Tuesday, September 01, 2009 PARIS: US and NATO troops have inflicted “vast damage” on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, seizing strongholds and making a dent in the militia’s drug trade, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Monday.Holbrooke, who has visited the southern Helmand province twice in recent weeks, told France 24 in an interview that a major US offensive launched last month was showing results. “The coalition forces including the British and Americans have done vast damage to the Taliban, disrupted them, captured major caches of opium, heroin and drug paraphernalia,” he said. His comments came as the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan submitted a review calling for a revised strategy to defeat the Taliban and reverse the country’s serious situation.General Stanley McChrystal’s review, compiled since he took up command in mid-June, had been widely anticipated under US President Barack Obama’s strategy putting Afghanistan at the heart of his foreign policy. Holbrooke was in Paris ahead of a meeting on Wednesday with his counterparts from France, Germany, Britain and the United Nations to chart a way forward in Afghanistan following the elections. The US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan reiterated that the “door is open for dialogue with members of the Taliban who renounce Al Qaeda and violence”.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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