7 NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghan Bombings

Roadside Explosives, Armed Clashes Take Toll As Troops Seek Control Over Opium-Producing Region

(AP)  Roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan on Sunday left seven NATO soldiers dead, the alliance said, as its forces continued an anti-Taliban offensive in the world's most fertile opium-producing region.

One roadside bombing killed six NATO soldiers dead and wounded another, the alliance said. A separate roadside bomb killed one NATO soldier and wounded two, while a clash in the east left two Afghan guards and two militants dead, officials said.

NATO's International Security Assistance force did not identify those killed and wounded or specify the locations of the explosions.

The Taliban, meanwhile, claimed to have beheaded the kidnapped translator for an Italian journalist.

Ajmal Naqshbandi, a freelance journalist and translator, was kidnapped March 5 in southern Afghanistan along with journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and a driver.

The driver was beheaded. Mastrogiacomo, who worked for the daily La Repubblica, was released March 19 in a much-criticized swap for five Taliban militants.

The Taliban made a similar demand in return for Naqshbandi's release.

"We asked for two Taliban commanders to be released in exchange for Ajmal Naqshbandi, but the government did not care for our demands, and today, at 3:05 p.m., we beheaded Ajmal in Garmsir district of Helmand province," said Shahabuddin Atal, who claimed to be a spokesman for regional Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah. The report could not be independently confirmed.

"When we demanded the exchange for the Italian journalist, the government released the prisoners, but for the Afghan journalist, the government did not care," Atal said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said police have no evidence yet that Naqshbandi was killed. Another Taliban spokesman who frequently speaks with the media, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said he was not aware of the killing.

La Repubblica's editor, Ezio Mauro, said in a statement on the paper's Web site that the newspaper staff was "living through hours of anguish" after news of the interpreter's purported execution. The statement said the paper had asked the Afghan government "to do everything it maintains is right and possible to safe his life."

The prisoner swap that secured Mastrogiacomo's release has been heavily criticized by Afghan lawmakers and foreigners working in Afghanistan as an incentive for more militant kidnappings.

In the eastern Paktika province, two Afghan guards were killed and five wounded during a four-hour firefight with Taliban militants near the border with Pakistan, according to the U.S.-led coalition, which is operating separately from the NATO-led force.

Militants fired mortars and a rocket on a coalition checkpoint in the village of Kakakhel. Troops returned fire and called in an airstrike, leaving two militants dead and three others wounded, the statement said.

Also Sunday, in the eastern Khost province, a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle opened fire on Afghans working for ISAF, killing two of the men and wounding another, ISAF said in a statement.

And in the eastern Nangarhar province, a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to a U.S.-led coalition convoy, said Ghafor Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief. One soldier sustained minor injuries, a coalition statement said.

The latest violence came days after more than 1,000 NATO and Afghan troops retook Sangin district in the opium-producing Helmand province.

The next step will be for NATO to hand over control of the area to Afghan security forces, Carl said, adding that NATO already has transported about 500 Afghan forces to the south.

The operation to retake the town from militants started late Wednesday and is part of NATO's largest ever offensive in Afghanistan, Operation Achilles, launched last month to flush out Taliban militants from the northern tip of Helmand province.

About 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan forces are in and around Helmand province as part of Operation Achilles. In the last several months, Taliban militants and foreign fighters have streamed into the province, according to U.S. and NATO officials.

[grazinggoat]

An interesting point about Bush's crusade and the last crusade.
The last one was led by King Richard the Lion Heart.
This most recent one seems to be led by King George the Chicken Heart.
Posted by jerr11 at 11:42 PM : Apr 08, 2007

-Dicck is a shortform for Richard (Cheney), this one is Dicck The Pig-Clogged Heart. George is a clown, he makes people laugh at his fool decisions, and matter of fact, Iraqis will kick our troops out of their land, as it happened in every invasion. Wish our kids left before it's too late.

[lars008-2009]

Ben Franklin hated islam
The trend of Muslim defeat began to reverse after the Second World War even though many Muslim leaders had backed Hitler%u2019s Third Reich. Most Islamic countries became independent of Christian colonial rule between 1946 when Jordan achieved independence and 1971 when Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE finally became independent of Britain. The next year, Muslim terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer at the Olympic Games in what became known as the Munich massacre, an attack which some see as opening the current war between Islam and the West. In an echo of the Barbary Pirates, an airliner was hijacked in October 1972 causing Germany to release to Libya the two terrorists being held for trial in the attack.
And the Quakers? Today the Quaker %u201CAmerican Friends Service Committee%u201D no longer demands resolute action against slavery. They are on the other side %u2013 serving the modern equivalents of Franklin%u2019s allegorical Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim by demanding that America once again appease the Islamists. Their demand for withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan in the face of Islamist attacks aimed to re-enslave the populations of those countries will get America into a much larger war a lot sooner than the 17 years to took for appeasement to lead to war at the end of the 18th Century.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7

[lars008-2009]

Ben Franklin hated islam
But for a Muslim to keep his word to an infidel at the expense of opportunities to expand Islamic power is the Islamic equivalent of a mortal sin. In 1807, Muslim pirate attacks on American ships began anew. As a result Americans led by President James Madison fought Algerians in the Second Barbary War in 1815, leading to another treaty under which the Muslims paid American $10,000 for damages. The Algerian ruler almost immediately repudiated the new treaty after the U.S. departure and again began piracy and the enslavement of captured Christian sailors necessitating an 1816 Anglo-Dutch shelling of Algiers and ultimately the colonization of Algeria in 1830 and Tunisia in 1881 by France and Libya in 1911 by Italy. By then most of the Islamic world was under Christian domination. With the Ottoman Empire defeated in WW1, secularist Turkish rebels in 1923 overthrew the last Islamic Caliphate, destroying the pinnacle of Islamist power and ending a line of succession allegedly reaching back to Mohammed.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?6bdec278-6a71-4436-bc4d-29d1c54b0ad7

[lars008-2009]

the war that fascist nazi Islamic muslims started and continues on yet today%u2026%u2026

The Truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism

Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic%u2014and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/08/the_muslim_crusades.html

[j-whitman]

jerr11,,, No, you're all right.. The one who needs to study world history & our own history is Bush.

[feelfree1]

Re: "7 NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghan Bombings"

Sure but opium production is way, way, up!

Covert CIA funding and cushy druglord pension plans are in the bag!

[jerr11]

jerr11,, There were seven Crusades, with the first beginning in 1095 and the last ending in 1291... King Richard was in the 3rd

Posted by j-whitman at 11:56 PM : Apr 08, 2007


J-W. Looks like I need to go back to my history books.

Thanks for all that info.

Yes, all the seven crusades were cockameny schemes doomed to fail from the start, and it looks like this current one being led by King George the Chicken Heart will have the same fate too.

[j-whitman]

jerr11... All seven Crusades ended in defeat of the invaders, troop redeployment & withdrawal.

[j-whitman]

jerr11,, There were seven Crusades, with the first beginning in 1095 and the last ending in 1291... King Richard was in the 3rd

[jerr11]

An interesting point about Bush's crusade and the last crusade.

The last one was led by King Richard the Lion Heart.

This most recent one seems to be led by King George the Chicken Heart.

[j-whitman]

Lars,,,, It was Christians who destroyed the 2nd Jewish Temple & not Muslims or Romans.

[j-whitman]

Lars,,
, I blame religious bigotry & ignorance on both sides for 1/2 of the war & the Need For Greed & politics for the other half -- It has not made us any safer, just the opposite..

Imperialistic you say ???? --- Isn't forcing the overthrow of governments & forcing democracy with a military force a bit Imperialistic ????

[lars008-2009]

blame the fascist nazi islamic muslims jihad j...

the war that fascist nazi Islamic muslims started and continues on yet today%u2026%u2026

The Truth about Islamic Crusades and Imperialism
Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic%u2014and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/08/the_muslim_crusades.html

[j-whitman]

Lars,,, Happy Easter, we lost 10 more of our troops this weekend in Iraq's War of Roses, the count is now 3,280.

ENLIST,, You're only 19, entry qualifications are greatly reduced, from education to criminal history's & they have a Do Not Tell policy that's in your favor.

[j-whitman]

dlpracer,, Now that Bush is violating UN Security Council Agreements,, What's that mean ?? War with ourselves ?? I'd support this regime change.

[lars008-2009]

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton, signed by: -- Democratic Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others, Oct. 9, 1998
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." -- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_9_10/ai_59021377
Adversarial Myopia
http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?aid=8570

[lars008-2009]

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/priraq1.htm
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/US/9802/04/us.un.iraq/
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/transcripts/clinton.iraq/
WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- In preparing the nation for a possible war with Iraq,
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/18/iraq.political.analysis/
"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." --Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/20/98022006_tpo.html
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." --Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/iraq172.htm

[j-whitman]

dlpracer --- Look at your calender -- It's now 2007 -- Bush was wrong on all counts, now he even violates the UN Security Agreements allowing North Korea to sell arms to Ethiopia.

[rharrin1]

plus Clinton appointee George Tenent of the CIA .....told our president that it was a "Slam dunk" that Iraq had WMD's...........so our spy agencies told our President "wrong" information.....

You are a liar bush was never told that.

Now for the millionth time........the President took us into Iraq as part of his "preemptive stragegy" of not letting "danager" materialize.

That is a lie that story did not come out until after they could not find wmd.

so our spy agencies told our President "wrong" information....... of course Americans never hear the "Mr. President it's a slam dunk that Iraq has WMD's........

Americans do not hear that because it was never said again you prove yourself to be a liar and a idiot.

No matter how many times you say it nobody will believe you as they know you for what you are.

[dlpracer]

j-whitman,

YOU are the one that hasn't a clue.

Read what Clinton's Secretary of State said in 1997.

You go perception5...great job.

Try again.
-------------------

Consider that, under Saddam Hussein, Iraq has started two major wars, used poison gas and committed gross violations of international humanitarian law.

Consider that Iraq admitted producing chemical and biological warfare agents before the Gulf War that were sufficiently lethal to kill every man, woman and child on earth.

Consider that Iraq has yet to provide convincing evidence that it has destroyed all of these weapons.

Consider that Iraq admitted loading many of those agents into missile warheads before the war.

Consider that Iraq retains more than 7500 nuclear scientists and technicians, as well as technical documents related to the production of nuclear weapons.

Consider that Iraq has been caught trying to smuggle in missile guidance instruments.

And consider that, according to Ambassador Ekeus, UNSCOM has not been able to account for all the missiles Iraq acquired over the years. In fact, Ekeus believes it is highly likely that Iraq retains an operational SCUD missile force, probably with chemical or biological weapons to go with it.

Madeleine Albright, March 26, 1997