Insider attack leaves 4 Afghan police dead in Kandahar

According to local authorities in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan  at least 4 Afghan police officers were shot dead by their comrade in the latest wave of insider attacks in this province.
The officials further added at least 3 more officers were wounded following the attack which took place after they were poisoned in their security check post in Spin Boldak district.

Provincial governor spokesman Javid Faisal said the incident took place after one of the Afgan border police officer poisoned his comrades food and opened fire on them.

Mr. Faisal further added the attacker managed to flee the area after the assault while the three injured officers were taken to hospital for treatment purposes.

A spokesman for the Afghan border protection police forces in southern Afghanistan Ghorzan Afridi said security forces have launched an investigation to find out further details behind the incident.

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

from KHAAMA
By Sajad - December 19 2012, 3:39 pm

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from XINHUA:
2012-12-19 19:09:36
Police kills 4 colleagues, wounds 3 in southern Afghan town

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A police constable of Border Police Force in the southern Kandahar province 450 km south of Kabul killed four colleagues and wounded three others in a checkpoint Tuesday night and fled away, Jawed Faisal the spokesman for Kandahar Governor said Wednesday. "The tragic incident took place late last night in a checkpoint in Spinboldak district," Faisal told Xinhua.

Without giving more details, he added that investigation is underway.

Meantime, an official on the condition of anonymity said that the culprit after poisoning the food and killing eight colleagues made his good escape.

Meantime, a Taliban purported spokesman in talks with media via telephone from unknown location described it a new tactic, insisting nine police were killed and few others sustained injuries in the incident.

Taliban penetrated elements, in the past had also targetted NATO-led troops and Afghan security personnel.

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Dec. 19., 2012. - RC-East operational update

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Afghan and coalition forces cleared three improvised explosive devices during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours, Dec. 18.


Ghazni province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Andar district.

Logar province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared two IEDs in Muhammad Aghah district.

Operations in RC-East are ongoing.

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Hundreds of Chinese landmines seized in Kandahar

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Hundreds of landmines, made in China, have been seized by border police in the southern province of Kandahar, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Wednesday.

A man was arrested in connection with the landmines that were seized from a tractor in the border town of Spin Boldak late on Tuesday, a statement from MoI said. The detainee has confessed to his plan for delivering the bombs to the militants.

Border police official Mohammad Nasir confirmed to Pajhwok Afghan News the mines were recovered in Yaghi Talab area near the border with Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

The tractor had crossed into the district from Pakistan’s soil, the official claimed, saying the 555 anti-personal mines had been handed over to the National Directorate of Security -- Afghanistan’s spy service.

Javed Faisal, the Kandahar governor’s spokesman, also verified the seizure. The detainee was under investigation, he said, refusing to provide further details.

from Pajhwok
By Bashir Ahmad Naadem Dec 19, 2012 - 14:24   

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6 IED planters killed by their own bomb in S.Afghanistan

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Six Taliban militants were killed as their explosive device went off accidentally in Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial administration Ahmad Zirak said.

"A group of Taliban rebels were busy planting mine on a road in Gereshk district Wednesday morning but the device exploded accidentally, killing six insurgents including a group commander Mullah Mohammad Shah on the spot," Zirat told Xinhua.

Taliban militants fighting the government and largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings are yet to comment.

from XINHUA
2012-12-19 18:31:21

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Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan

An injured polio health worker receives medical treatment at a hospital in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar, Dec. 19, 2012. At least one health worker was injured on Wednesday in firing on polio-eradication team in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, bringing the number of injured to two and death toll to six in four separate attacks over the last two days, local police and health officials said. (Xinhua/Ahmad Sidique)

Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
(Reuters) - Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in a string of attacks that has partially halted the U.N.-backed global health campaign to stamp out the crippling disease.

Following the violence, the United Nations in Pakistan has pulled all staff involved in the immunization campaign off the streets, spokesman Michael Coleman said.

Wednesday saw at least three separate attacks. In the north-western district of Charsadda, men on motorbikes shot dead a woman and her driver, police and health officials said.

Hours earlier, a male health worker was shot and badly wounded in the nearby provincial capital of Peshawar. He remains in a critical condition, said a doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital where he is being treated.

Four other women health workers were shot at but not hit in nearby Nowshera, said Jan Baz Afridi, deputy head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

It is not clear exactly who is behind the violence but some Islamists, including Taliban militants, have long opposed the campaign, with some saying it is aimed at sterilizing Muslims.

The Taliban have repeatedly issued threats against the polio eradication campaign and health workers said they received calls telling them to stop working with the "infidels".

But a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, told Reuters his group was not involved in the violence.

On Monday and Tuesday, six female health workers were killed in attacks in the southern port city of Karachi and in Peshawar. The youngest was 17.

The shootings, five of which happened in Karachi, home to 18 million people, led provincial health authorities to suspend the polio eradication campaign in the province of Sindh.

But authorities in Khyber Paktunkhwa province, where the capital is Peshawar, said they would not accept a recommendation to suspend the campaign even as the United Nations ordered their staff to suspend work.

"You know halting the campaign at this stage would create more problems as it's not a one-day phenomenon. If we stopped the campaign it would encourage the forces opposing the polio vaccination," said an official in the province, Javed Marwat.

Despite this, many health workers told Reuters they would not be going to work until the security situation improved.

The Taliban have repeatedly said the campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize or spy on Muslims or said the vaccinations could only continue if attacks by U.S. drone aircraft stopped.

Their suspicions increased after it emerged that the CIA had used a fake vaccination campaign to try to gather information about Osama bin Laden, before he was found and killed in a northern Pakistani town last year.

On Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the campaign needed to go on.

"We cannot and would not allow polio to wreak havoc on the lives of our children," he said in a statement.

Pakistan had 20,000 polio cases in 1994 but vigorous vaccination efforts had brought the number down to 56 in 2012, the statement said.

A global vaccination campaign has eradicated the disease from everywhere except Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Polio can paralyse or kill within hours of infection. It is transmitted person-to-person, meaning that as long as one child is infected, the disease can be passed to others.

from REUTERS
By Jibran Ahmad
PESHAWAR, Pakistan | Wed Dec 19, 2012 8:19am GMT
(Reporting By Katharine Houreld; Editing by Michael Perry and Robert Birsel)

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Rebel leader killed, 3 injured in Herat

HERAT CITY (PAN): A local rebel leader was killed and three others were injured during a joint operation in the Shindand district of western Herat province, officials said on Tuesday.

The operation was conducted by Afghan security forces with cooperation from international troops, police spokesman, Col. Noor Khan Nekzad, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He identified the slain commander as Mullah Lawang, who was the most wanted individual by foreign soldiers. A car and a motorbike were torched by the joint force, Nekzad said.

Shindand police chief, Col. Ghulam Sakhi, said Lawang was involved in harassing people and forcibly taking Usher from them.

from Pajhwok
By Stanikzai Dec 18, 2012 - 14:32

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Nowshera: 11 including security personnel injure in grenade attack

At least 11 people including four security personnel were injured when unknown motorbike riders hurled hand grenades near a military academy run by Pakistan Air Force in Risalpur.

According to the media reports, the terrorists tried to enter the cantonment area but they could not succeed in their attempt owing to heavy armed guard presence at the gate. Terrorists, who came on motorbikes, managed to escape the scene soon afterwards.

According to sources, some militants hurled hand grenades at a security camp located in the city, injuring 11 people including four security personnel.

The injured were shifted to Nowshera Headquarters Hospital while emergency was imposed in nearby hospitals. Law-enforcers arrived on the site and cordoned off the area.

In August last year at least 16 people, including some army and air force personnel, were killed and 17 injured when a powerful explosion hit a hotel in Risalpur.

from nation.com.pk

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from GEO.TV:
December 18, 2012 - Updated 1122 PKT
NOWSHERA: At least fifteen persons including five security personnel were injured in a grenade attack that occurred on GT Road near PAF Engineering Centre Tuesday morning, security sources told.

According to security forces, unknown attackers riding on two motorbikes hurled two hand grenades at main GT Road near PAF Engineering Centre gate no.3 that hurt ten persons, including five security men and five civilians.

Sources told that many young men were present at the site as recruitment for PAF engineering wing was underway.

Security forces cordoned off the area while the injured people were shifted to DHQ hospital and Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

The security sources said that the attackers failed to enter the cantonment area where a large number of young men were present for recruitment purpose.

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AQIM's senior leader arrested in Algeria

ALGIERS, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Algeria's counterterrorism forces on Monday arrested the Number Two leader of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Salah Gasmi, alias Mohamed Abu Salah, local media reported.
After being informed of the AQIM senior official's whereabouts in Cheurfa in Bouira province, 130 km southeast of the capital Algiers, security forces arrested him near a restaurant at around 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) Monday, TSA news website reported citing security sources.

Abu Salah is being interrogated by security services, the sources said.

Hailing from Biskra province, 420 km southeast of Algiers, Abu Salah is in charge of internal communication and coordination in the Kabylie region for AQIM, and is recognized as the Number Two leader in this al-Qaida linked organization.

Algerian counterterrorism forces have dealt heavy blows to AQIM recently. In mid-November, three AQIM militants were killed, including Makhfi Rabah, senior official in charge of military and close to AQIM's chief Abdelmalek Droukdel. In October, army forces killed Bekai Boualem, alias Khaled El Mig, who was in charge of coordination between AQIM and al-Qaida.

AQIM emerged in early 2007 from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian armed Islamist movement. It currently operates in northwest Africa, including Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. A number of attacks were attributed to the group, including the triple suicide bomb attacks on April 11, 2007, in Algiers, which claimed the lives of 20 people and injured 222 others, according to official figures.

from XINHUA
2012-12-18 05:43:58

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In Several Joint Clearance Operations, Seven Armed Taliban Killed (18.Dec.2012.)

Publish Date: Dec 18, 2012

In Several Joint Clearance Operations, Seven Armed Taliban Killed

Counterterrorism:

During the past 24 hours, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army, NDS and Coalition Forces launched nine joint clearance operations in Kabul, Kunduz, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Khost and Helmand provinces.

As a result of these operations, seven armed Taliban were killed, seven wounded and four others were arrested by Afghan National Security Forces.

Also, during these operations, Afghan National Police discovered and confiscated 304 heavy rounds, 11 different types of mines, 633 kilos of explosives, one motorcycle and one vehicle.

Additionally, Afghan National Police during security patrols discovered and defused five anti-vehicle mines and 11 missile and mortar rounds which were placed by the enemies of peace and stability in Nangarhar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Paktika, Paktiya and Herat provinces yesterday.

 

Counter Narcotics:
The 101 Kabul Zone National Police detained a smuggler with 7kg of opium in the 8th District of Kabul-City.

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Dec. 18., 2012. - RC-East operational update

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Afghan and coalition forces detained two insurgents and cleared one improvised explosive device during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours, Dec. 17.

Khowst province
Afghan Border Police and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Terezayi district.

Kunar province
Afghan Local detained two insurgents during an engagement in Tsowkey district. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.

Operations in RC-East are ongoing.

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