Taliban leaders believed surrounded (+unreported Afganistan news) [View All]

[htuttle]

Mods, this article is from late yesterday, but has an acre of news in it that didn't get reported in the US. Move if needed, but I thought it was worth putting in LBN due to it's unreported content from yesterday evening.

http://english.aljazeera.net/Archive/News/GlobalNews/2003_9/US+scramble+after+Taliban+leaders.htm

US special forces and aircraft are engaged in a massive offensive in southeast Afghanistan in a bid to kill or capture senior Taliban leaders.

Aljazeera’s Afghanistan correspondent said a US officer was “100% sure” Taliban leaders Mulla Umar and Mulla Qahar were both surrounded in the village of Sarsang with about 1000 Taliban fighters.

(snip)

Aljazeera.net has learned the Afghan government infantry was ordered to withdraw in anticipation of a huge aerial attack on Sunday night. But B52 bombing proved inaccurate and Afghan troops reported seeing “piles of dead civilian men, women and children."

At least one US soldier also died on Monday when his parachute failed to open.

One Afghan field commander, Sayf Allah, said Taliban troops had unexpectedly mounted an attack behind US and Afghan army lines, killing at least eight Afghan soldiers and slightly wounding General Sayf Allah himself.

(much more)