Taliban Video Shows Attack on Military Base in Nuristan
The 55-minute video is entitled "Defeat of the Aggressors in Afghanistan" and opens with pictures from previous Taliban videos, including the footage of the attempt to assassinate Afghani President Hamid Karzai during a celebration in Kabul on April 27, 2008 and footage of a 2007 ambush on a joint U.S.-Afghan foot patrol in Nuristan.
The group claims to have intensified its attacks on U.S. forces based in this camp for 47 days until they were forced out. The video shows Taliban fighters, dressed in military uniforms, during their preparation for the operation followed by shots of Taliban fighters trying to shoot a Chinook down. The video also shows the militants firing mortars and engaged in a gun battle against the forces inside the base. Several Taliban fighters look like they were badly injured during the fighting.
A local commander called Osman Jawhari was interviewed on the tape. He claims the militants managed to down two helicopters and kill 95 U.S. troops and only 10 Taliban militants were killed. He also told a group of militants that he was confident they would defeat U.S. troops and force them out of Afghanistan. "We shall fight and defeat them here God willing, then we will chase them all the way to Washington," he says.
Taliban's former information minister Mohammed Yasser also makes a short statement to honor the militants who have been killed in the clashes. Yasser had been released along with four other Taliban leaders in exchange for the release of an Italian reporter that the Taliban captured in 2007.