Background:
Petraeus: Taliban are ready to reconcile with Afghan Govt.
Karzai divides Afghans in reaching out for the Taliban.
Support for Taliban hits 25%.

Sydney Morning Herald:

Top Taliban leaders have made overtures to reconcile with the Afghan government, the top commander in Afghanistan said Monday.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has long said that he will talk to insurgents if they renounce violence, sever ties to terrorists and embrace the Afghan constitution.

Publicly, the Taliban have said they won't negotiate until foreign troops leave Afghanistan, yet there are many indications that backdoor discussions have occurred.

Who are ready to reconcile with Afghan Govt? The ones planning Mumbai-style attacks on Europe? Or the ones stoning women? Or those warning Bangladesh against sending more troops to help ISAF? Or those sexually abusing and hanging 65-year-old man and his wife for "working for foreign invaders" (the man has worked for NGO Afghan Relief)? Or those...???

Karzai Divides Afghanistan In Reaching Out to Taliban - WSJ.com:

"...key leaders of Afghanistan's three largest ethnic minorities told The Wall Street Journal that they oppose Mr. Karzai's outreach to the Taliban, which they said could pave the way for the fundamentalist group's return to power and reignite civil war.

Mohammed Mohaqeq, a lawmaker and former warlord representing the 2.5-million-strong Hazara minority, endorsed Mr. Karzai in last year's presidential race, contributing to his reelection.

'We feel betrayed by the president,' Mr. Mohaqeq says now. 'It seems that what President Karzai pursues now is the Talibanization of Afghanistan. The only difference between him and the Taliban is that he sits in the presidential palace and the Taliban sit in the mountains.'

Mr. Karzai's overtures, formally launched at a June peace conference where he called insurgents 'brothers' and 'dear Talibs,' included asking the United Nations to remove Taliban leaders from the international sanctions black list and ordering the freeing of Taliban suspects from government custody. A separate government-sponsored conference of clerics in Kabul passed a resolution singling out insufficient enforcement of Sharia Islamic laws, the Taliban's key demand, as the obstacle to peace. This month, Mr. Karzai created a formal negotiating committee for talks with Taliban leaders."

Read it all. It's a very good way of considering if NATO troops are doing a good job supporting this "new" regime....

Photo: Winds of Jihad.

Authorities are blaming the Taliban, although they have denied being responsible:

Scores of Afghan schoolgirls were knocked unconscious or made ill over the weekend by suspected poison gas attacks on their schools and authorities are blaming insurgents who oppose educating girls.

Provincial police chief Abdul Razzaq Yaqubi said about 48 girls and several teachers had become ill suddenly and many collapsed after smelling poison gas at a school in the northern city of Kunduz on Saturday.

Humayum Khamosh, a doctor at a Kunduz hospital, said another 13 girls fell ill after an attack at another school on Sunday.

"I was in class when a smell like a flower reached my nose," said Sumaila, 12, one of the girls hospitalized after the attack. "I saw my classmates and my teacher collapse and when I opened my eyes I was in hospital."

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said insurgents intent on spreading fear were to blame for the incidents.

"Whoever prevents children from going to school is an enemy of Afghanistan and its prosperity," he said. 

A Taliban spokesman denied the group was responsible, but said other anti-government groups could be to blame.

"We strongly condemn such an act that targeted innocent school girls by poisonous gas," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

This is not the first time that this method has been used to attack schoolgirls. Three days ago, more attacks were reported.