War News for Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The DoD is reporting the deaths of four U.S. soldiers. They died when their U-28 plane crashed near Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa on Saturday, February 18th. This appears to be a non-hostile accident. There’s various news reports on the soldiers and their units missions which preforms transport operations to small airfields for navy SEALS and and Rangers and electronic surveillance. They were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The Albanian MoD is reporting the death of an Albanian ISAF soldier when an apparent Afghan National Police man shot him while on patrol somewhere in Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Monday, February 20th. The MoD and news reports that another Albanian soldier and an unidentified ISAF soldier were also wounded in the attack. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-hostile related injury in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 21st.


Photos: Heavy snowfall hits Kabul - Note: Afghanistan is experiencing one of the coldest and worse withers in recent memory, Perhaps this is way the violence has subsided over the previous few months and no winter offensive has materialized. Even border areas of Pakistan has been having unseasonable cold weather and snow places where it’s almost never seen. I presume that after the spring thaw and flooding season is over things will be back to normal and the fighting will resume. - whisker

Afghanistan Health Alert: Measles Outbreak


Reported security incidents
#1: A homemade bomb planted in a motorcycle exploded outside a hospital in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police officials said. There were no casualties.

#2: A homemade bomb exploded next to a police vehicle in the Bagzai area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region, security officials said. There were no casualties.

#3: One policeman was killed when militants attacked a police checkpost in the Panjgur area of the southwestern Baluchistan province, police officials said.

#4: Insurgents beheaded four civilians they believed to be spying for the government in the Washir district of southern Helmand province, the regional governor said in a statement.

#5: A roadside bomb killed four civilians including a child in the Shah Wali Kot district of the southern Kandahar province on Sunday, ISAF said in a statement.

#6: Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed two insurgents, wounded three and detained one more in Kabul and Logar provinces over the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement.


DoD: Capt. Ryan P. Hall

DoD: Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock

DoD: 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens

DoD: Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten

AL/MoD: Captain FeTi Vogli

War News for Monday, February 20, 2012

The Italian MoD is reporting the deaths of three Italian ISAF soldiers in a Vehicle accident during a rescue operation about 20 KM. south-west of Shindand, Herat province, Afghanistan on Monday, February 20th. An additional soldier was injured in the incident. Here's the ISAF release.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough died from undisclosed causes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, February 17th. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.


The end of American intervention

Taliban Gaining More Resources From Kidnapping

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 19. Feb 20.


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed four civilians in southern Kandahar province. The police chief of Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district, Mohammad Bacha Khan, said the four were killed on Sunday when their car drove over the bomb. The explosion occurred on a highway in the district.

#2: Also Monday, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in southern Afghanistan's largest city, Kandahar, killing one police officer. The attacker drove a Toyota Corolla up to the checkpoint outside of the Kandahar police station and detonated his explosives, said the city's police chief, Abdul Raziq. Four people were wounded in the explosion — two police officers and two civilians, he added. Gunfire could be heard immediately following the blast, but Raziq said the shots came from the police.

#3: Mohammad Salim, a police commander in Shindand, said two men on a motorcycle drove up and fired shots at police officers who were shopping in the market. One officer and a boy who was standing nearby were killed.

#4: And a Turkish engineer who was working on construction projects in Shindand was kidnapped over the weekend, Salim said. He said kidnappers forced the man into a car as he was leaving the airport on Saturday. He did not provide further details.

#5: A bomb planted at a checkpoint manned by members of a Pakistani militia fighting a radical group similar to the Taliban exploded Sunday and killed eight militia members in northwest Pakistan, a government official said. The complex attack started when a bomb planted at the checkpoint was detonated by a timer, Khan said. Then as the militiamen were retrieving the bodies, the militants opened fired on them. The militiamen escaped unhurt, but two of the militants were killed in the retaliatory fire.

#6: Militants attacked a Pakistani military checkpost, killing a soldier and wounding three others, in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, intelligence and security officials said.


DoD: Sgt. Jerry D. Reed II

DoD: Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough

News of the Day for Sunday, February 19, 2012

Afghan Ministry of Health says 40 internally displaced people, including 22 children, have died from unusually cold conditions. Many people in refugee camps have inadequate shelter and fuel.

British hand over a patrol base in Helmand to Afghan forces.

Hamid Karzai meets with a Pakistani cleric, Maulana Samiul Haq, who runs a seminary where many Taliban have studied, to ask his help in promoting peace talks. Despite assertions to the contrary by some Afghan and NATO sources, the Taliban continue to deny that they have entered into any form of negotiations.

Epidemic of heroin addiction destroys Afghan lives, breeds widespread corruption and organized crime. (The news is, the opium trade used to be mainly for export.)

Afghan Defense Ministry orders soldiers who have family in Pakistan to move them to Afghanistan. They apparently fear that family members in Pakistan can be threatened, held hostage or influenced to turn the soldiers.

Afghan former head of the Directorate of National Security, Amrullah Saleh, casts doubt on the possibility of reconciliation with the Taliban.

Afghan writer Nabizada discusses violence against women.

Pakistani Foreign Affairs Minister Hina Rabbani Khar denies that Mullah Omar is in Pakistan. Riiiiigggghhhht .. .

Iraq Update

Suicide car bomber outside Baghdad police academy kills 18 police recruits, injures an additional 27 recruits and police.

Iraqi government says it is tightening security at the Syrian border to try to stem the flow of arms to Syrian rebels. (Recall that Iraq's Sunni Arabs generally support the Syrian uprising. The Shiite-led government opposes it, hence this is a manifestation of Iraq's sectarian divide.)

War News for Saturday, February 18, 2012

Reported security incidents
#1: update The death toll from a suicide motorbike bomb attack in a largely Shiite Muslim area of northwest Pakistan has risen to 31, according to officials. "The death toll rose to 31 after five more people died overnight," top regional administrator Sahibzada Mohammad Anees told AFP. "We still have 35 wounded people, who had been admitted to different hospitals in Parachinar and Peshawar for treatment," he said. A senior local administration official in Parachinar, Shahab Ali Shah, confirmed the new toll. The bomb exploded near a mosque as the main Friday prayers took place in Parachinar, a flashpoint for sectarian violence between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border.

#2: Militants ambushed a Pakistani paramilitary convoy in the Dera Bugti area of southwestern Baluchistan province, killing two soldiers and wounding nine others, security officials said.

#3: A homemade bomb exploded in the Tirah area of the northwestern Khyber tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, killing three Pakistani soldiers, intelligence officials said.

#4: Three insurgent were killed and eight other suspects detained during joint operations launched by the Afghan forces and NATO-led troops in four Afghan provinces, the country's Interior Ministry said on Saturday. "Afghan National Police, Afghan army and International Coalition Forces launched four joint operations in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours killing three armed insurgents and detaining eight others," the ministry said in a statement.

War News for Friday, February 17, 2012

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyler L. Estrada died from a non-combat related training incident in Djibouti on Tuesday, February 14th. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury somewhere in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, February 16th.


Afghan drug war debacle: Blair said smashing opium trade was a major reason to invade but 10 years on heroin production is up from 185 tons a year to 5,800

Fearing infiltration, Afghan army gives soldiers with ties to Pakistan an ultimatum

US intentions to militarise Asia

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 17

Health groups discover radioactive materials in Iraq Fallujah


Reported security incidents
#1: An explosion killed five people and injured several others in Pakistan's tribal region on Friday, a senior government official told CNN. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the explosion, said Shahab Ali Shah, the top government official of Kurrum Agency, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The incident took place in a market of Parachinar, a town in Kurrum Agency, where people are gathered after their Friday prayer, Shah said.

#2: A clash between Pakistani troops and Taliban on Friday killed five militants and three members of a government sponsored militia in the country’s troubled northwest, security officials said. Fighting erupted after Pakistani troops and local militia launched a joint operation against Taliban in the Spindand area of Khyber tribal district, which borders Afghanistan. “Five militants and three members of the militia have been killed in the clash. Three security persons and four militia members have been wounded,” a security official told AFP. “The number of injured from the Taliban side is unknown,” he said.


DoD: Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyler L. Estrada

War News for Thursday, February 16, 2012

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 16


Reported security incidents
#1: A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles at a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal region near the Afghan border Thursday, killing six people, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The attack occurred in Spalga village in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The identities of those killed were unknown.

#2: Twelve people were killed in the second drone strike within 12 hours in North Waziristan on Thursday, security officials said. Officials said that a car was targeted in Khaisoor area of the agency’s Mir Ali town. The attack was confirmed by two other security officials in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan region, known as a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda linked militants. Security officials said several other militants were wounded but the exact number was not immediately known.

#3: A homemade bomb planted in a vehicle exploded in the city of Quetta in the southwestern Baluchistan province, police officials said. There were no casualties.

#4: A militant threw a hand grenade at police officials in the northwestern city of Peshawar, wounding three people, police officials said.

#5: One soldier and eight militants were killed in a skirmish between Pakistani forces and a group of militants in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, intelligence officials said.

#6: A suicide bomber detonated his explosive jacket in the town of Dir Khas in the northwestern Upper Dir district, near the Afghanistan border, killing two people and wounding another five, police officials said. The bomber targeted members of a local pro-government, anti-Taliban militia, officials added.

At least three people were killed and seven others were injured in a suicide bomb attack targeting a gathering of local pro-government peace militiamen in Pakistan's northwest Upper Dir area on Thursday morning, reported local media. Earlier local media reports said that the attack took place in Lower Dir area, but they later changed the venue of the attack to Upper Dir. According to a report by local Urdu TV channel Samaa, the incident took place at about 11:30 a.m. (local time) when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of local pro- government peace militiamen in Upper Dir area, a district located in the country's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Three participants of the meeting including a son of a tribal leader were killed right on the spot while seven others sustained injuries.

#7: According to local authorities in eastern Afghanistan, at least 3 Afghan civilians were injured following a NATO air raid at eastern Ghazni province. District police chief for Deh-Yak in eastern Ghazni province Faiz Toofan said, at least 3 Afghan civilians including a 7 year old Afghan kid were injured after a missile struck in Alo-Khel village in this district last night.

#8: Several armed insurgents were killed following armed clashes with the Afghan and coalition security forces in northern Afghanistan. According to a statement issued by International Security Assistance Force, fghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in Shirin Tagab district, Faryab province.

War News for Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Full Nato supply resumption from March

Britain shouldn’t aid a lawless America

Noam Chomsky: “Losing” the World: American Decline in Perspective, Part 1

US Secret Armies Gear Up for Global War

Unconfirmed reports suggest changes in Afghan Cabinet



Reported security incidents
#1: Six people were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in a market in the Jamrud area of Khyber tribal region, residents and local officials said.

#2: Militants opened fire on a group of labourers in the town of Turbat in the southwestern Baluchistan province, killing seven of them, local government officials said.

#3: A joint Afghan and coalition security force killed three insurgents in Zharay district of Kandahar province on Wednesday, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition said in a statement.

#4: Separately, two insurgents were killed in Khanabad district of Kunduz province in the north of the country on Tuesday, it said.

#5: Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed two insurgents and detained five in the Kabul, Nangarhar, Helmand, Wardak and Khost provinces over the past 24 hours, the interior ministry said in a statement


MoD: Senior Aircraftman Ryan Tomlin