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The International Security Assistance Force claimed today that the high tempo of operations against the Taliban over the past three months has put a dent in morale among the Taliban ranks. Also, ISAF provides an estimate on the number of Taliban leaders and fighters killed and captured ("365 insurgent leaders and 2,386 fighters") over the past 90 days Intelligence reports indicate some pockets of low insurgent morale, with some insurgent fighters reluctant to keep fighting and some refusing to assume district commands when commanders are captured or killed, International Security Assistance Force officials in Afghanistan said today ISAF special operations...

highly decorated Navy SEAL from Virginia Beach died Wednesday from injuries sustained in combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, the Navy said Friday. Chief Special Warfare Operator Collin Trent Thomas, 33, was shot while deployed with a SEAL team based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek. As is customary in operations involving the elite commando units, the Navy released no other details about the circumstances of his death

Iraqi security forces backed by US advisers have captured the head of the al Qaeda-linked Ansar al Islam. Abu Abdullah al Shafi, the leader of Ansar al Islam, or Partisans of Islam, was detained along with seven "criminal associates" during raids in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Mansour and Adhamiyah on May 3, US Forces Iraq reported in a press release.

WASHINGTON – National security adviser James Jones said Sunday that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden still spends some time inside Afghanistan. Most recent U.S. estimates have placed bin Laden inside Pakistan...

Don’t ask about the remotely-controlled American drones armed with missiles that are now hunting across the Pakistani border, searching through the mountain peaks, valleys and dusty villages inside Pakistan ....And certainly don’t ask about the troops on bases here in Afghanistan who don’t wear uniforms, have long beards, tattoos and don’t mingle with regular soldiers. They eat in their own chow halls, plan their own missions and don’t talk much. They don’t talk at all to the media. They’re the men who have been called in to cross into Pakistan when the drones can’t get deep enough. They are elite...

DoD Identifies Navy Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Senior Chief Petty Officer Wayne Marcum, 34, of Flushing, Mich., died Sept. 12 from injuries sustained while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan Sept. 11. Marcum was temporarily forward deployed from his assignment at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, Dam Neck, Va. For further information related to this release, contact Naval Special Warfare Command Public Affairs at 619-522-2824. BREAK DoD Identifies Navy Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom....

Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csrnko has dismissed all charges against two Fort Bragg Special Forces who killed an “enemy combatant” who was “under the control of friendly forces” in Afghanistan. Capt. Dave Staffel and Master Sgt. Troy Anderson were accused of premeditated murder in the shooting of Nawab Buntangyar on Oct. 13, 2006, at the village of Ster Kalay near the Pakistan border. Witnesses at an Article 32 hearing — held to determine whether the soldiers should be court-martialed — testified that Nawab was identified as an enemy who was involved with suicide bombers and posed a threat. The man...

Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target' A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago. For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden...

09/25/2007 - By Michael Scheuer (from Terrorism Focus, September 25) - More than six years after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden remains free, healthy and safe enough to produce audio- and videotapes that dominate the international media at the times of his choosing (Terrorism Focus, September 11). Popular and some official attitudes in the United States and its NATO allies tend to denigrate the efforts made by their military and intelligence services to capture the al-Qaeda chief. The common question always is, "Why can't the U.S. superpower and its allies find one 6'5" Saudi with an extraordinarily well-known...

In a new propaganda push, bin Laden calls for war against Pakistan's president and Darfur peacekeepers. Al Qaeda intensified its propaganda campaign Thursday by issuing its third video since the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. In a lengthy commentary, Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims to fight the United States and its allies, targeting the prospect of African Union and United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur. Later on Thursday, Al Qaeda released a new recording of Osama bin Laden declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan's Army. The latest video is an 80-minute compilation of old...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Sept. 17 — From his position about 100 yards away, Master Sgt. Troy Anderson had a clear shot at the Afghan man standing outside a residential compound in a village near the Pakistan border last October. When Capt. Dave Staffel, the Special Forces officer in charge, gave the order to shoot, Sergeant Anderson fired a bullet into the man’s head, killing him. In June, Captain Staffel and Sergeant Anderson were charged with premeditated murder. On Tuesday, in a rare public examination of the rules that govern the actions of Special Operations troops in Afghanistan, a military hearing...

Pro-Taliban cleric killed in Pakistan 15 Sep 2007, 2102 hrs IST,AP SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates PESHAWAR: Assailants opened fire on a car carrying a prominent pro-Taliban cleric in troubled northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing him before fleeing, police said. Maulana Hassan Jan, a senior leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam _ a religious party which controls the provincial government in Pakistan's North West Frontier province _ was traveling through the city of Peshawar when gunmen attacked him. Imtiaz Khan, a local police official, said Jan was going to a mosque for evening prayers when ``terrorists shot and killed him.''...

Army records first UAV kills Hunter UAV kills two enemy fighters during historic flight By Multi-National Division - North PAO Sep 9, 2007 - 6:10:58 PM TIKRIT, Iraq - A Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle engaged and killed two suspected improvised explosive device emplacers overwatching a major thoroughfare for Coalition Forces during a historic flight near Qayyarah, Iraq, in Nineveh province Sept. 1. A scout weapons team from 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, observed the two unknown enemy fighters in a tactical overwatch near the roadside. The SWT requested support from the Hunter UAV. The pilots guided...

By David Tate. As US focus shifts to the east, the conventional Army moves into new territory prompting al Qaeda to call for a jihad within a jihad. The fight against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied extremists in eastern Afghanistan has heated up over the past year. According to a high-level NGO executive, al Qaeda has called for jihadis to flock to Nuristan to help push the Americans out. The open plea from al Qaeda may point to the importance Nuristan has held to the insurgency in this region along the border with Kunar province. Since the start of...

Greatness forged from war Posted: August 31, 2007 This is a story of two stars that burn brightly, one gold and one blue, both bathed in the light of a mother's love. Marc Alan Lee was 28 years old when he gave his own life to save the lives of others who were trapped in a building that was taking heavy fire. He was the first Navy Seal to die in Iraq. As reported by the Blackfive.net military web log, "U.S. Navy officers told his mother, Debbie Lee, that her son died minutes after he single-handedly held off enemy fighters...

Al-Qaeda has no presence in Ramadi anymore -- US Commander MIL-US-IRAQ-QAEDA Al-Qaeda has no presence in Ramadi anymore -- US Commander WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (KUNA) -- A US Commander in Iraq said on Friday that al-Qaeda has no presence in Ramadi anymore in spite of its efforts to claim back the capital of Anbar province. "I can safely say that throughout my area of operations, which is essentially the central portion of Al Anbar, al-Qaeda has been defeated. There are no operational cells within the city, and there are no areas out surrounding the city that have any al-Qaeda influence,"...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - U.S.-led airstrikes hit a Taliban gathering in volatile southern Afghanistan and killed at least three senior figures of the militant group, government officials said Friday. The ministry said its intelligence reports indicated three militant leaders, including Taliban commander for Helmand province Mullah Rahim, were among those killed Thursday. The Taliban commander for all of southern Afghanistan, Dadullah Mansoor, was at the scene but his fate was not immediately known, Azimi said. A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied Rahim was killed. The U.S.-led coalition would not confirm Azimi's account. But a coalition statement said it carried...

17 Taliban fighters at madrassa were said to be killedMIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Explosions at a suspected militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on Tuesday caused casualties, the army said. Three missiles fired from Afghanistan destroyed a training facility in Pakistan, killing 17 militants and wounding 10 others, according to an intelligence official in North Waziristan. But Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad claimed that the explosions were caused when bombs militants were making at an isolated compound exploded accidentally. The intelligence official said it was a local Taliban militant training facility, housed in a big...

Insurgents backed by al-Qa'eda have opened a new "front" on the eastern border of Afghanistan, re-occupying the Tora Bora cave complex from which Osama bin Laden escaped the closing net of US forces in 2001. The "Tora Bora Front", as Taliban propaganda calls it, borders the province of Nangahar and has been active for about three weeks. The complex of deep caves, which proved impervious to US bombing in 2001, sits on an infiltration route from the Spin Ghar mountains between Nangahar province and Pakistan's lawless Tribal Areas, where bin Laden is still thought to be hiding. Western officials and...

KABUL, Afghanistan (May 20) – A significant number of Taleban extremist leaders were successfully targeted and killed in a precision airstrike last night in southern Afghanistan. Initial assessments indicate all of those who died were enemy insurgents. “Combined with the recent demise of Mullah Dadoullah, this strike will, in the short term, push the enemy into confusion and disarray,” said Maj. John Thomas, ISAF spokesman. The precision weapons struck the scene of a gathering of enemy leaders in a remote area, far from any population center. “The extremist leaders are being denied the ability to operate and plan. And that...