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 Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians.

Taliban Calls Kabul Cafe Attack Retaliation for a Strike That Killed Civilians.

KABUL | Afghanistan | 18 jan 2014 ::  The Taliban claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack the day before on a popular Kabul cafe that killed 21 people, mostly Western civilians, saying it was in retaliation for a coalition airstrike on Wednesday in which a number of Afghan civilians had died in a village north of Kabul.

In their statement, the Taliban said they picked a restaurant frequented by “high-ranking foreigners” where alcohol was served. The attack, one of the most significant on Western civilians since the start of the war in 2001, struck at the heart of one of Kabul’s most secure districts, very close to many embassies and coalition military bases.

Western officials questioned the Taliban’s stated motive for the coordinated attack, which occurred just two days after the airstrike and would have required extensive planning. A suicide bomber cleared a path for two gunmen who stormed in and fired on diners, the police said.

The dead included the representative of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, the United Nations’ senior political affairs officer here and a British Labour Party candidate for the European Parliament who had been working in Afghanistan. Two Americans working at the American University in Afghanistan were also killed in the attack, the university said in a statement on Saturday.The attack was in retaliation to the massacre carried out by foreign invaders two days earlier in Parwan Province’s Siyah Gerd district, where the enemy airstrikes destroyed up to 10 homes, razed several orchards as well as killing and wounding up to 30 innocent civilians, mostly defenseless women and children,” the Taliban statement said.

The international coalition, the United Nations, diplomats and Afghans quickly offered condolences and condemnations over both attacks. Later, President Hamid Karzai, whose relationship with the Americans has been strained in recent months by negotiations over a long-term security contract, expressed sympathy for the victims of the cafe attack but also seemed to use the airstrike to criticize his NATO allies over the issue of civilian casualties.

“The war on terror will bear fruit when victims and terrorists are distinguished from each other and the elements of terror are fought against,” said Mr. Karzai, who appointed a committee to investigate the civilian casualties from the airstrike. “If NATO, led by the United States, wants to be the Afghan people’s ally, they should target terrorism.”

An American military official said that the airstrike had been called in by Afghan and American forces who were under fire from Taliban fighters. “The operation was requested by the Afghans and approved by the Afghans,” the official said.

“More than 80 percent of Afghan civilian casualties are caused — in most cases intentionally — by Taliban, Haqqani and other terrorist and insurgent groups,” the official added.

The Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the Afghan police, suspended the commander and intelligence officer in charge of the district where the restaurant is and placed them under investigation.

Kabul appeared to return to normal on Saturday, with a slightly heavier police presence visible along its traffic-choked streets, especially near where the cafe attack occurred. While bombings are not uncommon in Kabul, the extent of the damage and the targeting of Western civilians raised alarms.

Some international organizations tightened security, clamping down on the modest freedom of movement enjoyed by foreigners working in Kabul. United Nations officials, meeting privately, vowed not to adopt a “bunker mentality” in response to the attacks, which claimed the lives of four of its personnel, including two from the United Nations Children’s Fund.

( Courtesy : The New york Times )

Taliban kill 15 Afghan police in western province.

Taliban kill 15 Afghan police in western 

province.

Kabul | 29 Aug 2013 :: An Afghan official says 15 policemen have been killed and another 10 wounded in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan’s Farah province.

Farah provincial spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai said Thursday that the Afghan National Police squad was on patrol along the region’s main highway when they were ambushed in a mountain pass.

Zhawandai said the attack occurred late Wednesday as about 40 policemen were patrolling the highway in several vehicles.

Insurgents frequently ambush vehicles on the highway, which is a main trade route through the province.

The Taliban have escalated attacks in recent months as they try to take advantage of the withdrawal of foreign troops, who handed over security for the country to Afghan forces two months ago.(Courtesy:Al Alarabia)

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>>>

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)

US Military probing into Taliban attack in Afghanistan.

Military probing into Taliban attack that killed two.

WASHINGTON | 31 May 2013::  The US military has begun to investigate a Taliban attack on a US-British base in Afghanistan last September that killed two Marines and destroyed six aircrafts and put on hold the announced promotion of the two-star Marine general who was in charge there at the time, officials said Thursday.

Marine Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus was the senior commander in southwestern Afghanistan when 15 Taliban fighters breached the security perimeter of Camp Bastion in Helmand province and carried out their stunning attack. All but one of the fighters was killed in a Marine counterattack.

Gurganus earlier this year was picked for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as director of the Marine Corps staff at the Pentagon. A Pentagon official said Thursday that his promotion has been placed on hold pending the outcome of the Central Command investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

A few weeks after the Sept. 14 attack, Gurganus told a news conference that "there's no mystery" to how the Taliban managed to get onto the supposedly secure base and launch their deadly attack using rocket-propelled grenades.

Gurganus said they used simple wire cutters to penetrate the perimeter fence, which was not equipped with alarms. "We have sophisticated surveillance equipment, but it can't see everywhere, all the time," he said. "This was a well-planned attack. I make no excuses for it. This was well planned and it was well executed."

In fact, at least one of the guard towers near the Taliban fighters' entry point was unoccupied at the time, officials have said.

Despite the loss of two Marines and the destruction of almost an entire squadron of Marine AV-8B Harrier jets valued at about $200 million, no formal investigation was undertaken to determine whether anyone should be held to account for failing to stop one of the most audacious attacks of the war.

Killed in the attack were Lt. Col. Christopher Raible, 40, and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, 27.

Britain's Prince Harry, a helicopter pilot, was serving at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack. Officials said he received additional protection when the attack occurred.

At the recommendation of Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, a US Central Command investigation was ordered this week by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of Central Command, according to his spokesman, Oscar Seara.

Austin ordered that the probe report on "any fault, negligence or failure of responsibility by US commanders and staff" responsible for security at the base, which is surrounded by open terrain and adjacent to the Marine's main base, known as Camp Leatherneck. Because Leatherneck does not have a runway, Marine aircraft use Bastion's airfield headquarters in Helmand.

The Washington Post was first to report that Central Command had opened an investigation.

Seara said Austin determined that a formal investigation was warranted to "ensure all matters of US accountability have been appropriately addressed." [Courtesy: AP & Dawn].