R.I.P. - Pfc. Markie T. Sims

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            Pfc. Markie T. Sims, 20, of Citra, Fla., died Dec. 29 in Panjwal, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 38th Engineer Company, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, under control of the 7th Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.

            For more information, media may contact I Corps Public Affairs, Joint Base Lewis-McChord at 253-208-0576.

---

from KING5 News:

Posted on December 31, 2012 at 6:07 AM

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.

According to the Department of Defense, Pfc. Markie T. Sims, 20, of Citra, Florida, died Dec. 29. He was assigned to the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

According to unit records, Pfc. Sims entered the Army in November 2011 and upon completing Army Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training, in MOS 12B (Combat Engineer) he was assigned to JBLM.

This was his first deployment to Afghanistan.

His awards and decoration include the National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Ribbon and NATO Medal.

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More French Troops Go to Central African Republic

Dans la nuit du 30 décembre 2012, embarquement dans un Transall C160 de la compagnie de combat du 6e bataillon d'infanterie de marine (6e BIMa) en direction de Bangui Crédit : EMA - Ministère de la Défense

 

Bangui — As rebels advance in Central African Republic, France has deployed an additional 180 troops to protect its interests.

The French reinforcements arrived Sunday from nearby Gabon, bringing the total French military force in the capital, Bangui, to nearly 600, Col. Thierry Burkhard told The Associated Press Sunday. The troops are to protect French residents in the capital, which many fear will be attacked by the rebels.

As fears mounted that the rebels would attack Bangui, a city of 600,000, President Francois Bozize imposed a curfew from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m.

Bozize earlier appealed to France for help against the rebels, but French President Francois Hollande's government said it would only protect French interests and would not prop up the Bangui government.

The African Union is attempting to set up negotiations in Gabon between the Bozize government and the rebels.

The rebel forces have seized at least 10 cities across the sparsely populated north of the country. Residents in the capital now fear the

insurgents could attack at any time, despite assurances by rebel leaders that they are willing to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Bangui.

from allAfrica
31 December 2012

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11 NATO tankers gutted in Nangarhar fire

JALALABAD (PAN): Nearly a dozen NATO fuel tankers were destroyed in an overnight fire in the eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said on Monday.

The blaze broke out on Sunday evening in a market place near the customs department on the Jalalabad-Torkham highway, police said.

Seven tankers were completely gutted and another four comprehensively damaged in the fire, police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal told Pajhwok Afghan News.

It took three hours for firefighters to bring under control the situation, he added.

Mohsin, director of Kabul Bahar Transportation Company, said the fire started after a blast in the market.

"There were 11 tankers, seven of them were full of fuel and the two  were empty," he said, putting the losses at $1 million.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the fire incident. More than 10 US supply tankers were destroyed in the attack, he said.

from Pajhwok
By Mahbob Shah Mahbob Dec 31, 2012 - 17:32

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In Several Joint Clearance Operations, 10 Armed Taliban Killed (31.Dec.2012.)

Publish Date: Dec 31, 2012

In Several Joint Clearance Operations, 10 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 Kunar, Baghlan, Kandahar, Maidan Wardak, Logar and Ghazni provinces.

As a result of these operations, 10 armed Taliban were killed, one wounded and nine others were arrested by Afghan National Security Forces.

Also, during these operations, Afghan National Police discovered and confiscated eight AK-47 rifles, one PK machine gun, one rocket launcher, 10 mortar rounds and six anti-vehicle mines.

In the meantime, two armed Taliban (mine planters) were killed by their own explosives while they were planting an anti-vehicle mine in the main road of Grashk District of Helmand province yesterday.

 

Crimes:
The 101 Kabul Zone National Police detained three suspects accused of murder in the 8th and 11th Districts of Kabul-City yesterday.

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Dec. 31., 2012. - ISAF Joint Command Operational Update

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan and coalition security forces confirmed today the arrest of a top Taliban leader in Andar district during a security operation in Andar district, Ghazni province, Tuesday.

As one of the most senior Taliban leaders in the district, the insurgent executed tactical planning, kidnapping operations, detainee operations and strategic planning to support the Taliban insurgency. He was directly involved in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces and in contact with local Taliban leadership.

During the operation, the security force also detained two suspected insurgents.

In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:

South

An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader and detained one suspected insurgent in Nad ‘Ali district, Helmand province, today. The leader commanded a direct action cell operating in the district. He also planned and coordinated multiple improvised explosive device and ambush attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

East

A Haqqani leader in Pul-e ‘Alam district, Logar province, was arrested by an Afghan and coalition security force today. The leader coordinated and prepared improvised explosive device attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also facilitated the distribution of weapons, IEDs and suicide vests to insurgents throughout the district.

Afghan and coalition forces killed several armed insurgents during a security operation in Ghaziabad district, Kunar province, yesterday. During the operation, the security force observed the armed individuals engaged in hostile activity and engaged them.

During a security operation in search of a Taliban leader in Andar district, Ghazni province, today, two insurgents were arrested by an Afghan and coalition security force. The leader commands a large number of insurgents and manages improvised explosive device attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

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Dec. 31., 2012. - RC-East operational update

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Afghan and coalition forces detained five insurgents, located one weapons cache and cleared one improvised explosive device during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours, Dec. 30.

Logar province
Afghan National found and safely cleared one IED in Pul-E-Alam district.

Afghan National Army soldiers discovered a weapons cache in Kherwar district. The cache contained small arms ammunition and grenades.

Afghan National Security Forces detained two insurgents during an engagement in Muhammad Aghah district. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.

Nangarhar province
Afghan Uniformed detained three insurgents during an engagement in Khugyani district. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.

Operations in RC-East are ongoing.

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Explosions across Iraq kill at least 10, wound 46

(Reuters) - Explosions killed at least 10 people and wounded 46 across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilise the country a year after U.S. troops left.

Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants continue to strike almost daily, and carry out at least one big attack a month.

The latest violence followed more than a week of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the country's minority Sunni community.

No group claimed responsibility for any of Monday's attacks, which targeted government officials, police patrols and members of both the Sunni and Shi'ite sects.

Seven people from the same Sunni family were killed by a bomb planted near their home in the town of Mussayab, south of Baghdad.

In the Shi'ite majority city of Hilla, also in the south, a parked car bomb went off near the convoy of the governor of Babil province, missing him but killing two other people, police said.

"We heard the sound of a big explosion and the windows of our office shattered. We immediately lay on the ground," said 28-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, who works at a hospital near the site of the explosion.

"After a few minutes I stood up and went to the windows to see what happened. I saw flames and people lying on the ground."

Although violence is far lower than during the sectarian slaughter of 2006-2007, about 2,000 people have been killed in Iraq this year following the withdrawal last December of U.S. troops, who led an invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Monday's violence also included a series of blasts that killed three people in Iraq's disputed territories, over which both the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region claim jurisdiction.

Two of those deaths were in the oil-producing, ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, where a bomb exploded as a police team tried to defuse it.

Baghdad and Kurdistan are locked in a feud over land and oil rights and recently deployed their respective armies to the swathe of territory along their contested internal boundary, where they are currently facing off against each other.

Efforts to ease the standoff stalled when President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd seen as a steadying influence, suffered a stroke and was flown abroad for medical care earlier this month.

Maliki then detained the bodyguards of his Sunni finance minister, which sparked protests by thousands in the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold on the border with Syria.

Protesters are demanding an end to what they see as the marginalisation of Iraq's Sunni minority, which dominated the country until the U.S.-led invasion. They want Maliki to abolish anti-terrorism laws they say are used to persecute them.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, himself a Sunni, was forced to flee the epicentre of the protests in Anbar's city of Ramadi when demonstrators pelted him with stones and bottles.

from REUTERS
BAGHDAD | Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:02pm GMT
(Reporting by Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla, Mustafa Mahmoud and Omar Mohammed in Kirkuk, Ali Mohammed in Baquba and Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Pravin Char)

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Nine ‘Pakistani Taliban fighters’ found dead in North Waziristan

MIRANSHAH: Bullet-ridden bodies of nine ‘Pakistani Taliban fighters’ were found on Monday dumped in the northwestern tribal North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The bodies were found on the side of the road in Peer Kaley village in North Waziristan, a stronghold of militant groups, 10 kilometres east of the district’s main town of Miranshah.

“Unidentified people threw away these nine bodies. No one knows who killed them,” a security official based in Miranshah told AFP.

Local residents confirmed that the bodies had been discovered and a second security official in Miranshah said the identity of the dead was yet not known.

But Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told AFP that all nine were Taliban fighters and accused government security forces of killing them.

“We are proud of their martyrdom, soon we will take revenge for this killing,” he told AFP from an undisclosed location.

Officials on Sunday said they had found the bodies of 21 Levies soldiers who had been kidnapped by militants near the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Pakistan’s seven northwestern tribal districts are rife with homegrown insurgents and are said to be strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

Security officials said fighter jets on Monday bombed the Tirah valley in Khyber, another tribal district, killing at least eight militants.

Islamabad says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

from DAWN

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Taliban bombers arrested in failed insider attack bid

A group of the Taliban militants who were looking to carry out coordinated attacks on Paktika governor compound after seducing an Afghan police officer were trapped and arrested by the same police officer.

The Afghan police was appreciated by high level Afghan security officials.

Taliban militants were assuming that the Afghan police officer Bayar Khan Wayar was the appropriate person to use for an insider attack however the police officer trapped the Taliban militants in their own plan.

Wayar who is a low level Afghan police officer in Paktika province met with a man who told him that he will become a rich person if he meets with insurgents leader.

After receiving a medal from the Afghan interior minister Mojtaba Patang said, “I thought the messenger of the Taliban group was joking but the Taliban leader Mohammad came to the police check post in Sar-e-Hawza district to meet me since he knew I was working there.”

Wayar further added, “The Taliban leader urged me in a rude way to join Taliban group and assist them to carry out an insider attack on Afghan police forces. I requested him to give me sometime until I decide.”

But the 40 year old Wayar informed Afghan police forces rather than assisting the Taliban group and Afghan police forces asked him to continue contacting the group until receiving the full information regarding their plan.

He later received a phone call from a Haqqani Network leader and was proposed with a luxury house in Pakistan if he assists to tke the suicide bombers to Paktika government compound where provincial governor and security chief are based.

Despite it is dificult to independently confirm but security officials are saying that the leader who contacted Wayar was Sirajuddin Haqqani who had a close link with the al Qaeda network.

Wayar said, “The group offered me $50,000, two brand new vehicles and a house in Pakistan.”

But the Afghan police decided to continue with the plan of the militants and allowed three men aged between 18 to 25 who were sent by the Taliban leader Mohammad to work in police check post using the Afghan police uniform.

Paktika provincial governor Mohibullah Samim said, “We were closely monitoring the guys and we told Wayar to assist the suspected militants and never leave them alone.”

Mr. Samim further added, “He (the police officeer) was a true fighter and was not caring for his life. We trusted him and he proved that he was a true Afghan working for his country.”

A month later the Taliban leader Mohammad returned with other men and brought a vehicle laden with explosives with them, they had also brought 60 hand grenades along with 6 weapons and 6 suicide vests.

Wayar said, “I asked them regarding the sixth suicide bomber and he (the Taliban leader) said that he will be the sixth bomber who will detonate the car packed with explosives.”

On 11 December which was the day for the attack, the militants asked Wayar to allow the suicide bombers and vehicle to enter the government compound separately and then he (Wayar) will be allowed to go to Pakistan.

The Afghan police allowed the militants to go ahead with their plan until the last minutes. The hidden Afghan police forces immediately took actions and arrested the six suicide bombers.

Mohammad who later understood that he was trapped called on Afghan police officer Wayar and said, “Now that you have deceived us, why you are not shooting all of us?”

This comes as at least 60 NATO troops and several Afghan security forces have been killed following insider attacks in Afghanistan during the year.

In the latest insider attack, an Afghan police officer allowed to enter a police check post and kill 4 police officers in southern Uruzgan province last week.

from KHAAMA
By Ghanizada - December 30 2012, 8:01 pm

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Logar residents warn to uprise against Taliban militants

Hundreds of local residents in eastern Logar province of Afghanistan warned to uprise against the Taliban militants in this province.

A number of local tribal elders following a meeting with the provincial governor on Saturday expressed their concerns regarding the growing violence by Taliban militants.

Provincial governor spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said residents of central districts and remote villages in Logar province have vowed to fight the Taliban militants who are creating troubles for the local residents.

He said, “They (local residents) said we are ready to uprise against the Taliban militants if they did not stop their violence and killings of the innocent civilians. The local government vowed to visit the volatile regions in a bid to prevent the killing of civilians by Taliban fighters.”

This comes as target killings and instability has dramatically increased in eastern Logar province of Afghanistan recently.

A number of reconstruction labors were also among those killed by the Taliban militants and their colleagues met with the provincial governor to share the issue.

A demonstration was also expected to be organized against the civilian killing however due to unknown reasons the protest was not held.

Districts of Logar. This image does not include Azra district, located to the east of Khoshi and Mohammad Agha. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Meanwhile local officials recently said they will deploy 700 local police officers and public protection forces in various locations of Logar province but it seems the decision was not implemented after local residents on Saturday prepared for a public uprising.

Growing violence by Taliban militants also forced a number of the Afghan families to flee in capital Kabul and also a number of the Chinese workers in Aynak copper mine left the area and went to China.

An Afghan lawmakers Mohammad Akbar Stanekzai earlier also warned that the Taliban group will possibly take control of several districts in this province.

Local security officials in Logar province criticize Pakistan and Iran for growing violence in this province in a bid to put pressure and destabilize capital Kabul.

from KHAAMA
By Meena Haseeb - December 30 2012, 9:39 am

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