---
Nothing is more unrealistic and brainless than seeing the Americans busy calling on the UN Security council and making concessions to or bribing its members in order to impose sanctions not on Israel, but on Iran for its Uranium enrichment program. While the rogue state of Israel, in breach of 39 UN-Security Council resolutions, refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and is known to develop and stock pile hundreds of nuclear warheads. The American refusal to punish Israel and their insistence on launching wars or imposing sanctions on Muslim countries, are making them losing their friends and allies while their forces in the field are being hammered on a daily basis. Today 09.06.10, major attacks were launched against US and their Pakistani allies in Pakistan. Furthermore, 16 NATO military personnel have died during the last 48 hours in Afghanistan. In Somalia, the Shebab movement started to threaten USraeli interests in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibuti and Yemen. In Iraq, the violence has increased significantly targeting security forces protecting the US occupiers. Turkey has clearly moved away from being a close USraeli ally to a thorn in their side. Feeling the noose tightening around his neck, Mubarak of Egypt pleaded with Joe Biden in Sharm Al-Sheikh on 07.06.10 not to launch further wars against Iran, Syria or Lebanon as the violence will seriously damage US interests in the Middle East and the Arab Gulf. In chasing the Iranian nuclear fleas while forgetting about the Israeli nuclear elephants, the Americans are paying dearly for their double standards. The summer 2010 is still young but the heat already started to burn.
--
Jun 9, 11:12 AM EDT
Copter shot down in Afghanistan; 4 Americans dead
By ROHAN SULLIVAN and RAHIM FAIEZ
Associated Press Writers
AP Photo
AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq
Copter shot down in Afghanistan; 4 Americans dead
Afghans burn pope effigy over proselytizing claims
2 Australian soldiers die in Afghanistan explosion
Russia urges NATO to fight Afghan drug trafficking
NATO says Taliban commander in south killed
Interactives
Afghanistan War's 1,000 U.S. Troop Casualties
AP Photographer Caught in GunFire
WIlling to fight, unable to read
AP journalists wounded in Afghanistan
U.S. troops under attack
Marine allegedly faked injuries to get freebies
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Insurgents shot down a NATO helicopter and killed four American troops in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the military said, in the latest bloodshed ahead of a major operation in the militants' heartland.
The violence came as Afghanistan's ousted intelligence chief warned in an interview with The Associated Press that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's strategy of seeking reconciliation with the Taliban was dangerously flawed.
The deaths, and that of a British soldier killed by an improvised bomb in a separate attack Wednesday, take NATO's toll to 29 deaths in nine days, according to an AP count. The United States, whose some 94,000 troops vastly outnumber the rest of the allies' contributions in Afghanistan, has lost 17 service members since Sunday.
It is part of a spike in violence that comes as U.S. commanders put the final touches on a plan to secure the Taliban's southern heartland of Kandahar, an operation they hope will turn the tide of the nearly nine-year-old war.
United States troops strength has been growing in southern Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's surge strategy to try to bring an end to the nearly 9-year-old insurgency, and commanders have warned that more casualties can be expected.
----
ISLAMABAD: At least eight people were killed and six others sustained injuries when a group of militants attacked a convoy in the federal capital area that was ready to take supplies for Nato forces fighting in Afghanistan.
The Capital City Police with Elite Force and Rangers have cordoned off the area and started a search operation in and around Sang Jani but no arrest was reported till the filing of this report.
Unidentified armed men opened fire at a convoy of over 30 vehicles including trailers carrying supplies and vehicles and tankers carrying oil for the Nato forces in Afghanistan near Sang Jani, a few kilometres short of Taxila on the Grand Trunk (GT) Road at around mid-night on Tuesday.
All the vehicles caught fire and despite all out efforts by the fire fighters rushed to the spot by the Disaster Management Directorate of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Rawalpindi Municipal Authority, the fire could not be brought under control for late.
According to very initial assessment by the Islamabad Police there seems to be at least six assailants who opened fire at these trailers from different directions. A small contingent of the Islamabad Police from Tarnol police station rushed to the spot but were unable to get any closer because of heavy firing by the terrorists who attacked the vehicles when the convey was about to leave the yard where they were loaded during the day.
Inspector General of Islamabad Police Syed Kaleem Imam told Geo news that apparently the terrorists came from Taxila direction, riding on motorbikes and they also had the back-up support. “After attacking the convoy and setting the vehicles on fire these terrorists continued to fire indiscriminately to prevent any rescue and relief operation,” the IGP said.
He also said that the suppliers of Nato had very poor security in goods loading yard, which caused this attack on their supplies. “They had their own security system in place and we (Islamabad Police) were not approached for providing them any protection,” Kaleem Imam said.
Media reported that during the day these oil tankers were filled from the local oil terminal while other supplies, including vehicles and other items, were also loaded on the trailers. It was at around mid-night that this convoy was ready to start heading for Peshawar on way to Torkham to cross into Afghanistan that the terrorists struck.
Eyewitnesses said that at least 15 attackers riding double cabin vehicles and motorcycles and equipped with sophisticated weapons reached the yard at about 12:00 midnight and opened firing at Nato ling wheelers, adding that they were carrying hand grenades and patrol bombs and they hurled patrol bombs at oil tankers and set it on fire one by one.
The police claimed that the terrorists were still in the area and continued shooting at the trailers and oil tankers for over an hour during enflaming the long wheelers. The law enforcing agencies were chasing the terrorists who are scattered in the area and trying to hunt them down.
The police sources told media that among the dead two drivers — Muhammad Aslam belonging to Mianwali and Muhammad Arif (Islamabad) — could be identified while one was unidentified, adding that Irfan Haider son of Ghulam Baqar, among six, was in critical condition.
---
KABUL (AFP) – Thirteen NATO soldiers have been killed in two days in Afghanistan, marking one of the deadliest bouts for the alliance this year as critics warn of increased Taliban momentum.
Seven Americans, two Australians and one French soldier were killed on Monday as they pursued a nearly nine-year war against an insurgent militia that is seeking to overthrow the Western-backed government.
Three more NATO soldiers were killed in the south on Tuesday, two in a bomb attack and a British soldier during a gun battle, said the Ministry of Defence in London and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Furthermore, two foreign contractors, one of them American, were killed in a suicide attack on an Afghan police training centre in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday.
The deaths of 10 NATO soldiers made Monday the deadliest day for foreign troops in Afghanistan since 14 Americans, including 11 US soldiers, died in two helicopter crashes on October 26, 2009.
Of the 13 NATO soldiers killed on Monday and Tuesday, all but the French and Australians were killed in the south, the heartland of the Taliban and the scene of a massive Western military build-up.
The Islamist militia has vowed to unleash a new campaign of attacks on diplomats, lawmakers and foreign forces.
It claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on a meeting last week at which delegates from across Afghanistan's political spectrum backed President Hamid Karzai's plans to give jobs and money to militants who lay down their arms.
Many analysts have dismissed such efforts, pointing out that the Taliban were not invited to the meeting and that escalating violence has caused the deaths of more NATO soldiers in the first five months than in the same period previously.
"The priority in Afghanistan should be improving security and governance," Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy, told AFP.
"The peace jirga has emboldened the Taliban to see that everyone else, including the international community, is trying to buy their favour."
The Taliban, who were overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001, have stepped up their campaign to rid Afghanistan of foreign troops and have spread their influence beyond their traditional stronghold in the south.
Waheed Mujda, a political analyst who was a government official during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, said militants had increased attacks in reaction to the peace discussion.
"Taliban were quite unhappy about the peace jirga discussions and the fact that neither the withdrawal of foreign forces nor amendments to the constitution (to include Islamic law) were discussed," Mujda said.
"So they have intensified their operations because they want to be powerful and be in a better position."
NATO, US and Afghan soldiers are preparing their biggest offensive yet against the Taliban in Kandahar province, with total foreign troop numbers set to peak at 150,000 by August.
Officials said Afghan and foreign forces had killed 37 militants in operations late Monday in Kandahar and the western province of Badghis.
President Barack Obama has ordered a ramping up of the war effort in the hope that the surge will break the back of the insurgency and allow him to start drawing down troops next year.
The US military has warned that casualty tolls will inevitably climb during the increased operations.
According to an AFP tally based on a count kept by the independent website icasualties.org, 248 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year. Last year was the deadliest yet, with 520 killed.
The toll is unwelcome news in Washington and London -- the two biggest contributors of troops -- with voters increasingly weary of casualties in a seemingly endless foreign war.
In London, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States was considering sending reinforcements to help British troops "in the thick" of fighting in Helmand province, which neighbours Kandahar province.
It was unclear if the option reflected setbacks in Helmand or a way to prepare the way for the eventual drawdown of British forces. Gates said any decision lay with the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.
----
The troops died when it took part in a mission to evacuate two British soldiers from the volatile town of Sangin. The casualties, who were on a second helicopter, are in a stable condition after they were evacuated from Forward Operating Base Jackson.
A Nato spokesman said the four died "after their helicopter was brought down by hostile fire" in Helmand province.
Related Articles
*
Barack Obama vows to 'dismantle' al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan
*
How Lord Malloch-Brown changed his story over helicopter shortages in Afghanistan
*
American military colossus arrives in a fleet of helicopters which British lack
*
Shortage of helicopters undermining 'protection' of troops in Afghanistan
*
US marines face a 'hell of a fight' in Helmand surge
*
Military training exercises cut by half due to cost-cutting by MoD
It is believed that the aircraft was shot down by a Taliban team using rocket propelled grenades. An insurgent spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the Taliban fired two rockets to down the helicopter.
It is now the fourth time that a helicopter has been shot down by ground fire over Sangin in the last year. Six Ukrainian contractors were killed when their large Mi26 transport helicopter was destroyed last July, a British Chinook was also damaged beyond repair and an American special forces Blackhawk went down last month.
Using unguided RPGs the Taliban have learnt to defeat the helicopter's sophisticated surface-to-air missile defensive systems.
The American deaths also came on the same day that a British soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales's Regiment, died in an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj district of the province.
The casualties take American military deaths in Afghanistan to 17 since Sunday seen as part of a spike in violence that has included the deadliest day for NATO forces in more than seven months after ten deaths on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment