Well, do you think those parts will work if the pick-up breaks down?
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| India-Pakistan |
| Taliban capture US helicopter parts |
| 2008-06-18 |
| In a startling operation that shook the Pentagon, the White House and the US administration some weeks back, the Taliban in the tribal areas captured parts of three US helicopters — Chinook, Black Hawk and Cobra — while they were being shipped in huge containers from Peshawar to Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials have confirmed the capture while the US diplomats stationed in Islamabad are trying to fudge the issue without denying it outright. US embassy spokesperson Elizabeth Colton commented: "The embassy has no comment on this as the information appears to be only hearsay." When this correspondent informed the embassy spokesperson that he had seen pictures of the stolen parts of helicopters, she again said "no comment". Some diplomats in Islamabad are very much aware of this recent Taliban operation but they were not ready to speak on record. Diplomatic sources say the recent US air strike in the tribal areas was actually an attack on the location where the unassembled parts of the two helicopters, owned by the US armed forces, were stored by the Taliban. Sources told The News US Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher was to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan soon in view of the situation in the region. What is shocking is the revelation that the US forces were transporting helicopters in unassembled form in containers, which landed at the Karachi Port and travelled all the way by road to Peshawar and then entered the tribal areas for onward journey to Afghanistan. When these containers entered the Khyber Agency at Jamrud, the Taliban stopped the convoys and took away the helicopter parts. Pakistani paramilitary forces in the area tried to confront the Taliban but they suffered heavy losses due to darkness. This happened in the same area where Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was kidnapped in February this year. Chinook and Black Hawk were captured recently while the Cobra was hijacked some weeks back. When the Taliban first captured the Cobra helicopter, they filmed all the stolen parts and supplied the CD to their allies in Afghanistan. Some people in the Farah province of western Afghanistan showed interest in purchasing the Cobra helicopter and subsequently its parts were smuggled to Farah. Taliban sold this Cobra to an unidentified customer for several hundred thousand dollars. Following the latest ground hijacking, the Taliban have again filmed all the stolen parts of CH-47 Chinook and Black Hawk choppers. Chinook is a versatile twin-engine helicopter that was also used to help the earthquake victims in Kashmir in October 2005 by the US Army. The Taliban have again sent the CD to people for attracting customers from neighbouring countries of Afghanistan. They do not seem to have hit any customer as the stolen parts with extra engines are still in their custody. The Taliban captured some unexploded Tomahawk missiles in the Khost area of eastern Afghanistan in 1998. These missiles were fired on al-Qaeda hideouts after attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Taliban handed over some of the unexploded US missiles to the Chinese in 1998. Top US military officials have demanded recently from Pakistan to start an operation in the tribal areas for the recovery of their stolen helicopters. They have expressed concern that instead of initiating an operation against the Taliban, the new government is negotiating peace with the Taliban. Concerned officials in the Foreign Office were of the opinion that the Taliban had increased their attacks in Afghanistan recently due to the incompetence of the Afghan National Army and the Nato forces. The Taliban used a fuel tanker packed with 1800 kg of explosives a few days ago to break a jail in Kandahar. They got released their 400 comrades along with 1,100 other prisoners in that operation. On Tuesday, the Taliban captured Arghundab district of Kandahar province. It was also a big blow to the credibility of Nato and the Karzai government but now both of them are trying to divert the international attention by threatening to attack the Pakistani border areas. The Taliban have recently conducted bloody operations against the Nato forces in Shenwro district of Parwaon province in the north, Taren Kot city of Uruzgan province in the south and Poli Alm city of Logar province close to Kabul. All these are not close to the Pakistani borders and the Taliban were attacking the Nato with the help of the local population. It was learnt that the high command of Pakistani security forces has requested the government for permission to respond in a hard-hitting manner to any attack from Afghanistan in future. Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher would visit Pakistan and Afghanistan shortly. It is expected that he would try to narrow down the differences between Islamabad and Kabul. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #18 Next, we will probably hear about Paki nuclear weapons being stolen by the Taliban. Inside job no doubt. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-18 22:53 |
| #17 Wouldn't it be weird if we ended up going to war with China over Pakistan? History shows that China will abandon Pakistan when the crunch time comes. In 1971 Pakistan was sure that China would come to their aid, that they would never allow the country to be split in half. Henry Kissinger even tried to convince Zhou Enlai to initiate some diversionary action on the Indo-Chinese border to take the heat off Pakistan. When the besieged Pakistani troops saw paratroopers descending, their rushed out in joy, thinking their Chinese allies had come to their rescue. Well those paras were not Chinese and 90,000 Pak troops ended up as POWs in India. In the end China didn't want to risk conflict with the Soviet Union, certainly not over Pakistan, which in the end was expendable. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-06-18 17:34 |
| #16 GPS and transmitter in every box to feed target coordinates to predators if it drifts off the preprogrammed path... or just a built in bomb if it leaves the path... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-06-18 14:42 |
| #15 Couple thoughts come to mind; we could continue to ship parts through there, knowing they might get picked off, but these parts would be 'special;' as in defective and after a few minutes use come apart. the good guys would be told not use parts with certain serial numbers. other thought has a visual of Wile E. Al-Coyote strapping those engines to an Acme camel...... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-06-18 14:34 |
| #14 Yee International News.../correction |
| Posted by: RD 2008-06-18 13:52 |
| #13 #8 AFP sez... Damn there's that AFP Rapporteur™ again... anybody else want to interpret him? my take.. As per usual the Pakis are out and out shaking us down again, with a cargo protection racket this time. |
| Posted by: RD 2008-06-18 13:49 |
| #12 Time to start napalming parts of the NWFP. ARCLIGHT strikes are also encouraged, beginning in Rawalpindi/Islamabad and Peshawar. We also need to bomb Quetta off the map and thus destroy half the Taliban "army". We also need to send a "stern note" to the Pakistanis that if they won't clean up their house, we'll do it for them. There might not be much of a house left when we finish, though... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-06-18 13:32 |
| #11 Well, do you think those parts will work if the pick-up breaks down? |
| Posted by: BigEd 2008-06-18 13:21 |
| #10 Why do we seem to be having so much trouble obliterating these 9th century scumbags? What is the prob? It's kind of hard playing hide-and-seek with targets you can't sort out from the actual civilians. Especially when these targets are either tolerated or actively supported by the Pakistani government. And these aren't actually 7th century folks - they have a 7th century ideology, but are equipped with 21st century weaponry, communications technology and tactical manuals. It may be that Obama is right, but not in the way he means. We may well have to invade Pakistan, after all. Wouldn't it be weird if we ended up going to war with China over Pakistan? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-06-18 13:14 |
| #9 Upgrading the camels no doubt |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2008-06-18 13:08 |
| #8 AFP sez... In a further blow to Western forces, the separate US-led coalition said on Wednesday that four helicopter engines worth 13 million dollars had gone missing in the region. The engines were being shipped by a Pakistani trucking company when they disappeared, some time before April 11, the coalition said. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-06-18 12:58 |
| #7 Rope-a-dope. With plenty emphasis on the dope part... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-06-18 12:58 |
| #6 Why do we seem to be having so much trouble obliterating these 9th century scumbags? What is the prob? |
| Posted by: Glaviper Hitler3509 2008-06-18 11:39 |
| #5 There is a lot of disingenuousness in this article. I especially note: The Taliban have recently conducted bloody operations against the Nato forces in Shenwro district of Parwaon province in the north, Taren Kot city of Uruzgan province in the south and Poli Alm city of Logar province close to Kabul. All these are not close to the Pakistani borders Their proximity to the borders is irrelevant - the forces there CAME from the Paki border areas and are resupplied from there, and use the Paki border areas to reassemble, regroup, train and plan these operations. Lying scumbag Paki propagandist. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-06-18 10:19 |
#4 Capture enough parts, you guys can make your very own helicopter!Warranty not included |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-06-18 09:33 |
| #3 'Taliban' my behind. Somebody in the Pak military is making some serious coin selling stuff to the Iranians and Chinese. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-06-18 09:24 |
| #2 All according to plan. The Taliban will now be compelled to establish an air force, go "Joint" and be plagued by a downturn in combat effectiveness, female pilots, mission squables, inter-service funding rivalries, maintenance funding and run away replacement contract costs. Future plans call for the Taliban "capture" of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle and an Osprey. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-06-18 09:09 |
| #1 I got it one piece at a time, and it didn't cost me a dime... My apologies to Johnny Cash! |
| Posted by: One Eyed Ulese1266 2008-06-18 08:56 |