Taliban Forces Attack in Nuristan and Kandahar Provinces: They now Control Barg-e-Matal and Bombarded Kandahar Airfield

Here’s who’s fighting the “most powerful country on earth” to a standstill… don’t forget that the neocons armed and bankrolled the Taliban in the 80s… the Good Lord DOES have a wry sense of humour.

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Heavy fighting continues for the second day in Barg-e-Matal in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. Afghan security forces, backed by NATO aircraft, claimed to have killed 26 Taliban fighters. According to RIA-Novosti, the press service of the provincial governor reported that the Taliban launched a new massive offensive on the border with Pakistan, in Barg-e-Matal in Nuristan, on Friday night. On the other hand, Zabiulla Mujhid, the Taliban “press secretary”, informed the media that Taliban fighters killed eight security troops and took another 15 as prisoners.

Zamaraj Bashari, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, admitted that the Taliban has seized control of the Barg-e-Matal, an area of strategic importance in Nuristan province in eastern Afghanistan. “Afghan forces evacuated Barg-e-Matal, because of heavy losses after several days of fighting. Our security forces shall do their utmost to regain control of Nuristan”, he said. The area near the border with Pakistan is used to smuggle in weapons and to funnel militants into three Afghan provinces, especially in Badakhshan, where the Taliban has recently carried out a series of bloody attacks. According to recent reports, six Afghan security troops died in the battle for Bar-e-Matal, along with dozens of Taliban. Mr Bashari also noted that official confirmation is lacking on reports that a raid of the NATO forces killed dozens of civilians on Friday in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, according to ITAR-TASS.

On Saturday evening, the airfield in Kandahar suffered a rocket attack. Kandahar, which is the administrative centre of the southern Afghan province of the same name, is one of the largest NATO military bases in Afghanistan. RIA-Novosti quoted a source in the Afghan security forces as saying that ten rockets exploded within the base perimeter. The NATO forces press office had no immediate comment on the incident. At the same time, Zabiulla Mujhid, the ”press secretary” for the Taliban, informed the media that foreign military suffered serious losses in manpower and equipment. However, according to a radio broadcast on Sunday, there was a loud explosion in the city of Kandahar, near Bab Hazratzhi, in the fifth municipal district, which luckily, no led to no injuries. An improvised explosive device laid in a flower bed by unknown parties caused it. According to the representatives of the Afghan security forces, on Sunday morning in Vaez in Ghazni province, the Taliban attacked a NATO supply convoy, killing five employees of a private security company who accompanied the convoy. In Karabag, also in Ghazni province, five Taliban and two police troops were killed in a similar incident. According to local media, dozens of wounded, including women and children, were evacuated to Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.

25 July 2010

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/07/25/13365249.html

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/07/25/13336251.html

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/07/25/13360779.html

Editor’s Note:

Note the bit about “employees of a private security company”… that means that the USA is using high-powered “rent-a-cops” in a combat zone… they’re more expensive and less effective. That’s the neocon mindset for you, though… “free enterprise” is always superior to “government work”. It’s why the USA is in an economic depression now… not only are billions being wasted on a war in a peripheral theatre, it was money “on tick”, and a good deal is being wasted by inefficient and incompetent private contractors, who are pals of Bush and Cheney (we shouldn’t holler about Afghan corruption… we’re not slouches at it, either). Barack Obama deserves a trip to the woodshed for having persisted with this unwinnable war, and for having continued to enrich the neocon contractors who are unable to deliver the goods.

Scream all you will about the deficit, Mitch McConnell… you don’t complain about the spiralling costs of this war… not at all. Nor do you (or did you) complain about the secret CIA prisons, the use of torture, or Guantanamo Bay. I find you a posturing gibbon, sir… you are no fit companion to President Eisenhower, for instance. Why do you toss billions at the Military Industrial Complex, Mr McConnell? Why do you cavil at extending unemployment benefits, which are less costly, by the way? I find that Ike’s words convict you of hypocrisy, greed, and of being unpatriotic. Why are we using “kid gloves” with such scummers? We should say it loud… “End this unwinnable war now… bring the boys home now… and let’s investigate who profited from this war now”.

Don’t hold your breath… it’s not gonna happen. This war shall drag on… after all, America is the “strongest country in the world and no one shall defy us”… hmm… I think that someone forgot to tell the Taliban that.

BMD

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