Posts Tagged ‘U.S. military’
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed a deployment order to move an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, U.S. military officials said.
he troops will be part of a combat aviation brigade, the latest approved by Gates for the expected build-up of U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout next year.
Earlier this year, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, requested at least 20,000 additional troops be sent there to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
The officials could not say what units are being tapped to go because those units are now being told of their deployment and the announcement has not yet been made public.
The aviation brigade will send a number of much-needed helicopters to the region.
Helicopters are the main transportation of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, where high mountain roads and passes make it difficult for large transport vehicles to move troops and supplies around the country.
There are more than 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a Dutch soldier was killed Friday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command confirmed.
The soldier died in an improved explosive device strike, according to a news release from NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
“Our sincere condolences and sympathies are with the family and friends of this brave soldier, especially during this holiday season,” said ISAF spokesman Capt. Mark Windsor Royal Navy.
“This soldier’s death is an irreplaceable loss to all of us who fight for the peace and stability of Afghanistan. ISAF will continue to fight for the cause for which this brave soldier gave his life.”
drug lord
Posted on: December 13, 2008
- In: World news
- 1 Comment
Colombia has extradited Diego Montoya, alleged to be one of the country’s most powerful drug lords, to the US to face trial for murder and drug trafficking.
The charges relate to Mr Montoya’s time as leader of the Norte del Valle cartel which, at its peak, reportedly exported 70% of cocaine sold in the US and EU.
Known as Don Diego, he ran a private army accused of 1,500 murders.
At the time of his 2007 arrest by the Colombian military, he was on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list.
Mr Montoya arrived aboard a US military plane in Miami, where he is scheduled to appear in court on Monday to face 12 charges including drug trafficking, obstruction of justice, money-laundering and murder.
He faces at least 20 years in jail if convicted.
Earlier, television footage showed the handcuffed 50-year-old in sunglasses and a jacket under a bulletproof vest, being escorted by heavily-armed Colombian police to a military airbase in Bogota.
There, he was handed over to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA.
His extradition follows those of several other leading members of the cartel which Colombian authorities say has now been mostly dismantled.
Government coup
With a $5m (£3.4m) reward advertised for the capture of the billionaire known in Colombia’s underworld as the “boss of bosses”, Mr Montoya was arrested in his home province of Valle del Cauca.
His capture was seen as a huge coup for the government, ending the reign of one of the legends of the Colombian underworld.
“Colombia is closing a chapter in its fight against drug trafficking,” police chief General Oscar Naranjo told AFP news agency after the extradition.
“This extradition is perhaps the most important in years.”
Officials say Mr Montoya helped found the Norte del Valle cartel, based near the city of Cali.
The FBI said the cartel received help from left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups.
While his army, the Macho Men, has been largely dismantled, the Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says Mr Montoya’s place and the drug smuggling routes he ran have been taken over by a new boss known by the alias Combatant.
Colombia may be claiming another victory on the war on drugs, our correspondent adds, but the flow of illegal narcotics continues largely unchanged.
It was the fifth attack on NATO supply lines through Pakistan since November.
One of those attacks took place November 11, when as many as 200 Taliban fighters hijacked a convoy carrying NATO supplies from Karachi to Afghanistan via the border at Peshawar. The militants took two Hummers and paraded them in front of the media as trophies.
Meanwhile, the Taliban militant accused of masterminding that attack, Mustafa Kamal, was arrested Thursday night in Peshawar, security sources said.
Also known as Yahya Hijrat, Kamal is an Afghan from Ningrahar province and a close friend of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of Pakistan Taliban. In September, sources said Mehsud had died, but it remains unclear whether that’s true.
The latest attack took place Thursday at 6:30 p.m., police said. Multiple explosions rocked the World Logistics Terminal near Ring Road in Peshawar. Police said three or four blasts sparked a fire that destroyed at least three trucks and two cars.
The terminal holds hundreds of supply containers as well as Hummer transport vehicles bound for Afghanistan. Police said at least eight containers were destroyed Thursday night.
Also late Thursday, suspected U.S. missiles struck a village in Pakistan’s tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, according to Pakistani intelligence sources and local residents.
The missiles hit a house in the village of Kazah in South Waziristan, killing six people and wounding three, the sources and residents said.
Intelligence sources said the house was rented to local militants and used as a suspected militant compound.
The U.S. military in Afghanistan routinely offers no comment on reported cross border strikes, which are normally launched from unmanned drones. The United States is the only country operating in the region known have the capability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.
South Waziristan is located in Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal region, where the Pakistani military are battling Taliban fighters.
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