Ten members of a "terrorist cell" responsible for three deadly bombings in Kandahar province that killed more than 100 people and wounded scores more have been arrested Thursday February 21, 2008. Local civilians helped the government identify four of the suspects.
On Saturday February 23, 2008, we were told that the last two Swiss officers had come home from the northeastern Kunduz province two weeks ago. They could no longer carry out their mission effectively because of the measures taken by the troops for their own protection.
U.S.-led coalition forces killed several insurgents and two civilians after militants barricaded in a mud-brick home fired on the troops on Saturday February 2008. A roadside bomb hit a vehicle convoy carrying Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid -who was not hurt- killing three policemen and wounding two others. In Helmand province, coalition forces were looking for a Taliban leader in Kajaki district when they came under fire.
Five policemen and a three-year-old child were killed on February 26, 2008, in Afghanistan when the vehicle they were travelling in hit a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan.
Afghanistan, Wednesday February 27, 2008:
- An international aid group operating in Afghanistan said on Tuesday a kidnapped
American aid worker and her Afghan driver apparently have been killed by their
captors. The Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, the Asian Rural Life
Development Foundation received information that its two staff members, Cyd
Mizell and Muhammad Hadi, are dead. They were kidnapped January 26 in Kandahar.
- Insurgents opened fire on a convoy carrying Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad
Muqbal east of Kabul. They say no one was hurt and it is not clear if the
minister was the target of the attack.
- A bomb struck a civilian vehicle in the eastern province of Khost, killing
one person and wounding at least six others.
- A Taliban rocket attack in the Kajaki region of Helmand province killed
five Afghan civilians Monday.
- Two soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting with insurgents in Kandahar
province.
- A roadside bomb killed two Polish soldiers Tuesday. They were patrolling
in the Sharan district of Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan.
- NATO announced the seizure of $400 million in opium in the south.
Hostage situation on February 27, 2008:
- March 2006 - Taliban insurgents said they killed four hostages and dumped
their bodies in the Kandahar-Helmand area in southern Afghanistan.
- April 2006 - An Indian engineer, identified as K. Suryanarayan, is found
beheaded on April 30 not far from where he was kidnapped near the main road
between Qalat and Ghazni. The Taliban claim responsibility.
- October 2006 - Gabriele Torsello, a London-based photojournalist who is
a Muslim, is kidnapped on October 12 by gunmen after he left by bus from Lashkar-Gah,
capital of Helmand province in the south. He is released unharmed on November
3.
- March 2007 - The Taliban capture Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo
of La Repubblica and two Afghans in Helmand province. He is handed over to
the Italian embassy on March 19 but his Afghan driver is beheaded and his
translator is killed on April 8.
- April 2007 - The Taliban said they have kidnapped Eric Damfreville, a Frenchman,
working for the Terre d'Enfance aid organisation, his local driver and two
other Afghans in Nimroz province. He is released on May 11. A female French
hostage who also worked for Terre d'Enfance is released in late April by the
Taliban after three weeks in captivity.
- July 2007 - Two German engineers are kidnapped by the Taliban while travelling
in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul. One German is killed, apparently by
his captors. The Taliban later said the other German is being held along with
four Afghans. In October, Taliban militants allow an interview with the German
engineer, identified in the report as Rudolf Blechschmidt. He is freed on
October 10.
- July 2007 - A group of 23 South Koreans from a church organisation in Bundang,
outside Seoul, is kidnapped from a bus travelling from Kabul to Kandahar.
On July 25, a church pastor leading the group is shot dead. Five days later
another male South Korean hostage is shot. Two other female captives are freed
as a goodwill gesture during talks.
- On August 27 the Taliban agree to release the hostages after South Korea
agrees to certain conditions. The remaining hostages are all freed by August
30.
- September 2007 - Two Italian military intelligence officers kidnapped are
freed during a raid by NATO-led troops in which nine kidnappers and an Afghan
hostage are killed.
- Taliban insurgents kidnap four members of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) in the province of Wardak. The men, two Afghans, a Macedonian
and a citizen of Myanmar are freed three days later on September 29.
- January 2008 - Cyd Mizell, 49, an employee of the Asian Rural Life Development
Foundation (ARLDF), and her driver are kidnapped by unidentified gunmen while
heading to Kandahar. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
- ARLDF said on Wednesday on its Web site that it could not confirm their
deaths but they have received information indicating that the two aid workers
have been killed.
Militants ambushed an opium poppy eradication force in southern Afghanistan, sparking clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, police said Thursday February 28, 2008. Four other militants died when a bomb went off. Insurgents ambushed the drug eradication force Wednesday in Marja district of Helmand province, killing one police officer and wounding two. Police attacked the militants afterward, killing 25 Taliban fighters, including a senior regional militant commander.
A Canadian soldier nearing the end of his tour in Afghanistan was killed Sunday March 2, 2008, by a roadside bomb in a village about 45 kilometres west of Kandahar City known as Mushan.
A suicide attack on a government office guarded by Afghan and NATO troops in the Yaqoubi district of Khost province, eastern Afghanistan, left two alliance soldiers dead -probably American- and four more wounded on Monday March 3, 2008. The explosion also killed two Afghan civilians and wounded three Afghan policemen.
Turkey launched air strikes Tuesday March 4, 2008, on rebel targets in northern Iraq. Turkish warplane targeted the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the Sidekan area of Arbil province, but no casualties had been reported. The latest strikes came about a week after Turkey wrapped up across-border ground military operation going after the PKK members. Earlier in the day, helicopters bombed the Sidekan region.
Aon March 6, 2008, a MILITARY court in Afghanistan sentenced an Afghan soldier to death for killing a US-led coalition troop and four Afghan colleagues last year. The court found him guilty of the fatal shootings, which took place after an argument in Guzara town of Herat.
Afghanistan, March 9, 2008:
- A roadside bomb killed a soldier from the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force, (ISAF) and wounded another in the province of Paktia. Most
troops operating in eastern Afghanistan are American.
- A Canadian soldier died when his vehicle hit an explosive device.
- More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2007.
- Here are figures for foreign military deaths in Afghanistan since the Taliban
government was toppled in 2001:
. United States 485
. Britain 89
. Canada 79
. Spain 23
. Germany 26
. Other nations 73
. TOTAL: 775
Four civilians have been killed in an airstrike called in by British forces, following a Taliban ambush. Two women and two children died after Tuesday March 11, 2008's strike. Another person was injured. British troops called in air support after being ambushed by Taliban forces in the south of Helmand Province.
Bomb blasts struck two NATO convoys in Afghanistan Wednesday March 12, 2008, wounding four foreign soldiers, while five Afghan civilians were killed in separate extremist-linked unrest.
Afghan and international forces killed 41 Taliban militants in a battle in southern Afghanistan, and a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops left six Afghan civilians dead in Kabul we were told on Thursday March 13, 2008. None of the four American troops travelling in the two armoured vehicles of the convoy was badly. Six Afghan civilians were killed and up to 20 others wounded in the blast. Insurgents detonated 160 suicide attacks in 2007, a record number. Last year was the deadliest in the country since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion with more than 8,000 insurgency related deaths.
Taliban insurgents have destroyed another mobile phone tower in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Saturday March 15, 2008. The militants tied the hands of the guards and abandoned them without harming in the area. It is the 10th mobile phone tower that has been destroyed by the Taliban since the outfit gave ultimatum for mobile telecommunication companies to stop nighttime signals in southern Afghanistan's Taliban-held areas late last month.
Sweden will send more soldiers to reinforce its troops in Afghanistan we were told on Saturday March 15, 2008. The Swedish military force in the war-torn Afghanistan is expected to be increased from 350 soldiers to 500 within a year however the Swedish government has not yet formally approved the reinforcements. The Swedish forces could stay in Afghanistan for a period of five to 15 years as some European countries usually stationed their troops in the Balkan region for 10-15 years.
A missile strike against a suspected militant hideout in Wana, the administrative centre of the South Waziristan tribal region, a Pakistan tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Sunday March 16, 2008is said to have killed at least 18 people. Residents say the missile strike destroyed the house of a suspected militant tribal leader identified as Noorullah, and most of the deaths occurred immediately. There were foreign nationals, including some Arabs present in the compound when the attack took place. It is not clear who fired the missiles, but U.S-led coalition forces based in Afghanistan have in the past carried out attacks inside the Pakistani border region, a known safe haven for al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Sgt. Jason Boyes, a Canadian soldier, was killed on March 16, 2008, when he stepped on an "explosive device" during a joint patrol with Afghan and Canadian forces in the dangerous Panjwaii district west of Kandahar.
On March 17, 2008, a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan killed seven people, including three civilians and three NATO soldiers. An interpreter was also killed and 10 others were wounded, including four soldiers and six Afghan civilians, in the attack in the town of Gereshk in Helmand province. Two of the NATO soldiers were Danish and one was a Czech.
NATO is rejecting claims by Afghan residents that several civilians were killed during an air raid on March 17, 2008. NATO said it killed an estimated 12 insurgents in an isolated area of Helmand's Sangin district. NATO said it attacked after militants riding in three vehicles fired on coalition forces. NATO said there was no evidence of civilian casualties. Local lawmakers and Sangin residents said at least 50 people were killed when NATO jets bombed an area where people were playing games. They said at least half the victims were civilians.
U.S.-led coalition troops killed three men, two children and a woman, in a raid in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday March 19, 2008. The victims, from the families of two brothers, were all civilians, but the U.S. military said the two brothers were involved in conducting bombing operations using improvised explosive devices.
On Saturday March 22, 2008, Afghan and NATO forces killed dozens of Taliban militants in an air and ground strike in the southern province of Uruzgan a day after three international soldiers were killed in rebel bombings.
Gunmen killed five members of a mine-clearing nongovernmental team and wounded seven more in a relatively peaceful northern province on Sunday March 23, 2008. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but it was a sign of the continuing lawlessness that plagues the country, including shootings, bombings and kidnappings.
On March 25, 2008, gunmen attacked a group of police along Afghanistan's border with Iran, killing four police and two civilians. Four police from the country's border force were killed along with two civilians. The gunmen fled the scene.
On Wednesday March 26, 2008, Polish President Lech Kaczynski has signed a decision prolonging the stay of Polish forces in Afghanistan. At present Polish soldiers are located in several military bases, but in the fall they are to move to one region. Unofficially Poles are to take over the responsibility for Ghanzi province. Recently the Polish government decided to increase the number of Polish soldiers from 1,200 to 1,600. Poland is also to send to Afghanistan its own helicopters.
Eight civilians were killed in a car bomb attack in a southern Afghan farmers' market. Seventeen people are hurt, including five children. A local police chief says there were no security personnel in the area and accuses the Taliban of targeting civilians to "create fear in the people."
A Danish soldier was killed and another wounded and three German troops were also hurt in attacks blamed on insurgents linked to the Taliban. Danish forces were on patrol Wednesday March 27, 2008, in the southern province of Helmand province when they came under fire. In the far north two German soldiers were seriously injured and a third slightly wounded when a blast struck their vehicle near the city of Kunduz.
Three Dutch soldiers from NATO-led forces were hospitalized on Sunday March 30, 2008, after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device near the town of Tarin Kowt. One soldier lost both his legs in the explosion and his condition was critical.
Two British Marines and a Danish soldier were killed Monday March 31, 2008, in the southern province of Helmand, days before a NATO summit is to hear appeals for more forces for the fight against the extremist Taliban. The Danish soldier was killed Monday and two other Danes were injured in heavy battles with Taliban fighters alongside British troops near the town of Gereshk. The British Marines were killed when an explosion blew up their vehicle on Sunday as they were on a routine patrol.
The day before a key NATO summit in Bucharest, the French government announced Tuesday April 1, 2008, it would send several hundred troops to reinforce the alliance's operation in Afghanistan. The decision by centre-right government to send more soldiers to Afghanistan is highly controversial in France -with the opposition Socialist party strongly criticizing it during a parliamentary debate. A recent poll also showed 68 percent of French opposed sending any new troops to Afghanistan.
On April 3, 2008, we were told that the British Prime Minister is considering advice from the Ministry of Defence to increase the force in Afghanistan amid concern that Britain's Nato allies are still not doing enough to support the international mission. The additional forces would be mainly intended to bolster reconstruction and development work with some soldiers helping train the Afghan National Army and support the Afghan police. At present, there are 47,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan from more than 40 countries. However, the lion's share of the most dangerous work is done by Britain, the US, Canada and Denmark.
New Zealand is sending reinforcements to Afghanistan we were told on April 3, 2008, to bolster the security of its 120-member provincial reconstruction team troop in Bamiyan province. Eighteen extra troops (!) will be posted to Bamiyan during April, lifting the total strength of the team to 140 troops.
At least three policemen and a civilian were killed Friday April 4, 2008, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police vehicle in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the Helmand province. The sae day another Canadian soldier was killed when an armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar city. He is the 82nd Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002.
NATO and Afghan troops killed 15 Taliban militants during separate raids in the Zhari district of Kandahar province on Saturday April 5, 2008. Also on Saturday, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says police arrested a Taliban commander, Abdul Jabar, who was responsible for organizing attacks on US, NATO and Afghan forces. He served as deputy to captured militant leader Mullah Mansoor Dadullah.
On April 7, 2008, we were told that another 450 British soldiers are set to be sent to Afghanistan from autumn for two years of intensive fighting. Such a move would leave the UK in a better position to take over the volatile southern provinces and run the Regional Command (South) area from autumn until at least spring 2010. Washington wants Britain, rather than the Netherlands, to take charge of the rotating responsibility of Nato forces even if the command of Nato forces is meant to be handed over to the Dutch in November. US figures do not believe that the Dutch have enough experience to take charge of operations on the ground. So far, 91 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
Taliban insurgents ambushed a group of road construction workers and their security guards early on Tuesday April 8, 2008, in Zabul Province killing 18 of the guards and wounding seven. The group of surveyors and labourers were well guarded and moving in a convoy through a valley to start work on the road when insurgents opened fire on the guards. No one in the construction crew was hurt because the guards took the brunt of the attack and battled the Taliban for several hours before an Afghan Army unit arrived.
At least eight civilians were killed by a suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy in Kandahar on Thursday April 10, 2008. It caused no casualties among Nato because the convoy had passed when it happened. Twenty people, including two policemen, were wounded. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
US troop levels in Afghanistan now -April 10, 2008- top 32,000, the highest number of American forces in the country since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.
Afghan and foreign troops have killed 24 Taliban militants in an operation in two areas of the southern Zabul province Friday April 11, 2008. Eight other militants were wounded in clashes and airstrikes. There were no casualties among Afghan and foreign troops.
Two Indian engineers belonging to the Border Roads Organisation were killed and five of them wounded on Saturday April 12, 2008, in a suicide blast near the Minar area in the Nimroz province. The blast took place when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of Indian road-workers.
Officials revealed Friday April 11, 2008, that France will add about 3,000 troops to its forces already in Afghanistan. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner did not give details on the exact figure that the defence ministry is sending.
Taliban insurgents attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing 11 policemen on Monday April 14, 2008 in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province. Khan says preliminary reports indicate one of the policemen had links with the Taliban.
Militants launched two attacks against the police, killing eight officers, including four who were destroying a field of opium poppies in the province's Maiwand district we were told on Sunday April 14, 2008. Elsewhere in the south, Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in the Gereshk district of Helmand province overnight. Taliban militants ambushed one of the police trucks, killing four officers and wounding seven.
Two servicemen from the RAF Regiment were killed in a roadside blast in the Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, on April 13, 2008. Two other service personnel were injured in the incident, which took place during a routine patrol.
Taliban militants crept through groves of grape vines and pomegranate trees to launch a surprise assault Monday April 14, 2008, killing 11 policemen sleeping on a mud floor in southern Afghanistan. Insurgents sneaked up on the police checkpoint, killing an officer on the roof of the compound who was supposed to be keeping watch but who may have fallen asleep. The attackers walked into the mud-brick compound and opened fire on officers sleeping on simple mattresses and blankets on the dirt floor. Of the 12 officers at the compound, 11 were killed and one was seriously wounded.
An explosion in southern Afghanistan killed two American NATO soldiers and injured two others Wednesday April 16, 2008. Separately, militants abducted and beheaded two Afghan men working at a US military base in the eastern Kunar province. The two men were abducted Monday after they left the base in Korangal Valley. Their bodies were discovered Tuesday. More than 1,000 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency related violence so far this year.
Afghan and foreign troops battled militants who ambushed their patrol in central Afghanistan on Thursday April 17, 2008, leaving nine Taliban fighters dead. The clash occurred in the Gilan district of Ghazni province. There were no casualties among the troops. Authorities recovered the militants' bodies along with their weapons and six motorbikes. Separately, a roadside bomb struck a Canadian military vehicle near Spin Boldak, southern Afghanistan. No one died in the blast.
A roadside bomb attack on a patrol of Dutch soldiers killed the son of the Netherlands' top military officer on Friday April 18, 2008, a day after his father took command of the country's armed forces. Lt. Dennis van Uhm, 23, was one of two Dutch soldiers killed in the explosion near Camp Holland, the Dutch military base in Uruzgan province. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
France will deploy an additional battalion of troops to Afghanistan before
the end of August we were told on Sunday April 20, 2008. President Nicolas
Sarkozy promised earlier this month to send a battalion of around 700 soldiers
to eastern Afghanistan, allowing US troops there to be sent to reinforce a
2,500-strong Canadian contingent in the south. France currently has around
1,500 troops in Afghanistan.
An Indian working for a private company, Mohammed Nayeem, a Nepali and an
Afghan driver were kidnapped near Herat in Afghanistan by suspected Taliban
elements on April 21, 2008. The Afghan driver was subsequently released; he
was being questioned by the authorities in Herat.
Denmark evacuated staff from its embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan because of terror threats following the reprint in Danish newspapers of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad, officials said Wednesday April 23, 2008. Embassy employees would continue to work out of "secret locations" in those cities, and would be reachable by phone and e-mail.
Three people have been killed and about 10 injured on Sunday April 27, 2008, in an attack on a military parade in Kabul attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Security forces whisked Mr Karzai and away and hundreds fled as shots rang out. An MP and a 10-year-old child were among the dead. The parade was a celebration to mark 16 years since the overthrow of the country's Soviet-backed rule. A spokesman for the Taleban said the movement had carried out the attack.
On Sunday April 28, 2008, we were told that U.S. Marines are now working alongside British forces in Helmand province -the world's largest opium-poppy region and site of some of the fiercest Taliban resistance over the last two years. The Taliban controls 10 per cent of Afghanistan -much of that in Helmand.
A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a drug-eradication team in Nangarhar province, outside the provincial capital of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday April 29, 2008, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 40 others. Twelve police officers were among the dead in the assault. The insurgency is fuelled with profits from the drug trade. The seven other people killed were civilians. The attack was carefully coordinated, with insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and raking the area with gunfire immediately after the explosion. The injured included two Australian journalists.
Afghan and foreign troops called in air strikes that left at least 23 insurgents dead and 20 others wounded on Monday April 29, 2008, in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province.
Nine people are dead and 10 were wounded after roadside bombs hit a NATO patrol and two other vehicles in Afghanistan. An alliance soldier was killed and four others injured when an explosion rocked a NATO patrol in Logar province, south of Kabul, Wednesday April 30, 2008.Roadside bombs struck two civilian cars in southern Kandahar province also Wednesday. Eight people were killed and six wounded.
A British soldier has been killed and three others from the Household Cavalry Regiment injured in an explosion in Afghanistan on May 3, 2008. Their vehicle hit a mine while on a routine patrol in Helmand province in the south of the country. The death brings the number of UK troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 95.
U.S.-led coalition troops killed several militants during a raid on several compounds in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb in the south wounded five people, including three policemen on Monday May 5, 2008. The troops also detained a militant suspected of involvement in helping foreign fighters and conducting bomb attacks in the region. Over 1,200 people -mostly m
Twelve people including three foreign soldiers were killed in bombings and gun battles in Afghanistan, including one firefight between police and opium growers, on Wednesday May 7, 2008. The worst gun battle erupted when farmers, whom police said were linked to "armed opposition groups" -a reference to Taliban and other rebels- resisted anti-drugs forces trying to destroy their illegal but lucrative crop. A policeman and four locals were killed in the fight in Laghman province's Alishing area. Five policemen were wounded.
A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday May 7, 2008, killing two officers, while another blast in the same area killed a suspected would-be suicide bomber. The attack on the police car occurred just outside the capital of Khost province as the officers travelled from their homes to work.
Police killed six Taliban insurgents, including a militant-appointed provincial governor, during a clash in the western province of Ghor Thursday May 8, 2008. A militant police chief and a Taliban-appointed governor of Ghor were among those killed in the clash. At least two police officers and a civilian were wounded in the fighting.
Two foreign soldiers were killed in action in Afghanistan on Friday May 9, 2008, while more than a dozen Taliban-linked rebels were killed in a separate battle involving air strikes. A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was killed in the eastern province of Paktia, which borders Pakistan. A trooper with the separate US-led coalition was killed meanwhile in Kapisa, adjoining Kabul, when a bomb struck a military vehicle. The nationality of the soldiers was not released. The latest deaths take to 53 the number of international soldiers to die in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat.
A bomb that wounded two Canadian soldiers near Kandahar on Friday May16, 2008, was carried by an 11-year-old boy and was detonated by remote control, killing the boy. The two Canadian soldiers were not badly hurt, but the blast also struck two Afghan soldiers patrolling with them, one of whom later died. The four soldiers were airlifted back to Kandahar Airfield for treatment after being attacked in the village of Nalgham, west of the city of Kandahar in southeastern Afghanistan.
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was freed unharmed three months after he vanished in a tribal area in Pakistan's border region we were told on Saturday May 17, 2008. He disappeared February 11 along with his driver and bodyguard as they drove from the Pakistani city of Peshawar toward the border.
Afghan intelligence agents freed Sunday May 18, 2008, an Indian, Muhammad Naeem, and a Nepalese national, Gurong Karna Bahudur, kidnapped a month ago by unknown militants in western Afghanistan. The men were in good condition and undergoing medical check-ups before flying home after their ordeal. Both were contracted to supply logistics to Afghan police training camps. Intelligence forces had located the place where the two were held and raided overnight.
On Saturday May 17, 2008, insurgents hit a NATO helicopter that was carrying the governor of Helmand Province, Ghulab Mangal, into Musa Qala. The helicopter was damaged in the attack by a rocket-propelled grenade, but no one was wounded.
A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police convoy in southern Afghanistan on Sunday May 18, 2008, killing four civilians and wounding eight other people. The suicide bomber was trying to kill the district police chief in Musa Qala in Helmand Province, but instead killed four civilians. Five police officers and three other people were wounded. The bomber also died. Several shops were damaged in the blast. The district police chief was not harmed. More than 1,200 people, most of them militants, have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year.
A British soldier died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on May 20, 2008, bringing to 96 the number of UK personnel killed in the country since the 2001 invasion. The soldier was on foot patrol in Musa Qaleh in Helmand province at the time. No one else was hurt. Another NATO soldier was also killed by "enemy hostile action".
Taliban have blasted two US tanks in the southeastern province of Paktia
ion May 21, 2008. All the US occupants of the tanks have been killed according
to the Taliban. A US-led coalition troops' spokesman confirmed the clash and
claimed one US tank has been blasted and two coalition forces wounded.
A suicide bomber hit a Canadian military convoy in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan on Sunday May25, 2008, killing one boy, two other boys were wounded. A U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed in an operation. Three soldiers were wounded and were sent for treatment at the military airfield. Separately, a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed in the western Farah province.
A British soldier was killed in a roadside blast on Sunday May 25, 2008, near Sangin in Helmand province, one of Afghanistan's most violent regions. A Lithuanian soldier and two Afghan civilians were shot and killed last week when about 1,000 Afghans gathered in western Afghanistan to protest the Quran incident.
Afghanistan, Tuesday May 27, 2008:
- Roadside blasts and clashes killed at least 22 Afghan policemen and civilians
while a US-led coalition soldier and several Taliban militants were also killed
in separate incidents.
- A mini-bus carrying civilian passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb
in the Del Aram district of Farah province. One civilian was wounded.
- In the southern province of Kandahar, Taliban militants attacked a border
police outpost in Shorabak district on Monday. Roadside bombs then blew up
two police vehicles bringing reinforcements to the post. Eight policemen and
one civilian were killed in both the clash and roadside attacks.
-Four Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside
bomb in the Charkh district of southern Logar province.
- A foreign soldier died in the south-eastern province of Paktika province.
The nationality of the deceased soldier was not disclosed but most of the
troops there are US soldiers. More than 60 international soldiers have been
killed this year, while a total of 232 NATO soldiers were killed in Taliban-led
violence last year.
-Several militants were killed in the Garmsir district of southern Helmand
province on Monday.
- An unspecified number of militants were killed and nine detained on Monday
in Zurmat district of south-eastern province of Paktia.
- In another incident, one civilian was killed and three others were wounded
in a roadside attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar Monday.
Italy is considering changing the rules for the deployment of its troops in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on May 27, 2008. Some of Italy's 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan might be redeployed to the south to fight the Taliban if NATO requested it. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has since September 2006 been pressing Germany, Italy and Spain to lift their ban on sending their troops into Afghan combat zones.
A suicide car bomb attack struck a US-led convoy of soldiers in the east of Kabul on Thursday May 28, 2008. At least three civilians were killed by the blast and four others were wounded in the attack. No soldiers were reported to have been injured but armoured military vehicles were damaged in the explosion. Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the blast. Earlier, NATO warplanes struck a compound in the Farah province in southern Afghanistan, killing 24 alleged Taliban fighters.
On June 1, 2008, Japan is considering whether to send its first troops to Afghanistan on a reconstruction mission. Tokyo has been a major donor to Afghanistan, pledging 1.3 billion dollars since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. However, its pacifist constitution limits its military activities, and it does not have troops among the international forces helping Afghanistan fight the resurgent Islamic extremist movement.
Three soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died Tuesday June 3, 2008, in eastern and southern Afghanistan while U.S. Army General David D. McKiernan took charge of the multi-national force in Kabul. Two ISAF soldiers died during a patrol in eastern Afghanistan as another ISAF soldier, a Canadian platoon commander, Capt. Richard (Steve) Leary, was shot and killed on June 3, 2008, during a firefight with insurgents in the Panjwayi District of southern Afghanistan. He is the 84th Canadian military death in Afghanistan. Medics fought desperately to save the captain's life but he was pronounced dead on arrival at Kandahar Air Field. He died of wounds after an engagement with insurgents in the south, the military alliance said in statements. One more ISAF soldier and one local national were wounded in the incident which occurred in the eastern region, the ISAF added.
Afghanistan Wednesday June 4, 2008:
- A suicide car bomber rammed a convoy of NATO-led forces in Spin Boldak,
killing two Afghan children and wounding three soldiers.
- Another suicide car bomber drove into a government building in the southeastern
province of Khost wounding 19 civilians and four police.
- U.S-led coalition troops killed more than a dozen insurgents on Tuesday
in the southern province of Helmand after the militants ambushed the soldiers'
convoy following a roadside bomb that hit a vehicle.
- Six Taliban insurgents were killed in clashes with NATO-led and Afghan forces
after the militants ambushed their convoy in an area of eastern Kunar province.
Only one Afghan soldier was wounded in the ambush and clashes.
- U.S.-led coalition troops detained six militants, including a known mid-level
Taliban leader, during a search operation in Nahre Saraj district in the southern
province of Helmand on Tuesday.
- Coalition forces detained two militants in Ghazni province during an operation
to disrupt militant activities on Tuesday.
A powerful tribal leader was gunned down outside his home in Kandahar by suspected Taliban Friday June 6, 2008. Muhammad Akbar Khakrezwal, a former commander and supporter of the government, was shot by two men on a motorbike, a preferred tactic by Taliban gunmen. He died before he reached the hospital. Mr. Khakrezwal's brother, the police chief of Kabul, was killed in a suicide bombing in Kandahar June 6, 2005. Both men belonged to the powerful Alokozai tribe, which has strongly opposed the Taliban. The leader of the Alokozai tribe, Mullah Naquibullah, also died after being badly wounded in a roadside bombing in March last year.
Gunmen on Saturday June 7, 2008, kidnapped a Pakistani engineer working on a road outside. The engineer, employed by an Afghan road construction company, was abducted after the gunmen opened fire and injured his driver.
Eleven police officers were killed in an ambush south of the capital, and a local journalist was found shot dead in southern Helmand Province after he was abducted by gunmen from his house on Saturday June 7, 2008. An Afghan journalist, he was working for the BBC World Service. Abdul Samad Rohani went missing in the town of Lashkar Gar in Helmand province on Saturday. His body was found in a cemetery the following day. Rohani was the Helmand reporter for the BBC World Service's Pashto language service. Also in Helmand Province on Sunday, three British soldiers were killed and a fourth was wounded by a suicide bomber.
A Canadian soldier was killed in an accident while on night patrol Saturday June 7, 2008 after he fell into a deep open well in the darkness in an area west of Kandahar City. Capt. Jonathan Sutherland Snyder was the second Canadian captain to die on foot patrol in less than a week in the insurgent-ripe territory of Zhari District.
The U.S. military said on June 12, 2008, that an American soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and a Marine has died in a non-combat related incident elsewhere in Iraq.
Afghanistan, Friday June 13, 2008:
- A soldier serving with NATO-led forces and an Afghan policeman were killed
in separate Taliban ambushes in the southern province of Zabul. Five police
and three foreign soldiers were wounded.
- Seven Taliban fighters were killed in a NATO air strike in Ghazni province
overnight.
- In Paktia, two women and more than a dozen Taliban militants, were killed
in air bombardment by U.S.-led forces late on Thursday.
- Also in Paktia, four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a clash with Taliban
insurgents on Thursday.
Four US Marines were killed in a roadside attack on Saturday June 14, 2008, while five Taliban militants and a policeman were killed elsewhere in the country. Another soldier was seriously wounded in the attack that took place in south-western province of Farah. Majority of the soldiers serving under the banner of coalition forces are Americans. More than 60 international forces with most of US soldiers were killed in militancy this year.
British reinforcements are being deployed in Afghanistan as they face fierce resistance from the Taliban and doubts grow about the West's strategy in Afghanistan. Britain has 7,800 troops in Afghanistan and Des Browne, the defence secretary, will tell MPs on Monday that at least 200 more are being deployed.
U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed more than 15 insurgents on June
14, 2008, during a hunt for inmates who fled prison after a Taliban attack
that set hundreds free, while Afghan forces recaptured 20 prisoners including
seven former Taliban inmates. Five militants were also captured during the
Saturday operation, it said.
Thirty-five insurgents were killed by Afghan and US-led coalition forces over the weekend in two separate clashes sparked by militant ambushes, the coalition said on Monday June 16, 2008. In the first clash on Saturday militants attacked a joint Afghan and coalition patrol in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, the "enemy" positions were destroyed and 15 militants were killed. On Sunday, militants attacked another joint reconnaissance patrol in the Deh Chopan district of southern Zabul province with rockets, mortars and small arms fire. The coalition soldiers returned fire and air strikes left 20 militants dead while no coalition or Afghan forces were wounded in either battle.
Four UK soldiers, one of them a woman, died east of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, on Tuesday June 17, 2008, after their vehicle was caught in an explosion. The woman, believed to a member of the Intelligence Corps, is the first female UK soldier to have died in the country.
Four US-led coalition soldiers have been killed by a bomb explosion in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on June 20, 2008. Two more soldiers were seriously wounded when a roadside bomb detonated as the men were conducting operations. The nationalities of the soldiers were not immediately known.
Three Canadian soldiers were injured Saturday June 21, 2008, after the armoured vehicle they were riding in rolled over in Kandahar City. One soldier, who suffered serious injuries, was flown by helicopter to the hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Two other soldiers were treated for minor injuries.
Rockets fired from Pakistan hit a residential area in Khost, eastern Afghanistan killing four civilians on Sunday June 22, 2008, in one of three cross-border attacks. A woman and three children were killed. Eight people were wounded in the attack, most of them women.
Afghanistan, Monday June 23, 2008:
- U.S.led coalition and Afghan troops killed several Taliban insurgents in
an air and ground assault in Sangin district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday.
- U.S.led coalition air strikes killed around 55 militants and wounded another
25 following an abortive insurgents ambush in the Zerok and Urgun districts
of eastern Afghanistan on Friday. Three "key Taliban leaders" were
also killed.
- Several militants were killed during U.S.led coalition operation in the
southern Afghan province of Helmand of Sunday.
A helicopter belonging to U.S.-led coalition forces crashed on Wednesday June 25, 2008, in the northeastern province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan, but there were no injuries to the soldiers on board and the cause of the crash is under investigation. However, a Taliban spokesman said insurgents had shot down the aircraft and killed everyone on board.
On June 26, 2008, militants attacked troops from the United States-led coalition who were patrolling south of Kabul, killing three of them and an Afghan interpreter. The victims' nationalities were not released. The convoy was attacked as it passed through Wardak Province.
A soldier in the US-led coalition was killed and seven others wounded, including two Afghan soldiers, in a firefight in western Afghanistan. Four militants were killed in separate fighting in the country's west. The firefight in Gulistan district in Farah province on Thursday June 26, 2008, occurred as Afghan and coalition troops were on a joint reconnaissance patrol.
A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan on June 27, 2008, after his patrol vehicle rolled over. Two other soldiers were injured in the same incident but their injuries are not life threatening.
Troops fought gun battles and called in airstrikes against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 32 militants. Attacks elsewhere killed five workers for a construction firm and a police officer. The major battle began when militants armed with guns and rockets attacked Afghan and coalition troops as their patrol passed through Uruzgan province on Thursday June 26, 2008. The troops returned fire and called in airstrikes which killed three of the rebels.
A British soldier has been killed by a mine explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier stepped on the mine while on patrol in Lashkar Gar on Saturday June 28, 2008.
An explosion destroyed the home of a militant in Pakistan's Khyber region on Monday June 30, 2008, killing seven people, on the third day of an offensive against Islamists threatening the city of Peshawar. A militant chief said he believed the blast was caused by a missile but a government official in the region said explosives stored at the house in the town of Bara went off accidently.
Pakistani troops on June 29, 2008, ousted Islamic militants from strongholds
near the Khyber Pass, the main supply route for British troops in Afghanistan,
a day after the government launched a major offensive. The operation was the
first by the new government of Pakistan since it defeated allies of President
Pervez Musharraf in elections in February and then began controversial peace
talks with the Taliban.
June 2008, was the deadliest month for US troops in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001, as resilient and emboldened insurgents have stepped up attacks in an effort to wrest control of the embattled country. The 28 US combat deaths recorded in June demonstrate a new resurgence of the Taliban. Taliban units and other insurgent fighters have reconstituted in the country's south and east, aided by easy passage from mountain redoubts in neighbouring Pakistan's lawless regions.
Five militants were detained on Tuesday July 1, 2008, during an operation launched by the US-led Coalition forces to disrupt Taliban activities in the province of Helmand. Coalition forces searched compounds in Nad Ali district of Helmand targeting a senior Taliban leader and IED (improvised explosive device), facilitator in the area. During the search, the force discovered multiple AK-47s and a cache of opium which were destroyed on the spot to prevent any possible militant use.
A suicide bomber targeting an Afghan governor killed four people Wednesday July 2, 2008, while a US-led coalition helicopter crew escaped without serious injury after being shot down south of the capital. The governor of Nimroz province, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, said a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up near the governor's convoy killing three police officers and a civilian. Azad said he was not wounded. Gunfire brought down the UH-60 Black Hawk in the Kherwar district of Logar province. The pilots landed the aircraft and evacuated before it caught fire. Another helicopter returned later and destroyed the wreckage with precision fire.
Gunmen killed eight officers at a checkpoint in Kandahar's Panjwayi district in southern Afghanistan on Thursday July 3, 2008. The gunmen threw a grenade at the checkpoint before spraying the policemen with gunfire. One officer was also wounded and two others are missing.
The American military said airstrikes by its attack helicopters in eastern Afghanistan hit two vehicles carrying insurgents on Friday July 4, 2008, but a provincial governor said 22 civilians, including a woman and a child, had been killed. Americans said the airstrikes in Nuristan Province had hit militants involved in an earlier mortar attack on an American military base. The helicopters identified the firing positions of the militants, tracked them down and destroyed the vehicles they were travelling in, he said. But the provincial governor, Tamim Nuristani, said "two civilian vehicles were hit by airstrikes" in the Waygal district of Nuristan, and 22 civilians, including the woman and the child, had been killed, and seven others wounded. Also Friday, gunmen in the southern province of Kandahar assassinated a Member of Parliament.
More than 20 militants have been killed and wounded during a battle with NATO-backed Afghan forces. The militants were travelling in two vehicles when they were attacked by Afghan troops aided by NATO airstrikes on Friday July 4, 2008 in northeastern Kunar province.
Another Canadian soldier died in the Panjwai district just west of Kandahar City. Pte. Colin William Wilmot suffered fatal wounds when an explosive device detonated while he was on a foot patrol early Sunday July 6, 2008.
On July 7, 2008, a suicide bomber rammed a car full of explosives into the gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing 41 people and injuring 141. Five embassy personnel were killed -India's defence attaché, a senior diplomat and two security guards- as well as an Afghan man. Five Afghans died at Indonesia's embassy nearby.
Two soldiers were killed and seven others injured Tuesday July 8, 2008, in two separate roadside bomb blasts in Afghanistan. One solder, probably American, was killed and four others wounded by a roadside bomb while on patrol in the eastern province of Kunar. In a separate attack an Australian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Uruzgan province. Signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, was the sixth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Three other soldiers were injured in the blast, two Australians and another from an unidentified allied country. In addition five insurgents and two policemen died during a clash in central Ghazni province and seven other militants were wounded during the battle in Muqur district.
On July 6, 2008, US warplanes bombed a wedding party in the Nangarhar province. As many as 30 civilians (later reports put the number of killed above 40), mostly women and children, were killed, and many more were severely wounded. This is the second incident in three days where US-led forces have killed Afghan civilians during airstrikes. On July 4, US helicopters killed 22 civilians during a raid in Nuristan Province. US officials have predictably denied the deaths, claiming that only "insurgents" were killed.
The bodies of two US soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found we were told on July 11, 2008. Spc Alex Jimenez and Pte Byron Fouty were seized in an ambush in May 2007 in an area south of Baghdad. The body of a third soldier, Pte Joseph Anzack Jr, was found in the Euphrates River a short after the attack. The Islamic State of Iraq, a group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, had released a video saying it killed all three men.
A suicide blast in a market place in southern Afghanistan on Saturday July 12, 2008, killed 17 civilians and four police officers. The attack occurred in a bazaar in Deh Rawud district in the province of Uruzgan. Thirty seven civilians and five policemen were wounded in the attack, adding that the death toll could rise. Most of the civilian victims were children. A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Saturday died from injuries sustained in an explosion in northern Afghanistan.
Taliban forces stormed a remote American base on July 13, 2008, killing nine US soldiers. The small American "combat outpost" in the Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar province came under heavy fire. US forces called in mortars, artillery, Apache helicopters and fighter jets. 15 US soldiers and four Afghan soldiers had been injured. It also claimed that the Taliban had sustained "very heavy losses". The Taliban claimed that the insurgents had overrun the base.
Reports of hundreds of troops massing near the Pakistani border are totally inaccurate Nato said on July 15, 2008. Coalition forces are not conducting any unusual activity near the border. Reports from local Pakistani officials and villagers said they have witnessed a build-up of troops across the border in Afghanistan.
US and Afghan special forces said they killed two influential tribal leaders, high-priority Taliban targets, and a number of their followers in the Zerkoh valley near Shindand, western Afghanistan, Wednesday July 16, 2008, amid more accusations of causing civilian casualties. Villagers said houses were bombed and civilians killed and wounded as they fled in the night. Local officials confirmed the bombardment and damage to houses but did not say if civilians were killed or injured. When soldiers came under fire from villagers the Special Forces called in airstrikes on the village, resulting in 57 deaths, including women and children. That incident, coming after marines had killed 19 civilians in eastern Afghanistan the previous month, caused an outcry from Afghan politicians and humanitarian organizations and led the NATO commander of the time, General Dan McNeill, to issue orders to his forces to take extra care to avoid civilian casualties.
Two French nationals working with the humanitarian agency Action against Hunger (ACF) have been reported kidnapped at Nili, Day Kundi province, central Afghanistan on July 18, 2008, and are alive. The abduction took place in the house where ACF teams were sleeping. Some armed persons entered the house after having tied up the guards stationed outside. They then kidnapped the two expatriates before fleeing aboard several vehicles.
Four Afghan police and five civilians were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday July 20, 2008, in air strikes launched by the NATO-led force after police and troops mistook each other for Taliban insurgents. During an engagement, each side thinking the other side the Taliban. The ANA (Afghan National Army) requested air support, and ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force) bombed the police post that killed nine police and injured five police. The police chief of Farah's Anar Dara district, on the border with Iran, was among the wounded and is in a serious condition. Separately, the Nato-led Isaf said it had "accidentally" killed at least four civilians in Paktika province.
One of the five British hostages held captive by militants in Iraq killed himself we were told on July 20, 2008. The tape from the group holding the men alleges that a man known as Jason died on 25 May 2008. Armed militants, disguised as police officers, kidnapped the four bodyguards and a computer expert at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad in May 2007.
A British soldier died after being wounded in an ambush in Kajaki district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan; the soldier was initially wounded and later died, and two other troops were injured. The same day U.S.-led coalition troops killed several militants near the capital. Militants also killed a district police chief in the eastern Nangarhar province Wednesday July 23, 2008, after striking his convoy with a roadside bomb.
A British Army dog handler has been killed in Afghanistan. The soldier, from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, died on Thursday July 24, 2008, after coming under fire while on routine patrol. Six other soldiers were injured in the incident in Helmand Province. The death brings the total number of British service personnel who have died in Afghanistan to 112.
Afghanistan Friday July 25, 2008:
- Afghan police killed a Taliban commander, Mullah Osman, after he attacked
a police checkpoint with a group of insurgents in the northeastern province
of Takhar.
- Afghan soldiers killed five insurgents and detained nine more in the western
province of Farah.
- Coalition forces killed one militant in the eastern province of Kapisa after
he threatened the soldiers.
On July 26, 2008, British troops killed four civilians and injured three others after a vehicle failed to stop at a checkpoint. Soldiers opened fire on the vehicle in the Sangin district of Helmand, suspecting that those inside were insurgents.
Air strikes against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province left over two dozens of people including 21 rebels dead early Sunday July 27, 2008. A group of 30 armed insurgents crossed border in attempt to target government interest in Spera district but Afghan troops with the support of airpower of the international troops retaliated killing 21 rebels. The remaining nine insurgents had fled the area.
More than 50 militants were killed after more than 100 attacked a government centre Sunday July 27, 2008, in the Spera district of Khowst province, near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. American troops and aircraft assisted Afghan forces during the battle. The remaining rebels fled into Pakistan. Two policemen died and four were wounded. On Saturday, several militants were killed and four were detained after they fired on troops conducting searches in neighbouring Paktia province. More than 2,700 people, most of them militants, have died in insurgency-related violence this year.
On July 28, 2008, Canadian troops have killed two young children by opening fire on a car that they feared was about to attack their convoy. Troops opened fire on the car in Kandahar province after its driver ignored repeated signals to keep its distance. A boy and his sister had been killed, and their parents had received medical attention.
Afghanistan Monday July 28, 2008:
- A lawmaker survived a roadside bomb blast but three of his body guards were
killed and three more wounded when the device hit their convoy in the southeastern
province of Paktia.
- Afghan soldiers backed by international air support killed and wounded more
than 10 insurgents when the militants engaged them with rocket-propelled grenades
and heavy machinegun fire in the southern province of Kandahar.
- Afghan soldiers killed and wounded five insurgents during clashes in Marja
district in the southern province of Helmand.
- A roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers near Lashkar Gah, the provincial
capital of Helmand.
- U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants in air and ground assaults
targeting a Taliban leader in the southern Gairo district of Ghazni province.
- A British soldier was shot dead while on foot patrol in the southern Nad
Ali district of Helmand province.
- A Taliban bomb maker was killed with four others in a house while making
a device in the eastern Chaoki district of Kunar province.
- An explosion on a road killed one civilian in the northern province of Takhar.
- A blast near a government building wounded two civilians in northern Pul-i-Khumri
city.
Another British soldier has been killed during a routine patrol in Helmand province in Afghanistan on July 29, 2008; 16 Britons died since the start of June. The patrol encountered enemy fighters and, during an exchange of fire, one British soldier was injured in an explosion. He was airlifted from the scene to Camp Bastion but died of his injuries during the flight.
Afghanistan, Friday August 1, 2008:
- Three Taliban militants were killed when a roadside bomb they were planting
exploded prematurely. A doctor working for the Taliban was among those killed
in the blast in the eastern Paktika province. The bomb was being placed on
a main road.
- Gunmen kidnapped Abdul Ghiaz Haqmal, a district chief in Kunar's Marwara
district.
- When police went to investigate the case, militants opened fire, killing
an officer and wounding a civilian.
As of Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Of those, the military reports 347 were killed by hostile action. Outside the Afghan region, the Defence Department reports 65 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen. There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.
An aid group said on Saturday August 2, 2008, that two French humanitarian aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan last month have been released. The two hostages are "apparently healthy" and will be sent back to France soon. The two aid workers were taken by unidentified gunmen in the Afghan province of Day Kundi on July 18.
The Czech Defence Ministry said on August 4, 2008, it plans to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan by about 200 next year to reach some 600 in 2009. The plan needs full government and parliament approval.
Afghanistan Monday August 4, 2008:
- Afghan and NATO forces killed 17 insurgents in a joint operation which finished
on Sunday in southern Helmand province: two Afghan soldiers were wounded.
- An explosion at a mosque killed the Imam and another man on Monday in southeastern
Paktika.
- Insurgents killed an army officer and wounded two more in an ambush in Maidan
Wardak.
- Taliban insurgents killed a district police chief and four other policemen
and wounded seven in an attack in Zana Khan, Ghazni province on Sunday. A
group of men complained to the governor about what it said was the killing
of five civilians and arrest of three others in a raid by foreign forces in
another area of Ghazni overnight.
- U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants and detained one during
an operation to target militants in the Tala Wa Barf district of the northern
Baghlan province on Sunday.
- Taliban rebels killed three Afghan police officers and seized their vehicle
in the eastern province of Paktia on Sunday.
Clashes between the police and Taliban militants have left over 16 militants dead in the restive southern Afghanistan we were told on Tuesday August 5, 2008. A group of Taliban rebels ambushed and engaged with the police Monday evening in Panj Wayi district. On Monday the police also launched three separate operations targeting Taliban militants respectively in the Khash Uruzgan, Chora and Charchinu districts.
A US-led coalition soldier has died in hospital on Wednesday August 6, 2008, two days after he was injured in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan's Farah province. Afghan forces killed four 'enemies' in Farah province's Dearam District. Elsewhere, several militants were killed and two others were detained in Nijrab district of north-eastern province of Kapisa on Tuesday.
A dual German-Afghan citizen taken hostage two weeks ago in Kabul has been released on August 7, 2008. The unnamed abductee was freed from a house in Parwan province and three kidnappers were taken into custody.
Six Canadian soldiers were treated and released from hospital after sustaining injuries in a gun battle with insurgents early Friday August 8, 2008. The fire fight erupted in the Zhari district west of Kandahar city after the soldiers were forced to evacuate their vehicle when they struck an improvised explosive device. The soldiers were ambushed by the insurgents soon after leaving their vehicle, and wounded in the ensuing gun battle.
The deadliest three months for American forces in Afghanistan have pushed
the U.S. death toll to at least 500 we were told on August 8, 2008. Larger,
more sophisticated militant attacks have also caused a sharp rise in Afghan
civilian deaths - at least 472 in the first seven months of the year, most
in suicide bombings. At least 600 Afghan civilians were killed from January
through July, a 30 percent increase from the same period last year. That includes
at least 128 killed by U.S. or NATO forces. There are about 33,000 U.S. troops
in Afghanistan, the highest since the war began. The U.S. military suffered
65 deaths in May, June and July, by far the deadliest three-month period in
Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. The previous deadliest three-month
period was in the spring of 2005, with 45 U.S. deaths.
Clashes between Afghan security forces and militants killed 20 suspected insurgents and injured 14others in Afghanistan's western Farah province Friday August 8, 2008. Arab nationals are seen among the dead. There were no casualties on Afghan and international troops but a tank of international forces was lightly damaged. Meanwhile, one Afghan child was killed and two others were wounded when insurgents attacked the NATO soldiers in eastern Afghan province of. Canadian troops and Afghan forces as well as US and British troops seized a large quantity of weapons, bomb-making materials and drugs during an ongoing operation in Maywand district west of Kandahar City on Friday August 8, 2008. The joint operation aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in the area of Band-E-Timor. Australian soldiers captured a key Taliban commander, Mullah Bari Ghul, last week in Uruzgan, southern Afghanistan we were told on August 10, 2008. A roadside bomb apparently intended for Afghan soldiers blew up a vehicle of labourers headed to grape fields in Zhari, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday August 10, 2008, killing five of the men. Afghan officials said 11 people have been killed in clashes and airstrikes near Kapisa north of Kabul, and that civilians may be among the dead. The Iraqis said 11 people were killed but The US-led coalition said there were airstrikes in the region, but no civilian casualties. Who do you believe?
A Canadian soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday August 9, 2008, in an attack on NATO forces by insurgents. The soldier was the 89th Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan since the start of the Canadian mission. He died from his injuries after being transported to a military hospital in southern Kandahar after the attack in the Zharey region.
Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 25 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians after an ambush in the Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province, southern Afghanistan, on Sunday August 10, 2008. The militants fled into a neighbouring compound where they held 11 non-combatants hostage, including several children and an infant. The insurgents then fired on the coalition forces from the compound and the troops called in an airstrike, but the statement said they did not know there were civilians in the building.
A suspected US missile strike killed 10 militants at a training camp in a Pakistani tribal area, while 25 people died in fresh clashes near the Afghan border we were told on Wednesday August 13, 2008. Four missiles hit the Islamist camp in the troubled South Waziristan region, which was run by a militant from the Hezb-i-Islami group of wanted Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Three international female aid workers and their Afghan driver were shot dead in an ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan Wednesday August 13, 2008. The four had left Gardez, capital of the Paktia province, and suddenly were stopped by a car placed across the road. They were shot at and killed.
An explosion killed three soldiers of the US-led coalition on Thursday August
14, 2008 while they were on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan. The US
military did not say exactly where in southern Afghanistan the incident took
place and did not release the nationality of the soldiers, but the vast majority
of coalition troops are American. Elsewhere, a rocket landed outside the international
airport in the Afghan capital, but there were no casualties. Another rocket
was also fired, but it was not clear where it landed.
Afghanistan Friday August 15, 2008:
- Two soldiers with the International Security Assistance Force after an attack
in eastern Afghanistan. They were wounded by an improvised explosive device
and small arms fire.
- Afghan security forces have withdrawn from a remote district of central
Afghanistan, the Nawa district in Ghazni province, allowing the Taliban to
capture the area. The Taliban confirmed that security forces have left the
district, with militants taking over and setting fire to the local administration
building.
Afghanistan, Saturday august 16, 2008:
- Afghan security forces killed at least 28 Taliban-linked rebels who attacked
a supply convoy near Qalat, a key town along the Kabul-Kandahar road. Five
guards were also killed in the battle.
- At least 5,000 police are patrolling Kabul, on the eve of the country's
Independence Day.
- In Kandahar province 10 police officers died overnight when their vehicle
hit a bomb in the Shah Wali Kot district.
A suicide car bomb blew up Monday August 18, 2008, outside a US military killing nine civilian labourers, as the country marked Independence Day under the shadow of extremist attacks. The blast, claimed by the insurgent Taliban, did not penetrate the base in the town of Khost and security forces were able to prevent a second suicide attack moments later. It came amid massive heightened security as Afghanistan marked Independence Day, commemorating its final defeat of the British army in 1919. Kabul was locked down with 7,000 police on patrol and checkpoints at nearly every city centre intersection and main entry points into the capital.
Ten French soldiers were killed and 21 were wounded when their convoy came under attack near the capital, Kabul on August 18, 2008. The soldiers were caught ``in an extremely violent ambush'' and were relieved thanks to ``major measures, notably an airlift'' carried out by allied forces. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan, Tuesday August 19, 2008:
- NATO troops and Taliban fighters clashed after a group of the insurgents,
backed by suicide bombers, tried to breach the defences of the main US base
in southeastern Afghanistan. Six suicide bombers were killed. There were also
several casualties among civilians.
- A suicide bomber targeted a group of Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led
force in Kandahar. An Afghan translator for the force was killed while one
soldier and a local girl were wounded in the attack.
- Two rockets were fired at Kabul overnight, but caused no casualties or damage.
- More than 10 insurgents have been killed and a similar number wounded in
clash in southern Helmand province.
Nine Taliban insurgents were killed on Wednesday August 20, 2008, in air strikes by international forces Khost province. A group of insurgents attempted to target the employees of a road construction company in Alishir district but the police identified the militants and contacted international troops that carried out air raids killing nine rebels on the spot.
Afghanistan, Thursday August 21, 2008:
- At least 20 civilians have been killed in an air attack by US-led troops
in Laghman province. An official disputed a statement by US military forces
on Thursday that said more than 30 fighters were killed in the attack, which
took place a day earlier. A US-military spokesman said he had no knowledge
of the non-combatant deaths -of course.
- Some 30 militants were killed in a clash with Nato troops in the Laghman
province north of Kabul. The clash erupted during a patrolling operation.
The troops called the air force and had the upper hand over the Taliban.
- At Ghazni, central Afghanistan, three Polish soldiers of the Nato force
were killed when a bomb blast shattered the vehicle they were travelling on.
A soldier with the US-led coalition -probably American- died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan Friday August 22, 2008; five civilians and 25 militants were killed in clashes involving air strikes against the Taliban.
A roadside bomb killed 10 civilians in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday August 23, 2008. The attack took place in the Shah Wali Kot district to the north of the city of Kandahar.
A NATO-chartered helicopter crashed on Sunday August 24, 2008, in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan, causing one death. The civilian helicopter crashed soon after taking off from a military base in an area. We have no details about the type of the helicopter, number of people on board or identity of the casualties.
President Hamid Karzai on Saturday August 23, 2008, saidd an airstrike by
U.S.-led forces killed 76 Afghan civilians. Civilian casualties are an extremely
sensitive subject in Afghanistan, where the government has repeatedly pleaded
with Western troops to exercise greater care to avoid injuring and killing
noncombatants. Karzai broke down in tears during one such appeal.
A Canadian armoured vehicle was blown off a road near the Demrasi area of the Panjwayi district, when it ran over an explosive device planted by the Taliban on Sunday August 24, 2008, injuring six soldiers and two Canadian journalists. One of the soldiers was seriously hurt. The rest of those in the vehicle walked away with scrapes and bruises and other minor injuries. A gunner who was thrown into the air was the most seriously hurt. The driver had to be cut from his seat.
Gunmen Tuesday August 26, 2008, seized a Japanese aid worker, Kazuya Ito, and his driver in eastern Afghanistan. The pair, working for an organization building schools in the area, was pulled from their car in Nangarhar province. Kazuya Ito works for the Japan-based aid group, Peshawar-Kai. The group runs hospitals and clinics in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan. The mother of the aid worker made an emotional plea for his captors to release her son.
Afghanistan, Wednesday August 27, 2008:
- A Japanese aid worker was found dead near the remote eastern Afghanistan
area where he was kidnapped a day earlier. Kazuya Ito and his driver were
on their way to work at an experimental farm in the suburb of Jalalabad city
when they were abducted Tuesday morning by armed men. The driver was released
a short time later.
- One German soldier was killed and three were injured in a bomb attack on
a convoy of eight vehicles in the province of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.
- An air strike killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the
border with Pakistan and Afghan police killed 18 more militants in the south
of the country.
The US-led coalition said on Thursday August 28, 2008, a dozen militants were killed in a gun battle in Paktika province with coalition forces. Militants fired on coalition soldiers during a search, and they fired back, killing the militants. More than 3,700 people -mostly militants -have died in insurgency related violence this year.
Afghanistan, Saturday August 30, 2008:
- Afghan soldiers killed more than 10 insurgents in Nad Ali district of southern
Helmand province on Friday after coming under heavy gunfire.
- US-led coalition forces killed several militants with air strikes in Nijrab
district of Kapisa province on Friday after coming under attack.
- A suicide car bomber, targeting foreign soldiers, detonated his explosives
in Kabul, killing only himself. There were no other casualties.
- Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)in two-day's clean-up operation targeting
Taliban militants activities in southern Afghan province of Helmand have killed
at least 31 militants. Most of the clashes took place in the districts of
Gereshk, Nawad and Nad.
Foreign and Afghan forces killed five children in two separate incidents Monday September 1, 2008, further inflaming tensions in the country over the killings of civilians by troops from the US-led coalition. NATO said it had accidentally killed three children in an artillery strike in the Gayan district of Paktika Province, eastern Afghanistan. It said NATO forces had fired the rounds after insurgents attacked its patrol and one of the rounds hit a house, killing three children and injuring seven civilians. In a separate incident, foreign and Afghan forces killed a man and his two children and during a raid near Kabul. The man's wife was wounded in the operation. NATO issued an unusual statement warning that the Taliban planned to make a false claim about the killings of civilians. The latest deaths deepened strains between the Afghan government -under pressure from an increasingly irate public- and foreign forces in the country who are accused of killing dozens of civilians only in the past few weeks.
At least five people have been killed and two others injured on Tuesday September 2, 2008, in a series of bomb blasts across war-torn Afghanistan. Three security guards from a private company were killed in a Taliban militants attack on a convoy supplying international troops in Wardak province. In another bomb blast, two Afghan police officers were killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in eastern province of Khost. Taliban have claimed the responsibility for the attack.
At least 32 militants, including several Arab fighters, were killed in clashes with Afghan police on patrol in a village in Zabul province near the border with Pakistan on Wednesday September 3, 2008. Twenty two militants, including seven Arabs, were killed in the clash. Separately in Helmand, clashes with Taliban militants killed at least ten rebels.
Three young Canadian soldiers killed Wednesday September 3, 2008, in southern Afghanistan had just about finished their tour and were preparing to head home when they became embroiled in a deadly ambush. They died in the insurgent attack on their armoured vehicle in the volatile Zhari district outside Kandahar city.
Two civilians were among eight people killed in a US-led coalition operation in western Afghanistan on Friday September 5, 2008. Fighting erupted after coalition and Afghan army troops were ambushed by militants during a reconnaissance patrol in Farah province. Troops backed by close air support killed six militants but two civilians - a woman and a child- were killed and two wounded during the conduct of the insurgent ambush operation.
An Irish citizen serving with the British army's Royal Irish Regiment has been killed in Afghanistan on September 5, 2008. The soldier was killed in an explosion while on a routine foot patrol near Sangin, in the south of the country.
Two explosions have rocked a police station in Kandahar, killing at least two policemen. They say about 30 people -including civilians- were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station.
Three coalition soldiers and an Afghan contractor were killed in a roadside bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan; elsewhere two Afghan security forces and 31 Taliban militants were killed in separate incidents on September 9, 2008. In addition a NATO bomb missed its target by more than 1 1/2 miles and hit a house, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding.
Canada's prime minister on Wednesday September 9, 2008, renewed his pledge to pull Canadian troops from Afghanistan as scheduled in 2011, saying 10 years of war is enough.
Militants attacking a compound in Eastern Afghanistan killed a US soldier on Thursday September 12, 2008, making 2008 the deadliest year yet for American forces: 112 US troops have died in Afghanistan this year, surpassing last year's record toll of 111. A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. He was on a routine patrol near Musa Qala when he was caught in the blast. The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
Afghanistan Friday September 12, 2008:
- Taliban militants attacked a logistics convoy in the western Farah province,
sparking a clash that killed 10 insurgents and five Afghan guards. Three other
guards were missing following the clash, believed captured by the Taliban.
- Separately, US-led coalition troops killed more than 10 militants and detained
two others during two separate raids. The militants were killed in Tagab district
of northern Kapisa province during a Thursday raid on an insurgent commander
involved in roadside bomb attacks.
- Coalition troops detained two militants in the eastern Khost province during
a raid on the network of Siraj Haqqani, the son of long-time warlord Jalalludin
Haqqani.
- More than 4,100 people, mostly militants, have died this year in insurgency-related
violence in Afghanistan.
- The governor of Afghanistan's Logar province and three others have been
killed in an explosion near his home. Abdullah Wardak, a former cabinet minister,
his two bodyguards and the driver of the vehicle all died when the car was
hit by a roadside explosion in the village of Paghman, west of Kabul.
Afghanistan, Sunday September 14, 2008:
- Six children were killed in a bomb explosion. The children were killed when
a bomb they were playing with exploded in a village in the central province
of Ghazni. Around a dozen more children were wounded in the blast and some
are in a critical condition.
- A suicide car bomb blew up a marked United Nations vehicle and killed two
Afghan doctors and a driver.
- Seven policemen were dead after Taliban militants attacked a remote district
centre on Saturday.
- A British soldier was killed in a bomb blast in the south.
Afghanistan, Monday September 15, 2008:
- A roadside bomb killed two people. The target of the attack was the chief
of Shindand district of the western Herat province. The bomb was placed on
a motorbike and missed the district chief but killed two people, including
his son. Seven other people were wounded.
- Gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying two Americans involved in training Afghan
police, as they travelled from Islam Qala, the border point between Afghanistan
and Iran also in Herat province. They were not harmed.
- In the eastern Khost province US-led coalition troops detained eight militants
Sunday during two raids targeting militants associated with Siraj Haqqani,
the son of long-time warlord Jalalludin Haqqani.
- A suicide bomb attack on a United Nations convoy killed at least three people,
including two Afghan doctors taking part in a polio eradication program. Several
bystanders were also hit by the blast in the town of Spin Boldak in Kandahar
province, which lies close to the Pakistani border.
Afghanistan, Tuesday September 16, 2008:
- About 720 police have been killed in attacks by Taliban-led insurgents since
March. In all, 1,119 policemen were killed the previous year.
- Taliban ambushed a convoy carrying officials of Ghazni province in an area
of neighbouring Maidan Wardak. In a clash that followed the ambush, police
killed at least six of the assailants. There were no losses on the government
side.
- An intelligence officer, his wife and two of his sons, were killed in their
house in an attack by Taliban fighters in Kunar province in the east.
- US-led coalition troops killed two militants and detained two others during
a raid. The insurgents were killed and arrested Tuesday in Andar district
of Ghazni province.
A roadside blast Wednesday September 17, 2008, in eastern Afghanistan killed four US coalition soldiers and an Afghan. It did not identify the nationalities of all the victims, but the majority of troops in eastern Afghanistan are American. US military deaths in Afghanistan in 2008 have already surpassed the record 111 deaths the US suffered last year, as insurgent attacks have increased.
NATO-led troops killed an ally of President Hamid Karzai in southern Afghanistan during a gun battle. The Afghan president said the death resulted from a "misunderstanding between foreign and local forces." Ruzi Khan Barakzai, the former police chief of Uruzgan province and a tribal leader and militia commander, was killed outside the provincial capital of Tirin Kot, on Wednesday September 17, 2008.
Afghanistan, Friday September 19, 2008:
- A bomb exploded at a religious school in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan
province, affiliated with a pro-Taliban political party, killing five people
and wounding 10 more.
- A roadside bomb hit a US-led coalition convoy in western Afghanistan killing
one coalition member.
- NATO troops in the south killed a civilian who did not heed their warnings
to stop.
- Four civilians also died in an insurgent attack.
Afghanistan, Saturday September 20, 2008:
- Two soldiers from the NATO-led force were killed when their patrol struck
an improvised explosive device (IED) in eastern Afghanistan.
- A soldier from the US-led coalition force and two Afghans were killed when
their vehicle hit an IED in southern Afghanistan.
- Insurgents fired rockets at a NATO-led military base in the southeastern
province of Paktika on Friday. Four civilians, including one child, were killed
when rockets landed in a nearby field.
- Soldiers from the NATO-led force shot dead one civilian in Sangin district
of southern Helmand province, when the civilian failed to stop approaching
a foot patrol, after two warning shots were fired.
- Afghan commando forces killed five insurgents and detained six more during
heavy clashes in eastern Nangarhar province on Friday.
- Afghan and foreign military forces have agreed to suspend offensive operations
against insurgents for a 24 hour period starting at midnight on Saturday to
respect World Peace Day on 21 September.
Taliban militants have kidnapped more than 140 labourers in western Afghanistan. The workers were captured Sunday September 21, 2008, in Farah province while travelling in three buses. The labourers were involved in building an army base in the province. Tribal elders are negotiating to secure the workers' release. Six civilians, including at least one child, were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the country's south. The group was on the road near Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, when the explosion occurred. Four others were wounded.
Afghanistan, Wednesday September 24, 2008:
- Two roadside bombings targeting Afghan police forces in Kandahar province
killed two officers when the police vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb
in the Spin Boldak district. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
- Another roadside bomb, which was remotely detonated Thursday in Kandahar
city targeted a bus full of police trainers. The bomb missed the bus but killed
a civilian passer-by.
- Police arrested a Taliban commander in the Andar district of Ghazni province.
Mullah Mohammad Anus Sharrif was a top commander for militants in the province
and was responsible for attacks on Afghan and coalition forces in the region.
- More than 4,000 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed in the conflict
so far this year.
A suicide bomb in a bazaar near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan Friday September 26, 2008, killed five people -three civilians and two NDS (National Directorate of Security) workers and seven others other civilians have been wounded. The suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body in the Jaji Maydan district bazaar, Khost province. The target of the attack may have been a shopkeeper who had once commanded a militia that had worked with US troops in the area. In southern Kandahar's Zahri district insurgents attacked a logistics convoy heading to NATO bases in the western parts of the country. 20 Taliban were killed. A USPI security guard said one of his colleagues was also killed and two trucks set ablaze.
Afghanistan, Friday September 26, 2008:
- Troops backed by gunship helicopters killed five Taliban-linked militants.
The rebels were seen laying mines on a road in the central province of Ghazni.
- On Thursday the bullet-riddled bodies of four police officers were found.
They had been kidnapped by suspected Taliban days earlier.
- Three more policemen were killed in Ghazni on Friday when militants linked
to Taliban attacked their patrol.
- Around 150 Afghan labourers meanwhile abducted in the western province of
Farah a week ago have been freed, with 118 released on Friday and 30 more
on Saturday.
Afghanistan, Sunday September 28, 2008:
- A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up near two police vehicles
in the town of Spin Boldak on the border with Pakistan killing six people
- three policemen and three civilians- and wounding 17.
- Two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a high-ranking woman police official
as she went to work. Malalai Kakar led the department of crimes against women
in Kandahar city. Her son, 18, was wounded.
- The US-led Coalition forces in an operation targeting an Al-Qaida IED (Improvised
Explosive Device) and suicide bomber network have killed two suspected militants
in the province of Kunar.
- A coalition operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern
Afghanistan killed three civilians but no militants.
- Gunmen targeting Mohammad Hashim, the provincial council chief in neighbouring
Zabul province in southern Afghanistan missed their intended victim but killed
four of his bodyguards. The attack sparked a clash between Hashim's bodyguards
and the insurgents in which four bodyguards were killed.
- A local official in Andar, in Ghazni province, claimed a targeted air strike
there killed a Taliban leader as well as three other people.
An Afghan police officer opened fire on US soldiers in a police station south of Kabul on Sunday September 28, 2008, killing one American soldier. The American troops fired back, killing the police officer. A joint NATO-Afghan patrol in Paktia Province, which had escaped without injury from a roadside bomb and small-arms fire, had arrested seven civilians who tested positive for explosives residue. The patrol took the suspects to the police station. There, NATO said, "an altercation" ensued.
Afghan and international forces said on Tuesday October 7, 2008, they killed nearly 60 militants in two days as the battle against Talban-led extremists continued. Forty-three militants were killed in heavy fighting in the southern province of Zabul on Sunday. Police in Helmand claimed separately that 15 Taliban fighters were killed in the Nad Ali district late Monday after international and Afghan forces came under attack.
The US military said on October 8, 2008, American air strikes in Afghanistan on August 22 killed 33 civilians. Lt.-Gen. Martin Dempsey asserts that despite those deaths, US forces involved in the attack in western Herat province acted based on credible intelligence, in self-defence and in line with rules of engagement. The attack was on a suspected Taliban compound. Dempsey says the investigation also found that 22 insurgents were killed. The US military originally said five to seven civilians had died. The Afghan government and the UN have said the civilian toll was 90.
Afghanistan Wednesday October 8, 2008:
- At least 36 Islamic militants were killed in clashes with security forces;
villagers reported that 10 civilians died in rebel gunfire.
- In central Uruzgan province, Afghan and international troops were on patrol
when they were attacked with guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG);
they responded to the attack with small-arms, RPG and supporting fire, killing
12 militants.
- Militant fire killed 10 Afghan civilians in a nearby village. Provincial
governor Assadullah Hamdam quoted a lower civilian toll of six and said they
were killed when a rocket aimed at troops missed its target. Three women and
six children were taken to a military hospital for treatment for injuries
from the attack.
- Troops killed nine rebels in the southern province of Helmand. Nine more
died in a later engagement the same day.
- Combined forces killed six militants in an operation in the western province
of Farah.
- More than 3,800 lives were lost in insurgency-related violence to the end
of July, with a third of the dead civilians.
Dozens of Taleban militants have been killed by security forces in fighting
in southern Afghanistan on October 12, 2008. The militants died in a battle
with Afghan and Nato-led forces on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, capital of
Helmand province.
The U.S. coalition troops have killed five Taliban militants in a raid in Andar district of Ghazni province, central Afghanistan, on Sunday October 12, 2008.
Three NATO-led soldiers were killed on Tuesday October 14, 2008, in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan. ISAF did not reveal the nationalities of the dead soldiers, nor did it say where in the eastern region the incident took place. Most of the forces operating in the eastern region under the alliance's command are from the US.
Afghan and foreign troops killed 14 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians died in a string of attacks on October 14, 2008. One U.S.-led coalition soldier was also killed in a roadside bomb attack. Violence has surged in Afghanistan, with 3,800 people -a third of them civilians- killed by the end of July this year.
Afghanistan, Wednesday October 15, 2008:
- The US military claims to have killed the second-in-command of al-Qaeda
in northern Iraq, in an operation in the city of Mosul. Abu Qaswarah, a Moroccan
also known as Abu Sara, was killed in a raid in Mosul on October 5.
- About 70 Taliban fighters were killed Tuesday in an overnight air strike
by foreign forces in Baram Cha district near the border with Pakistan, southern
Helmand province.
- There were two separate attacks on Afghan policemen in Helmand. In one attack,
unidentified gunmen killed six Afghan policemen at a checkpoint about 25 kilometres
north of the provincial capital of Lakshar Gah. In a separate incident, dozens
of Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints in the capital, an offensive
that cost 18 militants their lives and wounded three regional police officers.
Authorities only recovered one militant body but the insurgents carried others
away.
An Afghan policeman opened fire and threw a hand grenade at a U.S. military patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday October 16, 2008, killing an American soldier and raising fears that insurgents have infiltrated the police force. The police officer standing on a tower attacked the American foot patrol returning to a base in the Bermel district of eastern Paktika Province. The troops returned fire, killing the policeman.
Afghan authorities said Friday October 17, 2008, that at least 17 civilians had been killed in fighting in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Western military officials confirmed that an airstrike had been carried out in the area. Regional officials in Kunar province said that 18 insurgents were killed in fighting in the previous 24 hours.
On Sunday October 19, 2008, Taliban militants stopped a bus travelling in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, captured some 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them. The Afghan Defence Ministry said 31 people were killed and six of the dead were beheaded. Other sources said around 40 civilians were killed.
Gayle Williams, a UK and South African national woman working for a UK-registered charity has been shot dead by two men on a motorbike near Kabul University on Sunday October 19, 2008. The Taleban said they killed her because she was working for a Christian organisation called Serve Afghanistan.
Sunday October 19, 2008, two roadside bombs in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya
district killed two people and wounded several others. The first blast went
off near a fuel station. It killed two civilians and wounded 10 other people,
including two traffic police officers. A second roadside bomb exploded at
a police patrol near an outdoor market. The explosion wounded seven people:
three police officers and four bystanders. A third roadside bomb struck an
Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad's western Ghazaliya neighbourhood, wounding
five people -two police officers and three bystanders.
A woman working for a UK-registered charity has been shot dead near Kabul
University on October 20, 2008. Gayle Williams, 34, a UK and South African
national was killed by two men on a motorbike. The Taleban are reported to
have said they killed her because she was working for a Christian organisation
called Serve Afghanistan. Ms Williams was killed while walking to work.
A 14-year-old boy who was groomed as a suicide bomber in a Pakistani religious
school handed himself in to the Afghan national security services on Monday
October 20, 2008
The boy, Gulam Mohammad, had been trained to make explosives and perform terrorist
attacks in a madrassa in the Pakistani town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.
The boy said he was one of a group of 20 boys, all aged under 17, who were
taught to carry out suicide attacks on the territory of Afghanistan. He says
he originally crossed the border into Pakistan from the eastern Afghani province
of Khost without the knowledge of his parents.
After spending some time at the Fazl ul-Rahman school, Gulam Mohammad said,
he escaped and returned to Khost, where he handed himself over to the authorities.
On Tuesday October 21, 2008, Taliban militants seized a civilian bus in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan and executed up to 31 passengers, beheading some of them.
U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan rescued a kidnapped American civilian in a night raid on an insurgent stronghold west of Kabul, we were told on Thursday October 23, 2008. The American, who was not identified, was abducted in mid-August while working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Officials said Special Forces units, acting on an intelligence lead, freed the captive on October 15 in Wardak province.
On Thursday October 23, 2008, a roadside bomb had killed three soldiers from the American-led coalition fighting militants. No details of the nationality or the precise location of the attack in western Afghanistan were given, but a fourth soldier was wounded in the incident. United States forces in Farah Province run a reconstruction team.
An Afghan security guard at the courier company DHL in the capital Kabul has shot dead two foreigners and killed himself on October 25, 2008. Two other people were also injured in the incident in front of the DHL office. The two dead foreigners were British - David Giles - and South African - Jason Bresler - employees of DHL. They were killed in front of the DHL office in the Sher Pur area of the city, where many foreign nationals live. DHL closed its office in Kabul while the police investigate although branches elsewhere in Afghanistan reportedly remain open.
Insurgents in Afghanistan on Monday October 27, 2008, downed a U.S. helicopter near the capital of Kabul. The crew was rescued. The helicopter was flying over Wardak Province when it came under small-arms fire. He declined to say how many crew members had been aboard.
A suicide bomber managed to penetrate the heavily guarded Afghan Information and Culture Ministry in the heart of the capital on October 30, 2008, and blow himself up, killing at least three other people and wounding more than a dozen others. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Up to two other assailants were believed to have taken part in the attack but had apparently escaped.
Gunmen in Afghanistan have kidnapped a French aid worker in the capital, Kabul, on November 3, 2008. An Afghan driver who tried to stop the abduction was killed. The aid worker was driving in the west of the city with another Frenchman when gunmen in a Toyota saloon seized him.
A British soldier - Rifleman Yubraj Rai from Khotang district in eastern Nepal, was the first Nepalese Gurkha to die in the conflict- has been killed in Afghanistan on November 4, 2008. He was killed by enemy fire in the Musa Qala area of Afghanistan. This latest death means that the number of UK troops killed on operations in Afghanistan since they began in 2001 now stands at 122.
Seven Afghan villagers were killed in coalition air strikes. The seven civilians lost their lives in an incident on Wednesday November 5, 2008, in the northwestern province of Badghis. Fifteen Taliban were also killed. The fighting started when Afghan and NATO-led forces returning from an operation were ambushed and returned fire. Separately, some 40 militants were killed in clashes across Afghanistan.
Mellissa Fung, a journalist working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in Afghanistan, was freed on Saturday November 8, 2008, after being kidnapped a month ago near the capital, Kabul. Fung was abducted by armed men at a U.N. refugee camp on the outskirts of Kabul on October 12 and taken to the mountains west of the city.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden van into a Spanish military convoy in Afghanistan on Sunday November 9, 2008, killing two Spanish soldiers and wounding several others. Four people were wounded, one of them seriously. Spain has about 800 troops in Afghanistan, with the bulk stationed at Herat, as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). More than 20 Spanish troops have died in Afghanistan, including two in an explosion in September 2007 and 17 in a helicopter crash in August 2005.
The Afghan Government has accused United States forces of killing up to 14 security guards for a construction company in the eastern province of Khost on November 10, 2008. But the US military says they were militants who were carrying rocket propelled grenades and opened fire on Coalition forces. US-led troops responded with ground fire and helicopters. Afghan President Hamid Karzai released a statement condemning the actions of the US forces involved in the fight.
Assailants sprayed acid on a group of schoolgirls in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday November 12, 2008, injuring 15, of whom three may go permanently blind. The girls were on their way to the Mirwais Nika high school for girls in Kandahar when two men on motorbikes stopped near the group and sprayed acid in their faces with toy water pistols. The girls are being treated in a local hospital. Doctors are working to save the sight of three girls, who have suffered serious facial burns. The police arrested two men in connection with the attack. Afghani officials blame Taliban militants, who barred girls from going to school when the group was in power from 1996 to 2001.
Two Royal Marines have been killed in an explosion which hit their vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan. They died in the blast in the Garmsir district of Helmand province on 12 November 2008.
Afghanistan, Thursday November 13, 2008:
- A suicide bomber targeted a US military convoy in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan,
as it passed through a crowded market, killing at least seven civilians and
a US soldier.
- A truck bomb also exploded yesterday outside the office of the provincial
council in Kandahar, killing six people and wounded 42.
Afghanistan Friday November 14, 2008:
- Three Afghan construction workers were gunned down by militants. The three
men were shot dead by attackers in a passing vehicle in the eastern province
of Khost as they had left their lodgings and headed to work.
- In the same province, a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled
car near a police vehicle just outside of Khost city. Three policemen were
wounded, one of them seriously. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said
his group had carried out the attack.
- A suicide attack wounded three policemen.
- The US-led forces killed four Al-Qaeda-linked militants Thursday close to
the border with Pakistan in the eastern province of Paktia's Zurmat district
in an operation aimed at a network helping to move Arab and other foreign
fighters into the country.
The US-led force in Afghanistan killed 10 militants, including foreign fighters, in an operation against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani militant network. Friday November 14, 2008's operation in the province of Paktia, on the border with Pakistan, targeted leaders of the radical network and foreign militants known to have carried out bomb attacks. The group, which straddles the border, was formed during the 1980s resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan under well-known fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, although his son, Siraj, is said to have taken over.
Afghanistan, Sunday November 16, 2008:
- Coalition forces killed 38 militants in the Nahr Surkh District of Helmand
province, southern Afghanistan.
- Two U.S. soldiers were wounded after their convoy was attacked by a suicide
car bomber in the city of Heart, western Afghanistan.
- On Saturday, coalition troops and Afghan National Police killed five militants
and took 18 more into custody.
- In one of the operations, troops detained a "significant al Qaeda associated
militant" in the Paktia province on the border with Pakistan.
- A bomb blast and clashes have killed an international soldier in the NATO-led
force and 10 militants, including some allegedly linked to al Qaida.
Two Afghan police and one civilian were killed on Monday November 17, 2008, when a suicide bomber disguised as a police officer detonated his explosives at the police headquarters in the southern province of Kandahar. The suicide bomber attempted to enter the headquarters but detonated his explosives as he was stopped by security guards. A roadside bomb aimed at Afghan soldiers killed four civilians in the Panjwai district in Kandahar. Eight other civilians were wounded in the attack.
A truck bombing outside a district office in Khost Province, eastern Afghanistan, on Thursday November 20, 2008, killed three Afghans and wounded two American soldiers. 14 people were wounded in the attack.
US-led forces said Sunday November 23, 2008, they had killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left two militants dead. Nine Taliban rebels were reported killed in separate clashes. Another four civilians, at least two of them female, were wounded in the battle in the southern province of Zabul on Thursday. The wounded were paid compensation, so everything should be OK from the American point of view!
International troops in two separate operations in Afghanistan have killed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Asad, and detained eight suspected militants we were told on Sunday November 23, 2008.
Two Royal Marines have been killed in Afghanistan on November 28, 2008. They
died after their foot patrol near Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, came under
fire from insurgents. Their deaths bring the number of UK forces killed in
Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001 to 128.
Roadside bombing targeting one US private security company USPI on Sunday November 30, 2008, left one Afghan employee dead and another injured in Kandahar province. A vehicle laden with explosive material was blown off by remote control in the Spinboldak highway near airport and NATO military base there.
An Australian soldier and a defence force worker have been wounded in a roadside bomb explosion on Sunday November 30, 2008. The soldier and civilian were travelling in the same vehicle when it was struck by the bomb in Oruzgan province. They have injuries to their limbs and the Australian Defence Force has assessed their condition as serious, but not life-threatening.
A suicide bomber killed 10 civilians during an attack on a police convoy in southern Afghanistan. 27 people, including two policemen, were wounded in Monday December 1, 2008,'s attack. The bombing took place at a market in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province. In other violence gunmen on motorbikes shot and killed a district governor, Abdul Rahim Desewal, the head of Andar, in Ghazni, central Afghanistan. His bodyguard was wounded in the attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing.
A French aid worker kidnapped a month ago in Kabul was released on Wednesday December 3, 2008. Dany Egreteau worked for the Solidarite Laique (Secular Solidarity) charity.
The Afghan government is investigating an uprising at the notoriously overcrowded Pul-i-Charki prison here in which eight inmates died we were told on Friday December 5, 2008. The violence, which occurred a day earlier, left 13 people wounded, including three prison guards. Inmates in two cellblocks rose up in an attempt to resist a security sweep for hidden weapons and cell phones. The prison -bedevilled by corruption, poor infrastructure, overcrowding and a toxic mix of criminals that includes many Taliban fighters- has become a symbol of the dysfunction and shortcomings of the Afghan judicial system. Locks on cells in some blocks no longer work, riots are common, and criminals have been able to bribe their way to freedom.
Afghanistan, Sunday December 7, 2998:
- Taliban militants have freed four policemen captured during an assault on
November 28 on a military convoy in the province of Badghis' Murgab area.
The policemen were set free after local elders and tribe leaders held talks
with the militants. On the night of November 27-28, a 300-strong Taliban force
attacked a military convoy of the Afghan national army and national police,
killing 68 personnel and capturing 19 soldiers and 8 policemen.
- Twelve Taliban militants and five Afghan soldiers were killed in separate
violence across the country over the weekend.
- Police arrested two militants but another two escaped. Nine Taliban were
killed, four Taliban and three policemen were wounded.
- US-led coalition forces said they killed three insurgents outside Kabul.
- Five Afghan soldiers died and three others were wounded in two roadside
bomb explosions on Saturday.
Afghan National Police and the US-led Coalition forces detained nine suspected militants during a combined operation on Tuesday December 9, 2008. The troops also engaged a militant with small-arms fire and wounded him.
United States forces killed six Afghan police officers and one civilian on Wednesday December 10, 2008, during an assault on the hide-out of a suspected Taliban commander; this is again a tragic case of mistaken identity. Thirteen Afghan officers were also wounded in the episode. A contingent of police officers fired on United States forces after the Americans had successfully overrun the hide-out, killing the suspected Taliban commander and detaining another man. They answered the fire.
On December 12, 2008, Japanese lawmakers have extended a naval refuelling mission that supports a US-led anti-terrorism effort in the Indian Ocean. The vote in the lower house of parliament extends the mission until January 2010. The mission was rejected earlier by the upper house of parliament, which is controlled by the main opposition party. The measure was then sent back to the more powerful lower house, which is controlled by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Three Afghans were accidentally killed by NATO troops while the forces were patrolling in central province of Wardak province on Friday December 12, 2008. An ISAF patrol observed a bus veering towards their patrol on the Kabul to Kandahar highway in Sayed Abad district. The patrol fired into engine block after the bus failed to stop under instruction. The patrol was forced to fire upon the bus in self-defence when the bus continued towards the patrol. Three passengers in the bus were killed as a result. Besides the Americans, few people will agree with this behaviour.
Three Canadian soldiers and four British marines were slain Friday December 12 and Saturday December 13, 2008. The Canadians were killed Saturday when an improvised explosive device blew up near their armoured vehicle during a patrol in Arghandab District in central Kandahar Province. Another Canadian soldier was wounded in the attack. The British marines were killed in two separate explosions in the province of Helmand. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Taliban used a 13-year-old boy to carry out the second attack, a claim denied by the Taliban. One marine died en route to a military hospital from wounds suffered in an explosion Friday in the Sangin area of eastern Helmand province. The other three marines were killed Friday in a separate explosion as they were conducting a "routine operation against enemy forces.
On December 15, 2008, armed Taliban abducted six musicians and an election worker in Paktika province, eastern Afghanistan, one of whom was later found dead.
A British commando died from gunshot wounds on December 16, 2008. The soldier was at a forward operating base in the Gereshk area of Helmand province when he was wounded. He received immediate medical treatment and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Kandahar, where he died of his wounds. He is the 133rd British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001.
Another British soldier was killed in fighting in an area north west of Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province on Wednesday December 17, 2008, the sixth fatality among British forces in the past week. The soldier was killed by enemy fire while fighting in the district of Nad-e-Ali. He was treated at the scene before being taken to the military hospital at Camp Bastion by helicopter, but later died of his wounds.
A Dutch soldier was killed Friday December 19, 2008, in southern Afghanistan. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device strike. Also A roadside bomb killed three Danish soldiers and wounding another. The soldiers' vehicle was part of a supply convoy near the town of Gereshk in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan when the blast happened.
Czech deputies rejected a plan to extend and expand the Czech military presence in Afghanistan on Friday December 19, 2008. Prague will now have to withdraw the more than 500 Czech troops serving under US and NATO commands in Afghanistan within 60 days after January 1 unless it finds a new way to extend the missions. That would still require parliamentary approval.
A British Royal Marine has been killed on December 21, 2008, in an explosion north-west of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. He is the 135th victim suffered by UK troops in Afghanistan since 2001.
Afghan and NATO forces have killed at least 20 militants - including 2 Arabs and 2 Pakistanis- in a joint operation along the border with Pakistan on December 22, 2008.
Afghanistan, Wednesday December 24, 2008:
- Nato said one British soldier has been killed in the east of the country.
The soldier had been killed by enemy fire.
- US-led forces have killed four suspected militants in southern province
of Zabul. The sub-commander's group was responsible for roadside bombs and
other attacks in the region.
- The US-led Coalition forces killed four rebels during a combined operation
with Afghan forces against the Taliban network in southern Afghan province
of Zabul.
One Canadian soldier was killed and three were injured when an improvised explosive device detonated on Friday December 26, 2008. The incident occurred in the Zhari District of Kandahar province. The soldiers were conducting security operations in the area when the explosion occurred. The roadside bomb went off near their vehicle.
Afghanistan, Saturday December 27, 2008:
- A suicide bomber killed three Afghan police officers and two civilians and
wounded four in the southern province of Kandahar. The suicide bomber was
on foot when he detonated the device next to a police checkpoint on the outskirts
of Kandahar city.
- Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the US-led Coalition forces killed
six militants during a security patrol in southern Afghan province of Helmand.
The combined forces were conducting a security patrol in Nahr Surkh district
on Thursday where they identified a group of militants recovering munitions
from a pre-positioned weapons cache.
- Coalition forces detained five suspected Taliban militants, including a
targeted militant, during an operation to dismantle the Taliban's roadside
bomb network in Zabul province on Friday.
A roadside bomb killed two Canadian soldiers, an Afghan police officer and
a local interpreter on December 28, 2008 during a security patrol in the Panjway
district, in the western part of Kandahar province. The explosion also wounded
four other Canadian soldiers and another Afghan interpreter.
Bulgaria is going to increase its contingent in the International Security
Assistance Force in Afghanistan next year we were told on Monday December
29, 2008.
A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday December 31, 2008
by an explosion during a routine patrol. The Royal Marine was killed on New
Year's Eve in the Sangin district of the southern Helmand Province, where
British troops are based.
Taliban insurgents killed 20 Afghan police in an ambush on December 31, 2008, in one of the single worst raids in months in the country. The target of the attack was Mullah Salaam, the district chief of Musa Qala in Helmand province, who was once a member of the ousted Taliban. Salaam survived the attack on his convoy unharmed. Two of the attackers were killed in a clash that followed the ambush.
An Iraqi TV employee was shot and critically wounded on New Year's Day 2009; the US soldiers who fired at her gave no warning. Hadil Emad, a videotape editor with Beladi Satellite TV, was crossing a bridge over the Tigris River on her way to work when she was shot. The US military said the woman was acting suspiciously and failed to respond to warnings before she was shot.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in the Garmsir district
of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on January 2, 2009. He is the 138th
member of British forces to die in Afghanistan since the start of operations
in October 2001.
Afghanistan, Saturday January 3, 2009:
- A British soldier helping Afghanistan to fight insurgents was killed in
an explosion in the south'
- Nine militants were killed in various operations across the country.
- In the southern province of Nimroz, five aid workers, some with the World
Food Programme, were kidnapped by suspected Taliban early Friday.
- Five militants were killed in an operation in the eastern province of Khost
on Thursday.
- Troops also killed three insurgents who had tried to attack a base in the
southern province of Helmand earlier in the week.
- In Kandahar province, NATO soldiers thwarted a suicide attack on New Year's
Day by shooting dead a man trying to drive a bomb-filled car into a military
patrol.
- Two people were killed and 10 were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded
near a minibus full of pilgrims headed for the holy city of Karbala for a
Shiite holiday. The attack took place in the Zaafaraniya district of southeastern
Baghdad.
- Unknown gunmen in Kirkuk stormed the home of Anwar Mohedin Rasoul, a member
of the Kurdistan Communist Party, and shot him dead.
- A bomb stuck to a vehicle killed two civilians and wounded another in Sinjar.
- Gunmen killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting in central Mosul. Iraqi
police captured four militants who burned two schools being prepared as polling
stations for the upcoming provincial elections in Garma.
A former spokesman for fugitive Taleban leader Mullah Omar has been arrested in north-west Pakistan on January 3, 2009. Ustad Yasar was detained in the city of Peshawar after a tip-of. Mr Yasar was arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and handed over to Afghanistan, where he was released in exchange for a kidnapped Italian reporter in 2007.
A female suicide bomber killed at least 35 Shia pilgrims including 16 Iranians near a shrine in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on January 4, 2009. As many as 72 people were injured in the blast, in the Kadhimiya area of the Iraqi capital, where pilgrims were gathering for a religious ceremony.
Macedonia sent a new batch of 150 troops to Afghanistan on Monday January 5, 2009, to join the international peacekeeping mission. The new troops will be stationed in the capital Kabul under the command of the British army, helping provide security to the central command of the international security assistance force in Afghanistan. Macedonia has been taking part in the NATO-led international peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan since 2002. It usually maintains about 130 soldiers and officers there.
On January 6, 2009, the Canadian Forces charged a military officer - Capt. Robert Semrau- serving in Afghanistan with one count of second-degree murder in the death of a suspected Taliban insurgent. Semrau is accused of shooting an unarmed man with the intent to kill him.
Three policemen and one cleric were killed by militants in two separate clashes in Kandahar. In the first attack occurred in Dand district on Monday January 5, 2009, militants raided a police checkpoint killing three police constables and injuring another. The militants also gunned down a prayer leader of a mosque in Kandahar.
US-led coalition forces killed 32 insurgents in fighting that erupted in a village in eastern Afghanistan following a raid on a hideout of bomb makers we were told on Wednesday January 7, 2009. The Taliban said 15 civilians were killed in the US-led assault.
A Canadian soldier was killed and three others were injured in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday January 7, 2009 when their armoured vehicle detonated a roadside bomb. Canada has now lost 107 soldiers since it first sent forces to Afghanistan in 2002.
Five American soldiers and nine Afghans were killed in a string of incidents in Afghanistan on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 January 2009. On Friday, three American soldiers on patrol in Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, were killed when their armoured Humvee struck a large roadside bomb. On Thursday, two American soldiers and three Afghan civilians were killed in Maiwand, near Kandahar, when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-packed car into a crowded bazaar. The blast wounded 21 civilians.
A significant insurgent commander, Mullah Abdul Rasheed, was killed in Baluchi Valley, southern Afghanistan, by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in a joint operation on Sunday January 11, 2009. He was responsible for the deaths of several ISAF soldiers in recent months.
Two British soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday January 14, 2009. The two soldiers were killed during an operation against enemy forces in northeast of Gereshk in central Helmand.
A helicopter carrying one of Afghanistan's most senior army generals and 12 soldiers crashed in bad weather Thursday January 15, 2009, killing all aboard. Taliban insurgents claimed to have downed the Russian-made chopper.
A US Black Hawk helicopter went down near Kabul on January 16, 2009. All seven people aboard survived. No enemy activity was involved. The helicopter was on its way to perform a medical evacuation when it went down.
A suicide car bomb attack Saturday January 17, 2009, on a heavily guarded road between a US military base and the German Embassy in Kabul killed one US service member and four Afghan civilians. Separately, a US service member died when militants fired at a CH-47 transport helicopter and it made a "hard landing" in eastern Kunar province. A suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives killing at least one civilian and wounding several others, including three Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers.
A British serviceman has been killed in action in southern Afghanistan on January 18, 2009. The soldier was hit by enemy fire while being on a foot patrol during a joint operation between the UK and Afghan army against enemy forces close to Sangin, in Helmand province.
Afghanistan, Wednesday January 21, 2009:
- A suicide car bomber killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded three more in
an attack in the Mir Awad area of Herat province.
- A suicide car bomber wounded nine people, including the provincial police
chief, during a wedding in Baghlan-e-Jadeed district.
- Taliban insurgents fired rockets on police posts in several areas on the
outskirts of Kandahar but there were no casualties.
- Three children and an adult were wounded when militants fired rockets into
residential areas of Khost Tuesday.
- Afghan security forces killed two Taliban insurgents and detained one during
a sweep on Tuesday in Kandahar province.
US-led forces in Afghanistan said on January 24, 2009, they killed 15 militants during an overnight operation in Laghman province, while local officials says those killed -22 of them- were civilians. Coalition forces said their troops were targeting Taliban militants when they came under attack. It says the troops returned fire, killing 15 militants, including a woman carrying a rocket-propelled grenade.
Following this killing a fierce new dispute erupted Saturday January 24, 2009, over civilian deaths in an Afghan village whose elders asserted that as many as 22 non-combatants were killed in an American-led raid. US military officials insisted that 15 died and all, including a woman, were Taliban fighters. The US military said it would make a joint investigation with Afghan authorities.
Two civilians have been unintentionally killed with four more wounded on Saturday January 24, 2009, by friendly fire of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the southern province of Helmand. A local man, who was suspected laying IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) near an ISAF base in Gereshk district, was killed by ISAF forces on Thursday. An ISAF soldier killed the victim after he ignored two warning shot and kept digging.
US commanders on Tuesday January 27, 2009, travelled to a poor Afghan village and distributed $40,000 to relatives of 15 people killed in a US raid, including a known militant commander. The Americans also apologized for any civilians killed in the operation. The issue of civilian deaths is increasingly sensitive in Afghanistan, with President Hamid Karzai accusing the US of killing civilians in three separate cases over the last month. Karzai has repeatedly warned the US and NATO, saying such deaths undermine his government and the international mission.
Two Nato soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan on January 27, 2009. They have so far not given details of nationalities or circumstances of the deaths. They were not British.
The US military says coalition troops killed four militants in a strike on a bomb-making operation outside Kandahar on January 29, 2009. The raid of the operative's compound turned into a gun battle when militants fired on the troops, who killed four fighters and captured eight suspected militants.
The US-led Coalition forces killed four militants and detained eight more suspected militants during operations to disrupt Taliban bomb makers and militants in Kandahar Thursday January 30, 2009.
A British soldier has been killed in a fire fight in Helmand province on January 31, 2009. The soldier died from injuries sustained while on a joint UK and Afghan National Army patrol north of Musa Qala.
A suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform slipped into a police compound and detonated a powerful explosive device Monday February 2, 2009, killing at least 21 officers. The attack also wounded a dozen police officers.
The president of Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday February 3, 2009, that his government will shut down the American air base in his country. The Manas Air Base is vital to plans to send an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan. The announcement by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev came in Moscow, shortly after the Russian government reportedly agreed to lend Kyrgyzstan $2 billion, write off $180 million in debt and add another $150 million in aid.
Tajikistan said Friday February 6, 2009, it was ready to allow US and NATO supplies for Afghanistan to transit its territory, after neighbouring Kyrgyzstan ordered the closure of a vital American airbase. Russia too is ready to allow the transit of US non-military supplies to Afghanistan through its territory.
Afghanistan Saturday February 7, 2009:
- At least 15 people have died in a series of violent incidents in Afghanistan.
- Afghan police and international troops killed 10 militants in southern Helmand
province.
- The US-led coalition Friday shot and killed a civilian man who did not stop
his vehicle as it approached a checkpoint in Khost province. Two other civilians,
a child and a woman, were wounded.
- In eastern Afghanistan, two local officials and two police officers have
been killed in three separate attacks. Two of the attacks happened in Nangarhar
province.
- Unknown gunmen killed a senior member of the provincial council, Khan Mohammed,
in Dara-i-Noor early Saturday while he was driving to his office in Jalalabad.
- A roadside bomb killed a district chief near the border with Pakistan.
- In neighbouring Laghman province Friday, two police officers died in clashes
with Taliban militants. The Qarghayi district police chief and another policeman
were killed while trying to reinforce a police checkpoint that had been attacked
by insurgents.
Two US soldiers were killed along with three Afghans, including a police official,
while trying to disable a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday February
8, 2009. The soldiers were part of a convoy of coalition troops accompanying
Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand province, to a village where he intended
to talk to residents about alternatives to opium farming. The convoy came
upon two bombs stacked on top of each other. When the soldiers tried to disable
the bombs, the second one went off. The blast killed the police chief of the
province's Nad Ali district, Mohammed Nader; a police officer; and a translator.
Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary defense committee approved on February 8, 2009, its government's decision to close a US air base used to supply US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. A full parliamentary vote on the issue could be held this week.
On Saturday February 7, 2009, two Taliban guerrillas assassinated a top local politician. But on Sunday, hundreds of people from around the district of Dara-e-Noor joined with the local police to corner the Taliban assassins. A fire fight broke out. Eventually the wounded Taliban were captured. The villagers trussed the men to a tree and punched and kicked them to death.
Two US Army National Guard soldiers killed Sunday February 8, 2009, in an explosion in Afghanistan. They were near a roadside bomb when it exploded, also killing a member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police and one civilian.
Afghanistan, February 11, 2009:
- Taliban insurgents killed 20 people in Kabul.
- In Logar province 11 people were killed, including five civilians, four
Afghan soldiers and one foreign soldier, in three separate incidents.
- An armed suicide bomber tried to enter the Ministry of Education, near the
Presidential Palace. He was shot dead by police before he could detonate his
device.
- Five armed suicide bombers entered the Ministry of Justice, also close to
the Presidential Palace, and gunned down two security guards. A policeman
shot dead one of the bombers who had entered the building, while the remaining
four would-be bombers gunned-down 10 civilians inside the building, before
they were also shot down by police.
- Two suicide bombers tried to enter the Prison Department building in the
north Kabul suburb of Khair Khana. One was killed by a policemen, the other
shot dead another policeman, before detonating his device, killing seven policemen.
- In Logar province, four Afghan soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb
hit their vehicle during an operation.
- In a separate roadside bomb attack in Logar, one foreign soldier and his
Afghan translator were killed.
- Four civilians and one Taliban fighter were killed in NATO-led air strikes
in another area of Logar.
Five children were killed Thursday February 12, 2009, in fighting between
Australian special operations troops and Taliban guerrillas. The skirmish,
which occurred in darkness in a village called Sarmorghab in Oruzgan Province,
north of Kandahar.
A NATO soldier and nine Afghan civilians died in attacks across Afghanistan while military offensives killed at least 17 suspected militants, we were told on Monday February 16, 2009. The NATO soldier died from wounds "caused by indirect fire in eastern Afghanistan". Elsewhere, five civilians were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle on the road between the southern provinces of Uruzgan and Kandahar.
A coalition airstrike killed a powerful Taliban commander who broke a promise to renounce violence after village elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai to free him from prison. The Sunday February 15, 2009, attack destroyed a building housing Ghulam Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab, near the Turkmenistan border. Dastagir was responsible for a surge in violence in the province in recent months, including a November attack on an Afghan army convoy that killed 13 soldiers.
On Tuesday February 17, 2009, the UN said that 2,118 civilians were killed in the conflict in 2008 -an increase of 39% from 2007.
On February 19, 2009, we were told that Georgia will send 100 soldiers to Afghanistan to serve alongside U.S. and NATO forces. Georgia, a U.S. ally, contributed 2,000 soldiers to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. They were withdrawn last August amid a war with Russia. Georgia briefly deployed 50 soldiers to Afghanistan in 2004.
An investigation has found 13 civilians were killed in Tuesday's coalition air strike in Herat province of western Afghanistan, we were told on Saturday February 21, 2009. Investigators found weapons and ammunition at the operation site, and concluded that 13 civilians were killed along with three militants. The U.S. military has said 15 militants were killed in the air strike before the investigation.
A battle outside Kandahar killed at least six Taliban fighters, while an airstrike against militants elsewhere in the south killed eight. NATO and Afghan forces responded, unleashing bombs that could be heard in Kandahar. In neighbouring Helmand province, an airstrike against a minivan killed eight militants also on Saturday.
The US-led coalition confirmed Saturday February 21, 2009, that 13 civilians were killed in an operation against insurgents. The US military at first said that 15 militants were killed in air strikes in the western province of Herat late Monday but local officials said six women and two children were among the dead. An Afghan army and coalition forces team visited the area after the local allegations. Coalition forces confirmed three militants and 13 non-combatants were killed during a coalition forces' operation near Gozara district, Herat province, February 17.
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up within minutes of each other Monday February 23, 2009, at an anti-drug police station in southwest Afghanistan, killing one officer and wounding two more. The first suicide attacker, wearing civilian clothes, approached the station in the southern city of Zarang. When police shouted for the man to stop, he blew himself up, causing no casualties. Minutes later, a second attacker wearing a police uniform approached the building and blew himself up. That blast killed one officer and wounded two.
Four coalition members were killed Tuesday February 24, 2009, in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle hit an improvised bomb. An Afghan civilian working with the coalition was also killed. Also Tuesday, Afghan National Army soldiers, assisted by coalition forces, killed 16 militants while on a combat reconnaissance patrol in Helmand province.
Afghanistan, Wednesday February 25, 2009:
- A bombing, airstrikes and clashes between militants and military resulted
in 30 deaths.
- A bomb a motorbike in Kandahar killed two citizens and injured five Afghan
soldiers.
- In the province of Helmand, militants attacked Afghan soldiers as they were
destroying a poppy field. Two soldiers were killed and two foreign civilians
were injured.
- In the same province 16 militants died during an airstrike.
- In Uruzgan province, coalition troops said 10 militants were killed when
they attacked a patrol of multinational troops. One militant was killed by
ground fire and nine died in an airstrike.
- Three soldiers were killed as a result of an "enemy explosion".
They were killed during an escort operation in the Gereshk district of Helmand
province.
Afghanistan, Friday February 27, 2009:
- Six people were hurt when Afghan police fired on demonstrators who claimed
U.S.-led troops had desecrated copies of the Koran during a raid on a mosque
in Ghazni province.
- An explosion killed a soldier from the NATO-led force in southern Afghanistan
Thursday.
- A roadside bomb hit a NATO-led force convoy in southeastern Paktika on Friday,
wounding two soldiers of the organization.
- Unknown armed men kidnapped two Afghan aid workers in southern Zabul province
Thursday.
Afghanistan, Monday March 2, 2009:
- NATO-led forces admitted they killed eight civilians and wounded 17 in an
engagement with insurgents who had attacked their patrol in Sangin district
on February 23.
- U.S.-led coalition forces shot at a car when it failed to heed warning signals
in Jalalabad city wounding one civilian passenger on Sunday.
- A vehicle belonging to NATO-led forces rolled over after it swerved to avoid
a collision with another vehicle, killing a civilian on a bicycle in Jalalabad
city on Sunday.
- NATO-led troops wounded one Afghan boy when they fired mortars at two men
they say were planting a roadside bomb in Gereshk district on Thursday.
NATO-led soldiers wounded two civilians when they shot at a car they say was
travelling too close to their military convoy in Farah on Sunday.
Three Canadian servicemen serving with the NATO-led force were killed in a roadside bombing on March 4, 2009. The men died when an improvised explosive device detonated near their armoured car during a patrol in Arghandab District, northwest of Kandahar. Two other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the blast.
A bomb exploded outside the main U.S. base at Bagram on Wednesday March 4, 2009, wounding several people. An Afghan governor blamed the attack on a suicide car bomber, and the Taliban claimed responsibility. The bomber died in the blast.
Afghan Border Police and coalition forces killed 12 militants and detained five others in several operations Saturday March 7, 2009. Five militants were killed by Afghan police-led forces during a patrol in the Tarin Kowt district, Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan. In Khost, a joint force was on an operation to disrupt the radical Haqqani network associated with the Taliban when they came under fire. The combined force returned fire, killing four militants and wounding one. The wounded man and four other militants were detained. A search of the compound where the shootout happened revealed weapons, explosives and materials for making improvised explosive devices.
Afghanistan, Sunday March 8, 2009:
- A roadside bomb killed one soldier from the NATO-led force and wounded three
more in the east of the country.
- A roadside bomb killed three Afghan police and wounded three more in Dah
Yak district.
- Afghan soldiers clashed with insurgents, inflicting "heavy" casualties
on the militants, in Alah Say district. Two soldiers were also killed and
one more was wounded during the fighting. An exact number of militants killed
was not immediately available, it said.
- Afghan and international forces killed and wounded several insurgents during
a joint operation in Naad Ali district on Saturday.
- U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed two policemen in friendly fire
during an operation in Tagab district on Friday.
- U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan police killed five insurgents during
a patrol in Tirin Kot district on Saturday.
Afghanistan, Monday March 9, 2009:
- Afghan troops killed eight Taliban insurgents in a raid in southern Helmand
province.
- A roadside bomb killed a soldier from the NATO-led force and wounded four
more in Kandahar on Sunday.
- A roadside blast killed a woman in western province of Herat on Sunday.
- Also on Sunday, a Taliban guerrilla was killed while planting a mine in
the central province of Ghazni.
Afghanistan, Match 14, 2009:
- A British soldier died after being caught in an explosion in southern Afghanistan.
- A French soldier also died when his armoured vehicle was hit by a rocket
during a military operation to secure a valley held by insurgents.
- Here are figures for foreign military deaths as a result of violence or
accidents in Afghanistan since 2001:
NATO/US-LED COALITION FORCES:
Britain 150, Canada 112, Denmark 22, France 27,
Germany 30, Spain 25, Netherlands 18, US 662
Other nations 58
TOTAL: 1,103
Afghanistan, Saturday March 14, 2009:
- Four American soldiers were killed in eastern Afghanistan in a roadside
explosion in the worst of several attacks by insurgents around the country.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
- In Kapisa Province, also in the east, a French soldier and five Afghan troops
were killed in a clash with militants.
- A suicide bomber blew himself up on a main road south of the capital, killing
two Afghan civilians and wounding nine.
- Another explosion in Kandahar narrowly missed the mayor of the city, Ghulam
Haider Hamedi, as he arrived to work Sunday morning. One passer-by was killed
and six more wounded when a remote-controlled bomb placed on a wheelbarrow
beside the gate to his office exploded.
Afghanistan Sunday March 15, 2009:
- Afghan and foreign troops killed five militants in an operation in an area
of southern Kandahar.
- A soldier from the NATO-led force was killed during an attack of the insurgents
on Saturday in an area of southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement.
- Another soldier of the force lost his life same day in a similar incident
in an eastern region.
A ninth Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan on Monday March 16, 2009, as international pressure mounts on Australia to increase its military force. The soldier was shot dead during a "very intense fire fight" with 20 Taliban insurgents in Uruzgan province.
Three civilians were injured Wednesday March 18, 2009, when a bomb exploded near a gas station in Kabul. Meanwhile, the NATO International Security Assistance Force said in a statement Tuesday that the militant forces clashed with troops in Kapisa province last Saturday. As of March 16, an estimated total of 29 enemy dead and 12 wounded have been reported. Two wanted insurgents, along with two of the militants' associates, were killed by ISAF forces during a Helmand province clash Monday. There are nearly 75,000 international troops in.
An Australian soldier was killed in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan on March 19, 2009. The soldier, a technician, died while trying to defuse an explosive. He is the second Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan in a week.
Suspected Taliban militants fired three rockets near a base used by Pakistani security forces in the town of Lanvi Kotal, northwest Pakistan on Thursday March 19, 2009. The attack targeted security forces near a key supply route for international forces in Afghanistan. One of the rockets hit the town's commercial area, killing at least eight people, injuring more than 30 and setting fire to a timber yard and a string of nearby shops. The other two struck villages outside town, and it was not immediately known if there were casualties there.
On Thursday March 19, 2009, a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province killed a prominent lawmaker, Dad Mohammad Khan, and four other men who were openly critical of the Taliban. Khan was a member of parliament, former intelligence chief and a long-time critic of the Taliban.
A suicide car blast rocked Nangarhar province east of Afghanistan Saturday March 21, 2009, the first day of Afghan New Year, killing seven, including a policeman, and wounding six others including one police and five civilians.
A soldier in the NATO-led force died on Sunday March 22, 2009, after a "hostile incident".
A bomb ripped through a vehicle carrying labourers to work in Khost province, eastern Afghanistan on Sunday March 22, 2009, killing one worker. Twelve people were wounded and one died later in hospital.
Afghan and the US-led Coalition forces said they killed five militants and
detained four suspected militants Sunday March 22, 2009, in province of Kunduz
during an operation targeting a terrorist network. However, an Afghan official
in Kunduz differed from the statement of Coalition forces by saying international
troops in a surprise operation Sunday broke in the Mayor's house and killed
five people in Iman Sahib District of Kunduz province. Juma Khan, the district
chief, said those who have been killed were all civilians.
NATO troops struck a compound in southern Afghanistan, killing 10 suspected militants -including a senior Taliban commander- while eight Afghan police officers and two NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the same region. Senior Taliban commander Maulawi Hassan and his associates were killed Saturday March 21, 2009, in a "precision operation" at an isolated compound in the Kajaki area of southern Helmand province; there were no civilians involved.
A bomb exploded in a mosque Tuesday March 24, 2009, killing at least five people including the mosque's leader. The explosion took place while the men were worshipping in the mosque in Shah Mansoor village, outside Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province. NATO's troops shot and killed an Afghan civilian near Kabul after the man failed to heed their warnings to stop. The alliance says the vehicle approached a NATO patrol at high speed north of Puli Alam, the capital of Logar province. NATO says troops were forced to open fire, after the driver ignored the patrol's signals to stop.
Poland will bolster its 1,600-strong contingent in Afghanistan with 400 more troops to help improve security in the lead up to an August election there, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday March 24, 2009.
Nine Afghan police officers were killed and six others were wounded in two attacks by Taliban insurgents in southern and central Afghanistan on Thursday March 26, 2009. The attacks came one day after an explosive device ripped through a minibus on Wednesday, killing nine civilians and wounding seven on a road frequently used by Afghan security forces and international troops. The first fatalities on Thursday came in an attack before dawn by Taliban insurgents on a police checkpoint in the Nehr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province. Nine policemen were killed. Later, an ambush on a police vehicle in Ghazni Province, southwest of Kabul, wounded six policemen and two civilians.
An Afghan army soldier shot dead two U.S. servicemen and wounded a third before killing himself in northeast Afghanistan on Friday March 27, 2009.
A suicide bomber killed nine people in an attack on a police compound in southern Afghanistan on March 30, 2009. Five policemen were among those killed in the blast in a government compound in Andar district south of Kandahar city. Several others were injured. One report said the bomber wore a police uniform. In a separate attack, three police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Paktia.
The mayor of an Afghan city was killed in a bomb attack and 30 Taliban-linked militants died in a police operation Tuesday March 31, 2009. Sakhi Amirullah Amiri, the mayor of Afghanistan's eastern city of Khost, was killed as he was travelling home from work. Two of his nephews and two civilians were wounded in the blast.
Twenty militants were killed by an airstrike in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province. The airstrike was ordered after Afghan and U.S. led coalition troops were ambushed while on foot patrol in Kajaki district on Wednesday April 1, 2009. Troops made sure there were no civilians in the area before calling in air support.
NATO-led troops killed 12 insurgents in a fire fight Friday April 3, 2009
and a civilian caught in the crossfire was apparently killed by militants.
U.S. Marines fire 120mm mortars on Taliban positions in Now Zad in Helmand
province.
On April 4, 2009, NATO has agreed to boost troop numbers to cover the Afghan
presidential election in August. US President Barack Obama said his alliance
partners would deploy about 5,000 troops and trainers.
Afghanistan Saturday April 4, 2009:
- Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops have killed at least 35 insurgents
in two days of ground fighting and air strikes in southern Afghanistan.
- On Friday a joint patrol was ambushed in the Kajaki district of Helmand
province and 20 insurgents were killed after troops returned fire and called
for air support.
- On Saturday joint forces killed another 15 militants during the raid on
a compound reportedly used for making weapons and bombs in Kajaki district.
- One NATO soldier was killed in a bomb blast Saturday.
- On Friday, Afghan troops, with the help of U.S. coalition forces, captured
a Taliban commander responsible for facilitating suicide bombings and roadside
bombs in the Lagharah Valley of Khost Province.
NATO announced Saturday April 4, 2009, that it will send about 5,000 additional troops and trainers to Afghanistan, a boost that President Barack Obama hailed, but one that failed to include the combat forces his administration had sought.
On Thursday April 9, 2009, we were told that 32 militants have been killed in recent clashes and airstrikes in the provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan. In both cases Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops on patrol were attacked by suspected insurgents and responded with the help of close air support, resulting in the deaths of 27 militants. No casualties for Afghan or coalition forces were reported in either clash. The coalition forces also killed five suspected militants in Kandahar province. In another incident in the south, a local official said suspected insurgents attacked a police checkpoint, killing six police officers. The provincial council in the eastern province of Khost closed its offices on Friday to protest the killing of at least four Afghan civilians during a U.S.-led military operation on Wednesday. International humanitarian group CARE said one of the Afghan women killed was a teacher in a school it supported.
On Saturday April 11, 2009, a clash erupted between government troops and Taliban insurgents in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, claimed several Taliban militants' lives including their two group commanders. The troops discovered two mines in Shahjoy district of the neighbouring Zabul province on the same day and defused them. In another incident, three soldiers with Afghan National Army (ANA) were wounded as their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Duwa Manda district, Khost province, on Sunday. The Taliban said that the explosion claimed five ANA soldiers' lives.
Afghanistan, Monday April 13, 2009:
- A NATO-led airstrike on Sunday night in a remote eastern area near the border
with Pakistan killed six civilians, two of them young children. Another 16
were wounded, including a one-year-old infant. NATO-led troops say they killed
4-6 insurgents in the strike in Wata Pur district of Kunar province.
- An Afghan civilian crossing a road in southwest Kabul was injured when he
was hit by a convoy of U.S.-led troops and Afghan National Police on Sunday.
- A roadside bomb hit a vehicle and killed four civilians in the western province
of Herat.
- A similar blast killed two construction company security guards working
in the southeastern province of Khost.
- Afghan and U.S.-led troops killed six militants in two separate operations
in Helmand province on Sunday.
- A landmine planted by militants killed a civil employee of a construction
company in Ghazni province.
- A car bomb went off outside a government building in the province of Balkh
but caused no casualties.
- Afghan troops killed 13 insurgents in a clash after they staged an ambush
against the troops on Sunday, in Uruzgan province. There were no casualties
among the soldiers.
- Also on Sunday, Afghan soldiers killed two militants in a clash in neighbouring
Zabul.
- An Afghan soldier was killed and five more wounded in another attack on
Sunday in Kunduz province.
- U.S. and Afghan troops killed eight insurgents over the weekend in two separate
engagements in provinces bordering the Afghan capital.
A female Canadian soldier was killed and four other troops were injured in a roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan on Monday April 13, 2009. Karine Blais, at 21 years, was the second Canadian female and 177th Canadian casualty to die in a war in Afghanistan since 2002.
Taliban gunmen murdered one of Afghanistan's leading female rights activists on April 13, 2009, as she stood on the pavement outside her home. Two men on a motorbike shot Sitara Achakzai at close range, by her home in the southern city of Kandahar. Officials said the attack happened in broad daylight. The Taleban, who offer 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£1,700) to anyone who murders a councillor, claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan, Friday April 17, 2009:
- Seven Afghan security officers including four policemen and three guards
for NATO supply trucks were killed by a roadside bomb in the Waze Khwa district,
Paktika.
- Two soldiers from NATO-led troops were wounded when a suicide car bomber
attacked their convoy just outside the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
- U.S. and Afghan forces killed six armed militants in a Thursday raid in
Maiwand district of Kandahar province.
- U.S. and Afghan forces said they detained a suspected bomb-maker in Baraki
Barak district of Logar province.
- An Afghan civilian was wounded near Kabul on Thursday when U.S. troops fired
into his car after he failed to stop.
- Afghan commandos backed by foreign troops on Thursday detained three suspected
militants in Paktika province while searching the compound of a suspected
militant commander.
At least seven people have been killed in violence across Afghanistan. A woman was killed and five others injured when a bomb on a bicycle exploded in the city of Kandahar on Saturday April 18, 2009. International troops killed at least six militants in separate operations. NATO and Afghan forces killed three militants during a raid targeting insurgent commanders in Logar province. In Khost province, the coalition said one militant was killed after an unmanned spy plane spotted him and two accomplices placing an improvised explosive device. U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed two militants in the western province of Farah, after coming under fire while on patrol. An unknown number of militants were killed in Kandahar province when NATO and Afghan forces fired on an underground bunker, during an operation targeting a senior militant in Maywand district.
Afghanistan Saturday April 18, 2009:
- An Afghan Cabinet minister survived an apparent suicide bombing attack in
southern Afghanistan's Nimroz province that killed three civilians. Nimroz
Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said two suicide bombers on Friday attempted
to enter a compound in the provincial capital Zaranj where the minister of
refugees, Karim Brahawi, was staying. Police recognized the attackers' hostile
intentions and stopped them from entering the residence. Police shot one attacker
dead. The second attacker detonated his explosives in a crowd of civilians,
killing three and wounding three others. The minister was unharmed.
- A Norwegian intelligence officer was killed Friday by a roadside bomb near
the city of Mayama. He was flown to a German field hospital in Mazar-i-Sharif,
where he died.
- Two NATO soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack also near Mazar-i-Sharif.
It was not immediately clear if the reports referred to the same incident.
- The U.S. military said it killed six militants during an overnight raid
northwest of Kandahar city in Maywand district.
- On Thursday, NATO forces said one of their troops was killed in a bomb blast.
No further details were released.
- NATO-led forces and Afghan troops killed three suspected militants during
a raid in central Afghanistan. The joint force was targeting insurgent commanders
in a village in Logar province. The three suspected militants were killed
in a gunfight following a call for them to surrender.
Suspected U.S. missiles levelled a Taliban compound in northwest Pakistan on Sunday April 19, 2009, killing three people despite militant threats of a wave of suicide bombings if the strikes don't end. The strike occurred in South Waziristan tribal region, the main stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed allied with the al-Qaida terrorist network. Shahab Ali Shah, South Waziristan's top administrative official, said three people died and five were wounded in the Zari Noor village area. The identities of the dead and wounded were not immediately clear. Haji Gul Zaman, who lives just outside Zari Noor village, said he heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke rising from the area. Trucks carrying Taliban fighters raced toward the scene. A hardline cleric who mediated a deal that imposes Islamic law in a northwest valley in exchange for peace with the Taliban warned that the Pakistani government must enforce the law, not simply make announcements about it.
Afghanistan Sunday April 19, 2009:
- A suicide bomber was killed in Kabul when explosives attached to his body
went off prematurely during an attack against foreign troops on a road.
- Taliban guerrillas attacked an Afghan police checkpoint late on Saturday,
southwest of Kabul, killing five policemen. The guerrillas killed one policeman
in the melee, captured four others, took them to another location and executed
them as revenge for an incident earlier this week in which U.S. Special Forces
and Afghan police killed five Taliban fighters.
- Afghan and NATO-led troops killed a wanted insurgent commander in Logar
province south of the capital on Saturday.
- The troops came under fire during the raid and called in air strikes, killing
three insurgents including a woman, it said. Two males were detained. NATO
denied media reports the casualties were civilians.
Afghanistan, Monday April 20, 2009:
- A suicide bomber managed to enter the governor's compound in Herat province.
Police opened fire and the bomber's explosive vest detonated. Provincial council
Chief Hamayoun Azizi was one of three people wounded in the incident. The
governor was not hurt.
- A civilian was killed in an explosion in Uruzgan.
- Afghan and U.S.-led troops killed four "adversaries" in an overnight
operation in Kandahar province, adding one woman was also wounded superficially
in the raid.
- Five Afghan police have gone missing after a Taliban attack on Sunday in
Ghazni province.
- A roadside bomb killed two Afghan police in a remote area of eastern Nangarhar
province.
Afghanistan Tuesday April 21, 2009:
- Afghan police and foreign troops killed seven militants in a joint mopping-up
operation in Uruzgan province.
- Afghan soldiers and police backed by U.S. troops killed two militants in
a gun battle in Uruzgan province on Sunday.
- Joint Afghan and U.S.-led troops killed a militant and detained a suspect
in a raid on a compound in Maiwand district of Kandahar province.
- Three civilians and three policemen were killed and more than a dozen others
were wounded in the latest incidents of violence across Afghanistan.
- A roadside bomb ripped through a civilian mini-bus in the Gurbuz district
of eastern Khost province, killing two civilians on board and wounding eight
others.
A Canadian woman soldier was found dead in her room at a military base in southern Afghanistan on Thursday April 23, 2009, and enemy action is not suspected. Major Michelle Mendes was the third female soldier from Canada to die on active duty in Afghanistan. Canada has now lost 118 soldiers since first deploying troops to Afghanistan in late 2002. About 2,800 Canadian soldiers are based in the southern city of Kandahar on a mission that is due to end in 2011.
Afghan troops with the support of the U.S.-led Coalition forces have killed six Taliban fighters including a local commander Mullah Qazi and his five men in the eastern Paktika province we were told on Saturday April 25, 2009. Three suicide bombers detonated at the gates of a government compound in southern Afghanistan, killing five policemen and three others were injured. The bombers struck at the governor's compound in the city of Kandahar. No senior official was hurt.
Afghanistan, Sunday April 26, 2009:
- Fourteen people, including 11 policemen, were killed in shootings and explosions
across insurgency-plagued Afghanistan.
- A roadside bomb blast killed five policemen and two civilians in the Zhari
district of southern Kandahar. Two other police were injured. The police were
on patrol "inspecting the opium fields".
- Another three policemen were killed and two wounded in a similar incident
in central Wardak province.
- On Saturday, three other policemen were killed and two wounded in a roadside
bomb explosion in eastern Khost province near the border with Pakistan.
- A senior civil servant was killed in Kandahar in a drive-by shooting by
gunmen speeding past on a motorbike.
- A roadside bombing killed two members of a new U.S.-funded civil defence
force while authorities destroyed 6.5 tons (6 metric tons) of drugs and chemicals.
The two guards from the Afghan Public Protection Force were the first members
of the new program to die in the line of duty.
Afghanistan, Monday April 27, 2009:
- One policeman was killed during clashes in a village on the southern outskirts
of Kabul.
- Afghan police have freed seven of their comrades kidnapped during a bold
attack on a government building in a relatively secure northern part of the
country.
- Afghan border police force seized a large amount of explosives hidden in
a truck by militants for attacks. The overnight seizure in eastern Nangarhar
province included 3,720 bags of explosives and 220 guns.
- U.S. and Afghan forces killed five militants and detained 12 others in an
early morning raid on a bomb-making facility in Zharmi district.
- A landmine killed five Afghan police and two civilians on Sunday in Kandahar
province. Police were surveying poppy fields when the blast hit their vehicle.
- A similar blast killed three officers in Maidan Wardak, to the west of Kabul,
also on Sunday.
Afghanistan, Tuesday April 28, 2009:
- A roadside bomb killed five Afghan police as they conducted an operation
against militants on Monday in Paktika.
- Afghan security forces rescued on Sunday five employees of a security firm
who were kidnapped by insurgents last month in Maidan Wardak province.
- One British soldier has been killed in a bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan.
The ministry issued a statement on Tuesday April 28, 2009, saying that the
soldier was killed while patrolling along with members of the Afghan army
near Forward Operating Base Keenan in Helmand.
Afghanistan, Wednesday April 29, 2009:
- Five German soldiers were wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked their
convoy in the Ali Abad district of Kunduz province on Monday. One of them
died on Wednesday.
- Afghan troops backed by international troops killed two militants and wounded
another in Mosaee district.
- Afghan and U.S.-led forces killed an estimated 10 militants and detained
two more in a battle that erupted during a morning patrol in Logar province.
- An Afghan motorcyclist was fatally wounded by Afghan and NATO-led troops
when he sped towards a checkpoint in Maidan Wardak province. The motorcyclist
was repeatedly warned to stop, but he accelerated towards troops who then
fired on him. He was taken to a military medical facility where he subsequently
died.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday April 29, 2009, unveiled a new counter-terrorism strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan must be part of a solution to Afghanistan's problems as there is a "chain of terror" linking the border areas between the two countries to Britain, he said. He promised extra funding of 665 million pounds (944 million U.S. dollars) over the next four years to Pakistan for counter-terrorism operations as well as educational and economic assistance. He also said 700 more British troops would be sent to Afghanistan to boost security for the presidential election in August, which will increase the British force there to 9,000.
Three Americans and two other international troops were killed Friday May 1, 2009. Insurgents attacked Afghan and international forces with rocket-propelled grenades and guns. The troops called in air support, forcing the militants to withdraw. The nationalities of the two NATO soldiers were not immediately known because NATO typically waits for countries to release such information.
Afghanistan, Saturday May 2, 2009:
- Nineteen militants were killed during fighting in Kunar province, eastern
Afghanistan. Seven militants attacked Afghan security forces and coalition
troops during a combat reconnaissance patrol. The troops returned fire and
called in air support, killing seven militants. Other militants attempted
to reposition themselves, but the troops engaged them with air support and
killed 12 others.
- A roadside bomb killed the district police chief of Farsi, Herat province.
His bodyguard also died and six other policemen were wounded.
- Afghan and U.S.-led forces on Friday killed five militants in Helmand province's
Nahr Surkh district. The force was attacked from several compounds when on
a reconnaissance patrol, and returned fire, killing five.
- A NATO-led air strike in Maywand district of Kandahar province killed a
local insurgent commander and six of his associates.
NATO-led troops shot and killed a 12-year-old girl and wounded two other civilians in western Afghanistan after they opened fire at a vehicle close to a convoy we were told on Sunday May 3, 2009. A spokesman for Italian soldiers based in the western city of Herat confirmed the shooting on the vehicle but said troops fearful of an attack had first warned the car to stay away from them. The girl and her family were driving into Herat from a neighbouring province for a wedding party when the troops passed from the other direction. Separately, a bomb exploded outside an Afghan police headquarters, killing four civilians including two children, also reporting a dozen Taliban were killed in a joint US-Afghan operation. The Afghan defence ministry confirmed that 19 militants killed on Friday and Saturday were linked to an attack on an outpost in remote northeastern Kunar province that left 10 dead, including US and Latvian troops. They were killed in an operation in Ghaziabad launched by troops dropped in by air after the attack.
A wave of attacks by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan Monday May 4, 2009, left at least 27 people dead. Zabul province was the scene of two major attacks. Local authorities say a roadside bomb tore through a tractor that was transporting a group of civilians, killing at least 12 people. Also in Zabul, Taliban fighters attacked a convoy near the provincial capital, Qalat, and killed six security guards. Also a suicide bomber attacked the mayor of Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province, killing the mayor, three of his bodyguards and three civilians.
Villagers brought truckloads of bodies -about 30, mainly women and children- to the capital of Farah Province in Western Afghanistan on Tuesday May 5, 2009, to prove that scores of civilians had been killed by U.S. air strikes in a battle with the Taliban. The overall civilian death toll may have been much higher, with scores of people feared killed while huddled in houses that were destroyed by U.S. warplanes. U.S. forces confirmed that a battle had taken place with air strikes and said they were investigating reports of civilian casualties, but were unable to confirm them.
A British soldier has been killed on patrol we were told on Thursday May 7, 2009. The soldier from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was patrolling with an Afghan National Army unit in Helmand Province. The soldier was the 154th member of the British armed forces to have died in Afghanistan since the conflict began in late 2001.
Four British soldiers have been killed in a single day while on patrol in southern Afghanistan we were told on Friday May 8, 2009. The four died in three incidents on Thursday in Helmand. The latest deaths bring the number of British soldiers to have been killed in action in the country this year to 20. Two soldiers, one from the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the other from 173 Provost Company, 3rd Regiment, died in a suicide attack in Gereshk. The NATO-led force said that 16 Afghan civilians died in the same attack and 30 Afghan civilians were wounded.
Clash between Taliban and Afghan police left nine insurgents dead and another held captive in Paktia province of east Afghanistan. The clash erupted late Friday May 8, 20-09, when the rebels targeted police checkpoint in Ahmad Khil district and police returned fire, killing nine rebels. Another militant had been captured during the firefight. Four policemen were injured during the clash. The army also killed two rebels in Musa Qala district of the southern Helmand province on Thursday.
At least five people, including the security forces, were killed on Sunday May 10, 2009, in a twin-suicide attack in Girishk, Helmand province. More than a dozen others, including soldiers and civilians, were injured. The first bomber set off his bomb after he detonated his explosive-laden motorbike near the group of police. The second bomber blew himself up when the rescuers and security forces arrived at the scene to evacuate the first bomber's victims.
A suicide car bomber killed seven people and wounded 21 others Wednesday May 13, 2009, outside a U.S. military base in Khost where militants stormed government buildings a day earlier. A vehicle drove up to the first gate outside Camp Salerno on the edge of Khost and exploded. Four Afghan security guards were killed and 12 wounded. There were no casualties among international troops. On Tuesday, 11 Taliban suicide bombers struck government buildings in Khost, sparking gun battles with U.S. and Afghan forces that killed 20 people and wounded three Americans.
Afghan officials reveal that 95 children are among the civilians killed in a US-led strike that is surrounded with the controversy over use of white phosphorous. Condolence payments were given to the victims as ordered by President Hamid Karzai. Nearly 150 civilians were killed last Tuesday May 12, 2009, when US warplanes dropped bombs on two villages in the Bala Baluk district in the western province of Farah.
A clash between Taliban militants and a private security company Thursday May 14, 2009, left three Taliban rebels and a security guard dead in south Afghanistan's Ghazni province, Qarabagh district. Rebels attacked a logistic convoy escorted by a local security company and guards returned fire, killing three rebels on the spot. One Afghan security guard was also killed while three Taliban and another guard sustained injuries in the firefight. In a separate incident, police encountered a group of rebels in Gilan district of Ghazni province killing one rebel and injuring another.
A British Harrier fighter jet crashed in southern Afghanistan Thursday May 14, 2009, injuring the pilot. The aircraft had made an emergency landing at Kandahar Airfield. The pilot ejected and was believed to have suffered only minor injuries. There were no other casualties.
A suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Kandahar province's Spinboldak district near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan on Thursday May 14, 2009, wounding four officers. The blast killed the car bomber but there were no other deaths. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan Friday May 15, 2009:
- Two U.S. soldiers from the NATO-led force were killed fighting insurgents
in eastern Afghanistan.
- Afghan and Western forces killed some insurgents during operations in the
Nawa district of southern Helmand province.
- A British soldier serving with NATO-led troops was killed when a roadside
bomb hit his vehicle in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province on Thursday.
- U.S. and Afghan troops detained one militant in the Baraki Barak district
of Logar province.
Three policemen and Two Taliban were killed in Farah province west of Afghanistan
Saturday May 16, 2009. Two other policemen sustained injures in the firefight.
Pakistan's army has killed more 1,000 militants and nearly eliminated Taliban
control of the North West Frontier Province we were told on Sunday May 17,
2009. The Taliban remained in control of just 2 percent of the province after
a two-week offensive.
The government did not say how many people were displaced or how many civilians
were killed, but the United Nations Saturday estimated more than a million
people have been displaced by the military's operation to rout militants launching
attacks from Pakistani tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Sunday May 17, 2009:
- Three Russian-made rockets were fired at Kabul from the northwest. One hit
a house but did not cause any casualties, a second came down in a street and
the third hit a fuel tanker, setting it on fire, but the blaze was brought
swiftly under control.
- Six militants, including one foreigner, were killed during an operation
by Afghan security forces and international troops in southern Uruzgan province.
- One Afghan National Army soldier was killed and three wounded when their
vehicle struck a roadside bomb in southeastern Zabul province.
- One militant has been killed and another, Qari Saifullah, arrested after
a firefight in Zabul. Security forces also seized guns and a motorbike.
- One militant was killed by Afghan security forces in eastern Paktia province.
They also seized a four-wheel drive vehicle.
- A joint cleanup operation of Afghan and international troops Saturday claimed
the lives of six armed militants in Uruzgan. Two AK-47 assault rifles and
a pistol were also discovered in the operation.
Airstrikes Tuesday May 19, 2009, claimed the lives of eight civilians in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah who had been forced to act as human shields by militants. A U.S. civilian and a member of the coalition forces were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb was detonated as their convoy travelled between Kabul and Bagram. The Afghan and coalition forces killed 18 enemy fighters Tuesday and Wednesday. Fifteen suspected militants were captured. They also confiscated significant arms and drug caches valued at $750 million in Marjeh.
One of three Afghan civilians wounded when U.S. contractors shot at them
last week has died on May 21, 2009. A second Afghan civilian injured in the
May 5 shooting remained in serious condition in a Kabul hospital. The third
person was treated and released. An attorney for the contractors said a car
slammed into their vehicle and then made a U-turn and appeared to be heading
back toward them, "so they shot."
Nine suspected militants have been killed in separate operations in southern
and central Afghanistan. U.S.-led coalition forces killed two militants and
captured six others in a clash Thursday May 21, 2009 in the southern province
of Helmand. Also seven militants were killed during an airstrike that followed
a gun battle in the central province of Ghazni Wednesday. A Taliban commander
was detained.
Afghanistan Friday May 22, 2009:
- Afghan and U.S.-led forces killed two militants and arrested six suspects
in the Naad Ali district of southern Helmand province on Thursday. They also
seized and destroyed opium seeds.
- Afghan and U.S. forces killed one militant and arrested three others in
the Nawa district of southern Helmand province.
- An Afghan army commando was killed and another soldier wounded on Thursday
when their patrol was ambushed in Chak district of Wardak province, which
borders Kabul.
- Afghan police on Wednesday killed the top militant commander in Andar district
of Ghazni province, Abdul Baki, while conducting a search of his residence.
Baki commanded a cell of 20 to 30 fighters who coordinated and carried out
attacks on government and troops in the area. Police also discovered 50 voter
registration cards at his compound, apparently taken from villagers.
- Seven militants were killed and one detained in a firefight in Gelan district
of Ghazni province.
A British soldier died after being shot while on foot patrol in Afghanistan on May 23, 2009. The soldier was killed near Sangin in Helmand Province. US military said troops have killed 60 militants and made their largest seizure of drugs in an operation targeting a Taliban stronghold and an opium-production centre.
Afghanistan Sunday May 24, 2009:
- Afghan and U.S.-led forces detained four suspected al Qaeda militants in
Khost city in the eastern province of Khost.
- An Afghan civilian died of wounds from a U.S.-led airstrike, which was supporting
NATO-led forces in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday. The
civilian was suspected of planting an explosive device but an investigation
later determined he was not an insurgent.
- Afghan National Police and U.S.-led forces captured a Taliban commander
and detained two militants in the Ghazni district of eastern Ghazni province
on Saturday.
Four civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed on May 25, 2009, when a roadside bomb blew up a car in the Arghandab district of southern Zabul province. Three others were wounded. Also U.S.-led and Afghan forces killed three militants and detained six others during a search of compounds in southern Lashkar Gah district. A woman and child were also injured when troops shot dead a man who was hiding behind them. They were hit by a ricocheting bullet.
A suicide car bomber ran into a NATO convoy on a main road north of Kabul on Tuesday May 26, 2009, killing three American soldiers and three Afghan civilians.
On May 26, 2009, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission released
its assessment of an American aerial attack in the western province of Farah
on May 4, saying American forces demonstrated "a disproportionate use
of force" that might have killed up to 97 civilians, most of them children.
That number is lower than the Afghan government's figure of 140 civilians
killed but higher than the American military assessment of 20 to 30 civilian
deaths in an attack it said singled out Taliban fighters.
Afghanistan Wednesday May 27, 2009:
- Air strikes, gun battles and attacks killed 34 people across Afghanistan
including a government official shot dead with three of his sons near the
Pakistani border.
- Elsewhere in Paktia, Afghan security forces backed by NATO troops and air
power killed at least 15 insurgents.
- Further north, a rocket slammed into a wheat field in the eastern province
of Kunar, which also lies on the Pakistani border, killing a beggar.
- NATO said later that seven civilians were killed in insurgent mortar attacks
around the town of Asadabad in what appeared to be the same incident.
- Meanwhile, an Afghan border policeman and three insurgents were killed in
an exchange of fire initiated by the Taliban attackers in the eastern province
of Nangarhar.
- In the centre of the country, the Afghan and US militaries said they killed
four Al-Qaeda-linked militants and detained 10 others during operations against
extremist Islamists in Logar province.
- There are more than 70,000 foreign troops based in Afghanistan, helping
the government fight an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency.
A suicide bomber ran an explosives-rigged car into a military convoy, killing three US soldiers and three civilians in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan on May 27, 2009. Taliban fighters regularly use suicide attacks and roadside bombs in assaults on foreign and Afghan troops.
A British soldier died on Thursday May 28, 2009, after being wounded in an
explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, a Royal Marine, was hurt in
a blast near Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province on May 22. Another British soldier
was killed on Saturday following an explosion near Sangin in Helmand province.
Here are figures for foreign military deaths as a result of violence or accidents
in Afghanistan since 2001:
NATO/US-LED COALITION FORCES:
Britain 162
Canada 118
Denmark 22
France 28
Germany 32
Spain 25
Netherlands 19
United States 690
Other nations 65
TOTAL: 1,161
American and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes engaged in a "fierce firefight" with Taliban insurgents in a remote and mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan on Thursday May 28, 2009, killing at least 29 militants in an effort to capture one of their leaders. But a Taliban spokesman gave a vastly different account of the battle, saying that the militants had killed 15 members of the coalition forces and captured four Afghan police officers. The spokesman said no Taliban fighters had been killed. Who to believe, none probably.
The US military said on Friday May 29, 2009, that joint US and Afghan security forces killed 35 militants and wounded 13 others in eastern Afghanistan. The militants ambushed an Afghan-led patrol in Zabul province early Thursday, before coalition troops returned fire and called in airstrikes. No coalition troops or civilians were reported hurt.
Two British soldiers were killed by an explosion on Saturday May 30, 2009, while on patrol in Helmand Province in the south of the country. They "were killed as a result of an explosion.
Afghanistan, Saturday May 30, 2009:
- At least 30 Taliban militants and nine Afghan soldiers have been killed
in northwestern Afghanistan.
- Four other Afghan soldiers were missing in fierce fighting that began Friday
in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis province. Afghan troops were backed
by international forces in the battle.
- Two roadside bombings have killed four civilians and wounded a provincial
governor in southern Kandahar province.
- In northern Afghanistan another roadside bomb lightly wounded the governor
of Kunduz province, Mohammed Omar.
- Afghan and foreign troops killed five militants in southern Helmand province
on Friday.
- Afghan police killed six militants in Farah province Friday.
- Police in Herat province shot and killed two would-be suicide bombers before
they could detonate their explosives.
- Three suspected al-Qaida agents have been arrested in Khost near the border
with Pakistan as forces were hunting down an insurgent leader who was allegedly
known to recruit foreign militants for attacks in the area.
Afghanistan, Monday June 1, 2009:
- Two separate roadside bomb attacks killed four troops from the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force in eastern Afghanistan.
- Afghan troops backed by foreign air strikes killed four Taliban insurgents
in the southwestern district of Qara Bagh Sunday.
- Dozens of people protested in the northwestern district of Bala Murghab
after two civilians, including a woman, were killed during a battle between
Afghan and Taliban forces overnight.
- In another village in the same district, Afghan and foreign troops killed
seven militants.
- Afghan and US forces killed four militants and detained two more during
an operation to capture a local Taliban commander in Sayed Abad district.
- Four policemen were killed and one wounded when Taliban gunmen stormed their
police post in the northern Kunduz city.
- Unidentified gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles killed two Afghan tailors and
wounded two others in their shop in a western suburb of Kabul.
- One Afghan policeman was killed and four wounded in an ambush by Taliban
militants in southern Gerishk district Sunday.
- Afghan policemen detained two militants, including a foreign national, after
a roadside bomb went off next to an armoured vehicle belonging to foreign
advisers in Shar-e-Safa district. There were no casualties.
Four American troops have died in two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan.
The two strikes happened Monday June 1, 2009, in different locations.
Afghanistan, Tuesday June 2, 2009:
- Six civilians, including two women and two children, were killed in a suicide
bomb attack on their vehicle about 5 km north of Bagram airbase, the main
base for US-led troops in Afghanistan.
- One soldier from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
was killed and two were wounded in an attack by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
- Taliban insurgents killed at least 10 Afghan guards working for a US security
firm in an ambush in western Farah province on Monday.
- An unidentified gunman killed a local police chief in a separate area of
Farah on Monday.
- British forces killed a Taliban commander in a strike by Apache helicopters
near Lashkar Gar, capital of southern Helmand province, early on Monday. They
said the commander, identified as Mullah Mansur, was believed to be responsible
for a series of suicide attacks against British and Afghan forces in the area.
- An air strike by NATO-led forces killed six Taliban fighters and two civilians
in Maidan Wardak province.
- Afghan troops killed four Taliban insurgents during an operation in Logar
province.
- A roadside bomb wounded three construction workers, including two foreigners,
in southeastern Paktika province.
- A suicide bomber wounded two security guards in an attack on their vehicle
in another area of Paktika.
Afghanistan, Wednesday June 3, 2009:
- A roadside bomb killed eight Afghan security guards working with foreign
troops in the southeastern province of Paktia on Tuesday.
- Three insurgents were killed in a clash with police in southern Zabul province
on Tuesday.
- An explosion killed a British soldier with the NATO-led international force
in southern Helmand province on Tuesday, the alliance said.
- An Afghan police officer was killed while trying to defuse
Four farmers were killed Wednesday June 3, 2009, as a mine struck their tractor in Shah Walikot district in Kandahar province.
Militants have killed three American soldiers in a bomb and gun attack on their convoy. The convoy struck an improvised bomb before coming under small arms fire Thursday June 4, 2009, north of Kabul. A fourth coalition soldier was wounded in the attack. The ambush was in Kapisa province.
Afghanistan, Friday June 5, 2009:
- Three Afghan children were killed by a mortar left over from a battle between
police and Taliban. The children, aged four to 10, were killed Friday when
they touched a mortar shell left over from an exchange of fire the previous
day between Taliban and police in the central province of Ghazni. Another
child was wounded.
- Bomb attacks and clashes left 31 more people dead, most of them insurgents.
- Two roadside bombs exploded an hour apart in the eastern province of Nangarhar
killing six policemen.
- Also in Nangarhar, a man was killed late Thursday by a bomb he was trying
to plant inside a university faculty.
- A remote-controlled bomb blast in the southern province of Uruzgan killed
two policemen, one of them an officer, while they were on foot patrol.
Security forces after clash with Taliban fighters in Dilaram district of Farah province in west Afghanistan Saturday June 6, 2009, arrested two militants' commanders - Mullah Amanullah and Mullah Naeeb- and killed three others. Two others sustained injuries
Afghanistan Saturday June 6, 2009:
- One Afghan National Army soldier was killed and six other including five
Afghan border police sustained injuries in three separate roadside bombings
in eastern Afghanistan.
- Roadside mines planted by insurgents struck a vehicle of ANA in Dumanda
district of Khost province killing one ANA soldier and wounding another, a
senior ANA officer.
- In the second incident, roadside bomb planted by militants hit a vehicle
of Afghan border police in Dand-e-Patan district of Paktia province wounding
five policemen.
- Another bombing against international troops in Zurmat district of Paktia
damaged one of their vehicles but caused no causalities on foreign soldiers.
Afghanistan, Sunday June 7, 2009:
- A joint Afghan and US-led coalition operation against insurgents in Zabul
province in southern Afghanistan killed more than 20 Taliban fighters.
- After the operation, a roadside bomb exploded and killed one Afghan policeman
as the forces were returning to base
- A militant ambush in the northwest killed four policemen.
- Militants attacked a police security post in northwestern Faryab province,
sparking a one-hour battle that killed four police.
- Another Taliban attack in the eastern province of Paktika killed the police
chief in Sarhawza district.
- Militants elsewhere in Paktika ambushed a truck of private security guards,
killing four of them.
- Clash between Afghan National Army (ANA) and Taliban militants Saturday
left one ANA soldier and two Taliban fighters dead in south Afghanistan's
Ghazni province.
- A Taliban militant was killed and four others, including a commander, were
detained in Syed Abad district Saturday evening in a joint operation of Afghan
and international troops.
A Canadian soldier was killed by an explosive device while on foot patrol
Monday June 8, 2009 in southern Afghanistan.
Afghan officials said an explosion killed at least one child near a convoy of US troops in eastern Afghanistan and wounded about 50 other people in Kunar province. Reports said a US soldier threw the grenade but a spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan says initial reports indicate that an insurgent threw a grenade into the crowd. The US military said in a statement that an "unknown person from a nearby building" threw the grenade. If this is not clear!
Afghanistan, Wednesday June 10. 2009:
- Security forces in Afghanistan said more than 45 militants have been killed
in several recent assaults around the country.
- The US-led coalition killed an insurgent commander and about 16 other militants
in a "precision air strike" in the western province of Ghor Tuesday.
- Military officials Wednesday said Commander Mullah Mustafa was killed after
he stopped in a remote area to meet with other militants. Mustafa commanded
100 fighters and reportedly had links to both the Taliban and the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards.
- A police chief said security forces have killed 30 Taliban militants over
the past three days in an offensive in the southern province of Uruzgan. The
police chief said two police officers were killed during the operation.
- In southern Ghazni province, Taliban militants killed two police officers.
- In Ghazni at least one Afghan soldier was killed in a roadside bombing.
- Tuesday two people were killed and 50 wounded when a grenade exploded in
a crowd of civilians that had gathered around a disabled US military vehicle
in Kunar province.
- International security forces destroyed a Taliban drug lab in the southern
province of Helmand.
A roadside bomb, targeting police patrolling vehicle Friday June 12, 2009 claimed three policemen and wounded three others. It occurred in the centre of Kandahar city when a car filled with explosives was detonated by remote-control as the police vehicles were passing.
A British soldier was killed in an explosion during an operation in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed Thursday June 11, 2009, near the city of Kandahar.
A suicide bomber attacked a fleet of fuel tankers intended for international troops, killing at least eight Afghan drivers. The attack Friday June 12, 2009, in the Girishk district burned at least six tanker trucks and wounded 21 people.
In Helmand a British soldier was killed Friday June 12, 2009, in an explosion,
while carrying out an operation near the town of Sangin.
Afghanistan, Sunday June 14, 2009:
- A Taliban commander has been captured by US-led coalition forces.
- One district police chief was killed when a police team were working to
defuse the roadside bomb in southern Afghan province of Kandahar and injuring
another policeman.
- Another roadside bombing claimed two civilians in the neighbouring Helmand
province.
- A roadside bomb, planted in a handcart, was detonated by remote-control
when one police vehicle was passing through a local market in the centre of
Gereshk district.
- A couple who worked as health workers in Farah province were found shot
dead in their home.
- Taliban fighters killed two policemen in an attack in southeastern Paktia
province.
- Insurgents killed a religious leader overnight in Paktia.
- Afghan security forces killed two militants and wounded 14 others during an operation in northwestern Faryab.
The US military along with Afghan security forces backed by war planes killed nearly two dozen insurgents in a clash in southern Afghanistan at the weekend of Sunday June 14, 2009. The troops called in air support after militants attacked their patrol in Uruzgan province.
Two Afghan soldiers and several suspected militants were killed in fighting and raids across Afghanistan we were told on Tuesday June 16, 2009. The soldiers died after their patrol was attacked by rebels in the northeastern province of Kunduz on Monday. Three militants were also killed during "very intense fighting." Eight rebels were injured and four others captured.
A Jewish soldier from London, UK, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Lt. Paul Mervis, 27, died last Friday June 12, 2009, in southern Afghanistan while on foot patrol in order to guard his platoon against explosive devices.
Three Danish soldiers have been killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on June 17, 2009. The soldiers were leading a convoy when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb or mine. Twenty-five Danish soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Denmark joined the US-led coalition in 2002. Denmark has about 700 military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, mostly based in Helmand province.
A bomb strapped to a parked bicycle exploded near a construction office in southern Afghanistan on Thursday June 18, 2009, killing one employee and a child about 11 years old. Meanwhile, five police officers died when a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar province's Shorawak district. He said two officers were also wounded in the explosion.
Two US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Friday June 19, 2009, when a bomb struck their convoy and at least 25 militants and a policeman died in various military operations. The bomb struck the soldiers on the outskirts of Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died while on a routine patrol near Lashkar Gah in central Helmand province on Friday June 19, 2009.
Afghanistan Saturday June 21, 2009:
- A rocket attack on the main US base outside Kabul killed two American soldiers
early Sunday; six other Americans, including two civilians, were wounded in
the attack on Bagram Air Base. Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The two deaths bring to at least 80 the number of US forces killed in Afghanistan
this year.
- Three Afghan civilians were killed and about 17 others wounded in the Pech
District of the eastern province of Kunar. The civilians were between attacking
insurgents and an Afghan National Army outpost.
Afghanistan Monday June 22, 2009:
- A bomb blast and a suicide bomb attack killed eight civilians and wounded
more than 40 others in Afghanistan's southeastern town of Khost.
- NATO troops shot dead an Afghan civilian in a car in Khost province in the
southeast after the car failed to stop following a warning.
- A suicide car bomber killed three Afghan soldiers in southern Kandahar province.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
- An explosion went off in a government ammunition dump in eastern Nangarhar,
killing a child and wounding 20 others, including 18 civilians. Authorities
were investigating whether the blast was an accident or sabotage.
- Four Afghan guards of a Western security firm were wounded in an ambush
by Taliban guerrillas on a road in southeastern Khost province.
- A roadside bomb hit a vehicle of NATO-led forces on the southern outskirts
of Kabul, wounding three soldiers of the alliance. The Taliban said they were
behind the blast.
- A roadside bomb hit a passenger bus and injured three civilians in Helmand
province.
Afghanistan, Wednesday June 24, 2009:
- Afghan and foreign troops killed around 23 Taliban fighters in ground and
air assaults during an operation in the southern Tirin Kot district.
- Taliban militants gunned down a detective and his police bodyguard in the
provincial capital, Qalat.
- Four Taliban insurgents were killed after ambushing an Afghan army patrol
in the southern Arghandab district.
Three German soldiers have been killed after coming under attack in northern Afghanistan. The soldiers were conducting a joint operation with Afghan forces near the northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday June 23, 2009, when unidentified assailants opened fire on their patrol. The men fired back and requested air support and reinforcements. Germany has about 3,700 troops serving with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), stationed in the north of the country.
Afghanistan, Thursday June 25, 2009:
- Troops killed at least two dozen militants in the run up to August elections
in Afghanistan as separate insurgent bomb attacks killed an Afghan and a NATO
soldier.
- The NATO soldier died in a bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan.
- The Afghan soldier was killed in the southern province of Zabul when a bomb
hit a military logistics convoy.
- Wednesday nine militants, including a commander and a proxy district chief,
were killed in a raid on their hideout in the province of Wardak.
- "Several militants" were killed Wednesday in the southern province
of Helmand. The troops had called in air power after coming under attack while
on patrol near compounds where intelligence had said there was Taliban activity.
- In a third engagement overnight, troops raided an apparent Taliban safe
house in the central province of Ghazni and "eliminated".
- The Afghan army troops working with NATO forces killed eight Taliban in
an operation that started on Wednesday in the western province of Farah.
- In adjoining Herat, three more militants were killed in a clash with police.
Afghan police killed five Taliban militants and wounded two more in a clean-up operation in the suburban area of Lashkar Gha city, capital of southern Afghan province Helmand. Police forces in the light of intelligence report raid a Taliban hideout in the north of Lashkar Gha city on Saturday night June 27, 2009, killing one Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Bali and his four followers. Those insurgents conducted assault on a police post in Lashkar Gha on Friday night, killing eight policemen.
The police chief of Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar and up to five of his men were killed on Monday June 29, 2009, in a shoot-out with security guards employed by US forces. The fighting erupted when members of the unidentified security group tried to free a suspect from the provincial attorney general's offices in Kandahar city.
Air strikes and ground battles killed three dozen Taliban and two civilians while an insurgent suicide bombing on the border claimed two more lives on Tuesday June 30, 2009. 22 men were killed, many of them foreign nationals. The strikes in the eastern province of Khost were called in against senior commanders of the Haqqani network, a Taliban outfit that is linked to Al-Qaeda and accused of some of the most sophisticated attacks in Afghanistan.
On July 2, 2009, the US army launched a major offensive against the Taliban in south Afghanistan's Helmand province. About 4,000 marines as well as 650 Afghan troops are involved, supported by Nato planes. A Taliban spokesman said they would resist in various ways and that there would be no permanent US victory.
Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion in Helmand province. A soldier of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one from 2nd Royal Tank Regiment were killed on Wednesday July 1, 2009. UK troops last week launched a major offensive aimed at driving the Taliban out of strongholds in the province. The deaths take the number of UK troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 171.
The most senior British officer to be killed in action in Afghanistan was one of the two latest casualties in the country. Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, and Trooper Joshua Hammond, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, were killed on Wednesday July 1, 2009, about 8km north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province.
One Marine has been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan during a major offensive against the Taliban. The Marine died Thursday July 2, 2009, during the fighting along the Helmand River valley. Several others were injured or wounded but didn't have numbers. About 4,000 troops were involved in the offensive.
A Canadian soldier travelling in the same convoy as the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on Friday July 3, 2009. Brigadier-General Jonathan Vance announced the death of Corporal Nicholas Bulger during a press conference in Kandahar. Five soldiers were also injured during the attack, but Vance was unhurt.
On July 3, 2009, US troops pushed deeper into a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan in a bid to root out insurgents and stabilize the region. The Helmand offensive began before dawn yesterday when about 4,000 US personnel and 650 Afghan soldiers poured into the Helmand River valley in helicopters and armoured vehicles.
Afghanistan Saturday July 4, 2009:
- Taliban militants fired rockets and mortar shells at an American base in
eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two United States soldiers and wounding
several more in a two-hour battle.
- During the clash, which ended only after United States forces called in
airstrikes, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck toward the base's
gates. It blew up when American troops fired on it.
- More than 30 insurgents were killed in a battle, in Zerok District. Seven
American soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were wounded.
- Helicopters, airstrikes and fire from American troops killed at least 10
militants. The coalition troops detained one militant.
- In the south, a roadside bomb killed seven police officers in Kandahar Province.
- Two Afghan soldiers died Saturday in a separate blast in Musa Qala district
in Helmand.
- American troops continued looking for the soldier, Chief Petty Officer Brian
Naranjo of the Navy believed to have been captured by the Taliban.
Afghanistan, Sunday July 5, 2009:
- Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 Afghan personnel working for a United Nations-sponsored
demining agency in the eastern province of Paktia on Saturday.
- The British Ministry of Defence said two of its soldiers were killed in
separate incidents in southern Helmand province on Saturday.
- A landmine killed an Afghan soldier in Helmand on Saturday.
- Thousands of US Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops have been involved
in a big operation against the Taliban in Helmand since Thursday.
Insurgent attack across Afghanistan killed seven American soldiers and at
least two Afghan civilians Monday July 6, 2009, as thousands of US Marines
continue their offensive against the Taliban in southern Helmand province.
Four US soldiers died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb outside the
northern city of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
An explosion in the south killed two more US troops, while another American
soldier died of wounds sustained during a firefight with militants in eastern
Paktia province. In southern Kandahar province, local officials said a suicide
bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the entrance of the regional
NATO military base, killing two Afghan civilians and wounding 14 others.
On July 6, 2009, Russia has agreed to let the United States fly troops and
weapons across its territory to Afghanistan. The deal follows talks in Moscow
between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev.
Under the agreement, Russia will allow 4,500 US military flights annually
-or about 12 each day- over Russian territory.
Three foreign soldiers, two Canadians and a Briton, died in a helicopter crash in the southern province of Zabul on Monday July 6, 2009. It is also the deadliest day for American forces in nearly a year as seven United States soldiers were killed Monday; six died in bomb explosions and one in a firefight.
Afghanistan, Tuesday July 7, 2009:
- As the joint US-Afghan military operation entered its sixth day, over two
dozen insurgents were killed in Spin Masjid area of Gereshk district, Helmand
province. Huge quantity of arms and ammunition has also been captured by the
troops during the operation.
- A hand grenade thrown at a police vehicle in Khost province, eastern Afghanistan,
exploded in a crowd killing one civilian and wounding 28 others. Four police
and five children were among those wounded.
- An Afghan soldier shot dead two employees of the National Directorate of
Security in Farah City in western Afghanistan.
- An unidentified gunman killed an official from the province's anti-terrorism
police office.
On July 8, 2009, a British soldier has become the seventh to die in a week of fighting in Afghanistan, as a minister warned "more lives will be lost". He died in an explosion near Gereshk in Helmand Province.
Afghanistan Wednesday July 8, 2009:
- Taliban insurgents killed eight Afghan police and abducted another eight
in an attack on a district headquarters in eastern Nuristan province on Tuesday.
- Local officials said 21 Taliban fighters were also killed but the Taliban
put the figure at four.
- A British soldier was killed in an explosion during an operation in southern
Helmand province on Tuesday.
- Afghan and US-led troops killed several armed insurgents during search operations
in eastern Ghazni province overnight. One female civilian was killed by a
ricocheting round.
- Taliban fighters set 12 trucks on fire in northern Kunduz province. The
trucks belonged to a construction firm and the militants kidnapped two drivers.
A US service member was killed on patrol in western Afghanistan, while insurgents
in the east attacked police posts and a government building, sparking a battle
that killed six policemen and 21 insurgents. The American was killed during
"a combat reconnaissance patrol" in Farah province.
- As of Tuesday, at least 646 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan
in late 2001. Of those, the military reports 479 were killed by hostile action.
- Air raids against suspected hideouts of Taliban militants in Ghazni province,
south of Afghanistan claimed the lives of eight civilians including two women.
An explosion from a bomb hidden in a truck loaded with firewood killed at least two dozen people Thursday July 9, 2009, including 12 schoolchildren, in a village south of the Afghan capital. The truck crashed Wednesday night in a stream right by two schools in Logar province, and it exploded when police came to investigate the next morning.
On July 9, 2009, two more UK troops have died in separate attacks in Helmand province, the eighth and ninth soldiers to be killed this month. One soldier was killed in an explosion and the second died from a gunshot wound. The soldiers were from 4th Battalion the Rifles and Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
Up to 22 insurgents were killed Thursday July 9, 2009, during an operation led by coalition troops. Coalition and Afghan forces raided a compound in central Ghazni province, and that a number of militants were killed. Afghan police put that number at 22. The troops found a cache of weapons, including grenades and ammunition.
A third British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, hours after the deaths of two soldiers in Helmand. The death takes the number killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 179 -the same number as killed in the Iraq war. The serviceman who died on Friday July 10, 2009, was killed near Nad Ali, Helmand province.
Five more British soldiers have died in Afghanistan on Friday July 10, 2009, bringing to eight the total killed over 24 hours. The five, from the 2nd Battalion the Rifles, were killed in two separate blasts while on foot patrol. Their deaths take the number of troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 184 and higher than the 179 killed in Iraq.
Six British soldiers were killed on July 10, 2009, on the bloodiest day for British frontline combat troops since the Falklands have been named. Five of the men were killed in a single ambush outside of Sangin on Friday, while another was killed on the same day when his Viking drove over a roadside bomb while taking part in Operation Panther's Claw, just north of Nad Ali.
A group of armed insurgents (Taliban) raided a police checkpoint in Ghormach district Saturday July 11, 2009, and took away six policemen to unknown locations.
Four US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan on
Saturday July 11, 2009. A fifth soldier serving with NATO-led forces in the
south died on Friday from wounds received in June. Thousands of US Marines
and hundreds of British troops have been fighting major new offensives in
the past 10 days in Helmand province.
Afghanistan, Sunday July 12, 2009:
- A roadside bomb killed four Afghan police, one Nato personnel and wounded
one in the Charkh district of Logar province, south of Kabul, on Saturday
- Afghan and foreign troops killed 12 Taliban insurgents in southern Uruzgan
province overnight in an offensive that included air support.
- Afghan security forces regained control of a district headquarters in eastern
Nuristan province overnight. Taliban fighters had taken over the building
after several days of fighting last week. Foreign troops were also involved
in the operation.
- A roadside bomb killed a police commander and one of his bodyguards in southern
Helmand province on Saturday.
- The governor of southeastern Ghazni province survived a roadside bomb attack
against his convoy on Saturday. Two of his bodyguards were wounded.
- Afghan police killed four Taliban fighters in a clash in northern Baghlan
province on Saturday.
Afghanistan, Wednesday July 15, 2009:
- Two civilians and a policeman were killed as insurgent violence mounts weeks
ahead of presidential polls. The civilians died when an improvised bomb placed
on an abandoned bicycle was remotely detonated near a convoy of trucks supplying
foreign forces in the city of Ghazni. A passer-by was injured in the blast.
- A police officer was killed while defusing a roadside bomb in Kandahar.
- Afghan troops also killed two insurgents in a gun battle elsewhere in Ghazni.
The fighting erupted after the rebels attacked troops patrolling the area.
A Canadian soldier was killed during a battle in southern Afghanistan Thursday July 16, 2009. He died while conducting operations in the Panjwayi District. The soldier fell from his position; it was a high position on a cliff. He fell and was killed ... there were no other soldiers injured. It is not clear whether the soldier was involved in a fire fight at the time. Since 2002, 125 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. A lot of them were killed by roadside bombs and not during battles.
A suicide attacker rammed a car bomb into a police convoy in Nimroz province, in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday July 16, 2009, killing three policemen and wounding four others.
Another British soldier has been killed in Helmand on Thursday July 16, 2009. Rifleman Aminiasi Toge, of 2nd Battalion the Rifles, was killed in an explosion while on a foot patrol. He was the 16th British soldier to die this month and would have turned 27 on Sunday. Toge was from Fiji's capital, Suva,
An US F15 fighter jet crashed in eastern Afghanistan Saturday July 18, 2009, killing the two crew members on board. The plane went down during an operation in the region. The military did not indicate why the plane went down, but the statement said the crash was not caused by "hostile fire."
A civilian helicopter crash killed 16 people at a NATO base in southern Afghanistan On Sunday July 19, 2009. A suicide bomber killed two police and a civilian at Torkham, an important border crossing point with Pakistan.
The Pentagon Sunday July 19, 2009, identified the soldier captured in Afghanistan on July 3 as 23-year-old private Bowe Bergdahl of Ketchum, Idaho. Bergdahl was a member of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska
A UK soldier has been killed in a blast in Afghanistan. The soldier, who served with 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, died in Sangin, in northern Helmand province, on Sunday 19 July, 2009. The fatality takes the UK death toll in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 to 186, including 17 during the month of July alone
Four US soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on July 20, 2009.
A British soldier from a bomb disposal team has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier from the joint force explosive ordnance disposal group was killed July 20, 2009, while on patrol in Helmand province. His death brings to 187 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001. Britain has increased its troop levels in Afghanistan to about 9,000 soldiers this year to improve security before next month's presidential election.
A British soldier has died in an explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, attached to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died on Wednesday July 22, 2009. He was killed while on a patrol in Nad e Ali District, central Helmand Province. His death brings to 188 the total UK deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 and is the 19th this month.
Afghan National Security Forces and the international troops, in a joint operation in Chardara district of northern Kunduz province, eliminated 13 Taliban insurgents and wounding over a dozen others on Wednesday July 22, 2009. Germany was deploying heavy weapons including tanks in its largest offensive against Taliban.
Afghanistan, Thursday July 23, 2009:
- A U.S. service member was killed in an insurgent attack in the south raising
to 35 the number of American troops to die in the Afghan war this month.
- Also in southern Afghanistan, Canadian forces said that its troops were
involved in two shooting incidents, killing a girl and wounding three policemen.
The girl was hit by a bullet in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province Tuesday.
A Canadian patrol fired a warning shot at a motorcycle which was approaching
them quickly and was not heeding their warning to stop. The girl was a bystander
and was probably hit by a bullet which ricocheted from the ground. The man
on the motorbike sped away.
- In Dand district, Kandahar, another Canadian patrol fired bullets at a car
driving at night without lights in a manner that "suggested to us it
was hostile". Three policemen riding in the vehicle were wounded.
Taliban militants have tried to carry out multiple suicide attacks on government buildings in the eastern Afghan city of Khost on Saturday July 25, 2009. At least six attackers wearing suicide belts targeted the main police station, but were killed in a gun battle with security forces. Another militant died in a suicide car bombing. At least 17 people were wounded in the violence.
Afghanistan, Saturday July 25, 2009:
- A British soldier was killed when a bomb exploded on a vehicle patrol in
Lashkar Gah District, in the southern province of Helmand. The soldier is
the 20th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan this month.
- Another NATO soldier and more than a dozen rebels were also killed on Friday.
NATO troops came under gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire as they tried
to search a house in the east of the country. One NATO soldier was killed
in the exchange of fire. The troops called in an air strike "to neutralise
the enemy threat, dropping three bombs and killing several insurgents.
- Up to 12 insurgents were killed in a gun battle with US-led troops in the
eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday.
Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled
grenades attacked the main police station on Saturday July 25, 2009, in Khost.
They set off gun battles that went on for hours and left seven militants dead
and four other people wounded.
Afghanistan, Sunday July 26, 2009:
- Taliban gunmen ambushed a convoy in which President Hamid Karzai's vice
presidential running mate Mohammad Qasim Fahim was travelling in northern
Kunduz province. Fahim, one of two vice presidential candidates in the August
20 election, was unhurt but one of his bodyguards was wounded. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for the attack.
- Afghan and foreign troops killed 16 Taliban insurgents in artillery strikes
in eastern Nuristan province on Saturday.
- A land mine planted by insurgents killed three private security guards and
wounded two in the Nahar Saraj district of southern Helmand province on Saturday.
- A roadside bomb killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded three in southeastern
Paktika province on Saturday.
- A roadside bomb killed two road workers in eastern Nangarhar province.
- A Nato soldier died of wounds suffered in an attack by insurgents on Saturday
in southern Afghanistan.
- A roadside bomb wounded a passenger in a vehicle in the centre of Kandahar
city.
On July 27, 2009, it was confirmed the first phase of the UK-US offensive in southern Afghanistan has now ended.
Two further British soldiers have been killed in separate explosions in Afghanistan on July 27, 2009. A soldier from the Light Dragoons died while on a vehicle patrol, as part of Operation Panther's Claw, in Lashkar Gah district, central Helmand Province. In a separate incident, a soldier from 5th Regiment Royal Artillery was killed while on a foot patrol in Sangin district, Helmand Province, bringing the total number of British serviceman killed this month in Afghanistan to 22.
Afghanistan, Tuesday July 28, 2009:
- Insurgents shot and wounded a campaign official working for presidential
candidate Abdullah Abdullah in eastern Laghman province's Dawlat Shahee district.
A bodyguard was killed in the attack.
- Eight security guards were killed and four wounded when the two vehicles
they were travelling in were hit by a remotely detonated roadside bomb in
the Gereshk district of southern Helmand province.
- Two Afghan passers-by were killed and four wounded when a remotely detonated
roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying the district police chief in the Wursaj
district of northwestern Takhar province on Monday.
- A roadside bomb killed one road worker and wounded two in the Sharan district
of southeastern Paktika province on Monday.
- A blast in a shop killed one civilian and wounded two in the Sabari district
of eastern Khost province.
Four security guards of a private company were killed Thursday July 30, 2009, as a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. This is a local security company named Hamayon PSC and all the victims were Afghans.
Afghanistan, Friday July 31, 2009:
- Four Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in a Taliban ambush on
a convoy carrying voting papers and other election material in the Bala Boluk
district of western Farah province.
- In a separate incident in Bala Boluk, 13 people were burned when they tried
to take fuel from an overturned fuel truck which was attacked by Taliban insurgents.
- Eleven Taliban insurgents and one policeman were killed in clashes in the
Rabat Sangi district of western Herat province on Thursday. Five of those
killed were civilians who had been shot while handcuffed.
- Two U.S. service members were killed in a fire fight with insurgents in
southern Afghanistan on Thursday.
- Up to six civilians were either killed or wounded when a roadside bomb planted
near a bridge hit their car in Aqcha district in northern Jawzjan province
on Thursday.
- Afghan and NATO-led troops killed 11 Taliban insurgents during a ground
and air assault in the Nawa district of southeastern Ghazni province.
- A NATO soldier serving in Afghanistan died after an insurgent attack in the violent south. The soldier died after being wounded in the attack on Thursday.
Afghanistan, August 1, 2009:
- A convoy carrying campaigners working for President Hamid Karzai was ambushed
five times in the Moqur district of southeastern Ghazni province. One guard
was killed. Two people, including Juma Gul, a candidate for provincial elections,
were wounded. Five Taliban fighters were killed and six wounded. The convoy
was returning to the capital Kabul after meeting Karzai supporters in Ghazni
ahead of the August 20 presidential elections.
- Three U.S. soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when their patrol
was hit by two roadside bombs.
- Eight Taliban insurgents were killed and several wounded in an operation
by Afghan and foreign troops in Ghazni's Gilan district.
- Six Taliban insurgents and two civilians were detained by Afghan and foreign
troops after another operation in Ghazni's Nawa district.
- A French soldier was killed and two wounded in clashes with insurgents in
eastern Kapisa province.
- A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Dare Ghori district of northern
Baghlan province.
- Afghan police killed three insurgents and wounded 13 when their post was
attacked in the Qale Zaal district of northern Kunduz province on Friday.
One wounded insurgent and four suspects were detained.
- Afghan and foreign troops detained a district-level insurgent commander
after a raid on his house in Kunduz's Emam Saheb district on Friday.
Afghanistan, Sunday August 2, 2009:
- A roadside bomb killed four Afghan soldiers in the Gereshk district of southern
Helmand province.
- Afghan police killed 12 insurgents after militants attacked a checkpoint
in the Khash Rud district of southwestern Nimroz province, bordering Helmand,
on Saturday.
- Two Canadian soldiers have been killed and a third seriously injured in
the south of Afghanistan, bringing to 127 the number of Canadian troops killed
in the country since 2002. The three soldiers came under attack in Zhari district,
west of Kandahar. The soldiers had left their armoured vehicle to secure an
area after an explosion when a second blast occurred.
- Six American soldiers were killed in a 48-hour period ending Sunday.
On August 2, 2009, we were told that as of March 31 2009, a total of 51 UK service personnel have suffered amputations due to injuries sustained while on operational deployment on Operation Herrick."
A British soldier was killed by an explosion in southern Afghanistan on August 4, 2009. The serviceman died from a blast, presumed to be caused by a roadside bomb, while on a vehicle patrol in Babaji, a district in southern Helmand province. The soldier was the first member of the British forces to be killed in Afghanistan this month after 22, including eight in 24 hours, were killed in July, the bloodiest month since the start of the campaign.
The residents of Afghan capital Kabul were shocked in bed as seven rockets fired by militants hit residential areas early Tuesday August 4, 2009. The rockets wounded at least two civilians were fired from Deh Sabz area. This is the first time after almost one year that the fortified Afghan capital came under rocket attacks reminding the bitter factional fighting decades ago.
The new head of NATO paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday August
5, 2009, to reinforce his message that the war against the Taliban and Al
Qaeda remains the alliance's top priority. But whether Anders Fogh Rasmussen
can persuade NATO countries to commit more resources to a war that is becoming
more deadly on the ground and less popular at home remains to be seen.
Four American troops were killed Thursday August 6, 2009, in western Afghanistan when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Earlier Thursday, a U.S. service member had died Wednesday in western Afghanistan after NATO troops engaged insurgents who were spotted planting roadside bombs.
A British soldier was killed by an explosion while on patrol in southern Afghanistan. The soldier died following a blast Saturday August 8, 2009, while on patrol east of Gereshk town in the restive Helmand Province. The soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED), the main weapon of the Taliban insurgents.
At least 47 people were killed and hundreds were wounded early Monday August 10, 2009, as a series of bomb attacks struck Baghdad and an entire village near the northern city of Mosul. Nearly 100 people have been killed and scores wounded in Mosul and Baghdad since Friday in the worst outburst in violence since June 30, when Iraqis officially took the lead on national security and American troops largely withdrew to their bases. The attacks raised serious concerns about the Iraqi government's ability to maintain security. It also highlighted the underlying conflicts that continue to fuel violence, especially the rift between Arab and Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq and the continued disenfranchisement felt by many Sunni Arabs and former regime loyalists.
Three Americans died in southern Afghanistan in incidents Saturday, Sunday and Monday, we were told on Tuesday August 11, 2009. A NATO soldier died Monday in eastern Afghanistan after a firefight with insurgents. ISAF and Afghan security forces were conducting a routine patrol when they came under small-arms fire from multiple insurgents, ISAF said. The patrol responded to the attack, but the ISAF soldier was killed.
Afghanistan, Wednesday August 12, 2009:
- Gunmen kidnapped five campaign officials working for Abdullah Abdullah,
one of President Hamid Karzai's main rivals in next week's election, in the
northwestern province of Badghis.
- A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded six in southern Zabul province.
- Taliban guerrillas stormed a key police post in the Dasht-e-Archi district
of northern Kunduz overnight, killing the police chief and two of his men.
- A remote-controlled mine planted by Taliban insurgents killed five policemen
and wounded four on the Afghan capital's western outskirts on Tuesday.
- Two foreign journalists with the Associated Press news agency were wounded
by an explosion in southern Kandahar province.
British military deaths in Afghanistan neared the 200 mark AS two soldiers from 2nd Battalion of The Rifles and one soldier from 40 Regiment of the Royal Artillery died on August 13, 2009, in an explosion while they were on patrol near Sangin in Helmand province. A total of 199 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
On August 15, 2009, a suicide car bomb has exploded outside the Nato headquarters in Kabul, killing up to seven people. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying people would not be deterred from voting.
On August 18, 2009, a suicide bomber detonated a device in a car close to a column of Nato forces on the main road out of Kabul to Jalalabad, killing one soldier and seven other people and wounding more than 50. Two of those killed were local staff working for the UN's mission in Afghanistan. Elsewhere, a volley of attacks underscored the formidable challenge of staging the election in such a volatile and insecure country. In southern Afghanistan, where the insurgency is at its strongest, a suicide bomber killed three Afghan soldiers and two civilians in the province of Uruzgan. In the east, a roadside bomb killed two US soldiers and wounded three.
Fresh violence has erupted in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on the eve of the country's presidential election -August 19, 2009. Explosions and gunfire were heard as troops battled and killed three attackers who raided a bank close to the presidential compound. The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the election and said they were behind the raid, but this could not be confirmed.
Afghanistan, Wednesday August 19, 2009:
- Afghan police killed three Taliban fighters in a bank building in the capital.
- Four civilians, including two women, were killed by a roadside bomb in southeastern
Paktika province overnight.
- A district chief and a tribal leader were killed when a roadside bomb struck
their vehicle in southern Kandahar province.
- Two U.S. service members were killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol
in the south of the country on Tuesday.
- A roadside bomb killed two police in Uruzgan province.
- Afghan police discovered two roadside bombs near the town of Spin Boldak,
in southern Afghanistan close to the Pakistan border. Police safely defused
one of the bombs, but the second bomb exploded killing three civilians and
the police officer dismantling it.
Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on August 20, 2009. One was from the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment and the other was from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles. They were killed while on a routine foot patrol near the town of Sangin, in Helmand province.
NATO says two of its soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Sunday August 23, 2009, the same day America's top military officer said the situation in the country is "serious and deteriorating."
Afghanistan, Tuesday August 25, 2009:
- In Kandahar 40 people are dead and 64 injured after an apparent truck bomb
exploded. Residents of Kandahar describe the blast as shaking the city as
if a powerful earthquake had struck leaving a scene of widespread devastation
with 10 residential buildings torn apart by the powerful explosion. The blast
took place shortly after dusk when Muslims were breaking their fast during
the month of Ramadan.
- At least eight people were killed in a series of car bomb blasts close to
the offices of foreign aid and development agencies in Kandahar. 13 people
were also wounded. Civilians and police were among the dead and wounded.
- Four US soldiers were killed today making 2009 the deadliest year for coalition
troops since operations began. These latest deaths bring the number of Nato
soldiers killed since the start of the year to 295. In 2008, there were 294
coalition deaths.
Two U.S. troops have been killed, one died Wednesday August 26, 2009, after
an improvised explosive device detonated in southern Afghanistan. A second
service member was killed in an attack in the east. The two deaths bring to
43 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this month. July was the
deadliest month of the nearly eight-year war -45 U.S. troops died. But with
five days left in August, this month could again set a new record.
Taliban militants stormed a hospital in eastern Paktika province Wednesday August 26, 2009, sparking a gun battle with coalition forces in which at least 14 attackers were killed and six others captured. Troops rescued the hospital's staff; one hospital guard was wounded.
A British soldier has died in hospital almost a week after being wounded we were told on August 26, 2009. The soldier was injured while on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand province last Saturday. His death brings the total number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 207.
An American service member died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan on Friday August 28, 2009 making August the deadliest month of the eight-year war for U.S. forces. The service member's vehicle struck a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan. The death brings to 45 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan this month, surpassing the 44 troops killed in July.
On August 28, 2009, CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Logar province as she travelled with the U.S. Army on assignment for CBS Radio News. McCormick was hurt when the vehicle she was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device. She underwent surgery at a field hospital and was transported to Bagram Air Base for additional treatment. The network did not release details about the extent of her injuries.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in Zabul province, south of Afghanistan, Saturday August 29, 2009, killing two civilians and wounding 21 others. The suicide bomber strapped explosive device in his body and exploded in the bazaar of Shahjoi when the foreign troops were on routine patrol.
Militants gunned down a provincial counterterrorism chief in eastern Afghanistan after ambushing his convoy. Fayez Khan, who headed counterterrorism operations for Khost province, was driving home Saturday August 29, 2009, in a convoy with police and bodyguards when he was ambushed. Khan was killed immediately, though a short gun battle ensued as the security forces battled the attackers.
Two more British soldiers have died in Afghanistan, bringing the total number of deaths of UK personnel since operations began in 2001 to 210. The soldiers from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, were killed in an explosion while on foot patrol north of Lashkar Gah district, southern Helmand on August 31, 2009.
Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence has been killed in a suicide attack in Laghman province on September 2, 2009. Abdullah Laghmani and at least 21 other people were killed in the attack on a mosque in the town of Mehtar Lam.
A soldier from 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment has been killed. The soldier, operating with The Light Dragoons Battle Group, died as a result of a gunshot wound on Thursday September 3, 2009. He was shot while on a foot patrol in the Babaji district, Helmand province.
In an incident that could seriously undermine the central U.S. aim in Afghanistan, dozens of civilians were killed or injured early Friday September 4, 2009, in a NATO airstrike. The predawn strike on a pair of hijacked fuel tankers in a remote part of northern Kunduz province killed more than 70 people, most of them civilians. Dozens of villagers suffered serious burns in the massive fireball ignited when the tankers were hit.
Taliban insurgents killed a U.S. soldier, NATO-led forces said on Sunday September 6, 2009, while a French soldier died in hospital in Germany after his patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan. A Dutch soldier was also killed in a firefight.
Here are figures for foreign military deaths as a result of violence or accidents in Afghanistan since 2001: NATO/U.S.-LED COALITION FORCES:
United States 813
Britain 214
Canada 128
Germany 35
France 31*
Denmark 25**
Spain 25
Netherlands 20
Italy 15
Other nations 61
TOTAL: 1,366
Police said on September 6, 2009, that a rocket attack in the capital, Kabul, struck a house, killing three family members. The rocket was fired overnight from outside Kabul and landed in the western part of the city. A mother and father were killed along with one of their children.
Four U.S. troops died Tuesday September 8, 2009 in a militant attack in eastern
Afghanistan.
On September 8, 2009, NATO forces acknowledged for the first time that civilians
were among the dozens killed in an airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks.
A Canadian major general was appointed to lead an investigation into Friday's
strike on the fuel tankers in northern Kunduz province. An Afghan official
appointed by President Hamid Karzai to examine the attack said his best estimate
of the death toll was 82, including at least 45 armed militants.
Afghanistan, Tuesday September 8, 2009:
- A suicide car bomber killed at least two people and wounded six outside
a NATO military base at Kabul's main airport. The Taliban claimed responsibility
for the attack, saying they had targeted foreign troops.
- Afghan forces killed 12 Taliban insurgents during an operation in northern
Baghlan province.
- A policeman was killed and 21 wounded by a roadside bomb as they returned
from clash.
- Taliban guerrillas abducted six Afghan doctors in a separate incident in
Baghlan.
- A service member from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
was killed by a blast in the south of the country on Monday.
On September 9, 2009, a UK soldier has died in a raid to free a kidnapped reporter in Afghanistan. He was killed in a bid to rescue New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. Journalist Sultan Munadi and two other Afghan civilians also died in the raid.
Afghanistan, Saturday September 12, 2009:
- Five Americans were killed amid a wave of bombings, ambushes and killings
that swept across Afghanistan and seemed to emphasize the ability of the Taliban
and other insurgents to carry out attacks in most parts of the country.
- At least 39 Afghan civilians and members of the Afghan security forces were
also killed in attacks that struck the north, the south and the east on Friday
and Saturday.
- Three American service members died in western Afghanistan after they were
attacked with a roadside bomb and then came under small-arms fire.
- Two more American service members were killed in eastern Afghanistan, also
by a roadside bomb.
- A roadside bombing in Oruzgan Province on Friday killed 14 people in a minivan,
including four women and three children.
- The most alarming attack came in the northern province of Kunduz, where
some of the police in the northern district of Emam Sahib have strong links
to the insurgency. One of the district policemen poisoned the eight other
police officers assigned to a guard post. The turncoat officer killed his
commander on the spot, and then called his true comrades: the local Taliban.
The militants entered the guard post and dragged away the seven other policemen,
who were beheaded or shot. Then the Taliban burned down the guard shack.
- In a separate episode in northeast Kunduz, NATO-led forces said a raid conducted
with Afghan forces early left "a number of militants" armed with
machine guns and rifles dead after they fired on the raiding party.
- In Kandahar a trio of suicide bombers tried to destroy the city's intelligence
offices. One blew himself up at the front gate, and the two others opened
fire but died before they could enter the building. The bombers killed a 7-year-old
girl and a security guard; three other security guards were treated for wounds
from the attack.
- Six civilians were also killed in Kandahar by roadside bombings.
- Four police officers were killed in Nangarhar Province Friday when insurgents
attacked a checkpoint.
- In Kunar Province, five security guards were killed and 10 others wounded
when militants ambushed a truck carrying guards hired to protect workers building
a road in the Manogay district.
Afghanistan, Monday September 14, 2009:
- A Canadian soldier working for the NATO-led force was killed in a roadside
bomb explosion on Sunday.
- A British soldier working for the NATO-led force was killed on Sunday as
a result of a gunshot wound during a foot patrol in Babaji district in southern
Helmand province.
- Afghan police seized a ton of opium, 300 kg of morphine and 30 kg of heroin
in eastern Nangarhar province in a joint operation with the United States.
A suicide car bomber struck a military convoy in Kabul, killing 16 people, including six Italian soldiers. An Italian military convoy was travelling from the Kabul airport to its base in the city when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-filled car into it, causing a huge explosion. The blast blew out windows in buildings around the scene in the centre of the capital city. Witnesses reported several wrecked Italian military vehicles, while Afghan soldiers at the scene carried dozens of wounded civilians to ambulances.
A Danish soldier was killed and another slightly injured in southern Afghanistan on Saturday September 19, 2009. The Danish troops came under attack from insurgents during a foot patrol in Helmand province and one of them was killed. A total of 25 Danish soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far.
Three American troops have died in Afghanistan we were told on September 20, 2009. Two of the Americans died in a noncombat-related incident in the south. The third American died in fighting. This year has been the deadliest for American forces of the eight-year war. August was the deadliest month of the war, when 51 U.S. troops died. More than 60,000 U.S. troops are now in the country.
A suicide bomber killed himself and two accomplices when his explosives-filled vest detonated prematurely we were told on September 21, 2009. The explosion took place in the southwestern province of Nimroz. Media reports say the suicide bomber was preparing to attack foreign forces nearby in the vicinity of Delaram district.
Five U.S. troops have died in attacks in southern Afghanistan on September 26, 2009. A military statement says three troops died in a roadside bombing, one was shot to death by insurgents and another died in an attack while on patrol.
Taliban have executed three civilians in Herat province, west of Afghanistan, we were told on Saturday September 26, 2009. The victims were innocent civilians and did not work for the government.
Eighteen Taliban insurgents were killed as they stormed Archi district in the Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan on Saturday September 26, 2009. A group of armed militants raided the district Headquarter of Archi police killed 18 rebels and wounding three. Taliban claimed responsibility of the attack, but adding Taliban fighters carried out the attack occupying the HQ of Archi. Official rejected the claim by saying "only three police constables were injured in firefight.
Afghanistan, Sunday, September 27, 2009:
- A suicide car bomb explosion targeting Afghanistan's energy minister killed
four civilians; 17 people were wounded, including four of Khan's bodyguards.
Attacks and a violent storm killed six international troops, including three
French and two American forces. Khan, the minister, escaped unharmed.
- An airstrike Saturday by international forces in Wardak province, bordering
Kabul, killed three Afghan civilians.
- Two U.S. service members died Saturday in the country's south -one from
a roadside bomb explosion and the other from an insurgent attack.
- A British soldier died Sunday from a bomb explosion while patrolling in
southern Afghanistan.
- Three French soldiers died in a violent storm in northeastern Afghanistan
Saturday. One soldier was struck by lightning while two were swept away by
a rain-swollen river during an operation in Kapisa province.
- Three Afghan civilians died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Farah
province.
- Seven Taliban militants were killed in a gun battle Saturday with police
in Kunduz province.
An RAF serviceman has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The gunner, from 34 Squadron RAF Regiment, died on Thursday October 1, 2009 while on a patrol near Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province.
A suicide bomber struck a convoy of U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan on Friday October 2, 2009, killing two U.S. service members. A suicide bomber killed one American service member in a similar attack on a convoy on Wednesday in Khost province.
Afghanistan, Saturday October 3, 2009:
- An Afghan soldier opened fire on sleeping U.S. troops at a joint base after
a night operation, killing two American soldiers and wounding four. U.S. forces
said only that two service members had died after a "hostile attack"
and gave no further details.
- One U.S. service member was killed by a homemade bomb in eastern Afghanistan
on Friday.
- A bomb in a motorcycle killed three people and wounded 20 in the Imam Saheb
district of Kunduz province.
- Afghan police were holding a South African security guard who shot dead
an Afghan employee of his firm, working on a U.S. anti-drugs programme in
Helmand province.
On October 4, 2009, eight American soldiers and two Afghan troops have been killed in the deadliest attack on coalition troops for more than a year. The battle happened in Nuristan province in the remote east of the country when military outposts were attacked. The Taliban said it carried out the attack. Reports say local officials including a police chief were captured.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Monday October 5, 2009. The victim is the 220th British Army soldier to have been killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The soldier from the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards died whilst out on a foot patrol near the Nad Ali District Centre in central Helmand province.
A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan on October 9, 2009. The soldier, who was serving with 1st Battalion The Coldstream Guards, died in an explosion near Camp Bastion, in central Helmand. The total number of UK troops killed since the start of operations in Afghanistan in October 2001 has now reached 221.
A suicide attack in southeastern Afghanistan killed six guards working for a road construction company, as nearly 50 Taliban insurgents and one NATO soldier were killed elsewhere we were told on Friday October 9, 2009. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the Sky construction company in the Jadran district of Paktia province. NATO and Afghan soldiers killed a Taliban commander and 19 of his men in an overnight operation in western Herat province. The operation was launched after a tip-off about the whereabouts of the hideout of Ghulam Yahya Akbari, who he described as a local Taliban commander.
Bombs have killed one American and two Polish troops on Friday October 10, 2009. The U.S. service member died Saturday of wounds suffered in a bombing in southern Afghanistan. The Polish soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Wardak province. Four others were wounded. The same day Afghan and international forces killed nine Taliban in a firefight.
Security forces during an operation against Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province have detained 15 rebels from Ali Abad district on Saturday October 10, 2009, and seized a large number of weapons. One police constable was killed and another sustained injuries in the gunfight.
Afghan and international forces say they have killed 20 suspected militants during operations in southern Afghanistan. One suspect was detained Monday October 12, 2009, in a compound in Kandahar province that was used by the Taliban to supply explosives, weapons and ammunition to other militants in the area. More than a dozen militants were killed and several detained Sunday in Kandahar's Shorabak district. Also Sunday, soldiers in Helmand province detained a suspected militant commander, Haji Khan Mohammed, accused of running drug operations that provide financial support to insurgents throughout southern Afghanistan. In Zabul province Sunday, Afghan and international forces reported killing several suspected militants in an exchange of gunfire. No security force members were reported killed.
Four U.S. service members have been killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan. Two U.S. service members were killed on the spot in a bomb attack on Thursday October 15, 2009, and two more died of wounds later.
Three American soldiers have been killed in two separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan. Two U.S. troops were killed in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan Friday October 16, 2009. Another U.S. service member was killed the same day in a bombing in the country's south.
A roadside bomb attack claimed the life of one US soldier in Afghanistan, while 14 armed Taliban were killed in two separate incidents we were told on Sunday October 18, 2009. 418 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan this year, compared with 294 in 2008. Six armed Taliban were killed including a local commander in Bala Murghab district and four Taliban were seriously injured. A separate incident in southern Uruzgan province left eight armed Taliban dead and three wounded.
President Hamid Karzai agreed Tuesday October 20, 2009, to submit to a run-off
election on November 7 after Afghanistan's election commission ordered a second-round
vote. The commission acted after a fraud investigation dropped Karzai's votes
to below 50% of the total. Karzai said final results showing the need for
a runoff were "legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of
Afghanistan."
A British soldier was killed by an explosion in southern Afghanistan on October 22, 2009. The serviceman, from the Royal Military police, died on a foot patrol near Gereshk district centre in Helmand province. The death is the fourth this month and brings to 222 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the October 2001 invasion.
Afghanistan Friday October 23, 2009:
- A service member with NATO-led troops died of wounds sustained in a bomb
attack in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.
- Joint Afghan-NATO forces killed a number of suspected Taliban militants
and wounded one in central Wardak province on Thursday.
- Joint Afghan-NATO forces killed several militants and detained half a dozen
suspected Taliban fighters during a search of a compound in the southern province
of Helmand.
A Danish soldier was killed after being shot by unidentified attackers while on a foot patrol with his unit in a market area close to the Sandford Camp in the Gereshk Valley in the southern Afghan province of Helmand we were told on Friday October 23, 2009. Two US soldiers serving in the south had been killed by a home-made bomb also on Friday, The latest military casualties mean more than 420 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year -the deadliest since the Americans invaded in late 2001 and ousted the Taliban.
Western troops shot dead four civilians and wounded three others on Saturday October 24, 2009, in the main southern province of Kandahar when they opened fire on a vehicle in southern Afghanistan. Two women, a child and a man were killed and two women and a man were injured. One of the wounded women was in a critical condition.
An American service member has been killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on October 25, 2009.
Eleven U.S. troops and three American law-enforcement officials were killed in two separate helicopter crashes on Monday October 26, 2009, one of the war's heaviest one-day losses for U.S. forces. The crashes involved a total of three choppers, two of which collided in midair in the south of the country, and a third that went down in the wake of a fire fight in Afghanistan's west. Hostile fire was ruled out in the midair collision, which killed a total of four American troops and injured two others, but the cause of the other crash was not immediately clear. The Taliban claimed to have shot down a Western helicopter today in Afghanistan's northwest, but it was not clear whether that was the same incident the military described.
Eight U.S. troops were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday October 27, 2009, ahead of a run-off presidential election. The eight U.S. soldiers killed in bomb attacks pushed the October death toll to 53, topping the previous high of 51 deaths in August. Several soldiers were wounded in the attacks. The bombings also killed an Afghan civilian and wounded several service members.
Five U.N. employees and three other people were killed in a Taliban assault on a Kabul guesthouse Wednesday October 28, 2009; it is forcing the world body and humanitarian agencies to revaluate the way they operate in Afghanistan putting at risk programs aimed at helping millions of people and stabilizing the war-torn country.
On October 31, 2009, we were told that the most senior British officer to be killed in the Afghan campaign had warned about the risks posed to troops by a shortage of helicopters. Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, 39, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, died in a roadside bombing. In memos Colonel Thorneloe said too many trips were by road, leaving forces vulnerable.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Helmand Province. The
man, from the Royal Logistic Corps, died on Saturday October 31, 2009 near
Sangin.
His death brings the total number of UK military personnel killed in Afghanistan
since 2001 to 224.
Five British soldiers have been shot dead in Helmand Province on November 3, 2009, in an attack blamed on a "rogue" Afghan policeman. The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, had been mentoring and living with the Afghan police in a compound. The officer opened fire, injuring eight others, before fleeing the compound.
A soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, has died. The soldier was killed in an explosion near Sangin in central Helmand province on November 4, 2009.
Two American soldiers are missing in western Afghanistan we were told on Friday November 6, 2009. A Taliban spokesman claimed that the insurgents had recovered the bodies of two drowned soldiers. NATO did not yet have information on whether the missing Americans were wounded in a battle with the Taliban and that there was no confirmation that the two were dead. 25 NATO and Afghan forces were wounded during the search operation Friday.
Afghanistan, Friday November 6, 2009:
- Two U.S. service members were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan
on Thursday.
- A British soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, was killed in an explosion
in Sangin in Helmand province in the south of the country.
Afghanistan, Saturday November 7, 2009:
- Three Afghan soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb
along the main highway in Gereshk district of southern Helmand province.
- A British soldier was killed by an explosion in Sangin district of Helmand
province.
- A U.S. services member was killed in an insurgent attack in the west of
the country.
- Seventeen insurgents were killed by a foreign forces air strike in Now Bahar
district of southern Zabul province.
- Afghan and international forces killed "several" militants during
an operation in Kandahar province.
A British soldier from 4th Battalion the Rifles has been killed near Sangin in Helmand Province in a blast on Sunday November 8, 2009. This latest death brings the number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 232.
A Norwegian journalist abducted last week and held captive in eastern Afghanistan
has been freed, Norway we were told on Thursday November 12, 2009.
The journalist was kidnapped last Thursday with his Afghan interpreter near
the Pakistani border.
Three Americans, including two from the International Security Assistance Force, have been killed on Friday November 13, 2009. One U.S. service member with the ISAF was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan. In a separate incident, an ISAF service member and a civilian contractor, both Americans, were killed by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan.
A British soldier from the 7th Battalion the Rifles has been killed in Afghanistan.
He was killed in small arms fire during a foot patrol near Sangin in central
Helmand Province, on Sunday November 15, 2009. The soldier was attached to
the 3rd Battalion the Rifles Battle Group.
A gun battle between Afghan-International forces and Taliban fighters left six insurgents - including their commander Mullah Abdul Qadir, district chief in Nurgraham - dead in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan on Saturday November 14, 2009. In a separate incident, three Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and two others wounded as their military camp came under heavy fire of militants in Ghazi Abad district of Nuristan.
On November 16, 2009, insurgents in eastern Afghanistan have fired rockets into a marketplace, killing 10 civilians in an area where French forces were meeting with tribal elders. The attack in the town of Tagab in Kapisa province wounded at least 28 people. Two rockets hit the market as the commander of French troops in eastern Afghanistan, General Marcel Druart, was meeting tribal chiefs nearby.
A British soldier has died as a result of an explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier, of 33 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers was killed by the blast in Gereshk, in Helmand province, on 15 November 2009.
The German Cabinet has decided to extend the country's mission in Afghanistan but won't approve more troops. Germany's mission in Afghanistan was due to end on December 13, but the extension would keep them there until the same date next year, 2010 we were told on Wednesday November 18, 2009. German lawmakers previously imposed a ceiling of 4,500 troops for Afghanistan. Tuesday's Cabinet decision leaves that number unchanged.
Two US soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians were killed in separate blasts in the south on Thursday November 19, 2009.
A suicide attacker rode a motorcycle into a marketplace in Farah city, the capital of Farah province, and set off his explosives, killing 16 other people and injuring about two dozen. At least two children were among the dead. Authorities were investigating whether this suicide bombing Friday November 20, 2009, was aimed at a provincial governor considered friendly to the U.S.
Suspected insurgents fired a rocket Saturday November 21, 2009, at a luxury hotel that had previously come under attack, injuring four people and rekindling fears that foreigners are being targeted in the capital. The projectile hit just outside the perimeter wall of the hotel, where a number of foreign humanitarian workers, forced to relocate after a deadly strike on a U.N. guesthouse last month, have been staying.
Afghanistan, Monday November 23, 2009:
- Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four
American troops and three children.
- Three U.S. troops were killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday -two in
a bombing and a third in a separate fire fight - while another was killed
in the east of the country in a bombing on Monday.
- The deaths bring the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in November
to 15. October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year war,
with 58 dead.
- To the north, insurgents attacked German soldiers and Afghan National Police
with grenades and gunfire as the troops drove through an area northwest of
Kunduz city, wounding two Afghan policemen.
- A suicide bombing also struck the same province. The bomber, who was targeting
a police convoy, killed five civilians, including three children. Another
five people were wounded in the attack, which missed the convoy.
- Separately, three Afghan soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the
southern province of Helmand, in the Musa Qala district.
About 30 Taliban insurgents were killed in a NATO-led air strike in eastern Afghanistan after they attacked an Afghan police post on Sunday November 29, 2009.
The body of a U.S. soldier who along with his colleague went missing in Badghis province early this month was found after 27 days we were told on Monday November 30, 2009. Two U.S. soldiers went missing early this month when they tried to collect items from a river dropped by helicopter in Balamirghab district. Another body was found some three weeks ago from the river in the same district Balamirghab.
A British soldier has died on November 30, 2009, after being injured in an explosion. The soldier from 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, died after the blast in the Babaji area of Helmand Province.
A policeman opened fired on their colleagues in a village Rakani on Sunday
killing four colleagues and injuring four others before he was killed on the
run in west Afghanistan's Nimroz province we were told on Monday November
30, 2009.
A bomb killed another US soldier in Afghanistan. An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in eastern Afghanistan, killing the soldier serving in the NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Saturday December 5, 2009. The latest death pushed to 301 the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year. The number is nearly twice the 155 American soldiers killed in 2008 when total foreign troop deaths numbered 295 for the entire year.
South Korea said on December 8, 2009, that it will send 350 troops to Afghanistan next year to protect South Korean civilian engineers working on reconstruction. The South Koreans had about 200 soldiers in Afghanistan until 2007 but withdrew them after Taliban forces kidnapped South Korean missionaries.
Air strikes against Taliban militants left 10 insurgents dead in the eastern Kuner province on Saturday December 12, 2009.
Afghanistan, Tuesday December 15, 2009:
- Two British soldiers have been killed by a suspected suicide bomber while
on patrol with the Afghan army. The men, from the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles,
were caught in the blast near Sangin in Helmand. They were on foot at the
time of the explosion, which also killed two Afghan army soldiers. A total
of 239 UK service personnel have died in Afghanistan since 2001, including
102 so far this year. Two UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan sacrificed their
lives to stop suicide bombers attacking a packed marketplace.
- A U.S. soldier was killed in a bomb attack elsewhere in the region.
- A suicide car bomber struck Kabul's heavily secured main diplomatic and
residential district killing at least eight people and wounding 40 others.
Afghanistan, Wednesday December 16, 2009:
- A roadside bomb has killed at least four Afghan policemen. The blast hit
the policemen's car in Rubat-i-Sangin district of Herat province. .
- Afghan and international forces detained two Taliban commanders and one
other suspected militant in Wardek province.
- A bomb in southern Afghanistan Tuesday killed a soldier from Estonia.
Afghanistan Saturday 19, 2009:
- A bomb attack has killed another US soldier in southern Afghanistan, pushing
the death toll of foreign troops to close to 500 during the war this year.
The American was killed on Friday "as a result of an IED strike.
- A British soldier from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment,
has been killed. The soldier died from wounds which were sustained in a blast
while on foot patrol in the Nad-e-Ali area of central Helmand.
A British soldier from the Royal Military Police has died in a possible "friendly fire" incident. The MoD said the soldier was killed as the result of "small arms fire" in the Sangin area of Helmand on Sunday December 20, 2009. The incident is being investigated.
Afghan security forces and American troops killed five heavily armed men who attacked a police headquarters in the centre of Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province. The fire fight immobilized the city for about four hours. Only two of the attacker's bodies had been recovered, raising the possibility that several had in fact escaped. Four police officers and three civilians were wounded.
Afghanistan Tuesday December 22, 2009:
- Combined international and Afghan forces conducted multiple operations in
southern and eastern Afghanistan, killing and capturing numerous insurgents.
- In two operations in Kandahar province, combined forces killed several militants
and detained others while pursuing two Taliban commanders -one in the Shah
Wali Kot District, the other in the Zhari District.
- In Zhari, as the security force moved toward a compound, several militants
left the area. Later, the security force killed several militants after receiving
hostile fire and detained two others.
- In Wardak province, a combined force detained several suspected militants,
including a Taliban leader. The combined force moved to the Sayyidabad District
after intelligence sources suspected militant activity in a compound there.
After searching the compound, the force detained several suspects, including
the targeted man.
- In Khost province, a combined force detained a group of suspected militants
while searching for a Haqqani terrorist network commander. The force closed
in on a rural area of the Sabari District after intelligence indicated militant
activity in a compound. The militants were detained following an extensive
search.
- In a combined operation last night, an Afghan-international security force
killed several militants and detained another in Ghazni province. The force
went to a series of compounds in the Andar District after intelligence sources
confirmed militant activities there. The security force killed several armed
enemy fighters who resisted.
- A combined force killed two militants in Wardak province while pursuing
a small group of Taliban. The force searched a compound near the village of
Andar in the Nerkh District after intelligence sources determined the location
of militant activities. The security force came under fire, returned fire
and killed the militants.
- In Helmand province, a combined force detained a small group of militants,
including a Taliban weapons and narcotics trafficker believed to help carry
out attacks in his district.
A Special Forces soldier killed by a bomb in Afghanistan on Tuesday December 22, 2009, has been named as Lance Corporal Tommy Brown. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said he died as a result of a suspected improvised explosive device in Sangin.
National police hunting for a wounded insurgent commander mistakenly ambushed a vehicle carrying a member of the Afghan parliament, killing him and his son on Wednesday December 23, 2009.
A Canadian soldier serving under NATO has died from a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Thursday December 24, 2009.
A man driving a horse-drawn cart laden with explosives detonated the cache December 24, 2009 outside a guest house frequented by foreigners in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least eight people including a child.
An American soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Friday December 25, 2009.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier, from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, was killed while on patrol in the Kajaki area of Helmand province during Monday December 28, 2009.
Afghanistan, Monday December 28, 2009:
- Conflict and Taliban-related violence claimed the lives of more than a dozen
people in the Northwest Badghis province.
- A joint operation of Afghan and NATO-led troops in Balamirghab district
Sunday has left eight rebels dead.
- Militants raided a police checkpoint in Qadis district Sunday, killing two
police constables. Three militants were also killed when police returned fire.
However three policemen had gone missing from the checkpoint. Locals said
Taliban fighters apparently took them away.
- Air strikes against Taliban hideouts in Balamirghab district claimed the
lives of three civilians and injured four others.
A U.S. service member was shot to death Tuesday December 29, 2009, on a base in western Afghanistan. Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said an Afghan soldier opened fire after NATO troops tried to prevent him from approaching an area where an allied helicopter was about to land. He said the American service member died and two Italian soldiers were injured.
A bomber slipped into a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday December 30, 2009, and detonated a suicide vest, killing eight CIA officers. The attack took place at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khowst province, an area near the border with Pakistan. An undisclosed number of civilians were wounded. No military personnel with the U.S. or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces were killed or injured.
The second episode of civilian deaths within a week was under investigation Thursday December 31, 2009, by the Afghan government and NATO officials after reports that up to seven civilians had been killed in Helmand Province in a NATO missile strike. The latest episode, in Helmand, took place Wednesday afternoon in Lashkar Gah, when NATO forces responded to a Taliban provocation and ended up killing a number of civilians. Local people said that five to seven civilians had been killed, including three children.
Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist have been killed in an attack in
the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on December 31, 2009. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for detonating the roadside bomb used in the attack.
Canadian journalist Michelle Lang was killed along with four of her nation's soldiers in Afghanistan on Wednesday December 30, 2009. She is the first Canadian journalist to die in the conflict and is thought to be the first staffer on her paper to die while working in its 126-year history. She was covering the Canadian military's efforts in the Afghan war for the Herald and Canwest News Service,
More than 312 American soldiers died in Afghanistan in 2009 -nearly twice as many as in 2008.
A British bomb disposal expert died on New Year's Eve December 31, 2009, after being caught in an explosion. The soldier was from 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), Royal Engineers. The blast happened near Patrol Base Blenheim, close to Sangin in Helmand Province. The UK death toll from operations in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 245 -with 108 killed in 2009 alone.
Afghan and NATO forces have killed 18 militants in the northern province of Kunduz. The militants were killed on Saturday January 2, 2010, after trying to ambush a patrol of Afghan forces and troops from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Archi district of the province. After the attempted ambush, a gun battle began and air support was called in.
Fourteen Taliban insurgents were killed as their explosive device exploded prematurely in Kunduz province on Tuesday January 5, 2010.
The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan was an al-Qaeda double agent we were told on January 5, 2010. He was a Jordan doctor, arrested there a year ago. He was then recruited by the Jordanians and CIA, who wrongly thought they had turned him, and given a mission to find al-Qaeda leaders.
A suicide bomber attacking a pro-government militia commander detonated his
bomb-laden vest in Gardez, on Thursday January 7, 2010. He killed 10 people
and wounded 27, most of them civilians... The suicide bomber walked up to
the commander, Nasir Paray and detonated his vest. The commander died in the
blast, which also killed four children. Also on Thursday, the governor of
a neighbouring province survived a bomb attack
A soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was
killed on Saturday January 9, 2010, in an IED (Improvised Explosive Devise)
strike in southern Afghanistan.
On January 9, 2010 we were told that it costs Canadian taxpayers about $525,000 a year to keep one soldier in Afghanistan, according to the simplest calculation possible, which is to divide the approximately $1.5-billion cost of the mission for the 2009-10 fiscal year by the 2,850 troops who are part of it. These figures don't take into account soldiers' salaries and benefits or the long-term health-care costs associated with service in Afghanistan. They are in line with official Pentagon estimates of what it costs to keep U.S. troops in the country.
A second journalist has been killed in Afghanistan 10 days after an explosion killed a UK newspaper reporter on patrol with US Marines. Rupert Hamer, the Sunday Mirror's defence correspondent was killed by an improvised explosive device near Nawa on Saturday January 9, 2010. Philip Coburn, a photographer for the tabloid, was also injured, and was in a serious but stable condition. A marine and an Afghan soldier were also killed in the blast.
Four soldiers were killed on January 11, 2010, in separate incidents in the south and one in the east; at least three are Americans. It is the worst daily toll in months for the coalition. Four of the deaths occurred in separate incidents in the south. Three Americans were killed in a clash with insurgents and a fourth Foreign Service member, whose nationality was not immediately disclosed, died in a roadside bombing. The other fatality, a French soldier, occurred in Afghanistan's east.
A U.N. report said on January 13, 2010, that the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan last year was higher than in any year since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. More than 2,400 civilians fell victim to the war-related incidents in 2009.
The soldier killed in an explosion on Monday January 11, 2010, Captain Daniel Read, 31, from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, the Royal Logistic Corps, had been injured in an blast three months ago. Read, who died in a blast in the Musa Qaleh area of northern Helmand province, returned to the frontline last month.
A suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday January 14, 2010, killing at least 16 civilians and wounding more than a dozen. The attack occurred in the town of Dihrawud, in Uruzgan province. The area was crowded as shoppers and vendors gathered for a bazaar. Three of those killed in the blast were children.
A roadside bomb has killed five people in southern Afghanistan, including four children and a woman. The blast occurred in the Spin Boldak district Friday January 15, 2010 as the five were on their way home from a shrine.
A loud explosion has been heard near the German embassy on January 15, 2010. It was a rocket attack in Wazir Akbar Khan, an area with several embassies. There was no immediate news of any casualties.
Japan's defence minister ordered the nation's naval ships to return from the Indian Ocean on Friday January 15, 2010, fulfilling a pledge by his government to end an eight-year refuelling mission in support of the war in Afghanistan.
Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion. The soldiers, from Edinburgh-based 3rd Battalion The Rifles, were killed while on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand province on Friday January 15, 2010.
A Canadian soldier was killed on Saturday January 16, 2010, becoming the first Canadian killed in action there in 2010. Sgt. John Wayne Faught stepped on a buried bomb when he conducted a joint foot patrol with Afghan soldiers about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City.
An American soldier has died after being wounded while fighting Taliban-led insurgents. The soldier had died on Saturday January 16, 2010 in eastern Afghanistan.
On January 18, 2010, Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers have attacked buildings in the heart of Kabul, setting off explosions and sparking gun battles. Fighting erupted near the Serena Hotel and the presidential palace. The Taliban said 20 of its fighters had taken part in the attack on Kabul. Two civilians and three security personnel have been killed plus 71 others wounded. Seven attackers had also been killed.
On January 22, 2010 a British soldier from A Company 4 Rifles died following an explosion while on foot patrol near Sangin in central Helmand province. The soldier was serving as part of 3 Rifles Battle Group.
Afghanistan, Saturday January 23, 2010:
- At least 17 people died in four separate episodes.
- A police chief was kidnapped and a provincial governor narrowly escaped
assassination.
- Three women and a young boy were killed when a taxi crammed with at least
eight passengers tried to run an illegal Taliban checkpoint in Paktika Province
and the militants riddled the car with bullets.
- Four Afghan soldiers guarding the governor of Wardak Province, just west
of Kabul, were killed when the Taliban set off a hidden bomb as he travelled
to a school building inspection; the governor was unharmed.
- Two American soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in southern
Afghanistan.
- Seven Afghans were killed in the remote village of Qulum Balaq in Faryab
Province, in northern Afghanistan, when they tried to excavate an old bomb
dropped by an aircraft many years ago. One person was wounded.
- The police chief of Sheigal district in Kunar Province, Jamatullah Khan,
and two of his officers were kidnapped while patrolling close to the border
with Pakistan.
- The attempted assassination of the governor of Wardak, Mohammad Halim Fediyee,
occurred during a trip that had been announced, leaving his convoy vulnerable.
A Taliban suicide bomber wounded eight American soldiers in Kabul on Tuesday January 26, 2010, in what appeared to be an attack on their convoy during the evening rush just outside the gates of a United States military base, Camp Phoenix. At least eight civilians were wounded as well.
Germany announced on Tuesday January 26, 2010, 500 more troops for Afghanistan and a doubling of its development aid in a move that it hopes will set the tone for this week's London conference on the war-torn nation. They would join 4,300 already in place and that 350 reservists would be put on stand-by.
A homemade bomb killed a US soldier in southern Afghanistan on Thursday January 28, 2010.
A joint Afghan-international force and Afghan soldiers exchanged fire on January 30, 2010when both sides mistook the other for enemy combatants.
Two British soldiers have been killed by roadside blasts while on foot patrol in Afghanistan. The pair, from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, serving as part of the 1 Coldstream Guards Battle Group, died after two explosions near Malgir, Helmand province on January 31, 2010.
An American serviceman died in a roadside bombing in the south on February 2, 2010. A Colombian, serving in the Spanish army, died when his armoured vehicle was blown up while escorting an aid convoy to the west of Kabul. Attacks by militants in Afghanistan have killed more than 15 US soldiers in 2010.
Two United States soldiers were killed Tuesday February 2, 2010, by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan.
On February 5, 2010, France says it's planning to send another 80 military trainers to Afghanistan. The trainers are meant to work at military schools and with Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams. OMLTs assist Afghan troops -notably in the hunt for insurgents. At least 16 Taliban members were killed during an Afghan/NATO-led military operation in southern Afghanistan. The operation started Friday February 5, 2010, in Babji village of volatile Helmand province. The purpose of the mission was mine-clearing.
In Kandahar province, authorities on Saturday February 6, 2010, reported the shooting of civilians by police along the Afghan-Pakistan border in the Spin Boldak area two days ago. Police killed seven civilians who were collecting firewood in an area where militants have a presence. Six police officers were detained who said that they shot the civilians mistakenly because they thought they were insurgents.
Taliban attacks left three civilians dead and 25 others injured in Helmand province on Friday February 5, 2010. An explosive device planted on a motorbike ripped through a crowd of people who were watching dog fighting outside provincial capital Lashkar Gah.
A deadly attack on a routine patrol in Mazar-e Shariff, northern Afghanistan, has killed two Swedish army officers and a local interpreter we were told on Sunday February 7, 2010. The assault left a third Swedish trooper injured.
Two British soldiers have been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Sunday February 7, 2010. The pair, from The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, were on patrol near Sangin, in Helmand province.
An improvised explosive device (IED) expert has been killed on February 9, 2010, as British troops prepare to play their role in Operation Moshtarak.
Five U.S. soldiers were wounded Thursday February 11, 2010, when a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. base. The attacker detonated the bomb while in the "sleeping area" on the base. It is unclear how the bomber got onto the base, but preliminary investigations show the attacker wore an Afghan border police uniform.
Nato-led forces are making good progress hours after launching the biggest offensive since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. There were clashes as more than 15,000 US, UK and Afghan troops swept into the Helmand districts of Marjah and Nad Ali in a bid to secure government control. 20 militants have been killed. Two Nato soldiers, one of which was British, have also died. A Taliban commander reportedly said his men were retreating to spare civilians. Operation Moshtarak -which means "together" in the local Dari language- is being led by 4,000 US Marines, supported by 4,000 British troops, with Canadians, Danes and Estonians.
On Sunday February 14, 2010, US, UK and Afghan forces have faced gun battles and numerous booby-traps on day two of a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Thousands of troops are advancing carefully, a day after swooping on Marjah and Nad Ali in Helmand province. A third Nato death related to Operation Moshtarak has also been confirmed.
A Nato air strike against suspected insurgents in Kandahar has instead killed five civilians on February 15, 2010. The group was seen digging on a roadside and was thought to be planting bombs.
A British soldier has been killed by an explosion while trying to clear a
roadside bomb on February 15, 2010. The member of 36 Engineer Regiment died
as a result of wounds he suffered north east of Sangin, Helmand province.
His death is the 261st among UK personnel since the conflict began in 2001.
Coalition troops found 727 bombs in January 2010 compared with 276 in the same month of 2009. Blasts killed 32 U.S. and allied troops and wounded 137 others, compared with 14 deaths and 64 injuries in January 2009. These bombs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Improvised bombs planted by Taliban fighters are slowing Nato's big offensive we were told on February 15, 2010. The homemade bombs have been planted in far greater numbers than Nato had anticipated. Operation Moshtarak has entered its third day. Earlier, the Nato commander apologised after rockets killed 12 civilians.
A soldier from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, has been
shot dead in southern Afghanistan. The soldier was killed while on patrol
on Sunday February 14, 2010near Patrol Base Minden in the Musa.
Britain's Defence Ministry said on February 18, 2010, that a soldier has been killed in an explosion during an offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. The soldier from 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards was caught in the blast in the Babaji area.
An air strike ordered after a patrol including Nato and Afghan soldiers and police was attacked by the Taliban in the province of Kunduz killed instead seven of the policemen and injured two others. The Afghan forces were bombed by mistake.
Twelve NATO service members, including at least eight Americans, have died in the first week of the offensive in Marja we were told on Saturday January 20, 2010. Three of the dead were British, and the nationality of the 12th service member in small-arms fire, had not yet been divulged.
A missile believed to have been fired Thursday January 18, 2010, from an American drone killed the younger brother of a top militant commander in the North Waziristan tribal area. The militant commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani, was the target of the attack. Mohammad Haqqani, was killed along with three others when their white station wagon was hit by a missile in Dande Darpakhel, a village in North Waziristan.
Two Taliban key commanders have been arrested in Kandahar province on Monday February 22, 2010.
On February 23, 2019, the US death toll in Afghanistan has reached 1,000 with the number of soldiers killed doubling since last year and 54 US soldiers had died so far this year.
A British soldier has been shot on Thursday February 25, 2010, becoming the second UK serviceman to die in 24 hours. The man, from A Company, 4th Battalion the Rifles, died while on foot patrol near Sangin, Helmand. An airman of 2 Squadron, RAF Regiment and part of the Kandahar Airfield Defence Force was killed in a blast on Wednesday while on vehicle patrol.
A soldier from 28 Engineer Regiment, attached to the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, has died following an explosion in Afghanistan on February 26, 2010. The soldier -the third British serviceman to die in three days- was killed in an explosion near Check Point Shamal Storrei in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand Province. The MoD said his death was connected to Operation Moshtarak.
A roadside bomb has killed 11 civilians in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on February 28, 2010. The bomb hit a coach in Nawzad district.
Afghanistan Monday March 1, 2010:
- Six NATO service members died in separate attacks including a suicide car
bomb that targeted an international military convey.
- Nine Afghan civilians also died in four bombings in the south.
- The suicide attacker waited in a taxi for the NATO convoy to cross the bridge
between Kandahar city and the airport, and then detonated his explosives.
One Nato soldier died in the suicide bombing.
- Four Afghan civilians died in the bridge attack. Three of the civilians
who died were in a car that had pulled over nearby to wait for the convoy
to cross the bridge.
- In western Afghanistan, two other NATO troops died in a mortar or rocket
attack, while another service member was killed by small arms fire in the
south. One service member was killed by a roadside bomb in the south and another
by rocket or mortar fire in the east.
- Another car bomb outside Kandahar city's police headquarters killed a civilian
employee and wounded nine police officers and six civilians.
- A civilian car hit one of the roadside bombs as it entered the city limits
of Lashkar Gah. The blast killed three people, including a 10-year-old boy.
- Another roadside bomb killed two employees of a construction company on
a road north of Lashkar Gah district.
A soldier from 3rd Battalion the Rifles has died on March 2, 2010. He was killed by small arms fire near Sangin, Helmand province.
A soldier from 3rd Battalion the Rifles has been killed. The soldier died after being wounded by small arms fire near Sangin, in Helmand Province, on Saturday March 6, 2010. The death is the fourth fatality of a member of The Rifles since 1 March. It takes the number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 to 270.
A British soldier has been killed in a firefight in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, from A Company 4 Rifles, part of the 3 Rifles Battle Group, died in an attack on his patrol base near Sangin, in Helmand, on Sunday March 7, 2019.
On March 8, 2010, attackers have detonated a bomb near a government building and have holed up in another building nearby where they are firing on Afghan police and U.S. troops. Police have surrounded the attackers in the eastern province of Khost and are firing on the gunmen.
The Taliban gained control of villages in northeastern Afghanistan on Monday March 8, 2010, after two days of gun battles with another Islamist group that ended with nearly 70 of the rival militants retreating and surrendering to government forces nearby. The fierce fighting, which left at least 50 dead from both sides, a war between the Taliban and insurgent allies Hezb-e-Islami. One of the Hezb-e-Islami militants who defected said Monday that the fighters in the area are now willing to join the government and fight the Taliban in the northeastern province of Baghlan where the battles ended Sunday night with a Taliban victory.
Two homemade bombs exploding in quick succession killed 12 people, including 10 civilians, we were told on Monday March 8, 2010. The first blast hit a civilian vehicle in Badghis province, killing 10 passengers. The second, minutes later nearby, struck a police car, killing two policemen.
Two NATO soldiers were killed Tuesday March 9, 2010, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a U.S. military base also used by the Afghan National Border Police in the Ali Sher district of Khost Province.
A bomb blast has claimed another soldier. The soldier, whose nationality was withheld, died in an explosion caused by an improvised explosive device in south Afghanistan on Friday March 12, 2010. This brings to 122 the number of the foreign troops killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of the year.
A roadside bomb exploded in central Afghanistan on Saturday March 13, 2010, killing six people in a civilian vehicle. The blast occurred in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province. One passenger was also wounded in the incident.
Four Taliban fighters, busy in planting mines on a road in Marja district, were killed as they exchanged fire with police in the recently liberated Marja district of southern Helmand province on Sunday March 13, 2010.
Security forces have killed five militants suspected of planning to carry out suicide bombings in the country's east. Afghan forces attacked the five would-be suicide bombers Monday March 15, 2010, before the militants could reach their targets in the Barmal district of Paktika province.
Two British soldiers have died after an explosion. The soldiers were both from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group. The blast happened north of the Musa Qala district of Helmand province on Tuesday March 16, 2010. The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 275.
Security forces killed two would-be suicide bombers on Wednesday March 17, 2010. The attackers tried to blow up a compound in Helmand's capital of Lashkar Gah used by a U.S.-based charity called International Relief and Development. Guards killed the attackers before they could blow themselves up. In a separate development, Afghan officials on Tuesday said the Afghan government will send more than 1,000 police officers to the southern city of Kandahar.
Ten people have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on March 21, 2010. The victims were civilians, killed as a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army convoy on a bridge. Seven people were also injured in the attack in Gereshk district.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan. The soldier was from A Company, 3rd Battalion the Rifles, serving as part of the 3 Rifles Battle Group. The explosion happened in an area 3km south of Sangin in Helmand province on Monday March 22, 2010.
A helicopter carrying Turkish soldiers has crash landed near the town of
Wardak on March 23, 2010, injuring at least two of its occupants.
The aircraft had technical problems while landing and there were no indications
enemy activity caused the incident.
Two NATO soldiers have died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday March 24, 2010; the soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device. The soldiers' nationalities were not disclosed. Separately coalition forces captured a Taliban sub-commander late Tuesday while searching a compound in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul. The unidentified sub-commander was involved in kidnappings, weapons purchases and spying on coalition forces. Allied forces captured several other suspected militants in Helmand province late Tuesday.
A gunman attacked a group of German and Afghan aid workers inspecting a high school under renovation in eastern Afghanistan on Friday March 26, 2010, killing one Afghan and injuring several others. One of those wounded in the attack in Khost province was a German citizen.
A soldier from the Household Cavalry Regiment has died in a grenade attack on March 26, 2010. He was on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand when the grenade was thrown from behind a wall.
NATO says another international service member has been killed in action.
The service member died Saturday March 27, 2010, in a roadside bombing in
southern Afghanistan.
A roadside bomb blasts in southern Helmand province have killed six civilians on Saturday March 27, 2010. The victims drove over the devices. A joint NATO-Afghan security force has killed several Taliban fighters in an operation in the northeast. One of the insurgents killed near Alasay Valley in Kapisa province is a suspected Taliban commander.
Taliban militants claimed responsibility for shooting down a NATO helicopter
that crashed in Adghar district of Zabul province on Monday March 29, 2010.
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a press release
confirmed the crash of its helicopter. There were no fatalities in the incident.
NATO-led ISAF forces also ruled out the involvement of hostile fire in the
chopper crash.
At least 13 people have been killed in a bombing in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday March 31, 2010, in the Nahr-e-Sarraj district near Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. NATO said its helicopters evacuated at least 40 of the wounded to hospitals. The bomb exploded as people gathered to receive free seeds as part of a program aimed at discouraging farmers from growing opium poppy. A source said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber, but the Interior Ministry said the bomb was attached to a bicycle.
An US aircraft, an E-2C Hawkeye surveillance plane, has crashed in the Arabian Sea after experiencing mechanical malfunctions while returning from a mission in Afghanistan. The aircraft was carrying four crew at the time of the incident, of which three have been rescued. A search for the remaining crew member is currently under way.
Three German soldiers have been killed on April 2, 2010. They died during fierce fighting with Taliban insurgents. A number of other German soldiers were seriously wounded in the incident, which happened near Chahar Dara, south-west of the city of Kunduz. Germany has more than 4,000 soldiers in the country -making it the third-largest foreign contingent after the US and UK.
German troops have killed at least five Afghan soldiers in the northern province of Kunduz on April 3, 2010. The Afghans were in two cars and did not heed warnings to stop as they drove up to German troops.
A British soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, died on Sunday April 4, 2010. He was killed as a result of an explosion that happened near Forward Operating Base Zeebrugge, in the Kajaki area of Helmand Province. The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 280.
Afghanistan, Tuesday April 6, 2010:
- NATO and Afghan forces killed at least 27 suspected Taliban insurgents in
fighting and airstrikes in Badghis province. One Afghan soldier was also killed
and at least six other soldiers were wounded.
- NATO-led international security force is investigating the deaths of civilians
in clashes with insurgents elsewhere in Afghanistan.
- An Afghan child was killed and three were wounded during fighting in Kapisa
province. The force says it is unclear which side caused the casualties.
An airstrike Monday in Helmand province killed four suspected insurgents and four civilians, including two women, a child, and an elderly man. The airstrike targeted a compound being used by insurgents to fire at international troops.
A British soldier from 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh, died as a result of a gunshot wound on Wednesday April 7, 2010. He was on foot patrol when he was killed in an exchange of fire with insurgents near Showal, in the Nad-e-Ali District of Helmand Province. The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 281.
Acting on an intelligence tip, Afghan police arrested five would-be suicide bombers Thursday April 8, 2010 as they tried to enter Kabul, thwarting a major attack and capturing the largest such team ever in the capital. The bombers were sent by an al-Qaida-linked insurgent group based in Pakistan, and their capture follows widespread rumours that militants were planning attacks in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul.
A NATO Osprey aircraft crashed on Thursday April 8, 2010 killing three American service members and one civilian employee. The crash occurred near Qalat, the capital of Zabul Province, a desert area that remains under Taliban influence. NATO officials said the cause of the crash was not immediately known, the Taliban took credit for downing the CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
Afghanistan, Sunday April 11, 2010:
- A bus carrying personnel for a mine-clearing group was struck by a roadside
bomb. Four people were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in
the explosion in Kandahar province.
- The International Security Assistance Force says one of its service members
was killed by an explosion.
- ISAF said their service members detained a man carrying bomb materials and
pictures of ISAF vehicles.
- A Canadian soldier was killed after stepping on an improvised explosive
device during a foot patrol near Kandahar City. The explosion, which injured
another Canadian soldier, occurred near the village of Belanday, in the district
of Dand.
American troops riddled a passenger bus with bullets outside Kandahar on Monday April 12, 2010, killing four civilians and galvanizing anti-Western sentiment. Angry protests erupted after the shooting in Zhari district, to the west of Kandahar, which also left 18 people hurt. Nato said it "deeply regrets the tragic loss of life" in the shootings, and it promised a speedy joint investigation with Afghan authorities.
Afghanistan Thursday April 15, 2010:
- Four German troops were killed in fighting in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan
province. The four soldiers were killed in fighting that broke out after a
German armoured vehicle was attacked. Five German soldiers were wounded in
the clash. Most of the 4,500 German troops in Afghanistan are deployed in
the north. 42 German troops have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of
the war in 2001.
- In the southern city of Kandahar, a suicide car bombing killed at least
six people at a compound used by foreign companies. Three of the dead were
foreigners and three were Afghan soldiers.
The car was driven into a compound where foreigners are housed after guards
opened the gate.
Five Afghan United Nations workers have been kidnapped by armed men in Baghlan province on April 16, 2010. Another local UN worker who is missing in the same area may also have been abducted by the gunmen. The four UN staff were travelling in two cars to an area called Bagh-e-Shamal.
Afghanistan Sunday April 18, 2010:
- At least 29 militants, including two commanders, have been killed over four
days of intense fighting aimed at protecting supply routes through northern
Afghanistan.
- A foreign soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan
on Saturday, the third foreign death that day following an earlier announcement
of the loss of two Dutch marines in the southern province of Uruzgan. The
third soldier's nationality and other details of the incident were being withheld.
- So far this month, 24 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan, where foreign
troop levels are climbing toward 130,000 in a push to cripple the resurgent
Taliban insurgency.
- An Afghan policeman was also killed during mine clearance operations in
the southern province of Kandahar.
Afghanistan, Tuesday April 20, 2010:
- The deputy mayor of Kandahar was shot dead while going to pray at a mosque.
- NATO troops fired on a vehicle that approached their convoy in eastern Afghanistan,
killing four unarmed Afghans. NATO said two of those killed Monday night were
later identified as "known insurgents," but Karzai and the provincial
chief of police, Abdul Hakim Hesaq Zoy, said they were all civilians. One
of the victims was a 12-year-old boy.
NATO acknowledged on Wednesday April 21, 2010, it had killed four Afghan civilians when it opened fire on a car in the southeast of the country after initially saying two of the dead were insurgents.
Two American service members died of wounds after clash with insurgents in a province near the capital we were told on Friday April 23, 2010. Five insurgents were killed in the fire fight in Lowgar province.
Afghan and international security forces raided a compound in the Archi district of Kunduz province on April 24, 2010, killing at least 13 militants, including two Taliban commanders. The militants refused to leave the compound and engaged forces with small arms fire.
NATO says a senior Taliban commander and two advisers were killed in an air strike Monday April 26, 2010. The insurgents were driving through the desert northeast of Kunduz City when they were hit by precision air fire. The Taliban commander was responsible for all aspects of military operations in Kunduz province. In southern Afghanistan, two civilians have been killed by two explosions that went off within a minute of each other as a police convoy passed by.
Two British soldiers were killed by a landmine in Afghanistan on April 28,
2010, when their vehicle strayed from a proven track to keep an eye on trainee
Afghan soldiers following behind. L/Cpl Nigel Moffett of the Light Dragoons,
and Corporal Stephen Bolger of 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, were
killed near the village of Chadi, near Musa Qala in Helmand province.
A British soldier died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan while protecting fellow troops as they returned from a patrol we were told on Sunday May 2. 2010. The soldier, from 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment, was serving with 40 Commando Royal Marines Battle Group and died near a patrol base in Sangin, Helmand Province.
Afghanistan, Monday May 3, 2010:
- Two British soldiers have been killed in separate incidents. One soldier,
from 21 Engineer Regiment Group, died in a traffic accident in Helmand province.
The other, from the same regiment, died in an explosion, also in Helmand.
- The latest two deaths on Monday morning mean 284 UK military personnel have
been killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001.
- A suicide bomber struck outside a foreign base in Khost, killing one civilian
and wounding two privately employed guards. The Taliban said the bomber used
a car laden with a huge quantity of explosives in the blast.
- In a separate incident, seven civilians were killed and 14 wounded by a
roadside bomb that hit a van packed with passengers late on Sunday in nearby
Paktia province.
- Another blast hit a car in Paktia.
A third NATO soldier was killed in 24 hours in southern Afghanistan when a bomb exploded on Tuesday May 4, 2010. The third soldier's nationality was not revealed.
Seven Taliban militants were killed on Saturday as they came in contact with the troops in Mata Khan District in Paktika province east of Afghanistan, we were told on Sunday May 9, 2010. A group of insurgents were attempting to attack the security forces but the troops returned fire killing seven rebels. There were no casualties on the troops.
A British Royal Marine was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Saturday May 8, 2010. The serviceman from 40 Commando Royal Marines died in the course of duty during a routine patrol in the Sangin district of Helmand Province. He was part of a patrol operating in support of a bomb disposal team.
A bomb attack killed two U.S. service members in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday May 11, 2010, while Afghan officials said at least 18 militants died in a recent operation in the same region.
Angry demonstrations erupted in eastern Afghanistan on Friday May 14, 2010, as villagers accused Western troops of killing up to 11 civilians in an overnight raid. NATO said that eight people were killed, but that all were insurgents. The scenario was a familiar one: Coalition and Afghan forces sweep down on a compound in the dead of night in search of Taliban operatives. A firefight breaks out, and the identities of the dead are then furiously contested. Nato said that the eight men killed in the confrontation in the Surkhrod district of Nangarhar province included a Taliban subcommander, and that a weapons cache was recovered at the scene. Villagers, though, described the dead as civilians, including five members of one family and four from another.
The Taliban said on Saturday May 15, 2010, that the group had kidnapped and killed four Afghan interpreters, one on his wedding day, apparently because they worked for the United States military and a Western contractor. The Taliban had kidnapped six members of a wedding party. The Taliban found the four interpreters guilty of working as informers for "foreign forces" and executed them on Friday; the Taliban released the other two.
A NATO soldier (believed to be American) was killed in clashes with insurgents in the south of the country Sunday May 16, 2010. The soldier's nationality was not revealed. The death brought to 197 the number of foreign troops to die this year in the Afghan war, which is in its ninth year. A total of 520 died in 2009.
A suicide bomber on a motorbike who blew himself up late Sunday May 16, 2010, near the gate of an Afghan Border Police residence in Kandahar. At least four border policemen were wounded in the attack as two other suicide attackers entered the police compound, but were shot dead by police during a gun battle before they could detonate their vests of explosives. Earlier on Sunday, two militants on a motorbike opened fire on a car belonging to a National Security Directorate official who was on his way to work. The intelligence official's driver was killed. Twenty-four NATO troops, including 16 U.S. service members, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month.
A prominent Muslim cleric pushing for peace has been assassinated in eastern Afghanistan along with two members of his family. Cleric Rahman Gul, his brother and a relative were killed Sunday May 16, 2010, in the Chapa Dara district as they were returning to their homes.
Two members of the NATO coalition, including one American service member, also were killed on Sunday May 16, 2010, in southern Afghanistan. The NATO service member died in a roadside bomb explosion.
Two members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed Monday May 17, 2010, in two separate improvised explosive device attacks. One of the service members died in western Afghanistan, while the second died in southern Afghanistan. Earlier Monday, the Italian Defence Ministry said two Italian soldiers were killed and another two wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in northeast Afghanistan. The soldiers were part of a four-vehicle convoy heading to the Bala Murghab village, northeast of Herat, when the attack took place.
An Afghan passenger plane with 44 people on board has crashed between Kunduz and Kabul on Sunday May 16, 2010. The Pamir Airways plane is thought to have gone down near the Salang Pass, a mountainous area about 60 miles north of Kabul.
A suicide car bomber has killed 18 people -including five US and one Canadian soldier- and injured 52 more. Most of the victims were Afghan civilians caught in the blast when the bomber targeted a Nato-led convoy. Taliban militants said they had carried out the attack, using a van packed with 750kg of explosives. Despite tight security, the suicide bomber managed to drive into the city in a car laden with explosives.
Three British men were among 44 people feared dead after a passenger plane crashed in heavy fog in remote mountains in Afghanistan on May 16, 2010. The three, who are not military personnel, were named by the airline last night as Chris Carter, David Taylor and Daniel Saville.
Suicide bombers carrying rockets and grenades attacked one of the biggest Nato military bases in Afghanistan on May 19, 2010, killing an American contractor and wounding nine US troops. About a dozen militants, many wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, were killed.
A British marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines has been killed in Afghanistan. The marine, who was serving as part of Combined Forces Sangin, Helmand, was killed in an explosion near Patrol Base Almas, in Sangin, on Friday May 21, 2010.
Insurgents assaulted Kandahar Air Base, the main military base in southern Afghanistan, on Saturday May 22, 2010. The attack began with rocket fire. One of the rockets struck near a boardwalk common area and wounded some personnel there. Then insurgents on foot attacked the northern perimeter of the base, though they killed no one and did not break in.
On Saturday May 22, 2010, NATO announced the deaths of three soldiers and a civilian contractor in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan.
Trooper Larry Rudd of the Royal Canadian Dragoons died Monday May 24, 2010, became the 146th Canadian to die in Afghanistan and the fourth from southern Ontario to be killed here this month. His squadron was in the first weeks of its seven month tour in Afghanistan, died when the armoured vehicle he was travelling in struck a makeshift landmine during a combat resupply of other Canadian troops in Panjwaii District, southwest of Kandahar City.
Seven Afghans have been arrested in connection with a suicide car bombing last week that killed 18 people, including three American colonels, we were told on Monday May 24, 2010. The bombing took place last Tuesday near the destroyed royal palace. The car bombing was followed a day later by a ground assault against the US-run Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and Saturday's attack on Kandahar Air Field.
On May 25, 2010, the Pentagon announced that more US forces are serving in Afghanistan than in Iraq. 94,000 US forces are in Afghanistan and 92,000 in Iraq. The numbers are expected to rise to about 98,000 in Afghanistan this summer, and fall in Iraq. At the height of the Iraq war in 2006 and 2007, the United States had between 130,000 and 172,000 forces fighting there.
A British soldier died when he was shot during fighting On May 26, 2010. The soldier, from 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, had been on a joint foot patrol with Afghan National Army personnel near Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand. His death brings the total number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 287.
A British marine has been killed in Afghanistan. An explosion in Helmand province killed the marine, from 40 Commando Royal Marines, while on foot patrol on Wednesday May 26, 2010. The latest death means the number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 288.
The toll of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan reached 1,000 on Friday May 28, 2010. This came with the death in a roadside bombing of an American serviceman who was the 32nd US soldier to die in the past month. He is the 430th to be killed in Afghanistan since President Obama took office in January 2009.
Taliban militants have overtaken a remote district in eastern Afghanistan after days of heavy fighting with police. The insurgents took control of Barg-e-Matal district on Saturday May 29, 2010, after forcing police to retreat from the district's administrative compound. The district is located in the mountainous Nuristan province, which borders Pakistan.
Saturday May 29, 2010, the U.S. military acknowledged that operators of a remote-controlled drone aircraft are to blame for the deaths of 23 civilians in an attack in Afghanistan earlier this year. U.S. troops fired missiles and rockets at the civilians' vehicles in Uruzgan province after mistaking them for a convoy of Taliban insurgents.
A British Royal Marine has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on May 30, 2010. The marine from 40 Commando was killed in an explosion while on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand Province. His death brings the number of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 289.
Al-Qaeda's number three leader and Afghan operations chief, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, has been killed we were told on June 1, 2010. Mr Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said al-Masri, died along with his wife and three children. He most probably was killed recently in the tribal areas of Pakistan in an American drone attack.
A British soldier serving with the Royal Marines was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan on Wednesday June 2, 2010. The 40 Commando Marine was on foot patrol when the blast occurred in the Sangin district of Helmand province. The death brings to 290 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 255 were killed as a result of hostile action.
A Taliban key commander Mullah Zalgai was killed in Kandahar province, south of Afghanistan we were told on Friday June 4, 2010. Mullah Zalgai, the top Taliban commander for the Kandahar City area, was killed by Afghan-international forces in an operation in Zharay district last week. Zalgai directed insurgent activities in the Arghandab and Zharay districts, including Kandahar City.
Two British soldiers were killed in a gunfight with insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj District of Afghanistan's Helmand province on Saturday June 5, 2010. The soldiers' were part of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Ghurkha Rifles Battle Group.
Afghanistan Sunday June 6, 2010:
- Five NATO soldiers died in separate incidents in Afghanistan.
- A vehicle accident killed three NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan.
- A makeshift bomb killed another service member in southern Afghanistan.
- A fifth soldier died in an insurgent attack in the eastern part of the country.
- A roadside bomb attack in southern Afghanistan killed a police officer and
two civilians. The bomb hit a police vehicle and two civilian cars in the
Panjwai district of Kandahar. The blast wounded at least three people.
- Coalition forces killed a Taliban commander and other insurgents in western
Farah province.
- In the eastern region, an Afghan combined force captured a Haqqani explosives
cell leader Saturday night in Khost province.
Afghanistan Monday June 7, 2010:
- Insurgents killed 10 Nato soldiers, 7 of them Americans. The deaths came
in six separate attacks in the south and east of the country.
- A civilian American security guard was killed, along with another guard
whose nationality was not immediately clear, in a suicide attack on the police
training centre in the southern city of Kandahar.
- Five of the American soldiers were killed by a homemade bomb in eastern
Afghanistan.
- Two other American soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan.
- NATO force said two of its soldiers had been killed in separate attacks
in southern Afghanistan, one by small arms fire and another by a bomb, while
a third NATO soldier was killed in eastern Afghanistan by small arms fire.
- Two Australian soldiers were also killed Monday by an I.E.D. in southern
Afghanistan.
- In an attack on the Kandahar, three suicide bombers struck, one driving
a car bomb and the other two apparently with explosive vests. Two civilians
had been killed in that attack, one of them an American citizen. The two victims
were both employees of an American security company guarding the facility.
- Through June 6, a total of 1,812 NATO soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan
since 2001, 1,020 of them Americans. This year, 245 NATO soldiers have died
in Afghanistan, 153 of them Americans, as of June 6.
Afghanistan, Tuesday June 8, 2010:
-We were told that more than 1,000 American troops have now been killed in
Afghanistan until now.
- An improvised explosive device killed two US soldiers in southern Afghanistan,
bringing the total to 1,001.
- A British soldier was shot dead during a gun battle in southern Afghanistan.
The soldier, from 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, was killed in a small
arms firefight with insurgents in the Nad-e Ali District of the Helmand Province.
The death brings to 293 the number of British troops killed since operations
in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 258 were killed as
a result of hostile action.
- Two Australian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in
southern Afghanistan.
Insurgents shot down a NATO helicopter in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday June 9, 2010, and killed four U.S. soldiers while another coalition service member died in a roadside bombing. The five coalition service members were killed in the Helmand province. So far this month, 29 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan, a rate of more than three deaths a day. Nineteen of those were U.S. soldiers.
In the south 39 people were killed in a blast at a wedding party in Kandahar province's Argandab district. The explosion Wednesday June 9, 2010, left more than 70 people wounded.
Bombings in southern Afghanistan have killed at least 11 civilians and two NATO soldiers. Nine Afghans, including women and children, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province Friday June 11, 2010. The blast destroyed a minibus. In neighbouring Zabul province, a suicide bomber dressed as a woman killed two people. Elsewhere in the south, a bomb explosion killed two of its soldiers. The deaths bring the number of NATO soldiers killed since Monday to at least 21.
Three members of international forces serving in Afghanistan died in bombings
in Afghanistan on Saturday June 12, 2010. One of the deaths was an American,
who was killed in the northern part of the country. A Polish soldier was killed
in an attack on his convoy in Ghazni province. The nationality of the soldier
killed in a third bombing in southern Afghanistan was not yet known.
An explosion on Saturday June 12, 2010, led to the death of another UK soldier. The blast occurred in southern Afghanistan at a military checkpoint near Nahr-e Saraj district oh Helmand province. The soldier was from The Mercian Regiment.
Two UK soldiers from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment have been shot dead in separate incidents. They died while on patrol in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province on Tuesday June 15, 2010. Their deaths bring the total number of UK troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 298. They follow that of a Royal Marine from 40 Commando who died from injuries sustained in conflict in a UK hospital.
A soldier from the Royal Dragoon Guards has been killed in an explosion. He had been guarding comrades as they cleared land in front of a checkpoint in the Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand, when he was hit by the blast on Friday June 18, 2010. The soldier is the 299th member of the UK armed forces to have died in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001.
Two Americans died in fighting Friday June 18, 2010, in southern Afghanistan, raising to 33 the number of U.S. troops killed in the war so far this month. The two died in an insurgent attack but did not provide further details.
Two bombs hidden in push carts exploded less than a half hour apart Saturday June 219, 2010. The double bombing occurred in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. The first explosion in front of a bank killed a young girl and a woman and wounded at least 14 other people. Five people, including an Afghan soldier, were injured in the second explosion.
The number of UK service personnel killed as a result of the Afghanistan conflict since 2001 has hit 300, after a wounded marine died in hospital. The man, from 40 Commando Royal Marines, died in Birmingham's New Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Sunday June 20, 2010. His family has been informed. He had been injured in a blast in the Sangin district of Helmand on 12 June.
Three Australian commandos and a US soldier have been killed in a helicopter crash in Kandahar province on June 21, 2010. There was no indication of enemy involvement. The three men killed were from the Special Operations Task Group. Seven Australians were also injured in the crash. Two were said to be in a serious condition. The latest incident takes Australia's military death toll in Afghanistan to 16.Two other NATO soldiers were killed on Monday in separate bombings in the south.
A Canadian soldier was killed Monday June 21, 2010, in a roadside bomb blast while on a foot patrol. The improvised explosive device was detonated in a village about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City, in the Panjwa'i District. Macneil's death brings to 148 the number of Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
Afghanistan, Tuesday June 22, 2010:
- The head of the public health department in northern Kunduz province has
been killed in a bombing. A bomb planted in Azizullah Safari's private clinic
exploded, killing him and injuring at least two other people.
- In eastern Afghanistan, a female suicide bomber attacked a police post in
the Shigal district of Kunar province on Monday, wounding 18 people, including
three police officers.
- A joint NATO and Afghan force captured the Taliban's recently-appointed
chief of finance for Baghlan province during an operation in Helmand province
late Monday.
- In Helmand, a British Royal Marine was killed in the Sangin district during
a firefight with insurgents.
- Another British Royal Marine was killed in an explosion in Sangin on Monday.
The deaths bring the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since
2001 to 302.
On June 23, 2010, a British Royal Marine has been shot dead in southern Afghanistan -the fourth from 40 Commando to die in as many days. The marine was conducting a security patrol to reassure locals in the Sangin district of Helmand province when he was shot by insurgents.
Another British Royal Marine has been shot dead in southern Afghanistan -the fourth from 40 Commando to die in as many days. The marine was conducting a security patrol to reassure locals in the Sangin district of Helmand province when he was shot by insurgents on Wednesday June 23, 2010.
Australia on Wednesday June 23, 2010, announced it could complete its core
mission and pull hundreds of troops out of Afghanistan within two to four
years. The move came as the nation's military has suffered its deadliest month
since joining coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001, with five soldiers
dying in a bomb attack and a helicopter crash since June 7.
Four British soldiers have been killed in a road accident in Afghanistan.
The soldiers, part of a police advisory team, were killed near Gereshk, Helmand
province, on Wednesday June 23, 2010. They were travelling to help in an incident
at a nearby checkpoint when they died.
NATO said on Friday June 25, 2010, that three of its soldiers were killed in separate insurgent attacks across the country. One of its service members was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, while another died following a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The two soldiers were American. A third service member, also American, was killed in an explosion Friday in southern Afghanistan. The latest casualties take the total death toll of international troops in Afghanistan in June to 83, making it the bloodiest month since the 2001 US-led invasion. At least 49 of the NATO soldiers killed this month were Americans.
A British soldier died on Saturday June 26, 2010, two weeks after being wounded by an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, from 4th Regiment Royal Artillery died in RCDM Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, as a result of injuries sustained during an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj North District of Helmand Province on the afternoon of 10 June 2010." The death brings to 308 the number of British troops to have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
A foreign soldier was killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday June 26, 2010. The toll among foreign troops so far this month to 85, by far the deadliest monthly tally since the war began in late 2001. The total for the year so far is 305. The total for 2009 was 520.
Afghanistan Saturday June 26, 2010:
- Four American troops were reported killed and the bodies of 11 Afghan men,
six beheaded, were found. The Afghans were killed because the Taliban said
they were spying for the government, working for the government.
- Two U.S. service members were killed in insurgent attacks Friday in eastern
Afghanistan, one American died Friday in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan,
and a fourth U.S. troop died in a roadside bombing Thursday in southern Afghanistan.
- In the south, a joint force of Afghan and international troops killed a
midlevel Taliban commander and other insurgents Thursday who were planting
a roadside bomb near the provincial capital of Kandahar province. Some of
the insurgents were killed by a coalition airstrike. The Taliban commander,
Faizullah, was responsible for roadside bomb attacks in the Arghandab district
of Kandahar and is believed to have killed at least one coalition soldier
in March.
- In Khost province, another joint force captured an alleged operative of
the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked arm of the Taliban.
A British Army bomb disposal expert from 101 Engineer Regiment has been killed on June 27, 2010. It happened in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. He was killed in a firefight with insurgents. The death takes the total number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 309.
A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed eight civilians. Women and children were among the victims of Monday June 28, 2010's blast in Ghazni province. In southern Afghanistan, Afghan-international force has killed a Taliban commander and several armed individuals. Afghan and coalition forces encountered hostile fire Sunday at a compound outside Kandahar City. The forces returned fire, killing Taliban commander Shyster Uhstad Khan, and several others. One suspected insurgent was detained.
An Afghan man working for the United Nations has been shot and killed in his vehicle near a busy traffic island in Afghanistan's capital on June 29, 2010. The man who died was driving a white pick-up truck with the blue UN logo painted on the side. Another Afghan member of the UN staff who was in the vehicle was not wounded. The morning shooting occurred in heavy traffic near Massoud circle, an intersection near the US Embassy and an American military base.
A British soldier was killed in a gunfight on Monday June 28, 2010. The soldier was part of the 101 Engineer Regiment, a bomb disposal unit. The soldier is at least the 309th British fatality in Afghanistan since October 2001, when NATO-led forces invaded to topple the Taliban regime. More than 1,100 Americans have been killed.
One of the biggest NATO bases in Afghanistan has come under attack by Taliban insurgents on June 30, 2010. Several attackers were killed in the attack on a base at an airfield outside Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan. The perimeter of the base had not been breached.
A British Royal Marine has died in southern Afghanistan. The death happened on Thursday July 1, 2010. It takes the total number of UK service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 310.
A Taliban suicide squad stormed the compound of a U.S.-based development group in northern Afghanistan on Friday July 2, 2010, killing three expatriate workers, a security guard and an Afghan police officer. All six attackers also died in the predawn assault in the northern city of Kunduz, one of them when he blew up a sport utility vehicle at the compound's gates at the outset of the strike. The other five were killed in a fierce gun battle that followed. The three slain foreigners were from Germany, Britain and the Philippines. About eight Americans were rescued while the compound was under siege. About two dozen people were hurt, including some foreigners and some Afghans.
Three service members from the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan were killed in action Thursday July 7, 2010. One died in an insurgent attack in the east and two died in bombings in the south. The British Defence Ministry confirmed that one of the service members was British. The British soldier was killed in an explosion during a foot patrol in the Sangin District of Helmand province.
Afghanistan Saturday July 10, 2010:
- Six American service members have been killed in separate attacks.
- Four of the Americans died in separate incidents in the east involving small
arms fire and an insurgent attack.
- The other two died in separate roadside bombings in the south.
- A suicide car bomber also struck one of its convoys in the eastern province
of Khost, but no casualties were immediately reported.
- Saturday, gunmen in the eastern Afghan border province of Paktia killed
11 Pakistani travellers who crossed into Afghan territory. The victims were
travelling in a small bus.
- A would-be suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army post in southern Zabul
province, but that soldiers shot and killed the man before he could detonate
his explosives.
- Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters staged an anti-American protest in the
northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to demonstrate against mounting civilian deaths.
- The death of another Australian soldier will not change the country's commitment
to the war in Afghanistan. The soldier, Pvt. Nathan Bewes, is the sixth Australian
soldier to die in Afghanistan in just over a month. Bewes was killed on Friday
by a homemade bomb. A second soldier was wounded
Three British soldiers have been killed and four injured by a renegade Afghan
soldier in Afghanistan on Tuesday July 13, 2010. The men, from 1st Battalion
The Royal Ghurkha Rifles, were on duty in Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand province,
when the Afghan opened fire. One is a Nepalese Ghurkha and the other two were
UK nationals. The Taliban has claimed the Afghan soldier had joined its insurgency.
In a separate incident a Royal Marine from 40 Commando was killed in Helmand
also on July 13, 2010. He was shot dead while on foot patrol in the Sangin
district. The number of British military personnel killed on operations in
Afghanistan since 2001 now stands at 318.
Afghanistan Thursday July 15, 2010;
- A NATO strike killed a Taliban commander involved in the suicide attack
on a USAID contractor in northern Afghanistan earlier this month. The Taliban
commander, who was targeted in Kunduz province, openly claimed responsibility
for the July 2 attack on the U.S. contractor's compound in Kunduz city that
killed five people.
- Two U.S. service members were killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan.
- Also in the south, gunmen kidnapped five Health Ministry employees in Kandahar
province. They were abducted Wednesday while returning to Kandahar city after
visiting a project in Maiwand district.
- Insurgents killed a district official elsewhere.
Five NATO soldiers were killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan we were told on Saturday July 17, 2010. Four of the soldiers, including two British servicemen, were killed in southern Afghanistan. The fifth was killed in the eastern part of the country. All of the fatalities were caused by homemade bombs that exploded while the soldiers were on patrol.
Four British servicemen have been killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan
in the last 24 hours.
- A soldier from the Royal Logistic Corps died in a blast in the Nahr-e Saraj
district of Helmand province.
- His death comes shortly after those of a Royal Dragoon Guards soldier, a
marine and an RAF airman. Their families have been informed.
The UK death toll since operations began in 2001 now stands at 322.
Earlier on Saturday, it was announced that a Royal Dragoon Guards soldier
died in a blast in the Nahr-e Saraj district.
Amid sharply heightened security before a major international conference, a suicide bomber on Sunday July 18, 2010, killed at least three Afghan civilians and injured dozens of others on Kabul's eastern edge. The bombing came two days before a gathering of donor countries, expected to be the largest of its kind to take place in Afghanistan since the 1970s. The conference is due to bring together senior diplomats including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and officials from at least 60 nations. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is representing the U.S.
A Canadian soldier was killed Tuesday July 20, 2010, by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan. Private first class Brian Collier was killed after getting out of his vehicle in Nakhonay village, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Kandahar.
Afghanistan Wednesday July 21, 2010:
- Militants have beheaded six Afghan police officers in northern Baghlan province.
The killings occurred late Tuesday during an insurgent attack on a school,
clinic and local government building. Police successfully repelled the assault,
but that during the attack, insurgents overran a police checkpoint and killed
the officers.
- A roadside bomb killed a Danish soldier and wounded another in southern
Helmand province.
- A probe into the killing of two U.S. civilian trainers by an Afghan soldier
Tuesday showed it was the result of a "verbal argument." Another
Afghan soldier was killed in the crossfire and the shooter, believed to be
an Afghan army trainer, was shot dead at a base in northern Balkh province.
- The Taliban denounced Tuesday's international conference on Afghanistan's
future. A statement posted in English on the group's web site said "the
futile gathering" showed that the United States lost the initiative and
is unable to resolve the Afghanistan issue. The statement said that whatever
actions are taken in this regard have already been doomed to failure.
- Representatives from more than 60 nations and organizations attended the
Kabul conference and endorsed the Afghan government's plan to take charge
of security by 2014 and assume greater control of development aid.
Two U.S. service members were killed Thursday July 22, 2010, in a helicopter crash in Helmand province, the third fatal chopper crash in the south of Afghanistan in less than two months. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft. The NATO force said an investigation was underway and that hostile fire could not be ruled out.
NATO troops Thursday July 22, 2010, arrested six Taliban commanders, including a high ranking leader Mullah Abdul Hai Motmahen, during an operation in Ghazni province in south Afghanistan. NATO troops and Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
A bombing at a mosque in eastern Afghanistan has wounded at least 17 people, including a parliamentary candidate. The blast occurred Friday July 23, 2010, in Khost province, while the candidate, Syedullah Sayed, was campaigning at the mosque.
Two U.S. soldiers were missing and feared captured or killed by the Taliban and five other U.S. service members were killed by improvised explosive devices, which now pose a greater threat to life and limb for Western troops than at any point in the nine-year war. Details of what exactly had befallen the two missing men were murky. The NATO force said in a statement that they had left their base Friday July 23, 2010, and had not been heard from since. A search was underway. Hours before that announcement, the Taliban claimed its fighters were holding two Westerners in Logar province, close to the capital, Kabul. It was believed that one of the men was being held prisoner and the second had been killed, under circumstances that were not yet clear. The two were last seen in a bazaar in Logar's Charkh district.
Bombings killed five U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan on Saturday July 24, 2010. The troops died in "improvised explosive device attacks." Four service members died in one attack and one was killed in the other.
The Afghan government on July 26, 2010, blamed a Nato rocket in Helmand last week for the deaths of at least 45 civilians, including women and children. The allegation came as leaked US military intelligence reports revealed a large number of formerly unreported incidents in which innocent bystanders had been killed by operations involving foreign forces. Despite strenuous recent efforts to stop such tragedies by restricting the freedom with which Nato soldiers can use lethal force, the latest incident happened on Friday as dozens of people from the village of Regey were hiding from nearby fighting between foreign forces and the Taliban. The investigation shows that the rocket was fired by Nato and 45 civilians, many of them women and children, have been killed. Some reports said the toll was as high as 52, including 17 women and seven children. Tonight the government's claim was rejected by the Isaf.
The Taliban said on Tuesday July 27, 2010, that one of the two missing men was killed Friday in a firefight and the other taken captive. American officials identified the pair as U.S. Navy personnel, but did not disclose their unit or assignment. The dead serviceman's remains were recovered Sunday "after an extensive search." It was not clear how the body was found and retrieved; a local Taliban faction initially had offered to exchange the remains for insurgent prisoners. Relatives and the Pentagon identified the slain man as Justin McNeley, a 30-year-old non-commissioned Navy officer. His tour of duty was due to end next month. The Pentagon on Tuesday identified the second man as Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove.
According to the Afghan government, a NATO strike on Friday July 23, 2010, killed 45 civilians (with some reports as high as 52) in the village of Rigi. Witnesses said that a firefight between the Taliban and U.S. troops forced residents of a nearby hamlet to flee to the tiny, remote village, where women and children from approximately eight families hid in one home while men took cover in the forest nearby. They heard two explosions and saw military aircraft fly overhead. Witnesses also said that many of the dead were the women and children who had been inside when rockets hit the houses. If true, the attack will be one of the war's worst incidents of civilian deaths. But NATO said a preliminary investigation didn't find any civilian casualties or reports of errant rockets at all.
A bomb blast tore through a crowded passenger bus Wednesday July 28, 2010 on a desert highway in southern Afghanistan, killing 25 of those on board and injuring about 20 others, some seriously. All were said to be civilians. About 7,000 Afghan civilians were killed by bombs from 2004 to 2009. The bus, whose passengers included women and children, was travelling on a main road in Nimruz province, bound for the capital, Kabul, when it struck the buried bomb.
Two Italian soldiers were killed in an attack on Wednesday July 28, 2010, in western Afghanistan.
One of two U.S. sailors missing in Afghanistan since last week -a 30-year-old father of two- has been confirmed dead and his body recovered we were told on Tuesday July 27, 2010. The search continues for the other missing sailor.
The second of two American servicemen who disappeared last week in a Taliban-infested area south of the Afghan capital has been confirmed dead as well we were told on Thursday July 29, 2010. The body of Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove was recovered and his family notified.
Afghanistan, Friday July 30, 2010:
- Six American soldiers have been killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan,
making July the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nine-year war. The
casualties bring the number of U.S. soldiers killed this month to 66.
- One service member died in an insurgent attack while a roadside bombing
killed two others.
- Three other troops were killed Thursday in two separate bombings in the
south.
- In Kabul, anti-American protests started after a traffic accident involving
a U.S. embassy vehicle killed four Afghan civilians on the main airport road.
Police fired shots into the air to try and disperse angry demonstrators who
threw stones and set two embassy vehicles on fire.
- In the southern city of Kandahar, a motorcycle bomb targeting a parliamentary
candidate killed a woman and child. The candidate was not harmed.
- In Zabul province four civilians were killed and three others wounded when
their vehicle hit a roadside bomb. Taliban fighters opened fire when police
responded to the scene. One militant was killed in the resulting clash.
- British and Afghan troops launched a new offensive in the Sayedebad area
of Helmand province to deny insurgents a base from which to launch attacks
in the Nad Ali and Marjah areas.
British troops targeting a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan have found a cache of bomb-making equipment on Saturday July 31, 2010. The improvised explosive device (IED) components were found as troops pushed forward into an area of central Helmand province in Operation Tor Shezada. The operation, which began before dawn on Friday, aims to remove insurgents from an area near the town of Saidabad. The explosives found in the bomb-making factory were detonated on site. Earlier, commanders had said troops had met only light resistance as they consolidated their hold on ground seized from the Taliban.
A former militia commander who supported the Afghan government and two others were killed Saturday July 31, 2010, by a suicide bomber who blew himself up at a football game in northern Afghanistan. 19 other people, including children, were injured in the attack in Kunduz. The target of the bombing was a former local warlord and militia commander known by one name, Selab. He fought against the Soviet Union occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and during the civil war that followed. An Afghan policeman and a relative of Selab who worked as the commander's bodyguard also were killed. The Taliban planted a mine near Selab's house about four months ago. Selab survived that explosion, but one person was killed and two others were wounded in the attack.
The Dutch troops ended Sunday august 1, 2010, it s four years mission in Afghanistan and handed over the responsibility in the Afghan province of Uruzgan to the U.S. and Australia. This makes the Netherlands the first NATO member to leave Afghanistan. The Dutch troops had 24 casualties and 140 injuries during the last four years.
A minibus full of civilians struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday August 1, 2010; six of those on board were killed. The blast occurred in the Maiwand district outside Kandahar city.
On August 2, 2010, the Pentagon is investigating whether computer experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have assisted the American soldier suspected of leaking secret documents about the Afghanistan war. US army investigators are understood to have interviewed several MIT graduates who may have communicated with Private Bradley Manning, the prime suspect in the criminal inquiry in to the leaks. The investigation is potentially embarrassing for MIT, one of the most prestigious colleges in America which has educated some of the world's top technology executives.
Two British soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan in separate incidents on August 2, 2010. A soldier from 1st Battalion Scots Guards was killed by small arms fire in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province yesterday; and a Royal Marine from 40 Commando died in an explosion while on foot patrol in the Sangin district, also in Helmand. Their families have been informed. Their deaths bring to 327 the total number of British fatalities in Afghanistan since the invasion in October 2001. Neither incident was linked to the current operation against Taliban insurgents in the south. Hundreds of British troops are taking part in Operation Tor Shezada, now in its fourth day. UK troops and Afghan forces from 3rd Brigade 215 Corps are trying to dislodge insurgents from Sayedebad to the south of Nad-e Ali, in parallel to similar operations by US marines in northern Marjah.
A squad of gunmen and suicide bombers mounted a ground attack Tuesday August 3, 2010 against the biggest NATO base in southern Afghanistan. In the last three months, similar frontal attacks have taken place at Bagram airfield, north of Kabul, and Jalalabad airfield, the main NATO base in the country's east. Kandahar airfield, the scene of Tuesday's strike, had also come under a previous attack, in May.
On Tuesday August 3, 2010, it was reported that bank robbers made off with about $269,000 in U.S. and Afghanistan currency, killing and then beheading six guards who were protecting the financial building. Bank staff discovered the bodies of the private security guards "locked inside a room." It is believed the guards knew the robbers and had been invited to a meal, unaware the robbers had poisoned the food.
New Zealand has suffered it first death in combat in Afghanistan. Two other New Zealand soldiers and a local interpreter were also injured when their three-vehicle patrol was ambushed in Bamiyan province, northwest of the capital Kabul on August 4, 2010. The routine patrol "came under a complex attack by as yet unknown assailants". The dead man was Lieutenant Timothy O'Donnell, 28, who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Decoration when part of New Zealand's peacekeeping force in Timor Leste. The surviving casualties are being treated for serious injuries.
NATO-led forces on Thursday August 5, 2010, confirmed killing Afghan civilians during an operation in eastern Afghanistan one day earlier. During a joint operation with Afghan forces to hunt down Taliban leaders in Sherzad district of Nangarhar province Wednesday night, Coalition forces came under attack by insurgents and civilians were killed in the ensuing firefight. Between four and a dozen or more civilians were killed. In addition 15 to 20 insurgents, including two senior Taliban leaders were killed in the operation. The joint forces called in air cover as they continued to take fire from insurgents when they were leaving the area.
An international Christian charity, International Assistance Mission, said Saturday August 7, 2010, that militants killed part of its 12-member medical team, including six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, in a remote area of northern Afghanistan. The members of the medical team, including women, were killed while returning to Kabul from an eye clinic in the northern Nuristan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A Taliban spokesman told news agencies that they killed the members of the group because they were Christian missionaries. One Afghan travelling with the group said the attackers spared him after he recited passages from the Koran and said he was a Muslim. The International Assistance Mission denies the Taliban's accusations that the members of his group were missionaries. They were on a peaceful mission to help people in a remote area of Afghanistan.
Parliamentary candidate Najibullah Gulistani was abducted 18 days ago and his beheaded body was found on Friday August 6, 2010, in Ghazni province. Two NATO soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in the south. The two deaths bring the overall number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 419.
Three NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Sunday August 8, 2010 following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan. In a separate incident, one ISAF service member died following an IED strike in southern Afghanistan. On Saturday five NATO troops were killed in the south of the country. June was the deadliest month for soldiers from all coalition countries in the nearly nine-year war, with 102 fatalities, according to Icasualties.org.
Three Afghan civilians were killed and two more wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Waghaz district of Ghazni province in eastern Afghanistan on Monday August 9, 2010. Another Afghan civilian was injured in a separate roadside blast Monday in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province in the south.
A Christian charity group said Thursday August 12, 2010, that it believes militants, not robbers, killed 10 members of its medical team last week in a remote area of northern Afghanistan. Their research suggests that the murders were not a robbery but they believe that the attack was an opportunistic ambush by a group of non-local fighters. The team was attacked as they made their return trip toward Kabul from their mission to dispense medical care to villagers in remote Nuristan province. They were set upon by gunmen as they got out of their vehicles to take a rest after crossing a swollen river just across the boundary in Badakhshan.
Afghanistan Friday August 13, 2010:
- Three international coalition service members were killed in the south of
Afghanistan, while U.S. and Afghan forces stepped up operations in the east
against a Taliban faction linked to al-Qaida, arresting several key militants.
- Britain's Ministry of Defence said one British soldier was killed by small-arms
fire in the Sangin district of Helmand province.
- Another serviceman who was injured Tuesday in an incident involving a helicopter
at a patrol base in the Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand died Thursday at
a hospital in Britain.
- A third coalition service member died after an insurgent attack Friday in
southern Afghanistan.
- A raid on Thursday in the Manduzai district of Khost province led to the
capture of a deputy commander of the Haqqani group who had been supplying
weapons to other members of the network.
- Another Haqqani weapons supplier was picked up Wednesday in Paktiya province.
He had been involved in smuggling weapons, ammunition and bomb materials from
Pakistan to fighters in Afghanistan.
- The U.S. considers the Haqqani group, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his
son Sirajuddin, as one of the most dangerous Taliban groups because of its
links to al-Qaida.
NATO forces killed two insurgents who attacked a police station in northern Afghanistan by hitting their truck with an airstrike as they fled the area we were told on Sunday August 15, 2010. Three pickup trucks full of gunmen launched an attack on the main police station in Kunduz province's Aliabad district on Saturday afternoon. One police officer was killed in the fighting.
Afghanistan Monday August 16, 2010:
- Insurgents assassinated an Afghan government official and a policeman in
western Afghanistan.
- Five civilians died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb elsewhere in
the west. Two insurgents on a motorcycle shot and killed the government official
in a bazaar in the Gulistan district of Farah province. The policeman returned
fire, but was killed by the insurgents.
- In neighbouring Herat province, five members of one family were killed and
two others were wounded in a blast after their vehicle hit a mine.
- An al-Qaida operative was among those killed in an airstrike Sunday on a
pickup truck that was fleeing the site of a gunfight with police in Kunduz
province in northern Afghanistan. The military coalition previously said that
two insurgents were killed.
Afghanistan Tuesday August 17, 2010:
- An ISAF service member was killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained two suspected insurgents in Paktia
province, including a sub-commander from the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
- Afghan and coalition forces killed a man named Bilal who had a suspected
role in the kidnapping and killing of two U.S. sailors last month and who
helped the Taliban with roadside bombs.
- Afghan security forces said they arrested the leader of an insurgent group
in southern Helmand province on Monday.
- Afghan and ISAF troops killed six insurgents while in pursuit of a former
Taliban commander in northern Kunduz on Monday.
- Insurgents shot and killed an Afghan government official and a policeman
in a village bazaar in the Gulistan district of western Farah province on
Monday.
A British serviceman has been shot dead in southern Afghanistan on August 21, 2010 during an exchange of fire with insurgents. The soldier, from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was killed during a battle with insurgents in southern Nad-e Ali, Helmand. The British death toll in the Afghan campaign since 2001 now stands at 332.
Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in three incidents Sunday August 22, 2010, raising the total casualties this month to 33 international troops, including 21 Americans. Three of the soldiers were killed in insurgent attacks in the south and east and one was killed by a homemade bomb in the south. The Taliban has stepped up its campaign of violence in those regions to counter a build-up of international forces.
A team of investigators headed to a volatile corner of northeast Afghanistan on Tuesday August 24, 2010, after local officials reported that a night-time raid by NATO commandos there had left 8 civilians dead and 12 wounded. Details were sketchy, but the governor of Tala Wa Barfak, a district in Baghlan Province, said the Afghans had been killed in the village of Naik early Sunday by what appeared to have been a raid carried out by Special Forces. According to a group of tribal elders sent to the village among the dead were two women and a child. Six of the dead were found in Naik, and two more villagers were found later in a field farther away.
A Hungarian soldier died and another remains in a critical condition after
Monday August 23, 2010's ambush. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Sgt. Judit Abraham Papp, a 32-year-old female soldier, died at the scene on
Monday. The convoy, transporting 29 Hungarian soldiers, was attacked in the
province of Baghlan, on its way to Mazar-i-Sharif.
Ms. Papp was the third Hungarian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
On August 25, 2010, an Afghan police recruit opened fire on Spanish trainers in Afghanistan, killing two of them along with their interpreter. Spanish officers then shot and killed the recruit. The motive isn't known.
The U.S. Department of Defence says a 21-year-old Marine from central Illinois has died in Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. Robert Newton of Creve Coeur died Monday August 23, 2010, in Helmand province while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Marine Expeditionary Force.
Homemade bombs killed three U.S. troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Friday August 27, 2010, and a roadside blast tore through a crowded market in the north, killing three police and two civilians. A total of 55 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month, including 35 Americans, according to a count by The Associated Press. July was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with 66 killed.
Coalition troops, along with Afghan security forces, have repelled insurgent attacks on a NATO base and on a U.S. camp in the eastern part of the country on August 28, 2010. At least 24 attackers died, while the coalition and Afghan troops did not suffer any casualties.
Afghanistan, Sunday August 29, 2010:
- Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled
southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five
kidnapped campaign aides working for a female candidate in the western province
of Herat.
- Two servicemen died in bombings in southern Afghanistan, while two others
were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday, and three in fighting
in the east the same day.
- The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died
this month in Afghanistan. A total of 62 international forces have died in
the country this month, including seven British troops.
- The five campaign workers were snatched Wednesday by armed men who stopped
their two-vehicle convoy as it drove through remote countryside. Five others
travelling in the vehicles had earlier been set free. Residents of Herat's
Adraskan district reported finding the bodies early Sunday. They were later
transported to the local morgue for identification by family members.
- In Herat, male parliamentary candidate Abdul Manan was shot and killed Saturday
on his way to a mosque by an assassin travelling on the back of a motorcycle.
- Two suicide bombers attempted to climb over the back wall of a compound
housing the governor of the far western province of Farah, but were spotted
by guards and shot.
- Eight insurgents were killed in joint Afghan-NATO operations Saturday night
in the province of Paktiya, including a Taliban commander, Naman, accused
of coordinating roadside bomb attacks and the movement of ammunition, supplies
and fighters.
- South in Khost province, U.S. and Afghan troops raised the death toll among
insurgents to more than 30 in simultaneous attacks Saturday by about 50 fighters
on Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman, where seven CIA
employees died in a suicide attack in December. Insurgents wore replica American
uniforms and at least 13 had strapped themselves into suicide bomb vests.
Afghanistan, Monday August 30, 2010:
- Seven US soldiers have been killed in two bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan.
- Five troops were killed by a roadside bomb in one incident while two others
died in a separate bomb attack. Witnesses in Kandahar said a US Army vehicle
hit a bomb in the early afternoon.
- Fourteen US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last three days.
- The governor of the Lalpor District in Nangarhar Province was killed by
a car bomb in the city of Jalalabad. The bomb, which had been planted on the
vehicle, exploded while it was driving into a government compound. Governor
Syad Mohammad Palawan was reportedly travelling to a meeting of provincial
security and political leaders when he was killed.
- A 21-year-old soldier from western Newfoundland, Canada, died Monday morning
at a military hospital in Germany, more than a week after he was injured by
a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Pinksen suffered injuries to his limbs and
internal organs August 22 when an improvised explosive device detonated near
him during a patrol southwest of Kandahar. He was flown to the U.S. military's
Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany for treatment but died at the
hospital after his heart failed.
Five more American soldiers were killed in separate incidents Tuesday August
31, 2010, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the war-torn country
since Saturday to 19.
Four U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the east, while the fifth
died in a gunfight with insurgents in the south.
Oxfam has been forced to suspend operations in a once-peaceful northern province
of Afghanistan after three of its staff were killed and two injured by a roadside
bomb on Monday August 30, 2010. The attack on one of the biggest British aid
charities working in Afghanistan came as Nick Clegg claimed there was "discernible
progress" in the restive southern Helmand province and told British forces
they were "turning the corner".
The deputy prime minister, visiting Helmand and Kabul, said the "clock
is ticking" down to the end of the UK's combat mission in the country
in 2015 and that more urgency was needed to pursue a peace process with the
Taliban.
Another soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
was killed in Taliban-linked activities on Thursday September 2, 2010.
Afghanistan, Friday September 3, 2010:
- A service member from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
- An Afghan parliamentary candidate and a civilian were wounded in a grenade
attack at the governor's compound in southeastern Ghazni city on Thursday.
- Afghan and ISAF forces found seven shackled prisoners while searching for
a local Taliban commander in southern Helmand province. Two insurgents were
killed during the operation.
A car bomb killed at least five civilians and wounded several more Saturday September 4, 2010. The incident occurred in Kunduz province and the strike was believed to be targeting Afghan national police officers. A bomb was apparently attached to a white motor bike, which blew up in front of a butcher shop next to a police vehicle. In the southeastern province of Paktika also on Saturday, two Afghan civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb.
Two more NATO service members have been killed on Sunday September 5, 2010. Seven coalition troops have died so far in September, including five Americans. Meanwhile, the Taliban are warning Afghans to boycott this month's parliamentary elections, and are vowing to attack polling sites.
A British soldier has died in a UK hospital of injuries he received in an explosion in Afghanistan nine days ago. He was from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, part of the 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles Battle Group. Another soldier had been killed in an explosion in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. He was from The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Both families have been told. A total of 334 UK service personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001.
Georgia has suffered its first soldier killed in Afghanistan since joining the NATO-led force fighting there. One soldier was killed during operations and one was injured. The NATO-led force said the Georgian was killed by a home-made bomb in the south of Afghanistan Saturday September 4, 2010. Georgia has 925 troops in Afghanistan, including 750 based in the southern province of Helmand, the most violent region of the country.
Taliban attack against NATO-led troops claimed the life of a soldier on Tuesday
September 7, 2010, bringing the number of fatalities to 12 since beginning
this year.
A British soldier has died in a UK hospital on September 11, 2010, from gunshot wounds sustained in Afghanistan last month. The soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was shot in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on 23 August. He died yesterday at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. He had been serving as part of 1st Battalion the Royal Gurkha Rifles Battle Group in Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South).
A series of NATO airstrikes killed 14 insurgents in central Afghanistan after a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers came under fire we were told on Monday September 13, 2010. The clash happened Sunday while the patrol was crossing a river in Uruzgan province, a centre of the Taliban insurgency. NATO troops requested air support after receiving small-arms fire and concluding there was no danger of civilian casualties. Initial reports indicated no civilian casualties occurred, and members of the joint patrol were unhurt in the attack.
Afghanistan, Thursday September 16, 2010:
- A service member with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
- An ISAF service member was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
- An ISAF service member was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
- Coalition troops shot a protester armed with an AK-47 who attempted to enter
a military base in southern Uruzgan province. The man was among around 100
people who took part in a demonstration that turned violent. He was dragged
off by the crowd and it was not immediately clear if he was dead.
- NATO-led forces killed eight insurgents in the northern province of Kunduz
in an air and ground attack on Wednesday. The operation targeted a Taliban
district commander planning attacks to disrupt Saturday's parliamentary elections,
although it was not immediately clear if he was among the dead.
- Afghan and coalition security forces arrested a Taliban district commander
found hiding in the floor oven of a house in central Logar province.
Afghanistan, Friday September 17, 2010:
- Two election candidates were among more than 20 people kidnapped across
Afghanistan. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said a candidate was
kidnapped in eastern Laghman province, and the Taliban claimed responsibility.
Another candidate has been missing for the past three days in western Herat
province, along with three campaign workers. Eight IEC officials and 10 campaign
workers were kidnapped in northwestern Badghis province.
- Nine people were killed when a horse-drawn cart hit a roadside bomb in northern
Balkh province.
- One Italian soldier was killed and one wounded in a gun battle in the Bakwa
district of western Farah province.
- A service member with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
- An ISAF service member was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.
- Afghan and coalition troops killed three insurgents in an operation in southern
Kandahar province.
- A small coalition surveillance drone crashed in northern Takhar province
after developing technical problems. The drone carried no weapons or sensitive
intelligence data.
A U.S. airstrike has left 70 people dead in southeastern Afghanistan as the war-ravaged country votes to elect a new parliament. The incident took place in province of Paktia on Saturday September 18, 2010, when a Taliban convoy came under attack. According to the authorities the victims were all militants, however, locals and eyewitnesses say the attack claimed civilian casualties.
At least six children were killed when a rocket exploded in a village on Sunday September 19, 2010, in northern Kunduz province. The incident happened in Ali Abad district of Kunduz, which took the brunt of attacks by the Taliban insurgents on Saturday when the militants fired rockets as part of an effort to disrupt the parliamentary poll in many parts of the country. The district chief of Ali Abad, said eight children were killed while playing with a rocket round left lying on the ground, seven died on the spot and the other one passed away while being taken for treatment. The rocket may have been fired by the Taliban on Saturday and did not explode, or was placed for a planned attack which never happened.
The al-Jazeera satellite television network on Wednesday September 22, 2010, protested the recent detention by NATO of two of its cameramen and accused the U.S.-led international force of "attempting to suppress its comprehensive coverage of the Afghan war." NATO officials said they had had detained the men after troops collected "intelligence information linking them to Taliban propaganda networks."
The Czech Defence Ministry said on September 23, 2010, its country is planning to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 200 next year. The 200 would join as many as 535 Czech soldiers whose deployment as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan had been approved by Parliament. Earlier this year, Czech Republic agreed to contribute 55 more instructors to train the expanding Afghan security forces following a NATO request.
Ton Saturday September 25, 2010, three NATO soldiers have been killed in bomb attacks. Two service members were killed by a bomb blast in the east, while another died in an explosion in the south. More than 530 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, making it the deadliest year for international forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Also Saturday, Afghan and coalition forces killed more than 30 insurgents in an operation in eastern Laghman province. In a separate operation in Paktika province, NATO forces killed a Taliban commander who helped conduct bombings and was directly linked to attacks during last week's parliamentary elections. The commander was reported killed in an air strike Friday. At least two other Taliban commanders were captured this week.
A British woman working for an American company and at least three Afghan co-workers have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on September 26, 2010. They were in a two-vehicle convoy intercepted by insurgents in Kunar province. The group had been travelling from Asadabad, the capital of Kunar, to Jalalabad in the south. The party intended to visit a canal that had been built by DAI, which implements projects for USAID. The British woman was in a car with two Afghans, one of whom was acting as a guard, the other driving. In areas where security is poor, foreign nationals will often opt to travel in more ordinary looking vehicles rather than four wheel drives, as they are thought to be lower profile. The woman was wearing a burqa when the party was last seen travelling through the district of Chowki.
Afghanistan, Wednesday September 29, 2010:
- An airstrike against insurgents who fired on Afghan and coalition forces
conducting a patrol in eastern Afghanistan left four dead. The combined patrol
was attacked in the Andar district of Ghazni province and called in air support.
After the engagement ended, medical evacuation was called for wounded insurgents
and the deaths of four.
- In another operation in Ghazni province, coalition and Afghan forces pursued
insurgents who fired on them to a cave. As they searched the cave, they were
fired on again and in the action two insurgents were killed.
- Also in Ghazni, an insurgent suicide bomber attacked and killed the deputy
governor of the province, Mohammad Kazim Allahyar, his two sons and three
of his nephews.
- An airstrike in east Afghanistan killed a senior al Qaeda commander who
coordinated attacks by foreign fighters and arranged for them to travel to
the region, and an al Qaeda explosives expert. Abdallah Umar al-Qurayshi was
killed when a precision bomb targeted the compound where he was staying in
the Korengal valley.
- One NATO soldier was killed in a militant attack in southern Afghanistan
on Tuesday. A coalition statement did not disclose the dead soldier's nationality.
He was the 50th NATO soldier to be killed in the war-torn country in September.
Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces killed a senior Taliban leader, Farman, and two militants during overnight operation in eastern Paktia province, Gardez district, we were told on Saturday October 2, 2010. Eight suspected insurgents were also detained in the raid while combined troops discovered assault rifles in the targeted compound. Security force protected the women and children during the operation. The month of September marked a total of 438 suspected Taliban insurgents detained and over 100 militants killed in security force operations.
A Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan believed to have been involved in the kidnapping of a New York Times reporter as well as the intimidation of the local population was captured on Tuesday October 5, 2010, in Takhar Province. The Taliban commander was known as a district leader in Chahar Darah, in Kunduz Province.
The governor of the Kunduz province, Mohammad Omar, was killed Friday October 8, 2010, along with at least 19 other people, when a bomb blast tore through prayer services at the Shirkat mosque in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province. The bombing injured more than 35 people.
US Special Forces in Afghanistan stormed a compound in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday October 9, 2010, where 36-year-old Linda Norgrove was being held in the village of Dineshgal, Kunar province, in the east of the country. A tribal elder said that the kidnappers had killed Norgrove during the assault. Seven insurgents are also understood to have died during the rescue bid.
Four Italian soldiers were killed and another was wounded after an ambush in western Afghanistan we were told on Saturday October 9, 2010. The soldiers were ambushed as they were escorting a civilian convoy of 70 trucks that was transporting construction materials for a new operational base in the Gulistan district.
Coalition forces in Afghanistan killed two Taliban leaders in Helmand and Badghis provinces we were told on Sunday October 10, 2010. Mullah Jamaluddin was killed in a joint operation with Afghan forces on Saturday. He was believed to have been a candidate to become the Taliban's "shadow governor" (provincial chief) in Badghis province, after Afghan and coalition forces killed the Taliban's previous provincial chief on Wednesday. Afghan and international forces also killed a senior Taliban member, Ajmal Agha Jan, in a raid in Helmand overnight. NATO says he was responsible for making bombs and placing them throughout the province. A bomb attack Sunday killed two of its service members in southern Afghanistan. The coalition condemned a roadside bombing in Paktia province Sunday that killed at least five civilians.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday October 11, 2010, that the British aid worker, Linda Norgrove, killed in an American rescue raid last week may have been killed by a grenade detonated by a United States special forces unit - not by a suicide bomber's vest from her Taliban captors, as the American command in Afghanistan suggested when it confirmed her death on Saturday.
On Monday October 12, 2010, Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister said its 3,400 troops will have left the country by 2014. The Italian decision follows the withdrawal of Dutch troops earlier this year and the Canadian decision to leave next year, as commanders struggle to sure up an alliance which is still short of troops. NATO commanders have found it increasingly difficult to persuade members to stay in Afghanistan in the face of mounting death tolls and domestic opposition. Mr Frattini spoke as Italy mourned four Italian soldiers killed at the weekend when their convoy was blown up in western Afghanistan.
Six NATO service members were killed Wednesday October 13, 2010, in three separate attacks, including a roadside bombing in the violent south in which four troops died. The other two deaths occurred in a separate explosion in the south and an attack in the east.
The casualties of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan is on rise as over 45 service members have been killed since the beginning of this month. In the latest suffering NATO on Friday October 15, 2010, reported losing three soldiers in three separate incidents in Afghanistan's southern and eastern regions.
NATO say one of its service members was killed Sunday October17, 2010 in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan. On Saturday, NATO said two service members died in two bomb attacks in the southern and northern parts of the country. The Swedish military identified a soldier killed in the north Saturday as one of its own. It said two other troops were wounded when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Also Saturday, NATO says five insurgents were killed in an airstrike in the country's east. Elsewhere, Afghan and coalition forces detained several suspected insurgents during three overnight operations aimed at capturing leaders from the Taliban and Haqqani network.
Afghanistan, Monday October 18, 2010:
- Eight Afghan security guards and one militant were killed when Taliban insurgents
attacked a security post in southern Helmand province. Two people were wounded
in the gunfight in Gereshk district.
- In western Herat province, a bomb blast killed three Afghan civilians. Several
others, including a policeman, were wounded.
- Meanwhile, NATO said a joint Afghan-coalition force discovered an insurgent
weapon factory in Sangin district of Helmand province. The factory contained
six 25-kilogram barrels of home-made explosives, scales, a boiler room and
a drying room. A precision artillery strike destroyed the factory.
- On Sunday, coalition forces killed at least 10 insurgents during air strikes
in northern Baghlan province targeting a senior Taliban leader.
- Also Sunday, a detainee in NATO's custody was found dead in his holding
cell in southern Kandahar province.
A vehicle headed to a wedding party and a school bus carrying students hit insurgent-planted bombs in different districts of Nimruz province in southwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday October 20, 2010, killing 22 people and wounding 20. Thirteen members of a family were killed and 10 people were injured when a vehicle struck a road mine. Five women, five children and three men died. In another part of Nimruz, a school bus carrying female students struck an explosive device, killing nine and wounding 10. Eight of the nine dead were children. And in southern Afghanistan, an ISAF service member died in an IED attack.
Suicide attackers burst into the main United Nations compound in Herat on Saturday October 23, 2010, setting off a battle with Afghan police and troops. All four assailants were reported killed, and the U.N. said its staff was unharmed.
Afghan officials accused NATO-led troops of killing two school boys in the Maidan Shahr district of Wardak province in central Afghanistan on Saturday October 23, 2010, after a patrol came under fire by Taliban insurgents. Foreign troops said the circumstances were unclear.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will attend a NATO summit in November to discuss the possibility of the Russian military joining the United States and NATO forces in the war in Afghanistan we were told on October 27, 2010. Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, France's defense minister told a radio station that France will begin pulling out of Afghanistan in 2011.
A British soldier has been shot dead in southern Afghanistan on Saturday October 30, 2010. The soldier was killed by small arms fire in the Nahr-e Saraj North District of Helmand Province. He was serving with the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Task Force and was attending the scene of a suspect device when he was killed. His death takes the total number of UK military personnel fatalities since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 to 342.
Insurgents armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars tried to storm a combat outpost in Paktika province's Bermal district, eastern Afghanistan on Saturday October 30, 2010, setting off a battle that killed 30 attackers and wounded five coalition soldiers. The military called in close air-support and aircraft dropped three bombs to help repel the insurgents.
The bodies of two female aid workers were discovered Sunday October 30, 2010, in Helmand province. One of the women was the founder of the organization Mahjoba Herawi, an Afghan non-governmental organization. Ahmadi said both were working on women-oriented projects such as jam and pasta making. The deaths come after a British aid worker, Linda Norgrove, held hostage in eastern Afghanistan was killed by her captors during an October rescue attempt. Also in southern Afghanistan, a NATO-led service member died after an insurgent attack.
On November 1, 2010, the lower house of the Czech parliament has given final approval to expanding the country's military mission in Afghanistan to 720 troops next year from the current level of 535. Czech troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are engaged in reconstruction projects, military training, special operations, and helicopter transport. Meanwhile, Slovakia's government has decided to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan, but parliament still needs to approve the measure. However, Poland has said it wants its military mission in Afghanistan to become a pure training mission in 2012 and to end altogether in 2014. Poland has some 2,600 soldiers in Afghanistan participating in the NATO mission.
The death toll from a suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan has increased to 12, we were told on Saturday November 6, 2010. At least 26 were injured from attack at a crowded marketplace on Friday. Previously, a government official had said at least five people died and 35 were wounded from the blast.
A suicide car bomb exploded in the middle of a bazaar killing two people, in a string of attacks across Afghanistan that left 10 dead, including three NATO service members and five Afghan policemen, we were told on Wednesday November 10, 2010. The blast at a bazaar in Khost province killed a policeman and an Afghan soldier. Four others were injured in the attack in the Dwa Mandala district.
A NATO soldier died after an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday November 16, 2010. The death brings the total number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 648.
The number of British servicemen killed in Afghanistan this year reached 100. The milestone was reached when a soldier from 1st Battalion Irish Guards was shot dead in a fire fight with insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province. He was monitoring an Afghan National Army unit when they were caught in a lethal Taliban ambush on Wednesday November 17, 2010.
Eighteen Taliban militants were killed during NATO airstrikes in southern Afghanistan when NATO-led airstrikes attacked on their meeting Wednesday November 17, 2010, in Nad Ali district in Helmand province.
Two remote-controlled bombs attached to bicycles exploded Saturday November 20, 2010, in different parts of in Laghman province, a city in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and wounding 31 others.
Afghanistan Saturday November 27, 2010:
- Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms blew themselves up at a provincial
police headquarters in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, killing at
least 10 police officers and wounding at least 13 others.
- Afghan and coalition forces killed at least 15 insurgents in Nangarhar province.
- Coalition forces say an improvised explosive blast killed one service member
in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO said on Sunday November 28, 2010, that a coalition air strike has killed a Taliban leader responsible for planning and coordinating improvised explosive device attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in Helmand province. NATO captured a Haqqani leader during an operation in Khost province last week. The capture brings the number of Haqqani leaders captured or killed this month to 20. Elsewhere in the country, Afghan and coalition forces detained several suspected insurgents during operations in Helmand and Paktika provinces on Saturday. Among those arrested were two Taliban members accused of coordinating roadside bomb attacks and procuring bullets, rockets and mortars for the group.
Six U.S. troops died Monday November 29, 2010, when a gunman in an Afghan Border Police uniform fired on NATO-led service members. The shooting occurred during a training mission in eastern Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force said in a news release. The suspect also was killed in the incident.
Gunmen attacked a construction company in Surobi east of the capital, wounding
one person and taking nine security guards hostage we were told on Tuesday
November 30, 2010. On Monday a joint Afghan-NATO patrol killed numerous insurgents
after multiple engagements in northeastern Kunar province. The joint force
called for artillery and air support and that initial reports indicate that
some 20 insurgents were killed.
Taliban insurgents kidnapped seven members of an Afghan demining team in an ambush in Nangarhar province in the east of the country on Wednesday December 1, 2010, and took them into neighbouring Pakistan to evade security forces. A group of 16 de-miners were on their way to his district when they were attacked by Taliban fighters. Nine of the group escaped while the insurgents fought security forces pursuing the group before crossing into Pakistan.
At least two Afghan civilians were killed and 18 people were wounded in a
suicide bombing that took place near a small marketplace in or around Gardez,
the capital of the province of Paktia. The bombing took place outside a forward
operating base.
At least two journalists were among approximately 50 people killed in a double
suicide attack on December 6, 2010, in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal district.
Abdul Wahab of the Urdu-language Express News television channel and Pervez
Khan of Waqt TV, were killed in the attack. Another journalist, Mohib Ali
of the independently owned News Network International, was injured. The men
were covering a meeting of tribal leaders and government officials in Ghalanai,
the administrative centre of the border region.
Six U.S. troops were killed Sunday December 12, 2010, when a man rammed a minivan packed with explosives into a newly built military installation in a farming village in Zhari district, in Kandahar Province.
A soldier of the NATO-led international forces was killed by roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Tuesday December 14, 2010, while three Afghan troops were killed in separate attacks. Five more Afghan soldiers were injured in the attacks.
A roadside bomb probably set by Taliban insurgents killed at least 14 Afghan civilians aboard a minibus Thursday December 16, 2010, in the country's northwest. Also Thursday four Afghan soldiers have been killed in Helmand province by what was described as a mistaken NATO airstrike.
Germany, which has the third largest military force in Afghanistan, will start withdrawing its 4,800 troops in 2011, ending its mission there by 2014, we were told on Thursday December 16, 2010. At the same time the United States has concluded that American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule in July. Britain, which has the second largest number of troops in the country after the United States, said it was "possible" that its troops could start leaving next year.
A coalition service member died after an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan
Saturday December 18, 2010. Three coalition service members died on Friday.
One was killed in the east after an insurgent attack and the other in the
south after a roadside bomb explosion. A third died as a result of a non-battle
related injury in the north.
With this latest attack Saturday, the number of coalition deaths has risen
to 698 so far in 2010.
A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday December 18, 2010, on the outskirts of Kandahar City, killing two civilians and wounding 11 more, including seven children. But the bomber's target, a district governor, escaped unharmed. Another attack on Friday in the district of Panwaj was foiled by police officers who killed the bomber.
Afghanistan Sunday December 19, 2010:
- Two suicide bombers have opened fire on a bus in the capital carrying Afghan
army soldiers, killing five army personnel and wounding another nine. One
of the suicide attackers detonated his explosives while the other bomber was
shot dead before he could activate his.
- In Kunduz province, four suicide bombers stormed an army recruitment centre
Sunday, killing at least three soldiers and two other people. Two of the suicide
bombers were killed, what happened to the other two attackers was not known.
- Meanwhile, in the southern Afghanistan, NATO says one of its service members
was killed in a bomb attack.
- Also in southern Afghanistan, a roadside bomb in Kandahar blew up a civilian
car, killing the driver and wounding four children.
The NATO command is investigating the deaths of five civilians during a skirmish Tuesday December 21, 2010, in the Sangin district of Helmand province when insurgents with small arms and machine guns assaulted coalition forces. After troops identified the attackers' positions, they fought back "with direct and indirect fire." The deaths of civilians during fighting have hurt the coalition's efforts to win backing for its efforts, and the forces in recent years have worked to lessen such casualties.
On Tuesday December 21, 2010, two coalition service members died in the south, both after bombing attacks. Also, over the previous 24 hours, an ISAF and Afghan border police patrol found 992 pounds of hashish in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. In the same district, a police patrol found 33,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, which is used to make explosives, and approximately 1,322 pounds hashish. Several people were detained.
The number of civilians killed or wounded in the Afghan war increased by 20 percent during the first 10 months of this year, compared with the same period last year, according a U.N. report issued December 23, 2010. The number of civilian casualties attributable to insurgents increased by 25 percent during the 10-month period. It said insurgent groups were responsible for killing or injuring 4,738 civilians during that period, while 742 were killed or wounded by Afghan and international troops -a drop of 18 percent.
NATO's command is investigating a military operation Thursday December 23, 2010, in Faryab province that led to the "inadvertent" deaths of two people.
A German national injured in an armed attack in northern Afghanistan Friday died of his wounds in hospital Saturday December 25, 2010. The man, who has not yet been identified but worked for Germany's state-owned development bank, is thought to have been surveying a road project in the area.
Four Turkish engineers working for a construction firm and their Afghan driver were kidnapped Sunday December 26, 2010, in the Paktia province, eastern Afghanistan. They travelled from a building site in Dand Wa Patan district, which borders Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, to provincial capital Gardez. The men worked for a firm which built border posts. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident.
A British bomb disposal expert has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on December 28, 2010. The soldier, from 23 Pioneer Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, was clearing a road in Lashkar Gah district, Helmand Province, when he was caught in the blast. He was serving with the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Task Force.
A car with explosives parked near a police security check post exploded Monday December 27, 2010, in the centre of Kandahar city, killing a man and wounding 26 other people. The man and more than a dozen of the wounded were members of the Afghan National Civil Order Police. The others were civilians. The bomb was remotely detonated; the police were the target.
On December 29, 2010, a roadside bomb ripped through a minibus in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of east-central Helmand, incinerating the vehicle and killing 14 people, including men, women and children.
A suicide car bombing in Kandahar killed three people and wounded 26 others, mostly police we were told Monday December 27, 2010. The bomber struck in the crowded centre of the city, near a police compound and a branch of Kabul Bank, and witnesses described a chaotic scene after the dust and smoke cleared.
On Thursday December 30, 2010, two Australian soldiers have been shot and wounded while guarding a bomb site in Afghanistan, taking the number of Australian soldiers wounded in Afghanistan last year to 64. The first soldier had been guarding the site of a suspected improvised bomb when he was shot by an unknown person. A second soldier, guarding the landing zone for a medical evacuation helicopter for his comrade, was shot too. The Australian Defence Force has had 164 soldiers wounded and 21 killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
The death of a NATO soldier in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday January 1, 2011, was the first fatality in 2011 among international troops stationed in the country. The soldier had died in an attack in which an 'improvised explosive device' was used. A total of 711 foreign soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in 2010. The death toll in Afghanistan is the highest since the US-led war began in 2001. In 2009, 521 foreign soldiers were killed.
British forces have lost their first soldier of 2011, a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The soldier from the Royal Regiment of Scotland was killed Saturday January 1, 2011, by a roadside explosion in Nahr-e Saraj, southern Afghanistan. A total of 349 British servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, compared with 1,444 Americans. Military and civilian casualties are at record levels, with 711 foreign troops killed in 2010.
The Dutch government said on Friday January 7, 2011, it plans to send a new training mission to Afghanistan, less than a year after the country's military presence led to the previous government's fall and the withdrawal of troops.
Afghanistan, Friday January 7, 2011:
- Three troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
were killed in separate insurgent attacks. One soldier was killed by a homemade
bomb in the south of the country, while two troops died in a bomb attack in
eastern Afghanistan. The latest deaths bring to nine the amount of foreign
troops to die in Afghanistan so far this year.
- A suicide bomber blew himself up in south Afghanistan, killing 17 people
- including a police officer-, injuring 21 others - including two policemen.
The German foreign minister on Sunday January 9, 2011, pledged long- term support for Afghanistan during a surprise visit to Kabul, saying his country would continue engagements there after security responsibility was handed over to local forces in 2014. Guido Westerwelle said Germany would 'not leave Afghanistan alone' in the years following 2014, after a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rassoul.
Insurgents Monday January 10, 2011, staged the second suicide bombing in four days in Kandahar province. Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the attack, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. Separately, Western military officials acknowledged that the NATO force had apparently killed three Afghan policemen in an airstrike a day earlier, the year's first deadly instance of friendly fire. Afghan officials criticized a lack of coordination by Western troops.
A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up Wednesday January 12, 2011, next to a minibus carrying members of Afghanistan's main intelligence service, killing at least two other people and injuring more than 30. At almost the same time, a remote-controlled bomb killed the deputy intelligence chief and his driver in the eastern province of Kunar.
Afghanistan, Sunday January 16, 2011:
- Roadside bombs have destroyed two civilian vehicles in the country's north
and south, killing at least 15 people.
- In the deadliest attack, nine family members were killed when a roadside
bomb blast hit their car as they travelled to a wedding in the northern province
of Baghlan. The dead include six women, two men and a child.
- In an earlier incident Saturday, a roadside bomb blast struck a minivan
in the Sangin district of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, killing
six civilians and wounding three others.
- NATO said its forces killed "numerous insurgents" in an air strike
in the previous 24 hours in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar. The coalition
says it launched the raid after identifying the insurgents as an "imminent
threat" to ground troops.
- Elsewhere, NATO says an air weapons team killed two insurgents in Helmand's
Musa Qalah district as they hid inside a building and fired on an Afghan and
NATO patrol.
- In another incident, NATO says Afghan and coalition troops killed two insurgents
and captured two others Saturday in an operation in the eastern province of
Wardak.
A roadside bomb killed 13 people in Afghanistan on January 19, 2011. The victims include women and children, part of a group travelling to a rural health clinic.
A German al-Qaida member, Bekkay Harrach, known by the pseudonym Abu Talha al-Almani, whose online threats of attacks in Germany prompted heightened terrorism warnings ahead of 2009 national elections, was killed while leading an offense on the Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan. Harrach, a German of Moroccan background is the subject of an investigation by German federal prosecutors and is believed to have been hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan along the Afghan border.
An Italian serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan was shot dead by an Afghan soldier earlier this week, the force said Thursday January 20, 2011. Another Italian was wounded in the attack at a combat outpost in western Badghis province. The Afghan soldier approached the victims and asked to use their equipment to clean his M-16 rifle.
Afghanistan Thursday January 20, 2011:
- Three Afghan civilians, including a child, were killed and four others were
wounded by a roadside bomb in the province's Kandahar district.
- Afghan and coalition troops discovered several weapons and drug caches during
separate clearing operations in southern and eastern Afghanistan. In Helmand
province's Sangin district, Kandahar's Nad-e Ali district and Logar's Pul-e
Alam district, combined patrols discovered several large weapons, bomb-making
components and narcotics caches. The caches consisted of 1,600 7.62 mm rounds,
three 82 mm recoilless rifle rounds, eight rocket-propelled grenades, 16 RPG
boosters, an RPG launcher, 10 fragmentation grenades, an 82 mm mortar round,
a mortar tube, three mortar rounds, eight grenades and a 107 mm rocket. The
bomb-making components consisted of a vehicle-operated bomb, 24 pressure plates,
two radio remote controllers, detonation cord, radio components, 24 blasting
caps, 80 pounds of homemade explosives, 44 pounds of the banned ammonium nitrate
fertilizer used to make homemade explosives, and 11 pounds of explosives.
The caches also contained 110 pounds of opium. No civilians were injured and
no damage was reported during the clearing operations.
- Combined forces killed more than 10 insurgents in the northern province
of Faryab during a two-day operation that began January 18 to disrupt insurgents'
movement and safe havens. Afghan and coalition forces cleared more than 20
buildings suspected of insurgent activity.
- On January 18, as the security force arrived at the first targeted building,
armed combatants engaged them with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The force returned fire, killing several armed combatants. After determining
no civilians were present coalition forces destroyed the Taliban fighting
position with a precision airstrike.
- On Wednesday, as the security force was clearing another building, insurgents
again engaged the force with RPGs and small-arms fire. The security force
returned fire, killing several additional armed insurgents.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained more than 10 insurgents and killed
two others during an operation targeting a Taliban shadow district leader
for Nangarhar province's Hisarak district and a Haqqani terrorist network
leader. The two armed insurgents were killed after they threatened coalition
forces.
- Combined forces detained 11 insurgents during an operation targeting a Taliban
leader who supplies bomb-making materials and heavy weapons to the Haqqani
network in Khost province's Khost district. Security forces followed leads
to a series of buildings, where they recovered more than 10 anti-personnel
mines, multiple assault rifles, 14 grenades, multiple chest racks, 55 pounds
of bomb-making chemicals, a bomb triggering system and hundreds of rounds
heavy machine gun ammunition.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained a Taliban facilitator along with another
suspected insurgent in Paktia province's Gardez district. The targeted man
is believed to be responsible for laundering money to finance insurgent operations
and is associated with narcotics traffickers in the area.
- International Security Assistance Force officials confirmed a Taliban leader
was detained during an Afghan and coalition forces January 17 operation in
Kandahar province. The leader operated in the province's Maiwand district
and was associated with Pakistan-based Taliban leadership. He was responsible
for coordinating attacks, gathering intelligence and movement of supplies
to support Taliban insurgent activity.
- Afghan and coalition forces have detained more than 35 Taliban senior leaders
and facilitators, along with more than 175 suspected Taliban insurgents, since
the first of the year. Security forces conducted 86 percent of those missions
without shots fired.
Afghanistan Saturday January 22, 2011:
- Three suicide attackers detonated their explosives vests during a gun battle
with Afghan and coalition forces that left 10 militants and one civilian dead
in Khost province of eastern Afghanistan. The battle, which lasted several
hours, began after insurgents fired a rocket toward a group of Afghan and
NATO forces who were preparing to go on patrol in the Sabari district.
- Two soldiers with the NATO-led forces died following an improvised explosive
device attack in eastern Afghanistan. More than 20 soldiers with NATO-led
troops with majority of them Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since
the beginning of this year.
- Five people, including two children, died in three separate attacks. The
two children were killed when a rocket hit their home in the southern province
of Ghazni. Six family members were wounded.
- A policeman was killed and nine others wounded when their vehicle struck
a roadside bomb in Nahr-e-Saraj district in the southern province of Helmand.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on January 25, 2011. A total of 350 UK military personnel have now died since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001. The soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, was killed in a blast from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to the south of Nahr-e-Saraj in Helmand province.
Kabul was rocked today on January 28, 2011, by an explosion at a supermarket popular with Americans and other foreigners working in Afghanistan. The powerful blast killed at least 8 people including three western women who were shopping in the store at the time and injured six. Finest Supermarket is located across the street from the British Embassy and sits at the entrance of Wazir Akbar Khan, a popular neighbourhood with diplomats, journalist and other foreigners. The entire first floor of the newly renovated grocery store was destroyed.
A German citizen, Haddid N. from Frankfurt, who was detained by U.S. authorities in Afghanistan earlier this month, has been released on January 29, 2011. He was arrested at his father's home in Kabul earlier this month and was in custody at Bagram Air Field military base.
A British Army soldier was killed Friday February 4, 2011, in an accident in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, was on duty in the Nad-e Ali district, Helmand Province, when the incident occurred. The death brings to 351 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 309 were killed through hostile action.
The death toll in January in Afghanistan reached 100 civilians and 80 police, from a total of more than 300 attacks, we were told on Sunday February 6, 2011. Most of the civilian victims were killed by roadside bombs, the favoured weapon of the Islamist militias. A total of 2,400 civilians were killed in 2010. Afghan security forces killed 286 armed insurgents in January. Security forces detained 559 suspected militants involved in destructive attacks last month. Also 574 bombs were defused by security forces all over in Afghanistan.
A suicide bomber killed at least one person and injured five Monday February 7, 2011, at a customs house in Kandahar, the third suicide attack in 10 days in the city. The target may have been a group of NATO soldiers who were at or near the building at the time of the blast. A NATO spokesman said two of its soldiers, both Americans, were injured.
Coalition troops "accidentally killed" two Afghan civilians and injured one "during a fire fight with insurgents" last week in Helmand province's Nahr-e Saraj district, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Tuesday February 8, 2011. That conclusion was reached after an assessment of the Thursday incident. The unit was ambushed while travelling between two forward operating bases and returned fire at a van they thought was part of the attack.
Two British soldiers have been killed in small arms fire in southern Afghanistan. The servicemen, from 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment and 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment, were killed on Wednesday February 9, 2011. The soldiers were patrolling an area in the north of Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. The number of British military deaths in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 354.
A suicide bomber killed a district governor, Wahid Omarkhel, and six other people Thursday February 10, 2011, in the district of Chardara in Kunduz province.
A British photographer, Giles Duley, who specialises in covering humanitarian issues, has been seriously injured by a roadside blast while embedded with the US army in southern Afghanistan. He had multiple amputations at the UN hospital in Kandahar following the incident on Monday February 7, 2011. He had stepped on a makeshift bomb while accompanying a foot patrol of US soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, and Afghan troops.
At least four gunmen wearing vests with explosives attacked police headquarters in Kandahar on Saturday February 12, 2011, the third such attack since the start of the year there. The assault, a complex operation involving several car bombs and a battery of rocket-propelled grenades, killed at least 19 people, most of them police officers. The police killed three would-be suicide bombers and wounding and detaining a fourth. It was likely that a fifth attacker drove the bomb-laden vehicle that exploded first. The dead included 15 police officers and one intelligence officer as well as 3 civilians; 49 civilians were wounded along with 2 police officers and 2 members of the National Intelligence Directorate.
A soldier from 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan. He was killed by an improvised explosive device on Monday February 14, 2011, while on an operation in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. Earlier we were told that two British soldiers had died in a fire at Camp Bastion.
Afghanistan, Wednesday February 16, 2011:
- A U.S. military airstrike killed a Haqanni terrorist network leader and
two other terrorists in the Terayzai district of Afghanistan's Khost province.
Forces launched the precision airstrike after ground troops observed and reported
that several insurgents were planting roadside bombs.
- Security forces killed four armed insurgents while targeting a Taliban bomb
maker in Helmand province's Nawah-ye Barakzai district.
- Forces killed two enemy fighters during a gun battle in Helmand province's
Sangin district after a group of insurgents ambushed the troops with small-arms
fire.
- Acting on tips from local residents, Afghan and coalition troops detained
several suspected insurgents, including two Taliban bomb traffickers, in Kandahar
province's Zharay district.
- Forces detained several suspected insurgents while searching for two Taliban
leaders in Helmand province's Nahr-e Saraj district.
- Security forces detained numerous suspected insurgents, including a Taliban
facilitator believed to be responsible for training enemy fighters in Kandahar
province's Kandahar City.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained a Taliban leader and several suspected
insurgents in Ghazni province's Gelan district.
- Security forces detained two suspected insurgents while searching for a
Taliban leader believed to be responsible for bombing attacks against troops
in Wardak province's Sayyidabad district.
- Forces captured four suspected insurgents, including two Hezb-e Islamic
Gulbuddin terrorist leaders, in eastern Afghanistan.
- Security forces found several other weapons stockpiles throughout Afghanistan.
The operations resulted in seizure of more than 5,100 assault rifle rounds,
1,300 sniper rifle rounds, 700 pounds of ammonium nitrate, two assault rifles,
two hand grenades and various bomb-making materials.
Afghanistan, Friday February 18, 2011:
- A massive car bomb blew up on the outskirts of a city in eastern Afghanistan,
killing 11 people and injuring dozens.
- In northern Afghanistan, a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on
a group of German soldiers, killing three and wounding six.
- Attacks in four parts of the country left at least 18 people dead including
four NATO service members, four Afghan police officers and 10 civilians. The
most lethal episode occurred in the southeast province of Khost where a suicide
bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near a police checkpoint in
a crowded shopping area. The blast killed one police officer and 10 civilians.
39 people were wounded, including five women critically.
- The second attack occurred in Baghlan Province. A man dressed as an Afghan
National Army soldier opened fire on German troops at an outpost in Pul-i-Kumri.
The attack killed three German soldiers, eight were injured.
- The third attack took place in Nangarhar Province when a roadside bomb exploded
under a police truck as the men were returning from defusing two other roadside
bombs.
- In southern Afghanistan, a NATO service member was killed in another attack
Friday.
The death toll in Saturday's February 19, 2011 attack by gunmen wearing explosives vests on a bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad has risen to 38. 21 of those killed were Afghan security forces, including many waiting to collect their pay at the local branch of Kabul Bank where the attack happened. A total of 71 people, mostly civilians, were wounded in the raid. The attack was carried out by a team of five armed suicide bombers. Four were killed when their explosives vests detonated during gun battles with police. The fifth was arrested.
Australian Sapper Jamie Ronald Larcombe and an Afghan interpreter were shot dead by insurgents while on patrol in the Mirabad Valley, southeast of Patrol Base Wali, on Saturday February 19, 2011. He is the 23rd soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2002 and was part of the same unit which said farewell to Corporal Richard Edward Atkinson last week.
On February 19, 2011 a French soldier was killed and two were injured after their armoured vehicle was attacked by insurgents and hit by an anti-tank weapon. The attack happened during an operation in the Alasay valley in Kapisa province in northeast Afghanistan. Of the two wounded soldiers, one was "gravely hurt" and evacuated to Paris, while another was "more lightly injured" and treated on location.
A suicide bomber has killed at least 30 people and wounded another 40 -many civilians among them- in a government office in Kunduz province on February 21, 2011. The bomber struck while people were queuing to collect identity cards inside a government office. Three police were among the dead. The Taliban claimed responsibility on behalf of the Islamist group. The target was men who were signing up for a community police group. Afghan and NATO-led forces are also investigating two serious incidents involving civilian casualties, the latest killing up to six people when a misdirected air strike appeared to hit a home in eastern Nangarhar province.
Unknown men shot dead a tribal chief in Kandahar on Tuesday February 23, 2011. Mohammad Shah Khan was gunned down as he left his home. Khan had run for parliamentary elections last year, but failed to secure a seat in the country's lower house of parliament. No group immediately took responsibility for the shooting.
Three US soldiers were wounded Monday February 21, 2011, by a roadside bomb. The bomb exploded near the soldiers' armoured truck during a morning patrol in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan. The men all were taken to a military hospital at Bagram Airfield. The soldiers were attacked with a large bomb, plus small-arms fire. The truck saved lives.
An Afghan intelligence official was killed and about two dozen people were injured in a suicide bombing Thursday February 24, 2011, in the district of Spin Buldak in Kandahar province. The officers encountered a car carrying two men not far from the Pakistani frontier and became suspicious. A gunfight ensued, and one of the men was killed, but the other got out of the car, fell to the ground and played dead. When the intelligence officers approached him, he set off his explosives, killing one of them and injuring three. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the two "martyrs" had targeted a convoy of intelligence officials.
A crowd was the most recent target for a suicide bomber who detonated himself on Saturday February 26, 2011; this is the seventh suicide attack in Afghanistan in less than a month. The attack in Faryab Province killed at least 3 people and wounded 30. The crowd had gathered for a game of buzkashi, which involves men on horseback trying to grab a dead goat from each other. The governor said the attacker was a 17-year-old boy.
Afghan investigators said Sunday February 27, 2011, that they were convinced that NATO forces killed 65 civilians in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan this month, a charge that, if true, would be one of the worst civilian casualty episodes of the war. NATO officials, who are still investigating the claims, have insisted that the people killed were insurgents. Since the attack of February 17 in the mountain valleys of Ghaziabad district in eastern Kunar Province, an insurgent-held area, there have been conflicting reports of what happened. Based on reports from tribal elders and survivors, the government team concluded that NATO had fired on civilians.
A pair of explosions tore through a group of spectators at an illegal dogfight in southern Afghanistan on Sunday February 27, 2011, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen. In the past five weeks, more than 100 people, most of them Afghan civilians, have been killed in bloody assaults that have leapfrogged the length and breadth of the country.
Six NATO troops were killed in attacks across Afghanistan on Monday February 28, 2011. One of the attacks in the east involved a homemade bomb that killed two soldiers. A third was killed by a separate bomb. The fourth was killed in an unspecified insurgent attack. A fifth soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan. Military officials did not specify the nationalities of five of the service members and they did not provide further details about the location of the attacks. The Italian Defence Ministry said Lt. Massimo Ranzani was killed Monday near Shindand. He was killed when an improvised bomb detonated as he and his men were on patrol with Afghan forces. Four soldiers were seriously injured.
Afghanistan Monday February 28, 2011:
- Afghan and coalition troops detained three insurgents, including a Taliban
weapons trafficker, yesterday.
- Security forces detained two militants in Paktiya province's Zurmat district
after they were found with five anti-personnel mines, six hand grenades and
automatic machine gun ammunition.
- In Kandahar province's Kandahar district, troops captured the Taliban leader,
who is responsible for coordinating attacks on security forces and facilitating
suicide bombers with explosive devices.
- Forces also found several weapons stockpiles throughout Afghanistan. The
operations resulted in seizure of 14 rocket-propelled grenades, eight homemade
explosive devices, five hand grenades, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers,
three mortar rounds, one assault rifle, one machine gun and a 10 litre propane
tank filled with explosives.
- Afghan and coalition forces killed armed fighters in a gun battle in Helmand
province's Nad'Ali district. Troops killed the armed militants after their
patrol was ambushed by the group.
- Security forces killed two enemy fighters, including a Taliban member responsible
for trafficking weapons and funding militants' operations, in a shootout in
Zabul province's Tarnek wa Jaldak district.
- Forces captured 12 suspected insurgents in Kandahar province's Zharay district
after troops found the suspects with 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate --a
banned fertilizer often used in homemade bombs.
- In Zabul province's Qalat district, security forces detained several suspected
insurgents, including a Taliban weapons trafficker, responsible for selling
and buying weapons for attacks on local security forces.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained several suspected insurgents while
searching for a Taliban weapons smuggler in Helmand province's Nahr-e Saraj
district. The smuggler allegedly also has connections to narcotics traffickers
in the area.
- In Logar province's Pul-e 'Alam district, forces detained several suspected
insurgents, including a Taliban bomb-maker with alleged ties to several recent
attacks on local security forces.
- Acting on tips from local residents, security forces detained four suspected
insurgents with ties to Taliban bomb-makers in Kandahar province's Kandahar
City.
- Security forces found several weapons stockpiles throughout Afghanistan.
Operations resulted in seizure of 200 automatic machine gun rounds, 43 various
rockets and mortars, 30 rocket-propelled grenades, 26 hand grenades, two rocket-propelled
grenade launchers, two anti-tank mines. Troops also found 2,200 pounds of
hashish and 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a banned fertilizer used in
homemade bombs.
- Afghan and coalition forces captured the top Taliban leader for Kandahar
province's Zharay district along with numerous other suspected insurgents
there. The Taliban leader is responsible for planning and launching attacks
on local security forces and recruiting enemy fighters.
- Forces also found several weapons stockpiles throughout the country. Operations
resulted in 200 assault rifle rounds, 11 hand grenades, three rocket-propelled
grenade warheads, five gallons of ammonium nitrate. Security forces also found
several explosive devices caches, including nearly 2,000 pounds of homemade
liquid explosives, two 40-pound jugs filled with large-calibre machine gun
rounds and several anti-tank mines and artillery rounds.
A British soldier from the Royal Army Veterinary Corps was shot dead in the Nahr-e Saraj district, Helmand Province, on Tuesday March 1, 2011. The death brings to 358 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 314 were killed through hostile action. The soldier was on patrol when he was hit by enemy gun fire.
At least 12 civilians, including five children, have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday March 6, 2011. Another five people were injured in the attack in Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan. The provincial governor blamed "enemies of peace" an alleged reference to the Taliban, who have not said whether they were involved. President Hamid Karzai said the bombing was "against all principles of Islam".
On Wednesday March 9, 2011, NATO forces said they seized powerful Iranian-made rockets from the Taliban last month. The incident that took place February 5 near the border with Iran and Pakistan. NATO troops that day encountered a Taliban convoy in southern Nimruz province and discovered about 50 122-millimeter Iranian-made rockets. The rockets have a range of about 20 kilometres that is double the range of the Taliban's usual weapons. Iran's interior minister denied the allegations,
A British soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment has been killed in Afghanistan. The soldier was taking part in an operation in the Nad Ali area of Helmand province on Wednesday March 9, 2011, when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. The soldier's death brings the total number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 359.
A suicide bomber jumped on the police chief of Kunduz Province on Thursday March 10, 2011, as he patrolled just 150 feet from his headquarters, killing him and two other officers. The governor of Kunduz confirmed the attack, which also wounded the deputy police chief and seven others, including two civilians, in the city of Kunduz.
Afghanistan, Friday March 11, 2011:
- International Security Assistance Forces conducted a precision airstrike
yesterday targeting two Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan terrorist organization
leaders in the Dara Soof Payan district of Afghanistan's Samangan province.
Bilal Konduzi, a senior leader in the organization and liaison to the Taliban
network in Kunduz, was involved in the facilitation and planning of suicide-bomber
operations throughout northern Afghanistan and maintained contact with other
senior leaders in the group to coordinate logistics and personnel, officials
said. He also trained suicide bombers to conduct attacks against Afghan and
coalition forces. Shad Mohammad, the other leader targeted, ran the group's
network in Samangan province. He was in direct communication with Burkah district-based
terrorist leaders associated with planning attacks in Mazar-e-Sharif.
- Acting on intelligence reports, Afghan and coalition forces captured a Taliban
facilitator and bombing cell leader while detaining another suspected insurgent
during security operations in Ghazni province's Andar district.
- In Nangarhar province's Pachir wa Agam district, Afghan and coalition forces
captured a Taliban facilitator and detained several other suspected insurgents.
The facilitator planned and organized bomb attacks against Afghan and coalition
forces. He also conducted illegal checkpoints throughout the district to assist
in the smuggling of explosives and suicide-bomber vests from Pakistan for
an intended attack against the Jalalabad airfield.
- Afghan and coalition forces in Khost province's Sabari district captured
a Haqqani terrorist network weapons and bomb facilitator and detained several
other suspected insurgents. The facilitator was in charge of financial, media
and logistical support for the Haqqini organization in the district and coordinated
transportation for associates to deliver mines, rocket-propelled grenades
and bomb-making materials for use in attacks against Afghan and coalition
forces.
-- Afghan and coalition forces acting on intelligence reports captured an
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan military leader and detained several other
suspected insurgents during an operation in Balkh province's Mazar-e Sharif
district. The leader commanded a force of foreign fighters and was involved
in the recruitment and training of suicide bombers.
- Afghan and coalition forces captured an insurgent leader and supplier of
bomb components near Helmand province's Bande Timor district. Hashim Gul was
detained after he was seen running into a compound by the Arghandab Rod River.
- Coalition forces on a dismounted patrol in Helmand's Nahr-e Sarah district
killed an insurgent and detained another after being fired upon.
- In Helmand's Kajaki district, Afghan and coalition forces killed two insurgents,
including a mid-level Taliban leader for northern Helmand who financed insurgent
activities in the area.
- Coalition forces in Helmand's Sangin district today found eight pressure
plates, an assault rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade, 200 7.62 mm rounds,
an anti-tank weapon and four 20 mm rounds.
- A dismounted patrol found 104 25 mm rounds in several ammunition cans in
Helmand's Marja district yesterday.
- Afghan and coalition forces acting on tips in Laghman province's Mehtar
Lam district yesterday found 33 rocket-propelled grenades, 21 RPG boosters,
nine anti-personnel mines, two 105 mm rockets, five hand grenades and 150
12.7 mm rounds.
- In Kapisa province's Tagab district yesterday, an International Security
Assistance Force patrol found three 82 mm mortar rounds, a rocket-propelled
grenade, two 105 mm shells, nine rockets, 21 rocket fuses, three anti-personnel
mines, 26 9 mm magazines, 11 assault-rifle magazines and 20 bags of solid
rocket fuel.
- Afghan and ISAF forces in Helmand's Ormuz district yesterday found 616 pounds
of wet opium, 88 pounds of concentrated fertilizer, narcotics paraphernalia
and a pressure plate.
- An Afghan and coalition forces patrol found an 82 mm mortar round, five
rifle magazines, 155 rounds of various calibre, a box of fuses and two 55-pounds
bags of hashish March 9.
- In Kandahar province's Arghandab district March 9, an Afghan and coalition
patrol found eight hand grenades, four grenade fuses and a full assault-rifle
magazine.
- In Uruzgan province, a combined Afghan and coalition forces patrol found
a weapons cache March 9 in Deh Rawud. The cache consisted of eight 82 mm mortar
rounds, two walkie-talkies and various radio-controlled bomb components.
- Coalition forces in Kandahar's Spin Boldak district March 8 found a cache
of explosives components and bomb making materials.
A roadside bomb killed one and wounded three NATO soldiers in the Daykundi
province in central Afghanistan we were told on Sunday March 13, 2011. The
nationality of the soldier killed in the bombing and the three other soldiers
who were wounded, and also the exact area of the incident were not specified.
However it is probable that the blast occurred in the Kajran district when
a military motorcycle hit a roadside bomb. Since the beginning of this year,
a total of 80 international forces have been killed in Afghanistan compared
to 711 servicemen killed in the entire year 2010.
A five year old boy was killed on Saturday March 12, 2011, when he was struck by a coalition vehicle in southern Afghanistan. The accident happened in the Chawni area of Kandahar City, the capital of the country's Kandahar Province.
Afghanistan, Sunday March 13, 2011:
- Afghan and coalition forces killed several insurgents in a shootout in the
Darah-ye Pech district of Afghanistan's Kunar province. Troops opened fire
on the insurgents after watching them manoeuvre nearby with heavy automatic
machine guns.
- An airstrike killed five insurgents after coalition troops monitored several
armed individuals at a known fighting position for several hours in Kunar
province's Ghazi district. After the attack, troops investigated the scene
and found several automatic weapons and a mortar tube.
- Afghan and coalition forces detained numerous suspected insurgents while
targeting a Taliban fighter and an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan terrorist
organization safe haven in Baghlan province's Burkah district.
- Security forces detained several suspected insurgents, while targeting a
Taliban weapons expert who specializes in building suicide vests in Kandahar
province's Zhari district.
- Based on tips from local residents, forces detained three suspected insurgents,
including a Taliban logistician and weapons trafficker, without incident in
Zabul province's Shamulzai district.
- Security forces detained two suspected insurgents, while targeting a Hezb-e
Islami Gulbuddin terrorist and weapons trafficker in Khost province's Sabari
district. The terrorist supplies explosive devices and separate components
to local enemy fighters.
- During a routine traffic stop in Ghazni province's Gelan district, forces
detained a Jahadi organization terrorist who plants roadside bombs. The terrorist
reportedly is linked to several recent attacks on a nearby coalition base.
A suicide bomber posing as an army volunteer blew himself up outside a military recruiting centre in northern Afghanistan on March 14, 2011, killing at least 35 people. The young men lined up for service. Four children were among the dead and at least 42 people were wounded.
As of Wednesday, March 16, 2011, at least 1,399 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Of those 1,149 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan at least 98 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action. There were also two military civilian deaths. In the same period of time 10,622 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
Germany on Thursday March 17, 2011, called for the UN Security Council to extend the UN mission in Afghanistan by a further 12 months. The new mandate for the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) would run until March 2012.
Fazlullah Wahedi, governor of Kunar province on the border with Pakistan survived a "fierce" attack Thursday March 17, 2011, on the convoy he was travelling with. He said the attackers launched a rocket-propelled grenade at his car. No one was hurt in the incident on the road from the provincial capital Asadabad to a neighbouring district. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
A security guard killed two foreign soldiers working with NATO-led troops we were told on Saturday March 19, 2011. We were not told whether the security guard was an Afghan or foreign national, and if the incident took place on a NATO base.
British troops have cleared insurgents from an area of Helmand province in Afghanistan in one of their final operations before returning home. Four insurgents were killed and a further two key ringleaders detained during the mission which was carried out in partnership with Afghan police. The troops came under heavy fire from a position to their north. As they advanced to clear the position, killing insurgents there with rifle fire and the bayonet, they were engaged once more by machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades from the east. An Attack Helicopter was called in and dropped a hellfire missile, putting a stop to the incoming fire.
A roadside bomb has killed two British soldiers in southern Afghanistan.
The soldiers had just completed a joint operation with Afghan and Danish forces
in Helmand province when their vehicle hit the device. The soldiers were due
to return home in six days. The deaths bring to 362 the number of British
forces killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Also Wednesday March 23, 2011, a
NATO airstrike mistakenly killed a child and wounded two other civilians in
the eastern province of Khost. Coalition aircraft hit a civilian vehicle while
targeting a leader of the Haqqani network. Two insurgents were reportedly
killed and one wounded.
German parliament on Friday March 25, 2011, approved with a large majority of 407-113 (there were 32 abstentions) the government's bill to send 300 air force crew to Afghanistan to ease the pressure of its NATO allies in Libya. The 300 air force crew will serve on NATO airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft to watch the airspace of Afghanistan, however, the timetable for starting this mission is still not clear. As the third largest foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan, this is the sixth time that German parliament approved to increase troops there, making the total number reach about 5,300. However, Germany still wants to start withdrawing its troops from the country at the end of this year.
Insurgents kidnapped 40 men in an ambush in the northeastern province of Kunar on Saturday March 26, 2011. And a suicide bomber killed 13 people and wounded 56 others in the eastern province of Paktika on Sunday March 27, 2011, although the toll was still being assessed. The Taliban quickly claimed credit for both episodes. In the kidnapping, they asserted that they had captured 50 police officers. But the police said the group was made up of "youths" who wanted to become police officers, but had not yet been accepted. They were passing through Kunar after having been turned away from a police training centre in the Nurgaram district in Nuristan, where they had tried to enrol but had been told there was no room. The men were in civilian clothes and were unarmed. The group was travelling in four vehicles in the Chapa Dara district in the western part of the province when they were stopped by militants.
As of Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at least 1,408 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.This count is four more than the Defence Department's tally. At least 1,158 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 99 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts two military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 10,749 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
The Taliban seized control of a district in eastern Nuristan Province on Tuesday March 29, 2011, chasing the governor and the police from the district capital. It was the second Taliban success in recent days in the general area of the strategic Pech Valley, which American troops are in the process of withdrawing from and turning over to Afghan authorities. The Nuristan Province police commander, Gen. Shams-ul-Rahman Zahid, confirmed that the police had fled their barracks and district government buildings in town of Waygal, the capital of Waygal district, leaving the Taliban in was temporary control of the district. The district governor, Mulavi Zia-ul-Rahman, was also said to have fled.
Three suicide bombers attacked a construction company in eastern Afghanistan late Sunday March 27, 2011, killing 24 people and wounding more than 50 others. The attack took place in the Barmal district of Paktika province. The bombers gunned down a security guard, entered the complex and detonated a truck full of explosives. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying militants were targeting a military base.
Three NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks by militants in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday March 29, 2011. Mainly, U.S. Marines are deployed to the eastern provinces. According to an independent website that monitors military deaths, 101 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, out of which 68 were Americans.
Six U.S. soldiers died on Tuesday March 29, 2011. They died during ongoing combat to clear insurgents from eastern Afghanistan. It was a joint mission involving NATO forces, the Afghan National Army and border police in Kunar province. 117 members of the 101st have died in Afghanistan since last March. All six soldiers were from the 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Foreign troops killed two Afghan civilians in Kandahar city on Thursday March 31, 2011. NATO soldiers opened fire after a car with brake failure sped toward a checkpoint set up by foreign and Afghan troops, who thought the vehicle was part of a suicide attack. Two civilians were killed and four wounded by bullets that hit more than one car. NATO-led forces said they had opened fire in self-defence after a civilian car veered across a ditch and struck at least three members of a foot patrol. After the troops opened fire, the car went into the ditch and flipped over, killing the passenger and a nearby pedestrian and wounding two other civilians.
A man wearing an Afghan border police uniform has killed two American soldiers in northern Afghanistan. The suspect fled the scene after firing on NATO soldiers Monday April 4, 2011, inside a border patrol compound in Faryab province. It is unclear if the shooter was a member of the Afghan security forces who turned on his Western counterparts or an infiltrator.
A local police chief has been killed in northern Afghanistan in an attack claimed by the Taliban. The top policeman in the Gosfandi district of Sari Pul province, Mohammad Daud Esaqzai, was shot dead on Friday April 8, 2011, while out on patrol. One of his bodyguards was injured in the attack. The Taliban said the rebel group was behind the attack.
A coalition service member was killed in an attack in northern Afghanistan on Sunday April 10, 2011 raising the year's coalition death toll to 121. The service member was killed as a result of an insurgent attack in northern Afghanistan, without giving other details about the attack.
Two US soldiers were accidentally killed last week in a drone attack, the first American victims of the unmanned aircraft we were told on April 11, 2011. The two had been on foot and were approaching Helmand province's Sangin base. They were mistaken for the Taliban by marines, who were under fire at the time and who called in a missile strike from a Predator drone.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered a scarcely veiled condemnation of Pakistan on Wednesday April 13, 2011, for a suicide bombing in Kunar province that killed at least 10 government-allied tribal leaders and wounded seven others. The attack, Karzai said was the work of "cowardly foreign agents hired by our historical enemy." He didn't mention Pakistan by name, but the reference was clear to all Afghans: Once again, a suicide attack in one of Afghanistan's eastern provinces was being laid to an as-yet-unidentified bomber suspected of coming from Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which struck the tribal leaders as they were emerging from a meeting on local issues in Kunar's Asmar district. Among those killed was Malik Zareen, a pro-government tribal elder and former commander in the war against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Zareen's brother also was killed in the attack. Some reports said the bomber had embraced Zareen before detonating himself.
Afghanistan Thursday April 14, 2011:
- Suicide bombers targeted Afghan police and government officials in three
attacks killing three police officers and injuring seven people. Taliban militants
claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paktia, Kabul and Kandahar provinces,
saying they killed scores of police and security forces.
- In the first attack, several bombers attacked an Afghan police training
centre in Aryub Jaji, a border town in eastern Paktia province. After exchanging
fire with Afghan forces at the centre, some of the assailants fled. One attacker
was shot before he could enter the training compound, and another detonated
a bomb at the centre's front gate. The explosion killed three officers and
wounded at least two.
- A suicide bomber also attacked a government office south of Kabul detonating
a car bomb that injured three police officers and a bystander. The bomber
planted explosives under firewood in the back of his truck before driving
up to the entry gate of the Musayi district administrative office building
and detonating the bomb, which damaged the building and nearby cars. A Taliban
spokesman claimed two suicide bombers detonated explosives vests in Paktia,
and that the Kabul bombing was retaliation for attacks on Taliban forces.
- Another would-be suicide bomber was foiled before he reached his target,
a police station in the southern city of Kandahar. Afghan national police
recognized the bomber as he was trying to enter the station and opened fire,
shooting him and detonating his explosives, wounding at least one man, but
not seriously.
A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan Army Uniform, detonated explosives outside a military base near Jalalabad in Eastern Afghanistan on April 16, 2011. At least five NATO service members and four Afghan soldiers were killed and another eight people, including four translators, were wounded in the attack. The attack came one day after another bomber claimed the life of the Police Chief of Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan
Eight NATO service members died in attacks in Afghanistan Saturday April 16, 2011, making it one of the deadliest days for NATO troops this year. Three Nato troops died in bomb explosions in the south and five of its service members died when a suicide bomber disguised in an Afghan army uniform attacked an eastern army base in eastern Laghman province, near Jalalabad. Four Afghan soldiers were also killed in the blast. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded eight people. On Friday, a suicide bomber dressed as a police officer killed the police chief of southern Kandahar province in his own office. Two other police officers were killed and three were wounded in the attack.
Armed assailants kidnapped 12 Iranian engineers building a road in western Afghanistan, we were told on Monday April 18, 2011. The Iranian engineers were working for a construction company in the western Farah Province and the incident was under investigation by Iranian and Afghan authorities. Militants in the area claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and threatened to kill the hostages if work on the road is not halted.
A roadside bomb killed six police officers in Ghazni province, on Monday April 18, 2011. The bomb came as a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire inside the Defence Ministry in Kabul, killing at least two soldiers. In Ghazni province, police officers travelling from Khugyani district were hit by a roadside bomb. The vehicle was totally destroyed and no one survived. Taliban claimed credit for the attack, saying the Islamist militia had planted the bomb in order to hit the police vehicle.
One of Iranian engineers who were kidnapped in western Afghanistan was released on Tuesday April 19, 2011. Unidentified gunmen abducted 12 Iranian engineers in Farah province on Monday. They were working for a construction company in western Afghanistan and were building a road whose budget is being provided by the Islamic Republic.
A woman serving with the British army's bomb disposal team has died of injuries sustained on duty in Helmand province, we were told on Wednesday April 20, 2011. Captain Lisa Head is the second British servicewoman to have been killed during the 10-year conflict in Afghanistan. She had been there less than a month when she was fatally injured, having volunteered to become a specialist in the clearance of IEDs (improvised explosive devices). She had been severely wounded on Monday while attempting to defuse a complex set of hidden devices during a clearance operation in Helmand's Nahr-e Saraj district. She was airlifted by helicopter to a military hospital at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, and then evacuated to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, where she died of her injuries on Tuesday.
Twelve Iranian engineers kidnapped in western Afghanistan have been released along with three Afghan colleagues we were told on Wednesday April 20, 2011. The men, who were working on a road construction project, were snatched at gunpoint on Monday in the Post-i-Road district of Farah province, which borders Iran.
A bomb blast Thursday April 21, 2011, killed three Afghan policemen. The three policemen were killed by a bomb that was placed on a bus transporting Afghan policemen and trainees to a training academy in the provincial capital of Jalalabad. Six others on the bus were wounded in the explosion.
At least five border policemen were killed and one wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar, we were told on Friday April 22, 2011. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Taliban militants mostly have been blamed -or have taken credit- for other recent attacks. The incident happened in the border town of Spin Boldak late Thursday afternoon, when the police were on patrol. In addition, insurgent attacks killed one NATO service member Thursday and one Friday in eastern Afghanistan. No further details about the locations of the attacks or the troops' nationalities. Mostly U.S. forces serve in that part of the country.
Afghanistan Sunday April 24, 2011:
- NATO says roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan have killed three of its
personnel, while coalition and Afghan forces in the east have dealt a blow
to the Haqqani insurgent group by killing three of its leaders.
- The roadside bombings killed one of its service members Sunday and two others
on Saturday.
- Another NATO service member died Saturday when a coalition helicopter crashed
in the eastern province of Kapisa. The cause is under investigation. The nationalities
of the four NATO personnel have not been disclosed.
- NATO also confirmed that coalition and Afghan forces killed the three Haqqani
network leaders in a joint operation Friday in eastern Afghanistan's Khost
province. The group has close ties to al-Qaida and operates primarily in the
Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktika and Paktiya.
- NATO said coalition and Afghan troops have captured or killed at least 15
Haqqani leaders and 130 other Haqqani insurgents so far this year.
- The coalition also said a combined force captured a Taliban insurgent leader
and several of his associates in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday.
It said the senior militant provided weapons to insurgents in Kunduz and was
responsible for attacks on multiple targets, including election sites last
September.
- A gunman assassinated a former top local government official in the southern
province of Helmand late Saturday. Abdul Zahir was killed in the provincial
capital of Lashkar Gah. He had served as the civilian chief of Helmand's Marjah
district.
International forces in Afghanistan said on April 26, 2011, they have killed the number two Al Qaeda commander in the country. Saudi citizen Abdul Ghani was killed in an air strike in the north-eastern province of Kunar two weeks ago. Ghani was accused of coordinating attacks against foreigners and pro-government tribal leaders. Meanwhile, coalition and Afghan forces are still hunting for hundreds of Taliban prisoners who tunnelled out of a high-security jail in Kandahar.
An Afghan air force pilot opened fire on U.S. trainers at Kabul's international airport Wednesday April 27, 2011, killing nine (eight ISAF service members and an ISAF civilian) in the deadliest attack on Americans in Afghanistan in nearly six years. The shootings, saying they took place while the trainers were meeting in a room at the headquarters of the Afghan Army Air Corps, which is on the grounds of Kabul's airport.
A 12-year-old boy wearing an explosive vest detonated himself Sunday May 1, 2011, in a market in Paktika province, killing four people, including a local council chief. In a separate incident, an explosive placed on a bike detonated in Ghazni province, injuring eight people.
The death of Osama bin Laden has spurred calls for a speedy withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, notwithstanding fears that the deep rooted instability in parts of South-West Asia is unlikely to end anytime soon. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood on Monday May 2, 2011, advocated that, with bin Laden's death, the United States should end its occupation in Muslim countries. "With bin Laden's death, one of the reasons for which violence has been practiced in the world has been removed. It is time for Obama to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq and end the occupation of U.S. and Western forces around the world that have for so long harmed Muslim countries.
Taliban insurgents, including at least six suicide bombers, hit government targets in Kandahar on Saturday May 7, 2011, triggering gun battles that killed two people in what the militants said was part of their "spring offensive". Dozens were wounded in the attacks, which began with a fusillade of rocket-propelled grenades aimed at the provincial governor's housing complex in the city centre. More blasts followed in other areas, including outlying districts, in several coordinated attacks. Gunfire could still be heard late on Saturday but this was mainly from clearing operations. Shooting erupted after the first explosion hours earlier and insurgents opened fire from a five-storey shopping mall toward the governor's fortified compound, from where security forces returned fire as black smoke rose over the city.
A 12-year-old girl, Nelofar, was sleeping outside with her family early Thursday May 12, 2011. A raid by NATO troops singled out the wrong house, and she was killed along with her uncle, who was the target of the raid, because he was incorrectly believed to be a local Taliban leader. It was the third time in the past 18 months that raids had caused civilian casualties in Surkhrod District, which is just outside Jalalabad. "It was around 12 o'clock midnight, and we heard someone knocking at the door," said Neik Mohammed, whose home was raided. "We thought it was thieves or criminals. A short time after the knocking we heard a loud explosion; the explosion was from a grenade thrown into our yard. As it is warmer now, we sleep in the courtyard. "My daughter, who was sleeping with us in the courtyard, was hit by the bomb's shrapnel in her head, and she died on the spot".
Two NATO service members were killed in southwestern Helmand province by an Afghan policeman we were told on Friday May 13, 2011. The two were mentoring an Afghan National Civil Order brigade and were shot and killed inside the police compound on Thursday as they sat down to eat lunch. Other soldiers returned fire and the policeman was wounded and hospitalized. The names and nationalities of the service members, along with other details, were not released.
For the second time in three days, a night raid in eastern Afghanistan by NATO forces resulted in the death of a child, setting off protests on Saturday May 14, 2011, that turned violent and ended in the death of a second boy. A NATO spokesman apologized for the child's death, which took place in western Nangahar Province in the Hesarek District, a remote poppy-growing area close to Kabul Province and Logar Province. There has been almost no NATO presence there throughout the war, and the area is thought to be heavily penetrated by the Taliban.
A British Royal Marine from 42 Commando has been killed in Afghanistan on Sunday May 15, 2011. The marine was killed by a bomb while involved in an operation to search a compound in the Loy Mandeh Wadi area of the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. The marine's next of kin have been informed. It means the number of British military deaths in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 now stands at 365.
Afghanistan Wednesday May 18, 2011:
- Furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of a city in northern
Afghanistan, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S.-led military raid
that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security
forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people. Afghan President
Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded statement condemning the raid on the
outskirts of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, and dismissing NATO's
contention that the four people killed in it were armed insurgents. NATO said
in a statement that the two women killed had brandished weapons, a statement
that many protesters said they flatly disbelieved.
-A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a bus full of police
recruits near the city of Jalalabad, killing at least 13 people and injuring
20 others. The dead and injured were a mix of civilians and the recruits.
- Within hours of the overnight raid, as many as 1,500 protesters poured into
the streets, clashing with Afghan police and trying to overrun a NATO outpost
manned by German troops. About 50 people were hurt in the unrest.
Insurgents massacred 36 workers at a road-construction encampment in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday May 19, 2011. The construction company's owner, Noorullah Bidar, one of 20 people injured in the attack, said from his hospital bed that all those slain in the predawn attack in Paktia province were Afghans. The dead included labourers, technical personnel and security guards. Eight assailants died in the attack as well. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and cited details that appeared to corroborate the claim. Other insurgent groups are active in the area as well, including the Haqqani network, a particularly violent Taliban offshoot based in nearby Pakistan.
Anti-Western protests flared for a second day in the northern city of Taloqan, but the gathering Thursday May 19, 2011, was smaller and less violent than the one a day earlier, when a peaceful demonstration escalated into clashes that left a dozen people dead. Three people were hurt in Thursday's demonstration. The protests broke out Wednesday, hours after a U.S.-led night-time raids on a compound on the city's outskirts left two men and two women dead. Western military officials said they were insurgents; townspeople said they were civilians. Karzai, a long-time opponent of night raids, criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization strike.
A midday explosion Saturday May 21, 2011 caused by a suicide bomber inside Kabul's main military hospital killed six and injured dozens of others. The suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent in the military hospital and killed six and injured 23 others who were all hospital workers. Taliban militants claimed credit for the attack shortly after noon, saying two of their suicide bombers entered the hospital.
NATO says four of its service members have been killed in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Monday May 23, 2011. The international military alliance does not provide further details or the troopers' nationalities. NATO typically waits for national authorities to announce casualties before giving specifics. Most of the forces in the east are American, but there are service members from other NATO countries also serving in the region. The latest deaths bring to 26 the number of NATO personnel killed in Afghanistan this month; 177 have been killed since the start of the year.
Afghanistan Tuesday May 24, 2011:
- Two high-ranking Afghan officials have escaped assassination in attacks
during a spring offensive by insurgents. The governor of Helmand province,
Mohammad Gulab Mangul, was not injured when gunmen attacked his motorcade
near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Mangul's security forces returned
fire, killing two of the attackers.
- In Kabul, a suicide car bomber tried to attack the deputy head of Afghanistan's
intelligence agency, Ahmad Zia. But Zia escaped unharmed. His bodyguards shot
the attacker before he could detonate his explosives-laden vehicle.
- In other violence, NATO said one of its soldiers was killed by an improvised
explosive device in southern Afghanistan. It did not release the name or nationality
of the victim.
- Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed 10 road workers in the southern province
of Kandahar. More than 28 others were wounded by the blast in the Panjwai
district. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which was condemned
by President Hamid Karzai and NATO.
- NATO confirmed the capture of a senior Taliban leader during a May 14 security
operation in the Babaji district of Helmand province.
- The coalition also said that a joint force captured a Germany-based Moroccan
al-Qaida operative during a May 8 security operation in southern Zabul province.
- Separately, French military officials say a French fighter jet crashed in
western Afghanistan, but no one on board was injured. Officials say enemy
fire did not cause the crash.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked and briefly seized parts of a district in Afghanistan's remote and mountainous northeast on Wednesday May 25, 2011 with gunfights raging for hours between insurgents and Afghan troops. Jamuladdin Badr, the governor of Nuristan province near the border with Pakistan, said that the Duab district centre had "fallen into the hands of insurgents," but most of it was recaptured within hours by Afghan troops. Insurgents left 17 bodies on the battlefield, and were still fighting government forces on the outskirts of Duab in the late afternoon. The defence ministry said that Afghan commandos had reclaimed the district.
An explosion in southern Afghanistan on Thursday May 26, 2011, killed eight U.S. troops, an unusually large toll for a single incident. Earlier in the day, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, announced the death of a service member in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan's east. Most of the troops in the south and the east are Americans. U.S. troops make up about two-thirds of the overall NATO force.
A suicide bomber dressed as a policeman blew himself up amid a gathering of high-ranking Afghan and NATO officials on Saturday May 28, 2011, killing northern Afghanistan's senior police official and wounding the top German commander in Afghanistan, among several other casualties. The attack occurred during a security meeting in the governor's office in the capital of Takhar province, a relatively peaceful part of the country. The officials had been discussing operations to prevent the spread of the Taliban across the north, particularly in neighbouring Kunduz province, when a man opened fire and blew himself up. The blast killed at least four Afghans -including General Daud Daud, the top police official in northern Afghanistan; the Takhar provincial police chief, Shah Jan Noori; and the governor's secretary- and wounded at least 10 other people, including the provincial governor, Abdul Jabar Taqwa. The commander of German forces in Afghanistan, Major General Markus Kneip, was also wounded, and two of his soldiers were killed. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack.
Two Royal Marines have been killed in southern Afghanistan. The marines, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, died on patrol when a roadside bomb exploded in Helmand province on Friday May 27, 2011, taking the number of British service personnel killed since the start of hostilities to 368.
Bombardier Karl Manning became the 156th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan and the second to be killed in 2011. Manning, 31, was "found dead from non-combat related wounds on Friday May 27, 2011, at Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Zangabad. An investigation is underway and "enemy action has been ruled out."
At least three dozen Afghan police officers and civilians have been killed in two airstrikes by NATO-led forces we were told on Sunday May 29, 2011. NATO said the coalition was aware of both incidents and had begun investigations. The reported deaths -of 14 civilians (five girls, two women and seven boys) in southern Helmand province Saturday and 22 police officers plus civilians in northeastern Nurestan province Wednesday- are likely to add to long-running tension between Kabul and its Western allies about civilian casualties caused by NATO forces. President Hamid Karzai on Saturday called for the end of all unilateral NATO military operations and night raids by U.S. Special Operations troops. In a statement issued Sunday, the president strongly condemned the civilian deaths in Helmand, which he said were caused by U.S. troops.
The strikes hitting Afghanistan these days may be part of an effort to target areas where security responsibilities are to be handed over to Afghan forces. Insurgents staged deadly coordinated strikes Monday May 30, 2011, in the western city of Herat, where an explosion killed at least four people in a bustling downtown area and a car bomb detonated at the gates of a NATO base, injuring several Italian soldiers inside, Afghan and coalition officials said. An Afghan soldier died in a subsequent shootout.
A bomb blast killed three American service members in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday we were told on Tuesday May 31, 2011. They were killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack. The deaths were not earlier announced by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The deaths raise the total number of foreign troops killed on Saturday to seven. Two of them were German soldiers who died when a suicide bomber dressed as a police officer targeted a high-profile meeting at the Governor's Palace in Takhar province. The attack also killed a powerful Afghan police chief, General Daud Daud, and provincial police Chief Brig. Gen. Shah Jehan Noori. Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Afghanistan Thursday June 2, 2011:
- NATO says Afghan and coalition troops have captured an al-Qaida facilitator
who was a former associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. NATO said
the man was captured in the Nahr-e Shahi area of northern Balkh province,
but did not give his name. The coalition said the Pakistan-based man planned
attacks and was a close associate of senior al-Qaida insurgents. He is also
suspected of being with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001.
- Insurgents attacked a road construction site in the southern province of
Uruzgan, killing two security guards and a police officer. A number of the
attackers were also killed in subsequent fighting.
- The German military said that a bomb attack in Baghlan province killed one
of its soldiers and wounded six others. It said a roadside bomb struck the
soldiers' tank near the northern city of Kunduz.
- A Polish soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an insurgent
attack in eastern Ghazni province. The Polish military says unknown assailants
fired on the patrol with grenades and small arms.
A Royal Marine has been shot dead as colleagues paid tribute to another serviceman
who was killed "putting up a fight" against the enemy. The Royal
Marine, from 42 Commando Royal Marines, was shot and killed on Sunday, while
on patrol in the Nahr-e-Saraj area of Helmand province. His next of kin have
been informed. His death came two days after Corporal Michael Pike, 26, from
Huntly, Aberdeenshire, was killed in the Lashkar Gah area after his patrol
came under attack by insurgents armed with guns and rocket propelled grenades.
The message could hardly have been clearer, or more brutally delivered: the beheaded corpse of a respected provincial politician, dumped by the roadside. Jawad Zehak, whose decapitated remains were recovered Tuesday June 7, 2011, was the leader of the provincial council in Bamian, perhaps the most peaceful of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. It is one of seven areas across the country where the Afghan police and army are supposed to begin taking over security responsibility next month. Afghanistan's main intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, swiftly blamed insurgents for Zehak's abduction and killing, and declared it part of a deliberate pattern of intimidation in the areas slated for security transition.
It was supposed to have been a festive occasion: a pre-wedding party, held under the stars on a warm night. But suspected insurgent gunmen burst in on the gathering in a village field Thursday June 9, 2011, fatally shooting nine men, including the groom. The attack which took place in a remote area of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, might have been due to the fact that a relative of the targeted clan served as the district administrator. The Taliban movement has declared that anyone serving the Afghan government, even in such a relatively humble post, can be marked for death.
A suicide bomber blew himself up Friday June 10, 2011, outside a mosque where a remembrance ceremony was being held for a slain Afghan police commander. The blast killed four police officers. The attack was the latest in a spate of violence as the Taliban wages its spring offensive. Security forces confronted the bomber, who was dressed in traditional robes, before he entered the mosque in the northern city of Kunduz. A scuffle broke out and the bomber detonated his explosives, the force of the blast blowing out windows of the mosque. At least 14 people were wounded.
A NATO service member died Friday June 10, 2011 in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan, raising the death toll for international forces to 20 so far this month. No insurgent activity was reported in the area where the helicopter crashed. The NATO statement gave no other details about the crash or the casualty.
Afghanistan, Saturday June 11, 2011:
- At least 21 people were killed in a series of attacks across Afghanistan.
- At least 15 civilians, including children and women, were killed when their
crowded minivan struck a landmine in the restive province of Kandahar. The
dead were eight children, four women and three men; another woman was injured.
- In a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed a senior
police commander and three others in the eastern province of Khost. It is
believed that Col. Zahir Zazai, who was appointed five months ago to the job,
was the main target of the attack. 23 others, including eight police officers
and 15 civilians, were hospitalized with injuries.
- Two police officers were killed and eight others were injured when a mine
detonated in the eastern province of Laghman.
- Also Saturday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan announced
that May had been the deadliest month for Afghan civilians since 2007. The
agency documented 368 conflict-related civilian deaths in May and 593 civilian
injuries.
Afghanistan Wednesday June 15, 2011:
- Suicide bombings near an Afghan governor's office and an administrative
building killed 11 people Wednesday June 15, 2011, while a mortar shell narrowly
missed one of the country's vice presidents at a police training centre outside
the capital. Wednesday's gathering near Kabul, to celebrate the opening of
the training centre, was also attended by the interior minister, who is in
charge of police forces nationwide.
- In the northeast, a suicide bomber exploded near the office of Governor
Azizul Rahman Tawab, killing four police officers and four civilians. The
Interior Ministry gave a slightly different toll, putting the number of dead
at seven, five of them were policemen.
- Another suicide bomber killed three civilians, including a 13-year-old boy,
in an attack against an administrative building in Paktia province. The bomber
was wearing an explosives vest and blew himself up just outside the front
gate of a district headquarters near the border with Pakistan.
- The mortar strike in central Wardak province, near the capital of Kabul,
did not cause casualties, but it crashed down just next to a building where
Afghanistan's second vice president, Mohammed Karim Khalili, and Interior
Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi where attending a police ceremony along
with NATO officials.
- Also Wednesday, in the southern province of Kandahar, NATO and Afghan troops
killed 14 armed insurgents. Nine were killed after crossing the Pakistani
border, while five were killed while trying to plant roadside bombs.
- A rocket attack in Kandahar city wounded four civilians in the Aymo Mina
district.
- A NATO service member died Wednesday in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.
Twenty-eight international service members have died in Afghanistan so far
in June. A total of 234 have been killed this year.
Two British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan bringing the UK death toll from the decade-long campaign to 373. The two were killed in separate incidents on Thursday June 16, 2011,in Helmand province where Britain has seen heavy fighting since deploying to the turbulent province in 2006. A serviceman from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, was killed by a bomb. A member of the Parachute Regiment was shot dead. The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers soldier was on a mission in the Gereshk Valley area and was trying to rescue a vehicle which had been hit by another blast.
Afghanistan Saturday June 18, 2011:
- A service member from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.
- Three suicide bombers dressed in army uniform attacked a police compound
in the old city in Kabul, where they killed nine people including three policemen
and five civilians. It was the second major attack in the Afghan capital in
under a month. One attacker killed himself by detonating explosives at the
gate, while the other two were shot dead by police.
- Four Afghan private security guards protecting supply trucks for NATO-led
troops were killed by two roadside bombs in Ander district of Ghazni province.
Two other guards were also injured.
- Two ISAF service members were killed in separate insurgent attacks in southern
Afghanistan. No other details were given.
A Marine sniper who grew up in Cuba, in Allegany County, died Thursday June 16, 2011, from injuries he suffered from an improvised explosive device in the Helmand province. Sgt. Mark A. Bradley was 25. Mark Bradley joined the Marine Corps a few months after graduating from Cuba-Rushford High School in 2003.
A suicide attacker blew up his explosives-laden car next to a German military convoy in northern Afghanistan on Sunday June 19, 2011, killing three Afghan civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber detonated his vehicle on a busy road on the edge of Kunduz city. 11 Afghans were wounded in the attack. Two German soldiers were lightly wounded and treated at a nearby base. Two vehicles were damaged.
At least six Afghan police have been killed at a checkpoint on Wednesday June 22, 2011, in an assault likely to raise fresh security questions as the US prepares to pull troops out of Afghanistan. Another four officers were killed by a roadside bomb as they travelled to the scene in Ghazni province's Qarabagh district. The checkpoint attack was thought to have been an inside job in which fighters worked with a police officer stationed there. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Earlier this month, three police were killed in a similar attack on their checkpoint in the same district.
A suicide car bomb blew up outside a hospital in eastern Afghanistan Saturday June 25, 2011, killing at least 20 people, including women and children. Dozens more were wounded. The suicide bombing in mountainous and remote Logar province destroyed the medical centre, reducing it to rubble. Regional authorities say several of the casualties resulted from falling debris when the building collapsed. There also are reports of people being trapped beneath the wreckage. A Taliban spokesman denied they were involved, saying they do not attack hospitals. However, the militant group is active in eastern Afghanistan, attacking Afghan and coalition forces, and suicide attacks are one of its tactics.
For the second time in a month a Canadian soldier has died of non-combat related injuries in Afghanistan. The highly-trained soldier, whose name was temporarily withheld at the request of the family, was found by fellow troops at a forward operating base located in Kandahar city early Saturday June 25, 2011. There was speculation the soldier belonged to the highly-secretive, elite special forces, something the army would not confirm.
Taliban insurgents used an eight-year-old girl carrying a bag of explosives to attack a police check post in Char Chino district of central Uruzgan province, central Afghanistan, on Sunday June 26, 2011, making her one of the youngest child bombers of the decade-old conflict. As the girl was getting close to the police, it exploded and killed the girl.
On Sunday June 26, 2011 the American soldiers stormed into the Afghan family's compound in the middle of the night, kicking in doors and shouting. They ordered everyone into the yard, bound their hands, covered their heads and interrogated them for hours before taking away three men who had done nothing wrong. At least that's the way the Afghans tell it. NATO has a different account of the raid: A force led by Afghans was searching for a Taliban leader and got a tip from residents that three insurgents were living in the compound. The force struck at night when the suspects were likely to be home and took all three away for further questioning. The troops were as respectful as they could be, given that they had to make sure no one started shooting at them.
A commando squad of at least five Taliban suicide bombers attacked the old Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul where senior Afghan officials were staying, waging a battle with security forces that lasted for hours. The assault began when militants dressed in civilian clothes burst into the hotel while many guests were in the dining room. At least two receptions were thought to be taking place, including a wedding party. At least 10 people had been killed, although it was not possible to confirm that figure with Afghan authorities. Afghan police and commandos flocked to the hotel to engage the attackers with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades soon after the attack began. At least one suicide bomber successfully blew himself up, in a tactic that has been used several times before on heavily fortified buildings, including hotels, in the capital. The Taliban's spokesman claimed credit for the assault.
By the time the siege of the luxury Inter-Continental Hotel ended Wednesday June 29, 2011, 20 people lay dead -including nine attackers, all of whom wore suicide-bomber vests- and one of Kabul's premier landmarks was left a grisly scene of bodies, shrapnel and shattered glass. It was one of the biggest and most complex attacks ever orchestrated in the Afghan capital and appeared designed to show that the insurgents are capable of striking even in the centre of power at a time when U.S. officials are speaking of progress in the nearly 10-year war. The brazen attack by militants with explosives, anti-aircraft weapons, guns and grenade launchers dampened hopes that a peace settlement can be reached with the Taliban and raised doubt that Afghan security forces are ready to take the lead from foreign forces in the nearly decade-long war.
Two French television journalists held hostage since December 2009 have been freed on Wednesday June 29, 2011. Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier of the state TV channel France 3 were kidnapped with three Afghan associates in the mountains of Kapisa, east of Kabul, while working on a documentary about the protection and reconstruction of a road near the Pakistan border. Held for 18 months by the Taliban, their detention was the longest hostage saga involving French journalists since the 1980s Lebanon hostage crisis. Ghesquière, 47, and Taponier, 46, a cameraman, are experienced war journalists whose work had ranged from the Balkans conflict and Western Sahara to Afghanistan. The campaign to free them had become a cause célèbre in France, with their faces draped from banners on public buildings, a stadium concert in their support and their names mentioned nightly at the end of the evening TV news. They were released along with an Afghan interpreter; the other two Afghans had been freed months before.
Altogether 20 civilians were killed on Thursday June 30, 2011, in a mine explosion. The explosion broke out when a bus ran over a landmine in Khash Rod District, in the north of Nimroz Province with Zaranj as its provincial capital. The incident follows another roadside bombing in Marja district in Helmand province in which six civilians were killed. Helmond provincial government later in a statement blamed the Taliban insurgents for planting the bomb on the road and responsible for the attack in the province.
On July 1, 2011, new details have emerged of how two Western hostages in Afghanistan were freed in exchange for a hefty ransom paid in Pakistan and the release of two brothers from a mafia-style, Taliban-linked group. French journalists Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier, whose 18-month ordeal made them the longest-held Western hostages in Afghanistan, were released in a painstakingly brokered deal. The French government denied paying any ransom, but Western experts say cash for hostages is routine policy in Europe and interpret the public remarks merely as an attempt to discourage future hostage taking. The Taliban announced from their fiefdom in southern Afghanistan that there was a prisoner swap for reporter Ghesquiere and cameraman Taponier, but sources close to the case say it was only ever about the money. A ransom was paid, millions of dollars. The money was handed over in Pakistan. The kidnappers were identified as loyalists of Qari Baryal, one of the main Taliban leaders in Kapisa province where the Frenchmen were kidnapped on December 30, 2009.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan on July 1, 2011, of firing 470 rockets into two of its eastern border provinces in a three-week barrage. Afghan security forces said that 36 people have died in the barrages, which hit civilians in areas where NATO forces have withdrawn. After the civilians fled, Pakistani Taliban came in and occupied the cleared areas. Afghan security officials say joint NATO and Afghan border units have fired back into Pakistan. NATO and Pakistan military officials, however, have denied any knowledge of border skirmishes.
A suicide car bomber attacked a health clinic in eastern Afghanistan as women and children lined up for maternity care and vaccinations, killing at least 35 people in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians this year. The sport utility vehicle smashed through a wall at the Akbarkhail Public Medical Centre on Saturday July 2, 2011 before anyone could shoot the driver or blow out the tires. The force of the blast caused the building to collapse. Survivors frantically dug through the rubble with shovels and bare hands. At least 53 other people were wounded.
Afghanistan Saturday July 2, 2011:
- Roadside bombs in Afghanistan have ripped through a van carrying women and
children and have blown up farmers and a donkey, part of a new string of attacks
on civilians that has outraged the government in Kabul.
- The deadliest blast took place in the Shamulzayi district of Zabul province,
when a bomb tore through a van, killing all 13 people on board. They were
all from one family and the dead included four women and two children. The
group was thought to be Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan.
- Four villagers were killed in neighbouring Kandahar province Friday. Two
farmers were killed after their donkey stepped on a bomb. Two more civilians
died when a second blast went off as they came to help.
- At least two other people died in separate attacks.
- Gunmen shot and killed Mohammad Khan, a tribal leader, in the country's
southern Helmand province.
- NATO also said a service member was killed in a blast in the western region
of the country. Italian officials later confirmed the death of one of their
troops based in Farah province.
Afghanistan's intelligence agency said on Sunday July 3, 2011, that a senior commander from the Pakistani Taliban sold a suicide bomber to an Afghan militant network, to carry out an attack on a local commander in eastern Afghanistan. Relations between the neighbours are already strained by weeks of cross-border shelling of Afghanistan's east. Pakistan denies more than "a few accidental" rounds have landed in Afghanistan; Kabul says hundreds have hit.
At least thirteen civilians, including women and children, have been killed after their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southeastern Afghanistan. The incident happened in the Shamulzai district of Zabul province late on Saturday July 2, 2011. All the victims are believed to be members of a family. According to officials, the dead included four women and two children. The group targeted in the attack were Afghan refugees returning to their homes in the Ghazni province from neighbouring Pakistan. Their claims are yet to be formally confirmed by Afghan officials.
The British soldier who went missing on Monday July 4, 2011, was stationed at a new base in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province, which recently came under sustained attack by insurgents. He had been on sentry duty at Checkpoint Salaang on Sunday night and early Monday, and had just finished his shift. His colleagues from 4th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and those from the Afghan army who are also at the heavily fortified compound had expected him to return to quarters. Instead he appears to have left the base on his own. Within hours stories were circulating about what happened to him next. The Taliban claimed he had been captured by insurgents and killed in a skirmish as Nato forces tried to rescue him. Another report said he had been seen walking to the nearby Nahr-e Bughra canal, perhaps to go for a swim. Sources in London said they were baffled by what had happened and were still trying to establish what had encouraged the soldier to leave his post without telling colleagues.
The Pakistani Taliban recruited and trained a suicide bomber, then sold him to the Haqqani network to carry out an attack in Afghanistan, but he was arrested before pulling off the plan on Monday July 4, 2011. Afghan authorities arrested a man trying to commit a suicide attack in the Jaji Maidan district of Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan. The bomber, identified as Sheer Hassan Khanjar, is from Miran Shah, Pakistan, and was recruited by Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud. After three years of training in how to carry out a suicide attack, the would-be bomber was sold to Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sheer Hassan, the alleged would-be suicide bomber, told Afghan officials that someone working for Mehsud sold him and others to the Haqqani network.
A suspected militant on a motorbike threw a hand-grenade at the gate of a school in north Afghanistan on Sunday July 3, 2011, injuring 17 children. The incident took place in Maimana, the main city of Faryab province. The children were then taken to hospital, with two in a serious condition.
Four NATO soldiers have been killed in two separate attacks in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday July 5, 2011. Three died from an improvised roadside bomb and a fourth soldier was killed in a separate insurgent attack. The deaths bring to 280 the number of international troops killed so far this year and nine this month.
Australian troops are tonight engaged in a rolling operation against the Taliban with no time to pause after the death of one of their own. Thirty-five-year-old Sydney based commando Todd Langley has become the country's 28th war casualty in Afghanistan. He died in a push into enemy territory. A second Australian soldier fighting in the same operation was also shot but survived.
Taliban fighters attacked and overran several Afghan border police posts
on Wednesday July 6, 2011, killing nearly two dozen police officers in a remote
area of northeastern Afghanistan. Twenty-three Afghan border police officers
were martyred and seven others were wounded. The posts in the Gordish Valley
in Kamdesh District were burned and several civilians were killed, including
three women and two children; several houses also were set on fire.
In eastern Afghanistan, on Wednesday July 6, 2011, there were reports of civilian
casualties after a NATO attack on insurgents in a remote area of Khost District.
Eight children and two women were killed when NATO forces dropped a bomb on
a house where the Taliban took shelter as they were being pursued by a joint
American-Afghan force.
In Parwan Province, northwest of the capital, a cargo plane travelling from Azerbaijan to one of the largest NATO bases here crashed late Tuesday July 5, 2011, in the mountains less than 30 miles from its destination, killing everyone on board. The plane, which was being used by a private contractor at Bagram Air Base, was carrying four pallets and a piece of heavy equipment during a resupply mission. Nine people were aboard.
Canada formally ended its combat role in Afghanistan on Thursday July 7, 2011, closing a mission that has cost 157 soldiers their lives since 2002. Canada is withdrawing its combat units as the sixth largest troop-contributing nation, behind the U.S., Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Like Americans and Europeans, Canadians have grown weary of the war as it nears the 10-year mark. While 2,850 Canadian soldiers are going home, 950 others have started streaming into Afghanistan to help train Afghan security forces to take the lead role in securing the country by 2014. Canada passed the responsibility for two districts of Kandahar province to U.S. forces at Kandahar Air Field during a ceremony.
A bodyguard for Afghanistan's intelligence service killed two members of the NATO-led coalition in Panjshir Province in northeast Afghanistan, on Saturday July 9, 2011 when he opened fire on a convoy heading out to train police officers. The gunman, whose motives remained unclear, was killed by coalition troops. The victims were a service member and a civilian employee of the Defence Department. Another person was wounded. The gunman was a bodyguard for a high-ranking deputy of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security.
Afghanistan Sunday July 10, 2011:
- Six members of a team removing mines in Western Farah province who were
kidnapped last week have been killed. Several bodies were recovered in Farah's
Bakwa district. 31 people from the Demining Agency of Afghanistan (DAFA) were
reported to have been abducted in the province on July 6. They were extremely
brutally treated, four of them were tied to the back of vehicles and dragged
until they died. Two of the kidnapped men from DAFA, a non-governmental organisation
based in Kandahar were released on Sunday and taken to hospital.
- The district governor of Moqur in western Badghis province was killed by
a roadside bomb. The explosion also wounded four of the governor's bodyguards
and one civilian.
- In Kandahar, two policemen and once civilian were killed and six others,
including three civilians, were wounded when a homemade bomb detonated near
a police vehicle.
- Two International Security Assistance Force members were also killed in
separate attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
As of Tuesday, July 12, 2011, at least 1,552 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion in late 2001. At least 1,287 military service members have died as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 99 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts two military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 12,593 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
On Tuesday July 12, 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his country will pull out at least 1,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. He added that it was important to end the war, and that France had never intended to keep troops in the country for an indefinite period.
A suicide bomber killed five French soldiers guarding a meeting between NATO officers and Afghan tribal elders on Wednesday July 13, 2011. The deaths occurred just one day after he visited Kabul and announced that France would withdraw 1,000 of its approximately 4,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012. The suicide attack came as the President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan leaders converged in southern Afghanistan for the funeral of the president's powerful half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a power broker and sometimes nettlesome ally of the American military who was assassinated by a close associate on Tuesday morning.
A roadside bomb has killed five civilians in southern Afghanistan. The civilians
were killed Friday July 15, 2011, when their vehicle hit a landmine in the
Sangin district of Helmand province. At least one person was wounded. The
United Nations reported that the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan
has gone up by 15 percent in the first six months of this year compared to
same period last year. More than 1,400 civilians were killed between January
and the end of June. Meanwhile Afghan President Hamid Karzai took part in
a memorial service for his assassinated half-brother at his palace Friday.
Top Afghan and Western officials were in attendance. Ahmad Wali Karzai was
chief of the Kandahar provincial council and a powerful figure in the country's
south. He was shot dead Tuesday at his home in Kandahar city by a trusted
long-time member of his own security team. The Taliban claimed responsibility
for the assassination.
A man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform turned his gun on NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Saturday July 16, 2011, killing one service member. The incident was the most recent in a string of attacks executed by men wearing Afghan army or police uniforms, creating tension between NATO troops and the Afghan recruits whom they are charged with training. The attack took place outside the city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Lashkar Gah is one of seven areas where NATO is due to hand over control to Afghan security forces over the next two weeks.
Afghanistan, Monday July 18, 2011:
- General David H. Petraeus handed over command of the Afghan war leaving
behind a country racked by deep political instability whose fledgling security
forces are fighting a weakened but deadly insurgency that kills coalition
troops and Afghan civilians and officials nearly every day. His successor,
General John R. Allen, will confront those challenges.
- Three NATO soldiers were killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, and another
died in the south.
- In Kabul, Afghan officials gathered at the presidential palace to pay tribute
to the second powerful political figure to be assassinated in less than a
week. The politician, Jan Mohammed Khan, was a former governor from the south
and a close ally of the president. He was gunned down at his home on Sunday
night. To gain entry, the two killers pretended to be members of Mr. Khan's
tribe who were seeking his assistance as a tribal elder. Mr. Khan gave one
of the men 3,000 Afghanis -about $60- before they began shooting. A member
of Parliament was also killed in the attack. The two gunmen in turn were killed
by Afghan security forces, though one of them held the police off for nearly
eight hours. The police finally set off a bomb in the room inside Mr. Khan's
home where the gunman had taken refuge. The Taliban claimed responsibility
for the attack.
- Seven police officers had been shot to death at a checkpoint east of Lashkar
Gah, the capital of Helmand Province in the south. A Taliban spokesman claimed
responsibility for the attack.
- In Kandahar Province, the police chief of the Registan district was killed
along with three bodyguards when a homemade bomb detonated under their vehicle
as they were driving to the Shorabak district. Three more bodyguards were
wounded.
- And in the western province of Farah, four people from a mountainous village
called Toot were found beheaded, a week after being kidnapped by the Taliban.
Their deaths appeared to be a grisly reprisal for the killing of three Taliban
fighters a few weeks earlier in a firefight with a local security commander.
A British man and a woman have been captured as they prepared to link up with terrorists in order to launch attacks in the UK. The pair, who are of Afghan origin and are understood to have dual nationality, were detained by the SAS during a raid on a guest house in Herat. They are thought to be the first Britons to be captured alive in Afghanistan since 2001, although there have been reports of Britons who have died in suicide operations or been killed. It is believed they were planning a terrorist attack in Britain.
More than 50 militants were killed in a major Afghan and foreign operation against the Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan we were told on Friday July 22, 2011. The 48-hour air and ground operation was conducted in the rugged terrain of Paktika province. The Haqqani network is thought to have safe havens in Pakistan's lawless border tribal areas. The Haqqani network used the camp as a staging area for fighters brought over the border to carry out attacks across the country. Combined international and Afghan forces pushed the insurgents out of the area but were intermittently engaged by them throughout the day.
An 8 year-old boy was hanged by militants in Helmand province on Sunday July 24, 2011, after the boy's father -a police officer in the southern city of Gereshk- refused to comply with militants' demands to provide them with a police vehicle. President Hamid Karzai condemned the hanging, saying "this action is not permitted in any culture or any religions". Karzai said he has ordered local authorities to root out the militants and arrest them "as soon as possible." The boy was kidnapped Friday. It was unclear when he was killed.
The number of insurgents reported killed in a NATO attack on a large encampment in a remote area of Paktia province rose to 80 on Saturday July 23, 2011. The camp, which was raided on Thursday by NATO troops backed up by Afghan forces, accommodated considerably more people than most compounds where Taliban and other insurgents take shelter along the border with Pakistan. Most of the dead were from the tribal areas of Pakistan. The tribal areas on the Pakistan side of the border are populated by Pashtuns of similar background to those on the Afghan side and are home to many Afghans who fled their country during the Russian occupation here. The insurgents killed in the NATO attack were affiliated with the Haqqani group, a particularly effective and brutal militant faction. For several years the Haqqanis have been headquartered in Miran Shah in north Waziristan, one of Pakistan's tribal areas, which explains why many of the fighters appear to have been drawn from there rather than from the Afghan side of the border.
A British helicopter gunship wounded five children as it attacked insurgents in Helmand we were told on Monday July 25, 2011. The children were working in a field close to "positively identified insurgents" when they were injured by the British Apache helicopter. The five were taken to hospital in Camp Bastion, the main British base, and their injuries were not thought to be life threatening.
On Wednesday July 27, 2011, a suicide bomber who hid explosives inside his turban killed Kandahar's mayor, an affable, hard-working 65-year-old who was a dual American-Afghan citizen and the third major figure in the southern Afghan city to be assassinated in the past two-and-a-half weeks. Ghulam Haider Hamidi was praised by Afghan and American colleagues as an able administrator who chose to stay and help the city of half a million rather than return to a home he kept in Virginia, where he had worked as an accountant for 20 years.
Suicide attackers killed at least 19 people, 12 of them young children, when they targeted government buildings in southern Afghanistan Thursday July 28, 2011. The assault in Uruzgan province also wounded 35 civilians. It began with two remote-controlled car bombs, one in front of the provincial governor's compound and the other near the offices for regional state television channel. Up to six suicide bombers then stormed the governor's compound and the police chief's compound in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan. Three bombers detonated their explosives shortly after the attacks began while the remaining attackers were locked in a hours-long gunfight with police inside the compounds. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack; six militants were involved.
Two roadside bombs killed 19 civilians on Friday July 29, 2011, in southern Afghanistan. A minibus ran over a bomb in Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province, setting off a blast that killed all 18 passengers. The mine was very powerful and destroyed the vehicle. The victims were all civilians. Some were children. In the second blast, a farm tractor struck a mine in Garmser district, killing one civilian and wounding four others who were riding the vehicle. Police who responded to the minibus explosion came under fire from insurgents, but there were no casualties among the policemen. The latest deaths came a day after coordinated bomb and suicide attacks in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan killed 21 people.
In eastern Afghanistan, a bomb killed two NATO service members on Friday July 29, 2011. It did not identify their nationalities or provide details. In the same region, a security force led by Afghan troops freed a family that was taken hostage by insurgents in the Dila district of Paktika province. Insurgents captured the family on Thursday during a battle with Afghan and NATO troops who were searching for a local leader of the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Taliban and al Qaeda. Several insurgents were killed in the fighting, but the family was not harmed.
A bomb attack on a patrol killed two NATO soldiers and five Afghan soldiers on Friday July 29, 2011, in an impoverished area of eastern Afghanistan where the Afghan government has little presence and where there have not previously been many lethal attacks on soldiers. The explosion, at dusk in a mountainous area of Paktia Province's eastern Zurmat district, also wounded two Afghan soldiers and a NATO interpreter.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the main gate of the heavily guarded police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, Sunday July 31, 2011, killing 12 police officers and a child and wounding a dozen others. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the latest attack. In other violence Sunday, NATO said five of its service members died in three separate incidents. Three troops died as a result of a non-battle related injury in western Afghanistan, another one was killed in a bomb blast in the east, and the fifth died in an insurgent attack in the south.
Afghanistan Wednesday August 3, 2011:
- Three NATO service members died in two separate incidents in eastern Afghanistan.
Two were killed in a bomb blast and the third died from a non-battle injury.
- Afghan and coalition security forces killed or captured a number of insurgents
across the country.
- In northern Kunduz province, a joint force killed two insurgents Tuesday
while searching for an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan facilitator responsible
for coordinating suicide attacks throughout the province.
- In southern Zabul, Kandahar and Helmand provinces, combined Afghan and NATO
forces detained several suspected insurgents during clearance operations and
discovered a drug cache containing 100 kilograms of marijuana.
- In eastern Paktia province, a joint patrol capture a Haqqani network leader.
The network is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Afghanistan Thursday August 4, 2011:
- A man wearing an Afghan police uniform has shot and killed a NATO service
member. It is unclear if the shooter was actually a police officer or just
disguised as one.
- Another service member was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.
- A bomb attack in the country's north killed an Afghan intelligence official.
The victim worked in the Kunduz city branch of Afghanistan's National Directorate
of Security. Authorities say the blast destroyed the official's car. The explosion
also wounded three children. The attack comes two days after suicide bombers
attacked a compound that houses private security companies in Kunduz, killing
at least four Afghan security guards.
- Militants attacked tankers bringing fuel to NATO and U.S. forces damaging
three fuel tankers but there was no casualties.
A British Royal Marine has been killed in Helmand Province on Thursday August 5, 2011, after a grenade was thrown into a checkpoint. The marine died in hospital at Camp Bastion following the attack in the Nad-e Ali district. His death takes the total number of UK military deaths in Afghanistan since operations started in 2001 to 378. The MoD said the marine was on a foot patrol that was fired on by insurgents.
In the single deadliest loss for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in late 2001, 30 service members died early Saturday August 6, 2011, when a helicopter carrying them went down while they were reinforcing other troops. Insurgents are believed to have shot down the CH-47 Chinook. The Taliban claimed militants downed the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. Among the 25 U.S. special operations forces killed in Wardak province were 22 Navy SEALS, considered to be the "best of the best." Seven Afghan troops also died. The majority of the Navy SEALs who died belonged to the same covert unit that conducted the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May, though they were not the same men. The troops died during a "quick reaction" mission to assist military personnel pinned down by insurgents in a fierce firefight.
Two French soldiers were killed and five others injured in a clash with insurgents in Afghanistan's northeastern Tagab valley. The soldiers were taking part in a reconnaissance mission Sunday august 7, 2011, when they came under fire. Several of the insurgents were killed or injured in the clash. Sunday's deaths bring to 72 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan. About 4,000 French troops are taking part in NATO-led operations in the country. France has said some 1,000 troops will be brought home by the end of next year, with a full withdrawal of combat forces there during 2014.
Afghanistan Sunday August 7, 2011:
- Separate bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan killed 10 police and wounded
nine civilians.
- The police were killed late on Saturday when their vehicle hit an improvised
explosive device (IED), or home-made bomb, in Kandahar province.
- In Lashkar Gah, in the neighbouring province of Helmand, another improvised
bomb wounded nine people.
- NATO is meanwhile probing the Taliban's claim that they shot down a helicopter
late on Friday killing a team of 30 American troops, many of whom were special
forces, and seven Afghan commandos.
A day of violence, Thursday August 11, 2011, has left seven soldiers dead. A roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan. Another NATO soldier was also killed by a Taliban attack and a seventh soldier died in a blast in eastern Afghanistan. Elsewhere in the south, five Afghan police officers were killed Wednesday when Taliban insurgents attacked their checkpoint in Helmand province.
As of Thursday, August 11, 2011, at least 1,618 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. This count is one less than the Defence Department's tally. At least 1,349 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, at least 100 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts two military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 13,164 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
Insurgent attacks have killed nine NATO service members in the past two days we were told on Friday August 12, 2011. Eight of the nine NATO service members who died on Thursday and Friday were killed by roadside bombs, the insurgents' weapon of choice. Two died Friday in separate blasts in the south. Their nationalities have not been disclosed. On Thursday, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. troops in the south. Also on Thursday, a roadside blast killed a French soldier 4 miles south of Tagab in Kapisa province in the east. Four other French soldiers were wounded in the attack. Another NATO service member died Thursday in an insurgent attack in the south. So far this year, 378 American and other NATO service members have died in the war in Afghanistan.
Eight kidnapped security officials have been found dead in Wardak province. The bodies were found late Friday August 12, 2011. The victims -five policemen and three Afghan intelligence officers- were abducted Thursday while travelling along a main road leading to Bamiyan province. Police have detained three suspected militants in connection with the incident. A Taliban spokesman says his group carried out the killings.
Five civilians were killed Saturday August 13, 2011, when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Helmand province. Their civilian mini-bus touched off a roadside bomb in Nahri Sarraj district triggering a powerful blast that left five civilians dead. The casualties include two men and three women. The bomb was probably placed by Taliban insurgents to target security forces.
Suicide bombers killed at least 22 people during a raid on a governor's compound in a province near Kabul on Sunday August 14, 2011. Six militants stormed the walled headquarters of Parwan provincial Governor Abdul Basir Salangi in Charikar. It began with a suicide car bomber detonating his explosives-filled vehicle at the compound's main gate. Five heavily armed militants wearing suicide bomb vests then stormed the compound and exchanged gunfire with Afghan security forces inside. Two of the militants detonated their explosives-filled vests inside the compound, while the other three were shot and killed by Afghan security forces. At least 16 government workers and six Afghan police officers were killed in the attack. An additional 44 government workers and police officers were injured. The attackers were able to get inside the governor's building while a security meeting was underway. Salangi, who was at the meeting, survived the attack. A spokesman said Taliban militants carried out the Parwan attack. Karzai issued a statement later in the day condemning the attack.
Two Australian soldiers have been injured by an improvised explosive device (IED). The soldiers were wounded on Saturday August 14, 2011, when their Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle struck the IED. The blast in the Oruzgan province left one of the soldiers with serious wounds and the other with minor injuries.
Four security guards died Monday August 15, 2011, as suicide bombers targeted
a fuel depot for NATO-led forces close to one of Afghanistan's biggest bases,
where thousands of foreign troops are stationed. The attack happened at a
facility near the sprawling Kandahar airfield. Four Afghan guards working
for a private security firm were killed in the assault. Eight other guards
-three from Nepal and five from Afghanistan- were also wounded. A Taliban
spokesman said the militant group was behind the attack.
Seven civilians died Tuesday August 16, 2011, when a motorcycle bomb ripped
through a market in Uruzgan province, in Dihrawud district, southern Afghanistan,
hours after the killing of a young woman working for the government in Kandahar.
Local people were shopping in preparation for breaking their fasts during
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
An Air Force cargo plane collided with a drone, a potentially serious mishap that could give ammunition to critics wary of allowing pilotless aircraft to operate in civilian airspace. The Air Force confirmed that a C-130 cargo plane made an emergency landing Monday August 15, 2011, at a base in eastern Afghanistan after colliding with an RQ-7 Shadow, an unmanned aerial vehicle that is usually operated by the Army and the Marine Corps. The C-130 received light damage during the incident and the aircrew was unharmed. The drone, which was on a surveillance mission, wasn't carrying any weapons.
A roadside bomb killed 22 people, many of them women and children, crammed into a minivan in western Afghanistan on Thursday August 18, 2011. The blast was one of two that struck civilians in the Owbeh district of the western province of Herat on Thursday. A separate roadside bomb killed an Afghan woman and injured seven people in a small Mazda truck. In a third attack, a suicide bomber rammed a truck filled with explosives into the entrance of a heavily guarded U.S. base for military and civilian operations in Gardez, the capital of the eastern province of Paktia, killing two Afghan security guards. Nine Afghan civilian labourers were injured in the attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Gardez.
A dawn assault by insurgents on the British Council in Kabul compound on Friday August 19, 2011, was timed to mark the anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from Britain. Ten Afghan guards, policemen and passersby were killed. It began with a car bomb outside the compound, which allowed five attackers to breach the compounds' defence walls. The militants wore suicide vests and stormed in carrying assault rifles, heavy machine guns and grenades. Two teachers, one British and one South African, were asleep when the car bomb detonated and fled with their British bodyguard to a panic room where the attackers could not reach them. All were unharmed in the attack, but the women, who worked for the British Council, were said to be traumatised and "shaken".
At least 35 people have been killed and several more -perhaps 24- injured in a bus crash on Saturday August 20, 2011. The bus was travelling at speed along the main road linking Kandahar city to the capital, Kabul. The driver lost control and the bus overturned.
Gunmen have killed two local government officials in separate attacks. Two assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed a prosecutor for the Gereshk district of Helmand province as he travelled to work on Sunday August 21, 2011. Afghan security forces were searching for the gunmen, who fled the scene. In another incident, gunmen killed an agriculture department officer in the neighbouring province of Kandahar. No one claimed responsibility for the killings.
British troops were accidentally fired upon by Afghan forces in Helmand at least 19 times over three-and-a-half years we were told on Sunday August 21, 2011. Four of the so-called friendly-fire incidents resulted in casualties, although none fatal. Between January 2008 and June 2009, Afghan personnel came under friendly-fire by UK troops at least 10 times. Also, 21 Afghan interpreters for UK forces have been killed since 2006. British forces mistakenly firing at Afghan soldiers, police and security service officials, resulted in seven deaths.
Angry villagers stoned to death a local Taliban commander and his bodyguard in southern Afghanistan Sunday August 21, 2011, after the militants killed a 60-year-old man accused of aiding the government. The stoning happened in the Nawa District of Helmand Province.
An Australian soldier has been killed, bringing Australia's death toll from the conflict to 29. The soldier was killed Monday August 22, 2011, by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Uruzgan province with members of the Afghan National Army. A coalition soldier was also seriously wounded in the blast. Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, the largest force provided by any country outside NATO.
Two civilians were killed Monday August 22, 2011, when a bomb exploded in a busy market. The blast occurred inside a scrap metal shop in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.
A combined operation by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan security forces killed a senior Taliban leader on Tuesday August 23, 2011, in Ghormach district, Faryab province. The militants opened fire on the force during a search to detain them. Both were killed in the ensuing firefight. Security forces seized a machine gun, rocket propelled grenade mortars, and a pistol from the insurgent location. Mullah Bahuddin was a senior Taliban leader responsible for directing multiple attacks on Afghan National Security Forces, and facilitating weapons distribution and suicide bomb attacks in Faryab.
The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday August 25, 2011, that one trooper was
killed in a blast and two others were killed in a separate explosion. So far
this year, 396 international troops have died in Afghanistan, including at
least 294 Americans.
A car bomb exploded outside a bank Saturday August 27, 2011, killing four
people. The bomb went off as soldiers and police officers were lined up to
collect their salaries at the bank in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand
province. All of those killed were civilians. More than 20 people were wounded
in the blast, including 10 soldiers and six police officers. Less than three
hours later, two explosions hit Kandahar. The first blast in Kandahar was
a car bomb outside the city's main hospital that wounded seven people. Meanwhile,
a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a police compound in the city,
wounding 16 people.
Six Afghan civilians from the same family were killed by a coalition air
strike on Friday August 26, 2011. NATO could not confirm civilians were killed
but that several insurgents were among the dead in the operation in Logar
province. The operation targeted a Taliban commander with a bounty on his
head known as Qari Hijran and had also killed civilians. Four Taliban terrorists
were killed along with three Afghan army and six members of a family during
the incident. It occurred when a local teacher provided shelter for the commander
in his home.
Afghanistan Sunday August 28, 2011:
- A group of suicide attackers and gunmen attacked a NATO reconstruction base
in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, southern Afghanistan, but failed
to breach its defences. One of the attackers detonated a bomb outside the
gate of the base, while the others fired shots. One of the attackers was killed,
another was captured, and a third escaped. Two civilians were injured in the
attack.
- A suicide bomber died during an apparently premature explosion while driving
on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. The blast caused no other casualties.
In northern Afghanistan, a doctor and another medical worker were killed after
their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Takhar province.
NATO says two service members were killed in southern Afghanistan, one in
an insurgent attack and the other by a roadside bomb.
Pakistani Taliban on Saturday September 3, 2011, claimed responsibility for holding up to 25 boys hostage as punishment for tribesmen who supported the military in the country's troubled northwest. Militants in Afghanistan kidnapped the boys after they mistakenly crossed the border while on an outing in the border tribal region of Bajaur on Wednesday. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman said they held the boys, and their fate would be decided by the militants from Bajaur. A group of around 60 boys took part in the outing but about 20 below ten years old were allowed to return to Pakistan, while up to 40 others between 12 to 14 years old were held.
The bodies of two German citizens who went missing in a province north of Kabul last month were found on Monday September 5, 2011. The bodies were found in an open area and they appeared to have been killed by gunshots.
On Thursday September 8, 2011, we were told that a reporter was killed by
a U.S. service member last July in southern Afghanistan in a case of mistaken
identity.
Ahmad Omid Khpalwak -a free-lancer for the BBC and Pajhwok News Agency in
Afghanistan- was killed during an insurgent attack in the Uruzgan province
city of Tarin Kowt on July 28. He was 25 and joined the BBC in May 2008 as
a stringer. Mr. Khpalwak was shot by an ISAF member who believed he was an
insurgent that posed a threat and was about to detonate a suicide vest improvised
explosive device. ISAF identified the soldiers at the scene as Americans.
On Saturday September 10, 2011, nearly 80 American soldiers were wounded and two Afghan civilians were killed in a Taliban truck bombing targeting an American base in eastern Afghanistan. The blast, which occurred late Saturday, shaved the facades from shops outside the Combat Outpost Sayed Abad in Wardak province and broke windows in government offices nearby. Eight wounded civilians were brought to Wardak's clinic, two of them with wounds serious enough that they were sent to Kabul. She said one 3-year-old girl died of her wounds on the way to the clinic. The attack was carried out by a Taliban suicide bomber who detonated a large bomb inside a truck carrying firewood. It was unclear how many foreign and Afghan soldiers were serving on the base.
Fighting raged for hours in Kabul Tuesday September 13, 2011, after a dramatic Taliban attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO's command. But the strike in central Kabul and two other brazen assaults across the city left residents unnerved, and security forces braced for more. Gunfire continued to ring out. Three police officers have died and others have been injured in the violence across Kabul. The Afghan Public Health ministry said one civilian was killed and at least 18 were wounded. The strike directed at the ISAF headquarters and the embassy was the most dramatic. Militants stormed a building under construction and set up positions there to launch the attack. The insurgents attacked the "vicinity" of the embassy and the ISAF headquarters using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
A British soldier who was shot dead while on patrol in Afghanistan has been named by the Ministry of Defence. Lance Corporal Jonathan McKinlay, of Gloucestershire-based 1st Battalion The Rifles, was killed by small arms fire on Wednesday September 14, 2011. He was based at Check Point Chaabak in the Nahr-e-Saraj South district of Helmand. A total of 381 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since military operations began in 2001
Two NATO service members have died in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan. One service member died following an insurgent attack on Saturday September 17, 2011, while the second was killed by a bomb on Sunday. NATO did not provide further details on the attacks or the nationalities of the killed service members. The deaths raise the number of international troops killed in September to 23. A total of 428 members of the international military coalition have died so far this year.
A British Royal Marine has been killed after coming under small arms fire while on foot patrol in Helmand Province. The soldier from the elite 42 Commando was on a patrol with the Afghan army in the Khorgajat area of the Nahr-e Saraj district, on Monday September 19, 2011. He died as a result of a gunshot wound sustained in the ambush. Despite the best efforts of the medics on the ground and extraction by helicopter, he was pronounced dead on arrival at Camp Bastion Role 3 Hospital. His death brings to 382 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001. Of these, at least 338 were killed in combat.
Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani sought to bridge Afghanistan's divide, but instead ended up one of the conflict's many victims. The former leader, fighter and finally peace envoy, was assassinated by a suicide bomber concealing explosives in his turban on Tuesday September 20, 2011. He was about 70 years old. For the past year, Rabbani had been in charge of a government peace council that tried to facilitate contacts with Taliban insurgents. But the council failed to make headway as warring sides and disparate groups manoeuvred for an edge in the long-running conflict. He was president from 1992-1996, heading the Afghan government that preceded the Taliban rule. After he was driven from Kabul in 1996, he became the nominal head of the Northern Alliance, mostly minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, who swept to power in Kabul after the Taliban's fall. Rabbani is an ethnic Tajik.
Five members of NATO died in separate incidents in Afghanistan on Friday September 23, 2011. Two of them were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan, while three others died as a result of "non-battle related injuries" in the western part of the country. It did not disclose the nationality of the deceased, deferring casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities. The three soldiers who died in the west were Italians involved in patrols in the city of Herat. A fourth soldier was seriously injured in the incident. With this, the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year rose to 454.
Afghanistan, Saturday September 24, 2011:
- Afghan and NATO-led forces during operations have eliminated 27 insurgents
and detained 14 in different parts of the country over the past 24 hours.
- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed a
joint Afghan and ISAF security forces killed six insurgents, including a Taliban
local leader, in Chahar Bolak district of country's northern Balkh province
on Friday.
- In another development, two insurgents were killed and another was injured
when their bomb exploded prematurely in southern Uruzgan province on Friday.
Afghan police officers have shot dead two men wearing explosives vests, foiling a planned suicide attack on a government building. The shooting on Sunday September 25, 2011, in the southern Zabul province detonated the attackers' explosives and both died. Separately more than 340 rockets have been fired in the past week from Pakistan into two east Afghan provinces. Shells landing in Dangam district of Nuristan province destroyed six houses, two mosques and displaced at least 50 families.
Afghanistan Sunday September 25, 2011:
- A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a local police headquarter in eastern
Afghanistan, killing two policemen and wounding two civilians. The attack
took place in Yahya Khel district in Paktika province near the Pakistani border.
- NATO said two of its service members died in eastern Afghanistan from separate
bomb blasts.
- Combined Afghan and coalition forces killed 12 insurgents and captured at
least 12 others during security operations across the country. The statement
said that among the captured were several Taliban leaders responsible for
conducting ambushes and roadside bomb attacks against Afghan forces.
- In the country's central Ghor province, a German tourist and his Afghan
companion were killed and two other Afghans were wounded by armed men on motorcycles
on Saturday.
- Gunfire erupted at a facility that has been used by the CIA in Kabul and
at least two Afghan army personnel were reported injured. The incident occurred
near the presidential palace in the Afghan capital at the former Ariana Hotel,
a facility that the CIA took over soon after the start of the Afghan war in
2001. No U.S. or international personnel were immediately reported injured.
In a rare and lethal security breach at the CIA's main base in Kabul, an Afghan employee shot and killed one U.S. citizen and wounded another we were told on Monday September 26, 2011. It was the second attack in less than two weeks on a U.S. Embassy installation in the Afghan capital. The assailant was also shot and killed in the fire fight. The embassy declined to say whether the dead and injured Americans were CIA operatives, but it would be unusual for anyone not closely associated with the agency to be inside the heavily fortified base late at night. The NATO force said they were not members of the military. If the U.S. citizen who was killed is confirmed to be a CIA worker, it would be the first such known fatality since December 2009, when a suicide bomber -believed at the time to be a high-level informant- was escorted onto a CIA base in Khost province to meet with agency staffers. Seven CIA workers were killed in that blast, considered one of the most serious intelligence debacles of the Afghan war.
Afghanistan Tuesday September 27, 2011:
- A station wagon packed with Afghan civilians struck a roadside bomb in western
Afghanistan, triggering an explosion that killed 16 people, 11 of them children.
The vehicle was travelling in Herat province's Shindand district when it hit
the bomb. Another four people in the car were wounded. Those in the car were
part of the same extended family.
- A suicide bomber in the south of the country rammed an explosives-packed
vehicle into a police truck, killing two civilians. The attacker in the southern
city of Lashkar Gah, the main city in Helmand province, apparently was waiting
in the car at the gates of the police headquarters just outside a bakery where
officers regularly buy bread. The bomber then slammed into a police truck
that was parked at the shop, triggering the bomb. Another 26 people were wounded,
including 10 police officers and six children,. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef
Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the Lashkar Gah attack.
On Wednesday September 28, 2011, three international troops have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan.
Coalition forces said Saturday October 1, 2011, they had captured a senior leader of the militant Haqqani network earlier in the week while conducting security operations in Paktia province close to the porous border with Pakistan. Haji Mali Khan, the uncle of the group's leader Siraj Haqqani, who is described as a key strategist, was armed at the time he was detained Tuesday but did not resist. Mali Khan reportedly served as an emissary between the Haqqanis and Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistani Taliban killed in a suspected U.S. missile attack in 2009. The captured official is accused of establishing and managing bases in Paktia and handling financial and logistical support for various militant operations. The capture is a significant milestone in the disruption of the Haqqani network. A number of other insurgents also were reportedly captured, including Mali Khan's deputy.
Two bomb blasts killed three Afghans in Kandahar province. In the first blast, a motorcycle-rickshaw packed with explosives blew up, apparently prematurely, on the outskirts of Kandahar city, killing two civilians. A government minister said his car was nearby, suggesting he may have been the target. He was not injured. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber in an army uniform tried to force his way into a branch of Kabul Bank, which pays military salaries, on an army base in Kandahar city. A soldier guarding the entrance saw the explosives strapped to the man's body and shot him, killing the attacker but also detonating the bomb strapped to his body.
International forces in Afghanistan say a coalition airstrike has killed Tuesday October 4, 2011, a senior Haqqani network leader near the Pakistani border. The militant was key in facilitating extremist violence in the country. Dilawar was said to be a key leader of the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network, which has staged deadly attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. A precision airstrike killed Dilawar and two of his associates in the eastern Afghan province of Khost.
Suspected insurgents Wednesday October 12, 2011, set off a remote-controlled bomb that killed an anti-Taliban tribal leader, together with six police officers assigned to escort him. The assassination took place in Zhari, one of several strategic districts ringing the city of Kandahar. The slain tribal elder was Abdul Wali Khan, a member of the district's development council. He was returning to his home district after a visit to Kandahar city.
U.S. military investigators have concluded on October 13, 2011, that the Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed 30 U.S. troops on August 6 was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade that hit the rear rotor, causing the aircraft to fall vertically to the ground and burst into flames.
A suicide attacker blew up an explosives-packed car Friday October 14, 2011, while it was being inspected at a border police checkpoint that had been set up in southern Afghanistan because of a warning of an imminent attack. Three officers were killed. The explosion happened in Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border. Three officers and a civilian were wounded.
A British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan on Saturday October 15, 2011. The soldier, from the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was shot dead in the Nahr-e Saraj region of Helmand province. The Royal Gurkha Rifles was killed during operations with Afghan Police partners to extend security in the Nahr-e Saraj region of Helmand. Whilst protecting a checkpoint, his team came under insurgent small arms fire, during which he received a fatal gunshot wound.
The governor for Afghanistan's Paktia province escaped unhurt from a Taliban commando-style attack Sunday October 16, 2011. Juma Khan Hamdard was in a convoy of vehicles when three suicide bombers began firing at it outside his headquarters in the town of Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktia, near the border with Pakistan. One police officer and a civil servant were killed in the clash before the bombers were gunned down. The insurgents were in a vehicle packed with explosives that went off during the clash outside the governor's compound, adjacent to several other key government buildings. There were no casualties from the blast, but it caused some damage to the buildings.
A British Gurkha soldier serving under the 2nd Battalion Royal Ghurkha Rifles was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday October 15, 2011. The soldier received a fatal gunshot wound while his team came under insurgent's small arms fire.
Militants tried to blast their way into an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday October 15, 2011, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a car bomb. All four attackers were killed, as were two truck drivers parked nearby. Two Afghan security guards were wounded. A NATO spokeswoman confirmed the attack but said there were no American deaths or injuries. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
A bomber in Afghanistan targets intelligence chief but kills a child. The suicide bomber was intent on assassinating an intelligence official. Instead, the explosion killed an Afghan schoolchild. Attacks like the one on Monday October 17, 2011, in the northern province of Faryab fit a grimly familiar pattern. Afghan government officials -particularly those associated with the security services- are squarely in the gun sights of insurgent groups. Hundreds of them have been targeted for assassination, with the rate of such attacks rising sharply over the last two years. But civilian bystanders are at high risk of being caught up in these strikes, especially because they often take place as the intended victim is being driven to or from work, when ordinary people are also on their way to jobs or school. The target of Monday's suicide blast was Sayed Ahmad Sadaat, the head of the Faryab branch of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's main intelligence service. He survived the attack and was reported in fair condition. Five other intelligence officers were hurt in the explosion that hit Sadaat's vehicle in the provincial capital, Maimana. Two civilian passersby were also wounded. The only fatality was the schoolboy, who was 8 years old.
On October 19, 2011, we were told that American and Afghan troops have killed at least 115 insurgents as part of a tough fight to gain control of a critical corridor and resupply route to a key American base in northeastern Afghanistan.
France is withdrawing 200 of its troops from Afghanistan Wednesday October 19, 2011, as part of a plan to pull out 1,000 troops by the end of next year. France has about 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, and President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to withdraw a quarter of the troops by the end of 2012. A total of 75 French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001
Afghanistan Friday October 21, 2011:
- A precision airstrike killed numerous insurgents during a combined Afghan
and coalition operation in the Tarnek wa Jaldak district of Afghanistan's
Zabul province. Following the airstrike, the security force recovered several
assault rifles, some rocket-propelled grenades, two machine guns with 400
rounds of ammunition, several grenades, ammunition pouches, and one 82mm recoilless
rifle. Two suspected insurgents were detained during the operation, which
targeted a group of Taliban fighters. No civilians were harmed during the
operation.
- Several suspects were detained by a combined force during a search for a
Taliban leader in the Musa Qal'ah district of Helmand province. The leader
coordinates shipments of explosives and weapons in support of insurgent operations.
- A combined force captured a Haqqani network facilitator and two suspects
during a search in the Sabari district of Khost province. The facilitator
planned and coordinated attacks against Afghan forces, and distributed roadside
bombs and other weapons throughout the Sabari district.
- In a separate operation also in the Sabari district of Khost province, a
combined force captured another Haqqani network facilitator and one suspect.
The facilitator distributed weapons, supplies and equipment to other insurgents,
and planned attacks against Afghan forces.
- Combined forces detained two suspects and seized two weapons caches during
separate operations throughout eastern Afghanistan. Two suspects were detained
in the Pul-e Alam district of Logar province after they had fired at coalition
forces.
- In the Dehyak district of Ghazni province, combined forces found a cache
containing two 60mm mortar rounds, one 12-gauge shotgun and 90 rounds of assorted
ammunition.
- In the Qalander district of Khowst province, forces found a cache containing
eight 82mm recoilless rifle rounds, three landmines, 250 other rifle rounds
and nine rocket-propelled grenades.
- And in the Sayyidabad district of Wardak province, forces found a video
camera that was observing local road traffic.
- A combined force detained an insurgent leader in the Khoshi district of
Logar province. The detainee is a known insurgent commander and facilitator
responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
- In the Qalandar district of Khost province, a combined patrol discovered
a weapons cache containing eight 82mm recoilless rifle rounds, nine rocket-propelled
grenades, three landmines, and 250 12.7mm rounds.
-- A combined patrol discovered a damaged coalition vehicle and a storage
container in a civilian compound in the Kandahar district of Kandahar province.
The patrol also found a weapons cache containing three assault rifles, one
shotgun, one hand grenade, 15 assault rifle magazines, and 450 7.62mm rounds.
- A combined patrol detained an insurgent leader in the Lashkar Gah district
of Helmand province. The leader is responsible for planning attacks against
Afghan and coalition forces.
On October 25, 2011, we were told that Army 1st Lt. Ashley White died on the front lines in southern Afghanistan last weekend, the first casualty in what the Army says is a new and vital wartime attempt to gain the trust of Afghan women. White, like other female soldiers working with special operations teams, was brought in to do things that would be awkward or impossible for her male teammates. Frisking burqa-clad women, for example. Her death, in a bomb explosion in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar, underscores the risks of placing women with elite U.S. special operations teams working in remote villages. Military leaders and other female soldiers in the program say its rewards are great, even as it fuels debate over the roles of women in combat.
An Army Ranger who was on his 14th deployment to a combat zone has been killed in Afghanistan. Sgt. First Class Kristoffer B. Domeij was killed Saturday October 22, 2011, when the assault force he was with triggered a hidden roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. Domeij served four deployments in Iraq and another nine stints in Afghanistan. During that time he was awarded two Bronze Stars. His third Bronze Star, earned during his final tour in Afghanistan, will be awarded posthumously. Also killed in Saturday's blast were First Lieutenant Ashley White a Cultural Support Team member, and fellow Ranger Private First Class Christopher A. Horns who was on his first combat deployment.
A fuel tanker with a bomb hidden on board exploded Tuesday October 25, 2011, on the road to Bagram Air Base, setting off an inferno that killed at least 10 people and left dozens more badly burned, many critically. The explosion happened in Parwan Province. It was the latest in a series of insurgent attacks in recent months in what had been the quiet provinces surrounding the capital. The tanker was carrying several tons of fuel bound for NATO forces at Bagram, the coalition's main air base and the logistical hub for military operations throughout Afghanistan. The blast rattled homes just as villagers here were sitting down for dinner. Instead of igniting, however, the fuel gushed out into a dry water channel on the side of the road. As villagers raced to the scene, many with buckets to collect fuel, the gasoline exploded into a fireball four stories high, enveloping dozens of men, women and children.
Afghanistan Friday October 28, 2011:
- Insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and international troops in eastern
Afghanistan, sparking a gun battle that left about 30 militants dead, NATO.
The joint Afghan-international force called for air support during the firefight
in Shinwar district of Nangarhar province. It is unclear whether any Afghan
or coalition forces were killed or wounded.
- In the south, a roadside bomb killed NATO service member in Kandahar province.
- The death raises to 480 the number of coalition forces killed in Afghanistan
so far this year.
- The U.S.-led alliance in tandem with Afghan police, repulsed on Thursday
a Taliban attack on a camp in Kandahar that is home to NATO troops. One Afghan
interpreter was killed in the attack, while one American civilian contractor
and two Afghan security guards were wounded. Five NATO service members also
were lightly wounded. Two car bombs went off as Afghan police were clearing
the compound but no one was hurt in the blast. The buildings had been rigged
with explosives, and NATO said its forces fired Hellfire missiles at the compound,
killing all four attackers.
- A civilian car struck a roadside bomb in Nangarhar province's Khogyani district,
killing two men, a woman and a child.
A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armoured NATO bus Saturday October 29, 2011, on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans and one Canadian. The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south. A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic movement claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, saying the bomber had used 1,540 pounds of explosives.
On Sunday October 23, 2011, a key Cabinet minister has survived an assassination attempt just north of Kabul. Bodyguards for Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi shot and killed a would-be suicide bomber who was waiting for the minister's convoy in Sayyed Khel district of Parwan province, north of the capital. The bodyguards checking security ahead of the minister became suspicious of the assailant. When the man continued walking toward them, they shot him dead. The minister was not yet on the scene. The attacker was wearing a suicide bomb vest, and he was killed before he could detonate his explosives. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
An Army Ranger who was on his 14th deployment to a combat zone has been killed in Afghanistan. Sgt. First Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, 29, was killed Saturday October 22, 2011, when the assault force he was with triggered a hidden roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. Domeij served four deployments in Iraq and another nine stints in Afghanistan. During that time he was awarded two Bronze Stars. His third Bronze Star, earned during his final tour in Afghanistan, will be awarded posthumously. Two other soldiers were also killed at the same time.
A fuel tanker with a bomb hidden on board exploded Tuesday October 24, 2011,
on the road to Bagram Air Base, killed at least 10 people and left dozens
more badly burned, many critically. The explosion happened in Parwan Province.
It was the latest in a series of insurgent attacks in recent months in what
had been the quiet provinces surrounding the capital. The tanker was carrying
several tons of fuel bound for NATO forces at Bagram
Insurgents attacked a U.S.-run civilian and military base with rocket-propelled
grenades and guns in the southern city of Kandahar, we were told on Thursday
October 27, 2011. Two attackers were killed. At least three insurgents took
over an office in front of the base and started shooting. Fighting continues
at the base, which is home to NATO troops, including Americans, and a provincial
reconstruction team.
Afghanistan, Friday October 28, 2011:
- Insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and international troops in eastern
Afghanistan, sparking a gun battle that left about 30 militants dead. The
joint Afghan-international force called for air support during the firefight
in Shinwar district of Nangarhar province.
- In the south, a roadside bomb killed NATO service member in Kandahar province.
The death raises to 480 the number of coalition forces killed in Afghanistan
so far this year.
- Earlier, the U.S.-led alliance in tandem with Afghan police, repulsed on
Thursday a Taliban attack on a camp in Kandahar that is home to NATO troops,
including Americans, and a provincial reconstruction team. One Afghan interpreter
was killed in the attack, while one American civilian contractor and two Afghan
security guards were wounded. Five NATO service members also were lightly
wounded. Two car bombs went off as Afghan police were clearing the compound
but no one was hurt in the blast.
- In other incidents across the country, a civilian car struck a roadside
bomb in Nangarhar province's Khogyani district, killing two men, a woman and
a child.
A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into an armoured NATO bus Saturday October 29, 2011, on a busy thoroughfare in Kabul, killing 17 people, including a dozen Americans. The blast occurred on the same day that a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed three Australian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in the south. A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic movement claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, saying the bomber had used 1,540 pounds of explosives. Two Britons working for a building contractor were among 17 people.
Insurgents driving a truck packed with explosives and attacking on foot killed at least five people, including three United Nations employees, in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar on Monday October 31, 2011. The driver of the pickup truck plowed into a checkpoint, detonating his explosives near the offices of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. At least two other insurgents then holed up inside a nearby building, exchanging fire with NATO and Afghan security forces for several hours before they were killed.
A suicide bomber blew up a checkpoint in Kandahar Monday October 31, 2011, and then three gunmen seized control of a building near the United Nations refugee office.
Two suicide bombers blew up a car packed with explosives at the entrance to a compound housing NATO contractors in western Afghanistan Thursday November 3, 2011, then three gunmen rushed in and held employees hostage during a gun battle. Two private security guards working at the compound and all five attackers were killed during the assault at ES-KO, a contractor for Italian troops deployed in Herat province. One NATO service member, an Afghan policeman and a private security guard were wounded. Thirty-one people were safely evacuated from the site.
On Thursday November 3, 2011, the Britain's defence ministry said a soldier from the 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment was shot dead while on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
A suicide bomber has killed at least seven people near a mosque in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province on Sunday November 6, 2011. The bomb went off as worshippers were leaving the mosque in Old Baghlan City after prayers marking the start of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Two police officers were among the dead; at least 18 people were wounded.
Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in east Afghanistan captured Bari Ali, a mid-level Taliban leader, during a cordon and search operation on Thursday November 3, 2011. Ali and two other individuals, one of which was identified as his brother, Roshan Zilmai, surrendered to coalition forces without incident. The ANA confiscated weapons, hand grenades, tactical fighting gear and multiple cell phones during the search. Also on Thursday in Laghman Province, another Haqqani leader Rashid Ahmad Arshad at a traffic control point was captured. The detained Arshad "aided Haqqani by moving weapons and contraband throughout eastern Afghanistan.
Eleven people died after a roadside bomb exploded in the northwestern Afghanistan province of Badghis, we were told on Tuesday November 8, 2011. Sediq Sediqi, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman, blamed the attack on the Taliban. The blast hit three police vehicles, killing two police officers and nine civilians from the same family, including six children. The other two civilians were women.
Australian troops are hunting for a rogue Afghan soldier who shot and wounded
three diggers, just 10 days after three Australians were killed in a similar
attack. The Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier opened fire on Australian and
Afghan troops using an automatic weapon and a grenade launcher while he was
on duty in a guard tower at a joint patrol base at Charmistan in Uruzgan province
on Tuesday November 8, 2011. The three wounded Australian soldiers are in
a serious condition in a Kandahar hospital this morning. Two Afghan soldiers
were also wounded in the attack.
On Wednesday November 9, 2011, insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades
and artillery staged a fierce six-hour siege of an American-run base near
the Pakistan border, but the attack was repelled and as many as 70 assailants
were killed. No casualties were reported among the U.S. and Afghan forces
inside Combat Outpost Marga, in the Barmal district of Paktika province. But
the strike, which began Tuesday evening and continued into the early hours
of Wednesday, reflected the continuing intensity of combat in eastern Afghanistan,
which lies close to Pakistan's tribal areas.
A British soldier has been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan -the 385th fatality since the campaign began. The soldier, from the 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, died on Wednesday November 9, 2011, at Babaji in Helmand province. Last week Private Matthew Haseldin, 21, of Settle, North Yorkshire, was killed in Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents attacked a district government centre in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday November 10, 2011, while American troops were meeting with local officials inside, wounding three American soldiers and killing three Afghan police officers. The attack was carried out by a group of 5 to 10 insurgents, some wearing suicide vests, who also took two Afghan officials hostage at the Chamkani district government building in Paktia Province. The hostages included the local chief of the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service, as well as the deputy governor of the district.
Afghan forces arrested a man believed to be a prominent Taliban spokesman in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday November 16, 2011. However, a Taliban spokesman said he was free and that the report was propaganda. The government said that it was confident that the man police arrested in Sar Hawza district of Paktika province was Zabiullah Mujahid, one of a handful of top spokesmen for the insurgent group.
A soldier from 2nd Battalion The Rifles has died following an explosion in southern Afghanistan we were told on Thursday November 17, 2011. The soldier was serving with the 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment and was in the Mirmandab region of Nahr-e Saraj when he was killed by a bomb. This latest death means the number of British military fatalities in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 386.
A British soldier was killed Sunday November 20, 2011, in an improvised explosive device blast in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. The soldier, from the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, was a member of a joint foot patrol with Afghan National Security Forces in the Nahr-e Saraj area when he was killed in the IED explosion. The death brought to 389 the number of British troops killed since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
The US and NATO said on November 21, 2011 that forces should resist the demand by the recent Loya Jirga in Kabul to stop night raids as this has been one of the most effective asymmetric counterinsurgency tactics since the war in Afghanistan began. Night raids are a highly sensitive issue in the conservative Afghan society, where the mere act of strangers entering a home and seeing women living inside is considered a grave offence. Afghan district and provincial leaders are under pressure from the Taliban, whose apparchiks are riddled through the Afghanistan political system, because they are so successful.
Six children were among seven civilians killed in a NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan. The deaths occurred on Wednesday November 23, 2011, in the Zhare district of Kandahar Province and two insurgents were also killed. The authorities were aware of the strike and had sent a team to the district to investigate.
The political fallout from a NATO airstrike in Pakistan that was operated out of Afghanistan and killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers became clearer on Sunday November 27, 2011, as Pakistan seethed over the attack and the United States scrambled to contain the damage to an already frayed relationship. Afghan officials, meanwhile, worried that they would bear the immediate brunt of Pakistan's wrath and that the Pakistanis would follow through on threats to withdraw from an international conference on Afghanistan's security and development that is scheduled for December 5.
A British soldier has been killed by an explosion in Afghanistan while on foot patrol to disrupt insurgent activity. The serviceman, from the 5th Battalion The Rifles, died on Sunday November 27, 2011, in the Babaji area of the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province after a makeshift bomb went off.
Afghan forces will assume control of their own security in 18 new areas, some of them still troubled by insurgents, bringing half of the country's population under the government's nominal authority we were told on Sunday November 27, 2011. Unlike the first stage of transition, which included places that were already peaceful and for the most part already under government control, this one includes many areas where Taliban insurgents remain active. Among the troubled areas being handed off by the NATO-led coalition are central Helmand Province, several districts in Wardak Province and Sarobi District, here in the rugged mountains in eastern Kabul Province.
On November 28, 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says his country will withdraw another 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. About 200 French service members returned home last month as part of the security transition process in Afghanistan. Mr. Sarkozy said the handover of Kabul province, including the Surobi district, allows more French troops to return home. He also said France will sign a treaty with Afghanistan to reinforce civilian aid and reconstruction efforts.
Drawdown plans announced on November 29, 2011, by the U.S. and more than a dozen other nations will shrink the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan by 40,000 troops at the close of next year, leaving Afghan forces increasingly on the frontlines of the decade-long war. The United States is pulling out the most -33,000 by the end of 2012. That's one-third of 101,000 American troops who were in Afghanistan in June- the peak of U.S. military presence in the war, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. Others in the 49-nation coalition have announced withdrawal plans too, even as they insist they are not rushing to leave. Many nations have vowed to keep troops in Afghanistan to continue training the Afghan police and army in the years to come. And many have pledged to keep sending aid to the impoverished country after the international combat mission ends in 2014. Still, the exit is making Afghans nervous.
Afghanistan, Tuesday December 6, 2011:
- A suicide attack killed dozens of Shiite Muslims at a crowded Kabul shrine;
four others died in a smaller blast in a northern city.
- The Kabul bomb was the deadliest in the capital since 2008. Bodies and blood
were scattered down a street in the heart of old Kabul where a crowd of hundreds
had gathered to mark the festival of Ashura. At least 55 were killed and 160
wounded, some critically.
- Shortly after the Kabul blast, a bicycle bomb exploded near the main mosque
in northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, killing four, injuring 17 others, and sparking
a fight at a university mosque where Shiites and Sunnis were both praying.
Four people were injured in the mosque scuffle, which broke out when worshippers
began arguing about the blast. Police defused a mine, found near the site
of the explosion.
- A motorbike bomb was aimed at Shiite worshippers in southern Kandahar city.
It exploded prematurely, injuring two policemen and three civilians, but causing
no deaths.
Spain's defence minister said Tuesday December 6, 2011, that the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Afghanistan will begin in January, once Afghan President Hamid Karzai decides his government's forces can assume responsibility for security in the northwestern province of Badghis.
A British soldier has died in hospital from injuries sustained when a roadside bomb exploded in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. The soldier, from 35 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, was brought to the UK for treatment after Tuesday December 6, 2011's blast in the Nahr-e Saraj district. He died on Thursday at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. The number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 is 391.
The death toll from last week's attacks on Shiites has risen to at least 80, Afghanistan's president said on Sunday December 11, 2011. Hamid Karzai said that the December 6 bombings were carried out by people seeking to undermine peace and stability. Karzai did not say if the toll included only those killed in the suicide bombing of Shiite crowds gathered around a shrine in Kabul, or also those killed in another blast on the same day targeting Shiites in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sarif. The original death toll was 56 killed and more than 160 wounded in Kabul, and four killed in Mazar-i-Sharif.The Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility.
Several -at least four- suicide bombers attacked a police station in the west of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday December 16, 2011. One bomber detonated his explosives and police fought the others, who were armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. There were no casualties. Earlier, a Reuters witness heard gunfire and at least two explosions.
President Obama's order to withdraw 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year has been accomplished, a little more than a week before the year-end deadline, we were told on Thursday December 22, 2011. The drawdown is the first step in the plan to wind down the war, transition security to Afghan forces and end the combat role for international troops by the end of 2014. It also gives the Obama administration a second war-related accomplishment to tout this month -coming just a week after U.S. officials marked the end of the war in Iraq and the last convoy of American soldiers rumbled out of that country into Kuwait.
A Royal Marine has been killed on December 22, 2011, by an explosion south of the Afghan capital Kabul. The marine was fatally wounded after the vehicle in which he was travelling was struck by the blast. The death came as almost 1,000 Afghan and British troops carried out an offensive to secure three key transit routes in part of Helmand province. The number of UK personnel killed in the country since 2001 stands at 392.
New Zealand's elite commandos will pull out of Afghanistan in March, the nation's prime minister said Thursday December 22, 2011, ending the Special Air Service troops' eight-year engagement in the war against insurgents. The 35-troop contingent will leave the Afghan capital, Kabul, after spending the past two years training the city's Crisis Response Unit soldiers to take the lead in securing the city. Two SAS soldiers were killed in action this year, the country's first combat deaths in a decade.
A Royal Air Force serviceman who was injured in an explosion in Afghanistan has died at a UK hospital. He was flown to the UK after being wounded when his vehicle was caught in a blast south of Kabul on Thursday December 22, 2011. He died of his wounds at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, on Friday. The number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since military operations there began in 2001 stands at 393.
A suicide bomber struck a funeral gathering in northern Afghanistan on Sunday December 25, 2011, killing at least 19 people, including a member of parliament. The attack, which also left dozens of mourners injured, took place in the city of Taloquan, the capital of Takhar province, north of Kabul, where relatively few coalition troops are present and the insurgents are thought to be gaining strength. The slain lawmaker was Abdul Matlab Baik, a well known anti-Taliban figure. He was targeted in the attack. Baik had previously served as provincial police chief and as a deputy minister of tribal affairs in the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Three NATO service members have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan . The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the target was a U.S. military convoy. NATO's statement said that the deaths occurred Tuesday December 27, 2011. The Taliban said the attack took place in Paktiya province. The latest deaths bring December's toll of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan to 23, for a total of 539 deaths so far this year. The yearly tally is considerably lower than for 2010, when more than 700 troops died. The number of wounded has remained high, dipping only slightly from last year's total of more than 5,000 service members. Also Tuesday, a community council leader in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province was shot and killed by insurgents along with his 20-year-old son and two-year-old grandson.
As of Tuesday, December 27, 2011, at least 1,737 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. At least 1,460 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 103 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 12 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts three military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 15,138 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
For the second time in a week, a man wearing an Afghan Army uniform attacked NATO personnel on Thursday December 29, 2011, gunning down two members of the French Foreign Legion in eastern Afghanistan before being fatally shot. The French government later identified the two as legionnaires and said they had been "deliberately shot by an Afghan National Army soldier."
A soldier from 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment has been killed. He was
killed by an explosion on December 30, 2011, in the Nahr-e Saraj district
of Helmand Province while taking part in a foot patrol. The number of UK personnel
killed in Afghanistan since military operations there began in 2001 now stands
at 394.
A British soldier from the 1st Battalion the Royal Ghurkha Rifles who was injured in Afghanistan in June 2010 has died in hospital. The soldier died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Monday January 2, 2012, following wounds sustained after he was caught in a bomb blast. The deaths bring the total number of UK military personnel killed in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 to 395.
Two British men arrested in Afghanistan with 30 AK-47 assault rifles have been charged with weapons smuggling, we were told on Thursday January 5, 2012, but their employer denied the allegations. The men, named as Julian Steele and James Davis, were paraded at a news conference which heard that they were detained while driving through Kabul and had told police they were working for a private security company, Garda World.
The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said eight of its service members died in three separate incidents across southern Afghanistan in about 24 hours January 6, 2012 Homemade bombs planted in the ground killed seven troops -four died Friday and three were killed Thursday night. Insurgents engaged coalition forces in a firefight Friday, killing an eighth service member.
An Afghan soldier turned his gun on American military personnel while they were playing volleyball at a camp in southern Afghanistan, killing one and wounding three others before being fatally shot we were told on Monday January 9, 2012. The attack took place on Sunday afternoon in Qalat, the capital of Zabul Province. The Afghan soldier approached the volleyball game and appeared to watch the soldiers play before opening fire with an M-16 assault rifle. Another American soldier who heard the firing shot and killed the attacker.
A teenage suicide bomber managed to slip through tight security into police headquarters in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province Wednesday January 11, 2012, but blew himself up before he could reach the police chief he was targeting. A policeman was wounded in the attack.
Three suicide attackers stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday January 10, 2012, setting off a seven-hour gunfight with Afghan soldiers and police officers that left 10 people dead, including the attackers,. Three police officers and four government workers were killed in the attack on the building, of the Telecommunications Ministry, in Sharana, the capital of Paktika Province. Another police officer and two government workers were wounded, he said. The attackers had suicide vests and carried rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles. They shot one guard at the entrance and another guard returned fire, killing one of the attackers. The other two attackers sought cover in the upper floors of the three-story building, where they exchanged fire with Afghan Army soldiers and police officers who surrounded the ministry. Eventually two explosions were heard. It was not clear whether the attackers had set off their suicide vests or the explosions were caused by the rocket-propelled grenades.
A suicide car bomber killed a district governor, his two young sons and two bodyguards in southern Kandahar province on Thursday January 12, 2012. The blast targeted the governor of Panjwai district, Sayed Fazluddin Agha, as he was travelling home from Kandahar city. Nine policemen and a civilian were also wounded. The attack came a day after a teenage suicide bomber managed to slip through tight security into Kandahar's police headquarters in an attempt to assassinate the police chief. He blew himself up without killing anyone else.
Two Australian soldiers have been wounded after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in south-west Afghanistan. The soldiers were travelling in their Bushmaster vehicle when it hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in Uruzgan province on Friday January 13, 2012. The incident occurred a few kilometres south of the multi-national base at Tarin Kot during a troop transfer.
An aircraft crashed in flames in the Nad-i-Ali district of Helmand province on Monday January 16, 2012. Taliban insurgents claimed to have shot down the helicopter, but the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a mechanical problem. The aircraft was operated by a Florida-based company called AAR Airlift, which according to its website has a contract to provide "airlift for the Department of Defence" in Afghanistan. All three people on-board were killed.
Afghanistan Tuesday January 17, 2012:
- A combined Afghan and coalition security force called in an airstrike that
killed two insurgents in the Manduzai district of Afghanistan's Khost province.
The force was searching for a Haqqani network leader who operates an insurgent
cell in the Nadir Shah Kot district and plans roadside-bomb attacks. The security
force observed some insurgents burying a 100-pound bomb near a road and called
for the precision airstrike that killed the two insurgents. Three others were
detained. The security force also confiscated a rocket-propelled grenade,
multiple firearms and bomb-making materials.
- A combined force seized bomb-making materials, weapons and ammunition and
detained several suspects while searching for a Taliban facilitator in the
Baghlan-e Jadid district of Baghlan province. The facilitator makes explosives,
constructs roadside bombs and supplies bomb-making materials to insurgent
groups.
- A combined force captured a Haqqani network leader and two other suspects
in the Nadir Shah Kot district of Khost province. The leader trained insurgent
fighters and directed roadside-bomb attacks.
In operations yesterday:
- A combined force killed an insurgent, detained several suspects and seized
weapons while searching for a Taliban facilitator in the Kajaki district of
Helmand province. The facilitator operates a network in the Musa Qalah district
and distributes weapons and explosives to insurgents.
- A combined force killed several insurgents and seized 880 pounds of opium,
1,562 pounds of drug-producing chemicals and miscellaneous equipment in Helmand's
Now Zad district.
- Afghan and coalition forces killed seven insurgents and detained five suspects
during several operations in eastern Afghanistan.
- In the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a combined patrol seized about
6,600 pounds of hashish.
In Jan. 15 operations:
- A combined force detained several suspects and seized about 2,530 pounds
of opium, several firearms and ammunition in the Washer district of Helmand
province.
- A combined patrol discovered a cache containing firearms, grenades, and
about 850 rounds of ammunition in Helmand's Nad-e Ali district.
- In the Nawah district of Ghazni province, a combined force found several
bombs containing a total of about 100 pounds of explosives.
In January 14 operations:
- In the Dand district of Kandahar province, a combined force detained two
suspects during a search for a Taliban leader linked to a recent suicide-bomb
attack against an Afghan police official.
In January 13 operations:
- A combined patrol found finished bombs and about 165 pounds of explosives
in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province.
-In the Jalalabad district of Nangarhar province, a combined patrol discovered
about 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a banned fertilizer insurgents use
to make explosives.
- Afghan security forces detained the two top figures in a narcotics ring
operating out of the Shinwar district of Nangahar province. The Afghan-led
operation, supported by coalition forces, also resulted in detention of eight
people allegedly linked to narcotics activities.
In January 12 operations:
A combined force called in an airstrike that killed a Taliban leader and an
associate in the Marah Warah district of Kunar province. The leader directed
insurgent fighters who planned and led attacks against Afghan forces and led
a June attack against a school-opening ceremony in the Daridam village.
Thirteen people have died in two attacks in southern Helmand province on Wednesday
January 18, 2012. In the first, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed seven
civilians and two police officers in a bazaar in Kajaki district. Nato said
some of its personnel are among the wounded. In a second attack, claimed by
the Taliban, a roadside bomb killed a local intelligence official and at least
two others in Nad-e-Ali district. The bomb hit the vehicle in which the National
Department of Security (NDS) chief Wali Mohammad was travelling. It killed
him and two of his friends, including an influential tribal elder. Three other
people were injured. Wali Mohammad was considered one of the most effective
officials in the area. Both he and the tribal elder who was killed with him
were considered crucial in bringing Taliban fighters and commanders into the
government, he adds.
Allied forces suffered a day of heavy losses in Afghanistan Friday January 20, 2012, after a helicopter crash killed six U.S. Marines and an attack killed four French soldiers, prompting Paris to consider an early troop withdrawal. The Marines died after their CH-53 helicopter crashed in Helmand province. An Afghan soldier killed four French soldiers and injured 15 others, one critically, in eastern Afghanistan. President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was suspending French training operations and combat help as a result. "The French army is not in Afghanistan to be shot at by Afghan soldiers," Sarkozy said. France could bring its troops back early from Afghanistan if the necessary security is not restored. France has 3,935 troops in Afghanistan. The suspected shooter, who was a member of the Afghan National Army, has been apprehended.
A soldier from 200 Signals Squadron died at a Nato patrol base in the Nahr-e Saraj district in Helmand province on January 22, 2012, but the death was not thought to be as a result of hostile action. The number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since military operations there began in 2001 now stands at 396.
A British soldier from the 1st Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment has been killed in Afghanistan on January 27, 2012. The soldier was serving as a part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (North), and was a member of an International Security Assistance Force foot patrol to disrupt insurgent activity when he received a fatal gunshot wound. The death brings to 397 the total number of British forces personnel or MoD civilians to have died while serving in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001.
A suicide bomber exploded a car near a British reconstruction team travelling in a convoy through the centre of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan on Thursday January 26, 2012, killing four Afghans, including a child, and wounding 31 others. Three British citizens were hurt in the explosion. It was unclear whether the convoy was the target of the attack.
A powerful car bomb detonated outside a police station in the southern city of Kandahar killed seven people on Sunday February 5, 2012, including five police officers and a child. At least 19 people were injured in the blast, including three children, two women and six police officers. Windows were shattered in nearby buildings, and a charred crater marked the site of the explosion. In northern Afghanistan, in Sar-e-Pul province, an American soldier had shot and killed an Afghan guard at a military base; the fatal incident was the result of a misunderstanding. The American apparently believed the guard was about to attack him.
NATO forces say one of their helicopters has crashed in eastern Afghanistan, and all aboard survived. No enemy activity was noted in the area of Monday February 6, 2012.'s crash.
A shooting in Kandahar on Tuesday February 7, 2012, has left five dead, including two police officers and three private security guards. A man who was part of a force guarding a checkpoint opened fire during an argument overnight and fled. He did not say if the attacker was a police officer or a security guard. Four police officers were also wounded in the shooting and that all involved were Afghans. It's not clear what the argument was about.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai accused NATO on Thursday February 9, 2012, of killing a number of children in an airstrike in the Najrab district of eastern Kapisa province.
Five policemen have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. The policemen were patrolling in their vehicle when it hit a roadside mine in Chanartu district of Uruzgan province. One civilian also was wounded in the blast, which occurred on Saturday February 11, 2012.
Afghanistan Saturday February 11, 2012:
- Gunmen burst into a family home of a provincial judge in eastern Afghanistan,
killing him and his eight-year-old niece. Mohammad Nasir, the head of the
appeals court for Kunar province, was visiting family in neighbouring Nangarhar
province Saturday February 11, 2012, when gunmen stormed into his sister-in-law's
house and opened fire. Nasir's wife and another five children were wounded.
- Separately, the director of a medical clinic in Helmand province was found
dead after being kidnapped a week ago by unknown gunmen.
- In another part of Helmand province, a roadside bomb killed three civilians
in Washir district.
- A helicopter operated by U.S. military contractors crashed in the mountains
of Zabul province, killing all four Tajik crew members. The contractors, Supreme
Group, said the helicopter was carrying cargo used for its contracts to supply
food and water to U.S. forces.
NATO-led forces said on Monday February 13, 2012 they found the bodies of dead children after a coalition air strike that has enraged the Afghan government, and said their deaths may have been linked to an anti-insurgent operation in the area. The air strike took place last Wednesday near the village of Giawa, in eastern Kapisa province.
NATO-led forces said on Wednesday February 15, 2012, they killed eight young Afghans in eastern Kapisa province last week in an air strike. The victims appeared (!) to be carrying weapons and were walking in a menacing manner, prompting ISAF forces in the area to request air support. The aircraft dropped two bombs on the group that we believed to be an imminent threat to our people. In the end, eight young Afghans lost their lives in this very sad event."
A roadside bomb has killed four civilians in southern Kandahar province.
The four were killed on Sunday February 19, 2012, when their car drove over
the bomb.
Suspected Afghan police opened fire on Albanian and other foreign troops Monday February 20, 2012,, killing two Albanian soldiers and prompting the arrest of 11 Afghan policemen. Another international soldier was wounded. The shooting occurred in the village of Robat, in the southern district of Spin Boldak near the Pakistani border. The troops were accompanying a USAID team for a meeting about opening two schools and a health centre. The soldiers "found themselves attacked by a group of persons wearing uniforms of the Afghan police. The remaining soldiers "arrested 11 Afghan policemen who opened fire."
Three Italian soldiers died Monday February 20, 2012, in a car accident in western Afghanistan. The Italian soldiers were in a convoy going to survey a canal project in Herat's Shindand district when their vehicle crashed into a canal.
An individual wearing an Afghan army uniform shot and killed two coalition soldiers in eastern Afghanistan during one of the many protests that have erupted across the country over the burning of Qurans. The deadly incident occurred Thursday February 23, 2012, outside a coalition military base in Nangarhar province. Earlier, the Taliban issued a statement calling on Afghans to launch attacks on foreign targets in retaliation for the desecration of the Muslim holy book. At least another eight people have been killed, including two Nato soldiers, in violence across Afghanistan, after the burning of the Koran at a US base. Many others were injured in the protests, while armed men also attacked at least two military installations.
On Saturday February 25, 2012, NATO has recalled all staff working at Afghan government ministries after two U.S. officers were shot dead at close range inside a secure command centre at the Interior Ministry in Kabul. The official account indicated a member of the Afghan security forces turned his weapon on the Americans who worked as advisers at the ministry. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting, and said the attack was retaliation for the burning of Qurans by NATO personnel a week ago.
A nationwide manhunt was under way on Sunday February 26, 2012, for the chief suspect in the shooting of two American military officers working in the Interior Ministry. In addition a grenade thrown by protesters wounded at least six American service members in northern Afghanistan.
On Sunday February 26, 2012, France and Germany are following the US and Britain in withdrawing civilian staff from government institutions in the wake of the killing of two senior US Nato officers. France and Germany said they were acting on security concerns.
A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into the gates of a NATO base and airport in the city of Jalalabad on Monday February 27, 2012, triggering a blast that killed nine Afghans. The Taliban claimed the attack was revenge for U.S. troops burning copies of the Koran. The bombing follows six days of deadly protests in the country over the disposal of Korans and other Islamic texts in a burn pit last week at a U.S. military base north of Kabul.
Two American soldiers were killed Thursday March 1, 2012, in a shooting by an Afghan soldier and a literacy teacher at a joint base in southern Afghanistan following the burning of Korans by U.S. soldiers. Both were killed on the same day that the top NATO commander allowed a small number of foreign advisers to return to work at Afghan ministries after more than a week of being locked down in secure locations because of the killing of two other Americans. Thursday's killings raised to six the number of Americans killed in less than two weeks amid heightened tensions over the February 20 burning of Korans and other Islamic texts that had been dumped in a garbage pit at Bagram Air Field near Kabul. More than 30 Afghans also were killed in six days of violent riots that broke out after the incident.
A suicide bomber killed at least two Afghan civilians and wounded four others after detonating explosives at the gates of the U.S. military base at Bagram on Monday March 5, 2012. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying it was revenge for the burning of Qurans several weeks ago at the Bagram Air Base. No coalition troops were harmed in the attack and the bomber did not breach the base. In eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed a member of the Afghan security forces and wounded 11 others in an attack on a police checkpoint in the city of Jalalabad.
Six British soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan when their
vehicle was hit by an explosion. Five from 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment
and one from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment had been on patrol
in Kandahar province on Tuesday March 6, 2012. It is the biggest single loss
of UK life at one time in Afghanistan since a Nimrod crash killed 14 in 2006.
The explosion is thought to have been caused by a very large Taliban bomb.
The number of British military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 404.
Sixteen Afghan civilians, including nine children and three women, were shot
dead in what witnesses described as a nighttimes massacre on Sunday March
11, 2012, near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan. The incident is sure to
further inflame Afghan anger triggered when U.S. soldiers burned copies of
the Koran at a NATO base. An American staff sergeant from a unit based in
Washington state was in custody after the attack on villagers in three houses.
Multiple civilians were also wounded. There were conflicting reports of how
many shooters were involved. U.S. officials said that a lone soldier was responsible,
in contrast to witnesses' accounts that several U.S. soldiers were present.
Neighbours and relatives of the dead said they had seen a group of U.S. soldiers
arrive at their village in Kandahar's Panjwayi district at about 2 a.m., enter
homes and open fire. An Afghan man who said his children were killed in the
shooting spree accused soldiers of later burning the bodies. President Obama
said he was deeply saddened. Afghan President Karzai condemned the rampage
as "intentional murders" and demanded an explanation from the United
States.
On Monday March 12, 2012, the soldier at the centre of the Afghanistan shootings has been moved from the outpost where he served to detention in a larger U.S. base in Afghanistan. The soldier, an Army staff sergeant, who acted alone and turned himself in after opening fire on civilians. He is in U.S. custody as investigators try to establish what motivated him. He is in his mid-30s and has served several tours in Iraq, but he is on his first deployment to Afghanistan. He arrived in Afghanistan in January and was supporting the Green Berets. The suspect is from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state; he was assigned to a Special Forces unit. The probe is now being led by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command.
The massacre of 16 villagers by a U.S. soldier triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit even as the Obama administration vowed on Monday March 12, 2012, that the killings would not alter U.S. plans for the war. Just days before Sunday's attack, Kabul and Washington had made significant progress in negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement that would allow American advisers and special forces to stay in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014. But securing a full deal may be far more difficult now.
The U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians over the weekend is not talking and is generally not cooperating with investigators, we were told on Tuesday March 13, 2012, as details of his arrest began to emerge in a case that could lead to an insanity plea or possibly the death penalty. On Sunday, the soldier, whose name is being withheld until charges are filed, reportedly walked off the U.S. base in Kandahar province -where he had been stationed for just six weeks- and allegedly entered homes in a nearby village, shooting people while they slept. Nine children and three women are among the dead, and some of whose bodies were apparently burned.
Militants riding motorcycles attacked a high-level Afghan government delegation during a memorial service on Tuesday March 13, 2012, in the village where an American soldier is said to have killed 16 people, mostly children and women, in a door-to-door rampage two days earlier. The assault, on a mosque in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, left at least one Afghan soldier dead and punctured the calm that had largely prevailed in Afghanistan since the massacre. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Taliban. But the attack belied the Afghan government's efforts to present itself as in control of the situation in Kandahar, where anger over Sunday's killings is perhaps deepest. At the memorial there was 20 minutes of heavy gunfire that pinned down members of the delegation, including Qayum Karzai and Shah Wali Karzai, brothers of President Hamid Karzai; Gen. Shir Muhammad Karami, the chief of staff of the Afghan Army; the provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa; and the deputy interior minister, Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahman. They appeared to have escaped unharmed, and soon after the gunfire subsided sped back to Kandahar city.
The U.S. military flew the soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers to Kuwait Wednesday March 14, 2012, for long-term detention. The Army staff sergeant, who has not been named or charged, was transferred from Afghanistan because there are no U.S. jails there that meet military code for long-term stays.
A tense visit to Afghanistan by Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta got off to an alarming start on Wednesday March 14, 2012, when a stolen pickup truck sped onto a ramp alongside a runway at a British military airfield and crashed into a ditch as Mr. Panetta's plane was landing. Mr. Panetta was not hurt, but Pentagon officials said the Afghan driver emerged from the vehicle in flames. No explosives were found on the driver, a civilian, or in the truck. But it reinforced the lack of security in Afghanistan at the beginning of his two-day visit.
The soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers was on his way to a U.S. military prison, we were told on Friday March 16, 2012, as the soldier's attorney spoke of the impact the fighting had on his client. The soldier was en route to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the military's only maximum-security prison.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday March 16, 2012, lashed out at the United States for failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a U.S. staff sergeant and questioned whether only one soldier could have been involved. A series of blunders by the United States, including the killings in Kandahar province on Sunday and the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base last month, has further strained already tense relations between the countries.
Afghans continued to grieve, and continued to fume, as a new day dawned on
Sunday March 18, 2012, exactly one week after a U.S. soldier -described by
some who knew him as "happy" and a "nice guy"- allegedly
went house to house, shooting dead 16 villagers. Much to the villagers' disgust,
decorated combat veteran Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is more than 7,000 miles
away from where he is suspected of single-handedly carrying out the grisly
attack.
A roadside bomb exploded in Kandahar province on Saturday March 24, 2012, killing a U.S. soldier, seven Afghan police officers and an Afghan translator. The blast occurred while Afghan security personnel and U.S.-led coalition forces were about to defuse an improvised explosive device at Kohak village in Arghandab district. Also Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded in Tarin Kot, the capital of neighbouring Uruzgan province, killing two tribal elders and their two police bodyguards. One of the elders was Haji Khairo Jan, a former senator and a close ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The elders were driving to their homes when their car was hit by the bomb. Dushanbe, the capital of neighbouring Tajikistan, was rocked by an explosion on Sunday. Dushanbe is this week hosting a conference on economic cooperation for Afghanistan.
Afghan security forces killed three members of the coalition on Monday March 26, 2012, in two separate incidents, amid concerns about American hopes of ceding primary responsibility for protecting the country to Afghan forces as soon as next year. An Afghan soldier killed two British troops at the gate of their base in southern Afghanistan while a man believed to be a member of a local U.S.-trained militia killed an American soldier in the east.
Shaima Alawadi and her family fled Iraq nearly two decades ago as Saddam Hussein crushed a Shiite uprising, settling in the U.S. so they would no longer face persecution, a family friend said. Alawadi, 32, grew up in the country's largest Iraqi enclaves, wore the Muslim headscarf and volunteered at the mosque. Now, after her body was found severely beaten in her suburban San Diego home, police, the FBI and members of the Iraqi community are wondering whether her death was a hate crime or something else. Among the evidence that police have collected is a threatening note that was near Alawadi's body. Her daughter told a television station that it said: "Go back to your country, you terrorist." El Cajon Police Chief James Redman declined to discuss the contents of the note Monday, though he said that it has led police to regard the killing as a possible hate crime.
Afghanistan Tuesday March 27, 2012:
- The Afghan Defence Ministry was locked down for two hours after an intelligence
report warned that the highly secured compound in the heart of Kabul was under
threat of attack. Afghan officials said later the report was false.
- A NATO service member died in an explosion in the south, and a militant
who led operations for an al-Qaida-linked terror group was killed by Afghan
and coalition troops in the north.
- In Kabul, two Afghan officials said the lockdown at the ministry emerged
from faulty intelligence.
- Several news organizations reported that on Monday, nearly a dozen vests
packed with explosives were found, and more than a dozen suspects, including
Afghan soldiers, were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to attack
the ministry. The ministry said the media reports baseless.
- A second statement said, "Sixteen people have not been captured. Eleven
suicide vests have not been recovered."
- So far this year, 86 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
- Also, the coalition said the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
in Afghanistan was killed Monday in Faryab province. During the operation
in Shirin Tagab district, insurgents fired on Afghan and coalition troops.
The joint force returned fire, killing Makhdum Nusrat. Two other insurgents
were detained along with a cache of weapons.
Two hundred French troops said goodbye to the war in Afghanistan on Wednesday March 28, 2012, as part of France's accelerated pullout from the country. In January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a faster-track exit for France, breaking from previous plans to go along with to the U.S.-led coalition's plan to withdraw combat forces by the end of 2014. Sarkozy said France would speed up its withdrawal timetable, pulling out 1,000 -- 400 more than its previous target- of its current 3,600 soldiers by year-end and withdraw all combat forces by the end of 2013. His announcement came a week after four unarmed French troops were killed by an Afghan soldier in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan.
A police officer in eastern Afghanistan shot dead nine of his colleagues
as they slept Friday March 30, 2012, and then fled in a government vehicle
full of guns and ammunition. The nine had been drugged earlier. The incident,
which took place in Paktika province, marks one of the deadliest cases of
fratricide in Afghanistan this year.
A remote-controlled bomb in southern Afghanistan killed a police official Sunday April 1, 2012, who had survived multiple previous attempts on his life. Toor Jan, an officer in charge of several checkpoints in Uruzgan province's capital Tarin Kot, died along with one of his bodyguards when their vehicle passed through an area where explosives had been planted. On Saturday, a roadside bomb killed two local council members and an Afghan policeman in Gizab district of Uruzgan province. Two other council members were wounded when their car hit a second bomb nearby.
A motorcycle bomb has killed one police officer and wounded two others in a southern city. The motorcycle was parked outside a police station in Kandahar city when it exploded on Monday April 2, 2012. Twin bomb blasts in the city of New Baghlan on Monday wounded 23 people, including eight police officers. The bombs exploded near a market selling computer equipment.
As of Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at least 1,794 members of the U.S. military
have died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan
in late 2001. At least 1,495 military service members have died in Afghanistan
as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, at least 110 more members
of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those,
12 were the result of hostile action. There was also three military civilian
deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 15,560
U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
NATO says a roadside bomb killed one of its service members in southern Afghanistan.
The service member was killed on Tuesday April 3, 2012. So far this year,
94 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least
52 Americans.
The Taliban are claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday April 4, 2012, that killed at least 10 people, including three American soldiers. NATO said that three of its service members -all Americans- were killed in a bombing. Norway and Germany, which have troops in northern Afghanistan, say none of their soldiers were involved. Shortly before noon, the bomber detonated his explosives at the gate of the park in Maimanah, the capital of Faryab province. Four of the 10 killed were Afghan police officers. At least 20 people were wounded.
Attacks in northern and western Afghanistan killed at least 10 members of the Afghan Local Police force Thursday April 5, 2012. In one attack, a suicide bomber walked up to a group of Afghan Local Police members near a girls' school in the Kishim district of Badakhshan province in the far northeast and detonated his explosives. The explosion killed the force's district commander, Nazek Mir, and his bodyguard. Mir was a locally prominent ex-Taliban commander who abandoned the insurgency several months ago to lead a new Western-trained fighting force. Sixteen other officers and civilians were injured, eight of them critical. Mir was the apparent target. In a second attack, a team of insurgents stormed an Afghan Local Police outpost in the Khaki Safid district of the western province of Farah, killing eight police officers. The gunmen first shot a guard outside of the compound, then rushed in and opened fire on those inside. The insurgents then fled in a police vehicle. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Farah attack. In other violence, a suicide bomber struck a bazaar in a northeastern district Thursday, killing two people and wounding 16 others.
Afghanistan, Friday April 6, 2012:
- Four Afghan policemen were killed on Friday. The policemen died in three
separate incidents in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
- One was killed when the Taliban attacked in Marjah district.
- A second died when a roadside bomb he was searching for exploded in Washer
district.
- Two others were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside mine in Gereskh
district.
- In neighbouring Kandahar province, a fuel tanker overturned and caught fire
on Friday, killing seven people. Three other civilians were seriously wounded
in the morning incident in Panjwai district. The Taliban claimed they fired
a rocket at the fuel tanker, causing it to explode but local authorities said
that no rockets were fired.
- In northeastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber assassinated the head of the
peace council in Kunar province, which works to bring Taliban fighters to
the negotiating table. The bomber set off his explosives near Sayed Fazelullah
Wahidi, who was walking home from Friday prayers with his son and a bodyguard
in Watapoor district.
- Separately, the coalition reported the deaths of two NATO service members.
One was killed Thursday in a roadside bomb explosion in the south. The other
died Friday following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan. No other
details were disclosed. So far this year, 99 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan.
- Also, the coalition reported that an unmanned aerial vehicle crashed Friday
in northern Afghanistan. The cause of the crash was being investigated. No
one was injured.
A member of an al-Qaida-linked group who helped finance attacks against Afghan and foreign forces has been captured in northern Afghanistan -the third operative from the group detained or killed in the past two weeks, we were told on Saturday April 7, 2012. Separately in the east, three employees of an Afghan construction company died Saturday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb
At least ten Taliban insurgents were killed and 14 others captured in eight joint operations by coalition and local forces in different parts of Afghanistan on Saturday April 7, 2012. One insurgent was also wounded and 14 others arrested. The joint operations were carried out in the troubled southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, as also in northern Badakhshan area and eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan. No Afghan or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) casualties were reported in the joint operations.
Suicide bombers in western and southern Afghanistan killed at least 16 other people Tuesday April 10, 2012, including several policeman. The largest attack took place in the western Herat province when police blocked a Toyota 4-wheel drive vehicle loaded with explosives from entering a district police headquarters. Three suicide bombers inside then detonated the vehicle at the gate of the compound. The blast killed at least nine people, including three police officers, and wounded more than two dozen. The bodies of two men wearing suicide vests and a woman in a burka were discovered inside the vehicle. In southern Helmand province, meanwhile, three suicide attackers wearing vests packed with explosives parked their vehicle outside a police office a few hours later and walked toward the entrance. Police fired at the attackers, killing one. The others blew themselves up inside the compound, killing four people and wounding five, including the district commander. The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks. An hour later, another suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a local police vehicle in front of the same police compound, killing three more police and wounding four officers who had come to look after their colleagues. Two civilians were also wounded in the second blast.
As of Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at least 1,804 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan. At least 1,504 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 111 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 12 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts three military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 15,594 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
Two bomb explosions and an insurgent attack killed two NATO service members and a local Afghan government official on Wednesday April 11, 2012, in different parts of Afghanistan. Both coalition service members were killed in the south -one in a roadside bombing and the other during an insurgent attack. So far this year, 103 members of the U.S.-led coalition have been killed in Afghanistan.
Heavy explosions, rockets and gunfire rattled Kabul on Sunday April 15, 2012, as Afghanistan's Taliban launched a "spring offensive" with multiple attacks targeting Western embassies, the NATO force's headquarters and the parliament building. Fighting was still raging after nightfall, more than nine hours after the Taliban first struck following midday prayers. The Taliban said the main targets were the German and British embassies and the headquarters of the NATO-led force. Large explosions shook the diplomatic sector of Kabul. Billows of black smoke rose from embassies while rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead. Heavy gunfire could be heard from many directions as Afghan security forces tried to repel Taliban fighters. Four insurgents were also detained in Kabul over a near-simultaneous assassination attempt on Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili. The four were intercepted by security forces before the other attacks got underway. Other insurgent fighters, some dressed in women's head-to-toe covering burqas, launched attacks in three other provinces. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, they attacked a foreign force base near a school and a blast went off near the airport. 19 insurgents, including suicide bombers, had died in the attacks across the country and two were captured. Fourteen police officers and nine civilians were wounded.
Australian troops could begin pulling out of Afghanistan in the coming months,
and the majority of them may leave the country by the end of next year, Prime
Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday April 17, 2012. Gillard made her remarks
ahead of a NATO summit meeting in Chicago in May. At the meeting, the leaders
of countries with troops in Afghanistan will make key decisions about the
future of the international coalition's mission there. Australia's move would
mean that most of the more than 1,500 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan could
leave a year earlier than the government had previously suggested.
On Wednesday April 18, 2012, the Los Angeles Times published photos of U.S. soldiers posing with what the paper said were bodies of insurgents. The newspaper said a soldier came forward with the images to draw attention to the safety risk associated with a decline in leadership and discipline. The Times said publishing the photos "would fulfil our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops." Efforts to get responses from the soldiers involved were unsuccessful. CNN has not independently authenticated the photos. The images are just the latest in a string of scandals that some say could damage U.S. efforts in the war, which is in its 11th year.
At a rare joint meeting in Brussels on Wednesday April 18, 2012, foreign and defence ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, reportedly moved toward an agreement on the alliance's future role in Afghanistan, and discussed improving their joint military ability to deal with 21st century challenges. It was the final high-level preparatory meeting before the NATO summit in Chicago next month. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the ministers moved toward defining a new mission in Afghanistan, as Afghan forces continue to take more responsibility for their country's security. Despite recent Taliban attacks, Rasmussen and other officials say the NATO withdrawal and transition plan is on schedule. Afghan forces are to have responsibility for their entire country around the middle of next year, and foreign forces will largely pull out by the end of 2014. After that, NATO's role is to involve training, non-combat support and funding. The secretary-general says several countries announced in Wednesday's closed-door meetings that they will contribute to the estimated $4 billion per year needed to fund the Afghan security forces.
A U.S. Army helicopter crashed on a nighttime mission in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday April 19, 2012. Initial reports from the scene indicated that as many as four soldiers may have been killed. Four U.S. troops were aboard the helicopter, identified as an Army Black Hawk; officials "don't expect" that any of the four survived. Unspecified weather difficulties may have played a role in the crash but it also was possible that enemy action was factor.
Afghan security forces on Saturday April 21, 2012, arrested five insurgents suspected of planning massive attacks on crowded areas of the capital Kabul. The five men were seized on Kabul's outskirts with 10,000 kilograms of explosives stuffed in 400 bags and hidden beneath a cargo of potatoes in the back of a Pakistan-registered truck. The group also planned to assassinate the country's second vice-president Abdul Karim Khalili. Three Pakistani terrorists and two of their Afghan collaborators who placed the explosives under bags of potatoes in a truck were caught. The five men confessed to receiving training from Noor Afzal and Mohammad Omar, key commanders of the Pakistani Taliban and Pakistan intelligence.
Two NATO service members have been killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while two others have died of non-battle injuries. One was killed by an improvised explosive device Wednesday April 25, 2012, and another by a similar weapon on Tuesday. Two other service members died of non-battle injuries, one in the south on Wednesday and another in the east on Tuesday. So far this month, 31 coalition members have died in Afghanistan, bringing the year's toll to 122.
On Wednesday April 25, 2012, a Kabul-based think tank has accused international forces in Afghanistan of misleading the public by calling military operations "Afghan-led," even when Afghan forces do not take a leading role. The Afghanistan Analysts' Network said that NATO applies the term so broadly that it has, in at least one instance, used it to classify an assault conducted primarily by U.S. forces.
Thursday April 26, 2012, in southern Kandahar province, an Afghan soldier opened fire with a machine gun from atop a building, killing a U.S. soldier and an Afghan interpreter and wounding three other coalition service members before he was gunned down. In the east, meanwhile, three U.S. service members were killed in a bomb attack.
Afghan security forces killed two would-be suicide attackers who entered the provincial governor's compound in the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday April 28, 2012. Two of the governor's bodyguards were killed and one wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the attackers, who were equipped with explosive-rigged suicide vests, hand grenades and automatic rifles. The attackers were attempting to reach the governor's office inside the compound when the governor's bodyguards identified them, sparking the gun battle.
A man wearing an Afghan Army uniform fatally shot an American service member
in southern Afghanistan. Since the beginning of the year, there have been
at least 16 such attacks against United States and other international troops.
The attack took place late Wednesday April 25, 2012 when the gunman turned
his weapon on coalition troops and opened fire. Coalition forces returned
fire, killing the attacker. It is possible the man was an insurgent disguised
in an Afghan Army uniform.
On Friday April 27, 2012, two Afghan policemen opened fire on coalition troops
in the Zhare district, near the city of Kandahar, wounding two NATO soldiers
before they were themselves killed.
Separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan's south and east on Saturday April 28, 2012, have killed two NATO service members, while a third died of non-battle injuries in the south. So far this month, 40 coalition members have died in Afghanistan, bringing the year's toll to 131.
On Sunday April 29, 2012, a buried bomb killed two 12 years-old children in eastern Afghanistan who triggered the explosive when they were playing outside near their village in Paktika province's Surobi district. Another child was seriously wounded. Last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed. Taliban-affiliated militants were responsible for the vast majority of those deaths. On Monday, a NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack in the south. The latest death makes 41 international service members killed in April and 132 so far this year, the majority of them American.
Two Taliban militants hiding handguns in their shoes infiltrated a government compound in southern Afghanistan on Saturday April 28, 2012 in an attempt to assassinate a provincial governor, setting off a fierce gun battle that left two security guards and both attackers dead. The assailants passed through a pair of security checks without their weapons being detected before a guard at the last check -in the reception room for the governor's office- noticed something suspicious and stopped them. The militants then pulled the guns out of their shoes, shot the guards and took their weapons. That sparked a shoot-out with security forces that lasted about 30 minutes and left both attackers dead. One guard was wounded in the fighting.
Afghan authorities say the country's intelligence agency has thwarted a major terrorist attack near the capital and arrested a Pakistani national in connection with the attempted strike. The suspect was driving a truck filled with explosives when he was arrested Thursday May 3, 2012, on a road just east of Kabul. The man aimed to use the truck bomb in a suicide attack. In eastern Paktia province, a blast inside a mosque killed six people. The blast took place in Zurmat district and that four of the dead were foreign fighters. NATO said one of its service members died Thursday in eastern Afghanistan as a result of a non-battle-related injury.
A NATO service member was shot to death by a gunman in an Afghan army uniform
Sunday May 6, 2012, in southern Afghanistan. The attacker was killed by coalition
forces who returned fire. In a separate attack, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle
carrying U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, killing one American and wounding
two. The bombing happened about 10 km south of an outpost in Paktia province,
near the Pakistani border.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force initially reported three deaths
from an improvised explosive device Sunday, but later revised the toll to
one. It did not identify the victim or nationality.
Two NATO airstrikes, one in the north of Afghanistan and one in the south,
killed 14 civilians, including a mother and five children, we were told on
Monday May 7, 2012. The most recent deaths were reported in Badghis province,
in the country's northwest. An airstrike on Sunday targeted a group of Taliban
fighters, killing three of them -but also eight civilians. Another fatal incident
took place Friday in Helmand province, amid heavy fighting between insurgents
and coalition forces. The Taliban had launched repeated attacks on checkpoints
in Sangin district. Those strikes drew fire from coalition troops, during
which a civilian home was hit, killing a woman, two boys and three girls.
Suicide attackers wearing police uniforms killed five people when they were caught trying to sneak through a checkpoint Thursday May 10, 2012, in eastern Afghanistan. The six attackers all died in the botched operation in Paktika province's Yayakhil district. The men were on their way to attack a district government office when they tried to get through the checkpoint. Police became suspicious and told them to stop, the men refused, and a gun battle broke out. During the hour-long fight, four attackers detonated their explosives-rigged suicide vests and two were shot and killed. The blasts killed two civilians, two local police officers and one national police officer. Another two local police officers and one national police officer were wounded. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
An attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on NATO troops Friday May 11, 2012, in the country's east, killing one service member. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which an Afghan defence official said took place in Kunar province.
Afghanistan Saturday May 12, 2012:
- Men wearing Afghan police uniforms shot dead two NATO service members in
southern Afghanistan. There were conflicting reports about the shooting in
Helmand province. Two Afghan policemen opened fire on coalition troops at
3 p.m. at a joint Afghan-coalition compound, killing two coalition troops.
He said a third Afghan policemen fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding
the other, who escaped. The attackers had been members of the Afghan National
Police for one year and were from Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO said it was aware of the Afghan statements, but that operational reports
indicated that the assailants were insurgents dressed in police uniforms,
not official members of the police force. The soldiers were British.
- A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead a U.S. soldier Friday in
eastern Afghanistan.
- A roadside bomb killed a third NATO service member, while a fourth died
of non-battle related injuries. All four deaths occurred in the south, where
much of the fighting in the more than 10-year conflict has been concentrated,
the alliance said in a statement.
- So far this month, 18 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.
- Four Afghan police officers were killed in the northwestern province of
Badghis when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Qadis district, said
the provincial governor's spokesman, Sharafudin Majedi.
Unknown assailants on Sunday May 13, 2012, shot and killed a senior Afghan peace negotiator in the latest major blow to President Hamid Karzai's two-year-old effort to negotiate a truce with insurgents. The peace envoy, Mawlawi Arsala Rahmani, a former minister in the deposed Taliban government, was on his way to work when a car stopped next to his vehicle in western Kabul. A gunman opened fire and killed him with a silencer-equipped weapon.
A bomb exploded inside a shop in the northern Afghanistan province of Faryab on Monday May 14, 2012, killing nine people. The bomb went off in a market area crowded with civilians. All of the victims were civilians, including a member of the Faryab provincial council.
Three days ahead of a summit meeting in Chicago of NATO leaders to plot their countries' departure from Afghanistan, the Taliban on Thursday May 17, 2012, provided a stark reminder of the challenges that lie ahead. Armed with AK-47 assault rifles, suicide explosive vests and rocket propelled grenades, and dressed in Afghan police uniforms, a team of insurgents stormed the governor's compound in the capital of western Farah province, killing six policemen and a civilian. The attackers threw a hand grenade at guards at the compound gate before entering the building. The ensuing firefight last for 30 minutes before government security forces shot and killed the invaders. Twelve people -nine civilians and three policemen- were wounded in the attack. A woman and a child were among the victims. The apparent target of the attack was Farah's newly appointed governor, Dr. Mohammad Akram Khpalwak. One attacker got close to the governor's office, but was shot dead by the deputy governor. The governor was unharmed.
Newly-inaugurated French President Francois Hollande stood by his campaign promise to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012 at the White House Friday May 18, 2012, though he vowed to "continue to support Afghanistan in a different way." Hollande made the comments during a brief appearance with President Obama in the Oval Office ahead of the Group of Eight (G-8) and NATO summits. Under his predecessor, Nikolas Sarkozy, France had initially planned to keep troops from Afghanistan through 2014.
Afghanistan Saturday May 19, 2012:
- A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at a police checkpoint in
eastern Khost province, killing 10 civilians, including two children, and
three Afghan policemen. The blast, which occurred at Ali Sher district on
the border with Pakistan, also wounded five policemen and a child. The Taliban
in a statement on its website claimed responsibility for the attack.
- In eastern Kunar province, two U.S. soldiers were reportedly killed on Friday
when insurgents fired rockets at their base.
- Two women and a child were also killed at Kunar on Friday when a mortar
round fired by insurgents hit a civilian house.
French President Francois Hollande for the first time provided details of his plan to pull France's combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, saying Friday May 25 ,2012, he would leave around 1,400 soldiers behind to help with training and logistics. The new French leader, making good on one of the major foreign-policy promises of his campaign, confirmed in a one-day visit to Afghanistan that all of France's 2,000 combat troops would be brought home by the end of this year.
Afghanistan Sunday May 27, 2012:
- NATO reported that three coalition service members were killed in eastern
Afghanistan, two during an insurgent attack and one from a roadside bombing.
- The U.S.-led coalition disputed reports that eight civilians, including
children, were killed in a NATO airstrike. But Afghan officials said an airstrike
Saturday May 26, 2012, killed eight members of a family.
- Four others, including a British soldier, were killed in the south on Saturday,
bringing to 169 the number of NATO deaths in Afghanistan so far this year.
The British soldier was killed in an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj region
of southern Helmand province. The nationalities of the other three have not
been disclosed.
Afghanistan, Monday May 28, 2012:
- A helicopter crash killed two NATO service members in eastern Afghanistan.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, but initial reports
indicate there was no enemy activity in the area at the time the helicopter
went down. A second coalition aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan. No
fatalities were reported. The coalition said this incident was not related
to the helicopter crash, which also occurred in the east.
- A third service member died in an insurgent attack in the south.
- The deaths raised the number of NATO troops who have been killed in Afghanistan
this year to 172.
- Gunmen killed a member of the community council in southern Helmand province's
Sangin district. Haji Raz Mohammad was headed to the district governor's office
when he was attacked. Authorities were searching for the gunmen.
- A roadside bomb killed seven people in northeastern Baghlan province, including
three civilians and four members of the Afghan Local Police. The Afghan Local
Police is a government-sponsored militia that works alongside the Afghan army
and national police.
The U.S.-led NATO force killed al-Qaida's second-highest leader in the country in an airstrike in eastern Kunar province, the coalition said Tuesday May 29, 2012. Sakhr al-Taifi, also known as Mushtaq and Nasim, was responsible for commanding foreign insurgents in Afghanistan and directing attacks against NATO and Afghan forces. The airstrike that killed al-Taifi and another al-Qaida militant took place Sunday in Kunar's Watahpur district. No civilians were harmed.
Afghanistan Wednesday May 30, 2012:
- The number of Afghan civilians killed has dropped 36 percent so far this
year compared with last. 579 civilians were killed in the first four months
of this year, down from 898 killed in the same period of 2011. The number
of wounded dropped from 1,373 to 1,216 in the January to April period.
- A roadside bomb killed three district government employees on their way
to work in eastern Nangarhar province's Deh Bala district.
- Two NATO coalition service members also were killed in southern Afghanistan
-one by a homemade bomb and the other by an insurgent attack. The deaths raised
the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan this year to 174.
- In the north Taliban attacked a hilltop police post in Badakhshan's Warduj
district late Tuesday, triggering heavy fighting that killed eight policemen
and six militants. Two policemen and 11 militants were also wounded. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan Thursday May 31, 2012:
- A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle full of explosives outside a district
police headquarters in southern Afghanistan killing five policemen. The attack
in Kandahar province's Argistan district also wounded six policemen.
- A homemade bomb killed a member of the U.S.-led NATO force in southern Afghanistan.
The death raised the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan
this year to 176.
- A pair of attacks killed five policemen Thursday in eastern Afghanistan,
also a key base for the Taliban and their allies.
- In one attack, in Kunduz province's Dashti Archi district, a roadside bomb
struck a vehicle carrying the head of the district's anti-terrorism police
force, killing him along with a colleague and a police bodyguard.
- A grenade tossed at a police checkpoint in Jalalabad city, capital of Nangarhar
province, killed two policemen.
Taliban insurgents detonated a truck bomb, then tried to storm a NATO base Friday June 1, 2012, in eastern Afghanistan, but coalition forces repelled the attack, killing 14 militants. Two non-Afghan civilians also died.
Four aid workers, including a Kenyan and a British woman, were rescued in an early morning Saturday June 2, 2012, operation conducted by U.S.-led coalition forces. The four workers for Swiss-based aid organization Medair, including two Afghans, had been kidnapped May 22 while travelling on horseback in the remote northern province of Badakhshan. The group had been visiting nutrition relief, hygiene and other medical projects. British national Helen Johnston, 28 years old and Kenyan national Moragwa Oirere, 26, are being reunited with their families. The mission lasted for three hours and resulted in the deaths of four insurgents. The hostages were being held in a cave in the mountains. A rescue team was inserted by helicopters under the cover of darkness.
A UK soldier killed on Sunday June 3, 2012, was taking part in a rescue mission in southern Afghanistan. Afghan officials said the soldier from 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, had been part of the task force which rescued captured policeman Abdul Walid. The soldier died from small arms fire in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. His family have been told. This latest death takes the number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 to 417. British troops with colleagues from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) recovered Mr Walid who had been captured at a police checkpoint in Payan village. A British soldier was also injured in the operation.
Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in a drone strike in the Waziristan region of Pakistan on Monday June 4, 2012. Al-Libi was a top deputy to Osama bin Laden, and widely seen as the second in command of al Qaeda. Abu Yahya al-Libi was universally admired in jihadist circles and among the younger generation of al Qaeda leaders. Charismatic, intelligent, a religious scholar -and with the extra qualification of having escaped from U.S. custody in Afghanistan- his loss is "a cataclysmic blow" to al Qaeda. In recent years, al-Libi emerged as one of the terrorist network's most important clerics and propagandists, appearing in countless videos. By most accounts, he was effectively al Qaeda's deputy leader. And his Libyan nationality is important to an organization that after the elevation of Ayman al-Zawahiri as leader was vulnerable to criticism it was dominated by Egyptians.
Afghanistan Wednesday June 6, 2012:
- Three suicide attackers blew themselves up in the largest city in southern
Afghanistan, killing 22 people and wounding at least 50 others in a dusty
marketplace that was turned into a gruesome scene of blood and bodies.
- In the east, Afghan officials and residents said a pre-dawn NATO airstrike
targeting militants killed civilians celebrating a wedding, including women
and children, although a NATO forces spokesman said they had no reports of
civilians being killed in the overnight raid to capture a local Taliban leader.
- Also in the east, NATO said two service members were killed in a helicopter
crash in Ghazni province. There was no indication of enemy activity in the
area at the time. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in an email
that the insurgents shot down the helicopter.
The top American commander in Afghanistan apologized to Afghans on Friday June 8, 2012, for a coalition airstrike that killed women and children in Logar province earlier in the week. Marine Gen. John Allen flew to Logar province, just south of Kabul, to meet with villagers and offer his condolences for the bombing Wednesday that Afghan officials said killed 18 civilians. The airstrike was called in by U.S. troops after they came under fire while pursuing a Taliban fighter in a village in the Baraki Barak district.
Inmates at a prison in northern Afghanistan staged a dramatic jailbreak, blasting through a surrounding wall to flee into the night. Fourteen were still at large, including several members of the Taliban. The escape took place Thursday June 7, 2012, in Sar-i-Pul province, north of Kabul. Three of the prisoners were shot and killed by guards as they tried to get away, and more than two dozen others were injured. It was not immediately clear whether the bomb that breached the prison wall was set off from inside or outside. In past jailbreaks, collusion has usually been uncovered between prisoners, outside accomplices and prison officials or guards on the inside.
The French government said Saturday June 9, 2012, that four of its soldiers had been killed and five wounded in Kapisa Province, eastern Afghanistan; the attack involved a suicide bomber wearing a burqa who had attacked the soldiers. The French soldiers were on a foot patrol about a mile from the district centre of Nejrab when the bomber, wearing the burqa approached the group. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack. In a separate attack, another coalition soldier was killed by roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's president said Saturday June 9, 2012, that the United States has put the two countries' security pact at risk with a unilateral airstrike that killed 18 civilians.
President Francois Hollande said Saturday June 9, 2012, that France will begin its Afghanistan pullout next month and complete it by year-end, after four French troops were killed in a Taliban attack. Hollande said the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, one of his presidential campaign pledges, "will begin in the month of July, will be carried out and be completed at the end of 2012."
Stung by furious Afghan criticism of an airstrike that killed 18 civilians last week, most of them women and children, the NATO force has agreed to refrain from aerial bombardment of residential buildings, we were told on Sunday June 10, 2012. The accord -reached Saturday night at a meeting between President Hamid Karzai and Gen. John Allen, the American who commands Western forces in Afghanistan- reflects a changing dynamic between the Afghan government and the NATO force. As Western troops prepare to depart, Afghanistan has been more strongly asserting its sovereignty, in particular demanding curtailment of night-time raids by special-operations forces. Western troops would continue to pursue insurgents who hide in residential compounds, but when there is concern over the presence of civilians, air delivered bombs will not be employed while other means are available."
Separate attacks have killed two service members in different parts of Afghanistan, while in a two-day operation in eastern Paktika province has left 34 insurgents and two policemen dead. The NATO troops were killed Friday June 15, 2012, in the south and east of the country. The 34 insurgents including two Taliban commanders were killed Thursday and Friday in four districts of the province. Three of the insurgents were wearing suicide vests. So far this year, 195 NATO service members have died in Afghanistan.
A commander of the Haqqani terrorist group who coordinated and personally conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces was killed in an encounter with the joint forces in eastern Afghanistan on Friday June 15, 2012. Eid Mohammad and multiple insurgents were killed during an operation in Sharan district, Paktika province. Eid Mohammed was also providing weapons to Haqqani fighters throughout the region. Several insurgents were killed in a separate operation by Afghan and coalition security forces to capture a Taliban commander in Warduj district, Badakhshan province. Also on Friday, Afghan and coalition security forces captured a Taliban commander in Charkh district, Logar province. The commander was responsible for the purchase and distribution of weapons, explosives and ammunition to Taliban insurgents throughout the region. In addition he served as a Taliban information officer, responsible for acquiring reports on insurgent attacks and providing this information to senior Taliban leaders. The security force detained several suspected insurgents and seized one AK-47, one pistol and multiple AK-47 magazines as a result of this operation.
A second British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, died during an operation to disrupt insurgent activity in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. The death was announced on Friday June 15, 2012. The latest death is the 419th member of UK forces since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.
A June 1, 2012, attack on a U.S. outpost near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was much worse than originally disclosed by the military as insurgents pounded the base with a truck bomb, killing two Americans and seriously wounding about three dozen troops. The blast flattened the dining hall and post exchange at Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost province. Five Afghan civilians were killed and more than 100 other U.S. troops were treated for minor injuries. U.S. officials estimated that the truck was carrying 1,500 pounds of explosives.
In a province from which French troops are soon to depart, a remote-controlled bomb killed six people on Monday June 18, 2012, including a local police commander. The six dead included four members of the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-trained village force, one of them a commander named Karimullah. The other two dead were civilians, and an additional 17 people were hurt in the explosion, which tore through a crowded bazaar.
An American service member was killed and several others injured Monday June 18, 2012, when individuals dressed in Afghan police uniforms turned their guns on them in southern Afghanistan. The three Afghan shooters fled and are being sought. Although they were wearing police uniforms, it was not yet certain if they were actually Afghan police or were just wearing the clothing. Nine U.S. troops were injured in the shooting, mostly with fairly minor wounds.
Afghanistan, Tuesday June 19, 2012:
- Twenty-three people have been killed in a spate of violence in southern
Afghanistan, including civilians, policemen, insurgents, and a coalition soldier
reportedly killed in a "green-on-blue" attack by Afghan policemen.
- Three Afghan police officers were killed and seven wounded in an attack
by insurgents on a joint US-Afghan base at Kandahar city. Four insurgents
-all wearing Afghan police uniforms, and armed with light weapons and hand
grenades- attacked the outer gates of the base. All four insurgents were killed.
The Taliban in a website statement claimed responsibility for the attack
- Seven insurgents were killed in an attack on an ISAF forward operating base
in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. The insurgents had initially
breached the outer perimeter of the base, "but all seven were subsequently
killed by the ISAF forces." The Taliban also claimed responsibility for
this attack.
- Meanwhile, eight civilians -including women and children- were killed Monday
when their vehicle hit a mine in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.
Five other civilians were wounded in the blast, and were transported by police
to a nearby hospital.
Afghanistan, Wednesday June 20, 2012:
- A suicide bomber killed 21 people including three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint
in a packed market in eastern Afghanistan.
- The attack took place in a marketplace in the city of Khost, near the Pakistani
border. The assailant approached on foot through the shops and taxi stands
packed with people and then detonated his explosives as he approached Afghan
and U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint.
- Three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed. A convoy in the
area responded to the attack. Besides the interpreter, 17 Afghans also were
killed. Two were police officers and the rest were civilians. Another 32 people
were wounded, all civilians, he said.
- In nearby Logar province, a roadside bombing killed three women and four
children crammed into a wagon pulled by a tractor. Four men were also wounded
in the blast on a road outside the city of Pul-i-Alam.
Heavily armed Taliban gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel near Kabul, sending terrified guests jumping from windows or into a lake to try to escape the onslaught. Eighteen people were killed in the 12-hour rampage, their bullet-riddled bodies strewn on carpets, on the lawn and a blood-smeared patio. The attack ended at midday Friday June 22, 2010. The insurgents arrived shortly before midnight at the Spozhmai hotel, situated in a wooded area on the banks of the turquoise-collared Qargha Lake, where Afghan families often go to relax and forget about the war. The gunmen -toting machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and vests laden with explosives- first killed the hotel's security guards, then pushed their way inside and began firing at guests who were having late-night meals. Gunfire rang out for hours and black smoke rose from the two-story hotel as NATO helicopters circled overhead.
On Sunday June 24, 2012, NATO says four service members have died in southern Afghanistan in the past two days. One service member died in an insurgent attack and another in a bomb blast on Saturday. The two other service members died Sunday in a traffic accident in the south. Separately, the coalition says a NATO helicopter made a forced landing in the south on Saturday. It said no one was killed and that initial reports said there was no enemy activity in the area.
Suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gate of a government compound in eastern Afghanistan before dawn Friday June 29, 2012, opening the way for armed insurgents to storm the facility and touching off an hours-long gun battle that left 10 people dead. The 17 militants attacked the compound in Nuristan province's Kamdesh district. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan, Sunday July 1, 2012:
- A roadside bomb blast hit a passenger bus killing five civilians, including
women and children. The blast wounded at least 18 other people in Ghazni province.
The bus was travelling from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. No one
has claimed responsibility but placing improvised explosive devices along
roads is a common insurgent tactic.
- An insurgent wearing an Afghan police uniform shot and killed three NATO
service members in southern Afghanistan. We were told later on that they were
British.
A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near the gates of a university in southern Afghanistan on Monday July 2, 2012, killing at least seven people. The blast near the entrance to Kandahar University also wounded 23 people. All of the casualties were civilians. Earlier Monday a NATO airstrike killed three civilians in the province.
An Afghan soldier opened fire on a group of American troops, wounding five of them we were told on Wednesday July 4, 2012. The attack, which took place Tuesday in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Sunday July 8, 2012:
- At least 35 people, including seven NATO soldiers, were killed in a string
of roadside bombs and clashes.
- A bomb killed six American soldiers in the east
- An insurgent attack in the south killed one foreign soldier.
- Three bombs hit three vehicles in Kandahar killing 18 people including children.
- A third bomb then killed a family of four in Arghistan district, also straddling
the Pakistan border.
- Two policemen were killed by a bomb to the west of Kandahar in southern
Helmand province.
A regional head of women's affairs was targeted and killed by a car bomb in Afghanistan's east on Friday July 13,2012. Hanifa Safi was killed while driving through the capital of Laghman province, Mehtar Lam, when a bomb attached to her car exploded.
A well-known Afghan politician and around 20 other people have been killed in a suicide attack in the northern province of Samangan on Saturday July 14, 2012. Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek MP, was attending a wedding party for his daughter in the provincial capital, Aybak, when the blast happened. The attacker, posing as a guest, embraced Mr Samangani before detonating his explosives, a witness said. A Taliban spokesman denied involvement in the attack. Ahmad Khan Samangani was a commander in the mujahideen militia during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1980s. He was known as a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and a rival of Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful civil war commander in the north and currently one of Afghanistan's most prominent Uzbek politicians. Mr Samangani became a member of parliament last year, replacing one of several sitting MPs expelled by the Independent Electoral Commission for alleged electoral fraud in the 2010 parliamentary election. President Hamid Karzai has appointed a team to investigate the attack.
A convoy carrying several senior Afghan officials, including a cabinet minister
and a governor, was hit by a bomb Sunday July 15, 2012, in northern Afghanistan.
No one was killed. In Sunday's attack in Baghlan province, the bomb was detonated
by remote control, leaving little doubt that the official convoy was the intended
target. Two men had been arrested in connection with the attack, but had no
details about their possible role. The convoy was carrying the minister of
higher education, Obaidullah Obaid, together with the Baghlan governor, Munshi
Abdul Majid. Travelling with them were two members of parliament and the head
of the Baghlan provincial council. None of the officials was hurt in the explosion,
but two policemen escorting the convoy were injured.
Two troops with the U.S.-led international military coalition and three Afghan men died Monday July 16, 2012,in violence in southern Afghanistan. The Afghan men died when their car hit a roadside bomb in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. The two service members were killed in an insurgent attack in the south where Afghan and international troops are trying to retain control of territory they seized during the past two years. So far this year, 237 international service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least 168 Americans. On Sunday, three Afghan women died when the tractor they were riding hit a roadside bomb in Khakrez district of Kandahar province.
A magnetic bomb blew up the car of a district governor in Afghanistan's northerly city of Kunduz on Monday July 16, 2012, in the third attack on senior government officials in as many days. The governor of Khan Abad district was not in the car, but the bomb killed a bodyguard and wounded eight civilians.
On Wednesday July 18, 2012, a suicide bomber killed three Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint in the east, while militants killed nine more government troops in an ambush in the south. Three NATO service members were also killed in insurgent attacks.
A roadside bomb struck a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan on early Friday July 20, 2012, killing the district's police chief and five other police officers. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion happened when the police vehicle drove over an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Sarab district of Uruzgan province. All six people in the vehicle were killed, including five police bodyguards and Sarab district police chief Ahmadullah. The victims in the vehicle were responding to an attack by Taliban insurgents at a security checkpoint elsewhere in the district, officials said.
Afghanistan, Sunday July 22, 2012:
- A gunman wearing an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against foreign trainers
working for NATO in the western province of Herat, killing three. It happened
at a regional training centre in the relatively peaceful western province
near Afghanistan's border with Iran. An unknown number of other people had
been wounded. One insurgent was killed in the engagement and the police is
still looking for one more shooter. Two of the dead contractors were American
citizens and the third British.
- Four foreign soldiers were killed by improvised bombs in two incidents in
the east and south, while another was killed in an insurgent attack on Saturday.
- In a separate incident, the Taliban executed five Afghan civilians kidnapped
on Saturday who worked for NATO in Wardak province. A sixth prisoner reportedly
escaped to raise the alarm. The bodies were found booby-trapped with explosives
meant to kill or maim searchers.
- The killings followed the public execution of a woman several weeks ago
for adultery, an act that prompted international outrage and led President
Hamid Karzai to admit his government had been unable to deliver effective
justice for many Afghans.
Villages in northeastern Afghanistan -an area thick with competing Taliban
factions, operatives from Al Qaeda and other militants- were bombarded with
hundreds of rockets fired from Pakistan over the weekend of July21/22 2012,
leaving at least four civilians dead.
Afghanistan, Monday July 23, 2012:
- Insurgents attacked coalition service members in eastern Afghanistan, killing
one of them. The killing was the result of an insurgent attack. The alliance
does also not report injuries.
- Also on Sunday, two coalition service members were killed following an improvised
explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan.
- Another roadside bomb attack in the country's south claimed the lives of
two more coalition service members, but their nationalities were not immediately
known.
- The death on Monday raises the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan
so far this year to 255. A total of 566 ISAF troops were killed in Afghanistan
in 2011, down from 711 in 2010. A majority of the fallen troops were American
and were killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on
troops and civilians.
- There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including
some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President
Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 23,000 U.S. troops by the end
of this summer, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by
the end of 2014.
Gunmen killed three people in an ambush on a van in northern Afghanistan, including an American electrical engineer who had lived in the country for decades, we were told on Tuesday July 24, 2012. The American had been working in Afghanistan for about 30 years. Two or three assailants attack the vehicle Monday in northern Parwan province. Two Afghans -the driver and one of the American's colleagues- were also killed in the attack.
An insurgent bomb targeting Afghan police using a fresh water spring to replenish their drinking supplies instead killed seven children grazing farm animals. The bomb, which exploded on Tuesday July 24, 2012, was planted next to a spring in the Taywara district of western Ghor province. The children accidentally triggered the device as they were grazing cattle. The bomb was intended for security forces that use the same spring as a water supply. In other violence, the U.S. military said that one of its service members was killed on Tuesday in western Afghanistan. The service member died of combat-related injuries. It gave no other details. The death brings the number of foreign troops killed this month to 36, and the total for this year to 251. Of those, at least 155 have been Americans.
Tajikistan has closed all border-crossing points with Afghanistan due to a military operation to capture a former warlord, but NATO trucks carrying supplies to their forces are allowed to pass, we were told on Friday July 27, 2012. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon launched an offensive in the autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan region on Tuesday against supporters of Tolib Ayombekov, who is accused of killing a security service general. Authorities sealed the border after government troops captured eight Afghan militants who were fighting for Ayombekov.
Two NATO service members were killed by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday July 28, 20121. The military coalition didn't provide details on the assault or the nationalities of the dead, although most of the international troops stationed in that part of the country are American. Saturday's deaths bring the number of international forces killed in Afghanistan this month to at least 42. NATO also reported Saturday that a combined Afghan-NATO security detail had sought out and killed a Taliban financier in northern Balkh province after he threatened them. The man, Maulawi Abdul Rahman, reportedly had transferred money, weapons and explosives to other insurgents for use in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
At least 40 Taliban were killed and 14 injured in a cross-border attack the militants launched against police check posts in Afghanistan's Paktika province Saturday July 28, 2012. Dozens of militants crossed the Afghan-Pakistan border and stormed Afghan border police check posts in Nahmat Abad area of the Gomal and the police repelled the attack. As a result 40 militants were killed and 14 injured.
Two Nato service members were killed on Sunday July 29, 2012, in an insurgent attack in the west of the country. The deaths bring the number of international service members killed in Afghanistan so far this month to at least 44.
Afghanistan Wednesday August 1, 2012:
- Insurgents pulled four Afghan civilians off a minibus travelling in Jalrez
district in the east of the country, shot them dead and left their bodies
on the side of the road.
- Four NATO service members were killed in attacks across the country. Two
died in separate bomb blasts in the south and two others in a bombing in the
east.
- Last month, 45 international service members were killed in Afghanistan,
compared to 52 killed in July of 2011.
- Also, an Afghan district police chief was killed in the southern province
of Zabul along with two of his bodyguards when their vehicle struck a roadside
bomb. It was unclear if the police chief was the intended target
Afghanistan Thursday August 2, 2012:
- Two NATO service members were killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.
The latest deaths bring the death toll for international service members to
six in just the first two days of August.
- Afghan forces killed five insurgents who were planning to attack Kabul in
an gun battle just outside of the capital. Intelligence agents discovered
that the insurgents were massing weapons at a compound east of the city and
ambushed the men when they returned to the site to prepare for the attack.
A gun battle broke out and some of the insurgents blew themselves up with
explosives, while others grabbed guns and fought back against the intelligence
agents. The gun battle lasted until a few hours after dawn, when the last
insurgents were killed.
- The agents found three cars full of explosives and ammunition in the compound,
along with scores rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. They found maps
with specific locations marked. They also found burqas which they assume the
attackers were going to use to disguise themselves.
Afghanistan Friday August 4, 2012:
- A government-backed village defence force member is suspected of killing
11 civilians at a house in southern Afghanistan. The gunman is a member of
the Hazara minority ethnic faction. Women and children were among the victims.
The gunman was a member of the Afghan Local Police, which is overseen by the
Interior Ministry.
- In neighbouring Helmand province, Taliban fighters attacked Afghan national
policemen, killing one and wounding two others.
- Also Friday, in the east, 21 people were wounded when a bomb, which was
placed in a canal that ran under a mosque, exploded in Chaparhar district.
Taliban-led insurgents killed two New Zealand soldiers and four Afghan intelligence
officers Saturday August 4, 2012, in an ambush in the peaceful central province
of Bamiyan. The intelligence officers, members of the National Directorate
of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's spy agency, had received a report of explosives
and IEDs stockpiled in the Baghak area of Shibar district and mounted an operation
to seize them. But the Taliban were waiting to ambush the officers. The besieged
intelligence officers summoned assistance from New Zealand troops based in
Bamiyan. When the New Zealand troops arrived, they were also fired on. Two
New Zealanders were killed and six wounded. In addition to the dead, 10 intelligence
officers were wounded along with one Afghan police and a civilian.
Afghanistan Monday August 6, 2012:
- A coalition airstrike killed several insurgents during a search for a Taliban
leader in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. During the
operation, an armed group of insurgents attempted to attack the Afghan and
coalition troops. The security force positively identified the armed insurgents
and engaged them with a precision airstrike. The security force detained one
suspected insurgent.
- In the Terayzai district of Khost province, an Afghan-led, coalition-supported
force detained several suspects during a search for a Haqqani leader.
- Haqqani network leader Hakimi was killed by a coalition airstrike in the
Muhammad Aghah district of Logar province. Hakimi had served directly under
the Haqqani leader for the Muhammad Aghah district and was directly involved
in the transport of explosives and weapons to insurgents throughout the region.
The airstrike did not injure any civilians or damage civilian property.
- A coalition airstrike killed several insurgents during a search for a Haqqani
leader in the Tsamkani district of Paktia province. The airstrike did not
injure any civilians or damage any civilian property.
- In Ghanzi province, a combined force found and cleared an improvised explosive
device in the Gelan district and cleared another IED in the Ghazni district.
- A combined force detained five insurgents who were emplacing an IED in Khost
province's Sabari district.
- A combined force detained five insurgents in Khost province's Gurbuz district.
- A combined force discovered an ammunition cache in Khost province's Sabari
district.
- In Nangarhar province, a combined force detained two insurgents who were
emplacing an IED in the Bati Kot district.
- A combined force killed two insurgents and wounded two others in the Jani
Khel district of Paktika province.
- In Wardak province, a combined force found and cleared an IED in the Sayyidabad
district and another in the Maidan Shahr district.
- A combined force detained an insurgent who was found with IED-making materials
in Wardak province's Maidan Shahr district.
- In the Baraki Barak district of Logar province, a combined force killed
an insurgent, detained several suspects and seized multiple weapons during
an operation to arrest a Taliban leader.
- Mufti Assad, also known as Mufti Punjabi, Abdul Qudus and Sufyan, the al-Qaida
network leader for Kunar province, was killed August 3 in an airstrike in
the Watahpur district of Kunar province. Assad led dozens of al-Qaida affiliated
fighters throughout eastern Afghanistan and provided IED training to insurgents.
Yusuf, Assad's al-Qaida network deputy, also was killed in the airstrike.
Yusuf, also known as Omar and Rayhman, was an IED expert who directed insurgent
attacks across eastern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan, Tuesday August 7, 2012:
- Two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded
two others.
- At least 12 people have been killed in a series of attacks across Afghanistan
including nine who died in a roadside bombing near the capital. A remote-controlled
blast hit a bus travelling across a bridge west of Kabul.
- Local police say they have arrested a suspect in the bombing, which wounded
five people.
- A bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside a NATO base in Pul-i-Alam,
the capital of Logar province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the
blast, which wounded at least 11 civilians.
- France said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded in a firefight
with insurgents in Kapisa province. Since 2001, 88 French soldiers have been
killed in Afghanistan.
- Insurgents detonated a bomb strapped to a donkey in the central Ghor province,
on Tuesday, killing a district police chief and wounding three others. Local
officials blamed the Taliban for the attack.
- In another development, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen appointed
Maurits Jochems as NATO's next senior civilian representative to Afghanistan.
Jochems will succeed Simon Gass, who will return to Britain's Foreign and
Commonwealth Office after serving as representative for 18 months.
- Two U.S. soldiers and 11 Afghan civilians were injured when a suicide truck
bomb exploded outside a coalition base in the eastern province of Logar, provincial
officials said.
- Elsewhere, two members of the International Security Assistance Force, the
official name for the U.S.-led coalition, died in insurgent attacks, one in
eastern Afghanistan and the other in southern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Wednesday August 8, 2012:
- A suicide attack hit a NATO patrol in eastern Afghanistan killing three
coalition service members; a civilian was also killed in the bombing. The
Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing of the NATO patrol
in Kunar province.
- Hours later on the other side of the country, a roadside bomb hit a bus,
killing at least three people. Many wounded passengers were trapped in the
bus by a fierce battle between insurgents and Afghan police that raged most
of the day.
Two Afghan soldiers tried to gun down a group of NATO troops outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday August 9, 2012. No international forces were killed, but one of the attackers was killed as NATO forces shot back. Taliban claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack but only mentioned one assailant that had contact with the Taliban before launching the attack.
A U.S. government aid worker was killed in a suicide attack by two men wearing suicide vests in the eastern Kunar province in Afghanistan on Wednesday August 8, 2012. USAID foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah, three coalition service members and an Afghan civilian were killed. A State Department diplomat was injured.
Afghanistan, Friday August 10, 2012:
- An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing
a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness
of southern Afghanistan. The deadly shooting took place in the Sangin district
of Helmand province.
- A senior U.S. Army soldier was killed along with a couple of majors by a
suicide bomber. The suicide bomber struck Wednesday as a group of U.S. military
and civilian officials from the 4th brigade, 4th Infantry Division were in
Sarkowi in Kunar Province. The suicide attacker detonated an explosive vest
near the group. Killed in the attack were Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin,
45, of Laramie, Wyo., the brigade's senior enlisted soldier. As a command
sergeant major, Griffin was one of the brigade's senior leaders and provided
leadership and guidance to the 4,000 man brigade.
Afghanistan Sunday August 12, 2012:
- Security forces have arrested five insurgents planning to carry out a series
of suicide attacks in Kabul. The militants were finalizing plans to attack
parliament and the residence of Second Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili.
One of the insurgents is Pakistani. The militants had a cache of Afghan army
uniforms, suicide vests and weapons. The detainees were also in possession
of Pakistani identity cards and telephone numbers.
- Elsewhere, a roadside bomb has killed a district chief and three of his
bodyguards.
- In another development, 11 Afghan police officers were killed Saturday in
western Nimroz province when one of their colleagues, believed to be a Taliban
infiltrator, opened fire on them. Officials say the attacker was killed in
the ensuing gun battle.
Afghanistan, Tuesday August 14, 2012:
- Bombings and shootings took the lives of at least 43 Afghans in the deadliest
day for civilians this year as insurgents struck while people were preparing
for the Muslim holiday that ends the month of Ramadan.
- The worst death toll came in the southwestern province of Nimruz, where
suicide bombers struck the provincial capital, Zaranj, as throngs of people
were shopping for the Id al-Fitr holiday this weekend. The bombings killed
at least 29 people and wounded 57.
- In Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan, a remotely detonated bomb on
a motorcycle exploded in a bazaar just after the evening prayer that breaks
the Ramadan fast, killing 10 people. The bombing occurred in Dasht-e-Archi,
a district in the province's west.
- And in Badakhshan Province, in the far northeast of the country, a district
governor and three policemen were killed in a Taliban ambush as they were
driving through a remote area.
- On Monday the police officers, acting on a tip, found two potential suicide
bombers in a safe house with a large amount of explosives and weapons. They
killed the two men. On Tuesday they caught three more suspects in the plot
and took them into custody. But just a few hours later explosions began in
multiple places.
- The first two bombs, one near the governor's office and the other targeting
a police car, did little damage but "created panic in the town as people
rushed toward the provincial hospital to see if any of their relatives had
been hurt. As people gathered in front of the hospital, just across from a
crowded market, another bomber struck, and that explosion caused the majority
of the casualties. He added that three other bombers had been shot elsewhere
in the city.
- A battle between Afghan and Pakistan border patrols broke out near a checkpoint
in Kunar's Dangam district, across from the Pakistani district of Bajaur.
One of the rockets killed a border patrol officer and wounded at least four
others.
Afghanistan Wednesday August 15, 2012:
- Nearly two dozen Afghan civilians were wounded when two grenades exploded
inside a mosque compound and a bicycle bomb blew up in a city market.
- NATO reported that one of its service members was killed in an insurgent
attack in the east. So far this year, 286 international troops have been killed
in Afghanistan.
- At least nine worshippers were wounded when the grenades exploded during
morning prayers at a mosque in Baghi Sara area. One exploded inside the mosque
and the other went off in a courtyard outside. The third failed to detonate.
A helicopter crash on Thursday August 16, 2012, killed seven U.S. troops and four Afghans. The cause remains unclear although the aircraft went down in an insurgent-infested region. The crash occurred in Shah Wali Kot, a district of Kandahar province. The Black Hawk, the Army's workhorse helicopter for transporting troops and gear, burned after the crash. Nobody survived. The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter.
A bomb in a busy Afghan market killed four people on Saturday August 18, 2012, in the western province of Herat. Hours later, a prison director was assassinated in southern Afghanistan by a bomb planted in his car. The market explosion also wounded 12 people, including three policemen who were on patrol in the bazaar in Shindand district.
A man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed a U.S. service member on
Sunday August 19, 2012, raising the death toll to 10 in such attacks in the
space of just two weeks. A coalition airstrike killed dozens of Taliban militants,
including one of their leaders.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced Monday August 20, 2012, that the country will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan earlier in 2013 than planned. He said the move is not prompted by the deaths this month of five New Zealand soldiers, including three who were killed Sunday by a roadside bomb.
A NATO air strike in eastern Afghanistan targeting a group of insurgents in Kunar province near the Pakistani border killed at least 12 militants Friday August 24, 2012. Mullah Dadullah, the self-proclaimed leader of the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan’s Bajur tribal area was killed, although they offered conflicting reports on the exact location of the strike.
The Afghan government says 10 Afghan soldiers have been killed in an attack on a checkpoint in the south and five have either been kidnapped or joined their assailants. Insurgents attacked the checkpoint in Washir district Sunday August 26, 2012. He says another four soldiers were wounded. The five missing soldiers left with their assailants but it was unclear if they were kidnapped or went voluntarily.
Afghanistan's intelligence agency confirmed Sunday August 26, 2012, that the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network was killed in an air strike in Pakistan, even as the Taliban vowed that he was alive and well. Badruddin Haqqani was killed last week.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused the Taliban on Monday August 27, 2012, of beheading 17 villagers, including two women, in Helmand province. He ordered a full investigation into the "mass killing," which a local official said was punishment to revellers attending a party with music and mixed-sex dancing. The Taliban denied they had taken part in the beheadings, which Karzai's office said took place in Kajaki district in the southern province. In a separate incident, a rogue Afghan soldier killed two American troops in eastern Laghman.
NATO says one of its helicopters has crashed in eastern Afghanistan; no one was killed. The helicopter made a hard landing in the eastern province of Logar late Monday August 27, 2012. The Taliban claimed in a statement Tuesday that its fighters shot down the helicopter and killed all those aboard. The insurgents often exaggerate success of attacks or claim accidents as victories. The Taliban also has claimed to have shot down another helicopter that crashed this month in Kandahar province, killing seven American service members and four Afghans. U.S. officials said the helicopter did not appear to be hit by enemy fire.
Kandahar Police Chief Abdul Raziq, one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, survived a massive bombing late Monday August 27, 2012, that appeared to have been aimed at him. At least four civilians died in the blast, apparently set off by a suicide bomber in a minivan, and 20 people were hurt, including Raziq, whose injuries were described as minor. Raziq's convoy was driving past on a main road on the city's outskirts. Raziq, who was installed as police chief after his predecessor was assassinated, is credited with many in Kandahar with helping contain the Taliban presence in the city.
Australia on Thursday August 30, 2012, mourned the deaths of five of its soldiers in Afghanistan, three killed by an Afghan army colleague. The Australians were killed in two separate incidents just hours apart late Wednesday and early Thursday. The first incident took place at a base in Uruzgan province, when a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on Australian soldiers, killing three and wounding two. Hours later, two Australian soldiers died and a crew member was wounded when their helicopter rolled over while landing in Helmand province.
Two children have been beheaded in separate incidents in Afghanistan. Taliban beheaded a 12-year-old boy Thursday August 30, 2012, in Kandahar province because the child's brother is a police officer. A Taliban spokesman has denied the allegation. In the other incident, a seven-year-old girl was beheaded and her legs cut off in her home in the eastern province of Kapisa. It not sure if the attack is the result of a domestic dispute or involvement by insurgents. Also Friday, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians, including a child, in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand. Another roadside bomb severely wounded a civilian in Sangin district.
Taliban suicide bombers staged what appeared to be a carefully coordinated attack in Sayed Abad southwest of Kabul on Saturday September 2, 2012, that killed at least a dozen Afghans and wounded 58 more. First a man wearing a suicide vest charged toward the base and a local police headquarters on foot, firing his Kalashnikov rifle before blowing himself up. He did little damage, but his true purpose was to sow confusion and draw attention away from the bigger danger lurking nearby: another suicide bomber driving a truck hauling a huge cache of explosives. Moments after that first explosion, the truck driver sped toward the base, but stopping just short of it in the midst of a crowd shopping at a bazaar. There, he detonated his payload, killing eight Afghan civilians and at least four Afghan policemen. The wounded included at least one woman, a child, and three officers of the National Directorate of Security. Several American soldiers inside the base were also wounded.
A suicide bomber killed at least 25 civilians and wounded another 30 at a funeral for a village elder in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan. The attack took place on Tuesday September 4, 2012, in the village of Shagai in the Durbaba district of eastern Nangarhar province. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The target was apparently Durbaba district Chief Hamisha Gul, who was attending the funeral for the village chief and ranking elder. Gul survived the attack but his son was killed when he tried to stop the bomber by grabbing him. The Taliban often target government officials at public functions, including funerals and weddings.
A suicide bomber struck at the heart of NATO's operation in Kabul on Saturday September 8, 2012, killing at least six Afghan civilians in an attack blamed on the Haqqani network. No coalition casualties were reported in Saturday's blast.
A teenage suicide bomber blew himself up outside NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital on Saturday September 8, 2012, killing six civilians. The bomber struck before noon outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led NATO coalition, on a street that connects the alliance headquarters to the nearby U.S. Embassy, the Italian Embassy, a large U.S. military base, and the Afghan Defence Ministry. The victims were Afghans, and some were street children. The bomber was 14 years old. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the target was a U.S. intelligence facility nearby.
Two bomb blasts near the governor’s compound in a western province have killed a 12-year-old boy and wounded 16 other civilians. The bombs were attached to motorcycles parked in two different squares near the governor’s office. Nearly all of those injured in Sunday September 9, 2012’s explosions were young people between the ages of 8 and 21. Separately, the NATO military coalition says one of its service members was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
A soldier from The Light Dragoons has been killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday September 9, 2012. The vehicle in which he was travelling hit an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. The death brings the number of members of UK forces to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 to 427.
A man wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in a crowded intersection in northern Afghanistan on Monday September 10, 2012, killing 10 policemen and six civilians. The policemen were targeted in the urban capital of Kunduz province. More that 30 people, including those belonging to the security forces, were also wounded. No one immediately took responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Taliban insurgents.
Afghan insurgents bombarded a U.S. base and destroyed a NATO helicopter, killing three Afghan intelligence employees on Tuesday September 11, 2012. There were also NATO personnel aboard and wounded. Separately, a teenage suicide bomber on Tuesday walked into a shop in western Afghanistan and blew himself up, killing five people. The bombing and the strike at Bagram Air Field outside Kabul came as U.S. and its allied military forces marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks with a tribute to the more than 3,000 foreign troops killed since the invasion of Afghanistan -including about 2,000 members of the U.S. military.
A gunman in an Afghan police uniform killed two British soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Saturday September 15, 2012, a day after insurgents dressed in U.S. Army uniforms attacked a military base, killing two American Marines, wounding nine other people and destroying six Harrier fighter jets. The two soldiers, from 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, were killed at a checkpoint shooting in Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. NATO said that the gunman was wearing a uniform used by the Afghan Local Police, a village-level fighting force overseen by the central government. So far this year, 47 international service members have died at the hands of Afghan soldiers or policemen or insurgents wearing their uniforms.
We were told on Sunday September 16, 2012, that at least six coalition soldiers were killed this weekend in two separate incidents where members of the Afghan security forces turned their weapons against international forces. In Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province, four coalition soldiers were reportedly killed by a group of Afghan police who turned their weapons on international troops. The other incident occurred on Saturday and left two British soldiers dead.
Two soldiers have died in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan we were told on September 21, 2012. Neither of the deaths is thought to be the result of hostile action. One soldier was from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers at Camp Bastion, Helmand, and the second from 28 Engineer Regiment, attached to 21 Engineer Regiment. The latest died at Forward Operating Base Shawqat, in Helmand. The number of British military deaths since operations began in Afghanistan in 2001 now stands at 432.
A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed two foreign troops in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday September 26, 2012. The bomber targeted a vehicle inside a NATO convoy that was on its way to a nearby district. Both of those killed were Americans, one immediately and one who died of his wounds a short while later. A third soldier was injured. Wednesday's deaths bring the number of coalition fatalities to at least 3,190, including 2,123 Americans, since the war started in 2001.
A checkpoint shooting in eastern Afghanistan has taken the US military's death toll in the war past 2,000. A US soldier and contractor were killed while three Afghan soldiers died and several were injured. The new deaths occurred on Saturday September 29, 2012, in Wardak province.
A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a motorcycle packed with explosives into a joint U.S.-Afghan patrol on Monday October 1, 2012, killing 14 people including three Americans. The attack followed more American casualties over the weekend that pushed the U.S. military’s death toll for the 11-year-war above 2,000. Joint patrols between NATO and Afghan forces, like the one targeted Monday, have been limited following a tide of attacks by Afghan soldiers and police on their international allies.
The retreat of western forces from Afghanistan could come sooner than expected, the head of Nato has said on Monday October 1, 2012; the recent Taliban strategy of "green on blue" killings had been successful in sapping morale. Nato's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, responded to pressure for a faster withdrawal from Afghanistan by stating that the options were being studied and should be clear within three months.
Two U.S. military personnel died in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday October 6, 2012. No further information was available about the deaths. The total number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan since American forces entered the country in 2001 is 2,134.
A bomb hidden in a parked minibus exploded outside a government building in southern Afghanistan on Monday October 8, 2012, killing two Afghan intelligence officers. The bomb targeted a field office of the Afghan intelligence agency, known as the National Directorate of Security, in the city of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. The two officers who were killed were guarding the compound, which the NDS uses as a base for operations inside Laskgar Gah. At least 15 people were wounded in the blast, most of them civilians who lived in a house next door. It was not clear whether the explosives were remotely detonated or fixed to a timer.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday October 9, 2012, extended authorization for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan for a year and welcomed the agreement to gradually transfer full responsibility for security in the country to the Afghan government by the end of 2014.
Afghanistan, Saturday October 13, 2012:
On Monday October 15, 2012, Afghan officials charged that a coalition strike against a Taliban target had killed three young children -two boys and a girl- from one family over the weekend.
A roadside bomb tore through a minibus carrying people to a wedding celebration in the Dawlat Abad district of the northern Balkh province, in northern Afghanistan on Friday October 19, 2012, killing at least 19 people and wounding 16. Six children and seven women were among those killed in the blast. A police patrol had passed through the area during the night. The wedding had occurred Thursday, and the party was heading to the groom's home to congratulate the newlyweds according to tradition. Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack.
An Australian Special Forces soldier was killed instantly Sunday October 21, 2012, when an IED detonated during a mission to target Taliban insurgents, a disruption operation against an insurgent network. The soldier was killed during a partnered mission on the border of Oruzgan province in southern Afghanistan. The soldier was clearing the compound when an (improvised explosive device) IED detonated, killing him instantly.
A high-level Taliban commander in northern Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Rahman, has been captured in a joint Afghan-NATO operation, we were told on Tuesday October 23, 2012. Rahman was involved in heightening insecurity in Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces. He led insurgents to plant roadside bombs and stage high-profile attacks on Afghan officials. Rahman was described as a "Taliban financier" in the north. He was captured in Kunduz's Char Darah district last Friday.
A man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed two American service members in what appeared to be the latest attack on international forces this year by their Afghan partners. In Thursday October 25, 2012's shooting, authorities had yet to determine if the attacker was an Afghan police officer or an insurgent who had donned a uniform to get close to the Americans. The assailant escaped after killing the service members while they were out on a late morning patrol in the southern Uruzgan province. It was the second suspected insider attack in two days. On Wednesday, two British service members and an Afghan police officer were killed in an "exchange of gunfire" in Helmand province. The Afghan officer was not wearing his uniform and the statement said it was not clear who started shooting first. The assault happened near an Afghan police compound in Khas Uruzgan district.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a mosque packed with senior regional officials in northern Afghanistan on a major Muslim holiday Friday October 26, 2012, killing 41 people. The officials escaped unhurt, and many of the dead were soldiers and police. At least 14 civilians were among the dead. Taliban attacks account for the vast majority of civilian casualties in the war. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack took place in the town of Maymana, capital of northern Faryab province. The bomber struck after top provincial officials, including the governor and the police chief, had assembled inside the mosque to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday. The blast went off in the middle of a large crowd that included police and soldiers waiting for the dignitaries to remerge.
Two British troops killed this week in Afghanistan were not killed by "friendly fire we were told on Saturday October 27, 2012. Corporal Channing Day, 25, who served with the 3 Medical Regiment, and Corporal David O'Connor, 27, of 40 Commando, were fatally injured while on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on Wednesday. An Afghan man, who is believed to have been a member of the Afghan uniformed police but who was not wearing uniform at the time, also died during the incident. He said the UK patrol was not working with any Afghan partners at the time.
Taliban militants have pulled five Afghan civilians off a bus in eastern Afghanistan and shot them dead. The insurgents stopped the bus Friday October 26, 2012, as it was driving in Andar district on the main road headed south to Kandahar city. He says they pulled out five people and killed them on the spot. It is not yet clear if the victims were specifically targeted by the insurgents.
Two British soldiers have been shot dead at a checkpoint in Afghanistan by a man wearing a local police uniform. The soldiers were both from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles. They were killed in Nahr-e Saraj in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday October 30, 2012. Their families have been informed. At least 11 of the 43 British dead in Afghanistan this year have been killed by Afghans they served alongside. This compares to one in 2011, three in 2010 and five in 2009.
Two British soldiers have been shot dead at a checkpoint in Afghanistan by a man wearing a local police uniform. The soldiers were both from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles. They were killed in Nahr-e Saraj in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday October 30, 2012. Their families have been informed. At least 11 of the 43 British dead in Afghanistan this year have been killed by Afghans they served alongside. This compares to one in 2011, three in 2010 and five in 2009.
A NATO soldier has died of a non-battle related injury in the south of Afghanistan on Wednesday November 1, 2012. Some 369 ISAF personnel, including 266 Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, mostly in roadside bomb attacks using IEDs (improvised explosive devices). Most of the ISAF casualties have been in southern Afghanistan.
Four Afghan police officers were shot dead Friday November 2, 2012, in southern Helmand province in an insider attack by their colleagues. The shooting occurred at a police outpost during a shift change. The officers on duty were killed by four of their colleagues who had arrived to replace them. The killers fled. At least 55 foreign troops have died in attacks by Afghan security forces this year. A similar number of Afghan policemen and soldiers have been killed in similar attacks by colleagues.
A roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed a district police chief, as the insurgents increasingly target Afghan security forces amid the drawdown of foreign troops. Rahmatullah Khan died Saturday November 3, 2012, while trying to reach a police outpost under Taliban attack.
At least 20 people, including 12 civilians, have been killed in four separate militant attacks Thursday November 8, 2012. Women and children were among 10 killed when a minibus hit a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province. Other bombings killed five Afghan soldiers in Laghman in the east, three police in Kandahar and two boys in Zabul province. Militants frequently target security forces in Afghanistan.
Two service members with the U.S.-led military coalition died Friday November 9, 2012. One service member was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan. Another died as a result of a non-battle related injury in the country’s south. So far this year, 371 international troops have died in Afghanistan.
A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform shot and killed a member of the U.S.-led coalition forces on Sunday November 11, 2012. Separately 11 Afghan civilians were killed by land mines also on Sunday in explosions in the east and south. The insider attack had claimed the life of a British soldier from The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. The soldier was shot by an individual wearing an Afghan army uniform at his base in the Nade-e Ali district of Helmand province.
At least four rockets were fired into the Afghan capital Tuesday November 13, 2012, killing one man and injuring three other people. The rockets landed in the northeastern part of Kabul near a private television station and close to an office compound used by the Afghan intelligence service.
Germany’s foreign minister says his country is planning to reduce its troop contingent in Afghanistan by about a quarter over the next year as it moves to bring all combat soldiers home by the end of 2014. On Wednesday November 14, 2012, we were told that the government is proposing to reduce German troops, who operate primarily in the north of the conflict-stricken country, from 4,400 to 3,300 by February 2014. Parliament’s approval will be needed, but such plans have been rubber-stamped in the past. Even after the troops are gone, Germany will continue to provide Afghanistan with long-term non-military assistance.
A roadside bomb killed 17 civilians, most of them women and children, on Friday November 16, 2012, as they travelled to a wedding in western Afghanistan. The minivan the group was travelling in hit an improvised explosive device buried in a dirt road in Farah Province. Nine others in the group were wounded in the blast, including five women and two children. The area is near a small village named Missezai and is heavily patrolled by Afghan National Army soldiers, the Afghan National Police and the Afghan Local Police, who may have been the intended target.
France has ended its combat mission in Afghanistan, pulling its last troops from a province northeast of the capital, Kabul. Tuesday November 20, 2012's withdrawal of 500 combat troops from Kapisa province is part of President Francois Hollande's pledge to accelerate the country's exit from Afghanistan. Afghan security forces will now be in charge of maintaining security in the province. France had been the fifth-largest contributor to the NATO-led coalition. It is keeping 1,500 troops in Afghanistan to help send equipment back home and to train Afghan forces. Eighty-eight French troops have died in Afghanistan since France joined the fighting in late 2001. Remaining international combat troops are set to leave the country by the end of 2014.
In an attack on a coalition military base in downtown Kabul, two suicide bombers set off explosions Wednesday November 21, 2012, that killed two Afghan security guards but caused no Western military casualties. The two bombers approached the entrance of Camp Eggers, a fortified military base, and were fired on by Afghan security guards. Camp Eggers is occupied primarily by U.S. military personnel, along with soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force and some civilian workers. The two bombers detonated suicide vests, killing themselves and the two guards. Five civilian passers-by were injured and taken to hospitals.
A suicide bomber driving a truck made his way to the heart of a provincial capital in Afghanistan on Friday November 23, 2012, and exploded his bomb, levelling many government and security buildings, badly damaging a prison and leaving the governor without an office. The bomber struck in Maidan Shahr, in Wardak Province, killing two police officers and a young woman and wounding 90 others, including police officers and civilians. Though the province has long been sharply contested, this was the first such attack on Maidan Shahr. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for the execution of Taliban prisoners this week by the Afghan government.
Violence broke out at the annual Shiite Muslim observance of Ashura Saturday November 24, 2012, but on a much smaller scale than security authorities in Kabul had feared. At least one person was killed and 16 others were wounded in clashes between Shiite and Sunni students at Kabul University. But earlier in the day, Shiite marched in processions through city streets without serious incident.
A minivan packed with civilians struck a roadside bomb in the southern province of Oruzgan on Thursday November 29, 2012, killing 10 people and wounding eight others. Most of the victims were women and children. The occupants of the vehicle were on their way to celebrate a family member's return from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. He blamed the explosion on Taliban insurgents, who often plant roadside bombs that kill indiscriminately. Also Thursday, a 15-year-old Afghan girl was beheaded by her would-be suitor after her family rejected the man’s marriage proposal. One blast killed two civilians at a park in Khost. Eight others were wounded in the blast, including four women and a child.
A suicide car bomber killed three civilians and wounded another six in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province. Saturday December 1, 2012’s blast occurred near the police headquarters of Uruzgan’s Dehra Wood district. The car apparently detonated prematurely before it reached the gate of the headquarters.
Taliban suicide bombers attacked a joint U.S.-Afghan air base in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday December 2, 2012, detonating explosives at the gate and sparking a gun battle that lasted at least two hours with American helicopters firing down on the militants. The attackers and at least five Afghans were killed. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault. Two vehicles packed with explosives barrelled toward the main gate of the base. The first vehicle, a four-wheel-drive car, blew up at the gate. Guards started shooting at the second vehicle before it too exploded. It was unclear whether the explosives were detonated by the attackers themselves or by shooting from the guards. Two Afghan students from a private medical school were caught up in the attack and killed, as were three other Afghans working at the base. Nine attackers took part in the assault, three of whom were killed in the suicide blasts and another six gunmen who died in the ensuing fighting that lasted a few hours. The NATO military coalition described the attack as a failure.
At least five people, two Afghan army soldiers and three civilians (including two women), were killed when a bomb targeting an army vehicle exploded in southern Afghanistan on Monday December 3, 2012. The remote-controlled bomb was placed on a motorcycle and hit an Afghan army patrol truck as it was passing in Trin Kot the capital of Uruzgan province. The blast also wounded eight others, including two soldiers.
Two of NATO service members have been killed in a bomb attack in the country's south. We were told Monday December 3, 2012, that the blast occurred earlier that day. There have been at least 384 international service members killed so far this year, the vast majority of them AmericansAfghanistan's already strict body searches may get even more intrusive after the intelligence service revealed On Friday December 7, 2012, that a suicide bomber who badly wounded the country's spy chief had concealed his explosives by wrapping them around his genitals. The bomber had secured the face-to-face meeting in Kabul with Asadullah Khalid, head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) since September, by posing as a Taliban messenger potentially interested in helping broker peace talks. The blast left Khalid with injuries to his abdomen and lower body, but he has been stabilised and is expected to recover. The unusual placement of the bomb may have saved Khalid's life, as most of the force of the explosion appears to have been directed downwards. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday December 9 that the suicide bombing that seriously wounded his nation's spy chief was planned in Pakistan, an accusation that further strained tensions between the neighbouring countries.
An elite U.S. Special Forces team rescued an American doctor who had been abducted, but lost one of their own members in the mission. Dr. Dilip Joseph was freed 11 hours after his captors released two other kidnapped staffers of his non-profit agency, Morning Star Development, the organization said Sunday December 9, 2012. A U.S. service member was killed in the operation. The man who was shot dead belonged to the Navy's Special Warfare Development Group, more commonly known as SEAL Team Six. The elite unit is the same one that took part in the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but the official didn't know if the fallen service member was involved in that operation.
A senior advocate for women in Afghanistan was shot dead by unknown gunmen Monday December 10, 2012, the latest assassination of a women’s rights activist in the country. Two assailants riding a motorbike gunned down Najia Seddiqi as she was heading to her office in eastern Laghman province. Seddiqi was the head of women’s affairs for Laghman province. Her predecessor in that post was killed five months ago when explosives hidden in her car were detonated.
A car bomber struck a coalition convoy outside a sprawling base in southern Afghanistan on Thursday December 13, 2012, hours after a visit by Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta. At a late evening news conference with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mr. Panetta said the attack had killed one American service member and wounded three others. The attack also killed three Afghan civilians and wounded 18 others. It took place near an entrance to the base on a road that has been the site of previous bombings.
France pulled its last troops engaged directly in combat out of Afghanistan Saturday December 15, 2012, in line with a promise by President Francois Hollande to accelerate his country's withdrawal from the long-running conflict. About 1,500 French troops remain in Afghanistan to remove equipment and to help train Afghan forces. Some 2,500 French troops in total have been withdrawn from Afghanistan over the past year. French personnel will continue to run Kabul's international airport and serve at the city's military hospital into 2014. The United States, whose troops make up the bulk of the force, still has some 68,000 personnel in Afghanistan.
At least ten young girls have been killed and three more injured in a landmine explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday December 16, 2012. The girls were collecting firewood when one of them hit the mine with an axe. It is unclear if the mine was recent or one left over from a previous conflict. Meanwhile at least one person has been killed in an explosion on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul. Several more were injured in the blast, which took place on the Jalalabad road, home to many NATO bases and compounds housing international staff. The explosion happened near the offices of an international construction company, but it is unclear what the target was. The Taliban say they carried the attack, adding that a suicide bomber drove into the compound of a US-based engineering and construction company.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday December 19, 2012, that about 3,800 British troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2013. Around 5,000 will remain into 2014. The announcement comes after a lengthy video call Tuesday between Cameron and President Barack Obama. After 2014, some troops will stay on to return equipment and deal with logistics but no details on numbers have been finalized, he said.
Apache co-pilot Prince Harry launched a missile attack on the Taliban. The 27-year-old was called in to provide air support to troops and discharged a 100lb Hellfire missile. The attack happened in late October. Captain Harry Wales –as he is known in the Army– is a co-pilot gunner in the Apache unit which has the highest ‘kill rate’ in the war. As the co-pilot gunner, Harry commands missions, fire the weapons, navigates and sometimes take over the controls.
A vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the gate of a major U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday December 26, 2012, killing the attacker and three Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. A local guard who questioned the vehicle driver at the gate of Camp Chapman was killed along with two civilians and the assailant.
Insurgents stormed a police post in southern Afghanistan early Thursday December 27, 2012, killing four officers and wounding two others in their sleep. Officials accused a rogue member of the Afghan National Police of aiding the attack, which took place in the Oruzgan provincial capital, Tarin Kot. Police are searching for the suspect, who disappeared after the attack. Another suspect has been detained for questioning.
The body of a Georgian soldier who is believed to be the first member of the international coalition in Afghanistan to have gone missing in more than three years was found in the country's south, we were told on Sunday December 30, 2012. The Afghan police found the body and turned it over to NATO forces Saturday. He went missing December 18 in the restive province of Helmand. A villager found the body about 15 kilometres from the soldier's base in Helmand's Musaqala district and informed local police.
The family of an ailing, pregnant American woman missing in Afghanistan with her Canadian husband has broken months of silence on Tuesday December 31, 2012, over the mysterious case, making public appeals for the couple's safe return. James Coleman, the father of 27-year-old Caitlan Coleman, said that she was due to deliver in January and needed urgent medical attention for a liver ailment that required regular checkups. The couple had embarked on a journey last July that took them to Russia, the central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then finally to Afghanistan. Neither the Taliban nor any other militant group has claimed it is holding the couple, leading some to believe they were kidnapped. But no ransom demand has been made.
An elite Danish soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan by an explosive device. The blast happened late Wednesday or early Thursday January 3, 2013 and came as members of Denmark's Ranger and Frogmen units were on a joint patrol with an Afghan police's elite unit. The Ranger was airlifted by helicopter to a field hospital but his life couldn't be saved. Denmark has about 600 troops in Afghanistan, mostly based in the volatile Helmand province. More than 40 Danish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since Denmark joined the U.S.-led coalition in 2002.
Two suicide bombers penetrated a government compound in the country’s south Sunday January 6, 2013, killing five people. In neighbouring Helmand province, a bomb planted at a bus station killed one policeman and wounded another person. The suicide attack was in the district of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province in one of the nation’s most violent areas. The two militants were targeting a meeting of local officials at a compound in the district of Kandahar province near the Pakistani border. The two attackers arrived in a car, killed a guard and entered the facility firing weapons before blowing themselves up along with their vehicle.
Two suicide bombers attacked a government compound in southern Afghanistan on Sunday January 6, 2013, killing five people. There were no reports of foreign troops or civilians at the site. The attack was in the Spinbaldak district of Kandahar Province. Mohammad Hashim, the district chief, said two militants had arrived in a car, killed a guard and entered firing weapons before blowing themselves up. A Taliban spokesman said the group was responsible for the attack.
A suspected member of the Afghan army ran amok at a patrol base in the heart of Helmand province, killing a British soldier and injuring six others in what appears to have been another "green on blue" attack. The dead soldier, a member of 28 Engineer Regiment, attached to 21 Engineer Regiment, was shot on Monday January 7, 2013 at Hazrat patrol base, in the troubled Nahr-e Saraj district. The killer was shot dead at the scene. The Taliban immediately claimed it was behind the attack identifying the "infiltrator" as Mohammad Qasim Faroq. The man had fired on local soldiers before turning his gun on British personnel.
The Spanish government says an army bomb disposal expert has died in an explosion in Afghanistan. 35-year-old Sgt. David Fernandez died Friday January 11, 2012, while defusing an improvised explosive device. The device had been found on a road between the northwestern towns of Qala-i-Naw and Darra-i-Bun during a routine mission. Spain has about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan's northwestern Badghis province. It has lost some 100 soldiers since deploying in 2002.
Afghanistan Sunday January 13, 2013:
A team of suicide bombers attacked a compound belonging to Afghanistan's spy agency Wednesday January 16, 2013, killing at least one guard and injuring 33 civilians in a brazen strike at the heavily fortified heart of the capital. One of the attackers detonated a minivan packed with explosives at the entrance to the National Security Directorate. Five gunmen wearing suicide vests drove up behind him and were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces. Their van was also rigged to explode. Security forces deactivated the device with three minutes left on the timer. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the midday attack. Some nearby business owners, however, questioned how the two vehicles could have penetrated one of the most heavily guarded districts of Kabul without being detected.
A British soldier injured in Afghanistan has died from his wounds at a U.K. hospital on Wednesday January 16, 2013. The soldier from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was wounded by enemy action on January 14 while serving in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand Province. The death brings to 440 the number of British personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
An explosion has rocked a district government headquarters in Heart province, killing two men. The incident took place on Saturday January 19, 2013, when two men riding a motorbike tried to target Guzara district headquarters. However, their explosive vests went off before they reached to the intended target.
Taliban suicide bombers blew up a car and stormed Kabul traffic police headquarters before dawn Monday January 21, 2013, setting off a gun battle that raged for six hours and left at least three dead and 12 people wounded. A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle at the gate of the traffic police department building, close to the Afghan parliament and the Kabul zoo. Then, another two or three attackers "armed with suicide vests and heavy and light weapons entered the compound. Five insurgents attacked the traffic police headquarters and that three members of that force were killed and four injured. Eight civilians were wounded in the siege. At least two of the attackers were killed by police. Militants had holed up inside the traffic police building and were firing on two neighbouring compounds, home to the Afghan civil order police and the border police.
A roadside bomb struck a police van in the southwestern province of Nimruz on Thursday January 24, 2013, killing two policemen aboard the vehicle and injuring two passersby, both women. In the first six months of 2012, over 1,140 Afghan civilians were killed and around 2,000 were wounded, mostly by roadside bombs, according to statistics released by the United Nations. Thirty percent of the casualties were women and children.
A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan Thursday January 24, 2013, killing five civilians. At least 15 people were wounded in the attack in the Tagab district of Kapisa province.
Afghanistan Saturday January 26, 2013:
Taliban militants say they have killed a Polish soldier serving with the US-led NATO forces in a bomb attack carried out in central Afghanistan. The bomb explosion occurred in the central province of Ghazni, killing the soldier who was on patrol in Shelgar area. Two other Polish soldiers were wounded in the attack. On January 23, Captain Krzysztof Wozniak, who was a member of Poland’s Elite Special Forces Unit (GROM), succumbed to his injuries hours after a gunman opened fire on a group of Polish soldiers on patrol in the same province. The new casualty brought to nearly 40 the number of Polish troops killed since March 2002 when Poland deployed its troops to Afghanistan.
Afghan and Coalition forces arrested an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) commander on Thursday January 31, 2013, during an operation in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) reported capturing the member of the al Qaeda-linked IMU in the Burkah district, making this the second IMU operative captured in that district so far this year. According to ISAF, "the leader conducted assassinations directed by insurgent leadership in the province." He also coordinated the supply of weapons to insurgents for attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces.
Afghan police on Sunday February 3, 2013, arrested six men and seized suicide vests, assault rifles and more than 50 hand grenades during a raid on a residential building in central Kabul.
The raid comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron meets in London with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss prospects for peace talks with the Taliban. Cameron initiated the meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last year to boost cooperation among the countries and promote regional stability. The talks, on Sunday and Monday February 3 and 4, 2013, are expected to focus on preventing a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan when British, American and other NATO troops withdraw from the country by the end of next year. Downing Street said the trilateral meeting will include Afghan and Pakistani army and intelligence chiefs for the first time.
A bomb hidden in a pressure cooker exploded inside a restaurant in northern Afghanistan Tuesday February 5, 2013, killing five people. The explosion, which occurred in Faryab province, was targeting a former jihadi commander. The former commander, Mohammad Nadir, was among seven people wounded in the blast in the upscale district of Khwaja Sabz Poshi Wali; two suspects had been arrested.
Taliban militants say an unmanned aircraft was downed in Mahmi Qal’a on Thursday February 7, 2013, while it was gathering information and its debris has been transferred to a safe location.
At least eight Afghan police officers have been poisoned in Afghanistan’s central-eastern province of Ghazni. The incident took place in the Andar District of the region on Tuesday February 5, 2013. Afghan police authorities say the poisoned officers have been transferred to a local hospital. Taliban have claimed responsibility for the poisoning, saying two of the police officers have been killed and six others have gone into a coma.
A NATO helicopter crashed Thursday February 7, 2013, in eastern Afghanistan, but no crew members were seriously injured. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed the helicopter was shot down by the group's fighters in the Tagab district of Kapisa province. But a spokesman for U.S.-led forces in the country said the cause of the crash is still being investigated.
A Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan has killed 10 civilians -four women, five children- and wounded five other children. One man, who was the leader of the family, was also killed. A single home in the remote Sultan valley, in Kunar province, was hit by bombs on Wednesday February 13, 2013. Four Taliban commanders were also killed in the attack.
Afghan intelligence officials on Monday February 18, 2013, claimed to have arrested the former second-in-command of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulvi Faqir, along with “four accomplices” while he was trying to enter Pakistan’s Tirah Valley from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Arms and ammunition have also been seized from their vehicle. The five are in the custody of Afghan intelligence officials who are interrogating them.
Afghanistan, Wednesday February 20, 2013:
As many as 17 Taliban militants have been killed during a series of security operations launched since Friday February 22, 2013, in Afghanistan. Four militants were also arrested in the operations, carried out in the provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar and Logar.
Afghanistan Sunday February 24, 2013:
Insurgents have launched a rocket attack on the main coalition military base in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The heavily fortified Camp Bastion, which accommodates up to 4,000 UK, American, Danish and Estonian troops, was targeted as darkness fell on Wednesday February 27, 2013. Damage was caused but no one had been injured or killed. Multiple explosions could be heard minutes after an alarm sounded inside the sprawling desert base. The all-clear came 40 minutes later after which troops were directed to search their immediate area for unexploded ordnance and casualties.
A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Afghan army soldiers Wednesday February 27, 2013, in a western district of Kabul, wounding six of them and four civilians in the second security incident in the capital this week. As snow fell over the region, the bomber struck while soldiers were boarding an Afghan Defence Ministry bus in the Pul-e-Sokhta area of Kabul.
Taliban insurgents have killed 17 people in an overnight attack on a government-backed militia post in eastern Afghanistan, shooting them dead after reportedly poisoning them. The militants somehow poisoned those inside the outpost, incapacitating them, before gunning them down on Tuesday February 26, 2013. The dead included 10 members of the government-backed Afghan local police and seven of their civilian friends.
A roadside bomb killed nine people, mostly border policemen, Thursday February 28, 2013 as militants continue to target government security forces taking over from withdrawing international troops. The blast occurred in Dangam district of Kunar province, near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. Wasifullah Wasifi said seven border policemen and two civilians were killed, and two women were wounded in the attackInternational forces accidentally killed two Afghan boys during an operation in southern Afghanistan we were told on Saturday March 2, 2013. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, offered his "personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed" and said the coalition takes full responsibility for the deaths. The boys were killed Thursday when coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces in the Shahid-e Hasas district of Uruzgan province. It says a joint Afghan-NATO investigation team visited the location Saturday and met with local leaders.
A civilian working on contract for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The ISAF has not yet released details regarding the location or identity of the civilian killed by the improvised explosive device (IED) on Sunday March 3, 2013.
Militants staged two deadly suicide attacks Saturday March 9, 2013, to mark the first full day of U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to Afghanistan. A suicide bomber on a bicycle struck outside the Afghan Defence Ministry early Saturday morning, and about a half hour later, another suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Khost city. Nine people were killed in the bombing at the ministry, and an Afghan policeman and eight civilians, who were mostly children, died in the blast in Khost.
On Saturday March 9, 2013, a bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives struck outside the Afghan Defence Ministry killing at least 19 people in a blast just hours after Chuck Hagel, the new United States defence secretary, arrived here. Eight children who were killed, all boys 10 to 18 years old, lived in Starkalai, a rural hamlet.
Two U.S. service members were killed and at least eight others injured Monday March 11, 2013, in a possible insider attack at a Special Forces site in Afghanistan. The shooting occurred at a U.S. special operations outpost in Wardak province in eastern Afghanistan. The shooter, who was dressed in an Afghan National Security Forces uniform, was shot and killed. At least three Afghans were also killed. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Five U.S. service members were killed when a helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan. The chopper went down Monday March 11, 2013, in the Daman district of southern Kandahar during a rain storm. There was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident.
Afghanistan's intelligence agency has defused a massive truck bomb that could have destroyed a whole area of the capital. We were told on Friday March 15, 2013, that the eight tons of explosives were found early in the week in eastern Kabul in a night raid. A resulting fire fight killed five suspected plotters. Two other people were arrested. The detonation of the explosives would have been a "catastrophe" for people living in the city, destroying everything within 1,500 meters of the blast.
A US helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing one coalition service member and injuring another. There was no enemy activity in the area when the helicopter crashed Saturday March 16, 2013. The helicopter crashed in Daman district west of Kandahar City.
On Tuesday March 19, 2013, Denmark said it will end combat operations in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan in August, about six months earlier than planned because the expected timetable for local troops to take over security has been pushed forward. Some 350 Danish soldiers will be pulled out, leaving 300 to train Afghan forces. Denmark’s force is mainly situated in the Helmand province under British command. More than 40 Danish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the Scandinavian country began sending soldiers for the NATO force.
On Tuesday March 19, 2013, the Security Council unanimously extended the mandate of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan for another year that is until 19 March 2014. The withdrawal of the bulk of United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops from Afghanistan is set to be completed by the end of 2014.
An improvised explosive device has killed one US-led polish soldier and wounded another in Afghanistan's central-eastern province of Ghazni. The Polish trooper Pawel Ordynski died when a mine went off under his armoured vehicle as he was patrolling an area of Ghazni Province on Thursday March 21, 2013. Ordynski was the 39th US-led Polish trooper who lost his life in the Asian country since 2007.
On Saturday March 23, 2013, militants planted an improvised explosive device meant to kill security forces. The explosion in the Mianshin district of the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan killed at least four children and injured two others.
Eight suicide bombers stormed the headquarters of a special unit of the Afghan police in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday morning March 26, 2013, killing five officers and wounding four.
At least 10 British troops have been injured in a suspected suicide car bomb attack on a patrol base in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The insurgents followed up the blast with small arms fire on the base in Nad Ali, one of the districts where UK troops have been based during their time in the country. Five insurgents were killed in the attack on the base on Monday night March 25, 2013). One British soldier was severely wounded and airlifted by helicopter to Camp Bastion. Most of the others were "walking wounded". Members of the Afghan national security force were also among the injured.
Afghan and NATO forces killed 24 insurgents in a joint operation in the eastern Logar province province's Baraki Barak district we were told on Wednesday March 27, 2013. A local Taliban commander was killed and two civilians were wounded but there were no Afghan or international casualties. Two captured Afghan soldiers were rescued. Separately, an international service member died following an insurgent attack in the east. It was not clear if there was any relation to the Logar operation. So far this month, at least 16 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
A NATO helicopter killed at least one child and nine suspected Taliban fighters on Saturday March 30, 2013. A woman was also killed and eight civilians were wounded in the fire fight between Afghan security forces and insurgents on the outskirts of the capital of Ghazni province.
At least nine people were killed - including seven policemen- and 17 others wounded on Monday April 1, 2013, when insurgents detonated an oil tanker packed with explosives inside a governmental compound in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
An Afghan teenager fatally stabbed an American soldier in the neck as he played with children in eastern Afghanistan we were told Monday April 1, 2013.
Nine Taliban fighters dressed as Afghan soldiers stormed a government compound in the western part of the country on Wednesday April 3, 2013, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 100 in a hostage standoff. The complex assault began around 8:45 a.m., when two suicide attackers detonated explosives packed into an army pickup truck at the entrance gate of the provincial government compound in Farah. After the explosion, which ripped through the mayor’s office and neighbouring buildings, insurgents rushed the packed provincial courthouse, taking civilians and a handful of employee hostages. Afghan security forces surrounded the building, firing at the Taliban fighters tucked away on the second floor. At some point during the nearly seven-hour gunfight, the insurgents took the hostages downstairs to the basement and shot them. By 4 p.m., the fight was over, leaving behind a scene of carnage and destruction. The death toll: 34 civilians, 10 Afghan security forces and the 9 insurgents. More than 100 people, mostly civilians, were wounded.
Om Friday April 5, 2013, we were told that New Zealand has withdrawn its small contingent of 145 soldiers from the central Bamiyan province there since 2003. Ten of its soldiers died during the conflict. The withdrawal came about five months earlier than initially planned. About 95 Afghan interpreters and their family members who worked with the Kiwis will this month move to New Zealand, where they have been granted residency. New Zealand will continue to station 27 planning and intelligence personnel in Kabul.
On Saturday April 6, 2013 a bomb in southern Zabul province has killed five Americans -three soldiers and two civilians serving with the Nato-led forces- and an Afghan doctor. They were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives. Another American civilian was killed in an insurgent attack in the east. Among the American dead was a young woman diplomat.
More than 50 people have been killed in Western Afghanistan on Sunday April 7, 2013, in one of the deadliest attacks by insurgents for more than a year. Militants disguised as Afghan soldiers launched a suicide bomb and gun attack at the governor’s compound in Farah province. The Taliban have claimed responsibility saying it was aimed at government employees in Farah who they had “sent several warnings” to telling them not to work there. The Talibans also freed insurgents who were standing trial. Many civilians as well as members of the Afghan security forces were counted among the dead.
Separately, 10 children and an Afghan woman were killed by air strikes during an hours-long battle in a remote part of eastern Kunar province on Sunday April 7, 2013. A US civilian adviser to the Afghan intelligence agency was also killed in the fight. In the morning planes appeared in the sky and air strikes started and continued until evening. A senior Taliban commander was in the house, but so were women and children between one and 12 years old who were members of his family.
A NATO helicopter crashed Tuesday April 9, 2013, killing two American service members. The deaths raised to nine the number of Americans, including three civilians, killed in Afghanistan so far this month. The cause of the crash is under investigation but initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time. The helicopter crashed in an agricultural field in the Pachir Wagam district in Nangarhar province.
Two separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan have killed four people, including a district police chief. In southern Uruzgan province a bomb killed the police chief of the Chora district and two of his bodyguards while they were on patrol early Thursday April 11, 2013. In Helmand province a roadside bomb killed a civilian and wounded two others in the Marjah district.
Taliban militants attacked an army outpost near the eastern border with Pakistan on Friday April 12, 2013, killing 13 soldiers. The fighting began at dawn and lasted about five hours in the Nari district of Kunar province. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack and said the insurgents captured the base, seizing ammunition and weapons. The militants suffered no casualties.
Afghan commandos killed 22 insurgents on Monday April 15, 2013, during an operation to capture a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan. The raid was carried out in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar when a team of commandos raided a village looking for the Taliban leader. During the raid, insurgents opened fire on the soldiers and 22 of the Taliban were killed. There were no casualties among the security forces or civilians. The Taliban commander, Jamal Faroqi, was killed in the pre-dawn raid and 10 insurgents were captured. In another operation, a team of Afghan and coalition special forces captured a senior leader of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group, which is banned in Pakistan, is blamed for the November 2008 rampage in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people. It said he was captured in the Anadar district of eastern Ghazni province, a lawless area that is a major infiltration point for insurgents travelling into Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Afghanistan Wednesday April 17, 2013:
Germany will keep around 800 troops in Afghanistan for a "non-combat mission" when it winds up its 13-year long military operation at the end of next year. The German government, Thursday April 18, 2013, decided to inform the NATO that it is prepared to take over the responsibilities for northern Afghanistan for two years after the pull out of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF.
Afghanistan, Sunday April 21, 2013:
- Insurgents killed six police officers at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban ambushed the checkpoint in the Dayak district of Ghazni province, killing six police officers, wounding one and leaving one missing. The checkpoint was manned by Afghan local police, forces recruited at the village level that are nominally under the control of the Afghan Interior Ministry.
- A suicide bomber killed three civilians at a shopping bazaar in a separate attack. This second attack hit Paktika province, which borders Ghazni. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a shopping bazaar around midday, killing three people and wounding five civilians and two police officers. Among the dead was Asanullah Sadat, who stepped down as the district’s governor two years ago. A spokesman for Taliban, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
- On Friday, Taliban insurgents attacked a local police checkpoint in Andar, a district of Ghazni province neighbouring Dayak. They killed 13 officers.
In other violence, the Taliban cut a hand and foot off each of two villagers they accused of helping escort coalition convoys, a spokesman for the provincial chief in western Herat province said.
The Taliban took 11 civilians prisoner, including eight Turks and a Russian, after their cargo helicopter made an emergency landing in eastern Afghanistan we were told on Monday April 22, 2013, in the first large scale capture of foreigners there in nearly six years. Security forces dispatched to the remote area retreated after engaging in firefights with the insurgents but failing to secure the area or retrieve the captives. The crisis began Sunday when the civilian transport aircraft was forced down in strong winds and heavy rain in the village of Dahra Mangal in the Azra district of Logar province, southeast of Kabul. The helicopter came down in a gorge in the densely forested region, known for narrow gorges and rugged mountains. Taliban fighters then captured everyone aboard the helicopter and took them away.
Afghanistan Wednesday April 24, 2013:
A plane has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing four military personnel we were told on Sunday April 28, 2013. The cause of the crash was being investigated, but initial reports suggested there was no militant activity in the area at the time. The nationalities of the victims or the crash's location were not revealed. The military aircraft came down there on Saturday.
On Tuesday April 30, 2013, the Pentagon identified four U.S. victims in Saturday's crash of a surveillance aircraft in southern Afghanistan and said the incident appeared unrelated to Taliban violence. Bad weather caused the plane to crash, in the district of Shahjoi. The crash of the MC-12 was under investigation. All four victims were airmen.
A cargo plane crashed killing all seven crew members on board Monday April 29, 2013. All seven were U.S. citizens. The crash happened shortly after takeoff from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The Boeing 747-400 was en route to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Three British soldiers have died after their armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Helmand. The soldiers were from the Royal Highland Fusiliers, the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. Six other soldiers were injured in the bomb blast on Tuesday April 30, 2013. The attack was on a Mastiff vehicle, deemed one of the safest. The blast occurred when the soldiers were travelling on a routine patrol in the district of Nahr-e Saraj. The three soldiers died of their injuries despite being evacuated by air to the military hospital at Camp Bastion.
Taliban fighters killed a senior member of Afghanistan's peace council on Wednesday May 1, 2013. Malim Shahwali, the council's chief in the southern province of Helmand, was travelling to the violence-plagued Gereshk district when insurgents ambushed his convoy. First an explosion hit his convoy and then the Taliban gunmen opened fire, killing Malim Shahwali and two bodyguards. Three policemen and an Afghan soldier were wounded.
A border clash between Pakistani and Afghan forces that killed an Afghan police officer has renewed tension between the countries. The skirmish occurred late Wednesday May 1, 2013, and continued for several hours. Pakistani troops fired first on Afghan border guards in the Goshta district of Nangahar province, killing one officer and injuring two others. The firefight continued into early Thursday morning. The clash occurred in an area that became a source of friction between the two countries last month when Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of building a border gate on the Afghan side of the frontier.
Eight soldiers with the American-led military coalition were killed Saturday May 4, 2013, making it the bloodiest day this year for Western troops fighting here. Two were shot in an insider attack, one died in a small-arms attack and five Americans were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb. The explosion that killed the five American soldiers took place in the Maiwand district in western Kandahar Province. The soldiers were driving toward villages from central Maiwand when they were attacked. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the insider attack in Farah Province in western Afghanistan.
Insurgents in northern Afghanistan have killed a German Special Forces soldier and wounded a second we were told on Sunday May 5, 2013. The soldiers were accompanying an Afghan-led military operation on Saturday when insurgents opened fire at a river crossing in Baghlan province, using fire arms and rocket-propelled grenades. The troops called in air support but the Special Forces soldier was fatally shot later when exploring the airstrike’s damage. The 1,000-strong Special Forces are considered to be the German military’s elite force, similar to U.S. Navy SEALs. Several insurgents are believed to have been killed in the fighting north of the German base near the city of Baghlan.
Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday May 8, 2013, as the U.S.-led coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops during an encounter with insurgents. Both incidents occurred in southern Afghanistan. Villagers in the town of Maiwand said Afghan police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting raids that Afghan and NATO forces conducted in their village of Loye Karez two days earlier. Accounts differed as to whether the eight killed were unarmed protesters or militants. Ten other people were wounded. Kandahar Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq said Taliban insurgents had infiltrated the demonstration.
Unidentified kidnappers have abducted 11 Afghans working in a U.N.-affiliated landmine clearing program in the east of the country we were told on Saturday May 11, 2013. The 11 were taken Thursday in a remote part of Nangarhar province. Local officials and tribal elders were trying to negotiate the mine clearers’ freedom.
Afghanistan Tuesday May 14, 2013:
A roadside bomb struck a U.S. convoy in southern Afghanistan Tuesday May 14, 2013, killing three American troops. In addition a motorcycle bomb in a crowded village market killed at least three Afghan civilians. The blast hit the American convoy in the Zhari district of Kandahar province.
Two bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor’s compound in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday May 15, 2013, killing at least one police officer. The first bomb wounded a policeman, and the second was remotely detonated minutes later as police swarmed to the blast scene to secure it. The second explosion killed one police officer and wounded at least five policemen and three civilian passers-by. The head of the provincial health department said 11 victims were taken to a local hospital where one, the police officer, died of his injuries.
A suicide bomber slammed his explosives-packed Toyota Corolla into two armoured cars carrying US troops and civilians through Kabul, killing six of the people inside the vehicles –two US soldiers and four American civilian contractors- and nine Afghan civilian passersby. Two schoolchildren were among the dead, and a further 39 people were injured when the blast ripped through Thursday May 16, 2013, morning rush-hour traffic, sending shrapnel slicing through dozens of civilian vehicles. The explosion was heard miles away on the other side of the city, and sent a thick column of white smoke into the air.
Two bombs hidden in a motorcycle and a car exploded inside an elite gated community linked to the family of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday evening May 17, 2013, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 near the southern city of Kandahar. The blasts happened inside Aino Mina, a housing complex on the northern outskirts of the city that was developed in part by Mahmood Karzai, the president's younger brother. Both the car bomb and the motorcycle were remotely detonated within minutes of each other while parked next to a restaurant area where families were dining. Three police were among the dead. Aino Mina is home to thousands of Afghan government officials, businessmen and other wealthy citizens who pay some $90,000 for a three-bedroom house on grounds featuring parks, a jogging track, a football field and its own mosque.
Afghanistan Saturday May 18, 2013:
Afghanistan Sunday 19, 2013;
A suicide bomber disguised as a police officer killed 14 people on Monday May 20, 2013, including the head of a provincial council in northern Afghanistan. The head of the council, Rasul Mohseni, commonly known as Rasul Khan, was widely regarded as the most powerful man in Baghlan Province and was a veteran commander who had led northerners in revolt against the Taliban government. He was killed along with four of his bodyguards and three police officers, as well as six civilians. Nine other people were wounded. Mr. Mohseni had arrived at the provincial council offices in Pul-i-Kumri, Baghlan’s capital, with his bodyguards and a group of elders who wanted to meet with him and was walking toward the council building when the bomber joined the group. Dressed in a police uniform, the bomber mingled with officers until the group got inside the building, where he detonated an explosive device hidden on his body.
Afghanistan Tuesday May 21, 2013:
A suicide bomber on foot killed an anti-Taliban village elder and at least three other people in a busy marketplace Wednesday May 22, 2013. Habibullah Khan was killed along with two bodyguards and a civilian bystander in Ghazni province’s Moqur district. At least 14 civilians were wounded, most of them shoppers and merchants. Khan led an uprising last year against the Taliban’s shadow government in his district, driving the insurgents out.
Taliban gunmen backed by a suicide car bomber attacked an international aid group's compound on Friday May 24, 2013, killing two guards (a Nepalese guard and an Afghan police officer) and setting off an hours-long street battle with police in the heart of Kabul. The attack also left four International Organization for Migration workers wounded including an Italian woman badly burned by a grenade. Thirteen police were wounded while all six attackers died in the assault. Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ten terrified international aid workers huddled inside a fortified room in Kabul for two hours during a Taliban attack until they were rescued by Afghan police we were told on Sunday May 26, 2013. An Afghan police officer and two civilians were killed.
An insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan has killed a NATO service member on Sunday May 26, 2013 as a result of insurgent fire. It did not provide any other details. The death brings the number of international force members killed this month in Afghanistan to 20.
Two recently rehired Afghan police opened fire on their commander at a checkpoint in a remote district in the country's south, killing him and six of his men we were told on Tuesday May 28, 2013. It was the latest in a string of so-called "insider attacks" in which Afghan forces open fire on their comrades or international forces. The two attackers were former policemen who had rejoined the force only two days previously. They fled in a police vehicle with their dead comrades' weapons. The weapons and the vehicle were found and the police is searching for the two policemen.
Militants launched a coordinated assault on a guest house used by the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday May 29, 2013, blasting through the gates with a suicide bomber before storming the building and setting off an ongoing gun battle. The attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad is the second major assault against an international organization in five days. Militants launched a similar operation against a U.N.-affiliated group in Kabul last week that killed three people.
On Saturday June 1, 2013, Nato said three of its service members and one civilian working with the international coalition in Afghanistan have been killed in three separate attacks in the country's east and south. In the east, insurgents killed one service member and the civilian, while a roadside bomb killed another service member. An improvised explosive device killed a service member in the south. The deaths bring to 66 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year.
On Sunday June 2, 2013, Taliban insurgents attacked two checkpoints in eastern Afghanistan, killing four police officers in the latest test of Afghan forces’ abilities as their NATO mentors withdraw. The fighting in Kamdesh district began overnight with attacks on checkpoints manned by national police and border police. The firefight, which left 13 militants dead, lasted hours and ended after reinforcements drove the Taliban away.
On Sunday June 2, 2013, we were told that fifty-seven militants have been killed in a series of military operations within 24 hours as the Afghan National Police (ANP) supported by army and the NATO-led coalition forces carried out several joint operations in Kandahar, Ghazni, Helmand, Kapisa, Paktika and Paktiya provinces. Eight Taliban were wounded and and 12 other detained. The ANP also seized weapons besides defusing several roadside bombs and anti-vehicle mines. On Saturday, eight civilians and three ANP cops were wounded when a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off in Qara Bagh district in the country's eastern province of Ghazni.
A suicide bomber targeting an American military delegation outside a government office in eastern Afghanistan killed 12 people on Monday June 3, 2013, including nine schoolchildren who were walking nearby and two international service members. The attacker targeted a joint U.S. military and Afghan Local Police (ALP) patrol. The bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in Samkani district as American forces passed. A local school had just let pupils, who were between 10 and 16 years old, out for the day.
Afghanistan Tuesday June 4, 2013:
Seven Georgian troops were killed and nine were wounded when a “suicide terrorist” blew up a truck loaded with explosives outside a Georgian military base in Afghanistan’s Helmand province we were told on Thursday June 6, 2013. The incident brings to 30 the death toll of Georgian soldiers serving in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF).
Afghanistan Saturday June 8, 2013:
Afghan security forces have tackled heavily-armed militants who seized a building near the main airport in the capital Kabul. Seven gunmen had been killed in the five-storey building under construction near the airport and the attack was now over. The Taliban earlier said that they carried out the assault. The Afghan forces dealt with the situation with no help from international forces. Exchanges of fire went on for some hours with the Taliban firing rocket-propelled grenades into the surrounding streets. All flights were cancelled in and out of Kabul international airport. Nearby roads were closed.
On Tuesday June 12, 2013, a suicide bomb attack in Kabul has killed at least 16 people and injured more than 40 others outside the Supreme Court. The attacker drove a car packed with explosives at buses that were carrying court staff, including judges. The Taliban said they carried out the attack, saying it had killed judges who "obey Western powers".
A roadside bomb struck a police van in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday June 15, 2013, killing five police as they were on their way to a training session. Seven other police were wounded in the blast in Paktika province. The van was taking the officers to a training centre in Janikahil district for exercises between the Afghan National Police and the village-level Afghan Local Police, separate branches of the security forces that international troops have been training. Among the five dead were two national police and three local police.
Four civilians were killed on Sunday June 16, 2013 when a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. A civilian vehicle touched off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chora district causing the deaths. The IED was placed along the road by Taliban rebels.
A large bomb exploded in the Afghan capital on Tuesday June 18, 2013, killing at least three people and another 30 were wounded -including six bodyguards- on the day the international military coalition hands over responsibility for fighting the Taliban insurgency to the nascent national army and police they have been training. The blast was in the Pul-e-Surkh area of the western part of the city. The target was the convoy of Mohammed Mohaqiq, a prominent ethnic Hazara lawmaker who is a former Cabinet member. Mohaqiq survived the blast.
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has announced at a ceremony on Wednesday June 19, 2013, that his country's armed forces are taking over the lead for security nationwide from the US-led Nato coalition. The handover of responsibility is a significant milestone in the nearly 12-year war and marks a turning point for American and Nato forces, which will now move entirely into a supporting role. It also opens the way for their full withdrawal in 18 months. Karzai said "transition will be completed and Afghan security forces will lead and conduct all operations".
Four US soldiers have been killed on Wednesday June 19, 2013, hours after the US announced direct talks with the Taliban. The Taliban said they were behind the attack at Bagram airbase. The soldiers were killed by "indirect fire" from insurgents at the airbase. Taliban had launched two big rockets at Bagram.
Afghanistan Saturday June 22, 2013:
An Australian soldier has died during a battle with insurgents bringing the Australian Defence Force toll to 40. Two other personnel have also been injured. The soldier died from small arms fire during an engagement with insurgents on Saturday June 22, 2013.
Suicide attackers detonated a car bomb and battled security forces outside Afghanistan's presidential palace Tuesday June25, 2013, killing three security guards and injuring another. The attack began when militants with false papers and military-style uniforms bluffed their way through two checkpoints on their way to the palace before jumping out of their explosives-packed vehicle and opening fire on security personnel. While one carload of Taliban fighters dressed in camouflage emerged from their black Land Cruiser and started shooting, another got stuck between the two checkpoints and detonated their explosives-laden vehicle. Gunfire erupted next to the Afghan Ministry of Defence and the former Ariana Hotel, which former U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed is used by the CIA.
Taliban fighters ambushed a national police patrol in western Afghanistan, killing a commander and four of his men we were told on Thursday June 27, 2013. Taliban fighters were believed to have been killed in the overnight attack, but that it was too dark to find any bodies. On the other side of the country in Ghazni province police ambushed a group of Taliban fighters and killed five, including a leader believed to have been responsible for making roadside bombs and organizing suicide attacks in the area.
A suicide truck bomb and gun attack killed seven people on Tuesday July 2, 2013, destroying the entrance to a compound used by a foreign NATO supply company in Kabul. Four Nepalese guards, one Afghan guard and two Afghan civilians have been killed. Up to four other people were wounded. The attack started with a suicide bomb carried in a large truck, then two or three insurgents fought with guards for about 30-40 minutes. All the assailants were killed. The blast left a large crater in the ground and reduced walls and a guard post to a pile of rubble and twisted steel. The attack targeted a transport logistics company working with international forces and that some suicide vests were later detonated by security forces.
Afghanistan Thursday July 4, 2013:
A suicide bomber sneaked into a police dining hall in central Afghanistan at lunchtime Friday July 5, 2013 and blew himself up, killing 12. Investigators are still trying to determine how the suicide bomber passed two checkpoints to enter the crowded hall. Authorities had not ruled out that the attacker may have been a police officer himself or wearing a police uniform. The bomber entered the dining hall and detonated a suicide vest just inside the door. The dining hall was on a base in Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan's capital, used by police assigned to secure the main highway to neighbouring Kandahar. 10 of the 12 victims were Afghan national police officers. Five other people were wounded in the explosion.
Another suicide strike on Friday July 5, 2013, killed two people at a border crossing with Pakistan, and the Islamist militants rejected reports they would hold a ceasefire during the Muslim month of fasting that starts on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Afghanistan Sunday July 7, 2013:
Afghanistan Monday July 8, 2013:
At least 17 people –twelve women, four children-including women and children have been killed by a roadside bomb in in western Afghanistan on Tuesday July 9, 2013. Ten of the dead were members of the same family. The bomb in Herat province had been placed near a trailer being pulled by a motorcycle to transport civilians. They said the Taliban had apparently planted the bomb in an attempt to kill Afghan troops. Instead, the device went off next to the makeshift vehicle.
A twin bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed five people, three civilians whose car struck a roadside bomb and two police officers who had rushed to the scene to help the victims when the second bomb went off. The attack occurred on Thursday morning July 11, 2013 in Helmand province. The officers who died were members of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police —the so-called ANCOPs who get special training from NATO forces. A third officer was wounded in the blast.
The NATO-led coalition said that one of its helicopters made a ‘‘hard landing’’ in northern Afghanistan but that there were no injuries. The Taliban claimed militants had fired on an American Chinook transport helicopter in Baghlan province overnight. But the coalition said on Friday July 12, 2013 that there was no report of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the incident. The helicopter made an emergency landing but then flew back to its base on its own.
Insurgents pulled over a minivan with eight young labourers on their way to work at a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday July 18, 2013, forced them out and then shot them dead. The killings near Forward Operating Base Shank, a U.S. base near Puli Alam, the provincial capital in Logar province, were the latest in a militant campaign of intimidation against Afghans working for the government or the international coalition. The eight were heading for temporary day jobs at the base and were not part of the facility's local staff. The gunmen let the driver of the minivan go and did not harm him.
A bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed five children and a woman after it went off as they were playing with it inside a Taliban commander's home. The incident occurred on Thursday July 18, 2013, in the remote Mata Khan district, inside the house of an insurgent leader named Abdullah. The commander had assembled a roadside bomb and left it inside his home, which he shared with relatives. It exploded when the children, aged from three to seven years, began playing with it. Abdullah escaped arrest and is being sought by Afghan security troops, which were the intended target for the bomb. The five children belonged to Abdullah's brother and his wife, while the killed woman was his sister.
A wave of bombings in southern Afghanistan has killed 15 people, including six members of the country’s security services. There were four bombings. All of them took place late on Friday July 19, 2013, in different locations in Helmand. The most deadly of the attacks was when five members of the Afghan intelligence service and a policeman died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Sangin district. The deputy head of Sangin’s intelligence service was among those killed in the explosion. The other three bombings killed six civilians and two police officers.
Three American and four Afghan soldiers and an interpreter were killed Tuesday morning July 23, 2013, in Wardak Province after an insurgent riding a donkey detonated a bomb. The Americans and Afghans were conducting a joint patrol in a violent stretch of Sayadabad District, close to the main highway leading to Kabul, the capital. At least three more American soldiers were wounded in the bombing, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for.
A suicide bomber targeting a village police commander blew himself up in a bazaar in a lawless part of eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people, we were told on Saturday July 27, 2013. The bomber on a motorcycle loaded with explosives killed Local Police commander Dawlat Khan, three of his men, and three civilians in a bazaar. Clashes and bombings around Afghanistan in the past two days have claimed the lives of 15 people, including 11 Afghan policemen and four civilians.
Afghanistan Monday July 29, 2013:
An aircraft belonging to the NATO-led coalition called in to support Afghan police at a highway checkpoint accidentally killed five Afghan policemen. The killings happened Wednesday night July 31, 2013, in eastern Nangarhar province's Bati Kot district. Police officers manning a checkpoint on a highway near the border with Pakistan came under fire and called in for air support from the International Security Assistance Force.
At least 22 Afghan policemen and 76 Taliban militants were killed Friday August 2, 2013, in clashes over a besieged tribal elder in eastern Afghanistan. The deaths followed an attack by dozens of Taliban guerrillas on the leader’s residence in the Sherzad district of Nangahar province. The guerrillas were armed with light and heavy weapons. As the police forces left the area they were ambushed by more than 100 Taliban guerrillas who killed the 22 policemen. In the ensuing clashes, an additional 60 Taliban militants were killed and dozens were wounded. A Taliban spokesman confirmed the clashes in an e-mailed statement while saying that only five Taliban fighters were killed and four were wounded.
Insurgents attacked the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's eastern capital on Saturday August 3, 2013, killing nine people. Twenty-three people were wounded when checkpoint guards stopped three attackers in a car as they approached the consulate in Jalalabad city. Two attackers leapt from the car and a gunfight broke out, while the third detonated explosives. No Indian officials were killed, though the blast badly damaged a mosque and dozens of homes and small shops nearby.
A bomb blast has wounded 16 people in the eastern city of Jalalabad which was hit a day earlier by a deadly suicide explosion targeting the Indian consulate. A remote-controlled device exploded Sunday August 4, 2013, as a vehicle passed carrying state prosecutor Abdul Qayoom. The prosecutor's guards and 12 civilians were also wounded in the explosion.
The Taliban ambushed a convoy of a female Afghan senator on Wednesday August 7, 2013, seriously wounding her in the attack and killing her 8-year-old daughter and a bodyguard. Senator Rouh Gul Khirzad's husband, son and another daughter were also wounded in the attack in the Muqur district of Gazni province. The ambush took place on the main highway from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. Khirzad was traveling from Kabul with her family to their home province of Nimroz for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
A bomb planted in a graveyard in rural eastern Afghanistan killed 14 members of a single family on Thursday August 8, 2013, as the country's president urged the Taliban to lay down their arms. The family was getting together to mark the start of a major Muslim holiday, the Eid al-Fitr at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, with a visit to the tomb of a relative as it is customary for families to visit the graves of loved ones on holiday occasions. The attack took place in Nangarhar province's Ghany Khel district and all 14 killed — seven women and seven children — were members of the same extended family. Three family members were also wounded in the attack.
Three Chinese workers were found dead under mysterious circumstances in an apartment in central Kabul on Friday August 9, 2013. The police said an argument between the Chinese workers and several Afghans had led to the killings of two Chinese women, one Chinese man and an Afghan security guard.
Insurgents killed three United States soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday August 11, 2013, the first NATO combat deaths this month. The soldiers killed in Paktia province, where Afghan soldiers have taken on increasingly more responsibility for security and the fight against insurgents. Pakita province borders Pakistan, and at various times during the Afghanistan war has seen high levels of fighting.
On Friday August 16, 2013, we were told that Poland will reduce the number of its soldiers stationed in Afghanistan in October to 1,000 from 1,600 as it moves to wind down its presence there before the NATO combat mission ends next year. The country had previously announced that its 14th troop rotation in Afghanistan starting in October would be its last.
Afghanistan Saturday August 17, 2013:
Twelve police and 70 Taliban were killed after insurgents attacked a convoy in the western Afghan province of Farah, we were told on Monday August 19, 2013. Twenty-two other officers were wounded and five vehicles destroyed in Sunday's assault. About 200 Taliban fighters took part in the attack.
On Tuesday August 20, 2013, we were told that more than 2700 Afghan police have been killed by insurgents since April 1, 2013. Coalition troops suffered 95 fatalities in the first six months of this year, their lowest death toll for the same period since 2006. Deaths among Afghan civilians, meanwhile, climbed 14 per cent to 1,319 in the first half of 2013.
Five Taliban suicide bombers killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded several others on Monday August 26, 2013, when they attacked an army base in eastern Afghanistan.
A soldier serving with the international military coalition was killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan on Monday August 26, 2013. The NATO announcement provided no other details on the incident or the nationality of the soldier killed.
Afghanistan Tuesday August 27, 2013:
Afghanistan, Wednesday August 28, 2013:
A suicide attack in Kunduz province killed a district governor, one of his bodyguards and 10 civilians at a memorial service at a mosque on Friday August 30, 2013. The group was attending a ceremony for a tribal elder who had died the day before. The district governor, Sheikh Sadruddin, had been in his position since 2002 and been active in the fight against the Taliban. Twenty people were also wounded in the morning blast.
Afghanistan Saturday August 31, 2013:
Militants attacked a U.S. base near the border with Pakistan on Monday September 2, 2013, setting off bombs, torching vehicles and shutting down a key road used by NATO supply trucks. At least three people —apparently all attacking insurgents— were killed. In a brief statement, NATO confirmed an "unsuccessful coordinated attack by enemy forces" but said none of its personnel were killed. No members of the Afghan security forces or civilians were killed or wounded. Several militants wearing suicide vests and carrying other weapons staged the attack, and that Afghan and U.S. forces exchanged gunfire with the insurgents. NATO helicopters joined the fight.
A roadside bomb killed four police officers guarding a mayor as their convoy travelled through Badakhshan province, northern Afghanistan, on Tuesday September 3, 2013. The explosion hit the convoy in Barak district. Nazer Mohammad Neyazi, mayor of Faiz Abad city, was the apparent target. He was returning from a visit to a road project when the blast hit the convoy. The mayor was not hurt in the attack. Besides those killed, one police officer was wounded.
Indian national Sushmita Banerjee, whose memoir about her dramatic escape from the Taliban was turned into a Bollywood film, was shot dead we were told on Thursday September 5, 2013. Banerjee, 49, was killed outside her home in Paktika province. She was married to Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan and recently moved back to Afghanistan to live with him. Taliban militants arrived at her home in the provincial capital of Kharana, tied up her husband and other members of the family, took Banerjee out and shot her. The militants dumped Banerjee's body near a religious school.
Two Pakistani terrorists in Afghan police uniforms armed with AK-47s and pistols wanted to carry out an attack on Afghan worshippers at a Shiite Muslim mosque in west Kabul. The two terrorists were shot dead by Afghan intelligence forces in an exchange of fire. Three Afghan worshippers were wounded by the Pakistanis and taken to hospital.The last remaining British base in Afghanistan's Nad-e Ali district has closed on Friday September 6, 2013, marking the end of six years in the area for UK forces and a major chapter in military history. Nad-e Ali has been one of the most violent districts in the conflict. A total of 52 British soldiers lost their lives fighting the Taliban there, as did many Afghan soldiers, policemen and civilians. At the height of the insurgency, there were 55 British bases in the danger zone in Helmand Province. The final one to close was Camp Shawqat just on the edge of Nad-e Ali's main bazaar.
A leading commander of the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent group affiliated with the Taliban, was killed in a U.S. drone strike late Thursday September 5, 2013 in the North Waziristan part of Pakistan's tribal area. Mullah Sangeen Zadran, the Taliban's shadow governor of eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, was listed by the U.S. as a "specially designated global terrorist" in 2011. The listing said he brought hundreds of foreign fighters to Afghanistan, orchestrated kidnappings and served as "a senior lieutenant" to the Haqqani network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The Haqqani network was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani during the Soviet occupation and is now run by Sirajuddin, his son. It operates in eastern Afghanistan and is also responsible for multiple attacks in the capital, Kabul. While the Haqqani network is operationally separate from the Afghan Taliban, it works ultimately under the authority of the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. The network uses Pakistan's North Waziristan area as a sanctuary. U.S. and Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of supporting, or at least tolerating, its presence there, and a charge that Islamabad denies.
Afghanistan Sunday September 8, 2013:
The Afghan police arrested two militants on Monday September 9, 2013, in the execution-style murder of an Indian writer who had written critically about the Taliban, in a memoir that was later made into a Bollywood movie. Afghan officials said the two insurgents had confessed to being part of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban affiliate, and to having killed the writer, Sushmita Banerjee, on Thursday. Armed men abducted her from her home in eastern Paktika Province, where she lived with her Afghan husband, took her to a Taliban safe house and shot her 25 times. They said they had killed her because she had written about the Taliban, and because “she had installed some Internet connections in her house, and they had to kill this woman for that. Local villagers had led the police to the men, who were captured along with weapons and a barrel of explosive materials in the Sarrai Kala village in Paktika.
Afghanistan Tuesday September 10, 2013:
Afghanistan Friday September 13, 2013:
Operations against Taliban launched by Afghanistan forces have claimed lives of 18 Taliban militants and led to arrest of 35 others over the past five days we were told on Friday September 13, 2013. In the latest crackdown against the militant group, the security forces on Thursday raided their hideouts in Charchino district of Uruzgan province and killed 18 insurgents.
At least three people have been killed and several wounded in a suicide attack targeting a convoy of NATO and Afghan troops in the southern city of Kandahar. The bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives near the military vehicles.
The top female police officer in the Afghan province of Helmand has died from gunshot wounds sustained in an attack on Sunday September 15, 2013. Sub-Inspector Negar, 38, suffered a bullet wound to the neck and died early on Monday. Negar was getting into her car to go to work when two gunmen drove up on a motorbike and shot her in the right shoulder. Her bodyguards fired back at the gunmen but they escaped. Negar, known by just one name, worked in the Helmand police's criminal investigation department in Lashkar Gah city. She had been in the police for five years. She had spoken out about the need for female police officers in Afghanistan. Negar served as a sub-inspector in the police criminal investigation department in Helmand province. She had taken over the duties of Islam Bibi, a well-known police officer who was shot dead in July by unknown gunmen as she headed to work. Bibi, 37, told reporters she had even been threatened by male members of her own family over her job.
At least five Pakistani citizens were killed and three wounded when Afghan border security forces opened fire in a border area close to the southwestern Pakistani province Balochistan we were told on Wednesday September 18, 2013. The shooting took place at Pak-Afghan border area of Qamar Din Karez near Zhob city. The men were Pakistani cattle farmers and had crossed the porous border to get fodder for their cattle when Afghan security forces killed them. However, the Afghans said that the men were Taliban militants killed in a confrontation with Afghan security forces.
At least 18 Afghan police officers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban ambush in northern Badakhshan province Friday September 20, 2013. The police were in Wardooj district and on their way back to the provincial capital after an anti-insurgent operation when they came under attack.
An Afghan wearing a security forces uniform turned his weapon against U.S. troops Saturday September 21, 2013, killing three in eastern Afghanistan in another apparent attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies. The shooting took place in Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province. The attack took place inside a base of the Afghan army in the city.
A bomb has killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan. The Americans were killed by an 'improvised explosive device' Monday October 7, 2013. Their deaths bring the toll among foreign forces to 132 this year, of which 102 are from the United States.
Germany handed Afghanistan’s security forces control Sunday October 6, 2013, of a key military base in the country’s northern province of Kunduz, where German troops spent almost a decade. The handover is part of the gradual pull-out of Western forces due to be completed by the end of next year. The Kunduz base. Nowhere else since World War II have more German soldiers died in combat. Some 20,000 German troops were deployed in Kunduz during a 10-year operation, and 20 of Germany’s 35 combat deaths in Afghanistan occurred in the province. Another 17 died of noncombat injuries, including seven who were killed in a 2002 helicopter crash in Kabul. For many Germans, the base is synonymous with a 2009 NATO airstrike ordered by German forces that killed 91 Afghans and wounded 11, most of them civilians.
Afghanistan took delivery on Wednesday October 9, 2013, of two C-130 transport aircraft from the United States, part of an effort to give the country’s military the ability to better fight insurgents around the country. Afghanistan will get another two of the airplanes, a mainstay of many militaries around the world, by the end of next year. The plane gives the nascent Afghan air force the ability to quickly ferry forces around the country along with their equipment and supplies. The two planes were turned over during a ceremony at Kabul airport. They will replace 16 smaller Italian-made transport craft that were grounded because of maintenance problems. Afghanistan’s air force is mainly made up of Russian-made transport helicopters and a handful of Russian attack helicopters.
Much of that violence has been in the south, where on Wednesday October 9, 2013, a suicide car bombing killed four people —two civilians and two policemen. The attack took place in the Gareshk district and also wounded three civilians and a police officer. The bomber targeted a police patrol and blew up his car next to a police vehicle in a crowded area of the town of Gareshk. In another attack, this one in Gramsir district, killed two people when the fuel truck they were driving in struck a roadside bomb.
The U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai reached an agreement in principle Saturday October 12, 2013 on the major elements of a deal that would allow American troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014. However a potentially deal-breaking issue of jurisdiction over those forces must still be worked out with some political and tribal leaders in Afghanistan. The deal meets all American conditions, including on the jurisdiction issue, and that all that remains is for Karzai to win political approval for it.
A man in Afghan national security forces uniform killed a NATO service member Sunday October 13, 2013, in eastern Afghanistan. The alliance did not provide other details nor the nationality of the soldier but said an investigation has been launched into the shooting. Most of the foreign forces serving in the east are from the United States. At least 15 foreign soldiers have been killed this year in so-called insider attacks, compared to a total of 62 last year. A total of 133 coalition soldiers have been killed so far this year, including 104 Americans. ---
The bomb killed Governor Arsallah Jamal of eastern Logar province as he delivered a speech at the main mosque in the provincial capital of Puli Alam to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The attack also wounded 15 people, five of them critically. Jamal was a close confidant and adviser to President Hamid Karzai, who strongly condemned that bombing, saying it was an attack "against Islam."
On Wednesday October 16, 2013, Intelligence Corps analyst Lance Corporal James Brynin A bomb in a mosque killed a provincial governor Tuesday October 15, 2013. was shot dead as he and a sniper tried to fight off a Taliban ambush in a terrorist bolthole.
Italy has started to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and will leave as few as 1,800 soldiers in the war-torn country by next year. Italian forces will be reduced from an average of 2,900 soldiers during the last three months of 2013 to 1,800 by the end of 2014 we were told on Thursday October 17, 2013. After 2014, the Italian government intends to maintain its commitment to the country in terms of support and training for Afghan forces.
The militant group Hezb-e-Islami said several American troops were killed in the deadly assault on the heavily fortified air field in Parwan Province near Kabul on Friday October 18, 2013. However, the US-led military alliance has not confirmed any casualties as a result of the rocket attack. At least 3,391 US-led troops in Afghanistan have lost their lives since the 2001 invasion which was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country.
The German military has pulled all of its troops out of the Afghan province of Kunduz a decade after forces arrived there. The move represents an important step in NATO’s withdrawal from the country. Ten years after the beginning of the German deployment in the troubled province of Kunduz, the Bundeswehr declared the end of its mission there on Saturday October 19, 2013. A convoy of 119 vehicles, including Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and 441 soldiers had made the 300-kilometer journey over the previous two nights. The German military's deployment in Kunduz represented the first time that ground troops had been involved in combat since World War II.
A gunfight broke out between Afghan and foreign soldiers on the outskirts of the capital Kabul on Saturday October 26, 2013, leaving at least one Afghan serviceman dead and a number of other soldiers injured. There was an argument between an Afghan and foreign soldier inside a military base where they opened fire on each other.
A roadside bombing in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Ghazni has killed at least 18 people -14 women, along with three men and a child- when the minivan they were travelling in hit a roadside bomb. The victims had been on their way to a wedding. The blast in the Andar district occurred as the bus was traveling between villages just before dusk on Sunday October 27, 2013. A civilian was also killed in an earlier attack on troops.
Five people, including three security personnel and two Taliban militants, were killed Thursday October 31, 2013, in a clash in Saripul province. Firing erupted in Kohistanat district of Saripul province when a group of Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of security personnel. The forces returned fire and the exchange lasted for several hours. Twelve people, including one civilian, sustained injuries.
A British soldier has been killed in a suicide blast while on patrol in Afghanistan on Tuesday November 5, 2013. The "hugely experienced" soldier from the 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment died from an explosion during a vehicle-borne suicide attack. He was taking part in a patrol in the Kamparak area, 40km north east of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province. The death takes to 446 the number of UK service members who have lost their lives since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 and is the eighth this year.
Afghanistan Friday November 8, 2013:
A 45-member group of militants who were involved in anti-government activities in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan province over the past couple of years, gave up fighting and handed over their weapons to local authorities we were told on Sunday November 10, 2013. More than 4,000 Taliban militants have given up fighting and joined the government-backed peace process during the past year.
Roadside bombings in the south and west have killed three boys. One of Wednesday November 13, 2013's attacks took place in western Farah province, where two boys died. That explosion also wounded three students. The third boy was killed in the southern Uruzgan province, a Taliban stronghold. The teenager was returning home on his bicycle when the explosion occurred.
A suicide car bomber tore through the Afghan capital Saturday November 16, 2013, just hours after President Hamid Karzai announced U.S. and Afghan negotiators had agreed on a draft deal allowing U.S. troops to remain in the country beyond a 2014 deadline. The blast killed six people and wounded 22 near where thousands of tribal leaders will discuss the deal next week. In fact at least 10 people have been killed and more than 20 injured in this suicide bomb attack. The bomb went off near a compound where tribal elders are expected to gather next week to discuss a security pact with the US. The Taliban have told the BBC they carried out the attack. The security pact governs the status of US military personnel staying in Afghanistan beyond the withdrawal of most international forces in 2014. It will be discussed next week by Afghanistan's Loya Jirga, the traditional council of elders. Those killed in Saturday's attack include a police officer. Many of the other casualties appear to have been civilians.
Afghanistan Sunday November 17, 2013:
Afghanistan Monday November 18, 2013:
The U.S.-led international coalition in Afghanistan said Friday November 29, 2013, that it is investigating an airstrike it launched that killed a child and injured two women, leading to a condemnation of the attack by the country’s president. The Thursday’s airstrike also killed an insurgent in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. ---
A powerful explosion on Wednesday December 11, 2013, in the Afghan capital, Kabul, was an accident at an arms depot. A rocket had detonated by accident inside the Afghan National Directorate of Security and there were no casualties. It was not an act of terror. Also on Wednesday a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near Kabul airport but there were no casualties. The blast targeted an Isaf convoy coming to the airport but detonated prematurely.
Afghanistan Sunday December 15, 2013:
On Monday December 16, 2013, the last remaining Australian troops have exited Uruzgan province, leaving a group of 400 personnel to preside over ongoing training and support for Afghan soldiers and police. Forty Australian soldiers were killed in the Afghanistan conflict, and more than 261 people have been seriously wounded. The remaining Australian presence will be located in Kabul and Kandahar in administrative and training roles, and Australia will also provide ongoing funding of $100m per year.
On Tuesday December 17, 2013, a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed six US soldiers. There was no fighting reported in the area where the aircraft came down. The helicopter had technical problems and crash-landed in Shahjoi district. There were no civilian casualties.
British troops in Afghanistan can be proud of a "mission accomplished" as they prepare to pull out of the country next year, David Cameron said on Monday December 16, 2013, adding “the Armed Forces would be able to leave after a 12-year campaign with their heads held high having ensured it was no longer a terrorist stronghold”. ---
Two Nato troops have been killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan on Monday December 23, 2013. One died after coming under direct fire by enemy forces in the country's east. The other was killed in an attack in the south. The deaths bring to nine the number of coalition deaths so far this month.
A soldier from the Royal Engineers was killed in action in Afghanistan on Monday December 23, 2013. The serviceman was killed as a result of enemy fire while on operations east of Kabul. The death takes to 447 the number of UK service members who have lost their lives since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 and is the ninth this year.
Afghanistan Monday December 23, 2013:
Afghanistan Wednesday December 25, 2013:
- The U.S. Embassy in Kabul came under attack on Christmas morning. The Taliban later claimed responsibility, saying they had fired four rockets at the American compound. Two rounds of either mortar or rocket fire struck the embassy and that no Americans were hurt.
- Elsewhere a bicycle bomb had been remotely detonated in front of a restaurant at a bazaar in Puli Alam, the capital of Logar province, to the east of Kabul, killing six people and wounding 13. Two of the killed were policemen; the wounded were all civilians, including several children.
- Five officers were also injured by a remotely controlled bomb planted on a hilltop in eastern Kabul. Police later neutralized a remotely controlled missile in the same area and arrested one suspect.
A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of international troops in an eastern district of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday December 27, 2013, killing three service members -two Slovak soldiers and one from the U.S.- and wounding six Afghans. The bomber struck the convoy about a kilometre from NATO's Camp Phoenix. Twelve coalition troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month including six U.S. soldiers who died in a helicopter crash December 17. So far this year 151 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan.
A US soldier was killed on New Year Day after 2013 recorded the lowest number of NATO troop casualties in the war-torn country in the last eight years. Sargent Jacob M. Hess of Spokane, Washington, died on Wednesday January 1, 2014, while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province.
Afghanistan Thursday January 2, 2014
A bomb exploded in central Kabul on Saturday evening January 4, 2014, in a district housing several embassies and NATO's military headquarters, but no casualties were immediately reported. The apparent insurgent strike was the second of the day in Afghanistan after a NATO soldier was killed when six Taliban suicide attackers tried to storm a joint Afghan-NATO base in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
A suicide car bomber has attacked a security checkpoint in the country's east, killing three police officers. The attack Monday January 6, 2014, also wounded three officers in the Shilghar district. Earlier police apprehended a 10-year-old girl who had intended to carry out a suicide attack against Afghan border police in southern Helmand province. The girl claimed her brother, a local Taliban commander, had sent her on the mission.
A suicide car bomber has attacked a security checkpoint in the country's east, killing three police officers on Monday January 6, 2014; it also injured three officers in the Shilghar district. Earlier, the Interior Ministry said police had apprehended a 10-year-old girl -known only as Spozhamy- who had intended to carry out a suicide attack against Afghan border police in southern Helmand province. In a statement, the ministry said the girl claimed her brother, a local Taliban commander, had sent her on the mission. ---
The country's National Intelligence Agency have captured a Taliban commander in Baghlan province we were told on Sunday January 12, 2014. They raided a Taliban hideout in Kailagi district of Baghlan province Saturday and captured a Taliban commander named Mullah Kabir who was involved in conducting subversive activities including targeting security personnel in parts of Baghlan province. Five people, who were involved in kidnapping a government official a couple of months ago on the Kunduz-Baghlan highway were also arrested in the raid.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has strongly condemned the US airstrike that killed 7 children and a woman in central Afghanistan on Tuesday night January 14, 2014, emphasizing that American troops once again acted against all mutual agreements between the states. The issue of civilian causalities has been very sensitive in relations between the US and Afghanistan. The two countries are currently in a dispute over a security agreement that would see American troop presence remain after the withdrawal of the main US forces scheduled for December. The Obama administration has argued that if the US does not leave behind at least 8,000 troops the Taliban movement might gain momentum. Earlier reports indicated that at least two civilians were killed in Siahgird district after an “enemy force engaged Afghan and coalition forces” and ISAF had to call in “defensive air support to suppress the enemy fire. At least 10 insurgents and one ISAF soldier were also killed in the fighting. According to a Taliban spokesman 12 Afghan soldiers were killed during the attack in Siahgird.---
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Kabul restaurant filled with foreigners and affluent Afghans, while two gunmen snuck in through the back door and opened fire Friday January 17, 2014. The attack killed 16 people. The fatalities included four U.N. personnel. The Taliban claimed responsibility. The assault began with the suicide bomber detonating his explosives at the front door of the restaurant, located in an area housing several embassies, non-governmental organizations and the homes and offices of Afghan officials. As chaos ensued, the two other attackers entered through the kitchen and began shooting. They were later killed by security guards. The International Monetary Fund's representative in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, also was among those killed. A British national was among the dead.
The death toll from a Taliban attack on a Kabul restaurant popular with foreigners and affluent Afghans has risen to 21 people we were told on Saturday January 18, 2014, in the deadliest violence against foreign civilians in the country since the start of the war nearly 13 years ago. The American University of Afghanistan says that two of its U.S. employees were among those killed in the attack. The families of the victims were being informed and arrangements being made to send their remains home.
A bombing at the entrance to a base in southern Afghanistan used by the U.S.-led military coalition killed one international soldier Monday January 20, 2014. Nine assailants were gunned down in the attack, which took place outside a coalition base near Zhari, a district in Kandahar province. The suicide bomber detonated a Toyota SUV packed with explosives. Eight other gunmen then tried to storm the entrance. Coalition forces fired on the assailants, who were wearing uniforms resembling those of international soldiers. ---
A group of 57 civilian de-miners was released on Tuesday January 21, 2014, just hours after being after captured by unknown gunmen in western Afghanistan. The de-miners —all Afghan— were released unconditionally after being abducted in the Pashtun Zargun district as they drove to an area that needed to be cleared of mines. All the men worked for the British-based HALO trust, which specializes in removing hazardous mines and other ordinance left over from wars. HALO confirmed the kidnapping and release.
The ongoing violent attacks mostly in the shape of suicide bombings have claimed 42 lives with majority of them civilians in the militancy-hit Afghanistan from Friday to Tuesday January 21, 2014, amid the Taliban threat to continue fighting until eviction of foreign forces from the country.
An influential former Afghanistan warlord who served as water and energy minister in a previous administration narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Friday January 24, 2014. Ismail Khan, who is also running as vice president for one of the candidates in the April 5 presidential election, was attacked after mid-day prayers. Khan was coming out of the mosque in Herat city, the provincial capital, when the bomber set off his explosives. No one except the would-be suicide bomber was killed in the explosion.
A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire at a group of local cricket players, killing five of them during a game in eastern Laghman province. The attack took place on Thursday January 23, 2014, in Alinghar district.
Noor Ahmad Noori, a journalist who worked for local radio Bost, was killed Thursday January 23, 2014, in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand. Noori's blood-covered body was found in a plastic bag in a Lashkar Gah suburb after he went missing earlier in the day. He was tortured before being killed. His death was caused by at least two knife blows to the head and probably strangulation with a scarf.
At least six people including two Army officers were killed and 30 others injured on Sunday January 26, 2014, in two separate attacks. A roadside bomb hit a vehicle on its way to a wedding in the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing two civilians and injuring eight others. The incident took place today in Achin district; women and children were among the victims. Earlier, a suicide bomber targeted an air force bus in Kabul. Two Army officers and two civilians were killed and 22 others wounded as a result. The bomber on foot blew himself up next to an Army staff bus in the eastern part of Kabul. ---
A suicide car bomber killed two police officers in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday January 30, 2014. The car bomber targeted a police and intelligence compound in Nangarhar province's Pachir Wagam district. The Taliban claimed responsibility. In the western province of Herat, another car bomb driven by a suicide attacker slammed into the vehicle of the police chief of Shindan district. The police chief survived and only the attacker was killed.
On Friday January 31, 2014, the Taliban attacked three Afghan police checkpoints overnight in the southern province of Helmand, killing one officer before police repelled the attackers. At least 16 insurgent fighters were also killed in the three separate attacks and the ensuing gun battles in Marjah district.
Two aides to an Afghan presidential candidate were fatally shot in the relatively secure city of Herat in western Afghanistan on Saturday February 1, 2014. Gunmen fired on a vehicle outside the campaign office in Herat. The assault killed Faiz Zada Hamdard, a campaign manager for the candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, and the driver of the vehicle, Shujauddin, 19, the nephew of a well-known jihadi commander who goes by a single name like many Afghans.
On Saturday February 15, 2014, we were told that a Nato serviceman has been killed in a blast in southern Afghanistan. The soldier died in an improvised explosive device attack. The coalition did not give further details on where the incident occurred or the nationality of the service member killed in the attack. The death brings to five the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan so far this month.
A police official and a civilian were killed in a terror attack in Afghanistan's Herat province. Two terrorists were gunned down in the shootout. Militants attacked the Afghan police security checkpoint Friday February 21, 2014, in Obe district; four militants were injured. The Taliban insurgent group has intensified attacks since the Afghan army and police took full operational lead from NATO-led troops. ---
Taliban insurgents assaulted a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday February 23, 2014, leaving 21 soldiers dead, two injured and seven missing. It was the deadliest single incident for the Afghan army in at least a year. Hundreds of foreign and Afghan insurgents were involved in the attack, which took place in the Ghazi Abad district of Kunar province in the early hours. An army support unit en route to assist the operation was also targeted by a suicide bomber but there were no military casualties. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an emailed statement, saying that one of their insurgents was killed and two were wounded. Since the beginning of 2014, 84 Afghan army soldiers have been killed.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry Saturday February 22, 2014, strongly rejected claims by Pakistan it had executed 23 members of a Pakistani security force.
Afghanistan Sunday March 2, 2014:
A soldier from 32 Engineer Regiment has died in Afghanistan on Wednesday March 5, 2014, the first British soldier to die in the country in 2014. The solider died as a result of non-battle related injuries sustained in Camp Bastion. A total of 448 British forces personnel or Ministry of Defence civilians have died while serving in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001.
An early morning NATO airstrike in Afghanistan's eastern Logar province killed five Afghan soldiers on Thursday March 6, 2014. The coalition said the deaths were an accident and expressed its condolences. Eight Afghan National Army troops were also wounded in the incident.
A bomb blast in Jalalabad city in Afghanistan Saturday March 8, 2014, killed a district governor. The bomb blast targeted the vehicle of Nazian district governor killing him on the spot and injuring five others. The bomb was planted inside the vehicle of Noor Agha Kamran, the governor of Nazian district, and the device exploded killing the district governor and injuring one policeman and four civilians.
A bomb blast ripped through a market on Sunday March 9, 2014, in Afghanistan's Kandahar province killing two people and injuring one. The blast occurred in a scrap market in Spin Boldak leaving a father and his son dead and injuring another.
Afghanistan Sunday March 9, 2014:
Gunmen have killed a British-Swedish journalist with a single bullet in an unusual execution-style attack on a civilian in Kabul's heavily policed diplomatic district. Nils Horner, 51, was a well-known and respected correspondent for Swedish radio who had reported from Afghanistan in the past but arrived in Kabul again only on Sunday. The shooting on Tuesday March 11, 2014, came at a tense time. Horner was attacked while travelling from his hotel to the ruins of a restaurant bombed by the Taliban in January, in the hope of finding survivors for a story. Two men approached him on foot as he stepped out of his Toyota Corolla car and attacked at short range.
Three heavily armed insurgents tried to storm a former intelligence headquarters in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday March 12, 2014, prompting a fierce gunbattle that left the attackers dead. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the city of Kandahar. The three attackers —young men wielding hand grenades, automatic rifles and smaller weapons— entered Kandahar undetected in a white Corolla sedan, then got out and opened fire on guards deployed outside the former headquarters. The guards retreated inside while the insurgents took rooftop positions nearby.
On Wednesday March 12, 2014 a suicide bomber was gunned down close to the Indian Consulate complex in Afghanistan's Kandahar province before he could detonate explosives. The bomber was shot dead by Afghan security forces after he managed to gain access to the street housing the Indian consulate.
On Thursday March 13, 2014 we were told that the Afghan National Security Forces have conducted a series of operations across the country in which 26 Taliban rebels have been killed, 17 wounded and 11 arrested. The operations were conducted in Kunar, Nangarhar, Samangan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Zabul, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Ghazni, Paktika and Helmand province. During these operations, light and heavy rounds of ammunition and improvised explosive devices (IED's) were discovered and confiscated. Meanwhile, the Afghan National Police discovered and defused 19 different types of IED's placed in Kabul, Laghman, Baghlan, Faryab, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Paktika provinces.
A roadside bomb in the southern Helmand province has killed six civilians, including two women and two children. We were told on Friday March 14, 2014, that the bomb ripped through a vehicle the previous night, killing everyone inside. ---
A suicide bomber riding a rickshaw blew himself up outside a checkpoint near a market in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday March 18, 2014, killing at least 17 civilians (including three children); 26 were wounded. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the capital of Faryab province, but it happened in an area where the Taliban and allied militant groups are active. The attacker was approaching a checkpoint where cars were being searched on a road leading to the governor's compound in Maymana, the Faryab provincial capital, when he detonated his explosives hidden in the rickshaw. However, most of the victims were vendors peddling fresh bread and other people at the busy roadside market area. Employees of the nearby electricity department also were among the casualties.
At least eighteen people were killed on Thursday March 20, 2014, in a Taliban coordinated car bombing and shooting attack on a police station in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city. The force of the car bombing destroyed the station building and damaged several other buildings around, including governor house and the local national TV office building. More than five militants were involved in the pre-dawn attack.
Four men with pistols stuffed in their socks attacked a luxury hotel in Kabul on Thursday March 20, 2014, opening fire in a restaurant and killing nine people, including four foreigners. The attack came just hours after militants killed 11 people in an audacious assault on a police station in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan authorities initially said only two security guards had been wounded in the brazen assault on the Serena hotel in Kabul. However the Afghan fatalities included two men, two women and one child while the foreigners included two women and two men. The assailants were killed in both standoffs.
An explosion during a ceremony marking the Persian New Year has killed three people in the southern province of Kandahar. Militants used a new style of weapon in Friday March 21, 2014's attack. They threw an explosives-packed bottle that blew up when it landed on the ground. Those killed included the head of the provincial media centre chief and two policemen. Seven other people were wounded.
Taliban fighters killed at least 11 people and wounded 22 in a suicide bomb attack and gun battle at a police station in the eastern Jalalabad city on Thursday March 20, 2014. The assault began with two explosions just before dawn targeting the police station and a nearby square, close to compounds used by international organizations including the United Nations. The initial attack was carried out by two suicide bombers, one of them driving a three-wheeler vehicle. The NATO-led force in Afghanistan sent helicopter gunships to support Afghan security forces as a fire fight raged for over three hours before they were able to clear the area of the remaining militants. The police shot dead six Taliban, and all of them wore suicide vests. A police district chief was among the dead. The wounded included an Afghan assigned to a security detail for U.N. staff and the offices of a local radio and television broadcaster were also damaged in the attack. Security forces discovered at least two roadside bombs on the heavily guarded highway between Jalalabad and Kabul on Wednesday, and carried out controlled explosions.
Afghanistan accused Pakistan's intelligence service on Monday March 24, 2014, of staging last week's attack on a hotel in Kabul in which nine people including foreigners were shot dead by militants. Pakistan's foreign ministry rejected any responsibility for the gunmen who managed to smuggle pistols past the Serena hotel's heavy security cordon last Thursday. They then waited for a hotel restaurant to fill up for an Afghan New Year dinner before emerging to shoot diners. Three children between two and five were found with bullets in their heads and four of the nine dead were foreigners. The death toll included an Afghan journalist with the AFP news agency.
At least four militants and a policeman were killed on Tuesday March 25, 2014, when armed rebels stormed a local bank in Asadabad, the provincial capital of eastern Afghan province of Kunar, leading to a gunfight. They seized the bank compound and started firing at surrounding government office buildings; the attackers and one policeman were killed in the incident. Three people, including a bank employee, were also injured. All the militants were killed by the security forces.
Afghanistan Tuesday March 25, 2014:
Afghanistan Saturday March 29, 2014:
On Sunday March 30, 2014, a roadside bomb killed a Romanian service member with the international military coalition in Afghanistan in a southeastern province. The bomb was set off by remote control as a convoy reached the outskirts of Qalat, capital of Zabul province; another three troops were wounded.
Afghanistan Monday March 31, 2014:
A suicide bombing killed six policemen at the Afghan Interior Ministry compound in one of the capital's most heavily fortified areas Wednesday April 2, 2014, part of a recent escalation in violence in the heart of Kabul.
Two journalists working for the Associated Press news agency have been shot by a police commander in eastern Afghanistan. One of the women, Anja Niedringhaus, died in the attack. Her colleague, Kathy Gannon, is reported to be stable. The attack took place in the town of Khost near the border with Pakistan on Thursday April 3, 2014. ---
A roadside bomb has hit a truck carrying full ballot boxes in northern Afghanistan, killing three people. Eight boxes of votes were destroyed in the blast, which came as the three leading candidates voiced concerns about possible fraud. The truck was hit as it carried ballot boxes from polling stations to Kunduz city. The truck and eight ballot boxes were destroyed.
Fellow officers say the Afghan police commander who killed an Associated Press photographer and wounded an AP reporter seemed a calm, pious man who may have come under the influence of Islamic extremists calling for vengeance against foreigners over drone strikes. The gunman surrendered immediately after the attack Friday in front of dozens of security forces and election workers on a heavily guarded government compound in eastern Afghanistan. The suspect, identified as a unit commander named Naqibullah, was transferred to the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday April 8, 2014, and central government authorities have now started to question him.
Two RAF jets helped thwart a deadly roadside bomb attack. The Tornado GR4 fast jets spotted a group of insurgents planting the device just hundreds of metres ahead of a convoy of US and Afghan troops. One flew low and fast over the group in a "show of presence", firing flares and forcing them to scatter.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a market Friday March 11, 2014, in eastern Afghanistan, killing a pro-government tribal elder and wounding three civilians. The bombing struck the tribal elder Gul Babri in the market of the Jani Khil district of Paktiya province.
Afghanistan Monday April 14, 2014:
Gunmen abducted the Afghan deputy public works minister in Kabul on Tuesday April 15, 2014. Ahmad Shah Wahid was on his way to work when five gunmen ran his car off the road in northern Kabul, dragged him into their 4-wheel-drive vehicle and sped away. The armed men shot and wounded Wahid's driver when he tried to drive away to safety.
A female Afghan lawmaker was wounded in a shooting on Wednesday April 16, 2014. It could be a political attack or resulting from an undetermined personal dispute with a police officer. Maryam Koofi was recovering in a Kabul hospital from after being shot twice in the leg the previous night as she left her office. Her bodyguard was more seriously wounded with shots to his head and leg. Koofi is a parliamentarian from the northern province of Takhar. Her sister, Fawzia Koofi, is also a member of parliament and a well-known women's rights activist. Fawzia Koofi said her sister told her she was just getting into her car after dark when an unseen attacker fired. ---
Taliban militants stopped a car carrying several Afghan police officers on the road to Kabul and killed at least four of them. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that took place Wednesday April 16, 2014, in Wardak province. Wardak province deputy police Chief Lutfullah Zaryab said militants abducted 11 policemen traveling from the southern city of Kandahar to Kabul, and killed four of them. He said the remaining seven police managed to flee. Provincial spokesman Attahullah Khugyani said there were only five policemen in the vehicle, but confirmed that four of them were killed. He said the fifth man escaped. The Taliban said they were behind the attack. They said their fighters took seven policemen on the road and killed all seven of them.
Afghanistan Saturday April 19, 2014:
Three Americans —a pediatrician and a father and son— were killed by an Afghan government security officer at a hospital Thursday April 24, 2014. Another American, a female medical worker, was wounded in the attack at Cure International Hospital of Kabul, run by a U.S.-based Christian charity, and the gunman also was wounded. The hospital staff performed surgery on the attacker, who had shot himself, before he was handed over to Afghan authorities. However the authorities said the assailant was shot by other security guards.
Afghanistan Saturday April 26, 2014:
Afghan troops backed by Western air power have killed at least 60 militants near the Pakistan border we were told on Wednesday April 30, 2014, in one of the single biggest assaults against the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. The National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's main intelligence agency, said in a statement that about 300 Haqqani insurgents and foreign fighters came under intensive fire on Monday when they tried to storm Afghan bases in Ziruk district of Paktika province.
A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a busy checkpoint in central Afghanistan, killing at least 13 people Thursday May 1, 2014. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack on the entry checkpoint into Panjshir province killed five police officers and one intelligence officer assigned to the post. Seven civilian construction workers also were killed in the blast. Several other civilians in other vehicles were wounded in the blast. Many of the civilian victims were in a bus waiting to be searched, which marks the entrance into Panjshir from Parwan province.
A roadside bombing killed nine people and wounded two in Afghanistan's western Herat province. The attack took place in the province's Shindand district on Tuesday May 6, 2014, when the vehicle the victims were riding in hit the roadside bomb. All the victims are from the same family and were on their way from one village to another when the bomb exploded. ---
The interior ministry said Saturday May 10, 2014, that operations against the Taliban were conducted in Kunduz, Ghazni, Paktika, Helmand, Farah, Herat and Kandahar provinces. At least 13 Taliban militants were also injured and 10 others were arrested during the operations. Afghan security forces also confiscated various type of weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations.
A suicide car bomber attacked an Afghan army vehicle Sunday May 11, 2014, in southern Afghanistan, killing five civilians and wounding 36. The blast also wounded four Afghan army soldiers in the Maywand district of Kandahar province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Separately NATO said one of its service members died as a result of a non-battle related injury in the country's north. The death occurred Sunday but gave no other details. Coalition policy is for home countries to identify their military dead.
On Wednesday May 14, 2014, we were told that at least 105 Taliban militants were killed during military operations in the past 24 hours. The operations were conducted in Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kunduz, Zabul, Logar, Maidan Wardak, Herat, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Kandahar and Helmand provinces. At least two Taliban militants were injured and ten others were arrested during the operations. The Afghan national security forces confiscated various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations. The majority of the militants were killed during operations in Kandahar, Helmand, Ghazni and Nangarhar provinces. Afghan security forces also discovered and seized two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) during the operations.
Afghanistan Wednesday May 14, 2014:
At least 10 people were killed on Saturday May 17, 2014, in separate blasts in Afghanistan. In one attack, one civilian was killed and 12 injured when a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off in northern Takhar province. Five militants were killed when a bomb they were planting along a road exploded prematurely in the country's eastern province of Ghazni. Four Afghan army soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing. ---
Afghanistan Wednesday May 21, 2014:
Taliban fighters kidnapped 27 police officers during an assault on a northeastern province in Afghanistan we were told on Thursday May22, 2014. The 27 officers were hiding in a cave during the Taliban attack Wednesday in Yamgan district. The Taliban took the officers hostage and police have launched an effort to try and find them. Some 50 other officers in the district hiding in the area escaped. Insurgents ambushed several police checkpoints in Badakhshan province, killing at least six police officers in Yamgan district on Wednesday. The fighting started late Tuesday and lasted into Wednesday. Reinforcements were sent to the site, but the police were forced to pull back from the area and were fighting the Taliban forces from surrounding mountains as army helicopters flew overhead. Five insurgents also were killed, and three policemen were wounded. The Taliban said its fighters had raised the movement's white flag above the district headquarters.
On Thursday May 22, 2014, we were told that villagers have found the bodies of eight slain police officers who had been kidnapped almost two weeks ago by Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan. The policemen seven local and one from the national force were snatched by militants after an attack on their convoy two weeks ago from the same province. The bodies were surrounded by explosives. Last week, the Taliban launched their annual spring offensive promising to step up assaults on the Afghan police and military.
Eight police and 11 Taliban died in an operation launched by security forces to regain control of the Yamgan district in the extreme northeast of Afghanistan we were told on Saturday May 24, 2014. The government offensive was set in motion Friday by combined units of the army, police and Special Forces of the Afghan Interior Ministry in response to the Taliban kidnapping of 27 police agents last Wednesday. The operation successfully restored government control to the district, though a total of 19 people were killed in the process and another 12 were wounded, most of them police. Afghan authorities announced Friday that one of the principal goals of the operation was to find the 27 police who were kidnapped, but up to now no public announcement has been made as to their whereabouts.
A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle on Monday My 26, 2014, killed two Afghan defence ministry staffers and wounded at least nine others after he rammed into a bus carrying soldiers and civilian employees who were returning home from work. The bombing took place in eastern Kabul city and targeted a bus full of officers, soldiers and defence ministry staff. One of the dead was an officer and the other a civilian. The attack took place on a bumpy dirt road near a grave yard. The bus had just unloaded four women passengers and was driving away when the explosion took place. ---
Three Turkish construction engineers have been killed by a suicide bomber in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. The attacker drove a motorbike packed with explosives into their minibus in the city of Jalalabad. The Turkish engineers had been building a centre for police in Nangarhar province. A fourth Turkish engineer working on the project in Behsud and at least three Afghan civilians were injured in the attack. Later, three suicide attackers killed four people in an assault on a government office in Helmand province. Three of those killed were security force members; all the attackers were shot dead. The Taliban said they carried out that attack.
Afghanistan Thursday June 5, 2014:
Abdullah Abdullah, front-runner in Afghanistan's presidential election, escaped assassination on Friday June 6, 2014, when two bombs blew up outside a hotel where he had just staged a rally, killing six people. The midday blasts, one caused by a suicide bomber, destroyed a car in Abdullah's convoy. One of the dead was a bodyguard. Twenty-two people were injured. Television images showed the charred remains of the car alongside shattered shop fronts in a densely populated western
Suicide bombers have attacked a parking lot at a police base in eastern Afghanistan, killing a guard and setting 25 trucks ablaze. The attack happened late Sunday June 8, 2014, in Behsud district. A suicide car bomber first detonated his vehicle at the entrance to the police base parking lot. Two other attackers then stormed in, shooting at the security forces. Both attackers were killed by the police, but at least 25 fuel tankers and logistic trucks caught on fire and were burned during the fighting.
On Monday June 9, 2014, an air strike has killed five US troops and one Afghan soldier in southern Afghanistan, the deadliest friendly fire incident of the war for NATO forces. Helicopters were called in by US soldiers when they came under Taliban attack after a day's heavy fighting in Zabul province, east of Kandahar, but the pilots hit the wrong men. ---
It has been confirmed that five American soldiers have been killed accidentally by their own side in southern Afghanistan. An Afghan soldier and an interpreter also died in the Nato air strike after Monday June 9, 2014's operation in Zabul province. Coalition forces called in air support when they were attacked by the Taliban at the end of the operation. Nato is investigating.
Afghanistan Sunday June 15, 2014:
At least five civilians were killed on Monday June 16, 2014, in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. The roadside bomb was planted by the Taliban along Arghistan-Boldak road. The explosion killed five on the vehicle. The victims, including three children, were members of one family.
Taliban suicide bombers struck NATO fuel trucks at a key border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan Thursday June 19, 2014, setting off explosions that destroyed dozens of trucks and triggering a gun battle with police guards that left all three attackers dead.
A roadside bomb killed three American troops and a military dog Friday June 20, 2014, in southern Afghanistan. ---
Three US troops and a working dog were killed by a bomb blast on Friday June 20, 2014, in southern Afghanistan. The three service members died following an improvised explosive device attack.
Afghanistan Saturday June 21, 2014:
Taliban militants fired eight rockets into a NATO air base at one of Afghanistan's main airports. While there were no casualties or damage to buildings at the base at Jalalabad airport, the attack comes just two weeks after militants attacked Pakistan's Karachi airport, killing dozens. One or two of the missiles landed near the U.S.-run military airfield.
Afghan security forces fought back against a fierce Taliban onslaught by about 800 militants in a key southern province Wednesday June 25, 2014 as clashes that have killed dozens of people, including at least 35 civilians, stretched into a fourth day. The Taliban attacks targeting checkpoints and government buildings in Helmand province.
79 Taliban Militants were killed in Counter-Terrorism Operations on Saturday June 28, 2014. The militants were killed in Nangarhar, Kunduz, Kandhar, Paktia, Logar, Badghis, Kapisa and Helmand provinces. Afghan national army, Afghan national police and Afghan intelligence -national directorate of security (NDS) operatives- jointly conducted the operations. At least 26 Taliban militants were also injured and 10 others were arrested during the operations. The Afghan security forces confiscated various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations.
In one of the most significant coordinated assaults on the government in years, the Taliban have attacked police outposts and government facilities across several districts in northern Helmand Province, sending police and military officials scrambling to shore up defences. The attacks have focused on the district of Sangin. The Taliban have mounted simultaneous attempts to conquer territory in the neighbouring districts of Now Zad, Musa Qala and Kajaki. In the past week, more than 100 members of the Afghan forces and 50 civilians have been killed or wounded in fierce fighting.
AN Australian Special Forces soldier has died on Tuesday July 1, 2014, from a gunshot wound in Afghanistan. The death was believed to be the result of a “non-combat related incident’’. However the circumstances were still unclear. The fatally wounded soldier was found in a defence administrative building in the capital. He was evacuated to a medical facility in Kabul where he underwent emergency medical treatment but he died. He is the 41st Australian to die in Afghanistan (261 were seriously wounded) but his is the first death in the Australian Army for almost 13 months. Although Australia quit its Oruzgan base in December, bringing an end to Australia’s longest overseas combat deployment, about 400 Australian troops remain in Afghanistan in training and support roles, mostly in Kabul and Kandahar.
On Wednesday July 2, 2014, the Afghan security forces foiled coordinated attacks in Eastern Khost province of Afghanistan by arresting a group of nine suicide bombers. The suicide bombers were arrested in an operation in Mandozai district. The group was looking to carry out attacks on provincial government building and other government institutions. Afghan security forces also confiscated various types of weapons along with ammunition, explosives and suicide bombing vests from the detained militants.
About 44 Taliban militants have been killed in a series of military operations in Afghanistan since early Thursday July 3. Over the past 24 hours, the Afghan police, army and intelligence agency carried out clean-up operations in Nangarhar, Kunduz, Logar, Paktiya and Helmand provinces, killing 44 armed Taliban insurgents, wounding six militants and detaining four others. They also found and seized weapons. We do not know if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
At least two Afghani children were killed and eight others were wounded in a bombing in Herat province Thursday July 3, 2014. The bomb was planted by the Taliban and exploded among children playing outside in the Gulran district of Herat. ---
Attackers set fire to hundreds of fuel tanker trucks in a parking lot on the outskirts of the Afghan capital we were told Saturday July 5, 2014, prompting angry drivers to block a major highway to demand reimbursement for their losses. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. About 400 trucks caught fire late Friday and continued to burn through Saturday morning. Truck drivers later blocked the main highway between Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar to protest what they said was a slow response by the government and to demand reimbursement for their losses.
Six Taliban militants were killed and 10 others sustained injuries in a clash with security forces in Jarm district of Badakhshan province we were told on Saturday July 5, 2014. A group of armed Taliban rebels attacked police checkpoints outside Jarm city Friday night and police returned the fire killing six militants on the spot and injuring 10 others.
On Sunday July 6, 2014, we were told that 8 militants were killed in Kandahar, Logar and Paktia provinces. The Afghan national army, Afghan national police and Afghan intelligence -national directorate of security (NDS) - operatives jointly conducted the operations. At least eight Taliban militants were also injured and six others were arrested during the operations, MoI said. The Afghan security forces confiscated various types of weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations. The police forces also discovered and seized six improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during operations in Takhar, Paktia, Herat and Helmand provinces.
At least five children were killed and six people injured on Monday July 7, 2014, when a grenade fired by militants hit a house in northern Afghanistan. Taliban militants fired a rocket propelled grenade in Kunduz province and the device struck the house. The six injured people were from the same family and included the victims' parents.
At least three people were killed Monday July 7, 2014, in a suicide car bomb attack in Afghanistan's Zabul province. Thee terrorists drove an explosives-laden vehicle targeting the district headquarters of Shahr-e-Safa but the vehicle exploded before reaching the target. The police had asked the driver to stop but he refused.
At least four policemen were killed Monday July 7, 2014, in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan's Herat province. The police chief of Farsi district and four policemen were killed after their vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). The victims were driving towards their office when the attack occurred. The RPG grenade was launched by Taliban militants.
Four Czech soldiers died in the blast of a bomb and another Czech soldier received serious injuries when patrolling the surroundings of the Bagram base in the Afghan province of Parwan on Tuesday July 8, 2014. The blast also claimed the lives of 11 Afghan school children and two Afghan police. It was a suicide attack responsibility for which was claimed by Taliban. Nine Czech soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. The total number of Czech soldiers killed in military missions abroad since 1990 has risen to 24.
The soldier who was seriously injured in a blast that killed four other Czech servicemen in Afghanistan last week has died on Monday July 14, 2014. The soldiers were among the 16 people killed on Tuesday 8 July after a suicide bomber struck Afghan and foreign forces in the eastern province of Parwan. The fifth soldier died in Prague's military hospital, a day after he was transported home from Afghanistan.
A car bomber has killed at least 89 people in an Afghan bazaar. Tuesday July 15, 2014's bombing in Urgun, eastern Paktika province, was particularly vicious, striking ordinary shoppers in the holy month of Ramadan. The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon in Orgun district after a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED. At least 110 people were injured in the suicide attack which took place in a busy market.
A brazen Taliban attack on Kabul airport ended Thursday morning July 17, 2014, more than four hours after it began after all the insurgents involved were killed.
Dozens of armed insurgents attacked a convoy carrying a presidential security team in southeastern Afghanistan on Thursday July 17, 2014, sparking a gun battle in which four guards were wounded. The militants ambushed the convoy as it travelled through the southeastern Paktia province ahead of a planned by President Hamid Karzai to Urgun district, where a devastating suicide attack killed 41 on Tuesday. ---
At least 30 Taliban fighters have been killed, and 15 others wounded in various regions of Afghanistan we were told on Monday July 21, 2014. Security forces in the eastern Khost province carried out operations against the Taliban that left 23 fighters dead and 12 wounded. Another seven Taliban fighters were killed and three others wounded in the southern province of Helmand. Three Afghan soldiers had died during the operations, and a considerable amount of explosives and weapons had been confiscated.
A suicide bomber targeted a police convoy in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Monday July 21, 2014, killing two people, a policeman and a civilian. The attack took place in the Helmand provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The explosion also wounded 15 people —eight policemen and seven civilians. The police convoy was en route to the district of Sangin for an operation there.
At least five people were killed when Taliban militants attacked a vehicle in Afghanistan's Laghman province we were told on Tuesday July 22, 2014. Armed militants fired on a running sedan along a road in Alinagar district late on Monday. An off-duty policeman was among the killed.
The Afghan intelligence service accused Pakistan on Wednesday July 23, 2014, of stoking instability in the country by backing militants who stage attacks in Afghanistan. The National Directorate for Security charged that recent attacks in Afghanistan were planned in Pakistan, allegedly with the support of the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. The accusations came as a suicide bomber killed one policeman and wounded three in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province. The bomber, who was on foot, targeted the Chardara police district chief in Kunduz city.
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Security forces have killed at least 25 Taliban militants we were told on Thursday July 31, 2014. Police personnel backed by the army killed them in operations in parts of Wardak, Nangarhar, Faryab and Kandahar provinces since Wednesday. Five militants were also captured.
Afghanistan Sunday August 3, 2014:
A two-star general was shot dead on Tuesday August 5, 2014, and 15 other soldiers wounded when a man dressed in an Afghan Army uniform opened fire at a military academy. A German brigadier general was among the wounded and this is the first time since the Vietnam conflict that a two-star American general has been killed in combat. The shooter had been killed and that three Afghan army officers were wounded. About a dozen" of the wounded were Americans.
The Afghan soldier who killed a U.S. two-star general and wounded other top officers hid in a bathroom before his assault and used a NATO assault rifle in his attack, we were told on Wednesday August 6, 2014. The investigation into the killing of Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the highest-ranked U.S. officer to be slain in combat since 1970 in the Vietnam War, focused on the Afghan soldier, who went by the single name Rafiqullah. The shooting wounded about 15 people, including a German general and two Afghan generals, before Rafiqullah was killed. However, Rafiqullah's motive for the attack remained unclear.
A dozen people have been killed in an airstrike by US-led foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Thursday August 7, 2014. The victims of the assault in the district of Marjah were senior Taliban commanders. Earlier in the day, a similar US strike killed two people in the central province of Maidan Wardak. On Wednesday, at least 20 people were killed after US-led foreign forces carried out repeated drone strikes in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nuristan, while another air raid in the country’s eastern province of Ghazni left six others dead. On August 1, more than 70 Taliban militants were killed in two air raids that struck Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Logar. Four other Taliban militants died in a US drone attack that hit the war-ravaged country’s northeastern province of Kunar. At least eight people were also killed after US-led forces carried out an airstrike in the southeastern province of Paktika on May 29.
A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy moving through Afghanistan's capital Sunday August 10, 2014, killing at least four civilians and wounding more than 35 in an assault claimed by the Taliban. The blast struck two MRAPs, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armoured vehicles, in western Kabul, damaging a civilian car and leaving debris scattered across a highway lined by shops. NATO troops and Afghan soldiers cordoned off the scene after the blast.
At least one foreign soldier serving with the US-led forces has been killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan. The death of the soldier in a statement on Tuesday August 12, 2014. Further details such as the exact location of the incident and the nationality of the soldier were not included in the statement.
The Afghan army killed at least 51 Taliban militants during a nationwide operation we were told Monday August 11, 2014. Another eight militants were injured and eight more were arrested. Within the past 24 hours, the Afghan army, police and intelligence agency carried out several operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunduz, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Logar and Helmand provinces to rid them of insurgents. Several weapons were seized during the operation. Also, 314 mines were defused in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. It’s unclear if the Afghan army sustained any casualties during the operation.
At least three Afghan policemen have been killed and four others wounded in a bomb attack in the eastern province of Laghman. The blast took place in the Baad Pukh district of the province on Thursday August 14, 2014, when a vehicle touched off a buried explosive device. A police commander, identified as Mohammadulla, was among those killed in the attack. The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the act of violence. On Wednesday, four civilians lost their lives in a similar incident in the southern province of Helmand.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan is trying to secure the release of five of their staff members who were abducted in the western Herat province we were told Saturday August 16, 2014. The employees were traveling by road on Friday when they were detained by a local armed group. The ICRC is currently in contact at various levels to secure the safe release of its team. The aid workers were delivering sheep to local villages when they were stopped by the gunmen who took both the workers and the sheep, which could indicate that the abduction was part of a robbery as opposed to a militant attack.
The Taliban executed five people in a busy opium market in the southern Helmand province and left their bodies hanging overnight after accusing them of kidnapping a businessman. Thursday August 14, 2014's public hanging, in the largely Taliban-controlled Kajaki district, was the second group execution reported in Helmand since the offensive began. ---
Five Taliban militants, including a commander, were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday August 17, 2014, as clashes erupted in Kunduz province. The clash erupted in Gultapa area in the outskirt of provincial capital Kunduz city at leaving five Taliban rebels including their commander Mullah Akhtar dead on the spot. There were no casualties on the police forces.
A service member with the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan died Wednesday August 19, 2014, from an enemy attack in the country’s east. The death brings the number of ISAF service members killed this year to 52.
A soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with militants who entered Pakistani territory from Afghanistan Friday August 22, 2014. The incident happened in Muslam Bagh sector in southwestern Baluchistan province near the Afghan border. About 70 to 80 terrorists intruded from the Afghanistan side into Pakistani territory. Pakistani troops stopped the intruders but during the exchange of fire a paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was killed. Taliban militants from Afghanistan routinely intrude into Pakistani territory near the border in the northwest and attack military check posts and their opponents, souring diplomatic ties between Islamabad and Kabul.
At least three civilians have been killed in a US assassination drone attack in Afghanistan. The airstrike, which also injured two Afghans, happened in the eastern province of Logar on Friday August 22, 2014.
One police and 11 militants were killed during an ongoing battle in northern Afghan province of Takhar on Sunday August 24, 2014. Armed militants carried out attacks on security checkpoints in Pul-e-Mohmen locality of Khwaja Ghar district overnight. The clash is still going on. One Afghan Local Police (ALP) cop and 11 militants have been killed so far. Following the attack, reinforcement forces were dispatched to the area. Seven ALP and 21 militants were wounded in the clash.
A convoy of US forces has come under attack in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar. The incident took place in Behsud district on Sunday August 24, 2014, after a bomber detonated his explosives as US forces were returning to their base in Jalalabad. Six US soldiers were wounded in the attack and their vehicle was destroyed. However, the Taliban militant group, which has claimed responsibility for the assault, said it killed the six soldiers.
A suicide bomber in a truck blew himself up at an intelligence headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday August 30, 2014, killing at least two people and setting off an intense firefight with security forces. After the bombing outside the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security in Jalalabad, militants battled with security forces for an hour before authorities were able to put down the attack. 45 people were wounded. The powerful explosion shook the entire neighbourhood, breaking nearby windows and startling residents.
A US drone attack has left at least three people dead in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar. The airstrike was carried out in Shonkiri area of the province on Monday September 1, 2014. The dead are three Taliban members with Pakistani nationality. A similar drone strike in Dangam district of Kunar Province in late August reportedly killed at least 6 members of pro-Taliban group of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Separate airstrikes by US-led foreign troops left at least 17 people killed in eastern Afghanistan last week.
The Taliban struck a government compound in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday September 4, 2014, in a dawn attack that included two suicide truck bombings and left at least 33 people dead, including 10 policemen asleep in their quarters nearby 21 attackers and 2 civilians. The attack started at sunrise, with the Taliban setting off two massive suicide truck bombs outside the government compound in the provincial capital of Ghazni, followed by an assault by nearly a dozen gunmen. The assault triggered a gun battle with policemen and security forces at the compound. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombs blew out many windows across the city, and left about 200 people injured including 17 policemen, mostly from flying glass. Sadly, the bombings also destroyed Ghazni's city library and two museums.
A Taliban suicide bomber has killed a district police chief and his two guards in southern Kandahar province. The attack took place on Sunday September 7, 2014, at the police headquarters in Arghistan district. The police chief, Abdul Manaf, and two policemen who served as his bodyguards died in the explosion while six other policemen were wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least 21 people were killed Sunday September 7, 2014, when militants attacked a security check point in Afghanistan. Several militants raided a police check point on the outskirts of Ghazni city. The victims were 18 militants and three policemen. In the attack, four policemen were kidnapped by the militants. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Three people have been killed and two others injured in yet another US drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar. The US drone fired a missile on a compound in Nangarhar's Achin district early on Tuesday September 9, 2014. Those targeted were Taliban members, among them a local Taliban commander. Ties between Afghanistan and the United States have been strained over the deadly drone strikes. The US carries out drone attacks in several Muslim countries, including Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. It claims the strikes target militants. But reports suggest many of the victims are civilians. At least three Taliban members were killed and three others wounded as Afghan security forces carried out a military operation in Haska Mena district in Nangarhar province. In Paktika Province, three Taliban members were also reportedly killed and four others injured when a roadside bomb they were planting along a road went off prematurely.
A U.S. airstrike killed 11 civilians, including women and children, in the Kunar province of Afghanistan we were told Wednesday September 10, 2014. The deaths are reportedly the result of a strike, which also left at least a dozen wounded, on Tuesday in Narang district. The deaths also included “two suspected insurgents”.
An airstrike by a US drone has killed at least two people in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar. The attack took place close to the border with Pakistan on Sunday September 14, 2014. The dead are Pakistani nationals. Other reports put the death toll at seven.
At least one police officer was killed and seven civilians injured by a bomb blast on Monday September 15, 2014, in northern Afghanistan. The bomb was planted in a square in Baghlan-e-Markazi district. Separately, an Afghan Army soldier was killed and six others were injured in an apparently accidental helicopter crash in southern Uruzgan province. The incident took place in Gizab district late Sunday, when an Afghan Army helicopter crashed into a wall at a military base.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack on ISAF forces near the US embassy in Kabul. Insurgents have been taking advantage of instability to carry out attacks throughout Afghanistan. At least three foreign soldiers were killed and five wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near the United States embassy in Kabul on Tuesday September 16, 2014. The bombing is the deadliest attack on foreign soldiers in Afghanistan in months. At least 13 civilians were wounded in the attack as well, which took place few hundred meters from the US embassy. The blast damaged nearly 20 vehicles parked nearby. Insurgents have been taking advantage of the political instability to carry out attacks throughout the country. One US soldier was killed Monday when an Afghan security forces member allegedly threw a grenade at troops conducting a training session, the latest of so-called “green-on-blue” attacks. And overnight, two suicide bombers ignited 26 fuel tankers in an attack near the border of Pakistan in eastern Afghanistan. ---
A bomb blast killed six people and wounded 12 shortly after they left a mosque following Friday prayers. The Friday September 18, 2014, blast occurred just outside the mosque. Elsewhere four police were killed during a battle with Taliban insurgents on Thursday. The attacks come as the country continues to wait for the results of the presidential run-off held in June. The two candidates are trying to agree on a power-sharing deal. Final vote results have not yet been announced.
Militants have attacked a number of NATO tankers carrying fuel for US-led forces in Afghanistan’s central eastern province of Maidan Wardak. At least five tankers were torched in the attack, which occurred in Saydabad district, along the Kabul-Kandahar road on Monday September 21, 2014. A police officer guarding the convoy was killed and five others were wounded during the attack. At least three assailants were also killed.
Militants aligned with ISIS launched a brutal offensive in Afghanistan alongside Taliban fighters that has left more than 100 people dead we were told on Friday September 26, 2014. Insurgents carrying the black flag of ISIS captured several villages in Ghazni province. Fifteen family members of local police officers were beheaded and at least 60 homes were set ablaze. Later five Afghan helicopters managed to drop Afghan Special Forces personnel to reinforce units already defending the area. The drive was being led by masked men wearing camouflage who carried the black flag of the ISIS and openly called themselves soldiers of "Daesh" —another name for ISIS.
Two suicide attacks targeting military transport vehicles here on Wednesday October 1, 2014, killed seven Afghan soldiers and wounded nearly 20 others. The attacks came a day after the government signed a crucial security deal with the United States that paves the way for the long-term presence of American troops, a pact the Taliban vehemently opposed. The first attacker, wearing an explosive vest, boarded a full bus in the Karte Char neighbourhood of Kabul. The blast killed seven soldiers and wounded 15 people, including civilians. The second attack also targeted a bus, this one in the Deh Sabz area, injuring four soldiers. ---
Afghanistan Saturday October 11, 2014:
Two U.S. drone strikes in in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region have killed at least eight militants we were told on Saturday October 11, 2014. One strike targeted a hideout in eastern Afghanistan, near Pakistan's Khyber Agency. That strike killed at least four militants and injured many others. In the other incident, missiles hit a vehicle in Pakistan's North Waziristan killing four militants, including a commander.
Clash between militants and Afghan security forces in the capital of northern Saripul province, 350 km north of Kabul, have left 45 dead we were told Monday October 13, 2014. In the clash which erupted Sunday night in Darai Alafsafid area, a suburb of Saripul city, so far 45 people including 22 security personnel from army and police and 23 Taliban rebels including their commander Mullah Nadir have been killed. Eight more security personnel had been injured during the clash which is still continuing.
Two Afghan civilians have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in the country's capital, Kabul. Three civilians were wounded in the explosion, which happened Tuesday October 14, 2014 in a western part of the city. The blast damaged a civilian vehicle. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan Monday October 13, 2014:
Afghan forces have arrested the son of the feared Haqqani network's founder along with a militant commander in charge of suicide attacks, a blow to the Taliban-linked Islamist group, we were told on Thursday October 16, 2014. The Haqqani network, which mainly operates out of Pakistan's border areas, has been blamed for some of the deadliest and most sophisticated attacks on NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. Anas Haqqani was in charge of raising funds "from individuals from Arab countries" and recruitment through social media. He was arrested on Tuesday. He is the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the former anti-Soviet guerrilla commander who founded the network, which professes obedience to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and also has ties to al Qaeda.
Afghanistan Sunday October 19, 2014:
Five people were killed and two were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a car in an attack in one of the country's eastern provinces. Friday October 23, 2014's attack took place in Nangahar province as seven civilians were travelling through Khogyani district early in the morning. The attack was carried out by "insurgents," a term that usually refers to the Taliban, and that police are investigating. Nangahar province borders Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership has safe havens in the North Waziristan tribal region. Khogyani is nestled in the mountains that line the border and has long been a hotbed of insurgent activity.
On Sunday October 26, 2014, the last UK base in Afghanistan has been handed over to the control of Afghan security forces, ending British combat operations in the country. The union flag was lowered at Camp Bastion, while Camp Leatherneck -the adjoining US base- was also handed over to Afghan control. Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would never forget those who had died serving their country. The number of deaths of British troops throughout the conflict stands at 453. The death toll among US military personnel stands at 2,349.
At least 17 police officers have been abducted by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan province on Saturday October 25, 2014. Four officers died when militants attacked the government compound in Wardoj district.
Four Taliban insurgents dressed in police uniforms stormed government offices in the northern provincial capital of Kunduz on Monday October 27, 2014, killing eight people and wounding 10 others. The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at the entrance to the provincial attorney general’s offices in Kunduz City on Monday afternoon. The initial blast killed a police officer guarding the entry, allowing three insurgents to storm the offices and unleash a wave of carnage. In addition to the officer at the gate, six prosecutors working for the government were killed, as well as one civilian. Security forces eventually killed the rest of the attackers. Security in Kunduz rapidly deteriorated over the summer, one of the first seasons in which Afghan forces had fought on their own. Taliban fighters have overrun nearly 20 police posts in outlying districts and surrounded parts of the capital with entrenched positions in nearby villages.
A US drone strike has killed at least four militants in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border. The attack happened early on Thursday October 30, 2014, in Nargas, a village in the South Waziristan, which is considered a stronghold of Taliban militants. Up to four missiles were filed targeting a militant compound, killing four rebels. The militants killed in the strike were foreign nationals.
A suicide car bomber killed at least 11 members of the security forces and wounded more than 20 civilians near a police checkpoint in eastern Logar province on Saturday November 1, 2014. The suicide bomber detonated his car near a residential area in Azra district of Logar, killing four army soldiers and seven local policemen. ---
Afghan authorities are investigating how a suicide bomber was able to enter the offices of the Kabul police chief on Saturday November 8, 2014, and kill a senior officer. Police chief Zahir Zahir was not in his office at the time of the attack, but he said his Chief of Staff Yassin Khan was killed and six others wounded.
Afghanistan Monday November 10, 2014:
Three separate bomb explosions in Afghanistan on Monday November 10, 2014, killed at least 10 policemen, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself in Kabul's police headquarters, killing one person. The Taliban claimed responsibility for two of the attacks. Seven policemen were killed in the eastern province of Logar province when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the provincial police headquarters. In Nangarhar province, also in the east, three policemen were killed in the city of Jalalabad by a bomb planted in a rickshaw. It was not clear who was behind the third blast, which took place in Kabul and was caused by a bomb planted in a flower bed near a university, wounding three people.
Militants have killed a soldier serving with the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during an attack in northern Afghanistan. NATO has confirmed in a brief statement that the trooper lost his life in a Friday November 14, 2014, attack.
At least five people have been killed Sunday November 16, 2014, in a US assassination drone attack in eastern Afghan province of Kunar. Three more people have also been wounded in the drone attack. The airstrike rocked the town of Mano Gai, adding that the victims were Taliban members. The Taliban, however, has not yet commented on the report.
A prominent women’s rights campaigner has survived a suicide bomb attack on Sunday November 16, 2014, on her car in Kabul. Three civilian bystanders were killed, and more than ten people were wounded. Shukria Barakzai has claimed she ran a secret school for girls during the Taliban’s five-year rule. She is now a member of the Afghan parliament, a close ally of new President Ashraf Ghani and a member of his team appointed to help choose a new cabinet. The president has condemned the attack. Speaking from hospital, Barakzai said she survived because of her people’s prayers.
A truck bomb ripped through the outer perimeter of a foreign security compound in Afghanistan's capital early on Tuesday November 18, 2014, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding a foreigner. The jihadist Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the compound on the eastern outskirts of Kabul. Two insurgent fighters armed with guns tried to enter the compound after the explosion, but were shot dead by guards on the inside.
Germany and Italy plan to keep a total of up to 1,350 soldiers in Afghanistan in 2015 to help train local armed forces we were told on Tuesday November 18, 2014. The United States and other nations want to keep thousands of troops there for counter-terrorism and training of Afghan personnel after U.S. forces formally withdraw this year. Germany aims to retain up to 850 soldiers in Afghanistan while Italy will go with an average of about 500.
At least six people have been killed in an airstrike carried out by US foreign forces in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province. An unmanned aerial vehicle launched an aerial attack in the southern Haska Mina district of the province on Tuesday November 18, 2014 targeting Taliban members, including a senior commander. On Monday, a drone attack in Nangarhar Province left at least four people dead. Five people were also killed and three others wounded in a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar on November 16. On November 11, at least six people lost their lives when US-led foreign forces mounted a drone strike in the Spingar district of Nangarhar. The civilian casualties of the US-led drone strikes have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and the US, and have dramatically increased anti-US sentiments in the country.
Four Taliban fighters who attacked a compound housing foreign workers in the Afghan capital have been killed in a failed assault there. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an area in eastern Kabul known as the "Green Village." A loud explosion followed by sporadic gunfire was heard on Wednesday evening November 19, 2014. The interior ministry confirmed that the initial blast had been a car bomb. There were no civilian or military casualties in the attack. The heavily fortified Green Village houses foreigners working for international service companies. ---
A suicide bomber killed 45 people at a volleyball match in Afghanistan on Sunday November 23, 2014 as foreign troops withdraw from the country after more than a decade of fighting. At least 50 more were wounded in the attack in Yahya Khel district, where residents had gathered to watch a tournament final. Most of the casualties were civilians. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber walked into the crowd of spectators and detonated his explosive vest.
A bomb hidden in the median strip of an avenue in Kabul was detonated as a convoy of coalition troops passed by Monday morning November 24, 2014, killing two foreign soldiers. An Afghan passer-by was wounded. The episode took place in eastern Kabul, not far from the scene of a suicide attack last week on a camp housing foreign workers and officials. The victims on Monday were the first coalition soldiers to die from an attack in Kabul since September 16, when a Polish soldier, an American soldier and an American civilian were killed in a suicide bombing outside a Special Operations base. The last soldier killed was Sgt. First Class Michael Cathcart of the United States Army Special Forces was reported killed by enemy fire during a combat mission in Kunduz Province, in the north of the country.
On Wednesday November 26, 2014, we were told that the two NATO service members who died Monday in Afghanistan were American. The two U.S. soldiers were killed when a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded near their vehicle in Kabul.
Six people including a British security guard and an Afghan member of staff at the UK embassy were killed in a suicide attack on a British diplomatic convoy in Kabul on Wednesday November 26, 2014. More than 34 people were injured in the attack, including a British member of embassy’s security team. The suicide car bombing occurred on the busy road to Jalalabad. The UK’s ambassador Richard Stagg was not in the convoy at the time.
At least three people have been killed in a fresh US drone strike in central eastern Afghanistan. The air raid was conducted in the Chak district of Wardak Province on Thursday November 27, 2014. Three Afghans also lost their lives in a similar US drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Laghman on Wednesday.
Taliban attackers armed with suicide bomb vests and assault rifles killed two people, one a foreigner, during a raid on a guesthouse near the Afghan parliament Saturday NOVEMBER 29, 2014. The dead worked for a foreign aid group. Security forces rescued six Afghans held hostage by the attackers during the assault. After storming the building in a residential suburb in west Kabul, one of the attackers detonated an explosives-packed suicide vest and security forces shot dead the other two. Europeans who worked as consultants for the Afghan government lived there. It was also the home of Christian missionaries.
Afghanistan Saturday November 30, 2014:
A suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a pro-government tribal chief in northern Afghanistan on Monday December 1, 2014, killing at least nine people. Two policemen—were killed, and 18 more people were wounded in the suicide bombing. The attacker detonated a suicide vest in a crowd of mourners at the funeral of tribal leader Hakim Bay, in the Burka district of Baghlan province. ---
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Afghanistan Thursday February 27, 2020: Afghans dare to hope for peace
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The Afghanistan War, by the numbers:
US troops killed: 2,309
US troops injured: 20,660
Taliban members killed: 72,000
Afghan national security forces killed: 65,596
Afghan civilians killed: 38,480
US taxpayer dollars spent: $2 trillion
Afghanistan Tuesday February 3, 2020:
Majahid, who rejected holding official talks with the Afghan government, has said the Taliban is only ready to talk with the in-charge of prisons of "Kabul administration" about the release of 5,000 detainees.
However, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has rejected the demand, saying "no commitment has been made for the release of 5,000 prisoners" and the decision in this regard is with the government of Afghanistan.
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- Thirteen pro-government local militiamen were killed during a Taliban militants' overnight attack in western Badghis province.
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The security forces have also arrested seven Taliban militants from across the northern Takhar province over the past 24 hours. ---
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- Seven people have been confirmed dead and 16 others wounded as a car bombing targeted a police center in eastern Ghazni province. The armed insurgents detonated an explosive-laden car next to a unit of Civil Order Police in Kotal Rawa area outside Ghazni city, the capital of Ghazni province killing seven and wounding 16 others, Arian said.
- The attackers, after detonating a car bomb, were attempting to enter the center but their attempts had been foiled.
- The attack on the police center took place amid the ongoing Loya Jirga or grand assembly of elders and chieftains to decide the fate of 400 controversial Taliban detainees from government jails. The government has already freed 5,100 Taliban inmates. However, the Taliban outfit demanded the release of 400 detainees who are involved in major offensives such as deadly truck bombings, kidnapping and killing civilians, as a precondition for talks with the Afghan administration.
- Started on Friday, the grand assembly with the participation of more than 3,000 delegates from across the country is expected to advise the government for the release of Taliban prisoners on Sunday to pave the way for intra-Afghan dialogue and achieving peace in the conflict-battered country.
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