45th IBCT Members Return Home (+HD video)

"Job Well Done! Welcome Home!" - Maj. Gen Myles Deering

Package about 45th IBCT members returning home March 3 at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base in Oklahoma City.

145th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Video by Sgt. Christopher Bruce

(video available in 1080p HD)

soundbites:

Congressman James Lankford
Maj. Gen Myles Deering

Spc. Laura Lyles
Sgt. 1st Class Jerry Johnson
Sgt. Kirk Smith
Sgt. 1st Class Susan Vanzante
2nd Lt. Jeffery Archer

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Kunduz Blast Wounds Provincial Official

The head of the Kunduz Provincial Council Mawlawi Khosh Mohammad and his two bodyguards were wounded in a landmine blast in Kunduz this afternoon, according to local officials.

The bomb exploded at 3:30 pm local time in Kunduz city, the capital of the northern province, when the vehicle of the Provincial Council struck a landmine, Kunduz police chief Samiullah Qatra told TOLOnews.

The three are in a stable condition, he said, adding that security troops have arrived in the area and an investigation is underway.

No group, including the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Insurgents frequently use improvised explosive devices to target Afghan and Nato forces, but most of the victims have been civilians.

from TOLO

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MOD confirms names of the six soldiers believed killed in Helmand

from UK FORCES AFGHANISTAN blog

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the names of the six Service personnel missing, believed killed, in Afghanistan since Tuesday 6 March 2012.

From top left: Sergeant Nigel Coupe, Corporal Jake Hartley and Private Anthony Frampton. From bottom left: Private Christopher Kershaw, Private Daniel Wade and Private Daniel Wilford. Picture: Iain Hamer, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012

The six soldiers are believed to have been killed after their armoured vehicle was caught in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on 6 March 2012.


The soldier from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment is named as:

• Sergeant Nigel Coupe, aged 33


The five soldiers from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment are:

• Corporal Jake Hartley, 20
• Private Anthony Frampton, 20
• Private Christopher Kershaw,19
• Private Daniel Wade, 20
• Private Daniel Wilford, 21


Further information will be released in due course. We ask that the privacy of the families of these Service personnel is respected at this very difficult time.
---

more pictures on mod.uk site:

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/PictureViewers/TheSixSoldiersBelievedKilledInHelmand.htm

---

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At least nine Afghan police killed, infiltrator suspected

KANDAHAR: Nine Afghan police were killed in an insurgent attack that authorities said on Thursday was believed to have been facilitated by a fellow officer and suspected Taliban infiltrator.

The attack in the southern province of Uruzgan late Tuesday follows a wave of incidents in recent weeks in which members of the Afghan security forces have turned their weapons on their Nato and US allies.

Six American soldiers, two of them senior US military advisers, were killed by their Afghan colleagues last month as the country was gripped by anti-US riots over the accidental burning of the Koran at a military base.

In Uruzgan, the rebels broke into the police post and opened fire on nine sleeping officers, killing all of them, local CID chief Gulab Khan told AFP.

“Nine police are dead. There were 10 people in the post, we believe one of the police led the Taliban into the post and while everybody was sleeping they opened fire and killed nine police,” he said.

“The 10th person has disappeared and he’s believed to have gone with the Taliban after the killings,” Khan added.

The Taliban, a militant group waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, claimed the attack but gave a different account.

The group’s spokesman, Yusuf Ahmadi, telephoned AFP from an unknown location to say the officers were captured and later executed.

The Taliban campaign is mostly focused on the use of suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices.

On Thursday, a roadside bombing wounded seven police and four civilians in the eastern city of Jalalabad, authorities said.

from DAWN

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Afghan Air Force Probed in Drug Running

By MARIA ABI-HABIB - WSJ

KABUL—The U.S. is investigating allegations that some officials in the Afghan Air Force, which was established largely with American funds, have been using aircraft to ferry narcotics and illegal weapons around the country, American officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Two probes of the Afghan Air Force, or AAF, are under way—one led by the U.S. military coalition and another by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

"The nature of the allegations is fairly dramatic and indicated that [AAF officials] were transporting drugs on aircraft and transported weapons not owned by the government of Afghanistan for the use of private groups," said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Training Mission-Afghanistan, the command that is establishing and financing Afghan security forces, including the AAF.

Read the full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204276304577263032415519426.html

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Jalalabad Landmine Blast Wounds 11

Eleven people were wounded after a landmine exploded in Jalalabad early this morning, according to Afghan local officials.

"A mine exploded in Jalalabad city of Nangarhar province this morning," provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told TOLOnews, adding that more police had arrived at the site and were investigating the incident.

The wounded, including seven policemen, were taken to a nearby hospital in the city, he said.

No group, including the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the blast.

It comes after at least four people were killed and 10 others were wounded in a bomb blast in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday.

The Kandahar blast happened in the Spin Boldak district near an Afghan police checkpoint.

from TOLONEWS

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Mar.08., 2012. - ISAF Joint Command Morning Operational Update

KABUL, Afghanistan (Mar. 08) – An Afghan and coalition security force captured two Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leaders during an operation in Faizabad district, Badakhshan province, today.

One leader, responsible for suicide bombings against Afghan government senior officials throughout Badakshan and Kunduz provinces, was wounded during the operation and received medical treatment.

The other insurgent leader was a bomb-making expert who helped plan suicide attacks.

The security force also detained an additional suspected insurgent along with a suicide vest, explosives, blasting caps and detonation cord as a result of this operation.

In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:

South
An Afghan and coalition security force captured a Taliban leader during an operation in Marjeh district, Helmand province, today. The leader controlled an insurgent cell and organized roadside bombings, ambushes, and attacks against Afghan civilians and security forces. The security force detained several additional suspected insurgents during the operation.

Also in Helmand, an Afghan and coalition security force captured a Taliban facilitator during an operation in Lashkar Gah district, yesterday. The facilitator supplied insurgents in central Helmand province and the Maiwand district of Kandahar province with weapons and ammunition. The security force also seized multiple weapons as a result of this operation.

In Nad ‘Ali district, Helmand province, a Taliban facilitator was captured by an Afghan and coalition security force during an operation yesterday. The facilitator provided weapons to insurgents throughout Musa Qal’ah and Now Zad districts. One additional suspected insurgent was detained and multiple weapons were seized as a result of the operation.

In Kandahar district, Kandahar province, an Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader today. The leader directs an assassination cell that targets senior Afghan government officials throughout the province. The security force detained multiple suspected insurgents during the operation.

East
An Afghan and coalition security force conducted an operation in search of a Taliban leader in Zurmat district, Paktiya province, today. The leader directed attacks against Afghan civilians and security forces throughout the district. The security force detained several suspected insurgents during the operation.

In Nadir Shah Kot district, Khost province, an Afghan and coalition security force captured a Haqqani leader during an operation today. The leader directed insurgent suicide bomb attacks against Afghan civilians and security forces throughout the district. The security force also seized one shotgun and detained multiple suspected insurgents during the operation.

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At least 12 killed in twin car bomb attacks in northern Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq, March 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed and 15 others wounded when two car bombs exploded coordinately in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh on Wednesday, a provincial police source said.

The attack occurred after midday when two booby-trapped cars went off almost simultaneously near popular restaurants and marketplace in the town of Tel-Afar, some 60 km west of the provincial capital Mosul, the town's mayor Abdul-Aal Abbas told Xinhua by telephone.

The blasts caused severe damages to nearby restaurants and shops in the busy area, Abbas said.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene as ambulances and civilian cars evacuated the victims to the town's hospital, he said.

Nineveh province has long been a stronghold of insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants. Its capital Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has been one of the country's most restive cities after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

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• Fatal attacks hit north Iraq town (bbc.co.uk)
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Yemen al-Qaida wing threatens to execute 73 army hostages

Image via Wikipedia

ADEN, Yemen, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Yemen-based al-Qaida wing threatened on Wednesday to execute a total of 73 army hostages if the government did not immediately release its jailed members, a leading member of the al-Qaida militants told Xinhua.

"If the Yemeni government authorizes or its western allies attempt to launch a military operation against our strongholds in a bid to free the captured soldiers before freeing our members from the intelligence jails in the capital of Sanaa, we will kill all the army hostages with execution-style in Abyan's desert," the al-Qaida member said on condition of anonymity.

The al-Qaida wing accused the United States of "dispatching pilots and military experts to support the Yemeni army forces in striking the group and freeing army captives."

"A number of U.S. officers arrived on Tuesday to the al-Anad military air base in neighboring Lahj province to prepare for an imminent military strike on our fighters and releasing the hostages held by the organization," he said.

"We send this strong-worded warning to the leadership of the country's Defense Ministry: if they conducted this strike, it means we are not responsible for the death of their 73 army soldiers and senior officers," he added.

Meanwhile, a government soldier in the suburbs of Zinjibar, Abyan's provincial capital, told Xinhua anonymously that "dead bodies of several government troops were found scattered across the roads of the city."

On Sunday, dozens of al-Qaida fighters carried out a massive assault against a Yemeni military base in the outskirts of Abyan province, killing more than 180 soldiers and looting the base along with its heavy weaponry, tanks and armored vehicles, according to senior army officials.

Suicide car bombings and violent attacks against the army have increased over the past two weeks. A deadly suicide bombing targeting the presidential palace in the southern province of Hadramout killed nearly 30 soldiers of the elite Republican Guard forces. The al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for the attack in the following day.

The AQAP attacks underscored the challenges facing the Yemeni government, which is tasked with restoring security and stability to Yemen and putting an end to the growing influence of al-Qaida that threatens the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

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Suicide bomber kills five police in Russia’s Dagestan

MOSCOW: A female suicide bomber has killed at least five policemen by blowing herself up at a traffic police post in the restive Dagestan region of southern Russia.

The woman detonated her bomb late on Tuesday outside Karabudakhkent, a village 40 km south of the provincial capital Makhachkala, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted local police as saying.

Dagestan faces almost daily shootings and bomb attacks as part of an insurgency across the mainly Muslim North Caucasus following two separatist wars in Chechnya.

“The female terrorist approached the (traffic police) enclosure and blew herself up,” the police official said.

A serviceman directs a pedestrian away from the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Russia.—Reuters Photo

Dagestan faces almost daily shootings and bomb attacks as part of an insurgency across the mainly Muslim North Caucasus following two separatist wars in Chechnya.

An unofficial website, www.kavkazcenter.com. said up to 10 policemen had been killed in the attack and that it was carried out by a woman suicide bomber supported by insurgents who executed policemen wounded during the blast.

The rebels want to create an Islamic state ruled by sharia in the region, which is close Sochi, where Russia will host the winter Olympics in 2014.

The insurgents said they carried out a suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people in January 2011, and twin bombings that killed 40 people on Moscow’s metro in 2010.

from DAWN

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