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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban Escape Madrassa Siege |
| 2003-09-19 |
| Several dozen Taliban fighters escaped a siege by government troops of a religious school in violence-torn eastern Afghanistan overnight with the help of locals, the provincial police chief said on Friday. Damm "The local population provided them passage and they managed to flee on Thursday evening," General Daulat Khan, chief of police in Paktika province, told AFP in the provincial capital Sharan. The heavily-armed fighters had taken shelter in the madrassa (religious school) late on Wednesday after attacking government buildings in the district of Wazakhwa, 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Pakistani border. Khan said up to five Taliban commanders had already fled on motorbikes before the siege of the madrassa in the nearby village of Karmadin. Took off and left the cannon fodder behind. During the siege, local elders clutching copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, had urged the troops not to assault the madrassa, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Thursday. Government troops in Urgun, 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Wazakhwa, were seen seeking instructions from the authorities in Kabul over how to handle the siege. "HQ, this is Rover. WTF? Over." "Rover, HQ. Let em go, we’ll catch up to them later." Paktika, bordering Pakistan, is one of the main battlegrounds in an apparent resurgence by the Taliban and their supporters among the ethnic Pashtun majority, who dominate Afghanistan’s southern and eastern provinces. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 This is a job for the Gunship vs. Taliban video! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-9-19 12:52:51 PM |
| #6 "..Warm up the miniguns." Good heavens. That word evokes in my mind images of numerous little pieces of flesh scattered about amongst shredded tree trunks and pockmarked ground.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-19 12:42:33 PM |
| #5 Does the the"aiding and abetting"bring anything to mind.Like arresting the villagers involved. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-9-19 12:33:01 PM |
| #4 These Taliban guys are evidently hell on a dirtbike. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-19 12:14:53 PM |
| #3 "Several dozen Taliban fighters escaped ..." Say children, can you say in-com-pe-tant? People escape a siege. I dont think so. There is another more obvious answer. |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-9-19 12:01:38 PM |
| #2 "Gunship One, this is spotter. I got targets, but ya got to wait till they clear the city limits this time. Warm up the miniguns." |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-9-19 11:46:34 AM |
| #1 Seems to me that more forces should have been used and/or positioned to cut off any escape attempts, assisted or otherwise. With any luck, they'll learn from this experience. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-19 11:31:49 AM |