By: Sue Bailey, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada calls a rash of attacks on schools in his country an alarming bid to derail progress that demands action.

"We need to realize the gravity of this escalation," Omar Samad said Wednesday in an interview. "Some hard decisions have to be made as to whether we're going to allow our children and our teachers to be targets of terrorism."

"We need to figure out who supports such drastic attacks and who doesn't. And a decision has to be made as to who you reach out to and who you cannot reach out to. This is a test."

Samad said there have been several attacks on schools over the last two years and it's too soon to tell whether this year will be much worse.

A report published Wednesday cites 36 sabotage incidents in the last two months, including fire-bombings, arson, staff assaults and abductions. It said the security situation is so bad that nearly half the schools in Kandahar are closed some or all of the time.

Samad said the report sounds credible and that similar attacks are taking place along the Afghan border with Pakistan.

The London Times article also describes the mutilation of a school caretaker whose ears and nose were cut off because he collaborated with the Afghan government.

"This is part of a pattern of targeted attacks on institutions and certain groups of people in society to instill fear," Samad said.

"It is also politically motivated by those groups that do not want to see Afghanistan progress and its people live in peace and prosperity."

He blames 'ignorant' forces bent on dragging Afghanistan back to the days before Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when the Taliban ruled with an iron fist.

Eighty-three Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died trying to help stabilize the country since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

In comments later Wednesday before the special parliamentary committee on Afghanistan, Samad again thanked Canada for such sacrifices.

"Your presence ... is at the request of Afghanistan and mandated by the United Nations to prevent extremists and terrorists to regain control of Afghanistan or use it as a base for other attacks."

Close to five million refugees have come home, more than six million boys and girls are in school and basic health care is spreading, he said. Economic growth continues, albeit slowly, in one of the poorest and most war-ravaged nations on Earth.

"Terrorism or violence perpetrated by extremist or criminal groups remains the top concern for Afghans," Samad said, citing "shifting regional complexities that cannot be ignored.

"We need to go to the source of insecurity and deal with the various aspects of it using a comprehensive and multi-faceted strategy supported by all entities."

Corrupt cash mostly flows from narcotics, arms trading, smuggling and a small number of fraudulent aid agencies, he said.

"On the narcotics side, we aim to further increase the number of poppy-free provinces and to reduce the poppy growing fields by at least 25 per cent in 2008-09," Samad said. The battle against the lucrative opium trade "can succeed through increased security, better governance" and, most importantly, alternative livelihoods for farmers, he stressed.