The Afghanistan Thread

[LazyLion]

One dead, 21 injured in consular attack in Afghanistan

Taliban militants attacked a US consulate in western Afghanistan Friday, killing an Afghan guard and injuring 21 people including 16 civilians, police said.

"Two attackers detonated their explosives-laden truck at the first entrance of the US consulate at 5:30 am (0100 GMT) in Herat city, injuring four guards of a private security company and two policemen," said Rahmatullah Safi, police chief of Herat province.

"Following the explosion, three others who were in another vehicle opened fire on the guards," Safi told dpa.

"One of the injured guards died due to bleeding," he said.

The three remaining assailants were killed when the police returned fire, he said.

At least 16 civilians were injured by flying glass, according to police.

"The people were sleeping in their houses around the consulate compound and were injured when the strong explosion broke their windows," said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Herat province police.

US Ambassador to Kabul James B Cunningham condemned the attack.

"We are grateful for the quick response of the Afghan and ISAF security forces, who secured the facility and kept our personnel safe," Cunningham was quoted by a statement, referring to the International Security Assistance Force or ISAF.

He also said that "many Afghan civilians were killed in the attack," while police said that only one guard was killed.

"The ISAF helicopters were flying over the area to help security forces if needed," Ahmadi said.

Another police officer said consulate staff were evacuated by helicopter, but Safi denied this, saying the diplomats were safe inside the compound.

Earlier news reports said three security personnel were killed.

The US State Department confirmed the attack, but not the casualties.

"There are no American casualties," the department's deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said. "At this point there may be one wounded contract security member, and there are likely wounded Afghan police, though numbers are unknown."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"A group of martyrdom-seeking mujahideen attacked the US consulate this morning, in which a large number of US troops and local security personnel were killed and parts of the consulate buildings were damaged," the group's spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmad said.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 13 Sep 2013 10:45

 

[LazyLion]

40 Killed as Taliban Forces Retake District

At least 40 Taliban militants were killed when national troops cleared the rebels from a district in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, the governor's office said Thursday.

"In a three-day operation all those areas under the control of insurgents were completely cleared in the district Wednesday and 40 insurgents were killed," it said in a statement.

Afghan forces were erecting security checkpoints in the cleared areas, the statement said.

The Taliban were not immediately available to comment.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 19 Sep 2013 09:16

 

[LazyLion]

Afghan District Governer Defects to Taliban

An Afghan district governor and former senator has defected to the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, an official said Thursday, the highest-ranking defection to the insurgents.

"Qazi Abdul Hai, a former senator, who was recently working as Kohistanat district governor, disappeared on Tuesday and is believed to have joined Taliban in the district," said Abdul Jabbar Haqbin, governor of Sar-e-Pul province.

Hai served as senator from 2004 to 2008 and was then appointed as the governor of his home district.

Haqbin told dpa that Hai was about to be sacked when he quit his job and joined the insurgents.

A Taliban spokesman welcomed the defection, saying Hai was a "great jihad commander."

"This is a big achievement for the mujahideen," said spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

In the north-eastern province of Badakhshan, Taliban killed 10 Afghan policemen and captured 16 others in an ambush on Wednesday.

"A police convoy was ambushed by the Taliban in Wardooj district as they were going to a remote area for a clearance operation," a local official said on condition of anonymity.

Taliban claimed responsibility for the ambush, saying 24 policemen were killed, 30 injured and 12 others were captured.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the movement told dpa that Taliban fighters also seized 15 police vehicles and one tank.

Meanwhile, 40 Taliban militants were killed in a government offensive to clear the rebels from a district in the southern province of Helmand, the governor's office said.

"In a three-day operation all those areas under the control of insurgents were completely cleared in the district Wednesday and 40 insurgents were killed," it said in a statement.

Afghan forces were erecting security checkpoints in the cleared areas, the statement said.

The Taliban were not immediately available to comment.


Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 19 Sep 2013 15:07

 

[LazyLion]

Roadside Bomb kills 2 Nato Troops in Afghanistan

NATO says a roadside bombing has killed two international service members in eastern Afghanistan.

The military alliance says the attack happened on Sunday. NATO confirmed the incident on Monday but did not specify the nationality of the service members.

Many U.S. troops operate in the eastern part of the country.

This incident brings the number of NATO troops killed this month to seven, while 122 have been killed so far this year, 92 of them U.S. soldiers.

On Saturday, three American soldiers were killed by an Afghan wearing a security forces uniform after he turned his weapon against them in Paktia province, another apparent attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies.


Source : Sapa-AP /ss
Date : 23 Sep 2013 08:01

 

[LazyLion]

Afghan man in army uniform kills NATO soldier

An Afghan man wearing an army uniform killed a NATO soldier in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, the military alliance said in a statement.

"The scene of the incident is secure and the suspected gunman has been killed," the NATO statement said. It did not give any further details.

An Afghan official said the incident took place in Paktia.

On Saturday, an attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead three NATO soldiers in Gardez city, the provincial capital of Paktia province.

Last year, more than 60 NATO soldiers and contractors were killed by Afghan security forces in the "green-on-blue" incidents, prompting serious concerns for the coalition.

Meanwhile, four Afghan army soldiers were kidnapped by suspected Taliban insurgents in the northern province of Kunduz.

District governor of Khanabad, Hayatullah Amiri, told dpa that the four soldiers were in civilian clothes and were taken early Thursday from his district.

"Taliban stopped the public bus coming from Taloqan to Kunduz city. They searched for people's identification cards and found four people working for the national army," Amiri said.

It was not clear where the soldiers were taken. The Taliban have not confirmed the incident. # dpa NOTEBOOK * * * * The following information is not for publication ## dpa Contacts - Reporting by: Matin Sarfraz and Subel Bhandari - Editing by: Sean Sampson Tel: +66 2 714 2073;


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 26 Sep 2013 10:22

 

[LazyLion]

Afghan Military faces surge in roadside bombings

Raqam Jan was at home on furlough after two years of fighting for the Afghan army when he stepped out of his house and onto a homemade mine. It had been planted not just to kill him but to send a message to his fellow villagers about the perils of serving in the Afghan security forces.

Recovering from shrapnel wounds to his legs in a military hospital in Gardez, near the border with Pakistan, the 24-year-old private vented his frustration with the Taliban's increasing use of what the U.S. military calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

"Fighting them face-to-face is not a problem for us; our weakness is mines, we have some weakness countering mines," Jan said.

After 12 years of war, roadside bombs are the No. 1 killer, claiming thousands of lives every year. And as foreign troops wind down operations in preparation for their withdrawal in 15 months, insurgents are using an ever larger number of these explosives to assert their grip and recapture territory.

Afghan and coalition military officials say their enemy is resorting to hidden bombs because it can't take on the Afghan security forces in open battle. Now they are equipping Afghan forces with metal detectors and specialized vehicles to clear roads, and running a school for bomb squads.

Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, commander of Afghanistan's 203rd Thunder Corps, said these soldiers and police are neutralizing 90 percent of the IEDs they find.

But while visits to bases around the country have shown the Afghan forces are capable of fighting insurgents in open battle, the Taliban are resorting to fewer but bigger bombs, as well as more suicide attacks.

They are becoming more deadly, using bombs with sophisticated remote control detonators. Their surveillance has improved, according to Afghan and coalition military officials.

On Sept. 7, insurgents used a bomb to blow up a helicopter as it was landing on hill near a main air base in western Herat province, seriously wounding the Afghan pilot and his U.S. army trainer. They apparently had noticed that the helicopter always landed in the same place after a training mission.

"The enemy's only real weapon is the IED," Yaftali said in Gardez recently. "IEDs are the only way they can show their presence. It is the weapon of choice."

The casualty toll among the 350,000 strong Afghan army and police has risen sharply in the months since they took over security responsibility from the U.S.-led coalition - up to 100 are killed each week, according to U.S. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the coalition commander.

Figures for wounded Afghan security forces have not been made public, but numbers as high as 3,000 have been reported so far this year.

Afghan military officials say about 50 percent of the casualties are caused by roadside bombs. At that rate the casualty toll could be double what it was last year.

By comparison, with few if any foreign soldiers on patrol since the handover of security responsibilities, their death toll this year is 126, compared to 302 in the same period of 2012, according to an Associated Press tally.

The U.N. said in the first six months of this year, 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 were wounded, the majority of them by roadside bombs.


Source : Sapa-AP /ss
Date : 03 Oct 2013 08:26

 

[JerryMungo]

I know this thread is out of date but I thought this belonged here too...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/18/us-afghanistan-explosion-idUSBREA0G12P20140118

(Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the heart of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people including three United Nations staff and the International Monetary Fund's top representative in Afghanistan.

Gunmen burst into the Lebanese restaurant spraying diners with bullets after the bomber blew himself up near the entrance around 7:30 p.m. local time on Friday, just as people had sat down for dinner.

Thirteen foreigners were among those killed, according to police, and details about the victims began to trickle through on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department said three U.S. private citizens were killed. Britain and Canada confirmed they each lost two nationals and Denmark said one of its citizens also died.

The American University of Afghanistan said two of its U.S. employees died in the attack on La Taverna du Liban, a popular dining spot whose charismatic owner, Kamal Hamade, was also killed.

"We are devastated by the news," Michael Smith, president of AUAF, said in a statement.

After the initial blast, sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard over the next hour. The two gunmen inside the Lebanese restaurant, located in Kabul's diplomatic enclave, were shot dead by police, an Afghan official said.

took this pic an hour ago outside the restaurant...


Basically the bomber disabled the door (most places here have some sort of heavy security door) and the others ran in and shot patrons.

 

[LazyLion]

Thanks, we have decided to post new incidents as their own threads rather than updating these "country" threads.
But I guess it doesn't really matter either way.

 

[JerryMungo]

Thanks, we have decided to post new incidents as their own threads rather than updating these "country" threads.
But I guess it doesn't really matter either way.

Aah, gotcha. Thanks!