Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

31 August 2004

AFGHANISTAN

• Investigators probing a deadly car bombing in the Afghan capital questioned a man detained at Kabul airport with traces of explosives on his hands, officials said. Taliban rebels claimed responsibility for Sunday's blast at a U.S. security firm, but officials said they are not ruling out any suspects, including al-Qaida. NATO troops grew suspicious of a man on the grounds of Kabul airport the day of the attack, spokesman Lt. Cdr. Ken Mackillop said. After finding explosives on his hands, NATO turned the man over to Afghan authorities on Monday. The man was not identified. Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said there was no proof yet that the man was involved in the attack on the office of Dyncorp Inc., which provides bodyguards for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and works for the American government in Iraq. Mullah Hakim Latifi, a man who claims to speak for the Taliban, said the Islamic radical group carried out the attack with a time-bomb in a car. He warned that more attacks would follow and that Americans would be targeted. (AP 310014 Aug 04)
  
• The Taliban warned on Monday of further deadly attacks in the run-up to Afghanistan's first presidential election. After the Kabul blast, senior Taliban commander said any city with a Western presence could be a target ahead of the Oct. 9 elections, which U.S. ally Karzai is widely expected to win. "We have started our operations from Kabul under new planning and preparation," said commander Mullah Daudullah, one of the ten members of the Taliban council headed by Mullah Omar, an ally of Osama bin Laden. "We will carry out more attacks and bombings in Kabul and many of our mujahideen are present in cities where the occupying forces of infidels are present," he told Reuters by satellite telephone. The Taliban denied responsibility for Saturday's school blast, saying guerrillas were only targetting military centres or election staff. (Reuters 301459 GMT Aug 04)
  
• Albania, Croatia and Macedonia will send a joint military medical team to join international peacekeepers in Afghanistan, the Albanian president's office said Monday. All three countries hope to join NATO and have signed the Adriatic 3 Charter, a U.S.-backed initiative outlining a common strategy and promoting regional cooperation. Two years ago, Albania dispatched a token army contingent of 22 troops to join the 1,400 Turkish forces at Kabul airport. Albania's army also has sent military aid such as helmets and ammunition for light weaponry to Afghanistan. The small Balkan country, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, has deployed 71 non-combat peacekeepers to Iraq and 30 troops to Bosnia. (AP 301214 Aug 04)

BALKANS

• UN police briefly detained some 25 ethnic Albanian protesters who blocked a key street in Kosovo's capital Monday while calling on authorities to resolve the fate of thousands who vanished during the war five years ago. Police had warned the protesters that they would not be allowed to block any roads or they could face arrest, said Malcolm Ashby, a UN police spokesman. Those detained were later released and the protesters continued their demonstration, blocking two streets downtown in the capital. In a statement, the top UN official in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen said "that addressing the issue of missing persons is critical to the stability of the region and rendering of justice in a scourge that has affected people of all ethnicities." Jessen-Petersen called for "collective action and exchange of information" of all those involved in the process of establishing the fate of the missing. (AP 301751 Aug 04)
  
• Kosovo's new UN governor urged Serbia on Monday to encourage the province's minority Serbs to take part in an October general election, seeking to avert a threatened boycott of the vote. "It is absolutely crucial if we want a multi-ethnic Kosovo...that Kosovo Serbs be given a chance to participate in Kosovo elections," Soren Jessen-Petersen told a news conference. "I believe we are really gradually seeing an improvement in the security situation," the Danish diplomat said. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said after meeting Jessen-Petersen that Serbs did not have confidence in Kosovo institutions and asked for elements of the Serb Kosovo decentralisation plan to be considered. (Reuters 301731 GMT Aug 04)