Key Taliban 'commanders' killed in Peshawar operation.

Clashes with militants during the ongoing
 operation by security forces continued at the
 time of filing of this report. —File Photo

PESHAWAR | 04 Jul 2013 ::  Two key militant commanders of the Pakistani Taliban were killed in a successful operation by security forces in Peshawar on Thursday, security officials said.

Security officials told Dawn.Com that security forces were conducting a search operation in the Frontier Region of Peshawar near Mattani when they clashed with the militants, leaving one security personnel and two militants dead in the exchange of gunfire.

Officials identified the two key militant commanders as Rooh ul Amin and Adnan alias Hurera, both belonging to the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The operation follows a late night attack by dozens of suspected Taliban militants on a security check post at Shamshato area near Peshawar Frontier Region (FR), killing six Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldiers and leaving 12 others injured.

Police said the militants had also managed to kidnap two security forces' personnel. A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Ehsanullah Ehsan, had claimed responsibility for the attack Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, officials said militants had killed the two FC personnel kidnapped from Shamshato area on Tuesday. “The miscreants have thrown their bodies in Mattani area of Peshawar,” said one security official.

Clashes between militants and security forces during the ongoing operation continued at the time of filing of this report.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Briton Dies In Taliban Suicide Blast In Kabul.

Briton Dies In Taliban Suicide Blast In Kabul.

The security contractor was among seven killed when a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a Nato compound.

A Taliban truck bomb has killed at least seven
people in the Afghan capital, including a British man.

UK | 03 Jul 2013 :: a British man has died in a Taliban suicide bombing in Afghanistan, the Foreign Office has said.

Security contractor Mark Duffus, 41, was among seven people killed when a suicide bomber drove a small truck packed with explosives to the outer gate of a Nato compound in Kabul.

Mr Duffus was one of five security guards killed in the blast in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"We are providing consular assistance to his family at this difficult time," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

Two truck drivers waiting to enter the compound also died along with the bomber, according to Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.

After the blast, four gunmen stormed into the breach and engaged in an hour-long gunbattle with security guards and police.

The attackers were all killed, the interior ministry said.

The bomb left a large crater in the ground, and reduced walls and a guard post to a pile of rubble.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a series of bold attacks on high-profile targets in the Afghan capital.

The attacks have driven home that the Taliban have no intention of ending the violence, even though they have indicated they are willing to talk peace and have opened an office in Qatar for that purpose.(Courtesy:Sky News)

At least 47 dead in wave of car bombings, other violence in Iraq.

Residents and security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb
 attack in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad on Tuesday.
Dozens of people were killed and wounded when insurgents
 unleashed a new wave of attacks across the country.
 (Nabil al-Jurani / Associated Press / July 2, 2013)

BAGHDAD  |The Associated Press | 03 Jul 2013 ::  Insurgents unleashed a new wave of attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 47 people, officials said, part of a surge in violence across the country that has raised concerns over a return to sectarian bloodshed. Seven militants were also killed. 

There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks, mostly car bombs in Shiite areas. Al Qaeda's Iraq branch, which has been gaining strength in recent months, frequently targets Shiites, security forces and civil servants in an effort to undermine the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. 

Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed appears to be largely the work of resurgent Sunni militants such as Al Qaeda, feeding off Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government. 

The bloodshed accelerated after a deadly April 23 crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest in the northern town of Hawija against the Shiite-led government. 

The deadliest attack Tuesday was in Baghdad's northern Shaab neighborhood. Two parked car bombs targeted car dealers and a commercial area, killing nine people, including a policeman, a police officer said. He said 24 others were wounded. 

In Baghdad's northern Shula neighborhood, a bomb exploded in an open-air market, followed by a second blast after rescuers rushed to the scene. Four civilians and two policemen died, a police officer said. Eighteen people were wounded. 

Five civilians were killed and 16 wounded in a car bomb explosion in a market in Baghdad's eastern suburb of Kamaliya. A car bomb ripped through a commercial area in the capital's southern Dora neighborhood, killing four and wounding 15, police said. 

In the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amiriyah, two civilians were killed and 12 wounded in a car bomb explosion in a commercial area. Three others were killed and 13 wounded in another car bomb explosion in the northern Hurriyah neighborhood. 

Also Tuesday, clashes erupted at dawn between security forces and militants in Baaj, a remote northwestern town near the Syrian border, and left four policemen dead and five wounded. Police said seven militants were killed. 

In another attack, a government-allied, anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni militiaman was killed and two others wounded when a bomb attached to their car exploded in the western Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, police said. The pro-government militiamen, or Sahwa, joined with U.S. troops to fight Al Qaeda before the U.S. pullout in late 2011. Since then, they have been a frequent target for Al Qaeda in Iraq, which considers them traitors. 

Also in Abu Ghraib, a car bomb killed three civilians and wounded six others. 

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a barber was gunned down by gunmen in a speeding car, and a physician was killed by a bomb attached to his car. 

And outside the city of Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent where a funeral was taking place, killing four and wounding 17 others, Provincial councilman Sadiq Husseini said. Police could not say whether the targeted funeral was for a Shiite or Sunni family.(Courtesy:Los Angele Times)

Shelling kills 11 near Syrian capital, activists say.

Shelling kills 11 near Syrian capital, activists say.

his image made from amateur video released by Ugarit News,
 which has been authenticated based on its contents and other
 AP reporting, shows smoke rises in Damascus, Syria, Friday
, June 21, 2013. (Photo credit: AP/Ugarit News via AP video)

BEIRUT  | AP | 02 Jul 2013 :: — Syrian troops shelled a rebel-held suburb of the capital Damascus Tuesday, killing at least 11 people including women and children as government forces forge ahead with offensives against rebel-held areas around the country, activists said.

The shelling on Kfar Batna appeared to be part of a concerted government push against contested and rebel-held areas around the capital. In recent months, troops have captured several suburbs of the capital, Damascus, as President Bashar Assad regime’s looks to secure its seat of power.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead in Tuesday’s shelling include two women and a child. Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in the nearby suburb of Douma, said the shelling began early Tuesday and lasted several hours and put the death toll at 13.Saeed said Kfar Batna is usually relatively quiet and shelters a large number of Syrians displaced from other, more tense suburbs of Damascus.“Kfar Batna gets hit every day with a shell or two but today it was struck with about 60 mortar shells in four hours,” Saeed said via Skype.An amateur video showed a man carrying into a hospital a dead baby boy who was draped in white cloth in accordance with Muslim traditions while saying in a shaking voice: “Oh God.”“Oh son” said the man, whose arm was bandaged and shirt smeared with blood, as he placed the dead baby next to other bodies put together in a hospital room.Activists then brought the body of what appeared to be a female relative of the man next to the dead infant. “May God forgive you,” the man said as looked at the woman’s covered body.Another video showed the dead baby boy before he was covered laying on a hospital bed, his mouth open and his face covered with blood. A man in the room said the dead boy was three months old. “May God help us,” the man said.A third video showed seven bodies lined in a room, two of them of children. Names of the dead, who were covered in white sheets, were handwritten on the white covers. One of the dead, next to the two children was identified as “Nour Turshi and her children.”The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.The United Nations has estimated that more than 6,000 children are among the some 93,000 people killed in Syria’s more than 2-year-old conflict, which started with largely peaceful protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad. The uprising escalated into an armed rebellion in response to a brutal government crackdown on the protest movement.Activists say more than 100,000 people have been killed since the crisis began.The Observatory said that in the northern province of Aleppo, rebels were able to destroy an army vehicle using a Russian-made Konkurs anti-tank missile that they recently received from Gulf Arab states. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said the rebels appear to have received large numbers of such missiles in recent days.Activists said recently that Syria’s rebels have received shipments of more powerful weapons from Gulf allies in recent weeks, particularly anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, that have already helped stall aggressive new advances by regime forces.

Taliban attack Nato supplier's compound in Kabul, kill seven.

Taliban attack Nato supplier's compound in Kabul, kill seven.

People stand at the site of a suicide attack
 in Kabul July 2, 2013. — Photo by Reuters

KABUL | AP | 02 Jul 2013 :: Taliban attackers set off a truck bomb early Tuesday and killed five security guards at a Nato supplier's compound in Kabul, the latest in a series of bold attacks on high profile targets in the Afghan capital.

The attacks have driven home that the Taliban have no intention of ending the violence, even though they have indicated they are willing to talk peace and have opened an office in Qatar for that purpose.

''This (attack) has no link to the peace process,'' Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone call. Attacks ''will continue all over the country occupied by the foreigners,'' he said.

Before dawn, a suicide bomber drove a small truck packed with explosives to the outer gate of the logistics center used to supply Nato troops and detonated it, said Kabul provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.

The explosion blasted a huge crater in the ground and damaged a guard tower.

Two truck drivers waiting to enter the compound were killed in the blast along with the bomber, he said.

Then four gunmen stormed into the breach and battled with security guards.

An Afghan police special response team and security guards battled the attackers for about an hour before killing them, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

One Afghan and four Nepalese guards were also killed, the ministry said.

In a statement on the Taliban website, Mujahid said only three militants were involved in the ''attack on a big foreign base important for Nato logistics,'' listing the assailants by name.

The Taliban opened a political office in Doha last month, indicating they were prepared to enter into Afghan peace talks, but they did not renounce violence.(Courtesy:Dawn)Read More>>>

Pakistan, India exchange lists of prisoners.

Pakistan, India exchange lists of prisoners.

ISLAMABAD |MATEEN HAIDER |01 Jul 2013:: The governments of Pakistan and India on Monday exchanged lists of prisoners lodged in each other’s respective prisons.

According to the list, there are 386 Pakistan prisoners in Indian prisons while 491 Indians are currently held in Pakistani jails.

Lists are exchanged under Consular Agreement signed between the two countries in May 2008. Lists of prisoners are to be exchanged twice a year, on January 1 and July 1 respectively.

The foreign office handed over the list of 491 Indian prisoners lodged in Pakistani jails to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. A similar list of 386 Pakistani prisoners was also handed over to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi by the Indian ministry of external affairs.

A spokesman of the foreign office said upon receipt of these lists, the respective interior/home ministries of both countries would consult the provincial home departments and jail authorities to ascertain how many of the prisoners are completing their jail term.

The spokesman said accordingly, upon completion of their jail terms these prisoners will be released.

The spokesman said Pakistan government views the issue of prisoners as a humanitarian one and continues to make efforts for their release as soon as their prison sentences are completed.

It may be recalled that on the directives of caretaker prime minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso in May this year, Pakistan released 46 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture.

The spokesman said Pakistan is making arrangements for the release of 11 Indian civil prisoners by the middle of this month.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Bombings kill 53, injures around 140 people in Pakistan.

Bombings kill 53, injures around 140  people in Pakistan.

Peshawar,  PTI |  Jul  1 2013  :: At least 53 people have been killed and nearly 140 injured in Pakistan in separate attacks, including a deadly suicide bombing in restive Quetta city.

In the first of yesterday's attacks, at least 17 people, including four children, were killed and nearly 50 injured when a powerful remote-controlled bomb targeted a passing convoy of security forces near a busy market here in northwest Pakistan.(Courtesy:Press Trust of India)