http://news.antiwar.com/2012/08/16/taliban-storm-pakistani-air-force-base/
The militants, nine in all, were eventually killed, but the attack again showed the ability of the Taliban and associated Pakistan-based militant groups to penetrate the military bases of a country with nuclear weapons.
Bombings hit across Baghdad,targeting popular restaurants in Shi’ite districts of the capital as Ramadan fasts were drawing to a close. Elsewhere, gunmen attacked police and the areas around mosques.
Taliban Storm Pakistani Air Force Base
The attempted seizure left 10 people dead and raised concerns about the militants' ability to seize military bases of a nuclear state
by John Glaser, August 16, 2012
Taliban militants armed with rocket propelled-grenades and suicide vests and dressed in military uniforms stormed a Pakistani air force base on Thursday, triggering a two-hour shootout that left 10 people dead.
The militants, nine in all, were eventually killed, but the attack again showed the ability of the Taliban and associated Pakistan-based militant groups to penetrate the military bases of a country with nuclear weapons.
The pre-dawn offensive came after US officials boasted about the Pakistani government being set to launch an attack against militant strongholds in the tribal border region of North Waziristan, something Washington has been pressuring Islamabad to do for some time now.
Pakistan has seemed unusually chaotic as of late. Also on Thursday, militants pulled 20 Shiites off a bus in Pakistan and executed them all. Several such sectarian attacks have taken place recently.
Aside from these concerns, militancy in the tribal borderlands has only seemed to grow after almost four years of President Barack Obama’s intensified drone war. Anti-Americanism throughout the country has also increased significantly as Pakistanis grow resentful at Washington’s drone war, support of a corrupt state, and destabilizing war in neighboring Afghanistan have worsened conditions considerably.
and Iraq is getting messier by the day as security becomes a non starter....
128 Killed as Iraq’s Bloody Summer Continues
Deadly July Gives Way to an Ugly August
by Jason Ditz, August 16, 2012
July was the deadliest month in Iraq in over two years, with 325 people killed by the reckoning of the Iraqi Health Ministry. August looks like it might surpass it pretty handily however, with 128 killed today alone.
Bombings hit across Baghdad,targeting popular restaurants in Shi’ite districts of the capital as Ramadan fasts were drawing to a close. Elsewhere, gunmen attacked police and the areas around mosques.
The enormous tolls reflect an increasingly active al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which has been reaping the benefits of the loose weaponry from the Syrian civil war to stock up and continue to escalate.
And while most of the violence in July took place in and around Diyala, on the border of Syria, today’s attacks hit nationwide, reflecting how quickly the militants are able to spread around, even in the tight security environment in Iraq, and how easily they continue to bypass that security to conduct bloody attacks.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
- Mullah Omar: Fighters Infiltrating Afghan Forces, Killing Foreigners - August 16th, 2012
- Soaring Army Suicide Rates Hit Another New Record in July - August 16th, 2012
- 25 Pakistani Shi'ites Killed in Attack on Bus - August 16th, 2012
- UN Ends Syria Observer Mission - August 16th, 2012
- US: 'Tens of Thousands' of Ground Troops Needed to Secure Syria's Chemical Weapons - August 16th, 2012
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