Taliban, Children Dead In NATO Operation

In Separate Incident, NATO Soldier Killed, Another Wounded In Explosion

(AP)  A NATO and Afghan operation to retake a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children, the Afghan Defense Ministry said Saturday.

In other violence in southern Afghanistan, a NATO soldier was killed and another wounded in an explosion Saturday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. ISAF did not give any further details about the nationalities of the casualties or the exact location of the incident.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that gave security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Taliban fighters have been in control of the town ever since.

A string of battles around Musa Qala in recent months have signaled a renewed focus by U.S. forces to take on the Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan's poppy-growing south. Saturday's violence is the latest in a series of deadly engagements in Helmand province - the world's largest poppy-growing region and the front line of Afghanistan's bloodiest fighting this year.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said elders in the area had asked the Taliban to leave, but when they refused, the elders sought help from government troops.

"For some period of time, Musa Qala has become a base for terrorists. Hundreds of foreign terrorists have gathered there," he said.

Twelve Taliban have been killed in fighting since the operation began Friday afternoon. Separately, two children were killed when security forces clashed with Taliban traveling in a convoy with civilians, Azimi said.

"The enemy always tries to use human shields ... and our demand from them is that they stop putting civilian lives in danger," said Azimi.

The Afghan and NATO troops conducting the operation were positioned to the east, west and south of it, he said.

Next to Musa Qala, in Sangin district, Taliban militants hanged a 12-year-old boy in an orchard, allegedly because the boy gave information to the Afghan government and international forces, said the provincial police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

U.S.-led coalition forces, meanwhile, conducted air strikes in an operation targeting a Taliban commander believed to be responsible for attacks against security forces and involvement in weapons and drug trafficking, the coalition said. The U.S.-led forces bombarded the compound where he was hiding with several militants Friday in Musa Qala district.

The building was destroyed and "several militants" were killed, it said. "Multiple secondary explosions were also reported, indicating the presence of a sizable weapons cache."

As NATO and Afghan forces closed in on Musa Qala town, residents said many villagers remained in their homes as the area was bombed and were refusing to shelter insurgents

"If we let the Taliban in, NATO will bomb our homes. We're trying our best not to let the Taliban into our homes," said Musa Jan, a resident of Musa Qala district.

Jan said NATO and Afghan security forces had dropped fliers from helicopters telling villagers: "Don't go outside your home. We want to bring peace to Musa Qala."

Taliban commander Mullah Ahmadullah told The Associated Press by telephone that insurgents were strengthening their positions in Musa Qala and militants in nearby districts were pouring into the area for the battle.

"The morale of the Taliban is high. We will fight against NATO and Afghan forces. We will not lay down our weapons. We will fight until the death," Ahmadullah said as he commanded militants to take their positions.

However, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the Taliban would retreat if there were too many casualties among insurgents and civilians.

Situated north of Helmand, Musa Qala and the region around it have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. It also is in the middle of the country's opium poppy-growing belt.

This year has been the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an AP tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.

In other violence, Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns ambushed a district chief's vehicle in western Farah province, killing him, his son, nephew and three bodyguards, said provincial police chief Gen. Khailbuz Sherzoi.

Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.

[jackie0428]

V_161877 , yes, just as soon as YOU get your little verminous Muslim suicide-bomber hands on the US and Europe, I am sure little scum V_161877 will be destroying us all!! I am so afraid. I am shaking in my boots. Bring it on, you little piece of shi*t.

[jackie0428]

Assembled dignitaries in Constantinople, Turkey today have discovered that "Islamophobia" is a serious, serious problem, that must be addressed at the government level. It doesn''t seem to have occurred to anyone there that Muslims might have any responsibility for the rise in "Islamophobia," if there has been such a rise, or that they can do anything themselves to eradicate it. No one seems to have realized how easy -- yes, easy! -- it would be to stamp out "Islamophobia" once and for all. Here''s how. If Muslims want to end "Islamophobia" instantaneously, here''s how they can do it:
1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means.
3. Teach Muslims the imperative of coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.
If Muslims do those five things, voila! "Islamophobia" will vanish.

[beehive21-2009]

That is a Rosey picture,however don''t forget clerics command,kill any kid, in the name of BS( mo ) then throw them out there after a battle and say ,look who killed the kids? dont''t you feel bad? The answser is no, we now know your tactics,poor things.

[j-whitman]

beehive21,,,, This you could paint a rosey picture on --- At least they won''t grow up to be Taliban, Al Queda or Repbulicans

[beehive21-2009]

Poor Bush, getting the blame for all the Worlds,madness,he''s a good o'' boy from Texas and is a church going,god fearin dude.So let us hope he shall do something about the Poppy fields,now.The taliban cut there own throats when they destroyed the Buddas ,or was it when gang rape ,kill children and throw em in the battle field after a battle and say ,you killed the children.All the third world countries do it,in the middle east,we see thru it .

[prinzowhales]

beehive21--The US gave the Taliban regime $43 million in early 2001 for their efforts in irradicating the opium trade--they had almost stopped it completely.

The US, allied with the drug lords, drove the Taliban from power and Afghan opium production quickly recovered and increased to record levels. Don''t blame the Taliban for the treachery and deceit of the Bush crime family and their dope dealing allies.

[prinzowhales]

HEADLINE: DEADLY TERRORISTS MURDER TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JEWISH CHILDREN!!!

Were they Jihadis? Nazis? Communists? Klansmen?... No, THEY WERE ZIONISTS!!...

...and their victims were Sepharidic Jewish children known as the "Ringworm Children" who, with X-ray machines and funding from American, were dosed with hundreds of times the ''safe'' dose...Some died immediately...others lingered...others live on today in pain and passed their corrupted DNA on to their offspring...

Why did the Zionists do this? Why did they betray the Jews of Hungary?--sending them to the death camps in a deal with the Nazis to send the Zionists and their families to Palestine. Why would a supposedly Jewish leader say, "A cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews of Poland"?

Zionism is Judaisms greatest enemy--and mankinds!

[beehive21-2009]

The USA needs to take out the poppy fields, before we leave,The taliban are killing the youth of the world with drugs,know anyone who overdosed,lately ? taliban dope helps finance the war effort, bad Karma.The blood thirty clerics are behind it all,they will kill there youth and place them at a battle area and say ,look you killed the children,sorry ,we are not so dumb to fall for this foolishness.

[prinzowhales]

Israel has always been headed by a former terrorist who continued to ply his or her trade once elected.

The Zionists do not want peace. They want the land between the Euphrates and the Nile because the scribes and priests of a couple of thousand years ago were propagandizing for a ''greater Israel'' and decided to write in Yahweh''s endorsement of the scheme. This idiocy almost exceeds that of the Rapturists who reduce the teachings of Yeshuha to "sit on your dead arse and Go-od will whistle you up to catch the spaceship behind the comet without first having to cut your hoo-hoos off before the building falls in on the un-Elect."

[jowand]

The Israelis are the only group known and proven beyond a doubt to routinely engage in this craven practice, yet they regularly try to attribute this shameful behavior to their enemies, in a pathetic effort to justify their own crimes and atrocitites, just as you are attempting to do here.
Posted by FeelFree1 at 02:50 AM : Dec 09, 2007

Caught telling lies again

[sevenveils]

re: Re: "Feelfree1 here is the first hit and the list goes on and on and on"

IT REALLY DOES!

[sevenveils]

Feelfree1 since when was Hamas not terrorists. Your references are from Arabic propaganda newspapers. This source is such a crock, like you.

Again you cannot stay on subject. And the subject states that al Qaeda/Taliban in Iraq use human shields.

TRY DENYING THIS PLEASE

[feelfree1]

sevenveils,

Re: "Feelfree1 here is the first hit and the list goes on and on and on"

It does not sound like you understand the definition of human shields. I am referring to the cowardly practice of terrorists (i.e. Israelis) of physically placing innocent people between themselves and harm''s way.

The Israelis are the only group known and proven beyond a doubt to routinely engage in this craven practice, yet they regularly try to attribute this shameful behavior to their enemies, in a pathetic effort to justify their own crimes and atrocitites, just as you are attempting to do here.

[feelfree1]

sevenveils,

Re: "Your reference is on a list of web sites for islamic propaganda - wow , great reference"

The reference includes the relevant Israeli court cases. If you were less feeble, you could check them out and confirm them for yourself, couldn''t you?

Here is another reference for you:

"Israeli High Court Rules Army Use of Human Shields Illegal"

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2465/printmode/true

[sevenveils]

In November 2006, Palestinian women served as human shields to allow the escape of Hamas gunmen from Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip. The armed Palestinians had barricaded themselves in a mosque, which was surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks. According to a Hamas spokeman, a crowd of women gathered outside the mosque in response to an appeal on the local radio station for women to protect the Hamas fighters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_shields

Feelfree1 here is the first hit and the list goes on and on and on

[sevenveils]

Your reference is on a list of web sites for islamic propaganda - wow , great reference

[sevenveils]

Re: "al Qaueda seems to do this with every suicide bomber. Pictures in news papers have shown Hamas militants carrying children in front of them as human shields against the Israelis. Israel may have shot through a human shield, but they never have used one for their own defense."

To say that the accuracy of your claims is dismal would be generous. Feelfree1

And you change the subject to ignore the truth so often. You and the world knows this is a solid ugly truth.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Your response: "...the only country that we know of, FOR SURE, with a chronic policy of hiding behind "human shields", is Israel- proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, before their own Supreme Court." is an opinion"

And I supported this indisputable fact with a clear reference.

You should try this method, ''sevenveils'', if you ever hope to be taken seriously by anyone.

[sevenveils]

You keep on telling yourself this, and I''''m sure that you will eventually agree with yourself.

Posted by FeelFree1

You are just speaking of yourself saying this because that is what you do so well.

[feelfree1]

Re: "I didn''t offer you an opinion just independently verified facts."

Sure you did, ''sevenveils''. Sure you did.

You keep on telling yourself this, and I''m sure that you will eventually agree with yourself.