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| Afghanistan |
| 800 killed at Shah-i-Kot |
| 2002-03-10 |
Before Christmas, in the ridges and caves of Tora Bora, the Americans had let their Afghan proxies do most of the fighting on the ground. As a result, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of al-Qaeda fighters escaped to fight another day. In Shah-i-Kot the brunt of the dirty work has been borne by Americans. After a week of fighting, a military source estimated that 800 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had been killed. Total confirmed casualties on the allied side: 11 dead, of whom eight were American and three Afghan, and 88 wounded, 18 of them Afghan. One other thing about the Taliban and al-Qaeda warriors at Shah-i-Kot: they fought to the death. That may be because the Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks among them have nowhere to go, save Guantanamo Bay. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |