KABUL (AP)-(found it on the wire, no link yet)-The rebel death toll from a fierce battle against militants by U.S. and Afghan forces in southeastern Afghanistan more than doubled to 44 on Thursday after troops found more bodies at the scene of clash, one of the deadliest since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Meanwhile, the Afghan government said nine of its soldiers died in an ambush, the worst loss yet for the country's new U.S.-trained army. |
US trained Afghans fighting for their own country... That's a beautiful thing.
[...]"Important documents" found on the dead militants showed two were Chechens and one was Pakistani, said Ali Khail, spokesman for Zabul province's governor. He wouldn't give more details about the documents. |
That whole "flypaper theory" that I love about the GWOT, taking the war to the terrorists, has drawn some crazies from the rest of the world to the fray. And that's the point. We want them to fight our trained, armed, and determined men and women of the military instead of focusing on attacking us here at home, attacking civilians. And with the impressive freedom we're helping the Afghanis and Iraqis achieve, they have become staunch allies in the GWOT and in fighting for their own freedom.
[...][U.S. spokesman Col. James] Yonts also welcomed the capture announced Wednesday in Pakistan of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, described as al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, but had no information on whether the Libyan was involved in organizing attacks in Afghanistan. |
Well another al Qaeda leader off the list, and captured to boot. Hopefully our intelligence agents don't have to use some of those horrific Abu Ghraib style diaper-on-the-head-while-people-laugh-at-you (shudder) torture to get information out of him. That could really damage his self-esteem. |
