Taliban plan a ‘great coup, bonanza’ by bringing down famed British Chinooks

August 31st, 2009 LONDON - The British special forces in Afghanistan have destroyed their second Chinook helicopter, after it crash-landed with 19 people on board, to prevent it from being accessed by the Taliban. The Chinook, with a crew of four, was ferrying soldiers from the 2nd Battalion when it landed heavily, east of Sangin in northern Helmand, suffering severe damage to the undercarriage, nose and front rotor, The Times reported.

August 30th, 2009 LONDON - In a bid to end the war in Afghanistan, the Gordon Brown Government has chalked out a radical new strategy, which aims at approaching and swaying the Taliban supporters away. The three important steps of the new British approach will include sending hit squads from the SAS to hunt down and assassinate Taliban commanders, deploying extra troops to destroy deadly roadside bombs, and increasing military personnel to speed up the creation of the Afghan army.

August 13th, 2009 KABUL - Three British soldiers serving in a NATO-led international military force were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday. The soldiers died Sunday during a military patrol in the Sangin district of volatile Helmand province, the British defence ministry said in a statement.

July 28th, 2009 LONDON - Most of British nationals believe that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won, and that British troops should be pulled out immediately, a recent poll has found. According to ComRes survey conducted for The Independent, more than half of voters (52 per cent) want troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan straight away, with 43 per cent disagreeing.

July 27th, 2009 LONDON - Two more British soldiers have died in separate bomb blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the total killed there so far this month to 22, the defence ministry in London said Monday. It said one of the men who died was taking part in the second stage of Operation Panther's Claw, the US-led offensive in southern Afghanistan.

July 11th, 2009 LONDON - British Chief of Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup has insisted that the Taliban is losing the fight in Afghanistan. The top British general was defending the bloodiest 24-hour period for ground troops since operations began.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - An Islamic militant group based in Britain plans to overthrow the Pakistani government, a British media report said Sunday. Followers of the fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir have called for a bloodless military coup in Islamabad and the creation of a caliphate in which strict Islamic laws would be rigorously enforced, The Sunday Times reported.

July 5th, 2009 LONDON - The writ of the Pakistan government is not only under threat from the ever expanding Taliban, but fears are also rife that British extremists may try to topple the democratic set-up of the country, as an Islamic fundamentalist group, Hizb- ut-Tahrir (HuT) is pushing for a "bloodless military coup" to establish an orthodox Islamic rule in the troubled nation. A report in The Times has revealed that the members of the HuT, who call themselves as the Liberation party in Britain, is working overtime to establish a caliphate in Pakistan, under which strict Islamic laws would rigorously be enforced.

May 31st, 2009 LONDON - Two British soldiers died in an explosion during a military operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the British defence ministry announced here late Saturday. British forces have suffered 165 troops since entering the battle against the Taliban militant movement in October 2001.

May 30th, 2009 LONDON - The extent to which Al-Qaeda has dangerously penetrated into Britain can be gauged from the fact that it no longer relies on sending British-born men to Pakistan for terror training, instead it is now recruiting 'ready made' terrorists from among the Taliban based in Pakistan. British investigators, who have been quizzing the 10 men arrested in the North West, believe that Al Qaeda has developed links with the Taliban which provide it trained militants who can carry out terror strikes at significant locations, The Telegraph reports.

May 5th, 2009 MOSCOW - Several senior Georgian defence ministry officials have been arrested for an attempted coup, reports reaching here from Tbilisi said. 'A coup plot has been exposed,' Georgia's interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

March 24th, 2009 LONDON - What will be India's loss in terms of the Indian Premier League (IPL) moving out of the country would be a bonanza for the recession-hit British economy. It is estimated that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as well as the British tourist industry will stand to make over $100 million (50 million pounds) in ground rent, hotel accommodation and the tourist inflow, particularly from the subcontinent, that is expected during the 45-day extravaganza.

March 23rd, 2009 LONDON - The British government is planning to train around 60,000 people already employed in various positions in how to respond to acts of terrorism, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Sunday. Speaking on the BBC, Smith said that the strategy included bringing anti-terrorism into the public arena with the training of people working 'everywhere from our shopping centres to our hotels'.

March 21st, 2009 LONDON - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said that the Taliban has achieved a "strategic stalemate" in Afghanistan.is statement came as he refused to say whether he wanted to reduce the number of British forces in the country. Miliband told the BBC: "In parts of the country there is a strategic stalemate.

February 15th, 2009 LONDON - Rolling Stones guitarist Sir Mick Jagger is happy and proud of British musicians as they won 16 top Grammy awards recently. Jagger believes this is one of the best times for British music till now, reports thesun.co.uk.