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Daily Afghan Report


		[ 20 December 2006 ] Governor Sacked In Major Afghan Drug-Producing Province The Afghan government dismissed on December 18 the governor of Helmand Province, the largest opium-producing province in Afghanistan, AP reported on December 19. Governor Mohammad Daud was replaced by Asadullah Wafa to help increase security in the region, which has become a center of neo-Taliban resistance, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. Although Helmand accounts for up 42 percent of Afghanistan's total poppy crop and more than one-third of the world's opium -- according to UN figures -- Bashary insisted the increase in poppy cultivation has nothing to do with Daud being sacked. A Western official in Kabul, who requested anonymity, dispelled media reports claiming the United States wanted Daud replaced and said Daud is a "high-integrity guy." Opium production in Afghanistan this year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons -- enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. JC Afghan Security Forces Arrest Another Alleged Pakistani Spy One day after General Khair Mohammad was arrested for alleged espionage, Afghan security forces arrested a Pakistani intelligence officer in Konar Province on December 18, AFP reported. Mohammad Karim Rahimi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said the man is a current officer for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani secret service, and "was arrested with convincing documents." Another government official at the presidential palace said the man arrested is Sayed Akbar. He added that the man acknowledges having contacts with other "high-ranking" ISI officers in nearby Nuristan Province. According to the official (who spoke under anonymity), Akbar had been in Konar since 2004, acting as an assistant to a local Afghan doctor. One week before Akbar's arrest, Karzai publicly accused the Pakistani government of supporting Taliban insurgents; Pakistan firmly denies aiding the Taliban. JC Kabul Police Arrest Suspect In Planned Assassination Police in the Afghan capital said they have apprehended a man suspected of planning to assassinate a member of the lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga, on December 17, the Pajhwak Afghan News agency reported the next day. Bacha Khan Zadran was arrested while trying to escape during a police raid on his house in central Kabul, according to police General Alishah Paktiawal. Police recovered documents from Zadran's home outlining his connections to Maulvi Siraj-ud-Din Haqqani, a commander of the neo-Taliban operating in the southeastern Paktia Province, Paktiawal said. Initial investigations show that Haqqani originally was assigned to the attempted assassination of Zadran. Paktiawal told reporters that he was informed of the assassination plot by the Interior Ministry and Kabul police. Zadran's nationality was not specified. Kabul police have arrested more than 30 suspected terrorists over the last four months. JC NATO Bombings Kill Taliban In Afghanistan NATO jets attacked and killed a number of insurgents in a bombing raid on a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan on December 18, AFP reported the next day. A statement released by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced the overnight air strikes in the Panjwayi district as part of a new anti-insurgent offensive launched this week known as Operation Baaz Tsuka. While the statement gave no details of casualties, an ISAF official said on condition of anonymity that "a number of Taliban were killed in the air raid," although he did not give an exact figure. Prior to the offensive, ISAF dropped leaflets on insurgent positions warning fighters to leave the area. Despite being ousted in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces, remnants of the Taliban are still active and continue to carry out violent attacks. Nearly 4,000 people, including 1,000 civilians, have died in that period. JC archive homepage