KABUL, Afghanistan - US and NATO deaths from roadside and suicide bomb blasts in Afghanistan soared sixfold last month compared with July last year, as militants detonated the highest number of bombs of the eight-year war.
And in recent days, three US Marines and a Polish soldier have died, setting August on course to surpass the record 75 deaths US and NATO troops suffered from all causes in July....
US, NATO, and Afghan troops are working to protect voting sites around the country so that Afghans can take part in the country’s second-ever direct presidential election Aug. 20. Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the vote, and attacks are on the rise around Afghanistan, where roadside bombs are now the cause of the majority of US and NATO deaths....
Why would they do that?
FLASHBACK:
"Splintered Taliban forces thwart Afghan peace; But analysts see widespread desire for a settlement" by Pamela Constable, Washington Post | April 5, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - When voter registration stations opened in southern Afghanistan several months ago, officials feared they would be attacked by Taliban fighters who control much of the region. Instead, the process went smoothly and not a shot was fired. There were even reports of local Taliban members encouraging people to register and support them at the polls in August.... --more--"
Of course, WE NEVER HEAR MUCH about PEACE TALKS or Taliban registering voters. All we get now is how the Taliban are becoming "Al-CIA-Duh" -- and I'm sooo, sooo, tired of the Jewish war propaganda.
Though roadside bombs target US, NATO, and Afghan troops, the blasts have killed a record number of civilians this year as well. Nine Afghans riding in a vehicle died in a bomb blast yesterday in Kandahar Province, said Daud Farhad, a doctor at Kandahar’s Mirwais hospital....
What about those AIRSTRIKES, doc?
Related: "Deadly contractor incident sours Afghans The shooting deaths of Raheb Dost, 24, and another Afghan civilian by four gunmen with the company once known as Blackwater have turned an entire neighborhood against the U.S. presence here.
US won’t stop deadly blitz in Afghanistan
Not winning any hearts and minds that way.
IED attacks are up in part because of increased operations by NATO troops.
Cause and effect.
Afghan soldier deaths from IEDs are also up sharply, Azimi said, but he had no figures. A roadside bomb in Zabul killed two Afghan soldiers yesterday, said Lieutenant General Sher Mohammad Zazai. At least 14 NATO troops, including at least seven Americans, have died in bomb blasts this month.
Some 4,000 US Marines who stormed into southern Helmand Province last month were confronted with dozens of bombs buried in Afghanistan’s dirt roads. Militants have become more sophisticated at hiding the bombs, and have begun planting several in close proximity, troops say. British troops operating in Helmand have also suffered greatly from roadside bombs. A record number of British troops - 22 - died in Afghanistan last month, including 12 from explosions, raising an outcry in Britain about a lack of helicopters and other equipment....
Related:
"A majority of the British public believes the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan cannot be won and British troops should be withdrawn immediately"
That's not an outcry over helicopters and equipment, liars.
A recent UN report said at least 1,013 civilians were killed in the first six months of this year from insurgents’ bombs, compared with 818 for the same period in 2008 - an increase of 24 percent.
And HOW MANY have been WASTED by U.S. AIR STRIKES, 'eh?
Even as bomb blasts spike in Afghanistan, such attacks have dropped precipitously in Iraq.
I thought this was an article bout Afghanistan?
No coalition troops died in Iraq last month from bomb attacks, only the second month that has happened since the military began keeping statistics in June 2003. March 2009 was the other month.
The NATO command in Afghanistan said yesterday that three US troops died in southern Afghanistan in separate “hostile fire incidents.’’ It did not disclose the exact location of the attacks. The first died of wounds suffered in an incident that occurred Saturday, another died Sunday, and the third died Monday, a NATO statement said.
Then WHY WAIT SO LONG to REPORT it as a LAST PARAGRAPH AFTERTHOUGHT, MSM? WTF, readers?
Especially since we are getting a daily dose of the current war agenda in Afghanistan:
"Marines meet fierce fire in assault on Taliban stronghold; US aims to control region ahead of Afghanistan vote" by Alfred de Montesquiou, Associated Press | August 13, 2009
DAHANEH, Afghanistan - US Marines battled Taliban fighters yesterday for control of a strategic southern town in a new operation to cut militant supply lines and allow Afghan residents to vote in next week’s presidential election.
Insurgents appeared to dig in for a fight, firing volleys of rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, and even missiles from the back of a truck at the Marines, who were surprised at the intense resistance. By sunset, Marines had made little progress into Dahaneh beyond the gains of the initial predawn assault.
When you are FIGHTING for your HOME and FAMILY -- as opposed to a paycheck -- things like that will happen.
Fighting accelerated after sundown, and officers predicted a couple of days of intense combat before the town could be secured....
I expect my War Daily to keep me informed now.
The operation, Eastern Resolve 2, was launched early yesterday with 400 Marines and 100 Afghan troops, who leapfrogged over Taliban lines in helicopters to attack militant positions in mudbrick compounds at the edge of town.
Don't you just love the bullshit names they come up with for thee mass-murdering exercises?
And they are going to destroy the residents mudbrick homes? Sob!
It was the third major push by US and British forces this summer into Taliban-controlled areas of Helmand Province, center of Afghanistan’s lucrative opium business and scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Afghan war.
Yeah, and WE KNOW WHY that DRUG BUSINESS isn't stopped: NATO is PROTECTING IT!
British troops have been responsible for Helmand the last three years, but never had enough forces to take and hold Dahaneh. The Marines are part of the 21,000 additional forces President Obama deployed to Afghanistan this year to stop the Taliban’s violent momentum.
It gets to the point where I don't even an to comment on the subtle Muslim-hating and Zionist bias it is so prevalent.
By their operations, US and British troops hope to break the Taliban grip on the province, sever smuggling routes from Pakistan, and protect the civilian population from Taliban reprisals so Afghans can vote here during the Aug. 20 election. The Taliban have called for a boycott of the ballot and threatened to ruin the election.
I read that paragraph and I keep saying to myself "lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie."
Sigh.
It was the first time in years that US or NATO troops had entered Dahaneh, a squalid town of about 2,000 people. Marines say the town is key to controlling the Naw Zad valley - a major Taliban staging area and site of a large opium market. The goal is to cut off the Taliban from other communities in the valley, to foster more civilian cooperation with NATO forces. The Taliban levy taxes and maintain checkpoints in Dahaneh.
Yeah, we call them TOLLS here in AmeriKa. This is getting OBSCENE, readers.
The town serves as a main trading route through northern Helmand, which produces 60 percent of the world’s opium.
What, Taliban cracking down (pun not intended) on the opium trade again?
See: Afghans Need Taliban Return
During the first day of fighting, Marines said they killed between seven and 10 militants and seized about 66 pounds of opium, which the Taliban use to finance their insurgency.
I no longer believe the plants, 'er, "evidence" the U.s military claims. Too many lies for too long a time.
The US military said an American soldier was killed by a bomb yesterday in southern Afghanistan, but the statement did not say whether the blast was part of the fighting around Dahaneh. A first assault wave in Humvees and MRAPs left a Marine base at 1 a.m. in the town of Naw Zad, about five miles north of Dahaneh. Three CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters then picked up a platoon of Marines and dropped them behind Taliban lines in Dahaneh. These troops blasted their way into a suspected militant compound, where they arrested five men and took over the compound as a base.
That's "liberating" people, huh?
Of course, if "insurgents" had done such a thing the place would be razed to the ground.
--more--"
DAHANEH, Afghanistan - US aircraft and missiles pounded Taliban mountainside positions around Dahaneh yesterday as Marines pushed through mudbrick compounds searching for militants in the second day of fighting to seize this strategic southern town.
See: Air Conditioning in Afghanistan
Also in the south, four NATO service members - three British and one American - were killed in separate explosions, military officials said....
Meanwhile, an upcoming assessment of Afghanistan by the top US commander there will not include a request for additional US troops, as has been widely expected, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.
Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal to call for more US troops The top US commander in Afghanistan is on a collision course with the White House after it emerged that he plans to ask for more American troops to bolster dangerously under-resourced operations there.
There HAS to be a CATCH.
But Gates did not rule out the possibility that the commander, General Stanley A. McChrystal, might make such a request later....
Like when a week?
Also yesterday, two explosions elsewhere in the south killed 14 people, including three children at play, The New York Times reported. Dawoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand provincial authorities, said a roadside bomb exploded next to a van carrying civilians, killing 11. The Taliban offered no immediate comment on that explosion or the one in Mirwais Mina, near Kandahar, that killed three children who had found the bomb on the side of the road.
US Marines launched a major assault Wednesday against Taliban forces in Dahaneh, a town of 2,000 people that controls trade routes in Helmand Province. By yesterday evening, the Marines and Afghan troops had managed to take about half the town, with Taliban resistance tougher than expected. As sporadic clashes continued in Dahaneh, Marine Cobra attack helicopters fired rockets at Taliban positions in the nearby mountains where militants were believed firing at troops in the town.
Later, US A-10 fighter-bombers fired multiple rounds into the barren, rocky cliffs overlooking what the Marines call “Hell’s Pass,’’ the entrance into the Now Zad valley, and US surface-to-surface missiles, fired from the main Marine base, pounded the hillsides.
Trying to turn the Hindu-Kush into rubble, 'eh, Obama?
Meanwhile in the town, Marines came under heavy machine gun fire as they moved through the streets and alleyways....
At sunset, a Humvee mounted with a loudspeaker drove through neighborhoods the Marines had cleared, broadcasting to residents in their Pashto language that they could register complaints and get compensation for damage suffered in the fighting. Most residents appeared to have fled.
America always supplies that intimate connection when we invade people.
That's why we are sooo much better than other evil, mass-murdering empires.
And about that vote:
"Afghan vote may lead to runoff; Poll gives Karzai less than 50%" by Laura King, Los Angeles Times | August 15, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - The apparent tightening of the race is occurring amid growing fears that the vote will be marred by fraud and violence.
Yeah, Karzai is going to steal it.
Taliban militants have threatened to disrupt the election, and intimidation of candidates and voters has intensified in parts of the country where the insurgents have a strong presence. Some commanders have been quoted as threatening to cut off people’s fingers if they are found to be stained with indelible ink - a sign that the person voted....
Yeah, that is why they would register people to vote.
Btw, who are those icky Taliban again?
"Something of a catchall term for loosely affiliated insurgents without a singular command structure. Often, the Afghan government favors the phrase 'enemies of the state' (New York Times July 24, 2007)."
"The Taliban is growing and creating new alliances not because its sectarian religious practices have become popular, but because it is the only available umbrella for national liberation," says Pakistani historian and political commentator Tariq Ali. "As the British and the Soviets discovered to their cost in the preceding two centuries, Afghans never like being occupied."
Also see: Afghanistan's Other Government
And today, readers?
"More and more, people here look back to the era of harsh Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, describing it as a time of security and peace."
Oh, oh, oh!!!! I'm so offended by the AmeriKan MSM and its bullshit!
Also see: How I Came to Love the Veil
Now I know that is Afghanistan, but we are talking about an artificial border drawn by the British who NEVER ASKED the PASHTUNS what THEY THOUGHT!!!!!!!
Besides,
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
The TALIBAN was established under U.S. AUSPICES, huh?
We can "LIVE WITH THAT?"
Well, I SURE CAN as long as the KILLING STOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
