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WASHINGTON, July 9, 2008 – Iraqi soldiers and police are demonstrating increased capability, yet more work needs to be done in view of the continued terrorist threat in Iraq, a senior U.S. military officer said at a Capitol Hill hearing today. Iraq’s security forces acquitted themselves well during recent Iraqi-initiated anti-terrorist operations in Baghdad’s Sadr City section, Basra, Mosul and Amarah, Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, the former commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq and the NATO training mission in Iraq, said in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Army Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick took over command...

KABUL (AFP) — More than 400 militants have been killed in a 10-week-old operation led by US Marines in a remote district of southern Afghanistan but fighters remain in the area, a commander said Wednesday. Marines and British troops under NATO command in late April launched the operation in Garmser district, a desert area on the border with Pakistan described as an insurgent "logistics hub" and key opium-producing centre. Citing figures from Helmand province governor Gulab Mangal, the Marine commanding officer in Afghanistan told reporters in Kabul that more than 400 Taliban-linked rebels had been killed.

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2008 – The enemy in the eastern portion of Iraq’s Anbar province has been neutralized, the coalition commander in the area said today. Video Al-Qaida in Iraq still can launch occasional horrific attacks, but in Ramadi and Fallujah -- once strongholds of the terror group -- security is allowing the region to transfer to provincial Iraqi control, Marine Corps Col. Lewis Craparotta, the area’s coalition commander, told Pentagon reporters in a briefing via satellite from Camp Fallujah today. Still, the colonel said, coalition and Iraqi forces must remain vigilant, as al-Qaida wants to come back into...

Afghan, U.S. troops kill 32 Taliban in clashes Sat Jun 28, 1:00 PM ET Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 32 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, including some who dressed as women in an attempt to escape, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The Taliban opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades on a patrol of Afghan security forces and coalition troops in Uruzgan province on Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

KABUL (AFP) - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed 32 Taliban-linked militants in fighting in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Saturday. The rebels were slain after attacking the forces patrolling in southern Uruzgan province's Khas Uruzgan district on Thursday, the statement said. "A total of 32 militants were killed by Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces in two separate engagements in the Khas Oruzgan District, the statement added. A 10-year-old Afghan child and two Afghan national policemen were wounded during the battle, it added, without giving details on how the child was hurt. The attack, the latest in an...

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition troops killed some 55 Taliban insurgents who ambushed them in southeastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said on Monday. There has been a sharp rise in violence along Afghanistan's eastern frontier in recent months. NATO generals say de-facto ceasefires between Pakistan's new government and militants in its border region free up insurgents to infiltrate into Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents ambushed the coalition forces with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the Zerok district of Paktika province on Friday, a U.S. military statement said. Among those killed were three Taliban leaders. "Around...

ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of Taliban fighters have been killed or wounded after two days of fierce fighting over a strategic area just northwest of Kandahar City that insurgents had taken over at the start of the week. By Thursday, all that remained was the mopping up of small scattered pockets of resistance, jubilant political leaders and Afghan and Canadian military commanders told reporters from a mountainside perch overlooking the entire battlefield in a wide river valley. "This will give them a good lesson," Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said, referring to Taliban insurgents. Mr. Khalid said residents who had...

Just because the U.S. military now lacks what defense eggheads call a peer competitor — a country capable of beating us in a head-to-head confrontation — that doesn't mean it lacks for imagination in conjuring fearful foes. Sure, it was easier for John F. Kennedy to blow smoke about a non-existent "missile gap" with the Soviet Union, or for Ronald Reagan to convince us of the need for a "Star Wars" missile shield when Moscow was still our superpower rival (it may no longer be, but we're still spending $10 billion annually on missile defenses). Snip...The scientists also warn that...

The Enemy Has a Name   By Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, June 17, 2008 If you cannot name your enemy, how can you defeat it? Just as a physician must identify a disease before curing a patient, so a strategist must identify the foe before winning a war. Yet Westerners have proven reluctant to identify the opponent in the conflict the U.S. government variously (and euphemistically) calls the "global war on terror," the "long war," the "global struggle against violent extremism," or even the "global struggle for security and progress." This timidity translates into an inability to define...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – Afghan and coalition forces killed 35 insurgents during operations yesterday and June 14, military officials said. Afghan national security forces and coalition forces killed 20 militants who attacked a combined reconnaissance patrol in the Deh Chopan district of Afghanistan’s Zabul province yesterday. Officials said the militants attacked the combined forces with rockets, mortars and small-arms fire in a mountainous river valley. Afghan and coalition forces returned fire and called in precision aircraft strikes to kill the militants. During a June 14 operation, 15 insurgents were killed after they attacked a combined Afghan and coalition patrol...

Mexico is beginning to look like a real war zone. The headlines in the news media are reminiscent of those from some of the most brutal days of the Iraq War. They speak of executions, beheadings, cryptic messages and dozens of people killed in a single day. But the war against drugs that Mexico is waging is not one that can easily eliminate the enemies. snip The Mexican government has made the fight against drugs its No. 1 priority.snip The rival drug cartels are killing each other off, law enforcement agents are hunting down drug dealers, and their hit men...

An al-Qaeda trainer and explosives specialist involved in a range of European terrorist networks has been killed in Pakistan, the latest senior militant to die in a spate of controversial American missile strikes. The death two weeks ago of Abu Suleiman al-Jazairi, a highly experienced Algerian militant, has been confirmed only in the last few days, intelligence sources in Pakistan and Western Europe told The Observer. Al-Jazairi, thought to have been 45, died along with at least 15 others when the house in which he was staying in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal district was hit by a missile fired from a...

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi security forces shot dead at least 11 suspected Al-Qaeda operatives who were hiding in a sheep truck near the northern city of Tikrit on Friday, the defence ministry said. The men were killed in fighting at a checkpoint between ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and Baiji, ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said. "Members of the Iraqi special forces intercepted a truck transporting animals, but there were 11 Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in it," Askari told AFP, adding that one of the men was a foreigner from an unidentified Arab nation. Askari said the...

WASHINGTON -- An Al Qaeda figure killed in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan last week is believed to have been an Algerian allegedly involved in training militants and plotting attacks against the West, officials said Friday. The Algerian, known by the nickname Abu Sulayman Jazairi, apparently died May 14 in the strike that killed as many as 14 people and destroyed a compound near the village of Damadola, an Al Qaeda stronghold in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. A knowledgeable U.S. official and a senior European anti-terrorism official said Jazairi was thought to be dead.U.S. anti-terrorism forces are targeting front-line planners...

HAWIJAH, Iraq, May 21, 2008 – Sheiks, villagers and coalition troops attended a May 18 reconciliation meeting at Forward Operating Base McHenry. The sixth meeting under Operation Restore Peace afforded a pathway toward reconciliation to combatants who have been linked to attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. The program, which citizens call “Musalaha,” has been credited -- along with the Sons of Iraq program, in which local people aid security efforts -- with more than a 90 percent decrease in violent attacks against both forces and civilians in the Hawijah district, about 60 miles southwest of Kirkuk in Iraq’s Tamim...

Arkan Hasnawi. Click the image to view wanted the Mahdi Army leaders in Baghdad. The US military killed a senior member of the Mahdi Army, according US and Mahdi Army sources. Arkan Hasnawi, a senior lieutenant of the Mahdi Army commander in Sadr City, was killed in a guided rocket strike in Sadr City on March 3. The news of Hasnawi's death comes as details emerge on the senior leadership of the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and the blurring of the lines between Sadr's militia and the Special Groups. Hasnawi was among several senior Mahdi Army leaders killed or...

It was a typical quiet morning on April 22, with the temperature intensifying as a bright orange sun emerged high from the horizon. Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, and Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, RCT-1, were standing post, just as they’ve done numerous times before. During a standard length watch in a small checkpoint protected by concrete barriers where they overlooked the small gravel road, lined with palm trees leading to their entry control point. However, this morning would be different. Quickly...

BAGHDAD — When the Surge Strategy is documented in history, the Sons of Iraq program will be listed as one of its successes. Now, long-term plans are being developed so that gains aren’t lost as its members transition into other roles. In the past year, the SoI have been instrumental in transforming the security landscape of Iraq. Since the start of the program, areas where SoI operate have witnessed an unprecedented drop in violence and terrorist-related activities. Currently, about 36,000 SoI operate in Multi-National Division – Center, the region South and Southeast of Baghdad. Organized via local tribal authorities, SoI...

A prominent member of al Qaeda was killed in fighting with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Sunday. Abu Suleiman al-Otaibi, formerly one of the group's leaders in Iraq, was killed in a "fierce battle with the worshipers of the cross" in Paktia, it said without giving the date of the battle. Another al Qaeda member, identified as Abu Dejana al-Qahtani, also died in the fighting, it added. Afghan officials said they had no information on the report. But the government earlier said in a statement that "five opposition" fighters...

In this earlier thread I commented on the incredible ignorant statement by Obama that FDR and Truman talked to our enemies: The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it’s not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies – like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did. Its a breathtaking quote and...

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed at least three enemy fighters, captured 55 suspects, and seized weapons in Iraq over the past three days, military officials said. In Iraq today: -- Coalition troops detained four suspected terrorists during raids in Mosul targeting members of the local al-Qaida in Iraq network responsible for attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. -- Using information gleaned in previous operations, coalition forces detained four suspected terrorists in a separate raid in Mosul. -- Iraqi and coalition forces captured two wanted men and two additional suspects 15 miles northwest of Baghdad. One...

The apparent respite in yesterday's fighting was illusionary as US forces killed an additional 27 Mahdi Army fighters and a senior Special Groups leader during a series of engagements in the afternoon and throughout the night in Sadr City. One of the larger clashes occurred as US force were attacked while constructing the barrier that divides the southern portion of Sadr city where US and Iraqi troops have established a foothold. The fighting began just before noon as Mahdi Army fighters attacked US troops with rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire as they were building the concrete security barrier...

U.S. and Iraqi troops killed 38 militants in fierce clashes with militants in Baghdad, including 22 who attacked a military checkpoint in a Shiite militia stronghold, the U.S. military said Monday. Suspected Shiite extremists, apparently taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed the capital, attacked several checkpoints and hammered the U.S.-protected Green Zone in the fiercest salvo in weeks on Sunday. The sandstorm had grounded the American aircraft that normally prowl for launching teams. -The clashes on Sunday concentrated in Sadr City, the stronghold of the Mahdi Army, where American soldiers used Abrams main battle tanks to repel the attackers....

US and Iraqi troops continue to battle the Mahdi Army in Baghdad. Forty-one Mahdi Army fighters were killed in recent clashes in Baghdad and Hussaniyah. Twenty-two were killed in a single engagement as they attack a checkpoint in Baghdad. Most of the Mahdi Army fighters were killed as they attacked checkpoints and patrols during a sandstorm in Baghdad. Mahdi Army fighters used the sandstorm to take advantage of the lack of air cover to attack US and Iraqi positions in eastern and northeastern Baghdad. Helicopters, fighters and unmanned aerial vehicles were grounded due to lack of visibility. The biggest clash...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi police say gunmen have assassinated a local commander of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra. A police official says Ali Ghalib, a commander of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in the Hakimiya neighborhood in central Basra, was gunned down by gunmen on a motorcycle as he was driving on Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The assassination comes amid intensified clashes between al-Sadr's followers and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

US forces have killed a leading military commander in Al-Qaeda and three of his aides in an air strike in Saladdin district, according to an Iraqi police source on Saturday. The source told KUNA that the US forces targeted the car that the operatives were driving with a missile, and identified the commander as Mohammad Muzahem Al-Harbouni. The operation took place 25 km east of Sammara.

FrontPageMag.com April 24, 2008 Virginia Muslim police sergeant who tipped off jihadist gets probation Let's see. He hindered a counter terrorism case, may have tipped off the jihadist more than once, and checked to see if his own name was on the terror watch list. For that he gets six months probation, from a judge who clearly has no idea whatsoever of the larger issues involved in the case. Will he retain his job with the police? Is anyone concerned that he may again aid jihadists who are waging war against the United States? Is anyone with any influence asking...

BAGHDAD - Muqtada al-Sadr is considering setting aside his political ambitions and restarting a full-scale fight against U.S.-led forces — a worrisome shift that may reflect Iranian influence on the young cleric and could open the way for a shadow state protected by his powerful Mahdi Army. A possible breakaway path — described to The Associated Press by Shiite lawmakers and politicians — would represent the ultimate backlash to the Iraqi government's pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia. By snubbing the give-and-take of politics, al-Sadr would have a freer hand to carve out a kind of...

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces killed or captured dozens of terrorists and criminal militia members during multiple engagements in Iraq yesterday, military officials said. In Suq Ash Shuyukh, southeast of Nasiriyah, Iraq, a combined force of more than 300 Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics personnel, advised by U.S. Special Operations Forces, killed 40 criminal militia members and arrested an additional 40 after the Iraqi forces were attacked by the militia members. Using assault rifles and automatic weapons, the criminal militia attacked Iraqi Security Forces in the morning. Regional police and Army...

Bilal Hamuda Machmud Zaalah, head of the Islamic Jihad in Qabatya, and his deputy, Adin Machmud Hasani Avidot, also a member of the terrorist group, were killed today during a joint operation by the IDF and the ISA near Jenin. Forces from a reconnaissance battalion in the Paratrooper Brigade surrounded an area suspected to be the site in which the two men were hiding and then identified the two hiding in a in a nearby vehicle. After confirming that the two men were armed, forces fired at the wanted men, killing both. The forces uncovered explosives, an M-16 rifle equipped...

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2008 – Extremism is the enemy of success in Iraq, whether in the form of Iranian-backed "special groups,” criminal militias or al-Qaida, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. “It’s those who are not willing to participate in the political process and do so peacefully -- those are the enemy. And those we are trying to help are trying to build a stable government and a stable country,” Gates said speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Gates fielded questions ranging from the strain on the military to how quickly the U.S. will be able to withdraw more...

Petraeus and Crocker Meet the Real Enemy By Michael Reagan FrontPageMagazine.com | 4/11/2008 There must have been times when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker thought they were back in embattled Sadr City when they faced Democrats on Capitol Hill this week -- no Iraqi insurgents or al Sadr militiamen could have been more hostile. No wonder. The goals of the Democrats and both al Qaeda and al Sadr insurgents are the same: the defeat of the United States in the war in Iraq. From the opening statement by Sen. Carl Levin -- a vitriolic tirade against the war...

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April 07, 2008 © 2008 WorldNetDaily A group of concerned citizens has been raising alarms about the Islamic elements planned for the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pa., for years. And a member of Congress has demanded the National Park Service make changes in its plans. But there's been no substantive response, and now the activists say it's time for the American people to let officials know whether they want to pay for and have installed in the memorial a crescent that points to Mecca to make up a "mihrab," the foundational point for every Islamic mosque, a tower that...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi security forces killed 48 insurgents and captured 11 others during a series of operations conducted across Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported. In operations yesterday: -- Coalition forces in western Baghdad captured an alleged associate of al Qaeda in Iraq’s southern belt leadership. -- North of Baghdad, coalition forces encountered two persons armed with AK-47 rifles. Perceiving hostile intent, the coalition force engaged the armed men, killing them. Four other suspected terrorists were detained. -- U.S. soldiers killed five militants during a firefight in eastern Baghdad. -- In southeastern Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers under...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — At least 461 people were killed in week-long clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in Iraq, according to an AFP tally based on reports by security officials. Fighting erupted on Tuesday when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered security forces to crack down on strongholds of Shiite militiamen, mostly those loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in the southern port city of Basra.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. warplane strafed snipers in the southern city of Basra, killing at least 16 suspected militants after Iraqi troops came under heavy fire, the American military said Iraqi police earlier claimed eight civilians, including two women and a child, had been killed in a predawn airstrike in the Hananiyah neighborhood, a known Shiite militia stronghold. But Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, said U.S. and Iraqi special operations forces had identified snipers on several roofs before the strike was ordered. An AC-130 gunship then opened fire on enemy positions on three roofs. "Initial reports indicate 16...

BAGHDAD – A patrol consisting of 8th Iraqi Army Division Scouts and U.S. Special Forces Soldiers was attacked by criminal elements in southeastern Suwayrah March 29. Iraqi and U.S. Forces repelled the attack, killing 13 enemy fighters.Iraqi and U.S. Forces conducted a presence patrol in Suwayrah. During the patrol, an Iraqi woman approached the patrol and told them a criminal member lived in a nearby house. Iraqi and U.S. Forces searched the house, finding nine rocket propelled grenades and criminal propaganda.Shortly after continuing their patrol, a U.S. SF Soldier identified six armed individuals exiting a cargo truck, posturing to attack...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers engaged and killed 23 criminals in separate engagements in Baghdad March 28. Soldiers from 2nd BCT, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), killed one criminal in northeastern Baghdad after seeing the individual with a rocket propelled grenade launcher in an alleyway during a patrol. At approximately 4 p.m., a 3rd BCT, 4th Infantry Division vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in northeastern Baghdad. A number of criminals then fired on the soldiers while they attempted to recover the vehicle. Soldiers spotted and engaged two of the attackers, killing them both. Iraqi security forces and...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2008 – Coalition forces killed 15 terrorists and detained 17 suspects during operations today targeting al Qaeda in Iraq elements in Baghdad and in central and northern parts of the country. They also killed or captured dozens of others in other recent operations, military officials reported. -- Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers engaged and killed 13 terrorists in separate engagements in Baghdad. At about 4 a.m., terrorists using small-arms fire attacked soldiers from 237th Engineer Battalion in eastern Baghdad. An air weapons team responded, engaged the enemy forces and killed four terrorists. -- Three hours later, soldiers from...

Hilla, Mar 26, (VOI)- More than 60 gunmen were killed on Wednesday evening as U.S. choppers fired rockets against buildings used by gunmen in central Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, Iraqi security source said. "U.S. copters bombed sites used by gunmen in Hilla's neighborhoods of al-Askari, Ahmed Nader and Muhaizem, killing more than 60 militants and destroying some houses," the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI). From his part, Abdellatif Rayan, an MNF-Iraq media adviser told VOI that the operation was carried out as Iraqi forces requested an air support while clashing with gunmen...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers killed 24 terrorists March 26 in Baghdad.Soldiers combined with their Iraqi counterparts to conduct precision, intelligence-based operations in the capital. These terrorists and militant elements were increasing their attacks against civilians, the Government of Iraq, and Iraqi and U.S. security forces.Soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, killed a terrorist during rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire attacks on a checkpoint in eastern Baghdad at approximately noon.Abna al-Iraq, or Sons of Iraq, killed a terrorist approximately 4:30 p.m.The SOI apprehended the man northwest of Baghdad. The terrorist had...

A U.S. air strike killed five terrorists and wounded several other insurgents from among a group that was attempting to emplace a roadside bomb in the Basra, Iraq, area yesterday, U.S. military officials said. Coalition forces killed the five suspected terrorists and wounded several others after a group of about 10 individuals were spotted conducting suspicious activity in Basra’s Hyyaniyah district. After verifying the individuals were burying what appeared to be a roadside bomb, coalition forces directed an air strike against the enemy force. There were no coalition-force casualties. In other recent operations: -- U.S. helicopter crews destroyed 10 rocket-launching...

19,000 insurgents killed in Iraq since '03 By Jim Michaels - September 2007 ? More than 19,000 militants have been killed in fighting with coalition forces since the insurgency began more than four years ago, according to military statistics released for the first time. The statistics show that 4,882 militants were killed in clashes with coalition forces this year, a 25% increase over all of last year. The increase in enemy deaths this year reflects more aggressive tactics adopted by American forces and an additional 30,000 U.S. troops ordered by the White House this year. U.S. and Iraqi forces launched...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 – Coalition forces killed two armed insurgents yesterday during an operation designed to degrade Taliban command and control networks in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Coalition forces searched an area in the Kama district targeting a Taliban sub-commander responsible for facilitating anti-coalition activities. The targeted individual also is associated with roadside-bomb operations, officials said. “Two insurgents armed with AK-47s, ammunition vests and hand grenades were discovered during the search for the targeted Taliban sub-commander,” Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition forces spokesman, said. “The insurgents were killed when they posed a credible threat to coalition forces members attempting...

BAGHDAD, March 23 (KUNA) -- Up to 15 Al-Qaeda operatives were killed Sunday in an air raid by US fighter jets over Diyala district, northeast of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security sources told KUNA that the American planes shelled Al-Qaeda hideouts in the village of Baladros, southeast of Baqouba, Diyala's largest city, killing 15 members of Al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, official spokesman for the law implementation plan Major General Qassem Atta said no military attire would be on sale at markets to prevent suicide bombers from impersonating security personnel.

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2008 – Coalition forces in Iraq killed 12 terrorists today during an operation east of Baqouba targeting members of a suicide bombing network, military officials said. The ground force was attacked with small-arms fire as it approached the targeted building. Responding to the hostile threat, coalition forces engaged five armed men, killing them, officials said. The ground forces ordered the occupants to come out of the building. Some complied with the order, but others remained inside, according to officials. Coalition forces entered the building and were fired upon by several armed men. Seven more terrorists were killed...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 19, 2008 – A coalition military operation in Afghanistan’s Khowst province today resulted in several enemy fighters being killed, but also claimed the lives of two innocent civilians, military officials here reported. Fighting erupted when coalition forces were searching compounds in the Nadar Shahkot district, targeting a militant named Bismullah, who is known for conducting improvised-explosive-device attacks and weapons facilitation operations. “Several armed militants, two of whom were barricaded in a building, opened fire on coalition forces after they entered the compound,” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition forces spokesman. “Coalition forces returned fire,...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan — Missiles destroyed the house of a suspected militant leader Sunday in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, killing about 20 people, witnesses and state-run media reported. The Pakistani military said five or six explosions were heard near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, but it could not confirm the cause. There were casualties, but it was unclear how many, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman. State-run Pakistan Television said seven missiles were involved in Sunday's strike in a tribal area of South Waziristan. The report did not indicate where the missiles...

Study: Antiwar Reporting Helps U.S. Enemies Thursday , March 13, 2008 Insurgents in Iraq get a boost from coverage in the news media that shows support for troop withdrawals from the war torn country, according to a study. Two Harvard University economists found that insurgent groups are responsive to "antiresolve" statements in the media. "It shows that the various insurgent groups do respond to incentives and shows that a successful counter insurgency strategy should take that reality into account," Jonathan Monten, a co-author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, told...