for today - currently - just the Rc-East operational update available
so, pls stay tuned, more news on war on terror & military coming soon
from all around the world :)
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Saturday, January 5, 2013
Jan. 05., 2013. - RC-East operational update
Ghazni province
Afghan National Security Forces found and safely cleared one IED in Dehyak district.
Khowst province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces detained two insurgents while investigating an IED in Bak district. The IED was safely cleared and the detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.
Afghan Border Police and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Gurbuz district.
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Sabari district.
Nangarhar province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Mohmand Darah district.
Operations in RC-East are ongoing.
Kidnapped Algerian diplomats in new terror tape
The hostages are shown sitting on the ground surrounded by their armed captors from al-Qaeda splinter group Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).
"We call on the President of the Republic, Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to find a solution to our situation by accepting the terms of the group so that we can come back to our families," one captive said.
The hostage added: "We had the opportunity to leave the city of Gao before we were kidnapped, but on the orders of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we stayed to offer services to the diaspora."
Another of the Algerian diplomats pleaded, "Get us out of this crisis and enable us to come back to our families."
As far as the Algerian government is concerned, discretion remains the watchword. On Wednesday, it said that contact with the kidnappers was being maintained through various intermediaries.
Algerian foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani refused to comment on the video of the hostages but said that authorities were "endeavouring to secure the release of the Algerian nationals".
Soon after the Algerians were abducted in Gao, they appeared in a video aired by Al Jazeera, in which the MUJAO claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The video showed the Algerian diplomats in a vehicle with blank expressions, but apparently in good health.
One month later, the MUJAO issued a ransom demand. They wanted Algeria to release prisoners, as well as a 15m euro ransom.
Three of the hostages were freed in July.
On August 26th, another video released by MUJAO showed one of the remaining hostages asking the Algerian authorities to save his life. But the terror group later executed the diplomat, identified as Taher Touati.
The wife of hostage Mourad Guessas has appealed to the terrorists to free the diplomats. She said that they were merely "innocent, ordinary civil servants" and urged President Bouteflika to work to free them, adding they were kidnapped while in the "service of the Algerian state".
Algeria has staunchly opposed the terrorists' ransom demands, with Algerian Maghreb and African Affairs Minister Abdelkader Messahel saying last October that there would be "no negotiations with terrorists".
During a session with Parliament's foreign affairs committee last week, Foreign Minister Mourad Medecli revealed that both the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar al-Din were mediating the release of the Algerian diplomats kidnapped in Mali.
Last April, President Bouteflika reportedly approved a large military operation to free the hostages, according to a December article by El Khabar. The operation was to be conducted by a few hundred to 3,000 soldiers along with Special Forces, fighter jets and attack helicopters.
El Khabar said that the goal was to free the Algerian diplomats and strike a serious blow to the armed extremists who had taken over northern Mali.
The Algerian military operation was cancelled at the last minute.
from MAGHAREBIA
By Walid Ramzi in Algiers and Bakari Gueye in Nouakchott for Magharebia – 04/01/13
Friday, January 4, 2013
Jan. 04., 2013. - RC-East operational update
Khowst Province
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces detained two insurgents at their home after observing them emplacing an IED in Khowst District.
The AUP discovered a weapons cache in the insurgent's home that contained small arms, ammunition, and IED making materials. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning, and the IED was safely cleared.
Khowst Province
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces found and safely cleared one IED in Terezayi District.
Khowst Province
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces detained one insurgent during an engagement in Tani District. The detained suspect was transferred to a base for questioning.
Parwan Province
Afghan Border Police and coalition forces detained one insurgent during an engagement in Bagram District. The detained suspect was transferred to a base for questioning.
Operations in RC-East are ongoing.
Blast suspects among 5 held in Herat
.JPG)
The bomb attack suspects were apprehended in the Robat Sangi district, the governor's spokesman Muhiuddin Noori told Pajhwok Afghan News. The duo had confessed being loyal to a notorious local militant commander, Mullah Bismillah, the official said.
Four children were among those injured in the blast that ripped through the city, said Noori, who continued another two insurgents were captured in the city's 9th police district. The two had been tasked with killing government officials by their masters, the gubernatorial spokesman claimed.
An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a militant commander named Mullah Jalal had been arrested in the Shindand district.
The commander was involved in roadside blasts, assassinating government officials and other insurgent activities, he added.
from Pajhwok
By Pajhwok Report Jan 3, 2013 - 22:35
Iraq Car Bomb Kills at Least 20 Shi'ite Pilgrims
Police said Thursday's attack at a busy bus station in the town of Musayyib hit the pilgrims as they were returning from Iraq's shrine city of Karbala, where they performed mourning rituals for a revered figure in Shi'ite Islam. Dozens were wounded in the bombing.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has renewed fears of an increase in sectarian violence that could further destabilize the country.
The blast comes just days after a wave of bombings across the country killed 23 people. Insurgents blew up several houses in the town of Musayyib on Monday, killing seven people. Bombings also killed people in Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk.
Minority Sunni militants have targeted majority Shi'ite pilgrims frequently. Those militants also appear to be exploiting sectarian tensions in the ruling coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is under political fire.
Sunni protesters have held more than a week of anti-government protests in the western province of Anbar, demanding an end to what they see as Maliki's marginalization of their community and its representatives in his Shi'ite-led coalition.
Shi'ite religious observation
Arbaeen marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and a central figure of Shi'ite Islam who was killed in a seventh century battle. His followers believe he was buried in Karbala.
Pilgrims attending the ceremony in the golden temple of the Imam Hussein beat their heads and chests whilst singing.
Snipers and bomb squads were among around 30,000 Iraqi police and soldiers deployed around Karbala to watch over millions of pilgrims gathered to observe Arbaeen.
Shi'ites have been travelling by foot to observe the annual rite which is a major test for Iraqi security forces after a series of attacks targeted Shi'ite pilgrims across Iraq.
Shi'ite religious rites were banned under the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was ousted in 2003 by a U.S.-led invasion that triggered years of sectarian violence.
Explosions across Iraq killed at least 23 people and wounded 87 on Monday, police said, amid a growing political crisis that is inflaming sectarian tensions.
The pilgrimage site has been a repeated target of militants since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
Last year, a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman killed at least 53 people and wounded scores in an attack on pilgrims at the end of Arbaeen.
Hussein, a Sunni, placed strict limits on pilgrimages to Kerbala, but since his overthrow in 2003, these have become a show of strength for Iraq's Shi'ite majority and a prime target of Sunni Islamist insurgents.
Meanwhile Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Monday warned he will not tolerate Sunni anti-government rallies indefinitely, but made a concession to their demands by promising to free some women prisoners.
Thousands of Sunnis have been taking to the streets of Iraq for more than a week in protest against Maliki, whom they accuse of discriminating against their sect and being under the sway of their non-Arab Shi'ite neighbor Iran.
The incident has once more threatened to plunge a delicate power-sharing deal into turmoil, just as President Jalal Talabani, a moderating influence, is in Germany for medical care after suffering a stroke.
from VOA News
January 03, 2013
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Thirteen terrorists killed in Algeria
A total of thirteen terrorists were killed in two separate operations carried out by security forces in the province of Boumerdes, 30 kilometres east of Algiers, on Monday (December 31st) and Tuesday.
Over the past few months, security forces have been closing in on small terrorist groups still in hiding within the Boumerdes-Tizi-Ouzou-Bouira triangle, the traditional stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The first operation took place on Monday night in the locality of Keddara, where six terrorists were killed and a cache of weapons was seized. Security officers were conducting a large-scale search and sweep operation in the region on the basis of specific intelligence provided by two terrorists who had surrendered to the security forces the previous week, according to El Moudjahid, reported.
The second operation on Tuesday left seven more terrorists dead in the Oued Bahara area of Boumerdes, the defence ministry announced. The terrorists were part of the El-Feth brigade.
"ANP units engaged in the fight against terrorism were able to eliminate a dangerous terrorist group," the defence ministry said.
The army seized weapons, ammunitions, food and medical supplies during the operation in Boulezazen.
The defence ministry noted that this outcome bore witness to the "determination of the ANP to continue its efforts on the ground to put an end to the activities of the last remaining small groups of terrorists".
Of the seven terrorists killed, four have been identified. They are mostly former members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which was active at the beginning of the 1990s and was particularly murderous.
On August 29th, nine terrorists were killed in a similar operation in Boumerdes.
According to figures published by El Khabar, security forces killed 198 terrorists and arrested 350 members of AQIM in 2012. Several terrorist leaders were killed or arrested during the course of the year.
The most recent incident occurred on December 16th, with the capture of AQIM number two boss and main spokesman Salah Gasmi.
from MAGHAREBIA
By Nazim Fethi for Magharebia in Algiers – 03/01/13
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Drone kills three al Qaeda suspects in Yemen: sources
The attack in Redaa, in the southern al-Bayda province was the fifth by a pilotless plane in the space of 10 days in the impoverished country, where the United States has stepped up drone strikes against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The strikes have all been in the south, where the group exploited anti-government protests in 2011 to seize territory before being driven out by a military offensive last June.
"We have noticed a drone flying over for the past few days," a resident told Reuters. He said the car in which the three militants were killed on Thursday was completely destroyed and their bodies were unrecognizable.
A local official said the commander's name was Muqbel al-Zubah.
Yemeni officials who report the drone strikes will not be drawn on which nation is responsible. But Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi spoke openly in favor of the drone strikes during a trip to the United States in September 2012.
Praised by the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa as being more effective against al Qaeda than his predecessor, Hadi was quoted as saying that he personally approved every attack. Hadi has not commented on the most recent strikes.
Washington stepped up attacks by unmanned aircraft last year. AQAP is believed by Western governments to be the most active and dangerous wing of the global network, and has attempted a number of attacks against U.S. targets.
Redaa was scene in September of the killing of at least 10 civilians including a 10-year-old girl in an air strike that apparently missed its intended target, a car carrying militants nearby, said tribal officials and residents.
A government official shortly afterwards said the attack was by a Yemeni aircraft, but some local people have said it was by a missile-firing drone.
In 2011 its offshoot, Ansar al-Sharia (Partisan of Islamic Law), seized a number of towns in the south that were retaken by the government in a U.S.-backed offensive in June.
from REUTERS
SANAA | Thu Jan 3, 2013 10:23am EST
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush and William Maclean; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
---
from XINHUA:
2013-01-03 21:45:56
Editor: Wang Yuanyuan
SANAA, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. drone strike killed at least three suspected al-Qaida operatives in Yemen's central province of al-Bayda Thursday, local officials said.
"Local al-Qaida leader Mukbil Obad and two of his bodyguards were killed in the air raid in a mountainous area of Radda city," a provincial security official told Xinhua by phone.
Jan. 03., 2013. - ISAF Joint Command Operational Update
Mubariz Jaan was responsible for gathering intelligence and directing attacks against local Afghan civilians and government officials. Prior to his death, Mubariz Jaan was coordinating attacks against Afghan Local Police in the province.
In other International Security Assistance Force news throughout Afghanistan:
North
An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader during a security operation in Pul-e Khumri district, Baghlan province, Wednesday. The leader was responsible for financing improvised explosive devices, weapons and ammunition for insurgent attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. Prior to his detention, he was facilitating the movement of IEDs and suicide bombers for attacks in the province. During the operation, the security force also positively identified an individual engaged in threatening activity and killed him.
South
A Taliban leader in Shah Wali Kot district, Kandahar province was arrested by an Afghan and coalition security force today. The leader was responsible for the planning and execution of vehicle-borne IED and in-ground IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He oversaw the transfer and delivery of IEDs to insurgents operating throughout the district.
East
An Afghan and coalition force killed Taliban leader, Abdullah, along with four additional insurgents, during a security operation in Hisarak district, Nangarhar province, Wednesday. Abdullah was responsible for directing and participating in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. Prior to his death, Abdullah was reporting the movement of Afghan and coalition forces to leaders in the province.
During a security operation in search of a Haqqani facilitator in Khost district, Khost province, three insurgents were arrested by an Afghan and coalition force today. The facilitator coordinates the movement and transfer of weapons, explosives and IED components to insurgents within the district.
Jan. 03., 2013. - RC-East operational update
Ghazni Province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces detained 10 insurgents while investigating a weapons cache in Qarah Bagh District.
The cache contained small arms and ammunition and grenades. The detained suspects were transferred to a base for questioning.
Operations in RC-East are ongoing.
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