To the Editor: A Sept. 3 editorial and an Aug. 31 news article about Afghanistan highlight the urgent need to rebuild the road connecting Kabul, the capital, with Kandahar.

The pass has been in use since Antiquity, and serves as one of the primary passes connecting Kabul to India.

Near the village of Durrani southwest of Kabul, President Karzai dedicated a new 300-mile road connecting Kabul to Khandahar.

The immediate concern, commanders said, is the town of Jalez, which is only 20 miles west of Kabul on an important east-west route that connects Kabul with Herat, the main city in western Afghanistan.

Last year, Wardak-half an hour's drive from the capital-had almost fallen under Taliban control, and the highway that connects Kabul to Kandahar had been all but shut down, with dozens of produce trucks burned.

In the early nineteenth century, Pakhli formed part of the Kingdom of Kabul (modern day Afghanistan) and through it ran the high road connecting Kabul to Kashmir.

The Khost-Gardez Pass has been in use since Antiquity, serving as one of the main routes connecting Kabul to locations in the Indian subcontinent.

It connects Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif, passing through Samangan on the way, and then passes west and eventually ends at Herat, where it rejoins the A01 and A77 highways.

The road to Jabal-us-Siraj is the first section of the 300-mile Salang highway connecting Kabul to the Soviet Union, part of which winds through the 12,500-foot Salang Pass.

A highway connecting the principal cities of Herat, Kandahar, Ghazni, and Kabul with links to highways in neighboring Pakistan formed the primary road system.