NATO Attacks Kill 14 Afghan fighters

A series of air strikes launched by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has killed 14 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. NATO attack was launched along with Afghan soldiers As quoted by the Associated Press, Monday, September 13, 2010, attacks came as Nato patrols across the river in the province of Uruzgan.NATO forces then requested air support after receiving small arms fire. NATO to ensure that no civilian casualties.

A number of attacks and clashes in recent improved allied forces to suppress the Taliban fighters.In a separate incident, a rocket fired by Taliban fighters against an army supply base in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, eastern Nangarhar province.A spokesman for local police, Ghafor Khan said the rocket attack was not on target. But it hit a house, until injuring nine civilians, including children.The attacks coincided with rising tensions ahead of parliamentary elections. Taliban try to overthrow the government of the United States and its allies pro in Kabul and expel foreign troops from that country.

U.S. spy Aircraft Kill Seven People at Afghan border

Miranshah, Pakistan spy aircraft of the United States, Saturday, firing a missile into a complex three insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal regions near the Afghan border, killing seven militants, security officials said. The attack happened at 21 o’clock local time  in Marsikhel area, 20 km east of Miranshah, North Waziristan town of importance, known as a center of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.

Citizenship seven guerrillas were killed was not immediately clear, said a senior Pakistani security officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another officer confirmed the attack and killed it, and added: “We do not know whether high-value target present in the area at the time of the attack.” The attack came a day after seven Pakistani soldiers were killed and 16 wounded, when militants armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked their convoy, a routine mission to the town of Miranshah dai Dattakhel

U.S. forces have launched a spy plane attack against the commander hidden Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants in tribal area in northwestern part of the country, where guerrillas build their hideouts in the mountainous areas outside the direct control of government. U.S. officials said spy plane attack is a very important weapon in the fight to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to reverse, where Washington’s troops led the big waves.

Critics say high-tech attack is risky to make the local population into a radical, especially if the civilians were killed. The importance of North Waziristan in the spy plane attack was increased from a Jordanian al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up killing seven CIA staff in a province neighboring Afghanistan in December. More than 870 people have been killed in nearly 100 spy plane attack in Pakistan since August 2008.

Washington calls the Pakistani tribal areas, the global headquarters of Al Qaidda and most dangerous regions in the world. Guerrillas in the area believed to have helped nearly nine-year insurgency in Afghanistan. North Waziristan is a stronghold of Al Qaeda, Taliban and Pakistani and Afghan militants affiliated with the Haqqani network, which was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani commander of the Afghan war and now led by his son, Sirajuddin, are ambitious. Taliban and associated groups of Al Qaeda blamed for a wave of suicide attacks and bombings that have killed nearly 3300 people in Pakistan since 2007. (AFP)

24 people died in bomb attacks at a secondary school and a crowded market in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan

Peshawar, Pakistan At least 24 people died in bomb attacks at a secondary school and a crowded market in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, officials said. Those attacks, which occurred with a few hours time difference between one and another, making the number of victims killed in bombings in Pakistan’s northwest to 73 in three days. Suicide attacks last weekend, characterized by the Taliban killed 49 people in the town of Kohat.

On Monday evening in Peshawar market Qissa Khawani, a suicide bomb attacker walked into the crowd and blew himself up. An AFP reporter at the scene saw scattered shoes, pieces of body and car were destroyed. “Twenty-three people were killed, including three policemen. At least 27 people hospitalized longer,” said senior police official told AFP Imran Kishwar. Senior provincial ministers Bashir Bilour confirm that toll.

Shafqat bomb squad chief Malik told reporters the explosion was caused by an attacker wearing a bomb vest weighing six to eight kilograms. We have found the attacker’s head and feet,” he added. The blast came after protesters who marched against rising inflation and power outages left the area, said some police.

Several hours earlier, a boy who was eight years old were killed and at least 10 people were injured in a bomb attack outside a middle school in Peshawar. Police did not say who had put the bomb in a city hit by Taliban attacks. Bombing came after three suicide attacks within 24 hours killed 49 people in the town of Kohat, Pakistan’s northwest.

More than 3200 people died in suicide attacks and bombings in Pakistan in three years. The violence was blamed on Muslim militants opposed to alliance with the U.S. government. Pakistan’s increasing international pressure to crush militant groups in the region and the northwest tribal zone amid rising attacks cross-border rebel against international forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s tribal areas, particularly Bajaur, plagued by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels fled to the region after the US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Pakistani forces launched air and ground offensive into the South Waziristan tribal region on October 17, with 30,000 soldiers who assisted jet fighter and helicopter guns.

Although there is resistance in South Waziristan, many officials and analysts believe that most of the Taliban insurgents had fled to neighboring areas of North Waziristan and Orakzai. North Waziristan is the stronghold of the Taliban, militants associated with Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network, which is famous for attacking American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the U.S. make that area as a target of missile attacks unmanned aircraft.

Some analysts have also warned that the Taliban and their allies will be stepped up attacks on security forces in Bajaur and other tribal areas to divert the focus of attention from South Waziristan. Security forces conduct large-scale operation against Islamic militants in the Mohmand and Bajaur in August 2008. In February 2009, the military said that net Bajaur after a fierce battle for months, but unrest continues.

According to the military, more than 1,500 militants have been killed since they launched an offensive in Bajaur in early August 2008, including Al-Qaeda’s operational commander in the area, Abu Saeed Al-Masri is an Egyptian. The area was also hit by a missile attack that almost about Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s second person, in January 2006. U.S. forces declared, that border area is used for militant groups as a place to do training, a rearrangement of forces and launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan. ( AFP)

bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan

Kandahar, Afghanistan A bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 40, said some NATO officials and Afghanistan. Previous reports from the area, said that a suicide bomb attack on foot sparked an explosion near a group of local officials who are distributing seedlings to villagers as part of a program to persuade people not to plant opium.

A NATO officials and a spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand said 13 people were killed and 40-45 people were injured in the blast. NATO officials said, a military helicopter flew the Afghans are injured from the scene, some of them died later of their wounds. He added that the incident happened in a district of Helmand province – the Nahr-e-Saraj or Gereshk.

In the past, the Taliban claimed responsibility for attacks in Afghanistan, where they led a rebellion against the government of Afghanistan and foreign troops. Last year, according to the UN, a large number of civilians were killed in that war, mostly due to guerrilla attacks.

The NATO commander has warned Western countries that are ready to face falling victim because they’re implementing a strategy to end the eight-year war in that country. U.S. Marines currently heads the 15,000 U.S. soldiers, NATO and Afghanistan in Operation Mushtarak which aims to quell the militants, which was launched before dawn Saturday (13 / 2) to pave the way for the Afghan government to control more areas of Helmand producer of opium.

Offensive was reportedly getting fierce resistance from the Taleban, who launched the attacks from behind human shields and put bombs on roads, buildings and trees. President Hamid Karzai has warned that the army had to take all steps necessary to protect civilians.

Currently there are more than 120,000 soldiers internationally, especially from the United States, which deployed to Afghanistan to assist the administration of President Hamid Karzai to overcome rebellion fought by the remnants of the Taliban. Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan since 1996, fomenting rebellion since ousted from power in that country by US-led invasion in 2001 because it refused to hand over leaders of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, accused of being responsible for attacks on American soil that killed about 3,000 people at 11 September 2001.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led NATO force of more than 84,000 soldiers from 43 countries, which aims to restore democracy, security and rebuilding Afghanistan, but is still trying to quell the Taliban and its allies. The violence in Afghanistan reached its highest level in the war for more than eight years with Taliban insurgents, who broadened the rebellion from the south and east of the country to the capital and the regions that previously peaceful.

Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban of power in Afghanistan, more than 40 countries preparing to increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan until it reaches approximately 150,000 people within a period of 18 months, in a new effort to combat the guerrillas.

Approximately 520 soldiers foreigners were killed during 2009, which made that year as the year the deadliest for international troops since the US-led invasion in 2001 and create public support for the West against the war slump. Taliban insurgents rely heavily on the use of roadside bombs and suicide attacks against Afghan government and foreign troops stationed in that country. Homemade bombs known as an IED (improvised explosive) resulted in 70-80 percent casualties among foreign troops in Afghanistan, according to the military.(Reuters)

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday

Pakistani troops killed at least 34 militants after about 150 Taliban attacked a military checkpost in the northwest on Friday, challenging government assertions crackdowns have weakened the group.Homegrown Taliban rebels are seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been pressured to hand over some of his key powers, such as dissolving parliament and appointing military chiefs.

A senior military officer and four paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the attack in Orakzai, a day after Pakistani jets killed nearly 50 people, mostly militants, in strikes on a school and a seminary in the same region, a government official said.Fourteen soldiers were wounded in the Taliban assault.

Orakzai, one of seven Pakistani tribal regions near the Afghan border, also known as agencies, has seen a surge in military attacks in recent months, targeting militants who were driven out of their bastion of South Waziristan.Pakistan mounted two offensives last year in the northwestern Swat Valley and in South Waziristan on the Afghan border, which it says threw al Qaeda-linked militants into disarray.But despite losing ground, the Taliban hit back with bombings that killed hundreds, prompting troops to step up attacks in other northwestern regions where militants are believed to have taken refuge after offensives.In the latest attack, about 150 Taliban launched a pre-dawn assault on a checkpoint in Orakzai, triggering fierce fighting.

“They attacked from three sides which continued for nearly three hours in which a lieutenant colonel and four other security officials were killed,” said government official Khaista Rehman.”Security forces launched the counter-attack in which 24 militants have been killed,” he said. A paramilitary official, said as many as 30 militants may have been killed.

Army jets and helicopter gunships later targeted suspected militant hideouts in various parts of Orakzai and killed another 10 militants, said government official Mohammad Asghar Khan.Orakzai is considered a militant stronghold of Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who is widely believed to have been killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in January.

Pakistani action against militants along its Afghan border is seen as crucial to the U.S. efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, particularly as Washington sends more troops there to fight a raging Taliban insurgency before a gradual withdrawal starts in 2011.

The two allies pledged increased cooperation in tackling militants during two days of talks in Washington that ended on Thursday, with Washington promising to speed up overdue military payments.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Pakistan for increased coordination over stabilizing Afghanistan, including the recent arrest of a key Afghan Taliban commander in what has been described as a joint American-Pakistani raid in Karachi.(Reuters)

bomb killed a Pakistani construction worker and wounded six of his compatriots on Sunday in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar

A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani construction worker and wounded six of his compatriots on Sunday in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, police said.The device hit the vehicle which was carrying the group on a road close to Pakistan’s consulate in the eastern part of the city and came after a series of attacks overnight by Taliban killed 31 people in several parts of Kandahar.

“It was a roadside bomb that hit the vehicle of Pakistani construction workers, killed one of them and wounded six more,” police officer Mohammad Asif told Reuters.Last week, five Pakistani employees of the same Pakistani construction firm, CITA, were gunned down by unknown people in another part of Kandahar.Kandahar is the next target of an offensive by NATO-led forces after foreign and Afghan troops secured a district regarded as a key Taliban stronghold from the militants in adjacent Helmand in recent weeks.Before the Taliban’s ouster in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, Kandahar was the traditional and spiritual seat of power of the militants.No one has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack of last week or Sunday’s one on the Pakistani nationals in Kandahar.

explosive device planted by Taliban militants killed 11 civilians on Sunday in Afghanistan's most violent province, a government official said

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan An explosive device planted by Taliban militants killed 11 civilians on Sunday in Afghanistan’s most violent province, a government official said.The blast happened on a road in the Nawzad district of Helmand Province. The province is the focus of one of the largest NATO offensives in the eight-year-old war against the Islamist Taliban.”A newly planted mine of the Taliban hit a coach bus, killing 11 civilians including two women and two children today,” Dawud Ahmedi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor, said.The Taliban had no immediate comment.On Tuesday, authorities blamed the Taliban for setting off a remote-controlled bomb near a government building in Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, which killed seven people and wounded 14.

Though under pressure as NATO forces try to drive them from their strongholds, the Taliban have responded with guerrilla attacks, including one in the capital Kabul on Friday which killed 16 people in a two-hour shootout with two suicide blasts.Violence last year hit its highest level since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001. The militants have made a comeback and are resisting efforts by President Hamid Karzai’s Western-supported government to impose control. (Reuters)

U.S. led forces in Afghanistan will launch a new military operation later this year to get full control of Kandahar

WASHINGTON   U.S. led forces in Afghanistan will launch a new military operation later this year to get full control of Kandahar, the former “capital city” of the Taliban, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, had already flagged his intention to target Kandahar following an offensive, now in its third week, to retake control of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in neighboring Helmand province.

“If our overall goal for 2010 in Afghanistan is to reverse the momentum (of the Taliban) … then we think we’ve got to get to Kandahar this year,” said the senior Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.Militants have over the past year made startling gains in the area around Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement. Reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar ruled Afghanistan from there before U.S.-led forces invaded in 2001.McChrystal described the city in his assessment of the war last August as the “key geographic objective” of the Quetta Shura Taliban, the main faction led by Mullah Omar.

The U.S. official was offering an assessment of the offensive in Marjah, which the administration views as key preparation for the potentially bigger battle of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city.

TEST CASE FOR BIG PRIZE

Marjah is one of the biggest operations in the more than eight-year-old Afghan war. It is also an early test of President Barack Obama’s plan to add 30,000 more troops to win control of Taliban strongholds and eventually transfer them to Afghan authority.”The way to look at Marjah is that it is the tactical prelude to larger more comprehensive operations later this year in Kandahar city,” the administration official said.

“Bringing comprehensive population security to Kandahar city is really the centerpiece of operations this year and therefore Marjah is the prelude,” he said.The British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan said last week that NATO forces would sweep toward Kandahar over the next six months.

On Thursday, Afghan authorities raised the Afghan flag over Marjah to signify the handover of control to the government from NATO troops led by U.S. Marines.The official said military commanders on the ground believed it would take several weeks yet to clear the remaining pockets of resistance in and around Marjah.”We are somewhere between clear and hold and that is pretty much on track. What is going to be more challenging than the clearing process will be the building process,” he said.

He acknowledged U.S. and Afghan security forces would not initially have the trust of Marjah’s residents.”It is not so much a matter of a physical contest about who controls the weapons, it’s a question of who controls the confidence of the people. That will only come after we are able to deliver,” he said.Washington hopes its latest offensive will decisively turn the momentum in a war that commanders say has been going the way of the Taliban.Under Obama’s new strategy, NATO and Afghan security forces are to secure population centers across Afghanistan so that the government can move in.(Reuters)

NATO airstrike in southern Afganistan killed at least 21 civilians

KABUL A NATO airstrike in southern Afganistan killed at least 21 civilians, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Monday, in an incident that could inflame already heightened sensitivities over noncombatant casualties.NATO forces confirmed in a statement that its planes fired Sunday on what it believed was a group of insurgents in southern Uruzgan province on their way to attack a joint NATO-Afghan patrol, but later discovered that women and children were hurt. The injured were transported to medical facilities.

The Afghan government and NATO have launched an investigation.Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the Sunday morning airstrike hit three minibuses traveling on a major road near Uruzgan’s border with central Day Kundi province. There were 42 people in the vehicles, all civilians, Bashary said.The NATO statement did not say how many people died or whether all the occupants of the vehicles were civilians.

Afghan investigators on the ground have collected 21 bodies and two people are missing. Fourteen others were wounded, he said.”We are extremely saddened by the tragic loss of innocent lives,” NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in the statement. “I have made it clear to our forces that we are here to protect the Afghan people and inadvertently killing or injuring civilians undermines their trust and confidence in our mission. We will redouble our effort to regain that trust.”

McChrystal apologized to President Hamid Karzai for the incident on Sunday, NATO said.On Saturday, Karzai had admonished NATO troops for not doing enough to protect civilian lives. During a speech to the opening session of the Afghan parliament, Karzai had called for extra caution on the part of NATO, which is currently conducting a massive offensive on the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah in neighboring Helmand province.

“We need to reach the point where there are no civilian casualties,” Karzai had said. “Our effort and our criticism will continue until we reach that goal.”NATO has gone to great lengths in recent months to reduce civilian casualties — primarily through reducing airstrikes and tightening rules of engagement   as part of a new strategy to focus on protecting the Afghan people to win their loyalty over from the Taliban.

This is the largest joint NATO-Afghan operation since the Taliban regime was ousted from power in 2001. It’s also the first major ground operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan.But mistakes have continued. In the ongoing offensive against Marjah, two NATO rockets killed 12 people in one home and others have gotten caught in the crossfire. At least 16 civilians have been killed so far during the offensive, NATO has said, though human rights groups claim the number is at least 19.

Last Thursday, an airstrike in northern Kunduz province missed targeted insurgents and killed seven policemen.Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that Marjah was the opening salvo in a campaign to turn back the Taliban that could last 12 to 18 months.But the continued toll of civilian lives will only make it harder for NATO in its goal to win over the support of local Afghans against Taliban militants in the south.

The newly appointed civilian chief for Marjah arrived Monday to begin the task of restoring government authority after years of Taliban rule even though NATO troops are still battling insurgents in the area.District leader Abdul Zahir Aryan will be flying into Marjah for the first time since the massive NATO offensive began Feb. 13. He plans to meet with community leaders and townspeople about security, health care and reconstruction, he said in a phone interview Sunday.”The Marines have told us that the situation is better. It’s OK. It’s good,” Aryan said. “I’m not scared because it is my home. I have come to serve the people.”

Pakistani lawyers for five young Americans accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting terrorist attacks sought their release on bail

SARGODHA,Pakistani lawyers for five young Americans accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting terrorist attacks sought their release on bail on Tuesday, saying the prosecution lacked evidence.The students, in their 20s and from the U.S. state of Virginia, were detained in December in the central Pakistani town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of the capital.They have not been formally charged, but could face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.The case of the Americans has underscored global security dangers posed by the Internet as militants use cyberspace to evade tighter international security measures and plot holy war.

A defense lawyer for the five, who appeared in an anti-terrorism court in Sargodha, requested bail, saying allegations against them were “vague”.”No substantial evidence is available to show their guilt,” the lawyer, Mohammad Shahid Kamal Khan, told reporters.

“It’s a violation of their legal and fundamental rights to keep them in confinement,” he said, adding he expected the court to decide on the bail request on Wednesday.The five told the court earlier they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help.

They have accused the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them.Pakistani authorities have denied the accusations of mistreatment, which the five repeated on Tuesday, saying authorities were trying to force then back to the United States on “phony charges”.

“We have been threatened to be tortured again if we continued to speak out the truth,” one of the five wrote on a piece of tissue paper dropped from a police van as they arrived at court.Khalid Farooq, the father of one of the accused, said they were innocent. “There is no question about that,” he said.Two of the five are of Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one of Eritrean origin. They were arrested days after arriving in Pakistan.

Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani militants who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan, a front-line state in the U.S.-led war against militancy.Pakistan is struggling against al Qaeda-linked militants and is under pressure from Washington to help stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, where a Taliban insurgency is raging.The United States says Pakistan must crack down harder on militants who cross into Afghanistan and attack U.S.-led troops. (Reuters)