| Afghanistan |
| Arrival of Arabs confirmed in Zabul |
| 2015-01-12 |
| [Khaama (Afghanistan)] Ghulam Sakhi Roghlewanai, police chief of southern Zabul province confirmed the arrival of Arab nationals in Zabul. He said based on intelligence information about 500 families have arrived in Nawa district, 70 of these families are foreign Taliban, which include Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis and Panjabis. He added that some of these families have moved to Khak Afghan, Dai Chopan, Arghandab districts and surrounding areas. He said Regarding DAESH, we Afghans do not have fear from them. The situation of Afghanistan differs from that of Iraq, Syria and Egypt, we are fighting for the past 30 years Reports from southern Helmand province also indicated the show of a new armed group but these reports were rejected by the interior ministry of Afghanistan. |
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| Afghanistan | ||
| Coalition rejects Taliban claim of killing nine US soldiers | ||
| 2006-06-15 | ||
 KABUL (AIP): In claims made to Afghan media, the Taliban today said they killed nine US soldiers in the Dara Hazarbuz Cochak area of the Dai Chopan District in Zabul Province.
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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban claims downing US chopper in Zabul |
| 2006-06-07 |
| PESHAWAR (AIP): Taliban on Tuesday claimed downing a US helicopter in Zabul province yesterday. Local police, however, dismissed Taliban claim as false. Taliban guerillas shot down a helicopter of US forces in Chaka Kor area of Dai Chopan in Zabul province yesterday, spokesman of Taliban fighters Qari Muhammad Yousaf told Afghan Islamic Press. He said in the same area a clash took place between Taliban and coalition forces last night in which several American troops were killed. However, police chief of Zabul province, Muhammad Nabi Mulla Khail dismissed the Taliban claims as false. He also rejected the claim of Qari Muhammad Yousaf of killing 12 policemen in an attack on a Bazargan Post in Shah Joi district. The Taliban spokesman also claimed to have blown a vehicle of US troops in Khala village near Qalat city yesterday. The Zabul police chief also rejected this claim and said three days back a vehicle of Afghan Army was destroyed in a mine blast in which four soldiers were wounded. Muhammad Nabi Mulla Khail expressed ignorance about the clash which according Taliban was happened in Nowbahar district yesterday, leaving three soldiers dead and one vehicle destroyed. |
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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban regrouping, good primer on enemy organization |
| 2006-05-01 |
| Four years after being ousted from power by the US-led coalition, the hardline Taliban militia is regrouping in eastern and southern Afghanistan and even finding support among locals. Lately, there has been a spate of skirmishes and attacks on the coalition forces and the Afghan government by the Taliban, the latest being the kidnapping and brutal murder of Indian telecom engineer K. Suryanarayana Sunday. The resurgent ambitions of the Taliban, known for its puritan code and fanaticism, can be gauged from the fact that it gave an ultimatum to the Indian government to withdraw nearly 2,000 Indian workers from Afghanistan in return for releasing the captive. Recently, two Taliban fighters and two Afghan soldiers died in a gun battle in Zhawara district of Afghanistan's volatile eastern province of Khowst. The Taliban targets aid and reconstruction projects in the region. At the end of March, US-led coalition forces concluded "Operation Valiant Strike," the third-largest conducted this year against the remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels in the south. With the killing of a Red Cross delegate in Oruzgan province and regular skirmishes with coalition troops in the south and southeast, the spotlight has turned to the areas of Taliban influence and the key men controlling them. Zabul province, one of the key areas from where the Taliban men cross into Afghanistan via Pachena and Anganay from neighbouring Quetta, is the main route for the militia to go to other southern provinces. The Taliban has been controlling most of the area in this region. There are reports of the Taliban finding new supporters among locals who see them providing better security to people than the government does. Even the voting for parliament from these areas last year could not be conducted as the election materials and the polling parties could not reach their respective places due to the militants' control over the routes. Dai Chopan district is one of the worst districts as far as insurgency is concerned. The insurgency is headed by Mullah Dadullah, who has about 400 fighters. Most of the Al Qaeda fighters travel with him and he mostly stays between Quetta and Zabul. Dadullah is also the military commander for the Taliban in the south. The guerrillas have weapons from AK-47 rifles to heavy machine guns to rocket launchers and mines. Lately, they have been making their own bombs, sources told IANS. In Atghar district, Mullah Razaq is heading Taliban operations in the area and his deputy is Mullah Agha. Around 40 Taliban fighters are working in small groups in Nawbahar district. In Khake Afghan district, foreign fighters, mostly Arabs and Chechens, have their base. It is being headed by a Taliban commander, Mullah Qahar, who was the commander for a Taliban frontline during the fight against the Northern Alliance. Commander Amir Khan Haqqani has 120 fighters who are working in Arghandab and Mizan districts. In Sewaray district, there are at least 600 fighters in and around the Sewaray district that shares a border with Quetta. Amir Khan is an ex-senior Taliban military commander who was head of the Qargha Division in Kabul under the Taliban. Qalat, the provincial capital of Zabul province, is headed by Taliban commander Mullah Assadullah who has around 300 fighters. Five months ago, Assadullah masterminded the killing of a Turkish engineer and kidnapped Indian engineer Maniyappan Ramankutty in the Tarnak area. Besides, these are the areas from where the Taliban crosses over to the other side to receive training in Pakistan. Recently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai confronted Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf with evidence of Islamabad's continued patronage of the Taliban. However, Musharraf denied the charges and said that Islamabad was as much a victim of terrorism as New Delhi and Kabul. |
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| Afghanistan/South Asia | |
| Musharraf calls Hamid Karzai | |
| 2005-06-24 | |
President Musharraf telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to remove misgivings and address Kabul's allegation that "Islamabad failed to curb Taliban attacks from its soil." "Musharraf assured Karzai Pakistan is not involved in any incident in Afghanistan," said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid.
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| Taliban leadership may be surrounded | ||||||
| 2005-06-23 | ||||||
 Afghan and U.S. forces surrounded an area in Afghanistan on Thursday where senior commanders of elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were thought to be hiding, Afghan security officials said.
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| 'Over 100' Taleban rebels killed | |||
| 2005-06-23 | |||
 US and Afghan officials say that more than 100 Taleban fighters have been killed in southern Afghanistan in one of the biggest offensives in two years. Hundreds of Afghan troops backed by US-led coalition forces have taken part in the clashes in Zabul province that started on Tuesday. The Taleban deny having lost any of their men. The government says a number of senior Taleban fighters have been surrounded, Reuters news agency reports. On Tuesday, the pilot of a US spy plane was killed when his aircraft crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates from Afghanistan. It is not clear whether the crash was connected to the ongoing offensive. Most of the fighting has taken place in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, near the border with Kandahar. "We have 103 bodies," Afghan interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal is quoted as saying by Reuters. "All of them were armed. Most were killed by coalition helicopter gunships," he said. A British military spokeswoman, Lt Gemma Fullman, said British planes provided close air support but did not drop any munitions, the AFP news agency reports. Afghan police commander Gen Salim Khan said eight Afghan security force members had died. The US military said five US soldiers had been wounded. Taleban spokesman, Latifullah Hakimi, denied any of the group's fighters had been killed or captured.
Tuesday's incident follows a wave of violence earlier this week in which at least 38 rebels were killed in clashes with US-led coalition and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan. The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says doubt has been cast on some of the US military's previous claims about insurgent casualty numbers. But our correspondent says barely a day goes by now without serious violence across south and east Afghanistan, raising fears for security in September's planned parliamentary elections. The US has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan tackling remnants of the Taleban that was ousted in late 2001.
Additional: Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said captured guerrillas had revealed that Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, both members of the Taliban leadership council led by Omar, had been in the area of the fighting at least until Tuesday. "We have concrete reports that they were there until at least the day before yesterday," he said. "They may still be there, they could have escaped, or they could have been killed." Mashal said the men were thought to be key links between the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network as well as with Pakistani militant groups and may even have had direct contacts with bin Laden and his number two Ayman al-Zawahri. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman said earlier the two were hiding in the Dai Chopan area with three other commanders he named as Mullah Abdul Hakim, Mullah Abdul Hanan and Mullah Abdul Basir. Mullah is a title for a Muslim cleric used by many top Taliban members. General Fateh Khan, a commander taking part in the operation, said they holed up with more than 150 guerrillas. He said Afghan and U.S. troops backed by U.S. helicopter gunships were closing in from three sides to try to capture them, which would be a major coup for the United States and the government of President Hamid Karzai, who came to power after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. | |||
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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Five Afghan soldiers killed in landmine blast in Spin Boldak |
| 2005-05-24 |
| At least five Afghan soldiers were killed when their vehicle went over a landmine in the Spin Boldak area of southern Afghanistan on Monday evening. Afghan soldiers started firing in the air after the incident. Reports from Chaman city said Afghan forces were on routine patrol in the village of Sultan Zai, about 4 kilometres from the Pakistani border, when their vehicle went over a mine, which exploded and killed five soldiers. Afghan officials were not available for comment.Separately, US-led troops killed two suspected insurgents in clashes on Monday in southern Afghanistan, as foreign and Afghan forces conducted three new operations to hunt for remnants of the ousted regime, AFP reported. US Lt Col Jerry O'Hara said the two were killed in Dai Chopan, a troubled district in southern Zabul province after attacking US troops. "Two insurgents were killed and the others fled the area," he added. The operation, dubbed Nam Dong II, was launched last week focusing on south-central Afghanistan, considered a Taliban stronghold, he said. Coalition forces and Afghan troops launched two separate operations aimed at eliminating militants, the military said in a statement. "Operations Celtic and Markham are also intended to root insurgents out of known safe-havens," the statement said, referring to the country's south and southeastern regions, where the militants are most active. O'Hara said that the operations were led by Afghan forces and that the US-led coalition forces were providing assistance. He did not say how many soldiers were involved in the operation, citing security reasons. |
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| Afghanistan/South Asia | ||
| Taliban in control of 70% of Zabul | ||
| 2004-03-06 | ||
| Last year around this time they claimed to control all of it. What happened? The Talibanâs intimidation tactics are simple. A convoy of about 20 Honda motorcycles surrounds a house, looking for people who support America or President Hamid Karzai. If they find one, they kill him. If not, the householders are beaten to serve as a warning to others.
On the main road linking the province to Kabul, the Taliban set up roadblocks in broad daylight and scrutinise vehicles for potential targets to kill or kidnap. Four engineers working on the main road have been kidnapped and 15 Afghans working for the central government have been killed in the last three months. No foreigners venture to the province. Aid workers fled long ago. It is estimated that about 700 armed Afghan Taliban who are ethnic Pathans have crossed the border from the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta where they are trained and funded. The commanders are offering a motorcycle, an AK47 and a satellite telephone to anyone willing to rob or bomb a government target. A successful hit is worth £110. Killing an enemy has an added incentive of a £495 bonus. The strategy appears to be to make Zabul too difficult to work in, angering the local population and turning support away from central government to the Taliban. "They are taking advantage of our poverty," said Gen Ayoub Khan, the security commander for Zabul. "The administration is weak and incapable of controlling an area, therefore the local people are not relying on them. In the Dai Chopan district there are reports of Punjabi commanders. We arrested two Talibs a month ago and they told us that Pakistani colonels told them to destabilise Afghanistan."
The Americans are trying to win the hearts of the Afghans with the promise of reconstruction. Next month, the military will form in Qalat, the capital, a provincial reconstruction team, quasi-military units of up to 100 people who provide security and help to rebuild roads, schools and clinics. It is hoped their presence will also establish a secure environment, especially in remote villages, for other charities to return. But the deputy governor, Malawi Mohammed Omar, said the Americans had a difficult task because they were not talking to village elders willing to co-operate and identify the enemy. "The US would not recognise Mullah Omar if he stood in front of them," said Mr Omar. "Until the Americans are on the ground and negotiating with the local community leaders and disarming them they will not win." | ||
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| Haqqani becomes Taliban deputy supremo | |
| 2004-02-21 | |
The remnants of the Taliban, forced out of power in Afghanistan in 2001, will stage a new wave of attacks against US-led coalition forces in the south and southeast of the country this spring, a man claiming to represent the fundamentalist militia told AFP on Friday. In an interview in the south-eastern city of Khost, the man, who has previously proved himself a credible source of information on the intentions of the militant group, also claimed that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, were both alive and in Afghanistan. Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri âare alive and both are in Afghanistan, in different placesâ, Mohammed Saiful Adel told an AFP journalist in an interview in the city of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan.
âOn Thursday more than a 100 armed Taliban from Arghandab, Khak Afghan and Dai Chopan gathered in the mountains of Mazin,â Hashim, the townâs deputy governor, told AFP on Friday. Hashim said he went to the governor of Zabul province in the capital Qalat to discuss the situation but was told, âthereâs no big threatâ. However, there are only 70 or 80 troops guarding Mazin, making the town outnumbered by Taliban forces should they attack. âIf the Taliban attack us we can defend ourselves and call headquarters for support but we are not capable of attacking the Taliban,â Hashim said. The men responsible for the gathering are believed to be Mullah Qahar and Mullah Ghafar, well-known Taliban commanders in the region. | |
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| Afghanistan |
| Talibs want 50 hard boyz for the 2 Injuns |
| 2003-12-22 |
| The Taliban have offered to release the two Indian engineers kidnapped two weeks ago in exchange for 50 militants. "We have received a letter from the Taliban in which they want freedom of 50 detained militiamen to release two Indian engineers," Baz Muhammad, who is in charge of Zabul provinceâs Shahjoy district, told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). "We would never set free the Indians without the release of our men," Baz Mohammad quoted the Taliban as saying. Both Indians, who were working on the Kabul-Kandahar highway project, are being held by Taliban commanders Maulvi Muhammad Alam and Maulvi Ahmadullah in Khak-i-Afghan in the Dai Chopan mountains the north of Zabul, Baz Muhammad said. The two were kidnapped on Dec 6, 2003. Baz Muhammad said that no key Taliban leaders were among those being sought by the kidnappers. He said that most of those the Taliban wanted exchanged "are in Shebergan prison". |
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| Afghanistan | |
| Taleban demand release of 50 in exchange for two engineers | |
| 2003-12-20 | |
The Taleban have demanded the release of 50 militia in exchange for two Indian engineers who were kidnapped from the southern province of Zabul earlier this month. Security chief Haji Baz Mohammed in the Shah Joi district told AIP the authorities had received a letter demanding their release. âThe list does not have any prominent name and include those persons arrested after the fall of Taleban in December, 2001 and mainly detained in Shebergan prisons,â AIP quoted him as saying.
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