Afghans are bracing for another harsh winter made worse by food shortages and ongoing violence. This year, United Nations officials say attacks on their food convoys are creating an even more difficult situation than in years past. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Kabul.
During this winter the United Nations estimates nearly one million Afghans will depend on U.N. food aid to survive until spring.
The food is transported by U.N. convoys that brave Taliban ambushes and looting by criminal gangs. So far this year there have been 26 attacks on the convoys. Last year there were more than 30. Officials say the attacks this year have been more significant partly because the convoys themselves have grown bigger.
After last summer's drought and this year's global spike in food prices, the World Food Program is providing food aid to more Afghans than it has in the past, and the larger food convoys are increasingly attractive targets.
Daud Sultanzoi is an Afghan lawmaker who heads a committee that oversees rural development. He says the Afghan government should have done more to prepare for winter food shortages to reduce the risk to convoys. "If you prepare in advance, gradual supply to every part of the country would not cause the kind of security problem of large things being moved," said Daud. "So when you're ill-prepared and you need to supply things at the last minute, that causes more problems and this would be one of those situations."
But the worsening security is also affecting aid groups that work with a much lower profile. The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross and Red Moon-Shaped Thingy Crescent says despite having a network of some 20,000 local Afghan volunteers, its activities have become more restricted in the last 18 months. "We nowadays have less access to some of the remote areas where a few years ago we were able to reach without high security concerns," said Graziella Piccolo, a spokeswoman for the group in Kabul.
U.N. World Food Program officials say the attacks inside Afghanistan are only part of their new challenges. About 90 percent of Afghanistan's food aid is trucked through Pakistan, and World Food Program regional director Anthony Banbury says the convoys are also being targeted before reaching Afghanistan. "For the convoys headed to Afghanistan, the attacks have been very well organized, large numbers of attackers. And I do not believe it is common criminality - it is much too organized and significant," said Banbury. "It's an organized militant group."
Most of the attacks occur between the northwestern Pakistani city Peshawar and the Afghan border. Each day trucks transport about 600 tons of food aid along the mountainous road that is a key conduit between Pakistan's southern port Karachi and Kabul.
Banbury says officials are now considering alternate, longer routes: a western one that would go though Iran and northern routes through Tajikistan or Uzbekistan.
Despite this year's difficulties, Banbury says workers have already staged about 80 percent of the anticipated food aid near those people who will need it. "While security is definitely becoming a growing challenge, at the same time, the government and the WFP are successfully meeting that challenge and responding to the needs of more people than we have in the past," added Banbury.
He says the most vulnerable Afghans are not expected to face a food shortage crisis this winter.
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on patrol in violence-wracked southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense says.
The British Ministry said in a statement said that the soldier from the 45 Commando Royal Marines was injured Monday morning on patrol in the Kajaki area of Helmand Province. The statement added that the soldier received medical treatment at the scene but died of his wounds while being taken to a military hospital.
He was the 126th British army soldier to die in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion to oust the Taliban.
Britain has about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, the second-largest contributor of foreign forces in the country after the United States. Many British soldiers are based in Helmand where they are engaged in fierce fighting with resurgent Taliban fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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HT to AOSHQ - I don't remember seeing this here, but if it was, please delete and my apologies. A taste:
In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The insurgents were dug-in around Sewan.
A shout rang out," One Marine is worth 10 insurgents!"
Ten insurgents were sent over the hill; gunfire; no one returned.
A second shout, "One Marine is worth 100 insurgents!"
One hundred insurgents went over the hill; gunfire; no one returned.
A third shout, "One Marine is worth 1000 insurgents!"
A thousand insurgents went over the hill; gunfire, mortars, etc..
One wounded man crawled back to the insurgent leader, "ItÂ’s a trap! There are two Marines!"
#3
Simply amazing.
Stories like this should end any doubt about US forces hiding behind technology to win. Bad Ass.
BP, friend of mine plays those type of games; I don't think I am a slouch at it but it makes me glad I'm in his living room rather than the other end of the line :)
#4
During WWII, on Guadalcanal, a force estimated at 1500 Japanese attacked a machine gun nest manned by five Marines. The Japanese pulled back after a three-hour gun battle, leaving over 500 of their company behind. One Marine survived the attack. Don't mess with Marines!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/25/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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#5
A quick search of Google News shows that the story made a few conservative blogs and a few foreign news publications, but does not appear anywhere in the US mainstream press.
#6
It didn't make the US mainstream press because there was no way to spin this story to make the Marines look like cold blooded killers. The US press has no understanding of true heroes and they certainly don't want to learn. Perhaps when the big O becomes president they will pick up on these stories, since he will be CINC. spit.
#7
It didn't make the mainstream press because this is not news, this is expected behaviour based on what they've seen in Hollywood films. Entirely too many journalists cannot differentiate between such fantasy and reality. Additionally, the story was reported within the military, rather than by trained journalists employed by "respected"* news organizations; as far as they are concerned, there is no way to know that it actually happened... the It only happened if it was reported in the New York Times view of the universe.
Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, a regional maritime group said on Tuesday, a day after sources said the gang holding a Saudi Arabian supertanker were demanding a $15 million ransom.
Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, identified the Yemeni vessel as the MV Amani. Few other details were immediately available.
"We were just informed the Amani had been taken," Mwangura told Reuters from Mombasa. "But it had been out of contact for about four days, so it is not known exactly when it was seized."
Continued on Page 49
#1
And the pirate's business model continues to perform rather well. Better than our stock market, heh. However, there are so many golden eggs in the goose you can get out before you squeeze it to death.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/25/2008 11:14 Comments ||
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#2
Ya know, we have a pretty nice navy. Maybe we should get into this pirate thing. Good money and it's not like the rest of the world will like us any less.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/25/2008 13:32 Comments ||
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#4
Actually, Yemen has been cleaning up its act for the past several years - LOTS of dead Islamofascists in the past 5 years. I really do not understand why the West is tolerating this pissant rerun of the Berber Pirates - last time, it took a junior lt and some Marines to clean it up.
A Sylhet court yesterday placed Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and his three accomplices on a 7-day remand in connection with the Shah AMS Kibria murder case.
Habiganj Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Md Helal Uddin granted their 7-day remand after ASP of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Rafiqul Islam, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, prayed for their 10-day remand.
Mufti Hannan along with his brother Muhib Ullah alias Mofizur Rahman alias Ovi, 30, Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul, 38, and Hafez Syed Nayeem Ahmed alias Arif, 32, were produced before the court amid tight security.
The CID has been conducting a supplementary investigation into the killing of SAMS Kibria.
Sylhet district Awami League (AL) leader Advocate Abdul Mazid Khan filed a murder case and another under the explosives act after former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four others were killed in a grenade attack on an AL rally at Boidder Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.
Senior ASP of CID Munshi Atique, the then IO of the cases, submitted charge sheets of the cases to the court on March 20 the same year against 10 people including vice president of Habiganj district BNP Abdul Quaiyum.
Later, Atique sought permission for conducting further investigation before the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal on March 7 this year.
ASP Rafiqul took charge of investigation after Atique went on retirement four months back.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Around 68 fishermen kidnapped by pirates from different canals of the Sundarbans were released Sunday night in the wake of a combing operation launched by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
BDR sources quoting locals said some 70 fishermen were taken hostage allegedly by Indian pirates from Kachhikata, Kalirchar and Dobeki canals of the forest on November 18 night while they were asleep in their boats.
The pirates later took them to the deep forest and demanded Tk 10 lakh as ransom for their release. They also set a 7-day deadline for payment of the ransom.
Following the kidnap, BDR seven battalion personnel started the combing operation against the pirates to rescue the fishermen. The operation forced the pirates to release the fishermen, BDR sources said.
But the pirates have still kept two fishermen as hostage to realise the ransom demanded by them, locals said.
Major Alamgir, acting commanding officer of the rifles battalion, confirmed the incident and said the drive is going on to rescue other fishermen.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Can we borrow some of these guys and send them to Somalia? Maybe bring along some of their RAB buddies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/25/2008 12:06 Comments ||
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US authorities are seeking the extradition of a Tunisian, already convicted in Belgium for planning attacks, over suspected links to the al-Qaeda network, prosecutors here said.
Nizar Trabelsi has already lodged an appeal to a decision by a Belgian court to approve his extradition, which means a final decision is unlikely for some time. "The Americans think that Nizar Trabelsi is an active al-Qaeda member who was developing activities beyond those he was convicted of in Belgium," Lieve Pellens, the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, told a news conference.
Trabelsi was arrested two days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in Washington and New York. He was sentenced in June 2004 to 10 years in jail for plotting to drive a car bomb into Kleine Brogel, a NATO airbase in northern Belgium where American military personnel work.
Trabelsi, who spent time in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, was also suspected of planning an attack against the US embassy in Paris, although the charges were not pursued during his trial. He openly pledged his allegiance to the al-Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden during the trial.
Pellens said that a grand jury in Washington DC had indicted him on November 16, 2007 for belonging to a criminal organisation with intent to murder US citizens abroad, a crime which carries a life sentence. He is also accused in the United States of having tried to use weapons of mass destruction as well as having provided material and financial support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
A court in the central Belgian city of Nivelles, where Trabelsi is being held, had "for the most part" approved the extradition request on condition that he not be rejudged for acts committed in Belgium, said Pellens.
Trabelsi's appeal the decision would be heard in Brussels in "two to three weeks" and could go all the way to the country's top court, she said. After the courts decide on the legality of Trabelsi's extradition, it is up to Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen to take the political decision as to whether or not to go ahead.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Political authorities of Jamrud teshil, Khyber Agency, on Monday found body of a Sikh hakeem (herbal doctor), who was kidnapped two days ago from Peshawar. Haji Gul Jan, Political Administration line officer in Jamrud tehsil, told Daily Times body of the Sikh hakeem named Balwang Singh had been found in Khawar area of the agency. He said the Sikh was kidnapped from Peshawar two days ago. The political authorities said they had handed over body of to the bereaved family. Singh's killers have not yet been identified. Separately, unidentified armed men kidnapped Muhammad Shoaib, 20, from Safirabad, political administration officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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At least nine worshippers including a woman were injured when a bomb went off in an imambargah in Peshawar's Hussainia Street on Monday.
The bomb was planted on the first floor of the two-storey building, where the caretaker of the imambargah lived. Superintendent of Police Chaudry Ashraf told Daily Times it was low-intensity device weighing three to four kilogrammes and had been placed in a water-cooler in a washroom.
The injured were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital. Doctors said that the victims were in a stable condition. Seven of them had been discharged after first aid and two, including the caretaker Syed Kamal Shah, had been admitted.
Police cordoned off the site after the explosion. Relief work was hampered because the alley was crowded. Windows of nearby houses had been reported damaged.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Interior Adviser Rehman Malik condemned the bombing and ordered a probe.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Jesus H. Christ, don't scare me like that! I thought they blew up a Lamborghini for an instant there!
Fifteen suspected Taliban were killed as troops backed by helicopter gunships targeted hideouts in the Swat valley on Monday.
The regional military spokesman said 11 Taliban were killed in the Mangaltan area of Charbagh tehsil.
Two suspects were killed in the Gashkor area of Khwazakhela. Another two were shot dead in the Chapparyal area in Matta tehsil. Local PPP leader Sirajuddin and a woman councillor were shot dead separately in the troubled valley on Monday, NNI reported.
Five Taliban were killed when troops retaliated to raids on several checkposts in the Pindyali tehsil of Mohmand Agency early on Monday.
Suspected Taliban blew up the Leera Pul checkpost on the Bannu-Mirian road. The post was not manned at the time of the attack. A Halimzai jirga handed over to the political administration 17 of the 30 wanted suspects that the government had asked for on Saturday. They were released on bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Suspected no more.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/25/2008 10:58 Comments ||
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A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks yesterday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said. A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.
In the first attack, a bomb attached to a bus used by the Trade Ministry to ferry employees to work exploded shortly before 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Thirteen ministry employees were killed and three wounded, according to an official with the state-owned Iraqi shopping centres company who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The company is part of the Trade Ministry.
The rush-hour attack happened in a Shia area and the injured were taken to Kindi hospital in Baghdad. The US military said 14 people were killed and four were injured in the 7:20 a.m. blast on the minibus. It said American soldiers assisted Iraqi police in securing the area and treating casualties.
About 45 minutes later, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she stood in line to be searched at a checkpoint near the Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 13, according to an Interior Ministry official who declined to give his name. The US military said the bombing near the Green Zone occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and killed two Iraqi army members and three civilians. One civilian was injured, it said.
The Green Zone houses the US Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.
In a third attack, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol around 10:30 am near Technology University in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four other people, an Iraqi police officer and an official at Ibin al-Nafis hospital said on condition of anonymity. Two police officers were among the injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like a lot of people have let down their guard, thinking the war's over. As long as Sadr draws breath and the Iranians can smuggle in weapons and users, the war will continue. Sounds like Baghdad needs another city-wide "cordon and search".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/25/2008 12:38 Comments ||
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At least 27 soldiers and 120 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as government forces battled their way to the outskirts of the rebels' political headquarters, the defence ministry said yesterday. Heavy fighting raged along three fronts as troops closed in on the town of Kilinochchi, the ministry said.
But it added that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were putting up stiff resistance. "Twenty-seven soldiers have made their ultimate sacrifice for the motherland while 70 others suffered injuries during the battle. A few other soldiers have not been able to join with their units so far," a ministry statement said.
It said intercepted radio transmissions of the Tigers indicated that they had also suffered heavy casualties. "Over 120 LTTE cadres have been killed and 80 others injured in the Kilinochchi area since Sunday morning," the ministry said.
The ministry statement came as the Tigers announced through the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website that 43 government troops had been killed and 70 more were wounded in a confrontation northwest of Kilinochchi. Another 35 soldiers were killed in fighting on Friday and Saturday along the southern defences of Kilinochchi, Tamilnet said.
Sri Lanka's government, which pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce in January, has vowed to take the Tiger political capital and dismantle the LTTE's mini-state. Last week, the military captured the strategically important town of Pooneryn on the northern edge of the mainland and opened a new front to advance on Kilinochchi from the north.
The Tigers tacitly admitted that they had lost vast areas to advancing government forces, and said the current fighting was at a location just eight kilometres (five miles) west of Kilinochchi. "The main battle front was between Uruththirapuram and Kugnchup-paranthan," Tamilnet said. "A pitched battle was fought near the Siva temple at Uruththirapuram."
The Tigers said they had recovered the bodies of eight government troops following heavy fighting on Sunday, but did not give their own casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards arrested a spy network linked to Israeli intelligence who tried to gather information on Iranian nuclear and military programs, the guard's chief said on Monday.
"The intelligence bureau of the Revolutionary Guards Corps has recently discovered a spy network linked with the Israeli Mossad," Mohammad Ali Jafari said on state radio. "This network sought to gather important information from the Guards' military section, the country's nuclear centers and some security officials," he said.
"Very good information as well as equipment that this network were supplied with have been discovered and people will be informed of the evidence in the near future," he said. Jafari did not specify how many people were detained or where and when the group was arrested.
A semi-official news agency, Mehr, said those arrested had confessed that they had received training in Israel for carrying out assassinations and bombings.
Iran's official news agency IRNA also reported on Saturday that a group of four "terrorists" with "Zionist equipment and methods" had been arrested in western Iran and said they were planning to carry out assassinations. It did not say when they were detained.
Iran said on Saturday it had hanged an Iranian telecoms salesman convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel and warned that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I find it hard to believe. If I were going to train Iranians in assassinations and bombings, I would do it in Iraq or Dubai or Djibouti or almost anyplace but Israel proper.
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.
Afghans are bracing for another harsh winter made worse by food shortages and ongoing violence. This year, United Nations officials say attacks on their food convoys are creating an even more difficult situation than in years past. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Kabul. 
A British soldier has been killed in an explosion while on patrol in violence-wracked southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense says. 
A Sylhet court yesterday placed Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and his three accomplices on a 7-day remand in connection with the Shah AMS Kibria murder case.
Around 68 fishermen kidnapped by pirates from different canals of the Sundarbans were released Sunday night in the wake of a combing operation launched by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
US authorities are seeking the extradition of a Tunisian, already convicted in Belgium for planning attacks, over suspected links to the al-Qaeda network, prosecutors here said.
Fifteen suspected Taliban were killed as troops backed by helicopter gunships targeted hideouts in the Swat valley on Monday.
A female suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected Green Zone and a bomb tore through a minibus carrying Iraqi government employees in separate attacks yesterday, killing at least 20 people, Iraqi officials said. A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.
At least 27 soldiers and 120 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed as government forces battled their way to the outskirts of the rebels' political headquarters, the defence ministry said yesterday. Heavy fighting raged along three fronts as troops closed in on the town of Kilinochchi, the ministry said.
