Not Killed By American Troops

A BBC study has found that 5,000 people were killed in jihadist attacks worldwide in November http://t.co/JbtBPKd71R

— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) December 11, 2014

I wonder why no one keeps these tallies every month — every year. How many people killed by jihadists this year – and again, NOT by American troops.

Reuters reports:

President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday accused the United States of killing seven children and a woman in an airstrike in central Afghanistan — an incident set to further damage frayed ties between the two allies.

Relations between Washington and Kabul have been rocky for years, and negotiations over an agreement that would allow some US troops to remain in the country after this year have broken down into a long-running public dispute.

"As a result of bombardment by American forces last night… in Siahgird district of Parwan province, one woman and seven children were martyred and one civilian injured," a statement from Karzai's office said.

"The Afghan government has been asking for a complete end to operations in Afghan villages for years, but American forces acting against all mutual agreements… have once again bombarded a residential area and killed civilians."

Civilian casualties have been one of the most sensitive issues of the 13-year military intervention in Afghanistan, and Karzai has often used accidental shootings and misguided airstrikes to berate foreign countries and stir public anger.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), earlier said it was "aware of reports that at least two civilians were inadvertently killed today during an Afghan-led joint operation in Ghorband (Siahgird) District".

"An enemy force engaged Afghan and coalition forces from several compounds," it said. "Afghan and coalition forces returned fire and required defensive air support to suppress the enemy fire."

Reuters reports:

A Taliban suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the Afghan capital, killing up to 21 people including three United Nations staff and the IMF's top representative in Afghanistan.

Gunmen burst into the restaurant spraying diners with bullets after the bomber blew himself up near the entrance around 7.30 p.m. on Friday evening.

Thirteen foreigners were among those killed, according to police, and details of the victims began to trickle through on Saturday.

The U.S. embassy said in a post on Twitter that at least two U.S. private citizens were killed. Britain and Canada confirmed they had each lost two nationals, and Denmark said one of its citizens also died.

AP reports:

A car bomb ripped through a crowded street in Peshawar's oldest
bazaar, killing 40 people in the third blast to hit the troubled
Pakistani city in a week, officials said. No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the attack.

The explosion Sunday appeared to have been caused by a bomb planted
in a parked car and detonated by remote control, said police officer
Zahid Khan. It went off near a mosque and a police station, damaging the
house of worship and nearby shops and engulfing many vehicles in
flames, police said.

At least 40 people were killed and 90 wounded, said Jamil Shah, a
spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital, where the victims were taken.

Such attacks in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, have claimed more
than 140 lives since last Sunday, when two suicide bombers blew
themselves up in a crowd of worshippers at a church, killing 85 people.
On Friday, 19 people died when a bomb planted on a bus carrying
government employees exploded in the Peshawar outskirts.

Associated Press reports:

Suicide bombings tore through a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad and the relatively safe Kurdish area in the north Sunday as a wave of attacks killed at least 46 people across Iraq, officials said.

A surge in sectarian violence in recent months has heightened fears that Iraq is becoming a new battlefield, nearly two years after U.S. forces withdrew from the country. A period of calm after the pullout had raised hopes for a measure of normalcy in Iraq, but tensions have spiked amid Sunni anger over perceived mistreatment from the Shiite-led government. More than 4,500 people have been killed since April.

The New York Times reports:

In the aftermath, Iraqi forces swept across Erbil, and Sulaimaniya, another major Kurdish city, setting up checkpoints and other security measures familiar to residents of other Iraqi cities.Officials said at least six people — all members of the Kurdish security forces — were killed and dozens more wounded in the attacks, which included at least five explosions. The violence gripped the region with the sort of fear that has long enveloped the rest of the country. A statement from the regional government said six attackers were also killed

Slate reports, citing Reuters:

The BBC reports:

At least 87 people have
been killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's
north-eastern Borno state, according to local officials.

Disguised in military uniforms, the militants set up
checkpoints outside the town of Benisheik and shot dead those trying to
flee, witnesses said.

They also razed dozens of buildings in Tuesday's attack.

Boko Haram, which wants to create an Islamic state across Nigeria, has waged a deadly insurgency since 2009.

Then later this was updated on Al Jazeera:

slamist Boko Haram militants killed 159 people in two roadside
attacks in northeast Nigeria this week, officials said, far more than
was originally reported and a sign that a four-month-old army offensive
has yet to stabilize the region.

In the first attack, on Tuesday, Boko Haram guerrillas wearing army
uniforms stopped traffic on a highway between the cities of Maiduguri
and Damaturu, dragging people out of their vehicles and killing them,
with 143 bodies recovered so far.

Violence in northeast Nigeria has intensified over the past two
months, as the armed group fights back against a military operation that
President Goodluck Jonathan ordered in May to try to crush their
four-year-old rebellion.

 

Reuters reports: A brazen terrorist attack in a Nairobi shopping mall Saturday has left at least 39 people dead and more than 150 wounded, CNN is reporting.

Several British and American citizens are among the injured, but the
majority of casualties are Kenyans, authorities told CNN. Some are
children.

***

The al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Westgate Mall, and they are still holding 36 people hostage
while surrounded by police. "They Kenyan govt is pleading with our
Mujahideen inside the mall for negotiations. There will be no
negotiations whatsoever," the group posted on Twitter.

Mercifully the Twitter account was finally deleted by the management.

But this brings into sharp relief the entire obscenity of J.M. Berger talking for months to an Al-Shabab terrorist on Twitter in the interests of "scholarship".

The Guardian reports:

Thousands of Iraqis have been killed in recent months, in the worst violence the country has seen since 2008.

The attack on the funeral was one of the largest single terrorist assaults on civilians in Iraq in recent years. It happened shortly before sunset in the densely populated Shia neighborhood of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad.

Police said at least 72 people were killed and more than 120 were wounded in that attack. One bomber was able to drive up to the tent before detonating his bomb, and another on foot blew himself up nearby, police said. The explosions set the tents and several nearby cars on fire, sending a towering plume of thick black smoke over the city.