ZARANJ, Afghanistan — Shortly after sunrise, an Afghan special operations helicopter descended on two vehicles racing through the empty deserts of southern Afghanistan, traversing what has become a superhighway for smugglers and insurgents. Intelligence showed that the men were transporting a huge cache of drugs and weapons from Helmand Province to Nimruz Province, a hub for all things illegal and a way station on the global opium trail. Hovering above, the troops fired tracer rounds…
Posts published in “Day: February 17, 2016”
Security officials say Operation Shaheen 18 launched against insurgents in Achin District on Saturday has been successfully going on. General Fazal Ahmad Shirzad, Police Chief of Nangarhar and Brigadier General Mohammad Nasim Sangin who is commanding the Afghan National Army in the area said 44 militants have been killed and 18 others wounded in the operation so far. While talking to a press conference in the area on Monday, the operation commanders said that several…
Unknown gunmanUnknown armed men have gunned down a religious scholar in Jalalabad city, capital of eastern Nangarhar province. Spokesperson for the governor of Nangarhar said Mawlawi Ahmad Shah attended a religious class in a mosque in Angor Bagh area yesterday. According to Ataullah Khogyaand, when the religious scholar came out of the mosque he came under armed attack and lost his life. Motive behind the incident is unknown but Khogyani said that security agencies have…
Kabul: A new faction of the Taliban has reportedly emerged in Paktika province of Afghanistan – a faction that claims it will wage war against foreign-funded groups. Mullah Obidullah Hunar is believed to be the leader of newly formed group and claims that Mullah Akhtar Mansour is funded by Pakistani intelligence and therefore they do not recognize him as their leader. The newly emerged Taliban faction said that after this they will conduct Jihad against…
Kabul: Deadly clashes have been erupting between two rival groups of Taliban in central Ghazni province of Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday. The provincial governor said that one group belongs to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour and the other one to Mullah Mohammad Rasoul. According to Mohammad Aman Hamim, the clashes which started in the jurisdiction of Nawa District earlier this morning have so far left 27 militants killed. Head of the Provincial Council of Ghazni…
Kabul: The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said Tuesday that they expect the timeline for direct peace talks with the Taliban to be set by the end of this month. According to the ministry, they hope that the final date for direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban will be set during the fourth quadrilateral meeting between representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, U.S and China which is scheduled for February 23. “The Quadrilateral…
Islamabad: Five days after the mysterious ‘abduction’ of a former Afghan governor from Islamabad, the law enforcement agencies are yet to make a headway into the whereabouts of former Herat governor Fazlullah Wahidi as no group has claimed responsibility or sought ransom, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably. Sources in the government say that after an initial success in the investigation, the law enforcement agencies are now stuck in a rut as no further leads are…
WASHINGTON: Both the United States and Pakistan will attend the sixth meeting of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue with a result-oriented approach, says Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani. The sixth session, which is also the third ministerial review, will be held in Washington on Feb 29. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and US Secretary of State John Kerry will lead their sides at the talks. “This meeting is taking place against the…
Sydney: The Chinese military has deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile system to one of its contested islands in the South China Sea, Fox News reported, citing new civilian satellite imagery. The images from Image Sat International, from last week, appear to show two batteries of eight surface-to-air missile launchers as well as a radar system on Woody Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea. A US Navy destroyer, the USS…
China may have more or less finished the broader steps to restructuring its military. On Feb. 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the inauguration of five new theater commands, replacing China’s seven former military regions. While not the first time China has cut down the number of its military regions and redrawn their borders, this particular reform is the first instance in which the function and role of the military regions have been drastically altered…
The Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline was always a problematic venture, pursued only because an energy-starved nation was desperately looking for avenues to meet its requirements. With most sanctions on Iran having been lifted, the IP pipeline started grabbing headlines once again. However, soon after, the project was nipped in the bud as the US Department of Energy stated that the fate of the pipeline was still to be judged. Pakistan, on several occasions and on different…