News on Afghanistan - Page 68

mlurp · #**671** (**permalink**) 08-08-2012, 04:06 PM

Well after going thru about 8 diffenent online newspapers and posting a lot of items I find myself with Yahoo and the sad part of life.

Please use the links for more news, as my fingers are hurting, and my mouse palm is stinging.

Quote:

.Afghanistan: Suicide attack on NATO patrol kills 4

By RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago. 8 August 2012 ........

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide attack hit a NATO patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three coalition service members, the international military force said, while Afghan officials added that a civilian was also killed in the bombing.

Hours later on the other side of the country, a roadside bomb hit a bus, killing at least three people, a witness said. Many wounded passengers were trapped in the bus by a fierce battle between insurgents and Afghan police that raged most of the day.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing of the NATO patrol in Kunar province, an eastern stronghold of the insurgency that lies along the volatile border with Pakistan where militants have hideouts.

The attack emphasized the insurgency's continued ability to wreak violence despite fierce efforts by the Afghan government and international forces to wipe out their leadership.

In Kunar, two attackers wearing suicide vests detonated their explosives as a NATO foot patrol passed by the headquarters of the provincial government, provincial police chief Ewas Mohammad Naziri said.

NATO confirmed that three of its service members were killed in a suicide attack, but did not give any more details, including the nationalities of the troops who were killed. Wednesday's attack brought to 15 the number of international troops killed so far in August.

At least one Afghan civilian was killed and three were wounded in twin blasts that took place at about 10 a.m., said Wasifullah Wasify, a spokesman for Kunar's governor.
................................................ CONTINUED .............................................

Afghanistan: Suicide attack on NATO patrol kills 4 - Yahoo! News

31+ comments worth the read also.

mlurp · #**672** (**permalink**) 08-08-2012, 04:35 PM

To keep these links in reach of the readers.

There is plenty to read at each of these site.

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Africa News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Europe News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Latin America News Headlines - Yahoo! News

iCasualties | OEF | Afghanistan | Fatalities Details

............................................. NEW ITEMS ................................................

ARMED FORCES JOURNAL

The Public Record | Intrepid New Journalism

Again my thanks to each reader..

mlurp · #**673** (**permalink**) 08-12-2012, 03:38 PM

This is deep. And I am at a lost for the right words to describe it. Yet someone is playing others IMHO.

Quote:

.Afghan officials met with jailed Taliban leader

By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press – 2 hrs 59 mins ago.

.................................... 12 August 2012 .................................................. ..

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan government representatives have met with a top-ranking Taliban member in his prison cell in Pakistan, an official said Sunday, suggesting a small step toward reopening stalled peace talks with the insurgent group.

The confirmation came at the end of a bloody weekend that showed how unstable the country is, though NATO is aiming to hand over security responsibility to local forces at the end of 2014 after more than a decade of warfare against insurgents.

Afghanistan's international allies hope that bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table will ease the pressure on the Afghan government as international forces draw down.

An official with the Afghan High Peace Council, which is tasked with starting talks, said the Pakistani government allowed Afghan government envoys access to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a top-ranking Taliban official who was captured in Pakistan in 2010.

His arrest reportedly angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai because Baradar had been in secret talks with the Afghan government.

"Some members from our embassy in Pakistan, they met Mullah Baradar," said Ismail Qasemyar, the council's international relations adviser. He declined to give details of the discussions or say when they took place. Officials in Pakistan did not respond to calls seeking comment.

.......................................... SKIPPED SOME ...............................................

In the latest incident Sunday, a roadside bomb killed a district government chief and three of his bodyguards in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The Afghan government's top official in Laghman province's Alishang district was driving to a meeting with the bodyguards when his car was blown up on the road, provincial spokesman Sarhadi Zewak said.

Zewak said the provincial government believes district chief Faridullah Niazi was targeted by insurgents.

Such assassinations of people allied with the government or international forces have surged this year. The U.N. reported last week that civilian deaths from such killings jumped 34 percent in the first six months of 2012 to 255 people killed, compared with 190 in the first half of 2011. The victims ranged from police to village elders who worked on programs with international forces.

........................................... CONTINUED ..................................................

Afghan officials met with jailed Taliban leader - Yahoo! News

20+ comments.

mlurp · #**674** (**permalink**) 08-13-2012, 05:26 PM

There is more on Afghan at the Asia site. This is getting old fast. Where is this Nation on this war?
Cry out for our troops return, call or write your reps. As this has to end now not 2 years from now!

Quote:

.New Afghan police attack on NATO forces; no deaths

By HEIDI VOGT and KAY JOHNSON | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago. 13 Aug. 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan called a sudden rash of attacks on international forces by their Afghan partners "troubling" Monday, after an Afghan policeman opened fire on NATO forces in the fifth such assault in a week.

No international service members were killed in the latest attack. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the shooting in the eastern province of Nangarhar, claiming the attacker was a police officer who had been in contact with insurgents before the assault.

A spike in so-called "green-on-blue" attacks, in which Afghan security forces or attackers wearing their uniforms turn their guns on coalition troops, has raised concerns as NATO aims to turn over control for security to Afghan forces in a little more than two years.

"It's obviously very troubling, not just to us, but it's also very troubling to our Afghan partners," U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham told reporters in the capital in his first public comments after taking over the post earlier in the day.

"There's a lot of work being done to understand why this is happening," Cunningham said. He said it was not clear if all of the attackers were Taliban infiltrators, but noted that the strikes still threaten the "confidence and trust" needed for the two military forces to work together.

"Obviously this undermines or attacks that confidence and trust," Cunningham said.

Taliban insurgents are eager to exploit any such rift.

The trend also raises renewed concern that insurgents may be infiltrating the Afghan army and police, despite intensified screening.

At least seven American service members have been killed in the past week by either their Afghan counterparts or attackers wearing their uniforms.

NATO spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said an initial investigation indicated that Monday's attacker was an Afghan police officer, though the man was wearing civilian clothes.

He said there were no NATO deaths but would not say if any international service members were wounded in the attack, citing coalition policy.

............................................... CONTINUED ..............................................

New Afghan police attack on NATO forces; no deaths - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/asia/

30+ comments.

mlurp · #**675** (**permalink**) 08-14-2012, 01:58 PM

I will post the entire news release, as at the Asia site there are several more news storys on Afghan plus other countries that have effects on America.

Plus knowing what is going on around the world (reason why there is more than this one site listed) so one is informed and can create a bigger picture of the world.
So used each link every now and again if you want info, which is knowledge.

Quote:

.Bombs kill at least 46 in deadly Afghanistan day

By By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press – 1 hr 38 mins ago. 14 August 2012 ....

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide attacks involving as many as 14 bombers struck an Afghan city Tuesday, and a motorcycle bomb exploded in a busy market in blasts that killed at least 46 people altogether— the year's deadliest day for civilians in Afghanistan.

Most of those who died were out shopping for food to break the daily fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The attacks in Nimroz province in the southwest and Kunduz in the north came during a campaign by Taliban insurgents and their allies to step up attacks as international troops hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces. NATO plans to withdraw most of its troops by the end of 2014.

There were no claims of responsibility for any of the blasts.

At least 25 civilians and 11 police were killed in Nimroz when several men wearing suicide bomb vests detonated their explosives in different areas of the provincial capital of Zaranj, provincial police chief Musa Rasouli said.

Not all of the attackers were able to set off their bombs. Police killed or captured several of them, officials said.

One explosion mid-afternoon Tuesday went off outside a hospital near a busy market packed with people shopping for the feast at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, officials said.

Nimroz Gov. Abdul Karim Barawi said there were three blasts in the city, but accounts by officials differed amid the chaos in the remote area that has had relatively few insurgent attacks in the past year.

At least two attackers wearing suicide bomb vests and carrying weapons also attacked the governor's compound but were killed by security forces before they could set off their explosives, Rasouli said.

Nimroz deputy police chief Abdul Majid Latifa said 14 bombers in all were involved in the plot, while Rasouli put the number at 11. Both said that two of the plotters were killed by police on Monday night and three more were either killed or arrested Tuesday morning, but their initial accounts of what happened on Tuesday afternoon differed.

Nimroz, in the southwestern corner of Afghanistan, is not as regularly beset by insurgent attacks as are Helmand and Kandahar to the east. The sparsely populated province is partly desert, and its government representatives have repeatedly complained that it is neglected by officials who are focused on its more volatile neighbors.

Recently, however, Nimroz has seen an increase in violence. On Saturday, an Afghan police officer killed 11 of his fellow officers in the remote Dilaram district of the province.

In Kunduz province in the north, police said a motorcycle bomb outside a crowded bazaar killed at least 10 people, including several children.

District police chief Hamid Agha said the bomb exploded in the early evening as shoppers were rushing home for the meal ending their Ramadan fast. He said five children were among the dead, and at least 25 people were wounded.

The combined death toll marks the deadliest day for Afghan civilians this year.

On June 6, a car bomb and a motorcycle bomb killed 22 people near Kandahar airport in the volatile south.

Another suicide attack July 14 on a wedding killed 23 people, including the provincial intelligence chief and two army generals.

Bombs kill at least 46 in deadly Afghanistan day - Yahoo! News

3 to the point comments at this site.

mlurp · #**676** (**permalink**) 08-16-2012, 06:08 PM

At the site there are plent of links within this news release.

Quote:

.11 killed as Black Hawk downed in Afghanistan: NATO

By Mamoon Durrani | AFP – 6 hrs ago.

A NATO Black Hawk helicopter came down in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing seven American soldiers and four Afghans, the military said, as Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility.

The four Afghans included three members of the security forces and a civilian interpreter, NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

"The cause of the crash is under investigation," it said, adding that the helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk. The statement gave no further details.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told AFP: "Our mujahideen (holy warriors) shot down an ISAF helicopter in Chenarto area of Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT)."

He said a rocket-propelled grenade had been used against the helicopter.

"The helicopter was destroyed and all the crew and soldiers inside were killed," Ahmadi said.

"The NATO helicopter was hit by a Taliban rocket in Khashir area of Chenarto village in Shah Wali Kot district this morning," a local official who requested anonymity told AFP.

The area had been cleared of Taliban in a push by NATO and Afghan forces in 2010, but the insurgents had become active in the district again, district governor Obaidullah said.

"Taliban have been active in Chenarto village since the beginning of this year. Afghan and foreign forces have had frequent clashes with the Taliban in this district since the beginning of this year," said Obaidullah, who uses just one name.

The ISAF statement did not use its normal phrasing for a simple helicopter crash, which includes the line that no enemy activity was reported in the area.

Helicopter crashes are fairly frequent in Afghanistan, where the 130,000-strong NATO mission relies heavily on air transport.

Last August, an American Chinook was shot down by the Taliban near Kabul, killing eight Afghans and 30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALs from the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan earlier that year.

It was the deadliest single incident for American troops in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

On March 16, a Turkish helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of Kabul, killing 12 Turkish soldiers and two Afghan civilians.

The deaths of the seven Americans come just a week after six others were killed by their local Afghan colleagues in so-called green-on-blue attacks, eroding trust between foreign troops and the Afghans they work with.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said last month that attacks in the second quarter of this year were 11 percent higher than in the same period last year.

The month of June alone saw the highest number of attacks in nearly two years, with more than 100 assaults a day across the country, including firefights and roadside bombings, the US-led coalition said.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war, with more than 40 killed on Tuesday in a series of suicide attacks and homemade bomb blasts across the country in the bloodiest day for ordinary Afghans this year.

NATO troops fighting the insurgency by Taliban Islamists are scheduled to leave Afghanistan gradually and hand over responsibility for national security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

11 killed as Black Hawk downed in Afghanistan: NATO - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**677** (**permalink**) 08-18-2012, 02:52 PM

This and other news like it are at the Asia site. And there is plenty of news at each of the links provided.

Now if this was all that War would be np blood would be shed.

Quote:

.NATO, Taliban in war of words over Afghan deaths

By DEB RIECHMANN | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago. 18 August 2012 ........

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bombing at a wedding, a deadly airstrike on a village, grenades in a mosque — hundreds of Afghan civilians are dying violently this summer, while the Taliban and the NATO coalition wage verbal warfare.

A U.N. report says 1,145 civilians were killed and 1,954 others injured during the first half of the year, 80 percent of them by militants.

But like other aspects of this decade-long war, facts are often obscured by perception and propaganda.

That has left both sides locked in a battle of words, crafted to win the Afghan public's support.

The foreign forces and Taliban fighters have been issuing dueling statements ever since the conflict began more than a decade ago. Civilian casualties are the latest focus of the information war.

In a message ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of Ramadan this weekend, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar instructed his fighters once again to avoid killing or wounding Afghan civilians.

"Employ tactics that do not cause harm to the life and property of the common countrymen," the one-eyed chieftain of the insurgency said in an eight-page message released to news organizations.

It came days after at least 50 people were killed in bombings and gun battles that erupted on either end of the country in the deadliest day of violence for civilians this year. The Taliban has not yet claimed responsibility for carrying out the attacks Tuesday in Kunduz and Nimroz provinces, but the coalition wasted no time in hanging the blame on Omar's shoulders.

"Omar once again writes that his thugs should 'pay close attention to the protection of life, property and honor ... employ tactics that do not cause harm to life and property of the common countrymen,'" U.S. Gen. John Allen, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said Friday in his written response to Omar's message.

"Yet, as we saw in Nimroz and Kunduz provinces just days ago, Omar sent his assassins to slaughter dozens of innocent Afghan men, women and children."

"Either Omar is lying, or his henchmen are not listening to him."

The U.N. figures represented a 15 percent decrease in overall deaths and injuries from the previous year, but U.N. officials cautioned that civilian casualties were spiking as summer fighting continues.

.............................................. CONTINUED ...............................................

NATO, Taliban in war of words over Afghan deaths - Yahoo! News

ASIA NEWS HEADLINES: Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**678** (**permalink**) 08-19-2012, 01:55 PM

Well another Afghan uniformed police officer strikes. I ask each who does pray to do so for this troopers family & close friends. The others for a monent of thought.

Quote:

.Afghan in uniform kills NATO soldier: ISAF

AFP – 32 mins ago. 19 August 2012 ...............................................

An Afghan in police uniform shot and killed a NATO soldier in southern Afghanistan Sunday, the military said -- taking the death toll from insider attacks this year to 40.

"An International Security Assistance Force service member died when an individual wearing an Afghan Uniformed Police uniform turned his weapon against ISAF service members in southern Afghanistan today," ISAF said.

Afghan and ISAF officials were investigating the incident, a statement said without giving further details or specifying the soldier's nationality.

A spike in so-called green-on-blue attacks is causing growing concern in the United States and among its NATO allies fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

The latest death takes the toll among international coalition soldiers from such incidents to 10 in less than two weeks, sharply eroding trust between foreign troops and the Afghans they work with.

Two American soldiers were killed last Friday, a week after six were killed in a single day on August 10. Another NATO soldier was killed three days earlier.

Some of the attacks are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between local and US-led allied forces.

In a sign of US concern, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, urging him to crack down on the attacks.

The pair "agreed that American and Afghan officials should work even more closely together to minimise the potential for insider attacks in the future", the Pentagon said.

Measures should include improved intelligence and more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits, a statement said.

The growing number of attacks will likely add to pressure in NATO nations for an exit as soon as possible from the increasingly unpopular war, now nearly 11 years old.

Afghan in uniform kills NATO soldier: ISAF - Yahoo! News

And there are others news at all of the site posted above.

foxylady · #**679** (**permalink**) 08-19-2012, 02:30 PM

People in their uniform killing our troops is unacceptable.

mlurp · #**680** (**permalink**) 08-20-2012, 05:13 PM

I'll believe it once we pull out of this S___ Hole of a place. As don't except to much of the truth on this coming out. Unless it is leaked.

Quote:

.Afghans ready to counter insider threat: top US general

By Dan De Luce | AFP – 2 hrs 36 mins ago. 20 August 2012 ............

Afghan leaders appear ready to take decisive action to curb unprecedented "insider attacks" by Afghan recruits that have killed 40 Western troops this year, the top US military officer said Monday.

"For the first time, I found that my Afghan counterparts are as concerned about the insider attacks as we are," General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after talks in Kabul.

"In the past, it's been us pushing on them to make sure that they do more," he told AFP and Fox News.

The four-star general met commanders of the NATO-led force and Afghan top brass amid a surge in assaults by Afghan security personnel on their international colleagues.

A total of 10 soldiers, mostly Americans, have lost their lives at the hands of their Afghan allies in the past two weeks, and the attacks have caused almost one in every four coalition deaths in the war so far this month.

The 40 deaths so far this year amount to 13 percent of all international coalition fatalities in 2012.

The assaults have confounded the international force, which has touted its partnership with Afghan troops as the key to withdrawing combat troops over the next two years.

President Barack Obama, who spoke to Dempsey by phone, said Monday the United States was watching the rise in insider attacks with "deep concern", telling a White House news conference: "Obviously, we have to do more."

NATO and American officers have suggested the Afghan government has failed to come to grips with the problem but Dempsey said he came away "reassured" after discussions with his Afghan counterpart, General Shir Mohammad Karimi.

"I am reassured that the Afghan leaders, military and civilian, understand how important this moment is," Dempsey said.

Taliban insurgents have taken credit for the so-called green-on-blue assaults while NATO officers say an internal review showed only about 10 percent of them were the result of infiltration.

.................................................. . CONTINUED ..........................................

Afghans ready to counter insider threat: top US general - Yahoo! News

And 34 comments. Also at the link below is others news on this topic and others.

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

LinkBacks (?) LinkBack to this Thread: http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/history-geography-military/10837-news-afghanistan.html
Posted By	For	Type	Date
News on Afghanistan - Page 62 - Political Wrinkles	This thread	Refback	08-23-2012 08:10 PM