More trouble in Afghanistan

It is obvious now malena that the U.S. does not wield the power that it once had and efforts to create a stable Government and population have failed miserably, get out now, never mind another year. When you think of the lives lost, huge expense and the arrogance of US Governments to think they can invade other Countries on the pretext of doing good but leave behind a pile of rubble and an even more divided Nation.....what hope is there

It's always Britain and some Commonwealth Countries who answer the call, not many Europeans, if any, and Russia and China always Veto any U.N. agreement because of vested interest. Mahbe the answer is to keep your nose out of things in future.

.

Panda wrote:It is obvious now malena that the U.S. does not wield the power that it once had and efforts to create a stable Government and population have failed miserably, get out now, never mind another year. When you think of the lives lost, huge expense and the arrogance of US Governments to think they can invade other Countries on the pretext of doing good but leave behind a pile of rubble and an even more divided Nation.....what hope is there

It's always Britain and some Commonwealth Countries who answer the call, not many Europeans, if any, and Russia and China always Veto any U.N. agreement because of vested interest. Mahbe the answer is to keep your nose out of things in future.

.

Exactly Panda, unless we are the offended party we should; tut and shake our heads, make sympathetic noises and keep out of it. UK Commonwealth and Empire casualties suffered over two world wars, countless minor conflicts and unknown disputes around the world bear testimony that we should follow the guiding principles of leaving well alone.

I think Obama is wrong to make threats, he should find the culprits who made that video, haul them up before a mountain of T.V. cameras and make them apologise profusely to Islamists around the World for starters, stop suggesting retaliation . Did you watch the video AnnaEsse posted, it really is disgusting.

Panda wrote:I think Obama is wrong to make threats, he should find the culprits who made that video, haul them up before a mountain of T.V. cameras and make them apologise profusely to Islamists around the World for starters, stop suggesting retaliation . Did you watch the video AnnaEsse posted, it really is disgusting.

Sorry Panda, which video?

malena stool wrote:

Panda wrote:I think Obama is wrong to make threats, he should find the culprits who made that video, haul them up before a mountain of T.V. cameras and make them apologise profusely to Islamists around the World for starters, stop suggesting retaliation . Did you watch the video AnnaEsse posted, it really is disgusting.

Sorry Panda, which video?

It's the one the fuss is all about. I'm not sure which thread it was on, probably deleted now. I'll see if I can find the link.

malena stool wrote:

Panda wrote:I think Obama is wrong to make threats, he should find the culprits who made that video, haul them up before a mountain of T.V. cameras and make them apologise profusely to Islamists around the World for starters, stop suggesting retaliation . Did you watch the video AnnaEsse posted, it really is disgusting.

Sorry Panda, which video?

malena, it's on US Ambassador and 3 killed on the World News thread, page 1, no link.

Ah yes Panda, religion and its intolerance's are and have been the cause of more grief in this world than you can shake a stick at. The internet is innocently to blame for the spread of such violence due to its ease of access to transmit and receive, the actions of one bored halfwit religophobe wouldn't have ever been possible without good old you tube.
The Libyan authorities would be wise to keep a lid on this as Obama desperately needs to win some support as the US presidential elections are only 7 weeks away, and attacks on US bases and embassies could be as big a vote winning exercise as the Falklands were for Thatcher.
As for the idiot who concocted the video... he needs sectioning or whatever the US phrase is for committal to a psychy unit.

Two U.K. Soldiers were killed on Friday and 4 NATO Soldiers killed yesterday , both in attacks on CampBastion where

Prince Harry is based. Six Harrier jets were damaged as well as other equipment and this was a well organised attack, some soldierss killed by Afghans in Police uniforms.

Camp Bastion is supposed to be the biggest Base and most heavily protected. Prince Harry has said he will continue his four month tour of duty.

The MOD is being criticised for reporting that Prince Harry was returning to his unit in Afghanistan .

An Afghan Reporter has said the attack on CampBastion was well organised . The insurgents had been working in nearby

fields monitoring the movements of troops, Afghan Police etc. Not only 6 Harrier Jump Jets were totally destroyed, Fuel

Stations and other equipment also destroyed. The NATO and British Soldiers were killed by insurgents dressed in Afghan

Police uniforms and the attack has been a major embarassment to Security Personnel .

John Major says Prince Harry will not want to leave the troops he has trained and worked with and it would be a great

propaganda win for the Taliban if he did leave. However, if his continued presence in Afghanistan endangered the lives

of the Soldiers in the Camp, the matter would be reconsidered.

Panda wrote:An Afghan Reporter has said the attack on CampBastion was well organised . The insurgents had been working in nearby

fields monitoring the movements of troops, Afghan Police etc. Not only 6 Harrier Jump Jets were totally destroyed, Fuel

Stations and other equipment also destroyed. The NATO and British Soldiers were killed by insurgents dressed in Afghan

Police uniforms and the attack has been a major embarassment to Security Personnel .

John Major says Prince Harry will not want to leave the troops he has trained and worked with and it would be a great

propaganda win for the Taliban if he did leave. However, if his continued presence in Afghanistan endangered the lives

of the Soldiers in the Camp, the matter would be reconsidered.

Hi Panda, thanks for the post... It really doesn't take a great deal of consideration on the part of the chair bound War Office Warriors, he is a target for psychotic killers wherever he is in the world... To put him into a war zone where suicide bombing is a national sport is complete and utter crass stupidity and they compound their unconsidered and bad decision by telling the world he's going beforehand. God give us strength, how on earth did we manage to beat Hitler?
Give both our and UN squaddies a chance to complete their tour and pull him out now!

I think he would refuse Malena, For one thing he would see it as a betrayal of his unit, the public too might think that

their Sons are putting their lives in danger so why should not the Prince of Wales. I blame the MOD for revealing that he was joining his Unit and maybe the security of the Camp should have been better.

The Americans are pulling out of Afghanistan but I think the British a year later.

NATO releases details of brazen raid on base in Afghanistan



By Barbara Starr, Chris Lawrence and Joe Sterling
September 17, 2012 -- Updated 0119 GMT (0919 HKT)








Two attacks kill six NATO troops






STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: It appears to be the first time Afghan insurgents have worn U.S. uniforms in years
  
• Insurgents in U.S. Army uniforms attack the camp where Prince Harry is based
  
• The well-trained, well-armed attackers kill two Marines and destroy six jets
  
• Four NATO troops killed by Afghan police were American, an official says
  

(CNN) -- Afghan insurgents who staged a daring, well-planned raid on Camp Bastion, the military base where Britain's Prince Harry is deployed, were wearing U.S. Army uniforms, NATO said a day after the attack.

It's extremely rare for Afghan insurgents to use U.S. uniforms in their attacks. The last time CNN can identify was more than two years ago, when NATO repelled attacks on two bases in Khost province in August 2010.

No coalition troops were killed in that attack, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said at the time.

At least two U.S. Marines were killed in the brazen strike late on Friday, and six jets were destroyed, ISAF said as it released more details about the raid.

Well-trained, well-rehearsed fighters carried out the sustained assault in Helmand province, ISAF said.










Afghan 'insider attacks' spark concern








Special Ops troops lured then killed









Family: Marine knew Afghan would kill him
About 15 insurgents organized into three teams penetrated the base's perimeter fence and did considerable damage, destroying six refueling stations and damaging six aircraft hangars.

The attackers toted automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and suicide vests.

They destroyed six AV-8B Harrier jets and damaged two others before the attack ended, the coalition said.

Fourteen of the fighters were killed and one was wounded and captured, ISAF said.

Eight coalition military personnel and one civilian contractor were also wounded.

It is too soon to say whether the attackers had "inside knowledge," ISAF spokesman James Graybeal said.

ISAF would not say how the attackers got the uniforms, but CNN staff who have spent time in Afghanistan say they are for sale in markets there.

There has been at least one other case of Afghan insurgents wearing U.S. uniforms, in May 2010.

And in Iraq five years ago, there was a dramatic and successful raid using the tactic.

Attackers wearing what appeared to be American uniforms were responsible for the kidnapping and killing of five U.S. soldiers in Karbala, Iraq, in 2007.

Prince Harry is an Apache helicopter pilot based at Camp Bastion, but the British Ministry of Defence categorically rejected reports in Sunday's British press that he was just a few hundred yards away from the gun battle.

Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and third in line to the British throne, "was in no way in any danger" during the latest attack, ISAF spokesman Maj. Martin Crighton said earlier.

On Saturday, ISAF said the camp is secure and the strike would not "impact" air and ground operations.

Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. side of the base, was not affected by the attack, Maj. Adam N. Wojack, an ISAF spokesman, told CNN.

The joint base is located in a remote desert region of Helmand, the southern province in the Taliban heartland.

The Taliban said it carried out the strike, calling it a response to the anti-Islam film stoking anger among Muslims. Yet Crighton said there had no organized demonstrations outside its gates before the assault.

Afghanistan has seen only relatively small and peaceful demonstrations against the film during a week in which there were protests across predominantly Muslim-countries and other locations.

Separately, four American troops were killed by Afghan police on Sunday, an administration official said after NATO's International Security Assistance Force reported the attack.

The latest attack on coalition troops by their supposed Afghan allies brings the number of people killed in so-called "green on blue" incidents to more than 50 this year.

The killing of the four Americans on Sunday is the latest in a series of incidents in which members of Afghan security forces have been suspected of turning their weapons on coalition or Afghan soldiers, known as green-on-blue attacks.

White House says Karzai, Obama committed to preventing Afghan riots

Sunday's killings came only a day after the British Ministry of Defence announced that two troops had been killed in Helmand province's Nahr-e Saraj district.

In that attack, a man wearing an Afghan police uniform fatally shot two members of the 3rd Battalion at a checkpoint, according to Maj. Laurence Roche, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said in a statement released by the ministry.

The killing occurred the same day that another British soldier died in in a separate incident in Nahr-e Saraj, according to the ministry. He was killed when his vehicle struck a bomb.

16 September 2012 Last updated at 18:01

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Afghanistan: Nato air strike 'kills eight women' in Laghman





Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the Isaf international forces: ''This is a tragic loss of life, our sincerest condolences go out to the community''

Continue reading the main story

Taliban Conflict

• Marching forwards
  
• Taliban fighters switch sides
  
• What lies ahead?
  
• Nato's exit strategy Watch
  

At least eight women have died in a Nato air strike in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, local officials say.

Nato has conceded that between five and eight civilians died as it targeted insurgents, and offered condolences.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai "strongly condemned" the deaths and has sent officials to the area to investigate.

Earlier on Sunday, four US soldiers with the Nato forces were killed in an attack by suspected Afghan police.

The attack in southern Zabul province brought to 51 the number of Nato troops killed in "insider attacks" this year, and came a day after two UK soldiers were killed at a checkpoint in Helmand by a man in police uniform.
'Collecting wood'
Local officials in the remote area of Laghman told the BBC at least eight women had died, while provincial council member Gulzar Sangarwal said nine were dead.

Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the Isaf international forces, said between five and eight civilians could have been killed, and said an investigation was under way.

He told the BBC that a group of some 45 insurgents had been targeted by an Isaf unit, and many had been killed.

Civilian casualties by Nato-led forces have strained relations with the Afghan government
"Unfortunately, we have become aware of possible Isaf-caused civilian casualties as a result of this strike, numbering five-eight Afghans," he said.

"Isaf offers its sincerest condolences to the affected community and family members, as well as to the Afghan people, concerning this tragic loss of life."

At least seven women were also reported to have been injured. Provincial health director Latif Qayumi said some of them injured were girls aged as young as 10.

The Laghman governor's office said a number of civilians had gone to the mountains to collect wood and nuts from a forest in the Noarlam Saib valley, a common practice in the area.

The mountainous, highly forested terrain remote from government control make the area attractive to Taliban and other insurgent groups, correspondents say.

The issue of civilian deaths by international forces has created tensions between the US President Karzai.

In August, UN figures suggested the number of civilians killed and injured in the first half of 2012 had fallen 15% on the same period of 2011.

Analysts said increased sensitivity on both sides about the impact of civilian deaths had led to more carefully targeted attacks.

In his statement, Mr Karzai expressed his "sorrow" over the incident, saying he "strongly condemns the airstrike by Nato forces which resulted in the deaths of eight women".
Police suspects
Isaf spokesman Lt Col Hagen Messers said the remote base in Zabul province came under attack in the early hours of the morning, AFP reports.

The US troops were scrambled to help the Afghans repel the attack, but four of them were shot dead by Afghans in police unfirm

Officials said it was not yet clear whether the attacker or attackers were genuine police, but one provincial office told AFP that three or four known policemen had since disappeared from the base.


"At the moment, we don't know where they have gone. We don't know if they fled fearing arrest or if they are linked to the Taliban," he said.

Zabul's deputy police chief Ghulam Gilani told the Associated Press the police could have been forced into attacking the American troops.

"Whether they attacked the Americans willingly we don't know," he said.

Meanwhile, more details have also emerged of the scale of damage caused by an insurgent attack on Nato's heavily fortified Camp Bastion base in Helmand province, in which two US marines were killed.

Militants breached the perimeter of the sprawling base in Helmand province, destroying six US Harrier aircraft and damaging two more, destroying three refuelling stations and damaging six aircraft hangars.

Nato said 14 of the insurgents were killed and one was injured and taken into custody. Nine coalition personnel were wounded.

In a statement, Nato said the attack had been carried out by 15 insurgents dressed in US Army uniforms who "appeared to be well-equipped, trained and rehearsed".

Thirteen Killed In Suicide Attack In Kabul


Kabul airport is targeted by insurgents in retaliation for a film imitating the Prophet Mohammed which has angered Muslims.


7:01am UK, Tuesday 18 September 2012



Video: 13 Killed In Kabul Suicide Attack

• 
  an 18 yr old Woman drove her car into a Minibus carrying Aviation workers to the Airport
  
• 
  
• 
  

The other people killed are believed to be Afghans.

Insurgent group Hezb e Islami said it carried out the attack claiming it was in retaliation for a film mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

The bombing highlights the growing anger in Afghanistan over the film - Innocence of Muslims - which has enraged much of the Muslim world.

The US-produced film calls Islam a "cancer" and portrays the prophet as a fraud, a womaniser and homosexual.
Afghan security personnel carry bags belonging to foreign contractors
Thousands of protesters clashed with police in the Afghan capital on Monday, burning cars and hurling rocks at security forces.

On Monday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered that access to YouTube, where the video has been uploaded, be suspended so that the "blasphemous" video could not be viewed.

On September 11, around 3,000 mainly Salafist demonstrators protested at the US embassy in Cairo and at the US consulate in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three more embassy officials were killed, including two ex-marines.

US President Barack Obama condemend the attack as "outrageous" but he insisted he would not break America's bond with Libya.

On Thursday, In Yemen, the US embassy was attacked and there were clashes between police and demonstrators which killed four people.
Where the protests have spread across the Middle East
On the same day there were further protests outside the US embassy in Cairo which left 200 injured. Protests also took place in Iraq, Iran and the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, security forces in Sudan used tear gas against 10,000 demonstrators who had gathered outside the US embassy. Two protesters were killed and demonstrators also set fire to the German embassy.

In Tripoli, one person was killed after Islamists confronted security forces, while in Tunis four people were killed in fighting outside the US embassy and at a nearby American school.

According to some American officials, extremists are using hostility to the film as a pretext to launch assaults on US interests on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Breaking News

In view of the latest developments NATO is scaling back it's operations in Afghanistan because of the number of Afghan Soldiers and Police responsible for killing the NATO forces. A 5th of British soldiers killed was by Afghans supposedly being trained to take over when NATO troops withdraw.

As a result of the latest allied deaths the Afghan soldiers will go out of the Camps to patrol while NATO forces stay inside the camps.

Afghanistan: Suicide Blast Kills Thirteen


A suicide bomber strikes in east Afghanistan killing 13 people, taking coalition casualties to at least 347 this year.


10:43am UK, Monday 01 October 2012

The bomber struck a Nato foot patrol in the city of Khost, east Afghanistan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
  A suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan has killed at least 13 people, including three Nato troops and four Afghan police.
  
  Six civilians were also killed and 37 wounded in the attack on a joint Nato-Afghan foot patrol through Khost city, Najeeb Danish.
  
  The city's governor said in a statement: "Today at around 8:30 am a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a joint patrol in Khost city in a crowded area.
  
  "In this inhuman attack three police and 37 civilians were wounded, and six civilians and four police, including the commander of the quick reaction forces, were killed".
  
  The deaths take coalition casualties to at least 347 this year. Last week the number of American military personnel killed in the Afghan war reached 2,000 following an insurgent attack.
  
  The death toll in Afghanistan has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police against American and Nato troops.
  
  The latest blast comes a day after Nato announced that a firefight between coalition troops and their Afghan allies killed an ISAF soldier, a civilian contractor and three Afghan army troops.
  
  The incident was initially described as a suspected insider attack, but it was later suggested that either insurgent fire or a verbal argument between the troops sparked the shooting.
  
  However Nato has said that insurgent attacks on its forces dropped by five percent in the first eight months of this year compared to 2011, though they're still running at around 100 a day.
  
  It claims the decline in attacks demonstrates that its troops have been able to "reverse the momentum" of the insurgents' campaign, although the Taliban "strongly and categorically" deny the claim.
  
  August was the second deadliest month in five years for civilians in Afghanistan, with a total of 374 killed and 581 injured.
  
• 
  

17 October 2012 Last updated at 09:01








Suicide car bomb hits Nato Afghan base in Paktia



Continue reading the main story

Taliban Conflict

• Inside Camp Bastion
  
• What's behind insider attacks?
  
• Marching forwards
  
• Taliban fighters switch sides
  

A suicide car bomb has struck a joint Afghan-Nato military outpost in eastern Paktia province.

No deaths were reported but officials said at least 10 members of the Afghan army were injured in the attack, which the Taliban said they had carried out.

Nato said no casualties were reported among the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

Foreign forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, which has sparked fears of a surge in violence.

An Isaf spokesman told AFP news agency the combat outpost in Zurmat district was attacked by "insurgents using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device".

Abdul Raman Mangal, deputy governor of Paktia province, put the number of injured soldiers at 45. He told the BBC the base had sustained damage.

Provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samon told the Associated Press news agency the bomb appeared to have gone off before the driver reached the camp's gates.

He said most of the wounded soldiers had been in rooms that collapsed from the force of the explosion, which shattered windows up to 3km (2 miles) away.

There were reports of mortar fire directed at the base after the bombing.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the militant group had carried out the attack and that its fighters had managed to break into the base.

Nato and Afghan officials denied this.

19 October 2012 Last updated at 14:16
Afghan roadside bomb kills 18 wedding guests



The wounded are being treated in hospital at Mazar-e-Sharif

Continue reading the main story

Taliban Conflict

• Inside Camp Bastion
  
• What's behind insider attacks?
  
• Marching forwards
  
• Taliban fighters switch sides
  

A massive roadside bomb has killed at least 18 people, mostly women and children, on their way to a wedding in northern Afghanistan.

At least 15 others were wounded in what a BBC correspondent called one of the worst such attacks for some time.

The victims were on a minibus, heading to the wedding in the Dawlatabad district of Balkh province, when it was struck at about 06:00 local time.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the attack.

"Planting a mine on a road used by civilians and the killing of innocent people represents hostility toward humanity," he said in a statement.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack, and it is not clear if the minibus was the intended target.
'Severe injuries'
District police commander Bismullah Muslimyar said six children and seven women were killed by the blast, Associated Press reports.

The bride and groom were not on the bus, he added.


Dawood Rustaie, a surgeon treating the wounded at a hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh, said most were in a critical condition.

"Some of them [are] slightly wounded, but some others have severe injuries and need prolonged treatment," said Mr Rustaie.

Northern Afghanistan has generally been one of the safest parts of the country since the US-led invasion in 2001, says the BBC's Andrew North in Kabul.

But Balkh has seen an increase in Taliban activity in recent years, which Nato forces - despite their extra numbers - have been unable to suppress.

A UN report in August said civilian casualties had actually fallen for the first time in five years in Afghanistan - suggesting both sides in the war are becoming increasingly sensitive to the impact of civilian deaths.

But the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which published the report, said it was concerned that the number of civilian deaths and injuries "remains at a high level".

There are no exact figures for the number of civilians killed since the war began in 2001, but most estimates calculate a minimum of 20,000 civilian deaths.

UK Marine And Soldier Killed On Afghan Patrol


A Royal Marine and a female British soldier are killed in Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence confirms.


11:28am UK, Thursday 25 October 2012

They had been on patrol in the Nahr e Saraj district

• 
  
• 
  

A Royal Marine Commando and a female soldier from 3 Medical Regiment have been killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

They had been on patrol in the Nahr e Saraj district.

Major Laurence Roche, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "I am extremely sorry to announce the deaths of a Royal Marine from 40 Commando and a soldier from 3 Medical Regiment serving with Task Force Helmand.

"This is dreadful news for all of us serving in Afghanistan. Our sincere condolences go to their families, friends and colleagues at this time of grief."

It is understood that the soldier from 3 Medical Regiment is from Northern Ireland.

Next of kin have been informed.

The DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson said: "Very often these medics put themselves in the fire to save the lives of others.

"It is particularly tragic that this young woman should lose her life in these circumstances."

It is understood the Taliban has issued a statement in Afghanistan suggesting the incident was a "green on blue attack" - carried out by insurgents in Afghan uniforms, but the details are still unclear.

Both appeared to have been killed by gunshot wounds, according to reports, but the details have not yet been confirmed.

Their deaths take the total number of UK service members to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 to 435.

26 October 2012 Last updated at 09:57


Afghan mosque blast kills dozens


At least 37 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at a mosque in northern Afghanistan, officials say.

• 
  The BBC's Bilal Sarwary: ''A number of those injured are in very critical conditions''
  
  Continue reading the main story
  
  Taliban Conflict
  
  
  
  • Inside Camp Bastion
    
  • What's behind insider attacks?
    
  • Marching forwards
    
  • Taliban fighters switch sides
    
  
  A suicide bomber targeted worshippers who had gathered at a mosque in north Afghanistan for prayers to mark Eid al-Adha, killing at least 37 people.
  
  More than 30 people were wounded in the attack, which happened as people were leaving the mosque in Maymana, capital of Faryab province.
  
  Senior provincial government officials were also attending the prayers.
  
  The victims were mainly civilians and police officers. Senior officials appeared to escape serious injury.
  
  "We had just finished Eid al-Adha prayers and we were congratulating and hugging each other," deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told the AFP news agency.
  
  "Suddenly a big explosion took place and the area was full of dust and smoke and body parts of police and civilians were all over the place. It was a very powerful explosion."
  
  He said the provincial police chief, Abdul Khaliq Aqsai was wounded, but it was not clear if he had been the target.
  
  
  The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says that security had been very tight around the mosque, and questions will now be asked as to how the attacker managed to get past at least four security checkpoints.
  
  Mr Barez said the attacker had been wearing a police uniform.
  
  Attacks in northern Afghanistan are far less common than in the south and east, and Faryab province has been considered to be relatively peaceful.
  
  However, there have been a spate of assassinations in Maymana in recent days, our correspondent says.
  
  A senior former Taliban commander, who had defected to the government side, was killed along with son, as well as a number of very prominent tribal elders seen to be giving crucial support to the government
  

The bomber targeted officials inside the mosque

• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  A suicide bomber has attacked a mosque in Afghanistan as people gathered to celebrate the Eid al Adha holiday.
  
  Between 36 and 41 people, including at least five children, died in the attack in the town of Maymana, capital of northern Faryab province.
  
  Top provincial officials, including the governor and the police chief, were inside the building when the bomber set off his explosives outside the packed Eid Gah mosque.
  
  The officials were not hurt, but the dead included police officers, soldiers, intelligence agents and civilians. Dozens were wounded.
  
  There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide bombings are a favourite weapon of Taliban Islamists trying to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
  
  One eyewitness, Sayed Moqeed, described the bomber as appearing to be in his early teens.
  
  "Suddenly I heard a very big explosion," he said. "Everywhere were pieces of bodies, hands and limbs. The suicide attacker was in police uniform, he looked to be around 14 or 15 years old."
  
  Deputy Governor Abdul Satar Barez said: "The targets of the bomber were all the officials inside the mosque."
  
  It appeared to be the deadliest suicide attack in recent months.
  
  On September 4, 25 civilians were killed and more than 35 wounded in Nanghar province, and on September 1, 12 people were killed and 47 wounded in a suicide attack in Wardak province.
  
  Mr Karzai strongly condemned the attack, saying that those who carried it out were "enemies of Islam and humanity."
  
  The attack came as Mr Karzai was urging Taliban insurgents "to stop killing other Afghans".
  
  In his Eid al Adha message to the nation, Mr Karzai called on the insurgents to "stop the destruction of our mosques, hospitals and schools".
  
  The United Nations says that Taliban attacks account for the vast majority of civilian casualties in the 11-year war. The insurgents routinely deny that they are responsible for attacks on civilians, saying they target only foreign troops or members of the Afghan security forces.
  

Afghanistan: Two British Gurkha Soldiers Killed


The soldiers were shot and killed by a man wearing an Afghan uniform at a checkpoint in the Nahr-e-Saraj district.


4:42pm UK, Tuesday 30 October 2012

The shooting took place in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province

• 
  

Two British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform.

The soldiers, from the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were shot dead at a checkpoint in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province.

Major Laurence Roche, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "The loss of these soldiers is a huge blow to The Royal Gurkha Rifles and everyone serving in Task Force Helmand.

"Our thoughts are with their families, friends and fellow Gurkhas at this time."

The soldiers' families have been informed.

The Ministry of Defence said there has been a total of nine UK deaths attributed to so-called "green on blue" or "insider attacks" this year.
The repatriation ceremony for Corporal Channing Day
The latest two deaths come as the bodies of two service personnel killed last week were repatriated to the UK.

Corporal Channing Day, who served with the 3 Medical Regiment, died alongside Corporal David O'Connor, of 40 Commando, after being injured on patrol with C Company in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province on Wednesday.

Their union flag draped coffins were flown into RAF Brize Norton

Australian soldier awarded Victoria Cross for Afghan heroics


An Australian soldier who repeatedly braved enemy fire in Afghanistan to save his colleagues during an ambush has been awarded the Victoria Cross.








Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (L) and Quentin Bryce (R), Governor-General of Australia with Corporal Daniel Keighran at an Investiture Ceremony at Government House in Canberra Photo: AFP/Getty Images





6:45AM GMT 01 Nov 2012




Corporal Daniel Keighran, 29, was bestowed with the honour after breaking cover on multiple occasions to draw intense enemy fire during a ferocious three-and-a-half hour battle.


He is only the third Australian soldier to be awarded the country's highest military honour since Australia began its deployment in Afghanistan more than a decade ago.


The citation said Keighran showed great bravery when a joint Australian-Afghan patrol came under attack in the village of Derapet in Uruzgan province on August 24, 2010.


Defence force chief David Hurley said Keighran "deliberately and repeatedly" drew intense enemy fire away from other members of his patrol, one of whom was killed.


"Despite the enemy bullets biting into the dirt at his feet he returned fire and provided critical information about the insurgents' positions," he said, adding that Keighran helped turn the fight in Australia's favour