14 U.K. Troops Die In NATO Plane Crash

Plane Crashes In Afghanistan; Clashes Leave At Least 13 Taliban Dead

(CBS/AP) 
Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy carrying Khash Rod district police chief in southwestern Nimroz province late Friday, killing the chief, Juma Khan, and three police riding with him, said Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dasthaqir.

Police returned fire, killing three militants, he said. The remaining militants fled, leaving behind two assault rifles.

Four Taliban were killed late Friday in an exchange of fire with police in the Garamsair district of the southern Zabul province, district police chief Ghulam Rasool said. He said no police officers were wounded.

Meanwhile, the United Nations reported Saturday that opium cultivation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, rising 59 percent this year to produce a record 6,100 tons nearly a third more than the world's drug users consume.

Antonio Maria Costa, the U.N. anti-drug chief, said the results from his agency's annual survey of Afghanistan's poppy crop were "very alarming."

"This year's harvest will be around 6,100 tons of opium a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent," Costa told reporters in Kabul after presenting the survey to President Hamid Karzai. Opium is the raw material of heroin.

On Friday, police raided a Taliban hide-out in a remote area of Zabul province, triggering a shootout in which three insurgents died, said provincial police chief Noor Mohammad Paktin.

He said police seized three assault rifles and two satellite phones from the hide-out.

In Kandahar province, the Afghan army supported by airstrikes launched an operation Saturday against Taliban militants in the districts of Panjwayi and Zadi, said Gov. Asadullah Khalid, who reported that the militants had suffered some casualties. He had no further details.

Khalid said authorities there were forbidding any traffic — including cars, motorbikes and even bicycles — on roads other than the main Highway One during the operation because of the presence of Taliban fighters. He warned that any vehicle seen on the roads "will be targeted."

In the east, an assailant driving an explosives-laden Toyota sedan attacked a convoy of Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province, said provincial police spokesman Ghafor Khan.

He said three people were wounded — one coalition solider, an Afghan soldier and an Afghan translator. The unidentified attacker died.

Coalition spokeswoman Lt. Tamara Lawrence confirmed that a coalition soldier and an Afghan soldier had been wounded in a blast near the Nangarhar capital of Jalalabad. However, she said it was a roadside bomb.

[alphaa10-2009]

Dr.Goodwin-- Afghanistan is the "Bush Back Burner War" in every sense, despite a Bush pledge to the American people to respond fully and effectively against al Qaeda. You aptly characterized how the scene was subtly but rapidly shifted for the American public, almost as if someone had the "remote" control for their attention. The news media-- ever the sensationalists, thriving on it, profiting from it-- hardly blinked an eye as they switched scenes. It was Gen. Tommy Franks, himself, who revealed when the American commitment to Afghanistan began to wane in favor of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Hamid Karzai continues to wait patiently for effective American support, a variety of programs all too often simply under-delivered, sidelined-- or worse, pulled out from under him because Karzai is not on the current White House Hot List. Now, as Iraq becomes the epicenter of a struggle for power between two poles of Islamic state power-- Saudi Arabia and Iran-- Afghanistan's prospects have not brightened..

Bush flunked his first test with 911, and he still has not made up his remedial work exterminating al Qaeda / Taliban elements in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is still at large, his al Qaeda structure decentralized and mobilized well beyond its original confines. Bush finally has admitted in public there is no Iraq-al Qaeda connection, driving many of his former supporters to understand Bush is a criminal, third-rate politician from Texas who has played fast and loose with the American public.

[drgoodwin12]

This is the war we forgot.In 2001 after 9/11 we went in and outed the Taliban/Al Queda goverment,we then virtually left them on their own allowing the Taliban/Al Queda to regroup and grow.This country had been ravaged by war for over 20 years and was/is living in the 7th. century.The NATO forces have yet to find and capture the leaders of the Taliban/Al Queda who escaped.The restrainst placed upon them by the Pakistani goverment prevent them from following the taliban/al queda into Pakistan or even searching for them there.The increase in opium production is probaly help finance the taliban/al queda operations. Yet our eyes and ears are on Iraq a war that had nothing to do with 9/11(9/11 commision report)and never had WMDs or was a danger to anyone besides it's own people. After the first Gulf War which took our president 5 days to decide that it was a threat,we beat the hell out of them.UN inspectors put them in compliance with the WMD agreement and Saddam only ruled by his army and police.This is why the world looks at us as fools.So lets fix it, finish Afghanistan and place some very firm language to the new Iraqi goverment.Shape up or else,purge your electorialat from thier ties to militias,insurgents and terrorist.Purge your country from the same.Non action will be met with action far more devasting than they can imagine.