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NEWS ABOUT: Helmand province

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Taliban Hangs 8-Year-Old Afghan Boy

Father refused to give militants a police vehicle

(Newser) - The Taliban has hanged an 8-year-old boy, in tragic retribution after the boy's cop father refused to give militants a police vehicle, reports CNN. The child was kidnapped Friday in the southern province of Helmand, and killed at an unknown point after that. President Hamid Karzai condemned the boy'... More »

NATO Sorry for Afghan Civilian Deaths

Insurgents hid in a civilian compound, says NATO commander

(Newser) - NATO apologized earlier today for an airstrike that killed at least nine civilians in the insurgent-plagued Helmand province of Afghanistan, reports AP . "I want to offer my sincere apologies for the nine civilians who were killed during the incident in Nawzad district, Helmand province," said the southwest regional... More »

Loyal Dog Follows Soldier to Death

They'll rest in peace together, says pal of Liam Tasker, Theo

(Newser) - A soldier's loyal bomb-sniffing dog died just hours after his master was killed in an Afghanistan firefight, and his family believes the pooch died from a broken heart. British Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, 26, was shot dead in Helmand Province with his springer spaniel, Theo, at his side. Theo had... More »

US Sending Tanks to Afghanistan for First Time

The 68-ton machines have a main gun that can destroy a home a mile away

(Newser) - The US military is deploying a company of heavily armored tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war, in response to the ever-more intense opposition NATO is encountering from the Taliban. Marines in the southwest will get a batch of M1 Abrams tanks, which will allow them... More »

Entire Afghan Police Station Defects to Taliban

19 cops cut a deal with insurgents, sack, burn station

(Newser) - An entire Afghan police station defected to the Taliban today, with as many as 19 officers joining insurgent fighters in sacking and burning their own station, the New York Times reports. The lone remaining cop of the station southwest of Kabul—the chief—said that the turncoats took their guns,... More »

July Deadliest Month for US in Afghanistan

Three more American deaths bring total to 63

(AP) - Three US service members have been killed in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 63 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the war. The three died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan yesterday. US and NATO commanders had warned that... More »

Afghans: NATO Strike Targeted Civilians

Villagers: 52 civilians killed in Helmand skirmish

(Newser) - Amidst the flood of leaked news of previously unreported civilian casualties in Afghanistan, angry Afghans say a NATO rocket attack on their Helmand province town on Friday deliberately targeted civilians, killing 52. "The foreign forces could see us," a villager who claims 17 members of his extended family... More »

Afghan Cops Kill 64 in Drug Busts

36K pounds of narcotic seized in Helmand raid

(Newser) - Afghan cops say they have killed 64 militants and drug traffickers during a 3-day operation in Helmand province, according to law enforcement authorities. Ten other people were arrested and 36,000 pounds of narcotics were seized, along with weapons and suicide vests. Afghan authorities said that the dozens of people... More »

Pilot Shot in Head Still Lands With Afghan Injured

Hangs onto controls with blood in his eyes

(Newser) - A British pilot shot in the head managed to land his aging helicopter full of Afghanistan war wounded in a safe zone. Lt. Ian Fortune, 28, has ferrying wounded on a Chinook chopper last month when it suddenly "shuddered," said reporter Mike Brewer, who was on board doing... More »

Afghan Flag Raised in Marjah

Government aims to win residents' allegiance with jobs, projects

(Newser) - The Afghan flag was raised today in Marjah after a two-week offensive that left at least 10 coalition troops and 150 Taliban fighters dead and set the stage for the Afghan government’s hopeful return to an area it ceded two years ago. The governor of Helmand province was at... More »

Marjah Taliban 'Running Out of Gas'

Commaders say half town's fighters are dead or fled

(Newser) - The number of Taliban fighters in Marjah has dropped by half and morale is fading fast among the rest, according to American and Afghan commanders. Some 100 of the 400 fighters in the area when the AFghan offensive began Saturday have been killed and commanders say close to 100 more... More »

NATO Strike Kills 12 Afghan Civilians

Rocket misses target by 1000 yards; McChrystal apologizes to Karzai

(AP) - Twelve Afghans died today when two rockets fired at insurgents missed their target by 1,000 feet and struck a house during the second day of NATO's ambitious effort to break the Taliban's grip on the country's dangerous south. Thousands of US and Afghan forces encountered pockets of resistance, fighting... More »

Taliban: We Still Control Marjah

Insurgents deny NATO's claims of early success

(AP) - A Taliban spokesman says Afghan insurgents are still in control of the southern town of Marjah amid ongoing fighting with NATO and Afghan forces. Spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by phone today that Taliban fighters are holding their ground, and that Afghan government claims of 20 dead Taliban fighters were... More »

US, Afghan Troops Ring Taliban Stronghold

Battle for Marjah to be the biggest in 9-year war

(AP) - US and Afghan forces ringed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah yesterday, sealing off escape routes and setting the stage for what is being described as the biggest offensive of the 9-year war. Taliban defenders repeatedly fired rockets and mortars at units poised in foxholes along the edge of the town,... More »

'Hurt Locker' Brit Dies Disarming Afghan Bomb

NATO preparing massive assault on Taliban stronghold

(Newser) - A British soldier with the kind of chillingly dangerous job featured in the movie Hurt Locker has been killed disarming a roadside bomb to clear a route for a new Afghan offensive. Warrant Officer David Markland, 36, had survived 8 stints in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Times of London... More »

US Kills 16 in Rare Afghanistan Drone Attacks

UAVs typically stick to neighboring Pakistan

(Newser) - Unmanned US drones killed 16 insurgents in a pair of airstrikes within Afghanistan yesterday, the military announced today, in an unusual case of the drones being used inside Afghan borders. The drones are typically used only for assaults over the border in Pakistan—and by the CIA, not the US... More »

3 US Troops Killed in Afghan Fighting

At least 10 have died this month

(Newser) - Three US servicemembers were killed in battle in southern Afghanistan today, the latest casualties of the escalated fighting in the region that's accompanied President Obama's troop surge. NATO said the men died in an engagement with the enemy, but gave no further details. Earlier today, authorities said another servicemember and... More »

16 Cops Killed in Afghanistan

Two attacks target checkpoints

(Newser) - Militants slaughtered 16 police officers in two separate attacks in Afghanistan today. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in Northeastern Baglan Province and one in Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand Province in the south. At least two attackers were also killed in the firefight. It wasn't immediately clear... More »

Marines Launch Large Attack in S. Afghanistan

'Cobra's Anger' aims to disrupt flow of IEDs in Helmand province

(AP) - US Marines and Afghan troops today launched the first offensive since President Obama announced an American troop surge, striking against Taliban communications and supply lines in a southern insurgent stronghold. In all, about 1,000 Marines as well as Afghan troops were taking part in the operation in Helmand provvince,... More »

Obama Takes Fight to Pashtuns

New strategy will result in immediate spike in battles

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s new strategy will result in an immediate spike in combat clashes, as the US directly advances on the ethnic Pashtuns in eastern and southern Afghanistan. The first wave of reinforcements is already moving, reports David Wood in Politics Daily, with marines expected to begin landing in the... More »

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