Tag: Troops

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani troops rescued Turkish ambassador to Ivory Coast and nine Nigerian citizens during the recent turmoil in the western African state.
"Pakistan Army troops rescued Turkish ambassador at Ivory Coast Yekcin Kaga Erensoi along with three other staff members, Golant, Mahmut (third secretary) and Ali Ahisk at Ivory Coast (Abidjan) on 11 April 2011," said an ISPR statement issued here on Wednesday.
Turkish ambassador was trapped in a hotel in a volatile

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was arrested on Monday after French armoured vehicles closed in on the compound where he has been holed up in a bunker. A column of more than 30 French armoured vehicles moved in on Gbagbo's residence in central Abidjan after helicopter gunships attacked the compound overnight. "Yes, he has been arrested," Affoussy Bamba, a spokeswoman for Ouattara, told Reuters. Earlier a Gbagbo adviser in Paris had told Reuters that French special forces had

BAGHDAD - Iraq's fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will "escalate military resistance" and unleash his Mehdi Army militia if US troops fail to leave Iraq as scheduled this year, his aides said on Saturday.
On the 8th anniversary of the day US forces toppled Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, senior Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji told tens of thousands of followers: "We say to the Black House (White House), 'we are all time bombs and the detonators are at the hands of Moqtada

BAGHDAD - Iraq's fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will "escalate military resistance" and unleash his Mehdi Army militia if U.S. troops fail to leave Iraq as scheduled this year, his aides said on Saturday.
On the 8th anniversary of the day U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, senior Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji told tens of thousands of followers: "We say to the Black House (White House), 'we are all time bombs and the detonators are at the hands of

KABUL - British troops killed an Afghan woman and wounded a woman and a child in a car accident in Kabul on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief said, adding that initial reports a man had been shot dead at the scene were wrong.
Spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai said information he had initially given out, that two women and a man had been killed, was the result of miscommunication between security forces. The accident came at a time of heightened anti-Western sentiment

JAMMU - A top Indian Army Commander blamed that China's presence in Pakistan -administered Kashmir is "increasing steadily" and its troops are "actually present" along the Line of Control (LoC), , adding the Chinese footprints are "too close for comfort" for India.
"Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily. There are many people who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between us and Pakistan, what would be the

MAZAR-I-SHARIF - NATO troops killed several people in northern Afghanistan overnight, giving rise to conflicting accounts of whether they were insurgents or civilians, officials said Tuesday. The incident came as international troops raided a house in the relatively peaceful northern Afghan province of Sari Pul late Monday.
The provincial governor, Sayed Anwar Rahmati, told AFP the raid had killed six civilians. "Foreign troops stormed a house in Sayyad district last night,

MAZAR-I-SHARIF - NATO troops killed six civilians during a night raid on a house in northern Afghanistan's Sar-e Pul province late, the provincial governor told Reuters.
The NATO-led force said soldiers on a joint operation with Afghan troops had killed five men who were armed and opened fire on them. They are investigating the identity of the dead men, a spokesman said.
Afghans are allowed by law to own guns, and in rural areas many do, to protect against threats from

ABIDJAN - France ordered more troops into Ivory Coast to protect civilians on Monday as forces backing presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara prepared a "lightning" assault to remove Laurent Gbagbo from power. As hundreds of pro-Ouattara soldiers gathered on the outskirts of Abidjan, waiting to launch what they say will be the final assault to unseat Gbagbo, explosions could be heard from the direction of the presidential palace. Gbagbo has refused to cede power after a disputed

LAHORE - Eleven soldiers were injured when a security forces' convoy was attacked with a remote-controlled device in Khyber Agency on Saturday, a private TV channel reported. Official sources said militants detonated the bomb when the security forces were conducting a search operation in Akakhel area. One vehicle was destroyed in the attack. All the injured soldiers were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar, sources said.

KANDAHAR - Foreign troops killed two Afghan civilians in restive southern Kandahar city on Thursday, a police detective said, days after the publication of gruesome photos of the body of an unarmed teenager murdered by U.S. soldiers nearby.
NATO soldiers opened fire after a car with brake failure sped towards a checkpoint set up by foreign and Afghan troops, who thought the vehicle was part of a suicide attack, said Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, a senior detective in Kandahar city. Two

PESHAWAR - A militant ambush on a convoy of security forces in Shindhand area of Khyber Agency left 14 personnel dead on Monday, officials said. "The personnel were returning to their base after carrying out a search operation in the nearby Sipah area when ambushed by militants," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said most of the casualties were caused when one of the mortars targeting the militants exploded in the barrel of the gun. "Those

BERLIN - The German parliament has approved sending more troops to Afghanistan, according to reports.
The German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle defended Berlin's decision to be a relief to Nato forces.
Mr Westerwelle said that they can focus on military operation in the war-hit North African nation, according to reports.
"We will not send German soldiers to Libya, but that does not mean that we will put our allies in danger. We do not want to seem neutral. We helped

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey have launched a week-long tripartite military exercise at Tuzla in Turkey, said an ISPR statement issued here on Friday. "The three countries decided to hold joint exercises at the conclusion of the 5th Trilateral Summit in December 2010," the statement added.
The joint exercise involves military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) against terrorists. The events include basic and battle order training, MOUT demonstration by the Turkish

BENGHAZI/BRUSSELS - Libyan ground troops are being targeted by air strikes, coalition officials said on Wednesday, as a top British officer declared Moammer Gaddafi's air force effectively destroyed.
As bitter fighting raged in key rebel strongholds, NATO nations failed to agree on giving the Western alliance command of military operations in Libya, a NATO diplomat told AFP. "There was no agreement and the discussions continue," the diplomat said after a new round of talks among

MANAMA - Gulf states were sending troops into the troubled island state of Bahrain on Monday in a move Shia opponents of the Sunni Muslim rulers of the Gulf kingdom said would be a declaration of war. Bahrain, which lies off the coast of Saudi Arabia, called in forces from its Sunni neighbours to put down unrest by its Shia Muslim majority after protesters overwhelmed police and blocked roads in a resurgence of mass protests seen last month. Nabeel al-Hamer, a former information

KUNDUZ - Police in northern Afghanistan said on Thursday that German troops based in the area had accidentally killed one woman and injured another during an exchange of fire.
The incident happened in the Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province on Wednesday when German troops came under attack and retaliated with gunfire, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili said. "German troops patrolling Chahar Dara district opened fire on civilian houses yesterday afternoon,"