War News for Wednesday, January 18, 2011

Pakistan rejects US envoy visit

Coalition limits details on troops killed by Afghans

Pakistan to resume jet fuel supply to Afghanistan

British troops in Afghan child abuse investigation


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghanistan's government says its security forces have killed nine armed insurgents and captured 23 suspects in a series of raids across the country. An Interior Ministry statement issued Wednesday morning said the operations over the preceding 24 hours in eight different provinces also discovered caches of weapons, ammunition and explosives. Meanwhile, the country's Defence Ministry says a soldier was killed and four were wounded in clashes with insurgents on Tuesday.

#2: Pakistani reporter Mukarram Khan Aatif, who worked for the Voice of America, was shot and killed in a mosque in northwest Pakistan, VOA reported. The report said the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Aatif's assassination Tuesday in Shabqadar, a small town about 25 miles from Peshawar, capital of the violence-ravaged Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The report, quoting police and witnesses, said Aatif, who was in his 40s, was shot in the head and chest by two people who arrived at the mosque where the journalist was offering his evening prayers. The assassins escaped.

#3: Annoyed with the silence of the government and others over the US drone intrusions, gun-totting tribesmen took things in their hands on Tuesday and fired at the drones that appeared over North Waziristan Agency. Local people said that more than six unmanned planes were seen flying at low altitude over Miramshah, Razmak, Datakhel, Mirali, Shawal and other areas of North Waziristan throughout the day.Angry tribesmen in some areas started heavy firing on the drones. Witnesses said that tribesmen used Kalashnikov rifles and heavy machineguns to shoot down the intruding
unmanned planes. According to reports, drones also flew over Azam Warsak area of the adjacent South Waziristan Agency.

#4: Casualties were feared as a blast rocked Kunduz city, capital of Kunduz province, some 250 km north of Afghan capital city of Kabul, provincial police sources said Wednesday.

#5: A suicide car bomb struck close to a military base in eastern Afghan province of Nangahar on Tuesday, killing two people including the attacker and wounding two others, an official said. "A suicide bomber set off his explosive-laden car next to a military base in Ghani Khil district in Nangarhar province at 02: 30 p.m. local time Tuesday, as a result one guard at the gate of the base was killed and two others sustained injuries," spokesman of the provincial administration Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told Xinhua.

#6: According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, an explosion rocked eastern Khost province on Wednesday. The officials further added, the incident took place around 11:00 am local time on Wednesday after an explosive device attached to a Corolla type vehicle went off in the area. Provincial security chief for eastern Khost province Gen. Mohammad Yaqoob said, the explosion took place as a result of a magnetic bomb which destroyed the vehicle. Gen. Yaqoob further added, there were no civilian casualties as a result of the incident.

#7: According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, at least two Afghan police service members were injured following mortar attack in eastern Nangarhar province. The officials further added, the incident took place at fourth district of Jalalabad city after a mortar struck a police check post. Provincial security chief Gen. Masoom Hashimi confirming the report said, the incident took place on Tuesday night around 8 pm local time.


DoD: Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman

DoD: Lance Cpl. Kenneth E. Cochran