Helicopter crash kill 12 NATO soldiers in capital Kabul

A NATO-led International Security Assistance Force helicopter crashed into a house in capital Kabul on Friday.

According to security forces, at least 10 people on board and 2 peole on the ground were killed following the incident.

The helicopter crashed in Hussain Khel area at Bagrami district of capital Kabul around 10:00 am local time.

NATO-led International Security Assistance Force following a press release said, Twelve International Security Assistance Force service members died following a helicopter crash in Kabul province today.

ISAF confirmed the helicopter “went down” and said, Twelve International Security Assistance Force service members died following a helicopter crash in Kabul province today.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash, ISAF said.

Kabul police chief Gen. Ayoub Salangi confirming the incident said, Afghan police and fire crew reached to the scene of the incident.

Gen. salangi further added, at least 5 people who were killed during the incident were taken out from the wreckage.

He also added, the victims were recongized as Turkish citizens.

from KHAAMA
---
ISAF release:
2012-03-C-017
For Immediate Release

KABUL, Afghanistan (Mar. 16) — Twelve International Security Assistance Force service members died following a helicopter crash in Kabul province today.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash.

It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

---

An Afghan Army medic soldier carries a body from the scene where a Turkish helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 16, 2012. A Turkish military helicopter crashed into a house near the Afghan capital Friday, killing several Turkish soldiers on board and young girls on the ground, Turkish and Afghan officials said.

A part of a Turkish helicopter lies on the site of crash in Kabul March 16, 2012. The NATO helicopter crashed into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians on the ground, Turkey's general staff and a senior Afghan police official said.

coffins of Turkish victims of a crashed NATO helicopter, in Kabul March 17 yfrog.com/bakh4gj

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R.I.P. - Spc. Daquane D. Rivers

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

             The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
           
 Spc. Daquane D. Rivers, 21, of Marianna, Fla., died March 14, from injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident in Paktika province, Afghanistan.

             Rivers was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, Grafenwoehr, Germany.

              For more information related to this release, the media may contact U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs in Heidelberg, Germany at 011-49-6221-57-8628.

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Eritrea: Ethiopian Forces Raid Asmara's Bases

Cape Town — Ethiopian troops mounted a raid into neighbouring Eritrea on Thursday and claimed to have destroyed "three mercenary camps".

The Ethiopian Defense Force described the incursion as a "counter-attack" after the killing of foreign tourists in Ethiopia by "Eritrea's mercenaries," reports the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).

Eritrea's foreign ministry responded by saying the Ethiopians had attacked Eritrean army outposts near the border between the two countries in a "provocative attack" which "seems to have [been] chosen to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the arbitral ruling of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission."

The rulers of the two countries, once allies, have been in a tense stand-off for the last decade after falling out and fighting a border war between 1998 and 2000.

ENA quoted an Ethiopian army spokesman, Colonel Gebrekidan Gebremariam, as telling journalists that its forces had "successfully annihilated the destructive force of the Eritrean government" in the areas of Ramid, Gelahben and Gembe. He accused Eritrea of "activity bent on destabilizing the peace and security of Ethiopia."

Eritrea in turn accused Addis Ababa of "incessant acts of aggression...

for the last ten years" and of "illegal occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories..."

An Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman, Dina Mufti, told the London Financial Times that its attack on Thursday was "a proportionate act, we are responding to what the Eritreans have done," the Times reported.


from allAfrica

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US drone strike kills 4 AQAP fighters

By Bill Roggio - March 15, 2012 - LWJ

US drones struck yet again in the Yemeni province of Al Baydah, according to a report from the country. The strike is the fourth in Yemen in the past week.

Yemeni security officials have told the Yemen Post that an unmanned Predator or more heavily armed Reaper struck a vehicle as it traveled in Al Baydah province yesterday, killing four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters. The strike took place just two hours after an AQAP suicide bomber killed four soldiers from the Republican Guards in an attack in the city of Al Baydah.

No senior AQAP leaders or operatives were reported killed in the strike. US military and intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would neither confirm nor deny that yesterday's strike took place.

Yesterday's strike followed three other strikes in central and southern Yemen that have taken place since March 9.

The last strike occurred on March 11, when the unmanned warplanes killed three AQAP fighters in Jaar. The target of the strike was weapons seized by AQAP during last week's assault on a military base in Al Koud in neighboring Abyan province. In that assault, AQAP overran a Yemeni mechanized base in Al Koud, killing 185 troops, wounding over 150, and capturing at least 55 more.
On March 10, AQAP "hideouts" in Jaar were targeted; 10 AQAP fighters were reported to have been killed. And on March 9, the Predators and Reapers hit an AQAP hideout in a rural area near Al Baydah. Abdulwahhab al-Homaiqani, an AQAP commander in the city, and 16 of his fighters were reported to have been killed in the strike.

The CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command are known to have carried out at least 21 air and missile strikes inside Yemen since December 2009, including yesterday's strike in Al Baydah. Other recent airstrikes are believed to have been carried out by the US also, but little evidence has emerged to directly link the attacks to the US. [For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US air strikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2012.]
Since the beginning of May 2011, the US is known to have carried out 15 airstrikes in Yemen. Five of those strikes have taken place so far in 2012, with four of those occurring in the last week.

The pace of the US airstrikes has increased as AQAP and its political front, Ansar al Sharia, have taken control of vast areas of southern Yemen. In Abyan, the cities of Al Koud, Ja'ar, and Shaqra are currently run by AQAP. The terror group also controls Azzan in Shabwa province. AQAP seized control of Rada'a in Al Baydah in January but later withdrew after negotiating a peace agreement with the local government.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/03/us_drone_strike_kill_2.php#ixzz1pIEGhvpY

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6 Afghan civilians killed in Uruzgan province 6 Afghan civilians killed in Uruzgan province

According to local authorites in southern Uruzgan province, at least 6 Afghan civilians were killed following a deadly roadside
bomb explosion in this province.

The incident took place on Thursday morning around 11 am local time at Dehrawood district in Siajoi area.

Local officials further added, the incident took place after a civilian vehicle struck with a roadside bomb.

Provincial police chief spokesman Farid Ayel said, the victims are all members of a single family.

At least 2 others including the driver of the vehicle and another passenger were injured during the incident.

This comes as eight Afghan civilians were killed followign a roadside bomb explosion at Marjah district of southern Helmand
province.

No group including the Taliban militants have so far claimed responsibility behind the incident.

Local officials blame the Taliban group for such incidents as the Taliban fighters are frequently use improvised explosive device and roadside bombs as the weapon of their choice to target Afghan and coalition forces which normally leads to civilians casualties.

from KHAAMA

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