Daily Security Brief: March 18, 2012

HERAT: Two security officials were killed and a third injured as result of a roadside bombing in western Herat province on Sunday.

The explosion took place in the Shindand district, where a police vehicle struck the bomb, police spokesman, Col. Abdur Rauf Ahmadi, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Col. Mohammad Shah Pajhman, an intelligence official and Lt. Noorudin were killed and Lt. Col. Khuda Dad injured in the explosion.

Shindand Garrison Commander Major. Mohammad Nasim said the police vehicle was hit by the remote-controlled bomb on its way to the military post in Khwaja Orya Shrine area.

–Ahmad Quraishi  

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FARAH: Three Taliban fighters and as many Afghan soldiers were killed and another five militants detained during an operation in the southwestern province of Farah, officials said on Sunday.

“The week-long military offensive to clear Gulistan district of rebels started on March 11 and ended today,” the governor’s spokesman, Naqibullha Farahi, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Two army vehicles that struck roadside bombs were destroyed and three soldiers killed, he said, adding another two troops were wounded during the operation.

Without putting up any resistance, the insurgents fled the area soon after the soldiers’ arrival, according to the gubernatorial spokesman, who said the security situation in Gulistan had improved.

Meanwhile, an official said two intelligence officers were killed as a result of a roadside bombing. Three insurgents were killed and five others detained during a subsequent operation.

Zahin

mds/frm/mud

ISLAMABAD: Fifteen bullet-riddled bodies were found in farms in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, an official said on Sunday.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News on condition of anonymity, a local security officer said the victims were civilians with no links to militants.

A tribal elder of the Spin Qabar area in the Bara sub-district of the Khyber tribal region, Hajji Ahmad, said they could not identify the bodies. He believed the victims were all civilians.

A local reporter, Farooq Afridi, said the victims had been abducted a few days earlier from the Mandi Kas village and their bodies were discovered in the Shekhabad area, 15 kilometres from Bara.

No one has claimed responsibility for the slayings so far.

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KABUL early Sunday morning in the 12th police district of the capital Kabul, police said.

Mohammad Ajan was heading to the mosque when he was attacked by unknown knife-wielding men at about 4am in Shena Bala area on the outskirts of Kabul, Brig. Gen. Waheedullah, the 12th police district chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The 55-year-old succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

Quoting the victim’s relatives, Waheedullah said the man had no personal enmity with anyone and his murder remained a mystery. 

Police have launched a search for the killers but no breakthrough has been achieved so far.

–Frozan Muradi

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