Pakistan official: NATO attack kills 26 Pakistani soldiers /CNN

NATO helicopter. Hazir Reka/Reuters

(CNN) -- NATO helicopters opened fire on a Pakistani checkpoint early Saturday, killing 26 soldiers, a provincial governor said.

At least 14 soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Mohmand Agency area, said Syed Masood Kausar, governor of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mohmand Agency is one of seven districts of the volatile region bordering Afghanistan.

"It's a huge incident; the reaction is obvious," he said at a news conference in Islamabad.

The death toll could rise as many of the injuries are critical, military officials said. The officials did not want to be named because they are not allowed to talk to the media.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called an emergency meeting of military services chiefs to formulate his country's response, his spokesman said. The Defense Committee of the Cabinet will meet later Saturday.

In a statement, Gilani said he "strongly condemned the NATO/ISAF attack on the Pakistani" checkpoint.

The matter is being taken up by the Foreign Ministry "in the strongest possible terms" with NATO and the United States, the statement from his office said.

NATO's commander in Afghanistan said he is committed to a thorough investigation.

"This incident has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts," Marine Gen. John R. Allen said Saturday.

He also offered his "sincere and personal heartfelt condolences" to the families of any Pakistan Security Forces members killed or injured.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, said: "I regret the loss of life of any Pakistani servicemen, and pledge that the United States will work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident."

The incident on Pakistani soil is likely to damage already strained relations between Pakistan and the United States.

Pakistan closed both NATO's supply routes into Afghanistan Saturday in response to the attack, Pakistani military and intelligence officials said.

NATO trucks use the routes, in Khyber Agency and Balochistan, to supply U.S. and international forces fighting in Afghanistan.

About 50 containers and trucks carrying supplies for NATO were stopped at the town of Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Saturday morning, said Jamil Khan, a senior government official in Khyber Agency, bordering Afghanistan.

They were ordered to turn back toward Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, he said.

A second route from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan province, was open to NATO supply trucks earlier Saturday but was then shut in the afternoon, the military and intelligence officials said.

Roughly 40% of nonlethal NATO supplies and fuel go through Pakistan, with hundreds of supply trucks using the two routes into Afghanistan.

About 130,000 troops are deployed in Afghanistan with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, 90,000 of them American, according to NATO figures.

Pakistani politicians responded angrily to the incident in Mohmand.

Ahmed Khan Bahadur, a provincial lawmaker from the Awami National Party, the ruling party of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told CNN that people had had enough.

"This is the time to be united as a nation and to punch NATO with a fist," he said. "NATO could never dare if we were united."

Former international cricketer turned politician Imran Khan, who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, condemned the incident and said it was time for Pakistan to pull out of the U.S.-led "war on terror."

If confirmed, the incident could be the deadliest for Pakistani soldiers involving NATO since a U.S. airstrike in June 2008, which Pakistan said killed 11 of its forces who were cooperating with the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

That airstrike, also in Mohmand Agency, prompted the government in Islamabad to summon the U.S. ambassador and lodge an official protest.

NATO's Allen met with the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Thursday, the Pakistani military said.

"The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed measures concerning coordination, communication and procedures between Pakistan army, ISAF and Afghan army, aimed at enhancing border control on both sides," a Pakistani military statement said.

Meanwhile, a commander of Afghanistan's eastern border police said an operation in the area bordering Mohmand Agency on Friday night killed 10 insurgents.

"Last night, there was an operation there inside Afghanistan," he said. "Pakistani and Afghan Taliban have got a broad presence there as there are forests and difficult terrain. That's why there was an operation."

The military activity was in Afghanistan's Kunar province, he said, adding he was unaware of any NATO attacks on the other side of the border.

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NATO Convoy Attacked in Afghanistan, Killing 13 Americans

Oct. 29, 2011: US soldiers walk at the site of a suicide car bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan

KABUL,Afghanistan- A U.S. official says all 13 NATO service members killed in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital were American troops.
The official confirmed the nationalities shortly after NATO issued a statement saying that 13 of its forces were killed in Saturday's blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which also killed four Afghans, including a policeman.
Oct. 29, 2011: US soliders, right, carry a body from the site of a suicide car bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A suicide car bomber struck a NATO convoy on the outskirts of Kabul on Saturday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred near Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings on the southwest outskirts of the capital. It was the deadliest of two attacks in the day that targeted either the U.S.-led coalition or Afghan government offices in the country.
"Initial reports indicate that there has been a vehicle-borne IED attack today against a coalition vehicle in Kabul," NATO said in a statement, using military terminology for a car bomb. The alliance said "several" of its service members were among the casualties of the attack, but provided no other details.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said three Afghan civilians and one Afghan police were killed. The Taliban claim came shortly after the attack in a text message to media outlets.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene said that NATO and Afghan forces had sealed off the area. Two NATO helicopters landed to airlift casualties. The back end of a NATO bus appeared to have been blown apart and was turned into a charred shell.
Earlier Saturday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she tried to attack a local government office in the capital of Kunar province, a hotbed of militancy in northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border.
Abdul Sabor Allayar, deputy provincial police chief, said the guards outside the government's intelligence office in Asad Abad became suspicious of the woman and started shooting, at which point she detonated her explosives.
Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces conducted operations earlier this month, killing more than 100 insurgents in an effort to curb violence in rugged areas of Kunar where the coalition and Afghan government have a light footprint.
Farther south along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Afghan and coalition forces captured two leaders of the Haqqani network and two other suspected insurgents in Sarobi district of Paktika province, the coalition said.
Haqqani fighters, who are affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, are heavily rooted in Paktika and neighboring Paktia and Khost provinces.
One of the captured leaders provided insurgent fighters with funding, weapons, supplies and hideouts, and the other coordinated attacks against Afghan forces, the coalition said.

| Associated Press

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Breaking News/ Gaddafi's death -News around the world

REUTERS/Libyan Dictator Moammar Gadhafi Is Dead, Rebels Claim

Libyans celebrate at Martyrs square in Tripoli October 20, 2011 after hearing the news that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in Sirte.

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the most wanted man in the world, has been killed, the country's rebel government claimed today.

The flamboyant tyrant who terrorized his country and much of the world during his 42 years of despotic rule was cornered by insurgents in the town of Sirte, where Gadhafi had been born and a stronghold of his supporters. The National Transition Council said that its fighters found and shot Gadhafi in Sirte, which finally fell to the rebels today after weeks of tough fighting.

Word of Gadhafi's death triggered celebrations in the streets of Tripoli with insurgent fighters waving their weapons and dancing jubilantly.
The White House and NATO said they were unable to confirm reports of his death.
Gadhafi had been on the run for weeks after being chased out of the capital Tripoli by NATO bombers and rebel troops.
BBC/Libyan forces 'capture Gaddafi'
Commanders for Libya's transitional authorities say they have captured ousted leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
An image from a mobile phone apparently showing Col Muammar Gaddafi wounded
Unconfirmed reports say Col Gaddafi has been killed, and AFP obtained a mobile-phone image apparently showing his face covered in blood.

The reports came after transitional forces claimed control of Sirte, Col Gaddafi's birthplace.

The colonel was toppled in August after 42 years in power. The International Criminal Court is seeking his arrest.

Nato, which has been running a bombing campaign in Libya for months, said it carried out an air strike earlier on Thursday that hit two pro-Gaddafi vehicles near Sirte.

The head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, is expected to give a national TV address soon.
If the reports of Col Gaddafi's capture are true, then Mohammed al-Bibi is the man of the moment. Brandishing a golden pistol which he said belonged to Colonel Gaddafi he was hoisted up onto the shoulders of his comrades.

"Allah akbar" (God is great), they chanted as they unleashed volleys into the air. Mohammed, a fighter in his 20s, wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap, said he had found the colonel hiding in a hole in the ground. He told the BBC that the former Libyan leader said to him simply: "Don't shoot".
Rebel fighters say the colonel has been taken by ambulance to Misrata. If this is the case and the rest of Sirte has indeed fallen then it will mark a turning point for Libyan revolution - the point at which it will be hoped, the fighting ends and the political process begins.
"He's been taken away by ambulance."
A soldier who says he captured Muammar Gaddafi told the BBC the colonel had shouted: "Don't shoot!"
The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Tripoli says ships and cars have been sounding their horns in the capital and guns are being fired in celebration.
Earlier, NTC commanders in Sirte - about 360km (220 miles) east of Tripoli - said the city had been liberated.

AP/Conflicting Reports Say Libyan Dictator Muammar Qaddafi Is Dead

Libyan fighters celebrate in the streets of Sirte, Libya, in this image taken from TV. The Libyan fighters on Thursday overran the remaining positions of Muammar Qaddafi loyalists in his hometown of Sirte, ending the last major resistance by former regime supporters still holding out two months after the fall of the capital Tripoli.
Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday that Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi has been captured or killed.
"Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead ... he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon," media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.
Libyan TV channel Libya lil Ahrar, meanwhile, said the ousted dictator was in custody.
The Transitional National Council's UK spokesman, Mahmoud Nacua, warned that there was "not enough information" to confirm Qaddafi's capture, and a former TNC spokesman in Britain, Guma al Gamati told Sky News that "this is not confirmed."
Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO's operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance's aircraft Thursday morning struck two vehicles of pro-Qaddafi forces "which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte."
NATO officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance to alliance rules, said the alliance also could not independently confirm whether Qaddafi was killed or captured however.

Washington Post/Rumors, photo claims Gaddafi wounded and captured, but all unconfirmed
The final stronghold of Moammar Gaddafi loyalists fell to the Libyan fighters Thursday. Two months after Libyan rebels captured the capital of Tripoli, fighters ferreted out the last remaining loyalists in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte

Rumors swirled that not only had the town fallen, but the troops may have captured Gaddafi.
“He’s captured. We don’t know if he’s dead or not,” Ibrahim Mohammed Shirkasiya, a senior security official in Misurata, the biggest city west of Sirte, told The Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan by telephone. He said his information came from revolutionary commanders in Sirte.
Libyan TV station Al-Ahrar reported that Gaddafi had been killed in the fighting, but didn’t cite a source.Transitional National Council member Jamal abu-Shaalah quoted in al-Jazeera and Abdel Majid, a council official quoted by the Reuters news agency bot said he had been killed.
Twitter erupted with the news, with six of its top ten trending topics focusing on Libya. People began passing around an image that appears to have been taken by a cell phone and shows a bloodied Gaddafi.
AFP and Getty Images pushed out this photograph saying it was an image captured off a cellular phone camera showing the arrest of Libya's strongman Moammar Gaddafi
Gaddafi has proved elusive during the fighting and has not been seen since Tripoli fell. There have been a number of reports in the past that he was captured or near capture. Former U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley wrote on Twitter that Gaddafi’s death, if confirmed, would “help Libya avoid a lengthy and destructive insurgency.”
“In the central quarter where the final battle took place, the fighters looking like the same ragtag force that started the uprising eight months ago jumped up and down with joy and flashed V-for-victory signs. Some burned the green Gaddafi flag, then stepped on it with their boots.
“They chanted ‘Allah akbar,’ or ‘God is great’ in Arabic, while one fighter climbed a traffic light pole to unfurl the revolution’s flag, which he first kissed. Discarded military uniforms of Gaddafi’s fighters littered the streets. One revolutionary fighter waved a silver trophy in the air while another held up a box of firecrackers, then set them off.”

In Pictures

Gaddafi loyalists are taken prisoner by anti-Gaddafi fighters from the center of Sirte October 20, 2011 REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte. (Esam Al-Fetori /Reuters)

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrated the fall of Sirte October 20, 2011. Libyan interim government fighters captured Muammar Gaddafi's home town on Thursday, extinguishing the last significant resistance by forces loyal to the deposed leader and ending a two-month siege. REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

nti-Gaddafi fighters celebrated the fall of Sirte October 20, 2011.REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori

Anti-Gaddafi fighters celebrate the fall of Sirte. (Esam Al-Fetori /Reuters)

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Dilawar Senior Leader of Haqqani Network Killed in Afghan Airstrike

MUSA KHEL, Afghanistan –  A senior leader of the Haqqani network, the Afghan militant group closely tied to Al Qaeda, was killed during an airstrike in Afghanistan, security officials said Wednesday.
Dilawar, who was only known by one name, and two of his associates were killed in the Musa Khel district of Khost province, about 155 miles south of Kabul on Tuesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed.
He coordinated numerous attacks against Afghan forces and helped move weapons along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to ISAF.
Dilawar, who was associated with both Al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, also assisted in the movement of foreign fighters.
His death comes exactly one week after the capture of Haji Mali Khan, Afghanistan's lead Haqqani network leader, who was seized in the Jani Khel district of Paktiya.
In a statement ISAF, which stated that no civilians were harmed during the airstrike, said, "Prior to Mali Khan's capture by the combined Afghan and coalition security force, he worked closely with Dilawar planning attacks throughout the area. Specifically, Dilawar had just conducted an ambush on Afghan forces in Paktiya province last month."
"The death of Dilawar marks another significant milestone in the disruption of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan," the statement added.
The Haqqani network is regarded by American officials as an irredeemably violent militant and criminal network tied to Al Qaeda and supported by the Pakistani intelligence service.
Washington blames the Haqqani network for bringing a new level of violence to the Afghan insurgency and it is at the center of the deteriorating U.S. relationship with Pakistan. U.S. officials suspect the network was behind last month's 19-hour siege which targeted the U.S. embassy and ISAF headquarters in Kabul.
So far in 2011, security forces conducted more than 530 operations to disrupt the network's activities in eastern Afghanistan, leading to the death of 20 leaders and the capture of more than 1,400 suspected Haqqani insurgents.

| NewsCore

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6 dead as coordinated Taliban attacks hit NATO, US embassy in Kabul

Place: Kabul | Agency: PTI

Taliban suicide attackers with heavy weaponry today launched coordinated attacks in Kabul targeting NATO's headquarters and the US embassy, killing at least six people.

Around five hours after the attack began, gun-battles still raged. The Afghan government confirmed the deaths of four civilians and two policemen, plus at least six insurgents, with at least two militants still resisting after dusk.

Afghan officials said attackers were hunkered down in a multi-storey building under construction that overlooks the NATO headquarters and US embassy, exchanging fire with security forces as two helicopters flew overhead.

Two separate suicide attackers also targeted police in some of the most heavily protected parts of the capital, with the Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since US-led troops ousted the Islamists' regime 10 years ago.

Any simultaneous attacks that succeeded in hitting NATO headquarters and the US embassy would be the Taliban's most ambitious commando-style operation yet in their fight to evict the Kabul government and defeat Western troops.

In any case, the attacks dealt a humiliating blow to the Afghan government and NATO, underscoring worsening security in Kabul, where insurgents have staged increasingly brazen commando-style raids on Western and Afghan targets.

AFP reporters heard a string of loud blasts shortly after 1:30 pm (1430 IST) just two days after the United States marked the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that triggered the long war in Afghanistan.

The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) works with diplomatic missions to prop up an Afghan government increasingly seen as corrupt. Its main headquarters is adjacent to the US embassy compound.

"ISAF HQ is under attack at the moment," a Western military official earlier confirmed as terrified residents and shopkeepers told how they dived for cover.

The US embassy -- one of the largest American diplomatic missions in the world, one of the most heavily protected compounds in Afghanistan and home to hundreds of diplomats --confirmed only an attack "in the area".

"There are no casualties at this time among embassy personnel," added spokeswoman Kerri Hannan in an emailed statement, providing no further details.

An Afghan interior ministry official, speaking anonymously, said four policemen and two civilians were killed.

Officials said at least five civilians and three policemen were wounded. A journalist from Afghan state broadcaster RTA was shot and wounded during the standoff, an AFP reporter said.

"Security forces have reached the second and third floor (of the multi-storey building," said police spokesperson Hashmat Stanikzai.

"Two (of the attackers) are still resisting. We hope their resistance will end soon. They have almost run out of ammunition," he added.

ISAF confirmed it was providing "air support" although NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen had said he was confident that Afghan forces, who officially control security in Kabul, could deal with the assault.

Afghan officials said the suicide attacks targeted police, one near parliament and both in the western part of the capital.

They said three insurgents were killed at the building and another on the airport road with seven kilos of explosives, although details were unclear.

That would suggest that up to nine attackers were involved in the assaults.

A Taliban spokesperson told AFP by text message that the targets were ISAF headquarters, the US embassy and Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and other "sensitive government places".

"Today at one o'clock at Kabul's Abdul Haq roundabout a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities is ongoing," wrote Zabiullah Mujahid in the text message to AFP.

The ISAF headquarters in Kabul oversees the operations of the bulk of the estimated 140,000 foreign troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"I was sitting in my shop when suddenly I heard an explosion and then another one. Then there was gunfire," said Abdulbaqi, a local shopkeeper.

"People on the streets started running. I had to leave my shop to get to safety," he added.

Officially Kabul is under the control of Afghan security forces, along with most of its surrounding province and six other parts of the country handed over by NATO-led troops in July as part of a staggered, timetabled withdrawal.

President Hamid Karzai insisted the attacks would not derail the transition process but would "rather embolden our people's determination in taking the responsibility for their country's own affairs".

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