|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Action Update (Complete Archive)
On Sunday, Oct. 7, 2001, the United States and Britain began air strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan. In addition, officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush are warning that military strikes also could take place in other countries harboring terrorists. Below find news and analysis about the events in Afghanistan and the U.S. war on terrorism in the surrounding region. CDI is sensitive to reporting any information that could endanger lives or operations. Click here for updates on Northern Alliance activity and Taliban responses through Nov. 28, 2001. Given the fluid nature of the conflict and operational security constraints, these updates draw on occasionally unconfirmed and incomplete press reports, as well as official information that is by necessity guarded. As such, troop dispositions and events related here are often approximations.
Coalition
Operations In the wake of a June
17 security-affairs meeting between U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani military
leaders, Operation Unified Resolve
began on June 21 as hundreds of U.S.
troops with combat air support advanced into Nangarhar, an Afghan province which
has “historically served as al Qaeda strongholds,” said military spokesman
Col. Rodney Davis. Days before,
across the nearby border with Following a trend of
heightening attacks by insurgents in On June
19, U.S. Special Operations troops attached to the CJTF-180 force took 15
insurgents into custody after the group attacked a coalition military compound
near the Meanwhile, on June
22, insurgents detonated two bombs dangerously close to housing designated
for U.S. soldiers in Kunduz although the Afghan Government’s Constitutional
Review Commission and a building housing U.S.-led provincial reconstruction
teams (PRTs) seemed to be the intended targets. A firefight erupted between a
patrolling U.S. Special Operations unit and unidentified insurgents on June
25. One U.S. Navy SEAL was
killed and two others wounded, according to military spokesman Col. Douglas
Lafforge though he provided no other details.
June
28 saw 10 insurgents surprise General
Afghan Security Situation On June
23, top Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar announced that he has reforged
the Taliban Leadership Council to resist occupying forces.
The message was conveyed via audio cassette and printed in a Pakistani
newspaper. Called by some a
“resistance movement,” the Council bears the name Saiful Muslameen, meaning
“Sword of Muslims”and is headquartered in Ashadabad near the northeastern
Pakistani border. Mullah Omar heads
the committee though other leaders include the notorious Pashtun warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Saifullah Mansoor, and Taliban military commander
Mullah Dadullah. Fighting erupted on June
27 in International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) UN officials, members of the
Karzai government, and other world leaders are asking NATO to push for the
extension of ISAF’s mandate beyond the immediate surrounding area of In As the first Muslim head of
state to visit
Coalition
Operations Several
hundred U.S. Special Forces troops along with an estimated 300 Italian soldiers
participated in Operation
Dragon Fury
in
eastern Paktia province on June
2-3,
aimed at preventing “the re-emergence of terrorism, denying anti-coalition
members sanctuary, and preventing further attacks against non-governmental
organizations, coalition forces, and equipment,” according to a press release.
The operation was supported by an estimated 20 coalition aircraft, which
included UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks, and AH-64 Apaches.
In all, roughly 21 people were arrested. U.S.
Special Forces were involved in a three-hour gunfight June
10
after a patrol in the southeastern city of General
Afghan Security Situation
One
of the deadliest exchanges between Taliban militia and Afghan government troops
erupted June
5 as an estimated 47 Taliban fighters were
killed following nine hours of fighting near the Pakistani border town of Six
people were killed and five injured June
11 following a deadly attack on a passenger bus
in the southern Afghan Afghan
authorities are blaming Taliban rebels for a grenade attack in southern Pakistani
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf lashed out at the apparent Islamization, or ‘Talibanization’,
as it is increasingly being called, of ISAF German
Defense Minister Peter Struck expressed his steadfast commitment in maintaining
the international presence in Other
News in Brief French
President Jacques Chirac indicated he would support sending French Special
Forces soldiers to fight alongside Coalition
Operations
The
American commander of American authorities reported no casualties May 28, following an explosion of a remote-controlled device near a vehicle carrying Special Forces soldiers. The device was believed to be planted by Taliban rebels. The attack, which took place in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, near the city of Khost, happened as U.S. forces were conducting a routine reconnaissance patrol near a border check point. General
Afghan Security Situation U.S.
soldiers responsible for protecting the U.S. Embassy building in Kabul
mistakenly shot at and killed four Afghan soldiers May
21 following a “misunderstanding” in which
U.S. troops believed the Afghan soldiers, who were moving weapons from a nearby
military compound, were planning an imminent attack on the chancery building
proper. Four other Afghan soldiers
were believed to be injured, and possibly one American.
Security in Two
Taliban rebel leaders, Mullah Ghausuddin and Mullah Mohammed, were killed May
27 in the restive southern On
June
2, American authorities reported an Afghan
soldier accompanying a U.S. Special Forces convoy suffered minor injuries
following an attack 50 kilometers outside of ISAF
A
German International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeeper was killed and
another wounded May
29 after a land mine exploded underneath their
vehicle during a routine patrol 10 miles southeast of
A
package of ultra-conservative laws presented by the pro-Taliban government of Other
News in Brief
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai threatened to resign May
19 and dissolve the government following
long-simmering disputes between him and 12 provincial governors who have denied
the central government millions of dollars in outstanding customs revenues.
The governors, whose authority within their border provinces extends over
traditionally lucrative import-routes, have failed to replenish their share of
the Afghan
authorities arrested five people May
25, including Mullah Janan, a Taliban member
with extensive ties to al Qaeda, for ostensibly planning a devastating bomb
attack in downtown
Coalition Operations Suspected Taliban and al Qaeda rebels fired on a General Afghan Security
Situation An
attack by Taliban rebels in the Shah Joy district of southeastern Zabul province
May 6 resulted in injuries to two civilian
employees of an Afghan demining agency. According
to reports, the team of Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) was attacked with
automatic gunfire in an apparent “ambush” in what is the third such attack
on deminers in as many weeks, according to a UN public relations officer.
The United Nations meanwhile indicated it would suspend further demining
operations, though later reneged, saying they would opt for armed government
escorts for its staff instead. The
Afghan national government has agreed to provide protection for the demining
staff in the provinces of Nimruz, American
fighter jets and attack helicopters responded to a location in the eastern
Afghanistan province of Khost May
9
following an ambush on an American soldier and his Afghan counterpart, which
wounded the American and killed the Afghan soldier.
Authorities are attributing the attack to regrouping Taliban fighters. A
bomb that was planted in a small mosque in the southern At
least five people were killed following more fighting May
16
between forces loyal to both Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum and his Tajik
nemesis Atta Mohammed in the northern Afghan ISAF Two
Norwegian Army officers assigned to a civilian-military team of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were shot and wounded May
13 in the On
May
18,
an ISAF spokesperson in Other News in Brief A U.S. Army soldier inexplicably collapsed and died May
17 following a training run outside the According to a May 18 report, the world’s largest regional security organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will begin working with Afghanistan to combat the increasingly dangerous rise of drug-smuggling, a long-term threat to regional stability and security and a main ingredient responsible for human suffering in that part of central Asia. Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opiates, recently became a new partner in cooperation with the OSCE, whose membership also extends to the countries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which all share long, porous borders with Afghanistan. “This is something where we have to address alternative ways of life for the producers,” said an OSCE deputy coordinator.
June 16, 2003 - Coalition Operations In the wake of a June 17 security-affairs meeting between U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani military leaders, Operation Unified Resolve began on June 21 as hundreds of U.S. troops with combat air support advanced into Nangarhar, an Afghan province which has “historically served as al Qaeda strongholds,” said military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis. Days before, across the nearby border with Following a trend of heightening attacks by insurgents in On June 19, U.S. Special Operations troops attached to the CJTF-180 force took 15 insurgents into custody after the group attacked a coalition military compound near the Meanwhile, on June 22, insurgents detonated two bombs dangerously close to housing designated for U.S. soldiers in Kunduz although the Afghan Government’s Constitutional Review Commission and a building housing U.S.-led provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) seemed to be the intended targets. A firefight erupted between a patrolling U.S. Special Operations unit and unidentified insurgents on June 25. One U.S. Navy SEAL was killed and two others wounded, according to military spokesman Col. Douglas Lafforge though he provided no other details. June 28 saw 10 insurgents surprise General Afghan Security Situation On June 23, top Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar announced that he has reforged the Taliban Leadership Council to resist occupying forces. The message was conveyed via audio cassette and printed in a Pakistani newspaper. Called by some a “resistance movement,” the Council bears the name Saiful Muslameen, meaning “Sword of Muslims”and is headquartered in Ashadabad near the northeastern Pakistani border. Mullah Omar heads the committee though other leaders include the notorious Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Saifullah Mansoor, and Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah. Fighting erupted on June 27 in International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) UN officials, members of the Karzai government, and other world leaders are asking NATO to push for the extension of ISAF’s mandate beyond the immediate surrounding area of In As the first Muslim head of state to visit
Coalition Operations Several hundred U.S. Special Forces troops along with an estimated 300 Italian soldiers participated in Operation Dragon Fury in eastern Paktia province on June 2-3, aimed at preventing “the re-emergence of terrorism, denying anti-coalition members sanctuary, and preventing further attacks against non-governmental organizations, coalition forces, and equipment,” according to a press release. The operation was supported by an estimated 20 coalition aircraft, which included UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks, and AH-64 Apaches. In all, roughly 21 people were arrested. U.S. Special Forces were involved in a three-hour gunfight June 10 after a patrol in the southeastern city of General Afghan Security Situation
One of the deadliest exchanges between Taliban militia and Afghan government troops erupted June 5 as an estimated 47 Taliban fighters were killed following nine hours of fighting near the Pakistani border town of Six people were killed and five injured June 11 following a deadly attack on a passenger bus in the southern Afghan Afghan authorities are blaming Taliban rebels for a grenade attack in southern Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf lashed out at the apparent Islamization, or ‘Talibanization’, as it is increasingly being called, of ISAF German Defense Minister Peter Struck expressed his steadfast commitment in maintaining the international presence in Other News in Brief French President Jacques Chirac indicated he would support sending French Special Forces soldiers to fight alongside Coalition Operations
The American commander of American authorities reported no casualties May 28, following an explosion of a remote-controlled device near a vehicle carrying Special Forces soldiers. The device was believed to be planted by Taliban rebels. The attack, which took place in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, near the city of Khost, happened as U.S. forces were conducting a routine reconnaissance patrol near a border check point. General Afghan Security Situation U.S. soldiers responsible for protecting the U.S. Embassy building in Kabul mistakenly shot at and killed four Afghan soldiers May 21 following a “misunderstanding” in which U.S. troops believed the Afghan soldiers, who were moving weapons from a nearby military compound, were planning an imminent attack on the chancery building proper. Four other Afghan soldiers were believed to be injured, and possibly one American. Security in Two Taliban rebel leaders, Mullah Ghausuddin and Mullah Mohammed, were killed May 27 in the restive southern On June 2, American authorities reported an Afghan soldier accompanying a U.S. Special Forces convoy suffered minor injuries following an attack 50 kilometers outside of ISAF
A German International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeeper was killed and another wounded May 29 after a land mine exploded underneath their vehicle during a routine patrol 10 miles southeast of
A package of ultra-conservative laws presented by the pro-Taliban government of Other News in Brief
Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to resign May 19 and dissolve the government following long-simmering disputes between him and 12 provincial governors who have denied the central government millions of dollars in outstanding customs revenues. The governors, whose authority within their border provinces extends over traditionally lucrative import-routes, have failed to replenish their share of the Afghan authorities arrested five people May 25, including Mullah Janan, a Taliban member with extensive ties to al Qaeda, for ostensibly planning a devastating bomb attack in downtown
Coalition Operations Suspected Taliban and al Qaeda rebels fired on a General Afghan Security Situation An attack by Taliban rebels in the Shah Joy district of southeastern Zabul province May 6 resulted in injuries to two civilian employees of an Afghan demining agency. According to reports, the team of Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) was attacked with automatic gunfire in an apparent “ambush” in what is the third such attack on deminers in as many weeks, according to a UN public relations officer. The United Nations meanwhile indicated it would suspend further demining operations, though later reneged, saying they would opt for armed government escorts for its staff instead. The Afghan national government has agreed to provide protection for the demining staff in the provinces of Nimruz, American fighter jets and attack helicopters responded to a location in the eastern Afghanistan province of Khost May 9 following an ambush on an American soldier and his Afghan counterpart, which wounded the American and killed the Afghan soldier. Authorities are attributing the attack to regrouping Taliban fighters. A bomb that was planted in a small mosque in the southern At least five people were killed following more fighting May 16 between forces loyal to both Uzbek warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum and his Tajik nemesis Atta Mohammed in the northern Afghan ISAF Two Norwegian Army officers assigned to a civilian-military team of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were shot and wounded May 13 in the On May 18, an ISAF spokesperson in Other News in Brief A U.S. Army soldier inexplicably collapsed and died May 17 following a training run outside the According to a May 18 report, the world’s largest regional security organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will begin working with Afghanistan to combat the increasingly dangerous rise of drug-smuggling, a long-term threat to regional stability and security and a main ingredient responsible for human suffering in that part of central Asia. Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of opiates, recently became a new partner in cooperation with the OSCE, whose membership also extends to the countries of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which all share long, porous borders with Afghanistan. “This is something where we have to address alternative ways of life for the producers,” said an OSCE deputy coordinator.
April 20, 2003 - May 4, 2003 Coalition Operations U.S. Special Forces killed one man and detained seven others April 22 in southern Afghanistan during operations aimed at ridding destabilizing al Qaeda and Taliban elements from the country. A U.S. military spokesperson on the ground could not provide further information. In a separate incident, a U.S. Army soldier was injured following a landmine explosion near Bagram. The soldier was later transported to a U.S. medical facility in Germany. An April 25 tip from local sources resulted in the confiscation of four heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles roughly 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan authorities, after receiving credible information from a key intelligence source on the ground, responded to the house in the town of Dera Said Mian where the discovery was made. No arrests were made during the seizure. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others injured April 25 following a deadly exchange with militants in the southeastern Afghanistan province of Paktika. According to U.S. military officials, a platoon-sized unit responded to suspicious activity near the U.S. firebase at Shkin when they were fired on by an estimated 20 militants using rocket-propelled grenades. At least three enemy soldiers were killed and an Afghan Army soldier was also wounded in the incident. General Afghan Security Situation On April 23, two Afghan soldiers were killed following a land mine explosion that destroyed their vehicle. The soldiers were traveling from Jalalabad to Tora Bora and authorities have an opened an investigation. A Taliban-led attack on an Afghan government outpost in the Zabul province city of Chapan April 24 resulted in the deaths of two Afghan soldiers and three Taliban fighters. Emerging reports indicate the fighting began following an armed incursion of as many as 80 Taliban fighters into a key government facility in Chapan, beginning a four-hour battle with Afghan troops involving rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. Most of the assailants are believed to have escaped. Reports from the Zabul province district of Chopan April 28 revealed a deadly firefight in which 15 Taliban rebels and as many Afghan soldiers were killed. According to an Afghan commander, the battle erupted following an armed incursion of Taliban into Chopan to retake the city when they were stymied by Afghan troops. "Intense fighting is still going on in the mountains of Zabul province and both the groups have been suffering heavy losses," one report commented. A Taliban-led offensive against Afghan government buildings, weapons depots, and other installations in and around the southern town of Spin Boldak April 28 killed three Afghan soldiers, amid growing concern that Pakistani border areas are the main staging grounds for radical elements. On May 2, Afghan government forces arrested 60 Taliban in Helmand province suspected of attacking the Kajakai dam with rockets and automatic weapons fire. Pakistan During a two-day visit to Afghanistan April 23, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and gave him a "most-wanted" list of Taliban sympathizers wanted for crimes against the Afghan people while also imploring the Pakistani leader to contribute more to sealing his side of the porous border from terrorists coming into Afghanistan. It remains to be seen whether or not Musharraf will be able to fulfill these demands, however. In Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), where the Muttahida Majlis-i-Imal (MMI) party dominates (a collection of fundamentalist political groups that won a majority in the October 2002 elections there), official sympathy for the ousted Taliban regime is absolute; the MMI has even provided sanctuary to those regrouping elements of Taliban seeking it. Moreover, popular sentiments on the ground in NWFP also demand the withdrawal of Pakistan's support in the U.S-led war on terrorism, thus providing an atmosphere of increased tension for Musharraf as he wrestles with the domestic political implications of any future decision he will be forced to make. Pakistani police scored yet another coup April 28 with the capture of Tawfiq bin Attash, a major al Qaeda operative and a lieutenant of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) suspected of operational involvement in the 2000 bombing of USS Cole. KSM is also suspected in the 1998 East Africa bombings in Dar es Salam and Nairobi, in which Attash is alleged to have played an instrumental role. The East Africa attacks which left more than 250 people dead and as many as 5,000 injured. According to reports, Pakistani authorities were led to Attash's capture by information provided by the ongoing interrogation of KSM, who himself was nabbed by the Pakistanis and turned over to the Americans March 1 in the suburb of Rawalpindi and is considered one of bin Laden's "most senior and most significant lieutenants." The April 28 arrest is a major success in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, as Attash, who along with Ramzi Binalshibh, another significant figure arrested in September 2002, represented some of al Qaeda's most crucial leadership infrastructure. The arrest also produced six additional arrests of suspected Pakistani extremists, probably al Qaeda, as well as the confiscation of 330 pounds of explosives and some light weapons. The White House meanwhile called the arrest "a hopeful and significant capture." Other News in Brief An announcement by U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan April 23 revealed U.S. forces killed the person responsible for the brutal murder of Red Cross worker Ricardo Munguia in Kandahar province on March 27. The death of Manguia had been the first foreign aid worker death in the country in five years. U.S. authorities, in collaboration with Afghan government troops, were led to an area in Kandahar province by local informants when they were fired on by automatic weapons fire. In addition to the one casualty, there was also an estimated eight suspects arrested. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld traveled to Kabul May 1 after a whirl-wind tour throughout the Middle East to declare an end to major combat operations in Afghanistan and to shift the U.S. military mission there to reconstruction, humanitarian efforts, and stabilization. Saying that most of the country remains stable except for the border regions with Pakistan, Rumsfeld reiterated his desire for the creation of an Afghan National Army. "I believe that the fate of this country depends in large part on their having their own national army." So far U.S. forces have trained roughly 4,500 Afghan National Army soldiers.
Coalition Operations A massive U.S. military operation involving two dozen helicopter gunships and roughly 70 military vehicles commenced April 8 in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, near the city of Lashkar Gah, to destroy suspected Taliban hideouts. U.S. authorities were led to the province by an informant that indicated Mullah Dadullah, a former Taliban military commander, was using Sangin as a redoubt — the same area where two U.S. soldiers were killed March 29. The frequency of destabilizing violence involving Taliban and al Qaeda so far this year has been attributed to many events, particularly, though, to: an apparent restructuring of power among regrouping Taliban under the patronage of rebel leader and former Islamist Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; the U.S.-led war with Iraq, which has fomented deeper resentment and calls for jihad against the American presence in the country; and the up-and-coming spring weather, which at least one report referred to as the traditional "fighting season" in the country. On April 9, U.S.-led coalition partners arrested eight fighters in southern Helmand province for their suspected involvement in a March 29 ambush that killed two soldiers of a U.S. Special Forces patrol. Operation Resolute Strike, as it was called, was launched specifically to either kill or capture those responsible for the deadly ambush. U.S. authorities believe that there are other suspect rebels that remain at large. U.S. troops and their Romanian counterparts uncovered three separate weapons caches April 17 during operations in Ghazni province and in the provincial capital of Qalat in eastern Zabul province. In the village of Khar Bolah in Ghazni, U.S. troops, or Task Force Devil, uncovered approximately 271 rocket-propelled grenades, four RPG launchers, 40 mortar rounds and hundreds of cases of ammunition. In Qalat, Romanian troops uncovered the "largest cache found to date by coalition forces," according to an official on the ground. Troops discovered thousands of rockets and over 1.25 million rounds of ammunition. The operation was part of a larger effort to hunt down suspected weapons caches of al Qaeda and Taliban rebels, particularly, in the southern and eastern parts of the country. General Afghan Security Situation Tajik-Uzbek enmity manifested itself again when on April 10 forces loyal to Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum clashed with forces tied to former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a Tajik, in the northwest Afghan province of Faryab. According to reports, the fighting began in Meymaneh, the provincial capital, following the murder of a high-ranking member of Rabbani's political group, the Jamiat-i-Islam (Islamic Society) at the hands of Dostum's Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Eslami (National Islamic Movement) party. So far, the fighting has resulted in the deaths of 11 fighters, two civilians, and has injured approximately 17. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other aid agencies have suspended operations in the province since the fighting began. On April 13, family members of the governor of Kandahar province were targeted in an assassination attempt as their motorcade made its way near the Pakistani border town of Chaman. Two Afghan security guards and the governor's cousin were killed in the attack. Authorities suspect regrouping Taliban elements. ISAF NATO will play a greater role in peacekeeping in Afghanistan following an April 16 decision to assume control of the 4,600-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently under joint German and Dutch command. NATO will assume control of ISAF in August following the end of the German and Dutch military's scheduled six-month rotation, which assumed control of the peacekeeping force from the Turks in early February 2003. Previously, only one or two NATO members were contributing to the Kabul peacekeeping force, thus causing a burden on those countries capable of maintaining such an extended military commitment. This recent decision will shift the burden from those few NATO member states with such military capabilities and disperse it amongst the alliance as a whole, which is scheduled to increase from 19 members to 26 by next year. Pakistan An unconfirmed videotape purportedly containing the voice of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was received by the Associated Press April 8 in Islamabad, imploring all Muslims to "avenge the innocent children of Iraq" with suicide attacks while also extolling the use of "jihad" as the "solution to all our [Muslims] problems." The 27-minute tape was handed over to the AP by an Algerian national believed to be a former acquaintance of a Palestinian national who together with bin Laden founded the Makhtab al Khimdat, the main recruiting base in Peshawar that was used to enlist the support of foreign fighters to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. "Oh Muslim brothers," the tape began, "let us promise to devote our lives to martyrdom in the way of Allah. America has attacked Iraq and soon will also attack Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan. You should be aware that non-Muslims cannot bear the existence of Muslims and want to capture their resources and destroy them…Do not be afraid of their tanks and armored personnel carriers. These are artificial things." Although the tape does include these references to the current U.S.-led war with Iraq, it still remains a mystery as to when the tape was made. U.S. officials thus far have dismissed its authenticity. Pakistan's Frontier Corps paramilitary seized roughly one ton of narcotics April 13 from smugglers trying to pass through the Pakistani border town of Chaman along a known smuggling route. The smugglers escaped following a brief gun battle. Pakistani narcotics officials claim their country is the main transit route for approximately a quarter of the heroin smuggled from Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium. Zalmay Khalizad, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan, remarked in Kabul April 19 that "success of the new Afghanistan's stability is in America's interests and any effort that undermines that stability, that threatens it, is a challenge to America's interests." This is being interpreted as a rebuke to the Pakistani government following contentious border clashes between Taliban sympathizers from inside Pakistan and Afghan forces across the border. Khaliza |