Coalition Forces

U.S. forces arrested Mullah Mujahid, a top Taliban commander, on July 5 in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province, 150 miles southwest of Kabul.  Mujahid was charged with distributing more than $1 million to supporters of the ousted militia. Two weeks later, on July 18, U.S. forces detained Ghulum Mohammed Hotak, a former Taliban commander, in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul.

On July 16, Taliban rebels attacked a convoy of U.S. and Afghan soldiers on patrol along the Kandahar-Kabul highway near the Spin Aghbarqa area in Zabul province, 70 miles northeast of Kandahar. No U.S. soldiers were hurt in the incident.

General Afghan Security Situation

On July 7, Afghan security forces arrested three Americans and four Afghans after a shootout in Kabul. The security forces have accused the Americans of illegally detaining and interrogating locals. A U.S. Embassy spokesman identified one of the Americans as Jonathan K. Idema. The U.S. military claims that Idema has misrepresented himself in the past as a U.S. government or military official.

A female Afghan election worked was killed by a landmine explosion on July 8, in the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. Two other people were injured in the roadside blast.

On July 12, Mohammad Atta, a regional militia commander in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, demanded the departure of the police chief appointed by the Kabul government.  It is the latest development in an on-going stand-off between the militia leader and the police chief. President Hamid Karzai has warned that private militias pose a greater threat to Afghan stability than the Taliban. Karzai has acknowledged that a nationwide disarmament program had so far failed to reduce the power of these militias.

On July 15, the United Nations staff pulled out of Afghanistan's central province of Ghor after its election office there was ransacked by a mob. Helicopters evacuated 10 foreigners and seven Afghan U.N. aid workers. The mob was protesting a checkpoint skirmish in the provincial capital of Chaghcharan in which government troops killed two local militiamen.

A late night rocket attacked killed one Afghan woman and injured several others on July 18 in the Shashdarak section of Kabul. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack.

International Security Assistance Force

Turkey announced on July 15 that it will send a provincial reconstruction team to Takhar, Afghanistan.  The 200-member team will include 80 soldiers. The team, which will leave for Afghanistan within a month, is expected to stay in Takhar for three to five years. At present there are approximately 160 Turkish soldiers in the Takhar region. The Turkish government also announced that it plans to resume command of ISAF in Afghanistan for the second time beginning in February 2005.

Portugal announced on July 16 that it will send 24 soldiers and one C-130 Hercules cargo plane to Afghanistan in the coming weeks. It said that the contingent will join the Portuguese air-traffic controllers and firemen of the air force dispatched to Afghanistan in May for tasks at the Kabul airport. The Portuguese military's decision will increase the number of Portuguese soldiers in Afghanistan to 32, deployed at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) General Headquarters under a United Nations mandate and the command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Pakistan

Officials from Pakistan's Seismological Center reported a moderate earthquake on July 15. The earthquake measured five on the Richter scale and was centered in the rugged Hindu Kush mountain region. There were no reports of any serious damage.

Other News in Brief 

• Afghan officials announced on July 9 that the upcoming presidential elections are to be held on Oct. 9, 2004. The vote was originally scheduled for June, but has been rescheduled twice because of security fears and slow voter registration. It will be the first popular vote since the fall of the Taliban, and a key test for U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. Parliamentary elections are to be held separately next April or May, according to the latest timetable. The United Nations is concerned that if the parliamentary elections are held too soon, anti-Taliban warlords who allied with the United States will consolidate their grip on the country.
   

• Afghan intelligence officials confirmed on July 9 that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the disposed leader of the Taliban, is still alive. Omar has evaded capture since the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
   

• On July 13, the first group of Afghan refugees left Kyrgyzstan for a new life in Canada under a landmark group resettlement plan. Four Afghan families departed for Canada on Tuesday, following the first six individuals who arrived there last Tuesday. The departures will continue until a total of 525 refugees accepted for resettlement by the Canadian government leave Kyrgyzstan before the end of the year.
   

• Senior U.S. diplomat Richard Armitage announced on July 16 that Washington's policy in Afghanistan will remain unchanged, regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election in November. Armitage, the U.S. deputy secretary of state,  stated that both American political parties agree with the current U.S. economic and military support for Afghanistan.

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