News of the Day for Sunday, March 31, 2013

Two Australian soldiers, another coalition soldier, and an Afghan soldier, are injured by an IED in Helmand province. This Australian news story does not identify the nationality of the third coalition soldier. Two of the injured were transported by air, indicating relatively serious injuries.

Two children are killed by a NATO helicopter strike in Ghazni. After first saying the strike was in support of Afghan troops, ISAF retracts that explanation. This was apparently an attack on Taliban positions. (Note: This has been reported independently by various sources, but for some reason not by the major wire services. At first I was reluctant to post it because I wasn't sure of the reliability of the sources, but the stories all seem very credible and generally consistent. This link is to a Qatari newspaper. - C)

Afghan authorities say they have foiled a plot to blow a damn in Herat province.

ISAF hands control of police training center in Maidan/Wardak to Afghans.

At the same time, U.S. special forces hand over control of Nirkh district in Wardak, easing a dispute with the Afghan government. President Karzai has accused the Afghan forces working with the Americans of human rights violations and disloyalty to the Afghan government.

Hamid Karzai is in Qatar for talks with Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Contrary to some prior speculation, he is not expected to have contact with any Taliban representatives or intermediaries, although the opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar is presumably on the agenda.

Are you worried about the U.S. federal budget deficit and fiscal responsibility? Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost U.S. taxpayer up to $6 trillion, concludes a study conducted at Harvard. "As a consequence of these wartime spending choices, the United States will face constraints in funding investments in personnel and diplomacy, research and development and new military initiatives." (Yeah, or we could make rich people who got George W. Bush into office pay for their wars. -- C)

War News for Saturday, March 30, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, March 29th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Up to 12 Taliban militants were killed Saturday in a coalition airstrike in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni, authorities said. “(Saturday) in the morning the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and Coalition Forces conducted a successful attack on a group of armed Taliban extremists in Espand-de village in eastern Ghazni city,” said a statement issued by coalition here. Meantime, a provincial health official, Baz Mohammad Himat, told Xinhua that a total of eight civilians have been admitted to a provincial capital hospital who sustained injuries in the airstrike in Espand-de area Saturday morning.

#2: In addition, the Afghan army and police supported by the coalition forces have killed 14 Taliban insurgents, wounded four and arrested four others in Nangarhar, Laghman, Badakhshan, Kandahar and Helmand provinces within the last 24 hours, the country’s Interior Ministry said in a statement earlier Saturday.

#3: A suicide bomber Saturday struck a police patrol in a town in northwestern Pakistan, killing a policeman and wounding six others, police said. The bombing took place at a market in Katalang, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan. "A policeman was killed and two other policemen were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up close to a police patrol car," senior police official Shafi Ullah told AFP. Four civilians were also wounded in the suicide bombing, Ullah said. After the bombing police chased an alleged handler of the suicide bomber and killed him in a shoot out, the official said.

War News for Friday, March 29, 2013

Study: Iraq, Afghan Wars Will Cost $4T to $6T

Taliban Spread Terror in Karachi as the New Gang in Town

Pakistan criticize Kabul for ‘overreaction’ on cross-border shelling


Reported security incidents
#1: Meanwhile, a suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said. The attack on the paramilitary police commander's convoy in northwestern Pakistan occurred in the city of Peshawar. The apparent target, Abdul Majeed Marwat, who heads the Frontier Constabulary, was not hurt, said police official Dost Mohammed Khan. The 11 dead included five members of the security forces and six civilians, said Khan. The civilians included two women, a young girl and a four month-old infant. Another 22 people were wounded, said Khan.

#2: A Taliban shadow governor was killed in northern Afghan province of Faryab overnight, the provincial government spokesman said on Thursday. "Upon intelligence report, an Afghan border police force carried out a search operation to capture a Taliban shadow governor named Khirullah Khan but during the firefight Khan and two other Taliban insurgents were killed in Qaramqol district Wednesday night," spokesman Jawid Beidar told Xinhua.


DoD: Sgt. Michael C. Cable

War News for Thursday, March 28, 2013

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, March 27th.


Afghan villagers flee their homes, blame US drones as targeted killings of militants rise

16-year old boy kills foreign soldier in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents
#1: In Afghanistan more than 20 insurgents have been killed and at least four civilians in a joint NATO Afghan army operation in Logar province just south of Kabul. A local Taliban commander also died. A NATO spokesperson also confirmed that as part of the operation two captured Afghan soldiers were rescued.

#2: Afghan security forces and the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have defused 13 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in eastern Afghan provinces, the ISAF said on Thursday. "Afghan and Coalition Forces found and safely cleared 13 improvised explosive devices and detained one suspected insurgent during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours," the ISAF's Regional Command-East said in a press release. The home-made bombs were neutralized in Khost, Ghazni, Paktika, Kunar and Wardak provinces, it said.


MoD: Lance Corporal Jamie Webb

War News for Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in Nad ‘Ali, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, March 26th.


Reported security incidents
#1: Afghan and NATO troops killed 23 Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday, dpa reported. The joint operation was conducted on Tuesday in Sajawand village of Baraki Bark district in Logar province. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 12 of the movement's fighters were killed. In an online statement, the Taliban said 28 Afghan civilians were killed by NATO's bombardment of the village.

#2: Three militants were killed and a security official was injured as Afghanistan-based militants attacked a checkpoint along the border in Nawagai tehsil of Bajaur tribal region on Tuesday. An official said the militants entered the area from Afghanistan and fired several rockets and mortars at the checkpost in Matak, 40km from Khar. “Security forces pushed back the militants and at least three attackers were killed and one security personnel was injured during the exchange of fire,” the official said.

#3: Meanwhile, militants fired a rocket at a checkpost of Levies Force in Khar on Monday night. The checkpost was partially damaged, but no casualty was reported, according to officials.

#4: Officials said two security personnel were killed when a bomb detonated by remote control exploded Damadola village of Bajaur. The personnel were on routine patrol in the area when the bomb went off. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

#5: At least two people were reportedly injured following an explosion in the 15th district of capital Kabul on Wednesday, police officials said. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said a foreign national has also been injured following the blast which took place around 9am local time after a remote controlled IED device planted under the vehicle of a private security firm was detonated. He said, “An explosive device was attached under a vehicle and went off near a security check post at the 15th district.”

#6: According to local authorities in north-eastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, at least 12 people including 2 Afghan police forces and 10 Taliban militants were killed following clashes in Wardoj district. The officials further added at least four Taliban militants were also injured during the clashes. Provincial security chief Gen. Imamuddin Motmaein confirming the report said Taliban militants attacked a security check post at Bashand village on Tuesday night.

War News for Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Reported security incidents
#1: At least 10 British troops have been injured in a suspected suicide car bomb attack on a patrol base in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The insurgents followed up the blast with small arms fire on the base in Nad Ali, one of the districts where UK troops have been based during their time in the country. Five insurgents were killed in the attack on the base on Monday night, which is jointly operated by the Afghan army and troops from Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf).

#2: A group of seven suicide bombers attacked a police base in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, killing five officers, police said. One bomber set off a large explosion at the entrance of the quick reaction police headquarters before two bombers blew themselves up inside the facility and four others died in a gun fight with police. “The first one detonated a car bomb; two others entered the base and detonated themselves and the remaining four were shot dead in police fire,”Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, the Nangarhar province police spokesman, told AFP.

#3: On Monday evening, a total of 27 Taliban militants had been killed in a clash which broke out during a poppy-eradication camping in Garmser district in Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul, the provincial governor Mohammad Naim said Tuesday. "An Afghan army officer and a policeman were also killed in the fighting lasting for hours,"Naim told Xinhua, adding one cop was also wounded in the attack.

#4: In addition, up to 11 militants have been killed when army carried out a cleanup operation in Helmand's Marja district, said senior army official Gen. Seyyed Maluk. In neighboring Nad Ali district, an army soldier was wounded when a Taliban suicide bomber set off his explosive-laden truck near army outpost Monday night.

War News for Monday, March 25, 2013

The dod is reporting the death of Sgt. 1st Class James F. Grissom at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany on Thursday, March 21st. He was originally wounded from a small arms weapon attack in Paktika Province, Afghanistan on Monday, March 18th.

 

The DoD is also reporting the death of Sgt. Tristan M. Wade who died from an IED blast in Qarah Bagh District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan on Friday, March 22nd.

US to cede full control of Bagram to Afghan forces


Reported security incidents
#1: Two Afghan civilians were killed and five were wounded in a roadside bombing in the country’s northern province of Faryab on Monday, police said. “Two civilians were killed and five others wounded when a civilian vehicle touched off a roadside bomb in Khwaja Sabz Posh district early Monday morning,” provincial police chief Nabi Jan Mullahkhil told Xinhua.

#2: The death toll from a suicide bombing on a military checkpost in Pakistan's North Waziristan region has reached 17, the military said on Sunday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Saturday, which prompted the regional government to impose a curfew in the tribal region near the Afghan border. The military responded with mortar and artillery fire directed at positions held by the Taliban. Another 10 soldiers were also wounded in the attack on a check post operated jointly by the regular army and the Frontier Corps paramilitary.

#3: According to local authorities in north-eastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, Taliban militants abducted at least 10 Afghan national army soldiers along with a doctor in this province. Provincial governor spokesman Abdul Maroof Rasukh confirming the report said the individuals were abducted by Taliban militants during a military operation in Wardoj district around 3 days back.


DoD: Sgt. 1st Class James F. Grissom

DoD: Sgt. Tristan M. Wade