Yearly Archives: 2009

Taliban and AQAM ‘plug and play’

At the Christian Science Monitor, Ben Arnoldy has a must-read article on Saturday’s attack by the Taliban on two joint US-Afghan outposts in Nuristan province. While Ben did interview me for this article and I am quoted in the piece, that isn’t my reason for pointing it out. Ben has a masterful, simple description of […]


Iran

US cutoff of funding to Iran human rights cause signals shift


Afghanistan

UK: Plan to send 500 more troops for Afghanistan amid Dannatt row with No 10



Somalia

The leader of Hizbul Islam, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, called on Shabaab insurgents to agree to a ceasefire and end days of clashes around the southern port of Kismayo. “I am asking our brothers to stop the fighting, which is only useful to the enemy,” Aweys said. The death toll from yesterday™s battle in Jana […]


Iran

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei claimed that Iran’s military advancement is not a threat to foreign nations. Iran’s atomic energy chief announced a new generation of faster centrifuges for enriching uranium at the Qom site. Iran’s central bank claimed success in selling oil for currencies other than the US dollar and hinted at secret talks to […]


Afghanistan

The US military said that more than 100 Taliban fighters were killed in the Oct. 3 battle in Nuristan. Afghan troops killed more than 40 Taliban fighters and three foreign fighters in Nuristan, and three al Qaeda trainers and three Taliban fighters in Herat. The Taliban killed ten killed Afghan soldiers in an IED attack […]


Pakistan

Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for WFP bombing



Algeria

Algerian security forces killed eight suspected Islamist fighters over the weekend. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims to have conducted 29 separate attacks and bombings from early August to late September that are responsible for more than 80 casualties and injuries among Algerian security forces.


Philippines

Abu Sayyaf gunmen attacked military engineers who were repairing a bridge, killing one marine and wounding another in Sulu province. In Cotabato City, insurgents detonated a bomb made from a mortar shell along the side of the highway, causing little damage.



Pakistan

Four Pakistanis and an Iraqi were killed in a suicide attack at the World Food Program compound in Islamabad. Security forces killed eight Taliban fighters in Malakand and detained 30 Afghan imams in Mardan. The Lashkar-i-Islam wounded five Frontier Corps troops in Khyber. Ten TNSM members surrendered in Dir.


Iran

Comment: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is running rings around the West




Iraq

A suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 15 more in an attack at a funeral in Haditha. Insurgents killed a civilian in a bombing in Fallujah, and wounded 10 Kurdish security personnel in a car bomb explosion west of Duhuk. Insurgents also wounded three policemen and seven civilians in attacks in Mosul, Fallujah, and […]





Afghanistan

Afghan troops killed 13 Taliban fighters and captured 20 more in Paktika. Four Taliban fighters were killed during a premature detonation in Farah. The Taliban killed two US soldiers in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan and kidnapped five Afghans in Herat. Kidnappers killed a businessman and two bodyguards in Kabul.


Somalia

At least eight people were killed yesterday after Shabaab attacked Hizbul Islam in Jana Abdala, a Hizbul-controlled village west of Kismayo. Somali insurgents attacked AU peacekeepers in the Jalle Siad base and on Makka al Mukarama road in Mogadishu. Foreign warplanes have been seen flying low over the southern Mogadishu districts of Heliwa and Dayniile, […]



Iran

Tehran will allow the IAEA to inspect the Qom nuclear site on Oct. 25. US lawmakers are pushing for tougher sanctions following the IAEA’s newest report. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei issued a decree replacing top members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.


Hakeemullah is alive

Hakeemullah Mehsud (left), the new leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, is photographed with Waliur Rehman, the new leader of the Taliban in South Waziristan (right), during their meeting with the media in Sararogha in South Waziristan. AP photo. Hakemullah Mehsud, the newly appointed leader of the Movement of the Taliban in […]


Pakistan

Al Qaeda’s diminished role stirs Afghan troop debate



Pakistan

A Taliban leader said Tahir Yuldashev was killed in a Predator airstrike in late August. Security forces killed three Taliban commanders and six fighters in Swat. The military said the peace agreement with Mullah Nazir is still in place. Maulana Fazulur Rehman offered to mediate between the government and the Taliban.


MILF seeks a suspension of Philippine military action in Sulu


Police officer and civilian killed in Thai South