Twenty-three killed in Afghanistan after Kandahar suicide blasts

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060723/wl_asia_afp/afghanistanunrest_060723165412;_ylt=ApVx7OpBk.mOcViqYBYJ9rOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Twenty-three killed in Afghanistan after Kandahar suicide blasts

Sun Jul 23, 1:00 PM ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - At least 23 people, most of them Taliban, have killed in new unrest in Afghanistan as the southern city of Kandahar was tense following a pair of deadly suicide blasts.



Nineteen Taliban were killed and 17 fighters, including two Pakistani nationals, arrested on Sunday in a raid by Afghan forces in southern Helmand province, deputy provincial governor Mullah Amir Akhundzada said.

The operation near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah was launched Sunday after elders from several villages complained that Taliban were intimidating residents, including by allegedly extorting money from them, he said.

Taliban rebels are extremely active in Helmand, launching regular attacks on British forces based there and briefly capturing two districts last week with others reported to be basically out of government control.

[ShockediSay]

1. Responsible leadership - NOT chicken hawks - would have secured Afghanista

before venturing further, like f'rinstance, Iraq (they might hit is w/ flowers) adventurism.

[Ms. Clio]

2. remember those halcyon days, when Hitchens was gloating

about the "magnificent success" of Afghanistan?

how shocking that the gin-soaked former Trotskyite popinjay was wrong about that, too.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Bush is losing wars across the board

Iraq was lost long ago. Afghanistan is on the verge of being lost. Our foolish support for Israel's war crimes in Lebanon, and our public eagerness to provide bunker buster bombs for Israel to use in Lebanon, has lost us the Middle East for good.

[EFerrari]

4. And that David Brook call Iraq "Bush's Epic Gamble"

That's what he called the needless slaughter, a "gamble".