Yearly Archives: 2009

Iran

Senior members of parliament opposed the UN nuclear fuel deal. Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi encouraged his supporters to hold rallies on Nov. 4, the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran. A senior Revolutionary Guards general said the “enemy” has failed to open a third front in Iran.


Russia

Eleven Islamist fighters and one policeman were killed during clashes in Chechnya and Dagestan. Among those killed was a regional commander known as Iban who is said to be behind suicide attacks and armed assaults in Argun.


Pakistan

The Army said 33 Taliban fighters and four soldiers were killed during clashes in South Waziristan and that the towns of Kanigoram and Sararogha have been surrounded. Security forces detained seven Islamist extremists in Sargodha and three more in Karachi.


Somalia

Three government soldiers were killed in an IED attack on their convoy in Mogadishu. Tensions between Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have flared in the Tiyeglow district in Bakol. Somali pirates hijacked a Yemeni fishing vessel; one pirate was killed during the hijacking.


Iraq

A suspect in last week’s deadly bombings in Baghdad killed a policeman and a security guard during questioning. Insurgents wounded 23 Iraqis in bombings and mortar attacks in Mosul and Baghdad. Security forces detained 14 wanted men in Karbala and three men behind bombings in Hillah.


Afghanistan

Security forces killed 12 Taliban fighters in Jazjan province. The Taliban killed an ISAF soldier in the South and wounded three policemen in Kandahar. Six suspects, including an imam, were arrested for involvement in the attack on a UN guesthouse in Kabul, and two Taliban fighters were detained in Wardak.


Fighting spreads in Pakistan’s northwest

In Khyber, seven Pakistani troops were killed in an IED attack. In South Waziristan, 21 Taliban fighters and two soldiers were killed as the military closes in on Sararogha. And in Arakzai, 12 Taliban were killed in strikes.




Pakistan

Fourteen Taliban fighters and two soldiers were killed during fighting in South Waziristan. The military claims to be closing in on Saraogha, where Waliur Rehman Mehsud is said to be directing the Taliban’s operations. The Taliban bombed a high school and a medical clinic in Hangu.


Sectarianism and politicization of the Iraqi Army

Iraqi Army recruits undergo basic training in Habbaniyah. Photo by Bill Ardolino. Najim Abed al Jabouri, the former mayor of Tal Afar and a current fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, warns of security forces, including whole Iraqi Army Divisions, maintaining loyalties to different political parties: Both the military and […]


Iraq

Security forces detained 16 wanted men in Basrah and an al Qaeda in Iraq operative near Ramadi. Three civilians were wounded in a bombing in Tal Afar. A US soldier died in a vehicle accident in Baghdad and another died of a non-combat related injury in the South.


Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed are back in business

Protesters at “Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal’s” rally in Lahore fly the Jamaat-ud Dawa flag during a rally in January. While the Pakistani military is moving against the Taliban and al Qaeda in South Waziristan, the al Qaeda-linked, home-grown jihadist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to conduct business as usual. Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front group for Hafiz Saeed’s […]


Taliban blame ‘Blackwater’ for Peshawar bombings

A street is ablaze in the aftermath of the blast in Peshawar. AFP photo. The Taliban have denied involvement in this week’s deadly bombing near a bazaar in Peshawar that has now killed 119 people and wounded 500 more. Instead, Hakeemullah Mehsud said, the US contracting firm “Blackwater” (which changed its name and is now […]


Afghanistan

Police killed 26 Taliban fighters in Ghazni province. US and Afghan security forces killed nine Taliban fighters in Helmand province and detained a “group” of Haqqani Network fighters in Paktia. The Taliban killed eight civilians in an IED attack in Nangarhar province and four civilians in an IED attack in Kandahar province.



Iran

Iran told the IAEA that it will not ship uranium abroad for enrichment. The US Congress approved a new regimen of sanctions for Iran. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani claimed the US was involved in the terrorist attack that killed 40 people, including six Revolutionary Guards commanders.



Pakistan

Security forces killed 11 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan and detained 200 foreigners in Karachi and four Taliban fighters in Dera Ghazi Khan. Soldiers found the passport of a 9/11 plotter as well as the passport of the wife of a senior al Qaeda leader linked to the Madrid 3/11 bombings.





Pakistan

Pakistani Army pressing deeper into mountains in pursuit of insurgents



Somalia

Six Somalis were killed and 15 more were wounded in fighting in Galkao. Yemeni security forces arrested five Somalis thought to be al Qaeda operatives. Pirates hijacked a Thai fishing boat.


Philippine government rejects MILF rescue plan for kidnapped priest


Thailand

Two Buddhist civilians were killed in separate drive-by shootings in Pattani province. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva may offer a degree of autonomy to the insurgency-plagued southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak will meet with Vejjajiva in December to discuss a plan to deal with the southern provinces.


9/11 plotter’s passport found in Waziristan

Said-Bahaji. Little surprise here: South Waziristan is used by al Qaeda operatives who have conducted attacks in the West. Pakistani security forces found the passport of a 9/11 plotter as well as the passport of the wife of a senior al Qaeda leader linked to the Madrid 3/11 bombings. From the Telegraph: A passport belonging […]


Afghanistan

Afghanistan – UN evacuates non-essential staff after deadly attack on Kabul guesthouse


Iraq

Insurgents killed three policemen in Mosul. The Interior Ministry detained 11 officers and 50 policemen after the deadly bombings in Baghdad. Security forces detained 20 wanted men in Basrah, six insurgents in Kirkuk, three al Qaeda operatives in Baghdad, and an al Qaeda bomb coordinator in Ramadi. A suicide bomber was killed in a premature […]