KABUL, Afghanistan - Fierce fighting broke out around Afghanistan on Friday, with battles in three separate regions killing more than 100 militants, part of a cycle of rapidly rising violence five years into the U.S.-led effort to defeat the Taliban.Some sort of good natured competition among coalition forces?
| They keep putting their faces in the way, eventually we'll bruise our knuckles. |
Somebody other than the terrorists ought to go in and define civilians for them.
| Civilians. n. 1. In the rest of the world, non-combatants, people who are not party to a fight. 2. In Afghanistan and certain other locations, camp-followers, people who follow one of the parties to a fight. |
Deadliest for who?
More than 1,000 people were killed in insurgency-related violence in June alone, including 700 militants and 200 civilians. More than 3,100 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on information from Western and Afghan officials. Around 4,000 people died in violence last year.
Stay back from your keyboards lest your tears short them out again.
| Dreaded summer offensive off to a rousing start, eh? |
Families call them civilians . . .
Dedar said he could not confirm the reports of civilian deaths but that he was not rejecting their validity either. He said around 60 militants died in the battle.
. . . while everyone else calls them terrorists.
U.S. and NATO officials say Taliban militants threaten villagers into claiming that attacks killed civilians.
Did we miss a few?
"There were some number of insurgents that were killed. We have no reason to believe that any civilians were killed at this time," said NATO spokesman Maj. John Thomas. He said soldiers called in airstrikes on "positively identified enemy firing positions" in a remote area.
The rule is that if you can pry the gun out of the militant's hands after he dies, you get to call him a civilian.
Civilian deaths have been a growing problem for international forces here, threatening to derail support for the Western mission. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly implored forces to take care to prevent such deaths.
Quit it Karzai, you ain't helpin'. We go, you go.
Both a U.N. and the AP count of civilian deaths this year show that U.S. and NATO forces have caused more civilian deaths this year than Taliban fighters have.
UN? AP? Hahaha!
Meanwhile, a roadside blast struck a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan, wounding four alliance soldiers Saturday.
The NATO convoy was attacked west of Kandahar city, and the four wounded soldiers were medically evacuated to a nearby military hospital, said Maj. John Thomas, a NATO spokesman.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said that the convoy was struck by a suicide bomber.
An AP reporter at the site of the blast said that those wounded were Canadian soldiers.
In the country's east, two NATO soldiers died and several others were wounded during an operation Thursday, the alliance said.
The alliance did not release the soldiers' nationalities or the location where the clash and the bombing took place. Most foreign troops in the east are American.
The latest NATO casualties raised the number of foreign soldiers killed this year to at least 105.
In the south, militants attacked two police vehicles with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades overnight, and U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces responded with artillery fire and airstrikes in what the coalition described as a "sparsely populated area" in Uruzgan province.
Gen. Zahir Azimi said 33 Taliban fighters were killed. The coalition reported "no indications" of civilian casualties and said no coalition or Afghan forces were killed or wounded.
Allahu akbar!
And in Farah, a western province bordering Iran that has seen little violence until this year, insurgents attacked an Afghan security patrol from fortified positions, wounding five Afghan soldiers, the coalition said.
Afghan and coalition forces, using gunfire and airstrikes, killed "over 30" insurgents, it said. The coalition also said a ground commander "carefully evaluated risk of collateral damage" before firing.
Allahu akbar!
"It is important to note that many targets were not bombed or fired on due to (Afghan) and coalition force precautions against causing collateral damage," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman.
Too bad this has to be said explicitly.