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<p>German highway patrolman Wilhelm Borgert honked at a beat-up white sedan trying to cut in front of his jeep. "This is a one-way street, but you always have cars coming the other way," said Mr. Borgert, here to advise the Afghan government on police reform. He has started driving the wrong way himself, he says: "It's faster."</p>

Ephraim Kam: Iran Under Pressure [full text] Highlights here JCSS - Tel-Aviv University Iran has recently come under increasing domestic and international pressure stemming from three primary factors. The first is the changes to Iran's strategic environment that resulted from the American operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of which have been positive for Iran but most of which have been negative. The second factor concerns new revelations about Iran's progress towards acquiring nuclear weapons, sparking a great deal of international pressure on the country. The third factor is domestic unrest within Iran, characterized primarily by student protests against the...

RAMBAN, Sept 2: In a brazen act of violence, a group of militants last night struck at the residence of a well educated family, which was engaged in pre-marriage celebrations, killing five family members including three brothers and a woman at village Chamalwas, about eight kms from Banihal. Two members of the family including a youth and a woman put up a strong defiance and even snatched weapon of a militant before they were shot dead. Official sources identified the victims as Mohammad Khadim Hussain, 48, the lone elected Sarpanch of Chamalwas and former State secretary, Minorities Cell of the...

For weeks during the month of June 2003 and on the occasion of the July 9, 2003, anniversary of the 1999 University protests in Iran, the opposition movement inside Iran challenged the authority of the Administration, marching and rallying, chanting anti-Government slogans, defying the guns and death squads of the various mullahs in key posts. As a result, thousands of political activists, students, and others, were rounded up and packed into prisons, subjected to torture, and in some cases murdered. It is instructive to compare and contrast the articles about Nicaragua that appeared in liberal newspapers in 1979 and the...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's Interior Minister said Wednesday that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was running out of options and places to hide. "To me, time, space and options are becoming limited by the day for Osama and all those linked to him," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Faisal Saleh Hayyat as saying. Hayyat said intelligence collected from top al-Qaida operatives has provided coalition forces with information that has limited bin Laden's freedom of movement. He would not elaborate. "As a result, slowly and gradually the noose is tightening around Osama and his aides," Hayyat was quoted...

Taliban quit running, start returning By Kathy Gannon The Associated Press ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Taliban are no longer on the run and have teamed with al Qaeda again, according to officials and former Taliban members. They say the religious militia has reorganized and strengthened since a U.S.-led coalition defeated it nearly two years ago. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan and espoused a strict version of Islam, are receiving help from some Pakistani authorities and disgruntled Afghans fed up with lawlessness under the U.S.-backed interim administration, a former Taliban commander said. "Now the situation is very good for us. It...

Afghan Govt Says Ousts Taliban from Dai Chopan Wed September 03, 2003 02:14 AM ET By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL (Reuters) - After more than a week of intense bombardment and ground fighting, Afghan and U.S.-led forces have driven out Taliban fighters from Dai Chopan district in the southern province of Zabul, a senior official said on Wednesday. Zabul's intelligence chief, Khalil Hotak, also said that authorities from neighboring provinces had rushed fighters to the borders of the district to arrest Taliban forces trying to flee. He told Reuters he had received reports of skirmishes between fugitive guerrillas from the hardline...

<p>QALAT, Afghanistan &#8212; Afghan and U.S. troops overran three suspected Taliban positions and pinned down fighters in a cave yesterday as fighting raged in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and an Afghan commander said.</p> <p>American bombing echoed through the mountains as the troops tried to root out hundreds of Taliban holdouts who have offered fierce resistance for the past week.</p>

<p>LAHORE, Pakistan, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Pakistan's army had several officers in custody Monday on suspicion of links to Islamic extremist groups.</p> <p>The London Telegraph reports the fear is the security arm of Pakistan, a Western ally in the war on terrorism, has been compromised by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.</p>

* US bombing continues * Taliban get 300 reinforcements * Hekmatyar’s aide held in Kabul QALAT: Afghan and US troops overran three suspected Taliban positions in the mountains of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, while American bombing echoed through the rugged region, officials said. Afghan forces supported by US troops and aircraft have been engaged for the past week in a major operation against suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda bases in the mountains of Dai Chopan district of Zabul province, 300 kilometres southwest of Kabul. General Haji Saifullah Khan, the main Afghan commander in Dai Chopan, said US warplanes and helicopter...

<p>SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, (Reuters) -- Afghanistan's Taliban has sent 300 more fighters to the southern province of Zabol to help battle Afghan government and U.S.-led troops, a commander from the ousted militia said on Tuesday.</p> <p>Maulvi Faizullah, a senior Taliban commander involved in fighting in Zabol, said a fresh wave of militants had been deployed in Dai Chopan district to join up to 1,000 others who have been fighting in the area for the last eight days.</p>

United States Special forces and aircraft are engaged in a massive offensive in Southeast Afghanistan in a bid to kill or capture senior Taliban leaders.Aljazeera's Afghanistan correspondant said a United States offficer was 100% sure that Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Mullah Qahar were both surrounded in the villiage of Sarang with about 1000 Taliban fighters.The special forces have joined a major week long operation against suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda bases in the mountains of Daychopan district of Zabul province, 300 kilometeres Southwest of Kabul. Aljazeera.net has learned that the Afghan Government infantry was order to withdraw in anticipation...

Pakistan army officers arrested in terror swoop By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore (Filed: 01/09/2003) Pakistan's army confirmed yesterday that several officers have been arrested on suspicion of being linked to Islamic extremist groups. The move will raise renewed fears that the security organs of Pakistan, a nuclear power and important Western ally in the war on terrorism, have been infiltrated by allies of the former Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden. The Pakistani military spokesman, Maj Gen Shaukat Saulat, admitted that three or four mid-level officers, including a lieutenant colonel, were being investigated for violation of discipline and about suspected...

PESHAWAR - Al-Qaeda, "the base", is now extinct. Al-Qaeda has a brand new name: Fath-e-Islam (Victory of Islam). And Fath-e-Islam's leader, none other than Osama bin Laden, is very much alive. But not anymore in Pakistan. Osama has returned to Afghanistan. More precisely, the Kunar province. Key players in the ultra-complex Pakistan-Afghanistan game had been saying that since the fall of Kabul in November 2001 that "the last battle" in this ongoing war would be in Kunar. The scenario now seems more than likely. The Taliban and the rebranded al-Qaeda have full tribal support in Kunar - where everybody seems...

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghan Combat Sun, Aug 31, 2003 By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer QALAT, Afghanistan - Two American soldiers were killed Sunday in a firefight with suspected Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites), while hundreds of Taliban poured into remote southern mountains to join a week-long battle with Afghan forces and their U.S. allies. The soldiers died and another was wounded in a 90-minute gunbattle in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, near the Pakistani border. Four guerrillas were also killed. It was the latest in escalating violence in Afghanistan, where guerrillas from the radical...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 August 31, 2003Release Number: 03-08-63 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UPDATE: TWO U.S. SOLDIERS DIE FOLLOWING ACTION NEAR SHKIN, AFGHANISTAN Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan – In a follow-up to today’s press release reference three wounded coalition soldiers, two of the soldiers died of wounds received during the initial contact with enemy fighters northwest of Shkin, in Paktika province this morning. The third soldier is in stable condition, pending medical evacuation to Bagram Air Base from a treatment facility at Salerno north of...

Print Email Last Update: Sunday, August 31, 2003. 2:22pm (AEST) Pakistan arrests 18 Taliban militants from border region Pakistan security authorities have arrested 18 Taliban militants in a raid on their hideout in south-western Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan, an official statement said. During the raid carried out overnight in the Chaman border district the security forces also seized a large number of weapons, ammunition and wireless sets, the provincial government statement said. "It is believed those arrested belonged to a Taliban group involved in several attacks on the Pak-Afghan border recently and were planning some new attacks," it said. Investigations...

U.S. Planes Bomb Taliban Positions Anew U.S. Planes Carry Out Fresh Bombing of Taliban Positions in Southern Afghanistan: Afghan Official The Associated Press QALAT, Afghanistan Aug. 31 — U.S. fighter jets and helicopters pounded suspected Taliban positions Sunday in a fresh assault in the rugged mountain peaks of southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said.Hundreds of reinforcements had joined the fighting on both sides in the Dai Chupan district of Zabul province, said Khalil Hotak, the province's intelligence chief. A first round of U.S. airstrikes went on for three hours overnight and ended shortly before dawn, Hotak said. U.S. planes flew...

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Weekend actions by authorities against terrorists prevented a "spectacular" attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in India's capital, police said Sunday.Police killed two suspected members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed group in a park in New Delhi late Saturday, hours after explosives were seized in two separate raids and three people arrested."The exact target would have been disclosed to them by Jaish headquarters a short time before the actual strike," Joint Commissioner Niraj Kumar told reporters. "It would have been something spectacular like VIPs, symbols of national importance like the India Gate and Red Fort,...

<p>NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The man police say planned a deadly attack on the Indian parliament has been killed in Kashmir along with several members of his terrorist group, authorities said.</p> <p>Police in the troubled Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir said the Indian Border Security Force fought for hours on Saturday with a group of suspected militants in the Noor Bagh neighborhood of Srinagar -- the state's summer capital -- before entering the house where they were hiding.</p>