Afghanistan Wrapup for November 4, 2006

Updated January 24, 2008

Saturday, November 4

Zamboli, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: Afghan and British forces undertook an operation aimed at wiping out the Taliban forces in the area after locals complained that Taliban activities were rampant there. The operation set off a major battle that resulted in 7 Taliban being killed and 30 more being wounded. There were no Coalition casualties.

In the press reports, the town was listed as Zanboba, but there is either no such town or it could not be located on any map. The nearest town with a similar name is Zamboli, which must be the town they are referring to here. Zamboli (map) is 8 1/2 miles east of Gereshk.

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Tagab Valley, Parwan Province, Afternoon: Taliban guerrillas ambushed a US convoy hunting for them in this winding valley east of the main US Bagram Airbase. A heavy battle ensued and air strikes were called in. The battle was still going on as evening fell.

A Taliban spokesman said several US vehicles were destroyed. In the last few weeks, the Taliban have come back here in force for the first time since they were ousted in the US invasion of 2001. That is an ominous sign.
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Arandu, Bajour District, Pakistan: French Air Force M2000's attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here. What is truly amazing is that US forces were apparently fighting guerrillas inside Pakistan, as per this report here. Arandu (map) is right across the Kunar River from Bari Kot on the Afghan side.

The Pakistani military keeps a base in Arandu to ward off an attack by Afghanistan when it was occupied by the Soviet Union, but the whole area is simply teeming with jihadis, Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami (HII) and Al Qaeda.

Some mid-level commanders are definitely active in this area, including Commander Faqirullah of the HII and Abu Ikhlas of al-Qaeda. Recently, a number of high-level Al Qaeda leaders were spotted in Baz Gal (map), 8 miles north of Arandu on the border with Nuristan. US forces asked Afghan troops for assistance in staging an operation in the Baz Gal region.

It later turned out that Al Qaeda fled right after the US told the Afghan Army about the proposed operation. Obviously, elements of the Afghan Army have ties to Al Qaeda. In order to deal with this problem,the US has recruited an Afghan "Peace Force" in the region made up largely of local criminals and former Communists, the common denominator being hatred of the Taliban.

Locals in this area were neutral for some time, as the US successfully bribed their leaders and did wreaked little havoc on the region, but most now support the Islamist guerrillas, the reason being the creation of the "Peace Force" described above.

What is interesting is that in 1893-1895, Baz Gal was a central battle of the war waged by the Afghan king Amir Abdul Rehman Khan against the Kafirs (non-Muslims) who lived there. The region was conquered and converted at sword point. These former Kafirs in Nuristan have become some of the most extreme Muslims in all Afghanistan, in an odd twist of fate.

The HII is really much more prominent in Kunar than the Taliban, who were widely hated here during their rule for some reason. Bin Laden tried to force locals to support the Taliban, but they did not want to, so there are some problems in this region for Bin Laden.

The bunkers were abandoned after the Soviets left in 1989, but the base is still manned by Chitral Scouts, some armed with heavy weapons. I believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding right around this area right at this moment.

PBS producers filming the show In Search of Al Qaeda went to this town, but they found little other than fields of marijuana (smoked by locals) and a crude sign made by charming Pakistani border guards, "We Desire Death More Than You Desire Life".

Opium cultivation has been increasing a lot in Kunar and Nuristan lately and seems to form the backbone of the insurgency here.

Interestingly, the Gawar-Bati language is spoken in Arandu. This is an obscure language that is spoken by only 10,500 people in the world. It is related to Kashmiri and, more distantly, to Sindhi and Punjabi. Some speakers are bilingual in Pashto. The people themselves are called Arandui and Narasati. They are also called Gabr, Birkot, Nursut and Gawar-Bati.
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Friday, November 3

Khost Province, Late: Taliban fighters hiding on both sides of a highway ambushed 2 trucks carrying logistics and supplies to a US base in the area. 2 Pakistani truck drivers were killed and an Afghan driver was wounded. The attackers fled immediately after the attack.

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Afghanistan: An Italian photographer, Gabriele Torsello, who was kidnapped by the Taliban while traveling on a bus near Kandahar last month has been freed. He said that his charming fundamentalist idiot captors spent most of the 3 weeks chained in a dark room and could not even see the sun shine.

At one point, the Taliban cavemen offered to trade Torsello for an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity and then fled his backwards land for Italy. The Taliban maniacs probably wanted to put the convert on trial and then execute him.
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Bajour Agency, Pakistan: 3,000 tribesmen marched in Chingkai (map) here to protest airstrike on a madrassa in the town a few days ago that killed 80 people. Although Pakistan claims that one of their helicopters executed the strike, the evidence indicates that a US predator drone actually carried out the attack.

Pakistani authorities said that the madrassa was a headquarters and training camp for Al Qaeda militants fighting in Afghanistan across the border. Another 2000 protesters marched in Inayat Qala ( map), another town in Bajour. Meanwhile, the Pakistani opposition fundamentalist cretin Islamist coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, called a general strike closed shops and halted public transport in Khar, Bajour's main town.

Protesters said that the victims of the strike were just Islamic religious students and teachers, which seems dubious based on the evidence.
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Gangikhel, Bermal District, Paktika Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and B-1B Lancers dropped GBU-31's and GBU-38's on Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Gangikhel (map here) is located in the Bermal District right near the Pakistan border with South Waziristan.

A search for this town on my blog will reveal a number of pictures of this hostile town, where many attacks have been taking place lately. The Pashtun population here is generally hostile and not much can be done to placate them. In general, they do not even want schools built for the boys, much less the girls. After US forces build a school, locals usually say that they don't like it. The school is often burned down afterwards.
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Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10s attacked guerrilla fighters battling US forces near here. A detailed description of this district is below. It is difficult to see how the Taliban could be operating here, so perhaps this is Hezb-i-Islami the US is fighting here, since he has a significant presence here.

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Pasab, Bagran District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Pasab (map) is located 2 miles northeast of Bagran, the capital of the province. This region is hostile and dangerous and was only recently retaken by NATO forces.

It was a Taliban stronghold during their reign and Al Qaeda had bases here. Bin Laden was interviewed at a base here. This was the last place that Mullah Omar was seen before he vanished on a motorcycle.
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Garmser, Garmser District, Helmand Province: British Royal Air Force GR-7s and a U.S. Air Force B-1B attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular fighting and bombing around here for months now with no end in sight.


Thursday, November 2

Adraskan District, Herat province: The Taliban ambushed a convoy belonging to the district police chief as he was visiting police posts in his district. The police chief, Mohammad Sediq, was five other policemen were killed and 3 police were wounded. Adraskan is a large district south and west of Herat City that borders on Farah Province.

North Waziristan: Guerrillas abducted Maulvi Silahuddin, a teacher at a local madrassa and executed him by shooting him in the chest and beheading him. A letter left near his body accused him of spying for the US in Afghanistan and warned that anyone doing the same would meet the same fate.

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Afghanistan: Since October 15, more than 60,000 Afghans in Pakistan have so far been registered in a program to register Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The program is being run by both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistani government. The 60,000 registered was the largest number of Afghan refugees recorded since registration efforts began.

Both the government and the UN agency said that they hoped that the program would be completed by the end of the year. 1 million Afghan refugees have been staying in 74 camps in Pakistan, mostly in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and southwestern Balochistan province.
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Hajji Musa, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Hajji Musa (map) is located 1/2 mile north of Payendi, the focus of bombing attacks earlier in the previous week. The town is 8 1/2 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district.

Shemika, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. This town could not be found on any map.

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Dowlat Shah, Dowlat Shah District, Laghman Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Dowlat Shah (map here) is the capital of the district by the same name. It is located 22 1/2 miles north of Mitarlam, the capital of the district.

This province has been off and on hostile for quite some time now. Some US troops were killed in caves near Alishang to the south a while back. This district is majority Pashayi or Kohistani, a Dardic people. The other 29% are Tajik and only 1% are Pashtuns.

Hezb-I-Islami was formerly pretty popular here. The Kohistani speak a language called Southeast Pashayi. A map of where these people reside is here. The Pashayi have some herds here, mostly goats but also a few sheep. Masculinity is a highly-valued trait with these people, and all men carry knives, and most also carry guns.

A village council resolves disputes, but does not get involved in interpersonal disputes, with the result being that there are many long-lasting feuds going on with these people. Although the Pashayi now live in high mountains, the suggestion here is that, with the arrival of the Pashtun invaders, the Pashayis living in the plains were forced to move into the mountains.

The Pashayi, like many other obscure peoples in this part of Afghanistan, were thought to be formerly Hindus were converted to Islam some time ago. They probably practiced a corrupted form of Hinduism, like the Nuristani peoples.

Now they are almost all Hanafite Muslims, except about 1% seem to continue to practice some obscure tribal religion, perhaps similar to their pre-Islamic religion. Although they are Hanafi Sunnis, Sufism is very popular with these people, and there are shrines dedicated to Sufi saints throughout their region. The Pashayi love music.

The oral history of their people and their culture is preserved in these songs, since only about 10% of them can read or write in Pashtun and Southeast Pashayi is not a written language. Every year after harvest, the men go from village to village singing new songs that have been composed that year.

The governor here is a Pashtun, but he is not accepted well by the population. Although this mountainous district is very poor, it is rich in natural resources such as fruit, forests and water. There is only one road running through the district and it is not in good shape. Communications is very poor here.

The main source of water is the Alisheg River that runs through the center of the district. Most of the men have no work, and hence many are armed and are engaged in various criminal activities. 30% of the homes were destroyed in the Soviet War. The homes here are built of stones and wood, unlike the usual mud-brick Afghan home.

Most people get their water from the river, which is not sanitary. Cholera killed 13 people in 2001. The main water source is springs, but people often have to walk a long ways to get to them. Wheat, corn, vegetables and opium are all grown here, but this mountainous area is short of arable land. What arable land there is is subject to flooding.

Forestry is the main source of income, but the district has been heavily deforested due to overcutting. Instead of using pack animals to transport goods up and down the mountains, the residents here use a "pack animal" known as the "human female". I think using mules would be more humane.

Although there are quite a few medical workers here for Afghanistan, there are still only 2 clinics in the area. This is not enough, as they are too far away for many villagers. Consequently, many people die on their way to the hospital. The relatives of the dead say, "Thank you George Bush and thank you free market capitalism!"

There are 11 female teachers here, which is pretty good for this country. There are almost as many girls in school as boys, which is amazing for Afghanistan. Only 2 schools have actual buildings, the rest being "George Bush specials", that is schools held in the open air with no buildings at all! There is also a shortage of educational materials here.

The backwards Kohistani people here treat their human females as pack animals, forcing them to carry loads of up to 120 pounds on their backs and walk for up to 4 hours at a time, because the men are too darned sexist and lazy. This treatment of women means that she is the equivalent of a mule, or possibly even less, and may be killed or harmed at will.

Consequently, there are a large number of crimes against women here, including killings, rapes, kidnappings, domestic violence, forced marriage, woman-selling, and feuds over women. After a man dies, his relatives steal all of the couple's property, leaving her with zero. Women accused of adultery are killed, as is the case all over the caveman Muslim World these days.

When the Communists came to Afghanistan, brutal as they were, one of their first projects was to reform the criminal sexist war waged on women by Afghan men.

For the dastardly crime of standing up for Afghan women, and even arming them (there were many all-female brigades who passionately took up arms to fight for the Communists and preserve their rights), Imperialist America dedicated itself to destroying the regime.

For this task, the imperialists utilized Medieval fundamentalist cretins who ran around Afghanistan throwing the girls out of schools, burning schools to the ground and murdering women teachers. The principal complaints of the imperialist-sponsored Neanderthals were the elimination of the selling of women as if they were donkeys and goats and the regime's support for education of women.

Imperialist Uncle Sam's main man in this game was a gangster called Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a charming gentleman who formerly specialized in throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to be wear the Islamic veil.

The logical outcome of this insanity, other than a ruined land and 1.5 million dead Afghans, was the ascension to power of the Taliban, the creation of the USA, and the empowerment of Al Qaeda, another Frankenstein monster directly created by the CIA. First the Buddhas were blown up, then the World Trade Centers were destroyed. Frankenstein came back to attack the mad scientists who created him.

In summary, the imperialist USA decided to replace the Communists, who stood for the rights of women with gun in hand, with fundamentalist misogynist throwbacks. America should be proud of this?
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Sangay Ghar, Wor Mamay District, Paktika Province : A US Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10s attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Sangay Ghar is a mountain in Paktika. It is also known as Sanjay Ghar.

Wednesday, November 1

Sari-Pul, Sari-Pul Province, AM: Unknown gunmen fired on a vehicle belonging to a Japanese NGO group, Peace Winds Japan, here. 3 local Afghans working for the NGO were in the vehicle but they were not hurt. There have been a number of such attacks on NGO organizations in northern Afghanistan, were guerrillas are rare or absent. No one knows who these attackers are.

Nuristan Province: US forces raided a Taliban cell here, killing 4 Taliban and arresting 2 more.

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Momandgarh, Khar and Dankol, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: Armed tribesmen protested for the second day here against the the Pakistani and US governments for the US raid on a madrassa in nearby Chenagai on Monday that killed 80 people.

Pakistani authorities said the madrassa was not only being used as an Al Qaeda training camp but was also being visited by top Al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Obaida Al-Misri had visited the seminary frequently in the past.

Al-Misri is Al Qaeda's commander in Afghanistan's Kunar Province next to Bajour and is the mastermind of the ludicrous London airliner bombing plot that was recently rolled up by British officials.

Once you read how hard it would have been to actually carry out this science fiction-style bombing plot, you realize that there is no way that the operatives could possibly have mixed those liquid explosives together to make them blow up and bring down the planes.

Around 8,000 people, many brandishing guns, rallied at Momandgarh on the border of Bajour and the neighboring Mohmand tribal agency, and 3,000 protesters gathered at Dankol, near the Afghan border. Neither Momandgarh or Dankol could be located on a map. Markets and schools in Khar remained closed for the third day.

Pakistani troops sealed off the Bajour Agency (it's dubious whether that is possible) and part of the neighboring Mohmand Agency and were not letting anyone either enter or leave the areas.
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Near Kandahar Airport: Suicide car bomb attack on a NATO convoy here wounded 2 NATO soldiers. The attack occurred near a bazaar on the road leading to the NATO base at the airport.


Tuesday, October 31

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Waygal Valley, Waygal District, Nuristan Province: Roadside bomb on a US Humvee on patrol here killed 2 US soldiers, Maj. Douglas E. Sloan, Sgt. Charles J. McClain, and Pfc. Alex Oceguera and wounded 2 more, both critically.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a US hospital in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province, where 1 soldier subsequently died. The other soldier, demining expert Cpl. William Gordon Jr., was evacuated to Germany for treatment and his condition was upgraded to serious. The attack probably took place near Moladis, since there was an airstrike by US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs at Moladis on this day.
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Khar, Bajour Tribal Agency, Pakistan: More than 15,000 armed Pakistani tribesmen protested here in the capital of the Bajour Agency after a US predator drone attack on a madrassa in the town of Chenagai killed 80 people who were suspected of being Al Qaeda guerrillas training to go fight in Afghanistan.

Protestors chanted, "Down with America", "Down with Musharraf", "Long Live Osama" and "Love Live Mullah Omar", just to give us an idea of where their true loyalties lie. "Our jihad will continue and Inshallah people will go to Afghanistan to oust American and British forces," said Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a pro-Taliban lunatic cleric, in a speech before fundamentalist fanatics.

Many in the turbaned crowd carried Kalashnikovs and wore bandoliers, and a few had RPG launchers. Protestors said that the dead were not guerrillas but instead were just young men aged 15-25. Such claims by people in this region cannot be taken at face value, since they always say that everyone killed in any attack here was a civilian, even when known guerrillas are killed.

The Predator apparently attacked the school on a tip that Ayman Al-Zawahiri was there. If he was not there by chance, at least it was a known Al Qaeda training camp, so the attack was a win-win situation from the point of view of US and Pakistani forces.
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Landi Kotal, Khyber Tribal Agency, Pakistan: A fundamentalist kook mullah, Maulana Nasiruddin, told a crowd of 1,000 idiots in Landi Kotal (map) that Muslims should become suicide bombers to avenge the US predator strike in Chenagai described in the entry above.

Andar District, Ghazni Province: A suicide attacker blew himself up outside the district police chief's office here, killing 1 policeman and wounding 1 more and wounding 2 US soldiers.

Kandahar: A US Air Force Predator fired a Hellfire missile at Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here.

Zardad, Afghanistan: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling US NATO forces near here. Towns called Zardad located in both Zabul and Paktika Provinces. It is not known which town is being referred to here.

Sar-e Howz, Pushtun Kot District, Faryab Province: French M2000 Mirages attacked guerrillas battling NATO forces near here. This area is 21 miles south of the capital of Faryab, Maymana. Sar-e Howz (map) is a large town. It is not known why there are guerrillas in this northern area, which ought to be peaceful.

This district is 65% Uzbek, 30% Tajik and 5% Pashtun. It is hard to see what the security problem would be here. 50% of the homes here were destroyed in the Soviet War. There is only one doctor in the entire district. Most people have to walk 1 1/2 miles to get to a source of potable water. Sanitation here is disastrous and essentially nonexistent, leading to may diseases.

Wheat, barley, millet, rice and corn are grown here. This is a fairly wet region, and 70% of the agriculture is fed by rain. The illiteracy rate is a frightening 98! Thank you George Bush! The education system is fairly good for Afghanistan and amazingly there are 17 female teachers and some girls in school.

The female student population is only 7% of male population, which is terrible. Although 10 new schools have been built, a number of schools were destroyed in the war and still have not yet been rebuilt.

It is impossible to imagine the Bush reactionaries, who oppose government spending on education, health care, and just plain in general on most everything except the military and cops, as doing much to help these poor people here.

After all, any government that spends money on those things is attacked as "socialist" and "Leftist" by the USA, and then the US attempts to attack and destroy the regime in one way or another.
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Monday, October 30

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Chenagai, Bajaur tribal Agency, Pakistan, 5 AM: Either a US predator drone or 4 US helicopters fired a missile or missiles at a madrassa here, killing about 80 suspected militants.

At least 3 persons were wounded and evacuated to a hospital in Khar, but more wounded were reportedly streaming into the hospital later in the day. The strike appeared to have killed almost everyone in the madrassa. A map of Chenagai is linked above.

US and Pakistani forces claim that the attack was led by 4 Pakistani gunships that fired missiles at the school, but ABC news published a report saying that sources in the US government or military admitted that it was a US predator drone and not Pakistani gunships.

Given the nature of the attack, previous predator drone strikes in the area, the accuracy of the drones, and the lack of skill of Pakistani helicopter gunship pilots, I think that this was either an attack by a US predator drone or an attack by US helicopters.

Further, almost everyone in Bajour insists that the attack was carried out by a Predator. They have no reason to say this if the Pakistani military really did the attack.

Adding weight to the theory, there have been previous Predator drone strikes, including one that killed Nek Mohammad, head of the Pakistani Taliban, in Mir Ali in North Waziristan. In that attack the Pakistani military also insisted that they did it, not the US.

I understand why they are lying and it is perfectly acceptable to lie in this context. It's deadly in terms of Pakistani public opinion if the Pakistani military admits it is allowing the US military to carry out deadly attacks on its soil. There is less political harm in saying that the Pakistani military did it themselves.

The madrassa was run by a pro-Taliban commander wanted by Pakistan for harboring al Qaeda fighters. Of the 80 dead, it appears that 40 of them were militants. The rest were probably just students at the madrassa or civilians. Residents said there were children among the dead.

The madrassa in Chenagai, 6 miles north of Khar, the capital of Bajour, was being used as a militant training camp, according to the Pakistani government. Surveillance showed men undergoing military training exercises there.

Although the Pakistani military said there were no civilians in the compound, a reporter in Chenagai described villagers wailing as they collected mutilated bodies, some of children as young as seven, from the rubble. The children were apparently students at the madrassa.

Disputing the Predator drone story, other locals agreed that the attacking forces were helicopters, but said they were US copters, not Pakistani. Some homes next to the madrassa were also hit in the attack.

Although most reports said that the attack took place in Chenagai, some other reports said it took place in Mamoon, near Damadola. Damadola (map here) is the site of an earlier attack on a home were Ayman Al-Zawahiri was said to be scheduled to show up a meeting in a private home there.

The home was targeted by a US predator drone, and scores of people were killed in that attack also. At least some of them were high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives.
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Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: NATO warplanes spotted a group of Taliban guerrillas setting up a firing position on a roof in the Zhari District and attacked the insurgents, killing 12 of them.

As we have noted repeatedly, there is no Zhari District in Kandahar. Instead, it is just the name for a region in the Panjwayi District 25-30 miles west of Kandahar city and largely north of the Arghandab River and near the main highway.

This attack was apparently near the town of Payendi (map), 8 miles northwest of Panjwayi, because there was an airstrike there with A-10's on this day. The A-10 dropped a GBU-12 on the guerrillas.
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Zabul Province: US forces said they killed 55 Taliban fighters here in an intense battle. 1 US soldier was killed in the fighting. Later reports lowered the 55 killed figure to 20 killed.

Now Zad, Helmand Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds on Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. There is regular bombing and fighting going on around Now Zad for a long time now.

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Ghura Ghundey Dasht, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and French M2000 Mirages attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. Ghura Ghundey Dasht is a plain in Helmand. This plain is northwest of Garmser in a very sparsely populated area.

It is located 1/2 way between Garmser and Nawa-I-Barakzai and then about 10 miles west of the Helmand River town of Akram Kalay (map), off into the wilderness.
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Sunday, October 29

Kunar Province, near the border of Nuristan Province: Fighting broke out between guerrillas and US forces in this extremely remote region. 3 troops were wounded by guerrilla rocket attacks in the fighting.

Kajah Ulva, Afghanistan: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs fired cannon rounds, a GBU-12 and a 500-pound bomb on Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Kajah Ulva could not be found on any map.

Shami, Parwan Province: An Air Force B1-B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces near here. Shami Kabol (actually called Shami) is actually located in Parvan Province, not Kabul Province. A map is here. It is located 16 miles southeast of Bagram Airbase, near the border with Kabul Province. The Taliban have been getting more active in Parvan lately.

Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here. The Gereshk area is chronically hostile with no end in sight.

Nazargol Kala, Urgun District, Paktika Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling US forces near here. Nazargol Kala (map here) is located 2 1/2 miles northeast of Urgun, the main market town in Paktika and home of a large US base. This area is highly unstable.


Saturday, October 28

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Uruzgan Province: Roadside bomb attack on US troops here killed 1 US Special Forces soldier and wounded 8 more SF troops, 3 US National Geographic Channel journalists and 3 civilians. TMZ.com said that the journalists were embedded with the Special Forces unit in order to film a special for the channel called, The Green Berets.

A producer and photographer were flown to Germany for treatment of facial lacerations. The sound man suffered a ruptured eardrum but was treated in Afghanistan.
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North of Tarin Kot, Tarin Kot District,Uruzgan Province: 100 to 150 Taliban guerrillas attacked a NATO base here. NATO and Afghan forces fought back small arms fire, attack helicopters and air strikes in a battle lasting several hours. 70 Taliban were reportedly killed in the fighting. 1 Afghan soldier was wounded.

Payendi, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO troops near here, dropping GBU-12 bombs on them. Payendi (map) is located 5 miles northwest of Panjwayi, the capital of the district, along the Arghandab River.


Friday, October 27

Afghanistan: 1 US soldier died somewhere here from non-combat related injuries.


Monday, October 23

Pech District, Kunar Province: A mortar test-fired by US forces here fell short of its target and instead hit a home, killing 3 children and wounding 2 more kids. Troops had been firing mortars into an area where they had come under attack from guerrillas earlier.