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US Kills, Detains
Why would you detain people after they have been killed? This is singularly poor construction for the alleged cream of Euro-journalism----or perhaps Al Reuters hopes that it will be construed as detained, then killed; or possibly misread as "kills detained."U.S. forces swooped down on a cave hideout of Islamic militants in southern Afghanistan, killing three and detaining 13 as part of a new offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda, the U.S. military said on Monday. U.S. spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty told reporters in Kabul that dozens of U.S. troops, including special forces, took part in Saturdayâs helicopter-assisted raid on a cave complex southwest of Qalat, capital of Zabul province. I think John Carter iced some baddies there in one of the Barsoom books. "We surprised them and we went there and we landed there," he said. "U.S. Special Forces were involved. The people we killed, we engaged them with direct fire with rifles and machineguns." but did you read them their miranda rights? Three militants were killed in the resulting firefight and five detained, he said, adding that eight more suspects were detained the following day in the same area in a compound containing propaganda material directed against U.S.-led forces. (Reuters dispatches? Pilger manuscripts?) Hilferty did not identify the suspects detained, but on Sunday an Afghan military officer said three Taliban commanders were detained in a joint raid with U.S. forces in Zabul aimed at former Taliban provincial governor, Mullah Abdul Razzaq. Enough already of "detained." Whatâs wrong with "captured," "arrested" or, my favorite, "hog-tied, muzzled, and dragged away behind a flatulent donkey." He identified the three as Mullah Naimatullah, Mullah Saleh Mohammad and Mullah Baluch. A mullah is an Islamic cleric and many senior Taliban members use the title. A triple play A senior government commander also said that on Thursday, 12 Taliban fighters were killed in a U.S. air-strike on their truck in Kandahar province. Hilferty said he had no information about the involvement of U.S. forces in such a raid. (See earlier Rantburg post by Dan Darling) He said the Zabul raid was part of Operation Mountain Storm, a continuing broad offensive against Al Qaeda and the Taliban launched on March 7 across southern and eastern Afghanistan. Hilferty said the operation was designed to continue to put pressure on leaders of the Taliban and al Qaeda, including the worldâs most wanted with duct tape, no doubt aided by some tribal Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-03-15 |
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