AFGHANISTAN: "THE FORGOTTEN WAR"

Afghanistan is on the brink of all out battles between U.S.and NATO forces and the Taliban.

Here is what happened in Afghanistan on Monday, Mary 4, 2009:

Source: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

1: In the bloodiest incident on Monday, 12 civilians -- four women, two children and six men -- were killed by a roadside bomb that struck as they drove in a tractor in the Shamolzai district of southern Zabul province, said Mohammad Wazir, district chief of Shamolzai. "This was a mine newly planted by the Taliban," he told Reuters.

#2: A while later, Taliban guerrillas ambushed a convoy of a security firm in another area of Zabul, killing six Afghan security guards in the convoy and two civilians nearby, Ghulam Jailani, a senior provincial police official, said.

#3: Earlier on Monday, a provincial mayor was among seven people killed by a teenage suicide bomber who blew himself up at the gate of a municipal administration building in the eastern province of Laghman, the Interior Ministry said. Three body guards and three civilians were killed along with the province's mayor, Mohammad Rahim, the Interior Ministry said. A spokesman for the provincial governor's office, Sayed Ahmad Sopai, said 10 people were also wounded, including three women. He said the suicide bomber was identified as a 14-year-old boy from Paktika province further south.

#4: NATO-led troops shot and killed a 12-year-old girl and wounded two other civilians in western Afghanistan after they opened fire at a vehicle close to a convoy, police said on Sunday.

#5: Pakistani forces battled Taliban fighters on Monday as the militants denounced the army and government as U.S. stooges and said a peace pact would end unless the government halted its offensive. In the Buner valley, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the Pakistani capital, security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery attacked militants in three hamlets on Monday, residents and security officials said. "There's been heavy firing going on since morning. It's very scary. Troops are using heavy artillery and gunships," resident Nasir Khan told Reuters by telephone. A military spokesman said seven militants, including a commander, were killed. One soldier was killed and three wounded.