Pakistan Taliban kill 28 in attacks.

Afghan, Pakistan Taliban kill 28 in attacks on provincial police HQs.

Reuters | 17 Feb 2015 : : Four suicide attackers on Tuesday stormed a provincial police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, killing 22 police, an official said. Taliban insurgents immediately claimed responsibility.

The attack in Logar province outside the capital, Kabul, was the latest to target Afghan security forces following the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops at the end of last year.

In neighbouring Pakistan, another Taliban suicide attack on a provincial police headquarters killed at least seven people in the eastern city of Lahore, in what militants called a revenge bid for the recent hangings of their colleagues.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are separate groups that share the goal of establishing hard-line Islamic rule.

In the Afghan assault, the four attackers rushed the gates of the police compound in early afternoon, with one detonating his explosives-filled vest at the main gate and killing one policeman, Logar government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said.

The attack triggered a 25-minute battle with police, he said.

Another of the militants reached the station's dining hall, killing 21 police and wounding seven when he detonated his vest, said Abdul Wali Toofan, Logar's deputy police chief. The other two attackers were killed with no further casualties.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility on his official Twitter feed.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bomb attached to a vehicle wounded one person in Kabul, police said, breaking a recent lull in attacks in the Afghan capital.

Kabul had been rocked by a string of bombings by insurgents late last year in the run-up to the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan after 13 years of war.

A suspected magnetic bomb attached to a 4-wheel-drive vehicle exploded in the east of the city, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.

( Courtesy : Reuters )

Taliban inmates break out of Afghan prison.

Taliban inmates break out of Afghan prison.

KABUL | AP | 21 April 2014 ::  An official says three Taliban insurgents escaped from a prison in northern Afghanistan using weapons smuggled into the facility in a jailbreak that killed three police guards.

A spokesman for the Faryab provincial government, Ahmad Jawad Dedar, said on Friday that the breakout took place the previous night. A fourth inmate who was also trying to escape was killed in a shootout with security forces.

Dedar says the fugitives are low-level Taliban operatives who were jailed for planting roadside bombs. The four inmates launched their breakout during the nightly count of prisoners, throwing several grenades and shooting guards with at least one pistol.

Dedar said authorities have launched a search for the three fugitives and are investigating how the weapons were smuggled into the prison.( Courtesy : Dawn )

NATO bombing kills 5 Afghan troops.

Nato airstrike kills five Afghan soldiers.

Dawn photo

Kabul | Dawn News | Mar 06 2014:: A provincial government official says an early morning Nato airstrike in Afghanistan's central Logar province killed five Afghan National Army soldiers and wounded another 17.

The official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to talk to the media, says the strike occurred at 2 am Thursday.

He said government officials were in meetings to decide their response and to conduct a further investigation into the incident.

There was no immediate response from Nato to requests for comment. If it turns out that a Nato strike killed ANA troops, it is likely to set Afghan President Hamid Karzai on another attack against US and Nato soldiers in his country.

The president has been deeply critical of civilian deaths by international forces.

An insurgent compound explodes after a U.S. Air Force B-1 Lancer drops a 

38GBU  bomb on the facility in northern Bala Murghab Valley, Baghdis province, 

Afghanistan, April 4, 2011. Afghan officials say NATO forces accidentally bombed 

Afghan National Army forces in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, killing five and 

wounding at least eight others. COURTESY: U.S. AIR FORCE

Courtesy: Dawn.

Taliban attack kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan.

Taliban attack kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan.

Taliban attacked a joint Nato-Afghan base in eastern
 Afghanistan killing one NATO soldier, according to
 officials. (File photo: Reuters)

Kabul | Al Arabiya | 05 Jan 2014 :: Officials say a Taliban attack on a joint NATO-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan has killed one NATO soldier.

Spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai in Nangarhar province says the attack took place on Saturday morning when a suicide bomber struck outside the base in the province’s Ghani Khail district.

After that, five Taliban fighters on foot tried to storm the base. Abdulzai says Afghan and NATO troops returned fire, killing the attackers.

NATO said a service member had died following a suicide bombing in eastern Afghanistan. The alliance did not identify the soldier’s nationality.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in an email to the media.

Afghan insurgents have intensified attacks recently in a campaign to regain territory as foreign forces prepare to leave at the end of 2014.( Courtesy : Al Arabiya )

At least six killed in Kabul suicide attack.

At least six killed in Kabul suicide attack.

Afghan policemen arrive to an area after a suicide vehicle

KABUL | 16 Nov 2013 ::  A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car in west Kabul, killing at least six people near a compound where Afghan elders will debate a security pact with the US next week, officials said.

Another 22 were injured when the vehicle blew up about 150 metres from the giant tent where some 2500 tribal elders and civil leaders will gather on Thursday to decide on the future of US troops in the country after Nato coalition pulls out in 2014.

“Initial information shows that unfortunately four civilians, one police and one soldier have been killed in today’s attack. Twenty-two more, the majority of whom are civilians, have been injured,” said spokesman for Afghan interior ministry Sediq Sediqqi, adding that the toll may rise.

A statement issued by the Afghan interior ministry said that the bomber was being pursued by security forces shortly before the explosion.

“The attacker driving a vehicle had been identified and was being pursued by security forces. He detonated himself after police opened fire on his vehicle,” a statement issued by interior ministry said.

Nasrullah, a witness, said: “I heard a big bang near the jirga site, and later saw ambulances carrying bloodied people. I saw at least three wounded in army uniforms.”

Earlier in the day, President Hamid Karzai had called on the Taliban and their allies to join the assembly, known as a 'Loya Jirga'.

“We invite them, please come to this national jirga of Afghanistan, raise your voice, raise your objection... and share your views,” he told a news conference in Kabul.

The draft pact was hammered out in Kabul last month during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry. But he left without a final deal as Afghan President Hamid Karzai said only a jirga had the authority to decide the contentious issues.

These include a US demand to retain legal jurisdiction over its troops in Afghanistan, which would give them immunity from Afghan law. The request emerged as the main sticking point after Kerry’s visit.

The Taliban, whose government was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001, has rejected the jirga and warned members that they would be punished as “traitors” if they endorsed the deal.

Hezb-e-Islami, a Taliban affiliate, has also refused to send members to jirga, calling it “legalising the US occupation”.

If the agreement is passed by both loya jirga and parliament, between 5,000 and 10,000 US troops would stay in Afghanistan to help fight militants and train the national army.

Washington had been pushing for the agreement to be signed by the end of October to allow the US-led Nato coalition to plan the withdrawal of its 75,000 combat troops by December 2014.

The collapse of a similar security agreement with Iraq in 2011 led to the US pulling all its troops out of the country, which is currently suffering its worst sectarian violence since 2008. (Courtesy: Dawn)

Three Nato troops killed in Afghanistan insider attack.

Three Nato troops killed in Afghanistan insider attack.

Three US special forces have been killed by an Afghan wearing a security forces unfiorm, in the first apparent "insider attack" in months.

 Three foreign special forces have been killed by an
 Afghan wearing a security forces unfiorm Photo:
AFP/Getty Images

The Telegraph | 21 Sep 2013 :: Since last year, attacks by Afghan soldiers on their allies in the NATO-run ISAF force have become a serious problem, threatening to further undermine waning support for the war among Western nations sending troops here.

"Three International Security Assistance Force service members died when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform shot them in eastern Afghanistan today," ISAF said in a statement.

A US defence official confirmed to the AFP news agency that the three victims were from the United Sates.

US forces provide the bulk of ISAF troops in the east. The attack was the seventh reported insider attack this year, and 12 ISAF personnel have been killed.

The last reported insider attack was on July 9, when an Afghan soldier at a military base in Kandahar shot dead one soldier and wounded three others.(Courtesy:The Telegraph )

Taliban releases 'pointless' for Afghan peace: officials.

Taliban releases 'pointless' for Afghan peace: officials.

Afghan and US officials, at the time of Abdul Ghani
 Baradar's arrest, hadaccused Pakistan of
sabotaging peace efforts by arresting him.

KABUL | AFP | 14 Sep 2013 ::  Afghan officials say Pakistan's release of 33 Taliban prisoners from jail, a policy initially trumpeted by Kabul as an opportunity to ignite peace talks, has resulted in no concrete progress.

The Afghan government, desperately searching for a way to negotiate peace before Nato troops leave next year, has said that the release of influential insurgents could encourage their comrades to the negotiating table.

But despite the 33 Afghan Taliban prisoners released by Pakistan and dozens of others freed in Afghanistan, there is still no peace process and some fighters have returned to the battlefield.

The Taliban still refuse publicly to deal with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, branding him a US puppet.

They have also shown no willingness to participate in elections on April 5, 2014 when Karzai will step aside for a new leader for the first time since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Instead their readiness to negotiate with the Americans about a prisoner swap has only infuriated Karzai, who late last month asked Pakistan to help find a direct channel of communication.

In parts of Afghanistan, which continue to suffer daily from Taliban violence, the releases have been met with incomprehension if not anger by local government officials.

“The Taliban who are released... rejoin the battlefield again,” said Zurawar Zahid, police chief of the flashpoint southern province of Ghazni.

“We put our lives in danger to arrest them, but the central government releases them under different pretences,” he added.

Zahid told AFP that more than 40 Taliban, including some senior commanders, who were recently freed from Ghazni central prison on Karzai's orders have gone back to the battlefield.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Obama ‘confident’ of getting Congressional support for Syria strike.

Obama ‘confident’ of getting Congressional support for Syria strike.

U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd R) talks to bipartisan Congressional
 leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington while
 discussing a military response to Syria, Sept. 3, 2013. (Reuters)

Al Arabia | 03 Sep 2013 :: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was confident that Congress will support his decision to take military action against the Syrian regime.

Obama said he is open to changes to his resolution to obtain Congressional approval, as long as the resolution sends a clear message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and impedes his ability to use chemical weapons.

Obama told reporters during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House that he wants the American people to know that “this is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan.” He said action in Syria will be limited and proportional, Associated Press reported.

The meeting in the White House Cabinet room was attended by congressional leaders from both parties in the House and Senate.

Obama called for a prompt vote on Capitol Hill and reiterated that the U.S. plan would be limited in scope and not repeat the long U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad's capabilities,” Obama said, according to Reuters.

“At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition,” he said.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

Graveyard bomb kills 14 women and children in Afghan east.

Graveyard bomb kills 14 women and children in Afghan east.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives for Eid al-Fitr
 prayer that marks the end of the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, August
, 8, 2013. — Photo by AP

KABUL | 09 Aug 2013 ::  A bomb planted in an Afghan graveyard killed 14 women and children on Thursday, many of them present at the graveside of a family member during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, officials said.

The bomb exploded in a rural district of eastern Nangarhar province, said the provincial governor's spokesman, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

Nangarhar and its capital, Jalalabad, have been racked by a series of bombings and suicide attacks over the last week.

It is common in Afghanistan on the first day of Eid for people to pay their respects at the graves of loved ones. The victims were mainly from one family, Abdulzai said.

Three women and one child were wounded, he added.

Three Afghan bodyguards for the Helmand province police chief, Mohammad Hakim Angaar, were killed on Wednesday in a suicide bombing, the provincial governor's spokesman, Omar Zwak, said.

In June, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the former Helmand police chief's convoy, wounding three.

President Karzai calls on Taliban to stop war

In a speech for the start of a Muslim holiday, the Afghan president has urged the Taliban to lay down their arms, join the political process and stop killing innocent civilians.

Hamid Karzai spoke Thursday after prayers for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He thanked the Afghan security forces for their sacrifices in the war against the insurgency.

He says too many Afghans have lost their lives to roadside bombs during this year's Ramadan and that the violence should end.(Courtesy:Dawn)Read More>>>

Taliban say still focussed on Pakistan.

PESHAWAR | AFP |17 Jul 2013 ::  Pakistani Taliban commanders on Tuesday rejected suggestions they were sending fighters to Syria, saying some have gone there independently but the movement’s focus remained on Pakistan.

They said some militants, mainly Arabs and Central Asians, had gone to fight the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, but a senior Taliban leader dismissed reports of them setting up camps in Syria.

The tribal areas of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border have long been a magnet for militants from across the Muslim world eager to fight US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan.

But since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, foreign militants have flocked to Syria, where disparate groups are seeking his downfall.

Some media reports in recent days have claimed that scores or even hundreds of Pakistani Taliban are among them and that they have set up camps in Syria.

A senior commander who sits on the shura of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said there was no tactical shift and no decision had been made to send forces to Syria.

“There is no reality in these reports, we have far better targets in the region, Nato troops headed by the Americans are present in Afghanistan,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“We are already in a war with Pakistani troops. We support the mujahideen’s struggle in Syria but in our opinion, we have a lot more to do here in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The TTP is an umbrella group for numerous factions trying to bring down the Pakistani state and impose Sharia law. It has ties to the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda.

“The great evil (America) is here in Afghanistan, troops from 30 kafir (non-believer) countries are attacking innocent people in Afghanistan, so Bashar al-Assad is not that important for us,” the TTP commander said.

“Obama is the big evil, Americans are a much bigger evil for us. The Taliban shura has never discussed sending mujahideen to Syria.”

Another mid-ranking TTP commander in Miramshah said some fighters had gone to Syria “in a personal capacity”.

A third senior TTP cadre said those who had gone were mostly Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad erupted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai dismissed claims of the TTP setting up camps in Syria as “a publicity campaign” by some of the militants.

“But we cannot deny the fact that they are quite ambitious and want to send a clear message to the world that they are still very strong and have strong linkages with other local and international groups,” he said.

However, Ismail, an Arab fighter from Al Qaeda, said that he planned to join the fight against Assad. “I am going to Syria in the next few days, my family will stay here,” he said.

“Our mujahideen are going not only to Syria but also to Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries.”

Saifullah Khan Mehsud, the executive director of the FATA Research Centre and an expert on the tribal zone, said fighters had been going to Syria from Pakistan for at least a month and a half.

“Most of them are foreigners but Pakistanis have also joined them,” he said.—AFP (Courtesy:Dawn)

Afghan insurgents kill 7 in attack on NATO supply compound.

Afghan security officials inspect the site of
 a suicide bomb blast targeting a logistics company
providing services to NATO-led coalition forces.

ABUL, Afghanistan  | 05 Jul 2013 ::  Militants launched a pre-dawn attack Tuesday on a NATO supply company’s compound in Kabul, killing at least seven people as insurgents continued to step up high-profile assaults within the Afghan capital.

The attack occurred at about 4:30 a.m. at a heavily secured compound run by C3PO, an international logistics firm that provides supplies and transport services to NATO troops in Afghanistan and carries out construction work across the country, said an official at C3PO, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The compound also houses a hotel catering to international firms and government agencies working in Afghanistan, the C3PO official said.

The assault began when a suicide bomber detonated his truck packed with explosives at the compound’s front entrance, said Mohammad Daud Amin, a deputy Kabul police chief. The blast killed two Afghan truck drivers parked outside the gate.

Four other suicide bombers then ran into the compound and exchanged gunfire with guards at the compound, Amin said. Four Nepalese guards and an Afghan guard deployed to secure the compound were killed in the gunfire.

Afghan police arrived and after about an hour, shot and killed the four attackers, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement. At least five Afghan civilians were injured in the attack. The blast also damaged nearby buildings housing other international logistics companies, Amin said.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

In recent weeks, insurgents have ramped up attacks on military and civilian targets, with several of the assaults and bombings occurring in the capital.

Last week, a team of insurgents was able to get past a perimeter gate at the presidential palace compound in Kabul before being shot and killed by Afghan security forces. Three Afghan guards died in that attack.

In mid-June, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in front of the Afghan Supreme Court in Kabul, killing 17 people and injuring 38 others. A day before that attack, seven militants were killed while trying to storm the military portion of Kabul International Airport.

The surge in attacks reflects the Taliban’s resolve to maintain military pressure on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces even as the insurgent movement establishes its new political office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar in preparation for talks aimed at ending nearly 12 years of conflict in the war-torn nation.

A rift between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and officials in Washington has held up the talks. Karzai was angered that the U.S. did not insist that the Taliban renounce violence, communicate directly with the Afghan government and recognize the country’s constitution before being allowed to enter into peace negotiations.

Karzai also was unhappy that the Taliban opened its office in Doha, Qatar’s capital, under its own banner of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” and its own flag. U.S. officials say the sign and the flag have been removed.(Courtesy: Los Angeles Times)

Roadside bombs kill 6 Afghan children

Roadside bombs kill 6 Afghan children.

KABUL |AP| 04 Jul 2013 :: Roadside bombs killed four young girls and two schoolboys in Afghanistan on Thursday while a police inspector was gunned down on her way to work, officials said. 

The girls, aged 10 to 12 years, had been sent by their families to a river to fetch some water for a wedding that was being held in a home on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Helmand governor's spokesman Ummar Zawaq said. 

The bomb went off alongside a footpath through a field the girls had taken to make their way back home, Zawaq said. 

Also in Lashkar Gah on Thursday morning, two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a female police inspector who was being taken to work by her son-in-law on his motorcycle, Zawaq said. Inspector Islam Bibi was rushed to the hospital with her wounds but died there about an hour later, he said. Her son-in-law was also wounded. 

And in the eastern province of Paktika, two schoolboys were killed on their way walking home from classes in the afternoon when they triggered a roadside bomb, the governor's office said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, the Nato-led coalition said one of its service members was killed in fighting Thursday in western Afghanistan. It gave no further details. 

Violence this year has matched its worst levels in nearly 12 years of war. According to the most recent figures from the interior ministry, 180 civilians were killed across Afghanistan last month. 

In the same time frame, 299 police officers and 753 militants were killed, the ministry said. The defense ministry did not have similar figures for the Afghan army. 

In other violence Thursday, 11 Taliban militants were killed in two different operations in the province of Lowgar, just south of Kabul, and seven others were wounded, the ministry of defense said. One Afghan soldier was also killed.(Courtesy:The Times of India)

Taliban bomber kills 15 at top Afghan court.

An Afghan policeman stands

 guard at the site of the suicide 

car bomb attack in Kabul June 

11, 2013. – Photo by Reuters

KABUL|11|June|2013:: A Taliban suicide car bomber on Tuesday targeted staff at Afghanistan's top court, killing 15 civilians and wounding 40 others in the second attack in two days in the heavily fortified capital, police said.

Women and children were among those killed and injured in the powerful explosion at the entrance to the Supreme Court, near the US embassy as buses waited to take court staff home at the end of the working day, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility and threatened further attacks on the judiciary if it continued to sentence to death members of its militia.

The bomber struck at around 4:00 pm (1130 GMT) in the crowded area, close to a block of residential flats home to middle-class Afghans.

General Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul criminal investigations, said the bomber rammed one of the buses carrying Supreme Court staff.

“A suicide bomb hit at the back of a coaster causing lots of civilian casualties, dead and wounded,” Zahir told AFP.

“The most precise and updated toll is 15 killed and 40 wounded,” he said.

He earlier said that at least two women were among the dead and children were also among the casualties. “Most of the casualties are Supreme Court employees,” he added.

An AFP photographer saw human flesh and dead bodies lying on the ground as police picked their way through the debris, the wreckage of a car and two badly damaged buses on the main road leading to the airport.

A couple of legs and part of a body were stuck to the back of one bus.

Civilian volunteers who happened to be in the area where helping to evacuate the wounded, soaked in blood, by foot, on shoulder, dragged and by handcart.

The Taliban, the militia that is stepping up an 11-year insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government as Nato troops prepare to withdraw next year, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement, it said it had punished judges for “justifying the invading infidels” in sentencing to death Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government.

“Today's attack was a warning that should they (judges) continue to give tyrannical verdicts and intimidate (our) countrymen, then the mujahideen will not tolerate it and condemn them to death” said a copy of the statement seen by AFP.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Taliban behead two Afghan boys.

FROM THE NEWSPAPER

KANDAHAR|11|June|2013:: The Taliban beheaded two boys aged 10 and 16 as a warning to villagers not to cooperate with the Afghan government, local officials said.

The boys, named Khan and Hameedullah, had travelled to Afghan army and police checkpoints near their home in the southern province of Kandahar, scrounging for leftover food to bring to their families, the officials said.

“The boys were on their way back ... when they were stopped by Taliban insurgents who beheaded them,” the chief of Zhari district, Jamal Agha, said. “Both of them were innocent children and had nothing to do with government or foreigners.”

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said the group was not involved in the boys’ killings.

The Kandahar governor’s spokesman, Javid Faisal, said the incident occurred on Sunday. Several hours later their bodies and severed heads were left in their village, he said.

In July last year in the same district, a 16-year-old boy accused by the Taliban of spying for the government was beheaded and skinned. The next month, a girl aged six and a boy of 12 were kidnapped and beheaded in separate incidents in Kandahar and the east of the country.

Also on Monday, six militants with suicide vests and heavy guns attacked a government compound in the provincial centre of Zabul, wounding at least 18 people.

Meanwhile, seven Taliban armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns launched a rare assault on Nato’s operational headquarters at the military section of Kabul’s international airport on Monday. All seven militants were killed.

Their failed attack showed that despite an asphyxiating security blanket around the capital, Afghanistan’s insurgency is far from defeated after nearly 12 years of war, and militants can still menace the capital.—Agencies(Courtesy:Dawn)

Afghan Taliban confirm talks in Iran.

AP

The image shows Afghan Taliban fighters. — Photo by AFP

KABUL|03|June|2013:: A Taliban spokesman has confirmed that the Afghan insurgents have sent a delegation to Iran for three days of talks. The unprecedented meeting signals that Iran could be seeking the role of regional mediator between the Taliban and Kabul.

Spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Monday in an email that emissaries from the Taliban's political office met with Iranian officials over the weekend.

He said a separate group of clerics attended a religious conference in Tehran.

An Iranian news agency said Saturday that Tehran had hosted a Taliban delegation.

The Sunni Muslim Taliban have long been enemies of Iran's ruling Shia clerics.

Ahmadi also said the Taliban's political wing would accept any invitation for conferences, a possible good sign for so-far fruitless efforts to negotiate an end to the Afghan war.(Courtesy:Dawn)