Taliban – News Stories About Taliban - Page 36

AFGHAN ELECTION

Oct 25, 2009 8:10 AM CDT

Karzai Nixes Power-Sharing Government

Abdullah says result will be same without new election officials

(Newser) - Both candidates for Afghanistan's presidency focused on the Nov. 7 runoff yesterday, with Hamid Karzai declaring that there would be no power-sharing government, while challenger Abdullah Abdullah voiced concern that without the ouster of top election officials, the tainted outcome would be no different. "So long as these people...

Pakistan Army Takes
Taliban Chief's Hometown

Oct 24, 2009 5:34 AM CDT

Pakistan Army Takes Taliban Chief's Hometown

(Newser) - The army captured the hometown of Pakistan's Taliban chief today, snagging its first big prize in a major US-backed offensive along the Afghan border. Helicopter gunships provided aerial bombardment as soldiers captured heights around the town of Kotkai. The final fight saw 13 militants and two soldiers die; the military...

US Drones Back Up
Pakistani Offensive

Oct 23, 2009 9:03 AM CDT

US Drones Back Up Pakistani Offensive

Predators offer intel on militant positions in South Waziristan

(Newser) - The US military is supporting the Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan with intelligence and imaging collected by unmanned Predator drones. The support is separate from the CIA program using the drones inside Pakistan to kill terrorist leaders. “We are coordinating with the Pakistanis,” a military...

Blasts in Pakistan Kill 24

Oct 23, 2009 5:48 AM CDT

Blasts in Pakistan Kill 24

Insurgents his air force facility, bus headed to wedding

(Newser) - A suicide bomber killed seven people near a major air force complex in northwest Pakistan today, while an explosion killed 17, including three children, on a bus heading to a wedding elsewhere in the region. The attacks are the latest in a surge of militant strikes this month, coinciding with...

Mass. Terror Suspect an
'Incompetent Wannabe'

Oct 22, 2009 12:56 PM CDT

Mass. Terror Suspect an 'Incompetent Wannabe'

Mehanna and accomplice were turned away from training in Yemen, Pakistan

(Newser) - The Massachusetts man arrested yesterday for plotting to shoot up a mall, kill US troops fighting overseas, and assassinate US officials didn’t really have a chance. Tarek Mehanna traveled to Yemen in search of terrorism training but couldn't find a camp. His alleged accomplice was turned away from Pakistani...

More Troops in Afghanistan
= Angrier Insurgents

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Oct 22, 2009 9:56 AM CDT

More Troops in Afghanistan = Angrier Insurgents

Doesn't US remember how our country began? Or how Vietnam ended?

(Newser) - The United States was born from a nationalist insurgency. “Given that history, you’d think we might be more sensitive to nationalism abroad,” writes Nicholas Kristof. “Yet the most systematic foreign-policy mistake we Americans have made in the post-World War II period has been to underestimate its...

Brigadier Assassinated
in Islamabad

Oct 22, 2009 4:04 AM CDT

Brigadier Assassinated in Islamabad

Head of UN mission killed as army pushes into Taliban heartland

(Newser) - A top army officer was gunned down in the Pakistani capital today as the military continued to push into the Taliban's Waziristan sanctuary. Brigadier Moinudin Ahmed, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, was shot dead along with his driver by suspected militants on a motorbike as their jeep...

Pakistan Closes All Schools
After Bombings

Oct 21, 2009 10:10 AM CDT

Pakistan Closes All Schools After Bombings

Taliban promises more violence unless army halts offensive

(Newser) - Pakistan closed all of its schools today, following the twin suicide attacks on the International Islamic University in Islamabad yesterday. Four were killed and another 18 wounded, and the Taliban has promised more bombings if Pakistan doesn’t halt its military offensive in South Waziristan’s tribal areas. Pakistan’s...

Taliban Starts
YouTube Channel

Oct 19, 2009 10:12 AM CDT

Taliban Starts YouTube Channel

But its most disturbing clip was taken down

(Newser) - The jihad has come to YouTube: The Taliban has set up shop on the viral video site, posting two propaganda videos to its “Istqalmedia” channel, Fareed Zakaria noticed over the weekend. One, which you can see here, shows a variety of pastoral scenes set to Pashtun-language music. The other,...

Taliban Money Men Outwit US

Oct 19, 2009 7:37 AM CDT

Taliban Money Men Outwit US

Diverse revenue streams defy crackdown efforts

(Newser) - The Taliban is thriving financially, despite the US’ best efforts to clamp down on its cash flow, thanks to a sophisticated collection of revenue streams including foreign donations, criminal activities, and drug trade profits. “I don’t believe we can significantly alter their effectiveness by cutting off their money...

Al-Qaeda Boosts
Western Recruits

Oct 19, 2009 7:00 AM CDT

Al-Qaeda Boosts Western Recruits

Networks funnel manpower to Pakistan, Afghanistan

(Newser) - An increasing number of Westerners are joining al-Qaeda and the Taliban as the terrorist groups profit from dissatisfaction with the war in Afghanistan and develop sophisticated foreign-recruiting networks. Some 30 German citizens have traveled to Pakistan for training this year, according to authorities. Belgian, French and Swedish nationals have also...

NYT Reporter Recounts
7 Months as Prisoner

Oct 17, 2009 5:05 PM CDT

NYT Reporter Recounts 7 Months as Prisoner

David Rohde begins first-person account of capture, escape

(Newser) - New York Times reporter David Rohde begins a gripping first-person account of his 7 months as a Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan before he managed to escape. In the first of the five-part series, he writes of his capture ("I waited for the sound of gunfire. I knew I might...

Pakistan Army Launches
Assault on Taliban

UPDATED

Oct 17, 2009 7:03 AM CDT

Pakistan Army Launches Assault on Taliban

Military readies all-out offensive on militants' South Waziristan stronghold

(Newser) - More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a major assault on the Taliban's sanctuary in Waziristan early today, following months of airstrikes intended to soften up militant defenses. Officials have given few details but said the troops are pursuing militants holed up in the region. Civilians have been evacuated from...

New Pakistan Blast Kills 11

Oct 16, 2009 4:52 AM CDT

New Pakistan Blast Kills 11

Peshawar explosion rocks beleaguered nation

(Newser) - The string of deadly bombings in Pakistan continued today as 11 people died in a blast at a police station in Peshawar, the capital of the dangerous North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border. Two of the victims were children. The Taliban are being blamed for two weeks of...

Taliban: Italy Paid Us
Protection Money

Oct 16, 2009 3:17 AM CDT

Taliban: Italy Paid Us Protection Money

Italian government denies bribing insurgents to leave its troops alone

(Newser) - The Italian secret services bribed the Taliban not to attack Italian forces in Afghanistan, according to both a Taliban commander and senior officials in the Afghan government. The accusations have sparked fury in France, which lost 10 soldiers in an ambush after taking over a district east of Kabul from...

Deadly Wave of
Pakistan Attacks
Kills 38

UPDATED

Oct 15, 2009 7:11 AM CDT

Deadly Wave of Pakistan Attacks Kills 38

Government warns of 'guerrilla war' after blasts in Lahore, northwest

(Newser) - Pakistan erupted in violence today as three teams of militants launched coordinated strikes on law enforcement buildings in Lahore and a suicide car bomber struck a police station in the country's northwest. A few hours later another blast rocked a school in Peshawar, near the Afghan border, killing at least...

Karzai's Government
Too Rotten to Back

OPINION

Oct 14, 2009 1:19 AM CDT

Karzai's Government Too Rotten to Back

Sending more troops won't work if they're protecting a tainted government

(Newser) - No counterinsurgency campaign can succeed without a good government to work with, and Hamid Karzai's operation is nowhere near good enough, writes Thomas L. Friedman. Karzai's government is thoroughly corrupt and his election victory deeply tainted, Friedman notes in the New York Times. Much of the insurgency is now fueled...

Broke al-Qaeda
Pleads for Funds

Oct 13, 2009 2:34 AM CDT

Broke al-Qaeda Pleads for Funds

Terror group seeks donations as US disrupts financing network

(Newser) - Efforts to cut off al-Qaeda's funding have been largely successful and the organization is now critically short of cash, according to the US Treasury. The group's "influence is waning" as the money dries up, according to one official who monitors terrorist financing, noting that al-Qaeda has already issued several...

Obama Team Downplays
Risks in Afghan Pullback

Pentagon Insiders:

Oct 12, 2009 11:57 AM CDT

Obama Team Downplays Risks in Afghan Pullback

Al-Qaeda, Taliban much closer than public has been led to believe

(Newser) - US military and intelligence officials see dangerous misrepresentations in the Obama team’s flirting with a limited, anti-al-Qaeda strategy in Afghanistan. “The White House is downplaying the dangers of doing the only thing that they think Congress and the public will support,” an official tells McClatchy. But taking...

New Pakistan Bomb Kills 41

Oct 12, 2009 5:52 AM CDT

New Pakistan Bomb Kills 41

Fourth terror attack in a week rocks nation

(Newser) - Yet another massive bomb has struck a market in Pakistan, this time killing 41 people. The blast in the Shangla district is the fourth terrorist attack in just over a week. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, carried out before an expected US-backed offensive in the al-Qaeda and...