Afghan battles kill six police, 32 rebels

THE STANS

Attack destroys six NATO tankers in Pakistan: officials
Suspected Taliban militants planted a bomb in northwest Pakistan that destroyed six tankers supplying fuel to NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said Friday. Around 35 tankers were parked overnight at the Chamkani area, outside Peshawar, when militants placed a bomb under one of the vehicles loaded with diesel, petrol and aviation fuel, police official Asmatullah Khan told AFP. The blast triggered a fire which spread to another five tankers, he said, adding that the blaze was only brought under control by Pakistan air force vehicles after local firefighters failed to tame the flames. "They used a special chemical to extinguish the fire," a security official said on condition of anonymity. The oil tankers, contracted to supply NATO forces, had been parked in an unauthorised area, the official said. Militants have carried out a series of strikes against supplies for US and NATO-led foreign forces fighting against a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The bulk of supplies and equipment required by the foreign troops across the border are shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber. US officials say northwest Pakistan has become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border. Militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan beheaded a Pakistani man and shot dead an Afghan after accusing them of spying for US forces operating across the border in Afghanistan, local officer Muneer Khan told AFP. Their bodies, dumped on the roadside, carried a note warning "this will be the fate of spies." Close to restive North Waziristan where Taliban militants are active, three people were wounded in a blast in the rural town of Havaid, police said. The blast took place at a bunker dug by volunteer tribesmen fighting Taliban militants around 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of the garrison town of Bannu. "We have received a report that there was a bomb blast at one of the bunkers of the local lashkar (volunteer tribal force) and three tribesmen were injured," a local police official told AFP. Extremist attacks in Pakistan, a key US ally, have killed more than 1,700 people across the country since government forces besieged gunmen holed up in a radical mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.

by Staff Writers
Kandahar, Afghanistan (AFP) April 10, 2009
Taliban attackers killed six policemen in southern Afghanistan Friday, the government said, as the US military reported ground battles and air strikes left 32 militants dead.

Afghanistan's vast south is the main battlefield between Taliban insurgents opposed to the Western-backed government who are fighting against the Afghan military and about 70,000 international troops under NATO and US command.

Militants attacked a police post in the southern province of Helmand before dawn, killing six policemen, provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.

Another seven policemen were wounded and in hospital after the battle in the Nawa area outside the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, Ahmadi said.

A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed to reporters that the attack was carried out by his group.

Daud Ahmadi said militants appeared to have struck the police post after a military sweep of three villages in a bid to flush out insurgents overnight.

He said Afghan and foreign troops operating in the same area overnight killed 36 Taliban militants. Officials seized only seven bodies, he said.

The US military released a statement saying its soldiers working with Afghan forces killed 15 militants in the same area Thursday.

It appeared to have been the same incident reported by Daud Ahmadi but this could not be immediately confirmed.

The various forces operating in Afghanistan often give conflicting casualty tolls for the same battles and figures are difficult to confirm independently.

The troops came under attack in the Lashkar Gah area, the US statement said.

"The friendly forces responded with small-arms fire, heavy weapons and close-air support, resulting in the deaths of 15 enemies of Afghanistan," the US military said.

It said a dozen more insurgents were killed in the adjoining Uruzgan province after another attack on an Afghan and coalition patrol.

"The combined force responded with small-arms, rocket-propelled grenade and close-air support fire, killing 12 insurgents," a statement said.

Afghan and coalition forces killed five "combatants" in Kandahar province's Maywand district Thursday, an earlier statement said.

The troops raided a cell "directly linked" to a suicide attack that killed four Afghan civilians and a coalition forces member in January, it said.

The Taliban rose from Kandahar province to sweep into government in Kabul in 1996. They were ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001 that sent many of their leaders and their Al-Qaeda allies into sanctuaries across in Pakistan.

With extremist violence on the rise in both countries, US President Barack Obama last month unveiled a new anti-terror strategy intended to eliminate the threat from Islamic extremists.

He put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda and announced 4,000 more troops to train Afghan forces in addition to an extra 17,000 already committed for the war-torn country.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us Digg Reddit

YahooMyWeb Google Facebook

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

THE STANS

Outside View: Afghanistan flashback?

Manipal, India (UPI) Apr 10, 2009
At the risk of some repetition, it is worth mentioning two facts that seem unknown to policymakers such as U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke. The first is that the Asia of the 21st century is a tad different from that of the 19th; hence dredging up stored wisdom on how European colonial powers handled situations on the continent during that era may not be an entirely accurate guide to sensible policy. (Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO peace chair and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University. Copyright M.D. Nalapat.)

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Charities battle world's woes with technology Hard questions over building safety norms in Italy quake zone Deadly fires, tornadoes rage across US A miraculous rescue and stunned survivors after Italy quake	CLIMATE SCIENCE WHouse may postpone part of emissions plan: report Establishing A Unified Climate Change Language New Greenhouse Gas Identified Australian state eases drought restrictions
EARTH OBSERVATION NASA Goddard Orders Second Instrument For GPM Mission Satellites Show Arctic Literally On Thin Ice Angry British villagers stop Google maps car: report Satellite Snow Maps Help Reindeer Herders Adapt To A Changing Arctic	ENERGY TECH Analysis: Energy prizes spur creativity New, cheaper white light LEDs are created Analysis: Gazprom in Azerbaijan Algae genomes key to regulating carbon emissions: study
EPIDEMICS Evolution-Proof Insecticides May Stall Malaria Forever Toll in China disease outbreak rises to 31 children Minimising The Spread Of Deadly Hendra Virus Ecologists Question Effects Of Climate Change On Infectious Diseases	FLORA AND FAUNA Cooperative Behavior Meshes With Evolutionary Theory Bird Can Read Human Gaze Redefining DNA: Darwin From The Atom Up Permian Extinction Not A Global Event
FROTH AND BUBBLE Bulgarian PM sets up emergency rubbish cell 'Super Sherpa' climbs to clean up Everest Wanted: Mayor for polluted, accident-prone China city Berlusconi opens Naples incinerator	ABOUT US Is There A Seat Of Wisdom In The Brain British woman does 314-foot ocean dive Teeth Of Columbus' Crew Flesh Out Tale Of New World Discovery Americans spend eight hours a day in front of screens

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement