 By Bill Roggio Pakistani commandos killed four al Qaeda operatives and detained 27 suspects during a raid on a hospital in a region in South Waziristan under the control of a Taliban leader considered friendly to the government. Pakistani troops surrounded the Hafiz Hospital in Wana, the administrative center of South Waziristan, and killed three “Arabs” and a Sudanese al Qaeda operative.
The Hafiz Hospital is run by a former member of Pakistan’s national assembly. "Commandos and security forces raided the hospital,” a Pakistani security official told Dawn. “Militants fired on the troops and in the gunfight, which lasted more than four hours, four militants and a woman were killed, while 27 others were arrested. One soldier was also injured. The three dead militants appear to be Arabs and one of Sudanese origin.” Pakistani troops raided the hospital after receiving intelligence that the fighters sought treatment from wounds suffered during fighting in the Sherwangi region in the Mehsud tribal areas, where the military is conducting an operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Wana region is run by Taliban commander Mullah Nazir. Nazir is not a member of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan; he and other Taliban commanders operate independently of that group. Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.
However, Nazir openly supports Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. More senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir’s forces continue to operate across the border in Afghanistan. On Dec. 6, his fighters crossed the border and destroyed an Afghan Army outpost. Earlier this year, just prior to launching a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan, the military agreed to a peace deal with Nazir as well as with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Nazir and Bahadar are not members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, which is also based in North Waziristan, are also considered "good" Taliban by the Pakistani government and military. The peace agreement calls for the Pakistani military to be able to move through Nazir and Bahadar's tribal areas without being attacked. Another condition of the agreement prohibits Bahadar and Nazir from providing shelter to fleeing members of the Mehsud branch of the Taliban. But Taliban fighters from the Mehsud tribal areas have sought shelter with Mullah Nazir in the Wazir tribal areas, and the rearguard fighters still opposing the Army's advance are receiving support from Nazir's forces, US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are also providing shelter to fleeing Taliban fighters and covert support to the Mehsud Taliban, and they also shelter al Qaeda leaders and fighters.
 By Bill Roggio The Afghan military claimed to have captured a dangerous Taliban commander who orders suicide and roadside bomb attacks in the southwestern province of Nimroz. Mullah Sher Malang was captured in a raid in the Khashrod district in Nimroz after a major clash with Taliban forces in the region. The initial clash took place after Taliban forces under the command of Mullah Ewaz ambushed an Afghan and Coalition convoy in the district. Ewaz and an estimated 20 of his fighters were reported killed during the battle, which took place on Dec. 18, Nimroz's governor and police chief told Pajhwok Afghan News. Afghan forces captured Malang during a follow-up raid that resulted in one Taliban fighter killed and five more wounded. Malang is known to organize suicide attacks and roadside bombings in the region, and is a close ally to Mullah Abdullah Zakir, the Taliban's chief of military operations in southern Afghanistan. Zakir, whose real name is Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, is known to operate a forward command center in the Chaman district in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, US military intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Zakir is a former detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. Zakir operates from Chaman as it shields him from US and NATO operations, the officials said. According to Pajhwok Afghan News, Zakir has also been operating from Farah province, which is under the command of a dangerous Taliban commander known as Mullah Hayatullah. Farah borders Helmand province, where Coalition and Afghan forces have gone on the offensive to uproot the Taliban. "He's [Zakir is] untouchable in Pakistan," one official said, noting the covert US air campaign is limited to Pakistan's northwest. "Right now we're not striking in Baluchistan, and Pakistan won't move against them [the Taliban] there." The Taliban have based their Shura Majlis, or executive council, in nearby Quetta, according to US, British, and Afghan officials. But recent reports indicate that Mullah Omar and much of the Quetta Shura have relocated to Pakistan's port city of Karachi, with the aid of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The report broke as the US threatened to expand the covert air war against Omar's forces from the tribal areas into Quetta and greater Baluchistan. In the past, the Pakistani government denied that the Afghan Taliban is based in Quetta. However, on Dec. 10, Pakistan's defense minister admitted that Mullah Omar's Quetta Shura is indeed in Pakistan, but said it is no longer a threat. Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar claimed Pakistan's intelligence services have neutralized the Quetta Shura.
There is no evidence, however, that any senior member of Mullah Omar's cadre has been killed or captured. Long War Journal
 KABUL — The Taliban's reclusive leader issued a Muslim holiday message on Wednesday calling on Afghans to break off relations with the government, which he described as a 'stooge' administration. Mullah Omar's message ahead of Eid came a week after President Hamid Karzai reached out to the Taliban during his inauguration speech, saying it was important to include in the government former Taliban who were ready to renounce terrorism. The extremist group quickly rejected the appeal, repeating its refusal to negotiate with the Karzai government or participate in what it considers a puppet administration. "I hope you will continue your legitimate jihad (holy war) and struggle in the way of realizing your Islamic aspirations ... and break off all relations with the stooge Kabul administration," Omar said in the message posted on a Web site used by the Taliban and e-mailed to journalists from an address often used to send out his statements. He said there would be no negotiations that would prolong or legitimize the presence of foreign forces in the country. "Those who have occupied our country and taken our people as hostage, want to use the stratagem of negotiation like they used the drama of elections for some time in order to achieve their colonialist objectives," he said. "However, the people of Afghanistan will not agree to negotiation which prolongs and legitimizes the invaders' military presence." Omar hasn't been seen in years. Afghan officials claim he is in hiding in Pakistan. The Taliban leader insisted the insurgents had gained the upper hand and were winning the war."Ground realities in our beloved country indicate that the invaders are about to escape," he said. President Barack Obama has been considering plans to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and U.S. military officials expect an infusion of approximately 32,000 to 35,000 troops to begin in February or March. It would be the largest expansion since the beginning of the war in 2001. In his statement, Omar called on militants to continue to fight against the government and its allies, but urged them to avoid civilian deaths. Taliban bombs often kill civilians in their pursuit of government or military targets. Militants were to blame for about three-quarters of the 1,500 civilian deaths in the first eight months of 2009, according to the United Nations. However, the Taliban statement blamed U.S. and NATO forces for killing civilians in military operations, and said these nations are guilty of human rights abuses because of the mistreatment of prisoners. The statement also repeated Taliban rhetoric claiming that the war in Afghanistan is an attempt by the West to undermine Islam. "The Americans and its allies have been hammering out plans overtly and covertly to destabilize the Islamic world and provoke differences in the Islamic countries," Omar said. FoxNews
 AS the political and military quagmire in Afghanistan and Pakistan deepens, an odious reality is dawning on the governments of those countries and their backers in the West: the Taliban will not be defeated, and must now be included as part of the solution if this intractable problem is ever to be solved. This unpalatable fact is fuelling ferocious debate on a number of questions. Should the war in Afghanistan be escalated or scaled back? Should the Taliban be brought to the negotiating table? And is it possible to declare a truce with the Afghan militants without providing a new launchpad for al-Qa'ida's war on the West? Eight years into the conflict, the disparate band of rebel groups known collectively as Taliban is undeniably winning the war. It now has a permanent presence in 80 per cent of Afghanistan, according to the London-based International Council on Security and Development, with its own civilian administration, courts, economy and taxation system in place. The Taliban is already operating as a "de facto alternative government" says Amin Saikal, the Afghan-born director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, whose brother Mahmoud is a former Karzai government minister. As Hamid Karzai began his second five-year term as President on Thursday, he said he wanted a decrease in foreign troops, with security completely in Afghan hands within five years. "The people following Mullah Omar have one line of thinking: `We are fighting for our country, we are fighting for our honour, we are fighting for our religion. We see these foreign forces as invaders, and we see the Karzai government as a puppet'," Saikal says. The Taliban's renaissance is a product of the same hostility to foreign invaders that saw off the British colonialists in the 19th century and ended a decade of Soviet occupation in 1989. Omar's success rests with the historic resonance of his message, says Saikal: "Your country is occupied by infidels. Your forefathers drove them out, now they're coming back and occupying your land, and you as an Afghan and a Muslim have an obligation to stand up against these people." The Taliban's ascendancy, and the resulting surge in American soldiers returning home in body bags, has propelled a steady shift of opinion on how the next phase of the now discredited war on terror should be waged. Until recently "counter-insurgency" was the new buzzword and favoured modus operandi. But as the war drags on it becomes ever more apparent that fighting a broad-based insurgency is a costly, difficult and deadly task, with no end in sight. US President Barack Obama is expected to announce his long-delayed troops commitment before a NATO meeting on December 3. The US commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal wants the President to send up to 40,000 more troops, without which he says the US operation "will likely result in failure' in the next year. Critics argue that such a surge would mean that "permanent war has become the de facto policy of the US", in the words of one commentator. Support is growing for the alternative favoured by Vice-President Joe Biden and other senior Obama aides: rejecting the surge in favour of a redoubled counter-terrorism effort aimed at rooting out al-Qa'ida and its supporters from their border strongholds. Marc Sageman, a former CIA mujahidin handler turned counter-terrorism analyst, last month told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a troop boost "may result in moral outrage in young Muslims in the West, who would take it upon themselves to carry out terrorist operations at home in response. So, far from protecting the homeland, the surge may actually endanger it in the short term." More at the Australian
 Fiend, er, Friend and Ally Update. "EXCLUSIVE: Taliban chief hides in Pakistan," by Eli Lake, Sara A. Carter, and Barbara Slavin for the Washington Times, November 20 Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled a Pakistani city on the border with Afghanistan and found refuge from potential U.S. attacks in the teeming Pakistani port city of Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service, three current and former U.S. intelligence officials said. Mullah Omar, who hosted Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders when they plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, had been residing in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban shura -- or council -- had moved from Kandahar after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Two senior U.S. intelligence officials and one former senior CIA officer told The Washington Times that Mullah Omar traveled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so far has escaped U.S. and Pakistani counterterrorism campaigns, the officials said. The officials, two of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the ISI, helped the Taliban leaders move from Quetta, where they were exposed to attacks by unmanned U.S. drones. The development reinforces suspicions that the ISI, which helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to expand Pakistani influence in Afghanistan, is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan as the Obama administration prepares to send more U.S. troops to fight there. Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran and analyst on al Qaeda and the Taliban, confirmed that Mullah Omar had been spotted in Karachi recently. "Some sources claim the ISI decided to move him further from the battlefield to keep him safe" from U.S. drone attacks, said Mr. Riedel, who headed the Obama administration's review of policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last spring. "There are huge madrassas in Karachi where Mullah Omar could easily be kept." Mr. Riedel also noted that there had been few suicide bombings in Karachi, which he attributed to the Taliban and al Qaeda not wanting to "foul their own nest." A U.S. counterterrorism official said, "There are indications of some kind of bleed-out of Taliban types from Quetta to Karachi, but no one should assume at this point that the entire Afghan Taliban leadership has packed up its bags and headed for another Pakistani city." A second senior intelligence officer who specializes in monitoring al Qaeda said U.S. intelligence had confirmed Mullah Omar's move through both electronic and human sources as well as intelligence from an unnamed allied service....
 FRAUDULENT elections, attacks on UN officials in Kabul, and a US administration seemingly reluctant to fulfil its chosen general's requests for yet more troops; observers may be forgiven for thinking that Afghanistan is on track to become another Vietnam.
That, however, would be misreading the situation. Under General Stanley McCrystal, the International Security Assistance Force is finally developing a strategy that promises to bring success. While the Taliban is far from defeated, important aspects of the Afghan situation work in the favour of the West. Afghanistan is not yet a functioning state, but it is also easy to overstate the security problems there. In a country with roughly the same population as Iraq, daily attacks are still only a fraction of those in Iraq in 2006-07. Despite the odd high-profile attack, main economic and population centres such as Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif or Herat are essentially safe for foreigners and the local population. Anti-government forces have significantly increased their reach in recent years, but the Taliban is much less unified than that label suggests. Their influence remains localised and dependent on ethnic, historical and political conditions, which can differ from province to province and village to village. The hostile forces in the valleys of Nuristan and Kunar provinces are only temporary coalitions between local villagers, timber barons, the Haqqani network and al-Qa'ida foreign fighters. ISAF is now withdrawing its permanent presence from these marginal areas, where it is clearly not wanted. In contrast, insurgents in the Greater Paktia area in the southeast are dominated by the Haqqani network, which works in loose coalition with al-Qa'ida. Traditional tribal structures remain strong, which presents opportunities and constraints to both insurgents and coalition forces. While violence is persistent, it is at a much lower level than in Helmand or Kandahar. Insurgents in the south, and in Pashtun pockets in the north, are more centrally directed by the Mullah Omar's Quetta Shura. It continues to have national ambitions, and operates a shadow government in areas under its control. The heaviest resistance in this region was encountered in Helmand, but the centre of gravity is Kandahar city. ISAF forces are only thinly deployed to areas outside the city proper, which is controlled by the militias of the governor, brother of President Hamid Karzai, and Afghan National Security Forces. The Taliban strength in the city is unknown, but they are outnumbered by forces loyal to the government. Read more,,,, Source: The Australian Dr Stephan Fruehling is a lecturer at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University
 Amir Taheri Mullah Muhammad Omar must be wondering what is going on in Washington. The reclusive Taliban leader, presumed to be hiding near the Pakistani city of Quetta, this month issued an end-of-Ramadan message in which he all but admitted that things aren't going well for his movement and its terrorist allies.
For the first time in eight years, he also indicated his readiness to consider negotiations as a means of ending the insurgency.
A careful reading of Omar's message shows three things. * He and his close advisers are now convinced that they can't win on the battlefield. * A growing number of Taliban allies, especially among the Pushtun tribes, are wary of endless war and anxious to reach some accommodation with whoever controls Kabul. * The mullah is prepared to abandon some of his most retrograde positions, especially with regard to the status of women, in the hope of securing a share of power in Kabul. Omar isn't alone in concluding that NATO forces can't be driven out of Afghanistan through terror and insurgency. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the ultraradical Hizb Islami (Islamic Party) is also trying to wave an olive branch. In an interview faxed to regional and international media this month, Hekmatyar echoes Mullah Omar's indirect plea for negotiations and power sharing. As the second-largest force in the insurgency after the Taliban, Hekmatyar's group has played a crucial role in spreading the fight to northern Afghanistan -- notably Kunduz, where Omar never managed to win a foothold. The third major insurgent group is led by the Haqqani brothers, who have been responsible for much of the mischief done in the southeastern provinces. They, too, appear to have concluded that their side can't win this war. Last month, the Haqqanis dispatched their womenfolk and children to Abu Dhabi , where they have extensive business interests -- a sign that they're preparing for an eventual retreat. They've also revived contacts with Saudi Arabia in the hope of joining Riyadh's efforts to promote dialogue between President Hamid Karzai's administration and the insurgents. The three insurgent groups control only 11 of the nation's 362 districts, accounting for less than 1 percent of the country's population. Most of their chief bases are in Pakistan or, in Hekmatyar's case, Iran. Yet Washington is all abuzz with the "f" word -- for what many see as looming failure in Afghanistan.
Three years ago, the "defeat industry" tried but failed to manufacture an historic defeat in Iraq. Now it's trying again in Afghanistan.
 US and British offensives in recent months had been a failure, Mullah Omar says. Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued a statement on Saturday telling people of the West not to listen to US President Barack Obama's justifications of war and vowing to defeat NATO troops like other invaders of history. In a statement posted in English on a Taliban website, shahamat.org, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and attributed to the reclusive Taliban leader, Omar said US and British offensives in recent months had been a failure. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the public of the West not to be deceived by the assertions of Obama, who says the war in Afghanistan, is a war of necessity. The West does not have to wage this war," the statement said. "The public of the West should also not be deceived by the assertions of the General Secretary of NATO and British prime minister who claim the war in Afghanistan is for the defense of the West. Such deceiving and baseless utterances must not confuse you."
 THE UN and Afghanistan's top rights body today called on Taliban militants to take part in presidential elections due in August instead of attacking the polls. Afghans are due to vote for a new leader in the nation's second-ever presidential ballot on August 20 amid mounting violence in an ongoing Taliban-led insurgency. "I expect that every Afghan, where ever they are, even in the districts under the control of the enemies of Afghanistan, takes part in the elections,'' Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission chief Sima Samar said. The Taliban control several districts in southern Afghanistan, where fighting between the insurgents and Afghan and international soldiers is its most intense. Nations with troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helping Afghanistan to deal with the insurgent threat have pledged thousands of extra soldiers to help protect the polls. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) head Kai Eide told the same briefing: "It is important to stretch out a hand and say it's better to compete at the ballot boxes than fight on the battlefield.'' Mr Eide also called on the European Union to send as many observers "as they can'' to watch for irregularities in the polls, amid concerns about fraud. Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has called on Afghans to boycott the elections. The Taliban were in power between 1996 and 2001 and are fighting an increasingly deadly insurgency against the Government of President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in 2004. Mr Karzai has pressed for peace talks with Taliban who renounce violence and are not linked to al-Qaeda .
 Christina Lamb | March 16
TALIBAN leader Mullah Omar has given his approval for talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan and has allowed his representatives to attend Saudi-sponsored peace negotiations.
"Mullah Omar has given the green light to talks," said one of the mediators, Abdullah Anas, a former friend of Osama bin Laden who used to fight in Afghanistan but now lives in London.
A source negotiating for the Afghan Government confirmed: "It's extremely sensitive but we have been in contact both with Mullah Omar's direct representatives and commanders from the front line."
The breakthrough emerged after President Barack Obama admitted that US-led forces were not winning the war in Afghanistan and called for negotiations with "moderate Taliban".
"A big, big step has happened," Mr Anas said yesterday. "For the first time, there is a language of ... peace on both sides."
His words were echoed by the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been attending talks on his behalf. "I have been meeting with Taliban for the last five days and I can tell you Obama's words have created enormous optimism," Qayum Karzai said. "There is no other way left but talks. All sides know more fighting is not the way."
But the Pentagon said last week it would not support a reconciliation effort with Mullah Omar. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said such an initiative would ultimately be up to the Afghan Government, but he did not believe "anybody in this building would support the notion of reconciling with people with that kind of blood on their hands".
The Taliban leader sheltered al-Qa'ida and was ousted from power in Afghanistan in a US-led campaign in 2001.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also appeared to draw limits around a reconciliation process, when he said that "at a minimum" Washington must prevent Taliban insurgents from returning to power in Kabul.
Mr Obama suggested last week the US would consider talks with moderate elements of the Taliban, saying there might be opportunities in Afghanistan comparable with those exploited among Sunni tribes in Iraq, whom US forces have managed to recruit away from more radical al-Qa'ida fighters.
Mr Morrell said there was no inconsistency between Mr Gates and either Mr Obama or US Vice-President Joe Biden, who said in Brussels last week that reaching out to Taliban moderates was "worth exploring".
"We are fully supportive of any efforts undertaken by the Government of Afghanistan to try to reconcile with members of the Taliban who are willing to accept the democratic will of the people of Afghanistan, which has elected this Government," Mr Morrell said.
As Britain and the US have increased troop numbers in the past two years, security has worsened, leading many to doubt the wisdom of sending in more.
Although observers question why the Taliban would agree to talks when they appear to have the upper hand in the conflict, Mr Anas said its leaders knew they could not retake power without a bloodbath.
"Taliban are in a strong position now but that doesn't mean they can control the state," he said. "They are well aware that it's a different situation to 1996 when they swept to power because Afghans saw them as bringing peace."
Britain is also backing talks with the Taliban that could lead to their inclusion in the Afghan Government and is pushing for a "reconciliation tsar" to co-ordinate efforts. "Economic development and a workable reconciliation strategy are as crucial as boots on the ground when it comes to dismantling the insurgency," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
The US at the weekend downplayed the latest audio recording by al-Qa'ida leader bin Laden, saying there was nothing new about the tape.
In the recording, broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden accused moderate Arab leaders of being "complicit" with Israel and the West against Muslims.
Bin Laden called Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip a "holocaust" and lashed out at Arab governments that he said failed to stop the bloodshed. Source: The Australian
KABUL, Afghanistan - The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks has tripled in the past year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia, Afghanistan's education minister says. While the overall state of Afghan education shows improvement, Education Ministry numbers point to a sharp decline in security for students, teachers and schools in the south, where the Taliban thrives: The number of students out of classes because of security concerns has hit 300,000 since March 2007, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months, while the number of schools closing has risen from 350 to 590. The Taliban strategy is deliberate: "to close these schools down so that the children and primarily the teenagers that are going to the schools — the boys — have no other option but to join the Taliban," Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. The Taliban know that educated Afghans won't join the militants, so a closed school leaves students with two options — to join the Taliban or "to cross the border and go into those hate madrassas," Atmar said, referring to Islamic seminaries in Pakistan where "they will be professionally trained as terrorists." Wakil Ahmad Khan, a top official at Pakistan's religious affairs ministry, said Pakistani "madrassas are doing a wonderful job by providing education to millions of students" and "if the Afghan officials have any such information, they should share it with Pakistan's Foreign Ministry." Attacks on schools still in operation have actually fallen in the last 10 months — to 98 from 187 in the same period of 2006, Atmar said, attributing the drop to a community defense initiative. But the Taliban have switched to targeting students on their way to and from school or in other places where they congregate. The U.N. said it couldn't confirm that Taliban fighters were upping efforts to recruit schoolboys, and no educational aid organizations that could confirm Atmar's claims are working in provinces such as Helmand in the dangerous south. Adam Rutland, a spokesman at the British reconstruction team in Helmand province, said the perception in Helmand province was that more schools were open than in the past, although he added that it's well known that disaffected and poor young men are a recruiting base for the Taliban. Atmar said 147 students and teachers have been killed in Taliban attacks since mid-March, compared with 46 in the previous year. The 147 include 58 students and teachers killed in a single bombing and gunfire attack in Baghlan province in November. The number of students and teachers wounded has gone from 46 to 200, he said. Most of the schools closed for security reasons are in the south. In Helmand, the world's largest opium poppy growing region, 177 schools are closed, along with 150 in nearby Kandahar province, Atmar said. He said dozens of students he talked with in Helmand province recently told him the Taliban are pushing them to enlist. Some 1,100 students from outlying areas are traveling to the relative safety of the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah to attend class. Atmar said he hopes soon to provide housing and food for these students. Of the 13 districts in Helmand, seven have no schools in operation, said Sayed Abrar Agha, the director of education in Helmand. District leaders like Agha provide the figures that Atmar cites. Agha said he recently visited the town of Musa Qala — which was controlled by the Taliban until last month — and the head education official refused to talk to him. "He's still afraid of the Taliban and doesn't want to meet with government officials," Agha said. Atmar predicted attacks on students and teachers would continue to increase unless the international community and the Afghan government delivered protection. Still, overall there is good news in Afghanistan's educational comeback since the days of the Taliban, when girls couldn't attend schools and fewer than 1 million boys did. Some 5.8 million students now attend class, up from 5.4 million a year ago, 35 percent of them female, Atmar said. The Education Ministry's goal is that within four years 75 percent of all boys will be in classes — up from roughly 50 percent currently — and 60 percent of all girls — up from less than 30 percent today. Schools also suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly female ones, and of infrastructure. U.S. forces in the eastern province of Kunar are linking Afghan children with schools in the U.S., Italy and Germany that can supply pens, notebooks and chalk, the military said Wednesday. "Being in the U.S., it is hard to visualize the lack of resources they have here," Army Capt. Jay S. VanDenbos, 30, from Tahlequah, Okla., was quoted as saying in a military news release. Teachers are underpaid, and of Afghanistan's 9,400 schools, only 40 percent have proper facilities, he said. "Ninety percent of the schools are open-air schools, which are sometimes a tarp and a dirt floor. They'll have a rock that they use as a chalk board, and kids sit underneath the tarp and learn." "Most of the kids want to learn. They yearn for knowledge," said VanDenbos. "Anytime anyone goes on patrols, the kids are screaming to 'give me pen, give me pen.'" Source: AP H/T: Jihad Watch
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