BB FANS

Kabul rejects US pleas to spray opium poppies


Chiade O'Shea in Islamabad


Renewed American efforts to persuade the Afghan government to use crop dusters against poppy production have failed, despite Washington dispatching a top scientist to advocate the safety of spraying herbicides.

Charles Helling met representatives of the Afghan ministries of counter-narcotics, health, and rural rehabilitation on Sunday to discuss fears over the side effects of glyphosate, one of the most effective methods for the mass eradication of opium poppies. Kabul, however, remained unconvinced.

"We have rejected the spraying of poppy in Afghanistan for good reasons: the effect on the environment, other smaller crops and on human genetics," the acting minister for counter-narcotics, General Khodaidad (who uses only one name), told the Guardian. "It was a very friendly discussion, but it is difficult to change our mind," he added.

The US maintains that the herbicide is safe for the environment and the local population. It says the misgivings of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, are based on myth and Taliban disinformation.

"[Glyphosate] is used all over America, Europe, Asia and Africa - everywhere," said a previous thwarted envoy, Thomas Schweich, the acting assistant secretary at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, while attending the third annual Afghan counter-narcotics conference in August. "The Taliban are pretty good at propaganda," he added. "They will, if there's spray used, undoubtedly try to claim that this is poisoning the Afghan people."

Gen Khodaidad insisted: "We listened to their experts and they listened to our experts and they eventually accepted our position would not change. Our responsibility is to the people of Afghanistan."

Washington is frustrated at the futility of indigenous efforts to contain Afghanistan's booming opium crop. A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in August came to the grim conclusion that "no other country in the history of the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale".

The 2007 harvest is expected to be 17% higher than last year's, the UN drugs body reported. Poppy production is encouraged by drug lords' money, which flows freely amid a crippled economy and the lawlessness which affects much of the country.

"When we have a strong police, army and improve security, then day by day the poppy situation will improve," said Gen Khodaidad. "Next year, inshallah, I think we will achieve some positive results."

However, the security situation in the south, where the Taliban insurgency is fierce and poppy production rampant, shows no sign of abating.

For the US ambassador, William Wood, who has offered to be sprayed with glyphosate to illustrate its safety, the arguments against more affirmative action on drugs are no longer acceptable. With unusually blunt diplomacy at the counter-narcotics conference, he singled out two of the largest opium producing southern provinces, which have each received considerable anti-drugs aid, saying: "Kandahar has no excuse ... Shame on you Helmand."
guardian

Private security guards accused of killing two women in car

Private security firms in Iraq were under fresh scrutiny last night after two women died in a hail of bullets, apparently because their car had got too close to a security convoy travelling through central Baghdad.

The identity of the guards remains unknown but Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman said: "Today's incident is part of a series of reckless actions by some security companies."

Later reports suggested guards from an Australian-owned security company based in Dubai, Unity Resources Group, had fired at the women.

An interior ministry spokesman said the company had apologised to the Iraqi government. The shooting occurred near Unity offices in central Baghdad's Karradah district.

Michael Priddin, Unity's chief operating officer, issued a statement saying: "We deeply regret this incident and will continue to pass on further information when the facts have been verified and the necessary people and authorities notified."

The deaths came just hours after Iraq's government demanded that the US security company Blackwater pay a total of $136m (£67m) in compensation to the families of civilians killed in a shooting in Baghdad last month. Seventeen people were shot and at least 20 injured when Blackwater guards protecting a US diplomatic convoy opened fire. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has urged the US to sever its relations with the company within six months.

Police at the scene of the shooting said they had collected 19 shell casings used by Nato forces and by Iraqi security agencies which have recently received new US weapons. In a scene that has become depressingly familiar to Baghdad residents, the women were shot after they drove too close to a convoy of three unmarked four-wheel drives close to the former German embassy.

One witness said the guards in the convoy, who were reported to be masked, had fired a warning shot and a smoke bomb in the direction of the women's car. He said the woman driving appeared to panic and failed to stop. A police spokesman said their car had then been hit with at least 16 bullets. The convoy then sped off leaving behind the blood-stained vehicle. Iraqi police later collected the bodies and towed the car to a local police station.

The women were described as being Christians. Marou Awanis, 48, was named as the driver. Relatives said she had been ferrying government employees to work to raise money to support her daughters. Two children in the back seat escaped unharmed, police said.

An interior ministry spokesman said the government was committed to regulating the private security sector. A senior Iraqi policeman said: "Why is it that when US soldiers commit crimes they go on trial, but when these thugs shoot innocent people they get away with it?"

guardian

2500 UK troops injured this year


This year has already been the most damaging on record for British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 2,500 troops serving in the two war zones have been injured, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The number seriously or very seriously injured in Iraq stands at 64, the highest since the invasion in 2003.

In Afghanistan, the total is 42, which is 12 more than last year.

The figures were revealed to Metro yesterday on the day the Government moved to boost payouts for the most seriously injured troops.

The numbers of injured are all higher than last year – statistics for earlier years are either not available or are incomplete. This year's figures cover only the period up to September 15.

They show that 1,463 British forces have been wounded in Iraq; of these, 930 were treated in field hospitals while 469 were flown home.

The most deadly year in Iraq was 2003, when 53 British troops were killed – although 42 have died there so far this year.

Meanwhile, 1,069 have been injured in Afghanistan this year. Of these, 456 were flown home for treatment.

The figures have been growing since British troops were stationed in the notoriously dangerous Helmand province in January last year.

Deaths in Afghanistan already stand at 38 so far this year and are likely to exceed last year's total of 39.

Campaigner Diane Dernie, the mother of 23-year-old Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs and suffered brain damage in Afghanistan last year, dismissed yesterday's changes to compensation rules as 'cheap'.

She said she saw dozens of injured being brought into hospital.

'That's when you realise what's truly happening in Iraq and Afghanistan,' she added.
Metro

US strike kills women and children


A US attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, in Iraq - one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months.

The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qa'ida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional US troops arrived on June 15.

But Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has recently confronted top American commander General David Petraeus about what he sees as overly aggressive US tactics that harm innocent civilians, according to Iraqi officials.

The military statement detailing yesterday's air and ground assault said soldiers were acting on intelligence reports about an al-Qa'ida meeting in the Lake Tharthar region.

The southern reaches of the man-made lake are about 50 miles (80 kilometres) northwest of the capital Baghdad.

The American account said US surveillance confirmed "activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target".

The first air attack killed "four terrorists", said the statement.

The military said it then tracked some of those who escaped the initial attack to a place south of Lake Tharthar.

It said ground forces moved on the site and came under fire. Air support was called in.

"After securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed," the statement said.

Two suspected al-Qa'ida members, a woman and three children were wounded, according to the military account.

The military said its troopers "were reviewing information from the scene (of Thursday's attack) as well as assessing the level of damage involved".

The statement also issued regret "that civilians are hurt or killed while Coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism".

On October 5, a pre-dawn US raid on Khalis, a Shiite city north of Baghdad, killed 25 people when US troops called in airstrikes after meeting a fierce barrage while hunting suspected smugglers of arms from Iran to Baghdad.

Village leaders said the victims included civilians, but the military insisted the 25 killed were militants.

US forces have chalked up notable success against militants, but the government has become nearly deadlocked and made no progress on healing wounds among Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups.

The US military announced the combat death of a soldier on Wednesday in eastern Baghdad.

At least 35 Iraqis were killed or found dead in attacks nationwide yesterday, as suicide car bombers struck a market in the northern city of Kirkuk and a cafe in eastern Baghdad.

Also yesterday, the US military revealed that rockets fired from a nearby abandoned school struck Camp Victory, US military headquarters near Baghdad Airport, killing two members of the US-led coalition and wounding 40 other people on the sprawling headquarters for US forces in Iraq.

Most troops stationed at the base are American but there are small contingents from other countries.

The military said those wounded in Wednesday's attack included two "third-country nationals", meaning they were not Americans or Iraqis.
Independent

Blackwater faces war crimes inquiry after killings in Iraq

The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad.

The killings last month put the spotlight on the private security firms whose employees are immune from prosecution, unlike professional soldiers who are subject to courts martial. In the second such incident in less than a month, involving the Australian contractor Unity Resources Group this week, two Armenian Christian women were shot dead after their car approached a protected convoy. Their car was riddled with 40 bullets.

Ivana Vuco, the most senior UN human rights officer in Iraq, spoke yesterday about the shootings by private security guards, which have provoked outrage among Iraqis. "For us, it's a human rights issue," she said. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed."

An Iraqi who was wounded in the 16 September shooting, and the relatives of three people killed in the attack, filed a court case in Washington yesterday accusing Blackwater of violating American law by committing "extrajudicial killings and war crimes."

Iraq says there are more than 180 mainly US and European security companies in the country, with estimates of the number of American contractors running at 100,000. Many Iraqis see the firms as little more than trigger-happy private armies, and the latest incidents have strained relations between Iraq and the US, which has ordered a full security review.

Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater of the "deliberate murder" of Iraqi civilians in the shooting in a crowded city square, and are demanding millions of dollars in compensation and the removal of the company from the country within six months. The security firm says its guards returned fire at threatening targets and responded lawfully to a threat against a convoy it was guarding.

Ms Vuco said human rights laws applied equally to contractors and other parties in a conflict. "We will be stressing that in our communications with US authorities. This includes the responsibility to investigate, supervise and prosecute those accused of wrongdoing," she said at the launch in Baghdad of the latest UN human rights report, covering the period from April to June. It described the human rights situation in Iraq as "very grim".

Said Arikat, the UN mission spokesman, urged the Bush administration to hold accountable those involved in indiscriminate shooting; "to apply the rules of engagement and prosecute them". He added: "There cannot be rogue elements that are above the law. Definitely, we will be driving that point home time and again."

In the most recent shooting, on Tuesday, a woman taxi driver, Marany Awanees, and her front-seat passenger were killed. Unity Resources Group said its guards feared a suicide attack and fired only after issuing several warnings. The guards were protecting financial and policy experts working under contract for the US Agency for International Development.

Private security firms benefit from immunity under a 2004 law promulgated by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Independent

Former Top General in Iraq Faults Bush Administration nytimes.

New Evidence That Blackwater Guards Took No Fire nytimes

The homecoming: battered Anglians return to mourn nine they left behind


Regiment has been in thick of fighting during six-month posting to Helmand


Under the bunting that had been draped around the parade ground at Elizabeth Barracks, Ceris Tinkler grinned as she held up a banner reading "Welcome Home Daddy".

Moments later as the coaches carrying the soldiers of the Royal Anglian Regiment turned the corner, the little girl let out a scream and - along with scores of other family and friends - began to applaud.

But the joyful scenes at the barracks in Surrey did not tell the whole story of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment. Six months of continuous and ferocious fighting against a resurgent Taliban have taken a heavy toll on these soldiers.


Nine of the 32 to die in Afghanistan since mid-April have come from the regiment despite its 625 soldiers making up just a fraction of the 7,700 UK troops stationed there. A further 57 have been wounded in action. "They have been involved in serious fighting pretty much constantly," said Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Mayo, who was based in Afghanistan alongside the Anglian. "Many of them have seen friends killed or badly injured and they have been the ones who have had to get them out."

It is not the only regiment to have suffered heavy casualties, but the homecoming underlined the difficulties British soldiers have faced in the increasingly ferocious fight against the Taliban.

"The defining scene in this tour has been the way we took the fight to the enemy," Major Mark Nicholas, the battalion adjutant, said yesterday. "The Paras and the marines before us did not leave their bases and get among the Taliban to the same extent that we did."

Patrick Mercer, Tory MP and former colonel in the Worcester and Sherwood Foresters, said the overall casualty levels in Afghanistan had been "exceptional".

"It is comparable to those the Russians suffered when they were in Afghanistan 10 or 15 years ago."

The Anglians which draws recruits from the 10 counties of East Anglia and the East Midlands, arrived in Helmand in mid-April and within a few days its soldiers were plunged into the thick of the fighting.

Yesterday soldiers told how some units had spent weeks in the field with soldiers as young as 18 surviving scores of full scale "contacts", often at very close range. Almost everybody had seen friends or colleagues seriously injured or killed.

"People back home don't really get what it has been like," said Sergeant Michael Butcher. "It is difficult for them to appreciate what we have been doing over there."

Shortly after the Anglians arrived, 19-year-old Private Chris Gray was on patrol in the town of Now Zad in Helmand when Taliban fighters attacked with heavy machines guns, rocket propelled grenades and rockets. His platoon attempted to outflank them, but the soldiers were ambushed and in the fire fight that followed Pte Gray was killed.

In the months that followed the Anglians were in a relentless war, often at close quarters in inhospitable conditions.

The army says the regiment led several high profile operations and successfully pushed the Taliban from their traditional heartland, allowing reconstruction and development to take place in Helmand province. But senior officers admit the fighting has been some of the toughest the British army has faced in a generation.

"Any officer who you speak to will tell you that they came out here as boys and now, because of what they have been involved in, we have got real men," said Lt Mayo.

The regiment spent much of its time patrolling what is known as the Green Zone, a strip of land either side of the river Helmand. The area, three to four kilometres (2-2.5 miles) wide in parts, is criss-crossed with ditches and purpose-built trenches, and the vegetation can grow 10ft tall.

"It's a bloody nightmare," said Lt Mayo. "To be brutally honest in places it is like fighting in the jungle ... Forget the idea that they are engaging at 100 or 200 metres and opening fire, they have been ambushed at 10 metres and on many, many occasions they are fixing bayonets before going in to fight ... The environment is perfect for the Taliban and very, very difficult for us."

Yesterday as the soldiers were surrounded by loved ones at Elizabeth Barracks, Ceris's mother, Michelle, said: "I am just relieved that he made it. We are the lucky ones. Now we are just looking forward to getting back to some sort of normal family life."


guardian

Turkish parliament to OK Iraq mission



ANKARA, Turkey - Syria's president said Wednesday that Turkey had a right to stage a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to chase separatist Kurdish rebels as the Turkish parliament began debating the issue.


Turkish leaders have stressed that an offensive against the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, would not immediately follow the motion authorizing the incursion.

Hours before the vote, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called his Turkish counterpart asking that diplomacy be given a chance before Turkey sends troops across the border to pursue separatist Kurds in mountain hide-outs, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Al-Maliki said Iraq was "determined" to end PKK activities on its territory and had given "strict instructions" to the regional Iraqi Kurdish administration in Iraq's north on the issue, Anatolia said.

Al-Maliki asked that Iraq be given more time and said it he was sending a delegation to Turkey to discuss cooperation, Anatolia said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by saying Turkey could "not tolerate losing any more time," the agency reported.

Erdogan's aides were not immediately available to confirm the conversation.

Visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad said Turkey had a legitimate right to stage a cross-border offensive.

"We understand that such an operation would be aimed toward a certain group which attacks Turkish soldiers. We support decisions that Turkey has on its agenda, we are backing them," Assad told reporters. "We accept this as Turkey's legitimate right. As Syria, we are supporting all decisions by Turkey and we are standing behind them."

Iraq on Tuesday also dispatched one of its two vice presidents to Ankara who also called for diplomacy.

"Iraq must be given the chance to stop PKK rebels who cross the border before Turkey takes any step," Anatolia quoted Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi as saying before he left Ankara.

"I got what I wanted from our talks. There is a new atmosphere to stop the current crisis," he was also quoted as saying. Al-Hashimi met Tuesday with Erdogan and other Turkish officials.

On Wednesday, an alliance spokesman said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has spoken to Turkey's president, adding his voice to international calls for restraint in the crisis with Iraq.

Turkey invited ambassadors from countries bordering Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations to the Foreign Ministry for a briefing on why it was passing the motion in parliament.

The motion, authorizing an attack into Iraq sometime in the next year, has the backing of all but one party in parliament. Only a small Kurdish party has said it would vote against it.

"The passage of the motion in parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once," Erdogan said Tuesday. "Turkey will act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe."

Public anger over attacks by Kurdish guerrillas is high but Turkish officials are mindful that two dozen Iraqi campaigns since the 1980s have failed to eradicate the PKK. A cross-border attack into northern Iraq could also strain ties with the United States, a NATO ally that opposes any disruption of its efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Kurdish rebels from the PKK have been fighting since 1984 for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Turkey has complained about what it considers a lack of U.S. support in the fight against the PKK, a frustration with Washington intensified because of another sensitive issue: the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

A panel in the U.S. House approved a resolution last week labeling the killings genocide, an affront to Turks who deny there was any systematic campaign to eliminate Armenians. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will schedule a vote soon on the resolution, which President Bush opposes.
yahoo

Bush urges caution as Turkish parliament authorises troops to invade Iraq Mail

Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction mcclatchydc

Money gone, Iraqi refugees forced to go home
Many reluctantly leave safe-havens of Syria, Jordan to return to 'death row' msnbc

Arab League chief urges alleviation of Iraqi refugees'' suffering
Politics
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said Saturday Arab and international efforts should be combined to alleviate suffering of the Iraqi refugees.
Moussa's press remarks came after his meeting with Cairo-based Iraqi actor Nassir Shammah. He said they discussed how to help the Iraqi refugees, and urged non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Arab citizens to help the refugees, who fled to neighboring countries due to deteriorating security conditions.
A statement by the Arab League said Shammah held talks with officials in the secretariat and agreed to organize an urgent meeting with some Arab and international humanitarian organizations to put a plan to ease suffering of the Iraqi refugees.
This plan, said the statement, included launching a donation campaign to help the refugees. www.kuna.net

Marines face court martial over Iraq massacre



Two US marines are to face a court martial in connection with the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

Prosecutors allege that unarmed civilians were shot dead in retaliation for a roadside bomb attack that killed an American serviceman.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani is charged with dereliction of duty and failing to report and investigate the deaths. Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum is accused of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
Ch4

Osama Bin Laden Tape Calls For Unity

Sky