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NOTE: Due to PIO’s participation in Exercise "Strong Resolve 2002," the SHAPE News Morning Update will not be published until March 16. Significant news items are incorporated in the SHAPE News Summary and Analysis.

TERRORISM

• U.S. intelligence has intercepted e-mail traffic from suspected Al Qaeda members suggesting the terrorist group is trying to regroup in remote areas of Pakistan close to the Afghan border, writes The Independent. The article adds that the intercepts, first disclosed by the New York Times, could help explain the appearance of the large group of Al Qaeda fighters that U.S.-led troops are currently fighting near Gardez. More worryingly, it adds, the intercepts could be part of planning for new terrorist attacks—though no specific threats have been detected. The newspaper, illustrated with a head-and-shoulders color photograph of Gen. Ralston, captioned, "General Ralston: ‘Work to be done in our backyard,’" adds: "General Joseph Ralston, NATO’s supreme commander and in charge of U.S. forces in Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa, said recently that some Al Qaeda figures had turned up in Europe. ‘There is a lot of work to be done in our own backyard,’ he said."

ISAF

• AP reports Defense Minister Scharping announced Thursday that experts were being sent to Kabul to investigate the cause of an explosion that killed five German and Danish soldiers as they attempted to destroy two Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles. The dispatch quotes Scharping saying witness accounts indicate that the explosion was caused by a technical problem, and that the soldiers had followed proper procedures.

Media generally stress that ISAF suffered a severe blow Wednesday when three Danish and two German soldiers were killed as anti-aircraft missiles they were trying to destroy detonated accidentally. They highlight that Germany and Denmark vowed to keep their troops in Afghanistan despite the death of the soldiers.

A commentary in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the news that two Germans were among the five ISAF soldiers killed came as a shock to the German public. Having only just learned, through a leak, that the Germans in Afghanistan are not just manning police patrols, but are also being deployed in combat zones, they now know that Kabul is not nearly as safe as the pictures of friendly Afghans waving at German peacekeepers suggested. The truth is that this is the most dangerous mission the German military has ever undertaken, adds the newspaper and continues: "The public has been told far too little about the dangers to which even the main contingent of Bundeswehr soldiers based in Kabul are being exposed."

The Financial Times observes that the incident comes as Germany is gearing up to take over "tactical leadership" of part of the UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Germany is to assume control of the multinational brigade in Kabul from Britain for two months at the end of April, although Turkey is still expected to hold the overall leadership, adds the newspaper.

NATO

• According to AFP, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that eastern European foreign ministers are to meet in Skopje later this week to craft a joint strategy toward winning NATO membership. Foreign Ministers from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia are to attend the conference Friday, the Ministry reportedly said in a statement. "The discussion will focus on increasing cooperation between the group’s member countries as well as the realization of their common goal—NATO membership," it added. Another AFP dispatch reports that in Vilnius Thursday, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reiterated Russia’s opposition to NATO enlargement and called for a search for "new mechanisms" which could ensure cooperation on an equal basis.

OTHER NEWS.

• According to the National Audit Office (NAO), reports The Times, the British Defense Ministry has failed to develop an effective system to prevent deaths in combat by "friendly fire." The newspaper quotes a NAO report saying that more than 10 years since nine British soldiers were killed in error by an American air strike during the Gulf War, the Ministry had no time table or funding for providing a proper "combat identification" system.

  FINAL ITEM