War News for Friday, January 13, 2011

Opium production soars in Afghanistan

Afghan drugs: Opium price rises by 133%

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, January 13, Jan. 12th.


Reported security incidents
#1: As many as seven Pakistani Army soldiers have been killed and three others wounded in an ambush by militants in South Waziristan tribal region in the northwest of the country near the border with Afghanistan, Press TV reports. Security forces, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident took place in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan region on Thursday, when militants ambushed the troops, who were planting mines in the area. The Army soldiers returned the gunshots fired. However, the militants managed to escape unscathed from the area.

#2: Afghan officials say a suicide bomber has killed the governor of Panjwai district in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province. Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq said Governor Sayed Fazludin Agha, along with his two sons, were traveling when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into Agha's convoy. A report quoting an Afghan government office said two of Agha’s bodyguards were also killed. An official at the Kandahar central hospital said at least 13 wounded police officers were receiving medical treatment.

#3: Three Pakistani security personnel, who had been injured in an overnight militants attack in the country's northwest, died Friday, police said. Police said that nine security men were injured when over a hundred militants Thursday night attacked the Police Post in Sarband, an area on the boundary of the restive Khyber tribal region and Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Police said that nine paramilitary soldiers and police had been injured when heavily armed militants launched the late night attack. The check post is jointly manned by the paramilitary Frontier Corps and the police. Local media quoted police as saying that three militants were also killed in fire by the security personnel. Police sources said that the militants used rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the attack.

#4: U.S. Army Specialist Joshua Saul was serving in Afghanistan when a sniper shot him in the back. Saul's wounds were extensive and he went through multiple surgeries at San Antonio Military Medical Center to repair the damage.

#5: International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan following a press release on Friday announced Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in Almar district, Faryab province on Wednesday. The source further added, the targeted leader is an explosives expert with ties to suicide-attack networks known to target Afghan government officials. ISAF officials, he is suspected of planning a suicide-bomb attack that killed an Afghan security official in October 2011. According to ISAF officials, several insurgents were killed in response to militants fire at the security force during the operation.


DoD: Pfc. Michael W. Pyron