Free Republic

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan reserves the right to appropriately retaliate against unilateral attacks by coalition forces from Afghanistan, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Tariq Majid said on Friday. “Pakistan reserves the right to appropriately retaliate in future,” General Tariq told German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung who called on him at the Joint Staff Headquarters. Condemning the attack by US forces at Angoor Ada, the CJCSC said such cross-border strikes would alienate locals. General Tariq said that Afghanistan was levelling allegations against Pakistan to cover its failures.

For years, the villagers said, Suran Dara served as a safe haven for jihadist fighters — whether from Afghanistan or Pakistan or other countries — giving them aid and shelter and a place to stash their weapons. With the firefight under way, one of Suran Dara’s villagers dashed across the border into Afghanistan carrying a field radio with a long antenna (the villager called it “a Motorola”) to deliver to the Taliban fighters. He never made it. The man with the Motorola was hit by an American bomb. After the fight, wounded Taliban members were carried into Suran Dara for...

It was one of the most daring, dangerous and spectacular operations of the war in Afghanistan. Some 5,000 troops - 3,000 of them British - fought for six days through the heart of Taliban-controlled territory on a mission of utmost humanitarian importance. By the end of the operation, 250 Taliban fighters had been killed yet only one British soldier was injured. Such was the success of the project to restore a hydroelectric dam that the commander of British forces in Afghanistan has called it the 'end of the beginning' of the campaign against the Taliban. The operation was completed on...

The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country. Such disillusionment is widespread in Afghanistan, feeding an insurgency that has killed 195 foreign soldiers so far this year, 105 of them Americans.

During a firefight, Americans called airstrikes on soldiers from Pakistan.The mystery was solved by residents. “When Americans started bombing the Taliban, the Frontier Corps started shooting at the Americans,”.Pakistan's wild, ungoverned tribal areas have become an untouchable base.The survival of Pakistan’s leaders depended on a double game: assuring the US they were vigorously repressing Islamic militants while simultaneously assisting them.It reaps billions in aid to boost the Pakistani economy and military and Islamist proxies.What happens when the bluff no longer works?To great fanfare, the Pakistani military began a decisive offensive to rout the Taliban.A few days into the operation, I...

GHANI KHIEL, Afghanistan - The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country. Such disillusionment is widespread in Afghanistan, feeding an insurgency that has killed 195 foreign soldiers so far this year, 105 of them Americans. "This is our land. We are afraid to send our sons out the door for fear the American...

Pakistan closed the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber tribal agency. The road through the Khyber Pass is NATO's primary supply line into Afghanistan. The government claimed Taliban threats and poor security on the strategic road into Afghanistan forced the closure. The road has been shut down exclusively for NATO traffic. "All Afghanistan-bound supplies for the International Security Assistance Force have been stopped as the [Torkham] highway is vulnerable," the Khyber Agency’s political agent told Daily Times. According to Dawn, the closure only applies to fuel trucks heading to Afghanistan. But trucks carrting supplies other than fuel have been held...

A picture of a Taliban fighter in the uniform of a dead French soldier drew anger in France Wednesday as the army came under new fire over its conduct in an ambush that killed 10 paratroopers in Afghanistan last month.

THE wounding of nine Australian soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Tuesday night is not only the biggest single combat casualty incident since Vietnam. It also tells us important things about the Rudd Government, about the nature of the Australian Army, about the dreadful continuing conflict in Afghanistan and the crippling political crisis in neighbouring Pakistan. On the Rudd Government, the incident shows the steadfastness and commitment of the whole Government to the war on terror, the deployment in Afghanistan and the USalliance. More than 50 Australian soldiers have been wounded in Afghanistan, many seriously, and six have been killed....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2008 – Coalition and Afghan forces killed more than two dozen insurgents while disrupting terrorist cells along the southeastern and southwestern borders of Afghanistan during operations over the past days, military officials reported. Coalition and Afghan forces killed six militants today after being ambushed while conducting a reconnaissance patrol in the Farrah province in southwest Afghanistan, coalition officials said. The insurgents ambushed the patrol from an isolated compound with intense and accurate small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, officials said. Coalition forces responded with ground fire and close air support, killing six militants, they said. Although no...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2008 – Though U.S., coalition and Afghan troops are making steady progress against increasingly active insurgent forces in Afghanistan, it’s time to turn up the heat, a senior U.S. military officer said today. “I believe that more forces are required. And I think that over the next several months we can put them, certainly, to good use,” Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 101 and 101st Airborne Division, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference. Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan have increased 20 to 30 percent from 2007 to now, said...

A magazine photo spread of Taliban fighters posing in the uniforms of 10 French soldiers killed last month has sparked an angry response. One of the pictures in the French magazine Paris Match that has stirred controversy. 1 of 2 The latest edition of Paris Match includes photos of the Taliban fighters and their commander, "Farouki," wearing French uniforms, helmets and using French assault rifles and walkie-talkies. Farouki, aged 30-35, claims in the accompanying story to have led his group in the August 18 ambush which killed 10 French troops and injured a further 21 in the Sarobi District, 40...

MIRAMSHAH: At least six more people have been killed and four injured as another missile strike was lodged by spy plane in Muhammad Khale area of Miramshah on Thursday. According to sources, in Muhammad Khale area, 25 km away from Miramshah, a guided missile fired by spy plane hit Farman Dawar home killing six innocent people including him (Farman) and leaving four seriously injured. Alike missile strike was recorded in the same area in North Waziristan however no loss of life was recorded.

MIRAMSHAH, Sept 4: Five foreigners were killed in a missile attack by a suspected unmanned US plane in the Momadkhel village of North Waziristan on Thursday. Sources said that the drone fired three missiles at a house owned by tribesman Ferman Dawar near the Afghan border at about 4pm. Local people said the plane flew at low altitude over the area. There was an explosion and the house caught fire, the sources said, adding that villagers retrieved five bodies and rescued three injured people from the debris of the house. Their names could not be ascertained, but official sources said...

The government is likely to launch another military action against militants and criminals in the adjacent tribal area of Bara and Darra Adamkhel from where at least 26 newly-recruited police personnel were abducted by some unknown militants a couple of days back, official sources said. Meanwhile, missiles fired from a suspected US drone killed five militants in North Waziristan.

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 4, 2008 – Coalition forces have positively identified five Taliban subcommanders killed during operations over the past month in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province. Qari Nejat, along with four other enemy fighters, was killed during a coalition forces operation in the province’s Nijrab district Aug. 5. Officials said Nejat was a Taliban commander in the Tag Ab valley region, with ties to senior insurgent figures. He was implicated in the July 21 suicide bombing in the Tag Ab bazaar that injured six Afghan nationals, as well as the July 16 kidnapping of three Afghan National Police officers in...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at house in Pakistan's Waziristani tribal region on Thursday, killing four Islamist militants a day after U.S. commandoes killed 20 people in a cross-border assault.

Pakistan has angrily condemned a raid on a tribal region village that officials say killed at least 15 people, including women and children. Islamabad claims that U.S.-led troops used helicopters to fly in from Afghanistan and carry out the attack. If Islamabad's allegations are true, the attack on September 3 would be the first known foreign ground assault against a suspected militant haven in Pakistan's tribal regions. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the National Assembly the raid was a shameful violation of rules of engagement agreed with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. "We will not compromise on any violation of...

A senior U.S. military official has acknowledged that American forces conducted a raid inside Pakistan, in the first known foreign ground assault in the country against a suspected Taliban haven. The Pakistan government condemned an incursion that it said killed at least 15 people. The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

SYDNEY, Australia - Australian special forces in Afghanistan detained four suspected Taliban militants captured in April in pens sometimes used to hold dogs, the defense minister said Tuesday. Many Muslims consider dogs impure and the head of Australia's main Islamic group strongly criticized the actions of the special forces. Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia Amanullah Jayhoon said the reports were troubling but stopped short of criticizing the soldiers. Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon defended the special forces, saying the detainees arrested on April 29 were held in the most secure place available before they were transported to a detention center in...

The US military, with the possible cooperation of the Afghan military, may have conducted a special operations air assault across the border into Taliban-controlled South Waziristan on Wednesday, according to unconfirmed reports from Pakistan. The initial report from a Geo TV correspondent indicated the casualties were taken after US helicopters launched missiles at three homes in the Barmal area of Angorada late at night. The report later changed when the correspondent claimed the helicopters landed and troops dismounted, who then began searching homes. One witness told The Associated Press that "American and Afghan soldiers starting firing" on one family outside...

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 -- At least 20 people were killed in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday after U.S. and Afghan troops crossed from Afghanistan to pursue Taliban insurgents in an early morning attack that marked the first known instance in which U.S. forces conducted an operation on Pakistani soil. The arrival of three U.S. helicopters in the village of Musa Nika, clearly inside the Pakistani border, drew a sharp response from Pakistani officials. "We strongly object to the incursion of ISAF troops on Pakistani territory," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistani military. According to Pakistani military and...

Pakistan's security forces have missed the opportunity to capture al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a senior government official has said. Rehman Malik, the adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on security affairs, said on Monday they also received a report al-Zawahiri's wife had been in the tribal region of Mohmand. Pakistani forces stormed the location but did not find the couple, he said, without indicating when the raid took place. He said al-Zawahri moved between Mohmand and the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktika."We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he's moving in Mohmand and,...

The US military was accused today of having sent a force of commandos across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on a raid in which 20 people were reportedly killed, including women and children. Both Nato and the separate US-led coalition in Afghanistan denied any knowledge of the pre-dawn attack, which local residents said involved both American and Afghan troops backed by helicopter gunships. But it was immediately seen as both undermining sovereignty and presenting a challenge to the coalition govermnet led by Yousuf Raza Gillani, the object of an unsuccessful assassination in Rawalpindi this morning. "It is outrageous," Owais...

15 reportedly killed in US-led Pakistan attack By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD The Associated Press Wednesday, September 3, 2008; 6:41 AM DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Women and children were among 15 people killed in an attack Wednesday involving U.S.-led forces in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, officials and a resident said. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said it had "no information to give" about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops there denied any involvement. The United States and Pakistan, allies in the war on terror, have had tensions...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday summoned the United States Ambassador Anne W Patterson in the Foreign Office here to lodge a protest over Angoor Adda incident.

via translation- Pakistan: 15 people killed in a raid of international forces in Afghanistan PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - At least 15 people, including civilians, were killed Wednesday in the north-west Pakistan in an attack involving helicopters international forces based in Afghanistan, told AFP the heads of security services Pakistani. "Four helicopter gunships have crossed the border and launched the attack," assured AFP one of these sources, who requested anonymity. "Helicopters from Afghanistan were involved," confirmed to AFP Mowaz Khan, a senior official of the administration of the tribal district of South Waziristan where the raid took place in the border village...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2008 – Intense enemy fire justified actions taken by Afghan and U.S. forces during an Aug. 22 engagement in which several civilians and more than 30 Taliban fighters were killed in western Afghanistan, a coalition investigation has concluded. The investigation found that Afghan and U.S. forces began taking fire from Taliban militants as the combined force approached its objective in Azizabad, Herat province, during a planned offensive operation in the pre-dawn hours. The intensity of the enemy fire justified use of well-aimed small-arms fire and close-air support to defend the combined force, investigators concluded, adding...

A major secret British operation to boost the economy in Afghanistan's Helmand province has been completed after a force of 5,000 troops fought for a week to drive a huge dam turbine through Taliban lines. British commanders estimate that more than 200 Taliban were killed as they tried to prevent the convoy of 100 vehicles from getting the machinery to Kajaki hydroelectric dam where it will provide a significant increase in energy for up to two million Afghans. The operation has been described as the biggest of its kind since the Second World War. For the last five days the...

Almost three thousand British troops in southern Afghanistan have successfully transported a huge hydroelectric power turbine through Taleban territory. In one of their biggest operations in Helmand, a convoy of 100 vehicles took five days to move the massive sections of the turbine 180km (112 miles). The $6m (£3.4m) turbine will produce electricity for an extra 1.9m people. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the operation was a reminder of Nato's "fundamental purpose" in Afghanistan. The operation to increase the output of the Kajaki dam in southern Afghanistan is part of a development project which has been planned for two years.

The Pakistani Taliban says it has kidnapped two Chinese telecommunications engineers and two Pakistanis and that abductions will continue until the government stops attacking militants. The two Chinese and a Pakistani driver and guard disappeared near the Afghan border on August 29 as they were returning to a guest house after repairing a telecommunications tower. China is a staunch ally of Pakistan and a major investor and the safety of Chinese nationals is a priority for any Pakistani government. A Taliban spokesman based in the Swat Valley, to the east of Dir, claimed responsibility and said the four were in...

THE detention of Taliban prisoners at a dog-holding facility in Afghanistan has disgusted Muslim leaders in Australia, but the Rudd Government has defended the diggers responsible and the opposition says they should be cut "a bit of slack". Both sides of Parliament today spoke out in support of the soldiers' treatment of the four prisoners, with Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says were suspected of "atrocious" acts. But reports of the incident, which occurred in late April, angered the leadership of Australia's Muslims, who regard dogs as unclean. "I am appalled that Australian soldiers have been implicated with such disgusting treatment...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's army claimed Monday to have routed Taliban militants in a stronghold near the Afghan border but turned up no sign of Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

After weeks of fighting between the Pakistan Army and militants, the declaration of a month-long cease-fire may give the Taliban time to regroup. Pakistan's Taliban might be getting stronger, wreaking havoc along the country's border with Afghanistan, but they are also growing wildly unpopular, inciting their own tribesmen to turn against them. In the latest of a series of incidents, a lashkar, or private army comprised of Pakistani tribesmen, torched the houses of Taliban commanders in Bajaur, near the Afghan border, vowing to fight them until they are expelled, the Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, reports. Tribesmen in Bajaur Agency's...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces have killed more than 220 militants during operations in Afghanistan’s Helmand province since Aug. 25, military officials reported. Attacked repeatedly by militants with small-arms and heavy-weapons fire during multiple engagements, the Afghan and coalition soldiers have responded with small-arms fire, heavy weapons and close-air support, eliminating the militant threats, officials said. Operations in the area have led to the discovery and destruction of multiple weapons caches containing ammonium nitrate, 107 mm rockets, motorcycles, 60 mm mortar rounds, pipe bombs, machine guns, rifles and small-arms ammunition. Several fortified fighting positions also have...

MIRAMSHAH: Eight persons, including six suspected Arab nationals, were killed and as many seriously injured in another missile attack by a US Predator in Ghundai Kalley near Tapi in North Waziristan Agency on Sunday. Residents from Tapi village told 'The News' that a spy plane was seen flying over the village during the attack. "The plane fired two Hellfire missiles on a house where some guests were staying," the residents said, adding, two more houses were also damaged in the air strike. Besides six suspected Arab nationals, the villagers said two locals, including a woman and her minor daughter, were...

The US has targeted an al Qaeda safe house inside Pakistan's tribal areas for the second day in a row. A missile strike hit a home near the town of Miramshah in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. Six people were reported killed in the attack. A woman, a child, and several unidentified "foreigners" were among those killed in the attack. Eight were reported wounded. The North Waziristan strike is the ninth confirmed cross-border strike by the US against al Qaeda and Taliban safe houses in the tribal areas this year, and the third such attack since Aug. 20....

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed more than 220 suspected Taliban militants in strikes in southern Afghanistan last week, the U.S. military said on Monday, the biggest insurgent toll reported in recent weeks. But several residents and a lawmaker said scores of civilians had died in the operation in the Sangin district of Helmand province, the latest allegation of civilian deaths as fighting intensifies across the nation this summer.

The Pakistan government on Saturday announced that it will suspend military operations against the Taliban in the country's north-western tribal areas in view of the holy Islamic month of Ramzan, but warned that any action by the militants would meet with a firm response. Rehman Malik, who functions as the interior minister, said operations against militants by the army and law enforcement agencies would be suspended between August 31 and the second day of the Islamic festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the culmination of Ramzan. "This move should not be considered as a sign of weakness on the part of...

Taliban fighters are trying to strangle Nato's mission in Afghanistan by stepping up attacks on convoys in the Khyber Pass, the perilous mountain trail that carries most supplies into the country.

Cease-Fire by Pakistan in Attacks on Militants By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani military, which has been criticized by the Bush administration as not pushing hard enough against Taliban militants in the country’s tribal areas, has used jet fighters and helicopter gunships in the past three weeks to strike at insurgents pouring over the border to attack American forces in Afghanistan. The air assaults have resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties in Bajaur, an area of the tribal region where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have forged close ties, and have forced the...

At least six people were killed and eight injured on Sunday as a suspected US missile strike targeted a militant hideout in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border, officials said. A single missile hit a house in Tapi village, some 15 kilometres east of Miranshah, the main town in the district of North Waziristan, said a local security official.

Pakistani Taliban will continue attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, rejecting a government announcement it would halt military actions in the northwest, a Taliban spokesman said Sunday. Violence has surged in Pakistan in recent weeks with the military battling Al-Qaeda- and Taliban-linked fighters in three different parts of the northwest. The militants have responded with suicide and remotely detonated bomb attacks on the security forces and civilian targets.

via translation - Pakistan: a missile falls close to the border with Afghanistan, 5 dead PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - At least five people were killed by a missile fired from Afghanistan and seeking a cache of suspected Islamists, in South Waziristan in Pakistan, a tribal area considered a stronghold of Al-Qaeda network, It was learned from official sources Saturday. "A missile apparently fired from across the border struck a complex near Wana, and initial information about 5 people killed", told AFP an official under cover of anonymity.

(CNN) -- An airstrike by Pakistani fighter jets killed more than 30 Taliban fighters, including an alleged high-ranking Taliban commander, a government spokesman said Saturday.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces killed more than two dozen militants and detained two others during two operations in Afghanistan yesterday, military officials reported. Almost a dozen militants were killed and two were detained during a coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Paktika province. Coalition forces searched compounds in the Bermel district, targeting an individual affiliated with militant leaders responsible for the movement of foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Militants engaged coalition forces during their search of the compounds. The forces responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants. In the other operation, Afghan...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces killed more than 100 enemy fighters during combat operations in Afghanistan’s Helmand province over the last three days, military officials reported. Afghan and coalition forces were conducting security patrols related to an ongoing operation in the province when they were attacked multiple times by insurgents using small-arms, rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire, sparking numerous engagements, officials said. The patrols returned fire and called in close-air support. Elsewhere, two militants were detained and one was killed during a coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Paktika province yesterday. Coalition forces searched...

August 28, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Farewell, NATOAmerica's Cold War alliance with Europe has ceased to be a fruitful one. By Victor Davis Hanson When I was growing up in the 1960s, we had a majestic Santa Rosa plum orchard on my family’s farm. The trees were 40 years old and had grown to over 20 feet high. My grandfather would proudly recall how its once-bumper crops of big, sweet plums had helped him survive the Depression and a postwar fall in agricultural prices. But by the 1960s, the towering, verdant trees were more a park than a profitable orchard....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2008 – Coalition and Afghan security forces detained four militants and killed more than a dozen others in separate operations yesterday and Aug. 25, military officials reported. Four militants were detained, including a targeted individual, during a coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Paktika province yesterday. Coalition forces searched a compound in Barmal district, targeting a militant facilitating the movement of foreign fighters and weapons from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Afghan and coalition forces killed several militants during a combat patrol in Sangin district, Helmand province, Aug. 25. The combined force spotted a large number of...

'Scores dead' in Pakistan clashes By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad Pakistani troops have been battling Taleban fighters near the border Pakistan's military says it has killed 47 pro-Taleban militants in separate incidents in the rugged west of the country, bordering Afghanistan. Thirty-seven militants were killed in helicopter-gunship attacks in Bajaur area, an army spokesman told the BBC. The figures cannot be confirmed. Locals in Bajaur told the BBC five people had been killed in the violence. A further 11 militants were killed - and more than 15 hurt - in fighting in South Waziristan, the military said....