THE FORGOTTEN WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

SOLDIER IN POPPY FIELD

News

11/18/13 chinadaily: Blast kills two Afghan children in Zabul Two Afghan children were killed and two people wounded Monday in a blast in the country's southern province of Zabul, said a provincial source. "Two teenage brothers were killed and their father and sister were seriously wounded when their sedan set off an improvised explosive device (IED) in Asghar Qeli area of the provincial capital at early Monday morning," Deputy Provincial Governor Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar told Xinhua.

11/18/13 ToloNews: Two Killed by Roadside Bomb in Kandahar Two civilians were killed and one other injured by a roadside bomb blast in southern Kandahar province early Monday, local officials reported. The incident took place in Arghistan District, when a tractor struck a roadside bomb, said the provincial Governor's spokesman Jawid Faisal.

11/18/13 rferl: Beheaded Afghan Bodies Identified As Police Officers Six bodies found beheaded in southern Afghanistan have been identified as police officers, not laborers. The deputy governor of southern Zabul Province, Mohammed Jan Rasoolyar, said confusion had arisen because the bodies found on November 17 in Kandahar Province were dressed in civilian clothes.

11/18/13 wakht: 4 policemen wounded in Nangarhar explosion At least nine people including four policemen were injured as a bomb went off in eastern Nangarhar province, an officials said Saturday. The blast jolted the capital city, Jalalabad, where, the governor spokesman, Ahmad Zia Abdalzai told Wakht News Agency that five civilians were among the wounded, when the blast took place in Maulawi Khalis Farm, an area at the outskirts of Jalalabad at about 11am.

11/18/13 wakht: 14 IEDs destroyed in Kandahar Afghan National Security Forces found and destroyed 14 roadside bombs during a two-day clearing operation that concluded Nov. 11 in southern province of Kandahar, the alliance said Monday.

11/18/13 AFP: Up to 12,000 Afghan Taliban eliminated in 2013 Up to 12,000 Afghan Taliban fighters have been killed, wounded or captured this year, according to a UN report, which said violence in the wartorn nation was at a three-year high. US-led NATO forces are to withdraw the bulk of their 75,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year after 13 years fighting the Taliban.

11/18/13 KP: 10 Taliban militants killed in Afghan military operations At least 10 Taliban militants were killed during joint military operations by Afghan and coalition security forces in various provinces of Afghanistan, the interior ministry of Afghanistan announced Monday.

11/18/13 Reuters: U.S.-Afghan security pact hits impasse as time runs out Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a provision of a U.S.-Afghan security pact, putting the entire deal in jeopardy just days before the country's elite gather to debate it, a senior Afghan official and a Western diplomat said. The question of whether foreign troops will be able to search Afghan homes after NATO's combat mission ends next year has long been a sticking point of an agreement setting out the terms under which remaining U.S. forces will operate there.

11/17/13 AFP: Afghan senior official escapes suicide attack A senior official in northern Afghanistan escaped a suicide attack Sunday as the bodies of six civilians hanged by the Taliban were found dumped by the roadside in the south, police said. The attacker carrying bombs on his body jumped out of a roadside ditch and ran into the motorcade of Balkh province's deputy governor before detonating the explosives.

11/17/13 AP: International service member was killed by a roadside bomb. NATO said an international service member was killed by a roadside bomb. NATO did not announce the nationality of the service member killed in the south, according to its rules. Most troops serving in southern Afghanistan are from Britain and the United States.

11/17/13 ToloNews: One Killed, Four Injured in Mazar Suicide Attack Local officials of northern Balkh province said on Sunday one civilian was killed and four others, including two police officers, were injured by a suicide bombing in Mazar-e-Sharif. Abdul Rahman Rahimi, the Balkh Provincial Police Chief, reported that the bomber was targeting the convoy of Mohammad Zhir Wahdat, the Deputy Governor of Balkh.

11/17/13 AP: Beheaded bodies of 6 Afghan contractors found in restive southern province Afghan villagers discovered on Sunday the beheaded bodies of six government contractors in the country's insurgency-racked south, the apparent victims of Taliban insurgents who regularly target state projects, officials said. Meanwhile, the death toll from a suicide vehicle bomb attack on the site of a key national council in the capital Kabul has risen to 12, officials said, while NATO said an international service member was killed by a roadside bomb.

11/16/13 Reuters: Blast in Kabul ahead of key assembly on future of U.S. troops A suicide bomber rammed his car on Saturday into an Afghan army vehicle providing security for a compound where Afghanistan's political and tribal elites are due to gather next week to debate a vital security pact with the United States. The attack took place just hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban to take part in the Loya Jirga assembly which convenes on Thursday to decide whether to allow some U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014.