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A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan soldiers to work in Kabul city early Wednesday, injuring 10, including 4 civilians, local officials said.

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Azerbaijan will provide technical assistance to modernize the Afghan customs sector, Afghan officials announced Wednesday following a visit from the Azerbaijan Customs Committee.

The visiting delegation said Azerbaijan's existing cooperation with Central Asian countries will be useful in the work with Afghanistan.

"Customs work started in 1999 in Azerbaijan, and we want to share the experience of our country with Afghanistan," said Aiden Aliov, head of the Azerbaijan Customs Committee.

Afghan officials added that the Azerbaijan delegation gave two information registration machines for the Kabul Air Port and offered assistance with brochures and publicity materials.

"Our main aim is to make Afghanistan a place where everyone comes for investment, and that will be possible if we bring reforms in the customs and borders regulations," said Sayed Mobin Shah, deputy minister for revenue and income tax at the Ministry of Finance.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday urged the visiting Pakistani president to press ahead with a much-delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline project despite US opposition.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry hinted at greater US support for Syria's opposition Wednesday, saying it needs "more help" in the struggle against Bashar al-Assad and that Washington wants to speed up a political transition.

In Paris on the eve of a meeting in Rome of the Friends of Syria group, Kerry said boosting support for the opposition would be a key part of the talks Thursday bringing together foreign powers and the main opposition National Coalition.

"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people seek and deserve, and that is what we will be discussing in Rome," Kerry said at a joint press conference with French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

He said he wanted to hear from the opposition about how best to end the violence in Syria, where the United Nations says at least 70,000 have died and hundreds of thousands have been uprooted in the two-year conflict.

"That may require us to change president Assad's current calculation. He needs to know he can't shoot his way out of this," Kerry said. "I think the opposition needs more help in order to be able to do that and we are working together to have a united position."

Kerry said there was a desire to help the opposition deliver assistance and basic services in areas it has "liberated from the regime" and also to "protect the legitimate institutions of the state".

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the White House was considering a policy shift to supply rebels with "non-lethal" aid, including armoured vehicles and perhaps even military training.

CNN ran a similar story on its website.

Kerry's remarks also came ahead of a weekend opposition gathering in Istanbul to elect a prime minister and government to run "liberated" parts of Syria.
-- Opposition's 'struggle' important --

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for more support from the international community for Syria's opposition, saying the lack of a clear leader among the opposition was no reason to back Assad's "cruel" regime.

"The struggle of the opposition is important and should be appreciated. Their effort is the way to prepare the ground for a democratic process to take hold for the Syrian people," Erdogan said at a United Nations event in Vienna.

But combatants in Syria seemed deaf to the diplomacy, with fighting and bombardment reported near Damascus as the regime renewed its campaign to suppress the insurgency.

Kerry had on Tuesday met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks in Berlin and while initially at odds over the two-year-old conflict, Washington and Moscow have sought to find common ground.

Russia, the most powerful supporter of Assad, this week urged his regime to open talks to end the conflict, with Lavrov also urging the opposition to "declare itself in favour of dialogue".

Washington has recently toned down its criticism of Moscow's perceived intransigence despite Russia having vetoed UN Security Council resolutions which threatened sanctions against Damascus.

"We've been absolutely clear that there needs to be a political transition, and we felt that Russia could play a key role in convincing the regime... that there needs to be that political transition," a State Department official said.

The umbrella opposition National Coalition cancelled a planned boycott of the 11-nation meeting in Rome after the US and Britain "promised specific aid to alleviate the suffering of our people".

Meanwhile, Damascus has decided to renew the passports of any Syrians abroad, in an apparent concession after Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib demanded such a move as a condition for talks.

Washington is expected to use the Rome meeting to boost the morale of the opposition, which has grown frustrated at the lack of progress on the diplomatic front.

In Rome, "the Americans want to boost the opposition's morale... because they are aware negotiations with the Russians could last several months," said Karim Bitar of the French Institute of International and Strategic Studies.

On Saturday in Istanbul the Coalition is to appoint the head of an interim cabinet in a secret ballot.

Among those tipped to fill the post are Burhan Ghalioun, the former head of opposition faction the Syrian National Council and ex-prime minister Riad Hijab who defected in mid-2012.

On the ground, fierce battles rocked towns near Damascus as the regime renewed its campaign to crush the insurgency around the capital, a watchdog said.

Tanks pounded the rebel-held town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, while new clashes broke out in Irbin to the northeast, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The conflict has at times spilled over Syria's borders, notably with Lebanon and Turkey, and a stray mortar shell landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday, Israel's military said.

A number of private Afghan schools are not following government rules and regulations, said the Ministry of Education on Thursday, but the government is powerless to control them because the schools are supported by local "warlords".

"Some of the private schools are related to warlords and powerful figures and they are not considering the rules and regulations set by the Ministry of Education. They still continue their activities despite several warnings," Education Minister Farooq Wardak told TOLOnews.

The minister did not name anyone, but said that there are efforts to bring the schools into line.

"I am here to further the investment in the field of education and I will not let any violent tyrant to ignore the rules and regulations of the ministry and to make it a source of waste," he said.

Wardak did not elaborate on what the schools were doing that was outside the government regulations.

University lecturer and analyst Hamidullah Farooqi said that most of the warlords or powerful figures have close relations with high ranking government officials, making it difficult to end their power.

"These are people who are in power both inside and outside the presidential palace and the minister of education cannot challenge them. This is a great shame for the government. President Karzai should stop this pragmatism and prevent these warlords and powerful figures," Farooqi told TOLOnews.

According to the Ministry of Education statistics, there are more than 15,000 government schools and institutions operating in Afghanistan alongside around 750 private schools.

Afghanistan's media watchdog Nai on Thursday slammed limitations on local media and violence against journalists saying that both were on the increase.

"Government efforts are continuing to limit the activities of the local media in the country, and we have witnessed an increase in the violence against journalists in the recent months," Nai director Sediqullah Tawhidi said at a press conference in Kabul.

His comment comes on the back of a government officials banning a local radio station in Qalat city, the capital of southern Zabul province, from broadcasting after it reported a local protest.

The media watchdog criticised the action and blamed the government for not paying more heed to complaints from the local media.

"The broadcast of this radio was banned by the provincial officials and their personnel were detained because they didn't broadcast a report that was favorable to the local officials," he said, adding that it was an illegal action.

According to statistics from Nai, several journalists have faced violence or extreme pressure from local officials in the Daikundi, Takhar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Zabul provinces.

The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) Thursday presented a four-year blueprint to attract investors into Afghanistan with a hope that plan will be funded by international donors.

AISA officials said that they have presented the blueprint to the donors, telling them that they need to fund these projects if they are to see the country stand on its own feet.

The plan includes the creation of industrial parks, awareness programmes for attracting investors, vocational training centers, a fund to support investors, and other methods of encouraging donors to invest in Afghanistan's private sector.

"We project our plan will cost around $200 million. If the donor countries want Afghanistan to stand on its own feet they should fund the projects. Most of the donors have promised to fund it after some assessment," AISA chief Wafiullah Eftkhar said.

Head of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance Zdravko Shami welcomed the plan.

"It is a four-year $100 million dollar project that targets the development of the private sector in Afghanistan. The main focus of the project activities will be the development of private sector alliances and developing and introducing new technology, new techniques, new productions to facilitate the development and generation of new jobs and generation of income, facilitating domestic production, and expanding exports," he said.

The officials said that the lack of standard industrial parks is a big challenge against investment in the country. They believe that the plan will pave the way for up to $2 billion in investment if the projects can find donors to build the initial phases.

President Hamid Karzai cannot offer any government position to the Taliban by way of a peace deal sweetener, but the people could give them any privileges if they so wanted, said political opposition leader Mohammad Muhaqiq on Thursday.

Speaking to TOLOnews, he said that any action the government is taking towards the Taliban and any armed opposition groups should be in close collaboration with the Afghan civil society and political opposition parties.

"Anything that happens should be transparent and all the parties including the political opposition and civil society should be involved in negotiations with Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami. Karzai cannot offer them any government position it is the right of the people," Muhaqiq said.

His comments come after reports from leading media outlets said Wednesday that Karzai had offered the Taliban key positions in the Ministry of Justice. However, these reports were not confirmed by the government and requests for comment from the presidential palace went unanswered today.

The Afghan High Peace Council, which is ostensibly meant to be leading the peace talks, said it is unaware of Karzai's offer.

"We are not aware of this offer - it could be rumors," HPC member Shahzada Shahid told TOLOnews on Thursday.

Other experts said that if the offer is true, it is premature and should have done through the High Peace Council.

"The High Peace Council chairman should have offered this, not President Karzai. [If true], it shows a lack of coordination between the peace council and government. It's also premature," analyst Jawid Kohistani said.

Former Taliban commander Sayed Akbar Agha said he believes that the Taliban would not accept such an offer.

"This offer is premature and it will not have the desired result because Taliban will not accept it," Agha told TOLOnews.

The Afghan authorities and several other countries are trying to take the lead in bringing the Taliban into peace negotiations.

There are reports that the Taliban delegation in Qatar to build negotiations with the Afghan government have left for a short break to Norway to "see the snow".

Minister of Education Farooq Wardak has raised the ire of political analysts with claims that the recent arson of Afghan schools is not the work of the Taliban.

Wardak said Thursday that the anti-government groups operating in Afghanistan do not have any intention or aim to set schools alight, actions that Afghan officials, local residents and security organisations have usually attributed to the Taliban.

"In many cases the Afghan Taliban has not committed the arson of schools, but rather it's been done by strangers," said Wardak.

Analysts commented that his statement is dangerous, and it is not the first time that he has made such claims.

"The education minister is not the Taliban's spokesman to dismiss the school arsons," said political analyst Motiullah Kharooti.

Another analyst Yunos Fakoor said the minister is simply trying to get the Taliban on his side.

"The Minister of Education is a [possible] candidate of the President Karzai government for the future presidential election and therefore he is putting effort into getting the Taliban green light and support," he said.

The analysts also commented that such statements might be a way to encourage more support for the Taliban to support the upcoming elections in 2014.

Wardak has said that the Taliban have even cooperated to open some of the schools in the past.

Wardak has also previously stated that some of the suicide attacks are not being planned and executed by the Taliban or that other known anti-government armed groups.

The Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) has started deploying forces to provide security to the Herat-Kandahar Highway, a key road in Afghanistan connecting southern and western provinces frequently attacked by insurgents, officials said Thursday.

More than 200 new graduates from the force will be positioned to secure the highway following a recent ban of private security companies whose main weapons and positions are now in use by the police force, the general officer of APPF in Herat Zone 606 Ansar told TOLOnews.

"We assure our citizens that we would work better than the private companies; we will provide security for the highway," Abdulhameed Azizi told TOLOnews.

Six private security companies were recently banned from operating in the vicinity of the Herat-Kandahar Highway for reports that they were involved in attacks in the area.

According to the Herat APPF officials, the Afghan forces of Zone 606 Ansar have completed their training and are ready to be deployed for security of Herat-Kandahar Highway as well as providing security for the construction of the Herat-Badghis section of the national ring road.

Azizi said he is confident they have sufficient artillery and they are capable of operating in a more professional manner than private companies.

The men making up the force were also confident they can secure the highway.

"We are wearing the outfit of a lion and will not withhold any efforts to defend our nation," one of the soldiers told TOLOnews.

"We are not afraid, and will defend the nation until the very last moment," another said.

Although the private companies have been banned from the area, there are reports suggesting there are still some operating despite having their licenses revoked.

A number of citizens of western Herat province Thursday protested against the execution of Afghans in neighbouring Iran, warning their protests will escalate if the Afghan government does not act soon.

The protestors blocked the Herat-Islam Qala road which connects the two countries for a couple of hours and warned they will continue to protest until the bodies of the executed are transported back to Afghanistan.

According to protestors from the Kohsan district, a number of people from their district had travelled to Iran for work but were arrested by Iranian border forces on the way, and were later transferred to another city and shot to death by a firing squad.

"It's been two months now that we have been to the provincial government, the provincial council, the international affairs office, but no one, no single organisation hears us," one of the protestors told TOLOnews.

"We will carry out violence if this refusal continues," he added.

Another protestor called upon President Hamid Karzai to address the matter.

"We want the government and the president to give us a positive response as soon as possible and to resolve our problem, otherwise there will be bad consequences," he said.

Herat governor spokesman said that the authorities are looking at the matter with documents proving the protestors' claims already sent to the foreign ministry.

"This is an issue of the national scale. The top officials should discuss this over it in the capital and make a decision," Mohiuddin Noori told TOLOnews.

"We have sent to the foreign ministry whatever we have that can prove the claims," he said.

Despite numerous attempts, consulate officials at the Iranian consulate in Herat have not responded to TOLOnews' calls to comment on the issue.

The Afghan government on Thursday stressed that it will not allow any other country to use Afghanistan to target other countries, seeking to downplay the fracas over comments made by the newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel on the India-Afghan relationship.

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Top news in this Bulletin:

Minister of Education Farooq Wardak has raised the ire of political analysts with claims that the recent arson of Afghan schools is not the work of the Taliban.

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Top news in this Bulletin:

 Thousands of Iran's long-range missiles will defend the Islamic Republic against its enemies, says an Iranian commander.

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The Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) has started deploying forces to provide security to the Herat-Kandahar Highway, a key road in Afghanistan connecting southern and western provinces frequently attacked by insurgents, officials said Thursday.

More than 200 new graduates from the force will be positioned to secure the highway following a recent ban of private security companies whose main weapons and positions are now in use by the police force, the general officer of APPF in Herat Zone 606 Ansar told TOLOnews.

"We assure our citizens that we would work better than the private companies; we will provide security for the highway," Abdulhameed Azizi told TOLOnews.

Six private security companies were recently banned from operating in the vicinity of the Herat-Kandahar Highway for reports that they were involved in attacks in the area.

According to the Herat APPF officials, the Afghan forces of Zone 606 Ansar have completed their training and are ready to be deployed for security of Herat-Kandahar Highway as well as providing security for the construction of the Herat-Badghis section of the national ring road.

Azizi said he is confident they have sufficient artillery and they are capable of operating in a more professional manner than private companies.

The men making up the force were also confident they can secure the highway.

"We are wearing the outfit of a lion and will not withhold any efforts to defend our nation," one of the soldiers told TOLOnews.

"We are not afraid, and will defend the nation until the very last moment," another said.

Although the private companies have been banned from the area, there are reports suggesting there are still some operating despite having their licenses revoked.

A number of citizens of western Herat province Thursday protested against the execution of Afghans in neighbouring Iran, warning their protests will escalate if the Afghan government does not act soon.

The protestors blocked the Herat-Islam Qala road which connects the two countries for a couple of hours and warned they will continue to protest until the bodies of the executed are transported back to Afghanistan.

According to protestors from the Kohsan district, a number of people from their district had travelled to Iran for work but were arrested by Iranian border forces on the way, and were later transferred to another city and shot to death by a firing squad.

"It's been two months now that we have been to the provincial government, the provincial council, the international affairs office, but no one, no single organisation hears us," one of the protestors told TOLOnews.

"We will carry out violence if this refusal continues," he added.

Another protestor called upon President Hamid Karzai to address the matter.

"We want the government and the president to give us a positive response as soon as possible and to resolve our problem, otherwise there will be bad consequences," he said.

Herat governor spokesman said that the authorities are looking at the matter with documents proving the protestors' claims already sent to the foreign ministry.

"This is an issue of the national scale. The top officials should discuss this over it in the capital and make a decision," Mohiuddin Noori told TOLOnews.

"We have sent to the foreign ministry whatever we have that can prove the claims," he said.

Despite numerous attempts, consulate officials at the Iranian consulate in Herat have not responded to TOLOnews' calls to comment on the issue.

The Afghan government on Thursday stressed that it will not allow any other country to use Afghanistan to target other countries, seeking to downplay the fracas over comments made by the newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel on the India-Afghan relationship.

Hagel was quoted as saying that India is using Afghanistan as a "second front" against its old rival Pakistan, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that any relations with the Indian government are based on goodwill and for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

"Afghanistan is a moderate country and will not allow anyone to insecure other countries from its soil. Our relationship with India is based goodwill and for the purpose of reconstruction of the country," Deputy Ministry Spokesman Siamak Herawi told TOLOnews.

"There are proven documents that many terrorists are being trained in Pakistan," he added.

The Indian government already reacted to the report of Hagel's comments made in 2011 at an Oaklahoma university but which were re-reported this week by an online news outlet.

India has defended its presence in Afghanistan and has also somewhat defended Hagel's appointment as Secretary of Defence.

"He has made no such statement. You are talking about some lecture given in a university two years ago. So I don't think it is correct to comment on a lecture given by a person two years ago," said Salman Khurshid, Indian Foreign Minister, according to Reuters.

However, India's main opposition leader Murli Manohar Joshi has spoken against Hagel's appointment.

"That is a very serious statement and such a person, if his office is confirmed by the government in the US, I think it will not be a very happy event for us," Reuters reported Joshi saying.

Top news in this Bulletin:

Minister of Education Farooq Wardak has raised the ire of political analysts with claims that the recent arson of Afghan schools is not the work of the Taliban.

{youtube}eHpmXHEcyjE{/youtube}

Read more...

Top news in this Bulletin:

 Thousands of Iran's long-range missiles will defend the Islamic Republic against its enemies, says an Iranian commander.

 {youtube}WyYrfJ-V5L0{/youtube}

Read more...

A local Taliban leader has been killed in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in southern Helmand province, Isaf said Friday.

"Afghan and coalition forces killed Taliban leader, Sadiq, and wounded another insurgent during an operation in Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand province, Feb. 28," Isaf said in a statement.

According to Isaf, Sadiq was an experienced leader responsible for procuring and distributing small arms and improvised explosive devices (IED) to Taliban fighters. He was also involved with kidnapping government officials and Afghan National Security Force members, it said.

Another insurgent was killed during a joint operation on Thursday in Kishindeh district of northern Balkh province, the statement said.

On Friday, an Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban facilitator and detained three other insurgents during an operation in Nawah-ye Barakzai district of Helmand, Isaf said.

The facilitator is alleged to be heavily involved in IED operations in the district, participating in multiple IED attacks and with a history of procuring and distributing IED parts to other insurgents, Isaf added.