Gun battle in Multan – Pakistan police eliminate Sunni militant leader and 13 others

It turned out into a gun battle when police officers tried to transfer Ishaq from a prison in the city of Multan when gunmen ambushed the police convoy transporting him in an attempt to free the militant.
In the ensuing gun battle, Ishaq was killed along with at least 13 of his associates. They included two of his sons and his deputy. Shuja Khanzada, the provincial home minister in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, where the alleged ambush took place, has clarified that six police officers suffered injuries in the shooting.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 29 July 2015.

Pakistani police gunned down Malik Ishaq, one of the most-feared Sunni militant leaders and 13 of his followers. It was a pre-dawn shootout to eliminate the man who is believed to be behind the slaughter of hundreds of the nation's minority Shiites.
He directed the operations of the Taliban- and Al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group and was a man held in awe. It seems the judges were so frightened of him that they hid their faces from him and went to the extent of offering him tea and cookies in court.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Motorcycle riding gunmen attack bus in Karachi, 47 dead, 24 injured

Six unidentified motorcycle riding gunmen attacked a bus in Karachi and left behind at least 47 dead and 24 injured as reported in tribune.com.pk dated 13 May 2015.
The bus belonged to the Ismaili community in Karachi’s Safora Chowrangi area near Dow Medical College. As per initial reports it has been revealed that the motorcyclists used 9mm pistols in the attack.
There weew many women and children in the bus and the gunmen attacked it from all sides.

Witnesses have indicated that although the capacity of the bus was 52, it was overloaded and dozens of people were trying to board it. Majority of them belonged to the Ismaili community.
It seems the assailants also got onto the bus to attack passengers who were inside the bus and left leaflets that had militant content.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but, Taliban splinter groups are known to have bombed several mosques of religious minorities.
(Image courtesy wikimdiacommons.com)

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Taliban ambush kills 22 in Sar-e-Pol north of Kabul

That the Afghan security forces are finding it difficult to come to terms with Taliban insurgency has been revealed yet again when the insurgents have killed at least 22 security force members in an ambush in Sar-e-Pol province north of Kabul in Afghanistan bbc.com.

The ambush early morning that highlights Afghanistan's fragile security structure as NATO gets ready to withdraw all of its combat troops. The ambush happened as security forces were travelling to reinforce their colleagues in another district of Sar-e-Pol.
As per reports, the Taliban attacked from the mountains as the convoy was travelling through Laghman valley - at least 22 insurgents were also killed in the attack. It has also been informed by the Sar-e-Pol provincial governor that several vehicles of the security force were destroyed.

The new government was installed at the end of September and already a civilian was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul while the villagers have hurled accusations at NATO of killing seven civilians, including a nine-year-old child, in an air strike in eastern Paktia province. NATO has described the men killed as "eight armed enemy combatants".
Those were the first people reported killed in air strikes after the new government has taken over.

Obama came in 2008 riding the wave of anti-war sentiment but wars continue in both Iraq and Afghanistan

The way things are shaping up in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is evident that while Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, would be passing off both the Afghanistan war and his new war in Iraq and Syria to his successor theguardian.com.
It may be recalled that in 2010, his vice-president, Joe Biden, had publicly vowed that the US would be “totally out” of Afghanistan “by 2014 but the primary explicit purpose of the latest deal between the US and Afghanistan, known as the Bilateral Security Agreement, would permit the US to continue training Afghanistan’s roughly 350,000 security forces, which the US and NATO have built from scratch.
Under the proposed agreement, the US military would enjoy access to nine major land and airbases, including the massive airfields at Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar, staging areas not only for air operations in Afghanistan but the US drone strikes that continue across the border in tribal Pakistan. The additional bases in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Helmand, Gardez and Shindand would ensure the reach of the US military throughout the whole of Afghanistan.
Moreover, with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) after the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq, the US finds itself in a peculiar situation of rewriting history by returning to Iraq to tackle the menace of the IS while the 13 years of bloody, expensive war in Afghanistan have failed to vanquish the insurgency of the Taliban.

Kabul to sign accord to allow 9800 American soldiers to stay on after 2014

The newly inaugurated Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is expected to sign a vital security deal by virtue of which 9800 American soldiers would continue to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014 foxnews.com.
As understood from the Defense Department, the new president will sign the Bilateral Security Agreement allowing for 9,800 U.S. troops to stay on in Afghanistan after 2014. The president is also expected to sign a NATO Status of Forces Agreement which would allow a small NATO force to stay on as well.
According to the White House, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham will sign the document on behalf of the U.S. president.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has been sworn in as Afghanistan's new president – he replaces Hamid Karzai who was the country's first democratic transfer of power after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.
Incidentally, Karzai had declined to sign the security agreement with the U.S. before relinquishing office.
While delivering his first speech, Ghani Ahmadzai has called upon the Taliban and other militants to join the country's political process and lay down their weapons. He has said that we are tired of war and our message is peace, (but) this doesn't mean we are weak.

Taliban militants storms Ghazni in Afghanistan – behead 15, kill nearly 100

Beheading seems to have become a fashion and, in a fresh round of offensive, hundreds of Taliban militants have launched a violent offensive in Afghanistan news.sky.com – they have beheaded 15 people and killing scores more. As per reports, the Taliban fighters have stormed Ghazni and are believed to be on the brink of capturing the province.
The Taliban fighters far outnumber security forces and local officials are urging the new, power-sharing government to extend help to the embattled security forces in the region so that they can put up a resistance of sorts.
Deputy Governor Ahmadullah Ahmadi has apparently requested for helicopters to evacuate the wounded, but nothing appears to have been done.
In the opinion of the leader of the Hazara minority, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, in order to maintain peace with the Taliban, a strong government is required.
Incidentally, the Gazni province has lost contact with police officers in the district of Ajrestan, after a suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint in the region.
This battle is symbolic of the uphill struggle that Ashraf Ghani, the president-elect of Afghanistan, would be faced with as foreign troops prepare to leave the country in the coming months.

Three killed as Taliban suicide bomber targets NATO convoy near US Embassy in Kabul

A suicide bomber belonging to the Taliban rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy of NATO near the US embassy in Kabul – three people of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed namely, two US and one Polish soldier and at least 13 civilians were wounded theguardian.com.
Moreover, 17 civilian cars were damaged in the explosion which was timed to coincide with the morning rush hour traffic outside the Supreme Court and on a main road leading from the airport to the heavily fortified embassy.
The blast happened on a route that is used on a daily basis by NATO convoys and its effect was felt even at a long distance.
Incidentally, Kabul has been regularly hit by complex Taliban attacks on the airport, luxury hotels, restaurants and foreign compounds. In August, four civilians were killed in a similar attack on a NATO convoy in the city. There were no casualties but it wounded at least 35 bystanders.
As per ISAF, one coalition soldier was shot dead on Monday by a man wearing an Afghan national army uniform and such ‘insider attacks’ have undermined relations between foreign soldiers and the Afghan military. The Afghan military is being trained to take on the Taliban alone after the departure of NATO.
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