Taliban Kills US Troops in Afganistan: Sept 2011
US official policy is to subject Taliban to air strikes and drone attacks, pressurize Pakistan to move against their safe havens in Pakistan. This, the US hopes, will compel Taliban to come to talking terms.
US does not wish to leave Afghanistan in the manner they were forced to scramble from Viet Nam. They would like to leave with some dignity, after all they are the greatest military power today. Alas, the Taliban and Pakistan are not willing to allow US to depart so easily.
Pakistan Army which rules the country on its part has no intention of making any real moves against Taliban.
Taliban knows full well that US has to leave, sooner or later. Karzai cannot hold on for a day after US troops leave Afghanistan.
Pakistan in its efforts to curry favor with the Taliban, renders all support it can to Taliban cadres, giving them safe havens within its borders hopes that the Taliban will remember their help when they ultimately take over Afghanistan. Pakistan Army beleives that Talibanised Afghanistan will be a friendly neighbor, providing ‘depth’ to its borders in the west. Of course Taliban will also provide an unending stream of terrorists who can be directed against India, Europe, USA and China.
These terrorists in addition to Pakistan’s own locally trained youth will be the bargaining chips for continuing the blackmail of US in future also.
After all, the major beneficiary for over three decades of Taliban and terrorism has been the Pakistan Army, and ………….
Ed
13 US troops killed in Af bombing
Taliban Claim Responsibility For Attack
Kabul: A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a van into an armoured Nato bus on Saturday in Kabul, killing 13 American troops and four Afghans, US and Afghan officials said, in the deadliest attack on coalition forces in more than two months.
The explosion, which occurred as the convoy was passing the American University, sparked a fireball and littered the street with shrapnel. Heavy black smoke poured from burning wreckage at the site.
The armoured personnel carrier, known as a Rhinowas sandwiched between of a convoy of mine-resistant military vehicles travelling on a four-lane highway frequently usedby Natoforcesin a southwestern section of the city. Nato said 13 service members were killed, but a United States official confirmed they were all Americans.
The Afghan ministry of interior said three Afghan civilians and one policeman also died in the attack.
Eight other Afghans, including two children and four other civilians, were wounded, said Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul hospitals.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, as well as for another suicide bombing outside a government intelligence office in the northwest province of Kunar. The attack occurred near the entrance of the American University and the nearby landmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings.
Nato and Afghan forces sealed off the area as fire trucks and ambulances rushed in. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw two Nato helicopters landing to airlift casualties, while coalition troops using loudspeakersorderedbystanders to evacuate the area.
It was the deadliest single attack against the US-led coalition since the Taliban shot down a Natohelicopter on August 6 killing 30 US troops, most elite Navy SEALs, and eight Afghans.
In other violence, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform opened fire on a joint Nato-Afghan base, killing three Nato service members in Uruzgan province, an area in the restive south that is traditionally viewed as the Taliban’s stronghold. AP
BLOODBATH: Nato troops inspect the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on Saturday;(right) an Afghan boy who was injured recuperates
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