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| Afghanistan |
| NATO military chief denies al-Qaeda regrouping in Afghanistan |
| 2006-01-07 |
| Natoâs military chief said on Friday that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were not regrouping in Afghanistan despite more than a dozen suicide attacks there in the last three months. âThereâs a knee-jerk reaction that wants to say: âOh, the Taliban is coming backâ or âAl-Qaedaâs coming backâ. I donât know of any commander or any estimate that can say that with certainty,â US General James Jones said. Jones acknowledged that some members of the former Taliban regime, which was ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001, and Al-Qaeda were operating in Afghanistan but that there was also plenty of criminal activity. âThe violence that weâre seeing is disparate and I donât think it is focused. In other words, I donât see an allegiance between, say, criminal gangs and the Taliban, or narco-traffickers and Al-Qaeda,â he said. âThese are different groups that have their own agenda,â he told reporters at Natoâs military headquarters in Mons, southern Belgium. Jones said he had studied data about attacks in Afghanistan since the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force began operating there in late 2001 and that no new spike or trend was evident. âHistorically there is no rise, no significant change from one year to the other in terms of incidents,â he said. But he added that attacks sometimes rose short-term in response to events, like the two new stages of ISAFâs expansion into volatile southern Afghanistan which are due to start in the next six months. âWith Nato coming into stage three and stage four, obviously people are trying to send a message to try to discourage or intimidate,â he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 I know I should respond to the trolls, but... Atheistic Communism killed over 100,000,000 people. Atheistic/pagan Nazism killed 25,000,000 people (plus those killed in the war). Maybe we should all be Hari Krishnas. They seem peaceful enough. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-01-07 18:43 |
| #1 Al-Qaeda is re-grouping in the US protected terror entity of Pigistan, and fighting in the Afghan dog's breakfast. 2006: Year of Non-Respect For Freedom of Religion. You need religion like China needs a bowl of rice. |
| Posted by: CaziFarkus 2006-01-07 05:23 |