More bad guys sent to ‘Allah’:
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, September 26, 2007KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —
Two battles killed more than 165 Taliban fighters and a U.S.-led coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan as President Hamid Karzai discussed the escalating violence with President Bush in New York on Wednesday.
One of the clashes began Tuesday when several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, with Taliban reinforcements flowing in all day, a coalition statement said.
The coalition said it returned artillery fire and called in fighter aircraft, killing more than 100 of the Taliban fighters. One coalition soldier was killed and four wounded.
The coalition said there were no immediate reports of civilian deaths or injuries.
Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since.
Situated in northern Helmand province, Musa Qala and the region around it have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. It is also in the middle of the country’s poppy-growing belt.
In neighboring Uruzgan province, more than 80 Taliban fighters attacked a joint Afghan and coalition patrol from bunkers near the village of Kakrak in a six-hour battle Tuesday night, the coalition said.
Coalition artillery and air support bombarded Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents, it said.
No Afghan or coalition forces were hurt.
The battle took place near an area where more than three dozen insurgents were killed as they prepared an ambush six days ago, the coalition said.
The huge clashes came as Karzai met Bush in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Despite Afghanistan’s booming drug trade and a resurgence of Taliban violence, Bush claimed Afghanistan is becoming a safer, more stable country thanks to Karzai’s efforts.
“Mr. president, you have strong friends here,” Bush told Karzai after they met for about an hour at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. “I expect progress and you expect progress and I appreciate the report you have given me today.”
——————
“I don’t know if you feel it in the United States but we feel it immensely in Afghanistan,” Karzai said. “Afghanistan has indeed made progress,” he said, citing improvements in basic services such as roads and education.
Link:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/26/international/i021110D11.DTL
They’re running out of virgins…..