War News for Thursday, August 09, 2012

Families' grief as MoD admits secretly stashing fallen troops' body parts for forensic tests

Bulgaria Forces to Withdraw from Kabul Beginning of 2013


Reported security incidents
#1: Two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said. No international forces were killed, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back. The Thursday morning attack took place outside a "coordination center" for Afghan and international forces in Laghman province, said German Lt. Col. Hagen Messer, a spokesman for NATO forces in Afghanistan. He said no NATO troops were killed but declined to say if any were wounded. The two men attempted to ambush a group of international soldiers outside the base but were quickly repelled, said a spokesman for the 201 Afghan army corps, Maj. Noman Hatefi. He said the second attacker was arrested but did not say whether by international or Afghan forces. The Laghman governor's office said in a statement that the second Afghan soldier was wounded by the return fire.

#2: An Australian soldier has been shot in the leg during a mission in Afghanistan. Defence says the soldier was hit in the left leg during a fight with insurgents in Uruzgan province. He was treated on the scene and then flown to a base at Tarin Kot for treatment.

#3: Taliban killed two police and wounded another in Andkhowi district of Faryab province today, police said Wednesday. The incident happened in at approximately 10:00 a.m. (local time) when Taliban gunmen attacked a police post in Beshkand area of Andkhowi district, Said Masud, spokesman for Faryab police, told Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). He said two police were killed and their commander wounded in the attack, adding the deceased commander was hailing from Pansher province.

#4: Afghan police backed by the army and the NATO-led force have killed 36 Taliban fighters, wounded 19 and captured 34 others over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. "The units of national police backed by the army and the Coalition Forces launched seven joint cleanup operations in Kabul, Kunar, Balkh, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghazni and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours during which 36 armed Taliban militants have been killed, 19 wounded and 34 arrested," the statement said. However, it did not say if there were any casualties on the security forces.

#5: At least five Afghan civilians were killed and six others injured when a passenger bus touched off a roadside bomb in western province of Farah Wednesday, a spokesman for the provincial government said. "Up to five passengers were killed and six others injured when the bus travelling from capital city of Kabul to Farah city ran over a bomb, planted by the Taliban insurgents along a main road, in Farah's Bala Buluk district," spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhwandi told Xinhua. An estimated 45 to 50 people were in the bus and the death toll could go up in the blast that took place at around 5 p.m. local time as police forces are working to evacuate the victims to local hospitals, he said.

#6: According to local authorities in northern Kunruz province, heavy clashes were reported between Afghan security forces and militants in this province. Dasht-e-Archi district chief Sheikh Sadruddin said the clashes started around 1:00 pm local time on Wednesday and is still continuing.


FR/MoD: adjudant-chef Franck BOUZET

DoD: Cpl. Daniel L. Linnabary II

DoD: Petty Officer 3rd Class Clayton R. Beauchamp