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military commander responsible for southern Afghanistan said yesterday that he is "out of troops" to provide security across the troubled region and that he expects a significant increase in violence this year as U.S. reinforcements arrive to push into insurgent-held territory. Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif, who commands 23,000 NATO troops, said his forces control about 60 percent of the populated areas in southern Afghanistan. "There are absolutely pockets where we don't have control . . . and that is one of the reasons we need these additional boots on the ground," he said. "We are not stopped by the insurgency, but we just run out of troops," he said in a video conference with Pentagon reporters. The influx of 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, with a large contingent going to the south, will allow a greater concentration of forces where most of the population lives, along rivers and in agricultural areas. This, de Kruif said, will lead within a couple of months "to what I think is going to be a significant spike in incidents." The new troops will also aim to crack down not only on insurgent leaders, de Kruif said, but on the narcotics traders and weapons-makers who facilitate them. In the south, an ethnic Pashtun heartland and a traditional Taliban stronghold, insurgents are increasing their use of roadside bombs, de Kruif said. The bombs, known in the military as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, are made increasingly of homemade explosives using large explosive charges and are triggered when vehicles roll over them, he said. De Kruif said such bombs now cause some 70 percent of casualties among international troops. Two explosions in southern Afghanistan yesterday killed four Canadian soldiers and injured eight, the Canadian military reported. De Kruif said he has seen no evidence that insurgents in Afghanistan are getting help with bomb-making technology from other countries, as has occurred in Iraq. "We don't see any real signs of influence by other countries, like Iran, with the fabrication and the use of these IEDs," he said. "Most of the IEDs we find are from a relatively simple nature, and you can't compare the IEDs used here with the type of IEDs used in Iraq over the last couple of years." To counter the makeshift bombs, Special Forces soldiers operating in the area are targeting the networks of bomb-makers. The military coalition is also increasing the use of detection systems to find the bombs before they detonate and bringing in greater numbers of mine-resistant vehicles. Despite the prediction of heavier fighting to come, de Kruif said he was optimistic that a larger military force would allow for better security across southern Afghanistan as soon as next year. "We can have a significant progress within three or five years," he said, one that would allow military forces to move from primarily a combat role to one mentoring and training Afghan security forces.

Four Canadian soldiers, only days away from returning home from Afghanistan, were killed and eight of their comrades were injured shortly after dawn while participating in Canada's largest combat operation since the Korean War.The men died in two separate incidents from improvised explosive devices that had been planted in the dirt by insurgents about 40 kilometres apart. The deaths brought to 116 the number of Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since the first troops were deployed here early in the spring of 2002.It was "with a heavy heart" that Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of Canada's Task Force Afghanistan, announced the deaths on Friday in Operation Jaley

, a joint Canadian-American-Afghan operation involving more than 2,000 combat troops.The mission was designed attack Taliban command centres and supply routes."Please do not think of this as a failure on the part of any person or of the mission itself," Brig.-Gen. Vance said. "These wonderful Canadian men were, at the moment of their deaths, engaged directly in the continuing work to keep the insurgency sufficiently at bay to ensure the safety for the population, and to preserve our ability to meet the objectives of the Afghan people, the international community and the Government of Canada."Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli, 28, and Cpl. Tyler Crooks, 24, both of 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, died when they were hit by an IED while on a foot patrol in western Zahri District as part of Operation Jaley. An Afghan interpreter was also killed. Five other soldiers from November Company were wounded as was another Afghan interpreter.
In the second incident, which occurred about two hours later, Trooper Jack Bouthillier, 20, and Trooper Corey Hayes, 22, from a reconnaissance squadron of the Petawawa-based Royal Canadian Dragoons died when their armoured vehicle struck an IED in Shah Wali Khot District about 20 kilometres northeast of Kandahar. Three other Dragoons were wounded in the same blast.Master Cpl. Vernelli's wife, in a statement released Friday evening, said his family was devastated.
"Scotty held ultimate pride in lacing up his combat boots every morning. He believed in the mission in Afghanistan and volunteered for this, his 3rd tour in Afghanistan," said Marcie Lane. "His friends will hold him close in their hearts forever ..."One of the Canadians injured in the twin strikes Friday required evacuation to a U.S. Air Force hospital at Landstuhl, Germany, that specializes in dealing with those seriously wounded on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The names of the wounded were not released.Master Cpl. Vernelli and Cpl. Crooks of Port Colborne, Ont., were completing a six-hour, overnight dismounted mission -- one of the last they were to have done after six months in Afghanistan -- and were on their way back to their armoured vehicles at the time. The blast that killed them could be heard several kilometres away.On Friday Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he learned of the latest deaths "with profound sorrow.""Our thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones as they deal with this tragic loss. "Master Cpl. Vernelli, Trooper Bouthillier, Cpl. Crooks, and Trooper Hayes' sacrifice will not be forgotten."NDP Leader Jack Layton also expressed his condolences, saying "the sacrifices these men made will never be forgotten."Master Cpl. Vernelli, 28, was married and had a six-month-old daughter. Cpl. Crooks, 24, had what Capt. Kris Reeves described as "unsung heroes-type jobs" in November Company. They were duties that were "not very glamorous" because they were not part of the rifle platoons that do much of the fighting, but that they had often been "out in front, doing some of the hardest jobs," he said.Master Cpl. Vernelli was in Kandahar in 2006 and "wanted to come back but ... wasn't sure in what role," said Reeves, who is November Company's second-in-command. "He wanted a role that he would be able to contribute and do something interesting and more hands on" and had been personally recruited by the company commander. Of Cpl. Crooks, who was known as Crooksy, Reeves said: "He was a young soldier that everybody in the company knows. He was really fit and athletic and always had a seat at the ‘big boy' table. You know what I mean."Officers and the company sergeant major were putting Cpl. Crooks's name forward for consideration to become an officer, Reeves said in an interview conducted a few hours after the incident. "He would have been good," the captain said. "He would have gone down over the next few years and worked on his education and his training and eventually become a platoon commander."Trooper Bouthillier, 20, who was known as Boots was a keen sportsman and martial arts specialist renowned for his sense of humour, Brig.-Gen. Vance said.Trooper Hayes, 22, was remembered by Brig.-Gen. Vance "not only as a friend and comrade in arms but a brother who inspired them to stand up in the face of danger and do what was right."News of the IED strikes reached some soldiers based in Zahri/Panjwaii when senior warrant officers ordered them, joking and griping, out of their cots shortly after 6 a.m. The mood quickly turned sombre when a warrant officer silenced them with the hard news that members of their battle group had died and had been wounded.
"Success in war is costly," Brig.-Gen. Vance said. "We are determined to succeed so that Afghan lives improve, but the insurgents are equally determined to challenge and prevent Afghanistan from flourishing as the nation it so wants to be."The fighting was reportedly intense at times during Operation Jaley.
As part of the operation, which began on Tuesday, a platoon of November Company, acting as mentors to an Afghan army battalion, were almost immediately in contact with the enemy, who were armed with light weapons and rocket propelled grenades.
"In all honesty, the point of the day was to go find a fight. And we did," said Lt. Jeff Lloyd, who led the platoon.Using a mosque as a meeting place, several fighting-age males in one village re-appeared from another compound armed with weapons, Lloyd told a pool reporter.
"Over the past seven months everybody in the platoon has learned to tell when something is about to happen," Lt. Lloyd said. "There is an obvious change of the pattern of life in the villages. The women and the children disappear. The fighting-age males appear and they sulk around. It's funny you'd think, they think, we can't see them. It's some times straight out of a bad movie."According to Lt. Lloyd, much of the enemy's fire was directed at the Afghans, rather than the Canadians. The Canadians called in artillery on Thursday, firing more than a dozen high-explosive shells at a Taliban position.Canadian tanks from the Lord Strathcona's Horse also participated in the operation, as did a U.S. army infantry battalion based to the west of where the Canadians have been operating lately.

There are currently 75,000 international soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, about 38,000 of them Americans, to help Kabul fight the insurgency, which last year reached its deadliest point yet.wave of clashes in Afghanistan killed more than 70 people, including 18 policemen and four Canadian soldiers Friday, officials said, amid alarm about the country's mounting Taliban-led insurgency.The growing unrest has led Washington to deploy 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, due in the coming weeks, in a move a NATO general said would trigger more violence but would help improve security in the longer run.

The four Canadians, part of the international assistance force, were killed in two separate explosions that also killed an interpreter and injured eight soldiers and an Afghan national, the Canadian military said.

The first incident happened at 6:45 am local time, Brigadier-General Jon Vance, the Canadian commander in Kandahar, said in an address televised in Canada from a base in southern Afghanistan."Two Canadian soldiers were killed and five wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated in the vicinity of their dismounted patrol in Zari district, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Kandahar City," he said.A local interpreter was also killed during this attack. Another Afghan national was injured.The second blast occurred two hours later, killing two more Canadian soldiers and wounding three. Their vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kandahar City, said Vance.
Nine of the policemen were killed along with a district chief in a clash Friday with Taliban in the northern province of Jawzjan, an unusual battlefield for the extremists, who focus on southern and eastern Afghanistan."Today in a clash between Taliban and police, the district chief and nine police were killed," provincial police chief Khalil Aminzada told AFP.The fighting was in a district called Koshtipa, on the border with Turkmenistan, he said.Nine other policemen were killed and three wounded in the southwestern province of Farah when a mob of Taliban attacked them, provincial governor Rohul Amin told AFP. Six of the attackers also died in the fighting, he said.The clash followed fighting earlier in the day when Afghan and US-led troops were called in after intelligence was received of a plan to attack the governor's home, Amin said. Seven Taliban were killed in that exchange, he said.Elsewhere in Farah Friday, a suicide bomber blew up a bomb-filled police vehicle and killed one policeman and wounded two, the governor said. The vehicle had previously been stolen by the insurgents.The deadliest fighting was on Thursday, when Afghan and US-led troops killed 30 militants in the flashpoint southern province of Helmand, in a district where a key anti-Taliban lawmaker was killed in a bomb attack the same day.The Afghan army led a joint patrol into an area of Gereshk district where gunmen were known to operate and they came under attack, the US military said in a statement.The "combined element returned fire with small-arms and close air support, killing 30 militants," it added.The toll was the highest from a single clash announced by the military in more than two months, with Afghanistan gearing up for another year of intense fighting after the winter.The US military also announced Friday that six more alleged insurgents were killed in operations in Kunar, Logar and Helmand provinces.The escalating conflict in a Taliban-led insurgency has caused concern among the international community trying to stabilise the war-torn nation.US President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 extra US troops for southern Afghanistan and a top-to-bottom review of his war policy, shifting the focus from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan.Dutch commander Major General Mart de Kruif, who heads NATO troops in the south, said Friday that the arrival of more US troops would trigger a rise in violence but improve security in the longer run."I'm absolutely sure that we will see a very important year in RC (Regional Command) South, that we will see a spike in incidents once the US force hits the ground, but the situation will significantly change in a positive way within the next year," Kruif told reporters by video link.

Afghan officials say at least eight people are dead following two bombings in the country's east.In Nangarhar province, police say a suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at a police checkpoint Saturday, killing six people, including a policeman. Officials said at least four other people were wounded.Another bombing in Khost province killed at least two people near a shrine as they celebrated the Persian New Year. Authorities say the blast wounded at least four others.
Separately, NATO says one of its soldiers was killed Friday during a "hostile incident" in the south.The military alliance did not give details of the incident or the soldier's nationality.The killing came on the same day that a top NATO commander in Afghanistan said the arrival of more U.S. troops will trigger an increase in violence.Dutch Major General Mart de Kruif told reporters Friday that he expects an initial increase in insurgent attacks in the country's south, but that security will improve by 2010.U.S. President Barack Obama last month approved the deployment of an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.Meanwhile, the Canadian military said two bomb blasts killed four of its soldiers and an Afghan interpreter Friday in the southern province of Kandahar.

suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing six people, police said, as the American envoy to the country said the U.S. would push for a "very significant increase" in the country's police force to improve security and stability.Richard Holbrooke, who is the special envoy to both Pakistan and Afghanistan, said current plans to increase Afghanistan's national police from 78,000 to 82,000 over the next four years were "not sufficient."
Afghan police, who have less training and fewer weapons than Afghan and international soldiers, often bear the brunt of insurgent attacks."We need to devise programs which improve the Afghan government's capability to defend itself and that means considerably strengthening the Afghan national army and the Afghan national police," Holbrooke said during a debate on the Afghan war in Brussels. "We are looking in conjunction with our allies at a very significant increase."European countries, not eager to send additional troops to fight, are currently being urged by Washington to provide military and police trainers, cash or other expertise to help stabilize Afghanistan. Holbrooke said the police force is now "riddled with corruption," and greater numbers of well-trained police would allow international troops in the country to focus on military operations rather than law enforcement.
President Barack Obama has pledged to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year in an attempt to improve the country's security and stability.
Eastern and southern Afghanistan have experienced the most violence in recent years from Taliban and al-Qaida militants who regularly cross the border from sanctuaries in Pakistan to attack security forces and terrorize local civilians.A NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in southern Afghanistan on Friday, and four Canadian troops serving with the NATO-led force were killed in two separate explosions, the alliance said.The suicide car bombing that targeted the police checkpoint in the country's eastern Nangarhar province Saturday killed five civilians and one policeman, said police spokesman Gafor Khan. The blast also wounded four civilians and a policeman at the security post, set up to search cars entering Chaparhar district to celebrate the Persian new year.Also in eastern Afghanistan, a bomb detonated by remote control killed five people near a shrine in Khost province as they celebrated the new year, known as Nowruz, said provincial police spokesman Wazir Pacha. The blast on the outskirts of Khost city wounded five people, he said.Nowruz is celebrated in many countries, including Afghanistan, that were once part of the powerful Persian empire. The Taliban discouraged Afghan citizens from celebrating the holiday when they ruled the country in the 1990s because they deemed it un-Islamic. But people began celebrating Nowruz more openly again after the militant group was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, when many Taliban fled to Pakistan.

Sergeant Brett Till, a highly-respected Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician from the Incident Response Regiment in Holsworthy, New South Wales, was killed by an explosion that occurred during a route clearance task in Southern Afghanistan on Thursday, 19 March 2009.Sergeant Till, age 31, lived in Sydney with his wife and two children. His immediate family is currently receiving support from Defence representatives. Sergeant Till enlisted in the Australian Army in 2001 and was allocated to the Corps of Royal Australian Engineers following recruit training. Sergeant Till trained as a Combat Engineer and served with a number of units, including the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment and the School of Military Engineering.
The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, paid tribute to Sergeant Till and his extraordinary bravery.“Sergeant Till’s selfless act to protect his mates and innocent civilians is a mark of the character of the man,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said. “My thoughts and prayers are with Sergeant Till’s loved ones at this difficult time. His sacrifice will never be forgotten.”Media note: The family has requested their privacy be respected during this very difficult time. They will not be conducting any media interviews.

Afghan and the U.S.-led Coalition forces killed five militants and detained four suspected militants early Sunday morning in northern Afghan province of Kunduz during an operation targeting a terrorist network, said a Coalition statement. "In coordination with local Afghan police, the joint forces conducted an assault of a compound in Kunduz Province, near the Afghan-Tajik border," the statement said.
It added that five militants were killed during the fire fight and four others were arrested. "Multiple AK-47 assault rifles and chest racks were found on the compound," it said. However, an Afghan official in Kunduz differed from the statement of Coalition forces by saying international troops in a surprise operation Sunday broke in the Mayor's house and killed five people in Iman Sahib district of Kunduz province. Juma Khan, the district chief, said those who have been killed were all civilians. Harming non-combatants has prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to repeatedly call on international troops to avoid civilian causalities. More than 2,000 civilians, according to UN report, had been killed in clashes and military operations in 2008 and the world body called on warring sides to avoid harming civilians during conflicts.

Bomb ripped through a vehicle carrying labourers to work in volatile eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing one worker and wounding 11 other people, police said.
The bloodshed follows a string of deadly attacks in recent days with US President Barack Obama poised to unveil a new strategy hoping to turn the tide in a war that has dragged on for more than seven years.The bomb struck labourers from a private construction company as they were travelling to work in Khost province early Sunday, provincial police chief Abdul Qayoom Baqizoi said.Twelve people were wounded and one died later in hospital, he said.There was no claim of responsibility but the attack was similar to scores of others blamed on Taliban insurgents.The US military said five militants were killed and four suspects detained in an operation waged with Afghan forces in northeastern Kunduz province.The operation targeted "a terrorist network" near the Afghan-Tajik border early Sunday, it said in a statement.
Local media reports said, however, that officials believe the men killed were civilians.There are around 75,000 international troops in Afghanistan helping the government fight the Taliban-led insurgency.Despite the presence and the growth of the local forces, violence has grown steadily since the Taliban regime was removed in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

specially trained unit of Afghanistan Police conducted a nearly perfect ambush of a drug dealer on the road between Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad, but were surprised to find a signed letter of protection from their boss.Officers surrounded Sayyed Jan’s vehicle so quickly that his two bodyguards never had a chance to fire their weapons, and he was caught moving at least 183 kilograms of pure heroin, Globe and Mail reported.But the counter narcotics Police of Afghanistan realized they had a problem when they discovered that Jan’s powerful friends included their own boss.
The drug dealer was carrying a signed letter of protection from General Mohammed Daud, the Deputy Minister of Interior responsible for counter narcotics, widely considered Afghanistan’s most powerful anti-drug czar.That document, along with other papers and interviews with well-placed sources, show that General Daud has safeguarded shipments of illegal opiates even as he commands thousands of officers sworn to fight the trade. Some accuse the Deputy Minister of taking a major cut of dealers’ profits, ranking him among the biggest players in Afghanistan’s 3-billion dollars drug industry.General Daud has been responsible for the CNPA since his presidential appointment as deputy minister for Counternarcotics in 2004, and the force has grown to an estimated 3,000 drug officers across the country. But the documents and case studies gathered by The Globe and Mail paint a disturbing portrait of his role in the industry.“You have chosen a wolf as your shepherd,” said an Afghan police officer who worked with General Daud.

Militants killed nine NATO soldiers in an assault on a remote base in northeastern Afghanistan, officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks on foreign forces fighting the Taliban insurgency. The attack on the military outpost on Sunday came as a suicide bomber targeted police in a busy bazaar in southern Uruzgan province, killing 24 Afghans including children, police officials said.In bloody carnage in several parts of Afghanistan, at least 40 insurgents were also killed in two days of fighting in southern Helmand province, the US-led coalition announced.A tenth foreign soldier was also killed in a bomb blast in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, the coalition said.Militants launched an early morning attack on the NATO base, in mountainous Kunar province near the Pakistan border, which soldiers from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force had only recently occupied, the force said.The rebels were beaten back after several hours and were believed to have suffered heavy casualties, it said in a statement."Nine ISAF soldiers died in fighting in northeastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border," the statement said. Fifteen ISAF soliders were also wounded along with four Afghan troops.ISAF, which draws nearly 53,000 soldiers from about 40 countries, did not give the nationalities of those killed, leaving such announcements for their home nation, but most of the soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals.It was one of the deadliest battles so far for the international forces that arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001 to oust the hardline Taliban movement now waging an insurgency that is backed by Al-Qaeda and other extremists.Sunday’s deaths take to 133 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year amid a spike in the insurgency-linked violence.
Afghan officials allege militants are being recruited and trained in Pakistan, coming across the border to launch suicide and other attacks and destabilise the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta called Sunday for the region to work together to deal with the violence - in a reference to Pakistan."The terrorist enemy behind these operations, which are sustained by a complex set of networks and infrastructure located behind the border of Afghanistan, cannot be defended by military operations inside Afghanistan alone," Spanta said.Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of being behind a suicide blast at the Indian embassy in Kabul this month that left 41 people dead, saying the attack had the hallmarks of its intelligence agency.Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack, the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban.In Kunar meanwhile, an Afghan official said international war planes had bombed the area during fighting around the base, and there may also have been civilian casualties.
In the south of the country, a suicide attacker with bombs strapped to his body rammed a motorbike into a police car in the bazaar in Uruzgan, police said. All of the dead were civilians except for four policemen, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat."Most of the casualties are shopkeepers and people and children who were selling stuff on the roadside," said a shopkeeper who gave his name only as Fazlullah.The coalition announced it had killed at least 40 militants in an operation that started Saturday and was still under way in Helmand.Afghan and coalition forces under attack had returned fire and called in air strikes, it said in a statement."At least 40 militants have been killed in the last two days, while over 30 enemy boats and several ... bridges were also destroyed on the Helmand River."

Drone aircraft have begun targeting Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a shift in strategy by the Obama administration that may reflect efforts to preempt a Taliban spring offensive against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the Washington Times reports.The U.S. military avoided hitting Mr. Mehsud's forces in 2007 and 2008, during the Bush administration, when the Taliban leader waged a campaign of suicide bombings inside Pakistan and humiliated the Pakistani army in his tribal stronghold near the Afghan border.However, Mr. Mehsud formed an alliance last month with two other Taliban commanders in North and South Waziristan, a potentially significant development because territory controlled just by Mr. Mehsud does not touch the Afghan border. With the alliance, he now has an inlet to Afghanistan.Sarfaraz Khan, a professor at the University of Peshawar, traced the new U.S. aggressiveness to the Taliban alliance."In order to stop unifying Taliban groups from launching massive attacks against NATO and in particular newly arriving U.S. troops in Afghanistan, such attacks have become indispensable on Americans' part," he said.On Sunday, two missile strikes suspected to have come from U.S. drones killed up to 12 people and injured scores in a Mehsud stronghold in the South Waziristan tribal zone, a senior Pakistani official in the South Waziristan capital, Wana, told The Washington Times.

Three Canadian military staff have been killed and two injured by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Killed were Warrant Officer Dennis Raymond Brown of The Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Cpl. Dany Olivier Fortin of 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron at 3 Wing Bagotville, Que. and Cp.l Kenneth Chad O'Quinn of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron at CFB Petawawa. The military said the device detonated near an armoured vehicle on security patrol northwest of Kandahar City in the Arghandab district around 5:40 p.m. Kandahar time Tuesday. The two injured troops were evacuated by helicopter to Kandahar Airfield’s multinational medical facility where they were said to be in good and fair condition. Their names will not be released in keeping with Canadian Forces policy.

Three NATO soldiers died after being wounded in a bomb blast that appeared to target the US Bagram military base in Afghanistan, military officials said on Wednesday.
"Three International Security Assistance Force soldiers died of wounds suffered in an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan yesterday," the military said in a statement.Two explosions, including a suspected suicide bombing, took place outside the main gate of the military base, located about 60 kilometres north of the capital Kabul.NATO did not disclose the identities of the dead soldiers or the exact location of the attack, but some media reports said the soldiers were all Canadian.Afghanistan has been hard hit by a rise in violence by a resurgent Taliban. The latest deaths take the total of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to 52.US president Barack Obama recently announced plans to deploy a further 17,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.In a statement released by the White House in February, President Obama said "the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention".Military advisers to the president have made it clear that the situation in Afghanistan is destabilising quickly.According to a report from the United Nations, the number of civilian deaths increased by 39 percent in 2008.

Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive tribal area on Friday killed two men they accused of spying for US forces stationed across the border in Afghanistan, officials said.The bullet-riddled bodies of Afghan refugee Sher Khan and Pakistani tribal elder Nazar Jan were found early Friday at separate places in the North Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, officials in those areas said.
"Notes found with the bodies said the men were killed for spying for the US," tribal police official Rukh Niaz Khan told AFP.Islamist militants frequently kidnap and kill local tribesmen or Afghan refugees on charges of spying for the Pakistani government or US forces, who are battling a Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.Pakistan's rugged tribal regions have been wracked by violence since becoming a stronghold for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports that on Thursday, “the mausoleum of renowned Pashto mystic poet Abdur Rehman Baba was bombed by unidentified miscreants,” outside Peshawar, in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. Dawn calls the bombing of the shrine to “a 17th century poet, revered for his message of love and peace” part of an “attack on Sufism.”As the BBC notes, suspicion has turned to the Taliban, “who represent a more purist form of Islam and are opposed to Sufism, preventing people from visiting shrines of Sufi saints in areas they control.” The BBC also says that “No casualties are reported but the poet Rahman Baba’s grave has been destroyed and the shrine building badly damaged.”According to Dawn: The shrine’s watchman had received a threat from suspected militants on his cell phone three days ago. He told police that the attack took place to crack down on the tradition of women making pilgrimages to the site.In spirit, the attack on the Pashtun poet’s shrine in Pakistan seems to echo one of the Afghan Taliban’s most infamous acts of cultural cleansing: the destruction of the Great Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001. But, surprisingly, the Taliban leader who ordered the attack on the “idols” at Bamiyan, Mullah Muhammad Omar, might not approve of this bombing in Pakistan, or, for that matter, the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and its Pakistani police escort in Lahore. That’s because Mullah Omar, who is believed to be operating from the Pakistani city of Quetta these days, recently issued a letter in which he called on Islamists in Pakistan to stop fighting there. On Tuesday, The Guardian’s Saeed Shah reported that Mullah Omar’s letter reportedly said that: Attacks on the Pakistani security forces and killing of fellow Muslims by the militants in the tribal areas and elsewhere in Pakistan is bringing a bad name to mujahedeen and harming the war against the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani journalist, wrote in Canada’s Globe and Mail on Saturday that Mullah Omar’s letter “to the commanders of the Pakistani Taliban,” also said that “If anybody really wants to wage jihad, he must fight the occupation forces inside Afghanistan.” According to Mr. Rashid, Mullah Omar’s letter was part of “a strategic attempt by both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban to unify and concentrate their forces for a spring offensive against the expected arrival of 17,000 more U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan.” Mr. Rashid reported that Mullah Omar “followed up by sending envoys to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) — the tribal belt adjoining Afghanistan — where the Pakistani Taliban leaders are based. His appeal was part of a concerted attempt by al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani, calling upon the Pakistani Taliban to unite.”

In an interview on The Guardian’s Web site, Mr. Shah suggested that Mullah Omar was partly worried that attacks inside Pakistan were “damaging the Taliban brand,” but was more concerned about getting reinforcements, to offset the increase of the U.S. force in Afghanistan from 36,000 troops to 53,000, ahead of “the spring fighting season.” (There are also about 30,000 other foreign troops operating in Afghanistan under a NATO-led command.)

Mr. Shah cited estimates that there are about 15,000 Afghan Taliban and perhaps the same number of Pakistani Taliban, predominantly drawn from the Pashtun tribes that live on either side of the colonial-era border that divides the two countries but is almost unmanned and essentially ignored by almost everyone in the region.
While Mr. Shah said that “it is not really a numbers game,” since the Taliban are fighting an asymmetric war, using guerrilla tactics and suicide attacks as what the military call “force multipliers,” the fact that the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan already seems to outnumber the Taliban raises the question of just how many troops it might take to really secure Afghanistan.Last month Elisabeth Bumiller wrote in The Times that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, “said that the failed history of the British and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan should not be a predictor of America’s future in the country.” It is true that times have changed a good bit since 1878, when a British force of 33,500 troops invaded Afghanistan, quickly occupied Kandahar and Kabul and toppled the regime in power (although that force ultimately failed to secure the peace and was forced to withdraw.) But the Soviet effort to control Afghanistan ended just 20 years ago. On February 15, 1989, Bill Keller, reporting “Special to The New York Times,” wrote that the last Soviet soldier had crossed out of Afghanistan. As Mr. Keller noted at the time:Today’s final departure is the end of a steady process of withdrawal since last spring, when Moscow says, there were 100,300 Soviet troops in Afghanistan. At the height of the Soviet commitment, according to Western intelligence estimates, there were 115,000 troops deployed. As the Soviets withdrew that day in 1989, the BBC reported that “Kabul is surrounded by a mujahedeen force of around 30,000,” So the size of the Afghan insurgency battling to take control of the capital 20 years ago this month, was just about the same as the combined strength of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban today.

Another way of looking at the great difficulty of the task of securing a country this size militarily is to look at how much larger a force the U.S. military deployed to keep the peace in just the one-quarter of post-war Germany it controlled in 1945. According to a Rand corporation study called “America’s Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq,” the U.S. peacekeeping force in that part of Germany (a region which then had a population of about 17 million people and no active insurgency) was more than 290,000 soldiers and “a constabulary or police-type occupation force” of 38,000.Looking closer to home, consider that there are nearly 38,000 police officers in New York City, patrolling an area of just 300 square miles, with a population of 8.3 million. Given that, it is no wonder that the U.S.-led coalition is having a hard time policing the mountains and plains of Afghanistan with 66,000 troops. The country covers 250,000 square miles and has 30 million people in it. Even if only 15,000 are insurgents, the fact that they can escape across an international frontier to a sanctuary controlled by their allies makes it nearly impossible to entirely defeat or overwhelm them.An awareness of this numbers game is perhaps what led General McKiernan to say that, no matter how big a force the U.S. ultimately sends to Afghanistan, “We’re not going to run out of people that either international forces or Afghan forces have to kill or capture.” Which is why, he stressed, “It’s going to be ultimately a political solution.”

Captain Michael Dung Nguyen is accused of stealing money while on duty in Iraq, from April 2007 until last month.Nguyen was arrested after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service tracked large deposits made by Nguyen in U.S. banks.The army captain is charged with theft of government property, money laundering and illegally structuring financial transactions.US army captain has been charged with stealing nearly $700,000 intended for emergency reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Michael Dung Nguyen, 28, is accused of stealing the money and sending it back home while he was stationed in Iraq between April 2007 and February 2009.
He allegedly spent the money on luxury cars, electronics and furniture. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including theft of government property and money laundering. At a district court hearing, prosecutors claimed Nguyen stole $690,000 (£484,575) from the Commanders' Emergency Response Program (Cerp) - a pot of money designated to local commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan for urgent relief and reconstruction needs. They allege Nguyen, who was working as a battalion civil affairs officer in Iraq, mailed bundles of $100 bills back to his home in Oregon state. When he returned he opened numerous bank accounts and deposited the money in small amounts to avoid detection, the prosecutors claim. He is also accused of attempting to launder the cash by buying a luxury BMW car and a 2009 model Hummer truck as well as computers, electronic equipment and furniture. US Attorney Karin Immergut said the charges indicated a "flagrant and reprehensible disregard" of US military principles. Nguyen is due to stand trial in May. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

BOPE , in Rio and one of the most battle-hardened police outfits in the world.
Last year the elite cop unit he joins called BOPE killed 1,000 gangsters in dramatic shootouts throughout the crime-ridden city.The former special forces soldier from Tyne and Wear actually goes through the training and gets into actual gun fights.

International cricket community reacted with shock to the news of the attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore.Seven players were injured when terrorists opened fire as the team bus made its way to the Gaddafi Stadium ahead of the third day of the second Test, with six policemen killed in the ensuing battle as well as two civilians.Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana were treated in hospital for leg and chest injuries respectively, while captain Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas, Suranga Lakmal and assistant coach Paul Farbrace, the former Kent and Middlesex wicketkeeper, were also hurt.International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat led the condemnation of the attacks, while expressing his sympathy for the victims.“We note with dismay and regret the events of this morning in Lahore and we condemn this attack without reservation,” he said.“It is a source of great sadness that there have been a number of fatalities in this attack and it is also very upsetting for the wider cricket family that some of the Sri Lanka players and one match official have been injured in this attack.
“At this time our thoughts and prayers are with the injured people and also the families of those who have died.“I have confirmed with both member boards that the remainder of the tour has been cancelled and we are working hard to get our match officials out of the area as safely and as quickly as possible.Haroon Lorgat expressed his sadness at the shocking events in Lahore today “I know, also, that the Pakistan Cricket Board is working with Sri Lanka Cricket to make sure the players are flown home at the earliest opportunity.”Australia captain Ricky Ponting and South Africa skipper Graeme Smith admitted the attack had been felt in South Africa, where the sides are involved in a Test series.“On behalf of the Australian cricket team I would like to express our deepest condolences to those who have been affected by the tragic events in Pakistan this morning,” said Ponting.“An act of violence like this is a terrible thing and when it involves those who are part of our cricketing family, players the world over are affected.“The wider cricketing community has been shocked by what has occurred and our thoughts and full support is with those involved.“We have spoken with members of the Sri Lankan team this morning and made them aware we are extremely saddened by what has happened and that our best wishes are with them all.“We hope that those who have been injured in these attacks can make a full and quick recovery and return to representing their country soon.”Smith added: “The word ‘tragedy’ is often used to describe a setback on a sporting field but this is a real tragedy.“It is a tragedy for all the people of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it is a tragedy for cricket and it is a tragedy for all decent people.“There is a tremendous brotherhood between players around the world and at this moment the South African team extends its sympathy to all those who have been affected by this terrible event.“We are hurting after our defeat yesterday but this puts into perspective what real suffering is. Our thoughts are with the players and we hope that they arrive home safely to their families.”Australia pulled out of a scheduled tour of Pakistan last year because of security concerns, with five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 now scheduled in the United Arab Emirates starting next month.Sri Lanka cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene paid tribute Tuesday to the heroism of his team's bus driver and security forces after gunmen opened fire at the Sri Lankan team bus and killed six police officers Tuesday."We are obviously all still shocked and shaken after this morning's attacks and all very relieved that no one in the team was seriously injured," Jayawardene said in a statement.At least 12 men armed with grenades, rocket launchers and automatic weapons attacked the team bus Tuesday at a roundabout close to the Gaddafi stadium in the eastern Pakistan. Attackers fired a rocket that caused a "huge explosion" next to the bus but did not damage it, bus driver Mohammad Khalil said.Seconds later, an attacker jumped in front of the bus and hurled a grenade at it, which also missed."We were very lucky to escape this terrible ambush and we are extremely grateful to those that showed such courage in trying to protect us," Jayawardene said.

The bus wound up with 25 bullet holes, its front windshield shattered. When it reached the stadium, bloodied players were taken out.

"We owe the team bus driver our lives for his remarkable bravery in the face of direct gunfire," Jayawardene said. "Had he not had the courage and presence of mind to get the bus moving after the initial attack then we'd have been a far easier target for the terrorists."We are now looking forward to returning home to Sri Lanka to be with our families."The incident is one of the most high-profile attacks on a sports team since the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.Pakistan captain Younis Khan met with the Sri Lankan players at the airport. They were scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka later Tuesday."As an ordinary Pakistani I think it's too bad as it happened to our guests," said Khan, who was with teammates Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq. "I met with captain Jayawardene, (Muttiah) Muralitharan and (Ajantha) Mendis and they have no complaints from anyone. They took it as a bad experience for them."
Khan said he did not believe it was a security lapse.

"It's not a security failure because such a thing has never happened in sports in Pakistan," Khan said. "Full marks to the bus driver who drove the Sri Lankan team to the stadium."Khan said Jayawardene has a scratch on his foot, Mendis was hurt by glass and Samaraweera was also slightly injured."Murli told me that the driver didn't panic and he even gave his shirt and cash award to the driver," Khan said.Khan said it was sad that such an incident happened in the last Test for Jayawardene, who will be quitting the captaincy after the two-Test series against Pakistan.

cricket team bus was ambushed on both sides of Liberty roundabout, in an upmarket area of the city.
Abdul Ghani Butt, who runs a shoe shop next to the road where the attack took place, said: “I was inside my shop when the attack took place. I rushed outside when I heard the shots. I saw three people on the roundabout firing at the team bus. They were wearing trousers and shirts. I saw the face of one of them – he was a boy of about 20 year old.” "I was surprised so I ran back into the shop but then went out again and saw another four men shooting from the other side of the bus. Then about 16 policemen jumped out of the escort vans and a shoot-out began. All the windows of the bus were smashed. And the police were shooting from bus as if it was a barricade,. I saw two elite police force officers lying on the ground. A crowd soon gathered along with other police vehicles and ambulances.” Sabir Ahmed, 15, a street vendor of flower garlands, said: ’I hear the shots and so ran away from the roundabout. From a distance I saw policemen leaping from vehicles and shooting towards the bus. Then I saw 3-4 armed people running towards the Gaddafi Stadium and a group of policemen following them. A security guard in the nearby Big City Plaza said he heard a huge explosion before the shooting began. "Soon after the blast, there was noise of continuous firing. I thought perhaps some bomb had exploded in the Gaddafi Stadium," he told AFP. "I was frightened. I had only a gun. After some time I saw a damaged police vehicle, an overturned traffic police motorcycle and a traffic warden dead on the road. Then my superiors ordered me to come inside," he added. The wounded were taken to Lahore’s Services Hospital. A hospital official said that two Sri Lankan players were being treated for wounds that were non-life threatening. One player was wounded in the foot, the other in the thigh. A Pakistani cricket umpire was reported to be in critical condition after receiving wounds to the liver. The hospital was also treating 8 or 9 policemen for wounds. Lahore’s Inspector-General of police, Raja Khalid Farooq, said: “We have not started working on who is responsible for the attack but we will soon find out. It has a very close resemblance to the Mumbai attacks. we are continuing with the investigation and will pursue all leads. The attack was meticulously planned and not a spur of the moment thing. Security was not inadequate and whatever happened could not have been stopped.”