Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Afghanistan

Little resistance on day 2 of US-Afghan offensive

2009-12-06

[Asharq al-Aswat] U.S. Marines and Afghan troops have killed at least seven Taliban fighters during the first U.S.-led offensive since President Barack Obama announced a new American war plan this week, Afghan officials said Saturday. American and Afghan troops have met little resistance since Operation Cobra's Anger was launched Friday to disrupt Taliban supply and communications lines in the strategic Now Zad Valley of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Marine officials said. About 1,000 Marines and 150 Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive, including hundreds of Marines dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopters and MV-22 Osprey aircraft. Isn't "behind Taliban lines" somewhere in the vicinity of Islamabad? The CIA must be miffed at having to share their area of operations. Nah, it could be Quetta or even Karachi ... A second, larger Marine force pushed northward from the Marines' main base. "We're not taking for granted the low level of contact," Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier said Saturday. "Just because it's quiet now doesn't mean it will be in 24 hours. Part of the operation is to have a disruptive effect on the Taliban resupply activities. The Marines and Afghan forces are continuing the clearing operation, continuing to move through the valley." No coalition casualties have been reported. Daood Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said 11 Taliban fighters have been killed and five captured. The Afghan Defense Ministry said seven militants were killed and two captured. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in charge of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, told The Associated Press on Friday that the offensive was part of preparations for the arrival of 30,000 new U.S. reinforcements. Petraeus said the military has been working for months to extend what he called "the envelope of security" around key towns in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Now Zad was one of the largest towns in Helmand until fighting drove away the 30,000 inhabitants. Now the area is a major supply and transportation hub for Taliban forces that use the valley to move drugs, weapons and fighters south toward major populations and to provinces in western Afghanistan. Back in August, U.S. forces launched "Operation Eastern Resolve II" in the Now Zad Valley to help provide security for the Afghan presidential elections and disrupt enemy activity in the area. Pelletier said the latest offensive was launched before the reinforcements arrive because it was the best time to limit the militants' freedom of movement in the area. "We have sufficient forces to clear this area, especially when you consider that our number of Afghan partners has almost quadrupled since July," Pelletier said. "So we felt this was a mission we could do without additional troops and without stretching our forces too thin." The Afghan government has approved a new seventh corps of the Afghan National Army, Corps 215 Maiwand, to be based in the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah where the first fresh U.S. troops are expected to arrive. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the Afghans have vowed to deploy 5,000 members of the new Afghan army corps to Helmand, to be partnered by British troops next year. Elsewhere, three Taliban militants were killed Friday during a gunbattle with Afghan National Police at a checkpoint in Nimroz province, provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said Saturday. Five other militants and five policemen were wounded in the clash in the Khash Rod district. The battle started after the Taliban fighters attacked the checkpoint with mortars and machine guns, he said. NATO reported that a joint Afghan-international security force detained a handful of militants Saturday in Logar province, including an individual linked to senior leadership in the province who allegedly was helping militants move and train in the area. The joint security force targeted a compound near the village of Sejawand in the Baraki Barak district of Logar in eastern Afghanistan and recovered AK-47 rifles, pistols, fragmentation grenades and chest racks fully loaded with AK-47 magazines, NATO said.

Link

Afghanistan

Suicide bomber targets Spin Boldak bus station

2009-06-06

A SUICIDE bomb rocked an Afghan town bordering Pakistan, killing four people, as insurgency-linked unrest claimed the lives of another 13, including a foreign soldier. The suicide blast, detonated by a man on a bomb-filled motorbike, tore through a busy bus station in the southern town of Spin Boldak, police said. "Including the suspect, five were killed and eight were wounded," said the Kandahar province border police chief, Jawad Ahmad. However, the interior ministry said three people - a man, a woman and a child - were killed in the suicide attack, without explaining the discrepancy. Eleven were wounded, including five children, the ministry said, adding that the device had exploded before the bomber reached his target. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack but militants allied to the extremist Taliban militia, which has carried out scores of suicide attacks, are active in southern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan. Meanwhile, a soldier in a NATO-led force operating against Taliban insurgents was killed in a "hostile incident", the International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that gave no further details. It did not give the nationality of the dead soldier or details of the incident. Most of the troops in the south are Americans, British or Canadians. Elsewhere, Taliban militants ambushed a private security company in the southwestern province of Nimroz, killing three armed guards and wounding one, provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said. "The Afghan army and US-led coalition forces went to the area for their support and killed three Taliban and wounded five," he said. There has been a spate of deadly insurgent attacks recently on convoys that ferry goods across the country, including to bases of the nearly 70,000 foreign troops deployed to help the Afghan Government. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed two "opposition commanders" in the southern province of Kandahar on Friday, the interior ministry said in a statement that did not give details of the men. Another four militants were killed in incidents in Farah province in the south and Paktika in the east, officials said. Attacks and battles have surged in recent weeks as troops try to clamp down on insurgents ahead of August 20 elections and after the extremists vowed to step up their campaign. There are fears the violence will disrupt the elections, an important test for international efforts to bring democracy to Afghanistan. The Taliban were in government for five years until 2001, when they were toppled in a US-led invasion weeks after the September 11 attacks on the United States, blamed on the al-Qaeda network, which had bases in Afghanistan.

Link

Afghanistan

Two dead and three wounded in Afghan suicide attack

2009-03-08

A suicide bomber attacked a police station in southwestern Afghanistan early on Saturday, killing two people and injuring three policemen, a provincial official said. The attack took place in Nimroz province that borders volatile Helmand -- which sees some of the worst violence of the Taliban-led insurgency against the United States-backed government -- as well as Iran and Pakistan.n. "At around 9:50 am, a suicide attacker, who had strapped explosives to his body, detonated his charge in front of the first police station in Zaranj city," provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad told AFP. "So far, one policeman and a civilian are dead," he said, adding that three policemen were also wounded in the attack. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Nimroz, where Taliban militants have been increasingly active in recent months.

Link

Afghanistan

At least nine dead in latest violence to hit Afghanistan

2009-01-10

Three NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Friday while a suicide bomb blast ripped through a fruit market in a small town, killing five civilians and a police commander, authorities said. The multinational NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not say how the soldiers were killed or give their identities. In another attack against foreign soldiers, a remote-controlled bomb struck convoys in Khost Province on Friday, wounding two soldiers in a US-led coalition that works alongside ISAF, a military official said. Meanwhile, in the southwestern town of Zaranj near the border with Iran, a suicide attacker "detonated himself near our operations deputy who was buying things from a shop," Nimroz Province police chief Abdel-Jabar Pordili told AFP. The blast killed five civilians as well as the deputy provincial police operations chief, said the provincial governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad. Six other people, including a policeman and two children, were wounded, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but it was similar to scores of others carried out by the Taliban. The Taliban did however claim an attack Thursday in Kandahar Province that the US military said killed two US soldiers. Afghan officials said two civilians also died and more than a dozen were wounded.

Link

Afghanistan

15 killed in Afghan suicide blast, shoot-out

2008-09-07

A suicide bomb attack by a fake beggar inside a regional prosecutor's office and a shoot-out between police and Taliban militants killed 15 people in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said. The suicide bomber penetrated the office in Zaranj, the capital of the southwestern province of Nimroz, said police Chief Mohammad Ayub Badakhshi. Six people died in the blast, including a provincial state attorney. The bomber entered the compound pretending to be a beggar, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the provincial governor. Elsewhere in Nimroz, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint, killing two police, Azad said. He said seven Taliban fighters also were killed in the exchange.

Link

Afghanistan

Bomb found on Afghan bus transporting Indians

2008-07-09

A bomb was found on a bus transporting 12 Indian workers in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a governor said, a day after a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 41 people. The workers, including engineers, had noticed a 'suspicious package' on the bus as they were travelling to work in the southwestern province of Nimroz, provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad told AFP. They called the police who discovered it was a remote-controlled bomb, he said. The driver of the bus was arrested for questioning. 'The bomb could have been fixed on his bus without him knowing but all this will be made clear after the investigation is over,' he said. Trooper dies: Meanwhile, a soldier from the NATO-led forces and four Afghan policemen were killed on Tuesday in new attacks linked to an insurgency in Afghanistan by Taliban and other Islamist extremists, officials said. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) trooper was killed when a roadside bomb struck a convoy in the eastern province of Kunar, NATO's ISAF said. Four other ISAF soldiers were wounded, it said. The 40-nation force did not give details, including the nationalities of the soldiers caught up in the attack. Most of the troops in Kunar are US citizens. Kunar, on the border with Pakistan, sees regular violence from militants involved in an insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government. The insurgents mainly rely on bombs, including suicide devices, to attack international and Afghan troops. Also on Tuesday, two policemen were killed in fighting with Taliban insurgents in the central province of Ghazni, provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir said. Five militants were also believed to have died in the hour-long battle but their bodies were removed from the scene, Jahngir told AFP. Two other policemen were killed in a similar incident in the neighbouring province of Paktika, another troubled region on the Pak-Afghan frontier, another government spokesman said. US carrier: A US aircraft carrier has moved to the Arabian Sea to support military operations in Afghanistan, leaving the Gulf without a carrier, US defence officials said on Tuesday. The shift by the USS Abraham Lincoln over the weekend comes amid stepped-up insurgent violence in Afghanistan. The operations in Afghanistan and Iraq 'are extremely dynamic and sometimes we have to adjust the posture of forces so we can we can take advantage of certain opportunities that are there,' said a Navy official, who asked not to be named.

Link

Afghanistan

28 militants killed in southern Afghanistan

2008-06-30

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led forces backed by warplanes battled militants in southwestern Afghanistan, killing 28 rebels including several Taliban commanders, an Afghan official said Monday. Other violence claimed the lives of two Afghan soldiers, two militants and a government worker, while three troops from the U.S.-led coalition died when their vehicle rolled into a river bed. The accident occurred Sunday when the troops were patrolling in Arghandab, a valley in Kandahar province that foreign and government forces recently retook from Taliban militants, the coalition said. It released no other details. Fighting between insurgents and security forces has been escalating, damping the prospect of the Western-backed effort to stabilize the country succeeding any time soon. The violence has killed more than 2,000 people so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally. In the bloodiest of the latest incidents, the U.S.-led coalition said its troops came under fire Sunday in the Khash Rod district of Nimroz province as they searched compounds for a Taliban leader suspected of involvement in suicide attacks. The troops killed "multiple militant groups" with small-arms fire, and airstrikes killed two more groups of attackers, the coalition said. There were no coalition casualties, it said. While the coalition said only that "several" militants died and another was detained, Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said 28 rebels were killed. He said some of the victims were torn apart in the late-night bombing, making the body count difficult. Azad said local officials had told him that four civilians also died. His account could not be independently verified. The governor said the slain militants included three Taliban commanders, each of whom controlled a group of some 40-50 fighters. He said they were suspected of targeting road construction crews with bombs and planning attacks on food relief convoys. The U.N. reported Sunday that one of its relief convoys was attacked on its way to Nimroz and neighboring Helmand province, and that several trucks were burned. Other convoys have been looted. Elsewhere, the Afghan Defense Ministry said it lost two soldiers to a roadside bomb in Zurmat district of Paktia province on Monday. Three more soldiers were wounded. Two militants were killed in a clash with Afghan soldiers in Helmand province, it said. In Logar province, just south of the capital, officials said militants attacked the government office in the town of Azra on Monday morning, killing one civilian employee and wounding three police. In Washington, the Department of Defense announced that a special forces soldier was fatally wounded by a bomb during a patrol on June 27. The coalition said the incident occurred in Ghorak, a district of Kandahar.

Link

Afghanistan

Five civilians killed, militant leader held in Afghanistan

2008-05-21

(KUNA) -- Five members of an Afghan nomadic family were killed as a vehicle, they were traveling in, hit a landmine in western Afghanistan, officials said. The incident happened in Nimroz province as a nomadic family was shifting sheep in a truck from one place to another, said provincial Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad. The governor said Taliban were responsible for planting the bomb. However, the militants so far did not issue any comment. Separately, the US-led coalition troops claimed capturing a "Taliban leader" and his two colleagues during an operation in Khost province of Afghanistan. A statement from the US forces' Bagram base, located north of here, said the detainee belonged to the notorious Haqqani group. The group is said to be involved in attacks on Afghan and foreign troops and planting of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to target the troops. The statement said the arrest was made during search of several compounds by the Afghan and coalition forces in the province. Several Kalashnikovs, grenades and pistols and ammunitions were also recovered during the search operation, it added.

Link

Afghanistan

Afghan suicide blast kills 3 Indians, 1 Afghan

2008-04-12

A suicide bomber killed three Indian road engineers and an Afghan in southwestern Afghanistan on Saturday in the second deadly attack on road builders in a week. In a separate incident, 24 Taliban were killed in a joint operation by Afghan and foreign troops in Zabul province on Friday night, deputy provincial governor Gulab Shah Alikheil told reporters. Intermittent violence has broken out in different parts of Afghanistan in recent weeks following a traditional winter lull. The suicide attack on the road crew was in the remote southwestern province of Nimroz, said provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad. "The bomber got out of a car and then blew himself up," Azad told Reuters. Three Indians and an Afghan were killed and three people wounded, the Interior Ministry said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported.

Link

Afghanistan

41 Taliban put to good use in south Afghanistan

2008-03-13

Hey, fertilizer is useful, isn't it? "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms." -- Josie Wales. Afghan and international forces killed 41 Taliban militants in a battle in southern Afghanistan, and a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops left six Afghan civilians dead in Kabul, U.S. and Afghan officials said Thursday. None of the four American troops traveling in the two armored vehicles of the convoy was badly wounded in the Thursday attack, said Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces. The troops were traveling in one SUV and one truck, he said. Six Afghan civilians were killed and up to 20 others wounded in the blast, Deputy Interior Minister Munir Mangal said. That's going to make the locals happy. The attacker was driving a white Toyota Corolla, he said, a favorite among suicide car bombers. "Mahmoud, this car's the bomb! It's a total babe magnet and gets great mileage, too!" In a mobile phone text message to an Associated Press reporter in Pakistan, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid identified the suicide bomber as Abdullah. Great. That's only about 10% of the population. Shouldn't take long to find him. The suicide car bomb turned into a fiery hull that burned on the main airport road long after the attack, which also damaged several other vehicles. U.S. troops and international security contractors surrounded the area after the blast. In southern Helmand province, Afghan and international forces attacked Taliban militants Wednesday morning as they traveled by motorcycle toward the Pakistan border, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, governor of neighboring Nimroz province. The troops employed airstrikes during the four-hour battle and killed 41 militants, including 17 from Nimroz, he said. A Taliban commander from Nimroz was among the dead. Must have been up-armored motorcycles. The U.S.-led coalition could not confirm the attack. NATO said they were looking into the report, but did not immediately have any information. Sorry, no evidence left to confirm or deny the report. In other news violence, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed nearly a dozen suspected militants in Helmand during a clash Tuesday in Garmsir district, the coalition said in a statement. The troops had been searching compounds for Taliban traffickers of weapons and foreign fighters when they were came under fire. By the suspects, of course. In Wardak province, a remote-controlled bomb hit a police vehicle Thursday in Saydabad district, killing one policeman and wounding four others, said district police investigator Mohibullah Khan. In Zabul province, Afghan security forces and NATO troops launched an operation Wednesday against Chechen fighters meeting in Daychopan district, said district chief Fazel Bari. The ensuing two-hour gun battle left three Chechens dead and six wounded, he said. On Wednesday in Farah province, authorities recovered the dead body of the Pusht Rod [sic - maybe they meant pushrod?] district police chief, a day after he was kidnapped along with five other policemen, said Bariyalai Khan, spokesman for the Farah provincial police. There was no information on the fates of the five other men. Check the local Starbucks to see if they're being questioned by the Taliban.

Link

Afghanistan

Several Taliban killed and 3 car bombs discovered in Afghanistan

2008-03-06

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed several Taliban insurgents and discovered cave complexes containing three car bombs and other explosive materials in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Wednesday. In southwestern Nimroz province, meanwhile, Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint Tuesday night, and the ensuing two-hour gunbattle left three policemen dead, said provincial Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad. In southern Helmand province, Afghan and coalition forces were patrolling northeast of Gereshk district when Taliban fighters fired on them Sunday with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, a coalition statement said. The Afghan and coalition troops returned fire and called in airstrikes, killing "several insurgents," the statement said. It did not give further details. Last year Afghanistan experienced its deadliest violence since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — were killed in insurgency-related violence. In a separate operation late last week in the southern province of Zabul, Afghan and coalition troops searched compounds and caves where they discovered a large weapons cache, another coalition statement said. It said the cache included bomb-making materials and three car bombs. Airstrikes were used to destroy the complex and ammunition storage areas, the statement said. It said seven insurgents were arrested. Last year Afghanistan experienced its deadliest violence since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — were killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.

Link

Afghanistan

7 Killed in Afghanistan Suicide Attack

2008-01-04

A suicide bomber attacked Indian road construction workers and their Afghan police escorts Thursday in southwestern Afghanistan, killing seven and wounding 12. The convoy had been traveling on a main road toward the city of Khash Rod in Nimroz province when it was hit by a remote-controlled bomb that was planted on a motorcycle, wounding one policeman, said Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad. The convoy stopped after the first explosion, and a suicide bomber set off a second attack, killing six policemen and an Indian worker, Azad said. Ten policemen and two Indian workers were wounded.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More