Thursday, September 13, 2012

Weapons surrendered to DIAG

KHOST CITY (PAN): Nearly 115 light and heavy weapons were delivered to the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme in southern Khost province on Thursday, officials said.

The weapons, including artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikovs, pistols and guns, were seized during separate operations by Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and police.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Nasir Hidayat, a commander of the 203rd Thunder Military Corps first brigade, told Pajhwok Afghan News the arms were seized from rebels and civilians.

Governor Abdul Jabbar Naeemi hoped the surrender of weapons to DIAG would boost the peace process, saying that security in the province had improved after the launch of the process.

from Pajhwok
by Hidayatullah Khosti on Sep 13, 2012 - 17:14

Enhanced by Zemanta

Four anti-Taliban militia members killed in Pakistan blast


ISLAMABAD: Four members of an anti-Taliban militia were killed when their vehicle was targeted by a roadside bomb in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Thursday.

An improvised explosive device planted by the road was detonated by remote control when the militia's vehicle was passing by in Tirah Valley near Landi Kotal town early this morning, officials said.

One man was killed instantly while three more died while being taken to hospital, the officials said.

The vehicle was destroyed in the blast. Security was beefed up in the area after the attack, for which no group claimed responsibility.

Several militant groups, including the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam, are active in the Khyber tribal agency.

from Times of India
Sep 13, 2012, 01.44PM IST

Enhanced by Zemanta

Al-Qaeda releases Warren Weinstein hostage video

Al-Qaeda releases a hostage video of Warren Weinstein which shows him appealing to U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help negotiate his freedom. (Reuters)
Al-Qaeda releases a hostage video of Warren Weinstein which shows him appealing to U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help negotiate his freedom. (Reuters)

An American aid worker abducted by al-Qaeda in Pakistan last year has pleaded with President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet his captors’ demands for the release of prisoners in order to save his life, in a video released on (September 12) by the militant group’s media arm.

In the video, Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped in the central Pakistani city of Lahore last August, says the Obama administration has shown little interest in his case and then appeals to Netanyahu, “one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf.”

“Therefore, as a Jew, I'm appealing to you Prime Minister Netanyahu, the head of the Jewish state of Israel, one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf. To work with the Mujahideen and to accept their demands so that I can be released and returned to my family. See my wife, my children and my grandchildren again. So as one Jew to another I beg you to please accept the demands of the Mujahideen and to obtain my freedom,” Weinstein said.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio recording in December that the group was responsible for Weinstein's abduction and demanded the release of all those in U.S. detention for ties his Islamist militant group or the Taliban.

He also demanded an end to air strikes by the United States and its allies against militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia and Gaza.

from AL ARABIYA
Last Updated: Thu Sep 13, 2012 12:52 pm (KSA) 09:52 am (GMT)
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sep. 13., 2012. - ISAF Joint Command Morning Operational Update

KABUL, Afghanistan (Sept. 13, 2012) — Afghan and coalition forces conducted a security operation resulting in the death of an armed insurgent in Mota Khan district, Paktika province, Wednesday.

During the operation the security force positively identified an armed insurgent transporting weapons, including a heavy machine gun, toward a populated area. After ensuring no civilians were in the vicinity, the security force engaged the armed insurgent with a precision airstrike, killing the insurgent.

A post-strike assessment determined no civilian property was damaged and no civilians were harmed.

In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:

South

Coalition forces confirmed they removed insurgent leader Maulawi Matin from the battle space in Marjeh district, Helmand province Tuesday during an airstrike. The Taliban insurgent is believed to have led a large cell of fighters and was involved in the facilitation of weapons, ammunition and parts for improvised explosive devices throughout Helmand province. He also had links to other key insurgent leaders in the region, operating as a liaison between local insurgents and higher level Taliban leadership based in Pakistan. Maulawi Matin is suspected of actively planning attacks against Afghan National Security Forces patrols and check points in central Helmand.

Members of the Afghan Special Police from Provincial Response Company Wardak recovered more than 140 munitions and materials for improvised explosive devices during a coalition advised search operation in Shahr district, Wardak province yesterday.  Artillery rounds, rocket propelled grenades, rockets, mortar rounds, fragmentation grenades, several improvised explosive devices and a large amount of shrapnel such as nuts and bolts for IEDs were seized. Multiple Afghan National Security Forces uniforms and cell phones were also recovered. The materials were destroyed on site.

East

Afghan and coalition security forces confirmed today the arrest of a Taliban facilitator during an operation in Pul-e ‘Alam district, Logar province, Tuesday. The arrested facilitator is suspected to have directed several insurgent cells in the region, providing weapons and instruction for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He is also believed to have enforced Taliban law and overseen the execution of several Afghan civilians. The security force also detained many suspected insurgents and seized and destroyed several weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and more than a dozen kilograms of explosives as a result of this operation.

An Afghan and coalition security force detained several suspected insurgents during an operation to arrest a Taliban leader in Baraki Barak district, Logar province, today. The Taliban leader is suspected of commanding dozens of insurgents and directing them in attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces in the region. The security force also seized and destroyed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, multiple RPGs and ammunition for assault rifles and heavy machine guns.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Yemeni protesters storm U.S. embassy in Sanaa

Protesters climb a fence surrounding the U.S. embassy in Sanaa September 13, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi
(Reuters) - Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam, and security guards tried to hold them off by firing into the air.

The attack followed Tuesday night's storming of the United States Consulate in Benghazi, where the ambassador and three other staff were killed. President Barack Obama said the perpetrators would be tracked down and ordered two destroyers to the Libyan coast, but there were fears protests would spread to other countries in the Muslim world.

Young demonstrators shouting "we redeem, Messenger of God" smashed windows of the security offices outside the embassy with stones and burned cars before breaking through the main gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa. Others held aloft banners declaring 'Allah is Greatest'.

Tyres blazed outside the compound and protesters scaled the walls.

"We can see a fire inside the compound and security forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then charging back," one witness told Reuters.

Witnesses said there were some injuries on both sides but gave no exact figures.

Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden.

Yemen is fighting an al Qaeda-backed insurrection largely in the south of the country.

from REUTERS
Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:50am EDT
(Reporting by Sami Aboudi, editing by Diana Abdallah/Janet McBride)

---
a video from CNN:
 
Enhanced by Zemanta

15 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan within 24 hours: gov't

KABUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Military operations carried out by the Afghan police, army and the NATO-led coalition forces have claimed the lives of 15 Taliban militants in different Afghan provinces within the past 24 hours, authorities said Thursday.

"Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan army and intelligence agency in collaboration with the coalition forces launched 13 joint cleanup operations in Kapisa, Baghlan, Jowzjan, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Wardak, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement issued here.

"As a result of these operations, 15 armed Taliban were killed, four wounded and 10 others were arrested by the ANP," the statement said, adding that the joint forces also found and seized weapons and explosive during the above raids.

The statement did not say whether there were any casualties on the side of security forces.

However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not made comments yet.

Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have recently intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country.

As the militants are facing the ever-mounting pressure from the strikes launched by security forces, they have changed their tactics by avoiding direct conflicts with troops and shifting to attack on the so-called "soft targets" such as civilian, government agency buildings and infrastructure in a bid to force the government to stop the strikes against them.

Up to 30 people including eight policemen were killed and more than 30 others injured in two suicide bombings in northern Kunduz and western Herat province on Monday and Tuesday.

from XINHUA
2012-09-13 13:23:01

Enhanced by Zemanta

Sep. 13., 2012. - RC-East operational update

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Afghan and coalition forces killed an insurgent, detained three and cleared 11 improvised explosive devices during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours, Sept. 12.

Ghazni province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared five IEDs, one in Dehyak district, one in Andar district and three in Ghazni district.

Logar province
Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition forces found and safely cleared an IED in Muhammad Aghah district.

Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces detained three insurgents during an engagement in Pul-E Alam district. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.

Nangarhar province
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces found and safely cleared an IED in Jalalabad district.

Paktika province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared two IEDs, one in Terwo district and one in Sarobi district.

Wardak province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared two IEDs in Sayyidabad district.

Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition forces killed an insurgent during an engagement in Sayyidabad district.

Operations in RC-East are still ongoing.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Search this blog