There is convincing evidence that 60 children and 30 adults were killed in a US air strike in western Afghanistan last Friday, the United Nations says.
The US originally said its planes had killed 30 militants in the attack in the province of Herat. President Karzai sacked two senior Afghan army officers over the incident. The US says Afghan forces led the operation in the district of Shindand. The incident has worsened relations between Mr Karzai and foreign forces.
On Monday the government said it wanted to renegotiate the terms under which US-led forces and Nato-led forces operate in Afghanistan. If confirmed, the Shindand incident is one of the worst cases of foreign forces killing Afghan civilians. The UN investigation was carried out by its Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama).
"Investigations by Unama found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men," the UN's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said in a statement issued on Tuesday. "The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some seven-eight houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. "Local residents were able to confirm the number of casualties, including names, age and gender of the victims."
The UN investigation adds further weight to the Afghan government's own report into the incident. President Karzai's office said on Sunday that "89 of our innocent countrymen, including women and children" died in the incident. Reports say that Afghan soldiers were fighting Taleban militants in the village of Azizabad and called in US air forces for help.
President Karzai subsequently sacked Gen Jalandar Shah Behnam, head of the army in western Afghanistan, and Maj Abdul Jabar, for "neglecting their duties and concealing the facts", indicating that they were partly to blame for the incident. The US has said it is carrying out its own investigation into the attack. An Afghan general said the air strike was launched following intelligence that a Taleban commander, Mullah Siddiq, was presiding over a meeting of militants.
Afghan tribal elders said a bomb was dropped on a large group of mourners at a funeral wake. The issue of civilian casualties has been a constant source of friction between Mr Karzai and international forces.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/26/2008 08:24 ||
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#1
That's "60 young Afghans" as in 60 males, ages 15-21.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/26/2008 10:18 Comments ||
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#2
You don't suppose that the attack was against a Taliban madrassa training these children to be gunmen and suicide bombers? It would be a good place to hold a meeting of Taliban leaders, now wouldn't it. No help, I suppose in identifying any of the adult men.
#3
Considering that to have killed that many children around here you have had to hit a school in session, you are probably right. Also, look at who they interviewed: locals and then TOOK THEIR WORD for who was killed. No gravesites visited.
The UN is pathetic when it comes to reporting.
Anybody want to bet the investigator sent is named Abdul Mohammed?
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
08/26/2008 11:55 Comments ||
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#4
Jame...Nah. 60 young adults. A few Older muslim men. Sounds more like an islamic NAMBLA meeting.
#6
Well, this is starting to stink badly. The long knives are out to sully the reputation of the US and NATO forces. I don't buy the story on its face, but who knows, shit happens in war. Of course not a peep about the talibunnies hiding behind women and children, and it is that that has my BS meter pegged.
Note that we've heard nothing from the US forces. Clearly they are doing their own investigation.
But in the end, if Karzai wants to put the clamps on us, then I say we bug out of that hellhole. It offers no strategic importance other than to be an irritant to Pakistan. And if they want to go all talibunnie again, we just carpet bomb from afar. My sympathy meter is not moving.
#11
This was the statement our side made; unusually early and precise.
The U.S. military disputes the civilian casualty figures and says troops called for airstrikes after a group of wanted militants fired on a joint patrol of coalition and Afghan forces.
"joint patrol" - we had boots on the ground with the Afghan Army unit.
"wanted militants" - the joint patrol was looking for someone specific - this was not a random mission.
"fired on" - the joint patrol did not initiate the action; they were probably getting too close to the wanted militant for his comfort.
U.S. coalition spokesman, First Lieutenant Nathan Perry, told VOA the troops were able to search the compound following the battle to confirm the casualty figures. He says five civilians, who were believed to be related to the militants, were among the 30 people killed in the strike.
Whether it was five or 65 civilian casualties I am confident they were connected with the militants in some close way. And I figure it was closer to five, since I know our guys can count - even if they have to count the feet and assume they can divide by two for the number killed.
"There was already a battlefield assessment of this operation," said the spokesman. "We want to point out that this was an Afghan army operation. Coalition troops were in support of the Afghan operation. And after the operation, those troops on the ground were able to do a battlefield assessment. Not only did they confirm that they killed 25 militants, they also confirmed the main target that they were in pursuit of."
Pretty unequivocal: our guys were there, they confirmed the number of dead and they confirmed they got the target they were after. Now, WHO was this target and why have his allies gone to such lengths to discredit the operation that got him?
Ordinarily I would be willing to accept that we called in air support when attacked from fortified positions and flattened the 7-8 houses claimed, along with the 90 Talifriends or hostages in them. Too bad, so sad. But I would not expect an official spokesman to clearly state that WE counted 25 bad militants and 5 bad civilians killed, and state it BEFORE the Afghan claims of 90 innocent civilians killed, if it was not essentially correct. There is a lot of smoke being blown around this event. Our enemy has found a tactic that works - claim we killed a bunch of innocents (even if we didn't, or if we did because they weren't so innocent, or were being used as human shields, or even were killed by the 'bunnies.) Seems like the whole world is willing to buy that propaganda from them.
A deadly firefight on Monday killed at least 25 people after Sudanese security forces thrust into one of the largest camps for displaced people in Darfur, witnesses and rebels said. Reports of casualties varied wildly and there was no immediate confirmation of numbers from aid workers or UN officials compiling their own statistics.
The violence came just hours before Djibril Bassole, the new international mediator trying to find a political solution to end five years of war in Sudan's western region of Darfur, was to arrive to take up his post.
Good luck, Djibril. Be real careful ...
Witnesses said government forces massed at dawn outside Kalma, a highly charged camp in South Darfur that is home to up to 100,000 people displaced by the conflict and which the authorities have previously wanted to empty.
Adam Mohamed, a community leader in Kalma, said 30 people were killed and 25 wounded in clashes with police before the heavy gunfire subsided. "The government forces still surround the camp. There is no fighting now but tension is high throughout the camp and no one knows where the wounded people have been taken," Mohamed told AFP by telephone.
"This morning security forces surrounded Kalma camp and demanded that every IDP (internally displaced person) leave," said Ahmed Abdel Shafie, a commander in the nebulous rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), from elsehwere in Darfur. "Later, they opened fire on the eastern side of the camp. There were many casualties. Up to now, we have 27 confirmed dead and 75 wounded." Five of the dead are women and two are children, he told AFP.
He accused the government of wanting to disband IDP camps near main towns to isolate victims of the conflict after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir.
Another rebel commander lashed out at African Union and UN peacekeepers, who are struggling to provide security in a region broadly the size of Turkmenistan with just over a third of the 26,000 troops they have been promised. "Government forces killed 25 IDPs. This happened before the eyes of the hybrid force. I urge the international community to protect IDPs," said one commander from the SLA faction commanded by exiled leader Abdul Wahid.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, now that the Olympics are over and the Chinese can take the veil down over Sudan and Darfur I am sure things will get back to normal over there.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/26/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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Dozens of mines have exploded as they were being handed over by Tuareg rebels to the government of Niger. One person was killed and 40 seriously injured when a man accidentally stepped on one of the mines, setting off a chain reaction, officials say.
Among the injured is the governor of the Zinder region where the arms handover was taking place.
The Tuareg rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) last week denied it would end their year-long fight.
The dead man was a government official who had been acting as an intermediary between the government and the rebels, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
One person was killed and 40 seriously injured when a man accidentally stepped on one of the mines, setting off a chain reaction, officials say.
He probably stepped on it as he was finishing his cigarette next to the "Do Not Smoke" warning sign.
I'm sure the governor feels secure, especially now his intermediary is dead.
GUNMEN opened fire on the car of a senior US diplomat in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar today, but she escaped unhurt.
The diplomat, Lynne Tracy, was on her way to her office when a car suddenly appeared and blocked the road in the University Town neighbourhood of Peshawar, local police officer Arshad Khan said. "A man in the intercepting Land Cruiser rolled down the window and opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle, but the diplomat remained unhurt," he said, adding that Ms Tracy was travelling in a bullet-proof vehicle.
The diplomat's driver threw the car into reverse and hit an auto rickshaw, he said, adding that the rickshaw driver sufferd minor injuries. The attackers ran away from fled the scene, Mr Khan said.
Ms Tracy is a top official at the US Consulate in Peshawar, the capital of troubled North West Frontier Province, which has been plagued by militant violence. Officials at the US mission were not immediately available for comment.
Unidentified persons fired more than 50 rockets in Mach in Bolan district, killing six people, including two children and a woman, on Monday. Eleven people were injured in the attack and have been moved to various hospitals of Quetta for treatment. Reports said as many as 50 rockets were fired from the eastern and northern directions of the town soon after the evening prayers. Three wardens of the Mach Central Jail - Abdul Waheed, Karam Shah and Darya Khan -- were also killed in the rocket attack. No group has accepted responsibility for the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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After Swat, militants have started attacking girls' school in the provincial metropolis as they blew up a government girls high school in Badaber on Monday, officials said. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nasirul Mulk Bangash told Daily Times that the militants had planted explosives in the school building, located near Speen Jumat. All the 26 rooms were destroyed along with 16 computers and office record when the militants detonated the explosives, the SSP said. He said it was the first school to be destroyed by the militants in Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Must not allow the slaves females to become educated, they might rebel.
(AKI) - Militants in the Pakistani port city of Karachi set fire to two armoured personnel carriers bound for US forces in Afghanistan, police said on Monday.
Adnkronos International (AKI) recently reported that Islamist militants had threatened to start attacking supplies bound for foreign forces in Afghanistan after the largest-ever shipment of NATO arms and military supplies arrived in the port.
The shipment of NATO arms and military supplies arrived in Karachi in early August and was to be moved through Pakistan to Afghanistan amid growing concern about the threat from militants in the border region.
Five hundred and thirty containers carrying missiles, armoured personnel vehicles, aircraft engines and several other items were ready for shipment.
On Monday around two dozen gunmen reportedly attacked supplies on a truck that had been parked near a main road since 18 August because of a strike by truck drivers over rising fuel prices.
Officials previously told AKI's Pakistani correspondent, Syed Saleem Shahzad, they were concerned about the fate of the supplies, particularly after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf and continuing conflict in the border region.
"The Taliban-led insurgency has now spread all over the NWFP (North-West Frontier Province) and one wonders who is to arrange the safe transit," an official at the Karachi Port Trust told Adnkronos International (AKI) on condition of anonymity.
"Pakistan needs to send them (containers) to Kabul and Kandahar through two routes - one through the Torkham border takes 36 hours from Karachi and the second route to the Chaman border takes around 18 hours from Karachi.
"Both routes are insecure as the Taliban has recently looted and destroyed many container convoys."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It wouldn't be happening if the government didn't want it to happen.
(AKI) - Taliban militants attacked the home of Pakistani Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan in the Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province on Monday, killing his brother, two of his nephews and five guards.
Khan, who was not home at the time, is a member of the ruling Awami National Party in the Shah Dheri area. Khan was elected to the Senate of Pakistan for the first time in 1994 as the youngest ever member of the Upper House of Parliament.
The attack comes after an ongoing offensive against Taliban militants by government security forces in the past few weeks. Pakistani troops said they had killed at least 35 militants at the weekend.
Also on Monday, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik announced a ban on the militant Tehrik-i-Taliban after militants claimed responsibility for a string of attacks and suicide bombings recently. The militant group may have its bank accounts and assets frozen, according to some media reports.
The TTP is headed by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud and is based in the volatile South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan. Mehsud, a member of South Waziristan's Mehsud tribe, has emerged as Pakistan's most feared militant over the past year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI/DAWN) - At least six people, one of them a woman, were killed and 40 others were injured when security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded Taliban militant hideouts in the Swat valley.
According to local sources, four people were killed when helicopter gunships attacked some areas in Kabal, a stronghold of the militants. A canon shell landed in the house of a civilian in the Totano Banda area, killing two people. About 40 more people were injured and houses damaged in the attacks.
Meanwhile, four bullet-riddled bodies with hands tied with rope were found in a ditch in Khareri area of Matta tehsil.
Security forces, meanwhile, relaxed the curfew in Mingora and adjoining areas from 8am to 8pm. But the curfew in troubled areas of Kabal and Charbagh was not relaxed. Local people said they had been facing problems because of non-availability of items of daily use.
Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman for Swat, Muslim Khan, said armed resistance would continue until the enforcement of Sharia or Islamic law in the region.
On Sunday, the funeral of 10 army soldiers killed a day earlier in Kabal area of Swat, was held in Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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A passer-by was injured when two men on a motorcycle tried to hurl a hand grenade inside city police station, but it hit its wall, which boomeranged and fell down on the road here on Monday night, police said.
Citizens took instantly the motorcyclists who hurled the hand grenade before they could manage to flee from the scene and handed them over to city police officials. Name of the injured could not be ascertained who has been shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta for treatment.
City police officials refused to disclose the names of the miscreants who tried to hurl the hand grenade inside the police station. Investigation is in progress. City police station, which is located in heart of the provincial capital, came several times under hand grenade attacks in the past, but no one was arrested in these connections. It is for the first time that citizens held the attackers and handed them over to police.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistani gunship helicopters killed five insurgents while shelling militant hideouts near the Afghan border, officials said on Monday. Helicopters pounded militant bases hours after the main Taliban militant group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was banned and its bank accounts and assets frozen. "Helicopters gunships shelled militant hideouts in several villages in Bajaur Agency, which left five militants killed and 10 injured," a security official said on the condition of anonymity. The government rejected a ceasefire offer by the TTP in Bajaur on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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At least 22 people, including 16 militants, were killed and 30 others injured in fresh clashes between two warring tribes in Kurram Agency, sources said on Monday. The clashes between the Tori and Bangash tribes have been continuing for the last 19 days. Local residents said fighting was spreading to other areas and no efforts were being made to negotiate a ceasefire between the tribes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan on Monday banned the main Taliban militant group behind a wave of suicide attacks in the country that has killed hundreds of people since last year, the interior ministry said. I am taken aback. A ray of common sense? Emanating from Pakistain? Not that I expect it to last, mind you...
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- an umbrella group for the Taliban Islamist militants who have threatened more suicide attacks -- will have its bank accounts and assets frozen. Good idea, since it could also be call "al-Qaeda in Pakistan."
The TTP is headed by Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, based in the lawless South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan. It's so closely allied with al-Qaeda that their children will be hemophilic.
The outfit has been blamed for most of the attacks in which nearly 1,200 people have been killed since July last year. The previous government accused Mehsud of orchestrating the gun and suicide attack which killed former premier Benazir Bhutto last December but he denied involvement. Which proves nothing, or maybe even less than nothing.
The fundamentalist movement has been involved in a wave of suicide attacks targeting security installations to demand an end to an army offensive against militants near the Afghan border. In Islamic circles this is known as "thought." In more civilized locales it's known as "venting mental methane."
It claimed responsibility for the double bombing on the country's main army munitions factory last Thursday that killed 64 people and wounded 70 others. Then they offered a truce...
Pakistan on Sunday rejected a ceasefire offered by Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal region bordering Afghanistan after a two-week military operation left some 500 people dead. Even Mr. Ten Percent has noticed that if they're in charge in NWFP and FATA then the government isn't. Nawaz hasn't caught on, but that's because he thinks he's on the other side. The NWFP government doesn't seem to have caught on yet, or maybe they're just not bright enough to understand the implications of being at war with Afghanistan, NATO, and the U.S.
Bajaur is a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Pakistan's fractious coalition government, which forced U.S. ally president Pervez Musharraf to resign a week ago, is under intense international pressure to tackle al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. U.S. and Afghan officials say the rebels use sanctuaries in the rugged tribal border regions to train, regroup and launch attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
maybe they're just not bright enough to understand the implications of being at war with Afghanistan, NATO, and the U.S.
I think you can add Karzai and the UN to that list, Fred.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/26/2008 10:59 Comments ||
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#2
Great idea ban the main militant group. I guess this makes all the other militant groups legitimate. Real smart move. Now these guys can disband the group and join others.
(AKI) - Iraqi police say that four people were killed and six others were wounded in a car bomb attack in the northwestern city of Tikrit on Tuesday.
The car bomb exploded at a government office in Tikrit. Three of the victims were police. Media reports said the attack was believed to have been aimed at the director of the provincial health office, Hassan Zen al-abdeen who is a member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. He was not in the building at the time of the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 15:06 ||
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BAGHDAD Three blasts killed at least 34 Iraqis on Tuesday, most of them in a suicide car bombing that struck a group of police recruits, officials said. It was one of the highest daily casualty tolls in recent months.
Two of the bombs went off in Diyala province, which has been the site of much of the recent violence and a stronghold of Sunni insurgents.
In the provincial town of Jalula, an assailant drove a car toward a building where new police recruits had assembled, said Col. Ahmed Mahmoud Khalifa, the local police chief.
The car approached the building but was stopped by guards. The driver then detonated the explosives, the chief said. He said 25 people were killed and 40 wounded.
Local police have been forming an emergency response force in the region, with each tribal sheik allowed to send a certain number of recruits. Monday was the last day of recruitment, and applicants came to the police center on Tuesday to check whether they had been accepted, Khalifa said.
After the blast, security forces imposed a curfew on Jalula, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.
Elsewhere in Diyala, a roadside bomb struck a van carrying a Sunni family near the town of Mandali along the Iranian border, said Col. Sarchal Abdul-Karim, a spokesman of Iraqi border guards in the area.
Five members of the family were killed, including two women and two children, the spokesman said. The family was on the way to a religious shrine, the colonel added.
Also Tuesday, a bomb planted in a parked car killed four people and wounded six, including three policemen, in the city of Tikrit north of Baghdad.
The explosion went off during morning rush hour in a central street used by local government officials to go to work, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Tikrit is Saddam Hussein's hometown and has been a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency since the 2003 ouster of the late Iraqi leader. But it has enjoyed relative quiet since violence levels significantly dropped over the past year in much of Iraq.
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq: An MQ-9 Reaper dropped a 500-pound bomb against an anti-Iraqi target Aug. 16 in one of the first weapons engagements for the unmanned aircraft system.
The Reaper began flying combat sorties in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom July 18 and joined the MQ-1 Predator as another UAS patrolling the sky to protect coalition forces. The successful airstrike, which destroyed a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, demonstrates the persistent strike capability that the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing provides commanders on the ground, said Brig. Gen. Brian T. Bishop, the 332nd AEW commander.
"We are here to integrate airpower into joint operations in Iraq, and ensuring we make the most of our unmanned-aerial-system capabilities is just one of many ways we do that," General Bishop said. "With our ability to provide persistent stare and persistent strike, we provide a clear battlefield assessment and quick responses to commanders when they need it."
During an overwatch mission over southeast Iraq, Reaper operators from the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron at Joint Base Balad discovered a suspicious vehicle. The Airmen immediately relayed the information to personnel in a local ground unit, said Lt. Col. Micah Morgan, the 46th ERAS commander. After the suspicious vehicle was confirmed to be a VBIED -- a variant of the No. 1 killer of Americans on the battlefield -- a joint terminal attack controller cleared the Reaper to employ a GBU-12 laser-guided weapon against the vehicle.
"This was a great example of the Reaper's unique capabilities," Colonel Morgan said. "We searched for, found, fixed, targeted and destroyed a target with just one aircraft."
Unmanned aircraft system aircrews' fusion of the warfighting domains of air, space and cyberspace enables them uniquely to share critical information with JTACs and other command and control elements, ensuring that they hit the right target, Colonel Morgan said. "We go to great lengths to avoid unnecessary damage, and the Reaper's unique capabilities allow it to play a key role in our highly disciplined targeting process," he said.
The 46th ERAS flies both Reaper and Predators. Its aircrews directly control all Reaper operations in Iraq and provide launch and recovery for Predator operations. During UAS missions, they can communicate with critical partners worldwide using a mix of radio, telephone and secure Internet systems.
#7
In somewhat UAV-related news, the 8/25 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology has an article about the USAF (again) delaying the retirement of the U2; due, it says, to incomplete integration of UAV assets.
Too bad they fought a losing battle, but long live the Dragon Lady!
(AKI) - Israel released 198 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails on Monday as a sign of goodwill to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The move came ahead of a visit by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The prisoners, all close to completing their sentences, were tagged and then released from Israel's Ofer prison near Jerusalem to the Beituniyya checkpoint near Ramallah, in the West Bank.
Abbas was due to welcome the prisoners at a formal ceremony in the Muqata headquarters in Ramallah.
The Israeli authorities reversed an earlier decision to free another Palestinian, who is considered a 'criminal' rather than a 'security' prisoner, according to Palestinian news agency Maan. Maan did not name the prisoner.
The prisoners to be released include the longest-serving Palestinian inmate, Said al-Atabah, who has been jailed for more than 30 years. Al-Atabah, jailed and sentenced to life in prison in 1977, is a member of the secular political and militant organisation, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Rice is due to arrive in Israel on Monday in a fresh bid to revitalise the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Revitalize the appeasement process, ya say?
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Tok, AK ||
08/26/2008 22:17 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Dozens of mines have exploded as they were being handed over by Tuareg rebels to the government of Niger. One person was killed and 40 seriously injured when a man accidentally stepped on one of the mines, setting off a chain reaction, officials say. 
(AKI) - Taliban militants attacked the home of Pakistani Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan in the Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province on Monday, killing his brother, two of his nephews and five guards. 
(AKI/DAWN) - At least six people, one of them a woman, were killed and 40 others were injured when security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded Taliban militant hideouts in the Swat valley.
A passer-by was injured when two men on a motorcycle tried to hurl a hand grenade inside city police station, but it hit its wall, which boomeranged and fell down on the road here on Monday night, police said.
Pakistani gunship helicopters killed five insurgents while shelling militant hideouts near the Afghan border, officials said on Monday. Helicopters pounded militant bases hours after the main Taliban militant group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was banned and its bank accounts and assets frozen. "Helicopters gunships shelled militant hideouts in several villages in Bajaur Agency, which left five militants killed and 10 injured," a security official said on the condition of anonymity. The government rejected a ceasefire offer by the TTP in Bajaur on Sunday.
At least 22 people, including 16 militants, were killed and 30 others injured in fresh clashes between two warring tribes in Kurram Agency, sources said on Monday. The clashes between the Tori and Bangash tribes have been continuing for the last 19 days. Local residents said fighting was spreading to other areas and no efforts were being made to negotiate a ceasefire between the tribes.
Pakistan on Monday banned the main Taliban militant group behind a wave of suicide attacks in the country that has killed hundreds of people since last year, the interior ministry said. 
(AKI) - Iraqi police say that four people were killed and six others were wounded in a car bomb attack in the northwestern city of Tikrit on Tuesday.
BAGHDAD Three blasts killed at least 34 Iraqis on Tuesday, most of them in a suicide car bombing that struck a group of police recruits, officials said. It was one of the highest daily casualty tolls in recent months.
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq: An MQ-9 Reaper dropped a 500-pound bomb against an anti-Iraqi target Aug. 16 in one of the first weapons engagements for the unmanned aircraft system. 
