War News for Saturday, August 25, 2012

Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani intelligence and Afghan officials said Mullah Dadullah, the self-proclaimed leader of the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan’s Bajur tribal area was killed, although they offered conflicting reports on the exact location of the strike. NATO could not confirm that a senior militant had been killed. Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack said the attack took place late Friday afternoon in Kunar province near the Pakistan border, killing 12 militants. Kunar provincial official Aslam Gul Mujahid said the airstrike killed 20 people, including Dadullah. Pakistani intelligence officials said Dadullah and 19 others were killed, but they said the airstrike took place in Pakistan’s Bajur region, just across the border from Kunar.

#2: Army soldiers killed five militants attempting to enter the Lower Dir district and Bajaur tribal region from across the Afghan border, military officials said on Friday. The intruding militants also fired rockets on Pakistani security check-posts along the border with Afghanistan, the officials told our sources on condition of anonymity. "Around 100 militants attempted to cross into Lower Dir and Bajaur areas on the night between Thursday and Friday, harassing local population," the officials said. Five militants, they claimed, were killed when the army returned fire.

#3: at least eight terrorists were killed and two of their hideouts destroyed after security forces shelling in different areas of Lower Orakzai Agency on Friday. According to details, security forces conducted search operation and targeted the hideouts of suspected miscreants in Gawak area of Lower Orakzai Agency with heavy artillery fire. Eight terrorists were killed in the action while two hideouts were destroyed in the shelling.

#4: Four Australian soldiers have been wounded, one seriously, in Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) says. The soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device blew up in Oruzgan province during operations with the Afghan National Security Force, the ADF said in a statement.

#5: At least 8 insurgents were killed, three detained and a weapons cache discovered in joint Afghan and coalition forces operation in some provinces of the country, a Bagram based coalition forces press office said Saturday.

Afghan police backed by the national army and the NATO-led troops have killed 17 Taliban militants and arrested 26 others over the past 24 hours across the country, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Saturday. "The national police backed by the national army and the NATO- led coalition forces have killed 17 armed Taliban militants and arrested 26 others during series of operations conducted in Kabul, Kunar, Logar, Ghazni and Paktika provinces over the past 24 hours," the statement contended. Two more insurgents were wounded during the operations, it furhter said. No casualties have been reported on the security forces, it stressed.