(Xinhua) -- Afghan troops backed by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in major operation against Taliban militants in the restive Arghandab district of southern Kandahar province have killed 94 insurgents, a senior military officer told newsmen at a press conference Saturday. 'We have counted 94 bodies of the insurgents in Arghandab where militants occupied last week to attack kandahar city,' General Shir Mohammad Karimi, chief of operation of Afghan Defense Ministry, told newsmen at the last stage of the operation. Majority of those killed in the operation were foreigners. However, he did not specify any country.
No doubt there's a great weeping and gnashing to teeth in the households along the Lappland border...
Hundreds of Taliban militants in a surprise move occupied several villages in Arghandab district 15 km northwest of Kandahar city last weekend to threat the provincial capital.
Afghan forces backed by NATO launched an operation last Wednesday and evicted the militants from the district. 'Arghandab has been cleared from militants and now the house to house search operation is going on,' General Karimi said, adding that the operation will be completed Sunday afternoon and then those fled their houses to safe places can return home and resume their normal lives. Taliban militants have not made any comment.
Presumably because they're not only resurgent, they're dead...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Normally, I think these guys take their dead to deny evidence of their losses that would encourage the infidels. The Afghan troops must have attacked so ferociously that the Talib body recovery teams feared for their own lives.
Artillery shells fired from Pakistan landed in an Afghan army compound and close to an international military base in Afghanistan on Saturday and NATO forces returned fire, the alliance said.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, an improvised explosive device (IED) killed four U.S.-led coalition soldiers in the southern province of Kandahar, the scene of a large anti-Taliban offensive and an insurgent jail break.
Tension has mounted between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops across the frontier to hunt down Taliban militants based in Pakistan's lawless border region. 'An ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forward operating base and an Afghan National Army compound in northeastern Paktika province were attacked with indirect fire from across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border today,' an ISAF statement said. No casualties were reported.
Three artillery rounds landed near the ISAF base and three rounds landed inside an Afghan army compound, it said. 'ISAF forces determined the origination of the rounds to be in Pakistan and returned artillery fire in self-defense.'
The Pakistani military was notified immediately when ISAF forces came under fire, the statement said. The armies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF maintain open channels of communication to avoid escalating any conflict.
A suspected Taliban rocket also hit a hospital in the northeastern town of Asadabad close to the Pakistan border on Saturday, killing one man and wounding another man and a woman, provincial Governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi said. He said the rocket appeared to have been fired from across the border inside Pakistan.
Taliban insurgents are able to train, equip themselves and launch attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan's tribal belt before returning to rest and regroup, analysts say. The Taliban leadership also directs its campaign to oust the pro-Western Afghan government and drive out foreign forces from bases inside Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charges and says it has little power over its autonomous border regions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
steel rain back on the Pak firing origin would get the message across better than a sternly-worded-letter
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2008 10:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I think the better response would be to do both, present the ambassador with a "Sternly Worded Letter" at the exact same time as the Army/Airforce are blowing the idiots to hell.
Consider it emphasis.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/22/2008 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
#3
A Predator drone with a nice napalm package would send an even better message, especially while the artillery is firing and all the shells are stacked around.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2008 14:16 Comments ||
Top||
SRINAGAR: Two militants were on Sunday killed in an encounter with the police in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, a police spokesman said.
Following a tip-off about the presence of militant hideouts in Nariwan, police and Army personnel cordoned off the area on Sunday morning, the spokesman said. The militants opened fire on the joint search team from their hideouts and in the retaliatory action two militants were killed, he said.
In a separate incident, a fierce firefight broke out between militants and police personnel at Chaterhama-Burzahama area near Hazratbal Shrine on the outskirts of the city on Sunday, the spokesman said.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/22/2008 09:28 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Two militants killed in J&K encounter
Damn john.. I first read that as two million.. old age or wishful thinking?
#2
See also WAFF.com > KASHMIRI MILITANTS [JKLF]WARN OF NEW RVOLUTION IFF TALKS FAIL - YASIN MALIK BACK ON THE WAR TALK.
INTERESTING - Thread Poster indics that many of the Militant casualties are NOT Kashmiri per se, but [Muslim]OUTSIDERS brought in to fight in Kashmir???
#3
Gary Saxena, former RAW chief and former governor of Jammu and Kashmir gave a figure of 70% foreigners
He also claims that more then 70,000 people have been killed in Kashmir.
I do not know who gave him those figures. According to statistics that were made available to me, 13,600 people lost their lives in the last 14 years. Of these 10,000 were killed/massacred by terrorists in various incidents of violence. Rest 3,600 lost their lives in crossfire between the security forces and the terrorists. I am telling you these figures because each body was identified.
I must tell you that the security forces lost 3,600 personnel and killed over 16,700 terrorists since 1989. Seventy per cent of these were foreigners.
What kinds of arms and ammunition have been seized during the operations?
The Indian Army and paramilitary forces have seized over 25,000 Kalashnikovs, 325 sniper rifles, 1,000 machines guns, 1,800 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 4,000 rocket launchers, 10,000 land mines, 50,000 hand grenades, 30 tonnes of explosives, 7.5 tonnes of RDX, 10,000 revolver pistols and 4,000 wireless sets.
This speaks about the kind of assistance terrorists groups have been getting from Inter Services Intelligence.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/22/2008 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The various jihad groups have held meetings in Muzaffarabad. The Indian security forces expect a massive increase in terrorist activity.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/22/2008 21:37 Comments ||
Top||
Unidentified militants kidnapped 25 Christians from Academy Town in Peshawar, sources told Daily Times on Saturday.
The sources said militants kidnapped them from the Banarasabad area of Academy Town from the house of Yousaf Masih. Superintendent of Police (SP) Cantonment Imran Shahid confirmed that armed militants driving in five or six vehicles kidnapped eight to nine people on gunpoint and moved them to an undisclosed location at around 8pm. He said however that the kidnapped did not number 25, and that militants have probably moved them to the Tribal Areas. He added that police have registered a case and is trying to recover them as soon as possible. The NWFP government suspended SSP (Operations) Peshawar, SP Cantontment, ASP Hayatabad, SHO Hayatabad and other staff after the kidnapping.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
who would miss nwfp it we bombed the hell out of this evil intolerant place!
Posted by: Paul ||
06/22/2008 4:57 Comments ||
Top||
#2
If ever there was a case where you could dispense with the old "Maybe the next Schweitzer or Einstein or Salk is going to be born there..." the places these miscreants come from would be that place.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/22/2008 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
Five people were killed and 9 others injured in an exchange of fire between two religious groups in Teerah Valley of Khyber Agency on Saturday. The fighting between the two religious groups has erupted after a long ceasefire.
Ansarul Islam (AI) said it took into custody 30 people belonging to its rival group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI). AI said the five people killed in the fighting belonged to LI and 30 LI men were taken into custody, adding that its shura (council) would decide their fate.
Meanwhile, LI refuted AIs claims saying that the houses of AI activists Qayyum and Jumma Baz were razed to the ground during the fighting and several important posts were captured. However, LI confirmed the death of two of its men in the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
Police in the Shabqadar area of Charsadda district detained 15 local journalists on Saturday for reporting on Taliban activities. Ahmad Ali, one of the arrested journalists, told Daily Times by telephone that they had received several warnings from DSP Ihsanuddin to refrain from such reporting. The journalists were later freed, but said they would remain in the police station until DSPs transfer.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Artillery shells fired from Pakistan landed in an Afghan army compound and close to an international military base in Afghanistan on Saturday and NATO forces returned fire, the alliance said. 'An ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forward operating base and an Afghan National Army compound in northeastern Paktika province were attacked with indirect fire from across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border today,' an ISAF statement said. No casualties were reported.
Three artillery rounds landed near the ISAF base and three rounds landed inside an Afghan army compound, it said. 'ISAF forces determined the origination of the rounds to be in Pakistan and returned artillery fire in self-defense.'
The Pakistani military was notified immediately when ISAF forces came under fire, the statement said. The armies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF maintain open channels of communication to avoid escalating any conflict.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Pakistani Frontier Corps has been heavily infiltrated and influenced by Taliban militants, sometimes joining in attacks on coalition forces, according to classified US 'after-action' reports compiled following clashes on the border.
According to those familiar with the material, regarded as deeply sensitive by the Pentagon in view of America's fragile relationship with Pakistan, there are 'box loads' of such reports at US bases along the length of the Pakistan-Afghan border. Details of the level of infiltration emerged yesterday on a day when five more US-led soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan. Four of the soldiers died in a bomb and gunfire attack outside the southern city of Kandahar.
Nato officials have reported a dramatic increase in cross-border incidents compared with the same period last year. The US documents describe the direct involvement of Frontier Corps troops in attacks on the Afghan National Army and coalition forces, and also detail attacks launched so close to Frontier Corps outposts that Pakistani co-operation with the Taliban is assumed.
'The reality,' said a source familiar with the situation on the ground, 'is that there are units so opposed to what the coalition is doing and so friendly to the other side that when the opportunity comes up they will fire on Afghan and coalition troops. And this is not random. It can be exceptionally well co-ordinated.'
Another source - who has seen the reporting - described an attack last year where two Frontier Corps outposts appear to have been directly involved in firing on Afghan forces before a militant attack.
Frontier Corps personnel have in the past been implicated in the past in murdering US and Afghan officers. In the most high-profile case, a Frontier Corps member 'assassinated' Major Larry J Bauguess during a border mediation meeting. In another incident, an Afghan officer was killed. Since then the problem appears to have worsened as the Taliban renew their insurgency on the Afghan side of the border.
'The United States and Nato have substantial information on this problem,' said an American official. 'It's taking place at a variety of places along the border with the Frontier Corps giving direct and indirect assistance. I'm not saying it is everyone. There are some parts that have been quite helpful... but if you have seen the after-action reports of their involvement in attacks along the Afghan border you would appreciate the problem.'
James Appathurai, a Nato spokesman, said: 'The real concern is that the extremists in Pakistan are getting safe havens to rest, recuperate and retool in Pakistan and come across the border. The concerns have been conveyed to the Pakistan authorities.'
Seth Jones, author of the Rand report, which found evidence of collaboration, said the issue had been troubling the US even before the invasion of Afghanistan: 'If you go back a decade to the Clinton administration when the US targeted militant camps, members of the Pakistani intelligence services were killed along with militants.'
The allegation that senior Pakistani officials continue to offer lukewarm assistance to the coalition while offering help to the Taliban is also reiterated in Descent into Chaos, a new book by the veteran Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid.
Relations between the US and Pakistan were strained this month when 11 members of the Frontier Corps were killed when the US allegedly bombed their outpost near the border town of Gora Prai during a gun battle with militants on the border. Pakistani sources have questioned why the troops were hiding in a bunker in the midst of the battle and why they were 'unaware' of an hour-long firefight going on so close by.
The issue of the Taliban's ability to cross and recross the border with Pakistan into that country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas is becoming one of the most contentious issues of the war, with many - including Afghan President Hamid Karzai - insisting that his country is involved in a 'regional conflict' and threatening to send troops across the border.
The death of the five soldiers yesterday came as the Taliban stepped up their offensive. It happened a day after two other US-led soldiers died in separate incidents, including a suicide bombing.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And US taxpayers aid Pakistan troops.
And this is an election year. I hope McCain planned for the Pakistan and Iraq betrayals. Occupied Iraq is demanding unacceptable pre-conditions, viz the SOFA deal. I smell manipulation of the US election. Obama could eat this up.
Posted by: Paul ||
06/22/2008 11:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
My dear Paul, this is Rantburg.
We have a very diverse readership. Active and retired military, specialists in terrorism/counter-terrorism, active and retired 'spooks', people who work in think-tanks and in politics. Oh, and grocery store managers, housewives, used car salesmen - you get the picture.
All snarks aside, the vast majority of our readers are well-read and most are highly educated. They come from all aspects of the political spectrum.
I would say that nearly all are quite aware who the 'players' are and on what side they are on. Telling Rantburg that Pakistan, Saudi, China, Russia, Iran, etc., are the enemy (with multiple exclamation points) is like announcing that water is wet and things plummet to the earth because of gravity.
Your IP addy indicates you're from the UK. Surely there are perspectives from your area you can contribute. Our readers from France, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Greece (when he isn't being an insufferable ass) all contribute useful news, analysis, and perspectives. Even our occasional Saudi reader has useful posts (to serve as an example of a wahabbi whack-job, if nothing else).
The mission of the 'Burg is to provide information on terrorism, the war on terrorism, and the politics and events surrounding it all. Even if you post that muslims in your neck of the woods are a**holes and why, it's more useful than stating the obvious.
Lastly, just because I live in the Mojave, I'm not a 'feckin redneck trailer trash muppet'. There are a lot of them out here. It's just that some of us are here because our duties require it.
#6
Muppet? Paul dear, that is very sad, indeed. Either apologize to Pappy for your rudeness like a gentleman, or take a time out in the corner like a child.
#7
hmmmm, but you didn't really refute the "muppet" part....
:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2008 12:31 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I don't see anywhere in the article saying how many Frontier troops fired on us and ended up getting killed. I wonder if Pakistan has been quietly doctoring their own records when one of the Frontier Troops goes "missing". I also wonder now how many of our supposed Taliban kills are actually Pakistan army troops.
I was aware of the interference, I just didn't think Frontier Troops were stupid enough to get in the firefight. Usually people like to offer support over their from a distance, not get involved personally.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/22/2008 13:13 Comments ||
Top||
#9
feckin redneck trailer trash muppet!
HEY, Watch your mouth Bub, I resemble that remark.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/22/2008 13:33 Comments ||
Top||
#10
hmmmm, but you didn't really refute the "muppet" part....
#11
Muppet??? Is that all the better he could do. Damn Frank, your really slippin here. I can only wonder what he will say when he's really pissed off. Maybe he'll even call ya a wanker!! OMG... Would ya piss him off some more,do it again, do it again, I need a good laugh!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/22/2008 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
#12
LOL Pan
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2008 14:04 Comments ||
Top||
#14
The "gentlemen" of the Burg have spoken! Flame wars are unnecessary. A totally awesome a$$-whuppin of Pakistan may be exactly the medicine the doctor ordered. Level the place, and only rebuild the parts of Karachi and a road north we need to move supplies to Afghanistan. Heck, while we're at it, we might even build a high-altitude train link from Karachi to Kabul, with stops along the way to supply garrison forces in Pakiwakiland. NO NATIONBUILDING or reconstruction. Let the "pakistanis" do the rebuilding in their own inestimable ways. Let them learn that there are some people you just don't mess with. That's a lesson we've failed to teach since 1945. The world's a sorrier place for it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2008 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Paul, FYI, they've been hearing about the Talib and ISI links from me here, for (literally) years. Even when I was (briefly) at Bagram.
#16
>em>Lastly, just because I live in the Mojave, I'm not a 'feckin redneck trailer trash muppet'. There are a lot of them out here. It's just that some of us are here because our duties require it.
Don't worry, Pappy, someday you'll escape the redneck oppression of the Mojave for some distant upscale Paradise with Sagueros, and things will be better.
#17
and look at how redneck I am, I screwed up the html formatting. oh well, hopefully the intelligent readers will be able to figure out what I wanted to say, and explain it to the others.
A female suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 40 Sunday when she detonated her explosives in a crowded area of central Baquba, police there said. Police, women and children were among the casualties, according to the Diyala Military Operations command. The attack happened near the main government complex in Baquba on a street that security officials had sealed off last week. Only official vehicles were being allowed in the area; civilian vehicles without special clearance were prohibited.
More than 20 female suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Iraq this year, a number much higher than in previous years. According to the U.S. military, women carried out eight bombings in 2007. The women are desperate and hopeless, officials said, and most have pre-existing ties to the insurgency. Their primary motive is revenge for a male family member killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces, the officials said.
'We do see certain members of cells attempting to persuade women -- specifically, in many cases, wives of those who have been killed as terrorists -- to conduct suicide operations,' U.S. Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling said recently. His area of operations includes the volatile Diyala province. Hertling's troops in Diyala have launched operations targeting relatives of suspected female bombers, as they attempt to break up the rings that are recruiting the women and girls.
Intelligence gathered from detainees indicates that al Qaeda in Iraq is looking for women with three main characteristics: those who are illiterate, are deeply religious or who have financial struggles. Women in the last category often have money problems because they've lost the male head of the household, officials said.
The U.S. military has created a program called the Daughters of Iraq, similar to the U.S.-backed Sons of Iraq, across the Sunni regions of the country. The Daughters of Iraq are being trained to conduct searches of women.
#1
God damn her to the nether hells, along with those who prepared her, armed her, and planned to use those like her to murder innocents. And bless whoever thought of starting the Daughters of Iraq, and those making in happen.
#2
God damn her to the nether hells, along with those who prepared her, armed her, and planned to use those like her to murder innocents. And bless whoever thought of starting the Daughters of Iraq, and those making in happen.
#3
"As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subjected to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation."
#4
Actually, I was semi-serious about that. By branding female attempted suicide bombers as "prostitutes", it would probably put an end to their recruitment.
#7
Annymoose, the reason the women of New Orleans were so rude to Union officers was because General Butler required them to be courteous to the Officers regardless of how the officers treated them. One thing Butler did good was clean up the human waste problem in New Orleans by requiring Military compliance with hygenic standards.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/22/2008 21:13 Comments ||
Top||
(Xinhua) -- Thai insurgents on Saturday evening launched gun attack on a train bounding from southern Yala province to Narathiwat province, killing four railway workers, local Traffic Radio FM 100 reported. According to the radio report, a total of six insurgents were taking the train broke into the crew bogie of a Passenger Train 454 when it was passing Ragae district of Narathiwat. They shot at the trainmen, killing four of them and severely injuring another.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency
#1
OK, the question arises, "Just why do they want train service stopped"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/22/2008 13:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
local Traffic Radio FM 100
They broadcast Formula Coal on the weekends.
#3
RJ, it's not that they want train services per se to stop, but that they want to cut off the three southern provinces completely from Thailand. Thailand gained those three provinces about a hundred years ago, and certain groups in Malaysia want them back. The funding comes from Iran, the weapons and ideas come from Malaysia.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/22/2008 14:34 Comments ||
Top||
BERLIN - Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported. But the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is considering withdrawing his support for the Iranian programme, added the German newsweekly in its next edition out Monday, quoting German secret service reports.
According to those intelligence reports, it said, a joint plan by Syria, North Korea and Iran for a nuclear reactor for military use was to have been developed at the Al-Kibar site in the east of Syria. The site -- to be inspected next week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- was destroyed by Israeli warplanes with Washington's support. Syria denied it has military purposes.
Great idea, inspect it now that it's been bulldozed by the Syrians ...
The reports cited by Der Speigel claimed that North Korea was to help Iranian scientists to advance their nuclear programme, and that Al-Kibar was to have been used as a temporary site for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb until it was able to do so on its own territory. The plan was discussed during a visit by Iranian President Mamhoud Ahmadinejad to Syria in 2006, according to the magazine.
The three countries also cooperated in the production of chemical weapons, said Der Speigel, quoting the same source. At the time of an explosion at a chemical site in July 2007, 15 Syrian soldiers, 12 Iranian engineers and three North Koreans were among the victims.
Ten months after the destruction of the Al-Kibar site, on the basis of allegations that a nuclear reactor was being built there with the aid of North Korea, the IAEA said it was sending experts to Syria to investigate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/22/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"was to have been used as a temporary site for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb until it was able to do so on its own territory."
They're probably doing it somewhere in the Venezuelan jungle now.
#2
Nothing to worry about CrossPatch. If that true 3/4 of the reactor would be enroute to Dade County, leaving 1/4 of a reactor for 'alo Presidente picture festiva.
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.
Artillery shells fired from Pakistan landed in an Afghan army compound and close to an international military base in Afghanistan on Saturday and NATO forces returned fire, the alliance said.
SRINAGAR: Two militants were on Sunday killed in an encounter with the police in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, a police spokesman said.
Unidentified militants kidnapped 25 Christians from Academy Town in Peshawar, sources told Daily Times on Saturday. 
Five people were killed and 9 others injured in an exchange of fire between two religious groups in Teerah Valley of Khyber Agency on Saturday. The fighting between the two religious groups has erupted after a long ceasefire.
The Pakistani Frontier Corps has been heavily infiltrated and influenced by Taliban militants, sometimes joining in attacks on coalition forces, according to classified US 'after-action' reports compiled following clashes on the border.
A female suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 40 Sunday when she detonated her explosives in a crowded area of central Baquba, police there said. Police, women and children were among the casualties, according to the Diyala Military Operations command. The attack happened near the main government complex in Baquba on a street that security officials had sealed off last week. Only official vehicles were being allowed in the area; civilian vehicles without special clearance were prohibited.
