Monthly Archives: November 2009

Afghanistan

Senate report explores 2001 escape by bin Laden from Afghan mountains


Caucasus

Russia claims it has won peace, but Chechen terrorism is defiantly back


Libya

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed alMegrahi linked to Libya™s chemical weapons




Afghanistan

US aircraft killed 26 Haqqani Network fighters in Khost province. Afghan police killed two Taliban fighters in Faryab province. Afghan and Coalition forces killed one Taliban fighter and detained several more in Wardak and Kandahar provinces. The top German commander in RC-North returned to Germany for “medical treatment.”


Somalia

Pirates attacked a Spanish fishing vessel but private security guards aboard the ship drove them off with gunfire. Puntland Marines have joined the pirates, said Puntland former president Ade Muse Hershe. The top leader of Shabaab, Sheikh Mukhtar Abdirahman Abu Zubeyr, vowed more fighting against Somali government and AMISOM troops. Two clerics were killed by […]


Coalition casualty map masks wider picture of Afghan insurgency

The National Post printed a good graphic on Coalition casualties, by province, throughout Afghanistan, as well as some attack statistics. Some items of note: IED deaths, at more than 250, have increased by more than five times since 2006. The US, Canada, and Britain are shouldering the brunt of the casualties; 84.7% of the deaths […]


Iran

President Ahmedinejad announced Iran will build 10 new nuclear sites to enrich uranium. A top Iranian lawmaker said the country will not give up its “inalienable and legal right” to nuclear power. The parliament called for decreased cooperation with the IAEA.









Somalia

Shabaab seized control of Dhobley, a town near the Kenyan border, with battle wagons and a heavily-armed militia, sending civilians fleeing towards the neighboring country. African Union peacekeeping troops have for the first time revealed that the AU has lost 80 of its soldiers in explosions and gun battles with insurgents since deployment to Somalia […]


Iran

Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric, said Iran will produce its own nuclear fuel if the IAEA agreement collapses. Russia said the Bushehr nuclear plant will come online by the end of the year. Russia purportedly agreed to ship the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.


Russia

Russian officials confirmed a bomb caused the train crash on the Nevsky Express that killed upwards of 39 people and wounded scores more. “Criminal experts say that based on preliminary findings a bomb equivalent to 7kg of TNT was detonated,” the chief of the FSB told Russia’s president.


Afghanistan

Twelve prisoners escaped through a tunnel at a jail in Farah province; Taliban commanders are said to have been among them. A suicide bomber killed three policemen in Farah. The Taliban murdered a Red Crescent leader in Takhar province. Afghan and Coalition forces detained Taliban and Haqqani Network fighters in Logar and Khost, and detained […]


Mali

The French national abducted in Menaka on Wednesday was kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The 61-year-old man, identified as Pierre Camatte, was abducted overnight by armed men from his hotel. Camatte was in Mali conducting antimalarial plant research. The French government has recommended that all French nationals leave northern Mali immediately.


Yemen

Al Qaeda murdered a kidnapped Yemeni security official and released a videotape of his ‘confession.’ “I advise people not to get involved in actions (such as mine) … and not to be drawn into working for American intelligence,” the provincial security official said on the videotape.


Lebanon

The Cabinet has granted Hezbollah the right to take up arms against Israel. “[T]he government underscores Lebanon™s right through its people, army and resistance to liberate or regain [authority] of Shebaa Farms, Kfarshouba hills and the occupied part of Ghajar village and defend the country against any aggression,” a Cabinet policy statement reads.


Pakistan

Security forces killed 15 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan and 15 Lashkar-e-Islam fighters in Khyber, and detained 17 Taliban fighters in Bannu and a suicide bomber in Dera Ismail Khan. The Taliban killed a pro-government tribal leader in Bajaur and captured another in Mohmand.


Iraq

The speaker of parliament said national elections will likely be held in March. Security forces detained six al Qaeda operatives in northern Iraq, Baghdad, and Baqubah, three Promised Day Brigade fighters in Baghdad, and three Hezbollah Brigade operatives in northern Baghdad.





China

India concerned over China, Pakistan military ‘nexus’