More than 1.000 US and Afghan troops have launched a fresh offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, in the first major operation since Barack Obama, the US president, announced his new Afghan strategy.
US Marines, Afghan soldiers, and other Nato forces gathered behind Taliban lines in the northern end of the Now Zad Valley of Helmand province on Friday, Nato and US military officials said.
Officials said another, larger force was pushing north from the town of Now Zad as part of the operation that the military has termed “Cobra’s Anger”.
The leadership of the so-called “Caucasus Mujahideens” has claimed responsibility for the explosion that caused the derailment of the “Nevsky Express” train on November 27.
The statement was published on one of the militants’ websites, Lenta.ru reports.
The online news edition says the terror act was one of a series targeting several strategic objects in Russia. The militants are said to have acted on the order of their leader Doku Umarov.
As the source of KC from Dagestan reported, a fierce fire fighting between the Kadyrov’s apostates supported by Russian infidels on the one side and the Mujahideen on the other took place near the village of Aktash-aul (Russian name Lenin-Aul) during the whole day of Sunday November 29 2009.
Military officials in the Central African Republic say they have retaken a key northern town that was captured by rebels last week. The country’s president is pushing a peace deal ahead of 2010 elections.
Military officials in Bangui say government troops have recaptured the town of Ndele, about 675 kilometers north of the capital. It was at the center of fighting earlier this year that drove more than 8,000 civilians across the border into Chad.
Rebels from the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace took control of Ndele last Thursday in a three-pronged attack that the government says killed at least 15 people including two soldiers. Government forces from the garrison there regrouped and regained command of the town over the weekend, driving out rebels led by former prime minister Charles Massi.
