War News for Saturday, July 20, 2013

Reported security incidents
#1: The most deadly attack killed five members of the Afghan intelligence service and a policeman, when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Sangin district of Helmand province, AP said, citing Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the region’s governor. The deputy head of Sangin’s intelligence service was among those who died, the spokesman was reported as saying.

#2: Helmand police spokesman Shamim Noorzia said the other three bombings killed six civilians and two police officers.

#3: Fifteen militants were killed and scores of others were injured in Operation Khyber - II which commenced on July 19 and completed on the 20th as security forces cleared key militant transit points. Four soldiers also died during the gunbattles, officials said. Military sources told Dawn.com that the operation launched in the Kharmatung area, between Frontier Region Kohat and Khyber tribal region’s Bara, had been completed and most of the key areas which served as passage points for insurgents had been cleared.

Twenty-nine Taliban were killed and 24 others wounded in clashes and operations since Friday morning, said the Afghan Interior Ministry and officials on Saturday morning. "In the past 24 hours, the Afghan National Security Forces ( ANSF) and Coalition Forces conducted several cleanup operations in Herat, Ghazni, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktiya provinces. As a result 20 armed Taliban were killed, 12 wounded and six other armed Taliban were arrested by the ANSF," the ministry said in a press statement.

In addition, seven Taliban were killed and 12 wounded in an infighting in Kushki Kuhna district of western Herat province on Friday, the district administrative chief Ahmad Farid told Xinhua, adding the clash took place following collecting of illegal extortion from locals in a pistachio forest in the area some 640 km west of Kabul.

#4: Earlier on Saturday, two Taliban fighters were killed and one policeman was injured as Taliban launched an attack against police checkpoint in Chardara district of northern Kunduz province, 250 km north of Kabul, the deputy provincial police chief Ebadullah Talwar told Xinhua.

War News for Friday, July 19, 2013

Afghan customs fines hike cost of U.S. military pullout

Customs issues halts flow of US military equipments from Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: A bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed five children and a woman after it went off as they were playing with it inside a Taliban commander's home, an official said Friday. The incident occurred on Thursday morning in the remote Mata Khan district, inside the house of an insurgent leader named Abdullah, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the governor in Paktika province.

#2: A Slovak soldier who suffered serious injuries after being shot in the chest in a recent attack at the Kandahar military base in Afghanistan is to undergo further surgery, Slovak Armed Forces spokesperson Milan Vanga told the TASR newswire on Thursday, July 18. He revealed that the condition of the other seriously injured soldier, who was shot in the head, remains critical.

#3: Thirty-two militants have been killed in different Afghan provinces in the last 24 hours, said the country's Interior Ministry on Friday. "Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops conducted cleanup operations in Baghlan, Kunduz, Balkh, Logar, Helmand and Kandahar provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result 26 Taliban insurgents had been killed, five wounded and six Taliban were detained," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

War News for Thursday, July 18, 2013

Car bomb explodes outside mosque in Bahrain

Pakistan deny airspace violation by NATO helicopters


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan boy, 12, was killed by his own bombs as he attempted to attack a convoy of Afghan and NATO troops, a Ghazni, Afghanistan, security chief said. Provincial security chief Haji Asadullah confirmed the boy had explosives on his bicycle, which detonated while a convoy of troops. Asadullah added a police officer was injured, but Afghan and coalition troops did not suffer casualties.

#2: Eight Afghan labourers who were on their way to work at a US military base in Logar province have been shot dead, local officials say. The men, aged between 15 and 25, were in a van when they were stopped by gunmen, forced out and shot, a local government spokesman said. The attack took place in the early hours of Thursday morning in the Pad Khwab area of Logar's capital, Pol-e-Alam.

#3: At least two soldiers of paramilitary Frontier Corps were killed and three others injured Thursday when armed men ambushed their vehicle in north-west Pakistan's restive tribal region, officials said. The gunmen attacked the vehicle carrying soldiers in Kamar area of Bajaur, one of the seven tribal districts, where al Qaeda linked militants have hideouts. An official from office of the political agent, the civilian administrator of the district, said that the FC was on routine patrol in the suburbs of the district headquarter Khar, when the incident occurred. "Two soldiers were killed and three injured in the attack," said the official.

#4: AN Australian Special Forces soldier has been wounded during an operation in Afghanistan. The soldier suffered fractures and concussion during an unspecified incident last week but the injuries were not life-threatening, Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Ash Power said.

#5: A main transmission line was damaged by miscreants in Balochistan overnight, resulting in suspension of electricity to 18 districts of the province, local tv reported.

#6: Seven Afghan national army soldiers were killed following roadside improvised explosive device (IED) and militants attacks during the past 24 hours across the country. Afghan defense ministry in a statement on Wednesday confirmed that seven Afghan national army soldiers were killed in various provinces of Afghanistan during the past 24 hours. The statement further added that the national army soldiers were killed in IED and Taliban militants attacks in Logar, Ghazni and Helmand provinces of Afghanistan.

 

US/DoD: Staff Sgt. Sonny C. Zimmerman

War News for Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The DoD is reporting the death of a Marine who was supporting OEF. Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Tuttle died from unreported causes at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center after a medical evacuation from the aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz during a scheduled port visit in the 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility on Sunday, July 14th.

Qaeda Yemen branch says No 2 killed in US drone strike


Reported security incidents
#1: Officials say gunmen have killed an Afghan prosecutor with ties to President Hamid Karzai in the latest attack targeting those linked to the government. Police Chief Rahmatullah Safi says prosecutor Ahmad Wali Taheri was killed on Wednesday in western Herat province. Taheri was the brother of Karzai’s adviser on national security, Rangin Dafdar Spanta.

#2: Alfred Brenner, 22, a Jackson Township resident and United States Marine serving in Afghanistan was injured in an IED explosion last week. Brenner and his k-9 companion were inspecting a suspected IED device when it was exploded, killing his dog and causing shrapnel wounds to himself and suffered a broken arm.

#3: Twelve civilians were wounded Wednesday morning in two successive blasts in the eastern Afghan province of Paktiya, said a provincial government spokesman. "Two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were detonated back-to- back when two police mobile were passing by Ghanzi-line and Khost- line areas of the provincial capital Gardez city. The first explosion took place at around 11:00 am local time," spokesman Rohullah Sammon told Xinhua. He said no member of police units were harmed in the incident in the city 100 km south of national capital Kabul.

#4: A blast struck a bus near Peshawar Motorway Interchange on Wednesday, Express News reported. No casualties were reported in the incident. According to the driver of the bus, he saw a bomb attached to the bus via a magnet in the side view mirror. He immediately stopped the bus and removed the passengers and the staff from the bus. The blast occurred after everyone got off the bus. On the other hand, other speculations are that the AC compressor exploded, resulting in the blast.


US/DoD:  Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Tuttle

War News for Tuesday, July 16, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a direct fire attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 16th.

1,726 killed in Karachi during last six months

Taliban attacks and Afghan forces casualties increased: Azimi


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan official says a bomb planted on a bicycle in eastern Nangarhar province has killed two civilians and wounded three others. Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai says the incident took place early Tuesday on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Nangarhar's capital.

"An explosives-rigged bicycle was remotely detonated, killing a police officer and an officer of the National Directorate of Security (intelligence agency) in a suburb of Jalalabad city," capital of Nangahar, the province's police spokesman Hazrat Hussain said.

#2: A gas pipeline, 12-inch in diameter, was blown up near Mach town in the early hours of Tuesday. The explosion disrupted gas supply to several areas in Balochistan but repair work on the pipeline has not resumed as yet.

#3: Earlier on Tuesday morning, one policeman was killed and two others wounded when Taliban laid an ambush attack against a police mobile in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of northern Baghlan province, 160 km north of Kabul, a provincial police spokesman Jawi Basharat told Xinhua. On Monday night, one policeman and one militant were killed and one police cop was injured when Taliban launched an attacked on a police checkpoint in Baghlan's Burka district, the spokesman added.

#4: In Kabul, one suicide bomber was shot dead and several militants were injured when they tried to assault a police checkpoint near the Kabul International Airport Monday night, local media reported. No policeman was hurt in the shooting lasting for a while.

#5: Eight Taliban militants had been killed in three separate incidents in former Taliban stronghold -- southern Kandahar province, 450 km south of Kabul, on Monday, the provincial government confirmed in separate statements.

War News for Monday, July 15, 2013

British Soldier Suicides Outnumber Afghanistan Deaths in Action

Rajanpur: 8 kidnapped policemen recovered after negotiations   


Reported security incidents
#1: Eleven militants have been killed and 18 others arrested in separate Afghan operations within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry confirmed on Monday morning. The operations were conducted in Baghlan, Kandahar, Wardak and Helmand provinces. As a result 11 armed Taliban were killed, four wounded and 18 other armed Taliban were arrested, the ministry said in a press statement.

#2: On Sunday evening, two policemen were killed and five others wounded when a police mobile was struck by an IED in Nadir Shah Kot district of eastern KHost province, official confirmed earlier on Monday.

#3: An Afghan soldier held on suspicion of killing a NATO soldier from Slovakia escaped from prison and walked off a heavily guarded military base with the help of a guard, officials said Monday. The escape will raise new questions about the capacity and professionalism of the Afghan army as the remaining 100,000 foreign troops in the country prepare to leave next year.

#4: In a separate operation by the Pakistan Air Force, jets pounded several militant hideouts in the early hours of Sunday, killing at least 17 insurgents, security officials said. These areas are known as strongholds of the militants from where they stage deadly attacks in Kohat and Peshawar," one official in Kohat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. At least seven hideouts had been destroyed and 13 people wounded, two other security officials in the area said.

News of the Day for Sunday, July 14, 2013

ISAF says 5 taliban killed in an airstrike in Paktia. The Afghan provincial police chief says in fact 12 were killed.

Two children lose their legs to a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. As is often the case, Wakht news agency report is written in broken English. Arghistan (which they spell Arghustan), is not a province, but a village south of Kandahar province.

Two men planting mines are killed by an ISAF airstrike in Kandahar province.

A Turkish truck driver kidnapped April 16 on his way to Mazar-e Sharif has been released. He was handed over to a Turkish provincial reconstruction team in Jawzjan. The story does not say whether any ransom was paid or other concessions made.

UK newspaper the Mail reports that Prince Harry witnessed a war crime by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Really. Excerpt:

Prince Harry was no more  than 220 yards away when a US trooper standing aboard an armoured vehicle cocked a .50 calibre machine gun and fired successive bursts at Afghan shepherds tending their goats, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The shocking incident, which  was confirmed last night by the Ministry of Defence, triggered a war crimes investigation by US military police. It took place on Harry’s first frontline tour of Afghanistan, which, until today, has been shrouded  in secrecy. . . .

According to a British eye- witness the three shepherds were peacefully minding their own business when they were engaged. Given the force of the heavy machine gun rounds it is likely  they suffered serious or fatal  injuries, though their bodies were never recovered.

This would have happened in 2007. Note that although the story says the M.P.s investigated,  I am unaware that anyone has been prosecuted for this murder, nor that any investigation has been publicly acknowledged. I wonder if the U.S. corporate media will bother to report this? -- C