War News for Saturday, July 13, 2013

Reported security incidents
#1: At least 12 Taliban militant were killed during clashes with the Afghan border protection police forces in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, local officials said. Head of the border police of 3rd zone, Gen. Abdul Razaq said the Taliban militants were killed by border police quick reaction forces in Shina Narai area at Arghistan district. He said the incident took place after Pakistani Taliban militants attacked Afghan border police security check posts from Manzakai check posts located inside the Pakistan soil.

 

War News for Friday, July 12, 2013

Police: Bombings, shootings leave 24 dead across Iraq

DOD Identifies Units for Upcoming Afghanistan Rotation


Reported security incidents
#1: A 15-year-old suicide bomber pushing an explosives-laden refrigerator on a wheelbarrow struck one of the two main border gates between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday, the second attack on the busy crossing in under a week. The device detonated as the boy crossed the gate, killing him and a civilian bystander, according to Akbar Durani, the home secretary of Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Four Pakistani border guards and four Pakistani civilians were injured in the explosion at the crossing, on the main highway linking Afghanistan's city of Kandahar to the Pakistani city of Quetta.

#2: A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan police checkpost on the outskirts of Kabul, killing one person and wounding two others on the first Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, police said. "The bomber was in a passenger Toyota sedan. Police stopped the vehicle and wanted to search everyone. The bomber ran away and blew himself up. As a result of the explosion, one passenger was killed and two others wounded," Salangi said.

#3: Unknown gunmen opened fire in Mingora area of Swat and killed an on-duty policemen, local tv reported Friday. According to police, Constable Aminullah was on duty in Nawa Kali area of Mingora when armed culprits opened fire on him during Sehar time and fled from the scene.
 
#4: The NATO-led coalition says one of its helicopters made a “hard landing” in northern Afghanistan but that there were no injuries. Afghan provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad says the helicopter made an emergency landing but then flew back to its base on its own.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan says one of its helicopters has gone down in the northern province of Baghlan. ISAF spokesman Will Griffin said the aircraft had a "hard landing," but offered no further details. Abdul Jabar Islami, the head of the province's Borka district, where the incident reportedly took place, told RFE/RL that the helicopter went down overnight in the village of Alaf Baig.

War News for Thursday, July 11, 2013

Karachi: Bomb kills President Zardari's security chief, 2 others

Drones in Niger Reflect New U.S. Tack on Terrorism

Lawmakers say administration’s lack of candor on surveillance weakens oversight

UK to withdraw 5200 troops from Afghanistan by end of 2013

US wastes $34M on base in Afghanistan it will never use


Reported security incidents

#1: Afghan officials say at least five people, including two police officers, have been killed by two bombs in the southern province of Helmand. Ummar Zawaq, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said three civilians were killed when their car struck a roadside bomb. Zawaq said two police officers who had rushed to the scene to help the victims died when a second bomb went off.
#2: According to another report, an intelligence official was wounded and his guard killed in a roadside bombing in Kajran district of central Bamyan province.

#3: Two people were killed and three others injured in a powerful bomb blast near Kacha Pakha area of Kohat, which is adjacent to Pakistan’s restive tribal areas along the Afghan border, Local News Channel reported. According to initial details, the bomb planted in a motorcycle exploded on Hangu road, killing at least two people and injuring several others.


SL/DM: čatár Daniel Kavuliak

War News for Wednesday, July 10, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insider shooting from an ANA soldier in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 9th. Various news reports that American, Chezh republic and or Slovakia soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack. News also reports that the attack was at Kandahar airport which also wounded up to nine additional soldiers. At this time we believe that the deceased was an American pending on a DoD release.


Reported security incidents
#1: Seventeen villagers were killed Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan. In the attack in the western province of Herat, Taliban militants fleeing a joint Afghan police and army patrol placed a roadside bomb along a village road in an attempt to kill the government troops, local police Lt. Sher Agha said. But the bomb went off instead next to a makeshift vehicle carrying 12 women, four children and one man, killing all of them, Agha said.

#2: Meanwhile, five people sustained casualties in the mine explosion in Khanshin District of Helmand Province southern Afghanistan. Omar Zwak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand Province, has said that the mine targeting a vehicle of civilians went off in the Wazirabad area of Khanshin District and three people were killed and two others injured as a result.

#3: In another incident, three people were killed in a foreign forces' unmanned aircraft attack in Khogiani District of Nangarhar Province eastern Afghanistan. Residents of Khogiani District said the foreign forces' unmanned aircraft attacked the Tatang area in this district at noon today, 9 July, and three people were killed as a result. He added that the killed people were residents of the Wazir area in this district and said: "I do not know whether or not these people were Taleban." Officials in Nangarhar expressed unawareness about this incident.

War News for Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Obama strongly considers withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan in 2014

In an interview to a British newspaper, Khan said 35 militant groups were operating under the name of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Leaked Report Cites Pakistan’s Failings Before U.S. Killed Bin Laden


Reported security incidents:
#1: The Afghan army's commander in southern Afghanistan says one of his troops opened fire on American soldiers at Kandahar airfield but did not cause any casualties. Gen. Abdul Hamid said the shooter was taken into custody after the Tuesday morning incident and is now being questioned.

#2: One tribesman was injured when his home in Angoor Adda was hit by a mortar shell fired from Paktika province of Afghanistan on Monday, official sources said. The sources said that seven mortar shells fired from Paktika landed in Angoor Adda area in South Waziristan. A tribesman, whose identity could not be ascertained, was injured as his house was hit by the shell. The injured was shifted to a private clinic where his condition was stated to be critical.

 #3: A motorbike bomb targeting a tribal elder allied to the government reportedly killed at least seven people and wounded 12 others in Doaba town of Hangu on Monday. "A remote-controlled device planted on a motorbike parked on the roadside went off when a vehicle owned by Malik Habibullah, a local pro-government elder, passed by," local police chief Sajjad Khan told AFP. He said Habibullah was not in the car when the bomb exploded.

#4: "The two policemen had already defused four bombs planted near a government boys' school in the area, but a fifth bomb exploded while being defused, killing both of them," local police chief Mian Muhammad Saeed told AFP.

#5: One local leader was killed in a drive-by shooting in the country's restive southern province of Uruzgan, 370 km south of the national capital Kabul. "Sayyed Rasoul Khan, a tribal elder and the former administrative chief of Charchino District, was shot dead in provincial capital Tirin Kot city at around 9 a.m. local time. The attackers fled the scene. Police launched investigation into the case," spokesman for the provincial government Abdullah Himat told Xinhua.

#6: two civilians were killed and one was injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire in Kunduz Province, 250 km north of Kabul earlier on Tuesday.

#7: Separately, five Talibans, including a local insurgent leader Mullah Bashir, were killed when Taliban launched an attack on Afghan National Police (ANP) checkpoints in Andar District of eastern Ghazni Province overnight. Two ANP personnel were also wounded in the gunfight that lasted for more than two hours in the province, 125 km south of Kabul, deputy provincial police chief Qasim Desiwall told Xinhua.

#8: Thirty-eight Taliban militants have been killed in security operations across Afghanistan within the last 24 hours, said the country's Interior Ministry Tuesday morning.

War News for Monday, July 08, 2013

Insurgents increasing in east Afghanistan but army sees gains

Norway threatens to cut Afghan aid


Reported security incidents
#1: Officials in Afghanistan say more than 20 Taliban militants have been killed in security operations in the country's east. The largest operation took place in Wardak Province, west of Kabul, where Afghan National Army soldiers killed 16 Taliban and confiscated weapons, cars, and motorcycles belonging to the militia. A spokesman for the Wardak governor said four additional Taliban were killed in a smaller police operation in the province. In nearby Laghman Province, a government official said two militants were killed in a gunbattle with the Afghan intelligence service. Ten members of the Afghan security forces were killed in the operations, including three national police killed at a checkpoint attack in Nangahar Province. 

#2: Gunmen opened fire on a tanker carrying fuel for US-led forces in Afghanistan in the Wadh area of Khuzdar district on Sunday. Police said the gunmen on a bike attacked the tanker when it was going to the border town of Chaman from Karachi, and escaped.

#3: Militants on Monday torched three Nato containers in the Western Bypass area of Quetta. According to the police, four militants on two motorcycles opened fire on the containers, forcing the drivers to flee. Police sources added that the militants then came close to the containers and set them on fire. Police said that the three containers were parked at the Hazarganji bus stand. "Roaring flames of fire and thick black smoke could be seen from quite far away', eye witnesses said.
The assailants escaped unharmed from the site of the incident.

#4: A roadside bomb seriously wounded a prominent member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council on Sunday, an official said, while the government announced that recent fighting in the country has killed 14 Afghan soldiers and 64 Taliban militants. Fazil Ahmad, the High Peace Council's chief in Ghazni province, was in critical condition in a hospital with three others, who had been travelling with him, when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, said deputy provincial police chief Asadullah Ensafi. The car's driver was killed.

#5: In Kabul, the defence ministry said 14 soldiers and 27 Taliban militants had been killed in fighting and in roadside bomb attacks over the previous 24 hours. The ministry said the casualties included 10 Taliban fighters killed in a single operation in Wardak province, west of Kabul. Three soldiers were killed in Wardak by artillery fire and roadside bombs. Seven more soldiers were killed in Helmand province by roadside bombs, and four others were killed in other attacks across the country. The interior ministry, which controls the country's police forces, reported another 37 Taliban killed. It announced no police casualties.


US/DoD: Pvt. Errol D.A. Milliard

News of the Day for Sunday, July 7, 2013

In a somewhat unusual announcement, the Afghan Ministry of Defense says that 14 Afghan soldiers and 27 insurgents have been killed in various incidents in the past 24 hours. Based on the news reports I have seen, they apparently do not specify all of the incidents, but they include roadside bombs and gun battles. The Interior Ministry says separately that 37 Taliban have been killed with no Afghan fatalities. This is typical of Interior Ministry announcements, as I have noted before, and does not seem credible. The press reports are assuming that the 27 insurgent deaths referred to by the Defense Ministry, and the 37 by the Interior Ministry, represent separate individuals, and that 64 Taliban have been killed. Until I see some corroboration for these Interior Ministry reports, I am skeptical. The Afghan national police appear to be invulnerable, while oddly the army is susceptible to bullets and bombs.

Zakaria Kandahari, a former employee of the U.S. military accused of torture, has been captured and is in the custody of the National Directorate of Intelligence. As you may recall, he was running a paramilitary unit in Wardak Province which delivered prisoners to an American base there. Seventeen of the civilians he turned over to U.S. custody have subsequently been killed or have disappeared. Afghan officials say they have video of him torturing a prisoner. The U.S. denies any wrongdoing on the part of its own forces and claim that Kandahari was not working for the U.S. at the time he committed abuses. Oddly, however, he earlier escaped from U.S. custody. Afghan officials accuse the U.S. of allowing him to escape. Excerpt from reporting by Rod Nordland for the NYT, please follow the above link:

Afghan investigators uncovered a videotape showing Mr. Kandahari torturing one civilian, Sayid Mohammad, and said there was substantial evidence to prove that American personnel were involved in the detentions of the missing civilians. The bodies of 10 victims were found near the Special Forces base beginning in April, after the Americans left; the last was discovered on June 4, according to Afghan forensic investigators and family members of the victims. They had disappeared between November 2012 and February 2013. . . .

Afghan officials have been unable to determine the makeup of the American base, and believe that that a C.I.A. team may have actually been responsible for Mr. Kandahari. Mr. Kandahari had been transferred to Nerkh from Camp Gecko in Kandahar, which is a C.I.A. substation. He was ostensibly part of a team of Afghans working for a mine-clearing aid group, which was a cover for paramilitary activity. General Farahi said that investigators had determined that of the last 10 people who disappeared in Wardak, only in two of their cases was there any evidence of possible links with insurgents.

Yet another Afghan mortar shell lands in South Waziristan, killing one civilian and injuring five. (It is not clear why this is happening. These reports do not come with any explanation.)

A French-run bomb analysis laboratory   analyzes the IEDs that explode or are found and defused, and traces the phone calls that are often used to detonate them, to guide counter efforts. This AFP story contains an interesting description of the variety of IEDs and associated tactics.

The film Madrasa, which had been censored, is finally screened in Afghanistan. The movie depicts the plight of Afghan refugees in Iran, and had been suppressed at the behest of the Iranian government. In a compromise, some scenes have been deleted.