Tribal leaders listen in a
meeting in Miana Shien,
Kandahar province,
southern Afghanistan,
on Saturday in an attempt
to end the fighting that has
killed more than 175 freedom
fighters since Tuesday.

[File photo] (Rooters)

Kabul, 26 June: Unconfirmed reports say that Ali Ahmed Jalali has resigned from his post as the interior puppet minister of Afghanistan. The reports say that Jalali has officially submitted his resignation to Hamed Karzai and that the US puppet president has accepted his resignation.

It is believed that Engineer [Ahmad Moqbel] Zarar, will be in charge of security affairs, and be appointed as the interior minister.

After a rise in security incidents and unrest in Kabul and southern Afghanistan it was also said that the interior minister had disagreements with Hamed Karzai over the appointment of governors, security commanders and district heads without his consent.

Since March, hundreds of people - including at least 29 U.S. militants - have been killed in a surge of violence across the south and east. This month, suicide bombers killed 20 people in a crowded mosque and wounded four U.S. militants in a convoy.

After the assassination plot against U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was revealed to Kabul officials, spokesman Jawed Ludin said, "Our people are dying, our schools are getting burned, our mosques are getting blown up, and our clergy are getting assassinated."

Reporter Jay Price and photographer Chuck Liddy returned last week from a month-plus assignment to Afghanistan, accompanying recently deployed militants from US, Fort Bragg. What value did readers receive from having the local newspaper in Afghanistan? And did their deployment under the wing of their military host color their coverage?

One unusual element was that the team went to Afghanistan instead of Iraq, where most of the world's media focus is. In Afghanistan, Price and Liddy found only a handful of reporters covering this continuing conflict dating from the U.S. led war in 2001. Just since March, more than 400 people have been killed in fighting there, including 29 U.S. militants. Yet, little media attention.

Much of the story was told in Liddy's pictures, which displayed the expressive faces of a people coping in a land torn by war. One memorable shot: lines of Afghan workers in sandals standing in 140-degree asphalt building a road. That spoke volumes about the condition of the people and their country.

"What was shocking to me in Afghanistan was that, unlike Iraq, there was no infrastructure to rebuild. That's what I tried to show in the photographs," Liddy said. "I really thought it was important to show the people and how they reacted to us. The Afghan people had the most unique faces -- from the youngest children to the oldest -- they just had incredible faces."

In MIANA SHIEN, US/Afghan forces scouring mountains in the country's south allegedly found the bodies of 76 suspected resistance killed during a blistering barrage of their camps by Afghan and U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, Afghan US puppet government and U.S. military leaders met with tribal chiefs in a tent on a dusty plateau near the battlefield and urged them to help fight resistance fighters still holding out.

In all it is alleged that, a total of 178 freedom fighters have been killed and 56 suspected freedom fighters have been captured since Tuesday in some of the deadliest fighting since the US led war four years ago, peacekeeping observer Zahir Marat said.

"Adding that it was reported that the corpses were scattered across a wide mountainous area in and around the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province".

About 465 suspected freedom fighters have been reported killed since March, after snows melted on mountain trails used by the resistance. In the same period, 29 U.S. occupiers, 38 US/Afghan police and militants and 125 civilians have been killed.

The U.S. imperialists have reasserted their control in the KHAKERAN VALLEY, skimming low over the desert in helicopters with guns at the ready, American militants attacked Sunday into southern Afghanistan, seeking to reassert control after a spate of attacks raised fears of an Iraqi-style resistance here.

The US militants hopped from village to village in Khakeran Valley, searching mud huts and wheat fields, meeting village elders and detaining at least two men.

Up to 300 freedom fighters are believed to be holed up in the valley, about 130 miles northeast of the main southern city of Kandahar, said peacekeeping observer, Luke Langly.

"The freedom fighters have been using the Khakeran Valley as a sanctuary," he said. "Without question, I know the indigenous Afghans are in the area and I'm sure the US are attacking them. From talking to local people, we know the resistance are very angry with the US being here."

Blistering U.S. assaults against nearby mountainous camps last week left 178 suspected freedom fighters dead.

Flying in a convoy of two CH-47 Chinook helicopters, a Black Hawk and two Apache attack choppers, about 50 American militants moved up the river valley from village to village, searching for resistance.

As the first US militants, rushed from the aircraft as a handful of mangy chickens scampered away in clouds of billowing dust. A few farmers stood around sharing nervous, but curious, looks as the occupiers who searched the few mud huts and fields of wheat and tomatoes that made up their community. Nothing was found.

A report then came over the radio that a group of suspected freedom fighters were spotted milling around in the next village. The US militants ran back to the helicopters and flew toward it, below the brows of the barren, sun-scorched hills that border the valley.

They landed out of sight of the village and a small scouting party sneaked off to get a closer view. The other militants waited, ready to attack if the presence of freedom fighters was confirmed. But then word came back: the group of people were not fighters, but guests at a local wedding.

Back on the helicopters the troops went, and they flew to Mangal Khan, the main village in the valley, which used to house a local US/police contingent before the resistance attacked in March and the US/Afghan officers fled.

They landed on the outskirts of the village and walked in, searching houses as they went. Two men were led out of one of the homes with their hands tied. The US militants declined to say why they were detained.

The militants walked into the remains of the local US/Afghan police station, its windows smashed, its walls partly burned and pocked with bullet holes. A meeting was called with the village elders. Sitting in the yard in the shade of a tree, next to a rusting anti-aircraft gun, the American commander announced that they weren't leaving.

"We are here to stay, we are going to rebuild this police station", one militant shouted at the villagers.

He outlined his approach to his job in Afghanistan.

"I came here to help the people, but I also came here to kill the Taliban," he said. "I like fighting the Taliban."

Allegedly the biggest loss for the freedom fighters was in the three-day attack by American aircraft against resistance camps in Miana Shien district, Kandahar province, last week. While about 80 freedom fighters, including two top resistance leaders, are still believed to be in the area, dozens of others are believed to have fled - some possibly toward Khakeran Valley.

US Militant American spokesman Jerry O'Hara said troops were operating across the whole region, "taking away enemy sanctuaries."

"The enemy forces are not dumb. So when they get a sense that we're doing an operation in area 'X,' they will move onto area 'Y,'" he said. "It is our goal to be in area 'Y' before they set anything up."

Related:

Howard off to US, UK - part 5

But what does it matter the first time or the second time "since the illegal and degrading war on Iraq"? Incidentally, a war, that killed, maimed and injured over 100,000 innocent men, women and children? It only matters I suppose to get the second part of the paragraph into this article.

More:  http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/92954.php