The first stage of the biggest offensive against the Taliban since hostilities began has 'gone to plan', the Ministry of Defence said today.
More than 1,000 British troops took part in Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan alongside Afghan forces.
Major General Gordon Messenger told a press briefing in central London that commanders on the ground were not complacent but were 'very much of the view this has gone according to plan.'
He said some British troops had come under small arms fire, but added: 'Nothing has stopped the mission from progressing.'
Maj Gen Messenger said no artillery had been fired and no bombs dropped in the area where British efforts were focused but an Apache helicopter fired a Hellfire missile at insurgents after members of a Household Cavalry patrol were attacked from distance.
Soldiers from the Royal Welsh Regiment, working with Afghan forces, have uncovered 13 IEDs. Tunnels apparently used by insurgents were also uncovered.
Work had begun building bridges over canals and building up temporary bases in the area.
Troops have also provided security allowing hundreds of elders to attend two Shuras - tribal gatherings - in a town which was the local seat of Taliban government.
Maj Gen Messenger said: 'The Taliban flag has been taken down and replaced with the Afghan flag.'
Cash for work programmes allowing local people to start building up the infrastructure could begin tomorrow.
'What has happened over the last 24/48 hours is the easy bit,' Maj Gen Messenger said.
#1
According to Clausewitz only amateurs see the plan unfold after the first contact with the enemy.
Posted by: Kelly ||
02/14/2010 14:50 Comments ||
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#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > [Colonel Imam] MULLAH OMAR MENTOR SAYS TALIBAN WILL NEVER DE DEFEATED | US-NATO FORCES TRAPPED IN AFGHANISTAN, EVENTUALLY THE WEST WILL TIRE | COLONEL IMAM: THE WEST MUST BEGOTIATE WID TALIBAN INSURGENTS. US-Allies have no choice as in AFGHANISTAN = AFPAK REGION, "THE MORE THEY [Locals, Talibs] ARE DEFEATED, THE MORE THEY EXPAND/WAGE WAR".
So went CHINA, INDIA, MONGOLS, BRITISH, + RUSSIANS, SO WILL GO THE US = US-NATO/WEST???
SHade of WW2's OPER BARBAROSSA > SOVIET ANTS-VS. NAZI-ELEPHANT ANALOGY = the seemingly ominipotent German Nazi Elephant = HITLER'S WERMACHT may originally succeed in killing many 000's or more Soviet Ants at a time, but in LT the Ants will slowly steadily gnaw + grind/eat the Elephant to the bone.
versus
* DAILY TIMES.PK > HILLARY: US IS NOT INTERESTED IN OCCUPYING AFGHANISTAN.
American marines landed by helicopter in a pre-dawn assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, seizing two central shopping bazaars and firing rockets at Taliban fighters who attacked from mud-walled compounds.
As the marines secured their first objective, a jumble of buildings at the centre of the farming town, thousands of soldiers moved in on foot.
Harrier jets called in by the marines fired heavy-calibre machineguns at the Taliban. Fighting continued for hours, according to an embedded correspondent. Cobra gunships unleashed Hellfire missiles into bunkers and tunnels.
By nightfall, marines appeared to be in control of the centre of Marjah, home to about 75,000 people. “The Americans are walking by on the street outside my house,' a bazaar resident said. “They're carrying large bags and guns but they're not fighting any more.' Asked what he thought of their presence, he said: “I have hope for the future.'
Posted by: ed ||
02/14/2010 00:31 ||
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A massive assault force taking on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan claimed its first kills Saturday within hours of launching the biggest operation since US President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge, an Afghan army commander said.
Five militants were killed soon after US-led troops helicoptered into Marjah in the poppy-growing belt of Helmand province, said Sher Mohammad Zazai, commander of the Afghan Army's 205 Corps.
"According to initial reports, five enemy have been killed," he said. "Two were killed in one location, three in another. They were killed in face-to-face fighting," he told reporters by video link from Helmand's capital of Lashkar Gah.
As the assault got under way, a suicide bomber struck in Kandahar city, capital of neighbouring Kandahar province where the insurgency is also raging. His explosives-laden motorbike killed a US solider when he detonated it near a military patrol, an Afghan army officer said.
"There was a suicide bombing near the vehicles of US forces. One US soldier was killed, three others were wounded and an Afghan civilian was killed and four others were wounded," said Captain Abdul Rahman, who was near the site on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
A spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) told AFP: "We are aware of an explosive device in the area and we are investigating."
Chinook helicopters filled the pre-dawn skies over Marjah as 15,000 troops led by US Marines launched the first major offensive since Obama's new troop surge aimed at bringing an end to the eight-year war. Hundreds of Afghan, US and British troops had been dropped into Marjah town for Operation Mushtarak ("together" in Dari), ahead of ground forces, a US Marines officer told AFP.
"At 0230 this morning (2200 GMT), helicopters inserted combined forces into Marjah town," said Lieutenant Josh Diddams, spokesman for the US Marines at Taskforce Leatherneck in Helmand. "We are now moving forward on the ground and meeting minimal resistance."
He confirmed troops had come under fire from Taliban fighters, believed to number 400-1,000, who have hunkered down ready for a fight.
Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the assault is being led by three Marines battalions, with about five brigades of Afghan forces, aiming to clear Marjah of Taliban and re-establish government control.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned the troops to do everything possible to avoid harming civilians during the offensive. "The president urges Afghan and foreign military authorities to continue to consult the local people, fully coordinate their actions and to avoid using air power in areas where civilians can be at risk," a statement from his office said.
General Muhaiuddin Ghori, Afghan army commander in Helmand, told AFP his troops had come under fire from militants both inside and outside Marjah township, home to 80,000 people in the central Helmand River valley.
Helmand's Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal, speaking on a video link from Lashkar Gah, told reporters: "Where there was resistance it has been eliminated."
The troops, dropped into Marjah from 60 helicopters, had taken 11 strategic areas, he said, adding: "There are a lot of mines in the area, and they are being defused as troops detect them."
Mushtarak is the first phase of a major operation to re-establish Afghan government control over the region.
The Taliban claimed early casualties among the attacking forces, with spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi saying insurgents had engaged US forces in Marjah's main square. "Last night American and foreign forces entered Marjah Loy Charae (Big Square) in the centre of Marjah and we are busy fighting them," he said. "In the first clash we killed six foreign soldiers."
The claim could not be immediately verified. The Taliban habitually exaggerate death tolls.
Six dead is an exaggeration? Of what, two fingers with splinters?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't forget to spread a fungus to kill the poppies.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Yemeni Shi'ite rebels denied an assassination attempt on an Interior Ministry official which took place on Friday, only hours after a ceasefire agreement, Al Jazeera television reported on Saturday.
Yemen's government and rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi agreed late on Thursday to a truce that began a few hours later at midnight (2100 GMT).
Interior Minister undersecretary Mohammed al-Qawsi, whose car was shot at on Friday in the northern city of Saada, said shortly after the attack that minor violations had occurred because not everyone was aware of the ceasefire, but that the deal still held.
A soldier was also killed by rebels on Friday.
No further details of the assassination denial were given by the television station on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Calm prevailed in northern Yemen on Saturday, the second day of a shaky truce between government forces and Shiite rebels that broke into deadly violence hours after it went into effect, both sides said.
"The situation is calm on all fronts in Saada province," the center of the sic-year old rebellion, said one military source. "But the calm is precarious," said another of the latest in a string of truces over the years that have broken down.
A spokesman for rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi confirmed that there was no fighting, saying the "ceasefire is being respected and the situation is developing positively."
Meanwhile, the rebels said they had pulled out of an occupied airport in the north and were arranging to free their Saudi prisoners, in line the truce agreed with Sanaa.
"Today, we carried out our withdrawal from the perimeter of the airport of (the city of) Saada, where a plane will land for the first time" since August, rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam told AFP.
He said the insurgents also had began to dismantle roadblocks in the north and were on the verge of freeing Saudi prisoners captured in border clashes that began last November.
Salam said "measures are underway to hand over the Saudi prisoners to a mediator, Ali Nasser Kersha," a tribal official from the northern province of Saada.
A ceasefire in the government's latest six-month campaign to crush the rebellion went into effect at midnight (21:00 GMT) on Thursday.
Only hours later Yemen's army accused the rebels of breaking the truce, saying they had killed four soldiers in a string of attacks.
On Saturday, however, the rebel spokesman downplayed those incidents, saying "those were minimal violations that it is possible to overcome."
For his part, Sultan Barakani, parliamentary chief of the ruling General People's Congress, said the "authorities are concerned with restoring peace in Saada and will not tolerate impediments to the process that began with the ceasefire."
The six-point truce requires the rebels to reopen three major routes in the first stage of implementation: the road between Saada, Harf Sufian and the capital, Sanaa; the road from Saada west to Malahidh and the road from Saada east to al-Jawf.
It also calls for a rebel withdrawal from government buildings, the return of weapons seized from security forces, the release of all prisoners including Saudis, handover of captured army posts, and a pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis joined the fighting in November after accusing the rebels of killing a border guard and occupying two small villages.
Saudi ground troops and aircraft repeatedly engaged the rebels in operations the rebels said continued even after their fighters had withdrawn from all Saudi territory they occupied during the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday arrested at least 133 more cadres of Jamaat-e-Islami and its associated student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir in the ongoing countrywide combing operation.
Sources in Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the law enforcers arrested 27 more Shibir activists in the capital. With this, the number of arrestees in Dhaka in the last two days has risen to 88.
In Chittagong University, the law enforcers picked up 24 Shibir men and recovered several books on jihad.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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Prominent FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" on Saturday rejected a request to surrender by Colombia's Armed Forces commander. In a letter, the guerrilla veteran told General Freddy Padilly thanks, but no thanks.
"Mono Jojoy" is commander of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and suspected of being in charge of the guerrillas' hostages. The armed forces, involved in a long-term man hunt for one of the FARC's most prominent commanders, had called on "Mono Jojoy" to surrender.
"Regardless how little we know you, mister Padilla de Leon, in all sincerity, without hatred and resentment and with the respect all revolutionaries have for their opponents, I answer: No, thank you very much, General," the FARC commander was quoted by leftist press agency Anncol.
Instead, the FARC commander vowed to continue the rebels' battle against the State.
"We have fought and we will continue to do so, with courage, dedication and sacrifice to overthrow this rotten system of the oligarchs and construct a different social order, or by reaching agreements to help build a soiety where we all fit."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
From what I've read, the FARC is losing a lot of that "rotten system of the oligarchs" stuff and becoming just another drugs gang. They've taken a lot of serious hits in the past few years.
Missiles fired from a US drone aircraft killed five suspected militants at a training compound in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal belt on Sunday, officials said.
The missiles slammed into a building near the town of Mirali about 25 kilometres east of Miramshah, capital of the insurgency-plagued tribal region of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.
"Two missiles landed on a militant compound in Zor Babar Aidak village near Mirali town," said a security official based in Miranshah.
"The US drone strike killed five people and wounded three others."
A local government official confirmed the strike, and said the targeted compound was used for training insurgents.
And now they've been trained about being at the receiving end of an American missile. Someone should give them a certificate -- like being editor of the Harvard Law Review, it is something few can claim.
Posted by: Chusogum the Scantily Clad3590 ||
02/14/2010 08:39 ||
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#1
"Hellfire catching™ - only the best"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2010 14:37 Comments ||
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A Junior Commissioned Officer was injured as Pakistani troops pounded Indian posts with 15 rockets and opened indiscriminate machine gun fire along the Line of Control in Poonch district in the "biggest" ceasefire violation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistani troops fired 15 under-barrel grenade launcher rockets on five Indian forward defence locations from its eight border posts along the LoC in Krishna Gati sub-sector of Poonch district at around 1815 hours on Saturday night, Brigadier General Staff, 16 Corps, Brig Gurdeep Singh told PTI on Sunday.
It was followed by the heavy firing by machine guns on the forward posts, he said adding "the heavy and indiscriminate firing continued for two hours".
The rockets missed the intended target and exploded near the posts, he said adding that one JCO Subedar P C Thakur of 17 Mahar Regiment was wounded and taken to a hospital.
Indian troops fired from small arms weapons and intermittent exchanges ended early on Sunday, he said.
"It was for the first time such a large number of rockets were fired and also several Pakistani posts were involved in the firing with heavy weapons," Brig Gurdeep said.
"This is biggest ceasefire violation so far. We will lodge a strong protest with our Pakistani counterparts at a flag meeting today," he said.
The aim of the firing by Pakistani troops was to give cover to infiltrating militants, officials said adding, however, that their objective was not successful as all the border posts were alerted.
"Pakistani forward posts were instrumental in facilitating infiltration into Indian Territory," BSF DIG S Sagwan had said earlier.
Information from various security agencies involved in security grid in Jammu and Kashmir has put figure of infiltration attempts at 433 in 2009, which is 91 attempts more than 2008.
As per the police figures, 342 infiltration attempts were made from across the border in 2008, while 2007 and 2006 reported 535 and 573 such attempts along LoC and IB in Jammu and Kashmir, where over 100 militants managed to sneak in.
The BSF had said infiltration attempts along the border is up and measures have been taken by security forces to foil these bids as it is an area of concern at a time when violence has gone down in Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing the Chief Ministers' Conference on Internal Security in New Delhi [ Images ] earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] had said though there has been a marked decline in the number of terrorist incidents from 2008 to 2009 in Jammu and Kashmir, infiltration levels have shown an increase in the same period and "recently there have been some incidents, which are disturbing."
Posted by: john frum ||
02/14/2010 08:06 ||
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#1
India should kill the trainers at the Pak militant camps.
#2
India is going to eventually get tired of playing Pakistan's game, and Pakistan will cease to exist. That will be followed by an Iron Hand occupation until the locals learn to behave. The rest of the world needs to shut up and let it happen. The sooner it does, the sooner most of the 'terrorist' problems of the West will disappear - except in Britain, which is becoming Pakistan-West.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/14/2010 14:19 Comments ||
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#3
Faster, please. Though I think it will not happen unless there is a Pak attack first.
Security agencies are on high-alert across India after a bomb blast killed at least nine people and wounded dozens more in the western city of Pune. At least one foreigner, believed to be a Taiwanese national, is among those killed in what is the first major bomb blast in India since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
The blast ripped through the Germany Bakery, a cafe popular with tourists in the western Indian city of Pune. Eyewitness accounts indicate that the explosion occurred when a waiter opened up a bag which had been left unattended in the cafe.
The Indian government has confirmed it is an act of terrorism, but at this stage it says it is unclear which group was behind it.
Oh, shall we guess?
Although there is widespread speculation it was the work of the Indian Mujahideen - a terrorism group with links to the Pakistani militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. A cell of the Indian Mujahideen is reportedly active in Pune.
Good guess!
"It was a bomb blast," Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai said in New Delhi. "It appears that an unattended package was noticed ... by one of the waiters who apparently went and attempted to open the package when the blast took place."
The German Bakery is only metres from an ashram, or religious retreat, specialising in meditation courses run by a Swiss-based firm Osho International.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Security forces on Saturday arrested five militants belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan during a search operation in Darra Adam Khel, officials told DawnNews.
The five suspects, whose names are being kept secret, were picked up from the Tor Chappar area infested with militants and taken to unknown place for interrogation by the security forces.
Meanwhile, three mortars fired by the militants from the mountains of Darra Adam Khel exploded in the cantonment area without causing any kind of loss.
The bomb disposal squad rushed to the cantonment that had come under attack by the militants and found a rocket which had exploded in an open ground close to the Catholic Church on Mall Road. Despite an intense search carried out by the squad, they could not locate the other two rockets.
Experts said that the mortars had been fired from the Bazid Khel side of Darra Adam Khel adjacent to the mountains of Sheikhan village of Kohat.
Security was put on the high alert after the fresh attacks and military forces busy with the clean-up operation in Darra Adam Khel have been asked to nab terrorists involved in such attacks from the mountains as well.
Furthermore, an important militant commander Sabirullah was arrested from the Kaka Sahib area in District Nowshera on Saturday, police sources said.
"Three bombs and more than 15 kg of explosives, fuses and detonators also recovered," they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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O brave, brave Lions of Islam! Truly, this makes the idea of conversion more resistible than ever.
TALIBAN militants blew up a boys high school in a tribal district of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border today, an official said.
There were no casualties as the school in the village of Qamardin at Safi area of the Mohmand tribal district, 92km in northwest of Peshawar, was closed.
"The school was almost completely destroyed. Taliban planted explosives at five places and blew up most of the rooms," said Maqsood Khan, a senior administrative official in the area.
Islamist militants opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce sharia law.
"This was an act of the Taliban," Mr Khan added. "This is a reaction to the operation we have launched in the area."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Must have run out of girls' schools.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2010 9:25 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Egyptian authorities detonated and collapsed a tunnel in the Yabna area of Rafah on Saturday afternoon.
Witnesses told Ma'an that an explosion was heard on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. Medical sources added that no injuries were reported following the tunnel's detonation.
Last Saturday Egyptian authorities thwarted an attempt smuggle large amounts of ceramics into the Gaza Strip under Rafah, security sources said.
Ceramics?
The smugglers fled the scene before security forces arrived, they said, adding that "the goods were seized and the tunnel was placed under security restrictions before detonating it."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ceramics
Shrapnel that doesn't show up using a metal detector.
Terrorists Suspected militants killed four civilians including a teenage girl in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, while a rebel died in a shootout with security forces, police said Sunday. Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a 44-year-old Buddhist woman and her 14-year-old daughter as they were going to a market in restive Pattani province on Sunday morning, said police. In the same province a terrorist militant gunman killed a Muslim civilian as he sat outside his house with another man and a woman late Saturday. The other two were wounded, police said.
Terrorists Militants in neighbouring Narathiwat Province shot and killed a 44-year-old Muslim man as he was going to a restroom behind his house late Saturday. Meanwhile, around 50 security force members raided a terrorist militant compound in Narathiwat, exchanging fire for around 20 minutes with insurgents on Sunday. One terrorist militant was killed and three were arrested, police said.
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.
The first stage of the biggest offensive against the Taliban since hostilities began has 'gone to plan', the Ministry of Defence said today.
A massive assault force taking on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan claimed its first kills Saturday within hours of launching the biggest operation since US President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge, an Afghan army commander said.
[Bangla Daily Star] Police yesterday arrested at least 133 more cadres of Jamaat-e-Islami and its associated student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir in the ongoing countrywide combing operation.
Prominent FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" on Saturday rejected a request to surrender by Colombia's Armed Forces commander. In a letter, the guerrilla veteran told General Freddy Padilly thanks, but no thanks.
Missiles fired from a US drone aircraft killed five suspected militants at a training compound in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal belt on Sunday, officials said.
[Dawn] Security forces on Saturday arrested five militants belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan during a search operation in Darra Adam Khel, officials told DawnNews.
