Month: March 2011

Kabul, March 01: According to a well-placed but unnamed Afghan official, the United States military and other NATO allies are directly bribing Afghan warlords and even some top members of the Taliban to reduce attacks on their supply convoys and generally reduce the level of violence overall.

The move comes even as violence continues to spiral across the nation, but officials apparently believe that the situation, which they term as “progress,” would be far worse without the overt bribery of the insurgents.

Kabul, March 01: At least six NATO soldiers were killed across Afghanistan today in five separate attacks, one of the deadliest incidents in recent weeks. The deaths bring the overall toll for February to 34 killed, an increase from the 32 killed in January.

So far the nationalities of the slain were not released, except for one who was reported to be an Italian soldier. The soldier was killed by an IED in Herat Province, and four other Italian soldiers were “seriously injured” in the incident.

Sanaa, March 01: Yemeni opposition leaders today rejected a call by the regime to join a “national unity government” and insisted that their demands for regime change and a free election remain as they always have been.

Long-standing Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh cited the rejection today in his talks with top religious leaders in Sanaa, saying that the opposition simply won’t agree to any negotiations at all. This is true, since Saleh has refused to resign.

Manama, March 01: Bahrain’s government angrily denied media reports that the Saudi Arabian government had dispatched 30 additional tanks for the regime to use in crushing protesters, insisting the entire story was made up by the Iranian state media.

But while they insisted that Iran’s PressTV was the source of the story the network’s English language website clearly cites the report as coming from Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.

Tripoli, March 01: Reflecting just how firmly the protest movement has seized control over East Libya, the protesters announced today that the first post-Gadhafi oil tanker departed from the region, carrying about 1 million barrels of crude oil, and bound for China.

The reports also indicate that a second, smaller tanker with 600,000 barrels is preparing to depart for Italy. The two are the first shipments out of the far east city of Tobruk in nearly two weeks, and go a long way toward restoring the nation’s normal oil flow nationwide.

Tripoli, March 01: In a move that suggests they retains more military hardware than anyone knew, the Gadhafi regime launched attacks with fighter jets and attack helicopters, targeting a refinery in central Libya and attacking the western city of Zawiya in force.

The attacks on Central Libya were repelled by anti-aircraft weapons controlled by defectors, and unconfirmed reports say that the forces believe they may have downed an attack helicopter which was badly damaged during the attack.

Kabul, March 01: NATO has confirmed the death of two foreign soldiers in east Afghanistan’s blast on Tuesday, a few hours after an Italian soldier’s death brought to 68 the number of US-led forces killed in Afghanistan in 2011.

Two US-led foreign troopers lost their lives in a roadside bomb explosion in the eastern province of Kandahar on Tuesday.

The NATO report does not indicate the nationality of the troops killed in Kandahar blast.

The latest fatality brings to 70 the number of US-led forces killed in the war-wrecked country since the beginning of 2011.