 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Ten insurgents and an Afghan soldier were killed in an operation to arrest a top Taleban commander in southern Afghanistan, a governor and the US military said on Friday. Coalition and Afghan troops came under attack by up to 20 âenemy firing small arms, heavy machine guns, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades,â the US military said in a statement. âCoalition and US close air support and US attack helicopters arrived at the scene, blasting enemy positions killing 10 enemy combatants,â it said.
| Blasting is good. Killing is better |
Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan told AFP the operation was launched after a tip-off that the man considered a military chief of the Taleban, Dadullah, was hiding out in the provinceâs Charchino district.
| That would be Mullah Dadullah, only question is which one. |
âWe had reports that Dadullah was hiding in the area and we launched an operation but we faced Taleban resistance and the fighting broke out,â he said. âThere might have been over 10 Taleban killed but we have at least four bodies with us,â he said.
| When they actually fight, as opposed to making faces and then running away, I think that means there's a head cheese in the vicinity to egg them on. |
A purported spokesman for the Taleban said six of the groupâs fighters were killed. Abdul Latif Hakimi also claimed that eight US and 10 Afghan soldiers were killed but the US and Afghan armies said only one Afghan had died.
| "Yep, yep. Killed 'em all! They're all dead now!" |
They would not confirm the nationality of the coalition soldier wounded in the clash. Australiaâs defence department said earlier Friday that an Australian special forces soldier was wounded in an operation in Afghanistan in which an Afghan soldier was killed. In a statement released in Australia, the department did not say when or where the clash took place but said the soldier was already back on duty.
"Nope. Nope. He ain't back on duty! He's dead! Look at him! See those bags under his eyes? That means he's dead!"
"But he's walking around!"
"Sometimes it takes awhile for 'em to stop twitchin'!"
"He's... ummm... doing handstands."
"They always do that just before they stop twitchin'!"
"One handed handstands. And he's thumbing his nose at you."
"Dead. Dead, I tell yez." |
A top US general has warned that the Talebanâs failure to derail the election did not mean the fundamentalist Islamist fighters were a spent force. âIâm not ready to sign up to the fact that Taleban are crumbling,â General Jason Kamiya, second in command of the 20,000 strong US-led coalition, told reporters. âThere still will be an enemy insurgency next spring (around March next year),â he said.
| Right after the Brutal Afghan Winterâ¢... |
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