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GUEST: Orbal, member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), currently visiting the US

In an interview this weekend with Wolf Blitzer, Afghan president Hamid Karzai was pessimistic about his country’s future. He asserted that the security situation has “definitely deteriorated” over the last two years and that US and Afghan forces are no closer to capturing bin Laden. Karzai is about to begin a visit with President Bush in the United States. Bush has increased the number of troops to Afghanistan this year saying he anticipated a spring offensive by the Taliban. The Taliban has been holding 21 South Koreans hostage since last month and have already executed two of them. According to a Taliban spokesperson, the fate of the Koreans rests with Karzai and Bush. Meanwhile, the US military said it had carried out a “precision air strike” on Thursday “against two Taliban commanders … after ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area”. As has commonly been the case in Afghanistan, local accounts of the raid were radically different, saying that there had been heavy civilian casualties. More than 6,500 people have been killed by US/NATO forces and Taliban fighters in the past 18 months – which makes it the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

For more information, visit www.rawa.org.