KABUL - The US-led coalition said it carried out a precision air strike Saturday on a Taleban militant who had been helping to move anti-aircraft weapons in southern Afghanistan. The coalition did not say how many people may have been killed in the strike on a ‘Taleban weapons facilitator’ in Helmand province, with a battle damage assessment still under way.| Won't really matter how many were killed as long as the procurer is one of them. |
| Zap! |
There have been suspicions that the militants, who are said to be allied with Al Qaeda, are trying to acquire anti-aircraft weapons for their fight against NATO and coalition troops but this has not been confirmed. ‘We do know that the enemy is trying to get their hands on shoulder-fired air defence weapons,’ International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told AFP. ‘I am not aware of any confirmed reports that they have received them. We certainly know that they want them. To my knowledge there has not been a single helicopter that was knocked down (in Afghanistan) by a surface-to-air missile.’
He said forces in Afghanistan had ‘counter measures’ should such weapons be acquired.