Taliban shoots at helicopters carrying German top brass

Sun, 15 Nov 2009, 11:46:19 GMT By : dpa

Earth Link, Berlin -

The Taliban shot with personal firearms at helicopters carrying Germany's military top brass, but hurt no one, defence sources in Berlin said Sunday, confirming a newspaper report. One of the three aircraft in the incident Friday near Kunduz, Afghanistan was carrying Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and the chief of military staff, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

Both the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the Bild am Sonntag newspapers said Guttenberg was told during the flight that his helicopter had just been shot at from the ground with assault rifles.

The CH-53 helicopters continued to Termes, Uzbekistan as scheduled.

The Sunday newspapers said another German CH-53 was hit in flight on Wednesday by automatic-weapons fire. It was later found to have four bullet holes in a clip-on fuel tank.

For security reasons, Guttenberg's Friday visit to the main German base at Kunduz, Afghanistan was not announced in advance.

Three Afghan soldiers killed in Taliban rocket attack

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:58:20 GMT

By : dpa Category

Kabul -

Three Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban artillery attack on their base in eastern Afghanistan, whilst six Taliban fighters were killed by Afghan and NATO forces, officials said Sunday. Two soldiers were injured in the attack that took place in the Qazi Abad district of the eastern province of Kunar, close to the border with Pakistan, the Afghan defence ministry said in a statement.

With public support for the presence of international forces waning in Western countries, the United States and other NATO countries have heavily focused their efforts on training the Afghan forces.

Compared to Afghan police forces, the country's army, which has around 90,000 soldiers, is better trained and equipped.

In a sign of commitment to strengthen Afghan security forces and equip them with modern military fleet, the US donated two C-27 military support aircraft to Afghan defence ministry on Sunday.

At a ceremony attended by the top NATO commander, US General Stanley McChrystal and Afghan Defence Minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, the two planes were delivered to Afghan army forces in Kabul.

Afghanistan will have 20 transport aircraft and 30 trained crew members by mid 2011, officials at the gathering said.

Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO forces killed six Taliban fighters, including one of their commanders, in eastern province of Nuristan on Saturday night, Mohammad Qasim Paiman, the provincial police chief said.

The Taliban fighters were killed after they attacked a joint Afghan and international military outpost in Nuristan's Noorgram district.

Several other Taliban fighters were also killed in a joint Afghan and NATO force operation in Sarobi district of south-eastern province of Paktika on early Sunday morning, the alliance said in a statement.

Based on intelligence information about the presence of Taliban fighters in the area, the combined forces targeted a building, the statement said, adding that during the operation the joint forces came under attack and returned fire, killing the alleged Taliban fighters inside and outside the building.

2 US soldiers killed in Afghanistan explosions

Sat Nov 14, 2009, 9:00 am ET

KABUL – Associated Press

NATO says two U.S. service members and an American contractor have been killed in two separate explosions in Afghanistan.

NATO headquarters in Kabul said Saturday that one U.S. troop was killed in a roadside bomb strike in southern Afghanistan the previous day. It said the other service member and the contractor died in a separate roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, also on Friday.

No further details were released about the deaths, which bring the total number of U.S. service members killed this month to eight.