 A senior Taliban commander on Sunday dismissed as false Afghan government reports that 178 guerrillas were killed in a US-backed offensive in southwestern Afghanistan last week.
| "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope..." |
Mullah Dadullah, one of two top Taliban commanders the government said had been surrounded in the fighting, telephoned reporters to say that only seven or eight guerrillas had been killed, including one commander, Mullah Mohammad Easa.
| AKA Mulla Jar-Jar: "Meesah Easa!" |
Speaking by satellite phone from an undisclosed location well inside Pakistan, Dadullah said the guerrillas had killed about 20 Afghan police and army troops and 14-18 from the US-backed foreign force hunting militants in Afghanistan. âThe government was claiming that it killed 178 Taliban,â he said. âThat is not true.â
| "All those corpses, they imported them. They're Samoans. We can tell." |
âThe government was claiming that it had surrounded Mullah Dadullah, Mullah Brother, Mullah Adbul Hanan, Mullah Abdul Basir and Mullah Abdul Hakim and that they would soon arrest or kill them,â he said. âThis was completely wrong.â The Defence Ministry said on Thursday that Dadullah and Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and the three other commanders were surrounded in an area where the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul meet. It later said they appeared to have escaped.
| Leaving their troops in the lurch, but we don't dwell on that for some reason... |
The government has said that most of the guerrillas were killed by US air strikes, in what by its figures would have been one of the bloodiest setbacks for the Taliban since their 2001 overthrow by US-led forces. It said three of its troops were killed in the operation and three hurt, while the US military said six of its soldiers were slightly wounded. Dadullah also said the guerrillas had shot down two US helicopters in the fighting. The US military said two of its Chinook helicopters were damaged by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire during fighting on Tuesday and one had to make an emergency landing, but both returned to base without casualties. The US military on Wednesday gave an estimate of 40-50 guerrillas dead in the fighting but then referred reporters to the Afghan authorities for updates on casualties. |