Taliban seize border town as Afghan forces retreat

[Alamuti Lotus]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL — Taliban forces spearheading a spring offensive seized a remote town near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan Saturday as Afghan government forces retreated, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

After a week of intense fighting, hundreds of Taliban fighters overwhelmed local government forces, who said they were making a "tactical retreat" from Barg-e-Matal to spare civilians from getting caught in the crossfire.

Taliban fighters seized control Barg-e-Matal nearly a year after they briefly seized the isolated Nuristan district center last summer but were driven out by U.S. and Afghan forces.

This time, hundreds of Afghan fighters defending the town fled early Saturday morning when they began to run out of ammunition and supplies. The U.S.-led coalition provided limited air support and ran a few supply runs for the Afghan government forces, but didn't offer significant aid, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

"We could not resist," said Haji Mohammed Ismaile, a former Barg-e-Matal district governor, in a telephone interview with McClatchy as he joined hundreds of fleeing Afghan fighters. "There was no support from the government or the (international military) coalition."

In the past two weeks, Taliban fighters have launched attacks on two of the biggest international military bases, near the capital of Kabul and near the southern city of Kandahar , and dispatched a deadly car bomber who killed 18 people, including four high-ranking NATO officers, in Kabul .

Taliban insurgents also have been engaging U.S. forces in increasing gun battles in southern Helmand province and waging an assassination campaign in neighboring Kandahar province, both targets of the U.S.-led offensive. Last month, Taliban fighters swarmed over another remote U.S. outpost in the nearby Korengal Valley .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100529/wl_mcclatchy/3520303

[Jumping John]

1. Meanwhile back in the residential district of some weird sounding hamlet a

US drone has fired a missile that killed a bunch of kids on a soccer field. General McChrystal tells the media that he is very deeply sorry about the deaths of those kids and will issue a order or something 'cause this action is bad and stuff.

[Selatius]

2. You want to see something really hilarious? Watch this little movie clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQjDvnPpCk

The irony will not escape you.