AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of Afghans gather to commemorate the fifth anniversary of assasination of northern alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masoud

Thousands of Afghan gathered at Kabul sport stadium on Saturday (September 9, 2006) to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of northern alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masoud. Masoud was assassinated just two days before the September 11 attack in United States, by two Arab men posing as journalists. Afghan president Hamid Karzai and most of the Afghan Jahadi leaders attended the commemoration ceremony, a day after the deadliest suicide attack in the capital Kabul in which 16 people including two U.S soldiers killed and the other 29 were wounded. "We should follow martyred Masoud in our future, to defend from Afghanistan, save the honour of our nation and build the country," Karzai told the gathered crowds. Afghans consider Masoud a national hero. He fought against the Soviets and then led the resistance against Taliban government of Afghanistan. Meanwhile on Saturday ( September 9) NATO battled the Taliban in holdouts in the deserts of southern Afghanistan and in the capital after yesterday's bombing in Kabul. Ali Shah Paktiwal, head of the police crime bureau, said officers were checking every main intersection in Kabul after Friday's blast near the U.S. embassy, which killed at least two American soldiers. Resurgent Taliban forces have mounted daily attacks during the summer, primarily targeting foreign forces in the south where NATO took over security from the United States at the end of the July. NATO says it has killed more than 300 insurgents and cornered hundreds more since it launched its biggest offensive against the Taliban a week ago. The Taliban denies the figures. Coalition forces said in a statement late on Friday (September 8) that foreign troops had killed another 20 insurgents in and around Panjwayi district in the southern province of Kandahar. But alliance leaders say the force still needs more soldiers, helicopters and planes to defeat the insurgents. Many military officials and analysts say the fighting in Afghanistan is now heavier and worse than Iraq. NATO leaders are pressing member countries to send more troops and equipment to the south after a high-level delegation visited this week, highlighting divisions over where and how some countries deploy their forces. More than 2,300 people have died his year in the Taliban resurgence that has led to the heaviest fighting since U.S.-led troops toppled the hard-line Islamists. The guerrillas have moved beyond small-scale hit-and-run operations to pitched battles and larger strikes, sheltering and training in Pakistan despite efforts by Islamabad to stop them. They are in part being bolstered by drug lords, who are expected to reap a record crop this year worth about $3 billion and who are keen to keep the army and police at bay.

ITN Source | September 9, 2006

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