War News for Thursday, November 20, 2012

Maine soldier returns home 5 months after attack in Afghanistan

Wounded in Afghanistan: 'I'm just so thankful to be alive'

500 French combat troops exit tense Afghan region


Reported security incidents
#1: Gunmen on Tuesday killed the driver of a NATO supply truck in northwest Pakistan on the Afghan border, officials said. The shooting took place in the Jamrud area of Khyber, one of seven districts in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt where Taliban and Islamist militants are active. “Two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at a NATO truck and killed its driver when a convoy of three trucks was passing,” local government official Asmatullah Wazir told AFP. He said an assistant of the driver was wounded and that the gunmen escaped.

#2: A six-year-old girl was killed while a woman and her nine-year-old son were injured when shells fired by militants from across the Afghan border hit houses in the Charmang area of Bajaur Agency on Monday. The shells hit two houses in Hilal Khel Border village in late afternoon, killing six-year-old Asma and injuring one Haya Bibi and her son Inamullah, said a security force official.

#3: helicopters on Monday pounded militant hideouts in North Waziristan, killing as many as four and injuring several others, according to a private TV channel. According to reports, the gunship attacked militant hideouts in Mir Ali area of the North Waziristan Agency.

#4: A roadside bomb struck a police van in the western Farah province, killing a police officer and injuring two others on Tuesday, an official said. "A roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants on the road leading to Farah airfield was detonated by remote control at 02:05 p.m. local time, leaving a police official dead and injuring two others," deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Ghous Malyar told Xinhua. The blast took place near the airstrip and the person killed in the incident is a Taliban former commander named Noor Mohammad Jan who had recently switched side and joined the government, the official added.

#5: Provincial governor and security chief for southern Helmand province of Afghanistan escaped a life attempt attack in this province, local authorities said. A local security official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the incident took place in Sangin district on Monday. According to reports provincial governor Gen. Mohammad Naim Baloch and provincial security chief Abdul Nabi Elham were on their way to attend a session which was attended by a number of foreign ambassadors along with Zerar Ahmad Muqbil Afghan counter-narcotics minister. This comes as former provincial governor Gulab Mangal escaped militants attack in this district earlier.

#6: In the meantime local officials in Helmand province said at least 2 Afghan police officers and 2 Taliban militants were killed following armed clashes in this province. A spokesman for Helmand governor Farid Ahmad Farang said a four day joint military operation by Afghan police and army has been launched to clear the militants in Nawa district.