Search This Blog

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Afghanistan - One hundred Taliban killed in coalition offensive

The increasing tempo of operations in Afghanistan is typically portrayed in the MSM as an offensive launched by the enemy, proving - according to the same MSM - that things are falling apart there.

Reality and the MSM rarely meet; and if they do, they don't recognize each other.

Here is an article from AFP, translated by Babelfish:


A hundred killed talibans dabns of the engagements in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR - a hundred talibans found death in engagements in the south of Afghanistan in 72 hours. They perished in a vast offensive of the launched coalition Wednesday to subdue the rebellion.

Seven rebels died in the province of Kandahar during a confrontation with the Afghan national police force, which also lost one as of his. The battle lasted a good part of the night. Three other talibans died in the premature explosion of their artisanal bomb in the province of Helmand.

Friday evening, the international military coalition, carried out by the United States, announced to have killed 45 risen in the province close to Oruzgan in two separate attacks. In the night of Wednesday to Thursday, it had already announced to have killed 40 rebels.

These operations lie within the scope of the operation "attack against the mountain" (Mountain Thrust), the most important offensive launched by the coalition and the Afghan forces of safety since the fall of the talibans at the end of 2001.

Since mid-May, the American, Canadian and British forces accentuated the pressure on the rebels with the assistance of the police force and the Afghan national army.

But the losses do not seem for the hour to have started the determination of the talibans to launching frontal attacks on the Afghan forces of safety and the coalition.

The population of Kandahar, the largest city of the south, knows the devastators effects of booby-trapped cars driven by kamikazes.

For as much, the troops of the coalition are not particularly appreciated by the local population, for various reasons, which go from natural mistrust towards the "inaccurate ones", while passing by the burs or paradoxically the slowness with which the assistance from abroad arrives in the south. The endemic corruption, the insecurity and the weakness of the central government, still add to disappointment.

"to mitigate the sensitivity towards the foreign troops, the army (Afghan) will have a more eminent role" in "attack against the mountain", explains the General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman of the Afghan ministry of defense.

The United States announced besides Monday their intention to invest 103 million dollars in several projects of development in the south.

Must be that vaunted "spring Offensive" that the NY Times last week said had us back on our heels.

No comments: