War News for Friday, October 31, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Two civilians were wounded in rocket attack of Pakistani forces in Kamdish district, Nooristan province late last night. The civilians were targeted from the other side of Durand Line in Kamdish district, Nooristan province.

#2: Taliban killed a police officer in Kunduz province yesterday. The police officer was going to Takhar province, targeted by Taliban in the road of Takhar-Kunduz highway and killed. Syeed Sarwar Hosaini police spokesman of Kunduz said BNA, in the incident, a police officer lost their life and two civilians wounded.

#3: Eleven armed insurgents were killed in ANA operation in outskirts of Farah province yesterday.

War News for Thursday, October 30, 2014

French staff sergeant killed in Mali clash


Reported security incidents
#1: At least four militants were killed today when a US drone struck their compound in northwestern Pakistan's restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

#2: Eight soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in restive northwest, officials said Wednesday, as security forces carried out a clearance operation. “Eight soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) during fierce fighting and exchange of fire with terrorists,” a local security official based in Peshawar told AFP. He said that 21 militants were also killed.

#3: About six Afghan soldiers and 19 militants have been killed across Afghanistan within the past 24 hours, the country's Defense Ministry said on Thursday afternoon.

An insurgent was killed and four others wounded in an operation conducted by security forces in Nangarhar province last night.

#4: A foreign soldier was wounded while a suicide bomber attacked on foreign troops in Bargram today.

#5: At least three Taliban militants were blown up by explosives in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan on Thursday. According to local government officials, the incident took place around 7;00 am local time while the Taliban militants were busy planting Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

War News for Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: At least three Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were killed in separate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks in the past 24 hours.
#2: The Pakistani army has killed 20 suspected militants and wounded eight in fresh airstrikes in the northwestern Khyber Agency tribal area Wednesday, officials said. A senior military official speaking on condition of anonymity told Anadolu Agency that army gunship helicopters had pounded four militant hideouts in the Akakhel area of the remote Tirah valley, near the Afghan border Wednesday morning, killing at least 20 Taliban militants.

War News for Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Taliban militants have reportedly attacked a court in northern Afghanistan killing at least seven people including prosecutors, who they shot in their offices at close range. The attack took place in Kunduz, a city that the militants have encircled in recent weeks and attempted to storm but without success, reported the Dawn.

#2: Unidentified gunmen today shot dead a member of anti-Taliban peace committee in northwestern Pakistan's Swat district.

#3: At least 33 terrorists were killed during two different air strikes conducted as part of the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan Agency on Monday.

#4; In a separate incident on Monday, at least nine soldiers were injured when militants targeted a security forces vehicle with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Charmang Tehsil of Bajaur Agency. The injured included seven Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and two Levies men.

#4: Armed Taliban killed four policemen and abducted several others in an attack on their security posts in Wardoj district of Badakhshan province.

#5: A group of militants have launched attack on police check post located close to the provincial police headquarter in western Herat province of Afghanistan. According to Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials, the militants were riding motorcycle when they opened fire on a check post near the police headquarter. Officials in Herat city hospital have confirmed that two dead bodies of policemen along with seven injured civilians were taken to the hospital so far.

#6: At least 24 Taliban militants were killed and two others were injured following military operations by Afghan national security forces in the past 24 hours.

#7: At least three Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were martyred in separate Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks in the past 24 hours.

War News for Monday, October 27, 2014

The DoD is reporting the deaath of Cmdr. Christopher E. Kalafut, who died from a non-combat related incident at Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar on Friday, October 24th. He was was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

U.S., British Troops End Combat Role in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province


Reported security incidents
#1: General Abdul Qadir Sayad, deputy police chief in Badakhshan province said on Sunday that a large number of insurgents simultaneously attacked several checkpoints in Wardoj district late on Saturday, and that at least four police officers had died while another seven were injured.

#2: Eighteen militants were killed when the Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft hit their hideouts in the troubled Khyber Agency, official sources said on Sunday.

#3: A group of suicide bombers stormed the office of prosecuting attorney in Kunduz provincial capital, the northern Kunduz city, 250 km north of Kabul on Monday, casualties feared, provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.

#4: Afghan security forces have pressed on to clear the militants in restive provinces and killed 27 militants in the latest operations, the country's Interior Ministry said Monday.

#5: Two rocket shells landed in Kabul city, but fortunately had no casualties following the shelling.

#6: Four armed insurgents were killed and six others wounded in clashes with police forces in Faryab province last night.

News of the Day for Sunday, October 26, 2014

British forces hand over Camp Bastion in Helmand province to Afghan troops, ending the United Kingdom's 13 years of combat in Afghanistan. A total of 435 British troops lost their lives in the campaign. Only a few hundred British troops will remain in the country after Christmas, at the officers' training academy.

U.S. Marines also hand over control of Camp Leatherneck. However, NATO forces will continue to secure the perimeters of the two bases until further orders. There are still about 34,000 coalition forces in Afghanistan but that number is steadily decreasing. The United States plans to keep about 9,800 troops in the country next year.

In a sign of cultural change, an Afghan mullah is sentenced to prison for the rape of a 10 year old girl. However, women's rights advocates say the perpetrator would likely have escaped punishment had the trial not been transferred from Kunduz to Kabul. " Rape is often treated as adultery in Afghanistan, and victims can face prison themselves."

Eight police are killed in a Taliban attack in northeastern Badakshan province. The fighting continues, and tens of soldiers are said to be missing as the Taliban control most of the Warduj district. The Taliban have yet to comment.

Pakistani missiles destroy three houses in Kunar.

Soldiers demonstrate in front of the National Assembly, saying they have received no salary for six months.

In Iraq, Iraqi and Kurdish forces (note we're no longer pretending they're the same thing) make gains against IS with U.S. air support. With the help of 22 air strikes on Friday and Saturday, Kurdish forces regained the town of Zumar, encountering fierce resistance and suffering seven dead. Iraqi forces say they retook Jurf al-Sakhar.

War News for Saturday, October 25, 2014

Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal, 19, of Riverside, California, died Oct. 23, in Baghdad, Iraq, from a non-combat related incident. The incident is under investigation.


Reported security incidents
#1: A relatively heavy explosion rocked capital Kabul late Friday night after a rocket landed in Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan area of the city. There are no reports regarding the casualties so far.

#2: At least 37 Taliban militants were killed and 55 others were injured following military operations in the past 24 hours.

War News for Friday, October 24, 2014

Afghanistan Poppy Crop Hits Record High

Two Afghan districts, bordering with Tajikistan, can move under control of Taliban

Russian Held in Afghanistan to Stand Trial in US: Reports


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan police say five people were killed and two were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a car in an attack in one of the country's eastern provinces. Friday's attack took place in Nangahar province as seven civilians were travelling through Khogyani district early in the morning.

#2: Pakistani and Iranian forces have exchanged mortar fire along their porous border.Pakistani officials said Iran fired six mortar shells, which landed near the border town of Mashkail. Pakistan is then thought to have fired back, BBC reported on oct.24.

#3: Operation Khyber 1 is successfully continued in district Bara and Tirah in Khyber Agency. In the duration of eight days since the operation commenced, at least 60 militants got killed and more than 25 injured whereas more than 100 militants including a key commander surrendered to the security forces. 3 security forces’ officers have also been martyred whereas 12 got injured. 6000 families have migrated to fetch for safe havens.

#4: At least three people were killed and 30 others injured when a suicide bomber blew up himself near a vehicle of a religious party's leader in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city on Thursday evening, officials said.

#5: Five armed Taliban were killed in explosion of their own mine in Ghazni province today.

#6: At least 12 people, including 6 militants and 6 members of the Afghan national security forces were killed following clashes in northern Kunduz province.

War News for Thursday, October 23, 2014

Taliban Are Rising Again in Afghanistan’s North


Reported security incidents
#1: At least six militants were killed and seven others injured today in fresh clashes between security forces and militants in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal Khyber region. The latest clash took place in the Sipah area of Bara Tehsil with Operation Khyber I (Khyber one) underway in the region. The operation was formally launched earlier this month.


Meanwhile, two security personnel embraced martyrdom and ten others sustained injuries. The militants killed clashes today were said to belong to banned terror outfit "Lashkar-e-Islam".

#2: Gunmen opened fire at a bus carrying members of a minority Shi’a community in south-western Pakistan on Thursday, killing eight people, police said, in the worse sectarian attack in months. At least five masked attackers riding motorcycles chased the bus on the outskirts of Quetta in restive Balochistan province. They dragged people out and killed them one by one, said police official Imran Qureshi.

#3: Four police were wounded as a car bomb rocked Afghanistan's northern Kunduz city on Thursday, a security official said.

#4: In the latest violent event, a mortar struck a residential area in Gizab district of the southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, injuring four innocent children, a local official said.

#5: At least 5 terrorists were killed and 25 others wounded following clearing operations conducted by Afghan National army forces in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

#6: A police killed his three colleagues in Helmand province last night. A security source who asks not to be named said BNA, the incident occurred in Marja district, Helmand province.

#7: At least ten Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were martyred in the latest wave of violence across the country in the past 24 hours.

War News for Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Roadside bombing kills 3 in Yemen


Reported security incidents
#1: Three persons including two levy personnel injured when a polio eradication team vehicle was targeted with a bomb attack in Bajur Agency on Wednesday.

#2: A gunman shot dead a British national in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, police said Tuesday, as authorities struggle to piece together a motive behind the murder.

#3: At least 30 suspected terrorists have been killed as jet fighters targeted their hideouts in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).

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

#5: A number of policemen were injured following a suicide car bomb attack in southern Helmand province early Wednesday. In the meantime, a local security official said the target of the suicide bomber was the police chief for border protection forces.

War News for Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Government OKs Czech troops to stay in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: At least four Afghan soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack on a bus in the capital. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said the blast occurred October 21 while troops were on their way to the ministry in Kabul. Azimi says six more soldiers and six civilians were wounded in the blast, adding that the bomb was detonated by remote control.

#2: Cross-border firing near Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur Agency this morning has left at least one person dead. The person died in the firing was a civilian. The incident took place when couple of mortar shells were fired from Afghanistan and landed in a house in Charmang Valley. The attack also left the house damaged. Reports say that mortars were fired by the militants, targeting the Pakistani territory.

#3: Three soldiers sustained injuries when the Kunar-based Pakistani Taliban opened fire on them in Mamond tehsil in Bajaur Agency, official sources said on Monday. The sources said militants based in Kunar province of Afghanistan opened fire on the soldiers at the Mamond Ghakhi Pass.

#4: Nearly three dozen Taliban militants have been killed during series of operations across Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said in a statement released here on Tuesday.

#5: Five mine planters while they wanted to plant road side mine were killed in Paktika province

War News for Mondaay, October 20, 2014

Pakistan's PM adviser visits Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1-2: Hundreds of Taliban militants have launched two attacks in Logar and central province of Ghor in Afghanistan killing at least four soldiers, said local officials.

#1: In Logar province, at least four soldiers died in the east when fighters attacked security posts, reported the BBC.

#2: In the central province of Ghor, at least 500 Taliban militants attacked two villages where the number of casualties remains unclear.

#3: Suspected separatists in Balochistan killed nine laborers on Sunday in what appeared to be an ethnically motivated attack, officials said.

#4: Two border police forces were martyred following armed oppositions ambush in Pashtoon Koot district, Faryab province. The policemen who were riding motorcycle targeted by Taliban militants in Zard Kotal region of the district.

#5: At least 18 Taliban militants were killed following joint military operations by Afghan national security forces in the past 24 yours.

#6: At least five suspected kidnappers were killed following an operation by Afghan National Army (ANA) commando forces in western Herat province.

News of the Da4y for Sunday, October 19, 2014

One civilian killed, several shops destroyed in a suicide bombing in Jalalabad.

Suicide attack on convoy of Afghan National Army and police in Helmand results in casualties, with conflicting accounts of 2 or 4 deaths of police officers. Five soldiers are also injured.

National Directorate of Security says that Taliban leader Abul Bara Al-Kuwaiti is killed in an operation in Nangarhar. They claim Kuwaiti had "ties to the family" of Ayman al-Zawahiri, whatever that means. (Just as a reminder, Zawahiri, Osama bin-Laden's former second-in-command and current titular leader of the original al-Qaeda organization, is living in Pakistan under the protection of Pakistani security, putative allies of the U.S. No, I don't understand it either.)

Missiles fired from Pakistan injure 1 woman and destroy 5 houses in Kunar province.

Taliban besiege Gizab district, Uruzgan, blocking all routes into the capital. (Gizab is a largely rural area with a population of about 75,000.) "'Most of the schools in the district have been closed," [an anonymous source] said. "If a military operation is not launched in Gizab shortly, the Taliban will take full control of the district," he warned the government."

NDS says it foiled a suicide attack plot in Faryab.

Much attention of late to Anand Gopal's blistering indictment of the U.S. in Afghanistan, No Good Men Among the Living. Hereis the New York Times review by Kim Barker. Excerpt:

It is a devastating, well-honed prosecution detailing how our government bungled the initial salvo in the so-called war on terror, ignored attempts by top Taliban leaders to surrender, trusted the wrong people and backed a feckless and corrupt Afghan regime. . . 

Gopal shows how the Americans messed things up from the beginning. Civilian casualties and night raids bred resentment. The United States also backed the same warlords responsible for atrocities during the ’90s. In the war’s early years, there was no rehabilitation for a former Talib, no re-entry program, no probation, no real way to join the new government. For leaders of the Taliban, unlike other Afghans with a bloody past, there was no way out — except to run or hide.

The American military was also naïve about how things worked in the country. Afghan informants exacted revenge against rivals by calling in raids. Gopal describes how one tribal elder was so successful in uncovering official corruption that he was branded a Taliban spy, which was enough to get him banished to Guantánamo Bay.

War News for Saturday, October 18, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: At least two soldiers were killed and as many injured today when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region, officials said. The paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel were targeted in Salarzai area of Bajaur district near Afghan border.  

#2: An official says that at least three Afghan security force troops have been killed in a suicide car bombing in southern Afghanistan. An official says that at least three Afghan security force troops have been killed in a suicide car bombing in southern Afghanistan. He says six others, including one civilian and five soldiers, were wounded in the attack, which occurred on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.

#3: Three people, all civilians sustained injuries as a blast shocked Kunduz provincial capital the Kunduz city 250 km north of Kabul on Saturday, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said. "It was a sticky bomb planted on a vehicle and exploded in front of a mosque in Kunduz city, injuring three passersby," Hussaini told Xinhua.

#4: Following Afghan National Army (ANA) forces clearing operation, 13 armed rebels killed in Ghazni province.

#5: According to another report, in another action of ANA forces in Delaram district, Nemroz province, an armed rebel killed and another wounded.

#6: At least 16 rockets were fired in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan from the other side of Durand Line in the latest wave of cross-border shelling. Provincial police chief, Abdul Habib Syed Khel said the rockets were fired late Friday night in Dangam district.

#7: At least three Taliban militants were killed following a drone strike by NATO-led coalition forces in eastern Kunar province.

#8: At least 31 Taliban militants were killed and 11 others were injured following military operations by Afghan national security forces in the past 24 hours.

War News for Friday, October 17, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: At least 11 militants were killed and 10 others wounded by Pakistani security forces today in an operation to clear insurgents from the country's restive Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The operation is currently focused in Akakhel, Sepah and Malikdinkhel areas of Bara, where hitherto 11 militants have been killed and 10 others injured. Several militant hideouts have been targeted during the operation.

#2: Two Taliban militants, including key commander Qari Zubair, were killed Thursday night in air strikes against insurgents' hideouts in Borka district of the northern Baghlan province, police spokesman Ahmad Jawed Basharat said Friday.

#3: The security forces launched a clearing operation under the code name of Perrozi (Victory), in Tagab district, Kapisa province and cleared several villages from existing of armed insurgents.

War News for Thursday, October 16, 2014

Son of Jalaluddin Haqqani captured in Afghanistan

Car Bomb Kills 8 Afghans From Unit Linked to C.I.A.


Reported security incidents
#1: Fresh airstrikes by Pakistan Military jets killed at least 21 terrorists in the restive tribal area of Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency,  according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). According to details, jets pounded militant hideouts in Akakhel and Sipah area of Tirah Valley on Thursday, killing at least 21 militants.

#2: Unknown miscreants blasted a gas pipeline with explosives suspending supply to plant here on Wednesday. Police said that unknown miscreants had planted explosive material with 8 inch diameter gas pipeline in Dera Bugti area which blasted with a big bang. As a result of blast a portion of gas pipeline was destroyed due to which supply of gas from well No. 17 to plant was suspended.

#3: Two soldiers were today injured when suspected militants triggered an IED blast in north Kashmir's Baramulla district (India) to target an army convoy. The ultras detonated the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in the Rafiabad area of Baramulla at around 11.45 AM as an army convoy was passing through the area, police said.

#5: Five insurgents were killed in NATO aircraft’s attack in Zormat district, Paktia province last night.

#6: An individual in Afghan army uniform opened fire on coalition security forces early Thursday morning, defense officials said. Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD), said the incident took place around 6:50 am local time. He did not disclose further information regarding the exact location of the incident, but confirmed that foreign forces did not suffer any casualties.

#7: At least 25 Taliban militants were killed and 10 others were injured following joint military operations by Afghan national security forces in the past.

#8: Drivers and passengers say the Taliban have blown up a big bridge on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. A resident of Qalat city, the capital of Zabul province, Nasim Gul, said he observed the bridge had been comprehensively destroyed. According to reports the bridge on the road had been blown up when a heavy remote controlled bomb targeted a Police patrol near the bridge. The incident took place in Kakarno Chena area of Qalat city.

War News for Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Three Polio Cases Registered in Kandahar

American killed, another hurt in Saudi gas station shooting

The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons


Reported security incidents
#1: The deadliest attack, the car bombing, struck Afghan soldiers during an operation targeting the hideout of suspected suicide bombers in the eastern province of Khost late Tuesday night, according to a statement from the provincial governor's office. Soldiers killed three suspected suicide bombers, including a woman, during the assault, the statement said. After the assault, a car bomb in the compound exploded, killing eight soldiers and wounding five, it said. The statement did not say why or how the bomb exploded.

#2: In Helmand province Tuesday night, gunmen ambushed and killed Nad Ali district chief Mohammad Anwar Khan and his guard, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Zwak said the attack also wounded six police officers.

#3: NATO gunship helicopters violated Pakistani airspace by entering territory near its border with Afghanistan, media reported Wednesday. According to officials, at least five helicopters were seen flying near the border and two of them entered Pakistani territory in Torkham and Pasidkhel, Dawn online reported. The helicopters remained in Pakistani airspace for 10 minutes and returned without any action.

#4: At least six members of an anti-Taliban movement were killed Tuesday in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, an official said. “Taliban attacked on an outpost of public uprising militias in Baraki Barak district, killing all six people,” said Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the governor of the eastern province of Logar.

#5: A big blast rocked the western part of Kabul city on Wednesday, causing panic among the locals, a local said.

#6: At least three soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) were martyred following an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Wednesday that the three soldiers were martyred in the past 24 hours.

#7: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Wednesday at least 25 Taliban militants were killed and 14 others were injured during joint military operations in the past 24 hours.

War News for Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Six police officers were killed in an attack on a police post in Baraki district of Logar Province, south of Kabul, local officials said.

#2: The Interior Ministry said two civilians were killed and three others injured in a roadside bombing in Kabul.

#3: ambush by Taliban fighters killed at least 14 Afghan security force troops, authorities said Monday. The ambush in Sari Pul, where Taliban fighters reportedly have been massing for days, happened Sunday in its Kohistanat district. There, militants opened fire on an Afghan Army unit heading back to the capital after several months being deployed there, killing 12 soldiers and two police officers, said Kazim Kenhan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. Kenhan said 13 troops and four police officers were wounded and six troops are missing after the ambush there.

#4: In Paktia province, hundreds of villagers protested over their allegation that a NATO airstrike killed seven civilians in an operation NATO said killed "eight armed enemy combatants."

#5: About 26 Taliban militants have been killed in fresh military operations in three provinces within the past 24 hours, said the country's Interior Ministry on Tuesday morning.

War News for Monday, October 13, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide car bomber has struck a NATO convoy in the capital, Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding three others. No casualties among international troops have been reported. The attack took place Monday morning near a housing compound for NATO contractors on the main road leading to Jalalabad.

An Afghan civilian has been killed and three foreigners injured in a suicide bomb attack in the capital Kabul. The three foreign security contractors were travelling in a convoy in the west of the city.

#2: Twenty-one militants were killed in air strikes by jet fighters in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal agencies on Sunday.

#3: A bomb blast launched by militants targeted the vehicle of an advisor to Afghanistan's finance ministry injuring him along with two others in the northern Kunduz city on Monday, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.

#4: At least three Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were martyred following a suicide attack in central Maidan Wardak province on Sunday. According to local government officials, the incident took place in Syedabad district on Sunday afternoon. Provincial governor spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani said the suicide bomber rammed a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) into the convoy of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces.

News of the Day for Sunday, October 12, 2014

Attackers wearing police uniforms enter a police HQ in northern Balkh province, kill 2 police and injure 9 before they are killed.

Attack on a police checkpoint in Kunduz results in death of 4 attackers and 1 police officer, according to the district governor.

Attack on a police outpost in Kunar results in deaths of 2 police and 12 insurgents, with 2 police and 6 insurgents injured, according to the local police chief. (As always, we have no corroboration for the reported casualty totals. The Taliban have yet to comment on these latest incidents, but they typically report more government casualties and fewer of their own.)

Here's the usual Ministry of the Interior BS. If you believe them, they've killed the entire Taliban force two or three times by now, with zero government casualties. They used to kill about 27 every day, now it's up into the fifties. Whatever.

A more plausible account from the Defense Ministry says that 5 Afghan soldiers and 17 militants were killed  in the past 24 hours. (Add to that the deaths of 5 police reported above.) The five soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb, the location not disclosed.

A U.S. drone strike is said to kill 4 people in Shawal, North Waziristan  near the Afghan border.

A second drone strike on the border between Khyber and Nangarhar also kills 4, said to include Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

Several Afghan senators warn they will vote against the security agreement with the U.S. if shelling of Afghan territory from Pakistan continues. I'm not quite sure of the logic of this, but apparently they think the U.S. could make it stop if they wanted to.

And sure enough, 70 rockets are fired into Kunar province from Pakistan.

Your tax dollars at work. U.S. spends $486 million to buy 16 transport planes for the Afghan air force from Italy, ends up selling them to a scrap metal dealer for $32,000.

Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. A triple car bombing in a Kurdish town near Jalawla kills at least 20, injures 60. A roadside bomb kills the Anbar police chief. Kurdish forces are holding on in Kobane in northern Syria, but IS renews attack on Baiji in Iraq. 

War News for Saturday, October 11, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: Local officials say a suicide blast has killed a soldier and a policeman, and injured three others in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand. Omar Zwak, a provincial government spokesman said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance of the police headquarters on October 11 in the regional capital, Lashkar Gah.

#2: A US drone strike on Saturday killed four suspected militants and left several others injured on the Pak-Afghan border area near Khyber Agency’s Tirah valley. Official sources said that the drone targeted militant hideouts in the Cancharo Kandoa area on the Afghan side.

#3: A roadside bomb blast killed a member of Aman Lashkar (Peace Committee) in the border area of Kohat on Saturday morning, Geo News reported. According to the sources, miscreants had fixed the remote controlled bomb along the road in the border area of Sipah and when the Anam Lashkar member passed through the area, the bomb went off with a blast.

#4: In two roadside mine explosions, at least 14 civilians killed and wounded in Urozgan province yesterday. The incidents took place, while two roadside mines separately targeted civilians’ vehicles in Chora district, Urozgan province yesterday.

#5: At least three insurgents were killed and eight others wounded following clashes which carried out between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in Urozgan province. The clashes occurred, while Afghan National Army forces attacked on insurgents’ hideout in Gyzab district, Urozgan province last night.

#6: At least 33 rockets were fired in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan in the latest wave of cross-border shelling from the other side of Durand Line. According to local officials in Kunar, the shelling started late Friday night and continued until Saturday morning.

#7: A senior Taliban leader was killed following a drone strike in western Herat province of Afghanistan, local officials said Saturday.

War News for Friday, October 10, 2014

Abduction: Two kidnapped Pakistani engineers freed in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: A US drone attack has killed at least four militants in a restive northwestern Pakistani tribal area on the Afghan border, officials said yesterday, taking the toll from a flurry of strikes this week to 25. The drone attack took place at Laman village in North Waziristan where the Pakistani military has been waging a major offensive since June.

Another slow news day so go enjoy the weekend. -- whisker

War News for Thursday, October 9, 2014

Two Pakistani journalists killed, taking murder tally this year to 13

Suicide car bomb kills 12 soldiers in SE Yemen


Reported security incidents
#1: Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed at least five militants in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region where the military has been fighting insurgents since June, Pakistani intelligence officials said Thursday. The latest drone strikes came just hours apart. In the first strike, two drone-fired missiles hit a moving vehicle in the village of Datta Khel in North Waziristan late on Wednesday night, killing at least two militants, the official said. Two more missiles flattened a militant compound and killed three militants in the same region early on Thursday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

#2: Afghan forces backed by helicopters have killed 70 militants over the past three days in Ajristan district of the southern Ghazni province, provincial police chief Zarawar Zahid said Thursday

War News for Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: A roadside bomb exploded in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday killing an off-duty polio vaccinator and his relative while wounding another worker, officials said. The blast occurred in the Ali Nagar village of the Mohammad tribal district along the Afghan border where Taliban militants are active.

#2: Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike on a Taliban compound in the North Waziristan tribal region has killed at least four militants. Two intelligence officials say two missiles hit the compound of a suspected Taliban commander in the village of Mangorthi, in the Shawal area. The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

#3: An Afghan official says a suicide car bomber has killed at least five people in an attack that targeted a former district police chief in southern Helmand province. Omar Zwak, spokesman for Helmand’s provincial governor, says the bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the house of the former police chief in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, on Wednesday.Five people were killed in the explosion. Zwak says the former police chief and 18 others were wounded in the attack.

#4: Pul-e-Khomri (BNA) Chairman of board of Baghlan  Markazi district, Baghlan province  Haji Abdul Ahad survived assassination today. Ghowhar Khan Babordi governor of Baghlan Markazi district, Baghlan province said BNA a magnetic mine was planted by enemies of peace and security in a vehicle of Haji Abdul Ahad, chairman of board of Baghlan Markzai district, before reaching to the target, discovered and prevented from a bloody and terrorist event. 

#5: Nangarhar police spokesman said BNA, the clash took place while armed Taliban targeted security posts of Peachagram district, Nangarhar province in which Haji Zewar and Qari Hamid two ring-leaders of armed rebels killed and 6 others were wounded. The Source added, there were no casualties among Afghan security forces and civilians in the clashes.

#6: In the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, 20 armed militants have given up fighting and 19 others have lost their lives in clash with security forces over the past 24 hours.

War News for Monday, October 6, 2014

US-Led Air Strikes Leave 65 Civilians Dead in Iraq's Anbar


Reported security incidents
#1: A U.S. drone strike on Sunday killed at least five militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. The attack happened in the Kundghar area of Shawal district, in the South Waziristan tribal region which is considered a stronghold of Taliban militants.

#2: At least three people were killed and two others injured in a firing incident in the Khuzdar area of Balochistan on Monday morning. Levies officials told Dawn that armed men opened fire at a pickup van and killed three people in the Zehri area of Khuzdar.

#3: Two civilians sustained injuries as a bomb blast hit police van in the northern Kunduz provincial capital the Kunduz city 250 km north of Kabul on Monday, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.

News of the Day for Sunday, October 5, 2014

As president Ghani takes the reins of power, investigation into the Kabul bank scandal resumes. Of some $913 million embezzled by former officials, $729 million is still missing. The theft involved members of president Karzai's family, including his brother.

Geolocation information in a tweet by Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid shows that he is in Sindh, Pakistan. He denies it, but it is what it is. Note that the Afghan government has consistently accused Pakistan of harboring Afghan Taliban leaders. Oops.

Local officials say security forces disrupted a planned attack on Eid-al-Adha celebrations in Faryab province.

Analyst Andrew Hammond sees the power sharing deal between Ghani and Abdullah as fragile, creating a danger of the country dividing along ethnic and regional lines should it break down.

And, back in Mesopotamia, the Marine lost at sea on Thursday is identified as Cpl. Jordan L. Spears, 21, of Memphis, IN. Note that the campaign against IS does not have a name: it's just "operations in Iraq and Syria." Hmm.

IS captures the town of Kubaisa in Anbar (near Hit), threatening the Ain al-Asad military base which is essential to defense of the Haditha dam. IS captured Hit a few days ago.

Pakistani Taliban declares support for IS.

War News for Saturday, October 4, 2014

The DoD is reporting the death of Maj. Jonathan D. Walker, 44, of Merriam who died from a non-combat related incident at at Camp As Sayliyah in Dohar, Qatar on Wednesday, October 1st. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

True number of UK troops damaged by war in Iraq and Afghanistan could be 75,000


Reported security incidents
#1: A bomb has exploded at a bus station in volatile northwestern Pakistan, killing at least five people. Police said the October 4 attack in the town of Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province also wounded 18.

#2: Eight people, including a three-year-old girl, were wounded in a remote controlled bombing on Quetta’s Spini Road aimed at a police vehicle passing by the area.

#3: Three consecutive blasts were reported at Gomal Zam Dam Road of Tank in an attack on the vehicle of the Aman Committee was attacked today. According to reports, exchange of firing between the Aman Committee members and terrorists also took place soon after the blasts. No causalities were reported while some of the houses were damaged in the blasts.

#4: a bomb blast in a mosque in Laghman province, an Islamic scholar was killed and a prayer wounded yesterday.

#5: As a result of a mine blast a child was killed in Pul-e-Khumri city, Baghlan province last night.

#6: recent clashes between insurgents and Afghan security forces four armed oppositions were killed in eastern Nuristan province. The clashes occurred last night, while a group of armed rebels attacked on two border police checkpoints on the other side of Durand Line.

#7: Nineteen armed insurgents were killed in operation conducted by ANA forces in three provinces of the country.


DoD: Maj. Jonathan D. Walker, 44, of Merriam

War News for Friday, October 3, 2014

The DoD is reporting the death of Sgt. 1st Class Andrew T. Weathers who died at at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany on Tuesday September 30th. He was wounded in a small arms weapon attack in Helmand Province Sunday, September 28th.

Afghan army death rate spikes 30 percent

Pakistan may break own record on polio cases


Reported security incidents
#1: Pakistan fighter jets pounded militant positions in Jamrud and Bara areas of north western Khyber tribal region on Friday killing at least 15 terrorists.

#2: Two militants were killed and eight others were wounded in airstrikes carried out by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, ARY News reports on Friday.


DoD: Sgt. 1st Class Andrew T. Weathers

War News for Thursday, October 2, 2014

Reported security incidents
#1: A Taliban suicide attacker killed three people on an Afghan army bus in Kabul on Thursday. "I can confirm a suicide attack on a bus carrying Afghan army staff," Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman for the ministry of defence, told AFP. "We have three killed and eight wounded.

#2: An ASI was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the early hours of today near Wazir Bagh area of Peshawar. According to Police sources, armed men opened fire at assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Asif Mehmood's vehicle near Wazir Bagh area in the limits of Yakatoot police station as he was traveling with his son to drop him to school. Police said that the assailants sped away on their motorcycle after the attack.

#3: A bomb blast on a passenger coach in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killed at least seven people and wounded another six, police said.

#4: Nineteen armed insurgents were killed in operation conducted by ANA forces in three provinces of the country.

#5: A local police commander martyred in explosion of a mine in Logar province the other day.
Commander Ghofran was going from his house to Pul-e-Alam center of Logar province, his vehicle hit a mine. According to reports, a magnetic mine was placed in vehicle of the commander and controlled from long distance.

War News for Wednesday, October 1, 2014

German soldiers 'stranded' in Afghanistan as more planes breakdown


Reported security incidents
#1: Two suicide bombers attacked military buses in the Afghan capital Kabul killing at least seven people and wounding more than 20 early on Wednesday. The first attacker hit a bus with Afghan National Army officers, killing seven and wounding 15 in west Kabul, said Kabul criminal investigation police chief Mohammad Farid Afzali. The second attacker, who was also on foot, blew himself up in front of a second bus in northeast Kabul, wounding additional army personnel, Afzali said.

#2: A polio team was attacked on Wednesday in the Khanpur area of Rahim Yar Khan, Express News reported. Police arrived at the scene and arrested a school teacher, identified as Ashraf, who reportedly led the attack. The polio team halted immunisation activities in the area following the incident.

#3: A hand grenade exploded in a crowded barbershop in southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding 10 others in what police said was probably an ethnically-targeted attack. The blast occurred in the main market of Quetta, capital of the restive Baluchistan province

#4: A fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) crashed on the outskirts of Quetta on Wednesday, however, pilot remained safe in the accident, Pakistan Tribune reported.

#5: At least six civilians were injured following an explosion in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan on Wednesday. Proivncial police spokesman, Sarwar Hussaini, said the explosion took place due to a magnetic improvised explosive device (IED) planted in a police vehicle.