UN lifts suspension of movements in the south

Following a six-day suspension due to deteriorating security, the United Nations announced on Sunday a resumption of movement in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. An earlier suspension of movement followed the murder of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate in the southern province of Oruzgan on 27 March. "We will resume movements in the region [all southern provinces] on Monday," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a UN spokesman in Afghanistan, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. According to the spokesman, several hundred troops, mostly from the new Afghan national army, along with US-led coalition forces, have been deployed in and around the areas of high risk to curb elements threatening security in those areas. "It has been agreed that 50 policemen from Kandahar [city] police force will be placed in all 17 districts of Kandahar[province]," he said, noting that the local government would also send mobile patrols to high-risk areas, and would set up security checkpoints in those areas. The Afghan government in Kabul announced on Sunday that it had successfully carried out an operation in the Tarin Kowt District in Oruzgan Province, close to where the ICRC staffer lost his life. "We launched a joint Afghan/Coalition clear-up operation in Tarin Kowt in order to follow the people who have bases in the mountains," Ali Ahmad Jalali, the Afghan interior minister, told IRIN in Kabul, adding that 15 "terrorists" were captured and nine others killed. "The operation is currently ended," Jalali said noting most of the "acts of terrorism" in those areas had been perpetrated by former Taliban elements were based across the border in Pakistan. The killing of the ICRC delegate was followed by a rocket attack on the compound of the multinational peacekeeping force in Kabul, and the circulation of leaflets in some parts of the country threatening both the government and aid agency staff. The UN said it had suspended movements only to review the security situation, but had not stopped work or recalled staff. "There has been absolutely no reduction in UN personnel. However, some international organisations have reduced or relocated personnel from the south," the UN spokesman said, noting that the aid operation in the south would continue, "but of course with limitation and caution".