[Dawn] Suspected Taliban militants stormed a police post and killed up to eight policemen in southern Afghanistan, a senior officer said Monday in the latest attack on the poorly-armed force.
How would American police respond to such an attack?
Three other policemen were wounded in the attack in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province late Sunday, the police official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
'Taliban attacked the post from several directions. The fighting lasted for several hours. Eight of our policemen were killed,' he said. 'Three other police were wounded and managed to escape to safety.'
May the wounded heal speedily and well, and the dead find Paradise all they'd hoped... and may this be another small step toward peace and prosperity rather than just another violent incident in an endless chain of violence.
Sardar Mohammad Zazai, provincial police chief for Kandahar, confirmed an incident had occurred but refused to give a figure for the casualties.
'We're investigating it,' Zazai told AFP.
Police suffer heavily from an increasingly deadly insurgency being waged by Taliban militants who were in power between 1996 and 2001 before being ousted in a US-led offensive.
A lack of training and light weaponry, have made the Afghan police an easier target than the army, which is better trained and equipped.
The more than 100,000 Nato and US-led troops based in Afghanistan have put the training of local security forces at the heart of efforts to hand over responsibility for fighting the Taliban insurgency.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Taliban militants fired two rockets on Monday, killing 12 Afghan civilians and wounding at least 38 others, the French military reported.
The rockets were fired into a crowded market in the town of Tagab in Kapisa Province, northeast of Kabul, where the head of French forces in Afghanistan and tribal elders were holding a meeting, known locally as a shura.
About 40 Afghan officials, including the local police chief, the regional deputy governor, tribal chiefs, and religious elders were attending the shura to discuss Sunday's offensive.
French Lieutenant Colonel Lionel said the target had been the meeting where Brigadier General Marcel Druart was holding talks with tribal elders about a major French offensive in the Tagab Valley the previous day.
Druart, who was unhurt despite the fact the rocket fell about 200 meters (yards) away from the meeting place, told The Associated Press that the attack "shows clearly that the insurgents don't care about the lives of the civilian Afghan population."
He said French forces immediately retaliated with artillery shelling on the rockets' launching site.
France has over 3,000 troops stationed mainly north of Kabul in the Kapisa and Surobi areas.
About 700 French and 100 Afghan soldiers with more than 100 armored vehicles launched the operation in the hostile valley, 30 miles (50 kilometers) northeast of Kabul. It has long been a safe haven for the Taliban and other militant groups.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Asia Times]"NORTHERN TALIBAN" THREATEN CENTRAL ASIA [IMU + Islamic MOvement of Uzebkistan + affiliated Groups, e.g. Islamic Jihad Union].
(Xinhua) -- Police in the northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan killed seven Taliban militants early Monday, provincial police Mohammad Razaq Yaqubi said. "With the support of locals the policemen raided Taliban rebels in Angorbagh and Haqtash villages early this morning killing seven of them including three local commanders," Yaqubi told Xinhua.
Among those killed in the gunbattle are local Taliban commanders Mullah Noor Mohammad, Mullah Bashir and Mullah Abdul Haq who were involved in carrying out anti-government activities. Taliban militants have not made comments.
A peaceful province until early this year, Kunduz has been the scene of increasing Taliban militants activities over the past several months.
This article starring:
Mullah Abdul Haq
Taliban
Mullah Bashir
Taliban
Mullah Noor Mohammad
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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In Afghanistan, western militaries use radio frequency jammers to keep troops safe from remotely-detonated bombs. But those jammers and other gadgets have contributed to a "pollution" of the airwaves so severe that over 200 systems at Afghanistan's main air base can't talk to one another.
This problem of so-called "electronic fratricide" first appeared in Iraq, where jammers made it tough to control drones and ground robots.
Last year, for instance, Commander William Guarini, the head of the U.S. Navy's Riverine Squadron 1, publicly complained that the service's Silver Fox drone (pictured here) was "very susceptible" to electromagnetic interference. "In particular with our convoys, with our electronic countermeasure systems going off, they really degrade our range," he said. "And then we have a problem recovering [the drone]."
As the military sends more gear to Afghanistan, members of the military's tight-knit electronic warfare community are worrying about a repeat of the problem. Writing in the latest issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology (subscription only, sorry), reporters Dave Fulghum and Robert Wall describe concerns recently aired at a meeting of the Association of Old Crows, the professional organization for electronic warfare specialists.
Equipment is flowing into the main bases at Kandahar and Bagram (where the classified Area 84 is growing exponentially) at a rate that alarms some U.S. Army officials. They have publicly complained (at the recent Old Crows Assn. show) that at Bagram Air Base alone there are 200 systems that cannot communicate with one another. Critics predict the polluted electronic environment around Baghdad--which has slashed the range of data links and foiled the coverage of some radars and improvised explosive device-jammers--is quickly being duplicated in Afghanistan.
Further complicating matters, Afghanistan has a complex, mountainous terrain that can often make it more difficult to operate many of the sensors that were used successfully in Iraq. Quoting an anonymous senior defense official, Fulghum and Wall report that the buildup of drones and manned aircraft in Afghanistan was "being crippled by a lack of aviation ramp space, personnel and sensors that can deal with terrain that bears almost no resemblance to Iraq."
A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates near Somalia, the European Union's naval force says.
The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north west of the Seychelles. The vessel had been heading for the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, but was diverted north, the naval force said.
(CNN) -- A Spanish judge indicted two Somali pirate suspects in Madrid on Monday, while pirates held a Spanish fishing boat and its crew off the Somali coast for the 46th day.
The judge indicted the two on 36 counts of kidnapping -- one for each of the 36 crew members being held, and armed robbery. He ordered the two to appear at a hearing Tuesday, according to a court order.
Pirates seized the Spanish fishing boat, the Alakrana, last month. A day later, Spanish military monitoring the situation captured two pirate suspects as they left the fishing boat, and later brought them to Madrid.
The ship's owner, Echebastar Fleet, and relatives of the crew members have pleaded with the court and the Spanish government to return the two suspects to Somalia, as pirate representatives have demanded in conversations with Spanish media.
In a document Saturday, the state prosecutor asked Judge Santiago Pedraz to quickly issue the indictment and conclude the judicial investigation to move the case toward a possible trial.
The trial could be held within a few weeks, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office told CNN.
The two suspects, identified as Cabdullahi Cabduwily and Rageggesey Hassan Aji, could face sentences of more than 200 years in prison each.
But the state prosecutor did not seek a charge of illicit association -- belonging to an organized criminal enterprise -- and that could open the door to a lighter sentence and possible expulsion under Spain's law on foreigners, added the spokesman, who by custom is not identified.
Spanish officials have said publicly that the crew --- 16 from Spain and 20 from Africa and Asia --- are well. Three crew members were removed from the ship, causing additional concern for relatives, but were later returned on board by pirates.
It is thought to be the first time suspected Somali pirates have appeared before a Spanish judge and been indicted.
Spanish media have reported that various other European countries have sent Somali pirate suspects -- which their respective armed forces captured -- to Kenya to face judicial proceedings, but did not bring them to Europe.
Pirates have captured more than 50 ships this year off Somalia and are currently holding 12, including the Alakrana, Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon said recently.
About a dozen other Spanish fishing boats had taken refuge in the Seychelles Islands but over the weekend, dozens of private Spanish security personnel arrived there and boarded the ships, with their weapons, to provide security, as other nations are doing for their fishing fleets in the troubled waters.
Spain is part of a European Union task force against piracy in the Indian Ocean off Somalia. The Spanish parliament last January agreed to increase Spain's presence with up to 395 troops and assets, including a frigate and aircraft.
Chacon told Parliament before the vote that the fight against piracy "is of vital importance for the defense of the geostrategic and economic interests of Spain, and will provide security to our fishing fleet."
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi and Yemeni forces pounded Shiite rebel positions along the border between the two countries on Sunday as the rebels claimed they used Katyusha rockets in attacking a Saudi military base in the border Jizan region to avenge the deaths of civilians killed.
"Saudi jet fighters resumed their attacks on Saturday night and bombarded rebel hideouts in the border area. There was relative calm on Sunday morning but air operations against the border area are continuing," witnesses told AFP.
A statement by the Houthi rebels, meanwhile, said that "after more than eight days from the start of Saudi attacks and air strikes... we attacked Ain al-Harra military base with Katyusha rockets and fires were seen in that camp."
The Saudi military presence in the Jizan region has been boosted over the past two days, according to Al Arabiya correspondent, who said reinforcements were seen on the route to Khubah, close to the rebel positions.
Saudi forces have been shelling and bombing rebel positions in the 2,000-meter Jebel al-Dukhan mountain area straddling the border since Nov. 4, after rebels killed a border guard and injured a number of others inside Saudi territory the previous day.
Riyadh has said the air strikes and shelling will continue until the rebels withdraw tens of kilometers from the Saudi-Yemeni border.
Meanwhile, Yemeni forces on Saturday night pounded rebel positions in their Saada province stronghold and in Harf Sufyan in Amran province, both north of Sanaa, a Yemeni military official told AFP.
"Strong clashes erupted in Harf Sufyan between the army and the rebels, supported by tribes," the official said, adding that five tribal members were killed and seven others were wounded.
The clashes came after reinforcements from Sanaa arrived at Harf Sufyan to "help the army gain control of the area," the official said.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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The military offensive against infiltrators at Mount Dokhan and Mount Al-Doud in Jizan entered a new phase Sunday with armored vehicles advancing in the surrounding areas, according to Okaz newspaper.
Okaz reported Monday that some 200 infiltrators were killed in air and artillery bombardments over Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday after groups had penetrated the border and were cornered in a valley.
Further clashes took place at the villages of Al-Raha, Umm Al-Darq and Al-Qomah, which had been evacuated less than 48 hours earlier.
Okaz also said that an unspecified number of foreign fighters had been arrested, as were some persons who attempted to cross the border dressed in pilgrim "Ihram" attire.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily reported Monday that two Pakistanis and an Egyptian had been captured in Saudi territory since the beginning of clashes on the border. The three are suspected of having ties to the infiltrators.
Al-Watan newspaper reported the same day that Special Forces paratroopers captured a group of armed infiltrators with Ethiopians, Somalis and Afghans among them following ground and helicopter attacks at Al-Rumaih Mountain.
According to the report, mortars and a Cartouche launcher were used against the Saudi military.
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The Saudi Air Force, Army, Navy and public security were Monday carrying out mop-up operations, according to military sources. Apache helicopters destroyed infiltrators' missile launch pads and their night hideouts.
Military analysts said that infiltrators were hemmed in by Apache helicopter attacks and army sniper fire at the areas of the most intense fighting around Mt. Dokhan and Mt. Doud and the village of Al-Ghawiya, where infiltrators sought cover in houses from air and artillery strikes.
The rebels suffered a further setback with the killing of their official spokesman.
He will say no more!
Infiltrators were now confined to the border area between the Kingdom and Yemen.
The sources said that the Saudi Armed Forces have tightened control over sites at Umm Al-Daba Mountains after infiltrators tried to sneak in Sunday night, launching RPGs. The Saudi artillery destroyed their hideouts.
Bet ya that the western press doesn't bleat about inadvertent civilian casualties ...
The Armed Forces also purged Al-Ghawyia and Al-Sabakhaya villages of infiltrators.
In Dammam, Emir of the Eastern Province Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd told a group of judges, senior officials and other dignitaries Monday that a decisive victory was near. He described the military operations as "heroic, honorable and dignified."
The National Society for Human Rights, meanwhile, has said it is looking into eyewitness reports of infiltrators using human shields.
Gee, human rights groups never complain when the Taliban uses human shields ...
Several sources also reported on Monday that foreign fighters had been identified among infiltrators, including Pakistanis, Ethiopians, Somalis, Afghanis and an Egyptian.
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(Xinhua) -- Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped a Japanese engineer who serves the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) northeast of the capital Sanaa, a provincial official said on Monday.
The official told Xinhua that Yemeni tribesmen had kidnapped a Japanese engineer in the Arhab district which is located about 60 km northeast of Sanaa.
A source at the Japanese embassy told Xinhua that "the kidnapping incident occurred when the engineer was on a working visit to one of the projects financed by JICA"
The official, who asked not to be named said "negotiations are underway with the kidnappers to release the Japanese architect" and predicted it could be released in the near future.
"They (the kidnappers) want their relatives jailed (in Yemen) to be released," the official said.
The tribal source said "the kidnappers ask the Yemeni government to release members of the tribe who were put in prison by the government."
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Two brothers, who were operatives of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), were killed during a "shootout" between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion in Madaripur sadar upazila early yesterday.
I'm surprised there are any Purba Banglar commies left in all B'desh. How do they manage to recruit new cadres? What do you say to a young lad to get him to join up?
It's better to burn out than it is to rust, perhaps.
The dead were identified as Lutfor Rahman Khalasi, 45, and his younger brother Khairul Haque Khalasi, 28, of Kotbari Srinodi village in the upazila. In July last year, their another brother Obaidur Khalasi died in a similar "shootout".
So it runs in the family ...
On information, a Rab team went to Jalkar area where the outlaws were holding a meeting, Rab sources said.
"Okay, guys, how's the membership drive going?"
Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the operatives opened fire on Rab personnel forcing them to fire back.
That's going to whittle the membership down ...
After the gunfight, the brothers were found dead on the spot while their accomplices fled the scene.
The Rab men recovered three revolvers, a rifle and nine bullets from the spot.
Nine bullets minus the two in the brothers ...
The brothers were accused in several cases of murder, rape, robbery and illegal possession of arms with Madaripur, Shibchar and Rajoir thanas.
So their mother pro'ly didn't sign their membership cards ...
Lutfor Khalasi's wife Jharna Begum and son Bablu Khalasi, 20, claimed that Madaripur Rab did not give them any information after the Rab men picked up Lutfor and Khairul Saturday morning.
At a press conference in Madaripur on Saturday, Jharna Begum and Bablu appealed for not killing the brothers in the name of crossfire. They also mentioned in the press conference that Rab-3 had arrested the brothers from Rupganj in Narayanganj around 1:00am on Saturday.
Jharna and Bablu were apprehensive that instead of handing the brothers over to police, Rab might take them to Madaripur and kill them in the name of an attempt to recover illegal arms.
Just about what happened ...
On receiving the news of their death, Jharna and Bablu claimed that the Rab team killed the two after knowing about the home ministry sending a directive for not putting them in crossfire.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Counter-terrorism detectives arrested five men in an early morning raid in northwest England on Monday.
It was reported that the suspects were being held for committing terrorism offences and for inciting a terrorism incident overseas. Police said the suspects, aged 21, 26, 27, 52 and 62, were detained after raids at homes in Manchester and Bolton, and at a hotel near London's Heathrow Airport, adding that the properties were also being searched. It said no armed officers were involved in the raids. "The ongoing investigation has reached a critical point, therefore it was important to make arrests and speak to a number of people," said Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson.
The police had earlier carried out raids across northwest England in April in an operation against what Prime Minister Gordon Brown described at the time as a "very big terrorist plot". These raids had to be made public after the then-top counter-terrorism officer was photographed carrying a document relating to the operation, and 12 men who had been arrested were later released without charge. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to speak at the annual London Lord Mayor's Banquet in defence of Britain's actions in Afghanistan.
The editor seems to have attached a sentence from another article at the end of this one. That's why they get paid so much more than bloggers, I guess.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Give me £600,000, and I would shoot 'em. /sarc off.
Pakistani forces have captured most main Taliban bases in their offensive in South Waziristan and will soon fan out into the rugged countryside to hunt for militants there, commanders said on Tuesday.
Soldiers have advanced faster than expected in their month-long offensive, seizing main roads and Taliban bases but militant leaders have apparently melted away while their bombers have unleashed carnage in towns. That's why the bad guyz' casualties have been so low -- they've literally headed for the hills.
Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters on a trip to South Waziristan with the army that some militants might have slipped out the region but many were hiding. "We still believe many are still here. They have gone to the countryside, the forested areas, to villages and into the caves," Abbas said. "After taking complete control of the roads and the tracks, we are going to chase them in the forested areas, wherever they are hiding in the countryside," he said.
Posted by: ed ||
11/17/2009 08:01 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > INDIA'S RAW ]Agency] GIVES US TARGETS IN PAKISTAN: TTP ADMITS [PAK Taliban];
and
WAFF > [MUMBAI Surviving Terrorist Ajimal Kasab] KASAB: MY FATHER SOLD ME TO LASHKAR [LeT] FOR MONEY.
***cough *** *** cough ***...
SAME WMF > TIMES OF INDIA - [US FBI-captured, US Based Terrorists]HEADLEY, RANA MAY HAD BEEN PART OF [larger]26/11 PLOT. IOW, Multiple MUMBAIS.;
+ A ACTRESS [aspiring BOLLYWOOD] ACTRESS WENT FOR DINNER WITH HEADLEY?
Ala OSAMA + fav MTV Babe WHITNEY HUSTON, ASPIRING KILLER BURQA BOYZ GET ALL THE HAWT CHICAS???
A director of an NGO was gunned down on Monday, apparently in act of target killing, in Landhi 89 area in the remit of Quaidabad police station.
The victim was identified as Ibrahim Shah, 40. He ran an NGO named 'Young Generation'.
Police said the incident occurred in the early hours of the day when the victim was sitting at his office. Two unidentified men riding a motorcycle came and opened fire on him.
The victim sustained multiple bullets injuries and was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where he succumbed to injuries.
Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi officials claimed that the deceased was their party supporter, however the police said the deceased was not affiliated with any political party.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces killed four terrorists in operations in Swat, as the ISPR on Monday said Operation Rah-e-Nijat was progressing well in South Waziristan. An ISPR statement said security forces were consolidating their positions on each of the three main axes in the agency. "The forces conducted a search operation in Roria near Gulibagh in Swat and killed four terrorists during the encounter," it said, adding that the forces conducted a search operation in Tiligram and Dargai and apprehended four suspects from the area. The security forces advanced further into the agency and secured important areas south and west of Janata village on the Jandola-Sararogha axis.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > VARIOUS - [Swat Taliban Leader]FAZULLAH ESCAPES INTO AFGHANISTAN.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army and police forces have been heavily deployed at the Abu-Ghraib suburb of Baghdad, after 17 civilians were shot dead in the area.
"Major inlets and main roads within the incident's area are closed until the investigation ends," a source from the Abu-Ghraib police told Aswat al-Irq news agency. Eyewitnesses confirmed that the killers were in the Iraqi army uniform. "The victims were shot in head while their hands were cuffed," the source said.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi security forces arrested on Monday nine Iraqi infiltrators on the Iraqi-Syrians borders in west of Mosul, a security source said."A force from the 6th brigade of the border guards arrested on Monday (Nov. 16) nine Iraqi infiltrators on the Iraqi-Syrian borders in west of Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The infiltrators are from the al-Shamal district in Sinjar in west of Mosul," he added. "They were arrested for entering the Iraq territories illegally," he noted.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces managed on Monday to seize two missiles and a launching pad in southern Falluja, a police source said. "Two C5 missiles and a launching pad were found in an agricultural land in al-Aamiriya district in southern Falluja," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The operation was launched in light of intelligence information and citizens' cooperation," he added.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces arrested on Monday 10 wanted men and four suspects in raid operations throughout Basra province, said a local security source. He said that border forces seized in eastern Basra "55 mines, seven rockets, and different ammunition."
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and eight others injured in a car bomb explosion in central of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Monday, a local police chief said.
The incident occurred at sunset when a booby-trapped car parked at the Salahudin Street in the Khan al-Tamr neighborhood, Brigadier Sarhat Abdul Qader told Xinhua.
The blast damaged several nearby shops, buildings and civilian cars, Qader said.
Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, is one of the disputed areas between the Kurds and both Arabs and Turkmans. The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country after more than three months of U.S. troops pullout of cities and towns.
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11/17/2009 00:00 ||
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Iranian construction of a previously secret uranium enrichment site is at an advanced stage, with high-tech equipment already in place at the fortified facility ahead of its 2011 startup, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Monday.
The revelation of the existence of the underground plant known as Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, has heightened concerns of other possible undeclared Iranian facilities that are not subject to IAEA oversight and therefore could be used for military purposes.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the IAEA report "underscores that Iran still refuses to comply fully with its international nuclear obligations."
The IAEA report offered no estimate of Fordo's capabilities, but a senior international official familiar with the U.N. agency's work in Iran said it appeared designed to produce about a ton of enriched uranium a year.
The official, as well as analysts, said that would be enough for a nuclear warhead but too little for Iran's civilian reactors that have yet to come online, including the still unfinished plant at the southern port of Bushehr. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information he was citing was confidential.
"It won't (even) be able to produce a reactor's worth of fuel every 90 years, but it will be able to produce one bomb a year," said Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Strategic Security Program of the Federation of American Scientists. "It does look strange."
The IAEA also said production at Iran's main enrichment site at Natanz -- revealed by dissidents in 2002 and under IAEA monitoring -- was stagnating at mid-2009 levels.
The report did not offer a reason. But the official suggested that experts who used to work at Natanz could be preoccupied with finishing the Fordo site.
As early as three years ago, Iran had said immediate plans for Natanz were to install about 8,000 enriching centrifuges, and Monday's report suggested Tehran had reached that goal.
The IAEA summary said that as of Nov. 2, about 8,600 centrifuges had been set up, but only about 4,000 were enriching -- or 600 fewer than in September. Still, the official said output had been steady since June with about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of enriched uranium being produced a month.
The report said Natanz had churned out nearly 4,000 pounds (1,800 kilograms) of uranium by Nov. 2 -- close to what experts consider to be needed for two nuclear weapons. But for use as warhead material it would have to enriched further -- it is now low-enriched uranium suitable only for fueling nuclear plants.
Posted by: ed ||
11/17/2009 07:34 ||
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#1
But the bureaucrats that assembled the NIE said this didn't exist. How could that be? /sarc off
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] Suspected Taliban militants stormed a police post and killed up to eight policemen in southern Afghanistan, a senior officer said Monday in the latest attack on the poorly-armed force.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Taliban militants fired two rockets on Monday, killing 12 Afghan civilians and wounding at least 38 others, the French military reported. 
(Xinhua) -- Police in the northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan killed seven Taliban militants early Monday, provincial police Mohammad Razaq Yaqubi said. "With the support of locals the policemen raided Taliban rebels in Angorbagh and Haqtash villages early this morning killing seven of them including three local commanders," Yaqubi told Xinhua. 
A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates near Somalia, the European Union's naval force says.
(CNN) -- A Spanish judge indicted two Somali pirate suspects in Madrid on Monday, while pirates held a Spanish fishing boat and its crew off the Somali coast for the 46th day.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi and Yemeni forces pounded Shiite rebel positions along the border between the two countries on Sunday as the rebels claimed they used Katyusha rockets in attacking a Saudi military base in the border Jizan region to avenge the deaths of civilians killed.
The military offensive against infiltrators at Mount Dokhan and Mount Al-Doud in Jizan entered a new phase Sunday with armored vehicles advancing in the surrounding areas, according to Okaz newspaper.
(Xinhua) -- Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped a Japanese engineer who serves the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) northeast of the capital Sanaa, a provincial official said on Monday. 
[Bangla Daily Star] Two brothers, who were operatives of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), were killed during a "shootout" between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion in Madaripur sadar upazila early yesterday. 
Counter-terrorism detectives arrested five men in an early morning raid in northwest England on Monday.
A director of an NGO was gunned down on Monday, apparently in act of target killing, in Landhi 89 area in the remit of Quaidabad police station.
Security forces killed four terrorists in operations in Swat, as the ISPR on Monday said Operation Rah-e-Nijat was progressing well in South Waziristan. An ISPR statement said security forces were consolidating their positions on each of the three main axes in the agency. "The forces conducted a search operation in Roria near Gulibagh in Swat and killed four terrorists during the encounter," it said, adding that the forces conducted a search operation in Tiligram and Dargai and apprehended four suspects from the area. The security forces advanced further into the agency and secured important areas south and west of Janata village on the Jandola-Sararogha axis.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army and police forces have been heavily deployed at the Abu-Ghraib suburb of Baghdad, after 17 civilians were shot dead in the area.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi security forces arrested on Monday nine Iraqi infiltrators on the Iraqi-Syrians borders in west of Mosul, a security source said."A force from the 6th brigade of the border guards arrested on Monday (Nov. 16) nine Iraqi infiltrators on the Iraqi-Syrian borders in west of Mosul," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The infiltrators are from the al-Shamal district in Sinjar in west of Mosul," he added. "They were arrested for entering the Iraq territories illegally," he noted.
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces managed on Monday to seize two missiles and a launching pad in southern Falluja, a police source said. "Two C5 missiles and a launching pad were found in an agricultural land in al-Aamiriya district in southern Falluja," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The operation was launched in light of intelligence information and citizens' cooperation," he added.
Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces arrested on Monday 10 wanted men and four suspects in raid operations throughout Basra province, said a local security source. He said that border forces seized in eastern Basra "55 mines, seven rockets, and different ammunition."
(Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and eight others injured in a car bomb explosion in central of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Monday, a local police chief said. 
