NATO-led troops killed around 100 civilians in Afghanistan in 2008

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan killed around 100 civilians in 2008, said the alliance on Wednesday.

"In 2008 NATO-ISAF was responsible for 97 -- let's say, around 100 -- civilian casualties (deaths)," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

In contrast, the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents killed 973 civilians last year, he said.

These figures are based on an assessment by the military with the help of a new tracking system, said the spokesman.

The figures are not supposed to be 100 percent accurate as civilian deaths are difficult to track given the fact that there are neither birth certificates, nor death certificates in the country and that the dead are buried quickly according to tradition in Afghanistan, noted Appathurai.

NATO-ISAF was ordered to take new measures last December to minimize civilian casualties as they were affecting popular support for ISAF in Afghanistan.

In a "tactical directive" issued by ISAF Commander Gen. David McKiernan on Dec. 30, 2008, the NATO troops were told to show respect for the Afghan people, their culture, religion and customs.

Commanders were ordered to ensure troops are properly trained to minimize the need to resort to deadly force. They were also asked to demonstrate proportionality, restraint and utmost discrimination in engagement.

NATO troops were ordered to conduct combined operations with the Afghan security forces as much as possible. All searches and entries of Afghan homes, mosques, religious sites or places of cultural significance must be led by Afghan security forces unless there is clear and identified danger from such a place.

Erdogan hailed after Davos walkout

Turkey's prime minister has returned home from the World Economic Forum in Davos to a warm welcome after he stormed out of a debate over Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 5,000 people, many waving Palestinian and Turkish flags, greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his airplane touched down early on Friday.

Erdogan walked out of a televised debate on Thursday with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, after the moderator refused to allow him to rebut Peres' justification about the war.

Before storming out, Erdogan told Shimon Peres, the Israeli president: "You are killing people."

At least 1,300 Palestinians were killed during Israel's 22-day aerial, naval and ground assault on Gaza. Thirteen Israeli citizens died over the same period.

'No return'

During the heated panel discussion in the Swiss town, Peres told Erdogan that Turkey would have acted in the same manner as Israel if rockets had been falling on Istanbul.

Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, then told Erdogan that he had "only a minute" to respond to a lengthy monologue by Peres.

Erdogan said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian."

Ignatius twice attempted to finish the debate, saying, "We really do need to get people to dinner."

Erdogan then said: "Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos after this."

Peres told reporters after the incident that Israel is not in conflict with Turkey.

"I don't see this as a personal or national problem. The relations can remain as they are. My respect [for him] hasn't changed. It was an exchange of views and views are views," he said.

Hamas, which has de facto of the Gaza Strip after pushing Fatah fighters out of the territory in June 2007, commended Erdogan for his action.

"Hamas pays tribute to the courageous stand of Turkey's prime minister ... who in Davos directly defended the victims of the criminal Zionist war against our children and women in Gaza," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Friday.

"We consider his departure from the room an expression of support for the victims of the holocaust carried out by the Zionists."

'Understandable'

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, who was also in the debate, said Erdogan's action was understandable.

"Mr Erdogan said what he wanted to say and then he left. That's all. He was right," he said, adding that Israel "doesn't listen".

Turkey has in recent months brokered indirect talks between Israel and Syria over the Golan Heights region, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

The exchange between Erdogan and Peres took place on the second day of the summit, where business and political leaders have been discussing trade, financial regulation and global security.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, used the forum to announce the launch of an emergency appeal for $613m to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza.

But Gareth Evans, the president of the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan's walk-out was "deeply depressing".

"I thought the tone of the debate had been reasonably moderate up until Shimon Peres laid some heavy-duty stuff on the line, in a very uncompromising and rather un-Peres like fashion," he said.

"In particular, what was depressing was Peres' utter unwillingness to acknowledge the real significance of the Arab peace initiative and to respond to Erdogan and Amr Moussa, saying how important it is that Israel formally say that the plan is a major step towards peace.

"Turkey was Israel's best friend in the Muslim world. I think Israel has to come to grips with the fact that it has alienated a very large proportion of the world's population."

Gaza appeal

The UN secretary-general said he had been deeply moved by his visit to Gaza and that he had given his word that the UN would help the Gazans in their hour of need.

He said the appeal for funds covered the requirements of the UN and other aid organizations for the next six to nine months.

Ban said it would help provide aid such as medical care and clean water and that an appeal for longer-term needs would be launched later.

Asked about achieving peace in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud party who was attending the forum, swiftly turned his answer to Iran, which he said was in a "100-yard dash" to get nuclear weapons.

While he did not specify any planned military action, Netanyahu said if Iranian rulers were "neutralized", the danger posed to Israel and others by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon would be reduced.

Meanwhile, Manouchechr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, who is also in Davos, said Tehran had taken note of the intention of Barack Obama, the US president, to withdraw troops from Iraq and believed he should also pull troops out of Afghanistan.

Mottaki told a panel at the forum that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies of George Bush, the former US president, he disagreed with and said his approach marked a "milestone" away from an era of "might equals right".

Abdul the Taliban, on the hunt for American 'infidels'

KABUL (AFP) — Abdul Shafiq is around 30 years old and has sacrificed his family life for two things: reading the Koran and fighting.

After years in exile following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, this Taliban commander is back in the mountains of his birth, having left behind his old life with his family for one mission: chasing out the "infidel" Americans.

It takes several cups of tea in a house next to a snowy hill, somewhere in southern Kabul, before the fighter with a thin face and the features of a Pashtun from southern Afghanistan, agrees to tell his story.

Abdul Shafiq -- an assumed name -- looks like any other Afghan, except that he has never been as unhappy as in times of peace.

He wears a long cream shirt and leather jacket; his hair and beard are thick and black, his clear brown eyes sparkle as brightly as his silver Pashtun cap dotted with shiny plastic beads.

In hiding in Kabul, he rarely spends two nights in the same place, taking a break before returning to the fight.

In the mountains, he heard of new US President Barack Obama "who will change nothing" and of Palestine "where something is happening".

His future seems set: "As long as the Americans are here, we will fight them," says the Taliban militant, whom AFP could only meet through local intermediaries.

This year should be a challenging one for Shafiq: up to 30,000 new US troops are expected in Afghanistan under a major new strategy led by Obama, with several thousand headed to Shafiq's home province.

Born and raised in Wardak, adjacent to Kabul, he entered an Islamic school aged 13 for several years of instruction under teachers he remembers as Arabs with a strict interpretation of religion.

In 1994 he joined the Taliban as they prepared to march on Kabul at a time when the country was engulfed in civil war between former anti-Soviet factions, the mujahideen (holy fighters).

When the extreme Islamist group finally won control of the capital in 1996, "everyone was happy to see the Taliban -- good Muslims -- put an end to the killing, the rape and the theft of the mujahideen," Shafiq says.

Then aged 18 and with some education, on top of his two years' service with the Taliban, he could have taken a job with the new administration.

But Shafiq preferred to continue fighting, traveling to the north to take on the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a bitter enemy of the Taliban. "Some good fighters. We respected them," he recalls.

It was in the northern mountains that he heard, over Taliban combat radio, on September 11, 2001 that planes sent by Al-Qaeda, had struck at the heart of the United States.

"That was beautiful, delicious to hear, everyone was happy," the warrior says with a smile.

But when the United States invaded Afghanistan the following month, Shafiq and his comrades soon realized they could not withstand the deluge of US bombs and fled. Some went to Pakistan. Others, like Shafiq, went west to Iran.

The Iranian government and the Taliban may have little in common, but they shared virulent opposition to the United States.

Iran took in Taliban in their thousands, according to Shafiq. He stayed there for four years, without guns and without combat. He was despondent.

"I didn't want to do anything," the fighter remembers.

"Anyway, I didn't know how to do anything except fight. We read the Koran but life wasn't that interesting."

At the start of 2006, Afghanistan elected a new parliament. In Kabul, the US army, sure of itself, branded the Taliban finished.

It was then that Shafiq slipped quietly home to Wardak. "They told us that the Americans were stopping the Taliban much less," he says.

He took charge of a group of 30 men who lived on the move, going from one safehouse to another, he says.

Even before then, the Taliban started to regroup. "Everything is structured. The orders come from our leaders in Pakistan," Shafiq says. He is less forthcoming about how they obtained weapons and money.

In villages crowded with unemployed men tired of US bombings and disappointed by international aid that never arrived, Taliban rhetoric slamming the American "invaders" who "plunder Muslim soil" won some support.

Others fell in with insurgents to enrich destitute lives with stolen goods gained from ambushes targeting trade convoys.

Whether "old" or "new" Taliban, many take liberties with the Islamic dogma of war which bans kidnapping for ransom or taking civilians prisoner.

Claiming to be a fighter for Islam above all, Shafiq hardly ever sees his wife and three children, under five. He condemns television as "against Islam" and has never used the Internet.

When it comes to the war, he calls suicide attacks a "good weapon" and says they should avoid harming civilians -- which they almost most never do.

Hezbollah chief made a televised speech on "Freedom Day"

Chief of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah Hasan Nasrallah made a televised speech on the occasion of "Freedom Day" on Thursday, the al-Manar TV reported.

During his speech on "Freedom Day," a day celebrated by Hezbollah to mark the freedom of their hostages from Israeli jails, Nasrallah denounced the Egyptian regime for continuing to close the Rafah crossing with Gaza, "the closure of Rafah crossing is a historical crime."

He expressed doubts over the Egyptian role of mediating between the Palestinians and the Israelis, saying "I doubt that the (Egyptian) regime is an honest mediator because it works on imposing the conditions of others on the Palestinians."

Nasrallah also denounced "the rude" statements made by some European officials against the Palestinians in Gaza, and stressed that "the previous and decisive stand of the United States and Europe is represented by their full support to Israel, and all its crimes."

He vowed that revenging the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah military commander who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in February last year, "was never behind us," adding that the response would be "to punish those who killed him and safeguard the others."

Hezbollah had accused the Israeli intelligence service of carrying out the assassination.

"The investigations proved that the Israeli Mossad is responsible for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh," Nasrallah reaffirmed.

He said that any war with Israel will be "costly" to the Israeli capabilities.

"We remain a resistance ready to defend Lebanon, we will not leave the circle of conflict with Israeli, and shall stand to the enemy," Nasrallah pledged.

"Israel failed politically and militarily in Gaza as in Lebanon," he said, adding that "those who did not recognize the victory in Lebanon will not recognize it in Gaza for the same reasons."

Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government to reveal the fate of the four Iranian diplomats who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982 by the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia during the civil war. Israel claimed that they were killed by the LF, while Hezbollah believes they were handed over to Israel.

Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in summer 2006, and had pledged to keep its arms as long as Israel posses a threat in the region.

Hezbollah: Obama same as Bush on Israel

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon's Hezbollah leader said Thursday there is no difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush when it comes to Israel, and that the new U.S. administration has so far shown full support for the Jewish state — Hezbollah's archenemy.

The remarks were the first comments by the reclusive Sheik Hassan Nasrallah since the Jan. 20 inauguration of the new U.S. president. Although a militant group, Hezbollah is today also a political force and a partner in the Lebanese government with veto power over all decisions.

"The conduct of the new administration when it comes to Israel is ... one of absolute support," Nasrallah said, speaking via videolink from his hiding place. "I have not sensed until now that there is any difference between the two (U.S.) administrations."

He also denounced Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, claiming Israel failed to achieve its target of routing out militant Palestinian Hamas from the coastal strip. Hezbollah is a Hamas ally, and both are supported by Iran and Syria.

Nasrallah went into hiding at the onset of the July 2006 Israel-Hezbollah and has rarely been seen since in public, fearing assassination.

Belgium to take command of UN maritime forces in Lebanon

Belgium will take command of the naval maritime forces, a part of UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), after France's command expires at the end of February, local Naharnet website reported Thursday.

UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said that the French 6-month command ends on Feb. 28, and will be turned over to Belgium.

"As a result of the leadership transfer, several changes will be made to the contribution of different countries to UNIFIL naval forces," Bouziane was quoted as saying.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Wednesday that France will pull out two warships from UN forces off south Lebanon coast "because the security risks are no longer as intense."

UNIFIL naval forces patrol Lebanese territorial water in accordance to UN resolution 1701 which ended the Hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006, and are in charge of preventing any arms smuggling into Lebanon.

The Germans were the first to command the maritime forces, followed by the Italians and then the French.

Stormy debate in Davos over Gaza

The Turkish prime minister has stormed out of a heated debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos over Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of the televised debate on Thursday, after the moderator refused to allow him to rebut the Israeli president's justification about the war that left about 1,300 Gazans dead.

Before storming out, Erdogan told Shimon Peres, the Israeli president: "You are killing people."

Peres told Erdogan during the heated panel discussion that he would have acted in the same manner if rockets had been falling on Istanbul.

Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, then told Erdogan that he had "only a minute" to respond to a lengthy monologue by Peres.

Erdogan said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian."

Ignatius twice attempted to finish the debate, saying, "We really do need to get people to dinner."

Erdogan then said: "Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos after this."

'Understandable'

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, said Erdogan's action was understandable.

He said: "Mr Erdogan said what he wanted to say and then he left. That's all. He was right," adding that Israel "doesn't listen".

The exchange took place on the second day of the summit, where business and political leaders have been discussing trade, financial regulation and global security.

After grappling with a bleak global economy on the opening day, leaders attending the forum switched to debates on the new administration in the United States and unrest in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Kamal Nath, India's trade minister, warned that the global economic crisis could fuel protectionism to safeguard national industries and jobs.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, used the forum to announce the launch of an emergency appeal for $613m to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza.

Protectionist fears

Nath said that India saw growing signs of protectionism and would respond with its own measures if its exporters were threatened "which will be good for no one."

He said: "We do fear this because one must recognize that at the heart of globalization lies global competitiveness, and if governments are going to protect their non-competitive production facilities it's not going to be fair trade.

India has raised tariffs on steel to protect local producers, a measure trade experts say was aimed at China, which India does not regard as a market economy.

The deepening economic crisis, and the failure to complete the World Trade Organization's long-running Doha round on freeing up global commerce, have raised fears that countries will block their partners' exports to protect jobs at home.

Such protectionism, if it led to tit-for-tat retaliation, would intensify the current crisis.

Emerging economies

The economies of India, China and Russia, which have been experiencing rapid growth in recent years, have taken precedence at the forum.

Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University, said emerging markets are almost overshadowing the importance of the US economy.

"What is really striking to me about this Davos, is the lack of a sense of a new beginning with Barack Obama," he told Al Jazeera.

"That is not what we've been hearing about in the last 24 hours, we've been hearing about China, about Russia, about India, about emerging economies, and that I think is a very significant fact.

"It's not just the American investment banks that have gone down, it's America's own soft power, and ability to lead that has been badly damaged by the crash."

Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Egypt's minister of trade and industry, said there would be a rush towards emerging markets.

"People understand today that there will not be growth in developed countries for a long time to come, the growth will continue to be in emerging markets, even more than before," he told Al Jazeera.

Gaza appeal

The UN secretary-general said he had been deeply moved by his visit to Gaza and that he had given his word that the UN would help the Gazans in their hour of need.

He said the appeal for fund covered the requirements of the UN and other aid organizations for the next six to nine months.

Ban said it would help provide aid such as medical care and clean water and that an appeal for longer-term needs would be launched later.

Asked about achieving peace in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud party who was attending the forum, swiftly turned his answer to Iran, which he said was in a "100-yard dash" to get nuclear weapons.

While he did not specify any planned military action, Netanyahu said if Iranian rulers were "neutralized", the danger posed to Israel and others by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon would be reduced.

Netanyahu said the global financial meltdown was reversible but "what is not reversible is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a fanatic radical regime".

Meanwhile, Manouchechr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, who is also in Davos, said Tehran had taken note of the intention of Barack Obama, the US president, to withdraw troops from Iraq and believed he should also pull troops out of Afghanistan.

Mottaki told a panel at the forum that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies of George Bush, the former US president, he disagreed with and said his approach marked a "milestone" away from an era of "might equals right".