Free Republic

A US helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan has killed 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers, President Hamid Karzai's office says. US media reports that many of those killed were from the elite Navy SEALs. Neither the US nor Nato have confirmed the cause, but witnesses, officials and the Taliban say it was shot down. The incident is believed to be the biggest single loss of life for US forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. The Chinook helicopter went down overnight in Wardak province, the statement from President Karzai's office said. It was returning from an operation...

The likely death of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has reportedly initiated a meeting of the Taliban shura to choose his successor. Hakeemullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain Mehsud, both cousins of Baitullah, have long been thought to be the main rivals for leadership of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, the group Baitullah formed in December 2007. Others mentioned include Waliur Rahman, a Taliban commander in Bajaur, and Azmatullah Mehsud, a close aide to Baitullah. Hakeemullah is reported to be in the lead to fill Baitullah's role as the emir of the Pakistani Taliban, according to...

Excerpt - Karachi, 24 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged. The suspect, Qari Zafar (photo), has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province. Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to...

Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal prosecutors opened their case recently in the terrorism trial of a young American who studied under two Taliban-tied imams in California and whose grandfather was Pakistan’s minister of religion in the 1980’s. The trial of Hamid Hayat, 23, is not taking place in the dark of night nor in a military tribunal from which the media is barred. It is in an open California courtroom, the very kind that has been overrun for trials of the likes of Scott Peterson and O.J. Simpson. Yet in the month of February, the New York Times had exactly...

KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban commander was shot dead and an American soldier died in a training accident as violence continued ahead of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections scheduled for next month, officials said on Friday. A U.S. military statement said Qari Amadullah was killed near Wazikhwa in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.