War News for Monday, January 21, 2013

Reported security incidents
#1: Militants have attacked the traffic police headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, taking control of the building for several hours. At least three policemen and five insurgents were killed during the battle to regain control. The siege began when two bombs were detonated - one a suicide bomb and the second a car bomb - before armed men stormed the building in the west of the capital. It took Afghan forces nine hours to dislodge them, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi told the Associated Press. The militants were armed with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and tossed hand grenades out of windows of the four-storey building. Earlier, Gen Salangi told the BBC that four police and six civilians had been wounded in the attack.

#2: Up to 15 Taliban militants have been killed in separate operations in different Afghan provinces, authorities said Sunday.

Afghan Border Police killed six insurgents during an engagement in Achin District in Nangarhar province 120 km east of Kabul, the ISAF's statement said.

In addition, Afghan army and police launched a cleanup operation on Saturday in the country's Helmand province, 555 km south of Kabul, to clear the militants in areas in Nad Ali and Marjah Districts, killing nine armed Taliban militants, a spokesman for provincial government, Ahmad Zirak, told Xinhua on Sunday.

Nine Taliban fighters were killed and weapons were seized during operation of Afghan security forces in Nadali and Marjah districts of Helmand province, the provincial governor's spokesman Ahmad Zeerak told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). The security force did not suffer casualties, he added.

In a separate incident, he said the Taliban opened fire at an ISAF base in Shna village of Nadali district yesterday when the responsibilities of the facility were being handed over to Afghan forces. The security forces did not suffer casualties but a girl outside the base was injured, he said. The girl succumbed to her injuries at an ISAF hospital, he added.

Meanwhile, an interior ministry press release stated combined forces conducted operations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Khost and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 10 Taliban and arresting 10 more. An ISAF statement said some Taliban commanders and suspects were arrested in Paktiya, Helmand and Logar provinces.

#3: At least two people have been killed in a US-led drone attack in Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan, Press TV reports. The US-led drone strike claimed the lives of the two Afghans in Adam Khan region of Khan Abad town in Kunduz Province late Sunday. Earlier on Saturday, at least five people were killed in another US assassination drone attack in the northeastern province of Kunar.

#4: Unknown gunmen opened fire on a Frontier Constabulary vehicle in Zakakhel market of Khyber tribal region’s Landi Kotal area killing one FC personnel and injuring two others,FP News desk reported.