War News for Friday, January 31, 2014

After billions in U.S. investment, Afghan roads are falling apart

Former Canadian Army General jailed in Afghanistan

Ex-soldier Daniel Ménard optimistic about release from Kabul prison


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan official says the Taliban have attacked three police checkpoints overnight in the southern province of Helmand. The police repelled the attacks but lost one officer. Police chief of Marjah district, Zamaria Zarak, said on Friday that at least 13 insurgent fighters were killed in the gunbattles that followed the checkpoint attacks.

#2: A bomb blast on Friday killed at least three paramilitary soldiers and wounded four others in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said. The roadside bomb hit a patrol vehicle in the Jahoo area of remote Awaran district.

War News for Thursday, January 30, 2014

Leaked official document records 330 drone strikes in Pakistan

Military Plans Reflect Afghanistan Uncertainty


Reported security incidents
#1: Three Danish soldiers have been injured in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province when their car was hit by an improvised explosive device placed in another vehicle.

#2: Two police officers were killed on Thursday in a suicide car bombing in eastern Afghanistan while another suicide attack was foiled by security men in another area of the same province, officials said. According to provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a car bomber targeted a police and intelligence compound in Nangarhar province’s Pachir Wagam district, killing two policemen and injuring four others in the blast. Also on Thursday, a suicide bomber was shot by officers as he tried to attack the home of a member of Afghanistan’s parliament in the city of Jalalabad. Provincial spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashraqiwal said the bomber’s suicide vest detonated when he was shot. The blast killed only the bomber.

#3: An influential cleric who supported the Afghan Taliban in their war against U.S.-led forces has been shot dead in Quetta, officials said on Thursday. “Two unknown gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead Maulana Abdullah Zakiri” as he was on his way to a mosque on Wednesday night, said senior police official Abdul Razzaq.

#4: A bomb destroyed a pickup truck at a petrol pump in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing one person and wounding 12 others, police said. The explosion took place in the Naseerabad district of Balochistan province.

#5: Ten militants were killed and 20 others injured in an ongoing military operation conducted by Afghan security forces in southern Afghan province of Helmand, authorities said on Thursday.

At least 37 Taliban militants were killed during joint military operations by Afghan national security forces.

War News for Wednesday, January 29, 2014

How America spent $200 million teaching Afghan cops to read — and failed


Reported security incidents
#1: Provincial authorities say a suicide bomber has killed two Afghan soldiers in a market in eastern Afghanistan. Shafiqullah Nang, spokesman for the eastern province of Ghazni, said another three civilians were wounded in the blast in a bazaar in the Qarabagh district of the province on Wednesday.

#2: At least two Afghan national army soldiers were killed following a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

#3: At least three members of a family were killed following an explosion triggered by Unexploded ordnance (UXO) in capital Kabul early Wednesday morning.

War News for Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Shelling by Pakistan Army’s gunship helicopters in North Waziristan tribal region’s Mir Ali area killed at least two suspected militants on Monday, official security source said. Gunship helicopters targeted several suspected militant hideouts in different areas on Mir Ali tehsil.

#2: In another incident, militants fired three rockets targeting Orakzai tribal region’s agency headquarters in Kalaya area. Separately, a policeman was killed and four others injured when an explosion targeted a police vehicle in the Gomal area of Tank district. A police mobile van was targeted with an IED. SHO Jameel Khan was killed in the explosion.

#3: A suicide bomber was shot dead by Afghan security forces before he manage to reach his target in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

#4: At least 17 Taliban militants were killed and 7 others were injured during joint military operations by Afghan national security forces.

#5: According to local authorities in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, at least four children were killed following cross-border shelling from Pakistani soil in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan

War News for Monday, January 27, 2014

Official: U.S. airstrike in Somalia targets suspected militant leader

Afghanistan Exit Is Seen as Peril to Drone Mission


Reported security incidents
#1: A pipeline, carrying natural gas, was blown up in Balochistan's Dera Bugti district, south west of Pakistan, disrupting the gas-supply to the Sui plant from well number 15 in Pir Koh gas field.

#2: At least two militants were killed in a blitz carried out by Pakistan’s military in Mirali area of North Waziristan tribal region on Monday. Military gunship helicopters shelled suspected militant hideouts in several areas of Mirali in North Waziristan region, killing two militants and wounding several others.

#3: Six children from the same family were killed and one injured Sunday while playing with a hand grenade in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

#4: A policeman more allegedly affiliated with insurgents shot dead five of his colleagues and managed to escape the post in western province of Herat, security officials said Monday. The five were killed by their colleagues in Kashk-e-Kuhna district late on last day.

#5: Few mints ago a blast hit Jalalabad capital of Nangrhar province. According to reports the blast occurred close to the medicine faculty of Nangarhar University. Gulestan Ghalib BNA reporter reported, the area was blocked by security forces and it was not allowed to reporters to enter the area. So far there is no any exact figure about the number of casualties of the incident.

#6: About six Afghan civilians were killed and 13 others wounded Sunday when a bus carrying civilians set off a roadside bomb in the country' s southern province of Helmand, a provincial government spokesman said Monday.

#7: An Afghan national army (ANA) soldier was killed following an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in southern Afghanistan Afghanistan.

#8: In the meantime, Gen. Zahir Azimi said several anti-government armed militants were killed during a special military operation by Afghan army soldiers in Syedabad district of Maidan Wardak province.

#9: At least two Afghan police officers were killed following an explosion in eastern Khost province of Afghanistan on Sunday.

News of the Day for Sunday, January 26, 2014

Suicide bomb attack on an army bus in Kabul kills 4 people, injures 22. Among the dead is radio journalist Shahid Naimi, who happened to be nearby. He is the second Afghan journalist to die this week, after NYT stringer Noor Ahmad Noori was found dead in Helmand province on Thursday. According to Reuters, the other three dead were defense ministry staff on the bus. However, LA Times reporter Hashmat Baktash says 2 of the dead were bystanders.

In a separate story, Khaama says the dead journalist was named Ahmad Shahid. The story gives some biographical details,

Two police officers are killed in Khost by a bomb placed in their vehicle.

Two young athletes are shot dead as they return from a sports complex in Takhar province. This Khaama Press article recounts several recent incidents of attacks on people engaged in sports.

Two civilians killed and 8 injured in consecutive explosions in Nangarhar province.

Karzai continues to refuse to sign security agreement with U.S., comparing it to the Durand deal between British India and Afghan King Abdul Rahman Khan, which produced the present border with Pakistan. (Many Afghans feel cheated by this agreement, which divided the Pashtun people.) Karzai continues to criticize U.S. actions, including air strikes and the operation of Bagram prison: "Bagram is a place where innocent people are tortured and insulted and made dangerous criminal," he said. (Control of the prison was ceded to Afghanistan about 1 year ago.)

Interior Ministry says 3 Taliban killed in past 24 hours and reports various operations around the country. They finally seem to have shut down the copying machine.

Investigatory commission appointed by President Karzai to investigate air strike in Parwan that killed civilians appears to have included fabricated evidence in its report, and exaggerated the number of casualties.

War News for Saturday, January 25, 2014

Thousands near restive Afghan border flee after Pakistani airstrikes against Taliban militants

Taliban rule north of Kabul despite military efforts


Reported security incidents
#1: At least seven Afghan policemen killed and wounded five others following the Taliban attack on a police security check in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan. Police spokesman in Faryab, Massoud Yaqoubi said to FINNBAY, “The incident took place in Qaisar district on Friday night after a group of Taliban militants attacked to police security check.”

At least ten Afghan policemen were killed or injured following militants attack on a police check post in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.

#2: A 16-year-old man has been killed while participating in an anti-polio campaign in Afghanistan. He was shot dead in the country's southern Helmand province.

#3: Afghan police backed by the army have killed four Taliban fighters during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Saturday. In addition to killing four militants, units of police in conjunction with the army have also injured three more rebels and captured five others, the statement added. There were no casualties on the security personnel, according to the statement.

#4: The Afghan intelligence operatives foiled a coordinated suicide attack on a NATO base in eastern Logar province of Afghanistan.

War News for Friday, January 24, 2014

Three suspected militants killed in U.S. drone strike in Yemen

7 soldiers injured in S. Philippine land mine blast


Reported security incidents
#1: Mohammad Ismail Khan, a running mate of warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, survives attempted assassination in Herat City. A suicide bomber has attempted to assassinate a vice presidential candidate in western Afghanistan. Ismail Khan was in a car leaving a mosque after Friday prayers in the heart of Herat City when the bomber, said to be in his seventies, detonated his explosives. Local police and the ministry of interior report no casualties or injuries other than the bomber himself.

#2: "Six people including two children were killed and seven injured when an explosives-laden car, parked at a motor workshop on the outskirts of Peshawar, blew up," senior police official Najeeb Ur Rehman told AFP. "Around 25 to 30 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast", he added.

#3: At least three persons including two Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and a local journalist were injured when a roadside remote-controlled bomb exploded in Khyber Agency on Friday. According to the FC sources, militants had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) along the road that exploded near a college in Landi Kotal area, injuring two FC troops and a local journalist.

#4: According to reports, unknown gunmen have assassinated the local correspondent for New York Times Noor Ahmad Noori in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. The family members of Noori have said that his dead body was found in Lashkargah city after he went missing around 10 am local time.

War News for Thursday, January 23, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Gun battles between Taliban militants and police have left six insurgents dead and injured nine others in the northern Saripul and Faryab provinces Wednesday night, local officials said Thursday. "Taliban rebels raided a police checkpoint in Saripul city Wednesday night but police returned fire killing four rebels on the spot and injuring nine others," provincial police chief Noor Habib Noor told Xinhua. In similar conflict which took place in Qaisar district of the neighboring Faryab province on the same night, police had killed two Taliban militants, the police spokesman in Faryab province, Sayed Masoud yaqubi, said.

#2: Five Minnesota National Guard soldiers from the Litchfield, Minn., unit have been wounded in an attack in Afghanistan. The soldiers were injured Monday, at 10:30 a.m. Afghanistan time, during an attack on Forward Operating Base Pasab in Kandahar Province, according to a statement from Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, spokesman for the Minnesota National Guard.

#3: Five people were killed and many others sustained injures in a blast near Kohat Road, Peshawar, Express News reported on Thursday. The explosion took place near a pick-up stand in the Scheme Chowk area, however, the exact nature of the blast is not known as yet.

#4: Armed militants opened fire and killed five civilians in the eastern Laghman province on Thursday, a local official said.


DoD: Chief Warrant Officer Edward Balli

War News for Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Edward Balli, Salinas native and soldier, killed in Afghanistan -- Chief Warrant Officer 2 Edward Balli

U.S. Military Eyes Afghan Force of 10,000, or a Pullout


Reported security incidents
#1: At least six Pakistani police officers were killed Wednesday while escorting a Spanish tourist as he cycled through the highly volatile southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said. The cyclist and his escort of local tribal police were ambushed in Mastung district, some 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of the provincial capital Quetta.

#2: As many as 47 militants were killed in the evening of Jan. 20 and early hours of Jan. 21 in North Waziristan following Taliban bomb attacks on security forces, according to a military official who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak publicly. Another 14 were killed yesterday in the northwestern Khyber region near the Afghan border. Three Germans, 33 Uzbeks fighters and and a few Taliban commanders were killed in strikes on militant hideouts in North Waziristan, the official said.

#3: a bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded next to a police patrol on its way to guard a polio vaccination team. Six officers were killed as well as a boy who was nearby, said officer Shafiullah Khan. The blast happened in the Charsadda district, just outside the provincial capital of Peshawar. The bomb also wounded 11 people, four of them tribal policemen, Khan said.

#3: According to local authorities in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, at least 14 Taliban militants were blown up by their own explosives in this province.

#4: At least 14 Taliban militants were killed and 4 others were injured following joint military operations by Afghan national security forces during the past 24 hours.

#5: The Afghan security forces foiled coordinated suicide attacks in western Nimroz province of Afghanistan, after three suicide bombers were shot dead on Tuesday afternoon.

War News for Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships bombarded suspected Taliban hideouts in a northwestern tribal district Tuesday, killing at least 25 people, in response to two major bombings targeting the military. The focus of Tuesday's operation was North Waziristan tribal district, a stronghold for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants on the border with Afghanistan.

#2: Separately fighters pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in Tirah valley, part of Khyber, another of the seven tribal districts, killing four militants.

#3: Unknown gunmen on Tuesday seized more than 60 Afghan workers clearing Soviet-era anti-tank mines in western Herat province, the largest mass kidnapping undertaken in an economically important area now beset by security problems.

#4: Three members of polio vaccination teams were shot dead Tuesday in the southern city of Karachi, in the latest attack by Islamic militants on health workers trying to inoculate children against the crippling disease. At least two other health workers were injured when gunmen on motorbikes opened fire in the city's southern Qayuumabad residential area--close to the city center.

#4: Units of Afghan police backed by the army have killed more than a dozen Taliban militants during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Tuesday.

#5: A roadside bomb struck civilian car in Taliban former stronghold the southern Kandahar Province on Tuesday, killing three civilians and injuring another, spokesman for Kandahar's provincial government Jawed Faisal said.

#6: A senior Taliban was among three militants who were killed following clashes in eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, local officials said. The militants were killed in restive Andar district of Ghazni province following clashes with the Afghan security forces, Andar district chief Qasim Desiwal said.

#7: According to local authorities in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, at least 21 mortar shells landed in two separate districts in the latest wave of cross-border shelling from Pakistani soil. Provincial security chief, Abdul Habib Syed Kheli confirming the report, said the artillery shells landed in Dangam and Kunar Khas districts on Monday night.

War News for Monday, January 20, 2014

The military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a coordinated suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, January 20th.

Remains of Malaysian killed in Kabul to be flown home --  Dr Gnanathurai Nagarajah

Chicago woman killed in Kabul ‘sought a better world’ -- Lexie Kamerman -- Basra Hassan

Three Americans killed in Afghan restaurant attack were working toward 'a safer world for all' -- Alexandros Petersen

Students mourn teacher killed in Kabul attack -- Mette Teilmann Nielsen

Bodies of two Canadians killed in Afghan attack to return Wednesday -- Accountant Martin Glazer -- Peter McSheffrey

Reporter of Fallujah Satellite Channel killed in Ramadi

Bomb blasts kill 26 people in Baghdad - Iraqi police

Iraqi forces face resistance in trying to push last of al-Qaeda affiliates out of Ramadi

Reported security incidents
#1: An assault by suicide bombers and gunmen against a Nato base in southern Afghanistan has killed one service member and two civilians, sources say. All nine insurgents were killed during the attack on a coalition base in southern Kandahar's Zhari district, an Afghan official and Nato said. The group wore coalition uniforms and two civilian bystanders also died, the Afghan said. The US-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber and insurgents with automatic rifles who were also wearing suicide vests with explosives.

#2: A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near Pakistan's main military headquarters on Monday, killing 13 people. Monday's attack took place early in the morning in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital of Islamabad, just a few hundred meters (yards) from the outer wall surrounding the Pakistani military's headquarters. A retired officer and five soldiers were among those killed, according to police officer Haroon Joiya, who said the bombing also wounded 18 people.

#3: Following the terrorist attack in Bannu, Pakistan Army's gunship helicopters carried out a raid in North Waziristan's Mir Ali area, killing three suspected militants on Sunday, official sources said.

#4-5:  Six militants were killed while eight others wounded in three separate attacks on security checkpoints in Afghanistan overnight, said authorities on Monday.

#4: "Two Taliban were killed and two others were wounded when the militants raided two police checkpoints in Marjah and Sangin district of southern Helmand province late Sunday night," a provincial police press officer Colonel Abdul Ahad Chopan told Xinhua.

#5: In northern Badakhshan province, four militants were killed and six others wounded after they launched an armed attack in lazuli mine security outposts at midnight. The police forces repelled the attack which took place in Kuran Wa Munjan but one police cop was wounded in the exchange of fire," the deputy provincial police chief Sayyed Jahangir told Xinhua.


DoD: Spc. Andrew H. Sipple

SK/MoD: kapitánom Edmundom Makovníkom

SK/MoD: rotmajster Patrika Fraštiu

News of the Day for Sunday, January 19, 2014

Three civilians killed, 4 injured, by IED explosion in southern Helmand province.

Three police killed, 4 injured by explosion in Sar-e-Pul province. Khamaa also reports here on the deaths of two Afghan soldiers in separate explosions in Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces.

Three people killed and four injured by a rocket attack on a soccer field in Maiwan, Kandahar. This occurred on Saturday but was reported too late for yesterday's post.

Naimat Sadat, in Khamaa, says the Friday attack on Taverna du Liban is evidence of infiltration of the National Directorate of Security by agents of Pakistani intelligence. It's a complicated argument, and I can't evaluate it on the merits, but it does show the profound distrust that many Afghans have for Pakistan. In any event, the restaurant is within the heavily secured "ring of steel" and some form of corruption is clearly indicated. Sadat notes that Afghan police have not been paid for months, and obviously they are highly susceptible to bribery. His claim is that in the past, they would pass on a portion of payments from businesses such as Taverna du Liban to the Taliban for protection.

The Pakistani foreign ministry strongly condemns the attack. Meanwhile, "Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attack was carried out to avenge civilian deaths by foreign troops in Seyah Gard district of central Parwan province."

In the wake of the incident, fears grow that aid organizations will withdraw personnel from the country.

The Interior Ministry suspends 3 senior police officers as it investigates the attack.

A woman is appointed chief of police for Kabul's first district, a historic first. (The link is to a somewhat flowery editorial in Bhaktar lauding the event.)

In Pakistan, an attack on a military convoy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province kills 22 security personnel, injures 30. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claim responsibility. The death toll is expected to rise.

In Iraq, amid growing violence in Baghdad which killed dozens of people on Saturday, the military launches a major operation to try to regain control of Ramadi. We shall see.

War News for Saturday, January 18, 2014

Limavady man one of 21 killed in Taliban attack in Kabul -- Simon Chase

Second Briton dead in Kabul blast -- Dhamender Singh Phangurha

2 Canadians among 21 killed in Taliban attack in Afghanistan  -- The dead at the La Taverna du Liban restaurant included the head of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, three United Nations staff and a member of the European Police Mission in Afghanistan. -- Zahir and international officials said the dead included two Britons, two Canadians, a Dane, a Russian, two Lebanese, a Somali-American and a Pakistani.

Russian among Kabul attack victims --  V. Sh. Nazarov

Two Americans among 21 killed in Kabul blast

UN and IMF staff killed in Kabul restaurant attack -- Lebanese national Wabel Abdallah

2 American university employees among Kabul dead


Reported security incidents
#1: The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Saturday for a deadly attack on a private television channel in the southern city of Karachi and threatened further violence against media outlets. A spokesman said in a statement that militants had attacked an Express News van on Friday night, killing three employees, because the station had acted as a "propagandist".

#2: At least one person was killed while four others injured Saturday afternoon as a blast occurred in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, a security source said. "An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a motorbike parked near the provincial governor office in Tirin Kot was detonated while a vehicle of National Directorate for Security ( NDS) was passing by the area," the deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Aslam told Xinhua.

#3: At least 13 Taliban militants were killed and 2 others were injured during military operations by Afghan national security forces in various provinces of Afghanistan. The statement further added that the operations were conducted in Laghman, Kapisa, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni and Paktiya provinces of Afghanistan in past 24 hours.

#4: At least nine Taliban militants were killed following a US drone strike in eastern Nuristan province of Afghanistan, local security officials said.

War News for Friday, January 17, 2014

The military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, January 16th.

1 killed in Black Hawk 'hard landing' at Hunter Army Airfield


Reported security incidents
#1: At least three passengers were killed and 17 others sustained serious injuries after a bomb planted on the track went off when Khushhal Khan Khattak Express was near Kotla Hassan Shah Friday morning.

#2: At least eight people were killed and wounded 55 others following a deadly blast in Pakistan Peshawar city on Thursday evening. Local police security said that the blast took place in an Islamic preaching centre seminary, killed eight people and wounded nearly 55 others.

#3: A bomb detonated by armed militants rocked Murawar district of the eastern Kunar province 185km east of Kabul on Friday, killing one person and injuring two others, provincial police chief Habibullah Sayedkhili said. "The armed Taliban hurled a hand grenade to target local police vehicle in a bazaar in Murawar town today but the attack claimed the life of a civilian and injured two others including a woman and a child," Sayedkhili told Xinhua.

#4: Four militants were killed and six others wounded in an army operation in the western Afghan province of Herat, said an army source on Thursday.


DoD: Sgt. Daniel T. Lee

DoD: Chief Warrant Officer Andrew L. McAdams

DoD: Sgt. Drew M. Scobie

War News for Thursday, January 16, 2014

Pakistan sets up military base in troubled Swat Valley

Video shows U.S. soldier missing from Afghanistan

EU prepares post-2014 help for Afghanistan

Bomb attacks, shootings kill 75 in Iraq


Reported security incidents
#1: Eight Afghan civilians were killed following a US force's airstrike in eastern Afghanistan province of Parwan on Tuesday night, said a statement issued by the country 's Presidential Palace late on Wednesday. "Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned in strongest terms a bombardment carried out by the US forces in Siya Gard District of Parwan Province which led to the death of one woman and seven children," the statement said.

#2: Four militants were killed and six others wounded in an army operation in the western Afghan province of Herat, said an army source on Thursday. "On a precision tip-off, the Afghan National Army (ANA) commandos late on Wednesday carried out a raid on a compound in Shindand district. The gunfight led to the killing of four militants, and injuring of six other armed insurgents,"army spokesman Naseto Nasiri told Xinhua.

#3: In a separate incident in northwest Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two policemen were injured in a bomb attack. Police said that some unknown militants detonated a remote controlled explosive device near a checkpost, injuring two policemen who were admitted to a nearby hospital where both of them were reportedly in critical condition.

#4: An Afghan National Police (ANP) vehicle was damaged following a magnetic bomb explosion in capital Kabul on Thursday. Hashmatullah, spokesman for the security commandment of capital Kabul said the blast took place near Pul-e-Khishti mosque in the first district of Kabul city. Mr. Stanekzai further added that no casualties were reported following the blast, and only the police vehicle was damaged.

War News for Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a direct fire attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, January 14th.

Kailua guardsman, on duty in Afghanistan, is killed in plane crash

Poland to speed up withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

Iraq attacks kill 46 as militants make gains in Anbar


Reported security incidents
#1: Unknown militants installed a remote-controlled bomb at a roadside in Khyber's Zakakhel area near a barricaded post of Amn Committee. The bomb went off with a loud explosion. Subsequently, two Amn Committee volunteers were killed.

#2: In recent news received from Peshawar, a police officer died in an explosion which took place in the Raigi Area of the city. The incident took place on Tuesday and the death toll was confirmed on Wednesday after a thorough investigation took place on the incident.

#3: At least 16 Taliban militants have been killed across Afghanistan in operations within the last 24 hours, an Afghan Interior Ministry statement said on Wednesday. The operations were reportedly conducted in the Parwan, Baghlan, Kunduz, Kandahar, Zabul, Logar and Paktiya provinces. Three militants were wounded and seven others were arrested by Afghan National Security Forces.

#4: Two persons were killed and two others sustained injuries as Taliban militants and police got engagement in Saripul province 350 km north of Kabul Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday. "Units of police were on routine patrol when they came under Taliban rebels' attack triggering a gun battle for a while during which a rebel and one police were killed and two others including a police and a militants sustained injuries," deputy to provincial police chief Sakhidad Haidary told Xinhua.

#5: A suicide bomber was shot dead by Afghan security forces in capital Kabul on Tuesday evening.

War News for Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Seven security personnel were injured when a police van was targeted with a roadside IED in the restive Khyber-Pakthunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan today. The explosion occurred near Kolachi in Dera Ismail Khan district, which borders the South Waziristan tribal region.
#2: Seven militants were killed in separate military operations in Afghanistan since early Monday, said the country's Interior Ministry on Tuesday. "Afghan police, army and the National Directorate for Security (NDS) or intelligence agency carried out several cleanup operations in Baghlan, Zabul, Uruzgan and Farah provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result seven armed Taliban members were killed, three wounded and six others were arrested," the ministry said in a statement.

At least ten militants were killed or injured following military operations by Afghan security forces in various provinces of Afghanistan during the past 24 hours.

#3: In other developments, five policemen and two civilians were wounded in two separate bomb attacks in Chapa Dara and Sarkano districts of eastern Kunar province overnight, the provincial police chief Habibullah Sayyedkhil told Xinhua earlier on Tuesday.

#4: According to local security officials in southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan, at least three Afghan Local Police (ALP) officers were stabbed to death in the latest insider attack case in this province. The officials further added that the incident took place early Tuesday morning in Charchino district after a group of militants attacked a check post in Dawan area.

#5: At least six people including three children and three women were injured following a mortar fire in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The incident reportedly took place in Khogyani district around 11am local time on Friday, after a mortar shell landed in a residential house.

War News for Monday, January 13, 2014

Defeat in Afghanistan

Clashes Between Militants and Army Spread in Iraq

Afghan National Army conducts large-scale operation


Reported security incidents
#1: Unknown gunmen shot dead two persons and fled from the scene here in Nowshera on Monday. Police said that the firing incident took place in main market near Pabbi Station of Nowshera. Both persons were killed on the spot in the firing incident and armed motorcyclists managed to escape after committing dual murder, police said.

#2: Six people died Sunday when two improvised explosive devices detonated near the car of the adviser to the prime minister of Pakistan, officials said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser Amir Muqam was not injured in the blast, which happened in the Martong area near Poran, Dawn News reported. Two police officers and four civilians were among those killed, police said.

#3: At least six security personnel were killed and two others injured when a bomb went off near the convoy of a political leader in Pakistan's northwestern Shangla district Sunday afternoon, local Urdu TV channel Abb Takk reported.

News of the Day for Sunday, January 12, 2014

Six police are injured in Kabul in suicide attack on a bus. An unspecified number of civilian bystanders are also said to have been "lightly injured" when attacker on a bicycle sets off explosives next to vehicle transporting police from work.

Three employees of the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Directorate are kidnapped in Badghis province. This formerly relatively peaceful area has seen an increase in insurgent activity.

Nineteen insurgents said to renounce violence in western Herat. The government is depending on this amnesty program to further a broader peace process. Apparently, Taliban representatives have been holding secret talks in the UAE with Afghan government ministers, however officials of the High Peace Council say they are unaware of the talks.

Nevertheless, the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA) criticizes the security plan for the upcoming elections as "unrealistic" and demands better preparations.

Afghan Journalists Center says there were 84 cases of violence against journalists in 2013. "[G]overnment officials and security forces, Taliban and illegal armed groups were among the perpetrators of media violations."

War News for Saturday, January 11, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: A gas pipeline was blown Pakistan's Balochistan province by unknown attackers in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

#2: Afghan police backed by the units of national army have killed three armed Taliban militants during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Ministry of Interior said in a statement released here on Saturday.

War News for Friday, January 10, 2014

The military is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers and one ISAF civilian from an airplane crash in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, January 10th.

 

 

Iraq holding off on an offensive against al-Qaida

 

7 cops killed north of Samarra'                    

Reported security incidents
#1: update - A Blackhawk helicopter that crashed in southern Afghanistan last month
killing six U.S. soldiers, was brought down by an enemy explosion, not gunfire or mechanical failure, U.S. military officials said Thursday. The UH-60 helicopter crashed in the Shahjoi district of Afghanistan's Zabul province on Dec. 17. Initial reports indicated it came under heavy enemy gunfire once it was on the ground, but later reports contradicted that, implying there was no enemy contact. On Thursday, U.S. military officials told NBC News the helicopter was in a low-hover position when a blast from the ground below caused it to crash. The helicopter was not shot down by enemy fire, and apparently no enemy forces were on the ground in the vicinity either before or after the fatal crash.
#2: A U.S. military  MC-12 plane crashed in eastern Afghanistan early Friday morning, killing three Americans.

#3: A senior Pakistani police investigator at the forefront of operations against the Taliban and other criminals in the sprawling, seaside city of Karachi was killed in a bomb blast there yesterday, police officials said. His driver and a security officer also were killed in the attack, and at least 11 people were reported wounded.

#4: Police say gunmen have shot to death two workers at a small Sufi Muslim shrine in northwest Pakistan. Local police official Iqbal Khan says the bodies of the men were found on Friday at the shrine of Ghazi Shah Baba in the northwestern city of Mardan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
 
#5: Two militants were killed while two women were wounded Friday in a premature explosion in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of eastern Afghanistan's province of Nangarhar, police said.

#6: At least seven people including police officers and civilians were killed or injured following twin suicide attacks in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan. Provincial governor spokesman, Omar Zwak confirming the report, said a group of three suicide bombers attacked a police station in the first district of Lashkargah city late Thursday evening. Mr. Zwak confirmed that one police officer was killed and six others including policemen and civilians were injured following the twin suicide attacks.

War News for Thursday, January 09, 2014

Suicide bomber kills 13 Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad - police

Grim Sequel to Iraq’s War


Reported security incidents
#1: At least 10 militants and three soldiers were killed in a clash in North Waziristan late Wednesday, the military said. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the incident took place in South Waziristan tribal district Ladha along the Afghan border when a group of militants attacked a security forces check post.

#2: At least nine people, including three children, have been killed in a blast at a house in Pakistan's north-western Khyber tribal area, reports say. It took place in an arms dump at the home of a tribal leader in the Tirah Valley, which has seen clashes between militant groups and the military.

#3: According to local authorities in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, an Afghan child was killed in coalition security forces fire on Thursday. Provincial governor spokesman, Omar Zwak confirming the report, said coalition forces opened fire on an Afghan child in Greshk district on Thursday morning.

War News for Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Obama lost faith in Afghan strategy, Gates’ memoir says

PAKISTAN: Balochistan; 160 persons extra judicially killed, 510 disappeared and 50 decomposed bodies were found during 2013

Iraqi prime minister says victory certain as Falluja assault looms

In Iraqi City Under Siege, More Support for Militants Than Officials


Reported security incidents
#1: A policeman was killed and another injured when unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire at a police check post in northwest Pakistan today. The incident occurred in a posh locality of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakthunkhwa province. Unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on the check post in which a head constable was killed instantly while another received serious injuries, police sources said.

#2: Earlier in the morning, a Station House Officer (SHO) and two other police personnel were injured when some unidentified assailants opened fire on the SHO's vehicle in Peshawar.

#3: Five rebels were killed in own mine blast in southern province of Kandahar, an official said Tuesday adding all were Taliban planning to hide the explosives on the way to target military vehicles.

#4: Units of Afghan police backed by the army have killed seven Taliban militants during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here Wednesday.

#5: According to local authorities in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, the Pakistani military has fired at least ten artillery shells in this province. Mr. Syed Khel further added that the shelling started late Tuesday night and continued until early Wednesday morning.

#6: An explosion was heard in capital Kabul on Wednesday morning, in the 8th district of Kabul city. Officials in the interior ministry of Afghanistan confirmed that the blast in capital Kabul was due to controlled explosion by Afghan security forces. 

#7: National Directorate of Security (NDS) foiled a plot to assassinate a senior Afghan intelligence official in capital Kabul.

War News for Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: A police was killed and three others wounded in a military operation in Herat province yesterday.
An official of Herat security directorate said BNA, a police was martyred and three others wounded in an operation carried out by security forces in Shindand district. According to the source, during the operation also ten Taliban including a commander of them was killed

#2: Sixteen militants were killed while 15 others wounded in military operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning. "Afghan National Police (ANP), army and the National Directorate for Security (NDS) carried out cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Paktiya, Herat and Nimroz provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban members, wounding 15 militants and arresting 13 others over the past 24 hours,"the ministry said in a statement.

#3: At least three civilians were killed following a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in south-eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

War News for Monday, January 06, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: At least nine people were killed and four others injured when a blast hit a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Khyber Agency on Monday afternoon, local media Dunya reported. The killed include three children, said the report quoting local administration, adding that several women were also injured in the blast. The blast took place in a drawing room of a local resident's house in Tirah Valley, a small town bordering on Afghanistan, said local media.

#2: The first incident took place on Monday, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a government school in the Shia-dominated Ibrahimzai area of Hangu district.

#3: Two unidentified people were killed and two others injured when their car came under fire at Tump in Turbat district near Pakistan-Iran border on Sunday. “Four people were going to Turbat from Tump by car. When they reached Gomazai Chowk, two attackers opened fire at the vehicle,” Tump Assistant Commissioner Tump Hasnain said, adding two occupants of the car were killed on the spot and two others injured.

#4: Twenty-seven militants were killed in a series of military operations across Afghanistan since early Sunday, said the country's Interior Ministry on Monday. Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) carried out several anti-terrorism operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunduz, Kandahar, Zabul, Ghazni, Paktika and Paktiya provinces over the last 24 hours. As a result 27 armed Taliban members were killed, one wounded and three others were arrested by the ANSF," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

#5: At least six people including Taliban militants were killed or injured following an ambush by Taliban fighters in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan. According to local security officials, the incident took place late Sunday night in Shebarghan city, after a group of Taliban militants attacked a security check post, which was providing security to a gas field project.

#6: A provincial official in Afghanistan say a suicide car bomber has attacked a security checkpoint in the country's east, killing three police officers. Musa Khan Akbarzada, the governor of Ghazni province, says the attack Monday also wounded three officers in the Shilghar district.


DoD: Sgt. First Class William K. Lacey

News of the Day for Sunday, January 5, 2014

Taliban attack a police checkpoint in Ghazni province, according to local officials 15 Taliban are killed in the ensuing battle with no police casualties. Taliban claim six police killed. Five of the Taliban dead are said to be Pakistani. Khaama has a more detailed but consistent account.

Afghan intelligence says it foiled a plot in Helmand province, seizes weapons and vehicles.

An Italian helicopter takes fire while landing in Herat province while carrying Afghan troops. No casualties. (The linked article says "Shindad," apparently a typo. There is a NATO airbase at Shindand, in Herat.)

An explosion in Kabul, apparently targeting a NATO convoy, causes no casualties.

Wakht reports widespread malnutrition in Helmand, but notes that hunger is commonplace elsewhere in the country as well. Excerpt:

Afghan hospitals like Bost, in the capital of war-torn Helmand Province, have been registering significant increases in severe malnutrition among children. Countrywide, such cases have increased by 50 percent or more compared with 2012, according to United Nations figures.Doctors report similar situations in Kandahar, Farah, Kunar, Paktia and Paktika Provinces — all places where warfare has disrupted people’s lives and pushed many vulnerable poor over the nutritional edge. .. .

Reasons for the increase remain uncertain, or in dispute. Most doctors and aid workers agree that continuing war and refugee displacement are contributing. Some believe that the growing number of child patients may be at least partly a good sign, as more poor Afghans are hearing about treatment available to them. What is clear is that, despite years of Western involvement and billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, children’s health is not only still a problem, but also worsening, and the doctors bearing the brunt of the crisis are worried.

Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, says that violent crime against women in Afghanistan hit record levels and became increasingly brutal in 2013.

"Killing women in Afghanistan is an easy thing. There's no punishment," Suraya Pakzad, who runs women's shelters in several provinces, told Reuters in her office in the western city of Herat. She cited recent cases in which women been publicly stoned as Afghan troops looked on. "Laws are improved, but implementation of those laws are in the hand of warlords... I think we are going backwards." 

Meanwhile, back in Iraq: Remember Fallujah, where U.S. forces massacred unarmed protestors in 2003, and later, in 2004, U.S. marines fought a horrific battle?

• On 9 November, CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul reported the use of cluster bombs in the offensive: "The sky over Falluja seems to explode as U.S. Marines launch their much-trumpeted ground assault. War planes drop cluster bombs on insurgent positions and artillery batteries fire smoke rounds to conceal a Marine advance."^[30]
• November 10, 2004 reports by the Washington Post suggest that U.S. armed forces used white phosphorus grenades and/or artillery shells, creating walls of fire in the city. Doctors working inside Fallujah report seeing melted corpses of suspected insurgents.^[31] The use of WP ammunition was confirmed from various independent sources, including U.S. troops who had suffered WP burns due to friendly fire.
• On November 16, 2004, a Red Cross official told Inter Press Service that "at least 800 civilians" had been killed in Fallujah and indicated that "they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorus weapon that caused severe burns."
• On 17 May 2011, AFP reported that 21 bodies, in black body-bags marked with letters and numbers in Roman script had been recovered from a mass grave in al-Maadhidi cemetery in the centre of the city. Fallujah police chief Brigadier General Mahmud al-Essawi said that they had been blindfolded, their legs had been tied and they had suffered gunshot wounds. The Mayor, Adnan Husseini said that the manner of their killing, as well as the body bags, indicated that US forces had been responsible. Both al-Essawi and Husseini agreed that the dead had been killed in 2004. The US Military declined to comment.

 But I'm sure it was all worth it. Today, Fallujah is controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but the government is readying a major assault to retake the city. "Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that the United States would provide assistance to Iraqi forces in their battle against the militants but that it was "their fight".


Also, bombs kill 14 people in Baghdad.

War News for Saturday, January 04, 2014

The military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a suicide attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, January 4th.

Iraqi army shells Falluja to try to dislodge Qaeda, tribes

Al-Qaeda-linked force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq

Iraqi tribesmen and police take a victory over al Qaeda in Anbar province


Reported security incidents
#1: Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-Nato base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one Nato soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said. One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle blew himself up at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar province, and five other insurgents were shot as they tried to storm the facility.

#2-3: Four Afghan policemen were killed in two separate bomb attacks on Saturday, authorities said.

#2: "The Andar district police chief commander of Afghan Local Police (ALP) named Shahin Khan was killed and his bodyguard was injured in a bomb attack in provincial capital Ghazni city," the provincial police chief Mohheudin Sarwari told Xinhua. The blast occurred after a sticky improvised explosive device ( IED) attached to the police vehicle set off at midday in Ghazni city, the capital of eastern Ghazni province, 125 km south of the national capital Kabul, the source noted.

#3: Earlier on Saturday, three police cops were killed in an IED attack in Bati Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province, 120 km east of Kabul.

#4: Earlier on Saturday, the country's Interior Ministry said that 11 Taliban insurgent members were killed, three wounded and eight others were arrested during military operations carried out by the Afghan army, police and intelligence agency since early Friday.

#5: A suicide attack was reported in eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan on Saturday afternoon, leaving an Afghan Local Police (ALP) commander critically injured. Local residents and eyetwitnesses in the area area saying that the blast took place in Ghazni city, after a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives. Mr. Ahmadi further added that the preliminary reports suggest the ALP commander was critically injured along with one of his bodyguard in the blast.

#6: At least three service members of the Afghan national police forces were killed following a roadside bomb explosion in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Local government officials in Nangarhar said, the incident took place early Saturday morning in Batikut district.

#7: At least four Afghan intelligence – National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives were killed following a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in eastern Khost province of Afghanistan. Provincial governor spokesman, Baryalai Rawan said, the incident took place late Friday evening in Sabari district. Mr. Rawan further added that a district intelligence administrator was also among those killed following the explosion.

#8: At least two Taliban militants were killed and another one was injured following an explosion in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan.

War News for Friday, January 03, 2014

Pakistani TV reporter becomes first journalist killed in 2013

Qaeda-Aligned Militants Threaten Key Iraqi Cities

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption


Reported security incidents
#1: Gunmen in Afghanistan have killed a senior female official in the western city of Herat, police say. She was shot in the head by two unknown attackers on a motorbike as she left her office in the city centre and died at the scene.

#2: Five Afghan civilians were killed while 18 others were wounded Thursday in an explosion in the country’s eastern province of Logar, authorities said. An improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a motorcycle was detonated around 4 p.m. local time in Baraki Barak district bazaar.


DoD: Sgt. Jacob M. Hess

War News for Thursday, January 02, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: A suicide car bomb attack targeting a passenger bus carrying Shiite pilgrims killed two people and wounded at least 17 in southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.

War News for Wednesday, January 01, 2014

The military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 1st.

Afghans’ Plan to Release Prisoners Angers U.S.


Reported security incidents
#1: An explosion ripped through a rickshaw on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding four others in Peshawar, officials said. The blast occurred at Chamkani, a suburb of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan and has been a target of Taliban suicide attacks and bombings. “At least three people were killed in an explosion in a rickshaw near a police check point,” said local police official Shaukat Ali.

#2: An Afghan police officer was killed and two others were injured following an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan. According to local government officials, the incident took place on Wednesday in Qalat city.