Nigeria: Taliban kill 25 in beer garden bombings

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Men riding motorcycles threw bombs into outdoor beer gardens Sunday night in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 25 people in attacks bearing striking similarities to others carried out by a radical Islamic sect in the region, police said.

The bombs exploded in the restive city of Maiduguri, home to the sect known locally as Boko Haram. While the sect did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack late Sunday, the assault bore the hallmarks of the group now waging assassinations and attacks against the Nigerian government.

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Pakistan: 8 soldiers, 10 Taliban dead in dawn attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Eight soldiers and at least ten Taliban were killed after the militants attacked a Pakistani security checkpost in the lawless tribal belt before dawn Thursday, local security officials said.

More than 100 Taliban armed with rocket launchers and other sophisticated weapons attacked the post in South Waziristan, along the Afghan border, triggering a firefight which lasted for more than three hours, officials said.

AsiaOne News

Australian Special Forces capture three Taliban leaders

URUZGAN, Afghanistan (3rd June 2011): Australian Special Forces, together with an Afghan National Police team have captured three top insurgent leaders.

The three men were known prominent bomb experts, logisticians and insurgent facilitators.

Australian Special Forces have killed or captured twenty key insurgents since December 2010.

SAS capture two top Taliban commanders

A crack SAS team has captured two top Taliban commanders without a shot being fired in a secret dawn raid in Afghanistan.

The 12 elite troops seized Maulawi Rahman and Maulawi Mohammed at a high-walled compound north of the remote town of Babaji in Helmand province.

Both men, who surrendered without a fight, are said to have been close confidants of Osama Bin Laden, the terror mastermind killed by US Special Forces in Pakistan last month.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar killed

An Afghan local television network has quoted Afghan intelligence sources as saying that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been killed in Pakistan.

"Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," TOLO television said in its news bulletin, Xinhua news agency reported today, 23rd May.

The private television channel, however, did not provide any further details.

Meanwhile, a security official confirmed the killing, emphasizing that Mullah Omar was killed inside Pakistan.

“It is correct that Mullah Omar has been killed," the official said.

Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban, was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban leader had survived US military manhunt since the US-led invasion of on Afghanistan in 2001.

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Suicide bomber kills 6 in Kabul hospital attack

KABUL: A Taliban suicide bomber targeting NATO medical trainers infiltrated Kabul’s main military hospital on Saturday and blew himself up in a tent full of Afghan medical students eating lunch, killing six and wounding 23.

No foreign medical doctors or nurses were among the dead or wounded, Afghan and NATO officials said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting foreign trainers and Afghan doctors who work with them. He claimed two bombers took part, but Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zaher Azimi spokesman said only one attacker was involved and only one blast was heard at the Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital.

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Afghanistan school torched

Militants have destroyed yet another state-run school in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, local officials have said.

Unknown gunmen torched the school building in Chaparhar district, south of the provincial capital, Jalalabad, in the early hours of Saturday, local officials told Press TV.

Two Afghan security personnel guarding the school were injured in the incident after taking a beating from the assailants.

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NATO: More than 1,700 Taliban give up their arms

NATO: More than 1,700 Taliban give up their arms

Four hundred Taliban launch attack

Hundreds of insurgents have attacked Afghan police checkpoints in a remote eastern province with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, but failed to overrun the government positions, officials say.

The assault in Nuristan province, a rugged and mountainous area bordering Pakistan, is the second significant Taliban attack on Afghan government forces in less than four days and is part of the insurgents' long-awaited spring offensive.

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Afghanistan: Taliban kill ex-commander

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan: Taliban militants have targeted and killed a former commander along with four others in Kunduz province, 250 km north of capital city Kabul, a local official said Monday.

"Taliban rebels raided the house of Mullah Mohammad Nabi a former Taliban commander in Imam Sahib district and killed him along with four others Sunday night," Governor of Imam Sahib district Mohammad Ayub Hakmal told Xinhua.

Mullah Nabi had switched sides and joined the government a couple of months ago, the official further said.

Meantime, Zabihullah Mujahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in talks with media via telephone from an unknown location claimed responsibility, saying the Taliban fighters have punished Mullah Nabi for quitting the Taliban ranks.

Xinhua

London Taliban target women and gays

'Wear a headscarf or we will kill you': How the 'London Taliban' is threatening women and trying to ban gays in bid to impose sharia law.

Women who do not wear headscarves are being threatened with violence and even death by Islamic extremists intent on imposing sharia law on parts of Britain, it was claimed today.

Other targets of the 'Talibanesque thugs', being investigated by police in the Tower Hamlets area of London, include homosexuals.

Stickers have been plastered on public walls stating: 'Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment'.

Read full story at Daily Mail

Failed suicide bomber a 'sleeper' from London

A suicide bomber who was shot dead before he could detonate himself in Afghanistan's defence headquarters had travelled from London, it's believed.

The Times are reporting that Britain's intelligence services have been handed details of the militant who infiltrated the base on Monday.

Sources high up in Afghanistan said the would-be bomber's name and other personal information had been forwarded to London, suggesting that he had been living here in Britain.

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Taliban killer interviewed by BBC

It was one of the most brutal Taliban attacks of the past ten years in Afghanistan.

A gunman entered a bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad, and shot dead 42 Afghans. The victims included women and children.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville has spoken to the killer, and the man who recruited him.

Click here to watch video interview

Brit soldier puts suicide bomber in headlock

A HERO soldier subdued a suspected suicide bomber with his bare hands after a high-speed desert chase.

Unarmed Pte Lee Stephens grabbed the Taliban bomb-making expert from a motorcycle and put him in a headlock.

Afterwards the modest 30-year-old said: “My muckers were getting shot at and I thought ‘I’m not having that’. It’s like the Wild West out here.”

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Taliban open office in Turkey

The Turkish foreign minister has confirmed that preparations are underway for opening an office in Turkey for the Afghan Taliban. 

During a recent visit to Turkey, the president of Pakistan, together with his Turkish counterpart, made a commitment to support political initiatives to end the war in Afghanistan.

Ankara has been calling for talks with the Taliban, and having strong ties with both Afghanistan and Pakistan is seen as a key element in facilitating talks.

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Taliban seize Afghan district

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents seized a district in Afghanistan's remote northeast after a brief battle with police, provincial officials said on Tuesday, underscoring the difficulty Afghan and foreign forces face in securing the increasingly violent region.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters had captured the Waygal district center in mountainous Nuristan province in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, said Mohammad Zarin, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

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Taliban kidnap 50 Afghan police

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents abducted around 50 off-duty Afghan policemen in an ambush in a volatile province in northeastern Afghanistan, the militant group and provincial officials said on Sunday.

Taliban-led militants have stepped up their fight this year against the Afghan government and its Western backers at a time when Kabul has announced security responsibilities for seven areas will be handed to Afghan forces in July.

The policemen were abducted by militants in the Chapa Dara district of remote northeastern Kunar province after returning from neighboring Nuristan province where they had traveled to collect their salaries, Nuristan governor Jamaluddin Badr said.

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Lone Gurkha fights 30 Taliban - and wins!

Sergeant Dipprasad Pun has been honoured for single-handedly fighting off 30 Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

The Gurkha soldier got through more than 400 rounds of ammunition and an assortment of grenades during his extraordinary one-man stand on the roof of an isolated sentry-post.

At one point, when his gun could no longer fire, Sgt Pun resorted to battering one Taliban fighter, who was trying to scale the wall to attack him, over the head with the tripod of his machine gun.

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Taliban shut down Helmand mobile phone networks

All mobile telephone networks have been switched off in the Afghan province of Helmand after a Taliban threat.

Correspondents say that the decision of mobile companies to obey the order reflects the militants' power in one of Afghanistan's most restive areas.

The Taliban say that mobile phones are used by their enemies to track their communications.

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Two Taliban groups surrender

Two groups of Taliban militants laid down their weapons in Baghlan province on Tuesday and surrendered to Afghan government, provincial officials said.

"A total of 20 Taliban militants laid down their weapons and joined the Afghan government," Abdul Rahman Rahimi, police chief of Baghlan told reporters.

The men were active in Baghlan-e-Jadid district fighting against the government, but have now renounced violence and promised to work for peace, he added.

Mr Rahimi said the security will be further strengthened in the province as more militants embrace the peace process.

These are the first groups of insurgents to have surrendered since the beginning of the Afghan new year.

Baghlan was one of the insecure provinces in the north of Afghanistan, but it was cleared of insurgents after heavy operations by Afghan and foreign forces.