1/2-year combat mission and prepare to withdraw fully by end-2011 is far from stable or secure. It does not even have a new government five months after a national election in March as Shi'ite-led, Sunni-backed and Kurdish factions continue to tussle over their share of power.

The following are some Iraqi social and economic indicators that paint a picture of the state of the country as President Barack Obama limits U.S. troop levels to 50,000 after August 31, seeking to keep a promise to American voters to end the war.

VIOLENCE

-- Between 200 and 300 Iraqi civilians are killed in bomb attacks and assassinations every month. This is down from 3,000 a month at the height of the sectarian violence in 2006/07.

-- A total of 4,068 civilians were killed in 2009 through acts of violence and 15,935 wounded, according to the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry.

-- About 15 insurgent or militia attacks are still recorded in Iraq every day despite the fall in violence.

REFUGEES

-- At least 1.5 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes by sectarian violence to other parts of Iraq.

-- Iraqi refugees registered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in neighboring countries number 207,000, but the total living abroad is believed to be much higher, perhaps as high as 3 million. A little under 300,000 Iraqis ended up voting at Iraqi embassies abroad during an election last March.

CRIME AND JUSTICE

-- At the end of 2009, about 1,200 prisoners were believed to be on death row, waiting to be executed.

-- Insurgent and militia groups are increasingly turning to crime as the sectarian bloodshed ebbs. There are no reliable statistics on crime but dozens of people, including children, are thought to be kidnapped for ransom every month.

-- Criminals have staged increasingly brazen and bloody assaults on gold markets, banks and employees carrying state company payrolls. Five government workers were killed this week by robbers who stole $400,000 in oil refinery wages. In May, robbers killed 14 people in a raid on a Baghdad gold market.

ECONOMY

-- Unemployment officially stands at 18 percent but experts believe it is closer to 30 percent. The lack of jobs in particular affects young Iraqis, who could take up arms or turn to crime if they find no legitimate way to support themselves.

-- More than 95 percent of government revenues come from oil exports.

-- Iraq has signed deals with global oil firms to develop its oil reserves -- the world's third largest -- that could quadruple its oil output capacity to Saudi levels of 12 million barrels per day and give it billions of dollars to rebuild.

SERVICES

-- The vast majority of Iraqi households get just a few hours of public electricity per day. Intermittent electricity is one of the public's top complaints.

-- Iraq's available power capacity is about 9,000 MW. Demand is estimated at 14,000 MW during the summer when temperatures frequently exceed 50 degrees Celsius.

-- According to government statistics cited by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one in four of Iraq's 30 million people does not have access to safe drinking water.

POVERTY

-- There are 7 million Iraqis living below the poverty line, or 23 percent of the population of the country. -- Severe malnutrition for some is kept at bay by the existence of a massive public food ration programme

CORRUPTION

-- Corruption has been a problem for Iraq since before the U.S.-led invasion, but the chaos of war has let it flourish.

-- Transparency International's 2009 corruption perceptions index ranked Iraq 176th out of 180 countries for corruption.

SOCIETY

-- Slightly more than 300,000 Iraqi youths aged 10-18 have never attended school.

-- A recent United Nations survey found that 65 percent of Iraqi youth do not know how to use a computer.

-- The same poll found that 62 percent of the youths interviewed believed that a family member could kill a girl for violating a family's honor and 92 percent agreed that a woman should seek permission before going to work.

HOSPITALS

-- Iraq suffers from an acute shortage of hospitals. It has 35,000 hospital beds but needs 95,000, according to the Health Ministry.

MINES

-- The UNDP and UNICEF said in a report published last year that Iraq is one of the most heavily mine-contaminated countries in the world. At least 20 million anti-personnel landmines are thought to remain in border areas and around southern oilfields.

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

-- There is no official data on widows and orphans in Iraq after decades of war, but Iraqi officials estimate the number of widows at no less than 1 million, with 3 million orphans.

Sources: United Nations, Central Bank of Iraq, Ministry of Health, U.S. Forces - Iraq, the Central Organization of Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), Iraqi officials, Reuters, ICRC

(Reporting by Michael Christie and Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Editing by Matthew Jones)

 

[yellow people]

Five killed in U.S. strike in Pakistan: officials


Five killed in U.S. strike in Pakistan: officials

PARACHINAR, Pakistan | Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:36am EDT

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S. drone aircraft have attacked suspected militants in northwest Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, killing five people, Pakistani officials said on Saturday. Shots were also fired near the U.S. consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar and an unknown number of gunmen were surrounded in a building but there had been no casualties, authorities said.

The drone attack, in the Kurram ethnic Pashtun tribal region, was the latest in a U.S. campaign aimed at eliminating al Qaeda and Taliban militants who base themselves in northwest Pakistan and attack U.S-led forces in Afghanistan.

"There were attacks in three different places on Friday evening," said a government official in the region, who declined to be identified. Two of the missiles hit vehicles carrying suspected militants. It was not clear if the three attacks were carried out by one or more aircraft, they said.

The identity of the five dead was not known while several suspected militants were wounded, the officials said. U.S. ally Pakistan officially objects to the attacks by pilotless drone aircraft, saying they violate its sovereignty and enrage the Pashtun tribes in the lawless border regions, complicating its efforts to stamp out militancy.

But Pakistan has cooperated in planning at least some of the attacks, officials from both countries have said. Several senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed in the strikes, including the leader of Pakistani Taliban militants, Baitullah Mehsud, last August.

In Peshawar, the main city in the northwest where there have been numerous militant attacks in recent years, security forces had surrounded a building where gunmen who had earlier fired some shots were holed up, a senior official said.

The gunmen's target was not immediately clear. The U.S. consulate and its staff have been attacked twice in the past couple of years. "Everyone is their target," said provincial government minister Bashir Bilour. "You are the target, we are the target, army, police, Americans -- all are their targets."

(Reporting by Javed Hussain and Faris Ali; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[yellow people]

NATO forces say Taliban base attacks repelled


NATO forces say Taliban base attacks repelled

By Elyas Wahdat KHOST, Afghanistan | Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:46am EDT

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Foreign and Afghan troops repelled pre-dawn attacks on two bases in Afghanistan's east on Saturday, officials said, with the Taliban saying suicide bombers were among 30 of its fighters who launched the raids.

The attacks targeted the U.S. military's Forward Operating Base Chapman and Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province near the eastern border with Pakistan, where U.S. and other foreign forces have been stepping up operations against a resurgent Taliban.

Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers were killed by a suicide bomber inside Chapman last December, the second-most deadly attack in CIA history. Despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

Taliban-led insurgents have launched increasingly brazen attacks around Afghanistan in a bid to topple the government and force out foreign troops. More than 2,000 foreign troops have been killed, most of them Americans, since the conflict began. Hundreds of civilians have also been caught in the crossfire, with civilian deaths spiking by 31 percent in the first six months of this year, according to a United Nations report.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said air support was called in after the bases came under attack by small-arms fire, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades at about 4 a.m. (2330 GMT Friday). Similar attacks against foreign military bases and Afghan government buildings in the east have been made in the past year.

ISAF said in a statement later on Saturday that about 15 insurgents were killed at Salerno and another six at Chapman. Two insurgents were able to breach the perimeter into Salerno but were killed immediately, it said. Five insurgents were captured and were in ISAF custody. A car bomb and another vehicle carrying ammunition were found near the camps, ISAF said. It said four ISAF soldiers were wounded.

One of the insurgents killed belonged to the Haqqani network, an al Qaeda-linked group operating in the east, ISAF said. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said about 30 fighters had attacked the bases. They included suicide bombers and others armed with rockets and machine guns, Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. He said about 20 of the fighters had been sent against the Salerno base.

Khost police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaaqzai said the bodies of 14 insurgents were found near the two bases and five others detained, one of them wounded. He said two vehicles packed with ammunition and explosives were seized. Ishaaqzai said two civilians were also killed. Although ISAF said the attacks had been repelled, residents said intermittent shooting and explosions could still be heard several hours later.

CONTRACTORS KILLED

ISAF also said its forces had mistakenly killed two private security contractors after one of its patrols came under fire from insurgents in an attack in Wardak province, west of the capital. A car approached the patrol at speed on a highway in the Maidan Shahr district of Wardak on Friday and men could be seen shooting out of the vehicle's windows, ISAF said in a statement.

The patrol fired on the vehicle, killing two people inside later identified as private security contractors. "It is believed that the private security contractors were returning fire against the same insurgents who had just previously attacked the coalition vehicle, and had increased their speed to break contact," ISAF said.

Also on Saturday, 48 Afghan schoolgirls were taken to hospital after a suspected poison gas attack on their school in the capital, Kabul, the Ministry of Public Health said, the second such attack in the past three days. Thirty-nine were released after treatment, while nine were kept for observation or further treatment.

The Taliban banned education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 but have condemned similar attacks in the past. They have, however, set fire to dozens of schools, threatened teachers and even attacked schoolgirls in rural areas. The suicide attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman on December 30 last year highlighted the insurgency's reach and coordination, particularly in their strongholds in the south and east.

The insurgents launched a similar attack this month on the main foreign base in southern Kandahar province, the spiritual homeland of the Taliban. Poor security is one of the main concerns for Afghans before parliamentary elections on September 18, a milestone after fraud-marred presidential polls last year and with U.S. President Barack Obama planning a strategy review in December.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in KABUL; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

[yellow people]

Castro Claims Osama Bin Laden Is CIA Agent


Castro Claims Osama Bin Laden Is CIA Agent

<!-- SHARE --> <script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script> <!-- end SHARE --> 9:07am UK, Saturday August 28, 2010
Alison Chung

Fidel Castro has said Osama bin Laden is in the pay of the CIA and was summoned up whenever George W Bush needed to scare the world.

Mr Castro believes Osama bin Laden is a bought and paid for American spy

"Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do," Mr Castro said. "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate."

Mr Castro made his remarks during a meeting with Lithuanian-born writer Daniel Estulin known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. He said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org, the website that released thousands of classified US documents about the war in Afghanistan, "effectively proved he was a CIA agent".

However, the former Cuban president - who himself became America's enemy no.1 and survived multiple assassination attempts by the CIA - did not further elaborate. During the meeting, Mr Estulin told Mr Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks. He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a "bad actor".

Mr Castro cited the whistleblower website WikiLeaks as his source

Mr Castro did take exception with one of Mr Estulin's major theses - that the human race must move to another habitable planet or face extinction. The 84-year-old revolutionary said it would be better to fix things on Earth then abandon the planet altogether. "Humanity ought to take care of itself if it wants to live thousands more years," Mr Castro told the writer.

Mr Castro stepped down due to ill health in 2006 - first temporarily, then permanently - and handed power over to his younger brother Raul. He has remained head of the Cuban Communist party but stayed out of view for four years after falling sick before returning to the spotlight in July.

His comments about the al Qeada leader are the latest in a series of provocative statements. Recently he warned that the planet is on the brink of nuclear war. Mr Castro even predicted the threat of global conflict would mean that the final rounds of the World Cup would be cancelled last month. He later apologised for jumping the gun.

 

[yellow people]

7 U.S. troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting


7 U.S. troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting

Afghan and American soldiers participate in a memorial service for an Afghan army officer at Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad in the Zhari district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. The officer was killed in an insurgent ambush a day earlier. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

By Christopher Bodeen

Associated Press
9:24 a.m., Sunday, August 29, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled southern and eastern regions, NATO said Sunday. Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July's high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops. Fighting is intensifying with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to bring the total number of international forces in Afghanistan to 120,000 — 100,000 of them American.

Most of those new troops have been assigned to the southern insurgent strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where major battles are fought almost daily as part of a gathering drive to push out the Taliban. Meanwhile on Sunday, two suicide bombers attempted to climb over the back wall of a compound housing the governor of the far western province of Farah but were spotted by guards and shot, provincial police Chief Mohammad Faqir Askir said.

The men's vests exploded, although it wasn't clear if they detonated them themselves or if it was because they were hit by bullets, Chief Askir said. The explosions blasted a chunk out of the wall and blew out windows in the compound, but there were no other reports of deaths or injuries, he said. NATO said eight insurgents were killed in joint Afghan-NATO operations Saturday night in the province of Paktiya, including a Taliban commander, Naman, accused of coordinating roadside bomb attacks and the movement of ammunition, supplies and fighters.

Automatic weapons, grenades, magazines and bomb-making material were found in buildings in Zormat district along the mountainous border with Pakistan. Afghan leaders frequently complain that Pakistan is doing to little to prevent cross-border incursions and shut down insurgent safe havens inside its territory. Just to the south in Khost province, U.S. and Afghan troops raised the death toll among insurgents to more than 30 in simultaneous attacks Saturday by about 50 fighters on Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman, where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack in December.

Insurgents wore replica American uniforms, and at least 13 had strapped themselves into suicide bomb vests, NATO said. The early morning raids appeared to be part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the U.S. focuses its resources on the battle around Kandahar. The Afghan Defense Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting, although NATO said there had been no deaths among the defenders. Four U.S. troops were wounded, NATO officials said.

U.S. and Afghan officials blamed the attack on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al Qaeda. In follow-up operations Sunday, a Haqqani commander involved in the attacks and two other insurgents were detained in Khost's Sabari district, NATO said. NATO also said it launched an airstrike in the northern province of Kunduz on three insurgents, including a commander with the Taliban-allied Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan responsible for recruiting foreign fighters and leading attacks.

At least one of the three was killed and another wounded, the alliance said. NATO has stepped up efforts to provide security to allow an election whose outcome will be generally accepted as credible, hoping that will help stabilize the nation's fractious politics, which are helping fuel the violence. Yet frictions have continued to mar the relationship between the government of President Hamid Karzai and its international partners, largely over the knotty question of endemic official corruption.

On Saturday, the government criticized U.S. media reports that numerous Afghan officials allegedly had received payments from the CIA, including one who reportedly took a bribe to block a wide-ranging probe into graft. A presidential office statement did not address or deny any specific allegations but called the reports an insult to the government and an attempt to defame people within it. The statement came the same day as a top graft-battling Afghan prosecutor said he had been forced into retirement.

Deputy Attorney General Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar has complained that Attorney General Mohammad Ishaq Aloko and others are blocking corruption cases against high-ranking government officials. He said Mr. Aloko wrote a retirement letter for him earlier in the week and that Mr. Karzai accepted it.
Officials said Sunday that Mr. Faqiryar had been retired because he was 72, two years over the mandatory retirement age.

 

[loudhailer]

OA Dogs to launch massive assault against non-SDP supporters

We the OA cannines will ass anybody who does not support the reCHEEme of our lord and master the MONGREL who bit his masters' hands LOUDHAILER chee soon juan.

Good doggy! Bone for you.

 

[SwineHunter]

I got assed by the OA terok terok but i like it. :p

Serves you right!

 

[yellow people]

US deaths in Afghanistan hit record in 2010

AFP Global Edition - 4 hours ago

The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war in 2010 is the highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, according to an AFP count Wednesday.

A total of 323 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war this year, compared to 317 for all of 2009, according to a count by AFP based on the independent icasualties.org website.

Foreign forces suffered a grim spike in deaths last month as the Taliban insurgency intensified, with NATO confirming on Wednesday that a sixth US soldier was killed on one of the bloodiest days this year.

At 490, the overall death toll for foreign troops for the first eight months of the year is rapidly closing in the number registered in all of 2009, which at 521 was a record since the start of the war in late 2001.

A total of 80 international soldiers died in the Afghan war last month, 56 of them Americans.

In all, 1,270 US troops have lost their lives since the conflict began with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned that the United States faced a "very tough fight" in Afghanistan, with more casualties and "heartbreak" to come.

"We obviously still have a very tough fight in Afghanistan," Obama told troops in Texas as the United States marked the formal end of combat operations in Iraq.

"We have seen casualties go up because we are taking the fight to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban," Obama said. "It is going to be a tough slog."

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that a sixth US soldier died on Tuesday, killed in an insurgent attack in the south of the country.

This followed the previously announced deaths on Tuesday of another five US soldiers, four of them killed in a roadside bomb attack, which is the hallmark of the Taliban fighting style.

Twenty-five Americans have died since Friday.

Military leaders say the spike in deaths reflects the injection of additional troops into the Afghan theatre, which leads to a higher number of battlefield engagements with Taliban-led insurgents.

US General David Petraeus, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that deployments would reach their full strength of 150,000 within days.

On Monday, eight NATO troops -- seven Americans and an Estonian -- were killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan.

Icasualties.org is constantly updating its figures as soldiers wounded in battle die of their injuries after they have been evacuated from Afghanistan, sometimes days or weeks later.

Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition

 

[yellow people]

U.S. adds Pakistan Taliban to terror list


U.S. adds Pakistan Taliban to terror list

By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON | Wed Sep 1, 2010 6:06pm BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday formally added the Pakistani Taliban to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, imposing financial and travel sanctions on the group which claimed responsibility for the failed bomb plot in New York's Times Square.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, met the criteria to be included on the list, which bars any material support to and freezes the financial assets of groups deemed involved in terrorism. The TTP is the main Pakistani militant alliance which operates from Pakistan's northwest. It has links with al Qaeda as well as Punjabi militant groups and is suspected of being behind most bomb and suicide attacks across Pakistan.

TTP also claimed responsibility for being behind the botched bomb plot in New York's Times Square in May, an attack which analysts said showed the militant group was seeking to bring its violent campaign to U.S. shores. More recently, the TTP claimed responsibility for attacks in Lahore in May that killed between 80 and 95 members of the minority Ahmadi sect.

Washington sees Pakistan as a frontline state in its war against the Taliban and al Qaeda and has named a number of Pakistani militant groups to its blacklist, which is aimed at curtailing support for terrorist activities and squeezing them financially. Clinton's statement listing the TTP as a foreign terrorist organisation -- which had been sought by Democratic senators -- was published in the government's Federal Register.

ALLIANCE OF MILITANT GROUPS

The TTP was formed in December 2007 as an alliance of Pakistani militant groups to attack the Pakistani state. It believes the government is illegitimate because it is helping NATO and the United States in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The group managed to wrest large swathes of territory in the border area from government control, stretching from South Waziristan to Swat northwest of the capital, Islamabad, before being driven back. But it is widely considered still to be a potent threat.

The TPP hit the U.S. headlines following the Times Square bomb attempt, which saw a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin arrested after he parked a sport utility vehicle rigged with a crude explosive device that included firecrackers and propane gas tanks in New York's main tourist hub. Faisal Shahzad later pleaded guilty and said he had received bomb-making training and $12,000 (£7,762) from the TTP in Pakistan to facilitate the bomb attempt.

Following the incident, five Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to Clinton urging her to ensure the Pakistani Taliban was on the official terror list. U.S. officials said they were focussed on the group but that the official designation process takes time.

U.S. officials have praised Pakistan's efforts against militants, but Clinton ruffled some feathers when she told the CBS television network that Pakistan would face "severe consequences" if a successful attack in the United States were traced to Pakistan.

There are 46 groups on the U.S. list of "foreign terrorist organizations," including al Qaeda and the Palestinian group Hamas. Designations need to be renewed every two years. The State Department list of "foreign terrorist organizations" is posted on the Internet here

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; editing by Jackie Frank and Vicki Allen)

 

[yellow people]

Pakistan Taliban Claims Bomb That Killed 53


Pakistan Taliban Claims Bomb That Killed 53

10:07pm, Friday September 03, 2010
Katie Cassidy

The Pakistani Taliban has said it was behind a suicide bomb that killed at least 53 Shi'ite Muslims at a rally in the country's southwest.

<object data="/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/OBU_Player_30.swf" name="obuPlayer" id="obuPlayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="225" width="400"></object> <!-- VIDEO PLAYER START --> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://news.sky.com/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/js/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> //CREATE PLAYLIST var playlist = new Object(); playlist.id = "Latest_Video"; playlist.defaultMediaId = 'item1_id'; playlist.items = new Array(); var contentObject = new Object(); contentObject.fileSize = ""; contentObject.type = "video/x-flv"; contentObject.medium = "video"; contentObject.url = "http://static1.sky.com//feeds/skynews/latest/flash/030910-pakistan-blast-marshall-online.flv"; contentObject.duration = "1:13"; var mediaObject = new Object(); mediaObject.title = "Dozens Killed In Pakistan Suicide Bomb" mediaObject.description = "" mediaObject.playerUrl = "http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Dozens-Of-People-Have-Been-Killed-In-A-Suicide-Bomb-In-Quetta-In-Pakistan/Video/201009115712931?lpos=video_Article_Body_Copy_Region_0&lid=VIDEO_15712931_Dozens_Of_People_Have_Been_Killed_In_A_Suicide_Bomb_In_Quetta_In_Pakistan"; mediaObject.thumbnail = "/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week1/15712909.jpg"; mediaObject.content = contentObject; mediaObject.rating = "1"; var item1 = { title: 'Dozens Killed In Pakistan Suicide Bomb', guid: '028211', author: '', description: '', pubDate: 'Sep 3, 2010', enclosure: [], media: mediaObject } playlist.items.push(item1); var contentObject = new Object(); contentObject.fileSize = ""; contentObject.type = "video/x-flv"; contentObject.medium = "video"; contentObject.url = "http://static1.sky.com//feeds/skynews/latest/flash/010910-PAKISTAN-LAHORE-BOMB-ONLINE.flv"; contentObject.duration = "0:33"; var mediaObject = new Object(); mediaObject.title = "Suicide Bombs Kill Up To 18 At Pakistan March" mediaObject.description = "" mediaObject.playerUrl = "http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Pakistan-Furious-Mob-Burns-Down-Police-Station-After-Officers-Fail-To-Stop-Three-Suicide-Bombers-Killing-Up-To-18-People-At-Shiite-Procession-In-Lahore/Video/201009115710844?lpos=video_Article_Body_Copy_Region_1&lid=VIDEO_15710844_Pakistan%3A_Furious_Mob_Burns_Down_Police_Station_After_Officers_Fail_To_Stop_Three_Suicide_Bombers_Killing_Up_To_18_People_At_Shiite_Procession_In_Lahore"; mediaObject.thumbnail = "/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2010/Sep/Week1/15710852.jpg"; mediaObject.content = contentObject; mediaObject.rating = "0"; var item2 = { title: 'Suicide Bombs Kill Up To 18 At Pakistan March', guid: '027763', author: '', description: '', pubDate: 'Sep 1, 2010', enclosure: [], media: mediaObject } playlist.items.push(item2); // END CREATE PLAYLIST </script> <script type="text/javascript"> var flashvars = { settingsUrl: "/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/data/config.xml", auto_play: "false", unique_id: "15712916", attrib_url: "http://news.sky.com", ad_channel: "2169867", ad_alias: "pre_skynews_skynews_Home_World_News", tracking_account: "DM530320KARC", playerHeight: "225", playerWidth: "400", brandedPlayBtn: "false", channel_key: "News", embed_src: "http://news.sky.com/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/OBU_Player_30.swf", type: "ila", smoothing: "true" }; var params = { wmode : "transparent", allowfullscreen : "true" }; var attributes = { id: "obuPlayer", name: "obuPlayer" }; swfobject.embedSWF("/sky-news/app/skynewsflash/OBU_Player_30.swf", "flashcontent", "400", "225", "9.0.115", "../swf/expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes); function getFlashMovie() { if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1) { return window["obuPlayer"]; } else { return document["obuPlayer"]; } } function playerIsReady() { getFlashMovie()._loadPlaylist("", playlist); } </script> The attack on the city of Quetta targeted Shi'ite Muslims who had gathered for Al Quds day. The annual event is held across the Islamic world to show unity with Palestinians living under Israeli rule. Following the attack, Shi'ite leader Allama Abbas Kumaili appealed for peace. "We understand these are attempts to bring Sunni and Shi'ite sects against each other," he said.

Pakistan police said 53 people were known to have died in the bombing and 197 were in hospital for their injuries. Sky's foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said it was the third major attack in Pakistan a week. On Wednesday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a bombing which killed 33 people in the eastern city of Lahore.

Nearly 200 were wounded in the Quetta blast

"Of the 20% of Pakistanis who are Shia, they are under increasing attack from Sunni Islamic militanism," Marshall said. "They've taken this opportunity of a gathering to bomb them. "Why? In order to separate Pakistanis from each other, at the very time when the country is struggling because of the floods and make people fall upon each other so that the country falls apart."

There were fears militant violence in Pakistan could escalate following the natural disaster that has left millions homeless. The US earlier said the devastating floods were likely to delay army offensives against Taliban insurgents. "Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period of time," Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

Elsewhere in Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least five militants. They were part of the Haqqani network which is working with the Taliban to fight Americans in neighbouring Afghanistan.

 

[yellow people]

Taliban vow to disrupt Afghanistan election


Taliban vow to disrupt Afghanistan election

By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL | Sun Sep 5, 2010 12:07pm EDT

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban said on Sunday they would attempt to disrupt elections this month and warned Afghans to boycott the vote, the first explicit threat against the poll by the hardline Islamists. The threat came just a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would soon announce members of a peace council to pursue talks with the Taliban, another step in his plan for reconciliation with the insurgents.

The September 18 parliamentary election is seen as a litmus test of stability in Afghanistan before U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a war strategy review in December that will examine the pace and scale of U.S. troop withdrawals from July 2011. Despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, violence is at its worst across Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

"This (poll) is a foreign process for the sake of further occupation of Afghanistan and we are asking the Afghan nation to boycott it," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. "We are against it and will try with the best of our ability to block it. Our first targets will be the foreign forces and next the Afghan ones," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Security is a major concern ahead of the vote, with four candidates killed already in recent weeks and dozens of campaign workers wounded, according to the United Nations and government officials. Some of the attacks have been blamed on the Taliban. Another candidate was wounded, and 10 of his campaign workers killed, in an air strike on Friday, Karzai has said, although NATO and U.S. officials dispute his account.

Nader Nadery, chairman of the independent Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, said the threat was worrying because it could lead to poor voter turnout in the ethnic Pashtun belt in the south, where the Taliban are strongest. "The people know that when the Taliban warn, they deliver on those warnings, and that prevents people from engaging very actively," Nadery said.

The Taliban launched about 130 attacks against last year's poll. They failed to disrupt it in much of the country, but in the Pashtun south turnout was low, observers were kept away and fraud was rampant. Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who came second behind Karzai last year, said he was worried about security. "Not only has it not improved in the last few months, it has deteriorated," Abdullah told a news conference in Kabul.

POLLING CENTRES CLOSED

According to Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), 938 out of a planned 6,835 polling centers will not open on election day because of security fears. The United Nations said in a statement on Sunday it agreed with that decision "to protect the security of voters, electoral workers and the secure and effective scrutiny of polling centers and voting procedures."

Graft and cronyism are also major concerns ahead of the vote after last year's fraud-marred presidential election, in which a third of votes for Karzai were thrown out as fake. The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said it was concerned some public officials were using their positions to help certain unidentified candidates and urged the government to protect the poll's impartiality and integrity.

Abdullah withdrew from a second round of voting in last year's presidential ballot after the ECC found evidence of widespread fraud and ballot stuffing.
This year, Abdullah said it had become "like a trend" for election officials to approach candidates and ask for money in return for votes. "The (ECC) should take serious actions in this regard," Abdullah said. "I will urge the people of Afghanistan to report on this. It is your destiny that will be decided."

The ECC has been weakened this year, with only two of its three commissioners U.N.-appointed foreigners instead of the three foreigners it had last year. The commission said on Sunday 76 candidates had been disqualified so far for a range of reasons, from improper registration to links with warlords and private militias. About 2,500 candidates are running for 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament, in Afghanistan's second parliamentary vote since the Taliban were ousted.

The issue of corruption frequently strains ties between Karzai and his Western backers, and the vote is also seen as a test of Karzai's credibility. Many in Washington believe rampant corruption significantly weakens the central government and hampers efforts to build up Afghanistan's security forces so that they can eventually take over from NATO-led forces, allowing foreign troops to leave.

Long queues have formed outside branches of Kabulbank, Afghanistan's top private lender, since it emerged last week that the bank's top two executives had been replaced amid media allegations of corruption.
Karzai's government has assured the bank's depositors, which include 250,000 state employees, that deposits have not been lost and that the directors resigned to meet new regulations.

(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch and Tim Gaynor in Kabul; Editing by Paul Tait and Peter Graff)