Dozens of Taliban Killed After U.S. Deaths

(CBS/AP)  A battle in western Afghanistan that included airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban militants, after an insurgent ambush left three U.S. troops dead, an Afghan official said Sunday.

The hours-long battle took place Saturday in the western province of Farah after a complex attack that killed three Americans and seven Afghan troops, said Afghan army spokesman Maj. Abdul Basir Ghori.

The insurgent ambush involved two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Sunday. Mathias confirmed that fighting in the west continued after the ambush, but she could not provide any casualty figures.

Ghori said about 50 militants were killed in Saturday's battle, but no other Afghan officials could immediately confirm that figure.

During the clash, a coalition airstrike hit a home and killed a woman and a teenage girl, said Afghan police spokesman Raouf Ahmadi.

The fighting took place in the Bala Baluk district of Farah province, a region controlled by militants that has been the site of huge battles in the past, some that have caused high numbers of civilian casualties.

Saturday's violence came the same day Afghan officials said .

Violence has risen steadily across Afghanistan the last three years, and militants now control wide swaths of the countryside. The U.S. and NATO have a record number of troops in the country, and the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is soon likely to request thousands more.

Support for the eight-year war is waning in the United States and Europe as troop deaths rise and Taliban attacks spike. A record number of U.S. and NATO troops have died in Afghanistan already this year.


Report: Germany Ponders Afghan Strategy

Germany's Foreign Ministry advocates preparing the ground over the next four years for a withdrawal from Afghanistan, with police and army training being stepped up, according to a report Sunday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel last week joined the French and British leaders in calling for a new international conference on Afghanistan, hoping to accelerate and improve training of local forces and lay out a timetable in which Afghans can take back full control of their war-battered country.

A paper drawn up by the Foreign Ministry says the conference should "not satisfy itself with vague targets," the weekly Der Spiegel reported.

It added that that, during Germany's next four-year parliamentary term, "the foundations for the withdrawal from Afghanistan" should be laid, the report added - though it mentioned no actual withdrawal date.

(AP/Rod Aydelotte, Tribune Herald)

(Left: The casket of 34-year-old 2nd Lt Darryn Andrews is escorted through Cameron, Texas before arriving at the First Baptist Church for a funeral Saturday, Sept, 12, 2009. Andrews died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, after his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade.)

The strategy would involve extra police officers being trained in the volatile northern Kunduz region and the number of Germans training the Afghan army being increased, Der Spiegel said.

The paper calls for a German base in Faizabad to be turned into a "training center for security forces and civilian administration" by 2011, it reported, and advocates support for a "reintegration fund" that would allow Taliban supporters to return to mainstream society.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed the existence of an internal strategy paper drawn up for Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on perspectives for a successful conclusion of the German mission, but would not comment on its contents or those of Der Spiegel's report.

Germany's mission in Afghanistan, where it has more than 4,200 troops, has been put in the spotlight by a German-ordered Sept. 4 airstrike near Kunduz in which civilians appear to have died.

Both Merkel and Steinmeier, her challenger in Germany's Sept. 27 elections, say they won't accept "premature judgments" on the strike.

Still, "such a military action naturally influences reconstruction," Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul was quoted as telling Der Spiegel, adding that "now the work will become even more difficult."

[babooph]

The propaganda system tries to make all here feel better by showing the enemy takes far greater losses-they omit the fact that the winner usually takes the greatest losses.

[bubbadubba]

"Americans have already forgotten how we got into Afganistan."

Not me, I remember right after 9/11 when military officials, the NSA and the CIA begged Bush to nuke Tora Bora with a W80 and take out Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and quickly solve the issue. After 9/11 no one in the world could have seriously objected to the US nuking Tora Bora. Tora Bora was unpopulated and distant enough for little if no collateral damage. Bush of course said no because the oil companies need Afgahnistan for the planned oil pipeline which is why the US is there. So yes I do remember the REAL reason so many American troops have died and now we are stuck in Afgahnistan-Nam.

[bubbadubba]

Oh so the US only attacks when they kill our troops?
" OK, now we are really mad"
GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN-NAM NOW!!!!

[one4gipper]

jefleshman, yours is the most profound post in this thread. I went to your link
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan802/video/video_index.html

I watched the PBS documentary on Children of the Taliban. It is heart rending. Anyone who watches this video and still wants to cut and run from this pernicious evil is a coward. The Taliban treatment of school girls and the recruitment of little boys is vile and repugnant.

Americans have already forgotten how we got into Afganistan. If Mullah Omar had given up Osama bin Laden after 9/11, there would have been no war in Afganistan. Now that we are there, it appears that we have only two options -- stay and defeat this repugant enemy or turn the entire counry into glass. We can not allow this Islamic cancer to fester and grow in the sanctuary of a rouge state.

[steve54z]

Rebels stole valued poppies and cannabis from farms throughout Afghanistan. They isomized plants for street narcotics like heroin and hashish. NATO's mission is protecting the People of Afghanistan from daring criminals. The Felons prefer dope like methamphetamine and PCP for their own use. The Afghani Army should handle these craven, killer psychotics.

[pigsinlipstick]

its just propaganda

[mysteriousjz]

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading my post. The people in Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan region are indigenous people who have traditions, culture, customs, and human feelings just like anybody else. They almost have no army, wear no uniform, have no platform or courts to seek justice, have impotent govt. reclusive to Kabul only. More regrettably, they have no voice neither in their govt. nor in international platform.

They consider invaders in uniform, arms and in boots arrogant and a threat to their security. They feel their culture and beliefs will be corrupted by foreigners who are forcing their way onto their villages. Unfortunately, time after time it is proven that their loved ones are shredded into pieces. In their culture, their loved ones remain in their hearts and minds for all their lives throughout the villages, and even through multiple generations. Since, they have no courts to deliver justice, have no voice to stop the slaughter; they are left with no choice but to pick arms to wreak vengeance on the culprits in order to deliver some justice to the dead and to themselves and to their villages and villagers.

Therefore, you are now dealing with local indigenous people who are historically famous for their fierce fighting skills, and know the terrain very well. Theirs is a dichotomous personality. They will cry when they see their daughter bruised wrist; On the other hand, British knew or learned very well when their soldier was left behind, British had to find him because locals would feel no flinch razing the soldier skin with sharp blade.

If you seek refuge among them, they will save you with their own lives. If you appear arrogant in arms forcing your way; you can be sure that someone would get you. Top this with continued killing of their villagers mean the fight has to continue for generations in skirmishes or otherwise.

For most of you, sitting in comfort behind your computers in relative normalcy, it is incomprehensible what local people in fighting zones are going through at this very moment. There is always fear when next airstrike or drone attack will come. According to independent statistics by human rights organizations, non-combatant death in that region is 50:1, and that is actual death not maimed, mutilated and injureds. Even one poor person casualty is too many. War is a form of violence. Therefore, "you" are feeding into violence. People there are enraged and furious over the death of their loved ones. Continued military combats will only exacerbate the already fragile condition.

Therefore, forces must be out without any conditions; while civilian services might find hospitable environment. Remember,

"you are fighting in dark, though with flashlights, but against invisible men."

(The above is for educational purposes only based on facts, not opinions-So no argument about it. No response needed but any with a hint of hate, diatribe, and doofus content will not be read through)

[mysteriousjz]

Hello! I must also add this. When you read insurgent/militants/Talibans (not too long ago Mujahideen or Freedom Fighters) were killed; it is actually a PR propaganda. They include everyone dead on the ground under presumption that any killed had to be the bad guy-NATO cant be wrong. Fighters wear no uniform and thus poor civilians caught in fire are also included in the dead. Remember that!!

[tincup356]

People bad mouth southerners here,,,so how do they feel about the big Wall street banks who have shown just how corrupt they are?

[tincup356]

No One wants to admit that our economic problems have to do with greedy,corrupt Yankees from WALL STREET, who have paid LOBBY DOLLARS to BOTH criminal parties in congress.

[johnthecableguy]

charlie7312
shazmichamps9

****. Please.