Free Republic

Sweden plans to join Libya no-fly zone with fighter jets, but no ground attacks By The Associated Press – 1 hour ago STOCKHOLM — Sweden plans to send up to eight fighter jets to help enforce the U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over Libya after receiving a request for assistance from NATO, the prime minister said Tuesday. Fredrik Reinfeldt, who leads Sweden's centre-right coalition government, said the JAS 39 Gripen planes cannot be used for attacking ground targets. The Swedish offer also includes a transport plane and 130 personnel and will be made available for three months, Reinfeldt told lawmakers. The proposal...

"A regional Taliban commander has warned that Swedes serving in Afghanistan will be the target of reprisals following the killing of three of the guerrilla group’s fighters by Swedish troops last week. “Revenge will come. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week. But it will come,” the Taliban leader told the TT news agency in an interview published on Wednesday. “Swedes will be killed.”"

Swedish military forces were involved in a battle in Aqchah in northern Afghanistan on Thursday night. No Swedish soldiers have been reported injured. The battle began around 6.30pm on Thursday night when opposition groups ambushed the Swedish troops. The Swedes were in armoured wheeled vehicles and later received reinforcements from several soldiers in a Combat Vehicle 90. “The firefights were intermittant during the evening and night,” Veronica Sandström, press officer for the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten), told the TT news agency. The Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reported Friday that three members of the attacking troops were killed and an additional...

Swedish naval personnel arrested seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Swedish Armed Forces. The pirates were apprehended by staff from the HMS Malmö as they attempted to board a Greek cargo vessel halfway between Yemen and Somalia. HMS Malmö was ordered to respond to a distress signal sent out shortly before 1.30am by the M/V Antonis. The cargo ship's crew said they had come under rocket-proppeled grenade fire from two boats manned by pirates. When the Swedish crew arrived at the scene the pirates were attempting...

Swedish soldiers deployed in Afghanistan have been contacted via Facebook in an attempt to glean secret military information, according to Dagens Nyheter newspaper. It is unclear if one or more individuals - or an organization - are behind the incident. Mårten Wallén, head of the information security unit at the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Agency (MUST), confirmed the incident, although he did not want to reveal the number of soldiers who had been involved. The contact has occurred gradually, he said. No one claimed to be an old friend, but rather used statements such as "how fun that you...

On a videotaped message Mr. Osama Bin Laden once launched this particular message: "Contrary to what [President George W.] Bush says and claims -- that we hate freedom --let him tell us then, "Why did we not attack Sweden?" (Oct 2004) -- You sure are a convincing videotape artist, Mr. bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden. According to Al-Qaeda logic, there are more similarities between the Al-Qaeda concept of freedom and the Swedish one than that of the US and Sweden. If jumping to that conclusion was child's play, how about this delicate challenge: "Why is Sweden attacking you?" The...

One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday. The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team. "Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said. "The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in Mazar-i-Sharif...

One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday. The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team. "Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said. "The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in...