Archives for August 2009

500 Afghan troops and US Marines on Wednesday morning launched an assault on the long-time Taliban stronghold of Dahaneh in the southern Helmand province. They faced heavy resistance, though mostly from light arms, and appear to have taken the city center. They discovered some 60 lbs. of heroin, a chief means whereby the Taliban fund […]

Shabakah-‘i Ittila-Rasani-yi Afghanistan reports in Persian that on Monday, a squad of Taliban briefly took over the main government buildings in Pul-i Alam, the capital of Logar Province just south of Kabul (about 31 miles away). They began with a suicide bombing. Then they fired rocket propelled grenades and rushed the offices of the mayor, […]

Iraq woke up to a bloody Monday morning, with three major bombings that left more than 40 dead according to Middle East Online writing in Arabic. The biggest attack was on the village of Khazna north of Mosul, where two truck bombs killed 25 persons, wounded 70, and leveled 35 houses! This attack was not […]

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of US forces in Afghanistan, admitted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday that the Taliban have gained the upper hand in fighting in Afghanistan. They are deploying small units that combine suicide bombings and ambushes, killing US troops at an unprecedented rate. McChrystal wants an addition 10,000 […]

Pepe Escobar on Iran-Chinese relations and the New Silk Road. this is part 3 of a series at The Real News Network Note also that Iran and China just signed a $3 bn. deal for China to help develop Iran’s refinery capacity in Abadan and the Gulf. China now imports 3.8 million barrels a day […]

In the wake of the death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud in Wednesday, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn writes that a power struggle broke out between two other Mahsud leaders: ‘ According to sources, commanders Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, the two leading contenders for the chief slot, exchanged hot words at the shura meeting […]

Ahead of January’s parliamentary elections, Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq (ISCI) announced that the United Iraqi Alliance will announce five coalition partners next week. They include the Sadr Movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Islah Party of former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, the Badr […]

Sunni Arab guerrillas bombed a Shiite Turkmen mosque in a village outside Mosul on Friday, killing 39 persons and wounding dozens. Other attacks targeted Shiites in Baghdad. On the other hand, the big attack was on a village mosque, a very soft target, and it is unlikely to accomplish any significant political work in Iraq. […]

The leading Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, reports that there “is no doubt” that a US drone strike killed Baitullah Mahsud, the leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The report says that the US shared with Pakistan officials video from the drone that clearly showed that Mahsud’s body had been torn in half by the blast. […]