Islamabad : A fresh wave of sectarian clashes fuelled by Islamist militancy in Pakistan's troubled north-western region near Afghanistan killed at least 33 people over the weekend, a media report said Sunday.

The clashes broke between Sunni and Shiites Muslims in the Kurram tribal district last week after insurgents infiltrated the area to flee a military offensive against the Taliban fighters elsewhere in the volatile region.

At least 33 people were killed and 65 more were wounded as fighting raged Friday night and continued through Saturday in Lower Kurram, which adjoins the Al Qaeda and Taliban hotbed of North Waziristan region, the English-language Dawn newspaper reported.

Dawn said clashes during the last two weeks had left around 89 people dead and 175 injured.

Shiite tribesmen, who are in majority in Kurram, are calling for raising local militias, or Lashkars, to block the entry of mostly Sunni militants. They have been challenging the Taliban movement for the last two years.

"We have had over 700 young people martyred but have not allowed these militants to secure a toehold in Upper Kurram," tribal leader Haji Rauf was quoted by Dawn as saying. "Now the influx of Taliban from Swat, Dir and other areas is worsening the situation."

Government forces have been battling with the Taliban militants in the former tourist resort of Swat and its neighbouring districts since late April, and claimed to have eliminated more than 1,600 rebels.

Rauf said the government should launch a similar military operation in Kurram, adding that the tribesmen would "fight alongside our soldiers".

Kurram has been in the grip of sectarian strife for the last two years and has seen several deadly episodes of violence which claimed hundreds of lives.

The key land route between the district's main town of Parachinar and the rest of the country has been cut off for the last several months, causing shortage of food and medical supplies. Authorities have been airlifting consignments but the problem persists.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle detonated his explosives near a densely crowded traffic intersection in the eastern city of Khost on Monday, killing 7 Afghan civilians and wounding 44, including 7 children, local officials said.

The blast came just seconds after a smaller explosion rocked the same spot.

The bombs were most likely part of a strategy in which the first attacker hoped to draw security forces to the scene, and the second strike was intended to kill them, said Kochi Nasery, spokesman for the governor of Khost.

However, the explosions were separated by only a few seconds, and officials had not yet arrived at the scene.

Also in Khost on Monday, NATO forces killed an Afghan driver who ignored several pleas by international forces to get his vehicle to come to a stop. A NATO official said no further details were available.

In a separate attack in Kandahar Province, a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up, killing three Afghan soldiers and wounding five others, local officials said.

The bomber took aim at a patrol of Afghan and international forces who were scanning the main road for mines planted by militants. Two women on the road were also wounded, said Zhari Niamatullah Sarhadi, district chief of Sanzari, where the bombing occurred.

NATO forces said they had no record of the attack, even as the Taliban claimed responsibility for it. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said it had killed 15 Afghan soldiers and 6 members of international forces. NATO officials said none of their troops died on Monday.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb on Tuesday killed three Afghan aid workers with a partner organization of the United Nations refugee agency in a relatively peaceful northern province, a sign of the militants’ continuing efforts to extend their reach in the country.

The three aid workers were driving in Jowzjan Province when their car was struck by a remotely detonated roadside bomb operated by someone watching the road, said Muhammad Khalil Aminzada, the provincial police chief.

Northern Afghanistan is largely peaceful, and development agencies are able to work there, unlike in regions south of the capital, Kabul. Yet attacks have been on the increase as the Taliban and other insurgent groups have sought to enlarge their areas of influence.

The explosion was so strong that all three workers for the organization — two engineers and a driver — were killed instantly and their car was destroyed, Mr. Aminzada said. He blamed the Taliban for the attack, and speculated that the timing had been tied to the presidential elections, scheduled for August. “The enemy of Afghanistan is trying to show its presence, as elections are coming very soon,” he said.

Mirajan Jahed, the administrative director of the organization, Development and Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan, confirmed the deaths of his three colleagues, who were on a mission to build shelters and homes for refugees returning to their villages in the province. He explained that the attack took place while the workers were leaving the project site in the district of Aqcha.

“They were trying to build 400 houses for refugees that included two rooms for each family, with kitchen and other necessities,” he said.

The United Nations refugee agency, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which lost a staff member in a hotel bombing in neighboring Pakistan on June 9, said in a statement that it deeply regretted the loss of life.

The agency said that in a separate episode, also on Tuesday, members of its staff narrowly avoided an explosion on a military convoy in the eastern part of Afghanistan.

Insurgents have turned increasingly this year to using roadside bombs and remotely detonated explosions against foreign forces and others involved in development in Afghanistan. A United Nations worker in an armored car was hit by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Uruzgan in May and escaped injury.

(RTTNews) - The G8 Foreign Ministers gathered in Trieste, Italy addressed a number of issues threatening global stability Friday, including a condemnation of the Iranian government for post-election violence in the streets of Tehran.

Noting the the current economic situation, food crisis, lack of energy security and climate change have proven that the world is as interconnected as ever, the group of the eight largest industrialized nations said it would stand together as one in countering old and new threats to peace and fostering effective international cooperation.

On Afghanistan and Pakistan, which were to be the primary focus of the conference, the G8 said
it remains firmly committed to supporting the democratically elected governments in those nations, assuring that the G8 will help strengthen institutional capacity and increase the effectiveness of government.

Regarding violence in Iran, the G8 urged Iran to respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, in the wake of protests following the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad..

"We deplore post-electoral violence which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians," said the G8 in a draft statement.

The leading industrialized countries also insisted that the crisis should be settled through "democratic dialogue and peaceful means," but stopped short of criticizing the election process in Iran.

"We call on the Iranian government to guarantee that the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process," the statement said.

The G8 also reiterated its support for the two-state solution, calling for "the establishment of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living in peace with Israel."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sometimes, paying three times the price for the same merchandise can be a good deal. That's the American calculation behind quiet negotiations that will allow the United States to hang onto a Central Asian air base crucial to the expanding war in Afghanistan.

The new deal with Kyrgyzstan would cost the U.S. $60 million in annual rent, more than triple the previous yearly cost of $17.4 million.

In return, the United States keeps its only air resupply hub for the war in Afghanistan just as it adds more than 20,000 forces there. And the deal neatly heads off an expected fight with Russia just two weeks before a closely watched summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia, widely considered the instigator of a move to evict the U.S. from the base, now supports the deal to let the American military stay.

Along with troops, weapons, ammunition and other military supplies, the Manas base is used to refuel tanker planes that provide in-flight refueling of allied jets circling Afghan skies — and is also a key medical evacuation point.

U.S. officials clearly were relieved that Manas was saved, and at far less cost than it would have taken to replace the base with complicated and less efficient land options.

"We think it's to our mutual benefit," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said this week as the deal was taking shape. "They obviously have a great stake in what's happening in that region, as do we. And we look forward to continue to work with them to supply our troops in Afghanistan so that we can help with the overall security situation in the region."

In the wake of a unanimous vote Thursday by Kyrgyzstan's parliament, the deal will mean only minor changes in the way U.S. forces operate. The changes are mostly cosmetic attempts to reduce the American footprint around the base, U.S. officials said, and won't affect the busy flight schedule that carries 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from the Afghan campaign.

In addition to the annual rent, the U.S. also will allocate $37 million to build new aircraft parking slots and storage areas, plus $30 million for new navigation systems. Washington has also committed to giving Kyrgyzstan $51.5 million to combat drug trafficking and terrorism and promote economic development.

"The main aim of the agreement between Kyrgyzstan and the U.S. is to fight terrorism and cooperate in providing assistance to Afghanistan's government in maintaining security," Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev said. "We will take all necessary measures to enable the operation in Afghanistan."

Even as it cinched the Manas deal, the Pentagon is also developing several alternatives to Manas — overland supply routes by road or rail — to bring people and supplies into landlocked Afghanistan.

Those efforts will continue, military officials said, as will an existing ground supply route from Pakistan. But the pressure is off.

The United States has never stopped using Manas, even after the Kyrgyz president announced it would be closed. U.S. officials strongly suggested Russian influence was behind the decision. Russia denied it.

Announcement of the closure came shortly after Russia pledged to give Kyrgyzstan more than $2 billion in aid and loans. The Kyrgyz leader was seated beside Medvedev when he announced he was kicking the U.S. out.

Russia also has an air base in the former Soviet republic.

Moscow long has been suspicious of the American presence in what it views as its traditional sphere of influence. The future of the Manas base was among the irritants in eroding U.S.-Russian relations since Russia invaded its smaller neighbor Georgia last summer.

Russian backing for the new lease deal reflects a deliberate lowering of tensions on both sides ahead of the July summit in Moscow. In a sign of improved relations, Russia appears eager to cooperate with the U.S. on Afghanistan.

Medvedev praised the Kyrgyz parliament's decision, saying it will "help the joint effort of fighting terrorism."

U.S. forces have had access to Manas, outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, since 2001. Its importance to Afghan operations grew after neighboring Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops from a base there in 2005.

"There is give and take in any negotiation, and I think we arrived at a place where we both felt comfortable," Morrell said.

ISAF HEADQUARTERS, KABUL - US Army General John Craddock, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, is leaving his post in an upbeat mood: Afghanistan is no longer playing second fiddle in Washington to Iraq. The troops he has long requested are finally arriving. Even the Europeans are sending temporary reinforcements to safeguard the presidential election in August.

“I am more encouraged here that I have been in two years,’’ Craddock said last week in an expansive 40-minute interview during his farewell trip to Kabul. “The good news . . . never gets reported adequately.’’

But even as Craddock reflected the optimistic line of the Obama administration, many others familiar with the situation on the ground in Afghanistan - from American researchers to Afghan leaders - painted a bleaker picture.

“The US has totally lost control of all the east,’’ said Gilles Dorronsoro, a specialist on Afghanistan at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment For International Peace who traveled to eastern Afghanistan in April.

Dorronsoro will release a report next week arguing that the 17,000 additional troops that President Obama is sending to Afghanistan should concentrate on halting the rapid Taliban advance in the north rather than fighting in the south and the east, where the Taliban already control the majority of the population and have set up a shadow government.

As General Stanley McChrystal, the new US general in charge of both NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, begins a 60-day assessment of the war, examining everything from troop levels to the success of a pilot “guardians’’ program that pays locals to help the national police, many in the military feel a sense of optimism, saying they now have the tools they need to reverse the downward spiral of insurgency here.

Craddock said the media - and some analysts - incorrectly focus on isolated anecdotes that give too negative a picture.

“When a district center is taken over and you see in a newsflash it was captured by the Taliban, it makes a great headline,’’ he said. “They are not really holding anything. It’s an anecdote. But when that’s all you see in the press, it looks like we are losing control of the countryside.’’

During a recent visit by journalists, NATO officials distributed a map showing the insurgency worsening in just four areas, while security in the vast majority of the rest of the country was improving. They also distributed a chart showing that the majority of attacks - some 85 percent - occurred in just 17 percent of the country.

But the International Council on Security and Development, a Kabul-based think tank, released a report in December that said the Taliban have a permanent presence in 72 percent of the country, and “are now the de facto governing power in a number of towns and villages, to Afghanistan’s western and north-western provinces, as well as provinces north of Kabul.’’

Craddock, however, said that significant progress had already been made in recent months, and that two elements were crucial to ultimate success: aggressively targeting drug traffickers, who help fund the insurgency, and improving cooperation between Pakistani and Afghan authorities to combat militants who move at will across the border.

Craddock, who recently won the right to use some NATO troops to go after drug traffickers, said NATO forces have conducted 43 attacks of drug facilitators, and found weapons and equipment linked to the insurgency in 80 percent of those cases.

“We have to document this to show this nexus exists,’’ Craddock said, adding that his troops had found weapons, manuals about how to build improved explosive devices, and explosives for suicide belts.

But Craddock faced a recent setback when Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special envoy to the region, opted to put greater priority on pressuring Arab states that are funding the Taliban, rather than targeting narcotic traffickers.

Craddock made his most positive remarks about recent progress in getting Afghanistan and Pakistan to cooperate militarily - the goal of two high-profile meetings in Washington.

“I have been told that the coordination and cooperation on the border is better than it has ever been,’’ Craddock said. “Is it where we want it to be? No. But it is moving in the right direction.’’

He pointed to a new joint center to coordinate information-sharing that has been built at the Khyber pass, and with two more planned for the Afghan side of the border, and three planned for the Pakistani side.

He suggested that biometric capabilities - such as eye scans or finger prints scans - might one day be used to track people at official crossing points.

Another Western official working under Craddock presented a similarly upbeat view.

“A year ago, the Pakistani military was firing at us,’’ he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted in the press. “Today, they are picking up the phone and saying ‘we see insurgents coming towards you.’ ’’

But Afghan border commander Brigadier General Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, who oversees 2,700 guards trying to secure a roughly 300-mile border with Pakistan, said he has seen no improvement -“not even a single percentage.’’

“The Pakistanis provide weapons and protection for insurgents, and then they call us and say, ‘be ready,’ ’’ he said. “Why don’t they stop them? This is a joint fight.’’

Still, Mamozai presented his own view of progress. He said his force, which did not exist seven years ago, now has 73 police checkpoints that process 40,000 to 70,000 people a day, only 2 percent of whom carry passports.

In the past three months, his border guards have arrested 47 people, and confiscated more than 1,000 kilograms of explosive devices, pistols, and suicide vests - plus 50 poisoned bananas destined for an Afghan army base, he said.

In the past four months, four of his guards have died. But they killed three Taliban and captured one alive, he said.

“Every night, our checkpoints and bases are attacked from the Pakistani side,’’ he said, alleging that the Pakistanis at times evacuated their posts - about 50 meters from the Afghan posts.

But NATO, US, and even some Afghan officials say they are encouraged by Pakistan’s decision to take on militants in the notorious Swat Valley, and in the tribal areas that border Afghanistan, saying that it could mark a significant policy shift in Pakistan, where officials have largely turned a blind eye to militants.

Craddock, too, said he felt encouraged by an increasing recognition among countries in the NATO alliance of the need to do what it takes to win in Afghanistan.

“I’m leaving with a feeling that many of the pieces are in place that will provide the solutions,’’ Craddock said. “Over the last 2 1/2 years, we have worked fervently to pull together capabilities . . . There is a recognition internationally that we have to pile on.’’