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Afghanistan
Pest Control continues: Second Night of U.S. Bombing in Afghanistan
2003-08-30
EFL and News
Afghan soldiers swarmed over remote mountain peaks in an ongoing battle with Taliban holdouts Saturday, killing and capturing several enemy fighters.
U.S. planes, meanwhile, launched a second night of bombing on the area in southern Zabul province, where a joint U.S.-Afghan operation has met with stiff resistance, provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak told The Associated Press from his command center in Qalat, 45 miles south of the fighting.
stiff resistance = rigor mortis for Taliban left fighting... there’s no running away to Pakland this time
"Our forces are on the tops of the mountains. They have laid siege to the area and the Taliban hideouts," Hotak said, adding that intense U.S. bombing was called in over the Chinaran mountains and two nearby areas. About 200 additional Afghan soldiers were called in from a base in the neighboring province of Kandahar to help in the assault, joining about 500 already on the ground, Hotak said. He said 60 to 70 U.S. soldiers were also on the scene to help direct the Afghan fighters. Hotak said eight suspected Taliban fighters were captured late Friday and an unknown number were killed in the fighting. There were no new casualties among Afghan or U.S. troops, he said.
One U.S. special forces was killed while rapelling from a heli...
Hotak claimed that 35 Taliban were killed on Thursday and Friday, and the provincial governor said a similar number of insurgents were killed earlier in the week. The U.S. military has refused to comment on the details of the fighting, though it did confirm Friday that a special operations soldier died in an accidental fall
rapelling from a chopper IIRC
during a nighttime assault, the second American soldier to die in less than two weeks in Afghanistan. The area in the Dai Chopan district of Zabul has been the scene of intensifying clashes all week as insurgents have hunkered down to face the coalition assault. Hotak on Friday described the area as a Taliban stronghold, from which the insurgents direct their operations into the neighboring provinces of Kandahar, Ghazni and Uruzgan. Hotak said his forces believe hundreds of Taliban have taken up positions in the area. He said there were at least 15 Taliban hideouts, the largest in a range called Hazar Buz, about four miles from the latest ground fighting.
Could this be Mullah Omar's last stand? I'm not holding my breath...
Posted by:Frank G

#2  Naw... not even US Special Forces can penetrate the dreaded honeycombed hideout.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-8-30 8:36:01 PM  

#1  I'm not holding mine either. I think he's too important and holy bigga pussy to expose himself to harm. But you'd think someone back in Pakland would notice all this fodder that does such heroic deeds and astounding victories....never comes home...or if they do, it's in bits and pieces? gotta do wonders for recruitment
Posted by: Frank G   2003-8-30 3:49:28 PM  

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