"The latest casualties in a 12-year conflict that shows no signs of slowing down.
And yet I have been told it is winding down and ending.
They were killed on the eve of the 12th anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2001, invasion and a war that has become largely forgotten in the United States and among its coalition allies despite continued casualties suffered by their forces on the ground.
Whose fault is that, propaganda pre$$?
The attack came as Afghan security forces take over the brunt of the fighting after the coalition handed over security responsibilities for the country this summer. This year, an average of least 100 Afghan soldiers and police have died each week."
Holy s***!
Related: Sunday Globe Special: AmeriKa Building Barracks For Afghan Army
Those ought to keep 'em safe.
Related:
7 dead as bomb targets local police
Suicide bomber kills 14 at Afghan province council
Taliban attack senator, kill daughter
Taliban kill 11 border police guards and official
13 Afghans die as Taliban hit outpost
Taliban strike near Kabul airport
Gunmen execute 8 Afghan laborers
Attack on Afghan convoy kills 3 drivers
Taliban say they killed 10 policemen
6 Afghan police killed at checkpoint
Policemen killed in Afghan ambush
30 Afghan police killed in two days
Afghan insurgents kill 17 soldiers
Attacks on Afghan police kill 20
Car bomb kills two passersby
Policewoman shot in Afghanistan dies
Another Afghan female officer shot
"Afghan officials said, violence over two days killed 32 people and wounded 35 across Afghanistan. Overnight fighting at a police checkpoint killed 10 police officers, eight insurgents, and three civilians.... another mosque bombing.... insider attack.... insurgents beat and killed two boys they accused of spying.... Violence has been escalating around the country in recent months as insurgents press a campaign to retake territory, which they have so far not managed to do.... Both the government and insurgents regularly inflate casualty figures, which cannot be immediately confirmed."
Also see: Bombing in mosque kills confidant to Afghan leader
"Holding territory came at a high price. Coalition officials say Afghan forces were at one point losing 100 men a week, mostly from roadside bombs. The Afghans’ weakness, say military officials, is logistics — they have trouble with the upkeep of vehicles and other crucial equipment supplied by the West. US Major General James C. McConville, who commands coalition troops in the volatile east near the Pakistani border, said Afghan forces there managed to hold territory as coalition forces began withdrawing in earnest."
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Scrapping These Articles About Afghanistan
"Two roadside bombs exploded on Friday in different parts of Afghanistan’s volatile south, killing 12 people, including five women, Afghan officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame probably will fall on Taliban insurgents. The south is considered a Taliban stronghold and insurgents there stage near-daily attacks against Afghan and NATO soldiers. Their bombs routinely kill civilians."
And who could ever question such inexactitudes and vagueness from a lying, war-promoting jewsmedia?
Here is a switch:
"Afghan police kill 8 at protest" by Kathy Gannon and Mirwais Khan | Associated Press, May 09, 2013
KABUL — Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday as the US-led coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops in an encounter with insurgents.
Both events occurred in southern Afghanistan, where violence has escalated in recent weeks following a Taliban announcement launching the start of its spring offensive.
Villagers in the town of Maiwand said police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting raids that Afghan and NATO forces conducted in their village of Loye Karez two days earlier.
Accounts differed as to whether the eight killed were unarmed protesters or militants....
Abdul Qayyum, a 45-year-old demonstrator, said, “The local people of Maiwand district are so upset and unhappy with the government and the foreigners because they are conducting night raids on the houses of local people. With no reason, they are entering local houses and doing whatever they want. We don’t want all these things to keep happening to us.”
In the past, President Hamid Karzai has bitterly criticized raids on village homes, particularly those carried out during the night.
I'll be calling it quits with him next.
In a separate incident, the NATO-led force said Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct following an internal report into an April 28 encounter with insurgents in Zabul Province.
That will likely be included somewhere in my last post in this Afghan series.
The statement did not offer more details and Lieutenant Tamarac Dyer, a spokeswoman for the coalition, told the AP in an e-mail that “this is the only information we are able to release at this time due to the ongoing investigation.”
Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment.
The statement quoted US General Joseph Dunford, the top commander of NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, as saying that the alliance takes “all allegations of misconduct by our personnel very seriously.” He pledged to “fully investigate the incident and keep the Afghan government informed.”
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, three people were killed when their vehicle triggered an explosive device in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province. Another six people were injured, said Shamim Noorzai, the provincial police chief spokesman.
Afghan security officials say improvised explosive devises and suicide attacks present the greatest challenges for Afghan security forces in the battle against Taliban.
“They can’t fight us face to face,” Raziq said in a recent interview.
Also on Wednesday, the Afghan intelligence service said it arrested an Afghan national who confessed to having been sent by the Taliban to carry out a suicide bombing against Abdullah Abdullah, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election and the head of an opposition party called the National Coalition of Afghanistan.
It showed a video of the alleged would-be bomber whom the intelligence service said was arrested while scouting Abdullah’s headquarters. The intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security said Abdullah and another member of the opposition party, Ahmed Zia Masoud, were the intended targets.
Fazal Sangcharaki, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, said the strident anti-Taliban leader has had many threats in the past, but “unfortunately the NDS has not informed us about this arrest and this particular threat.”
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Now how can we make the Afghan cops look better?
"Aid group, NATO laud Afghan rescue" Associated Press, May 27, 2013
KABUL — Ten terrified international aid workers huddled inside a fortified room in Kabul for two hours during a Taliban attack until they were rescued by Afghan police, the aid group said Sunday. A NATO commander said the dramatic operation bodes well for the country’s future without foreign forces.
An Afghan police officer and two civilians were killed.
Major General Joseph Osterman, director of operations for the international military coalition, said the relatively low number of casualties was a sign of how Afghan forces have ‘‘markedly improved’’ as they increasingly take over responsibility for protecting the country ahead of most foreign troops’ withdrawal next year.
This has the stinking stench of a staged and scripted event -- if it ever occurred at all.
That militants were able to launch two attacks in the capital in a little over a week — another car bomb killed six Americans and nine Afghan bystanders eight days before — prove how fierce a fight Afghan forces face. Still, Osterman called this response by the Afghans “very impressive.’’
This has the stinking stench of a staged and scripted event -- if it ever occurred at all.
That militants were able to launch two attacks in the capital in a little over a week — another car bomb killed six Americans and nine Afghan bystanders eight days before — prove how fierce a fight Afghan forces face. Still, Osterman called this response by the Afghans “very impressive.’’
Richard Danziger, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration, thanked police for the rescue during Friday’s Taliban assault with a car bomb and attackers wearing suicide bomb vests and wielding shoulder-fired grenade launchers. He also praised the group’s armed Nepalese guards, five of whom were wounded.
All four of the attackers were killed. Danziger, who was out of Afghanistan during Friday’s siege, said he was ‘‘mystified’’ as to why the group was targeted. It is a UN-affiliated agency assisting returning Afghan migrants as well as those displaced by fighting. Danziger said the staff would resume work Monday in temporary quarters.
--more--"
No offense, but forget this post. Judging from the hits regarding this recent series on Afghanistan and the previous effort on Iraq, no one gives a shit.
