Security force targets Taliban commander in Logar 

 ISAF

An Afghan and coalition security force conducted operations in Logar province Wednesday while in pursuit of a Taliban commander associated with the Kabul Attack Network.

The commander, Qari Muir, formerly held several Taliban positions including deputy shadow governor, military commander and intelligence chief for Logar province.

During the operation, 12 Taliban insurgents, including Muir, were killed.

Intelligence sources observed a large gathering of Taliban insurgents in Qal‟eh-ye Jom-eh in Pul-e Alam district preparing to conduct an attack against coalition forces.

After ensuring no civilians were present, an air weapons team engaged the group, killing nine insurgents. Coalition forces then conducted a precision air strike, and air assault on the objective location killing three more insurgents and destroying a very large weapons cache which included rockets, mines, improvised explosive device material and various types of ammunition.

“The Taliban currently operating in Logar province are inflicting violence, instability and fear on the Afghan people,” said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command Combined Joint Operations Center director. “These operations help rid these areas of these terrorists along with their weapons and backward ideology.”

Russia Pushes to Increase Afghanistan Business Ties

August 18, 2010

By: Andrew E. Kramer

MOSCOW — Twenty years after the last Russian soldier walked out of Afghanistan, Moscow is gingerly pushing its way back into the country with business deals and diplomacy, and promises of closer ties to come.

Russia is eager to cooperate on economic matters in part by reviving Soviet-era public works, its president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said Wednesday during a summit meeting with the leaders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, the second such four-way meeting organized by Russia in the past year. 

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Taliban assassinate police and tribal affairs chiefs in south

The Taliban have intensified their assassination program in southern Afghanistan, killing two senior government officials in Kandahar and Zabul provinces.

Two days ago, a Taliban suicide bomber killed the chief of police for the district on Daman in Kandahar province. Three policemen and a civilian were also killed in the Aug.17 attack, which targeted the police chief as he drove toward Kandahar city. The suicide attack in Daman took place just two days after a combined Coalition and Afghan special operations force captured "a key Taliban weapons distributor" along with an undisclosed number of fighters in the district.

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