Five Iraqis were killed and 24 others were wounded in a bombing in Khalis. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in an IED attack in Diyala. A US soldier was killed north of Baghdad. Security forces detained 44 wanted men in Baghdad, and seven more in Mosul.
A Frontier Corps commander and four troops were captured and a military vehicle was attacked. Government bows to demands to implement sharia by March 15 and allow Sufi Mohammed to screen judges.
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A US strike killed 8 people, including Arabs and Uzbeks, in South Waziristan. The Taliban killed four security personnel and 10 civilians, and captured two policemen in attacks in Mohmand, Khyber, and Arakzai. Seven Taliban were killed and 15 were captured in Kohat.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said he would give in to Somali clerics’ demands to impose sharia, or Islamic law, throughout the country. The move is designed to placate the Islamist terror groups. The deputy speaker of parliament also welcomed the calls for sharia.
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The Taliban murdered a cleric in Spin Boldak in Kandahar province and wounded six Afghans in a suicide car bomb attack in Nangarhar province. President Karzai’s call to move elections up to April sparked criticism from his political opposition. The Independent Election Commission and the US are pushing for a vote in August.
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Security forces detained al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq’s finance minister along with five other fighters in Mosul. Iraqi troops killed a ‘gunman’ in Baghdad, and detained five wanted men in Al Kut, four more in Thi Qhar, and eight al Qaeda operatives in Mosul.
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The strike was aimed at a compound in tribal areas controlled by Baitullah Mehsud. Contrary to reports, this is the fifth such attack in Baitullah’s territory since June 2008.
Two senior officers said the Taliban has been defeated in the insurgency-infested tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand. But Taliban leaders remain at large.
The military said the Taliban has ‘lost’ in Bajaur and Mohmand. Sufi Mohammed has demanded the establishment of sharia courts by mid-March, while the government has reversed its decision to distribute weapons there. Three aides of Baitullah Mehsud have been detained in Karachi.
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Security forces detained a man who said he was part of a new terrorist cell called the New Jihad Group. The group is purportedly backed by a prominent Saudi religious figure and sent 21 Bedouin men to fight in Afghanistan.
A street in Tehran was named after Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah’s former military commander who was assassinated in Syria in 2008. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that the US is ‘preparing the ground for a long and permanent presence in Iraq.’
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President Karzai has called for elections to be held on April 21 after the Independent Election Commission moved the date back to August. The interior minister estimated the Taliban to have between 10,000 to 15,000 fighters.
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Three al Qaeda leaders, including the oil minister for the Islamic State of Iraq, were detained in Baqubah. Iraqi forces detained 51 insurgents in Baghdad, five in Dhi Qhar, and two al Qaeda fighters in Mosul. A police chief was was killed and 10 Iraqis were wounded in a bombing in Baghdad.
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President Ahmed has opened negotiations with armed insurgent groups; it is unclear if Shabaab is one of the groups. Shabaab imposed a curfew in Bardhere. The UN is considering a peacekeeping operation in Somalia.
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The Taliban abducted two Frontier Corps troops after a firefight in Khyber. ‘Unknown gunmen’ fired on a bus transporting Shia school children; the driver was killed and two children were wounded, and five more were kidnapped. A large, well-armed Taliban force is present in Karachi, according to a police report.
Up to 15,000 Taliban in Afghanistan – minister