Afghanistan/Pakistan: On Ground Updates - October 13, 2008

Afghanistan/Pakistan: On Ground Updates
Monday, October 13, 2008

* The Australian News website brings us this report and it starts off like this... Fears over the "Talibanisation" of Pakistan's major urban centres rose sharply yesterday after a warning from one of the country's most powerful leaders that 400,000 militants had infiltrated Karachi, the teeming port city vital to bringing in supplies for coalition forces in Afghanistan... At the same time, nervous traders in the Punjab city of Lahore, the former capital of the Mughal Empire that has long been regarded as a beacon of cultural freedom in the region, were reported to be setting fire to "immoral" videos and CDs after receiving warnings from the Taliban against such stock... The action follows the bombing of several fresh fruit juice bars in the city after the owners ignored warnings to stop allowing boys and girls to "indulge in immoral acts" on the premises... Such "immoral acts" generally amount to no more than enjoying a juice together, but have apparently caused offence to the Taliban...
Read the rest at link below...
Taliban 'infiltrating Pakistan cities'
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* Radio Netherlands Worldwide website has the following article this morning... Hundreds of thousand of Pakistanis have fled the conflict in the tribal regions on the Afghan border, where the Pakistani army is involved in heavy fighting against Taliban militants. Moreover - as the United States revealed some time ago - around 20,000 refugees have actually sought shelter in neighboring war-torn Afghanistan...
Read the rest at link below...
Pakistanis flee as war on Taliban flares up
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* AFP.Google.com reports... Troops and helicopter gunships killed about 40 Taliban militants while four people, including a politician, were injured in a roadside bomb in northwest Pakistan, officials said Monday... More than 24 extremists with links to Al-Qaeda were killed on Sunday near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region, where Pakistani security forces launched a major offensive against Islamic militants in August...
Read the full report at link below...
Pakistan kills 40 Taliban militants
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* UAEDailyNews.com had the following report posted on their website yesterday and it starts off like this... Two battles in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan have killed as many as 100 Taliban fighters, according to Afghan and international military officials. The NATO-led forces say the bulk of the casualties came when their aircraft bombed militants who were observed gathering for a major attack...
Read the full report at link below...
Large Taliban Attack Repulsed with Air Strikes

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AubreyJ.........