DTN News - PAKISTAN SECTARIAN VIOLENCE: Militants Attack Shiites In Peshawar, 15 Killed

Asian Defense News: DTN News - PAKISTAN SECTARIAN VIOLENCE: Militants Attack Shiites In Peshawar, 15 Killed

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AP
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - June 21, 2013: Militants opened fire on a Shiite Muslim mosque where worshippers were gathering for Friday prayers, and then a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside, killing 15 people in the latest attack aimed at the minority sect, police said.

The attack hit the city of Peshawar, which is on the outskirts of Pakistan's tribal area, the main sanctuary for Islamic militants. They have targeted the city with scores of bombings in recent years.

Three militants initiated the attack on the mosque, located inside a Shiite religious school, by firing on a policeman who was standing guard outside, said senior police official Shafiullah Khan. The policeman was critically wounded, Khan said.

The militants then entered the mosque, where one of them detonated his suicide vest. The other two militants escaped, and police have launched a search operation to find them, Khan said. Fifteen people were killed and scores more wounded, he said.

Zawar Hussain, who was inside the mosque when the attackers struck, said their firing set off panic among the roughly 300 worshippers inside. Then came the explosion.

"After the blast, I fell down. People were crying for help," said Hussain. "I saw bodies and badly injured worshippers everywhere."

Local TV video showed blood splattered on the floor and walls of the mosque. Broken glass littered the floor, and there were holes in the walls and ceiling caused by ball bearings packed in with the bomber's explosives to cause maximum damage and casualties. Relatives at a local hospital wailed in grief as rescue workers wheeled in wounded victims, their clothes soaked in blood.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Radical Sunni Muslims who consider Shiites to be heretics have stepped up attacks against the minority sect in Pakistan over the last several years.

On Saturday, a bomb that appeared to be targeting Shiites ripped through a bus carrying female university students in the southwest city of Quetta, killing 14 people. Militants then attacked a hospital where wounded victims were taken, killing more people.

The militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta and could be suspected in Friday's Peshawar attack as well. The group has carried out many of the attacks against Shiites in Pakistan in recent years, especially in Baluchistan province, where Quetta is the capital.

Although most Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully together in Pakistan, the country has a long history of sectarian attacks by radicals on both sides.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Pakistan became the scene of a proxy war between mostly Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, with both sides funneling money to sectarian groups that regularly targeted each other.

Most of the attacks in recent years have been by radical Sunnis against Shiites. Last year was one of the most deadly for Shiites in Pakistan's history, according to Human Rights Watch, which said more than 400 Shiites were killed.

This year is shaping up to be even deadlier. Two attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Quetta at the beginning of the year killed nearly 200 people.

The sectarian violence presents a significant challenge to Pakistan's new government, which took power earlier this month under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Human rights activists and members of the Shiite community criticized the last government for failing to do enough to stop the attacks. The new government has promised to do more, but some critics have questioned whether Sharif will follow through. His party has done little to crack down on Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other militant groups in its home province of Punjab in central Pakistan, even though the party controlled the provincial government for the last five years.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AP
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DTN News - AFGHANISTAN WAR NEWS: Taliban On The Offensive In Jalalabad, Suicide Attack On Afghan NATO Base Kills 5 - December 2, 2012

Asian Defense News: DTN News - AFGHANISTAN WAR NEWS: Taliban On The Offensive In Jalalabad, Suicide Attack On Afghan NATO Base Kills 5 - December 2, 2012

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AFP
(NSI News Source Info) SINGAPORE - December 2, 2012: Almost 2 years back, DTN News issued a special report image captioned "Taliban On The Offensive December 25, 2010".The ground reality has worsened in Afghanistan with increase in causality of Afghan and ISAF forces nearing the withdrawal date of 2014 for foreign security elements.

Why are the Taliban on the offensive? The reply is straightforward, President Obama’s Afghan strategy is not working. The Taliban are gaining confidence from increased news coverage and political strength from Iran and other elements, who are supposed to be fighting along side the NATO ISAF coalition forces against insurgency. On December 25, 2010, the Taliban are on the offensive attacking NATO ISAF troops with rockets from safe distance near Pakistan border.

 Taliban insurgents launched a major suicide attack Sunday against a NATO base at an Afghan city airport, killing five people and wounding several foreign troops, officials said.

Nine attackers were also killed, some blowing themselves up in two vehicles at the perimeter gate of the Jalalabad airport and others shot as they attempted to storm the base, police said.

NATO helicopters fired on the insurgents as they followed up the car bombing with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire.

The Taliban claimed insurgents had entered the airport, which is close to the eastern border with Pakistan, but this was denied by NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Insurgents including suicide bombers attacked the perimeter of the Jalalabad air base this morning," a spokesman told AFP. "None of the attackers succeeded breaching the perimeter.

"I can confirm that there were helicopters involved in the coalition response to the attack.

"A number of ISAF forces were wounded," he added, noting that it was ISAF policy not to disclose the number of those injured.

The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the NATO base set well back from the first entrance, which an Afghan official said had been breached.

Three Afghan guards were killed and 14 wounded, while two civilians also died and four others were injured, police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal told AFP.

"First there was a car bombing next to the entrance followed by gun attack by the insurgents," a senior Afghan security official said. "They couldn't reach NATO forces and they were killed in the area between the first and second gates."

The Taliban claimed their militants had entered the airport and caused heavy casualties.

"First a fedayee (suicide bomber) mujahid... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers," the Taliban said on their website.

"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."

The hardline Taliban Islamists have waged an 11-year insurgency against the Afghan government, which is backed by 100,000 NATO troops, since being overthrown in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The airport has come under attack on two previous occasions this year.

On February 27, six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in a suicide car bomb attack, but NATO troops escaped unhurt.

The airport also came under attack on April 15, when the Taliban launched their spring offensive with a series of commando-style assaults across Afghanistan.

The latest assault comes as the usual summer fighting season should be drawing to a close and shows that the insurgency remains resilient as NATO forces prepare to withdraw in 2014.

With the end of the US "surge" in Afghanistan, the Taliban have survived the biggest military onslaught the West will throw at them.

The last of the extra 33,000 soldiers President Barack Obama deployed nearly three years ago left in September, and the vast majority of the remaining NATO force of more than 100,000 will follow by the end of 2014.

One of the aims of the surge was to put so much pressure on the Taliban that they would come to the negotiating table, but the insurgents called off early contacts in March, accusing the United States of constantly changing its position. 

A series of explosions followed by gunfire rocked the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad early Sunday as its airport came under an attack claimed by the Taliban, witnesses and officials said.


The Taliban said in a telephone call to AFP that they had launched an assault including a suicide bombing on the airport complex, which contains a major NATO base.

Militants had entered the airport, they said. An Afghan government official confirmed that clashes had taken place within the airport complex.

A guard said that after the initial huge explosion the airport had come under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

The hardline Taliban Islamists have waged an 11-year insurgency against the Afghan government, which is backed by 100,000 NATO troops, since being overthrown in a US-led invasion for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed that there had been "multiple explosions in the vicinity of Jalalabad airport", but had no further details.

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Top US General Visits Troops In Afghanistan

(NSI News Source Info) MARJAH, Afghanistan - December 25, 2010: The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan crisscrossed the country on Saturday, visiting coalition troops on Christmas at some of the main battle fronts in a show of appreciation and support in the tenth year of the war against the Taliban.Gen. David Petraeus started his Christmas visit by traveling by helicopter

from the capital, Kabul, to the northern province of Kunduz, telling troops with the U.S. Army's 1-87, 10th Mountain Division that on this day, there was "no place that (he) would rather be than here" where the "focus of our effort" was.

The northern part of the country has seen increased fighting, with the Taliban increasing their attacks as NATO focuses its sights on the militant movement's southern strongholds. Petraeus was briefed on the situation in the region by German Maj. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz, the commander of NATO's northern regional command.

Petraeus handed out commemorative coins to troops who had served for 3 or more years since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and awarded several medals, including three purple hearts. He then went by helicopter over desert mountain peaks to the western province of Farah, where the Italian army's 7th Alpini is stationed.

The U.S. general's visit coincided with one by Gen. Vincenzo Camporini, the Italian chief of defense general staff. Petraeus congratulated the Italian soldiers on the "progress that has been achieved in the first few months that this unit has been here."

Petraeus's next stop was the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Helmand province, scene of some of the heaviest fighting recently between the Taliban and NATO-Afghan forces.

Marjah has become a symbol of the problems facing NATO troops in Afghanistan. More than 7,000 U.S.-led NATO ground troops launched a nighttime invasion of the region of farming hamlets last February to rout insurgents and cut off their income from the drug trade. NATO officials said the effort would pave the way for the Afghan government to move in aid and start delivering public services.

Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills on Dec. 7 declared that the battle in Marjah was "essentially over." But the campaign took longer than NATO officials had hoped, and illustrated the complexity of trying to wrest control of an area where Taliban influence remained strong.

Efforts to create a civilian government in Marjah have been painfully slow, and U.S. troops struggled against roadside bombs and sniper attacks from an enemy that could blend in with the local population.

It is not known when U.S. troops could be withdrawn in significant numbers from Helmand as heavy fighting continues elsewhere in the area, including the Sangin district where Marines took over from British forces.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources AFP
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DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: Female Car Bomber Kills 12 In Kabul

Asian Defense News: DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: Female Car Bomber Kills 12 In Kabul
*Revenge for an anti-Islam film made in America

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by Sardar Ahmad  Agence-France Presse
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 18, 2012: A female suicide car bomber attacked a van in Kabul Tuesday, killing 12 people, including eight South Africans, in an assault insurgents said was in revenge for an anti-Islam film made in America.

The bombing on a highway leading to Kabul international airport was the second suicide attack in the heavily fortified city in 10 days, reviving questions about stability as NATO accelerates a troop withdrawal and hands over to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

It came as officers revealed that Western troops are scaling back joint operations with Afghans after 51 NATO soldiers were shot dead this year by their local colleagues, a setback for the war strategy that focuses on training Afghans to take over.

An AFP photographer saw at least six bodies lying among the wreckage of a gutted minivan, and another vehicle destroyed by flames still burning in the middle of the highway, with debris flung all around.

"At around 6:45 am (0215 GMT) a suicide bomber using a sedan blew himself up along the airport road in District 15. As a result, nine workers of a foreign company and three Afghan civilians are dead, and two police are wounded," police said in a statement.

An Afghan and a Western security official said nine foreigners were killed. The South African foreign ministry said eight of its citizens were among the dead.

"The foreigners were from a private company working at the airport," the Afghan official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had no reports that its personnel were among the casualties.

Afghanistan's second largest insurgent group, Hezb-i-Islami, claimed responsibility, saying it was carried out by a woman to avenge the "Innocence of Muslims" film, which has sparked a weekof furious anti-US riots across Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

"The bombing was carried out by a woman named Fatima. The bombing was in retaliation for the insult to our Prophet," spokesman Zubair Sidiqi in a telephone call to AFP from an undisclosed location.

It is extremely rare for the faction to claim a suicide attack in Afghanistan. It is also rare for women, few of whom drive in Afghanistan, to carry out suicide attacks.

A police investigator said he believed the bomber was female, after finding parts of a woman's leg.

On Monday, protests turned violent for the first time in Afghanistan over the low-budget trailer for the film, which is believed to have been produced by extremist Christians, as hundreds hurled stones at a US military base and clashed with police.

In the northern city of Kunduz, several hundred university students threw stones at police and set fire to photographs of US President Barack Obama in a fresh protest on Tuesday.

Under new orders, most joint patrols and advisory work with Afghan troops -- the cornerstone of NATO departure plans -- will have to be approved by a regional commander.

Cooperation with smaller units will have to be "evaluated on a case-by-case basis and approved by RC (regional) commanders", ISAF said in a statement.

NATO, which is helping the Afghan government fight a Taliban-led insurgency now in its 11th year, is gradually withdrawing its 112,600 remaining troops.

But as so-called insider attacks have grown, US commanders have gradually acknowledged the assaults pose a serious threat to the war effort and have struggled to stem the problem.

The commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, "has directed all operational commanders to review force protection and tactical activities in the light of the current circumstances", a US military officer in Washington said in an email.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking at a news conference in Beijing, said the attacks were worrisome but that he believed Allen had taken the right approach to counter the problem.

But he insisted the insider assaults would not delay or derail plans to complete a drawdown of troops by the end of 2014 as planned.

The decision came after six ISAF soldiers were shot dead by suspected Afghan police and after the Taliban destroyed six US fighter jets in an unprecedented assault on a major base in the south this weekend.

It was unclear how the new rules for joint patrols might affect the plan to pull out the bulk of NATO combat forces, as some Afghan units are considered ill-prepared to begin operating independently.

Afghanistan police and officials investigate the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on September 18, 2012. A suicide bomber blew himself up alongside a minivan carrying foreigners on a major highway leading to the international airport in the Afghan capital, police said, killing at least 12 people, including nine foreigners.

Map locating Kabul where at least 12 people were killed in a suicide attack on Tuesday

Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah group hold signs during a rally in Beirut to denounce a film mocking Islam on September 17, 2012. An eruption of Muslim anger over a trailer of the American-made film that appeared on the Internet has spread across the world, taking hold in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, the West Bank, the Philippines and Yemen.

A Pakistani activist from Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, a student wing of the hard line Sunni party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), throws a tear gas shell towards the police near the US consulate during a protest against an anti-Islam movie in Karachi.

Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah addresses thousands of supporters who took to the streets of southern Beirut to denounce a film mocking Islam on September 17, 2012. Nasrallah, who made a rare public appearance, has called for a week of protests across the country over the low-budget, US-made film, describing it as the "worst attack ever on Islam."

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by Sardar Ahmad  Agence-France Presse 
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DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: ISAF Condemns 'Despicable' Suicide-Bomber Attack

Asian Defense News: DTN News - AFGHAN WAR NEWS: ISAF Condemns 'Despicable' Suicide-Bomber Attack

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources ISAF Joint Command News Releases ~ American Forces Press Service
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 14, 2012: The International Security Assistance Force condemned today's "senseless and cowardly" suicide-bomber attack at a wedding in Afghanistan's northern Samangan province that killed at least 19 people, including a member of the country's parliament, and wounded more than 43 others, military officials reported.

A suicide attacker blew himself up at the entrance to a wedding hall in Aybak, the province's capital, officials said, noting the blast killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 43 others.

Ahmad Khan Samangani, a member of the Afghan parliament; Mohammad Khan, the provincial director of the National Directorate of Security; and Lt. Gen. Said Ahmad Samse were among those killed in the attack, officials said.

Regional Command-North is providing medical and surgical assistance to the injured, according to a RC-North news release issued today.

The International Security Assistance Force stated in a release issued today that it "strongly condemns this senseless and cowardly act of insurgent terror that resulted in the murder of innocent civilians. These despicable acts continue to disrupt peace and demonstrate an utter lack of respect for Afghan lives."

"Once again the Taliban have murdered Afghans in cold blood with complete disregard for innocent life or to the sanctity of a wedding," ISAF commander Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen stated in the release. "Their depravity clearly knows no bounds. The disgust of the Afghan people for these criminals only continues to grow.

"ISAF continues to stand with the noble people of Afghanistan and we offer our assistance in solving this crime," Allen continued. "I offer my sincerest condolences and prayers to the family and friends who are suffering from the loss of their loved ones."

ISAF "remains committed to stopping acts of terror together with Afghan National Security Forces in order to build a secure environment that promotes lasting peace and a secure way of life for the Afghan people," the command's release said.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources ISAF Joint Command News Releases ~ American Forces Press Service
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