Duke
11-29-2010, 02:44 AM
War news from Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan
MIR ALI, Pakistan • The targets of a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's northwestern militant strongholds appeared to have survived Sunday by quickly abandoning their vehicle after a drone aircraft missed its first shot, local officials said.
It was one of the few reports of anyone surviving one of the escalating barrage of missiles fired by remotely piloted aircraft, which have become a key weapon in the wider U.S.-led war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan.
Local Pakistani television initially reported four people killed in the latest American attack in North Waziristan. However, two Pakistani intelligence officials said that no bodies were found and that all their sources indicated the occupants of the car survived the attack near Hassan Khel village.
Sunday's missile strike was the 13th this month. The U.S. has sharply ramped up its unacknowledged search-and-destroy program, launching more than 110 this year in hopes of killing militant leaders who run terrorist training camps and plot attacks on American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
U.S. troops kill Iraqi civilian • U.S. troops who thought they were under attack killed an Iraqi airport employee Sunday as he drove near a military convoy on his way to work, officials said.
The driver, identified by colleagues as Baghdad International Airport worker Karim Obaid Bardan, failed to heed repeated signals to slow down or turn on his headlights as he neared the military convoy, said U.S. and Iraqi security officials.
The shooting comes a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops would not be needed in Iraq beyond a December 2011 withdrawal deadline already in place between the two nations.
Gunmen kill 3 Afghans • Gunmen firing on a car killed a local government official and two of his relatives on Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack took place as Abdullah Ahmadzai, a member of Logar province's governing council, was driving into the provincial capital of Puli Alam. Ahmadzai's brother and cousin were also killed and a bodyguard was injured, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, a spokesman for the provincial government.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials began an investigation into an attack Saturday in the east that killed 13 policemen. The two suicide attackers disguised themselves as officers and made it through three security gates before detonating their explosives.
Also Sunday, NATO said it captured a Haqqani leader on Thursday in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. He was accused of carrying out remote-controlled roadside bombings
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_9bfd217e-85e2-5f35-827d-4998c316a0ff.html
MIR ALI, Pakistan • The targets of a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's northwestern militant strongholds appeared to have survived Sunday by quickly abandoning their vehicle after a drone aircraft missed its first shot, local officials said.
It was one of the few reports of anyone surviving one of the escalating barrage of missiles fired by remotely piloted aircraft, which have become a key weapon in the wider U.S.-led war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan.
Local Pakistani television initially reported four people killed in the latest American attack in North Waziristan. However, two Pakistani intelligence officials said that no bodies were found and that all their sources indicated the occupants of the car survived the attack near Hassan Khel village.
Sunday's missile strike was the 13th this month. The U.S. has sharply ramped up its unacknowledged search-and-destroy program, launching more than 110 this year in hopes of killing militant leaders who run terrorist training camps and plot attacks on American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
U.S. troops kill Iraqi civilian • U.S. troops who thought they were under attack killed an Iraqi airport employee Sunday as he drove near a military convoy on his way to work, officials said.
The driver, identified by colleagues as Baghdad International Airport worker Karim Obaid Bardan, failed to heed repeated signals to slow down or turn on his headlights as he neared the military convoy, said U.S. and Iraqi security officials.
The shooting comes a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops would not be needed in Iraq beyond a December 2011 withdrawal deadline already in place between the two nations.
Gunmen kill 3 Afghans • Gunmen firing on a car killed a local government official and two of his relatives on Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack took place as Abdullah Ahmadzai, a member of Logar province's governing council, was driving into the provincial capital of Puli Alam. Ahmadzai's brother and cousin were also killed and a bodyguard was injured, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, a spokesman for the provincial government.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials began an investigation into an attack Saturday in the east that killed 13 policemen. The two suicide attackers disguised themselves as officers and made it through three security gates before detonating their explosives.
Also Sunday, NATO said it captured a Haqqani leader on Thursday in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. He was accused of carrying out remote-controlled roadside bombings
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_9bfd217e-85e2-5f35-827d-4998c316a0ff.html