( Mohammed Zaatari / Associated Press ) - United Nations and emergency personnel gather
at the site of a roadside bomb attack on a U.N. peacekeepers’ vehicle in Bourj al-Shamali,
near the port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 9, 2011.
(Reuters) - A roadside bomb wounded five French peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, in the third attack this year on United Nations forces deployed near the frontier with Israel.
The blast hit a jeep carrying French UNIFIL troops on the outskirts of the Mediterranean port city of Tyre.
"I can confirm that a UNIFIL vehicle was hit by an explosion in Tyre," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. "Five peacekeepers were injured."
The attack follows bombings in May and July against French and Italian peacekeepers and comes as the United Nations prepares a review of its 12,000-strong operation, which was beefed up after Israel's 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006.
A Reuters reporter saw a jeep with its windows blown out and several wounded peacekeepers at the scene minutes after the explosion in the Burj al-Shamali district on the eastern edge of Tyre.
Most of the injuries were light but medical sources said one of the UNIFIL soldiers was badly wounded.
Security sources said two passersby were also hurt.
ASADABAD: A suicide bomber on Friday attacked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least six people including a district police chief, a government official said.
The attack happened as worshippers were leaving the mosque after the main Friday prayers in the Qazi Abad area of the eastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan, said provincial governor Fazullulah Wahidi.
“The attacker detonated his explosives in the mosque, killing the district police chief, an intelligence officer, two police and two civilians,” the governor told AFP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kunar has been a flashpoint in the Taliban’s 10-year insurgency against the Western-backed government and 140,000 US-led foreign troops.
The attack came three days after coordinated attacks on Shia Muslims in the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least 59 people in an unprecedented assault on the holy day of Ashura.
by Amir Shah | AP: KABUL, Afghanistan —
A suicide bomber blew himself up Friday at a mosque in northeast Afghanistan, killing four people, including a local police chief, authorities said.
The bombing occurred about 2 p.m. in the yard of a mosque in Ghazi Abad district of Kunar province after Friday prayers, said Gen. Ewaz Mohammad Naziri, the provincial police chief.
Naziri said the district police chief, his body guard, a civilian and an employee of the Afghan intelligence service died in the attack. Five others were wounded in the blast, he said.
"It was a brutal act against Afghan Muslims inside a mosque," he said. "They had gathered for prayers and he entered and blew himself up."
The Ministry of Interior condemned the bombing.
Friday marked the last day of the Muslim holiday of Ashoura, but the bombing was not related to that event, which is observed mostly by Shiite Muslims. Most residents of Kunar province are Sunni Muslims.
In the Afghan capital, more than 2,000 Afghans gathered on the final day of Ashoura and denounced neighboring Pakistan for this week's bombing at a shrine in Kabul that has stirred anti-Pakistan sentiment in the nation. Ashoura commemorates the death in the seventh century of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
The wet opium and weapons discovered at an address in Gereshk, in the northern part of Nahr-e Saraj district in Helmand province
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]
Afghan police mentored by British troops have discovered an opium stash worth millions of pounds, along with insurgent weapons, during an arrest operation in Helmand province.
Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) swooped on the address of a man suspected of illegally selling government-owned land in the bustling town of Gereshk, in the northern part of Nahr-e Saraj district.
Inside, the police and their British partners from 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (1 PWRR) found several bags of wet opium.
The Afghan counter-narcotics team were called in, and on further investigation the police found a room hidden under a trapdoor - with dozens more bags of the drug hidden away underneath.
The total haul weighed in at more than 175kg of wet opium - the first stage of processing poppy to make heroin.
The team also found two machine guns, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and several AK-47 rifles, along with two pistols, possible components for improvised explosive devices, and imitation ANSF uniforms.
The suspect will now face prosecution under the Afghan justice system.
The British advisors on the operation were part of the Police Mentoring and Advisory Group (PMAG), which is led by 1 PWRR. A 15-man Police Advisory Team works at each Afghan police headquarters across Task Force Helmand to mentor the police.
Lieutenant Paul Charlesworth, 1 PWRR, commands the advisory team at Gereshk. He said:
"Once we got to the compound we quickly realised this was a really significant find. We started to see all the weapons coming out, all the ammunition, the ANSF uniforms, and then the opium, and called in the provincial-level counter-narcotics team.
"This is the largest drugs find that I've ever been involved in, and the biggest that ISAF forces have been involved in since we arrived in September."
Corporal Lucas Allan, of the Royal Military Police, was at the scene to help guide the Afghan police on gathering intelligence. He said:
"We encourage them to try to do the job themselves, but with guidance on the correct way of carrying it out. We're trying to emphasise the importance of evidence because that and witnesses are the two most vital parts to an investigation.
"In this case the job was to make sure it was correctly separated and accounted for, not just at the scene, but for onward movement to other locations and for handover to relevant authorities."
Captain Stuart Barker, 3rd Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, said:
"This is a victory for joined-up police work, because this single operation involved the PMAG, the specialist Police Advisory Team, the Afghan police, and the counter-narcotics police.
"It shows how working together can produce a really significant find which demonstrates the clear connection between the drugs trade and violence and insecurity."
Lieutenant Colonel James Coote is the Commanding Officer of 1 PWRR and the PMAG. He said:
"This was a significant operation, both in terms of the weapons captured and the drugs seized. It is important to note that this was an Afghan police operation from start to finish and it is further evidence of the police's ability to operate and enforce the Afghan law."
British troops and Afghan police have discovered one of the biggest drug hauls in Helmand - nearly a fifth of a tonne of raw opium with a street value of £17.5 million. The drugs were found in Gereshk when Afghan police, mentored by a team from the First Battalion, the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, raided the home of a local government official suspected of profiting from illegal land sales. Hidden beneath a trapdoor they found 175 kilos of opium along with a cache of weapons including machine guns, grenade launchers and bomb-making equipment. Lieutenant Paul Charlesworth, of 1 PWRR, who commands the police mentoring team at Gereshk described the operation. "Once we got to the compound we quickly realised this was a really significant find. We started to see all the weapons coming out, all the ammunition, the ANSF uniforms, and then the opium, and called in provincial-level counter-narcotics team. "This is the largest drugs find that I've ever been involved in, and the biggest that ISAF forces have been involved in since we arrived in September." One arrest was made and Task Force Helmand spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Mackenzie said seizing arms and drugs was just part of the success. "What's more important is that the guy involved is a bit of a local bigwig," he told BFBS Radio. "But still his status didn't stop the Afghan police from nabbing him. And that's another sign that the tide is turning not just against the insurgency, but against corrupt officials." British troops who are advising on local law enforcement described it as a victory for joined-up police work.
KABUL, Afghanistan (Dec. 9) — In Shah Joy district, Zabul province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a drug cache and a marijuana field during a patrol yesterday.
Officials were unable to determine the weight of the marijuana growing in the field; however, the estimate of the size of the field was about one half acre. The cache find yielded 440 pounds (200 kg) of marijuana.
All drugs were destroyed on location without incident.
In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:
South
In Shah Joy district, Zabul province, a coalition security force discovered a weapons cache during a patrol yesterday. The cache consisted of machine gun and small arms ammunition, three rocket-propelled grenades, one illumination round, 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of explosive material and various improvised explosive device components. All of the weapons were destroyed on site without incident.
A combined Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in Musa Qala district, Helmand province. The Taliban leader directs roadside bomb and ambush attacks against coalition forces in Northern Helmand. The security force detained multiple suspected insurgents during the operation.
At least two Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are dead in Gaza following a targeted, surgical air strike on a vehicle by fighter pilots of the Israeli Air Force.
One of the two dead was a senior operative who had coordinated numerous attacks against Israeli civilians.
Both were members of a terrorist cell belonging to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades organization, according to the IDF, who added the cell had been planning to infiltrate Israel's border to carry out another attack.
A Gaza Health Ministry official was quoted by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency as saying that five bystanders were also wounded in the blast, but the report has not been confirmed.
The IDF subsequently issued a statement saying that the operation had been a joint Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)-IDF operation conducted by IAF aircraft . The two terrorists, joined by a third operative from an allied terror group, had been targeted while they were in a vehicle at a public garden near Gaza City.
"The cell was planning western border attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces," explained the IDF spokesperson.
Atzam Tzubhi Ismail Batash, 43, was a senior operative and head of the "Army of the Faithful" unit of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades organization.
Batash, the specific target of the attack, was the mastermind of the planned attacks to be carried out across Israel's western border -- and he was the one who had coordinated terrorists and directing their activities in past attacks.
"An accurate strike was identified," the IDF spokesperson added, noting that a surgical strike had been carried out with little collateral damage.
Jund al Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, a Kazakh terror group based in eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas, confirmed that five of its fighters were killed during a clash with police in southern Kazakhstan on Dec. 3. From the statement released by the group, which has been translated by the SITE Intelligence Group:
On Saturday, the third of December ... the apostate forces of the Nazarbayev regime attacked a headquarters where five of the lions of the al Zahir Baibars Battalion were gathered from Jund al Khilafah, may Allah grant them glory, in the village of Boraldai. Then, the attacking forces surprised the lions of Islam, and the heroes stood to them while demonstrating patience, anticipating the divine reward, being certain of Allah's promise, and longing to meet Him. They sent two of them to their ominous fate and killed them... and as a result, the forces of treachery surrounded the location and bombed it for four hours with various shells, which led to the martyrdom of the five brothers ...
Jund al Khilafah also said it was "ready to be killed in the thousands in order to support this religion, and losing our lives in a cheap price that we offer for this cause," and threatened Russia for calling for "the repression of the Kazakh people."
Jund al Khilafah has claimed credit for two attacks in Kazakhstan this fall, and has also released two videos of attacks against ISAF forces in Khost province, Afghanistan. For more information on the Jund al Khilafah, see LWJ report, Kazakh jihadi leader seeks restoration of Islamic caliphate.
QUETTA: Up to 29 trucks were set ablaze after a rocket attack Thursday on a NATO trucking terminal in Quetta, officials said.
Pakistani police say as many as 20 trucks were ablaze after a rocket attack on a NATO trucking terminal in the southwestern city of Quetta in Baluchistan Province.
Senior police official Malik Arshad said unknown gunmen fired bullets and a rocket at the NATO oil tankers and the ensuing blaze engulfed 15 to 20 vehicles.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 U.S.-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are usually shipped through Pakistan, although U.S. troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.
China and Russia are apparently chomping at the bit to get a look at the American spy drone that went down over Iran. But if Iranian officials are to be believed, all they have to do is fire up YouTube to get a glimpse. On Thursday, an Iranian news site quoted military sources as saying that Russia and China have already asked Iran to view the remains of an American RQ-170 stealth spy drone that recently crashed in Iran.
China and Russia are apparently chomping at the bit to get a look at the American spy drone that went down over Iran. But if Iranian officials are to be believed, all they have to do is fire up YouTube to get a glimpse.
On Thursday, an Iranian news site quoted military sources as saying that Russia and China have already asked Iran to view the remains of an American RQ-170 stealth spy drone that recently crashed in Iran. The site — Nasimonline.ir, known to be close to Tehran’s conservative Islamic Coalition Party — is also broadcasting footage of Iranian military officials inspecting what authorities claim is an intact RQ-170.
The video shows the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh touring the aircraft, which is decked out in the anti-American costume de rigueur of a U.S. flag with skulls on it. Hajizadeh says that Iran was able to down the drone because “collected intelligence and precise electronic monitoring revealed that this aircraft intended to infiltrate our country’s airspace for spying missions.” Exactly how Iran went about downing the plane, he’s a little vague on, saying only that it “fell into the trap of our armed forces and was downed in Iran with minimum damage.”
Caveats apply. When it comes to news out of Iran — particularly relating to military feats — the history of official blarney and balderdash makes a healthy dose of skepticism a necessary ingredient.
The footage of the drone released Thursday by Iran seems to show an intact aircraft that seems to roughly conform to the RQ-170′s dimensions and appearance. But it’s a little fishy for an aircraft that would have fallen hundreds or thousands of feet to appear without so much as a scratch on it, as this one does.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the country showing off this footage is also the same one that once welded together oil drums in an attempt to convince the world it had gotten its hands on sophisticated Russian air-defense missiles. It could very well be that the drone on display is more of an Iranian propaganda diorama than the actual “Beast of Kandahar.”
However, Russia and China’s interest in inspecting shouldn’t be too surprising. Both countries lag behind the U.S. in stealth technology, recently debuting their own fifth-generation fighters, and are almost certainly happy to have a close-up look at how America sneaks its aircraft past radars. Moreover, China’s already fond of building knockoff versions of American drones, even without the benefit of wreckage sneak peeks.
Besides, history shows that, particularly when it comes to China and stealth aircraft, one man’s crash is another man’s treasure. This summer, Pakistan reportedly gave the Chinese a look at the remains of “Airwolf,” one of the stealth helicopters that crashed during the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s lair in Abbottabad. China’s new J-20 fighter may have benefited from the country’s ability to scoop up parts of the stealth F-117 that was shot down over Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. Of course, if the pictures coming out of China are to be believed, Beijing already has a stealth drone. The RQ-170 would only be so much icing on the cake. Update: In case you had any doubts about whether to be cautious about Iran’s military claims, the official Iranian mouthpiece Fars News just published an article that serves as an excellent reminder. According to Fars, the Iranian military doesn’t even want to reverse engineer America’s stealth drone anyway. Why? They claim Iran made its own, better stealth drone years ago.
“Iran does not need this information as it manufactured a radar evading spy drone with both surveillance and bombing capabilities almost two years ago,” Fars boasts.
The claim is an apparent reference to the “Pehpad,” an allegedly stealthy drone which Iran says is designed to patrol its borders. Iran does have its own drones, but the claim that it has managed to leap ahead of countries like China to build a working stealth UAV is, needless to say, highly dubious. Update, 2:44 pm: The New York Times is carrying translated snippets from the video of the alleged RQ-170. Iranian officials claim the drone has an 85 foot wingspan, is three feet thick and stretches 15 feet from nose to tail. The drone, according to the video, contains “electronic surveillance systems and various radars.” Update, 2:55 p.m.: Spencer here, reporting from the Pentagon. Defense Department spokesmen George Little and Capt. John Kirby say that there’s a military-CIA team reviewing the Iran video, but would not say whether they think the drone on display is the RQ-170 or not. (Or, for that matter, whether it’s any U.S. drone.) The CIA declined comment. Update, 3:40 pm: CNN tweets that a U.S. official told reporter Chris Lawrence that there’s “no reason to believe the drone in the Iranian video is fake.”
KABUL, Afghanistan — A combined Afghan and coalition security force called for a precision air strike, Dec. 7, in Pech District, Kunar province, killing Taliban leader Ahmed Shah.
Prior to his death, Ahmed Shah planned attacks against Afghan government officials and security forces. He recently constructed a plan to increase attacks in Pech district, and provided a safe haven for 40 insurgent fighters.
Ahmed Shah was well-known in the Pech district for planning suicide operations in the Manogai area of the district. He used car bombs and multiple suicide bombers to carry out attacks.
As a senior Taliban member in Kunar province, Ahmed Shah led a delegation comprised of multiple insurgent leaders. In this role, he was responsible for equipping and leading subordinate Taliban insurgents in the province.
After ensuring no civilians were in the area, the security force called for the air strike.
In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:
South
In Maiwand district, Kandahar province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a weapons cache during a patrol. The cache consisted of an undetermined quantity of explosives, 200 blasting caps, 50 rounds of machine gun ammunition and several battery packs. All items were destroyed and no civilians were harmed during the operation.
Also in Maiwand district, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a weapons and narcotics cache during a patrol today. The cache consisted of approximately 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of hashish, one improvised explosive device and five pressure plates. All items were destroyed at the scene and no civilians were harmed during the operation.
In Shah Joy district, Zabul province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a weapons cache during a patrol, today. The cache consisted of 10 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, two AK-47 rifles, approximately 27 pounds (12 kilograms) of explosive materials, one Afghan National Army uniform and various IED components. All items were destroyed at the scene and no civilians were harmed during the operation.
East
In Zurmat district, Paktiya province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a drug cache during a patrol, today. The cache consisted of a silo of hashish and crop of marijuana. The hash was in the cleaning process and once completed, it would yield nearly one ton of hashish. Both the crop and hashish were destroyed at the scene and no civilians were harmed during the operation.
In Uruzagan district, Tarin Kot province, a combined Afghan and coalition security force discovered a weapons cache during a patrol, today. The cache consisted of five RPG rounds, 13 82mm mortar rounds, 30 rounds of machine gun ammunition, one 105mm artillery round, five hand grenades, 440 rounds of small arms ammunition and various IED making components. All items were destroyed at the scene and no civilians were harmed during the operation.
Washington Time
Kabul Time
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