According to local Afghan officials, the military ordered in two different airstrikes during fighting in Nad Ali District, in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, after Taliban tried to attack security forces.
Details are still scant, but police reported that at least 27 Taliban were killed in the airstrikes, and 13 others wounded. They provided no evidence that all the slain were Taliban, nor indicated what casualties Afghan forces may have suffered.
Nad Ali District has been the site of a lot of fighting over the course of the past month. Last week, six Afghan soldiers were killed in a separate airstrike incident, which was termed a “friendly-fire” strike.
The Taliban has heavy control across much of Helmand Province, and contests almost everyplace that they don’t control outright. The province is seen as particularly valuable because of its involvement in opium poppy farming and smuggling.
from an August news release
So only eleven percent of the “strike sorties” resulted in weapons releases. That’s a stupid waste of resources, and the Afghan situation is worsening.
Of course if they were killed they were Taliban.
The recent US line, with the new US general Miller, was that the Taliban were seeking reconciliation. Whatever happened to that? Now we’re back to body counts, which is a dumb statistic, especially in a tribal land where martyrs have to be avenged, for one thing.