November 2008
6 posts
1 tag
Militants face death penalty for spraying acid in... →
The Independent
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul
A terrorist cell accused of squirting acid in schoolgirls’ faces has been rounded up in southern Afghanistan. The country’s President, Hamid Karzai, called for the perpetrators to face public executions.
Police arrested 10 Taliban militants, and “several” have already confessed, according to the Kandahar governor, Rahmatullah...
Tribal chiefs offered UK 'bribes' to fight Taliban... →
The Independent
By Jerome Starkey
Britain plans to pay tribal elders in Helmand province monthly cash “bribes” as part of a controversial “Afghan Awakening” scheme to raise the tribes against the Taliban.
British officials in Kabul are bankrolling an Afghan initiative to pay community leaders monthly wages to get them talking to the government.
2 tags
Gurkha dies as 25-tonne Warrior destroyed →
The Scotsman
By Jerome Starkey, in Kabul
A BRITISH Gurkha has died in Afghanistan after a massive roadside bomb tore through his 25-tonne Warrior fighting vehicle.
It is the first time a soldier has been killed inside a Warrior in Afghanistan, and proof that the Taleban are turning to bigger and deadlier weapons in their quest to kill British troops.
The soldier, who has not been named, was...
2 tags
First soldier dies in 'armoured bus' →
The Independent
Jerome Starkey in Kabul
A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan’s Helmand province over the weekend when his heavily armoured Warrior vehicle struck a roadside bomb.
It is thought to be the first time a soldier has died in one of the 25-ton tracked vehicles in Afghanistan. Together with the British Army’s Mastifs, they are often used as armoured buses to move...
4 tags
Hell and high water →
Sydney Morning Herald
Jerome Starkey ventures where no man on motorbike has been - into the vast mountains of the Wakhan Corridor.
The water is cold and fast and my motorbike is drowning. I’m stuck halfway across a river in north-eastern Afghanistan, struggling to stay upright.
Ash is on the far bank beckoning me forward. Travis and Jeremy are waiting to cross. Panicking, I rev the...
3 tags
Afghanistan suicide attack kills 21 and injures... →
The Independent
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Kim Sengupta
A suicide car bomb killed 21 people in a packed marketplace in eastern Afghanistan yesterday and wounded at least 74 more. A US soldier and a 13-year-old boy were among the dead.
British officials also revealed that two Royal Marines were killed in Helmand on Wednesday when an explosion hit their reconnaissance patrol near the...