| US wants Taliban, poppy fields targeted | | Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:16:39 PM by Blog57 Team | | The United States wants NATO forces in Afghanistan to launch a major offensive this spring to counter an anticipated spring campaign by the Taliban, and will press NATO, at a meeting of the alliance on Friday, to get directly involved in Afghanistan's controversial poppy-eradication programs. .... | |
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| | | Eighteen Taliban killed by Afghan and NATO forces | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 11:28:37 PM by Blog57 Team | | Soldiers from Charles Company, The Royal Canadian Regiment, drive their Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) through a volatile area in Panjwayi district, Kandahar province, November 09. Afghan soldiers backed by NATO forces and warplanes have killed 18 Taliban militants in a series of clashes in southeastern Afghanistan, the alliance has said. .... | |
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| | | Taliban supporters threaten retaliation for Pakistan bombing | | Posted Wednesday, November 01, 2006 11:20:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | Thousands of pro-Taliban tribesmen threatened to send suicide bombers to attack Pakistani forces and execute people found spying for the Americans in a fiery protest Tuesday denouncing the Pakistani air raid the killed 80 people a day earlier. The rally in Khar, the main town in the tribal Bajur district and close to the village where Monday's missile attack on a religious school took place, drew 20,000 protesters and was the largest of several demonstrations to denounce the raid held across Pakistan. A Pakistani security official said the seminary in the Bajur village of Chingai had been frequented in the past by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and an Egyptian terrorist who was behind August's foiled terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners.... | |
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| | | Taliban to step up attacks against foreign forces: report | | Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 3:06:24 AM by Blog57 Team | | ISLAMABAD, 10/22 - Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar has said that his fighters would step up attacks on foreign forces in the coming months, which will surprise many, local newspaper Daily Times reported on Sunday. "With the grace of Allah the fighting will be increased manifold and it would be much more organized. Our previous predictions about attacks were not incorrect," Daily Times quoted Mulla Omar in his Eid message. "I am confident that the fighting will be a surprise for many. I advise the Mujahideen to maintain unity in their ranks as rift in their ranks affected jihad against the former Soviets," he said. The local newspaper received the two-and-half page Pashtun message which is issued by a Taliban spokesman through email.... | |
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| | | Taliban hits NATO post; soldier and 8 others die | | Posted Saturday, October 14, 2006 3:05:25 PM by Blog57 Team | | A Taliban suicide bomber yesterday rammed an explosives-packed van into a NATO military patrol manned mostly by U.S. troops, killing one NATO soldier and eight Afghan civilians as shrapnel blasted nearby shops. The morning attack on a busy commercial street in Kandahar wounded a NATO soldier and eight more civilians. A dozen shops were wrecked. Vegetables spilled onto a bloodstained Khojuk Baba Road, which was also littered with twisted metal from the bomber's van. A NATO official said the bomber struck a convoy made up primarily of U.S. soldiers. The road where the attack took place is a main thoroughfare used to reach outlying villages from the southern city. Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers. Among the wounded were two children, said Masood Khan, a doctor at a hospital where they were taken.... | |
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| | | Warning Afghans May Side With Taliban | | Posted Tuesday, October 10, 2006 1:02:42 PM by Blog57 Team | | The senior NATO commander in Afghanistan says the majority of Afghans will side with the Taliban if they do not see real improvements in their lives within six months. Lieutenant-General David Richards, the head of the international security force in Afghanistan, says the country is at a tipping point. He says if the West fails to change things for the better, ordinary Afghans might decide that life under the Taleban - however austere and unpleasant - is preferable to further years of fighting. © NewsRoom 2006 .... | |
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| | | Taliban lay plans for Islamic intifada | | Posted Thursday, October 05, 2006 7:06:20 PM by Blog57 Team | | THE PASHTUN HEARTLAND, Pakistan and Afghanistan - With the snows approaching, the Taliban's spring offensive has fallen short of its primary objective of reviving the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, as the country was known under Taliban rule from 1996-2001. Both foreign forces and the Taliban will bunker down until next spring, although the Taliban are expected to continue with suicide missions and some hit-and-run guerrilla activities. The Taliban will take refuge in the mountains that cross the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they will have plenty of time to plan the next stage of their struggle: a countrywide "Islamic Intifada of Afghanistan" calling on all former mujahideen to join the movement to boot out foreign forces from Afghanistan.... | |
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| | | Osama Bin Laden Is Alive, Sky Says, Citing a Taliban Leader | | Posted Wednesday, September 27, 2006 7:04:49 AM by Blog57 Team | | Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A Taliban leader today said Osama bin Laden is alive, after a French newspaper reported that the head of al-Qaeda was dead, Sky News said, citing al-Arabiya television. Further information wasn't immediately available. L'Est Republicain, a newspaper in the eastern French city of Nancy, reported Sept. 23 that Saudi Arabian intelligence officials believed bin Laden died of typhoid in late August in a remote region of Pakistan, citing a secret report from France's DGSE external intelligence service. The Saudi government said Sept. 24 it couldn't confirm the report of bin Laden's death, adding to doubts cast by the U.S. and Pakistani governments. Erroneous reports of bin Laden's death have circulated since the 2001 U.S.... | |
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| | | Taliban insurgents killed in Afghanistan | | Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 7:11:29 PM by Blog57 Team | | Kabul, Aug 31: Two Taliban fighters were killed in a NATO air raid in southern Afghanistan, while two rockets hit capital Kabul overnight but caused no casualties, officials said Thursday.Suspected Taliban fighters attacked the district headquarter of Nawzad in Helmand province Thursday morning with heavy artillery and rocket propelled grenades, the Defence Ministry said. The airstrikes by the NATO-led coalition pushed the militants back from the district, the statement said. Afghan forces found the bodies of two Taliban rebels near the district headquarter.According to the ministry statement no Afghan forces were injured and the exact number of the Taliban insurgents killed would be announced later.Meanwhile, two rockets fired from unknown locations hit the centre of Kabul early Thursday morning, but caused no casualties or damage, Interior Ministry spokesman Yousif Stanikzai said.Kabul has been mainly peaceful compared with the southern provinces where Taliban-led violence has left more than 1,800 people dead since early spring.A series of rocket attacks and bomb blasts against the government and foreign troops in Kabul, however, has raised the fear that the stubborn insurgency has penetrated the country's capital city.... | |
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| | | Daily Standard: The New Taliban | | Posted Monday, August 28, 2006 9:06:56 AM by Blog57 Team | | Several times on this blog I have discussed the Islamic Courts Union's consolidation of power (see, for example, my August 14 and August 17 analysis). Today I have a new article posted at the Daily Standard, entitled "The New Taliban," that examines the ICU's gains in greater detail. An excerpt: AMERICANS AND OTHER WESTERNERS FREQUENTLY have trouble comprehending why they should care about events occurring half a world away in Africa. One reason we should care is that the ICU's expansion may escalate into interstate warfare. Ethiopia views the Islamic militia's rise as a matter of great concern, and has expressed its solidarity with Somalia's transitional government. Ethiopian information minister Berhan Hailu has said, "We will use all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa." Ethiopian troops have reportedly been in Somalia since late July.... | |
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