BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Nov. 26, 2012) – Afghan and coalition forces located a weapons cache and cleared four improvised explosive devices during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours, Nov. 25.
Ghazni Province
Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces found and safely cleared an IED in Muqer District.
Afghan Uniformed Police and coalition forces discovered a weapons cache in Waghaz District. The cache contained grenades, three barrels of silver nitrate and two receivers.
Khowst Province
Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition forces found and safely cleared an IED in Shamal District.
Category Archives: Reports
Taliban continue slaughter of Muslims; 7 Pakis killed
Pakistani officials say a bomb blast near a minority Shi’ite religious procession has killed seven people, including at least three children, and wounded more than a dozen other people.
Authorities say the attack happened Saturday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, located near the South Waziristan tribal region.
Chronology: The journey of Omar Khadr
Updated: September 29, 2012 | 12:05 pm By Staff The Canadian Press
Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg A Canadian Forces plane stands on the tarmac at CFB Trenton on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Omar Khadr is back in Canada after spending nearly a decade in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
TORONTO – 1975: Egypt-born Ahmed Said Khadr migrates to Canada, meets and marries Maha Elsamnah.
1985: Ahmen Said Khadr moves to Pakistan at the height of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, meets Osama bin Laden.
Sept. 19, 1986: Omar Khadr is born in Toronto, but lives with family in Pakistan until 1995.
1995: Khadr’s father is arrested in connection with the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, but is freed after then-prime minister Jean Chretien raises the arrest with Pakistani counterpart Benazir Bhutto. Continue reading
Despite Efforts, Guatemala Sees Little Progress Against Zetas
Written by Geoffrey Ramsey
While Guatemala is attempting to crack down on the Zetas‘ growing presence inside the country, the Mexican gang has proven itself to be a determined foe and is even expanding its operations, clashing with rival groups and driving up violence.
On May 25 Guatemalan authorities began a trial against 37 alleged Zetas, all of whom are accused of committing violent crimes in the country, including the May 2011 murder and dismemberment of prosecutor Allan Stowlinsky Vidaurre. The murder was likely in reaction to the increased government pressure placed on the Mexican cartel, following their massacre last year of 27 laborers on a ranch in Peten department.
But aside from this trial, the Guatemalan government appears to have made little progress against the ongoing Zetas incursion into the Central American country. The Peten massacre prompted then President Alvaro Colom to declare a state of emergency in the department, imposing a curfew and granting broad search and seizure powers to security forces. This saw an initially promising wave of arrests, and 80 Zetas were held in connection to the massacre. However, this measure failed to curb the group’s power, and many of these detentions did not result in trials. Even the arrest last year of Hugo Alvaro Gomez Vasquez, alias “Comandante Bruja,” a supposed leader of the Zetas faction in Guatemala, did not appear to significantly debilitate the criminal group.
Indeed, not only has the Mexican organization resisted the government’s attempts to counter its influence, but it seems to have thrived. Since cementing their hold on key trafficking routes in the northern departments of Peten, Alta Verapaz and Zacapa in 2008, the Zetas have expanded their operations in the country. On May 31 the Interior Ministry announced that the cartel now operates in more than one third of country, or eight of its 22 departments. Three of these (Zacapa, Chiquimula and Guatemala) are among the five most violent departments in the entire country.
