Taliban militants destroy bridges in Afghanistan (and plant mines in preparation for battle)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan - Taliban militants destroyed bridges and planted mines in several villages they control outside southern Afghanistan's largest city in apparent preparation for battle, residents and officials said Tuesday.

More than 700 families — meaning perhaps 4,000 people or more — had fled the Arghandab district 10 miles northwest of Kandahar city, said Sardar Mohammad, a police officer manning a checkpoint on the east side of the Arghandab River. Police on Tuesday stopped and searched every person passing on the road.

On the west side of the river, hundreds of Taliban controlled around nine or 10 villages, Mohammad said.

"Last night the people were afraid, and families on tractors, trucks and taxis fled the area," said Mohammad. "Small bridges inside the villages have been destroyed."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence

[SpiralHawk]

1. "OK, as long as they don't interfere with opium-heroin production." - Commander AWOL

"We gots to keep our drug profits maximized, as they have been since me & my republicon chickenhawk cronies ordered the invasion. It's just one of our occult republicon thangs. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[truth2power]

7. That's a scary picture of that POS! n/t

[CherokeeDem]

2. I am scared for our soldiers....

again in harm's way because of the Bush cartel.

[ellie]

5. My nephew is in Afghanistan

My god I hate Bush.

[CherokeeDem]

8. I will keep your nephew in my thougths.

We know that Bush isn't losing any sleep over these young men and women. I hate him, too.

[Ian David]

3. Have U.S. forces allowed refugees to flee, or are they turning them back again? n/t

[ananda]

4. grapes and pomegranates

So that's what they're calling it ...

[acmavm]

6. And we don't have any control if Afganistan why? Oh yeaH, we had

to invade Iraq because Saddam was evil.

Sheesh!

[Tempest]

9. According to Pickles, everything is hunky-dory in Afghanistan

Bush said that going to Bamiyan will highlight the progress Afghanistan has made since the Taliban's ouster.

Is there anyone associated with Bush who's not a conspicuous liar?

[FMArouet]

10. More Detail Today from Times of London

Anthony Loyd (yup, that's how he spells it) publishes an excellent article here in today's paper.

Note the blundering political role played in Kandahar by Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai (who, by the way, is often accused of being a major player in the Afghan opium trade).

[PassingFair]

11. They're calling them "insurgents". What did WE call them....

Oh yeah....FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

(We WE were playing the Soviet side.)

"Refugees fleeing the area also reported that the INSURGENTS were blowing bridges and planting mines in Arghandab district, ten miles north-west of the city of Kandahar, as Afghan and NATO troops rushed to seal off the area.

Escaped Taleban prisoners, freed from Kandahar's Sarposa prison during an audacious jailbreak on friday, are believed to be among the INSURGENTS now setting up position in Arghandab's orchards."

:eyes:



Bush has fucked EVERYTHING up.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1094

snip>Glowing coverage

The press coverage of this era was overwhelmingly positive, even glowing, with regard to the guerrillas’ conduct in Afghanistan. Their unsavory features were downplayed or omitted altogether. While some newspapers favored some restraint in the degree of U.S. military support for the Mujahiddin (notably the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post) and others (like the Wall Street Journal) favored a more open-ended policy, these differences were only matters of degree. Virtually all papers favored some amount of U.S. military support; and there was near unanimous agreement that the guerrillas were "heroic," "courageous" and above all "freedom fighters."

To the editors of the centrist New Republic (6/13/83), the Mujahiddin were "fighting the good fight," while an editorial in the Wall Street Journal (12/30/87) celebrated "the heroic struggle waged by the Afghan freedom fighters." According to the L.A. Times (6/23/86): "The Afghan guerrillas have earned the admiration of the American people for their courageous struggle.... The rebels deserve unstinting American political support and, within the limits of prudence, military hardware." <unsnip