Scores killed in Afghan anti drugs operation

More than 60 militants and drug traffickers have been killed in Helmand province during a three-day raid, the Afghan government says.

Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's illicit opium

They said more than 16 tonnes of drugs were seized, together with weapons, explosives and suicide vests.

Afghan troops destroyed two sites at which drugs were produced.

They also freed several villagers who had been kidnapped by the militants for allegedly co-operating with the government.

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium and the drugs trade is a key source of funding for the insurgency.

Coalition forces are battling militants in opium-producing areas of the south.

Last year the UN said corruption, lawlessness and uncontrolled borders result in only 2% of Afghan opiates being seized locally.

UN findings say an opium market worth $65bn (£39bn) funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts and kills 100,000 people every year.

Taliban reject UN chief report on civilian deaths

The Taliban have criticized the United Nations chief for making what they call a 'false statement' on civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

The criticism comes a day after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attributed most of the civilian casualties of last year to the Taliban.

"Last year, about three times as many civilian deaths were attributed to anti-government elements as to pro-government forces," Ban told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

"Most resulted from suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices used by anti-government elements," the secretary general added.

A US monitoring group said on Thursday that the militant group rejected the accusations and blamed NATO forces and their allies for the carnage.

The Taliban said that the US Defense Department may have pushed Ban to make the statement to create animosity between local populations.

The Taliban have reportedly warned the UN chief that partial judgment and blind support of one side could harm his credibility.

UN food agency to reach out to 9 million Afghans in 2009

Almost 9 million people in Afghanistan will benefit from United Nations food aid initiatives this year, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced today, with over 1.5 million reached in all of the South Asian nation’s provinces last month alone.

The agency plans to provide assistance to 8.8 million Afghans this year through a range of relief and recovery projects.

WFP’s food-for-work scheme has already helped over 500,000 people through irrigation canal, ponds, water channels and roads programmes.

The food-for-education plan seeks to help the Afghan Government to rebuild its education system. To address short-term hunger and boost school attendance, nearly 500,000 children received WFP food in schools, with an additional incentive for female students to encourage them to go to school.

In its efforts to tackle tuberculosis, the agency is urging patients to complete their treatment by providing them with food rations, with over 30,000 Afghans suffering from tuberculosis having received WFP assistance last month.

Every year the agency assists hundreds of thousands who are seriously impacted by droughts, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters, and is also helping those affected by soaring food prices.

In a related development, nearly three million Afghan children under the age of five will be protected from polio under the latest United Nations-backed immunization campaign which has kicked off in nearly half of the South Asian nation’s 34 provinces.

The scheme, launched yesterday by the Ministry of Public Health with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), seeks to stop the virus’ circulation within the South Asian nation and to halt its importation from neighbouring nations.

“Today, we call on all anti-government elements to allow the vaccinators’ access to the children of Nad-e-ali and Nawzad districts in Helmand,” said Nilab Mobarez, spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). “These children have the right to be protected from polio.”

UN official backs Afghanistan election in summer

The U.N. peacekeeping chief said Monday it would be "almost impossible" to hold a fair election in Afghanistan before July, months after the early spring vote that President Hamid Karzai is seeking.

Alain Le Roy said the Aug. 20 date set by Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission in January is "very credible and very reasonable." An earlier vote would be "very difficult to organize," mostly for logistical and technical reasons but also because of security needs, he said.

Karzai suddenly issued a decree Saturday directing the election commission to set a date that adheres to the Afghan constitution, which calls for a ballot 30 to 60 days before the May 22 expiration of the president's five-year term.

Political opponents accused Karzai of "sabotage" by trying to rush the vote. The move was widely viewed in Kabul as a political gambit to give Karzai the high ground in a tussle for power after May 22, when opponents say they will no longer recognize him as president.

The election is likely to be the most dangerous since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban's Islamist regime in late 2001. The militant movement, which has regained control of large swaths of the country, said it will not participate — and warned other Afghans not to.

The international community, led by the United Nations, ran the presidential election in 2004 that brought Karzai to power and the government has asked the U.N. to provide technical expertise to the Afghan commission for this year's election.

In setting an Aug. 20 election, the commission said the vote could not be held sooner because of security concerns, heavy spring snows in the Afghan mountains and ballot distribution issues.