War News for Wednesday, February 27, 2013

'Drop' in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan is clerical error

Afghan Sign of Progress Turns Out to Be Error - The American-led NATO coalition said Tuesday that it had discovered a clerical error in its reporting and that the number of enemy-initiated attacks — defined as attacks with guns, mortars, rockets or improvised explosive devices — remained constant from 2011 to 2012.


Reported security incidents
#1: Militants shot dead 17 people overnight, including 10 local Police officers, as the victims slept, in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The attack took place at a police outpost in Ghazni province, according to the provincial governor. In addition to the officers, seven of their friends and relatives who were spending the night were also killed, Gov. Musa Khan Akbarzada said.

#2: In a separate incident, a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan National Army bus in western Kabul, injuring six personnel and one civilian, according to Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi.

#3: A local journalist working for a Pakistani newspaper and TV news channel was shot down Wednesday by unknown gunmen in restive North Waziristan agency, family members said. According to family members, Malik Mumtaz, a correspondent for The News and Geo News, was shot dead Wednesday in his home town of Miranshah in the militancy hit tribal region.

#4: Two police personnel were found dead in their checkpost in Kandahar City last night, an official said Tuesday. The Kandaahr governor's spokesman Javed Faisal told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) the incident was being probed to ascertain the nature of their death. Meanwhile, the Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi told the AIP these policemen had been killed with the help of an infiltrator.