War News for Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Taliban killed scores of MQM workers: UK paper


Reported security incidents
#1:Two targeted roadside bomb explosions left three Air Force troopers wounded this weekend, marking the first successful insurgent attack here in two months. The first roadside explosion took place just south of this airfield (Bagram) -- the busiest and one of the biggest in Afghanistan -- on Saturday and accounted for all three injuries. It crippled the heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicle these troops use, which are designed to shelter squads from the roadside explosions that have defined the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The second attack, also on an MRAP, occurred later Saturday evening and did not cause any casualties.

#2: Taliban fighters disguised as police and armed with bombs and grenades broke 250 prisoners out of a Pakistan jail in a brazen overnight operation that raised serious questions over the new government's ability to combat militancy. Fighting continued into the early hours of Tuesday, with explosions and machine gunfire rattling the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near Pakistan's lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. The militants then fought their way inside using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, and calling the names of Taliban prisoners through loud speakers. "It's completely dark in there. We don't know what's going on but there is fighting," provincial prisons chief Khalid Abbas told Reuters as the fighting unfolded.

#3: Afghan authorities say 50 militants, including foreign fighters, have been killed over a 24-hour period in a security operation in the country's east. The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that the dead insurgents included Pakistani, Arab, Uzbek, and Chechen nationals. The statement said the "massive" operation by Afghan security forces in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia, and Logar was proceeding "successfully and accordingly."

Nineteen militants have been killed in military operations in different Afghan provinces within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. "Up to 19 Taliban militants were killed, three wounded and 13 others captured as Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted cleanup operations over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a press statement. The raids were launched, with close support of the army and the NATO-led coalition forces in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Zabul, Ghazni, Herat and Helmand provinces, it noted.

#4: Two persons were killed when an explosion occurred in a warehouse situated in Hazar Khawani area near Ring Road in Peshawar on Tuesday, Local TV reported. According to police, a blast occurred in a storage house in Hazar Khawani area due to which the roof of the godown collapsed and killed two persons on the spot.

#5: Four suspected militants were killed as police and other law enforcement agencies conducted a raid near Eastern bypass, Local TV reported. (Quetta)

#6: One policeman was killed and five security members wounded Tuesday morning when a bomb they were defusing went off in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, a provincial government spokesman said. "The police discovered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near a car dealer market in Lashkar Gah. A bomb squad team arrived at the scene later. The IED was detonated through a remote controller. As a result one cop was killed and three policemen and two members of the intelligence agency were wounded," spokesman Omar Zwak told Xinhua.


US/DoD: Sgt. Eric T. Lawson

US/DoD: Spc. Caryn E. Nouv