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Afghanistan

Nato helicopter shot down in Helmand in Afghanistan

2010-06-09

Four Nato soldiers have been killed when their helicopter was shot down in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Nato said the aircraft was hit by "hostile fire". The troops were Americans, the US military spokesman in Kabul, Lt Col Joseph T Breasseale, said. The Taliban claimed its fighters had shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade. The helicopter crashed in the Sangin district, said provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said it had been brought down in the Sangin district bazaar on Wednesday morning. "We brought it down with a rocket," he told AFP news agency.

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Afghanistan

Major Afghan assault claims first Taliban casualties

2010-02-14

A massive assault force taking on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan claimed its first kills Saturday within hours of launching the biggest operation since US President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge, an Afghan army commander said. Five militants were killed soon after US-led troops helicoptered into Marjah in the poppy-growing belt of Helmand province, said Sher Mohammad Zazai, commander of the Afghan Army's 205 Corps. "According to initial reports, five enemy have been killed," he said. "Two were killed in one location, three in another. They were killed in face-to-face fighting," he told reporters by video link from Helmand's capital of Lashkar Gah. As the assault got under way, a suicide bomber struck in Kandahar city, capital of neighbouring Kandahar province where the insurgency is also raging. His explosives-laden motorbike killed a US solider when he detonated it near a military patrol, an Afghan army officer said. "There was a suicide bombing near the vehicles of US forces. One US soldier was killed, three others were wounded and an Afghan civilian was killed and four others were wounded," said Captain Abdul Rahman, who was near the site on the outskirts of Kandahar city. A spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) told AFP: "We are aware of an explosive device in the area and we are investigating." Chinook helicopters filled the pre-dawn skies over Marjah as 15,000 troops led by US Marines launched the first major offensive since Obama's new troop surge aimed at bringing an end to the eight-year war. Hundreds of Afghan, US and British troops had been dropped into Marjah town for Operation Mushtarak ("together" in Dari), ahead of ground forces, a US Marines officer told AFP. "At 0230 this morning (2200 GMT), helicopters inserted combined forces into Marjah town," said Lieutenant Josh Diddams, spokesman for the US Marines at Taskforce Leatherneck in Helmand. "We are now moving forward on the ground and meeting minimal resistance." He confirmed troops had come under fire from Taliban fighters, believed to number 400-1,000, who have hunkered down ready for a fight. Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the assault is being led by three Marines battalions, with about five brigades of Afghan forces, aiming to clear Marjah of Taliban and re-establish government control. Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned the troops to do everything possible to avoid harming civilians during the offensive. "The president urges Afghan and foreign military authorities to continue to consult the local people, fully coordinate their actions and to avoid using air power in areas where civilians can be at risk," a statement from his office said. General Muhaiuddin Ghori, Afghan army commander in Helmand, told AFP his troops had come under fire from militants both inside and outside Marjah township, home to 80,000 people in the central Helmand River valley. Helmand's Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal, speaking on a video link from Lashkar Gah, told reporters: "Where there was resistance it has been eliminated." The troops, dropped into Marjah from 60 helicopters, had taken 11 strategic areas, he said, adding: "There are a lot of mines in the area, and they are being defused as troops detect them." Mushtarak is the first phase of a major operation to re-establish Afghan government control over the region. The Taliban claimed early casualties among the attacking forces, with spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi saying insurgents had engaged US forces in Marjah's main square. "Last night American and foreign forces entered Marjah Loy Charae (Big Square) in the centre of Marjah and we are busy fighting them," he said. "In the first clash we killed six foreign soldiers." The claim could not be immediately verified. The Taliban habitually exaggerate death tolls. Six dead is an exaggeration? Of what, two fingers with splinters?

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Afghanistan

Locals Flee Ahead of Major Military Offensive

2010-02-08

[Quqnoos] Thousands of people are leaving their homes ahead of a major military operation in southern Afghanistan. A huge force of US Marines leading NATO and Afghan soldiers is expected to launch a massive operation in Helmand's central district of Marjah -- a main Taliban stronghold -- in the coming days. "The government of Afghanistan will reclaim Marjah as one of its own," said the British commander of the operation, General Nick Carter. The assault is known as Operation Mushtarak -- Dari for "together", as Afghan troops will also play a pivotal role -- and has been flagged by military officials for months to either repel or draw in the enemy. Taliban leaders say they are massing fighters around Marjah in preparation for a bloody battle. "We are in control and ready to fight," said purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location. Mushtarak echoes assaults last year -- the British Operation Panther's Claw and the Marines' Operation Dagger -- seen as successfully eradicating militants who had controlled other poppy-growing regions in Helmand province. Preparatory operations around Marjah, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, have been going on for weeks, with leaflets dropped on the area from NATO helicopters warning residents of the assault to come. Habibullah, 48, said he and his family left Marjah for Lashkar Gah two months ago to escape the violence. "There are a lot of Taliban there. They are violent towards us, accusing us of spying for the foreign forces, demanding food all the time," he told AFP. "There are still people living there and the Taliban are still in control, but there has been a lot of fighting, with gunfire and bombings, and lots of soldiers have been coming in to fight the Taliban and then leave," he said. Operation Mushtarak comes after US President Barack Obama announced in December his plan for a troop surge. The US and NATO are deploying an extra 40,000 troops, on top of the 113,000 already in Afghanistan, as part of the surge, with most heading to the southern battleground. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan told a global security conference in Istanbul last week the situation in Afghanistan is serious but no longer deteriorating because "we have made significant progress... and we'll make new progress in 2010".

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Afghanistan

Taliban launch operation 'Iron Net' against US Marines

2009-07-07

Operation Iron Net? That sounds remarkably stiff, heavy, and ineffective. Perhaps it's more frightening in the original Pashtun. The Taliban said on Monday they have launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault by the newly-deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds. Operation Foladi Jal would teach the Marines "a lesson". Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location. The brave Lion of Islam phones it in from his secret hiding place, under his youngest wife's bed. "You guys go ahead, I'll be there in a minute." "Where you going, Mahmoud?" Um .. I gotta make a phone call." About 4,000 Marines poured into the southern province on Thursday in an operation called Khanjar (dagger) to tackle the Taliban in the region. "In response to Operation Khanjar by the invading forces, we have launched the operation," Ahmadi said. The operation would include improvised bomb explosions and "hit-and-run guerrilla attacks", Ahmadi said. "We will not engage them in front battles. We would rather hit them by mines and guerrilla attacks," he said. Happy hunting, Marine Lions and Lionesses!

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Afghanistan

Taliban claims assassination of senior policewoman

2008-09-29

Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan as she left her home to go to work on Sunday, officials and the militia said. The attackers were waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's Department of Crimes Against Women, and opened fire on her car, Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi told AFP. "Malalai Kakar died in front of her house," he said. "Her son was wounded." A doctor at the city's main hospital said Kakar, in her late 30s, had been shot in the head. "She died on the spot and her son was badly injured and is in a coma," said the doctor, who refused to let his name be used. A spokesman for the Taliban, which targets government officials as part of an growing insurgency, said the assassins were from his group. "We killed Malalai Kakar," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target." Kakar, a mother of six, was regularly profiled in international media and was known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative provinces. A captain in the police force and the most senior policewoman in Kandahar, she headed a team of about 10 women police officers and had reportedly received numerous death threats. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, which is mounting a growing insurgency that targets officials working with the government. During their 1996-2001 hold on power, the Taliban stopped women from working outside the home and stopped them from leaving home without a male relative and an all-covering burqa. Kakar was the first woman to join the Kandahar police force after the US-led 2001 ouster of the Taliban and had been involved in investigating crimes against women and children, and conducting house searches.

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Afghanistan

Residents flee as Taliban brace for Afghan offensive

2008-06-18

Thousands of residents fled villages near Kandahar as Taliban militants blew up bridges on Tuesday ahead of a looming offensive by Afghan and NATO troops, officials and locals said. A Taliban commander said hundreds of fighters had hunkered down in troubled Arghandab district since late Monday, with many of them having escaped from the southern city's main jail at the weekend in a brazen insurgent attack. The wave of unrest in the strategic region has piled pressure on President Hamid Karzai, who threatened at the weekend that Afghan forces could attack militants on the soil of neighbouring Pakistan. 'Hundreds of families have left, we requested them to leave. Around 300 to 400 Taliban are on the move in the district, they are not stationed in one location,' defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. The Taliban had blown up one bridge 'so far' in the district, he said, adding that hundreds of Afghan soldiers had been deployed in Arghandab 'to clear the insurgents from the area.' The interior ministry said army reinforcement had been sent to the area. Afghan army General Aminullah Patyali said the rebels had reportedly destroyed several bridges and laid many landmines. One of the mines exploded, killing two Taliban, he said. The US-led coalition said that a joint patrol with Afghan forces saw no massive presence of rebels in the district. The 'forces completed a patrol ... today and found no evidence that militants control the area,' it said in a statement. Meanwhile, three security guards hired by a road construction company were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Spin Boldak district late Tuesday, Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib said. Three guards were killed and another three were wounded in the blast,' he said. Residents fleeing Arghandab, which is surrounded by pomegranate groves and agricultural fields, said the Taliban had seized much of the area and that many people had abandoned their harvests. 'There were Taliban everywhere. They have destroyed all of the small bridges leading to the villages,' Hazarat Jan told AFP on the road to Kandahar as he led a donkey carrying his sick mother. An AFP reporter said dozens of NATO and Afghan security forces had set up checkposts searching vehicles and people. At one checkpoint, policeman Sardar Mohammad said about 700 families amounting to at least 3,000 people had fled. Abdul Mohammad, another resident, said that helicopters from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force 'dropped leaflets on our village, asking us to leave the village before they launch an operation.' NATO civilian spokesman Mark Laity confirmed the leaflet drop but said the villagers were asked to stay in their houses until Afghan security forces remove the Taliban. The Taliban build-up comes days after more than 1,000 prisoners including rebels escaped from Kandahar prison after suicide bombers attacked the main gate. A militant who claimed to be a group commander in Arghandab said that 'dozens' of the escaped prisoners were taking part in the Taliban's activities in the village. 'We're about 400 to 500. There are some Taliban who escaped the jail who have joined us,' Mullah Aminullah told AFP by telephone. There was no way of independently confirming his identity or location. 'We have planted lots of mines on the roads and destroyed small bridges leading to these villages,' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone that the rebels held most of the area apart from the district centre.

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Afghanistan

US offensive in Tora Bora

2007-08-16

Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday. The offensive involved ground troops and airstrikes in Tora Bora and targeted "hundreds of foreign fighters" who were using dug-in fighting positions, said coalition spokeswoman Capt Vanessa Bowman. There were no immediate reports of casualties among militants or US and Afghan troops. Separately, three senior German police officers charged with protecting the German ambassador were killed and one was wounded in a roadside bomb near Kabull, officials said. Police said the diplomatic convoy was hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call and confirmed the bomb's nature. Also on Wednesday, attackers shot dead a British national in Kabul, a British Embassy spokesman said. The victim's identity or circumstances of death were not revealed. Police arrested two Afghan men suspected in the slaying, the Interior Ministry said.

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Afghanistan

Taleban won't allow medical team access to hostages

2007-08-04

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The Taleban on Friday refused to allow an Afghan medical team access to 21 South Koreans and said it would free two who are gravely ill only if the government released two imprisoned rebels. The team of doctors and nurses had volunteered to treat the captives, most of whom are said to be ill after more than two weeks in captivity, and travelled to southern Ghazni province where the aid workers were kidnapped. But the Taleban said it had refused to allow them access to the hostages. “If they are concerned about their health, they must release two of our prisoners in exchange for the two hostages who are very sick,” said Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi. Ahmadi said Tuesday two of the 16 women in the group were suffering serious medical problems.

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Afghanistan

Pakistan says no influence on Taliban

2007-08-03

Pakistan said on Thursday it had no influence over the Taliban holding 21 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan, stressing it was at war with the Islamist militia and Al Qaeda elements within its own borders, AFP reported. “Pakistan itself is a victim of such incidents,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar said after a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon. Pakistan would like to help, Bakhtyar said, but was at war with Taliban and Al Qaeda elements at home, he said. “Naturally we have no lines of communication with the Taliban,” he said. Meanwhile in Islamabad, a South Korean presidential envoy met Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to plead for help in securing the release of 21 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan. Baek Jong-chun refused to talk to reporters after meeting with Maulana Fazl, and his aides requested a media blackout to avoid further problems for the hostages. But Rehman later told reporters Baek had asked for his help in securing their safe release. “I have already issued an appeal to those who are holding the hostages, and today again I am issuing a second appeal to them, that (they) please release them, they were on a medical mission there, not for fighting,” Rehman said. Earlier, Baek met Sherpao and senior security officials to request their help in ending the crisis, officials said. Meanwhile, Taliban militants said in Ghazni they were ready to meet a South Korean delegation over the fate of 21 hostages held in Afghanistan. But the embassy in Kabul did not confirm that it would go ahead with such a meeting, which the Afghan government and the Taliban told AFP was already being planned. “A South Korean diplomatic delegation is to meet the Taliban for face-to-face talks to look for ways and solutions to free the South Korean nationals,” Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP. “This request from the Koreans has been accepted by the Taliban and now we are working on how, where and when this meet could take place,” he said. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP the group had selected a team to meet the South Koreans at a secret location. Seoul was meanwhile seeking the help of the United States. The propaganda-savvy Taliban pointed to Washington as the main obstacle to the negotiations, with Ahmadi saying: “The Americans do not permit the Kabul administration to free our prisoners.” South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met on the sidelines of a regional security forum in the Philippines. “They agreed that both countries will not use any kind of force,” a South Korean diplomat said.

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Afghanistan

Taliban threaten to kill more Korean hostages

2007-08-02

Afghanistan’s Taliban have threatened to kill more of the 21 South Korean hostages after a Wednesday deadline expired. The extremist group repeated that it was ready to kill more members of the aid mission seized here two weeks ago. Meanwhile, military choppers dropped leaflets in the province, including the Qarabagh district where the South Koreans were captured, asking residents to leave ahead of a planned operation but officials denied this would be a bid to free the captives. The operation was a routine exercise due in the coming weeks, the defence ministry said. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said earlier there had been no progress in the negotiations. One of the main negotiators, parliamentarian Mahmood Gailani, said tribal elders fronting the talks had asked for 48 more hours. A top US official, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, and Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile joined international calls for the release of the Christians. The bodies of four Afghan judges from Paktika were also found on Wednesday. “We killed them because they worked for the government,” Ahmadi said. In other incidents, a gun battle with militants in the east left a NATO soldier injured while a clash in the south killed 10 suspected Taliban militants, officials said. Four rebels were also shot dead in Ghazni province and a soldier from the 35,000-strong NATO-led force here to assist the Afghan government was killed in fighting in the northeast, security officials said.

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Afghanistan

Taliban say they have killed a second SKorean hostage

2007-07-30

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban militia said it shot dead late Monday a South Korean hostage, among 23 captured two weeks ago, after its deadlines expired for the government to free prisoners. "We set several deadlines and the Afghan government did not pay attention to our deadlines," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "Finally tonight at 8:30 (1600 GMT) we killed one of the Koreans named Sung Sin with AK-47 gunshots." The body of the hostage had been dumped in the Qarabagh district of the southern province of Ghazni, Ahmadi said. He did not specify the gender of the captive but his use of the Pashtu language suggested a man was killed. The area is where 23 South Korean Christians, 16 of them women, were captured on July 19 while officially on an aid mission. The Taliban threatened on Sunday to start killing them Monday if its demand was ignored. The leader of the Koreans, a 42-year-old pastor, was shot dead on Wednesday last week and his bullet-riddled body found in a desert area of the province. There was no independent confirmation of the latest killing, but Afghan officials said they were pursuing unconfirmed intelligence reports that two of the hostages were dead."We have heard reports of two hostages killed but I cannot confirm it at this stage," Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP. Provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said his information was that two bodies had been dumped in the Char Daiwal area of the Qarabagh, which is 140 kilometres (90 miles) south of Kabul. "Although it's night and dark, police forces have gone to the area and have started a search and investigation there. We don't know at this stage if it is true or not," he said. The South Korean embassy here has refused to comment to press on the case. The hardline Islamic militia extended a deadline of noon Monday by four hours, saying afterwards it leaders were deciding on the fate of its captives. It had demanded the government free Taliban men in its jails but negotiators said this was not up for discussion and called for two extra days to try to resolve the crisis.

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Afghanistan

Taleban say hostage talks must “speed up”

2007-07-29

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Afghanistan’s Taleban expressed impatience Saturday over talks to free 22 South Koreans it captured 10 days ago but government negotiators ruled out their demand for the release of prisoners. “Seventeen of the hostages are sick. If anything happens to them, the Afghan government and the South Korean government will be responsible,” spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said. “They have to speed up the process of releasing our suggested prisoners.” Funny, we thought the hostage-takers were responsible for the welfare of the hostages. Must be a western construct. 17 hostages sick, one murdered. Someday there may be a Nuremburg trial. I hope somebody's taking this all down. Oh. Wait. It's us. The Islamist group has threatened to kill all 22 hostages if its demand for the release of eight Taleban prisoners was not met. It shot dead the leader of the mission this week and dumped his body in the desert. And it has nothing against murdering women, after abusing them, of course. The group has not set a deadline after a series of others lapsed without incident. “We have given them (the government) our list and we are waiting for our prisoners to be released,” Ahmadi said. A Taleban commander involved in negotiations, Abdullah Jan, told AFP, “We will accept no other solution but the release our eight prisoners.” Likely not to happen given the criticism they took on the last prisoner exchange. Betcha it does happen. But a member of the government negotiating team said the release of prisoners was “out of discussion.” Still betcha it happens. Okay, okay, it just might. “The government policy is very clear — not to release any prisoners,” said parliamentarian Mahmood Gailani. “We have not been given the mandate to exchange prisoners,” he told AFP.

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